Tuesday Afternoon Links

by | Jun 2, 2020 | Daily Links | 386 comments

Listen, I’m suffering from news fatigue. I’m just going to post links and walk away….

Morons and explosives are a dangerous mix.

Sloopy and I are both probably feeling the PTSD anxiety looking at the tracks of this storm.

Science strikes again!

California Man throws Donner Party.

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.

386 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    ““They were out here. It was mobs of people out here and they got into pretty much every store: the Dunkin’ Donuts, the jewelry store, the Metro. It was a complete madhouse out here,” said the butcher. “I was in shock and I’m going on 53 so I’ve seen a lot, but nothing like that.”

    The Dunkin’ Donuts had no police?

    • leon

      Canadians might be judging us for the harsh reaction to protestors, but just wait till they hit the Tim Hortons.

    • Chafed

      That’s how you know the popo is busy.

  2. leon

    Science strikes again!

    I’m so glad we have such smart scientists to tell us these things.

    • bacon-magic

      PWNS leon. *eats more doritos and drinks Pepsi

    • Suthenboy

      That is on par with the govt funded study that found ‘women like bigger dicks’.

      • SP

        Then the Men of Glibs should be just fine.

        /I’m here all week!

      • Chafed

        *eyes well up with tears*

  3. Creosote Achilles

    when the device went off, he was thrown to the ground with serious injuries. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and died.
    Morons and explosives are a dangerous mix.

    You can take that to the bank.

    First.

    • leon

      I wouldn’t bet on it.

    • Creosote Achilles

      Damn it. Not even 2nd. I guess I’m the 3rd National Bank of Fail.

      • blackjack

        In twenty years, looney Tunes will make that into a cartoon.

    • Agent Cooper

      Money and fools are easily departed.

    • Chipwooder

      “I’ll take you to the bank, senator. The blood bank!”

      Goddamn do I love Steven Segal movies. They are uniquely terrible and hilarious.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      Saw this coming. Every cop in philly is in center city protecting the monuments and upper class white people. Every spot in that article was in the black areas.

  4. Count Potato

    “Although the researchers did not observe differences in weight between gamers and non-gamers, they noted that the poor lifestyle habits could contribute to excess weight gain and chronic disease later in life. ”

    Did they account the weed burning off blood sugar?

  5. gbob

    “There ain’t but four Democrats in all of Colorado, and you dun ate two of them.” -Allegedly said by a sheriff regarding the cannibalism.

      • gbob

        Damn it. In fairness I’ve been doing lawn work and drinking heavily.

      • B.P.

        I hope to up my productivity level to that soon.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Shpadoinkle!

  6. leon

    Tempests, whirlwinds, Plauges, Riots.

    What box have we not checked yet?

    • Count Potato

      War?

      • bacon-magic

        What is it good for?

      • Ayn Random Variation

        Little known fact. That was the original title of War and Peace.

      • Bob Boberson

        We’ve been at that for almost 20 years now.

    • bacon-magic

      Pestilence and meteors.

      • R C Dean

        Bzzzt. Pestilence is plague. Points deducted.

    • PBRstreetgang

      Meteor strike; giant space squid; Pauly Shore.

    • Florida Man

      my dad was un-ironically claiming it’s the end times. I nodded along like a good son.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      Volcanoes? Earthquakes? Avalanches? Hillary as President?

  7. Count Potato

    “When officers arrived, they said they caught the man in the act of cannibalizing the victim.”

    Well, how was she prepared?

    • Pope Jimbo

      Well, how was she prepared?

      Hopefully, he kissed her, caressed her and massaged her breasts first. You don’t want to go straight to eating her, no romance in that.

  8. Count Potato

    This new Twitter sucks ass.

    • R C Dean

      Improvement?

  9. leon

    Police said they responded to a Richmond residence after a report of a disturbance. When officers arrived, they said they caught the man in the act of cannibalizing the victim.

    Hmmm Needs to be in Cop Talk.

    “The Flesh was consumed, and the perpetrator was confronted by police officers. A struggle ensued, some fists were flying.”

  10. Apples and Knives

    “Sloopy and I are both probably feeling the PTSD anxiety looking at the tracks of this storm.”

    Well, damn. That might just put a damper on my long anticipated family get together at a beach house south of Galveston weekend after next.

  11. Bob Boberson

    OT: “Blackout” posts on IG. I reeaaally want to ask each person in my feed who posts one:

    “Without Googling it, who were Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nichols?”

    …..

    “Don’t know? Then you didn’t give a shit about this issue before last week and you probably won’t by next week. Keep signaling that virtue though.”

    Not sure why I’m so bothered by it.

    • Bob Boberson

      And you could sub in “Breonna Taylor” since the other incident happened 400 years ago in news cycle time.

      • Viking1865

        Taylor, and the rest murdered by no-knock raids, are not thought of as crimes, but as mistakes. The public, as a whole, doesn’t have a problem with no knocks against drug dealers. If Taylors boyfriend had a bag of weed under the bed, guarantee you the usual suspects would have been “she shouldn’t have been shacking up with a druggie.”

      • Florida Man

        The left’s version of this is “he shouldn’t have owned guns”
        ?

      • Bob Boberson

        Yeah, and it pisses me off, nobody gives a shit. I am deeply concerned about our growing police state. When the cops can kick in your door and execute you with impunity in nearly all cases, nobody can claim you live in a free country with a straight face. Hell, the KGB at least gave people the dignity of a ride out o town before they were lined up against the wall.

        The fact that the narrative surrounding police brutality, militarization, corruption and misconduct ALWAYS gets hijacked by the race-baiters is highly upsetting to me.

      • cyto

        I am amazed that it is only libertarians who see this.

        Sure, rank and file democrats are on board. This is their game. So Race it is.

        And the far left progressives like the green party are on board… because they want to burn it down and civil unrest suits their goals.

        The conservatives are pro-cop… so they are only too happy to see it as black versus white, law versus lawlessness.

        That leaves us. And the cosmotarians are not even on board either. They bend over backwards to tow the lion on racism. So that leaves just the center and right libertarians to notice that our civil liberty issues are being shoved to the side so that people can call each other racists.

      • Tundra

        The conservatives are pro-cop…

        Most, not all. I was chatting with my fairly conventional, law’n’order socon uncle the other day and he floored me when he said that he had come around to my ideas of privatizing the cops.

        He was really pissed off and said that the ‘few bad apples’ excuse isn’t good enough.

        Maybe there are more people coming around.

    • Chipwooder

      They were probably racists, so they had it coming.

      • Bob Boberson

        #whitelivesdontmatter

    • Viking1865

      The cold blooded nature of George Floyds murder, it being videoed in broad daylight, has a huge impact. It’s probably the worst one I can think of.

      The population has been totally brainwashed with TV about MUH DRUG DEALERS. The no knock raid is seen as 100% justified when used against drug dealers. The only issue people have with them is when they fuck up and raid the wrong people. If Tuttle and Nichols had actually been drug dealers, no one would have a problem with their murder.

      • Bob Boberson

        Granted, but I’m skeptical that Floyd’s murder had much impact on the people posting. It’s the cause detour and a great chance for my white-girl friends to draw attention to themselves. It really pisses me off for some reason.

      • Ted S.

        It’s the cause detour

        Nice John-o!

      • Bob Boberson

        Just goes to show that autocorrect is bigoted against French speaking bodies!

      • Chipwooder

        I agree, the nature of the killing is particularly appalling. Panicky cops shooting reflexively out of fear (Tamir Rice, for example) is bad enough. This was worse than that because it was done calmly and deliberately to a man who was already handcuffed and laid out on the pavement.

      • Viking1865

        Yeah this one is Kelly Thomas level bad. Probably worse, because of the coldness of it. Mob psychology is a documented thing, those thugs who beat Thomas to death had it going on.

        What was the kid on the BART train that the cop shot in the back instead of tasing him?

      • blackjack

        No, the Arizona cop who shot the kid for doing as he told him in the hotel hallway.

      • Viking1865

        That’s up there too. With the fucking “born to kill” dustcover on his AR.

