Sunday Morning Potential Links

by | Jun 6, 2021 | Daily Links | 235 comments

They COULD be here. But at each point in space time, there they are, in some way or another. And with 109 degrees showing on the thermometer, I can only dream of the Green’s function that will propagate us to a different bit of space time.

Birthdays today include a spy who was certainly not a cat; a champion cyclist; a famous Jew-hater; the creator of a SoCal amusement park; a pianist whose work I love; a bass player whose work I love; a singer/songwriter of very modest talent who made a career out of being a lesbian; an actor who made a career out of being a flamboyant gay; a bizarre and usually unfunny chick who was in my favorite Jerry Lewis film; and a guy who was in the worst film about wine ever made.

Oh yes, potentially there’s Links.

 

Jews and their March of Hatred.

 

Social signals for everyone! Yayyyy!!!!

 

Democracy. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

Please! Please! Please! Please!

 

Because fuck the constitution, amirite?

 

Old Guy Music features a rather interesting lineup. Makes you wonder what Rod Stewart could have done had he stayed in the blues genre…

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

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

235 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “Democracy. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

    It’s the Guardian. They don’t know English.

    • Count Potato

      “Even as the coronavirus retreats, the pandemic of Trump’s “big lie” about a stolen election spreads, manifest in Republicans’ blocking of a commission to investigate the insurrection.”

      No, whether the election was stolen, and investigating what happened at the capitol, are two different things. Also, it wasn’t an insurrection.

      Anyway, there should be an investigation. Who were those people with ear pieces removing barricades?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Conflation is par for the course in the media.

      • Suthenboy

        False equivalence for the win.

        TMITE.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I would think that Democrats’ attempts to block any investigation of the election would be more relevant to finding out what happened during the election but I’m not a fancy journalismer so what do I know.

    • Count Potato

      “Perhaps more insidiously, Trump supporters who tried to overturn the 2020 election are maneuvering to serve as election officials in swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.”

      How is fortifying those elections insidious?

      • leon

        If Joe Biden looses the next election to whomever, there will be no “this read free and fair” coming from the establishment. In free and fair elections, only Democrats win.

      • Count Potato

        RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA

  2. Ted S.

    From the Arizona reporter story, somebody needs to tell that guy non-reporters have the same 1A rights.

    • leon

      Whenever reporters whip out ” we’re the only profession constitutionally protected” I want to go full Auth-right.

      • Count Potato

        Jim Acosta named his penis “we’re the only profession constitutionally protected”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They would love for there to be government issued journalism licenses.

      • Count Potato

        Didn’t Diane Fienstein propose such a law?

      • Tonio

        There actually used to be; they were called press passes. The government issued them to “legitimate” journalists in the form of wallet ID cards.

      • Nephilium

        I thought they were traditionally stuffed into the hatband of the reporter.

      • Tonio

        Clergy? Gunsmiths?

      • EvilSheldon

        Abortionists?

  3. Count Potato

    Speaking of English…..

    “We have an option of a candidate who can center people, racial justice, economic justice, and climate justice…”

    WTF does that even mean?

    • Suthenboy

      Minute to minute, whatever they say it does?

      • Chafed

        Suthen gets it.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It means if you’re a productive member of society you’d better grab the lube.

    • rhywun

      WTF does that even mean?

      “Open your wallet and give everything in it to these people over here, racist bigot.”

  4. l0b0t

    Sideways will always hold a special place in my heart because my dad made a pretty penny selling one of his paintings to the production designer for use in the film.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Which scene? I’ll look for it.

  5. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Sideways was hilarious. Hit a little too close to home maybe?

    NO FUCKING MERLOT!

    • Old Man With Candy

      It encapsulated everything I dislike about the fine wine “culture.” And glorified it.

      Not to mention ruining a once-decent wine producing area.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It had an effect on product? Did demand change after the movie? I’m curious.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Two things: yes, demand for that area went up, sharply, as did prices; $150 a bottle for a Santa Ynez Pinot Noir or Syrah is beyond ridiculous. And the wineries transformed to a more overtly commercial style, pretty much ruining the distinctiveness of the wines. Try finding a Santa Ynez Pinot at less than 14.5% alcohol. Terroir is a dim memory.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Admittedly, I’m a totally unschooled barbarian when it comes to wine. If it tastes good, I’ll drink it is about the only thing I know.

      • Suthenboy

        It is grape juice and you have it right.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        OK, Jack. 😉

      • Shpip

        It had effects beyond Santa Ynez as well. Across the country, wine drinkers who were perfectly happy with $9 merlot suddenly discovered that only rubes drank merlot. So they all decided that they wanted to drink Pinot Noir. Problem is, Pinot is a rather finicky grape when it comes to where it’ll grow, and it’s more difficult to vinify well than merlot is. Ergo, it costs more to make.

        The retail consumer didn’t get this, and some of them got cranky. “Whaddya mean that a decent Pinot goes for $22? Can’t you get me a good one for $9?” No….

        Producers responded by planting Pinot in places where it shouldn’t be, then flooding the market with cheap, watery crap. It’s rubbish, but it satisfies the type who wants the label to read Pinot Noir while keeping their skinflint sensibilities intact.

      • DrOtto

        La Versant Pinot Noir -$10 a bottle and very good. Bonus, it’s French so I don’t get headaches from it.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Noted

      • zwak

        Heh. My dad’s office partner was a professor of Onology.

        He was from the hills above Fresno.

    • Cy Esquire

      I’ve heard this a few times. I was a lot younger when i first watched it, not a single chuckle. Maybe now that I’m a bit older it might be a bit more amusing. I’ll have to give it another try.

    • EvilSheldon

      Sideways was basically Clerks, transplanted from a New Jersey convenience store to the Napa Valley.

