About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

475 Comments

    • Chai Girl

      It is currently 12 degrees in Cleveland area. I have to work open to close today. Going to be so slow and no one there. I’m going to be so board. If it too cold people don’t come out to buy something.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m a bit too far away to stop in.

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        This should make you feel better about your temperature situation, lass:

        Currently -28° Celsius (approx. -18° Fahrenheit) on the back deck (I’m in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).

        Went out yesterday to Home Depot for some painting supplies. Very little traffic, the store was almost empty, and the car really didn’t want to start (and its block heater was plugged in!). Just a few more days and then temps are forecast to rise to around normal values.

        Speedo weather!  ;-)

  1. Rebel Scum

    nd what an absolutely wonderful day it always is!

    Meh.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Yeah, that’s some Mr. Rogers sounding bullshit right there. Lol

      • Tundra

        Nah. My gramps always said any day above ground is a pretty good day.

        I appreciate Banjos bringing the positivity to us crabby, cynical fucks.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yepper. I woke up and I have all my senses. That is always my first win of the day.

      • UnCivilServant

        I had six senses – then I woke up.

      • Festus

        ^ I like it.

      • banginglc1

        What’s the old Keith Richards line? Something like, “It’s good to be here! Hell, It’s good to be anywhere!”

      • commodious spittoon

        Reminded me of that old Southwest commercial with the musician shouting, “HELLO CLEVELAND!” and his bandmate stage whispers, “We’re in Cincinatti.”

      • bacon-magic

        Mr. Rogers was a national treasure and I bet money he could’ve whooped your ass.

    • Festus

      It’s -31 American here before the windchill. Meh. Meh indeed.

      • Festus

        It’s a dry cold so it’s not that bad.

      • juris imprudent

        I guess ice is dry, on the inside.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        It’s not terribly cold here, just below freezing, but we’re in the midst of an ice storm that’s supposed to last for the next 36 hours or so.

        Fucking great.

      • Rebel Scum

        Same here, but supposed to be significant snow Thursday night into Friday.

      • Lord Humungus

        10F – high of 19. It’s been like this for almost a week. And I’m getting sick of it.

      • Tundra

        It’s been below zero for more than a fucking week. And looks to stay that way for another.

        Even the dogs are getting sick of it.

        Thank god I have my kids to send me pics of warm and sunny CO…

      • Fourscore

        My daughter is here, cooped up in the house with me. Fish/relatives/three days

      • Festus

        I really dug your story, 4X20!

  2. robodruid

    Good Morning Banjos. Thank you for posting the links this morning.

  3. limey

    Former congressional candidate caught using shower curtain as a fake bookcase backdrop.

    I like that. It’s kinda surreal.

    Mornin’ Banjos.

    • Tulip

      I think it’s a clever solution to having a good back drop

      • Sean

        Yup.

        Plus, no hidden virtue signaling by placing specific “good think” books.

        Also, no dildos.

      • Festus

        The dildo was pushing on the back of the curtain.

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        That wasn’t a dildo.

      • Festus

        “Those aren’t pillows!”

      • zwak

        Heh, my wife once went to my office to use as a Zoom conference room and realized that I had dozens of Gunsmithing books on the shelves. Not exactly what a university looks for in its members these days, sadly, so she had to turn them around.

      • Tejicano

        Back when I was on active duty in the Marines one of the dark green Marines picked up a book from my locker with a quizzical look on his face – I had to clarify the title for him – “Dude, it says ‘Black PowDer handbook”

    • Cy

      I find it ironic and hilarious. Does anyone actually think those people read any of the books behind them? I’m sure a few make out with their Che & Mao statues but I wouldn’t give them the credit of reading any of those nicely stacked and posed books.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve read most of the books on my bookshelf.

        And those scattered around the bookshelf.

        And those stacked on the miniatures shelves.

        And those in boxes in the front room.

        I haven’t read the TekWar books I found cheap.

      • Cy

        I was referring to the people with the nicely staged bookshelves on zoom. Not like Westernsloper with the dingy, darkly lit, packed, serial killer basement closet. It’s like he’s begging to get caught by his sub conscious. At least he’s honest!

      • Festus

        “I. Can’t believe. That you wouldn’t. Read my books!”

      • Not Adahn

        Why am I not surprised that this crowd knows who the author of that series is?

      • UnCivilServant

        Because we know all sorts of supposedly obscure shit?

    • Tonio

      Cheap-ass mofo. He should have gotten one of these.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Only if you refer to yourself as “Esquire”

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        As a studio photographer, my first instinct was to wonder if it was a shower curtain or a photo backdrop. And I approve of the photo backdrop.

  4. Tundra

    Hiya, Banjos!

    SO, job destruction, empty signaling and blatant stupidity. 2021 is shaping up nicely!

    I wonder how many of the ‘gig economy’ workers are proggies. And what it will take for them to realize how thoroughly they are being fucked. Or will they just whine about UBI and call it good?

    Oh, and Debbie is better than Tiffany. Still, a nice blast from the past!

    Have a great day, everyone!

    • Nephilium

      But they’re betters promised that the didn’t mean to impact them. It was just a complete accident that keeps happening to them.

      • Nephilium

        Fuck. *their and *they

        That’s what I get for posting sans caffeine.

    • Brawndo

      For every person that realizes the Dems are fucking them. There’s 3 people outside the problem looking in that get convinced of the propaganda that it’s the evil capitalism that did it.

      • Cy

        We’re just a few more Gulag attendees away from UTOPIA!

    • invisible finger

      I wonder how many exceptions are carved into the bill that allows “retired” teachers (and other government employees) to keep their double-dipping scams going.

    • Festus

      Pretty sure that both of them posed for Playboy after their respective 15 minutes were up. Yay for free markets!

    • The Other Kevin

      Debbie also dated a guy from the Circle Jerks, and did a song with them.

      • Festus

        That is obscure info that I wanted to know! The 80’s were so rad!

  5. Rebel Scum

    The U.S. budget deficit soared in January as Congress approved another massive coronavirus relief bill that sent direct aid to Americans still reeling from the pandemic, the Congressional Budget Office said this week.

    Bills that are unnecessary if not for the government in the first place. Virus theater tyranny is the culprit. And the bills are so pork laden that they are practically dripping with bacon grease.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      I just love how the media always blames the pandemic for our cratered economy, but they always seem to either minimize government closures and completely failed attempt at central planning, or leave it out altogether.

    • Tundra

      It’s actually worse than my cynical mind can process:

      How a Virus Was Used To Transform a Free Country

      It should probably say “Free”, but that’s a quibble. There is some amazing shit in these bills.

      Enjoy!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’ll have to read that later, after a few alcoholic drinks.

      • rhywun

        A welfare check in every pot.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Ugh.

  6. Tonio

    “Root…Hogg.” Really, Banjos? Really?

      • Tonio

        Don’t be truffling.

      • Tundra

        Don’t give me any of your shiitake.

      • bacon-magic

        You’re all fungi to be around.

      • zwak

        He has his finger on the button!

    • Festus

      The best part is when he wanted to build a company and the first question he asked was “What does a company do?” Harvard College material, right there.

      • juris imprudent

        He assumes there is a federal trough he needs to saunter up to.

      • Festus

        It’s not an assumption. Just change “Federal” to “NGO”. He’ll sell them by the millions, just like every grifter that pretends to write a book or a screenplay. This is all playing out in real time and we have no reset button.

      • Drake

        Maybe he’ll build a firearms company by accident.

      • Festus

        Rednecks always say “On Accident”. Turn in your card immediately!

      • The Last American Hero

        He’s not that crazy, just young.

        He grew up when people are starting tech companies and making a fortune on websites by essentially starting a website and getting fellow travelers to click on your blog/Youtube channel/onlyfans etc. In the tech industry, you don’t need business plans.

        In manufacturing and businesses that sell products rather than just web adspace, you actually need the things you are talking about – like how to make the product, its cost and price, a business plan, etc.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Is Mypillow even a top 10 pillow company?

      • Festus

        We’ve always been at war with Mypillow!

      • rhywun

        No idea but I challenge anyone to name another pillow company.

  7. Rebel Scum

    The Senate begins its impeachment trial of former President Trump this week, but most voters don’t believe Trump will be convicted and few expect to watch the entire trial on TV.

    I’ll be following it the best I can out of sheer curiosity. But I follow the Crowder coverage so at least he tells jokes and shit.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      and few expect to watch the entire trial on TV.

      Who the fuck are these people? Why on earth would anyone watch this fucking donkey show? What kind of person do you have to be?

      • Nephilium

        There are people who leave CNN on in their house 24/7.

      • cyto

        All the networks are covering it, a fact bemoaned even by my TDS infected spouse.

        “Isn’t cable news enough? Can’t people who want to watch this go to CNN or Fox? Why do we have to have it on every channel?”

        Because it is a political advertisement, not news, that is why.

      • Festus

        Lots of people’s Moms left AM radio on all day long. Do you want a bunch of Ted’s and Festuses? This is how you get a bunch of Ted’S and FeStuses”’

      • Tejicano

        There’s a lot of Trump-hate still flowing in some people.

        I wonder how many of them can see that there won’t be so many opportunities to exercise that hate in the near future? I can’t wait until even their hate suppliers start winding down the whole circus and stop feeding that crowd.

      • Breet Pharara

        Maybe as a society we should come together and experience a catharsis of sorts by all watching the Orange Man and yelling at him on our Government approved monitors. Maybe it will be such a uniting force that we can do it indefinitely. Maybe for a couple minutes each day.

      • juris imprudent

        And we can all keep an eye on our neighbors to make sure they are enthusiastically participating as well. We must all share in the great unity of purpose.

      • AlexinCT

        It is irrational hate too…

        All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.

      • Festus

        They’ve already turned it on us. There must be some Dragon to slay. They want Trump’s scalp hanging off the tee-pee but what they really desire is subjugation of his 74 millions of backers and especially those voters that didn’t give a shit. They have one chance at the brass ring.

      • Gustave Lytton

        In the before years, I recall when the Iran Contra hearings preempted daytime tv for much of summer. Yes, I did watch some of it.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I can’t imagine caring less about a national news item. Show trials aren’t something i care to support with my viewership.

      • Festus

        Just the thought of the image of Trump wearing a dunce cap in the Chamber does make me giggle like a little girl, though.

