Otro Viernes, otro fin de semana en casa….

by | Apr 3, 2020 | Daily Links | 726 comments

sácame de esta maldita casa

Okay how do I normally do this…I toss up the Mexican Flanders, say something inane and mention I am out to grab a box donuts and toss out a few links?

Maybe I’ll put in coin in Hotei’s plate.

New Yorkers are struggling with the surge of dead bodies amidst the spread of Corona Virus.  Did I say New York?  Sorry, I meant Ecuador.

Trump sends warships to the Caribbean in an effort to get Maduro.  Apparently this includes the Coast Guard.

Mandating a recession in the world’s largest economy will have lingering effects to other countries down the line, which seems obvious when somebody says it out loud.

More fun with cruise ships.

If you have no running water, wouldn’t your first concern be cholera, dysentery, malaria, bubonic plague, or some other nasty parasite?

What do you know?  There is some good news in all of this.

 

This ought to perk up your morning.

About The Author

mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

726 Comments

  1. The Hyperbole

    Early links! it’s a cower in place month miracle!

    • Festus

      Here’s a local getting pissed off when the bank was only open to seniors. https://youtu.be/HnW2GtP_2Ig Coughs on his hands, rubs the door handles and then licks the window. He was immediately reported to the “Authoratees”… Cunte move but high nitrile five for bucking the system. We have a whopping 17 cases up here and no deaths.

      • Jarflax

        Is that Scot? Cause Scot’s a dick.

  2. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Working from my makeshift office in the master bathroom. Got my coffee and a toilet. I’m good to go.

    • UnCivilServant

      Don’t get them mixed up

      • Festus

        Coffee and toilets work hand-in-hand. I miss coffee.

      • banginglc1

        They stopped shipping coffee up north, eh?

        I’ll drink my entire pot in your honor, like I do everyday.

      • Bobarian LMD

        If coffee makes you shit in your hand, I don’t know why you’d miss it…

        NTTAWWT, you sick fuck.

      • Festus

        I do what I want!

  3. Swiss Servator

    You always have to be careful getting on a Dutch ship….could be a floating euthanasia facility.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And there could be some Dutch on there.

    • Pat

      Where would I book something like that?

      • Swiss Servator

        Oh, don’t you worry, the proper authorities will make sure it happens…

    • Grosspatzer

      And watch out Dutch Busesfor

      • Grosspatzer

        Outstanding!

    • Slammer

      I could see a weird crossover movie with Snoop and Russell Crowe called Dutch Master and Commander

  4. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The Ecuadorean article makes it sound like there’s an apocalypse going on down there but it appears that it’s just the funeral homes refusing to pick up bodies for fear of contagion.

    • Not Adahn

      It wouldn’t be so bad if the HOAs hadn’t banned backyard pyres.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Damned zoning laws.

        I hadn’t heard that before about “living room”. Yeeee.

    • Slammer

      Didn’t people used to live with the body of a family member for a few days before burying them? It’s where we get the term living room, as in the room where the body wasn’t

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        IIRC “living room” was a suggested replacement of “death room”, which was what it was called during the Spanish Flu.

        I still prefer parlor.

      • Festus

        My Granny (the nice one) used that term.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Did you get to sit on the davenport?

      • Not Adahn

        I hear the best ones are made in Chesterfield.

      • creech

        At the Divan factory.

      • Agent Cooper

        All you have to do is settee it in motion …

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I recall seeing something similar in Spain, but I’m nit about to look it up right now.

    • WTF

      Hey, Granny won the COVID raffle!

    • Slammer

      What’s your dirt doin’ in his ditch?

    • Rhywun

      Geez, what a spectacular example of fear-mongering. It’s from a 12-year-old plan assuming the worst and no mention that Hart’s Island is a potter’s field.

  5. PBRstreetgang

    Someone wondered the other day how accurate this site’s projections are. For April 2 it has a projection of 1,036 US deaths and a range of 926 to 1,130. Actual US deaths for April 2 were (per that Worldometer thingy) 968. So, Minus-68 to the projection, but well within the overall range.

    http://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

      • Private Chipperbot

        Woops. Not s reply.

      • Fourscore

        Early ’50s the polio scare in the TC shut down the summer too, but school started in Sep, as I remember

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        That must have been terrifying nonetheless.

      • Festus

        Funny that. Only people of a certain age sport a “vaccination mark” on their left arm. We’re probably immune.

      • WTF

        Those are smallpox vaccination scars, not polio.

      • Nephilium

        Ohio isn’t cancelling summer, just most of the summertime activities:

        With summer coming, DeWine said the order means campgrounds, day camps, swimming pools, and youth sports will be closed, if they aren’t already. However, fishing is still allowed if social distancing limits are followed, he said, and garden centers can remain open.

      • WTF

        This will be mostly over by summer. These people are idiots.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Can’t be said enough, the government over-reaction will be significantly more damaging to society than the virus.

      • leon

        So when are you going to go mob the statehouse and Demand the removal of every one in the executive branch?

      • Nephilium

        First, I’m one of the non-gun owning Glibs, so any mob I try to lead against the statehouse would probably end poorly. But I think that ship has sailed. Too many people are cheering these orders on, ignorant of the real long term damage that the shutdown is going to have.

      • leon

        History is propelled by minorities. Leadership is what people want. We can’t cede that to the tyrants.

      • Agent Cooper

        Most people have not experienced the economic devastation yet. Once it spreads, things will change.

        I think the internet is a huge difference in being able to salvage parts of the economy with many white-collar companies being able to carry on as they work from home.

      • WTF

        Well, sure, once they’ve established they can get away with it, it will never really go away.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Of course doctors are going to be hyper cautious but they shouldn’t be dictating lives.

        Judging by my small sample of reading comments, they think the collateral damage and costs is acceptable.

        Hence, we need strong leadership and sanity to not let the doctors dictate too much.

        ‘Shutting down summer’ is just about the most over reaction you can have at this point. We’re not even in May yet.

      • Drake

        Not another 1816!

    • PBRstreetgang

      I jotted down the projections, as of this morning, for the next 10 days in case they change the projections on the website.

      • Private Chipperbot

        They change then everyday.

    • Pine_Tree

      I jot down the GA daily projections for:
      – peak date
      – peak deaths/day
      – total deaths
      – first day the deaths are predicted to be <20 during the ramp-down

      • Trials and Trippelations

        Were FLatTENninG the CuRVe here in NC. Just kidding. One day is not a trend. It would be hilarious if it did become a trend.

        My NC betters aren’t done fearmongering yet.

      • Desk Jockey

        I screenshot the Covid19.healthdata.org full site at the same time every day. Just to remove the fog they keep making.

    • Gadfly

      The question is, when was that prediction made? If that prediction was made on April 1, then the accuracy is to be expected and means nothing, but if it was made on, say, March 19, then that would speak greater to the accuracy of the model.

    • Urthona

      They’re not. I was fooled by this earlier this week. This actually seemed like one of the more predictive models. On Monday, it had us hitting 1500 deaths/day on April 2nd.

      They just revise the models constantly.

      Which makes sense I guess if the point is to try and predict.

      But it also reveals that this model has had no predictive power whatsoever in the past.

  6. banginglc1

    Sorry to go OT so early, but this is interesting. Yesterday, 4 cop cars showed up 4 houses down from me. It was 3 female cops and a 4th (male) cop showed up a few minutes later. No one seemed panicked. From what I could gawk, they knocked on the door, walked around looking in the windows and eventually left talking about getting tacos. Since I’m anti-social, I didn’t walk down the street to talk to the neighbors who had gathered to gossip. This morning another cop car was there. And then the coroner showed up. They wheeled a body out a couple minutes ago.

    Maybe I’m a bad neighbor, but I have no idea who lived there. I don’t remember ever seeing anyone at that house (I moved to my current house in late 2013). It’s kind of a run down house, so I’m assuming that it was an old person and yesterday was a welfare check.

    It’s times like this that I wish I had a source for the gossip, but overall I’d rather continue my normal level of isolation.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Next Door?

      Disclaimer: am not on it myself but theoretically not averse either.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        We had that set up in our last neighborhood. Lots of bullshit, but the relevant stuff was very useful.

    • Fourscore

      Haven’t heard any shooting from my neighbors recently but they’re all young, probably saving the ammo for now.

      No old people visiting so I’m stuck drinking my own damned coffee, too.

    • Festus

      It seems to be procedure. When my neighbor passed from terminal cancer there were four cop cars and the ambulance. Why? Who fucking knows.

      • AlexinCT

        Government work: you need a bunch of people to watch while one person does all the work. That’s so they can tell the tax payer the work was done efficiently…

      • creech

        A guy in our neighborhood had a (non-fatal) stroke. Two ambulances, a fire truck, and three cop cars.

      • AlexinCT

        Which one of them brought the lime?

      • Fourscore

        So if I fake a stroke I can get some company?

        Wrong kind of company, they might make it a non-false alarm

      • l0b0t

        When my grandmother died, the Sheriff arrived to seize her hospice meds before her body had even been removed from her bed. I can’t possibly wish enough ill on drug warriors of all stripes.

  7. Not Adahn

    THD related: Got an email at worik about how the SVPs got together and created a Coronavictims fund from their personal wealth of $100k.

    Either we have too many SVPs or we pay SVPs too much.

    • Nephilium

      Why can’t both things be true?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        An excess of SVPs is usually a telltale symptom of a company that has gotten too used to the good times.

      • ChipsnSalsa

        Oh, I see you’ve worked at my company.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Or mine.

      • Agent Cooper

        At my old agency, the joke was you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a VP.

    • Pat

      What does any of that have to do with Total Harmonic Distortion?

      • Agent Cooper

        I’m sorry THD = The Herp Derp, or Tom Hanks Disease.

    • PieInTheSky

      SVPs ?

      • PieInTheSky

        Senior vice presidents? or?

      • Not Adahn

        *nods*

  8. Fourscore

    Ah, the big Buddha in Nha Trang. Rubbing his belly will bring good luck in the area of fecundity but you have to be young and elusive to avoid the authorities.

    Ain’t gonna be no Buddha belly rubbin’ in this house, though, no place for the school bus to turn around, if school ever commences.

    • Swiss Servator

      “Oh Mighty Buddha, I need $10,000”

      “Rub lower, I will give you a DVR.”

      /Rude Buddha

      • Animal

        YOU RUB STEVE SMITH BELLY, HIM SURE SOMETHING GOOD HAPPEN!

  9. Grosspatzer

    Truth in media, NJ division.

    This sucks:
    Officials reported 182 new deaths and 3,489 new positive tests in the last 24 hours.

    But wait:
    Murphy stressed that the new deaths and cases reported did not all come in the past 24 hours, noting there’s a backlog of test results as long as two weeks.

    So how many of those actually did come in the past 24 hours? 100? 50? 10?
    And you wonder why I don’t buy your apocalyptic bullshit.

    We’re doomed!

    • PieInTheSky

      I think we may never know how many people actually had the bug and how many died because of it. Spain and Italy though still report loads…

    • Festus

      Mentioned in the dead thread but none of my Canada Post staff are using “Leper Length”. It’s like a bubble protects them at work and then they get skittish out in the public sphere.

    • AlexinCT

      So they are basically admitting if a test is positive for COVID, they assess that death as COVID related, whether confirmed or otherwise? No agenda at all…

  10. PieInTheSky

    While a lot of praise goes to ELon Musk or Steve jobs and the sort do you know who else was great? whoever invented baking paper. That stuff saves a lot of cleaning up

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Parchment? Oh yes. But not good for broiling: ask Ray Bradbury.

      • banginglc1

        -451

      • PieInTheSky

        well all I know my chicken wings came out great and the pan was clean, I rinsed it a bit and that was it

  11. straffinrun

    Guess I’m working from home from the office tomorrow. Japan. *SMDH*

    • Swiss Servator

      We just got told to continue to wfh until further notice….earliest change would be May 4th…

      • straffinrun

        I could and was WFH, but my Sat. company needs someone in office to handle clients that come in physically. You’d think their on staff/full time American working there would do it, but he’s been holed up WFH for over a month. Contract worker moi gets to go in to set up and do his work because he’s chicken shit scare of da virus.

      • Not Adahn

        Take home all the office’s TP.

      • straffinrun

        The company itself is fine. The American guy is the pussy. 20 years younger than me, but he’s been Howard Hughesing it at home since the first cases starting making the news.

      • AlexinCT

        You would be surprised how many people remain purposefully misinformed so they can stay in panic mode…

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        To be fair, these are the same people who implicitly trust whatever comes from the MSM. It’s not that they’re trying to suppress cognitive dissonance, it’s that they’re truly unaware of the legitimate evidence that this may not be the end of civilization as is being pimped by the ghouls on TV.

  12. Evan from Evansville

    Most of my classes turned online Wednesday. Three days of constant tension, turmoil and confusion by everyone in our school. Teachers and bosses alike. Steady improvement. Got off early today.

    My hallucinations have continued to intensify and I am interested in how I am able to deal with them. I’m tremendously curious how others would do. Any sound, especially ones I cannot see, will turn into a recurring track of sound. I hear people talking (can’t pick out the words but could describe the person speaking) or songs or just random circles of sound that could be anything.

    I frequently hear songs that only exist in my head. On Thurs there was one were it was either a saxophonist playing through a grungy mic or a bassist playing through a fuzz pedal that also wanted to sound like a sax. It was in between. There was a kick drum laying out 4-on-the-floor to back the soloist. It was a Hype the Crowd Up segment of a song. I never got to hear the full version. It lasted about 20 minutes only in my head and perfectly matched my musical sentiments (because I created it somehow somewhere) and my mood with my students.

