Sunday Morning Florida Man Links

by | Feb 20, 2022 | Daily Links | 188 comments

Birthdays – Shotgun fetishist Kurt Cobain, gang leader “Cocaine” Mitch McConnell, strip club enthusiast Charles Barkley, heiresses Patty Hurst and Gloria Vanderbilt, open wheel drivers Bobby Unser and Roger Penske

 

High and happy is no excuse for talking to the cops!

Ottawa cops say they own the streets of Ottawa, I say, armor beats cavalry, so stay tuned.

If anyone can afford an “expensive hobby”, Amazon can.

This is definitely a lemonade out of lemons article.

 

We’ll go a little slow on a music

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

188 Comments

  1. The Late P Brooks

    I have been watching “The Grapes of Wrath” since 4:00. If we had just embraced International Communism when we had the chance, there would have been no Dust Bowl and no Depression.

    • Fourscore

      I saw the movie when I was a teenager, thought it was great. Saw it again a few years ago, my, my, how my opinions had changed. The movie is a good educational tool but should be kept out of the hands of those starry-eyed dreamers.

      • juris imprudent

        I grew up in California, where they all ended up. We have a rather different view of that migration.

      • Don escaped Texas

        not so gentle reminder that OK is the place the US gave the natives so that they could keep MS

      • cyto

        I never saw the movie.

        Loved the book. Transported me into that moment and that mind. I felt guilty eating a whole apple after reading Grapes of Wrath.

    • Don escaped Texas

      As a kid I was told this for the truth, and a site keeps telling the story.

      Despite critics in the United States giving the film a Red label, it received a different criticism from a country that no one could question fit all of those same labels: the Soviet Union. In 1948, Joseph Stalin allowed theaters in the Soviet Union to show “The Grapes of Wrath” for reasons that we can assume to be anti-capitalism propaganda, showing destitution that the Okies endured in the face of an oppressive capitalist system . . . this screening of “The Grapes of Wrath” in the Soviet Union, however, did not land the way that Stalin anticipated. Rather than stir up anti-capitalist emotions, the Soviets that viewed “The Road to Wrath”, as it was titled in the U.S.S.R, were in complete awe that even the poorest of the poor in the United States were able to save their money and afford an automobile. As the wrong message continued to spread, Stalin decided to pull the film from theaters after a few short weeks (Whitfield).

      • juris imprudent

        Clever way to expose the kulaks!

  2. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

    • Don escaped Texas

      no one say howdy back yet?

    • Grummun

      solid

  3. Sean

    *places polka dot gift box under the President’s day tree*

    • Trigger Hippie

      +2 Rip Van Waffles

    • Tonio

      [golf clap]

    • Annoyed Nomad

      And it starts, as I expected. Well played Sean!

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Hundreds of police in riot gear swept through Canada’s capital Saturday, retaking control of the streets around the Parliament buildings and appearing to end the siege of Ottawa after three weeks of protests.

    Protesters, angry over the country’s Covid-19 restrictions and policies of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, retreated from the largest police operation in the country’s history, with police arresting or driving out demonstrators and towing away their trucks.

    In Ottawa, Interim Police Chief Steve Bell said that some smaller protests continued but “this unlawful occupation is over. We will continue with our mission until it is complete.”

    Those Okie refugee camps loom large. How long ’til it all falls apart?

    • rhywun

      “the siege of Ottawa”

      JFC… really, NBC?

      • Don escaped Texas

        tough times require such

        the (movement) . . . shook Canada’s reputation for civility, with some blaming America’s influence

        fooking Yanks!

    • Don escaped Texas

      Maybe NPR, someone matter-o-factly, reported “checkpoints” in the city…you know, checkpoints, as one does.

      Language tickles me. The report continued that the checkpoints were to deter protestors. Okay, how does that work: you are allowed here and you are not, just like all great liberal democracies….I’m sure Amin and Mussolini kept the streets clean with that old pearl, the checkpoint.

      I posted last night that I believe Canada supports the crackdowns. Americans: believe me, your neighbors are selfish reactionaries not far behind Canada. “Checkpoints” are totes okay and why would anyone with nothing to hide mind!!!`1? I insist: very few people, few Americans even, believe in freedom.

      • rhywun

        My city – in theory – already has checkpoints in front of every restaurant, movie theater, sports venue, medical facility, and school – and nobody seems to give a shit.

      • Drake

        Lots of people care – the people leaving and people who’ll never go there. Living northern NJ, I could go to “the city” for a night out anytime I want. I reality I’ve been there once in the past 20 years and will probably never go there again.

      • prairieboy

        You couldn’t be more wrong.
        I walked the protest in Calgary yesterday and there were easily 10,000 on the streets and there were as many white collar folks as blue collar folks. It was like the Stampede parade. There were also large protests in Quebec City, Victoria, Edmonton and Vancouver.
        There is simmering anger about what is going on in this country ready to boil over. It won’t end until the government is gone.

      • Don escaped Texas

        two smug karens at home for every guy you met who will vote Liberal again

        my money there

      • prairieboy

        I don’t think you know how passive-aggressive and hypocritical Canadians are. One week they will demand the government do something and the next week the same people will blame the government for doing what they asked.

      • slumbrew

        That’s good to hear.

        Easy to get demoralized when your opponents control most of the messaging.

      • Fourscore

        Good news, Canada is way more than the eastern part.

