Saturday evening links of summer

by | Jul 11, 2020 | Daily Links | 381 comments

Summer, summer, summer, summer!

 

Typical The Atlantic fare. I do think they could buy better shirts, though. Show some class. At least rock some Tommy Bahama.

 

Something about people in hell wanting ice water.

 

I’ll post any story that has the name “Lichtenstein” in it.

 

The other “religion of peace”?

 

You know who else was investigated for violating the integrity of a corpse?

 

Obviously he got Vlad’s approval first.

 

This is the nicest July we’ve had in Idaho since we’ve moved here. The weeks of sweltering 90’s hasn’t appeared and the weather is spectacular. It’s like living in a park.

About The Author

Spudalicious

Spudalicious

Survey says I’m a Paleolibertarian bitches. That means I eat “L”ibertarians for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Soave tastes a little fruity. Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound quite right…

381 Comments

  1. Hyperion

    It’s the Firstest of Summer!

    • Count Potato

      That’s June 20th.

      • Hyperion

        No, it isn’t, I just made it July the Elventy11111thist!

      • Adama, Yusef Adama

        Hyperion Holidays Matter!

  2. Count Potato

    “On May 29, two federal security officers guarding a courthouse in Oakland, California, were ambushed by machine-gun fire as elsewhere in the city demonstrators marched peacefully to protest the killing of George Floyd.”

    “machine-gun”

    • Count Potato

      “But this co-option fit the ethos of online spaces perfectly, with a niche group celebrating its anti-government, libertarian views by draping them in colorful jokes and nonsense that could be remixed and reinterpreted endlessly.”

      “libertarian”

      • Hyperion

        Look, libertarians want your children to be able to purchase machine guns from vending machines on the playgrounds. Tater want the chillins to die.

      • Chafed

        There’s your unmitigated bullshit.

    • Count Potato

      “Last summer, murderers who identified as fascist “incels” (involuntary celibates) attacked synagogues and mosques, and, in one case, a Walmart. Like the boogaloos, their stated goal was to spark a larger conflict. And in addition to posting hateful manifestos on the 4chan copycat site, 8chan, some coated their automatic weapons and gear in images from memes from the chans.”

      “automatic”

      • Hyperion

        “automatic”

        Those are sentient and they ‘spray bullets’ like one zillion times a second and automatically aim for children. You ain’t edumencated.

      • EvilSheldon

        Also “murderers”, “fascist”, “incels”, and “attacked.”

    • Chafed

      I think this one is right. They had Air Force weapons that were (capable of) full auto fire.

      • Count Potato

        They took them home with them?

      • Jarflax

        When I was in highschool a friend of mine brought an M72 in to school and showed it to me. He had walked it out of an air force armory where he had been doing cadet training with the CAP. So I have no difficulty believing actual active duty personel could get away with it.

  3. Adama, Yusef Adama

    We’re going to 122 Tomorrow and I have a tournament to play, all this talk of heat makes me want to pick up a,
    TALLCAN!
    /Cheers everybody!

  4. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    just finished putting new brakes and rotors on the car. It didn’t really need new pads, but the rears had been rubbing for a while and the rotors were trashed from that and from the toxic humidity of DC. Somebody didn’t bother to grease the slider bolts on the assembly line, so I had to sand down the caked on brake dust and give it a good coat of brake grease.

    whose brilliant idea was it to require a hex bit to get the slider bolts out? I didn’t have a full set of hex sockets, but I do now. I also trashed a ratchet, which is surprising given that it wasnt a harbor freight special.

    • Adama, Yusef Adama

      Breaker bar and a Hammer, crack loose, proceed,
      I had to fab a Giant Hexkey/breaker attachment once, what were they thinking?

    • Count Potato

      I hate hex bolts. I’ve twisted hex sockets out of shape trying to get them loose. They weren’t cheap either.

    • DrOtto

      Better a hex than the T55 Torx the GM full size truck chassis use. I like GM, but shit like that makes me SMDH.

  5. Count Potato

    “I’ll post any story that has the name “Lichtenstein” in it.”

    Even if it’s paywalled?

    • peachy rex

      Andorra or GTFO.

      • C. Anacreon

        Andorra, Europe’s very own duty-free shop.

      • peachy rex

        It’s also stupidly pretty, as I recall – though I was a wee chap then.

      • C. Anacreon

        Yes, the entire country is nestled in a spectacular mountain valley. And yet it’s filled with every high end jewelry, perfume, electronics and apparel store imaginable, as well as countless tour buses lining every road, delivering French, Spanish and Italian shoppers looking to avoid VAT and other taxes.

      • Hyperion

        How did that happen? Did they get utopian socialism?

      • Rhywun

        Guessing a tiny population of more-or-less productive citizens, and few politician-grifters, relatively not so demanding of free shit. All the rich, low-tax countries are micro-states.

    • Spudalicious

      Is it? Because of the sale price of a Lichenstein nude, they sold $421 million in the auction. That’s it. I just posted it because the artist’s name was “Lichenstein”.

  6. Count Potato

    “You know who else was investigated for violating the integrity of a corpse?”

    He was just giving orders.

    • Atanarjuat

      IN STEVE SMITH DEFENSE, HE THOUGHT HIKER SLEEPING

  7. DEG

    As with the alt-right, many boogaloo posts are about men in crisis, humiliated or debased. Intermingled with memes about revolution are nostalgic images and video clips, glitched out to look like old VHS tapes, of what they imagine was the ideal existence: being the patriarch of a middle-class American nuclear family sometime between the 1950s and the 1990s.

    Ho boy. How did I get this far through that article? I’m tapping out.

    Authorities in France will investigate claims that human corpses donated for science were left to rot and be eaten by rats at a university research facility, the Paris prosecutor’s office has said.

    Prediction: Procedures were followed.

    President Trump acknowledged this week that in 2018 he authorized a covert U.S. cyberattack against a Russian “troll farm,” according to a report.

    Further proof he is in bed with the Russians.

    Good music picks.

    • Hyperion

      It’s the Atlantic. They’re the lunatic fringe version of the NYT.

  8. Count Potato

    “According to Thiessen, Trump claimed Obama “said nothing” about Russian interference that year because he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the race for the White House against Trump.

    Trump said Obama “knew before the election that Russia was playing around. Or, he was told. Whether or not it was so or not, who knows? And he said nothing. And the reason he said nothing was that he didn’t want to touch it because he thought [Clinton] was winning because he read phony polls. So, he thought she was going to win.”

    Obama knew way more than that.

    • Ted S.

      Trump said Obama “knew before the election that Russia was playing around. Or, he was told.

      Sounds like bounties.

  9. Nephilium

    The rain they’ve been predicting for the past four days finally came, bringing down the humidity and heat a bit. We’re now just in the low 80’s instead of the low 90’s, and the humidity today is under 50%.

    • DEG

      No rain from Fay here. The storm is a bit too far west. We still have lots of wind though.

  10. westernsloper

    Look at Mr Money bags here wanting Tommy Bahama.

  11. J. Frank Parnell

    The name “boogaloo boys” is a reference to the critically maligned 1984 sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo

    “critically maligned”? Critics are dumb.

    • Hyperion

      “Critics are dumb.”

      Not as dumb as the Atlantic.

    • Sean

      Racist!

