About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

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

386 Comments

  1. Surly Knott

    Mornin’ Banjos.
    Garland — stopped clock?

    • AlexinCT

      Yeah, I assume he is protecting someone or some specific reporters doing his dirty work rather than doing this cause it is the right thing…

    • Tonio

      They are afraid of the press turning against them. There have already been rumblings. Remember that you only sell papers if bad things are happening, and people realize that the Harris/Biden administration is not all Skittles and rainbows as promised.

    • blackjack

      There is the fact the the media is clearly shilling for everything the left does, but It’s also possible that Garland is trying to show what a great S/C justice he’d have been, and you never know who might die or retire.

      • Festus

        Well Kavanaugh’s been no great shakes. Roberts 2.0

  2. Shpip

    Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday formally prohibited federal prosecutors from seizing the records of journalists in leak investigations, with limited exceptions, reversing years of department policy.

    “They’re working for us. We don’t go after our friends (at least while they’re still useful).”

    • Not Adahn

      The limited exceptions being leaks that hurt dems, ofc.

      • AlexinCT

        They use the NSA or the FBI for that… Ask Tucker.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Let’s hope this standard is applied equitably, but I doubt it.

      • Not Adahn

        Since “equity” means punishing bad people to reward good people, of course it will be used equitably!

      • Rat on a train

        As equitably as the rest of the government. It’s good to have allies in high places.

  3. Sean

    Garland was moved to act following an outcry over revelations that the department during the Trump administration had obtained records belonging to journalists at The Washington Post, CNN and The New York Times as part of investigations into who had disclosed government secrets related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters.

    Others whose records were obtained were Democratic members of Congress and aides and former White House counsel Don McGahn.

    Emphasis added. I don’t believe Garland is going to do anything actually beneficial to liberty.

  4. PieInTheSky

    Spyware sold to authoritarian regimes used to target activists, politicians and journalists – I blame private sector greed

    • AlexinCT

      You are now just doing talking points for that ginger.. What’s her name again? Chucky?

      • Not Adahn

        Which one? The one at the White House, or the one at Howard?

      • Festus

        Ha!

  5. PieInTheSky

    They were inaccurate because they were push polls, not legit polls. – whenever I see polls I remember yes minister…

  6. waffles

    Good morning. I was feeling more than the usual amount of doom last night. This has not abated. It sucks because I had a run of about three weeks where I was feeling considerably less doomed. I guess doom is inevitable. I just prefer it to be sudden and able to be responded to with action. I hate this slowrolling pain. Maybe it’s all noise and I just need to put my head down and get to work. I’m going to blame the wildfire smoke from Klamath Falls blotting out my view of the sky in Allentown.

    Hope everyone is well.

    • Not Adahn

      Well enough. I need to move the pup into a crate at night or possibly the garage. She’s almost six months old, maybe she can hold her bladder for nine hours?

      • waffles

        Hey neighbor!

        Prime steak house is an excellent choice, conveniently located too. I rarely go south of Quakertown for any reason, perhaps someday. Yesterday, I drove through some of the more depressing parts of downtown Allentown. Everyone on the street looked beat the fuck down. You are wise to avoid the place.

      • Timeloose

        Hey nearly neighbors. I was down in Emmaus on Sat riding to a cycle shop there. It was nice to drive through some of the area as it has been a while.

      • ignoreLander

        Are they closin’ all the factories down?

    • Festus

      It’s the human condition, Waffles or at least something that afflicts a great many of us. You’re not alone. Never forget that. You’d be shocked to discover what runs through my busy little mind come Sunday morn…

  7. The Late P Brooks

    However, AAP does not believe mitigation strategies should end there and is recommending that everyone, “regardless of vaccination status,” wear masks.

    “AAP recommends universal masking because a significant portion of the student population is not yet eligible for vaccines, and masking is proven to reduce transmission of the virus and to protect those who are not vaccinated,” the AAP said in a statement, adding that many schools “will not have a system to monitor vaccine status of students, teachers and staff, and some communities overall have low vaccination uptake where the virus may be circulating more prominently.”

    “There are many children and others who cannot be vaccinated,” Sara Bode, MD, FAAP, chairperson-elect of the AAP Council on School Health Executive Committee, said in a statement.

    “This is why it’s important to use every tool in our toolkit to safeguard children from COVID-19. Universal masking is one of those tools, and has been proven effective in protecting people against other respiratory diseases, as well,” she continued, describing universal masking as the “most effective strategy to create consistent messages and expectations among students without the added burden of needing to monitor everyone’s vaccination status.”

    This is utterly reprehensible.

    • waffles

      It would stop if enough people refused. But they won’t.

    • rhywun

      most effective strategy to create consistent messages and expectations among students

      OFFS.

      Translation: “It’s all for show. You know it, I know it.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      On the plus side, a lot of people are waking up to the fact that a significant percentage of doctors are authoritarian dipshits with a lazy streak.

      • blackjack

        This. If you ask me what you can do to 100% assure yourself that your engine won’t blow up, I’m going to say let’s take it all apart and rebuild it right now. Then you’ll say, but it only has 10k miles on it. I’ll say, yeah, but there’s a chance that something is wearing wrong, we can’t take that chance. You said 100%.

  8. Stinky Wizzleteats

    The greatest drivers of vaccine hesitancy? Those who push masks even though someone’s been vaccinated. It’s fucking moronic and from a group of doctors no less. Every organization of supposed health experts is just failing right now.

    • waffles

      It’s too late to go back on it. They had their opportunity back in February to link getting vaccinated with taking the mask off. At this point there’s no credibility left.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Their ilk control the levers of power and they don’t care about credibility. If they can’t convince you they’ll just force you and if you can’t force you they’ll toss you in jail or unperson you and you can live under a bridge.

      • AlexinCT

        Trump broke the cabal. He exposed their ineptitude and abuses by simply winning an election these fucks thought they had rigged for their preferred candidate. That made them drop the veil and show us how bad they really are. We were exposed to a campaign, a desperate one, to cockblock Trump so they could contain the damage they believed he was doing to their globalist agenda. Unfortunately, despite being able to steal the next election, the tactics and abuses they used allowed a large swat of the populous to see how horribly evil these fucking assholes are, and that can’t be taken back.

        So they have decided it is better to just fucking plow over those that no longer will drink the Koolaid than it is to try and convince them with the slow boil frog in the pot approach…

      • waffles

        In this sense, Trump really was the most progressive president we’ve had in my lifetime. This is real progress.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, Gurri’s book would dispute that Trump accomplished that – Trump’s win was a product of the disenchantment of the public with the elite, not a cause. That’s why Trump leaving office doesn’t change anything.

      • AlexinCT

        Didn’t say Trump was the cause. Trump managed to win an election these fools had thought rigged in their favor because people had seen through the fucking nonsense – to some degree – and wanted something else. The way the cabal reacted, the shitshow that followed Trump’s win and his attack on their globalist agenda, validated the disenchantment in a way that the cabal could not reverse or deny. Many people that felt something was wrong, or just that we needed a change from the usual shit, got proof that things were far worse than the worst thing you could have imagined.

        The damage done by the cabal in their pursuit to block and remove Trump exposed them as a cancer, and they can’t walk that back. That’s why they no longer care to maintain any of the old illusions that allowed them to claim they were not criminal in their intent and actions. That’s why we now have purity tests and purges through a legal system that has different rules for those the cabal sees as members or allies vs. their enemies.

      • juris imprudent

        Trump didn’t “expose” all of what you credit him with – it was already there to be seen, that’s the point Gurri is making. Trump rode that, which is something none of the other Republicans was prepared to do as they valued their status within the corrupt hierarchy.

      • AlexinCT

        Trump winning the election forced the cabal to show their full intent. Everyone here might have felt things were bad, but I am going to call bullshit on anyone that claims they knew how bad things really were. Yes, we all suspected that our government cabal had some agenda and things got bad under Obama, but nobody could have predicted how much brazen evil the cabal would do to keep power. Anyone claiming that is full of shit.

      • juris imprudent

        This transcends partisan bullshit, so focusing on Trump and Obama is missing the point. I need to finish the book (and Lasch’s) and get the article written up.

      • AlexinCT

        It isn’t focused on Trump: it is focused on the fact Trump broke so many people. Kind of like he broke you.

      • juris imprudent

        Just fuck right off why doncha?

      • AlexinCT

        You first.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, Gurri’s book would dispute that Trump accomplished that – Trump’s win was a product of the disenchantment of the public with the elite, not a cause. That’s why Trump leaving office doesn’t change anything.

