About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

508 Comments

  1. Tres Cool

    mornin’ ya’all

    Current titty status: exhausted

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      I feel ya.

      • Ted S.

        You feel Tres’ titties?

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Took this long? Yer slipping, Ted’s.

      • Ted S.

        I’m at work and don’t get on break until 8:30.

    • Not Adahn

      You left out “blue” yesterday, but otherwise, fine job in quoting some of Olliver Wendall Jones’s best verse.

  2. wchipperdove

    First! Suck it. Not you, Banjos.

    • wchipperdove

      DAMN YOU TREEEEEEES

    • UnCivilServant

      Perhaps it would be better if people didn’t engage in these sorts of pointless activities.

      • mrfamous

        This is my usual reaction to voting

      • Atanarjuat

        Any system where my vote carries equal weight as persons who drive alone with surgical masks on is worse than pointless.

      • TARDis

        That’s okay, someone will for for you now.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Yup. Hiking while masked is a personal pet peeve.

      • Jarflax

        Don’t kink shame!

      • Not Adahn

        The day when people stop inventing or playing games in the comments will be the day this place stops being glibs and starts being DU.

      • leon

        Derp Uni?

      • Count Potato

        Democratic Underground, but same thing.

      • UnCivilServant

        How about games that can’t be found on all of the lowest dregs of the internet?

      • Not Adahn

        You know who else played stupid games?

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Chris Isaac?

      • Atanarjuat

        I LOLed.

      • Tres Cool

        that’s “Wicked Game” you silly Canuckian person

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Not the way I sing it!

      • UnCivilServant

        People who won stupid prizes?

      • Swiss Servator

        My homebrewing, gaming buddy once made “Two Sheep for One Wheat” witbier.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Depleted Uranium?

    • Mojeaux

      I was first the other day. Neener neener neener.

  3. Shpip

    “The company is exploring potential opportunities that will allow 21 Club to remain a viable operation in the long term, while retaining its distinctive character,” the spokeswoman said.

    Easy. Get non-fuckwits as mayor and governor.

    Oh…

    • WTF

      They are achieving their goal of widespread economic hardship that will get a majority of people to accept massive bailouts of blue states to save them from decades of fiscal mismanagement.

      • rhywun

        to save them from decades of fiscal mismanagement

        The fun part is it will do no such thing. The bailouts will be immediately pissed away on teachers, union hacks, welfare recipients, and other favored classes and the long-term financial disaster will be pushed at most a year or two into the future.

      • WTF

        Well, sure, but kicking the can down the road is all that politicians care about.

  4. Shpip

    Manchin says bipartisan $908B coronavirus bill coming Monday, urges compromise

    Hey, a trillion here, a trillion there… pretty soon we’re talking about real money.

    BTW, what programs are having their funding reduced or eliminated so that the money can go towards coronavirus relief?

    • Count Potato

      The worst thing about Trump losing, is that the only way out if this was massive deregulation.

  5. TARDis

    And what an absolutely lovely morning it always is!

    Can I have some of what you’re having?

  6. Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

    That cat doesn’t seem to mind. Good Kitteh!

    • Swiss Servator

      Oh, the cat minds…it is silently plotting murder.

      • AlexinCT

        Silently? Have you looked into those eyes? Manson looked saner..

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        After hell night you crush my feeble attempt at positivity. I had it coming as I was a surly cunte at work. Everyone was the same. That weird fellow left two turnips in my clean commode. No paper. I would have called him out on it but I apparently pissed off the nice Egyptian fellow as well. There were only three men in the plant at the time so I’m just going with Swizzy’s patented “Narrowed Gaze” from here on in…

  7. UnCivilServant

    New study found 80% of COVID patients have a vitamin D deficiency.

    I know, keep them indoors and away from sunlight.

    • Grosspatzer

      Looking for a gig as Cuomo’s health czar?

    • Not Adahn

      Mandatory tanning sessions! It will be a huge boost ot the economy and revive the struggling tanning-booth manufacturing sector!

      And then in a couple of decades we’ll see a surge in the number of melanoma pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs! Perpetual Economic Growth! Goverment PEGging ftw!

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      I have literally not been out in the sunshine for weeks. By the time I get up the sun has set on the Holler and it’s just coming up when I hit the hay. Our house is not optimum solar exposure.

      • CatchTheCarp

        I went for my annual checkup in November and my doc gave me a prescription for vitamin D. I take a pill one a week for 3 months and then I will need to have it checked again ever 90 days until my D level is >= 30. Once it hits that mark then I will take a pill once a month. Doc said I will probably need to do this the rest of my life. On the plus side this is the only prescription I currently take. On the down side my insurance will only pay for a 30 day script, (4 gel caps) at a time. Which I find strange. Once I get where I need to take it once a month I will need to have it refilled each month – 1 pill instead of 12 at one time. Which I find very stupid unless these vitamins have short shelf life.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        A scrip for Vitamin D? Are the pills colored blue and cost about fifty bucks apiece? I keed… I was thinking just the over-the- counter stuff. We have a ton of those nostrums in the house.

      • But Enough About My Pulsating, Geriatric Pecs

        I’m with Festus. A one-year’s supply of 1000IU/day pills can be had at Costco for around $4-$5 CDN. Cheap as chips.

      • Not Adahn

        Wow. Here in America, $5 will ony get you one big bag of chips, not a year’s supply.

      • UnCivilServant

        I think I only eat that many chips in a year.

      • CatchTheCarp

        These are 50,000 IU. Doc said once it gets up to where it needs to be I could take OTC D daily or the prescription strength 1 per month.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Now we know where Pie disappeared to.

      • LCDR_Fish

        My multivitamin has 125% Vit D (for adults) and plenty of other things.

      • CatchTheCarp

        I take a multivitamin once a day, too. Can’t say I drink much milk or get outside as much as I used to.

  8. Count Potato

    Wouldn’t a prison be one of the easiest places to keep out covid?

    ““The uncontested facts found here include that conditions in the jail do not permit proper social distancing, there is no mandatory testing of staff or asymptomatic detainees after intake, and no strictly enforced policy of requiring masks for all staff interaction with inmates,” Judge Wilson concluded.”

    So test the incoming inmates.

    • UnCivilServant

      …and visitors, and staff, and …

      More people are in and out of prisons than just prisoners.

      • Count Potato

        The visitors are behind glass. Staff are the same people, and can be tested. Not that I put much stock in the tests.

      • UnCivilServant

        Glass is not universal, and visitors need only infect staff to infect inmates.

        And shared support staff go to multiple insitutions (one of the jobs I didn’t get would have been IT support for DOCCS, and the post involved going to a number of facilities to fix issues on-site) Not to mention your normal delivery staff, etc.

        Add in the close contact required for searches, and social distancing is impossible.

      • Count Potato

        Then ban visitors. Why should prisoners have more privileges than people in hospitals.

      • Not Adahn

        Because prisoners are disproportionally from oppressed communities. Equity demands that we value their lives more than those of the oppressor classes.

      • Atanarjuat

        From my experience in county jail, you don’t have physical contact with your visitors. They are in an adjacent room, separated by glass, and you talk on the phone. However you are in the same room as the guards, who presumably go home at night and can get communicable diseases and bring them in. A better policy would be one that isolates the guards. Prison may be different.

      • Akira

        At the one where I worked for a while, the visitors and inmates were in a room sitting at tables.

        The only ones who were behind glass were those in “administrative segregation”.

      • mock-star

        UCS is correct. I work at a maximum security prison where we had a fairly nasty outbreak at the beginning of the epidemic. Our outbreak was traced back to a chaplain that serviced multiple prisons. (We also did in-person close contact visits, but they have been replaced by video visits for the forseeable future)

        Since that outbreak, we’ve been pretty good at keeping the infections down though. Mostly by limiting how many people from outside the institution can come into the institution.

    • Nephilium

      They can’t even keep drugs and cell phones out of prisons, why would you think they can keep a virus out?

      • UnCivilServant

        There’s nothing in it for the guards to smuggle the virus in.

      • UnCivilServant

        *or look the other way.

    • AlexinCT

      What is so bad about the people in prison getting it and helping us get closer to herd immunity? Or is the fear that unlike the old folks homes being killed off, prison inmates dying is a problem because it affects one’ party’s voters?

      • rhywun

        Blue cities and states started emptying out their prisons well before the plague arrived. This is just another spin on crisitunity.

  9. UnCivilServant

    Orange county sheriff is ordered to reduce the population of the county jail by 50%.

    Summary executions? Or bisecting prisoners?

    Oh, I know, a system-wide weight loss regemein.

  10. Tres Cool

    “New Study Found 80% of COVID-19 Patients Were Vitamin D Deficient”

    Finally that daily multi-vitamin comes in handy.

    • AlexinCT

      I have been telling people since forever that one of I am seriously suspecting the mandates to not get sunlight and eat so much salt are key reasons that help so many snowflakes feel depressed, and I am not surprised to discover a virus that likes people that lack vitamin D and the protection it gives.

    • Chipwooder

      Or a lifelong love of drinking milk

    • PutridMeat

      Interesting review of some of the Covid/Vitamin-D science.

      • PutridMeat

        Sorry, that was supposed to be to MrFamous below; I find the D/covid links compelling.

  11. mrfamous

    “New study found 80% of COVID patients have a vitamin D deficiency.”

    While interesting, I would wonder what the percentage is for the population as a whole and also the breakdown demographically. This may not be as well correlated as that stat would have you think.

    • Necron 99

      Right, everyone in my family was diagnosed with low vitamin D years ago. Neat thing is that everyone in my family is taking vitamin D supplements. Take that Rona.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Yep. When I think of old folks homes, sun exposure isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

    • Jarflax

      ^this!

    • Threedoor

      Bad in the north. Dark skinned people are worse off.

    • KOVIDKristen

      Over the summer, I obsessed about the amount of sun I was getting. Good thing for the drab days of winter is I drink a lot of milk and take a supplement.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Perhaps it would be better if people didn’t engage in these sorts of pointless activities.

    How droll.

  13. Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

    “Bipartisanship” is just something that two Parties on opposite sides of the aisle do when they love to spit-roast the taxpayer very, very much.

    • Fourscore

      Reaching across the aisle in high school might get your face slapped. And it hurts, too.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Ruefully massages knuckles rapped with yardsticks… My cohort was the last one that endured corporal punishment and look at how all the softies have turned out since 1970 or so. SCIENCE!

