Friday morning links to ignore

by | Oct 30, 2020 | Daily Links | 416 comments

Today is a busy day for me. A crew is coming by to install solar panels on my roof. It’s my last day doing the same job I’ve had for 19.5 years. My wife and I have a hot date with another couple this evening. And I have to do these links long before I’d like to be out of bed. IT’S 4:30 AM ON THE WEST COAST PEOPLE! So I’m cheating and writing this post half a day in advance. You people get what you pay for.

It’s time to short AMEX.

“This model laid a solid foundation for parametric study and helps to push the boundaries of output power through design optimization.” I’m not buying this either.

Another rogue planet discovered.

NASA scientists spot ‘unexpected’ molecule in Titan’s atmosphere

240km wide ball of solid nickel iron

Pterosaur flight

SLC to lose both daily newspapers.

If you came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, I have bad news for you.

Hot Neptune!

Flowers Are Pretty

OK, that’s about enough links for you to ignore.

About The Author

Mad Scientist

Mad Scientist

Mad Scientist enjoys racing, wrenching, and telling his wife to take the dog if she wants a long walk on the beach.

416 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    OK, that’s about enough links for you to ignore.

    mmm… sciency links.

    I didn’t realize we’d already spotted rogue planets.

    • AlexinCT

      We should worry if anyone of them starts orbiting Komma-Lah’s anus?

    • Nephilium

      Come now, people have known about rouge planets for centuries now.

      • Festus' Mustache

        I thought that was Tres Cool’s forte.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Legit LOL

  2. Aus

    Do people even use AMEX? The last company I worked for didn’t even accept AMEX because the fees are so high.

    (First?)

    • UnCivilServant

      Amex didn’t want to lend me credit when I needed it, so I didn’t do business with them when they wanted to pursue me.

    • Aus

      DAMN IT, so close!

      I love the idea of solar panels at home, please post updates on how it’s going over time! Definitely a goal of mine, just need a house first.

      • Fourscore

        Illegals? doing the work? Maybe the same crew that did my steel roof a couple months ago. If so, give them a little bonus for quick and quality work.

      • Festus' Mustache

        You don’t need to smoke a nasty cigar, anyway. Consider this a blessing!

    • Rhywun

      Since they moved into regular credit cards, Amex is accepted almost everywhere now. There is one cheap liquor store near me that won’t take it but it’s rare.

    • PieInTheSky

      Do people even use AMEX – I do on business trips as my company card is Amex.

      • Not Adahn

        Not Romex?

      • PieInTheSky

        that makes no sense

      • UnCivilServant

        Romanian Express makes perfect sense.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s so sad that the once-proud Dacians have allowed themselves to be colonized by wypipo.

      • PieInTheSky

        why would that make sense?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Don’t leave home your casket without it?

      • Cancelled

        Well it is designed to carry a charge.

      • Not Adahn

        🙂

    • AlexinCT

      I have been a member since 1983, and heavily use my card, but now I am gonna stop. Fuck this shit,

      • Rhywun

        Good luck finding another company that isn’t pulling the same crap.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, that’s my concern. I have an Amazon Prime card, a Chase card, and a couple of others, and they were all ignored because these companies were woke fucks. Now AMEX goes and joins that shit…

        Then again, since I pay off my card bills in full every month, and only have a single card where I let $30 roll so I pay interest once a year (for credit rating purposes), these fuckers have not maid money off me since the early eighties. And believe you me, I have raked in the rewards by using the cards to pay everything and just paying them off every month.

        Maybe I should just go back to cash.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        only have a single card where I let $30 roll so I pay interest once a year (for credit rating purposes)

        As far as I know, FICO doesn’t take into account whether you carry any balance over, except in a negative way when the balance as a percent of your credit limit gets over 20%ish.

      • banginglc1

        I’ve never carried a balance on my credit card, ever . . .and my credit score when pulled for my most recent mortgage was 820. I’ve also never had a car loan. CC and mortgage. I pay most of my bills with the credit card for rewards, but pay it off each month.

      • AlexinCT

        I had someone tell me this once, a long time ago, and the first time I paid that $1 in interest, my FICO went up. Granted, I have an insanely good score but every bit matters.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        This, you don’t need to do this Alex.

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, I haven’t carried any debt for years and my credit score is excellent.

      • Not Adahn

        We had our first quarterly meeting since the big D&I roll out.

        I’m actually impressed by our executives — they’re doing an excellent job of NOT rolling out policies that would actively harm the company while rah-rahing with sufficiently genuine-appearing sincerity (once you can fake sincerity, you can do everything) to keep the grifters in their lane.

        Mubadala did a good job of picking their servants.

    • Tundra

      We have one for travel.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        You won’t be needing that anymore. That’s been replaced with a ‘health pass’ card.

    • Animal

      We’ve used AmEx for years for travel. We use it for plane tickets, hotels and rental cars and generally pay off the entire balance each month. I’ve had no trouble with it being accepted, from South Africa to Shanghai.

    • Nephilium

      Work required me to get a company card for travel, which is AMEX. I’ve got one of their Blue cards, as it gives extra cash back on gas and groceries (with no fee).

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I have done the math and I would get the most point optimization out of their Blue Cash Preferred card. I just can’t bring myself to pay the $95 annual fee, even though after factoring in the fee I am still ahead.

        If anyone doesn’t give a shit about their diversity policy, you can get this card right now with $300 back and the $95 is waived for the first year. I just…still can’t do it.

      • banginglc1

        I refuse to have a card that I pay fees . . .even if it would work out to my advantage. Like you, something just irks me about the idea. I also only get cards that pay cash back. Even if technically airline miles would “save” me more, I just want the cash. Which in a year like this, where I haven’t flown anywhere, worked out to my advantage.

      • Nephilium

        Add me to that list. I’m not giving you money for the privilege of you hoping I carry a balance.

    • Sean

      I have 2. One is my preferred card and gets used frequently.

    • DrOtto

      They used to have a higher discount rate and different network for payment. Within the last couple years, they’ve standardized their fees with the other big players. Not sure about their network, but I get paid the same now no matter what card you use, so I accept AmEx now at my business. I use an AmEx card exclusively since I chopped up my Cap 1 MasterCard in the financial meltdown back in 2009 and strictly pay off my balance every month but don’t want to carry cash everywhere.

  3. leon

    Someday I’ll have to tell you the interesting story behind SLCs newspapers.

    • Swiss Servator

      *Looks up at Leads/Submissions link*

  4. limey

    Good morning, Glibs. My relativistic perspective of “now” has just tipped over into the PM, so a good afternoon to you all from the future.

    • leon

      :Starts contemplating how to use your future knowledge for great gain and power:

  5. UnCivilServant

    240km wide ball of solid nickel iron

    Journamalistist doesn’t understand economics.

    If we harvested all that nickel-iron, the price of nickel and iron would plummet, so it is not wirth anywhere near their cell phone calculation based on earthbound prices.

    • limey

      Assuming the cost of mining it doesn’t far exceed it’s value anyway…

      • leon

        The problem with any asteroid mining operation. Your have to account for the cost of the operation and the fall in price of what you are mining.

      • limey

        Scienticious question: could one use magnetic polarity to help overcome gravity when launching from said big ball of arn? Repel one’s vessel away from the surface?

      • AlexinCT

        How much energy would it require to generate said repellent magnetic event and how high would it need to be to overcome gravity?

      • limey

        Eleven billion terrajoules of AstroBlast™ to generate the electrical energy required to punt the craft to an orbit far enough out of the gravity well of the great disasteroid.

      • The Last American Hero

        According to #IFLS models, a couple of windmills and a car battery ought to be sufficient to get enough power to get off the nickel planet.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Haven’t you heard of solar wind?”

        /scientifically illiterate SCIENCE lover

      • Tejicano

        The cost of mining it? Hell, the cost of getting down to earth to use it would probably be prohibitive. I guess you could grind it into fine dust, push it towards the earth, and let the earth’s magnetic field pull it to the north and south poles as it floats down through the atmosphere then collect it there.

