Friday Afternoon Links

by | Feb 21, 2020 | Daily Links | 502 comments

Ugh. Today feels like its dragging on forevvvverrrrr. I just want to get on to the part where I start celebrating National Margarita Day. I know some of you look down on this method of delivering sub-standard tequila to one’s stomach bearably, but I’m a fan. Not that there’s anywhere in my neck of the woods to get a decent adult slushie margarita, but we’ll make our own on the rocks and enjoy. But not too many. I have an all-day mini-conference tomorrow. And then off to the bleak North next week. So these are my last links of February, most likely. Ignore the hell out of them!

Breakthrough in fusion leaves commercialization only… 20 years away.

Gavin Newsome makes strong claim for dumbest tweet of the week.

Miami invaded by aggressive peacocks. Not a euphemism.

White House considers expanding H2-B program.

 

 

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.

502 Comments

  1. Yusef drives a Kia

    It’s always twenty years away, still waiting for my Flying Car….
    First!

    • Jarflax

      I don’t get the attitude toward fusion. I mean I literally don’t understand what people here are saying. It is manifestly not a pie in the sky idea like wind, where the amount of energy theoretically possible, and its reliability make the concept a pipedream. I’d accept as almost inarguable that at some point in the future, absent a social collapse on the order of the fall of Rome, we will rely on fusion for our basic power generation. Is it that idiot reporters herald any news with “Now we are 10 years away” BS? That is the nature of idiot reporters. Fusion is not simple and it is going to take a real breakthrough to solve the problems. That by definition means you can’t predict when we get there. But I will not be shocked if I am alive when it happens.

      • Tonio

        It’s been “just twenty years away” my entire life, and I’m old.

      • Jarflax

        Personal computers were sci fi until someone discovered this “one cool trick” about silicon. The problems are defined, someone will solve them. You can’t put a timeline on breakthroughs, but you can count on them happening. Some of us apes are smart. We pay a price for that, but it is worth it.

      • Jarflax

        Note. not claiming I’m in teh smart group. Just in the ape group. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Newton, Farraday, Bohr, Shockley et al.

      • Animal

        Ook ook.

      • Jarflax

        I’m sorry I left them out ok!

        Thank you
        Samuel Colt and
        John Moses Browning
        our great benefactors!

        Thank you from a humble ape.

      • Tonio

        ICs be dope, yo.

      • Tonio

        Still waiting. Also for flying car (possible due to Lion batteries), and lunar vacation condo (not going to see that one).

      • Hip Joiner

        The “can’t put a timeline on” them is the part that makes people cynical, though. Or as Rumsfeld would say, “Until you catch the chicken, you don’t have the chicken.”

      • Mojeaux

        Fuck off, Tulpa!

        YAY WE HAVE A NEW TULPA!!!

      • Sean

        *points to the direction the new Tupla can fuck off to*

        Hi.

      • cyto

        Computers went from mechanical adding machines to home electronics hobbyist plaything to office revolution in 40 years.

        Fusion has been described as 20 years away for more than 40 years.

        People are talking about space economy issues of late and one thing they keep bringing up is mining helium 3 on the moon…. He3 is economically useful for only one thing – fusion power. A specific type of fusion power that doesn’t exist and utilizes He3.

        It has been so heavily anticipated that it has become a trope.

        I remember a “breakthrough” in the 80’s that was going to bring fusion to the desktop.

      • Tonio

        Buuut, nobody except Arthur C. Clarke envisioned personal computers. Everyone else writing SciFi envisioned pervasive computing a huge central computer with sensors and terminals everywhere. Can’t remember the story(s) in which he did that but they took place on Jovian or Saturnian moons.

        Heinlein envisioned the cell phone, but not the smart phone.

      • cyto

        Card had the tablet computer … but that was in the late 70’s, and it was connected to a mainframe, IIR.

      • Spudalicious

        That’s true. You are old.

      • Tonio

        My lawn; on it you are.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        In the late ’80s I had an internship at the Department of Energy, and we had a goal to make fusion work by 2000.

        I hope it works someday, but I’ve learned to disregard timelines.

      • Gadfly

        Yeah, but the idea behind flight was sound and it was around for literally hundreds of years before it became a reality. Just because it’s highly likely to occur once technology advances enough does not mean it’s around the corner.

      • Chafed

        It seems as though whenever fusion gets discussed, usually because of some advance in the technology, there is a remark that practical fusion is just 20 years away. Hence the continuing skepticism it will ever become practical.

      • The Last American Hero

        The issue, just like CAGW, is that the so-called “scientific community” does jack and shit to temper these stories lest they jeopardize their precious taxpayer funded grants.

    • Chafed

      HB11 Energy is a spin-out company that originated at the University of New South Wales, and it announced today a swag of patents through Japan, China and the USA protecting its unique approach to fusion energy generation.

      If there is any chance of this becoming useful then I will assume China will ignore the patent.

      • cyto

        Reading the article… they have yet to even demonstrate the reaction is taking place….

        Which seems odd. They say they already got a billion times more than predicted… but then they have yet to demonstrate that it actually creates fusion….

        I suppose it is sloppy writing and the “billion times predicted” is what their calculations show – i.e. this is a known reaction and they predict that using their pulsed laser technique with a cascade of reactions they can get a billion times greater output.

        I don’t know….. this seems an awful lot like a thousand other startups seeding the press with grand predictions hoping to raise capital based on vaporware. It would take a nuclear physicist to know the difference.

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    My pea cock is rather aggressive too.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Oops….

    • Enough About Palin

      So your saying it’s the size of a pea?

      • Spudalicious

        Hung like a pea. That’s smaller than a cashew.

    • Jarflax

      HIs shiny butt brings all the hens to the yard?

  3. Certified Public Asshat

    Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin or antibiotics.— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 21, 2020

    I just want a prescription for cash.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      They can write them all day long, who’s going to fill them Eli Broad?

      • The Other Kevin

        Has he been to a pharmacy? Just because you have a prescription doesn’t mean you get meds for free. You still need some type of payment or insurance. This is dumb on multiple levels.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        We’ve severely underestimated how much single payer is going to cost.

      • Jarflax

        Not really. I estimate it costs my liberty, probably my life as well. How can it cost more than that for me?

    • tarran

      Wait!!! Is the drooling imbecile actually suggesting that I should have to get a doctor’s prescription to purchase a home or rent an apartment?!?!?

      Or is he so moronic that he thinks a doctor’s note magically makes resources appear out of the ether?!?!? 🙄

      • Mad Scientist

        Likely yes to both.

      • nw

        Indeed. Why choose?

    • invisible finger

      Illegibly?

    • invisible finger

      “According to my insurance company, Doc, this prescription means I get to move into your house.”

      • Jarflax

        Last Doc I saw I’d let stay, but she has to share the bed…

    • Fourscore

      Fill the prescription and sell!

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Fortunately for Gavin Newsom, there seems to be no minimum indicated brain function level necessary to be governor of California.

    • hayeksplosives

      As long as you’re related by blood or marriage in some way to Nancy Pelosi, you are qualified.

    • C. Anacreon

      Despite the risible tweets, some of us ER docs in CA do have some hope for Newsom’s push for enhanced mental health care for the homeless population in the state. Amazing as it might seem, the focus of California’s disjointed mental health system in recent years has been funding feel-good programs for the worried well, while the seriously mentally ill get uncompensated care in ERs and jails, with little options at discharge other than a bus token to return to the tent city. At least he is finally recognizing the homeless problem is more due to untreated mental illness and substance abuse disorders than “not enough new luxury condo developments”, as the developers keep trying to promote. So perhaps the blind squirrel has at least identified the path to a nut.

      • Chafed

        You are an optimist C. I had my issues with Jerry Brown but I didn’t think we was incompetent. Newsom strikes me as incompetent. He gravitates towards the most magical, unlikely solutions. Perhaps he has correctly identified the problem. The chance he will propose a workable solution is remote.

      • Tonio

        You know who else had issues with Jerry Brown?

      • Chafed

        Well played Tonio.

      • Jarflax

        One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is up there with Das Kapital and Mein Kampf in the “Increased Human Suffering” competition.

  5. Rebel Scum

    20 years away

    Climate change will kill us all in 11 years anyway.

  6. Stinky Wizzleteats

    If Newsome did a better job maybe he wouldn’t feel compelled to write stupid tweets about remedying homelessness. Easing up on building codes and zoning laws would be a good start.

    • C. Anacreon

      Apples and oranges. You’d be extremely hard-pressed to find a tent city dweller who’s only there because they couldn’t meet the first month’s rent on an apartment in the city, they are by and large mentally ill and/or addicted. Easing zoning and building codes might increase the stock of more affordable options for the working people in the state, but many of the street people wouldn’t accept a free apartment from you if you handed them the keys. “Fuck off!” would be the more likely response.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        So much this – they’re not “homeless” due to a lack of homes.

      • Florida Man

        Soooo, time for a cleansing? ZARDOZ APOROVES!

  7. Mojeaux

    @GT and other mythical (g)libertarian women… Who was it who liked Little Women? I just found a paper I wrote on Alcott.

    Writing Little Women was particularly painful for Louisa, who sought to put aright in Jo March’s life what went wrong in Louisa’s. Louisa was forced to dredge up the unhappiness of her childhood and make it happy for her audience. She corrected Jo’s willfulness with goodness and kindness and tied a neat bow around a not-so-nice package that she had neatly wrapped up. To her dismay, her book of “domestic pap,” as she called it, turned out to be her most popular work.