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        In fact, even though it was probably banned by then, we had to recite the Lord’s Prayer every morning, endure a Bible reading, gather around the Flagpole for the raising of the Maple Leaf and sing the anthem. It was a small farming town. The Principal of the school hung his strap on his office wall. We were about 1940 in 1970.

      • DrOtto

        “…hung his strap on…” heehee

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Roberts noted that the critical issues are “less about bed capacity and more about staff capacity,” particularly as staff get sick — including with COVID-19 — and must take time off, stretching other staff even thinner.

    If only we could convince them to wear their masks.

    • WTF

      Of course he’s conflating testing positive with getting sick. My nephew is on police force in the NY Metro area, and he’s been getting massive overtime because a huge percentage of the force is out with Covid. They are young healthy guys, and none of them actually feel sick, but they have to be out because they tested positive.

    • Plisade

      “must take time off”

      Must? Only according to an arbitrary policy, which can be changed at any time.

  15. Rufus the Monocled

    Greatest health scare in history.

    But here, infectious disease experts and other scientists screaming it’s a ‘calamitous’ virus as one moron did. He explained the vaccine was a marvel and proof man can achieve a lot when ‘their backs are against the wall’.

    Meanwhile world excess deaths are slightly above the norm. Wow. Calamitous.

  16. Certified Public Asshat

    I feel ya, lady.

    I love the 22 second mark when the guy trying to help her says fuck it and leaves her to keep flailing away.

    • CPRM

      Yes, that was the best part.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        She should have scootched like a dog on your favorite carpet. We were ice-fishing one time and it came to that.

  17. leon

    I had to fly this weekend and the flight attendants are enjoying their new policing Powers. Flight attendants, like many other highly regulated service industries, seems to be full of people seeking to arrest power over others rather than actually provide service.

    • Nephilium

      Providing service means that you need to realize that you are not the most important person in the interaction. It also means that you need to realize who is actually paying your wage. It’s that dumb mouthbreather who continues to click on the wrong damned thing while blaming the system…

    • AlexinCT

      If you had a job where you had to constantly deal with annoying assholish people, wouldn’t you get al high on the hog when somehow the chance came along to reverse the tredn and then you had the power to make them fucking miserable?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Whenever I hear the term “bipartisan consensus” my ass hurts.

    • TARDis

      And you have a funny taste in your mouth?

    • WTF

      NOW STEVE SMITH DEMONSTRATE BIPARTISAN CONSENSUS!!

  19. PieInTheSky

    There have been some 30 studies by now on the importance of vid D, both on covid and normal flu. But it don’t fit the narrative, if I am to go conspiracy about it.

    Also I read a lot of US supplements have D2 in them. Is that true? And if so why?

    • Rufus the Monocled

      It’s a scam and the narrative is exploding in their faces.

      But still too many people who still believe in masks.

      The son of a bitch premier Legault had the balls to say flu disappeared because we’re washing our hands and wearing masks.

      It’s astonishing the level of lies. AND NO ONE QUESTIONS IT.

    • Atanarjuat

      Maybe because we have a lot of African-descended high skin melanin concentration individuals living in places like NY and Minnesoda that are gloomy half the year.

      • invisible finger

        Funny that Romanians are getting more sunlight than African-Americans.

        *starts streaming Blacula

      • Atanarjuat

        They have fewer melanocytes in their pale, vampiric skin to absorb the UVB which would otherwise transform the precursor molecule into the usable form.

      • PieInTheSky

        what is this in answer to?

      • Atanarjuat

        “why do US vitamin supplements have vitamin d in them?”

      • PieInTheSky

        I never asked that question now did I? I asked why D2 as opposed to the much better D3 (if it is indeed D2)

      • Atanarjuat

        Oh, ok. No idea about that.

      • Not Adahn

        No specific knowledge, but when I was doing animal feed analaysis, the manufacturers would choose compounds that were a) more stable and b) gave a positive result on the analysis. So beta carotene for Vitamin A or (more notoriously) melamine for protein.

      • Count Potato

        Why is D3 better?

      • PieInTheSky

        it is better absorbed/processed by the human body.

        D3 is of animal origin, D2 is of vegetable origin and, as with most vitamins and minerals, the animal stuff is absorbed better.

        Like getting omega 3 from fish oil (good) vs flax (mostly pointless)

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        D2 is of vegetable origin

        Vegan multivites? I know they exist, but not much more than that.

      • Jarflax

        Pfft, D2 D3 none of it works as well as perineum tanning!

      • Threedoor

        Best to eat some animal fat when you take it too.

      • rhywun

        *shrugs* I have a couple bottles of multivitamins from two major brands and both contain D3.

      • Count Potato

        Mine also have D3.

      • banginglc1

        D2 was awful and should never have been made. D3, makes D2 look like a masterpiece.

      • Jarflax

        Still not as bad as Highlander 2, The Ruining.

      • Not Adahn

        There can be only one Highlander movie!

      • UnCivilServant

        So why did you pick “The Source”?

  20. Rufus the Monocled

    Boy oh boy this thing of Chicom troops on Canadian and American soil along the border and imminent war is getting louder in conspiracy circles.

    Wolverines?

    Ducks?

    Rabbits?

    Trudeau is one heckuva loser either way. And now with Biden poised to get in – unless what the conspiracists say is true who say that won’t happen – that’s two CCP sympathizers ruling the continent. Now Trudeau wants mail-in ballots. Takes a scammer to see a scam.Now Canadians wonder how an immensely unpopular turd who lost the popular vote by somewhat of a good margin could manage even a minority government.

    Paranoia abounds.

    Masks tend to do that.

    • WTF

      Just because you’re paranoid it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

      • UnCivilServant

        Just because they’re out to get you doesn’t mean you’re not paranoid.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        /John Nada squinted eyes.

    • rhywun

      You’d think that story would get more traction.

    • LCDR_Fish

      All the tweets I’ve seen about CCP training with Canuck military have been from 2018. (ie. before they arrested the Huawei CFO for breaking sanctions – pending extradition to the US) and relations took a nosedive (arresting and holding random Canadian citizens in China in retaliation, etc).

  21. Timeloose

    Good morning all,

    Banjos thanks for the reminder to take my D2 pill.

    • PieInTheSky

      have you considered D3 🙂

      • Aloysious

        ^This is the right answer.

        Huzzah!

      • Jarflax

        Everyone knows you roll resists with a D20

      • Threedoor

        Yep

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Boy oh boy this thing of Chicom troops on Canadian and American soil along the border and imminent war is getting louder in conspiracy circles.

    Que?

    • AlexinCT

      WOLVERINES!

      • Rebel Scum

        Speaking of movies in which Hollywood capitulated to China by changing the Chinese invaders to Norks (as if…LOL)…

    • Atanarjuat

      Trudeau apparently allowed the Chinese to engage in military exercises somewhere in America’s Hat.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        That’s true. The Canadian military was training low level Generals but nixed it drawing the ire of bureaucrats and Trudeau himself.

        Now there are claims that there are as many as 750k Chicom troops scattered across underground bunkers including Maine.

        And that Falcon jet fighter that crashed killing the pilot out of Truax was actually shot down.

        So they say.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        “I’m not saying it’s the Chi-Coms but it’s the Chi-coms!”

  23. Not Adahn

    New study found 80% of COVID patients have a vitamin D deficiency.

    Imma need to know what the rate of VitD deficiency is in the US population for that number to mean anything.

    Relatedly, NPR was crowing that 300k peeps have died from the ‘vid. Which is ~0.1% of the US population. One of you people who actually keep up with this remind me — what is the CFR for this again? To kill off 0.1% of the US wouldn’t we have to have most/all of the US infected?

      • UnCivilServant

        Paleness is an adaptation to absorb enough sunlight in these blighted, darker regions of the earth to have the same amount of Vitamin D as those darker skinned souls who get full sunlight in the tropical bands.

        You bring a full sunlight adapted person to the gloomy north, they’s gonna get rickets.

      • WTF

        Why hasn’t the commie cough been decimating Africa?

      • UnCivilServant

        A lot of people on anti-malarials, plus it gets beat up by all the much worse diseases that lurk there.

      • Atanarjuat

        If Vit D was a factor, they would be less likely to be deficient because they are receiving much more direct sun than their cousins who live in northern latitudes.

        Also Africa has a very young population compared to other continents and we know that age > 50 is the biggest risk factor.

      • UnCivilServant

        And to top it all off, they have enough problems that a bit of a cough isn’t going to make them change their behaviour.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        They got no time for some weak ass virus. They gotta find some food to eat.

      • robc

        Yep, Africa doesn’t have enough old people with obesity, basically.

      • mrfamous

        I’m assuming because life expectancy is such that something else kills you there before you become old enough for the ‘vid to become a major problem.

      • robc

        Yep, see link just above yours. Also places with high infectious disease deaths (which cross-correlates with not having high life expectancy) have lower covid rates.

      • Not Adahn

        So, estimated IFR of 0.11%.

        to get 300k dead, we’d need to infect 270M people. There are 320M americans. Which means 83% of Americans have been infected already, so we’re at herd immunity! Congratualtions everyone, it’s over!

      • WTF

        You forgot to factor in that a huge number of “Covid deaths” (likely a majority) weren’t actually primarily caused by Covid.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        +2 or more comorbidities

      • Not Adahn

        The point was that all of the numbers can’t possibly be true.

        The number of deaths could be inflated and/or the IFR is overestimated becasue it’s not as infectious as claimed.

      • mrfamous

        Something I haven’t seen talked about, how exactly are we counting the dead as “ours?” Both here in Arizona and also in places like El Paso, a whole bunch of people came across the border seeking medical treatment and I assume some non-trivial percentage of them died. Do they count as USA deaths or Mexico (or Guatemala or Honduras or wherever) deaths? If they count as USA deaths, how would that factor into the “excess death” analysis?

        These are honest questions I don’t know the answer to.