      • hayeksplosives

        I still maintain that the worst movie about wine is Bottle Shock. Even Alan Rickman couldn’t save it.

      • EvilSheldon

        You’re dead to me.

        First, for maligning Bottle Shock, which I loved, but also for claiming that ANYTHING is beyond Alan Rickman’s capacity to save.

      • slumbrew

        That wig, tho…

  6. Count Potato

    “González was arrested April 30, a day after Officer Chris Farrar and a Gilbert police officer were struck by a stolen vehicle driven by a wanted felon. Farrar died, and the other officer was critically injured before the suspect was shot and taken into custody.”

    So maybe it wasn’t a “good shoot”? Why would they arrest a journalist if they weren’t trying to hide something?

    • Chafed

      Because they are petty tyrants?

      • Suthenboy

        It looks like a gaggle of idiots, including the reporter.

    • EvilSheldon

      Because they dislike reporters, and they dislike latinos, so a latino reporter is too tempting a target to pass up?

      Although the reporter bitching about some cop calling him, “Compadre” makes me think that the entire situation is 100% assholes…

  7. Scruffy Nerfherder

    It’s Sunday morning, and I am not prepared for differential equations, even ordinary ones. Keep your Dirac in your pants.

    • Count Potato

      Math is hard?

  8. The Late P Brooks

    “The lesson Republicans have learnt from that is they don’t really suffer any electoral consequences from their base pursuing this kind of thing. In fact, they’re rewarded for it. That’s very ominous because that suggests they’ll continue to try to do this until they pay an electoral price for it, and so far they don’t sense they’re paying an electoral price for it.”

    If voters believe their representatives are acting in their (the voters’) interests, they’ll keep electing them?

    Shocking.

    • leon

      Remember, underwear then pants. Whoever wrote this seems to think democracy is politicians controlling their base, not the other way around.

      Which might explain some aspects of the Democratic party these days.

    • Ted S.

      Democrats spent four years claiming Russian collusion and it didn’t hurt them electorally.

  9. Scruffy Nerfherder

    “We have an option of a candidate who can center people, racial justice, economic justice, and climate justice that didn’t just come up to run for mayor, but has experience,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

    Justice for everybody!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Sounds like it’s time to get out of NYC. If she wins she’ll make the current basket case look like Giuliani.

      • Grosspatzer

        Living in th NYC Metro does have its challenges; however, this is somewhat offset by the entertainment value of local politics. A guy named Brad Lander is running for comptroller, and has gained the endorsements of AOC, Liz Warren, and Jerry Nadler among others. His campaign ad featuring thse three proclaiming, in rapid succession, “I’m with Brad!” is everywhere. Comedy gold.

        https://mobile.twitter.com/bradlander/status/1394247539185029120

      • Chafed

        It’s hard to believe NYC was once a dynamic business environment.

      • UnCivilServant

        I grew up with a very ingrained view that nothing was made in cities. You couldn’t build a factory there, and they were too expensive anyway. Everything had to be made out in the country. Plus, no one could possibly live in cities because no jobs were there and so no one was paid enough to afford it.

        I was a child at the time, in the rust belt, so it all added up.

        Still can’t figure out why anyone would stay in a city if they could get out.

      • l0b0t

        Counterpoint – I mowed the lawn this morning and now am sitting on the porch enjoying a cocktail. My view is resplendent with the Summer parking wars as folk hunt and jostle for spaces near the beach. We are one of the few surfing beaches so I get watch the fit ladies change into and out of their wetsuits on the sidewalk. Sometimes NYC is good.

      • UnCivilServant

        You have a lawn and a beach view in NYC? How much money have you got?

      • l0b0t

        Dude… Rockaway Beach is whole different world. Also, we rent. Even if I could afford to do so, I would never buy property in NYC.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Where is this authoritarian ecosystem heading? For many, the nightmare scenario is that Trump will run again in 2024 and, with the benefit of voter suppression, sneak a win in the electoral college as he did in 2016.

    That’s funny.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The authoritarians are definitely not the ones that have turned DC into a recreation of Gitmo, nor are they the ones that are telling you to stay locked in your house, to force medical treatment on you, and to wear facial coverings.

    • leon

      Everyone’s entitled to their worldview.

      To some it was a nightmare senario where lax voting laws allowed Biden to sneak a win in Democratic controlled population centers.

      It’s not a moral imperative for me, that we avoid these outcomes, simply because people will not like them.

    • Count Potato

      “sneak a win”

  11. Suthenboy

    “Jews and their march of hatred”
    “Stop trying to kill us” is apparently hatred.
    “Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem that day.” – Rockets paid for with American taxpayer dollars. Thank you Obama. What a fucking shitweasel that guy is. He should be in a gibbet.

    Social signalling…if you have to tell people how virtuous you are…

    The democracy story…it is all projection all of the time with the left.

    We should get more AOC endorsements so we know who not to vote for. I don’t have to read beyond ‘AOC endorses xyz’

    Reporter story: The dumbass crossed a police line into a crime zone. That is not a constitutionally protected right. I guess the bright side is that the cops are equally as stupid in what they are doing. No good guys in that story.

    Good God, we are drowning in an ocean of barbarism and stupidity. If it would quit raining here I would just go back to cutting grass and ignore it all.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I’d be happy with a bit of rain. The 108 degree temp is not improving my mood.

      Relax, sit back, and just enjoy the shitshow. Better for your blood pressure.

      • Suthenboy

        That sounds like good advice. My only problem is with more than a month of rain the grass has grown waist high and some plant, I am not sure which species, has an irritant that has caused a nasty rash on a couple of my dogs. The lawn needs a trim.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Speaking of, I’m going to go mow before it gets oppressively hot.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I got a mow in right before the storms last night. Had to skip a couple areas because of standing water, but it was ridiculous that I had only mown once this year before yesterday.

