About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

452 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “Michigan legislature strips the tyrant of her emergency powers.”

    A little too late though.

    • Count Potato

      I still think they should have just tried throwing a bucket of water at her.

      • Bobarian LMD

        See, that would be a mistake. Hollywood downplayed the danger of doing that.

        Flash burns from the steam and chemical vapors result in a 300 m danger zone.

        Oxygen and a heavy duty hazmat suit are required.

    • Tonio

      For what she’s done, yes. But it also prevents anyone from using those in the future. Now that Michigan has done that, hopefully other states will follow suit. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        This is a tried and true method for “governing during crisis” used heavily during the progressive era. Let the executive and/or legislature go hog wild until the “crisis is averted” and then slap it down by statute or judicial opinion some time later. Of course, the slap down is never complete, leaving vestiges of the overreach baked into the system.

    • AlexinCT

      At this point I feel that they are complicit and deserve her fate.

  2. Nephilium

    Typo? Or did I misunderstand the story:

    Larry Elder wins court case and will not be on CA’s recall ballot.

    The story says he will be on the ballot.

    • Nephilium

      Well… the nested blockquote was definitely a typo.

      /wanders off to get caffeine

    • Banjos

      yes, fixed

    • AlexinCT

      Is it a win that it took a judge (and lucky for Larry he got a judge that still felt obliged to stop the cesspool partisan politics of Cali-shithole) to put him on the ballot because of the usual bullshit?

    • blackjack

      He’s the one they are scared of. That means he’s getting my vote.

      • rhywun

        He’s the one they are scared of.

        Yup. Hence the shenanigans. Good for him to fight back.

  3. Count Potato

    “Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb”

    I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any of those people.

    • PieInTheSky

      they never heard of you either

      • AlexinCT

        Everyone has seen the damned potato linx of big assery!

      • Count Potato

        This site has a lot of lurkers.

      • PieInTheSky

        but they are all sockpupets

      • Bobarian LMD

        You’re Tulpa!

    • banginglc1

      I’ve always wanted to like Savannah Guthrie. Something about her draws me in. Then she opens her mouth and ruins it.

      • Bobarian LMD
      • blighted_non_millenial

        Fuck her for the way she treated the high school kid that was harassed by black Isrealites and grifting native Americans.

  4. waffles

    Happy Thursday Morning Day!

    A mid-afternoon thunderstorm cleared out the smoke and today is pleasant, too pleasant. I remain cautiously optimistic. It’s silly how much my mood is affected by the weather but I think things are looking up!

    • Nephilium

      I’m getting annoyed at the weather predictions for this weekend. They keep switching between clear skies and thunderstorms. Sometimes in the course of a couple of hours the prediction changes. Makes it a bit tough to plan for the weekend.

    • Gender Traitor

      Happy Friday Eve, waffles!

    • AlexinCT

      Lots of people don’t realize how much weather impacts their mood. In some people lack of sunshine is a sever depressant. Me, I could care less what weather is for some reason, but I seriously get pissed when I deal with stupid people….

      • banginglc1

        And moon cycles. We’re so much more intertwined with the moon than we could ever realize in the era of electricity.

      • Ted S.

        Just because you’re a werewolf doesn’t mean the rest of us are.

      • pistoffnick

        What are we?

        Werewolves, not Swearwolves

      • AlexinCT

        I have to admit that I have made poor dating decisions (don’t stick it in crazy) around the time of a full moon….

      • Bobarian LMD

        The moon cycles used to kick my ass, but then my Wife went thru menopause.

      • rhywun

        Me, it’s humidity. I don’t care about sun or not but the more humid it gets, the more pissy I get.

        Today is the most delightful it’s been in weeks.

      • Timeloose

        Here here!!

      • kinnath

        Fog and 99% humidity this morning.

      • Rebel Scum

        In some people lack of sunshine is a sever depressant.

        I prefer overcast or at least intermittent cloudiness.

  5. Festus

    Hate bird! The Bird That Hates! Mornin Banjos!

    • Bobarian LMD

      Yesterday morning, I had 15 of them cocksuckers on my front lawn and shitting all over my driveway.
      I had to lay on the horn to get them to move out of the way to get to work.

  6. PieInTheSky

    GAO says states wasted 12.9 billion in the unemployment programs. – soon we’ll be talking about real money

    • Rat on a train

      I am sure the grifters who received the money don’t consider it wasted.

      • AlexinCT

        Besides, the free money people can print more any time!

    • PieInTheSky

      I hope some Romanian scammers got a piece. We can’t allow other nations to outscam us.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The NIgerians scoff at your pathetic shenanigans.

    • Ted S.

      I’m surprised the estimate was that low,

  7. PieInTheSky

    You’re more likely to get murdered in Chicago than be hospitalized for COVID. – Taleb would scream at you for this

    • Rat on a train

      Misinformation!

    • Festus

      She’d scream at you for any old thing.

      • Surly Knott

        But especially shrilly at any new thing.

  8. Count Potato

    “Not only that, but as I noted elsewhere here at PJ Media on Wednesday, you’re more likely to get murdered in Chicago (18 murders per 100,000 people) than a senior citizen is to be hospitalized for the Wuhan Flu (2.9 per 100,000), Delta variant or no Delta variant.”

    18 murders per 100,000?! Oh, right, Chicago.

    • Festus

      That’s an insane number. A few years ago we were ranked the most dangerous City in Canada and we were nowhere close to that.

      • Count Potato

        “the most dangerous City in Canada” is the tallest midget.

    • PBRstreetgang

      And Chicago isn’t even the worst, I think Philly is something like 21-22 per 100K.

      • WTF

        Baltimore laughs. The murder rate in Baltimore is 58.27 per 100,000.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I was gonna toss in a couple murderopolises like Buffalo and Rochester which are way worse than Chicago but I think Baltimore has them beat.

        Probably on St. Louis comes close. Maybe New Orleans.

      • rhywun

        on “only”

      • Bobarian LMD

        Bunch of pikers.

        “St. Louis had 87 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2020” per the Post Dispatch.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Omar comin’.

    • R C Dean

      The way it’s pit, it’s a weird apples to oranges comparison.

      Why only senior citizens on one side of the comparison? Are they compared over the same time period?

      Meh.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Which party is incapable of rational, analytical thought?

    But the politics of vaccination have changed, and Democratic strategists see a common thread running through conspiracy theories embraced by the GOP that include misinformation about the vaccines and Trump’s lie that the last election was rigged. Democratic voters, the strategists say, are extremely concerned about Republican leaders’ selling lies that incite voters to take dangerous action — or, in the case of the vaccines — no action.

    “It’s definitely a turnout issue on our side,” said Julia Kennedy, a Democratic strategist who worked on President Joe Biden’s campaign. “It is definitely still at the top of people’s minds, because they are connecting Republican candidates with the Capitol insurrection, conspiracy theories over the vaccine and the big lie.”

    For Republicans, the calculus is more complex, and the party’s putative leader, Trump, has tried to have it both ways. He is consistent in his message that he is responsible for the development of the vaccines and that they have his seal of approval for Americans who want to get inoculated. But he has also provided rhetorical comfort for people who opt against vaccination, an ambiguity that began with his decision to receive his vaccination privately and not to use the occasion to persuade others.

    ——-

    But Kennedy said Democrats will still be fired up, because skepticism about vaccines is part of what her party’s voters see as a pattern of harmful disinformation and misinformation coming from GOP officials and their allies in conservative media.

    “Our people are tying it to all of these other things,” Kennedy said. “As happy as people are that we got Trump out of office, the threat is so real and still in people’s face.”

    You’re either with us, or you’re a Nazi. Everything you do is evil. There is nothing we won’t do to purge you from our world.

    • PieInTheSky

      You should punch yourself just to be sure a nazi does not go unpunched

    • waffles

      The woke Democrats have such a shitty religion, there’s no chance for reform or redemption. Christianity works because you can be saved.

      • Festus

        Only if you truly believe.

      • waffles

        Oh I believe in a deathbed redemption, I really do.

      • Festus

        I don’t. Where does that leave me? Sincere question.

      • AlexinCT

        You need to figure that out on your own sir… Nobody can give you that answer.

      • blackjack

        It doesn’t matter what we think, except as far as how it makes us feel. Whatever the truth is, that’s what’s going to happen.

    • Plisade

      “ambiguity”

      You misspelled freedom.

    • Rebel Scum

      Democratic voters, the strategists say, are extremely concerned about Republican leaders’ selling lies that incite voters to take dangerous action

      Well ain’t that the pot calling the kettle “negro”. . .

      You’re either with us, or you’re a Nazi.

      Nothing says ‘unity’ like dehumanizing the political opposition.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Which party is incapable of rational, analytical thought?

      Every single fucking one of them.

  10. PieInTheSky

    Does it piss anyone else off that:

    -September
    -October
    -November
    -December

    refer etymologically to “Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten”, while they are the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth months respectively?

    In conclusion, Fuck the Romans.

    https://twitter.com/Ace_Archist/status/1417893760348819458

    • waffles

      Ave true to Caesar

    • Rat on a train

      We can return to Halig-monath, Winterfylleth, Blot-monath and Ærra Geola.

    • Pine_Tree

      I’ve always been particularly fond of that idiosyncracy and the reasons, and the underlying “don’t really care if it doesn’t make sense now” implication.

    • kinnath

      When March was the first month, those months would have been 7, 8, 9, and 10.

  11. Count Potato

    “The yellowing dress included Garland’s name handwritten on the interior and a hidden pocket where the actress supposedly stored her handkerchief, according to Smithsonian magazine.”

    It’s a different color than the one in the movie.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Does it have stains only visible under UV?

      Asking for my buddy BC.

