361 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    House votes to suspend debt limit, avoid government shutdown – debt limits are so old and boring

    • Nephilium

      They aren’t broke, they still have checks left!

      • AlexinCT

        And they can print more checks too!

  2. PieInTheSky

    TX Gov Abbot: Texas needs a federal emergency declaration for the border clusterfuck Biden created – these red states always want a handout from the Feds despite being so called low tax and for “states rights”.

    • AlexinCT

      If the criminal in the WH (no doubt about that now that they have admitted the crap on hunter’s computer was not Russian disinformation like a whole bunch of ex-three-letter-agency criminals claimed, but real) won’t do what he is legally supposed to do according to the constitution, the states should take matters in their own hand and send congress the bill.

    • Not Adahn

      Well done! The NYT needs a Bucharest bureau chief. Would you happen to be a LGBTIQQ2S+ BIPOC ? No cismales.

  3. PieInTheSky

    S&P says default of Evergrande likely. – that company name seems a lie to me

    • waffles

      I’m legitimately curious how this train wreck plays out. Evergrande announced very recently that they would make interest payments. A bunch of twitter people took this to mean the whole reaction was overblown and the debt will be paid. I’m not so sure. I think they’re full of shit.

      • Cy Esquire

        Aren’t all Chinese companies owned by the Chinese government by at least 51%?

      • rhywun

        I think “full of shit” can be reasonably applied to any economic data coming out of China.

    • AlexinCT

      Practically every Chinese company is owned by the CCP in one capacity or another and not subjected to any serious auditing of their finances. Evergrande is just one of the ones that no longer can hide how fucking bad their shit is…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Pretty much. And since most, if not all, Chinese companies that trade on an American exchange are actually shells based in the Caymans or elsewhere, any stockholders in those firms are going to be in for a rude awakening. Alibaba is one such firm and I’m willing to bet money that the shell will get cut loose as soon as it starts to fall apart.

  4. Rebel Scum

    The Democrat-led House voted Tuesday night to approve a bill that would prevent a government shutdown and suspend the debt limit,

    There has never been any intent to control spending anyway.

    but the legislation faces uncertainty in the Senate where Republicans are deeply opposed.

    Yeah sure.

    • PieInTheSky

      Republicans need to put on a show don’t you know.

      • AlexinCT

        The democrats want to use this as a campaign issue, but their plan to hide it in a big ass bill and force the republicans to reject the $3.5 trillion spending was discovered and blown…

    • rhywun

      Immediately after the House vote, Senate Republicans introduced an alternative spending plan that avoids suspending the debt limit while funding most of the items in the Democrat bill.

      I wonder what those items are.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Most of them.

  5. PieInTheSky

    Biden’s poll numbers crash in Iowa, with 62% disapproval. – I blame the corn myself. Or whatever it is these flyover stated produce

    • waffles

      Can you even get corn products where you are? Looking at ingredient lists of stuff here in the USA it’s shocking how corn is in everything.

      • UnCivilServant

        You’ll be shocked by the amount of corn that’s in beef.

      • waffles

        I’m like 15% made of corn I gather.

      • Gender Traitor

        How much corn DO you gather?

      • Gender Traitor

        Oooh! Corned beef! My favorite! ?

      • Nephilium

        Mmmm… Slyman’s.

      • Gender Traitor

        I miss our local Schlotzsky’s. ?

      • Nephilium

        There were a couple up here in the CLE area, but they closed years ago. Slyman’s is better, much, much better.

      • Gender Traitor

        Once upon a time there was an Izzy’s in Dayton, back when it was Izzy Kadett’s (sp?), I believe. Long gone, AFAIK, and the local kosher deli just up the road from me is also gone – several tenants later, it’s now a very popular (and very good) Mexican restaurant.

        I gotta hunt around for a good kosher deli.

      • Ghostpatzer

        “corn is in everything.”

        No kidding. And no lube to ease the pain.

      • AlexinCT

        That’s what cornholers tell each other….

    • Sean

      I don’t even know if Iowa is a real place.

      • waffles

        I’ve driven across it via I-80 a good six times. It lives up to its reputation.

      • Gender Traitor

        Aw, shucks!

      • Swiss Servator

        Any state that has Exile Brewing Company and Toppling Goliath brewing….exists and is blessed.

      • Bones

        Hear hear!

      • DEG

        I’ve driven through it before. It exists.

      • Cy Esquire

        The Iowa state fair is pretty fucking awesome. Well worth a weekend getaway or small vacation. The different show animals and the engineering of the premier equipment is REALLY cool.

      • Bobarian LMD

        RAGBRAI is a thing.

      • Tundra

        It’s real. And its spectacular!

      • Bobarian LMD

        It is spectacular.

        It acts as a buffer between Minnesota and any place that matters.

      • TARDis

        Like a pretty girl with a nice rack?

      • Gustave Lytton

        *cue Minniesoda jokes about Iowa*

      • Not Adahn

        My only time driving through Iowa it was blizzarding. We had a guy sit on the hood, pointing a flashlight towards the right edge of the road.

        Oh to be seventeen again.

    • DrOtto

      Corn pop was a bad dude.

  6. Rebel Scum

    On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the actions of the Border Patrol Agents, calling it “horrible,” adding that the United States needs to step up to assist the nation of Haiti with basic needs.

    Are the Clintons available?

    “What I saw depicted about those individuals on horseback treating human beings the way they were is horrible. I fully support what is happening right now, which is a thorough investigation into what exactly is going on there,” said Harris.

    Trying to capture illegal aliens and enforce the US border is truly horrible. We’d better reign this in before it gets out of hand.

    • waffles

      Didn’t the Clinton Foundation raise a massive fortune for Haiti about ten years ago? Such a shame 98% of it was eaten up in administrative costs. Such a shame.

      • AlexinCT

        They raised a massive fortune for themselves, pretending they would help Haiti with the cash. It is the reason that the Haitians told the foundation NOT to come help after the recent earthquake…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Weddings are expensive.

    • Fourscore

      No more horsing around, the feds need to pony up some cash.

      • SDF-7

        Wither or not they do, I think they’ll be hoofing it over to the mane event of propping up some sacrificial Border Patrol agents as red meat for the press. Saddle up, folks — they’ll be trotting out the ole “This was a Trump policy!” for something that never actually happened….

      • juris imprudent

        You two are just beating a…

      • Bobarian LMD

        We need to rein in all this horsing around.

    • rhywun

      Is this the narrative where we’re supposed to believe those guys on horses were whipping the Haitians with their reins?

      • juris imprudent

        Just like overseers on the plantation!

      • Akira

        Why didn’t anyone tell those poor Haitians that the US is run by and populated with a bunch of horrible white supremacists?

    • hayeksplosives

      How did these desperately poor Haitians get to the border? Somebody paid to put them on a boat or a plane and then a bus at some point along the way.