      • cyto

        I have been astonished that they have not come for Tudeau’s head. You would think at some point the party would cut their losses…

    • kbolino

      I am beginning to think that both words in “liberal democracy” are egregious lies

      • Rat on a train

        Would you prefer Democratic People’s Republic?

      • kbolino

        Khanate

  5. Fourscore

    We learned in guerilla warfare that playing defense can be a losing hand. The war ain’t over, Mr Trudeau.

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      It is. True-doh already lost.

      Canada will never be the same.

      • Chafed

        I’m sure Canada will never be the same. My impression is Canada lost.

  6. Not Adahn

    Morning!

    Battery on the safe lock died without giving a warning. Fortunately, they included some sort of static memory, since I was able to open it after swapping out a fres 9V

    • Tonio

      I live in fear of EMP or other similar failure for things like that.

  7. Sean

    “Marijuana candies, a glass pipe and a vape pen were found in the Toyota. Evans was taken to jail where his bond was set at $2,500.”

    Bail would have been less if he shot at people…

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Police had been brought in from across the country to help in the clearance operation, Bell said, adding that 170 people were arrested Friday and Saturday and multiple investigations had been launched because of weapons seizures.

    “We’re not going anywhere until you have your streets back,” he said at a press conference, vowing to go after protesters who don’t disperse with “financial sanctions and criminal charges.”

    By early Saturday afternoon, protesters were gone from the street in front of Parliament Hill, the collection of government offices that includes the Parliament buildings, which had the heart of the protests.

    Canadian authorities also announced they had used emergency powers to seize 76 bank accounts connected to protesters, totaling roughly $3.2 million ($2.5 million U.S.).

    We’ll hunt you down and root you out. We’ll strip you bare and drive you into the wilderness. Wrongthink is verboten.

    • Don escaped Texas

      weapons seizures

      There’s another pearl: Guns taken off the street!

      • Chafed

        I want more details. I know you can own a rifle or shotgun in Canada. Yet the report doesn’t say what was seized.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        A Maglite flashlight?

      • Not Adahn

        gas can molotov cocktail?

    • Fourscore

      General MacArthur: “I Shall Return”

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        -1 Bonus Army

  9. Sean

    Fuck the Ottowa police dept.

    The only good cop there (apparently) resigned.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      I spent a couple hours last night watching livestreams. Very different atmosphere than the BLM riots. Canadian flags were everywhere among the protestors. They sang Canada’s national anthem. They often chanted freedom and “shame on you” to the cops. Several of them asked the cops if this is really what they signed up for and how they can sleep at night.

      Cops responded by shooting them with rubber bullets and tear gas. Earlier they deliberately trampled infirm protestors who couldn’t get out the way quickly enough with horses.

      It’s not hyperbole at this point to call Canadian law enforcement stasi or stormtroopers.

      • Don escaped Texas

        example one billion: cops and soldiers executed most of history’s attrocities

      • Drake

        Most American city and federal cops are no better. The covid mandate and wokeness being pounded into the military right now is to ensure they would obey those kinds of orders too.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    And now Clan Joad has landed in the Workers’ Collective, where life is as it should be. Share and share alike. From each, according to his ability…

    • slumbrew

      Except Comrade Bernie just talks all the time and shirks his duties

    • Don escaped Texas

      I embrace communism….real communism where radicals grab their dope and their girlfriends and retreat into a canyon and try to figure out the difference between a cistern and a latrine

      who’s gonna pick those oranges now, comrade?

      • Tonio

        I highly recommend TC Boyles’s fine novel Drop City for a long-form treatment of this topic.

  11. westernsloper

    High and happy…………………..Enough about glib happy hour zoom. Brett does way better music than OMWC. #fuckcanadiancops

  12. slumbrew

    Out with friends last night; too much Cuban food and too many strong drinks led to weird dreams.

    This song kept running through my dreams, for no apparent reason:

    https://youtu.be/K_GysqAFUHY

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Earlier, Ottawa police addressed the protesters in a tweet: “We told you to leave. We gave you time to leave. We were slow and methodical, yet you were assaultive and aggressive with officers and the horses. Based on your behavior, we are responding by including helmets and batons for our safety.”

    Look what you made us do. Totalitarianism by tweet; western civilization is doomed.

    • Don escaped Texas

      it’s not totalitarianism if 9 out of 10 suburban moms agree

      • juris imprudent

        Populist totalitarianism!

    • slumbrew

      “You assaulted our horses by throwing yourselves under their hooves”

  14. Don escaped Texas

    Covid in favor of Camilla being promoted Queen Consort sooner than later

    • Gender Traitor

      I’m still pulling for Lilibet to outlive Chuck.

      • Don escaped Texas

        Fortunately, royal bloodlines are known for their robust immune resistance— Zack Budryk (@BudrykZack) February 20, 2022

  15. The Late P Brooks

    it’s not totalitarianism if 9 out of 10 suburban moms agree

    Call it what you like. Just don’t stray from the Path of Righteousness. Or BONK BONK.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Redemption through labor activism. It’s an all-American success story.

  17. cyto

    How deep is the propaganda?

    CNN

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/20/politics/fiona-hill-donald-trump-joe-biden/index.html

    Front page headline

    “Former Trump advisor on Russia says Biden approach is paying dividends”

    Lede:
    Fiona Hill doesn’t know whether President Joe Biden can lead Western allies to ward off Russia’s threat to Ukraine. But unlike his predecessor, he’s trying.