  24. PieInTheSky

    An essay on the ideological underpinnings of the fiction of Tolkien & C. S. Lewis that somehow manages not to mention the word ‘Christianity’ once.

    https://twitter.com/holland_tom/status/1338411495558959104

    this guy is really shilling is book Dominion

    • PieInTheSky

      “Children’s literature and the modern conception of childhood, both of which date only to the mid-18th century, have also always been implicitly bourgeois and raced white – making children’s culture particularly fertile ground for nostalgic returns to an enchanted, whitewashed past that celebrates long-held social hierarchies. ”

      “t is no coincidence that Oxford School-style fantasy – shaped by two men born in colonial settings (Tolkien in South Africa, Lewis in Ireland) who chose to live in England as adults – took root just as the British empire was coming to an end and Britain confronted a newly reduced role on the global stage. Such works unfold in a magical Middle Ages of youthful English power, bursting with globe-conquering potential. This earlier, fantastical setting allows most fantasy to avoid mentioning histories associated with settler colonisation and transatlantic slavery. But the genre regularly reinforces ideas of racial and moral white supremacy: we see this in Tolkien’s obsession with magical races and dismissal of the dark-skinned, southern-born human Haradrim as evil ‘half-trolls’ in The Lord of the Rings, as well as in Lewis’s orientalist characterisations of the Calormene people in The Chronicles of Narnia.”

      right… that’s what it is

      • PieInTheSky

        Basically Tolkien moved to England at age 3… And in his youth the British empire was not declining. And Tolkien was anti-imperialist and wanted a non imperial; England, because the damn Shire was not out colonizing shit. But besides that…

      • Not Adahn

        Tash! Tash! The great god Tash! Inexorable Tash!

      • Pine_Tree

        And Aravis Tarkheena didn’t marry Cor and become queen of Archenland or anything.

      • rhywun

        dismissal of the dark-skinned, southern-born human Haradrim as evil ‘half-trolls’ in The Lord of the Rings

        Not this shit again.

      • PieInTheSky

        Well, he’s linking to that article in criticism – yes but his book is about Christianity influencing most of western civ so when he says Christianity is not mentioned in the article I take it as shilling his book

      • leon

        I don’t know how you could argue that most of Western Civ isn’t influenced by Christianity.

      • PieInTheSky

        look just buy the damn book

    • Atanarjuat

      I wonder what the return on investment has been for all the money they have spent buying coverage in the Mail.

  25. Rufus the Monocled

    Gates is an autistic psychopath incapable of empathy. Why do they insist on interviewing this moronic asshole?

    And Melinda said in an interview they under estimated the price of lockdowns.

    These people lives in a bubble within a bubble. They’re not in reality. I think they really do see earth as a playground. They’re the cats and people are the yarns.

    It’s insufferable patronizing personified.

    • Chipwooder

      They view the real world as their own person version of Sim City

  26. The Late P Brooks

    There have been some 30 studies by now on the importance of vid D, both on covid and normal flu. But it don’t fit the narrative, if I am to go conspiracy about it.

    How much does a daily dose of Vit D cost? Is there an enforceable patent in force?

    *looks over top of glasses*

    • PieInTheSky

      Well I take about 5k UI a day in winter. In Romania you can get it for about 15 USD for 150 capsules for a decent brand

      • Surly Knott

        Likewise. Roughly $26 for a 5 month supply. This is for 2k capsules as the 5k have become unobtainium this year. 2 one day, 3 the next, it works out.
        It’s a straightforward blood test so if anyone is concerned, or curious, ask your doctor to include it in your next blood work. Or just ask for it and suffer the blood draw. Medicare covers it 3 times a year, fwiw.

  27. LJW

    “Hospitals not overwhelmed”

    We still have 30% of ICU beds open in Kansas. Cases are on downward trend and hospitalizations have stabilized. We never got the “Thanksgiving surge”. Looking at the surrounding midwest states and the trend appears to be the same with exception to Arkansas. But we’re flyover states, fear is based on New York and California. Which have skyrocketing rates and the strictest lockdowns. Hmmm it’s almost as though lockdowns don’t work.

    • Drake

      “rates” of positive tests. I know somebody who was hospitalized for pneumonia. Tested for covid 7 times. 2 positive, 5 negative. The doctors have no idea whether he has it or not. I’m sure the 2 positive tests will be tossed into the total cases to keep NJ shut down.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        The positive tests compound the problem with hospitalization data too. Every person that checks into the hospital that is symptomatic (i.e. runny nose, sore throat) is tested for Covid to make sure that if they are positive, they are separated from the at risk population and the nursing and physician staff know when to allow visitation and non essential staff in the room/area. Without hesitation I would guess that 50% of positive covid hospitalizations are non covid related and 25% of icu covid hospitalizations are non covid related. This is anecdotal but having a wife that is pediatric nurse working in a major university hospital, I’d bet money on it.

      • Rebel Scum

        It’s almost like the tests are completely unreliable and the numbers are wrong and irrelevant because it is a cold/flu virus going around just like every other cold/flu virus and it cannot be distinguished. Fellas, I think we are being lied to.

  28. Count Potato

    “Republicans say Americans should have been told about Hunter Biden’s taxes back in 2019 as it’s revealed his attorneys have REFUSED to cooperate with Congress

    A Republican senator who has spent a year looking into the business affairs of the Biden family has said that Congress should have been informed that Hunter Biden was being investigated over his taxes before they considered whether to impeach Donald Trump.

    Ron Johnson, representing Wisconsin, also claimed on Saturday that Hunter’s attorneys ‘have refused to cooperate with the committees.’.

    Hunter Biden, 50, said in a statement on Wednesday that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware is investigating his ‘tax affairs’ and that he is taking the matter ‘very seriously’ and is ‘confident’ he handled his affairs ‘legally and appropriately.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9049897/Republicans-says-voters-Congress-known-Hunter-Bidens-emails-2019.html

    You might have noticed the Biden campaign didn’t bring up the impeachment.

    • PieInTheSky

      What difference, at this point, etc

      • CPRM

        Don’t know if you said that because you ‘membered, but Johnson is who She was responding to when She said that.

      • PieInTheSky

        obviously I don’t remembered that, most US political creatures are the same to me

      • AlexinCT

        Crooks?

        That’s all political creatures…

      • PieInTheSky

        you’ve seen one asshole you seen them all

      • Not Adahn

        So you’re saying never got to a Romanian proctologist?

      • Jarflax

        Someone has never seen Goatse

    • CPRM

      Ron Johnson, representing Wisconsin, also claimed on Saturday that Hunter’s attorneys ‘have refused to cooperate with the committees.’.

      Hey Ron? Did you subpoena them? If so, and they didn’t comply, it’s on you for not forcing them to comply. That’s an actual legit use of government power.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    The teevee is droning in the background.

    Those poor poor Top Men Central Bankers are frustrated and sad. They want to fix the economy, but the economy won’t let them. And when will politicians grow a spine and helicopter another 2 or 3 or 10 billion dollars into the Fortune 100? It’s a tragedy.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    We never got the “Thanksgiving surge”.

    They all died before they could get to the hospital.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    “Billions”

    Haha, I’m so provincial. Trillions it is! Excelsior!

  32. PieInTheSky

    I was never a fan of Nassim Taleb, although I thought he said occasionally interesting things. But I lost all respect for the guy this pandemic. Zero intellectual integrity and no principles whatsoever.

  33. leon

    Think it’s time we faced it. Letting everyone but me vote was a mistake.

    • Jarflax

      Executive Order 1: All prior executive orders are rescinded. Executive Order 2: Hiring freeze across all Federal agencies. Executive Order 3: Formation of a committee made up of Austrian school economists to reduce the CFR to under 1000 pages total within 4 years. Then I move on to pardons. Any unbalanced budget or continuing resolution will be vetoed.

      • leon

        You’ve got my Vote so far

      • The Last American Hero

        I’d go the fireside chat route. A weekly show where I’d read each EO, point out that it isn’t authorized in the Constitution, call out the guy who wrote it, mock the supine congress, and toss the EO into the fireplace.

  34. Count Potato

    “75 infected with COVID-19 after Santa visits nursing home in Belgium

    Santa Claus spread more than good cheer at a nursing home in Belgium — with his visit leaving at least 75 people infected with COVID-19, according to local TV.

    The alleged super-spreading St. Nick was one of the first to fall sick after his visit to the Hemelrijck care home in Antwerp just over a week ago, followed by 61 elderly residents and 14 staff, officials told VRT.”

    https://nypost.com/2020/12/14/75-infected-with-covid-19-after-santa-visits-nursing-home/

    Sad.

    • CPRM

      Just because he was the first to get sick doesn’t necessarily mean he was the first one to have the virus, but whatevs, can’t do contact tracing based on logic. (didn’t RTFA, maybe they give more proof, don’t really care)

    • Rufus the Monocled

      “….and er…ahem….that’s how Santa Claus became, erm, S-S-Santa…cough Covid…” /Bob Newhart closes children’s Christmas book.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        ^HA!

    • Agent Cooper

      Maybe the resident wished for death for Christmas?

  35. Count Potato

    “Suspected Russian hackers broke into US federal agencies and spied on emails in a ‘highly sophisticated’ cyberattack

    Suspected Russian hackers have infiltrated several key parts of the US government, including the Treasury and Commerce departments, in a “highly-sophisticated” and large-scale cyber attack which took place over several months.

    The security breaches were so alarming that they prompted the National Security Council to meet on Saturday, Reuters reported and came less than a week after the National Security Agency warned that “Russian state-sponsored actors” were exploiting weak spots in a computer system used by US federal agencies.

    “This is a much bigger story than one single agency,” a source familiar with the attack told Reuters.

    “This is a huge cyber espionage campaign targeting the US government and its interests.””

    https://www.businessinsider.com/suspected-russian-hackers-infiltrated-us-agencies-spy-on-emails-2020-12

    • leon

      After 2016, I want the proof that it was Russians.

      Besides, if they aren’t doing anything wrong, why should they be worried? Right?

      • rhywun

        Meanwhile our universities, industries, and government back-offices are brimming with CCP spies and nobody gives a shit.

      • prolefeed

        Are you a spy if you’re operating in the open and not disguising your agenda?

      • LCDR_Fish

        Pretty sure it’s all linked to software and IP tracking – a lot of cyber attacks have “literal” fingerprints that can be tied to groups/orgs/military units/etc. (at least the way the IC tracks them – fwiw)

    • Rebel Scum

      But internet-connected voting machines are untouchable.

  36. leon

    Just found out someone I worked with all last week, had covid. Won’t be told who, just that I was working with them.

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      So like an Agatha Christie novel? Ooooh, fun! Button, button! Who has the Button?

    • rhywun

      Vacations for everybody!

      • LCDR_Fish

        Getting ready to go back to work tomorrow. Been at home since they sent us home on the 1st. The guy who had it said he had some chills/shaking/etc the first couple of days, haven’t heard any negative updates and none of the other folks who did get tested (for family reasons) have reported positive tests since then. The rest of us were told not to get tested unless we had symptoms. At least this one-off was paid/covered by the contract.

  37. Pope Jimbo

    Minnesoda’s restaurant insurrection continues with 200 more businesses saying they will open this Wednesday.

