It’s WebDom’s Birthday! Morning Links for Thursday

by | Jul 30, 2020 | Daily Links | 516 comments

WebDom is my firstborn. She is now, unbelievably, in her mid-thirties. How did that happen? I wish she didn’t live so far away.

Anyway, she shares her birthday with some other people, among them: Henry Ford, 1863-1947; Paul Anka, 1941-apparently still alive; Arnold! 1947-still kicking; Kevin Mahogany, 1958-2017 damnit; Laurence Fishburne, 1961-yep, still here; Hilary Swank, 1974-ditto; and a whole bunch of other actors, writers, musicians, and athletes.

 

Let’s see. I guess I’m supposed to provide links for you all to ignore. Okey-dokey, here we go!

 

Why do we care what he thinks?

Wait. They’re unemployed. How are they taking holidays?

I swear, it was not me!

No! “Burdensome Rules?” This is my shocked face.

The usual suspects screaming.

Not the actions of a suicidal man. I wonder if he knew any American politicians.

 

Now, back to the important stuff. Happy Birthday, WebDom! You can open your gift now!

 

 

 

 

 

About The Author

SP

SP

I've got an idea! How about we just stick to the Constitution as written and then the government can leave me the fuck alone.

516 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    Happy Birthday, WebDom!

    • AlexinCT

      Ditto!

    • Sean

      Happy Birthday, WebDom!

      This. ^

    • Sensei

      おめでとう!

    • cyto

      I am glad you got born. Happy Birthday!

      You guys are the best!

    • bacon-magic

      Happy Birthday WebDom!

    • Hyperion

      Seconded!

    • AlmightyJB

      Glad your dad broke the law!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *golf clap*

    • Jarflax

      Happy Birthday WebDom!

    • TARDIS

      Happy Birthday, WD!

  2. Count Potato

    “WebDom is my firstborn. She is now, unbelievably, in her mid-thirties. How did that happen?”

    That is unbelievable since you are only ten. OMWC must be some scientist.

      • Count Potato

        First they control the weather, and now this.

      • Jarflax

        Don’t you mean (((they)))?

      • Annoyed Nomad

        Yeah, I watched “Dark” on Netflix. This explains it.

      • Not Adahn

        I was amazed at how physically identical German high schools are to their American counterparts. Must be the Prussian thing.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        If by similar you mean “sterile and soul-crushing,” then yes.

      • Not Adahn

        No I mean architecturally. The scenes in Dark that were filmed in a German HS could have been filmed in the US and the only way you would know the difference is by the language on the signs.

        I have no idea how universal that is, only that Japanese schools are different. Unless anime has been lying to me.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        There’s only so many ways you can build cinder block boxes connected by hallways. But yeah, I noticed that too.

      • Rhywun

        ?‍♂️ Not sure how many designs you can come up with. Hallways, rooms, auditoriums…

        The German HS I attended would probably not be confused for an American HS. No lockers, for example. And there was no auditorium (just a large central area) or food facilities.

      • Not Adahn

        Interesting. The one in the Netflix show had locker-lined hallways, the double-tubular steel handrail on the external stairway, and the glass-in-structural-steel window construction that I was always used to seeing.

      • Not Adahn

        Ans also, just the proportions of the doors and windows I would think would differ between countries (or at the very least between SAE and Metirc countries). I mean, the freaking notebook paper has different dimensions, why should the architecture be the same?

      • UnCivilServant

        Every school I’ve seen has been a brick-faced cinderblock box, sometimes with lockers. There were no external stairs, as the inmates were not permitted to leave the building.

      • Rhywun

        @Not

        In Germany most students stay in the same room and the teachers move around. The only time we left the room was for labs and such. Thus, no lockers.

        I’ve heard there are more “American-style” schools these days (“Gesamtschulen“); maybe the students move around, I dunno.

      • Not Adahn

        @Rhy

        That would be fascinating if American designs/concepts were exported back to Germany.

        Dark was interesting in that is seemed (to me, and I have no idea if my impressions are accurate) to be about a rural European experience which is something very rare outside of mafia movies.

      • Don Escaped Spring Training

        Mercedes have cup holders and Passats have reverse under fifth; the Master Race has been defeated.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Why do they label 6th gear with an “R”?

        *sound of stripping teeth*

      • grrizzly

        My BMW has the most inconvenient cup holders I’ve ever used.

      • Rhywun

        @Not

        The stated reason was because some of the more liberal states felt that the existing structure (Gymnasien for smarty-pants, Realschulen for blue-collar kids) was too “classist”. Thus, the Gesamtschule which means something like “comprehensive school”.

        I think it’s a step backwards, myself.

      • Mojeaux

        reverse under fifth

        I thought I knew you.

      • Don Escaped Spring Training

        I thought I knew you.

        Oh, I didn’t say those were happy outcomes. I merely note, as someone who worked for a German firm fuer acht Jahre, that pop notions from time to time subvert the cultural primacy of good design.

        Whoever put 5 under R should be stabbed on the square by some random Syrian immigrant.

      • Mojeaux

        I prefer R down and left from 1st.

  3. AlexinCT

    Wait. They’re unemployed. How are they taking holidays?

    That’s cause under socialist rule, the productive are expected to pony up so those that return zero value to society can go have a vacation. That most of the productive have to pay for their own or sometimes can’t take the vacation is on them. Stupid workers…

    • Spartacus

      This is like a couple of mornings ago when I heard an interview with Chuck Schumer (my ears are still ringing). He kept insisting that the new changes to unemployment benefits were a “pay cut”, and simultaneously claiming that $600 per week could not possibly be a disincentive to work because people receiving it didn’t have a job at all, so surely they wouldn’t turn one down.
      The best (as in most entertaining) part of the whole bit was Steve Inskeep trying to get a word in while Moobs rattled on and on.

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, NPR’s willingness to say “we just had an employer on who said yes, indeed he was staying closed in order so his minimum wage employees could collect covidbux” really shocked me. Unfortunately it was before the Barr hearing so Inskeep couldn’t say “reclaiming my time senator.”

  4. Count Potato

    “Why do we care what he thinks?”

    I don’t, but he’s right. Schools should re-open.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s a good concentration point for the forced vaccinations.
      *adjusts tin foil hat*

      • Rhywun

        Yeah, that occurred to me too. You know he’s got his finger in that pie.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They’ll be “forced.” The parents will have buy in for sending their kids to a physical location for school and their children’s continuance will be contingent upon taking the vaccination and very few will refuse. Whether or not he’s actually thinking with that in mind, who knows, but I wouldn’t put it past him.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, I watched American Pie, too Swiss.. “THAT’S NOT HIS FINGER”

      • pan fried wylie

        Meanwhile it’s “coercion” to offer incentives for participating in research.

  5. AlexinCT

    I swear, it was not me!

    Is that because you wouldn’t be dumb enough to break down & apologize to these douches, SP?

    • Rhywun

      It takes the mask or it gets diagnosed with a mental illness again.

      What an encouraging development.

      • Nephilium

        The display at the local Walmart near the checkout was for Hanes masks. I’m expecting Fruit of the Loom to step up next.

      • Swiss Servator

        *perks up*

        /Japanese middle aged man

      • Sensei

        Coming to a vending machine near you soon!

      • robc

        FotL is already doing it.

      • robc

        Note: I never mentioned it, for obvious reasons, but my employer from 2015-2019 was Fruit of the Loom. Their world headquarters are in Bowling Green.

        I tried to write an article called “The Last Days of Fruit IT”, but the tone wasn’t right so I ditched it. As I have mentioned before, I got laid off in May of last year but my last day was Sept 30, so it was a weird few months.

        I went from owning lots of Fruit underwear and Russell shirts to none. Well, I still have a Spalding basketball.

      • robc

        And for anyone who wants to track down history, you will notice I said nothing bad about Warren Buffett on this site or TOS in that time frame. Fruit is wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

      • UnCivilServant

        Calm down already. Nobody is going to go to that effort. Do we look like cancellers to you?

        Besides, I oft badmouth my incompetent boss.

      • robc

        No, I was just saying that I literally restrained myselfs at time during those 4 years. General principle, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Besides, I oft badmouth my incompetent boss

        As a government worker, that is both required and being redundant.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Write the article. DooooIt!

