STEVE SMITH HIT ROAD, LEAVE OPEN POST BEHIND.

by | May 24, 2020 | KHAAAAAANNN!!! | 376 comments

STEVE SMITH, LIFE ON ROAD

STEVE SMITH REALIZE HIM TOO SETTLED. SURE, HIM WORK FOR FREE CASCADIA, AND KEEP UP ON HIKER AND CAMPER RAPE NUMBERS…

STEVE SMITH CATCH!

BUT HIM NEED MORE. SO HIM SELL HOUSE – CAVE FOR WHEN STEVE SMITH NEED LAY LOW, OR GET AWAY FROM IT ALL – YOU WANT BUY?

STEVE SMITH NOW FREE TO HOBO ACROSS LAND AND VISIT FUNNY GLIBERTARIAN PEOPLE! CAN SAY HIM KING OF ROAD!

 

CAMPERS FOR SALE OR RENT, ROOMS TO LET, FIFTY CENT
STEVE SMITH NO NEED PHONE, POOL OR PET, HIM NO USE CIGARETTE
AH, BUT TWO HOURS OF RAPING DEADBEATS WITH BROOM
BUY 8 BY 12 FOOT, FOUR BIT ROOM
HIM A SQUATCH OF MEANS BY NO MEANS, KING OF ROAD
THIRD LUMBER CAR, MIDNIGHT TRAIN, DESTINATION PLACE CALLED “MAINE”
HIM WEAR NO SUIT OR SHOES
HIM DON’T PAY UNION DUES
HIM RAPE OLD HOBOS HIM HAVE FOUND, SHORT, BUT NOT TOO BIG AROUND
HIM A SQUATCH OF MEANS BY NO MEANS, KING OF ROAD
HIM RAPE EVERY ENGINEER ON EVERY TRAIN
BUT NOT CHILDREN, DON’T NEED BAD FAME
EVERY SNACK IN EVERY TOWN
EVERY RV LOT NOT LOCK WHEN NO HOOMAN AROUND
HIM SING,CAMPERS FOR SALE OR RENT, ROOMS TO LET, FIFTY CENT
STEVE SMITH NO NEED PHONE, POOL OR PET, HIM NO USE CIGARETTE
AH, BUT TWO HOURS OF RAPING DEADBEATS WITH BROOM
BUY 8 BY 12 FOOT, FOUR BIT ROOM
HIM A SQUATCH OF MEANS BY NO MEANS, KING OF ROAD!
GO HAVE FUN IN COMMENTS. STEVE SMITH HAVE TRAIN TO RAPE….CATCH. FREE CASCADIA!

About The Author

STEVE SMITH

STEVE SMITH

STEVE SMITH PROMINENT FOREST LAWYER. AND RAPESQUATCH OF IMPORTANCE. ONE TIME GRAND MUFTI OF CASCADIA. FREE CASCADIA!

376 Comments

  1. blackjack

    It’s hard to Steve Smith someone while maintaining 6 feet of social distancing!

    • Incentives Matter

      Steve’s, uh, got that particular problem covered . . .

    • Brett L

      STEVE SMITH NOT SURE WHAT YOU MEAN. SIX FEET NO PROBLEM.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        2 FEET. 4 FEET. 6 FEET. STEVE SMITH TAKE ON ALL KINDS!

    • hayeksplosives

      Maybe Squatch is immune? STEVE SMITH is the vector!

  2. Spudalicious

    Bravo!

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Yes, a golf clap is in order.

      • juris imprudent

        STEVE SMITH NOT HAVE CLAP!

    • DEG

      #2.

      I’d like to see the rest of #6.

      #13.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      3

  3. hayeksplosives

    Song is also known as “How Roger Miller Learned the Hobo symbol for rapesquatxh.”

    • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

      ?

  4. KSuellington

    Felton, CA is definitely a spot that you might find Bigfoot chilling. Or you may just spot the local fauna, an extremely hairy hippie chick with dreads, that if you were smoking the local cash crop, you could easily mistake for Bigfoot.

    • C. Anacreon

      So now you warn us? Years ago when our son was a toddler we went to Felton’s little steam train station when life-size Thomas the Tank Engine was visiting, and he took us for a nice open-air ride. Still have a framed photo of the three of us standing in front of Thomas from that day. Nice memories. Embarrassing as hell for our now 18-year-old son though, he’s hidden that photo somewhere. .

      • KSuellington

        Heh, heh. In another few years you may see that photo again.

        I kinda have a love/hate relationship with Santa Cruz and the SC mountains. The mountains are absolutely beautiful and I love the town of Boulder Creek and some of the other little towns there like Freedom. But it is also a deeply weird place. It’s where, more than any other place I have ever been, you can see how fucked up the hippie movement became and what it helped exacerbate, especially in regards to hard drugs.

      • blackjack

        Yup! The story of my parents.

      • KSuellington

        Yes, I remember your piece that you wrote here, it was very good. I think it is very little understood by most how many extremely bad things came out of that social movement. I’m sure most here get it, and I am damn far away from a social conservative, but way too many people think of the hippies as some harmless do gooders who were just a bit naive, a bit lax with personal hygiene and fond of grass. I used to think that myself. That movement caused some serious lasting damage that is festering with us today in many ways.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Hmmm. I was a ’60s hippie. We were against the war, thought the FBI and CIA were basically Gestapo, favored civil liberties and defendant rights, favored drug legalization, advocated racial equality and a “color blind” society, and knew the media lied to us on the regular. Sound familiar?

        Nixon came along, and we thought of him as the personification of evil. He took our currency off of the gold and silver standard, implemented so-called Affirmative Action, stepped up the war, stepped up the surveillance state, created the EPA.

        I’d say that the normalization of the latter did far more damage than the former. I didn’t leave leftism, leftism left me.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I’ve met quite a few hippies, and I can’t say that “principled liberal” comes to mind as a descriptor. Most of them were the “ill do anything for hard drugs and a piece of ass” Cheech and Chong types. Beyond the constant that was Vietnam opposition, the only principle i could ever distill from the hippies I’ve met was “if it’s too complex for me to understand, it must be evil”.

        Not saying that you’re wrong or that principled hippy is an oxymoron, but you’d be the first principled hippy I’ve ever met.

      • Derpetologist

        The thing that bothered me the most about leftism was the inconsistency. You think the FBI is evil but the IRS is A-OK? You think the media is biased but denounce all alternative sources as “fake news”? You only protest war when a Republican is in charge?

        Perhaps this is my inner Yokeltarian showing, but anyone who lumps in the FBI ad CIA in with the Gestapo needs to read more history books and fewer bumper stickers.

        Perhaps there were some principled hippies. It seems to me that most of them wanted to loaf and get high on someone else’s dime.

      • Derpetologist

        “Nixon came along, and we thought of him as the personification of evil.”

        Because he ended the Vietnam war and opened up relations with China?

        You see what I mean? JFK and LBJ escalated the Vietnam war again and again, yet they could do no wrong in the eyes of Team Blue and their fellow travelers. I know about the “hey hey LBJ” chants, but it was Nixon who got the “4 dead in Ohio” song.

        Oh well. Nixon made for some great Futurama jokes:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWFVTIYRf-k

      • blackjack

        I will say that there was an air of libertarianism in the hippies of yore. It’s quite visible in the music and cultural icons. Most of them were either drawn to radical leftism or hard drugs, in the end. They didn’t start that way. They just wanted to be free to live as they pleased and not harm anyone in the process. The right at the time was on an unprincipled attack fest to any element of counterculture. Up to and including a dress code. It made sense to rebel against that and I’m glad that they did. That the majority ended up advocating the most severe forms of authoritarianism is just sad. Likewise the one’s that ended up in the deep junkie cycle. the world would have been a netter place if they stuck to the early 70’s etho of just let us be. ( disclaimer, none of this is universal and all of this is based on my perception and bias.)

      • Winston

        There has always been a sentiment of “freedom for me, not for thee” and “We Need Real TOP MEN” and “We need a total transformation which will result in things I like and if you don’t like things I like then die you barbarian”

        Also how many hippies still want the gold standard and hate affirmative action and EPA?

