Monday Afternoon Links

by | Sep 14, 2020 | Daily Links | 264 comments

Hey guys, how’s things? I am digging out from a loooo-oooo-ooong week. Long week. Oh our data is shit and the people who own the source data… misrepresented the quality during the design phase? Say it ain’t so! Everyone is surprised but me. So sure, we can do a crash project to clean it up. I hope your week was better.

I still wouldn’t watch. Although I did watch Joe’s 2018 Netflix special. I laughed a little. He’s still a good comedian.

I hear it could be yeast.

Coming to a city near you?

For some reason this reminds me of a joke about the only secure server being one locked in steel cage, thousands of feet underwater, and unplugged.

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.

264 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “I still wouldn’t watch.”

    I would.

    • The Other Kevin

      I would too, but if Joe Rogan hasn’t been exposed as a white supremacist yet, he will be soon.

      • Chafed

        He is moving to Texas so it must be true.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Me too. It’s the only debate I would watch.

      • Count Potato

        I think I’m going to watch all of them. If they happen.

      • Not Adahn

        I’ll rely on you all to pick out the best parts.

  2. The Late P Brooks

    Public health officials in the district of Cerme handle the bodies using full-body protective equipment, ensuring there’s no risk of exposure.

    Okay, then.

    • R C Dean

      As we have relentlessly hammered into our staff at the hospital, PPE is necessary but not sufficient for protection from infectious disease. As important is the discipline needed to put it on correctly, take it off correctly, and do your job correctly when it is on.

      As I recall, the ebola outbreak at the Dallas hospital wasn’t due to lack of PPE at all, but poor discipline, especially in taking the PPE off.

      I recall looking into a room with a C. diff. patient, and the nurse was fully garbed in PPE, and had her phone out and was poking and scrolling at the screen. Thus rendering her use of PPE much less effective in preventing her from catching or spreading C. diff.

  3. Ownbestenemy

    “I hope your week was better.”

    I don’t know, ask yesterday for a better answer to that question.

  4. Rebel Scum

    Dan, you mendacious cunte.

    “What this presidential election is about is whether the country’s going to move more in the direction of white supremacy or move more in the direction of a multiracial, constitutional republic based on the freedom and the democracy. That’s the proper frame, in which we now should put this election given what the president says, what he’s been doing — this long list of things. No sense going through the litany, but, you know, he knew in early February how serious the coronavirus was, but he repeatedly misled the American people. He said using an excuse and a lie, he didn’t want to spread panic.”

    “Well, throughout his entire presidency and particularly during this presidential re-election campaign, he’s been trying to get people panicked,” he continued. “Panicked about dangerous people moving into the suburban neighborhood, panic over immigration. He’s asking us to believe that when it came to the coronavirus, he just didn’t want to spread panic. Anybody who believes this will believe that rocks grow, and we’re going to find out how many people are dumb enough to believe that. I’d like to think that most people in the country recognize it for what it is, and that is an excuse, and it’s a lie, and it’s outrageous, and it’s very dangerous.”

    • Count Potato

      “country’s going to move more in the direction of white supremacy”

      How has this country moved more in the direction of white supremacy?

      • Ownbestenemy

        DRUMPF YOU IDIOT!!1!11!!! /CNN

      • cyto

        Serious answer:

        President Obama and his network of organizations along with the Clinton machine have been using a strategy of prodding racial division in order to drive electoral politics. Most obviously with their promotion of the “hands up, don’t shoot” lie, while using an FBI and DOJ investigation of the shooting to silence any counter narrative for a couple of months. When they finally came out and said that “Hands up, don’t shoot” did not actually happen, the battle lines were set.

        They have been following that formula in various forms for decades.

        But this go-around they have been more explicit about the naked partisanship of the whole thing. With the NYT openly talking about their attempt to push the Russia hoax to oust Trump, then openly talking about finding another method for ousting trump… which resulted in 1619. Everyone else followed the plan.

        They gin up the black vote with “They gonna put ya’ll back in chains” type rhetoric every election. It is just louder and more violent this time around.

      • Drake

        So they’ll get “white supremacy” by attacking whites and backing them into a corner until they have no choice. Great. That should really work out well for everyone.

    • B.P.

      “Vote for my guy or you’re a moron” is quite the appeal.

      It’s interesting how, when freed from the need to appear objective and neutral, all former high-profile journalists turn out to be leftists.

      • Rhywun

        Seems like most practicing journalists have been “freed from the need to appear objective and neutral” now, too. Which is fine, when they don’t pretend otherwise.

      • Chafed

        Brit Hume takes exception.

    • Rhywun

      “Courage!”

      The conscience of America, folks.

  5. Count Potato

    “The MIT team followed up the new observation with an exhaustive analysis to see whether anything other than life could have produced phosphine in Venus’ harsh, sulfuric environment. Based on the many scenarios they considered, the team concludes that there is no explanation for the phosphine detected in Venus’ clouds, other than the presence of life.”

    Really? PH3 doesn’t sound that complicated.

    • Florida Man

      It’s probably not aliens, but I think it’s at least plausible that microscopic life could live at one of the less extreme zones of Venus.

      • Count Potato

        I’m no chemist, but there is non-biological reaction that can produce that chemical?

      • Florida Man

        No idea, but I hope it is aliens.

