About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

415 Comments

    • UnCivilServant

      Durham’s investigation “making good progress”.

      Until I see pols and bureaucrats perp-walked into prison, no progress has been made.

      • TARDis

        Maybe he meant there is now almost enough manufactured evidence to charge OMB will Ruskkie Kollusion.

      • Tonio

        You can also have a good perp walk on their way into court if they have been detained prior to that.

        Fun fact: Federal detainees on remand (those arrested but awaiting trial or a bail hearing) are often housed in county lockups (or city or regional jails) if there is not a federal lockup nearby. Always remember that the shiny new jail your sheriff wants to build may be based on housing a stream of detainees for the feds if there is a federal district court within the jurisdiction but no federal lockup.

      • UnCivilServant

        Mere trial is unsatisfactory.

        I want convictions.

      • Not Adahn

        I want convictions. euthanizations

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Barbed wire is cheap and easy to install.

      • Suthenboy

        Dont worry, they are ‘getting to the bottom of it’.

      • AlexinCT

        After a long and exhaustive investigation we have concluded that orange man is bad!

      • R C Dean

        I wonder why they even feel the need to pretend at this point.

      • Not Adahn

        They like to troll too.

  1. The Late P Brooks

    This is the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time — due mainly to the coronavirus pandemic.

    Final mortality data for this year will not be available for months. But preliminary numbers suggest that the United States is on track to see more than 3.2 million deaths this year, or at least 400,000 more than in 2019.

    U.S. deaths increase most years, so some annual rise in fatalities is expected. But the 2020 numbers amount to a jump of about 15%, and could go higher once all the deaths from this month are counted.

    How wrong I was. I repent me of my sins and heresies. I will wear the mask until the end of my days.

    • Trigger Hippie

      I wonder how many of those deaths were due to the lack of real medical care because everything is so focused on a plague that’s only a fraction of a percentage point more lethal than the flu.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        And put on ventilators. Or, well you know the story about nursing homes.

      • Tonio

        (Pssst…the population is also rising).

        The more meaningful stat would be deaths as percentage of population. And you’d want to remove war deaths from that as it’s highly variable and can skew the percentage during something like the Viet Nam war.

      • Suthenboy

        Bingo. That and increased population.

        Trigger: see my reply to your comment on last night’s thread

      • DrOtto

        This – I have a friend whose dad died of pneumonia right before Thanksgiving. He was too afraid of the ‘rona to get out of the house and get treated.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Gah! I wonder how many extra dialysis deaths are counted as Covid. How many Cancers? How many suicides from overdoses of medication? People just give up. Who tallies the score?

      • hayeksplosives

        I have one close friend and one close relative who have just started cancer treatments for growths they noticed back in spring but couldn’t get diagnosed snd treated until about a month ago.

        The friend has to undergo chemotherapy now because the tumor grew in the shadow of COVID-19 beyond the reach of radiation alone.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        That’s a big old FUCK! When I got my surgery last January they were already paranoid about the cooties. They are killing people for no apparent reason. Sorry for your friends, Lovely Lady. I take that back, they are not murdering them. They are letting them die.

    • mrfamous

      I have still not gotten an answer to a basic question: are these deaths the total number of deaths of American citizens and legal residents or simply a count of people who died within the country? If it’s the latter, there is the question of how many people who died who came here seeking medical care that normally would have wound up dying in their own country?

      It’s also worth noting that excess deaths are up considerably in the 25-44 age range, with only a fraction of those being listed as COVID-19 deaths.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        excess deaths are up considerably in the 25-44 age range

        Huh, I wonder what’s driving that?

      • Suthenboy

        Drugs and suicide.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yep.

        I’m starting to see PSAs regarding suicide and depression, with vague references to feeling isolated and alone but not directly mentioning COVID-19 overreaction by govt.

      • mrfamous

        Deaths of despair probably: suicides, overdoses, etc. There may be a little evidence to suggest _fatal_ traffic accidents are up but total accidents are not. The idea being less traffic = more street racing.

        What seems extremely unlikely is that they are missed COVID deaths. That makes no sense at all. That of course is also the “official” explanation.

    • Plisade

      I could swear I just read an article stating that 2020 deaths would be less than 2019. I don’t know what to believe.

      • mrfamous

        That’s not true. What’s unclear is just what precisely is going on with the excess deaths. For me the most interesting things I’ve seen in the age data are: deaths in the 25-44 and 70-85 age ranges are up significantly over baseline. Deaths in the 85+ range really aren’t by very much.

        So in actuality, the target range for the vaccine to do the most good is probably in that 70-85 range as opposed to the 85+ range, callous as that may sound.

        Most of this appears to be due to what went on in April and May, though not all of it. The “it’s all a hoax there is no disease” crap doesn’t help the real problem of the normalization of the gov’t acting like a tyrannical maniac every time a serious pathogen comes along. There is _no_ defense of what has been done, even if this thing was three times worse than it actually has been.

      • C. Anacreon

        Way back in medical school I did a rotation with a prominent gerontologist who said the human body is designed to live to be 85, and anything beyond that is borrowed time. His goal was to get everyone happy and healthy to that age. Interesting that your data seem to follow his theory.

      • R C Dean

        I believe, but can’t really confirm, that due to the lag in death data and the many confounding variables, that the CDC doesn’t/can’t really announce “good” excess deaths data for a calendar year until three or four months after it ends. And “excess deaths” is the product of analysis, so there are different ways to go about coming up with a number.

        By now, we should have good excess deaths data through mid-year or so. However, teasing out how many of the deaths were due to COVID is not easy or obvious. The attribution to COVID is obviously garbage, but even taking that at face value, how many excess deaths were due to our response (social isolation and economic stress are very well known public health risks), including the shutdown of elective surgeries. How many are due to the panic induced by the media and the public health establishment (people have been delaying/avoiding seeing a doctor, or even coming to EDs for heart attacks and strokes, which I never would have believed possible)? I strongly suspect a raw excess deaths number will badly overcount the actual impact of the disease itself.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I could swear I just read an article stating that 2020 deaths would be less than 2019. I don’t know what to believe.

        This. Maybe it wasn’t less than 2019 but it was statistically insignificant difference from the past few years. I distinctly remember the article.

        I’ll go with the 48 hour month rule on this one.

    • Pope Jimbo

      So the numbers don’t really add up. 400K more deaths, but there are only about 300K Rona deaths (and a lot of those are dubious). Are they admitting that those 100K deaths are due to the lockdown?

    • R C Dean

      Death data lags by months. “On track” means its just another fucking model.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      So let’s say we have 350K deaths from the coronavirus, that’s about 10% of the total. But topping 3 million is mainly due to coronavirus?

      • But Enough About My "Essential Retiree" Status

        What I’ll be interested in seeing is if 2021 deaths drop significantly below the long-term rising average trend line; if so, that for me is almost a direct confirmation of the “dry tinder” theory of deaths “due to COVID.”

      • Hyperion

        Now the democrats will be even more anxious to import the 3rd world. Not only will it amount to votes, but it can also pad the vid hysteria numbers.

        Will be interesting to see how they explain telling American citizens to stay in their homes while allowing hordes of illegal immigrants to stream into the country unimpeded. Ah, who am I kidding, they won’t even attempt to justify any of that.

  2. The Late P Brooks

    Trump pointed out that among the more than 5,000 pages—which “nobody in Congress has read because of its length and complexity”—is called the COVID relief bill, but it has nothing to do with the coronavirus.

    Russian stooge propaganda!

    • mrfamous

      I find it really telling that if you were to speculate how much of what Trump has said as President comes from him and what comes from various advisors, that you’d probably guess that the majority of the good stuff actually comes from the oatmeal that is his mind. Like this. He’s legitimately upset at the ridiculousness of this graft. Maybe even moreso than me, who has become so jaded it rolls off of me these days.

      • Drake

        So veto it and demand a real relief bill without all the graft.

      • mrfamous

        They’ve got the votes to override the veto. Because graft is something both parties can agree on.

      • Seguin

        Personally, I’d veto it and make them own it, complaining all the while about the graft. The good thing about the Trumpalos is that they will go to bat if OMB makes a stink – there might even be enough pressure that accumulates with all the eyes on it to shift course a little.

        Then again, recent events have now demonstrated that votes can be created with minimal backlash, so the ability to pressure congresscritters is reduced.

      • mrfamous

        96% incumbent re-election rates at this point. They’ve got the system wired. Nobody is that popular.

      • kbolino

        Even when a bill passes with enough votes that it seems like a veto can be overridden, it can still be worthwhile to veto it. This puts Congress on the spot and gives a window (short though it may be) to shave off votes and/or get things changed.

  3. Scruffy Nerfherder

    *#*(&^%*&#^!! barcode label printers

    I hate them. Lousy drivers, lousy support,

    • hayeksplosives

      Uh-oh. I am about to be in the market for such a system to track my lab’s equipment.

      I figured they are all pretty much the same. I guess not.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Trump also noted that $40 million will be allocated towards the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC—which is not even open for business—$1 billion towards the Smithsonian, and an additional $154 million for the National Gallery of Art. Likewise, these facilities are essentially not open.

    He went on to account $7 million for reef fish management, $25 billion to combat Asian carp, $2.5 million to “count the number of amberjack fish” in the Gulf of Mexico, a provision to promote the breeding of fish in federal hatcheries, $3 million in poultry production technology, $2 million to research the impact of down trees, and $566 million for construction projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    He hates art. He hates fish. What a monster.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      $2 million to research the impact of down trees

      Somebody is going to finally answer the question of whether they made a sound?

      • Fourscore

        More firewood…More regeneration…Life goes on, in spite of Trump, Congress and all the little people

      • AlexinCT

        They didn’t even wait for him to be out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave to go back to get back to porking it up something stupid… Not sayign they didn’t spend too much money when bad orange man was in charge, but at least they printed that stuff to pay for supposed essentials. Now it was just a smorgasbord of larded payoffs.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Look mad scientists, if you genetically engineer down trees, what will happen to the duck population?