    No shame:
    After Trump pressured Russia’s beleaguered neighbor for his personal benefit, Biden has steeled Americans for shared sacrifice in defense of Ukraine’s right of self-determination.
    After Trump deferred to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the US government’s own intelligence agencies, Biden has deployed those agencies’ tradecraft in a multi-pronged transatlantic effort to deter Russian aggression.

    No, seriously.. no shame:
    “There’s no Team America for Trump,” Hill recalled. “Not once did I see him do anything to put America first. Not once. Not for a single second.”. ……..
    Most notoriously, it showed in Trump’s attempt to squeeze Ukraine’s President for manufactured dirt on Biden to help his 2020 election campaign. He held up American military aid as a political lever as Ukraine faced the long-running Russian military threat that now has the entire world on edge.

    • slumbrew

      Biden is on tape, bragging about pressuring the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor. But Orange Man Bad!!!

      • rhywun

        And the implication that Biden is putting “America First” – a formulation the left called racist for four years – is so ridiculous I can only SMDH in wonder at the chutzpah.

      • Don escaped Texas

        what’s Catholic for chutzpah? hybris seems a bit orthodox

    • cyto

      “I would appreciate it if you look into this”

      Versus

      “If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’

      BTW, if you use Google to search “joe Biden quote on firing Ukrainian prosecutor” all of the links that come up are fact check articles that say it is false that Biden pressured Ukraine to fire the prosecutor for his son. All of them.

      And the two I checked were lying through their teeth.

    • juris imprudent

      Biden has the U.S. importing the most Russian oil in history, but Trump was Putin’s stooge.

      Fucking amazing these people are.

      • Don escaped Texas

        I’d like you to flesh that one out some time. I don’t care about Trump/Biden…but energy and economic/military power is a real thing.

        I’m close to O&G, and my business education (and all of history) tells me there’s not much to be done to regulate a commodity…..they’re fungible (for example, Carter’s grain embargo on the USSR was laughable). Further, to the extent that oil is a diminishing natural resource, one could easily argue that buying it from enemies is a long-run good: we’ll still have ours when the chips are down.

      • cyto

        I have thought about that strategy… Wait to sell your oil until it is really scarce…

        But there was always a tech counter argument… As prices rise, incentives to find alternatives rise. We saw this on the supply side with fracking, and we are seeing it on the demand side with electric vehicles and battery technology.

        The true value of petroleum is as a chemical base for industry, not as an energy source. Right now it is the tail and the dog is transportation… But that might not always be true.

        Absent government, I suppose nothing still competes with coal for straight up energy. And we have a crap ton of that. But solar is advancing. And battery tech is advancing. And government is involved, tipping the scales.

        Who knows, but it seems to me an inflection point is coming. Sometime soon-ish electricity will be the cost effective way to move things. And sometime after that, we will have enough pressure on using fossil fuel for electricity that this too begins to diminish.

        Somewhere along that path demand for oil goes way down, but the intrinsic value of the products it produces on average goes way up (plastics and other petrochemical products being way more valuable than gas and deisel).

        Of course, the counter to this is the budding China-Russia alliance that should lock up oil and gas resources for China, allowing them to continue their reliance on oil and coal much longer than the west. What that says for India and Africa is beyond me.

      • Don escaped Texas

        those are interesting touch points

        but they don’t treat with the efficacy of wouldbe regulation; I’m saying the main reason not to care is that the embargos won’t work….unless you want to cripple your friends (Germany) who don’t agree and commandeer tankers on the high seas and block ports

      • R C Dean

        “Wait to sell your oil until it is really scarce”

        Assumes you have no need for cash flow, and further assumes that the discounted present value of the oil you sell in X years will exceed the current price.

      • Don escaped Texas

        all of this is over-reach to the extent that American oil ownership is/shouldbe an exclusively private notion….the economic advantages of each owner of mineral rights should be, of course, left to his own determination

        I assume nothing on the part of those owners, but the notion was couched as national policy and answered with economics: embargo is futile or war, and oil at any price is a commodity

      • cyto

        Also an excellent point. Plus the opportunity cost of not having large pools of wealth on hand for many decades.

      • Don escaped Texas

        don’t misunderstand me: I’m a free market guy; I am not endorsing any political position on oil….it belongs to its owners

        but the question of federal policy came up, as if anything the USG posture has anything to do with the cost of a barrel or its availability; those effects are real but temporary and marginal; I merely mused that Russians selling off their oil doesn’t seem like a problem to me…if anything, it’s desirable, again: not that there should be policy in that regard

      • juris imprudent

        It isn’t the economics I’m concerned with – it is the political lies/distortions that are raising my ire. Any sanctions we slap on Russia that doesn’t touch that will be a farce; reducing our oil supply (on top of the other reductions from this Admin) will not improve our economic environment.

        Most of all, I am insulted, to the point that honor once demanded satisfaction, by the morons that expect me to believe their lies.

      • Don escaped Texas

        but it’s a commodity: you literally can’t reduce the supply….it is what it is, it’s an international fact…a barrel is a barrel is a barrel

      • juris imprudent

        Ah, so shutting down domestic pipelines/production had no effect on the market?

      • Don escaped Texas

        I thought we were talking about trade with Russia

      • cyto

        All of the above.

