391 Comments

  1. Yusef drives a Kia

    OK Javier can pull it off,

    • Not Adahn

      Well, until he realizes that Jean Valjean spared his life. Then he kind of loses it.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Is that from that one thing where Superman’s dad is chasing Wolverine around and Catwoman is super sad all the time?

      • Not Adahn

        Wait, which Catwoman? Melanie Griffith or Ursula Andrews?

      • Lord Humungus

        What no love for Lee Meriwether ?

        (to be honest I have a hard time believing she was Miss America in 1955)

      • Ted S.

        Damn your nimble fingers!

      • Tres Cool

        Eartha Kitt.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        YESSSSSSSS!

      • Tres Cool

        Conversely, Yvonne Craig as Batgirl (and the horny green chick in Star Trek)

        Vishnu H. Christ, that woman had some LAIGS.

      • Tonio

        Damn your nimble fingers, sir.

      • Tres Cool

        Great minds. Or old minds.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Definitely not Halle Berry.

        *sudders*

      • Not Adahn

        It’s pretty obvious whoever the showrunners for Gotham were, they considered the Tim Burton movies the true Batman

      • Animal

        Hollywood Knights was a fun movie. Basically just an ad for Popular Hot Rodding magazine, with teen hijinks and hot chicks thrown in, but a good popcorn flick you don’t have to think too much about.

      • Tonio

        Eartha Kitt.

  2. Count Potato

    Huh, so that’s the guy from the memes.

    • Count Potato

      “Anyone can tell you I don’t order people about,” he wrote in the statement. “Everyone works when they like. I’ve hardly ever exerted authority over it internally at all. Partly as a result, the organization developed a kind of messy structurelessness where it wasn’t clear who had power to do what and there was not much accountability for getting work done. The organization had become very inefficient, I wasn’t exercising any oversight, and we were adrift.”

      LOL

      • R C Dean

        *calls emergency meeting of Board Executive Committee*

        *Fires CEO*

      • Tres Cool

        Since Im just a stack-monkey with barely a high school education, I have a question about Parliamentary Procedure when it comes to calling “emergency meeting”. Do you tell everyone in advance “hey, this asshole did (x) and we need to get rid of him/xer/her xhe” ? Or do you just take the floor and drop it in front of everyone ? Is there a protocol in place ?

      • R C Dean

        Typically, called meetings should have the topic of the meeting in the notice for the meeting. As you can imagine, the notice can be quite bland and unhelpful.

        Notice of an Executive Committee meeting would go only to members of the Executive Committee.

        To fire the CEO, I would call each member, tell them that the call is confidential, ask them to waive formal notice, and tell them that we are having a meeting at X time in Y place. Depending on the members, I would likely tell them that the meeting will discuss the CEO’s performance and whether xe should be retained.

        At a regular meeting, anybody can make a motion which would introduce a topic. The Chair typically has the authority to refuse to allow a motion to proceed if it isn’t on the agenda. If the Chair shuts it down, its shut down. Firing a CEO would get shut down at a regular board meeting if it wasn’t on the agenda.

        But its not impossible a board member could drop the motion out of the blue at a regular meeting and it could go to a vote.

      • Gadfly

        It’s almost like “from each according to their ability” doesn’t work unless someone is holding a whip.

      • Bobarian LMD

        And it still doesn’t work for very long when someone is holding the whip.

      • ignoreLander

        “Anyone can tell you I don’t order people about,” he wrote in the statement. “Everyone works when they like. I’ve hardly ever exerted authority over it internally at all. Partly as a result, the organization developed a kind of messy structurelessness where it wasn’t clear who had power to do what and there was not much accountability for getting work done. The organization had become very inefficient, I wasn’t exercising any oversight, and we were adrift.”

        General Milley? Is that you?

  3. limey

    Speaking of Disney, I still haven’t seen the final season of Agents of Shield. Let’s see if I can purchase it individually without having to sign up to Disney+. No spoilers please, including opinions.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I think Netflix has it

      • SDF-7

        iTunes definitely has it if you’re into the Apple ecosystem.

      • limey

        I don’t think that’s true for the UK. It always used to have it for the US but in the UK I’d get it through Prime, unless it was the latest one which was on 4OD while it was airing on Channel 4, then immediately taken down the week it finished before eventually surfacing on Prime, until of course Disney ate it. I can purchase the older seasons individually so hopefully this one eventually gets released in a way that doesn’t involve paying tribute to the brutal Mouse god.

    • Not Adahn

      Haven’t seen the last few seasons, but my opinion is it has some of the best gun-fu on screen. So much better than that godawful Equilibrium.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You mean “The Matrix For Retards”?

      • Count Potato

        Existenz was great.

      • DEG

        I read that as Extenz.

        I watched the trailer. It reminded me in some ways of “The Matrix”.

      • Tres Cool

        I saw a similar device used in a “show” once in Juarez, Mexico. But it was surrounded by straw bales, and a donkey was involved.
        Or maybe it was a mule. I get the 2 mixed-up.

      • Tonio

        Donkey, aka burro, ass, is a domesticated species. Mule is a generally sterile hybrid of a horse and a donkey.

      • Animal

        Specifically of a male donkey (jack) and a female horse (mare.)

        Breeding a male horse (stallion) to a female donkey (jenny) gives you a hinny.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Thanos snapped that season away.

  4. R C Dean

    Congrats.

    Every link except the last one bounced off my work firewall.

    • Not Adahn

      Yup.

      • Not Adahn

        Wait, no. The FEE one works.

      • R C Dean

        Same here. I don’t like triggering my firewall, so I looked at that link and somehow misread it.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Who reads the links?

      • MikeS

        The what?

    • Gadfly

      Fun links will do that.

  5. Shpip

    On social media, many have pointed out that charging extra for what once was a free perk makes the Disney experience inaccessible to those who can’t afford it.

    Isn’t pretty much every entertainment experience inaccessible to those who can’t afford it?

    • Rat on a train

      Well, you are already paying $400+ just to get a family of four in for a day. If you can afford that, what’s a little more. I still have my $99 Disneyland annual pass from the 90s.

      • Gadfly

        The Disney resorts have gotten quite expensive, probably due to demand. They should really open a third park somewhere in the country. Maybe Texas. We have a lot of great amusement parks in Texas already, but AFAIK no great theme parks, so there’s a market opportunity.

  6. Not Adahn

    That Quinn guy said that Zendaya was fantastic in the movie clips he was shown.

    • limey

      No comment on her in particular but Spider-Man’s European Vacation was terrible.

      • Tres Cool

        You should see the Italian version.

      • waffles

        Thank you for bringing that into my life.

      • Tres Cool

        From the same people that brought you Danger 5 (I learned about it here!).

        You should get toasty and watch some.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Thanks, Tres. That’s like dropping acid without the unpleasant side effects. Hallucinogenics for teetotalers, if you will.

