Links of Tuesday Afternoon

by | Aug 4, 2020 | Daily Links | 300 comments

Happy Tuesday everybody. I may have ended up on the far side of the Ballmer Peak last night whilst working late. It was all good for a while, then things started dropping off. Not like, Windows ME bad. but I shoulda quit half an hour before I did.

Looks like Hezbollah is down to boog.

Which one of you is this?

I expect this to end well. And by “well” I mean about like things always go for the Red Army. Also, please note, the picture at the top is a sculpture, not a Russian military robot… I think.

Quote from the future: “The individual was suicidal, so the officers had to engage him with lethal force to apply the nasal spray. Unfortunately, the suspect expired at the scene, but at least all of our brave officers went home safe to their families.”

 

Brett, how drunk did you get last night? I bought a pair of these fabulous white overalls.

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.

300 Comments

  1. Brochettaward

    I First for your children. Because someone has to set the example that you aren’t.

    • kinnath

      You really should seek professional help.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        He thinks We are the Professionals…..

      • Bobarian LMD

        I think there’s a nasal spray for this?

  2. UnCivilServant

    … Sometimes facts are funny things.

    Only 2.2% of Guyana is under cultivation.
    Only 3.1% of Columbia is under cultivation.
    Only 3.9% of Venzuela is under cultivation.

    None of these countries grow enough food to feed themselves.

    The US has 17.1% of its land under cultivation, and can feed at least 2.6 times its population.

    Is it just that no one has felt the need to cultivate more of these other countries because they can buy cheap food from overseas? If someone intensifies the agriculture in that climate zone, would it work?

    • tarran

      Some of it has to do with the arability of the land. Steep hills make crappy farmland.

      Some of it has to do with the lack of property rights. If the state can take your land at any time, farming it can be a sucker’s game.

      Some of it has to do with the price controls that screw over farmers trying to sell to food processors. Again, why bother doing back-breaking work if the government is going to force you to sell at prices that amount to starvation wages?

      • UnCivilServant

        There’s a big river valley with relatively flat topography across the middle of Venequela, but I’d wager there’s no ability to defend ownership under Maduro.

    • UnCivilServant

      Ah, there’s some data I missed, the pastureland.

      Us has 27.4% of it’s land as pasture,

      Venezuela has 20.6% pasture.

      Columbia has 34.5% pasture

      Guyana only has 6.2% pasture.

      I don’t know the sustenance rate of pasture. Need more research

      • R C Dean

        It will be widely variable. You can run a lot more cows on a pasture in Wisconsin than in West Texas. As in, at least one, maybe two orders of magnitude more cows.

      • Don did not Escape Spring Training

        county agent advice
        TN: cows per acre
        TN: acres per cow

      • Don did not Escape Spring Training

        ugh: ruined it

        county agent advice
        TN: cows per acre
        TX: acres per cow

      • dbleagle

        From my graduate school days. One cow with one calf is considered an AUM (Animal Unit Month). The rule of thumb west of the 100th meridian is 1 AUM/Section and east of the 100th it is 1 AUM/Acre. A section is 640 acres (or 1 square mile) so eastern pasture is 640 times as productive as western pasture.

        Again from graduate school. The state of Louisiana produces more beef each year than the 11 western states combined.

      • dbleagle

        I forgot a key part of the formula. It is AUM/size of land/annual inches of rain. LA beats WY hands down.

      • Shpip

        It makes sense that richer soil + wetter climate = more productive forage for livestock.
        But the sheer number of acres seems to matter, too. According to this chart, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico all produce more beef cattle than Louisiana. LA may have them all whipped in cow density, though.

        FWIW, I did not expect to read that Missouri was number three in the US in beef cattle production.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Yep, I think it’s called animal units per acre or something like that. The breed of animals matter too. You can run more Jerseys in a field than Angus so, in Virginia, a Jersey might be 1 AU/A while 1 Angus might be 1.50 AU/A. Goats would probably be 10-20 AU/A.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Flip the Jersey and Angus numbers.

    • Bobarian LMD

      There are probably some Colombian cash crops that get under-reported as to their amount of land dedicated to cultivation.

      • commodious spittoon

        Avocados?

    • UnCivilServant

      How many years does it take to turn wilderness (probably forested) into viable agricultural land if you’re planning to reuse the land and not just slash, burn, and move on?

      How long does it take to rehabilitate a plot that has been subjected to slash and burn into regular agricultural land? Is it possible?

      • UnCivilServant

        Looking for a program for thousands of square miles.

      • UnCivilServant

        There’s a lot of displaced persons available to be enticed into working for food and a paycheck, and the occupying authority can provide a good deal of heavy equipment. They have a vested interest in making sure the ongoing costs of feeding the locals gets shifted off their ledger and onto some semblance of a normal market. (Plus there is some hope of a surplus to bring back to their home territory too.)

      • R C Dean

        I suspect much depends on what the soil is. Slash and burn is usually done on very poor soil, is my recollection. Plus, depending on what the forest consists of, it wastes good wood.

        If not slash and burn, then “how long” it depends entirely on the level of technology. Hand tools, it depends on how many people you have, but it will be slow. Mechanized? Probably a lot faster. In mesquite country in Texas, they clear mesquite with two big Caterpillars and an anchor chain – gets the roots and stumps out, and you can cover a lot of ground in a day.

        Once you get the stumps out, it should be ready to plow.

        Healthy soil that’s been farmed reverts to a state of nature as soon as you stop plowing it. There are vast areas of “CRP” land that farmers were paid to not farm any more, and it doesn’t take long at all.

  3. Mad Scientist

    The video is coming from inside the tire!

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Ozy, to continue the discussion on Philly.

    The machine runs that city with an iron fist. Republicans get outed and shamed.

    The judges of elections are notoriously corrupt. It was well known (and published in the newspaper) that if you wanted to run for office in the city, you had to personally petition a judge of elections for permission to do so. My wife grew up down the street from one and they are gods among mere mortals there. On the bright side, the cops always showed up to that block in a prompt manner.

