Wednesday Morning What’s He Doing Here? Links

by | Dec 30, 2020 | Daily Links | 439 comments

The year finally winds down, and it was a rather…eventful one. This will be my last hurrah before 2021, so I’ll try to make it at least mildly entertaining. And really, all it takes for that is a few headlines- we are living in a comedy club universe. And the obligatory (but nonetheless sincere) end-of-year thanks to all you wonderful contributors and commenters who entertained the hell out of us. And we even got to enter several more names to the “Glibs we’ve hung out with” list. You guys are the best.

Birthdays today include a man who would be king; a Canadian who tried to be a satirist, but was too polite; a guy who could not save us from Hoover; a guy who was there; the second best Jewish pitcher; arguably the best folk/bluegrass composer of my lifetime; a decent folksinger with outsize success; the fourth member of Cream and a remarkable talent, though not the best at domestic relations; a guy who proved that everything is better with monkeys; another guy who proved that everything is better with monkeys; an incredible and incredibly underrated drummer; a woman who always makes me think, “Why is she popular?”; a true practitioner of free market capitalism; and some guy who played golf.

Let’s talk about the news, though.

 

Isn’t it good how prosecution is totally objective and non-political?

 

Apparently, one of the symptoms of COVID is heart attacks.

 

Raymond Throckmorton III? They have to be shittin’ us.

 

But the important thing is, what was the guy’s race? Can we score some virtue points here?

 

Thin Mints of Oppression.

 

“My model says we’re going to have a disaster. But there’s plenty of time for more grant money before then.” Colleagues call the prediction “stunning and brave.”

 

Old Guy Music features a dead birthday boy covering a terrific Jack Bruce song. And Leslie West died last week as well. My youth is hanging by some thin, thin threads.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

439 Comments

  1. Rebel Scum

    The year finally winds down

    But the nonsense will inevitably continue.

    • Fourscore

      Double up on the nonsense

  2. The Late P Brooks

    What doesn’t kill your enemies is not particularly helpful.

  3. Rebel Scum

    The New York prosecutor investigating Trump’s tax records is calling in reinforcements

    I wonder what she(?) might find that the IRS has not.

    And isn’t the same cunte that explicitly stated the goal of dissolving the NRA? I have no love for the NRA as I find it basically useless as a 2A advocacy group but I have a major problem with that politicized behavior by a prosecutor.

    • WTF

      I don’t know how they can just go on a fishing expedition without any credible evidence that a crime had been committed. This is real Soviet stuff the Democrats are doing, and it will only get worse.

      • Rebel Scum

        I believe it is “FYTW”, comrade.

      • WTF

        Well yeah, it’s obvious the constitution has been a dead letter for some time now.

    • hayeksplosives

      The process is the punishment. Even if the case gets thrown out eventually, the message will have been sent: If you cross the entrenched statists, expect retaliation and harassment.

    • Homple

      New York’s Lavrentiy Beria found the man four years ago but is still looking for the crime.

    • AlexinCT

      I wonder what she(?) might find that the IRS has not.

      Seriously? After 4 years of “Russia, Russia, Russia!!1!!” you think they will have a problem “finding” something? They have already proven on multiple occasions that cheating & lying, and in particular making up shit through progjection, is not a problem they have.

  4. Rebel Scum

    Apparently, one of the symptoms of COVID is heart attacks.

    Likewise for blunt for trauma from, say, falling off a ladder.

    • hayeksplosives

      LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection.

      I don’t know about you guys, but I’m kinda curious about the “procedure” that led to his untimely end.

      Seems pretty relevant here, but there’s no follow up question or speculation by the “journalists.”

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, that’s a good question. Not a lot of invasive procedures done to treat the ‘Vid. Offhand, I can’t think of any.

      • Tonio

        Intubation for ventilator?

      • hayeksplosives

        That’s all I could figure too.

      • R C Dean

        Could be.

        “Procedure” is shorthand for invasive procedure. I don’t think intubation is technically an invasive procedure, although I’d have to check.

        We don’t really refer to it as a procedure, colloquially.

      • R C Dean

        I looked it up. There are, of course, different legal definitions, mostly in state licensing codes and, inevitably, CMS. The former don’t generally encompass intubation as an invasive procedure (“incision of the skin, etc.”), but the CMS definition does (“an instrument is introduced through a natural body orifice”).

        Odd, though, to refer to intubation as an (invasive) procedure in connection with a ‘Vid patient. Its generally just called “intubation” or “put on a ventilator”.

        Between “procedure” and “heart attack”, this is an odd description of death from the ‘Vid. Of course, OMWC’s caveat re journalists applies.

      • invisible finger

        Sounds to me like they’re floating “COVID!!” as a malpractice defense.

      • Agent Cooper

        Yep. They fucked up but are using Covid for a cover.

      • rhywun

        “He had no underlying conditions,” Ghali said. “It was just COVID.”

        It’s right there in the article, science denier.

  5. Tres Cool

    “The man walked backward into the street and once he crossed to the other side, he shouted at police, asking who was going to be killed that night.”

    Well…you asked, didn’t you ?

    • WTF

      Yeah, this seems like a case of suicide by cop.

      • Old Man With Candy

        It’s still racist. Maybe.

      • Homple

        The riots haven’t started yet.

      • WTF

        There will be no riots unless the dead guy is a POC.

      • Homple

        No riots yet and race is not mentioned in the article, so my guess is honkey.

      • ElspethFlashman

        Move along, nothing to see here.

  6. Rebel Scum

    Girlfriend warned Nashville police Anthony Warner was building bomb a year ago

    The FBI had that shit locked down.

    • WTF

      Sounds a lot like how they handled the Tsarnaev brothers after the Russians warned them they were trouble. I guess they don’t have the resources to devote to actual anti-terrorism work with all their commitments to digging up dirt on political opponents, and running entrapment schemes against faux “terrorists”.

      • hayeksplosives

        Trump is the real threat here.

        He’s literally Hitler and has the blood of 300 thousand COVID-19 victims on his hands.

      • Festus

        Narrator – “More than half of the American public believes that!”

      • invisible finger

        Exactly what I thought, WTF.

        Of course SCOTUS has already ruled the police aren’t obligated to lift a finger.

      • KOVIDKristen

        You got a noose in your garage? We’ll send a whole bushel of investigators!

      • AlexinCT

        Shit like this is really why they had nobody to go check the guy building a bomb in his RV out…

    • AlexinCT

      They were too busy looking for evidence of Russia collusion and Trump obstruction of justice???

  7. Rebel Scum

    Florida professor predicts Amazon rainforest collapse by 2064

    There will be no snows of Kilimanjaro by 2020.

    • hayeksplosives

      How goes the expedition to build a bridge between the twin peaks of Mt Kilimanjaro?

    • juris imprudent

      Northwest Passage is open year round now, right?

      • Homple

        I see her working Aurora Avenue now and then so, yes, she’s stull open.

    • AlexinCT

      At least he is smart enough to do more than 10 years. The idiots that told us global fuckjob would kill us in 10 years back in 1990, then 2000, followed by 2020, and now 2030 still have not learned that if the prediction window is too short, your racket gets exposed…

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        To be fair, it’s only exposed to those who care to think critically. You don’t accumulate a populist majority by gathering critical thinkers.

      • AlexinCT

        Some people have figured out how to – at least temporarily – get powerful & rich banking on the fact the universe always wins when it comes to the creation of stupid….

        The fact that eventually that stupid has a cost is the real gamble. These people predict when the bill comes due they will be long gone or in a position to pass that bill along to the stupid people yet again… Something like the change for a reset or something…

      • juris imprudent

        You don’t can not accumulate a populist majority by gathering critical thinkers.

        FTFY

      • Not Adahn

        You can not accumulate a populist majority by only gathering critical thinkers.

        Unless you’re just using “populism” as a boo-word, there’s no contradiction between a set of a priori valuies and thinking ability.

      • Jarflax

        I am not sure the category of critical thinkers is a set with members. It depends how you define it I suppose. If you define a critical thinker as a person who tries to live an examined life and sometimes succeeds, then critical thinkers exist. If you define it in more absolute terms as a person who always or even generally thinks critically I have yet to see a single example.

      • juris imprudent

        Critical thinking is not a feature of the masses. Most people simply don’t want to invest the mental effort. Populism if not by definition then certainly by history is proven to be an irrational form of human behavior. I definitely see populism as a movement of a mostly-thoughtless mass, and I’m leaning on Hoffer there.

      • AlexinCT

        Humans don’t think critically. Most of the time, most of the people, have a bias they work backwards to create a “logical reason” for. This is why I tell other AI writers that machine AI going rogue is not a thing: computers simply can’t make the illogical leaps humans sometimes do that on rare occasions result in something exceptional.

      • Mojeaux

        Most of the time, most of the people, have a bias they work backwards to create a “logical reason” for.

        See: Why Mormons think caffeine is verboten.

    • Agent Cooper

      I predict earf ded 4545.

    • Count Potato

      I’m surprised at the sponsors that guy gets.

      • Festus

        I like his content but something deep inside my soul makes me want to face-punch him and I’m a half-ginger. Self-hating Ginger, I suppose.

      • AlexinCT

        Ginger danger?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Nah, its more like magnets, two -1 souls repulse.

      • Festus

        Polar opposites?

      • AlexinCT

        That ginger lady I dated sure as hell was a polar opposite of sane…

        Made for great sex, but boiling bunnies and flat tires caused by breaking the inflation mech was not my thing. There is a reason I park my car in a garage and never leave it out…

      • Festus

        Red-Heads be crazy, Yo. I have stories. Crawl into your bedroom through the basement window stories.

      • AlexinCT

        It is fun while you are enjoying it, but then it gets real fucking nuts when you decide that was all the crazy you could take. Being called a faggot because I wouldn’t punch (and I am talking about full force punching, not some kind of love tap) her during sex really killed that relationship for me. I just didn’t feel like being accused of rape later so I told her that was not happening, and got a mouth full of shit and her trying to beat me up. After that the crazy got real ugly…

      • Festus

        I guess I’ll just listen and learn from here on in. Did get raped by one though.