    Nice journolising in the story. The bar that has defied all orders to shut had a judge suspend its liquor license, but the reporter forgot to mention whether they obeyed the judge or if they stayed open.

    The state of Minnesota on Sunday suspended the liquor license of Boardwalk Bar & Grill in East Grand Forks, Minn., for continuing dine-in service in defiance of Gov. Tim Walz’s executive order.

    The suspension, announced by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, came just days after a Polk County court closed the bar to on-site dining, despite the owner’s insistence on keeping the doors open.

    Judge Corey Harbott on Friday granted Attorney General Keith Ellison’s motion for a temporary restraining order to prohibit the bar and grill to continue sit-down service.

    Like Pravda, you have to read into what wasn’t said I guess. I think if they had shut down, the reporter would have mentioned it. Similar to my thinking on why that story doesn’t have comments enabled. I think that the paper is worried that despite their best efforts to parrot the DFL narrative, the readers might not go along with it and post bad think stuff.

      • Pope Jimbo

        It will be interesting to see if Walz will try to extend his lockdown if the peasants are already revolting.

        Given that the East Grand Forks cops told Walz to enforce his own lockdown orders, there may be a lot of flop sweat in the Gov’s Mansion this week. Who wants to be the governor of the state where the revolution kicks off. Those fancy pants govs from the East Coast will really give him noogies at the next Gov’s Conference if he can’t keep his rubes under control.

        Especially with cases and hospitalizations plummeting. And the T-Giving Apocalypse never materialized.

      • Tundra

        He’ll try but if the Red Star is accurate and 200 restaurants open, he’s done.

        I’ve also been keeping an eye on the recall operation.

      • UnCivilServant

        “And the graveyard vote is in… The recall effort has been defeated in a landslide.”

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The zombie caucus is very progressive, it is known.

        I might have that backwards.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Won’t be told who, just that I was working with them.

    Sounds legit.

    We wouldn’t want them to be shunned or ostracized, would we? And we certainly wouldn’t want it to be known that they had no symptoms at all.

    • Count Potato

      HIPAA

  39. Rufus the Monocled

    Question: The D’s in Flintstones vitamins mean Dino, right?

  40. PieInTheSky

    An exquisite Roman marble bust of Germanicus (15 BC-AD 19); nephew of Tiberius, brother of Claudius, father of Caligula and grandfather of Nero – the most popular prince and best-loved military commander of the early imperial era. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

    https://twitter.com/OptimoPrincipi/status/1338101657620590598

    “The one blot on the otherwise perfect proportions of his form,” so Suetonius reports: “his spindly legs.”

    So he skipped leg day it seemed, but when you have a pretty face it don;t matter.

  41. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

    The vitamin D thing has been widely reported everywhere else in the world. And still, our betters haven’t said word one about supplementing D, losing weight and getting yourself more covid-resistant. It’s almost like they don’t really give a fuck about us!

    I feel kinda bad for the slipping lady, but still laughed my ass off. Those in the know are better prepared.

    Last real week of the year, people. Let’s get something done, huh?

  42. The Late P Brooks

    The state of Minnesota on Sunday suspended the liquor license of Boardwalk Bar & Grill in East Grand Forks, Minn., for continuing dine-in service in defiance of Gov. Tim Walz’s executive order.

    Without a license they cannot operate! That license is a magic spell, and without it, nothing works.

    • Nephilium

      During the initial shutdowns here, when bars could only offer takeout (but could do to-go cocktails and drinks), a downtown bar got cited for allowing people to stay and drink. It turns out that the bar’s liquor license had expired a couple of years back.

  43. Pope Jimbo

    I have to say I’m torn about a spate of stories here in Minnesoda where the ACLU is suing prisons because they won’t let prisoners out for “home arrest” during the Rona panic

    On one hand, I think we do have way too many people locked up. Especially for victimless crimes. I’d love to see those people let out of prison.

    On the other hand, I’m sure the ACLU is doing this for all the dumb reasons it can find. It also annoys me that this type of suit makes it seem as if getting the Rona is a death sentence for those poor prisoners. In the story I linked 2/3 of the prisoners got the Rona and no one died.

    • leon

      Has ACLU metamoprhized fully and jumped on the hate speech isn’t free speech train?

      • Not Adahn

        Sort of. They claim no, but won’t represent hate speechifiers anymore.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Last I heard a bunch of the low level young lawyers at the ACLU signed some statement saying not all speech deserves protection.

    • The Other Kevin

      Those prisoners just want to work from home like the rest of us.

      • AlexinCT

        Actually those involved in breaking & entry crimes want to “work” from other people’s homes….

  44. Pope Jimbo

    Who is more futile? The woman on the ice? Or Dan Bailey kicking for the Vikes?

    Uffda.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Maybe they should hire the chick from Vanderbilt.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Lol.

    • hayeksplosives

      Yeah, that was uncharacteristic of him. He’s either injured or he has the tips, which is worse.

      As the great Adam Vinatieri said, “There aren’t 32 NFL caliber place kickers in the NFL.”

      He also advised all new kickers “Keep your duffel bags packed, because you could be out of a job in one game.”

      • Pope Jimbo

        Zimmer as coach doesn’t help. His oafish attitude (the only real players are on defense) is a problem. That Carlson kid that he berated and fired after only one game is now one of the league’s most accurate.

        I hope that they keep Bailey because I want the Vikes to tank and get a good QB in the draft.

        With my loser aura, I’m sure the Vikes will get hot at the end of the year and somehow get to the Super Bowl as our idiot governor puts another lockdown in place banning all SB parties.

      • Nephilium

        So… Browns/Vikings Super Bowl?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Vikings vs. Bills

        First tie ever to be called after 18 OT’s

      • rhywun

        I’m wondering how anyone involved with the Jets still has a job.

      • Nephilium

        Join us in the perfect 0-16 season club! Of course, I doubt you’ll be able to have a parade to celebrate it.

      • Jarflax

        On the bright side I think they are still allowed paper grocery bags.

      • Nephilium

        We’ve got them up here in the CLE. Both paper and plastic came back during the ‘vid, which shows how important the turtles and reusable bags are.

      • Jarflax

        You missed my joke. You wear the bag on your head when you go Ohfer. They have been fan gear in CLE and DET most of my life.

  45. prolefeed

    There are two kinds of voting:

    1) The political kind, where you cast a ballot among a choice of unacceptable candidates, who won’t do what they promise to do, and your vote is almost certain not to be the deciding vote. This is the equivalent of trying to drive a car, where the person to your left (in the U.S.) has a real steering wheel and pedals, and you have a fake steering wheel that isn’t connected to anything.

    The fake steering wheel makes about about half of the populace feel better, because spinning the wheel gives them the illusion of control over events and sometimes “their” person wins.

    2) The economic kind, where you vote by buying something and get precisely what you ordered, and the people you buy from get rewarded for working hard to figure out what you want and provide those goods and services, and the people you don’t buy from get punished for not doing a good enough job. Or where you vote with your feet, moving away from onerous governments to less onerous ones.

    These purchases generally make every party to this willing transaction feel better, because they’re actually better off.

    • AlexinCT

      Whomever casts the votes is deluded into believing their vote counted. As Stalin pointed out, all that counts is how the vote counters see things play out.

  46. The Other Kevin

    There are some tough things going on in my life (as in everyone’s life right now), but that greeting at the top of the links always makes me smile. Good morning, Banjos.

    • hayeksplosives

      I hear that, brother.

      Sometimes the cheery reminder from Banjos that it’s a glorious day is a nice attitude adjustment before even rolling out of bed.

      Thanks, Banjos!

      I hope things work out for you, Kevin

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        #methree. I’m usually about 7-8 beers in and feeling mighty low by the time her links arrive. Always makes me feel a little positivity before nap time. Thanks, Banjos!

  47. The Other Kevin

    Add a pair of crutches and that lady falling could be me any given winter.

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      That’s me and I don’t have any excuse for it except bad footwear and vertigo.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    I was beginning to think we’d been deplatformed.

    • UnCivilServant

      Aren’t we already on the ground floor?

      • TARDis

        Nowhere to go but up, eh? Or, we could start digging.

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, we did just get a new backhoe…

      • TARDis

        Well fire her up and see how big a hole you can make.

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s why we need to keep Facebook and Twitter going. Let everyone fight over that, meanwhile nobody realizes our little corner of the Internet exists.

  49. Semi-Spartan Dad

    A judge just cleared release of the forensic audit of Dominion machines used in Antrim County, Michigan. There has already been evidence presented of the Dominion machines ability to change vote counts, including printing out new ballots to match (no conspiracy theory… it’s in the instruction manual), but this would be the conclusive in-depth evidence that I think many have been waiting for. Or they are full shit and there’s nothing to see. Either way, it’ll be good to know.

    Some weird aspects of this audit:
    -The Michigan Secretatry of State got a judge to issue an emergency gag order to prevent the release of the audit results. That has just been lifted.
    -The Michigan Bar threatened the lawyer presenting the audit with an investigation into a past case.
    -The Michigan AG threatened lawyers who file actions questioning the election results with loss of license to practice in Michigan.

    Regardless of the audit results, the lack of transparency and threats from gov officials to private citizens is deeply concerning.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Some weird aspects of this audit:

      The gag order is the only remotely reasonable one on that list. The rest are pure mafioso intimidation tactics.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It would be so easy to prove or disprove. Take 1K votes unambiguously marked for Trump, the same for Biden, and run them through. If there aren’t a thousand for each there’s an issue. It’d take what, half a day?

      • Urthona

        I like how they postponed it until ec election day.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Funny how all of those benefit one side though.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeesh, I jumped the gun and responded too soon. I see the audit’s been done already. Nevermind…

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Possibly, one issue if that many of the machines were connected to the internet. It’s possible to remotely reset the algorithm after counting to show proper counts. It’s insanity that these machines were used for our elections.

      • Urthona

        I think that’s not exactly true but i can’t get to the bottom of it.

    • Rebel Scum

      The Michigan Secretatry of State got a judge to issue an emergency gag order to prevent the release of the audit results

      Like putting cardboard up to prevent the counting being visible this is all that is necessary to believe there is fraud. No transparency means fraud. The end.

    • hayeksplosives

      Ugh . “Commonsense” as an adjective for a set of shit policies the government wants to pass is becoming as great a trigger for me as “greater good “ and “bipartisan.”

      • The Other Kevin

        I also stopped reading at “commonsense”. Another one that grates on me is “on the rise.”

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      I’m already there. Chinstrap unless within give or take 20″ feet of anyone else. Lots of narrowed gazes but hey, who scrubs your toilet, dullard?