    • Tonio

      “The Wizard of Oz” was one of the first color films and early Technicolor did not do a good job of reproducing colors as the human eye saw them. Part of the licensing agreement for buying the film stock was that there would be a Technicolor consultant on set to advise if there was anything which would reproduce in an odd color.

      • Festus

        Tonio from the top rope with an “Actchually”!

      • Ted S.

        Too bad it’s not quite right.

        Feature-length Technicolor films had been made for four years by this point.

        And the “consultant” was Natalie Kalmus, the wife of the inventor.

      • Festus

        OOOOooooh!

      • Ted S.

        Sorry I didn’t go into more detail since I was on my 15-minute break, but Natalie Kalmus was most likely on a make-work job.

        And there was something called “two-strip Technicolor that goes back to the early 1920s.

      • Count Potato

        But yellow looking white? Plus there are plenty of regular still photographs.

      • Banjos

        White fabrics yellow over time.

      • Festus

        Yep. Just ask my BVD’s.

      • AlexinCT

        Yellow in the front, brown in the rear, FTW!

      • Bobarian LMD

        That’s why you need to rotate… and turn ’em inside out.

      • Count Potato

        Oh, OK. I read “yellowing” as yellow.

      • Tonio

        And because I’m a nerd I did some research. Didn’t know that the movie was shot using a three-strip process yielding an effective film speed of ASA 5 (now ISO 5).

      • blackjack

        My Les Paul is TV yellow.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Those crazy “conservative” anti-vaxxers, trying to pretend there is some sort of sliding scale of risk which ought to be taken into account when considering whether or not to get the poke.

    Crazy SCIENCE! deniers.

  13. AlexinCT

    McConnell claims Republicans will not vote for raising the debt ceiling.

    I call bullshit…

    • banginglc1

      Eh . . . they might all vote against raising it. But only because democrats can pass it without their help. We all know they don’t actually give a shit.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      At least not until his favorite Navy base in Kentucky gets funded.

  14. Jerms

    The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, enacted March 11, 2021, subsequently provided DOL with $2 billion to detect and prevent fraud, promote equitable access, and ensure the timely payment of UI benefits,” the report says. “As of May 20, 2021, DOL officials said that DOL was working to develop detailed plans for this $2 billion in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, and noted that developing spending plans across 53 states and territories involves complex considerations.”

    So they spent 2 billion to find out they wasted 12.9 billion.
    Now we wasted 14.9 billion.

    • Sean

      Now we wasted 14.9 billion.

      ??

      • Bobarian LMD

        Fuck yeah!

    • Nephilium

      We need to spend another 20 billion to try to recover that 15 billion!

  15. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    That’s healthy number of lynx. I definitely got my RDA of derp!

    But this takes the top prize:

    But 13 years later, the pair of red heels that transported Dorothy and Toto back home were returned by the FBI in 2018.

    It’s hard to imagine a more useless law enforcement agency.

    It’s also hard to imagine a more fun band than the Ramones. Nice choice!

    Husker Du pays homage.

    Have a great day, friends!

  16. Rebel Scum

    Speaking to Punchbowl News in an interview published Wednesday morning, McConnell (R-Ky.) warned he did not expect members of his party to vote for any bill that includes a hike to the debt ceiling, the limit on how much the federal government can borrow.

    Because they have such a well documented history of sticking to the debt “ceiling”.

    And didn’t this cunte recently say “get the vax or else”?

    • Festus

      Yes, yes he did.

  17. PieInTheSky

    Kmele Foster – With the French – “YOUR WELCOME” with Michael Malice

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzIVGs_t8uE

    I remember lurking at reason when that show with Kmele on it was discussed. how time flies

    • Tundra

      Good discussion. Kmele is a smart dude.

  18. CPRM

    While he was cleaning, Ripa spotted a trash bag on top of a set of mailboxes and was curious as to what was inside.

    How come I never find priceless artifacts when I randomly look in old garbage bags?

    • Nephilium

      Because you’ve never thrown out a priceless artifact? I’ve told you that you need to look in OTHER people’s garbage if you want to find things like that.

      • Festus

        As mentioned last week some low-life stole a bag full of dog turds and cat litter from the back of my truck. Golden nuggets they were!

  19. The Late P Brooks

    The Department of Labor was given billions to detect and prevent fraud, but that wasn’t able to stop the rampant waste and abuse uncovered by the GAO.

    “The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, enacted March 11, 2021, subsequently provided DOL with $2 billion to detect and prevent fraud, promote equitable access, and ensure the timely payment of UI benefits,” the report says. “As of May 20, 2021, DOL officials said that DOL was working to develop detailed plans for this $2 billion in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, and noted that developing spending plans across 53 states and territories involves complex considerations.

    No shit, Shirley?

    If it’s all just helicopter money, does it really matter where it lands?

    • Plisade

      ‘The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess. The economic problem of society is thus not merely a problem of how to allocate “given” resources—if “given” is taken to mean given to a single mind which deliberately solves the problem set by these “data.” It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality.’

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Not me. You couldn’t get me to Chicago at gunpoint.

    • AlexinCT

      I feel the same way about most of the big cities in this country (and frankly anywhere else cause cities turn me the fuck off because of the fucking asshats living in them).

    • Festus

      Ally Sheedy was cute and a virtual doppelganger of my first wife. Smitten, I was. Foolish mortal.

  21. hayeksplosives

    I read a SHOCK! article yesterday claiming that “study shows” that the Johnson & Johnson vaxx is only half as effective against the DEADLY DELTA VARIANT than the mRNA vaccines, so it recommends getting one of the other vaccines as a “booster”.

    I was skeptical and read on until I found the stats.

    The “study” was based on 27 vaccinated people who had gotten Delta anyway.

    Of those 27, 17 had gotten the J&J vaxx and 10 had gotten one of the others.

    They were making a public health policy recommendation based on a sample size of 27.

    SCIENCE!!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And they accuse their detractors of being anti-science

    • Tundra

      Science is dead.

    • waffles

      That’s obnoxious. Previous public inoculation pushes had the good sense to be brief.

    • AlexinCT

      I think we really will not have enough data, real science, and decent studies not marred by politics, and will not get any for at least 10 years, so take any claims from “experts” with a grain of salt.

    • Sean

      Collect them all and get a free Subway sandwich!

      • Festus

        But I wanted X-Ray Specs!

    • Nephilium

      The news feeds are really pushing this Delta variant is death take hard, aren’t they? Do they really think that those of us who haven’t been afraid of the ‘vid for a year will suddenly break down in fear?

      • Breet Pharara

        Its not aimed at those who won’t get the vaccine voluntarily. Its about generating the public will to start making leper colonies, and using that to force compliance. Social pressure since they don’t have the political power at the moment.

    • Rat on a train

      When SCIENCE reveals truths to the priests, we must accept their proclamations.

    • mindyourbusiness

      Not what you’d call a huge statistical universe, is it?

    • AlexinCT

      Fun times…

  22. UnCivilServant

    Morning Banjos.

    I’m going through the joys of configuring a new work desktop. I’d forgotten that animated gifs were a thing until the front page started flapping a hate bird at me.

    One more setting to change.

    • UnCivilServant

      Aaaand now they’re pushing software/updates during the workday.

      *sigh*

      I guess I won’t get any work done today.

      • AlexinCT

        Why do you worry? You getting paid brah!

      • UnCivilServant

        I just spent sixteen days feeling unproductive. I hoped to get something done and placate that part of me for a bit.

      • PieInTheSky

        unproductive is good when working for the government

      • PieInTheSky

        Maybe if you ignore the work it goes away

      • Sean

        That rarely pays off. I’ve tried.

      • waffles

        But sometimes it does pay off. Better not risk missing out on the chance that it does. That’s why I recommend laziness.

  23. PieInTheSky

    Jacobin
    @jacobin
    Billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are parasites, worse than socially useless. But they’ve got to justify their existence somehow, so, like five-year-olds, they’re now pretending to be astronauts.

    https://twitter.com/jacobin/status/1417497682780856329

    • AlexinCT

      According to marxists, rich people are evil, and all laborers are heroes. That’s why it doesn’t matter if you are a airline pilot, an engineer, a doctor, plumber, car mechanic, or turd polisher, as long as you are not someone that actually makes/has money! Marxists believe getting power from being wealthy is evil, and that only the powerful should have the trappings of wealth, but the y want you to believe the rich are the evil ones.

    • WTF

      I didn’t even know there was such a thing as social usefulness.

    • Festus

      Good on them for at least moving onward and upward. If I had that kind of “fuck you” money I’d probably chain a clone of a druggie in a golden bikini to my throne.

    • Pine_Tree

      Another good example on how “social” as an adjective is basically a Boolean “NOT”. Social Justice is literally the opposite of justice. The Social Gospel is literally the opposite of the gospel.

    • AlexinCT

      At least the CCP devils didn’t tell the WHO they will nuke them for investigating like they did the Aussies…

  24. Tundra

    This is embarrassing.

    ANIMATRONIC SHORT CIRCUIT (2)

    If this were your CEO, would you be getting the resume spiffied up?

    • waffles

      I’d prefer if he was actually just an animatronic.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Jesu Christo

    • leon

      I’d apply for his job

  25. The Late P Brooks

    They were making a public health policy recommendation based on a sample size of 27.

    But there was that one 7 year old little girl with leukemia, congenital lung malfunction and a hole in her heart who got the plague and DIED, which means your perfectly healthy 14 year old son absolutely positively must get vaxxed, or this nation will perish from the earth.

  26. PieInTheSky

    Gail.com

    • blackjack

      Don’t blame them. Who want’s a Hoe with dirty hands?

