417 Comments

  1. rhywun

    Republican-led States Lead Democrat-led States in Economic Recovery in November

    But is it worth the piles of dead bodies?

    • WTF

      Funny how the left has been able to ignore states like Florida, with no restrictions and very low case counts.

      • Nephilium

        Florida? It’s a myth. Buried underneath the oceans as global cooling global warming CLIMATE CHANGE happened.

      • grrizzly

        They refuse to believe the low case numbers from Florida. They believe them only if they are high.

      • Fatty Bolger

        They weren’t ignoring us during the Summer Delta Variant panic of ’21. Then it was all the fault of the dirty unvaxxed and horrible, horrible freedom.

    • Not Adahn

      That’s why they’re doing well. They don’t have to spend as much on Medicaid since they’ve killed off all the grandparents.

      • Lackadaisical

        Exactly, barely any old people in Florida, so of course their death counts are lower.

  2. R C Dean

    Yes, the Team Blue fundraising wing is looking at a bad fiscal year. But does anyone expect our rulers to change course because of it?

    • AlexinCT

      That “Build Back Better” shit they have been so desperate to fuck us over with, regardless of the impact on our economy, was their contingency plan for precisely this problem. A massive chunk of that money was supposed to funneled into their PACs and DNC campaign coffers. I guess Biden’s people will have to resort to Obama era tactics and enact this criminal activity using Obama’s “Pen and phone” strategy…

  3. rhywun

    Bette Midler, draws the ire after branding people in West Virginia as ‘poor, illiterate and strung out’

    Now do KDW.

    • Homple

      KDW deserves a good flensing.

  4. Ghostpatzer

    Bette Midler, draws the ire after branding people in West Virginia as ‘poor, illiterate and strung out’

    WV was a strong contender for my next destination. It is now an even stronger contender.

    Love the tune, one of my favorite carols.

    • Drake

      If our son had not decided he was staying in SC, WV may have been our destination. Still might be if we aren’t able to build or buy the permanent place we envision.

    • Rebel Scum

      WV is my plan if VA cannot be saved.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Based on the small amount of people I have met from West Virginia (mostly in the service, but a few others), I would live in Mississippi first.

      • RBS

        WV is basically the Ohio of the mountains.

  5. Not Adahn

    Yeah Bette would definitely lose to Babs. She might still be able to take out Gretta though.

    • db

      Cage Match!

      • Not Adahn

        I’m thinking more of a boiling tar wrestling match.

  6. UnCivilServant

    Omicron overtakes Delta, now accounts for 73% of all new U.S. COVID casesGood news everybody, a finally safe and effective vaccine is widely available for free and without coercion!

    • WTF

      Which will provide natural immunity, which is much more robust than the “vaccine” induced “immunity”.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Shut up, roll up your sleeve, get your booster, and stop thinking for yourself.

      • invisible finger

        Yes! Boost your chances of getting the virus!

      • Ghostpatzer

        Yet another colleague is taking a sick day because “not feeling well, recovering from the booster shot I had yesterday”. This has been a regular occurrence since the start of the vaccine protocols. Most of my co-workers are in the twenty- and thirty- something age group. Old man me hasn’t taken a sick day since first week of March 2020 when I was laid up for the better part of a week with a terrible cough. I wonder what that could have been.

      • Ownbestenemy

        We openly promote “recovery days” and incentives sick days, so our diehard covid folks have taken full advantage of it. Us techs? Let us work.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Us techs? Let us work.

        And a big FY to those who don’t want to “let you work”.

      • CPRM

        I’m the only person in my department that hasn’t called in sick since I started 2 years ago. But, yanno, I’m unvaxxed, so I still have to wait to find out if Biden puts me out of work for being a health risk.

      • Rebel Scum

        I was told that I am banned from the office until next week for being “exposed” (we sat at the same table for lunch…) to someone who “tested positive”. So here I sit at home, sipping coffee and commenting.

      • Ghostpatzer

        #1 son has been coughing up a lung since Friday, just got his test result back. He has the ‘vid, we might have to change some holiday plans. Oh, well.

      • Necron 99

        “CDC officials do not have estimates of how many people have been hospitalized or died due to Omicron.”

        You know, those would be good numbers to have. But since they don’t have them, let me estimate, very few and zero.

      • Lackadaisical

        Kind of hoping my family gets the ‘cron. If it really is so mild.

      • Necron 99

        I had the vid in October, don’t know if it was the OG, delta or omicron, but it was nothing. I had a fever, headache and sniffles off and on on a Sunday, did a home test Tuesday and it came back positive. Called my doctor and he suggested the mAb treatment do I did that Tuesday evening. Wednesday I was fine, loss of taste and smell, and slight fatigue not withstanding. Bonus is that I fall under the federal contractor mandate but I can’t get the jab until the middle of January due to the mAb treatment, and I am hoping it all goes away by then.

      • Lackadaisical

        If their numbers are to be believed it was probably Delta that got you.

      • Chafed

        I sort of feel the same way.

      • Ownbestenemy

        So they can say it’s dominant but can’t tell us those numbers? Legit fucking science right there

      • db

        It’ll take them 75 years to get that information together for public release. But trust them.

      • Fourscore

        75 years? I’m not sure I can wait that long but I’ll try…

      • Ghostpatzer

        Change your handle to Eightscore!

  7. R C Dean

    “The U.K. study is at odds with data coming out of South Africa, where the vaccine efficacy is proving much higher against Omicron.”

    One wonders how data from a country with a low vaccination rate can demonstrate the vaccine is effective, particularly against an overall background of low virulence for everyone who catches it.

    • UnCivilServant

      And don’t they use horse dewormer and fishtank cleaner on the regular for other diseases there?

      • WTF

        They do, as those drugs have strong anti-malarial properties.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    I saw something last night about New York’s mask mandates and vaxx rules being completely ineffectual at making a difference in plague numbers, but unemployment is much higher than states like Florida and South Dakota.

    So… call it a win.

    • Not Adahn

      That’s because SCIENCE! denying illiterates are defying the will of God’s mouthpiece on Earth. Those who defy the Holy Governette must be smited and all that.

      • Lackadaisical

        Saw the Holy, Iron-fisted Mother today on the news, the years have not been kind to her.

      • R C Dean

        A box of Chardonnay a day will do that.

  9. I. B. McGinty

    Democrats: shut down your economy and then make fun of you for being poor.

    • WTF

      Step 2: When people get pissed, blame Trump.

  10. Drake

    Both our neighbors have covid right now. I know the wife is vaxxed because she’s a teacher. My wife wants to make some food for them this evening.

    • Sean

      My gf is a teacher, and she’s a pureblood.

      Just sayin’

      Of course, she ain’t one of those union teachers…

      • Drake

        Public school in NJ – no choice if you want to stay.

  11. Festus

    BBB isn’t dead quite yet, it’s just pining for the fjords! Manchin will buckle under eventually as long as his state gets some pork just like the rest of them did on the stimulus bill. As mentioned in the previous thread, my Gov-issued ID showed up after six business days and the regular mail is backed up by four. Makes you wonder. I should know.

      • Festus

        He does have to answer to his constituents so he’s got that going for him.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Bette Midler gave him a powerful gift to resist, if he truly wants to, any other attempts on BBB or any other bill for that matter.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Keep your damn hands off my fjords!

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Set blamethrowers on full blast

    Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., on Monday blasted her Republican colleagues for not wearing face masks on Capitol Hill after several Democrats tested positive for breakthrough COVID-19 infections.