        You gotta think about shit like that before you start playing God.

      • Suthenboy

        Whut? 193M for cars? How many fucking cars do they need? JFC.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Almost certainly a backdoor bailout of a vehicle manufacturer that is supplying vehicles to “HIV/AIDS workers”.”

      • R C Dean

        That’s enough for about 4,000 cars @ $50K a pop.

        Even if Trump vetos (which I doubt), the Repub Senate will override. Ponder that on the Tree of Woe.

      • Pope Jimbo

        And those cars will be K-Cars that some political donor got stuck with on his back lot.

      • dontreadonme

        Lambo’s ain’t cheap, man.

  5. Scruffy Nerfherder

    What happens to the GDP numbers when you remove all of the helicopter money that went directly into stocks?

  6. Rufus the Monocled

    Turns out Birx has more honor and dignity than all the other rats who broke their own illegal decrees.

    The funny thing about the government encouraging people to snitch on each other is that snitches snitches on EVERYONE.

    • Not Adahn

      Good morning!

    • leon

      No, because she pretty much blamed the American people for harassing her and her family. It’s not that she broke the rules she would have forced on others, it’s our fault she is leaving.

      • WTF

        We proved ourselves unworthy of her.

      • AlexinCT

        She is furious the peasants caught her telling them what to do and not doing any of it herself. As I have told people: the fucking credentialed elite aristocracy is telling us we need to stay put and locked down so they can move about and keep doing business as usual with less of a chance one of the fucking unwashed serfs ends up giving them the Kung Flu.

    • mrfamous

      I don’t think so. I think it’s just that she was gonna be out of a job in a month anyway (she is not liked by the Dems), so why not get a last little bit of self-righteousness on her way out.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Huh, I wonder what’s driving that?

    Teh opioids, duh.

    • R C Dean

      Looks like opioid/drug overdose deaths are up, so that’s part of it.

      • AlexinCT

        I am bored, out of cheetos, and tired of jerking off….

        Let me do another highball…

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

    Goddammit, Banjos! Now every glib will want an adorable raccoon for Xmas! You did that, purposeful-like… Are you in the pocket of Big Raccoon?

    • Not Adahn

      Unless youtube is lying to me, Canadians have plenty of pet raccoons.

    • Hyperion

      “Now every glib will want an adorable raccoon for Xmas”

      I myself am proof this statement is untrue, I do not want a trash panda.

    • hayeksplosives

      I am following a Facebook page dedicated to reuniting pet raccoon “Coonsie” with her owner. Owner had come down from Idaho to Oklahoma temporarily to restore power or some such thing. But his pet raccoon got lost in Norman OK, and now there’s a grassroots effort to find Coonsie.

      Humans do love a good pet rescue.

    • Rebel Scum

      …otherwise the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package. And maybe that administration will be me.

      They see me trollin’…

      • Tres Cool

        …they hatin’

  9. Rufus the Monocled

    Seriously, how incredibly corrupt is Congress? Another 40 million for the Kennedy Arts? The list was staggering. And then crumbs to the people?

    Pelosi and McConnell are rotten.

    Even here we got $2000 (about $1550 USD). Plus, it went smoothly. Punch in your SIN and you got the cheque a couple of days later. It surprised me how efficient it all was. Makes m suspicious not that I think of it.

    Of course, that treacherous piece of shit Justin has to mess it up. Canada spent 20% of GDP for this self-induced disaster proportionally as high as the U.S… He also instructed to not investigate fraudulent activity for some reason.

    Also. His friendliness to China is leaving a lot of people unnerved.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      now that I think of it.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        $1200 ? I want $1200! Here in BC we got $500… That first stimulus package bypassed me totally. I am poor.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        I’m talking about the Federal CERB. Are you talking about the provincial pay out?

        Be happy. Quebec didn’t even send one. Legault, when he’s not busy acting like an incompetent clown for Covid, does what all Quebec nationalists do and that’s blame Ottawa for their own ineptitude.

        ‘We can’t send a check because Ottawa!”

        So tied of it all.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Je Me Souviens.

      • Not Adahn

        According to my high school French, that translates to “I remember myself” why does eveyone just translate it as “I remember” (which I thought would be “Je souviens”)

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, I’d forget myself if I weren’t so attached.

      • leon

        It could be like in spanish. “Acordarse” is “To remind” and to say “Remember” you have to say “I remind myself (of it)” (Se me Acuredo)

      • Not Adahn

        I interpreted it as a “you’ll never make us Anglophones you filthy British tyrants. I remember who I really am.”

  10. Rebel Scum

    Special counsel Durham investigation ‘making good progress,’ Barr says

    *yawn*

    I assume that means progressing towards shoving all the criminality under the proverbial rug.

  11. Not Adahn

    NPR led their freakout over the pardons by saying OMB pardoned people “even though they did not meet the Justice department’s criteria to be considered” for a pardon.

    I wonder if they even realize they’re claiming that only rule by bureaucrats is legitimate.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s not the DoJ’s role to decide who gets pardons. That is the exclusive preserve of the president, period.

      • Not Adahn

        But DoJ are carreer politicians! They’re professionals! OMB is just some unqualified demogogue that russian hacked his way into office.

      • Tres Cool

        It took me a moment to realize that OMB didnt mean the Office of Management and Budget.

        /I’m not a very smart man, Jennnaaaay

      • hayeksplosives

        Run, Tres, run!

    • leon

      NPR delinda est

      • AlexinCT

        That happened decades ago. For me around the time they started telling us to stop being stupid fucks because Bill Clinton had already looked us in the eye and told us he had not cigar banged the chubby intern. After that it just kept going downhill.

    • Rebel Scum

      “even though they did not meet the Justice department’s criteria to be considered”

      The only criteria is the constitutional criteria. And that says the president can do it. The end.

    • EvilSheldon

      They do. Rule by (credentialed, expert, unaccountable, and above all, progressive) bureaucrats is exactly what they want.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Emergency funding for a dire emergency

    So where is the rest of the $1.4 trillion going?

    Glad you asked.

    ——-

    Exhibit C: “Statement Of Policy Regarding The Succession Or Reincarnation Of The Dalai Lama.”

    Und so weiter.

    Don’t worry, it will all get fixed in the reconciliation process. A compromise here, and adjustment there… before you know it, we’ll have the 2 trillion dollar rescue
    package we so desperately need.

  13. Not Adahn

    My boo has a new video

    • Tres Cool

      I have no doubt that she’s brilliant, but she also seems like a total nutjob.

      WOULD

      • Not Adahn

        So hard she’d discover new spacetime curvatures.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      That is the most German looking woman, ever. Excepting the, “ALARM!” lady from Indian Jones and the Last Crusade.

      • AlexinCT

        Sheisse porn!

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Ja, sehr gut

  14. The Late P Brooks

    I see mt tuping skills ae4r even better than usuel today.

    • LJW

      Do we need to call you an ambulance?

      • Ted S.

        Yes. Brooks is an ambulance.

  15. Rebel Scum

    COVID-19 has killed more than 318,000 Americans and counting.

    No, it has not.

    • AlexinCT

      He fell off that ladder because he heard some one scream “BEWARE OF THE KUNG FLU!” so that is a COVID death you moron!

  16. LJW

    Our Next Stimulus

    So glad to have a government that cares about us!

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

    So Six-ish of the 15 Pardons were for regular folk, not swamp creatures. Nice job, Donny Two Scoops. Now do Assange, Snowden and the rest. You want a legacy? This is how you build a legacy.

    • Not Adahn

      Never gonna happen. As much as I enjoy seeing hime shit on the Ruling Caste, he’s only pardoned people that he feels a personal connection to and/or advocated for by people he likes.

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Well then somebody better go suck the mushroom toot sweet because time is running out for those poor fucks.

      • Tres Cool

        “suck the mushroom” ?

        Holy shit….I vow to use that in a sentence this week.

      • Pope Jimbo

        If Brennan and Clapper keep squawking about how horrible it would be to pardon Snowden, Trump might do it just to spite them.

        Also, someone should get Trump to pardon the Silk Road guy.

      • Chipwooder

        Yep. Would beat the hell outta pardoning a bunch of corrupt congressmen and some mercenaries.

      • hayeksplosives

        Rand is working on Donnie, trying to persuade him to pardon Snowden at least.

        Rand knows DJT needs to be able to save face and also to put himself in the driver’s seat, so Rand is keeping a relatively low profile.

        I am really hoping this happens before Donnie leaves.

    • DrOtto

      Unpossible, I just read yesterday he only cares about pardoning his cronies!

  18. leon

    You know what’s funny? How the media never portrays the Generals dragging their feet and disobeying the president as a national security threat.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If by funny, you mean “grimly foreshadowing a very bleak future”, then yeah.

    • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

      It’s like Stanley Kubrick never made a film about it the year I was born. Uncanny.

      • Not Adahn

        You’re only 19 years old?

      • Tres Cool

        I thought he was The Shining old.

      • leon

        How many Evans is that?

      • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

        Nearly two.

  19. Rebel Scum

    Public union cuntes.

    “The Cook County Health workers, Sheriff’s office civilian employees, and Cook County Clerk’s office workers represented by SEIU Local 73 walked off the job at 6 a.m., accusing the county of walking out on negotiations,” CBS Chicago reported.

    In a statement, SEIU Local 73 president Dian Palmer said the union’s members have “put their lives on the line to keep Cook County functioning.”

    • Not Adahn

      Sheriff’s office civilian employees

      • Tres Cool

        Wanna ruin a cop’s day? Remind him that he’s a civilian, too.