    • AlexinCT

      Winston’s mom should sue the fuck out of them…

    • Nephilium

      Meh. Dumb shit like that has been going on for years.

      • Surly Knott

        Hey Neph — thanks again for the pointer to Transmetropolitan! Much dark very fun. Frighteningly prescient in some of the broad strokes. Hunter S. Thompson style goodness, best read in the voice of Col. Hunter Gathers.

      • Nephilium

        Glad you’re enjoying it! In broad strokes, it’s supposed to be a repeating of history with the Beast as Nixon… funny how it fits in with the present day though.

        Don’t know how far you’ve gotten, or what version you’re reading, but one of the books I’ve got has the forward done by Patrick Stewart. He’s a comic geek, and mentions that his dream role would have been to get the opportunity to play Spider in some way, and considers that Spider would hate him for thinking he’s worthy of doing it.

        /starts contemplating plans to do Spider for Halloween one year.

      • Surly Knott

        I finished the series. It was the 5 volume collected edition. I’m pretty sure the Patrick Stewart forward was in it, but I generally stick just to the comic itself.
        I’m a fan of H S Thompson, so this was definitely my kind of thing, although it wasn’t until vol 2 that my appreciation really ramped up.
        Bless their hearts, the local library system has a pretty good collection of e-comics.

      • Nephilium

        5 volume? I’ve got 10 volumes in print (not counting volume 0).

        Filthy assistants! To me!

      • Surly Knott

        We’re going monstering!

  27. Rebel Scum

    Doddering, elderly asshole can’t stop lying.

    The graduate also claimed “you and congressional members of your party have done little to actually stop these assaults” and went on to ask “If these efforts are really the most dangerous in our history, isn’t it logical to get rid of the filibuster so we can protect our democracy and secure the right to vote?”

    Biden doubled down on his past attacks, reiterating “I stand by what I said” and phrasing it as how “never before has there been an attempt by state legislatures to take over the ability to determine who won… That’s never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever been tried before. This is Jim crow on steroids, what we’re talking about,” he said.

    On the filibuster, Biden gave an answer which is likely to continue angering those who say he’s not doing enough for voting rights. “You have to stand there and talk and hold the floor. You can’t just say it now,” he said about his support for the talking filibuster. “What I don’t want to do is get wrapped up right now in the argument whether or not this is all about the filibuster,” he would go on to say.

    “There’s no reason to protect it other than you’re going to throw the entire congress into chaos and nothing will get done, nothing at all will get done. And there’s a lot at stake,” he also said.

    I am pretty sure it is literally the job of state legislatures to handle the elections in the state and determine who won by certifying the vote.

    • Rebel Scum

      Biden also referenced his 2020 presidential campaign is that he said “we’ve got to restore faith in government” and referred to Lemon as “one of the most informed journalists in the country” when it comes to how Lemon knows “the criticism I got when I said I want to unite the country.”

      LOL, fuck off.

      • AlexinCT

        Why do democrats ONLY want to restore faith in government when THEY are in power?

        Otherwise, it is scorched earth & lies from your government and media types and claims of Manchurian candidates and their Nazis followers needing to be stopped at all costs, including “fortified elections”, censorship by collusion with private sector and a complicit media willing to not just tell lies, but double down on them, and riots being sold to the people as “mostly peaceful protests”..

        You know, real shit you only get in banana republic government and that leads you to lose faith in government.

      • blackjack

        By united, he means, “shut up and do what I say, or I’ll make sure you get solitary confinement with beatings and decades in federal prison.” Unity, by any means necessary.

      • leon

        Who’s more in touch with the average American? Joe Biden or Don Lemon?

      • AlexinCT

        Embrace the power of “Neither”..

      • blackjack

        Look at creepy Joe, getting mocked all of his “uniting!” Joe thinks that Obama’s “healing savior!” Schtick is going to work after stealing the election and then force feeding us whatever socialist B.S. his handlers want. He constantly harps on anyone not in lockstep with the leftist party as if they are evil incarnate. Why does he get criticized for his efforts to unite? We should all be united by his treatment of the mildest protesters of the whole year, especially when contrasted to the treatment the most destructive and dangerous protesters got.

      • waffles

        Yesterday I saw a boarded up gas station with “TRUMP WON” in black spray paint covered up by “LOVE” in teal spray paint. I thought it was neat.

      • blackjack

        In Daytona, there was a large yard sign that read, ” Stolen elections have consequences!”

  28. The Late P Brooks

    I would really like to think a few members of the “legitimate media” have twigged to this place. They might learn something. Of course we’d know if they had, because WordPress would have pulled the plug on us.

    • PieInTheSky

      lol no

    • Tundra

      Great site!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Also in 1987…

      I’ll be taking these Huggies….

      Never understood how funny that was until I had to start buying overpriced diapers.

      • Chipwooder

        Oh yeah. Pampers are such a ripoff, that’s why we were a Luvs family.

    • Festus

      Ugh. The single worst year of my life thus far. Committed to a Psych Ward for two months. Fell in mutual love with my nurse. Released in early spring but she wouldn’t commit. Stayed on the straight and narrow for about two months but that didn’t last. Crashed my truck and got a DUI. Waiting for trial I met up with old friends and we started living communally in this big old mansion house. Rekindled a relationship with an old high school flame before my trial date. When the communal living fell apart she moved back to her Mom’s house in a different town. Then I went to jail for a bit. When I got out she stole her Mom’s car with her daughter in tow and set herself up in a sure to fail location. All that I owned was a bike and pretty much everything she had was a geriatric cat that shit everywhere. We let our emotions rule over our logic. After about two months she had enough of my shit and moved back home. I still miss her. I moved in with my best friend’s Mom and stayed in the basement until my unemployment ran out. Then I moved in with a buddy and took my one and only welfare check in December. Oh yeah, I also broke my toe in July and was hospitalized for a week for Giardia. That’s a lot of living. I was 22.

      • CPRM

        Committed to a Psych Ward for two months. Fell in mutual love with my nurse. Released in early spring but she wouldn’t commit.

        It’s like poetry, it rhymes.

      • Festus

        Nah, that’s just me being a sloppy writer. Sorry for that.

      • Sean

        Yowza.

      • Festus

        I never saw combat but I used to live an interesting life. I do not recommend. I’ve tons of them.

      • Festus

        Turns out my nurse crush was a sot, just like me! All that finger-wagging was bullshit.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Jail term for a first DUI?! (or am I making an assumption?)

      • Festus

        Second. 14 days. Easy – Peasy. Four or five days in the clink and the rest in the workhouse. It was the shame more than anything. The guy that ran the place was my former boss. Awkward.

      • Festus

        Did you know that 50lb bags of flour are scratchy? It’s so they don’t slide around. Not happy news for inmate’s shoulders. Also, inmates are not given gloves when they are haying.

      • blackjack

        In L.A. they used to put you (me) in jail for your second driving on a suspended. They tried to give me a whole year for my fourth one. I stupidly refused to accept their authority to prevent me from driving. Idealism has side effects. I was young, so that’s my excuse. BTW, I fought them on the fourth one and won.

  29. leon

    So I was reading the other day that the National Guard payed for the capital task force it of it’s own training and maintenance monies, with the expectation that it would be pushed back by the Fed Gov. Well now Congress has all failed to do so and so the Guard is now cutting out any trainings that might remain for the rest of the fiscal year because of funding.

    Maybe next time the governor’s will tell the Feds that if they want their units to occupy the Capitol they should pay for them first.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are parasites, worse than socially useless.

    If not for people like Bezos, Musk and Branson, you’d be writing by tallow candle light with a quill pen, and living on potatoes and bugs. History belongs to the innovators, and you ride on their coattails.

    • Nephilium

      Well… no potatoes, those are a New World crop. Too much risk to sail across an ocean to find something that may be over there. Better to stay safe at home.

      • Pope Jimbo

        If only the natives had developed mask technology, the colonizers might not have had such an easy time of it.

    • Plisade

      “you ride on their coattails”

      They know this. It’s their Inferiority Complex speaking.

    • blackjack

      We beat up on the people who saved us from all of those things too. See “trust busting” Even though there was way less pure propaganda when I went to school, the “robber barons” were roundly vilified, despite improving the lives of everyone in the world at a level that remains unmatched. It’s been a long road to the stupidity at the levels we now see.

      • Animal

        Heinlein called it:

        Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

        This is known as “bad luck.”

    • The Other Kevin

      Ah, I was wondering who the mastermind was behind people walking in an orderly fashion between the velvet ropes.

    • Gustave Lytton

      You can’t fool me. That’s the setup for Con Air.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “She ultimately grabbed Trask’s testicles, which ended the altercation”

      *nods*

      • leon

        Smart girl.

    • Pope Jimbo

      LEO, Bodybuilder?

      Is that Dunfy? Did he beat on Morgan Fairchild?

      • SugarFree

        Dunphy was never a Ranger. He was just a cheap little punk; all hat, no gun.

      • waffles

        I miss him bros

  31. PieInTheSky

    People actually think this. They think a mob could waltz into the capitol, kill a bunch of democrats, take a vote on whatever they want because now they have a majority, and that this would be legal and constitutional and nothing could be done about it. I have a fucking migraine.

    https://twitter.com/neontaster/status/1418049003099414528

    • blackjack

      Not only do you not need an ID to vote, you actually have to wear a mask.

      • blackjack

        Clicked the wrong reply button. This was to Scruffy’s link.

        As far as the other one, when you practice to deceive, your web ends up all tangled.

    • CPRM

      It is unconstitutional in this way: The constitution says that the houses get to make their own rules, the rules as they stand require a quorum of ‘legitimately’ elected member be present for a vote to count. Why does a drunk guy have to do all the thinking round here?

