Saturday Morning Hyperthermia Links

by | Jun 27, 2020 | Daily Links | 249 comments

I shouldn’t be amused by this, but I’ve been getting texts from the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign. I answer them with questions which are ignored. Like, “That’s interesting, what specifically are you proposing to do?” Or, “If I go to that dinner with Trump, can I get something besides steak?” No answers. Stupid, low-bid bots, only programmed to accept money. And an unanswered question, “Since you’re rich and I’m not, why are you asking me for money?”

Birthdays today include a very logical fellow; the inspiration for hundreds of tasteless and hilarious jokes; one of the great icons of my childhood; the weirdest and most repulsive presidential candidate in my lifetime; and a guy who was remarkably normalized.

What is not normalized is the news. And here’s examples:

 

How To Lie With Statistics– and fuck over bars, while you’re at it.

 

Well, fine. Let’s just get our military bases out of there.

 

Tim Fucking Hasselbeck? 

 

Troll, baby, troll!

 

Someone want to explain this one to me?

 

Rachel Corrie to the white courtesy phone!

 

Old Guy Music was a song I must have played a thousand times. Wonderful structure, beautiful lyrics, great playing, and kinda how I’m feeling at the moment.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

249 Comments

  1. The Late P Brooks

    Stupid, low-bid bots, only programmed to accept money.

    Rubles.

    • Overt

      I wonder how many of these bots actually get money back to the respective parties? I read this article a ways back about how the Tea Party was essentially hijacked by a bunch of cynical conservatives who setup Tea Party foundations ostensibly dedicated to getting candidates elected, but which actually gave only 2 – 5% of their funds to campaigns. I don’t know how much of it was true, but the article put a lot of blame on these NGOs for sucking all the money out of the activists and doing nothing with it. I wonder how much of the trump money is actually going to trump. Or biden.

      • db

        Would you be surprised to find out that the ones who set up those foundations weren’t conservatives at all, but progressives and other anticonservatives who saw an opportunity to sap the power from the tea party movement and redirect funding away from true grassroots candidates who could have made change happen?

      • Overt

        The ones I saw named seemed to be well known conservative operatives- people who had been managing campaigns and the like for years. So I am sure there were some progs involved, but it also would seem likely to me that people who had made their living sucking money from campaigns in conservative circles would be the best positioned to do the same for the tea party. *shrug*

  2. SDF-7

    Six Flags with no rides? Umm…. for people who like standing in line and paying ridiculous prices for bad food? I got nothin’…

    Morning, OMWC et alia.

  3. JD is in the United Karendom

    You would seriously rank Perot above Her in the repulsiveness stakes?

    • Old Man With Candy

      Yes. He had a clear and detailed vision of government as an efficient machine to be ruthlessly directed according to his will. She, on the other hand, only saw government as a means for her own glory and was indifferent about any other ends for it.

      • JD is in the United Karendom

        Fair enough – apparently I don’t have the sort of special insight into that sort of thinking that (((you))) do.

        JK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111one

  4. The Late P Brooks

    Fulp’s post was taken down by Thursday afternoon after it was the subject of backlash from fans. Some said, according to ESPN, that they would no longer attend events at the track over the product.

    “Fans”

    • Cy

      That made me chuckle too. The NASCAR crowd is full of people who give you shit for fun. You give them shit. They give you shit. You drink. You play with motors. I don’t see a lot of hypersensitive Karens running around.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      According to CNN is more important here. They make WaPo look unbiased.

  5. Ted S.

    Or, “If I go to that dinner with Trump, can I get something besides steak?”

    (((You))) can have bacon.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      He did make Mitt Romney get frog legs.

  6. Cy

    “Someone want to explain this one to me?”

    Parents buy annual passes for their kids that include meal and ride packages. Essentially it’s REALLY cheap daycare. You just drop your merry band of mayhem off and come pick them up at the park’s close time.

    I suspect this is an effort for Six Flags trying to keep all of those fat membership checks.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    The needs of the many, blah bah blah

    Fauci said he didn’t want to blame anyone, but said that “you have an individual responsibility to yourself but you [also] have a societal responsibility.” To end this outbreak, people have to realize “that we can be either part of the solution or part of the problem.”

    People under 40 are most likely to have no symptoms when infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, said Dr. Deborah Birx, who has been leading the White House’s response to the pandemic.

    “No one is intentionally spreading the virus. They don’t know that they’re positive. They don’t know that they have the virus and need to be tested in order to have that awareness,” she said, thanking those younger adults who have recently been tested.

    She also encouraged younger adults to wear masks, to keep their distance from others, to get tested so they know if they are infected, and to do the shopping for their grandparents and others who are most vulnerable to the effects of the virus.

    As Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, closed his short speech, he said, “I want to re-re-re-emphasize how important for now, for individuals to really think seriously about the responsibility to others that we have. This infectious pathogen really does have the capacity to cause quite serious illness.”

    “We’re all in this together. Do what I tell you, so I can feel safer.”

    • Ted S.

      Fauci said he didn’t want to blame anyone, but

      Yeah, he really does want to blame people.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Physician, heal thyself…and fuck off.

    • WTF

      He really wants to avoid natural herd immunity so he can profit off of a vaccine.

      • Gender Traitor

        …that won’t work.

      • Plinker762

        Anyone that thinks we can wait for a vaccine is a fool.

      • WTF

        Especially since vaccines for corona viruses are maybe 50% effective in a good year. The current data indicates the CCP Flu is basically no worse than a seasonal flu anyway. The continuing safety theater is just extended excuses to exercise authority for political reasons.

      • leon

        The media has never stopped sucking Cuomo’s dick, and Tut tuting those other states like SD. So screw them saying this was all political.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        You don’t like the idea of being semi confined to your house for the next eighteen months? What are you, some kinda weirdo?

