Monday Morning Links

by | Apr 20, 2020 | Daily Links | 445 comments

There is no argument.

Everybody and their brother is talking about that Jordan documentary.  I’ll say this and then leave it: today’s game is soft and Lebron James is nowhere in Jordan’s league when it comes to competitiveness. And the comparisons between the two about who is “the greatest of all time” shouldn’t exist merely for the fact that one of them is most likely the best ever and the other sits behind at least Wilt and Bill Russel in fourth…and that’s if I’m being generous. And that’s sports for the day.

Happy boob-, uh birthday!

Some little sociopathic Austrian punk was born on this day. So were idiot SC justice John Paul Stevens (based on Heller and Chevron alone), bandleader Tito Puente, actor George Takei, football coach Steve Spurrier, the lovely Jessice Lange, actor Crispin Glover, another lovely Carmen Electra, and person on TV Joey Lawrence. That’s not a great list, so I’ll also note this is the day a lot of people celebrate smoking dope.

OK now, on to…the links!

Another mass shooting. But this time it was not in the United States. I assume it will be blamed on Trump though.

Canadian goes crazy

The death toll is rapidly approaching “a bad season of the flu” numbers (after the stats were padded by nearly 10% of that number in New York City), and people continue to be fed up about lockdowns and demand to claw back some of their fundamental rights.

I’ve got an idea: once this shitshow is over, let people do stuff like this permanently. That goes for all of the other retarded restrictions that have been temporarily halted.  They didn’t make sense before. They wouldn’t make sense now. And they won’t make sense when this is over.

This should surprise nobody paying attention. Because at the end of the day, the students come second (at best).

Nobody cares!

NOBODY FUCKING CARES!!!!! I mean, aside from me. But I only care enough to post it so others can share their laughter with me in pointing out that they don’t really give a shit either.

“It’s cool. We’ll just count them as Coronavirus deaths.” At least that’s what I suspect is happening.  Seriously, though, this is a tragic outcome of the idiotic response to CV. People are staying away from hospitals, and many will either suffer and some will die unnecessarily because of it.

Just what we need…another “cultural divide”. I don’t look at anybody different whether they’re wearing a homemade or real mask or not (I don’t wear one). But it’s interesting how the media will use this as another way to pit us against each other. Interesting and sad.

Enjoy an absolutely great song. I’m gonna enjoy the whole album.

Now have a great day, friends. And for you dope-fiend hippies, stay safe…the man is still a dick and will bust you if he can.

 

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

445 Comments

  1. AlmightyJB

    Even cartoon boobs are fun!

  2. Ted S.

    Some little sociopathic Austrian punk was born on this day.

    RIP Falco.

  3. Shpip

    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sever ties with UK tabloids

    You may not be interested in tabloids, but tabloids are interested in you.

    • sloopyinca

      If I’m being honest, I’m a lot more interested in British tabloids than I am those two attention-seekers.

      • Shpip

        Can’t say that I blame you. I find the Brit tabloids distasteful, yet I think the Sussex clan are crass attention whores.

        When Edward VIII became a PITA for the English during World War II, the royals sent him off to be governor of The Bahamas. A small part of me wants the queen to assign her grandson to be the royal representative in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas for ten years or so. He can get the privacy he claims to deserve, and the rest of us will be spared him and that social-grasper he married.

      • UnCivilServant

        You know, that wiki page is missing a useful map. I still have no idea where on the planet that town is.

      • UnCivilServant

        Yes, I could read, or look up the lattitude and longitude, but that’s work

      • WTF

        Pretty much the middle of the south Atlanitic.

      • Rhywun

        The map in the corner expands to full-screen. Click that and zoom out.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Invalid Coordinates Supplied”

        It must be very remote indeed.

      • Rhywun

        No idea, dude. It worked for me.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      People used to like (and/or feel sorry for) Harry. Nobody was ever interested in her to begin with. At least with the food deliveries they’re making themselves useful.

      • UnCivilServant

        Oh? They got jobs working for GrubHub?

  4. Ted S.

    Enjoy an absolutely great song. I’m gonna enjoy the whole album.

    Sabotage

    • sloopyinca

      What sucks is that that movie gets more play than it deserves while Saboteur gets less. I assume it has to do with who still owns the distribution rights of the latter while the former is in the public domain. But still, Saboteur is better.

      • Ted S.

        I really like both (and actually like that Hitchcock killed off the boy).

        Saboteur is a Universal release, which may be why it doesn’t show up so often. They’re terrible with their vault.

      • sloopyinca

        The fascist midget, Siamese twins, and bearded lady were corny as hell, but it was still great.

      • l0b0t

        G/d bless the Japanese. They can make even the dreck* from Beastie Boys interesting and listenable. https://youtu.be/qgBnhVeXosM

        *(I’ve been a fan since Pollywog Stew and seeing them with Public Enemy in the mid-80s. Paul’s Boutique is one of the all-time best albums ever. For the majority of their later work, they took the weak songs from PB, all the screamy songs, and made whole albums of them)

      • Festus

        Okay. Two, apparently.

  5. Pat

    I assume it will be blamed on Trump though.

    it’s those guns from Indiana. They already achieved sentience and now they’re beginning their global takeover.

  6. Pat

    I’ve got an idea: once this shitshow is over, let people do stuff like this permanently.

    Who now, let’s not lose our heads.

    • pistoffnick

      Why is the state even involved in marriage in the first place?

      • leon

        For the rights and such that it conferred upon married folk.

  7. robc

    Proposed: Without The Beastie Boys there never would have been an Eminem.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Reason enough to hate the Beastie Boys

    • Pat

      I don’t see where his style owes that much to the Beastie Boys, although without them helping to popularize rap by making it safe for middle class white kids he’d have had no market for his music.

      • robc

        That was what I was going for. They showed that talented white guys had a place in the genre.

      • Festus

        Yeah. It’s still terrible, though.

    • sloopyinca

      Possibly, although their styles are a lot different. The Beastie Boys integrated rock into their music whereas Eminem just chopped up stuff for quick sound bites.

      The Beastie Boys were the best band in the world at utilizing other people’s music to enhance their own sound. And it isn’t even close. Eminem is just a shock jock with a different audience than Stern.

      • Gdragon

        The Beastie Boys were the best band in the world at utilizing other people’s music to enhance their own sound. And it isn’t even close. Eminem is just a shock jock with a different audience than Stern.
        —————————

        Pretty much the entirety of “Paul’s Boutique” is absolute genius. It’s kinda like “Fear of a Black Planet” in the sense that it would cost a fortune to clear all of those samples these days but it’s so brilliant from start to finish.

      • sloopyinca

        It’s easily one of the ten greatest albums ever. I remember wondering “how will they ever follow up License To Ill ” and then being completely blown away by their genius with Paul’s Boutique. It didn’t take their music to another level, it took shit to a completely different galaxy.

      • Festus

        Do I even know you guys anymore? You’re breaking my heart!

      • Gdragon

        I had this discussion with a friend recently, what do you think is the worst track on it? We treated Bouillabaisse as one track. As I understand it the group’s least favourite is “What Comes Around”. I think there’s a strong argument that it’s actually “Hey Ladies”.

      • Festus

        Sorry, just don’t dig it.

      • Agent Cooper

        I think Check Your Head is their best.

  8. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    But it’s interesting how the media will use this as another way to pit us against each other. Interesting and sad.

    They have one move, and they just do it over and over. The law prof interviewed in that article is exactly the kind of dolt you can find in law schools across the country. So far up his own ass that he can’t not connect literally everything to his own identity Arian (leaving that autocorrect there) hobby horse.

  9. Rebel Scum

    I assume it will be blamed on Trump though.

    Trump funneled guns into Canada via Indiana?

    • Grumbletarian

      Operation Rapide et Furieux

      • Rhywun

        *le snort*

    • leon

      Hoosiers for hosers

  10. Rebel Scum

    The death toll is rapidly approaching “a bad season of the flu” numbers

    And flu deaths are apparently way down. I am sure there is nothing to see here.

  11. westernsloper

    Benavides, the mayor’s spokesman, said he went out for breakfast tacos and “everyone had a mask on. Only one person was there without it, and the customers shooed him out. For the most part, people want to comply.”

    Great.

    • sloopyinca

      How you gonna eat a breakfast taco with a mask on?
      This is social signaling. It’s like the stupid Lance Armstrong bracelet-wearing. Or the Lance Armstrong bracelet-cutting off.

      • Ted S.

        Fuck you, that’s how?

      • sloopyinca

        I wonder how the shop owner feels about customers running off other customers rather than letting him do business with who he wants.
        Also, I bet that is totally made-up bullshit that never fucking happened. People in a restaurant running someone off for not wearing a mask? I call bullshit.
        But if it is true, I challenge him to go hit up a Home Depot and start hectoring the people there not wearing masks…because half of them will be the Hispanic laborers who are not very likely “deplorables”. See how well that goes over.

      • RBS

        “Also, I bet that is totally made-up bullshit that never fucking happened. People in a restaurant running someone off for not wearing a mask? I call bullshit.”

        I’m like 50/50 on this one. I know people make up all sorts of BS for the internet but there are also a lot of assholes with nothing to do these days.

    • Festus

      Fuck. I don’t know why i click those links. It’s just so much what is and will never be… https://youtu.be/jrqMdja4eYs?t=17

  12. Rufus the Monocled

    The unintended consequences are already in our faces. Be ready for hypocritical sob stories in the media about it.

    The more people draw rainbows about ‘ca va bien aller’ or sing quarantined songs ‘because together as one’ while deluding themselves into thinking they’re being brave the more I realize we’re weak. This Global Citizen thing I think has permanently put me off from the entertainment class. A more shallow and ridiculous bunch of uncool morons you can’t get. They raised $135 million for WHO?!? Obviously, they did it to stick to Trump. Imagine that. They’re willing to ignore the WHO’s role in this mess, sing a stupid song and give the proceeds to them because Orange Man Bad. This is the very definition of USEFUL IDIOT. Yeh but Rufus, come on! People just want to help! Then give money to people who lost their jobs (through government edict) instead of an organization that has to account and clean itself up.