    • Rebel Scum

      That is a strawman inside a strawman. Strawman inception.

    • waffles

      Prop 47 activities.

    • AlexinCT

      What can’t go on, will nit..

      Sooner than later there will be nobody left selling anything, and then the people, unable to buy things, will finally hold the idiots that caused this accountable. That or they will eat each other alive.

    • LJW

      Companies should start adding a shop lifting fee to cover their losses. They could put the governor’s office phone number under the fee on the receipt.

    • blackjack

      The “authorities” fuck it up either way. They were way too harsh before that and they are way too forgiving now. Ain’t nobody trying to find a way to not ruin a kid’s life for stealing a candy bar while simultaneously punishing actual criminal thugs. I doubt justice will ever be achieved. At least the devil weed is legal now.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Quack quack quack

    White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said fully vaccinated people might want to consider wearing masks indoors as a precaution against the rapidly spreading delta variant in the U.S.

    “If you want to go the extra mile of safety even though you’re vaccinated when you’re indoors, particularly in crowded places, you might want to consider wearing a mask,” Fauci said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC.

    Some areas of the U.S. are reimplementing mask mandates due to spikes in cases. The more transmissible delta variant now makes up roughly 83% of sequenced Covid-19 cases in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “It’s suggested that you wear a mask when you are indoors in a situation where you have a level of dynamics of virus in the community that’s high,” Fauci said.

    He also said U.S. officials are concerned that they are seeing more breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people in the U.S., even if they are more mild cases.

    “That’s something we obviously don’t want to see,” he said, noting that the delta variant was highly transmissible. “This virus is clearly different than the viruses and the variants that we’ve had experience with before. It has an extraordinary capability of transmitting from person to person.”

    New and improved. Like nothing ever before.

    It’s sentient. It’s lethal. And it’s coming for you!

    All you have to do is wear this blessed holy scrap of rag, and you will have salvation.

    • CPRM

      Heard on the radio this morning that 99% of the vaxxed people that get it won’t end up in the hospital or die from it, just like 99% of unvaxxed people I guess.

      • blackjack

        Heard it on the X ?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m starting to wish for his unfortunately painful demise.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Fauci is an antivaxxer.

    • leon

      He’s an admitted liar. That anyone still trusts anything he says, speaks to how much people will listen to something just cause a guy who’s got a lab coat says so.

    • waffles

      I listened to Fauci on the NPR last night and we all agreed that Rand Paul is a liar and a fake doctor and a big poo poo meanie head.

  33. Rebel Scum

    Idaho man.

    At approximately 5:52pm, Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) dispatch received a 911 call reporting an armed subject approaching fire personnel in their helicopter at the Shoshone County Airport in Smelterville Idaho. A second 911 caller reported the subject was attempting to steal a helicopter.

    At the airport during this incident, there were between 30 to 70 fire fighter personnel present on scene due to the local active fires.

    At approximately 5:57pm, a SCSO Deputy arrived on scene and quickly located the armed suspect (Oregon resident). The suspect then discharged a handgun several times into the ground and air as fire fighter personnel were fleeing the immediate area. The SCSO Deputy ordered the suspect to drop the weapon, he complied soon after and was taken into custody with the assistance of a 2nd SCSO Deputy and an Idaho State Police Trooper without further incident. Several other SCSO units and other law enforcement agencies arrived shortly after.

    For clarification, NO law enforcement officers discharged a firearm and no one was injured during this incident.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Stupid is as stupid does.

  34. Rebel Scum

    I don’t understand the point of this article.

    GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin and his wife last year successfully petitioned Fairfax County to designate their horse farm as an agricultural district, which led to a 95% reduction in the taxes they pay on the 31.5-acre property in Great Falls that surrounds their home.

    The agricultural district reduced the Youngkins’ real estate tax bill on the farm by a total of $151,844.90 in 2020 and 2021 combined, according to public information that the Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration provided to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    GOP candidate follows the law. Other news at 11.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I see that as a good thing.

    • CPRM

      Horse farms aren’t agriculture! You can’t buy horse milk or horse meat!

    • juris imprudent

      So the problem is obviously the tax law and the favoritism of Fairfax County govt, right?

    • Grummun

      It’s called CAUV (Agricultural Use Valuation). If your property meets the definition of agricultural use, you pay lower property taxes. This happens everywhere. It only applies to the actual farm land, not to the residence, and you have to actually be conducting serious agricultural activity. The “move out of the city buy three acres and a pony” crown need not apply.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I know a few people who mow their field, bale it, and sell the bales. ta-dah!

        Farmer! And now you can write off that $80K F250 as a bidneth expenth!

  35. Old Man With Candy

    Think of all those poor folks who can’t get vaccinated The other 99.99% of society needs to shut down because saving even one life is worth it.

    /NPR this morning

    • AlexinCT

      These people want the rabble scared and desperate enough to do anything they are told to do, regardless of how stupid and wrong the order given is..

  36. The Late P Brooks

    For clarification, NO law enforcement officers discharged a firearm and no one was injured during this incident.

    “Hey! Knock that shit off.”

    • CPRM

      Skimping on the fentanyl?

    • Count Potato

      Why is the heroin 60% caffeine?

    • waffles

      I’d be fine if she was selling them for profit. As it stands I just can’t abide her undercutting the market with unauthorized subsidy.

  37. juris imprudent

    Well I wasn’t too worried about inflation, until you told me not to worry. Vox is just so reliably wrong.

    The truest cause has something to do with a trade-off economists dub the “Phillips curve” (named after economist A.W. Phillips).

    And now I’m positively terrified.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Phillips curve is an economic concept developed by A. W. Phillips stating that inflation and unemployment have a stable and inverse relationship.

      The seventies never happened.

      • kinnath

        Jimmy Carter and the 20% misery index.

      • juris imprudent

        Well, in fairness, Nixon and petro-dollars.

    • leon

      Anyone still writing about the Philips curve didn’t make it far in macro. The curve fell out of favor in the 70’s

      • juris imprudent

        The really funny thing, the Phillips curve is truly meaningless if you are an MMT devotee. And you would certainly expect Voxtards to be MMT devotees.

    • cyto

      I am surprised that didn’t get more attention.

      Trump fills stadiums… Biden cannot fill a church. Yet he garnered more than 10 million more votes than Hildog? Are we sure about that? A handful of supporters for a town hall on national TV…. But they could mobilize 70 million voters?

      Seems really odd to me…

      • R C Dean

        THey could have easily filled that church if they had just opened the doors to anyone. That crowd is highly filtered and vetted, and every question is cleared in advance, if not actually assigned. They need no more people at these town halls than necessary for good TV visuals from carefully placed cameras.

      • waffles

        I find all the potemkin presidency stuff to be deeply unnerving. Not that they are doing it, but that most people seem to not notice or care how profoundly weird it all is. Especially the “it’s just his stutter” crowd. They all weird me out.

      • blackjack

        I would have gone, if they let me ask unfiltered questions.

      • juris imprudent

        We’re so sorry, but there’s not an available seat for you.

      • cyto

        I have thought about how I would handle that for a while.

        I think I would take the opportunity to chide the media. I would call out the press that is present by name, and point out the things they have not asked.

        Then, if I had not been tackled, I would proceed to ask a basic libertarian question. Maybe “does the constitution grant us our rights?”. After they fail that answer, I would explain that they are not qualified to hold office, since they do not even understand the basic oath they are swearing to upon taking office.

        Then I would move to a shed in rural Ohio and write my manifesto….

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Viruses don’t mutate unless you allow them to replicate and spread in the community, you give them ample time and ample opportunity to mutate and you got a new variant,” Fauci said. “The easiest and best and most effective way that we can prevent the emergence of a new variant and crush the already existing delta variant is to get everyone vaccinated.”

    Or, you can accelerate the process in a laboratory setting. But who would do something like that?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s utter bullshit anyway. The current vaccines provide narrowly tailored immunity which puts evolutionary selection pressure on the virus.

      If we were pursuing broad-based immunity with ivermectin or actually catching it, treating it and recovering, what he’s saying would be true.

    • Rebel Scum

      I’m starting to question if this asshat has had even a basic virology/epidemiology course.

      The easiest and best and most effective way that we can prevent the emergence of a new variant and crush the already existing delta variant is to get everyone vaccinated.

      Corona/Rhino-viruses mutate constantly. That is why there is no cure nor vaccine for the common cold/flu. Jeebus Christ…

    • Pope Jimbo

      You’d think as a Greek he’d be extra offended by their condemnation of his culture.

  39. Rebel Scum

    The Fascinating History of the Hot Dog

    We have German immigrants to thank for popularizing the snack as a classic New York City street food, but the hot dog’s influence extends far beyond city limits. From Mexico’s Sonora dog to Thailand’s Khanom Tokyo dog, the dish has quite a few global variations. And as for whether it’s a sandwich, that depends on whom you ask.

    Press play below to follow hot dogs from the 15th century to the present day, featuring an investigation of the contested history of Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest and also the phrase dough kimono (hot dog bun).

    That’s a story you can really sink your teeth into.

    • CPRM

      I’ll just say, Nathans, and Oscar Meyer, are not hotdogs. They are skinless wieners!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        You had me at Nathan’s, they are awesome, whatever you want to call them,

    • blackjack

      No mention of people putting pineapple on them?

    • PieInTheSky

      A food truck has something called a Romania hot dog. It has sriracha on it which puzzles me.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Red Head Car wash! oh yeah!

  40. Rebel Scum

    So it’ll be the Virginia Dem. gun control model.

    During his Wednesday night CNN town hall, President Joe Biden talked about a “push to eliminate” 9mm pistols that have an ammunition capacity beyond that of which the left approves.