    • Idle Hands

      The last couple of weeks have been pretty demoralizing. It’s fairly apparent and has been for a while none of this is going away until we are all in the poor house or real violent push back occurs. I’ve talked to multiple state employees who have been having budget meetings and to a man they all say things are incredibly dire. I guess the feds are just going to bail these people out after they’ve eradicated the class that pays for everything. I honestly have no idea how these people imagine the new future they are creating is going to pay for the current fiscal situation. The people that keep the lights on and pay the tax bills are the ones getting it in the ass the hardest right now.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Bezos is doing fine. We have an unprecedented amount of cartage running through. We are swamped by at least three times last year.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Have some pathetic simpering

    The election of Donald Trump in 2016 made many of us fear for American self-government. But the election of Biden in 2020 hasn’t provided the relief we’d hoped for — not yet, at least. That’s probably because thousands of Americans are dying every day from the coronavirus, a disaster that grows more tragic with each passing moment, but also because, while the Electoral College vote should be the functional end of the 2020 presidential election, it almost certainly isn’t. There are still cards for Trump and his allies to play, and it is clear they’ll be playing those cards right up to noon on Inauguration Day.

    These people are mentally unbalanced. A good dose of a lethal disease is just what I’d recommend.

    • prolefeed

      while the Electoral College vote should be the functional end of the 2020 presidential election, it almost certainly isn’t

      Citation needed. Clearly, SCOTUS isn’t going to hear any challenges to the election results, much less invalidate any EC elector slates. There’s nothing left for Trump to do but jam through as much pen and phone stuff as he can before January 20th.

      • rhywun

        Which H/B will immediately revoke with their pen and phone and cheerfully compliant judges.

    • Rebel Scum

      The election of Donald Trump in 2016 made many of us fear for American self-government.

      I would say I can’t imagine why but then I remember that there is a massive propaganda machine that purports itself to be “news”.

      But the election of Biden in 2020 hasn’t provided the relief we’d hoped for

      Might have something to do with the apparent election fraud.

  51. Rebel Scum

    Manchin says bipartisan $908B coronavirus bill coming Monday, urges compromise

    Compromise so we all get fucked.

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      Read above. “spit-roast”

    • TARDis

      Compromise so we all the millennials and GenZ get fucked.

      Not my problem. I don’t plan on being here when the bill comes due.

      If I could have a one-way time machine with a giant popcorn dispenser, I’d bid you all adieu and skip to the ending.

      • TARDis

        Oy, that sounds a bit suicidal. I’m okay! I’m okay!

  52. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Looks like the ATF has begun seriously begun going after 80 percent lowers and those who purchased them (actually a specific build kit):

    https://youtu.be/BOuhmm87WE0

    Not good at all.

    • leon

      And y’all think i’m dramatic for saying that Trump has been the best thing for Gun Control since Ronald Regan. Fuck that guy. At least with Biden in office we might see some token pushback from the big players, rather than pathetic rolling over.

  53. Rebel Scum

    New study found 80% of COVID patients have a vitamin D deficiency.

    I wonder why. Also, nothing to see here. Move along.

    (This reminds me that I forgot to take my daily vitamin. Dammit…)

  54. Mad Scientist

    Family kicked off flight because 2 year old refused to wear a mask.

    I don’t care what United’s reasons were. Kicking 2-year-olds off airplanes deserves a standing ovation.

    • hayeksplosives

      I would pay more for a no- kids flight but there doesn’t seem to be adequate demand.

      I’ve flown once this year, in July. Mask compliance by kids, even way older, 15 or so, was abysmal in both the gate areas and the planes. It’s a token gesture.

      • Mad Scientist

        I’m going to start my own no-kids airline. With blackjack. And hookers.

      • DrOtto

        BYOB – Bring your own blow?

    • Idle Hands

      While I agree I also subscribe to the philosophy of whatever means to destroy United as a business entity is available I think we should take it. They are a truly a horrific organization replete with total sociopaths at ever level.

  55. hayeksplosives

    I’m disappointed Tulsi chose not to run for her seat. I know (as no doubt did she) that she’d never win her party’s nomination for higher office, but I’d hoped she’d stick around bringing up topics that would otherwise not even be discussed. She’d be like Rand Paul in that sense. Never going to be enough of a party guy to win, but enough to influence the debates.

    Tulsi even backs keeping trans women from competing with biological females in school sports.

    Wonder what she’ll do next,

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      Wonder Woman?

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Ehh, Tulsi is to the left of Stalin and Mao on government control of the economy. Banning of firearm ownership for citizens. I believe she also wanted to eviscerate the 1st Amendment to allow prosecutions for hate speech.

      Her stance on boys participating in girl sports and getting out of foreign wars doesn’t make her ideal socialist utopia any less tyrannical.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Oh I know that. I was just making a funny about how conservatives give her a pass because she’s attractive and stands up to the Rhee’ers from time to time.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        If a marxist gets this much positive attention from the right simply for not being woke and not being a warmonger, this entire country is well past fucked.

      • R C Dean

        Narrator: The entire country is well past fucked.

    • Rebel Scum

      Wonder what she’ll do next

      Unfortunately it won’t be me.

  56. Pope Jimbo

    Good news!

    I saw some people out on local lakes fishing this weekend. Talked to one guy who looked like he was pretty chubby and he said there was about 3″ of ice out there. Still a bit iffy for me, but by next weekend I think I’ll be out there.

    • Tundra

      Neighbor just bought one of those monster Ice Castles. That must need a couple feet before it’s safe.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Buy or build? Sounds interesting.

      • Tundra

        They are pretty nice.

        You can customize them, too.

        No sure what model he has, but it’s one of the dual axle RV ones.

      • UnCivilServant

        Do I have to take it out on the Ice, or can I just use it as an RV?

      • Tundra

        That’s the point. Year round use.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Lots of guys use them that way. You see them in a lot of deer camps.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Old Farmer says 15-20″ and he should be good.

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      We used to skate on the pond when there was less than two but we were kids. Mind you, an errant pass that approached the beaver lodge was a puck lost. Even we weren’t that stupid. The only person that ever drowned was some drunken fellow that went swimming in the summer.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I had a classmate in high school who put two trucks through the ice trying to cut across a lake from a bar to his house. He’d forget that the direct route went across ice that was thin from a river coming in.

        Both times he got out of the truck, ran the rest of the way home and then when he was nice and sober the next day tell his dad about his misfortune. His family was a big time welding shop and other metal fabrications, so they’d go out with some jacks and what not and haul his truck out themselves without involving the cops or DNR.

  57. Count Potato

    “I wonder if there are implications to the fact that [Joe Biden] gets his information from a news app curated by a corporation that tries to “avoid portraying China in a poor light””

    https://twitter.com/DanielMKishi/status/1338274974575058945

  58. The Late P Brooks

    We must destroy democracy in order to save it

    In short, material conditions in this country have not been this bad since 1932 at least, and the political situation has not been this bad since 1860. The logical endgame of the rapidly-accelerating Republican attempt to destroy democracy while the country burns would be civil war — if it weren’t for the high probability that Democratic leaders would be too cowardly to fight.

    But it’s worth thinking about what a party seriously committed to preserving democracy would do when faced with a seditious opposition party — namely, cut them out of power and force them to behave. Democrats could declare all traitors ineligible to serve in national office, convene a Patriot Congress composed solely of people who have not committed insurrection against the American government, and use that power to re-entrench democracy.

    What better way to demonstrate our love of, and respect for, the will of the people than to disenfranchise everyone who disagrees with us?

    Raving lunatics, desperate to impose their will by hook or by crook.

    • leon

      Patriot Congress composed solely of people who have not committed insurrection against the American government, and use that power to re-entrench democracy.

      I’ve said it many times, but “Constitutional Crisis” has been a thing of vouge on the Left which they thin mean “This is a crisis to the constiution can’t handle, so we need to throw it out to fix the situation in order to save it”.

    • leon

      But it is funny to see the left slowly realize that Trump was a symptom, not the cause, and that the Populist Right is here to stay, and trying to cope with that.

    • Gustave Lytton

      And complete progjection. There’s one party that’s largely made up of anti-Americans, openly hostile to American traditions and values and rights, and compromised by foreign powers and institutions…

      • leon

        As seen on Twitter: I Guess this is what being colonized feel’s like.

    • rhywun

      material conditions in this country have not been this bad since 1932 at least

      wut

      • leon

        You don’t remember all cars and iphones and refrigerators and modern medicine that they had in 1931?

    • Rebel Scum

      the rapidly-accelerating Republican attempt to destroy democracy

      *rolls eyes*

      composed solely of people who have not committed insurrection against the American government

      Considering Democrats are engaging in insurrection…

  59. Count Potato

    “Omar, Tlaib, Sarsour to headline Georgia Senate event as Warnock fights anti-Semitism claims

    CAIR-Georgia sponsors virtual ‘vote-a-thon’ to boost Muslim turnout in runoff election

    Democrat Raphael Warnock was already struggling to beat back allegations of anti-Semitism, and then Linda Sarsour and Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib jumped into the Georgia Senate election picture.

    The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] plans to hold Sunday evening a virtual “vote-a-thon” aimed at encouraging Georgia Muslims to vote in the Jan. 5 run-off elections, an event featuring the Democratic congresswomen as well as Ms. Sarsour.

    All three have expressed support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment cause, and all three have been embroiled in recent years in headline-grabbing anti-Semitism controversies. All three deny being anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish.”

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/dec/13/linda-sarsour-ilhan-omar-rashida-tlaib-star-raphae/

    I’m having Ted Nugent headline my pro-vegan rally.

    • leon

      Meanwhile GOP goes with 45-D chess move and tells people to “NOT VOTE”.

  60. Rebel Scum

    PA restaurant refuses to shutdown after indoor dining ban.

    Good.

    Orange county sheriff is ordered to reduce the population of the county jail by 50%.

    Force businesses to close and let criminals out. Seems legit.

    Billionaire wants to continue to hurt small businesses until 2022.

    It’s almost like that is the point.

    Hospitals not overwhelmed.

    I have been told repeatedly by the media that hospitals are near breaking point because of the scamdemic. Of course, no evidence is provided.

  61. leon

    I saw a leaked talking point for Joe Biden re: Hunter Biden.

    “I didn’t know about this until i didn’t see it on the news”

  62. Count Potato

    “Lots of people are sharing this article in which Rod Liddle says the one thing stopping him from becoming a teacher was “I could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids.””

    https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1338127894804115456

    It’s from 2012, but WTF?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      He’s a Brit journalist who worked for the BBC. I would have been surprised if he weren’t a kiddy-diddler.