    In Venice, ships exposed to infectious diseases coming back from Asia would be quarantined for 40 days (quaranta). Know what they didn’t do? Quarantine healthy people. During the plague, they quarantined those who got sick. Not healthy people. Venetians were the Americans of the time. Business people and they knew you don’t shut down a lucrative economy this way. Yeh but Rufus people didn’t travel like we do today! True, but trading empires like Genoa and Venice did and on those ships there were many people from all over Europe so it spread quicker than you think.

    https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/historyquarantine.html

    Today? Somehow this was thought to be wise. WEAK.

    • sloopyinca

      I’m ok with people throwing their money away on shit like that. What I’m not ok with is people (a lot of them NYC media talking heads) berating JAX beachgoers (to the point people are threatening them with violence and/or wishing death on them) while ignoring that their city, and to a great degree it’s wholesale reliance on a subway system for transportation, has damn near half the nation’s deaths.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Oh, oh. Just realized another conundrum for lefties who praise and push public transportation while looking to eliminated cars.

      • AlexinCT

        My state banned plastic & paper bags at the stores just recently (beginning of the year) because they wanted to save Gaia and these things were evil. Now every store has them again. And they rebuke people that bring in their own bags now. If this doesn’t show you how many idiotic things were done that now need reversing because “PEOPLE WILL DIE!!!eleventy!!1” shit, I don’t know if humanity is worthy of survival.

      • Festus

        I can think of at least a hundred and their kin. It’s infuriating and depressing, all at the same time, Alex.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Same here.

        But I don’t think people are CONNECTING THE DOTS.

      • AlexinCT

        I pointed that out to a young lady that asked why they were back. Of course, telling her the idiots that thought they were so woke because they banned them before now are freaking out that they might die from the stupid choice, so they reversed their decision,were playing her, was not well received.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        THEY FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!

        THEY FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE!

      • AlexinCT

        If by science you mean whatever kool-aid the leadership makes them drink, Rufus, then you are certainly correct.

      • invisible finger

        Its even more evil than that. They bags weren’t banned in most places, just TAXED. The ol’ bait-and-switch: Use a re-usable bag if you don’t want to pay the tax, then ban the reusable bags so you must pay the tax. I’d bet EBT users don’t get charged.

      • UnCivilServant

        We had an outright ban. And from what I saw, nobody paid the tax to get shitty paper bags.

        now they’re back to giving away shitty plastic bags.

      • Rhywun

        One of my local supermarkets is charging the fee on plastic bags. So is Rite Aid.

      • l0b0t

        At the Pause & Purchase where I toil, the plastic bags are back, the “fee for paper bags” screen has been removed from the U-Scan GUI, and the U-Scan scales have been turned off (they were turned off when we were forced to switch to paper bags and they couldn’t be bothered to recalibrate all the scales.). So now, quelle surprise, shoplifting is through the roof.

      • Festus

        Just keep doing what you do, Hero! j/k I’m a hero too!

    • DrOtto

      The same beloved WHO that they love says we shouldn’t be wearing masks unless we’re already infected, caring for someone infected or work in healthcare with possibly infected people. Politicians are driving the mask push.

      • Fatty Bolger

        It’s a panacea. Makes people feel safer, even though they aren’t.

    • Overt

      We watched a half hour of that nonsense, and here were my takes:

      1) They did not call on anyone to donate. The money raised was from rich companies who then had “heartwarming” commercials during the telethon.
      2) Viewers’ call to action was instead to go sign up with the Global Citizen website, so they could “let their leaders know how important the WHO is”.

      3) And most importantly, the whole entire episode was safely cloistered celebrity after celebrity, praising “Essential Workers” endlessly. Look, I am glad there are people out there manning the hospitals and taking away my trash, but the truth is that the risk to most of those people is very low. And they are working- often earning hazard pay. Not once did a celebrity even acknowledge the millions of people out of work and out of business- the Amputated who this country cut off to save themselves. This was, in my view, the biggest miss of the telethon. It is clear that Lady GaGa’s list of priorities starts with International Bureaucracy, goes on to various forms of “Solidarity” and has no time to spare for those people who are really under stress right now.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Erm. Hello. If you’re a business owner or someone who understands the fall out of closing them and you want things to re-open you’re a ‘Trump supporting NAZI’. That’s why. Do you really think celebrities care about those people? Ironically, those who probably buy their damn concert tickets.

        Me? I’ve just about stopped watching TV and movies. I won’t pay for concerts or comedy shows where I can either. Fuck ’em.

  13. Rebel Scum

    Executive order allows couples in New York to get married via video conference

    Consummation via video conference should be fun.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The entirety of twitch and chaturbate’s business models.

    • Q Continuum

      Prima nocta?

      • Festus

        New business model for the new normal.

  14. Rebel Scum

    For Trump’s supporters, declining to wear a mask is a visible way to demonstrate “that ‘I’m a Republican,’ or ‘I want businesses to start up again,’ or ‘I support the president,’ ” said Robert Kahn, a law professor at the University of St.

    Alternatively they simply don’t see it as necessary.

    • DrOtto

      Not “my body, my choice”?

  15. Tundra

    Good morning, Sloop!

    The Canuck shooter story is a weird one. I’m sure there is a bunch of stuff the media will choose not to share with us.

    I’ve been hearing grumblings from people around me about how the CV numbers are being inflated. Not everyone is retarded.

    The car wash I use reopened today. I suspect we are rapidly reaching the end of this farce, masks or not.

    Excellent musical selection for a gloomy Monday morning! I like this one.

    Have a great day!

    • Pine_Tree

      I first read the end of your preantepenultimate sentence as “farce masks”. I think I’ll start using that.

    • Fourscore

      Tundra, indeed that grand daughter was at last year’s HH. She and her boy friend have teaching contracts in Galena, Alaska this year, starting in July. She won’t be available for HH or deer hunting. I encouraged her to take the job, not many adventures left for young people and I think it will be a great experience for her and her friend. Unfortunately for me I lost a fishing/hunting buddy.

      • Tundra

        That’s great! They are nice kids and I wish them well in their adventure.

        I’m sorry you are losing her for awhile, but it was good of you to encourage her.

      • Festus

        I think that if they spend time up there they will be even more freedom-oriented than they were before. Big thumbs up from this dumb Canuck!

  16. Rufus the Monocled

    Anyone watch the documentary about Robbie Robertson and The Band, ‘Once were brothers’ by Martin Scorsese?

    It shed some light, for me anyone, about this division between the Robertson and Helm factions among fans of the band. I know, it’s his account but it makes sense and Ronnie Hawkins seems to back him up.

    • Festus

      Haven’t seen it but Robbie always seemed a cunte. Maybe it will change my mind.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Maybe because there were three heroin addicts in the band and he tried to keep it together?

        If this account is true, then I’d be a Robertson for sure. I’m all business. Lol.

      • Festus

        Robbie was the biggest coke-head in the band.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        They made it sound like it was temporary and that it was up to him and Garth Hudson to keep it going.

  17. Q Continuum

    “For Trump’s supporters, declining to wear a mask is a visible way to demonstrate “that ‘I’m a Republican,’ or ‘I want businesses to start up again,’ or ‘I support the president,’ ” said Robert Kahn, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis who has studied Americans’ attitudes toward masks. ‘Masks will quickly become the new normal in blue states, but if social distancing continues through 2022, the mentality among Republicans could well change, too: If I can go to work and the cost of marginal improvement in my life is wearing a mask, maybe Americans of both parties do accommodate ourselves to it.'”

    OBEY DEPLORABLES.

    Also: fuck this so much. This is just more Kulturkampf BS whipped up by the Dem/Op/Media complex. “sToOpId rEtHuGlIKKKaNz hAtE sYeNsS!!!!”

    • RAHeinlein

      Typically, the intellectual class spouts off about how individual actions they don’t like simply support a collective worldview, but the “intellectuals” aren’t called-out for creating conclusions (science!) supporting their existing worldview.

    • AlmightyJB

      How about because I’m not interested in playing pretend. Still no Covid deaths in Central OH since 4/6. That’s an entire two week quarenteen period. 7 counties and 2 million people. Why would I wear a mask? Of course only a handful of people actually look at local numbers. Most read CNN headlines and piss their pants all day.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      ‘I want businesses to start up again,”

      The nerve of people who are seeing their lives sink away wanting their businesses to start up again.

      Until 2022? What is he on drugs? Tell you what jerk off, you wear one and stop trying to divide people scaring them into obedience.

      What a fucken, shallow piece of shit this guy.

      • Tundra

        …a law professor…

        Just sayin’.

      • Pope Jimbo

        And a Tommie. I can’t tell you how happy I was that my kid passed on going to that nest of elitist twits.

      • Tundra

        No kidding. My son did a visit there and was an immediate no way.

    • Grumbletarian

      Masks were becoming the new normal in blue states already thanks to Antifa.

      • invisible finger

        Maybe they finally noticed their masks have been slipping for the last three years.

    • Rhywun

      fuck this so much

      This x1000

      My choice to wear a mask around here is NOT a fucking a political signal.

      • Fourscore

        I actually encourage the mask wearers to continue doing what they do best. Saves me a lot of time deciding if I want to interact with that person at all.

        /I can’t see any masks here so I can interact with all the glibs.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t own any masks.

      • Not Adahn

        I can’t deny that my choice of mask IS a political signal.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ll join you if mine fits when it arrives. Still don’t have the last accessory (a surgical mask to tape to the end of the beak)

      • Not Adahn

        I’ll mail you one if you want.

      • Not Adahn

        I won’t be able to get one until Wednesday.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s fine. I’m still waiting for delivery of everything else anyway.

      • pan fried wylie

        No tape. Tie it on, big bow-knot draping over the beak.

      • UnCivilServant

        It would fall right off because of the geometry of the beak.

      • pan fried wylie

        Put your knot tying gloves on and make it work.

