Well, part of the nightmare is over- despite the best efforts of the mortgage lender to fuck up the deal, we have apparently closed on our new semi-rural home (not without even more adventure- the bank’s attorney went on vacation and didn’t transfer our funds to the escrow account, causing more delay, much panic, and killing rage from everyone else involved) and will now enter the next ordeal: packing and moving. Which has to be done extra rapido because of the delays in closing. But at least we’re not homeless- unless the current renter refuses to leave, in which case we will gather a group together to have an informal meeting with him.
It’s not a particularly rich day for birthdays, but still there’s a guy who was the Maduro of his day; a guy who proved that if you write pulps in French, people think of them as literature; someone who was a false alarm; the Jewish version of Frederica Wilson; a woman made famous by Kinky Friedman; a guy who demonstrated that when science meets religion, stupidity is inevitable; a white guy who is enthusiastic about watermelon; a guy who blew up a long and successful career in about 20 seconds; a guy who cloned himself from Dizzy Gillespie; a piece of shit of no particular distinction; a guy who had more juice than Anita Bryant; and some chick who must be famous because I recognized her name (but couldn’t tell you the name of anything she’s done).
Let’s do Links.
A great speech, which I’m sure was not well-received.
“Instead of rebuilding the country’s ravaged infrastructure, warlords-turned-statesmen used ministries as personal piggy banks to hand out favors to their allies.” So, just like the US.
Old Guy Music once again features one of my two favorite (((guitarists))). Fuck, he was amazing.
Don’t hate me because you aint…First.
Mornin Bro’
That’s not the reason we hate you.
DEMOCRACY! in the antipodes
Thousands of people took to the streets of Sydney and other Australian cities on Saturday to protest lockdown restrictions amid another surge in cases, and police made several arrests after crowds broke through barriers and threw plastic bottles and plants.
The unmasked participants marched from Sydney’s Victoria Park to Town Hall in the central business district, carrying signs calling for “freedom” and “the truth.”
There was a heavy police presence in Sydney, including mounted police and riot officers in response to what authorities said was unauthorized protest activity. Police confirmed a number of arrests had been made after objects were thrown at officers.
New South Wales Police said it recognized and supported the rights of free speech and peaceful assembly, but the protest was a breach of public health orders.
“The priority for NSW Police is always the safety of the wider community,” a police statement said.
The protest comes as COVID-19 case numbers in the state reached another record with 163 new infections in the last 24 hours.
Greater Sydney has been locked down for the past four weeks, with residents only able to leave home with a reasonable excuse.
“We live in a democracy and normally I am certainly one who supports people’s rights to protest … but at the present time we’ve got cases going through the roof and we have people thinking that’s OK to get out there and possibly be close to each other at a demonstration,” said state Health Minister Brad Hazzard.
You may speak freely as long as you don’t say anything I disagree with.
*head-desk*
““We live in a democracy and normally I am certainly one who supports people’s rights to protest …”
If only it’d stopped before the but.
You know who else should’ve stopped before the butt?
E.U.?
Who was it that said when you make a statement, then add “but”, you automatically invalidate every word said before the “but”?
A lot of pics on twitter – in Queensland – folks are banned from “going on their balconies” because they might “pass things between balconies”. If they want sunlight, they’re supposed to sit by the window in the sun and breathe the A/C. Pics of padlocked balconies or they have to use electrical tape “seals” and send pics to public health.
Absolutely disgusting.
Holy shit.
There should be rivers of blood in the streets over this.
Wow
Out of their fucking minds
“Sir, with all due respect-”
“STOP! Stop right there, Lieutenant.” Gets up from desk and addresses entire Operations Shop.
“LISTEN TO ME: DO NOT EVER COME INTO MY OFFICE AND USE THE PHRASE ‘WITH ALL DUE RESPECT…’ – BECAUSE EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS THAT PHRASE IS TANTAMOUNT TO CALLING ME AN ASSHOLE.” Long pause. “Does everyone understand me?”
Nods and “yessirs”
– My Old Ops O, an end-of-career Marine Corps Major
LOL. I appreciate honesty.
That dude sounds awesome.
Nice. I like it.
I had a friend who was skipper of a navy patrol boat in western Aus. He told me, back in the early nineties, that the cops just did whatever they wanted. They don’t have any rights beyond what the particular official you’re dealing with decides to allow. It’s been a police state for a really long time. The Covid abuses are just easily digested and more prevalent.
My Aussie coworker was musing yesterday about going back to Oz to see his aging parents (in Queensland, where people still have a rebellious streak) but he decided there is zero chance of going until all the Covid hysteria is over. He would have to go to quarantine for a week or two and submit to testing, etc.
I asked if he thought the Oz government could’ve gotten away with the draconian restrictions if they hadn’t had the great gun “buy back” years ago (after a mass shooting incident). He grudgingly admitted that perhaps there is something to be said for government fearing its subjects.
Smart and to the point.
Wind and solar are garbage non-solutions to a problem that is not at all understood or presented honestly by anyone involved in policy, and at this point I’m sure even the shills pushing for contracts to build this stuff are drinking their own Kool-Aid and telling themselves it’s all a grand idea.