      • Animal

        46 at this exact moment here in the Susitna Valley.

    • rhywun

      I don’t have to read beyond ‘AOC endorses xyz’

      I’ll help: Maya Wiley is a far-left loon in the Deblasio mold (she worked for him). I don’t think she stands a chance but nobody thought Bill did either. But the way the Machine works is that a few thousand votes in a primary that only a tiny percentage of True Believers pay any attention to can guarantee you the election, so who knows.

  12. rhywun

    a bizarre and usually unfunny chick who was in my favorite Jerry Lewis film

    I only know her from Roseanne where she was fantastic.

    • Old Man With Candy

      If you haven’t seen King of Comedy, put down your keyboard NOW and go watch it.

      • Ted S.

        You should get cancer. I hope you get cancer!

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Panic du jour

    “There just aren’t enough teachers. There isn’t a big pool to pull from. Retirements are through the roof and people are leaving the profession even more than they were due to all the havoc from Covid,” Prijatelj told NBC News. “It’s dire.”

    The decline Prijatelj has seen in his district mirrors a national trend, according to federal data and analysis of that data. And as President Joe Biden pitches universal preschool and free community college as part of his plans to overhaul a coronavirus-ravaged economy, education experts see teachers as the linchpin. The $9 billion that Biden’s American Families Plan would set aside to address the country’s increasingly acute shortage — one that was worsened, though not created by, the pandemic — represents a critical investment for the White House to make good on many other parts of his domestic agenda, these experts said.

    “If you think about it, what is education? It’s teaching. You have to have a teacher to do the teaching. You can’t get anything else done without a teacher in the classroom,” said Georgia Heyward, a research analyst at the Center for Reinventing Public Education, an education policy analysis center at the University of Washington Bothell.

    ——-

    To further address the shortage of teachers of color, Biden is proposing another $400 million to fund teacher preparation programs at historically Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions.

    Only about 20 percent of teachers are teachers of color, while students of color make up more than half of the overall population of all K-12 schools, according to government data.

    “The scholarships that they say it will offer to address the pipeline of teachers of color is going to be critical,” said Eric Becoats, superintendent of the 5,000-student William Penn School District outside Philadelphia.

    During the 2020-2021 school year, just 20 percent of his district’s teachers were teachers of color, while its student population was more than 96 percent students of color.

    “The supply chain of teachers of color is not nearly as strong as we need it to be,” he said.

    We’re terribly terribly concerned about the supply of quality teachers. So concerned, we will throw a giant pile of money at genetic traits which have nothing to do with ability or job performance.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      White people have no business teaching minorities. You ought to know that.

    • blackjack

      You can’t get anything else done without a teacher in the classroom,”

      Sure you can. LAUSD hasn’t had teachers in classrooms for a year and a half.

      • EvilSheldon

        Probably not the greatest example of getting things done…

      • Chafed

        Looks like the cat is out of the bag.

    • rhywun

      Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!

    • Spartacus

      This is the real reason for pushing critical race theory. It’s not about equity, it’s a BIPOC jobs program.

    • Ted S.

      Now do male teachers.

    • zwak

      Boys make up around 50% of classes, whats that percentage of male teachers?

  14. Grosspatzer

    Good to see Edward G. Krebs getting some love. Must have been tough to live in the shadow of his more well-known son Maynard.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Heh. Haven’t seen that show in ages.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        An underrecognized classic. Preshipwreck Gilligan was great.

      • mikey

        Tuesday Weld.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Young Warren Beatty.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    And then…

    A lot of educational investment in the past 20 years has been about building out administrative infrastructure in schools, deans, coaches, a lot of accountability measures. But there hasn’t been a lot of investment in teachers themselves or in creating a supply of teachers that allows schools to really get the best fit teachers or in retention strategies that allow them to keep teachers. That is integral,” she said. “That helps everything that comes after that.”

    We have been spending vast amounts of money on things not integral to the mission of training competent teachers. That’s why we need more money.

    Oops.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    What “journalism” has become

    Hussman is sickened by large surveys showing the vast majority of Americans no longer believe most news outlets play it straight with the facts. More recently, bias has given way to corruption where inconvenient facts are distorted or ignored to serve a predetermined narrative.

    That is the essence of woke journalism, and Hannah-Jones is its queen. She is a good writer and an even better polemicist, with her Pulitzer essay making her sound like a black nationalist whose view of history is shaped by prejudice.

    Her most outlandish claims, that America was not a democracy but a slavocracy and that the Founders declared independence to protect slavery from British abolitionists, are so preposterous that the Times later slightly softened them.

    Hannah-Jones also declares that “Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,” and says her father’s patriotism, which included voluntary military service, “deeply embarrassed me.”

    Worth a read in total.

    TMITE

    • leon

      Sounds like she has severe Daddy issues

    • Suthenboy

      “…the vast majority of Americans no longer believe most news outlets play it straight with the facts.”

      If you dont like being called a liar, stop telling lies. I know, that is a real brain buster so let it sink in for a bit.

    • rhywun

      She is brown and has maroon hair. That’s really all that matters here, because that is where we are now.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        But can I touch her hair?

      • rhywun

        Do it and report back.

      • Grosspatzer

        Scruffy is actually Joe Biden? Who knew?

      • Sean

        I’ve never seen them together in the same room.

  17. blackjack

    Great song from a great era with great musicians! Thanks

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Injudicious opinion

    The opinion reads like it’s written “by an AR-15 salesman rather than a constitutional analyst,” said Larry Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard Law School. “The bias fairly drips from the opinion, and the analysis certainly does not follow from the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence about the Second Amendment.”

    And what about those heart rending “for the children and grieving mothers” opinions upholding gun bans, Larry? Totally rational, logical legal analysis, I suppose.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Larry Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard Law School.

