Monday Morning Links

by | Aug 17, 2020 | Daily Links | 418 comments

Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! And what a beautiful morning it always is.

 

The mostly virtual DNC Convention starts today where they’ll feature both kinds of modern Democrats: crazy and batshit crazy.

 

If you were on Twitter this weekend, you would have enjoyed the conspiratorial batshit variety.

 

Some more batshit.

 

Democrats remind me of a cornered animal.  People who are winning do not act like this.

 

Probably because they are not.

 

America’s cities are dying.

 

Maybe it is for the best.

 

There is a reason why her constituents threw a parade for her.

 

That is all I for for today.  I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.

About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

418 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Good morning, Banjos.

    • Banjos

      Mornin’

  2. Count Potato

    “Without a packed arena full of delegates and grassroots activists, discord will be harder to achieve. “You kind of need a wildfire to emerge and that can’t really happen when people are as distanced as they are,” Sroka said.”

    Just as planned?

    • Rhywun

      All to keep the “moderates” in charge. *snort*

  3. Sean

    Postal service sabotage is the new Russian collusion.

    • AlexinCT

      These people have nothing to offer other than they will save us from the figments of their own warped imaginations…

    • PBRstreetgang

      They’re spring loading this an excuse in case Biden loses.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of teh krazy

    As Democrats convene for one of the most important political conventions in history, they are as strong as the Rock of Gibraltar, as noble as the ideals of Mount Rushmore, and as united as previous generations of Democrats who nominated the great Democratic presidents of American history.

    While the conventions this year are unlike any others, in large measure because of a Republican president whose negligence has allowed a deadly virus to spread across our country and bring economic pain to Americans across our land, in the most critical way this convention is different than the historic conventions of the past.

    Former Vice President Joe Biden, who will soon be the nominee of a party spending the coming months in a great crusade to revive the American economy, protect American democracy and restore American ideals to the presidency, has said this campaign is nothing less than a battle for the soul of America.

    Truer words were never spoken.

    America has never had a president like Donald Trump who works to bitterly divide our nation race against race, citizen against citizen, state against state as a core political strategy. Or a president who even abuses the Postal Service to attack the right to vote, and works to delegitimize and destroy an election he appears poised to lose. Or a president who praises dictators and mocks the very notion of America as leader of the free world.

    The very soul of the nation is at stake!

    Bad Orange Man must go.

    • AlexinCT

      That pretty much summarizes their agenda..

    • Rhywun

      Donald really needs to stop pushing identity politics.

      • Count Potato

        #OrangeLivesMatter

  5. Nephilium

    I’m still trying to grasp the reason for Pelosi to bring the House back into session. Does she think she can do something for the USPS with the Senate still on recess? Does she think there’s a deep love and respect for the USPS out here in flyover country?

    • Sean

      Narrative.

      • Nephilium

        I get the showboating and media portion of it….

        /thinks it over

        /looses more faith in voting population

      • Nephilium

        /loses more faith in his typing before caffeine.

    • AlexinCT

      She has recently been very very wrong in her beliefs of what the public feels, because she is surrounded by echoes about the dnc Panem beliefs….

    • juris imprudent

      They just know there is a pony in that room somewhere.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      I think it’s a Trojan Horse to pass round 4 or 5 of the stimulus relief (whatever we’re at now). The Dems overplayed their hand and got burned when Trump issued the EOs. They are going to roll some new stimulus measures into this. The stink about the PO is to save face with the stimulus legislation and also pave the way for voter fraud in the fall.

      • Nephilium

        That’s just it. The House passed a bill, the Senate passed a bill. They couldn’t negotiate a compromise between them, so Trump pulled out his pen and phone. Unless they’re going to pass the Senate bill, anything they pass will still need to be passed by the Senate.

        Of course, Pelosi blames the lack of compromise on “complete disarray on the Republican side” (TW: CNN).

  6. Count Potato

    “Everyone depends on the USPS. Seniors for their Social Security, veterans for their prescriptions, small businesses trying to keep their doors open. They can’t be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.

    — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 14, 2020”

    For their Social Security, asshole? You’re the one who changed it so they no longer mail checks.

    • Sean

      Everyone depends on the USPS.

      *Raises hand*

      I don’t.

      • TARDIS

        What about Jeff Bezos? I think he loves him some USPS, do don’t he?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Only while he gets his sweetheart deals with them.

    • Below Sea Level Hell Centro

      Fedex and UPS cannot ship prescriptions to veterans. It is known.

      • Nephilium

        I know they (FedEx/UPS) were forbidden by law to carry “first class mail” for a while (owner of a company I used to work for got in trouble once for sending mailings through one of them since it was cheaper than USPS). I’m not sure if that’s still the case or not.

      • Brett L

        Yep. Anything with a stamp on it or metered “first class mail” must go by USPS.

  7. robc

    RE: American Cities dying. strongtowns.org has always suggested that Detroit was not an outlier, but was a leader. Many/most American cities were following the same path, but were a few decades behind. I don’t think that is entirely accurate, but not wrong either.

    • AlexinCT

      Look at how long the dnc has had sole control of a city, and you will clearly see the progression on the Detroit scale to oblivion.

      • robc

        I don’t think it is (entirely) a Dem problem. In this one particular case.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The current problems have more to do with pension obligations than anything else.

        That said, it looks like Amazon is going to flee Seattle and take their golden goose with them.

      • juris imprudent

        Not like Seattle has any experience with downturns with the largest regional employer.

      • Rhywun

        Something something turn out the lights something.

      • Chafed

        I might die laughing if that actually happens.

      • juris imprudent

        Re-dub the whole Black Knight scene with Amazon as Arthur and Dumbshit Socialistwannabe (the council member) as the Black Knight – “come back, I haven’t finished taxing you!”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Detroit was just proof that even an extremely wealthy city can go to hell in a relatively short time.

      Not many people paid attention to that observation though.

      • robc

        Cleveland also. Although they didn’t hit the bottom that Detroit did.

      • Nephilium

        I’m sure there’s a very good paper someone could write comparing what happened in Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh.

        /I am not that person.

      • invisible finger

        Include the southern half of Cook County as well.

    • Rhywun

      From the article:

      “large portions of the prison population have been released”

      Apparently, it’s deliberate. (Bonus game – see if you can spot the systemic racism!)

      BTW, I think the extremes on this issue are both full of shit.

    • straffinrun

      The bigger the population, the more public choice theory flexes its muscles. Inevitable.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    How will the antifa peace and freedom brigades know where to stage their riots?

    • Sean

      Wherever there is a Bloomberg purchased AG.

      • AlexinCT

        Sorros. Sorros is the one buying the AG elections…

      • Drake

        This.

        A place where looters won’t be proscecuted but anyone defending themselves will be.

    • Rhywun

      Well, they can whip up a couple more signs and take them to the existing riots that take place every night.

    • TARDIS

      Per Millie, government contractors are handling this psyop.

  9. Count Potato

    That Axios article sucks balls.

  10. robc

    Here is what I don’t understand: **IF** you think the USPS stuff is to effect the election, there is one simple trick to defeat it: show up at the polls instead.

    It is weird* that the Dems are putting all their eggs in the mail vote basket. According to their theory, it shouldn’t change anything. But obviously, they think it does.

    *it isn’t weird

    • AlexinCT

      They want to make sure their odds to rig this election are higher than the previous one where somehow Hillary lost the ont they thought they had handed her. That’s all this is…

    • juris imprudent

      Telling people to show up at the polls would counter the message of COVID-terror. Nothing must counter that message (until maybe after the election).

    • Rhywun

      Flipped on my TV this morning – it defaults to the local cable news channel* – and there was my local Congresscreature ranting about this. He’s one of those “blue wavers” desperate to keep his seat. Asshole.

      *I really need to change this

    • straffinrun

      You wanna get them to change their attitude? Tell them Blue Lives Matter includes mailmen.

      • AlexinCT

        USPS Lives MATTER!

    • invisible finger

      I got a registered-voter form in the mail last week that explains that if you want a mail-in ballot you have to return the form.

    • Fourscore

      I thought all the USPS employees were good union Democrats, why would they want to mess up an election that they, the Demos, have such a commanding polling lead?

      • Rhywun

        A good union that has formally endorsed Biden. Nothing to see here….

    • Certified Public Asshat

      It’s not like I have ever received my neighbor’s mail or anything like that.

      • AlexinCT

        Or mail, from people that live on completely different streets occasionally as well. Including some drop offs for critical medical supplies a couple of times or two for other people. And I am sure other people have been receiving my mail the same way…

        Best question I saw asked was: “Would you mail cash USPS and trust it to get there? Cause if not, then why would you trust them with your vote?”

    • SDF-7

      Here in the People’s Republic of California, I got a mailer last week that basically said voting would be by mail — and if you didn’t like that and wanted to use a polling place, some might be available (you have to check a website later)… at which you can fill out a provisional *vote by mail* ballot. So if you don’t like it — you can go right onto to the “we’ll probably ignore you” pile. They’re pretty shameless this time around, the harvesting in 2018 they got away with has inspired them.