    • DEG

      Yep.

    • Ozymandias

      So much for brotherly love, eh?
      Someone posted an article on here recently that included a guilty plea (I think) from a Philly elector over blatant fraud, but it went uncovered in the larger press (of course).

  5. Rebel Scum

    It is not yet clear what caused the explosion. Videos show smoke billowing from a fire before the blast, which is followed by a mushroom cloud.

    I think we all know (((who))) is responsible.

    • kinnath

      That was a single explosion at a clearly defined point in space. It produced a perfect spherical wave.

      That was not a cargo load of fireworks.

      • leon

        I did see an angle where there were lots of smaller explosions going off that looked like it could be fireworks, before the big one.

        But yeah, that big one did no look like fireworks. It looked like the freaking Hood being blown out of the water.

      • Jarflax

        The big explosion comes after the fireworks (or possibly ammunition) which you can see and hear cooking off in the initial fire. There is a video out there, that I cannot find now, that includes a few seconds showing the fire and popping/flashes of something cooking off immediately before the big blast lets go. I suspect something stored in the warehouse went up as a secondary explosion. Given the fire was clearly buring and setting off minor explosions for a while before the big one it seems unlikely that this was a bomb

      • Jarflax

        You can see it here at around the 23 24 second mark.

      • Jarflax

        Better video showing the fire and minor flashes/pops before the big bang

  6. juris imprudent

    In its studies, J&J found those who got the drug had a rapid reduction in the severity of their thinking, although the results didn’t differ in a statistically significant way from patients given a placebo.

    [blinks, removes and cleans glasses, reads again]

    Yep, that’s our scientific approach to medicine alright.

    • B.P.

      “…those who got the drug had a rapid reduction in the severity of their thinking…”

      Administer one bong load of the sticky icky icky, stat!

      • Negroni Please

        I want to run clinical trial regarding the impact of whip-it’s on suicidal ideation

      • hayeksplosives

        The Handicapper General will see your icky-sticky spray and raise you one recurring bell ringing in your ear.

    • R C Dean

      So you get pretty much the same results if you squirt distilled water in your nose, as long as you think its the high-dollar drug.

      • Mad Scientist

        That settles it. I’m going to distill some water and open a high-dollar clinic for people to snort it.

      • Negroni Please

        Make it a bar. Make it very very expensive.

        Name it ‘sniff’

        The downside is you have to put it in LA though

      • Rhywun

        And serve food there.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      In other words, if you want to prevent someone from committing suicide, you waterboard them.

      • Bobarian LMD

        For the children!

      • C. Anacreon

        There is a lot of interest in nasal-inhaled meds in the pipeline right now, basically as a way for getting meds into the bloodstream as rapidly as possible without using a needle, especially when time is of the essence. Of what I’m familiar with, such agents are on the way for migraines, seizures, agitation, and anxiety, along with suicidality. The current inhaled ketamine treatment (Spravato) is very expensive, had only been approved for Depression, and could only be applied in specifically licensed clinical settings. Not sure yet if this new indication will allow for its use in other sites such as ERs or inpatient psychiatric units, which could be a compelling option for possible improvements in hours as opposed to the weeks standard antidepressants typically take. I’m pretty certain this is not yet at the stage where it would be approved/allowed for home use, or even by paramedics, but you can bet the drug company would love that.

  7. Rebel Scum

    Which one of you is this?

    Not me. Places that enforce Mask Minstrel Theater do not get my money.

  8. Gustave Lytton

    “Drunkards! Drunkards! Drunkards! C’mon! Wooooooo! Yeaaaaaaaah!”

    *tosses chair across room*

  9. Rebel Scum

    the picture at the top is a sculpture, not a Russian military robot… I think.

    I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

  10. zwak

    I like how in the Vegas pic the couple off to the right are “masked”. As in not at all.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      What amuses me is that if you watch TV dramas, almost everybody in Vegas is a hot-body. The reality is that couple off to the right.

  11. Ted S.

    Isaias passed west of me.

    A couple of hours of heavy rain, a few times I though the lights were winking (they may yet go out), but thankfully nothing serious.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m under the leading edge, will be rained on for at least four to eight more hours.

      • Ted S.

        I’m looking at the radar, and it looks like the heaviest of the rain is up near Not Adahn.

        I don’t know why they haven’t lifted the tornado watch.

      • UnCivilServant

        The storm is directly overhead of me now.

        I’m not noticing much beyond the fact that it’s raining.

    • Rhywun

      Yeah, bit of a nothingburger in NYC.

  12. Certified Public Asshat

    She packed her bags, quit her job in law enforcement and moved to Mexico after George Floyd’s death

    She calls the move the best decision she’s ever made. While Mexico is not perfect and has its own problems, she says, she’s never encountered any racism in the tourist destination made famous by the 1960s film, “The Night of the Iguana.”

    “They value me as a person. My complexion feels like added value to me here and I am not afraid of the police. Can you imagine saying that?” Brown says. “I walk by police with guns in Puerto Vallarta, they smile and wave. No fear.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Well…. bye

    • Negroni Please

      ‘While Mexico is not perfect’

      Yep. Not perfect are the first words that come to my mind

      • Certified Public Asshat

        The decapitated bodies take some getting used to.

      • Negroni Please

        True. But I’m sure when it’s her head that is severed, its complexion will give added value!

      • Gustave Lytton

        She’s hanging out in Puerto Vallarta, not Guadalajara. The decapitated bodies aren’t showing up there.

      • Bobarian LMD

        The tourist board makes sure they’re cleaned up before the Gringos get up in the afternoon.

      • R C Dean

        Query: Can black people be gringos?

        Drawing on my personal anecdata, Mexicans are prejudiced as hell against black people. I think her story shows that people’s “experiences” of racism are largely in their own heads these days. She expects Americans to be prejudiced, so every thing that isn’t optimal gets charged to that account. She doesn’t expect Mexicans to be racist, so nothing gets charged to thta account.