      • AlexinCT

        Since I am not doing public transportation and am able to maintain distance of my own accord, I have no need of a fucking mask. You have no idea how many idiots I have seen with a mask on wrong (not covering their nose) which obviously made the whole exercise useless. My favorite was the single driver in a Subaru with the mask on. On the highway….

        I do have to point out that while finishing my 12 mile hike yesterday, some hippie asshole that likely never makes it into the real woods, gave me shit when I was coming out of the deep woods to go to my car. They were standing there in the middle of the path looking at the woman’s phone. I pointed out that if he and his ugly fat ass wife were not parked right in the middle of the path, the one people need to use to get in and out, and in their case just look at their shitty phone for whatever reason, I would have been able to keep my distance. He then noticed my gun on my hip and shut his fucking mouth while the bitch got all angry at him for not saying anything. Normally I am very polite to everyone, but this guy just set me the fuck off posturing, and I felt no remorse at making him look like the beta tool he is. I guess he was sleeping with his hand again that night.

      • Festus

        Wifey needs to wear a mask at work now when she shows up. They make them drive up there, sign in and send them home. Full pay and bennies, for now… Apparently all passengers need masks, too. Fun times.

      • Gustave Lytton

        My favorite was the single driver in a Subaru with the mask on. On the highway

        So what? It really is better to not keep handling a face mask constantly. Clean your hands, put it on & adjust to fit then leave it.

      • AlexinCT

        Lets agree to disagree. If the mask is that fragile, you might just want to not have it.

      • kinnath

        The proper usage of a mask is to wash your hands and then put on a clean mask. Wear it until you are back in a safe location. Remove the mask; dispose of a single-use mask or put a multi-use mask into the wash; and then wash your hands.

        So yes, if you leave the house wearing a clean mask, you leave it on when you are alone in your subaru until you get back home.

        Anything else is just theater.

      • AlexinCT

        If you need to worry about picking it up from your car, then you already have the problem… I have sanitizer & wipes in the car because if I am going to run into the virus, it will be outside the car/home, and the car is the first line of defense. I guess you handle it the way you want, but don’t make it look like the problem is with other people for realizing the car is a better place to set up the line of defense.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        don’t make it look like the problem is with other people for realizing the car is a better place to set up the line of defense.

        Dude, just take the L. Playing the victim with a strawman isn’t a good look.

      • AlexinCT

        Why? I don’t wear a mask at all. My point is that it is all theater unless you are actually doing something that kills the virus.

      • Gustave Lytton

        It’s not that fragile, it’s that a mask will pick up and collect whatever germs are being filtered on the outside of the mask. Handling it excessively whether it’s taking it off or adjusting it transfers a certain amount of that to your hands. Hence the reason for cleaning your hands after putting it on as well if the mask is being reused.

    • leon

      Until 2022? This man thinks this will last 2 years?

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        These morons don’t realize how close they are to setting off violence in the streets. 2022? There won’t be a country left to come out to.

      • UnCivilServant

        They need to keep the deplorables away from the ballot box for at least two more elections.

    • straffinrun

      Dems are wearing the mask and Reps are refusing to. What am I supposed to do?

      • AlexinCT

        Wear the mask but cover your nose. Most of the idiots I have seen with a mask don’t cover their noses.

      • UnCivilServant

        I wonder how many of them are maliciously complying in that they know the totem is a worthless gesture, but don’t want to be hassled.

      • straffinrun

        Marketing pitch: masks that say, “I’m just virtue signalling”.

      • Fourscore

        When I put a mask on it covers my glasses and makes my driving even more erratic. Probably better off with out it..

      • Rhywun

        I dunno but just remember the personal is political.

    • pan fried wylie

      I want to construct a voodoo/witchdoctor sort of mask, but I haven’t come up with the how yet.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    What’s that thing? Lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car, and see which one is glad to see you when you let them out the next day?

    How many Americans will remember this in November?

    They treat us like dogs, because they can get away with it.

    • sloopyinca

      Aw, nuts!

      • AlmightyJB

        LOL

  19. Festus

    Ugh. You people. After suffering badly on Saturday morning I joined that night’s zoom-chat. Jesus Christ I was hurting today. It didn’t help that instead of doing one site that day I had to do both on Sunday. I was crawling. My hair stung. Keep up the good work, Neph!

    • straffinrun

      Heard dat. Drinking from 2pm to 9pm like I’m 20 something. Pretty stupid, but fun time.

    • Nephilium

      What do you mean… you people?

      • Festus

        I mean you. Specifically. and SP and Westernsloper and the Gaijan. Good Lord I dragged ass today…

      • westernsloper

        Ya, my hair hurt too. Barely made it up the stairs to bed.

  20. Drake

    I can’t be bothered to watch a Jordan documentary. The league accommodated him by killing what was left of rules for carrying, traveling, offensive fouls. It’s why I stopped watching the NBA.

    The idea that a 2-guard is the greatest is absurd.

    • Tundra

      I think it’s cute that there are sports for people who can’t skate.

    • straffinrun

      Lebron has traveled as much as Jordan if not more. The king of travelling today is Antetokounmpo. Euro step means you never have to dribble.

      • Drake

        That’s what I mean – the rule ceased to exist after Jordan was in the league a couple of years. In college he used to get called for traveling all the time.

    • sloopyinca

      Man, guys traveled like crazy during the Dr J, Bird, Magic era. You just didn’t notice because they were cutting the cameras away to some guy in the post giving a forearm shiver to a guard running around a pick.

    • Festus

      My Dad grew to hate what the NBA became. He was a high school and college BB star back in the late 50’s. He was 6’4” when that used to mean something. Picture Larry Bird but somehow dorkier.

    • Rasilio

      I don’t care enough about BB to watch a Documentary on it but Jordan is absolutely in the discussion for greatest ever. I would put him there but I wouldn’t argue with anyone who had him as low as 6th behind Russell, Chamberlain, Magic, West, and Robertson. LeBron I don’t think cracks the top 10 because I would easily include Bird, Ewing, Dr J, Kareem, and maybe Shaq above him. He’s definitely in that 10 – 15 range but he is nowhere near Jordan’s league.

  21. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    Something bothers me about the anti-lockdown protestors waving American flags. That flag doesn’t really stand for anything if you have to wave it at a protest against mass house arrest.

    • straffinrun

      Some of them had it in the distress position.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        That’s better. The images I saw were seas of stars and stripes being proudly waved in their upright position.

    • AlmightyJB

      America is not our politicians.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Yeah, I get it, but I think this mess has exposed just how far away from our founding the country has gotten, in aggregate. A handful of tepid protests notwithstanding.

    • sloopyinca

      I don’t really care what flag they wave as long as they make sure to kick out and expose the left-wing dickheads who show up with Nazi flags long enough to get a reporter to snap a photo for the front page in order to make the real protesters look bad.

  22. Pine_Tree

    A Fox headline called “Overwhelmed Brooklyn care home tolls 45 dead.” – no idea if the link pastes right, since I seldom try it…
    https://www.foxnews.com/health/under-siege-overwhelmed-brooklyn-care-home-tolls-55-dead

    Some strange quotes:
    – “Not a single resident has been able to get tested for the virus to this day.” – Really? With all the attention and extra focus (tent facilities and hospital ship) that NYC is getting, you’re at 0? Is that because all nursing homes are operating under “max precautions, so testing’s irrelevant” rules, or what? Idiot reporter of course doesn’t ask.
    – “…listed with 55 deaths it can only assume were caused by COVID-19…” – So you don’t have a clue.
    – “He also said he reported 50 deaths, not 55, though the state repeated that tally Sunday.” – So NY took your “I don’t have a clue” and added 10%.
    – “…about his recently passed uncle, whose death certificate listed him possibly having COVID. An administrator told him they were confident his uncle did not have the virus.” – Making stuff up, which we knew.

    I know the feelz of the story is supposed to be human-interest stuff about real suffering, but they’ve managed to totally ignore an underlying story of administrative idiocy.

    • Drake

      “Brooklyn care home” – just kill me now.

    • Q Continuum

      The feelz are designed to inflame more panic and scare people into accepting more restrictions for a longer time. The Dem/Op/Media complex’s primary mission now is to drag this out as long as possible. Hence why they’re painting anyone and everyone who supports opening the economy as a right-wing Nazi jihadi who wants your grandma to get Kung Flu and die horribly.

    • Rhywun

      There are a LOT of fucking unanswered questions right now. Who knows how many of them will ever be addressed.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Even as governors, mayors and the federal government urge or require Americans to wear masks in stores, transit systems and other public spaces to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, the nation is divided about whether to comply. And it is divided in painfully familiar ways – by politics and by attitudes about government power and individual choice.

    Gosh, what a startlingly insightful thing to say.

    • AlexinCT

      Anyone that didn’t see that whole freakshow was a politically motivate piece of theater was a massive moron. As most people pointed out: Kavenaugh’s crime in the eye of these people was the (R) beside Trump’s name (which in and of itself is quite a funny thing) and the fact that he Kavenaugh was not a raging marxist. Many people pointed out that if Kavenaugh had been appointed by a (D) and a marxist, he could have been fucking females under the age of 12 on TeeVee and the people that were so upset that the rest didn’t take the lies they peddled at face value, would have still cheered him on.

      • Not Adahn

        +1 standing ovation for Gerry Studds

    • AlexinCT

      The politicians need it more to buy votes..

    • sloopyinca

      Didn’t US v Lovett once and for all settle the issue of laws aimed at individuals?
      Lol, who am I kidding.

    • invisible finger

      ” the attorney general gave me an executive order ”

      A.G or S.A.?

    • Sean

      That’s really fucked up.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      No drive thru viewing, because FYTW

      • Pope Jimbo

        Yeah, people driving through in their cars is soooooooo dangerous. What was that rube thinking?

        And everyone knows that outdoor transmission is totes the easiest way to get that shit.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    If I can go to work and the cost of marginal improvement in my life is wearing a mask, maybe Americans of both parties do accommodate ourselves to it.

    “Come on, it doesn’t taste THAT bad. Just lick the tip for a while. Later, when you get good at it, I’ll be able to shove it way beck in your throat, and you probably won’t taste it at all when I come.”