      • Nephilium

        I can at least roll with the Mysterio interpretation. But the drone system being handed over annoyed me. There’s some rumblings that Charlie Cox is going to be reprising his Daredevil role in the next Spidey film.

      • Bobarian LMD

        That would be excellent.

      • limey

        Yeah that might be cool. I’d really like to find out what happened with Danny and Colleen, though. I’m never going to let that one go.

      • limey

        Ps the one two punch of Danny Rand and Luke Cage in the Netflix shows (best part of the last season of Luke Cage) made for some of the best fight sequences ever. The Netflix marvels, and also AoS, as mentioned above all went above and beyond when it came to choreographing and filming really amazing fight sequences.

    • db

      Chani will always be Sean Young to me!

      /young, impressionable db

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        She’s Rachel.

        And the chick from No Way Out, easily the best of the Costner films.

      • db

        I didn’t say that Sean Young is always Chani. I loved her in most roles I’ve seen her in.

      • Tonio

        Her performance in Blade Runner was perfection.

        “That’s not my kind of place, Mr. Deckard.”

      • Sensei

        “Is this testing whether I’m a replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?”

      • Not Adahn

        “Is this to test if I’m a replicant, or a lesbian?”

      • Rat on a train

        We need more time granularity!

      • Zwak, jack off, all trades

        Do you like our owl, Mr. Deckard?

        That whole scene is perfection.

      • Bobarian LMD

        SHE’S NOT LOIS EINHORN!, She’s Ray Finkle!

    • Fatty Bolger

      I really like the casting choices they made.

      • Zwak, jack off, all trades

        I am pretty impressed by them also.

        Leit Keynes threw me for a second, but I can roll with that, and Charlotte Rampling is perfection.

      • robc

        Yeah, that one is fine.

    • Gustave Lytton

      The Overton window should be used for defenestration.

  7. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

  8. Tonio

    Regarding the Current Affairs magazine kerfuffle: Hahahahaha….

    • Not Adahn

      Doesn’t someone here have a hate boner for NJR?

    • Tonio

      They did a shoddy little hit piece on The Tuttle Twins. Boyack responded by publicizing it, hanging a framed copy on his office wall, and offering a discount code #currentaffairs.

  9. Lord Humungus

    I mentioned to my (very liberal) friend how a vaxxed person ended up with the disease for a second time.

    He rattled off some statistics that vaxxed people only have a “.2% chance of being hospitalized”

    To which I said: EF knows two lawyers who were vaxxed and hospitalized. (not to mention the many, many others)

    Him: “I prefer to go with statistics over anecdotes.”

    Me: uh… ok then.

    • Lord Humungus

      and of course the blame on the unvaxxed for all the problems for the vaxxed.

      • db

        That’s totally logical and scientific thinking there.

    • db

      The plural of “anecdote” is “data.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      My neighbor who had violent tremors after her second shot: “I’m definitely getting the booster.”

      • db

        “Best orgasm I’ve ever had!”

    • Tres Cool

      How about “so if Im un-vaxxed, and get sick from the virus, I have a better than 99% chance of NOT dying. You do like statistics, right ?”

      • rhywun

        If you get sick and pass it along, that’s your fault.

        If the vaxxed get sick and pass it along, that’s your fault too.

    • Zwak, jack off, all trades

      Ugh, I think my mother has moved into the hypervax category. I am doing everything I can not to discuss this with her, but she makes it really hard.

      • Tres Cool

        “but she makes it really hard”

        Paging Oedipus! Mr. Rex to the courtesy phone, please.

    • Gadfly

      Is that stat a 0.2% chance of vaxxed people being hospitalized or 0.2% chance of vaxxed people who catch COVID being hospitalized? Because those would be two very different stats, and the former would probably not be much different than the chance of an unvaxxed person being hospitalized.

  10. OBJ FRANKELSON

    ‘In a lengthy Facebook statement responding to the backlash, Robinson wrote that “the truth is more complex than the ‘fired the staff for wanting democracy’ narrative.”’

    *Chef’s kiss*

    I always find it funny that it is only the people with bourgeois jobs like writing for a website or some such that are interested in starting the revolt of the proletariat . Meanwhile, the actual proletariat has shown themselves to be not at all interested in what they are selling.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Marxist revolutions have always been led by the bourgeoisie. The proletariat are just cannon fodder.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Most of the proles are just interested in getting on with their lives, not revolution.

      • Gadfly

        Which ironically makes them mirror images of the systems they are trying to overthrow.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      It’s the false consciousness.

      • Lackadaisical

        Beat me to it.

    • Rat on a train

      SOP. The proles need to be led to utopia. The party will drag them there through the dictatorship of the proletariat

    • rhywun

      “Everyone works when they like. I’ve hardly ever exerted authority over it internally at all. Partly as a result, the organization developed a kind of messy structurelessness where it wasn’t clear who had power to do what and there was not much accountability for getting work done. The organization had become very inefficient, I wasn’t exercising any oversight, and we were adrift.”

      ???

      Dude.

      Don’t embarrass yourself any further.

  11. Count Potato

    “Here, FEMAIL reveals the site’s top 10 earners – and their estimated monthly incomes:
    1. Blac Chyna: $20 MILLION
    2. Bella Thorne: $11 MILLION
    3. Cardi B: $9.34 MILLION
    4. Tyga: $7.69 MILLION
    5. Mia Khalifa: $6.43 MILLION
    6. Erica Mena: $4.49 MILLION
    7. Pia Mia: $2.22 MILLION
    8. Safaree Samuels: $1.91 MILLION
    9. Megan Barton Hanson: $1.06 MILLION
    10. Jem Wolfie: $900,000 ”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9911781/Sex-workers-models-slam-OnlyFans-using-explicit-content-ban.html

    I would have expected way more porn stars.

    • Tres Cool

      I see Demi Rose didn’t make the cut.

      • Count Potato

        She’s mostly IG.

    • Not Adahn

      Who there is not a porn star?

      • Tonio

        [golf clap]

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Most of a pornstar’s money disappears up their nose. That said, I am a little surprised that Jenna Jameson is not up there. Last I heard she was doing well for herself.

      • Gadfly

        The number 10 spot on that list is making $900K per month. That leaves a lot of room for a lot of people below the #10 spot to be doing very well for themselves.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Good point

    • Lord Humungus

      For some reason I thought Bella Thorne has been around a lot longer than she has.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        To OMWC she has.

      • Not Adahn

        A hottie from OMWC’s tribe

    • Chafed

      That is an insane amount of money.

      • db

        I had an engineering colleague who worked her way through college as a dancer (and probably other things). She had been in a major car accident and had some huge medical bills (uninsured at the time) that she told me she paid off in only a couple of years. I never knew until she left the company what her previous occupation was (should have been able to guess) and how much crazy money she had made.

      • Not Adahn

        Remember: A stripper earns more than enough to afford rent, food, clothes and drugs both for herself and her boyfriend.

      • Lord Humungus

        I know an ex-stripper – was very cute back in the day, and had one of the best rears I’ve ever seen.