Tangentially related: if I wasn’t so lazy, and also was better informed on the specifics, I might be tempted to submit a piece on how fawning “libertarians” tripping over themselves to suck up to hypergrifter space profiteer, and flim-flam man Elon Musk might just want to reel their tongues back in for a second and consider that the rush to EVs is flawed in so many horrible ways.
Please do! I’ll pop corn.
The man may be a grifter but he advanced spaceflight in two significant ways – reusable boosters and self-landing rockets (currently used only for unmanned boosters, but coming soon to crew vehicles once NASA finally approves). Either of these would have been huge in and of itself, and none of the other players, most who have been around for decades and are also funded by government, managed to do this.
???
George Washington was a lousy general and a thin-skinned aristocrat. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate his contributions to the American Experiment.
The world ain’t black and white.
I’ll play devil’s advocate here because I don’t see the point of spaceflight.
So what? Musk advanced “spaceflight.”
I know the sci-fi nerd in us thinks this means something, but there’s a pretty strong argument that fucking around out there is a complete waste of resources – resources that could be way, way, way better used here… you know, where people actually live. And from whence we’ve evolved.
Zero G is not good for human beings. Every astronaut that spends even a little time in space winds up with longlife health problems as a result – Zero G does horrible things to the human body.
Sometimes the seemingly pointless endeavor has unknown future benefits.
I’d prefer he did it completely with his own money though.
And a LOT of times seemingly pointless endeavors turn out to be completely fucking pointless, just as they seemed all along…
…And a big waste of MY money.
Which is the whole point. Why does Elon Musk get to be the beneficiary of government largesse? OH, because he tells the thieves in govt that Electric Vehicles are going to help save the planet. Of course.
Why does Elon Musk get to be the beneficiary of government largesse? OH, because he tells the thieves in govt that Electric Vehicles are going to help save the planet.
Eh, I’m not gonna judge people too harshly for taking advantage of government giveaways. The money is going to somebody, whether or not Elon exists.
Nah, most of the people pushing this nonsense know it’s a scam and a way to pad their wallets. P.T. Barnum seemed earnest too but he didn’t buy his own bullshit either.
Exactly. What we need is to fully nationalize this industry and give command of production to the workers to decide what gets built and where, so profits no longer drive the decisions behind the creation of a new Green infrastructure!
Hang on, I haven’t had my pills today.
Drunk guy hits on reporter, awkwardly complements her in a stupid way.
This is news?
It’s outrage! Gotta keep the people agitated.
wHiTe SuPraemAcY!!1!1!11
Have you heard the new one from Robin D’Angelo’s book where she projects all kinds of psycho vomit about smiling at black people being racist? Apparently we should be openly hostile like the racists she wishes we all were because that would fit with her messed up, pathological interpretation of the world.
I hadn’t but I just looked it up. What can I say, the lady’s a good grifter.
Did they mention the guy’s race? Because if not, we all know they ain’t white.
Of course DC won’t change. If it did it would be AC.
That pun was shockingly bad.
I’m currently in a phase of being plugged in to electrical puns. That one has really fried my circuits, but I’m amped up for some more. Don’t mind the resistance to your quip, Surly; I’m switched on to your positively charged puns.
Way to socket to him!
I’m sure Swissy will be by to rectify things once he makes the circuit.
I’m sure he’ll apply a narrowed gauge, which should reduce the flow.
?
***THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE***
Proud to “know” ya, Surly!
Don’t applaud that, you’re just gonna get him amped up.
Ackshually, “her,” I’m pretty sure. And I will shamelessly encourage puns whenever possible. Just sorry I haven’t yet had enough iced latte to come up with my own.
Unpossible. The are no female libertarians, or so I’ve been told.
It’s all Tulpas and feds round here.
I marvel at your pun.
[*polite applause*]
I want to live in a country ran by Agile Cyborg.
At least the prose of his speeches would be amusing.
WTF is a “high-profile shooting”? One that white people notice?!
Yes, except the Congressional baseball shooting. Don’t talk about that.
I mean, geez. Shootings have been *dramatically* higher in all the usual neighborhoods while Dem pols either remained silent or tried to hand-wave it away. But shoot up a nice neighborhood and they take notice. SMDH at the optics.
What’s the saying? Management won’t change policy until the negative effects hit them.
Remember, they only drag out gun control atop the corpses of dead white kids killed in safe liberal enclaves.
That was in Virginia.
That’s pretty much what the DC Police Chief admitted – that there were plenty of shootings in other parts of the district going quite un-noticed by the media (i.e. white people).
We are shooting ourselves in the foot if we sacrifice economic prosperity and overall societal resilience on the altar of urgently transitioning to 20th century renewable energy technologies.
You’ll never convince anybody of anything with arguments like that.
Mazel tov on the closing, Old Man! Mucho simpatia to you & SP for the moving process, which sucks even for the most eagerly-anticipated relocation.
I may have missed the gory details. What general neck of the woods is your destination?
Grooving on the OGMusic. Soooooo different from the drama-infested shitshow that was latter day Mac. After this, I’m firing up the online satellite radio. Whaddaya think – classical (likely “Baroque & Beyond”) or jazz?
Classical channel was playing a composer named “Fux,” so I HAD to go with that one.
[surprised to learn that there was a Johann Joseph Fux — I would have guessed the display simply got “Fuchs” wrong]
Baroque is racist.
Western New York, near the Finger Lakes, a little college town tucked in the hills.