      • Plinker762

        Time to buy stock in lotion manufacturers.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Irresponsible Pollyanna-ing

    In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the true number of US cases is likely 10 times higher than the number cases found by testing. Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Washington Post on Thursday that “something’s not working” with the current approach to testing. And, as Gupta has pointed out, true success with testing should mean that the number of cases falls over time as infected people are found and isolated.

    Perhaps Pence’s most egregious claim of the briefing was his suggestion that the country is finished with the painful part of the pandemic.
    “As we see new cases rising — and we’re tracking them very carefully – there may be a tendency among the American people to think that we are back to that place that we were two months ago. That we’re in a time of great losses and great hardship on the American people. The reality is we’re in a much better place,” he said.

    Though Pence was right that the current number of daily deaths is substantially lower than it was at its peak, the pandemic is still killing more than 500 Americans a day. The May unemployment rate was 13.3%.
    In other words, the loss and the hardship continue.

    “It’s not over until we say it is. And that won’t happen until some time in mid-November.”

    If “cases” are ten times greater than what we have confirmed, that moves the decimal point over a spot, on the mortality rate. Some people would view that as good news. But they would be wrong, I guess.

    • Atanarjuat

      No, more cases is more scary! All of those people are equally contagious. The threat is all around us.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Doesn’t the rising number of cases and the dropping number of deaths a good indication? Bend the curve so the medical system can get their feet under them was the goal and that seems to have happened.

      • WTF

        Those goalposts were moved long ago.

    • Naptown Bill

      I keep having this argument with my wife. If you test more you’re going to have more positives. If you begin offering tests to people without symptoms, you’re going to have a higher proportion of positives than you did before because you’re now picking up asymptomatic carriers. None of this matters as much as the mortality rate, and specifically the demographics of the mortality rate. It’s *still* older people with preexisting conditions.

      Everyone, or almost everyone, is going to be exposed to this virus, and that’s a good thing in the long run. The curve has been flattened, and we know more and more about how to treat this with each passing day. That is resulting in an improvement to the mortality rate. The fact that people are still calling for all of this kayfabe bullshit, especially lockdowns, is explained by a combination of ignorance, fear, and cynical manipulation.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        It would be nice if we had a responsible media to ask the fascists questions framed around what you said

    • Ayn Random Variation

      It’s so frustrating that people don’t see it that way. I mean if it came out that 100% of us have been infected, that would be great news, but (((they))) would use it as a reason to lock us all up.

    • leon

      My understanding is that Biden is doing better than HRC was. Probably because people have gotten to see Trump in action.

      • cyto

        I would have said that 4 months ago.

        But after lockdowns he didnt order and protests of actions taken by Democrat controlled city governments, it is hard to put all the blame for the current version of the status quo on Trump.

        However, if elections are a referendum on the status quo, folks are going to have a hard time supporting this particular status…

  9. Atanarjuat

    and fuck over bars, while you’re at it

    It was so unbelievably dead in town last night.

    • Atanarjuat

      Although there was a disgusting dive bar near the college that reportedly started selling hotdogs so they could remain open.

  10. Cy

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/violence-rises-in-minneapolis-as-debate-over-role-of-police-rages/2020/06/26/12fd6020-b7c6-11ea-aca5-ebb63d27e1ff_story.html

    “At least 113 people have been shot since May 25, eight fatally, according to Minneapolis police, with hundreds of reports of gunfire across the city, including several shootings in broad daylight.”

    Holy shit! I bet those Minnesotans are ecstatic they went and got some of that ‘multiculturalism.’

    • Atanarjuat

      Larping hipsters and fancy grifters want to defund the police. I wonder what regular adults in black neighborhoods where these shootings presumably happen want. Not that I am under the delusion they will be a bunch of AnCaps, I would just prefer to hear from sober grownups who are actually affected by these things.

      • Rhywun

        I wonder what regular adults in black neighborhoods where these shootings presumably happen want.

        Like I said yesterday, nobody gives a shit what they want. It’s the same story every time.

      • db

        Mortys killin’ Mortys.

    • Fourscore

      Minnesota Nice goes Wild, Wild MidWest.

      • Tundra

        My wife and I took a drive down to the Uptown area last night and it was jumping. As I mentioned the other day, there were 11 people shot in a fairly tony area, so the shit is spreading.

        Not like the bucolic beauty of Emily, MN!

      • WTF

        This mayhem in a city run by Dems for more than half a century in a state with a Dem governor and Dem senators is somehow Trump’s fault.

    • Overt

      If I were the police, I would say “Here is my deal with you: You pay us for Q3 not to work. If at the end of September, you still don’t want police, we’ll convert our pensions to 401ks and go. If you still want police, we can begin negotiations in earnest.”

      The down side of this is after 3 months of no cops, people will give them gold plated everything.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        No they won’t. Minneapolis is not going to change.

        That’s my guess. Did Detroit or Baltimore change? They doubled-down.

        Rationally, that’s what should happen but we’re dealing with the left here.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Ballsy

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized other state leaders’ response to the coronavirus pandemic Thursday, saying some states who rushed to reopen their economies were playing politics.

    Cuomo, a Democrat, was asked by CNN’s Alisyn Camerota about comments made by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who said the state’s quarantine on New Yorkers earlier this year “saved lives” and reduced the spread of the virus.

    “I say to them all look at the numbers,” Cuomo said in response, referring to conservative states seeing a rise in Covid-19 cases. “You played politics with this virus, and you lost. You told the people of this state, you told the people of this country, the White House, ‘Don’t worry about it. Go about your business. This is all Democratic hyperbole.’”

    “Now you see 27 states with the numbers going up. You see the death projections going up. You see the economy going down,” Cuomo said. “It was never politics. It was always science.”

    When the history books are written, let it be shown that Andrew Cuomo was ethereally immune to politicizing this event, and devoted himself to selflessly promoting the best interests of each and every one of his subjects. He did his best, and no less.

    • Sean

      My idea for a t shirt:

      “My governor killed more old people than your governor*”

      “*Does not apply in NY or NJ.”. In fine print, and all text inside an outline of the state of PA.