        Cutting Russia off completely restricts supply. But most of all, it hurts Germany because they rely on pipeline supplies.

        Also, not happening because china.

        Cutting them off from the rest of the world suits China just fine. They are looking to lock up exclusive access to resources.

        So really all an embargo does is reduce China’s costs and increase ours, because a captive market will have depressed prices, and demand elsewhere chasing reduced supplies will increase costs there.

        Sounds like a lose-lose scenario. Unless you are China, where it is a win win.

      • westernsloper

        to the extent that oil is a diminishing natural resource,

        Is it?

      • slumbrew

        Abiotic?

    • kbolino

      Averting a crisis you manufactured in the first place is a kind of statesmanship, I guess. Not sure why anyone would applaud it, though.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Because half the country gets its marching orders from yeg central.

      • Chafed

        Because CNN doesn’t know what else to do.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    If those truck drivers had been begging for government checks, they’d be heroes.

    • cyto

      Is there any way possible that people don’t see it?

      I mean. Not us. And not the hard left. I mean normal folks who don’t follow politics all that closely. But they vote.

      Is there any chance that they see the government supporting and fostering riots all over the country throughout 2020? Do they see the left desperately trying to create a racist society?

      Do they see the contrast with the government cracking down on any dissent from the right? Do they even notice the overt censorship of the left via tech companies, banking. Service providers, “activist journalists” running hit piece campaigns against donors and advertisers?

      Or is it all noise?

      • kbolino

        Most don’t even know. We know because we seek it out. The promise of social media, the distributed sharing of information across the world, was dealt a one-two blow by its own revenue model and the increasing (manufactured) demand for censorship. Letting a bunch of meat-bots decide policy through their own exploitability and then having them count as votes in “democracy” was a mistake.

  19. rhywun

    -10% for the Big Guy

    That is quite an alternate reality CNN inhabits. I wonder what the weather is like there.

    • rhywun

      Ugh, Brooksed it.

    • slumbrew

      What’s worse – they actually believe that nonsense or they’re just that cynical?

      • Trigger Hippie

        Cynicism is worse.

        The fool can be fooled again. A committed cynic will shamelessly corrupt everything around them until forced to cease.

        See: Krugnuts

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair

  20. The Late P Brooks

    There’s no Team America for Trump,” Hill recalled. “Not once did I see him do anything to put America first. Not once. Not for a single second.”. ……..

    Waitaminnit! I thought America-Firsterism was one of President Cartoon Villain’s greatest sins.

    • juris imprudent

      Stupid bitch thinks about first like Bro.

      • Chafed

        Lol

    • slumbrew

      There was an announcement on Journolist2.0 re: the new messaging.

      Did you miss the update?

    • kbolino

      Semantic confusion is one of the enemy’s greatest weapons. “What you actually meant/believed all along was really [something else entirely]”.

  21. Homple

    I think you meant Patty Hearst, unless the shift was intentional.

    • Fourscore

      Yep, lets the clutch out…

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Seizing bank accounts. Invalidating licenses and permits of operation. Impounding the tools of one’s trade. Isn’t there a specific historically derived prohibition against dispossession in English common law?

    • rhywun

      I don’t know, but the law now is whatever Junior says it is. I think it can ben summed up as “he hates you and wants you to die”.

      • cyto

        And it looks like Parliament is going to stand behind him and uphold Marshall law.

        Hard to believe. But there it is. A bunch of truckers honking horns and saying “don’t force me to get vaccinated against my will” is enough for them to abandon rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances, due process, freedom of association….

        All gone over a 2 out of 10.

        Heck, they did not need to suspend the rule of law… They could simply have enforced existing traffic laws. Protests could continue, but without blocking traffic. Or exceeding noise levels.

        Simple.

        So one wonders why they were so eager to follow and exceed the US Democrat example.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Heck, they did not need to suspend the rule of law… They could simply have enforced existing traffic laws. Protests could continue, but without blocking traffic. Or exceeding noise levels.

        Simple.

        So one wonders why they were so eager to follow and exceed the US Democrat example.

        I don’t get this at all Cyto. It’s like we’re watching two very different movies play out.

        The movie I’m watching doesn’t show the globalists as misguided politicians who have the citizens best interests at heart and are just making mistakes. They want to utterly destroy anyone who won’t accept their yoke. That they didn’t need to suspend rule of law is entirely missing the point that suspending rule of law is the purpose of their actions.

        They are eager to follow US Democrats and establishment Republicans example because it’s worked so well. Jan 6th protestors were hunted down and thrown in cells while beaten without legal representation or a trial. The major banks gleefully participated in the hunt and without warrants. New guidance being released by the DHS is labeling anyone who questions election results, Covid mandates, or their local schoolboards as domestic terrorists. None of this accidental.

      • cyto

        That would certainly make their actions sane, if evil.

        One wonders if Trudeau and Biden know that they are the useful idiots who are being used by the communists in this scenario and not the other way around.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Just think what Woodrow Wilson and General Palmer could do with the current set of circumstances.

    I suppose we should be grateful to have ineffectual bumblers like Joe Biden and Merrick Garland.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Patty Hurst

    She wasn’t a shiftless hobo.

