Tuesday Afternoon Links

by | May 26, 2020 | Daily Links | 354 comments

Greetings all, I hope everyone had a nice holiday. My thanks to Spud for covering for me when I got Florida Man wasted and forgot to do my links yesterday. Kidding, I got caught up in barbecue and actually talking to adults I’m not related to at my house. It was pretty magical. Saddest part was that towards the end of the evening my oldest says to his friend who had come over to swim, “I’m so glad you came over. I haven’t had anyone to play with in so long.” I mean, I totally get that brothers don’t count. We’re getting back into the summer swing.

I can totally see my sons doing this, so we had a little talk about Spiderman not being real.

Trying to decide whether to drive over to Merritt Island tomorrow or not. Of course, the weather is being a dick.

I’ll bet this guy was interesting as hell.

I think electric trucks that basically have shocks, brakes, tires, and 4 motors DO have some maintenance advantages for fleet users, but come on man. $52k/truck? That’s a LOT of fucking gas and oil for a fleet buyer compared to probably $30k for the average work truck.

Virgin misses first shot at space. Early anomalies happen to everyone, right?

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

354 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    I thought it was because it was a holiday?

  2. Count Potato

    “SJM shares rallied as investors were optimistic that the four branches of Ho’s descendants — he had 17 children with four women — have a plan in place following a 2019 alliance, despite earlier feuding. The stock climbed as much as 8.5% in afternoon trading in Hong Kong.”

    No idea how he found the energy.

    • Incentives Matter

      No idea how he found the energy.

      Shots of espresso and snake wine, I should think.

  3. bacon-magic

    Virgin misses first shot at space. Early anomalies happen to everyone, right?

    1st time is always the hardest.

    • blackjack

      The first cut is the deepest?

      • PBRstreetgang

        Ugh. Like the very First time.

  4. Winston

    Virgin misses first shot at space

    SpaceX is SpaceChad

  5. Rebel Scum

    Brothers allowed black widow to sting them believing they’d turn into Spider-Man

    Instead they turned into a voluptuous 30-something with major dsl’s.

  6. Raven Nation

    Thanks to all for the kind words on my post.

    • Evan from Evansville

      You earned them all!

      I am in awe of the Founding Fathers (call I call Otis an FF? Adams wrote about him, and he certainly is!) and how they are the (near) perfect encapsulation of the Enlightenment.

    • hayeksplosives

      Raven—I missed it. Was it this morning’s post? Sorry to trouble you.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yep. And another recommend when you have a few minutes.

      • Raven Nation

        Yes, the 11am article. And, no apologies needed.

      • Jarflax

        Excedllent article Raven. I did not get a chance to join the fun, but very nice work.

      • hayeksplosives

        Nice! Very good read. To what extent is modern America on a parallel path to the prerevolutionary colonists?

      • Raven Nation

        It’s a good question. I think violence was a more normal part of daily life for most segments of colonial society. This included calculated group violence to oppose what were perceived to be unjust laws. So the threshold for violence may have been lower.

        Another interesting point is that, even as late as 1769 (or perhaps later), no one really expected massive violent resistance to state power to break out. In retrospect, we can see all the points along the line that led to a change in historical direction. But, at the time, it is not apparent what the catalyst will be. For the colonists, there were many who, even after Concord & Lexington, thought the situation could be resolved by negotiation.

        This is an interesting analogy when it comes to markets: https://www.mauldineconomics.com/editorial/this-will-be-the-mother-of-all-minsky-moments/vlw

        I think there are some parallels in historical events.

    • LemonGrenade

      I really enjoyed it as well. Thanks for writing it.

      • Suthenboy

        Non-violent crimes are punishable by death.

        I am hesitant to make a judgement but at this point I am leaning to ‘deliberate’.

      • blackjack

        When a guy says “I can’t breathe,” yet you continue to do the thing that’s making him unable to breathe for 6 MINUTES, long after he stops even moving at all, It’s pretty clear that he deliberately caused the death. Especially considering the knee to the neck was never really needed in the first place and a crowd is calling you out for it. The cop was trying to assert his authority over the crowd by showing them they can’t stop him, even if the guy dies.

      • Tonio

        Obviously needs more training…

      • Enough About Palin

        Clearly what the cop did was wrong and it’s well known here that I hate the fucking cops, but one wonders, if the guy was able to repeat, “I can’t breathe” over and over and over again, wouldn’t he have to be able to breathe in order to do that?

      • R C Dean

        That kind of compression can also cut off blood flow to the brain.

        I would expect its hard to maintain that position for several minutes without your knee shifting, possibly making the hold fatal in very short order.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, and he was handcuffed the whole time.

        Bonus: The cop kneeling on his neck had his hands in his pockets.

        It is very difficult for me to see how this is anything less than negligent manslaughter. At an absolute minimum.

      • blackjack

        More like depraved indifference. He had lots of notice in real time as he did it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Take away the badge, and what would the charge be?

      • Bobarian LMD

        Murder 1

      • hayeksplosives

        Would banishing police unions so that these guys are on their own for legal fees and bail?

      • Raven Nation

        One argument has been to force all cops to buy their own liability insurance.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        I like it (not that I’m a rules guy, but I like the affect)

        and then a cop would cost $200k/a

        so municipalities couldn’t afford to use them enforcing anything but the most serious and violent crimes

        and so the number of cops and traffic tickets would plummet

        and bad cops couldn’t skip from one mistake to the next job

    • blackjack

      What pisses me off is when everybody pretends they don’t do this to people of other colors as well. That cop’s a murderer, no doubt. He’d have killed a white dude in similar circumstances just as readily.

    • RAHeinlein

      What are the names of the four officers? The reporter does name (via sources) the two officers in the video.

  7. Count Potato

    “”We can even help the government replace satellites quickly if they are knocked out by a bad actor,” Eisele said.”

    SPECTRE?

    • Plisade

      Ben Affleck.

  8. leon

    Virgin misses first shot at space. Early anomalies happen to everyone, right?

    They Pulled out?

    • Rebel Scum

      Premature ejection?

      • PBRstreetgang

        Come on now.

      • Translucent Chum

        They missed orbital insertion?

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      Stop this thread. I want to get off.

  9. Rebel Scum

    the weather is being a dick.

    For me there is No Rain.

  10. Rebel Scum

    For now, Lordstown Motors is releasing new photo renderings of the truck to the Free Press.

    Ugly truck.

    • Count Potato

      Reverse psychology?

      • Bobarian LMD

        As i pointed out on Tweeter…

        Official DNC Position: Rapists make the best Presidents.

    • hayeksplosives

      “believing survivors is consistent with my values”

      So a blanket statement that anyone who claims victimhood—a statement that would get you tossed off any jury—is just fine for a US Senator?

      • leon

        Being simpleminded and disinterested in nuance is part of her values.

    • PBRstreetgang

      She’s in the wrong Crazy/Hot quadrant

    • Ted S.

      342 pages? That’s a lot of sex.

    • The Other Kevin

      One of the browsers on Mrs. TOK’s laptop still has MSN as its home page. A week or two ago I saw that original headline. I thought it was a bit too good to be true (for them) that they just happened to find the perfect story to push the narrative that Republican governors are opening too soon and trying to cover up all the new deaths. I’ve learned that the more breathless the headline, the more likely it is to be BS.

    • Evan from Evansville

      He’s way hotter that she could imagine being.

      I have a staunch history of heterosexuality.