      • TARDis

        If we get martial law, maybe some generals and admirals will remind them.

        You fall under the UCMJ there, officer? No? Then you are a civilian too. That includes you, “Major”.

      • AlexinCT

        Everyone knows that the six (seven now) branches of the military are in order of importance: The Navy, the Air Force, the Army, the Marines, the Coast Guard, and the Postal Union (add the Space Force courtesy of the bad orange man to ruin the joke) – Cliff Clavin

    • Suthenboy

      Since when has Cook County been ‘functioning’?

      • Hyperion

        When the mafia ran the city?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        You mean the Daly family mob?

  20. Rebel Scum

    Does he even live there?

    Poll: Andrew Yang favored for New York City mayor among likely Democratic voters

    • Suthenboy

      I am sure all the Jews living there will love having to show their papers every five blocks and having bar codes tattooed on. I wonder how many of them will vote for that shitbird.

      • WTF

        I wonder how many of them will vote for that shitbird.

        The vast majority of them. Their true religion is leftism, they are Jews mostly in name only.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Let’s replace the aging, decrepit commie with a youthful, vigorous commie.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Wasn’t his big appeal UBI? What does he offer as a mayor? He’s not a professional politician and he has zero experience actually serving in a political office. I see the odds as good for him getting steamrolled by the machine over actually getting elected. Of course Bloomberg bought the office too so maybe I’m over estimating the NYC machine.

      • C. Anacreon

        Remember the beginning of Soylent Green, with a super-rich person eating steak from a penthouse apartment overlooking a city swarming with the desperately poor? Yang can help replace all the exiting New Yorkers by instituting a city UBI and attract every transient in the country. Then the movie will be seen as prophetic.

    • Hyperion

      The guy who wants to put barcodes on people?

  21. Plisade

    “Good progress” would be no-knock middle-of-the-night arrests made by linebacker-sized spec ops teams supported by armored vehicles and cobras laying down suppressive fire, all filmed live by Mel Gibson camera crews. The arrestees would be escorted out of their heavily damaged homes – front gates destroyed, doors explosively breached, fires here and there, cinders rising into the night sky – in their pajamas and night gowns or lack thereof. Obama, Hillary, Biden, Brennan, Mueller, Strozk, Page… the lot of em.

    • WTF

      I can’t even imagine the media meltdown that would cause.

    • TARDis

      Mutti always said, “If you’re going to dream, dream big”.

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

    The GDP continues at a record pace – https://youtu.be/zDAmPIq29ro

    • Suthenboy

      With the left in control I expect unemployment to reach record highs and jobs to flee the country in record numbers. Trump’s record low numbers will be memory holed and we will be told, as we were under Obumbles, “tough shit, get used to it”.

      This election was a disaster.

      Everyone that voted Biden, fuck you idiots.

      • TARDis

        My daughter just got a hand addressed letter in the mail from from the local democrats. I thought she voted for JoJo, but I guess not. I love the fact that someone who is completely dependent on me for support has the right to cancel out my vote. If I even comment on it, it will start a major fight with the wife.

        SMH

      • Seguin

        Pointing it out may cause short term trouble, but done right it may resolve long term trouble. Just a thought.

      • hayeksplosives

        Agreed about everything except “This election was a disaster.”

        The election didn’t put our feet on this course. The election was merely an indicator that we have lost the culture.

        The election just follows the culture. Now that America’s European Judeo-Christian heritage is labeled evil and oppressive, something to apologize for instead of to celebrate, there is nothing to fill that cultural gap.

        It took us a couple of generations longer than it took Europe, but America has finally lost her self confidence.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        I blame a lot of things like the participation trophy and self esteem movement, but public schools have produced a generation of too many absolutely stupid and incurious kids that eat that socialism saves shit like candy.

        This is all because of the fucking hippies……

      • Mojeaux

        And yet … I put my hand over my heart at the flag and cry during the national anthem, adore fourth of July and small-town parades, feel tribal unity during football and baseball games, and cling to the IDEA of America.

    • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

      So it is a manufactured panic that they have had practice at. Feature that! I don’t know if we can all live in same country, world or Universe anymore. I hope you have the best Holiday that you can manage, Muppet! I mean that sincerely.

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

    Getting so pissed-off these days… Might have to visit the local butcher and pick up a jaw bone of an Ass and a tenderloin or two. Tres will get it.

  24. Rebel Scum

    You lying, dog-faced pony soldier.

    At this point, Biden was fleeing the podium with a skeletal grin on his face.

    But he turned back to the media: “Yes, yes, yes,” he said. “God love ya, man, you’re a one-horse pony. I tell ya. Thank you,” Biden said, holding up a “thumbs up” sign.

    He probably meant to say “one-trick pony,” but who can say for sure?

    He continued: “I promise you, my Justice Department will be totally on its own making its judgments about how they should proceed. Thank you!”

    I’m a multi-horse pony.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I get my words mixed up like that sometimes too but only after six or more drinks.

    • leon

      I promise you, my Justice Department will be totally on its own making its judgments about how they should proceed. Thank you!”

      And so then we got lots of distressed headlines about Joe Biden promising to use his DOJ as a personal protection team?

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Dance of the sugar plum hobgoblins

    President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday urged Americans to remain “vigilant” over the holidays, adding that Pfizer’s and Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines likely won’t stop the deaths of “tens of thousands” people due to the pandemic in the months to come.

    The United States is currently averaging close to 3,000 Covid-19 deaths per day, Biden said during his remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday afternoon. The vaccines, which are currently in short supply in the U.S., “won’t be able to stop that,” he added.

    ——-

    Meanwhile, the coronavirus continues to rapidly spread across the U.S. The nation is recording at least 215,400 new Covid-19 cases and at least 2,600 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using Johns Hopkins University data. The United States still has the worst outbreak of any other country in the world.

    A coronavirus model once cited by the White House now projects more than 561,600 Americans could die of Covid-19 by April 1 as new deaths reach record highs in many parts of the country. A worst-case forecast from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects as many as 715,000 Americans could die by that time.

    To add to fears, the U.K. has identified a new variant of the coronavirus that appears to spread more quickly.

    Fear. Embrace it. Immerse yourselves in it. You can’t run. You can’t hide. Pray to your Messiah for salvation.

    • Gustave Lytton

      The vaccines, which are currently in short supply in the U.S., “won’t be able to stop that,” he added.

      Well certainly if the limited amounts are used to vaccinate younger and generally much lower at risk healthcare workers, rather than elderly, particularly those in congregate living conditions.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      We have the biggest numbers because we’re a big country with a big population. Oh, and China (and India to a lesser degree) isn’t really worried about testing and they lie even when they do. Anyone that believes their numbers really is a willing sucker.

      • creech

        What are the China numbers? Someone I know is saying the virus is gone in China and that proves the U.S. (Trump) failed to take the measures needed. Have Chinese vaccinated everyone? Are entire Chinese cities held prisoner under martial law? Pray, what works — other than complete lying about the situation?

      • Suthenboy

        “…complete lying about the situation?”

        I think you might be on to something there.

    • Rebel Scum

      The United States is currently averaging close to 3,000 Covid-19 deaths per day,

      No they are not.

      2,600 virus-related deaths each day

      Uh huh…

      The United States still has the worst outbreak of any other country in the world.

      No they do not.

  26. Lord Humungus

    Yesterday: Well that was a horrible job interview.

    It was, given the current state of things, done over the phone. The main interviewer, who runs a section of the IT department had such a thick Indian (Pakistani?) accent that I could not understand him at all. The other two interviewers, who spoke better English, never stepped in to rephrase or help. So needless to say that was frustrating since I had to ask him 2-3x times to repeat the question. On top of that, once I figured out (parts of) the question, he was also asking extremely specific or even obscure questions on how the ERP package functionality worked or how data was stored, etc. Some that I knew but other items I did not due to either the obscurity or I never had to learn given the sophistication of my past user base. No questions on how I accomplished certain tasks via my resume, or generalities – just “gotcha” moments like I was being setup to see if I was lying about my past experience.

    I only became frustrated due to the weirdness of the situation.

    I abruptly ended the interview when they asked “Do you have any questions?”

    Me: “No I think we’re done here.” …click…

    I don’t know if it is a cultural difference but I’ve had a similar experience with another Indian programmer/manager for a different job. A trees versus the forest kind of mentality?

    • leon

      Not with any managers, but i have seen that with some Indian colleagues in the past.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s what happens when the interviewer is more interested in proving their own expertise than determining your capabilities.

      Engineers are prone to that behavior as well.

      • Lord Humungus

        Yes when I’ve done interviews I’m more interested in a person’s approach on how they solve a problem. Given the complexity of an ERP package I wouldn’t expect anyone to know everything but do they have the ability to analyze, quickly learn, test, etc and then solve the problem.

      • UnCivilServant

        Finding a candidate who can troubleshoot and apply reasoning is always the hard part. Given the odd agglomeration of tech we use, I don’t expect anyone to know it coming in, but I at least want the ability to demonstrate how to dissect a problem and narrow down the potential causes.

        I had one candidate whose approach to an issue would be to “open a ticket” as the first thing they’d do. I said “We’re the ones who get those tickets” and got a deer in the headlights look. (I left out the fact that for some products we have some vendor support, but most of what crosses our desks can be handled in-house)

    • UnCivilServant

      I think the ‘gotcha’ style is an adaptation to something I’ve also seen in a lot of south asian candidates. Some of the most brazen fabricated resumes I’ve seen as an interviewer were from people born in that part of the world. Anything to get the foot in the door and then try to pick up enough to not get fired afterwards is an exceedinging common tactic. So filtering out the fraudulent from the authentic becomes a big part of the interview step, and it can easily end up adversarial.

      • Lord Humungus

        I’ve seen that too in the interviews that I’ve been part of at my last job.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Yup. I’ve had phone interviews where you could tell the candidate is googling answers to the questions.