      • R C Dean

        “I went from owning lots of Fruit underwear and Russell shirts to none. “

        When you got laid off, they confiscated your clothes?

      • UnCivilServant

        It was company underwear.

      • robc

        My plan was to never buy it again and to replace things as they wore out. My wife decided that Goodwill needed my dozen Russell shirts.

      • ruodberht

        If he had worked at Nike, he would have owed his sole to the company store.

      • DrOtto

        I saw Swiss around here somewhere, he shoe’d look into this comment.

      • juris imprudent

        Come now, you know exactly what heel do.

      • pan fried wylie

        *eyes drawers full of Fruit boxers and Russell top and bottom underlayers*

        What am I supposed to buy now?

      • UnCivilServant

        Here’s a box of lightly used panties Straff sent unsolicited.

      • pan fried wylie

        *tries on* Alright, I can work with this.

        What about come wintertime? Do young Japanese girls vend anything in the underlayer department?

      • robc

        Whatever. Including them. I have no ill will towards the company. Well, not much. They paid me well, gave me a nice severance package, and all that. I think the outsourcing of IT will backfire on them, but BRK put a lot of pressure on them to cut costs.

        Under Buffett, Fruit went from bankrupt to generating a pretty good return, but they couldnt grow the top line. Revenue was stagnant, and there is only so much you can squeeze out of cutting costs.

    • Agent Cooper

      Reading through the story, I do feel bad for the woman. She seems to have had a legit breakdown.

  6. Count Potato

    “”I think mental illness has been really something that has not been addressed as a result of this pandemic,” she said. “Because what happened to me was scary and it changed my life forever. I felt I had absolutely no control over my actions.””

    She’s right. Closing everything down is not good for people’s mental health.

    • WTF

      Nor is it constitutional, but nobody gives a shit anymore about a document that’s like 100 years old written by white guys.

      • Akira

        Oh, Andrew Cuomo threw a shitfit and called it “unconstitutional” when neighboring states were pulling over drivers with NY license plates.

        But yea, that just goes to show that I can count on one hand the politicians who actually view the Constitution as anything other than a rhetorical weapon.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      That’s an important quote.

      It’s absolutely having an impact on mental health. I’m not mentally ill and feel it and not in a good way.

      But they don’t care because these sons of bitches are incompetent psychopaths.

      It’s malice what they’re doing.

      • EvilSheldon

        Incompetent psychopaths, who are not subject to the rules everyone else has to follow.

      • Gdragon

        “I’m not mentally ill”

        Just keep up all yer talkin’ and they’ll find something, Rufus 😉

  7. juris imprudent

    Mornin’ SP, Happy Birthday WebDom!

    Burdensome rules, from the FDA? Who could imagine such a thing!?!

    • Rhywun

      It will get “burdensome” on us – when all humans are required to display their test results in public every time they step outside.

      • Sean

        *starts shopping for an underground bunker*

      • pan fried wylie

        distinct from robc’s “underwear bunker”.

    • Overt

      I especially like the people who blame the FDA for its “Red Tape” getting in the way of good testing, while lauding them for “taking the time to get it right” on whether or not hydroxychloroquine is safe to consume.

  8. Rhywun

    Huh. I figured the Gates-ster would be all on the panic-train.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      He doesn’t want all the kids to have chromebooks.

    • DrOtto

      Vaccinations.

  9. Count Potato

    “The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing post offices across the country, sparking concerns ahead of an anticipated surge of mail-in ballots in the 2020 elections”

    That’s the least of my concerns.

    • Rhywun

      Will no one stop Trump’s reign of terror?!

    • robc

      Can’t we just go back to delivering mail to the local tavern?

    • Drake

      Imagine being Joe Manchin – a Democrat representing the deepest red state there is. Post Offices are the only safe topic you have to talk about in the middle of 2020.

  10. Festus' Mustache

    You guys are killing me with these mid-week wormholes. I’m going to the corner and self-stim for a few hours. Wiki links are on the weekend and Wapner is at Four Thirty…

  11. gbob

    Happy birthday to WebDom!

    Van Gough had information on Hillary.

    • straffinrun

      He’d have sent a bigger chunk than just an ear.

    • pan fried wylie

      #VanGoughDidntKillHimself

  12. Annoyed Nomad

    Happy Birthday WebDom!

    SP, didn’t you provide a link to an organization that provides small loans to people around the world to start/expand their small businesses?

    • Nephilium

      Kiva. They’re also pushing heavy on loans for COVID government reactions to the COVID relief now as well.

      • Annoyed Nomad

        Yes! Thank you. We have some extra room in our budget and would like to start contributing.

      • robc

        Doesn’t Kiva charge [sld]outrageous[/sld] interest rates, or am I thinking of a different one?

      • Nephilium

        Kiva doesn’t, but some quick searches show that some of their field partners do charge high interest rates. On the gripping hand, some of those field partners also put themselves on the hook for currency fluctuations.

      • bacon-magic

        Lol on the gripping hand. I just read the series thanks to you guys. It was great imo.

  13. Tundra

    Good morning, SP!

    And a very happy birthday to WebDom!

    I wish she didn’t live so far away.

    I’m a couple weeks away from being an empty-nester. I’m dreading it.

    To the lynx!

    I really question the value of the ‘rona testing. It appears that, contrary to the assertions in the article, that the tests are not at all accurate or consistent. I especially like the people testing positive who never actually got swabbed.

    Over at Lew’s site, one of the guys has been hammering on the tests. Here’s his latest.

    There is so much shit data out there, it’s hard to imagine that there will be any meaningful improvements from more testing.

    Oh, and fuck Bill Gates. He’s right about the schools, but he’s still a complete authoritarian douchebag.

    I hope each and every one of you has an amazing day! That will really annoy the Karens.

    • Festus' Mustache

      I had a good day on Monday, an absolute shit day on Tuesday, a fair one yesterday and tomorrow will be what it will be. Que sera, sera…

      • AlexinCT

        You should say that again…

    • Festus' Mustache

      I had a good day on Monday, an absolute shit day on Tuesday, a fair one yesterday and tomorrow will be what it will be. Que sera, sera…

      • straffinrun

        It’s like Groundhog Day!

      • Festus' Mustache

        See?

  14. Festus' Mustache

    I work indirectly for the Postal Service. The hoi-polloi are as Red as Marx and just as lazy as Teamsters. Their big trick forty years ago was to threaten strike action right before Xmas every couple of years. “Why you make Susie and Billy cry”? Now they’re just flailing about, demanding cake.

    • Overt

      As the stepson of a postal worker, I can guarantee you that the “big trick” 40 years ago was NOT to threaten strikes at xmass. Their union has not had the right to strike since the 1970 strike- which took pl. Christmas was the time that they raked in shit tons of over time, which they would use to buy us presents.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Canada.

      • Overt

        Ah ok. I was going to say that my stepdad (who was a sergeant in Vietnam) loved nothing better than to complain about how lazy the rank and file were.

    • AlexinCT

      Note that the top men there have private security paid for by the stupid fucking tax payers of the city. I tell you, being woke is about the hardest job possible, because the level of stupid you must be to accept the shit they peddle requires extraordinary effort to keep up with.

      • juris imprudent

        It’s why they can’t be bothered with productive work – all of their time goes into keeping up with evolving social justice standards.

    • Festus' Mustache

      November 3rd.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      They probably never believed their rhetoric were real because they were ‘democratic’ socialists and only Faux News called them Marxists.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The workaday people who are getting their stuff stolen and are being assaulted and worse in the streets? Probably not too thrilled would be my bet.

      • Tundra

        I was chatting with one of my reps yesterday. Young guy with a wife and daughter. They listed their Minneapolis house and are moving to the suburbs.

        He’s finally had enough of all the bullshit and I suspect that this same scenario is happing throughout the shithole.

      • AlexinCT

        I told my girlfriend that if she convinces me to leave The People’s Republic of Connecticut for your greener pastures, she and I are moving out of Minneapolis, cause I refuse to live in that fucking zoo of idiocy.

      • R C Dean

        You’re leaving Connecticut and Minneapolis simultaneously?

      • AlexinCT

        I want to move down south. She has relatives in Minnesoda and isn’t quite ready to bail on that yet. I want to go down south. So since I don’t get that I can at a minimum say no twin cities unless it is suburbs.

