Tuesday Afternoon Links

by | May 5, 2020 | Daily Links | 298 comments

Happy Cinco de Mayo, the day Mexico temporarily defeated the French before they had a chance to spread their bread-making technology around Latin America (don’t worry they came back a few years later and gifted Mexico with bolillos before being shuffled out again permanently).

Music

About The Author

jesse.in.mb

jesse.in.mb

Think Mark Twain without the wit or the wisdom.

298 Comments

  1. DrOtto

    Vee need a hook!

  2. leon

    Beef. Its not what is for dinner…. Tonight!

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The 4 for $4 was a good deal. 4 for $10 doesn’t have the same ring.

  3. leon

    Florida men invade Venezuela to topple Maduro, fail

    Filibuster fails again. Sounds like Rand is to blame.

  4. Yusef drives a Kia

    Meteors and Beer! and a dark desert sky,
    Yippee!
    HOWDY!

    • Tonio

      Overcast here. Blech. And one of my photog buds is skunking me with some good moon photos.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I would like to do that, but I already have way too many hobbies, my house looks like a Toy store

      • Ted S.

        The moon in the sky, or Braveheart moons?

      • Tonio

        Luna.

      • Rhywun
      • Ted S.

        My name is Luna,
        I live on the second floor….

      • Gdragon

        Saw them open for Lou Reed almost 25 years ago, thank god they’re all still with us

    • Incentives Matter

      Variable cloudiness here. Cleardarksky.com forecasts mostly clear for tonight. Here’s hoping!

  5. The Late P Brooks

    North America’s meat-supply chain has fallen apart as outbreaks shutter slaughterhouses, heightening the prospect that pork, beef and chicken may go missing from grocery shelves and restaurant menus. About a dozen slaughterhouses shut last month because of infections among employees jammed together on processing lines.

    They don’t call them “slaughterhouses” for nothing.

  6. Grumbletarian

    Stress-rant time. I am selling my condo and the closing is the 22nd of the month. I thought I had found a place but it turns out I was dealing with a scammer and sent him a deposit and first month’s rent without doing enough homework. I’ve never rented before — went from living with my parents to buying the condo I’m now selling. Got caught looking at a ‘too good to be true’ situation and wasn’t as cynical as I normally am. Checked his name in public records, but I should have googled his contact number, because after the fact it came right up as flagged for real estate scams. Now I’m short on money and need to find a place to live in three weeks. My realtor is trying to help me find a place cheap but the cost of living is super high in NH. FML

    • Swiss Servator

      File whatever you can, criminally against him.

      • Grumbletarian

        Already done, but he was using a VIOP number and gmail accounts.

      • Count Potato

        Sorry 🙁

        If it’s in NH, send the gmail accounts to HM. You won’t get your money back. But HM could send him a series of links that will eventually destroy his mind.

      • Tonio

        ^This. Go to the cops. Preserve every communication between you and the scammer.

      • Jarflax

        Everey time I have seen someone get scammed like this it originated in Nigeria.

    • Chafed

      Sorry Grumbletarian. How did you pay the scammer?

      • Grumbletarian

        Frigging Zelle, like a dope.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I had something similar happen, and used Pay-Pal as the payee.

        Was able to recover my money.

      • juris imprudent

        Would figure a payment processor would not want a scammer using their system. Notify at once.

    • KSuellington

      Damn that sucks. Any possibility to track down where he resides?

      • R C Dean

        See if you can get 4chan interested. I have faith that if they want to find him, find him they will.

      • Brawndo

        They’re just as likely to dox grumbletarian for even asking.

    • DEG

      What part of NH?

      Rental vacancies have always been pretty low over the time I’ve lived in NH.

      • Grumbletarian

        I am in Manch. Yes, hardy anything available in such a short time.

      • DEG

        I’m not far from Manchester, but I am completely unfamiliar with the housing market there. There is a Manchester, NH subreddit which sometimes has posts about people looking for help with rentals or help with moving to the area. Have you checked it?

      • Grumbletarian

        I’ll check that, thanks.

      • Drake

        Wouldn’t vacation rentals be vacant for the foreseeable future?

      • DEG

        Sununu cracked down on hotels, motels, and short term rentals. I think only campgrounds and cabins are allowed to open under the new order.

    • Enough About Palin

      I am being serious here. I would rent a POD to store the bulk of my belongings and then stay at a NH state park near Manchester, keeping in mind:

      “Currently, all camping reservations are cancelled through May 10. We will soon make an announcement as to when we will be able to accept reservations. Under Stay at Home 2.0 reservations will be limited to only NH state residents. Remember, this is just the first part of a phased approach to reopening our attractions.

      We ask that you please be patient. We want to get up and running as quickly as possible but need to make sure we do so safely.

      To find current status of an existing reservation call Reserve America at 1-877-647-2757 or log in to your reserve America account and select my account and reservations. This will give you the status of your reservation.”

      https://www.nhstateparks.org/activities/camping

      Of course I am single and own a full-sized pickup truck; YMMV

  7. bacon-magic

    Music

    Citation needed. That’s one of my lessor faves of Black Sabbath. Glad they tried to remake…had to shut off after a minute.

  8. Chafed

    I like you Jesse. But that music choice is an abomination.

    • bacon-magic

      ^^^
      I think he was trolling us.

      • jesse.in.mb

        Trolling isn’t quite right. Rebelling against the expectation? I have notoriously poor taste in music.