        Also, there is an entire industry where Indians with good English skills do an interview for a candidate at a big company. Then the candidate shows up with horrible English and no technical skills. But hopefully by the time the big company figures out what has happened they either have burrowed into the wood work or have found yet another job.

        Hiring wouldn’t be so hard if you could easily fire people.

      • UnCivilServant

        We have a policy requiring in-person or video-conference interviews. If the person who shows up isn’t the person who interviewed, that invalidates the hiring as fraud.

      • Not Adahn

        We’ve fired two people using their credientials as an excuse (they were actually fired becasue they were shit performers.)

        One guy never was able to provide proof he had his degrees.

        One guy omitted the fact that he had an M.D. on his resume. Undoubtedly because he was directly responsible for four deaths.

      • UnCivilServant

        Was the MD even relevant to the job he was(n’t) doing?

      • Not Adahn

        Sort of.

        He killed people by falsifying lab results. A history of fraud is relevant to doing analytical work.

      • UnCivilServant

        You see, the history of fraud is the more revant factor in my opinion.

        Leaving off a credential not connected to the work to be done isn’t something I’d class as fraud.

        However, if there was no other venue to achieve separation, *shrug*

      • Not Adahn

        It’s definitely the fastest and easiest. It doesn’t require any additional documentation or a Personal Improvement Plan, coaching, etc.

      • R C Dean

        Leaving off a credential not connected to the work to be done isn’t something I’d class as fraud.

        Material omissions can be fraud. Not disclosing an MD? That’s not done without a very good reason, one that is likely to be a deal-killer. I’d want to know the reason, of course, but the omission itself is such a red flag I wouldn’t blame anyone for refusing to hire/terminating.

      • Not Adahn

        Botched the link

        another

        A nosy tech uncovered what HR could not.

      • UnCivilServant

        Would you believe we’re not even allowed to ask if someone has been convicted of a felony anymore? Even if it might be a relevant offense.

      • Not Adahn

        Interestingly enough, it would have been illegal for us to have hired him if we had been receiving sertain categories of Fedbux. He’s under some sort of interdict. Killing vets gets you put on some lists.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Hiring wouldn’t be so hard if you could easily fire people.

        My department has a solution for that. Annual layoffs. Hire in 1-2 new people each year, then lay off the 1-2 lowest performers if nobody leaves of their own volition.

        Of course, while this has acted to clean out the cruft so far, we’re now at the point where additional layoffs would be cutting good people. We lost one good guy already, and nobody knows who has the target on their back next.

    • Mojeaux

      May I say again how happy I am that you and EF are back? I am.

      • Lord Humungus

        thanks! For mental health reasons I only check in here a few times a week but it is good to be back.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I’ve seen it with younger IT workers who get to do their first interviews.

      I think older people in the biz tend to focus on experience and questions about how you approached problems. Younger people tend to turn it into a dick measuring contest. At my last gig, I was appalled at the fact that the were giving out coding problems (that always seemed to involve a gotcha).

      Then when I was looking for this gig, it seemed like coding problems had become a standard practice. I told people that I wouldn’t do them. A few stuck to their guns and passed, but most of them said that was Ok and we had what I would call a “normal” interview.

      As I told the people who wanted a coding interview, I’ve been writing code for 20+ years, so I can obviously do it. And any “problem” that can be solved in a half hour is obviously trivial and the only thing you can check for are esoteric knowledge of minutia. Any developer worth their salt is going to take a while to look for solutions before selecting one.

      • leon

        only thing you can check for are esoteric knowledge of minutia.

        This. I’ve done interviews with coding challenges and i generally don’t like them. Especially one company that promised “No coding Challenge” and then gave me one. Fuck you.

        I have had one that seems to have been less “Do you know this one specific algorithim to solve this specific kind of problem” an more, do you know the advantages and disadvantages of using different data structures in different situations.

      • Lord Humungus

        Plus with coding there are a hundred ways to skin a cat.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        fur Skin(cat a)
        {
        fur Pelt;
        Pelt = a – Guts(a);
        return Pelt;
        }

      • UnCivilServant

        The Pelt your function returned contained too much meat, bone, and connective tissues.

      • leon

        What is that C? C++? Java?

        I can’t believe you can’t do it in [Brand New Language De Jour]

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You’re lucky I didn’t write it in COBOL.

      • UnCivilServant

        write it in COBOL.

        *perks up*

        A chance to use one of my underutilized skills?

      • Lord Humungus

        Back in my undergrad days they were still teaching COBOL. I’m incredibly rusty but I’m sure I could – gag – pick it up real quickly.

      • Jarflax

        You guys want to impress me do it as a dedicated cat skinning circuit. Software solutions are for the weak.

      • UnCivilServant

        dedicated cat circuit? Wasteful, we need something that can be applied to any skinning task.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I definitely do hardware better than software,

        I’m thinking something like this

        Got to get the volume up and the labor costs down in order to compete with cheap imported cat pelts.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        UC, I am a tad surprised that NY doesn’t still have a punch card computers.

      • UnCivilServant

        I have a box of unused punchcards in my cube.

      • Lord Humungus

        I had to do a backyard rabbit carcass cleanup this morning. Luckily not a cat.

        The pest kill ratio had gone up quite a bit since the addition of a greyhound. They are such quiet dogs with the instincts to kill kill kill.

        Does anyone want a cat? Ours has taken to living in the the laundry room, the only place safe from the dogs.

      • Mojeaux

        We are cat people but I’m not sure how the addition of a third cat would go over with the two current cats who fight like siblings — because they are.

      • UnCivilServant

        Third cat is a bad idea.

      • Not Adahn

        I witnessed one catch the bunny at the track. I have no idea if that was a particualy fast dog, or if there was a mechanical problem.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m going with ‘mechanical problem’.

        But I’m biased since I see so many technological failures.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Exactly. Also knowing how the resulting data generating by your code will be used by other parts of the system is probably one of the most important things driving decisions.

        Will it only be consumed by other tightly integrated components? Will it be part of a public interface and be used in all sorts of ways?

    • Suthenboy

      Thank Dog wife and I are retired.

    • AlexinCT

      In the cultures of that part of the world they like to show you that they know more than you. It’s a perverse status thing with them. An interview, where they can look up obscure and practically always useless shit to ask, leave you baffled, and them feeling superior, gives them a boner. That is why I told my company never to let people from these cultures interview anyone. It is useless. The problem is that most companies have so few, if any, non H1-B visas doing the tech work that for the bulk of the companies out there, there is nobody but these H1-B visa types that can do the technical interviewing. I have usually left a company for greener pastures as soon as I saw the technical expertise swing towards cheap H1-B types. Like in all things, some of them actually are real good, but too many of them are not even close (but they are so cheap!).

      A good interviewer will ask you the important questions to verify you have some grasp of the tech, but also know the most important thing a good candidate will have is the “can do” attitude. My company finally got wise to the fact that all those kids with cool Ivy league degrees, a lack of any real experience, and a belief they should be the CIO in 6 months are not one person from a state school that actually will tell you they may not have an answer for you now, but they will sure as hell have it figured out and done by tomorrow.

      My company a couple of years ago realized how they had screwed themselves over by depending too much on H1-B workers that came as novices, learned just enough of what to do to pass for competent, then leave for jobs where they get paid a lot more. They reversed it by hiring, but then tried to hire Ivy leaguers. The HR idiots got insulted when I told them young kids think working for insurance, even in AI, is kind of for retarded people (it is seen as real boring). I pointed out I worked here after a 30 year plus career that included all the cool shit (aerospace & electrical engineering with my security clearance after paying off the people that paid for my education), and that I no longer felt compelled to chase glory (I already have my 15 patents and proven my worth over and over – sorry for the bragging) which these kids sure were inclined to do.

      Shit we had one of these Ivy League kids work for a week and do his last check-in to source control with the line “This company sucks ass and I was told I was going to fucking work on cool shit, not this old crappy-ass old people code” before just no longer showing up for work. They didn’t realize he stopped coming to work until I pointed out this check-in message was now in our system.

      I no longer wonder why too often shitty people get hired because they can sell themselves better than their skillset actually is.

      Don’t give up man.

      • Lord Humungus

        Thanks. amigo. Frustrating.

      • AlexinCT

        It certainly will be, but you need to accept that this is not a problem with YOU and more of a problem with the fact you are dealing with a shitty situation if the person(s) that makes the choice(s) is an (are) idiot(s). I know many people that feel let down when an interview goes bad, but I tend to point out that the secret to success is to not let failures bring you down. Every great successful person out there will tell you they had many failures, some because of their own mistakes, before scoring.

        Learn what you can from the bad interviews and move on.

  27. Rebel Scum

    I guess we are going to be greatly reset good and hard.

    “Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us. So we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spine. As frustrating as it is to hear, it’s going to take patience, persistence and determination to beat this virus,” Biden said.

    “There will be no time to waste in taking the steps we need to turn this crisis around. My administration will start to do its part on our first day in office, with masking requirement, a new strategy for testing, accelerated protection, protective gear. We’re gonna challenge Congress and the American people to step up immediately as well to do their part. As the relief bill passed by Congress, there’s another challenge my administration will confront on a bipartisan basis,” he continued.

    Biden said the country will also need to “fully distribute the vaccine” and increase testing in order for schools to fully reopen.

    One would think the messaging would be that the darkest days are behind us now that we will get the wisdom and guiding hand of Joe Biden.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “masking requirement”

      Wonderful…

      • Ownbestenemy

        In places that already have a masking requirement. All federal executive agencies have already instituted policies as far as I know, FAA being one.

        That is as far as he legally and constitutionally take it. He and his propagandist are just saying it to make it seem like he will be doing more.

      • WTF

        That is as far as he legally and constitutionally take it.