    Fun fact: I have never read Little Women.

    • Gender Traitor

      Yup – Little Women was right up there with the “Little House” books – the faves I read repeatedly, to the point where I overlooked other juvenile classics until adulthood. (“Anne of Where??”) You should check it out.

      Fun fact: the bio Marmee & Louisa reveals that Bronson Alcott was well & truly an asshole.

      • Tundra

        Speaking of childhood books, any of y’all ever read The Ghost Boat?

        My brother and I were just talking about it the other day – I wonder how it holds up.

      • Ted S.

        Ghosts, exciting and new;
        Come aboard, we’re expecting you!

      • Animal

        We had to read the Little House books when I was in elementary school. Years later, when my oldest daughter brought the first book home from school, I had cause to reflect on the stories, and realized:

        Charles Ingalls was a horrible, irresponsible parent.

        He dragged his young family from a settled area into a wilderness, where he illegally intruded into the Indian Nation as a squatter and was later evicted by the U.S. Army.

        He failed at pretty much every business venture he ever attempted. The man was a drifter, constantly dragging his wife and daughters from one frontier town to another, never allowing them to settle; during one particularly nasty winter the ill-prepared family almost starved, being saved only because Charles broke into a neighbor’s house and stole seed grain.

        He wasn’t a character to be admired. I wouldn’t waste bandwidth to do a Profile on Toxic Masculinity about that asshole.

      • RAHeinlein

        ^^This

      • cyto

        Nuh-uh…. the one on TV was a paragon of virtue. He’s the one I shall think of. Screw reality.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        If that’s what you need to do to create libertarian women, then I wouldn’t knock it.

      • Mojeaux

        One of my books is an ode to LIW, Rose, Rand, and Isabel Paterson.

      • Jarflax

        That doesn’t make the books less compelling.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, boy. Touchy subject for my mother.

        You’re not wrong. They sometimes had to move because of debt he owed and could not repay and possibly was involved in a posse that took care of a serial killing family.

        The night of the day the bodies were found a neighbor rode up to our house and talked earnestly with Pa. Pa took his rifle down from its place over the door and said to Ma, “The vigilantes are called out.” Then he saddled a horse and rode away with the neighbor. It was late the next day when he came back and he never told us where he had been. For several years there was more or less a hunt for the Benders and reports that they had been seen here or there. At such times Pa always said in a strange tone of finality, “They will never be found.” They were never found and later I formed my own conclusions why.

        But Pa was never the star of the show.

      • RAHeinlein

        I’ve always had a Rose Wilder:Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anne Sullivan:Helen Keller vibe related to those books.

      • Mojeaux

        Laura and Rose had a VERY contentious relationship. Very love/hate and almost co-dependent.

        Rose had untreated depression and possibly was mildly bipolar. She was either rich or poor, depending on the year, had a falling out with Rand over the existence of God, and the question of how much Rose actually wrote of the Little House books through her heavy editing is still under debate.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Farmer Boy was the best book of the lot. Fight me.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, the food porn book!

        No fight from me, but Little Town on the Prairie is my favorite.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        You’re right that it was food porn – I still have flashes of memory re: donuts and brown sugar.

        Maybe I liked it because I was a chowhound it its larvae stage.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I read that decades ago, but a bunch still sticks with me. In particular:

        – the school teacher using a bullwhip on the young shitbags who were going to attack him.
        – the stocking at Christmas – the orange was an amazing treat and the folding knife was a treasure beyond measure.
        – dad declaring “no work today, we’re going fishing”

      • Mojeaux

        – the school teacher using a bullwhip on the young shitbags who were going to attack him.

        Heh. I’m using that in a book (historical).

        And actually, there is a newspaper account of that happening, but I can’t tell if it’s a fiction piece or a real news item.

      • Tonio

        One never can with journalism.

    • The Other Kevin

      We just saw the most recent movie version. Mrs TOK and I liked it a lot.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch an entire dramatization of LW and I’m always leery of movies based on my favorite books.

      • Gender Traitor

        Tag end fail. Is it time to go home yet? : (

    • Jarflax

      Read it. It is good. I am not a girl power person but Little Women is on my great books list. I can reread it today and mist up at least 5 times. Fun fact, it is actually two novels crammed together back to back, and they are truly different novels, a coming of age novel that is superb and a romance novel that I actually liked.

  8. ChipsnSalsa

    We are sidestepping all of the scientific challenges that have held fusion energy back for more than half a century,”

    Like safety and feasibility.

    • Bobarian LMD

      And reality and moving straight into pumping and dumping stock.

  9. Not Adahn

    the director of an Australian company that claims its hydrogen-boron fusion technology is already working a billion times better than expected.

    This is one of those multiplying by zero tricks, right?

    • Jarflax

      What the article described is not really fusion, although fusion is occuring on a microscale.

      • Bobarian LMD

        When the sun warms the side of the building?

  10. The Late P Brooks

    We are sidestepping all of the scientific challenges that have held fusion energy back for more than half a century,”

    Just issue a press release saying Fusion identifies as a viable energy source.

    Problem solved.

  11. Gender Traitor

    Ummm…I don’t know about you, Gavin, but when I get a prescription, I still have to pay for the meds.

    Wait! If I have a prescription, does that mean I can pay my rent/mortgage payment/property taxes out of my HSA?

    • ChipsnSalsa

      I like were your going here. Tax free living expenses.

      Why yes, to live a complete healthy life I need this 5th wheel camper and 2500 diesel to pull it. Tax-free!

      • pistoffnick

        So you can cook meth in the desert Driftless area of ‘Sconnie?

        This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed, bitch!

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2w7z0aB3l0

      • nw

        Based on the news, I’d pretty much assume you could do it anywhere?
        I have no idea why anyone would *want* to. I’ve see the after pictures.

      • Bobarian LMD

        It cuts down on needing dental insurance?

    • hayeksplosives

      I want people who can’t afford california cost of living to just pack up and leave already, not be rewarded for not being able to balance a checkbook or set a budget.

      The frugal smarties already figured that out and left. The rest who can’t afford it now stick their hands out and whore out their votes for Free Stuff.

      • ChipsnSalsa

        Why do you hate democracy?

      • hayeksplosives

        I stared hating democracy when it got reinterpreted to mean Mob Rule without consideration for individual rights protected in the US constitution.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Yeah, well, I think you’re just prejudiced against wolves.

      • Jarflax

        That is what democracy is. It is literally mob rule and mobs are more tyrannical than kings. Damn it I need to write that artcle instead of posting stupid comments (not thatthe article isn’t just as stupid, but it flls a slot for the awesome folks that gave me this place to maintain what I have of sanity. Seriously thank you!

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I want people who can’t afford california cost of living to just pack up and leave already

        Please keep them. Californians were a large motivation behind us leaving Dallas. Made for a great return on the house, but made for shitty traffic and an asshole House representative.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        I’ll let you in on a little secret. Most “Californians” aren’t really from California.

      • Mad Scientist

        For that matter, “Californians” aren’t a monolithic group. But that never seems to stop anyone from painting them all with the same brush.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Most people’d rather tar ’em than paint ’em.

      • Mojeaux

        I have a sneaking suspicion that people who can’t afford California cost of living aren’t the problem. In fact, they may not be able to leave at all. If you can’t afford to live there, can you get the cash together to leave?

      • Jarflax

        I want people who can’t afford california cost of living to just pack up and leave already

        The problems in CA and NYC are not the nasty middle classes that can’t afford $10k a month cost of living, they’re the people who can easily afford that and keep voting for programs that subsidize their serfs at the expense of the middle classes. Progtopia is a bunch of wealthy technocrats catered to by illegal aliens who can’t tell them to fuck off.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Ugh, he creeps me out. He looks like a shark or a Scientologist movie villain.

  12. Not Adahn

    One laser establishes the magnetic containment field for the plasma and the second laser triggers the ‘avalanche’ fusion chain reaction. The alpha particles generated by the reaction would create an electrical flow that can be channeled almost directly into an existing power grid with no need for a heat exchanger or steam turbine generator.”

    I don’t know if this is gibberish because it’s a scam, or if it’s gibberish because of journalisming.

    • Ted S.

      ¿Porque no los dos?

      • Sean

        Now I want tacos.

    • Tres Cool

      Sounds like the thing from Ghostbusters.

      • Mad Scientist

        Try to understand. This is a high voltage laser containment system. Simply turning it off would be like dropping a bomb on the city!

    • ChipsnSalsa

      Does it run on banana peels and Miller Lite as well?

  13. Festus

    OT from the dead thread- Festus just called one of the higher-ups an”asshole” while texting with one of minions. My verbatim words were “You ever take Jay aside and gently ask him why he’s such an asshole?” Stupid error. For all I know the minion thinks that the Sun shines out of Jay’s ass. At this point, no response. It’s like talking down the bride’s best friend. What are they gonna do? Fire me? Maybe…

    • Sean

      You can say it, but you should never put stuff like that in writing.

      • Festus

        Ah well, I did the terrible awful. I am unionized and those fuckers have been running rings around me since I got back to work. I have a right to vent and they can either go fuck themselves or find another janitor that does the work of two men for the price of one. My bet is that nothing happens but if it did?

      • Tonio

        Get a job as a “cleaner,” IYKWIM.

      • Festus

        Too squeamish. Soft-heartedness does not lend itself well to that profession. I don’t even kill the fish that I catch…

      • Spudalicious

        You just throw them live into a hot pan? Monster.