    “We are working together closely,” Stabenow said on MSNBC. “People on my side of the aisle are uniformly wearing masks. Unfortunately, people on the Republican side, the majority, are not, which is also frustrating.”

    The senator’s comments followed separate announcements Sunday by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., that they tested positive for the coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated and receiving a booster shot. They all credited their mild symptoms with being vaccinated and boosted against the virus.

    Or, you know, the masks do nothing. But don’t stop believing.

    • CPRM

      They all credited their mild symptoms with being vaccinated and boosted against the virus.

      I credit the Sun god Ra. I have just as much proof.

      • db

        Ra drools, Marduk rules!

      • Nephilium

        You fool! It was Set that protected you from the ‘vid!

    • rhywun

      There isn’t a mask available that can stop GOP cooties.

      • db

        I suspect there is one kind of mask that Progressives would love to try to stop conservative cooties from spreading.

      • Nephilium

        I was expecting either a ball gag or a Hannibal Lector style mask.

      • juris imprudent

        I was expecting a plastic bag and duct tape.

      • Fourscore

        “I can’t breathe”

    • WTF

      that they tested positive for the coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated and receiving a booster shot

      So the data actually shows the masks and ‘vaccines’ are ineffective.

      They all credited their mild symptoms with being vaccinated and boosted against the virus.

      How do they know it wasn’t because of the magic stone in their pocket? Or maybe the current omicron variant just isn’t very virulent anyway. Even the original Covid was only serious for a very small percentage of people with specific co-morbidities.

      • db

        Hey everybody! Come check out my tiger repelling stopping weakening selecting rock!

    • invisible finger

      Or, you know, the masks and the boosters increase your chances of getting the virus.

    • Rebel Scum

      “People on my side of the aisle are uniformly wearing masks. Unfortunately, people on the Republican side, the majority, are not, which is also frustrating.”

      So you are all masked and vaxxed and still caught the commie cough? And you refuse to learn anything from this because MUH-SCIENCE.

  13. Ownbestenemy

    The sudden flurry of government officials and persons like Cramer letting us know they are triple vaxxed and have omicron just seems too perfect.

    I have seen calls that they either were never truly vaxxed or they are pushing a propaganda piece and lied about their test.

    Since PCR tests don’t distinguish variant and I am guessing that sequencing your test isn’t am overnight operation…

    • Festus

      It’s been bullshit from the start. All of these “new” sufferers are lying for their agenda.

      • invisible finger

        You can’t spell “fraud” without FDA.

      • rhywun

        …checks out.

    • AlexinCT

      I did a test this AM and got a clean bill of health so I can take my trip tomorrow AM, but they are back to being panicked about people that are infected…

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Now, Democrats’ bold agenda is stalled despite them controlling the House, Senate, and White House — a fact that won’t be lost on voters already concerned about a range of other issues.

    Chief among those issues is soaring inflation, about which Manchin expressed deep concern on Sunday.

    “It’s not transitory; it’s real,” Manchin said. “It’s harming every West Virginian. The cost of gasoline, the cost of groceries, the cost of utility bills — all these things are hitting at every aspect of life.”

    Don’t you see? That just means we need more helicopter money.

    • Festus

      Senator Hooker-Boots has been awfully quiet lately… Scuttle-butt says that there are plenty of like-minded hiding behind her skirts.

  15. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Re military getting in trouble for liking social media posts: As an outside observer, I’m certainly not a military guy, the cliff our armed forces have gone off over the past year has been astonishing from my view. Why the fuck would anyone ever enlist or choose it for a career?

    • Festus

      Some people want to better themselves, some folk just want to push paper, some others don’t know what else to do and need someone else to do that for them.

    • juris imprudent

      The Army missed recruitment goal last year but made up with retention. Keep your eye on that the next couple of years. I don’t see any way they are going to meet recruitment.

      • invisible finger

        They can always move the goal posts.

      • juris imprudent

        That is essentially what they did last year – by talking about improved retention. But the reality is the machine operates on new blood.

    • AlexinCT

      The Soviets had a system like this. They had a Zampolit to make sure the officers & troops were loyal to the people in power and their agenda above all else….

    • Mustang

      Last week the Air Force declared that commanders must collect the demographic information of all award winners to ensure awards are being distributed equitably across all ethnicities and gender identities (their words. I thought about posting the memo here).

      Yesterday they declared pronouns acceptable in signature blocks.

      Last year they updated the words to the Air Force song to be gender neutral. The lyrics used to say “at ’em boys, give ‘er the gun!”. Now it’s “at ’em now, give ’em the gun!”

      Our adversaries are going to eat our lunch.

      • Ownbestenemy

        So much for tradition…which is a huge part of any service. Can’t wait to hear from my employees that are also military and have to write EPRa

      • Not Adahn

        So the next few thousand Silver Stars need to go to wimmenfolk?

      • Fourscore

        As long as it’s not Gold Stars to their mothers

      • Michael Malaise

        Nah. Bring it on. They voted for it.

      • Rebel Scum

        The military is for woke marxist training, not fighting and winning wars.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Is it still “Airmen”?

      • WTF

        Airxems

      • Not Adahn

        Persxns of Air

    • Animal

      My Army years were some of the best years of my life, not solely because that’s how I met my own dear Mrs. Animal. I credit a great deal of my personal development as a young man to my time wearing Uncle Sam’s green. I look back on that time fondly, and am proud to have once been a part of the big green machine; I was a soldier.

      That said, if a young person asked me today – say, one of my grandsons – I’d tell them to stay the hell away from any uniformed service just now.

  16. Tres Cool

    Day #1 with a ‘normal’ temperature for now.
    Im weak as hell, likely from living on Boost! and Ensure shakes for the past week or so.
    Ill take an at-home test later to see if I fall into the negative category.

    Current titty status: mending

    • Sean

      You deserve some steak.

      • Festus

        And eggs!

      • Certified Public Asshat

        I grilled ribeyes on Sunday. I couldn’t taste mine 🙁

      • Festus

        But it still had “mouth-feel”, right? God I hate that term like most women detest the word “moist”!

      • Nephilium

        I abused my time of having no taste to burn through some ciders the girlfriend had stashed in the basement for over six months. And these were not ciders that should have been aged.

      • Tres Cool

        Not gonna lie- Id eat an entire loaf of garlic bread with it.

      • Not Adahn

        That’s how you make really good steak sammiches.

    • Festus

      Current titty status on your behalf – Huzzah!

  17. Rat on a train

    I don’t recall. Did anyone else reenact the Holocaust in elementary school?

    Her child told her that during a class at the library, the school’s librarian instructed third-graders to reenact atrocities from the Holocaust, she says. “My child had to pretend to suffocate in the gas chamber, had to pretend to ride the trains, had to mass-shoot people, had to put bodies into mass graves.” Her child also told her that another student, who is Jewish, was assigned to portray Adolf Hitler, and pretend to commit suicide, as the Nazi leader did, the parent said.

    the lesson was conducted by Kimberlynn Jurkowski

    Jurkowski was fired from a job as a school librarian in 2013 after being convicted of fraud in a $24,000 tutoring scam. In 2017 she was stripped of her New Jersey teaching license for a period of three years, due to the conviction. She was also charged with animal cruelty in 2019, after allegedly keeping five dogs outdoors in freezing temperatures, leading to one death. Jurkowski has been with DCPS since 2014, according to her LinkedIn.

    Ban the box!

    • Festus

      My replacement Fifth Grade teacher read us excerpts from The Gulag Archipelago. That sorta counts.