      Why should I give a shit what you have to say?

    • Suthenboy

      Larry is lying, probably both to himself and to us.

      “…the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence about the Second Amendment”. I think Sotomayor made the claim that deciding the constitutionality of any given law was a ‘novel approach’ for the SC. Why should we pay attention to anything they have to say?

  19. Sean

    There was a loud crash noise upstairs last night. We went to investigate and found one of the closet organizer shelves pulled away from the wall and hit the floor. They came with the house. It appears this one was overloaded (not by me) and the supports failed and some of the fasteners pulled out of the wall. *sigh*

    I guess I know what I’m doing today. ?

    On the upside, I got prepaid for my labor this morning. ?

    • Count Potato

      Yikes!!!

    • Don Escaped Texas

      I like the big stainless free-standing racks. You can always lag them into a stud for stability, but they provide all their own support, go together faster and more flexibly than closet systems, can be removed quickly should needs be, and can go with you or be re-dedicated when needs change.

      In almost all things, I tend to tool for flexibility and durability (trucks, guns, women).

    • Annoyed Nomad

      On the upside, I got prepaid for my labor this morning.

      I see what you did there.

    • Spartacus

      You should get double time for working on Sunday.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      So I’m going to praise USA Today: good on them for not just rolling over. The request was insanely broad.

    • DrOtto

      NSA already got them the info.

    • Count Potato

      Things are getting bad when people can rob donut shops.

    • Suthenboy

      How stupid do you have to be to rob a retail establishment? Care to guess how much fiat currency is in the cash register at any given time of day? You are going to throw your life and possibly someone else’s for that? Worse than that the robbery was early morning….you know, before they had the chance to build up any cash in the register. Maybe he was just after the custard and strawberry filled donuts?

      • Sean

        She was shot in the head over pocket change.

      • rhywun

        How stupid do you have to be

        Not to mention get yourself on a clear surveillance video doing it.

        This guy is probably a few knives short.

      • Suthenboy

        I am betting dope has something to do with it.

        I am not trying to start a debate on the issue, it is one for another time, but I recently argued that the problem with dope and self ownership is that the dope greatly diminishes one’s agency…eventually. I have seen it many times.

      • rhywun

        I am betting dope has something to do with it.

        Yes, that is another valid possibility.

      • Count Potato

        If dope were legal, and not burdened by a bunch of regulations and taxes, it would be cheap.

        Alcohol can also lead to bad judgement, but I don’t recall ever hearing about a drunk robbing a place to buy booze.

      • EvilSheldon

        Being psychologically dependent on anything, greatly diminishes one’s agency. Drugs are not unique in this.

      • EvilSheldon

        There’s a bit of a chicken-or-egg question in there. Do drugs make people stupid, or do stupid people use drugs?

        Hell, why not both?

      • Count Potato

        Not to mention cops frequent donut shops.

      • Atanarjuat

        I have spoken to a few guys who were locked up for robbing stores. First, in their subculture, incarceration is seen as a badge of honor. Second, the few hundred dollars they might get probably seems like a lot to them since they’ve never had a decent job. Third, the act of armed robbery itself is glorified in songs like Kodak Black’s Stick and Move”.

      • Bob Boberson
      • zwak

        I may be the only person who will come out and say this, but, boy is that movie stupid.

        Hi, we have AR’s and Armani’s, don’t we look fucking cool in blue light!

        No, if you want a good shot out scene, this is the one

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J0ecKnEzvU

      • Suthenboy

        I dont get it. We have always had those people and yet the ones from the past are romanticized.
        The settling of the old west was mostly done by people trying to escape from the law…thugs. Old west gun fights are romanticized in movies. Those people were mostly scummy thugs. That is why they robbed, raped and settled their problems with guns rather than their heads. Those old western movies were about the same kind of people that made up the prohibition era gangs and the gangs we have today.

        Maybe we should stop romanticizing them. That behavior and lifestyle is not romantic. It is not glorious.
        It is ugly and disturbing.

      • Bob Boberson

        I’ve been reading some good libertarian literature:

        https://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Wild-West-Economics/dp/0804748543

        The “Wild West” is largely and invention of dime novelists and later Hollywood. Despite a few violent outburst and some truly horrific total war against the western tribes, the ‘settling of the western frontier’ was one of the most peaceful mass migrations in human history. Much of the gunfighting was exactly in line with “an armed society is a polite society.”

        What’s ironic is that most of the large scale violence was perpetrated by government or feuds representing different sides of opposing political factions.

        It comes as no surprise that one of the best arguments for peaceful anarchism has been mythologized into ‘and then the government finally showed up and made things civilized’

      • Surly Knott

        Thanks for the pointer to this!

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Jesus…that vid was, uh, something else.

      • EvilSheldon

        The third point is the big one. It was a little shocking to me, the number of multiple armed robbers out there who had straight jobs. They were ripping places basically for fun. Instead of career criminals, they were recreational criminals…

      • DrOtto

        Keepin’ it real

  20. The Late P Brooks

    If you dont like being called a liar, stop telling lies. I know, that is a real brain buster so let it sink in for a bit.

    That might work for some people, but we’re talking about Journalists, from organizations like the New York Times.

    Can’t
    understand
    Normal
    Thinking

    • Sean

      Democrats have had decades long control on the most dysfunctional urban centers in this country. Any racism claims should land solidly on them. Somehow, that doesn’t seem to be happening.

  21. Count Potato

    “Anonymous was forthright in its frustration with Musk.

    ‘Millions of retail investors were really counting on their crypto gains to improve their lives. This is something that you will never understand because you were born into the stolen wealth of a South African apartheid emerald mine and have no clue what struggle is like for most of the working people in the world.

    ‘Of course, they took the risk upon themselves when they invested, and everyone knows to be prepared for volatility in crypto, but your tweets this week show a clear disregard for the average working person.

