Monday Afternoon Shut-in Links

by | Mar 23, 2020 | Daily Links | 563 comments

Day 5: The whole family is still here. We’ve not been apart for more than an hour. I introduced the boys to Minecraft this weekend. The six year old can basically function in the creative world, the four year old still needs some help. They’ve definitely figured out how to blow stuff up with TNT. If this goes on, I’ll introduce them to Halo or some other sort of shooter, spend three weeks owning them, and the rest of my life damning their shorter nerve pathways and sharper reflexes.

I did not realize that a corporation could be found guilty of a crime.

By the end of this week, we should know if it is really going to get bad.

I’ve been watching the FL Dept of Health (FDOH) reporting because I have some insight into their practices. Heartening to me is that the percentage of negative tests continues to be high through the weekend (1171 positive, 11063 negative as of this writing). FDOH is following CDC guidelines for testing which are primarily: 1) Hospitalized with flu/COVID symptoms 2) Symptomatic people who have traveled to a known outbreak locale in the last 30 days 3) Anyone who has had close contact with a positive test person in the 14 days before they became symptomatic. High ratio of negatives probably indicate that at least (3) is 90% or better negative. Thus, community transmission remains low, at least here, and appears to correlate well with population density (although since total population does the same… its difficult to tease those apart. Duval and Pinellas have high populations, but a moderate density, and 4.5 cases/100k residents. Alachua has fewer citizens but higher density [University of Florida]* and has 12 cases/100k residents. Dade and Broward (13/100k) are more dense and have more cases. This tracks with other national data. I have not attempted to correlate with travel to infectious areas, although FDOH numbers have it at about 1 in 3, but about 1 in 3 are “travel unknown”. Big possible variance.) We should know by the end of the month if that is going to continue.

One additional fact. Florida had over 200 deaths due to regular pneumonia and influenza last week. Over the last 4 years, deaths per week in this time frame have been between 200-300 per week. As of now, the additional COVID deaths are within the year-to-year variation and H1N1 has killed more Florida residents in any given week. This is another metric I’ve been watching.

Again, we are probably at least a week away from really understanding the growth trend. Data continues to track away from the worst case, but a single cluster of positive tests could move us away from the “don’t worry” line. IF slowing/delaying the infection was the goal, we will also know by the end of the week if that happened. SLD, I am not making value judgments about whether what is being done is worthwhile or right.

*Average density of Alachua is probably lower than our “moderate” cases, but it would be a dual peak of apartment complexes right on top of each other and farms.

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.

563 Comments

  1. Rebel Scum

    I did not realize that a corporation could be found guilty of a crime.

    Citizens United made corporations into people.

    • Gender Traitor

      “Corporations are by definition criminal!”/Prog

    • leon

      Now will a DA bring a case against the legislature for restricting anyone from going through reasonable precautions to stop fires…?

    • Tonio

      It’s rare but it happens.

  2. gbob

    Of course, meth may just render the results of the test false negative. It is Florida after all.

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      Or meth kills the virus.

  3. Winston

    So, after all this time can we say that Coronavirus is in fact really bad or is it overblown?

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s overblown. Sure it’s awful when it chews up a retirement home, but the proper response is to isolate those people who would be in greatest danger from it.

      • Tonio

        Wouldn’t that be more like gums up?

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Just put them in a blender.

      • Spudalicious

        It would Ensure less spread among the rest of us.

      • Gender Traitor

        Well, that Depends…

    • Rebel Scum

      Which ever increases the gov’t/lefts power at any given moment.

      • Winston

        We need Joe Biden to be our True God King.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        ” . . . thank you all for coming.”  /wife wipes drool from Joe’s chin

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Special K’s husband has the Big C and is on oxygen.

      • Fourscore

        Its a cop out to get away from you know who for a while. I’d have done the same thing discreetly and went to the Caribbean for a couple weeks (alone)

      • Chafed

        No hookers? That’s not very Glibertarian.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Uffda. That sucks. Coughing up blood doesn’t sound good. Hopefully he gets better.

      Now I sort of want Michelle Bachmann’s husband to get it so we can compare/contrast reactions.

  5. The Other Kevin

    I’ve been watching the Indiana numbers. Tests are coming in at 13% positive so not far from Florida. Of course the number of cases is shooting up but that’s correlated to the number of tests given. But our governor didn’t point that out of course.

  6. Scruffy Nerfherder
    • Tonio

      They are cancelling the convention so we won’t get to see the Bernie Bros riot in Milwaukee.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Now that’s a tragedy.

      • The Last American Hero

        James Taranto most sad?

  7. Rebel Scum

    The Cat Leaves The Bag

    Which indicates strongly this is nonsense. But historically unprecedentedly, catastrophically dangerous nonsense. A pandemic of fear is being used in exactly the same way that fear of “terrrsts” was used by the loathsome Chimp and his accomplices to bum’s rush a terrified country – and a poltroonized Congress – into raping the civil liberties and due process firewalls that had previously protected Americans from legalized abuse by the government (and its corporate accomplices) via midnight passage of the conveniently ready “Patriot” Act.

    A test run for the aria to come, which we’re now hearing. It croons that we must be terrified of death from something we can’t see and that might “get” us at any moment and the only way to stay alive is to surrender our lives (and our livelihoods) to the very same government that berated us about “enemies of freedom” and “weapons of mass destruction,” both of them reeking stacks of cow manure.

    People – all too many people – fell for it, then.

    The result was – the result is – a quiet police state that seems relatively innocuous but which monitors and records every keystroke we make on our computers, our web searches, our texts and calls. That has arrogated the legal authority to snatch people off the street without even a snicker in the direction of due process and literally torture them, as it likes.

    Will we allow ourselves to be fooled – again?

    Will we permit them to shut down the economy – which will shut down our lives – and thereby give them control over our lives? Permit them to usher in a new age of terror predicated on mass unemployment and possibly mass starvation and then – as if on cure – the arising of a not so quiet and very not innocuous police state . . . on the basis of people getting a bug?

    • Tundra

      Eric is gonna be wound up about this for a long time.

      Not saying he’s wrong.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    One additional fact. Florida had over 200 deaths due to regular pneumonia and influenza last week. Over the last 4 years, deaths per week in this time frame have been between 200-300 per week. As of now, the additional COVID deaths are within the year-to-year variation and H1N1 has killed more Florida residents in any given week. This is another metric I’ve been watching.

    [insert “science denier” accusation]

  9. Drake

    Last Saturday my wife dragged me to a Salt Spa just before they were shut down for the duration. You sit in a room breathing aerosol salt and it supposedly helps all kinds of stuff like allergies. It gave me a scratchy throat for the past couple of days, which seems to be subsiding now. So, I may not be the first Gib with the Kung Flu.

    • UnCivilServant

      I was never officially tested, but my symptoms fit, so I’m asserting that I had it two weeks ago.

      Some others may have had it even earlier in the year.

      • Chipwooder

        In January, I was laid up for several days with a nasty illness. I assumed it was flu, but I didn’t have any nasal congestion or nausea as I typically have had with flu. I had a series of high fevers (in the 102 range), zero energy, and overall body aches and soreness. I didn’t go to a doctor because I was able to bring down the fever each time it spiked, so I have no idea what I actually had. Wouldn’t shock me to find out that I had coronavirus since people are now speculating that it was circulating much earlier than was previously thought, but I have no idea where I’d have gotten it from.

      • UnCivilServant

        Sounds a lot like my symptoms.

        Lingering cough last thing to disappear?

      • Chipwooder

        I actually didn’t cough all that much, which is the one thing that makes me think I didn’t actually have it. I had several symptoms that sounded like it but one big one that I didn’t have, so who knows.

      • UnCivilServant

        My missing symptom was impaired breathing. I only had trouble while coughing.

      • Chipwooder

        I don’t know that my breathing was impaired, exactly, but it kind of hurt, like my lungs were sore. Anything more than shallow breaths were uncomfortable.

      • UnCivilServant

        If any of the information going around is accurate, not everyone gets every symptom.

      • peachy rex

        I was briefly sick about a month ago. But while I had a fever and nasty cough, I also produced more snot than a Montessori school. So I’m guessing that it was just a cold. (kicks pebble, wanders off)

    • Nephilium

      That seems like a terrible idea to me. I also can’t imagine it’s good for your eyes or any cuts/scratches/nicks on your body.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m guessing it’s supposed to be imitating sea air.

      • Drake

        Similar. She swears by it, I’m meh.

        Wife had a similar scratchy throat a week earlier. We made be evil virus carriers, or just normal early sporing allergies.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        I don’t know what it is, but I like the salt part.

        Salt water is life; it’s what we are. Chlorine saves (Rev 22:1)

      • Rhywun

        Ugh. I hate the beach for this very reason. After a few hours of that air I get a cough and maybe sore throat.

      • Tonio

        It’s apparently a thing. Salt Mine spa in Belarus.

  10. Nephilium

    Well I think I’m past the hump for the roll out of softphones. Now for the unending stream of tickets from people having issues with them and ignoring our directions as to what they need to do to get them to work (so like any other thing in IT).

    Now if only these people would learn that when I keep adding distribution lists to an e-mail thread, they really should reply all instead of just reply.

    • Hyperion

      People who I’ve communicated with only by phone or email forever, now using Skype or ZOOM or other software. So at least something good came out of this. I hate using the regular phone for communication. Just Skype me, I got my headset right here, you primitive critters.

      • UnCivilServant

        *sends Hyperion a fax telling him I’m going to send him an email warning of a smail mail message*

      • Hyperion

        Just climb up that pole outside and type me out a telegraph. I hope it’s not too wet where you are.

      • Nephilium

        /starts sending Hyperion a semphore message

      • bacon-magic

        *beats on hollowed out log

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        smoke signals FTW

      • peachy rex

        Slaves with messages tattooed on their skulls. (Remember to behead them after receipt – it’s tradition, dammit!)

      • Tonio

        UCS wins the Tarnished Paperclip with Red Tape. This is the bureaucrat equivalent of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaf Clusters.

    • Gender Traitor

      My coworkers use Reply All for everything. ::quietly seethes::

      • Hyperion

        OMG, reply all should be the least used feature of all time. I’ve seen people get fired over that for Crikey sake.

        But then again, I have clients who will intentionally not use it when they should be and then I have to take the time to forward it back again so that every member of the team who needs to be included, is.

      • Nephilium

        Yeah. There’s a good dozen people on my team, and a half dozen on the client’s side who we can escalate to. So for support issues, there’s two distribution lists that we generally copy so everyone can be on the same page.

      • Tonio

        Seething, but not quietly.

  11. Hyperion

    Cold and rainy out. Took out the garbage. Back inside, done with work for the day, popped a beer here in the warmth, only me and wifey, just trying to ride out the apocalypse like everyone else. No complaints.

    • UnCivilServant

      Finally founds some TP, so I’m now good for much of the duration.

      • Hyperion

        Not sure when I’m going to make my next run. Maybe towards the end of the week. Wife worried about running out of dish soap. I guess we have plenty of everything else.

    • Spudalicious

      Gloomy but not cold. Garbage is out, cocktail is in (hand).

      • Nephilium

        Cold and raining here, beer in hand. Liquor stocks replenished. Much spent grain processed into flour, niece provided with some sourdough starter, some fresh roasted coffee, and some sourdough waffles.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Five days in and my sourdough starter looked kinda “meh.” Then I added 3/4 cup of whole-grain whole wheat flour to it.