      • AlexinCT

        Not surprised . They get kind of aggressive and when they want it, they want it. Kind of admit I liked it. Never got the whole thing about getting your ass kicked during sex though.

  8. R C Dean

    A lot of COVID patients do die of heart failure. As your lungs silt up, the heart has to work harder to try to circulate enough blood to keep your body oxygenated, and it just gives out basically from overwork. That’s a legit died from the ‘Vid, IMO.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Are heart failure and heart attack synonymous? (serious question)

      • hayeksplosives

        No. Heart failure (congestive heart failure) is the heart giving out and getting less and less blood pumped around.

        Heart attack is a blockage to vessels serving the heart. The heart muscle could still be in good shape.

        Both are plumbing problems.

        Cardiac arrest is an electrical problem.

      • R C Dean

        This. It’s congestive hear failure that finishes off a good number of ‘Vid patients.

      • Old Man With Candy

        The article specifically said “heart attack,” thus my question. Of course (brace yourself!) the “journalist” may have gotten it wrong.

      • Not Adahn

        Do you have a degree from Columbia? No? Then where do you get off questioning your betters?

      • Old Man With Candy

        I went to an Ivy League school in the US instead. I don’t trust that South America shit.

      • Not Adahn

        Racist.

      • invisible finger

        Journalists are held to the “Fauci Standard”. Aka “close enough for government work.”

    • WTF

      I’m sorry, but due to the lack of detail, and the published statistics on fatality rates, I don’t believe for one second that an otherwise healthy man in his 40s was killed by the ‘vid. He obviously had some sort of previously-undiagnosed condition. Most likely a heart condition.

      • Rebel Scum

        ^

      • Fourscore

        “of previously-undiagnosed condition”

        previously miss-diagnosed condition

        Was he a vet, that could explain it?

        /VA hospital reject

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Bonkers

    A significant number of Americans believe misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus and the recent presidential election, as well as conspiracy theories like QAnon, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll.

    Forty percent of respondents said they believe the coronavirus was made in a lab in China even though there is no evidence for this. Scientists say the virus was transmitted to humans from another species.

    And one-third of Americans believe that voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election, despite the fact that courts, election officials and the Department of Justice have found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome.

    The poll results add to mounting evidence that misinformation is gaining a foothold in American society and that conspiracy theories are going mainstream, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. This has raised concerns about how to get people to believe in a “baseline reality,” said Chris Jackson, a pollster with Ipsos.

    “Increasingly people are willing to say and believe stuff that fits in with their view of how the world should be, even if it doesn’t have any basis in reality or fact,” Jackson said.

    “What this poll really illustrates to me is how willing people are to believe things that are ludicrous because it fits in with a worldview that they want to believe.”

    Gender is a social construct.

    Toxic individualism.

    Wearing a train robber mask will keep you from catching a cold.

    Global warming.

    Democratic socialism.

    People believe some weird shit, alright. That’s what they meant, right?

    • Rebel Scum

      despite the fact that courts, election officials and the Department of Justice have found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome.

      Um…this statement is, for lack of a better term, a lie. The courts have not heard a single case. Election officials are lying and the DOJ is conspicuously absent on the issue.

      But I saw the neighbors garage has a noose on it. The FBI should get 20 guys on that asap.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      This has raised concerns about how to get people to believe in a “baseline reality,” said Chris Jackson, a pollster with Ipsos.

      It’s really fucking easy. Lie less.

      • robc

        Like budgeting, reality properly has a zero baseline.

    • hayeksplosives

      Let me show you what you can do with your baseline reality.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        They don’t understand that people aren’t just wandering off the reservation. People are developing strong contempt for the reservation and the people running it.

    • Ted S.

      How many people still believe Russian collision won Trump the presidency in 2016?

      • Swiss Servator

        Antifa is a just an idea.

      • DrOtto

        300k dead from COVID

      • Chipwooder

        Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.

        John Brennan is a good, dedicated public servant.

      • Not Adahn

        *gurgling noises*

        *…*

        *exhales dank cloud*

        Aren’t we all just, like, ideas man?

    • invisible finger

      Reality is the opposite of belief.

    • AlexinCT

      The fucking people that live in a world of marxist fantasies are the ones telling people they are conspiracy theorists for actually believing in the real world? Isn’t there a mental disorder with that symptom?

      • Surly Knott

        Yes. Marxism.

    • mrfamous

      “There should be a law in my state requiring mask usage in public, at all times: Total 64%, Republican 45%, Democrat 85%, Independent 60%.”

      We are so fucking screwed

  10. Rebel Scum

    Why have I never heard about this?: When America Invaded Russia

    I mean even a 2-3 sentence mention in a history book about the Great War would be something.

    • WTF

      I only knew about this because my grandfather’s older brother fought in WWI (as did my grandfather) and was subsequently stationed in Russia. He would tell stories about how cold it got there.

    • ruodberht

      If I wasn’t already subscribed to that channel, I would be now.

      Loved their series on the Winter War.

      • Seguin

        K&G is great, but their sister channel, The Cold War, is trash. Guy only uses left wing sources I think.

    • juris imprudent

      When the left skin-suited the progressives in the 60s, they dropped all mention of how the original progs were Protestants, racists and anti-communist.

      • Chipwooder

        Not just Protestants, but extremely zealous Protestants.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Extremely zealous protestants with some weird (by modern standards) beliefs about the end times.

    • DEG

      The first I heard about it was when I started collecting military surplus rifles. I read about Mosin-Nagants, and read about how one of the American units had been equipped with American made Mosins because “They’ll be able to find ammunition once in Russia”.

  11. Brawndo

    Off topic, but does anyone else see the inevitable victory lab by the Biden admin after the 100 days to wear a mask? 100 days after inauguration is pretty much the end of respiratory illness season, and the medical establishment and media can make some small tweaks to how testing is done (lowering the cycles on the PCR tests for one, only allowing symptomatic people to get tested, etc) and what gets reported. At that point, the panic is over and they will have a mandate so to speak to ease restrictions and let the tax cattle get back to work. I know some people think that the hysteria will never end because they won’t ever give up power, but they aren’t giving up that power. As soon as they need to, they can manufacture another crisis and, voila, it’s back to masks, distancing, shut downs, and most importantly vote by mail

    • Rebel Scum

      As soon as they need to, they can manufacture another crisis and, voila, it’s back to masks, distancing, shut downs, and most importantly vote by mail

      None of the virus theater is going away because it is intended to control you. I, for one, will not participate.

      • Homple

        Corona viruses are good at mutating. Already a new and Moar Contagious edition emerged in the UK. New variants will appear as needed to maintain lockdowns. We can never be sure that the current vaccine works on the New Mutation, you know.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Not knowing the first thing about mutation rates of coronaviruses or the effectiveness of these types of vaccines on mutations, I’m guessing that these vaccines are completely worthless by June.

    • hayeksplosives

      They’ve overplayed their hand. The masses and the newly minted little Eichmans and Karen Corps will not give up their new-found powers.

      The statist elites are about to be reminded of how tough it is to control the behavior of millions, even if they are “on the same side.”

      • R C Dean

        Any day now . . .

        You’re more optimistic than me.

      • hayeksplosives

        DONT HARSH MY MELLOW, MAN!!

      • juris imprudent

        The thing is, we (the people of like minds here) aren’t going to be happy with the backlash either. I mean, hey, at least it won’t be the woke idiots in charge – it will be a different brand of idiot.

      • Jarflax

        Pick your poison. Marxist dictator, Fascist dictator, Lord High Protector, non-ideological Corrupt Strongman are the likely finalists. I’d probably choose Corrupt Strongman because he doesn’t care what you do as long as his beak gets wet.

      • DEG

        I’ll volunteer to be the Grand High Poobah of the Realm.

        All I ask is you send 10% of all ammunition purchases to me and every now and then send a gun and/or a busty redheaded lass my way.

      • WTF

        I don’t know, so far they’ve been seeing how easy it is to control millions. There has been very little push back so far, and it’s been going on for the better part of a year.

      • Homple

        The millions have proven to be pretty controllable so far. From what I can see, my fellow citizens would stand in line six feet apart wearing masks waiting their turn to get in their designated cattle car.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    The poll asked respondents whether they believe that “a group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media,” the false allegation at the heart of QAnon. While only 17% said it was true, another 37% said they didn’t know.

    “It’s total bonkers,” said Jackson, “and yet … essentially half of Americans believe it’s true, or think that maybe it’s true. They don’t really know. And I think that’s terrifying that half of Americans believe that could be the case.”

    According to the poll, 39% of Americans believe another key tenet of the QAnon theory: that there is a deep state working to undermine President Trump.

    Some people will believe ANYTHING.

    Fucking dupes.

    • Rebel Scum

      It’s not like Generals and such have lied to him about troop deployments or anything. I mean, could you imagine how ridiculous and absurd it would be to lie to the CnC about such things? Likewise if an ambassador was to go rogue and not carry out the foreign policy agenda of the administration.

    • Tulip

      The Dulles brothers never did any such thing. J. Edgar Hoover never did any such thing. Louis Freeh never did any such thing. I mean, it’s totally absurd.

    • Ted S.

      Have these pollsters never seen “Yes, Minister”?

    • juris imprudent

      While only 17% said it was true

      I bet if you asked 100 people if they knew what QAnon was, you might get 17 that have any idea.

      • invisible finger

        I thought QAnon was a support group for closeted homosexuals.

      • Plisade

        I thought it was a support group for people who look at collections of boob pics online.

      • AlexinCT

        BAZINGA!

    • hayeksplosives

      Joe gets inaugurated Jan 20. After strategic leaks indicate his health is failing, he steps down or is relieved of duty.

      President Harris gets sworn in. She names Hilary as her VEEP.

      How long before tragedy befalls Harris and we have President Hersekf?

      Or does Hillary want it only if she can be the first Madame President?

      • Rebel Scum

        Harris would have to be prez first and select Herself as veep. But that would be a bad move for Harris in this game of thrones.