Wonderful! I have in-laws further west on Lake Chautauqua, in Bemus. If you pass through, stop at the pottery shop & patronize the potter (ideally, by buying something.) Family connection upon which I’d elaborate, but doxxing…
You know how to contact us privately.
?
Stop in Jamestown at the Lucille Ball museum
We stopped there last year to see the Scary Lucy statue.
That statue is horrifyingly bad. So much so that you do indeed have to see it.
WTF
*runs away screaming*
The artist has some ‘splainin to do.
Nice, my old back yard. That is quite a dramatic change.
The dinnertime shooting on DC’s 14th Street about a mile north of the White House startled bystanders, including prominent political journalists who circulated footage of the gunshots and the flight of would-be assassins who wounded two people.
“A lot of us live there or live in the neighboring communities or know people who are on 14th Street or in the neighboring areas — and for people who are not, who are watching or hearing this, who are not from those neighborhoods, there’s a lot of restaurants there, a lot of foot traffic, this is a pretty popular part of the city many of us live in,” Psaki said at her daily press briefing.
Psaki said Biden’s recently announced push to encourage cities to use federal funds to hire more cops amid rising violent crime and initiatives to curb illegal gun trafficking are aimed at addressing such violence.
Protect the white people.
After a hardcore campaign of demoralizing and demonizing the police, the Dems want to hire more. Good luck with that.
My brother is having a hard time scheduling vacation because they’re having issues getting new recruits into the department. My understanding is that this is not a problem unique to his department. I’m sure tossing a few bucks to the union will totally fix that problem ?
Piker.
“We’re just implementing our strategy, which is a multi-pronged effort to work in partnership with local leaders including Mayor [Muriel] Bowser, who has been a great partner to us in this effort to address gun violence that’s rising in cities across the country including Washington. And the events of the last week are just examples of that,” Psaki said.
What does any of that mean?
Who gives a shit?
It means more gun control, would be my guess. Lord knows it doesn’t mean anything that might address the problem under discussion.
Yeah, that does sound familiar.
“Queues of Humilation”
Album name, correct?
What difference, at this point, does it make?
Biden DOJ drops civil rights probe of Gov. Cuomo over nursing homes and COVID-19
He meant well.
Meh, they were old anyway. Who cares.
WTF??
I hate this administration and everyone in it.
“According to the IPCC, there is not yet evidence of changes in the global frequency or intensity of hurricanes, droughts, floods or wildfires. ”
And yet, just the opposite is passed along every day as the gospel, by TMITE.
I had to ride along with a guy who was listening to NPR at work yesterday and they were stating exactly this as though it was a set in stone done deal. The smug whispered propaganda makes me want to wretch.
I know that feeling all too well.
TL;DR but when your side is blatantly lying to the American people, how the fuck do you expect them to react?
“how the fuck do you expect them to react?”
As they’re told to by their noble saviors?
How dare those anti-science heathens use our own data and methodologies against us!!1!
Skimmed it – if nothing else, read the ‘Implications and Conclusions’; just a whole pile of non sequiturs .
Anti-maskers! Tea Party! Evangelicals! Attempted coup! Climate change denialism! Tobacco! Fossil fuels!
It ends with:
i.e., we can’t just present facts, we have to shape the narrative, otherwise people might end up with conclusions that Top Men don’t approve of.
(the whole paper seems to be “these people have read the research and have effectively communicated their take, but they’re not of the body – they’re “not scientists” – therefore they’re wrong)
That’s the only conclusion I can draw from it. They really should be drummed out of the profession for this paper.
“the most perfect crystalline distillation of academic derp that I have ever seen.”
Is there a Nobel Prize in Derp?
An op ed in the NY Times?
Do not touch a filthy Jew. – i am sure it is just zionism he has a problem not jewish people in general
I’m 100% sure the idiot wouldn’t know the difference.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/Lek1UW19TRWr1xFH-Iprtw.AYkpGZGTumgUBJ2BEVqMYW
Front door flowers be popping.
Because i mentioned food trucks in my latest post, i have tried a recreation of your american smoked brisket. It comes with some of that gross mayo cabbage you americans like and with pickeled vegetables cucumbers onion and jalapeno. And a choice of 3 sauces jalapeno, cherry bbq or some US state name followed by mustard, maybe carolina not sure. It was decent, the meat very tender though a bit dry with a nice smoke flavor. But pricy for 64 lei. Here be a pic
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w_pB2beD0d13HDOZAuQGrUCQRJ_MXEmD/view?usp=drivesdk
The beer pictured is this
https://www.hophooligans.ro/collections/beer/products/every-day-is-pretzel-day
I am a big “BBQ is pork (or mutton)” guy, but a place in Charleston had a brisket that made me question my core tenets.
Was it cheaper than the 15 american this costs?
No. They were very good, but not cheap.
Brisket was $24 per lb
Well i think thay was half a pound plus sides
https://www.themeatwagonbbq.com/ourmenu
Good local joint.
$25 gets me brisket, ribs, pulled pork, and kielbasa plus sides. Turns into 3 meals or more.
“gross mayo cabbage”. Gross is correct, I won’t touch it.
The correct sauce is Carolina vinegar. Everything else is wrong.
ALL BBQ IS GOOD! I HATH DECREED.