      • leon

        Do you live in a Red District? They like to call out Texas for closing Poling stations in Blue districts, without ever acknowledging that this happens in Blue states to red Distircts.

      • SDF-7

        I’d say purple — we had a R rep (Jeff Denham) for some time, and got flipped in 2018, but Modesto is blue enough it makes things really close / flips to the nutty side periodically.

      • AlexinCT

        SO it looks like you all already voted for Biden/Harris then?

  11. Fifth Knight of the Derp Table

    ‘In a statement released on Friday evening, the Republican governor thanked President Donald Trump for his unilateral executive action in the face of congressional gridlock but maintained that the Mount Rushmore state is in the “fortunate position” to not need it.’

    That’s a shame. I like the SD govenor so it’s disappointing that she’s rah-rahing this unconstitutional executive overreach. Principals over principles for her too, I guess.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      I haven’t been able to figure out exactly which parts of the EOs are unconstitutional overreach if you can explain?

      -From my understanding, the extended unemployement was already budgeted by Congress and the EO only extends this until the funds run out
      -Payroll taxes are still due
      -Secretary of Education was given the ability by Congress to waive collection of student loan interest

      I don’t agree with all of these (Payroll taxes should be permanently discontinued by any means possible) but I’m not seeing the burning of the Republic here either?

      • robc

        All of them?

        I guess any that are the executive order members of the executive branch to do executive things wouldn’t be. But any that impact on legislation would be.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        This isn’t like DACA where new law was created from thin air. Unless I’m misunderstanding, congress created programs and granted the Executive branch some administrative control over them. Is the constitutional overreach where Congress ceded this power to the Executive branch?

      • robc

        Yes. Congress doesn’t have the ability to cede their power. I would say it is more constitutional underreach on the part of Congress.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Okay, I can agree on that. However, the existence of these programs/departments/etc. themselves seem to be blatant constitutional overreach on the part of Congress.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Yes. Congress doesn’t have the ability to cede their power

        SCOTUS had the ability to fix this last term, but declined to do so.

      • Fifth Knight of the Derp Table

        It’s my understanding that the president cannot create a tax or suspend one imposed by Congress. Yet that is exactly what President Trump has done in suspending the payroll tax by executive order. He can defer the tax but he cannot forgive it. He’s essentially trying unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.

      • Nephilium

        Everything I read said it was just a deferment, that (original reports) said Trump wanted to make it permanent if he won in November.

      • Fifth Knight of the Derp Table

        I’ll keep looking into myself. Perhaps I’m slightly misinformed. Either way, I can’t help but be uncomfortable with the presidency having that power/and or Congress ceding that responsibility.

      • Viking1865

        I’m very uncomfortable about it, but that ship has sailed. Shit that ship has sailed, circumnavigated the globe, spent a decade in Tahiti, another in the Phillipines and has no plan to return to home port any time soon.

        Donald Trump is doing the kind of executive power bullshit that every President since FDR has indulged in to one extent or another. But this time, it’s different because Orange Man Bad.

        Basically, Pen and Phone legislation from the Resolute Desk is only supposed to be used pursuant to the elite castes Bretton Woods/Davos brand of neoliberal consensus policy. Using it for other policy goals is LITERALLY HITLER.

        Politically speaking, it’s abundantly clear at this point that with COVID there are two possible scenarios

        1. The Democrats are actually unable to do basic math, and don’t realize that it’s not anywhere deadly enough to justify the lockdowns. Thus, they cannot be allowed anywhere near power.

        2. The Democrats fully realize that these lockdowns are needless, but are hoping the economic pain inflicted on the American people will drive them to vote against the incumbent. In which case, they cannot be allowed anywhere near power.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        I refuse to believe politicians don’t know about all we’ve talking about.

        But they continue on as if it’s March.

        They’re doing it to proceed their own asses because they don’t want to appear to have done nothing ‘IF’ there’s a ‘wave’ that ‘overwhelms’ the system and makes curves go bonkers.

        It’s all political at this point. All of it.

        And that makes them psychopaths because, again, I refuse to believe they don’t know the damage they’re causing but their careers come first.

      • juris imprudent

        Shit that ship has sailed, circumnavigated the globe, spent a decade in Tahiti, another in the Phillipines and has no plan to return to home port any time soon.

        Only because we accept it. Fuck that.

      • Festus' Mustache

        It’s nothing but a slap-fight at this point.

  12. Scruffy Nerfherder

    “Why the f*** is we so peaceful in this [homophobic slur removed] neighborhood,” Thompson shouted. “F*** your motherf***ing peace, white racist motherf***ers!”

    One of the neighbors was holding a Blue Lives Matter flag and Thompson told him to “stick it up his a**.”

    Thompson suggested to the crowd that the entire town should be burned down. “This whole god***n state burned down for $20 goddamn dollars, you think we give a f*** about burning Hugo down?”

    “Blue lives don’t mean s*** to black people,” Thompson said. “F*** Hugo, Minnesota!”

    He’s just keepin’ it real. It wouldn’t bother me if he caught a bullet any more than it would if a KKK member burning a cross on a lawn did.

    • straffinrun

      All th*** f***ing aste****s make my **nt dry.

      • Festus' Mustache

        I’m sorry your cunt is dry, gaijin…

      • straffinrun

        In the metaphorical sense.

      • DrOtto

        It’s **nte

      • pan fried wylie

        THESE PRETZELS. ARE MAKING. ME. THIRSTY.

    • Rhywun

      Blue lives don’t mean s*** to black people

      Tell that to the large majorities who say otherwise in the neighborhoods you’re destroying, and who are completely ignored by the MSM.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Sounds like Jay-Z should record him.

    • Viking1865

      John Thompson is the Democratic candidate for a MN House seat. This is not some random radical activist, this is a Democrat candidate for office.

      This is the worthless GOP response.

      “In a statement on Saturday, Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan referred to the protesters as “radical Democrats” who harassed the community surrounding Kroll’s home. Thompson’s words and the “overall sentiment of today’s Democrats is reprehensible,” the statement read.”

      Dude goes out in public, grabs a microphone and yells at an angry mob to burn a town down. GOP “Oh that’s reprehensible.”

      How about: “The DFL Pary is a party of violent racist communists. John Thompson, the man they chose to carry their parties banner, made explicit and repeated public threats to commit arson and murder. The DFL Party hates you, and wants you dead. Come out in November, and vote Republican.”

      The national GOP should be making this guy the face of the Democratic Party, the way the Dems do whenever some random Republican does something weird.

      • Rhywun

        [New York] State Assembly candidate arrested for smashing car windshield at BLM protest

        They can’t help themselves.

      • Count Potato

        CWAA

  13. Drake

    The cities are dying of entirely self-inflicted wounds. While cities have always been centers for progressive politics, there used to be a gritty realism that came from living in NY, LA, or San Francisco. They would elect Republican mayors or at least sensible Democrats when things weren’t run well. That realism seems to have disappeared over the last decade. Maybe it reemerges from this wreakage.

    • Rhywun

      The cities are dying of entirely self-inflicted wounds.

      ^THIS

      The “renaissance” the ended a few years ago proves there is ample demand to live in such places but the Democrats are intent on destroying it for some reason.

  14. Count Potato

    “Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead has evaporated in the past two months, a new poll from CNN shows.”

    I don’t believe anything from CNN. Anyway, Trump needs to get rallies going, while Biden hides in his basement.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Months from two months ago mean shit.

      Trump is going to win. Maybe in a landslide.

      It’s crazy someone would a) stay loyal to the DNC despite it has completely lost its mind or any sense of principles and b) for Joe Biden who has lost his mind.

      Unless they like Harris – which I highly doubt. She’s just as unlikeable as Hilary. She doesn’t have a charming smile or giggle.

      it’s a maniacal one.

      • Count Potato

        “Trump is going to win. Maybe in a landslide.”

        I’m not so optimistic. The social media companies have really cracked down.

      • juris imprudent

        So fucking what – social media, boo hoo. If we as a people are that fucking retarded, we deserve to be rounded up.

      • Count Potato

        “So fucking what”

        Because censorship works. It’s not a matter of intelligence.

      • juris imprudent

        It isn’t censorship, and if that is what people rely on, they deserve what they get. Fuck social media.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        yup. if people don’t like how FB/twatter/et. al. behave, they can simply unplug. It’s not that hard.

      • Count Potato

        It is censorship. What should they rely on, the mainstream media?

      • pan fried wylie

        They, could, like, talk to each other. With their mouths, to their faces.

  15. Count Potato

    “According to The New York Times, 420,000 people left New York City between March 1 and May 1.”

    Woah.

    • robc

      My niece was one of them. She went to a wedding in her original hometown in MD in early March and the city locked down while she was gone. Her job is now saying that the office won’t reopen this year, so she might go back in January. She still works in Manhattan, in theory. Just remotely.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Escape from New York.

  16. Festus' Mustache

    Mornin’ Banjos! Why do I loathe every one on that speakers list? It’s a fucking mystery. Hope your day goes better than mine will.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Solid music choice, too! Banjos brings the fire!