        Also Lenin, Mao, Castro, Khomeini, Chavez, etc. said they wanted civil liberties and had some just criticisms of the old regimes before they came to power but afterwards

      • Winston

        And the hippies who fled to Canada to avoid the draft are generally statist fucks.

      • Derpetologist

        I like the song Sign, Sign Everywhere a Sign as much as the next guy.

        I used to have long hair and a wizard beard. I was in the Peace Corps too. So maybe I wasn’t an According to Hoyle hippy but I was damn close.

        I don’t hate hippies like Cartman. Their hypocrisy turned me off.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ghLkrbkbCM

      • Winston

        Well the hippies who fled to Canada and become university profs at least. Libertarianism is American imperialism of course…

      • westernsloper

        I will say that there was an air of libertarianism in the hippies of yore.

        True that. And I know OMWC hangs on to those ideals from what I see. I was born in the 60’s so I was too young to be a dirty hippie but as soon as I could walk I was usually dirty. I used to have friends who claimed to be 60’s hippies and classical liberals. They de-friended me on FB when I pointed out Obama loved to drone people to death. I have since quite FB. These same people are hardcore Bernie Bro’s now. Their Classical Liberalism took a left turn into Socialism/Communism because that is fair. Capitalism is not fair. I am not sure that is a reflection on dirty hippies of yore but more a statement on people who are envious of others and one did not have to be a hippie to turn to that.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Because he ended the Vietnam war and opened up relations with China?

        He waited until re-election time to end the war. And that was after invading Laos and Cambodia and massively stepping up the bombing of the North. But hey, what’s a few hundred thousand dead slants between friends?

        Opening China was the one and only positive thing that came out of that administration.

      • blackjack

        And, ecology was a way more serious thing back then. Yeah,now everything is clean and the eco warriors have done immeasurable evil, but back then the place was a mess. I never felt as strongly as some of them did, but some degree of concern was warranted. Can’t completely agree with the form it took or how far it was taken, but we needed to start caring about the environment back then.

      • blackjack

        And FUCK Nixon!

      • Winston

        Even in the early 1970s Murray Rothbard realized the serious dangers of environmentalism and the EPA

        Can’t completely agree with the form it took or how far it was taken, but we needed to start caring about the environment back then.

        Forseeable consequences are foreseeable. And Bad things Can Not Happen since history and progress will always be on my side. Also Paul Ehrlich was around even then and the watermelons were too and they have never been secretive about their true goals/

      • Derpetologist

        OMWC, I appreciate your response.

        ***
        He waited until re-election time to end the war. And that was after invading Laos and Cambodia and massively stepping up the bombing of the North. But hey, what’s a few hundred thousand dead slants between friends?

        Opening China was the one and only positive thing that came out of that administration.
        ***

        Most of casualties of the war were from JFK and LBJ. Most of the bombs dropped in the war were from LBJ during Operation Rolling Thunder. I will add that until Nixon was in office, most of the bombs were being dropped on *South* Vietnam, the country we were supposed to be helping. At least Nixon took the war to the enemy and tried to win. I find it interesting that it was bad for Nixon to invade Laos and Cambodia when communists from those countries and North Vietnam had been invading South Vietnam for years.

        I’d say the end of the draft and the 26th amendment were pretty good outcomes too, although Nixon can’t take credit for them.

        As for the deaths, the communist Khmer Rouge killed about 2 million people in 4 years after they took over Cambodia. Communism is unhealthy for children and other living things.

        I tutored English to a lady who escaped from the Khmer Rouge. She spoke OK, but had trouble reading.

        Long story short, I’d take criticisms of Tricky Dick more seriously if Team Blue didn’t ignore FDR’s internment camps or LBJ’s escalations.

        I will also note that Bill Clinton wanted to to join the ROTC (he didn’t) to avoid the draft. And then as President he bombed Serbia and some other places. War for thee but not for me. Remind me how many ex-hippies protested him?

        Some of the 60s protesters were honest and praiseworthy. A lot of them were just cynical opportunists or just going with the flow, same as today. They were neither a valiant force for justice nor a bunch of worthless layabouts.

        It’s all a miserable blur. It’s good to hear the perspective of someone who was there.

      • Suthenboy

        Ksue and OMWC, you are both right. There have always been unprincipled people who latch onto movements or institutions not because they believe in them but to use them as a vehicle for power. It always looks worse when they are right under your nose.
        The education we have gotten since December tells us without any doubt or exaggeration that the pols basic premise is not to govern the country or defend inalienable rights but to tell people what to do.
        I say again, it is a toxic sewer of stupidity and malice.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        The education we have gotten since December tells us without any doubt or exaggeration…

        Damn right. It also tells anyone with a functioning synapse that most people aren’t concerned about what they will/should/can do, but about everyone else–especially everyone not on the same page as they are.

        I don’t personally need a lock-down–it’s you ‘freedom’ types that won’t do what you’re supposed to!!”

      • pistoffnick

        “And FUCK Nixon!”

        No thanks. Not my type.

        I like them female and alive.

      • blackjack

        I agree that ecology has been turned into a bludgeon and used against all of us and that far leftism is and was deep into it. The ideal would have been public pressure to clean things up voluntarily. I’m just sayin that the practices in use back then were appalling. They used to literally just dump dangerous chemicals anywhere that nobody was looking. Look up Santa Susanna nuclear accident, fer dogs sake!

      • Derpetologist

        A friend of my parents was a hippy and lived on a commune for a while. He left because of all the drugs and venereal disease. He now hates leftism with a passion. Never married, no kids. My parents met him at a Tea Party meeting.

        Nice guy though and always has something interesting to say.

        A lot of ex-hippies voted for Trump.

    • Shirley Knott

      Oh, cool, Felton! I have a familial relation to the founders 😉
      Always wanted to hunt up Felton Empire Road, which I believes is north of town, but didn’t have the chance.

      • KSuellington

        Cool. If you know anyone there with private land that wants to get rid of their deer or hog problem let me know!

    • totally_not_an_escaped_ai

      I had to Google Maps Felton as I wasn’t familiar with it – turns out there’s a Bigfoot (aka STEVE SMITH) museum there! It was the most prominent place that showed up when searching for the town.

    • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

      I think I’ve told this story here before, but, my cinematography teacher in HS ran an M60 in Vietnam, and, he mentioned that probably one of the most disgusting things they had to endure was “skinning rock apes” over there (presumably for food–it’s been well over 30 years since I heard this).

      Now, I had never heard of a ‘rock ape’, so, I presumed he was just talking about some type of monkey, using some slang. I asked him what that was like, as I pictured them having to skin something like a spider monkey, or similar. He said, “Like skinning a human”. That still didn’t mean much to me beyond what I was already thinking, because…well, “primate’.

      Fast forward to the 21st Century, and I see some type of cryptid show that mentions the Rock Apes of Vietnam, and that convo comes back to mind.

      Holy shit…he skinned Sasquatches???

    • Hyperion

      Karen hardest hit.

    • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

      They aren’t at all shrill assholes…nosiree.

  5. Nephilium

    As there appears to be interest, I’ll kick off a Virtual Happy Hour at 20:00 Eastern tonight.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Thanks Neph. Maybe after chores I can drop in. I do have to work tomorrow though.

    • KibbledKristen

      I’ll be there! Fresh haircut and all

    • DEG

      Thanks!

  6. UnCivilServant

    How difficult would it be for someone to fit one of These engines torn from a helicopter into a truck and have it work long enough to drive out of a wilderness?

    • Don Escaped Australians

      Never saw the specs before today, but that engine’s configuration is ideal for adaptation: looks like it would burn any gasoline, pumps out about 300 ft*lb. Air-cooled makes things so simple.

      • UnCivilServant

        What I’m wondering about is the actual task of fitting the pieces together in some sort of a-team-esque shenanigans

      • Mojeaux

        I love it when a plan comes together.

      • Ted S.

        A man, a plan, a canal — St. Lawrence Seaway!

      • Don Escaped Australians

        You need a transmission. My guess is that thing is really a single-speed toy.

        No matter what tools and time you have, how are you going to couple that to turn wheels? Even if you stay single-speed, how do you take off from uncoupled: maybe a belt drive because that can twist drive direction 90 degrees reasonably.