    • Don escaped Texas

      she wasn’t a johnny-come-lately, either

      Uncle Billy Hurst settled in Tarrant County after the war, well after Bedford, Birdville, and several other communities had been established. But no one else would let the railroad between Fort Worth and Dallas cross their land; he did . . . so long as they built a station on his place and named it for him. 150 years later, Hurst is the name on the city hall.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Amazon leadership summoned Stephenie Landry, who ran Prime Now, and Ben Hartman, head of Amazon Fresh, to the company’s Seattle headquarters. They were told to prepare for a “bake-off” that would determine the path forward for the company’s online grocery business, according to people familiar with the matter.

    We should do that with government agencies. Two acronyms enter… you know the rest.

    I crack myself up.

    • rhywun

      I’m not sold on the “grocery delivery” concept. Groceries are something I want now, not in “2 to 4 days, or maybe never”. Maybe when I’m old and (more) infirm, but for now I’d rather just walk to the grocery store.

      • Don escaped Texas

        we order our non-perishables curbside: pickup at some suitable hour and leave in the car while your life goes on

        a grocer’s son, I hate the places in their contemporary incompetence above and beyond my childhood disdain and darken their doors as seldom as possible

      • kbolino

        In the places they’re offering it, the delivery is usually same day (and often within hours). I can only see it making sense for the same sort of people who eat out all the time. If you cook your own food, you probably want to buy your own ingredients, too. Offloading to a delivery service means you’re at the whim of the service (sometimes they’ll make “clever” substitutions, other times they won’t even make obvious substitutions, and sometimes you’ll be missing items for no good reason). We tried it at the beginning of COVID hell but it wasn’t worth it.

      • cyto

        We have had a similar experience.

        And for the “dine out” crowd… I have a personal disdain for restaurant delivery. It is almost an irrational hatred. I can usually drive and pick it up myself and finish my meal before the delivery guy arrives. So what is the point? I pay him extra for bringing me lukewarm food 45 minutes later than I would have otherwise had it??

        Why the screed?

        Well… Last night…

        I was out delivering my oldest and his friends to a local festival-fair. And my wife had family visiting. And my daughter desperately wanted Chipotle. So they ordered from Door-Dash. Mom created a new account just for the occasion.

        “How much is this gonna set me back?” was my reaction. “They only charge a dollar, I was told. (Which sounds entirely unreasonable. The driver is definitely losing money on that deal.)

        So, I get back and the girls start their movie. Tall Girl 2. A good series for tweener girls, if you have them.

        And the app says he is here. I go out… No dude.

        I check the app. No way to contact him.

        App is confusing. He is here. And also arriving soon.

        We wait.

        An hour after the order, I try to figure out what is going on. The wife’s phone dies. And they can’t remember the password, so we can’t check it on another device.

        Time passes. 12 year old girls are getting hangry.

        We finally boot up the phone.

        Daughter has managed to lock out the account by trying various passwords. So the app doesn’t open.

        I call the store.

        I don’t get the store.

        I get a robot. It tells me I have to use the app.

        I curse.

        I listen further. It says they sent me an email confirming my order.

        More fussing as my daughter opens her email to find the notice. It says click here for status. I do. My order could not be delivered. Also, dude charged me a fiver for a tip on top of the buck for delivery.

        A conversation with the rep ensues… And they will refund my money in three to five business days. Funny how they can take your money instantly, but refunding it takes a week.

        Anyway, my comments below about my confidence in the future of delivery notwithstanding, my disdain for restaurant delivery is confirmed and reinforced.

      • rhywun

        Shit like that is a perfect example of why I don’t believe we’re anywhere close to reliable grocery delivery.

        There are too many failure points, and most of them are “other people”. Amazon was close to getting “2 to 4 days” right until the last year or so when IMHO it seems to be falling apart. I don’t think anyone is going to get “this morning” consistently right.

      • Tulip

        I use instacart for grocery delivery. It’s pretty reliable.

      • cyto

        They are working toward same day delivery.

        We have sporadically used the WalMart pickup option. Getting out of Walmart can be an ordeal at our store, depending on time and day. The new mass self checkout areas have helped, but lines can still get long. And the crowd is sketchy at times as well.

        But the service is sporadic. Goods are frequently out of stock and sometimes they substitute a more expensive alternative (,at the same cost… Like a 12 pack of soda if a 2 liter is not available)

        Our local Walmart Neighborhood Market is closer than the big store, but their pickup is much less reliable.. and they don’t carry all that other crap you might want as well.

        In our area, Amazon prime has same day delivery on a draft of goods.

        So online ordering is almost ready for prime time. Same day delivery is ready in larger metro areas.

        It is coming. Maybe not today in most of the land area of the US. But soon enough ” I need milk, eggs and bread for breakfast” will mean pulling up an app instead of me rolling my eyes at the wife and grudgingly hopping in the car for a quick run.

      • Fourscore

        Mrs F loves big box grocery stores, she can spend a 1/2 hour looking at lettuce, picking up each head and examining it as if it’s the biggest decision in her life. She asked me to marry her in way less time than that.

        Don’t get her started in the meat department…She usually tears her shopping list in 1/2, I buzz around Walmart in 10-15 minutes and load up, meanwhile she’s still deciding on which package of hamburger is the right one.

      • cyto

        Heh… My dream girl!

        On Friday I spent a good 3 minutes in the bread isle vacillating over the choice of hamburger buns. Cheap and small? Expensive and huge? Potato? Challah? Seeds or no? Price per ounce? Price per bun?