      • waffles

        Jokes on them, I want to live under the bridge.

      • Festus

        Depends upon the bridge. I know a few where the fishing is excellent! In fact, one of them is where I want my ashes scattered.

    • Not Adahn

      But the dems proved that 10% of fully vaccinated people can get the ‘vid after a SINGLE private plane flight!

      • waffles

        That whole scenario was a disaster. Best case scenario, no one who would be appalled by it was watching.

      • Nephilium

        So will those dead politicians get state funerals?

        Whats that? The ones who tested positive all have minimal (at most) symptoms, and are going to make it?

      • Chafed

        I’m as shocked as you are.

      • Rat on a train

        The Rona is sentient. It won’t kill them because it knows their cause is just. Only people who gather for unjust causes need fear.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That and the unrelenting drone of GET THE VACCINE THERE ARE NO DOWNSIDES JUST IGNORE THE DATA TRUST US GET THE VACCINE

      • Festus

        I left my special sunglasses on the plane.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Bad news for you because I’m all out of bubblegum.

        PUT THE FUCKING GLASSES ON

  9. Not Adahn

    I’m assuming that reporters get protection because they’re priests of the 1A?

    Now if only gun shop owners’ records were offered the same protection…

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Scary

    “It is very hard to know what is going to happen after July 19,” says Graham Medley, professor of infectious disease modeling at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and chair of SPI-M, a group of scientists that advises the UK government on pandemic modeling.

    A lot depends on public behavior, and that is notoriously very tricky to predict. While some will enjoy their newfound freedoms with gusto (a tendency that was on full display last weekend during the final of the European soccer championships), others will be far more cautious.

    Many people are frustrated at the ditching of masks, one of the most basic and effective public health measures. An Ipsos Mori poll found that a sizable majority of British people plan to continue to wear masks in stores and on public transport. If people follow through on this, it may help curb the spread somewhat: Israel, which also has high vaccination rates, had to reimpose mask-wearing indoors last month in the face of a steep rise in cases.

    Regardless, it is very likely that cases will continue to rise for at least a few days, if not a few weeks. And that means more hospitalizations and deaths are inevitable, according to Medley. The big question is how high this wave gets.

    In a webinar on Thursday, Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, said the country could see “quite scary numbers again” and “get into trouble again surprisingly fast.”

    ——-

    “This wave is very different to previous ones,” says Oliver Geffen Obregon, an epidemiologist based in the UK, who has worked with the World Health Organization. “The proportion of hospitalization is way lower compared to similar points on the epidemic curve before the vaccination program.”

    But not everyone agrees. NHS bosses are already sounding the alarm over capacity, and more than 1,200 scientists have signed a letter in The Lancet arguing that Britain should care about the huge rise in infections, regardless of the rates of deaths and hospitalizations.

    Gurdasani, the epidemiologist, is one of them.

    “Cases matter,” she says, pointing to two main dangers: the increased chance that large numbers of people will develop long covid, and the risk of new, vaccine-dodging variants.

    Be afraid, boys and girls. Be very very afraid.

    • Rat on a train

      Britain should care about the huge rise in infections, regardless of the rates of deaths and hospitalizations
      More people not going to hospitals would overwhelm hospitals.

    • rhywun

      had to reimpose mask-wearing

      Horseshit.

      You can tell how badly they are losing the narrative from steaming piles like this.

    • Rebel Scum

      Many people are frustrated at the ditching of masks

      These people are ill-informed sheep.

      one of the most basic and effective public health measures.

      Assumes facts not in evidence.

  11. Rat on a train

    Petersburg man indicted in first case in Va. using liquid nanotechnology called ‘SmartWater’ – a substance that marks property

    Gaines was confirmed as a suspect after police, using a special ultraviolet light, observed that his clothing was covered with smears of a colorless and odorless liquid that he had come in contact with when he allegedly entered the business.

    The substance, known as SmartWater, is a traceable liquid that is coded with a forensic technology that contains a unique signature for each user. When brushed or sprayed on, it is undetectable except by ultraviolet light, where it glows yellow-green.

    Every person arrested in Chesterfield is now scanned for traces of SmartWater on their person, clothing or belongings, as the county — through the police and sheriff’s departments — has expanded use of the technology.

    He was also charged with wearing a mask.

    • Ghostpatzer

      “The substance, known as SmartWater, is a traceable liquid that is coded with a forensic technology that contains a unique signature for each user.”

      Dogs have another name for this substance.

    • l0b0t

      Smart Water is already a registered trademark for a bottled water with added electrolytes. Easy infringement tort?

      • Rat on a train

        Could you drink SmartWater and then go around marking your territory?

      • AlexinCT

        BRAWNDO!

        It’s what plants crave…

      • Festus

        Most cops are as dumb as a Ficus so…

      • zwak

        Oh, I think most cops are smarter than the president!

      • Surly Knott

        So is a Ficus.

    • blackjack

      Did he shoot a man at the Mexican border?

  12. Ghostpatzer

    Why am I not surprised that the same people who think “1984” is an instruction manual are using this as a model for health care?

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7uOfr2r3g6M

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Meanwhile, down on the plantation

    Twitter on Monday evening temporarily suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after she shared misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines, a company spokesperson told CNN.

    The Georgia Republican, who has a track record of incendiary rhetoric, will not be able to tweet for 12 hours due to Twitter’s policy against people who repeatedly share misinformation.
    The social media platform had labeled two tweets from Greene as “misleading” in recent days. If she continues to share misinformation about Covid-19 through her Twitter account, Greene could be suspended from the platform permanently.

    The temporary suspension comes as the White House has struck a confrontational posture with social media platforms over the prevalence of misleading claims about coronavirus vaccines as cases tick up nationwide.

    “I am urging all Americans to help slow the spread of health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond,” US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy wrote in a 22-page advisory released last week. “Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts. Limiting the spread of health misinformation is a moral and civic imperative that will require a whole-of-society effort.”

    The best way to stop the spread of health misinformation is for you and your pals to STFU, Murthy.

    • rhywun

      ‘Peach Forty-Six.

      • Tonio

        The only good that could possibly do is prevent Harris from serving two full terms plus part of Biden’s.

      • blackjack

        Kamala will never get a real election win. The cheating they’d need to make it seem like she won would be a bridge too far.

      • Festus

        Yeah, she seems well hated even within party.

      • rhywun

        ’Peach her, too. You know she’ll do something worthy of it on Day One.

    • Rebel Scum

      So I can expect the WHO to be suspended as well?

    • prolefeed

      Notably absent from the “reporting” – the actual tweets that allegedly were “misinformation”, so we can judge whether she was spot on or not.

      I’m guessing spot on. Can’t allow The Narrative to be spoiled with facts.

      • CPRM

        Shut up! You don’t have a journalism degree! You can’t handle the truth!

  14. rhywun

    NSO Group says it only sells spyware to vetted government bodies

    LOL.

    Pull the other one.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Vetted” means they have good credit or cash up front.

      So they’re not lying.

    • AlexinCT

      OBEY SERF!

    • waffles

      Huh.

  15. Festus

    Mornin’ Banjos! The only thing that would have made the song better was if he used a turtle shell!

  16. Festus

    I like how the Garland article was framed as if it were just the evil Drumphlers using the JD against journalists. fweedom?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Only 16,000 people affected? The Chinese murder that many in a couple of days. No biggee.

      • waffles

        Seems like a pretty rural area.

      • AlexinCT

        If I recall correctly, 2/3 of China is still living in the 19th century when it comes to tech and standards of living…

      • Tonio

        Also, never believe their numbers.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        Cause if you look at China’s Kung Flu claims, either they are seriously lying about the number of sick and bodies or they engineered a virus that didn’t fuck over people in China. And I doubt they are smart enough to do that last one, even if they stole the directions of how to do something like that from a capable player….

        I base that sentiment on the crap they have copied and then sold us cheap for the last 3 decades…

    • Sean

      GODDAMN MONGOLIANS!

      SHITTY WALL!

    • Plinker762

      Thank god no earthen dam has failed on the US.

      • waffles

        Johnstown is a nice place.

  17. Not Adahn

    Woo hoo!

    They’re opening the gates in The Wall on Aug 9! Duty Free shop with 1L bottles of Talisker, here I come!

  18. The Late P Brooks

    “All around the world you can look at mask mandates and superimpose on infection rates, you cannot see that mask mandates made any effect whatsoever,” Axon further noted, adding that “The best thing you can say about any mask is that any positive effect they do have is too small to be measured.”