      • waffles

        I was listening to BBC world via my local NPR station at lunch the other day. The BBC reporter was interviewing a Haitian and asking how the Haitians got there from Haiti. The interviewee pretended not to understand the question and spoke of how horrible conditions are in Haiti. To this reporters credit she asked three times and was rebuffed by nonsense each time. American media is afraid/unwilling to ask.

        Someone is funding this.

      • rhywun

        The ones I read about who answered this question said they’d been living in Brazil or some shit for several years. For some strange reason they got the idea that Mexico wasn’t going to prevent them from reaching the promised land any more.

      • waffles

        Ok, now I kind of see what’s happening. Still I wonder what makes living in the USA so much better than Brazil. Particularly for a Haitian.

      • rhywun

        Probably more free shit in the US.

      • Tonio

        It’s a long fucking way from Brazil to the US border. It’s also a long fucking way from Haiti to Brazil. They didn’t raft over.

      • Chipwooder

        A lot of Haitians emigrated to Brazil, Chile, Peru, etc in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.

      • Chipwooder

        The explanation I’ve read has been that the Haitians at the border are people who fled Haiti for South America some time ago. They’ve come to Texas from places like Colombia and Peru.

      • waffles

        So they started making for the US border as soon as Biden was in office? This is really bizarre to me.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Biden gave Haitians temporary protected status in May.

      • rhywun

        He also ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy because Trump.

      • waffles

        There hasn’t been a single policy reversal because Trump that has been anything buy a disaster.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A leading theory is that some of them aren’t actually Haitian, or at least they were Haitians already living in Central/South America.

        The temporary protected status that the Biden administration gave to Haitians incentivized them to risk the border. But now, in the face of the border crisis, they’re panicking because if they get deported, they get sent back to Haiti instead of where they were.

      • waffles

        Oh man, Haiti is so much worse. Thank you for explaining this to me.

      • Drake

        Heard that some were coming from Argentina and Brazil – which sounds like absolute bullshit.

        That’s further than Boston to LA and there is no land-route through Central America. So either way, somebody put them on a boat or plane.

    • Not Adahn

      Isn’t she the border czar? Aren’t those her hussars?

    • Plisade

      But drone striking kids on the far side of the world is totally cool.

  7. Gender Traitor

    Lovely music! Thank you, Banjos!

  8. Rebel Scum

    Governor Greg Abbott asked Biden to declare a federal emergency declaration for the state in order to receive more resources for the surge of migrants at the southern border at Del Rio. The emergency declaration will provide help to state and local authorities to handle the crisis. Abbott sent a five-page letter to Biden on Monday relaying the request.

    Or tell the feds to do their job or get out of the way so the state can do it. States are independent political entities. Act like it.

    • Swiss Servator

      He is doing two things – showing Pudding Cup isn’t serious, and sticking a hand out for $ to reimburse them doing the Feds’ job.

      Pointless from a results standpoint, but good theater.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I seem to recall the Arizona state government trying to enforce border policy and federal law and a certain administration suing them for their efforts.

  9. Ghostpatzer

    Mornin’ Banjos. Thanks for the music link, good antidote for the typically infuriating news of the day.

  10. Rebel Scum

    Democrats’ dwindling 2022 map.

    I’m sure they can fortify the election enough to compensate.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      “there’s… erm…a water leak… yeah, that’s it! Everybody go home”

    • AlexinCT

      You can bet your ass they have no intention of losing this and if they have to cheat to win, they will..

    • RBS

      “What’s going to determine the size of the battlefield is how far down these dark paths of racism and denying a woman’s reproductive freedom the Republican Party goes,” he said.

      LOL.

    • DEG

      House elections are a little harder to fortify.

      • SDF-7

        California 2018 elections laugh at you.

      • juris imprudent

        California laughs at you because it is full of fucking idiots actually voting for lunatic Dems.

      • Rat on a train

        Are house elections run by different officials using different procedures and equipment?

      • DEG

        Counting is by district. If your district isn’t one that’s already fortified or already friendly to such things, good luck fortifying it.

      • Rat on a train

        Let me throw a few urban precincts in your district. Wow, turnout there was 167%.

      • DEG

        With Republicans controlling redistricting in a majority of states? Heh.

        In Democrat states, it won’t matter.

  11. Festus

    Mornin’! That gif is the Democratic Party. Well played!

    • hayeksplosives

      I giggled over that GIF too!

      Good morning, Festus.

      • rhywun

        #metoo

        kitty 1 – toddler 0

    • AlexinCT

      What’s the gif? A guy in a brutally cold winter with his hands in his own pocket as opposed to in everyone else’s as usual for democrats?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Australia is rapidly devolving into “Because we said so” authoritarianism.

      • Tonio

        “We had to kill them to save them.”

      • R.J.

        “No fried chicken for you” was the most ridiculous thing I have seen yet. Buckethead hardest hit.

    • rhywun

      This is near the center of Melbourne, for reference.

      • Not Adahn

        There is a vid of one of the protestors kicking a dog. Now I hate them all.

      • rhywun

        wat?

      • Drake

        A police dog or just some random mutt?

      • Not Adahn

        Not a typical police type, not wearing police gear.

    • Sean

      The Nigerian-born former Wake Forest decathlete also vowed to be explicit about the differences between science and opinions.

      *pops popcorn*

      • AlexinCT

        He is not a real black person and he is not a real doctor either!

        /marxist shill

      • DrOtto

        This would carry even more weight coming from real Dr. Jill Biden.

      • Rat on a train

        Isn’t she the doctor-in-chief now?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Surgeon General.

      • Rat on a train

        The Surgeon General is a member of the uniformed services. We need a civilian doctor-in-chief!

      • rhywun

        Ladapo wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last year that masks are a distraction from the pandemic reality.

        Be still my heart!

  12. Festus

    Whelp, I worked extra hard tonight so I’m bowing out early. Have some fun, Glibbies! Stick your finger in a Karen’s eye today if you can.

    • AlexinCT

      Night Festus…

    • Festus

      Wow, really need some tendies. Balance is 30%. Critters are fed and mine is in the air fryer. Pushed too hard yesterday, now I pay the price.

    • DEG

      Bye Festus!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Probably made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Turning small fry to get the big fry is the usual strategy though.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        But Rhodes is the big fry, as far as the “militia” movement goes. For all practical purposes, he is the OathKeepers.

      • juris imprudent

        Perhaps he has some interesting dirt on some of the Feds that they prefer to not have disclosed?

      • Swiss Servator

        Then he would be imprisoned, and “commit suicide”.

        /Ghost of Weinstein

      • EvilSheldon

        Anyone who’s read a techno-thriller or two can get around that problem. The real problem is, no one cares what dirt you have on politicians anymore. You could have a video of the honorable Senator balls-deep in a dead toddler, and the first response of most people would be to check for a (D) or (R) after his name…

      • AlexinCT

        Republicans pounce!

        /Euphemism…

      • Cy Esquire

        I think you’re blind if you play the ‘both sides’ bullshit on that subject. There is one side that has literally openly gotten away with murder, treason, embezzlement, quid pro quo…

      • EvilSheldon

        @Cy – That’s a completely separate issue, and one I don’t disagree on.