        Left to my own devices. Store brand regular buns. But I have to factor in the “why did you get THOSE” response if I pick something offensively cheap or too oversized for the burgers we have.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        I do grocery pickup, mostly as walking is an issue for me physically. It works good for about 95% of things, with the occasional fuck up. They text me about a half-hour before pickup time with any substitutions, which I can say yeah or nay to. It’s free over $35 and is really good for staples. The wife does farm subscriptions (damn food people, messing it up for the rest of us), so this is only for things like cooking oil, ice cream, and other non-fresh stuff.

    • juris imprudent

      Two acronyms enter… you know the rest.

      D H S?

      For an incestuous domain, the “intel community” sure spawns off new agencies regularly.

      • The Hyperbole

        When Two acronyms love each other very much…

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Six years later they stand across the room and yell “FUCK YOU!!!” at each other?

  26. The Late P Brooks

    We have sporadically used the WalMart pickup option. Getting out of Walmart can be an ordeal at our store, depending on time and day. The new mass self checkout areas have helped, but lines can still get long. And the crowd is sketchy at times as well.

    The Walmart in Blackfoot does a surprisingly (to me) steady curbside pickup business. There is usually at least one car there any time I go.

    Buying my groceries at Walmart sucks. I am an extremely inefficient shopper. A gallon of milk, a package of hard salami, cookies. Stand in the checkout line for fifteen minutes.

  27. Lazer

    I know not a lot of Olympic watchers here, but, the wife enjoy’s the figure skating.

    So. 1 – It is pretty amazing what they can do on two little razors. Throwing the girl in the air, cathing her, and then throwing her and she lands and doesn’t fall.

    2 – The Chinese male figure skater NEVER wore a mask! Even when they went to the stage area were the results were revealed. He NEVER put the mask on! I though it was a pretty bold move, especially for a Chinese athlete. Hats off to you! Hope you don’t disappear like the female Chinese tennis player.

    • cyto

      Nice report.

      They have made it oddly difficult to watch this time. I have Hulu and Peacock, which should make it super easy to watch. Anything, any time.

      Oddly, they have cluttered their streaming offerings with loads of variations of the same thing.

      Last night I wanted a time filler with the relatives over… So I pulled up the Olympics and found speed skating relays. There were a dozen links with “finals” in the description. I picked a men’s final relay.

      It was “,highlights”. The highlight being the last 2 laps and a quick replay of an early crash. From the main screen, you could not tell that. After the 30 second clip. It loads the opening ceremony flag raising.

      More searching… Find the full final. Watch that, enjoying the chaos and speed. And at the end… We get the opening ceremony flag raising.

      So I put on the men’s ski jump final. Again, highlights. But again, not a curated highlight. It is cut for time, the last three jumps. So I had no idea who these guys were. What was happening.. just here is the winner. Boring. Aaaasnnnd … Jump to the opening ceremony flag raising.

      Ok… Find the hockey game…

      U S men’s hockey…

      Bueler? Bueler?

      … Bueler?

      Nope. No US team on the main list. No US hockey under the hockey icon.

      Ok… I am done with you, NBC Olympic coverage online.

      And I put on an NCAA basketball game.

      • rhywun

        Blech. Live sports or GTFO.

      • Chafed

        So much this.

    • grrizzly

      I noticed this Chinese male figure skater without a mask, too. I was impressed.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    “Wait to sell your oil until it is really scarce”

    Assumes you have no need for cash flow, and further assumes that the discounted present value of the oil you sell in X years will exceed the current price.
    \
    \

    I have pretty much been in the “burn theirs first” camp forever, but that was when the Saudis’ production costs were lower than just about anybody else’s, and they were willing to pump as much as the world needed. Even merely having the ability to pump here has an effect on prices at the margin. Promising your political base you’ll do whatever you can to keep domestic reserves locked up (and backing it up by executive order) sends a clear message to the market.

    Maybe we should be sending money to our good Venezuelian allies to rebuild their production capacity. Joe and the Democratic Socialists would probably jump on that.

    • Don escaped Texas

      when the Saudis’ production costs were lower

      was always true; remains true: half of Russia’s lift cost

  29. Ownbestenemy

    It was great to have some normalcy this weekend. Great hockey game on Friday night. Vegas back in full swing. Met some fellas from SoCal and hung out the rest of the night with drinks and conversation with a little blackjack playing. No need to figure out what people were saying in a loud casino. No masks except those that want to.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      Meanwhile, NoVA continues to be a commie masking hellhole.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I weep for those who are bound.

  30. Not Adahn

    BLM is being unpersonned. Apparently the People Who Matter have decided they’re no longer a benefit to getting re-elected.

    NPR has begun referring to the mostly peaceful protests formerly known as BLM as “racial justice protests.”

    • Don escaped Texas

      avatars are preferred to facts; we all get to choose which cartoon idea we keep in our head to stand in for decades of nuance or unpleasant recollection

    • Ownbestenemy

      My theory is that normal people have a counter protest to stack it up against and even the deepest propaganda can’t hide it. 3-4 weeks in Ottawa and no businesses burnt to the ground, no violent looting, etc versus 1-2 night in any BLM protest and it all goes to hell.

      • Not Adahn

        Why was there no antifa in Ottawa? Insufficient Starbux? I know most of them are scrawny and sensitive to the cold, but having visited Woodstock VT, there’s obviously an arctic cadre of them available.

      • Gender Traitor

        Insufficient Starbux?