        But the BART station cop shot a man in the back while he was laying face down on the platform. On video, he looks clearly confused and distressed, which to me means he thought he was grabbing a taser, but then his defense was the old HE WENT FOR HIS WAISTBAND. You just fucking controlled him and shoved him down, why didn’t you frisk him?

        I keep coming back to this with cops. These cops are not tough guys. They’re not big, muscled, skilled fighters and grapplers. They’re completely unable to handle physical confrontation, and they go right to tools. We need more cops that can bench 300 pounds and also run down a fleeing suspect. Cops who see a knife come out and immediately whip out their baton and want to mix it up. Cops who can actually grapple and strike, who can force compliance from a violent or intoxicated or mentally ill encounter without killing.

        I see a lot of weak dudes with guns they can’t use well when I look at cops. That’s not good.

      • Bob Boberson

        I agree with that, in part. I think cops not knowing how to handle themselves in a scuffle sometimes causes these problems. Tough guy cops seem to be equally part of the problem in other incidents.

        The Arizona cops who killed the guy in the hotel was a tatted up operator wannabe. Plenty of the guys you see beating the shit out of people on the beach or the street are stout looking guys.

        I think Q hit it on the head earlier. These people are doing the bidding of corrupt politicians, a compromised judiciary, public sector unions, etc. The problem , as always, is the incentives.

      • Viking1865

        “Plenty of the guys you see beating the shit out of people on the beach or the street are stout looking guys.”

        Yeah and how often do they beat people to death? Or crush throats with necks? Guys who like to fight, who tussle for fun, they know how to defeat without destroying. Plus, of course, there’s no Drunken Fighter Union.

        America has always had a technology fetish. That’s been applied to policing over the past 40 years. But OC and TASERs are not a substitute for physical strength and technical skill. A skinny cop, confronted with a larger suspect, is going to his tools because he knows he can’t force compliance without them. Then he speaks the magic words of “I thought he had a gun” and the system takes over from there.

        The incentives are definitely the biggest problem. But I also believe wholeheartedly that the physical toughness falling by the wayside is a huge issue. Cops are enforcers. If the enforcer is a potbellied 5’9 guy staring at an angry, intoxicated dude whos bigger than him, he knows that he has a gun or nothing. A 6’1 190 pound PAL champion boxer is looking at that same guy and he knows unless a weapon comes out, he can handle it.

      • Trigger Hippie

        ‘A 6’1 190 pound PAL champion boxer is looking at that same guy and he knows unless a weapon comes out, he can handle it.’

        Heh. I won a gold medal in that tournament during the 90’s.

      • Overt

        I kinda get what you are saying…but…When I see cops just walk past peaceful protestors and shoot them in the face with pepper spray, or just taze some guy or shoot a press guy in the back with a rubber bullet- when I see that, I get the sense this is not about people being afraid to mix it up and instead falling back to tools.

        These are people who feel more powerful than other people and they want to rub it in their faces. The last thing they want is some dick not taking them seriously- not acknowledging their superiority. And if they know they can get away with giving you a punch or a pepper spray to take them serious, they’ll do it. Because they need you to respect them.

        Such people aren’t going to stop that behavior once they know how to grapple with you. They’ll just choke you out or put you in an arm bar instead of tazing you.

      • slumbrew

        Daniel Shaver.

        I can’t bring myself to watch the video.

        Cop got off, of course. A little extra nutpunch:

        “Police officer who fatally shot sobbing man temporarily rehired to apply for pension “

      • cyto

        But…. Daniel Shaver is white….. how could that possibly be true?!?!

    • blackjack

      I’ve been called a racist 3 times in the last week for merely stating that I care about ALL of the victims of police abuse, regardless of their color. I got a ration for not supporting the riots after supporting the quarantine protests. You know the one’s where nobody’s businesses or cars were looted or burned, nobody got killed and the only harm was the cooties being spread. Yeah, the one where they were protesting actual infringement of rights, instead of some unknowable amount of “racism” which will never be fixed or even actually quantified. Now, it seems like you can go ahead and spread the CV as long as you’re stealing and beating innocents. And you better not mention anything but white on black police violence.

      • Chipwooder

        The silver lining to all this has been the puncturing of the WuFlu hysteria as the bullshit it always was.

      • Bob Boberson

        Funny how there are no articles from WaPo, Huffpo, NYT, et al about how the BLM protesters don’t care about killing everyone with the plague that was our imminent apocalypse last week.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        How can you be racist? You’ve got black right there in your name!

    • leon

      Please don’t enter the firing line until all weapons are cleared.

    • Sean

      L O L !

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Justice!

    • Drake

      I like the first-aid technique.

    • Brett L

      Y’know, that did cheer me up.

      • Enough About Palin

        I was hoping it would.

    • Count Potato

      That’s from over a year ago?

  12. grrizzly

    There’s a BLM protest 200 yards from my LA apartment.

    • Winston

      Do you mean Protest or riot?

      • Ted S.

        Yes.

    • Ted S.

      I thought you lived in Boston.

      • grrizzly

        A house here, an apartment there.

      • Florida Man

        Well la ti da mr money bags.

      • grrizzly

        I’m watching it on KTLA.

    • B.P.

      Beware the night shift. The day shift seems to be the legit protest.

      • Floridaman

        They also tend to stop around 3 am so you. Should be able to try to get some sleep.

      • Chipwooder

        Exactly. In town here, nothing has happened during the day except people marching and chanting. In fact, I have sympathy for their complaints that Richmond police have been unnecessarily heavy-handed – in the videos I’ve watched there’s been tear gas fired at people who aren’t doing anything violent.

        At night, however, there have been windows broken, stores looted, and some fires set.

    • blackjack

      Yeah, I drove down Van Nuys Blvd yesterday. All of the car dealers had hidden their cars. Lot’s of windows boarded up peremptorily. Then, I saw about 100 protesters at the courthouse. I called my wife and told her about it and she told me to get out of there. When I got home she said she googled it and it’s totes peaceful. SO I googled it to see and they had already started looting and burning by the time I got home.

      • Hyperion

        I lived in Van Nuys during the Watts riots. I was 4 years old and I was scared as hell because the 12 year old bully kid next door who liked to terrorize us little kids in the hood, told us that the negroes were coming to kill us all. Nice kid he was. Think Eddie Haskell with a mean streak. He would literally send the little girl from next door running home in tears every day. I hated him and wanted to do something, but he was 5 times my size and probably would have tied me behind his bicycle and drug me a few laps around the hood.

  13. DEG

    Police say a 24-year-old man tried using an explosive device to blow up the ATM by Sidekicks Sports Bar, but when the device went off, he was thrown to the ground with serious injuries. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and died.

    No great loss.

    Sloopy and I are both probably feeling the PTSD anxiety looking at the tracks of this storm.

    Hopefully things work out OK.

    They found that those who played video games consumed more saturated fat and sodium than non-gamers, which suggests they are eating more salty snacks. Gamers also consumed fewer fruits and vegetables and engaged in less physical activity than non-users.

    Someone paid for this study?

    Police said they responded to a Richmond residence after a report of a disturbance. When officers arrived, they said they caught the man in the act of cannibalizing the victim.

    Were bath salts involved?

  14. Enough About Palin

    “California Man throws Donner Party.”

    Donner, Party of ate. Donner, Party of ate.

  15. Florida Man

    Sloopy and I are both probably feeling the PTSD anxiety looking at the tracks of this storm.-

    Florida people, you can get storm supplies tax free until June 4th. I got a generator, (up to $750) tax free. Obviously there are limits.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      The good news for Florida peeps is that it looks to be going straight north to the Louisiana or Texas border, and since this is June and not September, it should remain a tropical storm.

      • R C Dean

        The good bad news for Florida Louisiana and Texas peeps is that it looks to be going straight north to the Louisiana or Texas border

  16. Enough About Palin

    “Morons and explosives are a dangerous mix.”

    Apparently he never saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

    • DEG

      I like #3.

      #4’s iChive page states “World’s Hottest Grandma”. OK.

