About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

353 Comments

  1. Tres Cool

    mornin’

    Twas a brutal night @ work……TALL CHRISTMAS CANS !

    • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

      Many short cans in reply, my Friend. Indeed it was a brutal night at work. 19 straight and two days off. I might overindulge on the Zoom if I join tonight.

      • Tres Cool

        When my grocery has 24 ounce (.71L in your gay units) Milwaukee’s Beast Light for 10/$10, I tend to buy them out.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Camp Cariboo-boo! Local swill, used to have to mix it with clamato but it became an acquired taste. 5.5%.

      • Tres Cool

        Mama Tres was big into the Clamato/tomato-juice beer-cocktail. Which I always found disgusting.

      • Tulip

        I love those – poor man’s bloody mary

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Tomater juice= Redeye Clamato juice=Clameye… Spent many a morose Sunday at the pub nursing Clam-eyes. It’s got what drunks crave!

      • ElspethFlashman

        Milwaukee’s Beast – even I won’t go that low. But I will (sometimes) drink Black Label *shrug*

      • Tres Cool

        C’mon, man….works out to $0.50/can, only 3.5g-carbs/12 ounces so it fits my dietary lifestyle

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      How do you like working straight nights? I used to work swing shift and it sucked but always dreamed of working straight night shift for some reason.

      • Tres Cool

        Im more or less accustomed to it by now- its been a few months. Its a great excuse to have beer @ 6:30 am without shame. However that generally destroys the rest of my morning. If my goal was a solid 8 hours of sleep, Id been in bed around 1pm, but that isnt going to happen around here, so Ill generally nap for a couple hours in the morning, then “bedtime” is around 3:30 or 4 pm. Ive noticed that on my night/days off I kinda make-up for it by sleeping 12 or 13 hours.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It seems like it’d be a dream come true if you’re a night owl which I am. Going from days to nights and nights to days really messed me up and, even though I enjoyed the nights, I’ve worked straight days ever since.

      • Tres Cool

        l0b0t could be a better person to axe- I think he’s been doing the night thing for years

      • rhywun

        I did it for years and I could never get used to it, even though I am (or was until recently) a night person.

        But yeah, split shifts or whatever that’s called is even worse. I did 3 overnights/2 evenings every week for a year. That was just awful.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        It’s hard if you have a young family but if the fire has become mere embers its not so bad. Fewer assholes, less traffic. So your 5 o’clock gets topsy-turvy’d. No big deal. Winter is a bear though. I haven’t been out in the sun for a month.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      We stayed up all night, Tall canns!

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Momma Momma She’s a little Baby… Knew before click! Love me some Talking Heads!

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    There will be much wailing over Stone and Manafort.

    However, I believe that indicates Trump has given up on the election. I doubt he would have pardoned them ahead of a second term.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Given up might be an overstatement but at some point reality sets in and you need to pardon while you can.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        I just want him to leave a flaming paper bag of the Hat and Hairs’ excrement on Biden’s front porch every night until Jan 20th. Poor Joe will try to stamp out every last one.

      • UnCivilServant

        Like Joe answers the door.

        You’ll be tormenting a poor secret service agent.

    • straffinrun

      Exposed his true colors for even the most hardcore Trumpsters. Pardon Snowden, Asange and Ross or GTFO.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Perhaps he’s waiting until all avenues of redress are exhausted. Then he will play the Trump Card.

      • straffinrun

        We’ll see. He has a free hand right now.

      • Atanarjuat

        Yeah, inexcusable.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And Martha Stewart. Fuck Comey.

  3. Tulip

    Putridmeat has very lucky friends. What a lovely gift!

    • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

      I was very impressed! Someone sent us a mystery box from Bzz Bees. We opened it and it was specifically addressed to Judi with a handwritten note inside… A high quality wooden box with a lock on the front containing a jar, a plate and this is where I clued in, rolling papers. Judi has never partook of the Devil’s Lettuce but it really is some fine craftmanship. I’ll show it off on the Zoom sometime. Apparently a portion of the company’s sales go toward “saving honeybees”. WTF?

    • Fourscore

      What? You didn’t get one?

      I thought all Glibs got one, I’m checking under the tree again.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Right?

      • Festus

        Apparently a gift intercepted between teen-aged cousins. They think the eldest one is a God, apparently. We were gods among cousins growing up but nobody ever sent us expensive gifts. We had to settle for their undying love and attention. He is a pretty cool kid, though. Plays guitar badly, has a job and a girlfriend and a shock of hair.

  4. FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

    I was checking Banjos header and wondered what breed of dog that was. Well played, Banjos, well played.

    • Tulip

      That’s a very tolerant kitty

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        That is a good kitteh!

      • Spartacus

        Looks like a Maine Coon…they are big, fluffy, and very laid back.

  5. UnCivilServant

    Video games are a bigger industry than movies and North American sports combined.

    It is the next evolution of storytelling. It gains the visual elements that film allowed, with the potential for character depth and length from books, while adding in agency from the audience.

    Of course you could always run around shooting each other.

    • straffinrun

      You tend to stay on topic with Banjo’s links. Is it the driving gloves?

      • Tres Cool

        Linking gloves.

    • Jarflax

      Sometimes running around shooting everybody is just the kind of story that needs to be told.

    • Mojeaux

      If I could draw, I’d make y books into graphic novels or at least throw in an illustration here and there.

      • UnCivilServant

        If I could draw, I probably wouldn’t know how to write, because I’d have spent all my time practicing that instead.

      • Mojeaux

        Well, yes, me too, I guess. I always say I write because I can’t paint.

      • Festus

        I used to draw. Peanut butter and chocolate?

  6. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “Dominion to sue Trump’s legal team.”

    Discovery should be interesting unless this just gets the idea out there that they’re trying to clear their good name before it’s quietly dropped and the press dutifully doesn’t report it.
    *psssst, that’s what it is*

    • UnCivilServant

      Trump’s legal team has the kind of people who’d trumpet any dropping of the case as vindication, and it would get spread far and wide even with the legacy propagandists ignoring it.

  7. UnCivilServant

    Dominion to sue Trump’s legal team.

    I’m guessing they destroyed all of their own records because the last thing Dominion wants is to reach discovery in court.

    • Tres Cool

      BleachBit- Hillary approved !

    • UnCivilServant

      If you looked, there was a videogame link, and new entrants into the industry is relevant.

      • Plisade

        I don’t understand your gaming lingo but I #BelieveAllUCS. Is this real or a publicity stunt?

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s a real publicity stunt.

        The game exists, whether they’ll actually ship console units is questionable, but there will probably be a handful at least.

        Don’t expect them to be a contender for market share though.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I think it’s a gaming computer made to cosmetically resemble a console. So it won’t have dedicated games, but will play anything that, say Alienware, can.

      • UnCivilServant

        Most likely, it’s the least expensive solution – requires the least development.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I’d like to have one but there’s no way I’d pay the premium for the novelty. It’d be a neat conversation piece though.

  8. juris imprudent

    Illinois doesn’t want New York to have all of the glory.