      • commodious spittoon

        I wouldn’t even call it a show trial. You do show trials when you have people you need to shoot and bury, but have to extract confessions first. Donkey show might be the best term for this (thanks Muzzled), it’s titillation for a certain sort of degenerate.

    • Agent Cooper

      My coworkers are certain he’s guilty and will be convicted.

  8. Tejicano

    Hello Banjos. I like to think that your links show the actual middle-of-the-road of the current state of political affairs in the USA. It’s nice to think that all the rabid, barking at the moon prog-mania and gaslighting which passes for reality in most media outlets are just their pathetic fantasies.

    • Festus

      I wish it were so.

  9. Rebel Scum

    As Trump impeachment trial starts, the Biden Democrat agenda crashes into reality
    Union anger over job losses, inflation worries, likely acquittal undercut new president’s clout.

    Reality tends to thwart most leftism in time. Unfortunately there is a lot of destruction and death in the meantime.

    • Sean

      Unfortunately there is a lot of destruction and death in the meantime.

      ZARDOZ approves.

    • Fourscore

      Need to print more money, not the people’s fault they aren’t ready for high tech manufacturing. A billion here, a b…well, you get the idea. You know it’s serious when Ms Yellen recognizes the problem.

      • cyto

        We just totally abandoned the “billion here, billion there” trope last year… We have had to adjust that upward by 3 orders of magnitude twice in my lifetime. From millions to billions and now to trillions.

        We are now at the point where we borrow a trillion dollars without even a committee hearing, let alone a detailed budgetary process.

  10. Rebel Scum

    The Democrats Just Reintroduced a Labor Law that Would Destroy Uber—And It Could Actually Pass This Time
    Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer’s PRO Act is a case study in unintended consequences.

    Dems are for the little guy, such as Apple/Amazon/Alphabet/Walmart/etc.

    • invisible finger

      Don’t apple, amazon, google, etc rely on shitloads of freelancers?

      • UnCivilServant

        not in the same manner.

    • Cy

      SCIENCE!!!!!

  11. Cy

    Habari za asubuhi Glibertariat!

    • Ted S.

      Hakuna matata to you too.

    • Animal

      Indeed.

    • Tres Cool

      Gunga galunga

      • zwak

        So, you got that going for you too.

        Which is nice.

  12. cyto

    For the morning links, I give you my alma-mater, doing us proud with an editorial by the board of editors of the illustrious Daily Tar Heel, one of the most venerated student publications in the US.

    https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2021/02/opinion-franklin-street-rush

    Writing about a spontaneous and traditional celebration by students following a win over the rival school down the road, they spew forth this gem:

    “”It should not go unnoticed that the vast majority of students rushing were white. Openly flouting COVID-19 restrictions, the group started a fire and left the street littered with foam from a crowd-surfing mattress — yet the chaos continued for about 45 minutes before Chapel Hill Police finally dispersed the group.

    If these students were Black and brown, would they have been treated the same?”

    Yes. They go there.

    “It’s no coincidence — it’s a classic case of white privilege.”

    Bonus props to the DTH and their anti-racism task force came only a couple of days later as they published a video of a couple of black players celebrating with friends in a smaller gathering without masks. They were outraged over this wreckless behavior, of course… And are suitability proud that they were able to force the postponement of the scheduled game with Notre Dame. You know… Because white privilege or something….

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      When your next alumni fundraising email comes in, you should respond with “I don’t support racist organizations” and attach that article.

    • Cy

      Joyless commie shit stains.

    • Rebel Scum

      Yes. They go there.

      Clearly the campus police would have mowed them down with a hail of gunfire had they not been white.

    • zwak

      Yep, the new slave patrol.

      Gotta keep them in line!

    • Tejicano

      “HEY! Who shot my foot?

      And where did this pistol come from?”

    • cyto

      That one really is genius.

      The point of being able to tax income of people who work in a city is that the city provides advantages to the employer and the worker. They have a concentrated workforce. Transportation services, police and fire services, ready access to supplies needed….

      if everybody is telecommuting, exactly what services is the city providing?

      It might not be worth it if you have a small business to business shop that still kind of needs to be any central location. But if I had a large number of employees that were all telecommuting, I would definitely consider at least relocating their job description. Just open up a office front in some little office park out in the burbs someplace and move all of their jobs there.

      Supposing that my telecommuters earn an average of $100,000 a year, saving them 2% income tax is actually a nice little bonus.

      • Nephilium

        The office I went into wasn’t one my company owned or operated, it was another company who contracted the company I work for. Due to that, I’ve only had to pay local taxes for the city I live in since I took this job. That was an unexpected 1.5-2% increase in my salary over my last job (on top of the bump I got for changing jobs).

        The paying taxes where I worked has always rubbed me the wrong way. Of course, the whole no taxation without representation thing has kind of been obliterated anyways, but at least for most sales/hotel/rental taxes, I can choose where I’m going.

      • cyto

        Maybe people get desensitized to that… Or maybe it is down to “misery loves company”… But you sure don’t see much opposition to this in the northeastern megalopolis where the taxation is the most egregious. They seem eager to have everyone live like that.

      • robc

        City of London is interesting, as they provide voting rights to businesses within the city. Number of votes is determined by number of employees (not proportional, it is kind of a log of number of employees rate, so a small business may get 1 or 2 votes and a big business 5 or so).

      • robc

        When I was in Louisville, there was a 2.2% payroll tax if you worked in the county AND lived in the county. So for those people. like me at the time, telecommuting wouldn’t help. However, the rate was 1.45% for those who worked in the county and lived outside it, as the 0.75% was a school tax. So if you started telecommuting, you would save an additional 1.45%. That is a decent amount.

        In addition, the city of Jeffersontown had an additional 1% tax. When office complex advertised “outside of J-town”. They were on the border but outside. We got our office there, as we refused to be in the city of Jeffersontown and pay extra. I know plenty of people who work in J-town, I hope they are getting the bonus 1% now.

      • robc

        Just talked to two friends who work at same company. One has got the 1% savings since last May, the other lives in J-town, so no tax cut.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        When I was in Louisville

        I know it’s been a while, but I’m glad to know you’re out of that shithole.

      • robc

        If it was up to me, I would move back. My wife agrees with you, however.

      • robc

        No, I am just outside of Charleston, SC.

      • The Last American Hero

        Wayfair reads your well thought out post and says “because FYTW!”

    • Not Adahn

      Don’t worry, the Blue State Bailout will fill that money hole.

      • Nephilium

        Not sure if Ohio would qualify for a Blue State Ballout.

      • AlexinCT

        In my state they already passed a 1% tax on everybody to “help out” the corruptocrats in the big cities that lost their opportunity to rip people off…

    • Idle Hands

      Wait till they reassess commercial property in the summer.

    • bacon-magic

      3
      7
      19
      & 19 again

  13. Rebel Scum

    Sorry I sound a little out of it in this video because I am very tired but I wanted to give you all an update on the pillow company.

    We are going to start small and do it right providing you with the best product we possibly can and it may take time.

    What is he going to call it? Soy Pillow?

    • Cy

      A nice scantily clad Pelosi chan on every one.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Soy Pillow: The Official Pillow Biters Pillow.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      One thing we realized is that we’re not gonna start out selling a million pillows instantly, because we want to have a focus on quality. So what that means is that it might take us a month, it might take us two months. Maybe three, even. But we’re going to make a quality pillow that people can sleep on at night and feel good about. That is made here in the United States with union labor and is sustainably sourced…

      MONTHS! OHMIGOD! THAT’S LIKE FOREVER!

      This is beyond hilarious.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        It’d be tough to find a person less knowledgeable about running a business.

        One thing we realized is that we’re not gonna start out selling a million pillows instantly, because we want to have a focus on quality. So what that means is that it might take us a month, it might take us two months. Maybe three, even.

        It might take 3 months to start selling millions of pillows.

      • Ownbestenemy

        If the banks were not so woke, he would be laughed out of the branch…but I am sure he and his ilk will fund this to death.

      • UnCivilServant

        Well if he’s only really a reseller of chinese slave labor pillows, and the actual shipping is handled by the manufacturer, he’s got a shot.

    • juris imprudent

      Yeah, but the writer – this is the Fyre Festival of pillow companies? ZING!!!

    • straffinrun

      The Blue Pillow?

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Fucking wordpress.

  15. Not Adahn

    Also,

    I cannot figure out 4×20. I have this idea of him being a kindly avuncular grandfather, just raising bees — and then he puts out writing like last night…

    • Tundra

      No, you have it right. He is as you describe – but he’s had 80+ years to watch what horrible shit people do to each other.

      • Not Adahn

        He created characters you start to like and then just mercilessly kills them off. I blame that fat fuck GRRM.

      • Tundra

        Fourscore finished his series.

      • juris imprudent

        literally LOL

      • juris imprudent

        literarily too

  16. cyto

    An odd thing came up last night. A buddy and I were discussing the complete destruction of the fourth estate and he mentioned the buyout of drudge. Whether you were of the left or the right, for many years Drudge report was the place to go for your morning links to see what was happening in the world.

    Neither of us had been there in months. So we both took a look.

    Holy crap! It is a full-on anti-trump propaganda site. I did not do a detailed analysis, but it sure looked like every single link was anti-trump propaganda.

    I wonder how much they paid? There had to be a pretty good size premium to buy Matt Drudge’s silence on the matter.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Matt Drudge is too recluse to ever know.

  17. robc

    Baseball birthdays are deep today:

    Lance Berkman, HoFer Herb Pennock, Lenny Dykstra, Alex Gordon, Jim Barr, and Allie Reynolds all over 25 WAR.

    Barr is the only one I am not familiar with. Berkman got only 1.2% of the HoF vote in 2019 and is thus off the ballot. Not arguing he should be in, but he deserved better than that. Did he get caught with ‘roids? Can’t remember, but entirely possible.

    • robc

      Actually, Berkman was pretty openly anti-steroid, which doesn’t mean he wasn’t taking, but he called for blood tests for players to try to weed out steroid users, so I am going to put him in the clean column.

      Which is even more reason that his lack of vote was a travesty. If he was clean putting up those numbers in the steroid era, then he really deserved more support.