      #6 is rather suggestive.

      #53 has appeared in other galleries and has a nice iChive gallery.

    • Suthenboy

      I don’t get it. why put these up in a format that not everyone can see? I cant see any of them and I cant be bothered to fix it.

      • prolefeed

        The archive thing doesn’t work in Firefox. It works with Chrome, but Google appears to have embraced being actively evil.

      • Tundra

        Brave works great.

      • prolefeed

        The GIFs don’t work in Archive, either.

    • Q Continuum

      “Creating a better world” = “Lining up the kulaks, wreckers, deplorables and capitalists against a wall”.

      • Winston

        The rot is deep. Might be too late…

      • Hyperion

        That includes the goofballs at TeenVogue.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      How did “Teen Vogue”, a magazine that was ostensibly … once a version of Vogue magazine for teenaged girls, become … that?

      (I once bought an issue of that magazine. It was 2002 and my brother was in it.)

      • Bob Boberson

        Evidently they give you the beastmaster ear-worm treatment in journalism school. It bores into your brain and transforms you into a collectivist moron.

      • Floridaman

        I thought that came standard in all parts of the education system.

      • Florida Man

        You only think that because you came up in the florida public educational system.

      • Jarflax

        Worst sock ever.

      • Florida Man

        You never knew there were two of us? Technically Florida Men are legion, but there are 2 here.

      • Floridaman

        Jokes on you, I dont wear socks.

      • hayeksplosives

        I haven’t looked at teen vogue since, well, since I was a teen.

        Even then it was a poorly written conglomeration of “beauty” tips, trending to dating advice, and eventually to teaching girls how to use their bodies as currency to get what they want. So now right after “how to get the perfect eyeliner “ is an article on “how to prolong his orgasm.”

        Not something I’d want on my coffee table or for my 12 year old kid to read.

      • Q Continuum

        Now we’ve got revolutionary socialism and anal sex.

        Not too big of a leap I guess.

      • Chipwooder

        Is regular Vogue any different? Honest question, I have no idea.

      • Count Potato

        Yes, it still covers fashion.

      • Rhywun

        It was taken over by Marxists a few years ago.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        (I once bought an issue of that magazine. It was 2002 and my brother was in it.)

        Sure JB.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      You mean in the sense that it’s backed by the CIA? Let me put on my shiny hat and think about it.

  17. Pope Jimbo

    Minnesota Dept of Health is not playing nicely with others. The MDH is fighting all data requests for CV cases in long term care facilities. They claim that by doing so they may leak personal information and also that the public wouldn’t understand the nuances in the data.

    I love the reply from a lawyer who has been pushing them:

    Larson, Rob’s partner, also dismissed the argument that the public isn’t capable of properly analyzing the data: “There’s nothing more onerous than government agencies that decide not to give out information because we might react the wrong way to it.”

    Larson and Rob are lawyers at Dorsey & Whitney the 800lb gorilla legal firm in the area. I don’t think the MDH will do well against them.

    • Ted S.

      MDH is part of the Government; I’m sure they can find a judge who believes in the FYTW Clause of the Constitution.

    • hayeksplosives

      The important thing wasn’t to refuse doctoring the data; it was to avoid getting caught. MDH forgot that second part.

  18. Sour Kraut

    Greetings friends I come to bleg. I need to replenish my whiskey supply and was thinking of going Japanese for the first time. I want to spend under $100. Any connoisseurs here have a suggestion?

    • blackjack

      You think you’re turning Japanese? You really think so?

    • Florida Man

      The only one I remember is Yamazaki 12 year, but I think it has gotten expensive over the years. Nikko Coffey is really good and I think under $100

    • blackjack

      I don’t drink any whiskey except Scotch. Glenfiddich 18 y/o costs around 100.00 here and it is GOOD!!

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I want to spend under $100.

      I’m such a rube. I really can’t tell what makes most whiskeys better than a $10 bottle of Evan Williams.

    • Jarflax

      Dude, even Japanese go Philipina when trying to stay under $100. Japanese girls are expensive.

    • Sour Kraut

      Thanks everyone.

  19. The Other Kevin

    According to the latest scientific model, the tropical storm will become a Category 8 hurricane and make landfall in central Nevada next week.

    • hayeksplosives

      Sounds legit.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      That’s only because Trump took a Sharpie to the map. It’s actually going to Wyoming.

  20. Winston

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

    it triggered a major confrontation between 7,000 National Socialists and Altona’s Communist residents, leading to massive police intervention. Eighteen people, including two SA members, were killed, most of them by police bullets. The riots were used by Papen as an excuse for his Prussian Coup on 20 July.

    Said coup meant that Hitler had control of the Prussian State Police when became chancellor. Can’t see something like that happening here…

  21. DEG

    NH National Guard in Manchester in anticipation of riots tonight

    New Hampshire National Guard troops were en route to Manchester on Tuesday morning and one store owner on South Willow Street was boarding his glass entrance as the state’s largest city prepared for potentially violent protests in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd.

    Meanwhile, Manchester police arrested Lakes Region resident Daniel Zeron, 19, early Tuesday morning and charged him with criminal threatening. Police allege he was behind social media posts calling for New Hampshire protesters to “take example from riots in other cities” on Tuesday night in Manchester, encouraging graffiti and predicting that police cars would be damaged on Tuesday night.

    • Drake

      Riots is Manchester? Seriously?

      • DEG

        We’ll see.

        A couple of days ago an invitation for rioting appeared on Facebook. It’s the one Zeron is accused of posting.

        There’s been a lot of talk about it among folks that are watching other cities and don’t want the violence here.

        The Guard rolled into Manchester today. Businesses started boarding up today. I’ve seen reports of folks with rifles heading to Manchester to protect businesses.

        We’ll see what happens.

    • Floridaman

      Says the man who threatened nuking gun owners for refusing to respect his authoritah.

    • Bob Boberson

      “Cold doesn’t matter. We’re ll human beings”

      Obviously a racist who is clueless about his white privledge.

      • Bob Boberson

        F-you, auto correct, f-you.

      • Q Continuum

        Considering “all lives matter” is hate speech, yes. You are correct.

      • grrizzly

        A firing offense.

        “What’s your take on BLM?” NBA player DeMarcus Cousins tweeted at Grant Napear, the longtime announcer of the Sacramento Kings.

        As part of his reply, Napear wrote: “ALL LIVES MATTER…EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!” He later added: “If it came across as dumb I apologize.”

        Napear, the team’s play-by-play announcer since 1988, has been suspended by his radio station, Sports 1140 KHTK.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Elsa agrees.

    • hayeksplosives

      Is this the new Limousine Liberal?

    • AlmightyJB

      How do you think they got rich?

  22. Fatty Bolger

    For those who are interested in space ‘n rockets ‘n shit, I was looking over the spaceflight launch schedule, and noticed that there are no less than three Mars missions planned for launch next month:

    July 14 H-2A • Emirates Mars Mission
    A Japanese H-2A rocket will launch the Emirates Mars Mission for the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates Mars Mission, also called “Hope,” is a Mars orbiter that was developed by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai in partnership with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado.

    July 17 Atlas 5 • Mars 2020
    A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket will launch NASA’s Mars 2020 rover to the Red Planet. After landing in February 2021, the Mars 2020 rover will study Martian geology, search for organic compounds, demonstrate the ability to generate oxygen from atmospheric carbon dioxide, and collect rock samples for return to Earth by a future mission. The rocket will fly in the 541 vehicle configuration with a five-meter fairing, four solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.

    July Long March 5 • Tianwen 1
    A Chinese Long March 5 rocket will launch the Tianwen 1 mission to attempt China’s first landing on Mars. The robotic mission includes an orbiter and a mobile rover to explore the surface of Mars.

    • dbleagle

      I will give you odds that only the US mission has better than a 50% chance of success. Mars is a tough target to land on and the only country to have success is the US; and we’ve FUBARed multiple missions as well.

      • Hyperion

        Japan might make it. China, not a chance.

    • gbob

      China probe will probably get our own probe sick.