      • Not Adahn

        Couldn’t we just drop it on someplace instead? We could auction off the targeting rights.

    • PieInTheSky

      Now if it was gold things would be different. Gold is inherently valuable

      • limey

        I’m skeptical, which is why my sovereign currency, if backed by anything, will be backed by osmium. The osmium standard really holds weight.

      • Nephilium

        Cesium. You can kill the thought of it raining money.

      • Not Adahn

        But it smells bad.

      • Nephilium

        Like rotten eggs?

    • Fourscore

      When everyone is a millionaire no one is a millionaire. OTOH, soon all of us will be millionaires and with luck it’ll still buy a loaf of bread, if any is available.

      • Swiss Servator

        Bread lines are good!

        /Bernie

      • AlexinCT

        That way government can make sure everyone gets their “fair share” was how he justified this, right? Cause when they promise equality of outcome all they really can deliver is equal misery for all. And the brainwashed participation trophy and safezones generations are all for it as long as others suffer along. Cause what used to be considered a deadly sin – envy – today is called “social justice”…..

      • Festus' Mustache

        It won’t buy a loaf of anything Citizen except for a place in line to be judged worthy to stand in line for the bread.

      • Fourscore

        I want my share of misery! It isn’t fair!

      • Festus' Mustache

        Godammit I’m gonna turn this car around right now!

  6. Rebel Scum

    American Express Co AXP.N said on Thursday it was investing $1 billion to advance racial and gender equality, the latest in a line of U.S. companies pledging to promote social justice after a series of race-related protests earlier in the year.

    Maybe they should stick to delivering packages in a timely manner. But what do I know?

    • UnCivilServant

      American Express is a financial services company. I don’t think they deliver packages at all.

      • Rebel Scum

        For some reason I read FedEx. I may need coffee. (and a new contact prescription.)

      • UnCivilServant

        Fun fact, I looked it up and in the 19th century, Amex did deliver packages, but like western union, they found money managing to be more lucrative.

    • juris imprudent

      Maybe they should stick to delivering packages

      Hmm, I think AmEx might have bigger problems than racial and gender equality.

    • invisible finger

      How can you ensure gender equality when there are new genders every day?

      • juris imprudent

        As an old buddy of mine put it, in what he called the consultant’s credo: In confusion, there is profit.

      • The Last American Hero

        Your old buddy was a Ferengi?

  7. Festus' Mustache

    Hot date with another couple? Do tell! I’ll put the kettle on.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      So many details left out.

      • Festus' Mustache

        So we went full Socialism last week. Le Sigh. At least you guys have cultural hatred guiding your elections.

      • banginglc1

        So we went full Socialism last week.

        Is that where everyone in the orgy gets the same amount of attention and the same amount of orgasms?

      • Festus' Mustache

        We were all wearing the same grey jumpsuits so it was kinda hard to tell. Some of us seemed pretty enthusiastic. Those ones got singled out for some reason and we never did see any of them again.

      • Gdragon

        I’ve seen this movie, those people are the ones who robbed the bank! 😉

  8. PieInTheSky

    . A crew is coming by to install solar panels on my roof. – lame an unlibertarian

    • PieInTheSky

      honestly I am starting to believe I am the most pure libertarian here

      • leon

        Uh oh. A European talking about purity. You know who else had a purity test,

      • Apples and Knives

        The Holy Roman Empire?

      • DrOtto

        Ivory Soap?

      • Bones

        Torquemada?

    • Swiss Servator

      Not if it helps you live off the grid!

      • Nephilium

        /looks at the mast year of acorns in my yard

        /thinks about the plinking when the acorns were blown off onto the house

        Nope. That just sounds like it would be expensive to repair. The fact we’re on about day seven with minimal/no sun doesn’t help either.

      • Swiss Servator

        Mad Scientist lives in a desert.

      • PieInTheSky

        food desert? booze desert? thicc desert?

      • PieInTheSky

        You know what else helps you live off the grid if you are a proper mad scientist? your own nuclear reactor

      • Nephilium

        Maybe in Romania you can walk into any corner drug store and buy some plutonium, but you can’t do that here in the United States!

      • PieInTheSky

        only if you know the right corner store. you can also buy caviar and Russian vodka in that place

    • banginglc1

      I may despise the existence of most government programs. But as long as they exist, I’ll take full advantage of them. Including any subsidies like the ones for installing solar panels (if I had a house it would work on). Taxes are theft, so I might as well steal back as much as I can.

    • Cy

      A vampire with solar panels, does your evil know no end?

      • AlexinCT

        The panels reflect enough light to keep other vampires away while collecting and storing electricity to power his UV lights at night… Woe those that challenge the Pie!

    • PieInTheSky

      10 20 30

    • The Gunslinger

      42 for me please

      • Festus' Mustache

        All of my paternal aunts are redheads so I quell my skeevishness and vote all.

      • Bobarian LMD

        The ultimate answer.

        We’ve finally worked out what Douglas Adams question was.

  9. Tundra

    Good Morning Mad!

    Thanks for all the groovy lynx!

    And congrats on the job change – I hope it goes well.

    I can’t believe people are still tolerating this corporate woke shit. I couldn’t do it. One of the benefits of being a tiny company, I guess.

    Great, uplifting song!

    I hope you all have a fantastic day! Especially you, Rufus.

    • Nephilium

      My work recently had a big announcement about a new Diversity (blah blah) council. I still have to take my mandated training so I can learn to celebrate diversity. The team I work with has people from four different countries, and I’m one of two white men on it (out of about a dozen people).

      They keep paying me and giving me bonuses, so I guess I’m not an unperson yet.

      • UnCivilServant

        You’re not diverse enough, they’re going to fire you. Start documenting for your eventual wrongful termination suit.

      • AlexinCT

        Like me, I suspect you will be OK and wont have to worry until they decide meeting woke quotas & appearances is more important than their fiduciary responsibilities to the shareholders.

      • Jerms

        FDNY has an entire floor of a huge building in downtown Brooklyn for nothing but people working on making the fire dept more diverse. Gotta be at least 50 employees with nothing else to do but that.

    • Rhywun

      I can’t believe people are still tolerating this corporate woke shit.

      That’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t hit most people in a way they will notice. And it’s not like every one of these companies hasn’t already been throwing money out the window at this stuff. This is just another line on their advertising budget.

      • banginglc1

        I would wager to guess that a lot of people that think it’s all ridiculous still enjoy it. By that, I mean there are a lot of people that love going to a “training event” be it diversity, or anything else because its another excuse not to do their actual job.

      • Cancelled

        The people who hate this crap are acclimated to periodically having a few hours stolen from their lives by boring wokescolds after years of school assemblies. Most of them figure at least they are now getting paid to sit down and zone out while some idiot drones on about nonsense. And since the wokescolds run HR pushing back is risky.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        ^^

        WFH also makes it easier, especially now that there are rumblings of “zoom fatigue”. I launch the meeting, pipe the audio into my headphones, stow the headphones on my desk, and minimize the meeting. All the benefits of attending, none of the mind numbing idiocy.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Sorry, I didn’t connect the zoom fatigue dot… Video is optional now because of “mental health concerns” so I default to no video.

      • banginglc1

        “mental health concerns”

        i.e. they’re scared of the sexual harassment lawsuit someone might bring if they have someone on the other end #meToobin

      • Gustave Lytton

        I have a monthly meeting of some not very technically savvy people. In the past six months, only one person still leaves their video camera on. The rest either turn it off, have put opaque tape over the camera, or both.

      • AlexinCT

        Both is the way to go. I refuse to put my camera on in any meeting with more than 2 participants and I refuse to put a picture up cause I don’t need people to recognize me and ask me for my signature…

      • Gustave Lytton

        My avatar picture in Teams is an inanimate object.

  10. Rebel Scum

    Another rogue planet discovered.

    Someone better get these rogue planets in line.

    • Tejicano

      I was just thinking – a rogue planet made of ferro nickel is probably what a death star would look like from this distance…

      • Swiss Servator

        “That’s no rogue planet…”

      • Cancelled

        My death star is going to be made of vibranium!

