Enlaces, mas enlaces por la tarde.

by | Dec 15, 2020 | Daily Links | 368 comments

Not much going on around here, so lets get to it!

Its funny they’re talking about “economic war” with Cuba as if it materialized exclusively in the last four years.  I suppose Kennedy predated Obama and therefore before time began for journos.

I think China has more interest in Argentina than the United States has in Argentina. And that is what makes the difference,” an Argentine government official told Reuters  …um…okay?

Gays can marry in Bolivia now.

Venezuelans fleeing Venezuela on boats of questionable integrity meet their predicable end.

Good news!  The plague will screw up the coffee market!

Speaking of plague:  I am NOT trying out a Russian made vaccine.

An image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appears…in a pothole.  No, seriously:


That has to be a hoax.

 

Here’s a tune from a love it or hate it band.  Have a great afternoon.

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mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

368 Comments

  1. Rebel Scum

    “economic war” with Cuba

    That’d last about as long as a real war with Cuba.

    • Idle Hands

      real war with cuba would end with a single bunker buster to a specific house.

    • Agent Cooper

      Dang. So close.

  2. Swiss Servator

    So, if we want China harmed, we should encourage them to develop economic ties with Argentina?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      …yes!

    • Drake

      China already completely ignores Argentina’s territorial waters and troll fishes there. Since their too replace the Navy and Air Force after the Falklands War, nothing they can do about.

    • Gadfly

      Yes, China should absolutely be encouraged to invest in Argentinian debt. It’s a sure thing!

      • Swiss Servator

        Oh, its sure alright…

  3. leon

    “I think China has more interest in Argentina than the United States has in Argentina. And that is what makes the difference,”

    Argentina makes me very sad, because it is a place that was on such a good track, and then went really crappy in the 20th Century.

    What was the 20th Century good for?

    Also as far as i know, Argentina still denominates it’s debt in dollars and under the control of US law… So there’s that.

    • KOVIDKristen

      Parts of Argentina look like Switzerland. They could attract fucktons of tourists over there, instead of just in Ushuaia

      • Swiss Servator

        They had some interesting immigration patterns there, back in the day.

        But I suspect you meant mountains and scenery…

      • Shpip

        I used to import wine from Argentina. Mendoza (capital of the main wine region) has the infrastructure and development of Corinth, Mississippi combined with the scenery of southeastern Alaska.

        The wines are decent, too. Hope they resist the “race to the bottom” that screwed up Australian wines in the US market.

      • Shpip

        When non-experts blind-taste cheap and expensive wines they typically tend to prefer the cheaper ones.

        Our results indicate another reason for why the average wine drinker may not benefit from expert wine ratings: he or she simply doesn’t like the same types of wines as experts.

        Preferred by the booboisie != better

        There are more Kia Souls on the road than Lexus RX 350s, McDonalds sells a helluva lot more beef every day compared to Ruth’s Chris, and more Yellow Tail gets quaffed in a year than Châteauneuf-du-Pape; but I know what I’d rather drive, eat, and drink.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        ^^

        My guess would be that expensive wines lean dry and less sweet, two things that would turn off a wine non-drinker

        /person who drinks maybe 5 glasses a year

      • Homple

        It would be fun to do a double blind test on wine fans. The presented selection would include low class amd high class wines. Some wines would be presented twice in each selection to see if they were rated the same or differently.

        Has anyone tried this with fellow wine enthusiasts?

      • Old Man With Candy

        “Decent” is as good as they get. Everything seems to be styled in that industrial, international, “I could be from anywhere” style. I spent a bunch of time in Mendoza and can’t remember a single time when we tasted something and went, “WOW!”

        Chile, OTOH, has some genuinely interesting wines amidst the sea of industrial swill.

      • Plisade

        +1 Casillero del Diablo

      • hayeksplosives

        I do like several Chilean wines.

        Wasn’t it Chile that bailed out French wines when France had a bad year that killed off much of the grape wines, even the “heritage” ones? I seem to recall that France then replenished their orchards using grape vines from Chile.

        The vines had come from France originally, so Chile served as an off-site backup of sorts.

      • db

        Argentina had a hand in that, especially in saving the Malbec varietal, as I understand.

      • zwak

        That was California. And the French rootstock was killed by a louse called phylloxera. It allowed Napa to call some varietals actual French names if I remember right.

        My dad’s office partner was an oenologist.

      • Shpip

        The US bailed out French (and other European) wines when the phylloxera disease hit. American Vinis lambrusca vines had developed resistance to the aphid that causes the disease, while French vines had no defense. Winemakers grafted V. vinifera (standard grape varietals that we all know) to V. lambrusca roots, and saved winemaking in Europe.

        Chile, due to its physical isolation, is one of the few regions never to have had a phylloxera infestation.

      • kbolino

        They’re really sensitive about license plates in Ushuaia though.

      • Shpip

        To be fair, who wouldn’t make any excuse to throw rocks at Jeremy Clarkson?

      • kbolino

        Well, true. I don’t think the crew deserved it quite as much, though.

      • dbleagle

        Ushuaia has (had?) a respectable microbrewery there and the seafood was so good and fresh. The geology was remarkable. Even the most non-geologic trained person could take one glance at the mountains and instantly know something remarkable was happening here.

  4. leon

    Real communists would be disapointed by Bolivia.

  5. The Late P Brooks

    An image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appears…in a pothole. No, seriously:

    Quick, somebody- make a plaster cast of it.

    • Bobarian LMD

      The Virgin of Guadalupe is quite the trickster, for a vandal.

      She ain’t no virgin, though.

      • Swiss Servator

        *stoned to death by 10,000 Messican grandmas*

  6. Rebel Scum

    Gays can marry in Bolivia now.

    More like Ballivia amirite?

    Nah, that was a stretch. ///that’swhathesaid

    • Bobarian LMD

      You should always stretch; you could pull your groin.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      This is the reacharound after Biden assfucked him out of the primary.

      • Tonio

        [golf clap]

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      What about Ric Grenell? Who is arguably my favorite log cabin.

      • Count Potato

        Maybe that’s regular gay, not senior gay.

      • leon

        Hence the “Most Senior” qualification. Butigiegg will be confirmed as a Cabinet Member, whereas Grenell was only an “Acting Director” and Ambasador. See. This is really revolutionary and progressive.

    • leon

      I love how, in their desire to be ever on the wave of progress, every appointment ever made by “THE PRESIDENT” has to be “THE FIRST”, no matter how many qualifiers it takes.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        It’s like to obscure stats in football. No team has ever come back from 20 points down to win by 3 on a full moon at the Meadowlands in December after a snowstorm.

      • hayeksplosives

        With a left handed orthodontist seated at midfield.

      • Rebel Scum

        “First black, Indian, unelected, descendant of slave-holding plantation owners to be president!”

      • juris imprudent

        And to think, this country used to routinely elect slave-holders to the presidency.

    • prolefeed

      making him most senior gay official confirmed by Senate

      Assuming facts not in evidence – nice try at base stealing, tho.

      • Bobarian LMD

        The most important qualifier, ‘openly’ appears to be completely left out.

    • KOVIDKristen

      In the a.m. links I posted about who he’s rumored to pick for the agency I work for. If y’all thought that shit was shady before, just wait til Sam Power is at the helm!

      • Gustave Lytton

        She can shove her duty to wage warfare up her ass and self decorate a lamppost.

      • Gustave Lytton

        No way should cabinet officials be dual citizens of other countries, particularly Secretary of State. The pool isn’t that shallow there are 300M+ other Americans that should be ahead of her.

        And fuck that bag of shit Cass Sunstein. He can nudge himself right into a wood chipper.

      • leon

        Where is her other Citizenship?