      • juris imprudent

        Enforced diversity in the ranks of linkers?

      • jesse.in.mb

        Consumer demand more than administrative push.

      • R C Dean

        The avatar pic with you holding a tortilla is particularly apropos today.

      • Tonio

        But good taste in tits.

      • Lady Z

        Eh it wasn’t that bad. Kinda trip-hoppy.

      • bacon-magic

        I think you’re trolling. No one can make a crepe that delicious looking and have poor taste.

    • Agent Cooper

      It’s not like there’s an actual good Cardigans album out there.

      They changed their sound on almost every album. Bubble gum Nordic pop to electro-grunge to some kind of acoustic southern-rocky kind of sound.

  9. Count Potato

    “The United States has led a campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a drug trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest. The U.S. also has increased stiff sanctions.”

    Dead or alive would work better.

  10. Bobarian LMD

    Being towed behind a boat is not surfing. Wake boarding.

    Although that still looked cool as hell.

    • Tonio

      Lots of surfers, particularly big wave surfers, use motorized tow craft such as JetSkis to get them out past the break point. I consider this cheating at the low end, and a necessity for the super big waves like in Portugal.

      • Bobarian LMD

        You still let go of the rope. And yeah, surfing the monster waves is near-certain death without a tow.

        I was stationed in Monterey for two years. We had a 3 day period where the big breaks were crashing…

        Watching Ghost Tree from 5 miles away was one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen.. The wave sucked up so much water that it was like a giant hole opened up in the ocean with the top of the wave jumping down into it.

      • l0b0t

        #metoo 7th ID (Light) out of Ord. Having grown up on the Florida Gulf coast and Caribbean, I was wholly unprepared for just how bloody cold the water in Carmel was. It was August, I waded out in shorts and made to about neck deep before changing my mind about swimming in the Pacific.

  11. CPRM

    Just going by the account from that article of the attack on Caracas, I’d lean more towards Murdero being behind it. Sounds like a shit plan, and then the guy claiming responsibility is trying to out his own sources?

    • Hyperion

      Since Jimmy Carter isn’t president, sounds most likely.

  12. The Other Kevin

    In my entire life, I never heard of a supermoon. Now we have a once-in-a-lifetime supermoon every month.
    /end Andy Rooney rant

    • Ownbestenemy

      I heard of them growing up but it was tied more to an age old almanac…now, like named storms, they are reported with great frequency because no one retains any knowledge and each day is the past, present and future to these people

    • Hyperion

      Seems to me we’ve been having at least one a week for the past couple of years. And every one of them is most once in a lifetime, biggest, most ominous sign of apocalyptic doom ever, until the next one. Typical for our media.

    • Ownbestenemy

      So what? Unless those he engages in his parties with curry favor…who cares? I hate this planet.

      • Tonio

        Is Curry Favor a south Asian pr0n star?

      • PBRstreetgang

        Just avoid her star making turn in “Red Curry”.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yes

    • Rhywun

      Sounds like a fun party. ?‍♂️

  13. Tundra

    Hi jesse!

    Thanks for the surfing link, that was tres cool!

    Not sure about that song.

    But I like her in this one!

  14. DEG

    Last week, surfers were also captured on video catching bioluminescent waves off the San Clemente coast and a group of glowing dolphins were captured on video lighting up the waters of Newport Beach recently.

    That is cool.

    • Spudalicious

      I’ve done night dives where you leave trails of blue light behind you.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Donald J Hoover

    As it stands, the primary federal response has been to provide unemployment insurance for those out of work, to give incentives to small businesses to retain employees, and to rely ever more on the Federal Reserve as an instrument of social policy. While valuable, these policy moves leave our republic in the very dire state that COVID-19 has mercilessly exposed: publicly unprepared, socially frayed, economically unjust, and structurally withered. As we outline in a new policy paper, there is a better way.

    The current recession is steep and severe, and even under optimistic scenarios, millions of the jobs now lost are not coming back. Meanwhile, any successful test-fueled rush to “reopen” the country and get back to the America of January 2020 will only return us to a world in which, despite low official unemployment rates, four in 10 Americans reported that they could not readily meet an emergency $400 expense, millions were reliant upon gig work without benefits, our infrastructure crumbled, and our government was caught flat-footed in the face of a public health crisis. Such a rush will also likely lead to mass death on a scale beyond what we’ve already seen and is most likely simply impossible to succeed in returning us to the old normal. January 2020 is not a status quo to which we can or should try blindly to return.

    Instead, like President Franklin Roosevelt did in the 1940s, we call for a federal job guarantee that would create millions of jobs, end involuntary unemployment, and build out necessary and resilient public infrastructure. Unlike the stimulus ideas that have dominated Washington to date, a direct government hiring initiative would address inequality; build robust capacity in public health, conservation, education, and infrastructure; and provide not just stable jobs, but government capacity to meet the current pandemic and economic crisis as well as the next one.

    ——-

    By building on the model of the New Deal, Washington could target millions of new jobs directly toward the working-class Americans left behind in the uneven growth of the past decades—especially black, brown, and rural Americans.

