479 Comments

    • limey

      Oh boy, you’ve really made it when you can be sciencey and believable enough to convince the Top. Men. in uniform you can make them a “spacetime modification weapon”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The only space time modification weapons I’m aware of are heroine and meth.

      • pan fried wylie

        Diversity & Inclusion Training? I’m drawing a blank on other examples as the spacetime dilation distorts memory.

      • AlexinCT

        That diversity/inclusion thing doesn’t really change reality: it forces people to pretend reality is what it is not.

      • Not Adahn

        Having read Death’s End, I can tell you this is a TERRIBLE idea.

    • Part time punching bag

      I recently finished listening to The Pentagon’s Brain by Annie Jacobsen. Pretty entertaining if you’re into this stuff.

    • Old Man With Candy

      After seeing things like antigravity, ESP, and perpetual motion having tons of tax money from DoD thrown at them, nothing will surprise me any more.

      • Festus

        +1 “The Men Who Stare At Goats”

      • Not Adahn

        One of the hip Millenial rationalist bloggers was reviewing Demon Haunted World, but didn’t understand why Sagan was wasting so much time debunking aliens and ESP.

      • Hyperion

        Aliens have debunked themselves. A couple billion people running around all day with cellphones capable of taking high quality images and video and we still do not have a single legit photo or video of these aliens people are seeing. Sorry, ain’t no space aliens round there here parts.

      • Swiss Servator

        Quiet you! Now, take this LSD…

      • hayeksplosives

        My personal favorites are the attempts to use animals, like the bats unwittingly carrying incendiaries so that when they hung upside down in Japanese traditional buildings, they’d go up in flames. (Testing was done in Dugway Proving Ground at the aptly named “Japanese Village”.

        Or more recently, training Eagles to snag quadcopter style drones out of midair.

        And of course the Dolphins. There have been many imagined uses for dolphins.

        It’s all rather silly.

        I once had the (admittedly enjoyable) task of disproving a claim of room temperature superconducting cable. After submitting my report, which was very tactful but unyielding as regards the truth. I received a hilarious email from the “inventor” telling me and my boss that we were both fools to pass it up, and that we’d be fired and condemned to work at Home Depot the rest of our lives.

        Naturally I went straight out and bought 2 orange Home Depot aprons for us.

      • leon

        So that’s why it’s called Japanese Village…

      • UnCivilServant

        So did the cable not superconduct?

        Or was it not room temperature?

      • leon

        I once had the (admittedly enjoyable) task of disproving a claim of room temperature superconducting cable. After submitting my report, which was very tactful but unyielding as regards the truth. I received a hilarious email from the “inventor” telling me and my boss that we were both fools to pass it up, and that we’d be fired and condemned to work at Home Depot the rest of our lives.

        Oh Boy… I’ve worked with someone, not as kooky but close on a project. Unfortunately my Boss really believed in him…. That was rather close to me leaving the company.

      • Rat on a train

        sharks with fricken laser beams attached to their heads?

  1. Nephilium

    So Elliot Page’s wife is now transphobic?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      TERF’s rule!

    • Cy

      *checks party affiliation list*

      *references victim hierarchy chart*

      Comrade Portner is an upstanding member of the party. How dare you attack xer with such lies!

    • juris imprudent

      Just finished up The Madness of Crowds last night. It will really depend on what landmine Page has placed around her former partner – but you can fully expect that she will step on one.

    • rhywun

      That story made my head hurt.

  2. AlexinCT

    Democrats are still batshit crazy.

    You do this stuff not only when you want to punish people, but when you fear that they will resist evil shit you are planning to do in the future. Getting rid of the Trump people is about revenge, but also making sure nobody can stop them from going with the real socialist model they want to follow (Not the Scandinavian one, but that of the CCP).

    • Animal

      This. They’re trying to solidify power. The Left is OK with a few establishment Republicans serving as “loyal (and harmless) opposition” – think Romney and Murkowski – but they can’t allow any more upstart businessmen coming in and shining bright lights in lots of dark corners, even if he did so largely by accident.

      • AlexinCT

        Someone should tell them that they should pass a law demanding Trumpistats be made to wear some kind of clearly visible item on their clothing (Star of David was once already used, so maybe they should be wearing a sign that says MAGA) or have a tattoo on their forearms to make sure they can’t hide this by not complying, so they are easier to identify…

      • Not Adahn

        There is a local NPR commentator who literally used those exact words: “I don’t want the bury the Republican party. We need a loyal opposition.”

        The dude is I -shit-you-not a member of the aristocracy — a lesiure class individual (professor emeritus of literature) living a Town and Country lifestyle (homes in Manhattan and Columbia County).

        He’s the best embodiment of disconnected privilkege I’ve ever encountered.

    • juris imprudent

      knowingly engaged in activities conducted by an organization or movement that spreads conspiracy theories and false information about the U.S. government.

      That’s perfectly neutral language that would of course sweep up most of the Democratic Party.

    • Hyperion

      “Not the Scandinavian one, but that of the CCP”

      Well, you can’t have a really effective commie regime without actually doing real commie stuff.

  3. Surly Knott

    I weep for the English language. “… Democrats barely no how to …”

    • Animal

      I’ve given up. I see too many papers, plans and reports from recent graduates with mechanical and electrical engineering degrees that are written at approximately the fifth-grade level.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Y u so harsh bro?

      • Nephilium

        I’ve seen lol in far too many business e-mails.

    • Tejicano

      I’m counting my blessings. That could easily have become “…Democrats bearly no hau two…”

      • AlexinCT

        In the age of texting people no longer care about spelling!

      • Tonio

        Ur rite!

      • pan fried wylie

        I was browsing model kits recently and happened upon the “Haunebu II”.

        I assume it’s pronounced “Honey Booboo”, right?

        #ModernSpelling

  4. LCDR_Fish

    Rocking the bengay right now. Pulled a muscle in my side yesterday working out at home – I’ve done it on the ab machine at the gym before, but not rocking a 20lb dumbbell at the house. Really irritating. Not what I needed right now.

    • AlexinCT

      Getting old sucks, huh? Been there, and doing that…

      • juris imprudent

        The problem is your brain refuses to adjust to how the body has changed. Stupid brain still thinks we’re 25. No, no, we aren’t and DON’T DO that.

      • AlexinCT

        DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

        OUCH!

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        “Getting old ain’t for sissies.”

        – some (wise) guy

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Right there with you bud . Getting old sucks.

      • Tres Cool

        “Youth is wasted on the young”

      • Festus

        “Wasted is youth being young”

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        As my next door neighbor says: “This gettin’ older shit ain’t what it’s cracked up to be.”

    • Tonio

      [nods knowingly] Sorry, bro.

    • Rebel Scum

      Don’t get that shit near your family jewels. Ask me how I know.

      • Fourscore

        It’ll stop the itching but at a price

  5. Rebel Scum

    Leahy presided over the trial’s first procedural vote, a 55-45 tally that saw the Senate set aside an objection from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul that would have declared the impeachment proceedings unconstitutional and dismissed the trial.

    Nothing about this looks like a partisan sham. Move along.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Proceeding with a trial where enough of the jury has already declared the proceedings unconstitutional to decide the final vote seems unwise.

      • juris imprudent

        Schumer et al “damn the torpedos, full speed ahead”!

    • AlexinCT

      Part of the process IS to hold sham trails and to make the people that know it is a sham go along with it (THERE ARE 4 LIGHTS!)….

  6. Scruffy Nerfherder

    *sigh*

    Crappy weather incoming, business slowed to a crawl this morning.

    • Chipwooder

      Seems like it’s been at least a week since I’ve seen the sun.

      • Rebel Scum

        My solar lights that line the driveway have barely charged enough to barely be on when I get home at night. I like gray days, but that is inconvenient.

  7. robc

    Baseball birthdays are sad again today. Julio Teherean is #2 and only 4 WAR or so from taking over the top spot, so in a few years….calculating…oh never mind.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    The drop in work translates to a loss of $3.7 trillion in income globally — what Ryder called an “extraordinary figure” — with women and young people taking the biggest hits.

    The ILO report expects a bounce back in jobs in the second half of the year. But that depends on a reduction in coronavirus infections and the rollout of vaccines. Currently, infections are rising or remain stubbornly high in many countries and vaccine distribution is still slow overall.

    We need a plan for the next five years, to really turn this economy around!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That plan should preferably be in the form of an interpretative dance.

      • Tres Cool

        + Chicago Teachers

      • Tejicano

        And to avoid involving the use of any part of a dead white culture it should be inscribed in a true American language – Cherokee!

    • Rat on a train

      Four years should be enough. We should form an office to oversee it.

  9. Rebel Scum

    “If we are about to try to convict a president, then where is the chief justice?” Paul asked. “If the accused is no longer president, then where is the constitutional power to convict him?”

    The FYTW clause. It’s on the back, written in ink that responds to citrus and heat. Ask Nicolas Cage to show you.

    • Cy

      Rules are for non-party members.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    About 18% renters in America, or around 10 million people, were behind in their rent payments as of the beginning of the month.

    It is far more than the approximately 7 million homeowners who lost their properties to foreclosure during the subprime mortgage crisis and the ensuing Great Recession. And that happened over a five-year period.

    In one of his first executive orders, President Joe Biden extended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s current eviction moratorium through the end of March, but that is unlikely to be long enough.

    JUSTICE!

    Doin’ right ain’t got no end.

    • Tres Cool

      So if the landlord cant collect rent to pay a mortgage owed on the rental property, and the bank becomes the owner, are they forbidden to evict the non-paying tenants, too ?

      • Fourscore

        One of our fellow glibs is in that same situation. Renter (who is still working) says ” I won’t pay and you can’t make me”. Fortunately the Glib can handle the hit financially but is changing his mind about being a landlord.