    So tell us again, Democratic power brokers who rule Illinois. Tell us what great jobs you’re doing. Tell us that these worsening annual population losses aren’t an indictment of anti-jobs, high-spending policies. Tell us it’s just snowbirds fleeing the weather here. Tell us you need to keep raising taxes.

    Oh, they will, because you keep voting them into office.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Having an upper class and a lower class with few in the middle makes for an unhealthy but easily controlled society. As long as pols benefit it won’t change.

      • rhywun

        ^This

        There’s nothing new here; this is just people paying slightly more attention to a process that’s been going on for decades.

      • straffinrun

        Middle class are assholes. They want liberty, but want a comfy couch to fight it from.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Lower middle class want that too. Ya know what my free munnies are going to get spent on? Brake parts for the Nissan and beer. I certainly won’t be dropping Judi’s car off at the shop in the dead of winter. If I have to replace brake pads and rotors I’m gonna do it with a buzz on.

      • Tulip

        A comfy couch is a comfy couch.

        While you’re up, get me a glass of wine, thanks

      • straffinrun

        Give me liberty or give me a comfy couch.

      • Fourscore

        “Give me liberty and a comfy couch.”

      • straffinrun

        Give me that comfy couch until it the land underneath it gets snatched out from under me by skyrocketing property taxes and then sold to a multinational with the ability to pay lobbyists.

      • Fourscore

        Hopes Santa brings a new recliner…

      • C. Anacreon

        Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
        But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed.

        /Elvis Costello, “Radio, Radio”

  9. limey

    oFf ToPiC but was anyone steely enough to sit through Tyler Cowen’s recent conversation with John Brennan?

    I wish a happy Anthony S. Fauci Day to all, and a bombastic MORNIN’ to Banjos.

    • juris imprudent

      The only dialogue with Brennan I would wish to witness would be an interrogation.

      • Jarflax

        Like this?

      • juris imprudent

        Or this.

  10. straffinrun

    One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

    • Ted S.

      Nothing?

      • UnCivilServant

        A confused grammar nazi.

      • Fatty Bolger

        A comment with an abused apostrophe.

      • Fourscore

        A case of…

    • limey

      A gun rack a la Wayne’s World?

    • Tres Cool

      a neg-a-tive EPT

      (it even rhymes!)

      • UnCivilServant

        I still like my suggestion better.

      • Tres Cool

        took a moment to sink-in, but what you did there- I saw

        Im tired and 4 beers in

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Piker!

    • Plisade

      A hummer but not a humvee!

    • Animal

      A beer… In a tree.

    • Jarflax

      One Republic dying.

    • Nephilium

      A bottle of Tullamore Dew.

  11. rhywun

    Andrew Yang filed paperwork to run for NYC Mayor.

    Oh criminy, what idiocy did he just espouse the other day? I forgot already.

    Ah here it is.

    God help us.

    • Atanarjuat

      Think an outsider, even one with name recognition, can shimmy into NYC politics like that?

      By the way, I remember when DeBlasio was running, a TOS commenter named Bill Dalasio said he should have filed to get his name on the ballot just to get accidental votes. He really missed an opportunity for hilarity there.

      • rhywun

        Think an outsider, even one with name recognition, can shimmy into NYC politics like that?

        Have you seen the other clowns that are thought to be running? Yang may be crazy and authoritarian, but I betcha he’s “better” than anyone else likely to seek the position.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Why so stingy in land of plenty?

    [Insert hysterical “America is shithole” screed]

    If we want to really help low-income families weather this pandemic, the next relief installment will need to include higher, longer-lasting benefits. It will need to waive onerous documentation requirements and fund state benefit offices so that relief actually makes it into the pockets of every eligible family. All of that will be needed just to get struggling families back to a baseline where children can learn, grow and thrive again.

    Then, further installments will need to focus on repairing the damage that has been done to children and families in these months of deprivation, including worsening mental health and learning loss. The good news is that kids are resilient, meaning setbacks during the pandemic don’t have to become permanent disadvantages, if we invest in evidence-based remediation, including tutoring programs and trauma-informed education, and provide schools with the money they will need to get kids back on track.

    But the longer we wait, doling out too-small stimulus at a snail’s pace, the more it will cost to fix the accruing harm to our children and families. And the greater the risk will be that we never fix it, and that instead we allow this pandemic to steal not just thousands of lives, but also millions of futures.

    Helping the poorest of the poor will, of course, require a huge expansion of the unionized bureaucratic apparatchiki, in order to more efficiently disburse the largesse of the permanent welfare state. You know, the sort of people who devoutly believe in the power of government to do nought but good, and will dependably vote for the likes of Joe Biden, keeping the Total State in power in perpewtuity.

    No more “oopsies” like that bungler Trump.

    • rhywun

      Holy crap, the printing presses are going to explode from overuse.

    • Fourscore

      “struggling families back to a baseline where children can learn, grow and thrive again.”

      Oh, the children will learn alright. For the next hundred years, according to LBJ

    • EvilSheldon

      “Then, further installments will need to focus on repairing the damage that has been done to children and families in these months of deprivation, including worsening mental health and learning loss.”

      I’ve never seen a more perfect example of the government breaking my legs, then selling me crutches.

      • Rebel Scum

        Feds need to sue the States that are locked down in violation of several provisions of the federal Constitution and those of the states.

      • Plisade

        That’s what I would do. King for a day and all.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    was anyone steely enough to sit through Tyler Cowen’s recent conversation with John Brennan?

    I hate to admit it, but once upon a time I thought Tyler Cowen knew what he was talking about.

    • limey

      #metoo

      I’m several years behind on Econtalk so I can compare and contrast with some of his earlier thinking.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Ditto.

      Then I realized liberty and freedom meant he could have good ethnic food while the riff raff stayed out of his cocktail parties.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Holy crap, the printing presses are going to explode from overuse.

    It’s a down payment on JUSTICE!

  15. The Late P Brooks

    One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

    A tin begging bowl

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Turned the Bloombergers on. I can’t help myself.

    Did you know:

    The “stimulus” bill is BIPARTISAN? It is. They just said so, about fifty times. And we’ll all die if it doesn’t pass.

    Now there is some woman with an incredibly annoying voice jabbering away about something or other. Blah blah blah savings rate vaccine free money new President….

    • Jarflax

      Bipartisan bills in recent memory:

      ADA
      USA PATRIOT
      TARP
      FOSTA and SESTA
      CARES

      Bipartisan = Evil

      • EvilSheldon

        If there’s an Evil party and a Stupid party, then bipartisanship is by definition Stupid and Evil.

    • juris imprudent

      That is the bullshit that truly boggles my mind – if you had COVID, and miracle of miracles (how else do you characterize 99+% survival rate?) you didn’t die; very, very fundamental human biology says your immune system kicked it. So what exactly is a vaccine supposed to do for you?

      • UnCivilServant

        Signal compliance with authority.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, that seems to be about it, doesn’t it?

      • Tres Cool

        + double-secret immunity

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        If the aim is selling vaccines and forcing people to do and not do things against their own inclinations it makes sense. It’s clear it isn’t about public health though.