That looks like a jice slab of meat. Cole slaw is teh awesome.
Lopez peaked with In Living Color.
Damn disobedient apes
While the need for mask wearing never fully dissipated during the pandemic, guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May that removed restrictions for vaccinated individuals was a welcome harbinger of a possible return to normalcy.
Now, with Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations increasing throughout the nation, safety precautions such as mask mandates are once again under consideration.
Former US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said on Friday that the CDC needs to clarify its messaging to get Americans back on board with stemming the rising tide of infections.
The CDC’s decision “was putting trust in the American people to really do the right thing, but unfortunately people chose to go out and pull their mask off, whether they were vaccinated or not,” Adams told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
People. How we loathe them.
The people suck. The People are good.
^^^
You can trust us about 100 times more than we can trust you.
The demoralization process has really worked, if people read shit like this and aren’t immediately consumed by an uncontrollable hippie-punching rage…
Fuck you. Just really really really really really FUCK YOU
Yes, blame the completely ineffective masks. Makes perfect sense.
Of course, nothing would be any different if everybody wore them. But I’m sure the new cases would still be “the people’s” fault somehow.
Congrats on the closing, Old Man!
“we will gather a group together to have an informal meeting with him.”
So, a cryptid convocation. “And by informal meeting, mean…”
“…a practical introduction to the concepts of conservation of momentum.”
“LA: LOUISIANA SENATORS VOTE NO ON CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY!”
https://gunsinthenews.com/la-louisiana-senators-vote-no-on-constitutional-carry/
Failed to override a governor’s veto due to four Republicans voting no on the override vote. “The Stupid Party” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I see 4 primary challenges in their future.
Probably gonna go the same way in PA. ?
Do you call them the 4 Mittens?
Some voted yes the first time and possibly the second, knowing it would get vetoed or the four and Dems would block the override. Just like with Obamacare repeals.
When I am President, I vow to do all the old pointless things which look good on paper but are completely ineffectual. I will do them harder than ever before, and they will work, this time!
Just bang the interns, man.
Failed to override a governor’s veto due to four Republicans voting no on the override vote. “The Stupid Party” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
On the advice of the police chiefs and other law enforcement professionals’ lobbying groups, no doubt.
The Delta variant, believed to be more transmittable and dangerous, accounted for an estimated 83% of coronavirus cases in the US according to data this week from the CDC, which is a substantial rise from negligible numbers in early May.
Every state has a seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases that matched or exceeded the week before, according to the latest figures Friday from Johns Hopkins University.
Conclusive proof of something-or-other.
If you squint at it really hard.
wait wut?
Another flat-out lie.
The question is whether they don’t believe it and are lying, or whether they’ve gone nuts enough that they actually believe it.
More transmissible, probably. More dangerous because of worse symptoms, bullfuckingshit.
Ever seen Idiocracy? It’s not a comedy, it’s a documentary, and we’re there. Don’t believe me? Read this article I clicked on while perusing the NY Post link. Pay attention to the quotes fro New Yorkers they opted to print:
“It landed on my roof up here, like directly above. I was like ‘Oh s–t, is somebody OK?’”
“Yo, that’s crazy that somebody like threw this note and then this literally happened like right after,” he said of the suicide. “I just saw it, and I was like ‘Oh, that’s weird.’
“Bro, she threw herself out with a dog! With a dog!”
Truly, we are well and terminally f*cked.
Cool link, bro!
I am but a humble caveman. Your technology frightens and confuses me
http://archive.today/Y17Ss
She just dropped in to show you her dog.
Besides Alex Rodriguez? She played Selena in a movie, and hilariously lip-synched the entire time.
I think she was in a shitty sci-fi movie whose name escapes me. Otherwise I’ve never witnessed her talents, if any.
From rhywun’s link:
Well, guess what: those CDC reports are based on erroneous math. And I’m not talking here about some kind of judgment call on which reasonable people can differ. The CDC calculation is wrong, period. The error may have been innocently made when the first report came out in February, although I seriously doubt it. But the error was pointed out almost immediately. There is no excuse for repeating the error. At this point, it is shameless scaremongering of the population.
As with the models; if they had been wrong by accident, they would have been corrected. But they weren’t.
This is in the “Are you fucking kidding me?” classification of statistics.
Is it a lie, or a damn lie?
“The National Security Agency (NSA) has found no evidence to support Tucker Carlson’s claims he was being spied on by the agency, according to a report.
Two sources told cybersecurity news outlet The Record that a review has confirmed the NSA did not target the Fox News host’s communications but that he was ‘unmasked’ after being mentioned in communications between third parties. ”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9820293/NSA-finds-NO-evidence-Tucker-Carlson-spied-agency-say-sources.html
Well they would say that, wouldn’t they?
We checked ourselves and it turns out we did nothing wrong. We do not spy on ordinary Americans. Anymore questions.
From the sidebar:
I… can’t even. ??
My decision to avoid all things Olympics is looking smarter every day.
In other words, these contractors that we hired to do our dirty work are functioning as desired.
The NSA is attempting to avoid responsibility by blaming it on third parties, but they are or should be responsible for everything that those third parties do with the NSA’s resources.
” a Thursday daylight fusillade that sent diners scrambling from the restaurant where President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris recently dined.”
A little late to the party, no? The right wing militia groups really need better intel.