    There are many ways these jobs could be created. Shoring up our unemployment offices and job training centers while extending vocational and professional training into “Grades 13 and 14” would create hundreds of thousands of new positions. Constructing and staffing new health clinics and creating comprehensive testing for COVID-19 and subsequent pandemics would bring another 500,000 or more jobs. Transforming the energy infrastructure of the U.S. through a Green New Deal—employing people in conservation work, refitting urban and suburban buildings, and installing solar panels and white roofs—would provide millions of jobs. And transforming the American postal system by attaching banking and election registration services to each post office would provide a lifeline for a critical American institution in crisis, better connect our urban and rural citizens to one another and the rest of the nation, and create thousands of new jobs already distributed via the approximately 35,000 post offices across the U.S. Finally, direct grants to state and local governments would enable communities to address their public health, economic, and infrastructure needs in the ways they know best.

    In our glorious Utopian paradise, everyone will work for the government. That’s how true wealth is created.

    Save us, President Warren!

    • Winston

      Sugarfreed

    • Spartacus

      I heard an interview several days ago wherein I heard (this is what made me start listening) “The recession is not caused by unemployment, it is caused by lack of income. The federal government should just cut out the middleman and provide everyone not working with an income. If they did this the recession would go away.”

  16. Count Potato

    “From Zoom sex and drug parties to burning your own Man in the backyard: How Burning Man is going virtual this year after canceling the festival

    Burning Man organizers last month canceled the annual arts event that was due to be held in the Nevada desert in August”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8289299/Burning-Man-going-virtual-year-COVID-19.html

    Outdoors, in a desert, during the Summer, three months from now, where people already wear masks, and they cancelled it? Good thing I don’t have discipline to be a hippy.

    • Winston

      For a bunch of hippies they sure are obedient to The Man.

    • The Other Kevin

      Being rebellious and celebrating individuality doesn’t mean you can’t follow the proper health and safety guidelines. Man.

      • Winston

        This has always been the case unfortunately. The classical liberals often thought that once we all cease being illiterate peasants we will all think and act the same way.

    • juris imprudent

      Problem is they couldn’t be sure they’d get the permit from BLM (which administers the land). No permit, no event. That’s the difference between BM and a Rainbow gathering.

  17. DEG

    Sunday River Brewing update

    As about 15 people lined up Tuesday morning to enter the Sunday River Brewing Co., Ron Savage, a co-owner, told his customers “things are happening” in Augusta that would result in changes to state policy beginning Wednesday.

    Savage said the brew pub, which landed itself in hot water for opening last week in defiance of shutdown orders issued by Gov. Janet Mills, would be able to get its liquor license back.

    It is possible he is right.

    State Sen. Lisa Keim, a Dixfield Republican, said there is talk of easing the restrictions imposed to control the spread of COVID-19, perhaps as soon as Wednesday.

    “A little bit of movement is coming,” she said.

    • DEG

      More

      The owner of a Maine restaurant who defied Maine Gov. Janet Mills in reopening his restaurant last week has reopened for a second time.

      Rick Savage opened Sunday River Brewing to dine-in customers at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, even though the state suspended his health license after his first opening on May 1. About two-dozen people were lined up outside waiting to get in on Tuesday.

      Savage said he is allowing 49 people inside at a time in order to allow customers to distance themselves.

      “I’m doing the spacing the same in here as Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s. So there’s no different than going to Home Depot, Lowe’s or any of those stores as coming into my restaurant,” Savage said.

      • Ownbestenemy

        In a sane world thats a soild defense. If business A can open and follow these rules why can’t I?

      • PBRstreetgang

        Rick Savage, the dude from Def Leppard owns a bar in Maine? Who knew…

      • AlmightyJB

        Saw them in concert early 80’s. Good show.

      • Winston

        Who Know Which other person from Maine wanted to shut down brewers?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Government jobs programs, on the other hand, deliver the benefit directly to workers; are subject to less lobbying than corporate bailouts; and would extend a job guarantee, more stable finances, and meaningful work to millions of Americans. By reinvesting in the strong and energetic government to which Alexander Hamilton aspired, America can fashion a more just and robust society.

    Don’t forget the powerful, politically active unions. One hand washes the other, eh, Comrade?

    • juris imprudent

      Funny thing how Hamilton is now a Progressive icon (there will be some discussion of that that is scheduled for Thurs I believe).

      • Winston

        Yes up until very recently Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson were progressive icons and Hamilton was reviled by them.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Remarkable_Andrew

        written by Dalton Trumbo, based on his 1941 novel of the same name

      • Hyperion

        When you know nothing of history, you can get confused like that.

      • Winston

        That’s why the desire to kill the past has never lead to bad results ever and will never be exploited by statists for their own ends.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Stormtrooper has problems hearing with the helmet on? I think I saw that movie…

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Sugarfreed

    D’oh!

    TW: Slate

    • Hyperion

      They spelled Green wrong. Gulag Barbie hardest hit.

  20. Count Potato

    “1918 Spanish flu pandemic was linked to the rise of the Nazi party, federal paper reveals – sparking fresh fears of American division over the nation’s response to COVID-19

    The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was linked to the rise of the Nazi party, a federal paper has revealed – sparking fresh fears of American division over the nation’s response to COVID-19.

    The Nazi party’s ascension to power was in part triggered by the fallout from the pandemic, which killed more than 50 million people and infected one-third of the global population, according to a research paper written by bank economist Kristian Blickle and published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

    The shocking connection raises concerns over life post-coronavirus pandemic, with tensions visibly mounting between the far-right and the liberals and deep divides already emerging across the US.