  63. Count Potato

    “Sinister sounds: podcasts are becoming the new medium of misinformation

    While social networks are clamping down on dangerous content, podcasting is giving it a largely unmoderated platform

    Yet the role of podcasts in the information ecosystem has gone largely unexamined. While alt-right figures have been increasingly chased off Facebook and Twitter, podcasting is shaping up as the next arena where the fight over questionable or dangerous content will play out. However, the problem of how to moderate audio content is proving thorny.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/dec/12/sinister-sounds-podcasts-are-becoming-the-new-medium-of-misinformation

    Journalists against freedom of the press.

    • leon

      Just make them get a broadcasters license like the radio shows and putt them under FCC control. THERE WILL BE NO DEVIATION!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This isn’t going to end well.

      • Tejicano

        Hell, it hasn’t been going particularly well for some time now. I’m not sure how the end state could be expected to be much of an improvement.

    • Ownbestenemy

      People just talking is sinister for these people. They want their gatekeeper status.

      • leon

        I used to think “These journalists are gonna get bitten on the rear for this kind of censorship behaviour”.

        But now i realized that journalists like Glenn Greenwald and others have already been bitten by this. The remaining group that continues to advocate for it will never feel those consequences, because they are propogandists who will always be pushing the government line, and so never be censored.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They’re not going to stop until they are forced to. And by the time it gets to that, it is going to be highly unpleasant.

      • kbolino

        A few will get bitten, like Greenwald, and they will get expelled from the body. As long as they bring in fresh new idiots faster than the people who begin to comprehend what they’re doing get driven out, it won’t matter.

  64. LJW

    What’s going on with the internet today. Multiple Google sites were down this morning. I’m having issues with Microsoft programs. And this site is well… It’s being it’s normal self.

    • Jarflax

      Step one in the Chinese invasion from Canada! Shut down communication channels. Step 2 is to seize the financial and political centers.

      Unfortunately for them step 3 is round up privately owned firearms.

  65. Rebel Scum

    Found my exception to this arbitrary crap.

    E. Face Covering – Exceptions

    1. While eating or drinking; ….

    4. Any person who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise
    unable to remove the face covering without assistance; …

    7. Persons with health conditions or disabilities that prohibit wearing a face covering.
    Nothing in this Order shall require the use of a face covering by any person for whom
    doing so would be contrary to his or her health or safety because of a medical condition.
    Adaptations and alternatives for individuals with health conditions or disabilities should
    be considered whenever possible to increase the feasibility of wearing a mask or to
    reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading if it is not possible to wear one.

    Always have a cup of coffee or something. And since my sinuses are eternally fucked no mask for me.

    • Claypoolsreservoir

      Poll: Who’s getting the Vax?

      • But Enough About My Pulsating, Geriatric Pecs

        Not moi. I’m not into unnecessary gene therapy.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        Are you Terry Crews?

      • LemonGrenade

        I’ll wait to see if there are any flipper babies, first.

      • leon

        ^^^ There is a certain age where the unknown long-term consequences of the Vaccine outweigh the benefits of getting it.

        That age is probably somewhere between 45-60 years old, depending on the preferences of the individual. What you will see is lots of young people not getting the vaccine, and then, becuase they typically lack political power, getting fucked over for the Boomers who remain in power. See also “Affordable Health Insurance”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Absolutely

        When effective prophylactics and therapeutics exist, there is no reason for those not a significant risk to take a vaccine with non-established long-term side effects.

      • LemonGrenade

        Love that movie so much. “The nipples of mother hope have run dry.”

      • Rebel Scum

        Not me.

    • Count Potato

      I don’t think anything is going to change anyone’s mind on either side.

      • Drake

        Both parties are close to coming apart. The disgusting neo-cons at National Review are absolutely despised by most Republican voters and their circulation has fallen off worse than Reason’s. Biden is walking into a civil war between Democrats – he wants another crony corrupt relatively moderate Clinton or Obama administration while the radicals want a communist revolution.

      • Urthona

        Yeah there’s at least two Never Trumpers at NR who are annoying as fuck.

        Regardless, this guy is pretty much the best at this type of analysis out there and he’s not wrong.

      • Drake

        Evidence.

        Dominion forensic audit.

  66. robc

    Baseball Birthdays: HoFer Craig Biggio, Bill Buckner, Ken Hill, Scott Hatteburg, and John Anderson (not the 1980 prez candidate).

    • Gustave Lytton

      RIP Bill Buckner. Got to see legend live when he coaching for the Hawks only a few years ago.

  67. robc

    I have had a Vitamin D deficiency in the past, I should probably start taking them again, just in case.

    • PieInTheSky

      The best way is in suppository form

      • Nephilium

        So, stick it where the sun don’t shine?

      • Count Potato

        LOL

    • Mojeaux

      #metoo

      I keep telling myself I’ll go spend time in the sun, and then my glow-in-the-dark skin objects.

  68. The Late P Brooks

    Just make them get a broadcasters license like the radio shows and putt them under FCC control. THERE WILL BE NO DEVIATION!

    “Where is your Authorization to Operate, issued by the Ministry of Truth, Citizen?”

  69. robc

    I have had a Vitamin D deficiency in the past, I should probably start taking them again, just in case.

    And I see the discussion up above, mine was OTC. I take a multivitamin daily anyway, but was taking high dose D when my numbers were low.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’ve been dosing up on Vitamin D since the beginning.

      This is also why we should have been getting everyone out and mingling during the summer. Everyone would have had naturally higher levels of Vitamin D from being out in the sun.

    • leon

      We need to talk about the misinformation problem that the corporate press perpetuates.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I violated my “don’t click on Twitter” principle. I regret it. I regret it immensely.

      • Mad Scientist

        I was tempted. Thank you for your sacrifice. Now I know better.

    • UnCivilServant

      You expect me to be on Twitter?

      half the time the site doesn’t even load.

    • leon

      I’m Awestruck by the replies. It’s like they read your tweet, and immediately started typing a response without comprehending what you tweeted.

      • KOVIDKristen

        Right???

    • Gustave Lytton

      Sorry KK. We’ve gone through that a lot with our doggo. Thankfully it only happens now once in a blue moon.

    • Jarflax

      You should try the real secret to happiness on Twitter. Don’t be there.

    • KOVIDKristen

      And Mojeaux – thank you!

      • Mojeaux

        Anytime!

        I’m not on Twitter much anymore. It’s long past its usefulness to my Writer Self.

  70. The Late P Brooks

    I see, via teh gogolnooze, a NYT headline about “doing more to stop dangerous doctors in a pandemic”

    (Which I will not bother to read)

    WTF does that mean? Let me guess: We must, by any means possible, prevent anyone whose thinking does not conform to the Government Technocracy Consensus from promulgating their ideas, much less attempt to put them into practice. SCIENCE demands conformity. Anything less might undermine the flock’s blind faith in their High Priesthood.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Big Leech is not going to let some crazy doctors try something crazy. Bloodletting today, bloodletting tomorrow, bloodletting FOREVER!

  71. Certified Public Asshat

    Edward Snowden is a traitor.He is responsible for the largest and most damaging release of classified info in US history. He handed over US secrets to Russian and Chinese intelligence putting our troops and our nation at risk. Pardoning him would be unconscionable.— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) December 13, 2020

    She is really trying to be the worst member in congress.

    • leon

      She almost seems like a cartoon caricature of a Neo-Con war mongerer fabricated by libertarians.

      • robc

        She almost single-handedly makes me understand why the FSP didn’t choose Wyoming.

      • leon

        I know. They get 1 rep and this is who they choose?

      • robc

        I don’t understand anyone other than a rancher getting elected from Wyoming. Whoever they elect should have to buy his first tie on the way to DC to meet the dress code.

      • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

        Preferably a clip-on. You don’t always run into an understanding Italian janitor just before your big moment.

      • UnCivilServant

        Look, I can tie a half-Windsor, but if I tried any more complicated knot, I’d end up with too little tie left over for the length of my torso.

        Nevermind the fact that I don’t know any of the other knots.

      • robc

        Wasn’t that rule change made for the Native American Colorado senator?

      • leon

        I figured a bolo tie is only acceptable for Reps from New Mexico (it is the state tie).

      • KOVIDKristen

        should have to buy his first tie on the way to DC

        So pretty much Bernie, who used to Mayor himself around Burlington in jeans & jean jacket & t-shirt

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I see she went and blocked Greenwald after he was roasting her this weekend.

      • Tundra

        One comment suggests that the fact that she tweeted that suggests it may be imminent.

      • leon

        Trump has a way of dangling out the good things and then pulling them back. He’s like Lucy that way.

    • Drake

      Weird that she’s more upset with him than members of Congress on Intelligence and Defense Committees with close ties to Chinese spies.

    • Rebel Scum

      Trump will pardon him out of spite. (hopefully…)

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Rand is doing his best by whispering Snowden hates Clapper into Trump’s ear.

      • Raven Nation

        Yeah: Snowden and Ross Ulbricht.

        Then Trump should take Mark Steyn’s advice: pardon himself for everything then resign and let Pence see out the next month.

  72. Not Adahn

    I was baffled why NPR would run a story about Cyberpunk2077, unless one of their spaonsors told them to. I think they did. CDProjekt Red bought themselves a kurzgesagt vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b33NTAuF5E

    It’s fun to watch the Poles work the media, as opposed to the usual media working the pole.

    • UnCivilServant

      I am annoyed at the console peasant bugs because it means the stock price dropped… after I bought it.

      My portfolio is now less valuable than the money I initially put in because of those bugs. Screw the console peasants, they should have to wait. Pull a reverse Rockstar, PC first, wait a year for the consoles.

  73. leon

    RE: The Covid Vaccine.

    It’s funny to see the News Media talking heads fretting about how many people are skeptical over the Vaccine. “Whycome they don’t trust us?” There is absolutely no reason to not have full faith and confidence in what the Medical and Media Establishment tell you, doncha know?

    • Urthona

      When it looked like it was gonna come out before the election, the media was trying very hard to promote skepticism themselves and prominent Democrats were saying not to trust a “”Trump Vaccine”.

      How do they expect us to forget what happened just like a month or two ago?

  74. The Late P Brooks

    How do they expect us to forget what happened just like a month or two ago?

    Experience.

    • Idle Hands

      seriously. Reason and logic are dead.

    • leon

      I’d like to think it’s marginal. The bulk of people will flip without a hesitory thought. But evertime they do this, there is a group who for them that is the “Last Straw” and then they see the truth.

