453 Comments

    • Not Adahn

      I typically think of banjos as being more of an afternoon/evening instrument. Mornings are really more of a bugle/pipes time.

      • UnCivilServant

        ,

        There is a , in there.

        Sometimes, punctuation matters;

      • SDF-7

        Let’s eat, children?

      • Not Adahn

        Jack, off the horse!

      • Translucent Chum

        Stop the bus and let my friend Jack off!

      • SDF-7

        Catherine the Great?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      so the 30 minute rule is out ?

      • waffles

        For Lynx? I mean it’s a lynx. I think someone said the 30minute rule was for genuine articles or lynx containing T&A

      • Ghostpatzer

        Perusing T&A takes 30 minutes?

      • waffles

        Depends on the time of day, amount of privacy, etc. Kind of private really.

      • Bobarian LMD

        How well you slept last night?

      • Cy Esquire

        Q has some very… in depth posts. Sometimes, it takes a while. because… SCIENCE!

      • waffles

        I never click for I always glib on stolen time. T&A is where I draw the line. Man has to have a code.

      • Festus

        Slow and languid.

    • Not Adahn

      The Taliban are into bears?

      Bears stole supplies from the ANA, allowing the Taliban to win?

  1. Yusef drives a Kia

    Afghanistan is just the shithole it always was, and people gonna die, the clock is running,

    • AlexinCT

      My bet is they will try to blame orange man for the elite credentialed mandarinate and their woke military leadership being inept fucks too.

      • Not an Economist

        Do none of you idjits see the genius of Biden’s plan?

        1) Leave in the middle of the night from a major installation, leaving behind billions of equipment and not tell your allies before it happened.

        2) Handicap your allies by training them to fight a certain way, then remove their intelligence and maintenance support at the last minute.

        3) Remove the troops before getting other American citizens and vulnerable allies.

        4) Celebrate the Taliban letting you get some people out.

        That plan requires a real President to execute. Washington would not have done it. Roosevelt wouldn’t have done. That evil, incompetent Trump wouldn’t have done it. It takes a President with BALLS to execute a plan like that.

        Bow down to President Biden — who has done the impossible.

  2. waffles

    If people would just stop asking questions about Afghanistan the whole thing would just blow over. It’s those damn nosy reporters at fault.

    • Count Potato

      At least the reporters are covering it. Remember when MSNBC didn’t even mention Benghazi for week, then when they did it was “phony scandal”.

    • hayeksplosives

      What difference, at this point, does it make?

      • waffles

        Exactly! I wish those mean reporters would leave Grampy Joe alone! His job is stressful enough!

      • Not Adahn

        LEAVE KAYLEIGHBURROW ALONE!

      • Festus

        I’d say leave Asterix alone! but I think I know where this narrative is churning toward. Astarte is gaining power…

      • Zwak, jack off, all trades

        It’s a start…

  3. Ghostpatzer

    “Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program(STEP) to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency find your body”.

    Useful advice, there. What a shitshow.

    • Not Adahn

      I remember before they changed tings after 9/11 taking that HAZMAT level III training with it’s section on “what do do when you encounter a dead body while working in a disaster area.”

      (rifle the pockets, find the ID, make a note of who it is, leave the wallet and ID on top of the corpse, continue with the op)

      • Festus

        Gah!

      • DrOtto

        What if they were black? Black people are incapable of procuring IDs. This is known.

  4. Count Potato

    “Pelosi’s Jan. 6 committee is looking for evidence of a premeditated, conspiracy driven plot hatched by a cabal of super-spreading Trump supporters who both spent months secretly planning to overthrow the government and were spontaneously incited to attempt to do so on that day.”

    WITCH HUNT!

    • Nephilium
      • blackjack

        Not that hunt, the other hunt!

      • blackjack

        I’m always huntin’

      • AlexinCT

        I think the WH thinks that on the up side nobody is talking about Kackling Kama-loh or Crackhead Hunter.

      • AlexinCT

        DA FUQ? This was a response to Waffles #4 above….

        I was going to say here that this was not so much a witch hunt as it was an excuse to go after enemies of the mandarinate.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Overthrowing the government by committing mass suicide. Why didn’t I think of that?

    • Sean

      Were there piss hookers involved? We demand to know!

      • Zwak, jack off, all trades

        Well, Nancy is running the show, so yes.

      • Bobarian LMD

        She just smells like a piss hooker…

        Incontinence.

    • SDF-7

      Are you now, or have you ever been *not* a communist?

  5. The Late P Brooks

    We all know Trump is guilty of something. Soon, with the unlimited resources of the United States government at their command, the Democrats will ferret out his crimes and depredations.

    • Ghostpatzer

      OMB is one slippery dude. I’m sure he will weasel out of this one

      • Zwak, jack off, all trades

        He is the rascallyist of rascals!

        “Don’t throw me in tha’ briar patch!”

    • AlexinCT

      This isn’t as much about Trump as it is about intimidating anyone that helps him. People that were willing to invent a crime (Russia Hoax) are not really doing this to find a legit crime. After all, they can just make more shit up. This is them deciding it is easier to attack his supporters in order to burn enough people into bowing the knee to the deep state.

    • Cy Esquire

      And when they do, all of the felonies, damage, wasted funds and time will all have been worth it. The ends always justify the means, especially when the ends are just more levers of power.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Democrats will ferret out his crimes and depredations.

      They should bring in a Scientology Auditor for that. They find all his present and past life transgressions!

  6. The Late P Brooks

    “They’ve framed the operation as historic — in line with the Berlin airlift — declared that they’re ‘over performing’ their own metrics, and trumpeted the president as ‘defying expectations,’” the article stated.

    Sounds legit.

    • UnCivilServant

      If this is “overperforming” then their metrics are shit.

    • WTF

      they’re ‘over performing’ their own metrics

      “We assumed we’d fuck up even worse than we have!”

      • Rat on a train

        You lost the game 70-0.
        Yea, but we expected them to score triple digits.

      • robc

        The US Military is Cumberland football.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    OMB is one slippery dude. I’m sure he will weasel out of this one

    Teh LOOPHOLEZ!

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      By loophole, they mean any part of the process that allows a non-Cathedral member access to any political power.

  8. Rebel Scum

    U.S. Tells Stranded Americans in Afghanistan to Avoid Kabul Airport or ‘Leave Immediately’

    This seems contradictory. But, anyway, it is good that that adults are back in charge.

    • Not Adahn

      Thank Bob OMB isn’t here — he’d have mean-tweeted the Taliban into massacring everyone and started a nuclear war with Russia.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        What do I have to do with it?

    • Cy Esquire

      Not really. If they die from trying to get out of the country, it’s:

      We told them to avoid Kabul airport.

      If they die from sheltering in place, it’s:

      We told them to leave immediately.

      Afterall, we know no one is being killed in Kabul. Slow Joe said so on national TV.

      • waffles

        I saw a story that Blackrock will get you out for $6.5 which, if you’re in a pinch, is one hell of a deal. You take that deal ten times out of ten.

      • WTF

        I saw a story where people are OUTRAGED that Blackrock is charging $6,500 to get people out. They apparently think Blackrock should eat the cost of fixing the Biden Administration’s fuckup.

      • Rat on a train

        Blackrock asked the government for aid, but were told they were in line behind landlords.

    • Festus

      They either have to don their Iron Man suits or start digging furiously through the center of the Earth to reach home. It’s sound advice. Iran 1979 Electric Boogaloo!

    • hayeksplosives

      To err Gates wrote in his memoirs that as VERP, Biden had taken the wrong position on every foreign policy imaginable.

      • hayeksplosives

        veep not verp.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Very
        Excitable
        Retarded
        Person

      • Agent Cooper

        Vapidly
        Expiring
        Remedial
        Pawn

      • waffles

        and Blinken was his toady the whole time. Such consistency is remarkable. as such we would be foolish to expect this dynamic duo to change course any time soon.

  9. Festus

    Squirrel Nut Zippers is a fine musical choice for these troubled times. Half prophetic and all idiocy. The B-side Frank Zappa which is the world we live on now. Good pull, Banjos and mornin!

  10. Not Adahn

    6.5 hours of ERT drill today. A bit more humid than I’d like, but oh well. Fortunately I didn’t shave so I won’t have to suit up.

  11. Fourscore

    I woke up this morning, miserable, as is my lot. Then I thought immediately of those poor souls in Afghanistan. Their future is totally unknown but in all likelihood is going to be unpleasant.

    My problems are minuscule.

    • Cy Esquire

      We could always throw some cash together and go start our own little fiefdom as Libertarian warlords… Do some ‘liberatin!

    • Festus

      Indeed. Most of what we deal with day-to-day isn’t life and death. That being said, the erosion of freedoms gives one pause. I can’t believe how quickly this has happened in our “free” nations. Up here it will be get the shot or wear the ribbon. Guaranteed.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I’m going to fab up a nice yellow 6 sided star, and wear it on my shirt,
        maybe sharpie 666 on my forehead as well,

      • Festus

        Armband!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Ya think? I thought that was where I put My Swastika

      • Festus

        You have two arms!

      • Festus

        So obscure! Kudos!

  12. rhywun

    Democrats have total control over redistricting, which means they’ll almost certainly try to maximize party gains through the new map

    DeMoCrAcY!