    ‘As hardworking people have their dreams liquidated over your public temper tantrums, you continue to mock them with memes from one of your million dollar mansions.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9655941/Hacking-group-Anonymous-issues-warning-Elon-Musk-claiming-power-influence-Bitcoin-prices.html

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The crypto volatility kicked off by Musk’s brain farts ought to give pause to the crypto dabblers. If one man’s off the cuff tweets can send your investment into the stratosphere or the toilet depending on the tone then maybe it’s not the best store of wealth.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        of course

        but I read them another way: just another day when someone can attribute their failures to someone else’s behavior

        at this point I’m surprised that being totally insulated from any and all consequences of one’s actions (all all other phenomena, natural or man-made) hasn’t been codified via constitutional amendment

      • Suthenboy

        Give it a little time.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Oh, there’s definitely an element of displacement of responsibility as well. If you’re putting all of your eggs in the crypto basket and you lose your shirt it’s partially on you. That being said, Musk’s pronouncements do have an amazingly outsized impact on the crypto market and he’s certainly aware of that and is using his influence to alternatively boost and crash the market as he sees fit for whatever reason. He’s sort of doing them a favor though by revealing a considerable flaw in the system before crypto becomes truly ubiquitous.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        If you’re putting all of your eggs in the crypto basket and you lose your shirt

        Those people are fucking morons. At their absolute best, crypto investments are currency trading. You don’t do your retirement investing in the currency market if you’re sane.

        People who have a substantial amount of money tied up in cryptos boggle my mind. I have a few hundred in the market that I diverted from… ahem… high velocity lead investments. I can’t imagine putting more than $1k into cryptos, even with it coming from that particular line item in the budget. Way too risky to put significant balances into.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        crypto volatility

        The biggest thing that gives me pause with cryptos is the way they’re all loosely linked to bitcoin. The price trends may diverge momentarily, but if you expand the view out to months or years, the price curves all look about the same.

        Volatility doesn’t scare me as much as the linked trends. That has me thinking that valuations are wildly off on most cryptos.

      • Bob Boberson

        As someone who has gone heavy (but not all in) on crypto, my response would be; whats the alternative?

        Saving fiat: a losing proposition thanks to the Fed and their printing press
        Property: prices manipulated by the Fed and doomed to bust as we see in the current market. Also comes with a nice annual tax for as long as you own it.
        Stocks: Also a rigged game that is essentially gambling your $. Best you can hope to do is get lucky timing the market.
        Gold: a good store of value but difficult to trade, store and comes with high fees when traded through an intermediary

        While crypto is far from perfect and we are very much in the early and chaotic stages, I see huge potential if Satoshi’s vision doesn’t get absolutely crushed by the leviathan.

      • UnCivilServant

        In volatile times you invest in steel. (and lead, and brass, and carbon…)

        Crypto has no more instrinsic worth than any fiat, and because it’s all “digital wizardry” less trust.

    • Grosspatzer

      Fuck crypto. I can no longer acquire a decent graphics card to use for actually displaying graphics without taking out a mortgage.

      • l0b0t

        This X10000!!!

        I’m at the point where I need to start thinking about an upgrade but I just perused Newegg and found to my horror that my current card, MSI R9 390 8Gb purchased brand new from Newegg 3 years ago for $320, was now going for $748. HOLY MACKEREL!

      • Grosspatzer

        Assuming you can actually find one. Youngest patzer is attempting to build a new rig using the ill-gotten gains from his summer research project (just got a check for half the total amount). He’s been camping out at Microcenter most mornings for two weeks hoping to find the elusive treasure. No dice.

      • l0b0t

        Microcenter has been surprisingly good with in-store deals (open box and such). I’m about equidistant from the ones in Brooklyn and Westbury, Lawn Guyland so always check ’em out.
        Thee Brooklyn location is weird. It’s on 4th, at the remodeled wharf and I remember that neighborhood as nothing but docks, a Federal Prison, muffler shops, and dirty-book stores.

      • Grosspatzer

        Old Guy alert. Back in the 50’s before the Verrazano Bridge was built we’d pile into the Chevy and take the ferry from Bay Ridge to go to the drive-in in Staten Island. Saw “Lady and the Tramp, 6 yrs old
        Good times.

  22. Annoyed Nomad

    The cicadas are real loud in our neighborhood. My wife was interested in them initially, but they’ve gotten so numerous that the novelty has worn off. She is done with them and wants them to end. I commented that since the noise is from their mating call and the noise will end after they have sex, lay eggs and then die, she basically wants them to “Fuck off and die!”

    • Sean

      Heh.

    • Suthenboy

      I spent a couple of years living where there are no cicadas. At some point near the end of that I was watching “The Last of the Mohicans” and in the background of one scene I could hear bluejays calling and cicadas buzzing. I got so homesick I could hardly stand it. I thought “I have to go home.”

    • Grosspatzer

      Flipped to the Memorial golf tourney yesterday. Cicadas stole the show, and as a bonus forced the commentators to speak above a whisper.

  23. Atanarjuat

    I have specifically outlined the bizarre “coincidence” of the World Economic Forum’s Event 201 exercise, a war game co-funded by Bill Gates and Johns Hopkins and launched in October of 2019. Event 201 simulated a global novel zoonotic coronavirus pandemic (supposedly spread from bats to people) that “required” a global lockdown response. Only two months later the real thing actually happened. Almost every aspect of the Covid event has played out exactly as was practiced during the WEF war game.

    HFS

      • Suthenboy

        I know people have been calling for this for at least 40 years but I never thought enough people would be crazy enough to support it or enough people stupid enough to fall for it so I never thought it would happen.

        I should pour a drink.