      • Rebel Scum

        The human immune system ceased to exist (along with the normal yearly flu strains, go figure…) when convid appeared on the scene. Now sit down, shut up and take your twice yearly convid “vaccination” subject citizen.

      • Atanarjuat

        Sure doesn’t do much for the person who has no antibodies and could have received the dose.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, I edited, proofread, formatted, designed the print book, and made the cover.

        Any mistakes are mine.

      • Mojeaux

        formatted the ebook*

      • DEG

        I read the paperback edition. I caught no mistakes. It was good.

      • Mojeaux

        Thanks!

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Whoa

    Michael Worobey, a biologist at the University of Arizona, has seen more than 100,000 different strains of the virus that causes Covid-19. But when he saw the new variant from the UK, he noticed something different.

    “This is the first variant I’ve seen during the whole pandemic where I took a step back and said: ‘Whoa,’ ” he remembers.

    Health officials have downplayed the possibility that the coronavirus vaccines won’t work against the UK strain, but Worobey and other scientists thinks it’s a possibility — and it’s just a possibility — that this new variant might, to a small extent, outsmart the vaccines.

    “This is the first variant I’ve seen where I think there is this burning question,” said Worobey, head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

    ——-

    “This particular variant in the UK, I think, is very unlikely to have escaped the vaccine immunity,” Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, said Sunday.

    But some scientists point out that this mutation isn’t like others that have preceded it.

    “We shouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion (as many have done) that it isn’t a concern,” Kristian Andersen, a professor in the department of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research Andersen wrote to CNN. “We simply don’t know at this point in time — but we should know more soon.”

    Bette Korber, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has also been examining the variant.

    “The mutations are indeed worrisome, they ALL need to be tested,” Bette Korber, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, wrote to CNN when asked if the new mutation was a concern for the vaccine.

    The UK variant has an unusually large number of mutations — 14 changes and 3 deletions in its genetic code that impact the building blocks of its proteins, according to the CDC.

    Like, whoa, dood.

    Better keep wearing that cargo cult talisman. You can’t be too careful.

    • juris imprudent

      The video I linked yesterday (or day before) discussed quite a bit of the mutation/genetic drift they observed – and it was largely in the proteins for the ‘spike’ that the vaccine is intended to target. Wonder how many samples were used in constructing the mRNA in the vaccine?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    An “output gap”?

    Is that like a supply shock caused by crypto-Stalinist agents of the government issuing decrees designating large chunks of the government as “nonessential”?

  19. UnCivilServant

    Heavy rain overnight with a flood watch for Christmas Day?

    If that rain melts the several feet of accumulation, yeah, there will be flooding.

    Joy.

    • Fourscore

      Blizzard yesterday, no TCity Glibs have reported in yet. OTOH today may be their day off, unless Scrooge makes them work.

      Hope you get this cool air and your flooding is non-existent, UCS.

    • Nephilium

      We’ve had a winter storm watch/warning since last night. It’s just now starting to drop down to the low 30’s, so all the rain that’s been coming down will turn to a wonderful sheet of ice.

  20. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Just when the vaccine that’ll save us all a mutation that might get around it emerges and that didn’t get people worked up enough so they’re pushing a new South African superstrain now. This is the kind of shit that makes me think David Icke is right. About everything.

    • straffinrun

      Believing that the government is going to fuck up doesn’t take much. But it’s always accurate.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      I was listening to Dr. Racaniello on his site. He showed a table that the virus has mutated 12 000 already and explained mutation is different from a strain. He said there’s little to worry about.

      But the media already has their ‘OMFG WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE THIS IS THE BIG ONE’ stories lined up.

      • Jarflax

        Every single hour of every single day hundreds of mutations occur in viruses. It seems quite likely that someday the dice will roll snake eyes and we’ll get a really nasty one. One of the things that this year has made clear is that when that happens, the people we pay to come up with plans for such an event will screw the pooch.

      • juris imprudent

        It’s like people don’t appreciate the state of nature, and being harmonious with it.

      • Mojeaux

        People have lost their stoic relationship with death.

    • Jerms

      He’s not?

  21. The Late P Brooks

    “WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website”

    SCIENCE

  22. straffinrun

    Here’s my prediction. Biden will expand on policies that entrench the mega corporations into the minu

    • straffinrun

      Christmas eve drunk. Is there any better drunk?

      • straffinrun

        Bought my wife and daughter a heavy bag with a print of my face on it. My guess is they’ll hate it at first and then come around over the months to come.

      • Jarflax

        My guess is they’ll hate it at first and then come around over the months to come.

        It meaning your face?

      • Festus

        Xmas Day drunk. Summer Solstice naked drunk. Halloween running through the dorm, nekked drunk. Your day in court, drunk.

      • Festus

        Hey Straff! how’s it hangin’?

      • straffinrun

        It’s hanging. Time for bed. Santa don’t need no cookies tonight.

      • Atanarjuat

        Your day in court, drunk.

        The spirit of Florida Man lives within many of us.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Why are they talking about some sort of glorious “future” filled with autonomous electric limousines when humanity will be extinct in six months?

  24. Fourscore

    Joe is getting mighty defensive about the Hunter story(s). Protesting too much. The repubs may have something of no consequence that plays well with their home town crowd. 2 years isn’t that far away

    • Atanarjuat

      I find those midnight vote dumps convincing evidence (not in the legal sense) that fraud occurred at a level high enough to sway the election result. However Trump didn’t do himself any favors by arguing for so long about the inauguration crowd. This feels like more of that.

  25. Rebel Scum

    Trump issues 26 additional pardons.

    Surprised at the Manafort one since he was such a backstabbing cunte.

    Exposed his true colors for even the most hardcore Trumpsters. Pardon Snowden, Asange and Ross or GTFO.

    Y’all need to cool your tits.

    • Rebel Scum

      Posted too soon. Cool your tits because he is all about poking the eyes of the establishment and those are pardons that can be made literally while he is out the door.

      • juris imprudent

        Don’t bet on it, there’s no payoff for his main constituency.

      • Not Adahn

        his main constituency

        you mean himself, right?

  26. Rebel Scum

    Dominion to sue Trump’s legal team.

    This should be fun.

    • R C Dean

      Why Dominion would volunteer for another round of subpoenas, I have no clue. The defendant gets discovery, too.

  27. Rebel Scum

    Rand issues his annual Festivus Report.

    Read the Twatter feed yesterday. It was pretty brutal. Who knew Rand was so sassy?

    • Mojeaux

      *raises hand* He does this every year.

    • Urthona

      Me.

      Love the guy.

      Too bad he doesn’t hate immigrants or free trade enough to be president.

      • Jarflax

        Your throw away comment here points out something libertarian types who found Trump hopeful need to face. It wasn’t the quasi libertarian parts of Trump that got him elected, it was the populist rhetoric. Populism rails at the elites not because they interfere with liberty, but because they interfere with liberty in ways that the people don’t want and refuse to interfere in the ways the people do want. It is not, except accidentally, pro liberty.

      • Not Adahn

        All real libertarians know that Rand Paul is nothing but a Trump-empowering nazi.