        Holy pump up, Batman. It looks fabulous now. Sourdough bread for the ‘morrow!

      • Nephilium

        The sourdough waffles I made Sunday I used whole wheat flour. It took me several waffles before getting a handle on the level of expansion those waffles were going to do. The first one probably spread a quarter cup of batter around the waffle iron from me overfilling it. The reason for the spent grain really getting processed was that my beer came in under gravity, so there’s a lot of sugars in that malt flour. I’ve got ~8 cups already processed, more drying in the oven now, and a large quantity that was stuck in containers and frozen.

  12. Drake

    Senate still deadlocked over massive stimulus. Normally I’d consider this great news.

    What would make my day is Cocaine Mitch doing another recount – while marching Rand Paul and the rest of the quarantined Republicans past the Dems.

    • Hyperion

      It’s hard to make a normal evaluation of the good or evil of a stimulus, normally nothing but bad, when the democrats make it all about politics as usual. Just send out your dead already, we have to get rid of orange hitler!

    • leon

      If he brought in an infected senator into the chamber, can you imagine….

      Not saying it would be right or moral to do so, but it might be entertaining…

      • Hyperion

        You do know that Rand is a libertarian, and so he’s intentionally trying to kill off most of the world’s population so that we can get rid of government and roads, right?

      • Q Continuum

        needz moar anti-natalism

      • Q Continuum

        It would be absolutely hilarious.

    • Winston

      Stimulus will be shit but the Democrats almost certainly want to make things worse. Yay!

      • Chipwooder

        Yep. The Senate Republican’s bill was 580 pages, I believe. The Pelosi bill is over 1200.

      • leon

        We’ll have to pass it if we want to know what is in it…

      • Chipwooder

        I spoke too soon – over 1400 pages now

      • Q Continuum

        Fuck this. Dammit, this is Trump’s nut-up-or-shut-up moment. I have no faith that he will do this, but he really needs to tell them that he’ll veto anything that has shit unrelated to Kung Flu in it.

      • leon

        The beauty of bipartisanship is:
        1. Every politician gets what they want
        2. The connected get what they want
        3. Everyone else gets fucked
        4. Anyone who complains about it gets called an extremist and a petulant child who won’t compromise.

      • Chipwooder

        What, you don’t think

        -corporate board diversity
        -a Post Office bailout
        -airline emissions
        -expanded collective bargaining powers for unions
        -wind and solar power tax credits
        -allowing extensive early voting
        -allowing ballot harvesting
        -requiring the head of each federal agency to submit an annual report to Congress describing actions taken by said agency to increase the use of minority owned banks and credit unions

        ….are vital to the response to a pandemic???

      • Pine_Tree

        I’m hoping Trump’s next press conference is pretty much reading off Chipwooder’s list, and then demanding a clean bill.

        He’s generally been good at baiting them into getting really stupid, and then dragging it out in front of everybody, so here’s a good one.

        SLD on stimulus, etc. And the Donks won’t have any shame about it. But the electorate will care.

      • leon

        It’s spreading faster than the virus!!!

    • Rhywun

      So the quarantined senators don’t get a vote.

      WTF?

      • Winston

        They would have to allow absentee or proxy voting…

  13. Rebel Scum

    This is another metric I’ve been watching.

    That must be my problem taking this shit seriously. I see thousands of flu deaths per year and compare it to this new thing that is similar to the flu and think “meh”. My conversion is off. Somewhere I dropped a zero or something that would get me from “meh” to “ZOMG WE”RE ALL GONNA DIE!”.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      Mortality rate is pedestrian
      R0 is pedestrian
      The two week asymptomatic incubation time has been debunked
      80% of us getting it has been debunked

      What’s even left to panic about? At worst, it’s going to suck like a really bad flu season +10%. Why that requires round the clock breathless reporting and authoritarianism is beyond me. (not really)

      • Q Continuum

        It most definitely doesn’t require it. The more relevant question is, can our elites get away with how they’re dealing with it. So far, the answer to that is yes.

      • Urthona

        Where can I read about the r0 and 80% of us getting it being debunked though?

      • Urthona

        That seems much higher than the flu though.

        This was very interesting to me, however: “Thus, the key findings, that 86% of infections went undocumented”

        Wow.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Yes, worse than flu, but not night and day different from flu. More contagious, more deadly, but not by an order of magnitude like they were originally saying. It may end up being worse than 10% more than the worst flu season, but i think it’s much more likely to be 10% worse than 10x worse.

    • DEG

      I kinda like #19.

  14. Winston

    https://www.aier.org/article/leaving-people-alone-is-the-best-way-to-beat-the-coronavirus/

    It is one person claiming the authority over another about how they should live, what they may do, with whom they may interact and for what purpose and under what terms. Whether it is a tyrant who has established his political authority through violent means or whether those claiming that power to tell others how to live their lives are holding their political authority based on a democratic election, it remains, nonetheless, some people commanding the actions and interactions of others who may not voluntarily agree with or consent to what they are being told to do.

    But it’s “science,” or “sound medical findings,” to which the individual is being made to conform! It’s for his own good, in the face of either that person’s ignorance or lack of will and willingness to do what is “really right” for them in a particular instance.

    References to “science” and “sound medical findings” as an unchallengeable benchmark of justifiable coercion often sounds amusingly innocent and naïve when looked at from the perspective years or decades later, when science and medicine have advanced much further and we can smilingly look back on what people thought was the “right thing to do,” in that earlier and less informed time.

    No doubt that is how some of our “science” and medical knowledge will be viewed at some later time in the future. It is the way we look at someone in the 1800s, for instance, who declared with dogmatic certainty on some scientific or social matter, “But, my dear fellow, this is the 19th century!” implying that the state of knowledge was so advanced that how could anyone question or challenge it? Our amusement comes from thinking how uninformed and “primitive” their thinking seems to be compared to our far more advanced knowledge and understanding in the 21st century.

    I do find his jibe at the presentism of certain people in the 19th century amusing since the classical liberals of the time were the ones who thought that way and they pretty much invented “It’s Current Year” to justify their policies and attack conservatives. And people at the AIER still do it with their talk of “modernity”.

  15. westernsloper

    One additional fact. Florida had over 200 deaths due to regular pneumonia and influenza last week. Over the last 4 years, deaths per week in this time frame have been between 200-300 per week. As of now, the additional COVID deaths are within the year-to-year variation and H1N1 has killed more Florida residents in any given week. This is another metric I’ve been watching.

    That is the metric that most interests me. Thanks Brett.

    • Hyperion

      Let’s do consider that a good majority of Florida residents are retirees.

      I am a little worried about most of my neighbors, because even though I don’t mingle with them too much, we’re probably in the top 10% of youngest people here for sure, and I’m 60. Almost everyone in this community are retired and many are over 75 I’m sure.

    • grrizzly

      I’m reposting the numbers on flu mortality from yesterday.

      I downloaded the flu mortality data from the CDC website. They add up death numbers for pneumonia and influenza, see the last column here. The 2017-18 flu season was bad: there were nine weeks with more than 5,000 deaths per week and 15 weeks with more than 4,000 deaths per week. In the worst two weeks there were more than 1000 deaths per day.

      We should not panic until the numbers reach 2,000 deaths nationwide from coronavirus per day. Now we must have more capacity to handle coronavirus cases than in 2018 because all sex-change operations have already been cancelled.

    • Fourscore

      Just read the local obits from last week. Surprisingly several old people died. None, however, from anything that makes a worthwhile statistic.

      CV is so serious its gonna take mil…, oops, bil…oops trillions or more to make all the stock merchants whole again. “We’ll spend whatever it takes, come back for more, if necessary.” “The rest of you can pick up this month’s ration cards at your local Food Security Bank and get a bonus roll of TP”

      • westernsloper

        Do we get chocolate?

  16. Tundra

    Hi Brett!

    No shelter in place order yet. Our governor extended the shutdown, though. Goodbye to a bunch of really great little businesses.

    Then the fucker said 40-80% of Minnesotans will get it. Thanks for narrowing that down asshole.

    As I sit here, the neighborhood is full of kids playing and having fun.

    This is the weirdest Armageddon ever.

    • Hyperion

      I’m not sure what is up with Hogan. Is he dead from the virus or did he suddenly become of those radical libertarians?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        He went as far as you can go without actually making an official government decree to stay inside. I guess that is our #libertarianmoment.

    • Nephilium

      During the Ohio press conference scheduling our shutdown (T-7:22) they kept mentioning that over 60% of the people infected would be asymptomatic.

    • Private Chipperbot

      “It’s been observed: If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days, six feet away from one another, the whole epidemic would sputter to a halt. It’s on all of us to do our part.”

      A fucking lie by the great Governor of Michigan explaining the reason we’re shut down until at least April 13th. And no one will call her on it.

      Oh, and a $500 ticket and maybe 90 days in jail if you’re out without papers.

      • leon

        Many have stated it, but the Governors are not being honest, or they are retarded, about the 14 day stay. It won’t stop the virus. it will only slow.

        I already said this this morning, but we cannot “beat” the virus. it won. everything now is just delaying it. The Virus is here to stay for two days, two weeks, two months, two years…

      • Private Chipperbot

        They should just say you are likely going to get it. You will likely be fine. Older people and those with compromised health will have very serious problems and will die at rates higher than other groups.

        But that doesn’t allow boots on necks.

      • Private Chipperbot

        Oh, and she was pushing this is very serious for younger people because of vaping. More serious than Italy because of vaping.

      • Mad Scientist

        the Governors are not being honest, or they are retarded

        Can’t it be both?

    • leon

      If is saves just one life!

    • Hyperion

      I think it’s more likely, sorry to be skeptical, that being only 52 saved him. I had bouts of influenza when I was younger, like in my 20s and 30s that were so severe I really did think I would die, and I’m still alive.

      • Drake

        With enough cases of it being even partially effective, it will give Trump the excuse he needs to restart the economy.

      • Jarflax

        correlation != causation. Maybe it helps, probably it does not hurt, but so far it isn’t proven/

      • Fourscore

        Hell, I used to have hangovers like that.

      • Hyperion

        LOL, yeah I know! Please god, let me live and I’ll never drink again!

        /said while worshiping at the porcelain altar

  17. Gender Traitor

    Just found out today that we’re dividing our staff at each location in half, with each half coming in on alternate weeks. I’m staying home for the rest of this week. The only thing I can really do from home is online training modules, which should take me all of half a day.

    • Florida Man

      I was informed my shift is being eliminated. I have no idea how many hours I’m going to get over the coming weeks. Luckily my wife is still working and I have 4 weeks of PTO banked.

  18. Winston

    It is interesting to see just how weak a free society is. Can’t deal with war, economic downturns and now pandemics. Also the internet, new technology, urbanization and foreign trade have not made these clampdowns less viable.

    • leon

      It’s also interesting to see how deadly unicorn farts really are.

      • Winston

        Well I’m not happy about this but this appears to be the case.

    • Hyperion

      Dude, where you been? You been sheltered in place for a decade? We can’t even deal with someone not using our preferred pronouns.

      • Winston

        But I thought transgender rights would make us free?

      • Q Continuum

        Positive rights never make anyone more free.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      Wake me when our Hutus are killing our Tutsis.

      • Jarflax

        Does our ISPS killing our everyone from net neutrality repeal count?