        Sounds like she doesn’t speak Spanish, so I she’s going to miss a lot of comments and nuance in how she is being received.

    • B.P.

      “While there are no official statistics on how many have left the country, Black people have turned to social media to get insight from those who’ve relocated, especially to African and Caribbean nations, where some say they feel safer as part of a majority.”

      So, a trend story without a trend.

      “Ghana granted citizenship to more than 120 African Americans and Caribbeans last year. The nation’s tourism minister held an event marking Floyd’s death in June, and used it as an opportunity to urge Black people to seek refuge there.”

      A nation of 30 million absorbed 120 people. How did they do it?

      • Rhywun

        A veritable tsunami.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Modern Puerto Vallarta has zero relation to Night of the Iguana. Wholly different and large numbers of American ex-pat/second home/tourists. And she sounds like a mess, with little to do with George Floyd other than a desire to publicize herself.

      • B.P.

        A mess?! She has a new gig as a travel blogger and life coach.

        The Night of the Iguana thing was some real journalism. “Have the intern google up a random factoid about Puerto Vallarta.”

      • EvilSheldon

        They don’t call it Gringo Gulch for nothing. It’s supposed to be a pretty nice place, although I doubt it’ll survive being outed to the press…

      • Gustave Lytton

        I think gringo gulch is closer/off the downtown. Marina Vallarta looks like California to me. Which is fine. I like the neighborhood and it’s easy access to where we want to go when we’ve stayed there.

    • Chipwooder

      a)Some of the most racist people I’ve ever met were Chicano
      b)Mexican police make most American cops look like Mr. Rogers

    • thepasswordispassword

      Puerto Vallarta
      I seem to recall that this particular tourist city is heavily segregated and gentrified. With low income slums and housing projects carefully hidden away and inaccessible to all the rich gringos wandering around on vacation taking taxis from walled off resort areas to manicured strip malls and beaches. You’re not going to accidentally find yourself on one of the dirt roads leading to the 10% of the population that lacks running water. It’s like that story a few years back in one of the life style political magazines (I think the Atlantic) about expats talking about how great it was to live in Africa (in the biggest cities, in the richest areas, in secured hotels/apartments, only socializing with other expats and international journalists). It’s easy to live in one of those places when your money goes a long way to buying peace and security (almost like why people move to the suburbs).

    • Fatty Bolger

      Meanwhile, black Africans are the fastest growing group of immigrants to the United States.

      • UnCivilServant

        We can’t let them in, their ancestors sold us slaves.

  13. B.P.

    Due to some bullying by department employees, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will be declaring racism a public health crisis:

    https://coloradosun.com/2020/07/31/colorado-racism-public-health-crisis/

    “Black and Latino residents comprise nearly 5% and 36%, respectively, of COVID-19 cases in Colorado, and nearly 7% and 22%, respectively, of virus-related deaths. Blacks comprise just nearly 4% of the state’s population; Latinos, 22%, the health department says.”

    Stupid racist virus.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Now do a comparison by overall health and socio-economic condition.

    • LJW

      And they wonder why no one trusts the health department…

  14. pan fried wylie

    To continue the ice/water filtering discussion from earlier, though I’ll probably have to do it again tomorrow morning to get all the same peeps…

    The conversation veered off into clearer cubes. My goals are about the texture, size and taste of the ice. Not to discourage the clear cubes topic, just to reinforce as was already pointed out that it’s a separate issue to tackle with its own solutions (eh? was that a pun? you be the judge.) I’ve long wondered about freezing water/sugar/dairy mixes atop a loudspeaker to influence the texture of the resulting frozen-treat…someday i’ll setup a peltier/audio/thermoprobe/microcontroller rig, but is it really worth it without ultrasonic capabilities?

    Anyway, in aiming towards the goal of dechlorinated water for my ice and drinking needs, I started to wonder if I shouldn’t just go all out and accommodate my aquarium needs as well, so I don’t have to keep relying on drops. I only change+top-up maybe 5gal/month at most, ice and drinking maaaybe another 5gal, if I’m hydrating well. About 120gal/yr. Say 200. Throughput might be more important than total volume since I don’t want to stand by the sink for 10-20mins to fill up a few gallon jugs. So I think I’m going to be looking at something with a pump. Some sort of undersink unit that takes non-proprietary media in larger canisters…possibly a reservoir? Anybody rocking something like that that they’d recommend?

    On the bright side, previous owners put some sort of undersink unit in with a discrete faucet and electrical hookup, so that’s ready to go at least. Old unit wasn’t readily identifiable, bits of corrosion, will scrap.

    • R C Dean

      Not sure how well undersink (probably RO?) units do with dechlorination. We had one of those, but settled on the Berkey instead, and I honestly don’t recall exactly why, but they are slow – good mainly for glasses of water. The Berkey will easily do three gallons a day. It does take replacable filters, which aren’t cheap, but if you are running tap water through it they should last up to a year. As for as dechlorination goes, these are the specs:

      Chloramines; Chlorine Residual (Total Residual Chlorine); & Free Chlorine >99.9%

      Downside of the Berkey is it takes a chunk of counter space, if that’s an issue.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        *looks up answer to validate decade old rememberings from the aquarium hobby*

        activated carbon does a great job on chlorine and chloramines, and is likely much cheaper than the other options.

      • pan fried wylie

        Saw your response this morning, RC, already pretty sure I don’t want to go pitcher. Which I mentioned this morning 😛

        RO was already out of the running for doing more than I wanted, and the waste water.

        The undersink units ive looked at use some combination of physical media (sand, coir, synthetic fiber) and carbon for chemical removal. There’s just a plethora of products and was hoping somebody had experience with any of them. I might have to write an article if I ever make a move on it.

        Unlikely I’ll get around to it before world’s end.

    • Playa Manhattan

      Water snob here.

      You need a multistage RO system with holding tank and drain connection.