      • The Last American Hero

        Which raises the interesting question – which movie is more woke – Black Panther or Avatar?

        Vibranium or unobtainium?

      • Cancelled

        Black Panther obviously. The woke are now all in on foreign wars.

    • Surly Knott

      They’re not rogue, they’re libertarian. Cast off the chains of stellar dominance and gambol across the heavens!

      • UnCivilServant

        You mean cold and uninviting loners.

      • Surly Knott

        Hey, I resemble that remark!

      • Rebel Scum

        There is a reason my doormat says “Go Away”.

    • Animal

      Rumor has it the new rogue planet has been named “Sarah Palin.”

  11. WTF

    I wish I had an Amex card so I could call them up and cancel it.

    • banginglc1

      You could apply, and fill out the application wrong. Make them call you and waste a bunch of their time. Then at the end, say ” no thanks.”

    • Hyperion

      Be sure to tell them it’s because of their racism that you’re cancelling them.

  12. Don escaped Duopoly

    The mill picture captures the span of my career.

    When I started, you drew components. Cut and paste meant cut and paste. Then you drew the tools. Then the tools were machined. Then the tools were tested, and the difference between what you drew and the components you actually go was a gap to be managed. And everyone dealt with the consequences in cost, quality, and durability.

    Today, a tube jockey can draw up anything I can conceive in absolute 3D detail in just a few hours. The conversion from design to tooling is largely automated and requires only a fraction of the insight, planning, and management of the past. First shots off a tool are essentially perfect, with tolerances that are orders of magnitude more accurate than assembly or performance would ever require.

    Today to think it is nearly to make it. The speed and ease are stupefying.

    • EvilSheldon

      Stupefying is really the right word for it. Precision manufacturing capability is now within the reach of literally everyone, for a capital investment that would have been laughably tiny even ten years ago.

      I think about this when I need to cheer myself up.

      • Festus' Mustache

        ^^^ Just bought a Real Doll.

      • AlexinCT

        Whycome you doxx poor EvilSheldon, huh? Nothing wrong with banging some plastic…

      • Cancelled

        The percentage of silicone in a Real Doll is not that much higher than in a Q link.

      • Seguin

        Tell me about it. A new Haas goes for what, 40k? Same as a mid level car. I myself own a machine that used to cost over a quarter million and can now be had for 8k.

  13. Rebel Scum

    An asteroid with enough riches to make everyone on Earth a billionaire is the subject of a new Hubble study.

    So we don’t have to fight the blue cat monsters for the unobtainium.

    • Cancelled

      So some quick googling and half assed math tells me that nickel and iron (assuming 95:5 Fe to Ni) is worth roughly $850 a ton. Call it a grand. I wonder if you would end up with a profit if someone dumped a million tons of raw metal off at your house?

  14. Festus' Mustache

    Anyone else getting shunted to the top of the article when you comment?

    • Surly Knott

      Yup, many (most? all?) of us. It’s been reported, SP is working on it.
      Personally, I blame Javascript.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Huh. Happened just now. SP and Web D will fix it. They are wizard at the compooter stuff.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I’m getting logged out often; anyone else? The other day I even had to do first-grade arithmetic. “…Bring me a four-year-old child.”

      • Nephilium

        There was a mandatory logout as part of the site updates that SP was doing this week.

        The captcha appears to hit some people more frequently than others. Probably those with questionable browser histories…

      • Festus' Mustache

        Sugarfree done it.

  15. Cy

    “American Express Co AXP.N said on Thursday it was investing $1 billion to advance racial and gender equality, the latest in a line of U.S. companies pledging to promote social justice after a series of race-related protests earlier in the year.”

    Must be one of those things where the spouses of the execs sit on the board of some ‘charity’ and get fat checks, benefits and throw parties in the name of some ‘help out those poor plebs’ thing?

    • UnCivilServant

      Oh, so like the Red Cross?

      • Cy

        It’s pretty crazy what ‘nonprofits’ and ‘charities’ are able to get away with. I know of a major marine oil services company that ‘donates’ equipment that costs too much money to upkeep, clean or scrap, writes off the donation and then lets the charity hold the equipment long enough to scrap it in a much more concealed fashion and pay out the proceeds to the board members through salaries. If something goes wrong with the equipment while it sits, the company and the board members won’t be held accountable for it.

      • EvilSheldon

        I wish we still had access to that scam in the IT world, but all the charities figured it out back around 2008…

    • invisible finger

      Sounds like off shoring more operations to Southeast Asia.

    • Drake

      That is the appropriate level of cynicism.

      It also means that the next time I call their customer service I’ll be talking to somebody named “Billy” in a far away land making 50 cents an hour.

  16. Rebel Scum

    This simple carbon-based molecule may be a precursor to more complex compounds that could form or feed possible life on Titan, according to scientists.

    So when the alien invasion happens we need not consider the Martians but we do need to remember the Titans.

    • Nephilium

      Isn’t Titan the place they thought the Puppet Masters came from?

      • AlexinCT

        Jack Harper told Sally “Fuck You, Sally!” once he found out she was an invading Tet and not helping him get to Titan….

  17. Cy

    “Sooner or later these harvesters will replace batteries, reducing associated environmentally hazardous waste and maintenance costs,” said Diana-Andra Borca-Tasciuc, a professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer, who led this research effort.”

    Again proving the true path to ‘being green’ is technology through the incentives of wealth.

  18. Rebel Scum

    Hundreds of boxes of stolen Hubba Bubba and chewing gum have been recovered from a lorry following a tip-off.

    Recovered from a what?

    • Festus' Mustache

      A thirteen year old girl named Lori that really digs chewing gum. Her Grandmother was noted winner of the chocolate factory lottery, Violet Beauregard.

  19. Cy

    “An Earth-sized rogue planet discovered in the Milky Way”

    We keep talking about going to other suns looking for earthlike conditions, why not make another one already here? It’d be interesting to see what kind of physics it would take to steer something like that into nearby orbit of the our sun.

  20. Rufus the Monocled

    AMEX. We’ll waste money on swapping diversity of ideas with conformity based on race.

    What can go wrong?

    AMEX: Rolls out new interest rate charges chart: All minorities (except whites and white hispanics): 0%. White and (and white Hispanics and Jews): 79.99%. Asians 59.99%.

    • AlexinCT

      If I had stock in AMEX I would be suing their ass for pissing away my money.

      • Cancelled

        Which in turn pisses away your money.

      • Swiss Servator

        Depends on their PL/E&O insurance…

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      I guess it’s cheaper than lowering their transaction fees which would help all businesses and consumers, including minorities.

      • leon

        Yeah, but then they don’t get to say that they care about “specific group”

  21. Rebel Scum

    “Pterosaurs really were incredible animals,” co-author Joanna Baker of Reading University told AFP, adding that by the end they could likely have travelled “incredible distances”.

    “As pterosaurs became more efficient at flight, they could soar for longer and longer distances before they would need to land,” she said.

    Scientists have identified dozens of species of pterosaur scattered across the planet.

    They range from creatures barely bigger than a sparrow, to giants as tall as a giraffe and with the wingspan of a fighter jet.

    Neat. We should genetically engineer and recreate them. Then display them to the public at a sort of theme park.

    • Cy

      Dude… We could call it “Mesozoic park!”

      • UnCivilServant

        Mesozoic Zoo sounds better.

      • Cy

        Zoos are publicly funded. This is a libertarian website. If people are going to be eaten alive and pay for it, it’s going to be in a park.

      • Festus' Mustache

        I want to go to there.

      • commodious spittoon

        If people are going to be eaten alive and pay for it

        There’s a subculture of degenerates who are into that.

    • Animal

      Pet peeve: Those utter horseshit Jurassic World movies got pterosaurs so damn wrong it isn’t even funny. Even the largest pterosaurs could never lift a human off the ground. A grown human would probably be ignored as out of their prey range.

      • banginglc1

        Yeah . . that‘s what’s unrealistic about the movies.

      • Animal

        One thing in a long, long list.