      • Fourscore

        “Tut, tut, tutsi, good bye”

        Popular hutu song, played on local sundowner radio stations

      • grrizzly

        In all the discussions around here about an upcoming civil war, the prosperity of the people was always a strong argument against any civil war taking place. The prosperity has taken a huge blow lately.

      • Winston

        Well that was after years of civil war so things were already pretty bad…

      • Spudalicious

        Give it until the day after the next election.

  19. gbob

    I’m glad I live in a state that, during a time of strained resources, can tackle the real problem.

    New York’s attorney general has launched a new hotline for New York residents to report hate crimes and incidents after harassment against Asian-Americans has spiked amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    According to a statement from New York Attorney General Letitia James, in the last week alone there have been numerous reports in the state of Asian-Americans being harassed or physically assaulted.

    “As we face an unprecedented and uncertain time for New York, the United States, and the world, we must reiterate the fact that this pandemic does not give anyone an excuse to be racist, xenophobic, or biased,” said Attorney General James. “No one should live in fear for their life because of who they are, what they look like, or where they come from. I encourage all victims of discriminatory actions stemming from this pandemic to contact my office. We will continue to work with local law enforcement to combat hate in all its insidious forms.”

    Never let a crisis go to waste.

    • Drake

      I’d like to report some thuggish Mafia looking guy making threats whenever I leave the house…

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      In the days of the MAGA Pogroms shortly after Der Trumpenfurher was elected there was an article in SFGate about how the SFPD was going send cops undercover as disenfranchised people to act as a hate crime honeypot. For some reason there was never an article to follow up on the results of that escapade.

    • peachy rex

      That initiative will last until the authorities realise that 99.5% of the reported harassers are poor minorities. Then it will be quietly killed.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Toxic individualism? Radical anti-government disobedience? Resistance is futile.

    Crowds descended on California beaches, hiking trails and parks over the weekend in open defiance of a state order to shelter in place and avoid close contact with others.
    California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a shelter in place order directing the state’s nearly 40 million residents to stay home beginning March 20 to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

    Instead, many public spaces were packed, prompting officials in some cities to order parks, recreation areas and beaches to close.
    ‘People packing beaches’

    Video and photos on social media showed groups of people standing in close contact of one another at popular hiking trails and beaches in Los Angeles over the weekend. Health officials urge people to maintain a distance of 6 feet from one another to prevent transmission of the highly contagious virus.

    In response to the crowds, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Twitter late Sunday that he was closing sports and recreation at all LA City Parks. He also tweeted that parking at city beaches was closed.
    “This weekend we saw too many people packing beaches, trails and parks,” the Mayor tweeted. He said people should heed the closures and stay home. “That doesn’t mean gather elsewhere. This is serious. Stay home and save lives.”

    Fucking disobedient peons. Give the boot.

    • Hyperion

      I can already sense and hear the impatience and stress in people I know. And it’s been a little over a week. Does anyone really believe they can just lock people down like sheep for months, like some fearmongers are talking about? Bullshit, you would see mass disobedience. This ain’t China, yet.

      • leon

        Are you suggesting something is wrong with China? Racasit!

      • Tonio

        I hope you’re right.

    • Q Continuum

      Fuck off slaver.

      • dbleagle

        Hey there idiot, your jurisdiction ends at the shoreline “mean higher high water line”. At that point it is Federal jurisdiction as part of the waters of the USA. So you can’t do jack shitl against free people exercising their rights. Fuck off slaver!

    • Winston

      City Air will make us free!

    • dorvinion

      Our county parks are completely closed, and many of the Army Corps spots around our local big reservoir have the gates barred though they say foot traffic is allowed.

      Even in the best of weather these places never feel crowded except maybe the campgrounds and playgrounds.

      Beaches, on site bathrooms, and campgrounds (if bathrooms are closed), sure I can understand those sort of places being closed. But hiking and biking trails being effectively closed by not allowing anyone in to park, that’s just nuts.

  21. Don Escaped Texas

    Tlaib to be primaried by recent Congresscritter

    The report of Jones’ intentions came as two other popular members of “The Squad” were also facing challengers for their respective seats in Congress. But, perhaps even more importantly, Jones’ candidacy would be the most serious threat to “The Squad,” which is comprised of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley along with Tlaib.

    • Hyperion

      Oh come on, man. The Squad are shining stars, forever! They’re the future!

      • Raven Nation

        Umm, huh? “No new debt” – are they making that argument along the lines of “we owe it to ourselves”?

        I mean, the idea is dumb, but I’d like to think this was at least some internal logic. Or am I asking too much there?

      • Raven Nation

        And why not one $2T coin, instead of 2 $1T coins?

      • Fourscore

        What would be the size of a trillion dollar coin? At today’s price of platinum?

        Why not that big diamond that was recently found? Make it a floating price. Need money? Re-evaluate the diamond. Easy-peasey.

        /not a real economist

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Don’t be silly. How the Hell is the Secretary of the Treasury gonna be able to put a single two trillion dollar coin in his/her/its pocket?!?

      • The Last American Hero

        One in each pocket?

      • Tonio

        Sarcasm meter recalibration suggested.

      • Raven Nation

        Is that a parody site? If not, I didn’t mean you were being serious, I was trying to figure out the logic behind her argument.

    • leon

      Rep. Pressley is the Lepidus of the squad.

  22. The Other Kevin

    As of tomorrow night Indiana will have “shelter in place”. Restaurants can still do order and drive through. So not as bad as some states but still not great.

    • Hyperion

      Fuck, here in the libertarian paradise of Maryland, we have no shelter in place. Freedom!

  23. The Late P Brooks

    The Senate Republican’s bill was 580 pages, I believe. The Pelosi bill is over 1200.

    *clutches chest, falls out of chair*

  24. commodious spittoon

    We’ve got a team meeting scheduled for late this afternoon rather than the early morning one we’d normally have… well, normally in person, this one’s by phone. Which makes me think the team leaders met earlier to discuss what they’d tell their teams, which makes me think there’s bad news on the way. They made a big deal about weathering downturns and recessions without layoffs when I joined last year, but the panic now seems unprecedented. I haven’t had a whole lot to do today, which makes it all the worse. I’ve been watching Python scripting videos and wondering WTF I’ll put on my timesheet.

    • Hyperion

      “I’ve been watching Python scripting videos and wondering WTF I’ll put on my timesheet.”

      Training.

      I hope it all goes well for you. I have some large wealthy clients, but if this goes on for too long, I’m worried also, as we all should be. We have to keep people working despite the virus. That should be our number 1 concern.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      *looks at python script on my screen*

      Yeah I bill this time under basic job responsibilities. Yknow, because every lawyer codes on a daily basis.

      • UnCivilServant

        We don’t code, we script.

        /not a lawyer.

      • leon

        Code/Script/Develop

        Is there a consensus on what the difference is?

      • UnCivilServant

        Coding is what medical transcriptionists do.

        Scripting is what sysadmins do to automate processes.

        Developing is what colleges call telephone begging.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I’ve always seen code/develop as synonyms for writing compiled language software. Script is for interpreted language software. Yes, under my own rules, I misspoke when I said I was coding.

      • leon

        I usually say scripting is when you write a one-off file of code that is standalone and used for something very specific. coding/developing is when it is broader, and more generalized.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I’d say that developing implies a significant level of involvement in determining application scope and design, as well as writing actual code.

      • Rhywun

        Whatever “difference” people used to perceive was centered around artificial categories of what people were doing with it. Nowadays I would say there is no difference.

      • UnCivilServant

        Naw, I don’t “Develop” in bash. I script.

      • Rhywun

        You could if you wanted/needed to.

        A lot of us do both so it seems pointless to maintain that distinction. IMHO.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Naw, I don’t “Develop” in bash. I script.

        The lines get blurry real quick. What started out as a 10 line python script to parse a spreadsheet has turned into 20+ interrelated files, each 250-500 lines. Am I scripting, coding, or developing when I write a new wrapper to programmatically access another one of our data sources and integrate that data

        with the rest of the system?

      • Hyperion

        Yeah. Scripting is some command line stuff done by non-programmers, maybe in PowerShell or something like that, by non devs, like networking folks. Or in the case of an actual developer, a short, few line javascript that executes when some event happens. I think of those as scripts or scriplets. Development is actual building of apps through many functions that all work together, using languages like .NET and SQL procedures. Or something like that.

      • westernsloper

        Code for these times:

        The chair is against the wall

        /stolen from whoever said it yesterday

    • pistoffnick

      “Python scripting videos”

      {nods knowingly with a mischievous wink}

      “Say no more!”

      • C. Anacreon

        The kind of scripting that will have you pining for the fjords.

    • Hyperion

      What, cancel first world problems!? Are you crazy! People will be running amok using incorrect pronouns! Cat and dogs sleeping together! DOOM!

    • Certified Public Asshat

      *continues to hoard plastic bags*

    • Rhywun

      The New York ban was supposed to go into effect on March 1. But because a lawsuit challenging the bag ban has been delayed over coronavirus, the state was forced to pull back until that case can resume.

      Technically true, but of the ten or so shops I visit most frequently, all but one of them have already eliminated plastic bags. And it’s not like they can just swap in plastic bags from the stockpiles in the basement – they’re gone.

    • Spudalicious

      They’ve never been single use bags in this house. They work very well for the daily poo patrol also.

  25. Donation Not Taxation

    Was the US ever a country that could be pointed to as an example of how libertarian government would work in reality?
    If so, when did the libertarianism end?
    Discuss.

    • Q Continuum

      In terms of universally recognized negative rights and explicit prohibition for the government to abridge those rights, it’s probably the closest the world has ever seen. How long that actually lasted and how well it’s surviving is another story…

    • leon

      According to proggies Libertarianisim is alive and well in the Government. We rule everything. Except that libertarianism is dead too because Trump is planning on nationalizing everything and making direct cash payments to people.

    • Hyperion

      “when did the libertarianism end?”

      I think it ended right around the Whiskey Rebellion.

      And then there was that slavery thing, which isn’t exactly very libertarian.

      But it was sweet while it lasted, give me liberty or give me death! All that. Now we’re down to give me other people’s money and I’ll vote for you.

      • pistoffnick

        “other people’s money”

        You down with O.P.M?
        (Yeah, you know me)
        Who’s down with O.P.M.?
        (Every last statist)

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Warren Redlich (ran for US Congress New York 21 2004 and 2006): “was extremely libertarian from the founding until 1860, and still very libertarian until roughly 1930”

      • C. Anacreon

        I’ve made that point to people before who say that there’s never been a country with a libertarian system. Be prepared when quoting Redlich to hear the response “During those years it wasn’t very libertarian for the blacks, women, gays, and other minorities”.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Will do. Thanks.

    • UnCivilServant

      Huh, from the crime shows out of iceland, I figured they had maybe five criminals.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Wait, what?!? THERE ARE CRIME SHOWS FROM ICELAND?!?!?

        How have I missed these wondrous works of art?

      • UnCivilServant

        Look up “True Nordic Crime” on Amazon Prime.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Not Iceland per se, but I *highly* recommend “Hellfjord” (I picked up the Australian, import DVDs). Sadly…don’t think they ever came out with a second season 🙁

    • Hyperion

      Icelanders are all mutated and stuff from genomic isolation. They probably can’t even get the virus. They’re almost like aliens, exposure to them will probably kill the virus!

  26. DEG

    Florida had over 200 deaths due to regular pneumonia and influenza last week. Over the last 4 years, deaths per week in this time frame have been between 200-300 per week. As of now, the additional COVID deaths are within the year-to-year variation and H1N1 has killed more Florida residents in any given week.