    Biden said, “The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon, whether it’s a 9mm pistol or whether it’s a rifle, is ridiculous. I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things.”

    • Sean

      I told y’all – “stock up on mags.”

      • kinnath

        I have six or more for each pistol and a dozen or more for each rifle.

        I suppose I should double that.

    • juris imprudent

      So Joe, you can remove those from all the federal LEOs without even passing a law; just issue an EO banning the use of more than 10 round mags for all sworn fed officers. Go ahead Joe, do eeeeeeeeet!

      • leon

        He says himself, there’s no reason for you to have it. So that must apply to cops. And the military too.

    • Rebel Scum

      The video.

      He claims crime is down but murders are up…

      • juris imprudent

        Well everyone on the left swears that up is down, so an old guy can get confused.

      • blackjack

        The feds are fine tooth combing gun sellers and harassing them over minor typo’s. There’s got to be so few FFl’s who intentionally violate federal laws, that you could handle them all with a crew of 5 guys. Nobody needs 20-30-50-120 agents to hassle them.

    • CPRM

      Doesn’t that go against the Americans with Disabilities Act? Larger capacity, like those water fountains bubblers that are at knee height are there to help the disabled, right?

    • Q Continuum

      FUCK. OFF.

      Basic rights are not determined by “need”. TEKNIKLY, nobody “needs” a car, or a house, or more than one change of clothes, or a television, etc. etc. etc.

      If what we’re entitled to in the eyes of Big Daddy is only what we “need” just build a bunch of prisons and provide three squares and a cot to the whole population.

      • Plisade

        For that matter, nobody “needs” to be alive.

      • R C Dean

        A change of clothes? Luxury!

  41. The Late P Brooks

    What the everloving fuck?

    As the search winds down and the survivors of the Surfside condo building collapse begin to pick up the pieces of their lives, a judge said Wednesday they and the families of the deceased will not be asked to donate their property.

    “These victims who have lost their homes, their personal belongings, and in many cases their lives are not going to be sacrificing the value of their real estate for the public good,” said Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman, who is overseeing the civil lawsuits.

    Hanzman said during a status hearing Wednesday that he has heard comments suggesting the site of the collapse should be turned into a memorial and victims asked to donate their real estate. But, he said, his job is to ensure the victims get what they are entitled to.

    Let me guess. Community activists who want to assist in the healing process have made this suggestion. Is there no end to the thieving mendacity of these motherfuckers?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dipshits remain numerous and plentiful.

    • R C Dean

      are not going to be sacrificing the value of their real estate for the public good

      Sounds like one of them white supremacists to me. Since when is anything off limits when it comes to the public good?

  42. Rebel Scum

    Inflation? That ole chestnut…

    Biden said that the price increases are temporary increases due to the economy recovering after the coronavirus pandemic and argued that passing the spending plans he has touted will actually decrease prices, adding, “I don’t know anybody, including Larry Summers, who’s a friend of mine, who’s worried about inflation, is suggesting that there’s any long-term march here if we do the things we’re going to do. For example, if we get this bill done that I’ve been — put together a long time ago.”

    • blackjack

      “Sure, you’re paying double, but it won’t be forever.” Dude is beyond retarded.

    • leon

      I’m skeptical that has companies some how can’t get back to pre Covid production levels. Given the profits they could get to do so. If anything, it’s companies holding back because that know that in the future that can be shuttered at the whim of some public health squib.

      But even if its the case that the economy is struggling to keep up with demand, it’s still Biden and his ilks fault for pushing policies that destroyed the capital base of the economy.

      • Sean

        Supply chains are broken and the labor shortage is real AF.

      • blackjack

        It’s exactly the same thing California did with legal weed. We can’t just go back to normal and let things work themselves out, no. We need to regulate and subsidize and bail out and fund all of the things we, coincidentally wanted to fund before all of this happened, et cetera. Oh, and we need to spend every bit of value we’ll ever create all at once right now. When you fuck with everything, you fuck up everything.

      • leon

        Labor shortage is an outcome of unemployment policy.

      • cyto

        We drove 1800 miles across the country a week ago. Every single place we stopped had help wanted signs. Every one. Every gas station. Every McDonald’s. Every Wal-Mart. Every one, every where.

        And not just in the window. They had signs on the restroom door. Signs by the soda fountain. Signs by the register.

        Nobody wants to work.. At least not entry level.

        Here in Florida the closest McDonalds can’t find help. The manager told me he couldn’t get anyone to show up at $15.50 an hour. A year ago an entry job like that was under $10 at his store.

        But there is no way an extra $600 in your unemployment check could possibly be a factor.

      • Nephilium

        I posted this story yesterday. A brewery has resorted to putting a Help Wanted beer out, with job details on the label.

      • l0b0t

        NYC minimum wage went to $15 per hour a couple years ago.; coincidentally, the hourly rate for the overnight crew went to $18 at the same time. The store now has a manned table in front of the building where a manager will interview people on the spot and they are offering any new employee an $18 rate.

      • invisible finger

        “If anything, it’s companies holding back because that know that in the future that can be shuttered at the whim of some public health squib.”

        This exactly.

        Labor is only the obvious factor. You’ve also got supply shocks and and a complete shitcanning of any forecasting of supply and demand that has any confidence. It’s actually a miracle that things aren’t as disastrous as they could be. But tell that to the marginal companies that went bankrupt and closed because of all the disruption.

      • blackjack

        You also have a bunch of retards who have a sudden stack of money and they’re spending it willy-nilly as if it was free. That’s got to distort the market somewhat, when done on this scale. My lefty friend from the coffee shop used to barely get by. Now, he’s driving a brand new SUV.

  43. cyto

    So…. Besos is giving a hundred million bucks to noted communist and sometimes outspoken racist Van Jones….

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/20/media/van-jones-bezos-100-million/index.html

    What do you make of that?

    And he did it because he wants to encourage people who are unifies, bringing people together? Van Jones?

    The world is so confusing these days

    • rhywun

      Someone asked yesterday why all the billionaires are leftists now.

      Maybe the ones who aren’t just spray their money around more quietly and don’t get flashy spreads in TMITE.

      • Plisade

        Hmmm, good point, a take on “no publicity is bad publicity.” Any virtue signaling is good virtue signaling?

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Well, in fairness, Nixon and petro-dollars.

    Carter gets blamed for a lot of stuff which was Nixon’s fault. Rome wasn’t burnt in a day.

    • kinnath

      Yes, but Jimmy earn a lot of disrespect all on his own.

      • juris imprudent

        Plenty of reason for him to lose his re-election bid, but he gets too little credit for deregulation (which started under him not Reagan) and too much blame for the economy (for things he had no control over).

      • kinnath

        Well, the local brew club regularly celebrates the Jimmy Carter Happy Hour by pouring home brew.

        And deregulation was great.

        But he’s still one of the worse presidents that I’ve lived under.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As with most trailers, the editing is way too fast. Hopefully the movie is not the same way.

      • PieInTheSky

        What most worries me is I heard a tidbit using the word crusade instead of jihad. Which would totally ruin it for me

      • cyto

        The only thing I have seen is that it is totally racist because the cast is not diverse enough and doesn’t include a dark skinned black person in a leading role.

        That is where we are. After 30 years, we are back to “School Daze” and talkin’ good and bad hair.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That would be disappointing, but it wouldn’t kill it for me.

        If they make Chani the main character instead of Paul, I’m going to be bugged.

      • cyto

        The star of Loki is a woman who is not Loki. You do the math.

    • Festus

      There’s a weirdo that works sporadically at one of my sites and he’s been reading Dune for about eight months. Either he’s really slow or he’s doing it it for performative reasons. I remember blasting through that book in about two weeks, maybe less…

      • PieInTheSky

        There are like 6 of em not counting the shitty ones not written by the original author.

      • Festus

        It’s the same book.

    • l0b0t

      Wow! Colossal disappointment, ahoy! I’m sure it will be just as modern, woke, and Americanized as that Kiwi’s shitty Tolkien adaptations.

      • cyto

        It looks like an allegory for Palestine in the trailer. And Maud’dib is a supporting character.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        “And Maud’dib is a supporting character.”

        That’s my concern.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Looks great, and the casting and characterization seems rock solid.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Yes, but Jimmy earn a lot of disrespect all on his own.

    Absolutely.

    But I have to give him a lot of credit for Alfred Kahn.

  46. ignoreLander

    Cancel culture, alive and well! Let’s dig up a single joke told 23 years ago…. Just thank God Jews can be straight white males. If this was racial in nature, he’d probably have to commit seppuku.

    • CPRM

      Have you found a source, in english, that tells us the evil words that were spoken?

    • juris imprudent

      Didn’t read the article – but that’s old enough to be pre social media, how did they dig it up? Newsletter?

    • AlexinCT

      Do you miss Penthouse Letters?

  47. Festus

    My apologies for the 1987 text. I just needed to vent a bit. Hope you all have a good one!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Never apologize and venting from time to time is healthy! Have a good one Festus

    • waffles

      That’s a lot of living. I appreciate you Festus!

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Hang in there till the weekend (and the next, and so forth)!

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Biden said that the price increases are temporary increases due to the economy recovering after the coronavirus pandemic and argued that passing the spending plans he has touted will actually decrease prices

    Once we finally succeed in completely collapsing the economy, inflation will disappear.

    • leon

      Gas prices are the highest I’ve ever seen them. 3.84 for 85 octane

      • Ownbestenemy

        Vegas is now pushing over 4.00/gallon for 87. Costco and Sams have a 30 minute wait daily because you can get gas cheaper on an average of 30-40 cents lower. It is insane

      • waffles

        Hmm…I drive a shitty Ford with a 12 gallon tank. 30 minutes of my time is worth more than 3.60-4.80. But at three times that? Yeah I can see it.