        Transplanting an engine/transmission is the standard play: mounting to the chassis, aligning a shaft, and punching a hole in the floor for the shifter to come up are straight-forward; clutch linkage from scratch is a nightmare, though.

      • Tejicano

        “clutch linkage from scratch”

        Do you even hydraulic clutch, man?

      • Don Escaped Australians

        I like it

        but it lacks the rusty diffidence and constant tuning that a bowden cable will throw up from time to time

      • Tejicano

        This only comes to mind because the Datsun 510 I converted from automatic to manual had a hydraulic clutch as standard equipment which made the conversion almost a piece of cake.

      • Tres Cool

        Bonus points if you can make it run off wood gas.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Well it was modified and placed into a Tucker Sedan…or so says the intertubes

      • UnCivilServant

        But not over the course of an afternoon.

        Sorry, I should mention my mind is still in writing adventure stories.

    • Plinker762

      From vertical installation for helicopter to horizontal for truck would most likely require changes to the engine’s oiling system.

      • UnCivilServant

        What sort of problems would you forsee, what precautions could be reasonably taken in a run-down facility?

      • Plinker762

        Changes to engine:
        Looking at pictures of the helicopter and airplane versions and the specs on the wiki, it is a wet sump oil system and it appears that the main changes would be to the oil pickup and fill tubes. Could probably just bend the pickup tube and and it looks like the fill tube can be unbolted, rotated and then bolted back on.

        Connecting to truck:
        There would not be a flywheel which could take a clutch and connect to the transmission of a truck. However, there is an old logger trick of gutting the old truck engine and direct couple the new engine to the front of the old one. The new motor drives the truck through the original motor’s crankshaft. (Remove the pistons and connecting rods and plug the oil holes feeding the con-rod bearings. Put the crankshaft back in)

      • Don Escaped Australians

        gutting the old truck engine

        some sort of chain-drive would give you a chance; if you try to line up the shaft centers, you’re going to need to use a drive-shaft with a u-joint and carrier bearing because you’ll never get it close enough to square by eye that the flexing wouldn’t tear up something pretty quick

      • Don Escaped Australians

        I’m wrong: no carrier bearing is needed because you don’t expect the u-joint to significantly articulate

      • Plinker762

        It’s a story and they aren’t trying to make a rig to go 100K miles. Shorten an old driveline and use the u-joints.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        I thought that’s what I wrote

      • Tejicano

        “Remove the pistons and connecting rods and plug the oil holes feeding the con-rod bearings. Put the crankshaft back in”

        Are you sure you won’t need to lubricate those crankshaft bearings? Just because the pistons are gone doesn’t mean it isn’t turning fast enough to require lubrication.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        would be cool if you could keep grease on them, but the clearances aren’t going to allow it

      • Tejicano

        Plug the lines to the camshaft and to each piston, plug the cylinders, put the oil pan back on, and retain the oil pump to push oil through to the crankshaft.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        something like that

        depending on the engine, you might need the entire cam and distributor to drive the oil pump; would be a nice time for the A-team to find something with an electric oil pump . . . or an electric fuel pump that can be used as one

      • Plinker762

        Something like this, but without the intermediate transmission. Might be able to weld up a coupler that would work for a last ditch effort. (make sure your run-down facility has a gas driven welder somewhere for them to find.)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpUJsN5t4fk

      • UnCivilServant

        I see.

        Thank you to everyone who provided their mechanical expertise. Sincerely, I knew the people around here knew more about motors than I do.

    • blackjack

      Fuck that. Just mount it such that the output shaft is parallel to the existing driveshaft. Leave the entire drivetrain as it was in the truck. Use a belt to transmit power via friction from the output to the driveshaft. Allow enough slip to take off smoothly and size your output pulley such that it acts like, say second gear in a manual trans. That should cover up to about 35 mph and as low as you need, given the slippage. You’re welcome.

      Btw, if the dead motor in the truck turns, it will pump the oil that’s in it. If it’s automatic trans, do nothing. Manual trans, just hold the clutch pedal down while underway.

      • blackjack

        We’re talking Macgivering here. My plan is easily the simplest and most feasible. And it would work. I would make it work.

  7. DEG

    I like “King of the Road”.

    • westernsloper

      I can’t listen to it. I have child hood flashbacks of my dad torturing me with that song on road trips. It also makes me crave a bologna sandwich on white bread with mustard from the same events.

      • Hyperion

        Don’t forget the pickles and Louisiana hot sauce.

      • westernsloper

        I didn’t know what Louisiana hot sauce was until my 20’s. I had a deprived childhood.

      • blackjack

        That’s just sad. I was raised on that stuff.

      • Hyperion

        I can literally just drink it right out of the bottle.

      • westernsloper

        There is much about my childhood when looked at through a culinary window that is sad. Liver and onions once a month. Because.

      • Hyperion

        When I was a kid, the threat of liver for dinner was the first threat when you said you were sick and weren’t going to school. If that failed, then came the threat of the ‘castor oil cure’. If that didn’t work there was no doubt you were actually sick, but it wouldn’t save you from the castor oil torture and then you were also getting liver for dinner for sure. So you rarely missed school, no matter how sick you were.

        This is the only reason public school still exists.

      • Hyperion

        When I was in my teens, when my dad and I would go fishing, he’d always take bologna, white bread, and mustard. Always with a jar of pickles and cayenne pepper sauce. On the weeks when we were rich, sometimes American cheese slices.

  8. Juvenile Bluster

    Based on what I remember hearing in 2016, lots of people are going to be voting libertarian for President this year because IT’S TIME for a female President, right?

    Also, there are libertarian women?

    • Ted S.

      She’s the Koch candidate, right?

    • Urthona

      Funny thing is that woman is probably 10x smarter than Biden and Trump combined.

      She’ll get at least 3 votes.

    • Chafed

      I plan to torture my MIL with this. She wouldn’t shut up about how it is important to have a woman President when Hillary ran. Can’t wait to hear her justify her vote for Biden.

      • Hyperion

        Biden’s pick isn’t going to be a real woman. Why do you think Beta has suddenly emerged on Twatter? JK, but seriously, Warren is not a real woman either.

      • juris imprudent

        Oooh, I can think of several people to give the same treatment.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        the day has been full of LP chicks tweeting about girl-power and guys saying we’re about policy and competence

        no matter what movement or demographic, there are always folks there with their old identity politics baked in

      • blackjack

        The first female to run on the presidential ticket was a libertarian. A mythical one, no doubt.

      • blackjack

        Sorry, the interwebs say some lady ran in 1872. After that, in 1972 the libertarian candidate was a woman. It’s not easily found via google, almost like it’s been memory holed.

      • blackjack

        for vice president.

      • Ted S.

        Theodora Nathan.

        I remember reading an interview with her where she said the one question she was made at the convention was if she was at least 35, that being the constitutionally mandated age to run for Vice-President. She was quite flattered, since she was 49 at the time.

      • KSuellington

        She’s also not really black unless she votes for Biden.

    • Mojeaux

      there are libertarian women?

      No.

      • leon

        Libertarian Exclusionary Radical Femenisim?

      • Hyperion

        Bullshit. I have personally known women who are libertarian at least 3 times a day, at least once a week, at least one week a month, at least a couple of months a year.

  9. westernsloper

    AH, BUT TWO HOURS OF RAPING DEADBEATS WITH BROOM

    *snort* *Clinches*

    • pistoffnick

      Dingo looks like she ate a baby!

      They’re good dogs, Brent.

  10. Derpetologist

    ***
    AH, BUT TWO HOURS OF RAPING DEADBEATS WITH BROOM
    ***

    STEVE SMITH worked for the NYPD?