        My only point was that having ‘dirt’ on a politician is worthless these days.

      • juris imprudent

        Weinstein/Epstein – what difference does it make at this point?

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Weinstein didn’t kill himself.

      • juris imprudent

        No, he most certainly didn’t.

    • Sean

      “get your free vaccine” so you don’t get covid stories.

      Narrator: “That’s not how this works.”

      Seriously, I can’t believe how they are still pushing this shit.

      *looks at Australia*

      *looks at Canada*

      *looks at Israel*

      I guess it could be much, much worse.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The goalposts will be moved until the vaccines are considered a success.

      • DrOtto

        Which is when 20% of the population is culled.

  13. Rebel Scum

    So there is this cunte.

    Andrew Guzman is the dean of USC Law School who has repeatedly urged students to confront and report on community members who are non-compliant with COVID policies, such as those who briefly pause to “hydrate.”

    Reminder, all students have been subject to mandatory vaccination.

    “Students are not allowed to eat or drink in the building — including in the law cafe area. All eating and drinking must take place outdoors. The exception to this rule is limited to instructors, who may briefly hydrate while teaching but must re-mask immediately.”

    “If you see a member of our community who is not compliant with these policies, you are free to politely remind them of their obligations to the health and safety of those around them. If you are uncomfortable approaching non-compliant members of our community you may reach out to Covid19@law.usc.edu and we will approach that individual.”

    • Chipwooder

      Embrace snitch culture! Name names!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The UNC schools openly encourage anonymous narcing on COVID policy violators.

        And I believe Rice does as well.

    • rhywun

      Who’d have thunk that totalitarian policies would emerge from the universities?!

      • Akira

        And it will spill out into the rest of society.

        The SJW nonsense started on university campuses, and some people said that it was just the work of a small group of loud activists and that they would eventually graduate and forget about all that stuff to focus on their careers. That didn’t happen. They brought it into their careers in newsrooms, corporate boardrooms, and government agencies. Metastasis.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Our future lawyers right there.

  14. Tonio

    Nunes is responsible for “a series of thoughtless anti-free speech lawsuits, and it’s just painful to see the 8th Circuit not recognize that,” Eric Goldman, who directs the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law, told Just the News in a phone interview. He said this appeals court has a reputation for “weird” rulings.

    “You really don’t want to see a guy like Nunes get more of a chance” in the courts, even if he can’t win any defamation suit, Goldman said. It adds “procedural complexity” and cost to a defamation defense and inhibits “socially beneficial speech.”

    CWAA

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “socially beneficial speech”

      Now there’s a euphemism for lying I haven’t heard before.

      • Swiss Servator

        “lying for a good cause”

      • WTF

        They’re horrified that a more reasonable defamation standard will emerge that could result in consequences for lying about their political opponents.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Eric Goldman, who directs the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law

      Ah, he’s from Santa Clara Law… Never could’ve predicted that a person from that school would be reflexively prog-fascist and without principle. Nosiree.

  15. hayeksplosives

    Listening to Tom Woods episode 1974 with guest Jay Bhattacharya (Professor of medicine at Stanford U, and an author of the Great Barrington Declaration).

    Interesting take on the COVID facts. He says the vaccines do NOT stop the spread of the disease but that the vaccine does absolutely help protect against severe disease once a person gets infected.

    He claims that eventually EVERYONE will get this disease, so he recommends the vaccine to protect against severe illness, so at this point we just need to get on with living and avoid hiding at home. The horrible social and economic costs of lockdowns aren’t worth it because you’re probably going to get infected anyway.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I like Bhattacharya, he argues in good faith.

      That said, I think he is overestimating the long-term benefit of the vaccines. They provide protection against severe disease right now, but with continued mutations in the virus, I expect that will be short-lived. Therapeutics and early treatments are the only real way out, but the medical bureaucracy is fighting them tooth and nail.

      • WTF

        Since the effective therapeutics are mostly off-patent and therefore relatively cheap, of course they’re fighting that tooth and nail.

    • Chipwooder

      There are times when I wonder if I was hallucinating a year ago – as I recall, that was exactly what was said at the beginning of all this. That was the logic behind “15 days to slow the spread” – everyone is going to get this at some point, but if too many people get it at once then it could swamp hospitals with Wu Flu patients.

      At some point, everything shifted from this to the insane idea that somehow an airborne respiratory virus could be completely eradicated like smallpox, and all kinds of craziness followed.

      • Ownbestenemy

        It is a theme written many times in sci-fi and dystopian novels where Man reaches a point in their scientific knowledge that they believe they can beat nature. It’s just we are living it now.

      • Akira

        I wonder if that’s what the Greeks had in mind when they devised all those myths about mortals suffering horrible consequences for trying to surpass and outshine the gods.

      • Bobarian LMD

        This ain’t living!

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        That has been my opinion through this whole thing. I briefly changed my mind when it looked like vaccines were effective at preventing the spread, but now I’m back to the opinion that we are all going to get it, so let’s get on with it.

    • PieInTheSky

      The problem is do vaccines cause more and more variants?

      • waffles

        Why do you hate diversity?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They don’t cause them per se. The virus is constantly mutating, but the vaccinated, not having a sterilizing immunity, act like a filter for the variants that escape the vaccine.

      • Drake

        The vaccines make people far more susceptible to the variants via ADE.

    • Urthona

      But does the vaccine not reduce the rate of transmission? If it doesn’t this vaccine mandate argument is gone.

      • DEG

        I think there was some work out of the UK that showed vaccinated people that get Covid-19 have the same viral load as the unvaccinated. In other words, just as contagious.

      • Urthona

        This is precisely what the CDC director said, as well but then there was a tour of (very good) scientists saying that couldn’t be the case and the CDC director was nuts. I’m not a doctor, but their reasoning seemed sound at the time as well.

        I’d like to use this argument, but I feel uncomfortable without knowing for sure.

      • juris imprudent

        The CDC director is a bureaucrat, so I wouldn’t tend to believe anything he or she has to say (regardless of who’s in the White House).

      • Urthona

        And I don’t.

        But would like to.

        There is a person on my Facebook feed today seriously claiming her vaccinated relatives’ covid death is because others in her family wouldn’t get vaccinated.

      • juris imprudent

        Stupid people are gonna stupid.

      • DEG

        I did a little poking around.

        I found two articles.

        From Nature

        Data from COVID-19 tests in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore are showing that vaccinated people who become infected with Delta SARS-CoV-2 can carry as much virus in their nose as do unvaccinated people. This means that despite the protection offered by vaccines, a proportion of vaccinated people can pass on Delta, possibly aiding its rise.

        “People who have a Delta virus and happen to have ‘breakthrough’ infections can carry these really high levels of virus, and can unwittingly spread the virus to others,” says David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

        The studies discussed use the PCR test, but note the cycle threshold.