        I love dinosaurs as much now as I did as a little kid. I read every bit of new info that comes out. And I did enjoy the first Jurassic Park, just because of the then-new level of CGI. But Mrs. A and I – both educated in Biology – both laughed out loud at the Underwear Gnomes method of cloning dinosaurs:

        1) Obtain fragments of dinosaur DNA
        2) Patch with frog DNA
        3) ???
        4) Profit!

      • Cancelled

        The solution to the plot of Jurassic Park is easy. Make it Jurassic Preserve. How much would you pay for a Tyrranosaur tag?

      • Animal

        Whatever is left over after buying a surplus Bradley AFV?

      • UnCivilServant

        You don’t need to buy the vehicle, you rent it from the preserve.

      • AlexinCT

        I want to nail that bitchez ass with a 2 ton iridium rod dropped from orbit!

  22. Ted S.

    I started work at 4:00 this morning, so I don’t want to hear any bitching about 4:30.

    Plus, it’s snowing here.

    • Rebel Scum

      4:30am is just a myth told to scare children.

    • UnCivilServant

      I hear there are jobs that don’t require you to be in during the wee hours of the morning when all should be asleep.

    • Cy

      What is this? The USSR?

      I don’t want to here any bitching about leaving where it’s cold and shitty when you can move.

    • Swiss Servator

      You’d have really loved Stand To.

      /Infantry off

  23. Rufus the Monocled

    So. Which celebrities have threatened to leave America this time if Trump wins?

    • AlexinCT

      Joe Biden…

      Says he will move to Canada…

      • Certified Public Asshat

        He said Connecticut though.

      • AlexinCT

        We already have enough of our own corrupt, criminal class here. Lamont, Blumenthal, etc. etc…

        And they don’t want someone like Biden coming here to fuck over their criminal activities.

    • Fourscore

      Now that the concertina is stretched across the bridge at Fort Francis all the immigration people are unemployed? Ain’t fair, they din’t do nuthin’.

    • Hyperion

      Since there is a 100,000% chance that Biden wins, according to the plans, they’ve cancelled their move to Canada for 4 more years.

    • Cy

      It’s simple, which one has the last name ‘Biden?’

    • ruodberht

      As a philosopher, I want to apologize on behalf of us for the retarded continental tradition and all its dumbass representatives, like that guy.

      We’re not all pig ignorant, I promise.

      • Cancelled

        It all starts with Plato, or maybe Pythagoras. Get a few things wrong early on and watch the misery compound.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Plato’s Cave is probably the most abused philosophical notion to have ever existed.

      • Surly Knott

        I’d say Descartes’ dualism is as bad, but yes, Plato’s cave is at best a very weak story with minimal pedagogical value.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They’ll decide based on their social utility which will be defined by various governmental regulations and the whims of the local bureaucrat in charge.

      • juris imprudent

        Social credit score, just like the PRC.

      • Festus' Mustache

        ^^^ Scruffy. This guy fucks!

    • Hyperion

      And both people will wait in line until they are probably dead, after they get taxed at 60% of their income for what’s left of their lives.

  24. AlexinCT

    So, I watched Tucker Carlson talk about the Biden papers disappearing and UPS (not disclosed when he told the story) pretending to look for it, and suspected they would never find the papers because no matter how big the hit was to the company for letting this happen, if this was the only copy, the Bidens would reward them. Then Tucker admitted Fox News had copies (or the originals as did the person that shared it with them), and then suddenly UPS finds the missing docs. Note again, that what happened was that they package was opened and the docs removed. That’s not something that happens accidentally. Someone deliberately targeted this content. My guess is when UPS realized that they would have to take the hit to their reputation and still would not prevent the docs from going into the public forum, they “found” these docs. I now have have no doubt this was an internal sanctioned operation, and UPS people were active participants. Otherwise the docs would never have been found. But lets wait and see what we get told happened….

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s pretty much a certainty that UPS and FedEx have FBI package diversion programs in place for the drug war, war on terror, etc…

      My guess is someone at Fox squealed to the DNC and they contacted insiders at the FBI to do their thing.

      • AlexinCT

        This was my take as well…

        I would NOT be surprised this was deep state operatives doing this….

      • Gustave Lytton

        The local Fedex delivery center serving a university town allowed police drug dogs to come in and sniff for contraband.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Warrant free, of course.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I believe FedEx and UPS also both have expensive courier services that maintains chain of custody. I’m surprised Tucker didn’t go that route. You lose the anonymity of shipping, but it would be much harder for the FBI to interdict anonymously.

    • Jerms

      I wonder if the papers are actually “damning” as we’ve been told? Did they mention whats actually in them?

      • AlexinCT

        More likely than not, by sticking with the evidence and the logic that team blue always accuses the other side of doing what they are doing, I suspect we will find a ta[pe showing Biden in a Moscow hotel with some hookers peeing all over him…

      • Jerms

        Maybe Biden calling the military “suckers?”

      • AlexinCT

        That is already in the public domain, but the usual suspects are working hard to hide it.

  25. PieInTheSky

    Why do some socialists quickly become household names, while others remain obscure fringe figures despite decades of activism? The naïve reply would be “Because the former stand for a more modern, less dogmatic version of socialism”, but that would be a fundamental misunderstanding.

    The difference between fashionable and unfashionable socialists is not a difference of ideology. It is a difference in style, and PR savvy. Fashionable socialists have a much higher level of self-awareness. They know how to talk to “normal” people. They know, for example, that if you overuse Marxist jargon, you just come across as a crank. That is why Grace Blakeley talks about how society is split into “those who live off work, and those who live off wealth”, rather than “the proletariat and the bourgeoisie”.

    Crucially, fashionable socialists also know when to stop. They know when a cause is lost, and when it is best to drop it. Owen Jones realised at some point in 2014 that it was time to shut up about his former hobbyhorse, Venezuela. The SWP, the SP and the CPB, in contrast, cannot even bring themselves to shut about the Russian Revolution.

    https://capx.co/what-really-sets-hip-socialists-aside-from-the-crank-left/

    • Cy

      Ah yes, “Democratic Socialism.” It’s the miracle that will keep on giving, almost a ‘utopia’ if you will. Just put the right POC in charge and BANG, free shit for everyone.

      Also, anyone else seen the recent Orwellian about how Venezuela was ruined because of the fascists?

      • Jerms

        Ive been told it was the sanctions we put on them.

      • Cancelled

        Plantation life is utopian. For the master.

    • mrfamous

      It’s always been a sure sign of a benevolent belief system when a point of discussion is to how best to deceive the general public as to your true intentions.

    • limey

      Owen Jones is a pretty unpleasant and mendacious person, regardless of whether or not he’s arguing explicitly for the breadlines and bolshevist murder gangs.

    • commodious spittoon

      “How to stabilize and consolidate the new socialist order while losing hundreds of thousands of able-bodied workers every year? […] The Wall was ugly, menacing, and, for many citizens, no doubt heartbreaking. But the economic and geopolitical stability it ensured also gave the GDR the chance to build a society that was broadly characterized by modest prosperity and social equality between classes and genders.”

      Walls are good, see, not for keeping the third world from swamping your welfare system but for keeping the productive citizenry lashed to the State’s machines.

      • leon

        Sure, the overseers were cruel, menacing and, for many slaves, no doubt brutal. But the economic and political stability they ensured also gave the south the chance to build a society boradly characterized by prosperity

        I mean they are arguing for slavery.

      • commodious spittoon

        broadly characterized by modest prosperity

        Yeah, your kids won’t be much better off than you but at least they’re still enslaved. Literal LOL.

      • leon

        What gets me is that if you talk to a socialist, they quite literally just want to live like the kid of a plantation owner in the South. “If i wasn’t forced by capitalism to work, i’d go backpacking and read all these books” , etc. They want to live on the backs of workers they have enslaved.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Kids that were not effectively taught that money doesn’t grow on trees, electricity isn’t from the plug, food isn’t from the grocery store, and tech isn’t from Amazon.

      • commodious spittoon

        Frankly, and I really don’t know how literally to take this, whenever I hear complaints about capitalism all I hear is bitching about THE JOOS. I don’t know that they’re closet antisemites, though I wouldn’t put it past them, but the same one size fits all mentality of antisemitism seems pervasive in the anticapitalist mindset.