    • Rhywun

      Because it could be tainted with cooties. I’ve heard that the leagues playing there (MLS too) are basically under total lockdown.

    • Atanarjuat

      “The motel room I was provided wasn’t nice enough” is zeroth world problems. And if a multi-millionaire can’t figure out how to get good takeout via one of the many delivery apps*, he should starve for the good of the human gene pool.

      *I do this part time because I lost my job in the pandemic and haven’t received unemployment (thanks government for being there when I needed you). Driving around with multiple Outback Steakhouse orders filling my car with the smell of grilled steak and knowing I’m going home to beans on toast will stir the soul.

      • Derpetologist

        today I learned:

        yellow light times very with the speed limit

        ***
        The Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices provides guidance that the yellow interval be between three and six seconds without tying the requirement to specific approach velocities. That said, anything falling below the yellow times shown here should be considered as a potential short yellow light.

        25 MPH — 3.0 Seconds
        30 MPH — 3.5 Seconds
        35 MPH — 4.0 Seconds
        40 MPH — 4.5 Seconds
        45 MPH — 5.0 Seconds
        50 MPH — 5.5 Seconds
        55 MPH — 6.0 Seconds
        ***

        http://www.shortyellowlights.com/standards/

      • Derpetologist

        Oops, did not mean for this to go here.

      • UnCivilServant

        Those seem longer than any yellow I’ve ever seen.

      • Hyperion

        “The motel room I was provided wasn’t nice enough” is zeroth world problems. And if a multi-millionaire can’t figure out how to get good takeout via one of the many delivery apps*, he should starve for the good of the human gene pool.”

        What do you they think it will be like when they’ve cancelled their fancy foozball jobs with all this wokeness? They going to get a job as rocket scientist?

    • Jarflax

      WNBA players have also complain of food, as well as bed bugs and worms

      Well, they are mostly dogs….

    • DEG

      #13 looks fun.

      #17 looks inviting.

  12. Brawndo

    The boogaloo boys are the great threat to civil society, but antifa doesn’t exist. Stop laughing!

    • westernsloper

      Seems so. One psycho who apparently took what, I understand to be a joke, seriously and shoots up some cops and it is a movement that is a huge threat. Years of rioting by antifa gets a hand wave as not an organized movement and nothing to see here.

  13. Rhywun

    Today in 2020… this time it’s too local:

    Blue and Black Lives Matter protesters clash at Brooklyn rally

    Some three dozen anti-cop protesters showed up just before the 11 a.m. start of the rally at 13th Avenue and Bay Ridge Avenue in Dyker Heights.

    The multi-racial group confronted a crowd of more than 300 police supporters, virtually all of them white.

    I’m glad we got the race of everyone involved sorted out so I know what to think of this.

    • Nephilium

      virtually all of them white

      So they weren’t really white, maybe Slavic, Italian, or Irish?

      • Rhywun

        Probably some of (((them))) too.

      • Count Potato

        I’m picturing giant ants in yarmulkes.

      • Chafed

        So much for our secret weapon staying secret.

      • UnCivilServant

        You were never briefed on the actual secret weapons.

      • Jarflax

        (((We))) are weaponizing guilt. The JMB will strike terror into the hearts of enemies everywhere!

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s better than some of the other fates.

  14. Derpetologist

    today’s extra credit derp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUqMIhzorY

    wherein tolerance is bad, because no one should merely be tolerated

    ***
    This workshop hosts the often-avoided conversation of race in the workplace. The premise of the workshop is that we cannot solve
    for issues that we are not able to talk about. Participant dialogue is facilitated with the goal of increasing awareness of why this
    conversation is difficult, fostering understanding of the impact of the issues, and making new agreements about how colleagues can
    learn from each other and create new ways of being.
    ***

    You see, I always thought any topic likely to make people upset (religion, politics, etc) was a no-go for polite conversation, especially at work. It’s to get work done if people are yelling at each other.

    But evidently, the way to achieve racial harmony is to talk about it constantly.

    • juris imprudent

      And to pay the race sensitivity trainershustlers. Lots and lots of money.

      • Grosspatzer

        That’s the luminary who presented at my employer’s optional struggle session a couple of weeks ago (mentioned in dead thread). Thanks, Sir Derpmeister, I needed to see this in case questions are raised down the road.

      • Nephilium

        If you haven’t watched it, get Season 6 Episode 7 of Penn and Teller’s Bullshit to calm down. It’s Sensitivity Training, and was released over 10 years ago.

      • Grosspatzer

        Ah, that’s the ticket. Glad to be working from home, easier to avoid confrontation. Social distancing FTW.

      • Nephilium

        I was on a work call yesterday while they were upgrading some systems, and they started discussing taxes, and how the government needed so much money to spend on roads and schools and …

        Mute is my friend.

      • Grosspatzer

        Mute is my friend
        If only I could mute my facial expressions.

    • Atanarjuat

      Something tells me your role, as they envision it, will involve a lot more listening than talking.

    • Hyperion

      “we cannot solve issues that we are not able to talk about”

      Sure we can, just cancel the people you don’t agree with.

    • DEG

      Fuck

  15. Atanarjuat

    Army’s ‘Captain America’ dies by suicide after nearly a dozen combat tours

    Master Sgt. Andrew ‘Andy’ Christian Marckesano served 6 full tours in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne and the Ranger regiment

    Sad that many of the men in the article left behind young children.

    I know many of you are quite knowledgeable about military history. The US had veterans return from equally or maybe even more harrowing combat in both world wars. I never heard anything about suicide in those cohorts. I have met several ww2 vets in my life. However that doesn’t mean the suicide wasn’t there. It could have been covered up. And there are people like my great uncle who came back from Germany unscathed but reportedly woke up screaming many nights for the rest of his life. I am wondering, is the suicide rate higher now and if so does anyone know why?

    • Don Escaped both Landslides

      why?

      it’s hard to imagine that recent volunteer militaries can secure as normal a distribution of human resources as conscripted militaries of wars past unless you believe that the lifestyle and other compensations of the latest, say, three decades’ service outweigh the utility of getting shot at for a living

    • Threedoor

      Swiss probably has good data.

      From my anacdotal experience, one mostly boring Iraq deployment. My guess is it’s that:
      Garrison sucks.
      Deployments are exciting and addictive.
      The army sucks.
      PowerPoint presentations about how whites are racists suck.
      PowerPoint presentations about why you shouldn’t kill yourself suck.
      PowerPoint presentations about how all men are rapists suck.
      No alcohol down range sucks.
      The promotion system sucks.
      Losing good soldiers because the army sucks, sucks. The good ones tend not to re-enlist.
      I can go on.

      As far as the rates of suicide go, the last numbers from the army I got were in 2010, active duty and modern army suicides were lower than our cohort age group of civilians. The guys that were really offing themselves were in their sixties and seventies. Lots of Vietnam era guys. Old guys tent to kill themselves because they hurt or have some sort of terminal disease. The further you go back in time the greater the percentage of the general population are vets. Greater numbers of old guys killing themselves and more being vets it looks bad and scues the numbers somewhat.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      One theory I’ve heard is the time for transport back to the States. In WW2, you spent 2-3 weeks returning from the war zone back to America. That gave time to decompress with the other guys your unit. Now you can you go from Fallujah to Atlanta in 48 hours without anytime to decompress and readjust. Don’t know the accuracy on those numbers… just something I’ve heard from a vet as a possible reason.