      • Gustave Lytton

        She is an Irish national.

    • Master JaimeRoberto

      Pete will make trucking fabulous.

      • rhywun

        A pair of truck nuts in every pot.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        I don’t know. Truck nuts are kind of redneck. That’s the opposite of fabulous. Maybe some mudflaps with glitter instead.

      • db

        Maybe a tuning mode for the ECU on your big ol’ Diesel that spews glitter instead of soot when you stomp on the accelerator?

      • slumbrew

        Old and busted: rolling coal
        New hotness: rolling fabulousness

      • slumbrew

        Pete is definitely not into mudflaps.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        His baby don’t got ’em?

      • Shpip

        Well, if there was any presidential candidate who was familiar with the 6.7 Powerstroke, it’d be Mayor Pete.

      • Threedoor

        Big purple Peterbuilt!

    • EvilSheldon

      I’m guessing that, ‘Setting a good example without being a nagging pest,’ isn’t in there…

      • Gustave Lytton

        Along with lay out whatever evidence you have and let free people make their own damn decisions.

      • prolefeed

        And there may also be a further psychological explanation: the phenomenon of “psychological reactance”. This is where people vehemently believe they have freedom to behave how they wish, and experience negative emotions when this freedom is threatened, and so become motivated to reinstate it.

        Some people have pushed back against mask wearing by protesting against it publicly.

        This means that when told to wear a mask and socially distance, some people may perceive their behavioural freedom to be under threat

        It’s like they’re really puzzled that anyone would like individual freedom, or would think that coercion wasn’t just a benign offer to voluntarily comply.

      • hayeksplosives

        Let me guess: they also can’t figure out why anyone would oppose raising the minimum wage or would vote for Trump or would want to own guns.

        “ I can’t believe Nixon won. I don’t know anyone who voted for him.”

    • The Gunslinger

      FTA We also know from previous studies that people are more likely to comply with public health guidelines if they are clear, precise, simple and consistent – and if they trust the source from which they come.

      Consistent and from a trustworthy source. I think I may have discovered why some people resist.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        Yeah. It would have helped if they hadn’t started out poo-pooing masks before turning on a dime.

      • hayeksplosives

        The wide differences in advice from state to state, county to county, week to week, shows how totally arbitrary the rulez are.

        If the decrees are all arbitrary, then they’re not scientific. Thus people don’t trust the guidelines, and the term “expert” falls a few more notches on the trust scale.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The poo-pooing was the first flip flop. The CDC’s prior guidance was face masks, dating back to 2007.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of China’s overseas economic adventurism, how are things going in Africa these days?

    Last I heard, they were locking in natural resources as fast as they could.

    • hayeksplosives

      Still happening.

      China is an underestimated threat, and they feel no compunction to be fair and above board when it comes to pursuing their interests.

      What the Soviet Union was in terms of a rival or threat to the US in the Cold War, China will soon become.

      This is especially bad with Biden & friends coming into office.

      ——
      Disclaimer: I really do believe that Bill and Hillary should have gone on trial for high treason for their selling of US missile and other technology to China.

      China gas money now; Russia does not unless the oil prices rise. China is the threat. Russia is a threat only to its own people and especially journalists.

  8. Count Potato

    “FDA authorizes the first over-the-counter home test for coronavirus that gives results in just 20 MINUTES and will cost a maximum of $30

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the first at-home coronavirus test that doesn’t require a prescription.

    The test, made by Australian manufacturer Ellume, comes up with a nasal swab analyzer that connects to an app on users’ smartphones.

    What’s more, it can provide results within 20 minutes.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9056293/FDA-allows-use-counter-home-test-COVID-19.html

    What does the phone do?

    • LJW

      Only $30 + the data the collect through your cell phone.

      • Count Potato

        It’s probably Chinese spyware.

      • Not an Economist

        Supposedly, there is a spot where you can opt out of the data collecting. Although I bet it is turned on by default.

    • Tonio

      “that connects to an app on users’ smartphones”

      No. F*cking. Way.

      Just like I’m not downloading Gov Coonman’s social distancing “warning” app. The one which they say is totally anonymous and not a tracker or tracer.

    • Plisade

      It comes pre programmed to return a positive result 68% of the time.

    • blackjack

      Fuck! I called in because I have symptoms. Called my doctor and he’s quarantined because of exposure. Called all around and there’s just no decent way to get a test. Finally got an appointment at a drive through for Thursday, with results within 72 hours. I gotta use sick time until I get a positive test. Negative and I gotta go back to work and S/T the absence. If I get a positive, I get 14 days paid. They demand that I not go to work as long as I have symptoms. I had no idea testing was such a chore. At least, I get a new annual chunk of S/T on the first. Hope I don’t need it for something real.

      • TARDis

        Sorry, man. That sucks. I’m having an issues with people getting quarantined because they indulged their children, and the children tested positive. So you get a 14 day paid vacation before Christmas, and everyone else has to pick up your slack. Great. I lost another person through Christmas yesterday. We are going to have some pissed off customers.

        It sucks for you. If you’re positive you get paid, otherwise it on you. It’s bullshit. If you get told not work, you should get paid, period.

    • DEG

      I’m reminded of Pringles commercials.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Once you pop, you just can’t stop?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Maybe when I was 15, now I need a nap before I go in for more.

  9. Count Potato

    “Wearing a used mask can be less effective at protecting against coronavirus than not wearing one at all, a new study suggests.

    Researchers looked at three-layer surgical masks, which are very common among healthcare professionals.

    They found that, when new, these masks can filter out nearly three-quarters of tiny particles that linger in the air and are most responsible for infection.

    But, when used more than once, they filter out just one-quarter of the minuscule droplets because the masks become deformed with each wear.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9055645/Wearing-used-mask-WORSE-not-wearing-one-study-suggests.html

    • LJW

      All these mask studies look at aerosol droplets. Is there a lsingle one that looks at a live virus? Otherwise they mean nothing to me.

      • Bobarian LMD

        This, since they haven’t really locked down how the live virus is passed.

      • prolefeed

        “If you lock down people, you don’t need to lock down facts!”

      • Urthona

        No, it would be morally irresponsible to study the virus because it’s a killer virus mowing down millions in its path.

      • Bobarian LMD

        It singlehandedly murdered the flu.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They all actively ignore empirical data on infection rates and rely instead on the physics of the masks.

        In other words, these studies are useless when compared to the mountains of data from actual lockdowns and restrictions.

      • Idle Hands

        this x1000. They’ve disregarded any data that goes against the narrative time after time after time. These people are a psuedoscientific religious cult more than anything.

    • mrfamous

      And none of these ever admit that the mask’s filtering capabilities are often rendered moot by substantial leakage from the top and sides of the mask. Apparently the better a mask is at filtering, the more this occurs.

      Furthermore, my understanding is 75% filtration is insufficient as the remaining 25% is way more than would be necessary to spread infections.

      All of which is besides the point since the studies that exist with regards to flu and flu like illnesses in the past that show no benefit to the masks should, at the very least, be a hint that the default position should be that they don’t work until someone can show a real study that proves they do.

      • Idle Hands

        The masks have never had to do with health efficacy. They orignally started down the road because the calculation was simple people needed to feel like they had some control and protection when they left their house. The whole thing is the noble lie. They know they aren’t effective. The governors like it because they don’t have to do anything at all and just have citizens blame each other when the numbers go up.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Well our “pause” is only through Jan as of right now, but given this news I would say we are going to be locked down until March at least.

      Sorry Neph, I don’t think we will be enjoying a beer together in 2021….