    ***
    On the ride to the station, the arresting officers beat Louima with their fists, nightsticks, and hand-held police radios.[5] On arriving at the station house, they had Louima strip-searched and put in a holding cell. The beating continued later, culminating with Louima being sexually assaulted in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn. Volpe kicked Louima in the testicles, and while Louima’s hands were cuffed behind his back, he first grabbed onto and squeezed his testicles and then sexually assaulted him with a broken broomstick. According to trial testimony, Volpe walked through the precinct holding the bloody, excrement-stained instrument in his hand, bragging to a police sergeant that he “took a man down tonight.”[6]

    Louima’s teeth were also badly damaged in the attack when the broom handle was jammed into his mouth.[7] He testified that a second officer in the bathroom helped Volpe in the assault but could not positively identify him. The identity of the second attacker became a point of serious contention during the trial and appeals. Louima also initially claimed that the officers involved in the attack called him a racial slur and shouted, “This is Giuliani-time” during the beating.[8] Louima later recanted that claim. The reversal was used by police defense lawyers to cast doubt on the entirety of his testimony.[9]
    ***

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Louima#Incident

  11. Aloysious

    A free range ‘squatch. Great.

    STEVE SMITH, if you cause another rapequake, I’m going to write a strongly worded letter.

    • Ted S.

      Allowing government to decide on a whim what may or may not open is a suicide pact, too.

    • Rhywun

      It’s OK to work with the public at a supermarket checkout stand for 8 hours but it’s a “suicide pact” to let someone worship with his socially-distant neighbors for an hour or two. Science!

      • Ownbestenemy

        The dissent really hammered that and hopefully this appeals. How can you square up casinos, supermarkets, et. al and not churches?

      • Hyperion

        The God of the left, big government, is a jealous god.

      • Tejicano

        No need for formal introductions, Mr. Hammer has obviously already met Mr. Nail.

      • Chafed

        You can’t. This is fellating the government. I hope a church member sues for damages. This could reach the Supreme Court.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        government works and makes sense and such all of a sudden?

    • Ownbestenemy

      And nothing else will happen.

    • Suthenboy

      Why are they still around? They keep shitting out the most egregious rulings in our history.

      • Hyperion

        Because their ruler, Pooh Bear and his mouthpieces, The NYT, The Atlantic, CNN, and their crummy little toadies, the DNC.

    • Chafed

      I read a synopsis earlier today. The majority is infuriating. The dissent is brilliant. I think there is a chance this gets an en banc review.

    • juris imprudent

      Suicide pact is a lot like “shouting fire in a crowded theater” – except it came in dissent. Interesting story of Justice Jackson – the author of the phrase (at least within SC litigation) – and the case of some obscure Catholic priest (basically a successor to Fr. Coughlin) being charged and convicted with disturbing the peace in Chicago. How did he do that you might ask – with what we would now call hate speech. Jackson of course said such a law is necessary to the maintenance of order and didn’t infringe on free speech. Kind of ahead of his time.

    • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

      “There are no rules….within limits.”

  12. DEG

    GO FUCK YOURSELF

    The most powerful response to the spread of COVID 19 is to wear a simple facial covering or a mask. The best way to enforce the wearing of masks is to require businesses that open during the crisis to refuse to serve members of the public who do not wear a mask. As Gov. Chris Sununu has chosen to open our malls, with hordes of Massachusetts shoppers coming from areas of concentrated contagion, we need to be even more careful to limit the spread of the virus. It is the cost of doing business. No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service.

    Later:

    Finally, it is time for the governor to speak out against the “ReOpen NH” rallies. While responsible citizens are social distancing and wearing masks, these protestors–some of whom are reportedly paid–flout all community norms. How would these protesters have reacted when asked to plant liberty gardens for the war effort? Would these sunshine patriots have slunk away from their responsibilities in wartime England when asked to darken their windows during air raids? The ReOpen protesters are not patriots at all. Patriots don’t needlessly endanger their neighbors. They fight to protect them. It is long past time our elected leaders publicly proclaimed this simple truth.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Business, on their own, that want to impose a mask rule go ahead. Your shop, your rules. State mandating it as a stipulation to continuing a business license then yeah…go fuck yourself.

      Equating this to liberty gardens is funny but flat out hysterical when equating to war-time effort of blocking out windows.

      I hate people

      • DEG

        I give Volinsky no benefit of the doubt. He is the reason New Hampshire has a statewide property tax. He is running for governor and has Bernie Sanders’ endorsement.

    • Rhywun

      some of whom are reportedly paid

      They learned it from you, dad.

  13. Winston

    Newspaper named after racist traitor complains about military bases named after Confederate generals. Not to mention America was founded by racist traitors. And desiring to obliterate symbols I of supposed treason is very nationalistic. And desiring to destroy symbols of 150 year old civil war strikes me as rather reactionary. Or how the US army that fought in WWII was racially segregated and plenty of those men came from bases named after Confederates.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/media/ny-times-memorial-day-weekend-us-military-celebrates-white-supremacism.amp

    • Don Escaped Australians

      journalism 101: what I just now figured out and am writing a breathless essay about that everyone else has always known

      see also: John Oliver

    • Gustave Lytton

      Ever since they let chicks in, Benning School for Boys lost its cachet. Let’s name them like NYC primary schools. Ft #1, #23, etc. And lose the JB crap.

      • Winston

        We just need to find US officers who did nothing bad to the Indians, Latin Americans, Vietnamese, Afghanis, Iraqis, Filipinos gays, women or blacks…

      • Tejicano

        Did nothing bad? HA!! Thee would have to be no known record of them ever having spoken a single offending (by current standards) word against any person other than other paternalistic, white males.

      • Derpetologist

        I had to go to a training event which I can best describe as: how 1st year sociology majors think the US works

        It took all of my willpower not to blow a gasket and start yelling about how maybe if we didn’t waste time on this chickenshit, we wouldn’t be fighting the same goat humping morons for 20 fucking years.

        So in the scenario, we all got poker chips and then we had to trade them without talking, and then we went up to a counter and announced our score. Since the referees didn’t count our chips, a few wags figured out they could lie about their score. When I realized this, I claimed to have eleventy billion poker chips and was banished to the lowest class. Based on the scores, we got sorted into 3 groups, with the lowest scoring group treated the worst – no chairs for sitting and crammed together in the corner. After a few rounds of that, there was a group discussion, and I presume we were supposed to use the scenario as a prompt for a discussion on class and race in the US.

        I don’t know how much money went for that, but it was probably enough for a platoon to have a day at the range.

        I’m thankful that most of my time in the Army has been spent doing useful things. I try not to think too much about the other stuff.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, how man sociology officers were fragged after that?

      • Derpetologist

        There is a lot of self-fragging in the sense that qualified people who care about the mission quit because they get fed up.

        https://jqpublicblog.com/punching-out-latest-dear-boss-letter-decries-air-forces-lack-of-true-leadership/

        I read it costs several million dollars to train a military pilot, and despite huge retention bonuses, there is a shortage.

        My brother was a helicopter pilot in the Army for 11 years and left because he got tired of the nonsense.

        As for me, it was a very long and hard road to get where I am today, so I’m in it for the long haul. After 3 employers in a row threw me in the trash, the Army gave me another chance. So far, it’s worked out very well for me.

        I like to think the bullshit is like the tide and that it will ebb at some point.

      • slumbrew

        Interesting read, as a civilian.

        The big take-away: I now want to “queep” to enter everyday life.

        “I just got that e-mail about the ‘INCLUDE’ training – please tell me this queep isn’t mandatory.”

      • Tejicano

        My military career was very interesting how much change I got to experience having a huge gap between my first enlistment and my last reserve unit.

        I spent the first four years active duty in the infantry back in the late 1970’s – then a huge gap with a few years in an IRR unit (no pay/uniforms/duty – just retirement points for meetings) – and coming back into a regular reserve unit 35 years later.

        My first duty was probably spent about as many days outside as inside. Boot camp was the only time I ever sat at a desk getting instruction of any kind. After that “classroom” activities were sitting on footlockers in our barracks covering basic soldering stuff like first aid, weapon specific topics (FDC, etc), radio use, etc. I did attend one “NBC” (nuclear, biological, chemical) warfare class which was taught in a Quonset hut with the class standing up. I never had equal opportunity, sexual harassment, suicide prevention, cultural appreciation, human trafficking, etc training of any kind.

        My last four years were exactly like Derptologist describes here. Huge chunks of my time in uniform were spent in classes talking about topics which had nothing to do with actual soldering.

      • Derpetologist

        Oh what the hell- I’ll air another grievance.