      • pan fried wylie

        I thought women loved when guys go down south.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The money is going to leave the cities.

        A recreation of the seventies is upon us, without any of the good parts.

  15. robc

    #2 (ranked by WAR) in today’s baseball birthdays is Joe Nuxhall, who debuted in the majors at age 15. It was during WW2, and teams were desperate. That said, he got shelled in his one game pitching and didnt return to the majors until age 23. So his career is 1944 and 1952-66.

    He was the Reds broadcaster when I was growing up.

    • Festus' Mustache

      That’s incredible. When I caught at that age I don’t think anyone could break 75-80 MPH with a fastball and they were wild as hell.

      • robc

        The St Louis Browns had a 1 armed outfielder. Anyone reasonably healthy was overseas.

      • robc

        I wonder if he was allowed to play High School baseball AFTER pitching for the Reds?

    • Nephilium

      Speaking of the Reds, at the local bar at the beginning of the Indians game, there was an ad trying to hype the Reds/Indians games as the battle of Ohio. They showed pictures of iconic food from both places… so it was Cincinnati chili versus Slyman’s Corned Beef sandwiches. If you would chose the former over the latter, I weep for your very soul.

      • UnCivilServant

        Of the two, I’ve only had the pasta sauce.

      • robc

        On pasta is entirely the wrong way to eat Cincinnati chili. It is only good on a coney. With cheese.

      • UnCivilServant

        Why are you pouring chili on rabbits?

      • Not Adahn

        To make hot cross bunnies.

      • Nephilium

        They showed the picture of it on spaghetti. I do like a good chili cheese dog, but prefer a spicy over a spiced chili. I’ll also take Tony Paco’s over Skyline or Gold Star.

      • Bobarian LMD

        That is goulash.

      • Nephilium

        There’s no comparison. I mean, I would at least accept an argument if they rolled out a Polish Boy as the counter, but who’s going to pass up a giant corned beef sandwich?

      • robc

        “Chili” goes better on a hot dog than corned beef.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Fried corned beef sammitches are the food of the Gods.

    • Fourscore

      During and slightly after the War there were a lot of young players and some pretty old guys playing AA ball. Guys that hadn’t been drafted yet and guys already out of service that were getting an opportunity to show their stuff.

      • Festus' Mustache

        A lot of the really talented ones did their duty playing USO type games for the troops.

      • Festus' Mustache

        Kinda like most of the movie stars made propaganda films *ahem* John Wayne.

      • Viking1865

        Ted Williams was a hell of a fighter pilot. He didn’t fly combat in WWII but did in Korea, John Glenn’s wingman for many missions.

  16. AlexinCT

    I really question the value of the ‘rona testing. It appears that, contrary to the assertions in the article, that the tests are not at all accurate or consistent. I especially like the people testing positive who never actually got swabbed.

    This has been my point from the start. The people that demanded society remain in lockdown until everyone was tested, knew this stuff was both inaccurate and unreliable, and would then have moved the goalpost to keep us locked until they stole the election fro their zombie senile candidate, Biden. Just like the cop that pulls you over in busy traffic on the busy highway and tells you this is because of “safety” reasons, you know it is not: it is about money (or power when it comes to the corrupt political class).

    • Count Potato

      Each state gets federal money for each case.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Goddammit. I was having a meh day and you just had to turn it to shit, didn’t you? Fuck.

    • Bobarian LMD

      The math works out like this…

      Even if the test is 95% accurate, if only 5% of the population actually has the Wuhan Virus, then half of the positives are false.

      • UnCivilServant

        Untrue, it’s closer to 48.7% of the positives are false, as some of the errored tests will have been done on people who actually had the virus.

      • Not Adahn

        How many sig figs are in “half?”

      • Jarflax

        Pedant hat firmly in place: This discussion assumes that the error are a random event, not caused by some real, possibly exclusive with Covid cause. Also you are off by an order of magnitude.

      • UnCivilServant

        487% of positives are false? 😛

      • Jarflax

        Oh the shame and humiliation of missreading the post before pedantically posting! Mea culpa, you are not off by an order of magnitude, I missread what was being measured.

  17. straffinrun

    Another trillion dollar relief package incoming. Public choice theory means you get a choice of team blue or team red anal.

    • Q Continuum

      The real question is whose penis is bigger?

      • AlexinCT

        Which one will grease you up to make the ride less unpleasant, and which one will add sand to the grease to make it hurt more. is the real question…

      • Bobarian LMD

        Spoiler: neither one cares one little bit about how pleasant or unpleasant you might find it, but they are definitely gonna make it pleasant for themselves.

    • PieInTheSky

      47 looks sort of like that internet chick i like

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The Real Doll type?

  18. Old Man With Candy

    “It’s Fuckin’ Day.” I better take a shower.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Is that for them or for you?

      • Old Man With Candy

        SP is particular about hygiene.

      • Not Adahn

        Of course, it’s easy to get a rusty-can-lid wound infected.

      • pan fried wylie

        I don’t see how showering has an effect on the rotten tuna stuck to the can.

  19. Rufus the Monocled

    My daughter is 15 and I still can’t believe how time races by.

    • Festus' Mustache

      *says rosary for the muppet*

    • PieInTheSky

      Buy her a copy of teen vogue to make sure she grows up a good socialist

      • Count Potato

        She’s a teenage girl. They don’t read Teen Vogue.

    • Not Adahn

      Pics?

      • AlexinCT

        Did OMWC just hijack this account?

      • Not Adahn

        It’ll take a few years for the transfer paperwork to go through.

    • Tundra

      Thoughts and prayers, brother.

  20. Fourscore

    Erskine Caldwell’s book, “Uncle Good’s Girls”

    Grandpa wants to vote against the sheriff
    He gets a ballot, (maybe only one name on it, my memory is fading after the 70 years since I read the book)
    Throws it on the ground and has his grandson piss on it.

    Don’t need no stinkin’ Post Office or fancy mail in stuff

    Happy Birthday, Webdom, and congrats to SP, you done good.

    I have grand kids close to Web’s (may I call her that?) age

    • Festus' Mustache

      You can say whatever the fuck you want, Grand-Dad Glib! I’ll physically beat down anyone that gainsays that statement.

      • Fourscore

        Thanks, Festus, You’re the best !

    • AlexinCT

      This guy suffers from “Small Coxx”, so it is not nice of you to pick on em Q!

      At least he doesn’t have Kneezels or Tollio…

    • PieInTheSky

      The rightmost chick in the first pic looks cute

  21. Rebel Scum

    They’re unemployed. How are they taking holidays?

    That really grinds my gears draws my ire.

    • AlexinCT

      What? The babies might get confused and think it is feeding time if they see all them tiddies?

      • pan fried wylie

        Do you want obese babies? Because this is how you get obese babies.

    • PBRstreetgang

      Philly strippers. Thank your lucky stars they are no pics.

      • commodious spittoon
  22. AlexinCT

    I just heard some doctor on TV saying that the reason they were against those that point out hydroxychloroquine works to help people with COVID, was that there were not enough studies, with controls, to prove that was the case. When stressed about the fact that waiting right now for scientific studies, especially since the drug has been in use for over 50 years and has never been considered as dangerous (what the Trumpalo haters now claim), seemed kind of dumb, here response was – and I kid you not – that they HAD to do this because they had to make sure whatever cure/deterrent was used was available to everyone, because it was not right that some got it and others didn’t (social justice!). Fuck these people.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Evil. I thought if they could save every life.

      But it’s ok to rush a vaccine, test kits and masks with shoddy science.

      This pandemic is politicized beyond belief.

      Plus, I read it’s pretty effective if used within 1-5 days of catching the virus.

      • Fourscore

        How do you know if you have the Big V if there are no symptoms?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Having a control group during an epidemic when clinical experience shows effectiveness if used effectively is unethical. As far as the availability goes, production could be, maybe has been, stepped up easily and everyone who wanted it could get it.

    • invisible finger

      These are the same docs that are a-OK with prescribing other meds for off-label use.

      And HCQ was deemed effective and safe for SARS (a coronavirus) back in 2005.

    • R C Dean

      “it was not right that some got it and others didn’t”

      Of course, that’s exactly how the studies they are demanding work.

    • Drake

      We’re all equal in death. Thanks doc.

    • Akira

      The freakout about Trump’s “promotion” of HCQ is fucking stupid.