    • Festus

      Our Governments are being run by the worst people from the HR Department and the denizens of the Staff Room of some failing middle school in a burned out Detroit ghetto district. Hang onto your balls, they’re coming for them next.

    • Rebel Scum

      “Gerrymandering is ok when we do it.”

      • Bobarian LMD

        “we’re reflecting the will of the people, not like those other icky fuckers over there!”

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Property of

    Goldman Sachs will require all employees to be vaccinated by Sept. 7, or will forbid them from working in the office, according to a memo obtained by The Post.

    The move comes after CEO David Solomon called all workers back to the office by June, saying work-from-home policies were an “aberration.”

    But now, employees who refuse to get the COVID shot will be forced to work from home, banned from all of Goldman’s US offices. There will be no exemptions for religious or health reasons, according to the memo.

    The requirement could be a bellwether for other big companies after the Food and Drug Administration earlier this week gave full approval to the Pfizer vaccine — which was seen as opening the door to more employer requirements.

    Goldman also will require workers and visitors to its offices to wear masks and will mandate regular testing for anyone entering a Goldman Sachs office building in the US, regardless of their vaccination status.

    FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

    • rhywun

      employees who refuse to get the COVID shot will be forced to work from home

      The horror.

    • Nephilium

      forced to work from home

      They’re going to throw all of those employees right into the briar patch.

      • waffles

        It’s a silver lining of our fucked up modern culture that since the Uncle Rebus stories are now verboten no one will learn their homespun lessons. They will just keep throwing us into that briar patch over and over again.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        It’s just the first stick. Next they’ll say unvaxed employees can’t be on the health care plan or add monthly surcharge like Delta started. Then they’ll say no unvaxed family members can be on the health care plan.

        Then my tinfoil hat finale would be this ends with military going to door, taking people’s kids away to a stadium, holding the children down and jabbing them there. But we see this exact scenario happening now in Australia so I don’t know what’s absurd hyperbole anymore.

      • waffles

        It ends with genocide. Horrible authoritarian regimes always get to genocide eventually.

      • rhywun

        If it saves one grandma.

      • Nephilium

        Oh, I agree as the path where it’s going. Who would have thought that a bad flu bug would be what tips us into full blown fascism? I’m very thankful that my work place hasn’t mentioned any plans for mandatory vaccinations yet.

      • Rebel Scum

        I’d be fine working from home in my job. So joke is on the company if they try this crap.

    • Rebel Scum

      after the Food and Drug Administration earlier this week gave full approval to the Pfizer vaccine

      Except it didn’t.

      • Rebel Scum

        Goldman also will require workers and visitors to its offices to wear masks and will mandate regular testing for anyone entering a Goldman Sachs office building in the US, regardless of their vaccination status.

        So what is the point of the (so called…) vaccine?

        Of course the WEF has already shown in its GR material that the masks are intended to be permanent.

    • DrOtto

      “…full approval to the Pfizer vaccine…” that’s not exactly what I’ve been reading. I guess keep repeating the lies.

      • Rebel Scum

        It’s a façade to coerce people.

      • DrOtto

        Dammit!

  14. The Late P Brooks

    At this point, I might welcome a virus which killed 50% of the population.

  15. Ghostpatzer

    Great music link. Thanks, Banjos!

  16. Rebel Scum

    President Joe Biden previously promised to get out the Americans who are left in Afghanistan and subject to the Taliban’s rule, but so far, our own citizens do not appear to be the priority.

    America is back, baby.

    • The Other Kevin

      “our own citizens do not appear to be the priority”

      Just like here.

  17. rhywun

    It’s almost like the people running Comedy Central don’t even understand comedy.

    I’m watching Futurama mini-marathons lately and yes, it’s one insufferable woke commercial after the next from that conglomerate of channels, from promos for the Daily Show to Mr. Tha God to all the crap on MTV.

  18. Count Potato

    “Naturalized Americans could have their citizenship revoked thanks to a computer program that searches for concerning activity – with broad categories including anything deemed ‘derogatory’.

    The program, called ATLAS, is used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and is hosted on servers owned by web e-commerce giant Amazon.

    DHS stated on their website in a November update that ATLAS was created ‘to automate, streamline, and support accurate exchange of data’ among immigration authorities and the DHS, and ‘to support biometric and biographic-based screening and vetting of immigration requests.’ ”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9927283/DHS-software-hosted-Amazon-scans-immigrants-records-potentially-citizenship-REVOKED.html

    WTF?

    • UnCivilServant

      If already nationalized there are only certain very specific crimes which can cause revocation of citizenship – such as fraudulent claims made during the application process. To revoke, it must be done in a court.

      Unless, of course, the law matters no longer.

      • WTF

        Of course, the law matters no longer.
        We’ve known this for a while, now.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Certain crimes that are perused.

        Immigration fraudster Rep. Omar is still safe.

    • Not Adahn

      Once this is established, they can start removing citizenship from natural-born citizens for badthink. White male badthinkers are the #1 source of terrorism after all.

    • Suthenboy

      “anything deemed ‘derogatory’.”

      They are importing anyone who wants to come here, then weeding out anyone who won’t vote Dem.

    • AlexinCT

      This is why I know we as a civilization are doomed…

    • Fourscore

      If you have nothing to hide why are you worried?

  19. Rebel Scum

    White House Kills Video Feed as Reporters Ask Questions About Afghanistan

    I have been assured that this admin, and Joe in particular, never shy away from questions.

    • UnCivilServant

      Interesting… I think there was an error.

      • Not Adahn
      • UnCivilServant

        Yeah that’s about $625.95 more than I’d be willing to shell out for the hardcover.

      • Not Adahn

        It would look good next to, and probably have greater re-reading potential than, my first edition Deities and Demigods.

      • db

        Check Ebay; there are some copies listed there. But don’t bid on the one I want 🙂

      • db

        Contains images and descriptions of the Dune Tarot, which might be of interest to Not Adahn

      • Not Adahn

        Downloaded.

  20. Count Potato

    “California siblings are permanently excluded from charter school for refusing to wear mask for religious reasons – and teacher even EVACUATED classroom when one of the teens ignored request to leave

    Two siblings were banned from a charter school in California after they refused to wear masks because of religion reasons, as the whole campus was placed on lockdown.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9927785/California-siblings-banned-school-refusing-wear-masks.html

    That’s completely insane.

    • UnCivilServant

      The proper response would have been to ban the teacher for overreacting.

      • Count Potato

        It sounds like the entire school way overreacted.

      • waffles

        We reward overreaction.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Check out the school resource officer that looks like he’s getting ready to initiate a guerilla warfare campaign.

      We laid the foundation for this bullshit decades ago.

    • Rebel Scum

      Convid fearmongering runs deep.

      ‘There are no religious exemptions in the state mask order, nor has the right to an exemption even been recognized by the supreme court because it’s a neutral law of general application to protect public health.’

      You have no right to breathe freely without a bacteria incubator on your face, subject citizen.

    • AlexinCT

      LIEZ!

      You need to be put in jail for being a white sumpremacist!

  21. Rebel Scum

    Rep. Kinzinger could lose his seat due to redistricting.

    Too bad it is not because he is a sanctimonious, lying cunte.

    • WTF

      Hey, him working to advance the interests of the Democrats is really paying off!

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Burn the heretics

    As Wall Street scrambles to find safe ways to return its bankers to the office as the Delta variant surges, some financiers have found a scapegoat for the mess: the unvaccinated.

    “Most employees on Wall Street want vaccine mandates for anyone returning to the office,” Kathryn Wylde, president of Partnership for New York, told The Post, citing recent surveys.

    Some insiders take it a step further.

    “If you’re someone who is not vaccinated on Wall Street, you’re considered a loser,” one Wall Streeter told The Post.

    At JPMorgan, where the bank has reinstated a mask mandate for all employees regardless of vaccination status, some workers blame the unvaccinated as the reason everyone has to wear masks, according to sources close to the firm. Indeed, some JPMorgan employees have kvetched about having to accommodate those stubbornly refusing to get the COVID shot, the sources said.

    ——-

    Across America, roughly 57 percent of people are vaccinated, but at top Wall Street firms, that number is north of 90 percent. As such, the unvaccinated may be susceptible to being viewed as a small minority standing in the way of getting back to business as usual.

    “They are certainly social outliers and maybe social pariahs,” one bank employee told The Post. “Whether it’s explicit or implicit, there will be a view about that employee — people will question whether they can do their jobs.”

    “Wall Street is all about evidence and if you can’t connect the dots to get vaccinated, how can you connect dots to get deals done?” this person added.

    That’s weird. My view is that if you are incapable of independent thought or analysis, and are easily snookered by the “conventional wisdom”, you probably suck as a money manager or dealmaker.

    • rhywun

      That won’t have any undertones of racism at all. I mean it’s not like blacks are multiple times more likely to be outcast! unclean! than whites or anything.

    • WTF

      All these idiots screaming “SCIENCE!” can’t seem to grasp that this respiratory virus has a 99.98% survival rate.

    • Rebel Scum

      as the Delta variant surges

      *rolls eyes*

      If you’re someone who is not vaccinated on Wall Street, you’re considered a loser

      Oh, well, ok then.

      Wall Street is all about evidence

      Apparently not.

      • Akira

        as the Delta variant surges

        I swear there must be some fucking memo that went out from the Biden admin to the media telling them to use that word as much as possible. Kind of like that YouTube video that exposed how local news stations simultaneously gave identical speeches about “fake news”.