      • Nephilium

        Viva was already pushed back from April to September of next year…

  10. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Continuing the PPP loan disaster

    The intention of the PPP loan was to incentivize employers to keep employees on the payroll even during a period when there was no income. The government required you to spend it all in order to get forgiveness.

    If, let’s say, there were no other income during the period you utilized the loan and it was the only thing that kept your doors open, which is true for a lot of restaurants and bars, then the loan money is gone and you are probably continuing operations on a shoestring, if at all.

    The IRS has ruled that if you expect forgiveness of the loan, then you cannot deduct those expenses on your 2020 returns. This effectively makes the loan income in contravention of the original intention of the program and on an accelerated timescale.

    Therefore, as it currently stands, the PPP loan tax implications are going to be bankrupting a lot of businesses that have been holding on by a thread and they would have been better off just shutting down during the period in which they had no business income.

    Congratulations are in order to our illustrious betters.

    • Count Potato

      That’s just fucked up.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      My, what an unexpected outcome.

    • Nephilium

      That’s why we need another payout stimulus plan from the federal government!

    • db

      When you say “those expenses” do you mean the loan repayment expenses or business expenses other than payroll during the period you utilized the loan?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        “Those expenses” are the expenses that were used to justify forgiveness of the loan, primarily payroll during the 24 week period after you received the loan.

        Basically, they made the loan taxable by making the expenses non-deductible when Congress specifically promised to not tax anyone on the loan.

        I purposely set aside a portion because I didn’t trust them to follow thru on that.

      • db

        wow

    • DEG

      Fuck.

    • Idle Hands

      If i wasn’t already going out I’d laugh this was entirely foreseeable and it’s completely disgusting. Wait till people find out they have to pay payroll taxes on their supped up unemployment.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I guess I’m not following. The IRS determination seems straight forward, even if it doesn’t advantage businesses. Expenses paid for by non-taxed income is not deductible. If the PPP loan is the only income for the period, what is there to deduct expenses for that period against?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Here is $5K. You have to give all of it to your employees, or you have to pay all of it back.

        If you give it all to your employees, you owe us ~$1K in taxes.

      • Gustave Lytton

        How? If you spend it, you still don’t pay taxes on that $5000, just you can’t turn around and deduct the $5000 on employee wages you paid with non-taxed dollars against other taxable income. No taxation on the income (PPP forgiven loan), no deduction using expenses paid for by the same source. It’s the flip side of the same coin.

        I’m not seeing this limits deduction of expenses not paid for with the non-taxed funds.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Where it gets screwy is that those paid for expenses are non-deductible if the loan is expected to be forgiven, even if it hasn’t already. So if you don’t file or it’s not forgiven until 2021, you’re still unable to deduct those expenses in 2020.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        “I’m not seeing this limits deduction of expenses not paid for with the non-taxed funds.”

        It does not.

        Functionally, Congress promised that the PPP assistance would not be taxed. Many business owners took them at their word and spent the entire amount on payroll. Now, per the IRS, that payroll is not a deductible expense which effectively increases your taxable income by the amount of the loan.

        Add to that, the IRS is already disallowing the expense deduction in 2020 even if you haven’t already applied for forgiveness.

        This negates what Congress promised and will put a lot of cash strapped businesses under.

        It’s a wealth transfer from the government to the employee that taxes the business owner for facilitating it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I’m still not seeing it. Under your scenario, it’s double dipping, which while nice isn’t surprising if not allowed. You either get the tax benefit on the income side or the expense side, not both.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Or to put another way, you’re not worse off. You just don’t get free money (untaxed income and being able to deduct using the same dollar).

      • Gustave Lytton

        I do agree about the last point. That was the entire point. It was paycheck protection for still working employees, not a benefit to the employers beyond keeping their business floating a few more months.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Incrementalism is not acceptable. We must have utopia now.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I can’t wait until they go after Obama.

    • leon

      At the rate the left has been progressing, adjusting for the fact that they think they will have 1000 years of leftist domination after Biden… I calculate that in 9 months we will see major cities renaming their MLK Boulevard (you know your city has it) because he believed in judging people by the content of their character.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Judging by the poster children of the BLM riots, preferably an unabashed criminal with no redeeming values other than the color of their skin or some other characteristic.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Say what you will about Rodney King, he sure could take a beating.

  11. Ted S.

    An image of the Virgin of Guadalupe appears…in a pothole. No, seriously:

    Relevant.

  12. Rebel Scum

    Good news! The plague will screw up the coffee market!

    That explains what I was worried about when I semi-drunkenly ordered a box of long-term storage survival coffee.

  13. Rebel Scum

    Speaking of plague: I am NOT trying out a Russian made vaccine.

    It is just a vodka shot.

    • Plisade

      Prolly more effective.

      • But Enough About My Pulsating, Geriatric Pecs

        Certainly more enjoyable.

  14. Pope Jimbo

    You know Trump isn’t even out of office yet. Shouldn’t MS have to wait until Biden is inaugurated before he steals the Afternoon Links away from Brett?

    • leon

      … Did you miss that announcement?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I’ll have you know the PM Links jumped me.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    The intention of the PPP loan was to incentivize employers to keep employees on the payroll even during a period when there was no income. The government required you to spend it all in order to get forgiveness.

    If the IRS taxes the PPP grants as income to the business, and then taxes that money again, as employees’ income, the thing practically pays for itself.

    GENIUS!

  16. Count Potato

    “NYC prepares for its heaviest December snowfall in a DECADE: Nor’easter to dump up to 18 inches statewide tomorrow with up to 2 foot in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

    NYC prepares for its heaviest December snowfall in a DECADE: New Yorkers are warned to stay off the roads, COVID testing centers will shut and parents are told to prepare for schools to close as up to 14 inches is set to fall”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9056107/New-York-City-prepares-heaviest-December-snowfall-DECADE-storm-expected-Wednesday.html

    • leon

      14 inches is a bit. Not Apocalyptic, but enough to get me to work from home, if i was still commuting to the office.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I don’t see it, it’s doom and gloom Bullshit

    • Drake

      They are talking 2 feet in my part of NJ. I haven’t got around to panicking yet. Maybe later.

    • Urthona

      I deployed up to 18 inches on your mom last weekend.

      • The Gunslinger

        I laughed.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        You screwed her 9 times? You must be exhausted.

      • TARDis

        But not at all, my good fellow. Short strokes and PE FTW.

    • juris imprudent

      Looking out at a really beautiful sunset right now.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Pics?

      • rhywun

        I stumbled out of my office into my living room and caught the same thing.

        It’s gone now.

  17. DEG

    Malmierca said Cuba further reduced obstacles to foreign investment. Now, for example, only projects regarding extraction of natural resources and public services would require a majority Cuban stakeholder.

    Other upcoming market-oriented reforms Cuba has announced this year should facilitate investment too, he said, citing the imminent elimination of the country’s dual currency system that has created distortions in the economy.

    Whoa. Could a libertarian moment coming to Cuba?

    😉

    Tens of thousands have fled to Trinidad and Tobago, many making the crossing by sea in often overloaded, rickety boats.

    At least two boats disappeared last year on their way to Trinidad and Tobago with a third believed to have capsized en route to Curaçao.

    It sounds like they should take some notes from Cubans in Florida.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Eh, a lot of them wound up as shark bait.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Trash bags and inner Tubes?

  18. Pope Jimbo

    I for one am already sick of all the vaccine photo ops and PR stories. Check this story out for a good example of the genre.

    White Earth descendant Danielle Whalen, a licensed practical nurse at Indian Health Services in Cass Lake, was one of the first to receive her vaccination.

    “I’m excited, I’m thankful,” Whalen said as she wiped happy tears from her eyes. “I’m excited to see my mom. I really wanted to do this for the people in my community, my elders, my patients, my family. So I was very motivated, but I’m mostly very excited because I haven’t hugged my mom since March, so I’m looking forward to that. This makes a world of difference for me.”