      • mrfamous

        Populism’s downsides are well known, but it sure seems like it’s our best bulwark against the feudal oligarchies that never seem to go away for very long.

        Uneasy alliances is all that there is, and fortunately a great number of people are generally decent and reasonably moral folks. The people who would bury you in a shallow grave if it was in their interests are not close to a majority of people. They’re just a majority of people in high political office.

        I have no problem making alliances with people who disagree with me. But feudal lords don’t merely disagree with you, they disagree with your right to disagree with them. And ‘populism’ is a check on those people.

      • Jarflax

        Counter point: Mrs. Grundy, and her citizen’s committee, don’t merely disagree with you, they disagree with your right to disagree with them, and a system of laws is a check on those people.

        There are no easy paths to liberty and no system can be crafted that will preserve liberty once people no longer stand up for it. I am not attacking Trump here, I am pointing out that libertarian ideas are not (sorry Mike Hihn) popular. The angry stew of the right that is simmering toward a boil right now contains libertarians, but we are not the main ingredient, just a seasoning.

      • mrfamous

        It’s just hard for me with the Newsoms and Cuomos and the Great Reset people making a play for top down administration of _everything_ to try and “both sides” this thing. I’ll point out when the nutjob populists are wrong, but I’m all aboard making common cause with them to put a stop to this.

        2020’s version of authoritarianism is like nothing I’ve seen in my lifetime. The aftermath of 9/11 wasn’t even close to this. And I’m worried. I have no desire to live out the rest of my days in the GDR.

      • Jarflax

        I am not really trying to both sides it, so much as I am reminding myself, and others that the path to liberty runs through the eye of a needle. I believe we are looking at a possible civil war, and I have gone from vehement opposition to that idea to believing it is likely necessary, but it scares me. If we take that path those of us who value liberty need to remember what we would be fighting for and not fall into the trap of us v. them.

        I hate the left viscerally. I hate what they stand for, and I even hate much of what they pretend to stand for. I have never bought the line that Communism is great in theory but doesn’t work. I believe that the theory is itself evil, that a world where everyone gets the same share as everyone else is an evil world. I find much of what the right stands for in theory appealing. I believe in natural hierarchies and I value order and stability.

        But here’s the thing, what I find appealing does not define what is morally right, and if I end up helping to create a theocracy, or an authoritarian ethnostate then what good is any of it? The time to honestly face the dangers of your allies is at the start, not at the finish when the new Lord Protector takes power.

      • Mojeaux

        Spice. Ha!

        We’re the MSG, that gives you a 9-day migraine and you can’t resist telling the story about how awful MSG is.

      • UnCivilServant

        Are you kidding me? I have a bag of MSG that I add to food like salt. I’ve never had a negative response to the stuff.

      • CPRM

        adds uncivil to list of ‘secret’ jews…

      • Mojeaux

        I know a lot of people who are sensitive to it, and many of those people are low-carbers.

      • R C Dean

        9/11 was authoritarian.

        COVID is totalitarian?

      • zwak

        Pointing out that libertarian ideas are not popular is a pretty simple truth, but (and it is a big butt) when libertarian side paths are taken, such as smacking down CRT in education, then that needs to be rewarded.

      • Suthenboy

        *Thinks back on the L party’s idea, promoted by TOS, to align with the authoritarian left to promote…uh…something.
        Fuckin’ closet commies the lot of them.

      • R C Dean

        Gay “rights”, I believe. Marriage was just the sheep pelt over the wolf.

  28. Rebel Scum

    Trump vetoes $740 billion defense bill

    And hacks/swamp creatures of all stripes are melting down. Glorious.

    I question the reasoning regarding 230 as I understand that could actually backfire. But I am no expert. A short rundown of pros and cons would be appreciated.

    • Urthona

      According to the media it’s because of the renaming of confederate bases.

      • creech

        Go ahead, rename the bases. But I heard the bill also requires the Natl Park Service to remove all Confederate monuments and markers from actual Civil War battlefields. It will be interesting to see what happens when 10,000 reenactors converge on Gettysburg to prevent the “we’re just following orders” rangers from taking down R.E. Lee or the North Carolina monument.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Emails obtained by FBI detail how Hunter Biden landed Ukrainian gas gig in 2014

    “Hi, I am Hunter Biden. My father is Joe Biden. Would you like to purchase influence?”

    • hayeksplosives

      This will no doubt be on all the newspaper front pages and will be discussed on all the news shows.

      HAHAHAHAHA.

      I meant to type “and nothing else happened.”

    • slumbrew

      I assume he didn’t have to expend that much effort.

      “Hello Mr. Son Of Vice President – please be taking this money and telling father good things”

  30. PieInTheSky

    the new russian roullete is that one of these mags is filled w/ .300blk past the first two rounds and you have to roll the pentagon and magdump whichever side you land on

    https://twitter.com/taliasturm/status/1342001548742840320

    this must be some weird American shit i don’t get

    • Suthenboy

      The rifle bore diameter is 0.223 inches. The bullet diameter for 300 Blackout is 0.308 inches.

      The cartridges are identical except for the diameter of the bullet so they will both load in the magazine.

      Trying to stuff a 30 caliber bullet down a 22 caliber barrel is a bad, bad, bad idea. It will likely blow up the gun.

      Of course what dingbat doesnt understand is that the 300 blackout wont chamber because the bullet wont fit into the throat.

      • EvilSheldon

        The 300 Blackout round is short enough that sometimes, given the proper combination of bullet type and barrel leade, it will chamber in a 5.56mm AR. Dropping the hammer with the gun in that condition will often result in an out-of-battery detonation. This is not a good thing.

      • Suthenboy

        No shit?

        *looks it up*

        No shit. 223 is 1.76″
        300BK is 1.368″
        Looks like I am the dingbat, but TBF I am not all that familiar with either cartridge. I have no use for them.

        That is a dumb design.

      • EvilSheldon

        Nah. That kind of accident is possible with almost any gun, with cartridges based off of similar dimensions. If you accidentally load .308 into your M1 Garand instead of .30-06, the results can be just as bad.

      • Suthenboy

        My father once bought a 6mm Remington for the wife of a friend of his. Then he took bought some 243 Winchester ammo and test fired it.

        “Oh shit. I thought it sounded funny when I shot it.”

        Always read the fine print.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s possible to load, chamber and fire a magazine loaded with 5.56×45 in an AR chambered in 7.62×39. Ask Sean how I know.

      • UnCivilServant

        Because you ruined his steak?

      • Jarflax

        But is it possible to then hit the target? And did you injure your barrel?

      • Not Adahn

        Yes, and not as far as I know. The casing does not extract however.

    • Not Adahn

      Honestly, that pic of someone making a P90 type mag for a shotgun… if that thing is functional…

    • EvilSheldon

      These are officially my people, and I usually don’t get them either.

      3D printing guns is still cool though.

  31. PieInTheSky

    So what is everyone drinking?

    After a Romanian Feteasca Neagra and an NZ Pinot Noir I opened a bottle of Swiss wine. Yes, the Swiss make wine. Amazing innit

    • slumbrew

      Same thing we drink every morning, Pinky – a triple-shot iced Americano.