    Oogahbogah! Health misinformation!

    • rhywun

      Get Jen Psaki on the case! SUPPRESS!

      • Festus

        I loathe her politics but Jen can suppress me anytime! She resembles my first serious high school girlfriend, tits and all. Strawberry…

    • AlexinCT

      That’s how you do dimplomacy bro…

    • Not Adahn

      “Japan does not have the time to care so much about the relationship between the two countries as South Korea thinks.”

      Mee-OW!

    • CPRM

      The relations between Japan and South Korea, both major US allies, are strained by ongoing disputes over compensation for Japan’s early-20th-century colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.

      Everyone is obsessed with the past.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My wife has a sister who married a Japanese guy and both of them still hold grudges against Japan. Koreans don’t give up on their feuds easily.

        Watch K-dramas and they are full of Japanese baddies.

        If Rocketman actually shoots a nuke missile it won’t be at the US. It will be at Japan and that will win him a lot of friends south of the 38th parallel.

    • Q Continuum

      Is the implication that President Moon never masturbates, or just not in this case?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I wish I still knew some FBI guys so I could laugh in their faces.

    • AlexinCT

      Tool: Wait, all 14 of you other members of the Whitmer hate club are feds? Seriously? Da fuq?

      • Pope Jimbo

        The fact that they called themselves Club Fed should have been the first tipoff.

    • Rat on a train

      twelve embedded FBI operatives were involved in the suspicious plot that culminated in the arrest of six individuals
      When government agents are the majority, isn’t it a government plot?

      • juris imprudent

        THAT’S NOT THE NARRATIVE!!!!

  19. juris imprudent

    Very good article getting to the heart of the matter:

    Recall Frederick Douglass’s comment that he left William Lloyd Garrison’s extremist camp because he was “sick and tired of arguing on the slaveholder’s side.” The argument that the American founding and Constitution were pro-slavery was the South’s argument. In his extreme condemnation of the founding, Garrison implicitly agreed. Douglass recognized that Garrison was wrong, and he also understood that it was not the best argument to move the nation forward against slavery.

    Much of today’s “anti-racist” teaching, following the 1619 Project’s view that racism is “in America’s DNA,” embraces the point of view Douglass rejected — that to move forward we need to reject the founding and the Constitution. (That, incidentally, is the line that connects this educational turn to the original critical race theory — the idea that the problem is the liberalism of the founding, and not, as most Americans think, the failure to live up to the ideals of 1776.)

    • rhywun

      the idea that the problem is the liberalism of the founding, and not, as most Americans think, the failure to live up to the ideals of 1776

      Yep. I mean, it’s pretty obvious when everyone pushing this stuff is a flaming commie.

      • juris imprudent

        What I liked the most about the article was the approach of how to counter the stupidity. The only response the stupid can make is to double down.

    • Lord Humungus

      >>in America’s DNA,

      What does this even mean? for example Britain has a longer history of slavery and colonialism than the US ever had; but yet they outlawed slavery and even put a stop to the trade with their Navy. And look at their colonies now.

      Is colonialism still part of their DNA.

      1776 was idealized liberty; and just about every government has an “idealized” charter that doesn’t always carry through in reality. That onus is on society, not the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.

  20. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    Welcome back and thanks for the lynx.

    This is psychotic.

    These people are evil buffoons. I don’t believe most parents will go along with it.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Depends on where you are. In my neck of the woods I expect many if not most won’t merely go along, they will enthusiastically cheer it on. Much kool-aid has been drunk in North Jersey.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    The AAP’s recommendations come as the universal masking narrative resurfaces as the delta variant spreads across the country, prompting some critics to call for more drastic mitigation strategies, yet again.

    A little unintentional truth?

    • Not Adahn

      Are they turning the snails gay?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *sugarfree intensifies*

    • blackjack

      Snails are so slow, they probably only remember the trip there, not anything that happened once they get there. “I distinctly remember slimily sliding in that direction.” Forever.

  22. Rebel Scum

    Democrats brought up voter fraud concerns three years ago.

    All elections that Democrats do not win are illegitimate.

    • juris imprudent

      Bernie says – hey wait a minute.

  23. CPRM

    the media’s First Amendment rights against the government’s desire to protect classified information.

    *sigh* The media has no more rights under the first than anyone else, it’s just an example provided in the amendment.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I just ordered my special press license from Ebay.

    • Festus

      Section 230 is just an idea.

  24. Rebel Scum

    Texas state lawmaker on Monday unveiled legislation requiring a forensic audit of last November’s election results in his state’s most populous counties.

    “You mean you want to audit an election in a state that you won? *scoff* GOP ‘tards” – Female Seth Rogan

    It’s called “quality control”. You should be able to audit any election anywhere for any office at any time for any reason.

    • Festus

      I believe we call these “bromides” or in layman’s terms “Closing the barn doors after the horses have escaped”! It doesn’t mean a goddamned thing at this point. Where were these people 9 months ago?

      • blackjack

        I agree with Rebel here. Every election should be contestable and all methods and findings should be easily provable. There should never be any objections to auditing of any election results ever.

      • juris imprudent

        The issue isn’t the single election for president, it’s the classic incompetence on display in multiple elections (Iowa and upstate NY congressional, NYC mayor, etc.).

      • blackjack

        I’m from California. I can assure you none of this is due to incompetence. They’ve been cheating out here for a really long time. I have serious doubts that Cali is even a blue state. We’ve had ballot harvesting and relaxed mail in voting for a decade out here. the ‘vid just enabled them to quickly export it to the rest of the country. The dems are so pleased by how it went for them that they viscously attack anyone who wants to roll it back a bit.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I left the military in 08, registered to vote in Nevada in 10 and yet, I still get absentee ballots from California to this day..even after reports they have ‘cleaned their voter rolls’. Hell, when I called the county registrar and said you need to remove me, they wanted me to come in person to clear it all up. But it is all on the up and up.

      • juris imprudent

        In PA, in my own very Republican county, they screwed up the last primary pretty spectacularly. So while corruption rules in some places, incompetence has a claim elsewhere. Neither is good.

  25. Rebel Scum

    That’s a pleasant surprise.

    There has to be a catch. I see zero reason that alleged president Biden and co. will not be up to the same shenanigans as Barry’s regime.

    • Q Continuum

      Who is the guy doing the taping and how do I get his job?

      • PieInTheSky

        I assume pro bono. You have a kid you need to make $$$

      • Ghostpatzer

        You have an excellent portfolio, Q, and plenty of references. I think you’re on to something.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Rethuglitard obstructionism

    Senate Republicans revolted on Monday against opening debate on infrastructure while a bipartisan bill is still being written, lining up in opposition to a squeeze play by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

    Schumer and Senate Democrats need at least 10 Republicans to agree to advance a still-unwritten deal to spend nearly $600 billion on roads, bridges and broadband during a vote expected on Wednesday. But both Republican leaders and the GOP lawmakers working on the bipartisan infrastructure package carried the same warning for Schumer.

    “He’s not going to get 60, let’s put it that way,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.). “The legislation is not drafted, the pay-fors are a long ways away. Patience is going to be a virtue.”

    Why don’t they want to vote for a bill which hasn’t been written yet? Don’t they want to do Great Things for America? What’s wrong with those guys?

    • Festus

      You’ll have to ignore the text of the bill to see what’s in it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Stalin was probably least attracted to anyone that posed a challenge to his authority. It makes sense that he would choose an adolescent that he could lord over.

    • Q Continuum

      Bigger question: is pedophilia somehow worse than murdering millions and oppressing a nation for decades? Kinda like the comments of “hItLeR oNlY hAd OnE tEsTiClE aNd LiKeD bEiNg PoOpEd oN!!!!eleventy!!!”

      Frankly I don’t care if he was the greatest guy in the world on a personal level and always called his mom on Sunday, what we know he did is bad enough that I don’t need to pile on charges.

      • PieInTheSky

        I assume the original tweeter is a tankie so okay with the millions murder as they were nazis and deserved it

  27. PieInTheSky

    So question for the glibs, may have been asked before

    You buy a beer you never tried before to see how it. You don’t like it. You:

    a) pour it down the sink right away
    b) drink half pour out the rest
    c) drink it anyway, beer is beer
    d) there is a threshold and only pour it down the sink if bellow that
    e) never met a beer I didn’t like
    f) I do not experiment and always drink the same
    g) I am UCS and beer is icky
    h) I am not UCS but beer is still icky.