      • Festus

        No, I gently release them back to the wet and have hot-dogs for lunch.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Blame autocorrect

      • Sean

        “I meant to say he’s such an asshat”

      • Festus

        I’m too old to kowtow. Fuck ya’ll. Bring me your worst because I’ve probably seen better.

      • Festus

        “I meant to say arsinine!”

      • Festus

        I am basically un-fireable so at least I got that going for me…

    • R C Dean

      That’s a paddlin’.

      At least you were drinking. Right?

      • Festus

        Well, sure!

      • Festus

        Ya know, the more I ponder on this the less I worry. That cunte has no say whether I stay or go other than recommendations. I’m a fucking rock-star so we’ll chalk this one up to shooting my mouth off trying to make a funny. Jay IS an asshole when all is said and done and neither God nor nature will ever cure him of that affliction.

      • Tonio

        The Festus theme song.

    • Jarflax

      It’s like talking down the bride’s best friend. What are they gonna do? Fire me? Maybe

      No you talk down the bride’s mother. You have drunken sex with the bride’s friends after the reception.

      *looks at age, and sighs

      You have consolation sex with the widow after the…

      Oh who am I kidding, http://www.pornhub... oops cursor placement error please disregard.

      • Festus

        Fuckin’ Jarflax.

  14. PBRstreetgang

    Why don’t we just doctors just write a prescription for cold fusion?
    Problem solved.
    You’re welcome.

    • Tonio

      “Comrade Stalin has declared that wheat production will rise ten percent next year.”

  15. hayeksplosives

    I made the blunder of wandering into a Cowboy Chicken the other day and discovered good ol’ authentic southern fried Okra.

    So today I picked up a “texas size” pack of fried okra to take home. I am an addict.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’ll say a prayer for your bowels.

      • Count Potato

        Even Jesus hates okra.

    • Ted S.

      It’s only half as big as an “Alaska-size” pack, right?

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Hadn’t heard of that place before: thanks for the tip. Some geographically disparate locations!

        Ralphs carries frozen breaded okra, if you ever want to fry it at home.

      • Ted S.

        You hadn’t heard of Alaska before? :-p

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        I like your blog, so I won’t give you a virtual noogie.

        (Do you find TCM Oscars month as dull as I do?)

      • Ted S.

        I can catch up on other movies, but I’m also irritated by how much the posters on the TCM boards get their panties in a twist over 31 Days of Oscar and other TCM programming decisions.

      • Not Adahn

        The Alaska pack comes IQF.

      • hayeksplosives

        I dunno. Do Alaskans even do fried okra? When I asked Minnesotan grocers where to find the okra (I didn’t see it in the produce section), they actually had no idea what I was talking about.

        Eventually I learned I could buy it fresh from an Indian grocer (they call it Bhindi) and made my own. Now I have Cowboy Chicken for my fix!

      • Enough About Palin

        I have successfully grown several varieties of okra in my Minneapolis garden for decades.

      • Fourscore

        Fortunately I can’t get it to grow. Mrs F buys okra frozen, when she can find it. I could not not make that stuff grow in TX. My wife’s family thought I was a god.

      • C. Anacreon

        You sound like an okra homie from Oklahoma.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Try Sprouts, or a farm stand.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        or a Middle Eastern market

    • Trigger Hippie

      The only place that can make fried okra that I actually liked:

      https://throwedrolls.com/

      Yes, if you holler, they’ll throw rolls at you.

      • Mojeaux

        Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy overrated.

        WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        My default position is that any place with a gimmick like that is not actually any good. The onus is on them to prove me wrong.

      • cyto

        Cracker Barrel fried okra ain’t no good?

  16. Rebel Scum

    Miami invaded by aggressive peacocks.

    Florida man bird.

  17. PBRstreetgang

    Got any recommendations for a good book to read? I just finished “Blood Meridian” and need something different.

    • Tundra

      Gi back and check out the last few What Are we Reading posts. I get some good ones there.

      Also, maybe try one of our local writers – UCS, Mo and Animal all have really good ones.

      • Shirley Knott

        The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone is quite good. I was pleased to see it mentioned here this morning as I’ve been a fan for a while.
        The mix of magic and law is interesting and done well, imho.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I believe I mentioned it.

        Turns out, he wrote much of at the cafe down the street- I keep expecting to run into him.

      • Shirley Knott

        Thank him for me if you do. I enjoyed the books very much.
        BTW, how’d you get on with The Umbrella Academy? IIRC, you were starting to watch season 1; season 2 should be out later this year.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I watched them all – I can’t decide if I just dislike Ellen Page, I disliked her character and/or she’s just a bad actress.

        Her aside, everyone was pretty great and I’ll probably watch Season 2 at some point.

        Just tore through Stranger Things S01, so I’ll probably grind through those first.

      • Shirley Knott

        I have yet to check that series out. I probably should, but there was something about it that said ‘nah.’ But I’ll probably be watching a lot of video this summer, so it’s got a shot.
        I agree, Vanya was not really likable. But I’m not sure the other characters were, either. Somehow, it still managed to hook me.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        It’s squarely aimed at Gen X nostalgia – extremely 80’s.

        As previously mentioned, the characters make extremely dumb/unrealistic decisions in service of moving the plot forward, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

    • Festus

      Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. It’s kinda spacey but not too “magical realism”. The only book of his that I’ve ever enjoyed. Wolf Hall by Mantel is pretty great. Early Stephen King.

      • Jarflax

        Y’all and your hatred for magical realism. Hesse and Mann are all time great writers.

      • Shirley Knott

        Borges is amazing.

      • Jarflax

        Never read any of his work. (Probably because I went from avidly reading literature for pleasure in my 20s to reading pulp sci fi and similar stuff in my 40s) Man have I wasted my gifts 🙁

      • Shirley Knott

        Collected Fictions is a good start. His stories are very filling. I can only read a few at a time.
        He’s worth an hour or two a week for a week or two. That’s plenty to give you a sense for whether it’s worth your time and attention or not.

    • Gdragon

      The Master and Margarita is a favourite

      • Mojeaux

        A friend recommended that to me after hearing me wax approvingly about Ayn Rand. I still haven’t read it.

      • Shirley Knott

        It’s very Russian, but very good. I’d recommend it, although perhaps not until you get settled again.

      • Mojeaux

        I haven’t read anything for pleasure in 2-3 years. I’m just too stressed to relax, even with the light and funny little paranormal romances that I adore.

  18. Rebel Scum

    A waste of black angus.

    During his Oscars acceptance speech for best male lead as the psychologically tormented Arthur Fleck in “Joker” (2019), actor Joaquin Phoenix famously lamented man’s treatment of cows. “We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources,” he lamented. “We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and when she gives birth, we steal her baby. Even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. And then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.”

    A couple of days later, Phoenix went to the Pico Rivera slaughterhouse in Los Angeles and “liberated” a cow and its calf from being “murdered, murdered, murdered,” as he put it.

    Video of the moment was published online this week by animal rescue and advocacy group Farm Sanctuary.

    • nw

      All life is competing and killing other life, directly or indirectly
      Even if he was an autotrophe, he’d be using resources some
      other lifeform could have used. I don’t mind if he draws the
      line at larger mammals or whereever he does, but that doesn’t
      make him a better person, and the preening definitely
      makes him a worse one.

    • Tundra

      …“murdered, murdered, murdered,”…

      Cry, cry, cry.

      • Rhywun

        Thank you.

      • Ted S.

        Your first link should be this.

        The second should be this.

    • Festus

      Everyone has a hidden talent but it don’t mean we’re “special”. I can make melodious fart noises just by squeezing my hands together (thanks Grandpa).

      • Bobarian LMD

        I can do that and I don’t even use my hands.

    • Animal

      What.

      An.

      Asshole.

  19. Tonio

    Not that there’s anywhere in my neck of the woods to get a decent adult slushie margarita…

    Eeeewww!

    Ok, I’m a margarita snob. Decent tequila, fresh squeezed lime juice, agave nectar, with optional dash of decent orange liqueur.

    For tequila you want a nice blanco made from 100% agave squeezins. Cheap tequilas are cut with cheap vodka. My go-to tequilas for this are Hornitos and Espolon because they hit my price point, but anything all agave will do. My go-to orange liqueur is Patron Citronage. FYI, I’m in Virginia where all bottled liquor is sold in state stores so we have limited selection and higher prices compared to other places.

    If you must use a mix go with Tres Agaves brand; that’s just lime juice and agave.

    Avoid Rose’s “lime juice” which is lime-flavored HFCS. Your cheap Margie mixes are HFCS, citric acid, and food coloring.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Tonio, three words, Innova Wombat 3, you’ll thank me,

      • Tonio

        What an odd name for a Tequila. LOL.

        Thanks for the golf disc recommendation. My shoulder is still blown out from my last game, Feb 8, but hoping to rehab it.

        I owe you an email.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I pulled a right Calf Muscle, so I’m playing Right and Left handed, combined with a ripping wind, it makes for interesting play,
        Mail me Bro!

      • Tonio

        This may be too personal for on here, but are you a forehand thrower or a traditional backhand thrower? I need to devote the time to getting good enough at forehand to actually play a round using that.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        usually RHBH, RHFH is hard to master, but my left arm is healed up, to LHBH get’s me the right/left shots I need,
        I Need to work on footwork, that’s how I stretched my calf muscle out of shape. It’s a lot of work toget good, and you have to at least putt every day,

      • Tonio

        [hangs head in shame and looks at putting target sitting forlornly in back yard]

      • Jarflax

        This sounds like something you’d see on Tinder (or Grindr I don’t mean to be heterosexist or whatever the fucking term is today)

      • Bobarian LMD

        It’s all about getting it in the hole.