      • invisible finger

        Berkman never struck me as much of a self-promoter, which explains why I liked him and why sportswriters forgot about him.

    • Gdragon

      Berkman did deserve better but one of the problems with those guys is that once they have been rejected there are kind of a lot of them and nothing tangible to fight for really.

      “I don’t want Bobby Abreu in the Hall of Fame, I just want people to respect him!”

      “OK, if I say I respect him can I get back to filling out my real ballot?”

      • robc

        I totally get what you are saying and agree with you. I just have trouble believing he wasn’t on the top 10 of more ballots.

        I mean, if everyone agreed on valuation and 10 guys were getting 100% of the vote, sure, it would make sense.

        But who was getting votes instead of him in 2019?

        And, yes, I know everyone doesn’t fill out 10 names every year, which is fine.

      • robc

        For example, Jeff Kent was marginally better (using WAR) than Berkman, and got 18.1% of the vote. Omar Vizquel was marginally worse and got 42.8%. Fred McGriff, was was effectively the same, got 39.8%. It was the crime dogs 10th and final year on the ballot, so he probably got a boost. But he made it 10 years. Berkman was one and done.

        Looking at the ballot that year, I easily find 10 people I would vote for instead, I just find it weird he didn’t get more vote. Everyone better than him got at least 7.5% vote. Three players worse than him got more vote, and 2 of them got enough to stay on the ballot.

      • Jerms

        After Mazeroski got in i stopped caring about the HOF. Mazeroski and Baines in
        but Albert Belle isnt? Sorry you lost me.

      • robc

        Maz is in the argument for the best defensive player of all time. No matter how bad the bat, that qualifies you, IMO. It is like putting Mariano Rivera in the hall. Yeah, his total value isn’t that great, but he dominated what he did.

      • Gdragon

        This (rightly or wrongly) probably works against guys like Berkman too. There are a lot of players who were similar to but better than Berkman.

      • Agent Cooper

        Vizquel has a solid defensive reputation as well, but I don’t believe he’s HoF material.

    • Tundra

      Nice form.

      • Fourscore

        I like the stove, too.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Can’t they just try Trump for being Trump?

    That’s the foundation of the the whole dog and pony show.

  19. trshmnstr the terrible

    Me: “Sorry, I couldn’t get the low-chicken carton of chocolate milk this time”

    3-year-old: “Nooooo, there’s no chicken”

    Me: *shit eating grin*

    5 minutes later

    3-year-old: “Is there really chicken in my chocolate milk?”

    ??

    • Cy

      Got to get that bullshit meter well adjusted before they hit the real world.

      • Pope Jimbo

        When the kids were young, I regularly told whoppers at the table so they would get used to calling BS on people.

        The only problem with mixing in a bunch of untruths is that kids who come over to play and don’t suspect that a sociopath is lying to them get really fooled.

        One day I was pitching to the neighborhood kids in one of our backyard ball games and I was throwing some pitches between my legs. I told them that that was what a curve ball really was. Just the pitcher throwing it between his legs, but the major leaguers are so fast, you can’t really tell.

        Next day a father came over and said his son had become quite adamant that MLB pitchers threw the ball between their legs. Because of what I had told him. The dad wanted me to explain to the kid I was lying. I laughed and told the guy that was his job. He needed to teach his kid how to think for himself. Also that it wasn’t that hard to prove that I was fibbing.

      • Fourscore

        Fibbing? Lying? There’s another word for that, if the tykes aren’t listening.

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        “Politicking.”

    • Nephilium

      Are you going to get your chicken sandwiches with beak on the side?

    • Ownbestenemy

      That made me smile. I convinced my boys, when they were wee lil children and we had to go on long road trips when I was stationed in NM and they lived in CA that the car flies but only if they are napping.

      I usually had a 4-5 hour drive that was peaceful.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    How long ’til wordpress won’t let us in until we admit 2+2=5?

    • UnCivilServant

      No, Brooksie, it’s 3.

      • cyto

        There are 5 lights. There have always been 5 lights

      • UnCivilServant

        No, mister Cyto, there are as many lights as the party says there are – no more, no less, no always.

    • PieInTheSky

      Gun makers should all go bankrupt anyways

      • cyto

        With this crew in charge?

        If they fail on universal registration and psych evaluations, look for soft bans by working to hold manufacturers liable for every shooting.

        They have already fired the first shots on this, and they have been working diligently to put a friendly judiciary in place. Look for strict manufacturer liability in all firearms injuries… Even lawfully purchased firearms used in lawful self defense.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        If they fail on universal registration and psych evaluations, look for soft bans by working to hold manufacturers liable for every shooting.

        I expect a different approach, or at least a multi-pronged approach.

        I’m thinking they’ll go the route they took against vaping: shipping. I expect very soon an announcement that the USPS will no longer be shipping any firearms or ammunition, followed up fairly quickly by FedEx and UPS, effectively making it impossible to ship guns, particularly individual guns shipped between FFLs for online gun purchases and individual ammo sales.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It would be shortsighted for them to do that. The online marketplace won’t dry up just because shipping becomes difficult. There would be “GunEx” and “Firearms Parcel Service” and the like that would quickly fill the gap, and it’s not guaranteed that they’ll play as nicely with ATF as UPS, USPS, and FedEx do.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        That’s probably true, but remember: it’s not the result that matters. It’s the journey. Even if it doesn’t stop guns from circulating, it will put a temporary damper on it, if not cut out a smaller chunk permanently, and likely cause it to become more expensive to ship guns and ammo.

        That said, if I lived in a liberal suburb, I’d make sure to order some ammo weekly so that the big ass GunzPS truck pulls up to the house.

        Vaping is already trying to figure things out with shipping, but they don’t have nearly the money and clout the gun industry has to make it beyond individual companies delivering in a pretty small area, as opposed to a VapePS or VapeMail type thing that would essentially be a nationwide shipping service for vaping.

      • zwak

        Yeah, Gunbroker has started something like Gunpay now, to take over where PayPal left off. It was just sitting there, waiting for someone to pick it up and run with it. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised that many other groups like vaping start using it, or something like it.

  21. Rebel Scum

    Vive la France?

    French politicians, high-profile intellectuals and journalists are warning that progressive American ideas — specifically on race, gender, post-colonialism — are undermining their society. “There’s a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities,’’ warned Mr. Macron’s education minister.

    Emboldened by these comments, prominent intellectuals have banded together against what they regard as contamination by the out-of-control woke leftism of American campuses and its attendant cancel culture…

    The publication this month of a book critical of racial studies by two veteran social scientists, Stéphane Beaud and Gérard Noiriel, fueled criticism from younger scholars — and has received extensive news coverage. Mr. Noiriel has said that race had become a “bulldozer’’ crushing other subjects, adding, in an email, that its academic research in France was questionable because race is not recognized by the government and merely “subjective data.’’

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      race is not recognized by the government

      Wow, I envy the French government for something. I’ll be enjoying the icebath in hell.

      • cyto

        That is astonishing. The left really has accomplished miracles here in the states.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Even for all their socialist leanings, the French place a high value on their culture and heritage. I’ll bet even Foucault thought French culture was to be maintained as superior to all others.

      • Lord Humungus

        You know who else put a high value on their culture and heritage…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Everybody except Americans?

      • bacon-magic

        BLM?

    • Cy

      Letting in a flood of immigration to make yourselves feel better about your elitism and then shoving them into ghettos where you can forget about tehir existance was a bad idea?

      How could we have known!!???

      https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37655777

      “The Duc d’Uzes is president of a little-known body called the Association for Mutual Help of the French Nobility (ANF).

      According to the story, the ANF was founded in the 1930s after two French nobles realised that the porter who was carrying their luggage at a Paris station was one of their own. They resolved to create and manage a fund to help distressed nobility – a function the ANF carries on to this day.”

      • zwak

        The French are scared shitless that LaPen will harness enough votes to pull a Trump out of the Yellow Vest movement, and do not want to give them more ammo.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      You know you’re fucked when the French have a better grasp on reality than you.

      Of course, they started this shit.

      • juris imprudent

        Twice even – Rousseau and Foucault.

    • creech

      The French feel this way? I remember touring France, when Obama was president. The tour guide told me that most French people considered Obama to be a right-wing conservative compared to French politicians. And he didn’t say it in an admiring way.

      • straffinrun

        The French think there’s a big difference between a National Socialist and a National Socialiste.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Audience numbers dropped as the lopsided score increased, and for the most part continued to decline through the rest of the game.

    No shit, Shirley?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Wife started fast forwarding the DVR through commercials around halftime. I wanted to watch them to make a list of companies never to patronize. We “watched” to the end, if only because we were both on our phones and didn’t bother to turn the TV off.

      • Nephilium

        Well, the first two beers cracked when I got there were this one and then this one. Thankfully I had some lighter beers to switch over to.

    • Festus

      Boring football game is boring. I’d wager many a poker game broke out.

  23. Muzzled Woodchipper

    Good news. Less than 20% of students will be able to return to class by the end of the month.

    Fayette County Public Schools has announced that some students will be able to return to school buildings next week.

    The district confirmed that students grades kindergarten through second grade will be able to go to school in-person starting Feb. 16.

    Those students will also be in their classrooms the week of Feb. 22-26.

    Where the fuck will those students be from the 16-19? And what about after the 26?

    And the bigger question, conveniently left out of the article, is whether teachers will be in the classroom, or will they be doing the bullshit where students are in class being supervised by a not teacher, while teacher is safely ensconced in her sweat pants while sitting on the couch and “teaching” via zoom?

    • invisible finger

      Professor Maxwell Headroom

    • PieInTheSky

      Can we just conclude that public schooling is not that important

      • cyto

        *To them*.

        The schooling part is not important *to them*.

        The payroll part? That is important. Gotta keep paying people who are not doing their jobs.

        And the parents? We see first hand just how much this damages kids. They need structure, interaction with other people their age, accountability…

        This pandemic is crushing a huge swath of kids. Some thrive in this environment. But most are white ring, learning bad habits as they check out during a minimalist online instruction period.

        We have 3 kids. They have all reacted differently. None has reacted as I expected. Some have done well, others have regressed. But I cannot say it has been good for any of them.