        From Medical News Today

        A new study found that people vaccinated against coronavirus who have also contracted the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 could have similar peak levels of the virus as people who have not had a vaccination.

        The researchers also found that while the vaccination offers significant protection against the Delta variant, the vaccines are less effective than against previous variants.

        The researchers drew on data from the COVID-19 Infection Survey, a study led by the Office for National Statistics, the Department for Health and Social Care, and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

      • DEG

        There are probably more out there. Those are ones I found after some quick searching.

  16. Nephilium

    So who had their money on Spanish Students being the ones to start pushing back?

    About 25,000 people took part in the biggest illegal drinking party in Madrid since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, police said on Saturday.

    • Not Adahn

      However, mass drinking parties are still illegal and punishable with fines for taking part between 500 euros ($586.25) for minors and 600 euros ($703.50) for adults. Organisers face fines of up to 600,000 euros ($703,500.00) if a court judges it is an activity which puts public health at risk.

      I am liking that minors getting drunk pay less of a fine.

      • Festus

        Minors getting drunk is the most fun! That’s how I became an alcoholic!

    • PieInTheSky

      Meh I am not sure this counts as pushback but I am not surprised by students partying

    • rhywun

      Illegal Drinking Party is the name of my next album.

      • Atanarjuat

        Yeah, that just exudes illicit fun.

      • Bones

        It’s like seeing Tony Toni Tone for the first time in 20 years!

    • waffles

      I’m deeply suspicious of the claim that gun ownership is what keeps this from happening here.

      • DEG

        I need a button a la the Shoe0nHead “wage gap button” for gun ownership in Australia.

      • Festus

        She’s super-cute but she’s dumb as stick.

      • Drake

        They still have most of their long-guns.

        It sure looks like the government is playing with gasoline and matches. And their cops are going right along with it.

      • Atanarjuat

        Agreed. There were a few protests (I think in Tennessee) where the cops were really hands off to open carrying protesters, but otoh we let cops shoot our dogs and random motorists all the time with no pushback.

    • PieInTheSky

      Shitty ideologies never die

      • TARDis

        Because the overwhelming majority of the planet’s humans are statist authoritarian tyrant wannabees. Who best to put the jackboot to everyone’s neck but a fascist? “I want the government to make people do this, or not be allowed to do that. Do my bidding!”

    • rhywun

      JFC. I couldn’t make it past half-way.

  17. Not Adahn

    Haitian migrants revolt in custody and seize control of privately contracted bus

    I’m ok with this. I don’t know if that makes me a reflexively cop-hating open-borders internationalist or what.

  18. DEG

    Mornin’

    “This is not a Democratic debt. It’s not a Republican debt. It is our debt. It is the debt of the United States of America. We don’t welch on our debts. We pay our debts,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

    Money machine go BRRRRRRRRR!!!

    China Evergrande Group slid deeper in equity and credit markets Tuesday, fueling concerns about broader contagion after S&P Global Ratings said the developer is on the brink of default.

    Wait, I thought they already defaulted? Or am I not remembering what I read about them before I left for PA?

    Politico’s Ben Schreckinger said Tuesday that a source corroborated several of Hunter Biden’s emails, including one believed to suggest giving his father, President Joe Biden, equity in a Chinese company.

    Better late than never. On the other hand, they can still go fuck themselves. On the gripping hand… umm… wait… this is a Hunter Biden story… moving on

    In a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll released Tuesday, 62% of respondents said they disapprove of Biden’s job performance, compared to just 31% who said they approve of the job he’s doing. The poll numbers indicate the president’s approval rating among Iowans has been dropping sharply since June.

    The Democrat’s internal polling at the Federal level has got to be shit. Maggie Hassan (Democrat US Senator for NH) and Chris Pappas (Democrat US Rep for CD-1 in NH) are already running ads which are thinly disguised campaign ads.

    Music is good.

    • RBS

      House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

      I forgot (but am not surprised) that he was still around.

      • Swiss Servator

        “The Party of Youth”

  19. The Late P Brooks

    He claims that eventually EVERYONE will get this disease, so he recommends the vaccine to protect against severe illness, so at this point we just need to get on with living and avoid hiding at home. The horrible social and economic costs of lockdowns aren’t worth it because you’re probably going to get infected anyway.

    That sounds like defeatism. We can whip this thing if we all just clap hard enough.

    • PieInTheSky

      Zero covid is within our reach if we act decisively in the next two months

      • rhywun

        Australia is leading the way!

  20. blighted_non_millenial

    Anyone interested in going to the “Outlaw” Festival be warned. They are requiring vaccine or negative covid test proof for entry even when the venue/locale does not have a requirement. Even at an outdoor venue…. One of the local sheds where they are playing will have a blanket requirement starting Oct 4. but currently does not. My wife is pissed as hell at me for refusing to go not the asshats for straying way out of their lane. Also, no refunds so they get our money anyway. Oh well, Gov’t Mule isn’t on the bill tonight and Sturgill Simpson is sick/lost his voice and isn’t playing either. I’d like to see Willlie again, but whatever.

    • RBS

      Such Outlaws… Yeah, the Mule canceled/rescheduled their show in SC because of our COVID numbers. But are still playing right across the border in Wilmington.

      • blighted_non_millenial

        I missed that. I think the Mule were just not on the bill tonight in Atlanta.

    • Nephilium

      There’s a reason I backed out of buying the Punk in Drublic tickets for Pittsburgh. All the venues here in Cleveland have partnered up to require proof of vax or a negative ‘vid test for admittance. Thankfully, the one ticket I had bought to a show before they implemented those policies sent out a message offering rebates, and quickly granted me mine.

      • rhywun

        I wonder how many years before the world shakes the cobwebs out of its head and looks back on this shit and realizes how fucking stupid it was.

      • Nephilium

        How long did it take people to realize that killing cats didn’t keep away the black plague?

      • rhywun

        Okay, decades.

      • waffles

        It took us fully two decades to turn the tide on the war on terror. The war on drugs? Five or more. Suddenly I’m not so optimistic.

      • Gadfly

        One generation laughs at the stupidity of the previous one in order to distract from their own stupidity.

      • Bobarian LMD

        We just didn’t fight those wars hard enough.

        Next time we’ll do it right!

  21. PieInTheSky

    Calories and Weight: From the Lab to the Real World

    Although calories and mass are intrinsically linked, we’ve all experienced changes in weight that don’t match what we expected based on changes in diet and exercise. This article examines those situations to help clear up the confusion.

    https://www.strongerbyscience.com/calories-weight/

    Key Points:

    Short-term weight fluctuations are primarily driven by water retention or water loss. Don’t freak out about them.
    Make sure your calorie intake is at the level you think it is. Most people are quite bad at estimating their intakes.
    Your body has regulatory mechanisms that try to prevent weight gain and weight loss (though they tend to fight against weight loss a bit harder), meaning that you may need to cut on lower calories than you’d anticipate, or bulk on higher calories than you’d anticipate.