    I am mostly a/b… Mostly b as I drink some to get to the point of yeah no dump it. But sometimes I am a like the first time I tried a Belhaven wee heavy

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      (i) Use it to cook some sausages.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        Cook something with it…

        Steam some Lobstahs!

      • Q Continuum

        What you and your wife do in the privacy of your own bedroom is non of my business.

    • waffles

      b/e/e/r is good.

    • CPRM

      i)drink the one I opened, gift the remainder to someone else who may enjoy it.

      • PieInTheSky

        well you only have the one in this scenario

      • CPRM

        That wasn’t stated in the scenario, now you sound like a tiny minded inside the box thinker.

      • PieInTheSky

        “You buy a beer ” not several

    • Q Continuum

      a) because I always have decent beer on backup and life is too short to force myself to drink crappy beer.

    • Nephilium

      D.

      I can suffer through some beers I’m not a fan of if they’re at least well made. Even then I’ll usually avoid dumping it, and try to figure out something to do with it in cooking or the like. Although I do have a select group of bad beers that sit in wait for the first guest to say that all beer tastes the same to me.

    • The Other Kevin

      Mostly “c”. I can tolerate most beers even though I don’t like them, and I hate to waste. On a very small number of occasions I’ve poured one out.

    • Timeloose

      If struggle to drink it I end up dumping after I have found I cant stand it any more. I did it this past weekend. I opened a beer that my wife bought. It was a MAS AGAVE CLASICA GRAPEFRUIT by Founders. It was trying to be too many things at once and being good wasn’t one of them.

      It is also possible that a big beer like this (10%) was not meant to drunk 12oz at a time. I liked the first few sips, but it got worse the more I drank. it would have been ok in a 6 oz tulip glass. I dumped out half of it.

      I think the so called cocktail beers are not for me. I haven’t found one I like yet.

      https://foundersbrewing.com/our-beer/mas-agave-grapefruit/

      • Nephilium

        In the past, Founder’s released a 10% Mango Habanero beer (Mango Magnifico) which was quite good. They decided to sell it in 750 mL bottles… which was much less good. The first 12 ounces were great, then I was just getting tired of it.

    • blackjack

      I don’t eat or drink things I don’t enjoy, unless it’s medicine. I’m not a committed enough drinker to consider beer medicine.

    • prolefeed

      Beer that was deliberately brewed as a sour goes down the drain. Pretty much everything else is drinkable.

      • kinnath

        Beer that was deliberately brewed as a sour . . . .

        Is pretty much the only beer I will drink.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    From Juris’ link:

    We are more likely to prevent evils from occurring when we see how well-meaning humans, and not cartoon villains, make horrible choices. Recall the profound truth that Satan is a fallen angel, perhaps implying that evil is often the result of a misguided effort to do good.

    Save us from well intentioned meddling salvationists.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The people willing to crush you for what they think to be your own good are the most pernicious. Who said the quote about the robber barons and the moral busybodies that I can’t remember right now?

      • juris imprudent

        C.S. Lewis

    • blackjack

      Seb Gorka has a tag line on his radio show that goes, ” Republicans think that dems are decent people with bad ideas, dems think republicans are evil people.”

  29. Rebel Scum

    The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released updated guidance Monday, recommending children over the age of 2 should wear masks as they return to school, regardless of vaccination status.

    They should not be vaccinated because the virus is inconsequential to children so they do not need to risk the new “vaccine” technology and masks come with all sorts of other negative health problems. This is child abuse.

    • Festus

      Children without comorbidities a have a 0% chance of dying from Covid according to Johns Hopkins.

      • Pope Jimbo

        But there might be a few hundred children nationwide who have comorbidities that make them a risk for serious Rona problems! I know you aren’t seriously thinking of allowing the other children to go to school normally and excluding these kids.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    From the RealClearPolitics sidebar:

    United Airlines will buy “zero emission” planes.

    Giant balsa wood gliders, flung into the sky by stupendous rubber band catapults?

    • Q Continuum

      That kind of bullshit usually means they’re just buying carbon credit indulgences or some such nonsense. The idea of battery cars is dumb enough for me, battery jets is absurd.

    • Rat on a train

      Admittedly, these planes aren’t large — the “19” in its name refers to the number of passengers it can carry, and its maximum range is around 250 miles.

    • Festus

      My favorite boyhood toy!

  31. Rebel Scum

    Progjection thy name is Stacy.

    “Now is the urgent time for action. What happened in Texas, what is happening right now, what will happen in Ohio, what will happen in North Carolina, what will happen in Pennsylvania is not endemic to the South. It is endemic to authoritarians who do not want to see inconvenient voters cast their ballots and speak their minds. That has to be the call to arms. This is not simply about one moment. This is about the foundations of our democracy, and they are in peril. It is time now for every single member of the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans and independents, to declare their allegiance to our democracy as opposed to their parties.”

    I mean, the next thing is that the GOP will declare the opposition party and opposition to its agenda to be domestic terrorists and white-supremes. Could you imagine if a political party did that?

    Fuck. Off.

    “If you look at the overall recommendations, Judy, from the CDC, they say, overall, if you are vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask outdoors or indoors. But there’s a big however with that, and the however is, you should also pay attention to what’s going on in the area where you are living. So, if you live in an area where you have a high dynamic of infection, and that’s usually in an area where there’s a low level of vaccination, if you happen to live in that area, you may want to go the extra mile and get the extra degree of protection of wearing a mask, even though you are vaccinated. For a number of reasons, to protect yourself, but particularly, for example, if you have, at home, in your own home, vulnerable people, like the elderly or people who have underlying conditions, you might want to make sure you take that extra step of protection. That’s what’s going on in Los Angeles. They want to go the extra mile to show that you can protect yourself more, even if you are vaccinated.”

    Will someone rid us of this tyrannical garden gnome?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They always conspicuously refuse to mention those who have already had COVID and those who are on a prophylactic like ivermectin.

    • Q Continuum

      I’m not wearing a fucking mask you wannabe tin-pot dictator. Fuck off and get uncontrollable diarrhea.

    • blackjack

      They want to go the extra mile to show

      Ooops! It’s all for show.

    • Festus

      I can’t decide who is the more vile racist. Stacey Abrams or Joy Reid? They literally hate me for what I am. I didn’t choose to be a middle-aged white guy but here we are. What the fuck?

      • AlexinCT

        The scary thing is that these people full of vitriol and hate think YOU are the bed person and they are your victims…

      • juris imprudent

        Of course they can’t answer when you ask what harm you have done them.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They’re purely cynical opportunists.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I get to mess with management this week. The current person in a temp assignment can only be in the position for 180 days since it was a non-competitive bid. Well, we are on day 184. If you are going to hold me to standards, I will hold you to the same. They have dragged their feet on selecting someone for the spot for a month and half.

        Gotta love government.

      • Ownbestenemy

        This works here too I guess. Cause I think they are finding a way to not select white guys.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Overapplication of a narrowly tailored vaccine leading to evolutionary selection pressure on the virus.

      This was predicted.

      • Q Continuum

        Then again, normal people can always do like I (and many here) did: make a rational analysis of your and your loved ones’ risk factors, conclude that the chances of getting severe illness approach zero and move on with life. Corollary: stop wearing masks completely and simply leave if a place asks you to (this never actually happened, all places regardless of mandate DGAF).

        I would feel the same if they came up with a vaccine for the common cold.

    • AlexinCT

      Maybe one of the real serious Kung Flu comorbidities is stupidity? That might explain why so many got the virus even though they were vaccinated.. Then again, I would be far more certain of my hypothesis if everyone of them on the plane got it. Right now I have no explanation for why some didn’t get it if stupid is a comorbidity.

      • Plinker762

        Even a virus can only take so much stupidity before it self terminates.

    • R C Dean

      Meh. False positives? Asymptomatic to mildly symptomatic?

      Although this does seem to support a symptomatic transmission.

      Unless it’s mostly false positives.

      • Suthenboy

        It is not such a novel virus. It is a cold virus. Remember when people used to say “Sure, that ( unlikely X) will happen when they come up with a cure for the common cold!”

    • Suthenboy

      “something seriously wrong with the vid vaccine”

      Noooooo shit.

  32. The Other Kevin

    One more thing to be mad about today. I get these “technology news” emails, and there are tons of stories about flying cars. We have finally arrived at the future but nobody is talking about it because everything is about Covid and politics.