      • Tonio

        Also, sorry about the muscle, bro.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I’m working up an article to explain our lingo, and more,
        The LVC Classic is this weekend, you should spend half an hour a day watching, they screw up as much as we do,

      • Jarflax

        Ok, now I know this is a hookup thread lol.

    • Tonio

      Also, not frozen but shaken and served neat or on the rocks.

    • nw

      I’ll stick to a sidecar. Which is more or less a brandy margarita.

      Now I’m looking forward to going out tonight.

      There seems to be a fair number of Wisconsin glibs. We
      should have a meetup sometime. I haven’t had a good
      argument about the single land tax in forever. You try
      to start one at the bar and well, at least you get some
      elbow room.

      • C. Anacreon

        This thread now has Barney singing “Wasted away again in Margaritaville” with Sherry Bobbins running in my head.

    • Festus

      I’ve met that chick!

  20. Yusef drives a Kia

    OOH! OOH1!! write a prescription for Beer!

    • Not Adahn

      Fun fact — my CZ owner’s manual says that if you break the tritium vials in the sights you should drink large amounts of low-alcohol beer to detoxify.

      • Tundra

        I found a place to shoot the P-10. Any opinions on the PCR and Rami?

      • Not Adahn

        I’ve never shot the Rami, but my CZ dealer says everyone hates it.

        However, everyone loves the PCR.

      • Tundra

        Thanks.

        I didn’t really want a subcompact anyway.

      • Not Adahn

        Subcompact-wise, I like my P365.

      • AlmightyJB

        Yea, I’d like a PCR.

      • Tonio

        Srsly?

      • Not Adahn

        For reals.

        I’m beginning to think that the Czech Republic is a magical utopia.

      • Brett L

        It’s probably that the tritium is in a methanol solution. The best way to not absorb methanol is to have it compete with ethanol.

      • Tonio

        I love this place.

      • Jarflax

        The treatment for radiation poisoning is mass diuretics and liquids isn’t it?

      • Not Adahn

        The tritium’s gaseous. Like Jarflax says, it’s to dissolve the tritium and excrete it.

      • Jarflax

        That is so Bohemian.

    • Enough About Palin

      My father, who was a chronic alcoholic was given beer by his doctor when he went in for surgery. This was back in the 1980s when folks went in the night before. The doctor didn’t want him going through withdrawal pre-surgery.

  21. R C Dean

    Gavin Newsome makes strong claim for dumbest tweet of the week.

    I say we call it a tie with Ellison’s Bernie Bro tweet.

    • Brett L

      Sorry, you’re right. Only dumbest of the day.

    • hayeksplosives

      Scalise should be very proud of his brief retweet.

  22. Rebel Scum

    Bad Orange Man prevents justice by abusing power to protect allies.

    “I’m not going to do anything in terms of the great powers bestowed upon a president of the United States, I want the process play out, I think that’s the best thing to do,” Trump said in Las Vegas. “Because I’d love to see Roger exonerated and I’d love to see it happen because I personally think he was treated very unfairly.”

    The President didn’t rule out an eventual pardon or commutation, but said the process should play out first.

    “At some point I’ll make a determination, but Roger Stone and everybody has to be treated fairly. And this has not been a fair process,” Trump said.

    • Tonio

      Nope, no restrictions on pardons, other than not being able to pardon yourself.

      • Count Potato

        I thought you could pardon yourself.

      • Tonio

        Yeah, I’m on shaky ground there. Has been happening a lot recently. Annoying.

    • R C Dean

      I can’t disagree with anything OrangeManBad said there.

  23. The Other Kevin

    White House considers expanding H2-B program.

    Racist asshole.

    • Drake

      Everybody wants a slave indentured servant.

    • Spudalicious

      I wanna see that big boy in action.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        The very first sentence answered one of my questions – it’s a T-34 chassis, with Mig 21 engines.

        Badass.

  24. The Other Kevin

    I know we’ve been here before, but that fusion thing sounds cool. I was wondering the other day about why all electricity has to be converted from heat and/or motion. Seems wasteful.

    They do have a Nobel prize and some patents, so we’ll see.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      You know who else had a Nobel Prize….

      • Tonio

        Henry Kissinger?

      • Jarflax

        Norman Ernest Borlaug

    • Not Adahn

      It could be the journalisming, but there are at least three things described there that are complete bullshit.

      1. Accelerating the hydrogen without increasing temperature.
      1a. Accelerating the hydrogen in a linear fashion from a frozen state.
      2. Tying an alpha particle absorber directly into an electrical grid
      3. B fields via laser beam.

      • The Other Kevin

        That’s why we pay you the big bucks and made you Science Editor.

      • Brett L

        As I read it, they are increasing the energy of a very small set of particles rather than indiscriminately increasing the temperature of all of the particles in the system. That is the average kinetic energy of the whole pellet increases by a very small amount, but some particles get enough energy to fuse.

      • Not Adahn

        Using a special guided-to-target-hydrogen-atoms-only laser?

      • Brett L

        They call those wavelengths, yes. Hydrogen will absorb certain wavelengths that boron may not.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        Checkout Mr. Science over here

    • Drake

      Electrons are in motion and the speed of their motion is literally heat?

  25. Rebel Scum

    Serious journalists with serious news.

    “As we were just discussing Donald Trump’s running mate Vladimir Putin during the last segment, Janet and Martin Sheen texted me — they can’t see it, maybe you can see it — a bumper sticker that a friend of theirs has already made up saying ‘Trump Putin 2020,’” O’Donnell, who also worked on The West Wing as a writer and producer, said as he held up his phone.

    “That’s straight from Malibu,” O’Donnell said as he chuckled, “from Janet and Martin Sheen. Thank you Martin. Thanks for watching.”

    During the show, O’Donnell ranted over a New York Times report alleging that intelligence officials warned House lawmakers of purported Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 election in order to assist the president. The MSNBC host suggested that Trump’s administration would “be better labeled the Trump-Putin regime.”

    “Donald Trump is operating in the White House in conjunction with Vladimir Putin to hide what Vladimir Putin is doing to help Donald Trump get re-elected,” O’Donnell said. “Donald Trump is a Russian operative — if tonight’s reporting by the Washington Post and the New York Times is true. And everything else we know about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin indicates that it is true.”

    At what point should we consider this man certifiably insane?

    • Shirley Knott

      I don’t know precisely, but it was clearly years ago.

    • Tonio

      Don’t worry, we have a counter-plan.

      • Ted S.

        Cool link, bro!

    • The Hyperbole

      Who’s the journalist?

      • leon

        Hitler?

    • Rhywun

      O’Donnell, who also worked on The West Wing as a writer and producer,

      Ha, I didn’t know that. Explains a lot.

  26. Rebel Scum

    She should really do all public engagements while topless.

    Democratic socialist and Bernie Sanders promoter Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has endorsed an “all-female slate” of left-wing candidates, some of whom hope to take out more moderate, establishment and incumbent Democrats in key races.

    “Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plans on Friday to endorse an all-female slate of progressive candidates through her new political action committee, using her clout in the insurgent left and the considerable campaign funds she has drawn to counter the Democratic establishment in key races around the country,” The New York Times reported on Friday.

    In an announcement of her plans on social media Friday, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “It’s time to elect a progressive majority in Congress accountable to strong, grassroots movements that push support for issues like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, racial justice, & more. It’s time to elect public servants with the Courage to Change.”

    I can’t wait to endure the nagging toward “progress”.

  27. Certified Public Asshat

    Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is too far left for Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats

    Johan Hassel, the international secretary for Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats, visited Iowa before the caucuses, and he wasn’t impressed with America’s standard bearer for democratic socialism, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “We were at a Sanders event, and it was like being at a Left Party meeting,” he told Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, according to one translation. “It was a mixture of very young people and old Marxists, who think they were right all along. There were no ordinary people there, simply.”

    Ouch.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      That’s gonna leave a mark.

    • Tonio

      Nice.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      My – largely apolitical – brother in law was telling me the story of how Hydro-Quebec built its infrastructure after hearing how Sanders would nationalize various industries.

      It pissed him off listening to that blathering idiot. He explained that the government built it from the ground up issuing bonds to raise capital and hired companies (including an Italian company) to build James Bay I and II. He knows all this stuff because his father was involved in over seeing the Metro system construction and was close to the players in construction.

      His point is Quebec didn’t come in and start stealing or nationalizing stuff like that crummy commie wants to do. Case in point, they left the private Westmount Hydro alone to power one of the wealthiest suburbs in Canada. They never went in and cracked heads.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Meaning he hates it whenever he hears Bernie point to Canada for his shitty plans. Not even Canada is as overtly socialist as he is. Believe it or not.

      • leon

        Bernie is a commie sympathizer. I don’t know if he’s a useful idiot or just playing off of them

      • Rufus the Monocled

        The between sympathizer and believer is thin.

      • Tonio

        Did they displace indigenous and poor people to build that? Because the lakes and reservoirs formed by dams require a lot of acreage.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        The Cree are probably the most business-oriented among First Nations.

        What? Israelite is a tribe too.

