Monday Afternoon Links

by | Jul 6, 2020 | Daily Links | 320 comments

Welcome back to work. I have too much. But I’m finding time for you guys because one day I might be able to gambol around the comments like I did when I didn’t have kids and family and my own business.

Battle-space preparation. ‘Sleepy Joe’ not gaining traction. Why do they keep playing Trump’s game?

**Takes notes** How to induce rapid labor. I’m sure my wife will love riding on a boat in early November.

Supreme Court affirms that Electoral College voters are not required to vote for presidential candidate selected by their state, nor may electors be replaced during the voting process for doing so but may fine or otherwise punish them.

I guess Charlie Daniels will finally know how the Devil felt about being the loser in that song.

Easy music selection.

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.

320 Comments

  1. bacon-magic

    Brochetta sucks 1st’s balls.

    • Swiss Servator

      The only way to win, is to not play the game.

      • Count Potato

        How is it that Ferris Bueller had around $20K worth of shit in his bedroom but couldn’t afford a car?

      • robc

        Because he had $20k worth of shit in his bedroom.

      • Ted S.

        What did his parents buy for him? Apparently a car wasn’t one of those things.

      • Gdragon

        As I recall the line was that Jeanie got a car and he got a computer, and he was not happy about it.

      • WTF

        Because Ferris was actually Cameron’s imaginary alter-ego.

      • bacon-magic

        I’m not playing to win.

  2. Rebel Scum

    Supreme Court affirms that Electoral College voters are not required to vote for presidential candidate selected by their state, nor may electors be replaced during the voting process for doing so but may fine or otherwise punish them.

    Meh. We clearly need a national popular vote anyways because muh-democracy.

    • Rhywun

      Meanwhile, the NY Post phones in this completely wrong headline:

      Supreme Court rules presidential electors must back their state’s popular vote winner

      Dude, did you even read the “AP Wires” you got this story from…?

      • R C Dean

        My reading is that current state law happens to require that they back the state’s popular vote winner, and that they have the implied authority to penalize electors who break that law.

        No idea how the inevitable challenge to the NPV compact will turn out. I didn’t see anything in the opinion that would really control the NPV compact.

      • Brett L

        It seems pretty clear that an Elector can vote their conscience as long as they are willing to pay the fine.

      • Rhywun

        Or they reside in one of the 13 states that have no such law.

      • Brett L

        I don’t see how. The decision was 9-0 that States choose their electors, but cannot remove or replace them for failing to vote as the State directs. They can, however, punish them after the fact pour encourager les autres.

      • TARDIS

        Can the punishment be death? I think it should be death. Or at least life in prison.

      • Rhywun

        Right. But I read that only 37 states have laws regarding how the electors can vote. I assume the rest let them vote how they want.

      • C. Anacreon

        My object all sublime
        I shall achieve in time –
        To let the punishment fit the crime –
        The punishment fit the crime.

    • Spartacus

      Then you have to ask “What kind of popular vote”?
      Most votes wins, period?
      Runoff if nobody gets a majority?
      Do ranked voting systems count as popular votes? If not, why not?

      So many questions…

  3. Count Potato

    “But Biden’s decision to largely shut down his in-person campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic has proved a hit with voters who may be seeking a less controversial figure to lead in a time of crisis.”

    Yeah, OK, sure.

    • Chipwooder

      It proved a hit because then people aren’t reminded every hour that Biden is rapidly losing his marbles.

      • Drake

        Which will backfire spectacularly in a few months when he has to campaign and debate.

      • WTF

        Hence the second-wave, new lockdown hysteria. They need to keep the excuse going to keep Biden from having to come out of his basement and to implement fraud-by-mail.

      • Chafed

        True but we are daily reminded Trump is a buffoon. There are no good options between Team Blue and Team Red. Biden shutting up and hiding may be an effective strategy.

      • Bobarian LMD

        In the next couple months, Trump is gonna say shit that Biden has to respond to, and that will be where the election is decided. It will come down to who either one of them can get to take the time to vote, and whether “Shenanigans” gets called on some of the Primary Voting Processes.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Why does Biden have to respond? He’s got plenty of media proxies that are happy to respond for him.

      • Bobarian LMD

        “Why can’t we hear what the guy actually running for President has to say for himself?”

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Nobody who matters is going to ask that question, and if the question does somehow start to gain traction we’ll be flooded with media explainers detailing all the reasons why it’s not necessary to hear what Biden has to say for himself and anyone who disagrees is a bad person who should be shunned by all decent folk.

      • Chafed

        I won’t rule that out. I just think Trump is his own best ally and worst enemy. Today I read about him attacking the Redskins’ team owner saying he shouldn’t change the team name. He also called the Bubba Wallace noose story a hoax. Who beyond his base is going to vote for him over a team name? It’s so freaking petty. Go focus on something important.

        The noose wasn’t a hoax. People were oversensitive, reacted foolishly, and turned a mountain into a molehill. But something stupid happened. Again, it’s so freaking petty. What’s the upside to getting involved? Go focus on something important.

  4. Count Potato

    Remember that crazy celebrity video and all the faithless electors after Trump won?

    • Chipwooder

      Nothing beats a good Noisy Cricket, though.

    • Negroni Please

      Look at this racist Trumpista advocating violence against immigrants. FOR SHAME!

    • Ted S.

      I misread that at “Best Guns for Allen Iverson”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The kinds that shoot sideways.

    • Plinker762

      phased plasma rifle in the 1.21 GigaWatt range

      • WTF

        Just what you see, pal.

  5. KSuellington

    I’m really hoping that Trump wins the popular vote so the national popular vote bullshit gets memory holed.

    • Negroni Please

      Please. That would just mean that the Rethuglicans were able to prop up the white supremacist hegemony via voter suppression.

      Hoping for positive outcomes is just self inflicted torture at this point.

    • R C Dean

      Of all the possible outcomes of this election, the one I am most confident of is that Trump will lose the nationwide popular vote.

      • Fatty Bolger

        You never know. Bush won the popular vote the second time around, after losing it against Gore.

      • R C Dean

        That was before mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting, before the DemOp social media, and before the DemOp Press Hate Machine had gotten their legs back under themselves after 9/11 (I think).

        It will take a massive Repub wave for a Repub to win the national popular vote. The margin of fraud just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

      • KSuellington

        You are very likely correct, but I wouldn’t bet money on it. I think anything is possible in November. I could see a massive backlash from the full court Marxist push that puts El Trumpo way ahead of his 2016 showing. Especially if there is a Biden obvious senility moment that can’t be brushed aside from the press.

        I’d take even money that there will be no live debates this year.

      • BakedPenguin

        I’d take even money that there will be no live debates this year.

        Even I wouldn’t bet against KS on this one.

      • gbob

        I’m going out on a limb here. Unless the Dems reverse course on mask theater, and rioting mobs, I can easily picture a blow out.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Im getting so much conflicting info that it’s hard to tell what’s going to happen. Could be a Biden landslide, could be a Trump landslide. We could be talking about president Kanye in 6 months, for all I know.

      • Don Escaped the Quality Department

        it can be anything except a landslide

      • R C Dean

        Mask theater seems to have a fair amount of support. Sadly.

      • TARDIS

        The normies are going to have to get off their (our) asses and monitor the elections closely. The mid-terms were just practice. The fraud level is going to be epic. We normies are still in peace mode. I do not believe they are. Standing in line and touching a screen will not be enough this time.