    • KOVIDKristen

      Can of Starbucks doubleshot

    • Plisade

      Black coffee now. Beer in 1:45.

    • robc

      Have a St Bernardus ABT 12 to open this afternoon.

    • DEG

      Boozy coffee.

  32. KOVIDKristen

    I would say Yang will win NYC (assuming he wins primary), but NYC sometimes has surprises up its sleeve. Seems to me most of the people fleeing the city, though, would be of a more conservative bent.

    • Urthona

      He’ll actually be 75% less communist than DeBlasio.

    • Lackadaisical

      You could have also written

      “Satan will win NYC assuming he wins the primary”

  33. Rufus the Monocled

    Check this study out on virology journal….about HCQ being a wonder drug….from 2005….which was published at NIH…..which means Fauci KNEW but still banned it.

    https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-2-69

    And this quote from the WHO:

    “‘Herd immunity’ exists when a high percentage of the population is vaccinated,” states the website, completely omitting the original meaning of “herd immunity,”

    This is kinda troubling. What do they mean about this and did they change the definition?

    • Homple

      They mean that they’re political hacks.

    • hayeksplosives

      Fauci is too busy reveling in his God-like powers to let medicine stand in his way.

      Think about it: Fauci’s fame and influence will last only as long as the public perceives COVID-19 as an existential threat.

      Finding a cure or effective prevention is not in Fauci’s interest.

    • mrfamous

      The WHO recently changed their definition of Herd Immunity listed on the site from one that mentions vaccination or widespread public infection to one that only lists vaccination.

      https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1341306917076021248

      More frightening is that WHO has been more open, honest and transparent than the CDC in this whole debacle. If WHO is engaging in 1984 level stuff, just imagine what the CDC has been up to.

      • kbolino

        The WHO has to answer to 194 member states only some of whom are just Chinese sockpuppets.

        The CDC, on the other hand, answers to no one.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        I think they even said getting to natural herd immunity has never been done before.

        They’ve been hijacked. And now we’re about to pay a massive price.

      • mrfamous

        Sure, as long as you change definitions back and forth as necessary. By the strictest definition they haven’t reached “herd immunity” in South America from the Zika virus. But by the strictest definition we haven’t reached herd immunity from anything besides maybe smallpox.

        But by any reasonable standard of widespread community protection from a virus, yes they have achieved “herd immunity” the old-fashioned way from the Zika virus. I realize this occurrence stretches way back to 2017 (they noticed it due to the lack of an outbreak from the Olympics), but it did happen.

  34. Festus

    I must warn my Zoomy friends to never, ever mention little miss yoga pants. You guys have got me into plenty of trouble before.

    • Suthenboy

      Who is little miss yoga pants? What did I miss?

      • R C Dean

        Festus’s eye candy at work.

      • Festus

        Just a little cutie-pie that works where I do. She’s a cool chick. Think Aubrey Plaza from Parks and Rec. Judi would have my guts for garlands if she caught me checking other girl’s bums.

      • But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

        Really?!?

        Huh. Some of my happiest memories are of me and the spousal unit finding a corner cafe in whatever European city we’re in, ordering a glass of wine and a small tray of nibblies, and then checking out/critiquing the fashion sense, or lack thereof, of the young ladies (and men!) walking down the street. No body part escaped our notice, and my better half has a wicked sense of humour about such things. Guilty pleasure!

      • Mojeaux

        Speedos as everyday summerwear …

  35. hayeksplosives

    I was reflecting on the media’s decline and fall over the past several years, and how it accelerated at the end.

    One example of mass media lockstep was the shooting in Las Vegas.

    All the news outlets did was repeat one another. Despite this, some eyewitness accounts and emerging reports on the shooter’s background found their way to the surface.

    And then the media dropped the whole thing suddenly. Never a mention, not even by gun grabbers.

    What gives with that remarkable lack of curiosity experienced simultaneously by all media outlets?

    • straffinrun

      Decline means you think it was ever even remotely objective. I honestly don’t think it ever was.

    • Jarflax

      Tovarisch, Pravda is Truth. If it is not found in Pravda it is not Truth.

    • mrfamous

      Access. Law enforcement and the FBI in particular grant and withhold access based on the behavior of the reporters. Do as law enforcement bids, receive more inside access and information. Confront them and find yourself shut out and eventually out of work.

      As always, decentralization is a key way out of that quagmire. As always, everything the government does has centralization as a key component (including lockdown and business closures).

    • R C Dean

      The media used to be competitive, with success measured on stories broken, scoops, etc.

      Now, success is measured by pushing the Narrative of the Day.

      • EvilSheldon

        What percentage of the Typical News Corp revenue was sourced from ad placement in 1955? What percentage is it now?

  36. Festus

    Those vetoes need to be Pocket Vetoes. Let Kamala figure it out.

  37. straffinrun

    Merry Christmas, Glibs. Bedtime.

    • hayeksplosives

      G’night. Merry Christmas.

    • Festus

      Good Night Gaijin! Merry Fucking Christmas!

    • PieInTheSky

      Nonsense the night is young

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Leaks? At DHS? No way!

    TW: Yahoo

    With the Georgia Senate runoff races just two weeks away, the Department of Homeland Security is warning of the possibility of “ideologically motivated violence” and even a foreign influence campaign as voters prepare to go to the polls, according to a new internal report obtained by Yahoo News.

    The Dec. 22 report, marked for official use only, says Georgia faces a “potentially heightened physical threat environment” that could drive violence or threats of violence similar to those seen nationwide during the 2020 presidential and state election season. Incidents of violence in or near the state capitol in Atlanta, courts and other “symbolic political institutions” could also negatively affect elected officials or election workers in Georgia, the report says.

    “We further judge that violent extremists or other actors could quickly mobilize to violence or generate violent disruptions of otherwise lawful protests in response to a range of issues,” the report says, including possible disputes over the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election.

    Ideologically motivated violence, eh? Must be white supremacist neo-Nazis, working for the Roooshunz.

  39. KOVIDKristen

    10 hours until 24 hours of A Christmas Story

    • Jarflax

      Still never seen it.

      • KOVIDKristen

        Well, it’s fucking lovely & wholesome, dammit!

      • Festus

        That leg lamp is killer!

      • creech

        AS I recall, wasn’t the Mom pretty hawt in a house dressery sort of way?

      • Festus

        Dude! Have you never seen Slap-Shot? Her pups are Grade A.

      • creech

        Loved Slapshot. Didn’t know she was in it. Which character?

      • Jarflax

        In 1983, I was just 16. My mother and I were 4 years in on a war that lasted until 2011 when we finally made a wary peace because she was dying of cancer. As we were leaving the house to go see A Christmas Story, she got angry at something I said, or some expression on my face and told me to just stay home if I was going to be that way. So I did. My brother has a leg lamp that he brings out for holidays to annoy his wife. I have a story that I am stubbornly keeping fresh by never watching that movie. Also, eye injury stuff really really weirds me out.

    • kbolino

      When I was in Boy Scouts, the scoutmasters loved that movie and made us watch it Every. Fucking. Year.