  23. Q Continuum

    Anyone ever see that Black Mirror episode called White Bear?

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/retired-police-captain-shot-to-death-at-st-louis-pawn-shop-in-slaying-caught-on/article_d482138c-0224-5393-bd87-9898bebb3fd1.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

    I’m thinking we’re pretty close to that now.

    “Several people on social media said they watched a broadcast on Facebook Live that showed the shooting at the pawn shop[…]It’s one thing to be a victim of a robbery/assault but to lie in you own blood pleading for help and no help comes other than people standing around on FB Live recording his death.”

    • Viking1865

      “He died on the sidewalk in front of the shop, Lee’s Pawn & Jewelry, at 4123 Martin Luther King Drive. ”

      Yeah nothing good happens on that street.

      • dbleagle

        In any city.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Black lives matter. Right?

    • cyto

      At least all the people live streaming were able to record his last moments. Nice job, folks. You have your priorities in order.

      • Viking1865

        The dude filming the video is pretty stand up. Hes yelling at the killers. Hes talking to Dorn, telling him to hang in there, to stay with him.

  24. Drake

    Why the “move the riots to the suburbs” won’t ever work.

    Rioting in a city is, for all intents and purposes, safe for the rioter. Even if you do have a confrontation with police, you’re more than likely going to get a few bumps and bruises. At worst, some blood might be drawn from superficial wounds. The worst that may befall you is if your fellow rioters turn on you for any reason. Then you’ll really face serious injury, though more than likely, you’re just going to riot, loot, destroy, and go home.

    The rules change in the suburbs. You’re not robbing a private store and destroying public property anymore. Now you’re in home territory. The house is full of valuable possessions and luxuries, yes, but more than that, this location has family members in it. Wives, children, and even beloved pets.

    You’re in a different playing field now. Here the stakes are a lot higher for the victims of rioters, and as such, the stakes will rise for you. You’re no longer just facing an arrest charge or a few bumps and bruises. You’re now playing with your life.

    I want anyone in Antifa or rioting groups to know that it was estimated that there were 350 million guns in America…back in 2017. Also, that was the conservative estimate. The number is more likely double that, and with more being added to the count every day…

    ou may think moving the riots into neighborhoods is going to play out the same way. It’s not. You’re at a massive tactical disadvantage. The residents know these streets, the layout of their homes, and the defense capabilities of their residence and themselves.

    You don’t. Each home will be different, each resident will have different approaches, and each home may have more than one or two gun wielders inside. The goal isn’t non-violent control of the situation now. It’s not about tear gas and high-pressure hoses now. Now it’s deadly force. You can’t just wash a bullet wound out and keep going. Even if they don’t have guns, they’re not going to stop hitting you with a heavy object or stop stabbing and slashing at you with cutlery until you’ve either been chased out or you stop moving. Understand. The chances of you dying are incredibly high.

    Suburbanites have a lot more to lose and are going to be a lot more apt to go to extremes to make sure no harm befalls what they’re protecting. Too much rides on it. In the city, you were the pack of lions seeking whom you may devour. In the burbs, you’re the gazelle.

    • Enough About Palin

      I read “The Territorial Imperative” back in the sixth grade, so I have known this is true for over 50 years (see Afghanastan and Vietnam).

  25. Jerms

    Good old Diblasio two weeks ago arresting jews for religious gatherings and threatening people at funerals for not social distancing enough—Yesterday tweeting out how the protesters were doing such a wonderful job in NYC.
    Must not be contagious among protesters.

      • Tres Cool

        WHOA!

        Now those are some cray-cray eyes. A guy would be safer entering a fukishama reactor than entering that.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        Proud of her? He completely ignored her and excused the SBA for doxxing her!

    • Juvenile Bluster

      Oh, he answered a question about that that today.

      400 years of American racism, I’m sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services

      Full quote: https://twitter.com/chayesmatthew/status/1267899598812700672

      Even IGNORING that ridiculous answer, wasn’t DeBlasio totally fine with cops roughing up and arresting POC for not wearing masks two weeks ago?

      [I initially typed “two years ago”, because that’s how this feels.]

    • Viking1865

      Saw on Twitter they were ordering people out of parks today, while letting the rioters run rampant all night.

      • Chipwooder

        Yep. The NYPD won’t stop rioters, but mothers and children in a park? That’s more their speed.

    • Enough About Palin

      The Dems and the Media have fucked the wrong dog.

  26. Florida Man

    Anyone here purchased body armor? Which company and load out did you go with?

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Spartan Armor Systems

      Soft Armor Vests (IIIA)
      Entry Level Plate Carrier Package (III+)

      The vests were delivered within a week or two but the plate packages are on a couple months delay. Nothing but good things to say about the vests. Comfortable and well-made. Things are starting to get… uneasy…. even out here in the middle of nowhere so have started wearing when in town.

      Also grabbed a couple soft armor vests for the dogs. They fit well, though my GSDs are almost too big for the largest available size.

      • Florida Man

        Sounds like a pretty sweet rig, but I’m leaning Towards hard plates to stop rifle rounds.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        The carrier has steel plates rated to stop .308 and 5.56 rounds. They also make a ceramic plate rated for .30-06.

      • Florida Man

        I’ll give them a look. Thanks

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        No problem, though I blame Sean for these.

      • Sean

        ?

      • Florida Man

        I almost pulled the trigger on AR500 ceramics this morning, but wanted opinions.

      • salted earth

        Are they unisex?

      • Florida Man

        I was going to order a set and see how they fit my wife. I know some companies have smaller plates.

      • Sean

        As far as I know, yes.

        You could always call them and ask for advice.

  27. LJW

    Best fake conspiracy theory yet: Real estate developers triggered the riots so they can swoop in buy all the property cheap to build over priced luxury condos, that only elitist leftists are dumb enough to buy.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      That’s funny because i was thinking this summer would be a good time to buy in the city with people fed up over the back to back lockdowns.

      Some people like myself are just city mice.

      • Viking1865

        “Some people like myself are just city mice.”

        It’s funny, I know ya’ll probably have me firmly in team yokel, but I’ve lived in a city my entire life. Never once lived out in the burbs or a rural area. I need my beer and my restaurants.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    SCIENCE!

    Old male coots are the problem when it comes to Coronavirus

    Older men are less worried about catching or dying from COVID-19 than similarly aged women or younger people, according to a study published in the Journals of Gerontology.
    Because they’re less concerned, older men are also less likely to have adopted behavioral changes to lower their risk of becoming infected, such as wearing a mask or keeping their hands away from their faces, the study also reports.

    These findings are troubling and suggest “a critical need for COVID-19 behavioral change interventions targeted at older men,” the study’s authors conclude.

    I can hardly wait for the nice young lady to show up on Fourscore’s doorstep to hector him about worrying more about CV.

    • Chipwooder

      No one cares about WuFlu anymore.

    • commodious spittoon

      We’re past Covid, thanks. We’re on to new insuperable social crises.

    • Fourscore

      Wait, maybe she came while I was at the post office. Hmmm, didn’t see any strangers in town though, no Big Iron.

      • Florida Man

        Now I’m going to have the big iron song stuck in my head. I blame you and fallout.

  29. Count Potato

    “Incredible. @OregonGovBrown
    & @tedwheeler
    let Portland city councilwoman @JoAnnPDX
    spread reckless disinformation in a presser today. Without evidence, she asserted that white nationalists & white supremacists infiltrated peaceful protesters to riot & loot downtown.”

    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1267605221649211393

    • Pope Jimbo

      Who believes this?

      This has to be the craziest lie the pols/media have tried to run with.

      • Count Potato

        The scary thing is lots of people do. The media has been going on about nazis under the bed for years.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        I have friends that completely believe this here in prog land, are you kidding?

    • RAHeinlein

      Said it before – if the rioting and looting is being caused by white nationalist groups, then the proggies should have no qualms about arresting these people and shame-on Biden staff, entertainers, activists, etc. for providing bail money.

      • Count Potato

        That requires thought.

      • Ted S.