    • Atanarjuat

      I am too lazy and stupid and hungover to find the numbers, but I think NY had an order of magnitude more deaths (relative to population) than FL.

      • WTF

        Yeah, NY had 10 times more deaths than Florida, and Florida has a larger population.

      • cyto

        “Look at the numbers”

        Just not those numbers.

        Or the number of current cases (also still higher in NY)

        This is what living in the soviet Union must have been like. He has CNN and NPR telling us that he did a magnificent job and Florida and Texas in particular did terrible…. This, when Cuomo actively killed vulnerable people by ordering nursing homes to take infected patients.

      • Spartacus

        I looked over the daily state report for Florida yesterday. For those under 65 who get the virus, the death rate is 0.51%.
        Nearly 53% of all deaths are in LTC facilities. Florida ranks 28th for per-capita cases. Guess who is still #1?

        I’m not paying that much attention to cases because people get sick all the time. I have been more focused on serious illness (hospitalization) and deaths. I would rather let the bars stay open and let all the college students get sick now and get over it before August.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This… Over and over

      • Plinker762

        In our county in WA, ages below 50 have zero deaths and are about 50% of the known cases.

      • db

        And Florida has an older population.

    • commodious spittoon

      When the history books are written

      Let it be shown that Andrew Cuomo was hanged by the neck until dead, so help him God.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Ok. I’ve had enough. Wanna play like this Andrew? Ok. How about this. BY YOUR OWN DUMB DECISIONS YOU KILLED OLD PEOPLE. Full stop. If you were a citizen you’d be charged with manslaughter. A society worth its own salt would see to it.

      Fuck off, rot and die.

      M’kay?

    • Ayn Random Variation

      “Now you see 27 states with the numbers going up. You see the death projections going up…”

      I see what you did there scumbag.

  12. Fourscore

    Good Morning, OM

    Say what you want about R. Perot but his VP choice was a winner.

    “Who am I and why am I here”

    We never learned the answer to that question but later I read his autobiography and still didn’t know.

    • Old Man With Candy

      He was greatly misunderstood, with his serious philosophical question/starting point characterized by the press as being addled.

      Contrast that with the treatment of a guy who actually IS addled.

      • Chipwooder

        James Stockdale was a remarkable man, so of course the press treated him like a punching bag.

        Since this was 28 years ago, it nicely illustrates Malice’s point that people lamenting “what the media has become” are either delusional or lying to you

  13. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    Sorry that you are experiencing desert hell. It’s 66 and sunny here with low humidity.

    Pretty nice, actually.

    I’m surprised that the EU is shooting themselves in the dick (again). There’s politics and then there’s economic suicide. 2016 apparently freaked everyone out enough that now the ‘rona gives them perfect cover to slap down the ingrates who have no interest in their collective utopia.

    I’m also interested to see how long the fuckheads here try to stifle travel.

    Anyway, I really enjoyed that Tull song! I don’t know them much beyond Aqualung, but that’s definitely a better song than most of those. So thanks. I’ll give that album a listen.

    I hope you and all the rest of my liberty loving peeps have a great day. I’m going to help my brother move and then bust up a 12 x 12 concrete patio.

    Do I know how to Saturday, or what?

    • Ted S.

      What?

    • Old Man With Candy

      Benefit was, IMO, their best album. And possibly their least played one. If you want some brilliant guitar, “To Cry You A Song” will satisfy. And features Anderson on electric! Anderson’s acoustic chops are impressive on “Sossity, You’re A Woman.”

      A/C in the house is down for the count. Apparently, we need a new coil, and it’s no longer available. So… Sweaty Jew.

      • Ted S.

        Did you check the thermostat?

      • Old Man With Candy

        I also checked the air in my tires.

      • Overt

        I loved some of his more orchestral pieces. Any time I am feeling down, Life’s a Long Song somehow makes me feel better. “Don’t you squeal as the heel, grinds you under the wheel” is so morbid, but the strings and piano just make it so hopeful.

        Songs from the Wood also has similar structure, but feels more vapid.

      • Spudalicious

        Sweaty Jooh = redundant.

    • Cy

      Was it Locomotive Breath?

  14. The Late P Brooks

    One protester laid down in the middle of the street, impeding access by the operator of a heavy load hauler. The protester in the so-called Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone was quickly joined by others who laid in the street or atop the makeshift barricades.

    Backhoe + protestors = hippie golf

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Mr. Prosser: Do you know how much damage this bulldozer would sustain if I just let it roll over you?
      Arthur Dent: How much?
      Mr. Prosser: None at all.

      — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

      • commodious spittoon

        None at all, by coincidence, was exactly how much suspicion Arthur Dent had that his closest friend, Ford Prefect, was in fact an alien from something about Betelgeuse.

        I can’t remember the rest.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        commodious spittoon:

        ‘By a curious coincidence, ‘none at all’ is exactly how much suspicion the ape-descendant Arthur Dent had that one of his closest friends was not descended from an ape, but was in fact from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and not from Guildford as he usually claimed. Arthur Dent had never, ever suspected this.’

        — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

      • commodious spittoon

        Happy thoughts. Douglas Adams was charming writer.

    • Plinker762

      Looks like a market to build scoop trucks like those in Soylent Green.

  15. Rhywun

    Well, fine. Let’s just get our military bases out of there.

    I didn’t see “China” anywhere in that article. Looking forward to see the EU pretzel itself into knots figuring out how to deal with them.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Coverup

    Attorney General William Barr has created a task force to investigate anti-government extremists that officials said were responsible for instigating violence and disrupting peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd.

    Barr, in a memo Friday, said there is evidence that extremists belonging to the far-right “boogaloo” movement and those who identify as antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist group, are responsible for some of the violence that marred protests across the country. Barr also said some of the extremists may have had some support from foreign entities, although he did not offer evidence.

    “Although these extremists profess a variety of ideologies, they are united in their opposition to the core constitutional values of a democratic society governed by law,” Barr said.