      • Grumbletarian

        GayJay went from a million or so votes in 2012 to just under 4.5 million in 2016 largely because Trump was such a divisive candidate. Evan McMullin got 750,000 votes by screaming “I’m not Trump!” Since then we’ve had four years of watching the left tear it’s hair out, set the country on fire, and prop up a guy sliding headlong into senility as their presidential candidate. And this time around the Libertarian candidate is once again unknown to the majority of the country. I suspect roughly three million people who voted for Johnson or McMullin in 2016 will be pulling the lever for Trump just to keep Team Blue out of the Oval Office.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Never ending story

    The Dakota Access Pipeline must shut down by August 5 during an in-depth environmental review of the controversial project, a district court ruled Monday in a defeat for the Trump administration.
    The rare shutdown of an operating pipeline marks a major win for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and environmental groups that have fought fiercely for years against the oil pipeline.
    In its decision, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated an easement granted by the US Army Corps of Engineers that allowed Dakota Access to build a segment of the pipeline beneath Lake Oahe in North Dakota and South Dakota.

    The court had previously ruled the Corps violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it granted the easement because it had failed to produce an Environmental Impact Statement.

    Now, the court is saying the pipeline must be shut down and emptied while the environmental impact report is prepared. The Corps has said it will take approximately 13 months to create such a report.

    And people wonder why American corporations move their operations offshore.

    • Chafed

      In a few years, I suspect a large number of Americans are going to wonder why they are unable to heat their homes during the winter.

    • R C Dean

      $20 bucks says the required report has to include both the impact operating it and the (now pointless) study of the impact of building the pipeline, .

    • Rhywun

      Are we seriously expected to believe there’s no “environmental impact statement” covering this thing? FFS.

      • kbolino

        Somebody probably forgot to cross a t or dot an i.

  7. Rebel Scum

    These colors, uh, something.

    State officials in Virginia asked for the removal of a large American flag from a construction site ahead of the Fourth of July, calling it a potential target for people protesting racial injustice and police brutality.

    Dena Potter, spokeswoman for the state Department of General Services, said officials asked a contractor to take down the flag from a new office building for state lawmakers under construction in Richmond.

    “Over the past month we’ve seen buildings and structures around Capitol Square vandalized and flags, dumpsters, a bus and other items set ablaze during demonstrations around the city,” Potter said in an email.

    Potter said the state doesn’t object to a standard-sized flag that’s still flying on a crane at the site. But she said the larger one would have been easier to reach.

    • Rhywun

      Virginia is for cucks.

  8. Scruffy Nerfherder

    It’s a rarity that I lose my temper at a customer, potential or regular.

    But a guy whose company I’ve been pursuing for years, trying to get demos in front of, pricing, etc…, and who usually only calls me when it’s an emergency and needs the support, told me to my face that he will price me four ways and take the lowest number. I said, “That’s fine, but don’t ask me to fix it for you when it breaks. Because when the manufacturer or an online dealer sells it to you direct for a little less than what I would have sold it to you for, it kind of takes the incentive away from me to support the product.”

    He then said “Well you get paid to do those repairs.”

    Me: “And you will be at the bottom of my list in terms of priority. Maybe it’s best you just call the guys you bought it from for support.”

    Him: Confused look, walks out.

    • Brett L

      “Thanks for your crumbs, but I gotta eat.”

    • Trolleric the Goth

      I have a customer like this.

      though I’m loathe to call them a customer, since they never buy anything – just send complex RFQs with short deadlines, then the project goes nowhere. Again and again.

      when I point out how much time I’m wasting on them to sales management, they always go and have the account manager have a “come to jesus” meeting about potential there (because it seems to get tossed around acct. mgr. wise)

      Every time, the current account manager buys their line of bullshit that they have all this work about to come our way, just do these RFQs for them. Rinse, repeat.

      • invisible finger

        Do these managers not know that people put out all kinds of fake RFQ’s to make it look like they did due diligence when they decided on the vendor long before any RFQ’s went out?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        In this case, the customer was indirectly making it clear that even if I busted ass to support him, he would cut me for a nickel.

        I don’t think he even understood what he was communicating.

    • Sensei

      Completely agree and don’t blame you.

      Meanwhile in larger organizations the sales and service are completely disconnected. i.e. we’ve bought ten trucks over ten years and you can’t schedule service for something until 10 days out.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’ve actually brought my fleet truck service inside because the dealer support has been utterly shitty and expensive.

      • Sensei

        I remember you telling me about the fraudulent service.

  9. Rebel Scum

    Environazi pipeline hating retards get their way.

    Despite a victory last month at the United States Supreme Court over a critical permit, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy said in a news release that “recent developments have created an unacceptable layer of uncertainty and anticipated delays” for the $8 billion project designed to cross West Virginia and Virginia into North Carolina.

    “This announcement reflects the increasing legal uncertainty that overhangs large-scale energy and industrial infrastructure development in the United States. Until these issues are resolved, the ability to satisfy the country’s energy needs will be significantly challenged,” Dominion CEO Tom Farrell and Duke CEO Lynn Good said in a joint statement.

    The project announced in 2014 has drawn fierce opposition from a coalition of landowners, activists and environmental advocates, who said it would damage pristine landscapes and harm wildlife. They alsoquestioned whether there was sufficient need for the gas it would carry and said it would further encourage the use of a fossil fuel at a time when climate change makes a shift to renewable energy imperative.

    Legal challenges brought by environmental groups prompted the dismissal or suspension of numerous permits and led to an extended delay in construction. The project was years behind schedule and the anticipated cost had ballooned from the original estimate of $4.5 billion to $5 billion.

    Reaction poured in from the project’s opponents, who lauded the decision to cancel it.

    “Its effective defeat today is a huge victory for Virginia’s environment, for environmental justice, and a testament to the power of grassroots action, the hundreds of driven, determined, frontline advocates who never stopped fighting this misguided project,” said Michael Town, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters.

    Having participated in some work surrounding this project I can’t imagine how much money has been sunk into it and is now lost.

    • Chafed

      I read about this in the WSJ this morning. I believe there is $2.4 billion in sunk costs.

  10. Drake

    I was in Fort Lauderdale one summer (must have been 1979) when the word went out that the Charlie Daniels Band was doing a free concert on the beach that night. Holy Crap – it went from nice touristy Florida to full-blown redneck rebel central in about an hour. Confederate flags everywhere and nobody there to lecture them on racism (would have been fun to watch). Saw some of the concert from a distance – fun night.

  11. B.P.

    So the article in the NY Daily News about “Sleepy Joe” is based entirely on the following Axios article, because that’s how we do journalism these days.

    https://www.axios.com/trump-biden-sleepy-joe-culture-wars-499e1334-4609-4fb6-ad6c-fd33c0054b55.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top

    There are some good ones in the Axios article, including:

    “Trump’s continued attack line about Biden “not leaving his basement” hasn’t taken hold measurably with voters, according to the search data. Biden’s actions in terms of social distancing largely align with a majority of voters’ own anxieties.”

    Ah, social distancing. That’s what Biden is up to. There’s also some stuff about tech companies “taking more responsibility” to tamp down Trump’s reckless conspiracy theories, such as the crazy one connecting Hunter Biden and Ukraine.