    • AlexinCT

      Step one before you configure them to detect deplorables…

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I’m convinced that I’m typing on the last smartphone I’ll ever own.

      • rhywun

        ^^^ this

        Well, I very rarely type on it but I’m starting to think my next phone will be dumb.

      • R C Dean

        Same here. Although I know there are niche privacy-oriented phones out there, I wonder whether in the long run they will only provide minimal protection. Kinda like the way the internet is so rotten with Google scripts right now that chunks of it are borderline (or actually) unusable if you try to disable them, I think the cell system may “evolve” so that your phone has to be a surveillance tool in order to be usable at all.

      • db

        If I could find a flip phone that can do tethering to share its connection I’d be all over that.

    • SDF-7

      Rather cheeky pun there, Q.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Family squabble

    Former President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, three of its reporters, and his niece—claiming they hatched an “insidious plot” to obtain his private records for a story about his tax history.

    The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Dutchess County, New York, by attorney Alina Habba, alleges that the newspaper convinced Mary Trump to “smuggle records out of her attorney’s office and turn them over to the Times” despite her having signed a confidentiality agreement in 2001 after settling a contentious legal battle over the will of Frederick Trump, Donald’s father and Mary’s grandfather.

    ——-

    While Times reporters David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner—who won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2019 for what they revealed about the taxes the former president had refused to disclose, and how little he’d paid in federal income taxes—also weren’t party to the confidentiality agreement Mary Trump had signed in 2001, the former president’s new suit claims they were “directly responsible,” citing her interview with Molly Jong-Fast on The Daily Beast’s The New Abnormal podcast while claiming the reporters were “motivated, at least in part, by their actual malice” toward Trump:

    Molly Jong-Fast: You were ultimately the source for the tax story.

    Mary Trump: Yeah, um, I’m actually really proud of that. But I have to be honest with you, I didn’t even remember I had [the Confidential Records]. It’s entirely down to the brilliant Susanne Craig for, one, reminding me that I had them and, two, so effectively and tenaciously trying to convince—I mean it took her months before I did—so it’s entirely down to her.

    “I think he is a fucking loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can,” said Mary Trump of her uncle’s new suit. “It’s desperation. The walls are closing in and he is throwing anything against the wall that will stick. As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”

    Proud cunt is proud. How admirable.

    • rhywun

      I love it. Of course he will lose but it’s good to have the left’s conniving out in the open at least.

  23. Scruffy Nerfherder

    It’s back….

    SJWednesday: SJW Diary or A Journal Of Shit That Didn’t Happen

    Day 2 And Day 3
    After the first two days, I was feeling a little more confident in my responses. Which got me thinking about how I often choose to make white people comfortable when they speak to me.

    I often do it over my own comfort out of fear I’ll be labeled an “angry” black woman, or “just like all of them.” I wondered: When did I learn this, and why have I continued it into my adulthood?

    In the lobby of the Ace Hotel, someone sitting next to me made yet another comment about my hair. As they spoke, they stretched their hand out to touch it.

    It happens almost once a day, yet never ceases to shock me.

    The comment went something like this: “I love your hair! I bet it feels so cool!”

    My response as I dodged their hand was, “I really don’t love your hair, and I doubt it feels that cool,” while I ran my fingers back their straight hair.

    I know I was suppose to say back what they said to me, but I wanted to be honest, and I was frustrated. Why is it OK for strangers to touch me without permission?

    I’m not here for anyone’s entertainment, or to be looked at and touched.

    I don’t think they appreciated my comment, but I didn’t care. I didn’t appreciate the assumption that I would be OK being petted like an animal.

    Later, I was having a conversation with a white male about what my dating experience as a black woman had been like. He rolled his eyes during many parts of our discussion, sometimes interjecting with “White women probably experience this stuff too…” and “Maybe you’re just overthinking it,” and advising me to “definitely don’t talk about race when you’re on a date!”

    Instead of being quiet (which is what I normally do), I spoke up. I let him know that he had no right to tell me that my experiences weren’t valid simply because he couldn’t understand them.

    I asked him to tell me stories of his horrible dating experiences, then I proceeded to let him know that I thought it was all in his head.

    That those women he went on dates with were all in the right, and that he shouldn’t have put so much pressure on them to talk about his boring day-to-day life, or his ridiculous motorcycle. Then I let him know that the women were wise in not dating a person with no substance.

    And I walked away, because I don’t have the space in my life to be told for the 100 time that I am not valid.

    • AlexinCT

      How sad to be this way if this person is for real…

    • PieInTheSky

      Lived experience is always valid and supersedes reality

      • EvilSheldon

        Especially if your lived experience is that of an obnoxious unlikable asshole…

    • rhywun

      I was watching Match Game ’75 or whatever the other day and Gene Rayburn did exactly what she is describing. The lady seemed to enjoy the attention.

      That’s probably the last time this was caught on film in the wild.

    • CPRM

      Why is it OK for strangers to touch me without permission?

      It’s not, but I didn’t know this was a story about Joe Biden.

      • R C Dean

        Casual, incidental contact is perfectly permissible legally, and should be permissible socially. I can touch someone’s arm to get their attention. I can put y hand on someone’s back to let them know I am there or stop them from tripping over something. I can even grab someone’s arm to keep them from stepping into traffic or having some kind of accident.

    • Fatty Bolger

      It happens almost once a day

      lol sure.

  24. PieInTheSky

    The Biden administration is planning to purchase 500 million more Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine doses to donate to the world, officials said in an op-ed Wednesday.

    https://twitter.com/axios/status/1440643860057575432

    I hope equity is the basis of distribution

    • rhywun

      Um… it’s not a “donation” when I’m forced to pay for it.

      • PieInTheSky

        it is the price you pay for civilization

      • EvilSheldon

        Yeah, I’m paying for civilization, but IBM sure not getting it.

      • db

        …and this is how the admin pays off its donors…

      • R C Dean

        Yup. Couldn’t muscle through the third dose, so this is their fallback plan. I don’t know what the administration will be paying, but I bet the tab comes to a couple of billion dollars.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, and why is the administration buying the second most effective vaccine, anyway?

    • PieInTheSky

      If I was in the same room with him I would tell him he trows like a wimp. Sadly I am not.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      That had to be intentional. Either that or he’s never thrown any type of ball ever.

      • robc

        I have seen enough first pitches to know that is what happens. The highlights should be the ones who actually hit the glove.

      • Chipwooder

        Eh…..a baseball throw is a rather unnatural motion. If you’ve never done it before, it’s really awkward.

      • PieInTheSky

        I never held a baseball but I am sure I would nail it first try

    • robc

      At least he didnt bounce it up to the plate.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      LOL. That’s what happens when you’ve got so much muscle around the shoulder that you can’t rotate it freely.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Always wondered, when you get the call that you will be throwing out the pitch if any of these people say “huh, never done that, maybe I should get out to the local field and toss a few balls just in case”

  25. The Late P Brooks

    And I walked away, because I don’t have the space in my life to be told for the 100 time that I am not valid.