    • Banjos

      Mornin’

  17. Count Potato

    “Even in New York, where suburban sales (particularly to Connecticut) are rising rapidly, Governor Andrew Cuomo has been reduced to begging wealthy Gothamites to not depart for less taxed states.”

    I don’t think that would be Connecticut.

    • Count Potato

      “Rioting turns out not to be a good economic strategy. ”

      No shit.

    • Rhywun

      The dirty secret you rarely see in the MSM is that nearly half the budget is funded by those types. So what do they call for? Another “millionaires tax”. ??‍♂️

      • juris imprudent

        They can’t let California have all the fun!

  18. Festus' Mustache

    *Barney Voice* “Ya want an omelette, Homer? I make a mean omelette!”

    • Count Potato

      I use three kinds of cheese!

      • Festus' Mustache

        ^^^

      • Count Potato

        It’s sad I can remember that and not the Seventh Amendment.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    What is needed is a broad alliance among the remaining sane elements in cites, with a greater focus on protecting both job creators and strong neighborhoods. The old policies of urban Democrats, focused on jobs, schools and infrastructure, would resonate nicely, particularly in working class communities. Ultimately, conservatives should seek out partnership with these forces and cultivate support in working class neighborhoods, now threatened the most by urban decline, the pandemic and surge in lawlessness. Such a political alliance will be necessary if we wish to salvage the heritage of our great cities.

    Wut?

    • Viking1865

      “The old policies of urban Democrats, focused on jobs, schools and infrastructure, would resonate nicely, particularly in working class communities”

      You have to actually have good schools and good infrastructure. That’s not what the urban Democrats have done, not for a couple decades. See, fixing potholes, cleaning subways, good schools that produce educated kids, these are all racist tools of capitalism in the eyes of the modern Democratic Party.

    • R C Dean

      Y’all deplorables need to support the Democrats running these cities, is pretty much what I take away from that.

      • pan fried wylie

        So, what you’re sayin is, $800k per year per person in reparations? And kill all the whiteys?

  20. Drake

    Andy Ngo’s Twitter is scene after scene of people being beaten by commies – with a few police reports and mugshots mixed in. Most of the arrested are released without bail and never proscecuted. Scroll through if your blood pressure is low or you think you own enough ammo.
    https://mobile.twitter.com/MrAndyNgo

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      There’s not much I hate more than mobs.

      • Count Potato

        Oh come on, you hate everything.

    • Rhywun

      Scratches “Portland” off bucket-list.

      • leon

        Don’t Give up on your dreams Rhywun. Just make Portland the last item on your bucket list.

    • straffinrun

      They really, really hate that guy. No, I’m not talking about Antifa (they love him and need him). I’m talking about the corporate media. I honestly don’t even know what his personal politics are, but the corporate press won’t touch him with a ten foot pole.

      • Count Potato

        I’m pretty sure antifa doesn’t love Ngo.

      • straffinrun

        Yeah they do. It’s like a closeted homosexual that goes around punching gay guys.

      • Count Potato

        They nearly killed him.

      • straffinrun

        You guys are missing my point. They love hating him. Having someone on the ground to act as the boogeyman’ is invaluable to Antifa.

      • AlexinCT

        They feed of each others stupid & evil?

      • straffinrun

        As I said, I don’t know much about Andy’s politics (assume conservative), but Antifa certainly is feeding off him. The “love” part is confusing. How about “find him incredibly useful and something to focus the shock troops attention”?

      • AlexinCT

        I was not talking about Andy. I was talking about the Antifa and political Antifa clans. Andy is actually a guy that tries to just report and for that he is hated with a passion by these people with agendas.

      • The Other Kevin

        They don’t love him. He’d been threatened, assaulted, and hit with lasers. He has a lawsuit against someone in Antifa.

      • straffinrun

        If you were Antifa, would you rather have Andy showing off your work or not?

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I think that’s a strong negative. If Antifa thought videos of their work would be beneficial, then the MSM would blasting it nonstop every night. Instead we have a MSM blackout of Antifa’s activities because Antifa and their benefactors think the blackout is to their advantage.

      • straffinrun

        There ya go. The MSM isn’t showing their work. Antifa wants a violent revolution. The corporate media wants a crony team blue victory. The two have common interests, but different goals.

      • straffinrun

        To be clear, I’m glad Andy is out there covering Antifa. Also, Antifa wants the publicity for a variety of reasons. What good is intimidation if you can’t let people know you’re doing it? MSM is not Antifa. The MSM might actually be something worse.

      • AlexinCT

        There ya go. The MSM isn’t showing their work. Antifa wants a violent revolution. The corporate media wants a crony team blue victory. The two have common interests, but different goals.

        The thing I find hilarious is that the idiots that have opted to side with the anarchists think somehow when they win the anarchists will stop. I know they are counting on the media not reporting these stories positively for the anarchists after that, but the anarchists will not stop demanding the destruction of civilization just cause team blue now is sticking it to us all hard and good.

  21. Rufus the Monocled

    Noem has to run for President.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Noem/Ivanka 2024!

      • Count Potato

        Would/Also 2024

  22. Rufus the Monocled

    Am I the only one who whenever I see politicians in masks I see nothing but pure virtue-signalling politics and the urge to slap them?

    • straffinrun

      Mask or no mask. *And just noticed Apple has this ?. Ugh.

      • Rhywun

        Apparently it’s been a thing for awhile.

        Windows 8.1 depicted a ridged dust mask, as used by construction workers, changed to a medical mask in Windows 10.

      • straffinrun

        That makes me wanna cook up a conspiracy theory to match.

      • Gustave Lytton

        8.1 came out after it was added to Unicode. It wasn’t MS adding it first.

        Blame Japan for it along with emojis in general. There’s a reason for so many Japanese specific ones.

      • Rhywun

        Yes. I wasn’t attempting to blame MS. All emoji go thru Unicode first.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Not you, the linked article which sounded like it was saying Windows introduced it.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        They always had that if I’m not mistaken.

        Imagine being the sort of person to believe if you wear one you’re saving lives.

        smh.

    • Festus' Mustache

      When we were ankle-deep in bat-shit I said nothing. When it became knee-deep I said but little. Now that it has become waist-deep I worry. When it gets up to my nose it will be too late. Sink or swim.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Am I the only one who whenever I see politicians in masks I see nothing but pure virtue-signalling politics and the urge to slap them?

    No.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Makes the urge to violate NAP hard to resist.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Sometimes we all need a slap off the side of the head to be set straight.

      • EvilSheldon

        Politicians are not human beings, so the NAP doesn’t really apply to them.

      • Count Potato

        I feel the same way about communists.

      • straffinrun

        ?

      • pan fried wylie

        caught Jojo Rabbit on hbo this weekend, excellent. paraphrasing the gestapo:

        “People are always calling to report a communist behind their refrigerator and it turns out to be a spot of mold. Not far off….”

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Earlier, on the news, I could swear I heard somebody saying the Democrats want a clean bill to rescue the Post Office, but the Republicans are Hell bent on larding it up with a lot of nonessential frippery.

    Truly, we live in a topsy turvy world.

    • Festus' Mustache

      “Why you no allow us to steal election you big bad orange meany?”

    • AlexinCT

      The democrats wanted $3 billion in extra funds – with no strings attached – as part of their ask. Most of that money was to help states that have been mismanaged by democrats for decades write off the mountains of red ink, not to help the USPS in any way, but the people doing crazy shit are the team red cuntes? yeah, sure.

  25. Rufus the Monocled

    Lemme see if I get this straight. Pelosi closes the House until September without a package deal for people but call back an emergency session for the…..Post office?

    Newman!

    • Festus' Mustache

      I did a big bad at the Post Office last night. Hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

    • Festus' Mustache

      I did a big bad at the Post Office last night. Hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Twice, even.

      • Fourscore

        Never eat spicy food before going to work, Son, didn’t I warn you about this? It’ll bite you back

      • Gustave Lytton

        I’m hearing Walter Brennan… wait a sec 4×20 knows about bees too…

      • Festus' Mustache

        Management at Canada Post started offering free cloth masks in the lunchroom. I drew up two post-its. The first one said “Free Talismasks!” and stuck it on the box and then drew an anvil with”Acme Corp” written on the side that I stuck to the wall above it.

  26. Count Potato

    “The contract for the renovations was awarded to a politically connected company”

    The hell you say.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Bold narrative-ing

    At this week’s convention, held with no crowds given the health risks of the pandemic, Biden and other speakers will use the COVID-19 crisis to highlight Trump’s failure as they seek to convince voters to turn him out of office.

    “Donald Trump is responsible for the worst failure of presidential leadership in modern history and still to this day has yet to implement a national plan to control a virus that has killed over 160,000 and left millions of Americans out of work and fighting for their livelihoods,” said TJ Ducklo, Biden’s national press secretary.

    “There are thousands of lives lost and millions more who are needlessly unemployed all because this president cares more about getting himself reelected than he does about the health and safety of his fellow Americans,” Ducklo said.

    “Simply put: It didn’t have to be this bad. We are going to remind the American people that every day until Nov. 3,” Ducklo added.