        Back when she used to strip, I would sit at a table with her and talk. (It felt weird when she would do her dance on the stage and then stop by for an extra uh tip).

        Anyways she would comment about the other dancers there:

        “Snow Bunny”
        “Drunk all the time”
        “Hooker”

        etc. Of course she was known to do a “little blow” every once in a while.

        Now she looks like a Mexican grandmother.

      • Lackadaisical

        Because she is one?

    • db

      Guess I’m too late to cash in on the crazy money potential of an OnlyFans. Missed it by that much!

      • Lord Humungus

        Dick pics are like snow in the Arctic.

      • db

        The natives have a hundred words to express how awesome my dick is?

    • Zwak, jack off, all trades

      They might not be porn stars, but every one of them is a whore on some level.

      • Bobarian LMD

        But ain’t we all?

      • TARDis

        Yes. As mentioned ’round here a time or two. It’s a matter of price.
        Re: this morning’s thread, if real prostitution was legal ^^^these^^^ whores would make a lot less money. I wouldn’t pay 99 cents to watch any of them do a damn thing, but I guess enough incels will, so the money flows. If only involuntary celibacy could be treated as a disability.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        People being on house arrest for a portion of the year probably drove demand through the roof too.

      • TARDis

        *peruses booze expenditures*

        Checks out.

    • The Other Kevin

      That seems like an awful lot of money for people who only make 70% of what men make.

    • Count Potato

      “Biden says he’ll evacuate ALL US citizens from Afghanistan, insists allies have NOT questioned America’s credibility and finally takes questions (from a pre-approved list) in speech he started 50 minutes late”

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9912725/This-one-difficult-airlifts-history-Biden-says.html

      “Is this man fit for office? Doctors say they would be concerned about ‘anyone’ with Joe Biden’s symptoms at age 78 after two brain aneurysms and a heart condition – which are BOTH linked to memory problems”

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9912027/Doctors-say-concerned-Joe-Bidens-symptoms-age-78.html

      Maybe you should have made a point of this before the election?

      • Lord Humungus

        >>insists allies have NOT questioned America’s credibility

        The UK Parliament says hello.

      • Not Adahn

        Pshaw! Parliament is not our ally! Only the PM and the Duchess of Sussex matter!

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        C’mon, man. Just send them 8-tracks with recordings of Joe’s speeches. They’ll be fine. That’s what FDR did.

  12. Sensei

    Only the state can create a system where it will be a net loss selling MJ.

    N.J. legal weed rules are here. So when can I buy it?

    During a press conference following the commission’s meeting, the chair, Dianna Houenou, said that it will “take a little while” before sales can begin, as the commission is focused first on opening up the application process to license new businesses. She said that will be “forthcoming within the next few weeks.”

    Many of the rules unveiled Thursday focus on social and racial equity in licensing new cannabis businesses and health and safety regulations.

    Appropriate palms must be greased.

    • Tres Cool

      “…and racial equity in licensing new cannabis businesses…”

      Even Spaulding knows the coloreds have thebest weed.

    • Lord Humungus

      You want a black (joke!) market, this is how you keep a black market.

    • Tonio

      Yeah, the whole MJ legalization thing is good in theory but a shitshow in practice. Some places are also prioritizing licensure for previously-convicted, nonviolent distributors of product. Socons, who are already pissy about losing this are screeching about “criminals.” Most people are sticking with their existing sources for the moment.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The dispensary system in Lousiana is hosed, getting a medical card is not super difficult, but the dispensaries are very limited and overpriced. It is far easier and economical to buy from your normal guy… at least that is what I heard.

      • Tonio

        Medical MJ is a whole other thing than legal recreational weed. Practically, it’s back-door legalization as quack docs will give you a medical MJ card for any of a laundry list of complaints. BUT, you’re on a government list and that’s no bueno. Also it’s still illegal on the federal level everywhere, and there are some unanswered questions about 2A rights…

      • Lord Humungus

        MJ legalization here in Michigan has been fairly good. Lots of regulations, etc but the prices – $25 for an 1/8th is better (if you include inflation and quality) over the Mexican Ditch weed that made up the majority of my 1980s smoking.

    • rhywun

      focus on social and racial equity

      OFFS.

      My country is a laughingstock Pt. 1,233,415

    • Loveconstitution1789

      The whole war on drugs and “legalization” schemes by some states are jokes.

      The controlled substances act is unconstitutional. Even the prohibitionists knew that they needed a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol. All drug laws are null and void and Americans should act that way. Laugh at people who say drugs are illegal.

      Commie democrats and social conservatives dont follow the constitution, when the violate american rights. So fuck them. They dont get the protections of the constitution then. Its why america is in civil war 2.0 we can even agree that massive democrat election fraud means this republic has fallen apart.

  13. Fatty Bolger

    Spirit just sent me an email asking me to book a flight. So they can cancel it, I presume.

    • Tres Cool

      “Ill hold the ball, Charlie Brown. You come running up and kick it.”

    • Deplorableme
    • Winston

      Regime libertarians have sad.

    • R C Dean

      “We can barely keep up with three rednecks in Michigan. The Capitol protest was waay beyond our ability to subvert.”

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      So you’re saying there’s some evidence.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      It was protest of democrat election fraud and some people entered a public building. Some people also broke the law by damaging property.

      Government should be scared of whats coming. Civil war 2.0 is not going to end how they hoped.

      Government officials and politicians have violated nearly every constitutional protection and limit. They are traitors and deserve what is coming.

  14. Rat on a train

    OT: Hummingbirds are fighting for control of my front yard again.

    • Count Potato

      You should dress them in little WWII uniforms.

    • Gadfly

      I think she’s missing the subtext about the diamonds saying – it’s not the diamonds per se, it’s what they represent. And what they represent is typically far more valued by your average woman than what a vibrator represents.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Uffda. She’s a professional model? How?

      If the story hadn’t said what her job was, I would have figured she needed the toy because she couldn’t meet a man with that grumpy face.

    • Deplorableme

      Back in my day, we used to call them Tom Boys. And then they out grow it when they develop.

      • Bobarian LMD

        And when they don’t grow out of it and want to maim themselves with surgery?

        Batshit.

    • R C Dean

      Punchline: Everybody has different ideas about what constitutes “false information online”.

      • Lord Humungus

        ie, information that “I don’t like”

      • Not Adahn

        With a heavy heart, and a solemn sense of duty, I will accept the weighty burden of deciding what is or isn’t allowed online.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      As i mentioned earlier today, the progressives are resident in both parties. They agree on the power that the government should have, but not on who the victim should be.

      Any attempt to co-opt the GOP for libertarian use will fail for this exact reason. You’ll lose 1/3 of the party when they realize that they won’t be able to harass their enemies.

      • Winston

        When you speak of GOP progressives, who are you referring to?

        Any attempt to co-opt the GOP for libertarian use will fail for this exact reason. You’ll lose 1/3 of the party when they realize that they won’t be able to harass their enemies.