        /Not me

      • PutridMeat

        I was considering investing some extra cash in rental property(ies) several years ago. The swath of regulations that essentially can completely neuter any property rights the landlord has and place onerous burdens on landlords meant I stuck that money in the market and bank accounts. Given the current situation, seems even more prescient and/or dumb luck that I avoided it. One of those unseen costs of short term thinking in the policy realm. How many people will be willing to put savings/investments on the line in the current (and foreseeable future) rental market?

  11. robodruid

    I am actually surprised that they have not tried banning guns yet.

    • Sean

      They’re just warming up.

    • AlexinCT

      They are waiting for the right “crisis”. If it doesn’t happen quick enough, they will manufacture one. Biden, after all, learned from the tricks & trades of the Obama admin.

      • robodruid

        It is kind of bizarre. Hard to have a “mass shooting event” if we don’t congregate.

      • pan fried wylie

        That’s why it’s so important to get Back To Normal ASAP!!!

      • Tres Cool

        I was getting ready for work last night, and my shoulders (which have been problematic for ages) were flaring up. I was fondly reminiscing of when my VA doc prescribed, and I had mailed to me (no signature, either) 120 vicodin 5/500 and 30 10mg percocet each month. And then they abruptly stopped it, which is another story for another time. But what occurred to me was that in the past year, Ive heard little to no news about the “opiate epidemic” that was sweeping the US.

        Guess CoVID cured it. Trade 1 crisis for another, I suppose.

      • LCDR_Fish

        “unexplained suicide crisis”

      • Festus

        It’s there but buried on page three. Overdoses are skyrocketing because of shitty drugs and people shooting up alone. We set a record in our Province last year and I’ll bet a fair number of them were not “accidental”.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        This.

        TOS had an article about it within the last month or so.

        Death-by-opiate is up big, just like every other bad thing.

      • zwak

        Not death-by-opiate silly! Those are new death-by-running-away-from-COVID numbers, so we can pump up the total Covid deaths!

    • Tejicano

      Yeah, I’ve been standing by expecting something to drop. I’m wondering if they will start with small steps or one, huge Blitzkrieg on many levels.

      • AlexinCT

        There is some reason to their madness. First they need to marginalize the other’s ability to fight back. Then, once they have really made it near impossible for those that would oppose to make any kind of active and successful resistance, they will act. The capitol thing scared the fuck out of the crooks running the country, and they want to make sure nobody actually tries to come for them (for real).

      • robodruid

        Not necessarily going to disagree with you now. But this is the pinnacle of their power. EO have been signed. Why not now? There was lots of talk about 80% receivers being banned by the ATF.
        Just surprising.

      • AlexinCT

        There is an order to events. First they need to neutralize Trump and those that support him. Until then, they believe, that going full CCP could be problematic. Note that the troops in D.C. are going to stay there – at a minimum – till end of March. Me, I suspect they will be there long past then considering what the left’s agenda is and the fear these evil fuckers have people will take up arms against them when it becomes obvious how evil they are.

      • robodruid

        maybe, but i believe at some point soon, it will be easy to mock those in DC because of the troops.
        They are acting guilty.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I expect pistol braces to be an early casualty, if not an outright “assault weapons ban.” That said, assuming the court isn’t packed, I’d bet that would be bounced pretty quickly.

        Unfortunately, SCOTUS is our only line of defense right now. And it takes years to wipe bad law off the books.

      • Hyperion

        SCOTUS will not be taking any cases involving gun rights. No way Penaltax is taking a chance on letting the dem’s unconstitutional non-sense get overturned.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        From what I’ve read, ACB having replaced RGB (which is still a juicy morsel) should be the vote needed to grant cert on gun cases, taking Justice Penaltax’s refusal out of the equation.

      • Hyperion

        Until CCP Joe appoints 22 new progressives to the court.

      • Not Adahn

        Blitzkreig. Absolutely.

        Rights violations work much better when they are absolute.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        ^This. And there’s no need to wait for an incident. They certainly aren’t in VA, which is the model the national Dems are following.

        The notion that the Trump impeachment circus or that anything else will serve as a distraction to the Dems and establishment Right going full bore on their agenda is …optimistic… to put kindly. Focusing on one major initiative at a time (Obamacare) is a mistake they have learned from and won’t make again.

      • Gadfly

        Actually, I’m going to say the slow burn is more effective. Big actions can cause big reactions, and in a volatile environment that is a big risk to take. There’s a reason a bunch of socialists adopted the Fabian strategy.

      • Hyperion

        The democrats have already said they’re going to fundamentally change the United States. And yet 80 million people voted for that.

        I expect that one of their first moves will be some sort of attack on red states, trying to overturn states rights and basically Calfifornize the entire country. If they don’t do that, some states might decide they can still do stuff the feds don’t like, and we cannot centralize control like that. It would be messy, so must be done away with.

    • Hyperion

      It won’t be long. The first amendment is already under serious attack and that will be ramped up soon. The 2nd will be all but dead before 2022.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    The kangaroos have already made their verdict known.

    Sentence first, trial afterward. OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

  13. The Late P Brooks

    “Compared to renters that are making their rent payments on time, currently delinquent renters are more likely to be lower income, less educated, black and with children,” noted the authors of the analysis.

    The best. The brightest. The finest minds a great nation has to offer.

  14. Cy

    “New Research Debunks Claim That a $15 Minimum Wage Would Not Reduce Employment”

    Up is down. Wrong is right. War is peace. Speech is violence. Welcome to the Democrat’s dream.

  15. I. B. McGinty

    I’m not gay, but after reading that Rand Paul article I might be having feelings for him.

    • Tonio

      It’s okay, you’re allowed to have man-crushes.

      • Mojeaux

        I read this in your voice.

      • pan fried wylie

        Dos Equis guy’s voice works too.

      • AlexinCT

        ?

      • Festus

        #metoo but with the special garb.

      • Mojeaux

        BDSM cold opens #FTW!

      • KromulentKristen

        Seems I constantly have unfulfilled man-crushes ?

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        Mine’s Mike Rowe.

    • bacon-magic

      RAND2024

      • Fourscore

        Rand/Tulsi 2024

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        STOP IT! YOU’RE GETTING ME ALL EXCITED!

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Consistency is Grammar and spelling are the hobgoblins of little minds.

    Throw out the rule books, and gambol! Free yourself from the straitjacket of coherent communication.

    Knowledge is racism.

  17. Festus

    Mornin’ Banjos! Thanks for that lovely musical link. I actually stopped what I was doing and listened for a time. I especially liked the Gavottes played by #2. Takes me back.

  18. Rebel Scum

    All border wall construction stopped last night.

    You are discouraged from leaving your house and have to wear a shame muzzle if you do so we can mitigate a pandemic. We have to ban travel from certain countries for the same reason. but we also have to import pathogen carrying migrants from third world countries. Nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing to see here.

    • Rebel Scum

      Nix the second “nothing to see here”. I seem to have gotten distracted before posting.

      • Festus

        Unka Joe?

  19. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    My, what voluminous lynx you have!

    I sympathize with the people who thought the world was gonna snap back after the inauguration. But that was a silly hope.

    We are ruled by awful people. Who hate you.

    On that bright note, I’ll leave you with some good advice (and a damn good song) from my boys.

    Have a great day!

    • Bones

      I love Husker Du! The game was fun too.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    A new paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research surveys the body of economic research on minimum wage increases and rebuts the notion that empirical data show no impact of increases in minimum wage hikes. The authors find that of all the available research on the subject they reviewed, there is a “clear preponderance” of findings that show a job-killing impact. The documentation of job losses is even more pronounced for teenagers, young adults, and the less-educated.

    The NBER is a bunch of right wing hack kkkapitalism propagandists. What does the nonpartisan Center for American Progress say?

  21. LCDR_Fish

    A few more interesting Covid updates: Long link Reminds me of some of the “Last Centurion” vaccine distribution notes by John Ringo. (can’t recommend that book enough).

    https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/bidens-cdc-director-doesnt-know-how-to-count/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=second

    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/houston-doctor-charged-for-using-his-common-sense-on-covid-vaccine/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

    Really can’t see how it’s better to have the fed manage this nationwide over the states/local governments that know their local situations better (although in the case of NY, CA…probably not a good example).

    • LCDR_Fish

      can someone approve my post? I’ll use 2 links next time.

  22. AlexinCT
    • Tonio

      As the guy said above… I might have feelings for her.

      • AlexinCT

        I don’t agree 100% with her Tonio, but she is definitely an old time democrat and not one of today’s moonbats. That is why I am sure the democrats will do their best to kill her off (hopefully not literally, but these days they are emboldened and that bodes ill for those fighting back).

      • The Other Kevin

        I had feelings before, but it’s a full blown crush at this point.

      • R C Dean

        She’s still a socialist who wants to disarm you.

      • I. B. McGinty

        I believe I would let her punch me in the face, and I would like it.

  23. Rebel Scum

    Job losses from forced government shutdowns 4 times worse than the ’09 financial crisis.

    Look, we are all in this together. If it saves even one life it is all worth it. *sips coffee while sitting in home office*

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Look, we are all in this together. If it saves even one life it is all worth it. *sips coffee while sitting in home office*

      This is exactly right. Show me a lockdown supporter, and I’ll show you someone who has the ability to sit her ass on the couch eating bon bons in her sweatpants while still receiving full pay, and who laments the idea that she’ll no longer be able to get her lunchtime fuck from hubby, who also hasn’t lost a single cent from economic shutdowns.

      Fuck these people.

      • Homple

        They will be uckedfay when management discovers that jobs done at home in the USA can be done in Mumbai for a fraction of the cost.

        Office buildings full of empty cubicles will be the new rust belt.

    • Cy

      “A Senate source told Fox News that senators preside when the impeached individual is not currently the president of the United States. ”

      If you tell a lie loud and long enough…

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Damn, we have 13 senators over 80.

      • juris imprudent

        And COVID hasn’t taken a one of them. Some plague.