    • Not Adahn

      Cows don’t flock.

      • Count Potato

        I never herd that.

      • SDF-7

        Bull! They moove however they wish!

      • Rebel Scum

        I see you guys are going to milk this for all it’s worth.

      • Sean

        I cud see Swiss not approving of these posts.

      • Gender Traitor

        Udderly ridiculous.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Meanwhile, Helder reported at the meeting that the jail has had zero inmate deaths from the coronavirus. Jail officials said inmates have also been offered the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

      Same as my link below. DANGEROUS, but no one died.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Detention Center? is that what we call Jails now?

    • Rebel Scum

      It is almost like drugs can be used for varying purposes.

      Ivermectin is often used as a dewormer in animals including cows and horses, and is not recommended for treating the virus.

      Isn’t it anti-viral/bacterial? Didn’t docs use it on Trump?

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I don’t know about Trump but Ivermectin is used around the world as anti-viral and anti-parasite. It even won the Nobel Prize for it’s usefulness against disease. It costs a whole 10 cents/week per person for prevention or early treatment, so there’s no money in it for Pharma or the politicians.

        Ivermectin: a multifaceted drug of Nobel prize-honoured distinction with indicated efficacy against a new global scourge, COVID-19
        https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2052297521000883

        In 2015, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, in its only award for treatments of infectious diseases since six decades prior, honoured the discovery of ivermectin (IVM), a multifaceted drug deployed against some of the world’s most devastating tropical diseases. Since March 2020, when IVM was first used against a new global scourge, COVID-19, more than 20 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have tracked such inpatient and outpatient treatments. Six of seven meta-analyses of IVM treatment RCTs reporting in 2021 found notable reductions in COVID-19 fatalities, with a mean 31% relative risk of mortality vs. controls. During mass IVM treatments in Peru, excess deaths fell by a mean of 74% over 30 days in its ten states with the most extensive treatments. Reductions in deaths correlated with the extent of IVM distributions in all 25 states with p < 0.002. Sharp reductions in morbidity using IVM were also observed in two animal models, of SARS-CoV-2 and a related betacoronavirus. The indicated biological mechanism of IVM, competitive binding with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, is likely non-epitope specific, possibly yielding full efficacy against emerging viral mutant strains.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Good reference, thanks.

    • Rebel Scum

      They intend to make your immune system a subscription service.

      • SDF-7

        Yeah — the complete dismissal in the discussion from the “Science!” and “Experts!” crowd of natural immunity (as if that isn’t how we’ve dealt with viruses as a species for All Time and all) in favor of very targeted messing with the immune system (which is one of the best ways for the body to kill itself if it goes out of whack) astounds me.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Office 365: Virus vector
        Booster 365: ??

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        NO

        FUCK NO

        NO FUCKING WAY

  23. DEG

    Mornin’ Banjos.

    Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, an outspoken critic of former President Trump and more recently maligned with House leadership, now appears more in danger of losing reelection at the hands of Democrats.

    HAHAHAHHAHA!

  24. Certified Public Asshat

    Hit pieces are not what they used to be:

    ‘Like Tuskegee’: Southern Jail Treats COVID With Dangerous, Unproven Drug Ivermectin

    Nonetheless, he said he believed that whatever Karas’ team had been doing was working. “As far as our morbidity rate,” he said, “it is zero.” He said that out of over 500 people infected in the detention center, only one was hospitalized for a brief stint. “I will stack their record against any medical provider in a correctional institution anywhere in the United States,” Helder added.

    • Count Potato

      Ivermectin might not be effective, but it certainly isn’t dangerous.

      • Tundra

        The evidence is actually really compelling that it is effective. And harmless. Worst of all, it’s cheap and off patent.

        This war against Ivermectin is insane.

      • Sean

        I would have gone with “evil”.

      • Tundra

        No, evil is Merck calling their own drug (ivermectin) unsafe while at the same time trying to get an EUA for a fancy new antiviral.

      • Ghostpatzer

        This war against Ivermectin is insane criminall.

        Assume Ivermectin and other available treatments are even 20% effective (I’m pretty sure they are a lot more effective than that). How many people were intubated and maybe died because treatment was not offered? Cuomo is a piker by comparison.

      • Tundra

        It’s simple math. Ivermectin costs nothing and works great when started immediately upon symptom onset. Instead, these fucking butchers sent people home, told them to take fucking tylenol and then, when they came back really sick, dosed them with Remdesivir which is like $3K a dose.

        Fuckers.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This particular line of criticism is making me nuts.

        Ivermectin is one of the safest drugs on the market, far safer than Tylenol.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        But do horses take Tylenol?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Horses are too smart for tha tshit.

    • waffles

      All the anti-horse paste posts I see are really just an indictment of the lack of easy access to otc generic drugs.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ???

  25. AlexinCT

    Remember when the credentialed elite intelligentsia told us everyone outside the US us because of the evil orange man? Well, how likely are they to report this?

    As I tell people all the time, telling Americans that it is more important for non-American people that benefit from a weak and corrupt American president and political class, that those non-American will like said American weak and corrupt American president is a positive thing, is akin to making the argument that it is good that young ladies wearing skimpy clothing excite perverts and people that will abuse said young womenz sekshually. When the CCP likes you as the leader of the free world, it isn’t because you will defend the free world against them…

    • waffles

      Uhhh sweaty, the adults are back in charge and America is back. pffftt

      Holy shit things could not be going worse for the managed decline of America could they?

  26. The Late P Brooks

    I saw a story where people are OUTRAGED that Blackrock is charging $6,500 to get people out. They apparently think Blackrock should eat the cost of fixing the Biden Administration’s fuckup.

    But- PROFITEERING!

    Erik Prinze is our modern day Daddy Warbux.

    • waffles

      oh it’s blackwater which is different than blackrock. Easy confusion, both are easy bad guy marks.

  27. Count Potato

    “Over-run Australian hospitals set up TENTS to deal with patient influx and New Zealand PM defends ‘Covid zero’ policy as both countries see record coronavirus infections

    Both Australia and New Zealand are seeing record Covid-19 infections despite their draconian lockdown measures which have proved powerless to prevent the infectious variant from spreading.

    Australia’s new daily cases of Covid-19 today surpassed 1,000 for the first time since the global pandemic began, while New Zealand recorded the largest cluster of cases the country has recorded throughout the entire pandemic with 277 cases”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9928551/Australian-hospitals-set-TENTS-amid-patient-influx-New-Zealand-PM-defends-Covid-zero-policy.html

    They can’t handle a thousand cases a day?

    • WTF

      You can’t stop a respiratory virus. The best path is to protect the vulnerable and let it run through the population to get herd immunity. See Sweden for an example. All the lockdowns and other bullshit do is just prolong the pandemic.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yep, their initial concentration on locking down is going to bite them in the ass with this more transmissible variant.

      • WTF

        If by “bite them in the ass” you mean “provide further excuse for control and increase of power over people’s lives”.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I’m sure they’ll try but it looks like the populace may actually be getting fed up.

      • WTF

        I hope so, but I’m not optimistic.

      • Rebel Scum

        Take your vitamin C/D/etc. Boost your immune system with things known to work and avoid the Frankenshot like the plague. . .

    • Q Continuum

      It’s not that they can’t handle it, it’s that they need to keep up the plague porn to justify their authoritarian control.

      This stuff stopped being even remotely related to the virus 18 months ago and has been solely about control and repression since.

      • waffles

        What’s the reward for authoritarian control? I just don’t get why some people need to lord over others, especially in this modern fake and gay way.

  28. Count Potato

    “Porn star Ron Jeremy has been indicted on 30 charges for the alleged sexual assault and forcible rape of 21 women and girls, some as young as 15 years old, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday.

    Prosecutors allege Jeremy – born Ronald Jeremy Hyatt – restrained some of the women and raped or sodomized them – and had sex with others who were sleeping or unconscious.

    Jeremy, 68, pleaded not guilty to charges including 12 counts of forcible rape, seven counts of forcible oral copulation and six counts of sexual battery by restraint, DA George Gascón said in the press release.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9927239/Ron-Jeremy-indicted-30-sexual-assaults-victims-young-15.html

    STEVE SMITH SAY HEDGEHOG ROOKIE NUMBERS

    • slumbrew

      Wait, wait, wait – you’re saying Ron Jeremy is some sort of creepy sex criminal?

      Where did I leave my shocked face…

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Damn, I was unaware. That’s a lot of (alleged) raping.

    • Q Continuum

      Evidence that rape is more about power than sex? I mean, this is a guy who gets paid to have sex as many women as any human could handle and he has to go out and force himself on people?

    • blackjack

      This what happens when you’re famous and ugly but you get laid a lot. Only reason it took so long is he’s not really all that rich.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I met the guy once. He had an entourage of obviously heroin addicted hangers-on with him. It was a strange experience.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Despite the the FBI finding no evidence of a conspiracy, the 1/6 committee is requesting 9 months of communication between Trump and some of his supporters and friendly journalists.

    The political charade must continue regardless of the facts.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s all about broadcasting/leaking the communications that were thought to be private in order to discredit and give fodder for deplatforming. It’s all a farce and they’re well aware.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Other firms are taking an even harder line. At Anthony Scaramucci’s investment fund SkyBridge Capital, people who don’t get vaccinated will get fired. “It’s get vaxxed or axed at SkyBridge,” Scaramucci told The Post.