      • Lackadaisical

        That’s awesome.

      • Festus

        The guy she replaced was a mid-70’s “new ideas” type. Our school was used as a testing bed for many crazy and solid ideas. We were the first elementary school in the Province to mandate an hour of Gym, every day. Then we also gathered commies. At least one. “Learn at your your own pace, Lesbian seagulls!” Our classroom didn’t have desks, it had old ratty sofas, Grandpa’s EZ chairs, throw rugs and for some reason one of those old clawfoot tubs filled with pillows. Mr. Brenner was either the best or the worst teacher that I have ever had. He lasted until Xmas and then the hammer fell. We loved the only Jew that we had ever met and we all cried when he resigned.

      • Festus

        So they brought in a hatchet job to cleanse our minds. It was jarring, to say the least but we did pass on to the next grade. Everybody that says that they want the 70’s back wasn’t a child back then.

      • Animal

        Everybody that says that they want the 70’s back wasn’t a child back then.

        Can confirm, at least as far as schooling went.

        Good music though.

    • CPRM

      She was also charged with animal cruelty in 2019, after allegedly keeping five dogs outdoors in freezing temperatures

      What kind of dogs and how far below freezing for how long? Our Huskys and Malamutes would stay outside all day of their own volition until the temp got around 0 F, then they’d want to come in after a couple hours.

      • Tres Cool

        My Pyrennes couldnt wait for winter. It could be 0º but if the sun was out, she’d spend all day laying on the snow.
        When I could finally drag her stubborn ass in, she’d have ice hanging from her muzzle.

      • Not Adahn

        Can confirm.

      • slumbrew

        leading to one death.

        Not the kind that liked those temps, apparently.

    • EvilSheldon

      We recreated a fascist dictatorship (among other things) in eighth grade. I don’t think we ever got to the point of killing the Jews…

      My middle-school social studies teacher was a dyed-in-the-wool anarcho-syndie hippie, complete with guttural german accent. One of the best teachers I’ve ever had.

      • rhywun

        Practice for the fascist dictatorship that is being created now?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My high school history teacher would re-enact the Beer Hall Putsch speech, complete with firing a starter gun at the end.

        The school put an end to that lesson in 89.

    • Rebel Scum

      …the fuck?

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Bad news at the free lunch counter

    On Sunday, Sen. Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat from West Virginia, said that he would not support the Biden administration’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better agenda, likely killing the bill and with it the extension of the enhanced child tax credit.

    Without the enhanced credit, nearly 10 million children are at risk of falling back below the poverty line or slipping even deeper into poverty, according to an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank.

    If you stop giving people free money, they have less free money.

    Huh.

    • rhywun

      I wonder how they have redefined “poverty” this week.

    • Lackadaisical

      “killing the bill and with it the extension of the enhanced child tax credit.”

      They could just vote on that separately, what’s that, democrats have no intention of doing so?

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Or, you know, the masks and the boosters increase your chances of getting the virus.

    “Don’t forget your pathogen incubator, Citizen. Wear it religiously.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    “jurkowski”

    Quit pulling my leg.

    • Not Adahn

      The special pizza yesterday was kielbasa and pierogi.

      • Nephilium

        A place up here has a pierogi omelet:

        Pierogi pancake stuffed w/scrambled eggs, kielbasa, cheddar, home
        fries, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, side of sauerkraut

        Then another place has on their appetizer menu pierogi, which is one giant pierogi (think dessert plate sized).

      • Lackadaisical

        I’ve not had pierogi pizza, but kielbasa on pizza is the boss.

  21. Certified Public Asshat

    South Africa says vaccines and natural immunity are limiting latest Covid wave

    Echoing the findings of Shabir Mahdi, a vaccine expert at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, the health minister, Joe Phaahla, told a news conference: “We believe that it might not necessarily just be that Omicron is less virulent, but … coverage of vaccination [and] … natural immunity of people who have already had contact with the virus is also adding to the protection. That’s why we are seeing mild illness.”

    Natural immunity is garbage, need 3 shots like all of the people who have been positive recently.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      In a country with a low vaccination rate…

      Methinks Shabir might be full of shit.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Well, he’s at least acknowledging natural immunity is playing a role, unlike our US scientists who think recovering is just step one to reinfection and death.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Senator Hooker-Boots has been awfully quiet lately… Scuttle-butt says that there are plenty of like-minded hiding behind her skirts.

    Tester (D MT) poked his head above the parapet and voted with Manchin and the Repubs on the vaxx mandate thing. Maybe he just drew the short straw. Or maybe he doesn’t want to go back to tending his bean fields full time.

    • Lackadaisical

      Raising it up, waxing it down.

      Does he leave the sweet stuff for somebody else?

      • Festus

        Nice!

  23. Ownbestenemy

    As predicted, teen passed his driver’s test. Now I have two 16 year old drivers on my insurance. *eyes bank account and cries*

    • CPRM

      Cancel the car insurance and just get that $1 a day life insurance on them both. “If you’re gonna crash, make sure you’re not coming out of it.”

    • Festus

      My Dad never let me drive his cars. Ever. Wise man. I had to buy and fix my own.

      • Ownbestenemy

        They have 6 months to fix up thr Exploder before I donate it. They have jack all shit about it.

      • Festus

        Lock the tool-crib! Seriously, dude.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    I wonder how they have redefined “poverty” this week.

    Hey, look at this. If we just move this line on the graph, we can cure poverty!

    • Lackadaisical

      Replace ‘cure’ with ‘exacerbate’ and you have the right idea.

  25. Not Adahn

    *grumbles*

    Treasurer is not emailing me back about how to go about spending my budget. I wanna order targets NAO!

    Ofc, I really need to reserve a big part of the budget for 2x4s. I imagine that they’ll have a limited lifespan against shotguns. They don’t last all that long against handgunners with a modicum of skill.

    • UnCivilServant

      Those 2x4s may cost more than the steel

      /supply chain woes

      • Not Adahn

        The good(?) thing is there’s only three more meets, so I can probably get away with only needing four or five 8’ers this year.

        Although if the January one is well-enough attended, we might go to 2x/month.

    • Brawndo

      Thanks, I’ll check it out. I’ve seen him interviewed a few times. He’s a great listen.

  26. Ownbestenemy

    I see that Kyle Rittenhouse has decided not the low key, quiet life but rather get swallowed up by the GOP propaganda machine. Can’t defend that bud. Should have just disappeared onto a farm in Wyoming or something.

    • db

      I get the feeling he’s a rather simple kind of guy, totally not prepared for the ways people will use him.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I kinda get it. For over a year you were completely shit on and this helps mend that ego but yeah, people will take full advantage of it.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This

      • juris imprudent

        He shoulda learned something from his first attorney relationship.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      He said on some podcast he likes thicc women. It was a weird listen, but he also spent a lot of time shitting on Binger.

    • PieInTheSky

      he is a teen and probably not terribly bright. I mean if Greta is a star why not, he probably thinks. Maybe he wants to fuck Greta up the ass like someone we know, but without forking big bucks for it.

      • Festus

        Somebody is egging him on and they should just stop with that bullshit. The kid killed two guys and maimed another. He needs to decompress or he is going into a downward spiral just like the guy that murdered Obama’s son. Leave off!

    • Rebel Scum

      Should have just disappeared onto a farm in Wyoming or something.

      After suing the majority of MSM into nonexistence.

      • Festus

        Well yeah, that too.

  27. Rebel Scum

    The Department of Defense unveiled new guidance regarding the promotion of what it defines as political extremism in the ranks.