    • Nephilium

      Don’t worry. DeWine has tasked the school districts to come up with a plan to address “learning loss” due to the ‘vid by April 1st. One of the options that’s being considered in some of the districts is to not fail students, but enroll them in a “robust summer learning program” (with nothing being said if those would be in person or remote).

      • l0b0t

        Backwards troglodytes. Here in the far more enlightened NYC public school system, it was decreed last March that no student can be failed and all students will be promoted to the next grade regardless of performance or attendance. Worse, all the competitive admission schools (into which we are trying to get daughter) have been switched (by fiat of Chancellor Carranza) into a straight lottery system. At least middle schools are going to full-time open campus instruction in a week. The local YMCA has really shined through all this. They hired back many of their Summer camp staff and put them to work running schoolrooms for kids to do their online classes. The kids get supervision, breaks, lunch, and (most importantly) exercise and play with their peers.

    • robc

      We have a glib in Moncks Corner. It isn’t THAT close to Charleson. I mean, sure, its probably metro area and people commute from there, but those people are insane.

      Berkeley County is pretty big and Moncks Corner is far end of it. I am right on border with it and am probably a good 30-40 minutes from Moncks Corner. Google maps says 39 minutes back roads thru the swamp, 50 minutes if I take the interstate.

    • Cy

      “Just burn the whole place down and build affordable housing”

      We’re going to need at least 4 government commissions for that, 3 planning councils and 8 diversity managers to achieve such noble goals. Call us back in 4 years for our determinations and plans to move forward. Also, attached you’ll find the address to send the $30,000,000 grant to.

    • Sean

      build affordable housing

      Look at the capitalist here.

      Housing is a right and should be free.

      You’re not doing this right, Pie.

    • Charlie Suet

      One of the problems with stuff like this is that in opposing it you might make it a cause célèbre. It’s easy enough for the Tories to block Khan from doing anything too stupid, but if they stamp on it too hard then it becomes official Labour policy next time they get in. Cf Trump’s Executive Order on Critical Race Theory.

  24. Festus

    Whatever you do, do not under any circumstances agree to help clean the oven racks when you visit Grammy Nancy and Gampy Chucks’ house.

  25. PieInTheSky

    Midwives have been told to say “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” and to replace the term “mother” with “mother or birthing parent” as part of moves to be more trans-friendly

    https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1359189243311063046

    I assume only people with uterus can chestfeed right?

    • Tonio

      I believe that with hormones and mechanical “induction” that a male person could produce milk.

      • Tonio

        I know that non-pregnant women can be “induced.” That’s a big thing in the adult nursing community.

      • cyto

        I produced milk with all of our kids. I took a can of powder, some water and a bottle, just like we men have done for generations. Whenever mom wanted a couple of glasses of wine and didn’t have enough frozen away… Time to make a bottle.

        I didn’t feel the need to redefine the english language though.

      • rhywun

        Not it!

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      The sick thing is that there are people who will go along with this rather than ignoring it and writing off the source of this insanity as a wackadoodle.

    • cyto

      Uh… You don’t chest feed with your uterus.

      • kinnath

        One of my all-time favorites from that era.

      • Fourscore

        Your mom had good taste, music one could dance to (and did)

    • Gdragon

      Not the first time that Ben Weasel has come off of the top rope for the win 😉

  26. Lord Humungus

    I have a real honest F2F job interview tomorrow. Weirdness.

    A manufacturing company that’s moving to a ERP package that I’m very familiar with.

    ::shrugs:: Part of me just wants to stay “unemployed” and concentrate on the arts/antique/videocast/blogging plan I’ve just started.

    • straffinrun

      Sounds like a no lose situation. Good luck, I guess.

    • The Other Kevin

      I don’t blame you. Unfortunately the need for health insurance dictates many of my choices.

    • PieInTheSky

      Try to wear pants, preferably not leather

    • The Last American Hero

      Pillow manufacturer?

  27. Rebel Scum

    ChuckGrassley
    @ChuckGrassley

    Can’t fly into USA w/o showing negative test for virus but Pres Biden will let ppl who illegally walked across the border do so w/o testing. Is that protecting our citizens?

    Shut-up, bigot!

    • Cy Esquire

      Rules are for who don’t vote for Democrats.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      You got him chucky! I’m sure he’ll feel shame and be held accountable for his hypocrisy by the neutral and fair media!

      • cyto

        That was a laugh out loud moment.

      • straffinrun

        Why won’t my abusive husband stop pounding me? I’ve pointed out how imperfect he is.

  28. PieInTheSky

    Glenn Greenwald on a Free Beacon reporter who published leaked screenshots of a closed Facebook group: a “smart, young, careful reporter”

    Greenwald on NYT & NBC reporters who cover tech, extremism, and disinformation: “hall-monitor tattling and Stasi-like citizen surveillance”

    https://twitter.com/juliacarriew/status/1359297505901441024

    I am starting to warm up the the idea that journalists by and large are enemies of civilization

    • PieInTheSky

      Also maybe I am old and shit, but since when did saying the word retard in a context that is not directed at someone with disabilities become completely beyond the pale?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        What, the R word? Yeah, be careful.

      • cyto

        Among the pantheon of unutterable terms, that one is the most retarded.

        Because if you are over the age of 45 or so, you were around when ‘retarded’ was being pushed as the politically correct term, having replaced terms like imbecile, idiot, moron….

        Then we had to replace retarded (which literally means ‘slowed down’) with a slew of attempts at finding a politically correct term:. Mentally handicapped, mentally challenged, developmentally handicapped, developmentally challenged…

        It does not matter what term they settle on. It eventually becomes synonymous with “extremely stupid” and can then be used as an epithet to insult those who have no physical excuse for their idiocy.

        So we have a never ending treadmill of offense.

      • PieInTheSky

        My first wife was ‘tarded. She’s a pilot now

      • Tres Cool

        + Dr. Lexus

      • pan fried wylie

        Also maybe I am old and shit, but since when did saying the word retard in a context that is not directed at someone with disabilities become completely beyond the pale?

        Pretty gay, huh?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Welcome Pie. There is tea, coffee, and cakes on the back table.

    • Tonio

      Just remember that they are professional gossips, snoops and busybodies. That tells you all you need to know.

    • Idle Hands

      They always used to be viewed as degenerates and assholes throughout our history. This notion they are a respectable group of truth seekers is a recent phenomenon.

      • PieInTheSky

        I don’t mind degenerates and assholes Some of my best friends are degenerates and assholes, no to mention my online acquaintances . Malignant authoritarian sociopaths is the issue

      • Cy Esquire

        “Malignant authoritarian sociopaths is the issue”

        Exactly. Being an asshole used to be in the top 5 of “what makes you an American.” It’s the busy body intellectual authoritarians that are bringing on the next apocalypse. They have voices that must be heard! The have Karens that refuse to be silenced! They have victim egos that must be bought, paid and fed. They are a coalition of evil with western civilizations demise being their only goal and trophy. Truly they think if they burn it all down and make it someone else’s fault that their lives will be better or maybe then their guilt can die.

        Fucking commies.

      • Tejicano

        “…or maybe then their guilt can die.”

        Or maybe they will even get cake. That would be the best outcome.

      • Tundra

        This.

        Thanks, Boomers!

  29. Count Potato

    “Marvel has been forced to apologize for publishing an anti-Semitic image in its new Immortal Hulk comic that featured a ‘Jewery’ shop and the Star of David – as the Brazilian artist responsible insists his spelling error was a ‘terrible mistake’.

    The image depicting a Jewish diamond business caused outrage among fans after it appeared in the new Immortal Hulk #43 that was published last week.

    Critics accused Marvel and the artist of playing on the ‘anti-Semitic trope of Jews running the diamond business’. ”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9245175/Marvel-apologizes-anti-Semitic-image-Immortal-Hulk-comic.html

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Total bullshit. Everybody knows it’s the Armenians that run the diamond business these days.

      • Tres Cool

        “There’s 2 honkeys out there dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants. One wants 4 fried chickens and a coke. The other wants dry, white, toast”

        “The Blues Brothers!”

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      No Jewish Hollywood moguls are allowed in Marvel Comics either I would assume.

    • juris imprudent

      Well at least it wasn’t a banker.

  30. Muzzled Woodchipper

    Totally competent:

    Tens of thousands of the state’s jobless claims in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic remained unprocessed until late October, and more than 400,000 emails to the state’s unemployment office had remained unread as recently as Nov. 9, 2020, State Auditor Mike Harmon said in a lengthy report just out Tuesday.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Behold my righteousness

    For four straight years, Trump’s critics made versions of the same normative claim: This shouldn’t be allowed to happen! The president shouldn’t be permitted to lie and cheat, to insult and exaggerate, to denigrate and humiliate anyone and everyone who resists falling in line and bowing down obsequiously before him. And yet it happened, over and over again. He kept doing things he wasn’t supposed to, and he kept getting away with it.

    How? By discrediting his accusers — by pulling, dragging, yanking them down to his own level. That’s why Trump’s acolytes in Congress and sycophants in the media so often ended up sounding like automatons stuck in a loop, endlessly hurling the same countercharges of hypocrisy and double standards at the president’s critics.

    It was as pathetic as a playground taunt of “I know you are, but what am I?” Yet it was remarkably effective at convincing an overwhelming majority of Republican voters that Trump’s accusers had no business portraying themselves as his moral betters. And if none of his accusers’ judgments could be taken seriously, if their charges could be dismissed as a subterfuge concealing baser, purely self-interested, political motives, then Trump could get away with anything. Then everything was permitted.
    Advertisement

    That was the saga — the degrading spectacle — of the past four years, in which expectations for public morals and comportment were continually defined downward by the president’s own gutter-level, mob-boss conduct and his party’s need to excuse it.

    What has genuinely surprised me about the political mood of the country since Trump was silenced on social media in the days after the insurrection, and even more since he left office altogether, is how quickly we seem to have rebounded into normalcy. Not that the rottenness Trump revealed has disappeared or been repaired. Far from it. Plenty of politicians and members of the mainstream media remain eager to continue practicing the deranged and sinister Dada politics that dominated the last few years. But without Trump gaslighting the nation day and night from the White House, the maelstrom has settled down somewhat, with a semblance of order returning to Washington and a sense of moral equilibrium beginning to return.

    Normalcy has returned. Uh huh. Take your meds, dude.