    That’s my day to day. Lasts almost all the time. My tinnitus in my right ear has never been this loud. I think this would drive most people crazy. Or at least crazier than I am. I don’t know if I’m used to it or if that these ramifications are the result of who I was before getting brain damaged. I enjoy thinking about that.

    Being positive about similar things is the lesson that I take to heart. I feel like my friends and colleagues are too overwhelmed and can’t handle situations that are overwhelming or intimidating. I get that too at certain times from day-to-day stuff, but weird shit is easier for me to sink comfortably into. It is why I got in trouble for mocking Kung Flu at work in a country that takes it so fucking seriously. I am proud that life dealt me a fucked up hand and I have (so far) been able to navigate it better than I think anyone I know could come close to doing.

    There are plenty of faults to find with me. There are lots of things that I am absolute SHIT at. But I’m happy that I take care of myself (give Lady her absolute full credit for helping extremely) and get my first full paycheck (damn school shutdowns…) in over a year.

    You can knock me down but I’ve made it my business to rise. To a weird place, yes. But it’s there.

    • straffinrun

      Hey, Evan. That sounds unsettling. At least it would to me. It’d be cool if you could create the song for us not hallucinating.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Sucks man, but leverage it and start composing music.

      • Evan from Evansville

        Ha! I’m a drummer and can’t play anything else for shit. But I’ve been in about 8 bands and have played live and jammed with others hundreds of times.

        This band put together a real fucking effort to make a solid LP. The first part of this is my favorite, but the second is when we were better at recording and figured that part of shit out.

        Everything is played live in a room with the 4 band members all at once. Vocals recorded separately.

        Guilt Kick. Evan (insert last name here) on drums for everything. I think you’ll greatly enjoy this. Or at least respect

        https://guiltkick.bandcamp.com/track/every-crime-has-a-scene

        That’s the first track. “A monarchist is always good for business” is my favorite line the singer wrote. Seven originals and a Mountain Goat cover. This is the how I play and it greatly affects how I hear traffic etc and how that turns into songs that others can’t hear. It’s actually kind of fun. (Unless it’s gets scary, but thats rare and I’ve learned to divorce myself from that.) It’s a soundtrack of your life that no one else can hear.

        @Festus: I strongly relate to people older than I because of this. I intend on writing something to try and explain rehab and realities. Tom Wolfe/Hunter S. Thompson-esque way of exploring life.

    • Fourscore

      Sounds like you are doing great in the face of the adversity you have had this past year. You make my life sound so trivial (and it is) that I can find nothing to bitch about, except the run of the mill politicians. Thanks, Evan. Seriously.

    • Festus

      Jesus Evan, sounds like you were born about two Evans early. You could have really taken advantage of this circa 1967. I joke. Hope you’re feeling better soon, Glib Tourista!

    • Not Adahn

      My dad’s Parkinsons has led to him hallucinating, he says they are very specific:

      1. Extremely loud noises, like explostions.
      2. People. Not moving or making a sound.

      • Evan from Evansville

        That’s incredibly interesting and much more frightening.

        Loud noises…OK I can understand that. More confusion or repetition of traffic/kicked trash can type of noises. I can get that. But not explosions. Even I don’t have that.

        People? I’ve only had one. At least in in my line of sight, and that lasted only about two seconds. Corner of my eye happens all the time. But that goes away immediately.

        That shit sounds completely different and fundamentally terrifying to me. I respect his awareness, but don’t expect myself nor anyone else to understand how he sees or hears it. That’s fucking scary. I’m terribly sorry that he is going through that right now. Jesus, that rightfully puts me in my place. That is the scary shit.

        I hope the best for him. Tremendous respect and sorrow at the same time. Salute.

    • PieInTheSky

      Sounds strange and unpleasant, hope you keep things under control… ish

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Oops; mea culpa.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Aw crap. Meant to be a reply above, but apt.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      you’re tremendously stoic, Evan. You retain your sense of humor and writing ability.

      There’s a similar but worse case near me (blameless pedestrian) who can’t even have visitors anymore, because of All This.

    • Count Potato

      I hop you are feeling better.

      • Count Potato

        *hope

  13. Rebel Scum

    Residents have also seen bodies wrapped in plastic and left on the streets, according to local news and witness accounts posted on social media.

    So, a typical Thursday, then. //jk

    • Agent Cooper

      Yeah, I’m not sure I buy the Ecuador video because it’s so random and cut up.

  14. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Unsurprisingly, the drug shortage has begun

    May be paywalled

    A senior doctor at one large New York City hospital said the institution, like some others, was running low on the drugs they commonly use to induce anesthesia and then paralysis in patients on ventilators. “We’re running out of all the drugs,” the doctor said. “So we’re on second line, third line, fourth line medications. We’ve run out of the ability to monitor these people the way we conventionally monitor them. So we’re just sort of flying blind a little bit.”

    Doctors at several hospitals have been using a combination of midazolam, hydromorphone and ketamine. Under normal circumstances, they would use propofol and fentanyl because they are short-acting, the doctor said. The others have a longer duration and that makes it harder for patients to emerge from sedation later.

    And with the peak in cases and resource use still projected to be several weeks away, the run on these drugs only highlights weaknesses in the current supply chain.

    “The pharmaceutical supply chain is one of just-in-time production,” Ms. Fox said. “Manufacturers tend to make just enough product, and they forecast out their manufacturing cycles based on how much they sold in the past. Nobody expects to sell, you know, 10 times the amount of something, and so nobody has that on hand.”

    Even before this crisis emerged, the Food and Drug Administration noted shortages of well over 100 drugs in the United States. And factory shutdowns in China, India and other countries may have exacerbated the shortage of some ingredients and generic drugs during the pandemic.

    “Out of 21 antibiotics that would be critical for treating secondary infections in Covid-19 patients, 18 antibiotics have greater than 80 percent of their supply coming out of either China, India or Italy — all places that have had production disruptions,” said Stephen Schondelmeyer, a professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Pharmacy who is a co-leader of the Resilient Drug Supply Project, which aims to provide a detailed map of the supply chain for important drugs used in the United States.

    Another factor that can affect the global supply chain is when countries ban export of certain drugs, either because of trade wars or because they want to ensure supply for their own citizens, Mr. Schondelmeyer said. India, for example, has put a ban on the exports of 26 drugs and drug ingredients, including hydroxychloroquine, an old malaria drug that is being used around the world as a potential treatment.

    “So, politics is beginning to lay into the supply chain issues,” Mr. Schondelmeyer said.

    • Slammer

      “Doctors at several hospitals have been using a combination of midazolam, hydromorphone and ketamine.”

      That’s why you’re short…the doctors have been using them.

      • leon

        Just FYI Ketamine is always the drug used by murders in police procedurals

      • Festus

        Back in the 70’s it was always LSD and later Angel Dust.

      • Not Adahn

        And serial rapists use scopolamine .

      • ChipsnSalsa

        I thought they used Jello pudding?

      • Tres Cool

        What you did there. It was noticed.

    • Pat

      Clearly there are no negative consequences of outsourcing the supply chain for critical drugs to foreign countries. This is fine…

      • Nephilium

        No one could have predicted this!

      • AlexinCT

        Looks like people are now predicting this. I wouldn’t be surprised something like this happens, but then again, warbonering all the time seems so yesterday.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        We’ll be at war again before this is all over. It’s pretty much unavoidable. Even if the US doesn’t instigate it, regimes like China that are at high risk of collapse will push it to save themselves from their own people.

      • leon

        Does China really want a war with us after they have admitted that the US Army can operate unmolested deep within their country?

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, your assumption here that they will be truly logical about this is the error. I saw Argentina’s idiot leadership start a useless war they knew they couldn’t win to save face back in 1982, and I can see the Chicomms – because the CCP is even more desperate to keep power and hardcore about saving face – repeating this same error.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Invade an island too…?

        Would fit their long term goals better than a direct initial attack on the US.

      • Tundra

        Wait for a small nuke in their own country. Probably to wipe out a pesky province or two. Blame it on the US.

        War!

      • AlexinCT

        WAR!

      • Drake

        What would the objective be? Just to keep pooh in power? That’s kind of risky, particularly if American drones are sent to hunt him down. Invade Taiwan? Also pretty risky and bloody.

      • WTF

        And nothing bad could possibly happen using just-in-time production for critical products.

      • Festus

        I used to be a buyer when that bullshit started gaining steam. Imagine sitting in your office when everyone is coming in and tearing you a new one because components aren’t off the shelf available. There’s a reason that I used to have a cry-space at the back of the warehouse.

      • WTF

        I mean really, do they just assume there will never be a spike in demand or an interruption in the supply chain?

      • AlexinCT

        They assumed their 6 sigma process would let them deal with it and minimize the issue. Of course no process will deal with you bending over and grabbing your ankles like we have been doing, and it took something like this to expose it. Mind you, I bet they find a way to blame this on not enough government meddling, not the fact that government meddling encouraged it.

      • Drake

        do they just assume there will never be a spike in demand or an interruption in the supply chain?

        Yes. That’s exactly what they do. When the risk is pointed out, they just accept it because that’s the cheapest alternative during good times.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        risk

        Almost no one manages for risk. I beat the debt drum because debt is gladly taken on by those who don’t understand risk.

        Most logistics decisions are taken with a linear, single-point cost/time value; if you submit a model that includes a Baysian consideration of risk, you’ll get laughed out of the room.

        The guys who take the most risk get the most rewards . . . then they skip town. Even in the entire organization collapses due to their mistakes, they skip away. The failure of firms, consumers, and voters to hold people accountable is only swelling risk.

      • Jarflax

        I probably point out that leverage works both ways a dozen times a month. I am seldom taken seriously.

    • invisible finger

      I’m sure Congress will solve the problem by doubling the length of time a drug can stay on patent.

  15. Pat

    Huge Squadron of Armed Police Break-Up One-Year-Old’s Birthday Party in LA Amid Coronavirus Order

    Officers warned women carrying children they were prepared to open fire with “less lethal munitions”.

    This alarming video shows just how serious the police are taking the “safer at home” order — and how flippantly some members of the public are.

    A huge squadron of cops descended on the Hyde Park area of Los Angeles on Saturday evening to break up a one-year-old’s birthday party.

    Shocking footage showed a phalanx of at least 32 officers brandishing batons and even bean bag guns as they forced furious party-goers to disperse.

    Police were responding to reports of between 30 and 40 people gathered at a home at the 5500 block of 4th Avenue, at a time when the city has been ordered to stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

    When several party-goers became irate, officers called for back-up, and declared the gathering an unlawful assembly. As the video shows, the officers formed a line across the street and slowly marched, forcing the angry crowd back and eventually out into the intersection.

    This is fine…

    • AlmightyJB

      Heros.

    • leon

      “and how flippantly some members of the public are”

      Are what?

      Officers warned women carrying children they were prepared to open fire with “less lethal munitions”.

      Our heroes in blue threatening to shoot children.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        So mere rubber bullets then.

        Way to further community relations in an already poor part of town.

      • Q Continuum

        I’m not sure how you can classify bean bags as “non-lethal” when the target is a toddler.

      • banginglc1

        Because their aim sucks and they won’t hit the target?

      • ruodberht

        How flippantly they are taking it. Right there in the sentence structure.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      B. Bee, surely.

      Not Bee. ☹️

    • WTF

      The founders are spinning in their graves so hard they could power NYC for a month.

    • Q Continuum

      Since the plebes seem to have stopped giving a shit about 2A a long time ago, maybe they’ll take notice of blatant 1A violations…

      AHAHAHAHA oh who am I kidding?

    • Not Adahn

      Molotov Cocktail Party when?

    • Rhywun

      *fap fap fap*

      • Not Adahn

        We have finally discovered Rhy’s fetish.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Panic in Hyde Park

    • mexican sharpshooter

      …excellent

    • Rebel Scum

      Coming soon to a police state near you.

  16. Private Chipperbot

    Talked to my doc buddy. His sister is an ER doctor in Minneapolis. Her company is losing $7.5 million a week due to lack of patients.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The complete stoppage of almost all other medical procedures is hurting the hospitals’ bottom lines.

      • straffinrun

        So they are flattening the Covid curve, but creating a spike on other procedures.

      • Fourscore

        With so few people out and about normal things like car accidents are fewer, winter problems are negated with the coming of spring and lots of people avoiding going to the medics for otherwise routine things probably pretty quiet for the health providers

      • straffinrun

        That’s true. Some surgeries can be put off for a bit (some cancers etc.) and I’d imagine there’s gonna be a backlog of those.

      • creech

        Hmmm. Sounds like a way – permanent lockdown — to lower deaths from traffic accidents, slip and falls, bar room brawls etc.
        Gov. Il Douche and others take notice!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My dumbass neighbors are letting half a dozen kids get on their trampoline at a time.

        The absolute last thing anyone should want right now is a trip to the ER.

      • R C Dean

        They are obliterating hospitals and doctors financially. Revenues are down 40% or more. Some surgical practices and many ASCs are just flat closed. Furloughs everywhere.

        Funny way to make sure you have capacity for a pandemic.

      • westernsloper

        This is how they get control of private hospitals and enslave healthcare workers to work for the state.

      • Rhywun

        Stupid question – why aren’t we (i.e. the US) shipping NYC patients to where there is room for them, rather than building tents in Central Park and such?

      • R C Dean

        Medical inpatients, which is pretty much most of them now that most surgeries are cancelled, are very sick people so transporting them is pretty hard to do. You pretty much have to ship them by ambulance, so your bottleneck is transport. And even then, the risk to the patient in the ambulance is higher than in a hospital bed.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        The AF does have transports set up for mass Casevac, but all that does is open the bottleneck slightly.