    Scaramucci believes those who aren’t immunized could pose too much of a risk to their colleagues when SkyBridge brings people back to the office this fall. As a result, they will be getting the boot.

    “Not getting vaccinated is a horrifically selfish thing based on a lack of science,” Scaramucci added. “I’m passionate about this issue because I have an IQ above 100.”

    *guffaws, slaps knee*

    Maybe Mister Genius Money Man should call one of his contacts at Big Pharma and ask for a tutorial on vaccines, and how they work.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Ass…
      Hole…

    • Rebel Scum

      Not getting vaccinated is a horrifically selfish thing based on a lack of science

      Getting a fake vaccine for a respiratory illness that has a 99.99% recovery rate for the average person is a horrifically ignorant thing based on a lack of intelligence and awareness.

  31. Rebel Scum

    Michael attempts to teach people in the office about diversity, and it’s hilarious from start to finish.

    Picking on a person’s lack of cultural awareness is totes racist.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The corporate left are a bunch of humorless douchebags. Buy physical media because it’s only going to get worse.

      • Festus

        Apparently 75% of my compadres would like to shove me in an oven. This ain’t good.

  32. Festus

    Heh. Random thought, We’re raising a generation of kids that are masked. How much you wanna bet that “Jug-Ears” will be the new sexy in ten years time? A real beauty marker. I mean, it happened with big, fat asses in a seeming heartbeat. We were all there, we all saw it happen. “What? Me Worry?”

    • Q Continuum

      Big tits are timeless.

    • waffles

      People only like fat asses if they come with a slim waist and pretty face. You’d have to be a real freak to have sexual attraction to ears.

      • Not Adahn

        fat asses if they come with a slim waist

        you get, SPRUNG!

      • Festus

        Not a fan of the Romantics? “Shell-like ears”?

      • AlexinCT

        I am more of a “WHAT ARE YOU WEARING ON YOUR FEET???” type of guy…

  33. The Other Kevin

    Great, another Trump fishing expedition. I’m always reminded of a line from a country song: “I really hate her / I’ll think of a reason later.” They’ve been trying to impeach him or charge him with something for forever, and they keep thinking the proof will just show up. Because he’s bad and obviously he’s done bad things. And there’s evidence of those bad things. They just need to look harder.

    • WTF

      And the courts keep allowing fishing expeditions in the absence of any evidence to indicate any actual crime may have occurred which needs to be investigated.
      The rule of law is dead.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        How many people could withstand this level of scrutiny and not be in prison I wonder, his inquisitors included.

      • The Other Kevin

        Exactly. Instead of, “I believe this person did this certain crime, let’s investigate”, we now have “I believe this person probably did a crime at some point, let’s keep investigating until we find one.”

    • AlexinCT

      Trump and what he represents – people that have seen that their credentialed elite expert uppity fucking master class are nothing but fucking snake oil salesmen and crooks – is an existential threat to a class of inept people that want a hereditary oligarchical aristocracy (for themselves and their kids) despite the fact that they are so fucking inept that a random idiot could do a better job than them on their best day. You think these people would just accept that revolt against their rule when it means they would lose the fucking racket they have set up for themselves at the expense of the rest of us? Yeah, sure….

    • Festus

      The dems are Jan Brady. So hormonal that they would rub on “Teddy” rather than get rid of the weird octagonal glasses. Trump and dank memes broke them.

      • PutridMeat

        I don’t know what this means, but I’m strangely aroused and intrigued.

      • Festus

        #metoo

  34. UnCivilServant

    The pirates disappoint me.

    WarhammerTV went live yesterday and videos are not already leaked where I can find them.

    With all the kerfuffle, I expected more motivated pirates. Maybe none of them bit the bullet and paid the gate fee.

    • UnCivilServant

      For the record, after weighing the evidence, I decided to preorder an overpriced miniature that came with some free video service on the side.

      I may also be biased as a shareholder.

      /Ten shares

    • robc

      Do you not get free access as a company owner?

      • UnCivilServant

        No.

        So far all I’ve gotten is a vote at shareholder meetings. Since it’s ‘one share, one vote’, I don’t think my ten votes swayed much.

    • Cy Esquire

      I hve a hard enough time keeping up with all of the other content I have access to. I’ll get around to the warhammer stuff eventually. But, it never hurts to wait, especially for things that have seasons and drip release rates.

      • UnCivilServant

        So far you’re not missing much. 4x 20-minute episodes of fiction, two youtube level painting tutorials and some battle reports I can’t even be arsed to look at.

  35. Q Continuum

    CO released its preliminary redistricting map recently and it actually looks pretty fair. There are two slam dunk Jackass districts and two slam dunk Pachyderm districts, the other four look competitive. There was a constitutional amendment a few years ago stating that redistricting had to be non-partisan and it appears it may have actually worked, surprisingly.

    • Sean

      *falls out of chair*

      • Festus

        *steals chair* Finders Keepers!

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Move your feet, lose your seat!

    • robc

      Isn’t it done by non-partison (actually bi-partisan) committee?

      KY Supreme Court requires minimum splitting of counties, which allows for some, but prevents the most egregious, gerrymandering. Honestly, there isn’t really any at the US House level, its at the state house level that you get any at all.

    • robc

      Looks like a bit of gerrymandering going on, as a tiny part of Larimer County is in the 4th district instead of the 2nd. I don’t see any reason they did that instead of putting more of Weld in the 4th and less of Weld in the 2nd.

      • robc

        I am using the KY standard I am used to, where if a county is split unnecessarily, there is probably some shenanigans going on.

      • robc

        I am in the 2nd, btw, I am not in the part of Larimer in the 4th.

      • Q Continuum

        The second is actually more competitive now since they put Gilpin (ultra conservative) and some of the more conservative parts of northern Larimer in it to offset the Commies in Boulder. Depending on how much Ft. Collins swings red on any given election, Pachyderms might actually have a chance.

      • robc

        The 3rd and the 4th are hilarious in size. If you already didn’t know where people in CO live, the congressional map makes it really clear.

      • robc

        District 4 has 9209 people from Larimer County while District 2 has 44153 people from Weld County. No reason to have that tiny cut out, would be better to not split Larimer and add a bit more of Weld to D4 .

        Okay…looking into more detail, those 9k people are in the city of Windsor, which is primarily in Weld County, so they are not splitting the city instead. So I will allow it. Except for 21 people who are in Unincorporated parts of Larimer, but I think they are surrounded by Windsor, so still makes sense.

      • robc

        Back to criticizing this, now for inconsistency. In the state house districts, they made sure Windsor was whole also, consistent with what they did for the US House. Fine.

        But for state senate, the boundary is the county line, splitting Windsor.

        Sigh…

    • Rat on a train

      Virginia switched to a commission that is balanced partisan.

      The commission in recent weeks has struggled to find common ground on a number of issues, at times pitting its Democratic-allied and Republican-allied members against one another.

      Aside from separate map-drawers, the commission also has two legal counsels — one allied with Democrats and one with Republicans.

    • Nephilium

      There have been some battles going on in the Ohio redistricting meetings. Almost all were scheduled during the day on weekdays. Per biased reports, the committees are heavily weighted towards unions and grievance organizations.

    • robc

      It looks like for state disticts (senate and house) they have decided to not even try to match up numbers with the old districts. They have changed so dramatically, they just started over.

  36. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos.

    Jesus Christ, every day I think we’ve hit bottom and things keep getting worse.

    But at least I’m not in Kabul.

    What a giant mess. It is amusing in a twisted way to watch Strawberry claim that they are outperforming expectations. These people still think there are three networks and a handful of newspapers.

    Well, enough of that. What are you drinking, Pie?

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Optimist

    Australian carrier Qantas expects international flights to the U.S., the U.K. and parts of Asia to resume by Christmas, CEO Alan Joyce said Thursday.

    Since March last year, Australia has closed its borders to most foreign visitors and banned residents from leaving unless they had valid reasons.

    “We know there’s huge underlying demand. People don’t want another Christmas where they are isolated from their families, let alone internationally, but [also] in Australia,” Joyce said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

    A spike in local Covid-19 cases in recent months forced Australian states and territories to step up restrictions, including limitations on interstate travel and stay-at-home notices in high-risk areas.

    Joyce said Qantas is planning its operations on the assumption that Australia’s two most populous states — New South Wales and Victoria — will lift most of their border restrictions to the rest of the country by Dec. 1.

    That would be followed by an assumption that international border restrictions will ease as more Australians get vaccinated. “And, that by Christmas, we will see markets like Singapore, the U.K., Japan and the U.S. … open up as well,” he added.

    ——-

    Like most airlines and travel-related businesses around the world, Qantas took a hit as the coronavirus pandemic led to a near-total collapse in air travel demand.

    As part of restructuring efforts last year, the carrier was forced to lay off nearly 10,000 people from a total workforce of around 32,000 workers before the pandemic, Joyce told CNBC.

    You laid off a third of your workforce BEFORE the plague? Sounds like a well run operation; oh, wait, it’s owned by the Australian government, isn’t it?

    What makes you think the deranged idiots in charge of the prison colony are going to let anybody out of their cells?

    • Gustave Lytton

      It’s Commonwealth English wording. They had 32,000 employees before covid and the layoffs were after it started.