        I’ve pointed out that everywhere these white supremacist groups try to meet, they wind up being far outnumbered by counter-protesters. It seems illogical that they should suddenly be able to marshal the numbers of people necessary to engage in the sort of looting we’re seeing. People, unsurprisingly, recoil with horror at this assertion because it challenges their desire to lay all of this at the feet of TEAM RED.

  30. hayeksplosives

    There is a breeding pair of California Quails that likes to hang out in and pass through my yard. They make goofy noises and cause no harm, so I enjoy them.

    Today they showed up wit THIRTEEN BABIES! Holy cow. I had no idea they laid that many eggs. Or maybe other young chicks get confused and join the wrong family?

    Either way, it’s cute.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Or maybe other young chicks get confused and join the wrong family?

      So you had better start calling the parents Charlie and Squeaky?

    • Suthenboy

      I may have mentioned this before: Works with any ground feeding bird. Toss out some bird seed. Have a seat on the ground by the seed and be still. With one hand start pecking one finger on the ground. Alternate with scratching the ground kicking up a little dust. Scratch, peck, peck peck, scratch scratch peck peck. Wait a bit and start again.

      They will watch for a minute and then find it irresistible to run over and see what you have. When they find the seed they will start ignoring you. Before long you will have a lap full of quail.

      Yes, they are cute little shits.

      • hayeksplosives

        I might have to do that. Outdoors is my favorite “room” of the house.

    • Hyperion

      We have a bunch of doves out back here. They’re big and fat because the neighbor is feeding them. The squirrels and chipmunks try to come in around the bird feeders and get some seed off the ground, but the doves chase them off.

  31. whiz

    Viking above mentioned the Kelly Thomas murder. I was looking over the Wikipedia entry for that and saw this regarding the murder trial for one of the officers:

    In contrast, Dr. Gary Vilke (a professor of clinical emergency medicine at UC San Diego) testified for the defense during the trial. He has investigated in-custody deaths for 20 years and has published studies on “mechanical compression.”He testified, “I know he was breathing when the officers got off him because he was still talking.” “As far as the cause of death, it’s not asphyxiation.”

    I thought that even though George Lloyd could speak, he still could be asphyxiated. Now which is it? I guess you can get “experts” to argue both sides.

    • Viking1865

      Expert witnesses will say what they are paid to say.

      • blackjack

        Fucking love science!

      • cyto

        That was my takehome from the OJ simpson trial. Barry Scheck has been doing good works as penance for his ridiculous “EDTA is out of date” gambit. There was a lot of stupid in that trial, but claiming that the DNA matched OJ because the EDTA is out of date was beyond ludicrous.

        (EDTA is a preservative. You can keep a concentrated EDTA solution on your lab shelf for decades. Literally decades. It was like saying the table salt was past its sell by date.)

    • Juvenile Bluster

      You an *always* find a ME to excuse police actions.

      “The individual was shot in the temple. Coincidentally, he died as a result of brain trauma and blood loss.”

    • Drake

      There are different types of chokes. You can shut off the air, or shut off the blood. Cops used to be trained to use the “LAPD chokehold” that cut off both the left and right carotid arteries. People would pass out almost instantly but they also had a pesky habit of dying sometimes. Because the brain isn’t getting blood, even subconscious commands like telling the diaphragm to breathe can stop. That’s why he and Eric Gardner were able to say “I can’t breathe”. I think that cop kneeling on the side of the neck had the same affect as a artery choke.

      • Count Potato

        The whole thing is an academic circle jerk because there is no reason to use any kind of hold on someone who is already handcuffed on the ground.

      • Chipwooder

        Yep. There are air chokes and there are blood chokes.

        Blood chokes are actually much more efficient.

      • Suthenboy

        I am fairly sure anyone splitting hairs excusing that action will gladly volunteer to be handcuffed and let me kneel on their neck for ten minutes.

      • hayeksplosives

        Good suggestion.

      • Naptown Bill

        Back in my jujitsu days we distinguished between a choke, which constricts the windpipe, and a strangle, which constricts the arteries. The difference is when blood flow is constricted you have the “letterboxing ” effect, where you’re coherent but there’s blackness on the edge of your vision that gets bigger and bigger until you fall asleep.

    • RAHeinlein

      There is a proposed bill to ban choke-holds – for or against?

      I’m against.

      • Viking1865

        It’s at least an actual policy. Most of the morons I see are saying END THE RACISM.

      • Suthenboy

        All I know is if someone tries to choke me I am going for the balls. One hard downward slap and they will instinctively let go. Then I am going to take one of their eyeballs home as a souvenir.

      • Drake

        Pretty close to how I was taught in Boot Camp. But they used the phrase “grab, twist, pull”.

    • bacon-magic

      If it’s not I’m sickened by it.

    • LJW

      I seems fake but wouldn’t shock me. The majority of weirdness I’ve seen on social media is coming from white liberal women.

      • Naptown Bill

        I buy it. Basic bitches are desperate to signal their virtue.

      • Drake

        Man, I never was able to train a white woman to drop to her knees on command.

    • Suthenboy

      Mace/tear gas is neutralized by weak acids. Wash your hands with the vinegar from pickled jalapeños and masturbate away.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Things I wish I knew earlier in life.

  32. blackjack

    Sign language interpreters are the bass player of language. That is all.

    • Q Continuum

      I say drummer.

  33. Not an Economist

    I really, really want to take a vacation from the world … or at least people for a month. Maybe two.

    • Suthenboy

      I am feeling the same way. The stupid is just too much to take. I need to spend a week in the woods not seeing or talking to another person.

      • Naptown Bill

        Yeah, this year has been a strong sales pitch for buying a cabin in the mountains and dropping off the face of the earth.

      • AlmightyJB

        Are the tantrums still going on?

      • Naptown Bill

        On who’s behalf? I was planning on taking the whole fam with me but that’s not set in stone.

      • Naptown Bill

        *whose, Jesus Bill…

      • AlmightyJB

        Lol. Wasn’t supposed to be a reply. I was talking about the riots. Something about my phone and this new format causes my comments to be replies. I think the actual new comment box at the bottom isn’t displaying.

      • l0b0t

        Yes, please. Tent, fire, hammock, sleeping bag, and no evidence of humanity to the horizon in any direction. I’ll also settle for a week or so on open water.

      • Suthenboy

        I feel for those of y ou that don’t have access to that. I have endless tracts of woods where I can go on a whim and hear nothing but the sound of wind in the trees or the water in the creek for as long as I like. Call it forest privilege if you like but I won’t apologize.

    • Mojeaux

      I’d be happy if merchants could get back to merchanting. I need an art gallery fix badly (although the children throwing the tantrums are in that neighborhood, so I probably wouldn’t be able to get there anyway). I need to take the kids to the eye doctor. I want to be able to go to the dentist and not have to sit in my car and text “I’m here!” I want the stupid masks to go away. I thought I hated people until I couldn’t see their faces. Very strange psychology going on there.

      • l0b0t

        Everyone has the shiftiest eyes now. It’s disturbing not being able to read facial cues.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      Glib’s Gulch anyone?

    • Drake

      Barrett makes good stuff – wildly expensive, but real good.

    • Spudalicious

      A retired SEAL I know swears by .338 Lapua.

  34. leon

    #BoycottAmerikkka is trending.

    So no more Muskrat Love!

    • hayeksplosives

      Snort. Nice.

  35. Chipwooder

    The ice cream man just hit up our street, and I have to say there is something wonderfully normal in hearing that corny music and seeing the kids on the block running out gleefully.

    • hayeksplosives

      Amen. I hadn’t ever heard one up in my neighborhood until a couple of weeks ago. Now it is therapy.

      • Tundra

        We had one come through a few days ago. It was playing ‘Dixie’ for some reason.

    • l0b0t

      Nice! They cruised down our block as well, usually they stay down on the beach road. Kids got rocket pops, I went for the vanilla/chocolate swirl cone with the red-dip hard shell. There something satisfying about having to on the porch and eat it all before it melts.