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, I figured something like that.

        Sucks.

      • Drake

        Same with the labs – they are basically down to one test on one machine.

    • PieInTheSky

      One should not make profits on healthcare anyway

      • Swiss Servator

        You know, we can go read Bernie’s site on our own!!!!

      • Festus

        “Who applauds the Swiss Servator when the Swiss needs applause?”

    • Trials and Trippelations

      That would be my expectation. My unit is almost always is full even at Christmas one person might get put on call over the course of 3-5 shifts Christmas week. We had 2 nurses put on call last saturday!

      I work on a transplant unit and the hospital is only allowing liver transplants (as far as abdominal transplants go). Kidneys are not lifesaving so any of those organs are going to waste

  17. leon

    I don’t get the need to make decisions to cancel summer stuff two months in advance.

    • Tonio

      That way they can look like heroes later when they decide to reinstate summer.

    • ChipsnSalsa

      We were cancelling stuff before cancelling stuff was cool.

  18. Tonio

    Religious group opens hospital, wants to hire workers who share their beliefs. The usual people are pissed.

    Apparently they will not be able to turn away gay patients, though. But even if they did, so what? It’s not the only hospital and every patient they do treat is a patient that someone else doesn’t have to. Their capacity probably isn’t even one percent of the hospital bed space in NYC.

    • Q Continuum

      The belief that “disapproves of lifestyle” = “deserves to die” is pure progjection. Just because they fantasize about lining up all the people they disagree with against a wall, they assume everyone else does too.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      “Our record on human rights is clear; and we are confident that the joint effort by Mt. Sinai and Samaritan’s Purse will save New Yorkers’ lives while adhering to the values we hold dear by providing care to anyone who needs it, regardless of background,” Jane Meyer, the spokesperson for City Hall, said in a statement.

      As is always the case with these flareups, the faith-based company wants faith-based employees, but welcomes all comers as customers/patients.

      Doesn’t stop the usual suspects from freaking out about denial of service.

    • Slammer

      “not turn away gay patients”

      How would anyone know? People announce they’re gay when going to a hospital? And other than something like a Westboro Baptist hospital a church hospital would not even think of not helping a person

      • ChipsnSalsa

        They have gaydar you know.

      • banginglc1

        I always make sure to wear my “straight” nametag when I go out . . . just for these type of scenarios.

      • Festus

        I just use my handy “half-chub” in defense. Works from 9 to 90.

  19. Q Continuum

    “Mexican migrants sent home a record $36 billion in remittances in 2019, making it a larger source of revenue than tourism or oil exports.”

    There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this, but it somehow seems unsettling. No wonder the Mexican government was publishing how-to guides on getting into the US illegally.

    • PieInTheSky

      seems unsettling – why?

      • Q Continuum

        Being that reliant on such a bizarre, externally focused source of revenue for your economy.

      • PieInTheSky

        This is very extensive for poor countries around the world. And it is not someones economy. It is a bunch of people trying to get by.

        But it is not bizarre even in this way. When local politicians are corrupt, they want the local economy to be dependent on them or they lose power. In countries like Romania they are not competent enough to control a rich functional economy, so development is stunted. remittances are valuable because they allow locals to live enough not to revolt outright and the money is spent in businesses controlled by the corrupt local barons, which gives them the cash for their lavish lifestyle. This keeps politicians in control, which is the goal.

      • Q Continuum

        ^^^ That’s exactly why it’s unsettling.

      • mrfamous

        What’s unsettling is that, with their combination of population, climate and natural resources, Mexico should be the richest country on the planet. But instead their corrupt rulers have fucked it all up for centuries.

      • AlexinCT

        They are not alone in countries in that column. Shit the USSR had an inexpiable amount of natural wealth available to it, but those idiots were never able to do anything to generate wealth from any of it.

      • The Last American Hero

        Add to Mexico’s assets that they are under the aegis of the US Military and they share a border with the largest economy in the world who wants to trade and be friends so much they are willing to pour shit tons of financial aid to help with “development”. Most countries in history that border a major power have to build up their own military to deter an invasion.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Why invade Mexico? We already took half of it. And that half is the one with all of the roads.

    • KSuellington

      Mexico has for a long time now been preventing unrest there and keeping its entrenched corruption going by encouraging illegal immigration to the US.

      • Shirley Knott

        This is why occasional social disruption is necessary. It’s too easy to fall into ‘local minima’ out of which it costs too much to get to a better situation, even when the better situation is obvious.
        Society operates very similarly to annealing processes. One of my first software modeling projects was to build a “generalized” simulated annealing optimizer. Lots of interesting insights to be had there.

    • leon

      The crusader kingdom of the hospitalers?

    • invisible finger

      I’m guessing the visited the Transylvania Blood Bank.

    • AlexinCT

      Are Romanians replacing the wreaths of garlic around their necks with wreaths of limes yet?

    • Agent Cooper

      Every article is now fearmongering. I don’t doubt there’s some truth in the news, but everything is written from the same POV to sow discord and chaos.

  20. Q Continuum

    Friday Funbags gives you the best collection we’ve had in a long time.

    http://archive.li/sXvgg

    Put it on repeat and enjoy over and over…

    • Festus

      Sorry, too drunk and pissed-off to ogle.

      • Q Continuum

        Drunk – Check.

        Pissed off – at Kung Flu or something else?

      • Festus

        Yes

    • creech

      I wouldn’t complain about WFH with #15.

      • AlexinCT

        Is that work you plan you want to do safe?

      • creech

        Is motorboating on any of the non-essential jobs lists?

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      Adam Ford (the founder) is some stripe of Calvinist. I don’t know about the other main writers, but I guarantee they’re Evangelicals. Most protestant sects, especially Evangelical protestants reject LDS as heresy at best, and usually as not-Christian.

      • Endless Mike

        They kind of rip on everybody – they constantly make Calvinist jokes, and skewer evangelical “prosperity” preachers.

      • Q Continuum

        needz moar Holocaust jokes

      • Pat

        I unironically think Calvin was probably the most evil fucker to ever walk this dirt, tbh.

      • Shirley Knott

        I would go with Abraham.

      • leon

        Lincoln was a douche

      • Q Continuum

        Marx. No contest IMO.

      • banginglc1

        Nikki is the worst.

      • The Last American Hero

        I never could trust that Groucho guy.

      • Shirley Knott

        I’ll counter that without Abraham welding unquestionably obedience to “the right kind of” authority into Western Culture, Marx would never have arisen, nor gotten any traction.

      • Jarflax

        I’ll counter that without Abraham welding unquestionably obedience to “the right kind of” authority into Western Culture, Marx would never have arisen, nor gotten any traction.

        Well I’ve seen people blame Communism on the Jews before, but claiming it goes back to the founding is a new one on me. Congratulations you win the Zerohedge award.

      • Shirley Knott

        smdh. Way to insert points neither made nor implied.
        Looks like maybe I should write my atheism 101 post.

    • Pat

      That particular passage is a knock on Scientology, not LDS.

      • leon

        The kolob, multiple wives is a dig at LDS

      • Not Adahn

        It’s showing Scientology and LDS as equivalent.

      • leon

        I don’t care too much, as Mike points out, they like to poke fun at everyone. And the fact that they poke fun at us means, in their own little way, they consider us christian.

      • AlexinCT

        Whycome no mention of AGW cultism? They could have talked about the Kyoto fuckers that want to use 3/4 or more of humanity as fertilizer..

      • robc

        Also the Battlestar reference.

      • Agent Cooper

        As it was running away, drugs fell out of its ass.

  21. PieInTheSky

    And in the local news, after the brothels closed in Germany, more than 100000 prostitutes, mostly Eastern and central Europeans, are out of work. I expect some of them coming back and looking for activity round these parts

    • Not Adahn

      You can probably get some good deals then.

    • leon

      “I expect some of them coming back and looking for activity round these parts”

      That’s a lot of stamina for one man to please so many…

      • Q Continuum

        Who said anything about pleasing them?

      • PieInTheSky

        true, but the ones who fake it well have more success, keep the illusion going

      • PieInTheSky

        Hey I am not risking getting the virus no matter the deal

    • straffinrun

      What do skill do you fall back on when you can’t even suck a dick?

      • Q Continuum

        Let’s hear from the mythical females/gheyglibs, but I don’t think they’d consider quality dick sucking as low skill.

      • Tres Cool

        politics ?

      • PieInTheSky

        anal?

      • PieInTheSky

        doug stanhope had a bit like that.

        There was a guy in an office: if they lay off more people I will end up sucking dick in the streets.

        Well at least you have that to fall back to. what about those already sucking dick in the streets.

    • Gadfly

      100,000? That’s a lot of prostitutes for a country the size of Germany. Or maybe not, I don’t know what the economics of that trade are.

      • Not Adahn

        Maggie McNeil had an interesting article about how prostitute’s rates tended to stay at a particular ratio of their customer’s wages throughout history. Something like 1 hour to half a day’s p[pay or something like that.

  22. Slammer

    I have a question: so people have been sharing stories and videos of people “hoarding” medical masks.

    If I purchased 150,000 masks last year and kept them to sell to a hospital at a 500% markup…what did I do that’s illegal to get arrested and my property seized?

    I didn’t steal the masks. I paid for them. Owning a quantity of masks isn’t illegal. Selling a mask isn’t illegal. And if they’re seized I’m not compensated for them.

    • Not Adahn

      Obviously, you’re illegally selling expired masks,.

    • Q Continuum

      You’re a greedy, exploitative kulak who is an enemy of the people. Capeesh?

    • leon

      You’re not familiar with the FYTW law? Particularly the “no one likes you so no one will defend you” part.

    • RAHeinlein

      There are reports of deliveries from 3M to specific hospitals (via distributors) where large quantities seem to have “disappeared” – it doesn’t take Tony Soprano to figure this out.

      Obviously different from your hypothetical.

      • invisible finger

        That’s why all the 24-hours stores around here are suddenly closing at 10 or 11 pm. The employees are still working the overnight inventory shift, but they want first dibs on product now.

    • PieInTheSky

      the main reply you will get in Romania well iti may not be illegal but it is immoral.

      I have seen people on facebook saying the police should be called on small stores selling medicinal alcohol or hand sanitizer at about twice the usual cost. then again 95% of the population are generally brainless when it comes to economics and how humans function.

      • invisible finger

        Where’s the immoral part? It’s not like he anticipated the pandemic, and he’s not compromising the masks. He could keep his mouth shut and not release any supply at all and nobody would have their bowels in an uproar.

      • PieInTheSky

        you should not profit from an emergency. you should sell thing for the correct price. you should not make excessive profit. so any way it is immoral.

        Of course there is no problem with force closing businesses in which people put years of work and their life savings. But selling handsanitiser for a markup? oh boy is that immoral

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The value of something is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it.

        End of discussion

      • PieInTheSky

        that is just evil.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        just offer your compatriots a hundred dollars for a roll of toilet paper and see if they are willing to take it.

      • Brawndo

        “you should not profit from an emergency.”

        And yet hospitals charge 100$ for a Tylenol. (I realize you were being sarcastic Pie)

    • creech

      500% markup
      Isn’t that the whole object of the game they play on Wall Street? ‘Course, that’s nothing if you are talking cattle futures and you’re a connected lawyeress in Little Rock.

      • Fourscore

        Chicken!

    • The Last American Hero

      Go read up on the gold seizures during the Great Depression and get back to me.

      FYTW.

  23. Sensei

    Did you know that you can’t inject cash into the economy at the drop of a hat? Paywalled from S&P Global…

    Mnuchin raises interest rate for small-business lending program to 1%

    The Paycheck Protection Program, which was authorized under the federal government’s $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, would deliver urgently needed assistance to small businesses and their employees. The Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration, which will oversee the program, and lenders are hustling to be ready for its launch date, just a week after the “Phase 3” coronavirus relief legislation was enacted. Banks are concerned both about the degree to which they will be responsible for vetting borrowers and their own liability if things turn bad.

    Why you might ask are they raising rates if they wish to put money INTO the economy.

    In a late-afternoon press conference on April 2, Mnuchin announced an increase to the interest rate to be paid on Paycheck Protection Program loans to 1% from the originally planned 0.50% after smaller community banks voiced concerns about deposit costs.

    Top. Men.

    • Pat

      We’re going to be employing the Japanese model by the end of this year, and will probably experience the same 10-20 years of stagnation as a result. I almost hope the crisis is severe enough to lead to hyperinflation and immediate currency re-denomination rather than that tbh.

    • RAHeinlein

      I’m not going to mock Mnuchin. Banks pushed back saying the 0.5% wasn’t enough to service the loans and Mnuchin adjusted. Seems a rational and prompt response.

      On the other hand, I would rather the entire package be tossed in the trashcan, and I certainly don’t blame banks for wanting no part of it. I predict significant fraud, bust-outs, and failing small businesses who simply won’t pay back the loans and banks will be the villains.

      • Sensei

        I’m not going to single out Mnuchin. However, they should have known that from whatever set of lobbyists that gave them the language that made it into the bill.

        And they darn well should have known what the servicing costs were. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the big banks didn’t do it on purpose…

        I do feel bad for the many banks that are having this crammed down their throats, but for all of us in financial services in the US you know have to know the price to play in whatever your products are.

    • invisible finger

      Price fixing. Yeah, that won’t cause a supply shortage like it has every other time it’s been tried in human history.

  24. PieInTheSky

    went to the corner store and got a case of 24 pilsner urquells … I usually buy 2 3 at a time in an attempt to drink less beer (carby high caloric booze unlike wine and scotch) but they had the case right there near the exit…

    • Nephilium

      I just ordered a 15 pack and a crowler from a local brewery, it’ll be delivered today.