      • cyto

        I am loving my little Korean hybrid. 11 gallons in the tank gets me 600 miles.

        Driving an SUV I would worry about costs in a drive an hour or 2 away… We were getting 13mpg when the wife drove… So a store 30 miles away might cost $15 bucks just to visit in that thing.

      • waffles

        In the summer of 2008 we were much higher, it looked like we would hit 5.00/gallon and stay there. I paid 4 and change at the pump all summer long. I worried if America’s car culture and the ability to drive from coast to coast was going to be nothing but a memory. I’m not saying it isn’t bad, just saying I’ve had worse.

      • Rebel Scum

        I’ve been paying about $4 for 93.

    • CPRM

      You chocolate ration will be raised from 1oz to .75oz!

    • Q Continuum

      Yeah, rapidly increasing prices and devaluation of currency is a definite indicator that the economy is getting stronger.

      Gaslighting motherfuckers.

    • The Other Kevin

      My memory may be fuzzy, but does anyone remember a recovery from a recession where everything got more expensive?

      • waffles

        I like to think my memory is unfuzzed but I don’t think I can remember a recovery from a recession period. In my estimation we’ve just kicked the can down the road, unwilling or unable to face the reality.

      • UnCivilServant

        Recovery… from recession… ???

        What new spore of madness is this?

        /New Yorker

      • blackjack

        Nobody seems to remember 2019, when the economy was roaring and they certainly don’t seem to understand how we got from there to here.

      • waffles

        I really don’t remember 2019. It seems so far away now.

      • Q Continuum

        Phony virus panic and phony election.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Don’t care, Sarah Shahi… yes, please

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Idiocy, foretold

    President Joe Biden foreshadowed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending children younger than 12 years old who are ineligible for a coronavirus vaccine to wear a face-covering in school.

    “Everyone over the age of — under the age of 12 should probably be wearing a mask in school. That’s probably what’s going to happen,” Biden said Wednesday during a televised town hall.

    Those older than 12 eligible for one of the three COVID-19 vaccines granted emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration but who have not received their shots should also cover their faces in school, according to Biden. Yet, the president was realistic there may be issues with “mom or dad being honest.”

    “It’s a matter of community responsibility,” he said.

    ——-

    Biden’s balance of the interests of students, parents, and teachers tripped up his White House early in his term. Teachers unions pushed for vaccinations as their members returned to classrooms before the CDC ruled it was unnecessary to protect them from the virus.

    Damn disobedient apes.

    And- the CDC ruled it “unnecessary” to protect teachers from the plague? When did that happen? How did I miss that?

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Costco and Sams have a 30 minute wait daily because you can get gas cheaper on an average of 30-40 cents lower.

    I have never seen more than a few cents’ difference between Costco and the street.

    • cyto

      Yeah, around here it is about 5-7 cents.

    • blackjack

      We have stations where they match or exceed Costco’s prices. If you really need to save 1.80 per tank.

    • AlexinCT

      Where I live the BJs gas (another one of these gross sales entities) is usually between 15 and 30 cents per gallon cheaper than practically all stations in “The People’s Republic of Connecticut” except for a couple of stations in 2 different towns that because of the volume of gas they sell can afford to sell at 15-30 cents per gallon below all other stations in the state. If you try to go there on weekends the place is mobbed. I assume that now that more people are going back to work that will be the case in the evening as well going back to the way things were before the Kung Flu. I know saving between $1.50 to $4 for a fill-up might not sound like much, but when you look at it over time, it is a big chunk of change for a lot of people.

      • Old Man With Candy

        BJs? Is that a division of Kum & Go?

  51. Rebel Scum

    America’s back, baby.

    Biden: “Those of you who travel abroad, it’s not a joke. Not a joke. Ask — you know, when I went to this G7, all the major democracies. I walked in and go, ‘America’s back.’ I’m serious, heads of state. I give you my word as a Biden. They said, ‘Are you really back?’”

    Because that’s worth something.

    • cyto

      I’ll take “things that never happened for 1,500″…..

      • leon

        But he gave his iron clad Biden word.

    • Q Continuum

      LOL!!!!!

      Does that apply to your crack-smoking, whore-mongering deadbeat of a son?

    • blackjack

      “And their daughter’s hair smelled perfect!”

    • CPRM

      Well, Hee…heee..he ain’t lyin jack!

      • Plisade

        I’m hearing “Are you really back?” as “Are you *reeeally* back?” with winks and nods and snickers shared among the more lucid heads of state.

      • Brochettaward

        When they ask if America is really back, what they really mean to ask is if the grift is back on. Are American tax dollars going to subsidize the European welfare state and are we going to do the bidding of Europeans as long as they buy off politicians or their idiot relatives.

  52. Urthona

    Anyway know what percentage of new covid cases in the U.S. are among the vaccinated?

    • cyto

      The real number that is going completely unreported is the number of previously infected. We have no idea how many of them are among those terrible on washed and unvaccinated folks. I have no clue how many of the people who are getting the new variant are those who are being re infected. They keep implying that The vaccine is the only protection and even if you have already had it you should Still get vaccinated. That does not seem to be medically sound, operating from 1st principles. So some data on that would be very helpful.

      Where is common nobody even asks these questions. At least they have mostly stopped asking How many people Donald trump killed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’m going to go out on a fairly sturdy limb here and say there is no fucking way that vaccine granted immunity is broader than the immunity received from catching and recovering from COVID.

      • Ghostpatzer

        No one, ever, has acquired immunity to any virus from being exposed and fighting off infection. What we are witnessing in real time is one of those amazing coincidences which some take to be proof of God: the first deadly virus in history has appeared just as medical science was prepared to fight it. Praise the Lord! (and pass the ammunition)

      • R C Dean

        I was telling somebody yesterday, “Of course recovering from COVID means you are immune. If you weren’t, you’d be dead. Vaccinating people who have recovered is worse than useless. They are at no real risk from the disease, but the vaccine has known downsides. All risk, no benefit.”

        I could tell it was the first time these thoughts had crossed their mind.

      • cyto

        I had that exact discussion with the wife yesterday… For the 4th time.

        We all had it. I don’t want to vaccinate our kids. But the Today show keeps telling her to. So she keeps asking why I don’t want to.

        “All risk, almost zero reward”. Direct quote,every time.

        The risk is low. But the reward is even lower. Do the math.

        I even had to detail all the potential side effects.

        Next time Al Roker tells her different, I will have to explain it again.

      • AlexinCT

        People in the scientific & medical communities used to believe this was how humans developed immunities/resistances to infectious diseases before the whole thing became politicized by people that needed to get rid of the Cheetos guy…

      • cyto

        I have it on good authority that Trump politicised it by claiming he was going to direct the government to encourage rapid development and deployment of a vaccine. Which, we all know was totally impossible and a lie, because science says so.

    • waffles

      That is awesome.

    • blackjack

      The right to keep and bear arms?

    • UnCivilServant

      So if this guy without arms can now flex biceps, that would mean they’ve made progress on nerve grafts. Which is backed up by the guy’s quotes in the story. Used to be they couldn’t reconnect those.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m disappointed that he’s not honking hooters in the bottom pic.

    • CPRM

      he fell into substance abuse to deal with the chronic pain.

      How exactly does that work? I have a hard time drinking beer and popping pills from 1 arthritic finger.

      • UnCivilServant

        He was yelling insults at inanimate objects.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Felix now lives in Lyon, France with his new wife Sylwia Gretarsson, 33.

      So is he an asshole who dumped his old wife now that he can wipe his own ass and masturbate?

      Or is she the asshole who only liked him because she was into amputee pr0n?

  53. The Late P Brooks

    I really don’t remember 2019. It seems so far away now.

    It sucked. We’re so much better off, here in Joe Biden’s America.

    Give thanks. Praise Him.

  54. Animal

    Incidentally, Raven Nation, well done on last evening’s Profiles in Toxic Masculinity. As for the comment:

    * My thanks to Animal for allowing me to post a franchise Profile in Toxic Masculinity

    I certainly don’t own any franchise on this; I’d encourage anyone and everyone to kick in their own examples.

  55. Gustave Lytton

    https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2021/07/21/oregon-campfire-ban-announced-record-wildfire-conditions-worsen/8046798002/

    This is fucking bullshit. The west side of the Cascades is not that dry. Those ODF protection districts have not moved to extreme. The state is running out of resources… lie lie lie. 25 years ago they would have had National Guard activations already and would be activating the entire state guard. When that wasn’t enough, active duty Army was sent as well. Radio silence except the Guard is used for traffic control.

    Once in a lifetime fluke fire last year has the political leadership in a panic. Not twenty years ago, fire season meant no chainsaw use between 1pm and 8pm. Now it’s all gas powered OPE between 10am and 8pm. And any vehicle use on non gravel or paved roads including on private property.

    So fucking pissed. And the politicians are blaming climate change while saying we just have to accept wildfires are going to be worse so pay up (while mismanagement of firefighting continues).

    • CPRM

      When you already have the term ‘fire season’ in your vernacular, it doesn’t seem to be a new phenomenon.

      • Gustave Lytton

        You’re right. I don’t think it was fire season, it was seasonal (like summer seasonal) restrictions or some such. Nor was there a big deal about “entering fire season”.

        There’s been wildfire, or as they used to be called forest fire, phases before. About every forty years or so, there’d be a good chunk of them as drought conditions developed.