      • Not Adahn

        Only about eleventybillion. Give or take.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        It is also found in Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere, where it forms in the planet’s hot interior and reacts with other compounds in the upper atmosphere.[16] The abiotic synthesis of phosphine takes enormous amounts of energy, such as in the planet-sized convective storms of gas giants.[17] Phosphine has also been detected in the atmosphere of Venus, where its origin is currently unexplained. The paper announcing the discovery suggests that the phosphine “could originate from unknown photochemistry or geochemistry, or, by analogy with biological production of PH3 on Earth, from the presence of life”.[18][19][20] Venus lacks the high temperatures and pressures to form phosphine the way gas giants such as Jupiter do, requiring an alternate explanation for its presence.

        Wikipedia’s blurb is enlightening. Basically, there are abiotic ways, but the energy required is extreme.

      • Count Potato

        Lightening.

      • Not Adahn

        +1.21 gigawatts

      • Gadfly

        Basically, there are abiotic ways, but the energy required is extreme.

        Considering that Venus has surface temperatures in excess of 800F, I’m guessing it may well have extreme energy sources that could fuel this abiotic process.

      • cyto

        And extreme pressure. Pressures like deep ocean on earth, but hot, acidic atmosphere instead of water.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Indonesia has identified over 222,000 cases and 8,841 deaths from covid so far this year, and the country recorded 3,141 new cases on Monday alone, with 118 new deaths for the day. The U.S., a much wealthier country than Indonesia, has identified over 6.5 million cases and more than 194,000 deaths, setting it apart from other wealthy countries that haven’t seen nearly as much devastation.

    While a reluctance to wear masks to protect public health is sometimes seen as a uniquely American problem, there are anti-maskers all over the world in places like Germany, Indonesia, and France. Even Hong Kong has seen some anti-mask videos go viral, despite the fact that Hong Kong health officials were the earliest in the world to advise citizens to wear masks, issuing warnings as early as mid-January.

    Let nothing divert you from the narrative.

    The U S is “much wealthier” and a whole lot bigger. But let’s not muddy the waters with random facts.

    • R C Dean

      The U.S., a much wealthier country than Indonesia, has identified over 6.5 million cases and more than 194,000 deaths, setting it apart from other wealthy countries that haven’t seen nearly as much devastation.

      *Checks rates per million. Clears throat.*

      Bullshit.

      • cyto

        The guys at Skeptics Guide to the Universe have been on this jag. Novella is one of the preeminent advocates for science based medicine, so you would expect better. He is also extremely careful about avoiding partisan politics. But the winds are just blowing far too hard right now, and the TDS is slipping in. Every week for the last few months they have let slip a little more and a little more anti-Trump nonsense.

        This week they went all in on “no other wealthy country has been nearly as bad as the US”. I posted the actual answer earlier… the US is in the middle of the pack of the hard hit “first world” nations. Right near France, better than the UK by quite a bit. Not so bad as Italy or Brazil.

        But the people who are motivated compare raw case numbers between the entire USA and a little European country like Luxembourg. There are only 2 larger countries, and I don’t believe the numbers being reported from either. There’s no way the pandemic hits the massive cities of India and produces no active cases. It is just so utterly implausible.

        But everyone is repeating the mantra. US bad. Everyone else good.

      • Gadfly

        There’s no way the pandemic hits the massive cities of India and produces no active cases. It is just so utterly implausible.

        While I’m sure their case numbers are way off, I’d be inclined to believe their death numbers (which are low) because the country is so poor and has such bad hygiene that I’d be surprised if very many people in the high risk groups survived long enough to get COVID. It’s no surprise to me that the hardest hit countries all seem to have decent to good healthcare, those are the countries that were able to keep the people at risk alive where other countries would have seen them die previously.

  7. Count Potato

    “But masks are a relatively inexpensive public health measure that can literally save lives.”

    I guess he hasn’t looked on Amazon.

  8. Trolleric the Goth

    the comments on that gizmodo article are about as rational as you’d expect.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    What this presidential election is about is whether the country’s going to move more in the direction of white supremacy or move more in the direction of a multiracial, constitutional republic based on the freedom and the democracy.

    Wheeeeee!

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Well we probably are, but not for the reasons you think. The behavior BLM et al has likely been a boon for the white nationalist types

  10. Rebel Scum

    Drumpfler done put e’rybody at risk.

    Reiner said, “Negligence homicide. What else could you call an act that, because of its negligence, results in the death of others? If you have a mass gathering now in the United States in a place like Nevada or just about any other place with hundreds or thousands of people, people will get infected, and some of those people will die.”

    He continued, “There has been a lot of talk about over whether the president played down the risks of this virus to his followers and the country as a whole. And you have to just look at what is going on now to understand that. If you took this virus seriously, you would never hold an indoor rally or almost any rally now and particularly one that doesn’t enforce very strict rules on masks. People will die as a consequence of this. I think that Nevada has a law right now limiting gatherings to more than 50 people. So the president is defying that. Make no sense.”

    He added, “The virus doesn’t care whether you believe in it or not. The virus doesn’t care what party you belong to. If enough people contract the virus — and at a gathering like this, they will — some people will die.”

    • Ownbestenemy

      “…people will get infected, and some of those people will die.” Like it has been since viruses found us to be excellent hosts.