    In Congress, the Trump administration has been at loggerheads with Democrat senators and state governors about the most effective response to the pandemic.

    While at a grassroots level, gun-touting conservative protesters have been marching on capitol buildings at anti-lockdown rallies clashing with police and counter-protesters.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8289801/1918-Spanish-flu-pandemic-linked-rise-Nazi-party-federal-paper-reveals.html

    • The Other Kevin

      Excellent work, Count. I was wondering when someone would FINALLY tell us how the virus makes Trump exactly like Hitler.

    • Spartacus

      Pretty much everything that happened in the 20s and 30s was “in part triggered by the fallout from the pandemic”. If they want to argue that without the flu pandemic there would be no Nazi party, that’s a more substantial–and easily shot down–claim.

      • Drake

        Sure, as long as you forget about the war that was raging when it started – and prevented a response by most western countries except Spain.

    • RAHeinlein

      I feel like something else happened in 1918 but can’t quite recall.

      • Spartacus

        It’s the year racism was invented by Strom Thurmond.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        The Roman Empire died?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Solid philosophy question!

    • AlmightyJB

      Maybe we could just leave each other the fuck alone. Yeah, I know.

      • Winston

        Only a Nazi wants to leave people alone…

      • Hyperion

        “we could just leave each other the fuck alone”

        You want people to die!

    • juris imprudent

      Dug up the paper. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was a Sokol-style hoax. From the abstract:

      Second, influenza deaths are correlated with the share of votes received by extremist parties in 1932 and 1933. Our election results are robust to controlling for city spending, demographics, war-related population changes, city-level wages, and regional unemployment, and to instrumenting influenza mortality. We conjecture that our findings may be the consequence of long-term societal changes brought about by a pandemic.

      • Count Potato

        Well, FDR was an asshole.

    • Hyperion

      “he Nazi party’s ascension to power was in part triggered by the fallout from the pandemic”

      Hmm, I thought it had something to do with German resentment of that treaty they signed at the end of the WW1 and the global recession during the 1930s.

      Should have known it was a premonition about the rise of badorangeman.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        They were better than the Commies, ask the German industrialists

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Tomayto tomahto.

  21. Tundra

    Dave Smith dismantles Amash,

    Fun episode with Robbie Bernstein. They critique Amash’s train wreck on Meet The Press.

    • Hyperion

      I first read that as STEVE SMITH DISMEMBER JUSTIN AMASH!

      • Mad Scientist

        BY DISMEMBER MEAN…

      • R C Dean

        Provide trenchant criticisms?

      • Swiss Servator

        STEVE SMITH NO DIS-MEMBER, HIM MEMBER!

      • juris imprudent

        IN MEMBER AND THEN REMEMBER

      • mrfamous

        Oops, wrong spot

  22. The Late P Brooks

    I heard an interview several days ago wherein I heard (this is what made me start listening) “The recession is not caused by unemployment, it is caused by lack of income. The federal government should just cut out the middleman and provide everyone not working with an income. If they did this the recession would go away.”

    Get that man a Nobel prize!

    • juris imprudent

      And his own $1T platinum coin.

  23. Ownbestenemy

    Yusef I am pushing my wife to do further down the river in two weeks. Ill let you know and see if we can get a picnic/bbq day in the sun.

    BHC right?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Oh and any other NV, AZ or CA folk I guess.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Yessir BhC, Weekdays are best, so when you said Wednesday, I thought, Good day for locals,
      Cottonwood should be nice right now

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah that is what we are hoping and we are going to keep our trips to week days. I can get the time off but my wife is getting slammed with dog grooming requests and is nearly booking a month out now

  24. hayeksplosives

    OT: does anybody here have QuickenLoans mortgage experience? I am going to refi (I think) but I’ve only ever used Wells Fargo to date.

    • Ownbestenemy

      We did them for our original mortgage and it was easy peasy…not sure if thay helps.

    • Hyperion

      “I’ve only ever used Wells Fargo to date.”

      Well, at least you have the assurance that it can’t go any worse than that. There’s nowhere to go but up!

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Seriously, don’t bank at Wells Fargo.

      • Hyperion

        I’ll never even try it again. Bunch of clowns. I have no idea how they stay in business.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        My current 401k is administrated through them. I hate it. I thought they had sold it to Principal Financial Group but I am still getting statements from WF.

    • kinnath

      ReFi’d through Quicken. It was very easy.

    • LJW

      We tried to use them and rocket mortgage to look into refinancing. Both recommended we refinance into a FHA mortgage. Why the hell would I refinance into a loan that requires mortgage insurance?

      • hayeksplosives

        Maybe they thought you wanted cash out??

        Thanks for your inputs, gang.

    • Mad Scientist

      I’ve refi’d with Rocket Mortgage, which I believe is a front end for Quicken. I really can’t recommend them highly enough. In the past, buying a house has involved mountains of paperwork and months of waiting for shit to happen. In this case, closing was 10 days after I applied. Scan a few things and upload them to a portal. When we closed, they sent someone to me instead of me going to some title agency. The entire thing happened on an iPad instead of signing my name 3,000 times. Done in 15 minutes. Closing check shows up in the mail the next day. And their site is chock full of little tips and encouragement on paying off your loan faster.

      I never thought I’d ever say any interaction with a bank was a nice experience, but these guys do a good job.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah even our house purchase…with archaic methods of the VA cause of the loan type was seemless and easy.