    I grew up next to the White Earth res and I never heard the term “White Earth descendant” before. My guess is that since they got a casino a lot of local white eyes who have a bit of Ojibwe blood in them are trying to get on the rolls.

    I wonder who will tell her that if we have to continue wearing masks even after the vaccination “because you never know if you might be asymptomatic and super spreading”, then she still won’t be able to hug her mom.

    • Agent Cooper

      “Thank you Trump! Now, go away!”

    • Threedoor

      She’s not the blondest, blue eyed Indian Ibe ever seen but pretty close.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    All these mask studies look at aerosol droplets. Is there a lsingle one that looks at a live virus? Otherwise they mean nothing to me.

    Don’t worry your pretty little head about that. They accounted for it in the model. Shut up and put the mask on.

  20. TARDis

    Venezuelans fleeing Venezuela

    They are going to N. Korea, right? Right?

  21. trshmnstr the terrible

    Y’know what. Screw it… I’ve alluded to the fact that there was some hinkey stuff COVID related that I was made aware of. Ive anonymized as best I can and have also changed a few words here or there to avoid searches from picking it up, but this is the core component of the email I received a month or two ago. I’m not aware of my employer taking part in this. As far as I know it was only a solicitation from the university and non-profit in question. That said, they didn’t squash this and were advertising it to our ML experts, which made me very uncomfortable.

    COVID Vaccine Behaviour Change Project

    – COVID Cases again shooting up in both Canada and the US

    – In order to cap the curve a majority of national populations need to adopt COVID mitigating behaviours (e.g. masks, distancing, tight social circles/bubbles, hygiene, etc.).

    – With the promise of COVID vaccines on the horizon the epidemiological end of the pandemic is critical, and the best way to foster this will be ensuring that there is sufficient uptake on the vaccine (estimated to require 80%).

    – However, with regard to both COVID behaviours & COVID Vaccines, Public Health Messaging from Public Health Officials has not sufficiently reached the population in both Canada and US.

    – This is why we are pushing forward with a Creative Social Media Behaviour Change Messaging Campaign to move the vaccine hesitant towards views aligning with vaccine uptake.

    – And we want to act now ahead of COVID vaccine approvals to reverse a growth in the vaccine hesitancy in both Canada and the US.

    – To this end, partnerships have been formed to drive the key elements from end to end: a Marketing Firm to roll out a message formulated by a Creative Agency based on analysis from a behavioral insights firm using the results of focus groups & surveys as well as a university professor leading a social listening – Twitter – study leveraging leading Machine Learning to support evidence based decisions regarding messaging, message channels, social media allies, etc.

    – It is within the social listening study leveraging the Machine Learning component that we think could be a point of engagement for COMPANY X whether it is through providing access to processing capacity or engagement with your SMEs, for example.

    – For illustrative purposes below is a Network Map [NSA-style mapping of relationships on Twitter] reflecting preliminary work capturing the content creators and content diffusers regarding the HPV vaccine with the two competing messages: Pro-Vaccine and Anti-Vax.

    – Important to note that the project is well underway in Alberta where it was initiated. Partnerships are being finalized for the rest of Canada with US partnership discussions – such as the one with PROGRESSIVE AFFILIATED NON-PROFIT – still
    pending.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Spooky Shit right there,

    • kbolino

      Ah, subject-matter experts and evidence-based decisions, the vanguard of the skinsuits.

    • leon

      Nothing will convince the masses of your good will like secretly trying to get them to behave in a certain way.

    • rhywun

      Pewdiepie or whatever your name is, roll up your sleeves. You’re on behavior modification duty tonight.

    • Gadfly

      Goebbels would be proud.

      Actually, probably not, because while they have the goal of mass propaganda they seem to lack the skills, if that e-mail is anything to go by. Effective propaganda should be short, simple, easily conceptualized, emotionally engaging, and vacuous enough to be difficult to briefly counter. That e-mail sounded more like it came out of the corporate jargon office rather than the propaganda office (although…perhaps that is effective, depending on the intended audience).

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I got the sense that this was some sort of corporate engagement liason (or perhaps the mentioned prof) from the university that sent this. I also cleaned up quite a few typos and poorly worded sections, so your point is well taken. I only got a quoted version with an internal contact to email “if interested”, so I’m just speculating.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Let me get this straight: New York has to tell people not to eat outdoors during a blizzard?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Can you imagine what would happen if they didn’t? People might decide for themselves!

      • Ownbestenemy

        My brother is one that believes if the government didn’t tell him, or put out a PSA via the Ad Council, or have some law in place, that he would be dead or destitute. He is a firm believer that every aspect of our lives, form birth to grave should be under the strict control of the Government.

        He is really fun at Thanksgiving and Christmas when I get him drunk.

      • Gadfly

        My brother is one that believes if the government didn’t tell him, or put out a PSA via the Ad Council, or have some law in place, that he would be dead or destitute.

        Is he right? Some people are screw-ups who can’t manage their own lives. That doesn’t mean the rest of us should be treated as such, but you will in fact find people the government has helped.

  23. Pope Jimbo

    If you read between the lines on this story about a Covid relief bill in Minnesoda you might be tempted to think that Walz’s control is slipping.

    A group organized as the ReOpen Minnesota Coalition claims that between 100 and 200 businesses that will defy Walz’s closure orders this week, yet the relief money will flow to businesses whether they remained closed or not.

    Leaders from both parties said having to assess whether a business is in good standing with the executive orders would complicate the distribution of business checks. “It’s a tiny percent — 100 businesses out of 10,000 — that are trying to make a statement that they should be able to be open and get people sick,” said House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, DFL-Golden Valley. “They are causing a public health crisis but they are not going to stop the other 10,000 businesses that will be helped. If we create a program in which all these checks and verifications have to take place, the money will get out the door much later and frankly too late for all the businesses who are following the rules.”

    I love the statement that the places that are threatening to open in the future are causing a public health crisis. The fact that they couldn’t put a provision in the bill that would exclude scofflaws from that relief money.

  24. TARDis

    Yummy. Mrs. T is making smoked pork enchiladas.

    I guess I’ll make myself useful and make us some Sad Margaritasᵀᴹ (Just ’cause I’m out of Triple Sec)

    • Ownbestenemy

      Car is gassed up just point me in the direction to your compound.

      • TARDis

        You can come visit if you registered to vote here already.

        Speaking of gas; homemade pico de gallo. A carpool favorite.

  25. Shpip

    Since we’re doing odd apparitions today, here’s a shrine to the Virgin of St. Nom Nom.

    • TARDis

      Now I’m going to have nightmares.

      • db

        Jim Henson’s most beloved creations were born of the horrible knowledge that strange creatures lurk behind the veil of goodness and occasionally pierce through into our religious iconography.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Virtue. Signaled.

    “A global pandemic and racial unrest have led this nation and communities across the country to an inflection point; and … despite the polarization playing out on the national stage, the Austin community strives to rise above,” reads the resolution.

    This resolution is the first of its kind in the nation, according to those who worked on the initiative.

    The contract should reflect values shared by the people of Austin, reads the resolution. Those values are outlined as:

    Be respectful
    Listen to understand
    Act with good intentions
    Support ideas with evidence and experience
    Disagree without being disagreeable
    Critique the idea not the person
    Invite wonder

    Austin’s social contract would not be a legal document, but rather serve as a “written agreement outlining a community’s core values and instructs the direction of laws, regulations, policies, contracts, culture and more.”

    • kbolino

      I used to think they hadn’t moved past High School, but it seems that they’re really stuck in Middle School. That reads like my 6th grade orientation.