    • Suthenboy

      “…such as the crazy one connecting Hunter Biden and Ukraine.”

      The crazy one that is a matter of record. Got it.

      • BakedPenguin

        Right. The one where Trump paid a bunch of Russian hookers to urinate on him is totally sane, however.

  12. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    **Takes notes** How to induce rapid labor. I’m sure my wife will love riding on a boat in early November.

    My wife about had the kid pop out yesterday. We were on a walk and the tornado siren went off when we were about 10 feet away. Why the thing is on a 10 foot pole sitting within touching distance of a walking path, I don’t know.

    • Ted S.

      So they can get to it easily if it needs repairs.

    • Brett L

      Didn’t you just have a baby? I can’t keep up.

      • Brett L

        I don’t know. Probably. Everything since the second one (2015) is recently. I’m not processing linearly anymore.

      • Ted S.

        I don’t think Trashy had it. 😉

      • Bobarian LMD

        What is the gestation period of a trshmnstr, anyway?

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Depends on the felt futures market and the motivation of my stitching orphans. Big Hot Glue sometimes delays it, depending on whether they go all OPEC, too.

  13. Suthenboy

    “The Constitution’s text and the Nation’s history both support allowing a State to enforce an elector’s pledge to support his party’s nominee — and the state voters’ choice — for President,” she added.

    That doesnt make any fucking sense. What if their party’s nominee and the voter’s choice are not the same person?

    Frodo Baggins?

    Their robes should be replaced with clown suits.

    • Ted S.

      The text you’re quoting fairly obviously implies that the pledged elector is one whose candidate has already carried the state in the November election.

    • Count Potato

      Faith Spotted Eagle

  14. The Late P Brooks

    OOGA BOOGA LOO

    The boogaloo movement originally grew from the weapons discussion section (“/k/”) of the anarchic anonymous message board 4chan over the past several years. By 2019, its culture had disseminated across social media into a mix of online groups and chat servers where users shared libertarian political memes. In the past six months, this all began to manifest in real life, as users from the groups emerged at protests in what became their signature uniform: aloha shirts and combat gear. As nationwide unrest intensified at the start of the summer, many boogaloo adherents interpreted this as a cue to realize the group’s central fantasy—armed revolt against the U.S. government.

    Now they’re just making shit up.

    • R C Dean

      Are the Boogaloo Bois gearing up to overthrow the government, or to fight against the Antifa-holes trying to overthrow the government, or both?

      Speaking of whack-job conspiracy theories, I could stand to be entertained by an account of the Q-Anon conspiracy. Anyone care to recommend one?

      • Drake

        Here’s Matt Bracken’s fictional version written years ago.

        What I Saw At The Coup

      • R C Dean

        Looks entertaining on Boogaloo front. Bookmarked for later consumption.

        Q-Anon? Anyone? Bueller?

      • BakedPenguin

        Well, we have a Q here. I wouldn’t call what he posts revolutionary, unless there’s an angle I’m missing.

    • Drake

      What happens when the media reports on something they haven’t researched – while ignoring actual terrorist attacks.

    • Count Potato

      Also, of the few pictures and videos big igloo people I’ve seen, they seem a bit old to be hanging out on /k/

    • Sensei

      Loved this bit:

      “I’d argue (the Type R and) the GS are set out to be an affordable sports car while the type are aimed at being a more upscale faster version. Yet together they tell a narrative of foreshadowing the story of technology and its misapplication today you get cars like the EcoBoost Mustang. That pipe in fake engine sounds and an attempt to manufacture big dick energy but that fundamentally changes the value of the engine sound itself like getting bummed by your favorite anime character in VR. It doesn’t really count even if you got your nu anyway.”

  15. Brett L

    All the work I planned to do this afternoon? Derailed. So… when this Agile project decided on an architecture… 2 months before I arrived, they neglected to ask the people who will support it in production whether the support notification/alert tracker they use supports that technology. And those folks very reasonably asked for time to do the research. And, you know, summer vacation time, so can’t get everyone on the same call for at least a week. Woe to our sprint velocity! We may not be able to build the final alerting and notifications! I’ve been here 3 weeks and all these reasonable questions; Which source code repository, how to deploy, how to do alerting and exception notification… Didn’t nobody start those conversations before that. Why? Does anybody build anything anymore that don’t have those components? On the plus side, most of the folks who have to make those decisions are genuinely trying to make the decision that will make everyone’s life easier in the future.

    • invisible finger

      The main thing is that 95% of the needlessly-microscopically-divided Jira items were completed on time.

      • Ted S.

        But were they completed to six-sigma standards?

      • Brett L

        You know what I’ve learned over 20 years of IT projects? Projects succeed or fail based on team standards, not project methodology. Agile is good for getting the right kind of lazy IT folks lots of reps. He or she will eventually automate all of the repetitive shit. This will increase the the quality of the product. Management will take credit for it. Just like me: I’d really like to automate testing and deployment so that I don’t work for 3 days straight during a fucked up go-live. I have asked nicely about whether or not my client has any standards, policies, or tools to that end. But make no mistake, I’ll figure out a way to automate that stuff and test it before we send it to production. Because I’m too old to work 3 days straight on something I know has huge potential to get fucked up. But I also understand the difference between my client and Amazon. Amazon is a software company with a logistics arm. They live and die by their software product and a mistake can cost billions, so they are automated to a ridiculous degree. Like, check in code, and if it passes automated testing, a human won’t see it again unless it has a user-facing feature. We’ll never get there, because the ROI is beyond the horizon of the technology. IT project management should do the same ROI calculations. “What is the optimum cost/quality we would produce with this system?”

    • Ted S.

      If you have an issue, just write a kaizen.

  16. Agent Cooper

    Just left a beloved online community (baseball team) today over the same bullshit that infects every other organization today. There was discussion around changing the team name (which I don’t actually have much of an opinion on) but I ventured forth after awhile away to opine briefly on a discussion about Christopher Columbus. I argued that personally I wouldn’t know if I would be much different from a person from the average 15th-century commoner who may have held less modern beliefs about race, creed, etc. I thought that me being more enlightened was a delusion. I spoke a little about presentism in the context of Columbus.

    I was then told that I had no knowledge of Columbus’s history, that he was a complete dumbass who couldn’t navigate shit and was considered a monster by his contemporaries and “So please, if you are this ignorant about the history, keep your mouth shut about it” by another commenter.

    I replied I was done, I didn’t care what the fuck the team name was and if they ever played baseball again. Fifteen years. I was one of the original commenters (and sometimes posters.) Done.

    • Mojeaux

      Ouch. That’s going to leave a hole in your life for a while. I’m sorry it came to that.

    • invisible finger

      ” a complete dumbass who couldn’t navigate shit”

      Did you ask him “How many ships have you captained to make that assertion? Or do you just hate Italians and Spaniards?”

      • Negroni Please

        Well ACKSHUALLY Columbus was kind of a dumbass…

        The circumference of the earth was well known at the time and Columbus said “Nah. I don’t think so.” He also allegedly died believing he had made it to Asia even though most of the learned folks in Europe knew he had found a new continent.

      • invisible finger

        I could be mistaken, but I’m not sure the actual circumference of the earth was determined until Isaac Newton’s time, which was 150 years later. And even Newton had to correct his first published calculation.