        I had to go to briefing about Islam. The presenter was a chaplain whom I will refer to as Major Windbag. Major Windbag mispronounced every single Arabic word in his talk, even the easy ones. He often inverted or dropped consonants, so instead of saying jizyah (tribute paid by non-Muslims under Muslim governance) he called it jee-zah. Maybe he was too used to saying Jesus. He had a few interesting stories, but it struck me that he had not made the slightest effort to understand the language central to the topic he was lecturing on.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        Major Windbag

        LTG Scheisskopf was already taken, of course

    • Q Continuum

      I don’t understand why this continues to surprise you. The NYT (and the WaPo) are Communist publications. They print lies and propaganda and nothing else. Yes, it’s depressing that so many people continue to pay attention to them, but many people still read the Weekly World News and that doesn’t bother you.

      • Winston

        People and libertarians actually listen to them. Jeff Tucker was honestly shocked that the New York Times endorsed the Coronavirus shutdowns.

      • Q Continuum

        So what? Are you the thought police? Part of liberty is people being allowed to be stupid fucking useless pieces of trash.

      • Winston

        I don’t recall ever saying that I was shocked that New York Times says things I don’t like. And this site is known for not linking to outlets to critique them for being wrong, right?

        And what I really meant was that the New York Times will have much influence on the political and intellectual class. Setting the Overton Window and all.

      • Hyperion

        The NYT is a piece of shit. Thomas Friedman and Frank Bruni, 2 of their ‘star’ writers, are 2 of the dumbest people to ever be given a pen to write with. I’d call them both retards except it would be such an insult to retards.

      • Hyperion

        I don’t know who Jeff Tucker is, but does he live in a box? Or was he asleep then the NYT endorsed Hitler and Pol Pot?

      • Winston

        https://www.aier.org/article/the-world-will-backlash-in-mostly-good-ways/

        I’m a long-time fan of the New York Times. Jeer if you want but I’ve long admired their reporting, their professionalism, their steady hand, their first draft of history, even if I don’t share the paper’s center-left political bent.

        Something about this virus caused the paper to go completely off the rails. In early March, they began to report on it as if it were the Black Death, suggesting not just closing schools and businesses but actually calling for a complete totalitarian policy. It was shocking and utterly preposterous. The guy who wrote that article has a degree in rhetoric from Berkeley and yet he was calling the shots on the paper’s entire response to disease on a national level. They’ve gone so far as to falsify dates in their reporting in order to manipulate the timeline (I called them out on a case in point; the paper made the change but never admitted the error.)

        See Jeff Tucker has been good on the coronavirus but this a good example of my issues with him. He seems genuinely shocked that the NYT and a Berkeley professor are a bunch of lying totalitarians. The NYT is full of modern, sophisticated, cosmopolitan, urban, intellectual, forward thinking, technological-minded, educated people unlike the Alt-Right, Trump and the libertarian brutalists he opposes. how they disagree with him on this key issue that he thought the center-left agreed with him on? All those pro-socialist and pro-communist editorials didn’t tell him anything?

      • juris imprudent

        Listen to them? Perhaps that is the problem.

      • Winston

        Yes that is exactly the problem…

      • juris imprudent

        Did you at least feel the breeze as that sailed over your head?

      • Ted S.

        It doesn’t surprise him one bit; it just allows him to keep up his tedious shtick.

    • leon

      sigh.

      Some of those generals were the best if the era. So the military might be celebrating good generals.

      Remember the militaries job is to Kill people. The union did it’s share of atrocities. But celebrating Sherman is ok cause he only plundered bad people.

      • Winston

        The Union wanted to kill the Indians which is a fact that is acknowledged among the woke left and I am certain will not be used to unperson Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan when their time comes…

      • leon

        Oh yes. They will all be eventually. All must be destroyed till only Howard Zinn is left.

  14. Gustave Lytton

    Neighbors a couple of houses over are having fun. Sounds like a Paul Harrell video right now.

    • Hyperion

      “Neighbors a couple of houses over are having fun.”

      They want people to die?

      • Gustave Lytton

        If someone shows up with criminal intent, quite possibly.

      • Hyperion

        I’m from the government and I’m here to help?

      • Chafed

        Good to see you taking a poke at Newsom.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Eww. I mean, he (Newport Newsome) looks like he’s up for it. Still…

      • westernsloper

        She was better in Flashdance.

      • totally_not_an_escaped_ai

        Ugh, that was awful. At least the responses are pushing back against that nonsense. Not that it will do any good…

      • Mojeaux

        Hey, you! Awesome to see you!

      • Ted S.

        He’s not an escaped AI, he’s a naked intruder.

      • Mojeaux

        No, that’s Sir Digby.

      • slumbrew

        We should get those crazy kids together.

      • Mojeaux

        On the other hand, I’ve never seen AI and Digby in the same room together…

      • totally_not_an_escaped_ai

        Can’t I be both? It’s hot here…

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Uh, NO, you cannot.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Geeze, Ted…

        ::kicks rock down the road::

        And, Mojeaux….e tu?

      • Mojeaux

        “2012” was just too egregious to be borne. On a libertarian blog yet!

        I would even argue it wasn’t pedantic, but totally remedial.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        ::checks for a 2012::

        Quoi??

      • totally_not_an_escaped_ai

        Thanks! 🙂

      • blackjack

        The children?

        Music to get kicked out of high school by…

  15. The Late P Brooks

    “Nixon came along, and we thought of him as the personification of evil.”

    Because he ended the Vietnam war and opened up relations with China?

    You see what I mean? JFK and LBJ escalated the Vietnam war again and again, yet they could do no wrong in the eyes of Team Blue and their fellow travelers. I know about the “hey hey LBJ” chants, but it was Nixon who got the “4 dead in Ohio” song.

    I just wandered in and looked at that little exchange.

    Honest to glob, I don’t know why Nixon isn’t one of the great heroes of the American left. Wage and price controls, funny money, surveillance state, OSHA, the EPA, and on and on. He was a leftists’ dream President.

    • juris imprudent

      He was a leftists’ dream President.

      He delivered a few good things, but he wasn’t a true believer. At best that makes him a useful idiot. It is always about right-thought, not right-deeds when it comes to the fucking zealots.

      • Winston

        Also he was red-baiting California Quaker who hated the media. Can’t ignore that…

  16. Mojeaux

    Local PBS station is replaying a Memorial Day performance of the KC Symphony Orchestra from last year, I think. Anyway, I did, as I always do, tear up at the 1812 Orchestra. Look, I’m as susceptible to national pride and propaganda as anybody else when you get to me with music. Music is my Achilles.

    • Mojeaux

      1812 Overture*

      • Mojeaux

        2112, you mean?

      • Hyperion

        Pedant!

      • Mojeaux

        OMG I have finally been given the highest honor of Gliberation, being accused of pedantry!

        *squeeeeeeeeee*

      • Ted S.

        Somehow, the people accusing me of pedantry don’t seem to be honoring me.

      • Mojeaux

        I find some dubious things honorable.

      • blackjack

        PSST… when they sing that the meek shall inherit the earth, they’re being sarcastic!

      • Mojeaux

        Used to drive my classmates nuts. They’d make fun of me for something and I’d take it as a compliment (for real, like most of the time I didn’t know they were making fun of me) and just parade the hell out of it. Good way to stop getting picked on.

    • LemonGrenade

      When the USA lives up to her ideals, we’re awesome. I have no shame in being patriotic, even if I might be mad at the majority of americans clamoring for more authoritah right now.

      • Tejicano

        I believe that the USA is/was the best human experiment in how to run a society which gives the best opportunity for economic progress to as many as possible. Not perfect but better than just about all others so far. This is one of the reasons why I chose to serve in the military for as long as I did.

        For anybody who would run the US down for whatever faults they find I invite them to show me a better overall example.

        I chose to live in Japan mostly because it provides a better chance for me to be involved directly in international commerce (my major interest) where my very specific skills come to bear while supporting further participation of American enterprises in Asia.

      • LemonGrenade

        I certainly don’t have one, although my experiences are limited to living in the USA and West Germany before the wall fell. The country as a whole has good bones, and if we could remember the general concepts of freedom and equal rule of law (yeah yeah, we did not always live up to them), we’d continue to be the awesomest.
        Right now, I’m looking at states freer than VA currently is, and love the american experiment for that, too. If I want to leave because VA’s gun laws and other regulations have become onerous, I can leave, and find a state that better suits my beliefs; I don’t have to change citizenship, just addresses.