    Tell yourself it was all just a horrible traumatic dream. Soon the nation will be awash in trillions of dollars’ worth of helicopter money and pork, and we can get back to the Path of Righteousness.

    Once again we can pursue our lofty political goal of enriching the Right People and crushing the Wrong People.

    • The Other Kevin

      Yep, Trump got away with everything. Nobody pushed back or called him out on anything. It was a disgrace.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “The president shouldn’t be permitted to lie and cheat”
      What world does this motherfucker live in?

    • Cy Esquire

      Yep. Just think of all of the revolutions that could’ve been prevented if they’d only ostracized, demonized, criminalized and silenced half the country. How are we just now discovering this political tactic!

      King George has a sad.

    • Rebel Scum

      shouldn’t be permitted to lie and cheat, to insult and exaggerate, to denigrate and humiliate anyone and everyone who resists falling in line and bowing down

      Has this person never met a politician?

    • Rebel Scum

      we seem to have rebounded into normalcy

      You are going to get that “normalcy” good and hard.

  32. Count Potato

    “‘You go woke and become a joke’: Aunt Jemima’s new name Pearl Milling Company is panned as people say it sounds like a gravel mining firm after PepsiCo scrapped the ‘racist’ pancake syrup icon amid BLM protests

    Last June, at the height of protests over the death of George Floyd, PepsiCo announced that it would drop the name and brand image of Aunt Jemima from its products, following criticism that the character is a racist caricature.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9243255/Aunt-Jemimas-new-Pearl-Milling-Company.html

    • Lord Humungus

      I’ve milled some pearls in my time.

      • Nephilium

        I’m assuming they were then fashioned into a necklace?

      • Tres Cool

        *plays ZZ Top

    • The Other Kevin

      * Looks for Aunt Jemima syrup
      * Doesn’t find it
      * Shrugs, Log Cabin it is

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        ^^ this. Although, I don’t really do the corn sugar syrups anymore. I’ve become spoiled by the real deal.

      • The Other Kevin

        We don’t buy it either, but I do think they completely torpedoed their brand. You don’t build a brand that recognizable overnight. Prepare for sales to drop like a rock.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        We’ll never hear about it again (until they sell off that business unit in 10 years after “a decade of flagging sales”)

      • Nephilium

        Just wait for the news articles in about 10 years to come out about how corporate mascots are all too white, and we need to introduce some mascots of %insert current term here% for some brands to do “throwbacks”.

    • straffinrun

      The could’ve owned the libs by renaming it Blockyoauntjemima.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I think that is more of an indictment of the general population’s education level.

      What I am getting at is I would suspect that

      A: people have only a general idea that pancake mix comes from wheat and

      B: to get it drom wheat you have to mill it.

      I would wager people think of it like electricity..its magic and just appears at the wall when I need it.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Lol. And now I weep.

      • Tundra

        “Where does the electricity come from?”

        “The building.”

      • Ownbestenemy

        The DoWP guy really didnt want to answer that questiom either

      • cyto

        In fairness it is a really complex question to give an accurate and detailed answer to.

        You could say “80% coal, 10% hydro, 5%nuclear and the rest is a mix of natural gas and renewables.” Which is a mouth full, but also does not accurately address the question.

        Time of day plays a big role as well, and many sources are also seasonal or weather dependant.

        It is probably one of those questions that is harder to answer the more you know.

        “We tapped off the building supply” was the depth of her knowledge. After that she was making a guess. Power company dude was trying to distill everything down to a sound bite. He probably could have done 25 minutes on the topic without breaking a sweat.

      • cyto

        It wasn’t as bad as you make it sound. In context anyone might have understood the question to be about how charging stations are going to be wired and who pays.

        She did finally figure out the thrust and try to claim natural gas…. At least she didn’t try to claim it was wind power because they have a wind farm connected to the grid somewhere.

    • Agent Cooper

      That brand is now ded. They killed it.

    • Lord Humungus

      something lawnmower something eyebrows

      • Tres Cool

        No shit. Its like she was born of an unholy biological union between Brooke Shields and Groucho Marx.

    • Drake

      Did Harry Hamlin get a sex change?

  33. Rebel Scum

    Unity/healing/etc.

    CNN’s Cooper compares Trump & his supporters on Jan. 6 to those that carried out genocides in Bosnia & Rwanda: “[W]e’ve seen it in Bosnia, we’ve seen it in Rwanda where radios was telling people – you know, Hutus were telling the radio listeners that the Tutsi are cockroaches…”

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Hutus were telling the radio listeners that the Tutsi are cockroaches

      Man, the progjection is strong.

      • cyto

        Hey! There was well over an hour of disruption at the capital! This is totally serious!

        And anyone trying to compare this violent bloodbath with the mostly peaceful protests over the summer is just a racist liar.

      • The Other Kevin

        There are people calling for unpersoning and violence against their political foes. It’s just not the ones they think.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If they were wanting to kill people they’d have lit a fire which they could have done no problem and, yeah, all the histrionic comparisons are stupid.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      JFC

      They’re not going to stop until there is an actual bloodbath.

    • Count Potato

      CNN went on for years with “Russia hacked the election”, “not my President”, #Resist, etc.

      • cyto

        Why the use of past tense?

    • Pope Jimbo

      I think CNN has pretty much implied that Tutsi Gabbard is a cockroach for daring to attack Kween Kamala.

      • Festus

        “Tutsi Gabbard” Wow!

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Aunt Jemima’s new name Pearl Milling Company

    “Pearl Milling? That doesn’t conjure up an image of tasty pancakes. Where’s the Betty Crocker?”

  35. Brochettaward

    Did anyone catch just how grossly incompetent Trump’s lead defense lawyer was? Like, it was baffling how bad it was and 75% of the time you couldn’t tell what relevance anything he was saying had to the proceedings? He made the Democratic presenters look like Cicero?

    • straffinrun

      Have no idea at this point if this is going to backfire, side fire, misfire on team blue. All of it seems pointless which is better than what congress usually does.

    • cyto

      No, I did not. But that is simply because I ignored both of them. The writers of this season have completely lost me. None of the story lines make sense, the characters are terrible…

      This show is going to be cancelled soon.

      I have learned my lesson. I knew that Game of Thrones was limping along and slowly imploding because they didn’t have any more source material to draw on, but I watched to the end anyway.

      I ain’t making that mistake again.

      • bacon-magic

        Worst ending ever.

      • Pope Jimbo

        What? Have I been totally forgotten?

        -Lost

      • straffinrun

        We forget Two Girls and One Cup so soon?

      • Cy Esquire

        Nancy and Alexandria aren’t done yet!

      • Nephilium

        /Lumberjack Dexter waves hello.

      • juris imprudent

        Frak! BSG grumble grumble.

      • Not Adahn

        NBC is doing a reboot for “Peacock.”

      • rhywun

        Hey buddy, stop doing that.

    • Ownbestenemy

      It was widely noted. My guess is most competent lawyers are reading the tea leaves that say “if you dare defend Trump say goodbye to your practice and income and make sure you always know where your kids are”.

    • Mojeaux

      grossly incompetent Trump’s lead defense lawyer was

      Trump’s biggest failing is his inability to spot and hire talent and competence.

      • Festus

        “You’re Hired!”

  36. Rebel Scum

    It’s like everything the Dems said about Trump and Russia is true in some way about the Dems and China.

    The Biden administration quietly withdrew a rule proposed by the Trump administration that would have required American schools and universities to disclose their partnerships with Confucius Institutes, which some U.S. officials allege are front groups for Chinese Communist Party propaganda.

    The Trump administration submitted a proposed rule to the Department of Homeland Security on Dec. 31, 2020, entitled “Establishing Requirement for Student and Exchange Visitor Program Certified Schools to Disclose Agreements with Confucius Institutes and Classrooms.”

    • Sean

      Least surprising thing I’ll read all day.

    • cyto

      What is most telling isn’t that they changed the rule, but how quickly they moved to change it, showing the importance they place in such things.

      Why would anyone even care? And care enough to toss out the rulemaking process and move with such speed… Why?

      Weird.

    • Cy Esquire

      The lack of reporting just seems to confirm my personal beliefs. I’m surprised it wasn’t openly reported as some anti-Trump anti- Racist revelation.

      I used to think most of the people shoveling the shit didn’t know what they were doing. This seems to affirm that they know exactly what they’re doing.

  37. straffinrun

    DipLoMatic Immmunitee

    Tito Mboweni
    @tito_mboweni
    Increasingly, it seems to me, but maybe obvious, that our non-racial dream is not embraced by the majority of white South Africans. True or not? If true, what is the substitute of non-racialism? Philosophically and politically.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s a little hard to accept a non-racial dream when you’re subject to racially motivated assaults, robberies and murders on the regular.

      How about reigning in the bloody mob?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      “non-racialism” like “anti-racism” is just a euphemism for retaliatory racism

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      If you’re white and you haven’t left South Africa yet, you’re a fool. They’ve been signaling what they intend to do for quite a while now.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The sick thing is that SA appears to be a morningstar for the American woke movement. Whenever I hear rumblings about the country being built on the backs of slaves, I see SA agitprop shining through the facade.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The numbers don’t work out so well here. And ultimately, when South Africa goes full Mugabe or worse, they won’t work out there either.

      • Idle Hands

        No they don’t but they are already using dehumanizing language and seditious talk for their ideological opponents here. They are signaling the same shit here.

      • Idle Hands

        It’s super hard for people to leave their homes. I’ve talked to American SA immigrants about it and they basically just assume it’s only a matter of time but their is no convincing their parents.

      • Tejicano

        “If you’re white and you haven’t left South Africa yet, you’re a fool.”

        Unfortunately for a lot of the older people there isn’t much of an option. I know a number of South Afrikans who have emigrated to Australia (it was the easiest/cheapest option for them) – but it would cost them a king’s ransom to get their parents out. What one of them paid to get Australian permission for his wife to follow him was the equivalent of about US$80k.

      • Charlie Suet

        Some of them are descended from people who’ve been there for 350 years. There’s also a sense of bloody-mindedness I think.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Legacy of Voortrekkers and British stiff upper lip.

    • Chipwooder

      “It’s just been revoked.”

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Well at least it wasn’t a banker.

    They could always cast the Jew as a pawnbroker.

  39. straffinrun

    I’m ready to admit that I don’t really know what word the “N word” is referring to.