      • Threedoor

        That’s part of it. And reorientation seminars and paperwork are also
        Exasperating.

      • dbleagle

        When I retired in 2012 the suicide rate was higher for those who had never deployed versus those who had.

        Semi SD has a good point. When I brought my unit back in 2004 I tried to ensure that the first good drunk a Soldier had was with the unit- with men and women who understood what they went through. Luckily I was in SOF where that was permitted.

        IMHO it matters how long you were in active combat as well. WWII, KW and VTN fought highly quality opponents- but they did it for a shorter period. The 34ID served the longest period in combat (around 511 days) from North Africa and up through the boot in Italy. That was a long time for an infantryman and it was routine for the “old line” divisions* to suffer around 300% infantry losses. But we fought Iraq and Afghanistan with too small a ground army. Many many members of the Army Reserve have over 750 days of combat. Depending on the breakdown of tours the MSG in question could have had 1500-2000 days of ground combat. That is a bunch of buckets to drink.

        *Long combat days divisions: ETO- 1, 3, 9, 34, 36, 45 Inf. 1 Armor, 82d ABN. PTO: Americal, 32, 33 Inf, 1 Cav

      • Gustave Lytton

        Not to mention that by Pearl Harbor, most of the National Guard had been mobilized for ~15 months. So by the time they first went into combat, the original cohort had been mobilized for 2-3 years.

        Sub trivia: the original mobilization was supposed to be for one year. That was extended which led to a bit of unhappiness and an acronym OHIO- over the hill in October. Apparently it never really materialized and more or less disappeared after Dec 7.

      • Gustave Lytton

        The article after it about spending too much time on admin also strikes a familiar chord.

      • Threedoor

        I had to attend a division formation where our general called us all in and rethoricaly asked why so many of us (101st) were killing our selves. My squad leader gave me the stink eye when I yelled “because fort Campbell sucks.” No one other than me in the formation said shit.

        Iraq was better. The weather was nicer and the locals were friendlier.

      • Derpetologist

        There’s a great book about PTSD and vet suicide called Flashback. It seems the same lessons have to learned over and over. In the early 19th century, alcoholism was the leading cause of death among US soldiers. Later, troubled Civil War vets were said to be afflicted with Soldier’s Heart. In those days, perceived alcoholism could lead to a revoked pension so that padded another layer of suffering on them.

        In WW1, the British and Americans did a pretty good job of dealing with Shell Shock. The Anatomy of Courage by a British Army doctor gives a detailed description of that. When WW2 rolled around, there was a belief that PTSD only affected weak men, and so there was a kind of half-assed phrenology where the courage of recruits was assessed by how wide their chests were.

        Military life is often stressful even outside of combat. My take is that there are a lot of tasks that don’t do much good and so stress people needlessly.

        And for the love of god, enough with the damn PowerPoint!

      • Threedoor

        Slide shows kill.

      • Derpetologist

        There is something amusing about a 5 hour presentation being called a “brief”.

        If PowerPoint and online classes made soldiers smarter, everyone in the Army would be a genius.

        I was in a particularly horrid class once, and I began to vent in the manner of Dale Gribble. A Sergeant Major walked in to ask why everyone was laughing so hard.

        I forget everything I said, but I do remember asking him if he wrote the manual he was touting that day. He said no and I said “good, because that manual sucks” and went on another rant.

        I was very proud of the feedback on wrote on the survey for that course, which was: this course will cause catastrophic damage to the Army if it continues. Everyone with a brain or a spine is going to leave and the only ones left will be those with a high tolerance for PowerPoint and people who are scared of getting yelled at.

        One of the reasons I want to stay in is for the challenge of trying to get the Army to stop hitting itself on the head with a hammer.

    • Gustave Lytton
      • Threedoor

        First world problems? A hard(Er) life striving for advancement has to be more satisfying when you succeed than an easy life without direction or challenge.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Energy orgasms are a full-body experience which are about a physical and emotional release, rather than sexual pleasure.

      Well where’s the fun in that.

    • Derpetologist

      So instead flicking her bean she rubs a balloon on her head?

      • Spudalicious

        Would doing both be like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time?

  16. mexican sharpshooter

    From the previous thread:

    R C Dean on July 11, 2020 at 4:28 pm (Edit)
    Not explained: why it is in Unanoe’s financial interest to support Trump.

    I assume it has something to do with USMCA. Goya sells a lot of products in Mexico.

    • R C Dean

      I wa thinking more “make a public show of support for Trump”.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Every man has his price…

    • Ted S.

      I’m sorry your wife left you, Q.

      • Q Continuum

        I just couldn’t get the tantric energy orgasm technique right.

      • Sean

        A vagina scented candle could help set the mood.

    • Mojeaux

      Okay, so that would suck for everyone involved. Or not suck, as the case may be.

      But IMO it’s not a leave-able offense.

    • westernsloper

      Holy crap. Who’s doing the shooting when the cop is on the guy? That is a lot of shooting.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Apparently it was the perp.

        And then there’s this: As the Littleton raised the gun in his left hand he was aiming at the head of the officer

        Amateur hour. Center of mass or GTFO

      • Count Potato

        Shooting people in the head is pretty effective according someone who has no associations with the Clintons.

      • EvilSheldon

        I’m sure he was trying to miss the cops’ body armor. At that kind of distance, you don’t need to be John Wick to put one in the dome.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Looked like he was firing offhand while walking away sideways/backwards. I’m not sure what he expected to happen with so many cops there.

      • UnCivilServant

        Imma shoot em all and walk away from the explosion without lookin

      • EvilSheldon

        *shrug* Street-level dealers and hangers-on aren’t typically known for having a lot of high-level planning ability.

        That said, if he’d known what he was about with a pistol, I’d give him no worse than fair odds of shooting his way clear of the initial contact. As usual, the cops fucked up their approach.

      • EvilSheldon

        Hard to tell. Some of it might have been from the dead guy (who was not dead at that point.) Dude came to party.

        Some of it might have been from the other cops, who for the most part don’t get any useful training in Rule #4. It’s more, ‘hear gunfire, pull out the jammie and make it rain.’

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Went to the gun shop today to pick up my Ruger Mini-14. There were at least three separate gun sweeping incidents while I was there. So many first time buyers who are unwittingly pointing pistols at their spouses while standing at the counter.

      • Count Potato

        I find that very annoying.

      • EvilSheldon

        Three sweeping incidents for one transaction is about par for the course.

      • R C Dean

        “Unwittingly”

    • Sean

      Crazy.

    • juris imprudent

      How do cops kill an unarmed man shooting at them?

    • UnCivilServant

      That doesn’t seem to have been done correctly.

      • Nephilium

        I’ve seen that as an option in a couple of places. These are not places known for quality cocktails or beers.

      • Overt

        To be fair, most margarita places are basically well tequila with sour mix at levels just below “teeth instantly fall out”. The bitterness of the beer actually helps.

        Another common one is the Michelada, which is essentially a bloody mary with a beer tipped over into it, and chili salt on the rim. I just about flipped a table when someone told me to try it at the Night Market here in orange county. However, there is something about a hot summer night, with a michelada and a giant squid on a stick, and a burger on ramen noodles bun that just works when the music gets going.

        The next day though…holy shit, I am old.