      He has mentioned that there is some testing being done and the results look promising so far. He never advocated that people attempt to get it and self-administer it, yet that’s what is widely reported by the corporate media.

      And if Obama said the exact same things in the same situation, they’d praise him for showing us the good news and giving us hope.

  23. Pine_Tree

    Quick testing math follows regarding “case count”, and why, for newish and one-shot-in-the-Walmart-parking-lot tests I think we’re mostly seeing false positives.

    Say you’ve calibrated the test to never give a False Negative (finds all the real ones), at the cost of some False Positives. Say for this argument that your rates are FN=0% and FP=5%. So that’s pretty good. Also imagine you had omnipotence regarding what portion of the population actually had the disease at any given time, and let’s say it’s 2%. So you give your test to a population of 10,000 people. That 2% means that 200 really have it, and your test finds them, since FP=0%. Good. The remaining 9800 don’t actually have it, but since your FN=5%, you get 490 people who test positive but who aren’t. The reported number of cases is then 200+490=690, with never a distinction between the categories.

    So ~30% of your cases were ever real.

    And that’s just with my numbers chosen above. I don’t know what the real ones are, or even how exactly this approximates the method. If the situation were a lot better in both ways, like if the test only gives 0.1% FN and only 0.1% of the population has it, that’s still 10 real ones and 10 false positives. 50% accuracy.

    (In the serious-condition world, one way to resolve this by doing a second pass, but I’d bet you a Coke that’s not happening with CV.)

    • robc

      I don’t think a 2nd pass would work, as I don’t think false positives are random. Most of the people who test false positive the first time around will test false positive again. Because the test is picking up something real, it just isn’t COVID.

  24. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Letters to the Local Rag: Glad He’s Not My Tax Accountant

    As a practicing CPA I was glad to see July 15 finally arrive and signal the end of a long busy season. It has provided some time to reflect. I was shocked when I heard that CPA firms had received PPP loans. Some firms received millions of dollars.

    Of course, in April, nobody knew what was going to happen. But now I believe most accounting firms have revenue, as of the end of July, that is close to the revenue they had earned during the same time frame in 2019. If these firms have kept their expenses the same for 2020 compared to 2019 and they received a Paycheck Protection Program loan, then, when the loan is forgiven the entire amount of the loan will increase their net profit.

    As a former partner in a large regional firm, I do not think the purpose of the PPP loan program was to enrich individuals that already earn far more than the average American. In my opinion, accounting firms that received PPP loans should pay them back.

    • Nephilium

      The Ohio Democratic Party took a PPP loan.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The question becomes “Do they pay any taxes on a regular day?”

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Yeah…you did all the work, but have you collected everything you billed?

    • The Last American Hero

      As a former partner of a large, regional firm, he would probably realize that the PPP loans also are there to cover uncertainty through the end of the year. So when the consulting services dry up, the accounting and write up services go away or have fee reductions, the audits get fee reductions or move to the lowest cost shop in town, and your customers are slow to pay if able to pay, your cash flow is still totally the same, right?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        This

        I took the PPP loan because I expect a significant income interruption this fall. It’s in the bank account as a reserve.

    • PieInTheSky

      I mean they got to have someplace to shoot

    • Tres Cool

      I’m no expert, but if “…leaving behind drug-filled needles,” is true, I dont think they’re shooting-up correctly
      Seems like all the drugs are supposed to be in the user.

      • Spartacus

        Yeah, that part makes me skeptical. No way junkies are going to leave behind perfectly good drugs.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      They’re just stressed because they can’t buy bread. /AOC.

    • Rhywun

      We were just jealous of San Francisco and Vancouver.

    • Ted S.

      When was New York ever classy?

  25. Count Potato

    “Twitter has been accused of double standards for flagging posts by Donald Trump but allowing tweets from Iran’s Ayatollah on Israel to remain on the platform.

    During a Knesset hearing on antisemitism in social media Wednesday, human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky questioned why the U.S. President’s tweets were flagged but not those of Ayatollah Khamenei, who ‘literally called for the genocide of Israel and the Jewish people’.

    It comes as Twitter faced criticism for suspending the Twitter account of Donald Trump Jr. after he tweeted a video promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8575409/Twitter-accused-double-standards-flagging-posts-Donald-Trump.html

    Another day ending in “y”.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      I listened to the exec’s response. it was sophomoric gibberish. She sounded like such an idiot and ignorant fool. Twitter is acting over its pay grade. They scream nothing more than a bunch of smat-alec punks.

      • juris imprudent

        Trump could decimate Twitter by going to another platform. That would be amusing in so many ways.

  26. PieInTheSky

    It’s WebDom’s Birthday – did not get a slice of cake. I blame discrimination.

    • UnCivilServant

      You were supposed to bring the Cake!

      • PieInTheSky

        This is bullying

      • PieInTheSky

        also gaslighting

      • bacon-magic

        They always want cake.

    • EvilSheldon

      Dumb. Really, really dumb.

      Even seeing aside what I’ve said elsewhere about Antifa having more practical experience with violence, these people are not safe to be around. A bunch of the AFA shock troops are some combination of drug addicts, homeless, and mentally unbalanced.

      If you’re gonna be out there ‘reporting’ on these fruit loops, you need to be smart and take every possible precaution. I mean fuck, if you were a foreign correspondent doing a story on the Khmer Rouge circa 1970, would you just walk up to one of them and throw an arm over his shoulder? What the fuck did he think was gonna happen?

      • UnCivilServant

        They expected marxist fellow travellers to be friends, having ignored the fate of the mensheviks and trotskyites.

      • juris imprudent

        You shouldn’t leave out the Makhnovshchyna.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A bunch of the AFA shock troops

        Don Wildmon starts training them early.

      • EvilSheldon

        Eh. It seems an appropriate term for the peons out doing the riots. I don’t think that you’d catch the AFA leaders bike-locking someone or torching a cop car.

      • Viking1865

        Yep. 15 years ago, there was zombie. zombie used to go to all the nutty Bay Area protests and take pictures of the signs the media would never publish. zombie didn’t even reveal their gender or race. Totally anonymous.

      • Count Potato

        I wouldn’t go anywhere near those people.

        I’m just pointing out that a supposed BLM protester stabbed a black guy.

    • WTF

      He was charged with second degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon?
      Why do I get the feeling if the roles were reversed the charge would be attempted murder?

  27. Pope Jimbo

    Minnesoda may be in flyover land, but we are as progressive as any mutha who lives on a coast.

    Exhibit A: We have people who want to start a sportsball logo controversy.

    About the Twins! Because they are both white.

    Over/Under on when the same people get mad because the black Twin has to be from St. Paul and not Mpls?

    • Nephilium

      So… they don’t get how twins work, do they?

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, it is possible for fraternal twins to be only half-siblings…

      • Drake

        The Minnesota Bastards – I like it.

      • Jarflax

        I suggest Minnesota Whoresons

    • PieInTheSky

      Did the Twins even win a superbowl in the last 10 years? Otherwise who cares. At least the redskins won the world cup.

      • Nephilium

        Sure thing Zapp.

    • Chipwooder

      The 60-year-old logo, which is also a patch worn on players’ uniforms, is a throwback to the days when Griffith owned the Twins and the club was virtually all-White.

      baaaahahahahaha….yeah, that 1965 Twins World Series team was “virtually all white”. Well, except for Zoilo Versalles (1965 AL MVP), Tony Oliva, Mudcat Grant, Earl Battey…

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I didn’t even realize the twins had another logo other than the super boring T&C logo and the baseball that says Twins.

    • Fourscore

      When the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe adopts me as a brother walleye fisherman and sends me checks from the casino I’ll be a happy guy.

  28. Rufus the Monocled

    What’s sad is no one is listening to paediatricians about the science saying it’s safe to open schools.

    But a shit head douce like Gates….they listen?

    • Count Potato

      It’s retarded out there.

    • Akira

      The alleged Leftist devotion to science is a marketing gimmick, and unfortunately an effective one for many people.

      What even is “the science”? Science is a method of making discoveries about the world, not a priesthood. There is no central committee of scientists who can simply declare things to be true. There’s often a wide range of opinions among scientists on many issues. Also, the scientific field is not immune to becoming set in their ways and drumming out any dissenters (like what they did to Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis when he suggested that physicians wash their hands regularly). The scientific profession can become polluted by government interference, kind of like how every credentialed scientist in Nazi Germany would have told you that non-Aryans are inferior and this has been proven beyond any doubt whatsoever.