    • SP

      Yesterday, the ice cream truck came down our street and The Wonder Dog heard the music, ran to the front window, and then came running to me begging to go out and meet it.

      • Tulip

        Aww, did you take her out and get her a cone?

      • SP

        Of COURSE! And one for me, too.

      • l0b0t

        That is so adorable and exactly the sort of normality I need right now. Thanks.

      • SP

        She is super adorable. The funniest dog I ever knew. And the huggiest.

      • Swiss Servator

        This is true. Wonder Dog is very huggy and nice.

      • Tundra

        Pup cups from DQ might be my dog’s favorite thing ever.

        He hates the ice cream truck, though.

      • SP

        The best coffee place here, Dutch Brothers, always gives out a Puppaccino. A cup full of whipped cream, topped with dog biscuits. And they are generous with them, too.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yep!

      • Tundra

        For more normal treats, do you ever buy Frosty Paws?

        Mine goes crazy for them.

      • SP

        No! I was unaware of those. She would love it. It’s only 108 here today. She chomps on much ice all day.

        She knows what the little white bowls are that we use for ice cream, and always expects a dish of vanilla if we have ice cream. In fact, I buy vanilla just so we have some that is OK for her to have.

        (No, my dog is not spoiled, why do you ask?)

      • Tundra

        Dogs deserve to be spoiled.

    • B.P.

      The ice cream truck in my neighborhood plays Helter Skelter

      /Steven Wright

  36. hayeksplosives

    For the sake of domestic tranquillity, I plan to go to brick and mortar workplace tomorrow.

    I need out of this house. Badly.

    • blackjack

      Don’t say the word “BRICK”! Some of us live in Los Angeles!

  37. Incentives Matter

    https://twitter.com/i/events/1267877170296184834

    Trudeau pauses for 21 seconds before addressing question about Trump’s response to protesters

    At his daily press conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked a question about Trump calling for military action against protestors. Trudeau paused for 21 seconds before answering the question. He did not explicitly mention Trump’s name in the response. ”We all watch in horror and consternation at what is going on in the United States,” he said.

    Everybody give Justin a break. He had to re-boot and load his SMIR O/S (Slightly More Intelligent Response Operating System) before he could answer the question at all. Hasn’t been used in years, if ever.

    • SP

      He should have paused for 9 minutes to give people an idea how long that really is.

      • Viking1865

        That would have been another World of Crazy moment: Justin Trudeau doing something meaningful and worthy of respect.

      • leon

        That would have been insane.

      • The Hyperbole

        Really, sins of the father, Teds? I was told one can’t be held responsible for the actions of ones ancestors.

      • Swiss Servator

        Not for his sins, but if he said that was wrong, someone would point that out, and Zoolander’s head would explode.

  38. Michael Bluth

    Is it just me or has the definition of “white supremacy” been so changed and the goal posts moved that we aren’t even on the same field anymore, if we’re even playing the same sport? From an email I just received:

    “To Our White Friends,

    We need a critical mass of white people to join in a radical awakening to interrupt white supremacy. We need to reconnect to our spirit and our humanity, the deep knowing that human beings are interconnected to one another and to all living beings.

    The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and the thousands before them are rooted in generations of white supremacy and the resulting state-sanctioned violence against Black people. Our collective white ancestors fostered and benefitted from these conditions of white supremacy since the colonization of this country. If you are able to claim whiteness, you and your ancestors have participated in the trauma and violence used to enforce white supremacy.

    We are inviting white people into an interactive conversation on Wednesday, June 10th for two hours. We will address the impact of white supremacy and illusions of separateness. We will engage in small interactive conversations on prompts:

    • How have you personally benefited from white supremacy?
    • How have we contributed to a state of being that has led to our white culture of domination, extraction, and violence?
    • What if spirit and humanity were prioritized by our ancestors, what different choices might have emerged? How do we repair and heal all that has gone wrong? ”

    Maybe my whiteness has made me blind, but I’m already sick of this and I know we’re just at the beginning.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The question not asked nor welcome.

      “What if we treated people as individuals and judged them based on their actions?”

      I know, it’s a novel, even crazy, idea but let’s give it a shot.

      • Michael Bluth

        How would people get elected into positions of power or funnel money to themselves and their cronies? The horror.

        I know the American experiment is far from perfect and has failed to live up to many ideals, but it is still leaps and bounds a head of anything else. This stuff is maddening, especially because their answer to government systems keeping them down is more boots to lick!

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        You mean like judging people by the content of their character? Sounds racist.

      • Michael Bluth

        Inform the SPLC!

    • l0b0t

      I’m dirt poor, South Florida white trash. My mom is a HS dropout and her mom dropped out of 4th grade because she had to join the family picking fucking cotton! May I have some of this white privilege please?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        White fragility on display

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        My response to a Tee

      • leon

        :hides hoard of white privilege:

        I’m sorry i don’t have any to spare.

      • straffinrun

        They would say that your life would have been even harder if you had been born black. They are 100% sure that is the case. I honestly don’t know how to argue with such a batshit insane theory.

      • Suthenboy

        It is not a theory. It is a pretense for demanding money.

      • Viking1865

        I mean, I don’t really disagree with that. Two kids, one white, one black from the same trailer park, on average the black kid will deal with shit the white kid won’t. Yes, everyone is an individual, but we can look at average outcomes.

        But white privilege, to its logical conclusion, means that Malia Obama is disadvantaged compared to me, because I am a white male. What has happened, as the governing class has become more and more ethnically diverse, is that they have driven out the old Marxist idea of economic privilege and replaced it with identity politics. I am willing to bet that in the next couple decades, white male leftist politicians will need to be “bisexual”, or have Warren-esque stories of non-white ethnicity to pass muster with their voters.

      • straffinrun

        Nobody could be certain that just by switching races that your life would be worse. They need to declare that it’s 100% true so that they can collectively punish people (they claim it isn’t punishment, but it is) and not feel bad about incidentally harming innocent people.

      • Viking1865

        Like most leftist political positions, its all a motte and bailey. They formulate a very reasonable, even plainly factual premise, people agree with it, and then they run a giant pile of policy and rhetoric on top of that thin reed.

        “Ceteris Paribus, black people have it worse than white people in America.”

        “Yeah, agreed.”

        “Good. Now let’s talk about how exactly we do a 14 trillion dollar cash reparations package.”

        “Wait wait, what reparations package?”

        “I knew it. You’re a racist.”

        ________

        “The climate is changing, and industrial activity is a contributor.”

        “Yeah, agreed.”

        “Good. Now, let’s talk about the major tax we’re going to levy on carbon, and which community groups and NGOs will receive that funding.”

        “Uh no, we’re not gonna siphon off a trillion bucks a year into leftist front groups and vote buying schemes.”

        “Science Denier!!!!!!”

      • Suthenboy

        It is always about money. They want money for nothing.
        Like all good blackmailers it will never end so fuck ’em.

      • straffinrun

        Yep. They assume that because you disagree with how they are fighting racism, you are denying racism exists. It’s that little sleight of hand that gets me irate.

      • cyto

        Adam Carolla has a great rant about his white privilege. He even took it to capital hill. This was his response to a wealthy black congresswoman who talked about white privelege

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJpz5L2gBXE

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Or a response “To my black friends”

    • grrizzly

      Some groveling from 23andMe by email.

      As a leader who really cares, I feel the responsibility to not just talk about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, but to make meaningful changes and contributions through my own actions and how we operate at 23andMe. Our management team, Board and employee base must have greater diversity. I am ashamed to say I do not have a single black employee who is at Director level or above. Our product is euro-centric but must expand to be inclusive and equitable. We absolutely have the potential to be better. Despite our efforts, I have to honestly say that we are also part of the problem.

      I’m holding myself accountable. I’m holding 23andMe accountable. And I’m asking that our customers hold us accountable. This will include making sure that we change our hiring practices, that we make sure we give greater promotional opportunities within the company, that we dedicate resources to evolve our product to better represent all communities and that my management team and Board have more inclusive representation.