      • rhywun

        And like we have seen with American airlines and e.g. the NYC Subway, they will face massive shortages whenever they get around to hiring and training people again.

    • rhywun

      closed its borders to most foreign visitors

      Narrator: That doesn’t accomplish fuck-all.

  38. robc

    Bad day for baseball birthdays. Top two are active players trying to save he date: David Price and Elvis Andrus. Third is Jesse Barnes. Ugh, I will stop there.

      • Sean

        44 years old. There was no need for her to die like this.

      • Not Adahn

        Bah. Everyone knows the Grauniad can’t be trusted. All of the vaxen (except the rooskie one) are SAFE and effective!

    • Q Continuum

      Were they sugar free?

      • Festus

        *hovers over link* Christ on toast! My Kingdom for an edit feature!

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Her last words were rather odd to an outsider, “I should have never read Sugarfree!”

    • Nephilium

      I heard it was, “I wish I had gotten the booster vax.”

    • Rat on a train

      “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”?

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Listen, if 2 billion people have to die to prevent just one death, then it’s all worth it.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Bubble-wrap nation

    It’s unclear how many minor or serious injuries have been sustained from the challenge, but some of the most viral videos show those climbing the pyramids taking hard falls.

    In light of the potential dangers associated with the challenge, platforms like TikTok have disabled the ability to search for the term “milk crate challenge” and some videos of the challenge have since been removed.

    “TikTok prohibits content that promotes or glorifies dangerous acts, and we remove videos and redirect searches to our Community Guidelines to discourage such content. We encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behavior whether online or off,” a TikTok spokesperson said in an email to NBC News.

    Dummies gonna dum. You can’t stop ’em.

    The modern test: If it’s too difficult or dangerous for somebody, it’s too difficult or dangerous for anybody.

    • Akira

      The modern test: If it’s too difficult or dangerous for somebody, it’s too difficult or dangerous for anybody.

      That’s pretty much it. And I think I remember an article on TOS that espoused something like that: It was about some college that put up videos of lectures for free, but “activists” complained because they didn’t have closed captioning for the deaf. They ended up taking them down rather than having them all CC’d. It pointed out how absurd it was that “if it’s not a perfect option for everyone, it shouldn’t be allowed for anyone”.

    • Cy Esquire

      In their idiots defense, if they can make themselves actually retarded, the world will bow and scrape before them to meet all of their needs. Free housing and checks for life. Nothing will ever again be their fault.

  40. Festus

    *hovers over link*

  41. waffles

    How many Americans need to get captured by enemy forces to create a problem? Has this happened already and we just haven’t heard about it? Would it change anything if/when it does happen?

    Maybe it doesn’t matter at all.

    • Q Continuum

      “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

    • Festus

      Yep. It’s like when you were in freshman art class. They taught you about the color wheel and how if you mixed them together it just turned brown.

      • Cy Esquire

        But the crayons still tasted good!

      • Festus

        Duh!

    • gbob

      I find it hard to believe the Taliban wouldn’t hang on to a significant number of American contractors and tourists post withdrawal. If I was enjoying my Taliboy summer, I would like to have at least as many hostages as Iran had. Since we have no reporters on the ground, it should be easy to accomplish.

      What a fucking mess. At least it shows that Biden isn’t just a puppet. Only a mentally deficient person could accomplish this much chaos.

      • waffles

        At least it shows that Biden isn’t just a puppet. Only a mentally deficient person could accomplish this much chaos.

        I’m stealing this. This is a silver lining I think. Is stupid easier to overcome than evil? I hope so.

    • Not Adahn

      Hoin’ ain’t easy. ENB couldn’t do it.

      • PieInTheSky

        She need the right pimp. But then again pimpin aint easy either

    • PieInTheSky

      I feel there is a lot of background not mentioned though.

  42. OBJ FRANKELSON

    So far we have Siagon II and Tehran II.

    Apparently, it isn’t just Hollywood that is out of original ideas, it is the DoD and the State Department as well.

    I wonder what other foreign policy fuck-ups we can recycle and include in this ongoing disaster? Operation Eagle Claw II could very well be on the horizon.

    • Festus

      They’ll scale it back some. Some nondescript Caribbean Island first! Tomorrow the World! Assholes.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I heard that there was an American slightly inconvenienced at a hotel in Micronesia, send out the 82nd’s Alert Brigade!

      • Ghostpatzer

        Slightly related: #2 son has a roommate from Palau this year. Might get a visit from the 82nd?

  43. Tundra

    Meanwhile, in France.

    • Ghostpatzer

      That is priceless. Would love to see NYC appropriate some French culture.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Really?! We are getting beat in being ungovernable by the friggin French… FFS!

      • PieInTheSky

        I mean the french were always good at it. Its just they always want things that lead to shitty government and complain when they get it good and hard

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Good point. The lack of burning Peugeots is an improvement too.

    • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

      Only my French rellies could find a way to combine a protest with a meal.

      Excellent.

  44. Rebel Scum

    They see me trollin’…

    In the week since the Taliban, officially known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, took Kabul in a rapid, largely uncontested march, no country has yet formally recognized the change in power. But the issue has been a major point of discussion as governments, including those of China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and even the United States, maintain contact with the group now effectively in charge of the country.

    As these conversations develop, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a member of the Taliban’s Cultural Commission, told Newsweek that his group sought worldwide recognition of the Islamic Emirate.

    “We hope not only to be recognized by regional countries,” Balkhi said, “but the entire world at large as the legitimate representative government of the people of Afghanistan who have gained their right of self-determination from a foreign occupation with the backing and support of an entire nation after a prolonged struggle and immense sacrifices despite all odds being stacked against our people.” …

    “We believe the world has a unique opportunity of rapprochement and coming together to tackle the challenges not only facing us but the entire humanity,” Balkhi added, “and these challenges ranging from world security and climate change need the collective efforts of all, and cannot be achieved if we exclude or ignore an entire people who have been devastated by imposed wars for the past four decades.”

    • wdalasio

      They’re in charge of the country. The locals essentially seem to accept that. By any rational standard, they now are the legitimate government of that country, whether anyone else likes it or not. Frankly, their throwing out the woke buzzwords isn’t necessary and, if anything, undermines their credibility.

      To paraphrase a former president, “Lost wars have consequences.”

      • Gustave Lytton

        They say the woke buzzwords, but their solutions are a little bit different than western leftists. They do have the living in an impoverished shithole part already done.

      • Akira

        They’re in charge of the country. The locals essentially seem to accept that. By any rational standard, they now are the legitimate government of that country, whether anyone else likes it or not.

        We can’t have people thinking that!! Why, they might start to believe that governments are just groups of people lording over you with threats of violence!

      • wdalasio

        Okay, but even if you take the most idealistic version of the basis of government, you still don’t have a basis for claiming the opinion of the “international community” matters one whit. I mean consent of the governed isn’t consent of all the rest of the world’s governments. These guys are the government in Afghanistan, whether I like or not and whether the Georgetown social scene likes it or not. My consent or their consent doesn’t and shouldn’t mean anything to the Afghanistan government. And my non-recognition or the Georgetown social set’s non-recognition is just a denial of reality.

    • Count Potato

      Climate change is like ketchup.

    • Fourscore

      “‘Taliban’s Cultural Commission”

      An oxymoron that really made me laugh. Uh-huh. I get it. We’re playing opposite world today, right?

    • Ghostpatzer

      The rest went to hookers and blow?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      McDonnell went after that little gravy train and tried to privatize it. You know what that got him.

    • robc

      Thats a pretty good margin. 44%.

      • Rat on a train

        Capitalist gougers.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        And that’s with an overpaid staff that has excellent benefits.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Meanwhile, in France.

    Excellent.

    Well played.

  46. Rebel Scum

    Something something damaging relationships with allies.

    Nigel Farage, the former leader of the Brexit Party in Britain, blasted Joe Biden’s botched exit from Afghanistan and said that Britain feels “betrayed.” He also warned that the UK Parliament may be reluctant to support the United States’ military efforts abroad under Biden.

    “But if [terror attacks] start to happen again and we start to think, well, how do we go out again and try and stop these cells that are spreading international terror? How can we do it with the Americans? How can we do it with an ally that is treating us with contempt and betrayed us and into the bargain, many of our own citizens?” Farage said on “Fox & Friends First” on Wednesday.

    “Certainly, if it’s a Biden or Harris administration, honestly, there is no way, there is no way a British parliament right now would vote for military cooperation with America led by this administration,” he continued. “And that’s a very sad thing to say, because since 1917, the UK and America have been side by side in virtually every major conflict. We’ve been the closest allies in terms of military action, in terms of intelligence sharing, in terms of culture, in terms of business.”

    “You couldn’t have a better ally in the world,” he added. “And right at the moment, I’m sorry, but there’s no way we could enter into another operation with you.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      the UK Parliament may be reluctant to support the United States’ military efforts abroad under Biden.

      To me, that’s an argument for keeping Biden around.

  47. wdalasio

    “If you’re someone who is not vaccinated on Wall Street, you’re considered a loser,” one Wall Streeter told The Post.

    So, the guys who prided themselves the “Masters of the Universe” are now making a status symbol out of how well they can follow the rules and be good little boys and girls. These people have shown the rest of us how pathetic they are.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It almost makes me want a mutation that is antibody dependent enhanced to show up.