      If your RO system isn’t hooked up to the drain, it’s not really RO. You should be discarding anywhere from 33% to 50% of the water by volume as waste product.

      The holding tank is so you don’t have to wait an hour for a gallon of water.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        If your RO system isn’t hooked up to the drain, it’s not really RO.

        is that a thing? I’ve never seen an RO unit without a drain line.

      • Playa Manhattan

        The one installed in my house when I bought it definitely did not have a drain connection.

      • pan fried wylie

        Well, or he means there was just gallons of water pouring out under the sink/in the basement.

      • pan fried wylie

        I wasn’t quick enough responding above, and should’ve repeated the original No-RO restriction in this afternoon’s repost.

        Maybe I can just plumb my own jug full of carbon into the line…..

  15. grrizzly

    This is Melbourne.

    Police may now enter anyone’s home without a warrant.
    Curfew 8:00pm.
    $1,652 fine if outside without “a valid reason” – an amount being raised by the day
    Can’t visit any family or friends.
    $200 fine for no mask (mandatory masks at all times).
    Can only exercise once per day, for up to 1 hour.
    Only one person per household, per day can leave the house (including for groceries).
    Can’t go more than 3 miles from your home.
    Weddings are illegal.
    No gatherings of any size.
    Army is on the streets fining/arresting people.
    “Since March 21, a total of 193,740 spot checks have been conducted by police across Victoria.”
    Protests/activism is illegal; people have already been arrested for peaceful gatherings.
    Media is EXTREMELY biased, calls protesters “right wing conspiracy nutjobs” and won’t allow discussion of whether these lockdowns are right or not.
    Several thousand people were placed under house arrest and unable to leave for ANY reason, with food rations delivered by the army, leading to appalling levels of personal trauma.
    Australia won’t release how many fines they’ve given out, but an ABC news report says it’s over $5.2 million so far.
    Streets of Melbourne are empty, even in a city of 5 million+ people. People are HATEFUL to each other, everyone is cannibalising their neighbours (calling police to report any little infraction of the rules and turning on each other like some socialist hellhole).
    Billboards outside on the street that say in capital letters: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STAY HOME.” They feel extremely oppressive, like we’re being yelled at by a very oppressive government.
    The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews shows complete and utter disdain for us, constantly blaming us. He’s blamed children (yes, really) for not taking this seriously enough. Every chance he gets, he tells us it’s OUR fault the virus is spreading (even though that’s what viruses do – they spread).
    It’s not just the Victorian Premier – the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is just as terrible. He’s encouraged all of this, and he was responsible for the first lockdown.
    1984 dystopian language: billboards everywhere saying “Staying apart keeps us together.” Have they gone mad?
    There’s probably more but at this point I honestly lost track of all the insanity that’s happened.
    All because 147 people died in the state of Victoria (total population is 6.359 million), almost all of the deaths are over 70 with comorbidities, same as everywhere else in the world.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They need to revolt.

      • Viking1865

        Revolt with what?

      • Negroni Please

        Probably the millions and millions of guns that Australians didn’t turn like they were supposed to.

      • Negroni Please

        What happened to them?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Last fall (?), there was a dustup over a post by HM on Greta and autism. LH took it personally and stormed off.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I miss LH and EF too. And all of the Glibs that have left or no longer hang out here.

      • Negroni Please

        Fascinating. I figured everyone here had pretty thick skin.

        I mean I disagree with you assholes all the time because I am the one true libertarian, but I never get upset with how wrong everyone but me is…

        Which article? I need to go back and read it apparently.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        They equated Retardation with Autism, Offence, followed by them leaving for good,
        /I was there, and my Grandson has Autism, I wasn’t offended

      • Mad Scientist

        What happened to them?

        Something retarded.

      • Drake

        If they don’t right now, they never will.

      • Rebel Scum

        Yup.

      • leon

        I hate to say it but yeah. Some politicians need to end up hanging from lamposts.

      • grrizzly

        They enthusiastically support the lockdowns.

        We cancelled our wedding. I haven’t seen my mum since Christmas. The theatres are closed, my income streams evaporating.

        It’s sad, it’s inconvenient – and it’s also not important.

        The *only thing* that matters now is to keep one another safe.

        Solidarity, everyone.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Fucking loons

        Even if they mange to eradicate it locally in the short term, there’s no way they can maintain it without nuking their entire economy.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Their initial low numbers and drastic measures gave the illusion that it could be eliminated. Once they’ve committed to that path, it’s imposible to dissuade them.

      • leon

        He thinks that because he’s accepted servility, everyone else ought to too.

      • salted earth

        Oddly, nothing that “we” are doing makes me feel safe. And I’m not sure it has actually done anything to keep people “safe” from the virus. More people seem anxious and afraid, seems everything is making people feel less safe.

      • grrizzly

        There’s probably too little of this.

        Police in Melbourne, Australia, are warning the public of a “dangerous” rise in people resisting COVID-19-related lockdown measures, sometimes violently.

        In one case, a 26-year-old policewoman had her head repeatedly smashed into concrete pavement during a confrontation with a 38-year-old woman who refused to wear a mask, Chief Commissioner Shane Patton told reporters.

        While police in the coronavirus-stricken Melbourne have increased fines up to A$20,000 for breaches of order, Patton said residents who claimed to be “above the law” were nonetheless “baiting” his officers.

        “On at least four occasions in the last week, we’ve had to smash the windows of cars and pull people out to provide details,” he noted.

      • Gustave Lytton

        ‘We had to destroy the village to save it’

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        In one case, a 26-year-old policewoman had her head repeatedly smashed into concrete pavement during a confrontation with a 38-year-old woman who refused to wear a mask, Chief Commissioner Shane Patton told reporte

        Not that I condone Trayvoning the local constabulary, but when you literally ban every other way of expressing frustration at the situation, this is what happens.

      • The Hyperbole

        Meh, peaceful non-compliance protest is always an option. Don’t wear a mask if confronted by the law let them arrest you, refuse to pay any fines and make them imprison you. Whether or not you want to hunger strike is up to you.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        True enough. Some do the MLK thing. This lady did the Malcolm X thing.