  11. Rebel Scum

    Early anomalies happen to everyone, right?

    Sucks if your rocket is impotent.

    • hayeksplosives

      Don’t the people claiming to be harmed, triggered, offended, etc. feel just a twinge of guilt at blowing this stuff up into a clear and present danger?

      • Ted S.

        Nope.

      • Mojeaux

        They don’t see it that way; they see themselves as being the righteous warriors, levelers of justice, and/or they are atoning for their own “sins” and assuaging their own guilty consciences.

      • BakedPenguin

        …they are atoning for their own “sins” and assuaging their own guilty consciences.

        SO MUCH THIS.

      • Suthenboy

        Guilt? No.
        It is a deliberate attempt to destroy our society. When they see damage they feel gleeful.

    • bacon-magic

      Eating their own. I like Jimmy til he got the TDS.

      • Count Potato

        Jimmy Kimmel did blackface too.

      • bacon-magic

        “Karl Malone don’t find that funny.” Yeah saw that and laughed at his hypocrisy. They won’t cancel him yet he’s still got a few more tears to shove in front of the camera against Trumpler.

    • Rebel Scum

      It’s the second time the clip has emerged in recent years and has reignited the debate on blackface and cancel culture.

      Wearing makeup in order to look a different complexion is not blackface.

      • Count Potato

        True, it wasn’t, but the meanings of words change.

      • Incentives Matter

        Precisely. As Trudeau the Younger (PBUH) has taught us unwashed so well, it’s not blackface, it’s brownface.

    • leon

      You can have Jimmy, but back off from Lana!!!!

    • Winston

      Cancel culture will never backfire. I mean Robespierre and Trotsky weren’t killed the very regimes they helped to create…

      • blackjack

        There really is no way to have learned any of this from history. It’s not like Hollywood itself was ever subjected to scrutiny based on loose allegations with no need to prove any of it and then were forcibly denied their livelyhoods because of the “results!” This is totally brand new-ish.

      • Winston

        Those were Bad People running the Blacklist. Good People will only purge Bad People…

    • grrizzly

      I hope they are all cancelled. Last week I connected an antenna to my TV and was testing it exactly at the time when these late night shows were on. They were all horrible–my antenna picked up all the channels. They were pushing the same anti-Trump points from their basements: terrible production values.

  12. hayeksplosives

    Yesterday I my first sit-down restaurant experience since the Pestilence began.

    Food and service were disappointing (probably new staff). But it’s a start.

    Today I had lunch at another sit down place. Much better. This “first wave” of the opening started Friday so there are bugs to work out.

    People are being decent about it; you can tell the waitstaff know it’s silly but we are jumping through the hoops. It least we put money into the local economy.

    • Ted S.

      I have no idea when sit-down restaurants are reopening here.

      Fuck Andrew Cuomo.

      • Count Potato

        I thought you were way upstate?

      • Ted S.

        Ulster County is not way upstate.

        I always figured “upstate” began with the 518 area code, since the Albany stations barely discuss anything that happens down here. (The NYC stations never do.)

    • blackjack

      Lucky you! I live in doubleplus restrictive L.A. No sitting and eating here. Mandatory landshark mode, must.keep.moving….

      • hayeksplosives

        Yeah, here you have to keep moving at the beach. The covid can’t keep up with you if you walk!

    • Rebel Scum

      Oh, deer…

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        No, no deer. Butt too high, run too fast.

    • PBRstreetgang

      The bucks stop here.

    • Animal

      I wish the media would quit fawning over this guy.

    • bacon-magic

      His french name would be Venison.

  13. Tonio

    Virginia Gov Coonman, apparently unfazed by being caught maskless at the beach, imposes mask order for indoor public places starting Friday.

    Northam made the announcement three days after he was photographed at Virginia Beach posing for photos and not wearing a mask. On Tuesday the governor said he took responsibility for not carrying a mask in order to be prepared for such interactions.

    The new guidelines will not be enforced through the criminal justice system. Northam said they will be enforced through the Virginia Department of Health, though he declined to immediately share more details about the agency’s authority to enforce the guidelines. […]

    Northam said masks “don’t need to be medical grade,” and suggested homemade coverings as needed.

    “All you need is a piece of cloth and a rubber band,” Northam said.

    • Rebel Scum

      “All you need is a piece of cloth and a rubber band,” Northam said.

      All YOU need is to fuck off.

    • Winston

      You Know Which other white Virginia Democrat wanted people to wear masks?

      Northam said masks “don’t need to be medical grade,” and suggested homemade coverings as needed.
      “All you need is a piece of cloth and a rubber band,” Northam said.

      So useless?

      • Incentives Matter

        So useless?

        Yep. At least most of our local grocery stores aren’t requiring them to be worn . . .

    • R C Dean

      I hope his socials are blowing up with people asking if Klan hoods are OK.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I wanted so bad for someone to ask that during his press conference.

      • Viking1865

        Shit did anyone hit him on being maskless at VA Beach?

        I cannot fucking believe we ended up with someone worse than MacAuliffe.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Wait til you get the next gov.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I believe so actually. I heard he said he hadn’t planned on being close to anyone because no one would recognize him but he was a man of the people and would never turn down a request to be photographed.

    • Tonio

      Yep, and this man has an MD. Coming this late in the game it’s pure FYTW, boot-on-the-throat, evil. And people don’t see that.

      • grrizzly

        It’s not to protect you, it’s to protect others!

        The people who succumbed to the panic need something to show that their fears were not mostly unfounded. That’s why they want a permanent (at least until the vaccine is available!) mark on the society confirming that they didn’t overreact. Wearing a mask is literally to save their faces.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      My wife watched the conference and said the onus will be on businesses to enforce masks. Local health departments will presumably be making random inspections of businesses and then fine or close them if customers don’t have masks on. They’re using Michigan’s playbook with the piece of shit DA that wanted to punish the car plant because of Trump not wearing a mask when he toured.

      I’m torn on this. If the governor had announced they would be making masks required for everyone, I would go maskless in protest. Fuck them.

      If a business requires masks, I would either wear the mask or not patronize their establishment. Private property.

      Instead of either of those scenarios, the governor is now forcing businesses, against their will, to be his personal enforcement arm of illegal bs. How do you protest that? It was a smart move on his part to head off mass civil disobedience. I have no desire to put businesses up against the health department. I’m also not down with wearing a make-believe mask.

      • LemonGrenade

        I know how I’m going to protest that. I’m getting the fuck out of here in a few weeks, and praying that by the time we get back in August, this madness has ended. If not, time to homeschool the kids and start getting the house ready to sell and vote with my feet.

      • Viking1865

        I wonder if fining businesses isn’t the whole point. I can’t imagine what the budget projections look like.

      • Raven Nation

        In the previous post, I made a comment about some of the restrictions in Aspen, CO.

        I think the fines for violating the car pooling bans are $5000 per incident and the fine for not wearing a facemask on a construction site are $25k per. It’s a pretty transparent attempt to find some of the revenue they lost by closing down most of the big summer events.

  14. R C Dean

    I can totally see my sons doing this, so we had a little talk about Spiderman not being real.

    Black widows, like some scorpions, have a neurotoxin. That shit can be very, very nasty. One of our training videos shows children bit by one of the Evil Scorpions (which conveniently look very very similar to the Slightly Less Evil Scorpions). The kids are in full-body convulsions.