      As Tom Woods put it recently, “Science is not some mass of numbers floating in ethereal space and if you stare at it long enough, conclusions will jump out at you!”

      The other problem is that most people who loudly declare their devotion to science are merely reading news articles about studies; they never read anything close to actual scientific material. But if you want to really use science to determine your beliefs about the world, you have to get at least an overview of the whole body of evidence, the conclusions based on that evidence, and the reasoning used to reach those conclusions. You have to evaluate it yourself and determine which conclusion sounds the most likely, if that determination can be made at all.

      You can’t just outsource all your thinking to the New York Times and CNN and say that you based your beliefs on “the science”.

      • pan fried wylie

        like what they did to Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis when he suggested that physicians wash their hands regularly

        “My Hands are sterile by divine decree. Boo this man.”
        -Some contemporary M.D.

  29. Rebel Scum

    Routine screening of people who don’t know they have COVID-19 could transform the fight against the disease.

    Now if we could only do something about the common cold.

  30. straffinrun

    How often do you look at a headline from the media and immediately think, “I don’t fucking believe you”?

    • UnCivilServant

      Are you looking for an absolute number, or a ratio of headlines to incredulity?

      • straffinrun

        Do it in Kelvin, I don’t mind.

      • UnCivilServant

        *Divide by Absolute Zero Error*

      • Tres Cool

        I use Rankine all the time.

      • Not Adahn

        No you don’t.

        Literally nobody in the history of ever has used Rankine.

      • Tres Cool

        To calculate air flow, or sampled gas volume in dry-standard-cubic-feets we do.

      • straffinrun

        This is why there are no cool Scotsmen.

      • Sensei

        Bill Cosby says, “What’s a cubit?”

      • kbolino

        If you’ve ever added or subtracted temperatures measured in Fahrenheit you’ve used Rankine, though you probably didn’t call it such. 80°F − 70°F = 10°R because °F is not a zero-based scale. I have occasionally seen Δ°F used instead of °R. Most people, if they even write the units, will just put temperature differences in units of °F (or °C), which could be called shorthand if not for the fact that °R is no longer (and K is even shorter than °C). Just like with percentage points vs. percentages most people do not know when each is appropriate.

      • Tres Cool

        Uh, I just used ºF + 460 = ºR

      • kbolino

        The difference between measured temperature and temperature difference is in the scale adjustment.

        To convert from Rankine to Kelvin you multiply by 5/9. This is also how you convert from a temperature difference measured in Fahrenheit to one in Celsius. There is no add or subtract 32 step because these are absolute scales.

        However, to convert from a measured temperature in Fahrenheit to a measured temperature in Celsius, first you subtract 32 (the difference between zero points) and then you multiply by 5/9. If you do this for temperature differences, you will get the wrong answer.

        The difference between 71°F and 80°F is 9°R (also written 9 Δ°F) and thus 5 K (also written 5 Δ°C) not 9°F which is −12.8°C. Put another way, you can tell it’s wrong because the increase should always be positive, but it’s no so obvious when the difference is larger.

      • Don Escaped Spring Training

        yeah, I never like seeing exchanger approaches or superheats reported in F or C

        except that it screws with the business majors

      • kbolino

        To be fair, this is kind of an off-label use of the Rankine scale. People generally aren’t taught the distinction between measured temperature and temperature difference, and in most quantities other than temperature the distinction is meaningless: 1 meter can be an absolute distance or the difference between two distances and you don’t need to distinguish the two uses.

        The purpose of the Rankine scale was to make 0ºR equal to absolute zero and the increment between degrees equal to the Fahrenheit scale, just as the purpose of the Kelvin scale was to make 0 K equal to absolute zero and the increment between units equal to the Celsius scale. But as a consequence of that definition, Rankine is the right unit to measure Fahrenheit differences.

      • Jarflax

        Or, just spit-balling here. because I am not an engineer or a scientist you understand. we could… as anyone other than an engineer would understand… simply express this by saying 2 Fahrenheit degrees (of temperature difference), as opposed to 2 degrees Fahrenheit (of measured temperature). because using Rankine, does not in fact clarify the confusion you are talking about as 9° Rankine is also usable for both a measured temperature and a quantity of difference in temperature.

      • kbolino

        In colloquial speech, it rarely matters. “It’s 10 degrees warmer today than yesterday” is understood by all (except when crossing the ºF/ºC boundary). It’s true that Rankine has both uses, but so do meters and feet, and most units of time, and units for most other quantities. I’m not about to correct anyone’s colloquial speech with a “WELL ACKSHUALLY” but, in terms where precision matters, a difference in temperature measured in Fahrenheit is equal to a difference on the Rankine scale, and the latter does not require any context clues to know the right conversion factor.

    • AlexinCT

      Practically all the time?

      And then I go find the details and realize that in 95% of the cases I was correct. Either the reporter had no clue what they were talking about and got the facts/data wrong, and provided a stupid article, or there was a clear agenda to help team blue narrative involved. It is rare that you get a headline that is accurate or not disproved at the bottom of the article when the asshat trying to help team blue fuck us over provides the facts in a drive bye completely invalidating not just the headline, but the entire article preceding the facts.

      • invisible finger

        Which is why I don’t click links.

    • invisible finger

      100% of the time.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    Routine screening of people who don’t know they have COVID-19 could transform the fight against the disease.

    By showing people it’s not as contagious or lethal as they have been told?

    • AlexinCT

      Yup. Can’t have that happen until after the election, and then, only if democracy prevails and democrats win…

      /progtard

  32. Rebel Scum

    “It’s just asinine to think that you can shut something down or throttle it back in terms of the pandemic when basically the lifeline for voting and democracy is going to be in the hands of the Postal Service,” Manchin, a Democrat, told reporters Wednesday.

    Cry me a river, build a bridge and get to the damned polls. If voting is so important you can risk catching a sniffle.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    How often do you look at a headline from the media and immediately think, “I don’t fucking believe you”?

    Let’s just say it would be much easier to keep track of the times I don’t.

  34. Not Adahn

    I missed the small town discussion last night. But just yesterday I had a “holy shit, I live in small town America” moment when I heard my self giving directions to someone that went “go past the Post Office, then take a left at the Knights of Columbus hall…”

    • Nephilium

      The rural version of that is giving directions by referencing where places and things used to be.

      So you go a mile past the old Jonson’s barn, and take a left at the first street before where the old oak tree was up ’til it burned down a couple years back.

      • Not Adahn

        Yeah, I did that when I lived in Broken Arrow.

      • UnCivilServant

        If you know where those landmarks are, you don’t need the directions in the first place!

      • Not Adahn

        It was used when telling a friend how to get to your place or a mutual friend’s place when they hadn’t been before.

      • Nephilium

        I was expecting this.

      • robc

        The rural version of that is giving directions by referencing where places and things used to be.

        That is also the method in Louisville. References to Walnut Street (Muhammad Ali Blvd), Jefferson Freeway (Gene Snyder Expressway), and especially, “The old Sears Building”, which hasn’t been a Sears in my lifetime, but is located on Sears Ave.

        My other favorite Louisville directionese is to reference “The Flashcube Building”. Which is very clear great directions unless you are under 30 years old.

      • beer league keeper

        I had a buddy long ago who lived in a hilly rural area where turns were easy to miss. Part of the directions he’d give to visitors was to tune the radio to a particular station, then turn when the signal went to static. Worked brilliantly.

      • pan fried wylie

        he’s only like 3 steps away from “follow the homing signal”.

      • pan fried wylie

        I’m not updating my directions just because some oak tree fucking burned down. Ya know what, don’t come over.

    • Rebel Scum

      Illiberalism does not allow for dissent.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Collectivists tend to be more similar to each other in their attitudes and beliefs than individualists.

      More accurate version.

    • Not Adahn

      Considering that “far right” means “anyone who disagrees with me in any way,” homogeneity of thought is pretty much assured among rightthinkers.

      Although they get into some serious knock-down-drag-outs over whether Harry/Draco or Harry/Severus is hotter I can tell you that much.