        I land more on the MLK side of the spectrum, but I can see the thought process behind the more violent approach. They’ll gladly shove MLK into the cattle cars when the time comes.

      • Viking1865

        You can only engage in negotiation and compromise with an opposing entity from a position of rough parity in power.

        If you don’t have some level of parity, it’s not a negotiation, it’s the weaker party being instructed by the stronger.

      • EvilSheldon

        My heart just fucking bleeds for her.

    • Rhywun

      People are HATEFUL to each other

      This sickens me.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The Daily Fail rando word capitalizing? Bothers me too.

    • Pope Jimbo

      How sad that this whiner has forgotten his heritage.

      His ancestors must be so embarrassed. The son of convicts can’t handle a little lockup?

    • Rhywun

      Isn’t this the country where voting is compulsory? Seems they’ve already lost the plot.

  16. LJW

    Question for the scientists. How hard would it be to get some Covid positive patients to wear various masks in a sterilzed room, have them cough and then test various surfaces to determine the effectiveness of masks? It seems like a simple thing to test, yet here we are with no solid science to support either argument.

    • Fatty Bolger

      There have been plenty of trials testing mask effectiveness against influenza-like virus transmission. In none of them were masks shown to be effective.

    • R C Dean

      If what we want to know is “Do masks reduce the incidence of disease”, then that’s what we need to test. To my knowledge, there are zero (0) studies of that, yet it is supposedly scientifically proven.

  17. DEG

    Local media showed people trapped beneath rubble. A witness described the first explosion as deafening, and video footage showed wrecked cars and blast-damaged buildings.

    I saw some video on a reddit thread. Lots of devastation.

    The man was bundled out of the building and handed over to cops for flouting public safety rules on Saturday night.

    Those cops are just following orders.

    Johnson & Johnson’s Spravato has been approved as the first antidepressant for actively suicidal people, as doctors are becoming increasingly concerned about COVID-19’s the government’s shutdown’s effect on the mental health of Americans.

    Fixed it for the article’s author.

    • Ted S.

      So they’re not concerned about anything?

      • DEG

        Fuck.

        It should read, “concerned about the government’s shutdown’s effect”

  18. Viking1865

    CA secession came up in the afternoon thread. Makes me wonder, if they did put it on the ballot in CA, and it did pass, what would happen next?

    • The Other Kevin

      The Other Kevin would give a big THUMBS UP, that’s what would happen.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Probably about 40 other states would too.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      the left would very quickly turn on it and make it out as a brexit fiasco

    • Mad Scientist

      Yeah, the left in the other 49 states need California to stay.

    • Rebel Scum

      Negotiate to pay its share of the federal debt, purchase federal property located in the state and wish CA on its merry way?

    • leon

      I imagine some of the rural counties would apply for readmission/ to remain in the union, a la West Virginia. But it would be politically advantageous to the Republicans to let them go.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Blow the Bridges over the Colorado River, it’s the only way to be sure,

    • R C Dean

      I think it would have to go to Congress. If any counties or areas in CA wanted to join another state, CA and the other state would have to agree. I don’t think CA would ever agree to any area leaving, unless it was part of the bigger deal on CA leaving.

    • Agent Cooper

      What happens to the military bases?

  19. Rhywun

    W00t – my new desk chair arrived a day early. It has a head-rest! What will they think of next. Anyone want a very uncomfortable 14-year-old chair with no arms or head-rest?

    /reclines, groans with pleasure

      • Rhywun

        This one. Nothing super fancy but a few orders of magnitude better than I’ve ever had.

        The seat is hard as a rock for some reason, but I already have one of those orthopedic cushions so that helps.

        And it came with two sets of casters, including wide ones with opposing spinners not shown on the page.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Anyone want a very uncomfortable 14-year-old chair with no arms

      **perks up**

      Oh, wait it is a chair. Sorry not interested in that.

      • Tres Cool

        Must be Belgian.

  20. dbleagle

    Breaking from the news. Since we are still in first report territory who knows the validity.

    Reports are that there were “many tons” of sodium nitrate in a warehouse nearby the fireworks warehouse. The sodium nitrate was there for “over a year” and was seized because of “smuggling” operations.

    That’ll make a BOOM.

    • B.P.

      So the neighborhood was zoned for violent explosion?

      • Negroni Please

        Made me LOL

      • Ozymandias

        Zoned for violent massive explosion.
        All explosions are violent, of that much I am certain.
        How crazy would you have to be to store “tons” of ANFO near – of all things – a fireworks factory?!
        Was it the fucking ACME Fireworks Co., by any chance? Was Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius, one of the principals?
        Holy shit, if this turns out to be true, it’s proof there is no peak derp. Never. Not ever.

      • R C Dean

        How crazy would you have to be to store “tons” of ANFO near – of all things – a fireworks factory?!

        Hezbollah crazy?

      • pan fried wylie

        “WOULD YOU STOP SAYING ‘HELLA’??!!?!…oh, wait, sry, nm”
        -Kyle

      • Spudalicious

        “Allah willing, it will be safe.”

        Well, Allah wasn’t willing.

      • pan fried wylie

        How crazy would you have to be to store “tons” of ANFO near – of all things – a fireworks factory?!

        Are fireworks factories prone to unintended bangs? Why does an explosives district make less sense than the explosives shed I’d need to make my own fireworks legally? I need more information. For a friend.

    • Playa Manhattan

      Ammonium Nitrate. 2750 tons.

      So, about 1000x Oklahoma City.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        roughly 1kTon TNT equivalent. Hiroshima was 12-15kTons, to give a guidepost.

  21. The Other Kevin

    Someone official is supposedly watching tomorrow’s hockey practice to determine “compliance” so we have to wear masks even while we play. I have been assured this is a one-time thing. But this is Chicago, so who knows.