      • kinnath

        I have traveled to Canada, Ireland, England Netherlands, France, Germany, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia.

        While I could imagine retiring to western Ireland, there is no place outside the US that I would actually want to live.

        I am appalled by people that want to turn the US in to Europe.

      • LemonGrenade

        I think people that want to turn the US into Europe haven’t actually lived in Europe for any extended period of time, but visited on a honeymoon or vacation. It’s awfully pretty when you’re just visiting tourist sites and staying for a week or so.
        Myself, I’m busy trying to think of the *perfect* patriotic outfit to wear to the first fireworks show at Mt Rushmore in like a decade. I don’t normally bother with makeup or curling irons, but for this, I might.

      • l0b0t

        OMG, so very much this. None of those folk have ever tried to find a jar a peanut butter in Amsterdam. After finally tracking down a Super DeBoer location that carried it, we found there was only the one brand – UNCLE SAM – American Style Peanut Butter. It was full of crunchy granulated sugar.

      • UnCivilServant

        Is that where Pie gets his impression of American food?

      • Gender Traitor

        I wonder what they do with peanut butter in the land of Vegemite. ::shudders::

      • straffinrun

        Snowden and Ulbricht had specific skills, too. Ask them where they’d like to live.

      • Tejicano

        I don’t know if you’ve noticed but speaking/reading Japanese isn’t a skill in serious demand* outside of Japan. I have seen a few opportunities working in the auto industry in the US coordinating imports of part/assemblies but in most cases I see those types or roles going to Japanese who already work for the company doing that.

        * I will call the need for Japanese language teachers a serious demand when those teachers are paid significantly more than other language teachers.

      • Sensei

        They exist in financial services in metro NYC, but generally are filled by Japanese natives fluent in English.

        A former co-worker’s Japanese wife does simultaneous interpretation. I don’t know how the hell she does that given the difference in construction of the languages.

      • Tejicano

        The best live interpreter I’ve ever seen (Japanese-English) was an American guy who grew up in Japan, going to standard Japanese schools. He grew up speaking English at home but immersed in Japanese at school. He is a true bilingual/bicultural.

        He didn’t even take notes which most interpreters need to do. He just listened and repeated in the other language – didn’t miss a nuance nor an inference. All honorifics intact.

      • Sensei

        I can’t do interpretation for anything but the most basic of conversations. And my head feels like it is going to explode in the process.

        My non-native English speaking bilingual friends here all hate to interpret.

      • Rhywun

        Every person I ever told I was a linguistics major assumed I wanted to be an interpreter. I was like, no – that’s really hard.

      • Tejicano

        Interpretation takes a lot of mental effort – much more than most people assume.

        About 30 years ago, just before I moved back here, I was often sent to Japan with the chief engineer of the design team I was working on. We came to visit the parts/assembly manufacturers who the local Japanese producers were engaging to supply everything they needed to build our product. I would go with the local engineers and the chief American engineer to visit the suppliers – fielding their questions about minute changes they wanted to do to the parts.

        I would spend all day interpreting the discussions between the two Japanese teams for the American engineer. At the end of the day, on the train back to our hotel, the American engineer got snippy with me for zonking out on the train. I was worn out from interpreting all day – but he had no concept for how much work that took.

      • straffinrun

        Definitely. You need to pair it with other skills to get anywhere worth going. My day job, if you remember, pairs my lack of empathy with my language skills nicely.

      • UnCivilServant

        I thought your day job was getting drunk on the train.

      • straffinrun

        That’s moonlighting.

      • Tejicano

        I always think of language skills as “icing” with the actual job content skill being the “cake”. You need a lot more cake to make icing worthwhile.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m fluent in no languages, and have zero skills, but I still found a niche.

      • Chafed

        Fortran is a language.

      • slumbrew

        Fortran is a language.

        Savage. Could have just gone with COBOL.

      • UnCivilServant

        But I actually know COBOL. I don’t know Fortran.

      • slumbrew

        TBF, both COBOL and Fortran are indeed still in in fairly wide use.

        Maybe SNOBOL for obscure, (mostly?) dead language.

      • Rhywun

        I actually know COBOL

        ↑ govt worker confirmed

      • UnCivilServant

        I said I know it.

        I’ve never used that knowledge.

      • Rhywun

        I dunno… I just suppose that a lot of govt software is still using it?

        I have only worked in the private sector and it was unknown to anyone of working age when I started out in the late 90s.

      • UnCivilServant

        I learned it in college. It was an elective.

      • Rhywun

        Ah, cool. I remember COBOL was gonna be taught in my HS (it was all Pascal then) but I graduated and dunno if it happened.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Me too. I put out the flag this weekend, not for the government or politicians, but to honor the memory of those who aren’t here.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Nixon wanted to ban handguns,.

    • Tejicano

      Not to defend him but most politicians in that era were on board with that to some degree. It was more a discussion of how to do it than whether to do it or not. Many of us growing up at the time expected we would all be disarmed before we became adults or soon after.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        it’s a Saturday night special
        it’s gotta barrel that’s blue and cold

        affordable guns were thought to be evil: in other words, blacks and hispanics could afford them

      • blackjack

        Ain’t no good for nuthin else!

      • kinnath

        That is how I remember it.

        The focus was getting the cheap guns out of the hands of dangerous minorities. It was racism at is finest.

      • Rhywun

        The focus was getting the cheap guns out of the hands of dangerous minorities.

        It still is.

      • Tejicano

        The GCA was an unspoken reaction to the Black Panthers open carrying at the state capitol in Sacramento – with the spoken purpose being Oswald’s purchase of a milsurp rifle through the mail. It screwed up gun laws that still hamper imports to this day – it is the basis for a bunch of other bans either by EO or administrative fiat.

    • Ted S.

      Yeah, governors didn’t have to say some people are second-class workers and shut their businesses at gunpoint.

      • LemonGrenade

        That’s what’s most maddening about the whole deal. The only concept of essential and non-essential I’ve ever seen comes in the shape of government employees, during snow emergencies. In the real world, there ain’t no such thing, and nothing I’ve seen codified into law that would determine one business essential and another non. Am I just woefully historically ignorant? The whole thing strikes me as obviously unconstitutional.

      • Ted S.

        And propagandizing by calling them heroes.

      • LemonGrenade

        Thank goodness my neighborhood hasn’t engaged in any of that nonsense overtly. I’d end up on a list for not clapping.

      • slumbrew

        Same. I find that sort of mandatory adulation deeply off-putting.

      • Rhywun

        “We serve first responder heroes first”

        /just-seen Verizon commercial

        It’s getting pretty tiresome.

      • Count Potato

        If this shit was any more tiresome, I’d be in a coma.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Good thing I’m already a Verizon customer! ?

      • Gender Traitor

        “We serve first responder heroes first”

        /just-seen Verizon commercial

        Ahem.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Probably explains why my dept. uses FirstNet (AT&T). Then again, Verizon is catering to individuals with that mess.

        /enjoying that sweet 25% FR discount from Verizon.

      • Rhywun

        Of course they blame “net neutrality”. Or lack of – I don’t really get it.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        That’s when we all started dying, Rhy. Don’t you remember dying due to no heavy hand of BigGov on the intertubes??

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, things did get garishly colorful.

    • westernsloper

      Twitter is an interesting hive mind algorithm. The “More Tweets” section after your linked one is nothing but anti-Trump and pro lock down tweets from supposedly important people.

      • Rhywun

        If by “hive mind” you mean “carefully curated to present only approved opinions”.

    • Suthenboy

      Their only hope is to lay the pandemic and the economic destruction on Trump, neither of which are his doing.

    • LemonGrenade

      Ha, that inspired me to check the latest designs on tshirthell.com and they’re selling a few face mask designs I might pick up, just as an emergency backup if we end up traveling in areas that mandate their use.

    • Chafed

      I do but I don’t have the balls to wear it.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Chafed–check your email, will ya?

    • straffinrun

      Gimme govt mandated food labeling or gimme death.