    Sssshhhh!!

  27. Rufus the Monocled

    It’s gonna get worse. We all knew that. The fun part will be making sense of it AFTER it settles in a reasoned and rational manner.

    • Nephilium

      Honestly I’m beginning to wonder if this is a new annual thing. We know there’s a flu season, will there be a COVID-19 season?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    I guess I’m a science denier. I look at a headline which proclaims a death toll in the hundreds, out of a population of 350,000,000, and think, “More people probably drowned in their own bathtubs than that.”

    • Hyperion

      From what I can gather, using the best statistics online. I think the death toll is about 1.3% in the USA of confirmed cases. Confirmed case. By far the most cases are unconfirmed since people don’t even know they have it and only an insane person would run to a hospital right now over cold like symptoms. The death rate is probably going to be way under 1%.

      Also, winter is coming to a close, which means warmer temps. Which probably means a less fertile environment for the virus. Isn’t global warming great?

      • commodious spittoon

        Can we discount the number of lives “saved” from virus by the number of suicides caused by cratering the economy?

      • Hyperion

        Of course we can’t. Politicians can, they have different maths.

  29. Rufus the Monocled

    What to name this virus?

    Pay me now virus? It might be cat meat virus? MSG virus? Wet market surprise virus (saw that somewhere)….Go….

    Let’s piss off China’s red commies and progs.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m still going with Wuhan Virus, or Wuhan Coronavirus.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        “That bug that’s going around.”

      • Grumbletarian

        Wumonia

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Excellent.

    • Hyperion

      Pooh Bear Flu

    • bacon-magic

      Moo shoo flu
      Commie cold
      Winnie the Chinese flu

      • leon

        I’m pretty sure Moo shoo flue is mad cow disease.

        And Commie cold is just a bullet in the head.

      • bacon-magic

        Comrade von Virus

    • Q Continuum

      Bat Soup Flu.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Fuck You Flu.

    • R C Dean

      CCP Virus.

    • westernsloper

      The Cornholio virus

      Because we all need tp for our bungholes

  30. Winston

    https://www.aier.org/article/why-should-we-value-human-life/

    Over time, it became widely believed that to value and protect life from invasion by external forces is a core principle of civilization. This became the philosophical presumption on which modernity itself was built. Freedom was a corollary for both moral and practical reasons. Freedom works to build wealth for one and all; it was also the right thing to do to unleash as much human energy as possible in the quest for a better world.

    I do find it interesting that Tucker praises modernity in the same article where he complains about coronavirus clampdowns. Except aren’t those clampdowns as “modern” as can be?

    • C. Anacreon

      But the fact is,
      Everything today is thoroughly modern

      Check your personality

      Everything today makes yesterday slow

      Better face reality

      It’s not insanity
      Says Vanity Fair
      In fact, it’s stylish to

      Raise your skirts and bob your hair!

      Have you seen the way they kiss in the movies

      Isn’t it delectable?

      Painting lips and pencil lining your brow

      Now is quite respectable

      Good-bye, good goody girl
      I’m changing and how!

      /Thoroughly Modern Millie

    • Suthenboy

      “Over time, it became widely believed that to value and protect life from invasion by external forces is a core principle of civilization. This became the philosophical presumption on which modernity itself was built.”

      I hope he is not stupid enough to believe that.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    What to name this virus?

    “Moo Goo Gai Panic” is my fave.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    So the quarantined senators don’t get a vote.

    *coughs, wipes nose on postcard addressed to Senator Jon Tester*

  33. Aus

    Watching helplessly as my industry sheds tens of thousands of jobs. With more every day. Heartbreaking.

    Should I be frustrated with the people that hold the attitude, “this shutdown is necessary to save lives”?

    What about the overwhelming feeling of dread, despair, and uncertainty for those suddenly unemployment. Is *THAT* harmful to one’s health? I willing to bet most these “JUST STAY AT HOME IDIOT” type people either 1) Are still employed themselves and 2) Are not the managers forced to determine who gets fired next.

    • leon

      No one will say it, but the impending recession/depression because of this will result in suicides.

      The seen vs the Unseen and whatnot.

      • The Other Kevin

        Suicides, alcoholism, drug abuse.

      • Tres Cool

        No love for spousal/child abuse, too?

      • UnCivilServant

        Are your kids abusing you, Tres? Do you need help escaping them?

    • Chipwooder

      or 3)trust fund kids who know that their bread will be buttered no matter what.

      3 encompasses much of the media and congressional staffers.

    • Hyperion

      I can WFH 100% of the time. And I’m against these lockdowns even if it means I have to drive in to see clients a couple of times a week. The harm to people who cannot work from home is just too great for me to sit here and be smug about it. Let people work, sure there is risk, but as has already been said, the cure is worse than the disease.

      • Nephilium

        Add me to that list as well.

  34. hayeksplosives

    New York City’s 11 public hospitals will only be able to get through this week before they start reaching “a point where people can’t be saved,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

    What utter tripe.

    An individual case can get to where the person can’t be saved, not true for a pandemic!

    • leon

      When do we get to start eating people?

      • UnCivilServant

        wot?

        *hides Eloi fillets*

      • Donation Not Taxation

        *notes UCS is the Morlock with the driving gloves*

      • Donation Not Taxation

        “Food Recall Warning: Soylent brand Food Bar recalled due to reported illnesses”. Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

        inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2016-10-21/eng/1477082429290/1477082432549

        Ask Thorn what is in Soylent

      • Rhywun

        *checks pantry*

        ‘Bout two weeks, hopefully.

      • pistoffnick

        1: STILL no sign of land. How long is it?

        2: 33 days, sir.

        1: Thirty-three days?

        2: We can’t go on much longer, sir. We haven’t eaten since the fifth day.

        5: We’re done for, we’re done for!

        1: Shut up, Maudling.

        2: We’ve just got to keep hoping. Someone may find us.

        6: How we feeling, Captain?

        C: Not too good. I…I feel so weak.

        2: We can’t hold out much longer.

        C: Listen… chaps… there’s still a chance. I’m… done for, I’ve got a gammy leg and I’m going fast; I’ll never get through. But some of you might. So… you’d better eat me.

        ?: Eat you, sir?

        C: Yes. Eat me.

        ?: Iiuuhh! With a gammy leg?

        C: You needn’t eat the leg, Thompson. There’s still plenty of good meat. Look at that arm.

      • hayeksplosives

        Lol.

        I love that sketch. “Gammy leg” is still in my vocabulary

      • Fatty Bolger

        Di Blasio can eat me now.

    • Agent Cooper

      Now that’s what I call leadership!

  35. The Late P Brooks

    I willing to bet most these “JUST STAY AT HOME IDIOT” type people either 1) Are still employed themselves and 2) Are not the managers forced to determine who gets fired next.

    Don’t forget “employed by the government and in no danger whatsoever of missing a paycheck”.

    • hayeksplosives

      Many others will not lose a job but will be furloughed and will have to buy staples on credit card so that they can make rent. You can’t do that for too long.

    • leon

      To concur with Don earlier today.

      I work from home. very little has changed for me. So social distancing hasn’t been difficult, other than no Gym. I do what i can, but i’m not going to ask or say others have to sacrifice more than i do.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, I’m with you. And at my age, I’m not in the lowest risk category. But I’d rather risk the exposure than lots of people losing their jobs. We’ve become a nation of spineless cowards.

    • Agent Cooper

      Or Andrew Sullivan, who is calling this a ‘national retreat.’

      You can tell those who have never had to make payroll.

  36. hayeksplosives

    Who is the most loathesome of these N.Y. pols: Cuomo, DeBlasio, Bloomberg.

    • UnCivilServant

      They have their own worst spots where they are worse than the other two.

      • leon

        You’re saying loathsome is non-transitive.

    • RAHeinlein

      DeBlasio – no contest.

      I have been wondering what rock Bloomberg and Steyer have crawled under. Don’t they have billions to give away, and isn’t this crisis the perfect opportunity? I’m for renaming the NYC MTA after Bloomberg.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, right, that is why Bloomberg is being sued by campaign workers he promised to pay, but didn’t.

      • Rhywun

        Cuomo’s doing press-releases from makeshift hospitals while Deblasio is running around with his hair on fire.

    • Hyperion

      “Who is the most loathesome of these N.Y. pols: Cuomo, DeBlasio, Bloomberg.”

      Yes

      • AlmightyJB

        IKR. It’s like they’re in some sort of asshole contest. I would say Cuomo is probably least worst of 3 but I know he’s working on it.

      • C. Anacreon

        some sort of asshole contest

        Wouldn’t the winner of the biggest asshole contest be the one the most shit comes out of?

        Pretty tough to decide this one, it may be a three-way-tie.

      • Suthenboy

        Yep, but it aint for lack of trying.

    • Rebel Scum

      Who is the most loathesome of these

      Yes.

  37. Don Escaped Texas

    In honor of it being 5 o’clock in Concord, I’m cracking open an ice-cold Sam Adams

    • leon

      But it’s monday…

      • C. Anacreon

        He came, he saw, he Concord.

    • Tres Cool

      I started drinking about 10 this morning. No shame in that game.

      • Hyperion

        I swear I’ve felt like doing that. Except I have to be at least a little coherent when clients call me.

  38. hayeksplosives

    Why aren’t the lib dem voters upset that the Dem politicians are blocking the financial aid package?

    • leon

      Jimmy Dore was pretty upset.

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Because Donald J. Trump is the one who went on TV to propose it, regardless of whether or not any Ds pitched it to him behind closed dorrs.
      What would happen if Donald J. trump came out in favor of abortion or same-gender marriage?

      • hayeksplosives

        I’d like to see the left contort itself as to how those things are bad now, as well as watch the religious right vote block. Contort it into why it’s ok to vote for trump.

      • robc

        I am pretty sure he has supported both for 30+years.

      • mock-star

        “What would happen if Donald J. Trump came out in favor of…….. same-gender marriage?”

        I thought he already did.

      • Rebel Scum

        And they want to add enough pork to smother Islam to it.

    • Hyperion

      It’s OK when they do it. It’s for the purest and most saintly of reasons.

    • AlmightyJB

      There not blocking it. Republicans are blocking it by not accepting “common sense” add-ons like further destroying the economy.

      • leon

        They are just playing “We know what you are, we’re just negotiating a price” with the Republicans. Destroying the economy is on the docket no matter what.

    • Aus

      One sign of light, I saw a hard core lefty I grew up with post something like: “Dems, forgot the unrelated crap you’re trying to attach to the bill. Repubs, make sure workers and small business are taken care of. Work together!”

      So, that’s progress I guess.

  39. commodious spittoon

    Watching a shared screen in a go-to meeting from my remote desktop from my home desktop… screenception.

  40. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Has anyone tried to get to Glibertarians with a VPN lately? I can’t get to this site, although I can get to others no problem, with the VPN I have always used in the past but it works fine once I switch it off and . Are VPNs being blocked now for some reason?

    • hayeksplosives

      Mine still works.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Well damn…

    • Hyperion

      This is a dangerous site, full of wrong think and dangerous ideas about individualism.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Strangely enough I can get on with some servers that work with other sites and not with others. Oh well, as long as some of them work.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        Stink got Virtual Police Network in the last upgrade.

    • Tres Cool

      Im in here bareback. You gotta be willing to die for it.