    • mrfamous

      From Wikipedia:

      “He graduated from Saint Michael’s College in 1961, with a bachelor of arts degree in political science…In 1964, Leahy received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He was admitted to the bar and became an associate at the firm headed by Philip H. Hoff, the Governor of Vermont at the time. In May 1966, Hoff appointed him to fill a vacancy as State’s Attorney of Chittenden County. Leahy was elected to a full term in 1966 and reelected in 1970…Leahy was elected to the United States Senate for the first time in November 1974.”

      In case you’re wondering how elite “the Elites” actually are. Man’s never held an actual job. Even his two years as a lawyer were clearly just a political internship.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        That’s why he’s the perfect person to make business policy.

      • Fourscore

        He needs more sunshine, wheel him outside, with Joe and Nancy.

  24. Certified Public Asshat

    Encryption is scary: The battle inside Signal

    Employees worry that, should Signal fail to build policies and enforcement mechanisms to identify and remove bad actors, the fallout could bring more negative attention to encryption technologies from regulators at a time when their existence is threatened around the world.

    “The world needs products like Signal — but they also need Signal to be thoughtful,” said Gregg Bernstein, a former user researcher who left the organization this month over his concerns. “It’s not only that Signal doesn’t have these policies in place. But they’ve been resistant to even considering what a policy might look like.”

    Interviews with current and former employees, plus leaked screenshots of internal deliberations, paint a portrait of a company that is justly proud of its role in promoting privacy while also willfully dismissing concerns over the potential misuses of its service. Their comments raise the question of whether a company conceived as a rebuke to data-hungry, ad-funded communication tools like Facebook and WhatsApp will really be so different after all.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      What I get from that article is a bunch of employees who are perfectly fine with Antifa using the product to organize and burn down businesses, but are getting pissy that wrongthinkers like Trump supporters might use it too.

    • Chipwooder

      Amusingly enough, this article describes a large number of people questioning the company’s policies, yet names and quotes precisely one critic:

      “The world needs products like Signal — but they also need Signal to be thoughtful,” said Gregg Bernstein, a former user researcher who left the organization this month over his concerns.

      And who is this Bernstein chap? Well…..

      Bernstein (disclosure: a former colleague of mine at Vox Media)

      What a stunning development!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Nice catch

    • R C Dean

      leaked screenshots of internal deliberations

      That really gives me confidence in their security.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    I am actually surprised that they have not tried banning guns yet.

    They need to purge the racists and counterrevolutionaries from the police ranks, first. They might hesitate to follow their orders.

    • Tonio

      You might be on to something, Brooks. But where will all those people go and what will they do? I don’t think they’ve thought this through.

      • juris imprudent

        Particularly since we know, courtesy of our enlightened folx, that police departments are systemically racist. Which should mean any disarming is starting at the top of the victim stack and working down.

        Are you sure that’s what you had in mind?

        Case in point.

    • Tejicano

      They should know that they would be lucky to even identify as many as 1% of the people they are after, Since the overwhelming majority of the people they’re trying to de-person will still be at large I’m not sure it’s a good idea to make the feel like it’s only a matter of time before they are in the spotlight, to make them feel like they have little to lose by acting now.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Top Democrats introduce a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2025, raising pay for 32 million Americans eliminating the jobs of millions of Americans.

    • The Other Kevin

      Top Democrats just made it harder for my kids to get their first jobs.

      • AlexinCT

        Less competition for their moronic offspring…

    • SandMan

      This really hits my family, my daughter is handicapped and works 15-20 hours a week in what is often called a “sheltered workshop”. She makes well below minimum wage because her pay is based on her productivity. She loves her job, and quite frankly the pay is probably the least important aspect of her work. It gives her a sense of pride and a chance to socialize with her peers. This legislation will kill her job, and she will never get another one. I am PISSED off now, and pray that the bill fails (preferably) or gets modified to remove the impact on the handicapped.

      • R C Dean

        gets modified to remove the impact on the handicapped.

        Never happen. Exempting the handicapped from minimum wage requirements would be portrayed as straight-up discrimination, yo.

      • SandMan

        You are probably correct, but there is an organized opposition (Dignity Has a Voice. for instance). The problem is the SJW mindset, trying to save us from ourselves, the true believers cannot hear an opposing viewpoint. A recent “Study” by the the so called Civil Rights Commission received 9700 public comments, which were 98% in favor of keeping disabled workers exempt from the minimum wage rules. Basically ignored.

  27. Rebel Scum

    This bill would essentially bar any American that has rallied in support of President Trump post-election or publicly voiced concern about election fraud from being able to hold a job in the Armed Forces or any federal law enforcement agency.

    Non-leftist opinions will not be tolerated in the Great Reset regime, comrade.

    • Tonio

      “or publicly voiced concern about election fraud”

      Concern. Even the mildest acknowledgement that there might, might, have been some malfeasance somewhere is grounds for dismissal. This policy will quickly be applied to granting clearances, “sensitive” government positions (think DoEd, yo), etc, etc. I wonder how long before they exclude those people from unearned federal benefits.

      • R C Dean

        No First Amendment problem there.

    • Drake

      The backbone of the combat arms units of the Army and Marine Corps are young men from red-states so if this is real, it would seriously weaken our ability to fight. Not long ago I would have seen that as a bad thing.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        It would seriously weaken the USG’s ability to fight, not “our” ability. And I, for one, don’t anticipate a bunch of soldiers who’ve been excommunicated would be willing to just sit down and shut up.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Lautenberg Amendment says “hi!”.

      • leon

        Even the Lautenberg Amendment only kicks in once you have been convicted. What this bill is proposing is punishing people without a conviction. Violating 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th amendment rights.

  28. Cy

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/national-guard-capitol-mission-complete-sen-tom-cotton

    “Though access to the Capitol will remain limited for a while longer because of the pandemic, it should not become a fortress because of security fears.”

    No you asshats. It’s shut down because ‘the great unifier’ dictated it to be. The guy every news media accused of being a dictator never did anything like that except to clear violent rioters from federal property.

    The cognitive dissonance is, as usual, astounding.

  29. Rufus the Monocled

    Wow. Rand Paul.

    Better than sex.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    “The world needs products like Signal — but they also need Signal to be thoughtful,” said Gregg Bernstein, a former user researcher who left the organization this month over his concerns. “It’s not only that Signal doesn’t have these policies in place. But they’ve been resistant to even considering what a policy might look like.”

    “Well, of course I believe in the Second Amendment, but waving guns around at demonstrations and toting them into grocery stores and coffee shops just scares the normies. You can have them, but only if you don’t do anything with them.”

    • EvilSheldon

      The difference, of course, being that the second viewpoint is correct.

  31. Nephilium

    In some good news for today, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have signed with Hellcat Records. They put together an epic video with a couple* other bands.

    *Full list: Tim Armstrong (Rancid), Aimee Interrupter & The Interrupters, Stranger Cole, Angelo Moore (Fishbone), Jake Burns (Stiff Little Fingers), Jay Navarro (Suicide Machines), Chris DeMakes, Pete Wesilewski, Roger Lima (Less Than Jake), Jimmy G (Murphy’s Law), Toby Morse, Rusty Pistachio (H2O), John Feldman (Goldfinger), Laila Khan (Sonic Boom Six), Robert Hingley (Toasters), Dan Vitale (Bim Skala Bim), Dave McWane (Big D and The Kids Table), Sirae Richardson, Erin Mackenzie, Brie McWane (The Doped Up Dollys), Jesse Wagner (Aggrolites), Karina Denike (The Dance Hall Crashers), Christian Jaccobs (The Aquabats), Jon Pebsworth (Buck O Nine), Peter Porker (The Porkers), Steve Jackson (The Pietasters), Felipe Galvan (Los Skanarles), Jet Baker (Buster Shuffle), Fumio Ito (Kemuri), Glen ​‘The Kid’ Marhevka (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy), and Roddy Radiation (The Specials).

    • Chipwooder

      Goldfinger….wow, totally had forgotten about those guys

      • Tundra

        +1 bedroom.

      • Nephilium

        I think I’ve seen 15 of the bands in that song. I’m familiar with all but a couple.

      • Chipwooder

        I’m familiar with a whole bunch of them but I’m pretty sure Fishbone is the only one I’ve seen live.

      • Old Man With Candy

        I haven’t heard of any of them.

        /adjusts belt onion

      • Chipwooder

        Funny thing about that is that a bunch of them have been around for at least 20 years. Fishbone goes back to the early ’80s I think.

      • Cy

        1981… was 40 years ago.

      • Nephilium

        The Specials and Stiff Little Fingers go back to 1977, and I’d be surprised if OMWC hasn’t heard any of their songs before.

      • Fourscore

        Redbone was waiting

      • Timeloose

        The Specials have been around for 40 years as well.

    • Timeloose

      This is going to make my wife very happy. I think Mrs. Time has singlehandedly been responsible for the band’s continued existence. She has never stopped buying their albums.

      Some time after this KOvid Koncert Killer period ends there will be an epic Ska festival locally, I will keep those interested informed.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      I have a bit of a crush on Aimee Interrupter.

      • Nephilium

        Me as well, especially after I read a hit piece that was saying punks shouldn’t like the Interrupters because Aimee is a dastardly libertarian, and was a Ron Paul supporter!

    • mrfamous

      Stranger Cole? God bless him. There’s not too many of the old school Jamaican guys left. His old partner Ken Boothe is still kicking too.

  32. Rebel Scum

    Just two months after coming out as transgender, Elliot Page — the actor formerly known as Ellen Page — is divorcing wife Emma Portner.

    She still has lady parts. But I guess she is kind effed in the head thinking that she is a man.

    • robodruid

      I hope they both find happiness.

    • Not Adahn

      “As a man, you are… barely passable. As a woman, you are a dug.”

      -M. Perrier

    • Chipwooder

      Emma simply is not stunning and brave, I guess. Sad!

  33. Rebel Scum

    “Fairness is what it looks like to have a partisan preside over a post-presidency shampeachment trial.