      I hate that movie. I hate it. A bunch of nasally voices repeating “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!” haunts me.

    • Jarflax

      The article didn’t really discuss this, but I suspect that any micro-libertopia (in other words small local community trying to be libertarian) is doomed to turn into a bit of a cesspool. The reason is that any large society is statistically certain to have a number of people whose tastes and desires are out at the ends of the bell curve, and such people are likely to be drawn to places where their desire to abuse a dead goat in the public square won’t get them arrested. Too high a proportion of lunatics ruins the mix.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes. Rules are made in response to something someone did.

      • EvilSheldon

        Hence the real Golden rule – ‘Ewww! Do that shit in private, dude!’

    • kbolino

      Even with the author’s slanted portrayal, it sounds an awful lot like the town was hardly “without restrictions”. I’m pretty sure the average group of libertarians could come up with a solution to the bear problem, but they might waste some time arguing over the right gun to use.

      To the extent the author has a point, about having a shared sense of civic virtue, she offers no explanation of how one should be developed nor of what it should look like.

    • Not Adahn

      The libertarians apply their anti-statist principles to the growing problem of bears raiding bins, loitering around houses and eating cats, resisting any gesture at public bear management, because such things imply taxes.

      Yes, because public bear management is the only way of dealing with an unwanted bear on one’s property.

      The fact that said bear was NOT turned into a luxurious rug makes me sincerely doubt that there were any libertarians involved in this story.

      • UnCivilServant

        Rug? I was thinking hats. As an export product.

      • Not Adahn

        Making it commercially viable is hard. It’s the same problem as making fuzzy slippers — it’s hard to find twin cubs before they get so large that the head on the toes makes it hard to walk.

      • UnCivilServant

        Limited edition seasonal artisinal hats. You don’t need a steady supply of hats, just a steady supply of hype.

    • Suthenboy

      Light a torch and run amok in a field of straw men. Sounds legit.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Think about it: Fauci’s fame and influence will last only as long as the public perceives COVID-19 as an existential threat.

    Finding a cure or effective prevention is not in Fauci’s interest.

    As one or more somebodies here has pointed out, the underlying foundation of modern medicine is not “curing” disease, but “managing” it. Making a lucrative career out of theatrical treatment regimens and expensive pharmaceuticals, in other words.

    I do not doubt for a second that they would like nothing more than to turn the plague into an annualized (very expensive) inoculation.

    • R C Dean

      Don’t forget mandatory!

      Also, there’s money to be made in selling masks. They need to get around to outlawing cloth masks so Big Mask can wet this beak.

      • creech

        Methinks learning the art of tattooing would have been an enjoyable career.

      • UnCivilServant

        you’d certainly meet a lot of chefs that way,

      • DEG

        But no face diapers. I’ll take it.

  41. Festus

    On the first day of Xmas my Daughter gave to me, One bag of tube socks! Long-running family joke. It’s all I want. Fresh socks make the man.

    • Tulip

      As I get older, I appreciate good, comfortable socks and shoes. I now understand why some people give socks to kids, but would never do it. It displays a total lack of empathy.

    • Plisade

      I hate socks and anything on my feet. Flip flops until it’s below 40 (outside of work, natch).

    • Mojeaux

      There’s a reason homeless people value socks.

      I love my socks.

      • Jarflax

        Mojeaux if you are homeless, I want to help! I’ll send you warm socks.

      • Mojeaux

        Aww, thanks! We are not homeless, thank heavens, and aren’t likely to be so in the near future.

    • EvilSheldon

      I got a bunch of Darn Tough socks and merino wool underwear last year for Christmas. I was as happy as an extremely warm and cozy clam.

      • Festus

        Nice! Cozy is as cozy does!

  42. The Late P Brooks

    For the children teachurs

    While it seems that the state Legislature and the board of the Salt Lake City School District have come to an arrangement regarding the return to in-person instruction, I remain troubled by the way House Speaker Brad Wilson held the compensation of our teachers hostage in his negotiations with the school board. Utah can ill afford to convey a lack of appreciation to our our already undercompensated teachers, particularly at this moment in time.

    A quick review of the facts: The Legislature laudably approved a $1,500 bonus for all Utah teachers as a reward for their extra efforts during the pandemic. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Wilson inserted a provision that would prevent the bonus from going to any teacher in a district who had not returned to in-person instruction by Jan. 19, 2021 — a move clearly aimed at Salt Lake City School District teachers.

    Where’s the refund to the taxpayers for services not rendered?

    • prolefeed

      Hunh, refusing to give a bonus to people refusing to do their jobs. What a bastard – why do you hate lazy teachers?

    • kbolino

      I wonder if the American education system will recover from this. Of course, it will stay overfunded and bloated. But for the past 40 years, spending has tripled while results have remained flat. I think the underlying fallacious presupposition of every “reform” movement since then has been that the results can’t ever get worse. But fear not, for they most certainly can.

      • Mojeaux

        The current system (COVID excepted) works perfectly fine for most people. There will be no mass exodus. The exodus we’re hearing about is statistically insignificant.

      • kbolino

        It’s not the exodus I’d be so worried about as the complete removal of any remaining semblance of standards. Starting this year, grades are meaningless, nothing gets taught, and teachers have no external limits to their depravity and malfeasance. The few who leave will be less significant than the many who remain. The model that was the norm only in certain schools, glorified daycare led by the overpaid and underaccountable, is now the norm nearly everywhere.

      • Mojeaux

        In my kids’ district, the grades are important because they will NOT let the kids repeat the year. They have to make up the credits somehow and they ARE giving out Fs (e.g., XY).

        XY was totally virtual this semester and hated it. He will be hybrid next semester. Hopefullly he’ll do better.

        Now, this is a kid who made As and Bs without effort in middle school. He gets dumped into 9th grade with much more work and he’s not got the idea of homework when it’s ALL homework. The work doesn’t shut down just because the class zoom is over.

      • Suthenboy

        It isn’t just teachers. I am worn out on whining and demands from people who haven’t missed a paycheck and are unlikely to while I have had to shoulder the burden for family that has either lost paychecks altogether or had serious bites taken out of them.

        I wonder if it isn’t time to hoist Menken’s black flag.

      • Jarflax

        It is past time. But it won’t happen unless someone in a position of power cries havoc. Revolutions from the right need someone to give them a veneer of legitimacy.

      • R C Dean

        “works perfectly fine for most people”

        Well, most school employees and parents who can’t homeschool. For the kids, eh, mixed bag.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, I didn’t mean the virtual school is working for most people. I meant for regular school, so I don’t think there will be any significant mass exodus from that. Homeschooling is a skillset most people don’t have or else they have to work.

        Virtual school is not working for XY, but I also can’t homeschool for many reasons. Sadly, the kids are caught in the middle.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        It’s a shame. I think virtual school would work for pretty much every student who has an interest in learning (note, in-person school will not work either for those who don’t want to learn).

        The problem is that setting up an effective virtual curriculum is a lot of work for the educator, and, of course, and an effective virtual curriculum would gut the the traditional school system. So the current approach takes incompetent people who are effectively babysitters and forcing them to design a virtual system that is against their own interests.