      • Negroni Please

        Eratosthenes got astonishingly close in like 200 BC…

      • Negroni Please

        Just looked it up. Eratosthenes was off by 1.4%. Goddamn that is impressive.

      • Raven Nation

        Hey man, how’s it going – you teaching?

      • Negroni Please

        Howdy. Teaching last year went fairly well and now I’m enjoying my summer relaxation. I actually decided to do some work today by revising a unit and that led to me shirking and posting here.

        BTW I just picked up the Frank Dikötter book on Mao that you recommended awhile back. One of my classes covers the rise of communist China and I’m admittedly under educated on that subject.

        I pitched a medieval history elective to my school and that is getting traction so I might actually get to teach my actual field.

      • Raven Nation

        Nice on the elective: always fun to teach your preference.

        I read Dikotter’s book on the Chinese Revolution earlier this year. I thought I knew how bad Mao was – boy was I wrong.

      • Mojeaux

        I pitched a medieval history elective to my school and that is getting traction so I might actually get to teach my actual field.

        I may be picking your brain as well as @nw’s for research, if you don’t mind.

      • UnCivilServant

        The numbers were within reasonable margins of error since greece was relevant. Columbus ran his own numbers and screwed up.

      • Raven Nation

        Newton made a more accurate measurement but the Greeks got it pretty close.

        Columbus was spectacularly wrong.

      • Brett L

        I’m with Negroni. The might have been off by 10%, but if you do the math on a known distance going East, say… Rome to the Parthus River, and then figure it is less than that far sailing West, you leave out basically all of the American and Pacific longitudes, which is at least 130 degrees of longitude, which is more than 1/3rd of the Earth. (Florida being about 80-85 deg. W, Gates of Hercules being about 5 deg. W), now, Western India is about 80 deg E, so at least he would have been right if the earth was 1/2 the size it was. So he was badly wrong, and I think everyone knew that but him.

      • Drake

        It was some wishful thinking on Columbus’ part. Everyone used to be taught that Columbus was sponsored by the Spanish right after they finally reconquered Spain after a 770 year struggle. While Western Europe was finally free of Muslim aggression, the Ottoman Empire was just getting going and was trying to conquer Italy.

        Columbus wasn’t just looking for trade routes, he was looking for allies in India who were constantly being invaded by Muslim armies.

      • Spartacus

        There were multiple estimates, but the one done by the Abbasid caliphate was within 5-10 percent. Columbus undersold the circumference because if anybody really believed the true value they would realize that it implied (not knowing about this huge continent) several months at sea with no known source of resupply.

    • R C Dean

      I was then told that I had no knowledge of Columbus’s history . . . .

      Which is quite irrelevant to the comment you made.

      • Viking1865

        I’ve noticed the progs do that an awful lot. Just throw out some totally spurious bit of insanity. Everything is just so black and white to them on the historical front especially. I remember seeing a lecture about Finland during WWII, which is a really fascinating story of how a tiny country smack dab in between the Nazis and the Soviets, geographically completely screwed, managed to survive. But at the end of this lecture, this one idiot prog literally only took away from it: “Finland helped the Nazis.” Which, yes, is true, but it completely ignores the huge amounts of historical context.

        When I engage Republicans on something like the Drug War or police reform or defense policy…..they actually engage on the topic. They might say stupid things, but they actually engage the points I make. Like, the Drug War they say “drugs create other crimes, druggies are the ones stealing from people. Legalizing drugs still means they need money for drugs, so they will still steal.” Which may or not be true, but it’s an actual relevant question.

      • kbolino

        Somehow “India helped the Nazis” doesn’t get nearly as much traction.

      • Agent Cooper

        My follow up was to be “You are born a white man in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1841. Tell me what your life is like.” but I thought better of it and just left. The place has become a shitshow in the last year.

        I even mentioned not absolving people of free will, but to understand the context of time.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      If Columbus was such a horrible navigator he never would have made it back and forth between Spain and the Americas. Sure, maybe he mistakenly thought he made it to Asia, but after a couple months at sea, I’d be willing to call it quits at the first bit of land I encountered too.

      • Raven Nation

        He was a good navigator, he just wasn’t very good at mapping and/or geometry.

      • dbleagle

        There is a theory that Columbus did know the approximate difference was astute enough of Spanish politics to cut it in half to make the voyage politically possible to support.

        In addition Columbus probably already knew the there was land in between. He had sailed to Iceland and the knowledge of Vinland was widespread. It is within the realm of realistic probability that he heard about Vinland.

        Still if it wasn’t Columbus it would have been somebody else within 25 years. There was too much exploration coming from western Europe to NOT find the Americas. And if it was somebody else, the history of the Americas would only have changed at the extreme edges.

  17. grrizzly

    My mask for visiting banks has been delivered.

  18. UnCivilServant

    Genetics question.

    In the story I’m working on, there is a family, the father had black hair, the mother has auburn hair, the son has copper-red hair, and the daughter had auburn hair.

    Assuming no infidelity (that these are all genetic relatives), is there any way the daughter, having married a blond man, could give birth to blond children?

    • Ted S.

      Short answer, probably, if the kids inherit less pheomelanin from Mom.

    • BakedPenguin

      My mother and father had black hair. As a kid, I was strawberry blond ginger. As an adult, I have a ginger beard and hair that is kind of a mix – blond/red/brown.

      Anyone who’s in the Zoom chat can confirm.

      (Also, I look very much like my father, so no, it wasn’t any shenanigans, unless Mom cheated with someone who looked like Dad).

    • Gender Traitor

      I’ve always been under the impression that red or auburn hair was fairly recessive compared to black, brown or blond hair, so it wouldn’t be uncommon at all for an auburn-haired woman to give birth to children whose hair matched or was closer to their father’s hair color.

      I was the only real redhead in my immediate family, though my older sister’s hair was reddish-brown. I was told it was my great-great (at least I THINK it was two “greats”) grandmother who was the redhead. One of my great aunts on that side of the family may have had auburn hair when she was younger, but I wasn’t aware of any others in my generation of the family.

  19. Rebel Scum

    NY prisons are notorious for taking care of high-profile inmates.

    Ghislaine Maxwell, the confidant and ex-girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, was transferred to a New York federal prison on Monday following her arrest in New Hampshire last week.

    “Yes, she is in BOP custody at MDC Brooklyn. We decline to comment further,” the Federal Bureau of Prisons told Fox News.

    Maxwell, the daughter of late British media magnate Robert Maxwell, has been indicted on multiple charges in connection to an alleged sex-trafficking operation that brought girls — some as young as 14 — to Epstein’s Manhattan home.

    Prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule a Friday court appearance in Manhattan federal court for Maxwell.

    She is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

    • WTF

      Over/under on when she commits “suicide”?

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Boogaloo boys certainly do not face the economic disadvantages of marginalized groups in the United States, but like the alt-right, they are unhappy enough to form their own radical identity politics of collective grievances. Also like the alt-right, they now face a wave of de-platforming. In the past few months, both Reddit and Facebook have purged major boogaloo groups, though not all of them, from their sites.