    • But Enough About My Pulsating, Geriatric Pecs

      Sadly, yes. **HEAVY SIGH**

  75. Not Adahn

    Jersey left Queens on Friday, scheduled to get here tomorrow. There are some ineffecincies at the USPS. I’ll post pics when I get it.

    • Gender Traitor

      What was Jersey doing in Queens anyway? Massive tectonic shift?

      • UnCivilServant

        That Island really gets around. I think it’s built on the back of a sea turtle.

      • Not Adahn
    • Agent Cooper

      You bought a cow?

      • CPRM

        Buying The Cow, seriously, yall should watch it.

  76. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Stupid shit my Facederp friends post:

    https://www.facebook.com/marchforscience/photos/a.322894318104889/1192108854516760/

    Scientists rushing to make a vaccine faster than any in the history of the world because Americans refuse to significantly try to stop COVID is basically the macro level of nerds having to do the whole group project while the cool kids just go to a party.

    I was not kind in my reply.

    • leon

      Yup. Shutup and respect the proper elites.

      Also the OG tweet hits on a small peve. Pointing to Pinochet and talking about how the US “Destroyed their democracy”. SLD about intervening, but Allende destroyed the democracy in Chile.

    • Count Potato

      “This means the US SolarWinds product is
      Hundred points symbol
      compromised across the USG. Likely China w/ back doors to every dept, agency & activity in the USG. Not good.

      @realDonaldTrump
      this is a grave natl scty threat, esp at this moment. Demand answers ASAP! Know you will.”

      https://twitter.com/GenFlynn/status/1338457125270523904

  77. CPRM

    I am relaying a message from Sir Digby:

    let the glibs know I send them the Merriest of Chirstmases, and Happiest of Hanukahs. Nope; not getting into Kwanzaa, or festivus, or whatever, but hopefully no one asks about that.

    • Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

      No Festivus? *Hangs head and shuffles away.*

    • Gustave Lytton

      Merry Christmas, Sir Digs!

    • rhywun

      Racist!

    • Not Adahn

      In celebration of Hanukah, the cafeteria had free latkes. Limit one per employee. 2″ diameter.

  78. Count Potato

    “BREAKING: Dominion Voting Systems forensic report:

    “We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.””

    https://twitter.com/IvanPentchoukov/status/1338505355463188482

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “The allowable election error rate established by the Federal Election Commission guidelines is of 1 in 250,000 ballots (.0008%). We observed an error rate of
      68.05%. This demonstrated a significant and fatal error in security and election integrity.”

      Only government would buy something so shitty.

      • Drake

        Dominionvoting system is a Canadian owned company with global subsidiaries. It is owned by Staple Street Capital which is in turn owned by UBS Securities LLC, of which 3 out of their 7 board members are Chinese nationals. The Dominion software is licensed from Smartmatic which is a Venezuelan owned and controlledcompany.

    • Drake

      It’s a damning report. The same votes counted on 3 different days came up with wildly different results – guess who was missing 5,000 votes on election night.

      all adjudication log entries for the 2020 election cycle are missing.

      all server security logs prior to 11:03 pm on November 4, 2020 are missing. This means that all security logs for the day after the election, on election day, and prior to election day are gone.

      • WTF

        NO EVIDENCE OF FRAUD!!!

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      And there it is. Some other excerpts:

      “The allowable election error rate established by the Federal Election Commission guidelines is of 1 in 250,000 ballots (.0008%). We observed an error rate of
      68.05%. This demonstrated a significant and fatal error in security and election integrity.”

      “Our findings show that the Central Lake Township tabulator tape totals were significantly altered by utilizing two different program versions (10/23/2020
      and 11/05/2020), both of which were software changes during an election which violates election law…

    • leon

      Yeah, but it’s the Epoch Times. And where is your Evidence?

    • AlexinCT

      That’s why they got it. Like I tell every moron that tells me I am just crazy for thinking our system would be corrupt: the candidate of the people that spent the last 4 years lying about the president that managed to somehow win an election the shadow state had thought they had rigged for their preferred corruptocrat and when they couldn’t make those lies stick, resorted to a fake impeachment to prevent us from finding out how that candidate was not just compromised but owned by the CCP won, didn’t he?

      A guy that everyone used to make fun of, call the dumbest fucker in the senate (at least till Hirono came around), that Obama picked because he bet nobody in their right mind would want to see replace him if somehow Obama was offed, that Obama didn’t want to back when he left office, and that spent the bulk of his campaign hiding in his basement wins an election where rules were changed while the game was being played, after the vote counters supposedly called a halt in the middle of the night only to tell us in the morning that the guy that was winning hands down was now the loser.

      But the problem is those of us that see an immediate problem with the fact that the media is censoring people that point out that something is wrong in Denmark and that they refuse to even look at it. And this comes after they spent 4 years telling us how some $100K spent by Roosians stole the election for bad orange man. I guess if the government bureaucracy bought & paid for by the CCP stealing an election is not anything to worry about.

      The winner of this election was the CCP.

      • Drake
    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Here’s more from the actual report (emphasis mine):

      Significantly, the computer system shows vote adjudication logs for prior years; but all adjudication log entries for the 2020 election cycle are missing. The adjudication process is the simplest way to manually manipulate votes. The lack of records prevents any form of audit accountability, and their conspicuous absence is extremely suspicious since the files exist for previous years using thesame software. Removal of these files violates state law and prevents a meaningful audit, even if the Secretary wanted to conduct an audit. We must conclude that the 2020 election cycle records have been manually removed.

      They altered the vote through adjudication and then deleted the logs.

      • leon

        You keep calling the legitimacy of the election into question. If people don’t believe the election is legitimate then they will question our democracy. Why do you hate our democracy so much?

      • Jarflax

        John Roberts? is that you?

    • CPRM

      Forgive me for being suspicious, but the source is .PDF on some unknown lawyers website, and instead of linking to whatever the original source is for the first link, it goes to twitter. SMDH. Not to say anyone can post anything on twitter, but anyone can post anything on twitter.

      • CPRM

        That’s the same .PDF, from the same lawyer, that uses a twitter link. Again, not the best evidence.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        That’s the lawyer handling the legal aspects for the audit. Who do you expect the results to be released from?

      • CPRM

        My point is, it links to a twitter post. Not actual information, but some random twitter post, that may or may not contain a video with factual information. This does not strike me as serious in any regard. If it were serious it would list a video in evidence with a cited source (which could be linked to at such and such). but to put a fucking twitter link in the actual fucking filing? When your compatriots are claiming twitter is removing links for political reasons?

  79. Count Potato

    “WASHINGTON — (ASSOCIATED PRESS) – U.S. government agencies were ordered to scour their networks for malware and disconnect potentially compromised servers after authorities learned that the Treasury and Commerce departments were hacked in a monthslong global cyber-espionage campaign discovered when a prominent cybersecurity firm learned it had been breached.

    In a rare emergency directive issued late Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity arm warned of an “unacceptable risk” to the executive branch from a feared large-scale penetration of U.S. government agencies that could date back to mid-year or earlier.

    “This can turn into one of the most impactful espionage campaigns on record,” said cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch.

    The hacked cybersecurity company, FireEye, would not say who it suspected — many experts believe the operation is Russian given the careful tradecraft — and noted that foreign governments and major corporations were also compromised.

    News of the hacks, first reported by Reuters, came less than a week after FireEye disclosed that nation-state hackers had broken into its network and stolen the company’s own hacking tools.

    The apparent conduit for the Treasury and Commerce Department hacks — and the FireEye compromise — is a hugely popular piece of server software called SolarWinds. It is used by hundreds of thousands of organizations globally, including most Fortune 500 companies and multiple U.S. federal agencies, which will now be scrambling to patch up their networks, said Alperovitch, the former chief technical officer of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.”

    https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-texas-solarwinds-us-govt-hack/269-a542ed56-2439-456e-84af-ab1301792974

    I don’t trust anything CrowdStrike says.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Funny how this made the news just when the China espionage story started getting legs… and conveniently it’s Russia…

    • leon

      This is exactly why i said above “I want to see the evidence that it is Russians”. For 3 years CrowdStrike said “Russians!!!” but in testimony to congress they admited they had no data.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I like the immediate assumption that it’s Russians and not Chinese.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Dunno, FireEye is supposed to be pretty reliable – but if they got hit by the same thing, doesn’t look too good.

  80. Festus' Mustache's tits keep calm and carry on.

    Alright, I’m done. Have fun you bunch of Merry Pranksters! Everything is piling up on me but gauge still reads “whelmed”. Maybe see you tomorrow.

  81. Count Potato

    “Hacked SolarWinds Software Firm’s Customer List Includes CDC, Hundreds from Fortune 500

    A suspected Russia-led cyberattack that reportedly breached several U.S. government agencies seemingly exploited software from Texas-based software company SolarWinds, with malware pushed via booby-trapped updates.

    A probe into the purported “nation state” hack is ongoing, spearheaded by the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), after Reuters reported on Sunday that the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments were believed to have been impacted, and the culprits had the ability to monitor internal emails.

    The IT monitoring software targeted—called Orion—is used by “hundreds of thousands of organizations globally,” The Associated Press (AP) reported on Sunday. SolarWinds says on its website its products are currently used by more than 300,000 customers spanning sectors including military, government, business and education.

    SolarWinds says it serves more than 425 firms on the Fortune 500, every one of the top-10 U.S. telecommunications companies and all branches of the U.S. military.

    According to its website, U.S. clients include the Pentagon, State Department, NASA, NOAA, National Security Agency (NSA), Postal Service, Department of Justice and the Office of the President of the United States. In addition, it lists all of the top five U.S. accounting firms and “hundreds” of universities and colleges across the world.”

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-govt-fireeye-breached-after-solarwinds-supply-chain-attack/

    That media is saying it was Russia makes me think it was China.

    • leon

      It would be funny if the Russians came out and said “It was the chinnese, because we had already hacked you and we watched them hack you”.

    • Gustave Lytton

      SolarWinds? I wonder if I’ll be able to login this morning? I should just say fuck it and go back to bed, this doesn’t sound like a good start to the week. 2020 continues.

  82. The Late P Brooks

    Post-racial party

    The transition team viewed Vilsack, who campaigned extensively in Iowa with Biden, as a compromise pick. His past stint in the job, they believed, offered inarguable evidence of his qualifications, and they hoped it would neutralize insider disagreements over Fudge and Heitkamp.