    “The trial will be done in a way that is fair but … relatively quickly,” Schumer said in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, The Hill reported. “I don’t think there’s a need for a whole lot of witnesses,” Schumer continued, saying he believes the impeachment trial will be “fair,” adding that he would “not let the Republicans be dilatory.”

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Damn, we have 13 senators over 80.

    Only 13?

    • pan fried wylie

      yeah, but, “70 over 70!” Close? W/e

    • UnCivilServant

      Was the video actual evidence? What was the audit trail on that communication?

      After my first read of the article, I’m leaning towards guilty (but obviously don’t have the full record of the court)

      • Cy

        Oh yeah. She’s guilty. The only kind of idiot that would say “it’s impossible for us to have sex standing up” so definitively… is because they tried.

  35. Festus

    Goddamned Christ on a cracker! Will head office just fuck off and leave me alone to die in peace? New training videos released yesterday and my “supervisor” is texting me in a panic about them. At 5 fucking 30 in the morning. Calm your tits, woman!

    • Festus

      The bestest part is that every last one of those videos has been akin to telling us that touching a hot stove might be a bad idea and you probably shouldn’t stick that bobby pin in the outlet. Lackwits Unite!

  36. The Late P Brooks

    “I don’t think there’s a need for a whole lot of witnesses,”

    It’;s not as if they’re bothering to pretend they haven’t already decided on a verdict.

  37. Tonio

    The latest eco-weenie obsession – cairns built in public parks. Yep, you stack one stone on top of another and all of a sudden you’re a vandal. Also, it’s somehow destructive. And it might confuse people looking for “official” cairns, which are sometimes used as waypoint markers in backcountry, but those are often cemented and have signage; also irrelevant in the age of GPS navigation.

    • AlexinCT

      Wait…

      Are you telling me someone is having a cow over people that stack stones on trails and in parks? What’s the problem? The weight hurts Gaia or Gaia’s feelings?

      WTF is wrong with people?

      I get complaining about dog walkers that leave their dogs shit for others to step in, but a pile of fucking rocks? What’s the problem? The rocks interrupts the magnetic field?

      • Tonio

        It’s really just control-freakery. They claim it destroys the naturalness of the place. I’m still trying to figure out the destructive part, which I can see if the stones are dug or chipped. Here they are most commonly encountered on the rocky shelves and sandy banks of rivers and streams where the stones are in good supply and the runoff from the next good rain destroys the cairn.

      • pan fried wylie

        the next good rain destroys the cairn.

        Crushing the last surviving member of the Darter Tree Snailopus.

      • juris imprudent

        Their own presence in that environment destroys the naturalness. They need to never, ever physically go there – nor can anyone else – it all needs to exist just as a place to visit psychically.

      • Suthenboy

        “It’s really just control-freakery.”

        ^this x 1000^

      • leon

        It is adherance to the principle that everything Natrual is Good, and humans are the source of Evil in the world. Thus by touching or changing anything humans are defiling nature.

        Add in a touch of “Saving Grace by Government/Officialdom” wherin if you belong to an official agency, your actions are sanctified by that and so you can go and Cement in Cairn and add signage.

    • Not Adahn

      Public parks aren’t places just anybody should be allowed to go to.

    • Festus

      Oh yeah. That happened in Vancouver a few years ago. The usual suspects claimed that it was “cultural appropriation” of Inuit Culture. Dude, some stoners on the beach stacking rocks up has nothing to do with cairns. Just something cool and fun to do, like frisbee or hacky-sack.

    • Viking1865

      Oh fuck that. Those cairns figure in two of my best memories of the outdoors: when I was a boy scout we came across one and my scoutmaster wove it into a lurid tale of a killer zombie Indian bear shapeshifter. Then years later when I was leading my own group on a hike we came across one, and I wove it into killer cannibal Indian ghosts.

      They just hate fun.

  38. robc

    GME up +$100 in pre-market. I want to see where it opens at 9:30.

    • Swiss Servator

      Wish I knew how to cash in on this weirdness.

      • UnCivilServant

        Sell your Gamestop stock.

        If you have none, sell your advice on how to cash in, even if you have no idea how to cash in.

      • robc

        You can try to guess the peak and short it. 🙂

      • robc

        The funny thing is, if the board is smart, GME is going to come out of this with a pretty strong balance sheet. Despite the flailing business, it was already decent, they had more cash than debt. If they have been selling some shares during this runup, they should be sitting on a decent pile of cash to move the business forward with.

      • robc

        Meaning that instead of crashing to $10, it may go down to $40 or something like that.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s Gamestop, I wouldn’t bet on the people running the company to be all that bright.

      • robc

        There have been some big changes in the last year. The guy who bought 13% of the company has been very critical of the way it was run in the past, and has been pushing for changes. He was the primary reason for the runup from $3 to $15 during 2020. Them the squeeze happened.

      • robc

        4 GME directors sold stock in January BEFORE the spike. Oopsie. At least there wont be any charges of insider trading.

      • Endless Mike

        It doesn’t matter how well they run it; Their business model is the Blockbuster Video of the retail gaming industry.

      • robc

        That was the main criticism, that they didnt shift from Blockbuster to Netflix.

      • UnCivilServant

        Are we talking “mailing dvds netflix” or “streaming services netflix” because the streaming services model is, well, horrible for video games. The killer is control responsiveness latency. We can argue back and forth about the network pipe and video fidelity, but that first killer is any control latency.

        Second is that your target audience already has devices capable of playing the games, and unless you can compete with the experience of those local devices, you’re not going to keep them.

        Third you get into a licensing nightmare that delivered a hammerblow to nVidia’s effort, and made google’s “Buy it again, peasant” pricing model a problem.

        So the best, closest option would be a “mailing discs” model. But you are then also limited to titles with a physical release, immediately cutting your available catalog.

      • nw

        For some reason Schwab won’t let put in an order to buy February puts.
        That’s how I figured I’d try to cash in.

      • robc

        Like last Friday, 100% of this friday’s calls are ITM.

        Feb puts are pricey. 120s cost $41, it would need to fall below $79 for that to be profitable. Possible, but an expensive gamble. $4100 for max gain of $7900.

        200s cost $90. So that is $9k upfront for a max gain of $11k. I don’t think that is the way to play this.

    • AlexinCT

      Are they getting ready to release another new and hipper (more pr0n) version of “Leisure Suit Larry”? Cause otherwise, why the jump?

      • robc

        Combo of option squeeze, short squeeze and insane redditors.

      • AlexinCT

        Damn, I am out… I was hopping for some sweet Leisure Suit Larry gaming with all the important “Bs” in it (Booze, Blow, Bitchez and Buttseks)…

      • Nephilium

        You know they remade the first Leisure Suit Larry game a couple years back, right? They’ve also come out with two new ones since then.

      • AlexinCT

        So I finally found info that tells me this is part of an orchestrated effort to destroy hedge funds that were betting against stocks like this failing and buying the stocks (it is not just GME) to force these funds to cover the failed bets of failure and in the process destroying these funds. It’s about fucking the short sellers over. I am all for this.

        BTW, did anyone see Pelosi bought a huge amount of Tesla stocks just days before Biden made the announcement that he wanted to make all government vehicles electric? Where are the insider trading investigations? Can you imagine some Trump people doing this and not being crucified?

      • Cy

        perusing the .GOV auction sites I come across a lot of the hybrid and LP vehicles that Obama bought. They go for almost scrap because the batteries are toast or getting fuel for an LP can be a huge PIA. The vehicles themselves are pristine with low mileage too… wonder why.

      • robodruid

        where do you look?
        I have a LP station 2 miles away

      • robc

        “orchestrated effort”

        I am not sure r/WallStreetBets can be called orchestrated.

  39. Rebel Scum

    Aggressive sycophancy.

    After MSNBC aired the big “Celebrating America” prime time special for Joe Biden’s inauguration, Joy Reid praised the event and said it shows how “Democrats have the culture” and the right “hates that.”

    Reid said the event provided not just resistance, but joy and hope, after Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in.

    “They went to work. They did a workday. They gave us a press conference where there were no lies!” Reid continued. “We got the opportunity to rediscover what it looks like to have a normal administration, like aggressive normalcy. Is that what we were calling it today? We got that.”

    • Chipwooder

      Joy never was able to track down the hacker that made all those homophobic tweets on her account, huh?

    • The Other Kevin

      “Democrats have the culture”

      Kind of. They have academia and Hollywood and sports and politics, so they control those subcultures. But I still think most Americans aren’t true believers, they’re just tolerating it.

      • Viking1865

        Even if you swim against the current, the stream still carries you down river. They control the people that make ideas, the media that spreads those ideas, and the politicians who turn those ideals into policy.

        We’re all wearing masks because it seemed like it made sense and the media aggressively spread the meme that it made sense, even though theres zero evidence that it actually stops the spread of COVID.

      • juris imprudent

        We’re wearing masks because idiots imposed diktats on businesses. You leave it all up to media persuasion, and you aren’t getting more than 20% compliance.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        This.

        Were it not for the state shutting down businesses that don’t enforce government lockdowns, I don’t know many people who would wear a mask. I know I wouldn’t.

        I had to wear a mask last week during a guitar lesson with 2 people in the room: I was one, the other was my guitar teacher who had covid about a month ago. But we still had to wear masks because if we didn’t, the mucus school risks being shut down.

      • Viking1865

        “You leave it all up to media persuasion,”

        The media is not for persuading voters, its for persuading politicians and bureaucrats. The voters don’t count.

      • AlexinCT

        Most Americans are too busy dealing with real world problems. and fooled by the problem that catchy slogans that sound great but ignore most reality and the fact that the assholes never debate but accuse those calling them out of being evil (name your “ism”). which is why these people get away with this stuff.

    • Festus

      I think that I’ll call my grey-beard punk band “Aggressive Normalcy”.

    • Rebel Scum

      This has been known for some time now. Schwab is a quintessential Bond Villain.