    Speakers at the convention will also focus on other themes, including racial justice, health care and the economy, but they will repeatedly return to the pandemic as they make their pitches before a captive national audience.

    Monday night’s theme, “We the People,” will feature speakers who “have risen up to face three defining challenges in modern American life,” the coronavirus pandemic being one of them. The resulting unemployment crisis and racial injustice are the other two challenges speakers will highlight.

    The party of hate and fear will terrorize their peanut gallery with a parade of hobgoblins and bogeymen.

    Trump needs to present a message of optimism and hope.

    • Rhywun

      If only Trump didn’t shut down all those businesses.

      Holy shit, they are desperate.

  28. Brawndo

    The Democrats all howling about the USPS all of a sudden just proves to me that that is where the Dems are going to try to steal the election. Massive projection and accusing your enemies of what you plan to do.

    • leon

      The fact that they jumped all over “we need Mail in ballots” back in March, as one of the first things needed to be done, kinda gave away the game. It also tells you how long they planned on keeping up the fear of coronavirus.

      • Rhywun

        Someone found this yesterday.

        2012: Workers face loss of more than 100,000 jobs as Obama joins attack on postal service

        I’m sure CNN and MSNBC are all over it.

    • Roland of Gilead

      Nope. Voluptuous.

  29. straffinrun

    Are you happy?

    • Fifth Knight of the Derp Table

      No.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s just a banana in my pocket.

      • straffinrun

        Are you happy with a banana in your pocket?

      • Festus' Mustache

        Not since it turned brown and soft…

      • Count Potato

        Wait until it turns black. It will be bigger.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Now I’m watching a commercial instructing me in the proper method of washing my hands.

    Is this a great country, or what?

    • Rhywun

      It’s so bad I get a little thrill when I see the rare commercial that doesn’t touch on 2020 in some way.

    • pan fried wylie

      Looking at some peoples’ handtowels, they could maybe use those instructions.

      Protip: the dirt should go down the drain

  31. leon

    Wow. Lots going on in the world.

    Love the contrast between how Corporate Press jumps on “Postal Conspiracy” which is true and bad, and Trump talking about an obscure, unfavored legal doctrine of birth-right citizenship, as “Huge conspiracy Theory”.

    I think this weeks polls will be the first ones to really account for Kamala Harris Being chosen.

    • Rhywun

      That was what I expected 🙂 ??

    • leon

      See, global warming is real.

    • littleruttiger

      Winter really takes the edge off, it gets kind of cold.
      I paid over $5 per gallon for gas in a little “town” just before entering, there was no cell service and I thought it was my last chance, and then realized shortly afterwards when I drove by it that there’s a gas station inside the park that had gas at normal (California) prices. I felt like a rube

      • Fourscore

        I’ve did that a few times, too. Fool me once…twice?…Every time? Past borderline. OTOH, sunk costs are sunk…

    • Rhywun

      Guinness listed 136º somewhere in the Middle East in my copy from 1979.

      /useless brain-junk that doesn’t go away

      • pan fried wylie

        The part of Earth that matters, dipshit.

    • Cancelled

      NEWSFLASH!1!!111

      Totes unexpected hot weather happens in August. ORANGEMANBAD to blame

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      “Does A/C even work when it’s that hot?” Yes, how well? about 25 below ambient temps, you do the math
      /120 + all week, Death Valley, whatever

      • Count Potato

        OK, 130 – 25 = no

    • Gustave Lytton

      Stay out of Furnace Creek.

      as record heatwave sweeping country continues – leaving 54M sweltering in 100F conditions”

      The daily fail really doesn’t have an idea of how big this country is in size or population. 54M, which isn’t much smaller than the UK, is 16%. Nor does it really have nationwide weather, it’s regional at best.

      • Rhywun

        Yep. It’s chilly here today.

  32. Pope Jimbo

    But, but, but John Thompson apologized for not being Minnesoda Nice! Why won’t those mean Republicans just give it a rest? What more does he have to do?

    Thompson posted an apology on Facebook on Sunday, writing that he became an activist and decided to run for the Legislature to fix the criminal justice system, dismantle institutional racism and honor his friend, Philando Castile.

    “I want to make a positive difference and my comments on Saturday were not helpful,” he wrote. “Inflammatory rhetoric is not how I want to address the important issues we’re facing, and I apologize.”

    Minnesota DFL Chairman Ken Martin also issued a statement Sunday saying the party does not condone any rhetoric that is violent, hateful or inflammatory.

    “I’m grateful for the work John is doing to combat systemic racism, and I’m glad that he recognizes yesterday’s rhetoric was inflammatory, hurtful, and does not help move our state forward in the fight for justice,” Martin wrote.

    This is a tough one for me. Bob Kroll is so odious, I almost feel for the protesters.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Somehow, threatening/promising to burn down a town during a mob invasion strikes me as a little more than inflammatory and goes straight to incitement.

    • Fourscore

      Over exuberance, heat of the moment, youthful inexperience. I’m sure John’s apology was heart felt and came from serious soul searching. KKKroll, on the other hand, is white.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    “The COVID story allows Joe Biden to say everything he needs to about Donald Trump in one tight narrative,” said Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. “There’s even a stunning visual contrast — masked and safety-first Dems versus unmasked and reckless GOPers.”

    “COVID isn’t just a public health disaster,” Setzer added. “It’s a devastating, compelling horror movie of a nation brought to its knees by a malicious, incompetent and corrupt government.”

    Fucking Doomsday cultists.

    Why don’t they just kill themselves en masse?

    • leon

      malicious, incompetent and corrupt government

      But as soon as we put Biden in charge it will be a Beneficent, Competent and Honest government. Even though it employes the sam 99% of people as before.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      “It’s a devastating, compelling horror movie of a nation brought to its knees by a malicious, incompetent and corrupt government.”

      Say it together everybody! PROJECTION!

    • Rhywun

      Cue TV commercial from Donald showing dozens of maskless Democrat gasbags.

      Jesus, they can’t be this stupid!?

      • juris imprudent

        They think WE are that stupid.

      • Rhywun

        To be fair, it’s been a winning strategy for them going on 75 years.

      • juris imprudent

        Remember, you can fool some of the people all of the time.

    • EvilSheldon

      I’m gonna go with hysterical, cowardly Democrats versus slightly less dimwitted Republicans.

    • EvilSheldon

      Oh, and…

      “Why don’t they just kill themselves en masse?”

      Once you’re dead, you can’t bitch any more.

  34. robc

    My most recent article is the night shift article, for those who like to violently disagree about things. There is no mention of the single land tax or anything else from my other articles. It is a one-off. And there is a good counterargument to my piece that I considered editing in, but I figured I would leave it to you all. Especially since I have the counter to the counter.

    • robc

      Night shift TONIGHT.

    • straffinrun

      Hey, I’m not your steel man, buddy.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Elizabeth Nolan Brown: But just before and just after that incident they were peaceful!

      • Count Potato

        Is that what she is saying? I guess no hookers have been killed.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        No. But it’s her general stance.

  35. Pope Jimbo

    Twindemic. That is the ticket.

    The new hip scare is that next winter the combination of flu season and Rona will swamp hospitals. So every one get those flu shots! Even you dumb minorities.

    Skepticism to this vaccine runs high, particularly in communities of color because of longstanding distrust and discrimination in public health. A 2017 study in the journal Vaccine noted that, compared with white people, “African Americans were more likely to report barriers to vaccination, were more hesitant about vaccines in general and the flu vaccine specifically, more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and use naturalism as an alternative to getting vaccinated.”

    Looks like the experts are trying to wring at least another six months out of this “emergency”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Minorities don’t want am untested vaccine, whitey’s fault.

    • AlexinCT

      Fuck that. Getting a flu shot is simply a gamble. You have 5 strains (out of billions) they thing will be the bad ones, and if they guess right and you manage to avoid the others, then you might be well off. I took the flu shot for 5 years in a row over 2 decades ago, and EVERY fucking year I got the flu, and within 2 weeks of the shot. Since I stopped taking it I got the flu once, and the thing was not even close to being a bad experience. If I somehow survive to be over 80 I might look at taking the shot again.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Anecdotally agreed, I get the shot now, as work STRONGLY encourages it and I don’t want the hassle of not getting it, and I’ve gotten the flu two of the past three years when I had rarely gotten it before. It makes me wonder at the very least.

      • R C Dean

        And who was President the past three years? Coincidence?

      • robc

        I got the flu bad in 2014 and get the flu shot every year since. I still got the flu in 2019, but it was minor compared to 2014. I heard that was common, 2018-19 flu vaccine missed, but people who go the flu anyway got a less serious case than those without the shot. So I will continue to get it.

        Also, anecdotal evidence that people who got a flu shot last year suffered less from CV than those that didnt.

      • Count Potato

        “Also, anecdotal evidence that people who got a flu shot last year suffered less from CV than those that didnt.”

        I’m skeptical of that. They are very different viruses.