      “I think that Nevada has a law right now limiting gatherings to more than 50 people.” Not a law, but okay.

      “The virus doesn’t care whether you believe in it or not. The virus doesn’t care what party you belong to.” So why the pass on BLM/rioters/etc? I doubt they have ‘strict’ mask rules.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Their refusal to condemn the BLM riots proves that the gathering bans and the mask requirements are just a cudgel they like to use to brutalize their political enemies, no more no less.

    • B.P.

      I should think that CNN would be thrilled about large Trump rallies, since attendees will infect each other and their deplorable friends, associates, etc., and will all die off in droves, paving the way for a Biden victory.

      • Mad Scientist

        Except they know damn well no one is going to die.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Well they are still trying to beat the drum that Sturgis has led to bodies in the streets. Notice how quietly they backed off that “study” about it being a super-spreader event.

        The Media doesn’t need to be thrilled because their sycophants in Hollywood are doing that for them.

    • Pope Jimbo

      If you have a mass gathering now in the United States in a place like Nevada or just about any other place with hundreds or thousands of people, people will get infected, and some of those people will die

      I would assume that any gathering with hundreds of thousands of people probably results in some people dying in car crashes on their way to/from the event. Is that reason enough to cancel big gatherings?

      I guess everyone should be Biden their time in the basement until our robot overlords create a perfectly safe utopia

      • mikey

        Five confirmed deaths from Sturgis
        1 the commie cough
        4 in traffic accidents

      • Ozymandias

        So… statistically you’re 4 times more likely to die of a traffic accident than COVID!!

        #sciencebitches!

  11. KSuellington

    I’d love to see Rogan do an in studio debate. It will obviously never happen, but it would be far better than the “debates” they put on. Rogan is an excellent interviewer, I’d imagine that he would do a great job.

      • Ownbestenemy

        That wasn’t cut up and pieced together? Good God that is just sad to hear.

      • Florida Man

        The corn pop animated one is awesome.

      • DrOtto

        I’m starting to think he hired Bush II’s speech writers.

  12. Count Potato

    “The idea was that the cost of cooling computers would be lower if they were under water.”

    So a hundred years from now, Silicon Valley will be in Antarctica?

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Ah the bee: “I thought about just making a documentary where I didn’t actually murder puppies to make the point, but it just wasn’t powerful enough,” said director Amélie Le’Charpentier (who is, by the way, a woman of color and an immigrant, so think about that before you criticize her). “I drew on my own experiences having observed puppy murder a number of times and decided I would just drop anvils and pianos on them and stuff so you could see how terrible puppy murder is.”

  13. Not Adahn

    MIT scientists have previously shown that if this stinky, poisonous gas were ever detected on a rocky, terrestrial planet, it could only be produced by a living organism there.

    Noooooope.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      What if the stinky poisonous gas is detected in Uranus?

      • Ownbestenemy

        I feel bad for you, no narrowed gaze

    • cyto

      I get so tired of the credulous scientific press. Always looking for a hook for their article, they’ll take any leap to get a headline.

      If you read the actual article in Nature, it seems mildly questionable if the even found the phosphene. There’s a ton of stuff about using algorithms to pull the signal from the noise, clean up interfering absorption lines, etc. that make the “it is definitely this one molecule” conclusion at least mildly suspect until a custom instrument is on the job. And from there, the leap to “it must be life!” is huge.

      I remember distinctly the announcement of the discovery that an experiment had found life on mars. They took a bit of soil, added some radio-labeled nutrients and heated it up a bit. It immediately released the radioactivity, indicating that microbes had eaten the nutrients.

      Except it released the radioactivity too fast.

      It turned out that it was chemistry, not biology.

      Every one of these extraordinary claims should be met with skepticism. Life based on cyanide? Better get some perspective and further expert opinions instead of leaping to discussions of extra-terrestrial cyanide-based life.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Science journalism is perhaps even more pernicious than political journalism. It’s the worst when science journalism mixes with politics.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    As important is the discipline needed to put it on correctly, take it off correctly, and do your job correctly when it is on.

    I presume there is supposed to be some sort of decontamination process prior to removal. I cannot help wondering how effective it is.

    • mikey

      The percent of people wearing the things correctly is probably about zero. I keep my totally useless neck gator on the center consoe of the car. Others use th dashboard, rearview or their back pocket. Never mind wearing them under the nose or even under the chin.
      Biden can’t keeps his hands off his.
      Then, there’s this helpful solution for the kiddies.
      https://www.holleygrainger.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG_6115-1024×831.jpg

    • Florida Man

      I’m on the team doing COVID-19 tracheotomies. There is a person whose job is reading off the donning checks list and doffing checklist. Decon is basically taking off our disposable layer in the contaminated room, wiping our under layer with anti-viral wipes and performing hand hygiene in a substerile room before changing clothes. After being exposed to high viral loads since April and following the protocol I still haven’t contracted covid. The nurses working ICU covid units have all contracted covid, I assume because they get sloppy following protocol.

  15. Rebel Scum

    Gearing up for the post-election shenanigans.

    Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is building an enormous legal operation in anticipation of November’s election which is expected to shatter turnout records and will rely on mail-in ballots more than ever before, the New York Times reported.

    Biden’s campaign has described the operation as the largest election protection program in the history of any presidential campaign, and senior campaign officials said that the move was necessary to preserve the integrity of the election in response to President Donald Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting, the Times reported.