      • juris imprudent

        In Oregon a week without rain is considered drought, as I recall.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    The real number that is going completely unreported is the number of previously infected. We have no idea how many of them are among those terrible on washed and unvaccinated folks. I have no clue how many of the people who are getting the new variant are those who are being re infected. They keep implying that The vaccine is the only protection and even if you have already had it you should Still get vaccinated. That does not seem to be medically sound, operating from 1st principles. So some data on that would be very helpful.

    It’s much easier for the little people to understand if you streamline the narrative.

    • EvilSheldon

      Everybody needs somebody to look down on. Flip a coin – heads, it’s incels, tails, it’s furries.

      • kinnath

        I don’t like where I find myself on the chart.

      • Nephilium

        So is Kirk an ocelot or something?

      • EvilSheldon

        I’m sprayed all over that chart like a buckshot pattern…

    • wdalasio

      Sidenote: it pisses me off that “incel” has become associated with bitter, hateful, misogynistic douche-canoes…

      Fair point. I will note that there is probably some non-trivial correlation between the two. Most people aren’t terribly self-aware of their own shortcomings and will blame the resulting problems on others.

      Interestingly, the entire “incel” ideology is remarkably similar to the socialist critique. Just substitute the valued good (wealth for sex) and the villains (“Chads” and women for “the rich”), and the two ideologies are indistinguishable.

      • leon

        Envy and self pity is a horrible combination, and a terrible way to live life

      • juris imprudent

        But the alternative is being responsible for myself – what’s the upside in that (for people drawn to envy and self pity)?

      • cyto

        Sooo… You are saying we should have an equitable redistribution of hot, 19 – 22 year old tail?

      • wdalasio

        No, but the socialist hot, 19 – 22 year old tail should feel obligated to service those in need.

    • Lord Humungus

      I don’t get incels: When I was young I was incredibly socially awkward; not surprisingly given my shyness. I’m not what you call incredibly good-looking either.

      But as a teenager and through most of college – I had more than my fair share of opportunities. Some that I took while others I shot down since they weren’t my type (fat).

      These days? I don’t really care since I’m married and 50yo.

      It isn’t that hard to be social enough – in my case through friends – to meet others. Nor is it hard to dress up a little, do some exercising, and wear some good clothes.

      • UnCivilServant

        It is very hard to be social. Especially after years of ostracisation for being a socially awkward fat bastard. So I understand where those losers are coming from, but I’m not bitching about it or blaming my own failures on anything but my own choices.

      • cyto

        The “fat” girls that my 20 year old self turned down were well within the range that my 50 year old self would love to see nekkid.

        The old saw… “Youth is wasted on the young” applies here.

  57. wdalasio

    My memory may be fuzzy, but does anyone remember a recovery from a recession where everything got more expensive?

    No, but to be fair, this recession is different from other recessions in my memory. Previous recessions were mostly demand-based. This one is supply-based. In previous recessions, the economy stalled because there was insufficient demand to meet various supplies of goods and services. And there was a stockpile of unsold goods and services to sell. In this recession, the problem is the supply of goods and services itself. In previous recessions you never heard, “there’s a shortage of…” or “you’ll have to wait for….” or “we’re out of stock on….”. In this one, it’s the ongoing refrain.

    The problem is the administration and, yes, the Fed, can’t get it through their thick skulls that the recession is supply-based. And their answer to everything is to stimulate demand. Which is only going to make the problems worse. It’s the triumph of what I’ll call “electrical socket thinking” (the idea that electricity comes from the socket, water comes from the faucet, and meat comes from the grocery store). Keynesian thinking has always suffered from treating supply as an exogenous variable. They reversed Say’s Law and, instead of assuming that supply creates it’s own demand, that demand creates its own supply.

    Until there is a major shift in thinking, or some happy accident of negligence, I don’t see things getting better.

    • Gender Traitor

      The problem is the administration and, yes, the Fed, can’t get it through their thick skulls that the recession is supply-based. And their answer to everything is to stimulate demand. Which is only going to make the problems worse.

      OK, all together now: “FEATURE, NOT BUG!”

  58. Bobarian LMD

    Which one of you’se did this?

    Lovebirds?

  59. The Late P Brooks

    Take THAT, so-called Doctor Paul!

    Anthony Fauci is a veteran immunologist who has spent 50 years protecting the health of the American public. Senator Rand Paul is an ophthalmologist who, since 2005, has not been certified to practice medicine by any board recognized by the state of Kentucky, and reportedly has not been certified by any medical board at all since 2011. Yet strangely, since the coronavirus began, Paul has decided that he knows more about infectious diseases than Fauci, whose literal title is “director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.”

    In May 2020, Paul claimed that stay-at-home orders, put in place to prevent Americans from dying a horrible death, amounted to a “dictatorship.” In September 2020, when roughly 200,000 people in the U.S. had died from the virus, he snivelingly asked Fauci if the NIH chief had any “second thoughts” about the CDC‘s mask-wearing and social distancing guidelines. In May 2021, as Joe Biden pushed the country‘s vaccine holdouts to get inoculated, he proudly and ignorantly declared, “I’ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity.” And on Tuesday, he was back to trying to absurdly suggest that Fauci basically caused the coronavirus pandemic.

    ——-

    Having apparently long since lost his patience with the troll from Kentucky, Fauci responded: “Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement. This paper that you were referring to was judged by qualified staff up and down the chain as not being gain-of-function…. Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I want to say that officially, you do not know what you are talking about…. I totally resent the lie that you are now propagating, Senator, because if you look at the viruses that were used in the experiments that were given in the annual reports that were published in the literature, it is molecularly impossible…. And you are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individual. I totally resent that. If anybody is lying here, Senator, it is you.”

    ——-

    Paul’s ridiculous attempt to blame Fauci for the pandemic, and continued refusal to get vaccinated, comes as COVID-19 cases have surged in the U.S., and hospitalizations and deaths are almost exclusively among the unvaccinated. As an Alabama doctor wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, “I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.” But good luck with your detective work, Dr. Paul!

    How dare you question Saint Foochy?

    How

    DARE

    you?

    • leon

      “In May 2020, Paul claimed that stay-at-home orders, put in place to prevent Americans from dying a horrible death, amounted to a “dictatorship”

      I see, only a CDC puke who is able to determine what a dictatorship is.

    • wdalasio

      Senator Rand Paul is an ophthalmologist who, since 2005, has not been certified to practice medicine by any board recognized by the state of Kentucky, and reportedly has not been certified by any medical board at all since 2011.

      The quality of the left-wing talking points really seems to be in decline. The whole “board certified” claim at least used to be more subtle. Kentucky has no requirement that a doctor be certified by this particular board (I’m not sure if they “recognize” any board). He regularly practices ophthalmology quite legally in the state of Kentucky. He left the existing certification organization (i.e. Board) because they were grandfathering in existing members without requirements for continuing education. If Vanity Fair is going to try to snow me, at the very least they should try to not be so utterly ham-handed. Or is their new hiring policy for contributors to focus on recent liberal arts graduates whose analytical skills were honed on dorm room bull sessions with people who completely agree with them.

      • Ghostpatzer

        “He regularly practices ophthalmology quite legally in the state of Kentucky.”

        When did Foochy last practice medicine?

      • kinnath

        I believe we established that he joined FedGov after completing is residency.

        So, never in actual practice.

      • wdalasio

        I could be wrong, but my understanding is that he never actually practiced medicine. As soon as he became a doctor, he became a bureaucrat.

      • R C Dean

        He practiced as a resident. Not since.

        And boarded specialists have to re-test periodically. I seriously wonder if Fauci is a still a boarded internal medicine physician, or if he let it lapse since its really irrelevant to his job for the last 50 years.

        I find it amusing that so many people in my hospital hang on his every word, when we wouldn’t even allow him to join our medical staff.

    • juris imprudent

      50 years as a govt bureaucrat, shuffling paper. Shouldn’t he have hit a mandatory retirement some time ago?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        He’s managed to duck several scandals at least dating back to the HIV epidemic.

        Apparently he was about to be shuffled off just before COVID hit.

      • l0b0t

        That evil human told the World that AIDS could be transmitted via the toilet seat or hugging someone who was HIV+. There was a kid about my my age (12 or 13 at the time) from Immokalee, FL who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion (thanks, Gov. Clinton) . Thanks to all the panic, much of which was egged on by Fauci, this kid and his family were chased out of town; their house was burned down. I hope the ghost of this kid and Ryan White haunt that evil sum’bitch into his grave, and then spend eternity torturing him in the pit that is bottomless.

      • Gustave Lytton

        It’s the J Edgar and Rickover problem. Not just the total tenure but that he’s been in the same position and running the same org for 35 years. It’s corrosive to have the same person in that slot for that long.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Good point. Fauci has structured an organization that is beholden to him, and not the stated goals of the legislation that created it.

      • leon

        Part of his success at stonewalling any look into lab leak hypothesis for so long?

      • R C Dean

        There were a lot of fingerprints on US money funding the Wuhan lab. Including the DoD. The coverup was pre-ordained, Fauci or no.

      • Gustave Lytton

        It’s the same problem with infectious diseases and public health. The two big issues have been HIV/AIDS and third world epidemics for the past 40 years. There’s this paternalism toward both groups that pervades the entire field and this idea that the bright boys can come up with technical solutions and just implement them, like any other business plan. Parachute into an epidemic, save the unwashed, and then rotate back to cocktail parties and career growth.

        It’s the mentality that for the problem of immunization record keeping isn’t to provide innoculees with some sort of durable record (how about an aluminum disc with the info stamped onto it?) but because the little third world children are so fucking stupid, they should be microchipped like dogs so you can just scan them.