    • juris imprudent

      I wish I could remember who to credit, or even the venue, but the best internet comment of all time was: Of all the things in the sci-fi I read in my youth, the only thing I got as an adult was the dystopian government.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    It is endemic to authoritarians who do not want to see inconvenient voters cast their ballots and speak their minds.

    Sometimes they’ll even flee the state in order to prevent a vote they know they’ll lose.

    • robodruid

      thank you

    • Sensei

      The way of the tank!

      Senshadou 戦車道. Uses the same final character as a Japanese tea ceremony – 茶道 (sadou).

      Fortunately, it never took itself seriously.

    • Gustave Lytton

      KanColle and Strike Witches beg to differ.

  34. Rebel Scum

    Know your audience.

    Sports Illustrated checked numerous woke boxes when announcing Bloom would be the first black and Asian transgender model for the sports mag. If only he/she (I haven’t been told Bloom’s preferred pronoun) were a lesbian. Cha-ching! That would be woke gold!

    The magazine’s theme for this year’s swimsuit edition is “Opening Eyes, Speaking Truths and Changing Minds.” My eyes are open and I’m speaking the truth. If you’ve got a twig and berries, you ain’t a chick. I’m not changing my mind.

    • Q Continuum

      “he/she”

      LOL!!!!!!!

      OMG, we’re living in a broken simulation.

    • Drake

      If somebody gets offended and cancels SI, their circulation will drop by 50%.

      • Suthenboy

        I have been wondering who is footing the bill for this clap-trap.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Its up to six democrats on that plane…

    And this will be trumpeted as “proof” masks would have protected them.

    I think those people should be quarantined and interrogated until the point of origin of the outbreak can be conclusively established.

  36. Sean

    Zoom zoom zoom.

    They impounded his vehicle?

    • The Other Kevin

      Our Zooms are fun but not that much fun.

    • Timeloose

      I believe reckless driving can sometimes result in a impounded vehicle, but it must have been the tint.

    • blackjack

      I was once taken to jail for doing a huge burnout in a parking lot off of Sunset Blvd. My Chevelle was impounded and I was in jail for three days until I saw a judge.

      • Sean

        3 days for a burnout. Ouch, dude.

    • R C Dean

      The window tint. Illegal on public roads.

      Plus they are being pricks.

      • Sean

        Many, many years ago a NJ cop stopped me for excessive side window tint (limo dark) and made me peel it off on the spot. I don’t recall getting a ticket though. White privilege?

        Lately, I’ve been seeing cars here PA with front window full tint. I would think that would be a cop magnet.

      • Sensei

        On a NJ registration?

        NJ law doesn’t apply to out of state vehicles.

      • Sean

        On a NJ registration?

        Yes. I escaped many years ago.

  37. Swiss Servator

    Bezos launched and made it back….so much for that petition.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      He would’ve been happier with his beings, administering anal probes to Kansas farmers seems like a good retirement gig for him.

  38. PieInTheSky

    Prince Harry is publishing a book promising to be an “accurate and wholly truthful” account of his life, it has been announced

    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1417249452969144326

    Childhood
    Drugs & Hookers
    Pussywhipped

    • Q Continuum

      Throw is family under the bus

      • AlexinCT

        That’s what he got for marrying a harpy that made him her bottom…

      • juris imprudent

        I thought we didn’t kink-shame around here?

      • Surly Knott

        Honored more in the breach than the observance. Far more.

    • Drake

      Part 1: when I was cool, fought in wars, drank, and got laid a lot.

      Part 2: how I became a cuck. My God, somebody kill me please.

      • Q Continuum

        This is a guy who’s a literal Prince and could have any woman on Earth. Why in G-d’s name he chose that harridan is beyond me. She must and absolute animal in the sack.

      • Q Continuum

        be an*

        Damn, I’m all over the typos today.

    • Animal

      The correct answer is “who gives a shit?”

  39. Suthenboy

    Dammit dammit dammit. I wanted to see the Bezos launch and comment here. Just before the launch we had a lightning strike that knocked out the power. By the time the power came back on Bezos and company were on the ground. Just dammit. This is why I never go to casinos.

    • AlexinCT

      Sorry to hear that brah…

    • Drake

      That Bezos is slippery.

    • Pope Jimbo

      I would only have been interested if Bezos launched with an all female crew. Each woman big, strong and muscular. Bonus points if they all had their right breast removed.

      • AlexinCT

        Are they all also from some island in the Med with a name that today implies membership in that sisterhood I pledge allegiance to for their a carpet munching preference?

      • juris imprudent

        Would fembots have been acceptable too?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        That is his security detail.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Good clean flight. The graphic they showed implied that the first stage would come back down to earth and land, but since they didn’t show that, I am guessing it did not? Or maybe I missed that. I think SpaceX approach is loftier but the more we launch, the better we get, the closer we are to moving off the rock.

      • Suthenboy

        I am ready for a lot of people to move off of this rock….the telephone sterilizers and anyone registered to run for office. I will stick around to put the lights out.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Unless it’s mostly false positives.

    False positives, lies… whatever. It’s all theater.

    • Nephilium

      Point of order.

      The standard derogatory term for us older cyclists is MAMIL – Middle Aged Man in Lycra. Hipsters ride fixed gear bikes anyways.

      • waffles

        I just call them wetsuits

      • Ghostpatzer

        That’s why I love this gang, nothing slips by.

        Hipsters ride fixed gear bikes anyways.

        NJ hipsters beg to differ. Riding a fixed-gear bike would get them disinvited to all the best cocktail parties.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The upside is that one can tell your religion.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    And if you think it was genius scientists that were able to come up with tests and vaccines so quickly after the discovery of a novel virus, I can sell you a bridge.

    Yes. If it was possible to whip up a “cure” that quickly, it must not have been a particularly awesome pathogen.

    • juris imprudent

      One factor that didn’t exist before is the DNA sequencing technology now available. That speeds things up considerably.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    We need a few gators up here in NJ. Our ecosystem is being overwhelmed by hordes of spandex-wearing hipsters on wheels and the herd needs to be culled.

    Mountain lions will do the job.

  43. Pope Jimbo

    Think of all the Japanese women who could have gotten a free pearl necklace because of the Olympic games!

    Officials in Tokyo are nervously eyeing the waters at a major Olympic venue where an unwanted visitor has cost $1.28m (£930,000) in emergency repairs.

    The Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo Bay which will host the canoeing and rowing events was ready ahead of schedule.

    But the one thing no-one counted on was oysters.

    Massive numbers of them had attached themselves to floats intended to stop waves bouncing back across the water and on to the athletes.

    And these weren’t just any shellfish. Officials found they were magaki oysters, which are a hugely popular delicacy during the winter in Japan.

    However, they haven’t been able to take advantage of their bumper harvest.

    “We did not consider consuming them,” a member of the team told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. “That would entail safety checks.”

    A real shame because, although prices vary around the world, those oysters could easily be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

    • AlexinCT

      I thought the beds made doing the nasty in Japan hard?

    • Q Continuum

      Is Debbie coming?

      • Pope Jimbo

        Not sure, but her toes are curling, so soon?

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        She’s faking it

      • blackjack

        I’ll have what she’s having.

      • Rebel Scum

        Isn’t she always?

    • blackjack

      My Sicilian grandpa had a ’63 triple black Continental. I loved that car. He used to bitch about TV shows where they murdered people by cutting the brake lines. He’d turn off the motor and the car would slow to an almost stop to show how it was bullshit.

  44. Festus

    I think that all those Dems testing positive after being inoculated is just briar patch so that everyone gets the third shot. (Doffs aluminum chapeau with a flourish)

    • Festus

      “You’ll never be safe!”

      • Suthenboy

        I just heard that on TV…covid will always be with us. It is never going away. Be afraid, be very afraid. Hide under your bed.

      • Q Continuum

        Yeah they can all fuck off. The world isn’t safe, never was, never will be. Something will get me eventually and I’ll be damned if I’m going to ruin my life living in fear.

    • Ownbestenemy

      It is quite convenient that right when mask mandates are back on the table, even for the vaccinated, a high-profile group of politicians come down with the vid.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I know a lot of people who consider this a no-go line.

        People might be somewhat more compliant for themselves, but when it comes to their kids if they consider it an unacceptable risk, they’re not going to comply.

      • waffles

        But how do you deal with the other side which considers your unacceptable risk an unacceptable risk? This is a nightmare. Purposefully so.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        As far as I am concerned, forced vaccination of my kids is a violation of the NAP.

        I will do what is necessary.

        And yes, I have thought long and hard about what that means and the implications of such. I don’t like it, but there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed.