      • R C Dean

        As assassination insurance, Hillary has pros and cons.

      • Tejicano

        Unfortunately for Harris, Hillary’s pros are the ones who carry out the assassinations – and a number of them are probably cons as well.

      • Homple

        Harris, not being suicidal, would avoid picking Hillary for VP.

      • invisible finger

        Hilary has mental health issues than Biden.

      • invisible finger

        ^worse

      • dbleagle

        Harris can pick Hillary, but her choice must be ratified by majorities in both the House and Senate. If the GOP retains the Senate, even with Mittens flopping, the she beast won’t get ratified.

      • DEG

        If the GOP retains the Senate

        So what you’re saying is, Hillary will be VP?

    • Tulip

      He was a terrorist. I have no problem calling him a terrorist. Who is arguing?

    • WTF

      Well, a terrorist generally uses terror in an attempt to achieve or promote some sort of political/ideological goal. Do we have evidence of this for the Nashville guy? Or so far do we just think he was a lone lunatic?

      • hayeksplosives

        Lone nutter is most likely theory.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        There are some indications that this was an elaborate suicide. He gave his house to his ex-girlfriend, a clear indication he was looking to check out. There is some evidence that he had a beef with AT&T because they fired his dad a few years back and he died shortly thereafter. There is also some speculation that he was a 5G conspiracy nut. So, lone nutter seems like a accurate assessment.

    • Count Potato

      The Fort Hood shooting was “workplace violence”.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      CWAA, You can bet your ass that if this guy was associated with some sort of Christian or Militia organization it would be plastered everywhere.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Because not a single person has been radicalized, trained and equipped to carry out a suicide attack at a mosque, nope not ever. Counterfactuals like this piss me off to no end.

    • Agent Cooper

      Terrorists usually do not broadcast that you should leave the area of a potential bombing.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    But Republicans were more likely than Democrats to believe misinformation about the virus, including that it was created in a lab in China and that COVID-19 is no more of a “serious threat” than the seasonal flu.

    So crazy. You look at the numbers and ask yourself, “Where is the 30, or 60, or however many people out of 100 death rate we have seen in real plagues?” and those guys at NPR think you’re nuts.

    • hayeksplosives

      They tried probing this angle a few years ago when Global Warming was going to be the means to control our lives.

      “People who deny climate change are mentally ill.”

      • juris imprudent

        And when I smash a brick into the person’s face saying that, I’ll just say “I dunno, guess I AM mentally ill”.

      • Rebel Scum

        Does anyone deny climate change? It has, changed, does change, and will continue changing. I just do not consider co2 to be a pollutant (because, by definition, it is not) and there is reason to believe that levels in the atmosphere are historically low and were approaching the point of being too low prior to the industrial revolution.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The standard is you must accept the inherent misanthropy of the movement and their socialist solutions to not be categorized as a heretic… oops… I mean denier.

      • hayeksplosives

        The climate cannot be permitted to change! The climate must stay stuck to its average conditions as they existed in 1800.

        No ecosystems are permitted to shrink or grow, and animals aren’t allowed to go extinct.

        Everyone knows that the earth is an immutable planet that cannot tolerate change. Only the white man can save the earth from natural forces.

        Duh.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        If we could get the climate to change back to the Carboniferous, that would be pretty neat, save for the man-sized centipedes and dragonflies the size of crows.

      • leon

        Centipedes, Earwigs, cockroaches… These things give me more hebejebies than any other bug.

      • Festus

        All of those gain a stampy-foot. Especially earwigs.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Centipedes can make me scream like a little girl. In Hawaii I set my gear out the night before I had to get up early for Air Assault school. Sure enough, when I picked up my helmet there was one of the demons coiled up under it. Had the rubber duck I had been a real rifle, I would have put a magazine into it. I am surprised that I did not fill my pants then and there.

      • AlexinCT

        I am only scared of clowns…

      • R C Dean

        Scorpions, man . . . .

        *thousand-yard stare*

      • Festus

        ” He’s Mister Boofoo! God-King Boofoo!”

      • R C Dean

        We have historical records showing pretty dramatic changes in climate well before the Industrial Revolution. As in, records written by people, describing different climates and landscapes than are now present. And changes far more drastic than anything that could possibly be attributed to CO2 emissions.

        Just one example: the Spaniards who colonized Texas describe a verdant prairie in south and middle Texas. 400 years later, it was more arid. After the droughts of the early and mid 20th centuries, it would be completely unrecognizable to them – springs and streams dried up, mesquite everywhere, short grasses at best, relatively few broad-leafed plants.

    • Rebel Scum

      COVID-19 is no more of a “serious threat” than the seasonal flu.

      It’s not. And curiously flu A and B have ceased to exist. One could easily inflate the numbers with that, the bs tests and counting every death ‘with’ convid as a death ‘of’ convid, as was the stated methodology at the outset of this farce.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I don’t doubt it is more dangerous than a typical flu. That does not mean it is so dangerous that it justifies their every whim.

      • WTF

        It seems like it may be about as bad as the 1968-69 Hong Kong flu, for which there was no masking, no lockdowns, and no hysteria or disruption of everyday life, despite it being much more deadly to the young than the ‘vid is.

      • juris imprudent

        If we had had the 24 hour news cycle and ubiquitous social media back then – yeah, we’d have had the same panic. That’s the real difference.

      • WTF

        I don’t think so. People’s attitudes were different back then, and absent the subsequent decades of leftist indoctrination they would not have stood for the bullshit we are currently subjected to based on fear of a bad flu virus.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I think it’s a bit of both. There were dampening mechanisms in society that have been removed by social media and the news cycle. There was also a different cultural ethos that was less amenable to the type of emotional manipulation that occurs today.

        That said, let’s not pretend that the “greatest generation” didn’t vote away almost all of the Constitution because of a few recessions.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Sorry, the generation before the “greatest generation”

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I think, “Silent Generation,” is the nom de jour for folk from that era, for what its worth.

      • juris imprudent

        Possibly, you also had people that remembered the previous bad flu in ’57-58, whereas we haven’t had anything like that since ’68. So a lot of people raised in comfort that think their safety bubble should be impenetrable. Blaming it all on “leftist indoctrination” is warmed-over Bircherism.

      • Chipwooder

        Plus, in 1968 you’d still have a fair number of people around who could remember the 1918 flu epidemic.

      • WTF

        Blaming it all on “leftist indoctrination” is warmed-over Bircherism.

        You can’t help yourself, can you?

      • juris imprudent

        Apparently no more than you can.

        I’ve seen the whole Bezmenov interview, and I’m not a believer.

    • leon

      Just take a step back and realize that the whole article is just an exercise in “get back over here” by the media. They don’t like that people don’t behind the “baseline reality” they create.

      • Spartacus

        Our weekly family dinners are entertaining. Mrs. Spartacus does not work and rarely leaves the house except to go to Dr appointments. Her entire view of the world is based on what she hears on NPR every day, which is relentlessly reinforced by their multiple “news” shows, repeating the same talking points over and over. Spartacus Jr., who is in his 30s and lives in town, is more widely read but hangs out with borderline Qanon-types. Both will argue tirelessly on any point whatsoever, the more trivial the better. I make and consume drinks.

      • leon

        My Entire (nearby) family went full TDS, thankfully family dinners stray away from politics, but generally i just shut up because i value family peace over whatever silly points i could get. Only a few times have i made a comment, usually as a warning that they were treading on territory where i disagreed and lets not get into it.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        generally i just shut up because i value family peace over whatever silly points i could get

        Yup. However, I do make clear how uninterested I am in having a conversation about current events.

    • rhywun

      misinformation about the virus, including that it was created in a lab in China

      Right?! They, like, even denied it and stuff. Some people… SMDH.

      • Plisade

        Yeah, cuz “there is no evidence for this” < "Scientists say".

      • R C Dean

        It only appeared, according to the official story, literally within sight of the lab where research on exactly that kind of virus was done. And not only research on that kind of virus, but research to create that kind of virus (we, and by we, I mean Fauci, outsourced virus research to the Chinese that looked into how viruses would become dangerous to people, by developing such viruses). Oh, and they were doing research at that lab on the species of bat that the virus supposedly emerged from in the wet market. A bat, by the way, that does not share habitat with the species of pangolin that is also supposedly involved in the emergence of the virus.

        Now, what does Occam’s Razor say? That this was a random event that occurred when a virus crossed between species that don’t share habitat? Or that this was a virus that escaped from a lab doing exactly the kind of work that would result in such a virus?

    • Agent Cooper

      COVID-19 is a more serious threat to a subset of the population than the seasonal flu. There. I said it.

  14. Festus

    “Flung himself upon his horse and madly rode off in all directions!” You have risen even further in my esteem, you pedophiliac curmudgeon! Leacock is wry and funny.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    I was looking around, yesterday, at people. I think you can see the hard core believers who will never give their masks up.

    It doesn’t matter what happens, there will always be people on the street wearing masks and looking art you as if you’re some sort of mass murderer if you’re not wearing one.

    People want to believe in monsters and evil spirits.

  16. Rebel Scum

    Look at me, Jim, I’m Jim Acosta.

    “I spoke with a member of Joe Biden’s COVID advisory committee, and she said part of the issue was how much was left up to the states. President Trump seems to be tweeting exactly that. He is being defensive about this and saying, ‘It’s up to the states to distribute the vaccines once brought to the designated areas by the federal government. We have not only developed the vaccines, including putting up the money to move the process along quickly but gotten them to the states.’ Kaitlan, this Operation Warp Speed has become operation flat tire in terms of getting vaccines into people’s arms. Was this by design? What do you make of the president pushing this off on the states again?”

    You know he is proud of that one. Totally pwnd Drumpfler, bro. And someone does not understand the legitimate, designed structure of the US government.

    • R C Dean

      Weird. We’re not having any trouble getting vaccines. In fact, we’re pretty sure we have more reserved for health care workers than we will be able to administer.