  25. Rufus the Monocled

    “GovCuomo
    NEW: I am issuing an Executive Order allowing New Yorkers to obtain a marriage license remotely and allowing clerks to perform ceremonies via video conference.”

    The is when Covid jumped the shark.

  26. Rufus the Monocled

    There’s no doubt in my mind that if I had to choose between Jordan and Lebron if I were starting a team.

    Jordan. Without a contest.

    Lebron is a coach killing drama queen pop celebrity. Jordan was ALL basketball and winning.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This

      Even if he flouted the rules, Jordan was about winning games and selling tickets.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Every year, I’d start out rooting for whoever the Bulls were playing. By the end of the series I was happy the Bulls won because Jordan was so intense and clutch.

        Yeah, no doubt that Jordan would break LeBron mentally during a series.

        Fuck, LeBron wasn’t even The Man in Miami. He needed Wade to take the last big shot.

    • Q Continuum

      The Bulls of that era was the last time I enjoyed watching NBA. I still like basketball but will only watch NCAA. Modern NBA is just horrific and the players themselves have jumped the shark in terms of narcissistic crybaby-ness.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        When they started taking ‘rest days’ during the season I realized what a bunch of pussies they are.

        Try that shit in another sport. Try that in the NHL. They’d be unceremoniously ridiculed to the point of losing their manhood.

        HATE the NBA and hate it more since that China incident.

        Plus I hate the sound of all that court squeaking – I’m looking to pile on. Lol.

      • UnCivilServant

        The squeaking pretty much stops me from paying attention beyond getting rid of the sound.

    • Drake

      I’d take prime Larry Bird over Lebron as my small-forward no question.

      But there was this guy who during his first year in the league broke the single season scoring record and rebounding record. Nobody except him ever broke those records. He had more 50-point games in a season than Jordan had in his career. His numbers are so absurd that people dismiss them as unreal.

      There was another guy who won 11 championships in 13 years and seemed to make all the players around him better.

      • straffinrun

        Wilt was the most dominating player ever during his peak. His peak was short compared to Russell or Jordan. It’s hard to measure Bird’s greatness because he most likely turned McHale, Parish and DJ into great players themselves. Bird’s stats alone are not better than Lebron’s. Not even close, really.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        No, but Bird drives a pick up while Lebron does barber shows.

      • Drake

        Bird had a very short career – that’s why I said “prime”.

        Wilt absolutely dominated every healthy season he had. During his later years he was the most dominating rebounder and shot-blocker ever and also a great passer (led the league in assists in ’68). Those years are overlooked partly because the NBA started counting blocks and steals the year after he retired. There are a few televised games on tape where he had 20+ blocks.

      • straffinrun

        No debate on Wilt. Bird vs Lebron? That’s tough. Lebron has both let a team down and carried a team to a chip.

      • Drake

        Bird always seemed to make the rest of his team better. Put some smart players around him and all of a sudden they were great.

      • Festus

        Yeah, but he’s so unlikeable. I think Pete Rose should be in the HOF but not Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire because they cheated while playing and he was just a cunte.

    • sloopyinca

      And no way in hell would Jordan have let a teammate bang his mom. Especially when the teammate wasn’t that good a player.

      • Drake

        The story about Jordan trying to intimidate Robert Parish during practice always made me laugh.

  27. Mojeaux

    “Duke and Duchess of Sussex.” Nah, bruh. How ’bout “Mr. and Mrs. Windsor”? Or better! “Mrs. and Mr. Markle.”

    • Don Escaped RobC

      Herr und Frau Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ?

      • UnCivilServant

        Look, the family changed their name well before whatshisface was born.

      • WTF

        Mr. Hilter approves.

      • robc

        What did I do this time?

    • Q Continuum

      Ms. Markle and her stuntcock.

      • Festus

        Legit LOL

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      How about just calling them “that P-whipped jagoff and his irritating wife?“

      • AlexinCT

        Now you are insulting irritating wives by comparing them to that glory seeking cunte.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      DMV: Name?
      Harry (slight grin): Markle, Harry.

      /Pauses.

      DMV: Date of birth.
      Harry: I used to be a Royal you know?
      DMV: Yeh and I’m Queen Elizabeth. Fill this form out.
      Harry: No, you’re not! She’s my grand….mother.

      /Ponders.

      Harry: Did I just make a mistake following Meghan?
      DMV: Look pal. Fill this out or else I’m calling that nice little old man with a gun over there to come and deal with you.
      Harry: PRINCE HARRY I AM!

      /DMV calls guard over.

      • Fourscore

        Made me laugh, too early in the morning, haven’t got my grouch on yet and now I’m over it. Thanks, for nothing

  28. The Late P Brooks

    I am issuing an Executive Order allowing New Yorkers to obtain a marriage license remotely and allowing clerks to perform ceremonies via video conference.

    Fucking cognitive dissonance- how does it work?

  29. Q Continuum

    Overpriced white noise machine designed to drown out your neighbors having loud sex coming to a hotel near you!

    https://www.modio.audio

    G-d invented earplugs for a reason.

    • UnCivilServant

      I can’t sleep with ear plugs in.

      Heck, I hate them when I’m awake.

      • Pat

        I haven’t slept a night without ear plugs in about 10 years.

      • UnCivilServant

        I am so sorry that you have been unable to sleep for ten years.

      • Pat

        You’re not far off.

      • Pat

        Richard Wadani: Austrian Nazi deserter dies aged 97

        An Austrian who deserted Nazi Germany’s armies and switched to the Allied side in World War Two has died aged 97.

        Richard Wadani was drafted into the German army but escaped on his second attempt in 1944, going on to serve in a British-led unit.

        After the end of the conflict he campaigned for justice for all those who refused to fight for the Nazis.

        “Through his death our country loses a great Austrian,” President Alexander Van der Bellen said.

        “Richard Wadani stood for bravery, moral courage and an unshakable sense of justice,” the statement read.

      • Pat

        Not. A. Reply.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You’re supposed to put them in your ears dude.

      • AlmightyJB

        I hate ear plugs as well.

      • robc

        Having to learn to sleep with a mouthpiece was great motivation to stop grinding my teeth.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, these people sticking foam in their ears should learn to sleep with the noise to stop damaging their ears?

    • AlmightyJB

      I use sound machines when I travel because they’re more convenient than taking a box fan which I use at home.

    • Agent Cooper

      I don’t mind listening to loud sex.

  30. RAHeinlein

    For those who missed-out on the PPP dollars – rest easy knowing that Harvard and Shake Shack received funds.

  31. Q Continuum

    Maybe we’d trust journos a little more if they weren’t such pathetic authority fellators.

    Wanting citizens to be free to engage in travel and commerce = antigovernment.

    https://dnyuz.com/2020/04/20/trump-head-of-government-leans-into-antigovernment-message/

    The headline alone shows how intellectually shallow and biased these clowns are. Believing in limitations explicitly set forth in the Constitution does not constitute “antigovernment”. You fucking idiots crowed nonstop for 3.5 years about how he is a dangerous authoritarian dictator who must be stopped, now he’s an antigovernment anarchist? Which is it?

    • Pat

      You fucking idiots crowed nonstop for 3.5 years about how he is a dangerous authoritarian dictator who must be stopped, now he’s an antigovernment anarchist? Which is it?

      Whatever it needs to be to advance the argument on the day. Same way he’s a sinister evil genius master manipulator and also a sub-50 IQ troglodyte who does nothing but pick his nose and jerk off all day.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Which is it? It’s whichever one supports their current argument.

    • leon

      This goes to show how Dead the Constitution is in everyone’s eyes. They see nothing out of the purview of government, and that it should do whatever they want it to do.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Overpriced white noise machine designed to drown out your neighbors having loud sex coming to a hotel near you!

    Back in the olden days, you could just turn the teevee to an unoccupied channel and turn the static up.

  33. Trials and Trippelations

    my friends dressed up as the sabotage beastie boys for halloween a few years ago

  34. DrOtto

    Such a great song/video. Also, the character in the video “Sir Stewart Wallace” ties in nicely with one of the recent articles regarding titles of nobility.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    If this were an ordinary day, in a not-insane universe, I’d probably go to Costco. But I think I won’t, because I might have an apoplectic fit if I got over there and found out they’re restricting access and there’s a line half way around the fucking building.

  36. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Whatever you do, don’t allow people to think for themselves.

    https://harvardmagazine.com/2020/05/right-now-risks-homeschooling

    A RAPIDLY INCREASING number of American families are opting out of sending their children to school, choosing instead to educate them at home. Homeschooled kids now account for roughly 3 percent to 4 percent of school-age children in the United States, a number equivalent to those attending charter schools, and larger than the number currently in parochial schools.

    Yet Elizabeth Bartholet, Wasserstein public interest professor of law and faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, sees risks for children—and society—in homeschooling, and recommends a presumptive ban on the practice. Homeschooling, she says, not only violates children’s right to a “meaningful education” and their right to be protected from potential child abuse, but may keep them from contributing positively to a democratic society.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      Elizabeth Bartholet, Wasserstein public interest professor of law and faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Programauthoritarian stooge with red star commendations

      Seriously, “Law Professor” should be a title seen with as much scorn as adulterer or wife beater.

    • AlexinCT

      Shorter shill: Home schooling will undo all the marxist indoctrination us cuntes spend so much time filling your kid’s stupid heads with!

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Which means we need to seriously consider it as a legit alternative.

      Public interest professor of law. As Tundra said above, just sayin’.

    • Pat

      When you accidentally undermine your century long attempt at undermining family structures and turning children into wards of the state in your zeal to fuck with Donald Trump and have to scramble to walk back the narrative…

    • straffinrun

      IOW, teacher’s unions are threatened.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      At least it should force the political animals to open up the economy sooner than later.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      She views the absence of regulations ensuring that homeschooled children receive a meaningful education equivalent to that required in public schools as a threat to U.S. democracy. “From the beginning of compulsory education in this country, we have thought of the government as having some right to educate children so that they become active, productive participants in the larger society,” she says.