    • dbleagle

      Since it is practice I say wear the medieval plague doctor’s mask. If you are going to comply at least maliciously comply.

    • The Other Kevin

      That wouldn’t fit under my cage. But I think I’ll wear my neck gaiter. I’m sure it does nothing but at least I can breathe through it.

    • Chipwooder

      Just crosscheck the sonofabitch

    • pan fried wylie

      Quit.

  22. Shpip

    From the sidebar of the nasal spray article:

    Cancer Diagnoses fell by half during US Lockdownckdown

    Will people celebrate the news that half as many folks as usual were diagnosed with cancer? Or will the naysayers who recognize second order effects be able to explain that thousands of middle-aged and sorta-old individuals will die protracted, painful, expensive deaths over the next few years because the government cancelled “routine” procedures, including their mammograms and colonoscopies?

    • leon

      My Grandfather was just diagnosed with Cancer, and is not doing well. I don’t know if they would have caught it earlier in the absence of the lockdowns, but they won’t let my grandma come and see him in the hospital from what i can tell.

      • B.P.

        Well, that’s enraging.

      • R C Dean

        they won’t let my grandma come and see him in the hospital from what i can tell

        That’s pretty much universal, unfortunately.

        I know for a fact that its a rule which is violated in my hospital, with leadership enthusiastically looking the other way.

      • Rhywun

        Sorry 🙁 Is he in a ‘vid ward?

        During my spin in the hospital a few months ago I learned that before my arrival, my roommate – who had just recovered from the plague after 42 days in the ICU – had had his wife visit. I was pleased by that.

        By the time of my recent visit, visiting hours were normal. But I wasn’t in the plague wing.

      • Rhywun

        @leon

      • Gadfly

        I know for a fact that its a rule which is violated in my hospital, with leadership enthusiastically looking the other way.

        Good for them.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Say what you will of the Dems, but they are willing to throw their own team members under the bus in order to keep hammering on some talking point. If they weren’t so concerned about making an example out of that couple in St. Louis, I bet this guy would have slid under the radar.

      Sort of like when they threw Franken to the wolves in order to keep harping about how that guy running for the Senate seat from AL was a predator of women.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Were they on his property?

      • kinnath

        At his front door.

      • pan fried wylie

        If your front door is visible from the street, you don’t have any rights. Anywhere. Ever.

      • Spudalicious

        Charges will be dropped, plea bargain, or jury nullification.

  23. salted earth

    In the picture at the top of the Russian Military Robot article, there is a metal bug on the wall that looks like it is holding the door open, I want one.

    • leon

      Mississippi goes blue!

    • AlmightyJB

      Same in Ohio. DeWine thinks he’s doing God’s work. Those are the most dangerous.

      • Surly Knott

        C.S. Lewis said something about that. So did J.R.R. Tolkien, come to think about it.

    • Agent Cooper

      Why is Frank Zappa doing sign language?

    • Rhywun

      I didn’t know/remember there is a 35-day limit to the recount.

      • AlmightyJB

        This is going to be much worse than 2000’s hanging chads. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was Florida again.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I normally go vote, but only for candidates that I truly think would be OK. No lesser of two weevils for me. So a lot of races on my ballot get left blank.

        My best year was an off year election where I hated everyone and walked from the table where I got my ballot to the counting machine. The old lady working the machine was apoplectic. She was sure that I wasn’t allowed to do that. Things didn’t improve when I wouldn’t take the “I voted” sticker from her buddy.

        Anyway, I’m hesitant to do that this year because I’m sure that those packs of lawyers will be looking at my blank ballot and arguing with each other about who I meant to vote for. “See that smudge in the race three rows down? Clearly that was supposed to be for Biden!” “No way! you can tell by the slight dog ear that it was for Trump”

      • AlmightyJB

        I originally wasn’t planning on voting or maybe voting for Jo, but I’m of a firm mind that when toddlers through a tantrum, they need to be corrected.

      • slumbrew

        I think I’ll actually have to write in “none of the above” to make it clear this year.

      • pan fried wylie

        “none of the above” is how you spell “Biden” in Espagnole.

        Way to go, dumas.

      • slumbrew

        Dammit! Now Massachusetts EC votes might end up with the Democratic candidate!

      • pan fried wylie

        this post spells “Shut up and pay your fucking taxes, peon” in democrese.

    • Agent Cooper

      I’m sure you’ll enjoy it Thoreauly.

  24. Pope Jimbo

    Minnesoda’s Other Senator actually did something! And it was sort of good. Of course, they can’t just say “pot is now legal”. Because how can you grift on that.

    So her bill to legalize MJ is chock full of prohibitions:

    * Grant the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cannabis and cannabis products, including regarding labeling and advertising standards – just as it does for tobacco products.
    * Establish 21 years of age as the minimum age for purchasing cannabis products, in line with tobacco and alcohol.
    * Establish a national strategy to combat the use and abuse of cannabis by youth, with special considerations to prevent racially disparate impacts of the strategy.
    * Require regulations to govern the safe import and export of cannabis materials.
    * Require transportation safety research to establish an evidence-based standard for detecting cannabis-impaired driving, and to ensure that recommended best practices do not contribute to racist enforcement patterns.

    In a better timeline, Trump would champion her bill and do so because the current WOD is “racist”. See how Biden reacts to that. Like Ozy says, it could gut the Dems of a key voting bloc.

    • pan fried wylie

      Sort of good? Looks like plenty of additional opportunity for grift with open ended requirements that will never be met thereby effectively maintaining prohibition at greater expense.

      Great. I’m glad the world is about to end.

  25. AlmightyJB

    Ballmer Peak: works with shooting pool too.

    • Tres Cool

      IME- bowling, too.

      • Nephilium

        Darts as well.

  26. salted earth

    PNW Glibs, save the date, Saturday, August 15th for a meet-up. Location still to be determined, but it will be Spokane-ish, in the afternoon or evening.
    Contact info sodium at proton mail dot com

  27. Tres Cool

    “President Michel Aoun tweeted it was “unacceptable” that 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate was stored unsafely. ”

    There’s no way that was planned in advance.