      • PieInTheSky

        Now that I think of it, I could have ordered some craft stuff myself…

      • Nephilium

        I’ve read somewhere (but can’t find it now) that Ohio is at least allowing breweries to package beer that wasn’t produced by them to try to help out some of the ones doing tap room/kegs only. Off the top of my head, only about half of the breweries that opened in the past 5 years or so has a kitchen/food service. They can at least make some cash with that.

  25. Rebel Scum

    The move comes a week after the US charged Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other senior officials in the country with “narco-terrorism”.

    15 million dollar reward? Sign me up! I mean, I play empire. I’ve invaded Venezuela before. It’s the same thing.

  26. Q Continuum

    Why has Trump decided that right now is the ideal time to ramp up the WoD? If it’s purely a campaign play, I think it will backfire.

    • Count Potato

      It makes no sense to me.

    • Don Escaped Texas

      I keep getting shot down for suggesting that unprincipled people are loose cannons
      so I don’t know how to address what is to me an obvious and chronic situation without unintentionally alienating a lot of Glibs.

      I’m okay with the idea that anything is better than Herself (I’m not arguing that point; never have; I tend to hate everyone fairly equally),
      but the answer to 80% of this stuff is Trump being Trump, a price that 63M people agreed to pay.

      What we might do for some post some night is weigh what outrage would it take for OrangeMan to be considered by most people even worse than Herself, a purely theoretical exercise covering the size of government, the state of the currency, foreign policy and adventures, Executive efficacy, pardons, judicial appointments, shooting people on 5th Ave, whatever.

      As I read the Constitution and as long as he has the Senate, he really can stamp “My actions approved by the Electoral College” and do pretty much whatever he wishes.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The question is whether we slowly march towards collapse or full-out sprint.

        I’ve got no love for Trump, I simply value him over the alternatives offered. Until such time as a significant number of us are willing to put our lives on the line (because that is what it’s going to take), we’re going to continue on this path. Human nature is what it is and glibs are not representative of typical humans.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        The issue I would take with this is that there is no way to know which way we are marching or how slowly we are marching there. His lack of principle and randomness means that there is some chance that he’s much, much more dangerous than even Herself. His record of liberty- and market-hating, populist nonsense can give us no comfort in predicting the range or bearing of his next excess.

        We don’t know. That was what I’m saying about Q’s question: wherefore this nonsense!? Answer: we have no idea what he will do

        except hold a rally somewhere and spew ad hominems.

        I hope it works out, but I don’t believe there is knowing.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I describe it as the drunkard’s walk. Sometimes he heads the wrong way and sometimes not.

        Unfortunately, national emergencies almost never push leaders in the direction we want.

  27. Certified Public Asshat

    NFL Mouthpiece bites the hand: Adam Schefter rips NFL for proceeding with business as usual amid “carnage in the streets”

    “We all want to see the days where we have that distraction of football,” said Schefter. “But OTAs? That’s not happening. Offseason program? That’s not happening.

    “The draft is happening only through the sheer force and determination and… lack of foresight, frankly! They are determined to put this on while there is carnage in the streets!”

    CARNAGE.

    • Slammer

      Sports journalists and fans are getting a little batty in this shutdown. Guy spends his entire waking day on the phone covering every trade, trade scenario, salary, GM rumors, salary caps, etc…then suddenly no one gives a shit and isn’t paying attention to him

      • Certified Public Asshat

        True, he gets his attention now and he’ll definitely be down to offer some spicy draft takes in a few weeks for some more.

    • Pat

      If anybody is qualified to lecture us on public health it’s certainly a third rate journalist who couldn’t hack it in regular news and had to get into sports broadcasting.

      • egould310

        Schefter gets the scoop. He’s really good at NFL. Don’t care about his opinion on, well… anything, really.

    • WTF

      Yes, CARNAGE!!!1!!!!! i CAN SEE THE BODIES PILING UP IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD AS WE SPEAK!!!1111! CARNAGE!!!

      • Q Continuum

        Not around here. Everyone was already dead from Net Neutrality, and the tax cut cleaned up the stragglers.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Isn’t he the guy that lives in his mom’s basement?

    • PieInTheSky

      this perspective is pointless at this time.

      • Q Continuum

        I get that the pandemic is still ongoing, but seeing it compared to other recent diseases should indicate that there’s nothing necessarily uniquely dangerous about this.

      • Pat

        There’s no time for rational analysis at a time like this, hurry up and panic!

      • PieInTheSky

        depends on the point. If it is just getting started or closer to finish.

    • ChipsnSalsa

      Where does the plague of socialism fall on that map?

      Right near the top, by my spitballing calculation.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      So women like being told to stay home?

      • WTF

        He just has to add that they need to make sammiches.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *chuckle*

      • JD is Unemployed

        *slaps thigh and nearly falls out of chair*

      • mexican sharpshooter

        The Winner!

      • Agent Cooper

        Yes. They do. The secretly do.

    • Pat

      [spoiler]it’s Definitely Maybe[/spoiler]

      • Certified Public Asshat

        My Own Prison is the sleeper here.

      • Pat

        I was only kidding anyway, it’s actually Perfect From Now On, obviously.

        If I keep going through my music library it’ll probably be 10 other albums as well.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I don’t see a poll.

      • PieInTheSky

        really? I see it fine. I could paste it here but I think it would be to long for a comment.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Eh, pihole or browser ad blockers might be blocking it then.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I don’t see Ricky Martin on there.

    • banginglc1

      I voted Limp Bizkit.

      • Pat

        But their magnum opus, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, wasn’t released until 2000.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        14 yr old me wore that CD out. I am only slightly ashamed.

      • Pat

        14 year old Pat was way too cool for Limp Bizkit because he was wearing out The Sickness and The Fundamental Elements of Southtown like a true connoisseur.

      • banginglc1

        The poll didn’t ask Limp Bizkit’s best album, just best album of the 90’s. Obviously they hold the title of best album of the 990’s and the title of best of the 2000’s.

      • banginglc1

        90’s*

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The 990’s were the best decade of all.

    • Tundra

      Lol.

      It’s almost as if Matador Records didn’t even exist.

    • Rebel Scum

      Dookie, obvs.

    • robc

      No King’s X listed, so clearly invalid.

      Both “Faith Hope Love” and “King’s X” were in the 90s (1990 and 1992).

    • Rhywun

      Yeah, no. I’m not getting sucked into another “music poll”.

    • The Last American Hero

      It was Pearl Jam’s 10.

      Not my favorite album of the 90’s but clearly the best album of the 90’s.

    • WTF

      She saw an opportunity to kill her husband and blame orangemanbad.

      • LJW

        The TDS is strong within her

      • AlexinCT

        So is her cold calculation that a TDS infected court might give her a pass…

      • leon

        So you’re saying chloroquine will become the new police procedural drug?

    • straffinrun

      Her tank is filled with Kool Ade.

      • Slammer

        Nice

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I like how this fell off the corporate media Radar once word got out they weren’t Trumptards.

  28. Rebel Scum

    Mandating a recession

    Democrats salivate.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Building trust through deception.

    “I think this is the opportunity of the century for China to build trust in the world, which it has found so difficult to come by as a rising nation, and to rebuild its international image — China doesn’t (want to) waste an opportunity like this,” Keyu Jin, associate professor of economics at the London School of Economics, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Tuesday.

    Jin praised China for supporting the European debt market to elevate its position during recent economic crises. “We’ve seen it solidify and make these ties stronger and more mature,” she said. “And even though there has been a lot of tension between the U.S. and China recently, I believe the Chinese stance and direction is still to come out as a country that will help the U.S. rather than be a bystander — it will guarantee critical medical supplies and equipment, and help whoever needs it, especially developing countries.”

    “This is their chance, they’re looking at the long-run game,” Jin added.

  30. Tundra

    Good morning Señor Sharpshooter!

    Thanks for getting up early and providing the lynx from far away lands!

    Is is possible that Budai was actually Cousin Eddie?

    Will this kill the cruise industry?

    More WOD, huh? Looks like the Swamp just reasserted control.

    I was never a Santana fan, but that song is solid.

    I hope you and the rest of the Glibs have a great day! I appreciate you all, especially now, more than you can imagine.

    • AlexinCT

      Is is possible that Budai was actually Cousin Eddie?

      Maybe Fat Albert?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Is is possible that Budai was actually Cousin Eddie?

      I have no idea, but that shop was closed so I had to go to another local Vietnamese-owned donut shop.

    • Pat

      Call me provincial, but I think porn is best left for solo missions, unless you both really get off on each other’s insecurities.

      • Q Continuum

        SHUT THE FUCK UP PRUDETARD

      • banginglc1

        I’ve always wanted to watch a porn with a girl and copy the whole thing. Every single act, and pick it at random so you don’t know what positions and acts you will be performing. This is also a way to have a 95% chance to finish on your girls face. That last part is probably why nobody has agreed to it.

      • AlexinCT

        I bet the porn you want to watch is some of the kinkiest shit out there too, huh?

      • peachy rex

        Congratulations! The porn you picked to act out today is “Gang-pegged By BBWs”. Enjoy!

      • The Last American Hero

        Holy Russian Roulette Batman! What happens when it lands on “dude in gimp suit cucks husband, then cucks wife”?

    • Not Adahn

      r/randomactasofblowjob has closed due to the coronavirus.

      • Q Continuum

        I’m guessing this follows the nude beach law; anyone offering random BJs on the internet to strangers is not the person from whom you’d want to receive a BJ.

    • Slammer

      I like the very end where he says if you need anything call me, or call the guy you said we didn’t have

      • AlexinCT

        Team blue asshats had been able to play the game for so long without anyone pushing back it seems that none of them has caught up on the fact that bad orange man will not just let them cornhole him and will fight back. By now I would have figured they would stop trying to score cheap political points, especially based on falsehoods, inaccuracies, word play, and stupid shit like they always tend to do, because their usual goal keepers in the dnc operative with bylines brigades have simply not been able to prevent orange man from absolutely ripping these stupid propaganda efforts to shred when he wanted to. But nope. They keep fucking setting him up with dumb shit like this so he can then reverse cornhole them with it.

        The harder they try to damage him for the 2020 election and to position themselves to take the Senate and hold onto the House in case he manages to make their pipe drams crash & burn, the more this goal slips away from them. They seem to be unable to see that all they needed to do is stay sane and not to do dumb shit like this, but they have decided to go full retard on him, and are just crashing & burning.

      • Slammer

        One of the reasons I want him reelected is to see another 4 years of great trolling and shitposting and smacking them around

      • AlexinCT

        My only reason is for that reason Slammer. I like the tears and pain he causes these fucking idiots.

      • Tejicano

        It’s the political parallel of watching a drunk bully you hate pick on an Aikido master.

    • Tundra

      As you are aware, the Federal Government is merely a back-up for state governments. Unfortunately, your state needed far more of a back-up than most others.

      Not exactly, Two Scoops, but we know what you mean.

      • R C Dean

        When it comes to emergency/disaster response, he’s pretty much exactly right.

  31. JD is Unemployed

    Hello everybody I just wanted to say thanks for yesterday’s deluge of responses to my latest griping about my sister which I didn’t expect. I am in something of a Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting mode when he stops being upset about the criticism of his painting because he realises Will doesn’t know shit about anything real.

    • Q Continuum

      Can we stage some kind of escape for you from Airstrip One and Pie from Transylvania?

    • Viking1865

      It’s staggering to me, in conversations with people from the UK, the sheer amount of misinformation and outright lies they believe about healthcare in the US, coupled with their slavish worship of the NHS.

      I remember a dorm room bull session argument with an exchange student from the UK who was absolutely 100% convinced that every healthcare system had waiting lists and appointment lists. Like, apparently in the UK, you have to wait weeks to see even basic healthcare, stuff that I go to Patient First for. They also seem to be under the impression that the nurses ask for a credit card as they make the rounds, and if you can’t pay you get ejected from the building.

      It’s just bizarre the shit they believe.

      • Tundra

        Not just the UK. My son told his gang of Euros at school that I was able to get an MRI less than 24 hours after my doc recommended it. And a cortisone shot a day later.

        They accused him of lying. He was laughing his ass off when he was telling me about it.

      • leon

        This is the thing that is really sad about government taking over stuff. We get used to how “that’s just how things work” and can’t imagine a way it could be better.

      • Viking1865

        Yeah the Euro students at college were also really surprised by the size, furnishings, and appliances of typical American homes. They seemed to really believe that they had just befriended the rich Americans, but they were just middle class McMansions.

      • Tejicano

        As effed up as the socialized medicine is here in Japan, the one time when I really needed and MRI I was being prepped for it 20 minutes later. Maybe that’s why I meet so many Brits living here.

      • Sensei

        Although the “cancer carve out” has always seemed odd to me. I find it really interesting there is separate private cover for cancer.

        Is there any reason you know why this why this specialized coverage seems to be common?

      • Tejicano

        Even with nationalized health care in Japan you expect to “tip” the surgeon. You should show up with an envelope filled with cash to show him your appreciation for accepting the job. That “tip” could be a few million Yen.

      • Sensei

        Thanks!

        I recall having read that now that you mention it.

      • Gadfly

        It’s staggering to me, in conversations with people from the UK, the sheer amount of misinformation and outright lies they believe about healthcare in the US, coupled with their slavish worship of the NHS.