    Barr said the task force will obtain information about extremist groups, their networks and movements. “The ultimate goal of the task force will not be to enable prosecution of extremists who engage in violence, but to understand these groups well enough that we can stop such violence before it occurs and ultimately eliminate it as a threat to public safety and the rule of law.”

    If he doesn’t immediately round up everybody on the SPLC’s list of white hate groups, he’ll be accused of turning the nation into 1939 Germany.

    • Cy

      Am I losing my mind? Has anyone actually found a bugaloo yet?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The boogaloos were talking shit, Antifa was actually doing shit. There’s a difference.

    • leon

      Antifa is loosely organized, but the boogaloo meme is a right wing movement.

      • Plinker762

        The meme is more powerful than the bike lock?

    • Rhywun

      Quantico to see a sudden rise in Hawaiian shirt deliveries.

  17. The Late P Brooks

    He was greatly misunderstood, with his serious philosophical question/starting point characterized by the press as being addled.

    This. It was clearly a rhetorical question, but the establishmentarians took the bit in their teeth and ran with it. I met him, after he returned from Viet Nam. He was not addled. Not even close.

  18. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Guy in Minneapolis calls cops after attempted robbery at gunpoint, publicly genuflects over the danger he put his robbers in by doing so:

    https://youtu.be/v4lv2X0eWgA

    Ugh.

    • Chipwooder

      That guy deserves to get robbed over and over and over again.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Pretty pathetic isn’t it?

    • commodious spittoon

      A woman apologized to her rapist for having caused his expulsion from her country. I can’t remember whether she was raped on a rooftop in Haiti or if this took place in Denmark or Germany. The Marxist mindworm is so much more infectious and efficacious than anything Rand or Rothbard ever said.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    He [Perot] had a clear and detailed vision of government as an efficient machine to be ruthlessly directed according to his will.

    The first candidate who struck me as explicitly fascist. He struck me as having a clear-eyed vision of big government and big business working hand in hand to fuck over the little guy.

    I still marvel at the memory of “Perot” and “Libertarian” signs in the same yard.

    • leon

      Like libertarians for Trump? Or a whole editorial staff of a libertarian magazine, voting for Herself over their guy, Gary Johnson?

      • Cy

        I feel like all we’ve really had was Ron Paul. The guy was a Saint with all of the right credentials. Didn’t he try to run on the Republican ticket one year?

      • Pi Guy

        Twice recently,
        ’08 and ’12.

        Changed my voter affiliation from Independent to Repub just to vote in this two primaries in the People’s Republic of MD.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        ’08 and ’12, IIRC. ’88 was Lib.

  20. Yusef drives a Kia

    Hyperthermia is a bummer, the Arizona mountains however provide a cool respite, it s 65 degrees, haven’t felt this cold in a while, oh, and a fly with a buzz

    • Old Man With Candy

      Unfortunately, we’re in the valley. So we get far less night-time cooling.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        We are at a friends golf course, next stop, a wedding higher on the mountain, BhC is nasty hot right now, stay cool OMWC!

    • R C Dean

      We’ve been on fire for three weeks in Tucson. Over 80,000 acres burned.

      Time for the monsoon to get going.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Let’s see: authoritarian, don’t know who she is, lying war monger. Could very well be Florida lady, how terrible is she really?

    • Rhywun

      So… pander to various identity groups. Didn’t see that coming.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Like libertarians for Trump?

    Pretty much.

    I wouldn’t even give Perot the “lesser evil” benefit of the doubt. I can live with the Cartoon Villain because Hillary.

    • Atanarjuat

      I think Hillary would have gone to war in Syria.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        ^This this this, war with a nuclear superpower who would have lost the conventional war fairly quickly is not a good course of action.

      • leon

        America has spent the last 20 years fighting non conventional wars. The military is unpracticed at such a thing, and I think the Russians could give us a run for our money.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I think they’d give a better account than many would expect but the ultimate outcome wouldn’t be in doubt, particularly if the conflict was isolated to Syria where the flow of supplies could be cut by our navy and Turkey. If the Russians decided to roll into Eastern Europe or even just the Baltic states things would be much more problematic. Ultimately though, it’s just insane to consider direct conflict with a nuclear armed foe over Syria.

      • cyto

        Only if we tried to occupy territory. Our technological advantage is massive. We have the capability to take out most of anyone’s ground fighting capability in very short order. We also have the capability to attain air superiority in very short order.

        This lead may not last very long though. The Russians and the Chinese and others are working hard on drone weaponry. This change of Technology has the potential to alter the balance very quickly.

      • cyto

        A perfect example of cartoon villain accidentally doing the right thing. Remember the gnashing and mailing when he refuse to ramp up the war in Syria and begin withdrawing troops?

      • cyto

        Thanks for the autocorrect Google. People definitely mail. They don’t wail

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The one thing all of DC can agree on is MOAR WAR

      • cyto

        Look, if you buy a bunch of missiles and don’t fire them, how are you going to buy more? Warehouses get full, you know.

    • cyto

      Beyond that.. Cartoon villain is accidentally right sometimes.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Scofflaws! Hooliganism! Criminals!

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) is warning against fraudulent cards or flyers that are being used to claim immunity from face mask mandates.

    Images of the cards have circulated online and show they have a DOJ seal and claim protection from face mask mandates under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Citizens are reportedly using the cards to avoid wearing face masks in places where they are required.

    The department said it did not issue the cards nor condone their use.

    “Do not be fooled by the chicanery and misappropriation of the DOJ eagle,” U.S. Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin said in a statement. “These cards do not carry the force of law. The ‘Freedom to Breathe Agency,’ or ‘FTBA,’ is not a government agency.”

    A fake exemption for a fake solution.

    • leon

      “The ‘Freedom to Breathe Agency,’ or ‘FTBA,’ is not a government agency”

      Sounds more legit than Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Or Homeland security.