    But 4chan occupies a unique place on the social web, distinct from more mainstream sites. If 4chan’s history is any indication, it’s extremely likely that some portion of these social-media users and posters on /k/ are federal agents. Having interviewed many young men who ran chan-style sites, I know that state security agencies knock on their doors early and often and ask for comprehensive records. On 8chan, many posts were automatically logged for federal agencies issuing subpoenas in a data-collection system nicknamed “Sunshine.” (8chan was taken offline last summer and replaced by a site called 8kun.) When chan radicals are caught and prosecuted, court documents often reveal police “honeypots,” meant to tempt extremists into unwittingly plotting crimes with undercover agents.

    Indeed, before most people, including myself, got wind of the boogaloo movement, Rutgers University had generated a “contagion and ideology report” for law-enforcement agencies in February that detailed the group’s online network. Its conclusion: The boogaloo boys are terrorists. Its recommendations: more law enforcement, more surveillance.

    Now, if the boogaloos were advocating sensible reforms to American society, like confiscatory taxation of individual wealth, or breaking up Amazon, or having the Federal Reserve buy up American companies in order to convert them to workers’ co-operatives, or suing energy companies into penury, that would be okay.

    • Rebel Scum

      tempt extremists into unwittingly plotting crimes with undercover agents.

      None call it entrapment.

      Its conclusion: The boogaloo boys are terrorists.

      Name one documented crime that qualifies as terrorism.

      • Q Continuum

        It’s just more Alinsky tactics.

        Identify an opposition group and tie it to some nebulous VEWY BAD concept (ie: “alt-right”) to impugn any and all associates. Forget the fact that the boogaloo boyz marched with BLM not more than a few days ago; that doesn’t sounds like something an alt-right Nazi group would do now does it?

      • Rebel Scum

        Nazi’s a are collectivists/leftists so…maybe?

        It was only a few years ago that I learned that actual neo-nazis believe in nazi economics along with the other stuff.

      • Count Potato

        The point of banning them is to prevent people hearing what they are saying, so that they can be accused of being racist.

  21. B.P.

    A bunch of Facebook groups that were formed to oppose the coronavirus-related shutdowns are now questioning the motives of Black Lives Matter, and the AP is pretty sure that this violates Facebook’s rules against hate speech.

    https://apnews.com/ca8c15794c65b1ae8e176deb9be5d718

    “For example, some groups in New Jersey, Texas and Ohio have labeled systemic racism a hoax.”

      • LJW

        It’s one of the lefts many “unprovable facts” if you question it, then you are a racist/sexist/homophobe.

    • Rhywun

      AP is a propaganda outfit every bit as bad as CNN.

      • B.P.

        I’m quickly coming to that conclusion. I always thought they were supposed to be straight news but, reviewing their website, it’s all editorial wearing news-ish clothes.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        The wire services are where the agenda setting happens. “too local” is the calling card of AP/Reuters when it doesn’t fit a (leftist) narrative.

        This is why conservative media is doomed to suck. As long as they’re plugged into the wire services, they’ll continue to be yanked around like a fish on a hook, chasing every leftist crisis du jour. Being reactive only gets you so far, as shown by the complete lack of traction that the Trump spying conspiracy has gained.

    • Ted S.

      At least she’s not blaming Indiana guns.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        That was last year, but I assume part of “public safety ecosystem”, so it still applies.

    • R C Dean

      “The ecosystem of public safety that isn’t just law enforcement but is local, community-based, they, too, have really been hit hard by COVID [-19] and are now just kind of coming back online and getting their footing.”

      *scratches head, closes tab*

    • Suthenboy

      “Lightfoot has previously blamed Republicans for the mayhem.”

      Of course she did.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      36

      • TARDIS

        24

      • Count Potato

        36

        ow what a winning hand

      • TARDIS

        Indeed. ?

    • KibbledKristen

      Definitely not 72 *ptooey*

    • DEG

      #7. Her again. She’s appeared in other galleries. She always stands out because she looks like a bustier version of a woman I asked out and who shot me down.

      #8 is a good way to get my mind off of #7.

      #39 – handlebars. Yes.

      #91 is a good way to end the gallery.

      Good gallery overall.

  22. Q Continuum

    “But Biden’s decision to largely shut down his in-person campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic has proved a hit with voters who may be seeking a less controversial figure to lead in a time of crisis.”

    If the best possible thing for your candidate to do is be invisible, you may have picked the wrong one.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Like anyone actually got to pick.

      You funny!

  23. Rebel Scum

    Your future vice president.

    Well, Andrea, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, right? Joe Biden needs to make the decision as to who he thinks will be his best running mate. And I will do my utmost drawing on my experience of years in government, years of making the bureaucracy work. I’ve worked on multiple campaigns, presidential campaigns. I’ve been on the campaign trail as a, as a surrogate. And I’m going to do everything I can to help get Joe Biden elected and to help him succeed as president, whether I’m his running mate or I’m a door knocker. I don’t mind. I just want to get Joe Biden elected and see the Democrats control the Senate and retain the House because, Andrea, we are at a moment where our democracy is at stake, where our leadership role in the world is at stake, where the lives of tens of thousands of Americans are on the line, lost to incompetence and callous leadership that could care less. We’ve got to change that. This country is a tremendous place, but we have work to do to perfect it. We have work to do to unite it. And this president could care less. We need new leadership. And so in whatever capacity I can serve to support Joe Biden and support this country, that’s what I’m going to do.

    Everybody together: “The United States is NOT a democracy.”

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      Well certainly not when a Republican is President. It will no longer be at stake once the GOP loses and we have a glorious one party state.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      The biggest threat to our democracy Trump poses is that his enemies hate him so much, they will destroy every democratic institution to get one guy.

      • BakedPenguin

        ^^^!

    • Drake

      Dumber than dirt, completely incompetent, and a proven serial liar – perfect.

    • B.P.

      Ah yes. Nothing fortifies democracy more than trying every trick imaginable to unseat a duly elected president for 3 and 1/2 years.

  24. Q Continuum

    The EC Supremes decision to me seems rather inconsequential.

    Can a law-Glib break down for me why this matters?

    • Rebel Scum

      Easy: This is the most important election of our lifetimes* and we are all going to die if the other guys wins.

      *Joking aside, it may actually be.

      • LJW

        At least make it quick vote SMOD.

    • R C Dean

      Today? No.

      As some kind of battlespace prep for the NPV compact? Possibly, but I’m not seeing anything in there that really addresses the issues that one raises.

    • Brett L

      As I’m reading, all of that National Popular Vote contract between states is just so much noise. The Constitution gives no power for states to remove or replace Electors in the EC. Therefore, every member of the EC is essentially voting his or her conscience. MOST would probably feel bound by the laws of the state which sent them there, but all a state can do is punish a faithless elector after the fact for failing to follow a state law. The votes of Electors are binding, regardless of any state law on how electoral votes should be apportioned.

      • R C Dean

        I’m thinking, though, that it should be possible for a state to construct its electoral college process so that it appoints electors after the election that will vote for the winner of the NPV. Nobody votes for electors any more, just for Presidents, and then the electors are appointed (I think).

        I’m not familiar with the mechanics, but I think a state could hold the balloting as it does now, and its law on appointment of electors would say that the state’s delegation would be selected from electors pledged to the winner of the NPV.

      • Spudalicious

        The ruling limited it to state primaries, which means the states that passed laws requiring they vote for the NPV, even if their state voted the other way, is unConstitutional.

      • R C Dean

        I didn’t catch that.