    “He wasn’t anxious to come back. He wasn’t looking for this job. But I was persistent,” Biden said Friday as he formally announced the latest suite of Cabinet picks. “I asked him to serve again in this role because he knows USDA inside and out.”

    Those comments, however, further inflamed Black farmers and civil rights groups, who are seething over the decision to tap Vilsack, a white man. The former Iowa governor is not a candidate from an underrepresented group, and many farmers of color feel his record on civil rights should have disqualified him from the job. –

    “When it came to issues of race, he was one of the worst I’ve ever come in contact with. What we don’t want is Vilsack to come back,” said Lloyd Wright, a former director of civil rights at USDA, who sent a letter to Biden asking him to reconsider the nomination.

    All they do is bitch and moan about race and “gender”. Competence is a dead letter, in our incoming Affirmative Action America.

    • leon

      Those comments, however, further inflamed Black farmers and civil rights groups, who are seething over the decision to tap Vilsack, a white man. The former Iowa governor is not a candidate from an underrepresented group, and many farmers of color feel his record on civil rights should have disqualified him from the job.

      I hope Biden spends his entire presidency under constant attack of being a racist and all his picks are picked apart and put through the Star Chamber comittee meetings. I hope they are all accused of being rapists and their families and children are forced to watch them be grilled about their activities as High schoolers.

    • rhywun

      farmers of color

      lolsnort

    • Not Adahn

      NPR did a report about how since the Dept of Ag was really about “supplemental nutrition” and not farming, it should be run by someone more in tune with urban life. And also black.

    • R C Dean

      I guess the goal is a Cabinet without a single white male. Which will somehow “look like America”.

  83. Nephilium

    My work just sent out an e-mail suggesting a mask exchange instead of a gift or cookie exchange.

    If I receive a mask from any friends or family, I will not even pretend to be polite. I may have to go out to buy a lighter so I can burn it in front of them.

    • leon

      Give them old used masks. And then point out that it was their suggestion that a mask would be healthier than sharing a treat.

      • leon

        I’m always about Malicious Compliance.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      Seems like a great way to spread germs. Or are the masks supposed to be unused?

    • KOVIDKristen

      I refuse to allow a mask to become a fashion accessory. I use the ugliest masks possible when I have to.

      Soon, men will be saying “women who wear sweat pants disposable masks to the grocery store have just given up on life”

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I was probably wearing the same disposable mask for like 8 weeks in a row.

    • Idle Hands

      Can’t we just deport all these fucktards to saudi arabia where other likeminded people live?

  84. Mojeaux

    OT: I’m doing a thing with my first book I published. It’s 3 romances in one doorstopper, and after reading a whole bunch of women’s fiction lately, I decided to separate them out into 3 books, cut any references to dates (e.g., August, 2004) re-title, re-brand, and re-work appropriately (not much, just writing better transitions and different key scenes from a different point of view).

    Anyway, book 3 has blog posts (as it always has had). Expect to find some of your monikers there. I’m googling them first to make sure you don’t come up in a search.

    • UnCivilServant

      So, Special Edition Re-release without the hype?

      • Mojeaux

        No, with LOTS of hype, but to a different audience. Nothing about the packaging or marketing of that book was attractive. I mean, yeah, I got some readers and fans, but that was in spite of myself, not because of any good decisions I made.

        The title is bland and gives no hint of what’s in it.

        The cover gives no hint of what’s in it.

        The book is a doorstopper. Each romance is the normal length a romance is, but put them together…

        I have to think of new (probably rather generic) titles, thematically connected, and hopefully from Hamlet, although every word of Hamlet is a cliche. (Yes, I’m re-reading Hamlet. Paging Straffinrun.)

        I’m going here for my new covers.

        I’m going to read all my books on marketing and do those things.

      • The Last American Hero

        Hamlet is Ben Johnson’s finest work!

      • Mojeaux

        MARLOWE’S, YOU PHILISTINE!

      • Agent Cooper

        “I’m going here for my new covers.”

        Those all look the same to me.

        Question: Is it better to assimilate visually into the genre space to reassure readers, or to stand out within the genre so people see something new/interesting?

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, I’m also updating all the tech and pop culture and social media references. In the book’s timeline (beginning 2004), blogging was still a thing and the iPhone hadn’t been released, but I see I joined Twitter in 2008, so it stands to reason that NOW my characters have smart phones and use social media.

  85. The Late P Brooks

    Let me guess:

    That big national security hack is just further proof of President Cartoon Villain’s perfidy and incompetence and hatred of democracy.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Speaking of hacks and computers and stuff, whatever happened with that supposed Frankfurt raid?

      • leon

        To be frank, i think it was full of bologna

      • R C Dean

        *holds up device with flashy light*

        There was no Frankfurt raid.

      • But Enough About My Pulsating, Geriatric Pecs

        “It was spontaneously-igniting swamp gas reflecting off of a weather balloon.”

  86. Threedoor

    You people are up too early.

    Also. I dont care what tomezone you’re in. You’re still up too early.

    • Mad Scientist

      Threedoor gets it.

      • Threedoor

        Probably the only thing I get.

  87. Rebel Scum

    Word.

    This is Epic. Atlas Gym New Jersey.Flag of United States Continually denying illegitimate orders. If you are wondering what Civil disobedience means, watch these clip and read the placards. This guy nails it, If the system is corrupt let’s build a new one. Long Live the People

    • leon

      Look at all that Toxic White Male Supremecy!!!!

    • KOVIDKristen

      Would

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        I’m offended that you would treat men like a piece of meat.

    • LCDR_Fish

      And drugs fell out of his ass.

  88. The Late P Brooks

    ,em>I was probably wearing the same disposable mask for like 8 weeks in a row.

    I have one wadded up in the pocket of my jacket; it’s been therea t least three weeks. I lost the one from before that, which I had been using since October, probably.

    • Mojeaux

      I’ve had the same disposable since April. It’s stuffed in my purse.

    • TARDis

      Remember walking through parking lots, and seeing cigarette butts and chew? Now it’s freaking masks everywhere.

    • Raven Nation

      I have some of those, but I prefer to wash and re-use my Glibs masks.

    • Threedoor

      Walmart wouldn’t let me in one day. I found the dirtiest one I could in my worktruck.

  89. The Late P Brooks

    (Yes, I’m re-reading Hamlet. Paging Straffinrun.)

    “It’s a slaughterhouse.”

    • LCDR_Fish

      Seems kinda weird that this would never have shown up before. A lot of zoo exhibits I’ve seen use black lights for nocturnal animal/insect displays to make it easier to see them in their enclosures. And somehow nobody used a UV light on a platypus until 2020?

  90. Idle Hands

    The push to disregard all this Chinese news makes perfect sense when you realize that the entire military/intelligence service leadership has been brought up and cut their teeth on Russia being the greatest threat and that’s where all their contacts and rice bowl is and shifting the focus/realigning to china means they are rendered obsolete and lose their position on the feeding trough.

    • leon

      The Military has supposed to been doing a “Pivot to the Pacific” since at _least_ 2015, but the Army has been dragging their feet since it would make the Navy the big player.

      • Idle Hands

        this is another reason why having a permanent military class is a terrible idea. It makes you completely unable to pivot as you have an entrenched class of professionals dependent on the status quo.

  91. The Late P Brooks

    Stupid fucking peasants

    After 110,000 deaths ravaged the nation’s nursing homes and pushed them to the front of the vaccine line, they now face a vexing problem: Skeptical residents and workers balking at getting the shots.

    Being first has come with persistent fears that the places hit hardest in the pandemic — accounting for nearly 40% of the nation’s death toll — could be put at risk again by vaccines sped into development in months rather than years. Some who live and work in homes question if enough testing was done on the elderly, if enough is known of side effects and if the shots could do more harm than good.

    “You go get that first and let me know how you feel,” said Denise Schwartz, whose 84-year-old mother lives at an assisted living facility in East Northport, New York, and plans to decline the vaccine. “Obviously it would be horrible for her to get COVID, but is it totally safe for someone who’s elderly and in fragile health?”

    JUST GET THE SHOT, damn you! Why must you make this all about You? Think of your duty to society!

    • R C Dean

      Why, how could they possibly doubt a vaccine developed by the Trump administration, which has coasted for 4 years on adulatory media coverage?

      I mean, I guess I could see it if the administration had been subjected to 10 months of relentless attacks on their COVID response efforts, with high-profile people saying they would never trust a vaccine developed by the Trump administration. But as it is, this resistance is just baffling.

    • rhywun

      Just sneak it into their existing cocktail of meds. I’m sure they’ll never know the difference.

  92. The Late P Brooks

    “Folks are concerned about it, that it was rushed through by people who were not listening to the science,” said Denise Allegretti, a director at 1999 SEIU, the nation’s largest healthcare worker union.

    Internal surveys by groups including the American Nurses Foundation suggest many workers in long-term care facilities are so concerned about the vaccine they would refuse it.

    “I will not be the test dummy,” wrote one respondent to a survey by the National Association of Health Care Assistants. “It’s not going to be safe and I won’t trust it,” added another. Some respondents just answered, “No way!”

    “People not listening to he science” you say? Name names.

    Just curious.

    • rhywun

      LOL like they think they’re going to have a choice in the matter?

    • leon

      Wow. I didn’t know there were so many Anti-Vaxxers in the Medical community / Something Chris Cuomo will be saying in the near future.

  93. The Late P Brooks

    Given how easily COVID-19 spreads, particularly in communal settings, experts believe around 70% of the population will need to receive the vaccine for it to be successful.

    They claimed, without evidence.

    • leon

      Aren’t there more deadly diseases out there that we ought to be worried about eradicating?

      • rhywun

        Do you even Vision Zero™, bruh?

      • Akira

        Something I’ve been wondering about is: If it’s OK to completely shred individual rights in an attempt to eradicate a disease with a survival rate exceeding 99%, why can’t we try to eradicate HIV? How about if you have HIV, you will be on permanent lockdown (only allowed out for “essential travel”) and have to do mandatory contact tracing?

        I’m legit curious as to how a Leftist Lockdownista would possibly argue against that (besides their old standby of “that’s different”).

      • rhywun

        How about if you have HIV, you will be on permanent lockdown (only allowed out for “essential travel”) and have to do mandatory contact tracing?

        There isn’t enough popcorn in the world to help me watch that unfold.

      • CPRM

        Because that would be homophobic (the same people that say HIV isn’t just a gay man’s disease) will say.

    • Idle Hands

      didn’t the CDC already say we have close to 100 million coronavirus cases in this country already? So we are already at 30% immunity.