      Show me where the Constitution grants the government that right, oh mighty professor of law.

    • leon

      Homeschooling, she says, not only violates children’s right to a “meaningful education” and their right to be protected from potential child abuse

      When someone says that the schooling system that performs much better at every metric except turning kids into obedient authoritarian slaves, deprives kids from a meaningful education they could recieve in the government school, i’d tell her “Get your fucking hands away from my kids”. And then she has the gall to talk about “abuse” when school is the one place where almost all kids will experience violence in their life. That Bitch can go hang herself, and the world would be better off. I don’t say that off hand. When it comes to my kids, you can kindly be thrown overboard with that millstone around your neck.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        As an example, she points to the memoir Educated, by Tara Westover, the daughter of Idaho survivalists who never sent their children to school. Although Westover learned to read, she writes that she received no other formal education at home, but instead spent her teenage years working in her father’s scrap business, where severe injuries were common, and endured abuse by an older brother. Bartholet doesn’t see the book as an isolated case of a family that slipped through the cracks: “That’s what can happen under the system in effect in most of the nation.”

        She feels free to use an extreme outlier case to support her argument, but refuses to acknowledge the abuse and general lack of education in a large portion of public schools. My MIL works at Fells High School in Philadelphia. Even when you remove the ESL students from the statistics, the school is at danger of being closed because they have failed at every SOL test requirement for years. And violence in the hallways happens almost daily.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        And using that argument, we should just take all children from parents at birth because some parents are abusive.

      • Pat

        Now you’re getting it.

      • leon

        Exactly. I think Bryan Caplan cites a study that shows that something like 80% of americans absolutely fail a test at even the most basic knowlege of History, Math etc. The government schools turn out illiterate masses, but we have to have a presumptive ban on homeschooling, because there was this time that a parent didn’t care about the education. This is why i have nothing but contempt for her. She has no moral position. She simply wants your kids to be controlled by the Government. It would be preferable that she blew her head off than for her to spout more of these authoritarian apologia.

      • Rebel Scum

        their right to be protected from potential child abuse

        Children in the home with parents are going to be abused, apparently.

      • AlexinCT

        Any parent that is not a woke fucking toolbag is abusing their kids…

        /progtard

      • Q Continuum

        Get with the program man.

        Being at home with a loving family = abusive prison.
        Government-mandated indoctrination camp = nurturing and inspirational learning environment.

        Might as well add those to war = peace and freedom = slavery.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        If you’re kid gets bullied and the school does nothing then it would not only be idiotic to keep sending the child into that fire but I think even immoral.

        But what are the alternatives other than home-schooling?

    • kbolino

      This is what it is all about: “may keep them from contributing positively to a democratic society”. What does that even mean? How does anyone not contribute in some form or another to democratic society? Isn’t the whole point of democracy to represent the people, and so in some sense there is no right or wrong form of contribution (setting aside malicious crimes)?

      No, you must understand, to these people democracy is not rule by the people. It is rule by the elite, validated by votes. It is all about she and her kind getting to enact policy without too much hassle. The next election is not to be a referendum on the recent actions of those in power, it is to be yet another validation session for the righteous few and their grand ideas. So, if the children have not been “educated” to vote the right way, then they have not been educated at all, and indeed they are undermining “democracy” which is a system to keep the right people in power by the appearance of elections.

      The bit about abuse is, much like the fetishization of suicide vis-a-vis transgenderism, an appeal by the emotionally stunted to the manipulable emotions of the ordinary people. Of course, judging by the comments on the article, no one seems to be buying it. So this iteration is not a success and the technique will need to be refined.

    • Mojeaux

      All your chirren are belong to us.

    • Mojeaux

      Yesterday I went out foraging for ground beef and, contrary to the day before, almost EVERYONE was wearing a mask. It was utterly disconcerting.

    • AlexinCT

      Does that smell like fish?

    • straffinrun

      Wonder if the bands will reach around my waist.

      • AlexinCT

        That’s gonna poke out through the mask, ain’t it?

      • Pope Jimbo

        He’s hoping that it does and that some gal will “honk” his nose.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Yet Elizabeth Bartholet, Wasserstein public interest professor of law and faculty director of the Law School’s Child Advocacy Program, sees risks for children—and society—in homeschooling, and recommends a presumptive ban on the practice. Homeschooling, she says, not only violates children’s right to a “meaningful education” and their right to be protected from potential child abuse, but may keep them from contributing positively to a democratic society.

    I’m sold.

  38. AlexinCT

    WTF?

    • Q Continuum

      Kinda mousey but, would.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Lol.

    • Agent Cooper

      Fucking ukeleles.

  39. ttyrant

    LeBron is amazing. I’m not sure why my generation (I’m 31) and older feels the need to rag on him. I get that “The Decision” was tacky, but can you blame him for wanting to leave Cleveland? Who was the second best player on those Cavs teams — Mo Williams?

    Better than Jordan? Tough to say, given the game is so different now. It seems to me LeBron’s the better passer, but Jordan the better/more creative/clever scorer. Defense? That’s tough too. With his Heat run, LeBron guarded an in-prime Derrick Rose and post-peak-but-still-great Kevin Garnett in consecutive series’. LeBron does take large stretches on D off, so maybe it’s fair to dock him for that.

    Jordan’s supporting cast was — on the whole — almost certainly better than LeBron’s. Wade and Bosh were still good but past their respective peaks, and given the salary cap, the drop off after those two was pretty steep. I’d take Pippen + the others over LeBron’s supporting cast, although another interesting discussion would be ranking Pippen versus AD.

    Lastly, both were fairly fortunate to play the bulk of their careers in the weaker of the two conferences. LeBron likely misses out on a finals or two if he’d have had to play in the west.

    • straffinrun

      Lebron is the best player over the past 15 or so years. No question, really. KD had his run, but other than that there really isn’t anyone else. Steph? Great player, but no. Lebron is a douche bag, but I’m not gonna deny his greatness.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My knock on LeBron is that he doesn’t have that killer instinct. He is better in the last 5 years at wanting to take the last shot. But he still isn’t the guy who sticks the dagger in. And given his size and skills, he should be.

        I can’t see LeBron completely leaving his guy to come from behind Malone to poke the ball away and seal the series.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Except that he pinned the ball against the backboard, which is technically goal tending and the bucket should have counted, but since LeBron is a superstar he gets away with it.

      • straffinrun

        You guys…You guys hate Lebron because he’s a dick. Fair enough. Jordan’s shove on Byron Russell was a much more obvious superstar call.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I don’t hate LeBron. But I won’t sit here and let people tell me he is the GOAT.

        And yeah totes agree that Jordan got away with murder because of the super star rules.

        But you linked the video of him breaking a basic rule and getting away with it.

      • ttyrant

        It was not goaltending. LeBron got the ball before it hit the backboard, and the ball was on its ascent. The fact that he pinned it is irrelevant.

    • Grumbletarian

      The Eastern Conference was not the weaker conference when Jordan played. The Celtics and Pistons were tough teams, and only the Lakers were challenging them in the West. You’d only occasionally see the Rockets with Olajuwon deep in the playoffs, and Drexler’s Trail Blazers were a one-man show.

      • ttyrant

        Hmm — I suppose that’s right. I thought the West was a bit more of a juggernaut. Then again, I don’t think the East was particularly good either. The Celtics and Pistons fizzled out by the early 90s. The Magic had a few good years with Shaq and Penny. The Knicks and Pacers both had good, not great stretches.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        It’s hard to say that the other teams werent that good when they were losing in the playoffs to a dynasty.

        I was a pacers fan during that time frame, and it really felt like the East were all playing for an invitation to get curbstomped by the bulls. There were some very good teams that didn’t get any playoff glory because of Jordan and the Bulls.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Headlines say Shake Shack has returned their coronabux.

    Maybe they got around to reading the fine print.

    • Rhywun

      Not that ballsy; it’s just a stunt from Bild newspaper (their Daily Fail).

    • Pope Jimbo

      Yeah, but China could send them a bill for a shit ton of money caused by German trained Japanese troops in the ’30s.

  41. Evan from Evansville

    My older kids were back in the school today–no longer are the Zoom classes. They took some time to get used to being back into the class and some couldn’t keep chatting. I kind of understand that. For two weeks they were just learning in their own homes on computers. They still had problems talking over each other and not raising their hands.

    Today it was a bit much. I had my auditory hallucinations for about (rough guess) 70% of those classes. They. Simply. Wouldn’t. Stop.

    I think I dealt with them better than anyone else could have, but fuck me it was a long, exhausting day. I have put out my resume and might have opportunities at two other academies that couldn’t even try to be as clusterfucking retardedly run as my current one. Head up. Forward. Onwards.

    Good lord. I had a surprise make up class today as well. So 9 in total and no break. Fuck if I would ever want to teach in the States. Teaching in my old schools here was *far* better than the current one. The stupid flu panic ain’t helping. I miss my old school I started at when I was 22.5 and worked at from 2009-2014. Was head teacher for the last two. That shit was smooth. Fucking Singapore was somehow smoother than this shit, and that had 2.5 hour commutes (there and back total) every day and I had Mon-Tues off, particularly shitty in a country that is famous for it’s food.

    Soon I will feel better, I hope. Just passed the 6-month timeline since the accident. Between that and a year is supposed to be the rough recovery time since my surgeries. I was doing well before I started teaching here again. Now it’s back to being brain addled. It surprisingly is less fun than one would think.

    Oh, well. I try to live as best I can. Again, I think I am winning. Most would have collapsed by now. I’m just upset. And constantly forgetting or not being able to understand what is real and what is imaginary. Sigh.

    Sorry to vent.

    • Mojeaux

      Always happy to hear from you, Evan. Please keep updating us.

  42. Rufus the Monocled

    Two things: Has anyone noticed how the Dems are tying to flip the script claiming Trump is weak on China and that Biden would be tougher! I swear, I can’t even rationalize it anymore. And go take a look at Patton Oswalt’s twitter account. That smug, illiberal little shit needs a beating.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They focus-tested the China argument and it played well among the blue-collar workers they need votes from.