        Too many Timmie’s.

      • slumbrew

        Have they ever shown up when they didn’t outnumber any other group?

      • Ownbestenemy

        I suspect that on day one when there was that obvious plant with the swastika flag and confederate flag that the people in the protest started policing such people.

      • cyto

        They were there.

        Viva Frei Livestream. He sought out the counter protest. Small. Organized. Really organized. Minders quickly identified him and moved to block him from speaking to counter protesters. Blocked his camera. Used identical tactics as described by Nancy Rommelmann. Clearly from the same parent org and training. Control the message. Only approved reporters.

      • Ownbestenemy

        They were but knew they couldn’t infiltrate the protest though so they stood on the outskirts and were reduced to nothing. They couldn’t rile up what was a peaceful protest because the goals were not the same.

        In BLM protests, the agent provocateur had easy picking to reach into an underlying desire to create chaos among the demonstrations.

      • cyto

        Right.

        BLM is mostly peaceful. And over. Biden is in office. All is well. That is fine. (Do not look at the northwest. Those riots are not happening. We shall helpfully not cover them so you are not distracted, just as wee have done with BLM inspired mass killers and attempted murderers in recent weeks.)

        Ottowa was violently occupied by Trump supporters who are white nationalist Nazis.

    • creech

      Unpersoned? CBS Sunday Morning show had a opinion piece near the end of the show today praising Trayvon, BLM and the mothers of victims.

      • rhywun

        Perhaps he’s referring to the founders being in hot water for embezzlement. (After it was ignored for years.)

        I think some major corporations are dropping their support & Amazon took them off Smile too.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    My theory is that normal people have a counter protest to stack it up against and even the deepest propaganda can’t hide it. 3-4 weeks in Ottawa and no businesses burnt to the ground, no violent looting, etc versus 1-2 night in any BLM protest and it all goes to hell.

    Oddly enough, there is currently a USA Toady “fact check” floating on the edge of the google nooz front page strongly implying the Ottawa protest was not nearly as “peaceful” as advertised.

    Wagons were circled.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Then surely there must be video of the violent protests in Ottawa. Cameras are everywhere, but it’s strange that none of the violence has been captured.

      • whiz

        The police were keeping journalists away from the immediate area — for their safety, of course.

  32. Yusef drives a Kia

    It’s 39 and sunny, I’m going to play, enjoy the Sunday people!
    Cheers!

    • Not Adahn

      The group that was supposed to hike Moreau this morning chickened out after it showed yesterday. I really expected locals to be hardier.

      If Lily wakes up early from her nap, I’m thinking about going there anyway just to see what it’s like.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    The NAPCAR Super Bowl is on today.

    • Not Adahn

      Back in the olden days, yes.

      …or so I’ve been told.

    • Ownbestenemy

      No but these kids have been brainwashed to segregate themselves as the only way to combat a racist boogeyman that is lurking in every dark ally.

    • creech

      Just like most swastikas are drawn by teenagers whose only motive is to rile up the adults then sit back and laugh at the furor they created.

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Hah, my son went to that high school. So did most of the Def-tones, Joan Didion, Supreme Justice Anthony Kennedy.

    • Annoyed Nomad

      There’s value in being a victim today. Some people feel the need/desire to increase it. It seems that (almost?) every such event lately is a hoax perpetrated by a member of the “victim” community. If I had heard about this event prior to the identification of the culprit, I would have assumed it was a black student who did it.

      So, even though there’s increased value lately in being a victim, there aren’t enough villains* to commit the hate crimes so the “victims” can get the attention/favor they would like to have. Thus, the need to create villains.

      *I think the vast majority (99+%) of whites (also males and other “villain” identifiers) have not only no interest in doing a crime like this, they are strongly opposed to such actions. Even somebody who felt they got screwed by an affirmative action scenario doesn’t blame an entire race – they’re likely angry at the policy.

    • Fourscore

      Digs through box of VHS tapes of Jane Fonda

      She and I are the same age but to her credit she looks a lot better

      Puts tape in the player, watches and remembers

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        You’re surely less osteoporotic.

    • Drake

      So the leg warmers were actually innocent?

    • Ownbestenemy

      So this was an ode to this case?

  34. Ownbestenemy

    https://dnyuz.com/2022/02/20/new-twist-in-pandemics-impact-on-schools-substitutes-in-camouflage/

    Superintendents were given the choice of whether to have the guardsmen and women wear regular clothes or duty uniforms; most joined Cindy L. Sims, the superintendent of the Estancia Municipal School District, in choosing the latter. “I wanted the kids to know she was here, to know why she was here,” Dr. Sims said. “I wanted them to see strength and community.”

    Or to normalize and prep the kids to turn against their parents when the US goes through what Canada is going through.

    • rhywun

      But remember, 99.9999% of teachers are fUlLy VaxXed! ?

    • Count Potato

      Surprised they didn’t include any old classical guitars.

  35. Ownbestenemy

    Got a weird message from the California Child Support agency saying that I received a payment. Odd cause I am the one ordered to pay. Went looking at my account and shows the payments that I have made ended at the end of 2020 (though they took all of 2021 every paycheck) and I am receiving what looks like all of 2021 payments back. I’ll take the 9gs for sure, but that will be tucked away cause the State giveth, State taketh.

    Only thing I can think of is the courts were so slow to the order I had back in 2020 that brought my kids under my rook instead of my crack whore ex-wife.