  17. Nephilium

    As there’s still demand, and I will hopefully not get called by work tonight.

    That Zoom thing, I’ll kick it off at 20:00 Eastern.

    • Tulip

      Thanks Neph!

    • DEG

      Thanks!

    • Sean

      Rocking.

      I got a belly full of takeout bbq.

    • BakedPenguin

      I don’t know if I’d already mentioned this, but your new avatar inspired me to go look up Sister Havana on YT.

    • DEG

      Nice.

  18. Tres Cool

    I ran my fat mouth too soon this morning, bragging about being defiant of the governor’s order to wear a mask everyplace. I tried to walk into my Meijer raw-dog to get my grocery on, and some old bitch @ the door punk’d me out.
    I capitulated.

    • Nephilium

      When I went into the liquor store today, a couple walked out maskless, but the Little Caesar’s next door had a sign up, “No mask No service.”

      Of course, it appears that most of my area have stoma that they need to cover up instead of their mouths and noses.

    • The Hyperbole

      Meh, I had to go the menards and they require masks I tie on my bandana (a quality 3 dollar one) and pretend i’m an outlaw.

      • Spudalicious

        I wear a camo bandanna. Nobody notices, it’s Idaho.

      • Tres Cool

        I could do that, but I had a fresh N95 in the truck, still coated with the hydroxide-base layer (w/e it is that tears the lipid layer off the virus). Unlike my home-girl GT I wasnt going to drive to the next county over just to shop. So I did it. I wasnt going to be the asshole screaming “AM I BEING DETAINED?”

        Maybe Im most of the problem by going along with it.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Am I being detained?”

      • Jarflax

        No, you are being reeducated.

      • Tres Cool

        Ill order that shit online from Amazon, InstaCart, or Shipt from now on. Until DeWine simmers down.

        I know its a premium to pay someone else for labor, but I dont have to leave the house, and there’s a drive-thru up the street with beer and my man will generously pass off a couple blunt hits for a $2 tip

      • Sean

        Try carrying a concealed handgun while wearing a mask. It will make you feel a lil bit naughty. In a good way.

      • EvilSheldon

        Or wear a full-face ski mask and carry an AK. Tracksuit is optional, but highly recommended.

        Holy fuck, what am I saying?

    • R C Dean

      I’ve already used “rawdog”.

  19. Nephilium

    Guess who took out a PPP loan here in Ohio? The Democratic Party!

    • Grosspatzer

      Grifters gonna grift.

    • Ted S.

      To be fair, they are intellectually bankrupt.

  20. Derpetologist

    this may be the most obnoxious maskanista psa

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm7f1uTK4jQ

    ***
    A simple piece of fabric makes a big statement: I care.
    ***

    Oh does it now? And what kind of statement does it make when governors shut down their states and millions of people lose their jobs?

      • Nephilium

        I expected no less from you.

      • Chafed

        I live to serve.

      • Sean

        I approve.

    • DEG

      Oh does it now? And what kind of statement does it make when governors shut down their states and millions of people lose their jobs?

      They don’t want grandma to die.

    • EvilSheldon

      Excellent, I completely agree. Since I do not care, I’ll continue to not wear a mask. Glad we could come to this agreement…

  21. Mojeaux

    Repost from dead thread: Hey, @kinnath, about that bow. My email is moriah at moriahjovan dot com. I would like it to go to a nice home.

    • kinnath

      Email sent

    • DEG

      I made it 16 seconds in. He can go fuck himself.

    • mrfamous

      I’m really worried that they’re gonna want to make this a permanent thing (“they do it in Asia!”).

      • Ted S.

        I commented in the post earlier this week about work-related social distancing shit that these measures including mask-wearing remind me of the TSA security theater, and that one of the points is to inculcate into a new generation the idea that of course the government can and should do this to you, with them growing up to know no other alternative.

      • mrfamous

        Richard Reid was how many years ago and we’re still taking our shoes off at the airport.

        One of the Twitter-mobs talking points is about how “stupid” people used to complain about the seat-belt laws when they came out too. Which, of course, is precisely why such laws were such a bad idea in the first place and it was right to resist them. Once you concede the fundamental principle, it’ll never stop at seat belts.

      • Ted S.

        I remember in the 80s when the anti-smoking thing was really taking off there were people saying “next thing you know they’ll tell us what we can and can’t eat”, and this being pooh-poohed. They were right, of course.

      • Jarflax

        Time to learn how to use the 3 shells after a dehydrated meal at Taco Bell,

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      A life jacket won’t keep you from freezing to death and a mask won’t keep you from catching coronavirus. An apt analogy but not in the way that douchebag intended.

    • mrfamous

      To repeat, when exactly did being a smug self-righteous prick become something to aspire to? I get that you feel the issue is important (I disagree but whatever) and that you want to convince people to your side, but do you have to be such a braying jackass about it?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I’m of two minds on this one. On one hand, there were plenty of victims of the riots that weren’t involved and didn’t want to see them happen. On the other, it would reward bad behavior on the part of the local governments who allowed toe riots in the guise of protests to continue. It was a gutsy move regardless.

      • Don Escaped both Landslides

        is it wrong not to want to bail out other taxpayers? do the perps, the police, the mayor, the neighbors, the governor, and the victims all live in some smaller, neater jurisdiction than the entire USA ? It seems like Allstate asking all the other insurance companies to help them pay for a hurricane

      • mrfamous

        These sorts of things, like the PPP and stimulus packages, etc. all help provide cover for questionable, bad or even illegal things the government does. If nobody had been promised a single shiny dime from the government, I reckon that the lockdown would have lasted about 36 hours.

      • Chafed

        It seems to me the local citizens are reaping what they have sown. If they are satisfied with the outcome that’s fine. If not then they may want to implement new policies with new politicians.

      • Jarflax

        Yeah, they need to get rid of those evil Rethuglicans!

      • creech

        New politicians? Nah, it will be the same ones who will pretend they had nothing to do with the old policies but have all the solutions needed to reform the system. This works over and over again in one-party control cities and towns.

    • UnCivilServant

      Dissolve the CDC. It’s too necrotic to continue in any viable function.

      • Jarflax

        Strictly limit the Federal payroll to no more than 1000 employees per State, excluding active duty military, and ban non-military use of miltary personnel

      • UnCivilServant

        That number is insufficient to protect the borders.

        And immediately you’ll have non-personnel expenses being used for contracted staffing who are not on the federal payroll, indefinate outsourced projects to run programs, etc, etc

      • Jarflax

        The Border patrol has 19,437 agents. That leaves 30,563 other positions for the Federal Government to fill. And we will deal with the other issue in my new annual spending bill. It is a fantasy conversation anyway. We aren’t getting any of this under control until the entire system collapses, and what that control looks will look like is anyone’s guess, but the choices are all horrible.

    • westernsloper

      Ya. WEAR YOUR MASK!

    • mrfamous

      They’ve been doing this all along. The bigger question is what info do they suddenly now have on someone that died two months ago that leads them to believe this is a COVID-19 death?

      Not everyone that dies from respiratory distress dies from COVID-19, obviously. It’s a common fatal problem for the elderly.

      Now what I will listen to is an argument that says that the yearly “flu” deaths get inflated the same exact way. That influenza really can’t be confirmed to have killed that many people, but that’s just what they write down (ILI – influenza like illnesses) for want of something better. I don’t believe many other countries do things that way.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        what info do they suddenly now have on someone that died two months ago that leads them to believe this is a COVID-19 death

        The reimbursement rate for COVID deaths and what they feel they can get away with.