    Dana Remus, Biden’s general counsel, will oversee the developing operation alongside Bob Bauer, a former White House Counsel to President Barack Obama, according to the Times.

    • Ownbestenemy

      This is just going to be a complete cluster of a Fall/Winter.

      • The Other Kevin

        I really hope I’m wrong, but I can’t think of a single way in which this doesn’t become a complete shit show.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I guess the only way it ins’t completely insane is if Trump loses and those who voted for him say “Well, that’s the game, see you in 4 years”.

    • Grosspatzer

      the largest election protection program in the history of any presidential campaign

      “We intend to steal this election fair and square”.

    • R C Dean

      expected to shatter turnout records

      Battlespace prep for coming up with enough ballots to make sure the Right Result is reached. Those precincts won’t post 110% turnout by themselves.

    • Rhywun

      election protection program

      ???

      • cyto

        It is pretty brazen how they are just doing it right out in public.

        Start a riot… deny that it exists. Then blame the other side for the damage.

        Institute universal mail-in ballots. Mail ballots to all residents, whether registered voter or not.

        Begin telling people that Trump will appear to win on election night, but it will actually wind up a Biden landslide after mail in ballots are counted.

        Begin complaining about delays in ballot collection before the first mail ballot is even sent out, just to prepare the ground for the need for ballots to come in after the deadlines.

        They really are telegraphing their intentions to steal the election

    • Not Adahn

      That’s the salary for his laundress.

    • Rhywun

      More proof of Trump’s grotesque mishandling of this pandemic.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Some people just can’t handle money.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Death from the bench

    Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered “non-life-sustaining” businesses to shut down are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday.

    U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, sided with plaintiffs that included hair salons, drive-in movie theaters, a farmer’s market vendor, a horse trainer and several Republican officeholders in their lawsuit against Wolf, a Democrat, and his health secretary.

    The Wolf administration’s pandemic policies have been overreaching, arbitrary and violated citizens’ constitutional rights, Stickman wrote in his ruling.

    The governor’s efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus “were undertaken with the good intention of addressing a public health emergency,” Stickman wrote. “But even in an emergency, the authority of government is not unfettered.”

    Whaaaaaa?

    It’s for your own good!

    • Sean

      Nice link.

      • R C Dean

        + 1 comorbid link

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Five bucks says the appeals court will let the governor continue the lockdown while the appeal is being considered.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ill put down another five bucks that Roberts finds some hidden clause and strikes it down.

    • Chafed

      This is Trump’s saving grace. For the most part his judicial nominations have been good.

  17. Count Potato

    “‘You watch, it’ll get cooler.’ Donald Trump hits back when California governor Gavin Newsom tells him ‘climate change is real’ as they meet for talks on wildfire crisis under smoke-filled sky”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8732283/Donald-Trump-calls-forest-management-fires-Gavin-Newsom-tells-climate-change-real.html

    “Joe Biden accuses Donald Trump of being a ‘climate arsonist’ whose failures on global warming are the real threat to the suburbs – as he slams president on west coast wildfires, midwestern floods and coastal hurricanes”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8731581/Biden-says-Trumps-climate-denial-real-threat-suburbs.html

    Aren’t we entering a solar minimum?

    • Rhywun

      Joe Biden accuses Donald Trump of herpity derpity doo

      The shocking thing is how effective the raving lunacy is.

    • db

      We are deeply in the solar minimum, at the end of Cycle 24 and just beginning Cycle 25. But 25 is taking longer than usual to start up, and the minimum has been longer and deeper than usual.

      • The Hyperbole

        Now that’s how one euphemisimism’ses.

    • Animal

      “The AG later clarified his statement, claiming he meant to report ‘hitting a dear.’ ‘The person I hit,’ he told reporters, ‘was by all accounts a loving son, husband and father, and I wanted to emphasize the depth of the loss his family must be feeling. It’s just unfortunate that the press didn’t recognize the homonym.'”

      • Grosspatzer

        Bravo! You write for the Bee, don’t you?

      • Animal

        Depends. Will their check clear?

      • Grosspatzer

        They may ask to use this, it’s perfect. I wonder what the going rate is.

      • B.P.

        “I hit my beer. Er, ah, I was shifting gear.”

    • Fourscore

      He told the truth, he wasn’t drinking at precisely the moment he hit the victim, he paused from his red Dixie Cup to catch his breath, squint his eyes and shake his head.

    • Pope Jimbo

      WTF indeed.

      Reading between the lines, it sure seems like the victim was drunk too. He had crashed his truck into a hay bale in the ditch earlier and had to get family to drive him the half mile home. Then he was going back to his truck later when he was hit.

      No idea what the fuck is going on in SoDak, but I’d bet everyone did stupid things.

      *ps. Who voted for that creepy fuck for AG?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Nice link.

    Try it now

    • Sean

      Shit that never happened.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Cohen’s daughter sounds about as reliable when it comes to the truth as her father. The always apple didn’t fall too far from the sleazy tree there it looks like.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        the sleazy apple
        What the hell?

      • The Other Kevin

        I used to go to the Sleazy Apple for drinks when I was in college.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yep, very pretty.