    And everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief and went on with their business.

    • ignoreLander

      And I walked away, because I don’t have the space in my life to be told for the 100 time that I am not valid.

      And then everyone on the bus stood up and cheered.

  26. robc

    Baseball birthdays: Urban Shocker, who easily could in the HoF, actual HoFer Bob Lemon, Hooks Dauss, 27-year old Carlos Correa, Larry Dierker, Bill Joyce, Alexei Ramirez.

    Also, further down are Wally Backman and Vince Coleman. I would have never guessed that Backman ended his career with more WAR than Coleman (13.2 vs 12.5). It was entirely due to defense.

    Bob Lemon won over 200 games as a pitcher, but I thought his hitting line was interesting. 1183 career AB, so about 2 seasons worth. .232-37-147 for avg-hr-rbi. So he was a low average, 18 homer, 70 rbi guy at the plate.

    In other sports news, Everton continued their tradition of never winning in a shootout. When your 4 best players (or 5, counting James Rodriguez) are injured, its tough fielding a competent lineup.

    • Chipwooder

      Vince Coleman wasn’t particularly good at anything other than stealing bases.

      • robc

        Yes, but what was Backman good at?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nice.

  27. Festus

    Alright. No lies this time, I’m done. Be well, Friends!

    • Gender Traitor

      Pleasant dreams, Fes!

    • PieInTheSky

      Peace upon you

  28. UnCivilServant

    Woohoo! I won both powerball and megamillions.

    What should I do with my $6?

    • Drake

      Buy 3 more tickets?

      • Rat on a train

        It’s like compounding interest.

    • Gender Traitor

      Buy a bullet?

    • Atanarjuat

      Buy Bitcoin at the bottom of the present dip.

  29. Certified Public Asshat

    Oberlin College, pursuant to its "ObieSafe" initiative, today imposed an indoor *and* outdoor mask mandate. There is currently a grand total of one — yes, one — "positive case" on the campus. And per usual, the College already requires vaccination pic.twitter.com/3ANIukMDMK— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) September 22, 2021

    No better way to spend $80k a year.

    • rhywun

      Help us, Oberlin, you’re our only hope!

      • UnCivilServant

        Do I need a third Gibson’s hat?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Higher ed is walking dead.

    • EvilSheldon

      Eh. If you willingly attend Oberlin, you kinda deserve what you get.

      I suppose this applies to most colleges…

  30. Rebel Scum

    Looks like the masks are off.

    Mack Miller is the Republican candidate for Lt. Gov in Nevada.

    Clark County becomes one of the first in the nation to declare that Covid misinformation is causing a public health crisis. This afternoon, the Clark County Commission voted and passed a resolution condemning your first amendment rights to speak about the scamdemic in a way that doesn’t fit the government narrative.

    During the meeting, police and security for Clark County violently assaulted Mack Miller, Army Veteran and Republican candidate for Lt. Gov. in Nevada. Miller was dragged from the County Commissioner’s Meeting after defending a group of women who were harassed by security and police officers for not wearing a mask.

    • PieInTheSky

      No more mask mandates? Cool

    • waffles

      If you had told me Clark County would be the first spot in the USA to go full Australia I would never have believed you. This is nucking futs.

      • PieInTheSky

        I would never have believed you – why? Nevada is a weird ass desert like Australia is it not?

      • waffles

        I guess I wrongly associate Nevada with libertarian tendencies.

      • PieInTheSky

        libertarian tendencies. – if by this you mean first to go Mad Max when everything collapses 🙂

      • Rat on a train

        libertine not libertarian

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

      • Drake

        I lived their for a couple years – I associate it with too many California immigrants.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Chicago, LA, NYC have been our biggest influx according to our realtor a few years ago. Most of the LA persons bought out here and then just commute the 4-5 hours or 1 hour by flight (cause they are cheap). They then have demanded all the same laws that made their shitty regulations and laws be put into place.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Vegas has flipped a number of years ago and wants it both ways but is trying to grow up as a true Blue city. For instance, during the first days of ‘essential v. non-essential’ the mayor called out the bullshit and she was smacked down by the Guv and city commissioner and they got their way. Shut down businesses.

    • Ownbestenemy

      The county commissioner’s meeting (why is that capitalized in the article?) was interesting. They were voting to make ‘medical misinformation a critical health crisis and stated that it would stop at that. Just a pointless declaration for declaration’s sake; second only to San Diego.

      Now the video of him getting removed should get people in the middle to perk up. He was pushed out like one of those football training devices that you have to push down the field, through the metal detector and slammed to the ground.

      Maybe he was out of line but the cops were absolutely using their anointed force to do as they wish.

    • rhywun

      OFFS.

  31. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    And good morning to the rest of you liberty loving miscreants!

    How long before Canadian migrants start pouring over the borders?

    • PieInTheSky

      e Canadian migrants start pouring over the borders – and give up their superior healthcare? never

    • Nephilium

      For the last warmer months, border patrol has been vigilant patrolling the lake.

      I really wish I was joking about that.

  32. Rebel Scum

    That’s the funny thing about words and definitions…

    FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday testified to a Senate committee that his agency’s domestic terrorism caseload had “exploded” since early 2020, in particular cases involving racially or ethnically motivated crimes.

    “Since the spring of 2020, so for the past 16, 18 months or so, we have more than doubled our domestic terrorism caseload from about 1,000 to around 2,700 investigations, and we have surged personnel to match, more than doubling the amount of people working that threat than the year before,” Wray testified during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on threats to the homeland.

    “Certainly, the domestic terrorism caseload has exploded, and meanwhile the international terrorism caseload hasn’t subsided,” Wray said later during questioning from senators.

    Wray noted that the “biggest chunk” of racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism the FBI tracks is now “favoring white supremacy.”

    “We collect information about that threat. We have, as you say, prioritized that threat at a national threat priority level,” Wray said.

    “Collect information”, “stage false flags” / “white supremacy”, “people that disagree with the regime”. “Tomayto”, tomahto”.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      All you have to do is redefine activities that fall under those classifications to be more inclusive.

      It’s one of the oldest tricks in the bureaucratic book now.

    • CPRM

      “Tomayto”, tomahto”

      The best part of a Whopper is when the juice from the tomato mixes with the mayo. I am here by dubbing this Tomayo, and it is far superior to the mixing of ketchup and mayo that some people refer to as frysauce.

      • Fatty Bolger

        “Tomayo” is what everybody thought Heinz should have used instead of “Mayochup.”

      • Sean

        @ CPRM – I sent ya a forum message.

        🙂

    • rhywun

      Casedemic!

      Totally not driven by politics, just like the other casedemic is totally not driven by politics.

    • Endless Mike

      I’ve wondered how many FBI agents are “observing” this site?

      • waffles

        Dear glowies,

        Everything posted to this site is a work of satire.