        The way to have done this successfully would have been to provide vouchers for students to attend their choice of school. There are several excellent private schools that were 100% virtual preCovid and could have scaled up and exported their model/approach.

      • R C Dean

        I also meant for regular school.

    • Suthenboy

      I am really tired of hearing about the goddamned teachers.

      • mrfamous

        I’m heartened that this is starting to spread quite a bit among the populace. I think the Teachers’ unions have vastly overplayed their hand this year. Having nearly full control of the Democratic party wasn’t enough. They had to push for getting paid without working.

  43. Mojeaux

    TFW you want to use a thing in your book that you think is terribly clever, only to remember you used it in a different book 10 years ago.

    Me: Maybe I’ll use it anyway. Who’s going to remember?

    Mr Mojeaux: I thought you didn’t want to repeat yourself.

    Me: Dammit.

    • UnCivilServant

      It is something you can use in a different way?

      • Mojeaux

        No. I wanted to use it as a chapter name, but that was how I used it last time.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, I name my chapters in my contemporary romances, but not in my historical ones.

      • UnCivilServant

        Sometimes I name chapters.

        My favorite chapter name so far is “A Persistance of Pygmies”

      • UnCivilServant

        The runner up is from the same book, and it’s “Mad Alchemist’s Dream”

      • UnCivilServant

        Or it was. I apparently edited it out before 2011.

      • UnCivilServant

        Grr… nope, it’s still there, the table of contents I thought was most recent was from 2006. I’m going to go mad myself if I keep looking at this old book.

      • Mojeaux

        That is the peril of self-publishing. You’re never finished. No editor to put the brakes on and say, “No more.”

      • UnCivilServant

        “The Cure” was my first book.

        It is no longer on the market, because it’s a bit of a mess.

        I started writing it in the 90’s, and wrapped up in 2011.

        I’ve since retconned it to being in the past of the Tarnished Sterling universe as the Narrator shows up in part of “Shadowrealm”.

      • Mojeaux

        I rehabbed my books from the 90s, but I had to date them and SAY they take place in the 90s because in order for them to work, they can’t have cell phones or Google.

      • UnCivilServant

        Thankfully, “The Cure” was pre-dated, as it always took place in 1872.

      • Mojeaux

        This particular one was “Long Nights, Impossible Odds.”

        Sometimes I use song lyrics. I can’t remember anything I would say is a favorite.

        The matador/nightclub singer book, all the names were song lyrics.

        The architect/engineer book, they were all styles of architecture.

        The prostitute/bishop book, her chapter names were media that related to prostitution, and his were alternately about the religious allegory and his having been a steel worker in Bethlehem PA.

        This particular series, which is a riff on Hamlet, I used lots of quotes from the play, but they don’t come off that way because they are common sayings and most people don’t know they come from Hamlet.

      • UnCivilServant

        Blue Collar Man. (You picked a lyric even I recognize?)

        Some of my favorite sayings come from Polonius’ ramble at his son. “Brevity is the Soul of Wit” being up there, and one the speaker did not follow himself.

      • Mojeaux

        Yep. That applies in the prostitute/bishop story because he was a blue-collar man.

        It applies in current book because newlyweds are having a hard time settling in with each other and neither of them are sleeping well (when they’re actually trying to sleep).

      • Jarflax

        I like the 18th Century method of naming chapters. The little micro font synopsis, with mildly humorous descriptions of events. Failing that I like the use of thematically related quotes as chapter heads. I miss Sir Terry.

      • Mojeaux

        I like the ones with epigraphs, although I am too lazy to do that.

        I do not like the summary chapter heads or one-line summaries, e.g., “In which the heroine discovers heroin.”

        I got the idea from Tom Wolfe. Getting the chapter head joke is like an in-joke between the reader and author.

      • Jarflax

        They have to be clever to work. The best ones are the ones you finally get when rereading the book, because they usually change your perspective on what the author actually meant in the chapter.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, which is why I say I am lazy. Way too lazy to be THAT clever.

      • UnCivilServant

        I have a lot of books with a “Part 1” “Part 2” and so on…

        Oh, those aren’t names.

  44. Not Adahn

    Potatoes are washed and ready for jacketing.

    • creech

      Gillespie is coming to dinner?

    • creech

      Still no endorsement of drinking bleach?

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Yikes

    A major blizzard continues to rage overnight for much of Minnesota. Blizzard warnings continue until 6 a.m. Thursday for most of Minnesota.

    ——-

    Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday evening ordered the Minnesota National Guard to provide assistance and emergency relief services for stranded motorists during the winter storm. The Guard has been activated in Renville and Martin counties, and has opened its armories in Olivia and Fairmont to be used as a temporary shelter.

    Wind gusts as high as 70 mph have been recorded near Lake Benton, Minn., Wednesday. Many Minnesota locations report wind gusts between 50 and 66 mph.

    Minnasoda nice day, eh?

    Shelter in place, people. You know who you are.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Why do these people have no source of income? This is a mystery; to be examined at another time, in another place.

    “While extending the CDC eviction moratorium for just one month is insufficient to keep people housed for the duration of the pandemic, the extension provides essential and immediate protection for millions of renters on the verge of losing their homes in January,” said Diane Yentel, president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
    An estimated 9.2 million renters who have lost income during the pandemic are behind on rent, according to an analysis of Census data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
    Once the moratoriums are lifted, many of these renters will be expected to pay their entire back rent or come up with some sort of payment plan with their landlord — or they could face losing their home.
    CNN Business spoke with several renters who have been struggling to afford their monthly payments as a result of the pandemic.

    Fortunately, “lives stolen or destroyed” does not appear anywhere on the score card.

    • Jarflax

      Did CNN Business bother to talk to any landlords who have been struggling to afford their monthly mortgage payments or pay for maintenance as a result of their tenants not paying rent?

      • Mojeaux

        Would it even occur to them to go from that angle?

        The bias isn’t necessarily in what they do say, but in what they DON’T say, and if these journalists are young, it wouldn’t even occur to them to see that that is a possible reportable thing.

      • Mojeaux

        IOW, the bias is baked in.

      • CPRM

        HAHA, the owners of capital are the enemies of the proletariat, comrade.

      • Drake

        Don’t forget – property taxes.

      • CPRM

        [omits complaints on property taxes, because I’m not in the mood]

      • creech

        Big whoop. Landlords struggling? All they have to do is take a shovel or two of cash from their money bins which they will get back as soon as the renters pay their rent. It’s all right there in Krugman’s “The Science of Economics or How I Learned to stop Worshipping the Iron Laws and Love the State Planners.”

    • Suthenboy

      Nothing on Govt workers bitching about Trump vetoing the Pork Package?

  47. CPRM

    Nothing says Christmas like being called that you need to be to work 4hrs early before you even get a chance to sleep. Here’s to hoping I at least wake up, and if I do, that I’m sober…

  48. deadhead

    Got a minute heathens?

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Priorities

    Sen. Kamala Harris broke barriers as America’s first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president-elect. But after her exit in January to join the Biden administration, there will be no Black women in the Senate.