    • kbolino

      Given that the definition of “conservative” is increasingly coming to mean “anyone who’s not a socialist” I’m not sure it has anything to do with conservatism so much as the refuge status of the label.

    • BakedPenguin

      How wrong is schadenfreude? Because I’m having case after case after case.

    • invisible finger

      Collectivists enforce groupthink.

    • The Last American Hero

      I call bullshit. The weirdos at Jezebel and SJW’s are not the same as the poor, black baptist family in Arkansas or the lunch pail UAW guys in Pennsylvania, or the Eco-Warrior Trustafarian in Boulder.

      • WTF

        The weirdos at Jezebel and SJW’s are not the same as the poor, black baptist family in Arkansas or the lunch pail UAW guys in Pennsylvania, or the Eco-Warrior Trustafarian in Boulder.

        Don’t confuse “traditional blue-collar religious Democrat” with “liberal”.

      • kinnath

        Don’t confuse “traditional blue-collar religious Democrat” with “liberal”.

        AKA Reagan Democrats.

        Also the villains that gave Trump the rust belt in 2016.

  35. Rebel Scum

    Art Historian Identifies the Spot Where Vincent van Gogh Painted His Final Work

    Now Vincent Van Gogh to the polls. – H. Clinton.

    She’s hip. She’s with it. ///loading

  36. Nephilium

    So… when did OMWC become a teacher in France?

    • Old Man With Candy

      J’ai un alibi.

  37. Rufus the Monocled

    I didn’t realize the USA reported 1485 deaths yesterday?

    Canada had 4.

    Explain me this massive discrepancy. To the extent all these numbers are reliable.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Without date of death, those numbers are almost meaningless.

      And was it primary cause of death?

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Yeh, they’re definitely over stating the numbers.

    • Tres Cool

      Corona doesnt like Molson’s or poutine eh.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Two things I don’t like.

      • pan fried wylie

        You’d rather die of the ‘Vid?

    • invisible finger

      Canadians come here for health care. Sorta like Roach Motel.

    • The Last American Hero

      1) It’s too cold for the virus to survive.

      2) There are only 12 people in each province, so social distancing is easy.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Nuthin’ up muh sleeve

    The coronavirus pandemic triggered the sharpest economic contraction in modern American history, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

    Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter, as restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus. The economic shock in April, May and June was roughly four times as sharp as the worst quarterly decline during the Great Recession.

    ——-

    While the drop in GDP was largely driven by a decline in consumer spending, the economic fallout was cushioned somewhat by an unprecedented level of federal relief.

    Wages and salaries fell sharply in April, but that was more than offset by the $1,200 relief payments that the government sent to most adults and by supplemental unemployment benefits of $600 per week.

    Those government payments helped prevent an even steeper drop in consumer spending — the lifeblood of the U.S. economy — and allowed struggling families to buy groceries and pay rent.

    It was an Act of God, just like a hurricane. One day, everything was fine, and the next, people just stopped shopping, all on their own.

    • Rhywun

      restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus

      You sure about that?

    • Idle Hands

      These fucking disgusting people have literally hijacked the anti-lockdowners logic from March. “you don’t have to do this people will do this on their own” Which was than contorted by the prolockdowners than as “well it shouldn’t matter that we shuttered the business’s than by mandate.”

    • R C Dean

      “ The coronavirus pandemic triggered the sharpest economic contraction”

      Right out of the gate, a misdirection. Impressive.

    • Hyperion

      “It was an Act of God, just like a hurricane.”

      Politicians are about the farthest thing from God that is imaginable.

  39. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Letters to the Local Rag: We Prefer To Die By Economic Privation

    The protocols outlined by the college administration at a town hall meeting on July 20 ignored the Williamsburg community in which the “William and Mary community” is embedded. The paper safeguards for bringing back students were as unrealistic and ineffective as wishing the coronavirus to disappear on its own.

    President Rowe in her remarks drew a virtual line around the campus as if it were surrounded by a containment wall rather than sharing a porous boundary with the surrounding town. She focused on protective measures within the school while disregarding any responsibility for what happens outside of it.

    Yet, graduate students and about 30% of undergraduates live off campus. They appeared not to count in the college’s calculus of safety since they “are here anyway.” Should they test positive, they would not be allowed back on campus until they tested negative. Possibly safe for the campus, not so much for the town.

    The danger of introducing the coronavirus into Williamsburg is imminent with the arrival of 5,000 to 7,000 students in August. No barrier or protective measures will prevent the disease from circulating throughout the campus and surrounding area as students, faculty and staff move back and forth.

    The college should drop its plan for returning students here and should shift to total online learning as other responsible universities have. The health of everyone in this community should be the paramount value in the college’s calculus, over the bottom line.

    • Hyperion

      “The college should drop its plan for returning students here and should shift to total online learning as other responsible universities have. The health of everyone in this community should be the paramount value in the college’s calculus, over the bottom line.”

      Poverty tends to have a negative impact on people’s health. Science and all that stuff ya’ll used to love.

      But most of them aren’t learning anything outside of woke stupidity, so I’m good with them never going back.

      The one’s of them that are actually learning useful things, you might want to let them go back since they might need equipment not available at home, just sayin.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        She’s a 72 year old historian. I’m not surprised by her cavalier attitude towards the economic impacts.

      • invisible finger

        Apparently she hates immigrants way more than Trump hates ’em.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, I know, you are not getting those folks down from the ivory tower until it crumbles into dust under them.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Meal tax receipts are down 60% land hotel tax receipts are down 90% locally.

        The city is broke and the small businesses around the college are absolutely depending on income from this fall’s students because there’s been next to no tourist income this summer.

        Keeping the students away for a semester will put dozens of local shops out of business.

      • Rhywun

        We have not even begun to see the real effects of the lockdown anywhere.

      • Nephilium

        I agree completely. The next couple of years are going to be rough.

      • Chipwooder

        And yet there was still no parking near Merchants Square when we were down there last weekend.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That would be the Farmers’ Market.

        If you like overpriced vegetables and meats, which a lot of locals do.

      • R C Dean

        Same here in Tucson. Our rather impressive downtown revival is toast if all the students don’t come back this fall.

    • Idle Hands

      These people have no idea what they are asking for. I hate our fucking intellectual class.

      • Hyperion

        The problem is that they’ve never had to know what they are talking about. The chickens, they are coming home to roost.

  40. Hyperion

    “Let’s see. I guess I’m supposed to provide links for you all to ignore. ”

    Hey, we don’t ignore links, just everything else!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      There were links?

  41. robc

    Arizona cases peaked 23 days ago, deaths peaked 8 days ago. It looks like their first wave is over.

    South Carolina cases peaked 12 days ago, there was a downturn in deaths yesterday, but I am not ready to commit to the peak having happened yet. But I think our 2nd wave is just about over.

    All results are 7 day average, as daily is bouncy.

    • Hyperion

      “It looks like their first wave is over.”

      But, the next morstest worstest scariest wave! We can never go back to normal! Raging! Rednecks who refuse to wear the ribbon!

    • straffinrun

      I’ve been informed that’s it’s 4 weeks and not three weeks and six days for the lag to catch up.

      *Fake news, boots robc from Twitter*

      • Hyperion

        “I’ve been informed that’s it’s 4 weeks and not three weeks and six days for the lag to catch up.”

        File under ‘more numbers they pulled out of their arses’.

      • robc

        Everything looks like 2-3 weeks to me. I think 3 weeks is the best estimate, but like everything, it varies.

    • R C Dean

      The “second wave” was supposed to be the one in the fall after the heat knocked it down in the summer. That didn’t happen. I don’t think there will be a second wave, just a long tail after the peak. Look at places where it peaked early. Nothing but a long tail. They also imposed lockdowns, for what that’s worth. But places peaking now have had lockdowns for awhile also.

      • juris imprudent

        Sweden appears to be doing exactly as you suggest (long tail).

    • mrfamous

      One theory around here is that Arizona’s first wave was still back in April/May, and what we just saw was Sonora’s first wave, combined with a resulting uptick in Arizonans getting hospital based infections.

      This apparently is similar to what’s gone on in California and parts of Texas. The border hospitals quickly fill up and patients have to be flown to the bigger cities.

      This whole thing is a shit show and we somehow managed to make it even worse by submarining our economy with measures that seemed to do little to no good (but for some reason are mostly still in place).