    • Agent Cooper

      My wife gets hers on Monday. The line to get them this week was out the door. No problems here.

  17. Cy

    “Florida professor predicts Amazon rainforest collapse by 2064”

    *goes and checks google earth*

    Yep… It’s still there and not getting smaller.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    I don’t believe for one second that an otherwise healthy man in his 40s was killed by the ‘vid. He obviously had some sort of previously-undiagnosed condition. Most likely a heart condition.

    I saw a big sob story yesterday (CNN? NPR?) about some teenage girl who died in a matter of days from it.

    She was completely healthy, so far as they knew.

    Who knows? Some people are undoubtedly more susceptible than others, to anything: cancer, heroin, diabetes, you name it.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      They could find a sob story like this every day of the week, and it still wouldn’t a pandemic make.

      • Gdragon

        Yep, so much this. My headlines yesterday let me know that absolutely no one should get a haircut.

    • Cy

      Having just recently gone through the ‘vid’ experience; if someone is ignorant of what to do during a fever or what basic medications to take for fever reduction and congestion reduction, I could see the chances of dying dramatically increasing, even in healthy people.

      If you don’t know to cool your body when your temp jumps over 101.5, you could be in a world of hurt.

  19. Not Adahn

    Pedantry

    Not that anyone here needs help.

    • Not Adahn

      Also, I want to clip off the last four seconds and use it to sign off the daily ops meeting.

      • leon

        I’m in charge of my local churches Sunday School, and got in trouble for telling some of the teenagers who were loitering to “Go do something useful with their lives”.

        Yeah. Not my best moment… But i still think it’s solid advice.

      • juris imprudent

        Great clip and love that sign off.

    • leon

      Love it

    • Tres Cool

      Despite being way below my weight-class, she checks all my boxes. I think she’s about as funny as a german physicist can be, and looks oddly like Yeardly Smith

  20. wchipperdove

    Gender Traitor – I hope your husband makes a full recovery quickly. Sounds like it was a pretty mild event, thank goodness. Also, don’t you crazy kids have an anniversary coming up?

    Also sending good vibes to our own Yusef.

    • Tres Cool

      As I recall, Mr. GT doesn’t drink. This should be a cautionary tale- w/o the necessary blood-thinner (alcohol) always present and active in our bloodstreams, a stroke or aneurysm could be lurking around the corner. -Dr. Tres

      Or as Tres Sr. once explained (during his drinking days): “Look- doctors are telling people to drink 8 glasses of water/day. The cheap beer I drink is around 96% water by volume. I think a 12-pack should cover me.”

    • Gender Traitor

      Thanks! He’s doing very well. And today is our first 25th anniversary. (We had two weddings – one to make it legal and another a few months later as an excuse to throw a party.)

      • hayeksplosives

        Delighted to hear it!

      • SP

        I haven’t been around the front of the site much lately, GT.

        Sorry to hear of Tom T’s current medical challenges.

        But Happy Anniversary!

      • straffinrun

        That’s great GT. And Happy Anniversary!

      • AlexinCT

        You just wanted two presents, didn’t ya? 🙂

      • DEG

        It’s good that he’s doing well.

        Happy Anniversary!

      • Mojeaux

        Happy anniversary, and I’m glad he’s doing well. 🙂

  21. Festus

    Nice Music! Mountain was was much more than “Mississippi Queen”! Really cool and matches my mood. Thanks Old Man.

    • Old Man With Candy

      It’s a great song. My favorite from Mountain was still “Because You Are My Friend,” but it didn’t feature Felix.

      Be glad I didn’t use “Pressed Rat and Warthog,” featuring Felix on trumpet. Oh what the fuck, here it is.

      • Festus

        I owned that vinyl as a kid.

  22. Festus

    Remember back in the 80’s and 90’s when hair spray was gonna kill the planet? There was so much used back then that I never doubted it for a moment. I’m pretty sure that my Ex killed off the Red Panda incrementally every Friday night.

    • Not Adahn

      I’m pretty sure that my Ex killed off the Red Panda incrementally every Friday night.

      These euphemisms are getting sinophobic.

      • juris imprudent

        Almost like turning Japanese.

      • Tres Cool

        Its amazing how many people don’t know what that song is really about.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        It was quite the revelation when a friend of mine told me what that song was about.

      • hayeksplosives

        I am apparently one of them.

      • Plisade

        Most people don’t know jack.

      • Not Adahn

        *golf clap*

      • mrfamous

        According to the person who wrote it, it’s not actually about that. You can believe him or not, but that’s what he says.

      • Tres Cool

        An ex of mine (OG-1X-OG) used to get her regions waxed. Her phrase was always “Hungry? How does some freshly-scaled red snapper sound ?”

    • Chipwooder

      I haven’t heard much about the ozone layer lately.

      • Drake

        Don’t forget about acid rain – it’s going to kill every forest in the world.

  23. DrOtto

    Thank doG, for a minute I thought the Girl Scouts were using the monkey labor. That would have been unforgivable.

  24. Cy

    Well, after 2 weeks with the Rona, I’m down 24 lbs and finally back to work. That was my first time having Xmas off in a long time, I just wish it wasn’t so shitty. Quarantining away from the wife and kids was probably the shittiest/hardest part. There were 3 pretty rough days in that span and 1 really rough day with a lot of fever/sweating.

    It’s hit my extended family pretty thoroughly at this point. Only my mother is really having any big issues with it, but she appears to be pulling through ok. All of us are surffering pretty heavy fatigue and lung capacity issues. Not horrible, but definitely noticeable.

    As a side note, you don’t realize how much you love your taste buds and sense of smell until they’re gone. I can’t taste chocolate anymore. Right now it’s either really sugary things or really salty things and even then I can only taste it if it’s overwhelming.

    • Sean

      Glad to hear you’re on the mend.

      Were you given any therapeutics?

      • Cy

        No. I stuck to Acetaminophen, Pseudoephedrine and nyquil.

        The one really bad day i did have something new happen to me, I heard a loud sizzle in my ears, right before I passed out.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Glad y’all made it through! Down 24lbs is pretty extreme.

      *Rona oil weight loss supplement business comes into focus*

      • leon

        :side effects may include: extreme respiratory pain, death and loss of civil liberties:

      • Gustave Lytton

        Seek assistance if your belly curves aren’t flattened within 14 days, as this may be the sign of a serious goal shifting situation.

      • Cy

        I have to be careful about jokingly saying “the Rona saved my life.” There were definitely some positives that came out of quarantining for 2 weeks. My body reset it’s natural clock for sleeping. There was a heavy reduction in stress just because there was nowhere to go and nowhere to be. The weight loss has definitely had a great effect on me as for movement and just general overall feeling. I’m just now able to eat a whole sandwich. It was really odd for me to be only able to east a few bites and then be completely full. I’ve had to force myself to eat and still do.

    • Chipwooder

      Yep, not being able to smell anything was just weird at first, but now it kinda sucks. I roasted a turkey the other day and couldn’t smell a damned thing. Loved the smell of a roasted turkey.

      Fortunately I can still taste though. It’s a bit diminished but still there.

    • Festus

      Glad that you and yours are going to weather the storm. We make light but some folks actually do get sick and die. Good luck and many rays of happy sent your way!

      • Cy

        Thanks. There was a lot of happy when I got out of quarantine. You don’t realize just how much you miss being able to hug your wife and kids until that first big hug.

      • Festus

        Dusty in here again for some reason. “Somebody check that thermostat!”

    • Count Potato

      Sorry, hope you and your family are feeling better.

    • invisible finger

      I was sick two years ago and lost my sense of smell and taste. I also lost hearing in one ear because the congestion was so bad. (Probably ‘rona.)

      At first it wasn’t a big deal losing taste, I actually think I hate healthier at the beginning. But after a couple weeks i was so desperate I started eating like crazy just hoping I could taste something.

      Hot peppers and steam started giving me relief but it was probably 6-8 weeks before I got my taste and hearing back to normal. I think my sense of smell improved from what I had before I got sick.

      • Cy

        I’ve been wondering about it in a few ways.

        Has my pallet been ‘reset?’

        Are things going to taste differently now that my pallet has been reset?

        If I ever get my full ability to taste back, how would I actually know if it’s back to ‘full capacity?’

        It is something I’ve wondered about before, now I guess I get to find out good and hard! I’ve always had a very heavy sweet tooth. I’ve eaten a lot of things that people around me have had to stop eating because they claim it’s ‘too rich.’ I’m curious if I’m going to be come that guy.

        Also, when drinking alcohol I wonder if I’m going to be more sensitive to the amount of alcohol that’s in the drink, that hasn’t ever been an issue for me before.

    • straffinrun

      You got hit pretty hard, eh? Glad the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger.

    • SP

      I’m glad you are feeling better.

    • DEG

      It’s good that you recovered. Hopefully the rest of your family pulls through too.

    • WTF

      Of course Trump is to blame! It couldn’t have anything to do with the people actually running the place.

  25. TARDis

    I’ll see your Raymond Throckmorton III
    and raise you
    one Sgt. Mercedes Fortune.

    • Chipwooder

      My favorite name was a guy who briefly played for the NY Giants in the 1990s, Moses Regular.

      • Chipwooder

        Oh, and the Mapp brothers of college basketball back then – Majestic and Scientific.

      • AlexinCT

        Dick Trickle….

        Nough said.

      • Chipwooder

        In that vein….former MLB pitcher and pitching coach Dick Pole.

      • AlexinCT

        I see what you did there….

  26. Gustave Lytton

    It’s been very interesting to see how many supposed disparate news stories refer to Letlow as “Letlow, R-Start”. That sort of identification is usually for state legislators (which Letlow wasn’t), not congressmen (or congressmen-elect). Congressmen are usually “R-LA” or “R-LA5”. Yet that very particular phrase is salted all over the place…

    • creech

      “Office of the Congressman Elect”

  27. The Late P Brooks

    They could find a sob story like this every day of the week, and it still wouldn’t a pandemic make.

    “It happened to him/her/it. IT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.”