        How can the ruling be limited to primaries, when the electors who could actually be faithless aren’t appointed until after the general election (because they are the ones who will actually cast votes for the President)?

  25. Count Potato

    “‘Upward-thrusting buildings ejaculating into the sky’ – do cities have to be so sexist?

    Toxic masculinity is built into the fabric of our urban spaces, writes Leslie Kern, author of new book Feminist City. And the results aren’t just divisive – they can be lethal

    Glass ceilings and phallic towers. Mean streets and dark alleys. Road names and statues of men. From the physical to the metaphorical, the city is filled with reminders of masculine power. And yet we rarely talk of the urban landscape as an active participant in gender inequality. A building, no matter how phallic, isn’t actually misogynist, is it? Surely a skyscraper isn’t responsible for sexual harassment, the wage gap, or even the glass ceiling, whether it has a literal one up top or not?

    That said, our built environments can still reflect patterns of gender-based discrimination. To imagine the city and its structures as neutral places where complicated human social relations are staged is to ignore the simple fact that people built these places. As the feminist geographer Jane Darke has said: “Our cities are patriarchy written in stone, brick, glass and concrete.” In other words, cities reflect the norms of the societies that build them. And sexism is a deep-rooted norm.

    As far back as 1977, an American poet and professor of architecture named Dolores Hayden wrote an article with the explosive headline “Skyscraper seduction, skyscraper rape”. Hayden tore into the male power fantasies embodied in this celebrated urban form. The office tower, she wrote, is one more addition “to the procession of phallic monuments in history – including poles, obelisks, spires, columns and watchtowers”, where architects un-ironically use the language of “base, shaft and tip” while drawing upward-thrusting buildings ejaculating light into the night sky.

    If the sexism of the city began and ended with architectural symbolism, I would’ve happily written a grad school essay about this then turned my attention to more pressing matters. But society’s historical and ongoing ideas about the proper gender roles for men and women (organised along a narrow binary) are built right into our cities – and they still matter. They matter to me as a mother. They matter to me as a busy professor who often finds herself in strange cities, wondering if it’s OK to pop into the neighbourhood pub alone. Ask any woman who’s tried to bring a pram on to a bus, breastfeed in a park, or go for a jog at night. She intuitively understands the message the city sends her: this place is not for you.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/06/upward-thrusting-buildings-ejaculating-cities-sexist-leslie-kern-phallic-feminist-city-toxic-masculinity

    • Q Continuum

      has to be parody, has to be parody, has to be parody…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s not.

        Sorry dude.

    • Negroni Please

      “As far back as 1977”

      Yep. As far back as almost at the beginning of retarded feminist bullshit.

    • Rebel Scum

      “Hey, baby. Civil Engineers have solid erections.”

      • Negroni Please

        “Great Joe Rogan podcast”

        Does not compute

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        I like his podcasts. I don’t always agree with him or his guests, but that’s ok. He does a good job of letting his guest talk and doesn’t pretend like he knows everything.

      • Agent Cooper

        That’s the secret that Rogan has stumbled upon. Letting people talk and debate is actually interesting and rewarding. The Roseanne episode is quite illuminating. She had a terrible childhood.

    • mrfamous

      Was that person given actual money to write that? Or is it like free ad space for her book?

    • R C Dean

      Make up your mind. Do you want high-density urban living, or do you want one-story “sprawl” to the horizon?

      Or, do you just want to bitch endlessly about everything?

      • Negroni Please

        Obviously we need to invert the phallocentric skyline to develop a feminist revision of patriarchal architecture. Only by digging great trenches and locating our dwellings upon the uterine-canyon walls can we envelop humanity in the warmth of mother gaia’s vagina.

      • TARDIS

        Damn. I like your response better.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        There is something to be said for underground building for energy efficient climate control, but I’m going to guess that this is not what she is going on about. Besides digging trenches into Gaia would be rape.

      • TARDIS

        Besides digging trenches into Gaia would be rape.

        Not if women do it. That’s just progress.

      • TARDIS

        So woman-centric design would involve living deep underground in damp fetid caverns of various sizes. All jutting rock formations of any size would be crushed and removed to form open pools of warm, inclusive comfort, and safety.

      • blackjack

        Caves, man. Soft warm and moist. It’s the only way to live.

    • TARDIS

      TL;DR: I need my pussy pounded, and I’m so insufferable, only beta males will talk to me.

    • Rhywun

      Herpity derpity doo. Guardian, of course.

    • B.P.

      About 30 years ago, I took a women’s studies class, for which I had to read a lengthy tract about the oppressive, phallic missiles so favored by Amerikkka’s patriarchal military-industrial complex. Not a word about physics, aerodynamics, etc.

      • KibbledKristen

        There’s gotta be even some proggie commie chicks that are offended by that. Gotta be. Please?

      • KibbledKristen

        (offended by the hint that they can’t possibly understand physics and aerodynamics and can only deal in emotional diarrhea, is what I mean)

      • J. Frank Parnell

        physics and aerodynamics are nothing but tools of racist heteronormative capitalist patriarchal oppression.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Ask any woman who’s tried to bring a pram on to a bus,

      I agree, public transportation sucks. Also, men are never involved in transporting babies in strollers.

      breastfeed in a park,

      What about men who breastfeed in parks? Such transphobia smdh.

      or go for a jog at night.

      also, defund the police.

    • R C Dean

      They matter to me as a busy professor who often finds herself in strange cities, wondering if it’s OK to pop into the neighbourhood pub alone. Ask any woman who’s tried to bring a pram on to a bus, breastfeed in a park, or go for a jog at night.

      What going to a pub, taking a bus, breastfeeding in a park, or jogging at night have to do with the architecture of a city’s buildings is an exercise for the reader, I suppose.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        They’re ZARDOZ, but without the guns or the grain slaves. The penis is evil, and anything that reminds them of the penis is pure violence.

  26. KibbledKristen

    How many ankle biters does Brett have now (including the upcoming)?

  27. KibbledKristen

    Somewhat sort of nag to join us on Fridays for drinkin & tomfoolery. You don’t have to be on camera.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe we should live in holes, like the Hottentots.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of Joe Rogan- I tried to watch Pineapple Express last night. Holy shit, did it suck. I hardly ever bail out of a movie in the middle, but that was absolutely unwatchable. Good grief.

    • LJW

      I think you meant Seth Rogen?

      • KibbledKristen

        I thought “I had no idea Joe Rogan was in that!”

    • BakedPenguin

      Watch the reruns of NewsRadio, if you can find them anywhere.

      I watched that, and was constantly furious that the network (NBC?) would change the day or time or both constantly. A good show which was murdered by bureaucratic incompetence.

      • KibbledKristen

        Phil Hartman was great on that show. I bet that character would have been an all-time classic if he hadn’t been murdered.

      • zwak

        Well, that and Phil Hartman’s wife.

      • BakedPenguin

        Kristen/zwak – agreed. That show was almost perfectly cast, had good writing, and yes, Hartman was great as Bill McNeil. They could have had a hit like The Office if they’d handled it better. (and yes, if Hartman hadn’t been married to a lunatic). Any show that makes me okay with seeing Andy Dick every week has to have something going for it.

      • salted earth

        +1 Jimmy James (Stephen Root)

      • KibbledKristen

        Stephen Root – sooo underrated!

        /I could set the building on fire

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, he steals the scene in everything I’ve seen him in.