    • Festus

      Swiss left for a bit. I think you’re allowed to say “Nugger” around here again.

      • straffinrun

        The only time I ever even think of it is when people lecture me on not using it.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Nie!

    • Rebel Scum

      Naggers. Niggard. Idk.

    • Brochettaward

      You niggardly son-of-a-bitch. How dare you. How fucking dare you! I’ll cut you! I’ll cut you three ways! Deep, wide, and frequently!

    • juris imprudent

      Numbskull(s)

    • pan fried wylie

      North

    • Not Adahn

      Nanu-nanu

  40. Festus

    Ah, at least you guys don’t have to put up with our resident Hobbit coming out of his hole, day in, day out and blatantly lying to his subjects. His dissimilation is spread by his bought and paid for Media but a few hours later some apparatchik goes on to basically say, “Yeah, Justin lied again…” Which part of that gets disseminated to the people?

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      our resident Hobbit

      Wait, what? I was drinking and, besides, those sheep are liars. There was a fire! A flood! I couldn’t get a taxi!

  41. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. Why won’t you rubes in the Dakotas listen to your betters?

    Quite a story. All about how sure, the Dakotas might have gotten over the Fall spike in the Rona, but that is only a temporary reprieve if they don’t start listening to Public Health Officials and locking shit down.

    Lots of scary stats, but each and every one of them are a percentage or per capita number. Why? Because if you used raw data you’d realize that even with the big spike, their numbers pale in comparison to other areas. The story compares the two Dakotas but failed to note that the same spike that hit this fall also hit WI, MN and Iowa, which all had the recommended lockdowns.

    Being mostly rural and far from the coasts didn’t protect North Dakota and South Dakota from Covid-19.

    After a spring and a summer of flimsy or nonexistent public health measures, politicization of the pandemic and rampant misinformation, the states were tinderboxes.

    Then came the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August. The gathering of nearly half a million people in a small town in western South Dakota sent case numbers and deaths soaring in both states.

    By November, North Dakota had the highest coronavirus infection rate per capita in the world. In South Dakota, the death rate reached a global high.

    Unlike states that had soaring case counts early in the pandemic, neither North Dakota nor South Dakota ever issued stay-at-home orders. Mask mandates, if they came, came late. Yet numbers in both states have come down significantly since the late fall peak, and the Dakotas have emerged as national leaders in vaccine distribution — both are closing in on 5 percent of their total populations’ being fully vaccinated, putting them in the top five in the country.

    But beneath the surface, experts fear that the success could be tenuous: Misinformation, a false sense of security and the politicization of infection prevention measures are setting the stage for a possible second surge.

    Fucking Sturgis. That is a dead horse that they will not stop beating.

    • Plinker762

      Something, something, the curve looks the same on both sides of the peak.

      I’m enjoying my trip to NoDak. Its nice to eat inside a restaurant like normal times. Even the -20F isn’t bad with the proper cold weather gear.

    • Brochettaward

      The politicization is obviously just being done by those who oppose lockdowns and mask mandates.

    • Cy Esquire

      Governor DeSantis needs get back on TV for his regular scheduled “Florida is doing just fine you fucking nanny state assholes. Go back to New York and preach your death and fear there.”

      • cyto

        Florida prioritized seniors on the vaccine rollout. NY went with a pile of race based criteria and hundred thousand and million dollar fines.

        Who is doing fine with vaccination and who is crapping the bed? Yet who is getting negative coverage and who is enjoying the plaudits of a friendly press?

      • Idle Hands

        Florida is not doing so great on vaccine rollout at the moment I’m currently trying to get my 84 year old grandparents vaccinated and it’s been a fucking nightmare. The County health department is prioritizing the first responders and than they have nothing to do with the private rollout in publix and winn dixie both of which have the absolute worst system for seniors ie register online at portals at specific dates and times, no preregistration or call in lists. It’s ridiculous.

    • Pope Jimbo

      How about this howler?

      At least 1 in 9 South Dakotans and 1 in 7 North Dakotans have tested positive — twice as many cases per capita as in New York. Carson said the real number is likely to be double that.

      The jury’s still out on how long natural immunity lasts; some studies have shown that it can fade after three months.

      “We’re all coming to the end of that 90-day cycle now, so we are worried there will be a second spike,” said Tessa Johnson, president of the North Dakota Nurses Association, who works in a long-term care facility.

      No one knows how long immunity lasts. But it has been three months and we know all those rubes are going to get re-infected!

  42. Lord Humungus

    Greyhounds are such nice dogs – goofy, clumsy, couch potatoes, and yes, loving – but all those years in a kennel give them bad manners. I get jumped on if I put my jacket on – time for a walk?!?!!? And if you have any food in your hands and are sitting on the sofa, the dog will try to sit inches away from your face.

    • cyto

      My mixed dachshund/terrier mutt does the same thing. He is about 4.. I think it goes with the age.

      He brings me a toy and insists on playtime when I sit. He brings me his leash a few times a day. The kids have trained him to insist on food when we eat.

      And… This one is relatively new… He demands to be scratched. He will gently push his nose under your hand, but if he doesn’t get what he wants he will prod harder and eventually escalate to barking at you.

      Dude loves to have his ears scratched.

    • Tulip

      Yep, complete couch potato until I get the leash. Then I suddenly have a 70 lb jack russel.

    • Gustave Lytton

      DQ on ink. And the name sounds like Chinese-Korean-Japanese strung together. Deep fake?

  43. Mojeaux

    Former congressional candidate caught using shower curtain as a fake bookcase backdrop.

    I don’t see the problem.

    Pelosi and Schumer re-introduced legislation that would kill the gig economy.

    FTA:

    “Transcription allowed me to stay at home, be my own boss, and control my workflow and whom I work with,” 72-year-old transcriptionist Dori Lehner told the Independent Women’s Forum. “I only have one direct client now, and I only get work when they have it. My income has dropped down to a quarter of what it was before AB5.”

    There goes my evening gig. This has been tried once before in the transcription business, using the IRS to classify workers. It sorta worked.

    I was hoping the unions would do a little more than scream at Biden for taking away the Keystone pipeline, but I have no sympathy. He said he was going to do it. What did they expect?

    • Gender Traitor

      In (undeserved) fairness to the unions, my default position is to disbelieve anything a politician says.

      • UnCivilServant

        I disbelieve any promises they make that would benefit me, and believe their intent if it would hurt me.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Union bosses are politicians.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Union leadership is not the same as unions or rather the rank and file. They aren’t eating any less steak and lobster or missing cocktail parties because some of their members are getting the bum rush. Besides, those are declining industries. There are bigger fish to unionize.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Quite a story. All about how sure, the Dakotas might have gotten over the Fall spike in the Rona, but that is only a temporary reprieve if they don’t start listening to Public Health Officials and locking shit down.

    I saw that yesterday. S/he/it leads off with several paragraphs of completely out-of-context and unsubstantiated claims about how completely decimated(!) the Dakotas have been by the snifflecootie plague. Not like that smart feller from New York, who knows how to shut down an economy and stop nature right in her dadgum tracks.

    • cyto

      Based only on its reporting…. They did nothing and had one breif spike that was worse than anywhere else at that moment, but overall they have had lower rates than most. All while avoiding the problems of the lockdowns and all the economic consequences.

      Sounds like a big win to me.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Since my son lives in Fargo, my wife watches the Rona stats there and she was freaking out this fall. I had to point out that when the report on deaths per million, that means the reported deaths are greater than the actual deaths because NoDak doesn’t even have a million people.

      I liked the line about how SoDak was at one point the global leader in deaths! Yeah, sure. Travelers trying to cross it were dying in droves at rest stops along I-90.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I had to point out that when the report on deaths per million, that means the reported deaths are greater than the actual deaths because NoDak doesn’t even have a million people.

        They did this same dirty math trick in KY.

        Here we use a number of + tests in the rolling 7 day average to determine what category your county falls under.

        If it was greater than 25 per 100k, your county was essentially closed.

        We have more counties with fewer than 10k than we do counties greater than 100k, and it basically meant that if 2.5 people tested positive per day, those counties are shut down.

        TWO AND A HALF FUCKING PEOPLE.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    I was hoping the unions would do a little more than scream at Biden for taking away the Keystone pipeline, but I have no sympathy. He said he was going to do it. What did they expect?

    I want every single person who thinks Comrade Biden is any less of a narcissistic sociopath than Former President Cartoon Villain to die a painful lingering death. But that won’t happen.

  46. Mojeaux

    I am pissy today about the lack of warm places to sit (and work) while I’m waiting for XX to do her internship hours. It’s not so bad when it’s 32F and sunny to sit in the car (I can stitch, but can’t work on my computer). It’s another thing entirely for it to be 2F, dreary, and windy to sit in the car. The library, where I used to go to set up shop and work, is closed except for curbside. I’m going to have to depend on the good nature of the Denny’s manager, because I am not making that round trip twice in 3 hours.

    • PieInTheSky

      allow XX her own vehicle?

      • Mojeaux

        I would, if she could drive yet, but that’s a long story. Short version: She has a little bit of a sight issue with peripheral vision and we’ve been a little too preoccupied to spend enough practice time with her. Also, she’s a nervous driver (because of aforementioned sight issue).

      • PieInTheSky

        get her into cross country skiing.

    • pistoffnick

      Granted this is a college town, but most of the Perkins, the McDonalds, Subway, etc. around here allow you to sit and study as long as you like provided it is not lunch or dinner rush.

    • The Other Kevin

      Twice a week I take my youngest to volleyball. It’s 35 minutes away, and practice takes 2 hours. Seems like that whole town closes early. So I sit in the car and draw or nap, and I just turn the car on every so often to warm up.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    They did nothing and had one breif spike that was worse than anywhere else at that moment, but overall they have had lower rates than most. All while avoiding the problems of the lockdowns and all the economic consequences.

    And there were squeals of outrage when Governor Noem said in an interview Soth Dakota has gotten through this better than most states, because they refuse to recognize any of the ancillary costs associated with lockdowns and mask hysteria.

    • cyto

      Governor Noem catches hell for the same reason Tulsi catches hell. They are afraid of her.

      A populist ticket with those two on it would be a Juggernaut.