        Sincerely,

        Waffles

  33. Ownbestenemy

    So our union that covers our techs finally spoke out. They basically just rode the line “We haven’t been contacted about it and we are concerned about the timeframe for fully vaccinated”. According to some of my more trusted people I can talk with, there is a FB page for techs and it doesn’t look pretty in terms of the mandate. Most will buckle cause a family has to eat. Some have already dropped out of their temporary management roles to get back under the union and others have accelerated their timelines for retirement.

    Basically, the Agency has sent daily emails that demand you get vaccinated and that is what the Union is arguing…not the condition for employment.

    • DEG

      Shit.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Agencies are going full on too. Word is you cannot go on paid leave and it will be leave without pay if you are unvaccinated as they work through the discipline process. A process that will probably at minimum, drag on for 60+ days. This means a bunch of employees will be sitting at home through the holidays — which I find no coincidence on the date selected by Biden. Maximum pressure for maximum pain.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That’s what the local hospital system is doing. Except their timeline was 30 days of unpaid suspension pending termination.

      • Rebel Scum

        “I’m taking the balance of my vacation time, to get vaccinated of course.”

      • Gustave Lytton

        Nope. Could not use banked PTO either.

      • Rebel Scum

        It would be a real dick move if my employer did not at least allow me to cash out my pto should it come to “no jab, no job.” To think that I have been nothing if not loyal…

        But I expect that they would let me work remote. Hopefully…But they’d probably aim for a pay cut.

    • sarcasmic

      My employer announced you need to be vaccinated to enter any building. They’re following suit from our major customer, the federal government, which has a similar mandate. Glad I work from home.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Glad I work from home.

        If your employer has over 100 employees, it won’t matter where you work once the latest mandate is implemented.

      • rhywun

        That is when things really start to get interesting.

      • Nephilium

        My work has been thankfully silent about it.

      • sarcasmic

        Talking about being vaccinated is like telling someone your salary or how many people you’ve had sex with. Why is it so touchy?

  34. Rebel Scum

    This interview crashed harder than Windows Me.

    Anchor Judy Woodruff said, “You had a number of meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, who — when you met him 10 years ago — he was convicted of soliciting prostitution from minors. What did you know about him when you were meeting with him, as you’ve said yourself, in the hopes of raising money?”

    Gates said, “You know, I had dinners with him. I regret doing that. He had relationships with people he said would give to global health, which is an interest I have. Not nearly enough philanthropy goes in that direction. Those meetings were a mistake. They didn’t result in what he purported, and I cut them off. You know, that goes back a long time ago now. So there’s nothing new on that.”

    Woodruff said, “It was reported that you continued to meet with him over several years and, in other words, a number of meetings. What did you do when you found out about his background?”

    Gates said, “I said I regretted having those dinners, and there’s nothing, absolutely nothing new on that.”

    Woodruff pressed, “Is there a lesson for you, for anyone else looking at this?”

    Gates said, “Well, he’s dead, so. You know, in general, you always have to be careful. And you know, I’m very proud of what we’ve done, very proud of the work of the foundation. That’s what I get up every day and focus on.”

    • Atanarjuat

      one phrase is notably missing: “I didn’t know he was a kiddy diddler when we had the meetings”

    • Gustave Lytton

      “Stop asking me questions I don’t want to answer!”

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Almost sounds like he is saying “listen, my friends and I took care of him.”

      • Endless Mike

        “well, he’s dead, so…” – that was the lesson?

    • Fatty Bolger

      Woodruff pressed, “Is there a lesson for you, for anyone else looking at this?”

      Gates said, “Well, he’s dead, so. You know, in general, you always have to be careful.

      Well, he’s dead, so… if you don’t want to end up dead, too, maybe you shouldn’t be looking too hard at this.

    • rhywun

      K-k-k-k-ken?

      • Chipwooder

        C-c-c-c-come to k-k-k-k-kill me!

      • sarcasmic

        Ch-ch-ch-cha-chia!

    • juris imprudent

      “Your speech has hurt us collectively as a community, and that is the kind of recognition, that is the hard work, that is where we develop empathy and understanding and in that is where we bridge this divide that is in our community,”

      Shut up you simpering bitch.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Another fun anecdote from a FedGov. I have a fully vaccinated employee (they told me) that is neurotic about COVID. Double masks, rarely work around others, will not work in operations area unless it is at minimum staffing, etc. They are scheduled to go to OKC for some training and they have told me that they are not comfortable cause of COVID.

        As a manager, typically when an employee refuses training, I would counsel them and that they need a valid excuse to not go. Here? Agency says “we understand and will not force an employee to do that”. Yet, I will be forcing employees to get a shot? How fucking backwards can we get.

      • Ownbestenemy

        eh wrong place.

      • UnCivilServant

        The proper response to that employee is “You’re fired”.

        Anyone forcing a vaccination should be shot.

        Of course, fed, so no chance of that.

      • Mustang

        My response: “it should hurt, you fucking Nazis.”

    • Rebel Scum

      “This kind of comparison, we just, we cannot, we absolutely cannot, condone it,” Commissioner Martha Schrader said.

      “We can’t have people point out what we are doing and why it is wrong by using a clever means of communication.”

  35. limey

    The 2022 midterms are not going to be anywhere near as devastating for the Democrats (and their radical core) as all the many conservative talking heads and bloggers suggest. It won’t be like 2010 again.

    I’ll wager one toothbrush emoji: ?

    • juris imprudent

      The core of course won’t be effected – the swing districts are another matter.

      • Urthona

        That’s what it looks like. Blue areas holding approval at 50%. Swing areas are plummeting like a lead zeppelin.

      • limey

        Swing areas are plummeting like a lead zeppelin.

        “Babe, I’m gonna leave you (and attempt to vote for a Republican or independent candidate)”

      • limey

        But but but my point is not that the radicals themselves will be affected, but that significant losses in swing seats will be assumed to be a refutation of their agenda. It may well be, but I don’t think it will change the course of policy because they are too influential now, and it doesn’t seem to matter.

      • juris imprudent

        assumed to be a refutation of their agenda

        Those words have no meaning to the true believers.

    • Urthona

      Honestly I don’t care if they’re devastating at this point. Anything that blocks a stranglehood on a single thing is enough to stop the bleeding.

    • waffles

      If I can’t see the emoji that means you’re wrong.

  36. Rebel Scum

    What we need is another PSA.

    Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote organization has announced a new slate of events featuring Scary Movie actress Regina Hall, TikTok celebrity La’Ron Hines, NBA star Chris Paul, and “The Breakfast Club” host Angela Yee. The events will focus on voter registration drives in local communities while also advancing Democrat-backed legislation.

    They will also host events targeting “voter suppression efforts” in Texas and Georgia, both of which recently passed voter integrity laws to combat fraud.

    Created by Michelle Obama, When We All Vote is a self-described “nonpartisan initiative” that uses celebrity influencer power to drive voter registration and “change the culture around voting.” Among its celebrity chairs are Tom Hanks, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kerry Washington, and soccer star Megan Rapinoe — all of whom backed Joe Biden in last year’s presidential race.