      • Mojeaux

        I don’t know why these people can’t just keep their mouths shut.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        “Our product is euro-centric but must expand to be inclusive and equitable.”

        So come on black people. Buy more of our tests!

      • Raven Nation

        And, Go Fund Me just did the same…

    • Viking1865

      As black people continue to rise in the political and bureaucratic power structure of America’s cities, it becomes more and more difficult to sell the Struggle Continues As it Did Before. You have to recast the villains. It used to be white police chiefs, white mayors, white school superintendents, white college administrators were the villains. But then, more and more, they became blacker and blacker. But the problems remained. The Freddy Gray murder shows this. 3 white cops, 3 black. Black police chief. Black mayor. Black city council. There’s no White Man in Charge to blame, so you have to widen the scope.

      If anyone ever saw the godawful Terminator 3, they had to explain how the events of Terminator 2 didn’t prevent the Rise of the Machines. Well what happened was Skynet was destroyed in T2, but then it shifted into a computer virus. So instead of robot planes and soldiers massacring humanity, it became a computer virus that spread out through the Internet and took control. It was unstoppable. Inevitable.

    • straffinrun

      If you weren’t white, how would your life be worse? The whole concept of white privilege is based on the assertion that a counter factual situation can be declared absolutely certain to have occurred. And as we know, this is collective punishment bullshit. Racist at it’s core.

    • Naptown Bill

      Anyone who sends me that email isn’t my friend.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      It’s because “racist!!!” has lost all meaning, so now it’s nazi or white supremacist.

    • Ted S.

      Yes it’s been changed, and that’s deliberate.

  39. Fourscore

    Its not enough not to play with matches. That guy should have paid more attention in 9th grade science class.

    • Fourscore

      Weird though that he’s arsoning the building full of people. Lucky for him though

  40. Enough About Palin

    My boss is heavily involved with what’s going on here in Minneapolis with regard to the riots (part of what he oversees for the company is Government Affairs). He was informed today that the National Guard here in the Twin Cities are now carrying automatic weapons with live rounds. All of them. About time.

    • commodious spittoon

      That sounds like we’ll be seeing Winnie Mandela neckwear within a generation. JFC.

      • Enough About Palin

        What’s your reasoning?

    • Ted S.

      Do the guns have the thing that goes up, too?

    • cyto

      Putting a bunch of weekend warriors on the streets with rifles seems like a huge mistake. Seems like a really good chance for someone to screw up and get a bunch of people shot.

  41. creech

    How dangerous would it be to try to fire 50+ yr.old, non corroded .303 ammo in an extreme emergency? Asking for a friend who never had a boating accident.

    • Suthenboy

      If you don’t see corrosion it should be fine.
      I have a few thousand rounds of 8×57 manufactured in ’43. It shoots like the day it was made.

    • Drake

      I bet it works just fine. I think it was Paul Harrell who had a video of firing some really old ammo that worked fine. Is the rifle clean and in good condition?

    • B.P.

      A lot of ammo I see for sale for vintage rifles (such as a WW II Mosin Nagant) is contemporary to the rifle itself. You’ll get something delivered in a tin, and it’s all stamped 1944.

      • creech

        Thanks all. Friend has cleaning rod, patches, gun oil. Hope the Enfield never has to be used.

      • mock-star

        Make sure you clean it really well afterwards. You might experience some hangfires and duds, but outside of that, its safe. Ive fired some 1930s carcano ammo. About 2/3 were duds. Fired some 1950s Czech 8mm mauser. About 1/3 duds and about 1/3 hangfires. Fired some WWII German 8x56r ammo. All but 1 worked fine.

  42. Suthenboy

    Speaking of dogs….

    1. I cant leave the house without giant Jack (115lb Catahoula cur) . If I have to go somewhere he cant go or stay in the car (dog in the car season is over, it’s too hot now) then I have to sneak out of the back door. The instant he sees me put my boots on he sticks to me like a shadow. Fortunately half of the trips I make are to a small store with a drive-thru window. The girls there all know Jack and give him various treats. I pull up to the window, give my order and then pull forward a few feet and roll down the back window (he is too big to sit in the front). He is a very polite, gentle eater.

    2. We have a new one. A tiny puppy showed up here nearly starved to death, nothing but skin and bones. He was almost too weak to walk. Between vet visits and plenty of food he has grown up healthy. Turns out he is about 80% whippet. I have never had one of those before. Apparently they like to talk. He watches TV like a person and talks constantly. I call him the slinky dog. He goes to sleep with his hips turned to the sky and his chest down on the couch or vice versa. He is a funny little critter.
    When he first showed up he was extremely shy and wouldn’t let anyone touch him. I finally won him over and now I wake up every morning with his long slinky neck and head across my neck. The little bugger is just getting out of the chewing stage…thank God. He did chew up a 60 dollar holster and in retrieving that holster from the bedside table dropped a pistol onto the ceramic tile floor right on the rear sight. As dogs go that isn’t really much damage compared to what the others did growing up.

    • l0b0t

      AWWW… My mom had an adorable wee Italian Greyhound. She was a nighttime cuddlebug who loved to spoon. When she got out of the house, she would run circles around it for an hour or so before tiring out and coming back indoors.

      • Suthenboy

        This one is a sparky little shit too. He hops and runs all of the time. Of course wife and I are retired and all of our other dogs are 10+ years old so the poor little guy has no one to play with. He pesters the hell out of everyone but hey….he might have landed in a retirement home but he did win the dog lottery. Food, indoor living, warm beds and couches, lots of petting. It could be worse for him.

    • B.P.

      My dog (see avatar) can hear me putting on my shoes when I am on a different floor of the house, and expects to join me wherever I may be going. I do not put on my shoes very loudly.

      • Naptown Bill

        My grandfather had a cairn terrier who would untie his shoes unless he told her she was going for a ride. Terriers, man.

      • Suthenboy

        You are mistaken. They are psychic.
        I get to the last bite I am going to take on my plate and dogs that have been laying about suddenly appear in front of me like a flock of vultures.

        I go to the kitchen for whatever, they ignore me. I go to the kitchen in exactly the same fashion to get cheese snacks for dogs and they all follow me.

        That is the only explanation. They are psychic.

      • Naptown Bill

        When my wife, aka “good cop”, aka “soft touch”, aka “momma”, is about five minutes away from the house, both dogs start whining and running back and forth to look for her out the front windows. Doesn’t matter how long she’s been gone or what time of day it is.

      • Suthenboy

        Same here. I am telling you…they are psychic.

  43. Yusef drives a Kia

    I think my A/C system has a leak, it could handle a 110 degree load a few weeks back, but now I’m at 91 degrees indoor. The worst part is its R22, 100 dollars a pound, yikes, and upgrading to Mo 99 isnt cheap either,

    • Viking1865

      My grandfathers hobby/post retirement side business was the repair and restoration of antique clocks. The top of the hour in their home was a very loud event. There were about 30 clocks in the living room downstairs.

      I like to picture your house as surrounded by a host of fully functional AC units, lovingly restored and polished to a gleaming finish. Maybe with little signs explaining the interesting features of them.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        My last house featured a 1930’s Honeywell A/C coil in the dining room, Gorgeous.
        I do have a leak, looking for 75 psi or so, got 15, and a frozen Suction line, Yikes again….

      • JD is in the United Karendom

        HVAC engineer has got to be one of the most secure career choices there is. I wish I could do that.

      • JD is in the United Karendom

        Footnote: if wishes were horses I’d have a lot of manure.

      • Ted S.

        We know you’re full of shit and we’re OK with it. :-p

      • JD is in the United Karendom

        [sadly laughter]

        ?

    • Florida Man

      Did you check the termostat?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        No, but I did check the Thermostat, I went straight at the compressor, I know my system

      • Ownbestenemy

        That was me last year…whole new condenser unit and conversion because cost/benefit of me not having access to r22 limited my choices.

        2000 later, it works *sigh*

    • Suthenboy

      “…Black Lives Matter, an anti-racist activist group…”

      No, they are not. They are marxist shitheads.

      As for the intimidation, I call bullshit.