        This is why Fabian libertarianism or moderate libertarianism won’t work either.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        When you speak of GOP progressives, who are you referring to?

        Mostly the socons, but it’s a subset of a number of factions these days.

      • DEG

        So far it’s working at the state level in NH. They haven’t won every battle, but are winning more and gaining ground.

      • robc

        It still would have been easier in Wyoming.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Socons want to use govt to control behavior they deem “bad”. They are not harrassing their enemies. The war on drugs is their way of using govt to control drug users. These people are tyrants just as Lefties are tyrants in their own way.

        Its why on a political spectrum Libertarianism is centrist. Left extreme is communism. Right extreme is monarchy and oligarchy. The extreme ends of the spectrum are tyrannical. The centrist covers the most free range.

  15. Certified Public Asshat

    The Science of Masking Kids at School Remains Uncertain

    Many people may surmise that even if there’s not conclusive evidence, it’s still likely that masking kids in schools helps. But not all masks are created equal. A list of public-health notables, including Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and former COVID-19 adviser to Joe Biden, and Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the FDA, have publicly noted the limited effectiveness of cloth masks. Celine Gounder, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at NYU, who also advised Biden’s transition team on COVID-19 policy, recently tweeted a chart that showed when cloth masks are worn by both the source and receiver they provide just an estimated 27 minutes of protection from an infectious dose of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Higher-grade N95s, or KN95s, the Chinese equivalent, offer more protection, but are also much harder to tolerate over extended periods of time. Three physicians I talked with considered the idea of children wearing them all day at school — suggested recently by an aerosol scientist in the Times — “laughable,” “cruel,” and “unrealistic, because most adults can barely handle an N95 for even short durations,” since they are so uncomfortable.

    • R C Dean

      Many people

      Who? And how many?

      may surmise

      So they may not even surmise (read: speculate) what follows.

      that even if there’s not conclusive evidence

      And you admit there isn’t good evidence.

      it’s still likely that masking kids in schools helps.

      How likely? How helpful?

      The only real informational content in that sentence is the admission that there’s no good evidence masking helps.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I pulled that quote out of the middle of the article. It already explained that studies show masks are not doing anything in schools.

        This is just saying for those who insist anyway, the kid with the My Little Pony mask and the kid with the Spiderman mask would only be protected for maybe 27 minutes.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        But there’s a chart in a tweet. If that’s not Science, I don’t know what is.

      • R C Dean

        And this is why

        Meaning comes from context.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I gave you the headline.

      • R C Dean

        You did. But “Remains Uncertain” is an awfully ambiguous headline for an article based on the studies that show masks are not doing anything in schools. As near as I can tell, the current state of “Teh Science” isn’t uncertain, its that they don’t fucking work. Consistent with “Teh Science” up until March 2020.

        Obvs, I did not click through.

      • Gadfly

        How likely? How helpful?

        We must do something. This is something, therefor we must do this.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Girl with short cropped hair at church last week hardest hit.

      -1 “there’s no reason not to send them to school with masks”

    • Gustave Lytton

      The takeaway will be that kids need to wear N100 masks for the entire school day.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        It does suggest later that the best way to protect kids is through adult vaccination.

        I was trying to be optimistic that at least the mask narrative continues to fail.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Leaving aside everything else and just looking at it from a pro mask perspective, this is exactly what is wrong with mandates. Whatever is the minimum required becomes the maximum done. Grudgingly at best and will drag feet even if the underlying assumptions change. There are still people wearing face shields when required to wear a face covering, because that was allowed last year.

      • C. Anacreon

        The annoying thing is, too many people confuse “no mandate” with meaning “no masks”. Heck, without a mandate you can still feel free to wear three masks if you wish. But they just want everyone else to do what they feel is right for them.

      • MikeS

        We have a local blogger who has described himself as a “libertarian leaning conservative”. (and that used to be accurate) Over th last 4+ years he has become a Never-Trumper and had a very bad bout of the ‘Vid. Trump+COVID apparently broke him, because he recently wrote a column explaining how a statewide ban on mask-mandates was an example of “big-government” because it was taking control away from the local level.

        My point being, a lot of people who used to be rational and sane are no longer either.

    • PutridMeat

      I can’t be bothered to investigate for myself, but the statement “cloth masks are worn by both the source and receiver they provide just an estimated 27 minutes of protection from an infectious dose of the SARS-CoV-2” is meaningless without knowing how long it takes to receive an infectious dose without any mask what-so-ever. Even if that number is lower in a statistically significant fashion, this is a statement that cloth masks are wholly ineffective in a school setting, but could still be used to justify mask wearing in a non-school setting.

      • R C Dean

        The rule of thumb for people doing contact tracing was that a contact of less than 15 minutes was not something to follow up on. What that’s based on, I have no clue, but I think you can safely rely on that as the lower bound for transmission when no one is masked. So the question becomes, how many contacts do you have that are between 15 and 27 minutes? Because those would be the only ones where masks might make a difference.

        Of course, there is no study that measures the actual transmission time for COVID. It will vary (wildly?), I imagine, depending on the viral load being exhaled, on the one hand, and the immune system of the recipient on the other. I, of course, don’t care about “transmission” of viruses that don’t actually make anybody sick. As I told somebody earlier today, “I’m pretty sure most people have at least a few of these viruses, and many others, in their systems at any given time. Its just that you don’;t know, or care, because a few viruses don’t make you sick.” They were horrified by the thought.

      • PutridMeat

        Yep, 15 minutes was what I heard from the contract tracing world, but always *regardless* of masking status. Who’s ass those numbers and protocols came from, I’ve no idea. There seem to be so many variables beyond even the individuals involved – room size, air circulation, filtration system – so as to be a number with huge uncertainties on it. Given that the RCTs I’ve seen show statistically insignificant effects and the fact that, empirically in the real world there’s no measurable effect, the burden of proof *has* to be people trying to impose draconian measures. That’s before you even get to the moral and ethical questions of what can and cannot be required of free people.

  16. Nephilium

    Well, I’m back after getting in about 40 miles on a bike, which included some nice natural areas. With that, I’m home now, and will be kicking off the Zoom/Happy Hour/Article solicitation at 20:00 Eastern.

    • Count Potato

      How long does 40 miles take?

      • Nephilium

        Took me about 2 hours, 45 minutes. But I was dragging ass the last five miles, and that’s just moving duration, not stopped at stop signs/red lights/etc. I have some friends who would be able to burn that off in 2 hours or less. I am not that fast, and am trying to get my endurance back so I can push longer distances.

      • pistoffnick

        “…dragging ass…”

        Must cause a lot of friction, thus slowing you down

      • Lord Humungus

        Hmm… maybe some kind of motorbike would make things go by a little faster.

      • Nephilium

        But defeat the stress burning and exercise portion of the riding. I have been trying to convince the girlfriend to at least get an electric kit for her really nice bike that’s been sitting in the garage for 2 years now.