        Stockholm syndrome.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        per capita standard of living: top tier
        medical access: worst in the world!

        unlikely those go together

  32. Pat

    Climate grief: How we mourn a changing planet

    limate grief comes in many forms. There is the bereavement-like grief and trauma when a climate change-enhanced “natural disaster” hits you or your close ones. Think of people in the Amazon basin or Australia after the catastrophic fires. Then there is transitional grief: a growing awareness that things are changing, and feelings of grief and sadness because of the many losses involved. The range of things (and creatures) that people mourn for is wide: loss of human, animal and plant life, but also loss of identities, beliefs, and lifestyles.

    Many people use the term “climate grief” to refer to a wider loss and anxiety related to the overall effects of climate change. Often the lines between climate change and other major ecological catastrophes become blurred, which is understandable, since climate change has an effect on so many other problems. Climate grief becomes a description of a general “ecological grief” or “eco-anxiety”.

    For the last five years, I have been researching eco-anxiety and thinking about how to frame it constructively. I’ve invited psychologists to lead discussion groups on the matter together with me. I’ve guided workshops and given dozens of public lectures, especially in Finland, my home country. And I’ve met a lot of people with climate grief and eco-anxiety.

    • leon

      I have been researching eco-anxiety and thinking about how to frame it constructively.

      Maybe stop telling people lies to sell your product, lies like “The world is dying”.

      • AlexinCT

        When you doubt you can sell marxism and a want to kill off 3/4 or more of the people on the planet honestly, you HAVE to tell lies, and the lies need to be big enough to make people panic and demand emotion based immediate action. If you try to just use logic & facts all you will get is people wanting to lynch your ass for being that evil.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      You know. I’m now of the opinion all these people? They’re psyche-terrorists. Like an arsonist gets high on burning things down, these people love watching people melt down with anxiety.

    • Rhywun

      I’m hoping “the new normal” means a consensus to tell these people to go pound sand.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Someone I know – a doctor – said we won’t be normal until we find a vaccine.

        Speak for yourself doc and here’s hoping politicians grow a pair and don’t lead through fear.

      • invisible finger

        Fauci said that, he probably wasn’t the only one.

    • Pat

      Nobody ever got anything serious from eating a plant…

  33. Festus

    Whelp. Need some shut-eye. Chances of joining the confab are at best 50/50. Try to keep peace in the household and pray for Festus!

    • Pat

      Maybe my bathrooms are really weird, but how close is your face to the toilet after you flush?

      • AlexinCT

        People act as if ANY exposure to bacteria/viruses is something that is bad. Do they realize our bodies are basically full of that stuff and our immune system only develops when it is confronted with more? I am not telling you to go gargle with toilet water after you have a Taco Hell binge fest induced squirting session, but damn, all this insane shit that people now pretend is so severe when nobody gave a shit about it before, just serves to enforce my belief we are heading for a future where everyone is a giant fucking pussy and the first time they hit real adversity they will cave and just bend over.

      • Tejicano

        This is [art of the reason, until now, I rarely took any of the preventative steps most people here in Japan do to isolate themselves from viruses and other microbes. I had been hoping to be picking up (hopefully weakened) forms of, or particles from, viruses for my immune system to pick up and prepare to fight.

        The only reason I am taking preventative measures now is due to the novel nature of this chinavirus and the fact that my f-i-l won’t last a week if he gets it.

      • Tejicano

        “[art = part”

      • Ozymandias

        …just serves to enforce my belief we are heading for a future where everyone is a giant fucking pussy and the first time they hit real adversity they will cave and just bend over.

        Future? Uhhhh… I’ve got some bad news for you.
        What’s the company that uses the tagline “the Future is NOW?”

      • invisible finger

        “a future where everyone is a giant fucking pussy”

        Happened decades ago.

  34. Slammer

    Feel good cop story

    https://youtu.be/kyR-fXsIENg

    Cop beat the shit out of his gf and gets arrested when he shows up for his shift, details in the description. They treat him pretty gentle but they do enjoy humiliating him, they’re actually laughing at him behind his back. The even get off on getting one of own sometimes, I guess

    • Rufus the Monocled

      I only watched a couple of mins so far but I always love how they act all soft and polite while getting arrested.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        He’s been on the force 10 years. He beat his GF into a pulp. Could you imagine what this degenerate has done in the past?

      • Rufus the Monocled

        And another thing. Could you imagine? Guy got up, put on his uniform and went into work. Would love to know what was going through his mind.

      • Slammer

        Imagine how many people he probably roughed up while arresting them. If he actually did the crime, it’d be nice to see him paid back by a few heavys in the jailhouse

      • Tejicano

        The dirtier his past, the more likely he will run into somebody who will pay him back.

      • The Last American Hero

        “I’ll be back on the force before the year’s out.”

    • Not Adahn

      Standing, sitting or lying down?

      • Nephilium

        Swinging on a rope.

    • AlmightyJB

      That’s because you never have any stored up over time ’cause your fapping all day!

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        When you have been in the dry dock for a prolonged period, that shit can go far, yo…

  35. Rebel Scum

    I’m not optimistic.

    On Friday, a law firm out of Vienna representing the VCDL wrote to Northam, saying his executive order violated the Second Amendment.

    “Although it is certainly true that there are those who visit ranges to shoot as a sport, it is also true that ranges are where Virginians are instructed to, and practice, their skills to use firearms as part of their inherent right to self-defense,” lawyers for VCDL wrote. “The suspension of constitutionally enumerated rights constitutes an ‘infringement,’ both of the right to ‘keep and bear arms’ and the right to be ‘trained to arms.’”

    Then came the memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Released Saturday, it offers guidance for what the department considers “essential critical infrastructure workers,” and people who work at shooting ranges are included.

    So the VCDL sent Northam another letter on Monday, asking him to change his executive order based on the Department of Homeland Security’s new guidance. The VCDL hasn’t received an answer yet.

    • Slammer

      That’s actually an interesting argument. They’re always saying gun owners need to be trained, so let them train. Hope they open the ranges soon

      • AlexinCT

        It’s a win-win for the people that demand you go through a training process they define but then make impossible to get. Basically it is a runaround that allows them to piss on people’s constitutional rights without just grabbing the guns. Now they acn legally fuck you over because you have no legal way to meet the obligatory/mandated requirements to be legal.

    • Not Adahn

      Cuomo has declared gun stores nonessential:

      https://zackssports.com/

      I don’t have nearly enough magazines for this shit.

      • Sensei

        Murphy relented here in NJ.

        Of course my town is not processing any firearm related paperwork.

    • Tejicano

      I am assuming Northam’s lack of an answer is his answer.

    • Nephilium

      Not just Corona.

      Let’s kill another drinking holiday in the US.

    • Gustave Lytton

      If only it would shut down Constellation’s fake beers.

      • Nephilium

        Look up a bit…

      • Gustave Lytton

        Paywalled in a particularly crappy way.

      • Nephilium

        Ah. NoScript + ABP + FireFox means I don’t see those.

        Despite reports Thursday that the Mexican beer industry is shutting down for at least a month to help stem the spread of COVID-19, experts say it’s not quite time to add Modelo Especial and Dos Equis to your list of panicked pandemic purchases.

        On Thursday, both Beer Marketer’s Insights and Beer Business Daily publications reported that the Mexican government announced Tuesday a nationwide suspension of all nonessential activities through April. Essential industries included “non-alcoholic” beverage manufacturers, but not alcoholic beverage manufacturers, both outlets reported.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    Nobody ever got anything serious from eating a plant…

    *Socrates nods sagely*

  37. Rebel Scum

    Oregon court is asshole.

    A mob of Antifa members surrounded him, roughed him up, and then told him, “You need to get the f**k out of here!” Even though Strickland backed away from the thugs in the larger protest, he continued to shoot video. As he was leaving, the mob of masked antifa thugs ran toward Strickland and tried to surround him. This time he pulled his pistol to back them off. No shots were ever fired; Strickland’s finger never came close to the trigger. His gambit worked, however. They backed off and Strickland got away from the mob, eventually being arrested by the cops. He was released with a citation.

    Charges against him grew from misdemeanors to 21 counts, ten of which were felonies, within hours of Portland politicos getting an earful from one of Strickland’s favorite targets, an anti-Second Amendment group called “Ceasefire Oregon.” The politicos also seemed to take on faith the word of one of the conspirators who insisted Strickland must be a racist, even though he knew better.

    Only a couple of his so-called victims were identified, the rest were unknown and described as having masks over their faces and unidentifiable.

    For this act of self-defense in defense of his own First Amendment rights, Strickland was ordered to jail.

    Though he could have gone to state prison for decades, in the end, Strickland did 40 days in jail. But he was put on five years’ probation, his Second Amendment rights were stripped and he was ordered to surrender some of his First Amendment rights by being forbidden from practicing journalism and recording Portland’s leftist protesters. The mob, courts, and allies had silenced him.

    • Q Continuum

      This is how you nullify 2A without changing the Constitution.

      • leon

        Yup. And this is why anti-2A groups are some of the most mendacious groups out there. They will constatnly say “we aren’t trying to take your guns away” while pushing for the prosectuion of anyone who uses a Gun in self-defense.

        It’s at the point that really, owning a gun in a Non-Gun friendly state is a huge liability.

      • Q Continuum

        I’d love to see something like this appealed up to the Supremes, but I have no confidence whatsoever in No-Dick Roberts to make the right call.

      • leon

        The democrats are really scared that there will be a 7-2 SCOTUS slant.

    • Slammer

      Agghh…my blood pressure

    • leon

      How can the court forbid someone from practicing journalism? That is a clear violation of 1A.

      Of course i say this when i know that someone’s 2A rights can be stripped.

    • Pat

      Judged by 12, carried by 6 and all that I guess.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

    • Rufus the Monocled

      My God, Oregon. All I read is how the place is sanctuary grounds for Antifa criminals.

      This is how you foster vigilantism.

      How can you take the law in your own hands? Easy. There is no law when stuff like this happens.

      • Q Continuum

        If he’d been locked up for decades, next time something like this happens, the victim would say “well, a guy got decades just for pulling a piece, I guess I’ve got nothing to lose if I just waste as many of these fuckers as I can.”

        That’s the only reason they only gave him 40 days.

      • leon

        Yeah. Though you wonder if he had actually killed someone if it would have been easier on him cause he could better have argued a “Feared for muh life”.

        Oh wait, he wasn’t a cop.

    • Chipwooder

      It would be such a tragedy if someone started offing Antifa fucks. Really sad stuff, y’know?

  38. AlmightyJB

    No shit. You can’t create a forecast model without assumptions. Which are usually based at least somewhat in history. The China numbers are shit. The US is not Italy. No other state in the US is like NY. There is mass differences on who is testing who and at what lengths. They’re pulling this data out if their ass.

    https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2020/04/dont-believe-covid-19-models/

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      No shit. You can’t create a forecast model without assumptions.

      Watch us. /IPCC

    • Tundra

      Forgot the most important part:

      Kim Prather, who works at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the Los Angeles Times that the beach could be one of the most dangerous places in California amid the outbreak. She said she fears the virus is being washed into the ocean and transferred back into the air along the coast.

      “I wouldn’t go in the water if you paid me $1 million right now,” she told the newspaper.

      *dies inside*

      • Pat

        But Ben Carson is a religious fundamentalist who can’t do science, doncha know.

      • AlexinCT

        HERETIC!

        How dare you question the words of our credentialed expert class?

      • Viking1865

        I’m assuming she’s a receptionist or a janitor, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she has a postgrad degree.

      • Q Continuum

        See above and despair.

      • Viking1865

        Presently pondering Pol Pot’s policy platform.

      • Akira

        At least receptionists and janitors perform functions that are useful to society.

      • leon

        “I wouldn’t go in the water if you paid me $1 million right now,”

        Raises Eyebrows…

        Is someone making that offer? cause I’d fucking spend a night in a ward full of CV patients for a Million.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Same here. And give me an extra million if I don’t get it.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        She’s either stupid, ignorant, or a fucking liar. My money’s on fucking liar.

      • Tejicano

        Porque no los tres?

        I see blatant evidence for all cases you mention.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Having surfed in the waters near Scripps, the fecal transmission rate from runoff is rather high.

      • invisible finger

        Best laugh all week. Would love to hear this bint’s views on religion.

    • ChipsnSalsa

      Stay out of Malibu, deadbeat!

  39. robc

    15 states under 10% daily growth rate, new record!

    • robc

      US curve is clearly flattening, new daily cases is up 73% vs 7 days ago, 7 days ago vs 14 days ago was 276%.

    • PieInTheSky

      Romania had a record 445 new cases for a total above 3000, but I think we are seriously lagging with the testing.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Are you talking about employment numbers or infections?

  40. The Late P Brooks

    I get the impression this Fauci guy kind of enjoys being in the spotlight.

    • Don Escaped Texas

      if only he had more twitter followers, he could be president

    • Nephilium

      Dr. Acton (Ohio) sure is enjoying her time in the media.

      • Tres Cool

        She went from cute-sy girl next door to statist POS in a short period of time.

      • Agent Cooper

        My wife is all-in on Acton.

      • Agent Cooper

        She may change her tune if I lose my job, however.

    • Chipwooder

      How DARE you not genuflect before St. Anthony of the Lab Coat!!!!!

    • ChipsnSalsa

      Robert Mueller says “hi”

    • leon

      They do care, as long as that energy is 10-100X more expensive.

      Ever notice how all progressive policies mean raising the cost of living on everyone? It’s almost like they want all the poor people to starve to death….

      • AlexinCT

        No, they want the bulk of the population to be totally dependent on the ruling class so they remain nice and subservient. Collectivism systems are class systems that leads to two classes: the haves, which by virtue of having the power will also have all the wealth (whatever there is), and the have nots. The middle class, a group that is well enough to do that it can tell the ruling class to fuck off, is simply not something they want in place, because it undermines the ruling class’ power.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Whatever works an attack vector for them is the angle they’ll take, it’s just what they do.