      • blackjack

        My kid ain’t getting it. I will go full outlaw first.

  45. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    My anxiety has been through the roof since the dog died. Turns out I actually like having a snoring, farting, hairy, warm body close to me. Go figure.

    • Festus

      Tonio’s ears perk up.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Nah. He and I went out once and it didn’t work out. We decided to just be friends.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I read that as We decided to just be fiends

        In dyslexia veritas

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Freudian dyslexia?

      • Q Continuum

        Too much girth?

    • Q Continuum

      That sucks 🙁 .

      Not to pry, but have you considered a limited course of medication. Anxiety has a tendency to multiply if you don’t get it under control.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I’m going to try exercising more and see if that helps.

  46. Festus

    Signing out for now. Sorry to hear about Swizzie’s Dad and Cp’s (?) Grandma. All the best to them and everyone else that puts up with my bullshit on this site. You people mean more to me than you will ever know. Good day!

  47. Pope Jimbo

    I knew California was circling the drain, but I’m assuming that they can’t even afford/get ammo since they are now stabbing people with swords at pigeon races.

    Two Fresno-area suspects were arrested last week after three people were shot and stabbed at a Sutter County pigeon racing event, according to law enforcement.

    In a news release, the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office said that three people were hurt July 10 while at a pigeon race near Acacia Street and Del Monte Avenue in Robbins.

    Deputies received reports at 2:53 p.m. of gunshot victims who were leaving the area on their own and headed to the hospital, but eventually had to stop and call 911 for assistance. Four vehicles had pulled up to the event and several people got out armed with pistols and swords, which they used to attack the victims, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

    One person was shot in the foot, another was shot in the thigh and a third was stabbed in the neck and shot several times. The first two were taken to UC Davis Medical Center and have since been released, while the latter was taken to Rideout Memorial Hospital and later transferred to UC Davis Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.

    • AlexinCT

      Pigeon McNuggets…

      The way of the loser..

    • Suthenboy

      “Two Fresno-area suspects were arrested last week after three people were shot and stabbed at a Sutter County pigeon racing event”

      Is pigeon racing an Indian thing?

    • blackjack

      Fresno is a literal shithole. Highest poverty level in Ca. I think it’s about 30%.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    We must destroy freedom in order to save it

    We are a nation deeply and sharply divided — and one in which the government needs to appeal to public opinion for support to justify its actions and lend them legitimacy. Put those two facts together and we’re left with a vision of a country lacking in the consensus necessary to justify and render legitimate attempts to police the boundaries of public discussion and debate. We don’t at all agree on what counts as “extreme” or as “disinformation.” So attempts to rule some speech out of bounds only reinforce our dividedness, generating an instantaneous backlash and new spasms of extremism in response.

    Do you doubt it? Consider some examples.

    The easiest case would be the decisions of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media companies to ban Donald Trump’s accounts in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection against congressional certification of the 2020 election results. Given the high stakes — nothing less than the peaceful transfer of power to the next president on Jan. 20 — the decision to muzzle the outgoing president was justifiable, even though millions of Trump supporters dissented from it. But of course many of those supporters were muzzled, too, when the social media platform Parler was effectively shut down during this same period by Amazon, Apple, and Google. Given that the Trump-supporting right was using Parler to organize additional acts of unrest to disrupt the presidential inauguration, this, too, may have been a justifiable emergency measure. Though it was also one undertaken by private companies acting independently. They weren’t doing the bidding of a Democratic president and the regulatory agencies he controls.

    Is there an order, on parchment, signed by President Biden and delivered by hand to the CEOs of those companies?

    Well then, There you are. Their love of country motivates them. Stop moaning.

    • Lord Humungus

      “Watch me wave my hands and make a lot of assumptions based on little evidence other than my fevered imagination.”

    • Q Continuum

      Nevermind the fact that these companies are so intertwined with the government that’s nearly impossible to see the border between them.

      Say: aren’t utilities companies run in basically the same way? Turn off the water and power for all these Deploranazis stat! It’s just a private entity doing what’s right and after all, they can always build their own electrical grid.

      • Suthenboy

        I think there is a word for that….something to do with a bundle of twigs.

    • rhywun

      legitimate attempts to police the boundaries of public discussion and debate

      Fuck. Off.

      That’s the end of my debate on this issue.

    • R C Dean

      the Jan. 6 insurrection

      Narrative transmission confirmed.

      Signal deleted.

      • CPRM

        INSURECTION! CIVIL WAR! TRUMP DOES FOMENT! I’LL KILL YOU IF YOU DISAGREE! NAZI!

    • Ownbestenemy

      The whole article is much more than just that Brooks and I think presents a different picture.

      And how about expressions of skepticism with regard to the COVID-19 vaccines? Isn’t denying their efficacy or safety an example of spreading disinformation that could prolong the pandemic, thereby (in Joe Biden’s words) “killing people”? That seems obvious — at least until you recall that the FDA won’t be issuing full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine until Jan. 2022, more than a year after it was approved for use on an emergency basis and after many millions of doses have already been administered to Americans. Either those vaccinated Americans are in no danger and well protected from COVID-19, in which case the vaccine should be approved now and those raising objections to it shown to be peddling lies that social media companies might be justified in suppressing — or the FDA isn’t yet absolutely sure the vaccine is safe, in which case the skeptics seem to have a point. Which is it?

      • Ownbestenemy

        I should clarify, the part of the article where the hand-waving regarding the dumping of Trump and other persons from the socials, yeah that is a hard pill to swallow that they were acting indepent of any government heavy-handedness.

      • R C Dean

        those raising objections to it shown to be peddling lies that social media companies might be justified in suppressing

        Even if they weren’t overtly in bed with the administration, not this, either. Not unless they want to be publishers, not platforms.

    • Rebel Scum

      Though it was also one undertaken by private companies acting independently. They weren’t doing the bidding of a Democratic president and the regulatory agencies he controls.

      Yeah, sure…

      • Lord Humungus

        But these private companies were also shilling for the democrats as much as possible, especially during the election. But nosirreee, nothing to see here.

      • Rebel Scum

        Jan. 6 insurrection

        When the fuck did an “insurrection” happen?

      • Lord Humungus

        You know, once you stand in the Speakers position, you get automatic dictatorial powers. It’s right there in the Constitution.

      • Rat on a train

        July 15?

      • blackjack

        Those private companies have special protections from consequences, granted by the government. They are routinely dragged into court and threatened with actual destruction if they do not do what the government says. Amazingly, all of their censoring benefits the party most loudly demanding it. Fuck these lying fuckers.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Fascist is quickly moving from a hyperbolic to an accurate description of these people.

    • Agent Cooper

      “police the boundaries of public discussion and debate”

      I stopped reading right here.

  49. Lord Humungus

    House prices around here are through the roof…

    which means that EF is suddenly hot to move out of our current house, located in one of the most wanted school districts, and into another branch of suburbia.

    Positives? Bigger house, less taxes, cheaper mortgage, more land, a fully functional second kitchen in the basement (to be used by our special needs adult son)

    Negatives? Further away from my aged parents, away from our friends and neighbors that we like; also further away from the city; meaning stores etc will always require a trip in the car versus the walking distance to the grocery and (more importantly) the liquor store.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Funny you said this “the walking distance to the grocery and (more importantly) the liquor store.” That is where we are at…prices through the roof and schools are great…but man, I might have to drive to pick up my daily veggies? Fuck that.

    • R C Dean

      Sorry to hear about your pending marital discord, LH.

      • Lord Humungus

        EF may be a divorce attorney but, at least with me, she is extremely sensible. We discuss everything from 1970s music, the fall of disco, politics, best course for our life, vacations, etc all without tempers flaring.

        The only person that really gets EF on edge is her really bossy oldest sister who always assume she is right about everything; and knows how get under EF’s skin.

    • CPRM

      Walking back from the liquor store with 5 30 packs is tough.

    • slumbrew

      Being able to walk to pick up basics like that is a huge plus in my book.

      On the other hand, the kitchen for your boy sounds like a good thing.

      Tough choices.

      • blackjack

        No, just buy a really fast car to get the groceries with. It’ll be fun and quicker.

    • kinnath

      The only thing within walking distance of my house is the mail box.

      And I am good with that.

      • R C Dean

        #metoo.

        Easy 7 minute drive to groceries, brewpub, gun store, etc. You know, the essentials.

        No. Problemo.

      • kinnath

        Four minutes to Small Town, Iowa. Two gas stations, a diner, a pizza joint, a bar I never go to, a grocery store, and a dollar general.