      Up next: Finger painting to bring us all together, then a round of “sharing is caring”.

    • Master JaimeRoberto

      “Invite wonder”. Oh don’t worry, I wonder about a lot of things that would probably test their commitment to several points on that list.

    • Ownbestenemy

      When you treat the citizens like children, this is what you get.

      The United States of Benjamin Button.

    • Chipwooder

      Critique the idea not the person

      So let’s test this by saying “If you’re born with a dick and balls, you’re a man regardless of what you call yourself” and see how that goes over in uberwoke Austin.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I am sure they will amend this social contract with what is and what is acceptable to discuss. All others are okay to critique the person as they are engaging in hate speech and thus open to ridicule, cancellation, $2000 fine and/or 3 months in jail Truth Camp(r)

  27. Akira

    OT: Informal survey here… So more than likely, Trump will be leaving the Oval Office. When that happens, what do you think happens with the Coronavirus policy?

    A) Biden-Harris goes full-bore authoritarian with nationwide lockdowns, mandatory masks, mandatory vaccines, etc.

    B) The media coverage suddenly becomes more optimistic, numbers start being counted more accurately, and the survival rate becomes a common rejoinder in the media. The “recovery” that happened as soon as Trump was out will be used for eternity as propaganda against voting for “candidates without political experience” (e.g. those who are outside the swamp).

    C) Something else – describe.

    • TARDis

      We’ll have to ask Bill & Melinda, I’d say.

    • Urthona

      I think they half assedly try a, conservative stages ignore them, and then they claim victory in about half a year.

      • Urthona

        states

    • Master JaimeRoberto

      A little A and a lot of B.

      • Idle Hands

        National mask mandate and fawning media coverage of their vaccine rollout.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        That’s about what I’m thinking. The mask mandate will expire at the time when the rate of new cases would decline anyway and Biden will get credit for all the work the preceded him.

      • mrfamous

        The mask mandates will never expire. They need to be actively stopped somehow. I don’t know how that will happen though.

        Governments simply don’t hand these things back to people once they’ve taken them. They have no reason to.

      • Akira

        Governments simply don’t hand these things back to people once they’ve taken them. They have no reason to.

        True.

        Even if some government official really does want to repeal a “safety measure” that has not worked or is no longer needed, they have no incentive. The second something bad happens, they would get pilloried for it. If they just leave it there forever, people might grumble for a little bit, but it will become the New Normal and nobody will ever talk about it again (except \libertarians, who are written off as a joke by nearly everyone).

      • mrfamous

        My guess is the way out is the same as “TSA pre-check”: charge people money to get a special screening so they can opt out of all of the mandates. IE, selling indulgences. Stick with the classics

    • Idle Hands

      We are 6 months away from them declaring victory of course by that time the carnage will be immense. The masks aren’t going away for several years if at all because of how many people love them. Something like 72% of the population wants a national mask mandate.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Amazing what suppressing counter ideas and studies will get a population to do.

        They should coin this new tactic something witty like IFLS or whatever some other focus group tested adults think is fun and quippy.

      • Akira

        They should coin this new tactic something witty like IFLS or whatever some other focus group tested adults think is fun and quippy.

        What makes my blood boil is that the “I Fucking Love Science” people actually have a very unscientific mindset. Science does not mean “immediately accept and assimilate any information that comes from government officials”. It’s a mode of thought based on observation, reasoning, conclusion, and constant questioning. It’s clear that most of these people have no idea how to critically analyze anything. Someone told me (months ago) that the US had surpassed China in COVID deaths. I replied, “Well the numbers given by the Chinese government, anyway”, and I was met with a deer-in-headlights stare, as if that thought had never occurred to them. Similar things happened when I brought up the overcounting of cases and deaths.

        And I’m not saying that I’m some kind of data analyst super-genius; I have zero formal education or training in anything related to that. But it shouldn’t be that hard for people to apply some basic level of critical thinking to the numbers they are being given.

        “I Fucking Love Science” has become shorthand for “I believe everything on CNN”.

        Also, a lot of this COVID response shit is not even in the realm of science. Even IF science did say that mask mandates and lockdowns would reduce the spread, that does nothing to resolve the question of whether a government has the moral right to do this.

      • db

        It has been like this for years. I remember shocking an engineering colleague of mine by saying how much I hate the IFLS crowd for encouraging people to think of science (not true science, but the pronouncements of prominent scientists and scientistic politicos) as infallible, and how they were going to do irreparable harm to the practice of real science in the long run.

    • juris imprudent

      Can’t be B – accurate numbers would collapse their whole house of cards; and the media only knows how to sell alarmism (which to be fair, does sell).

      • Idle Hands

        B is interesting given the monetary incentives. The current testing regime is a billion dollar industry, if they failed to detect virus as much on a lower cycle they would need less tests. The media is incentives for bad news and eyeballs I predict a relatively quick turn on the vaccine being safe. I don’t know what happens with regard to the media.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        The inflated numbers served their purpose. They got rid of the bad orange man. Now the numbers will have to change to make the new guy/gal look like they’ve done something.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Are you suggesting that the entities that masquerade as “press” are purposefully lying to us and/or willing to push an agenda?

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        What? Me? No, no, no. I would never suggest such a thing. And I’m shocked that there’s gambling going on here.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Just say “where am I” and “are you my grandson” when the authorities ask you.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I think B will be the answer.

        Once the media has declared that the Rona Crisis is over, Biden can get busy bailing out all the states and cities that were devastated by Trump’s Rona policies.

        Of course, the bailouts will include fully funding the public union pension funds in CA, NY and IL, because they were just fine before the Rona hit.

        Old and busted: Rona is going to kill us all!
        New and hot: Build Back Better!

      • Idle Hands

        They simply can’t afford to keep it going. The amount of destitute people in this country if they keep this going for three months is going to be enough to cripple the system. We are staring down the barrel of a terrible terrible recession if this all ended tomorrow. Your talking about the complete hollowing out of the small business owner, the end of the entrepreneurial class in this country and a massive housing/commercial market crash.

      • slumbrew

        My more cynical side thinks they’re perfectly OK with this result. To borrow the lyric Insty uses, “They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please.”

      • Homple

        Drat, I see you got to this before I did.

        Sorry.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        And yet nothing you mentioned was included in the decision-making process the first time around, why would that change the next time they discover something nasty fell out of an aardvark’s ass?

      • db

        Honestly not saying this is what happened, but if a group of elites wanted to press the reset button on American society, they couldn’t have designed a better strategy.

      • mrfamous

        Killing small business owners seems to be a feature not a bug. Having most business conducted by a handful of companies seems to be the favored outcome by a sizeable majority of the elected class of both parties.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        There are a lot of suicidal small business owners out there especially in blue towns.
        I have a neighbor that voted for our current gov ensuring more lockdowns and the near certain loss of his business within a year or so.
        Mainline Protestant leadership is also pro-lockdown and voted to ensure its doom too. Certainly there are plenty of small churches that were going to die. The date of death was just moved up. But the lockdowns have devastated all aspects of church budgets from the individual church on up to the national apparatus

      • Homple

        Government loves crashes and depressions. Look at what the 1930s did for embiggening the state.

        Beggars are easy to please.

    • Not Adahn

      Both A with B used to justify how necessary and effective and leadershippy A was.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I think someone mentioned the other day. Testing will remain in place but the cycles will be set to what they always should have been, thus positives start to go down and it looks like Geriatric Jesus is our savior.