      • Atanarjuat

        Event 201 simulates an outbreak of a novel zoonotic coronavirus transmitted from bats to pigs to people that eventually becomes efficiently transmissible from person to person, leading to a severe pandemic. The pathogen and the disease it causes are modeled largely on SARS, but it is more transmissible in the community setting by people with mild symptoms.

        Is it possible this is all coincidental?

      • Suthenboy

        No.

        Of course none of this has anything to do with public health and everything to do with power. Power, being a fixed pie, is what the powers that be want to take from you to the point that they would rather knock your ice cream cone out of your hand than let you eat it. They are truly the worst kinds of people.

        Pie…icecream…whatever.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s incredibly fucking fishy, I will say that.

      • Suthenboy

        99% of the time things are exactly what they look like.

      • rhywun

        When everything we thought was “crazy nonsense” keeps turning out to be true, maybe it’s not crazy nonsense any more.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah, we passed my line for “Crazyville” around the time of “The intelligence community was running operations on a sitting President knowing it was based on garbage intel / oppo research, and NO ONE CARES”.

        If the establishment can swing that, I don’t know what they’d actually be called on the carpet for. Sigh.

    • Suthenboy

      The only solution is to crush the free market, all civil rights and institute international socialism.

    • DEG

      Event 201 has come up often among the more conspiracy minded Reopen folks.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Almost every aspect of the Covid event has played out exactly as was practiced during the WEF war game.

    Except for the “wholesale death” part.

    • rhywun

      Do better, global elite technocrat overlords.

      • Suthenboy

        By ‘better’ I hope you mean ‘fuck off and die in a fire’.

  25. SDF-7

    Sigh — gorram son of a rabid weasel bat apparently doesn’t think 2 years is “emergency” enough.

    Shouldn’t be surprised — but really thought this crap was finally officially ending and was looking forward to not having to worry about what businesses expect what, etc.

    Jerk.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      A guy who looks and sounds like a bioengineered cross between a used car salesman and a televangelist is going back on his word? Not surprising, unfortunately.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Has he forgotten about the recall?

      • rhywun

        Sounds like a lock for the recall election.

        Seriously, I bet he wins it. Just like Cuomo will win another term.

      • Suthenboy

        The vast majority of misery in the world is self-inflicted.
        Congrats blue voters.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Meet the Press is on the cybercrime beat. Solution: ban cryptocurrency!

    Also, ban Rooooshuh!

    • Bob Boberson

      In regard to the conversation above about Elon crashing crypto. The Cathedral has done more to undermine and fuck with crypto in the last few weeks than Elon could ever do through tweets. From the constant concern trolling in the media to Uncle Sniffy and the IRS desperately trying to figure out a way to tax and regulate the shit out of it, seems to me that Anonymous would be far better off to turn their attention elsewhere. That being said it strikes me that Musk is creating a convenient distraction for the government to come in and shackle what has been a very free market.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Russia is a criminal enterprise.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Hey- maybe Congress should just ban cybercrime.

    There oughtta be a law!

  29. Count Potato

    “”150 days since the worst single act of political violence since the Civil War, and the man who incited it is crying about being kept off social media.””

    https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1401006015898959877

    The worst single act of political violence since the Civil War??

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yeah, sure, why not?

    • rhywun

      Wow. That’s unhinged even for him.

    • leon

      The rioting in the months of May through Aug and continuing in Portland, fort express political purposes was not violence. Violence is when it affects the political class, everything else is just a fairy tale affecting the little people.

    • Shpip

      The worst single act of political violence since the Civil War??

      It’s like this guy never heard of the MLK riots, the LA riot of ’92, the George Floyd riots, or that Tulsa Riot Race Massacre that the media are currently using as a cudgel against wypipo.

      • leon

        I was going to mention that to, along with all the lynchings in post reconstruction South. But the point is, he’s a propogandists, not even he believes it.

    • EvilSheldon

      Somewhere in hell, Timothy McVeigh just got a tingle in his leg…

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        The World Trade Center happenings could be rolled into the list as well.

      • EvilSheldon

        Even if we limit the scope to direct attacks against the US Capitol? You still have the PRNP shooting up the House of Representatives chamber back in 1954, and the Weather Underground bombing the Capitol building in 1971.

        Nixon’s comment after the Capitol bombing was pretty much on point.

        “We must not allow this kind of an incident to close these great public buildings to the people. . . . [T]he greater risk is to close these buildings, to be too afraid of this. That is what violent people want. They want to frighten public officials and the American people into the place where we will not have the open buildings, the open society that we do have. They would like to keep the President in Washington rather than come out in the country. Well, it won’t work.”

    • Suthenboy

      Anderson Cooper? Brian Stelter? You might as well listen to a chicken clucking.

    • mrfamous

      It all reminds me a lot of the free kick wall in soccer where the players keep creeping forward using baby steps to see just how much they can get away with before the ref steps in.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Spoiler: the ref is on the take.
        Another spoiler: nobody watches the game anymore because they know it’s rigged

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’d like to see Stelter’s head make a guest appearance on the Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube.

      • Animal

        There are easier ways to make mashed potatoes.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    From the constant concern trolling in the media to Uncle Sniffy and the IRS desperately trying to figure out a way to tax and regulate the shit out of it

    Looking for ways to conduct business out of the view of government tax-and-regulate-agencies? That’s seditionist insurrection, straight up. Nothing outside the state.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    The rioting in the months of May through Aug and continuing in Portland, fort express political purposes was not violence. Violence is when it affects the political class, everything else is just a fairy tale affecting the little people.

    Sacred Temple of DEMOCRACY!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Milo also says things he knows to be nonsense in order to get a rise out of people. It’s sort of his shtick.

      • rhywun

        I laffed at this one. Well played, Milo.

    • EvilSheldon

      Milo has a history of being deliberately misquoted, so I’m gonna pass on specific comment.