        Everything else is 25 minutes away in Small City, Iowa.

        When civilization breaks down, the looters have a long fucking walk to my house.

      • R C Dean

        a bar I never go to

        Too fancy?

      • kinnath

        Actually two bars.

        I go to brew pubs once a month to meet up with the homebrew club.

        Otherwise, I drink what’s in the wine cellar or in my kegerator.

      • Animal

        Sounds a lot like the old place in Allamakee County, except we were about 30 minutes from any manner of town. Well, ten minutes from Dorchester, where there was a bar and grille and post office, and about the same from Highlandville, where there was a general store in those days.

        We’re actually not too far off of that now here in the Great Land. No mailbox, but a ten-minute drive from the post office, a deli, two gas stations/convenience store, liquor store and our favorite watering hole/restaurant. Wasilla and all that goes with it is a little over a half-hour away.

        Ditto for the looters. Also only one high-speed avenue of approach to the house, and I have my choice of a couple of different firing positions from which I can cover that.

        (Yes, that was a consideration when we looked at the property.)

      • R C Dean

        Also only one high-speed avenue of approach to the house, and I have my choice of a couple of different firing positions from which I can cover that.

        Same here. Our terrain provides a wide range of covered and elevated firing positions down the main road, and for the final approach to the house.

      • Animal

        My worry here is that someone could infiltrate a few guys through the woods from the south, where there are no neighbors or anyone to cover that direction; there’s just an empty lot and then a big expanse of state land. Then they’d only have to rush about twenty yards from the treeline to the house.

        If I thought there was imminent worry, though, I’d have some kind of obstacles. And I doubt the common run of looter, assuming any even make it this far, are going to be that savvy; more likely they’d just come up the driveway.

      • R C Dean

        There is definitely overland access to our house as well. You’d have to be pretty damn determined to make your way through the desert (chock full of really nasty plants and animals) to sneak up on us, though.

        They’ll come up the road. They may try to peel off into the desert once they are “greeted” short of the gate, but that will be for their retreat.

        Yes, I know the distances from various pre-determined hides to various points on the road. No, I’m not paranoid. Why do you ask?

      • Rat on a train

        My house gets a Walk Score of 1 and Bike Score of 6 on https://www.walkscore.com. I’m fine with that. My parents place gets a Walk Score of 0.

      • Lord Humungus

        Walking/Biking/Running is great around here with sidewalks galore and even “inter-urban” trails. Also a big lake with a trail that goes all the way around.

        New place we’re looking at? No sidewalks. Just houses and roads.

      • R C Dean

        I have fond memories of my first house, in Richmond VA. It was two blocks from a little row of shops that included a grocery store, a bakery, and a drug store. All small, and probably not there any more, but it was nice.

        And the bus stop I took to work. I would grab a dozen donuts most weeks before getting on the bus.

        Also, a pleasant 15 -20 minute walk through a nice residential neighborhood to the brand new AAA ballpark.

      • Rat on a train

        Go Flying Squirrels!

      • R C Dean

        It was a Braves team. They had several players that graduated to their World Series winning team. It was great fun to watch.

      • R C Dean

        Walk Score of 3 (“Car-Dependent”)

        Transit Score of 0.

        Somewhat Bikeable (“Minimal Bike Infrastructure”). Which is interesting, because Tucson has a lot of bike lanes, and I can hook up with the bike lane system probably 4 miles at most from my house.

      • Rat on a train

        We don’t have any bike infrastructure in my neighborhood. Maybe they are counting US Bike Route 1 which is nearby, but is just riding on narrow, high-speed roads.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Damn – mine is a 64. I still drive most places, though. Because I am a free American.

      • blackjack

        Walk score 78. The greenies love my city, but I drive/ride high horsepower vehicles everywhere I go, just to mitigate that. Actuall, I have a vintage Schwinn that I sometime cruise around on with my kid, but only for fun.

      • blackjack

        I wouldn’t want to live somewhere that precluded my kid from walking to the store on his own. I could see going more rural, but I want my kid to go out and meet people and interact with them on his own.

      • Animal

        Heh. We get a Walk Score of zero and a Bike Score of 44.

  50. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    My boss just skipped over me in an “around the room” meeting. I think that’s my signal to just shut it off and do my laundry.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Yep. Though usually, I will step away when that happens and from across the house I will here “Does OBE have anything to add?” Or it will be a go-back asking me something specific, since you know, I am the smartest midget in the room.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    Infuriating depravity

    In 1990, the British sociologist Anthony Giddens published a book called The Consequences of Modernity, in which he asks a simple question: “Why do most people, most of the time, trust in practices and social mechanisms about which their own technical knowledge is slight or nonexistent?” Giddens argued that many of the extraordinary marvels of modern life are made possible by widespread trust in what he calls “expert systems,”and noted that we encounter them routinely in daily life, in ways we rarely think about.

    Commercial air travel and rail transit are expert systems. So are medicine, science, and government. Every time we climb into a car built this century, we are placing our lives in the hands of engineers and computer programmers we will never meet and whose intricate handiwork we only dimly understand, if at all. And Giddens cautioned that the freely given and almost automatic trust that we place in the designers and operators of such systems shouldn’t be taken for granted.

    Perhaps nothing has proven him right more than the choice by a large percentage of Americans to refuse the miraculous COVID-19 vaccines. Infuriatingly, resistance to vaccination has broken down along partisan lines, and the GOP’s destructive embrace of this kind of conspiratorial thinking will likely kill thousands of rank-and-file Republicans. But this problem isn’t just about partisanship. Instead, as Giddens taught, it is a feature of modernity as we live it, an almost inevitable byproduct of social complexity that can only be better managed rather than eradicated.

    Almost five years ago, Damon Linker wrote here in The Week about the way that political entrepreneurs have weaponized distrust as a means to tear down existing institutions and to replace them with something new and more radical. He lamented that the “trustworthiness of the authorities” who direct expert systems “has been under direct and continuous attack for the past several decades.” Linker blamed the rise of conspiracy thinking mostly on right-wing media personalities for the “continuous artillery fire” they have trained for decades on the institutions that underpin liberal democracy.

    Yes, of course. Right wing extremists have undermined the foundations of civil society. Why do they not unquestioningly love and obey the mandarinate?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Besides some polls that we all know are bullshit..how do they know this: “Infuriatingly, resistance to vaccination has broken down along partisan lines”

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I think it is accurate to some degree. A group of people that is regularly derided by The Cathedral are going to be skeptical of anything The Cathedral is propagandizing this hard.

    • R C Dean

      Damon Linker wrote here in The Week about the way that political entrepreneurs have weaponized distrust as a means to tear down existing institutions and to replace them with something new and more radical

      No question that’s true. The Left has been chewing away at existing institutions for decades.

      Linker blamed the rise of conspiracy thinking mostly on right-wing media personalities

      *facepalm*

      • Ownbestenemy

        Damn you…damn you all to hell!

      • R C Dean

        Seen somewhere on the internet:

        “When did “conspiracy theory” turn into “spoiler alert”?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        “conspiracy theory” is now a phrase that lets me know that I need to pay attention.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        He was that close but he popped it up into the infield.

    • Ownbestenemy

      BLM/Anifia of course do not figure into Linker’s equation I suppose.

      Almost five years ago, Damon Linker wrote here in The Week about the way that political entrepreneurs have weaponized distrust as a means to tear down existing institutions and to replace them with something new and more radical.

    • Lord Humungus

      >>Commercial air travel and rail transit are expert systems. So are medicine, science, and government

      Engineering is not the same as as the last three; it has notable successes (and sometimes a few failures).

      And when science gets politicized; and medicine, why would we always trust it? For example I don’t trust that my doctor is always 100% right, especially with their own biases and limited information about me.

      I don’t trust government given it’s inherent cronyism and outright lies; because politicians will do anything to win the majority of a vote.

      • Ownbestenemy

        A great doctor will/should let you know when it is a best guess. No politician would ever do that. So yeah, trying to lump those in there as part of expert systems is ridiculous.

      • Lord Humungus

        also see: Thalidomide

      • R C Dean

        Government, as an expert system? It is to laugh.

      • AlexinCT

        Must have been written by a bureaucrat…

    • blackjack

      Infuriatingly, resistance to vaccination has broken down along partisan lines, and the GOP’s destructive embrace of this kind of conspiratorial thinking will likely kill thousands of rank-and-file Republicans.