    • AlmightyJB

      Israel blew up their weapons/explosives repository that they don’t want to admit having.

  28. AlmightyJB

    Catchy tune. Reminds me of George Michael. The music, not the dude.

  29. Pope Jimbo

    Is 2020 really the best year to start testing out war robots? Sure I know that the chances of them going all SkyNet on us are remote, but maybe next year would be better?

    • Sean

      It’s the perfect year to start.

      *orders Tannerite*

    • Rhywun

      Yeah, after Putin helps Trump win again and they can join forces to rule the world together.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I can think of Worse Dictators, throw in Boris and you get the three Stooges, Putin is Moe,

      • Pope Jimbo

        Better. Trump loses but Putin airdrops in a division of battle robots who repel all attempts to remove him from the White House.

      • Rhywun

        It’s like Saturday morning all over again.

    • pan fried wylie

      Can we really rely on the SMOD? I for one welcome our new robot butcherlords.

      #SweetRelease2020

  30. Not Adahn

    Can a BLEVE get that big? The way it exploded looked like one, but I have a feeling you couldn’t get the air mix correct at that scale.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      BLEVEs are rapidly expanding fireballs. They tend to roast everyone nearby with massive amounts of infrared.

      That looked like a detonation of an unstable substance.

      • Not Adahn

        I’ve never seen one in real life, but some that we saw in training looked like that, only smaller.

    • Spudalicious

      Given that the product isn’t stored under pressure, I don’t see how you can get a BLEVE. It looks like that fireworks fire might have caused enough vibration and heat to cause a detonation.

      • Not Adahn

        didn’t know about the nitrates, I had just heard of benzene stored nearby. I was thinking the fireworks might have cooked it.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m wondering if all those things were in the same area and the fire just lit them all off.

      • Not Adahn

        Oh, started training on driving the fire engine. Its 33’4″ long and 48,000#. Passing score is no cones down and 8 minutes. Currently I’m at two cones down … and 20 minutes.

        Never driven a cab-over before.

  31. Yusef drives a Kia

    Government Compliance training is the most Soul sucking thing I have ever endured, the Idiocracy is astounding,
    /Why God Why?……… for the money

    • Rhywun

      Cockburn adds, by the way, that it took him “just a single minute on Google to discover rioting and destruction from May 26 — the day before Umbrella Man supposedly kicked everything off.”

      Oopsie!

      Well, the narrative has already been written so as usual it doesn’t really matter what actually happened.

      • gbob

        There’s still plenty of room in the media memory hole. You can stash it next to the story about the Vegas shooter.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        The who?

      • gbob

        They were a well known band in the 70s. They also played first base. You know how baseball players today have such strange names.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Good info, thanks!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        You say that because that’s what your drinking,
        Tall Cans!
        /yes, he was a Beast…..

      • Tres Cool

        HEY YUFUS!

        …and you’re correct on my choice of Barley Soda

      • Agent Cooper

        I thought Vegas Shooter was the band name. Duh. Could be a band name though.

    • B.P.

      There was an Umbrella Man in the JFK assassination footage as well. The dude is like Zelig.

      • Mad Scientist

        Bill Paxton was there at JFK’s assassination well. Maybe he isn’t dead after all. Maybe he’s just in Minneapolis.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I met a man,
        Umbrella Man,
        He danced for you,
        He waiting around,
        to clear out of town,
        then Blew off your Shoe,

    • one true athena

      I rolled my eyes so hard at the “white supremacist” nonsense. It’s such an obvious black bloc tactic. You see it again and again in later riots: someone in the gear leaves the crowd, goes up to the window, breaks it with some kind of tool, and then walks away. It’s then up to the crowd whether they take advantage and continue looting/breaking or not, but the ‘spark’ is set. That’s one of the techniques in psychology of the mob that antifa clearly know about and exploit.

      • slumbrew

        Everyone knows it’s really the Boogaloo Boys what’s behind it all!

  32. gbob

    “I’m a piece of sh$#
    I’m a funky fat f@#$.
    Shoot me in the head, shoot me in the head”

    Mood for the evening. NSFW and such.

    • pan fried wylie

      A political campaign song I could get behind.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I’d fuck her if she would shut up the entire time……Just say’n

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        You could always put something in her mouth.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Joe’s panties?

    • Rhywun

      Underground utilities FTW.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t have undergorund power lines, but I live within spitting distance of a power plant, so there’s fewer places where a broken wire can take out my electricity.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The truck is to live on the same grid sector as a hospital with an emergency room.

      • R C Dean

        Hospitals all have their own generators. I think we have over a week of standalone generating capacity.

        Still, they are likely to get grid power restored quickly.

        Amusingly, when parts of Manhattan flooded a few years ago, several hospitals discovered why you don’t want your generator in the basement.

      • UnCivilServant

        Whycome there is water in the generator room?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They always get restored first. The power companies are required to prioritize those grids.

      • Tres Cool

        As someone that’s spent a lifetime working in/with/for the power generation industry, I can tell you that the power plant is often the 1st place the electric goes out.

      • UnCivilServant

        Can you explain why that would be?

      • R C Dean

        I’m guessing a concentration of high voltage stuff means a concentration of stuff that can go wrong.

      • pan fried wylie

        My guess is those breakers are the trippiest, cause any failure to trip would KABOOM.

        And then it takes time to make sure nothing will KABOOM when you recontact them back on.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Arc flashes are a shitty way to die

      • Not Adahn

        Meh. Fast. Dramatic. Could be worse.

      • pan fried wylie

        I don’t have underground lines, but the few outages Ive had in this house over 3yrs have consistently been the same goddamn distribution transformer popping when a tree touches something.

        So yeah, I guess underground lines would help still, but it’s not actually downed lines. Trimming the trees properly would help just as much, way cheaper.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Reclosers FTW, if it’s just a touch or a small branch falling on top.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yup.1-2 blinks, no problem. The third flicker, and you’re hosed.