      • Jarflax

        He said First Nations, not tribes. (I made a fool of myself mentally translating last night, (sorry Mojeaux) don’t be me) Israelites weren’t First Nations. It was Canaan first.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Only because of the extended vacation in Cairo.

      • Jarflax

        Hey, you don’t want to hang in Cairo don’t sell your kid brother to slavers.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, it was no big. I was thinking later that maybe my “tone” read more snippily than I intended because I wasn’t feeling snippy or irritated. I’ll admit I was a bit confused, tho. 😀

        The premise I was hoping you’d get to was, “Well, WOULD you do Margot Robbie?!” but you didn’t. LOL

      • Jarflax

        Like I said elsewhere, bad mood, looking for a fight, fighting dirty. I’m not apologizing for arguing, but I pulled what I consider a very dirty trick in one post with a “I’m genuinely confused why you are arguing” when I was flat out picking a fight and damn well knew it. Then when I realized I had misread the discussion and was busilly chalking up cheap points based on a semantic trick (that would have been entirely true except you had not used the word it was based on) I felt shame. and yes, I’d lick Margot Robbie until I died of dehydration.

  28. leon

    @HM

    I know you weren’t directing the question at me but I don’t disagree with you. I’m fairly Open Boarders, and most of the arguments for immigration restrictions don’t really convince me.

    • Drake

      Heh – Didn’t realized I started a shitstorm.

      Spouses certainly get a preference. Meanwhile the whole “refugee” thing is complete bullshit. Unless you had a farm in Prussia and the Ruskies kicked you out, you probably aren’t a refuge.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Interesting that you’d describe a friendly and sober discussion as a “shitstorm”.

      • Count Potato

        Interesting that you would describe anyone here as “sober” 🙂

      • Heroic Mulatto

        That’s a fair cop.

      • Ted S.

        Or “friendly”.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Speak for yourself. I’m one of two extroverts on Glibs.

      • Jarflax

        Who do you consider the other one?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        The joke among TPTB is that it’s me and Playa.

        Everyone else is a hermit that suffers from crippling social anxiety.

      • Florida Man

        SHUT THE FUCK IMMIGRATION-TARD!

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Spouses certainly get a preference.

        The question remains however, Why should there be a “preference” either way? What’s the libertarian principle behind the use of force on peaceable people to enforce social engineering policies concerning the composition of families by national origin?

        If the government told you that you needed their permission to by a Toyota over a Ford, you’d tell them to fuck off, wouldn’t you? So why is it different when it’s about K-1 visa?

    • straffinrun

      The whole immigration thing comes down to competition and prices. If country A sucks and country B is better, people will move there. Country A now sucks more and hopefully country B sucks less. It’s why I hate the idea of global governance. How are we going to know which countries suck when the entire world sucks? I suppose we could find another planet and create a competing civilization that way.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        It’s why I hate the idea of global governance. How are we going to know which countries suck when the entire world sucks?

        That is actually quite a good argument for nationalism versus globalism.

      • Jarflax

        ^why I am unabashedly a nationalist and think people opposing nationalism are either dupes or actively totalitarian. It didn’t arise as a concept to impose governmental will on free Polises. It arose to oppose the imperial tyranny of the Ottomans, Bourbons (I’m drinking the corn squeezins tonight) and Hapsburgs.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        the imperial tyranny of the Ottomans, Bourbons (I’m drinking the corn squeezins tonight) and Hapsburgs.

        Yeah, but all too often in history these sons of the soil defined imperial tyranny as “not being allowed to get all kill-y on the Jews, Gypsies, Kurds, and other assorted minority groups seen as too uppity”. I’m also not on board with placing the multinational realms of modern Europe in the globalist column.

      • Jarflax

        I’d grant you a point there if you could show me that the nationalists were more prone to such crap than the imperialists. It was the Bourbons that gave us the Edict of Fontainbleu (for which the low countries should thank France), the Hapsburgs that gave us the 30 Years war, and the Ottomans that gave us the Armenian genocide. Oppressing minorities is not a nationalist game, it is a human game.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I don’t disagree that no one has their hands clean, but I would argue that the historical record shows that multinational realms where often better for ethnic and religious minorities, in general, than 19th century-early 20th century nationalist movements. For example, would you rather be a Jew in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the 17th and 18th centuries or the 19th century “Vistula Land” full of angry Poles looking to be free of the Russian Empire?

      • Jarflax

        I think they were better for certain minorities. Call them “tiny minorities”? In other words the Hapsburgs/Bourbons were too busy suppressing the Protestants (who were a threat) to go whole hog against the Jews (who were just icky). I admit to a bias in this debate based on a romantic attachment to romantic liberalism. (paging Winston)

      • straffinrun

        If it’s inevitable that I’m gonna be a tax slave, at least let me chose my master.

      • Drake

        If country A sucks because of its people and half move to country B, they both now suck.

      • Los Doyers

        What countries suck solely because of their “people”? Or did you mean that countries with citizens that have certain creases and dips in their skulls are better/worse than others?

      • Mad Scientist

        So which country did you move here from?

    • Jarflax

      I’m leaving that one mostly alone tonight because:
      1. I’m in a bad mood and when that is true I get mean
      2. I’m drinking

      But I will say I think it is possible to come up with a plan that both allows citizens to bring in their loved ones with minimal hassle and avoids the issues our “born on US soil” rules create. It likely involves amending the Constitution to change the 14th amendment (which was poorly drafted) which may make it a non-starter, but I think that is the root of about 90% of our immigration “problem. “

      • Spudalicious

        *pokes Jarflax with a long stick*

        Pussy.

      • Drake

        Ha! Started another sstorm before going out for Thai food.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        You’re an odd duck.

      • Los Doyers

        E-verify before you eat there

  29. The Late P Brooks

    At what point should we consider this man certifiably insane?

    Didn’t O’Donnell suffer a massive head injury in a car crash?

  30. Rufus the Monocled

    Newsome might be retarded.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Not that he wasn’t already crazy as a bedbug when that happened…

    • Tonio

      How long are they going to be able to ignore that before normal people turn on them? I’m going for the first passenger train derailment with mass casualties.

  32. Count Potato

    “PICTURED: Border protection officer, 39, ‘who shot and killed his wife and their two sons, ages 16 and 12, before turning the gun on himself following a family trip to Disney World’

    A US Customs and Border Protection agent killed his wife and two school-aged sons, before taking his own life at the family’s Florida home, authorities said Thursday night.

    Orange County Sheriff John Mina on Friday identified the deceased as CBP officer Ezequiel Almodovar, 39, his wife Marielis Soto, 38, and their sons, 16-year-old Ezequiel ‘Zeke’ Almodovar and 12-year-old Gabriel Almodovar.

    The border protection agent allegedly killed his family after posting a gushing message on his Facebook page about a family trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

    In other recent posts, the 39-year-old married father-of-two repeatedly professed his love to his wife and wrote cryptically about ‘new beginnings.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8029225/Border-protection-officer-kills-wife-two-sons-taking-life.html

    At least he won’t have to wait in line.

    • Mad Scientist

      Sounds like someone ran out of Flavor-Aid.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Florida (King’s) Man

    • Tonio

      Disney was obviously triggering for him.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      To be fair, I can see how Disney can have that effect on people.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      ngl his wife be dummy thicc tho

    • Suthenboy

      I wouldn’t shoot my family but if I had to go to Disney World I would shoot myself.

    • Drake

      Should have paid extra for the pass that lets you cut in line?

  33. Mojeaux

    I read The Tragedie of Dr. Faustus ????? and Everyman, but I did not read Beowulf, Henry V, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or Morte D’arthur. But my prof thought I did.

    • Tonio

      Go, Mojeaux!

      • Mojeaux

        I am tearing through this scanning, I tell you. GBs and GBs of shit.

  34. Gadfly

    Gavin Newsome makes strong claim for dumbest tweet of the week.

    Do you think the Governor would honor a prescription for his recall?

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Millions, dead and dying in the streets

    Cass argued that just because products and services in those categories were better, it didn’t mean people could afford them at their new, higher prices.

    “Start putting these things together, and you find a situation where major costs facing families have skyrocketed unsustainably in ways our economics is incapable of acknowledging. Then we gloss over the underlying assumptions and say ‘inflation-adjusted wages look good,'” he wrote.

    His calculations on cost were based on a model he dubbed the Cost of Thriving Index (COTI), which he said better reflected people’s lived experiences than inflation-adjusted wages. The COTI amounts to the number of weeks a typical worker must work to cover those basic costs.

    Cass’s paper has caused a stir, and sparked a fierce debate among economists, who criticized it on a number of fronts.

    Some pointed to the fact that he hones in on male workers.

    Whur muh livin wage dun gon?

    Despite widespread evidence to the contrary, economist claims nobody can live on what they make.

    • straffinrun

      Is there a legitimate reason to use the phrase “lived experiences”? I’m not being snarky, just wondering because I haven’t figured out why they use it. Same with “problematic”.

      • The Hyperbole

        In some cases it seems to be a pretentious way of saying ‘in reality’ versus ‘on paper’. Para ejemplo “On paper wages have risen but in reality (peoples lived experience) many people’s purchasing power has plummeted.”

      • straffinrun

        You could call it pretentious, but the only people I see using that phrase come from a certain political bent. It’s why Brooks’ explanation makes sense.

      • Tonio

        It can sometimes be used to “politely” tell an arrogant MD he is as full of shit as a bulging colostomy bag.

        Doc: Can you take some exercise?