  22. grrizzly

    Jeffrey Tucker: When Will the Madness End?

    I was sitting in the green room in a Manhattan television studio on the day that the storm seemed to hit. It was Thursday, March 12, 2020, and I was waiting anxiously for a TV appearance, hoping that the trains wouldn’t shut down before I could leave the city. The trains never did shut but half of everything else did.

    On this day, everyone knew what was coming. There was disease panic in the air, fomented mostly by the media and political figures. A month earlier, the idea of lockdown was unthinkable, but now it seemed like it could happen, at any moment.

    A thin, wise-looking bearded man with Freud-style glasses sat down across from me, having just left the studio. He was there to catch his breath following his interview but he looked deeply troubled.

    “There is fear in the air,” I said, breaking the silence.

    “Madness is all around us. The public is adopting a personality disorder I’ve been treating my whole career.”

    “What is it that you do?” I asked.

    “I’m a practicing psychiatrist who specializes in anxiety disorders, paranoid delusions, and irrational fear. I’ve been treating this in individuals as a specialist. It’s hard enough to contain these problems in normal times. What’s happening now is a spread of this serious medical condition to the whole population. It can happen with anything but here we see a primal fear of disease turning into mass panic. It seems almost deliberate. It is tragic. Once this starts, it could take years to repair the psychological damage.”

    • EvilSheldon

      Yup.

      Consider this next to my observation in the A.M. thread, that members of the social justice set are invariably psychologically damaged.

      The media and institutions in the United States have gone insane, and they are actively trying to spread their insanity.

    • Rhywun

      I used to retort, “But why is every other country doing the same?”

      Well, with many countries now “opening up” much faster than the US is, I am not so quick to make that observation any more.

      • Rhywun

        PS. I meant to quote this:

        This is the most politicized disease in history, and doing so has done nothing to help manage it and much to make it all vastly worse.

      • mrfamous

        Also American politics are effectively world politics at this stage. If it’s a political issue to us, it’s a political issue to everybody else, albeit to a much lesser degree.

      • Ted S.

        And most of the western world’s political classes do what they can to fuck over Trump.

      • Gadfly

        Well, with many countries now “opening up” much faster than the US is, I am not so quick to make that observation any more.

        I still lean towards the idea behind your original observation. While I do think politics is playing some role in this, I think the main reason behind it is fear mingled with people’s determination not to abandon the increasingly popular fiction that everything can be controlled and made safe. What explains other countries opening up faster than the US is simply this: the US, being the richest country on earth, has the luxury of indulging in stupidity longer than anyone else. I don’t think the politicians of other countries are opening up because they want to, but because they realize they have to in order to avoid a collapse.

  23. UnCivilServant

    I can’t decide how big to make the Venom Rats.

    Should they be Rat-size?
    Cat-Size?
    Lion-Size?
    Horse size?
    Oh, Hell No-Size?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Unusually sized, of course

      • Sean

      • UnCivilServant

        Funny thing is, I set out to add a monster for my fantasy setting and ended up with something that was entirely biologically feasible.

        Their venom is their saliva, which can be administered by bite, but they also have rather sharp foreclaws, with males have an exaggerated claw on the first digit because of its use in contesting for mates. Both sexes have a habit of licking their claws, making them as venomous as their teeth. The only real detail left out was their exact size.

      • UnCivilServant

        Naw, that’s too small.

        I’m personally leaning towards “Lion”- or “Oh, Hell No”-Size

      • Derpetologist

        Giant Rat discovered – Lost Land of the Volcano
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uP-kOPirdg

        comment gold:
        That rat is so big i keep expecting some turtles to jump out and defend him…

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s smaller than “Unusual-size”

      • Derpetologist

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

        ***
        The giant rodent Josephoartigasia monesi, which might have weighed more than a ton when alive, compared with its distant living relative, the pakarana (Dinomys branickii). The largest rodent that ever lived weighed a ton or two, scientists revealed today. The extinct mouse-like critter was larger than a bull.
        ***

        ***
        The rodent’s fearsome front teeth and large size may have been used to fight over females for breeding rights and may also have helped defend against predators, including sparassodonts, short-faced bears and terror birds.[4]
        ***

      • Chafed

        Terror birds?!?

      • Gadfly

        IMO, the size should depend on the type of fear you want these creatures to instill. Larger creatures are more intimidating, but smaller creatures have the ability to surprise their prey (or you can always pull a Jurassic Park and let large monsters stealth like small monsters).

      • UnCivilServant

        Didn’t you know the TRex could teleport so long as there is no one looking at it?

    • westernsloper

      Venom Rats? I would go with rat size with a venom whipping tail like a scorpion. Are they going to torment sidewalk diners in NYC?

      • UnCivilServant

        No, they’re being kept as guardians of deep treasure vaults by dwarfs.

      • westernsloper

        Well, they could be used to clear a crowded bistro seating area. It’s not like a dwarf doesn’t want some fancy overpriced brunch on occasion.

      • Spudalicious

        Are you going to chain them up like cave trolls with multiple handlers?

      • UnCivilServant

        I have a mental image of the Ratkeeper Dwarfs that has them so ratshit insane that the rodents are probably the stablising force in the equation.

      • Spudalicious

        Got it, the dwarfs are on chains.

      • UnCivilServant

        I did contemplate tail stingers, but realized toxic saliva was easier to explain biologically.

  24. Derpetologist

    Humza Yousaf complains that all the important offices in Scotland are held by whites
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EYfbjZAFsk

    fun fact: Scotland 98.19% white

    Dear Mr Yousaf – please look into the percentage of non-Muslims in the govt of Pakistan. The results may shock you.

    • UnCivilServant

      I hear there are a lot of black people in important positions in Kenya.

      • Derpetologist

        Celebrate Diversity!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      As broken as the modern Scots are, a majority probably agree with him.

    • Rhywun

      They’re Coming to Take Me Away

      +1 Dr.

      • Nephilium

        I have been at an event and wound up spending the night drinking with Dr. Demento. This would have been back in 98/99.

      • Spudalicious

        You can’t just leave that laying there like that.

      • Nephilium

        I can…

        But, there’s a group that was the UBS Casual. It is either a sci-fi group with a drinking problem, or a drinking group with a sci-fi problem. There was a convention back in the day called Marcon down in Columbus.

        They used to run a room party, and I used to be a member of the group. There was an ungodly amount of alcohol consumed. Dr. Demento was wearing pajamas, a top hat, and giant fuzzy ape slippers. We drank with him at the Big Bar on 2, and then he came to the room party.

        One of the drinks that was on offer was Dr. McCoy’s Horta restorative. It was the remnants of every bottle that had ever been poured at any party they had hosted. It got carried forward from year to year. There were always people who decided (with all the other options) that’s what they wanted to drink. We mocked them during the afterparty. When we drank more.

      • C. Anacreon

        Your “restorative” is reminiscent of the bucket in “Cannery Row” that the local bartender dumped the remainder of every patron’s drink into, which he later gave to the nearby cabin squatters every night for their wacky consumption together.

      • Rhywun

        Hard pass either way.