    • DEG

      Nice pictures.

      • Nephilium

        Thanks. The problem with biking down into the valley is that you have to bike back out of the valley. 🙂

        It’s part of the Rocky River Reservation, which is long and narrow, and the majority of it follows the valley cut by the river (when it was much larger).

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      I wish I could go on a bike ride. Too smoky around here.

  17. DEG

    As you can see below, amidst all the loud voices a guy dressed as Mario decides to escalate things and start throwing punches, which triggers an immediate police response as he’s hurled to the ground and detained.

    Should’ve jumped on them.

    John Prine. Nice.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      If only he had gotten to that fire flower!

  18. Winston

    https://mobile.twitter.com/Francis_Hoar/status/1428674416175722497

    This man is an abomination. As he described himself, he is little better than a tyrant. That he and others can call themselves ‘liberal’ without embarrassment shows how far western civilisation and its ethical values have plummeted.

    I thought so too after he was chosen leader. Winston is too pessimistic, right?

    His dad was an abomination too. Funny how the same elites that we should trust over the populists are the ones destroying the “liberal world order”.

    Also how can a man who legalized pot be so terrible?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Doesn’t surprise me, he does have the Castro blood pulsing through his veins and Fidel could authoritarian with the best of them.

    • Fatty Bolger

      His dad was an abomination too.

      Biological or putative? Never mind, works for either.

      • Winston

        Both…

    • Lord Humungus

      My god the comments.

      • Gadfly

        I think Twitter must show different people different comments as the “top” comments. The top few comments I see are all negative, and it’s only been an hour since you looked at it.

    • Tres Cool

      That head and the ears. Its like a VW bug that someone left both doors open.

    • DEG

      He can go fuck himself.

      • rhywun

        It would probably take less than five minutes for some motivated sleuth to dig up a snap of this person partying maskless with his hipster friends and to throw it in his face.

    • R C Dean

      Err, he’s an addiction doc. He has no more expertise on any of this than any other pediatrician (which is to say, very little indeed). The crew here could likely run rings around him after a few hours of reading up on immunology, virology, and epidemiology.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of shows, I have been watching “Brittania”. It’s weird, but it has grown on me.

    It’s definitely one of those projects where the writers just said, “Let’s see what we can get away with.”

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Osterholm + rope + lamppost

    Some assembly required.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      For being honest that cloth masks don’t work?

    • Pope Jimbo

      Pulleeeaze.

      You bastards have only had to put up with him for a year or so. Us poor Minnesodans have had to listen to him for decades.

      His constant doom and gloom shit finally got him shit canned from his job at the MN Dept of Health and he had to take some phoney baloney job in Duluth.

  21. Gadfly

    “Javier Bardem as Stilgar”

    Zendaya with blue eyes cuts quite a striking figure, IMO.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Him: “I prefer to go with statistics over anecdotes.”

    So what you’re saying is he’s not a reporter at CNN.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    For being honest that cloth masks don’t work?

    For being an hysterical fearmongering authoritarian from Day One.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      True, I am being too nice just because he let the cloth mask slip.

      He definitely wants all of us to be wearing more restrictive masks.

  24. JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

    Yesterday a former coworker was freaking out because someone at her son’s school tested positive for Covid on the first day. Then she admitted that she just found out that the only people who have problems are those with comorbidities. I was shocked that there are people that still don’t know that. It explains a lot. In her defense, she’s pretty overweight and has a messed up immune system, so she has reason to be concerned, but still.

    • Tonio

      Yeah, and with those comorbidities she’d have reasons to be concerned even if COVID-19 weren’t a thing. Sorry, but her poor decision-making (obesity) is not society’s problem.

      • Nephilium

        Are you fat shaming her? For shame…

    • Loveconstitution1789

      Also, testing positive on the first day means that they got sars-covid19 before school started.

      The problem is that all the people who agreed to hysterical lockdowns have not been exposed to all the germs humans exchange each year. Once they get near a virus, their bodies are not as capable in fighting it off.

      Even with these things most americans are asymptomatic with sars, so its not dangerous for 99% of americans.

    • Lord Humungus

      I once stood like a hundred yards from the Capitol. Can I be arrested too?

      • Lord Humungus

        I was busy stopping my (cute gal) co-worker from peeing behind the bushes out in the mall, across from the National Air & Space Museum.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Delete your accountTurn yourself in

      • Fatty Bolger

        Did you have insurrection in your heart?

      • Gustave Lytton

        I bet he was drunk on Billy Beer.

      • Bobarian LMD

        That is not where I keep mine.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Regardless of his official standing, was he not there as a journalist? Oh no one cares (not you all). Burn the witch!

    • Loveconstitution1789

      All these people charged should have demanded speedy trials and change of venue out of DC federal court. Just like the bundies that went to trial, juries are not going to convict all these people. Only a few people committed misdemeanor property damage. entering a public building to view a public process like counting EC votes is not a crime. No matter what the traitors in govt say.

      Stop letting commie traitors in govt dictate what is right and wrong and what the constitution says. Almost with out exception, our govt is corrupt beyond saving. Even our highest court is full of oath breaking traitors to the constitution. The courts refuse to hear state grievances about massive election fraud.

    • Gadfly

      LOL

  25. Gustave Lytton

    For days, the state media has been sucking Gov Shitstain’s cock that she’s sending the Guard in to help overwhelmed doctors and nurses. Me knowing what the makeup of the state guard is (overwhelmingly not medical personnel and the ones that are are usually civilian medical professionals already being needed by their civilian employers), have been waiting for the shoe to drop.

    Well here it is

    https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2021/08/oregon-army-national-guard-deployed-to-hospitals-statewide-its-all-about-keeping-people-safe.html

    She’s mobilized an infantry battalion to help out short staffed hospitals. Not even paraprofessional work, totally unskilled bodies getting in the way (and being exposed to Covid and everything else). I love my brothers to the south, but I must twist the knife a bit with their nickname (one of the one ate up).

    Also, somehow she never could mobilize the guard for rioting in Portland or for the many wildfires as they have been in the past, other than very limited support roles.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “They will perform non-medical work such as being a uniformed presence in anxiety-filled waiting rooms in their communities”

      What the hell does that mean?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Die in the hallway, motherfucker. No one is admitting you to the ICU until another bed opens up.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        To me that sounds like they’ll be standing around to intimidate people into not complaining.

      • Fatty Bolger

        That’s brilliant. Uniformed military personnel standing guard in a hospital to reduce patient anxiety. But of course, you won’t be allowed to have a spouse, relative or friend wait with you, because COVID.

      • Gadfly

        In fairness, it doesn’t say that they are there to reduce anxiety, merely that they will be placed in anxiety-filled spaces. Which has quite the sinister undertone to it.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Well if they are anything like the Hawaii guard after 9/11 they will stand around and leave their weapons on burst. Not a lot of things would bring the angry NCO out of me, but being a fuckstick with your weapon is one of those things.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’sa hell of a slap in the face to Portland

  26. Shpip

    I posted a question in the Friday Mailbag at Rotten Chestnuts (thanks again to whomever here recommended the blog), and thought I’d repeat it here to see what your thoughts are:

    When the feds passed the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s, had anyone bothered to do a Chesterton’s Fence analysis of why Jim Crow laws existed in the first place? I assume there was more to Jim Crow than “we hate nigras and want to keep them down forever.”