      But man, I would really prefer to believe that folks outside the sexual mainstream are *not* generally mentally ill…

      • Count Potato

        Well, there is a video there.

        Also, he still seems kind of gay, ngl.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Now that moron Granholm is puking up her two cents’ worth.

  33. UnCivilServant

    I walked a mile along the wildlife preserve. The only wildlife I saw were chipmunks, robins, tree rats, and hate birds.

    I had an hour before the Trolley museum opened, so I drove randomly just to see what there was to see. Ended up passing hrough Kinnebunkport. I do not like the look of that place, feels artificial. Plus there was no free parking.

    My random driving actually deposited me right at the gates of the trolley museum, but they were still requiring masks, and I was feeling dehydrated, so I didn’t take the tour. Got some water and stumbled on to a flea market. Being maine, all the vendors were old white folks, except the old guy selling rugs, who could have been from anywhere between northern india and anatolia.

    I retreated to my hotel to rehydrate, maybe see if there’s a zoo around where I can see wildlife that doesn’t wander my neighborhood on a daily basis.

    • UnCivilServant

      PS I did get some fantastic pictures of the scenery. While it’s unfit for traversal, the coastal marshes are prett.

    • UnCivilServant

      Damn, the zoo is either still mandating masks or didn’t update their website.

      Gotta think of something else to do.

      • UnCivilServant

        They’re welcome to it. That town just doesn’t feel right. It’s like a tourist trap for the 10%

  34. robc

    Movers come on Tuesday. Today is packing day ( we have most done but 80/20 rule). Tomorrow is resumes in the morning and then packing until done.

    I took tvs down today, we have sold them, being picked up this afternoon, along with a love seat and matching chairs.

    We are doing good this time at “is it worth moving?”

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      The feeling after a pre-moving purge has me half believing in that ASMR crap.

    • Animal

      We went through that too – moving is when you take the effort to apply the Great Filter, and move only what you need to. For us it was family heirlooms, personal keepsakes and a few odds and ends that would cost more to replace than to move. Still ended up being a lot of stuff, but there you are.

      I’m not doing this again. Only way they take me off this place is in a body bag.

  35. DEG

    It’s the law.

    TRIGGERRED!!!!!!11!!!!!!1

    One thing that pisses me off about hanging around with the mask-free groups, health freedom groups, and the Reopen folks is all the dipshits that go on about “It’s not a law!” concerning mask ordinances/orders/what-have-you. “An ordinance isn’t a law!” is another good one.

    Recently, someone on a PA group related to defying the governor’s orders asked about the announcements stating something along the lines of “wearing a mask in an airplane is the law.” Is it really a law?

    I did some digging. I found the USC making it a crime to interfere with flight crew. I also found Biden’s EO on masks, which has some vague references to laws and regulations but no actual citations. Then I found the CDC’s actual order about masks on transportation.. It includes a link to 42 USC section 264. I read that USC which opens with:

    The Surgeon General, with the approval of the Secretary, is authorized to make and enforce such regulations as in his judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the States or possessions, or from one State or possession into any other State or possession.

    Later, it includes the most beautiful legal statement ever:

    and other measures, as in his judgment may be necessary.

    So, yeah, flight crew stating wearing a mask is a law as that order from the CDC is made pursuant to an actual USC.

    The usual idiots come out of the woodwork saying “It’s not a law!”.

    Time to read the links.

    • Suthenboy

      I think the question to ask would be “Is any government authority authorized to make any ordinance/law/whatever limiting the freedom of movement or of free association of people not convicted of a crime?”

      I am one of the usual idiots as I think that all of the measures taken by government so far are crimes committed by said government.

    • rhywun

      So basically, the Surgeon General is the supreme ruler of the United States. Nice to know.

    • EvilSheldon

      When most people say, “It’s not a law!” they mean either 1.) the law is unjust, or B.) I don’t give a fuck about the law. Both opinions are entirely admirable.

      • Suthenboy

        The constitution is a contract between the people and the government. The lines between what the people agreed the government has the power to do and what it is not are very clear. Government has been overstepping those lines since day one so much so that I dont really consider the government legitimate any more.

      • Suthenboy

        I would add that our constitution has some flaws, rather glaring ones, but it is the best one every conceived. A low bar I know, but it is what we have.

      • DEG

        These aren’t most people. They really mean what they are saying.

  36. Aloysious

    Good choice for morning music, OMWC.

    I’m in a dark bluesy mood this morning, so I was listening to Justin Johnson and his guitar.

    It’s a work day, so I can’t put whiskey in the coffee, sadly.

  37. DEG

    “The heart of the issue is the fact that the student did not follow the established dress code for the event and detracted from the importance and the solemnity of the ceremony,” officials said in one of two statements. “Our dress code is in place to ensure the dignity of the event is upheld and is fair to all students.”

    Huh. My old high school would have done the same thing. I think if someone had violated the dress code, been denied his/her diploma, and gone public like this, that person would have been mocked. The school probably would have been quietly and privately mocked about “the dignity of the event” and “fair to all students”, but parents would have publicly backed the school.

    Voting rights are threatened across the US and Trump allies are vying to control elections in multiple states. Can US democracy survive the post-Trump onslaught?

    Concern troll is concerned.

    “We have an option of a candidate who can center people, racial justice, economic justice, and climate justice that didn’t just come up to run for mayor, but has experience,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

    That is some authentic Proglodyte gibberish.

    “It’s unacceptable that the Gilbert Police Department is unlawfully violating Mr. González Cortés’s constitutional rights as a journalist. The Police Department’s violation of his constitutional rights diminishes the rights of us all.”

    But what if he was just an ordinary person?

    Old Guy Music is good. I never knew Rod Stewart did any Blues work.