      • Not Adahn

        Samantha told the Daily Mail about the photo, “My father, who has always been supportive of my endeavors, was merely expressing his pride. There is nothing inappropriate in the picture and those who seek to make it something it is not are merely Trump haters who are using this an opportunity to stir up drama. I find it hypocritical that those who consider themselves liberal would criticize a woman embracing her body.

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        I’d embrace her body.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Hot/crazy matrix violation incoming

    • The Other Kevin

      If only we had pictures or video of him being creepy with young women.

    • Rebel Scum

      Yeah, sure…

      Progjection. Always progjection.

    • Chipwooder

      As usual, it’s not something that I believe Trump incapable of doing, but yet again the circumstances make it hard to believe. So Trump did this and Cohen just shrugged and kept working for him for another seven or eight years?

      • TARDis

        ^^^^
        Thank you.
        I have a SF quality conversation /interaction brewing in my head here.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      But her dad posting a picture of her in lingerie is totally not creepy.

      I went to college with a guy from Long Island who called hot girls cuntes. “Ooh, look at her, she’s a cunte”. So it wouldn’t shock me if Trump calls women a piece of ass. Didn’t he say that about Ivanka once?

      • Sean

        In my iphone, my gf is “A hot piece of ass”. It never fails to amuse me.

        ” hey Siri, call a hot piece of ass”

      • l0b0t

        One of our stupider rows occurred when wifey discovered that I was using this Stranglers song for her ringtone – https://youtu.be/B_GYLSlZ9Io

      • Mad Scientist

        I’m using Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone for my wife’s ring tone.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Holy shitsnacks!

      • Sean

        Heh

      • TARDis

        My one foray in to custom ringtones was
        Her calling me:

        Me calling her:

        I can’t believe she hasn’t killed me.

      • Sean

        ^^ This guy gets romance. ?

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of mask theater…

    The other day, I saw somebody wearing a face shield like this one

    Tell me that protects anyone from anything.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That protects anyone from anything.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s an entirely different thing, altogether.

      • Mad Scientist

        It’s an entirely different thing.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        It’s an entirely different thing

      • Rebel Scum

        Over Macho Grande?

      • The Other Kevin

        No, I’ll never be over Macho Grande.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It might somewhat protect other people if the wearer sneezes or coughs unexpectedly, that’s about it.

      • Fourscore

        …or vomits…

    • Florida Man

      It works just as well as all the other mask.

      • Fatty Bolger

        ^

    • Trolleric the Goth

      I guess it protects other people from your spittle if you’re a moist talker… but beyond that? no.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      It looks like they are wearing their sunglasses on their chin.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    That protects anyone from anything.

    Okay. I feel reassured.

  21. Mad Scientist

    Tell me that protects anyone from anything.

    It’s just as effective as most of the masks people are wearing.

  22. Rhywun

    Reliably green

    I wonder what an honest report of this hooey would be, you know, from not-BBC. Something like “All of Orkney’s electricity comes from wind and solar power because nobody fucking lives there“. Or “We have been able to run really well on what most land-based data centres consider an unreliable grid, but can we scale this shit up to meet real-world needs?”

    • Not Adahn

      Wind power? In the Orkneys? The hell you say.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      They may well be a net exporter of electricity, but that doesn’t mean that they get electricity from wind and solar 24/7/365. Maybe they do, but I doubt it.

      • mikey

        I’m sure a big enough battery would store all the excess enery from their sunny day for the calm day later on in the year.

      • Grosspatzer

        The marketing department is working on a very large bunny for the advertising campaign.

      • Gadfly

        The wiki article on Orkney says:

        Although Orkney is connected to the mainland, it generates over 100% of its net power from renewables. This comes mainly from wind turbines situated across Orkney.

        In other words, a bunch of islands in a rather windy part of the world manage to generate electricity from wind power in excess of the total amount of power they use per year. This is like bragging that a small town in the desert with a large solar plant produces more than 100% of its net power from renewables, in other words it is an empty and useless stat.

      • R C Dean

        To expand a trifle:

        They are connected to the main grid, and “net” power means that there is power going both ways. The unasked q

      • R C Dean

        Stupid keyboard.

        Ahem. The unasked question is “How much power do you take in from the grid, because your local renewable sources do not supply all the power you need 24/7/365?”

  23. The Late P Brooks

    President Cartoon Villain is murdering the planet

    A longtime climate change skeptic has been appointed by the Trump administration to help run the federal agency charged with producing “much of the climate research funded” by the government, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
    David Legates, who was a professor at the University of Delaware before being tapped by the administration, will serve as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for environmental observation and prediction, according to the Post, which said the climate change skeptic will report directly to acting NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs.
    CNN has reached out to Legates on the reported appointment.
    The Post said Legates formerly served as Delaware’s climatologist but was “forced out” because of his “controversial views” on the issue.

    The newspaper said that Legates “had come under pressure from then-Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D), because of his fossil fuel industry-funded research casting doubt on the science showing that burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels is the main factor behind heating the planet and would lead to dangerous effects such as sea level rise and extreme weather events.”
    Legates spoke about some of his views during a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee in 2019, claiming that carbon dioxide isn’t the only thing contributing to changes in the planet’s temperature.
    “Carbon dioxide is not this magic knob that decides the temperature of the planet. In particular, there’s an awful lot of other things that happen with it, too. The plant does not warm like a greenhouse, that’s simply pure radiation balance,” Legates testified during the hearing.