    • Don escaped Texas

      I enjoyed paying all that stuff off promptly and well ahead of schedule. Texas forwarded everything promptly, including a note that I had completely fulfilled the court’s order. After that last nickel passed, I never heard from her again.

    • Gender Traitor

      Trying to think through the worst-case scenario if you happened to put those bucks in a 529 account…

  36. Count Potato

    “Capitol fence to be reinstalled ahead of Biden’s State of the Union address

    Capitol grounds were previously fenced off after Jan. 6, 2021, riot

    Security officials will reinstall fencing around the Capitol next week ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address, Fox News can confirm.

    U.S. Capitol Police are bracing for a potential “Freedom Convoy” truck protest to Washington D.C. for the March 1 speech. “Freedom Convoy” truckers have been protesting in Canada for weeks against coronavirus restrictions and vaccine mandates and caused a temporary blockade of the busy Ambassador Bridge border crossing between Windsor and Detroit.

    Capitol Police say they are “aware” of similar protests coming to Washington D.C. and are making plans to both “facilitate” First Amendment protest activity while working with law enforcement agencies and the D.C. National Guard to prepare for Biden’s address.

    “The United States Capitol Police and the United States Secret Service have been closely working together to plan for the upcoming State of the Union,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement Friday.

    “Law enforcement agencies across the National Capital Region are aware of plans for a series of truck convoys arriving in Washington, DC around the time of the State of the Union,” police said. “As with any demonstration, the USCP will facilitate lawful First Amendment activity.””

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/capitol-fence-reinstalled-bidens-state-union

  37. UnCivilServant

    I finally got to the nutmeg marinaded pork chop.

    The flavor is… odd.

    • Ownbestenemy

      hmmm yeah. Good on you exploring though. I do an orange-cardamom glaze for my pork chops and I don’t marinade them, just brine for a hour depending on thickness.

    • Count Potato

      Did you use ground nutmeg? Never buy ground nutmeg.

      • Sean

    • KSuellington

      Obviously paprika and smoked paprika combine really well with pork chops, but I have also found that celery salt combines fantastically with them as well. A paprika, celery salt and black pepper combo is the usual spice blend for my chops.

  38. db

    Way to miss the point entirely, WaPo.

    But of course, why would we expect the Washington Post to see a threat in the water in which it swims?

    Clearview has dismissed criticism of its data collection and surveillance work by saying it is built exclusively for law enforcement and the public good. In an online “principles” pledge, the company said that it works only with government agencies and that it limits its technology to “lawful investigative processes directed at criminal conduct, or at preventing specific, substantial, and imminent threats to people’s lives or physical safety.”

    But the presentation shows the company has based its “product expansion plan” on boosting corporate sales, from financial services and the gig economy to commercial real estate. On a slide devoted to its “total addressable market,” government and defense contracts are shown as a small fraction of potential revenue, with other possible sources including in banking, retail and e-commerce.

    Is there anything “they wouldn’t sell this mass surveillance for?” asked Jack Poulson, a former Google research scientist who now runs the research advocacy group Tech Inquiry. “If they’re selling it for just regular commercial uses, that’s just mass surveillance writ large. It’s not targeted toward the most extreme cases, as they’ve pledged in the past.”

    They’re incapable of seeing evil in anything that government could do, and has demonstrated that it has done and will continue to do, but freak out at all the things they imagine that private enterprise might do with it. Certainly corporations could use and abuse this technology, but the potential damage by governmental abuses is of a higher order.

    • db

      The “we only breach your privacy at the lawful request of Law Enforcement” is the biggest dodge in history.

    • slumbrew

      We have both those things…

  39. limey

    I typed out quite a serious big long post with some thoughts about a thing and then deleted it. Maybe some of you would have found it interesting, maybe not. Cool story.

    Are the horror-scopes out yet?

  40. KSuellington

    Those darn white supremacists have gotten to the good people of San Francisco now! This is some high level delusion this chick has got going on. But then again she lives in a cocoon of delusion. Nice ballcap she is rocking in that pic. Would this woman last five days on a camping trip? When even fucking Ess Eff has had enough of the woke bullshit I think we are about to see a major backlash against the Marxist-racist special combo.

    https://nypost.com/2022/02/18/sf-school-board-prez-blames-white-supremacists-for-recall/

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      Make America Indigenous Again. What kind of bullshit is that…

      “Hey, let’s import some Denisovan genes! Maybe a little Mongoloid, keep the indigenous up!”

      Dumb fuck have no idea how anything works anymore.

      • KSuellington

        Somehow this dumbfuck (and she is not alone by any means) has a view of human history that is so at odds with reality that it makes the nutters who believe they can summon and communicate with aliens sane by comparison. Funny enough, she is basically taking a very European view of “indigenous” peoples (hi there Rosseau!) and dialing it up to 11. Those that inhabited this state when the Spanish and then the Russians first arrived were not the original inhabitants anyway, those were pushed down farther south to central and South America. I have always found that the people that most espouse tribal lifestyle seem like the ones that would be least likely to want to give up the extreme comforts and privileges that they currently enjoy. I’d love to set up a fund to give these folks an up close and personal view of actual tribal lifestyle. Send her to live for six months with some Huarani on a tributary of the Amazon near the borders of Peru and Ecuador. She wouldn’t last two frigging weeks before begging to be let back.