    Mind you, I’m not defending explicitly racist laws. The people dressed in their Sunday best peacefully marching for full membership in society had a point. But I also see the social pathologies that almost seem to be an inherent part of the Diversity — the petty hooliganism and DGAF attitude in the schools, the crime, the incessant pumping out of generation after generation of fatherless kids with almost no chance at a prosperous, productive life — and I wonder if the crackers had a point, too.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      You went there, didn’t you? Bravo!

    • Gustave Lytton

      Was that even the case prior to the Great Society and rushed expansion of the welfare state? I don’t think it was.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Black unemployment used to be lower than white and the out of wedlock birthrate was comparable way back in the beforetime.

    • Tonio

      The people dressed in their Sunday best peacefully marching for full membership in society had a point.

      Why yes, they did. I grew up in the small town Jim Crow South. I remember those marches. And in my experience it wasn’t the urban, welfare-dependent, single moms marching. It was the rural poor, married, church-going families marching because the system really was stacked against them, “separate but equal” was never really equal, and there really was voter suppression of blacks.

      • Ed Wuncler

        +1

        My grandmother on my Dad’s side (he was born and raised in Greenwood, MS) was college educated but couldn’t any jobs outside of being a maid or a teacher, so she opted (heavily pushed by my grandfather) to be a homemaker instead.

    • Ed Wuncler

      “and I wonder if the crackers had a point, too.”

      The reason why the Black Community has, “the petty hooliganism and DGAF attitude in the schools, the crime, the incessant pumping out of generation after generation of fatherless kids with almost no chance at a prosperous, productive life,” was mostly because under the guise of “righting” all the historical wrongs as a cynical ploy to get black votes, the federal government and the activists of the day created government programs that incentivized these behaviors on top of having chicken shit leaders (outside of Malcolm X and Booker T. Washington) who taught self sufficiency and pride in self as a way to climb out of poverty.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

      • db

        Sorry for my possible misunderstanding but are you saying that “self sufficiency and pride in self as a way to climb out of poverty” is mistaken?

      • Ed Wuncler

        I should say that being self sufficient (meaning not taking handouts from government) and pride in yourself are some of the many ways to climb out of poverty.

      • Ed Wuncler

        And that the chickenshit leaders outside of Malcolm X and BT Washington aren’t teaching that.

      • db

        I guess I read what you wrote as essentially:

        The reason why the Black Community has [the bad stuff] was mostly because […] the federal government and the activists of the day created government programs that incentivized these behaviors on top of having chicken shit leaders […] who taught self sufficiency and pride in self as a way to climb out of poverty.

      • Ed Wuncler

        My bad for the shitty ass grammar.

      • db

        Sorry for being a shitty-ass pedant.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        For commie democrats, slavery is the goal. They lost civil war 1.0, so economic slavery is the next best thing.

        Push americas poor onto the govt teat. Democrats only ask for votes in return.

        The devils bargain pushes black fathers out of the home, so unwed mothers could get maximum govt assistance.

        Democrats are evil fucks. They undermined poor moving up when they worked hard. Now laziness is prized.

        Communism 101

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      By my assessment, it is fatherlessness that is the primary cause of the black community’s ills. The stats on boys, in particular, raised by single mothers are drastically more likely to end up in jail. Boys that do not have a father figure tend to band together (hence, gangs) and model each other’s behavior and perhaps you don’t know this, but a group of boys, regardless of the intelligence of any given member, is one of the stupidest organisms on Earth and left to their own devices they will wreak havoc, left to their own devices long enough they will develop a very stupid culture.

      • Ed Wuncler

        Yep. I remember Mitt Romney mentioned this during one of the debates and he was ripped apart by the Left but granted the Left’s worst nightmare is for the black community to actually become better and successful.

      • Count Potato

        And the globalists worst nightmare is for Africa to become better and successful. Which is why they subsidize warlords and crooked politicians under the guise of foreign aid.

      • Gadfly

        but a group of boys, regardless of the intelligence of any given member, is one of the stupidest organisms on Earth and left to their own devices they will wreak havoc, left to their own devices long enough they will develop a very stupid culture

        Very much this.

      • TARDis

        It’s probably worse for boys, but absent a (non-abusive, steady) father figure, girls don’t turn out so well either. If they do well, it’s because the government becomes their Daddy. Ponders POS SIL. BIL has been in prison since the early 90’s. SIL had free pussy-passes. BIL had no such luck. Wife still thinks she was adopted.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    She’s mobilized an infantry battalion to help out short staffed hospitals.

    They can direct traffic. And dig graves.

    • Lord Humungus

      MASS GRAVES! Bodies stacked liked cordwood! PUT ON YOUR MASKS!

    • Gustave Lytton

      Make coffee and mop floors, too.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Clayton Bigsby is Real!

    • rhywun

      The left’s desperation is palpable, and humorous AF.

    • KSuellington

      I was switching radio stations the other day and the local NPR affiliate had some lefty on talking about the recall and I swore at any minute the doofus was gonna call Elder a white supremacist. She was dancing right up to that.

      They are really laying it on extra thick.

    • Gadfly

      Column: Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy. You’ve been warned

      I see the LA Times is aiming for a status below fish-wrap.

  28. Winston

    https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index/2020

    The jurisdictions that took the top 10 places, in order, were New Zealand, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Estonia, and Germany and Sweden (tied in 9th place).

    LOL

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      WE’RE 17TH! YAY FOR US!

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      The fact that the police states that are the ANZACs are on this list makes it a farce (perhaps this is before the public health dictatorship was enacted.)

      • Winston

        This is for the year 2020 and was published in 2021. So this includes zero covid and Hing Kong Repression…

      • rhywun

        I have a feeling the authoritarianism was present long before Captain Trips and just wasn’t as apparent to outsiders.

      • Winston

        As I have said before it appears that New Zealand’s libertarian reputation is almost entirely due to one Labour Finance Minister in the 80s. Similar to how “the libertarian moment” is almost to that one Bill Clinton. I mean posted a Richard Ebeling were he pretty much says that…

      • Winston

        I mean I posted a Richard Ebeling article were he said that freedom lovers have appeared to have deluded themselves because Reagan gave some nice speeches and Clinton said one line in one speech…

      • kbolino

        I’d say there was a bit more to it than that. I remember at one point there was an argument about red states vs. blue states on Hit & Run and it was pointed out that, at the time, Washington (already a blue state) had very liberal (unrestricted) gun laws. Of course, this eventually (and unsurprisingly) changed and now Washington leads among the more restrictive states. No doubt there were some ways in which New Zealand’s cultural attitudes and laws in the not too distant past were somewhat freer than those in the United States. All that is gone, and moreso besides, and in remarkably short order. But it was not necessarily a mistake then.