      • Master JaimeRoberto

        And that way they won’t have to revise the old numbers, so Trump will still look bad.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      I think A sometime soon and slowly tolling out B a few months after A starts.
      Govs get their authoritarian bones stroked
      When A is fully implemented the Harris admin gets to claim victory, and say if only trump had done a fed mask mandate from the start more Americans would be alive today

    • Fourscore

      Karens will be hired as “Reminders” at $15 @ hour.. When a person is reminded a picture will be taken and sent to a data bank. 3 reminders and said person will have to attend a class on social hygiene. 3 more reminders and person faces a fine, community service and a longer class on social hygiene. Another 3 and the scofflaw get a vacation for 10 days, a permanent entry on high school records, a conspicuous tattoo and a listing on the No Mask Compliance Identification Board.

      Ineligible for any government program, voting rights removed and neighbors within 1/2 mile are notified.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    From Trashy, above:

    – However, with regard to both COVID behaviours & COVID Vaccines, Public Health Messaging from Public Health Officials has not sufficiently reached the population in both Canada and US.

    Wait. 24/7 shrieking has not “reached” the population? What the fuck kind of drugs are these people taking?

    • Ownbestenemy

      I would think “haven’t reached” means they aren’t listening to us….

    • kbolino

      I am reminded a bit of one of mtrueman’s schticks, that even though Louis Pasteur figured out boiling water could kill most bacteria, good old Chairman Mao deserves the real credit for killing or imprisoning any actual doctors believing in “traditional medicine” quackery waging cultural war spreading the good knowledge to the peasants a hundred years later.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    You know what would really bring the anti-vaxxers around? A PSA featuring naked (except for a mask, of course) Kim Kardashian taking it in the ass, in front of a cheering throng. Maybe get Ballgag Joe to sniff her hair while it happens.

    *The vaccine, of course. What else could I have meant?

  30. Count Potato

    “Mark Zuckerberg defends Twitter’s decision to suspend Donald Trump Jr account

    Twitter confirms Trump can be banned from inauguration day onwards

    Donald Trump is the second most-followed politician on Twitter after Barack Obama

    Donald Trump, who currently enjoys certain exemptions from Twitter’s policies due to his status as a world leader, will likely lose the protection after 20 January when Joe Biden takes over as the US president.

    Mr Trump’s personal account on Twitter could be subject to a ban if he continues to spread conspiracy theories, Twitter has confirmed.

    Since the days after the 3 November elections, when it became clear that Mr Biden was leading the race and set to be the next president, Mr Trump has been using Twitter to peddle voter fraud conspiracy theories without proof.

    As a result, many of his tweets related to election results appear with the label: “This claim about election fraud is disputed” – even when they have received millions of interactions on the platform.

    These tweets are not banned outright as his account is currently covered under the platform’s “world leaders on Twitter: principles and approach” guidelines, according to which the company allows tweets that break its rules to stay up if they see “clear public interest value” in them.

    However, they may place it behind a notice that provides context about the violation, according to Twitter’s rules.

    That may change for Mr Trump after 20 January when he becomes a private citizen. Post that, if he continues to post such tweets, it could lead to an eventual ban from the platform. ”

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-twitter-ban-inauguration-biden-b1774105.html

    • Ownbestenemy

      Best part of the article is we get a former president that will absolutely be treated as a private citizen, even it is just for OMB. Libertarian/Constitutional moment!

    • Master JaimeRoberto

      Remember all those people banned for spreading conspiracy theories about Russian collusion? Yeah, me neither.

      • mrfamous

        People are going back and forth between Facebook and Twitter and Democratic political campaigns. Once they got the “all clear” for this sort of thing, this was bound to happen. It’s deliberate to achieve a particular political end. Why would they censor their own side?

        Alternatives to Twitter and Facebook will have to fill the void. And I’d expect to see these consistently referred to as “white supremacist” apps. They play this game to win. Anything that furthers that goal is fair game.

        I have absolutely zero affinity for Republicans, but Democratic politics has played the “machine” game for a very long time and them updating it into the 21st century isn’t surprising.

    • Pope Jimbo

      The fuck they will kick him off.

      If Trump went to Parler (or whatever the new thing is) it would be devastating for Twitter. Not only would they lose all their Trumptards, they’d also lose a huge amount of their OMB Blue Check Brigade. They’d go to Parler just to hate follow Trump.

      • Not Adahn

        They will absolutely kick him off. Multiple times as a new true believer gets access to the ban button. If they take that button away it will be on every nightly news broadcast as “bombshell leaks prove that Twitter protects racism, homophobia, bigotry and hate speech.”

    • TARDis

      Donald Trump is the second most-followed politician on Twitter after Barack Obama

      If this is true, I’m wondering how many people would follow him on a non censored site. I have never used twitter, never will. If he’s still number two there despite all the people who would never give Dorsey the time of day, he could launch his own service, and twitter would crash. Go ahead fuckwits. Ban him.

      • The Hyperbole

        I think you may be conflating people that follow Donny because they are on Twitter with people who are on Twitter because they follow Donny. If Donny leaves he may have a lot of people join him on his new platform (whatever that is) but they aren’t going to abandon Twitter just because he left.

      • TARDis

        Maybe, but over time many might. They just need a place to go. If there is an uncensored video site as an option to YT, I will consider it. Same thing with Twitter and FB. You don’t think there are many people who joined the twatter just because of Trump? I could be wrong, but I think so. I’m not a Trumpster so I didn’t, but there must be some.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        If there is an uncensored video site as an option to YT, I will consider it.

        The problem is content creators. I looked at bitchute, but there wasn’t much good content if you aren’t 100% politics and current events all the time. I couldn’t find a live stream of the spacex test, for example.

  31. Not Adahn

    I had no idea they hated El Paso so much in Mexico.

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      I’m next door in WA. Gov Inslee has already extended the latest lockdown orders through early January. Oregon is playing catchup.

      Although now that I think about it, it’s more like “anything you can do, I can do better harder”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Same here in Nevada but we used the friendly focus group tested term “pause”; which really should make people more pissed to know that the Executive of a state has the ability to “pause” their lives. Democracy!

      • db

        If the State can press “pause” on your life, it can also press “stop.”

      • Suthenboy

        They are getting around to that.

      • Gustave Lytton

        “Eject” into mass graves?

      • Ownbestenemy

        First they have to rewind to Harris and dub over a few things. Then we can fast forward and hit the eject button.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Cassette World………

      • Pope Jimbo

        Since we followed the media’s advice and were Be Kind, Rewind to the Obama years by electing Creepy Joe, can’t we get a break on the camps?

      • db

        The Camps are for your own good. Why would you wish to avoid them?

      • Not Adahn

        Just think of how many of these 300,000 lives could have been saved if we had just humanely euthanized those initially exposed!

      • Threedoor

        It’s long last time we pressed stop on the state.

    • Master JaimeRoberto

      Hey, they are just following The Science.

    • straffinrun

      Polling is manufactured consent.

  32. Count Potato

    “If children can’t consent to puberty blockers which pause any permanent changes even with the relevant professional evaluation, how can they consent to the permanent and irreversible changes that come with their own puberty with no professional evaluation whatsoever?”

    https://twitter.com/ZJemptv/status/1334159240466997249

    CWAA

    • Ownbestenemy

      I….give up.

    • leon

      If a child can’t consent to an abortion, how can they consent to being born? Pretty deep huh?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The natural aging process is transphobic.

  33. Count Potato

    “”How are you gonna keep it from us being able to be in a position where you can manipulate the machines, manipulate the records?… I think we should pass a federal law mandating that the same machines with paper trails be mandatory for every federal election”

    -Joe Biden, 2007″

    https://twitter.com/fleccas/status/1338923147215638528

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      That was, like, 10 years ago, man. C’mon.