“The Justice Department has decided not to open a civil rights investigation into government-run nursing homes in New York state after Governor Andrew Cuomo was slammed for ordering facilities to take back COVID-19 patients in the early days of pandemic.
The DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs sent a letter Friday to several Republican members of Congress announcing that the department’s civil rights division will not probe whether the state violated the civil rights of residents in its care homes.
Under the Trump administration last August, the DOJ requested data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes from four Democrat states – New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9820265/DOJ-says-no-probe-state-run-nursing-homes-New-York.html
Has Cuomo ever tried to explain his deranged executive order?
By making a diorama that has his GTO, his dog, his daughter, and at least 15 of the women he’s accused of harassing in it? Nope, not yet.
I could swear there was a whitewashing from the Department of Health, but I can’t find it in a web search.
He claimed to be following CDC orders.
“Bill de Blasio on Friday urged all private employers to make vaccinations against COVID-19 compulsory, calling on them to do the ‘maximum you feel you can do’ as the nation is roiled by early signs of a resurgent pandemic.
The mayor of New York City told WNYC radio that he wanted the private sector to do more.
‘If anyone is asking my advice, particularly large employers, move toward vaccine mandates now,’ de Blasio said.
‘I urge every employer to go to any form of mandate that you’re comfortable with.'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9820449/NYC-mayor-asks-private-employers-impose-vaccine-mandates-immediately.html
Nice business you have here.
In a labor shortage, piss off as many employees as you can. Smart.
🙄
I work in downtown Manhattan and obtained an exception to our return to office policy by making it clear that I had no intention of getting jabbed. Permission to remain fully remote granted without question. I have a feeling that there is some concern about the possible legal ramifications of enforcing a strict vaccine mandate, and my employer is not the only one with these concerns.
My employer has said they have no intention of mandates or even asking. I’m supposed to be back in the (NJ) office but I kind of stopped going (my boss and I have “an understanding”). I don’t think the real push back to the office is coming until the end of summer, and that is when things will get… interesting.
Interesting indeed. Employers are caught between a rock and a hard place. During a firm-wide zoom conference on RTO, several employees expressed concern about the possible presence of the unvaccinated in the workplace. Perfectly reasonable for the vaccinated to fear the unvaccinated, and this is what employers have to deal with. Glad I am not in management.
It’s not reasonable, though. If you’re vaccinated, your chances of being hospitalized or dying from the ‘Vid are vanishingly small. You are already protected from the filthy unvaxed.
Absolutely, I forgot the sarcasm tag. Unreasonable though it may be, it is a real concern for employers. Turns out that fearmongering has some unpleasant consequences, who knew?
*bangs sarcasmometer on table*
Damn thing’s out of warranty.
We had a “town hall” meeting last week and it was all people bitching about a supposed recent “exodus”. You ain’t seen nothing yet, folks.
Yeah, management is clearly getting flustered over this stuff.
I am management. We’ve been back to work since last May (2020).
It’s not hard. Fuck their fears, we’re a nation in need of Zardoz.
Doom
A surge of monsoonal moisture is bringing rounds of heavy rain and strong thunderstorms to areas of the Southwest that are currently suffering from extreme to exceptional drought conditions.
Nearly 10 million people are under flash flood watches across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
While expansive rain and thunderstorms will affect much of the Southwest this weekend, the highest rainfall totals are expected across the state of Arizona where some locations could tally upwards of 6 inches. This amount of rain in such a short period of time have prompted significant flash flooding concerns.
——-
In the short term, this torrential rainfall will lead to dangerous flash flooding. But in the long run these types of rain events bring very beneficial rain that could break the ongoing drought across the region.
Nearly the entire state of Arizona — 99% — is under some level of drought, with more 80% of the state in either extreme or exceptional drought.
The extent of the drought improved across the Southwest over the last week due to monsoon rains that impacted the region last week. The highest level of drought fell from 58% to 36% and marked improvements are expected again next week, with this current burst of monsoon moisture.
The heaviest rain is concentrated in the worst drought regions in Arizona along the border of New Mexico up the eastern side to the Utah border.
——-
“It’s going to make a difference, and we really count of rain this time of year to help us out with our drought conditions because for the entire year, half of our rainfall occurs during the monsoon season.”
These seasonal weather patterns are unprecedented. They baffle SCIENCE!
Right, when have there ever been droughts in deserts? Unprecedented!
So last Wednesday I watched as a junior employee interrupted a meeting to correct the language of a very senior employee. Apparently, the term had some historical connotations that are considered offensive. In a sane world, that would be the kiss of death for the junior but she’s protected by DEI and HR and this will even probably be marked down for a commendation.
I’ve been reading about this and getting general emails and such, but this is the first time seeing it actually happen in person. I got an eerie feeling this is what the early introduction of the Zampolit was like.
I insist on calling illegal immigrants “illegals” at work. I see people squirm, but nobody has tried to “correct” me. Yet.
I’ll save you a seat at the re-education camp.
*counts blessings that I don’t work with anyone like that*
Watch your ass and be sure to covertly document every interaction with that one.
So last Wednesday I watched as a junior employee interrupted a meeting to correct the language of a very senior employee.
Fucking Maoists. Did she try to put a dunce cap on him?
Could somebody please explain this story to me?