    Anything plausibly conservative, libertarian or “right-wing”, I presume.

    • juris imprudent

      Anything not idiotically left/woke.

  28. Lackadaisical

    ‘Cost of lithium is up more than 250% over the last 12 months, jeopardizing the electric car market.’

    Lithium
    https://youtu.be/pkcJEvMcnEg

    • WTF

      He’s not known as The Commie Pope for nothing.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Based on his support of the Argentine military junta, I’d say he’s more of a traditional fascist.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Toss off 2000 years of religious tenets and instead of following orders, you get to say you are just following God’s will.

    • db

      Shit like that is why I walked away from the Catholic Church in the 1990s. It’s not new, just more open now.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Pope Francis urged a group of university students Sunday to fight off the “virus of individualism” by giving their lives in service of others

      I totally agree, Senor Pope. I take it you are planning to set an example by giving your life? That would be a service to others, for sure.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Elon Musk says he will pay a RECORD $11 billion in taxes this year

    Freeloaders ruining this country…

    • rhywun

      That’s the money that’s going to cure world hunger, right?

  30. Rebel Scum

    ‘He sold us out.

    ‘He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia.

    ‘Poor, illiterate and strung out.’

    Leftists hate you and want you dead.

    • Festus

      The hard-liners, for certain. Most people don’t give a shit about politics. Most of us don’t care about anything beyond our personal sphere and therein lies the problem. Cattle spin with the sun in the winter, just like we do. H/T to whomever made that observation recently.

  31. Festus

    Overnight Thought #1 – You might try to ignore Xmas but Xmas does not ignore you.

    • Not Adahn

      Honestly, I’m festive as fuck for some reason.

      • Festus

        That brings me some small amount of joy. Good for you!

      • Not Adahn

        It’s probably a combination of coffee, abundant cookies, and daily trips to the dog park.

  32. Rebel Scum

    For Democrats, prospect of 2022 election disaster looms

    Nothing a little fortification can’t fix.

  33. Festus

    Overnight thought #2 – Anthony Faucci is the Columbia House of vaccines.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That….is good.

      • Festus

        Right?

  34. Rebel Scum

    Omicron overtakes Delta, now accounts for 73% of all new U.S. COVID cases

    So you are saying that we are all going to perish in a cold, dark winter of death.

    • PieInTheSky

      yes, so might as well give me all your money

    • Michael Malaise

      This should be good news but The media/government complex is addicted to fearmongering, so …

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Yesterday, as I was figuring out how to pay my Idaho Power bill, I went into my bank on line bill pay feature, and was greeted by an urgent read-and-agree-to update to user terms. I skimmed through, and one of the sections was “shall not be used for purchase of firearms, ammo, et c.” They have apparently just added Zell(?). I wonder who owns them, and if that was the reason for the change.

    WTF? Kiss my ass. How are they going to know what I bought when I pay my AmExp bill, anyway?

    Fortunately, I had too many other things on my mind to let it really piss me off.

    • R C Dean

      So are there user terms that you can’t use your money in your bank account to buy firearms, ammo, etc.? Or is this specific to not using Zell (a cash transfer app) for that perfectly legal purpose?

      Regardless, how hard would it be to change banks?

  36. Rebel Scum

    How convenient.

    Pfizer is about to buy Arena Pharmaceuticals for $6.7 billion. Arena is a biopharmaceutical company focused in part on cardiovascular and inflammatory medicines to a global patient cohort. A majority of mainstream news outlets have focused their reportage on Arena’s bowel disease treatment, while failing to mention the firm’s cardiovascular research.

    Utah-based Arena has existing partnerships with United Therapeutics, who focus their research efforts on pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pfizer’s decision to acquire Arena and their relationship with United Therapeutics is certain to net the company more in return than the bowel disease treatment touted by the corporate press.

    Arena’s Crunchbase page also boasts the company’s focus on cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. A post on their website states the company is “expanding our capabilities to study cardiovascular conditions.”

    Nothing to see here. Move along, subject citizen.

    • Festus

      Cohort

    • R C Dean

      Pharma has increasingly moved into drugs to treat the side effects of the drugs they already hooked you on, so this should be no surprise.

    • Not Adahn

      Yoni tread? No thanks.

      • PieInTheSky

        thicc does not discriminate

    • Festus

      No, terrifying.

    • Lackadaisical

      Nothing looks right about her. Fell right into the uncanny valley

    • pistoffnick

      OH. MY. GAWD! That Voice! Those lungs!

      I’m going to need a tissue

      • Festus

        Her boobs were the first thing that I noticed. I feel no shame.

      • Ownbestenemy

        As one should not. While tits don’t make a woman, they sure are nice to look at. Thanks Neanderthal brain!

      • Fourscore

        Way better with the sound off, doesn’t detract from the boobs

  37. Nephilium

    So I will partake of the Glib hivemind.

    Looking at getting some gift cards for my niece and her husband (both in their mid 20’s). My decision is do I go for brewery gift cards for breweries that they’ll go to anyways, or fancy cocktail bars which they probably wouldn’t spend their own money on. They do like both beer and cocktails, so they will be used regardless.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Gift cards to new places that they would never go to serve a dual purpose. Either they go and find a new place or regift. Win-win

    • rhywun

      +1 cocktail bars

      • Not Adahn

        OBE and rhywun are right.

      • R C Dean

        Ditto. Gifts should be something special and different.

    • PieInTheSky

      if you buy a gift card, they drink for a day. If teach them to brew, they will always have drink

      • Nephilium

        The husband has home brewed in the past, and I taught my niece how to make wine (from a kit, but it was still making wine) for her 20th birthday.

        I believe both of them have also been to the cocktail bars as well, but even I’m not going to regularly frequent a place where drinks are $15-$20 each. But as the consensus appears to be fully in favor of the cocktail bars, looks like that’s where I’ll be heading tomorrow after work to get shopping done.

  38. Rebel Scum

    FNC is asshoe.

    Can confirm: Fox News just announced an official vax mandate, giving employees until next week to comply. Those who refuse to take the mRNA shots are going to be placed on unpaid leave, starting Dec 27th.

    No, you can’t test out of it and Fox does not recognize recovered individuals. They will not let you in the NY building w/out company vetted COVID shot documentation.

    Fox is coercing employees w financial incentives to take the shots. Most have taken the money.

    Get the experimental jab, or else.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Fox does not recognize recovered individuals.

      Isn’t there a waiting period after you have recovered for getting vaxxed?

      • Rebel Scum

        I thought that it was considered bad practice to get vaxxed for a disease from which one has already contracted and recovered.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It is.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Not in Humanity starting a New Game+

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Well right, but I’m saying even those who want to force it regardless at least admit you should wait 3 months (or something like that).

    • WTF

      I hope these companies coercing employees to take a novel mRNA shot get taken to the cleaners when they start getting sued for adverse effects.

    • EvilSheldon

      Excellent. Time for the GOP to put up or fuck off…

  39. The Late P Brooks

    Recent polling shows the American people overwhelmingly disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation and of the economy more broadly. Most voters say they’re concerned about the economy now and moving forward.

    A large majority of voters also disapprove of Biden’s handling of crime and immigration, according to recent polls. And while a slim majority favor his approach to the coronavirus pandemic, that figure has hit an all-time low. One reason for the steep drop might be the wave of court rulings against his vaccine mandates, along with a number of other recent legal defeats in which federal judges have found Biden’s policies violate the Constitution.

    No shit, Shirley?