      • AlexinCT

        Trump’s tweets cure prostate cancer? Well what an evil fucker he is for ignoring breast cancer!

    • PieInTheSky

      just invent cold fusion already

    • Tejicano

      This person is so totally out of their depth on this subject that you couldn’t pay me to try to explain it to him/her. I don’t even know where to start.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Kim Prather, who works at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the Los Angeles Times that the beach could be one of the most dangerous places in California amid the outbreak. She said she fears the virus is being washed into the ocean and transferred back into the air along the coast.

    Sounds legit.

  42. RAHeinlein

    Pelosi in on CNBC, as always handled with kid gloves by Jim Cramer. Pretended to be teary at the start – “so sad, over 250,000 people, so many deaths.” She wants another bill similar to what just passed, doubling everything – unemployment for six months, more small business money, etc. And of course, money for state and local governments. Fucking Democrats WANT this unemployment – not just to defeat Trump – but as a mandate for all their social bullshit.

      • Rebel Scum

        “Never let a crisis* go to waste.”

        *Even a manufactured one.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        “That shouldn’t put shivers up the spines of one party or the other,” he said. “I think it’s an opportunity anew for both parties to come together and meet this moment and really start to think more systemically, not situationally, not just about getting out of this moment.”

        Jesus. Fucken. Cripes.

        What a degenerate, remedial low IQ, cynical, lying piece of shit.

        A real low life.

        If CA get anymore progressive they enter socialist twilight zone.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s rather amazing that the guy still has a political career, much less got elected governor. California is toast.

      • juris imprudent

        Let’s hope for a smoking crater – otherwise the lesson won’t take.

      • Chipwooder

        “Both sides should come together and do exactly what the farthest left Democrats want!”

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Democrats cry tears of joy over this.

      Are you kidding me?

      Progressives and Democrats are dancing on graves for this gift.

  43. Don Escaped Texas

    There is nothing subtle or surreptitious about the challenge common-good constitutionalism poses to originalism. (As Scalia put it,) This wolf comes as a wolf.

    I like to tweak progressive non-originalists (or “living constitutionalists,” as they are sometimes called) by asking them to consider what will happen if they win the argument and persuade conservative judges to abandon their professed commitment to originalism. How will you feel, I ask, when they start using your preferred approach to reach the conservative results that they like?

    • Q Continuum

      I can’t believe The Atlantic published that…

      • Tundra

        Someone’s getting pink-slipped by the end of the day?

    • juris imprudent

      The real answer – they want those judges removed (by any means necessary) and only right-thinking judges ever put into power.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Ends > Means

  44. Rebel Scum
    • Rufus the Monocled

      As long as anti-China sentiment comes out of this hysteria, it may be worth it. Maybe.

      • Swiss Servator

        No, it won’t be. I don’t want this damage done.

      • Jarflax

        ^this.

      • Jarflax

        To put the economic harm in perspective at the end of February the ‘labor force’ was 164.6 million. Last week 6.6 million people filed initial unemployment claims. In one week we ADDED, not reached, added 4% unemployment. That puts us somewhere around 8.5%, and I see no reason to believe that this week will not be similar. The highest rate of unemployment during the Great Depression was just under 25%. Now that is not a true apples to apples comparison because 90 years of welfare crap has reduced the percentage of the population that is in the labor force, but as a benchmark it certainly gives an idea where we are headed.

      • Rhywun

        90 years of welfare crap has reduced the percentage of the population that is in the labor force

        Yeah, that makes today’s numbers way worse than the same number during the last Depression.

      • Jarflax

        Bingo.

      • R C Dean

        And the official unemployment rate doesn’t catch people on reduced hours, so it won’t catch the hundreds of thousands of hospital staff being furloughed, just to pick the industry I am familiar with.

    • Pat

      If you aren’t cowering in your house with a load in your drawers you are LITERALLY HITLER, I can’t even rn.

    • invisible finger

      “Medical mistakes get another 200k+.”

      Suicide by doctor.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    She wants another bill similar to what just passed, doubling everything – unemployment for six months, more small business money, etc. And of course, money for state and local governments. Fucking Democrats WANT this unemployment – not just to defeat Trump – but as a mandate for all their social bullshit.

    And here comes their grand UBI experiment.

    “What are you worried about, we have plenty of checks.”

  46. westernsloper

    Apparently this includes the Coast Guard.

    Yep, that is how they do it legally. Put a couple coasties on the ship and it becomes legit. That has been going on since at least the 80’s if not before.

  47. Slammer

    Upstate Federalist
    @upstatefederlst
    Remember when federal workers being out of work for 10 days was a national fucking emergency?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nice

    • westernsloper

      That is an excellent point.

    • Viking1865

      I think you mean a ten day paid vacation.

      That’s the thing that’s fucking rage inducing about it. The government employees are not getting fired or furloughed or having their pay cut. They’re still collecting taxes on the actual working people. RBG still has access to her gym. I guarantee you Ralph Northam is gonna get his hair cut by his barber.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        we can rage about the size of government and we can argue the efficiencies and priorities . . . good stuff

        but the GS14’s butcher, baker, and candlestick maker need paying clients

        Y = C + I + G . . . . . .

      • Gustave Lytton

        Nor are they cutting taxes due, unlike eviction halts.

      • Viking1865

        Yeah I mean straight up every state should be refunding two months worth of property taxes since the free day care centers all closed down.

        I’m sure that will come any day now.

      • Rhywun

        New York is about to pass another titanic budget and they’re not even pretending any more:

        The budget foresees tax revenues plunging by at least $10 billion and OKed up to $11 billion in short-term borrowing to cover shortfalls while New York officials pray the feds provide more aid.

      • Not Adahn

        Does this mean UnCiv gets paid again?

      • Rhywun

        Probably.

      • R C Dean

        I guarantee you Ralph Northam is gonna get his hair cut by his barber.

        They had a big interview with our Gov. and his COVID boss doc. A big chunk of the interview was about why he won’t force the closure of hair and nail salons, because there is no way to maintain the anti-social distance in those jobs.

        Not asked of the TV talking heads: “Did someone do your hair and makeup before this interview? Why aren’t you foregoing have someone doing your hair and makeup?”

    • mexican sharpshooter

      And those tools get to work from home.

  48. Rebel Scum

    the FCC won’t let me be or let me be me so let me see

    An influential far-left media group has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to develop a wide-ranging censorship plan of President Donald Trump’s press conferences. “Free Press,” the group calling for the censorship of broadcasts of the press conferences, says in its petition that it’s a “life and death” issue. They are asking the FCC to limit the public’s right to hear directly from the president about the federal government’s handling of the global pandemic, that any broadcasts of his press conferences come with a pronounced disclaimer, and that media figures with different political views than the progressive organization be further censored.

    • Don Escaped Texas

      that’s an astonishingly terrible waste of political energy

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They’re playing with fire. Sooner or later, someone is going to view those entitled assholes as a real threat to freedom. At that point, their cushy jobs in academia and media won’t protect them.

    • Slammer

      Imagine being so retarded that you don’t see that if the President of the US is spreading lies…we kind of need to see that publicly

      • AlmightyJB

        It’s their standard operating procedure. They have no believable counter-arguments, so the only tactic they have is to silence their enemies.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s not a big deal because it’ll never happen but it does show what some on the left would be happy to do if they could rule by proclamation.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Obama was in the process of implementing this type of stuff. We’re not so far removed from it as you might think. There are plenty of people on Capitol Hill who think it would be great.

    • leon

      “Free Press,” the group calling for the censorship of broadcast

      I get that this is written by the federalist for maximum effect, but even still… This just furthers the idea that we are living in a simulation designed to make us laugh at it’s absurdity. We’re all Kafka now.

    • Raven Nation

      It depends on how you define censorship. From the petition:

      “For these reasons, we urge the FCC to… immediately issue an emergency policy statement or enforcement guidance recommending that broadcasters prominently disclose when information they air is false or scientifically suspect. We recommend that television disclosures appear in writing in the lower third and orally, and that radio broadcasters correct misinformation about COVID-19 in oral reporting after press conferences and immediately following other instances when false information airs.”

      Which would probably lead to broadcast news not carrying the press conferences. So, effectively censorship but not exactly how The Federalist article worded it.

      At the same time, is this much different to what happens now? I don’t watch much news but I assume most news broadcasts critique Trump’s statements anyway.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Save us, Big Nanny!

    The majority of Americans believe that fighting and stopping the coronavirus outbreak should be the federal government’s top priority, ahead of fixing the country’s crippled economy, a new Public Agenda/USA Today/Ipsos poll finds.

    According to the poll, conducted March 27-30, 72 percent of Americans surveyed said that government should focus on stopping the outbreak of COVID-19, while 21 percent said saving the economy should be the main focus.

    More than 80 percent of respondents said that they supported restarting the economy gradually to avoid putting more people’s lives in danger.

    Additionally, 74 percent said they believed that state and local governments were doing all they could to fight the virus, while only half said they believed the same of the federal government.

    This was largely split along party lines, with 74 percent of Republicans saying the federal government was doing all it could, while just 33 percent of Democrats said the same.

    Respondents said they expected the crisis to last for months, with 23 percent saying they believe the measures to deal with the outbreak will be in place for at least six months.

    We’re gonna need a bigger magic hat.

    • PieInTheSky

      SO climate change is not that important after all

    • Rebel Scum

      saving the economy

      Shouldn’t have inhibited it in the first place.

    • Tejicano

      “…According to the poll, conducted March 27-30, 72 percent of Americans surveyed said …”

      Well, what they actually said was “baaa baaaa” but the USA sheep-to-English translation machine came up with something else.

    • kbolino

      What an irrelevant poll. If it said the opposite it would still be irrelevant.

      Nobody knows anything right now. The so-called experts are still figuring things out. The media, after dutifully ignoring the virus for months, turned into full-on panic mode overnight. Is this the right response? Who the fuck knows. This poll just says “we scared people, now they’re scared, and they’ll react accordingly.”

      Great job. Mission accomplished. Maybe Wolf and Anderson can go pin a banner on an aircraft carrier and hold a self-congratulatory celebration in front of a bunch of doctors.

      • commodious spittoon

        turned into full-on panic mode overnight

        While instantly sucking all the seriousness out of their concern-trolling efforts by obsessing about “China virus” and “kung flu.”

      • kbolino

        You could take any segment of the news over the past nearly 4 years and realize they’re just playing a game of madlibs. “Breaking news: ____ happened, and the Trump administration has ____ while experts and leading figures say the opposite”.

      • R C Dean

        Is this the right response? Who the fuck knows.

        *raises hand*

        I know. No, this is not the right response.

    • Agent Cooper

      Do the same poll at the end of April.

      • PieInTheSky

        the meme in general or this usage in particular?

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        The usage in particular. Never seen the meme either, but I intuited what it means.

      • Chipwooder

        Me neither. Seen a bunch of these “_________ go brrrrrr” and I have no idea why it’s supposed to be funny.

        Guess I’m officially old now.

      • westernsloper

        I don’t either.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Don’t go near the water

    From 2005-2014, there were an average of 3,536 fatal unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States — about ten deaths per day.1 An additional 332 people died each year from drowning in boating-related incidents.2

    There oughtta be a law.

    • leon

      Permanently Close the Beaches!

      • AlmightyJB

        Ban dihydrogen monoxide!

    • R C Dean

      That’s my go-to response to “If it saves just one life”:

      If you really believe that, swimming pools should be outlawed and filled in, recreational boating should be banned, and people’s boats should be confiscated and destroyed.

    • invisible finger

      I know
      I know
      I know
      I know
      I know
      I know
      I know
      I know
      I know

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      ain’t no Sunshine today………

    • Tres Cool

      “Bill Withers, who wrote and sang a string of soulful songs in the 1970s that have stood the test of time, including “ Lean On Me, ” “Lovely Day” and “Ain’t No Sunshine,” has died from heart complications, his family said in a statement to The Associated Press. He was 81.”

      Bullshit. It was due to coronavirus.

    • Tejicano

      A shadow just passed over my heart.

      • Tejicano

        That is a solid.

  51. PieInTheSky

    Lockdown Cutting Challenge #1 – Sword Test Cutting Contests

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTEfhIa2dus

    Who here owns a sharp one handed sword, a back yard and some water bottles?

    • invisible finger

      Yes?

    • Not Adahn

      Yo.

    • PieInTheSky

      well can you do cut #3 with your swords?

      • Not Adahn

        Kiri-age? Yes. It’s the second easiest cut behind kesagiri.

      • PieInTheSky

        kesagiri – that does not sound like a sabre cut

      • Not Adahn

        I’ve never been taught in that style, only tameshigiri. And I’m pretty sure it was highly bastardized. Fun tho.

      • PieInTheSky

        Japanese art of target test cutting. – we are not talking about methods for inferior swords

      • Not Adahn

        Also I don’t watch his channel so maybe he covered it but the biggest tip to making that work is to keep your edge in the same plane diring the cut.

      • PieInTheSky

        the channel mostly talk about antique swords and some hema stuff, it does not have cutting tutorials.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Not yet.

    • commodious spittoon

      Who here owns a sharp one handed sword, a back yard and some water bottles?

      Like I’ma tell you, narc.

    • R C Dean

      *raises hand*

      Haven’t really set a proper edge on them, though. I question my ability to do so on very expensive blades that are rather long.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Exactly what RC Dean described.

    • R C Dean

      Normal operations cannot resume until the emergency orders are lifted and society returns to normal. Its that simple.