        Tonio: Um, I told you I mountain biked. Pay attention. [pulls up Map My Fitness records, walks MD through several rides]. Can you do this? No, seriously, I expect an answer.

      • Shirley Knott

        It’s a bastardization of a set of concepts from
        Phenomenology, with overlap with Gestalt Psychology, R. D. Laing, Carl Rogers, and the post-phenomenological Existentialists. Probably plenty of later folks as well, but I think most of that is derivative of those I’ve listed.

      • Jarflax

        post-phenomenological Existentialists

        Ah, philosophy’s golden age in which the failures of rigorous thought about the relationship between consciousness and reality gave way to “reality is what it to be because the people who tried to define the relationship couldn’t prove it”

      • Shirley Knott

        Well, I consider myself a fairly hard-core phenomenologist. My teacher was taught by Aaron Gurwitsch who was taught by Husserl 😉
        I mostly stick with the realists, notably Ingarden. Schultz is interesting, as his overlap with the Mises Circle in Vienna. The only French philosopher I can stand is Merleau+Ponty.
        Sartre was an ass. Heidegger was a Nazi ass.

      • Shirley Knott

        Schutz, dammit. And, obvs, Merleau-Ponty.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        ^This^

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Crap, happiness was not supposed to be struck. Damnit, the moment’s gone.

    • Rhywun

      the left-leaning Manhattan Institute

      Uh…

    • Ted S.

      Millions, dead and dying in the streets

      But enough about coronavirus.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Is there a legitimate reason to use the phrase “lived experiences”?

    It’s an all purpose refutation of objective reality.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      Only if to contrast with vicarious experiences.

    • straffinrun

      How did I not see that? That sounds right.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s his truth.

    • AlmightyJB

      Some animals have more woke lived experiences than others.

      • Animal

        Leave me out of this.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Not Ilsa. I am disappoint.

  37. Count Potato

    “Cat owners might find a glow-in-the-dark kitty to be fairly useful—you’ll never trip over the cat at night again—but the Mayo Clinic scientists who created this glowing cat had a bigger goal in mind: fighting AIDS.

    The substance that makes the cat glow is a version of the green fluorescent protein that lights up the crystal jelly, a type of jellyfish that lives off the West Coast of the United States. Years ago scientists realized that the gene for GFP is a perfect marker when they insert another new gene into an organism. By inserting a version of GFP along with their gene of choice, they could easily see if they were successful because the organism would glow. Since the technique was first developed, researchers have made many glowing animals, including pigs, mice, dogs, even fish you can buy in the pet store.

    In this latest bit of research, published in Nature Methods, the Mayo Clinic scientists inserted a version of the GFP gene along with a gene from the rhesus macaque that blocks the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)—the virus that causes feline AIDS—into the unfertilized eggs of a cat. After those eggs were fertilized, they produced kitties that glowed green, showing that they also had the anti-FIV gene. Even better, subsequent generations of cats also glowed and had the anti-FIV gene.”

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-glow-in-the-dark-kitty-77372763/

    • Animal

      Thanks, no. Mice would see them coming a mile off. And if it can’t kill mice, what’s the point in having a cat?

      • Count Potato

        Apparently they made glow-in-the-dark mice too.

    • Not Adahn

      Feral kitties become owl chow?

  38. Chipping Pioneer

    Woohoo! Friday!

    Wife’s coworker and his wife are coming over for tapas and to listen to a podcast that will stimulate discussion. Wife’s coworker’s wife suggests UBI as a topic. Ummm, hard pass on that one. I voted for quantum physics, specifically many works interpretations.

    What do the Glibs suggest as a compromise?

    • straffinrun

      Punch bowl. Keys.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        LOL.

      • RAHeinlein

        I don’t think household penetration of punch bowls is that high anymore – perhaps an alternate vessel?

      • Viking1865

        My mom offered to get us one for our wedding. Very happy she spoke to us beforehand.

      • straffinrun

        “His” and “Hers” punch bowls are the perfect wedding gift.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        How would that work? If I were a guest, which one would I throw my keys in (assume a strong preference for only me and >=1 woman)?

      • Jarflax

        You might want to define woman before you scoop keys.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Traditional definition. XX chromosomes, always had a vagina.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Maybe she was hoping for an invitation?

      • Spudalicious

        Well yeah, penetrating a punch bowl makes me feel wholly inadequate.

      • We're not saying BEAM's an alien, but . . .

        You’re not alone on this.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      *worlds

    • Viking1865

      Not sure the length you’re looking for, but I like the BBC “In Our Time” podcast. Basically they do episodes about various random historical topics. Conversations with Tyler is good. Econ Talk.

      Random one: Ryen Russilo had Colin Cowherd on his podcast, and they ended up talking a lot about the media business, about the process of creating content, and some other stuff.

      • Jarflax

        Viking: “I like the BBC”

        NTTIAWWT

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I’m glad I’m not the only one who had that thought.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Not advocating for state run broadcasters, but BBC does some really great documentaries. A good one is Monarchy with David Starkey (also not advocating for monarchy). Interesting AF. I think it started on BBC and at some point later seasons were on Channel 4.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I think that Jarflex and I think of something other than a state broadcaster when we read “BBC” (maybe don’t google that with safe-search off).

        I’m sure that says more about us than anything.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Heh. I will never hear BBC News the same way again.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Because once you go black, you go deaf.

    • AlmightyJB

      Circumcision, pizza toppings, anal. Not necessarily in that order.

    • Ted S.

      Pineapple on pizza: yes or no?

      Or circumcision.

    • DrOtto

      Islam is right about women?

  39. The Late P Brooks

    What do the Glibs suggest as a compromise?

    Transgender athletes.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Somebody at Bloomberg read that study, too

    The typical American man needs to work 53 weeks to pay for the basics of middle-class family life, and that rises to 66 weeks for a woman who’s the sole breadwinner, according to a new study.

    Those figures for 2018 compare with just 30 weeks for males at the median weekly wage in 1985, according to research by Oren Cass at the Manhattan Institute. For the median female worker, the figure rose from 45 weeks.

    In the paper, Cass -– a conservative scholar and adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign — attempts to build a “cost of thriving” index. His basket of middle-class basics consists of a 3-bedroom house just below the mid-range of market prices; family health insurance; the operating cost for a vehicle; and a semester at public college.

    ——-

    The widening gulf “between what American life costs and what American jobs pay is a central fact of American political economy that the public appears to have understood long before economists,” he wrote.

    Academic economists lag general population in understanding adaptive behavior.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      The typical American man needs to work 53 weeks to pay for the basics of middle-class family life

      Something tells me there are a lot of entitled assumptions that go into that number.

    • AlmightyJB

      “A semester at public college”

      I think I see the problem.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      The typical American man who reads that article will see it on his smart phone with unlimited voice and data.

      • AlmightyJB

        While he’s eating out and drinking craft beers.

  41. gbob

    Anecdotes are not plural of data, but I think the dems are in some kind of problem, beyond the lack of candidates.

    I was day drinking around noon. Sitting at the bar were two black guys, and a Hispanic co-worker. They were there for lunch from their construction jobs. I groaned a bit as talk turned to politics. Politics and religion dont belong at a bar. What I heard really surprised me. Conversation turned to Trump. All three of them started talking about how much they loved what he was doing. They then went on to shit on Pelosi for her behavior at the state of the union. None of them voted last time around. They were excited about registering to vote for this election.

    Big surprise to me was when they started talking about Schumer. Along the lines of “the guy supported our union, but hes full of shit. I’m never voting for a democrat” his buddy agreed with the caveat “my momma would have whipped me if she new I was voting for a Republican, but I bet you shes going to vote the same way.”

    Yikes. I’m in Buffalo. Solid blue. Vote the union line.

    I would bet any amount that Trump does better in November than he did last year.

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      Dang. Agreed, anecdotes ≠ data, but that’s something.

    • Mojeaux

      Landslide, I’m telling you.

    • straffinrun

      Still a long time before the election and the attention span of the electorate isn’t what it used to be. Held today and Trump cruises.

    • Rhywun

      Now do Cuomo and whoever’s running Buffalo these days.

      • Count Potato

        If Trump wins NY there is going to be an adult diaper shortage.

      • Rhywun

        True. I’m just speculating that voting out Cuomo and whoever the current mayor is would probably have equal if not greater benefits. I don’t see either of these things happening, though.

  42. Spudalicious

    Cocktail time!

    • slumbrew - double secret satan

      You’re late.

      (finishes Manhattan)

    • gbob

      Dude, it’s been after 12pm for hours now.

    • Spudalicious

      4pm on weekdays.

      • Jarflax

        My dinner tonight is my homemade Cream of Artichoke soup. It probably isn’t unique to me, but I developed it over time without reference to other recipes so I feel free to say I created it.

        Boil 4 large artichokes in sufficient mildly salted water, to produce 6 -8 quarts of liquid after 45 minutes from heat on.
        Allow to sit in the pot for 1 hour after removal from heat
        Remove artichokes from the pot reserving the liquid
        Allow to cool to the point that you are able to handle them (the more pain you can tolerate here the better you lose a bit of flavor as they cool)
        Separate the leaves, choke and fibrous layers of the stems from the meat of the artichoke (heart plus core of the stem)
        In a powerful blender (you need a Ninja or comparable because artichokes will flat out destroy anything weaker) blend the leaves, chokes and fiber with the liquid. (do this in thirds parts with a Ninja sized blender)
        Strain the resultant mix. (this is work, You want to manually express the liquid from the fibrous mass through the strainer. Your goal is to get as much liquid as possible without getting the fibers, you will be scrape stirring the mass for a while because it will block the holes and you will be manually squeezing what looks like a cow’s cud)

        Once you have this artichoke ‘stock’ return it to low heat to warm while you;

        warm 1 qt of heavy cream and half a stick of butter over medium heat. It should be at just the beginning of steaming rising (no bubbling). when the cream is warm enough whisk in 24 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar 1 handful at a time until entirely blended into the cream mix (a thin cheese sauce, but do not use a Mornay base the flour does not work well here). Mix the cheese sauce into the stock, add the reserved artichoke meat and serve with your chosen bread/butter.