  41. Tres Cool

    Let me see if I can math right- Ohio has 442 cases of Chink Croup. And a population of around 11.8M people.
    So 0.267/100,000 ?

    • Hyperion

      Stop it already with your racist math! We’re all going to die unless you give up all your rights now!

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Why care about cases instead of deaths? Most people with flu recover from them without permanent bad effects.

      • Urthona

        BECAUSE THE HOSPITALS MAN! THE HOSPITALS!

    • Nephilium

      Don’t you care about six dead people? It’s doubled in a couple of days. If this rate continues the whole state will be dead by Easter!

      • Tres Cool

        + (n!) factorial

      • Sean

        I look forward to cheap real estate in the 55+ communities.

        Too soon?

      • Tres Cool

        Nah…wait a week or so before you get that checkbook out.

  42. Chipping Pioneer

    Ontario and Quebec are forcing all “non-essential” private businesses to close. I think it’s a gross overreaction and massive overreach by governments. I also think it sets up the Feds to invoke the Emergencies Act tomorrow. This will not end well.

    • Winston

      Just watch him!

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Look at me!!!

    • leon

      Ontario and Quebec are forcing all “non-essential” private businesses to close

      Because humans are mostly crabs in a bucket, i half expect people to start calling for police to make sure that online business/freelancers aren’t working.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Yeh, there’s no question Justin that piece of fucken shit is setting this up so he can pull what his commie father did.

      The thing is they’re reacting to a spike they KNEW was coming.

      Gross over reaction. 56 people per 1 million have it in Canada and shutting down an entire economy is pure madness.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        He sounds and looks such a weak, shallow man. In his pathetic pea-brain mind, he probably thinks this will make him look strong.

      • Winston

        The CBC, CTV, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail say…YES!!!

  43. Timeloose

    So PA’s gov has locked down travel in several counties. I don’t know how he plans on enforcing this other than by state police.

    The vague statements that you should shelter in place and don’t travel unless you are going about life saving business. He has no such authority For this.

    There is no way to conclude what your intentions are unless you confront everyone.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Yet if you ask normies, ‘are the police going to shoot people who don’t comply?’, you get ‘that’s ridiculous’ without any examination of what backs up police and government power.

    • Hyperion

      Well, you know, telling people they can’t go out for lifesaving necessities, like food, is a death sentence anyway. What would anyone have to lose? And there’s not enough cops to pull everyone over and ask them what they’re doing out and about.

      It’s not enforceable by any means. Most of these politicians are just posturing ‘I’m doing something!.’ Fuck them, they can’t make anyone stay at home.

      • Timeloose

        This includes trips to the store, so I’m going to the MF’en store.

    • Sean

      If I get pulled over, I plan on making myself cough during the entire interaction.

    • DEG

      I’ve seen some noise that Sununu just banned public gatherings of more than ten people in NH. No official confirmation yet that I can find.

      No “non-essential” business shutdown yet.

    • Sean

      How about they put the troopers on the border and keep out the infected from NJ & NY? That would make more sense than fucking with people in state.

  44. Nephilium

    Attention Buckeyes: Just checked at the liquor store, they are considered essential and will not be closing at midnight.

    • Hyperion

      LOL. Yeah, I told someone a week ago who works at one of our local liquor stores ‘One thing I know, people are going out to get liquor. I don’t care if they have to drive over all the dead bodies to do it’.

      • AlmightyJB

        + runnin’ ‘shine

    • AlmightyJB

      Thank You!

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, you let people run out of alcohol and you may really get hung from the lamppost.

    • Aus

      I loaded up today after work, just in case.

      Also learned that the liquor store delivers…nice.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Me too. On my lunch.

      • Nephilium

        We can also liquor online and can have it shipped (usually it’s a bit more expensive then going to the local, but you can order things the local doesn’t carry). The downside was needing to have someone 21+ at home to sign for the package…

        That’s not really an issue now.

  45. Drake

    Biden doesn’t disappoint in his Corona briefing.

    MA Governor Charlie Parker.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Charlie Parker, lmao

  46. The Late P Brooks

    Jiggers- they’re on to us!

    In the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League has been tracking racist memes and online activity directed toward Asian communities in reaction to the outbreak. They’ve uncovered lurid cartoons depicting an Asian “Winnie the Flu,” mocking references to “bat soup,” and more violent imagery. “For months, there have been posts on notoriously extremist-friendly platforms like Telegram, 4chan and Gab linking the coronavirus to racist and antisemitic slurs and memes,” the A.D.L. wrote, in a recent blog post. “Users across these channels regularly share racist messages or caricatures of Chinese people, mocking their eating habits, accents, and hygiene.” Some posts, they went on, “appear to be cheering on the virus, hoping it will spread to predominately non-white countries, such as those in Africa.” Oren Segal, the vice-president of the A.D.L.’s Center on Extremism, noted that extremists “use every opportunity they can to create division.” He worried about the spread of racist content as more and more people are asked to stay at home and communicate online. “The fact that this sort of hatred exists in the same spaces where people are collecting their legitimate news—it is a concern,” he said.

    Just wait ’til they find out about Inspector Clouseau and Cato.

      • The Hyperbole

        You can’t defame a virus.

      • leon

        Viri are alive-ish. So don’t they deserves some rights to their good name?

      • Don Escaped Texas

        alive-ish

        I was impressed by a recent attempt to explain viruses as in the gap between life and mere chemicals. Then I realized that the folks who didn’t understand viruses probably didn’t understand life or chemicals, either.

      • Jarflax

        Does anyone understand life? Viruses and chemicals maybe.

      • The Hyperbole

        And tides and magnets.

      • C. Anacreon

        Will the people who got the virus in other countries be able to blame it on Trump as well?

      • Rhywun

        Sure, because the US started it. China said so.

      • Rebel Scum

        Trumpvirus

        Exhaust you from all the winning?

    • leon

      Shows that the ADL doesn’t know that winnie the pooh makes fun of CCP dear leader.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The ADL has become a pro-censorship, worthless organization.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This

        They’re a shadow of their former arrives

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Selves

    • Hyperion

      “Winnie the Flu”

      Oh muh gawds! Who cares about a deadly virus, someone hurted muh feelins!

      But yeah, it’s even worse than the day after the 2016 election, when the red hat Trumpets were out hanging coloreds in the streets. Just yesterday I looked out and saw yellow men hanging from the trees like Christmas ornaments.

    • Rhywun

      extremists “use every opportunity they can to create division.”

      He said with complete lack of self-awareness.

    • Grumbletarian

      Wrongthink? On the INTERNET??!?!

  47. Raven Nation

    Well, this is going to be interesting. Long lines outside at least one gun shop in New Zealand. I’m honestly perplexed about this as I thought recent laws made it almost impossible to legally buy guns in NZ.

    And, because it’s the Herald we have to get: “a local business owner estimating between 20-30 people were waiting. He told the Herald he had never seen queues outside the business before That number grew after the doors opened and the local business owner says he called police, concerned by the group and he was feeling unsafe… He told the Herald he was “all for freedom” but said the group shouldn’t be buying guns “at a time like this”. He said guns were the last thing Kiwis needed to buy, “less than toilet paper, really”

    Idiot. If someone owns a gun, they can get as much TP as they want. /sarc

  48. hayeksplosives

    Somewhere across the seas it’s a forlorn young woman in pigtails, sitting on a.cold granite boulder that is somehow still warmer than her ass. Her face would be a sunny visage but is contorted into a twisted sneer of resentment at her rival.

    Her rival: it’s just as vague a terror as the one she flogs for a living, but at least it has a body count. Her pet cause does not have a body count.

    She quints her eyes in the distance at an anthropomorphized vision of her rival, COVIID19.

    Her own pet cause does not have a body count. Not yet.

    • robc

      [orson welles clapping]

    • westernsloper

      HOW DARE YOU!

    • SandMan

      That was good, especially liked the boulder.

    • Aus

      Excellent!

  49. Don Escaped Texas

    why it’s ok to vote for trump

    That’s going to be the question; at some point I’d like to be part of a focused discussion on the point. I’m almost worn out by the half-truths and rationalizations from both sides, but the question must be answered. I live in a Red state, so I’ll safely vote LP again just to record an objection, but I still want to kick the question around as if I were the tie-breaker living in the purplest precinct in Kenosha. It’s a two-party reality, so either you’re voting for the least of two evils or hoping for some sort of purple wave that throws it to the House, where, in some unprecedented panic, an early majority suddenly agrees on a minimalist. As I’ve characterized things for years, recent developments show enough sin to go around, but maybe this election makes a difference; I rather doubt it so far: this was an obvious chance for one party to prove something, for the libertarian prinicples to emerge . . . . and it did not happen.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I’m voting for thumb in DC’s collective eye.

      It’s a shit sandwich either way, but the Dems shit sandwich comes with extra piss and blood.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      It’s really a one-party reality with two wings that have deluded themselves into thinking their ideological differences are greater than rhetorical millimeters.

      I see no reason to validate such a farce by participating in it.

      • Winston

        ironically that often leads to the most heated political controversies. See any Communist regime or Huey Long or Eugene Talmadge.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Religion too.

      • Frosty

        That’s as succinctly as I’ve seen that sentiment expressed. Thank you.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Thank you for the kind words!

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        So what you’re saying is that George Wallace was right?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Let 1,000 flowers bloom.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Penn Jillette said on his podcast years ago: “If you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still voting for evil”.

      Stuck with me and now I pretty much leave most of my ballot blank. I vote for a few candidates I think I can support. Just skip the others.

      • leon

        I know this isn’t in the parameters of Don’s discussion wish, but i’m at the point of: if i don’t actually want that person in office, i won’t vote for them.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Yup. My wet dream is that there will be a race where unfilled out ballots outnumber ones cast for either of the candidates. Of course, that would backfire as teams of lawyers descended to go full FL2000 and “determine” the intentions of the voter in all those unmarked ballots.

        And it wouldn’t stop the winning candidate from claiming a mandate either.

      • Raven Nation

        As a commenter at TOS once wrote, “the lesser of two evils is still evil. And lesser.”

    • Hyperion

      Because. Take a look at the state of the current democrat party. They’re fucking communists now.

      So, it’s a not eloquent speaking guy (and BTW, despite the best effort of the media, neither was Obama), a guy who can’t stop tweeting and sometimes is actually funny, but sometimes makes you cringe, but who often does a lot of things libertarians have to love, even if it’s not for libertarian reasons.

      I mean I fully understand why Trump does what he does. There’s a documentary on Netflix. He’s who he is because of his dealing with the shithead politicians in NYC.

      Trump is the best we can hope for right now. Or vote for Biden, one of the worst pieces of shit to ever wear a human form. Choice is yours.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        but who often does a lot of things libertarians have to love

        People keep saying this but I have yet to see any evidence of it. His regulation-cutting doesn’t matter when refuses to touch Boomers’ sacred cows. His spending cuts are mythical, particularly as he happily calls himself the “King of Debt”. He’s a tee-totaler who still allows the DEA to piss away billions of dollars a year. There hasn’t been a pony he hasn’t given to the petulant LEO crowd – local, state, and federal.

        The only thing I can think of is that he is more reluctant to use military force to advance American foreign policy. He deserves kudos for that. The rest is a masterclass in rationalization to find reasons other than ‘He’s not Hillary’.

      • Hyperion

        “The only thing I can think of is that he is more reluctant to use military force to advance American foreign policy. ”

        Yeah, all of that regulation cutting is just a figment of my imagination, maybe.