      • Rhywun

        I’ve been catching it on one of those oldies networks (Antenna or Cozi?) lately. Good stuff.

  30. The Bearded Hobbit

    RIP, Charlie. “Long-Haired Country Boy” was probably my themesong.

    About 25 years ago I worked with a guy who was married to Charlie’s niece. Got some autographed swag from him.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    I think you meant Seth Rogen?

    There’s a difference?

    • Rebel Scum

      Ghislaine Maxwell did not kill herself.

    • KibbledKristen

      I hope she has a dead man’s switch to pull. I was surprised Epstein didn’t seem to have one (or it didn’t work)

      • Mojeaux

        I also hope she was smarter than Epstein, who I doubt had one, probably thinking himself impervious.

        I am absolutely convinced Edward Snowden has one because if he didn’t, he’d’a been long dead.

      • KibbledKristen

        I agree. Assange has said out loud he has one (IIRC), but they’re still doing their best to kill him, slowly.

      • R C Dean

        Then she sucks at it, because he’s dead and she hasn’t done anything.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Yep, probably to save her own hide. It wouldn’t shock me if she goes with the battered wife madam defense. He ran this thing like a MLM business, and he had dirt on everybody. I could see her being the loyal sidekick until he died, and then holding onto the dead man switch evidence knowing full well that she would need it for her trial.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Thou doth protest too much. You know you want it.

    • R C Dean

      I hope so. If the theory is true that Epstein’s apparently otherwise inexplicable wealth and access to powerful people was founded on his stable of prostitots, then he certainly kept records to keep people in line. It looks like nothing turned up in his US residence or his private island (which was left “inexplicably” unsearched for days or weeks after his arrest). No idea what might have been in his French digs, also unsearched as far as I know for some time after his arrest. Of course, whatever there was may well have been trashed, as well.

      I really hope she has the goods, lives long enough, and makes a deal. If a quarter of what has been bandied about is true, the carnage will be epic.

      • Rebel Scum

        Word.

      • R C Dean

        I WANT TO BELIEVE!

    • Aloysious

      C’mon,man. I’m sure Janet Reno wouldn’t look that bad next to Hillary.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ***hurk***

    • Rhywun

      “News”.

  32. DEG

    Welcome back to work.

    Not yet for me. I’m off until Wednesday.

    “This has become a big deal because there is a large risk that for the third time in this century, the popular vote winner and the electoral vote winner will be different people,” said Reed W. Hundt, who runs a foundation called Making Every Vote Count.

    So?

    Charlie Daniels, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame who sang “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” recorded with Bob Dylan and was a vocal supporter of U.S. veterans, died Monday morning after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. He was 83.

    RIP.

    Today’s music is good.

  33. B.P.

    At the expense of potentially having drugs fall out of my ass, I note that… “Kaepernick, ESPN Team Up for Documentary Series About His Life”

    https://apnews.com/8d4aab2017e24dbbe22f9c80d59744c2

    His story will no longer languish in silence.

    “I am excited to announce this historic partnership with Disney across all of its platforms to elevate Black and Brown directors, creators, storytellers, and producers, and to inspire the youth with compelling and authentic perspectives,” Kaepernick said in a statement. “I look forward to sharing the docuseries on my life story, in addition to many other culturally impactful projects we are developing.”

    “Despite being exiled from the NFL since the 2016 season when he took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality, Kaepernick still wants to play.”

    • Rebel Scum

      I look forward to sharing the docuseries on my life story

      Which I suspect will look like and episode of Cribs.

    • R C Dean

      I’ve been “exiled” from the NFL for not being a good enough footbal player my whole life. Where’s my docuseries?

      • Rhywun

        We laugh, but he won. Now “the knee” is all but mandatory and he gets to laugh all the way to the bank while hating the society that enabled him to do so.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Kaepernick still wants to play

      Stated vs revealed preferences in action.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      “Kaepernick still wants to play.” Stated without evidence.

  34. zwak

    Because I missed the last thread, but: Have, Have, Had, Never wanted, and Want.

    But, that list is incomplete as there is no mention of the single greatest automatic ever made, the Browning Hi-Power. And this makes me sad.

  35. KibbledKristen

    Why does the radar say it’s raining when it’s never fucking raining, goddamnit.

    • salted earth

      That is a bit odd. Perhaps you are getting radar readings from a parallel universe.

      • KibbledKristen

        I mean, there is rain in the area, but it says we should be having a moderate shower right over my house and the parking lot is dry. It’s like the radar is ahead of the actual rain.

      • salted earth

        It knows the future. I have a few questions I’d like to ask it.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Depends on the products you are looking at. Some employ predictive algorithms to predict storm movement.

      • Rebel Scum

        Weird. I’ve noted a 15-20 delay from “current” radar to precipitation.

      • KibbledKristen

        Mine (My Radar app) has a 5-10 minute delay, so if it says it’s raining above my house, it should have started raining 5-10 minutes earlier.

        I just think a lot of what looks like it should be a shower is not hitting the ground, which is more like an issue with how the app is animating & coloring the data.

        But if the radar is showing dark green over my house, I expect some daggone rain!

  36. salted earth

    Still trying to rustle-up Pacific Northwest glibs for a meet-up. I am thinking Coeur d’Alene might be a good spot, I don’t think they have a mask mandate.
    sodium at proton mail dot com

  37. Gustave Lytton

    Got to see Mr Daniels live a year and a half ago. Was outstanding. And yes, he played the song.

    https://imgur.com/I2OrwLO

    • Drake

      LOL!

    • grrizzly

      But some undergraduates can live on campus.

      Harvard University announced on Monday that it will allow only first-year students and undergraduates specifically invited for academic reasons to come to campus this fall in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

      In all, only 40 percent of Harvard’s undergraduates will be on campus starting in September, and all teaching will be done remotely. In the spring freshmen will return home, and seniors will likely come to Cambridge. Students will be housed in single-room dormitories, and most of the non-residential buildings in Harvard Yard will be off limits, the university outlined in its plans Monday.

    • grrizzly

      Foreign students hardest hit.

      Nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States. The U.S. Department of State will not issue visas to students enrolled in schools and/or programs that are fully online for the fall semester nor will U.S. Customs and Border Protection permit these students to enter the United States. Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status. If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.

  38. SCP-610

    I just wanted to thank everyone for the advice on programming education a couple of weeks ago. I find it hard to write, so it took me a while to get back.

    Also, I wanted to share a couple of videos. Here’s to one for a mechanical handheld game from the 70’s that was interesting and here’s one about something called Sound Pagefrom 3M.

      • Rhywun

        Holy crap – I’ve played that thing. Good look at the innards in that video.

    • DEG

      Wow. Pop someone in broad daylight on the street next to a kid. Wow.

    • Rebel Scum

      They’ve had the gloves off for as long as I can recall. But dang.

    • Suthenboy

      I can’t believe they haven’t had the wrath of the mob brought down on them.

  39. Ted S.

    Cuomo’s flunkies run interference for him, suck his dick

    Summary: All those nursing home deaths were caused by health care workers who already had coronavirus. Somehow, if that were the case, wouldn’t we have had stories night after night about the epidemic among our heroes on the front line?

    • kbolino

      That still fails to explain why it was uniquely bad in NY.

      • Drake

        PA and NJ did the same thing and got similar results.

      • grrizzly

        It’s much worse in other states.