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s surprise decision to endorse a $25 billion increase to the Pentagon’s budget this week was an utter blowout — and the clearest sign yet that Democrats are more than willing to back sizable increases to President Joe Biden’s military spending plan.
The committee adopted a proposal to boost the budget in a whopping 25 to 1 vote Wednesday during a closed door markup of its version of annual defense policy legislation, according to four Senate aides with knowledge of the deliberations.
The vote, which boosted the recommended Pentagon budget from $715 billion to over $740 billion, aligned Republican defense hawks with Democrats from across the political spectrum in a bipartisan rebuke of the White House’s proposal. The budget increase was offered by the panel’s top Republican, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.
This is some truly high grade journalisming. I can make neither head nor tail of it.
Bipartisan agreement that the forever wars will continue.
The lefty thinks that the lefties who stole all of that power would reduce the military budget, because the lefties from the 60s-70s used to work that way. They/them are surprised that the new lefty government is all good with giving Biden more capacity to kill and do violence to the same, mostly brown, people that all the other governments usually kill with impunity. They/them probably believes that the billions they are adding should be used to create cheap non binary homes for people who have had their pee-pees whacked.
At least that’s how I imagine it working out in they/them’s muddled mind.
““You know, it’s more complicated than that … If you look at the research that was done, it was research that was highly recommended by peer review, our United States peer reviews. It got a very high score in the peer review system,” Fauci said. “And the purpose of the research was very, very clear. It was to try to determine what was out there in the bat population that might be ultimately risky for us. It was done in the context of trying to find out what the precise environmental bat source was of SARS-CoV-2 so that we could prevent SARS-CoV-2.”
Fauci added: “So, it was research that was done by qualified people. Right now, when there’s all of this thing about China, that’s a different situation now back then when you’re dealing with qualified, highly respected Chinese scientists. So it isn’t what was made out to be about dealing with really, really bad people. Because those scientists were very well-respected in the scientific community internationally.” ”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fauci-praises-wuhan-scientists-defends-funding-bat-coronavirus-research
Now he’s hedging his position. Good.
Modified limited hang out.
Did he mention the PLA lab that was part of Wuhan’s operation?
Nor does he mention the virologists who have been screaming for years that this research was a huge risk and an unwise endeavor.
amended for accuracy
“determine what was out there in the bat population that might be ultimately risky for us.”
Well, you fucking unleashed it, dipshit.
Without reading the entirety of the paper, the abstract suggests that their thesis is that people do not necessarily draw the incorrect conclusions from data, but the undesirable ones from their point of view. Anybody else care to comment?
I skimmed it but I can’t disagree with your take – they’re triggered that someone other than Top Men have shared visualizations & those disagree with the narrative.
You should read the conclusions – a whole pile of unrelated derp – quoting myself from above:
Anti-maskers! Tea Party! Evangelicals! Attempted coup! Climate change denialism! Tobacco! Fossil fuels!
(puts names of MIT students in ‘do not hire’ file)
So the anti-mask data visualizers are: prolific, skilled, and orthodox. The last one would seem to be an admission of the correctness and honesty of the anti-mask argument. And the rest of the paragraph is rationalizing their opposition to it.
I got nothing other than this is the crap that completely infests the soft sciences, and is now polluting the hard sciences. It doesn’t bode well.
That’s my take, and this isn’t the first time they’ve basically admitted that the anti’s have a point. The question is always how can we counter the truths that they telling? Nobody seems concerned with this line of thought enough to recognize that it means they are lying.
Damn, most of the authors are faculty.
Here I was thinking it was some sloppy-thinking undergraduates who wrote that, but nope. JFC.
I would expect that crap from the Wellesley participant, but MIT?
I gave a mental Zoidberg groan when I saw MIT splashed all over the paper.
So I went looking for commentary on the paper in other venues. The hot-takes are fairly remarkable, but this one in particular stuck out.
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/how-antimaskers-weaponize-techniques-of-scientific-analysis-to-attack-mask-mandates/
This may be one of the clearest examples of begging the question and appeal to authority I’ve seen recently.
Emphasis added.
And that led me to this particular piece of tripe.
https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/1392459811523112966
Because the man who invented the mRNA vaccine technology is a deeply misinformed person and not a medical professional at all.
Medical Professionals
I bet you can hear the capitalization when that asshole speaks.
I’ve observed people being mendacious assholes and throwing up walls of shit text, as though quantity overcomes online going back to the days of Usenet (lots of other people were there too).
* as though quantity overcomes quality,
Quick question. If I’m getting ready to submit a few related pieces (need to dig up pics, etc) – do I need to put them in via the submissions link first or can I directly submit if I’ve submitted before (in 2017)?
If you are a Contributor use the dashboard, otherwise Submission? Email?
Yes – as Yusef said just create a “post”. That way you can add the pictures where you want.
“Biden’s budget is enormous everywhere,” said one defense lobbyist who asked not to be named. “So are you going to fight over $25 billion for defense? It’s nothing. It’s a rounding error at this point.”
Crumbs.
Defying public health
officials, coronavirus skeptics on US social media spent much of
2020 creating data visualizations showing that the government’s
pandemic response was excessive and that the crisis was over. This
paper investigates how pandemic visualizations circulated on social
media, and shows that people who mistrust the scientific establishment often deploy the same rhetorics of data-driven decision making used by experts, but to advocate for radical policy changes.