      • Chipwooder

        The real life Blofeld!

      • Rebel Scum

        Related.

        Looks like fun, completely mundane and not terrifying times in Wuhan, amirite?

  40. Rebel Scum

    Conformity. Heeling. Unity. Healing.

    Nobody is above the law, no matter the person or the timing. Failure to hold those who would incite terror on others to overthrow an election process that has worked for over 230 yrs would set a dangerous precedent. …

    The article of impeachment has been delivered to the Senate. They need to convict Donald J. Trump — and the House needs to pass my resolution to investigate and expel the GOP members of Congress who sabotaged our democracy and incited the insurrection. …

    Yes, inciting and participating in an insurrection against the US government should get you cancelled, impeached, expelled and jailed.

    It is early in 2021 but “incitement” and “insurrection” have already been rendered meaningless.

    • Cy

      Aren’t they all just ‘mostly peaceful protests’ now?

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Seems like every word they use is rendered meaningless. It’s why they must continuously escalate language; the previous word is rendered moot, so they move up the chain.

      Racist > white supremacist (with various stops along the way). Racist is completely meaningless now, and Trump made it useless by not giving a single shit and refusing to back down, so they’ve ratcheted up the rhetoric.

    • Sean

      lol

      • AlexinCT

        That’s a, a erm, nice bookend… Where is the other one?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        In “storage”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The internet is forever.

    • robodruid

      She seems fun

      • Not Adahn

        “You must be this big to ride this ride.”

      • robodruid

        Damm I’m out.

  41. robc

    GME in 3 minutes has been bouncing between 280 and 350.

    Here is the leader of the GME thingy, this guy is up well over $30MM on his $53k investment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zi7XVudxME

    • robc

      The one year target estimate has gone up from $11 to $12.39 this week.

    • robc

      at 5:20 in the video — “There are going to be windfall years,”

      • robc

        at 7:00 — “3x, 4x, overnight…seemingly”

        Its a video from July where he is saying he invests in bad companies looking for big gains.

    • robc

      So the big question: Who plays him in the movie?

      I figure Michael Lewis already has the book outline done and has sold it to a publisher.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Stand by for an announcement from the Ministry of Truth

    President Joe Biden is cracking down on the oil-and-gas industry, but he is not taking the extreme steps the Trump campaign claimed he would last fall.
    Last week, the Biden administration imposed a 60-day suspension of new oil and gas leasing and drilling permits on federal lands unless the Interior Department’s leaders approved them.
    Biden is expected to go a step further Wednesday, by ordering a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal land and water areas.
    However, this is a far cry from the more dramatic step climate activists are calling for (and that the oil industry fears): a full-blown federal ban on fracking.

    ——-

    Still, Biden’s early steps represent a sharp break from the Trump administration’s mission to maximize fossil fuels production — despite the worsening climate crisis. Hours after being sworn in, Biden moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change, revoke a permit granted to the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and place a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic.
    “He is not kidding around when it comes to imposing tough new restrictions on the US petroleum sector,” said McNally, a former Energy Department official under President George W. Bush.

    Energy analysts dismissed the risk that these steps would cause a sudden spike in oil prices, which have sharply rebounded from their pandemic lows. That’s because the world is still swimming in excess oil and many drilling companies stocked up on permits and leases in the event Trump lost the election.
    “In the short-term, the market remains very well-supplied,” said Ryan Fitzmaurice, energy strategist at Rabobank. “In terms of immediate impacts, it’s more symbolic than a real threat to oil supplies.”

    What are you whining about? He hasn’t completely banned anything. He just wants to stop global warming in its tracks, as any sensible statesman does. He’s holding some permits in reserve to keep the natives donor base from getting too restless, just in case.

    • Drake

      So $5 gas if and when victory is declared over covid and people are commuting again.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        A non Hogan’s Heroes related avatar? What madness is this?

      • Drake

        Still the great John Banner!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      So instead of an explicit ban it’s an implicit ban. As far as global supply, I’m sure the Russians and the Saudis will be happy to keep us supplied while they place our balls back into a petroleum filled vice.

      • Chipwooder

        Oh, silly man, that’s just the kick in the pants we need to spend many billions on clean energy!

    • Rebel Scum

      despite the worsening climate crisis

      The what?

      He is not kidding around when it comes to imposing tough new restrictions on the US petroleum sector, making life more difficult for the middle class and poor.

      • AlexinCT

        A society run/ruled by a credentialed oligarchy and a bunch of deplorable serfs that get UBI handouts to stay out of the way, is easier to control. Middleclasses suck balls because they threaten the oligarchy’s desire for hereditary power transfers.

  43. Q Continuum

    “Job losses from forced government shutdowns 4 times worse than the ’09 financial crisis.”

    Not to worry about the border wall; no one will come here looking for work because there will be no work.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Nobody is above the law, no matter the person or the timing.

    *outright prolonged laughter*

    • UnCivilServant

      Sounds like just Juan bad choice

    • The Other Kevin

      Are we going to taco bout this again?

      • Plisade

        Careful, we might get a stare from the pun(c)zar.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    The backbone of the combat arms units of the Army and Marine Corps are young men from red-states so if this is real, it would seriously weaken our ability to fight. Not long ago I would have seen that as a bad thing.

    We’ll replace all those lunkheads with effete technoids sitting in unmarked trailers in the Nevada desert pushing buttons and twiddling joysticks.

  46. Q Continuum

    “As a rule, Soviet dissidents and refuseniks were fired from their workplaces and denied employment according to their major specialty. As a result, they had to find a menial job, such as a street sweeper, or face imprisonment on charges of social parasitism.”

    Seems eerily similar to: “bar any American that has rallied in support of President Trump post-election or publicly voiced concern about election fraud from being able to hold a job in the Armed Forces or any federal law enforcement agency”

    I congratulate the Dems for finally coming out of the closet and embracing their true Soviet selves.

    • juris imprudent

      Murray noted the Favre kerfuffle where he was the first to stop applauding the glorious Caitlyn Jenner at the ESPN dork show – with the appropriate Stalin reference.

  47. prolefeed

    A belated reply to the “We’re All Nazis” dead thread:

    Based on my revealed preference – I fled the statist hell that is Hawaii to a considerably more free state, Texas, and abandoning most everything I owned to do so. Granted, that was in part to get away from my future ex-wife …

    If I had been living in Germany around 1930 with my current mindset and skill set, I suspect I would have got the hell outta dodge when the Nazis seized control and started ramping up the violence. The tricky part is, you don’t always know when things are going seriously sideways, since history is written after the fact, and you’ve got to be confident enough in your assessment of where things are headed to give up most material possessions.

    It’s easier for me to pack up and go, since I grew up in a military family and moving every few years was just something you had to do. Absent that mindset … might have stuck around too long, waited until the borders got shut down.

    • Rat on a train

      The Nazis didn’t prohibit emigration until after they invaded Poland. They did make it harder by imposing exit taxes and limiting the amount of money you could transfer out of the country (California uber alles). The Soviets imposed heavy emigration restrictions quickly. By 1920, you needed NKVD permission to emigrate.

      • Viking1865

        Yeah there were 500,000 Jews in Germany in 1933. 60% of them GTFO before the invasion of Poland, which is when the actual mass killing started.

  48. kinnath

    Thanks for the music Banjos.

    • Festus

      My bro plays classical guitar. It got old after awhile being cooped up together in a motorhome for weeks at a time on the job-site but the music lives on.

  49. Festus

    Tulsi is a very attractive woman with some ideas that we may agree with but choose the form of your destructor – https://youtu.be/M6g0zB6LZ9k

    • robc

      Tulsi >>> Biden/Harris

      Her economics are awful, but she seems pretty good on most everything else.

      • Hyperion

        When you’re dirt poor and will be staying that way, none of those other things matter.

      • Mojeaux

        ^^^This.

      • Chipwooder

        Eh…..she’ll gladly confiscate your firearms as well.

      • robc

        So, still better than Biden.

      • R C Dean

        For a bunch of single-issue voters, we sure are . . . flexible when a nice rack is in view.

      • Animal

        When a nice rack is in view, I may be several things, but “flexible” is an antonym of one of them.

      • robc

        Wouldn’t that make us a two issue voter?

      • PieInTheSky

        Just like people who read The Sun?

      • Festus

        🙂

      • juris imprudent

        Yep.

      • KromulentKristen

        Well, you men are emotional creatures, so…

  50. wdalasio

    You know, I think Rand might be setting himself up very nicely for a 2024 run. After maintaining cordial relations with Trump throughout Trump’s term, even when he disagrees strongly with him, he’s set himself up as the standard-bearer against the re-impeachment travesty. That should give him a lot of sway with Trump and his supporters. And the difference is that he’s posing the case (whether you believe it’s sincere or not) from a thoughtful, principled position. Moreover, he’s indicated that he’s going to be making a nation-wide push for election reforms. If he can succeed, that’s going to give him a lot of local allies.

    I think he’s got a good chance. Remember, Paul was a front-runner in 2016 until Trump came in and knocked the wind out of everyone’s sails. If the Biden administration proves as authoritarian and disastrous as a lot of us think, Paul will be well positioned to run as a principled alternative.

    • robc

      He can bring in the deplorables and some of the never-Trumpers.

      • Viking1865

        “some of the never-Trumpers.”

        Nah, remember the real reason for Never Trump was he wasn’t sold on Forever War, and Paul is much better than Trump on that. They’ll come up with some bullshit “norms and values” lie, but the real reason is hes a threat to Forever War.

      • leon

        He has been almost thouroughly tarnished as a “Russian Agent”. The Never-Trumpers will not get on board because the Intel Agencies have already named him a Persona-Non-Grata

    • Hyperion

      I’d vote for Rand. But he has no chance, he will forever be labeled as one of those nutter libertarians. Just ask anyone you know who labels themselves conservative. You will get one or another form of ‘Oh my god, he’s a libertarian, they want to legalize drugs!’.