  18. Winston

    Speaking Of Hong Kong does anyone find interesting that the only reason it is considered a bastion of freedom is because of British Imperialism? If the British had handed it back before WWII, or had never taken it, if would have been brutalized by Mao.

    And of course Hong Kong was supposed to be the ruins of the Chicoms but it appears that it may in fact be Hong Kong being ruined.

    • Not an Economist

      Related: This ain’t good.

      Things are going to get out of control and we aren’t going to be able to stop it.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Not good at all, there’s no way Modi will let that stand.

    • pistoffnick

      I’m a just a lowly country mouse, but Hong Kong is my favorite city. Or was. I fear the Chinese will fuck up Hong Kong before I get there again.

      • Winston

        I fear the Chinese will fuck up Hong Kong

        I’m not really sure what people expected to happen to Hong Kong when the handover occurred. A totalitarian state would leave the city alone? The whole “one country two systems” was always supposed to be temporary. Did anyone really think that would really last until 2047? And if the Chicoms ever violated it no one could anything about it.

      • pistoffnick

        I guess I should enjoy the fact that I experienced it when it was still relatively free.

      • Tejicano

        Most people probably don’t know that the reason why Mao didn’t take Hong Kong in 1949 had less to do with the British than his desire to have an open port via which the PRC could smuggle goods in exchange for hard currency. He knew that would be a useful wormhole to the west. Now that the PRC is trading directly with the west Hong Kong doesn’t have the same value.

      • Sensei

        I knew the first part of your comment, but didn’t think of the second part.

        I think you are right – not as much need for it anymore. And I suppose if they needed it again they just grab Taiwan…

      • Tejicano

        One of the significant differences (in general) between Hong Kong Chinese and PRC Chinese is the HKG business people know how to run and grow a business. Too many PRC counterparts are too greedy and end up killing the deal before long. That’s a cultural difference which doesn’t seem to be teachable – at least not to the average person raised in the PRC.

        I think the political elite in the PRC are aware of this difference and that is the only reason they took the slow route to re-integration of Hong Kong.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Former ex-pats, esp. Brits and WSJ staffers, seem to adore the place.

      • peachy rex

        Pre-ChiCom Hong Kong was one of my favourite places. (And I saw a pretty fair chunk of the world before my 18th birthday.)

      • Tejicano

        My first visit to Hong Kong was in 1988 – exactly a year before tank-man in Tienanmen. Even then you could feel the unease among the residents, wondering where their future would lead them.

      • one true athena

        Me, too! Same year. And yeah, I remember talking to people who were already planning to get out before the ’97 handover.

        I bought a t-shirt that had 1997 at the top and the hong kong flag getting painted over with the red flag of China on it. Great city

        (and the world’s scariest airport back then)

  19. slumbrew

    I actually drove more than 2 miles today, for the first time in months – surprised the MIL for her 70th birthday with socially-distant driveway picnic (lobster rolls from a local place, splits of champagne for all), followed by a drive-by of her local friends. My somewhat karen-esque wife did OK with people not distancing to her standards and it was great to see my MIL/SIL/nephew.

    A quick 300 miles later and I’m shot from being in the sun all day / slotcar driving on I-95.

    • Chafed

      I remember those days. I don’t I-95 at all. Where is your MIL located?

      • slumbrew

        Connecticut Shoreline.

    • Count Potato

      I got pulled over for doing 140 on 195 once. I still kept my license. Although, I think the cop only caught me doing 110.

      • slumbrew

        It was busy going back but going down was smooth sailing – that said, we had 2-3 people blow past us doing well over a 100 on the way down. 2 of which were, of course, pickup trucks, which is what you want for high-speed driving.

      • Count Potato

        My chevelle had a way lower center of gravity.

      • Mojeaux

        It’s easy not to “feel” how fast you’re going in a truck. I can be pushing 90 in mine and I won’t notice until I have to slow down for someone in the fast lane.

      • slumbrew

        This wasn’t that – it was jamming down the left-hand lane, tailgating anyone who didn’t move, then absolutely flooring it once they did.

        Connecticut has it’s own special brand of lunatic drivers.

      • Tejicano

        It was interesting how fast a Porsche 914 feels – travelling with your butt maybe about 10 inches above the pavement. Perspective really makes a huge difference.

      • slumbrew

        That, I believe.

        Not quite the same thing, but 85 really feels fast in the little Honda rollerskate we have but I suspect it’d be no big deal in the used Porsche Macan I’m eyeing 🙂

      • Plinker762

        I have a lifted 3/4 ton pickup and a Challenger. There is a definite change in perspective switch between the two.

      • Chafed

        I’m shocked Connecticut troopers weren’t out. They love writing tickets in their unmarked cars.

      • slumbrew

        After 10 years of lead-footing it down there (I usually cruise around 85), I think their reputation may be somewhat overblown / they’ve changed. They’re usually just set up on the side of the road and not particularly concealed. Waze always (?) has them marked.

      • Chafed

        That’s quite a change from when I lived there. I thought they balanced their budget off tickets.

      • slumbrew

        AFAIK, they’ve switched to the “soak the rich” plan of balancing the budget. Because, hey, where are all those NYC financiers going to move to, Florida? Texas? Hahahaha. Right? Right?

    • LemonGrenade

      I have a bit of a girl crush on Kayleigh. I wish I could spank the press that hard without resorting to profanity, but an f-bomb always sneaks in.

  20. Mojeaux

    So the pool party in the Lake of the Ozarks that is going viral is called the “No Ducks Given Pool Party”. LOL

    • straffinrun

      Is that Freedom Rock? Turn it up!

      • Sensei

        Nobody under 50 gets that joke. I’ve learned not to use it as much as I like it.

      • slumbrew

        Hey, I get it and I’m under 50!

        Technically. For, like, two more weeks…

      • Don Escaped Australians

        I was never 52: somehow I convinced myself that I was 53 for two years

        I need to pay more attention to arbitrary bullshit if I’m ever going to amount to anything

      • slumbrew

        I’m in the “birthdays are bullshit” camp, but there were plans (local soirée/drinks-fest, trip to Napa) that were blown-up by the ‘rona. We’re falling back to “drinks-fest + Cuban food delivery the neighbor’s backyard. In theory, it’ll be 6-feet apart, but we’ll see once the booze starts flowing / the cornhole bags start flying.

      • Count Potato

        We couldn’t celebrate my mom turning 90 because of the kung flu 🙁

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Hey, I get it and I’m under 50!

        Agreed

      • blackjack

        It’s a daredevil move for sure!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Wait a sec… the actor in the commercial moved to Japan…

    • Winston

      Vote Democrat?

    • Count Potato

      WaPo sucks ass.

    • DEG

      Beautiful.

  21. Winston

    https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/moore-gun-owners-youre-on-your-own

    I am a bike riding, Chardonnay swilling, Toronto downtowner. I have also spent the last 20 years of my career writing and radio broadcasting and I have always defended the rights of gun owners. No more.

    I’m done with your hectoring and condescension. I’m through with your paranoia.

    I don’t need to be lectured on a constitutional amendment from another country. The fact that I don’t own a gun is immaterial. That I live in an urban setting doesn’t mean I don’t understand a farmer’s need for a firearm for pest control.

    • slumbrew

      Why would I give a fuck what a Canadian thinks about legal issues in this country?

    • Tejicano

      WOW! Gustave, thanks for finding this. I might just try a local butcher and see what they can get me. The equivalent of US$50 to $100 sounds a little pricey but with the long, slow lockdown days still in effect it might make a nice diversion to try.

      I had long hoped to find one on base at a commissary but either they always sell out or they don’t stock them. I just kinda forgot to look for them since they just don’t seem to be in the same plane of existence. Not sure what they cost in the US – been forever since I’d even looked which back there.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Good luck!

        I’m not sure off the top of my head, but somewhat related strangely Safeway has been selling packages of corned beef. Usually just see them on clearance after St Patty’s until they’re gone. Never for two months and being restocked.

  22. Crusty Juggler

    There is a show on Showtime called Billions. One character is a hedgefund genius blah blah capitalism. And he is the hero (in my veiewing), although the show doesn’t really take sides. The second to last show:

    be greedy, be hungry, subjugate and conquer, because that’s who we are, that’s what we are

    • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

      Yeah–leave it to Showtime to run a series with Paul Giamatti and Damien Lewis that worships the State going after money crimes.