Shortness of breath- check
Ringing in ears- check
Throbbing headache- check
Tunnel vision- check
Am I the only one having sudden problems with monocle? Sometimes hitting reply causes an automatic refresh, and the unread comments just erase on their own. I tried the reinstall, but it has no effect.
It is not working well at all. I just updated windows and it didn’t help. I see comments appear and the counter doesn’t change. I see comment go from blue to normal and I didn’t hit any buttons. Very strange.
It’s just you.
Well, I’m all out of tricks. It’s a mess. Comments appear without getting counted. I see them in the dashboard, but the counter on the side bar doesn’t change. I have to scroll the entire thread to find anything. Frustrating.
Monocle uses the native functionality on the site to find new comments. I’ve encountered something like this in the past where the site snuck through comments without flagging them as new. Usually it goes away by wiping out your session with glibertarians and re-logging in.
Seems to have worked. I had to close all of the Glibs tabs and then open a new one. Thanks.
In our qualitative analysis, we use an ethnographic
approach to illustrate how COVID counter-visualizations actually
reflect a deeper epistemological rift about the role of data in public
life
*outright, prolonged laughter*
“He just shot me with my own gun. That’s not fair.”
So the anti-mask data visualizers are: prolific, skilled, and orthodox. The last one would seem to be an admission of the correctness and honesty of the anti-mask argument. And the rest of the paragraph is rationalizing their opposition to it.
Look- so-called critical thinking is all well and good, in theory, BUT…. not if it is used to refute our narrative.
Apparently OMWC and SP got wind of the fact that I might be moving to Arizona so they got out before they had to meet me.
Also in the running are the greater Orlando FL area and southeastern Maryland.
What to do, What to do…
I love Florida, but not Orlando, and I could live in AZ, but not south of the halfway mark.
How did yesterday’s (IIRC) interview go?
Very well, thank you!
I had two interviews (different companies) snd they both went well.
The Arizona company is having an hour long follow up video interview on Monday.
Want the job I’m leaving?
Tucson, or Phoenix?
Coming soon to the USA!
China Bans For-Profit School Tutoring in Sweeping Overhaul
This is really interesting given hugely competitive nature of educated and affluent Chinese and the desire for their children to succeed. Particularly as it bans remote and offshore teaching. English education is really important and it is unclear from this article how that will be treated.
“Kumon, man!”
I see what you did there. That said, Kumon came from Japan so from any other Asian country this is a perfectly normal response…
There used to be a franchise location next to the grocery store I shop at. Every week, I’d see “come on” and hear the exasperation of a remedial tutor. Sorry, Kumon-san. One day I’ll visit your museum.
wut
Keep ’em stupid and fruitful?
I suspect there’s a lot of “they will learn only what we tell them to” going on as well.
That is definitely a theme through this. It also makes me wonder about the English language focus as the CCP has much less control about “wrongthink” available in English.
Silicone Saturday is an invasive species.
https://archive.li/O1FZW
*spits coffee*
https://babylonbee.com/news/joe-biden-buys-all-of-hunters-artwork-in-hopes-of-meeting-the-president
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14399451
Maybe their population decline can keep up with the targets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrol_Forces_Southwest_Asia
I can think of no reason for the USCG to have overseas commands and permanent posts. If they’re taking part in military operations, they should be transferred to the Navy. Instead, bureaucratic empire building.
Bureaucratic empire building is exactly what it is.
If you are refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, maybe it’s because you are getting your medical advice from news pundits, fearmongers, conspiracy theorists, and other deeply misinformed people, rather than from Medical Professionals.
It’s conspiracist fearmongers, all the way down.
a
So, the government?
Or MSM?
Redundant.
Fair.
Why is “medical professionals” capitalized?
Subgroup of Top. Men.
Was that wrong?
South Korean TV network apologises over ‘inappropriate’ opening ceremony images
Dare I peek at the African countries?….
*spit-take*
Was that wrong? Part 2
TV reporter busted faking muddy rescue effort in flood-ravaged town
Thank you reddit
That’s awesome!
With the leftist “elites” and those who consider themselves elite, everything comes down to, “Ew, those other people are icky. Make them stop being icky or get rid of them.”
Pepper plants are flowering. Yay.
Couple lil baby peppers already growing. ?
The ghosts are leading the pack.
We harvested our first bell pepper a couple of days ago and used it in a batch of maque choux. Yesterday we got our first tomato! Haven’t determined its ultimate fate – maybe in a small salad with a little of our patio box leaf lettuce and some other yummies from the farmers’ market – or maybe just devoured all by its ownsome!
Nothing outside politics
The Republican Party is being torn apart by the debate over whether to more aggressively promote Covid-19 vaccines, pitting those alarmed by the virus’ resurgence against a faction that has spent weeks sowing fear about the immunization push.
The deepening divide became apparent this week on Capitol Hill and across the party, with a contingent of prominent conservatives vocally advocating for the shots — even as others emphasized the need for the GOP to stick to principles of “individual liberty” and stay out of Americans’ medical decisions.
While top Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey pleaded with people to get vaccinated, others downplayed the threat of a Covid-19 resurgence — wary of angering a GOP base that views the sputtering vaccination effort as a political blow to President Joe Biden.