      • Mojeaux the Meandering

        See: ZeroHedge comments section. I had to quit reading that shit. It’s total poison.

      • commodious spittoon

        Wealthy, extortionate class of malefactors who “aren’t us,” whose motivations are wholly alien in their amoral lust for money, who want to enslave us and grind our children’s bones to dust to make their bread, and whose schemes explain everything bad about society and whose elimination points us toward utopia… it all sounds like a certain, widespread bigotry.

      • Mojeaux the Meandering

        it all sounds like a certain, widespread bigotry.

        Yep, but I was in my 40s and reading ZeroHedge when I ran into it. Before then, it was just a quaint little myth that anybody had ever hated Jews after the Holocaust.

        I have only ONCE run into what might have been antisemitism (probably was, knowing the source) in real life. I was talking to my supervisor about my low-carb diet and she suggested frying things in tallow or suet. I said, “Or you could use schmaltz.” She leaned over to me and whispered, “Too Jewish.”

        Having been raised Mormon going to a southern Baptist elementary and high school, antisemitism was frowned upon–if anybody ever thought about it at all. Mormons have a cultural crush on Judaism and evangelicals believe they are God’s chosen people.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Hey Hidin’ Biden
    Why you always lyin’
    Now you trivializin’

    THE LOVE – Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Hudson
    This is a life changing election. Americans are ready to rise above the division and hate. We are ready to choose a path of healing and unity. A path of hope and light. Who we are as a nation is on the ballot so make your plan to vote today.

    “But my opponent and his supporters are nazi’s and klansmen.”

  27. AlexinCT

    Fact checking this as 100% accurate. Progjection.

    • Drake

      Yep. Whatever the left is accusing the right of doing is always exactly what the left is doing.

    • Cy

      I’m the guy you see randomly turning around between the doorway and the parking lot and swearing out loud because I forgot my damn mask… again.

      • PieInTheSky

        this is why masks should be compulsory to wear even when alone in your own car

      • mrfamous

        “Wear” implies you are ever allowed to take them off. The best way forward is to force everyone to have them surgically attached to their face.

      • PieInTheSky

        or just stapled there so they can be removed at some point

      • Nephilium

        So… certain Cenobites are safe?

      • Festus' Mustache

        I always found the “chatter-teeth” Cenobite the most creepy. Only watched the first film once, 35 years ago.

      • Nephilium

        There are TEN of the Hellraiser movies now. First two are solid (second is basically a twist on the first), third has a soft spot in my heart because it was the first one I saw, the fourth was the last that got a theatrical release (and was an Alan Smithee film).

        They did not get good again until about the 7th one, which was basically a Twilight Zone story that had Pinhead shoved into it.

      • Gdragon

        Why let them have a face at all?

    • EvilSheldon

      Tough shit.

      You inconvenience me, I inconvenience you.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    “American Express Co AXP.N said on Thursday it was investing $1 billion to advance racial and gender equality, the latest in a line of U.S. companies pledging to promote social justice after a series of race-related protests earlier in the year.”

    “investing”

    People keep using that word, et c.

    • Swiss Servator

      Have them lay out what the $/ROI is on that. On a Sarbanes-Oxley sworn to document.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Who the fuck does Kommie Kieth think he is?

    The rally was initially planned at the Rochester airport, but Ellison’s office demanded a “COVID preparedness plan” from officials from the City of Rochester, Olmsted County, and the Rochester airport, as well as the Republican National Committee to ensure the event was safe.

    The event was then moved to Dodge Center, prompting Ellison’s office to ask the Trump campaign and the owner of the building McNeilus Steel for their “COVID Preparedness Plan.”

    That prompted the Trump campaign to move the event again, back to the airport.

    “Thanks to the free speech-stifling dictates of Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, only the first 250 people will be admitted,” the campaign said in a statement sent late Thursday night.

    “Without question, Minnesota Democrats had hoped that the President would simply cancel the event, but he will not allow partisan politicians to deprive people of their First Amendment rights to gather peacefully to hear directly from the President of the United States,” the statement continued.

    I am disappointed that the campaign didn’t tell them to shove off and hold the rally with whatever number they usually do. But that is still at least ten times the number of people that attend Biden events.

    • Cy

      I think it would’ve been better if they’d have federally deputized everyone at entrance gate and claimed they were having a briefing on domestic terrorism and Russian/Chinese corruption.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Fashionable socialists have a much higher level of self-awareness.

    Stop it. You’re killing me.

    • PieInTheSky

      he has a point. they know how to sell their schtick to hipsters

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Scumbags. In a more just time, a lot of people would have been strung up already.

  31. PieInTheSky

    Nazaré continues to pulse! Here’s @lucaschumbo
    on one of the biggest waves of the second day of this massive swell.

    https://twitter.com/wsl/status/1321830296942096385

    I would also be doing that if not for this damn covid

  32. Rebel Scum

    Rappers like Trump again.

    Just had a great meeting with @realdonaldtrump @potus besides what he’s done so far with criminal reform, the platinum plan is going to give the community real ownership. He listened to what we had to say today and assured he will and can get it done.

    • leon

      Trump can’t get soldiers out of afghanistan. You think Pelosi will play along with this?

    • CPRM

      We all know Blacks are too stupid to follow laws or get ID. We shouldn’t denigrate them because they are a lesser race. I mean, check out this chicken eatin’ uncle Tom! – DNC

      • Not Adahn

        NPR had a story about Republican Voter Suppression. Their example was a poor 90 year old woman who had to pull out her ID “with her 90-year old fingers” to show to the poll workers who knew her on a first name basis. The aforementioned 90 year old woman said this was exactly like Jim Crow, and she knew this firsthand.

        They never mentioned if her 90 year old fingers were adequate for voting of if she had a nice young helper from the local DNC to fill out her ballot for her.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Voting should be telepathically transmitted to your local party representative who will then submit it for you.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Posted last night about a 88 year who was worried that her arthritis had changed her signature from when she last filled out her voter registration card 28 years ago. Can’t be bothered to just submit a new registration card, instead writes a note on her ballot envelope.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Hello Mother!

      • Gadfly

        Their example was a poor 90 year old woman who had to pull out her ID “with her 90-year old fingers” to show to the poll workers who knew her on a first name basis.

        Texas, which is a required ID state, let’s old people have help. My mother was allowed to assist her 91 y-o father with his ballot, in the presence of a poll worker (he can’t see well enough to read it), so the idea that ID requirements is voter suppression for old people is laughable.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    “Thanks to the free speech-stifling dictates of Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, only the first 250 people will be admitted,” the campaign said in a statement sent late Thursday night.

    Totally not election interference.

  34. ttyrant

    Swiss, if you’re reading this, the general opinion (at least in my immediate friend circle) on the Sox going back to the well with La Russa seems to be uniformly negative. As far as I can tell it’s due to what he said about the whole Kaepernick situation, as well as what it says about the Sox internal issues (Jerry possibly hiring a long-time friend rather than going outside the organization with Hinch or Cora). I’d say the second point is a much bigger problem, if in fact it’s true that Jerry went over Rick Hahn’s head to hire TLR. On the other hand, I think I am going to find myself taking the side that La Russa is not actually a blithering racist. This is, after all, a guy who fought tooth and nail to get Harold Baines into the HoF (let’s leave the discussion about whether Baines is actually a HoFer for another day). La Russa also obviously has a long career, so if it’s true that he’s a racist, I’d think folks could point to loads of examples with the Sox, Oakland and/or St Louis. I’ve yet to see that, though.

    • PieInTheSky

      Swiss don ;t read this it’s a trick

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Just doing that makes me wonder if he has any baseball training at all! Baines is NOT a Hall of Famer.

    • invisible finger

      Sports fans are uniformly negative.

    • Swiss Servator

      100% negative reaction everywhere. He was stumbling to speak and a drunk at 69-70 yoa – is he somehow sharper now? Bah. Jerry just wants to wipe his greatest regret – letting Hawk Harrelson fire LaRussa back in the early 1980s.