      • Jarflax

        The best thing about Trump is that he disrupts the establishment. I think that is more about the establishment than Trump, but I still like it. I think he is trying to cut regulations, but I don’t know how successful he has been at it so far, and I am sick to death of the protectionist crap, but I will likely vote for him over the other choices and think we are better off with him than with Biden’s puppeteer.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Again, cutting regulations in one place but creating a whole new set in another is just one step forward, one step back.

      • kinnath

        ‘He’s not Hillary’.

        That’s enough. Two SCOTUS seats so far.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Well, I’ll give you Gorsuch. A .500 batting average is still pretty impressive.

      • Jarflax

        Very happy with Gorsuch. Kavanaugh is just another Statist R edition, ok on the Republican’s good issues, but in love with the State on law enforcement and government power

      • kinnath

        Kavanaugh is a lousy addition to the court.

        He is still vastly superior to anyone that Hillary would have put in his seat.

      • Hyperion

        “Kavanaugh is a lousy addition to the court.

        He is still vastly superior to anyone that Hillary would have put in his seat.”

        Yeah, not impressed with Kavanaugh as a pick at all. Never was.

        But I’ll give you he’s better than another Mao clone in a pantsuit.

      • Winston

        I think the real problem is the ratchet. The next Dem will massively increase government that the next Republican will not really touch yet the Dems and MSM will still treat him as an insane ancap radical.

        For example Hoover sucked so lets vote in FDR who gives us social security which Eisenhower won’t touch. Eisenhower sucks so lets vote in JFK and LBJ who gives us the welfare state that Nixon won’t touch. Nixon is a crook and Ford sucks so lets’ vote in Carter…etc.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        We’re all kings of debt now. Like it or not.

        I need to open up Dr Zhivago and find the quote from Komarovsky on surviving.

      • Tres Cool

        “But the division in him was a sorrow and a torment, and he became accustomed to it only as one gets used to an unhealed and frequently reopened wound.”

        That one?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Nah. I’ll find it and post it later.

      • Winston

        Oh and libertarians have been desperately hoping since the 1970s for the Democrats to see the light and become libertarians. Once the Republicans are gone Democrats will realize they have no “anti-government” opposition so will naturally become libertarians. I mean this is what is happening in Chicago, NY and California, right?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        libertarians have been desperately hoping since the 1970s for the Democrats to see the light and become libertarians.

        I’m not sure where you’re getting that. Particularly since the 70s were Rothbard’s Rebellion.

      • Winston

        Libertarian Moment. “Low tax liberalism” “Socially liberal and fiscally conservative”. All the praise for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton

      • Winston

        Not to mention Rothbard was supporting the New Left since he hoped that their opposition to ‘Nam and the Old Left and New Right would lead to libertarianism.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Yes and when that didn’t happen, he turned to David Duke.

      • Shirley Knott

        The funniest thing about Rothbard was that he was an agoraphobe*. Taken literally, fear of the market.

        *or so I was assured by the Tannehills; no idea if true or not.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Like the deity of some people’s choice, perhaps we should fear the market more. Fear can be indicative of respect. Due to our limited ability to understand such a complex and dynamic system, we should be very, very cautious when attempting to manipulate it.

      • creech

        Winston, I recall Murray going drinking with a big crowd of us in New Orleans in 1983 and don’t recall him recoiling at the crowds packed into Bourbon St. on a Saturday night.

      • Winston

        Creech, It was Shirley Knott, not I who claimed that Rothbard was an agoraphobe.

      • Suthenboy

        ‘He’s not Hillary’

        Uh….I cant think of a better reason. You sold me.

        *She is not the only one. On the whole the left despises the ideals this country is founded on and has utter contempt for its citizens.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        And fine, I get that. But don’t pretend he is Washington, Jefferson, and Paine all rolled up into one. It’s fine to admit at this point his platform has always been early-90’s big city Democrat.

      • Hyperion

        I don’t think anyone assumes that. Like I said, Trump is sometimes accidentally libertarian. And again, everyone should watch the Netflix documentary and we can understand why. I’d hate to have to endure where we would be now with Hillary as potus and again, a Biden, who is the exact same person, with a penis, albeit one that stopped working long ago, along with his brain.

    • Suthenboy

      “…an obvious chance for one party to prove something…”

      They both had that chance and they did so in spades. Just not the something they said they would.

  50. Don Escaped Texas

    Progressivelymadashell @Progressivelym1Just a reminder: If you see a National Guard humvee parked in your neighborhood, they don’t need keys to start.

    • Jarflax

      Good way to get progressively shot.

      • Drake

        I’d be stunned if they have ammo. But an excellent way to get a thorough beating.

    • Suthenboy

      What does that mean? Steal it and do what with it?

      • Naptown Bill

        Park it a block away in your driveway as a conversation starter?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Bring some cutters if you want to steer though. And remove the wheel chocks too.

      • dbleagle

        Don’t forget the drip pan underneath.

      • Ambassador Tripacer, A.S. A&P

        And fill out the 5988-E

  51. westernsloper

    I was just told Denver was told to shelter in place. I see no news of such. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gov Polis came down with it for the whole state. He likes to throw gov around on us plebes.

    • LemonGrenade

      Yep

      • westernsloper

        Liquor and recreational marijuana stores are not considered ‘essential’ under the new order, but medical marijuana shops are. Liquor delivery is prohibited.

        Uncool.

      • Rhywun

        I’m not kidding when I say that is insane, at least in regards to liquor.

      • westernsloper

        DenverJ might need a care package soon.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Moron. Even the Soviets knew they had to keep the vodka flowing.

      • LemonGrenade

        Seriously. Most other states have been smart enough to *loosen* their alcohol regulations.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    If I had to choose between Trump, JFK and a bullet, I’d choose JFK.

    If I had to choose between Trump, Biden and the bullet, I’d go for Trump.

    If I had to choose between Giuliani, Biden and the bullet, I’d go for the bullet.

    • Hyperion

      So far, Trump has, his first term, been the most accidentally libertarian president of my lifetime. Sure, the other choices were all shit, but it’s what it is.

      Can anyone, at this point, seriously want to go back to Obama, or Bush, or Clinton? Or vote for Biden and then get Warren for the next 4 years when he’s confined to his quarters wearing a drool bib, for fuck’s sake?

      • Suthenboy

        That is always the problem with politics.

        A – “We need somebody good.”

        B – “who?”

        A – “I dunno, somebody good.”

        B – “Name a name. Name somebody good.”

        A – *silence*

        Looking at the field in both parties I don’t see anyone outside Trump that I would trust to pick up dogshit in my back yard. Maybe my own Senator Kennedy, maybe Rand Paul.

      • kinnath

        Senator Chuckles the Clown Grassley hasn’t been a total disaster. He’s an old-school Chamber of Commerce Republican. But what’s important is that he has kept his seat out of the hands of some truly terrible democratic candidates over the years. I actually fear his impending retirement.

      • Tres Cool

        At least Trump would sub it out. The best dog shit picker uppers. The classiest.

      • Suthenboy

        A badly needed smile and chuckle.

      • The Hyperbole

        Shit, did you see the job half-assed job that kid he hired to mow the White House lawn did? Wavy lines and missed swaths of grass, it was a mess.

      • Aus

        Ted Cruz?

      • creech

        Suthenboy has been listening to the typical whiner about getting a good LP candidate. When pressed, “A” will name somebody that only “A” and ten other people ever heard of. Or somebody so unrealistic (e.g. Clint Eastwood) who wouldn’t ever consider running as a Libertarian.

  53. Pope Jimbo

    When my son was tiny, we played all of the original Castle Wolfenstein together one winter. He’d sit in my lap and his job was to shoot by pressing the space bar. I’d move us around the rest of the time and do the other stuff. By the time we were done, he was better at finding secret doors and planning stuff than I was.

    Now he’s a 20-something lug who plays video games all the time. I feel bad because I may have set him out on that path.

    • Hyperion

      I remember when my daughter was maybe 8 or 10 and we’d play Heroes of Might and Magic 3 until 4 am.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I LEARNED IT FROM YOU DAD!

      • Pope Jimbo

        Sort of. On the other hand, I’m so bad at video games that my kids roll their eyes when I ask them if I can play. I’m totes the fat loser kid who is picked last. When I tried Halo, my player would just shoot himself in the head.

        What made me rage quit though was Wii tennis. Being able to actually play tennis and getting crushed by your 8 year old kid was too much for me to handle. I’d be trying to put english on volleys and would have my kid easily lob it back over my head made me teach them a lot of new words.

      • Fourscore

        I made the same mistake, teaching my kids to play chess. I’m a really sore loser.

      • Tres Cool

        said every beer I ever drank

        /gets beer

  54. LemonGrenade

    The state of Virginia just gave up on the academic year. I’ll be fine since I already worked from home full time and my kids are old enough to supervise themselves, but damn… talk about a kick in the teeth to just about every working parent in the state.

    This is such an extreme overreaction, across all fronts, it’s baffling to me. I really don’t get the mass hysteria.

    • Hyperion

      So woke, many brave. Did they rid the state of evil guns yet?

      • LemonGrenade

        Not yet, that I’ve heard, but I’m sure it’s still on the agenda.

      • Hyperion

        Loudoun County still owes me for that fucking pink mud I got on the tires of my SUV that it took like 4 detailing trips to get off, from the last time I was down there. Americans have a right to defend themselves from pink mud! We may need guns for that!

      • LemonGrenade

        As a Fauquier county resident, I fully support this. We like our guns down here, for any reason you want say you want to own them, including “it’s shiny.”

      • Fourscore

        So are they on vacation, completed this school year? Home schooling for the rest of the semester?

      • Hyperion

        Let me tell you something about Virginia as of recent. I have a co-worker who lives in Loudoun County. He’s Korean, but him and his wife and children are all American citizens.

        The first time after the 2016 election when we were in the office together, he came to talk to me and I could sense he was greatly distressed. His children had been sent home from school after their teachers had told them that they were now going to be deported by Trump.

        I’m dead serious about his. After I calmed him down, I told him that I would now, if I were him, be in prison for beating the living shit out of some so called ‘teachers’.

      • LemonGrenade

        They say to expect more announcements over how each school district is going to handle it, but for mine, they’d finished up the third quarter. There was just the fourth quarter left, which is devoted mostly to standardized testing, field trips, and fucking around if we didn’t use up all of our snow days. VA realistically is not sufficiently online to do online schooling and there are too many working parents suddenly at home to expect them to get a second grader through their curriculum anyway. I suspect the rest of the school year will be called a wash.

      • LemonGrenade

        And Hyperion – what?? I knew people were freaking out over the election – some of the students in my daughter’s first grade class were reduced to tears because they held a mock election and Trump won, and I live in a pretty damn red county. That’s *awful* though. I’d be up on assault charges, too.

      • Rebel Scum

        I’m sure it’s still on the agenda.

        The original senate and house bills for this session showed what they really want, and that is essentially complete gutting of any semblance of the right to keep and bear arms. It will be brought up again. The great irony is the State flag/motto (and explicit nature of who/what the militia is in the state constitution…) and history of defiance.

      • LCDR_Fish

        No idea. Just ordered a shield MP 2.0 this afternoon. And more ammo from Fenix. Should probably add a holster before the day is through.

  55. The Late P Brooks

    As horrifically awful as Trump is made out to be, he is still one of a very very small group of people in D C who actually comprehends the concept of making money through voluntary economic transactions, as opposed to sticking a gun (metaphorical or not) in somebody’s face and saying, “Gimme yo munny.”