        There has been a great homogenizing of the global neoliberal oligarchy, its messaging, and its rules. It picked up steam in the last 5 years or so. Sometimes even the recent past is a starkly foreign country. Of course, the seed was there but it had not yet borne fruit.

      • Winston

        There has been a great homogenizing of the global neoliberal oligarchy, its messaging, and its rules. It picked up steam in the last 5 years or so.

        Ah Globo Homo.

        Turns out that creating a global monoculture may not have been such a great idea since it will have to suppress all sorts of ideas and it turns out that this global monoculture has embraced some pretty terrible ideas.

      • Winston

        It is interesting to see the fruits of liberal internationialism: rather than having to deal with anti-immigrant and protectionist statists in a few countries we now have the entire world run by far worse statists and we don’t have freedom of movement or trade either. Brilliant!

      • kbolino

        You have managed to find a way to make reactionary thought boring.

      • Gadfly

        They weight economic freedom far too high, would be my guess. The US has some fairly byzantine regulations that make it fair poorly on that metric. Personally I think the US, for all its faults, is probably still the best nation in the world for protecting personal freedoms. At least, some parts of the US.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Yeah, similar to this one that I’ve been referring to – sadly nothing more recent that I’m aware of: https://www.freedominthe50states.org/

        Makes no sense to me that say Wyoming is #38 out of 50 – apparently largely because a lot of folks are employed in state enterprises/organizations – presumably including hospitals, etc.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        My father worked for Quantas and still talks about the socialists in Australia forcing him to take lunch breaks at certain times.

        There is a major reason why American broke away from england and the commonwealth just never had that freedom loving spirit. Sure they can be adventurous to tame wild places like australia but buckle to commies taking their guns away.

        Freedom isnt free but neither is communism. Freedom requires hard work. slavery under communism is even harder on people.

        Sheeple are cowards. They try to hide but cant.

    • Suthenboy

      Australia, that has armed soldiers in the streets to keep citizens from leaving their homes under threat of death. Uh huh.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Not death, just jail…unless you decide you don’t want to go to jail for taking a walk or whatever…never mind, you’re right

    • Ghostpatzer

      Not for long. They’re right up there with New Zealand now; who wins that race is anybody’s guess. And you can bet the good people in D.C. are paying close attention.

  29. Ownbestenemy

    Middle kid caught at school with a vape pen with THC. Can’t go back to school until sometime next week. On one hand as a parent, your world is going to suffer the consequences. On the other…you have done something kids have done since kids could do anything.

    Fuck parenting.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I mean classic ‘smokin in the boys room’ shit. Glad the school just called me and not the cops, but meh. Be strong OBE…be strong.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Ouch, sorry to hear that. I curse my two boys for being too straight, but should probably be counting my blessings instead. They have apparently learned from my mistakes.

        OTOH, It’s a good thing the school didn’t catch him with a lit cigarette…

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Bad Dad! you should have taught him how to hide that shit better, don’t be dumb,

      • Suthenboy

        Yeah, I am going to have to go with Yusef on this one.

      • Ownbestenemy

        You are not alone….I won’t teach them that but they will learn. Don’t be an idiot and take it to school.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Exactly, I went through the same shit, and it’s like, “Junior, are you that stupid? I thought I taught you better”
        and sometimes they never learn….

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I always told my kids that be it right or wrong, by doing something like that you are taking a risk and that they were old enough to take the risk and they were old enough to face the consequences.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Perhaps that sounds a bit like teaching them to blindly follow authority, I don’t know. My mindset is that you are unlikely to achieve anything if you are bucking authority at every turn.

      • db

        No, I agree with you here. There are risks worth taking, and sometimes you need to ask yourself if you *really* need access to your THC vape pen/cigarettes/butterfly knife *while in school* enough to risk serious disciplinary action.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Oh I agree and he heard that from me. What the fuck little dude? Seriously. Leave it at home. However, it is how they learn in the face of consequences.

    • The Other Kevin

      Yep, been there. I think your district is being more lenient. Around here that’s probably an expulsion.

      • db

        Now, *expulsion* for something like that is insane. I can see expulsion for physically injuring someone, or for making a bomb threat, or something really serious. But for this?

    • Sean

      How was he caught? Random search? Narc?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Dumb ass teens screwing around in the bathroom..not smoking, just being teens. So narc had reason to search.

    • Lord Humungus

      Meh – I was a troublemaker when I was young. Kicked out of school for a week, busted for shoplifting, smoked weed, partied ALOT in college, etc etc

      But I grew out of it and became a pretty boring middle class kind of guy.

      However, some kids never seems to grow out of it. I don’t know what makes the difference – solid parenting with defined boundaries I would guess. My parents gave me a lot of freedom with the understanding I could do what I wanted – within reason. ie, don’t cost us any money.

  30. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Interesting Tom Woods podcast this week on Seminoles and slavery. Extremely complicated history.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Turns out there are still descendants of the Seminole slaves on the reservations in Oklahoma that are not tribal members and are denied basic services.

      • db

        Hell, read “The Comanche Empire” for some discussion of slavery among Native American tribes.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The Seminole case is really interesting and different from the Western and Plains tribes.

      • db

        hmm, maybe I’ll check it out

      • Akira

        Whaaaaa?? I have it on good authority that the noble Native Americans were living in total peace and harmony with each other and respecting Mother Nature until the damned whiteys showed up with their slavery and tricknology!

        / what some Lefties actually believe

      • Loveconstitution1789

        AmerIndians had slaves.
        Jews had slaves. Jews were slaves.
        Egyptians had slaves.
        Most of africa and asia used slavery.
        China had slavery and still does.
        Japan had slaves.
        England had slaves. Europe had slaves (serfs).
        America had slaves.
        Spanish had slaves in central/south America

      • Gustave Lytton

        I seem to recall there was an expulsion of tribal members not too long ago on that point of ancestry.

        I will have a schadenfreude boner when some court finally applies equal protection and all of the rest of the amendments against the racist pseudo governments called tribes.

    • westernsloper

      That was my drive home listen. Interesting stuff I had never heard.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Because you can totally trust a terrorist group.”

      I really hate this characterization. It underestimates and mischaracterizes the Taliban and ignores the fact that they are a valid competitor for rule of Afghanistan. It’s indicative of the dismissive attitude that plagues American foreign policy. You don’t have to like them, but you should respect your enemy, particularly one that just handed your ass to you.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hey, he hasn’t seen any evidence that they aren’t being truthful to him personally (because Biden isn’t speaking directly to them).

        Love the weasel words and and multiple chained conditions that are more likely to make his statements untruthful but technically correct.

      • Sean

        The French are rescuing their people. Be more French.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        *Picks up a snail from my garden and eats it*

      • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

        You’re supposed to hold that in clear water for 10 days to remove the, um, impurities, before you eat it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hmmm… which of Ian’s featured frog guns do I want first…

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        If you are feeling fancy, Chassepot.