      • Fourscore

        No flu shots ever (that I can remember), how long have they been around? Mrs F and I avoid the flu and rarely get a cold but I did have Lyme Disease symptoms a month ago.

        With just a few little tricks the flu can be mostly avoided.

      • invisible finger

        Just wear a mask instead of getting a flu shot since masks are magic.

      • Nephilium

        No flu shots here (I really hate needles). But then again, I can’t remember the last time I had the flu either.

      • AlexinCT

        I have been donating blood every time I can since I was 17 in military school (where they paid us for the blood so I would donate twice) and have never had a problem with needles. I just feel the flu shot has not been a thing worth wasting my time doing because it is – to me – such a low probability thing.

    • Rhywun

      I’ve never had the shot and got the flu once, about 15 years ago. Knock on wood.

      PS. excellent derp find, Pope. What a pile of horseshit. Someone should ask the Hasids around here whom Deblasio tried to force vaccines on about “distrust and discrimination”.

      • leon

        Yeah, but being anti-semetic only counts when you hurt the feelings of (((those non-practicing non-religious))).

    • Tejicano

      I got the swine flu vaccine back in 1977 when I was on active duty before they stopped that program. I believe that has a lot to do with the reason why I rarely get the flu. The Army made me take the flu vaccine every year up until I retired a couple years ago.

      I believe that I just have a robust immune system – I generally don’t take the recommended precautions like constantly washing my hands or wearing a mask. It seems to me that exposing myself to second-hand viruses is probably a good way to keep my system attuned to bugs that have been going around.

      • Trolleric the Goth

        I got the swine flu back in ’09 when it was going around – I was sick for a week, and it sucked, but since then I’ve only really been sick-sick once since. Every time I get sick now I’m better the next day.

        something about that swine flu juices up the immune system, I swear

      • Tejicano

        “something about that swine flu juices up the immune system”

        I believe this too. And for me I never felt one aftereffect. They gave it to us on a Friday before a 4 day weekend (Turkey day IIRC). I flew home and came back Sunday evening – never having felt any downsides – and seeing that a huge number of other guys in my platoon had been sick in bed all weekend.

      • Tejicano

        “They gave it to us on a Friday”

        Bleah… a Wednesday in this case…

    • leon

      Any one expecting real Journalism, and not Propoganda, has already been propogandaized by the media.

      • straffinrun

        Honest question: who do you trust more, Qanon or CNN?

      • leon

        Hmmm. I think i would trust that Qanon actually believes what they are saying over CNN. So in the sense that i don’t get they are trying to manipulate me for their own gain, i’d have to say Qanon.

      • Rhywun

        I am convinced that the vast majority of the DNC/MSM complex doesn’t believe a word of their shit.

      • straffinrun

        Lies, lies of omission, lies via selective coverage etc. All done for money under the pathetic guise of “the greater good”.

    • Idle Hands

      It’s honestly amazing to me they are this brazen this early. I mean the whole thing was transparently going to lead down this road but they couldn’t even wait a couple of months before engaging in this retarded shit. I genuinely think these people are clinically insane. to the extent Trump lives rent free in their minds it’s just so fucking bizarre.

    • AlexinCT

      Sweet & Sour Poodle!

    • straffinrun

      Possibly true, but damn if I’m trusting the Daily Mail. It’s amazing how you reach a post truth society by flooding the world with half truths.

    • Cancelled

      ‘Some of the dogs are sent to state-run zoos or sold to dog meat restaurants’

      and some will be kept around in case any more Uncles get out of hand.

    • pan fried wylie

      people are eating at restaurants during a food shortage?

      • Rhywun

        The right people are.

    • pan fried wylie

      The show was renewed for a thirteenth season.

      Fucking hell. I thought they ended back around season 5. Or, I guess, that’s around when I stopped watching cable.

      I think I grew out of “hey, here’s the most disturbing shit we can think of” programming anyway.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Democracy in ruins!

    New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she is delaying the country’s parliamentary election by four weeks to October 17 after the reemergence of Covid-19 in the country last week.
    The announcement on Tuesday that locally acquired cases of coronavirus had been confirmed in the New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, prompted the government to introduce strict level three lockdown measures on August 12. This comes after around 100 days without community spread.
    The rest of the country was put into level two lockdown, with both lockdown periods extended until at least August 26 as further cases of coronavirus were confirmed.
    The general election was due to take place on September 19, with Parliament rising on August 6 and campaigning had already begun before the lockdowns were introduced.

    Parliamentary elections are a beast of a different hue, but still… This will be spun as good sense and a legitimate abundance of caution.

    When President Cartoon Villain tossed off a question about it, it was worse than having Nancy Pelosi murdered.

    • leon

      First she bans your guns. Now she’s suspending elections. And if she can do it for four weeks, why not four more weeks when it is clear that there is no improvement. Then till after winter.

      • Rhywun

        Stunning and brave!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Buried in the article is that other parties were calling for the election delay.

      • juris imprudent

        Everyone loves Big Sister!

  37. Sensei

    Coronavirus Chased Off Tourists—Lots of Locals Don’t Want Them Ever Flocking Back
    In Japan’s Kyoto, people are split on whether the visiting masses were worth the trouble

    Paywalled link that may work for a time

    What’s interesting is that is mostly unmentioned in this WSJ article is that large amount of the tourists are Chinese.

    • straffinrun

      Even though I’m chinkless, the people in Kyoto were, by far, the least friendly I’ve met in Japan. Tourist cities are like that I suppose.

      • Sensei

        Thinking about I believe I concur. OTH, Osaka gets a ton of tourist doing their “explosion shopping” and I found the people there remarkably warm. Also fitting the stereotype of the Osaka business person.

        I grew up in a tourist area at the NJ shore. Seasonal tourists are a real PITA. We loved to bitch, but most realize the economics of having the tourist trade.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I grew up in a tourist trap too and totally get the strange dynamic of hating the very people that provide the money that make your town go. By the end of the season you just want to see the touristas gone.

        I wonder if it is better now that there is GPS in every car? One of the most hated thing about touristas when I was growing up is how they would be lost and driving slowly as they try to figure out where to go, while blocking us locals behind them.

        As a kid when some tourista would ask for directions, it was standard procedure to send them way off into the boonies just out of spite. “It is gonna seem like a long way, but you just gotta keep going”

      • Fourscore

        It seems that the most of the tourists are just passing through, they have their cabins or motor homes and bring a lot of their food/booze with them. Restaurants/bars may see a slight uptick but the days of out-of-towners wanting a Chinese made cribbage board that has Podunkville overstamped on it are over.

      • straffinrun

        Yeah, Osaka people are cool. Maybe the remnant of their mercantile past.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My in-laws are in Kobe so we spend time in Osaka when we visit and it seems like a great town.

      • straffinrun

        It’s an eating city. Hard to be too ornery when your tummy is full of takoyaki.

      • Sensei

        My friend took me out for offal. Yum!

      • Gustave Lytton

        And funny too

        /stereotypes

      • Timeloose

        I spent most of my time in Japan in Osaka. I know the city well enough to get around easily. The people there are a lot of fun and laid back for Japanese.

    • Tejicano

      I was tasked to lead a group of people visiting Japan while on an exercise in the Osaka/Kyoto area – this was about 2016. Part of that was a day in Kyoto. The place was infested with tourists of all stripes and languages. Packed about as tight as the mass transit systems could bring them in. It was about as bad as Tokyo Disneyland – lines for anything worth doing or seeing. The better restaurants had started setting aside some number of reservations every day for the local residents because they realized that they had only been seeing tourists. It was rare for me to hear Japanese spoken there.

      I’ve heard that people are saying now is the time to go so you can see Kyoto as the Japanese spot it is supposed to be, not a tourist trap for foreigners.

  38. Rufus the Monocled

    I just realized something. They’re going to cancel Halloween.

    People are already complaining about it.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      My kid is too young to say this to, but we’re I in the position to give advice to kids older than 4 or 5, I’d simply tell them to watch who is doing all of this, and to think about why they’re doing this. Different answers at different ages, but it’s never too early to learn about critical thinking.

    • Hyperion

      So long as the happy Halloweeners dress as antifa and riot, it will be OK.

  39. Brawndo

    A quick rant. A custie approached me at work yesterday to tell me that someone was wearing their mask incorrectly. She pointed out this alleged grandma-killer who was about 40 feet away, and told me to do something about it. If the sight of your fellow citizen breathing unobstructed air sends you into a panic, then go back to your fucking bunker.

    • Brett L

      “I’m willing to take the risk, but you should probably evacuate immediately.”

      • invisible finger

        Better hope the customer is wearing Depends.

    • leon

      Clearly the government needs to come in and redistribute the earnings they get from their ill-gotten gains.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Actually since us taxpayers are going to be shelling out big time to make those Iowegian farmers whole again, maybe someone should confiscate those obscene profits about to be reaped by Minnesoda farmers to pay for that.

        Why shouldn’t farmers get private crop insurance?

    • Fourscore

      Moonshiners hardest hit.

    • invisible finger

      Per my buddy that has corn on his property (farmed by someone else): That corn is merely flattened by the wind, not uprooted; most of it will rise in about 4 or 5 days.