      • Mojeaux

        Oh, that reminds me. I need to make potato soup.

      • Rhywun

        I had a stomach bug of some sort for a week starting the day after I made a batch of potato soup and now I can’t make potato soup for awhile. Of course, I have no idea if the potato soup caused it, but that’s how it works in my mind.

      • Mojeaux

        My very slight aversion to pizza (meaning, I’ll eat it if it’s there and I’m too lazy to make something else and as long as it doesn’t have veggies on it) is because, as a child, I got sick one night after having homemade pizza. I can still taste the onions coming back up. I didn’t eat pizza again for years.

        But then I had a stint as a Pizza Hut delivery driver (espionage, long story) and I worked lunch shift so it was just me and my manager and she let me build pizza any way I wanted to, take it home, free food yay!

      • DrOtto

        When I worked at Domino’s, we used to trade with other restaurants for good food.

      • Jarflax

        I am just happy because I have never written that down before and it is awesome and should be shared.

      • Spudalicious

        Stolen.

      • Jarflax

        Offered freely. You can’t steal it. Let me know what you think if you make it.

      • Spudalicious

        It’s artichoke season.

      • AlmightyJB

        That sounds good. Do you scrape any of the meat from the base of the leaves as well? We’ve been using Instant Pot to cook our Artichokes, but that’s probably too fast to make good stock.

      • We're not saying BEAM's an alien, but . . .

        Very nice.

        The spousal unit’s in Calgary, so I’m all on my own for dinner. I’m thinking of being extra bad and just drinking an entire bottle of chardonnay.

      • Spudalicious

        Pan sear a chicken breast, so you can feel better about yourself.

      • Sean

        You have my attention.

      • Not Adahn

        Smoked duck omelet for me.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Has President Cartoon Villain’s destruction of California’s water market been discussed? Some sort of order (I have no idea how binding it might be, but apparently Newsom and Becerra(?) immediately spazzed out about it) changing the allocation of water for agricultural use, and eradicating those precious delta smelt.

    • C. Anacreon

      In California we say “he who delta it, smelt it.”

    • Jarflax

      OMG I am literally LOL right now. (Bloomberg’s Twitter feed turned me into a 16 year old girl apparently)

      Mini Mike isn’t tall enough to ride rollercoasters

      and

      Imagine having all the money in the world to pay writers and comedians and this is the best you can come up with

      • Count Potato

        He thinks he can win a meme war when for every person he hires there are a few dozen | hitting niggas volunteering to bust a cap in his ass.

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        I read that as “pipe hitting” without missing a beat.

        Maybe I spend too much time at a command-prompt.

  44. The Late P Brooks

    viz

    President Trump on Wednesday signed an order in California to re-engineer the state’s water plans, completing a campaign promise to funnel water from the north to a thirsty agriculture industry and growing population further south.

    The ceremonial order comes after the Department of the Interior late last year reversed its opinion on scientific findings that for a decade extended endangered species protections to various types of fish — a review that had been spurred by the order from Trump.

    Trump said the changes to the “outdated scientific research and biological opinions” would now help direct “as much water as possible, which will be a magnificent amount, a massive amount of water for the use of California farmers and ranchers.”

    ——-

    The state is expected to fight the order.

    “California won’t allow the Trump Administration to destroy and deplete our natural resources,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said in a statement after the speech. “We’re prepared to challenge the Trump Administration’s harmful attack on our state’s critical ecosystems and environment.”

    Critics fear the new plan, which would allow large quantities of water to be diverted from the San Francisco Bay Delta to the Central Valley in order to irrigate farmland, would ultimately harm chinook salmon and the delta smelt, a finger-sized fish that for three decades has stood in the way of the diversion.

    The unmitigated gall. The depravity.

    • The Hyperbole

      It was discussed briefly the other morning, as I said then if Trump is getting the Feds out of micromanaging California or any state through EPA and other bullshit great. If he’s just changing how the Feds /EPA micromanage the states then fuck him.

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, I’m skeptical too. The machine that runs California clearly values those fish over the livelihood of the people who live in the Central Valley. It should be up to the voters to change that.

      • Viking1865

        The water projects of the West are a federal project. They collect water from all over and funnel it to California, to be used. It’s like if the Seattle government stormed into Boeing and held warplane production hostage based on a vote of the WA legislature.

    • AlmightyJB

      Ballsy

  45. Derpetologist

    random thoughts

    Joker is the story of a mentally ill man who finds happiness and power through criminal violence. The film implies this is bad.
    Birds of Prey is the story of a mentally ill woman who finds happiness and power through criminal violence. The film implies this is good.

    Presented without comment: Gail Simone, the writer of Birds of Prey: The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQZw9DIW4bA

    • Heroic Mulatto

      I loathe Harley Quinn.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Was that the one that crossed over with Care Bears and Fantastic Four? I liked the episode of Ultimate Super Man where Rita Repulsa is banished to Omicron Persei 9 for her part in trying to bomb Captain Planet’s speech at the UN climate conference.

      • The Last American Hero

        So shut off the volume and enjoy the view.

      • AlmightyJB

        She was past my comic book days. I did like Margot’s outfit in SS though.

  46. creech

    Something doesn’t compute. All of Bloomberg’s opponents are screaming that a billionaire shouldn’t be allowed to buy the election. But same opponents all seem to agree that Task #1 is “Beat Trump; save American Democracy.” Well, if Bloomerg is supposedly capable of buying the election, shouldn’t his opponents gladly step aside so Bloomberg can get on with Task #1?

    • Derpetologist

      They’re so desperate to get rid of that old, coarse, NYC billionaire that they’ll vote for… another old, coarse, NYC billionaire?

      At least Trump makes me laugh.

      suggested music: Masterpiece Theatre theme

      Did you know Bloomberg starred in a musical version of The Little Mermaid?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33cDKokofOc

    • The Last American Hero

      He’s not the hero they want or feel they deserve he’s the hero they need.

  47. hayeksplosives

    AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGH!

    I need help with my brand new desktop PC. It was working great, but today it succumbed to a Bluetooth problem.

    It is giving me the three Bee-doop sounds of not working OVER AND FLIPPING OVER and then wont let me uninstall drivers (says bluetooth is in use, but it’s not) and that bluetooth is disabled. I can’t enable it.

    Where should I go for help? Standard windows help page has nothing resembling this. I need a geek.

    • robc

      I dont do windows.

    • AlmightyJB

      There should be a Troubleshoot > Bluetooth option under Updates & Security in Settings.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yeah, it tells me to uninstall and reinstall the BT device, but when I try to uninstall it, it says it can’t because it’s in use.

        It’s like it is trying to auto connect every few seconds, fails, makes the “be-doop” of disappointment, and retries.

      • Jarflax

        The problem may be in the Bluetooth deivce. you may need to google the factory reset command for the device to get it back to cleared of some pairing it thinks it has made. (I had this issue with a head set I was pairing to a TV dongle once. Yesit is called a dongle.

      • AlmightyJB

        I guess your going to just have to throw the whole damn thing out the window then. That’s why they call it Windows.

      • Don Escaped ORD

        * leaps to his feet and runs to light another candle in his TedS shrine *

        There’s only so much tallow on the planet. The shrine might need to go nuclear.

      • AlmightyJB

        They’re, their now. Know knead too call Ted.

    • Sean

      Check the thermostat.

      • JD is Unemployed

        Good call. Don’t forget to do the following check:

        Set your multimeter to stun (2000 mega ohms), and check resistance when connecting any component on the motherboard with the live pin in the wall socket. Please have a full pale of water ready to exacerbate the potential danger of electrical fire and inadvertent grounding of your personage.

      • hayeksplosives

        Best advice evah. Honestly I am just going to mute the speakers for now and see if I can get my young acolyte from work who lives nearby would come fix it for a free dinner.

      • pistoffnick

        Meow! I think I’ve seen that movie!

    • blighted_non_millenial

      Cleanse it with fire.

    • Caput Lupinum

      Do you have a windows 10 install/recovery disk or thumb drive? If you do restart the computer with the DVD or thumb drive in the computer and boot to the media instead of the harddrive, you’ll end up in recovery mode. From there you can uninstall, or attempt to repair, faulty drivers. I’d just uninstall the bluetooth driver. Restart the computer and reinstall the driver, should fix the issue if it is on windows side, which it almost certainly is.

  48. Yusef drives a Kia

    My Daughter is so cool, she dropped a half in my lap, and said” no Daddie, it’s cool”
    Dinner out tomorrow,

    • Spudalicious

      That’ll make for a nice weekend.

  49. straffinrun

    Which is worse, intentional rudeness or oblivious rudeness?

    • hayeksplosives

      Intentional. Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by ignorance/incompetence.

      • straffinrun

        Intentional rudeness could be written off as someone just having a bad day. Someone not even noticing that they clearly cut in front of you in line could mean they are a self centered all the time.