  34. slumbrew

    Grim news from my brother: he and his wife have the Wu Flu. The kids probably do too:

    “[wife] feels like a dogs ass. Can’t get out of bed. I’m ok little run down. Boys fine ”

    The horror. The horror.

    • Count Potato

      I hope they are OK.

      • slumbrew

        Thank you, though I’m being flip – my brother and his wife are in their 40’s and in excellent shape (he’s a former college athlete and still works out like a fiend). I’m 100% confident they’ll be fine.

      • straffinrun

        Good. My brother in Texas had it a few months ago. 54 and overweight. No problem.

    • DEG

      I hope they get well soon.

  35. See Double You

    Welp, the wife, kids, and I survived the Commie Cough. My wife got it at work (a center for pregnant and parenting teenage moms) even though she was wearing an N-95 the whole time. She got a bad fever for one day, then felt tired for a couple of days after that. We all quarantined for two weeks. She is now fully recovered. I have never had any symptoms, and neither have the kids.

    The social isolation and lack of any outlets for us or the kids took a far worse toll.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      “ The social isolation and lack of any outlets for us or the kids took a far worse toll.”

      My kids are toddler age and we never abided by the lockdown. We have prog neighbors that did the same. Probably saved our kids from some of the worst emotional impacts of the lockdown on kids
      My wife says in her mom’s group they all lockdown and some are still locked down. The kids are beyond bonkers and probably beyond the expected behavioral issues for toddlers
      Hmm who would’ve thought isolating kids at a formative social age would hurt them

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        We’ve struggled a bit with the 3 year old over the past month. Covid + a newborn means that she isn’t getting enough attention, social time, or outdoor time.

        Things improved immensely when we actively sought out at least one thing to do every single day to get out of the house.

  36. slumbrew

    In a rare spot of good news:

    My manager sent me a holiday present: a bottle of Lagavulin arrived in the mail today.

    He’s a good dude.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Excellent! Good manager

  37. Old Man With Candy

    Much discussion daily on the radio about convincing vax skeptics to “trust the science.” The one thing they avoid mentioning is the principal rational objection: by definition, a rushed vaccine will not have been tested for long-term effects.

    I’m skipping past the irony of the same Progs who have spent years talking about the crooked, dishonest, greedy, lying pharma companies now claiming that anyone who is skeptical of the vaccine is a right wing nutjob.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      convincing vax skeptics to “trust the science.”

      I was wondering which phrase the focus groups would settle on.

      • EvilSheldon

        If it was really science, then we wouldn’t need to trust it.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Life is easy when you just make shit up as you go along OMWC. And we were always told you could never put a square block in a round hole as children. Pssh.

    • See Double You

      They know it’s safe since OMB will be gone by the time it’s widely available.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      I work with a bunch of young female nurses. I haven’t heard one say she is getting the vaccine. Many are skeptical because it is rushed, but one mentioned she is a newlywed and wants to have kids some day and getting this vaccine as a woman of child bearing age sounds beyond careless. Several agreed to that statement

      • Ownbestenemy

        “I work with a bunch of young female nurses.” Are they on the night shift? Cause RC Dean has informed us that the night shift is the best shift for young female nurses…

      • See Double You

        Easier to hide in the shadows while you stalk them?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        “I work with a bunch of young female nurses.”
        I put the brakes on right there,
        /In Bondage!

      • Trials and Trippelations

        Well i work weekend nights, if an HR rep heard the jokes and conversations he had the rep would faint
        We had about 20 new hires this summer all but one younger than 25?

      • straffinrun

        Operation Warped Fetus.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *memories of 80s movies about candy stripers*

    • Trials and Trippelations

      “I’m skipping past the irony of the same Progs who have spent years talking about the crooked, dishonest, greedy, lying pharma companies now claiming that anyone who is skeptical of the vaccine is a right wing nutjob”

      If I talked politics at work I would totally rub this in the face of my loud, leftist coworker

  38. The Late P Brooks

    No explanation, no context required

    Even with the vaccine rollout, health researchers forecast that the U.S. death toll could double and reach a cumulative 539,000 by April 1, and are urging people to wear masks and limit gatherings to manage the spread of the virus

    Where are those deaths going to come from?

    The model, I guess.

    • See Double You

      Still waiting on the evidence that asymptomatic carriers spread the disease in any significant way.

    • Drake

      The vaccine?

    • TARDis

      Well then, I guess the Social Security and Medicare deficit will be taken care of after all.

    • Not Adahn

      Even with the vaccine rollout, health researchers forecast that the U.S. death toll could double and reach a cumulative 539,000

      So you’re saying that Trump and Operation Ludicrous Speed saved TWO MILLION lives!

  39. The Late P Brooks

    “The worst is unfortunately yet to come,” Dickson said. “There is nothing to suggest that the rate of hospitalizations is going to slow down. So at this point, we’re absolutely confident that this will be worse than the first surge.”

    Dickson urged “the public to do everything they can to prevent the spread of this infection for the next two months” to prevent additional strain on the health-care system while coronavirus vaccines are delivered to health-care workers and the most vulnerable.

    “If you can give us those two months, we’ll bring the hospitalizations down, we’ll have enough room, we’ll have the workforce to deliver the vaccine and we’ll be out of this thing in early summer,” Dickson said.

    “But if we don’t get the public’s help during those two months, it’s going to be a horrible, horrible long winter because there will be a lot of people dying that didn’t have to die,” he said.

    This guy sounds like he’s in the wrong line of work.

    • straffinrun

      Second surge, same as the first. I’m Henry the 8th I am, Henry the 8th I am, I am.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hope you got your subsidized vacations in. I just saw that GoTo is being suspended at the end of the month. “temporarily”

      • straffinrun

        Went to Hakone hot spring last month using it. Half empty and no Chinese, so that was nice. Still haven’t used my GoTo eat coupons. KFC for Christmas is the wife’s plan.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I heard Kyoto is quite nice without the crowds of overseas tourists. Exclude everyone but me. I’m a uh, on business.

        Hmmm… come to think of it, my company does have a small office in Tokyo. Wonder how hard it would be to get someone to write a letter and have a “meeting” at the Starbucks in 2F? Completely different departments, never heard of me before, yeah, that could work.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        That sounds pretty good to me, KFC rocks,

      • straffinrun

        Odd tradition, but when in Rome, eh? Just sucks when Christmas is on a weekday. Kid wakes up at 6am and we open presents. By 8am she is strapping on her backpack and heading to school.

      • Sensei

        Do you do the Christmas cake too?

      • straffinrun

        Of course. I always want cake. Ordered it from 7-11.

      • straffinrun

        Finger licking good.

      • Not Adahn

        Japanese Santa is trans?

      • Sensei

        I surprisingly enjoyed Owakudani.

      • straffinrun

        Guess that’s near Gotemba. Outlet mall time.

    • Akira

      we’re absolutely confident that this will be worse than the first surge.”

      Why should anyone believe you given how wrong you were about the severity of the first “surge”?

      • See Double You

        You are not a Certified Expert until you can avoid accountability for your erroneous predictions.

  40. straffinrun

    My Twitter days are over. Had my login saved on the old PC and don’t remember it. April to December 2020. RIP. What a colossal waste of time. I get why people use it, but petty partisan screeching got old pretty quick.

    • Gustave Lytton

      RIP Andalusia Barack.

    • The Hyperbole

      You had a few good ones, luckily some other people use that same laid back primate avatar so I’m just going to pretend they are you from now on.

    • Sensei

      And that’s just the ones in Japanese…

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Expertise

    President-elect Joe Biden is poised to tap former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to lead the Department of Energy, two people familiar with the matter say, inviting a longtime adviser who played a critical role in his debate preparations over the years to join his Cabinet.
    Granholm has long taken a deep interest in energy issues and was considered to be a top candidate for Energy secretary if Hillary Clinton had won four years ago. Now, she will have her chance, if confirmed by the Senate.