    • Tulip

      I used quicken when I bought and for refi. Everything was smooth and customer friendly. I recommend.

    • LemonGrenade

      Also a Quicken/Rocket customer. Done two refis with them at this point and each one took, from first call to signing the closing, less than two weeks. I like them. But they let me handle everything online, and I’m lazy.

  25. grrizzly

    Today Neil Ferguson resigned after breaking lockdown rules to meet his married lover.

    But only nine days ago he was still panicmongering in his usual mode.

    There could be 100,000 deaths in the UK by the end of the year should the present lockdown be replaced with only “shielding” policies, a scientist advising the government has warned.

    Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College epidemiologist whose modelling prompted the introduction of social-distancing measures, said that policies intended to protect the most vulnerable people in society, but which would allow others to circulate freely, could lead to a heavy death toll.

    • Hyperion

      “But only nine days ago he was still panicmongering in his usual mode.”

      Next week he’ll be panic mongering at his new NYT job.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Did hecatcleast find drugs in her ass?

      • grrizzly

        Doesn’t apply. It was me who posted the first link in the previous thread. It’s that good.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ah, then I shall administer 20 lashes to the nearest orphan for suggesting it. After a quick dip into my pool of gold to clean the sweat off my brow

    • juris imprudent

      He was the mad prophet of Mad Cow disease too. The man has no credibility.

    • Winston

      Rules are for the peasants.

    • The Other Kevin

      Maybe he made his predictions based on the assumption that people would follow the rules in the same manner he did.

      • Hyperion

        He made his predictions under the assumption that this would work to usher in global socialism where climate hysteria failed.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If the Brits has any self respect they’d lock that chronically wrong panic monger in the Tower of London. He cost them billions of pounds before all of this even began.

      • Winston

        Well Titus Oates got a pension after the Glorious Revolution…

  26. Winston

    https://mises.org/wire/facing-economic-disaster-france-turns-against-globalism

    Macron also unveiled a stunning vision about the postcoronavirus world. In this new world, France would regain independence over its agriculture, industry, health, and technology sectors while reinventing itself ideologically. Thus, President Macron embraced the antiglobalist and protectionist agenda of the fast-rising populist parties. What may seem like just a shrewd political maneuver is actually a desperate attempt to save France’s inefficient welfare model at any cost.

    I’m shocked. I never expected the globalist technocrats to be a bunch of statist fucks who want power and money and will turn on any value they ever claimed to uphold if expedient to do so.

    • Hyperion

      When you’ve lost France…

      • Shirley Knott

        You’re Viet Nam?

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        What’s Algeria? Chopped liver?

      • juris imprudent

        You might be The Holy Roman Empire?

  27. Ownbestenemy

    So besides my dad’s self admittance because of breathing problems and then testing negative for the VID, the hardest hit in my family is a cousin who lost their house in some of the California fires and now can’t operate because they are part of the unwashed un-essential.

    What boggles my mind is as a governmental body or society pushed for all these regulations for clean workspaces, grading businesses based on food handling requirements, etc but in the end they didn’t matter because the State, being the State said you will close down.

    • Bill Door

      That was interesting, thanks for sharing. I would listen again.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That was a trip

    • whiz

      From her workplace blurb: Sandy Knauer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Drug & Alcohol Counselor, and a Sex Therapist. She has been a Psychotherapist for over 25 years with specializations dealing with Incest, Rape, Sexual Abuse, and Trauma.

      And she’s a rape expert!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Well I guess so

    • The Other Kevin

      He just wanted people to be equal. WHY DO YOU HATE EQUALITY!?!??

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      They need to stick to the things they know like teaching teen girls about the liberating power of abortion and the boundless joys of anal sex.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Seems they are sticking to what they know. They have become a socialist propaganda magazine.

      • R C Dean

        the liberating power of abortion and the boundless joys of anal sex.

        Seems like if you pick one, you don’t really need the other.

      • Winston

        Transphobic and Homophobic!

      • Jarflax

        Some of the pussies identify as assholes, and vice versa.

      • juris imprudent

        Obligatory, no? And NSFW unless muted.

  28. Winston

    https://www.aier.org/article/matt-ridley-on-innovation/

    Repeat long enough and often enough – and don’t ban, prevent, regulate or confiscate the spoils – and there will be endless improvements of human affairs.

    Ridley even goes one step further and treats innovation as an extension of human evolution: “innovating” as a gradual process of trial-and-error and selection precisely mirrors evolution in a hodgepodge of incremental improvements, experimentation and simultaneous innovations.

    I wonder why this has lead to such wonderful innovations like stay-at-home orders?

    • juris imprudent

      Evolution occurs due to mutation; not all mutation is beneficial.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      More often than not they only reflect who was cunning enough or well-connected enough with the patenting office.

      *nods vigorously*

      Maybe I should write a series of articles on patents, theoretical and practical.

      Patents are used for three purposes: 1) cheap insurance from other people using their patents against you; 2) smacking a (usually smaller) competitor down at an opportune time; and 3)making money through licensing.

      The only one that fosters innovation broadly is licensing. The rest simply contributed to this mutually assured destruction model between the giants.

    • Count Potato

      woopsies!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The headline is a complete twisting of what he actually said. They aren’t even trying anymore are they?

      • juris imprudent

        And The Bee is on point.