        As though the law and the constitution have any meaning these days.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Couldn’t he deny the noncompliant states money similar to the drinking age and highway funds? I could definitely see them making a play like that.

      • Ownbestenemy

        They could and might but I think it would get as muxh traction and reaction as when Trump blew similar chunks about withholding funds also.

    • Plisade

      Yeah, is he building it up just to make *his* triumph over Covid seem all the grander?

      I wonder which narcissistic trait will win… Biden’s need to appear as The Messiah who saves the country, or the Governors’ and Mayors’ control freak desire to keep the lockdowns raging?

      • R C Dean

        Yup. Assuming the current wave follows the typical bell curve pattern, he should be nicely positioned in office about the time it rolls over.

        Everything they are saying, though, is to drive the narrative that we can never lift the masking and lockdowns. The vaccine doesn’t “guarantee” immunity or that you can’t spread. There are new, “more infectious” mutations.

        At some point, I hope the cognitive dissonance between “Biden/Harris saved us from teh virus” and “You must continue to sacrifice because of the virus” becomes overwhelming. My current fear, though, is that they will inflict vast economic (and thus social) damage on this country before any kind of blowback becomes severe enough to force a reversal.

      • Q Continuum

        “My current fear, though, is that they will inflict vast economic (and thus social) damage on this country before any kind of blowback becomes severe enough to force a reversal.”

        Too late.

      • R C Dean

        Fair enough:

        they will inflict vast even more catastrophic economic (and thus social) damage

    • Pope Jimbo

      Yeah, I was sure that a Biden victory would mean that the media would instantly pivot and begin downplaying cases and deaths giving Joe credit for breaking the back of Rona.

      Him taking this tack is troubling. To me it is a signal that he intends to grab a lot of new powers.

      • Plisade

        Maybe this means the Dems are still uncertain as to whether Trump’s legal machinations to stay in office won’t work, so they’re keeping this alive until Biden is sure of election victory.

    • WTF

      One would think the messaging would be that the darkest days are behind us now that we will get the wisdom and guiding hand of Joe Biden.

      One would only think that if the goal wasn’t to maintain their power and control over every aspect of our lives and livelihoods.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        ^This, power and the great reset, which sounds conspiratorial but actually isn’t, is the goal here.

      • R C Dean

        Its hard to argue the “Great Reset” is a bogus conspiracy theory when its publicly been announced/supported by an actual cabal of globalist oligarch.

      • mrfamous

        I’ve said this to a lot of people: “The thing is about ‘conspiracy theories’ is that people do actually conspire.”

    • EvilSheldon

      If you didn’t expect this, then you weren’t really paying attention.

      The left does not want a victory. The left wants to keep everyone frightened and docile.

      • Rebel Scum

        I expected it, was just pointing out the absurdity and dishonesty.

      • EvilSheldon

        Some people really did think that Biden would bring about Victory Over COVID, though. People who really should know better.

        I get it though, I really do. People want to look for the silver lining to the dark cloud.

      • Raven Nation

        Yep. Either use a crisis, create a crisis, or prolong a crisis.

        See also the War on Drugs, the war on terror…

    • Chipwooder

      Sure, none of this shit has worked up to now, but that’s because you just weren’t doing it hard enough!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The sheep have failed the shepherds.

    • Q Continuum

      They started using the term “new normal” back in March; they say their crisis and they sure as shit weren’t going to let it go to waste. This was always the plan from day one. Frankly I think the most effective way to fight it is with a Gandhi-like approach of non-violent resistance. If people don’t comply en masse, there really isn’t a whole lot they can do about it. Same goes for pretty much any unconstitutional mandate going forward.

  28. Certified Public Asshat

    This is the sentiment floating around from the Dems:

    Me and @AOC have the amendment ready. Send the bill back, and we will put in the $2,000 we’ve been fighting for that your party has been blocking. pic.twitter.com/GGXtJt77D9— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) December 23, 2020

    Totally missing the part where Trump said cut out all the bullshit.

    • Pope Jimbo

      If all that funny munny was simply divided up amongst the people, it would be $2700 for each person. So all the Squad has to do is reallocate the money they already agreed on to the people and take it away from the myriad govt agencies that got all sorts of pork to start diversity panels or climate councils.

      • Drake

        But what about the trannies in Sri Lanka?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Of course they “missed” it. They’ll revise it with the new payouts and leave everything else the same and dare him to veto it. It’s a miscalculation though as people aren’t angry over just the stinginess of the individual payments.

    • leon

      It’s always the other parties fault. I’m pretty sure all of congress minus a handful voted for it.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Me and @AOC have the amendment ready.

      Ponder for a moment that this is a congresswoman who can’t express, in written form, basic English grammar.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Proper grammar is the luxury of those born with privilege. Where you been livin’ at, in a closet?

      • leon

        AOC didn’t make that tweet.

      • kbolino

        Tlaib is also in Congress.

  29. Certified Public Asshat

    If you’re wondering about the @joerogan interview, it should run tomorrow! A mere 3 hours 15 minutes…— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) December 22, 2020

    Here we go!

    • Rebel Scum

      Tag. Fail.

      Kristi’s got a gun flamethrower.

    • Pope Jimbo

      She’s definitely playing with fire. She’s fucking with one of Minnesoda’s essential industries. Of course not so essential that King Walz isn’t trying to fucking drive it right into the dirt.

      South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is inviting Minnesota bar owners to relocate to her state after a COVID-19 restrictions crackdown.

      “Come to South Dakota! We respect your rights. We won’t shut you down,” the Republican governor wrote Monday on Twitter.

      If Noem got the nomination in 2024, it would drive the feminists nuts. The First Woman President definitely shouldn’t be someone from flyover country who likes to hunt and shoot flamethrowers. (and perhaps worst of all, she is attractive)

      • Q Continuum

        Word on the street is she likes dick.

  30. Gustave Lytton

    Another victim of the IRA died recently, Margaret Tebbit who was severely injured in the Brighton bombing. Her husband, sadly, is one of the few voices of reason in the Tories. I’d like to think what would have been if he hadn’t stood down to care for her.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Tebbit

  31. Chipwooder

    I had a brilliant idea today – you could make an awesome movie by combining The Parallax View with The Santa Clause.

    • FESTUS IS AN ESSENTIAL WORKER! KNEEL BEFORE FESTUS!

      I like it! Greater powers than yourself forcing you to act in ways that you’ve never imagined before!

    • EvilSheldon

      I think your guy might have gotten some glue in the blotter…

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Totally missing the part where Trump said cut out all the bullshit.

    You can’t cut the money allocated for the swamp. That’s the cost of doing business.

    • Plisade

      The “bullshit” is the whole point of the bill, the whole point of this manufactured crisis. The pork in the bill is the point of the bill, and covid relief is the cost of doing business.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    If Noem got the nomination in 2024, it would drive the feminists nuts. The First Woman President definitely shouldn’t be someone from flyover country who likes to hunt and shoot flamethrowers. (and perhaps worst of all, she is attractive)

    Worst of all, thinks for herself.

    • creech

      First woman president will be Commiela Harris, unfortunately.

  34. Q Continuum

    “Justice department sues Walmart for fueling opioid crisis.”

    Really focusing on the important stuff and not getting distracted by things like election fraud, Congressmen getting their knobs polished by Chinese spies and funding networks of domestic terrorist organizations. Them guyz are tops.

    • leon

      It seems pretty clear that the DOJ just lets prosecutors do whatever the fuck they want and only step in when some golden boy politician’s kid is getting the heat.

    • Lord Humungus

      The saddest part of growing old, and being an uh ass-centric man, is seeing gravity (and lack of workout) taking its toll on the female posterior.

      • prolefeed

        Be thankful for the booty on the woman or women (or guys if you’re into that) you get to fuck. Unhappiness comes from wanting the world to be different from how it is.

        /Zen Bootyism

      • AlexinCT

        What is worse? A saggy ass, or boobs hanging to your knees (something those amongst us that identify as male and like other gents won’t have to suffer through)? Being an ass man, I have my own opinion about this, but lets see what the Gliberati can produce…

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Scientists and infectious disease experts are still piecing together what they know about the new strain, called SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01, which is shorthand for the first variant under investigation in December 2020, according to the CDC. It hasn’t yet been detected in the U.S., but the agency said Tuesday it could already be circulating across the country unnoticed.

    “Ongoing travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high prevalence of this variant among current UK infections, increase the likelihood of importation,” CDC said in a statement. “Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected.”

    When asked about the new variant of the virus on Tuesday, Biden said he had asked his Covid-19 task force whether more pandemic restrictions are needed.

    “One thing I’m waiting to get a response from my Covid team is whether or not we should require testing before they get on an aircraft to fly home, number one,” he said. “And number two, when they get home should they quarantine. That’s my instinct but I’m waiting to hear from my experts right now.”

    Small fraction of infections which have been closely analyzed, you say.

    What the fuck have they been doing, for the last nine months? Aside from running in circles with their hair on fire.

    Don’t worry, though. Team SCIENCE is warming up on the sidelines, and the ball is about to change hands.

    • leon

      We have to close down till we have a vaccine for this new strain. I know it’s frustrating, but if you would all sequester yourselves onto these cattle cars we’ll get this fixed / Joe Biden

    • EvilSheldon

      They’ve been making social media posts and polishing up another round of grant applications. You know, SCIENCE!!!

    • Hyperion

      Viruses do not just mutate like that, it has never happened before, but this is a very tricky and clever virus. SCIENCE!

      • Rebel Scum

        Especially coronaviruses. And don’t tell them about rhinoviruses.

      • Tres Cool

        Hantavirus may like a word or two.

      • UnCivilServant

        Those mice can go fuck off.

      • Tres Cool

        Oh, I forgot that you get mouses in your houses.