      • PutridMeat

        I gotta be careful with that sentiment. I mean leaving aside the fact that ADE would impact the un-vaccinated as well. ADE could potentially lead to some very serious consequences, and I’m not sure I want to wish that on ignorant people who followed the ‘experts’ (in a rational world, the rational thing to do really). I even find myself hoping that these vaccines cause problems down the road; that’s an evil thought. A lot of people who had no choice (or at least had the choice severely titled for them by force) took it. If it turns out that the initial dose has long term consequences in the background (think obesity epidemic and food pyramid) or continually pumping people with boosters results in more and more side effects, that would be terrible. Schadenfreudy, but terrible.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s obviously an evil sentiment.

        But there is a small part of me that would like to see public trust in the totalitarians to be skewered for a very long time.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Youre much more optimistic than I. You don’t think that TMITE and the others in their institutional conglomeration wouldn’t happily lie to the general populace and convince most people that the increase in deaths due to heart disease or immunocompromise either wasn’t factual or was the unvaxxed people’s fault?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        When the media personalities themselves start dropping dead, they might be forced into reality.

        As it stands right, it’s largely an imaginary threat they’re railing against so they feel free to assign it to their enemies. Things tend to change when you suddenly realize that your own life is actually on the line.

      • WTF

        It’s so “extremely rare” we keep seeing stories about it happening to prominent people.

  48. Rebel Scum

    I see the situation is improving.

    Speaking on Thursday morning, British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told British television audiences that the “credibility” of the intelligence about what he described as an “imminent” and deadly terror suicide terror attack against the crowds at the Afghan airport was so strong that they had to take the decision to order them to disperse.

    The order for people to stop crowding outside the airport on Wednesday night came from the United States embassy, the United Kingdom embassy, and others. That it was made as the last handful of flights evacuating Western citizens and at-risk Afghans from the country prepared to depart was a difficult one, Heappey claimed, but the huge numbers of people fleeing the Taliban was too tempting a target for a terror group he called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K).

    • Gustave Lytton

      So the Taliban doesn’t even have to do their own dirty work. All they have to do is feed the IC a “credible” threat about a suicide bomber and the western countries clear the crowds themselves.

    • WTF

      Apparently there has just been an explosion outside the Kabul airport.

      • db

        Comments there are claiming the pics were from Aug 16, not today.

      • Ownbestenemy

        The wide shot with the plane and radar cropped out yeah..that is old. He needs to drop that photo lest I don’t believe anything else he passes along regarding this.

      • WTF

        I just saw the live video those stills were taken from. It happened at the Abbey Gate. Twitter commenters are fucking idiots.

      • waffles

        Stare into the nightmare rectangle and watch the fall of empires in real time

        Apparently American soldiers are among the injured. Grim.

      • Tundra

        British soldiers/citizens too.

        Fucked up.

      • db

        shit

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Death rides a hog

    In western South Dakota’s Meade County, more than one in three COVID-19 tests are currently returning positive, and over the last three weeks, seven-day average case counts have increased by 3,400 percent. This exponential growth in cases is likely attributable to the 81st Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which drew an estimated half a million visitors to Meade County and its environs from Aug. 6 through 15, potentially acting as a superspreader event.

    The pandemic is surging nationally, not just proximal to biker chaos in South Dakota. Defined in large part by the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the United States is experiencing its fourth surge of COVID-19 right now, and our nationwide case counts have increased by 64.4 percent over the last 21 days. (For more on our methodology, see our note at the bottom of this column.)

    But while Southern states have been the main drivers of this surge thus far, the recent spike in cases in South Dakota warrants special concern.

    ——-

    The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally represents the perfect storm for a superspreader event across this region: a large gathering with no testing, no masks, and no vaccination requirements. Though many (but not all) of the goings-on occurred outdoors and thus offered more protection against SARS-CoV-2 transmission than if they hadn’t been, the South Dakota Department of Transportation reported that 525,768 vehicles entered Sturgis over the 10 days of the rally. The sheer number of people in attendance paired with a lack of additional precautions presented prime conditions for viral transmission.

    Dr. Shankar Kurra, vice president of medical affairs at Monument Health in Rapid City, told The Daily Beast he was living through a nightmare on repeat.

    “We knew this was going to happen,” Dr. Kurra said. “It happened last year. It was just playing a reboot of last year pretty much.”

    Right. The millions of dead bodies directly attributable to Sturgis that never happened.

    That fantastic “per cent rise” in cases is more likely than not less in actual numbers than Syracuse, New York. But don’t let that interfere with the narrative.

    • Cy Esquire

      Everything not party sanctioned is heresy.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Evidence that rape is more about power than sex? I mean, this is a guy who gets paid to have sex as many women as any human could handle and he has to go out and force himself on people?

    One might postulate that a guy like that would get bored of normie fucking, and look for something else to rile him up.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Most likely

    • PieInTheSky

      rape is more about power than sex – this is utter nonsense.

  51. PieInTheSky

    Exclusive:

    Britain has a shortage of large family homes needed to house large Afghan families

    On average each family coming to UK under Arap has 7 people – some families have 12

    Councils being given grants to rent or buy large family homes

    https://twitter.com/Steven_Swinford/status/1430065512030031877

    • Not Adahn

      Bunk beds.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Every person needs 500 sq ft to themselves.

      • waffles

        In my family, 1500 sq ft

    • Cy Esquire

      LoL… Some rich people going to get richer.

    • PieInTheSky

      Looking at the replies it is either Margaret Thatcher’s fault for allowing renters to buy council houses or of subsequent governments for not building massive amounts of social housing

  52. Festus

    I had a terrible dry cough and runny nose last week. Dollars to doughnuts it was the yellow fever. At least now I’m back to Spud’s spontaneous nose bleeds. I hope that it spread to every hale and hearty person that I met.

    • Festus

      That was awfully mean-spirited. It’s just hard to feel any good will when they yank your biting pillow away. I’m out, Friends. Be kind if you can.

    • AlexinCT

      My only symptoms for the Kung Flu was an annoyingly persistent cough for 3 or 4 days….

    • The coolest vaccine-free BEAM in the world™

      Could also be a reaction to all the forest-fire smoke we’ve been forced to breathe throughout Western Canada for the last couple of months. I had the same thing, and checked my temp daily. Nothing.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Apparently there has just been an explosion outside the Kabul airport.

    Fuck.

    • AlexinCT

      DIRKA DIRKA!

      BAKALAKA LAKA!

  54. Count Potato

    “The full @FreedomofPress 2018 report on Antifa’s chronic attacks on independent journalists can be read below. It’s gotten much worse since. As Exec. Director @trevortimm
    notes, the victims are often pro-Antifa journalists, whose crime is disobeying them.

    One of the worst aspects of Antifa’s attacks on journalists is how their supporters are trained to justify and even glorify this violence with demented rationale, insisting a journalist needs Antifa’s permission to film a public rally, and violence is deserved for noncompliance.”

    https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1430868190184321030

    “Hey, asshole: you don’t get to demand that journalists ask permission to film you in a public, announced demonstration. And you certainly don’t have the right to attack that person, knock her to the ground, and smash her equipment.”

    https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1430605601525096450

    • Not Adahn

      Lookie at those two fascists, Greenwald and Taibbi.

      • PieInTheSky

        you want to say that sarcastically but the woke would tell you “this but unironically”

    • Count Potato

      You can’t fool me, that’s the Bee.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Apparently the new scary campfire story in the media is, “Plague victims are soaking up so many hospital resources we had to deny an emergency cancer treatment to somebody!!!!”

    Brace yourselves.

  56. The Late P Brooks

    What a fucking mess. At least it shows that Biden isn’t just a puppet. Only a mentally deficient person could accomplish this much chaos.

    Secret world domination cabals ain’t what they used to be. Where are the Masons when you need them?

    • R C Dean

      Embrace the healing power of “and”

      Biden is just a puppet, and his handlers are mentally deficient.

  57. PieInTheSky

    Japanese gyaru Konasuke – known as the “Welding Gyaru” – is one of the top trends on Twitter Japan. @KONA_neruneru
    shared her life story with the J-media & people are amazed. We’ve met her in Harajuku before, but reading her full story was inspirational. Here’s a sample

    https://twitter.com/TokyoFashion/status/1430598972532355073

    • Gustave Lytton

      Welding in short shorts? Ok…

      Too bad she didn’t pick up the no ink or facial piercings in her love for Japanese culture.

      • PieInTheSky

        I am not familiar really but on a google the whole gyaru thing seems to be a rebellion to traditional Japanese culture.

      • AlexinCT

        Where is Staff so he can so you the “Fuck Japanese Culture” emoji (Godzilla fucking up shit).

    • Count Potato

      Funny, she doesn’t look Japanese.

      • PieInTheSky

        Apparently half italian half japanese raise by foster japanese parents

      • AlexinCT

        So she does that little moaning them girls do right after she tells ya to “Va fare un culo”?

  58. Tres Cool

    Good G_d. I just woke up on the floor, with a mouthful of carpet, holding a jar of pickles and laying next to a pic of my ex.
    I think the Zoom call roofied me.

    • Ownbestenemy

      wait…you passed out again after the pickle & pepperoni incident this morning? Dude…

      • PieInTheSky

        yes I was curious what happened to the bag of pepperoni.

      • AlexinCT

        Is this some euphemism for bag o’ dicks?