    ——-

    Climate scientists largely agree that carbon dioxide is warming the planet, and that human activity, like the burning of fossil fuels for energy, has increased the gas to dangerous levels. Other gasses, like methane, are also responsible for some of the human-causes warming we see today.
    NOAA “oversees weather forecasting, climate research and fisheries,” according to the Post, and “has until now continued its climate research and communications activities unfettered by political influence,” unlike other parts of the administration, like the Environmental Protection Agency, that have “dismissed and sidelined climate scientists or altered their work before publication.”

    “Carbon dioxide is not this magic knob that decides the temperature of the planet” Crazy talk.

    Now the last bastion of unpoliticized SCIENCE has been overthrown. We’ll all be burnt to a crisp.

    • R C Dean

      his fossil fuel industry-funded research casting doubt on the science showing that burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels is the main factor behind heating the planet

      Now do government-funded research showing that more government is needed to bring the unruly climate to heel.

  24. Mad Scientist

    Climate scientists largely agree that carbon dioxide is warming the planet, and that human activity, like the burning of fossil fuels for energy, has increased the gas to dangerous levels.

    Damn straight! Why it’s up from 0.03 to 0.04% of the atmosphere!

    • Rhywun

      It’s dangerous out there, people. Stay safe!

    • Fatty Bolger

      It’s so stupid. Dangerous why? Even if it is warming the planet, which is far from proven, we’re in an ice age, so who cares?

    • Grumbletarian

      In a year or two we’ll be exchanging our cloth masks for oxygen tanks and re-breathers!

  25. Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

    Global temperatures have risen during the decades of fire suppression in the western US. Conclusion, fire suppression causes global warming. Don’t argue. It’s science.

  26. Mojeaux

    Animal, great start to your story!

    • Animal

      Thanks!

    • Mojeaux

      That looks pretty good actually.

      • The Hyperbole

        Needs more gravy.

      • Mojeaux

        Correct, as per usual.

    • l0b0t

      I would eat those. I just dined on chopped up chicken tenders mixed into a bowl with a can of chicken-corn chowder, sharp cheddar, sour cream, leftover mashed potatoes, and crumbled breakfast sausage. Those cupcakes are fully in my wheelhouse.

    • Florida Man

      I ate here Saturday:

      https://www.thelicking.com/

      I order iced tea and it was so sweet it I couldn’t drink it. The waitress said the drink with the least amount of sugar is Coca-Cola. I think I got diabetes just from walking in there. I don’t think I was their target demographic.

      • l0b0t

        Now I really want conch fritters.

      • Florida Man

        The shrimp were really good. The red velvet waffles were also pretty tasty.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *blech*

    • one true athena

      My spouse wants to find the “Turkey Dinner” candy corn that are supposed to be in Target soon.

      I said, “you know they’re going to taste awful. So why?”

      I guess Limited Edition Gross Flavors is something that must be experienced.

      Capitalist degeneracy has gone too far!

    • EvilSheldon

      You know that cramping pain you get at the corners of your mouth when you see something unspeakably delicious? I’m getting that right now.

  27. B.P.

    Having now seen the grainy video of the shooting of the two police officers in Compton, is the alleged assailant an 8-year-old? The shooter in the video looked very, very short.

    • KSuellington

      He was also a very strange runner. I’m predicting it was a midget hit.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Is that you Leona Helmsly?

        Are you saying contract killing is for little people?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I figured it was Gary Coleman.

      • blackjack

        It was at the train station, so there’s that.

    • TARDis

      Faux said that the camera, being a fisheye, distorted the shooter’s size.

      • l0b0t

        That waddling-running gait sure makes the shooter look like a little-person though.

      • The Hyperbole

        Wouldn’t that also distort the car’s size? the kid/midget isn’t even as tall as the top of the door frame, regardless of whether there is distortion or not the scale between the car and the kid/midget is the same.

      • TARDis

        Wouldn’t that also distort the car’s size? You would think. It could be a smallish portly woman too. Just generalizing, but I bet a thuggish man would have emptied the pistol before running.

  28. DEG

    At least eight people who have refused to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic have been forced to dig graves for people who died from covid-19 in the province of East Java, Indonesia, according to a report from the Jakarta Post.

    Mask hysteria folks masturbate furiously.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Unsubstantiated rumors

    As of Friday, there were at least five wildfires burning in Clackamas County, including the major Riverside and Beachie Creek fires. Most of the county is under an evacuation order.
    But some residents living in those evacuation zones aren’t leaving their homes and are instead staying to “defend” their property.
    Residents have crafted homemade signs lining wire fences and hazy, yellow-tinged streets, all warning looters that they would be shot.

    “Looters get shot,” many of them threaten.

    Unsubstantiated reports about looting and political groups causing intentional damage have divided county officials. In an emergency Board of County Commissioners meeting deciding whether to impose the curfew in Clackamas County, Capt. Jeff Smith of the sheriff’s office said a sergeant “on the street” had reported that members of Antifa, a broad term for groups of far-left protesters, were armed with chainsaws and intentionally toppling telephone poles to start further fires.

    He also said there were confirmed reports of looting near the outskirts of the county, though the sheriff’s office has not publicly confirmed this.