      • Nephilium

        Rhywun, I never drank it. Those who were polite, I guided to good cocktails. Assholes got pointed towards the “restorative”.

      • Rhywun

        I do like the name. It’s like Edwardian or something.

    • Ted S.

      WHO alters timeline to indicate it first learned of coronavirus from Internet,

      Reminiscent of Obama.

    • Count Potato

      “By the way, dinner is going to be some great T-bone steak because KW Miller is NOT a vegan!

      I’ll probably down another can of Goya beans just so you Leftist degenerates can cry some more.

      I’ll wash it down with a big glass of your liberal tears, you globalist hacks!”

      https://twitter.com/KwCongressional/status/1282024146524934144

    • Gender Traitor

      After he’s had coffee and two cans of beans, I’ll be impressed nervous if he makes it out of the bathroom.

      • Sean

        Narf!

      • Chafed

        “Based on that breakfast, I’m betting you have at least one more urgent personal task than saving America.”

    • UnCivilServant

      Confession – you’re doing it wrong, Florida man.

    • Gustave Lytton

      After Plowing Van Inside

      Euphemism?

    • Hyperion

      Good. And some people cannot seem to figure out why I sort of like bad orange man.

      • Rhywun

        I would donate to his campaign if he actually said “Get bent.”

    • Hyperion

      In short, I’m long

      @InShortImLong

      Replying to

      @zerohedge

      It’s sort of like a toddler breaking all of their toys during a tantrum and asking the parents for new ones.”

      Well, it’s exactly like that.

  25. Derpetologist

    I forget how I got here, but I’m glad I did.

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

    ***
    A newspaper Harper’s Weekly in 1859, mentioning the same 10-minute fight in London[61][62] where a tiger named ‘Gunga’, who had previously belonged to the King of Oude, allegedly killed nearly 30 lions and after its arrival in England, made the keepers spectators to a fight where a lion was killed in 10 minutes.[63] A 1857 London newspaper talking about the same incident reported the lion was a “very fine lion, six or seven years old”.[64] One source stated the lion was in confinement (captivity) for three years, implying the lion would be three years old at a minimum.[65] A newspaper talks about Gunga, whose name was also “Nina Shahib” and who, before the fight took place with the lion in London, had attacked its keeper, after which the keeper severely injured the tiger with a crowbar, blinding him in one eye, meaning the tiger would have been blind fighting the lion. The two animals were found fighting each other, in which the keepers made fruitless efforts to part the two animals. Towards the end of the fight, the lion gained a brief advantage, at which point the tiger, while on his back, with swift strikes and using his back legs, tore open the lion’s stomach. The lion died after that. The tiger “Nina Shahib” was thought to have been mortally injured. However, the tiger did recover and became one of the biggest attractions of the establishment.[66]
    ***

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      No liger resulted from the interaction, I am disappoint.

    • Jarflax

      However, the tiger did recover and became one of the biggest attractions of the establishment.

      Yeah he killed all the other attractions

    • IntraveneousWoodChipper

      Damn, sounds like some ancient Roman shit.

  26. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Hannibal Season 3 sucks. That is all.

    • IntraveneousWoodChipper

      Yeah it really went downhill quickly. Shame, it was a good show prior to the third iteration.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I think half the show is psychodramatic filler cutscenes that provide no information other than reinforcing the “mood”.

        I think the writers just ran out of plot and the editors filled it with videos of dripping blood and discordant music.

      • C. Anacreon

        Was this the year he crosses the Alps?

      • UnCivilServant

        No, I think he’s already lost to Scipio outside of Carthage.

    • Hyperion

      I don’t know how you people watch TV. It’s fucking horrible. My wife has been watching this series, something revenge something. The plot is that this girl’s dad gets framed as a terrorist by actual bad guys, but he’s innocent. So she’s then an orphan or something. But when she grows up, she goes to get revenge.

      I got that much because most of our flat is open and my little man cave back here in on the opposite side of the living room. It’s sort of separated, but there’s no door, so I can hear the TV.

      Anyway, the 4th, since I wasn’t working, I went to sit with her and she was watching an episode. I thought it might be fun, but the acting sort of ruined it, because all the actors are so overly dramatic all of the time. I told her ‘no one acts like that all of the time, it’s not believable’. She said ‘Ah Maria, go find something to do, I’m watching my show!’, lol.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Shouldn’t you be telling someone to get off your lawn?

      • Hyperion

        I don’t have a lawn. I’m not telling the sassy Latin girl anything like that, are you crazy? I’ll be sleeping on the deck with one eye open all night.

  27. Hyperion

    I keep having this recurring dream that China invades Australia. I’ve been having that dream for at least 10 years. I had another one last night. It doesn’t really vary much at all. In it, the Chicom soldiers are herding the Aussies through a doorway. It’s just a doorway, like a steel frame, out in the middle of a desert. But it’s not an ordinary doorway, there’s nothing on the other side, it’s really weird, but there’s something about that doorway in the middle of nowhere, I just cannot figure out what it is. The dream is like I’m supposed to figure out what it is, but I can’t and then I wake up. Fucking weird.

    • Jarflax

      Aussies in Narnia

      • Hyperion

        Did that happen in a Narnia film? I saw one of them and all I remember is that there was a lion who talked.

      • Rhywun

        I’ve seen or read of that doorway in multiple stories.

    • Ted S.

      They’re sailing away to China in a little rowboat to find you.

      • Hyperion

        Dude, at least read the story. In the dream, the Chicoms go to Aussieland, no one goes to China! Jeebus.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Their, I’m blaming spell check on this one.

      • Hyperion

        Do they use Calgon?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

      • Ted S.

        I was positing where the Aussies go when they go through the portal.

        I assume you’re not having Stargate dreams.

    • Hyperion

      Imagine a left wing group being antisemitic. That’s never happened before.

      • Rhywun

        I’ve been assured that there are no ties between the sentiment and the group of the same name. It’s just a coincidence.

    • Jarflax

      Lives are neither black nor white. It is sort of a defining trait of humanity.

      • Hyperion

        I read somewhere that we were all the same color before some of us walked out of Africa, 50-100 thousand years ago, probably because Africa didn’t have AC and had large critters with fangs and claws, or something like that.

        And then some of us walkers ran into Neanderthal folk and thought some of the chicks had a most excellent big butt and titties and so started dating them. And then we turned into white debils and ruined the entire planet, except for Africa, which was still a utopia, even without AC and having the big bitey critters.

        And here we are and must now atone for our sins.

      • pistoffnick

        “Lives are neither black nor white.”

        I’d say my life is sort of puce.

        If I were a fruit, I’d be a kumquat.

        If I were a tree, I’d be an oak.

        *Actual interview questions I have been asked

      • Rhywun

        “We’re done here.”

        *walks out the door*

    • Gustave Lytton

      Turned?

  28. Count Potato

    “Wisconsin driver intentionally crashes into motorcyclist because he was white

    A Wisconson man who struck and killed a motorcyclist told investigators he intentionally crashed head-first into the victim because he believed all Harley riders are “white racists,” local officials said.

    Daniel Navarro, 27, of Fond du Lac, has been charged with a homicide as a hate crime after he allegedly veered across a road around 6:45 p.m. last Friday to hit former Marine and police officer Phillip Thiessen, 55, on his Harley Davidson, the county sheriff said during a press conference Thursday.