      Never mind that it’s a complete 180 from two weeks ago.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’ll work, when it comes to politics the collective American memory is downright Bidenesque.

    • AlexinCT

      The fact that they so blatantly keep retconning (retroactively rewriting these con jobs) these stories should tell you that they are just throwing shit at the wall and hoping people don’t catch on to how fucking evil/stupid they are. You would figure in this day and age these morons would realize how easy it is for anyone actually willing to do some investigating of the facts to find them contradicting themselves and using that to call them out, but they seem to be unable to recognize they no longer can and will not be allowed to go back to controlling the narrative. They are desperate to go back to the way things were and no longer care about long (or short) term consequences to exposing their bias & stupidity.

    • leon

      That will be interesting, seeing as trump beat them to the punch, with that Ad. But i guess they are counting on the masses only paying attention to the “Approved News Sources”. Wherin, i think, likes the weakness in the streangth of the Democratic position. For so long they have been the “golden boys” of the media. Now that the media is loosing crediblity the media is stomping their feet about “Fake News” and what not, driving their credibility down for all but the firmest of DNC Company Men. So depending on being the darlings of the Media means they are really only reaching their base, and not anyone else. People who watch CNN without an ounce of skepticism, were only going to ever vote for Trump if Bernie had gotten the nom, and only a few of them at that.

      Likewise, this is a large part of why you have a crisis of principle on the left too. The reason that not a single democrat voted against the bailouts was because they knew they would be excoriated in the corporate press. This is something that Massie has always had to deal with, and why he stood against it. The Left does not have leaders who have been through such trials. I’d say the second reason for the crissis of principle is that all the “principles” that the modern left politician has are not. AOC talks a game about economic stances, but she’s just an Identity Politics lefty when it comes down to it. So they have no basis in actual intellectual ideological thought, other than identity politics.

      I know some will take offense as suggesting that the left could have principles, but many do. You might think they are wrong, but there are many principled leftists. they tend to be economic populists, and there are none in power in congress.

    • l0b0t

      I recall Oswalt tweetering during the last POTUS election about Hillary being completely healthy and her supposed illness being a vast, right-wing conspiracy. Some wag replied – “If you were a better judge of women’s health, you wouldn’t have awakened next to a corpse.”

      Ouch! That’s gotta smart.

  43. Pat

    COVID-19 scammers may have stolen millions from the German government

    Fraudsters may have stolen tens of millions of euros earmarked for German COVID-19 financial aid after a province failed to properly check the identity of applicants, according to Handelsblatt. The cybercriminals used a classic phishing scheme: First, they created a copy of the official website used by the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) province to distribute coronavirus aid to businesses and self-employed folks. Then they launched an email campaign to lure users to the phony website and steal their credentials. Finally, the scammers requested financial aid on behalf of those individuals while using their own bank accounts.

    The scheme went on for around three weeks until April 9th, when the local government temporarily suspended payments and took its site offline. In the meantime, police received 576 official fraud reports, with payments varying from €9,000 to €25,000. That means the government may have lost between €31 to €100 million (around $34 to $109 million).

    • UnCivilServant

      Pikers.

      Wuhan Scammers stole trillions here.

  44. Not Adahn

    I didn’t get to hear the entire story, but I did hear someone on NPR saying that the “liberate” protests “shared DNA with the Tea Party.”

    I guess that means they’re all funded by the Koch bros or something.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Looks like the healthcare worker worship is starting to go to their heads.

      • Q Continuum

        They’re just the little brother brownshirts of Fauci. You can see how huge Fauci’s power and fame-whore erection is every time he runs in front of a camera. These dipshits don’t have CNN putting on its kneepads nearby so they do what they can.

    • Pat

      Nurses can join teachers and cops in collectively sucking my nuts. I don’t care if your wife is a nurse. I don’t care if your brother is a teacher. I don’t care if your dad was a cop. It’s remotely possible your anecdotes are part of an infinitesimally small minority of workers in their respective fields that aren’t abject pieces of dog shit, but I’ll still hold them guilty by association. Seriously, fuck teachers, fuck cops, fuck nurses.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Seriously. They’e doing their damn jobs. Sometimes shit like this is gonna happen. And they’re getting paid. What the heck man?

        It’s like when we used to see stories of soldiers who didn’t want to go fight in Iraq for Bush. Dude, you joined the fucking army. You joined it not to express your opinion but to become property of the United States government. As such, you FREELY signed to do as you’re told. You don’t get to pick and choose which wars your country decides to fight. You’re a SOLDIER. Not a fricken intellectual.

        Same with doctors and nurses. They can’t possibly have thought something like this could never happen.

        Now we have to praise them?

    • Q Continuum

      The comments are cancer.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Going out in public is tantamount to murder. Whycome you pro murder?

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Seriously. I notice a joke in the thread ‘simple but wrong’ and ‘complex but right’. Is he saying people for the quarantine are in the latter group? Because that’s not what I’m seeing at all.

      • Q Continuum

        No kidding. Shutting down the whole economy is equivalent to junking your car because the check engine light came on. Hard to think of anything more simpleminded and wrong than that.

    • Rhywun

      OFFS

      Tank-man larping.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Look at picture number 1. So much for social distancing. Healthcare workers are some of the worst hypocrites and refuse to practice what they know and espouse because it’s inconvenient and they’re lazy. The piss poor numbers on appropriate handwashing and the problems it causes is Exhibit A.

      • RAHeinlein

        See also wearing your scrubs everywhere (inside, outside, upside-down). Someone should have asked those workers if they wore those clothes when treating CV patients.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yes! I forgot about that one. Would be so much better if they did Mr Rogers with their clothes before and after shift.

        Stupid simple stuff that should have been done long ago but wasn’t.

      • Pat

        But if you don’t wear your scrubs out in public how will everybody know to suck your dick and thank you for your service?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’ve never seen an obese diabetic nurse that smoked on their breaks.

    • WTF

      They are so overtaxed by Wu-Flu that they have time to stand in traffic to grandstand.
      Assholes.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Socialist indoctrination facilities hardest hit

    For many U.S. colleges, the worst may still be ahead.

    The upheaval in higher education has been unprecedented already, with campuses closed for months, graduation ceremonies scrapped and entrance exams canceled. Administrators across the nation increasingly fear their schools may not reopen for the fall semester. In the meantime, many have canceled summer programs, sports camps and on-campus weddings – all of which would be lucrative most years. The double whammy of losing summer and fall income would hurt all schools, and it could be fatal to those that were already struggling.

    “The hit is huge,” said Larry Ladd, a consultant with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. “They will have less financial cushion because that summer revenue is no longer is there.”

    College finances are under siege on many fronts. Endowment values have fallen with markets. Fundraising is a steep challenge now. New and returning students may have increased need for financial aid, because many families have lost income in the Covid-19 downturn. Some colleges even fear they won’t be able to fill their freshman class for fall 2020 as students may decide to wait a year instead of starting online, which would strangle tuition revenue.

    Boo fucking hoo. How will they survive?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      So who will get shit-canned first?

      Facilities, faculty, or administration?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Won’t happen, they’ll be bailed out.

      • Q Continuum

        Unfortunately this.

        It would be so easy for them to survive if they cut their useless non-academic admin staff by 90%, but of course they won’t do that because it would go against their actual core missions; work programs for diversicrats and Kulturkampf garrisons.

      • leon

        I mean Harvard got that small biz loan. Even though you know… Thay have that billion dollar endowment.

  46. RAHeinlein

    I just heard (Fox) Facebook is pulling down post of those trying to organize protests – is this correct?

    • PieInTheSky

      no idea. its facebook who uses that anymore?

    • WTF

      Yes they are.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    So who will get shit-canned first?

    Facilities, faculty, or administration?

    It won’t be Head Diversity Officers.

  48. PieInTheSky

    GERONTICIDE is the sign of moral decay.

    Indian official explained only “rich” countries make a tradeoff betw lives & “economy” (assuming they are separable).
    The argument of “lockdown costing lives” is bunk: in the poor country, India, ~nobody starved.

    The richer, the worse!!!

    Compare the richest countries, such as Sweden, making a “tradoff” (which is not even a tradeoff anyway) compared to much poorer places in the East Med, India, or China that wouldn’t even remotely consider a Faustian bargain.

    Shame.

    Wealth brings moral degeneracy.

    https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1251985220632489986

    you bunch of degenerates wanna kill grandpa

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Taleb finally got the Black Swan event he so desperately needed to validate his arguments and he’s not going to let go of it ever even though it’s not as bad as he hoped.

      • PieInTheSky

        it is not a Black Swan even though, a pandemic is not some unpredictable thing

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      He can keep telling himself that when the food supply and other essentials chains are disrupted.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Completely secondary to his primary thesis and therefore can be safely ignored.

    • Pat

      Gee so people already dying of preventable illness and poor sanitation don’t give a fuck about shutting down their economies? Guess what else you stupid cunt, they also don’t give a fuck about your corona hobby horse. They’re subsisting the way 99% of humanity has for the last 100,000 years. Several orders of magnitude more of them will die from a thousand other diseases this year. There’s no tradeoff because they don’t have the safety and security – privilege, if you will – that you do, purchased by economic and scientific advancement.

    • leon

      moral degeneracy.

      Why is Taleb dog whistling Nazi talking Points. SMDH, i used to think he was smart….

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Same

        Now I realize he lives in his very own personal echo chamber populated by fanboys.

    • kbolino

      Is that Nassim Taleb or Michael Hihn?

    • PieInTheSky

      Funny thing is the older he get, the more he is for gerontocracy

  49. PieInTheSky

    I left my mom’s place for home this morning at 9 AM. I was hoping day after Easter the cops would let me be. Off course I was pulled over at a checkpoint.

    • Festus

      Garlic checkpoint confirmed.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Off course I was pulled over at a checkpoint.

    I hope your papieren were in ordnung.

    • PieInTheSky

      they were. I had the signed declaration of where I live and where I was going to and coming from.