    Several members of the board were skeptical of Antifa’s involvement. Smith said only the one sergeant had been told by informants that Antifa members were intentionally setting fires, though he presented the information as fact.

    The FBI’s Portland office said last week that “reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue.” Neighboring Oregon sheriff’s offices have debunked reports that Antifa is intentionally setting fires.

    They just don’t want people to overreact.

    • B.P.

      Why the scare quotes around “defend”? Also:

      “In an emergency Board of County Commissioners meeting deciding whether to impose the curfew in Clackamas County, Capt. Jeff Smith of the sheriff’s office said a sergeant “on the street” had reported that members of Antifa, a broad term for groups of far-left protesters, were armed with chainsaws and intentionally toppling telephone poles to start further fires.”

      There are easier ways to start fires in a dry forest.

      • Ted S.

        Why do you think Profa is smart enough to know that?

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      There were looters in the recent fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the Bay Area. I don’t know why it’s crazy for people to be concerned about it and why “defend” needs to be in scare quotes. It happens a lot in situations like this, probably since the dawn of civilization. Most likely it’s local tweekers looking for something to sell to support their habit rather than Antifa coming in from the urban areas.

      • l0b0t

        There was a TREMENDOUS amount of looting during SuperDuperStorm Sandy. All of the cell phone stores, sneaker outlets, and fast food joints were stripped clean in The Rockaways; just over in 5 Towns (Lawn Guyland) some folk backed a 24′ box truck through the front windows of Best Buy and made off with quite a bundle. Our neighborhood (largely city employees) was quick to stop and question anyone who wasn’t immediately recognized.

    • R C Dean

      Unsubstantiated reports about looting

      Next paragraph:

      confirmed reports of looting

      Also, how can they know this unless every arsonist has been caught?:

      The FBI’s Portland office said last week that “reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue.”

  30. DEG

    NH state policy warn drivers to not hang masks from rear view windows.

    State police are urging drivers not to hang face masks from their vehicle’s rearview mirror because it could be a safety hazard.

    Face masks dangling from rearview mirrors have become a common sight as drivers keep their masks handy for when they leave the vehicle. But officials warn that the practice could be dangerous.

    “Dangling anything from your rearview mirror, blocking any of your field of vision, increases your risk and increases the chance that you may have a crash,” said Pat Moody, of AAA Northern New England.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I was wondering when a police agency was gonna start down that money path.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      You can have my fuzzy dice over my dead body.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Leave the dreamcatchers alone, you bigots!

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      I hang mine from my shift knob. Not a euphemism.

  31. DEG

    So, what you’re saying is, is I have a chance?

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, viewed as a rising star in the national GOP and a possible 2024 presidential contender, plans to visit New Hampshire Oct. 15 as the featured speaker at a state Republican Party fundraiser, a party source told WMUR.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Doh! Now I finally realize why that AG hitting a deer person is getting national coverage! Of course!

  32. prolefeed

    Reading “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson, and on page 130, I saw what how our Betters in the Political Caste TM view us, and what is behind the masking and anti-social distancing.

    A white mother in civil rights era Mississippi saw her daughter had “touched the hand of a little black girl”. (The author oh so discreetly says the mother used the n-word, without actually saying either the word itself or the euphemism.)

    The mother starts frantically scrubbing her daughter’s hand with a Brillo pad. ” ‘They have germs,’ the mother said. ‘They’re nasty.’ ”

    And that, my fellow Glibs, is how the political class pushing the C19 panic view us great unwashed masses. And they want us all to be aware that, and treat each other as if, all us proles are Untouchables, Dalits, or honorary blacks.

    That is the contempt in which they hold us.

    • EvilSheldon

      Sort of an Eloi-Morlock thing? I’m actually pretty much okay with that. The Morlocks were ugly and Vitamin-D deprived, but they still got the better end of that relationship.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I think it’s reversed, since they don’t come out of their houses.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      An ancap would have answers. I might not agree with all of them but they would have them.

      The leftists don’t have an answer because what they intend is complete destabilization followed by a total seizure of power.

      • EvilSheldon

        ARGLEBHARGLEENACTMYLABORWHARGLEBARHLE!!!1!

      • Fatty Bolger

        When my son was about five, he told me he had a plan to take over the world by killing all the police, and replacing them with his own. These guys are operating at about the same level.

        And yes, he’s grown up now, is a great kid, and has given up his plans for world domination. As far as I know.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You had your opportunity to stop him. Now we’re all doomed.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Nah, it’ll be OK. Young Joseph Adolph Mao is a kind-hearted lad, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.

      • Animal

        …and has given up his plans for world domination. As far as I know.

        Good.

        Less competition.

      • Gadfly

        And yes, he’s grown up now, is a great kid, and has given up his plans for world domination. As far as I know.

        The best plans are known only in their execution. He may be a model individual, or it may all be his own Operation Fortitude as he plans a D-Day invasion. Only time will tell.

    • Mad Scientist

      What’s amazing to me is they act surprised when they use force and someone responds with force.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yeah

        I can’t decide if it’s concerning or relieving.

      • Breet Pharara

        I’m sure they believe they aren’t using force by blocking traffic. They also do a lot of the “I’m not touching you” bullshit when they were younger I’m sure.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Y’know, that “not touching you” shit ended really quickly when they got a fist to the nose.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        *snickers* Something something Paulistas! 97% of people identify as libertarians!!!