      • UnCivilServant

        There hasn’t been mouse sign in months, but I’m still operating on “assume they’re hiding” parameters.

    • Gustave Lytton

      “And number two, when they get home should they quarantine. That’s my instinct but I’m waiting to hear from my experts right now.

      Hey retard, the CDC has been recommending self quarantine for returning international traveler from high and higher risk countries (which is pretty much the entire world right now) for months. But that’s voluntary so in Joe’s dementia addled mind, it doesn’t exist.

    • Tres Cool

      “It hasn’t yet been detected in the U.S., but the agency said Tuesday it could already be circulating across the country unnoticed.”

      Oh, you mean how the original was likely in the US in October of 2019, but nobody decide to shit their panties until March ?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Vegas area teachers made the same demand…almost like they have a union that is telling them what to say.

    • R C Dean

      Diverting the vaccine from old/compromised people to teachers or others not at any particular risk will have a very definite body count.

      What do you want to bet the people demanding that grandma be shoved out of the line for vaccines were hectoring us to wear masks to save grandma?

      • Q Continuum

        Kinda like Emperor Cuomo sending sick people to nursing homes and then getting accolades for it?

  36. Drake

    This is the takeaway from the giant covid graft bill.

  37. Rebel Scum

    So this is a growing trend.

    Hempstead children Monday traded their water pistols and plastic revolvers for holiday gifts in an exchange program meant to teach youths that toy guns can be mistaken for real ones.

    About 100 toy guns were swapped for other less provocative alternatives during the Long Island Toy Gun Exchange Program Monday morning at the village’s Brierley Park.

    LaMont Johnson, a village trustee and school board president, said Monday marked the fifth year the event was held in Hempstead. Johnson said it’s important for children to learn at a young age the dangers of real guns.

    “We don’t want a police officer to mistake a toy gun for a real gun. … Guns are for adults who are licensed. They are not for little kids.”

    So much stupid I don’t know where to start.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They’ll be trading in their disposable knives next.

    • R C Dean

      it’s important for children to learn at a young age the dangers of real guns

      I got $20 that says they learned no such thing, and LaMont opposes actual gun safety training for children.

      • leon

        Because the dangers of real guns is that you shoot one and become a gun loving redneck hick.

      • Tres Cool

        /looks out @ truck, opens beer, puts dip of Grizzly Long Cut Wintergreen in mouth

        Yup. Can confirm.

      • EvilSheldon

        It’s a real danger. My silenced M&P15-22 and steel targets have hooked quite a few new shooters…

        The progressive objection to gun ownership is not unlike the socon objection to homosexuality – “You’re having fun wrong!”

    • Plisade

      “It’s important for children to learn at a young age” the necessity of knowing how to fight to defend your freedom, and to know how to use the weapons you’ll need in that fight.

      • EvilSheldon

        This guy gets it.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      She sounds like a sucker.

      • Tres Cool

        Need a swallower tho.

    • AlexinCT

      I can’t be serious with you and we will have to settle for you giving me oral cause of my Canadian girlfriend….

      I bet like with a moped, having her suck him off is fun, but he doesn’t want his friends to see him with her cause she is erm… big boned?

    • Seguin

      Tell her to get a sheet with a hole in it.

    • Lord Humungus

      Given the looks of most Brits, I’m sure I most of the time I would be half-drunk, or a celibate.

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

    Alright. I’m beat to shit. One more night of toil and then into the depths of a beer can for two days. Happy Holidays to those that I won’t talk to for the next little while!

    • Tres Cool

      Keep the shiny side up, my friend.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Its hard to argue the “Great Reset” is a bogus conspiracy theory when its publicly been announced/supported by an actual cabal of globalist oligarch.

    There is no cannibalism in the Royal Navy socialism in the Democratic Party.

  40. hayeksplosives

    I never thought the Feds would have the balls to “take our guns” but I also never expected blatant results-changing election fraud in a presidential election, or that millions of Americans would stay locked down at home because some bureaucrat says so.

    • R C Dean

      I never thought the Feds would have the balls to “take our guns”

      The ATF’s mission is to deny the right to keep and bear arms, and they have vast discretion to change the rules. They have been restrained so far only by the fear of consequences in Congress.

      If the Dems take the Senate, any bets on whether they will go full-court press, VA-style, on guns? Or will they even need to, when they can just let ATF off the leash?

      • Rebel Scum

        they will go full-court press, VA-style, on guns? Or will they even need to, when they can just let ATF off the leash?

        Yes.

      • kbolino

        The Courts have already set the groundwork in Chevron, and then by inaction allowed, the bureaucratic state to do damn near whatever it wants as long as there is a fig-leaf of credibility in the form of a remotely relevant Enabling Act passed by Congress, or lately an Enabling EO passed by a past or current President (but only when that President is approved by the establishment). Since Congress is generally too divided and too distracted by shiny things to ever clean up the statutes, the bureaucracy is given free reign to define the actual positive law that applies to American citizens, to exempt its own members from those same laws, and to face no real scrutiny whatsoever for its decisions. The “public comment period” is an even more farcical fig-leaf since it involves no measure of consent (it’s not a vote, it’s not binding, no one and nothing involved is up for any kind of election) and is basically just a glorified astroturfing exercise. And any time the accountable head of a bureaucratic agency changes, whether he or she can enact their preferred policies quickly will be entirely determined by how cooperative their employees want to be. Process and procedure will be alternately erected or waived as needed to ensure no real public scrutiny is ever encountered, and no judge, clerk, or civil servant will ever have to face negative pressure from their social circle.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    You can’t talk about god in here

    Oregon State Senator Dallas Heard has protested mask requirements by ripping off his face covering during a special legislative session for COVID-19 relief at the Capitol in Salem.

    Lawmakers had been asked to follow strict guidelines while meeting in the Capitol, including wearing masks or face coverings while on the floor. After being called upon for remonstrances, Heard, a Republican, expressed his outrage at mask rules.

    “This is yet another illegitimate session where you, the Democratic majority, have declared the people unfit to participate in person in their own Capitol building,” Heard, a Republican, said.

    “Let the record reflect that I am in fierce opposition to any legislation that this illegitimate assembly may pass today. You will be held accountable for this in the coming years.”

    Heard accused his Democratic colleagues of joining Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in a “campaign of intimidation against the people and children of God.”

    What a weirdo.

    • R C Dean

      Well, isn’t that interesting.

      Our legislature is taking up a bill for immunity from COVID liability during a declared state of emergency. It specifies that immunity applies for acts or omissions beginning on March 11, 2020 until, wait for it, December 30, 2022.

      I think that gives a clue on how long they intend to keep the state of emergency going: two more years.

      • Q Continuum

        An emergency that lasts two years is not an emergency.

      • Lord Humungus

        You know who else had a never-ending emergency…

      • Q Continuum

        People with uncontrolled Crohn’s Disease?

      • Tres Cool

        My ex-wife ?

        SLD- possessing an MFA in ‘Theater Education’ she had a literal degree in drama

      • creech

        Colonel Klink?

      • Agent Cooper

        NBC’s only lasted 8 years.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        2022? Pardon my French but holy fucking shit!!

      • UnCivilServant

        They need to secure the midterms to put forth their slate of reforms, and who knows if a new fake emergency will emerge by then.

      • hayeksplosives

        Fauci is saying so with no doubts or apologies.

        I heard his nauseating press conference in which he told little kids that he personally had gone up to the North Pole to vaccinate Santa.

        It was clear that this COVID-19 outbreak is the best thing that ever happened to him. He buys into his own hype; he’s the hero.

      • leon

        The way he justified saying that to those kids is the same reasons in his mind he used to justify his flip floping and meandering policy prescriptions for the last 12 months.

    • Agent Cooper

      Sometimes a bad idea is a bad idea.

  42. Rebel Scum

    ChiComs getting a little ahead of themselves.

    An explosion at a pharmaceutical factory in Taoyuan City left two injured and caused a fire early this afternoon, December 20.

    People as far as Tamsui District in New Taipei City reported hearing the massive blast shortly after noon. Immediately after the blast, thick black smoke could be seen pouring out of the SCI Pharmtech factory.

    The cause of the explosion is currently under investigation.

    Liberty Times reported that the factory produces hydroxychloroquine APIs [active pharmaceutical ingredients – TL], and is the world’s second largest HCQ raw material supplier.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s just the vaccine manufacturers eliminating the competition. If the ivermectin factory burns down it’s definitely enemy action.
      -just kidding (sorta)

  43. Gustave Lytton

    I was half joking about pardoning Martha Stewart last night, but the more I think about it, the better it sounds. And her persecutor was Comey. Fucker should be in pound me in the ass prison right now.

    • Q Continuum

      En masse pardon to anyone Comey’s ever prosecuted.

      Troll level: Infinity.

  44. KOVIDKristen

    I got a lot of problems with you people. Not the least of which is there is not a single Festivus greeting in here!

    • KOVIDKristen

      There will be an aluminum pole on the Zoom tonight. Am I referring to an actual aluminum pole, or something Tonio will do on camera? Who knows?

      • UnCivilServant

        *whispers* it’s actually an aluminum statue of Jan III Sobieski

      • KOVIDKristen

        (actually Tadeusz Kościuszko – have some respeck!)

  45. Suthenboy

    Having trouble keeping up here.

    EvilSheldon – Re your comment above “The left doesnt want victory”

    ““Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

    ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

    You are correct. What could be better than a mask mandate? Didnt some state pol recently suggest that non-mask wearers should be charged with attempted murder?

    • Q Continuum

      All true. However, I maintain that the most effective way of fighting this is Gandhi-style non-violent non-compliance.