A news conference with Republican doctors in Congress, ostensibly to discuss the Delta variant, instead turned into a forum for the lawmakers to repeat unverified claims that the virus escaped from a lab in China, and to bash Democrats for not thoroughly investigating Covid’s origins.
I cannot understand people view every single thing through the lens of TEAM party politics.
Subtlety? Context? Fuck that.
WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?
a GOP base that views the sputtering vaccination effort as a political blow to President Joe Biden.
You got them pegged now, journodrone!
Powerline, fun stuff this week,
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/the-week-in-pictures-blowout-edition.php
https://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/07/908.jpeg?w=518&ssl=1
?
They better keep their fucking hands off of Bluey. If they fuck up the one kids show that I enjoy watching with my kids, I’m gonna hunt these people down and kick them each in their non-binary groin
Good morning, friends!
Congrats, Old Man. We are one week out from departure and I can’t wait. Limbo sucks.
Nice song for a slow moving Saturday morning!
New Beretta-Imported MR73 at the Range
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0w2x3COYlk
You Americans cant even make revolvers good you nee to import them from the french
Beretta is an Italian company.
Being unfamiliar I Googled. It appears it is made in French Beretta factory.
So like perhaps like Bugatti, but without the German supervision?
Or perhaps licensed by Beretta?
Manurhin is french beretta bought them
Yes, an Italian company is importing them, not an American one.
You can buy a drawer full of S&W or Ruger for one of those.
Never fired and only dropped once.
Still wish I could find the old eBay auction of the French battle flag. (You can guess what color it was.) The description included a “history” of French military accomplishments. Funniest online auction listing ever. (Or at least right up there with the guy trying to sell his ex’s possibly-fake Beanie Babies who was getting harassed by the Beanie Baby Purist – a true Karen before there were Karens.)
Neat-o. $3K, though, puts it safely out of my consideration.
No we make them just fine. Its the French have to stoop to making handmade, Old World quality products for choice US customers in order to pay for their social programs,
Link, again, maybe
Daily vaccination rates have dropped steadily, with the U.S. averaging fewer than a half-million shots a day since July Fourth. And after Republicans seized on President Joe Biden’s vow to go “door to door” to encourage vaccinations to falsely suggest the government would track those who refuse to get the shot, administration officials say they’re struggling to bridge an ever-widening partisan divide.
“This has profound consequences,” a senior administration official said of the hostility within parts of the GOP. “You’re putting people in harm’s way, and this is damn serious. This is as serious as we’ve been at.”
And, again no attempt is made to consider who has and has not received the vaccine, and what their relative degree of risk might be. It is 100% contagious and 100% lethal.
If you don’t get vaccinated, you and everyone you know will die.
falsely suggest the government would track those who refuse to get the shot
We’ll see.
I seem to recall some statement that they were only going to knock on the doors of the unvaxxed. Which would mean, yes, they are tracking who’s been vaxxed.
And, of course, there are three manufacturers who do, in fact, know exactly who got the shot, when, who from, and even what batch of vaccine. While I suppose its possible they haven’t shared that info with the CDC/FDA, I think its unlikely. And if they haven’t yet, they certainly will if requested.
J Lo’s best work was the movie U Turn. Fun and pulpy and she was damn hot in it. Even though I hate Sean Penn as a person he is a pretty good actor, and Billy Bob has some great scenes.
Sean Penn’s brother Michael is a musician who wrote a song I rather enjoy but rarely hear played.
“No Myth”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IxkJHX7ukKE
Great song! I actually had that album.
He’s married to the amazing Aimee Mann
I love her.
Wow! I don’t know that. Good for them.
She’s awesome.
Yep, good song.
Not mentioned: actual analysis of observational data
Discussions are ongoing over whether to revisit mask guidelines, a decision officials say will be left to the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but that nonetheless comes loaded with political baggage after the celebratory lifting of mask mandates this spring. White House aides said they did not believe any new recommendations were imminent but acknowledged they have previously received little warning when the CDC updates its guidelines. According to sources familiar with internal discussions, the health agency is reconsidering its stance on mask orders.
An uneducated ignoramus such as I might ask if they are fastidiously examining data carefully acquired during the past year of hysterical knee-jerkery.
Because that’s what I might do.
That might involve an admission that certain oppressive measures did not work which may in turn lead to a crisis of confidence in our betters. Can’t have that.
Joe Biden no longer evokes my pity; only outrage.
https://nypost.com/2021/07/23/vp-joe-biden-skirted-no-see-mail-law-with-private-accounts-devine/
What is needed, and the media won’t cooperate with it, is to outrage all those who voted for Biden because they didn’t like Trump’s personality even if they agreed with many of Trump’s policies. Didn’t want a narcistic boob in the White House so they got a corrupt empty suit instead. Who can blame libertarians from hating the choices both major parties give us?
Private email “pci.gov”? Smells like another case of the NY Post fucking up details.
They mentioned later in the article that the DNS committee finds that particular domain “problematic”. Perhaps it’s a private server with a dot-gov domain somehow?
I have doubts about playing today, I think my little house is going to float away.
Heavy rain all morning, now it’s heavier, and loud, no thunder yet.
Well, you know, I used to live in the Midwest. And it seemed like I alternated between thinking my house would float away or blow away. Or maybe get eaten by mosquitos or freeze to death.