  52. Slammer

    YouTube/Google’s rules for monetization on coronavirus coverage: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9803260?hl=en

    “Fact check your work. Use reputable sources from organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and National Health Service to inform your content. For official resources relevant to your country/region, check here.”

    • PieInTheSky

      World Health Organization – is anyone still seriously considering this reputable? we live in a mad mad world

      • leon

        Some might call it a Halargian world

    • ChipsnSalsa

      Huh, no mention of CCP of groups to check with first?

      • Rhywun

        It’s there under “WHO”.

      • ChipsnSalsa

        I should have squinted, then I would have seen it.

    • Chipwooder

      “reputable sources…….World Health Organization”

      Something strikes me as not quite right here.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    “Free Press,” the group calling for the censorship of broadcasts of the press conferences, says in its petition that it’s a “life and death” issue.

    The press must be freed from the constraints of objective reality!

    • Agent Cooper

      Is Alanis Morrisette in charge?

  54. The Late P Brooks

    Use reputable sources from organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO)

    Stop it, you’re killing me.

  55. Rebel Scum

    A moral dilemma.

    Gun manufacturer Remington recently offered the state of New York use of their facilities to help with crucially needed medical supplies for healthcare workers on the frontlines battling the Wuhan coronavirus. The state government has yet to accept Remington’s offer. …

    Cuomo, a strong proponent of gun control, said on March 26 the state has enough PPE for the foreseeable future, but as reports indicate, some hospitals are still experiencing critical shortages.

    In a video posted on March 23, Ken D’Arcy, the CEO of Remington, said he wrote a letter to President Trump and Cuomo to say the company is willing to help with production and distribution of PPE and ventilators. The company has a plant in Ilion, totaling 1 million square feet, that is now freed up since they have been designated as a non-essential business.

    “Remington products have served in every U.S. military conflict for 200 years. And while the coronavirus is a new type of war, we’re not sitting this one out…We’e standing by ready, willing, and able to support in any way we possibly can. It would be an honor for our company to donate space for the manufacture of mission-critical products, such as ventilators, hospital beds, or anything else deemed necessary,” D’Arcy said.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If not saving lives saves just one life then it was worth it.

    • leon

      Why do these plants need permission? can’t they just make them and then sell them to the government?

      • Viking1865

        Or just manufacture them and sell them to those silly old non-essential civilians.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Or better yet, include a free pack of N95 masks with every firearm purchase.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        “Dear 2nd A supporter, you’ve got our back so we’ve got yours”

      • Tejicano

        “…we’ll bend over backwards for you – while you bend over forwards…”

      • Tejicano

        “The company has a plant in Ilion, totaling 1 million square feet, that is now freed up since they have been designated as a non-essential business.”

        Because that cunte Cuomo told them to shut down and send their people home.

      • Viking1865

        Punish your enemies, reward your friends.

    • Q Continuum

      Any products made by evil people using unholy machines will be cursed and bring death to the user.

      It is known.

  56. Stinky Wizzleteats

    A slow mo vid of a sneeze wearing a mask vs not wearing a mask at 45 seconds in (I don’t know how to link to a specific time in a video):

    https://youtu.be/0WyPv_14VNg

    Watch that and tell me that masks don’t serve a purpose when there’s something like this going around.

    • PieInTheSky

      the masks serve a purpose. they don’t make you 100% safe off course. But they serve a purpose.

      • Tejicano

        That’s the point. Masks don’t make the wearer safe, they reduce the risk for those around the wearer in case the wearer might be asymptomatic or not just know he/she has it yet.

      • PieInTheSky

        I understand they do make the wearer somewhat safer by reducing viral load anyway.

      • invisible finger

        Or you could sneeze into a tissue.

      • R C Dean

        Masks don’t make the wearer safe,

        They help, but their primary benefit is for other people.

      • Rebel Scum

        Don’t other me, bro.

  57. Q Continuum

    So I’m really scraping the bottom of the barrel activity-wise and finally watched Rise of Skywalker last night.

    Taken in a vacuum, it was probably the best of the “new” SW movies (everything excluding the original Trilogy). However, I will never be able to get over how episodes VII, VIII and IX completely nullified IV, V and VI. Everything that was done in the original trilogy was made completely irrelevant by the new movies. Also, there was never a solid explanation given of how Palpatine was still alive except for some vague nonsense about the Dark Side being unnatural. Further, if he came back once, why wouldn’t he be able to come back again?

    My summary:

    I, II, III: Terrible acting, screenplay and far too much reliance of CGI. The advent of midichlorians was an absolute disaster. However, it at least gave plot background and didn’t alter the arc of the series in a non-recoverable way.

    VII, VIII, IX: Better acting, meh screenplay and more judicious use of CGI. Overall better movies from a purely technical standpoint. Unoriginal rehash of the original trilogy that raped episodes IV, V and VI to death in most ignoble fashion. Episode VIII stands out as the worst of the bunch BY FAR (no easy feat considering what a shitshow Episode I was).

    Long story short, I still prefer to ignore that any of these six movies were ever made.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The first two movies were gold, the third was silver, and all the rest failed to place. After the prequels I have no desire to watch any more Star Wars other than a very occasional watching of the originals.

      • juris imprudent

        all the rest failed to placebroke more than one or more legs, were shot and processed for glue.

        ftfy

    • westernsloper

      I watched Caddyshack.

    • Viking1865

      They could have done so many good stories with the SW Expanded Universe, and instead they just redid the first trilogy but WITH WIMMINZ AND POC!!!! STFU HATERZZZ.

      I mean, if they wanted to do a strong female character led trilogy, they could have done The New Jedi Order and given Jaina Solo and Tenel Ka all the screentime they wanted.

    • Fatty Bolger

      I will never be able to get over how episodes VII, VIII and IX completely nullified IV, V and VI. Everything that was done in the original trilogy was made completely irrelevant by the new movies.

      Yep. They shit all over the original movies and the original main characters. Then killed them.

      • Rebel Scum

        They shit all over the original movies and the original main characters. Then killed them.

        This.

      • Drake

        It was intentional – they were bad white guys after all. So what if Luke offered to sacrifice his life to save his father’s soul? Let’s fast forward a few decades and depict him as a trailer-park loser who tried to kill his nephew / best friend’s kid because he might turn bad – and failed to get it done.

    • Private Chipperbot

      The best one? The emperor’s granddaughter skinsuited the Skywalkers and stole their ranch.

      • Q Continuum

        Tallest midget and all that…

    • Rebel Scum

      Everything that was done in the original trilogy was made completely irrelevant by the new movies.

      It was the unmaking of Star Wars. “Rise of Skywalker” (a retarded subtitle anyway…) was really the rise of Palpatine and/or fall of Skywalker. Some Mary-Sue Palapatine bitch comes along and takes his accomplishments, property and name by the end, and undoes the arc (fall and redemption of Anakin) of the original 6. Wtf? As far as I am concerned, Disney Star Wars, especial The Fall of Skywalker, is not Star Wars anymore than a fan film written by a manic 12 year old with adhd and a coffee addiction. In fact, that is what TFS plays out like.

    • Agent Cooper

      I still liked Solo and none of you can abuse me of that notion. (I was sick of the universe-hangs-in-the-balance-seriousness of all of the other SW movies)

      Rogue One was pretty good.

  58. Yusef drives a Kia

    I stopped after Episode one, so my memories are intact, and from all that’s been said, I’ll keep it that way,

    • Tejicano

      I’m assuming you don’t realize that the first movie, chronologically, is episode 4, and episode 1 is, um, fuck, I forgot which that was.

      Sorry to have posted on this at all…

  59. The Late P Brooks

    All panic, all the time!

    At least two major broadcasters, CNN and MSNBC, pulled away from coverage of a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Wednesday after it began with the announcement of an “enhanced counter-narcotics operation” in the Pacific Ocean & Caribbean Sea aimed at combating the threat of drug traffickers seeking to exploit the current situation.

    Addressing reporters, President Donald Trump began the the announcement by telling reporters that “as governments and nations focus on the coronavirus, there’s a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists, and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain.”

    “We must not let that happen,” Trump said. “We will never let that happen.”

    As Trump later fielded questions from journalists on the new development, CNN pulled away from the briefing with Wolf Blitzer telling viewers: “Alright, we’re going to continue to monitor this briefing and see if they get back to the issue of the coronavirus.

    “That’s what we’re primarily interested in right now given the horrible numbers that we’ve been told over the past couple of days: maybe 100,000, maybe as many as 240,000 Americans in the coming weeks and months may wind up dead as a result of this virus.”

    Bringing on fellow CNN anchor John King to weigh in, Blitzer then accused the Trump administration of “obviously trying to shift the focus, at least partially right now, with this new counter-narcotics program.”

    King appeared to agree, saying: “It is remarkable Wolf, and some would say shameless. This is a coronavirus task force briefing. The country is in the middle of a pandemic. Americans are afraid. They are tuning into these briefings to try to get information from the White House.”

    ——-

    MSNBC also made an editorial decision to turn away from the briefing, with host Chuck Todd saying: “First of all, we know those briefings have a tendency to veer in a lot of different directions. Not all of them are informative or relevant in the midst of this crisis. So we will listen as the President talks. And we will make sure we give you a fact check and putting what he says in context on the other side.

    “That guy just won’t stay on our message.”

    • Akira

      So they cut away from the conference because Trump wasn’t talking about the coronavirus, then they spent a bunch of time talking about how terrible Trump is?

  60. RAHeinlein

    I think IHME received the messages about their sloppy data, which they alleged was updating daily. Last daily update was April 1, and the website states:

    “As the pandemic progresses, we are working to incorporate new data about the virus in the US.
    Please check back on Saturday, April 4 for our next update.”

  61. Gadfly

    Don’t know if this has been posted here yet (it’s a few days old) but the NY Times published a good Op-Ed about government reactions to the pandemic: For Autocrats, and Others, Coronavirus Is a Chance to Grab Even More Power.

    “We could have a parallel epidemic of authoritarian and repressive measures following close if not on the heels of a health epidemic,” said Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights.

    As the new laws broaden state surveillance, allow governments to detain people indefinitely and infringe on freedoms of assembly and expression, they could also shape civic life, politics and economies for decades to come.

    It is far from clear what will become of the emergency laws when the crisis passes. In the past, laws enacted in a rush, like the Patriot Act that followed the Sept. 11 attacks, have outlived the crises they were meant to address.

    I thought it was an especially good piece, considering the source and considering the paper is published in NY, which is the epicenter of the pandemic in the US and thus most at risk for draconian measures in the country.

    • juris imprudent

      Allow me to enlighten you: “It’s different when we do it” /every-prog-that-ever-lived

      • Don Escaped Texas

        “It’s different when we do it” /every-prog-that-ever-lived everyone

      • leon

        But i am special.

      • Akira

        They make the same exact arguments (verbatim) that were made after 9/11.

        “But this is an emergency!”

        “Our nation is facing an enemy!”

        “The Founding Fathers didn’t foresee anything like this!”

      • Grosspatzer

        Yeah, a lot of BS to deflect from a failure of the intelligence community in that case. I lost a LOT of friends and coworkers there, and it was infuriating to see how this was used to clamp down on our freedoms. Bastards standing on a pile of dead bodies.

      • Akira

        Leftists make the pragmatic anti-Constitution when a mass shooting happens or a virus sweeps the country, but they would reject it out of hand if you (in a devil’s advocate way) suggested cracking down on Muslims to prevent terrorism.

        I actually like to bring up the “Muslim registry” idea because it forces them to admit that the Constitution actually matters, that government will abuse any power you give it, and that utilitarian arguments about “the public good” don’t override natural rights… Of course, they will admit all that and then go right back to saying that guns should be confiscated, but I refuse to let them be comfortable with their DoubleThink.

    • Tejicano

      Wait a minute… that’s not the Babylon Bee..

  62. Rufus the Monocled

    My wife watches a show called Station 19.

    Some show about a SJW fire station. I was watching Gavin McInness and was to lazy to move my ass out of the living room and ended up catching a scene where a black dude made the most retarded case attempting to prove ICE is the Gestapo. I actually got angry at the overt political propaganda. And the writers flat out showed their a) left-wing bent and b) utter shallow, illiberal and ignorant understanding of the Gestapo.

    Anyone catch it?

    • leon

      Coronoavirus? no, i’m still healthy.

    • Tres Cool

      I’m more of a Station 51 kinda guy.

      • Raven Nation

        Correct. There have been no fire station shows since this went off the air.

        “Rampart, this is engine 51.”

      • Fatty Bolger

        When my son was in cub scouts, we visited the local fire station, and they were using the alarm tone from the show when a call came in (the system has a bunch they can choose from, and each station could choose which one they wanted to use). They played it for us, and wham, overwhelming nostalgia.

      • Tres Cool

        And nearly every patient got either Ringer’s Lactate or D5W.

    • PieInTheSky

      watching Gavin McInness – white supremacist confirmed

  63. AlexinCT

    I suspect that the reason the story about a bunch of our elected reps in DC using insider knowledge to engage in illegal trading practices that came out a week or two ago – and then, they only mentioned a couple of asshole team red fucks doing it – has gotten no legs and actually been killed, because of revelations like this one. I assume all of them, team read AND team blue, did it in one way or another. They are contemptuous fucks.

    • Viking1865

      Congress is exempt from insider trading laws.

    • westernsloper

      The Pelosi family have all benefited from politics. The daughter has run social justice non profits for a very long time. How much fed grant money has she pocketed? I have never seen a story about that. It is rampant throughout political families across the spectrum.