    I used to have a spider phobia. Even with a wide array of tarantulas periodically in view, it has gone away since I moved to Tucson, where there is an appalling number of scorpions. So now I have a scorpion phobia.

    Scorpions, it turns out, are fluorescent under UV light. Some people get UV flashlights and go out at night to see how many there are. Apparently, its a shitload, not that I am ever going to do that.

    • Suthenboy

      Standing on a mountain side near Christmas, which is just north of you, I discovered that there is at least one scorpion under every single rock. Every one of them.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I cant stand Scorpions, i haven’t seen one here yet, and hope I never do,

      • hayeksplosives

        I get flashbacks to Clash of the Titans (Harry Hamlin edition) scorpion scene.

        Gives me the jibblies.

      • dbleagle

        I used to enjoy searching for scorpions with a black light. The different species glow in different colors. During college I was helping a girl friend do a survey in the lower Rincons. I had to skip one night and she took a dry bite from a rattler she stepped on. Somehow I was at fault.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Scorpions wont bother shit as long as you dont bother them. If they are wandering a house they are probably dying…so says lore.

      • Suthenboy

        I am sure that is true. Every one of them that I have seen wandering around the house died.

      • R C Dean

        Same here. Some of them were pretty frisky before they died.

        None of them died of natural causes, unless you count getting splattered by blunt force trauma as a natural cause.

      • kinnath

        I have been back from Az for 27 years. I still do not walk around the house barefoot. It’s a habit I cannot shake.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, I picked that up after I walked through the kitchen barefoot getting ready for work, put my shoes on, and walked back through the kitchen maybe 3 minutes later.

        On the way back through the kitchen with my shoes on, *crunch*. I stepped right on a rather substantial scorpion that I hadn’t seen on either trip.

    • commodious spittoon

      A buddy who used to do landscaping and sprinklers insists black widow bites just aren’t that bad… but I’ve got to think there’s a differences between startling one and deliberately goading it. Certainly there’s a difference for a 6′ 2″ man.

      • blackjack

        I used to work for a famous car customizer back in the eighties. He would get ’49-’51 mercury coupes brought down from the central valley farms. They hadn’t run in decades. I had to make them run again. The entire engine bay would be completely covered in spiderwebs. I’d douse it with solvent and they blow them out with air. Never really got all the spiders out. Then, I’d have to crawl underneath and all around them to make ’em fire. Got bit so many times it made no difference to me after awhile. AT first, it was pretty scary, though. Tightening up my jaw muscles and making me feel all panicky. After the first couple of times, it would just leave a red mark and that’s it. Of course I was in my twenties, so there’s that.

  15. "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

    “YouTube says the deleting of comments critical of China’s ruling party was due to a software flaw, and not a policy change”

    Operative word here is “accidentally”. “Whoops- we ‘accidentally’ made an algorithm that just happens to delete remarks with these specific Chinese characters that the Chicoms ban from their social networking sites.” Totally believable. It’s important to note that YouTube’s parent company relies on Chinese labor to make android phones.

    https://twitter.com/business/status/1265351014632341504

    It should be noted that this article was not the result of any ‘journalism’, but rather this is ass covering after some Chinese dissidents posted threads on Twitter showing that YouTube was censoring them. Those threads went viral, so this is Google trying to get ahead of the story. Keep that in mind when you’re reading this, because the article is obviously biased in favor of Google’s ridiculous excuse that makes no sense.

    • Winston

      Trade with China was supposed to bring civilization to them and not to rebarbarize us. I mean this is exactly what Cobden, Bright, Bastiat and Spencer thought when they advocated free trade.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        China’s a strange exception and a tough nut to crack.

      • Winston

        No one realized that the China is a totalitarian regime so anyone allowed to trade with the West would only do so if allowed by the Chicoms. Also all the schools are controlled by the Chicoms. And it was assumed that Chinese middle class would oppose the party because that it what happened in 18th and 19th Century England.

    • Count Potato

      YouTube keeps getting worse and worse.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Isn’t it funny how the accidents all seem to go one way? Google are nothing but a bunch of CCP tongue kissing apologist lying fuckwads.

      • Winston

        This is Not What was Supposed to Happen. Xi Jinping was supposed to be shaking in his boots that Lebron, Apple and Google might start badmouthing him and allow democratization in order to avoid the loss of foreign trade. Instead Lebron, Apple and Google don’t want to badmouth Xi since they might lose the China trade.

  16. Rebel Scum

    I was excited to be about to be off work. But then I remembered I have to cut the grass when I get home because I neglected to over the weekend. *sigh*

    • Oy the Billy-Bumbler

      Funny like a clown?

      • Oy the Billy-Bumbler

        Like he amuses you?

  17. Winston

    https://www.aier.org/article/the-2007-origins-of-forced-school-closings-and-mandatory-human-separation/

    If you have any doubt that the main push for the lockdown was less about therapy than models, inspired by the fantasies of a computer scientist rather than a genuine expert in viruses, a social experiment conducted with disregard for freedom and the rule of law, a wild and foolhardy central plan hatched without regard to experience or serious medical science, this email chain as passionate demand to implement the 2007 CDC blueprint is the proof.

    Now the architects of 2007 are working themselves to socially distance from the lockdowns that have wrought so much damage to the country. I’m not so sure if they can or deserve to be declared free of responsibility. How many terrible atrocities in wartime result from a policy that began with a promise of only surgical strikes and precision bombings with no other casualties? We see something similar taking place here. Culpability belongs to those who unleash violence in the name of peace, or health.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      Wait- you like Jeffrey Tucker now? I thought you hated him?

      He’s been phenomenal on this whole epidemic nonsense

      • Winston

        I never hated him but have had issues with him. However he has been great on this Coronavirus. I thought he was going to be a cocktail party cosmotarian but it turns out that he actually does believe in trade and open borders without the caveat of “As long as TOP MEN say so” and won’t change his mind when the elites change their mind.

    • grrizzly

      Thanks. Another good article from Tucker. What I want to find out how the social distancing dogma managed to spread between 2006 and 2029 to other countries, say, in Europe. Italy, Spain and France started locking down people before the US.

      • Gustave Lytton

        China, both directly and through their WHO puppets.

        And the Chinese actions was guided by their response to SARS and their many little avian and pig flu outbreaks.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Tucker has been a breath of fresh air during all this. AIER and FEE have done phenomenal work.

      • whiz

        2029? Oh my doG, is it going to last that long?

    • Gustave Lytton

      I started reading the full NYT email PDF, but only made it to the first or second page where one of the chain participants is ‘also with In-Q-Tel’. Group masturbatory email of Top. Men.

      • grrizzly

        I didn’t know about it.

        In-Q-Tel (IQT), formerly Peleus and In-Q-It, is an American not-for-profit venture capital firm based in Arlington, Virginia. It invests in high-tech companies for the sole purpose of keeping the Central Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies, equipped with the latest in information technology in support of United States intelligence capability.[4] The name “In-Q-Tel” is an intentional reference to Q, the fictional inventor who supplies technology to James Bond.[5]

  18. DEG

    After administering a serum against bites, they improved until they were discharged on May 20, Telemundo reported.

    I’ll go out on a limb here and guess they were still marked as dying due to Lil Rona.

    But with the Endurance, Burns said, there are no gasoline costs; in fact, it is the equivalent to 75 miles per gallon. It is almost maintenance-free, too, with no big engine or moving parts to break on it.