      • hayeksplosives

        Power Companies that boldly went underground with cables were stung by XLPE (cross linked polyethylene) cables that were the first wave. Turns out over time, water creeps into XLPE and forms “water trees” that branch and grow and then meet with an electrical tree to fail the cable.

        So latecomers benefited by using EPR (red rubber), which doesn’t do the treeing thing.

        (Original power cables STILL IN PLACE AND WORKING in NYC, Boston, etc are PILC—paper in lead.)

      • pan fried wylie

        If they didn’t impregnate that paper with oil, then just GTFOHWTSHIT.

        “B+” for work.

      • LJW

        Just run an extension cord.

    • Ted S.

      Everybody hates New Jersey.

      • pan fried wylie

        I think I hate NYC more. More concentratedly?

        Do they say “Hey, I’m walkin here” in NJ?

        Come back to me, I need more time.

    • Surly Knott

      Very cool!
      For those on Facebook, this woman does wonderful owl, and other nature, photography.

    • hayeksplosives

      Awwww. Cute! Why do wild animals like owls like to get their heads petted by us big hairless apes?

      • pan fried wylie

        Try scratching your head with no hands. Then use your hands.

        Our nail/finger/arm combination is the most capable itch scratching mechanism to ever develop in the animal kingdom.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The MLB agrees

      • pan fried wylie

        #MetalLivesBlacken

  33. one true athena

    2700 TONS of ammonia nitrate?

    holy shit. Lucky there’s anything of beirut left at all.

    • UnCivilServant

      Look, Beruit has been work-hardened by previous explosions.

      /itsajoke.

      • pan fried wylie

        SAND DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY

        /MORBO

    • Playa Manhattan

      I’ve seen video that I’m not going to watch again.

      A lot more people died than they’ve officially stated.

      It looked like Pompeii. Bodies everywhere covered in ash.

      • hayeksplosives

        As usual, it’s the Daily Mail doing the un, or at least the less-biased reporting.

    • pan fried wylie

      I’ve never done commercial fertilizing, but let’s say, 100lbs per acre per application….20acres per ton, 54,000acres = 21k hectares = 84sqmi of coverage.

      How much agriculture is there within truck delivery of Beirut? (Can’t locate Beirut on a map. Why would I ever need to, fuck.)

      • hayeksplosives

        Can’t locate Beruit on a map? That makes you eligible for the Libertarian presidential nominee!

      • pan fried wylie

        Except I wont endorse Biden. #Disqualified

      • thepasswordispassword

        Supposedly impounded off a ship (Beirut is a port city after all). Of course that was 6 years ago and no one followed up on the explosive fertilizer left in a warehouse.

      • pan fried wylie

        Yeah, if I’m impounding explosives, that’s definitely getting a recurring reminder on my calendar.

      • UnCivilServant

        What’s this “Stay away from harbor” note on my outlook?

      • pan fried wylie

        (Beirut is a port city after all).

        Also, NO HINTS.

      • hayeksplosives

        I snort at the “fertilizer” label.

        What’s more likely to find in the Middle East: a “forgotten” warehouse full of fertilizer, or full of High explosives?

      • Tejicano

        I fully expect it was produced to be fertilizer. I also would bet it was purchased and maybe even processed to be used as an explosive. I only hope it was co-located with their headquarters so some of those sent to meet Allah were the people responsible.

      • R C Dean

        Can’t locate Beirut on a map

        Just look for the mushroom cloud.

      • pan fried wylie

        *lifts finger*

        “It says ‘Portland’?”

      • UnCivilServant

        So it’s in southern Japan?

      • Tejicano

        TBH, there doesn’t seem to be much left to locate

      • R C Dean

        A quick Bing says you’d put @ 2.5 gallons (whatever that weighs) on an acre. That’s for gardening, which is probably more intensive than row crops, but I really don’t know.

    • This Machine

      Milquetoast fence-sitter no more, lol

  34. hayeksplosives

    General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim said: ‘It appears that there is a warehouse containing material that was confiscated years ago, and it appears that it was highly explosive material.’ Prime Minister Hasan Diab vowed in a televised address that ‘those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price,’ and declared Wednesday a day of national mourning.

    • R C Dean

      Prime Minister Hasan Diab vowed in a televised address that ‘those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price,’

      Presumably not including the Prime Minister, who is, after all, in charge of the organization that had possession of the stuff.

      • hayeksplosives

        No doubt. His hastiness in declaring that a scapegoat will be found makes me seriously question what went down there.

        Beruit has been an arms dealer hotspot for years, as a multiethnic country that was formerly not hostile to the US and Israel.

        Through the slow inexorable truth of demographics, Lebanon is now majority Muslim and more or less tired of the US.

        Someone take away Trumps phone before he tweets us into intervention!

      • Jarflax

        It would be better to have a Beirut intervention that starts with a big explosion than last time when it ended with one.

      • hayeksplosives

        Barracks bombing—One of the few news items that lodged its way into my young brain.

        I remember asking why were American soldiers there if the people don’t want them?

    • Jarflax

      2700 Tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate is what I am reading. According to this pure Ammonium Nitrate is 56% the explosive power of TNT, so my utterly non-scientific assessment would be that this may be in the vicintity of a 1.3 kilotonne explosion, or a bit under 10% of the Hiroshima bomb.

      • Tres Cool

        Its reasonably stable on its own, from what little I know. You mix it with an azide, or in the case of Tim McVeigh, an accelerant like diesel. By the same token, potassium nitrate used in black powder really is benign until you combine it with some charcoal and sulfur. Im certainly not a chemist, but that explosion came from something that had already been mixed.

      • Not Adahn

        True, pure ammonium nitrate is not an explosive. However, 0.2% of organic contaminant takes it from a DOT class 5.1 (oxidizing solid) to a DOT class 1 (explosive)

      • Tres Cool

        What are you? A cop?