      • Spartacus

        On the other hand, the semi-secret FYTW agency dictates much of actual government operations.

      • Plinker762

        I can’t breath.

      • Breet Pharara

        FTBA sounds more constitutional than the ATF or DHS, TBH.

  23. leon

    So it didn’t get a lot of play, but there info released to show Stroks notes are damning. Obama directed the investigation is Flynn. Biden lied about not being a part of it. He was the one to suggest the Logan act.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And it’s Trump that is politicizing the DOJ/FBI

    • Spartacus

      To be fair, Biden probably genuinely does not remember participating.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it.

    • Breet Pharara

      It’s smoking gun number like 50 that Obama was a corrupt piece of shit who weaponized every government agency aginst people he didn’t like. Seriously, the phrase “use the right people [to investigate Flynn]” cannot be read any other way.

      Yet we’re the tin foil hat wearing Trump suckers. “He plead guilty. Why would an innocent man plead guilty?” People really don’t know or want to know just how fucked up our justice system gets when it comes to pressuring people to bow before the system.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    So it didn’t get a lot of play, but there info released to show Stroks notes are damning. Obama directed the investigation is Flynn. Biden lied about not being a part of it. He was the one to suggest the Logan act.

    Obamagate is a completely fake fabricated smear against the greatest American President of all time. No evidence exists (NONE!) tying Obama, Biden, or anyone in the administration to any politically motivated investigations. This is just another attempt to undermine America’s devoted law enforcement professionals. Trump has spent decades trying to undermine and tear down law enforcement and promote anarchy in the streets.

    • cyto

      This has been the drum I’ve been beating for many years now. We just had what is essentially proof positive that Obama and Biden personally directed a political attack using the FBI and the CIA and the Department of Justice.

      You would think that this would at least Garner a modicum of coverage in the national press. To the extent that they have mentioned it, they have used the phrase without evidence and the phrase conspiracy theory in conjunction with it.

      I have literally seen three stories talking about this evidence that said people were pushing the conspiracy theory without evidence. It is just bizarre. The question was what did Nixon know and when did he know it? We now have enough of an answer on that one to say that Biden and Obama certainly knew about it at the point that Flynn was targeted.

      • leon

        Yeah. Three fact that Comey said the call with Kysliak looked legit, and then Biden and Obama direct the investigation to keep going, is even more damning.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        If Trump gets reelected this’ll be pressed, if not it’ll be memoryholed. Obama and Biden won’t face too much trouble but the lower downs might.

      • leon

        It makes Susan Rice a even funnier option for VP

  25. cyto

    I have been Sheltering in place in South Florida throughout the pandemic.

    A week ago I brought the family Northern Wisconsin. We are staying at a nice house on a lake way out in the middle of nowhere near where they make Jack’s links beef jerky.

    I can report that nobody out here gives a flying f*** about the Coronavirus. There are a few people who are wearing masks, but it certainly is not the majority.

    They’re also not infected with social justice.

    In my neighborhood in South Florida there are Trump signs everywhere. Particularly on the boats.

    Here in northern Wisconsin I have only seen one little sign. It is a hand-painted sign that says vote Democrat. It is located on the main Highway through town in Superior Wisconsin.

    So I don’t know which way that cuts. It is almost as if people up here have life to live and they aren’t wrapped up in politics on a daily basis.

    • Atanarjuat

      Do you live on a canal? Or are the boats on trailers? And they have Trump banners on them?

      I’ve seen little enthusiasm here in North Floriduh. I suspect people are to some degree reticent to show support for Trump because they may get called racist. Or maybe there really is little support. I haven’t seen a single Biden sign or bumper sticker.

      • Raven Nation

        I wonder if some lack of enthusiasm on the part of Dems is the failure of the party to nominate a new, hip, candidate. Kind of like 1968.

        I mean, most of them will go and vote for Biden, but without enthusiasm.

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, I really thought the candidate was gonna be someone like Buttercup or “Beto” – another empty suit like Obama.

      • Mojeaux

        reticent to show support for Trump because they may get called racist.

        This is a certainty.

        When your entire life can be destroyed over wrongthink, you tend to get a little reticent about everything.

      • Chipwooder

        My parents are diehard Trump voters but they won’t show it outwardly. As dad said, last thing I need is some asshole keying my truck because of a stupid bumper sticker.

    • Cy

      Minong… I have family there. Nice cabin onthe river.

      • Cy

        They sell 30 lb bags of beef jerky at the little grocery store. It was something i didn’t know i needed in my life until the moment I saw it.

  26. Brochettaward

    I feel as though I’ve reached a level of Firsting that is unparalleled. I have reached such heights that the first comment I make in any article is the true First comment. There is no First until there is Brochettaward.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      You need to get your lithium refilled.

      • Spartacus

        NO! I get little enough entertainment as it is.

      • Mojeaux

        ^^^This.

    • Brochettaward

      The comments in between Firsts are but the collective cries of the muddled, non-First masses calling out for order.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Comment #28 is just 27th loser.

    • Agent Cooper

      I read that as “fisting”

  27. straffinrun

    And they counter protester will be shut because it instigates violence…


    Northumbria Police
    @northumbriapol
    We’ll be in attendance to facilitate a planned Black Lives Matter vigil at Keel Square in #Sunderland tonight.

    A Section 14 order is in place forbidding any other public assembly, including counter-protests, to ensure the public’s safety. Anyone with concerns should ring 101.

    • straffinrun

      Can linky, but can’t typey after drinkey.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Now that’s how you do differential rights.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        The comments in response are good though. People aren’t buying it.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        I don’t remember reading about this 2015 mass murder of tourists in Tunisia somebody mentioned.

      • Drake

        One of those super-rare attacks by a practitioner of the religion of peace. Not really worth reporting when there are other threats like white supremacy out there.

    • Rhywun

      BLM is just another arm of the government at this point.