      • AlmightyJB

        That’s fucked up

      • Sean

        It could be worse. He could be in NJ.

      • Sean

        My Apocalypse Scorpion Chocolate pepper plants have shipped. Yay.

  51. Rhywun

    ✔ @jonathanchait
    A sad, loving portrait of a man killed by Fox News

    I want off.

    • PieInTheSky

      People who watch Fox news are corrupted by it’s evil and have no capacity of independent action anymore. They would all be good kind socialists without the evil corruption.

    • leon

      I don’t remember much about chait except that he is a particularly mendacious member of the media class.

    • leon

      Also, as long as we are blaming news organizations, lets blame CNN for flaring up the state of panic that has led many kids to mental issues, including suicide.

    • PieInTheSky

      but seriously lefty journos are in fact scum. No way else to put it.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Is BR conservative? Do you know that bar?

      • Rhywun

        I’ve heard of that bar; it’s a little out of my way though.

        Bay Ridge is sort of the last holdout of the wave of Eye-talians that immigrated to Brooklyn a century or more ago, with more recent arrivals from Asia and the Middle East. It is fairly conservative by NYC standards.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        (I should have added that Sat. Night Fever is all I know about it. ??)

      • Rhywun

        It really hasn’t changed much at all since then.

    • Viking1865

      The NYT article quoted Hannity on 3/8 downplaying the virus.

      The guy left for his cruise on 3/1.

      FoxNews warps through spacetime.

  52. Festus

    Leaving now. I hope you people are very proud of yourselves after all the shenanigans this weekend. Stay safe, stay warm and throw the occasional middle finger up whenever you can!

    • Pope Jimbo

      Snowpiercer was good. Not great, but good.

      • Rhywun

        The obvious class-war setup turns me off.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse was an entertaining break from the normal animated crap out there.

      And I’ll watch Emily Blunt any day.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Marriage Story is the type of self-indulgent crap Hollywood loves to celebrate. It’s boring and irritating to the rest of us.

    • PieInTheSky

      foxnews? YOU WANNA KILL US ALL?

    • Nephilium

      Into the Spiderverse is worth watching.

      • l0b0t

        IMMHO, it’s the best Marvel universe film yet; GotG is a very close second, but the presence of Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham pushes the cartoon into first place.

    • Pat

      The whole tortured celebrity shtick is so fucking obnoxious.

      • AlexinCT

        I want the fame & recognition, but only when I am in the mood for it…

        Just like the hotheaded feminist chicks only want hot guys to hit on them otherwise it is some kind of sexual aggression.

    • Viking1865

      The pre high speed Internet pornstars could successfully hide their past. I do feel a little bad for the girls who jumped into it right before file sharing and the tube sites took off. Like, back in the early 2000s if you did a year, shot 20 or 30 scenes, you could move back home and the only way you’d get made is if someone was willing to admit, in public, that they were going to the ABS to buy/rent DVDs.

      I graduated in 2007 from high school, and this one girl a year ahead of me shot like three or four scenes for the pro-am kind of site, and it flew around Facebook and peoples text messages as soon as one dude stumbled across one of her videos. He shared a link with a dozen of his friends on Facebook, they shared it, and pretty soon not only did people know, they could watch the video.

      It’s kind like how in the 80s if you knew someone with a double tape deck stereo you could make copies of albums, but once filesharing and Mp3s came along everyone could download an entire artists work in like 20 minutes.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Let’s not lose sight of the big picture

    The coronavirus crisis will likely lead to the largest ever decline of global carbon emissions on record, according to research from Goldman Sachs, illuminating the potential for a long-term low carbon recovery.

    The Covid-19 outbreak has meant countries around the world have effectively had to shut down, with many governments imposing draconian restrictions on the daily lives of billions of people. To date, confinement measures have been implemented in 187 countries or territories in an effort to try to slow the spread of the pandemic.

    A side-effect of these measures, which vary in their application worldwide but broadly include school closures, bans on public gatherings and social distancing, has been a dramatic fall in the level of global carbon emissions.

    ——-

    “This crisis has demonstrated our vulnerability as a world to global threats,” Bob Ward, a director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, told CNBC via telephone.

    “Climate change is a massive global threat that will still be there after we have overcome this pandemic and we will need to be working very hard to avoid that becoming something that undermines lives and livelihoods,” Ward continued.

    ——-

    Climate scientists have said it is important to recognize the climate emergency, much like the coronavirus pandemic, as a global health crisis.

    We already knew destroying the economy was necessary to save the planet. Now we have proof. Don’t waste this opportunity. We’re off to such a good start. What’s a few trillion dollars when tree frogs are at stake?

    • Drake

      Is that why it keeps freezing here? I planted 4 new trees which may end up dead from this cold.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      +1 David Attenborough

    • kbolino

      This panic has set up the model and template for future “crises”. The question is, how readily can/will it be applied to gun control, global warming, homelessness, “lack” of medical care, etc.?

      It’s a left-authoritarian’s wet dream.

      • Q Continuum

        ^^^This, this, this, this.

      • leon

        The question is, how readily can/will it be applied to gun control, global warming

        I’ve already seen an article talking about how Guns are even more of a health crisis problem, and so if we can respond to Coronoavirus by suspending rights, why can’t we do so for Gun Control? This is the same thing for global warming.

      • Pat

        I’m not married to the theory, but it’s at least minimally plausible to me that this entire “crisis” was manufactured and coordinated, including the intentional release of the virus from the Wuhan virology lab, for the sole purpose of consolidating authority and shifting power to international/supranational quasi-government organizations.

      • straffinrun

        They are reacting the same way whether it was intentional or not. Not much consolation, though.

      • Chipwooder

        Yep. These fucks have been fapping over this ever since this lockdown bullshit began. WuFlu is the vehicle by which they’re realizing their wildest dreams of controlling everyone else.

      • Rhywun

        Witness Queen Nancy trying to sneak a whole laundry list of Green New Deal horseshit into the “relief” bills.

    • RAHeinlein

      I’d like to see the math on CO2 reduction during the shut-down/slow opening versus proposed reductions from the Paris accords – i.e. how many years of hardcore CO2 reductions were achieved. Next, any impact? Didn’t think so.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    “I think we have been given a window, out of a very tragic situation, to look at a reset in a way that we did not think possible three months ago,” Gail Whiteman, director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, told CNBC via telephone.

    “Peak carbon isn’t a dream. It is not a utopian vision. It can happen but there will be pushback, there is no question,” she added.

    There will be pushback, but so what. Those people are stupid.

    • Festus

      I hope she gets fucked violently by a duck.

    • PieInTheSky

      I don’t think the rioters are classified as cheese eaters.

    • leon

      The ‘VID is just revealing the illusion of democracy for what it is. We have all been living in fascist states since the end of WWII, and police states since 2001.

    • Rhywun

      Riots in the banlieues? GTFO.

    • Rebel Scum

      God help anyone that gets between me and my Cracker Barrel extra sharp cheddar cheese sticks. Luckily that is not produced in Franceland.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      So he’s saying that he’s a frustrated slut that only sleeps with random strangers?

      • Q Continuum

        Just another attention whoring narcissist with a megaphone.

    • leon

      The Celibate Lifestyle isn’t for everyone Andy…

      • Pat

        Worked for The Shins

    • Rebel Scum

      Too good for a little right-hand shame?

    • leon

      Fauci is a product of his specialization. Re-opening the economy would most likely result in an increase in cases (depends on how far the virus has gotten already). so to him, of course that is backfiring. Because keeping case count low is all that he can see or cares about. He has no consideration for anyone without a job, or you know, basic human rights.

      A large portion of scientists people see everyone as resources to be used for their ends, and don’t recognize them as people who might have their own rights and freedoms. Ironicaly, it is often the libertarians who are portrayed that way, when they are more likely to see people as real, rights bearing individuals. its the collectivist that sees others as mere tools to be used and thrown out. Scientists are not immune from that conceit.

      • Pat

        Scientists are not immune from that conceit.

        I would argue they are actually more susceptible to it than most because they have deceived themselves into believing in their own infallibility (or at least the infallibility of their process).

      • Rhywun

        This. And these narrow-minded “experts” are running the show literally everywhere.

    • Rebel Scum

      But artificially driving the country into depression is totally fine…

  55. The Late P Brooks

    Shadowy right wing pro gun AGENTS PROVOCATEUR

    Three brothers who run several pro-gun activist groups across multiple states are also behind several private Facebook groups that are organizing protests against coronavirus lockdowns.

    The Washington Post first reported that the three brothers, named Ben Dorr, Christopher Dorr, and Aaron Dorr, were behind several state-specific Facebook pages calling for lockdown protests. Business Insider confirmed that these men were listed as admins on the groups mentioned in the Post report.

    According to The Post, the brothers also manage several gun-rights groups, including Minnesota Gun Rights, that seek to challenge firearm lobbying organizations like the National Rifle Association as too restrictive on gun laws.

    The Post said Ben Dorr on Wednesday created the group Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine, and by Sunday night it had amassed more than 99,000 members. Aaron Dorr created New Yorkers Against Excessive Quarantine, which had about 24,000 members by Sunday night, while Christopher Dorr created two groups: Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine, which had more than 65,000 members on Sunday evening, and Ohioans Against Excessive Quarantine, which had more than 14,000 members by Sunday evening.

    ——-

    According to The Post, some of the groups peddle right-wing conspiracy theories, such as the idea that Evers imposed a lockdown on his state to “appease pharmaceutical giants.” Some of the pages also link to websites of gun-rights groups.

    “The brothers will do anything to fan the flames of a controversial issue, and maybe make a quick nickel,” Republican Clel Baudler, a former Iowa state legislator, told The Post.

    According to The Post, the Dorr brothers have bypassed certain laws that would require them to register as lobbyists, contending that the groups they operate are considered grassroots activism.

    A Facebook representative told The Post that the groups were not removed because the activity was not illegal in the states where the groups were based.

    THE CONSTITUTION IS NOT A SUICIDE PACT!!!!!

    • Q Continuum

      HOW DARE YOU USE OUR TACTICS AGAINST US!!??!