      • R C Dean

        One theory around here is that Arizona’s first wave was still back in April/May, and what we just saw was Sonora’s first wave, combined with a resulting uptick in Arizonans getting hospital based infections.

        Part of this peak is definitely coming across the border, but that’s not all of it. Nobody knows/is tracking/is saying how many “Arizona” cases are actually non-residents. But we are seeing a chunk of this peak coming from rural areas, definitely including the reservations, and those are Arizona residents. I think it moved into those areas. At our peak, at least 70% of our ‘Vid patients on our units were transfers, most not from Tucson. I don’t think you can say rural areas had a second wave, because they never had a first one. I don’t think Tucson had a second wave to speak of; Phoenix, I couldn’t say. We get transfers from Phoenix, but they’ve been getting hammered with Northern AZ and Navajo rez cases, so I don’t know how many Phoenix hospital cases are actually Phoenix residents, either.

      • R C Dean

        Oh, and at least in my facility, the number of hospital acquired ‘Vid infections is minimal, among both staff and patients. We don’t have visitors, so if you’re not staff or a patient, you aren’t catching it in a hospital. Among our staff, at least 80% of the ‘Vid is community acquired. We can actually do a good job of contact tracing inside our four walls, and so that’s a pretty solid number.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Authoritarian takeover

    President Donald Trump explicitly floated delaying November’s presidential election on Thursday, lending extraordinary voice to persistent concerns that he would seek to circumvent voting in a contest where he currently trails his opponent by double digits.
    Trump has no authority to delay an election, and the Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date for voting.

    But in his tweet on Thursday morning — coming 96 days before the election and minutes after the federal government reported the worst economic contraction in recorded history — Trump offered the suggestion because he claimed without evidence the contest will be flawed.
    “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA,” he wrote. “Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

    There is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud.

    ——-

    But historically, voting by mail has not led to massive voter fraud. And nonpartisan election experts say the possibility of foreign entities printing millions of fraudulent mail-in ballots this November is highly unlikely.
    The President does not have the power to change the date of the election. Election Day is set by congressional statute, and most experts agree that it cannot be changed without congressional approval.
    Biden has previously raised the possibility of Trump attempting to delay the election.

    “Mark my words: I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said at a virtual fundraiser in April, according to a pool report.

    Beat the tin drum, little wind-up monkeys.

    “historically, voting by mail has not led to massive voter fraud”- possibly because there has never been mail in voting on the scale currently proposed.

    And- how dare the President make an off the cuff suggestion which exceeds the scope of his direct authority? No Senator or Congressman has ever done that.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Just shut the fuck up Donnie.

      • invisible finger

        He’s trolling them. They take the bait every time.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Some troll jobs are smarter than others. This isn’t one of them.

      • Viking1865

        It’s monumentally dumb. The shrieking Left has shrieked for five years about LOOMING NAZISM ORANGE MAN BAD and he’s done nothing more objectionable than Obama or Bush, and it’s made them look like fools.

        For years hes been able to point at these shrieking paranoid nutbags because hes not actually a dictator, and they’re being crazy paranoid loons. He just threw that away with one tweet.

        What a fucking moron.

      • Idle Hands

        He is what he is.

      • kbolino

        Delaying the election is a dumb idea; for one thing it’s not something the President can unilaterally do, and for another, you shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists (the disease or its fear cult). But it is not exactly out of line with everything else that’s going on to talk about it. This is all laser-pointer bullshit except I’m not sure anyone is holding the laser anymore and I think the cats following the pointer all have rabies.

        Every single time he opens his mouth a federal judge is waiting in the wings to make a political career out of smacking it down. It ain’t gonna happen without Congress and the 50 states agreeing to make it happen.

      • Overt

        I am 90% certain that there have been coups of legitimate presidents when they suggested delaying elections. Trump is not doing anything to help himself.

      • Viking1865

        Yeah that is a monumentally stupid fucking tweet, even for him.

      • Idle Hands

        It does two things, it distracts from the catastrophic economic news and it possibly sets the table for these irrational harpies to calm their shit down about the rona for 5 minutes. I swear to god the best thing Donald Trump could have done was come out in favor of masks, testing, vaccines and lock-downs in late February.

    • Rhywun

      There is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud.

      Well, except for the multiple reports of election fraud caused by what little mail-in voting there already is.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If it gets people to look into mail in voting and they realize the potential for fraud a mail based system has then the tweet’s done it’s job. Either that or it’s the Twitter equivalent of verbal diarrhea. Either way, not really that big of a deal.

      • Viking1865

        No, this is a big deal. He explicitly floated delaying an election, something that has never happened, ever. Up until today, Trump was Bush/Obama but crude and boisterous. He was the same type of shitbag, he just didn’t cloak the shitbaggery in gauzy platitudes.

      • Jarflax

        When Dewine actually delayed the Ohio Primary (which is in fact an election because there are referenda on the ballot not just party primary choices) I was outraged. This is in that vein.

      • kbolino

        Let’s take a step back and remember that we operate, even if only to the extent the courts allow it, under a Constitutional system. The President cannot delay an election. Maybe, just maybe, he’s able to spitball and propose ideas that he can’t actually execute on, and that aren’t even good ideas.

        There’s a FOIA exemption for executive deliberations. Whether it should exist or not, the basic rationale is that some ideas need to be discussed without the strictest of scrutiny.

        Until he directs the FEC to interfere with the date of the election it don’t mean shit.

    • Count Potato

      “nonpartisan election experts say the possibility of foreign entities printing millions of fraudulent mail-in ballots this November is highly unlikely”

      Because the Democrats are a domestic entity?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It’s just the Rep equivalent of preparing the field for delegitimization of the winner if they lose except it has a basis in reality, unlike the Russia nonsense.

      • Viking1865

        Eh, if Trump wins on election night the same states he won last time, but then Broward County FL and the Philadelphia precincts gradually, over the course of weeks, erase that lead with mail-in ballots, then I would probably back Trump in the ensuing conflict.

        Like, if Trump win’s FL on Election night with a 30,000 vote margin, and then over the next five weeks Broward turns in 45,000 mail in ballots, with 38,000 being straight ticket Democrat, then no I’m not accepting that election result as valid. That’s fradulent, and spare me the BOTH SIDES DO IT bullshit. The Republicans do not control any large urban political machines where a few key officials beholden to the Party can manufacture state shifting quantities of ballots.

        Mailing in ballots is fraud, straight up. Even if it’s not actual fraud, I am sick and tired of being told that people who can’t even make it to the polls deserve to “have their voices heard”. Get to the polls, and vote. No one in human history has had an easier way to exercise political power. It’s a bare minimum standard.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Costa Ricans will walk twenty miles barefoot to vote. They consider it a point of pride.

      • Viking1865

        In Iraq, the terrorists suicide bombed the lines at the polling places. But in America, if some fat useless moron welfare parasite has to actually get in the Democrat van to drive to the polling places, that’s LITERALLY DICTATORSHIP.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I don’t think widespread mail in voting is good either, I’m just of the mind that the Tweet is rhetorical warfare and not a serious proposal and that putting it in people’s minds that your opponent intends to cheat is just politics. The election delay stuff is stupid and unnecessary but I won’t get worked up about that until he takes actual steps to do it.

      • R C Dean

        Who the hell ever said that was the fraud risk with mail ballots?

    • R C Dean

      Effing Christ. The Hat got ahold of his phone again. And that’s the best case scenario.

      • Jarflax

        As a Pinochet substitute Trump is clearly a Ralph Cramden.

    • kbolino

      There is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud.

      Just repeat it often enough and it becomes true.

      The date the electors meet is already set, the date their results are due to Congress is already set, the states decide when to close the polls; the most he could do is delay when DC polls close and even that would likely take an act of Congress.

  43. grrizzly

    It’s earthquakes one after another today.

    • straffinrun

      Had one this morning. Ring of fire, baby.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Those tyrannical little fuckers ought to be tarred and feathered.

      I decide what goes in my body. Nobody else.

    • Nephilium

      We can’t trust the elected officials, they’re just politicians. Unlike those appointed to offices.

    • invisible finger

      Filling all other meds off-label still a-ok.