    • creech

      ABC news at lunchtime edited this story to imply that Trump said the virus originated from the Chinese Lab but Fauci then contradicted Trump by saying there was no evidence it was manufactured by the lab. Both can obviously be true by ABC’s tone, once again, is that Trump that is anti-science and full of shit.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That is some raw insight.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Thatcbig red btton that says do not touch….touch it. Destroy it all with fury and flame.

    • Jarflax

      Whendid science become synonymous with retardation?

      • Winston

        Do you really want to know?

  29. Winston

    Wonder what Hawkeye Pierce would think of Maine’s lockdown?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Probably kill a chicken

      • Winston

        I’m disappointed there hasn’t been a M*A*S*H reboot yet. But then again the Chicoms would never approve and the show’s treatment of women (at least in the early years) and of Koreans isn’t very woke these days. Nor is it woke to bash Truman. At now we know North Korea is a giant slave labor camp…

    • whiz

      She may not be the most reliable source, according to her Wikipedia entry (I know, but still, read it). And she appears to be siding with anti-vaxxers. Which is not to say most of what she is saying is wrong.

      • Ozymandias

        She specifically says in the video that she’s not anti-vax. I’m not anti-vax in principle, either, but have you read what I wrote on anthrax?

    • jesse.in.mb

      You might want to read the literature they have available on their website before you share the video.

      Humanity is imprisoned by a killer pandemic. People are being arrested for surfing in the ocean and meditating in nature. Nations are collapsing. Hungry citizens are rioting for food. The media has generated so much confusion and fear that people are begging for salvation in a syringe. Billionaire patent owners are pushing for globally mandated vaccines. Anyone who refuses to be injected with experimental poisons will be prohibited from travel, education and work. No, this is not a synopsis for a new horror movie. This is our current reality.

      There’s also a bit in there about how this is all the product of a conspiracy by John D. Rockefeller to get rid of “natural healing modalities.” While I’m sure there’s some decent info in the movie, and some of it may be true, but be aware that the information is going to be portrayed in a way that explicitly serves an anti-vaccination/anti-Western medicine agenda.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Isn’t that proposals that have been floated in the media though?

      • jesse.in.mb

        I think you’re whistling past the “experimental poisons” bit.

        I haven’t watched it. Someone in my family who is prone to conspiracy theories posted it and I went to the website and read the blurb. I tried to find out who funded the movie, and I tried to find out who owned the website, but the whois information was set to private and filtered through two third parties. I read the content published on their site and it reads as anti-vax/anti-Western medicine polemic. I don’t think that that necessarily means that everything in there is untrue. I just suggest engaging with the source knowing that it has a very strong and specific agenda, which doesn’t necessarily show up in the youtube description.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Gotcha.

      • Jarflax

        Things which lead to me no longer listening to anything else someone says:

        1. The moon landing was faked.
        2. Vaccines are globalist conspiracy
        3. Jet fuel won’t melt steel

      • jesse.in.mb

        I had a very uncomfortable conversation where someone else in my family asked me to look into a website unmasking the Satantic ritual abuse AND cannibalism going on in the upper echelons of our society. Eventually she decided it was questionable not for any of the reasons I carefully laid out, but because Billy Graham was on the list and that was a bridge too far.

        Perry Mason was also on the list and I’ve been trying to figure out if there is a not-fictitious-but-still-famous Perry Mason.

      • R C Dean

        Its a little overwrought, to say the least.

        Nations are collapsing. Hungry citizens are rioting for food.

        The former is certainly not true. I haven’t heard about the latter, although in some parts of the world, maybe. But I would bet any food riots today aren’t the first.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Thanks Ozy…got about 15 minutes in and saved for later.

    • juris imprudent

      Redfield was the decision maker on squelching test kit development outside of the CDC; and we all know how that turned out.

    • creech

      Pole dancing probably pays much better than any of the majors awarded by the Seven Sisters.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      I can’t help but admire her talents, but it would be awkward with all those kids around.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      I’ll pay ten bucks* for somebody to go reply to Mark Dice in that thread with “literally titler-bot?”

      *by ten I mean zero, and by bucks I mean fucks

      • The Hyperbole

        Done and done, you can send my zero fucks to the charity of your choice.

  30. kinnath

    States Pledge To Remain Closed Until A Time Machine Is Invented And Someone Goes Back In Time To Stop Coronavirus From Happening

    State governors across America are promising to keep their states locked down until the coronavirus is eliminated from all of human history- past, present, and future. In order for this to happen, a sophisticated time travel device will need to be invented first. Governors have taken the brave step of leadership to ensure the history books record a total of zero deaths due to COVID-19.

    • kinnath

      Bill Gates reportedly came close to a breakthrough in time travel this week, but his time machine got a Windows virus, became sentient, and went back in time to plant Coronavirus in someone’s bat soup.

    • Hyperion

      “States Pledge To Remain Closed Until A Time Machine Is Invented And Someone Goes Back In Time To Stop Coronavirus Trump From Happening”

      FIFY

    • creech

      “shelter in place until someone figures out how to build a time machine”
      Democrats, the media, and Top Scientists blame weak leader Trump for not having one ready on March 1st; demand he invoke National Production Act to force Boeing, Elon Musk, Walmart, and John Deere to make one yesterday.