      • Cannoli

        I get more oblivious when I’m stressing about something, so I’m more likely to be obliviously rude on a bad day too.

      • straffinrun

        I should’ve phrased my question better.The “oops” bad behavior. I do that all time. I’m talking about the I don’t know and I don’t care bad behavior.

    • Jarflax

      Intentional. Oblivious may cause as much pain but intention adds in the possibility (sometimes it is deeserved so only possibility) of evil. To go down a Jordan Peterson track tragedy is not the same as evil. Evil is worse because it actively fights attempts to overcome it.

      • straffinrun

        I chose the word “oblivious” and not “unintentional” for a reason. I’m talking about a person that just DGAF about manners/politeness.

      • Jarflax

        Hmm, interesing. I’d respond more except I am going to go finish making my soup so I can eat. 🙂

      • straffinrun

        How rude!

      • Mojeaux

        Where “oblivious” means “preoccupied”?

        Because I don’t see that “oblivious” means DGAF about manners/politeness. That’s just not giving a fuck.

      • straffinrun

        OK. How about a psychopathic disregard for manners?

      • Rhywun

        Or, “New Jersey”.

      • Mojeaux

        Okay.

        Which is worse? I’d have to go with evil.

        I did something evil one time (I mean, not the only time). I really really really regret doing the thing because it was evil, I knew it was evil, and for no reason whatsoever, I did it anyway.

      • Jarflax

        Dish!

        Ok so I turned into a 16 year old girl upthread and now have turned into a stereotypical 80s gay guy bestie in a rom com. I’m on a roll.

      • Mojeaux

        Okay, so it was either the late 80s or early 90s.

        I was delivering pizza on Superbowl Sunday. The game was on at the store so everybody was gathered around the TV while awaiting orders to be up. I happened to see the end of the game and who won.

        So I’m at QuikTrip later on filling up. The clerk and a customer were discussing the game. Both of them had to DVR it and didn’t want to know who won.

        And so, like a dick, I looked in the clerk’s eye and told him who won. He looked at me like I had broken his heart.

        And I think this is the first time I have ever confessed to doing that.

        Yes. That was evil.

      • Derpetologist

        They had DVRs in the late 80s/early 90s?

        /Ted S. mode off

      • AlmightyJB

        You are literally Hitler.

      • Mojeaux

        DVR

        record it

        Happy now, Derpy?

      • Mojeaux

        You are literally Hitler.

        The worst.

      • Jarflax

        Oh wow, that was just gratuitous cruelty for no end but cruelty. Yeah, evil. My personal secret shame? (Elijah Craig why have you made it seem like a good idea to tell this?)

        When I was somewhere between 10-12 I cut a salamander in half with grass trimmers. I to this day do not know why I did it, and I cried about it that night and have felt dirty about it ever since. Even typing this I feel dirty. It was unexcusable cruelty for no reason at all. If I believed I’d chalk it up to a demon’s influence. It wasn’t even a desire to influct pain or curiousity. I just did it.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Thus ends the saga of Mr. Lizard.

        And now you know…. The rest of the story.

      • Mojeaux

        that was just gratuitous cruelty for no end but cruelty. Yeah, evil.

        Yeah. And I’m very ashamed of that. ~30 years ago and this may be the first time I’ve ever confessed it.

      • AlmightyJB

        Well if you didn’t feel bad, you would probably be a serial killer right now. Did you pee the bed and start fires too?

      • straffinrun

        Spoiling a game and cutting a lizard in half. Glad I checked before I posted my evil act.

      • Mojeaux

        That wasn’t the worst evil thing I’ve ever done, but I’m not confessing to the others.

        No, I am not a serial killer. But I can be very cold-hearted about some things.

      • straffinrun

        Chicks have a special kind of evil ability. I fucked this friend in college. We played it off the next day as just something that happened. But we’re cool right? We were roommates. She goes out that night, picks up some guy and fucks him as I was sleeping in the next room. She was kind of slutty, but even for her that was slutastic.

    • AlmightyJB

      You have to take advantages of those opportunities to let your inner asshole out of its cage for a few minutes. Release it on some rude jerk who deserves it, rather than having it rear it’s ugly head when you don’t want it to.

      • straffinrun

        I approve this message.

    • Timeloose

      Oblivious rudeness is better. They just don’t know any better. Intentionally being rude takes effort that should be directed to something positive.

  50. Aus

    Listen up bitches;

    • Spudalicious

      *sniff*

      I’m getting a strong scent of fail.

      • Sean

        Maybe he had some dirt on Hillary.

    • AlmightyJB

      Ten hut!

    • Sean

    • Aus

      that was all. Have a great weekend 😉

  51. Mojeaux

    We have a new Tulpa in the pending queue!!! w000 h000!!! I love new Tulpae.

    • Don Escaped ORD

      Fuck ’em

      • Mojeaux

        Well, no. I don’t fuck anybody but my husband.

      • AlmightyJB

        Not even Winston’s mom?

    • Tonio

      Can I wedgie him first?

    • straffinrun

      How do you always know this?

      • straffinrun

        No way, man. I trust our overlords’ judgement on what I’m exposed to. Hail Zardoz.

      • AlmightyJB

        Yes, I prefer to think of it all as magic.

      • Tonio

        I’m not an overlord; I’m a mere minion.

      • straffinrun

        If I’m looking up, even a minion looks giant.

      • Mojeaux

        Look up at the black stripe at the top of the screen, where Glibertarians is to the left of the speedometer-thingie. There is a comment tag (thought bubble) with a 1 beside it. Click on that. It will take you to the comments in the dashboard. Look for PENDING. There will be a number beside it (usually just 1). Click that and you can see if it’s somebody who posted more than 2 links or if it’s a new Tulpa.

      • straffinrun

        Hip Joiner?

      • Mojeaux

        Yep.

      • Tonio

        I’m not sure that everyone can see that. There are many levels of privilege here (used in the System Administrator sense). SP made me mail in my typewritten manuscripts for months before she let me submit directly online (totes understandable).

        I just approved his comment. Hope that was okay, SP.

  52. Jarflax

    Lawyers and tech, SMDH. My malpractice provider has decided to implement some high security log in protocol through a third party, that involves 2 factor, highly complex password creation, and an authentication server. I manage to navigate all of that and they somehow broke the link to the application form (which I have to fill out from scratch if I ever can acccess it). Is there really a market in stolen log in credentials to something that doesn’t have my ssn, dob or any credit info but has my ‘areas of practice’ and policies regarding engagement letters and docket control (which is meaningless because I do 0 litigation)?

    • Tonio

      Doesn’t matter whether there’s a market or not. They be doing their due diligence and conspicuously so. “If it’s that complicated for me to use, it must be secure.”

      • mikey

        It’s only truly secure if no one (including you) can get at it.

  53. Yusef drives a Kia

    @ Tonio, I put up part one of the DG thing, lemme know hat you think,

    • Tonio

      K. Will probably be tomorrow.

      I took a break from editorial duties. [Looks down to avoid stern gaze of SP]

      But for you, buddy… Now go ring them chains.

  54. Not Adahn

    Whoops kit bought. Gun reassembled. I’ll take it to the range tomorrow and see how she runs with a rifle buffer.

    • AlmightyJB

      Oh yeah, I’ve seen a number of Russian interference stories the last few days. Not just about Bernie either. Can’t they be original?

      • slumbrew - double secret satan

        There’s no Chinese influence attempts though. Nosiree.

      • KSuellington

        I saw a WaPo article a few months back that I swear could have been written by the PRC Central Committee.

      • Sean

        Nope.

        Tucker is covering this right now.

      • KSuellington

        They’re already planning for the post election narrative when El Trumpo ascends to the second term. As discussed in the morning lynx, the whole election meddling thing is so unbelievably ridiculous. I don’t give two fucks what Russia or any other country wants to put on the social media. If that sways an election then shit, I guess I could empty my retirement account and swing an election as well. A couple hundred grand in a 1.5 billion dollar contest?!

    • straffinrun

      Putin is basically the Chairman of the DNC and head of the deep state at this point.

    • Rhywun

      I thought the Russians were electing Trump again? So confused.

      • straffinrun

        They are! By getting Bernie nominated. Oh, do keep up, please.

      • Rhywun

        Oh, right. Duh!

    • one true athena

      Bloomberg’s spending hundreds of millions of dollars, but I’m supposed to worry about Russia spending a buck-fifty to “help” Trump or Bernie?

      All Putin’s actually doing is watching our news and laughing his ass off every day at how stupid and gullible Americans are to be doing this to themselves.

      • KSuellington

        In his wildest dreams Putin could not have imagined how worked up the Amerikanskis have gotten themselves over some silly ass trolling. I really think that 2016 meddling wasn’t even done that high on the totem pole. But if a 150k could cause that kind of hullabaloo, I imagine Putin must be laughing thinking of what several tens of millions could do.

  55. Tonio

    Fresh Meat! Let’s all give a big, hearty Glibs welcome to new poster Hip Joiner.

    • straffinrun

      We call it a “debut”. When you take your toddler to the park for the first time and all the mothers take notice and judge the fuck out of you, it’s your “park debut”. And OMG, did you see the avatar Hip Joing chose? I mean, I wouldn’t have chosen that, but it looks good on him.

    • AlmightyJB

      Fuck you Jip Horner!!!

  56. Not Adahn

    Tonight is a good night for Ardbeg.