    The panicdemic is the inevitable extension of something I have been saying for a long time: they (professional Chicken Littles of all description) have structured their narratives around the notion that any conceivable calamity, no matter how absurd or improbable, must be treated as not merely likely, but inevitable. No expense or sacrifice to “mitigate” [insert doomsday scenario] is too great. Somehow or other, when the Chicken Littles started shrieking “The sky s falling!” this time, a critical mass of politicians actually listened.

    • invisible finger

      Inevitability means mitigation can’t work.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Possibly, you also had people that remembered the previous bad flu in ’57-58, whereas we haven’t had anything like that since ’68. So a lot of people raised in comfort that think their safety bubble should be impenetrable. Blaming it all on “leftist indoctrination” is warmed-over Bircherism.

    I have a nit to pick.

    Substitute cultish “expertism” and government education factories’ incessant drumbeat of “Shut up and do as you’re told!” for “leftist indoctrination”, and it sounds a lot less like warmed over Bircherism.

    • Festus

      Fuck that! I yearn for the days of “Bircherism” right now and I ain’t half joking. Hang those Commies from the nearest tree. Pace, Preet.

    • WTF

      And the “expertism” and “shut up and do as nanny government tells you” along with the cult of “safetyism” is coming from the left, not the right. Which is why I used “leftist indoctrination” as a shorthand, which I’m sure he is aware of.

      • leon

        As long as we are nitpicking here, there is some “shut up and do as nanny government tells you” that comes from the right. Particularly around Cops. Pre-Trump the GOP was all on board with “Expertisim” when it came to our dumbest experts, the foreign policy zooks and spooks. Even still there is a large part of the GOP in congress that don’t dare cross those experts.

      • WTF

        Agree, especially the cop-sucking on the right, where they seem shocked, SHOCKED! that the cops happily enforce multitudes of unconstitutional orders. But I wouldn’t say both sides are equally bad, and I wouldn’t call most of the GOP legislators conservatives.

      • juris imprudent

        Thank you.

      • Festus

        When I was a lad it was always the Right that said “No!” I suppose that the Parties did really switch but it didn’t happen in the 60’s, it happened after the 2008 election.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It comes from both sides, it just depends on the reasons. Go back 19 years and the right was screaming for the Patriot Act to protect us from the terrorists.

        I’d say we’re pretty much fucked when it comes to people wanting the government to save everyone.

      • Cy

        “Go back 19 years and the right was screaming for the Patriot Act to protect us from the terrorists.”

        I remember that very differently. To me, it was more like:

        Holy shit the twin towers just got knocked over into rubble!

        *within a week congress approves the patriot act*

        Holy shit! how did they come up with several thousand pages of something called ‘the patriot act’ in a week?

        Wait a second, they wouldn’t label it ‘the patriot act’ unless it was REALLY shitty legislation. It was.

        Since then, congress has never missed an opportunity to quietly re-enact it and the media is more than happy to stay mum on the subject.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I remember the right accusing anyone who disagreed with any steps taken to fight the terrorists anywhere and anyhow as unpatriotic and a jihadi-lover.

      • Count Potato

        I remember it being bipartisan.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^THIS^^

        They changed that reality to help team blue, after the fact, when it became expedient to act as if they had not agreed with the people peddling the WMD stories…

      • Juvenile Bluster

        9/11 and the PATRIOT Act was the final straw that disconnected me from the Republican Party.

    • juris imprudent

      Substitute cultish “expertism” and government education factories’ incessant drumbeat of “Shut up and do as you’re told!” for “leftist indoctrination”, and it sounds a lot less like warmed over Bircherism.

      You’re absolutely right. But simply saying “leftist indoctrination” is not the same as saying “shut up and do as you’re told” – which the moral fuckwads of the right have preached for years. The govt yoke is still a yoke whether it drags you to the left or the right.

  29. leon

    GAHH Got the “You Must Be Logged In” message of Comment Doom. And it was a doozy. So you’ll all just have to get abridged version.

    I’ve been thinking about that article and what it said about “Baseline Reality”. I find this both creepy and evil. Mostly because the people talking about it are the DC Technocrats whose ideas of baseline reality are 1) unimortant to day to day life, and 2) just focused on ensuring their hegemonic authority over culture and the populace.

    For example of 1). See how hard they come down on “Flat Earthers”. In what meaningful way does believing the earth is flat change your day to day life? Are you a bad person for it? But that is a deviation that cannot be allowed to stand. For 2) look at all the examples they gave. It is all about making sure there is no question about their authority. Often by saying “Their is No evidence of ____”, when what is actually true is that there is evidence of ____ but the evidence against it seems stronger. But they can’t bare to even recognize that other people have reasons for believing things differently from them.

    And what is most perverse is that these people have no problem throwing out other items of that do actually effect peoples day to day behaviours without a blink. “Looting is just anger”, “There are no riots”, “Systemic racism means you can’t be racist towards white people” etc.

    • EvilSheldon

      One of the signs that you’re dealing with a malignant narcissist is that any disagreement is treated as a personal attack, deserving of ruthless punishment.

      We have ourselves a government full of malignant narcissists.

      • Juvenile Bluster

        Being a malignant narcissist is seemingly a requirement to run for higher office. Is there anyone in DC who isn’t?

      • Chipwooder

        DC, nothing – I’d be surprised to find more than a handful of non-narcissists in all of the statehouses in the nation, combined.

    • wdalasio

      Like any other argument from credentialed authority, I refuse to even discuss “baseline reality” until the proponents of that paradigm agree to catastrophic personal consequences if they’re proven wrong. We can’t question the election results (despite statistical irregularities of epic proportions)? Okay. But, if fraud is later proven, do you agree to be subject to scaphism? We have to accept AGW? Are you willing to bet your opposable thumbs on that?

      The proponents of these approaches want authority to rule over everyone else’s lives regardless of the consequences of their demands. Until they stipulate they’re willing to accept equally dire consequences for their demands being unproven, I’m not interested in anything they have to say.

  30. Count Potato

    “Victims of racism should take Ecstasy or magic mushrooms to reduce the trauma of their experience, suggests a new study.

    Scientists found a single psychedelic trip from mushrooms, acid or MDMA could help victims overcome the racism they have been subjected to.

    Psychedelic drugs could also help reduce stress, depression and anxiety in black, Indigenous and people of colour whose encounters with racism have had lasting harm, according to the findings.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9098739/Victims-racism-Ecstasy-magic-mushrooms-reduce-trauma-study-suggests.html

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      There are plenty of good reasons to take those particular drugs, the primary reason being that they feel awesome, but the reason they state isn’t one of them. Some of them are good for depression, anxiety, and the like though so if the article, which I couldn’t bring myself to read ties that in, good job even if it is a bit of a reach.

      • R C Dean

        I’m a fan of Leary’s approach – have a reason and a goal in mind of some kind. “Set and setting” are important indeed. I’ve taken psychedelics for fun, but I’ve also used them more purposefully. They can absolutely be “therapeutic” when used the right way.

        Dropping acid and hanging out in your crappy apartment in your shithole neighborhood is unlikely to result in good things. There’s a reason “street drugs” tend toward those that make you numb.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I enjoy them very occasionally on a shallow level and can’t say I’ve ever felt a long term lift or had any particular insight that didn’t seem ridiculous when I sobered up and I concur with the time and place observation. If you take them after a bad day or when you’re paranoid about something, well good luck.

  31. Ownbestenemy

    Day Two of our self-observation/quarantining and no symptoms. Middle son’s GF and family are getting tested today, so we will see how that goes. I have to report to my work if they pop positive and Ill be deemed a suspected until I either get a test or show no symptoms after 7 days of reporting. At least I think that is our new standard.

    Other than that, good morning glibies.

    • Chipwooder

      I’m amazed they make any money at all for those idiotic videos.

      • mrfamous

        It’s just TV in a “post TV” landscape. The TV Networks and advertising companies and entertainment companies have done this to themselves. The moment people could get 15 minutes of entertainment for 16 minutes of their time, as opposed to 30 minutes of their time they were going to do so.

        Viewing customers as mere resources to extract rather than customers to keep happy is bad business (ask TOS). But it is extremely common once your business becomes mega successful. You wind up sowing the seeds of your own demise. Of course the government always steps in to try and prevent your demise once that happens…

    • leon

      This “Do as i say, not as i do” behavior is so common, i’m re-examining my life to see when i do it.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      For companies advertising to 16-28 year olds (give or take), paying Tik Tok or Instagram “stars” to advertise their product is far more cost effective for what they get than television commercials ever were.

  32. Count Potato

    “5. 1968 – The year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination

    1968 is classed as one of the bloodiest years in American history.

    On April 4, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

    Two months later, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was running for president at the time, was also shot and killed.

    The nation was also gripped by protests and riots that left 39 dead, more than 2,600 injured and numerous African-American communities destroyed.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9096543/2020-EIGHTH-worst-year-live-history.html

    No mention of the flu though.

    • leon

      So in 60 years they won’t mention the COVID when talking about 2020?

      • Count Potato

        Only if cockroaches learn how to talk.

  33. Juvenile Bluster

    I have a handyman in the house taking care of things like replacing drywall and replacing a ceiling fan because I was brought up in the Jewish tradition of “never learn to do these things and pay someone else to do it”.

    • leon

      Ha.

      I was raised in the Mormon tradition of “Have 7 kids, so you can legally get children to do your general contracting work for you”

    • Festus

      Is he really a “Handy-Man” if he doesn’t offer a “handy” when the job is done?

      • Tres Cool

        “Happy Ending Contractors, LLC. “

      • Gdragon

        Made me think of Handi-Man… now THERE is a sketch that would never make it on the air these days

      • CPRM

        Hell Blankman couldn’t even be mad today…whycome no black superheros!?

    • Gustave Lytton

      No shame in hiring someone for drywall and electrical work. One is a pain and the other can be deadly. I’ll do my own minor work but either the amateur builder or a previous jackass did a crap job and nearly burned down the house due to their wiring.

      • leon

        Drywall for anything other than a small patch over a whole, is a bitch so yeah, hiring someone who can do it, and make it look better than you could is worth it.