    LOL, sure…

    • Akira

      Ah, the old fable that it’s good for more people to vote no matter how lazy and uninformed they are.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      She’s so tired…let’s face it… she’s pooped

    • Rebel Scum

      I’m tired of my body my choice applying to masks and vaccines but not a woman’s body.

      Because you fail/refuse to understand the actual arguments involved.

  37. Rebel Scum

    Interesting strategy, Cotton. Let’s see how it plays out.

    Former President George W. Bush is throwing his fundraising support behind Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) in the race for Wyoming’s single U.S. House district, backing one of the ten Republican House members who sided with Democrats in voting to impeach former President Donald Trump.

    • rhywun

      “Compassionate conservative”. And to think this guy was treated exactly like they treated Trump in his day.

    • Endless Mike

      Who’s Dick Cheney supporting?

  38. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Excerpted from the latest Bari Weiss article. She gave print space to a variety of viewpoints on the vaccine mandates.

    There’s a couple that are mind-blowingly stupid, but this one…

    This Will Make Us All Freer

    By Sally Satel

    I am pro-choice. I strongly oppose taxing e-cigarettes. And I think the companies that developed the Covid-19 vaccines should make a profit.

    But I support President Biden’s employer-based vaccine mandate.

    How do I square my usual libertarian bias with support for this policy? Because I believe that the relatively minor loss of individual autonomy here will be greatly outweighed by the increase in collective freedom.

    Another way of putting this is to say that members of any group have a duty of easy rescue, as ethicists call it. If you can do something that doesn’t cost you much, and that act greatly helps other people, you have a moral obligation to do it. Getting vaccinated falls into this category.

    Many may not see it this way, of course but that doesn’t relieve them of their duty — a duty that adds to our overall liberty by greatly reducing our fears of illness while increasing the odds that we’ll travel more freely, return to the workplace and, more generally, live fuller lives. This is even truer for the millions of Americans who take immunosuppressant medications (I am in this group) or suffer from cancer or other conditions that preclude an effective response to the vaccine.

    For all the good the mandates will accomplish, they will also cause some to dig in. It is these unvaccinated individuals who likely live in communities where the spread of Covid-19 has overwhelmed medical services, put cancer screenings on hold, and led to shortages of doctors and nurses. Local emergency rooms are brimming and ICU beds are full causing others — their neighbors — to suffer or even die. (For more on this, see here and here.) Many of the unvaccinated seem to have forgotten the all-important moral axiom that no one has a right to infect others.

    Of course, coercive measures should be a last resort. The preferred order of intervention is education, then persuasion, then incentivization, and, finally, coercion. That said, the new mandates offer the hope of greater overall liberty and are therefore justified.

    Sally Satel is a psychiatrist in Washington, D.C. She is also a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a visiting professor at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      She’s a Vagelo?
      Is that like a Juggalo?

    • Fatty Bolger

      She’s got a huge but.

    • Rebel Scum

      usual libertarian bias…collective freedom.

      Uh huh…

      • rhywun

        Yeah, that’s where I stopped reading.

    • Nephilium

      increase in collective freedom

      The what now?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Neph gets it.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Our fears though.

    • EvilSheldon

      The AEI strikes again. You almost have to admire their message discipline…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The authorities are doing what they can to limit the collection of accurate data so that their detractors can’t use that data and form cogent arguments against their practices.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I was wondering what happened to all of the contact tracers.

      • UnCivilServant

        There was an uptick in the sales of fava and chianti.

  39. JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

    Overheard on the morning news:
    1) More Americans have died from Covid than from the Spanish flu! No mention that our population is 3x as large as it was then. An equally accurate report would have been that Covid is 1/3 as bad as the Spanish flu.
    2) There’s been a five-fold increase of hospitalization amongst children since the summer. No mention of absolute numbers or of the increase in the general population.
    3) But don’t worry the numbers for Pfizer’s vaccine trials in children look great! It sounded like the guest was reading a Pfizer press release, which he probably was.

    Somehow none of this stuff gets flagged as misinformation.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Never mentioned is what exactly those children are hospitalized for. Is it RSV or COVID or something else?

    • rhywun

      the numbers for Pfizer’s vaccine trials in children look great

      “None of them are dead, yet! Let’s ship it.”

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Total deaths in the US in 2020 3,358,814
      Repoted Covid deaths in the US in 2020 377,883

    • Dr Mossy Lawn

      I was up yesterday for a Flight review… the NY Class B was all marked in red on my ADSB devices, Foreflight etc. This weekend I had to land within the Rehoboth Beach TFR at Ocean City MD. So I filed IFR both ways.. One person was “there is a TFR?”. on the controller’s frequency. SirrusXM also had the Sunday TFR marked incorrectly (but larger not smaller).

      I remember back in the Trump Bedminster TFR’s warning others in the airport that at 15:00 the TFR starts.. and they said.. no it is 16:00.. and I point out that the KMMU Morristown arrival TFR started at 15:00 and covered that airport as well… You have to read all of the Notams.. (and the dates/times change).

      • Sensei

        i don’t fly, but a good friend does. When I worked downtown when the president came to the heliport it played havoc with my commute.

        He gave me the heads up that the NOTAMs had much more accurate information regarding times than the announcements they made to the public.

      • Rat on a train

        Biden often fucked up evening commutes out of Union Station. All platforms were shutdown well before he arrived for his Amtrak ride to Delaware.

        I have also been on a train held for 30 minutes to allow a VIP convoy to pass under the railroad.

  40. Animal

    Interesting day up here in the Great Land yesterday. Big winds and snow all over south-central Alaska. The snow all fell south of us (61North may have seen some of it) but we had serious winds from Monday evening until late yesterday. Our power was out from 1100 yesterday morning until 2330 last night due to branches and trees falling on lines all over.

    Back to normal this morning, and it’s a good thing, too, because I need my Glibs fix.

    • Tundra

      When does the backup generator arrive?

      • Animal

        We’re working on that. The house is already wired for a generator, just need to buy one. I’m between gigs right now so major purchases have to wait.

      • Tundra

        Roger that. I assume most people out there end up with one.

      • Hudson

        Dead thread… but good luck.

        Contractor told me 5 to 8 months lead time for a Generac system.

    • Rat on a train

      Just 8 more months of Winter?

  41. Sean

    I hired someone. Still need more though.

    Not discussed – their vaccination status.

    Suck it, Joe.

      • Sean

        Field tech – light carpentry type stuff.

      • Rat on a train

        I can do light infantry.

      • UnCivilServant

        🙁 I think I asked before and realized I wasn’t qualified.

      • The Hyperbole

        I’ll do light carpentry stuff for 40$ an hour but I’m only working 20 maybe 24 hours a weeks. Oh and I want one free 20 oz. coffee in the morning, but I’ll supply my own tools, that shit you generals supply isn’t fit to build a dog house with.