    • Brochettaward

      1. One of the few attempts at actually providing facts in the article is wrong. Data on hospitalizations does not indicate that it’s almost entirely among the unvaccinated.
      2. The entire part of the article you quoted is an appeal to authority. It’s an attempt to prop up Fauci by pointing to his title and to attack one doctor (Paul) while using a Facebook post from another doctor as evidence of something…though the notion that young healthy people are being intubated in vast numbers and then all desperately asking for the vaccine out of panic is patently absurd for a number of reasons. The data to actually disprove Paul’s positions doesn’t exist.

    • R C Dean

      Anthony Fauci is a veteran immunologist

      They open with a lie. Fauci is not an immunologist, which is an actual boarded medical specialty. He is an internal medicine physician, who hasn’t treated a patient since getting out of residency 50 years ago.

      • cyto

        But is there a rand Paul throw pillow? Huh? Is there?

        Yeah… I didn’t think so……

    • Plisade

      So our elected representatives are supposed to not represent us and meekly defer to unelected “experts”?

      When I read “expert” now, I substitute with “Technocrat Wannabe”, and everything makes much more sense.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yes

        And this explains the deep resentment that so many of the credentialed class have towards anyone who goes against the bureaucracy. A college grad from Hopkins or Harvard is most likely to personally identify with or aspire to an unelected position of authority within the administrative state.

        It’s the old resentment of the intellectual class against the successful because it’s they that should be in charge.

      • juris imprudent

        We have reached the glorious destination of progressive political theory!

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Keynesian thinking has always suffered from treating supply as an exogenous variable.

    Supply comes from the Magic Hat.

  61. Suthenboy

    “McConnell claims Republicans will not vote for raising the debt ceiling.”
    Right after they repeal Obamacare?

    The Jan. 6 investigation is a cover-up. The insurrection was a farce and the investigation is a charade.

    We will see what happens in Michigan. I am not hopeful.

    “It’s a total fiasco,” – Like everything leftist shitbirds do. It is that way by design.

    Ugh….it is too depressing to go through all of the links. I am gonna go shower and take my wife out to lunch.

    • R C Dean

      “McConnell claims Republicans will not vote for raising the debt ceiling.”

      How much headroom do we have now? Do they even need to vote for it in order for a $3.5TT spending bill to pass?

      And I am completely confident that I will see Republicans vote for raising the debt ceiling as soon as its needed.

      • Hyperion

        And no one has to pay for it, it won’t cost a dime!

    • Hyperion

      Yeah, rules you have to live by, includes don’t trust no turtleheads.

    • cyto

      In Michigan…. Apparently at least 12 informants “infiltrated” A group of six people. Plus dozens of FBI agents, who directed the informants to take up leadership positions and take the “conspiracy” for weapons training.

      Where exactly is the line??

      If we send 25 people to surround Hunter Biden and spend months cajoling him into doing something…. Is it really a Hunter Biden crime?

      • Sean

        *sprinkles Parmesan on the carpet*

      • R C Dean

        Wasn’t there a story a few years ago about some “militia” group that turned out to be made up entirely of feds infiltrating . . . each other, I guess?

      • Sean

        ?️‍?

      • UnCivilServant

        Look, just because there’s a shortage of extermists out there doesn’t mean the operation was a failure.

      • R C Dean

        I guess racism and extremism are one of those things where demand does create supply?

      • blackjack

        That’s why “extremism” is the greatest threat we face. FBI is doing some scary stuff.

  62. The Late P Brooks

    The quality of the left-wing talking points really seems to be in decline. The whole “board certified” claim at least used to be more subtle. Kentucky has no requirement that a doctor be certified by this particular board (I’m not sure if they “recognize” any board).

    I never cease to be amazed by the simpering gullibility and desperate need to be told exactly what to do/think of the expert-ist, credentialism obsessed left.

    “Question authority? Who said you could do that?”

    • R C Dean

      That is an excellent point. States license doctors, period. Its a license to practice medicine, not a license to practice a specialty. Board certification is irrelevant – there are doctors who aren’t board certified, and always have been. So, no, states don’t recognize boards, at least not in any way that matters. Board certification is a plus in the licensing process, but not a requirement.

      Board certification really crops up in hospitals as something that matters. You can’t practice in a specialty in most hospitals unless you are boarded in that specialty.

  63. The Late P Brooks

    I find it amusing that so many people in my hospital hang on his every word, when we wouldn’t even allow him to join our medical staff.

    “There appears to be a rather significant… gap… here.”

  64. Hyperion

    “Conservative talk show host Larry Elder won his court challenge Wednesday to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber”

    Look at that picture of systemic racism. Proves once and for all, wypipo cannot support a color folk for office.

    • blackjack

      Elder has triple the poll numbers of his nearest competitor. They are scared of him.

  65. kinnath

    Good News! A one-term Representative with she/her pronouns will save us from Sen Chuckles the Clown.

    Former Rep. Abby Finkenauer launched a Senate bid in Iowa on Thursday, becoming the highest-profile Democrat to jump into the race in an bid to reverse the party’s struggles in statewide elections over the past decade.

    Finkenauer, 32, flipped a House seat in 2018 before losing last November after just one term. She’s now aiming to take on GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the longest currently-serving Republican senator, who is still deciding whether to seek an eighth term in the chamber.

    Chuckles will crush her like an empty beer can.

    • R C Dean

      The good news is, as a one-term Representative she will get a lifetime pension and benefits. Starting, I believe, immediately (not entirely sure about that).

      • cyto

        I think it is 2 terms…

      • cyto

        Wrong. 5 years. So 2.5 terms… Or one senate election.

      • R C Dean

        I recall Carlos Danger hanging on into January, I think. Just coincidentally long enough to qualify.

      • R C Dean

        To the internet! TW: Wiki.

        Congressional pension is a pension made available to members of the United States Congress. As of 2019, members who participated in the congressional pension system are vested after five years of service. A full pension is available to members 62 years of age with 5 years of service; 50 years or older with 20 years of service; or 25 years of service at any age.

        Not as bad as I thought.

      • UnCivilServant

        That last category is really narrow. If you hit 25 years before you hit 50, you’d have to have first been elected before turning 25. How many congresscritters were younger than 25 at time of first election to congress?

        Mind you that is still grossly generous. Even my generous pension won’t let me retire before 55, and then only if I’ve gotten 30 years in.

      • R C Dean

        Not sure at all, but I think they include years where you are a federal employee who qualifies for the pension.

      • leon

        Seeing as you have to be 25 to serve in Congress… I’m guessing very very few

      • UnCivilServant

        So, unless RC Dean is correct that other federal employment gets counted towards the pension, that clause never triggers.

      • juris imprudent

        How many congresscritters were younger than 25 at time of first election to congress?

        Bwahahahaha – Madison Cawthorn comes close, but his 25th birthday was before the election.

      • UnCivilServant

        As Leon points out, the answer is ‘None’ as being younger than twenty five attime of swering in makes them ineligable for office.

        Quoth Article 1, Section 2

        No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

      • blackjack

        That is crazy generous. Get elected at ’57, “serve” until ’62 and get a full pension for life. I doubt that exists anywhere else.

    • cyto

      She/her…. Hmmm. Pretty suspect. Is she also a Birthing Person?

    • kinnath

      I will admit that Finkenauer was a quiet, team-player with deep union-bonafides that stayed out of the spotlight and worked towards old-school blue collar priorities.

      I continue to be completely opposed to all of her priorities, but she was a pleasant contrast with the Squad.

  66. The Late P Brooks

    Finkenauer, 32, flipped a House seat in 2018 before losing last November after just one term. She’s now aiming to take on GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley

    Running on her record, is she?

    • leon

      Following in the footsteps of Dem illuminaries like Beto O’Rurke, Stacy Abrams and that guy from Georgia

    • kinnath

      My guess is that she knows that she can’t win a House race in the off-year election, so she is keeping her fund-raising and campaign organizations alive by running this can’t-win race against Chuckles.

      No idea why though.

      She could run for the House in 2024 during when Kamala is running for Prez or wait until 2026 and go after Sen Ernst or Gov Reynolds.

      But, I suspect it’s just publicity and money at this point.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m wondering if there’s a fear that her name recognition will erode over time if she’s not campaigning, and thus hurt those future races.

      • blackjack

        Smart democrats will sit out any race where Kamala is the top of the ticket.

  67. KSuellington

    That is really good news about Elder getting on the ballot. Team Newsom is absolutely scared this could end in disaster for Guv Greaseball. I wouldn’t bet my house he is getting shitcanned, but if I got some odds I would bet he very well might. Firstly, the election is two questions and so Elder (or someone else) could win with just a small percentage of the vote, if only 50 plus 1 vote in favor of recall. Secondly, Newsom doesn’t have a D after his name because his staff fucked up and forgot to have that included. There is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for this election, so if the proggies and unions can’t fire up enough people to vote in a September election it could come out with a surprise outcome. Man, I really want to see that happen.

    • blackjack

      Elder has 16% and the next highest is 6%. The tranny only has 4%. He is the biggest threat. Newsom just invited all of the world’s homeless to come and partake of our budget surplus. He can’t help but piss off normal people. I say, there’s a better than none chance this works.

      • blackjack

        * he meaning Elder.

    • R C Dean

      There’s a feedback loop between the two questions. If you look at the list of candidates and don’t see anybody you’re motivated to vote for, you are likely to vote “no” on the recall. Conversely, if you see someone who does motivate you to vote for them, you will vote “yes” on the recall.

    • KSuellington

      I don’t want to get too hopeful on this, but there is a fair chance it goes through. I was told by a number of people when I was getting signatures for the recall to take place that it was a pipe dream and would never happen.

  68. Gdragon

    That “They’re ready to go now!” might be the most Joey Ramone sounding lyric ever recorded. I think it really kinda displays what’s unique and interesting about him as a vocalist