      • Rebel Scum

        It would put the “jugs” in “juggernaut”.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        I relish the chance to watch Tram Blue squirm as they were forced to call them women hating misogynists.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    I’m going to have to depend on the good nature of the Denny’s manager, because I am not making that round trip twice in 3 hours.

    Good luck. I have found places like that aren’t too bad about you hanging out, as long as you aren’t obviously a bum, aren’t bothering anybody, and there aren’t people waiting in line for a table.

    • PieInTheSky

      Everything is gamergate. It always has been

      • cyto

        Absolutely. That article is perfect as well. Calling someone names in a comments section is “criminal harassment”, but doxing someone and working tirelessly to ensure that they cannot work is simply holding people accountable.

        That is indeed the world today.

    • PieInTheSky

      the replies are equally retarded. The wokie lefties are brain dead they truly are. Is that a form of ‘tarded?

    • Festus

      Taylor Momsen is hot and she has great, er, pipes. Watch until 2:02 and learn. https://youtu.be/rHBxJCq99jA

      • kinnath

        oh my!

    • Chipwooder

      I’m shocked that the NYT’s, ummm, TikTok reporter is a fucking moron. Who could have seen that coming?

    • cyto

      Not retarded. Woke. Much worse.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    I’m ready to admit that I don’t really know what word the “N word” is referring to.

    Nonessential, in conjunction with government spending.

    The naggers won’t stand for it.

  50. DEG

    Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO that spent millions to get Biden elected, excoriated the new president’s climate policies this past weekend for erasing thousands of well-paying union jobs with the shutdown of the Keystone pipeline from Canada.

    Gas prices, which hit the working class hard, are showing signs of creeping up.

    The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office warned Monday that the Democrats’ plan to impose the $15-an-hour minimum wage would cost 1.4 million jobs, adding to an already uncomfortably high unemployment level.

    Who could possibly have seen this coming?

    • Cy Esquire

      It’s that racist orang hitler’s fault! Putin’s puppet planned this all along!

      -Some asshole on CNN

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      Maybe Trumka shouldn’t be in that position if he didn’t see that coming.

      • R C Dean

        He. Doesn’t. Care.

        He knows the future of unions isn’t with people who get their hands dirty for a living. He is concerned with the union as an institution, not the union members. The union as an institution “needs” strong political support as it colonizes pubsec workers. Those are the future. What’s a few pipeline workers, who probably voted for the wrong side anyway, when you are leaving that market and moving into a bigger more lucrative one?

        His problem isn’t taking care of his traditional consitutuents. Its convincing them he’s trying, while he’s fucking them over for the good of Union, Inc.

  51. Festus

    Mornin’ Banjos! I first read that as “U.S. badger deficit soars”. Badgers are cool critters. Moar badgers, please!

    • Tejicano

      Badgers are cool critters… but the wolverine is the very definition of badass which punches way above its weight.

      The Inuit tell a story about a wolverine which was challenging a polar bear for its kill. After the polar bear got a hold of the wolverine, the wolverine was tearing the bear up something fierce – so the bruin hugged the much smaller animal to its chest to crush it to death. The wolverine dug into the bear’s chest and tore out its heart.

      • Festus

        I grew up with fables like that but so much crazy shit goes on North of 60 that I wouldn’t discount the tale out of hand. I spent years in the bush and saw one wolverine. Once.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    Here’s another little nugget of wisdom highly polished turd from political soothsayer Damon Linker at the Week:

    Now don’t get me wrong: The danger hasn’t passed. Trump was a symptom of a disease that goes far beyond him, even if he personally made things incalculably worse. The stress test of his presidency pushed American democracy to the brink. We have no way of knowing if we’ll continue to back away from the edge over the coming months and years, or end up rushing back to it with the next election or following a traumatic event we can’t begin to contemplate or predict.

    I suppose he deserves some small acknowledgement for being able to recognize the fact that Trump is a symptom, and not the disease.

    But his recognition of this only matters insofar as it allows him to brand the deplorable counterrevolutionary half (if not more) of the population as Enemies of the People and traitors to DEMOCRACY. Dissent is nothing less than treason.

    Sometimes I fear there can be no return to peaceful coexistence. Eventually there will be nothing left to lose.

    • R C Dean

      Trump was a symptom of a disease that goes far beyond him,

      This is exactly the kind of language you use to dehumanize your political opposition. These people hate us, and want us broken. Dead, if necessary, but broken is preferred.

  53. Count Potato

    “NEW >> @CDCgov partners with @AdCouncil + @WarnerMedia for a new ad where Harry Potter, Wonder Woman, the hobbits, and others urge Americans to mask up and slow the spread. Critical message, especially as we face down variants.”

    https://twitter.com/IanSams/status/1359508726282149889

    Stupidest PSA ever.

  54. UnCivilServant

    Dammit. I misplaced my vegetable peeler.

    I don’t want to use a paring knife on all these veggies.

    • UnCivilServant

      To clarify, as per my comment last night, the veggies to make borscht arrived, and I’m supposed to peel the beets, potatos, and carrots. But I think I can leave

      • Nephilium

        Looks like you succeeded. 🙂

      • UnCivilServant

        Work meetings 🙁 They interrupt my thoughts.

    • Count Potato

      ” I misplaced my vegetable peeler.”

      They manufacture them that way on purpose.

      • Raven Nation

        vegetable peelers are the socks of kitchen utensils.

  55. Rebel Scum

    I’m gonna have to circle back.

    The question from NBC News’s Kristen Welker comes as Democrats have launched a second impeachment against Trump claiming that he incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6.

    “Let me ask you, as millions of people tune in to watch this trial presumably throughout the week, they’re going to see the former president’s lawyers argue based on the briefs that they have filed that some Democrats have used incendiary rhetoric,” Welker said. “They are going to point to Representative Maxine Waters, for example, who in 2018 called on supporters at a rally to confront and at one point harass Trump officials over their support of the child separation policy, the zero tolerance policy. That’s something that Cedric Richmond said she had a constitutional right to express those views, so how does the White House view that as any different?”

    “Look, Joe Biden is the president. He’s not a pundit,” Psaki responded. “He’s not going to opine on the back and forth arguments, nor is he watching them that are taking place in the Senate.”

    Unity and healing ain’t gonna promote itself.

    • Festus

      Have you ever argued with a crazy ex-girlfriend? This is just like that. Walk away.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Just don’t circle back while you’re walking.

    • Brochettaward

      nor is he watching them that are taking place in the Senate.”

      That would interfere with his scheduled nap times.

    • Tejicano

      Healing won’t start until they’re done cutting and that might take a while.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      “Look, Joe Biden is the president. He’s not a pundit,” Psaki responded.

      He’s only the president, not some wise pundit.

    • R C Dean

      so how does the White House view that as any different

      “Its different when we do it. Duh.”

  56. Cy Esquire

    https://coinmarketcap.com/

    Reading through some of these currency’s descriptions is like reading shitty resumes. Who is buying this junk?

    • Nephilium

      Speculators? Hedge funds? Reddit hordes?

  57. The Late P Brooks

    You know it’s cold when you can see steam rising off water that’s probably about 32.7 degrees.

    • Festus

      -44 American with the wind chill. Gonna eat some perogies and sausage and hit the hay. God Speed, fellow Glibs!

  58. The Late P Brooks

    as millions of people tune in to watch this trial

    Stop it. You’re killing me.

    • Lord Humungus

      I’m not! /guy in the back of the room

    • Lord Humungus

      Yay! Stoopid is as stupid does.

    • Brochettaward

      Count Potato did it better.

      • straffinrun

        Losing to a potato hurts.

    • Rebel Scum

      Creepy.

    • kbolino

      It is said sometimes that you’re supposed to take one red pill not the whole bottle, but we need to work on a pithy way of inverting that. This is what happens when you take the whole bottle of blue pills.

  59. trshmnstr the terrible

    Random bitch: I hate it when a service or app updates their email/notification paradigm and decides that I want to be subscribed to all their BS again. No, LinkedIn, I didn’t change my mind about only wanting to receive notifications for connection requests. I don’t want a daily digest. I don’t want event updates. I don’t want your newsletter. I want you to email me when somebody connects with me. Nothing more.

    /rant

    • R C Dean

      The “unsubscribe” link on emails seems to be turning into the equivalent of the “close door” button on elevators. It doesn’t do a damn thing, but I guess its supposed to make you feel better. I’ve unsubsribed from multiple email lists that I still get crap from. I’ve noticed some of them are now saying it may take a week for you request to go into effect. Which is utter bullshit, its all electronic, it can and should be instantaneous.

      • UnCivilServant

        from a technical standpoint, it can be. I managed a listserv long enough to learn a thing or two.

        You have to write special programming to delay processing. (assuming you’re not simply discarding the requests) If we start with the assumption that they are in fact processing the requests then the unsubscribe requests are probably getting stored in a database to feed a batch job that gets run once a week. If the page simply sent the request to the listserv, it would be real-time.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I get it from the sense that sometimes they queue up email campaigns in a scheduler, so the recipient list is what it was when the email was dropped in the scheduler. It’s something that could be fixed fairly easily, but especially for smaller companies, probably not cost effective to do so.

        That said, the whole not respecting unsubcribe and/or changes to subscription preferences has moved me to a different model. I don’t use my primary email address to sign up for things anymore. I generate a masking address via Abine Blur, and then I shut it off if they don’t respect the preferences I set.

        I also get to see who sells my information and shut all that BS down, too.

      • Nephilium

        You assume competence in the people building the systems and scheduling the mailings. I get more annoyed when I flag something that’s an obvious spam message in Gmail, and it prompts me, “Do you want to unsubscribe as well?” No! No, I don’t want to tell them that this is a valid e-mail that someone checks.

      • UnCivilServant

        You have to go out of your way to change the system from real-time to delayed unsubscribe.

        At least with all of the prudicts I’ve supported.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I vaguely recall having issues with MailChimp where unsubs wouldn’t apply to already scheduled messages. I remember having to fix that by hand once or twice.

        Granted this was almost 5 years ago.

      • UnCivilServant

        We didn’t use that one.

        Our ‘scheduler’ was Outlook’s “delay delivery” option. The person authorized to post to the list would schedule the delivery on their desktop, so the listserv only got it when it was time to start sending the emails.

        Probably because it was easier to train the users to do it that way.