    • The Other Kevin

      The problem is they just don’t have good enough messaging. The mainstream media isn’t doing their part.

  40. Q Continuum

    “Some Republicans have raised concerns that anti-extremism policies will be used against commonplace conservative views.”

    Ummmm… duh? That was always the point right?

    NB: Watch how quickly “commonplace conservative views” morphs into “insufficiently Marxist”.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I would say this was in the works for religious exemptions granted and a backhanded way of getting rid of them, but the military didn’t give two shits about religious views and denied them all..

      • Rebel Scum

        If only there was a historical example of the negative results of purging the ranks for ideological purposes…

      • juris imprudent

        You do realize that the military that purged the senior ranks still beat the Nazis. So, not quite the negative results you might be looking for.

      • Lackadaisical

        Yup, we’re to optimistic to think lefties can’t fight.

      • R C Dean

        The question is, who are they willing to fight?

        Right now, it seems like mainly us.

      • Swiss Servator

        With a little help from a few millions of Brits and Americans, sure.

        How did they do right out of the purge gate against Finland?

  41. Rebel Scum

    White-supreme vigilantism strikes again.

    A hero in Ohio chased down a man who snatched a purse from an 87-year-old woman. The sheriff honored Deshawn Pressley with the Citizen’s Award.

    • PieInTheSky

      This was a bad idea. It could have led to violence. Property is not important you can just replace it (as long as you are very rich )

    • Ownbestenemy

      He was good until he started stimping on the guys head. Of course, that is a faraway video and who knows what was going on.

      • R C Dean

        I have no problem with curb-stomping thieves, myself. It falls into the “don’t start nuthin’, won’t be nuthin'” rule.

      • Spartacus

        infangthief (uncountable)

        (historical, law) A privilege of some feudal lords permitting them to execute summary judgment upon thieves captured within their estates

      • Endless Mike

        Pour decourager les autre

    • wdalasio

      This is, again, one of those, “Who the hell thought that was a good idea?” initiatives from the regime that seem to be its hallmark.

      • Ownbestenemy

        They are acting out a TV show.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Can confirm: Fox News just announced an official vax mandate, giving employees until next week to comply. Those who refuse to take the mRNA shots are going to be placed on unpaid leave, starting Dec 27th.

    On their own initiative, or because of deblasio’s new diktat?

    • R C Dean

      Don’t care. Resist or join the oppressors. Sad that’s where we are, but that’s where we are.

      My only regret is that I can’t boycott a network I never watch anyway.

  43. Q Continuum

    “Mike Schlossberg, a Democratic state legislator from Pennsylvania, criticized Midler, tweeting: ‘Respectfully: This isn’t helping. “I AM SMARTER THAN YOU SO AGREE WITH ME” has never convinced anyone. Ever.'”

    C’mon man! Insulting the people whose votes you need is totes a winning strategy!

    Besides, doesn’t work out, you just need a little extra “fortification” next election.

    • juris imprudent

      Respect muh moral superiority you inferior being! /every progtard that has ever lived or ever will

    • Spartacus

      Just wait another ten years until I retire, ok?

  44. wdalasio

    I don’t want to harp on Ms. Midler, personally, but her “superior” education and intellectual development extends to all of three semesters at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. As for “strung out”, are Hollywood celebrities really sure they want to start comparing incidences of drug addiction issues with….well pretty much anywhere?

    • juris imprudent

      of drug addiction issues with….

      the people that buy entertainment?

    • Not Adahn

      So you have to get vaxed every nine months to be able to travel. Oh and countries can still tell your unclean ass to stay the fuck out even if you comply.

      they could still impose further requirements, such as negative tests or quarantines, as long as they are proportionate.

      What could possibly disproportionate to saving a human life?

    • Rebel Scum

      But is that solution to deal with the Jews unvaxxed final?

  45. Rebel Scum

    Coronatariansm gets stupider: Corona-hook…

    • PieInTheSky

      I wish I knew how to make money of covidiocy

    • Lackadaisical

      I was waiting for it to make a swastika when they were all putting them together.

    • PieInTheSky

      maybe he did not have his papers in order, that would justify it

    • WTF

      The cop was just following orders, so it’s all good.

    • Lackadaisical

      Sounded like unmutual hate speech to me…

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Narrative shift, off the port bow!

    Covid confusion is the theme of the moment. Where are the tests? How often should you test if you have access to testing? What should you do if you test positive, even if you have no symptoms? Which protocols should apply for vaxxed and boosted adults versus those who are unvaccinated by choice? Is anyone answering these Qs?

    It’s time for a shift

    Specifically, a shift toward focusing on severity instead of case numbers. More and more vaccinated and boosted adults are coming around to the view that everyone will get infected by Covid eventually. Vaccinations usually reduce a mighty beast to a minor annoyance. So will US officials help shift the thinking about this subject?

    CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond report that “some of Biden’s advisers are encouraging the administration to begin discussing publicly how to live alongside a virus that shows no signs of disappearing.” However, “steering public attention away from the total number of infections and toward serious cases only — as some Biden advisers have encouraged — could prove a challenge after nearly two years of intense focus on the pandemic’s every up and down.”

    What’s that you say? A case is 24 cans?

    The way I heard it, every infection is LETHAL. Don’t tell me Foochy was wrong about that. It might weaken my faith in the public health mandarinate.

    • WTF

      I guess they didn’t like the reaction to Biden’s “dark cold winter of severe illness and death”.

    • Nephilium

      Well, in the long term, everyone dies. So every infection is fatal. That’s how this works, right?

      • juris imprudent

        I’m sure that if I die 10 years from now, it will be due to the ‘vid.

    • Plisade

      The mob only cares about case numbers because you tell them to. You can get the useful idiots, the Karens and the Darrens, to parrot something else within 24 hours, easy.

    • Rebel Scum

      What should you do if you test positive, even if you have no symptoms?

      Conclude that the test is bullshit and go on with your life.

      Vaccinations usually reduce a mighty beast to a minor annoyance.

      Not traditionally.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh c’mon, you had that annoying mild case of smallpox or polio just like everyone else.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dead people, it’s always dead people

    • Not Adahn

      Georgia O’Keefe wannabe?

    • Michael Malaise

      The “More Tweets” section below look like replies. The first one is “The Bears are hard to watch” I larfed.

  47. Ownbestenemy

    Blue Origin is running some Hulu special. I know SpaceX did one, but there special was about the team behind SpaceX and the all amateur crew, whereas the Blue Origin ones are about their celebrity launches.

    • CPRM

      I saw there is Doc about Shatner going up on Amazon Prime.

  48. Rebel Scum

    What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America…

    I missed this part from Midler. Looks like someone missed US government 101.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s not even accurate.

      • WTF

        Brooklyn does have a larger population than WV.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I thought the original claim was that AOC’s district has a larger population than WV.

      • CPRM

        Brooklyn does have a larger population than WV.

        I doubt that…

        Brooklyn is a village in Dane and Green counties in Wisconsin, United States. At the 2000 census, 502 Brooklyn residents lived in Dane County and 414 in Green County, with a total population of 916. The 2010 census population was 1,401 inhabitants, with 936 of these in Dane County and 465 in Green County. Wikipedia

    • Ownbestenemy

      Well, she could lobby her State to enact some of these laws if they are so great.

    • The Other Kevin

      Just once I’d like to hear someone say out loud, “Maybe if your party hadn’t shit the bed last election, you’d have a few more votes and this wouldn’t be an issue.”