      • PieInTheSky

        Can’t say not on the zooms at those weird hours

    • waffles

      Why have a pick of your ex just laying around waiting to roofie you?

    • Cy Esquire

      Wait until you try to take a shit!

      • Tres Cool

        I just did, kinda. Millwaukee’s Best Light and a salad dont play well together.

    • AlexinCT

      My girlfriend is from there… I was actually out there a month ago with her for some family function. The big thing there – according to the locals – is the fentanyl problem and a lack of good hookers.

    • Tundra

      Duluth is nice. pistoffnick lives there, too!

      Yes, unfortunately there will be a mosquito or two.

      • PieInTheSky

        Well between this and the above mentioned lack of good hookers that is a pass for me I’m afraid

    • Certified Public Asshat

      The rich still seem to like Martha’s Vineyard.

      • PieInTheSky

        How is the wine?

    • pistoffnick

      “So what’s moving and shaking in Duluth, Minnesota? Are there any mosquitoes? If there were none or other bitey insect it probably would not be that bad”

      Sleepy little town next to the best lake. No Asian grocery. City streets are terrible, but we have a brand new housing complex for homeless drunkards and we have a newly designed city flag (it’s important to take care of the goofy things rather than fix the streets). We have mosquitoes but they have not been bad this year due to the drought. We also have gnats and ticks. Our neighborhood has a couple of bears but they don’t bite, they just scatter trash.

      It gets cold in the winter (-23 deg F)

      • PieInTheSky

        the best lake – among the ones in the area not the world I assume

      • AlexinCT

        That lake looks awesome, and is big enough that people that won’t know better can confuse it for an ocean…

      • PieInTheSky

        Are there beaches? Can you swim in it? I assume being in the US the water is all dirty and polluted by unrestrained capitalism. I assume no fish live in it on account of the toxic waste.

      • pistoffnick

        You can swim in Lake Superior, but it is pretty cold.

      • PieInTheSky

        that is good, means no alligators

      • Nephilium

        Fishing, boating, swimming, and beaches all through the great lakes. Here in Ohio, there’s occasional times that the beaches are closed due to algae blooms or heavy storms causing overflow of things you don’t want to swim in.

      • pistoffnick

        We get beach closings due to rip tides.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I watch the Duluth Canal webcam all the time. The James R. Barker has a pleasing horn.

        You can figure out whether or not that’s a euphemism.

  59. The Late P Brooks

    Finally, we get the truth

    President Biden has been briefed on a classified report on the intelligence community’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19, the White House said Wednesday.

    The intelligence community this week concluded its 90-day review of evidence surrounding how the virus originated. Biden was briefed on Tuesday, press secretary Jen Psaki said.

    “It was a classified briefing, so of course that’s not information we would provide publicly,” Psaki said.

    The intelligence community is preparing an unclassified summary of its findings, which will be released in the coming days. Psaki declined to elaborate on the core findings of the report.

    The Washington Post reported late Tuesday that the intelligence community was unable to conclusively determine whether the virus originated in a lab or whether it was passed directly from animals to humans.

    Or not.

  60. PieInTheSky

    Cathy ReisenwitzAvocado
    @CathyReisenwitz
    As a wise Lil Nas X once said, if you have to try to be straight…

    Also heterosexual women (in a patriarchal society) are proof that sexual orientation is not a choice.]

    https://twitter.com/CathyReisenwitz/status/1430280279730450435

    ehm what?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Ah, the former reason web person and “libertarian” with a focus on sex matters that really was a leftist libertine.

      • PieInTheSky

        I have occasionally came across her twitter and seen little libertarian about it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        She’s as libertarian as David Weigel.

      • waffles

        Weigel really should have been the canary in the coal mine. But I was young and easily seduced by the cocktail parties.

      • pistoffnick

        You got roofied?

      • waffles

        twice!

      • R C Dean

        “You’re not here for the hors d’ouvres and umbrella drinks, are you?”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Dumb as a fucking rock is what she is.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Swim in the sewer and youre bound to fins som shit.

      *shrug*

    • Lord Humungus

      Maybe I’m just a cis-shitlord male, but WTF?

      “If heterosexuality is so natural, why do you have to maintain its stronghold on the culture and the world? Why is it so threatened? If it’s so natural, why must it constantly be enforced?”

      How exactly is thing being enforced? With a gun?

      • waffles

        I think homosexuality or at least the overwhelming public acceptance of it was, in fact, being enforced at the point of a gun in Kabul. Look how that turns out.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The reaction to the pride flags over our embassy is going to be unpleasant.

  61. The Late P Brooks

    Top intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, have previously acknowledged that it’s possible the virus could have originated via a laboratory accident, but they have cautioned it would be difficult to come to a definitive conclusion.

    Scientists haven’t discovered definitive proof the virus leaked from a lab. But they also have not found hard evidence that shows the virus started in animals before naturally infecting humans, which is why some argue an investigation is needed.

    Let’s not rush to judgement before all the facts are in.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      If nothing else we have learned that these pricks will take up whatever slack you give them without a moment’s hesitation.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Eastern Oregon needs to get on with that State of Jefferson thing with N. Cali quick, fast, and in a hurry.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Never going to happen. Latest pipe dream is joining Greater Idaho. Also never going to happen. But the State of Jefferson can throw a third X up on the seal just the same.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I know. It is like these people want an *actual* insurrection.

    • Rebel Scum

      people fired for refusing vaccines generally can’t collect jobless benefits

      Idk how it works but I thought the benefits didn’t apply to being fired.

      Either way, fuck you mr./ms. taxpayer. You don’t get benefits you pay for.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Depends on the state. The requirements are all slightly different.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        For example, here in TX you cant collect if fired for violating company codes of conduct, but you can collect if you quit after a substantial change in the employment agreement.

        Does that mean that quitting after a covid mandate gets you unemployment, but getting fired because of the Covid mandate makes you SOL? Dunno.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I would say that falls under ‘with good cause’ that most statutes have written in them…especially if you can point to a religious and/or medical reason on why you cannot comply with the new employment standards.

        Then again, states and legislatures are looking to make it painful, so everything I just wrote might be just wishful thinking

      • Ownbestenemy

        Oregon UI laws and statutes have some wiggle room regarding how you left the employer. I am guessing they are using this “the individual was unable to satisfy a job prerequisite required by law or administrative rule.” to deny benefits to UI

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The pure narcissism on display is disgusting.

  62. The Late P Brooks

    These assholes keep pushing because there’s been zero personal consequences for their own actions for a long time.

    [REDACTED]

  63. Lord Humungus

    Thanks to yesterday’s birthday celebrations – yay, 51 – I’m decidedly hungover. Thanks to EF for driving while I imbibed free shots from the bar owner, along with beer, gin ‘n’ tonic, rye, etc. Not to mention smoking Blue Dream and drinking a can of Blue Crush before I went out.

    And yes I still worked out today. ::barf::

    • Ed Wuncler

      My stomach got a nauseous after reading that. Glad you had a hell of a birthday LH.

  64. The Late P Brooks

    THE CONSTITUTION IS JUST A FUCKING PIECE OF PAPER

    Now that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the Pfizer/ BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for people age 16 and older, it’s time for all governments across the country to mandate the vaccine for people taking part in indoor activities. There are no more valid excuses for not being vaccinated other than health reasons.

    One frequently heard pushback against vaccine mandates is that there is a “constitutional right” to choose whether to be vaccinated or not for adults and a right to determine whether children can be vaccinated. That is a non-starter in the midst of a pandemic.

    The Constitution is not a suicide pact guaranteeing a right to harm others. The government has latitude to protect citizens from deadly conditions, especially when the science supporting vaccination is so clear.

    The bioethicist, professor Arthur Caplan of New York University, has made a compelling case for the moral mandate to require vaccination. Appearing with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in a news briefing last month to address the city mandating vaccines for all municipal workers, he argued that the new policy “makes good, ethical and public health sense” and that “it will help all of us by keeping the COVID outbreak controlled.”

    We agree, but also believe that the public needs to better understand that there is no constitutional right to avoid vaccine mandates against a deadly disease.

    NOT A SUICIDE PACT!

    My right to *perceived* safety and happiness override your dopey alleged rights. Rights for me and none for thee.

    • Lord Humungus

      suicide pact garbage aside, why would I take a vaccine that only offers temporary protection, since, even according to the CDC, efficacy drops off?

      “Get the Booster”

      “Get the second booster!!!”

      etc tec

      • Ownbestenemy

        “there is no constitutional right to avoid vaccine mandates against a deadly disease.” Notice how broad their opinion on this is too. Once we breach on this, the Government then just can claim emergency for any number of deadly disease to ‘constitutionally’ perform medical experimentation on its subjects.

      • R C Dean

        Of course, they are purposefully ignoring the question of whether the government has the Constitutional authority to impose a vaccine mandate. This is exactly what everyone was worried about with ObamaCare – that “public health” would be the shiny happy face of totalitarianism. Remember “the government can, in fact, order you to eat your broccoli”?

        Yeah, Roberts signed off on that. I don’t say this about very many people, but I hope he dies painfully, in disgrace, and soon.

    • Rebel Scum

      no more valid excuses for not being vaccinated other than health reasons

      Health reason: I refuse to be injected with spike protein poison.

      That is a non-starter in the midst of a pandemic.