    “Navarro told detectives that he believed the person driving the motorcycle was white because in Wisconsin, white people drive Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and the Harley culture was made up of white racists,” Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said. “He admitted he could not specifically see who was driving this motorcycle.””

    https://nypost.com/2020/07/11/wisconsin-driver-intentionally-crashes-head-first-into-motorcyclist/

    • Jarflax

      “Navorro told detectives he believed he had been intentionally poisoned by coworkers and by a neighbor; that people drive by his house and rev their engines and squeal their tires to try to upset him; and that people make racist comments towards him — all because he’s Hispanic,” Waldschmidt said.

      Mentally ill man kills someone. Not really a political thing IMHO.

      • Tejicano

        Your summation is the truth IMHO – however, had the headline been “White man crosses median in traffic to hit a Hispanic man on a motorcycle because he believed he was an illegal alien MS-13 gang member” that would have totally been a hate crime.

      • Jarflax

        That would have been the narrative. The truth would remain the same most likely. Also, Hispanic is not a race damn it!

      • Hyperion

        As far as I can tell, by ignoring the media, it’s someone who speaks Spanish and lives in Central or South America. IOW, anyone who lives in Central or South America, except for Brazil.

        Most people living there are mixed race, some mix of European/Amerindian/Black, but a large percentage are of European descent only, or black only, or Amerindian only. The media totally ignores the latter and describes them all as ‘brown people’, their ignorance is stunning.

      • Jarflax

        There are Hispanics of all races and all mixes of races. There are Jews of a variety of ethnicities. Asia is populated by a wide variety of racial types, many of which are as distinct genetically as any groups on the planet. A Hmong and a Dravidian do not look alike, speak related languages, or share cultural roots. It is a pet peeve of mine that the media are too stupid to understand the distinction between racism and other group based prejudices. It feeds there narrative of ‘white guilt’ to pretend that the basic human distrust of the other is a racial thing, but the Protestants and Catholics killing each other in Belfast were from the same genetic roots. People are wired to distrust the other. The solution to this, when it becomes a problem, is to cause people to see each other as part of the same group. But that does not play into the cultural Marxist need for division so it must be portrayed as an inherent evil found in Whitey, while stoking division by dividing us out into African Americans, Asian Americans, etc.

      • Jarflax

        Their narrative damn it.

      • KSuellington

        One of my pet peeves is the fact that the leftists have gotten the term “people of color” into popular usage. For a similar reason that you mentioned it really chaps my hide. Placing all humanity into two groups, one white and one colored is racist as shit. I have a problem placing all “white” people together, much like Asians, as there is way too much variation between groups to really show almost any commonality. “White” is useful as a general descriptor and for not very many other things.

      • Hyperion

        “There are Hispanics of all races and all mixes of races.”

        Well, yeah, that’s why I abhor the lefts’ characterization of Hispanics as ‘good brown people’.

      • Gustave Lytton

        it’s someone who speaks Spanish and lives in Central or South America. IOW, anyone who lives in Central or South America, except for Brazil

        And Belize, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname…

      • Hyperion

        The frogs don’t count.

  29. Hyperion

    Are the sidewalks in Glibland rolled up now?

    • Raven Nation

      Probably most in the zoom

      • Rhywun

        Nah, Zoom is usually around six to eight people at most.

      • Hyperion

        That just jogged my memory. Yesterday, during one of my 6.5 hours of Skype, MS Teams, and Zoom meetings, one of the the guys from my client’s office said something wonderful. It’s one of those rare moments these days that sort of makes me still have a little faith in the future of humanity.

        Someone said something about liking my chair. I have one of those gaming chairs, black with the orange trim and high back. So I said ‘Yeah, it’s OK for a budget gaming chair, I mean it’s not one of the high end ones, you know, it was less than a grand, but it works’.

        So my project manager says ‘Good grief, you gamers will spend a grand on a chair?

        And the guy says ‘Well, we can’t spend all our money on loose women and drugs, so….’

        LOL fucking L.

        The guy is Italian and there’s been many times in meetings that he’s basically said things you will only hear from a libertrarians.

        I truly wanted to say ‘I love you man’, but you know, there was work to do. I need to talk to the guy more, I always liked him from the start.

      • Rhywun

        He’ll be metoo’ed by Monday.

      • Hyperion

        No, he actually will not. I know the director of the department, she emails me all of the time outside of work and she likes him, he’s totally safe, for now.

        Also, no one in that meeting was a woketard. Some signalers, yes, but no one who actually believes any of that shit.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Oh my.

    • Count Potato

      those are some pants

    • CPRM

      Bad Dates is more my speed.

  30. egould310

    Spent the last two hours jammin’ on the acoustic guitar. Feels good. Fingertips throbbing.

    • pistoffnick

      Euphemisms?!?!

      Something is throbbing alright.

    • UnCivilServant

      Maybe you can answer this question.

      Realistically, how fast can someone play an acoustic guitar without picks?

      • Count Potato

        Extremely fast if you a talking about a classical guitar.

      • UnCivilServant

        Thank you.

        I’m not going to worry about Ewald rocking out with an acoustic guitar.

      • kinnath

        Get to at least the 2 minute mark.

      • UnCivilServant

        Can’t help but notice those fingertalons.

      • kinnath

        Who needs a pick when you have a claw like that?

      • Hyperion

        Umm, how is that not using a pick? Look at those nails on the picking hand.

      • kinnath

        five picks at once

      • kinnath

        I guess this is with pick so it doesn’t count.

      • kinnath

        They are playing Rodrigo y Gabriela

      • pistoffnick

        The Chinese lady or Gabriela. I like them both.

      • egould310

        There are a million fingerpicking techniques, and some players are very fast. Banjo technique. Indian raga technique.

        Picks don’t equal speed. Picks are a plectrum, they impart a tone/tonal quality.

        It’s just guitar. Pick, no pick whatever. Don’t over think it. Make music.

        I just jumped on my electric guitar after the acoustic session; so much faster on electric.

        My experience; get your tune tight on acoustic, then it’s ready for electric.

      • UnCivilServant

        The question was for a character’s believability. I don’t have much rhythm.

      • Hyperion

        I like picks myself, for either acoustic or electric. I like the thinner ones, it’s just my playing style, I’m always breaking them, and sometimes, depending, I’ll use a thick pick. It’s all about style and what you’re playing. I basically NEVER play without a pick.

      • egould310

        I use a pick 85% of the time. If I’m just strumming/waiting for my wife to get dressed/thought of a tune/playing along to a song in a movie I’m strumming with fingers.

        On electric, always using a pick. Tortex JazzIII .73mm to be precise.

      • Hyperion

        I’ll do some finger picking while still keeping the pick in my hand. For strumming, the thin picks work perfectly.

  31. KSuellington

    Excellent music picks Spud, especially The Cars, stupendous song and video. Glad that the summer is treating you well in Spudville.

    I remember when The Atlantic actually had some decent articles now and then. It’s taken a sharp leftward and shitward turn over the last years.

    • Gustave Lytton

      When they relocated, that was either the cause or bellwether. Possibly both.

  32. Gustave Lytton

    Guess who’s going to the hardware store tomorrow morning for tub drain parts?

      • Hyperion

        Isn’t Lou Reed dead? I mean I heard a rumor.

    • Rhywun

      “Dreamers” aside… I’m struck by how much SCOTUS operates like, well, I do. Minimum possible effort to show a result of some sort.