  49. The Other Kevin

    “Lithium Americas has proposed to mine lithium on a dormant volcano in Nevada. However, the firm has yet to mine any lithium due to pushback from environmentalists and ongoing lawsuits related to allegations that the federal government approved the company’s mining permit too quickly.”

    We should change the name of our country to The NIMBY States of America.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Eventually, when people start starving, all this environmental opposition will be met with violence.

      • wdalasio

        That’s one of the things I don’t get about our current political class (especially Democrats). The political class has always been corrupt and has always had terrible ideas. But, at least previous generations were sort of tethered to reality. They understood you needed to keep the cow alive to continue milking it. This generation seems to think you can kill the cow (not to get at some reserve of milk, but simply because cows are icky) and the milk will somehow continue to magically appear. I see these guys closing off a lot of options and burning a lot of bridges. Where do they think it all winds up?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That’s why they’re looting everything they can while they can.

        The grifters in DC see the writing on the wall even if the millenial cohort does not.

      • Fourscore

        Production precedes consumption, every time

      • R C Dean

        Where do they think it all winds up?

        With them enjoying the good life in their gated communities, and ruling over the deplorables with an iron fist. That’s where they think it all winds up.

      • EvilSheldon

        They’re in for an unpleasant surprise then.

  50. mock-star

    PA Dept of Corrections has stopped giving the J & J vaccine due to possibility of adverse reactions. They have switched to Moderna.

    • PieInTheSky

      only step moms bro

    • Rebel Scum

      There’s a pill for that.

    • Lackadaisical

      Being gay is genetic, right?

  51. The Late P Brooks

    What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America…

    That one’s back. Vox has an article up about how the Senate should be abolished because will of the peepulz. Something about how Republicans in the Senate negate fifty million Democrat voters, or suchlike hogwash.

    • Urthona

      No acknowledgement that only 38% of Americans supported BBB.

  52. Certified Public Asshat

    The omicron wave is here and rising fast. Get vaccinated and boosted now. https://t.co/aX4PNaC0sL— reason (@reason) December 21, 2021

    Disclosure: I mixed a Pfizer/BioNTech booster in October with my two earlier doses of Moderna vaccine. My assessment of the omicron wave prompted my wife and me to cancel our long-scheduled plan for a vacation trip this week to Miami Beach.

    Was Ronald Bailey always this bad?

    • PieInTheSky

      Probably

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Yes

      I’ve had some back and forth with him over vaccines in the past. He’s reflexively pro-vaccine and has never been willing to admit that they come with some costs.

      But he’s reached a new low and I think it has to do with resentment of his rural roots which he has alluded to in the past. He wants to be associated with those icky people in no way.

      • wdalasio

        He wants to be associated with those icky people in no way.

        And that seems to be the problem with the leadership of the libertarian movement, generally. When it comes to a choice of standing up for libertarian principle or not aligning with what they view as society’s more retrograde elements, they’ll always go with the latter. People who’ll acknowledge that liberty sometimes means defending terrible people when it comes to drug dealers or pornographers or “sexual degenerates”, can’t seem to hold the same line when it comes to defending rednecks or “conspiracy theorists”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I hadn’t seen that one.

        That’s actually hilarious.

      • PieInTheSky

        and full of cherry picked “political science” studies

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nevertheless, two doses of vaccines do still offer considerable protection against severe disease caused by omicron variant infections.

      What severe disease?

      And I’ll note that he links to Pfizer to support that claim. What a crock of shit.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Ha, right before this:

        researchers at Imperial College London estimate that protection against COVID-19 reinfection by omicron afforded by past infection may be as low as 19 percent. They similarly reckon that two doses of COVID-19 vaccines are only about 20 percent effective against symptomatic infections and may be as low as 0 percent.

        So natural immunity is still better.

    • CPRM

      He was always pro bio-tech, whatever it may be. MRNA is just the new Crisper to him.

    • Lackadaisical

      My assessment of the omicron wave prompted my wife and me to cancel our long-scheduled plan for a vacation trip this week to Miami Beach.

      Pussy,

    • Michael Malaise

      Omicron is lame. The South African data should be a welcome sign, but no, our idiot masters are beholden to fear.

    • DEG

      Was Ronald Bailey always this bad?

      Yes.

      At FreedomFest 2021, at the mock trial, he argued the pro-lockdown position. Though, he did claim that lockdowns were only justified in the early days.

    • Rebel Scum

      Can’t tell if insane or trolling.

      • PieInTheSky

        Either way, on the wrong side of the scale

      • Lackadaisical

        Definitely trolling, may even be fake.

    • Not Adahn

      Please tell me they kicked her off for having a stuffed animal.

      • PieInTheSky

        you don’t get to decide other people emotional support bigot

      • EvilSheldon

        Just so long as they kicked her off.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    If we could just get rid of the Senate, and the Electoral College, and the Supreme Court, we could finally get down to business and give this nation the true DEMOCRACY! it so desperately craves.

    Good and hard. Until it bleeds.

    • PieInTheSky

      Don’t forget lowering the voting age to 12

      • juris imprudent

        The pony vote is going to Vermin Supreme.

      • Rat on a train

        And aliens. Everyone is impacted by the decisions made by the US government, so everyone should have a say.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    That business about switching focus from cases to actual verifiable harm might be what finally gets Foochy the hook. He’s not going to cease and desist from nonstop panicmongering under his own steam.

    • Mojeaux

      what finally gets Foochy the hook

      Look at Mr. Optimist here.

  55. PieInTheSky

    Kenneth Roth
    @KenRoth
    The top human rights news in 2021 included:
    1. Israel’s apartheid.
    2. Philippine Pres Duterte’s “drug war” executions.
    3. China’s mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
    4. Taliban attack on women’s rights.
    5. Massacres in Ethiopia’s Tigray region

    https://twitter.com/KenRoth/status/1472573828224147465

    • Lackadaisical

      Not lockdownerism?

      We basically had the same rights as women under the Taliban, maybe fewer.

  56. Pope Jimbo

    Well I just wanted to say, that Minnesoda could have done better, but we tanked the numbers so our score came out as 69.6%

    *Beavis and Butthead cackling*

    That is 69 coming and going!

  57. The Other Kevin

    TOK News Update
    Yesterday my new passport came in the mail, after only 17 days. That has to be some sort of record. But the Mrs. didn’t get hers. I’m not sure if the US State Department is trying to tell me something.

    I also found out some of our Christmas plans are canceled due to my step-mom-in-law getting COVID. She is pretty sick, but I think she’s getting antibody treatment so hopefully that works for her. (Yes she is vaccinated).

    • Pope Jimbo

      Report your wife to ICE! Have them take the kids too. (maybe the Feds will lose them and you can really cash in). When the ICE goons break in, you can show them your passport.

      Have a relaxing holiday just lounging around doing whatever you want.

  58. Pope Jimbo

    Remember when the Lefties would mock Bush for his stupidity in Iraq? Specifically how they fired all the wrong thinkers in the Iraqi army and set them adrift with no pay or prospects? How they’d laugh and ask why anyone was surprised when those young men with military training turned violent?

    Nice to see they have stolen that idea with our military.

    Yeah, booting the young men in the military with a dishonorable discharge won’t have any “unintended” consequences.

    • PieInTheSky

      they will change genders and return as women

  59. Pope Jimbo

    Bette Midler, draws the ire after branding people in West Virginia as ‘poor, illiterate and strung out’

    Uffda. That is a lot of words to put on your branding iron.

    Was she branding them on the ass? In the tramp stamp area? Forehead?