        And yeah Electrical can be scary.

        I had to do some soldering of some pipes in the house a year ago and i was terrified i’d burn the house down with the torch.

      • Chipwooder

        For me, plumbing is the scary one. Causing something to leak water and not knowing how to stop it is a nightmare I’ve experienced, so I don’t bother even attempting plumbing anymore. It’s not the same as being an electrician, obviously, but having some past experience as an electronic technician made me much more comfortable with electrical work, at least with simple jobs.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I always hire drywall out. It’s a pain and not worth it.

        Electrical is pretty easy to pick up. I used the Black and Decker book + YouTube to teach myself and that covered pretty much anything a homeowner would ever need. A few years ago, I added 3 streetlights and ran ~400 feet of underground conduit/wiring along the driveway. It cost <$1k for all materials, a couple day laborers, and a ditchwitch rental. I have no idea the price an electrician would charge but imagine it would be absurd.

    • Count Potato

      I dated a jewish girl like that. The first time I was at her apartment, I fixed five different thing in her apartment, in about 20 minutes, without bringing any tools.

    • Not Adahn

      Ceiling fans are stupidly easy. I mean they are literally the easiest domestic chore involving elextricity you can do. More people are injured plugging lamps into a socket than installing ceiling fans.

      • Count Potato

        Hanging lights can get tricky if it’s an old house that uses pipe thread instead of machine thread.

      • Sean

        I replaced one at my house. I wouldn’t want to install one from scratch, but mostly cuz I’m quite lazy.

      • Not Adahn

        The builder wated to charge me something like $100 per to install them. I put up three of them in an afternoon, with most of the time required figuring out how to remove the existing fixtures (the first one I attempted had the nut hidden under a layer of fiberglass).

      • Tres Cool

        You know who else had a hidden nut ?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Every teenaged boy sneaking an old tube sock into the day’s laundry?

      • Juvenile Bluster

        Me + Trying to hook up wiring + Standing on a ladder + Having to keep the fan steady and anchored into the ceiling = A 95% chance of an emergency room visit.

      • R C Dean

        We have some high ceilings. And Mrs. Dean wanted three blade fans, which are a stone bitch to balance, and is justifiably skeptical of my ability to work on a taller ladder without splitting my skull on the tile floor. So we paid.

      • Mojeaux

        I ❤️ my scaffold.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      LOL

      There are times that I wish I had more of that cultural tendency. I might get more things done.

    • Old Man With Candy

      That was the old JAP joke: How many JAPs does it take to change a light bulb?

      Two. One to open the Diet Pepsi and the other to call Daddy to come over and change it.

      • straffinrun

        Ohhh, that JAP. I thought you were gonna say one Big Fat Man or a Little Boy.

      • AlexinCT

        No love for the Enola Gay or Bockscar?

      • Tres Cool

        How can you tell when a JAP orgasms ? She drops her nail file.

    • Ownbestenemy

      It really depends on the handiwork and if I attempt it. Being a son of a general contractor, I have a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of skill about everything but the key is will I do it well enough for myself and more importantly, will it pass the wife inspection.

    • Mojeaux

      Husband has replaced all of our ceiling fans. Idon’t just because I’m not strong enough. I’ve replaced several light fixtures though.

      I don’t mess with more complicated electrical problems, but not, like wiring up a room full of can lights. I’ll install them, but I won’t wire them. I deal with small plumbing problems.

      Water and electricity are nothing to play with.

      I now have to pay someone because my shoulders are shot.

  34. Count Potato

    “The World Health Organization has warned that the coronavirus pandemic is ‘not necessarily the big one’ and that a more deadly virus could yet sweep the globe.

    Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies programme, said on Tuesday that the pandemic was a ‘wake-up call’.

    ‘This pandemic has been very severe… it has affected every corner of this planet. But this is not necessarily the big one,’ he told a media briefing.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9098449/WHO-says-coronavirus-pandemic-not-necessarily-big-one.html

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Keeping the sheep terrified has worked pretty well so far, why would they stop now?

  35. Juvenile Bluster

    Started navigating the system this morning to try and get my grandmother (92) and my mother (65, with MS) vaccinated. They couldn’t have made this more complicated or annoying if they tried.

    • mrfamous

      Both my parents are in assisted living. Still waiting on info about the vaccines. Facility currently has a mini-outbreak.

      If these vaccines are safe and effective, then people who aren’t at risk are jumping the line because they view themselves as more important. Which makes me furious.

      If these vaccines aren’t safe and effective, we’re skipping the experimental phase of a drug trial to just do it on the public and see what happens. Which makes me furious.

      Either way -> furious.

  36. Not Adahn

    IDK who posted that link to home defense shoutgun shells yesterday, but I really don’t trust the guy writing that article:

    Shotguns can simply be pointed rather than being aimed.

    Great for warning shots

    Hmm… So you’re still using a 16 gauge shotgun.

    The #2 size pellets are perfect for disabling even the biggest attacker in maximum two shots.

    Birdshot pellets are smaller in size and are less likely to kill or even seriously damage an intruder if not hit on the right spot. Bird Shots are designed to kill birds and have very low penetration. So stopping a determined intruder(especially one on drugs) can be difficult.

    • leon

      Shotguns can simply be pointed rather than being aimed

      Yes, but customer satisfaction with the firearm will drop.

      Hmm… So you’re still using a 16 gauge shotgun

      Is this supposed be in derision?

      Great for warning shots

      I see, this was written by Joe Biden. I’m suprised he didn’t write something like: “Federal law permits only 3 shells when duck hunting, so actually Fedral law protects birds stronger than it does children”

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Sixteen gauge is for losers and don’t even get me started on the assholes that still use 28.

      • Chipwooder

        your feelings on .410?

      • Brett L

        Every six year old should have one? I still need to see if my FIL’s old single shot .410 is still good. My oldest is really sensitive to noise, so I’m not sure he’d love it.

      • Tres Cool

        .410 slugs are the ideal home defense weapon in Chez Tres. Well, prior to that horrid canoe-overturning accident in that lake. With really deep water.

        /still sad

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That extra two inches of spread at 5 yards makes it impossible to miss.

    • Chipwooder

      Oh man, someone who actually spouts that “you don’t have to aim a shotgun” nonsense? Anyone who says that should have all of their firearms opinions immediately ignored.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Ever use a Taurus Judge?

      • Count Potato

        I think some of it is based on a technical definition of aiming? You don’t focus on the front bead.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I mean, index firing is a thing, but it should be reserved for emergencies where getting a shot off quickly is better than no shot at all. Aimed fire should be the goal.

    • EvilSheldon

      Yeah, that guy is a doofus.

      Buckshot, minimum of #1, Federal Flite Control if you can get your hands on it.

      • Not Adahn

        Considering I don’t have an unobstructed shot inside my house of ten yards or more, I’m pretty sure trap loads would work just fine. Hell, if I retreat and take cover in the bedroom, that’s only a five or six yard shot.

      • R C Dean

        Nearly every one of those is wrong to some degree. The one on “pointing” is only correct for certain technical definitions. I’m aiming my combat shotgun – its got an red-dot sight on it for that purpose.

        The nuance of what size shot mostly goes away at indoor ranges. Bird shot at five yards will dig a plenty big cavity in anyone. I load 00, because I have it and in the even more unlikely event I need to engage at outdoor ranges around the house, its going to do better.

        Anyone who says “warning shot”, unless its preceded by “don’t ever”, can simply be disregarded out of hand, IMO.

      • Not Adahn

        I particularly like “maximum of two shots,” because you can calculate out “hit points” and then plug in the dps of varoius shot sizes.

      • leon

        Depends on your GM though. If he’s using the standard “Thug” from the Dungeon Masters Handbook, two shots should be plenty, but if he’s homebrewing it, then you really can’t know.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Inevitability means mitigation can’t work.

    Shhhh.

  38. wdalasio

    Being a malignant narcissist is seemingly a requirement to run for higher office.

    As the government is granted more and more power, sociopath is an absolute requirement for anyone running for office to do anything other than reduce the power of the government. Government action is increasingly about imposing terrible and, sometimes, catastrophic consequences onto others. You aren’t comfortable doing such a thing unless you’re a sociopath.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    We have ourselves a government full of malignant narcissists.

    It’s narcissistic sociopaths, all the way down.

  40. leon

    Every once in a while i get emails from glassdoor about “Job you may be qualified for” with an estimated salary between “40-116k”.

    • straffinrun

      Glassdoor on a glory hole would make it more interesting.

    • AlexinCT

      I would have to take a big pay cut for that job, so it better involve some serious freaky shit…

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Holy shit! how did they come up with several thousand pages of something called ‘the patriot act’ in a week?

    It was just a compilation of USAGs’ (and others”) wish lists dating back to Palmer and beyond.

    • leon

      I’m convinced that congress just keeps a going document of wishlist items and just waits to spring it at every crisis.

      • Ownbestenemy

        You aren’t that wrong I suspect. All those agencies war gaming scenarios draft up responses, fixes, etc and probably file them. Then, when something similar rolls on by, bam! We have the answer right here ready to go!

    • Cy

      I was in High school at the time. I remember thinking it was a massive tragedy for civil rights. It also really bothered me how ‘terrorist’ was being thrown around as a very fast and convenient way to unperson someone. Sure enough, fast forward a couple of years and ‘domestic terrorist’ became the new buzzword. Now the left labels anyone who doesn’t agree with them lock and step a ‘terrorist.’

      Side note; has anyone heard from Obama about shutting down Guantanamo lately?

      • leon

        Shut down Guantanamo? nahh man. send the governors to guantanamo.

  42. Count Potato

    “Also, it’s not true that “millions of Americans” have been vaccinated, which Pence surely knows.

    Roughly 2.1 million people have been vaccinated so far, per CDC.”

    https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/1344111866134614016

    Math is hard.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Pedantry is the new journalism.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Speaking of “playing politics,” here is Mike Pence casually changing the Trump admin’s goal of *vaccinating* 20M people by the end of the year to *distributing* 20M doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.