      • Fourscore

        Yeah, I’ve had that happen in my garden, corn absolutely flat, hysterical old man ranting but as you say within a couple days it re-rights itself. Trees, on the other hand, have a greater degree of difficulty.

      • pan fried wylie

        something something bending something breaking something something

    • kinnath

      Daughter still has no power after 7 days. Her Xterra was totaled by the insurance company. Apparently, having the entire interior saturated with buckets of water and shorting the electrical is considered to be too expensive to repair.

      Haven’t heard much from the son, but he last reported a hole in his roof. I know that he lives in a part of town that was still without power.

      My uncle says the power company has scheduled to restore his power on Wednesday.

      I have seen tornado damage before.

      This was like a tornado that was 50 miles wide and lasted 20 minutes.

      • Count Potato

        Yikes, sorry.

    • The Other Kevin

      Just looking at the corn around here, it’s going to be a big year for Indiana, too. The plants were huge even a month ago.

    • pan fried wylie

      “Minnesoda Governor prohibits corn harvest. Crop rots in fields as starving children onlook. Trump at fault. More Orangemanbad at ’11”

  40. The Late P Brooks

    They’re going to cancel Halloween.

    Never mind that. We’ll all be dead by Christmas. Better ask Santa for a body bag.

  41. Sensei

    Recipe question.

    My neighbors accidentally ordered carton of locally made fresh made corn tortillas. One advantage to living in an area with a large Mexican population.

    So Sensei has something like three dozen tortillas. Any thoughts what to do with them other than freeze them and use them slowly?

      • l0b0t

        I worked at a Tallahassee restaurant where we made a dish called Enchiladas Gateau. Similar to your recipe but everything layered into a spring-form pan, smothered in cheese, and baked. They were yummy.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Dude!

      Fill them with vegetables and ocotopus. Tako Tacos!

    • Count Potato

      Eat three a day, that’s only a week and a half.

  42. Apples and Knives

    Welp, with a week to go before school is scheduled to start, my city’s teachers’ union has decided they’re not going to be there in person. The school district had made in person and virtual options available, with half of students/families choosing each.

    Ended up looking into some local Catholic schools last night. I mean, I went to Catholic school and I did learn a lot, but man I hated it. And my wife and I are lapsed Catholics so we wouldn’t get a tuition break without going back to the church and I have no desire to do that. Aren’t a lot of other options though.

    • Fourscore

      My youngest g’daughter and new husband just arrived in Alaska a week ago. Both are brand new teachers in a very remote village, I think classes start after Labor Day but so far no corona in the village. I’m guessing classes will be live and in person.

    • The Other Kevin

      I went to Catholic school and I also hated it. But we did send one of our kids to Catholic school for a few years (as long as we could afford it) and it was great. I think so many people have left the Catholic church, that they have to make those schools competitive. People are no longer sending kids there due to a sense of obligation.

      • Apples and Knives

        I was really surprised at how affordable one school in particular was, and one of my co-workers sends his kids there and really likes it. It’s really inconveniently located though, especially considering my kids have been able to walk to both of their current schools from our house. It’s one of the reasons we bought this house.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      So Joe is hanging with Bloods now. He’s definitely hip.

      • invisible finger

        Joe is just a DNC prop at this point. Kinda like Larry Bud Melman on the old Letterman show.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      What’s her hair smell like I wonder? Get you a good sniff while you can Joe.

    • Rhywun

      I can’t imagine subjecting myself to that malarkey.

      • Count Potato

        Come on, you fucking with some wet ass pussy, look, look, bring a bucket and a mop for you know, man, the thing.

      • Rhywun

        Oh please Joe, call her “articulate” on camera.

    • Cancelled

      He has moved on from Corn Pop to Porn pop

    • Certified Public Asshat

      It’s hard to grab something when it is wet ass.

  43. Sean

    Covid-19 question – how accurate are the blood antibody tests?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I get the impression that the vast majority of tests are shite.

    • The Other Kevin

      My SIL (a nurse practitioner) tells me they are only accurate for a few months after you are infected. So if you think you had COVID early on, there’s no way of knowing for sure. She thought she had it in February but her test came back negative.

    • Idle Hands

      My doctor wouldn’t even recommend me to take a swab test before my physical because to quote her “those are worthless”.

      • Rhywun

        I saw all kinds of theater going on during a recent hospital stay. And almost everyone is perfectly aware of it.

      • Count Potato

        Wow.

    • Idle Hands

      She has legitimately gone insane. I’ve been following this decline for months now. I can’t decide if she’s actually this scared or is just now realizing it’s a giant fucking dud and the actions she has advocated for have completely overturned the apple cart never to return and will lead to total financial ruin for millions and the bankruptcies of countless municipalities. My money on the thing that hurts her the most though is her favorite restaurant closing down.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        McArdle is firmly in the DC cocktail circuit. She appears to have no concept of the outside world.

      • Sensei

        She grew up in the NYC bubble. Seem to recognize the bubble existed, but quickly went back to its warm embrace.

    • invisible finger

      She is one of thousands who are so far up their own asses that their TDS makes them believe a POTUS they don’t like could ruin human immune system evolution.

  44. The Other Kevin

    There’s one of those cut & paste things going around FB now. It’s a long rant but basically it’s lockdown fatigue, and the angle is “there is no exit strategy, why are we making this go on forever?” The message is good, but it’s the interesting thing is the people who are posting it. Some of them were freaked out at the beginning of COVID. One was a nurse that worked in a COVID unit and was at first scared as hell, now she’s posting that. My relatives in health care are all anti-lockdown. Even my SIL, who was a big Karen about social distancing and masks, is now lobbying for her school district to have in person instruction.

    I hope it’s not just wishful thinking, but I think I’m seeing a change now that people are realizing the bodies aren’t stacking up.

    • Idle Hands

      People are coming around now more and more. It’s not wishful thinking. The only people I see opposed to going back to normal are people looking to score political points or people not wanting to go back to work in person.

      • Idle Hands

        Everyone is doing what they want to do at this point and have been for months.

    • Apples and Knives

      The teachers and white, liberal parents in my town still seem to be pretty goddamn sure it will kill anyone who doesn’t hide in their house.

      I will note that one of my daughters best friends, who was also planning on doing in person school until the teachers’ union said nope, has a mother who was a nurse doing covid tests. She’s as reliably progressive as most of the parents around here and she had no issue sending her kid to school.

    • Nephilium

      I’m seeing a stark divide between the groups. I have several acquaintances who are still full on lockdown required mode. Most are work from home capable with no children. On the other side is the group who work service/”non-essential” jobs who are wanting everything to get opened back up.

      • Mojeaux

        Most are work from home capable with no children.

        It is hard to imagine what life is really like with a spouse and children, especially if they’re a tidge more affluent. I can see why they would either not think of it at all (most likely) or think it’s no big deal.

        We are lucky that my husband can work from home, too, and the children are old enough they aren’t too much (in fact, I’ve grown to where it’s very strange for XY to be out of the house) (XX has a full-time job). And I am lucky that the quarantine has spurred people to work on their book projects they’ve been putting on the back burner for “when I have time”.

      • Fourscore

        I tried to imagine my kids as teenagers doing off site schooling, even with supervision. They were a generation or two ahead, they were off site mentally even as they sat through the in -school nonsense. School was only slightly less boring than being at home with me.

        Kids need stimulation to learn, some teachers are good at that, others are as boring as bureaucrats, which I guess they are.

      • Cancelled

        Kids need stimulation to learn

        So Biden is just trying to help little girls with their schoolwork?

    • Akira

      There’s one of those cut & paste things going around FB now. It’s a long rant but basically it’s lockdown fatigue, and the angle is “there is no exit strategy, why are we making this go on forever?”

      The line I keep hearing from Branch Covidians is that we can’t open up until there is a thorough regime of “contact tracing” (give the government authority to monitor your location and contacts at all times – what could possibly go wrong??) and a vaccine (which they imagine is just a few weeks from completion).

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Attempted murder!

    An Oklahoma City high school student went to school last week despite having COVID-19, reports the CBS affiliate there, KWTV.

    The unidentified Moore Public Schools student attended Westmoore High School Thursday, the district said in a letter to parents Friday.

    The letter said the student “knowingly” had COVID-19 at the time.

    Everyone will die, now. Those poor brave teachers.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I bet it will be a worse blood bath than the Minnesoda rodeo that got everyone’s panties in a bunch.

      To my knowledge only the one person was ever confirmed to have the Rona. Despite all the heavy breathing about the expected apocalypse of cases from those rubes, not one other case came up. I am sure that if there had been, it would have been plastered everywhere as an example of why Big Daddy Govt is always right.

      I think we should be replacing Columbus statues with statues of the rodeo organizer:

      According to the Star Tribune, Pitzen, whose family has been running this rodeo since 1955, did not take kindly to this, “profanely” ended the conversation, and then posted the following announcement on the North Star Stampede Facebook page:

      “Thanks to John Olson from the Mn Dept. of Health and Jason Pleggenkuhle from the Attorney General’s office pushing their political agendas, the North Star Stampede will take place with no spectators,” it read. “If people would like to come and protest against this ridiculous Government Over Reach [sic], feel free to do so, I will not stand in the way of peoples’ ‘Right to Assemble.’”