    ——-

    Granholm, if confirmed by the Senate, would help Biden carry out his ambitious energy plan. The President-elect has proposed spending $2 trillion over four years on clean energy projects and ending carbon emissions from power plants by 2035. The plan would create union jobs in clean energy and through projects such as the construction of electric vehicle charging stations, updating electric grids, expanding broadband internet access and more.
    As governor of Michigan, Granholm had worked closely with the auto industry, the dominant industry in the Great Lakes State, which could help Biden as he attempts to move the country toward electric vehicles.

    She loves SCIENCE, you betcha.

    • See Double You

      Fuck Biden and fuck Granholm.

      • The Gunslinger

        And fuck Whitmer too.

    • limey

      if Hillary Clinton had won four years ago.

      CNN finally accepts the result of the 2016 presidential election?

    • R C Dean

      “President-elect Joe Biden is poised to tap former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm”

      No comment.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Depraved indifference!

    During a holiday visit to the Children’s National Hospital on Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump prepared to read a story to children by first removing her face mask. The hospital policy says anyone who enters the hospital must wear a mask “at all times,” according to CNN. This was the first lady’s fourth annual visit to the hospital. Normally she reads to a packed room full of children and their families, but this year only two children were present in-person and the event was broadcast across hospital televisions. Masked staff were also present.

    Trump kept her face mask off the entire time she read, although she did social distance and had her mask on for a bingo drawing afterwards. The hospital and first lady haven’t returned requests for comment. President Trump and Melania Trump both tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this year, and according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, their antibodies should still be present. Guidance does not differentiate between those with antibodies and those without when it comes to mask wearing. “I’m thinking of you all,” Melania Trump told the children during the event. “Stay strong and well and Merry Christmas and happy holidays.”

    Oh

    my

    GOD!

    Why didn’t someone tackle her and forcibly cover her face?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      So many tedious assholes, so few bullets…

    • Urthona

      She had it two months ago so there’s a zero percent chance she could spread it.

      So this is basically complaining that she wouldn’t follow an irrelevant rule.

      • EvilSheldon

        “These rules are for your own good!”

  43. The Late P Brooks

    “Guidance does not differentiate…”

    That would require a coherent, consistent, rational explanation for what the mask is ostensibly there to do.

    • mikey

      I love it when they don’t use the article. It like Guidance is the given name of a living thing.

  44. trshmnstr the terrible

    Unofficially done for the year ??

    I have a department presentation to make tomorrow, but that’s a log-on, talk, log-off affair.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Make sure to Toobin.

    • db

      Have a tasty beverage of your choice!

      Only two days left to go for me.

    • straffinrun

      Cheers, Trash. Enjoy the family time.

    • rhywun

      I’m the one who gets to work through everyone else’s vacation time.

      But I did manage to sneak off every Monday in December.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Noice! Breaking up the weeks can help out a lot. I had saved up a bunch of PTO in case delivery of trashbaby #2 went sideways, but she was delivered on a Friday night, so I had a ton of extra to burn.

      • slumbrew

        Mazel tov, Trashy!

      • Sensei

        Missed that! Congratulations.

      • TARDis

        Congratulations on your new carbon based unit.

      • TARDis

        Are you traveling back in time for this post? If you are, I need some time travel advice.

        As for me, I’m off every Friday and I will be off from Christmas through the Monday after New Year’s. [Disclaimer: Unless threatened with termination due to CoVid.]

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Unofficially done for the year ??

    *blows horn, throws confetti*

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The sycophantic celebration everytime a leftist gets appointed or elected to something is really bizarre.

    • TARDis

      The comments are why I’m okay with civil war.

      • rhywun

        Wonderful.

        ??????

    • Urthona

      I thought he was supposed to be “gun czar” or some shit.

      • LJW

        Beto is waiting for that.

      • Urthona

        lol my bad. I thought it was Beto. never mind.

        it’s the guy who is actually gay and not the one who just acts like it.

      • TARDis

        That’s Beetoff, not Buttplug.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Those were some good drugs apparently.

    • blackjack

      That’d be this song, I believe.

  46. straffinrun

    Seriously, WTF? Someone keeps pumping money via direct deposit into my account. Says “salary”, but all of the places I work for have already paid up. Now I gotta find out which of those places has the Idiot accountant doing this. Ugh. Getting into some big fucking number at this point.

    • LJW

      Don’t spend it. If it turns out to be an error the bank will take it back regardless of your balance.

      • straffinrun

        Of course I won’t spend it. It’s actually quite unsettling.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You’re being set up by Yakuza.

      • straffinrun

        Feel like Hunter after waking from a Ukrainian crack binge.

    • Sensei

      Who knew the PPP applied to Americans in other countries

      • straffinrun

        My mom sent me a message saying how she got a special stimulus grant due to her work. “You meant you got that much in Yen not dollars, right?” “No, that was in dollars.” My jaw hit the floor. 3 years my salary.

    • DenverJ

      It’s a gift. Once they deposit it, it’s yours, right? Also, give them my account number, pls, k, thanks.

  47. The Gunslinger

    Cynical me was thinking about something at work today. The more mask wearing we do, the more positive cases of covid-19 we have. We are up to 20 cases now and it made me think. Maybe people would go get tested hoping for a positive test and presto – no more work until after Christmas. No way that could be a thing, right?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Perverse incentives don’t exist when it comes to COVID.

    • Urthona

      what is the failure rate these days?

      also a nice time to get a positive test if you don’t want to visit certain relatives.

      • dbleagle

        The new do it yourself at home test reports a 95% success rate. That is in a testing setting. “In the wild” they might as well send you a magic shiny 2020 COVID detecting penny with the instructions: Breath on your testing penny and flip it in the air. Look at it on the ground. If you can see Lincoln’s face you have the VID, if you see the US Shield you are negative.

      • rhywun

        if you see the US Shield

        The first time I saw that I thought it was some fake token or something. It looks like something a not particularly talented grade school might design.

      • rhywun

        schooler, even

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Careful, she might hit you with her purse.

    • db

      HAHA NOW Russian influence in our political process is A-OK.

    • LJW

      Not sure what her line of thinking is. He accepted the 2016 results too…

  48. limey

    Gays can marry in Bolivia now.

    And apparently in Northern Ireland, which apparently started back in Jan/Feb, but I guess there haven’t been many weddings at all this year.

    Here’s a tune from a love it or hate it band.

    Weird, I was just thinking about them earlier. Do not like at all. It started when I was thinking about this one from Soundgarden. Much better.

    • Urthona

      Gays can marry in Iran too. As long as they marry chicks.

      • LJW

        Even then they still risk “falling off a tall building”

    • Sensei

      Sure, be mean and don’t tell me how to read the first kanji.

      All I get is power and bird…

      • straffinrun

        Pigeon

      • Sensei

        Thanks for having a “hato”!

  49. Threedoor

    Totally off the subject but what’s the best way to ship a case of beer in bottles?

    • TARDis

      Know an commercial airline pilot?

      • TARDis

        a pilot…sheesh.

      • Threedoor

        Did. He had a midair and killed six other people this summer.

      • tripacer

        How far you have to ship it?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Bubble wrap and cardboard carriers, and more Bubble wrap

  50. wdalasio

    The province, home to the city of Medellín, needs around 32,000 coffee pickers from other parts of the country each year to collect its harvest, which takes place between September and December

    And it must be playing absolute havoc with the harvest for..wait, that isn’t till March.

  51. DenverJ

    First! Bye bye Barr.