      This is the same foolishness that led them to hire Robin Ventura while he was raking infields at a high school.

    • Gdragon

      It’s been a while but hasn’t Tony had some difficulties with a few younger players in the past? There’s a lot of still developing youth and inexperience on that White Sox roster, I kinda hope he doesn’t decide that he’s gonna teach Madrigal a harsh lesson or something.

    • Plisade

      A faith so strong, a cartoon could shake it.

    • juris imprudent

      Let’s see, one has legitimate state authority and the other is religious horseshit.

  35. Festus' Mustache

    Funny that SLC failing newspaper story. We had two competing rags here, one was the established 100-odd year established entity and the other was started by a Libertarianish dude that gave no fucks. He opened his comment sections up and the oldster shut comments down. He was drinking their milkshake until he sadly died of cancer and his widow shuttered the site. Now the old tree and timber version of the bully in the room is done like dinner. Everything online and full of stories from AP and CP. The editor is such a Lefty that I’d be tempted to break the NAP if we ever sat and had a few beers together. Print media is done.

    • Rhywun

      Print media is done.

      This. I haven’t read a dead-tree paper in at least 15 years.

  36. Not Adahn

    First snowfall. I guess it’s time to change the tires on the subie.

    • PieInTheSky

      In october? what is wrong with you people? Proper placed don’t get snow till december

      • UnCivilServant

        If it hasn’t snowed by Holloween, you’re too tropical.

      • Nephilium

        Commenting here from tropical Cleveland, Ohio!

        Usually we just get a dusting or some flurries by Halloween (or on it). This year, just rain and temps in the 40’s. I prefer snow to that.

    • UnCivilServant

      I only have a dusting of snow that will be gone by nightfall.

      How much fell up your way?

      • Not Adahn

        It’s still here, but melting. Complete coverage when I woke up pre-dawn, except for the blacktop driveway. It must be cold outside since the cars driving by still have snow on their roofs. Looks like about 1/3″ on the yews.

    • leon

      (((They))) Gave it to him.

      Also it just this second clicked that the Turks and Azeris in France going after the Armenians. France has sided with Armenia against the Turks and Azeris.

  37. juris imprudent

    So reading Taibbi’s latest on Greenwald and The Intercept, I was introduced to this little marvel of a reference. I am now subscribed, because we need to support this kind of journalism. I hope we completely disaggregate the media beast and become niche consumers (while acknowledging the need to cultivate a diverse array of sources). Fuck mass media.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Read that story before. One of the reasons that I drifted over here.

    • Surly Knott

      I knew we were doomed when DARE was cheered for kids narking on their parents.
      That was the primary horror story of communism when I was in school in the Midwest from the mid-50s to 69. “They even got children to turn on their own families!”

      • Nephilium

        I remember being in a DARE meeting in grade school, shortly after getting out of the hospital. I had a couple of questions about how all drugs are bad…

      • UnCivilServant

        How DARE you question the orthodoxy!

      • Festus' Mustache

        My youngest step-daughter got a large DARE shirt when she was in 7th grade and promptly gave it to me. I wore it with pride. She’s the same one that remarked while we were watching the first episode of OZ, “Don’t drop the soap!” She was eleven.

      • Cancelled

        What Neph fails to mention is that it was a psychiatric hospital he had been sent to for being a 5 year old junkie.

      • Festus' Mustache

        I have no idea where she heard that term. She’s still a cool chick.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Sardonic. I guess I did something right.

      • Plinker762

        Drugs
        Are
        Really
        Excellent

      • Ted S.

        DARE to keep kids off Ritalin.

  38. Rebel Scum

    Facts first.

    CNN has informed the largest outside group supporting President Trump’s reelection that it will not run one of its new ads, saying the ad is false because it warns Democratic nominee Joe Biden will raise taxes on the middle class and implies that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports socialist policies.

    The ad, from America First Action (AFA), says Biden “sided with socialists,” while showing pictures of Pelosi and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

    The narrator of the ad also warns that Biden will “raise taxes on the middle class” and that “his liberal agenda will cost millions of jobs.”

    I wonder if they run Biden ads that say Trump said nazis are “very fine people”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The media outlets have declared war on the GOP. Those that think it will stop once Trump is gone are fools.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        This. The only thing that Trump added to the dynamic was a heaping scoop of contempt. The media is the same as it was under Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc. Hell, Rush Limbaugh made a 30+ year career off of exposing their idiocy.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Get fucked you right wing nutjob, he’s not going to raise taxes, he’s just going to rescind the current tax cuts.

    • wdalasio

      At this point, I hope Trump wins just so I can watch the CEO of AT&T (the ultimate owner of CNN) squirm. Going political is a really, really stupid move for a company. I’d venture that the companies think it’s okay to do to Republicans because they’re more pro-business. Something tells me Donald Trump is a little more vindictive than your average Republican and AT&T is a company that might want to think once or twice before pissing off the government.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Yeah, tell that to Alphabet.

      • wdalasio

        Not sure I understand. Do you think Alphabet isn’t reliant on government goodwill? One RICO charge and Alphabet is relegated to the bankruptcy courts for the distressed funds to fight over. And AT&T is a lot more reliant on the feds than Alphabet.

        It’s not right. It’s not how it should be. But, that is the reality we live in. I wouldn’t want even a politician I’m favorable to to leverage that. But, I can’t say I’d be all that angry if it happened to a company that saw fit to enter the political arena.

      • Gustave Lytton

        They get bucks from the bureaucratic Fed. I doubt they’re actually worried about vindictiveness of Trump.

        And it would take more than a RICO charge to destroy the Googleplex. Starting with not getting the charge immediately dismissed by a friendly judge.

      • Nephilium

        ATT just wants to go back to the day of the baby bells.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Baby bells were the divested RBOCs, which essentially no longer exist.

    • Count Potato

      “I wonder if they run Biden ads that say Trump said nazis are “very fine people”.”

      They do.

  39. Nephilium

    So… what qualifies as “staggering” anymore?

    Ohio Sets Staggering New Record for COVID Cases

    The record they’re talking about? 3,590 new cases, 194 new hospitalizations… in a state with more than 11 million people, which has had the ‘vid in it since at least January.

    • Rebel Scum

      We have to shut down the economy for a 0.03% new infection case rate for a disease with a 99.99% recovery rate.

    • juris imprudent

      The average reader will only get the headline, and maybe the first couple of paragraphs. There is a reason all of the qualifiers and disclaimers come at the end of an article (if provided at all).

      • Festus' Mustache

        I’ve noted a small but not insignificant up-tick in face diapers over the last week. I can sorta see why Muslims make their women do that. All you get to see is the pretty eyes and everything they say is muffled and incomprehensible.

      • Rhywun

        I’ve noted a small but not insignificant up-tick in face diapers over the last week.

        #metoo

        People are definitely hearing all the messages of DOOM! and acting accordingly. Well done, The Media. You’ll crash the economy again – I know you can do it!

    • Festus' Mustache

      You’ve seen me on the Zoom chats. No need for Webster’s Dictionary!

  40. Festus' Mustache

    I updated my ad blocker yesterday. That’s probably why I’m having this trouble with the site.

    • juris imprudent

      I was not experiencing the return-to-top after comment behavior, but now I am (Chrome, desktop). Go figure.

      • Festus' Mustache

        #metoobin Chrome, desktop. Makes it hard to reply in a timely manner.

  41. Idle Hands

    https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-10-29/lockdown-meltdown-is-an-indiscriminate-markets-selloff?srnd=opinion&sref=ZtdQlmKR&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-view&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=view

    How serious is this dose of risk aversion compared to its predecessors? The VIX volatility indexes for the main European and U.S. stock benchmarks give a good picture. The S&P 500 version passed 40 on Wednesday, while the European version is only slightly below it. The Covid seizure in March and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 saw volatility reach double those levels. Excluding those two crises, the VIX suggests that this incident is already slightly more scary than most other volatility spikes of the last decade, including the botched Chinese devaluation of 2015, the Brexit referendum in 2016, and the “Volmageddon” market accident of February 2018. Instead, we have to go back to the U.S. debt ceiling crisis in the summer of 2011 (which overlapped with some of the darkest hours of the euro-zone crisis) and the first outbreak of the euro-zone crisis in 2010 for spikes on a greater scale:

    spooky.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And conveniently timed to a couple of days before the election. Why now? This crap has been going on for a while.