    Harris’s departure left lawmakers and advocates urging California Gov. Gavin Newsom to choose a Black woman to replace her due to a lack of diversity in the chamber. And while his appointment on Tuesday of Secretary of State Alex Padilla as California’s first Latino senator was historic, it comes with the reality that the 117th Congress will have no Black women in the upper chamber.

    Ballgag Joe needs to kick a white man out of the Senate, and promote Maxine Waters.

    Otherwise America is a failed state.

    • creech

      Probably Delaware’s Sen. Coons wouldn’t mind being turfed out, or Pennsylvania’s Sen. Casey. They are all for diversity aren’t they?

      • Festus

        Senator Coons? triggered

      • hayeksplosives

        Coon Cheese brand in Australia is suffering too, and “Coon” isn’t even a racial slur used there.

        It’s triggers all the way down.

      • Jarflax

        There is a horribly racist joke begging to be made in your comment.

    • Tejicano

      Yeah, like why did Newsom go out of his way to find a Hispanic to represent California?

    • Suthenboy

      She is not ‘black’.

      As CA AG she argued to the CSC that she should not be required to release prisoners because ‘The State needs their labor’. Yep, straight up slavery.

      Creepy Stupid Joe has the life expectancy of a fruit fly.

      • hayeksplosives

        She is not ‘black’.

        …bbbut she voted for Biden!!

    • hayeksplosives

      Alright, so does color of skin matter or doesn’t it?

      You can’t have it both ways, you racist cunts.

      • Festus

        Most people could give a care. Sincerely.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Probably Delaware’s Sen. Coons wouldn’t mind being turfed out, or Pennsylvania’s Sen. Casey. They are all for diversity aren’t they?

    Edit: Ballgag Joe needs to kick a white Republican man out of the Senate, and promote Maxine Waters.

    • hayeksplosives

      How can anyone vote for that vile and plain stupid Maxine Waters?

      I’m going to say it: Maxine’s supporters are racist. They vote for her only because she is black. Ergo, racism in its literal sense.

      • UnCivilServant

        Doesn’t she live at the end of a little needle sticking out the the rest of the district so she can have her house in a nice neighborhood instead of the shithole she “represents”?

      • hayeksplosives

        I dunno. Sounds about right.

        She doesn’t feel bad about luxury though; it’s “her turn”

  51. Festus

    Heh! Tweaked my back after offering to lift an especially heavy package for the ladies last night. Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!

  52. hayeksplosives

    Went to a local winery yesterday.

    Nice place, pretty outdoor and indoor venue for weddings, etc.

    They had a sidewalk sign up saying “Open for purchases and pickups only. Sorry, no tastings because THIS guy” with an arrow pointing to a picture of Gavin Newsom in an Obama “HOPE” style poster but with a red clown nose.

    Underneath was text inviting patrons to come in and sign the Recall Gavin Newsom petition.

    Had a nice chat with the owner and several other patrons, all unmasked. The other visitors were under 30 I’d guess, and a variety of ethnicities, all wanting to get rid of masks, lockdowns, and Newsom.

    Today’s ray of hope.

    • KSuellington

      So far I have succeeded in getting about ten people to sign it. I need to get a few more, at least we have until March. It’s a longshot, but sometimes the 20-1 wins the race.

    • DEG

      They had a sidewalk sign up saying “Open for purchases and pickups only. Sorry, no tastings because THIS guy” with an arrow pointing to a picture of Gavin Newsom in an Obama “HOPE” style poster but with a red clown nose.

      I like it.

      Pimping the website on a dead thread.

      I like that you folks in CA are getting people to sign the petition.

  53. KOVIDKristen

    Hey! I only had to wait 10 minutes at the vet to pick up the 17-year-old’s prescription food!

    • Tulip

      I 800 Pet Meds probably has it for less

  54. creech

    I saw Joe Biden on tv this morning (maybe an old clip, though) with DOCTOR Jill standing there with a shit-eating grin on her face. I thought “I wonder who put the wood to her last night?”

    • hayeksplosives

      Non-zero chance it was Hunter.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Anarchy! Chaos! DOOM!

    Incoming Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signaled he won’t continue a statewide mask mandate in place since July, though he said he plans to wear a mask himself and get vaccinated against COVID-19.

    If Gianforte, a Republican, reverses outgoing Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s mask order, Montana will be just the second state after Mississippi to lift its mandate. Thirty-eight states now have statewide mandates.

    “I trust Montanans with their health and the health of their loved ones,” Gianforte said in a recent interview with KHN. “The state has a role in clearly communicating the risks of who is most vulnerable, what the potential consequences are, but then I do trust Montanans to make the right decisions for themselves and their family.”

    Oh my god we’re all gonna die!

    • KOVIDKristen

      Montana: back on the “to do” list! 😉

    • DEG

      Incoming Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signaled he won’t continue a statewide mask mandate in place since July

      GOOD!

      • Mojeaux

        Our governor never put any mandates in place but that didn’t stop the cities and municipalities from imposing them, so good luck with that.

  56. KOVIDKristen

    Jurassic Park is on the idiot box, and I really fucking hate the storyline where Laura Dern pressures Sam Neill into liking/wanting to have kids. The dude doesn’t like kids, for fuck’s sake. Leave him alone!

    • hayeksplosives

      It’s also opposite of the book character, who loved kids.

      I hate the way Dern pronounces “adult” when she tells Neill that kids are like smaller versions of adults. She says “ADD-ults.”

      Besides, everyone knows he just wanted to move to Montana, marry a round American woman, and raise rabbits for her to cook for him.

      • KOVIDKristen

        Besides, everyone knows he just wanted to move to Montana, marry a round American woman, and raise rabbits for her to cook for him.

        See? Now that is a noble ambition! I was sad when that character didn’t get to achieve his goal.

      • hayeksplosives

        #metoo

        He would like to have seen Montana.

      • dbleagle

        But did he turn starboard or port at the bottom of the hour?

      • Festus

        Methinks you have overthunk this a little much 😉

    • Festus

      *raises hand* Instead raises four step-monsters. It’s been a ride but 3/4 happy and healthy is still a C+ or a low B, right?

  57. UnCivilServant

    We need to do more to celebrate the virtues of Cincinnatus. Naming a city in Ohio after him just doesn’t seem like enough. Politicians giving up power needs to be the norm rather than the exception. Even if we have to forcibly retire them.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of masks, I’m seeing more cracks in the dam. More people not bothering to do the dance.

    I think (if it weren’t for wishful thinking, I’d have no thoughts at all) it’s more than just “fatigue”.

    I think a lot of people are really starting to recognize the panicdemic for what it is: hysterical bullshit and authoritarianism masquerading as SCIENCE.

    • Suthenboy

      Next they will order us to wear dunce caps

    • prolefeed

      If only, here in Austin.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    Politicians giving up power needs to be the norm rather than the exception. Even if we have to forcibly retire them.

    Prying the levers of power from their cold dead hands works for me.

    • R C Dean

      + 1 lamppost

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Non-zero chance it was Hunter.

    *outright prolonged laughter*