    • The Hyperbole

      WITHOUT a permit I might add!

      Those mother fuckers!

    • Naptown Bill

      If that landed in a cup they should’ve run the beer out to the guy.

    • Sean

      ????

      Oh, that’s so delicious.

      • Suthenboy

        Reminds me of the Norwegians that met some ‘refugees’ arriving at a train station with signs welcoming them and were spit upon by said ‘refugees’.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      How dare those racist shitlords question the way in which black people choose to protest against injustice!

    • B.P.

      I’m not giving a thumbs up to someone throwing rocks at me.

      • Hyperion

        Neither is anyone else who is not retarded.

  44. LCDR_Fish

    Finally finished “Road to Serfdom” while at work today. Amazing read and remarkably prophetic. I like that he actually covers the safety net concept but sadly seems like the horse is out of the barn on that issue (unless it all burns down and we can start again). May try and do a tweet thread with page pics this weekend.

    Speaking of this weekend – if you’re in fredericksburg area, my buddy’s joint Gourmeltz should be reopening on Friday hopefully.

    • hayeksplosives

      I approve wholeheartedly. Stick with Hayek; the Road to Serfdom is just the beginning.

  45. straffinrun

    Absence of oppression is privilege. You are responsible for correcting historical wrongs based on what race you are.

    This type of thinking means that the violence will never end until you roll over and accept your beatings. It has happened in the past, but I can’t imagine that’s how it will turn out this time.

    • Naptown Bill

      It’s astonishing how the frequency and tone of my interactions with police changed when I turned 35, got a newer, nicer car, and generally started to look low a responsible, employed member of the middle class. I guess my privilege credits hadn’t cleared until then, because for the previous twenty years I got hassled by cops pretty much on a weekly basis when I looked like a young man up to no good all the time.

      • straffinrun

        My interactions with cops were most likely less terrible than the interactions my black friend had with them. Not gonna explain in detail, but I’ve got three or four anecdotes where the cops were probably being racist. I just disagree with the concept that not being fucked with as bad means that I had a privilege and so am obliged to pay up. The goal should be to expose oppression and help end it. The way they look at it, every woman who isn’t raped owes some debt to women who were raped.

      • Suthenboy

        There is an assumption built into the popular argument that all cops are white. I have dealt with cops and had many as friends. About half of the cops around here are black as were half of my cop friends. The only bad experience I have had with a cop was with a black cop. The bad part wasn’t because he was black but because he was a bad person. That is on him, not on blacks or on cops.

        I take that back…one more bad experience was with a white cop. It wasn’t his whiteness, it was because he is a fucking psychopath.

      • straffinrun

        They would say that internalized racism means even black cops are racist. Whether or not the cops are racist or psychopathic, my solution addresses it: expose every action a cop is doing while on duty and punish them severely for violating rights.

      • Naptown Bill

        I’ve had black friends who’ve been fucked with by cops, but I’ve had a lot more white friends who’ve been fucked with by cops. The common factor is the perceived social class of the non-cop in the equation. Without exception in my experience if you are young you are going to get fucked with. If you look like you’re blue collar, you’re going to get fucked with. If you look like you’re from a lower socio-economic class, you’re going to get fucked with. It’s a manifestation of the prejudices of classes primarily; race is incidental insofar as urban young black men who dress casually *read* poor, as do white men wearing Wranglers and Mossy Oak ballcaps carrying a can of dip. Malia Obama is 100% going to have a much more positive experience with authority figures, including police, than Gunnar Bennett of Wilsonville, AL.

  46. Ownbestenemy

    What is the over/under this spills into neighborhoods and suburban areas? I might need to go fishing soon

    • Ownbestenemy

      Look BDB or De Blasio as he is better known as says they are all peaceful and everything is in control

    • Rhywun

      That’s a lot of grief and anguish.

    • Suthenboy

      Just clicked a few and see one factor in common. The victims are unarmed.

    • B.P.

      Some of that stuff is brutal.

  47. Ownbestenemy

    On another note…RUGER 10/22 CARBINE SEMI-AUTO

    For the kids when we go out shooting. Yay or Nay?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Kids = 15 year old dumbasses

    • Suthenboy

      New to shooting? I recommend bolt action or single shot.
      10/22 is a lot of fun but semi-auto makes me nervous with inexperienced shooters.

      • hayeksplosives

        I agree with that. Even in handguns, I started with revolvers before getting into 9mm semiautomatic.

      • Ownbestenemy

        They have all the basics down and have been out shooting several times

      • Suthenboy

        I wish I could give them my ‘when you have a gun in your hand you are a mature adult’ speech. Be a dumbass all day long if you want to but when you have a gun in your hand put that away and act like a responsible adult.

        If they have the basics down then be safe and have fun. It is hard to beat a 10/22 for fun. I say yay.

    • Sean

      Yes. Everyone needs at least one. I’d recommend the takedown, cuz it’s cool.

    • LCDR_Fish

      How do you search for 10/22 on the gun sites? Is it just .22 or is there something additional? Saw some recommendations for plinking based on subsonic options, etc

      • AlmightyJB

        Try Rugar 10/22

      • AlmightyJB

        S/B Ruger not Rugar

  48. Homple

    The login process required me to provide a closed form solution of the Navier Stokes Equations. It’s almost as if you don’t like my comments.

  49. Bob Boberson

    Rant taxed from https://www.instagram.com/cocktails.and.compliance/

    “This black square bullshit is a testament to how fucking ignorant and short-sighted Americans are. George Floyd was murdered by cops who refused to act on that murder until a horde of protesters started burning the city to the ground and surrounded the pig’s house. That’s not racial, it’s systematic. Skin pigmentation is a non-existent or at the most a microscopically small portion of this problem. You’re not going to change that with hashtags, half-hearted “social media activism,” or some bullshit anti-racism laws (lol tf?). Now that I think about it, I’ve seen little to no solutions being given throughout this whole ordeal. Just directionless anger. This goes so much deeper than skin pigmentation. The same system most of the protesters want to use to remedy their situation is whats causing their problem in the first place and growing that system IN ANY WAY will only exacerbate problems. The state is violence. Thats all it is. Coercion and threats and control. You want a state that can give you “free” shit or special treatment, don’t be surprised when that state can murder you, your friends, or your family and give paid leave and special treatment to those enforcers that keep it in power. You know why cops can do this shit? It’s not because politicians or cops are secretly KKK operatives. It’s because politicians and police unions as a whole act in their own best interest, as all people would, but can use the state as a tool to get what they want, unlike you. Politicians who wrote the laws that back the LEO Bill of Rights or organized the DOD 1033 program that allow pigs to get away with murder, that make prosecuting pigs harder, and give pigs excess military equipment had more incentive to work with police unions that would help finance their campaigns than they did the American people. Government looks out for itself. If you think for one fucking second that your #blackout is going to do fuck all against a self-perpetuating system of growth, control, and violence or that you can mold that system to help whatever group you collectivize with without doing the same harm to others or furthering pointless divide in the future, you’re a fucking retard. That is all.”

    • Sean

      Solid rant.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That burns.

    • straffinrun

      Now I want an IG account!

      • Tundra

        I still don’t but that was damn good.

  50. Rhywun

    The stupidest thing I have read today (so far).

    But Watson was soon accused of performative activism, with users pointing out that the black squares she posted were edited to match the aesthetic of her Instagram account.

  51. Rhywun

    Fox just told me that Black Lives Matter. Whew!

    • Jarflax

      Does anyone else find the very name Black Lives Matter to be deeply racist, and I don’t mean in the trivial sense that racism is usually alleged. It contains the clear implication that racial differences exist on the level of the soul.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Black lives matter, not racist. All lives matter, racist.
        It’s a crazy world.

      • straffinrun

        You probably shouldn’t choose a troll name for an ostensibly civil rights organization.

      • Florida Man

        I put it under the same category as “it’s okay to be white”

  52. Juvenile Bluster

    Awesome news out of last night. Rep. Steve King has lost his primary for election to the Reichstag House of Representatives. Now if we could only get Peter King out too.