    Hopefully it has better electronics than my Hyundai.

  19. wdalasio

    So, DerpBook is lit up with stories about the Central Park “call the police on the African American man” woman. I’ll preface my comments with he was right, she was wrong, full stop. That said, just stop the world. I want to get off. People have reduced themselves to baying jackals looking to ruin this idiot’s life for acting like a jackass. They’re delighting in the fact that she got fired. How does that make the jackals any different from exactly what makes her repulsive?

    • Hyperion

      First of all, it’s NYC and it’s New Yorkers. I posted something about my first visit to Central Park in a thread yesterday. It wasn’t good.

      That being said, she’s a class A Karen. If she would have just called the cops and said ‘hey this guy is filming me and I asked him to stop’, fine. But she was clearly the aggressor. No, she was not frightened. You don’t run up to someone you’re frightened of and get in their face. And the hysterics, that was just pure theater, Karen style.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I see idiots walking their dogs no lease, and I grumble to myself, if said dog gets near me in an aggressive manner, Dog will Die,
        Sorry stupid owner!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        leash not lease

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        You don’t run up to someone you’re frightened of and get in their face. And the hysterics

        Seems to describe most interactions with cops.

      • Rhywun

        it’s NYC and it’s New Yorkers

        What a terrible collective they are.

      • wdalasio

        I’m not defending her. Honestly, I don’t even think that’s really the question. But, “Oh, boy, I ruined some Karen’s life!” is about as Karen an attitude as I can imagine. If her behavior was repulsive, what does that make patting yourself on the back because you got her fired make the people doing that?

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, it’s Karens all the way down with this story.

      • R C Dean

        I hear you, but . . . you get less of what you punish.

    • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

      No one was right in that situation. People playing Captain America every time someone is in violation of some petty law are the problem.

      Imagine the situation was some guy confronting a woman for smoking weed right near him and his kids who are enjoying the park. Pretty sure the response would be “muh..leave her alone- move if you don’t like it”. That should be the attitude about all of these petty transgressions.

      • bacon-magic

        *lights up near TGA

      • Heroic Mulatto

        He’s a birder. I’m a birder too. He couldn’t enjoy what he came to the park for because the woman chose to let her dog run in a place it should have been leashed. He was fully in his rights legally and manners-wise to ask her to abide by that. It was not just an annoyance, she was preventing him from birding. Why should her dog get a heckler’s veto over the birder?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        ^ this, it happens daily,
        People are Asshole

      • The Hyperbole

        Because bird watching is gay?

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        Yes, it should have been leashed. No, he was not within his imagined rights anymore than I would be for demanding that others move away from me and children enjoying the outdoor, if it weren’t for someone smoking near me.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        “The right to bird watching on public parks shall not be infringed”

      • R C Dean

        Haven’t seen it, but I would count “You know your dog should be leashed. I’m looking for birds, and having a loose dog around makes that really hard” as being well within bounds.

        Of course, “Ima video you breaking the rules” is an asshole move.

      • "Tulsi Gabbard Apologist"

        You can ask people to comply. Deciding, “alright, I’m gonna video tape this over a misdemeanor municipal violation” is the mark of an asshole.

        Next time it’s someone who is conceal and carrying in a park where it is forbidden and then we’ll see everyone change their opinion.

        People are pretending like “mind your own business” isn’t good advice here, because the woman is rather vile. But, the dude is also a dick.

      • Florida Man

        Of course, “Ima video you breaking the rules” is an asshole move.-

        I have cameras at my house and in my truck. I don’t want the word of some rando to put me away.

      • R C Dean

        I think I could distinguish between video taken in self-defense and video taken more . . . aggressively.

      • The Hyperbole

        One guy shakes the phone more? or is it the grip? Arm extension?

      • Hyperion

        “Haven’t seen it”

        I have, she’s a Karen, one of the worst of them.

        There’s no doubt in that video about who was the aggressor and the bigger asshole.

        So, she lost her job. I wouldn’t go as far as to advocate that, but I feel sorry for anyone who had to work with her. She not only called the cops, but she faked hysteria like her life was in danger when she was clearly the one being overly aggressive. She also called the guy out by race, and that makes me think that she believed that it was more likely that the NYPD would respond more quickly and aggressively just because of that.

        Sorry, I don’t feel sorry for her, she’s a cunt.

      • Suthenboy

        A birder huh?

        You are missing out. A canoe trip for a mile or two in the bayou my property abuts and you would see: Kingfishers, two species of greater heron, two species of lesser heron, grebes, two species of ibis, the elusive anhinga, at least a dozen species of waterfowl, ….hell the list goes on and on. That is in addition to the usual tits, jays, cardinals, wrens, black birds, etc.
        That is just off of the top of my head. Rarely you might see a pelican or flamingos.

        I am confident saying that less than 100 yards from my back door is the world’s greatest spot for bird watching….at least there is none greater.

      • Suthenboy

        Oh, I forgot to list the flock of turkeys I see regularly.

      • Suthenboy

        Oh, and the golden eagles that were nesting in a huge pine about 50 yards from my front door.
        And the dozen species of woodpeckers.

        Louisiana is bird paradise.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I hate red cockaded woodpeckers.

      • Enough About Palin

        As someone who has motorcycled through a substantial part of your state, I can confirm this.

      • Suthenboy

        Why? They eat a shit-ton of bugs.
        I hate conservationists.

      • dbleagle

        The red cockaded woodpecker is a classic case of one party pays for another party’s actions. The RCW requires long leaf pine for their habitat. During the 1930’s loggers in the SE cut and milled huge quantities of them and then replanted other pine species. Those logged over areas are free of the RCW and the logging/use of those lands is relatively open. The RCW retreated to the remaining areas. Many of these remaining areas are now know by the names of: Ft Bragg, Ft Benning, Ft Polk, Ft Stewart, Ft Lee etc. The Army (and USMC) are bound by the dictates of the Endangered Species Act to protect the RCW. This has caused to no ends of bullshit for units trying to train with arbitrary closures of training lands and ranges.

        The RCW is for the military seen like the Northern Spotted Owl in the Pacific Northwest is seen by loggers- and yep the NSO impacts training on Ft Lewis.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Their preferred habitat seems to be Army installations. You’d see these white paint banded trees that you had to stay away from and some other restrictions I forget now. And of course, mandatory safety briefs about the restrictions.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The poison oak is a bigger problem training at Ft Lewis. I swear that stuff is intentionally bred there by bioweapons researchers.

      • Tulip

        Just in my backyard I have cardinals, robins, grackles, finches, mourning doves, carbide, and a blue Jay. Oh, and the occasional hawk or eagle. They nest about a mile away and this is part of their territory. I occasionally hear, but haven’t seen an owl.

      • Suthenboy

        I was paddling back just at dark one evening and I felt a quick pressure change behind and above my head so I quickly ducked. A great horned owl with a wingspan of about 5 feet went right over my head so close he/she brushed my hair. As it went past me it was looking down right into my eyes until its head was turned backward.
        I am sure it was on purpose. Counting coup I guess.
        I have seen owls here no bigger than a cardinal. If an owl lives in NA I think we have ’em.

      • Mojeaux

        There are a bunch of owls in the woods behind my house. Their hooting at night is very comforting.

      • R C Dean

        Bizarrely, a park near our neighborhood is some kind of destination for birders. Not sure exactly why, but it does have some open water. A couple of times a year, there will be crowds of them lined up with high-powered optics. Something pretty rare must come through here.