    I have to admit why she undertook such a big task. In my experience, West Virginians do a pretty good job of self identifying as poor, illiterate and strung out all on their own. A huge brand scar isn’t really needed.

  60. LJW

    Out of curiosity what is the general opinion around here regarding legalizing insider trading?

    • PieInTheSky

      just like steroids why not

    • wdalasio

      It should probably be legal. But, I can see it being a civil matter between the information “owners” and the inside trader. It’s hard to see that it isn’t a misappropriation of information given to the trader for a legitimate business purpose.

    • CPRM

      If insider trading is illegal, how can anyone ever sell shares in their own company?

      • R C Dean

        There’s ways to do that. Waiting periods (to allow any inside info to go public and affect the stock price) is the traditional one. Another for publicly traded companies would be to sell it back to the company, which can reissue it, with the sale price to the company being some kind of trailing average.

      • CPRM

        to sell it back to the company, which can reissue it,

        But the company itself is privy to the same information, right? So why wouldn’t reissuing, or even the initial issuing of the stock be insider trading?

      • R C Dean

        The company itself doesn’t owe a fiduciary duty, only some of the people who work for the company. The inside information belongs to the company, which is supposed to profit from what it owns.

        Let’s say the company sells just before bad news breaks that tanks the stock. The company has collected a premium, which inures to the benefit of shareholders generally (although the ones who bought from the company before the news broke are in a different position).

        Let’s say the company sells just before good news breaks that drives the price up. The first question is, why would it do that, when it knows good news is coming which will allow it to sell at a higher price? But lets say it does so anyway. The shareholders who bought at teh lower price benefit (of course), which may lead to inquiries about whether someone at the company disclosed inside information to them. But its hard to see material damage done to the other shareholders – they were diluted by the sale of the shares, but the dilution is mitigated by what the company got for the new shares. Throw in that the value of their shares went up anyway when the good news breaks, and its hard to put your finger on actual harm done to them.

        Underlying all this is the mechanics of how publicly traded stock gets issued and sold. Investors don’t buy directly from the company. Stock the company issues/sells goes into the pool of stock otherwise being traded, so you can’t trace any given share of stock somebody purchases back to the company, which makes assigning “blame” for selling stock before the release of news hard to do.

      • slumbrew

        For it to be insider trading, it must be driven by information that meets two conditions:

        – material
        – non-public

        i.e., the information needs to be significant (i.e., if others knew it, it would drive shares up or down) and non-public is just that – has to be information people outside the company don’t know.

        I know lots of non-public about my company, but little of it is material.

        Sometimes I do get material, non-public information (e.g., we’re going to buy a company and I need to be looped in early for some technical reason). They keep that information close to their chests and make it clear when it is both material & non-public.

        For the c-suite, where they’re awash in material, non-public information, they buy and sell on a preset schedule – i.e., they declare months in advance that the’ll be buying or selling X amount on Y date.

    • R C Dean

      With a proper definition of insider, it should be illegal. Fiduciaries to a company owe a duty to shareholders that overrides their personal interests. Insider trading violates those fiduciary duties.

      Should it be civil or (also) criminal? Depends on whether you think insiders are appropriating (read, maybe, stealing) company property (the nonpublic information they trade on). If so, criminal should be on the menu.

      • PieInTheSky

        hmmm that is not a bad point

      • LJW

        Devils advocate here. Keeping it illegal gives the illusion that the markets are fair and that insider trading doesn’t happen. Also allowing insider trading would cause share prices to more accurately reflect the company’s situation.

      • R C Dean

        The best argument for allowing insider trading is that it speeds the flow of information to the markets.

  61. Festus

    Ha! I just looked closely at my Gov ID and they photo-shopped out my hoody but left a little behind. I’m either wearing Grandma’s black pearl earrings or gauges! This is my image for the next five years. Pretty gay…

    • UnCivilServant

      Black pearls are more stylish than gauges.

    • Festus

      I do look quite fetching in a bald old man way. The pearls set off the ugly with a certain j’en sais quoi.

  62. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    The lithium story is interesting. Like magnesium and cobalt, the CCP has us all by the short hairs. I wonder when we wake up, tell the fake environmentalists to go get fucked and start mining.

    • juris imprudent

      It isn’t even the mining. All of the lithium in the world, 100%, is processed in China.

      • Festus

        It’s the processing that is the hard biscuit to bite. We can’t do it here anymore.

      • Tundra

        No, it’s the mining as well. We need to re-learn that little thing called ‘trade-offs’.

  63. PieInTheSky

    Falcon 9’s 31st and final launch of 2021

    94 percent all missions this year were carried out by SpaceX’s fleet of flight-proven orbital class rocket boosters

    https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1473273538932998145

    94% of 31 is 29,14‬ which makes no sense

    • CPRM

      WTF is up with you euros and using commas instead of decimals? Do you use decimals where we use commas? Or do you just use a shit ton of commas?

      • PieInTheSky

        Do you use decimals where we use commas? – yes

      • PieInTheSky

        I mean in numbers, not in sentences.

        This is annoying for me because the software that generate bills I receive by mail usually put . as a decimal separator, but my online banking software which I use to pay the bills needs , so I cannot just copy paste the sum, I need to change the separator.

      • PieInTheSky

        even more annoying is excel uses ; as a default separator which means the comma separated value files some soft generate do not automatically open correctly in an excel sheet and most people do not know how to change the separator and sometime call me to ask, as if it is my fucking job

    • Fatty Bolger

      94% would mean there were 33 missions, 31 of which were SpaceX. But obviously there were a lot more than that overall. Maybe they meant to say NASA missions?

  64. The Late P Brooks

    For our convenience…

    In a Monday morning, tweet, the TSA asked fliers to practice civility as employees work to get people safely through airports and on and off planes.

    “Travelers are reminded to arrive early, pack smart, & be kind to our officers, airline crew, & those who work throughout the transportation vector,” the agency tweeted

    Santa wants you all to be good little boys and girls, and do just what the noble G-man tells you.

    • slumbrew

      work throughout the transportation vector

      Transportation vector?! Who talks like that?

      Someone is trying to sound smart.

    • Lackadaisical

      transportation vector

      Guessing they meant ‘sector’, vector makes it sound a lot cooler than it is.

      • slumbrew

        My fault for thinking a 23-year-old j-school grad is capable of accurately quoting something. The original tweet does indeed read “sector”.

      • Lackadaisical

        You clearly don’t know many 23-year olds. XD

        /slinging shit

      • slumbrew

        j-school grad

        Important caveat.

  65. DEG

    The analysis of the Labor Department’s November unemployment data from the Republican National Committee (RNC) research team uncovered that the Republican-led states continued to outperform Democrat-led states in job recovery for 17 of the top 20 states, and the lowest unemployment in 16 of the top 20 states.

    Those Democrat states are just experiencing bad luck.

    Some Republicans have raised concerns that anti-extremism policies will be used against commonplace conservative views.

    “Raised concerns”. Weak sauce. We know what these policies will be used for.

    • R C Dean

      The Repubs were eager participants alongside the Dems in purging those radical Tea Partiers back in the day. There is no question establishment Repubs hated the Tea Party far more than they disliked their Dem colleagues. So I would say this is probably less “raised concerns” than “expressed hope”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

      • DEG

        I’m under no illusions of what the establishment Republicans think.

  66. Pope Jimbo

    So last night, I spent some time with one of the Altar Boys watching the Vikes try to give the game to the Bears (only to have the refs intervene and save their purple bacon).