      • juris imprudent

        Protests do not transmit the ‘rona; it is known.

  46. AlexinCT

    NO FUCKING WAY!

    I would tell them to bring jars of vaseline to make it less painful when they get ass raped.

    • Rhywun

      Instead, students were encouraged to use the walking escort service offered by the University Police if they feel unsafe on the campus.

      Our night-time escort service in Buffalo was all-voluteer; I did it one semester.

      Nut up, people.

      • AlexinCT

        You are asking the crowd that wants government to do all the heavy lifting for them to actually do stuff Rhywun?

    • leon

      Ahh i see. Close your eyes and think of electing Joe from 30 years ago.

      • Fourscore

        The young bald Joe Biden. Got it, his nickname was “Wildfire” or “Wildflower”

    • Sensei

      “If Biden loses the presidential race, the same will be true: He’ll go on. He’s survived far, far worse. The real question isn’t about him. It’s about us. Can we?”

      • Rhywun

        LOL

        We don’t deserve him.

        It’s like 2016 never happened.

  47. Idle Hands

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30223-6/fulltext

    The spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan and Seattle was far more extensive than initially reported. The virus likely spread for months in Wuhan before the lockdown. Given that COVID-19 appears to be overwhelmingly mild in children, our high estimate for symptomatic pediatric cases in Seattle suggests that there may have been thousands more mild cases at the time.

    So….. We dealt with this for months and mostly didn’t even notice? some pandemic. I’m actually really beginning to suspect that history is not going to be kind to these cocksuckers. I don’t think they are actually going to be able to spin this. They will try but I think you’re going to have to many pissed off people who come to understood how belligerently retarded the whole thing was.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    School is where you go to die

    “Some days I get anxious and teary. Other days I’m all over the place,” she said. “I want to see the kids in person, but if there aren’t any guidelines in place, we shouldn’t go back. We aren’t prepared as a nation.”

    Lally isn’t the only one concerned. In interviews, educators and school staff members described intense fears about the virus’s spreading among children, parents and staff members, as well as doubts that their districts are being given the tools to protect them.

    “My parents are older. I don’t live with them, but I see them a lot, and I’d be worried to accidentally spread something to them,” said Jamie Wong, 33, a high school and middle school English teacher in Somerset, New Jersey. Her school, which is offering a blend of in-person and remote learning, has already had its opening pushed back a week.

    Wong said she’s worried that schools won’t be able to follow through on a plan for long without first controlling the outbreak nationally.

    “I’ve talked to a few students whose parents have chosen” remote learning, Wong said. “They’re saying, ‘What’s the point of going to school since we’ll all be back and home as soon as someone tests positive?'”

    As schools open around the country, many educators sounded trapped between bad options: either return to facilities they don’t feel are safe during an alarming national wave of new cases and deaths or return to remote learning, which they fear would leave students falling further behind.

    “I’m torn, because teachers do the magic in the classroom, and you’re right there to help the kids, but for me it’s not worth the risk,” said Mary Walther, a high school German teacher in Phoenix.

    Yeah. Magic.

    Maybe you should have been teaching something other than the Precautionary Principle and How to Love Big Brother.

    • littleruttiger

      This brings to mind the nurses/doctors who were breaking down and crying, and posting the videos on social media, back in Covid’s early days. Some people just aren’t cut out for the job, and if you’re one of them, you need to find something else to do.
      The skill sets most teachers bring are pretty fungible, if you don’t want to work, they should replace you with someone who does

      • Trolleric the Goth

        Watching a bunch of people die in succession, in total isolation from their loved ones, probably took a big emotional toll on those people.

        (maybe don’t film your breakdown though)

      • littleruttiger

        That’s very true, I guess the filming and posting struck me as attention seeking

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      My son just texted. He’s in the first day of his government class in senior year of high school.

      He said it’s already pure propaganda.

      • Fourscore

        Smart kid, raise right with good genes.

      • Fourscore

        Smart kid, raise right with good genes.

      • pan fried wylie

        Same curriculum as the last 50yrs, what’s your point?

  49. KibbledKristen

    Can’t wait to go to SD next month…their gov is one of the reasons I chose it!

    • Count Potato

      Boom chika wow wow?

    • Pope Jimbo

      If the GOP was smart, she’d be given hours to speak every day of their convention. Not only is she good looking, she says super hawt things like “Americans shouldn’t be ruled by the government”. And she could tout how her state has done better than most without any lockdown, mask mandate or other Pandemic Theater shenanigans.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Unfortunately the GOP doesn’t agree with her.

      • juris imprudent

        The GOP deserves to die, it really does. We’re not as bad as Democrats is no standard to aspire to.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      I think we’re going to return home via SD, drop some tourist bucks on them as a reward for staying open.

  50. Count Potato

    I noticed it’s very difficult to find active covid cases by state. Almost every website only lists the cumulative number of cases.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Yes. And each day reaches a new “record”. Striking really, because the number of active cases has a more direct linkage to new infections and impact to hospitals and morgues.

      Local rag is continuing with that sort of headline, meanwhile the state’s periodic forecasts continue to be strikingly wrong but it’s mostly ignore because the state is claiming their models are not predictive but used just for allocating resources or some other nonsensical reason.

      • pan fried wylie

        And each day reaches a new “record”

        My age keeps going up every year, whatdafuq?

    • Tejicano

      I noticed this back in the beginning and that’s why I’ve had very little interest in “the numbers”. Some places did post “numbers recovered” but those lagged the reported numbers by several weeks which doesn’t make sense. They generally don’t even post how many they’ve been testing – so you can’t do a “percentage of positive vs tested”. It’s all horseshit.

      • juris imprudent

        There is an honest problem with data collection, particularly for recovered. We just don’t track it. Who the fuck calls up their doctor (let alone some fucking bureaucrat) and says “hey, mark me down as all better now”.

      • Rhywun

        I thought recovered = negative test? I was in a hospital room with one of those.

      • pan fried wylie

        See, there’s this part of the doctor’s job called “Follow-up”…

  51. The Late P Brooks

    A teacher at a private school in Brooklyn, New York, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation, said pressure from parents to reopen this semester had created tensions with staff members who were more reluctant to return. While she’s glad to be teaching young students in person again, she’s worried that it’s “virtually impossible” for them to follow social distancing rules.

    “I know it is extremely negative thinking, but I don’t feel appreciated by the parents who demanded we get back to work during a pandemic with seemingly zero regard for how we felt about it,” she said. “I feel as if teachers are the sacrificial guinea pigs.”

    Educators have emerged as a powerful voice against some of the more aggressive reopening plans, with many complaining that their safety isn’t being fully taken into account.

    Boo fucking hoo. If only those “educators” had some sort of an option….

    • Rhywun

      Educators have emerged as a powerful voice

      It’s not like big-city governments have been controlled by teachers unions for decades or anything. They are just brave, lonely voices of resistance.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Think those precious teachers felt bad for the clerks and other workers at the supermarket? Or the gas stations?

      Fuck those teachers in the neck. About time that they learn that there is nothing “special” about them or their profession. I can’t believe the Trump campaign isn’t proposing vouchers that parents can use however they want. And to couch it in naked racial terms. “The Dems don’t want black parents to be able to send their kids to private schools with their kids”

      • Mojeaux

        Think those precious teachers felt bad for the clerks and other workers at the supermarket? Or the gas stations?

        Teachers like their martyr status.

      • mrfamous

        Re: walking on the moon

        “I mean I realize it’s not 11th grade biology but…”

        LOL

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        Teachers are so poorly paid that they need to use their own money to buy their groceries.

      • Mojeaux

        Right?!

        Heroes!

      • Viking1865

        Trump:

        ““If schools do not reopen, the funding should go to parents to send their child to public/private, charter, religious or home school of their choice, the keyword being choice,” Trump said. “If the school is closed, the money should follow the student so the parents and families are in control of their own decisions. So, we would like the money to go to the parents of the student. This way they can make the decision that’s best for them.”

        Hey, if people don’t like Trump, that’s fine. But as a sitting President ever said anything like that regarding school choice? Ever?

    • one true athena

      Oh it’s too dangerous to work! said the teacher who just ate in a restaurant, had a girl come do her nails at her place, and has bought groceries once a week since March.

      A. Shut up.
      B. With 15% unemployment there are plenty of people who can do your job. Bye.

      • Mojeaux

        It’s occurred to me to go sign up to be a sub in case I’m in need of some extra cash. If I played my cards right, I could get the district to pay for my teaching cert so I could go full time. But then they’d make me go get a master’s degree and I hate school, so that’s right out.

    • KSuellington

      Rand last week put forth a bill in the Senate to send federal bux to individual parents instead of states and school districts. I expect it to go nowhere unfortunately, but that would be a huge improvement.