      • salted earth

        It is a public, mixed-use space. Who gets priority? An on-leash dog (or a noisy person) can be just disruptive to bird watching as an off-leash dog. A cyclist can be a nuisance to a jogger, a swimmer a nuisance to a fisherman.

      • R C Dean

        Who gets priority?

        Why, I do. Of course.

    • Rhywun

      The media are loving this story, and loving their role in destroying her.

  20. Hyperion

    “Virgin misses first shot at space. Early anomalies happen to everyone, right?”

    The new space race would be interesting if there was one. Musk will crush those guys like bugs, he has no competition, sadly.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Nothing behind those hooks. Just moving fast for show and dropping his hands in the process. Also he’s a little too stiff backed. Still, decent form and footwork.

  21. Winston

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidation_of_the_Iranian_Revolution

    Khomeini angrily denounced these protests saying, “we thought we were dealing with human beings. It is evident we are not.”[58] He condemned the protesters as

    [“]wild animals. We will not tolerate them any more … After each revolution several thousand of these corrupt elements are executed in public and burnt and the story is over. They are not allowed to publish newspapers.[“][59]

    Khomeini, who was also Not Supposed to Happen, sounds like a classical liberal here. You know he is the civilized one and everyone who opposes him is a barbarian and counterrevolutionaries have to sometimes be censored and slaughtered.

    • R C Dean

      *double-checks*

      Yup. I still hate people, with a short list of exceptions.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah, it seems that after almost anything I read ends with “…I hate people”

    • Suthenboy

      Fuck. Just burn it all down.

  22. Endless Mike

    Just explain to your kids that the spider only gives you superpowers if it’s RADIOACTIVE.

    • Sean

      Put it in the microwave first.

      • Incentives Matter

        Heh.

  23. Ownbestenemy

    We gere in NV get our next blessings by our God King Sisolak on the next phase later today. I hate the world.

    For fun…here is auto complete from my phone using the word “yesterday ”

    Yesterday I was thinking of going back to the house and locals.

    Well that was boring.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      We are tripping to Oatman for lunch tomorrow, with a side trip to the Fish Bowl at Shaffer spring, should a fun morning, then…….
      113,

  24. Yusef drives a Kia

    My A/C system kicks ass!
    Ambient temp.106 degrees
    Room temp. 83 degrees
    23 degree TD, Excellent………
    Cost, 2.25$ per day

    • Ownbestenemy

      How was the river been? Im sad i missed last Wednesday

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        The weekend was a mess, 20 bucks for non locals to park helped, but the restaurants are open for a cool riverside lunch, so come on down!
        midweek is real peaceful and fun, I’m not going anywhere soon,

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I have something coming up tomorrow, either 9 am or 5 Pm local to us time,
        I think you’ll enjoy it.

    • Incentives Matter

      Have you ever misted down the heat exchanger coils? I tried it in our previous house and it made a huge difference to how much heat the system could handle. Evaporative cooling really boosted the A/C’s efficiency.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Evaporative cooling is the worst thing you can possibly do to an A/C system! you are adding humidity at the same time the A/C is removing it, horribly inefficient, and expensive, DON’T DO THAT!

      • Incentives Matter

        No, no, no. The coils outside the house, not the ones inside.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        That I have seen in Cathedral City Ca. An Evap coil in front of a Condenser coil on a 15 ton Commercial system, that works.
        My efficiency comes from a lack of humidity, less moisture to remove,

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        34 years HVAC/R

      • Don Escaped Australians

        you’re not wrong, and it doesn’t hurt when you’re trying to have a Labor Day party and there are too many folks in the house and your system can’t catch up for you to try this for a minute or two

        but, at the end of the day, evaporating a pound of water only takes 1,000 BTU with it: that’s only 1/60 of the output of a five-ton unit; so you’d need to McGuyver up a system that runs a good deal to make that move any real BTU, so then you’d need a catch tray and recirc and damned-near turn the whole mess into an evap tower to get it going (there’s more to it but that’s the highlights for a 100 word post) . . . or find somewhere for un-circulated water to run off without wrecking your foundation. There’s admittedly some bang from running 60°F hose water over the coils instead of drawing 110°F direct sun air.

      • R C Dean

        evaporating a pound of water only takes 1,000 BTU with it

        *factoid filed away to drop into conversation as a random non sequitur*

      • Don Escaped Australians

        It changes with temperature, but if you take the total enthalpy of water up to and including low-pressure steam and subtract the liquid enthalpy, the difference (latent heat) keeps coming up ~1,000 over and over; I haven’t actually looked it up in a practical situation in 30 years unless I’m sizing steam traps above, say, 30PSIG

        but in R&D you need to know the exact number, so, yeah, I consult the charts from time to time when the system I’m designing might be used in the arctic, the UAE, a war theater, the back of an airplane.

        With all due respect to techs, I can run gages and diagnose a typical R22 forced-air system like any other guy. But I don’t care what the refrigerant is: could be R1234yf, ammonia, butane, and I don’t care what the system components: direct expansion, forced air, hydronic, chiller, tower. deep freezer: there’s a physics behind this that unlocks most of the doors, and I don’t find many guys who really understand it all. My favorite job so far: designing a chiller to keep fish (1,000 pound) in an Alaskan pleasure boat cold but not frozen in a large live-well.

        Lots of the misunderstandings and confrontations come from guys who don’t know what they don’t know after becoming experts in some tiny corner of the technology; I think that’s true everywhere. The rules of thumb and generalities really amp up the arguments, and we had a good one about humidity last month (which I’m not going to re-argue although I see it rearing its head in this same thread elsewhere). So, when I lazily say 1000BTU/lbm, it’s from a narrow range of pressures and temperatures and only for water . . . very much only a factoid.

      • R C Dean

        but in R&D you need to know the exact number,

        I’m a lawyer. I’m not in the “exact number” business, more the “what can I get away with” business.

      • Gustave Lytton

        We had a partial failure of a commercial cooling unit. Our contract HVAC company set up a sprinkler while waiting for a replacement. Several weeks later, water department sent a nice note that they noticed the water usage was way up and maybe we should look for a possible broken pipe.

        (Runoff was on impervious surface to parking lot storm drain- summer time so well under the max capacity)

      • Incentives Matter

        Heh. Where I live, even in the summertime, it’s more like 45 degrees Fahrenheit ground water (actually, I just got all “I-gotta-measure-it,” so I went and stuck my instant-read thermometer in the kitchen tap’s flow after one minute; damned if I didn’t call it exactly, 45 degrees). First time I tried to get cold water out of a tap in Southern California freaked me out.

        And it’s a domestic system, so 2.5 tons max. But I can run a litre of water into the fins as mist every five minutes, so that’s not bad, I think.

      • R C Dean

        But I can run a litre of water into the fins as mist every five minutes

        Do that with our water, and those fins are going to get one hell of a mineral deposit on them pretty quick.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        45 degrees Fahrenheit ground water

        You caught me being conservative. I think in most places the ground’s around 55 and you pick up a few degrees from pumping energy, hot hose, etc. I’d go so far as to say that 45 in the summer is the most anyone could hope for in the lower 48.

        My senior design project was a ground-sink condenser. The main design obstacle was getting thermal conductivity and specific heat data for soil types, but (luckily?) the school had a translation of Russian research in that area. One presumes that area has come a long way in the intervening 30 years.