      These people are just fucking annoying.

    • leon

      Senior politics reporter for HuffPost. President of Washington Press Club Foundation. Mama.
      Rainbow flag
      Tips: jen.bendery@huffpost.com

      Sense i’m done believing that these people are stupid, i attribute this to “I’m going to bald face lie to you to see how many people just belive it”.

      • prolefeed

        It’s an exercise of power. “I know this is bullshit. Y’all know, or should have known, this is bullshit. Now everyone repeat this bullshit out loud so we know who will virtuously perform doublethink, so we can root out and punish the wrongthinkers.”

      • Ownbestenemy

        Add on you have no editor controlling, checking, verifying what you put out and that at most you can either memory-hole it or put out a *correction* or update and move on, knowing that your bullshit has already reached where it needed to be flung.

        For instance yesterday a friend said to me “Mitch McConnell that rat bastard denied that $2000 bill.” I said he denied fast-tracking it but the bill will still be heard. His response ” That is not what the news said”. Sigh.

        We are a culture of 140 character gotchas and 5-second sound bites because that is what the people want.

    • Ownbestenemy

      So because the CDC site says “People initiating vaccination” instead of “Americans initiating vaccination” — that is her point? Even if the title of that link she provides is COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States​?

      Pedantry indeed.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      They measured that in Imperial Millions.

  43. Juvenile Bluster

    So why am I not surprised that the Nashville bomber was known to the FBI?

    https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/29/nashville-explosion-woman-warned-mnpd-warner-building-bomb-2019/4082253001/

    NASHVILLE — Sixteen months before Anthony Quinn Warner’s RV exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, officers visited his home in Antioch after his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs in the vehicle, according to documents obtained by The Tennessean.

    On Friday, 63-year-old Warner blew up a city block, police say, about 6:30 a.m. on Second Avenue outside an AT&T switch facility. The bomb caused massive destruction to 41 downtown buildings and crippled telecommunication systems throughout the Southeast over the weekend.

    In the aftermath, The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Warner was “not on our radar” prior to the bombing. But a Metro Nashville Police Department report from August 2019 shows that local and federal authorities were aware of alleged threats he had made.

    No actions appear to have been taken to stop Warner, a slender 5-foot-8, 135-pound man who died in the explosion, which injured three others.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Wonder if he has a girlfriend that he whisked away with money a day prior also. The speed in which that CCTV video came out of the explosion was interesting.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        He did seem to put a significant effort in to minimizing casualties. Which kinda supports my initial assessment that this was an elaborate suicide where AT&T firing his dad and/or 5G nuttery was just the excuse. Dude was ready to be done.

        Who knows what the last thing that went through his head, besides bomb fragments.

        Too soon?

    • leon

      If the FBI doesn’t let a few terrorists get through, then people won’t feel like they need more funding to stop the terrorists that are getting through.

    • Not Adahn

      Throckmorton saying Warner “did not care for the police,” and that Throckmorton would not allow Warner to give consent to officers to conduct a visual inspection of the RV.

      Sounds like probably cause for arrest, or at the very least a red flag warrant.

      • R C Dean

        Think of how crap the girlfriend’s warning must have been that they either didn’t care to, or couldn’t, get a warrant.

        I’ve read that the CCTV video doesn’t seem to show the RV itself blowing up, but an explosion from the other side of the street. Haven’t been arsed to watch the video myself, though. The fact that it was posted by “persons unknown” a day or two after the explosion raises a whole host of questions, though.

      • Plisade

        Yeah, sounds like the cops were just checking a box in visiting dude’s house so they could close out a report. Pisses me off, though this hits literally close to home. When I think of all the time/money/effort that go into stings, into entrapping consenting adults, into profit-generating law enforcement activities… The cops could’ve found a way to legitimately check that RV.

        So, a guy I work with was casual friends with the bomber; they attended some charity cookouts together or something. He’s talked to the FBI. Says dude was weird; nothing more.

        Several peeps at my work were awakened by the blast.

    • CPRM

      …2 Years Ago…

      FBI Informant: You know what would be cool, blowing up an RV and taking down AT&T!

      Warner: Dude, you’re drunk off your ass!

      FBI Informant: No, I think it would be really cool!

      Warner: You’re a sick fuck!

      FBI Informant: C’mon man, your life is shit! And I, personally blame AT&T for that…

      • leon

        I just realized that the “Governor Kidnappers” dropped out from media coverage. What ended up happening with those guys?

      • CPRM

        The media always forgets about these things until the trial (if one ever actually comes) no paradigm shift here)

  44. wdalasio

    I saw a big sob story yesterday (CNN? NPR?) about some teenage girl who died in a matter of days from it.

    Because our “betters”, those screaming the loudest that we need to “follow the science”, are completely and utterly incapable of thinking statistically. Yes, in a large enough population some young, otherwise healthy, people are going to wind up contracting the virus and dying. But that’s an overwhelmingly small portion of those dying and, more importantly, an overwhelmingly small portion of the young, otherwise healthy, people contracting it. It’s so small as to effectively be an insignificant risk to that part of the population. My understanding is that, if you’re young, your chances of contracting and dying from COVID roughly approximate your chances of getting struck by lightning.

    • Tres Cool

      |I saw a big sob story yesterday (CNN? NPR?) about some teenage girl who died in a matter of days from it.

      Cool. Now do automobile fatalities for 16-20 year olds.

      • prolefeed

        The mostly safe auto accidents mostly did not cause said teens to linger before dying.

        This is mostly true.

    • LJW

      Every year the flu picks off a few seemingly healthy teenagers, Covid seems to be no different.

      • R C Dean

        Every year, the flu kills more teenagers that the ‘Vid has.

  45. Festus

    I’m out again, Friendos. The work can only make me stronger! Good tidings to all, I’m done for today.

    • Tres Cool

      Arbeit macht frei !

  46. Mojeaux

    @Tres, Sean, and Timeloose — You are WRONG.

    Not counting Baker, whom I have not seen, it goes like this:

    1. Eccleston
    2. Capaldi
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Tennant
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Smith — Who? (Not)

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      3. Sean Connery. (Regardless of the question, he is never a wrong answer) 😉

      • Mojeaux

        No, sorry.

        1. Brosnan
        1.5 Craig.

      • Mojeaux

        This also demonstrates my multiculturalism: a black Irish and a blond Scot.

        (This in no way represents my love for select Asian and Latin and Gallic men.)

    • CPRM

      Tannant behind Capaldi?! you, mam, are a monster!

      • Mojeaux

        *puffs on fingernails, buffs on shirt*

    • Mojeaux

      And Donna Noble, best companion.

      The final episode for her had me sobbing.

      • Not Adahn

        My main problem with DoctorDonna is the same problem I have with all NuWhoo companions other than Amy.

        BBC writers have all the subtlety of a 70’s peep show marquee designer.

        The Doctor has to be the Big Damn Hero. And since we can’t rely on any of the actors to pull that off, we have to force traits/symbols to communicate that. Most notably: the Dotcor is so BDH that all wimmen want to fuck him. Donna sees how much of a beta cuck her fiancee is compared to him that she ditches said betacuck and runs off with the Hero.

        And don’t get me started with the British use of wardrobe to indicate otherness– this one is so deeply ingrained in their culture that JKR uses it unironically.

      • Mojeaux

        The way Amy treats Rory is awful, and I don’t like her for that. Amy was every bit as in love with the Doctor as all the other ones (except Donna). Her problem was marrying a beta cuck.

      • CPRM

        It was so romantic! He waited 2,000 years for her and became a robot! But The Doctor wore a Fez, he was outclassed.

      • Not Adahn

        Without getting into whether Amy loved him like a husband or a father, Amy was at least allowed to have a sexual relationship with someone other than The doctor. Which AFAICR none of the others were. It’s been many years since I watched the show though. The one-season wonder was allowed to bang another dude once she left the show and just became a guest character in the specials. I can’t remember her name. The chick that got topless in Sense8.

      • Not Adahn

        Didn’t they pull the same stunt with ChavGirl? Where she had a boyfriend until BDH showed her what a real man was?

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, Rose had a boyfriend pre-Doc.

        Martha, however, did not. Her crush was so obvious it was painful.

        I have not watched the Capaldi season with Bill yet.

        Donna went with the Doctor because he offered her an exciting adventure, not because she was in love with him.

      • Not Adahn

        That’s entirely true, but Donna couldn’t have an independent sexual relationship, because that would imply that there was someone more fuckable that The Doctor and that’s Just Not On.

      • Mojeaux

        I take your point and it’s a good one and I might even agree.

        However, with all the traveling they do, I would be shocked if they could keep a relationship going under those conditions. In fact, didn’t Rose at least TRY to have her adventure and her relationship too? Amy had to bring Rory along to have a relationship.

      • SDF-7

        Did you miss the whole Clara and Danny Pink thing? Clara most certainly was getting busy outside of the TARDIS.

        And Donna’s fiance set her up to be harvested for the particle-of-the-week. Kind of a deal breaker.

        Rory in Season 6 kicked butt, frankly. One of my favorite companions and outgrew the beta-ness of Season 5.

      • Mojeaux

        Did you miss the whole Clara and Danny Pink thing?

        I did! Oh my goodness!

        I liked Clara.

      • CPRM

        I liked Clara.

        Wow, you are just about being wrong today, huh?

      • Mojeaux

        If liking Clara is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

        Oh, wait…

      • slumbrew

        Jenna Coleman is cute as a button, but I lost interest in that show around the time Clara was introduced.

      • CPRM

        Jenna Coleman is cute as a button, but I lost interest in that show around the time Clara was introduced.

        Agreed, she was cute as hell, but a terrible character once ‘the mystery of the nanny’ was solved. She was she didn’t seem to have any innate character attributes other than ‘she was important’. I dare say the Doctress’s companions have been more compelling characters (though written even shittier, which I didn’t think was possible.)