    • Suthenboy

      Dumbass kid makes graduation ceremony all about him. CWAA.
      They should have given him his diploma and then make him run a gauntlet to get out.

      • rhywun

        If anything, he got a nice lesson about the real world.

    • hayeksplosives

      Yikes.

      The Chinese bio weapons claim is bad enough but the fact that important justice/defense agencies don’t trust their own organizations to go through the official chain is deeply disturbing.

      . “Sources say DIA leadership kept the defector within their Clandestine Services network to prevent Langley and the State Department from accessing the person, whose existence was kept from other agencies because DIA leadership believes there are Chinese spies or sources inside the FBI, CIA, and several other federal agencies,” according to the report.

      Considering the number of Chinese spies that have been busted working in Secret and Top Secret settings, National labs, and as top aids to politicians, the spooks are probably correct though.

      But what do we do about it? Openly discriminate against Chinese applicants to sensitive govt jobs?

      • Suthenboy

        It is important to distinguish between culture and race. Chinese born and raised? Maybe yes. It isn’t a good idea to put them in positions to get sensitive info. Chinese race born and raised here? No. They assimilate quickly because they know a good thing when they see it.

      • hayeksplosives

        A few decades ago, I’d have agreed about the “American born and raised” thing, but now kids grow up hearing the message of what an evil, racist, lazy people we Americans are, how America has wrought nothing but evil in the world, etc.

        I could see how one’s loyalty could become realigned with the cultural heritage of 2000 years of continuity through one’s Chinese DNA.

        The resegregation of America on racial lines will be our downfall.

      • rhywun

        I would not be at all surprised if the Chicoms were targeting Americans of Chinese descent.

      • UnCivilServant

        We could start by actually trying and executing spies like in the old days.

  38. Ozymandias

    “A lot of educational investment in the past 20 years has been about building out administrative infrastructure in schools, deans, coaches, a lot of accountability measures. But there hasn’t been a lot of investment in teachers themselves or in creating a supply of teachers that allows schools to really get the best fit teachers or in retention strategies that allow them to keep teachers. That is integral,” she said. “That helps everything that comes after that.”

    We have been spending vast amounts of money on things not integral to the mission of training competent teachers. That’s why we need more money.

    Oops.

    Brooksy – your comment above reminded me of an old joke/morality tale in Marine Corps’ aviation about how the respective services work. It goes like this:
    When Congress appropriates money for the defense budget, and specifically for the Air Force, the USAF first builds base housing, then the golf course, then the bowling alley and all of the associated troop services, the O’ and E’Club, and then looks and says, “ZOMG!! We’re out of money!!” So they go back to Congress and get money for the airfield.
    The Marine Corps builds the airfield and then has no money left… and then it makes the troops sleep in tents next to it, dig slit trenches to shit in, and begs to get some MREs from the Army.

    In a just society, the head of the DoEd would have committed ritual seppuku decades ago in light of a graph of expenditures vs. results. I’m only half-joking. Try to imagine what would have happened under the Tokugawa shogunate if they’d appointed someone to be in charge of compulsory education and that person had produced the same results as our DoEd. That dude wouldn’t have lasted three years before he would have had to publicly disembowel himself from the shame of the results.

  39. hayeksplosives

    On Gavin Newsom’s latest power trip:

    He also told Rosenhall when asked that he would not rescind his emergency declaration and give up his emergency powers. “Because we’re still in a state of emergency,” he said through laughter when asked why not. “This disease has not been extinguished”
    .
    “ We’re mindful of variants.”

    “We’ve never said that we were not going to consider some modifications post June 15,”

    This motherfucker just cannot stand the little people. He was flippant and sarcastic through the whole press conference. What an asshole.

    If your emergency lasts more than a year, it’s not an emergency.

    The only thing more bizarre than extending the emergency orders past June 15 is that he didn’t release the news through a formal statement or a special press conference; he just dropped it casually during a press conference announcing winners of a cash prize lottery held as a vaccine incentive.

    I got the impression that he made up the extension of the emergency orders right there on the spot because he didn’t feel the reporters were showing him proper respect.

    Even Caitlyn Jenner is sane by comparison:

    In California, we have:

    -One of the highest vaccination rates in the nation
    -Less than 1000 new cases/day
    -Relaxed CDC guidance

    Yet Newsom still refuses to open up. Is this what trusting the science looks like?

    • Suthenboy

      There is no science behind it. The whole cootiebug circus was a power grab. Of course the people running it aren’t going to let go of that power….ever….unless they are forced to.

    • SDF-7

      Yeah, that’s one of the things that drives me nuts about all this.

      The obvious definition of Emergency Executive Powers should be those that must be used because of a sufficiently widespread crisis AND the inability of the Legislature to meet and pass any new laws needed to handle the situation. Full stop. Anything else is just usurping the power of the Legislature (and the Courts) to the Executive / Regulatory State for some undefined period.

      I seriously can’t understand why Legislatures and Courts aren’t screaming bloody murder about this — all this does is make them irrelevant.

      Ok… I can understand it in California — they’ve made themselves pretty much irrelevant with the pandering to the lobbies / unions that run the state anyway. But other states? Makes no sense…

    • Suthenboy

      “What his attitude—toward your ownership and use of weapons—conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn’t trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?”

      He stole that from me, didnt he? This guy’s jib, I like the cut of it.
      Thank you for posting that. I am going to save it.

      • DEG

        You’re welcome!

        It’s been a while since I’ve read the TLE. I used to read it in the late 90s and early 00s. It’s good to see the TLE is still around. I think I read this essay when Smith first published it.

    • UnCivilServant

      That website looks like it’s from the 90s. Has he ever thought about improving the readability?

      • hayeksplosives

        Geocities lives!

      • db

        I can read English just fine

      • Suthenboy

        Unreadable is what most websites are today.