    • grrizzly

      Actually, Pelosi’s husband bought CALL options when the stocks were high. He’s currently losing money. Holding call options with an expiration date far in the future is comparable to owning the stock. Pelosi’s husband should have bought PUT options on February 20.

      • CPRM

        Unless, stay with me here, it might be stretch, he has knowledge you don’t. I know that’s a crazy thought…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Well he does know what Nancy’s snatch smells like….

        (I can’t believe I just typed that, I have to vomit now)

      • Rhywun

        Dude.

      • Plinker762

        I doubt it smells like dude.

      • grrizzly

        I have knowledge of how options work. And what the setup should be to take advantage of insider information. This is not it.

  64. The Late P Brooks

    So I’m really scraping the bottom of the barrel activity-wise and finally watched Rise of Skywalker last night.

    Watch Branaugh’s Henry V, tonight. Or Richard III with Ian McKellen.

    • juris imprudent

      You sir, are not scraping with those choices.

    • Raven Nation

      Second on Henry V

  65. The Late P Brooks

    Watch Rosenstein and Guildenstern are Dead.

    • Not Adahn

      Watch the Kevin Kline/Dame Judi version of “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

      • PieInTheSky

        Kevin Kline?

      • Not Adahn

        D’oh!

        Colin Firth. Colin/Kevin, w/e.

  66. AlexinCT

    In case people act as if the ones that were warning us were the team blue leaders and not the orange man they were trying to impeach and damage politcally, have a look at ,a href=”https://youtu.be/2SKy8XAn5MQ” target=”_new’this…

    She was NOT the only one doing this. They all were because they wanted to accuse orange man of being a racist…

  67. leon

    Something that hasn’t gotten a lot of play here is AOC’s rejecting of Bernie and joining the Democratic establishment. Did anyone see this not happening?

    • juris imprudent

      Presumably the new plot arc of Star Wars.

    • Rhywun

      I guess she’s not as stupid as she would like us to believe. Doesn’t mean she isn’t still loudly pushing inane BS, though.

    • R C Dean

      Feeling the heat on redistricting and her primary, is my guess.

  68. PieInTheSky

    Tucker Carlson & @JaredEMoskowitz
    Calling Out @3M
    Selling Masks to Foreign Governments Instead of to Americans

    https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1245881131225890816

    see the problem with outrage pieces like this is that you never have the full information. But the comments are predictable…

    Trump and the US govt should seize 3M production lines tomorrow morning – yes that will make things better.

    • kbolino

      It worked out great for Chavez and Maduro.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Seems it’s the distribution network that is selling them cash and carry to foreign countries. I don’t see 3M as being directly responsible for that scenario but they’re definitely playing with fire. Emotions are running high everywhere.

      How many of those masks are made overseas (China) anyway and are imported to distribution here in the US? I’m betting most of them.

      This will be a business case study in clusterfucks for decades to come.

      • PieInTheSky

        i though I read somewhere 3M has factories all over the place so I assume this is about US made masks.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They do, but masks are a lower margin global business. They onshore a lot of their higher margin specialty products for automotive, adhesives, etc…

  69. The Late P Brooks

    Also, from that Newsweak article:

    In recent days, there have been growing calls for broadcasters to stop providing live coverage of the briefings in full, and to instead report on the briefings and let those who want to watch them in full view them online.

    While outspoken critics like Scott Dworkin, the co-founder of the Democratic Coalition, have been vocal in calling for broadcasters to do more to provide balanced coverage of the briefings, everyday Americans have also made their own voices heard.

    One petition started online by a retiree who had grown tired of seeing the constant coverage of Trump’s comments during the COVID-19 briefings gained rapid support, attracting more than 200,000 signatures in a matter of days.

    ——-

    She said she was shocked to see that it had quickly gained tens of thousands of signatures from people from across the country.

    Rochman said the widespread support for her petition suggested that many Americans were feeling equally concerned about the White House coronavirus briefings becoming increasingly politicized.

    “This is not a time for politicking,” she said. With the presidential election coming up, Rochman said, “I know it’s the ‘silly season,’ as we used to say in D.C., but it’s just not helpful. What people need right now is to feel well-informed and safe and not have somebody, anybody, spreading fear and misinformation and minimizing the impact of the virus.”

    I need muh apocalypse porn to fap to. Don’t tell me we’re going to get through this! Terrify me! Make me quiver!

    • kbolino

      spreading fear […] and minimizing the impact of the virus

      Uh, what? Don’t be afraid, but for fuck’s sake don’t not be afraid!

      spreading […] misinformation

      What is it, exactly, that makes journalists you like have “real” information while politicians you don’t like always have “misinformation”? None of those pretty or not-so-pretty faces reading the “news” to you have a fucking clue what they’re talking about. They’re picking “experts” based on irrelevant factors, because hey that’s all the know. Just like… politicians!

      • leon

        The difference between news and fake news is the spin you put on the story.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      is there a test for the Current Flu Virus? is any one keeping track of that death toll?

      • kbolino

        The models are predicting millions at least a million a quarter to half a million at least a hundred thousand deaths, and those models are made by experts, so it’s going to happen. Current numbers are just a disinformation tactic spread by science deniers.

      • commodious spittoon

        Yesterday’s numbers are vile lies spread by State Enemies.

      • commodious spittoon

        Oops, should be “yesterday’s predictions”

      • ChipsnSalsa

        We have always been at war with Oceania.

      • AlexinCT

        is there a test for the Current Flu Virus?

        Watch any old Hong Kong Kung Fu movie.. If you find yourself wondering why the fook the people’s mouths are moving a certain way but their crappy engrish produces different words, then you MUST have the virus cause you are racist…

      • R C Dean

        Yes, and yes. Just like every year.

    • Akira

      You know if Obama were still president and urged people not to panic and emphasized the positive developments in fighting the virus, they would have nothing but gushing praise for his fearless, stalwart leadership.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Tireless efforts against the greatest scourge any president has ever faced.

    • Q Continuum

      To bad Western media, lefty politicos and academics are sooper eager to parrot ChiCom propaganda and are open about their preference for Chinese-style governance over Western constitutional republicanism.

      • Tejicano

        The red hats have “Make America Great Again” printed in them. The blue hats have “Spit or Swallow?” in Chinese characters.

  70. The Late P Brooks

    Watch the Kevin Kline/Dame Judi version of “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

    Ooooh.

    • commodious spittoon

      We delivered 22 babies yesterday.

      COD?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They’re offering 10% down, 90% in 18 years.

    • PieInTheSky

      We – are you taking credit for other people?

    • CPRM

      Delivered them to who? Did they tip?

      • AlexinCT

        This fucking crowd is just brutal…

        Must be why I keep coming back.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      It is Beautiful right now, the Colors!
      The Weeds!

    • RAHeinlein

      Nice, I’ve enjoyed the photos of Casa Dean – very lovely home.

    • Tundra

      Gorgeous!

  71. CPRM

    The only way to end the Orange Flu is Impeach Trump! It’s the only thing that can save us! That and a lot of socialism! more socialism than the literal National Socialist is implementing!)

    • kbolino

      We have to be more like [whatever country is currently not seen as bad] in [ways that have no connection to the purported justification] or else we’re all going to {die, suffer, go bankrupt, get replaced by machines, get turned into machines, become too rich and too poor at the same time, have underfunded infrastructure, yadda yadda}.

      • Q Continuum

        I’d like to draft you to run for office.

      • Akira

        It’s funny how the Left always idolizes Sweden, but they’re strangely silent on how Sweden seems to be keeping a handle on this virus without mandatory lockdowns.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Sweden’s death rate is nearly double ours. Not sure that they are keeping a handle on it, but it will be an interesting control case to study once this is all over.

    • juris imprudent

      The only thing we have to fear, from fascism, is that we aren’t fascisting hard enough! Or something.

  72. ruodberht

    juris – notice me!

    How is Rumpole? Considering watching it.

    • juris imprudent

      Well of course I highly recommend it. Really depends on how your tastes for Englishness run – I like the dry humour and Python, but never was a Benny Hill fan. Go figure.

      • ruodberht

        Thanks!

      • Fatty Bolger

        I read several of the books in the mid-80’s and really enjoyed them.

  73. The Late P Brooks

    We delivered 22 babies yesterday.

    Bringing poor helpless babies into the apocalyptic shithole which is Trump’s America?

    Such tragic.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Wendy got out, just in time…….

    • commodious spittoon

      Smother them for compassion’s sake.

  74. RAHeinlein

    Cuomo is full-tilt on New York getting everything they “need” in terms of medical supplies/resources now, and they will help everyone else as crises arise. He has all the data, and it’s clear that areas will crest at different times (infographic with waves over cities showed this), “why not do this? There is no practical, operational alternative.”

    • juris imprudent

      Half of the country’s entire case load is in NY/NJ. It actually does make sense to get resources there right now.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        We’re in that situation where you’re holed up in a cave with a bear. While the bear doesn’t have a right to your food, if you don’t let him have a taste he’s gonna maul you.

    • R C Dean

      they will help everyone else as crises arise

      Uh-huh.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Why do you doubt? New Yorkers are famous for their kind and generous natures.

  75. The Late P Brooks

    Not to be a big Debbie Downer, but will murder-suicides resulting from the economic fallout of the lockdown be classified as “corona-related” fatalities?

    • Ozymandias

      To run up the numbers and justifying more socialism? YES.
      To show that the solution was worse than the problem? NO.

    • Tundra

      Not sure. Suicides during the last recession weren’t even acknowledged.

    • CPRM

      Yes, and Trump deaths.

    • Not Adahn

      They will be proof that we must enact common sense gun safety legislation.

    • Jarflax

      I’m sorry I don’t speak Romanian, mind translating?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Random postmodernist generator

  76. RAHeinlein

    Holy crap – Cuomo literally talking about deploying the National Guard to “borrow” supplies NYC needs from PRIVATE hospitals. “Let them sue me.”

    • leon

      I wonder how much of this is done with consultation of the state TAG? Is the TAG that confident that all his officers will go along with that?

    • PieInTheSky

      they should also invade Rhode Island.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And here we go…

    • CPRM

      When they kill a baby it’s ‘Women’s Health’, when I do it it’s ‘Devil Worship’; When I steal meds from the hospital it’s ‘A Felony’; When they do it it’s ‘borrowing’.

      • PieInTheSky

        you at least have the excuse that these days it is hard to find 16 year old virgins so you have to resort to babies.

    • juris imprudent

      Did he actually say “kulaks and hoarders” – just want to correctly note it for posterity.

    • Not Adahn

      I REALLY don’t have enough magazines.

      • AlmightyJB

        I’m in good shape but will probably buy more. Local shop having sale.

  77. CPRM

    When someone a Twitter friend tweets about their newborn child and THIS is how you respond, and they ‘like’ it, that is the a love no quarantine can break.

    • ChipsnSalsa

      aaaaand it’s deleted.

    • leon

      Do you know Lou?

      • CPRM

        I have doxxed myself to him in emails and talked shop. I’ve never met him personally. we’re Twitter ‘friends’.

    • commodious spittoon

      Six feet of distance applies to babies and wombs too.

    • Agent Cooper

      This is so obscure now.

  78. The Late P Brooks

    Wreckers and saboteurs

    From massive global institutions with trillion-dollar balance sheets to regional banks and small local lenders, the companies all had one thing in common: They were awaiting key guidance from the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Treasury on exactly how to administer the program.

    “They’re not ready at all, they’re desperately awaiting guidance on how to do this,” said Ami Kassar, CEO of small business loan advisory firm MultiFunding. “I think it’s going to be a mess for weeks.”

    JPMorgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank, was the first lender to publicly say what others had whispered: It emailed customers late Thursday to say the company “will most likely not be able to start accepting applications on Friday, April 3rd as we had hoped.”

    They’re trying to make Nancy and Chuck look bad!

    • juris imprudent

      Conniving to keep the sweet govt lucre all to themselves!

  79. The Late P Brooks

    I REALLY don’t have enough magazines.

    It’s the 21st century, man. Print media is as dead as the Dodo.

    • AlmightyJB

      But we can print our own mags! Just need some spring steel:)

    • Not Adahn

      Have you ever tried to wipe your ass with a USB stick?

      • Drake

        It never even occurred to me until now.

        Could be a bitch to clean depending on which end you use.

  80. The Late P Brooks

    Lenders are afraid of incurring government fines tied to the execution of the program, as they did in the years after the financial crisis, said Paul Kupiec, a scholar with conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute.

    “These loans are a minefield for lenders” Kupiec said. They are “chocked full of qualifying requirements that must be checked and certified,” he said, adding that its “not hard to imagine there might be unscrupulous businesses that stretch the truth to get a bigger loan than allowed by law.”

    Even the timing of the start of the program has banks worried. “They did it on a Friday so people will want to get it done before the weekend,” said one executive of a large U.S. bank. “We’re bracing ourselves for an avalanche of requests for money.”

    Details, Schmeetails.

    Friday is payday. Just write the damn checks, and worry about the rest of it later.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      My banker is notably stressed over this program.

      • RAHeinlein

        In the early stages of program development, I believe Mnuchin indicated businesses needed to show viability as of Jan 1, 2020 to qualify. Do you know if there are similar viability criteria in the final legislation/guidance?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The guidance is changing almost every day. I’d have to check the latest to see. My request is in and I’m waiting to hear from the bank on further documentation requirements.

      • Tundra

        Lol.

        I’ve already gotten three emails this morning.

        Cluster.

        Fuck.

      • AlexinCT

        Di you expect it to be different? it is government we are talking about here.

    • ChipsnSalsa

      What, you got some big plans for the weekend that you need the money for?