    • Mojeaux

      a thoughtful, principled position

      Romney had a lot of thoughtful, principled positions too, but he was utterly milquetoast as a candidate and he was literally Hitler.

      As much as I would like to agree, we aren’t going to see him get anything but trashed and the Trump believers will want a savior. Paul does not come across as a savior.

      • Viking1865

        Romney’s thoughtful principled positions were “The Democratic Platform, but with balanced budgets and a lower corporate tax rate.” Mitt would have been a very good President from an executive functioning POV. Leviathan would have run like a well oiled machine. But I want someone who wants to jam up the gears. Ideally someone who can hack into the system and burn the whole thing down, but I’ll settle for a hooting ape who rips out wires and smashes control panels.

      • Mojeaux

        My point is, thoughtful and principled get you nowhere, especially if you’re not a firebrand and/or hooting ape.

        I have my problems with Trump (although he was entertaining), but one huge one is that he didn’t know how to surround himself with good people. I’m not sure that’s a function of inadequate intelligence, ego, loyalties to certain people, or thoughtlessness.

      • Hyperion

        “I have my problems with Trump (although he was entertaining), but one huge one is that he didn’t know how to surround himself with good people.”

        ^this^ It’s hard to fail better at that, than Sessions and Barr.

      • AlexinCT

        The assumption was that the swamp has enough good people to do so.

      • Fourscore

        I’ll call with Navarro and Lighthizer.

      • robc

        Lack of principles. What was he going to base hiring on?

        On the other hand, I though Devos was a great choice for EdSec.

      • KromulentKristen

        I loved the Trump politicals in the agency I worked for. They were excellent managers with actual subject matter expertise.

        Problem is, they had to fight an uphill battle every day because Trump himself would undermine them just by being Trump. They struggled to be taken seriously.

      • Festus

        That is actual no shit information that we all need to hear, KK.

      • KromulentKristen

        I often comment about the inner workings at the agency I work for and DC in general. Thirty years gives you a lot of insight.

      • wdalasio

        My point is, thoughtful and principled get you nowhere, especially if you’re not a firebrand and/or hooting ape.

        That’s only true if you think of someone like Romney’s stances as thoughtful or principled. But, like I said, that’s not what I’m talking about. The public gets bored really quickly with just another technocrat arguing about whether a federal commission or a federal blue ribbon commission will decide what rights they have. A guy who stands up and says “No, people have rights and I don’t care what kind of commission wants to take them away. That’s not happening,” is a lot more powerful than I think you give it credit for.

      • wdalasio

        Romney had a lot of thoughtful, principled positions too.

        Did he, though? Mostly, Romney’s positions struck me as, as you say, milquetoast. That’s not, to me, particularly principled or thoughtful, unless your principles are “Don’t be mean. Don’t make a fuss. And don’t upset the apple cart.”

        Yes, the Democrats and their media allies will try to portray Paul as Hitler 2.0. They’ll do that to any Republican. The thing is, I think that sticks less with a guy like Paul than it would with a Romney. Listening to Paul speak, a lot of what I hear from him sounds like stuff I remember from Schoolhouse Rock. When I listen to Romney, I hear pretty much the same pablum I hear from all of the talking heads. Labeling the stuff people remember from Schoolhouse Rock as Hitler seems like a stretch. And unlike Romney, Paul doesn’t seem afraid to actually fight for something. Romney seems to just back away and not want to deal with the confrontation. But, the best way to stop a bully in his tracks is to fight back. And the guys pushing the Hitler 2.0 claims are ultimately just bullies (or mean girls – and yes, even the guys).

      • juris imprudent

        Trump believers will want a savior

        All I can say is, if you want a savior get your ass into church, not a voting booth.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        “Trump believers will want a savior.”

        Do they? Or do they just want someone who doesn’t belittle and sabotage them?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Please don’t get my hopes up.

      • Rebel Scum

        ^

    • The Other Kevin

      He’s made enemies of the establishment (R)’s, but I think that’s another positive. Although that might make it difficult for him in the presidential primaries.

      But I agree, he’s one of the only people who a) sounds sane, and b) is showing real leadership. I always liked him, but he’s thankfully taking it to another level.

      • Mojeaux

        a) sounds sane, and b) is showing real leadership

        That right there is his electability problem.

        Thoughtful leadership isn’t sexy and he’s not going to promise handouts and most people don’t think/care about policy until it impacts them, and even then they don’t make a cause-and-effect connection.

        For instance, myself. I did not realize that the reason my little Granny car got more expensive to fix was because of the cash for clunkers program taking used cars off the market. I did not notice the decrease in clunkers on the road. I barely paid attention to that stuff and cash for clunkers was a phrase I only heard once or twice. I assumed it meant cash for non-working cars. The only thing I “knew” about it the second I heard the phrase “cash for clunkers” was that I wasn’t giving up my perfectly working and paid for vehicle to go into debt for a new car. Even if I’d thought about it, I wouldn’t have thought, “OMG taking all those clunkers off the market is bad.” And furthermore, “It’s bad because X, Y, and Z.” Nope. Never made the connection.

      • wdalasio

        Thoughtful leadership isn’t sex

        That’s where I think you’re mistaken. The guy taking a principled stand comes across as more “alpha” than the guy who’s willing to bend principle to get along.

      • Mojeaux

        We’ll have to disagree then, because the blue voters who are pandered to now don’t even know who Rand Paul is, and the blue voters who do aren’t going to vote for him.

        I believe the people who know and appreciate Rand Paul are a minority of red voters.

      • juris imprudent

        What principled stand propelled Trump to the Presidency?

      • Tundra

        Pussy-grabbing. Very popular.

      • Not Adahn

        “I would like to tell the professional ruling class to go fuck themselves.”

    • Festus

      Yeah, I’d like to have a few cozy cocktails with Tulsi, all things considered… j/k I see Rand as the power behind the Marionette not as the front rank guy. Not my druthers but I’m helpless in this situation. The R’s don’t have a very strong backfield, right now. Crenshaw/Noem?

      • Count Potato

        Crenshaw is an ass clown.

      • Cy

        Crenshaw has been nothing but a ‘take the high road’ do nothing since the election. Fuck that guy. What a let down. He’s quickly become the epitome of “loyal opposition.” I guess he thinks the crocodile will eat him last.

      • KromulentKristen

        Crenshae is also a “red flag” gun grabber.

        Noem is spending tax $ to try to overturn her constituents’ vote to legalize weed.

        So fuck both of those authoritarian fucks.

      • Not Adahn

        Cuomo’s plan is to “legalize” MJ by making sale, possession and consumption “legal” under very specific situations, and make the penalties for any other sale, possession and consumption even harsher than they are currently.

        It’s like some kind of sadistic law of thermodynamics “total legal penalties can never decrease”

      • Hyperion

        The GOP rule is that because the dems are awful, a republican must be awful too, just in a different way.

      • Festus

        Don’t blame me, I didn’t write the fucking script.

    • Cy

      He’d never get the nomination. He’s not pretty enough or connected enough. The 2 previous “republican” candidates were RINOs. Going back the next 2, you get two deep state neocons. If you think Paul stand a chance, you’re delusional.

      • Festus

        Not tall enough.

  51. Hyperion

    New Research Debunks Claim That a $15 Minimum Wage Would Not Reduce Employment

    But there are still restaurants, salons, and ride sharing businesses that have not closed down yet. How are we supposed to solve this sort of problem?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Good Lord, businesses operate on a margin and artificially high wages will eat into that margin eventually making them unviable and those jobs, or at least a portion of them, will go poof. What kind of assumptions and bizarre operational definitions were they using in that one?

      • Hyperion

        See what I mean? The democrats have real solutions for today’s problems! Now all those former slaves making less than $15 an hour can be artists!

    • PieInTheSky

      Question: how long would it take after 15 is a thing to see requests for 20?

      I mean can you really support a family of 4 in New York City on 15 an hour?

  52. KromulentKristen

    Rand Paul: would

    • Mojeaux

      Take a number, sister.

      • Festus

        Heck. When Lyndsey stood up to the bullies I might have felt a little tingle down my leg. Maybe it was just a minor stroke. Maybe I just pissed myself? I don’t know anymore.

    • PieInTheSky

      I dunno he does not emanate big dick energy. I don;t know what that means but I saw it online somewhere.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        That’s what happens sometimes when you don’t get to choose the size of your dick in pre-op consultations.

      • KromulentKristen

        a) He does
        b) I want to pull that perfect, curly hair

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Oh, silly man, that’s just the kick in the pants we need to spend many billions on clean energy!

    We can make solar and wind energy, and electric cars, price-competitive with the stroke of a pen.

    SCIENCE!

    • Hyperion

      All you have to do is put solar panels on your roof and buy 2 Teslas and you’ll be self sustaining spending zero on energy!

  54. Michael

    All but five Republican senators voted in favor to dismiss Trump’s unconstitutional post presidency impeachment trial.

    Democrats are flailing. They don’t give a fuck about bringing Trump to justice – their goal is simply to prevent him from running in 2024 since a Biden campaign for a second term is approaching the realm of impossibility. Dems are coldly aware of this, but they know that their field of potential stand-ins is a fractured, pathetic mess. Kamala wouldn’t stand a chance, and their only other options from there are all downhill. This is gonna be a wild ride.

    • Hyperion

      All they have to do is keep their 2024 candidate in the basement and find enough paper ballots. I bet they’ve already started producing fraudulent ballots to haul in at 4am in the morning, they’ve got 4 years this time!

    • Cy

      The ‘impeachment’ is just a dog and pony show while the Dem’s brought in 25k troops for an ‘inauguration,’ shutdown the capitol to normies, issued 30+ EO’s, including some crippling entire industries and began purging all government agencies of any non-party friendly worker. I can’t believe I’m even typing this. This the USA!

      Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

    • PieInTheSky

      a Biden campaign for a second term – I thought he was around for just half term

    • creech

      Democrats aren’t flailing. This is a carefully orchestrated “win-win” situation for them. If Senate finds Trump guilty, he can’t run in 2024 but his supporters will primary and defeat quite a number of GOP senators who go along with conviction. If Senate finds Trump innocent, then Dems will hammer all the GOP senators who voted in Trump’s favor and the media will gleefully go along with them. Then Trump’s entry into 2024 election will split some sizeable portion of the GOP, ensuring another – ballot boosted – win for the Dems.

      • juris imprudent

        Where does anyone get the idea that impeachment derails someone from running for office? Fucking Alcee Hastings people.

      • R C Dean

        Impeachment can bar from some offices, but not elected offices, is my understanding.

        That, of course, assumes that the Constitution matters.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Bar to holding office is an optional, not automatic, punishment of an impeachment trial conviction.

      • creech

        What do you think the last paragraph of Art.I Sec.3 says?

      • R C Dean

        I’m surprised they are rushing the trial, as its the current pretext to keep MORE THAN A DIVISION OF TROOPS GARRISONING THE CAPITOL.

        If I’m goiing to live in a goddam banana republic, it should at least grow bananas.

  55. UnCivilServant

    Stupid fucking garbage management.

    First they make the stupid move to shift email from on prem to the cloud, now they’re shifting it to google, which has even worse interface options. And to top it off they still won’t let me just set the work browser to not open stupid fucking worthless pages on startup, so I have to wait for the damn thing to load before I can do any damn thing. There should be no homepage, and chrome should be banned from all computers rather than forced because they sold all our email to google and paid them for the priveledge of harvesting it to boot.

    • UnCivilServant

      My hate for chrome just gets stronger the longer I have to spend trying to beat this piece of crap into submission.

      If I can’t fully shut off the data collection, don’t remind me that it’s happening with all these autofills, suggestions, and search popups.

      And get the tabs off the title bar. I need that space to move the windows around.

      • pan fried wylie

        I need that space to move the windows around.

        Also sick of not being able to grab my window handles anymore. And enough with the animated-layout UI elements. FFS.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m trying to get my work-related google workspace crap set up and somehow alphabet has managed to shit out a UI that is at once both overly cluttered, and lacking in functionality.

    • PieInTheSky

      I blame the unregulated private sector

    • Hyperion

      “double wind energy”

      So a pen really can make the wind blow harder?

      • juris imprudent

        That’s just blowhards hyperventilating.

    • Festus

      Pretty girl, shame about the ass…

  56. Rebel Scum

    Why? Because I said so.

    Look, in the weeks ahead. I’ll be reaffirming the federal government’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility, building on the work we started in the Obama-Biden administration. That’s why I’m rescinding the previous administration’s harmful ban on diversity and sensitivity training and abolish the offensive counterfactual 1776 commission. Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth, not ignorance, and lies.

    Truth > Facts.

    • KromulentKristen

      Interesting that he mentions Obama & accessibility. During Obama’s tenure, the White House web site was just one big mess of section 508 non-compliance.

      When they dumped a few unwanted politicals on us at State, they were constantly trying to skirt section 508 and get exceptions & exemptions.

      Personally, I think the handicapped have the same right to government information as the rest of us, but not sure about Obama & his cronies.

      • Hyperion

        There are Nazis everywhere, you can’t even go outside without them surrounding you, we have to do something!

    • Hyperion

      What part of it, is counterfactual? I’m sure he explained that, but I missed it.

    • PieInTheSky

      how long till the words Unity and healing get a additional definition in online dictionaries as meaning trumpists repent for being scumbags?

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Yeah there were 500,000 Jews in Germany in 1933. 60% of them GTFO before the invasion of Poland, which is when the actual mass killing started.

    So- when they start telling me explicitly that they hate me and want me dead, I should believe them (and flee)?

    • Viking1865

      1. Ain’t nowhere left to run to.

      2. Jews were less than 1% of the population of Germany, a disarmed and despised extremely tiny minority. Slightly different situation here.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I remember seeing an analysis of the Soviet documents regarding the Germans who were taken prisoner at Stalingrad and around 1,000 supposedly identified themselves as Jews. I haven’t been to track down that interesting factoid since though.

      • Chipwooder

        There were actually a surprising number of Jews in the Wehrmacht, believe it or not.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, I did a quick look and it was about 150K including generals and Field Marshals who received the Knight’s Cross:

        https://www.haaretz.com/1.4747962

        Some even claimed to have to have continued to openly practice while they were in the Wehrmacht. Pretty bizarre…

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Well damn, the link’s paywalled but that was the gist.

      • Viking1865

        The Nuremburg Laws defined a Jew as someone with 3 or more Jewish grandparents. So if a Jewish man born to Jewish parents married a Christian woman born to Christian parents, then their children under the law were not Jewish. Of course, the laws also prohibited marriage or sexual relations between Jews and Aryans. So in theory, if this couple were to divorce on the spot the laws were passed, the father and paternal grandparents would be marked for death, but the mother and the children would not be marked for death. I’m not sure how it worked in practice, but under the letter of those laws, that’s how it would go.

        As for openly practicing, there were Jews in the Finnish Army, which fought the Soviets as a co belligerent of the Nazis. Some very interesting stuff there:

        https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/fascinating-history-of-finnish-jews-during-ww2/

      • Hyperion

        Well, they do plan on getting all the guns before filling the camps.

      • Mojeaux

        Ain’t nowhere left to run to.

        When I was reading ZH regularly and getting all panicky and anxious, there were a couple of commenters there (yes, I know, don’t read the comments) who headed off to remote villages in SE Asia that actually had internet service of some kind. They didn’t have a lot of money by our standard of living, but they had a ton compared to those people’s, but they did not live as if they had a lot of money. I seem to remember they gave up their US citizenship, but I also seem to remember they either paid the exit tax or dodged it.

        Anyway, they seemed to be thriving and enjoying themselves versus just hanging out till they died.

      • Chipwooder

        In 2004, when my detachment was coming back from a deployment to Uzbekistan, we were stranded for almost a week in Thailand due to “mechanical issues” with our C-17. I have always believed that the pilots did something to cause it, because they seemed awfully pleased to get an impromptu vacation. Anyway, one day we went to this place that had bungee jumping and dirt-track go karts. We talked to the owner for a while. He was a retired fireman from Cleveland. Went on a vacation to Thailand right after he retired, loved it, so he sold everything when he went home and moved over there. Used his savings and the money from the sale of his house to buy that place. Said he had never been happier and had no intention of ever returning to the US.

      • Animal

        If I was to pick any place to ex-pat to, it would be Japan. But, yeah, we’ll be seeing more of these stories, I expect.

      • Mojeaux

        I can’t ex-pat anywhere they have weird food, which is to say, the blandest possible food possible that ever possibled.

      • Hyperion

        Didn’t they ban toxic masculinity over there?

      • Animal

        I don’t know about that, but I can tell you from experience that they love them some Animal Magnetism.

      • Cy

        “1. Ain’t nowhere left to run to.”

        Exactly. I wish people would stop ‘compromising’ with the commies. They’ve won. Splitting up the US would just prolong the inevitable a little bit longer. The long march is nearly over.

    • mrfamous

      More often than not, they really are bluffing. The problem is when they’re not, you’re in big trouble.

      • Rat on a train

        slowly at first, then all of the sudden

  58. Rebel Scum

    You have no right to combine rights, subject citizen.

    The legislation, House Bill 2081, prohibits any person from knowingly possessing a firearm within 40 feet of any building that’s used as a polling place, including one hour before and one hour after its use as a polling place.

    There are exceptions: qualified law-enforcement officers, retired law-enforcement officers, people on private property that are within 40 feet of the polling place, and licensed armed security officers whose job duties are within 40 feet of the polling place.

    The bill also restricts people from having a firearm within 40 feet of where the local electoral board meets to determine the results of any election, as well as any place used for a vote recount.

    Violation of the legislation, if passed, would be a Class 1 misdemeanor.

    Everyone knows such rules prevent those bent on murder from attacking people.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      I’m sure they’re looking out for freedom, and not at all trying to pre-secure future fraudulent elections.

    • PieInTheSky

      can one unknowingly posses firearms? I mean I guess you could forget it in your fanny pack

  59. The Late P Brooks

    1. Ain’t nowhere left to run to.

    Yup.

    It was fun while it lasted.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      This is an actual, for real problem.

      If you don’t want overbearing government, there is nowhere left on the planet to go.

      • Cy

        Alaska, but most of those village councils can be mini-tyrants. Warm? The Gulf of Mexico, Florida or Texas, but I don’t expect that to last much longer.

      • Mojeaux

        We can all go compound around Animal’s new place.

      • Animal

        Most of the area is actually subdivided into lots but not developed, so…

      • Not Adahn

        Adverse possession FTW!

      • PieInTheSky

        like siberia, Alaska is where all the gulags will be at

  60. PieInTheSky

    I don’t fully understand the gamestop thing but all I can say is what a bunch of absolute mad lads

    • straffinrun

      All I know is a bunch of hedge funds shorted it and reddit decided to pile in en masse to screw the hedge funds. Doing same with AMC now. Wild.

      • AlexinCT

        This is a good way to fuck over our credentialed oligarchy. Someone was saying that they are now thinking of stopping trading on these stocks that have been targeted to fuck over the short selling hedge funds.

      • KromulentKristen

        This is a good way to fuck over our credentialed oligarchy.

        Now this is an interesting thought. Instead of a civil war with guns, perhaps a civil war with money would be more effective.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        The left has a huge head start. They’ve been waging that war for decades.

      • KromulentKristen

        But the left has a huge weakness – the top leftists in the country/world are all exceedingly wealthy individuals. They want to stay that way. That’s why they’ve used government to manipulate the markets to their advantage. Target the actual markets directly, and hit them where they’re weakest. Those leftists oligarchs only have as much influence as they have assets.

      • straffinrun

        Had no idea that kind of move was even possible. If the mob can hold it together long enough, Kudos to them.