      I have exactly 5.56 reasons that is absolutely valid.

      especially when the science supporting vaccination is so clear

      Assumes facts not in evidence.

      he argued

      Judging by the quotes, he “asserted”, which is not an argument.

      there is no constitutional right to avoid vaccine mandates against a deadly disease

      My body, my choice. Or the reasoning for abortion, my privacy.

    • Rat on a train

      We must ignore the Constitution to save it!

  65. Lord Humungus

    and the neighbors met up with us; they bought me a fifth of 2017 Eastern Kille Barrel Strength bourbon – which tested at ::kaff:: 63.3% alcohol – at least according to the label.

    • PieInTheSky

      a fifth – please use milliliters like a normal person.

      • Lord Humungus

        I don’t use no commie numbers, suh!

      • UnCivilServant

        1/5th of a gallon, not quite a quart. It’s the classic unit of measure for a bottle of booze.

        How can you claim to be a drinker and not know it.

      • PieInTheSky

        It’s the classic unit of measure for a bottle of booze. – not in civilized places it aint. You know the places which make all the good booze

      • kinnath

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_(unit)

        A fifth is a unit of volume formerly used for wine and distilled beverages in the United States, equal to one fifth of a US liquid gallon,or 25 and 3⁄5ths US fluid ounces (757 ml); it has been superseded by the metric bottle size of 750 ml, sometimes called a metric fifth, which is the standard capacity of wine bottles worldwide and is approximately 1% smaller.

      • PieInTheSky

        I can google myself but that is not the point. I am trying to educate you people in proper units of measure

      • kinnath

        A fifth is the proper measure of hard liquor.

      • Nephilium

        You mean like imperial pint versus pint?

      • UnCivilServant

        So you’re going with the Union definition of teaching – utterly failing to understand the base material and delivering political lectures instead?

      • PieInTheSky

        A fifth is the proper measure of hard liquor.- no it’s not. I aint never heard of a fifth of scotch in Europe.

  66. PieInTheSky

    Anne Helen Petersen
    @annehelen
    A propos of nothing and everything, a friend of mine works in supply chains and suggests….ordering your Christmas presents now

    https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1430713320156188672

    meh. seems exaggerated

    • Lord Humungus

      I’m out of the manufacturing loop right now… but everything I’ve ordered recently has shown up within days. Evergreen trees, bicycle parts, pump, records, supplements, etc etc

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Not really. As someone who buys and sells equipment for a living, it’s looking rather grim at the moment.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    For example, it is well-settled that governments can ban yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater, because such speech can lead to death as attendees race to the exits. True, the First Amendment’s Speech Clause protects the “freedom of speech,” but there is no requirement that the government can’t prevent scenarios likely leading to death.

    Serious scholars, making serious arguments.

    ps- what is the actual death rate of this virus?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      “Playing rhetorical games worked in the past, so they’re bound to keep working as I back these people to the edge of a cliff”

    • Nephilium

      Sweet fscking cheebus. The government cannot ban yelling “fire”, the reference was falsely yelling “fire” and punishing someone for it after the fact.

      • R C Dean

        And its not “settled”, either. The Court never ruled on a case where somebody yelled “fire” in a crowded theater. That is pure dicta, was not part of the ruling, and is not binding in any way. They call them “opinions” for a reason.

      • invisible finger

        And the whole thing was based on fraudulent labor union activity trying to ruin theaters where the projectionists weren’t unionized and safety film hadn’t been invented yet.

        And it isn’t like union theaters had a fire-free track record.

  68. PieInTheSky

    I have no idea why I occasionally look at people building/living in off grid cabins on YouTube. While I sometimes like the idea of living on a large wooded property, I certainly would not want to live off grid. But watching relaxes me. Like occasional watching outdoors/camping/survival channels, things I do not want to do. Probably because they show a lot of nature and peace and quiet and stuff. The slow life. But electricity and central heating and plumbing is so nice in the end.

  69. Lord Humungus

    I’ve already checked the thermostat, but does anyone know how hard it is to replace the bearings on a clothes dryer motor? It squeaks so terribly that it makes my ears ring.

    I suppose I would have to replace the whole motor.

    I already tried re-greasing the bearings, along with the idler (tension?) wheel and it only helped temporarily.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      You can’t replace the bearings, just buy a new motor, and make sure you have time, tools and YT

    • db

      If you have a motor shop nearby, they might be able to rebuild it for you. Sometimes shops that specialize in car alternators will do motors too.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        What a waste of time and money, you don’t rebuild fractional HP motors, it’s not cost effective,
        /But what do I know

  70. The Late P Brooks

    Not a suicide pact!

    Ban guns.
    Ban cars.
    Ban swimming pools.
    Ban stairs.
    Ban alcohol.
    Ban Krispy Kreme.

  71. The Late P Brooks

    It is reckless at this point for the government not to mandate vaccination. Some politicians have falsely told Americans that they have a constitutional right to refuse vaccination. This is a license to potentially infect others with a deadly disease when the Supreme Court has consistently held otherwise.

    Children and adults have a constitutional right to “life” that can only be protected if there is mass vaccination. It’s time for state and local governments to issue vaccine mandates and fines — as New York and San Francisco have — before this virus mutates into an even more elusive killer than it already is.

    What monumental hubris and ignorance. You’d think this goddam thing has killed 80% of the world’s population, reading that.

    Fuck

    off,

    slaver.

    • Rebel Scum

      This is a license to potentially infect others with a deadly disease

      If you get the “vaccine” then you are good, no? I can’t take my own risks with illness? If you have the vax you can’t get sick or transmit right? If you can still transmit, vax or no, what precisely is the point of me having the vax?

      Oh, I get it. Your reasoning is incredibly wanting and circular.

      • R C Dean

        Their best argument is that it reduces the likelihood you will be hospitalized. Which seems valid, to me. Every patient in our ICU is unvaxxed. A disproportionate number in our regular units are unvaxxed.

        This works like most vaccines – its not perfect protection (as it was initially sold), it reduces the chance you will get really sick. But that’s a weak reed for a mandate.

      • PutridMeat

        Not sure vaccine is the right word for it then. It’s more a prophylactic treatment who’s affect is to reduce severity. Of course the fact that all your ICU patients are not vaccinated might mean that it is still significantly reducing chances of infection and hence reduces hospitalization. Hard to find the data to separate those effects though, at least for me. It *seems* that its 1% absolute reduction in infection probability is dropping rapidly, so if it’s the later, I’d assume you’d start seeing a more even distribution of clean and un-clean in the ICU/general admissions.

      • R C Dean

        Not sure vaccine is the right word for it then. It’s more a prophylactic treatment who’s affect is to reduce severity.

        Well, that’s how most, if not all, things we call “vaccines” work. They prime your immune system. They don’t cause pathogens to burst into flame on contact. They cause your immune system to jump into high(er) gear faster than if you are unvaccinated. That priming means your immune system is more likely to get ahead of the infection and knock it down faster, maybe before you have any symptoms, maybe with milder symptoms.

      • PutridMeat

        Sterilizing vaccines prevent infection so the virus doesn’t replicate and you don’t get sick or spread it. The measles, rubella, chick pox, polio, etc. are of this type. Flu ‘vaccine’ is not sterilizing. I think most people infer sterilizing when they hear vaccine. Hence the confusion about vaccinated people getting sick and spreading covid after getting ‘vaccinated’. So the entire idea of a non-sterilizing vaccine being sold as ‘the way out of this’ was, at best, in error. At worst a recipe for disaster if deployed widely.

        I’m not claiming a vaccine causes pathogens to burst into flame. But my bias is that it should prevent infection and transmission. Perhaps it’s all semantics, but I think calling the current crop of covid shots vaccines is misleading given how most people think of what it means to be a vaccine. We get ‘flu shots’, not ‘flu vaccines’ for example.

        Again, probably semantics. But semantics can mislead.

      • rhywun

        Which is why I pointed out/argued months ago that you rarely see the yearly flu shot called a “vaccine”. Someone said sure they do, but I’ve never seen it.

    • Ownbestenemy

      “Children and adults have a constitutional right to “life” that can only be protected if there is mass vaccination.” First, he doesn’t even believe in the constitutionality argument, just using it as a hammer at this point; otherwise there would be no scare quotes around life.

      Second, they have to make this argument that the only way out is through vaccination is because they have destroyed our advancement of knowledge on human microbiology and how our body defends against the millions of virus and bacterium we encounter throughout our lives.

  72. PieInTheSky

    I need a new phone and was considering the pixel 5a but the fucker won’t sell in Europe.

    My galaxy s8 is getting old and I am not ready to pay flagship money these days… Also the phone I want I believe does not exist as it would be a combo of flagship and mid-range.

    Maybe the galaxy s21 fe will be good. Sometimes I wish I had UCSs ability to use a dumb phone, but then again no I don’t

    • PutridMeat

      Might I suggest this? Removable battery for opting out of tracking with the added benefit of now qr codes or apps to track how unclean you are.

      • PieInTheSky

        that is what I did with the s8 and my previous Lg G2 (great phone). I was thinking of looking for something 5g though. But I am considering a prev gen flagship

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        S20 and S10 should both have 5g models (if you want to stick with the galaxy line)

      • Cy Esquire

        I like my note 9. Haven’t seen anything even remotely as nice in the current price range. $200

  73. The Late P Brooks

    “Fire in a theater.”

    That’s the trump card in retard bingo.