      I’m reminded of I-95 in Miami. The speed limit was 55 and not a single person drove slower than 75, it would have been dangerous to drive the speed limit. If a majority of business owners said “fuck you” and opened, there wouldn’t be a whole helluva lot they could do about it. Sure, they’d try to make examples out of some people, but if businesses held the line and didn’t cave I think it would work. This is an emperor has no clothes situation and too many people are pretending the emperor isn’t naked.

      • Drake

        Non-violent non-compliance / violent non-compliance – either / both.

    • kbolino

      Hardly an original thought of mine, but Rand could write villains straight out of real life. It wasn’t her villains that were unrealistic and one-dimensional, it was her heroes.

      • Mojeaux

        She herself admitted she wrote ideal men, not real men.

      • kbolino

        Yeah, 90% of the critiques of Rand were answered by the woman herself in her lifetime. She wasn’t perfect but she gets a lot of misrepresentation. It doesn’t help that anyone who’s not an objectivist has no reason to defend her or educate themselves on her so she ends up a chewtoy for statists.

  46. UnCivilServant

    I stumbled onto this Picture during the morning discussion of lions. It is the last photograph of a wild barbary lion. I found it striking in the surrounding desolation, and the fact that the last lion was alone.

    • Suthenboy

      The end of the ice age and subsequent changing of ocean currents doomed countless species to extinction. It also created the Sahara desert. In case anyone doesnt understand the scale of that tragedy, the Sahara desert is larger than the continental United States. Not long ago it was filled with people and critters instead of lifeless sand and rocks.

      How sad.

      • hayeksplosives

        I was watching a documentary “The Story of Europe” (Amazon Prime) that showed some of the gorgeous cave paintings of Southern France from 40k years ago.

        There were bison and horses, yes, but also plenty of lions, Jaguars/leopards (idk spotted big cat), rhinos…very different from what we think of as European fauna now.

        Climates change, animals go extinct, new animals emerge or old ones thrive in new areas.

        It’s pretty well established that there were pre-Egyptian cultures making permanent buildings in North Africa many thousands of years ago. All consumed by sand now.

        The idea that modern humans can and must stop the Earth from doing what Earth gonna do is the height of hubris.

      • Seguin

        Dwarf elephants lived in the Aegean until 4000 BC or so.

      • Lord Humungus

        If you haven’t seen it Werner Herzog’s documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams is worth a watch.

      • Mojeaux

        Animals that can’t be arsed to participate in their survival deserve omdie out. Lookin’ at you, pandas.

    • CPRM

      It was only the last because no one could have one as a pet and we didn’t eat them.

      • UnCivilServant

        Last wild.

        There are still barbary lions in captivity.

        (pay no attention to the fact that barbary lions are the same species as other lions…)

    • creech

      It would be sad if, say, parrots or hummingbirds went extinct. They are decidedly different. But not so much sad if, say, a parrot with a spot of yellow on his beak went extinct and those identical except for a yellow spot didn’t.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s not so much the ‘extinction’ (see comment about about barbary lions being just panthera leo) but the emotive effect of the image in the photograph.

    • dontreadonme

      That is an awesome photograph!

  47. Rebel Scum

    Pocket. Veto.

    “It is the second biggest stimulus in the history of America, and for him to turn this down — obviously, we have the votes to override his veto in the houses. We have those votes. But he should not be doing this right now, when his own Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, was involved in the negotiations from beginning to end.”

    • CPRM

      But…It’s not a ‘stimulus’ bill or a ‘covid relief bill’, it’s an omnibus spending bill, whit that shit tagged on so they can guilt trip everyone into spending more fake money.

    • kbolino

      his own ____

      I see this all the time. As though because someone got appointed by Trump, or just decided not to quit the moment Trump showed up, that they should be taken more seriously than the man himself because they’re “his own”. Mnuchin is a swamp creature like Barr, a fact I observed early on when he spouted establishment bullshit not long after getting appointed. Whether Trump does what Mnuchin wants or not is up to Trump not Mnuchin.

  48. CPRM

    I didn’t bother to read all the comments, but I found these in the pardon list:

    George Papadopoulos – Today, President Trump granted a full pardon to George Papadopoulos. Mr. Papadopoulos was charged with a process-related crime, one count of making false statements, in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Notably, Mueller stated in his report that he found no evidence of collusion in connection with Russia’s attempts to interfere in the election. Nonetheless, the Special Counsel’s team still charged Mr. Papadopoulos with this process-related crime.

    At the time that Mr. Papadopoulos allegedly made the false statements, he was not represented by counsel, and, after he was arrested, Mr. Papadopoulos gave additional information on his prior statements to the Special Counsel. Today’s pardon helps correct the wrong that Mueller’s team inflicted on so many people.

    Alex van der Zwaan – Today, President Trump granted a full pardon to Alex van der Zwaan. His pardon is supported by former Rep. Trey Gowdy.

    Mr. van der Zwaan was charged with a process-related crime, one count of making false statements, in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. None of his underlying conduct was alleged to have been unlawful, nor did prosecutors note any prior criminal history. Mr. van der Zwaan is a Dutch national who voluntarily returned to the United States to correct his statements and surrendered his passport upon entry.

    Rushun Collision!!1!1!!1!!!111

    • hayeksplosives

      I’d high five those cephalopods if I knew where to start.

      Right on, dudes! Punch them fish.

      Octopi are the Glibs of the animal kingdom.

    • Not Adahn

      I saw Spiteful Octopodes open for Concrete Blonde back in ’88.

      • Tres Cool

        Johnette Napolitano, while ‘waifish’ given my preferences checks most of my boxes.

        1990 or so, I was stationed at Ft. Hood, Texas. A buddy of mine was getting shipped off to Alaska. Since he was from San Antonio, and had more than 1 car (mexicans, amirite?) he asked me and another friend to drive his ‘fleet’ down there for storage. I was driving south on US 281, in the dark, in his spic’d-out chevy blazer and this came on.

        “Funny how a melody can bring back a memory.” -Clint Black

    • Suthenboy

      Considering that Octopii (Octopusses?) have an IQ of around 100 and fish have an IQ of around 10 I dont think that ‘collaborative hunting’ is what is going on. I think the Octopusses have learned how to use the fish to help scare up lunch.

    • Mojeaux

      Spite? The fucking fish won’t leave the poor thing alone.

    • Agent Cooper

      Fish are kind of douchey.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Most essentialest

    There is some debate over who should be among the 50 million Americans in line for the next wave of coronavirus vaccines. States are beginning to make their own priority lists, while labor unions say their members should go first.

    We’re nearly two weeks in with more than 600,000 vaccines administered, including the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, who received the vaccine Tuesday.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the next group should be those 75 and older and frontline essential workers — but that’s 49 million people. So far, just under 5 million doses have been delivered.

    Sylvia Tanguma, who heads the teacher’s union in McAllen, Texas, said she feels like she’s in competition with other essential workers for the vaccine. Tanguma eats in her car so that she doesn’t remove her mask at school.

    On Monday, Texas announced the next group to be vaccinated will be those either 65 and older or at high risk — not teachers as a whole.

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott “needs to consider how many teachers we have and how badly we are needed,” Tanguma said.

    Union pissing contest. Women hardest hit.

    • KOVIDKristen

      Texas Governor Greg Abbott “needs to consider how many teachers we have and how badly we are needed,” Tanguma said.

      Be careful what you wish for…you may discover you’re not as badly needed as you think

      • hayeksplosives

        I think plenty of parents don’t intend to resume public school for their kids. Theyve been forced to follow how shitty an education their kids are getting.

      • EvilSheldon

        Speaking of silver linings – this is mine.

      • AlexinCT

        I am hoping that we realize that we should get rid of all but the best teachers and whether we let kids go back to a school building or not, video feed classes. We keep around some people to supervise, but get rid of the majority of these marxist indoctrinators pretending to be educators…

    • Plisade

      “I feel like I’m in a competition with my children for my husband’s protection,” Tanguma said.

      While her children do need to be protected while at their most vulnerable age, Tanguma believes her husband needs to consider that there’s a ghost living in the master bedroom closet.

    • Seguin

      I’m sick of people kissing teachers’ asses. By most people’s admission, they aren’t even good at their jobs! Almost everyone agrees that the state of education in America sucks (often for conflicting reasons, but meh) – who do they think is at fault for that?

      • UnCivilServant

        Those filthy, lazy students won’t put in the effort to make their teachers look good.

      • kbolino

        It’s like Congress. People will believe the education system is messed up, but their kids’ teachers are great. Somehow, we have so many systems that are (apparently) locally optimal everywhere but globally suboptimal.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Tanguma eats in her car so that she doesn’t remove her mask at school.

    Our best. Our brightest. Totally not our craziest.

    • Tres Cool

      I bet she’s a blast at parties.

      • Hyperion

        But you probably wouldn’t want to ride in her car, it probably smells like month old happy meals.

      • Tres Cool

        So would that make them un-Happy Meals ?

      • Seguin

        I read that as “Ride her in the car.” I think Q is getting to me.

    • Hyperion

      Many woke, much brave.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    If a majority of business owners said “fuck you” and opened, there wouldn’t be a whole helluva lot they could do about it.

    If a few thousand business owners said, “See you in court,” the whole charade would come crashing down.

    • creech

      Using unconstitutional “emergency orders,” many business owners would be perp-walked to jail, just like in Prohibition speakeasy times, their business trashed and boarded up. Next step, bribing judges and cops to look the other way, etc. etc.

      • hayeksplosives

        Meanwhile, the populace at large becomes “a nation of scofflaws.”

        I love that word, “scofflaw.” I scoff at your stupid, unconstitutional law.

        Hell, even sheep with the best of law-abiding intentions breaks rules and regulations routinely without knowing it.

        Count me with the scofflaws if Biden does a mask mandate.

      • Q Continuum

        “their business trashed and boarded up”

        Which is different from what they now how exactly? So you can be driven to penury and government dependence while remaining “free” or you can get locked in a cage for doing what’s right. That’s why I said Gandhi-style resistance.