    • Plinker762

      Dreamers make invaluable contributions to companies and communities across this country

      I’m a little skeptical about this statement

    • Hyperion

      +100, JB wins the internetz for the day.

      This is why we intentionally stopped teaching real history in public school.

      • hayeksplosives

        Sadly true. Slippery slope turns to an avalanche quickly.

        I’m sad to report that I’ve recently learned that my sister has been turned leftward, as have her college aged children, and they minimalize any loss of freedom while greatly exaggerating the ignorance of mask-flauters.

        They even think we should cede the tropical shirt thing to the “antifa” crowd by pretending they’re racist, saying “Now that the shirts have been claimed by racists, anyone who doesn’t stop wearing them reveals to the world that they’re racist.”

        Ugh. Funny how the “fairer sex” are the ones shrieking like harpies and refusing to acknowledge nuance. You either are on their side, or you are PURE EEVIL!!

      • CPRM

        you are PURE EEVIL!!

        Only 99%, 1% Eastern European EEVILSTEIN.

      • Hyperion

        “I’m sad to report that I’ve recently learned that my sister has been turned leftward”

        You might want to talk to her. I posted earlier today about a long time friend of mine who has suddenly, having never talked politics before, both claiming he is libertarian, as well as saying he ‘leans left’.

        I have to say, it’s up to us now.

      • Hyperion

        I really just want to know if your sis is as pretty as you. Pics or it didn’t happen!

        You know, I mean forgive my drunk horny and all that. Not really, pics?

    • Rhywun

      Bravo.

    • Plinker762

      “It’s Just a box car” Lol

  33. Plinker762

    So this came up suggested by youtube Grandpa Voted Democrat

    Since Washington went 100% vote for mail we seem to have elections more often and there always seems to be a new bond measures.

  34. hayeksplosives

    It was the hottest day of the year, but the mission to hold a graveside service for my father was a success. “Amazing Grace” by Elvis was played, my brother delivered a brief eulogy. The honor guard held the flag and bugled TAPS, then folded the flag and presented it to me to represent the family. We then framed it and gave it to our mother, who didn’t attend the service due to health concerns. His grandchildren and one great grandchild were there too, as were some old friends and other relatives, despite our attempt to have a quiet service without the spread of illness to at-risk mourners.

    Hot, but not too bar at 10AM. Nice, dignified service, some smiles and some tears. Everything looked great; we are lucky that the rain held off until this evening.

    Now I’m being treated to a great lightning storm—a multi-gun salute to the man we had the honor and good fortune to call Dad.

    • Hyperion

      Sorry for your loss.

      • hayeksplosives

        Thanks, Hyp.

      • Hyperion

        You’re welcome. I lost my mom early last year, so I know how bad that feels. My dad is 91 now.

    • Festus' Mustache

      That’s a fine send-off, Lady Hayek. Sorry for your woes.

    • CPRM

      Sorry to hear of his passing. I’m not around much with my current work schedule. This last week marked 6 years since my own father passed. At the same time it feels like it can’t be that long and that it has been longer.

      • Hyperion

        The thing is, the finality of it. Like one day I realized that my mom was never going to call me again. I remember laughing after she would call me at 1pm on a weekday and I would say ‘mom, I’m in a meeting, I’ll call you back’. Then I realized that is never going to happen again. Life as a human sucks. You are sentient enough to be aware of your own mortality. Is there anything worse than that? Knowledge is the beginning of all sorrows.

      • hayeksplosives

        “Knowledge is the beginning of all sorrows.”

        “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lyou shall not eat, for in the day that you eat4 of it you mshall surely die.”

        This is why humans who lose a leg grieve for it and feel depressed, whereas a 3 legged dog doesn’t brood over it, he runs and gets the frisbee.

      • Festus' Mustache

        That’s because dogs live in the moment. Every joy is the most joyous joy that ever happened and every sorrow is the most sorrowful sorrow. For about five minutes. They never forget, though.

      • Festus' Mustache

        That Bitch ate some apple! Don’t listen to no Snake, Girl… In all seriousness, I remember being heart-wrought when I was about 3 or 4 years old when I realized that my Granny and Grandpa were going to die someday because old.

      • hayeksplosives

        One of my grandfathers was deceased before I was born, so I had a vague sense that it’s “normal” to die of old age when I understood why Grandma (Redacted) didn’t have a corresponding Grandpa.

        Doesn’t make it easier when the parents go.

      • hayeksplosives

        The finality of it really is striking. His passing was a blessing, as it abbreviated his slow fade into Alzheimer’s.

        But he really did leave a legacy to all the people he advised or helped along the way, so in that sense he lives on.

      • Festus' Mustache

        The legacy lives on every time you make things go boom or post your thoughts on this site. I’m really sorry that you lost him.

    • straffinrun

      Sorry to hear about your dad, HE.

    • DEG

      Sorry about your father.

  35. Festus' Mustache

    It’s raining once again here. Mid July and we haven’t had a single day over 75 degrees American. Starting to acquire the “Innsmouth Look”. The siren song of the sea grows stronger with each passing week. Have to cut the nascent webbing between my fingers and toes daily. Showering means it grows back faster than a man can manage so now I am reduced to rubbing a mixture of salt and sand on my body. The cats have begun to narrow their inscrutable gaze upon me.

    • Rhywun

      we haven’t had a single day over 75 degrees American

      Jelly.

      Hotter than the usual summer here. It occasionally goes under 75 at night but with 80 or 90 percent humidity it doesn’t really count.

      • Festus' Mustache

        I spent part of a summer in Montreal as a kid and the humidity was brutal. Every suburban home had an above ground pool. I caught pinkeye!

      • Festus' Mustache

        Roger Stone is the King of Dontgiveafuckistan. His daughter is a glib-wood.

      • Gustave Lytton

        If you don’t dance, you can’t be a dancing hero.

  36. Gustave Lytton

    https://youtu.be/qfuw3CZQuwk

    Red beans and ricely yours, the world isn’t completely filled with assholes (and I put myself in that group).

    • Festus' Mustache

      You are a good egg, Gustave.

  37. UnCivilServant

    Sifting through my existing work to try to get my mind going, I found a completed short work and submitted it as an article to Glibs.

    I guess it says something when I can just shake my thumb drive and completed existing pieces fall out.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Cool! I watched an online tutorial that solved a nagging problem.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Maybe.

      • Festus' Mustache

        A piece of equipment that I need for my job. One weird trick… It was literally replace the filter LOL.

      • Chafed

        Let us know when the answer is check the thermostat.

      • UnCivilServant

        I hope that was what he tried first…

      • Festus' Mustache

        Well I was going to use a butter knife as a screwdriver and a rock as a hammer but you guys have talked me out of it.

      • UnCivilServant

        Hammerstones are perfectly valid… if you’re knapping flint.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Just watched a bunch of deck building tutorials. Festus has sad.

  38. Cy

    Buenos Dias Glibs!

    • Sean

      morning

    • Tejicano

      Buenos noches!

    • Gender Traitor

      Bonjour, Cy!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The cop didn’t do it for eight minutes and the guy isn’t dead. If police are going to be a necessary evil how are they supposed to arrest somebody if they’re severely curtailed with what holds they can use to restrain people? They’ll go back to nightsticks if they have to which will be much worse.