        In an avant-garde mood: FAMAS

      • DEG

        And don’t forget to get his book. It’s good.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I actually like the standard model better than the one with the wooden stock.

      • Gadfly

        You don’t have to like them, but you should respect your enemy, particularly one that just handed your ass to you.

        While this is true, you also need to have a correct assessment of your enemy. The Taliban have proven themselves untrustworthy (not that the US is in the best position to call them out), so they should not be trusted. And the Taliban didn’t hand the US their ass, they handed the Afghan government its ass, the US essentially stood by on the sidelines doing nothing (if there were recent battles between US forces and the Taliban I have not read of them, and will stand corrected if the record shows I’m wrong). If the Taliban is not in a position to dictate terms to the other western powers, it certainly is not in a position to dictate terms to the US.

      • Lord Humungus

        Very true – we could bomb them back to the stone age. But no one in power has the cojones to do it.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        To what end?

        Not to mention we’ve got people scattered across the country. They would become immediate targets.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Austin and Miley should be using their GO pistols by now. Zero personal honor.

    • Suthenboy

      Congratulations to every fuckwit that helped that moron get elected. Congratufuckinglations.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Do they still include a piece of cardboard disguised as bubblegum with the cards?

    • Ownbestenemy

      Close the outside supply…be ready for an invasion 😉

    • Gustave Lytton

      Guess I hit up the LGS for that WASR I was looking at last week. If it’s still there.

      • Sean

        Wasr’s are made in Romania.

    • Sean

      MOTHERFUCKER!

      • Drake

        Pretending it’s to punish the Russians and not us. Assholes.

      • Sean

        I just put an order in at targetsports, and pondering another.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Aaaaand it’s gone, no 7.62×39 in stock there now. What a pisser.

      • Sean

        I got my 2nd order in.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yup. This is just an excuse to tighten the screws on gun owners.

      • db

        Someone just noticed that 7.62x39mm was cheap.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It is infuriating but I’m kind of surprised it took this long.

      • Suthenboy

        You mean ‘was’

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Very deadly too. Can penetrate most cheap/old govt issued bullet proof vests. Level I/II..

        .IIRC.

        Civilwar 2.0 is here to stay boys and girls.

    • Suthenboy

      Biden’s state department makes law?

      Y’a learn something new every day.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Sanctions! not Laws!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Just like GHW Bush’s EO banned imports of certain firearms.

      • db

        And Chinese ammo

      • Loveconstitution1789

        All gun control is unconstitutional, hterefore null and void.

        Just hire illegals to carry ammo and guns across US border.

    • DEG

      Fuck.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Cocksuckers!!! They just can’t let us Americans get ahold of a superior weapons platform.
      Just kidding, this fucking sucks balls. I love shooting AKs with their cheap ammo and all.

    • Not Adahn

      MotherFUCKER!

      I want my $0.13/ round 9×19 back!

  31. Ownbestenemy

    Even when our previous presidents fucked up, we had some crumbs to nibble on for a bit to keep us sated. This one…I do not like the future.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Did he seriously frame himself with Kamala and Blinken? Jesus.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Winken, Blinken and Nod…….

      • Ownbestenemy

        I am prone to conspiracy, I do not like this.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        It’s not Conspirasy, it’s by design, deep state,
        You’re not wrong to be Tin Foil, I am,

  32. DEG

    Stupid Season is starting in NH.

    At the gym earlier today, while I was warming up in the cardio area, I saw a Chris Pappas ad on one of the TVs.

    Chris Pappas is one of NH’s US Reps. District One I think.

    He’s widely seen as vulnerable in 2022 even without redistricting.

    There was talk of the possibility of NH’s Republican legislature redrawing the US Rep districts such that Annie Kuster’s district stays solidly in her hands and that Pappas’ district turns solidly Republican. Sununu said if the Legislature draws up a redistricting plan that forces any current officeholder out of office, he’d veto it.

    I think that Pappas running ads more than a year out from the election means Pappas is worried.

    • Lackadaisical

      Jesus, Sununu socks. He’s a republican, right?

  33. LCDR_Fish

    Guess I missed the nazi discussion this afternoon. Razorfist put out an excellent vid on the Fascism/Nazism/Socialism overlap a little while back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-SLqdhkvJo) – at least one – thought it was further back.

    • Ownbestenemy

      2019? That was a generation ago!

      • MikeS

        That was like 4 or 5 days ago, man!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I’m flying!!, oh Shit……

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      To really get a sense of the thought of the time, try reading,
      The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1965
      and more important, IMO,
      The Arms of Krupp, this book explains a lot about why the industrialists took up with the Nazis.
      Razorfist is a kid, however much cool he is,

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich makes War and Peace seem succinct. Excellent book though.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        The footnotes would like to have a word, But I think anyone who wants a good look at the Nazis should start there, we spent 20 years writing it, After decades being there covering it as a journalist. The Krupp book is amazingly honest.

      • Suthenboy

        The arms of Krupp.

        I have a copy of that around here somewhere.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        It really is a good book, Die Drie Ring was a big part of the growth of the German nation, for better of worse,

      • Frosty

        That is a fantastically detailed book, it’s been ages since I first read it. I get a kick out of seeing the three-ringed Thyssen-Krupp logo on elevator repair vans.

        And the “the first one is free” arms policy.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Hugo boss.

  34. MikeS

    Harris just departed for a trip to Singapore and Vietnam.

    *Paging Alanis Morissette

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Is she Helicoptering in?

      • Lackadaisical

        No, just out.

    • KSuellington

      She’s trying to get at the root causes of US military failure.

      • Gender Traitor

        So we can replicate it?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        The Vietnamese won GT, Just Say’n

      • Loveconstitution1789

        The commies in the US govt lost vietnam, if it was ever winnable. Bombing north vietnam/hanoi daily brought the commies to the peace table.

        Go total war or dont fight at all.

        Challenging Communism was/is worthwhile andprobably necessary. Commies are at war with freedom and wont stop. Not defending freedom is not really an option.

    • Lackadaisical

      They should know to take cocaine instead.

      • Lackadaisical

        Of course if you haven’t made money in the past year you’ve got a special skill that can probably be harnessed by picking the opposite of whatever you do.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Good point, cocaine abuse leads to level headedness it is known.

  35. Lackadaisical

    ? great article Putrid. If you didn’t read it, go back and do so.

    • MikeS

      Agreed. Very good

  36. Tundra

    ‘Sup, people.

    I love Fridays. Feels like freedom.

    • MikeS
    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      A more virulent strain of HIV thanks you. That’s just not a good idea, like at all.

    • rhywun

      I’m sure it will only have a 0.2% chance of giving you AIDS. ??‍♂️

  37. westernsloper

    Luigi was there too, but the police didn’t even notice him

    That mutherfucker. Didn’t even step in.