  31. Count Potato

    “Unbelievable, just got video of this.
    *What the hell happened to common sense:
    Girl dressed up as a stormtrooper on may4th facing 3 cops with weapons drawn. You can hear her sobbing.”

    https://twitter.com/xeviuss/status/1257564952874774531

    I can’t even. Did they think Star Wars was real?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Ugh..I need more beer.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I always need more beer, like guns, more is better

      • Ownbestenemy

        Amen

      • R C Dean

        What a pack of fucking morons. None of them should be trusted with the authority to write a parking ticket, much less carry a gun.

    • Count Potato

      “The Lethbridge Police Service is investigating the actions of officers who responded an incident involving an 18-year-old female in a Stormtrooper costume on May the 4th, or Star Wars Day.

      In a news release, LPS said police responded to two 911 calls just after 11 a.m., reporting a person in a Stormtrooper costume was carrying a firearm along 13 Street North.

      “Upon police arrival the subject dropped the weapon but did not initially comply with further police directions to get down on the ground,” the news release said.

      “The weapon was ultimately confirmed to be a fake firearm and the female subject, who indicated she was an employee promoting a local business, was not charged.”

      The owner of Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina, Bradley Whalen, said the young woman is one of his employees, and she was promoting his Star Wars-themed business on May the 4th, or Star Wars Day.”

      https://globalnews.ca/news/6907466/lethbridge-police-service-star-wars-stormtrooper-handcuffing/

      • R C Dean

        I’ll bet they beat the shit out of an expensive costume, though.

        The article leaves out the crucial detail I know we are all wondering about: Did the Heroes all make it home safe?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Zeebest and zeebrightiest! Good to know they are just as stupid in Canada

      • Hyperion

        This is really how dumb the cops are. I remember back a few years ago when this kid in Baltimore surprised an intruder in his garage and the guy came at him with a knife. Kid hacked him up pretty badly with a sword. One of those stories with a good ending you know.

        But the wife and I were watching the local news when we heard about it and the cop being interviewed by the media, says ‘Well, I don’t think the kid was a real Ninja’. He wasn’t joking, the cop was really pondering whether this college kid was a REAL NINJA or not. He looked so serious. I fell off the sofa laughing. My wife says ‘what’s wrong with you?’ and I’m just laughing hysterically ‘Real Ninja, hahaahhahhahh!!!’.

      • Hyperion

        So, looks like they sent the entire pig squad to get a little girl with a plastic gun. Nice, our heroes!

      • Ted S.

        They’re not just our heroes, they’re our heroes on the front lines.

    • mrfamous

      Girls and young kids crying (legitimately) just fucking undoes me. I don’t like it and am not proud of it, but it just does.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Planned Parenthood cut?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Can we get an applause here?

      • Tres Cool

        The Margret Sanger Sirloin

      • Sean

        ???

    • R C Dean

      I’ll be using Plague Pay to refer to enhanced unemployment insurance. Thanks.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I like it, consider it Borrowed,

    • juris imprudent

      Jeez dude, spring for a new broiler, $20-25 on Amazon.

  32. zwak

    I grew up about four hours north of you on the central coast, and all my friends surfed, bioluminescence or not. I, on the other hand, lerned to sink.

  33. Winston

    https://www.sherbrookerecord.com/coronavirus-shows-why-canada-must-reduce-its-dependence-on-the-u-s/

    Blockquote>Liberal principles of free trade and movement may come under increasing pressure, leaving Canada particularly vulnerable to the whims of protectionist powers.

    ….

    So, what, if anything, can be done? In 1972, following the shock to the world economy brought about by former U.S. president Richard Nixon’s decision to effectively end the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, Pierre Trudeau’s government introduced a policy idea called the “Third Option.” It was essentially a call for more self-sufficiency at home and stronger ties with the rest of the world to lessen dependence on the United States

    Hmm this third option sounds a lot like protectionism. ..

    • Winston

      Edit Faerie, you are my only hope!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Wasn’t liberalization supposed to end our dependence on proofreading and reliance on edit fairies?

        (?)

      • Winston

        Well the internet was supposed to make everyone into a libertarian naysayer…so yes.

  34. Bill Door

    Is anyone else having problems with profile pics displaying? It seems like they are there immediately after posting, but then gone after Monocle does a refresh.

    • Gender Traitor

      Yes, I started noticing that this morning (pre-AM Lynx.) Sometimes in the same thread, someone’s avatar would show next to one comment but not next to a later comment by the same Glib.

      • Bill Door

        Interesting.

        Has the coronavirus infected computers, or at least WordPress, now?

      • Gender Traitor

        For instance, your comment before mine above – avatar. Your comment after mine – no avatar, even after marking your second comment “read.”

      • Gender Traitor

        And now, of course, it’s there.

        ::gives up, accepts whatever fate WordPress has intended for me::

      • Bill Door

        On my iPad there is no issue. On chrome on my MacBook, the issue was fairly constant.

  35. Winston

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thewhig.com/news/john-ivison-no-painless-way-out-for-liberals-from-the-worst-economic-blow-in-history/wcm/8af90d3b-ca60-48ee-ae89-03d56cfb1975/amp

    To put those numbers into context, they are the worst in Canadian history.

    Even in the depths of the Great Depression, real GDP did not fall by 12 per cent in a single year (there were four consecutive years in the early 1930s where growth was in negative territory, but the drop was never as precipitous). The deficit would also be greater than in any single year during the Depression, as a percentage of the economy.

    So is Canada insolvent? Can it ever pay back a national debt that may total nearly $1 trillion?