      • R C Dean

        Interesting. The worst states, in order, are:

        New Jersey
        Massachusetts
        Connecticut
        Rhode Island
        Louisiana
        Illinois
        Pennsylvania
        Michigan
        New York

    • Count Potato

      Why wouldn’t they test those workers?

    • R C Dean

      The report found that more than 37,000 nursing home workers were infected with the coronavirus between March to early June. That accounts to about one in four nursing home staff.

      “The correlation is between what happened between community-wide infection and staff infection were the more prevalent reasons why there were fatalities in nursing homes. But it was not because of a directive on March 25,” said Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling.

      That order required nursing homes to re-admit covid positive patients unless they could not provide adequate care.

      Question begged: How did all those nursing home workers get infected with the ‘Vid? They didn’t catch it from their exposure to COVID positive patients? If the rate of staff infection exceeded community infection (and I’m pretty sure it did), what could the explanation possibly be?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Shitty work practices and delusions of immunity. The same all over.

      • Ted S.

        That was my other thought, too.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        If the rate of staff infection exceeded community infection (and I’m pretty sure it did), what could the explanation possibly be?

        Trump.

      • R C Dean

        *slaps forehead*

        Of course.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      It’s amazing how Cuomo is lionized and DeSantis is demonized when New York’s death rate is 10x Florida’s. It seems that people prefer the theater of a “man of action” even if that action is incompetent.

  40. Count Potato

    BREAKING: Canadian Hitler is Black

    “BLM Toronto leader believes white people are sub-human, calls them ‘genetic defects’

    A social media post has resurfaced from a Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder in which she apparently argues that white people are “sub-human” and are “recessive genetic defects.”

    Yusra Khogali wrote the post on what appears to be her Facebook and attempted to use a genetic explanation involving melanin production to explain why white people are “defects.” It has now gone viral after it was shared by scholar James Lindsay.

    “Whiteness is not humxness,” reads the statement. “in fact, white skin is sub-humxn.”

    “White ppl are recessive genetic defects. this is factual,” the post later says. “white ppl need white supremacy as a mechanism to protect their survival as a people because all they can do is produce themselves. black ppl simply through their dominant genes can literally wipe out the white race if we had the power to.”

    Khogali says that white people have a “higher concentration of enzyme inhibitors” which suppresses melanin production adding that melanin is important for a number of things such as strong bones, intelligence, vision and hearing.

    She even says, “melanin directly communicates with cosmic energy.”

    In another post, Khogali tweeted, “Plz Allah give me the strength to not cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today.”

    After being criticized for the tweet Khogali responded by saying, “I am not a public official. I am not a police officer. The state does not entrust me with violent weaponry. I have never contributed to the mass targeting of a community. All I have done is used a turn of phrase, a rhetorical flourish, to voice my frustration and dared to be a person calling for justice.””

    https://thepostmillennial.com/blm-toronto-leader-believes-white-people-are-sub-human-calls-them-genetic-defects

    • R C Dean

      Whiteness is not humxness

      Can’t argue with that.

      • Rhywun

        *spits food on monitor*

      • Ted S.

        The (True) Finns are only ultranationalist and far-right if your bubble doesn’t extend beyond the Beltway Class or your country’s equivalent.

    • Q Continuum

      (((I))) quietly buy more ammo.

    • Suthenboy

      Thank God twitter suspended her account

    • WTF

      black ppl simply through their dominant genes can literally wipe out the white race if we had the power to.”

      So how is it exactly that these inferior beings were able to dominate you? Oh yeah, TRICKNOLOGY!!

  41. Gustave Lytton

    Jesus Christ

    https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/07/federal-courthouse-door-shattered-fireworks-exploded-inside-leading-to-arrest-of-19-year-old-complaint-says.html

    During his afternoon court appearance, Olsen spoke out, saying he had reaccessed his thinking while in custody, and said he’d like to play a role in asking protesters “not to create more violence” but find a way to talk with officers going forward “about what needs to change rather than creating more destruction in our city.”

    U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo granted Olsen pretrial release from federal custody on the conditions that he stay away from a five-mile radius around the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse and the Justice Center, and adhere to a curfew of 8 p.m. until 6 a.m.

    Unbelievable layers of bullshit. No way should this criminal be released as long as rioting is continuing. It’s fucking revolving door. And why does this criminal need to be out until 8pm? Or out at all except for employment (yeah right), groceries, or seeing his lawyer.

    • Mojeaux

      reaccessed his thinking

      AI? Boot loop? What?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yeah, over the weekend too. So now he shouldn’t be punished.

        Fuck him. He can reassess his thinking while spending the next ten years making large rocks into smaller ones.

    • R C Dean

      Oh, FFS. You’d think the feds would at least take a hard line with people WHO ATTACK THEM.

      But no. Promise to be a good boy, and you get a swat on the behind and sent on your way. Didn’t even have to post bail.

      $20 says there is no monitoring or enforcement on his conditions of release.

    • R C Dean

      A 19-year-old man accused of attempting to barricade the front door of the downtown courthouse in Portland late Thursday night faces allegations of creating a hazard and disorderly conduct on federal property and failing to obey a lawful order.

      They didn’t exactly throw the book at him, either, considering he was an active participant in a group that committed numerous felonies.

  42. KibbledKristen

    Do any of you follow any scambaiters on Youtube? I’d love to discuss scambaiting with some folks, but I seem to be the only one in my friend group that’s into it.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      You’re talking about the guys that reverse hack scammers’ computers and such, right? I’m not an avid follower but I have seen it and it is pretty neat stuff.

      • KibbledKristen

        Some of them delete scammer files and install Trojans, and others just do schtick and waste as much time as possible.

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        Oh, you said scambaiters. I was thinking of something else that you wouldn’t find in Youtube.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It really is amazing what they’re capable of.

    • B.P.

      Mostly peaceful protests.

    • Sean

      Savages.

    • grrizzly

      Stuff like this is why I do not rule out Trump’s popular vote victory.

      • B.P.

        I wonder if videos like this are reaching normals, people who are usually not attuned to politics, those not steeped in twitter wars, etc.

      • R C Dean

        Only if its widely publicized.

        Which it hasn’t been, and won’t be.

    • KibbledKristen

      Is that the closing scene of episode 1 of The Walking Dead?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Attacking a fucking gasoline truck is a good way to get dozens and dozens killed. The lesson there is if you’re ever faced with a situation like that do not stop.

    • DEG

      I guess none of the attackers are smart enough to pull the air brake lines.

    • DEG

      Best response:

      They should paint the trucks with job applications, keeps them at distance like garlic a vampire.

  43. Scruffy Nerfherder

    So ESPN signed a contract with Kaeperdick for his life story.

    I can’t wait…

    • TARDIS

      Is that the Spanish channel? I haven’t seen it in years.

    • Drake

      I was born a rich white boy….

    • TARDIS

      OMG, I peed a little. WTF.

      • Drake

        I yelped.

    • Animal

      Self-correcting problem, I think.

      • Adama, Yusef Adama

        ” can I have that when your done using it?”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This kind of stuff doesn’t even get a reaction out of me anymore.

      The internet has ruined me.

      • Don Escaped both Landslides

        #MeToo

        but you know he’s getting the stall next to me next trip to the range; how many times does he get to sweep me before I get to thrash him with my boots?