      • AlexinCT

        Details here..

        The reason that the stock will keep going up is that the people doing this are already saying this article is bullshit and for show, that the funds still have the short sells and are hoping by pretending they caved in things will go down allowing them to then get back in business, and that they need to drive the stock up to $5K and hold it to kill off a bunch of these fucking funds that had been particularly targeting this stock to short sell and then lying about the company’s status to drive it down.

        Short sellers tend to be scumbags that are not just capitalizing on bad companies or bad times, but actively destroy companies to make money. I have no empathy for them.

      • Tundra

        Excellent. Thanks!

  61. The Late P Brooks

    Everyone knows such rules prevent those bent on murder from attacking people.

    Can’t we just make murder illegal? I say it’s worth a shot.

    • Mojeaux

      Don’t bite the bullet yet.

      • Rebel Scum

        Careful. You might trigger Swiss.

      • Mojeaux

        I totally loaded it for him, too!

      • juris imprudent

        No worries, he won’t go off half-cocked.

      • SDF-7

        He’s on guard against it, but we might have him over a barrel in our echo chamber.

      • robodruid

        can we not silence this discussion?

  62. The Late P Brooks

    We can all go compound around Animal’s new place.

    haha, no.

    I’m as far north as I’m gonna get. I’m looking south (only a couple hundred miles, but still…).

    • PieInTheSky

      since libertarians are basically nazis go to Brazil or Argentina or Chile

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Even my Brazilian wife won’t live in Brazil short of absolutely needing to.

      • PieInTheSky

        well there’s millions living there

  63. KromulentKristen

    All our internal systems are down at work. So today is fun.

    • PieInTheSky

      start drinking? Seems like the right thing to do.

      • KromulentKristen

        Then the real fun will start when they come back online!

      • AlexinCT

        PIE!

        You back!

        Someone finally found your husk and fed you some fresh blood?

      • PieInTheSky

        How do you know it is not an impostor?

      • UnCivilServant

        If imposter, is close enough for glibertarian work.

      • PieInTheSky

        what is the difference between imposter and impostor? stupid english language

      • PieInTheSky

        droll

      • Not Adahn

        drôle

      • Cy

        Last night my daughter and I started into the ‘Underworld’ movies. When Selen ‘awakens’ Victor… I may have thought of Pie.

      • R C Dean

        + 1 black leather outfit. Mrrowr.

  64. The Late P Brooks

    I blame the unregulated private sector

    So say we all.

  65. Nephilium

    So in terrible news from the state of Ohio, there are rumors floating around that DOCTOR Amy Acton is considering running for the soon to be vacant US Senate seat. So there’s a chance that DeWine and Acton may both be on the ballot in 2022 in Ohio.

  66. Rebel Scum

    How about some caffeine with your caffeine?

    Are you tired of getting up each day, going through the hassle of brewing your own pot of coffee before dumping a couple ounces into your daily morning cola? The Coca-Cola company feels your pain, which is why it’s now selling Coke with coffee already locked and loaded, sparing you from having to do the hard part yourself. Appropriately named Coca-Cola With Coffee, the drink isn’t exactly new to anyone who lives in or has been to Asia or Australia since 2017. As our own Andrew Hayward noted in our Slack conversation about this accursed topic, he threw back a can in Seoul about a year and a half ago.

    “Coke With Coffee was literally the first thing I drank when touching down in Seoul about a year and a half ago (remember travel?), after spotting it in the airport convenience store and having a laugh. Given the pairing of sugary soda and coffee flavor, it’s unsurprisingly abrasive. But it’s an interesting concoction, at least, and if you’re a daily Coke drinker anyway, it might hit the spot. No promises.”

    • Mojeaux

      Sounds suspiciously like … Dr. Pepper.

      • Not Adahn

        Your LDS is showing.

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah, probably. The last time I drank Dr. Pepper I was in single digits and never willingly touched the stuff again. However, I can still taste it on my tongue and it *sounds* like what Coke + the smell of roasting coffee would taste like.

      • UnCivilServant

        I have to disagree. It’s not even close to what my mind conjures up as the coke+coffee flavor profile.

      • Mojeaux

        Okay.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      How about coca and coffee? Might as well go old school Coca-Cola.

    • Surly Knott

      Coke mixed 50/50 with red wine is better. More traditional, too.

      • UnCivilServant

        can you dissolve that much cocaine in wine? Or are you making a sludge?

      • pan fried wylie

        ‘topical paste’

  67. The Late P Brooks

    since libertarians are basically nazis go to Brazil or Argentina or Chile

    Chile has been on my radar for a long time, but I’m not sure I want to pull up stakes and move there.

    • KromulentKristen

      Any given country in South America is susceptible to authoritarian rule from the left or right at any given moment. Seems risky.

      • Hyperion

        Yep.

      • robc

        Costa Rica is best bet.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Panama is less expensive and has a first world city with healthcare.

        However, it is firmly a US critical asset.

        Both countries have legal systems based on the Napoleonic Code. Something to be aware of going in, particularly where it concerns real estate and fraud.

    • Hyperion

      Chili has recently taken a hard swing to the left. Argentina is fucking mess economically. The only thing stopping Brazil from going full on commie right now is Bolsonaro and he basically gets treated like Trump by the media there. Lula will be back soon and the robbery will start right back up where it left off, just like nothing happened. The other thing about Brazil is that it’s mostly unsafe and you have no right to self defense. Most people I know there live in high rises with armed security.

    • Hyperion

      Uruguay might be your best bet in SA. Panama looks good too, but it’s not cheap, the US dollar is the currency.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Is McAfee’s old place in Belize available?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        How about Belize or even the Falklands, you know, somewhere that they speak the King’s English?

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Queen Elizabeth II died?

      • Chipwooder

        If I’m not mistaken, Belize is fairly dangerous. Lots of crime.

      • Akira

        Uruguay

        Nuh uh, I have a girlfriend!

    • juris imprudent

      I was very seriously considering Chile, but the recent upheavals exposed some long-simmering issues and exasperation with the glass ceilings there for the middle class. In all likelihood, they are going to tank everything that has pulled them out of poverty.

  68. The Late P Brooks

    Most of the area is actually subdivided into lots but not developed, so…

    Good fences good neighbors make.

  69. The Late P Brooks

    Uruguay might be your best bet in SA. Panama looks good too, but it’s not cheap, the US dollar is the currency.

    Too close to the Equator.

    I liked Ecuador and Peru, but I need more temperate seasonal zone.

    *Quito seemed like a really interesting place to explore, and so did Cuzco, but I was in a group with a pretty tight itinerary.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Uruguay should be sufficiently far south. The only south from Uruguay in SA is Argentina.

  70. The Late P Brooks

    The other thing about Brazil is that it’s mostly unsafe and you have no right to self defense. Most people I know there live in high rises with armed security.

    I never worked any of the Brazilian IndyCar races, but several of my friends had some interesting stories about going down there. They said the ride to the track from the hotel zone was an armed convoy.

    • Hyperion

      As soon as the dems get all the guns, you can live in Brazil without even going there. You’ll get robbed in broad daylight by a ten year old carrying around a fully automatic rifle.

  71. Festus

    Whelp I’m out. Work is actively trying to kill me so I’d best get some shuteye. Blessings to all.

    • AlexinCT

      Sleep well my friend.

  72. The Late P Brooks

    Uruguay should be sufficiently far south. The only south from Uruguay in SA is Argentina.

    I haven’t looked at a globe, lately. Mountains also modify the climate.

    • Hyperion

      The thing about Uruguay is that apparently it is very windy part of the year. I’d hate that, would make me think I was back in Indiana, only not as cold.

  73. The Late P Brooks

    The thing about Uruguay is that apparently it is very windy part of the year.

    *pauses, listens to sound of gale force wind*

    Sounds like Livingston. I’m over it.

    Actually, one day when the wind was blowing about 60 mph outside my window, I checked my bookmarked highway dept weather station in Pocatello, and it said, “Wind: 2mph, gusts 5mph” That’s more like it.

    • leon

      Uruguay is kind of at the same latitude, but south, as Texas. It is farther south than South Africa, so it is fairly temperate, though humid

    • Hyperion

      I haven’t been out there in almost 15 years. Is Livingston completely progified yet? I think Missoula was already on it’s way back then. One day you won’t be able to tell MT from CA because half of Cali will have moved there. At least the ones who didn’t stop in Idaho. I suspect that a 3 bedroom ranch in Livingston will be 1.5 million by then .

      • leon

        There are a few places in Uruguay that Straddle the Border with Rio Grande Do Sul in Brazil. Does your wife retain her Brazilian Citizenship?

      • Hyperion

        “Does your wife retain her Brazilian Citizenship?”

        Yes.

  74. The Late P Brooks

    Is Livingston completely progified yet?

    As a satellite in the Greater Bozeman Co-Prosperity Sphere, it’s pretty far gone. I just call it the People’s Republic of Park County, these days. I used to really like living here.

    I’m looking for a Californian to sell to, this spring. What Park County (and Livingston) needs is more Californians, and I’ll be doing my part to keep one out of idaho.

  75. Chipwooder

    What would give me pause about Brazil – my neighbors are Brazilian. Wonderful people, but the thought occurred to me one day when I was out shoveling snow and looking at my neighbor doing the same – how bad is Brazil if he felt compelled to leave that tropical paradise for a driveway full of snow?

  76. Rebel Scum

    *spits out coffee*

    Tom Elliott
    @tomselliott

    @NYGovCuomo: “Incompetent government kills people. More people died than needed to die in Covid. That’s the truth.”

    Bro…

    • UnCivilServant

      But which way did he want them to act/not act? That’s an important factor in figuring out that statement.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      He does not possess self-awareness.

  77. The Late P Brooks

    @NYGovCuomo: “Incompetent government kills people. More people died than needed to die in Covid. That’s the truth.”

    I, uh…..

    • Endless Mike

      Yeah, WOW