    The only solution is to ban guns, raise taxes and hand out more free shit obviously.

    • Incentives Matter

      That’s the Liberals’ entire policy universe, Winston. Be gentle with the poor dears — they’ve got a moron “leading” them.

      • Winston

        Cytotoxic told me otherwise…

    • creech

      Maybe sell off a few provinces to the U.S. in exchange for the U.S. absorbing the Canadian debt? Tell Trump to forget about buying Greenland; Alberta would be much better.

      • Incentives Matter

        Throw Saskatchewan in there and you’ve got a deal.

      • Tres Cool

        NWT and the mineral rights. We’ll give you FLO-rida, since so many of you winter there anyhow.

      • Incentives Matter

        Give up nothing, d00d. Hasn’t anyone talked to you about negotiation?

      • Jarflax

        Not Florida, give them New York City, Chicago and LA.

      • Hyperion

        “Alberta would be much better”

        OFFS, it comes with Canadians, have you gone mad?

      • Incentives Matter

        Albertans aren’t Canadians, according to the dipshits in Central Canada; we’re just Texans without either the drawl or concealed/open carry.

    • Drake

      Don’t forget to import lots more refugees who immediately collect welfare (or whatever the Canadian word is for free shit).

      • Enough About Palin

        Merde gratuite

      • Incentives Matter

        “Pogey” is what me parents called it, and pogey’s good enough fer me, ya fargin’ Kaybecker bastage!

    • Enough About Palin

      “Can it ever pay back a national debt that may total nearly $1 trillion?”

      Less than a trillion? That’s so cute.

      • Winston

        Well Canada does have about a Tenth of the Population of the US.

      • Incentives Matter

        Our national debt, expressed in U.S. dollars, is about one-twelfth that of the U.S. (more accurately, 12.5 : 1). That’s before COVID-19, of course.

      • Bobarian LMD

        But that’s not in real money.

  36. Tres Cool

    Where HM at? I need a ruling on THIS.

    • Count Potato

      The shovel is over the line.

  37. Winston

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/amp/news/magazine/2020/05/03/the-post-coronavirus-world-order-230042

    The post-1945 world order has ceased to function. Under a healthy order, we would expect at least good faith attempts at international coordination to confront a virus that knows no borders. Yet the United Nations has gone missing, the World Health Organization has become a political football and borders have closed not only between countries but even within the European Union. Habits of cooperation that took decades to entrench are dissolving.

    ….

    Now that extreme moment is here, and U.S. leaders have an opportunity that typically comes around just once or twice a century: They can build an order that actually works for our times—one that combats climate change, cyberthreats and public health challenges, and that allows for the fruits of globalization and technological progress to be shared more widely. If, that is, they do it right.</blockquote

    • Bill Door

      “That order will run on hopes and dreams and unicorns and rainbows and breakfast cereals and orangutans. They just have to socialist harder.” /politico

    • Gustave Lytton

      That’s some good quality hand waving away of 45 years of the Cold War. Of course there were no barriers to intra Europe travel in that time.

      • Winston

        If you get down to brass tacks the only time the “liberal world order” functioned anywhere close to its ideals was under Bill Clinton. That’s it. Just 8 years.

    • R C Dean

      borders have closed not only between countries but even within the European Union

      Err, you know those are still technically countries, right?

      A New World Order built on Top. Men. micromanaging every facet of your existence via “public health” and “green energy”, with a side helping of total control of information in the name of combating cyberthreats? Sign me up!

      • Winston

        Don’t worry they went to Ivy League schools, live in NYC, London and Paris and have the Right Social, Political, Economic and Cultural views on everything. You Can trust them you redneck yahoo rube hick.

    • Rhywun

      international coordination to confront a virus

      Because that is totally not happening.

    • Hyperion

      So, Politico gave The Atlantic a one day break? Good thing, they were getting very tired from carrying all that CCP water.

    • Hyperion

      Newest most scariest illegal drug virus now sweeping the country!

      Does it turn people into alligators?

      • Tres Cool

        Krokodil haz sad

      • Tres Cool

        And what ever happened bath salts ruining the nation’s youth ? Or salvia (currently illegal in Ohio)

      • Winston

        Victor Salva?

      • Hyperion

        Salvia, Winston, ask your mom.

      • Tres Cool

        Telly Salvalas.

      • mrfamous

        Who loves ya, baby?

      • Hyperion

        The Salvia thing may be (some of) the dumbest shit ever. I remember that. I also remember my grandmother had that all over her flower garden. All of the sudden, thousands of grannies were criminals.

      • Incentives Matter

        My Mom grew that stuff like it was a weed.

      • Hyperion

        It’s all weeds, some of it is just prettier.

      • Tres Cool

        That was Kasich that pulled that. He also said during one of the debates that he believe that marijuana had no legitimate medical use. Then suddenly when there was a push at the ballot to have an amendment to have the state laws changed, he immediatly signed-off on “medical marijuana”.

        I truly hope he gets pancreatic cancer and the strongest painkiller he gets is anacin.

      • Sean

        It gets a bit tedious doing it every day.

      • Suthenboy

        No shit.

  38. quincy

    Hayek called it, we’re living it:

    “Though it is the resentment of the frustrated specialist which gives the demand for planning its strongest impetus, there could hardly be a more unbearable— and more irrational— world than one in which the most eminent specialists in each field were allowed to proceed unchecked with the realization of their ideals.”