    I cannot nor will not discount that.

    • Hyperion

      “As horrifically awful as Trump is made out to be”

      By the corporate media, democrat propaganda machine.

    • Jarflax

      I’m going to keep voting lesser evil. Others will do as their conscience dictates. Refusing to vote does not make you more virtuous or less virtuous. Voting only for people you find perfect does not make you more virtuous or less virtuous. Voting for third parties does not make you more virtuous or less virtuous.

      • Shirley Knott

        Nor does voting make you more virtuous or less virtuous.
        Someday I may engage the argument that not voting does not make one more virtuous, but that day is not today. In the overall scope of virtue, it’s not even a blip.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Refusing to vote does not make you more virtuous or less virtuous.

        Eh. If you view that the system itself is immoral, as it is predicated on the threat of force against peaceable people, then refusing to participate in it is virtuous.

      • Shirley Knott

        Voting is just calling the cops with extra steps.

      • Jarflax

        If someone just refuses to vote and shuts up about it, or simply explains why they feel as they do. that is an arguable position. I disagree with the position, but regard it, as I said above, as a matter of conscience and therefore something for each person to decide for themself. The thing is libertarians who take that position seem never shut up about it, which increasingly comes across as them trying to persuade me not to vote by attempting to shame me for my “participation in the immoral system”.

        That I regard exactly as I regard the “you must vote for every issue and office, it is your patriotic duty” and the “If you don’t vote for X you hate babies” crowd. I’m following my own conscience and if you think your conscience gets any say in what I decide you are wrong and can fuck right the hell off.

      • MikeS

        So, you go along with every other aspect of what you believe to be an immoral system; pay your taxes, follow traffic laws, obey the orders of police and judges, etc., etc; but by not participating in the one aspect of the system that gives you the opportunity to change it, you are being virtuous? Is that seriously the argument of the non-voters?

      • Ozymandias

        That was what I was just thinking. I suppose the key point here is to define what “system” specifically we’re discussing. Is it the two-party system?

      • MikeS

        That’s a good point. It would make more sense to me that way.

        And I just want to clarify in case my first comment came of as condescending; I really am just curious. I always thought the reason was “it doesn’t matter any way”. I didn’t know there was a perceived virtuous reason for not voting.

      • Sean

        Assuming facts not in evidence?

      • MikeS

        Possibly.

      • Ozymandias

        I wanted to touch on this subject of how we vote, whether we should, lesser of two evils, etc. from the context of one of articles on China, but you all beat me to it, so I’ll try to summarize some of the ideas here. Living in China opened my eyes to the possibility that Freedom isn’t an all-encompassing, all-or-nothing proposition. For example, I’ll just assert from my experience in China that the average Chinese small business owner – and citizen – is economically freer than their US counterparts. Meaning it’s much easier to open a business: way less regulation than in the US and far less capital investment necessary. (And I believe I have sufficient experience as CF’s GC while we went from 350 gyms to over 15K worldwide, including overseeing that in China, in order to have at least an educated opinion on the subject). But the average US citizen has waaaaayyyyyy more Free Speech rights than their Chinese counterparts. Yes, you can call Trump every name in the book on Twitter, even advocate for his death if you’re from Hollywood, do all kinds of shit on social media that would not fly in China, including criticize the regime. They will come and knock on your door for that stuff – (Actually, it starts with the police coming by your house and shouting things up at the windows to let you know they’re listening and to cut the shit. No kidding, that’s how it happens. People who get grabbed generally know in advance because they’ve been told the STFU more than once before the ChiComs come and grab them. I have that on excellent authority is all I can say.)
        I found myself as a US citizen rather surprised that I didn’t give a shit about my free speech rights if I was free to live my economic life with much more breathing room. Maybe that’s a terrible admission, but I care so much less about bitching about the government if the government largely leaves me the fuck alone to make a living and takes little of what I earn. No 2A there, however, and that’s a non-starter for me.
        Now, I started to see things in the US in a much different light when I viewed freedom as divisible, like the “bundle of sticks” legal notion of property – but the sticks aren’t all of equal thickness and weight. And this helps explain the differences of opinion (I believe) between those of us who do see qualitative differences in Team Blue and Team Red and those who don’t. It’s a matter of having a different set of measurement standards over even the same values.
        I risked my life for the ideas I had about words like “Freedom” and “Liberty,” American-style, in the broadest possible sense of those words, but I’ve come to see that my own preferences may not line up with those of everyone else, but that doesn’t prove anything about whose is the more “libertarian” position. All it does is reveal our own individual value judgments about the relative importance of certain rights. There are hardcore 2A people and I believe they’ve got an extraordinarily strong argument for feeling the way they do about that one. I think some aspects of the 1A get far overrated on the relative value scale, but again, that’s just my own view of what matters.
        I can therefore see why people vote in ways that might seem “stooopid” if you view liberty or freedom as one mass and various aspects of it uniformly. Anyone who “votes for evil is still helping evil.” I think that comes from a very naive view of liberty and how it works in the real world, but I see where the other side is coming from. Why contribute to it if you don’t have to (i.e. by not voting.)

      • Pine_Tree

        One shorthand I’ve used in trying to explain individual economic freedom in China to people in the US is “the only think illegal is embarrasing the State”.

        It’s not a 100% perfect explanation, but still.

      • Pine_Tree

        They’re also far, far less deluded than US-ians about the government and its statutes being noble and instruments of the popular will. The Chinese are positive that all the politicians and bureaucrats and their statutes are crooked. They’re perfectly happy to just pay them off and be convinced that’s the perfectly right thing to do. I mean, you knew you were dealing with crooks, so why act surprised that you have to pay them off? No pretending this “public service” thing.

      • Ozymandias

        Yep. My Afghan terps had a great joke about that: “Sir, you cannot buy an Afghan…!” in mock indignation “… you can only rent him.” Big smile.

      • Ozymandias

        Yep. That’s not a bad way of putting it. Because it applies to govt officials, too. That’s another aspect I kinda liked: about once every 10 years or so some high party official gets out of control with corruption and the ChiComs make a very public spectacle of the trial – and the execution, too. In recent memory, anyway, it always seems to involve the wife, and she gets whacked, too. I ask people here, seriously: “How do you think corruption in US politics would be if once every decade or so we tried, and executed, a Senator and his wife for public corruption?”

      • Gustave Lytton

        Except for the execution and vacated conviction, that’s Bob McDonnell right there.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Interesting to see that reference to “freedom”. I’ve been reading tweets today about private Chinese factories being forcibly “seized” by the gov’t to manufacture masks, etc for the good of the people (no clarification on whether they were being reimbursed or not).

      • Rebel Scum

        I’m going to keep voting lesser evil.

        It is good to move the needle in the right (heh…) direction.

      • Mojeaux

        +1 Aubrey lesser of two weevils joke.

  56. Heroic Mulatto

    Arizona man.

    I also guaran-fucking-tee you that he looked just like the My Patriot Supply clip art guy:

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Chloroquine phosphate ain’t hydroxychloroquine.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        They’re both antimalarial drugs, and both are being investigated for use against CV, but I doubt the dosage for aquarium tanks is the same for senior human beings.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Hey, they put chloramine in drinking water so I should be able to drink Clorox to prevent infections.

      • Gustave Lytton

        As long as you dilute by drinking water, you’ll be fine. Just remember to drink 5 gallons of water per teaspoon.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I thought it was shipped RTU.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Oh crap, I guess I bought the concentrate version.

    • Hyperion

      There’s no protecting people from being stupid.

      • Drake

        He didn’t get the Kung Flu.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, and it’s pretty dumb to experiment with curing yourself of something you don’t have.

      • Tres Cool

        …just drink bleach, ya’all. Its a disinfectant too.

    • Suthenboy

      “an additive called chloroquine phosphate used to clean fish tanks”

      I am guessing not the formulation for human consumption.

      • Hyperion

        But you won’t get that disease that makes you float upside down if you’ve been living in a fish tank.

    • Q Continuum

      I mean… the guy’s an idiot.

      Doesn’t help that it’s hair on fire, death, destruction and doom 24/7. That’s gonna drive some gullible segments of the population to do desperate and stupid things.

      • Naptown Bill

        He’s an idiot, sure, but he’s not alone. The global shortage of toilet paper proves that.

    • Agent Cooper

      Of course, by the end of the article, it’s clearly Trump’s fault. He should have never held the guy down and put the bottle to his lips.

    • Don Escaped Texas

      funny how “their” caps don’t cast shadows

  57. Donation Not Taxation

    10th (tin) anniversary of signing of Affordable Care Act into law

  58. Old Man With Candy

    I have a burning sensation when I urinate. Is that coronavirus?

    • Hyperion

      Urinary tract infection. I’m not a doctor but I… well, OK, I didn’t sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

      • Old Man With Candy

        There’s also chancres. Is that where the corona gets in?

      • Hyperion

        You’re now being required by emergency measures, citizen, in the state you reside in, to reveal the amount of alcohol or other drugs you have just consumed.

      • Old Man With Candy

        I am embarrassed to admit that I’m absolutely sober. Still have to go to work every day. My only outlet is the Girl Scouts… wait, I bet it was one of those little sluts who infected me! Something about a microbiology merit badge.

      • Hyperion

        “wait, I bet it was one of those little sluts who infected me! Something about a microbiology merit badge.”

        Well, you could be onto something with these newly revealed factoids. Or else, urinary tract infection. Antibiotics fixes that right up.

      • Tres Cool

        why do I hear Zappa singing ‘Catholic Girls’?

        “hey she gave me VD!”

      • Hyperion

        Watch them little huskies where they go, and don’t you eat no yellow snow.

    • Nephilium

      Yes, shove some lime wedges up there to clear it up.

      • C. Anacreon

        “Scarlett, Atlanta is burning and so’s my urine”

        /Rhett Butler

    • Q Continuum

      Ordinarily I’d say the clap. But since you’re pretty much guaranteed to be your preferred paramours’ first, I’m gonna say that yes it is Kung Flu. You’re done for.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Will you come to the shiva? We’ll need help getting to a minyan because of the minimum age requirement of 13.

      • Mad Scientist

        To quote a line from Archer, OMWC has had the clap so often, it’s more like applause.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Sounds like one of those Amazon fish that like to swim up there

    • Rebel Scum

      While the rubes were hoarding toilet paper I bought all the cranberry juice. Prepare for the markup of your life.

    • Spudalicious

      Gonorrhea. I suggest heating up a metal coat hanger until it’s red and shoving it up your pecker. You may have to do it more than once.

      • Hyperion

        I just have this feeling, that after the first time, much like the current pandemic freakout, it’s unlikely the 2nd time will happen for a very long time.

    • mrfamous

      Yes. You’ll need to hire someone to suck the virus out from the affected area.

    • Hyperion

      So, let me get this right.

      Before the ‘pandemic’ they had suggested forgiving all student debt, forever.

      But now, they suggest only forgiving a little of it, for now?

      Why is it that I just think of them as bald face liar scum?

    • Heroic Mulatto

      So the one group that is least impacted, (yes even full-time students work, but few work full-time) is going to get monopoly money shoveled their way, but rank and file workers in the hospitality industry get bupkis.

      One day, there will be a reckoning.

      • Hyperion

        Our future. The chillins, please use the correct pronouns so as not to do anymore damage to our future.