      • Idle Hands

        Bloomberg ran like three grim economic pieces today.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Well sure. We’re all gonna die.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of dead tree media…

    The Indianapolis Star has a heartwrenching front page headline which reads, “What 4,000 Deaths Look Like.”

    That’s nice. What’s the population of Indiana? Quick search says ~6.7 million. What do 4,000 blue jellybeans look like, in a jar with 6.7 million green jelly beans?

    How many waitresses have lost their jobs over the hysteria? And we’re not just talking perky twenty-something cuties down at the trendy high class steak house. What about the middle aged women who work at Denny’s, and the Waffle house, and all the nameless owner operated mom and pops? How do they stack up against the blue jelly beans?

    It’s infuriating.

    • Rhywun

      I wonder if they were curious “what 4000 deaths looks like” during any average flu season.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      They probably have about 70,000 deaths annually from all causes. What does that look like?

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Joe Biden is running on an implicit claim that he can and will stop the plague. If he fails to do so in his first 100 days in office, will the media be calling for his impeachment?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      They’ll close ranks and protect him like a mother grizzly protects her cub.

    • Plisade

      He inherited a pandemic that was worse than they’d thought.

      • wdalasio

        Not even that. My bet is that they’d start brushing the story under the rug within days of the election. No real announcements. Just a steady lifting of the restrictions, a sudden disappearance of news stories on the topic, etc. And anyone even bringing it up will be told, “Oh, you’re still on about THAT?”

      • Plisade

        I think so as well, but I wonder how it’ll go when the governors have to give up all that sweet authoritarian control. Like a wild animal that’s tasted human blood, they might need to be put down.

      • Viking1865

        You assume the governors are doing it for its own sake. They are doing it to win the Presidency and the national elections.

        If Biden wins, and the Dems take the Congress, they will steadily lift the restrictions, juke the stats, and Friendly Kindly Nice Uncle Joe will appear at the Final Four next spring because he Trusted The Science and Brought Us Back to Normalcy.

        The real question is, if Trump pulls it off, and the GOP retakes the House and holds the Senate, do the Dem governors double down and punish the plebs for daring to question their betters.

      • Rebel Scum

        within days of the election

        Nah, right after the inauguration. Still doom and gloom as long as Bad Orange Man is in the White House.

    • leon

      The Pandemic will stop because it is no longer a problem. The real Pandemic is that of white supreamacy in our country. Once Trump is defeated this will be over.

    • invisible finger

      The plague won’t be stopped. The definitions of “stopped” and “plague” will be changed.

      • Nephilium

        The death rate is under 1%, and the spread is much lower than expected. The ‘vid is no worse then SARS.

        I give it four days after the election if Biden wins for those thoughts to be in a national publication.

    • AlexinCT

      MAGIC LEGS LT. DAN!

      /Forrest Gump

    • Festus' Mustache

      He’s a literal straw-man. They want that evil, smirking bitch on top.

      • Drake

        Yep – they will turn on him. They’ll blame him for every oldster who gets sick and they’ll have an independent investigation into his family dealings. He won’t last a year.

        No wonder he can’t be bothered to campaign.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Bloomberg ran like three grim economic pieces today.

    Biden will right the ship of state, and put us back on course to prosperity!

    • Festus' Mustache

      Right into China’s change pocket. Come on, Man…

  45. Stillhunter

    I’m considering not wearing a mask to the polling place to see the reaction and see if they push it to the point of saying I can’t vote unless I wear the face diaper. I’m a hermit so rarely go anywhere. I’ve changed my habits to a pretty large degree to avoid going places where masks are mandatory. Except for the dentist, which I couldn’t avoid, I haven’t worn a mask for several weeks now. I refuse to participate in the theater. I just wonder how it would go down at the polling place.

    For context, I live in a tiny town in rural northern MN that leans democrat, if not exactly “left”. I rarely see others not wearing masks, but as I said, I’m a hermit, so…

    • Festus' Mustache

      Just go armed.

      • Stillhunter

        Always

    • UnCivilServant

      Around here, they’d probably call the cops to gun you down.

      • UnCivilServant

        Not because people believe, but because poll workers are petty tyrants who hate voters.

      • Stillhunter

        Almost all poll workers here are on social security, and I think we have 1-2 cops on duty at a time.

        I am typically the definition of gray man. I’m very laid back, almost always avoid conflict and generally go with the flow. But this shit is pushing me to the edge.

      • PieInTheSky

        those was jokes

      • Stillhunter

        I realized you may not know our state codes.

      • PieInTheSky

        and my guess would be Mew Nexico?

        This was sort of a joke a friend of mine in university did where she made up silly names for various Romanian codes

      • Stillhunter

        I knew it was a joke, but I figured you really didn’t know what it meant as well

    • The Gunslinger

      I plan on going maskless to vote on Tuesday. When I voted earlier this year there was a lot of talk on the news making it clear that people would not be required to wear a mask to vote in person but it was strongly encouraged. I haven’t seen anything about masks for voting leading up to November 3 but I’m going to show up with no mask on my face. I will probably have something with me I can put on.

      • leon

        I’m sure that if they require it, they’ll have a box of masks to give to people who don’t bring one.

    • Rebel Scum

      I’m considering not wearing a mask to the polling place to see the reaction and see if they push it to the point of saying I can’t vote unless I wear the face diaper.

      I am not wearing one and no one is going to stop me from voting. Besides, the governors illegal, tyrannical e.o. on the matter has a medical condition caveat and no on is allowed to ask me about my “medical condition”. So the poll workers can fuck off.

      • Stillhunter

        This is what I’m thinking will be the reason they don’t say anything, but I’m sure I’ll get lots of dirty looks.

    • grrizzly

      I voted in a primary indoors without a mask in MA on September 1. I intend to do the same next Tuesday. As how “left” the place is, Trump received about 9% here in 2016.

  46. Ownbestenemy

    Reading Greenwald’s story that set off his departure. There is nothing in there except journalism and asking questions.

    • PieInTheSky

      at the time of the most important election we must not do anything that may jeopardize Joe, even if we need to put journalism aside for a while. It is to important to stop Trump. The world is at stake. We will see after.

      • leon

        Even Truth must be sacrificed to fight the great Satan!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Exactly. His editor, Betsy Reed, is a former The Nation hack. It seems she’s the one stonewalling the article.

      And they had the nerve to ask him not to publish independently because it makes them look bad.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      Dobrze.

    • Count Potato

      “BREAKING:

      DOJ officials confirm Hunter Biden and his business associates are currently under ACTIVE criminal investigation by the FBI

      The investigation has been ongoing since 2019 and may include his father, Joe Biden. Where is the media?

      RT so they can’t ignore!”

      https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1321929810629718016

      “Sinclair’s Rosen: “a Justice Department official confirmed to Sinclair that back in 2019, the FBI opened up a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden and his associates that is focused on allegations of money laundering, and remains open and active today””

      https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1321936960483635200

      • Ownbestenemy

        We will not cannot verify so we have decided not to report such rabid conspiracy theories. /all of US media

    • leon

      I like the serious “concern” the media is having for Trumps fans.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That’s called desperation. The general population didn’t really care there were maskless people so now they need to find something that will jolt the people and spark outrage.

      Ignoring that nearly all events of that size will have a handful of people seeking medical attention.

      • Tejicano

        “events of that size will have a handful of people seeking medical attention.”

        …and noting that it’s Florida –

        “Dude. Can I score some meth off you?”

  47. The Late P Brooks

    My bet is that they’d start brushing the story under the rug within days of the election. No real announcements. Just a steady lifting of the restrictions, a sudden disappearance of news stories on the topic, etc. And anyone even bringing it up will be told, “Oh, you’re still on about THAT?”