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Union leadership is not the same as unions or rather the rank and file. They aren’t eating any less steak and lobster or missing cocktail parties because some of their members are getting the bum rush. Besides, those are declining industries. There are bigger fish to unionize.

    It must be comforting to know your “leadership” is shovelling your dues money to the guy you are voting against.

  61. Count Potato

    “We got the final results from the last outstanding House race on Monday, with former congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R) returning to Congress after defeating Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D) in New York by 109 votes. The result means the House stands at 222 to 213 in favor of the Democrats. (These numbers include three vacancies for which the seats are very unlikely to change hands.)

    The Democrats’ narrow retention of the House is surely one of the biggest surprises of 2020. In an election in which most analysts expected the Democrats to gain seats, they wound up losing 14, including virtually all of the “toss-ups.” While the GOP lost the presidential race and control of the Senate, we very nearly had a much different outcome.

    While Democrat Joe Biden won the popular vote by more than four points and the electoral college 306 to 232, the result was much closer to flipping than that would suggest. Biden won the three decisive states — Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin — by 0.6 percentage points or less, which was similar to Trump’s 2016 victory. If you flip fewer than 43,000 votes across those three states, the electoral college is tied 269 to 269. In that case, Trump would probably have won, given that the race would be decided by one vote for each House delegation, of which Republicans control more.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/09/republicans-came-within-90000-votes-controlling-all-washington/

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      While Democrat Joe Biden “won” the popular “vote” by more than four points and the electoral college 306 to 232, the result was much closer to flipping than that would suggest. Biden “won” the three decisive states — Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin — by 0.6 percentage points or less, which was similar to Trump’s 2016 victory. If you flip fewer than 43,000 “votes” across those three states, the electoral college is tied 269 to 269.

    • Lord Humungus

      BiDEN HAS A MANDATE!!! /derp

    • Cy Esquire

      Strange. Maybe we should look into these anomalies?

  62. Lord Humungus

    I tend to think in the “big picture” history terms: any over/unders on how long we go before something like a low to mid-level civil war flares up? Or will we see something like a slow decline; ala the Roman Empire toward the end of its life? ie a slow and painful decline with spasms of violence? Because it sure feels like we are headed toward something bad but I don’t see the rage on the right side of the political divide that I expected.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      My thoughts on the topic will be posting in a few days. tl;dr: a few months of calm followed by the left over playing their hand and sparking renewed tensions. Does that end in violence? It’s all about the economy. People still have too much to lose right now. Toss in some stagflation and high unemployment and there will be pissed off trumpalos with an oppression complex.

    • Cy Esquire

      It’s hard to hear or see the rage when the cameras are only turned one way and only one side has the microphone.

    • kbolino

      Our enemy wants a violent reaction. It would allow them to further justify turning the apparatus of state violence inward. You should never let your enemy choose the battlefield or set the terms of the fight. The era of American empire is waning and post-war consensus managerial liberalism has been completely spent. What comes next will not be recognizable to the “Greatest Generation” whose asses were cynically kissed right before they died off, but it will not be the same as the collapse of the Roman Empire, either.

  63. The Late P Brooks

    Good old politifact, where would we be without them?

    The night before the Senate began the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, Newsmax TV host Greg Kelly falsely claimed that only one person died Jan. 6 during the U.S. Capitol riot at the center of the push to convict Trump.

    “They’ve been lying about so much, including, by the way, that five people died on Jan. 6, 2021,” Kelly said Feb. 8. “It’s not true. Only one person died on that day. You know who it was? The unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt. Unarmed woman shot and killed by Capitol Police.”

    ——-

    Our ruling

    Kelly said, “It’s not true (that five people died on Jan. 6). Only one person died on that day. You know who it was? The unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt.”

    That’s inaccurate. Four people died at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer, died the following day after he was injured in the violence.

    We rate Kelly’s statement False.

    At the Capitol riot? How oddly nonspecific.

    And, of course, I am compelled to assume the wizards at Politifact edited Kelly to remove context. Because that’s how these things work.

    • Rebel Scum

      5 may have died but only one by homicide. Context, how does it work?

    • kbolino

      Speaking of blue pills…

      In addition to Babbitt, three others died Jan. 6 from medical emergencies suffered during the riot, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed

      So they had heart attacks? No details, no names, just take our word for it.

      Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and supporter of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory

      If she hadn’t been shot then, would you just guillotine her now?

  64. Lord Humungus

    Anyone else play World of Warships? /crickets

    • Lord Humungus

      One of the few games where I can play at 8:30 in the morning and there are (old) people on the servers

    • UnCivilServant

      The only multiplayer game I play is MechWarrior.

    • Cy Esquire

      I logged back into the other WoW last week. It’s amazing how the muscle memory never goes away. I haven’t decided if I’m going to drop the big bucks on the new x-pac yet. It would be fun to run dungeons and maybe PUG it up every now and then when I’ve got time. But, time isn’t something I have a lot of outside work.

      It’s still tempting. Virtual worlds where everything is black and white. You’re just one click away from killing the big bad, no one can truly die and the lootz just keep falling out of the pinatas.

    • Nephilium

      Just checked the Steam library and I don’t have it. I have been playing some Magic the Gathering: Arena as a time waster. Free to play, but of course they’ll sell you card packs and cosmetics. I threw $5 at the welcome package, and have been using winnings to keep rolling that purchase forward.

      • Urthona

        I logged about 6000 hours of EU 4 during the pandemic.

    • Urthona

      I guarantee you his claims won’t be censored on Twitter.

  65. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Tried to start watching the second Penny Dreadful series based in1938 LA.

    God-awful horrible. Every other white person is a racist, anti-Semitic Nazi caricature. Obviously written by wokesters.

    It’s possible to incorporate the racist trends of the era without it being so over the top as to be ridiculous, but current writers can’t seem to pull it off.

    • Cy Esquire

      I had to stop watching the 1st series when they wouldn’t stop with the gay sex all of the time. What a waste of a genre, great cast and budget.

      • Urthona

        So many aspects of my life are ruined by constant gay sex.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I heard a *boing* in there somewhere.

      • Cy Esquire

        IDGAF about gay sex (pun intended.) I just don’t want to watch it. If dudes on dudes is your thing, have it. But my eyes have better things to do.

        Also, I wonder if people with different sexual preferences get that absolute revolting feeling when they see their non-preference visually happening or is it more of just a “meh.”

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I don’t much care for sex scenes in general. They almost never add anything to the actual story, and are mainly just shoehorned in to appeal to the lowest common denominator horndogs. In the era of ample free internet porn, it seems superfluous.

      • kbolino

        Internet porn is still declassé. Bring it up in most company and you’re immediately branded a weirdo. Whereas, you could talk about what happened on Game of Thrones the night before around the water cooler.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’ve never heard anybody bring up the GoT sex scenes around the water cooler. Or if they did, it went over my head since I didn’t watch the show.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Disagree.

        Porn is for a quick wank. TV does it much better.

      • kbolino

        It’s meh. Watching straight sex is just boring, not disgusting. Unfortunately they’ve now decided to mix in important stuff while sex is going on, which means you have to watch it to follow the story.

    • kbolino

      Just half a generation ago, most people grew up around racism and knew how it actually worked and saw the racists as flawed human beings, often because they were friends or family members. It was a repugnant set of views but it didn’t necessarily define a person.

      Now, no one in media has met an actual old-timey racist, they know only caricatures they see on TV or the Internet. Whether it be a “news” freak show presentation (Come See the Amazing Elephant Man Bearded Woman Shortest Midget Neo-Confederate White Supremacist Nazi!) or just other pieces of fiction one-upping each other into further absurdity, their experience of white racists is only self-gratifying and shallow.

      The goal is not to portray something realistic or truthful anymore, it is to reinforce an archetype and avoid calling into question acceptable prejudices. One might even observe that this is how the “respectable” racism of say the 1920s was created and reinforced, but drawing such parallels would be uncomfortable to The People Who Matter.

      • Mojeaux

        I very carefully skirted race in my Prohibition novel.

        I will never write a Civil War novel, plus I don’t like that era.

    • Agent Cooper

      A waste of Natalie Dormer’s talents.

  66. Urthona

    The $100 of Bitcoin I bought way back at the beginning is now worth $2000.

    I am such an idiot. If I had just bought a real amount I would be rich right now.

    • Cy Esquire

      I don’t want to talk about it…

      • Urthona

        I’m not normally one to complain about a little windfall but this one stings a little.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        *wistfully remembers contemplating $250 bitcoin purchase in Fall 2011 ($1.2M-ish at today’s prices) and deciding that it wasn’t worth wasting the money*

        *wistfully remembers queuing up a $500 purchase of bitcoin at $10k in mid-2019 ($2200-ish at today’s prices) and deciding I needed the cash before hitting the final buy button*

      • Mojeaux

        *wistfully remembers trying to buy Bitcoin at $18 and getting nowhere with setting up an account at Mt Gox.*

        But we all know how that turned out.

        I had about $150 in Bitcoin that Mr. Mojeaux won. I’m predicting it hits $60k by summer, so I’mma let it ride.

      • Stillhunter

        Right there with ya. Then I think: What are the chances I would have held it until now? Slim and none. Sure I still would have made some money, but I would have cashed out years ago and spent the proceeds on a Mustang or Harley. Then I would have crashed and died. So I guess this timeline is better…

      • Mojeaux

        Yep! I do that too! I KNOW I would have bailed way early.

      • Cy Esquire

        I’ve been buying a bunch of LTC. So far… it’s been good to me.

    • Endless Mike

      In the beginning beginning $100 worth of Bitcoin would now be worth almost a billion dollars.

  67. Pine_Tree

    Re: the book curtain background…

    My pastor is a serious history geek and bibliophile, and his desk is in his library with a wall of real books behind him. He’s kindof a luddite, so when he started having to do video calls for some Session (or other) meetings, he didn’t really get the whole “think about the background” thing. By far the most strikingly noticeable thing behind him was a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, huge and black with a red band and black/white hakenkreuz on it.

  68. I'm Here To Help

    Just a quick test – wanted to see how the new avatar pic works 🙂

    • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

      Looks good on my end.

      • I'm Here To Help

        Thumbnail is a bit small, but I think it comes across – Warning: Florida Man