      • Drake

        “Reformed Police” = protecting looters from property owners, with lethal force if necessary.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Does the term “vigil” bug the crap out of anyone else? A vigil is for someone who is missing, etymologically derived from “to watch” (or, just standing guard at night). When someone has died, it’s a memorial, or in this case a protest.

      • straffinrun

        I don’t mind it when it’s followed by “ante”.

    • Q Continuum

      Forget it man, it’s Airstrip One.

      Their authorities actively protected child rape gangs for fear of being called “racist”.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    I feel as though I’ve reached a level of Firsting that is unparalleled. I have reached such heights that the first comment I make in any article is the true First comment. There is no First until there is Brochettaward.

    Whatever helps you sleep at night, loser.

  29. Nephilium

    Now I’m pissed. Netflix and Hulu have pulled Community’s Advanced Dungeons and Dragons episode (season 2 episode 14) for “blackface”. In the episode, Ken Jeong dressed as a Drow. With literal black skin and white hair.

    • leon

      Really? That was the joke. Shirley even calls it a hate crime.

      Will they pull the episode with the Nazi Gardener and the trampoline?

      • Donation Not Taxation

        episode with the Nazi Gardener and the trampoline = Aerodynamics of Gender
        Don’t forget ‘reverse cultural appropriation’ in Alternative History of the German Invasion Mocking concept cultural appropriation double plus ungood.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The stupidity is spreading, apparently HBO Max nuked several South Park episodes for some politically correct reason or the other. Maybe they can come for Always Sunny (the Lethal Weapon episodes) and Tropic Thunder next.

      • Nephilium

        The South Park episodes were the ones with Mohammad in them as characters. And Hulu/Netflix (outside the US) both pulled the Lethal Weapon episode of It’s Always Sunny as well.

        For reference, this is not blackface.

        And quote from a chat with Netflix:

        The licensed title Community Season 2, Episode 14 (“Advanced Dungeons and Dragons”) is not available on Netflix as it contains blackface.

        As a company, we’ve decided we don’t want to have blackface content on our service when it’s not connected to its painful racist history.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        So they pulled it already you say? Jesus…and yeah, that ain’t blackface.

      • Nephilium

        Yeah. Checked Hulu this morning when the Community episode getting pulled hit my news feed. There was news stories about non-US Netflix pulling the It’s Always Sunny episodes a month back or so.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Stinky Wizzleteats:
        ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.’
        Tropic Thunder @ ‘Every Movie Already Leaving HBO Max’ @ https://screenrant.com/hbo-max-movies-leaving/

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Supposedly those are bound for other services. We’ll see if that actually happens I guess but I’m not holding my breath because corporations are absolutely spineless.

      • Nephilium

        At least Hulu still hasn’t pulled Racial Insensitivity from Better off Ted.

        Ted: The system doesn’t see black people?
        Veronica: I know. Weird, huh?
        Ted: That’s more than weird, Veronica. That’s basically, well… racist.
        Veronica: The company’s position is that it’s actually the opposite of racist, because it’s not targeting black people. It’s just ignoring them. They insist the worst people can call it is “indifferent.”
        Ted: Well, they know it has to be fixed, right? Please… at least say they know that.
        Veronica: Of course they do, and they’re working on it. In the meantime they’d like everyone to celebrate the fact that it sees Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Jews.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        Nephilium: ‘At least Hulu still hasn’t pulled Racial Insensitivity from Better off Ted.’

        Such bravery. Not octochicken.

      • Nephilium

        From the episode:

        Manual Drinking Fountain (for Blacks)

    • LJW

      The left killed comedy.

      • Q Continuum

        The Left kills everything if given the chance. It’s been proven time and again that they are a nihilistic death cult.

    • Rhywun

      Netflix and the like will never get a dime from me.

    • Nephilium

      Interestingly, Hulu support provided links to free services to watch the episode. It’s a flipped episode to avoid the standard takedown notifications.

      /already has the episode downloaded anyway.

    • Agent Cooper

      RIP Annie’s boobs.

  30. Donation Not Taxation

    Because links by Old Man With Candy:

    ‘ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel and the United Arab Emirates would cooperate in the fight against the coronavirus – a possible boost to Israeli efforts to normalize relations with Gulf Arab countries. Netanyahu said a formal announcement on working together with the UAE on confronting the COVID-19 pandemic was imminent and would be made by the UAE and Israeli health ministers.’

    https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2020/06/27/netanyahu-israel-uae-to-cooperate-in-fight-against-coronavirus/

  31. Drake

    Who wants a jagged black-pill for breakfast? Fred Reed delivers the bad news.

    A Country Not Salvageable

    Anything that might help is politically impossible, and anything politically possible won’t help.

    Yep – that what gives most people here angst.

    • Fatty Bolger

      So authoritarianism is the answer? No thanks.

      • Drake

        There isn’t an answer, just enjoy the ride down.

      • Q Continuum

        The answer, as it always is, will be more government and more power to Leftists. There’s a reason that inner cities are one-party rule in spite of that one-party rule being proven counterproductive for decades.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I totally disagree with his premise that democracies can’t compete with authoritarian nations. If we’re going down, it’s not due to “too much democracy.”

      • Rhywun

        ^

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Isn’t American Renaissance an actual white supremacist site?

      • Drake

        I don’t know. I used to read Fred on his own blog but it seems to be gone. He was never one to pull punches on race or anything else. He moved to Mexico and married a local woman long ago.

      • mikey

        They’d say “race realism”. I went there for awhile but it was too much The comments are a cesspool.

      • Rhywun

        I felt a little icky reading that but there are lots of valid points.

  32. blackjack

    Meanwhile, in LALA land, this is happening. He sure seems certain that the A/A will get reinstated. It’s almost like he has some special knowledge, LOL..

    Best part:

    To a significant extent, progress in racial equity in California was undermined in 1996
    with the passage of Proposition 209, which amended the California Constitution to
    provide that state and local governmenW enWiWieV ³Vhall noW diVcriminaWe againVW, or granW
    preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color,
    ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or
    pXblic conWracWing.´

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Don’t worry, all that means is explicit bias against against whites in government hiring, firing, and contract awarding.