      • slumbrew

        Agreed – “doesn’t really take sides” doesn’t track – Giamatti is the good guy, Lewis is the bad guy and if you like Lewis’ character, you’re a bad person, like liking Tony Soprano.

        Their viewpoint is pretty clear; my opinion may be swayed by the various podcast appearances by the showrunners.

      • Crusty Juggler

        lol no.

      • slumbrew

        I haven’t kept up so maybe they got more balance?

        I stopped watching after the season with Asia Kate Dillon – I find they(?) irritating as an actor; the worse part of John Wick 3.

        I didn’t stop because of that, just co-coincided with my declining interest.

      • Crusty Juggler

        Axe has been the more villainous of the two for the most part, but it’s like 51-49, which is refreshing.

        It’s also a ridiculous, fun show, which is what matters most.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Holy shit–I thought you were being snarky about some actress, via her name, slum. Then I saw who that is. Sorry! Who ‘they’ are.

        Yup; worst part of JW3. Also, how tiresome. And, fugly.

      • Crusty Juggler

        It has nice boobs, you freak.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        That? Has tits?

      • Crusty Juggler

        Dude.

      • Chafed

        Who the hell are you two blathering about?

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Asia Kate Dillon

        “Blathering”?? Moi?

      • Chafed

        *enacts own labor on the Google machine* Gah!

      • l0b0t

        It looks like Shane McGowan cosplaying as a 19th century Newcastle coal miner.

    • Rhywun

      subjugate and conquer

      I guess the swimming pool of gold coins comes later.

      • Chafed

        Scrooge McDuck makes a cameo?

    • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

      Hey! I can link again!! I guess this means I have to replace that @*%&! Chromebook.

      /Fucking Chromebook POS.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Yeah, there were a few of us talking kolaches a few weeks back. I would imagine you were around for it.

        If it wasn’t me that linked it, I certainly commented on it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ah, that must have been it.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        I mentioned it last week

        when someone asserted that the west was more assimilated with fewer pockets of immigrant language and culture

    • blackjack

      Crashing sucks, I hope he’s OK!

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        It seems he’s making statements. If so, means he’s conscious, which is probably the best first take on things. I figure he’s a tough ol’ bird, although I could be wrong.

  23. Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

    And now, for some nice, relaxing programming on TLC….NOPE! Just…no.

    I find that these people are:
    1) incredibly in need of professional psychiatric services
    2) so in need of fame they are willing to play those roles
    3) both 1 and 2

    I’m tempted to start thinking that Sanger was on to something. Tempted, mind you.

    • slumbrew

      I saw the ad for that and thought of #1 immediately. #3 also applies.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Yeah, then, they open their mouths….if the accents don’t get ya, the actual conversations will.

        /I was stupidly hoping for some parental smackdowns. Yeah, no.

      • Chafed

        Sweet Jeebus what has become of us!?! Hard pass.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Well, they can make one soft, very quickly. But, yeah–Pass.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I remarried watching reruns of Connections on TLC.

      Day the Universe Changed > Connections by hair

      • Gustave Lytton

        *remember

    • blackjack

      They’re just attention whores. The whole thing is heavily scripted and manipulated. None of those reality shows are actually reality. Even if they just let the players do their own thing, just having a camera pointed at you makes you act different. But they don’t let the players do what they want. They gin up drama. If they didn’t, nobody would watch.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        just having a camera pointed at you makes you act different. But they don’t let the players do what they want.

        Very much this. I just don’t ‘trust’ anyone who wants to participate. Oh, well–hope they got paid, I guess.

      • Chafed

        Mainland China wants your thoughts on those who don’t want to participate.

      • Chafed

        They can suck Asia Kate Dillon.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        EwYeah……..Two problems solved, and America is saved!

  24. Trials and Trippelations

    Catching up on the posts.

    I wanted to respond to lemon’s comment about churches lack of push back.

    I, too, have felt like something is just a little off about the Church taking it’s cues and acquiescing to the gov’s demands.

    The main issue (and the source of this info being my wife who is a pastor) being insurance which most large, mainline denominations have. As many entities are discovering their insurance coverage was quite lax about outbreaks and illness and usually says to just follow local health regs. This has become a major issue as it relates to communion. My wife’s synod says communion cannot be pre-packaged per state emergency dictates.

    Second, as someone noted the bureaucracy is at play here. Mainline denominations have a significant state/regional and national apparatus. Things can be overlooked when one church wants to do things their own way in contradiction of a synod rule (in my limited experience). But synod staffs for the national and state apparatus are not allowing such leeway. Just like in our fields the synod staffs are more out of touch and progressive than the church membership and some local church leaders.

    This ends my wife’s insights, and now my own:

    Most mainline “liberal” synods are progressive to the point that their outlook, stances, and beliefs really can’t be separated from DNC platforms. TDS is here. Following Dem govs is alive and well. The state bishop for my wife’s synod about had an anyeurism when Trump said all churches are essential. My state had judges rule that the churches must be allowed to have service, but he is still refusing to allow in-person services in the synod.

    Maybe there is a Karen snitching fear factor. I’ve seen in the news congregations of 30 litigate or open in defiance of orders. That seems easy. Surely you know if 30 people are with you and maybe all think very similarly. There is no way a 100+ congregation all think the same and don’t have some Karens. I could see a pastor being a little hesitant to push things.

    Churches are full of old people, the most at risk population.
    I can see and give synod leadership a more positive reason for not pushing for church openings. They are trying to save their congregants (and donors!) lives. My wife and I agree this is taking away congregants agency, and removing the secondary effects of church for its members. Things like the social aspect, singing, seeing little kids run around.

    • Trials and Trippelations

      I should clarify I think the reason for no pushback from big churches is the non-nefarious insurance reason.

      The other stuff might play a small part

    • Chafed

      That’s an interesting perspective. I hadn’t even consider the insurance angle.

      My synagogue has a large sanctuary. As long as there is no bar or bat mitzvah, we could socially distance for Sabbath services. I’d love to see my congregation give Newsom the finger. Thanks to your insight, I wonder how big a role insurance plays in the decision making.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        I think it has a big part in the in person services, but in other areas I think it’s all fear and nannying. Specifically, my state’s synod has banned singing for a year during service. The Lords Prayer, Creeds etc will also not be recited.

        I keep joking with my wife that they will ban sermons too ?

    • salted earth

      T&T,
      Thanks for the perspective. I hadn’t considered the insurance issue. So essentially, churches are businesses with the same liabilities, duties, and considerations. Hayeksplosives mentioned the possibility of changing churches’ tax protections. Makes sense if churches are operating as businesses. I get not wanting to put the health of their parishioners at risk, but in theory, aren’t they supposed to be more concerned with their parishioners’ souls? It gets messy pretty quickly.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        They could be a non-profit for all that matters if they hurt someone: once a judgment is secured, assets will be seized.

      • salted earth

        I think I’m just being naive or an idealist. As institutions, churches have historically been concerned with things other than faith.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        “More concerned”? Between food banks, hospital ministries, and disaster mitigation orgs, I think there’s plenty of concern for both.
        “Follow the money” would seem to be excellent advice in many situations outside of criminal/unethical behavior. One sick family member, and other members, who don’t attend said congregation, most likely will be sending their attorney around.

        The general public is often just as much to blame for the way things are, as the government is.

      • Chafed

        The general public elects the government. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        Or, nuts. Same with nuts.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        Things are definitely complicated

        “So essentially, churches are businesses with the same liabilities, duties, and considerations”

        Yes, but very, very poorly run businesses. My wife’s last 2 gigs have been the equivalent of those Restaurant rescue shows where she comes in to try to right the ship and finds horrifying omissions

      • salted earth

        I know some people, I’ve heard some stories.

      • Digby something something Unclothed Intruder

        HAHAHAHAEWWWW…

      • Trials and Trippelations

        Nice

    • Gender Traitor

      I vaguely remember the song, which is to say I knew it existed. That video, though…..hoo boy.

      • Festus

        Right?

      • Festus

        I’m no tEDS but damned if I can’t remember a passel of hack-nayed songs from the ’50’s, 60’s and 70’s.