    • kinnath

      My local guy fixed my air today.

      Some mice had moved in and chewed up some wires.

      Working great now.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Mice= new Transformer and some wiring repair, sound about right?

      • kinnath

        I’ll get the bill in the mail in a month or so.

        The tech mentioned new wire and contacts.

        I have a 25 year history with the company. I don’t expect any surprises.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        you shouldn’t, the guy sounds competent, Enjoy Cooling!

      • kinnath

        2nd generation. The family lived across the street from my before I built my house. The did the installation on the house and have serviced it ever since.

        The tech went to school with my daughter.

        Temps weren’t too bad. But the dew point is 70 today (southerly wind bringing some of the gulf of mexico with it).

        The drop in humidity in the house has been great.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        yep, 83 dry is way better than 106, seems crazy but it’s not,
        and my machine cycles on and off as it should, saving me money

    • Rhywun

      I dunno… that IS pretty fucking dumb.

      • hayeksplosives

        Leave him/her/it to the wolves.

      • R C Dean

        It will be hard to top.

        *checks Trump’s twitter*

        Nah, she’s still good.

    • commodious spittoon

      There’s always a percentage of assholes. Can it be a behaviour that’s taught or even an issue in social values? Yes… Some cultures will definitely have less rape… You know what all cultures will have tho? Assholes, and those that will commit rape.

      If only that’s what she’d argued rather than precisely opposite of what she’d argued.

      Motte, meet Bailey.

    • Suthenboy

      Nor were they enslaving each other or eating each other or slaughtering each other or committing genocide….those noble savages.

      • R C Dean

        Slavery and rape go together like STEVE SMITH and hikers.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Reminds me, nap time before I start preparing some spaghetti. Now where is the sugar…

      • Incentives Matter

        Indeed. Filipinos love sweet tomato sauce, and so do the Dutch; I had a spaghetti “bolognese” in Amsterdam once that had a sauce that was just this side of candy. It was interesting, and I never want to experience it ever again. (Yeah, I ate it — I was hungry after 30 hours of planes and airports and missed connections!)

      • Raven Nation

        I had a lasagne in Poland one year that was topped with 1000 Island Dressing.

      • Incentives Matter

        Ai yi yi!

      • Ted S.

        I hate how restaurants drown pasta in source. I remember the first time I went to a particular local establishment here and they offered pasta with garlic and olive oil rather than sauce, which was so much better.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Sugar on spaghetti?

      WTF? The world needs to burn to be saved.

  25. commodious spittoon

    My thanks to Spud for covering for me when I got Florida Man wasted and forgot to do my links yesterday.

    What’d you do after getting him wasted?

    • Florida Man

      I don’t want to talk about it…

    • whiz

      I sense a missing hyphen.

  26. R C Dean

    I know CIA was asshole, but holy crap.

    Assuming this is true (and much of it should be easily verifiable), what a shitshow.

    • commodious spittoon

      I’m guessing neither Youtube nor Facebook nor Twitter is going to take down users who out this whistleblower.

      • R C Dean

        According to Pedro Orta, a former CIA agent and whistleblower who allegedly faced multiple rounds of retaliation for attempting to expose abuse of power at a CIA base in 2015

        Already public.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Was there any doubt that the agencies were policing themselves with all too predictable results?

      The CIA should be burnt to the ground and the earth salted.

  27. Ownbestenemy

    So this is akin to the parents that got a visit from the police regarding the toy gun seen on Zoom.

    About 6 years ago, I rented Watch Dogs for my kids and they were playing the multiplayer portion of the game. I peeked my head out and asked who are you talking to and I got a typical response from a 10 year old “What does it matter Dad!” “Because I want to know who you are talking to. I don’t care if you are playing online, just want to know” Turns out it was just another 10 year old and life went on.

    About two weeks later my mom calls me up and says a detective from Louisiana is trying to get a hold of me and tracked down my parents number, after subpoenaing the information from Microsoft to get my email address (tied to the XBox account). Apparently my mom talked to this detective for a good bit as my mom told me “She is super nice and I cleared it all up! She does want to talk to you too though”.

    Now I am shit..what did my mom actually say. Called up the detective who was actually super nice and said they received a distressed call that “a child is in danger and sounds like they are being held captive”. She continued “but after talking to your mom, I realized this was just a dad making sure his kid wasn’t talking to some old creeper on the internet and consider this case closed”.

    That did turn out positive, but fuck…nosy people and a bad cop never end up good but nosy people and an actual cop who thinks before thinking every blade of grass is hiding a rapist/killer/drug dealer/etc ends up how I remember police officers used to be. Thinking individuals not just robots.

    • commodious spittoon

      Worse yet… she suspects you’re not practicing sufficient social distancing.

    • R C Dean

      they received a distressed call that “a child is in danger and sounds like they are being held captive”

      From who?

      • Florida Man

        From who?-

        Karen?

      • R C Dean

        I can only imagine how much gamechat sounds like a crime in progress.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I guese the parent of the kid my son was talking to.

    • R C Dean

      nosy people and an actual cop who thinks before thinking every blade of grass is hiding a rapist/killer/drug dealer/etc

      I solved that problem. There is virtually no grass around my house. I think because nothing survives around here without some kind of spine, needle or thorn.

      • Q Continuum

        If I were a U of A coed, I’d live in constant fear of my implant being pierced.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Rocks FTW! so much I got an R/C rock crawler for yard fun…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Part of why my kids aren’t allowed to play online games.

      • commodious spittoon

        How are they expected to start their Youtube streaming career?

  28. AlmightyJB

    Been smoking ribs all day. Getting ready to pull them. Made some potato salad to go with them as well. Gonna heat up some beans and grab the chips while they rest.

    • juris imprudent

      Last night was pulled pork (pork butt that smoked @ 250 for 8 hours, then wrapped and finished at 275). Potato salad and pepper slaw. Tonight was taco salad.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Thats Thursday meal here…prepping them now to be wrapped.

    • DEG

      #28 is Beth Lily.

      #35’s instagram page.

      #42’s instagram page.

      Nice collection. Another can’t pick just one.

  29. creech

    What did Trump say about Biden’s mask on Memorial Day? A guy I know who is on the local County GOP Committee says the mocking that Trump does is only hurting him in swing areas. Maybe Trump doesn’t want to win re-election? It might be red meat to his base to act like a middle school asshole, but is dangerous if it leaves the country in the hands of Biden and Amy.

    • blackjack

      We all get to vote. If the dems can “harvest” enough votes from nursing homes and homeless encampments, then we’ll have to suffer with Biden. I know California is doing it’s part.

      • R C Dean

        They can harvest all they want in Deep Blue states and it won’t affect the Presidential election. Its the vote-by-mail vote harvesting in swing states that worries me.

        Maybe Trump doesn’t want to win re-election?

        Of course he does. His ego won’t allow anything else. The idea that Trump might intentionally sabotage his own re-election campaign is , well, highly unlikely.

      • hayeksplosives

        If he himself thinks he’ll lose, he might throw it so that he can claim he wasn’t trying.

      • blackjack

        Well, I noticed a lot of talk a few months ago about how the only thing that could tank his chances was if the economy collapsed, right before the governors caused the economy to collapse.

      • Suthenboy

        Like Ozzy said…they are so transparent it is like watching a really bad birthday clown perform magic tricks.