    • Rhywun

      He sure seems certain that the A/A will get reinstated.

      He’s right.

  33. straffinrun

    Dirty jokes, please. Dirty as you got em.

    • Q Continuum

      Why was the guitar teacher arrested?

      For fingering a minor.

      • Q Continuum

        What’s the difference between a hooker and a drug dealer?

        A hooker can wash her crack and resell it.

      • Q Continuum

        What’s the difference between a Catholic priest and a zit?

        A zit will wait until you’re twelve before it comes on your face.

      • Q Continuum

        What’s the difference between your wife and your job?

        After five years, your job will still suck.

      • Q Continuum

        What do a woman and a bar have in common?

        Liquor in the front, poker in the back.

      • straffinrun

        ^vthank you.

      • Rhywun

        Classic dirty dad jokes.

    • egould310

      Winston’s Mom.

      • Sean

        LOL

        That was my first thought too.

    • Timeloose

      What kind of sex are priests allowed to have….nun.

    • Ted S.

      I’ve got a doozy, but it involves Mrs. Straffinrun.

    • Tres Cool

      What do you call a hooker with a runny nose?

      Full.

    • Cy

      Listening to all of these mental midgets mewl about PTSD, trauma and violence is pretty irritating. They’ve never seen actual all out war. Never had to gag through the smell of rotting bodies. They’re ever the victims in a ridiculously padded corner world. I have no hopes of seeing real tragedy and I’d like to think I have a pretty good idea of the wealth we swim in every day, but damn it if sometimes I don’t wish the world caught even a glimpse of what real racism, ethnic cleansing, world war, famine, rampant disease, true poverty really looks and tastes like.

      • Q Continuum

        That reminds me of a conversation two of my coworkers had yesterday. One a standard issue software geek and the other a statistician who used to be in the marines and is a combat veteran.

        Software Geek: Man this was such a stressful week with COVID and riots. We’re so overworked, I hate it. Wasn’t this week stressful?
        Marine: Not really.
        SG: How so? Maybe you just haven’t had as much work as me.
        M: My most stressful week was diving into a bunker while under a rocket attack after being up for 36 hours and having to command my unit to safety. We only lost two men so it was a success.
        SG: …oh. Sorry.
        M: No problem, makes me remember why I went back to school.

        *yes this did actually happen yesterday*

      • Rufus the Monocled

        All this manic narcissism we’re seeing with ‘systemic racism’ (which isn’t a damn thing) and the fall out (The Simpsons announced they’re killing non-white characters – which means mocking whites will remain fair game? and the guy who does Cleveland’s voice is quitting) is borne straight from a hyper-pampered and prosperous civilization.

        So coddled the mind is weak to the point of not being salvageable. You go and try and reason someone out of this mess they create. They engage in public struggle sessions for heaven’s sake.

        Maybe it’ll pass. But the question, like battling coronavirus, at WHAT COST?

      • slumbrew

        Marine co-worker sounds like an awesome dude.

      • Q Continuum

        He is. And smart too.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Problem the state backs SG cuck and not the Marine.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Wow. I’ve read piles of drivel in my life and that’s among the worst. Anyone who claims there’s ‘systemic racism’ is a Marxist dumbass.

      The left are on the march and it’s jerk offs like this idiot who are damaging America more than they think.

      One one side you have a woke-cult slowly morphing into a religion because the fricken state is backing it (if the DNC wins in November it’s game over) and remarkably dimwitted Governors and public health officials running people into the ground for fear of a virus on the other.

      It’s going to be tough to come out of this unscathed.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        And he reads like that idiot Neil MacDonald at the CBC. All paid for by the taxpayers.

        So unbelievably unimaginative and predictable rubbish.

      • Raven Nation

        Speaking of Canada, wonder how much longer before Russell Peters gets cancelled?

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Who knows anymore?

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of notorious racist propaganda films…

    I stumbled across “48 hours” last night. I forgot how good that movie is. Have they unpersoned Eddie Murphy for his grotesque minstrel show racial persona, yet?

    “I’m your worst nightmare. A nigger with a badge.”

    • Old Man With Candy

      We actually sat through Another 48 Hours because a friend of ours played one of the bad guys. Hilarious. Every time he killed someone, SP would deadpan, “Nice shot, David.” And when he got killed at the end, “Bye, David.”

  35. Rufus the Monocled

    Re Texas. Honestly, at some point, Americans are just gonna have to rebel. Governors like Abbott just doing shit like that on a whim is UNCONSCIONABLE. It’s mind blowing how ONE industry gets bullied like no other. This idea you can say ‘open, no shut down!’ of an economy is beyond the pale. The UNDO STRESS alone is WORSE than that stupid motherfucken virus.

    Abbott can straight off fuck off and die.

    I fear this is what’s in store for us here.

    • Rhywun

      I just took a walk and lots of restaurants around me have outdoor seating in the parking lane now.

      I hope it works out for them.

      • Naptown Bill

        That’s one welcome silver lining around here. They’re closing off the top block of one of the main drags downtown and it’s just outdoor seating for all the bars and restaurants. A lot of places are getting around the 6′ stuff by just converting unused outside space to outdoor seating, which I prefer anyway. If it rains you’re kind of up a creek, but otherwise this is the best time of year for it.

      • Rhywun

        It’s like a slice of Paris in Saturday Night Fever Brooklyn.

    • Drake

      Where’s the one where he finger-bangs an aide?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      These are the same people that practically worship RBG as a god so not surprising at all.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      You know. I’m gonna say it. 1984 and Brave New World have pretty much arrived. We’re now onto….the Idiocracy.

    • Rhywun

      I wonder if it’s the same people who did the AOC superhero comic book.

  36. Rufus the Monocled

    If progressives philosophically and intellectually co-opted liberalism (the way I describe them is they wearing the carcass of liberalism as a mink shawl), then it’s possible the far left wing of progressivism – like Marxists – have indeed infiltrated academia and STEM co-opting those.