      • leon

        Look you just don’t get that college kids are the salt of the Earth types who most deserve our sympathy.

      • AlmightyJB

        If it’s one group who could use a taste of hardship, it’s the group that think micro-aggressions are serious world problems. The group that waits on drunks already knows that’s not the case.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, they need it badly. I still do not wish it upon them and prefer old fashioned beating some sense into them.

      • DEG

        One day, there will be a reckoning.

        You’re more optimistic than me.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Do I get 30k to pay for my kids’ private school next year?

      It’s only fair.

    • Rebel Scum

      The only thing that they probably should do is postpone payments. Students (myself included) borrowed that money from the taxpayers. It needs to be repaid.

  59. JD is Unemployed

    UK now under martial law.

    • AlmightyJB

      You kind of expect that from the limeys though.

    • Gustave Lytton

      When does the name change to Airshit One happen?

    • Hyperion

      Maybe the EU can finally save them by letting everyone from Italy and Wuhan march right in?

    • Tres Cool

      You mean you already werent? What with the salad-fork ban ?

    • westernsloper

      That doesn’t sound good.

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Not official. Not a PSA. But going to it does suggest trying The Rise of Garbage: Worse than The Last Jedi: How did this Happen

  60. hayeksplosives

    My spouse is finally unpacking all his music stuff (stings, screws, repair supplies etc).

    He is home every day but today is the day he chooses for this. Ok, whatever it takes.

    • Hyperion

      Socialized medicine at it’s finest. Just get in the ovens, grandpa. Why can’t we have this, it’s so great?

    • Frosty

      4,825 confirmed deaths and 5,000 confirmed patients in the last 24 hours

      Where the hell did they get that number from? Reports said approximately 600 today and 600 yesterday.

      • Hyperion

        I think they have the highest death rate, at around 9%, which is horrific. But they also have the world’s oldest population.

        Not sure where your number are coming from.

        The US is about 1.1% of confirmed cases right now, a huge majority of those being in NY.

      • LJW

        They’ve also been chasing off their doctors for quite some time. Pay in their medical system is garbage compared to neighboring countries.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        And that’s 9% of known cases. God knows how many they actually have.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I think that’s 4,825 deaths to date and 5,000 new cases in 24 hours. Journalist writing precision on display.

      • Frosty

        That’s the most generous reading you could give, and deaths to date are a little over 6000. So it’s nice to know editors don’t proof read in Israel either.

    • MikeS

      I don’t think 60 when I think old. Maybe because I’m only 12 years a way…

      • Hyperion

        I just turned 60. I definitely feel it. It’s hard to describe. I’m a lot healthier than I was at 52, but it’s only because I eat healthier and exercise my ass off in comparison. I sometimes feel it in my joints, like today because of the cold rain. Your body just wears out and so far, science can’t fix it. The machine wears out. I don’t feel old anymore than I did at 20, but the machine tells me that I am.

      • MikeS

        Oh, yea, I mean I know it’s getting old. I just mean, refusing ventilators for people 60 and over? You could be shortening their life by 30-40 years. And they may need it, where as a 40 year might get by without one. I guess we don’t know the on the ground facts, so who knows what’s actually happening there.

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Yep. I’m always eighteen in my mind, but when I get up in the morning, my body reminds me in no uncertain terms that I am, in fact, going to be 62 years old in June, like it or not. And my GP thinks I’m healthier than 96 or 97% of his patients in my age group.
        Criminy.

      • juris imprudent

        I’m 62 in a couple of weeks, and I definitely look (and presumably feel) better than a lot of people younger than me. You want to talk about a pandemic – obesity in Pennsyltucky. I looked better than most of the guys when I was carrying around an extra 30 lbs.

        It is weird though, because your brain has trouble keeping in synch with your body. Mine has gotten pretty good at second-guessing itself before it puts the body in a bad way (took a few lessons, but they stuck).

      • dbleagle

        I turn 60 in under 72 hours. On bad days I can feel what my former profession did to my body. But I enjoyed the profession for the most part so with the pains I am okay with my life. Oddly my climbing related issues haven’t kicked in, but when the arthritis does it will be a doozy. I wish I had your insight juris. I went downhill skiing for the first time in 18 years earlier this month and it was clear in my mind I was no longer the 20 y.o. who would ski Alta top to bottom non-stop and only rest on the lifts back up. I still had a great time but some of my falls would make the opening credits of “The Wide World of Sports.

      • Fourscore

        I’m a little more than 12 years away…but I don’t think 60 is old either. We think alike, MikeS

      • MikeS

        ?

    • Hyperion

      Maryland, libertarian paradise.

      • juris imprudent

        You are precisely one governor away from statist-hell.

    • Tres Cool

      C’mon in- the water’s fine! Its only gently warming for now.

      • Hyperion

        SEA SMITH SAY WATER FINE!

      • Fourscore

        That’s cause you’re in the shallow end of the pool, Tres, where the kids swim

  61. LJW

    I just went through the list of essential businesses that will remain open throughout the lock down.

    Restaurants
    Liquor stores
    Grocery stores
    Home repair such as electricians, plumbers…
    Hardware stores
    Tax prep
    Telecom/internet/cable companies
    Car dealers and mechanics
    Daycares

    In other words it’s business as usual. Also it is permissable for people to be outside as long as they remain 6 feet away from other non-related individuals.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      I made a panic run to the (state run) liquor store this afternoon. I asked the cashier lady if she thought they would get shut down tomorrow. She said not, because all the alcoholics Glibertaria going for detox would put too much demand on the hospitals.

  62. Hyperion

    When this is over, we’re going to party like it’s 1999, baby!

    • Rhywun

      DJIA 10,000 here we come!

      • Raven Nation

        A-League shuts down

      • Q Continuum

        DAMMIT. That was the last soccer I could watch.

      • Rhywun

        I was gonna watch the last match tonight but they gave away the score in the article I just read. ?

        Fuck it. I may just watch it anyway.

      • juris imprudent

        I fortunately recorded a number of PL matches before the shutdown. Watch ’em when I’m on the elliptical.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You may not be wrong on that.

  63. Crusty Juggler

    Has anyone else been really impressed with Governor Cuomo?

    • Hyperion

      If by being impressed, you mean he looks more like a mafioso boss than anyone you’ve ever seen, even in mafia films?

      • Crusty Juggler

        This no place for anti-Italian slurs, sir!

        Ban this man!

    • Don Escaped Texas

      One of my redneck buddies is. I think he just likes action, the sort who appreciate Polish cavalry attacking tanks. He’s a Trumpster; I can’t put it all together.

      • Winston

        He thinks they Get Things Done?

    • MikeS

      Impressed is one way to put it…

  64. TARDIS

    This Corona Crap is seriously cutting into my Gliblurking! I’m missing out on all joyful snark. ?

  65. Don Escaped Texas

    I’m a lazy guy, the kernel of my mechanical genius. I see a lot of new usernames lately, but there’s no way I’m saying howdy to all of them.

    So, to all new tulpae: fuck off

    and welcome

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      That’s why God invented batch files.

      • Rhywun

        My first thought too

    • Rhywun

      wut

      Is that a gay pride parade?

  66. Scruffy Nerfherder

    An NYT article is openly floating the idea of isolation wards for all who test positive, including children, similar to the way China pulled people from their homes in Wuhan.

    If you want civil unrest, that’s a good way to achieve it.

  67. cyto

    On the New York front:

    I’ve complained here about New York screwing up and opined that they are going to spread their infection down here in florida like wildfire. Well, now it is happening.

    As soon as New York finally started shutting things down, people started packing up for florida. Apparently the flights over the weekend were packed. DeSantis reportedly talked to Trump about it again last night.

    Too late. Tens of thousands of NY residents are streaming in to Florida. Which means hundreds of new infected people.

    Florida had a pretty good handle on things, tracking infections and close contacts. Even though we had some of the early cruise ship patients (not as early as Washington and Cali, but right behind them), things were well in hand.

    But now we have hundreds of new nucleation sites. And since these jackasses are from NY and were told to stay home – what are the odds that they are going to obey the rules down here and avoid spreading the disease? Pretty much zero, right?

    So instead of that slow and low curve we were following, prepare for a steep incline over the next 5 to 10 days.

    But don’t worry, CNN is there to let us all know how heroic Cuomo and DeBlasio are. Clearly the very best of the best. I know because CNN keeps telling me. In fact, if it wasn’t for Trump, Cuomo probably would have this thing licked by now.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Communicable diseases, how the fuck do they spread?

      • cyto

        This should be getting the national coverage. We have an extremely large elderly population down here. Tens of thousands of migrants coming here from what is by far the hottest infection site in the world at the moment is criminally irresponsible. It is as if China sent a bunch of residents of Wuhan to Naples and Rome.

        But no…. we are grilling Trump about whether or not he’s “blaming” China when he calls it the “Chinese virus”.

    • Winston

      So…open borders…

    • Sean

      I wasn’t joking upthread when I said PA should secure its borders against NJ/NY infected peoples and not harass its own citizens.

      • cyto

        DeSantis went to Trump a week ago about closing down travel – specifically because of the New Yorkers. He saw how they were treating it, and knew they’d be coming here.

        But the hero worship on CNN for New York’s leaders is driving me bonkers. They have more cases than the rest of the country combined, and they had a nice head start from the west coast….

        But Trump is TEH EVIL!!

    • TARDIS

      *Runs around waving a Tier 1 Essential Critical Infrastructure Worker certificate*

      I’m sooooo important…not.

  68. cyto

    CNN has lost their damn minds. They are dumber than some Storm Front blog.

    case in point

    Trump mentions Chloroquine and accelerated research, so CNN has to dig around for anything negative to say. And apparently, because of Trump, people in nigeria are taking loads of chloroquine and poisoning themselves. (3 cases reported, and I’ll bet $100 that it has nothing to do with Trump and probably not even anything to do with coronavirus)

    Beyond that, Trump’s fascist powers have forced Nigerians to hoard chloroquine and prices are expected to rise!!! Oh, the horror!!!

    Bonus points: This article filed under CNN’s “Facts First” section.

  69. Fourscore

    Are the crime syndicates hijacking loads of TP now, instead of cigarettes? Everyone uses TP but not every one smokes. I urge all politicians to get behind a tax removal for TP, for the children.

    Goodfellas would have a different black market target if it was made today.

    • Rhywun

      Another reckoning needed on this shit.

  70. hayeksplosives

    Pssst… new thread!!

  71. westernsloper

    lol

  72. The Late P Brooks

    Which businesses?

    The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) plan to enforce the closures of non-life-sustaining businesses that were ordered by Gov. Tom Wolf (D) in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, the agency said Sunday.

    PSP Commissioner Col. Robert Evanchick said in a release that the state police, along with other state officials, will ensure Wolf’s order is followed. Wolf said Thursday that all businesses had to close amid the pandemic, except for “life-sustaining” businesses like grocery stores, gas stations, farms and transit systems.

    Evanchick said in the release that violations of Wolf’s order could lead to fines, jail time or “additional administrative penalties.”

    “We believe most Pennsylvanians want to act responsibly and do their part to help slow the spread of this deadly virus,” he said in a statement. “Troopers and liquor control officers will make every effort to achieve voluntary compliance by educating business owners and using discretion when appropriate.”

    The police agency will work with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, Department of Health, Department of Agriculture and local officials to enforce the law.

    Troopers and liquor control officers will make every effort to achieve voluntary compliance

    No speakeasy for you!