      • SDF-7

        Doctress? No idea who that is… too bad the show went on hiatus after Capaldi left… 😉

        What really ticks me off about Clara is that “Face the Raven” was the *perfect* end for her character arc. Mystery of the Impossible Girl leads to “I’ve been all up and down your timeline” Clara leads to “I can be just like you, Doctor” Clara… leads to “Oh crap, I misinterpreted the situation in my arrogance and ignorance… and now I’m going to die” Clara.

        And then we had the fabulous “Heaven Sent” dealing with the Doctor’s grief.

        And then Moffat just had to torpedo ALL of that with the god-awful “Hell Bent”, resetting Clara’s death (No! I can’t kill the character you’re all supposed to just lurv!), making everyline about the Hybrid nonsensical, making the Doctor (who mind you had 4 billion + years to come to terms with things… he remembers everything in the moment of seeing the wall in the Confession Dial) act so out of character he guns down an *ally* for no real reason. I really wish there was someone to tell him to just stop, have the Gallifrey confrontation be about Rassilon’s interrogation and move past it quickly.

        Ah well… at least the last season with Bill was pretty good, especially the Missy redemption arc’s finale.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Since Hyperbole hasn’t shown up……NERDS!

      • Mojeaux

        Good man, covering for Hyp.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Not all heroes dress like the Unabomber on Zoom

    • Sean

      Do you get RetroTV in your area?

      If not, it looks like you can watch live on their website. I’m not sure which Doctor they are currently featuring. You really should try some Baker episodes.

      • SDF-7

        Make really sure you get the *right* Baker… Trial of a Time Lord was and is crap.

    • DEG

      NuWho?

      I saw an episode or two while visiting some relatives.

      I’ll stick with the old Doctor Who.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes, but I never had the opportunity to watch the originals. I suspect it’s a nostalgia thing (e.g., Land of the Lost, which I would not watch now in order to preserve the magic in my mind), but the next time I get a cross stitching bug and need something to binge watch, I’ll see if I can dial it up.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of “playing politics,” here is Mike Pence casually changing the Trump admin’s goal of *vaccinating* 20M people by the end of the year to *distributing* 20M doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.

    Meanwhile, Ballgag Joe says he will vaccinate (personally, for all I know) 100 million people in his first 100 days, and the nodders nod sagely, flap their flippers and toot their horns in adoration.

  48. CPRM

    “My model says we’re going to have a disaster. But there’s plenty of time for more grant money before then.” Colleagues call the prediction “stunning and brave.”

    They were saying in the 80s that rainforests were being destroyed by ‘a city block’ a day, surely they are all gone by now.

    …died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection.

    It wasn’t malpractice, it was the covid what done it.

  49. DEG

    The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has tapped forensic-accounting specialists for help in its investigation into President Donald Trump’s finances, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

    “Find me the man and I’ll find the crime.”

    LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection.

    “It’s devastating to our entire team,” Ghali said.

    “He had no underlying conditions,” Ghali said. “It was just COVID.”

    Is there nothing Covid can’t do?

    Later that day, Aaron said, “the FBI reported back that they checked their holdings and found no records on Warner at all.”

    Sure.

    It was the police department’s second shooting of the day. Shortly after midnight, officers fatally shot a 47-year-old woman who pointed a gun at them, they said, near 27th Avenue and Indian School Road.

    No dogs? They’re slacking off.

    “For 100 years, families have been stuck in a cycle of poverty and they know nothing else than work on a palm oil plantation,” said Kartika Manurung, who has published reports detailing labor issues on Indonesian plantations. “When I … ask the kids what they want to be when they grow up, some of the girls say, ‘I want to be the wife of a palm oil worker.’”

    Those darkies just don’t know what is good for them.

    I tapped out here.

    There are shitty jobs in the world. Those people take those jobs because they are better than the alternative.

    The world’s largest rainforest ecosystem, the Amazon, will collapse and largely become a dry, scrubby plain by 2064 because of climate change and deforestation, a University of Florida professor predicts.

    Plenty of time for Covid to kill the rainforest.

  50. Stinky Wizzleteats

    “Raymond Throckmorton III”
    That’s a perfect name for being marooned on a desert isle with Gilligan, the Skipper, and ( hubba hubba) Mary Ann.

  51. leon

    That story about the NY Attorney going after Trump just solidifies in my mind that if you don’t want to be prosecuted for political reasons, don’t live in NY, don’t HQ your business in NY, Don’t Travel to NY.

    Same with CA.

    • Not Adahn

      Harris County DA did it to what’sisface too. But they were eventually slapped down for it IIRC.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      Something something woodchippers something something

    • Ownbestenemy

      HAHA! oh…wait…

  52. Psycho Effer

    “Apparently, one of the symptoms of COVID is heart attacks.”

    One of my best friends died of a massive heart attack last week while suffering from COVID. Seems likely that the latter contributed to the former. It is what it is.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Did he have a preexisting heart condition or was it out of the blue?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Oh, and sorry to hear it.

      • Psycho Effer

        You know, it’s one of those situations where you look at a guy who is pushing 300 lbs, but is still an active outdoorsman and you wonder what’s really going on health-wise. How many of us are honest with our friends about our health issues? I would definitely say that this was an underlying condition that COVID brought to the surface and turned from a minor problem to a lethal problem.

        That’s the point. We all might have some shit going on that’s no big deal to our day-to-day life, but COVID might turn it into a kill switch. The other issue is the apparent randomness of how COVID impacts people. My friend’s wife has it and is asymptomatic. It’s really fucking with her head.

      • Mojeaux

        How many of us are honest with our friends ourselves about our health issues?

        FIFY

      • Psycho Effer

        Busted! Truth!

    • CPRM

      Not to minimize your loss, but this just reminds me of my dad’s death. He had MS. He died of heart failure due to a UTI. So, the coroner, hearing that he had MS listed that as the cause of death, except he confused MS with ALS…and put that on his death certificate. Neither of which was his cause of death. And I don’t think a crusade against UTIs is necessary.

      (The UTI was caused by him having a super-pubic catheter, which he did get because of his limited mobility due to MS, but that is more a warning against super-pubic catheters than MS)

    • Count Potato

      Sorry 🙁

    • Ownbestenemy

      Simpsons did it!

      That took too much time for internet sleuths to find. They had the 9/11 prophecy within hours posted up. 4chan is slacking.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yep, we do live in a simulation. That was impressive.

    • Not Adahn

      “Simpsons did it”

      Does that mean South Park is also prophetic?

      • Ownbestenemy

        [insert mind blown gif here]

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      All the attendees should be fired but the hirers and the firers are compromised too. Man are we fucked.

    • Cy

      I’m shocked I tell you. SHOCKED!

    • WTF

      Fact checkers rate this “mostly false”, because reasons.

  53. Count Potato

    “This is who is left at The White House to advise Donald Trump, write his speeches and push his policies.

    This is Stephen Miller. Note the white power sign he is making inside The White House press briefing room.

    Right now America is being guided by a White Supremacist.”

    https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1344058695722778624

    This asshole is supposed to be a serious author.

      • CPRM

        Sad! That was a big LOL.

    • leon

      He’s the author of a book called “The Cartel, the Force, the Border and Savages”.

      But yeah he’ll tell you who is white supremacist.

      (beat them with their own Shtick)

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Looks like a guy adjusting his sportcoat to me.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Exactly what a white supremacist would say.

      • CPRM

        And, who exactly, adjusts their Sport Coat?! White Supremacists! The Sport Coat is a tool of oppression, the patriarchy and WHITE colonialism!

      • CPRM

        I bet you’re a Redneck who thought that NOOSE left in Bubba Wallace’s garage was just there to pull down the door!

  54. The Late P Brooks

    Right now America is being guided by a White Supremacist.

    *Woodrow Wilson looks up, smiles*

    • Ownbestenemy

      *LBJ has sad trombone face*

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Justice

    The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it would not bring federal criminal charges against two Cleveland police officers in the 2014 killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, saying video of the shooting was of too poor a quality for prosecutors to conclusively establish what had happened.

    In closing the case, the department brought to an end a long-running investigation into a high-profile shooting that helped galvanize the Black Lives Matter movement and that became part of the national dialogue about police use of force against minorities, including children.

    The decision, revealed in a lengthy statement, does not condone the officers’ actions but rather says the cumulative evidence was not enough to support a federal criminal civil rights prosecution.

    That boy ruined those two noble officers’ lives.

    • Cy

      and the beat goes on…

    • CPRM

      And I bet Black Lives Matter doesn’t do anything, because they aren’t about justice, just chaos.

    • WTF

      a high-profile shooting that helped galvanize the Black Lives Matter movement and that became part of the national dialogue about police use of force against minorities

      No, it did not. Probably because it was so awful that everyone agrees and it is therefore useless in promoting racial division.

      • Suthenboy

        Yep. There was very little outrage over that very obvious wrongful shooting. George Floyd, who overdosed himself, a different story.

      • leon

        George Floyd wasn’t controversial, I remember almost 100% agreement that it was wrong. It was the “Now you have to let people riot and loot” that turned people sour.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Only took 6 years to whitewash that one.

      What a fucking crock.

  56. Suthenboy

    Louisiana Congressman dies of Covid….

    “intensive care unit at Ochsner LSU Health in Shreveport.”
    No, he didn’t. He died from state health care. I know that place well. Trust me when I tell you that no matter how sick you are, avoid that place like the plague.

    • Count Potato

      Or just avoid Shreveport entirely.

      • Gustave Lytton

        “This message sponsored by the Bossier City Chamber of Commerce”

      • Cy

        It really is the shittiest of the ghetto shitholes.

        Pro tip for those of you who haven’t been there: DO NOT exit the freeway!

  57. The Late P Brooks

    And I bet Black Lives Matter doesn’t do anything, because they aren’t about justice, just chaos.

    It’s too cold and wintry in Cleveland to riot. Maybe in the spring.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      The cold never stopped the white supremacists. Especially in Chicago. Just ask Jussie Smollett.

      • CPRM

        It was the racism and their support of Cousin’s Subs over Subway that gave them the extra motivation.