    Show your work.

    • prolefeed

      I had an actual, not hiding it, Marxist professor decades ago.

  37. Grummun

    Went to a local gun shop yesterday. Sign on the door about capacity, distancing, etc. Inside, no masks, no attempt at maintaining separation. Place was hoppin’, had to wait in line to fill out a yellow form. I was behind some granny who was banging on about how pleased she was with herself to have gotten her CCW license, as she dropped $1K+ cash on a Sig 5.56.

    The cutest little CZ rimfire rifle followed me home, the wife said we can keep it. Actually, she may like it a bit too much, IYKWIM.

    • Mojeaux

      I was behind some granny who was banging on about how pleased she was with herself to have gotten her CCW license, as she dropped $1K+ cash on a Sig 5.56.

      Storytime.

      Long ago I was in martial arts. I went to tournaments. I competed. I rose in rank. Honestly, I wasn’t very good, but I couldn’t tell so I was half swagger but only half because other people were better than I.

      I was at a tournament once. I think I was a green belt by then (one step under brown) and what caught my eye but two little old ladies with white belts shuffling around together and messing with their gear. That wasn’t the cute part, though. The cute part was that one was in a pink gi. The other was in a lavender gi.

      That makes me smile every time I think about it, and I remember that every time I think I’m “too old” for something new.

    • Donation Not Taxation

      Grummun, condolences that something so cute that became beloved by your family went missing in a boating accident.

      • Grummun

        Tragic, really. We had a moment of silence.

      • hayeksplosives

        Someday we will learn why gun owners are such terrible boaters…

  38. db

    I just found this out this morning, although it happened on Monday. <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/&quot; Slate Star Codex taken offline by author due to New York Times’ stated policy of insisting on publishing his real name in an article about the site.

    https://www.dontdoxscottalexander.com/
    https://medium.com/@lessig/hey-nyt-please-just-dont-44f36a87c21
    https://unherd.com/2020/06/slate-star-codex-must-remain-anonymous/
    https://freebeacon.com/media/well-known-blogger-shuts-down-site-for-fear-of-nyt-doxxing/

    • db

      dammit, forgot to close the A tag

  39. Ayn Random Variation

    So after 2 weeks of packed outside seating at bars and restaurants and a sign of hope for bar and restaurant staff that they will soon be able to pay their rent, now Philly has mandated masks in all indoor public places and outside if within 6 feet of someone you don’t know.

    And no one will bring up the protests/riots or increased testing as having anything to do with this “spike”

    Urge to murder rising.

    I

    • hayeksplosives

      The strain of covid our at my workplace is very clever and can tell time. That’s why they temperature screen everyone who arrives between 6am and 1:30 PM.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Apparently it’s the world’s first sentient virus.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        It also only spreads when white supremacists get together. And at the same time it attacks black people more than whites. Unless they are protesting.

    • Naptown Bill

      Yesterday for our anniversary my wife and I shuffled the kids off to hang out with cousins and we went out by ourselves for the first time in a long time. A nearby bar that we frequent was, to our relief, very much open and doing a thriving business. Outside there were signs about distancing and masks; inside, although there weren’t that many people (which was true of the area generally) the people we saw either had a mask and weren’t wearing it or didn’t have one at all. The staff had them but maybe half weren’t wearing them. It was a nice bit of normalcy, and it gave me some hope that a fair number of my neighbors aren’t willing to put up with the charade any more.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        I’ve been very hopeful after seeing all of the people out and about. I’ve gone to my fav spots and the staffs are all excited to be back at work and the customers excited to reconnect.
        Everything was supposed to fully open with indoor seating at 50% capacity next week but that’s not happening, and they’ll prob take away the outdoor seating.
        I’m curious if any businesses will defy the order as I don’t see this ending until Biden is rightly annointed

  40. Gender Traitor

    Perhaps I’m being paranoid, but with all the current hysteria about purging blackface in comedies, Gone With the Wind being “problematic,” etc., I was inspired to go looking for the best available edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – which I consider the likeliest candidate for Great American Novel – in hard copy (so it can’t be purged from my Nook if mobs start threatening to burn down Barnes & Noble) before it gets “cancelled.” Found what’s billed as a “comprehensive edition” with previously unpublished passages reportedly discovered in the ’90s, so I’ve ordered it.

    I guess you could call that “cultural prepping.”

    • hayeksplosives

      I am glad to have certain books, DVDs and CDs for the same reason.

      Don’t be editing out guns on Babylon 5, man, and back away from my copy of Blazing Saddles.

      I already sold my Confederate bills on eBay a few years ago, assuming eventually it would be banned.

      • Tres Cool

        I would love to set some proggy SJW-types down just for the scene where the old woman says “Up yours!”

        Or the fact this bit of Sanford & Son was shown on prime time- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HQiqvwQ5Xk

      • Rhywun

        LOL classic

      • Ayn Random Variation

        Nice!

      • slumbrew

        NOT O.K.!

        (I laughed)

    • hayeksplosives

      So, yeah, I like your term “cultural prepping.”

      I’ll have my Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples boxed set too. Churchill’s writings would not make Ilhan Omar happy.

    • Rhywun

      I found a nice hard-copy on the “free stuff” shelf in my building’s lobby.

      Just noticed it’s from the “New York Post Family Classics Library” – *snort*

    • Ayn Random Variation

      And no, you’re not being paranoid.

  41. Emmerson Biggins

    Sorry if already shared.

    But, I’ve found this to be the actual best graph for kung flu crap:

    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

    You gotta scroll down about 40% of the way.

    And do keep in mind that the data staggers in at a quasi random pace, they say : “Only 60% of reports come in with 10 days”. So I’d guess that by 3 weeks we’d have a little of 90% reporting.

    Still. this filters out all the crap with “New Cases” and what the definition of a “Covid Death” should be.