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      This is why I installed a dashcam. If I have to run someone over, I want some evidence of what they were up to.

      • Sean

        I’m gonna think about that for a bit.

    • Count Potato

      I’m surprised he was wearing a red cap.

      • Sean

        Well, he wasn’t at the end. ?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      LOL, she knows how to twist the knife

      Nobody show the trans activists Dressed to Kill or Psycho either

    • Fatty Bolger

      Dayum. That’s what they call leaning in.

    • l0b0t

      Wasn’t that the plot of Dressed To Kill?

    • Breet Pharara

      That’s what you can do when you have “fuck you” levels of money.

      • Mojeaux

        I am now a fan.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yeah, you gotta like someone who sticks to their guns and tells them to pound sand like that.

      • The Hyperbole

        Too bad she can’t write well.

        Yes that is a purely subjective assessment and I should note that I have only read a couple chapters of one of her books.

        Still I was far from impressed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s middling stuff at best.

        Still better than 90% of the YA stuff out there.

      • Mojeaux

        I didn’t say I was going to read it.

      • TARDis

        I don’t pay much attention to her, but is she not a radical feminist? Maybe it’s just the transgender crowd saying so, but I don’t know.

    • Mojeaux

      People aren’t going to put up with that much longer.

    • B.P.

      Get that guy some free health care, stat.

    • TARDis

      It’s time to start covering these assholes with skunk.

      • Animal

        What can’t you get at Amazon?

        I used to buy fox pee for fox sets when I was trapping, helped cover my own scent near the set. Nasty stuff. Never bought skunk scent though.

      • TARDis

        Damn, how bad does one need to kill that deer? ?

      • Tulip

        Ya know, tossing bottles of that out the window onto protesters would probably be effective at getting them out of the road.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      Mostly peaceful driving.

  33. l0b0t

    Sigh… just received a speed-camera ticket from a newly installed panopticon in my neighborhood. $50 for going 36mph in a 25mph zone (that was 40mph until 2019). NYC is in the middle of a very self-inflicted budget crisis. A crisis so dire it necessitates a city hiring freeze (despite being 380 nurses shy of de Blasio’s promise of a school nurse in every public school) but they somehow have the money to keep installing these infernal electric tattle-tales all over town.

    • Mad Scientist

      The usual arrangement is a private entity owns and operates the cameras. They send you a ticket, and the city gets a cut of the proceeds.

      And we can still learn something from the Brits.

      • l0b0t

        Northamptonshire police offered a £2,000 reward for help in finding people who used a bomb to take out a Gatso on the A605 at Thrapston. The blast sent shards of metal flying more than 50 feet.

        How are these tea-sippers out-freedoming us?!? Also, would a laser (of the type used by peaceful protesters to make police all sparkly) burn out the CCD on one of these Devil’s Daguerreotype Machines? Asking for a friend.

      • Mad Scientist

        It may be a bit noisy, but a few seconds should suffice.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      Does Mrs. DeBlasio still have her entourage?

  34. Count Potato

    “NEW: How Dems learned to stop worrying and love dark money.

    The party used to rail against the post-Citizens United wild west of campaign finance, but has now mastered it. Will they follow through on promises to end the system if it helps them win?”

    https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/1305506742340661253

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/democrats-used-rail-against-dark-money-now-they-re-better-n1239830

    “These are not the droids you are looking for”

  35. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    I just signed up for a trade show/conference and noticed something peculiar. Roughly 65% of the speakers are female. Why is that peculiar? Because the profession is 80%+ male…

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      The men are too busy working.

    • The Hyperbole

      Someone figured out that even in a male dominated field men would rather listen to a spiel from some eye candy than an old fat expert dude?

      • Mojeaux

        I’m not eye candy, but give me a day to prepare and I could make it entertaining.

      • TARDis

        Go on….

        Since no one else was willing to say it. ?

      • Mojeaux

        Dude, I don’t present. I PERFORM.

      • zwak

        +5 pharma rep of doom.

    • The Hyperbole

      I’m fairly certain that everyone could have voted in person before this happened.

      • The Hyperbole

        Oh, wait, did you mean that everyone must vote in person now?

  36. Chipwooder

    So I was reading the responses to Gillespie’s rather silly tweet about Netflix’s kiddie porn, and I came across one from this person, and the bio says a lot about why Reason’s been circling the bowl:

    Kayla Stetzel
    @KaylaStetzel
    Law student, freelance journalist (former @Reason intern, former associate editor at
    @yvadv), critic, filmmaker, feminist Rainbow flag — she/her

    Nothing screams “Reason intern” like pronouns in the bio.

    • l0b0t

      Sigh… I really miss Liberty magazine.

  37. l0b0t

    I’m rewatching Anne Of Green Gables. Can we go back to them days? I’ll trade telecommunications and air travel for bustles, petticoats, and good manners.

    • The Hyperbole

      When did you become Ted’s.

      • l0b0t

        Modernity might be overrated. More chores = less civil unrest?

  38. The Hyperbole

    Alright, so everyone is apparently watching Monday Night Football even though they said they wouldn’t. Fuck it, I’m no Crusty but argue this, Drive By Truckers were better pre-Jason Isbell but Solo Jason Isbell is beter that DBT post Jason Isbell.