      And yes, fuck teachers who don’t want to work. I can only hope one silver lining from this giant shitcloud is teachers dropping a couple pegs on their pedestal and maybe teachers’ unions losing a bit of pull.

      • pan fried wylie

        and maybe teachers’ unions losing to a pitbull.

    • Timeloose

      No.

    • PieInTheSky

      not really

  52. Count Potato

    “This is outrageous. Child services has instructed teachers to call the cops if kids are skipping Zoom classes. They are also supposed to be on high alert for neglected kids who appear sad or distressed (who doesn’t right now?)”

    https://twitter.com/robbysoave/status/1295358507626180609

    To be sure, some kid will get shot.

  53. Rhywun

    “Let’s mask up together!”

    /casino commercial that just ran

    • Fourscore

      Fox just showed an empty Newark airport, not a soul. I told my wife, “Now show a casino”

  54. Crusty Juggler

    BLM mob beats white man unconscious after making him crash truck: video

    As the mob dispersed to watch another fight, the main offender circled back around — kicking the defenseless driver in the face from behind, instantly knocking him out with his head cracking on the road.

    “What the f–k is you talkin’ about, n—er!” the attacker screamed after the thud of his victim’s head hitting the ground.

    The victim was then shown bleeding from a large wound in the back of his head as he appeared unconscious throughout another almost 2½-minute clip. His wife was shown sobbing nearby as the mob held her back and appeared to rifle through his truck.

    Reginald Denny…? Nah we don’t care anymore.

    • pan fried wylie

      “Black Lives Matter, You Nigger!”

      wut?

      • Rhywun

        I assumed it was “nigga”.

      • pan fried wylie

        Which makes all the difference.

        I’m pretty done, thinking of setting up a cam to catch the next person who litters in front of my house and just curb stomp them to death.

      • pan fried wylie

        also, “What the f–k is you talkin’ about, n—er!”

        “-er”, my nyukka.

  55. Sean

    https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-snedecor-party-switch-st-0814-20200813-pe7rdcs6qfhnvetne4kmawvnr4-story.html

    Hobart mayor switches political parties: Snedecor now a Republican

    Snedecor, a former city police chief, said his decision was not a rash one, and he said he may not be the only Lake County Democratic elected official switching parties, although he wouldn’t reveal any names.

    “Over the past several months I’ve become increasingly convinced that the Democratic platform is moving more and more to the left. It’s driven many people, both moderates and conservatives, away from the Democratic party,” Snedecor said.

    Was this discussed? I don’t recall seeing it.

    Interesting that he might not be the only one.

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s right by me. And that’s in Lake County, which might as well be part of Chicago.

      I think if Trump wins, especially if he wins by a lot, you will see more of this. This guy had guts, but I think most people are still afraid of the mob.

    • Agent Cooper

      “James Wieser, chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party, said the switch surprised him, adding he would wait until after the mayor’s speech to give his comment.

      State Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, said he has always had a good working relationship with Snedecor and will continue to work with him and be his friend.”

      Do these people even know how to politics, bro?

  56. PieInTheSky

    The US and EU are preparing to repeat the Juan Guaidó strategy to try to overthrow Belarus’ government:

    The Western-backed neoliberal opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya wants to be recognized as interim president.

    Meet the Belarusian Guaidó

    https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1295379880469762049

    • leon

      I’m not hip to Belarusian Politics, but I thought the guy was “the last Easern Bloc Communist Dictator”. Why are we all the sudden getting twisted up that his elections aren’t fair.

      • PieInTheSky

        Well I am not twisted myself. Ben Norton on the other hand is the worst person on the internet

      • leon

        Oh Ben Norton is a commie piece of shit, so i get why he’s upset about the west not accepting belarus, but i don’t know why the West, just now decided to take an interest, when the guy has been in power for decades.

      • grrizzly

        This was Lukashenko’s fifth re-election. Probably it was as much rigged as in the past. But this time Lukashenko defied the entire world by not succumbing to the COVID psychosis. No lockdowns, no social distancing. The soccer championship was not suspended. Check the numbers how Belarus did. Better than Sweden.

      • Viking1865

        Provoking a war with Russia allows them to accrue more power and wealth into their hands.

    • grrizzly

      Ridiculous. What’s the color of this “revolution”?

    • leon

      And this just is of a piece with the the vice president not not doing really any serious interviews, not answering any questions since the rollout. I don’t you know, you can you can try and I understand and has worked pretty well. And he continues to lead with what I’ll call the basement strategy. I don’t think you can hide from now until Election Day. I just I just don’t think it’s possible.”

      I’d like to agree, but the results seemed to speak for themselves up until a week or two ago.

      • Viking1865

        The goal was to run as Generic Democrat. Generic Democrat always polls very well. At some point he has to actually engage Trump in a debate, and this is a guy who can’t even take 10 minutes of questioning from a room of leftist reporters.

        Not saying it’s in the bag, not at all. But I still think the majority of the American people will not vote for a man who is actually mentally disabled, and I think even 20 minutes of Biden with a microphone, uncensored and not being guided by handlers, will make it abundantly clear his decrepitude.

      • leon

        Not saying it’s in the bag, not at all. But I still think the majority of the American people will not vote for a man who is actually mentally disabled, and I think even 20 minutes of Biden with a microphone, uncensored and not being guided by handlers, will make it abundantly clear his decrepitude.

        What makes you think that at the debates, he will be unguided and without handlers?

      • Viking1865

        What, put an earbud in? Have his wife standing there next to the podium answering for him?

      • leon

        You think the moderators won’t have already passed the questions to them? That they won’t be guiding him in his answers?

        From what has happened

    • Rhywun

      Because he’s the shittiest campaigner since Herself?

    • Idle Hands

      I’m more and more thinking they don’t actually think they have a realistic shot at winning.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Dummy says something dumb

    Cities and states across the country “are never going to get everything that we need from the federal government” when it comes to combating Covid-19, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Sunday.

    “If we waited for them, we’d be in dire straits,” Lightfoot told Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It would be great if there was not the chaos that we’ve seen at the federal government — the White House fighting the CDC, the HHS hijacking the reporting process. And still, we don’t have a consistent testing regime. We still don’t have a federal mask policy.”

    “The chaos at the federal level has not been helpful to anyone — not Chicago, not Illinois, not states across the country.”

    It’s almost as if she doesn’t understand how the government in this nation was intended to work.

    • Count Potato

      “almost”

      • Rhywun

        I would say she does but deliberately chooses not to because that is the narrative her voters need to hear.

    • mrfamous

      Did they ask her why the problems her city is having don’t happen in every other city if indeed the federal government is to blame? Or did she only agree to appear if they promised not to ask her any hard questions?

  58. Idle Hands

    The school thing is really enfuriating for a number of reasons, but the biggest one for me is the fact that every single admin and bus driver is still getting paid in full to not work in my county. Personally know a bus driver who is driving special needs kids and they told me that they are working and getting paid the same amount as the drivers staying at home. As a taxpayer whose worked everyday throughout this thing It makes my fucking blood boil.

    • pan fried wylie

      Personally know a bus driver who is driving special needs kids and they told me that they are working and getting paid the same amount as the drivers staying at home.

      Isn’t this phrased kinda backwards? Where the fuckers staying home are “getting paid the same amount as the people still working”.

      Also, why’s a schoolbus driver getting paid over the summer anyway?

      • Idle Hands

        yes and summer’s over.

      • pan fried wylie

        Maybe in gofuckyourselfland.

    • Idle Hands

      so we were rolled by a psyop.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    I’m more and more thinking they don’t actually think they have a realistic shot at winning.

    They (the DNC’s media stenographers) persist in referring to Biden as the “presumptive” nominee, even on the eve of the convention.

    I cannot help thinking there might be surprise unveiling in the next few days.

    • Rhywun

      Loading…

      Jesus. ?

    • Akira

      I’m still mulling over the theory that they’re not even trying to win. I mean, at a time when people are enraged like never before about minorities getting fucked over by the criminal justice system, they picked the two people who had a hand in creating that situation. They’re either trying to throw the fight on purpose, or they’re the stupidest, most out of touch people in history*.

      Think about it: If Trump wins, they might try to get more Dems on Congress by running on a platform of “oh no, the Bad Orange Man won again, be sure to vote blue so we can stymie his evil plans!

      * Could be both, I suppose…

  60. creech

    Trump can’t just keep his mouth shut; he has to amplify the simplest questions. Some reporter asked about the theory, put forth by some law professor, that Harris is ineligible to be vice president. Trump said he just heard that, didn’t know, but would look into it. Today Sen.Booker is lying all over the news saying Trump had questioned Harris’ birthplace,like he did with Obama. Then the newsbabe said “the White House has walked back Trump’s comments.” More fodder for the independent voter who already is not feeling real good about Trump.

    • leon

      Meanwhile the Media is peddlingt “Trump Steals Mailboxes” as a legitimate problem. Some Conspiracies are better than others.

      (Though rightly speaking, Harris’s birth isn’t a conspiracy, just a leagal opinion that doesn’t hold sway in the country).

    • Agent Cooper

      I don’t think that issue is really a trigger for independents.