      • Don Escaped Australians

        swing states

        That’s RC’s special case of my WHO votes WHERE. What is routinely missed:
        * most states are not in play
        * national rates and trends seldom matter
        * motivating the base seldom matters (admittedly semantic: depends one what one argues the base is)
        * who hasn’t voted before or sat out last time and why
        * who has changed their minds in swing states and why

        Most of what you read in social media (and Glibs are not immune) is projected wishes. I’ve read here that Trump will win in a “landslide.” On a site that is famous for calling out when goal posts are moved, I look forward to the new definition of landslide this November.

        Similarly, you will read here that the polls were wrong when they weren’t. Every state was called correctly within a point or two of where they finished up; the amalgam of those figures gave Herself a 75% chance of winning the EC, but this is remembered as Trump having 0% chance. . . more fun on poker night than useful elsewhere.

        Trump ran a gauntlet before; if it was calculated, someone deserves high praise. Trump folk should wonder, though, how to get those stars to line up again: I think little has changed, that we’re still close to 75/25 odds; I doubt Trump can flip heads twice in a row. I don’t expect any side-swapping: the question is how many Obama-voters sit 2020 out; I believe this answer will describe 80% of the 2020 EC result.

      • The Hyperbole

        SHUT THE FUCK UP, MATHTARD!

      • Suthenboy

        “I’ve read here that Trump will win in a “landslide”.”

        That was me. Me before the corona panic and deliberate smashing of the economy. I am not sure what effect that is going to have so I retract that prediction. I still think he will win but the landslide part I am not so sure about.

      • Mojeaux

        Also me. I stand by it.

      • Sean

        I haven’t lost my optimism either.

      • The Hyperbole

        Optimism? Shouldn’t a “libertarian” be hoping for a president that will end wars, cut spending, and not fantasize about executing people who sell drugs?

      • blackjack

        I doubt he’s much hurt by this, AND he’s running against Biden, LOL. Imagine the debates!

      • Mojeaux

        I am predicting “not-Joe-Biden-or-Hillary-Clinton”.

        I’m not going to waste precious libertarian brain cells wishing/hoping/fantasizing for something that will never happen by a politician who will never exist.

      • R C Dean

        I am predicting “not-Joe-Biden-or-Hillary-Clinton”.

        Same here, but damn if I can figure out who. For awhile, it was going to be Cuomo, but . . . really? I guess of the three, the granny-killer is the least bad?

        I can only imagine the despair at DNC HQ.

      • Ozymandias

        I said it, too, but the ‘Rona changes that calculus a LOT. We shall see what happens in the next few months, but I still think he wins. At this point, however, we’re not even certain Gropey Joe will be the nominee. More to the point, I’m not sure Biden will make it to November. He is just…incoherent at best. I think a lot of D’s will sit out and “Not Hillary/Not Biden” will win.

    • Suthenboy

      He does seem to have a problem at times with impulse control.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Ya think?

      • hayeksplosives

        He used to listen to Ivana (first wife, not the daughter) and she would advise him when to cool it and how to connect etc. while he was in his 2016 run. He didn’t make a secret of it, nor did she if asked.

        Maybe they had a falling out and he doesn’t seek her advice anymore?

      • Suthenboy

        A bit. I don’t mind it. I would rather a guy speak his mind and have occasional brain farts than the professional silver tongued pol that jabbers for an hour and says nothing whatsoever. That is a sure sign of a professional liar and grifter.

  30. Incentives Matter

    So I’m drinking a G&T made with Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin, fresh lemon and Canada Dry Tonic Water.

    Fever Tree’s tonic water has ruined me. The Canada Dry stuff tastes like crap, but I can’t bring myself to dump it down the drain and start over (Uncle Val’s is just too expensive!).

    My favourite gin, Gin Mare, is not available any more around these parts, unless I go and order a case of it.
    I’m *this* close to ordering a case of it.
    The sacrifices I make. {thoughtfully swigs another gulp}

    • EvilSheldon

      Lemon instead of lime in G&Ts? A fellow sophisticate!

      I’m looking up this Gin Mare stuff. I’m…interested. Unfortunately, northern VA is a blasted wasteland when it comes to boutique booze, so I’ve been making do with Citadelle and Catoctin Creek.

  31. Aus

    Memorial Day related. I love this somber video, watch it occasionally, usually Memorial Day or similar.

    A bit long and very sad.

    “The Fallen of WWII”

    https://youtu.be/DwKPFT-RioU

    • hayeksplosives

      That is a well-done video. Thanks for sharing.

      • Aus

        It’s a real ‘onion-slicer’ for me. The Soviet deaths part, and then the very end when it hits me how good I have it in life.

        Thanks for taking the time to watch!

  32. Mojeaux

    Went to Target to purchase something off FB Marketplace. People meet in neutral, well-populated places, especially if it’s a man meeting a woman. I don’t particularly care but men do and I don’t blame them.

    Anyway, my guy was 45 minutes late but I can work on my phone and Kindle Paperwhite so no harm, no foul.

    Here’s where it gets funny: In the time I was waiting for my guy, no fewer than 8 transactions occurred between individuals buying and selling their shit. In ONE Target in ONE tiny corner of the metro in ONE hour.

    God bless America.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      sounds like modern Black market, how subversive….
      /Rubs hands together in Glee,

      • Mojeaux

        That’s kind of what I was thinking.

        Contraband shabby chic decor items that say “Live, love, laugh” and oversized wall clocks.

    • blackjack

      On the nextdoor app around here people are arranging haircuts on the downlow. It’s hilarious!

    • Plinker762

      Used to do that up here for private gun sales. For our own safety, the government shut that down

  33. Hyperion

    Damn you guys, I can’t keep up with you. I try, but I just stopped working, 8:45am until 7pm today. I guess I should feel luck to still be working, and I do.

    But many days I miss talking with you shitlords and whatever you call the chick version of that.

    • Mojeaux

      Shitlady.

      • JD is in the United Karendom

        Aw dang it. Wasn’t quick enough on the draw.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Ahem, Shitdame

      • Mojeaux

        I can’t be a dame. My gams/stems aren’t long enough.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Ahhh, a shitdwarfette

      • JD is in the United Karendom

        Some sorta Japanese mushroom and soybean delicacy.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s the female equivalent of a Shitknight, not Shitlord.

      • Mojeaux

        That too.

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      Shitladies?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Cuntess

      • Mojeaux

        Yeah, no.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Well I tried, no offence Shitlady…..

      • Mojeaux

        “Shitlady”

        *preens*

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        “we’re all in our places,
        with bright shiny faces”

      • hayeksplosives

        You can go by shitlady. I prefer shitmaven.

      • Mojeaux

        ‘splosives wins the internet!

      • Hyperion

        “Cuntess”

        LOL. I am so stealing that. Not sure the ladies are happy…

    • Gender Traitor

      My first day back at work after a two-week vacation was predictably hectic, but despite an hour on the phone with tech support trying to figure out why I couldn’t connect to my printer through our core data system, I managed to get our staff payroll posted in a reasonably timely fashion. (Note to banginglc1: I saw your request for me to pay you for “the 60 hours [you] worked last week,” but too late to do anything about it. Darn the luck!)

      In other back-to-the-grind news, I had not one but TWO co-workers tell me sad (and long) stories about their dead (or possibly soon to be dead) pets (one cat and one iguana.) I really must work on my unsympathetic bitch face.

      Also, Shitlady is not just acceptable but a badge of honor, and Mojeaux, you can be a dame no matter how short or long your legs are.