      • Q Continuum

        what they have now*

      • Plisade

        That’s how court houses get burned down.

    • grrizzly

      Why would business owners risk everything if 95%+ of their customers display everyday that they enthusiastically approve of it?

      • mrfamous

        I’m reading a lot of people saying that they’re done with the mask after they get vaccinated regardless of what Fauci or the NYT says. And these tend to be folks that have enthusiastically towed the line since day 1. There’s going to be people who will comply forever, but I suspect there’s already been a slow leak of support for this shit and I assume that will continue. Hopefully anyway.

    • AlexinCT

      Government will not run out of money (they can just take more of yours whenever they want to) so you better be careful with this move…

    • Suthenboy

      I just noticed Petacci has a large hole in the front of her shirt. That is an exit…she was shot in the back.

      She tried to run away?

      • Seguin

        Probably. A lot of Italian partisans were commies, and, therefore, horrible people.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    Hantavirus may like a word or two.

    My response, from the day I first heard about the chinee snifflecooties, has been, “If the hantavirus hasn’t gotten me by now, I’m not gonna waste my time bein’ skeert of this.”

    • LJW

      I could only imagine the tyranny if the Hantavirus mutates to a more contagious strain.

  53. Rebel Scum

    Moar identity politicks rot.

    A Virginia judge issued an opinion in which he stated that a black man who was being tried on charges of eluding police must not have his trial in one of the courtrooms used during the coronavirus pandemic because those larger courtrooms have numerous portraits of white people.

    On Monday, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David Bernhard wrote of the prospective trial of Terrance Shipp on January 4, saying “criminal defendants are disproportionately of color and judges disproportionately white … the Court is concerned the portraits may serve as unintended but implicit symbols that suggest the courtroom may be a place historically administered by whites for whites.”

    • Suthenboy

      “Once they are demoralized you cannot fix them. You are stuck with them forever. No matter how much authentic information you give them they cannot draw a sensible conclusion.”

      We all know who said that.

      Bernhard needs to be in a different line of work.

    • rhywun

      I… can’t even. Maybe there is a more suitable courtroom for him in the basement or at the back of the bus or something.

    • Plisade

      Doesn’t a judge’s “opinion” differ from say, mine? Like, shouldn’t a judge’s “opinion” be based on a law or something?

      • Hyperion

        Laws are outdated. From now on, everyone will be judged by the degree of their coloredness.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    On Monday, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David Bernhard wrote of the prospective trial of Terrance Shipp on January 4, saying “criminal defendants are disproportionately of color and judges disproportionately white … the Court is concerned the portraits may serve as unintended but implicit symbols that suggest the courtroom may be a place historically administered by whites for whites.”

    Will they try him in a courtroom decorated with jungle scenes?

    *Goes to penalty box, feels shame*

    • Suthenboy

      Why? For pointing out what raging bigots the progs are?

  55. Derpetologist

    Some more camping tips

    -Use a towel to dry the dew off your tent before packing. It’s a lot faster than waiting for the sun to dry it and it gets mildew-y if you put it away wet.

    -There are these things called firesticks – hot dog size sticks soaked in camphor. They’re great for getting wet/rotten wood to burn. I got a fire going this morning when I packed up my tent and had a breakfast s’more. No s’more schnapps, alas.

    -Foil blankets are a must for cold weather sleeping, though you will probably rip it as you toss and turn. Whatever, they only cost $3.

    -I love flip flops, but they are not good footwear when the temperature drops below 50 degrees American.

    -$7 a night for so-called primitive camping (only amenities were fire ring, garbage can, and outhouse)

    -Naan packs well. Flat bread – good enough for hobbits on the go, good enough for me.

    There’s a 60 day limit at the campground I was at. Damn, with a little rotation, I could spend less than $3k/yr on shelter, depending on how many free places I can find.

    It was cool getting a taste of the Valley Forge experience, minus the dog eating.

    ***
    Men in rags, men who froze, Still that Army met its foes, And the Army went rolling along.
    ***

    ***
    The Regimental Combat Team 31 (RCT-31), commonly referred to as Task Force Faith of the “Chosin Few”, is a United States Army unit known for its role in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War where 90-95% of its force was killed, wounded, and/or captured on the eastern side of the reservoir.

    During the night of 28 November, the Chinese again struck the task force, overrunning several positions, again inflicting many casualties. Chinese prisoners indicated the 80th Division and elements of another, likely the 81st. The Chinese attacked 1/32’s position, but were destroyed by artillery and airstrikes. The weather conditions deteriorated rapidly. The temperature plunged as low as -30 degrees F (-34 C), as heavy snow fell, impeding mobility. Visibility was low and the troops were suffering from the intense cold (several men froze to death in their foxholes). Colonel MacLean decided to pull his lead battalion, the 1/32 Infantry, back into the perimeter of his other units a few miles to the south, to provide a stronger defense.
    ***

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Force_Faith

    They fought from their sleeping bags and use the heat from hot gun barrels to stay warm. The survivors were bombed and strafed by USMC aircraft who mistook them for enemy.

    • Lord Humungus

      STEVE SMITH LISTEN WITH INTEREST ABOUT CAMPING

    • Mojeaux

      You are on a walkabout?!

    • EvilSheldon

      Be careful with foil blankets. They’re good insulators, but they also don’t breathe at all. You can end up soaked in sweat if you wrap yourself up in one, and that’s bad news if it’s really cold. They make great ground sheets and hammock liners, though.

    • Suthenboy

      Since the age of nine camping (often by myself) was just another day ending in Y, or a week’s worth in a row.
      Learning welding…discovering camping…

      I like you Derp. You are a good egg.

      My favorite camping story: I am 14 or 15, I dont remember which, I wake up in the morning in a sleeping bag (no tent, just laying on a pine straw mat) and it had snowed overnight. There is about 4″ of snow over everything including my sleeping bag. No matter, I am warm in the bag. The fire still has coals in it. Suddenly I feel something move in the bag by my feet. It is furry. I think it is my dog Smokey. Then it occurs to me that I had not brought Smokey with me.
      Slowly and carefully I unzip the bag and slide out. I poke the lump in the bag.
      A raccoon’s face pops out then the critter runs off through the woods.

      There is a housing shortage in the woods. I guess it was cold and he thought ‘what the hell?’ and the poor thing crawled in the bag.

  56. UnCivilServant

    After shopping around, I picked the Samsung Galaxy A21 to replace my current phone. All the reviews kept bitching about how this $250 (retail) phone didn’t do fancy shmancy things very well, but that the battery lasts for-prettymuch-ever. As long as it can make and recieve phone calls and texts, and I only need to charge once in a blue moon, I’m happy. There’s still a (slim) possibility that it was made in Korea too.

    • Mojeaux

      I have a 4yo Samsung Galaxy S7 that I love and am dreading its final days.

      In addition to calls and texts, I would need ebook reading apps and music playing apps also.

      • UnCivilServant

        My phone is 6 years old. If not for the battery problems, I’d not be shopping for new.

        But I’m pretty sure most ‘smart’ phones can handle those requirements.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, the battery life (or burn-in) would be the final impetus for me getting a new phone. I HATE moving in to new devices.

      • UnCivilServant

        Mine is shutting down at 95% battery. It’s a known problem with the model after enough years, though most users have a lower threshold.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    I watched a movie called “Kings Go Forth” last night.

    Extremely interesting. Grown up plot. Definitely recommend.

    • Lord Humungus

      -1 Michael Bay explosions galore

  58. Homple

    “Special counsel Durham investigation ‘making good progress,’ Barr says”

    Barr is just rubbing our noses in it now.

    Christ, what an asshole.

  59. Lord Humungus

    My beloved neighbors, the couple that we play cards with while drinking copious amounts of booze, just put up one of those intellectually vacuous We Believe signs.

    Ugh…

    • KSuellington

      Man how I detest those frigging things, and yes, as expected, they are plenty of them around here. There needs to be a Glib version:

      We believe….

      Racism is bad, mmmkay?
      Black guns matter
      Hate speech is free speech
      Science isn’t consensus
      My body, my choice means more than abortion
      Every business is essential, to those that own and work for them

      • KSuellington

        Taxation is theft
        Progressivism is anti liberal
        Gun rights are human rights

  60. The Late P Brooks

    My beloved neighbors, the couple that we play cards with while drinking copious amounts of booze, just put up one of those intellectually vacuous We Believe signs.

    Which reminds me… I saw a sign the other day. A great big one, in front of somebody’s house:

    MAKE AMERICA CARE AGAIN

    No. Fuck off.

    • Suthenboy

      “…one of those intellectually vacuous We Believe signs.”

      I don’t get out much. I am not familiar with this. They believe what?

      • Suthenboy

        Never mind. I DDG’d it.

        Oh for fuck’s sake. It should just say “I am an asshole”

    • rhywun

      My neighbor has a “black lives matter” sign in a window which faces an interior courtyard and is not visible from the street… lolfail. Never seen the “we believe” one in the wild. It’s not terribly woke around here.

      • Mojeaux

        There’s one up the street from me. Across the street from them is a Trump/Pence sign (still up) and occasionally he flies a Gadsden flag. During 2016, he had up a huge handmade banner that said “Deplorables live here.”

      • kbolino

        “We Believe” would be confusing around here, since Baltimore has had some kind of long-running PR campaign centered around the word “BELIEVE” painted on buildings. I’m not sure if it’s still “active” but you can still see the signs (and variants). This is the closest thing to an explanation I could find but the link to an official source is broken.

  61. The Late P Brooks

    Science isn’t consensus

    *collapses on fainting couch*

  62. The Late P Brooks

    My neighbor has a “black lives matter” sign in a window which faces an interior courtyard and is not visible from the street

    Don’t burgle me, Bro!