    There were several PSA’s – that I can’t find today – about how important it is to get kids vaccinated, that reduced me to a spittle spewing maniac. Some guy was talking to a “doctor” who made blatantly dishonest claims.

    In one she said that the risk to kids from Covid was higher than from the vax. I have no idea where she got that “fact” from. In another she claimed that Covid was a Top Ten killer of kids. I thought that was nuts, but it turns out that there is a bit of truth to it.

    Of course, if I was a professional fact checker, I would give that claim a “needs context” rating. Yes it is tied for 8th. But it is a) because an astonishing low number of kids die and b) is still behind the flu. So if you are terrified of the Rona, you should be even more scared of the flu.

    • CPRM

      So if you are terrified of the Rona, you should be even more scared of the flu.

      It’s cumming.

    • R C Dean

      In another she claimed that Covid was a Top Ten killer of kids. I thought that was nuts, but it turns out that there is a bit of truth to it.

      One wonders, as always, how many otherwise healthy children die from the ‘Vid.

      • Drake

        Basically none.
        https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57766717

        In a U.S. study they had to guess because there were zero examples of otherwise healthy kids dying of rona in some age groups.

    • The Other Kevin

      It’s also behind “Diseases of the heart” and it’s tied with “Suicide”. I wonder where those were ranked two years ago.

    • Not Adahn

      purple bacon

      worse than a blue waffle

      • pistoffnick

        pink tacos #1

      • slumbrew

        We went to a Pink Taco on Thursday, as it was the only place we could find that had room for a large crowd.

        Never again. Tasteless _and_ expensive.

    • CPRM

      8 (tie) COVID-19 66

      Now do abortions.

      • juris imprudent

        Of 5-9 year olds?

      • Nephilium

        Well, do they know algebra?

    • slumbrew

      Yes it is tied for 8th

      I a bit over 20MM kids 5-9 years old in the country.

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the-us-by-sex-and-age/

      66 kids aged 5-11 dying from covid, out of (significantly?) more than 20,000,000 (2 extra years of kids there). That’s a tiny number. Tragic for those involved, but that goes for all causes of child deaths.

      How many of those were otherwise perfectly healthy kids?

      • Urthona

        zero

      • Lackadaisical

        Even most adults who die ‘of covid’ have multiple comorbidities.

      • hayeksplosives

        The deaths of the vulnerable children are indeed tragic.

        So is the permanent psychological and sociological damage inflicted on the other 20 million children by Covid Panic.

      • Lackadaisical

        This is almost certainly worse. Some parents out there really messing their kids up by not socializing or anything while making them scared of everyone else.

      • rhywun

        There is going to be an entire generation of super-fucked-up, socially-damaged people to deal with down the road. Yay.

      • Nephilium

        Greetings Glibertarians of the FUTURE!

      • Lackadaisical

        Legit LOL

    • rhywun

      I was flying into a rage over the “people who look like me are over-incarcerated” crap they kept repeating.

  67. Yusef drives a Kia

    The Solstice is here! the day is 8 hours and 51 minutes, then we go back to the Sun! Yay!

    • Animal

      5 hours, 15 minutes here.

      • R C Dean

        11 hours, 59 minutes here.

        Actually, its 10 hours, 3 minutes.

      • Tundra

        9 hours, 21 minutes.

      • rhywun

        LOL that’s kind of depressing.

      • Animal

        Yeah, but in the summer, it’s wondrous. Almost 20 hours of full daylight, and it never really gets dark.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Go to bed in daylight, wake up in daylight, it’s very odd for me,

      • Animal

        Takes a little getting used to.

      • R C Dean

        Almost 20 hours of full daylight, and it never really gets dark.

        We would need fully blacked-out bedrooms for that.

      • Lackadaisical

        Thats how I go, and I’m not nearly as north as Mr. Animal.

        Side benefit is you no longer get people’s shitty light pollution fucking up your sleep.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        But the days only get longer from here, now to find where that pesky sun is hiding…..

    • Plisade

      ^^^

    • rhywun

      9 hours, 15 minutes here but yes I am ready for longer days!

  68. juris imprudent

    Bwahahahaha, more Kamala fodder.

    The fears spilled out into the open when a Miami-based Democratic pollster took to social media to warn that he’s been hearing arguments against the vice president from talk-show callers that he felt appeared scripted.

    They can’t do that – that’s OUR shtick!

    • slumbrew

      And my outgoing shitbag mayor is going to hop right on those coattails.

      His replacement will be even worse, I’m certain.

      • rhywun

        Jury’s still out on whether my incoming mayor is going to better or worse the Deblasio.

        I mean, he almost has to be better, by definition, but you never know. I thought Guv Kathy was gonna be better than Andy and look how that turned out.

      • Lackadaisical

        Endorsed by Pressley? Yeah, yer fooked.

      • rhywun

        I’m so sorry.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      “Be Together” is not exactly what this policy does.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Much like New York City’s “Key to NYC” pass, the “B Together” program will exclude the unvaccinated from movie theaters, concerts, restaurants, bars, indoor events, museums, sports arena, bowling alleys, and fitness centers.

      ACKSHUALLY: Pro sports teams — including the Celtics, Bruins — will be exempt from Boston’s indoor vaccine mandate

      But there is an exemption for “a professional athlete/sports team who enters a covered premises as part of their regular employment for purposes of competing.” This will apply to Celtics and Bruins players, as well as visiting teams that come to TD Garden.

      Boston’s mandate will affect TD Garden patrons, however.

      • juris imprudent

        Jumping Rhywun’s response, OFFS.

      • rhywun

        It’s so outrageous but will anyone call them out on it?

        I think I know the answer to that.

      • Lackadaisical

        Does anyone know how long it takes to actually perform a PCR test?

        I don’t mean how long does it take for them to send the sample and actually get to it and report results, but how long the test actually takes to do?

      • grrizzly

        There’s like one unvaccinated NHL player in the entire league. Everyone among the Bruins is fully vaccinated, yet so many tested positive for covid that they could barely assemble enough players for their last game.

      • Tundra

        NHL paused all games until after Christmas. I wish they would have done it a day earlier so the Wild wouldn’t have been ass raped by the Stars,

      • juris imprudent

        Not to mention – how many were actually sick/symptomatic?

      • rhywun

        OFF–

        Aw rats.

      • juris imprudent
    • juris imprudent

      I think that pureblood business is about the stupidest response imaginable.

      • slumbrew

        It does sound stupid. You can think this vax is a bad idea without sounding like a Harry Potter larper.

        I love you people, but come on.

      • Sean

        Well, ya can’t really call them “unvaccinated”, cuz it’s not really a vaccine.

        Everything is stupid these days.

      • juris imprudent

        That’s the Zeke that wants to euthanize people when they hit a certain age, right?

      • grrizzly

        I think the term is perfect. It reliably enrages the vaxxers.

      • UnCivilServant

        I donno I’m taking a shine to the terminology.

      • DEG

        #metoo

      • R C Dean

        I prefer Unclean, but it needs a counterpart for the vaxxed. I’ve tried the Elect, which captures their soaring self-righteousness and sneering condescension, but it seems a little disconnected from “Unclean”.

      • Lackadaisical

        I’d prefer something that is more neutral, for both sides. Usually jabbed/unjabbed?

        I don’t think it is a crazy decision to get the jab, if you have the right risk profile. It just isn;t for me.

      • juris imprudent

        The neat thing about calling them the Elect – is they don’t immediately realize you are insulting them.

      • Mojeaux

        And that’s a problem.

      • slumbrew

        TULIP