    • leon

      According to The Post, the brothers also manage several gun-rights groups, including Minnesota Gun Rights, that seek to challenge firearm lobbying organizations like the National Rifle Association as too restrictive on gun laws

      This is why the NRA is so useful a foil for the Left. They set up the NRA as the enemy and then when people say that the are too weak on gun rights, the left can easily show how extreme you must be to think that the NRA is to moderate. This is why i will never donate to the NRA.

    • Pat

      Social media is for harassing business owners and starting civil wars in the middle east, not for GUNZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!

  56. Tundra

    Rip weighs in on the fitness industry and CV panic.

    As usual, he makes some really good points about the perils of being declared ‘non-essential’ and how that will affect future business decisions.

    This is a catastrophe of our own making. We have responded to a bad situation in a shameful way. Some of us have given up liberty for perceived safety, and some of us have seized power in this undeniably rich opportunity to abuse cowardice. It will be interesting to see how the market responds to such an insult. And it will – it always does.

    Yep.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    I’m not married to the theory, but it’s at least minimally plausible to me that this entire “crisis” was manufactured and coordinated, including the intentional release of the virus from the Wuhan virology lab, for the sole purpose of consolidating authority and shifting power to international/supranational quasi-government organizations.

    I’m not prepared to believe it was actively manufactured by a shadowy cabal in order to achieve those ends, but they certainly were ready to capitalize on the situation.

    Much as the patriot Act was the pre-existing wish list of authoritarian Presidents and AGs going back to Wilson and Palmer.

    *I think Palmer (of the Palmer Raids) was the USAG)

  58. The Late P Brooks

    Fauci is a product of his specialization. Re-opening the economy would most likely result in an increase in cases (depends on how far the virus has gotten already). so to him, of course that is backfiring. Because keeping case count low is all that he can see or cares about. He has no consideration for anyone without a job, or you know, basic human rights.

    Like most people, he only looks at one side of the ledger.

    • Gustave Lytton

      +1 Bastiat

  59. Tundra

    Jefferey Tucker is more optimistic than I am.

    Well, That Unraveled Quickly

    Our political culture is rooted in the great myth that whatever happens in society is due to them, and this presumption bites us any time there is some emergency: they have a penchant toward control in the name of the precautionary principle. In this case, it made the U.S Constitution and human rights generally null and void for a full thirty days. And we had no choice but to comply. It was a grotesque experiment in totalitarianism. Families ripped apart, people’s businesses and jobs destroyed, essential surgeries delayed, despair spread throughout society.

    Now we know. Never again.

    • leon

      Never again would require people to feel ashamed for what had happened, and for them to be rooted out and chased down and exterminated like what was done to the Nazi Party.

      And even then, genocides continued to happen.

      • Q Continuum

        Instead, we have the opposite. Self-righteous shitheads running around reporting and scolding people violating house arrest. Complete lack of sympathy for business owners and “non-essential” employees being driven to penury. Absurd binary thinking consisting of no middle ground between “supporting complete lockdown” vs. “not giving a shit about the virus and/or people dying”.

        We are so fucked.

      • Rebel Scum

        “supporting complete lockdown” vs. “not giving a shit about the virus and/or people dying”.

        You are with us or you are against us.

    • Count Potato

      The problem is that people don’t learn because the media sucks yak balls.

      • invisible finger

        People don;t learn because they don;t want to learn.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Whether he’s being overly optimistic will all come down to to how the states that reopen do relative to those that don’t. If things go well he’ll be correct, if not God help us all.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Making light of those who are condemning those who are making light of Russian propaganda points to you being a Russian propagandist. You’ve outed yourself.

  60. The Late P Brooks

    Now we know. Never again.

    Stop it, you’re killing me.

  61. Gustave Lytton

    Tundra- results from the coffee grinder. 3.25 minutes for ~3/4 full producing 5 1/2 tablespoons of near Turkish powder level extra fine grind.

    • Tundra

      Cool! Thanks!

      What model did you get and how do you brew?

  62. The Late P Brooks

    CNN and WaPo will treat every single post-lockdown death exactly as if Trump himself put a bullet in that person’s head on the steps of the Capitol.

    • Count Potato

      “Two of the three CDC labs that created coronavirus test kits violated their own manufacturing standards, resulting in the agency sending tests that didn’t work to nearly all of the 100 state and local public health labs in the U.S., according to the FDA”

      https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1251651743382896640

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        And yet they’ll somehow manage to twist this story into an argument for nationalizing the entire health care industry.

      • invisible finger

        The labs are bad because of the party of the person who won the election.

    • AlexinCT

      They will blame bad orange man for all deaths eventually.. Cause until there is another guy or gal with an (R) next to his or her name in the WH, Trump is literally worse than Hitler (funny how he is never worse than Stalin, Mao, The Kims, The Castros, Pol Pot, or even some of them African commies that ate their own people, huh?).

    • UnCivilServant

      “If a movie theater opened, would you go?”

      Not enough information.

      What movie are they showing?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Hillary: The Movie

      • UnCivilServant

        Not a horror fan, I’ll pass.

      • Chipwooder

        Works for me – Sir Edmund Hillary has a great story to tell!

      • AlmightyJB

        I would masterbate and leave.

      • Sean

        So, just like going to a Walmart?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I would choose not to go, emphasis on choose.

    • Rhywun

      I stopped going to movie theaters long before the lockdowns.

    • AlmightyJB

      It’s like a husband telling his wife she can’t trust the nanny because he’s screwed her 3 times.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Did the Chinese force those police depts to deploy these drones? I can’t stand the ChiComs either but this concern seems misplaced.

      • AlmightyJB

        I’m pretty sure that’s how the Kung Flu started.

  63. The Late P Brooks

    Someone asked “If a movie theater opened, would you go?”

    I probably haven’t been in a movie theater more than three times in the last 15 years.

    • Pat

      I went probably close to once a week when I was in high school, but in my entire adult life I’ve been in a theater certainly less than a dozen times. 4 of which were for Bond flicks. Thankfully Hollywood managed to fuck up that franchise now as well, so I can save the 15 bucks this year.

    • Akira

      I haven’t been to a movie theater since 2006… People are always blown away when I tell them that.

      Come to think of it, people are usually impressed more by what I haven’t done/seen/heard of than the things I have done/seen/heard of.

  64. Ozymandias

    Good morning, O Great Glibertariat!
    Your friendly, midget-Henry Rollins (h/t to Tres) dropping in for a drive-by today. Gotta bunch of to-do’s but wanted to say “hey.”

    I’m optimistic, notwithstanding what we’re enduring. I see a lot more pushback and/or people just ignoring it. While there are plenty of stories of authoritarianism to find, there are also a lot of cops ignoring enforcement that do not show up on any ledger. Lovers of Bastiat should at least acknowledge that (myself included). The Little Hitlers get press; the cops who know it’s bullshit and ignore the calls for more lockdown porn will be lucky to ever get a line of print.

    Beastie Boys are awesome. I didn’t like them when they first came out (“Fight for your Right” was loved by my high school crowd and I fucking hated that song), but over time, they won me over. Some great mixes, clever lyrics, and interesting chord juxtapositions. Yes, they paved the way for Marshall Mathers. Best line by my friend’s younger brother about 10 years ago: “Post-racial world? For my generation the best golfer’s a black guy and the best rapper’s a white guy. We DGAF about skin color.” Gives me some hope for the kids.

    My middle daughter leaves for a COVID nursing assignment in San Jose today. The money’s too good to pass up and she’s furloughed at her current job because her floor was a step-down unit for “non-essential” procedures. womp, womp, womp.

    I’m a Celts fan, and liked Jordan, but Wilt was…on another planet. If Bill Russell says he was the best ever, that’s good enough for me. They changed the game because of Wilt’s dominance.

    Shout out to Hobbit on hitting 50 squats! (Now the crazy part – as good as the bennies have been, and as essential as this part was – the real fitness gains start over the next 50 days. Stick with it. The 70s and 80s will be a grind.)

    Love to this whole crew! And the song I am currently trying to learn on piano. Depressingly beautiful; asked for it to be played at his funeral.

    • Count Potato

      Fifty reps?

  65. The Late P Brooks

    Right wing trolls

    Conservatives in the House are calling for the country to immediately reopen, raising concerns that the closure of nonessential businesses due to COVID-19 infringes on individuals’ rights and could have detrimental long-term effects on the economy.

    ——-

    “I’m still trying to understand where some of these governors and mayors think that they have the power to close down businesses. Explain to me why the marijuana dispensary, the liquor store drive-through, the big box stores, why are those essential, and folks who have put their life savings into maybe building a small restaurant or a furniture store or a florist or bike repair shop, why aren’t those allowed to be opened up?” he continued.

    He added he’s concerned about the effects of keeping people sheltered in place long-term on people’s mental health.

    “Nobody’s even talking about the other issues that come up: increased suicide, domestic violence, child abuse, alcohol and drug abuse. You know, all kinds of things happen when you are isolated.”

    “Shut up, Nazi!” they explained.

  66. The Late P Brooks

    Rhetorical question for a dead thread:

    What are “we” going to do with all those respirators Ford and GM were arm-twisted into making?

    • Akira

      Based on what I’ve heard about medical device regulations, the government will probably mandate their destruction.

  67. kinnath

    Nobody’s even talking about the other issues that come up: increased suicide, domestic violence, . . .

    Hmm, I mentioned suicide and domestic violence on Facebook and was told that those people are already broken. And we can’t blame the actions of broken people on the lockdowns, because we are saving lives.

    • leon

      Hmm, I mentioned suicide and domestic violence on Facebook and was told that those people are already broken.

      These are the people who are acting like they have some moral high ground because they love people over profits. They don’t like it when you smash their illusion of superiority.

    • RAHeinlein

      That doesn’t make sense – we have provide meals at school even during Summer breaks because broken people don’t know how to feed their children!

  68. The Late P Brooks

    those people are already broken

    Pay no attention to that 75 year old coronaplague victim man with emphysema and diabetes.