      • Hyperion

        “why I couldn’t connect to my printer”

        Fucking printers. I hate em. They are the bane of an IT department.

        But maybe things have gotten somewhat better.

        I just bought one of the new super/eco tank type printers because our old printer is broken beyond repair and the wifey is starting to complain because she can’t print stuff.

        That thing was expensive, I hope it turns out to be worth it. It’s also wireless.

  34. Stillhunter

    “ compared to probably $30k for the average work truck”

    Citation needed. Though assuming 2 wheel drive makes it more likely to be true.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Not even close.

      A white Chevy Colorado half ton 2WD cost $32K with commercial discounts last year.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I remember paying 25k for a 3/4 ton Chevy Silverado with Service bed and killer ladder rack, times change…..

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        in 2005

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That most have been a while ago.

        Trucks are outrageously expensive now. So much so that I’m replacing the engines in my piece of shit 2008 Ford diesels instead of buying new.

      • Gustave Lytton

        You’re killing me. I’m looking to probably get a new truck in the next year or three. 4WD 1/2 ton extended cab was under 25k twenty years ago.

      • BakedPenguin

        Huh. I got my 2002 Sonoma for $12k in the aforementioned year. Not the best model for a work truck (maybe for someone who does small jobs or only needs to carry around tools), but I love that truck.

      • Tejicano

        “…white Chevy Colorado…”

        Showing our privilege are we?

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      When your fully-specced Laramie Bighorn XLT Super Quad Cab Luxury Package Canyonero His & Hers Edition Mall Tank with the Karen Pack, chrome everything, and the fake beadlocks can easily run up around $60k, you’d like to think that the basic single cab work truck with maybe cup holders and a radio could at least limbo in under $35k.

    • Hyperion

      compared to probably $30k for the average work truck”

      Citation needed.

      Yeah, I dunno. They’re expensive. I just paid 33K for a midsize SUV and it ain’t no Mercedes or BMW.

  35. Tejicano

    Yo Gustave! If you’re still around… I had to run out to a local military base here yesterday to do some admin so I ran by the commissary. I lucked out and ran into the guy who runs the meat section, asked him if they have any brisket, and he brought out a couple for me to choose from. So I picked up an 8.5 lb brisket for just under US$25.

    I’ll probably cut it in half and cook them at different times as my family is too small to eat that much meat in one week. I want to experiment with a few things as well.

    • The Hyperbole

      I want to experiment with a few things as well.

      Don’t we all?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        There was that time in college.. .

      • UnCivilServant

        And you’re still paying paternity to those goats.

      • blackjack

        You can just call him “Dead Beat Billy”

      • Tejicano

        He said he was into goats – but he was just kidding.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      “Showing our privilege are we?”
      Sounds tasty, it would go to waste at my house,

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m pretty sure I’d never be allowed near a base commissary.

    • Tejicano

      I was sad that I haven’t been driving my car that much and could only get 1/4 tank of gas into it. On base it was going for US$1.87 a gallon while off base it is the equivalent to US$3.93 a gallon.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Yikes!

      • BakedPenguin

        Jeebus! 462 ¥ a gallon? Aray way nan des ka!

      • blackjack

        I’m assuming we’ll be right back there, as soon as I have to start driving 26 miles one way to work everyday again. At least they stole my 10mpg gashog, so I have to drive the 15 mpg Saabrolet.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Oh awesome! Now I’m hungry.

      • Tejicano

        Talking with the butcher there – he told me the correct term for “brisket” is Maebara (front belly). The people at the link you referenced we saying it is called Katabara (shoulder belly). I don’t know if this is a regional difference or if they are talking about different things. I’ll be asking around to see if I can get some more insight.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Very fascinating. I wonder how different the primal/sub primal meat cutting is from US. At least some I would imagine. The limited cuts I’ve seen at retail, along with the marbling, are somewhat different than here.

      • Tejicano

        As I understand it, here in Japan they usually thinly slice the brisket for Shabu Shabu at the butcher so you never see an entire cut of brisket. As very few people here have any way to cook that big a cut of meat I can see that happening. I half expect they even have words for different cuts of the brisket – so maybe a butcher wouldn’t even use a term for the whole brisket.

        I know a few people here – Gaijin with a good command of Japanese who have strong backgrounds in meat production (one grew up on a ranch, the other hunts here) and have the financial means to buy large cuts of meat – and I expect they would know the proper words for this subject.

  36. Suthenboy

    Electric cars: Taking fossil fuel energy and changing its form 4 or 5 times then transmitting it over miles and miles of wire to your car losing huge amounts of the original stored energy rather than just taking the fossil fuel and putting it directly into your car is ok if you just want a toy. It will never work as a replacement for our transportation system.
    Wife’s Honda CRV costs us less than 20 bucks per month to drive. My Jeep Wrangler about half of that again…that is when we drive it.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      You are correct, Gasoline has the highest energy density per weight, about 44 times more efficient, it’s a no brainer, even for the environment

    • blackjack

      Never mind the crazy charging times. If you’re at a special station, it’s only 4 hours, at home with 110, 10-12. Gas, 5 minutes for a full tank.

    • Ted S.

      That’s what nuclear and batteries for fleets (eg. city buses) are for.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        so we wreck the environment another way? batteries are very dirty,

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      Reason and common sense be damned when they can easily be defeated by hectoring/lobbying for regulation and legislation. RIP internal combustion.

    • Aus

      Another glib said it many months ago:

      ‘Economies of Scale’ applies to power generation. Or something along those lines.

      The massive power plant is much better at generating power than billions of tiny power plants.

      Plus there’s a multitude of other factors, including that a large amount of capacity is built only to serve peak times, and thus using that excess capacity during off-time to charge billions of batteries is a marginal expense.

  37. Yusef drives a Kia

    Re: electric cars
    The enviros may LOVE SCIENCE! but they don’t understand physics at all, physics doesn’t care what you think or fell, it just is,

  38. Scruffy Nerfherder

    This face mask bullshit in Virginia is over the top.

    As a business owner, am I supposed to turn people away at the door? Has my risk suddenly gone up?

    • UnCivilServant

      “If you’re wearing a mask, I can’t do business with you.”

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        you don’t have the Mark? sorry…..

    • blackjack

      That’s the only time I wear one, at people’s businesses. They have undercovers running around and citing them for letting people not wear masks. I’m sure the fines reflect the massive stacks of cash all businesses keep on hand.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The State loves to twist the arm of business in order to implement its overbearing regulations.

      • Tejicano

        The government only wants to wet their beak

      • Ayn Random Variation

        Here is my offer: Nothing.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      You can’t go into any store in Philly without a mask. The few that are open anyway. In my apartment building they claim they will fine you if you don’t wear a mask in the common areas that are open (the gym and pool are closed), and will also fine you for having any type of visitor.
      I had a lady friend over this weekend and one of the front desk heroes told me “you know you can’t have guests “. I just ignored him. Now I’m waiting to see if I actually get fined, and what they will do when I don’t pay it.

  39. Plinker762

    Having dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant. Half of the tables blocked off but no masks or customer logs.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I hate it when I find a customer log where I’m going to sit.

      • Tejicano

        I never find a customer log where I’m going to sit – because I definitely won’t be sitting there.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      Murderer

    • Hyperion

      “What could possibly go wrong?”

      Nothing. You can be assured these people are geniuses and everything will do as planned. / derp