    Perhaps they will suddenly notice the disparity between “cases” and debilitation or death. I’m betting all those “weird lingering side effects!” stories disappear.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Ive always wonder how many of those “side-effects” were existing conditions people ignored but self attribute to their covidien near-death experience.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        ^This, I’d bet the percentage is 90 or higher.

    • Mojeaux the Meandering

      I suppose I should’ve read that Mailchimp email in my inbox this morning…

    • Nephilium

      So will that include the marketing e-mails that tell me that I need to vote for Biden and every downticket Democrat?

      Once you go to that level of political bullshit in your marketing/informational e-mails, I’m out.

    • KOVIDKristen

      We use Constant Contact, but I would love to see Mail Chimp deactivate some government accounts just to see what happens.

      ?

    • Rebel Scum

      Define “false/inaccurate/misleading”… //rhetorical

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Even Truth must be sacrificed to fight the great Satan!

    The Truth is more than mere facts, Grasshopper.

  49. KOVIDKristen

    Just texted my Pa to see if there would be a benefit to installing solar panels on an RV.

    What do y’all think?

    • PieInTheSky

      I disapprove of solar panels

      • KOVIDKristen

        Well, yeah, because there’s no sun in Romania. Duh!

      • leon

        You know his kind is skeptical of anything that requires being in the sun to work.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yes there is. There are a lot of YT videos on them and various setups.

      We are going to move to that for next summer on the work trailer. A mix of solar/batteries and generator backup.

    • Mojeaux the Meandering

      In my moments of fantasy, I’ve waffled back and forth on the topic.

      Because of my wish for an incinerating toilet (versus a normal dump or composting toilet), I wouldn’t because those take a lot of juice I don’t think solar panels would be able to provide, along with a fridge and A/C.

      If you are going with dumping or a composting toilet, then maybe it’d be a good investment. I haven’t seen/read where people who did that were sorry. A couple had to have backup power sources, though.

      • Count Potato

        You might want to look into cassette toilets.

      • Mojeaux the Meandering

        What about the smell? How often would you have to empty them?

        My overriding need is to avoid messing with icky stuff. Changing diapers was enough, thanks.

      • Count Potato

        I never heard that they smell. How often would you have to empty them would depend on how often it’s used, and I think they come in different sizes:

        https://www.thetford.com/products/toilets/cassette-toilets/

        Anyway, dealing with a blackwater tank is a huge PITA. It needs a macerating pump, separate hoses, etc. and you can only dump it at a dumping station.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      Depends what you want to do with it. Are you thinking about a few cheap panels to run the lights or a bigger setup to run all of the electrical?

      • KOVIDKristen

        Kind of a backup for if I need/want to do dry camping. So, almost full supply, but wouldn’t be used very often. Most times I’d probably be hooked up to an RV park’s electrical, but I may want to go off grid sometimes.

    • Count Potato

      Why wouldn’t you have solar panels on an RV?

  50. UnCivilServant

    It’s sad. I crawl uinder my desk to find the broken arm of a miniature and I end up finding knives I forgot I owned.

    • mrfamous

      Finally someone passes the “true libertarian” test!

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      A couple months ago, I found an unopened ammo can with 175 00 shells I completely forgot about in my closet. I wish it had been a case of 5.56 instead but I’ll take it right now regardless.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Just texted my Pa to see if there would be a benefit to installing solar panels on an RV.

    What do y’all think?

    People do it. It probably makes sense, if you spend any appreciable amount of time unplugged. You’re not likely to be using more wattage than a twelve volt solar system can keep up with. . You don’t want to run the tow vehicle to keep your batteries charged.

    • grrizzly

      I had an office mate from Mauritius when I was at the World Bank.

    • Sean

      I’ve occasionally owned clothes made there. *shrug*

    • commodious spittoon

      Are we bombing them yet? When do we start?

    • Tejicano

      It’s been on my bucket list of places to visit. Somewhat interesting that there were no native people there – only Dodos and tortoises. So the people living there are a mix of different ethnicities.

    • Gdragon

      You’d have to be a real dodo to know anything about Mauritius 😉

  52. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The Facederp posts making electoral predictions are starting to pop up.

    I don’t get the attraction of doing that.

    • leon

      At least it means we are nearing the beginning of the End. What are the plans for Election night? I’ll be willing to do a CK3 MP game with a group if anyone wants to.

      • UnCivilServant

        Multiplayer Crusader Kings?

      • UnCivilServant

        *bleep*ing browser. I was still typing and it posted on me.

    • Hyperion

      Does Biden get 600 electoral votes?

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        If he doesn’t, it means the Russians are at it again.

      • Hyperion

        Maybe they can pack the electoral college. Looks like they already have Hillary in there.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’ve got it narrowed down to two for president. It’s either going to be Trump or Biden.

      • commodious spittoon

        Biden’s just a formality, it’s either Trump or Harris.

      • Tejicano

        This answer is almost pedantic.

  53. Cy

    Which raises the interesting question – which movie is more woke – Black Panther or Avatar?

    Vibranium or unobtainium?

    I always found it funny that the whole ‘Wakanda is smartest, bestest most awesome culture’ is based entirely on that they won the lottery of vibranium. Do they know the writers are laughing at them? We could all be free, rich and healthy if we all just won the lottery.

    • leon

      One of the best memes i’ve seen has each Marvles avenger in seperate quadrants of the Political spectrum. They had Black Panther in the farthest corner of the “Authoritarian, Economic Freedom” category (fascist side) because he “is the hereditary monarch of an ethno-state”

      • kinnath

        hereditary monarch of an ethno-state

        Totally woke

      • commodious spittoon

        Fascism is only bad because white people ruined it.

    • Viking1865

      “The only way an African nation can be advanced, independent, and free is if they get Magic Space Rocks.” -People Who Think Other People Are Racist.

  54. Count Potato

    Today, in totally fact checking:

    “Wtf?—@PolitiFact
    rates it “mostly true” that the pro-police thin blue line flag is actually an “anti-Black Lives Matter” flag.”

    https://twitter.com/BrentScher/status/1322015793593360384

    “Guise. Biden didn’t eulogize a former Grand Wizard of the KKK.

    What a horrible and racist accusation.

    AP fact-check understands that Robert Byrd was merely and exalted cyclops of the KKK.”

    https://twitter.com/TRHLofficial/status/1322002798674849793

    • leon

      Dave smith makes a point on the most recent podcast that, even though the media’s credibilty is entirely shot with the right, it still has power over Democratic and left leaning voters. This is why, even though the Biden allegations are pretty bad, it won’t sway any votes because the only people who knew about it are people who were already disinclined to vote for Biden in the first place.

      This is the same thing with fact checkers. If someone brings ups a politifact fact check, i can cite a bunch where they lie to get their “mostly X” rating of a deplorable politician. I just don’t give it any value other than propoganda.

      • Akira

        This is the same thing with fact checkers. If someone brings ups a politifact fact check, i can cite a bunch where they lie to get their “mostly X” rating of a deplorable politician. I just don’t give it any value other than propoganda.

        A lot of people think a “fact check” is like measuring blood pressure or something, where there’s some objective process that will result in the same answer no matter who performs the test. In reality, it’s heavily based on interpretation and point of view. They think the words “fact check” make it incapable of containing falsehoods.

        And 90% of the time, the real bullshit is not what they do fact check but what they don’t fact check. Everything from the mainstream center-Left viewpoint – no matter how absurdly dishonest – is allowed to slide by the “fact checkers”.

      • cyto

        Nah…. The entire fact check thing was invented by the left as a political operation. They were pretty explicit about it. They said they had to form an objective non-partisan service to counter the lies of Fox News and Republican politicians.

        If you read any of these sites, they are just spin machines.

        The bigger ones use controversial issues to push related ideological spin.

        Here is a video about fact checking “Biden hides in his basement”

        https://youtu.be/xPruYq320MM

    • Fatty Bolger

      Very common tactic. Pick out the version that has a technical error, and use it to debunk the entire accusation.

  55. Sean
    • Count Potato

      That’s a bit too realistic.