      If this were true, they would all be encouraging it. This whole scam is just a way to consolidate power and justify the misdeeds done to acquire it.

    • Agent Cooper

      “we only dimly understand, if at all.”

      Fuck you, loser.

    • Pope Jimbo

      It is amazing how upset these jokers are that the unwashed masses won’t listen to them about the vaccines.

      They can’t admit that a lot of people think “Hmmmm. I’m young and have no comorbidities and am at almost zero risk from the Rona. On the other hand this vaccine was rushed and wasn’t tested as much as I would like. Maybe I’ll wait a bit and see if anything really bad happens.”

      It is a very rational position to take. If your risk from A is zero, why would you incur risk from B just to avoid A happening? Even if B is also a near zero risk.

      • blackjack

        That would be a totally reasonable argument, except it’s all politics now. The vax is the one thing Biden has gotten right, in their minds. Never mind that Trump actually made the vax and setup the distribution. It’s seen as a positive, so it’s been reassigned to Biden. With the historical revisionism that has become the norm, thanks to the “information age.”

    • EvilSheldon

      Good Enkidu, what a passel of idiots. Linker and Giddens both.

      The reason that people trust systems that they lack a process-level understanding of, is that those systems have a record of success.

      That’s it.

      If a system has no quantifiable record, or if there is reason to believe that record is being falsified, the the trust in the system goes down the crapper.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    That’s obviously part of the problem, especially with the COVID vaccines. Hostility to the shots was cynically cultivated by far-right figures like former President Trump and the usual suspects on Fox News and the right-wing media ecosphere. An anti-vaccine posture has now become so de rigueur on the right that it was practically a running theme of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), most theatrically when Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert shouted “Don’t come knockin’ on my door with your Fauci Ouchie” to the delirious throngs.

    But more fundamentally, it is the dense web of expert systems, only a handful of which most individuals meaningfully understand in a single lifetime, which produces recurring crises of trust and faith in our institutions. Giddens argues that mistrust is a natural part of the lay person’s relationship with science. He writes that “ignorance always provides grounds for skepticism or at least caution,” given that we frequently are asked to trust expert systems with our lives, or the lives of our children, about which we might be even more protective. He calls this the “bargain with modernity” that we must make to live normally in society without being consumed by constant fear and doubt.

    Or maybe, just maybe, the inescapable conclusion that the so-called “experts” in this case have been clearly and consistently wrong from the beginning has caused people’s trust in those particular “experts” to evaporate.

    Demonstrable expertise is essential. Don’t just tell me to take your word for it.

    • R C Dean

      Hostility to the shots was cynically cultivated by far-right figures like former President Trump

      What a flat-out lie. Trump promoted the vax, which was developed on a fast track that he put in place.

      The initial vax skeptics were Dems doing their TDS #resist thing. Up to and including Harris and Biden.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yes

        I’m confounded by people who ask me why I don’t trust a single point coming out of the government anymore.

      • waffles

        Holy shit, you’re right. The mendacity these people operate on just floors me. There’s no trust possible left for me.

      • Pope Jimbo

        ^THIS^

        Before the election, Harris flat out said she wouldn’t take any vaccination developed during the Trump administration.

        Now they are trying to spin anti-vax shit as being caused only by right wing groups? Nice.

        To be fair, if Trump had won a lot of people would be on different sides of this debate simply because of Team Politics.

    • blackjack

      Hostility to the shots was cynically cultivated by far-right figures like former President Trump

      This is even more bullshit. Trump was the single politician who has never disparaged the vax. The dems hated the idea when Trump was the one pushing it. Trump is very proud that he was able to get it made.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yep. They have to push this line because of that very fact.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Curious

    • Lord Humungus

      Great vaxx there 😉

    • Ownbestenemy

      Also not her, an aide and staffer

      A White House official and a staff member for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have both tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the same reception last week, officials confirmed to Axios.

      • Sean

        Meh. Close enough.

        I’m mildly distracted (at work).

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Nice to know our betters are still having receptions. They’re probably also still having cocktail parties, regattas, and galas.

    • blackjack

      But her hair was perfect.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    A White House official and a staff member for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have both tested positive for COVID-19 after attending the same reception last week, officials confirmed to Axios.

    But she was a good little doomsday cultist and wore the holy facial ornamentation! How can this be?

    • R C Dean

      The White House is prepared for breakthrough cases with regular testing.

      Disregarding the CDC, which says there’s no reason to test vaccinated people unless they show symptoms.

      When the White House disregards the CDC, who is it eroding trust in the experts, again?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Between the WH disregarding the CDC’s own guidelines, state politicians disregarding the FAA/WH decree…and people still don’t just say fuck you, makes me sad.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    Not Nancy herself? Halleluiah. I was so concerned.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Even the Rona has standards. No way they are going to take up residence in Nancy’s respitory system

  55. ignoreLander

    That’s a pleasant surprise.

    Yeah, it is, that’s actually encouragi —

    …. the memo makes clear that federal prosecutors can, in some cases, obtain journalists’ records. Those exceptions include if the reporters are suspected of working for agents of a foreign power or terrorist organizations, if they are under investigation for unrelated activities….

    Oh.

    • Lord Humungus

      >> or terrorist organization

      like any Trump voter.

      • ignoreLander

        Anytime the words “suspected” or “unrelated” are included in politikspeak, the meat of the statement is completely and totally negated, and the rule/law/regulation/edict becomes completely null and void.

    • R C Dean

      Its actually all bullshit. But let’s just start with the idea that journalists are privileged from being prosecuted for any crime simply because they are journalists. That’s not what freedom of speech means.

  56. R C Dean

    TMITE, episode 4,382,215:

    We have a large group of Democrats who took a private plane to DC, are staying in very nice hotels there, and plan to stay for a month. At least.

    Not asked: Who is paying for all this? Yeah, they get a per diem during sessions from Texas, but that’s not near enough to cover their bills for all this.

    Also not asked: why is the Texas per diem for attending a session of the legislature being paid to people who aren’t attending a session of the legislature?

    • blackjack

      More importantly, A substantial percentage of them tested positive for the ‘vid, despite being vaxxed. How many of the “increase in cases” are from the vaxxed who will suffer not one little bit? Not that it matters much, because, of those who get the ‘vid, only about 1% of them will suffer in any meaningful way, anyway.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Tax payers and nothing will happen to them. They are getting a consequence-free vacation most likely. Just like with the classified data, if I spend any of my per-diem when I am on government travel on something that I am not supposed to, it results in days on the beach, aka I get screwed to the wall.

      • blackjack

        Texas will do whatever it can to make these people regret it, as well they should.

  57. Pope Jimbo

    I identify with HellBoy, but it has been a while since I got that sunburned.

    As a kid it happened every other day at the beginning of summer until I finally got enough sun so that all the freckles closed in and gave me some protection.

    The only people who put anything on their skin that I can remember were girls who put oil on so they could tan faster. And maybe a few freaks that put zinc oxide on their nose. Everyone else just got sunburned and dealt with it. I remember contests to try to peel the biggest chunks of dead skin off someone’s burnt back as a kid.

    • R C Dean

      That level of sunburn can actually have some serious side effects.

    • blackjack

      I’m lucky I have sun friendly skin. I get really dark, really fast and only burn in a few places, like the tops of my feet (because they almost always in shoes.) But, yeah, getting a tan used to be a good thing, but now everyone thinks that the sun will affect them like they were Romanians or something.

    • Lord Humungus

      Worst sunburn I ever got was going to Puerto Rico when I still had my Michigan winter pasty white flesh.

      After a snorkeling trip I turned red/orange; and had a big white mark on my back in the shape of a handprint. This was the only place I slapped on some sunscreen between dives. It took a few months for that mark to fade!

      • blackjack

        Once, my girlfriend was lighting a cig with the car lighter, just as she went over a speed bump. It knocked the lighter right onto her nose. She had a perfect swirly pattern on her nose for about two months.

    • AlexinCT

      My company just notified me that their system has no way to allow me to identify as a multi-megaton nuclear bomb and I need to be something else… I guess I will tell them I identify as an Nimitz class aircraft carrier or a F-22 fighter, and see where that goes…

      • blackjack

        Whatever floats your boat.

  58. The Late P Brooks

    Government, as an expert system? It is to laugh.

    That just proves what an ignoramus you are. You are incapable of comprehending the subtle, ethereal beauty of public decisionmaking.

    • R C Dean

      I think its the precision, the analytic attention to second and third order effects, the rigorous adherence to data, that I just can’t follow. Being an irredeemable rube and all.