    • Drake

      After Ending Police Contract, Minneapolis Schools Quietly Post Job Listings For Security Guards

      According to an online job posting, the MPS plans to pay between $65,695 to $85,790 for 11 “public safety support specialists (PSSS).” The PSSS won’t be police officers, but are required to have law enforcement degrees and experience. Their list of responsibilities include: breaking up fights, event security, and providing “a bridge between in-school intervention and law enforcement.”

      Totally not police.

      • Viking1865

        I think my loathing for the modern American Left is fundamentally that every single fucking thing with them is about semantics. They just play with words.

      • Not Adahn

        Style is vastly more important than substance for a whoooole lot of people. And not just the left. That comment is in no way a response to the quality of Black Rifle Coffee.

      • UnCivilServant

        Did it go bad before I got it to you? It was sitting on my desk for a few months.

      • Not Adahn

        Possibly. I’m starting with the light roast, and those tend to have shorter lifespans.

        It’s still better than the free “coffee” that used to be available here before communal beverage sources were banned.

      • R C Dean

        Ouch. Roasted coffee should be used within a couple weeks, max.

      • Chipwooder

        Semantics, optics, feelings

      • Viking1865

        Drives me fucking nuts.

        “End The Drug War” is what I say.

        They want to replace prison with mandatory inpatient addiction treatment centers. Because that’s totally different.

      • EvilSheldon

        Ayup. Ask someone who’s done a bit in a real locked-down rehab program, how different it is from jail…

      • Not Adahn

        Nope. They’re a “bridge between” school and LEO. Because all problems can be solved by adding another layer of government employees.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Well, that is technically correct…meaningfully correct is a different story.

    • Nephilium

      Well shit… DeWine is actually doing something decent through this.

      • AlmightyJB

        Surprising. Good for him.

      • invisible finger

        Fuck. I was hoping to see pharmacist malpractice insurance rates quintuple in Ohio.

  44. AlexinCT

    I just heard some prog idiot complain the world is full of white privileged cause a great white shark had gobbled up some lady swimming!

    Whycome nobody points out what black holes are doing? They are eating up everything in the universe! Even fucking light!

    • The Last American Hero

      Portraying them as destructive is totes racist.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Remember when Hilary called them “supergravitators”?

  45. The Late P Brooks

    Just shut the fuck up Donnie.

    Unfortunately, that does not seem to be an option.

  46. Pope Jimbo

    That Van Gogh painting creeps me out. Very eary.

    • kinnath

      I like Van Gogh. I’ve been to the museum in Amsterdam twice.

      • PieInTheSky

        how long was the line?

      • kinnath

        I went on week days outside tourist season (on business travel). Basically no lines.

      • PieInTheSky

        were you high?

      • kinnath

        no

      • Gustave Lytton

        Same.

        Although I despise his work even more having seen it up close in person.

      • kinnath

        I spent a day at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. One exhibit was all modern art (probably liberated by the Bolsheviks during the revolution).

        I probably spent an hour in front of Red Vineyard at Arles. The photo doesn’t do it justice.

        This was before I got a chance to go to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

        I am a huge fan.

      • Drake

        If I was touring museums in the Netherlands, I won’t slow down or break stride walking past Van Gogh’s on my way to admire Rembrandt’s, Vermeer’s, and the works of other Dutch Masters.

      • kinnath

        Been there. Done that.

      • robc

        I drove to Atlanta from Louisville when the traveling Van Gogh exhibit was in the country a while back. 2004?

      • creech

        I can’t hear you.

      • R C Dean

        Same here. When I visited many moons ago, I liked that it was organized chronologically. You could pretty much see him losing his mind.

  47. PieInTheSky

    Hot day today. Hottest couple of days this summer. It was a mild one overall. And there were periodic rains when it cooled down, which helps.

    The big thing was that the nighttime lows were like 17 18 degrees. As long as the nighttime lows are under 20, it is not that bad as it cools down. Also people with no AC can open windows.

    Today it is going to be 35 or 36 daytime high with a 20-21 nighttime low. But next week the lows go back to 16-28 and the highs to 30-32, according to forecast. So hopefully it will not be an extended period.

    • ruodberht

      35 rankine? brisk!

      • PieInTheSky

        35 places with good food degrees.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, practically freezing, got it.

    • Rhywun

      It’s been a continual heat wave here for at least a week (I think longer, but I was in the hospital so didn’t notice it). Mid-nineties every day + high humidity. I am so over it.

      • Chipwooder

        Almost every day for almost three weeks has been 95+, breaking 100 a few times. June was so wonderfully cool but July has been a bitch.

    • Chipwooder

      Is it humid in Romania?

      • PieInTheSky

        it varies. Right now it is about 30%

      • PieInTheSky

        anyway when temps are above 35 humidity is usually under 50%, 20-30 i think

      • Chipwooder

        That’s not too bad then. I can handle drier heat to a certain extent, though once it goes over 110 (43 for you continental types) all bets are off. 90+ with swampy humidity is the worst.

      • robc

        90+ with swampy humidity is the worst.

        Days that end in y is South Carolina.

      • Chipwooder

        As someone who spent a summer on Parris Island….yes, it is.

        At least the heat kills off the spring sand fleas.

      • PieInTheSky

        I never experienced more the 41 I think

      • PieInTheSky

        Anyway it is not to bad this year, there were years with a week of 39-40. This summer was mild

    • straffinrun

      Nevermind, the potato had it covered.

      • AlexinCT

        I found me a Chinese cargo ship full of votes for Biden!

    • Chipwooder

      There are much better ways of expressing concern about mail voting than this nonsense.

      • Not Adahn

        NY tried to literally CANCEL the primaries. And nobody complained that Caesar Andy was overreaching.

        And ISTR that a bunch of stated postponed their elections because voting wasn’t one of those activities that keeps the ‘vid away.

      • Rebel Scum

        But this nonsense is entertaining.

        Although Dems always seem to find boxes of ballots either way.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Let’s have some more posturing and empty rhetoric

    Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Mark Morgan blasted Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “ridiculous and outrageous” claim that President Trump might deploy federal forces to prevent a peaceful transfer of power if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the 2020 election.

    Morgan made the comment during an appearance on “Fox News @Night” on Wednesday after host Shannon Bream noted that one of the agencies Warren wants a commitment from is the Department of Homeland Security. Warren said she is concerned that federal agents will be used if Trump loses the upcoming election and refuses to leave office.

    Warren said she “asked them to commit that they will not let Trump use these forces in the event he loses the election and doesn’t want to leave office peacefully.”

    “I want to hear that commitment. I want to hear it in their own words and if they won’t say it, then I want to hear that silence because at a time like this their silence will shout,” she continued.

    I want her to promise to stop scalping homesteaders and eating their babies.

    • Rebel Scum

      These people seriously think that the rest of fedgov would go along with Trump even if he tried something like that?

      • Viking1865

        Yeah Trump is literally the only President who couldn’t pull this off. The federal government hates his fucking guts. I can see the theoretical possibility of some kind of Red Hat American Freikorps directed via tweet, but the idea that the same CIA, FBI, and NSA that tried to swing the election to Hillary is now DRUMPF’S SCHUTZSTAFFEL is just plain nonsense.

      • Idle Hands

        They know he won’t hence the larping.

  49. Count Potato

    “Kate Brown, Governor of Oregon, isn’t doing her job. She must clear out, and in some cases arrest, the Anarchists & Agitators in Portland. If she can’t do it, the Federal Government will do it for her. We will not be leaving until there is safety!”

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1288826742539464707

    He should call them communists.

    • Hyperion

      STFU, Donerd, let it burn. How do people learn? The hard way, let them do it.

      What are we going to do, anyway? Sic Deputy Dawg on them? Hahahaha, that’s a good one!

    • creech

      Isn’t Portland part of the U.S. Ninth District Court which issues so many unconstitutional orders? If so, let the Federal Courthouse burn as it may reduce the number of cases the 9th can hear and rule on.

  50. Rebel Scum

    Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

    On Monday, Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of The New York Times‘ “1619 Project,” admitted that her project is not a history and that the battle over it is about “memory” — a fight to “control the national narrative.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has moved to defund schools that teach the project.

    “The fight over the 1619 Project is not about history. It is about memory,” Hannah-Jones tweeted. “I’ve always said that the 1619 Project is not a history. It is a work of journalism that explicitly seeks to challenge the national narrative and, therefore, the national memory. The project has always been as much about the present as it is the past.”

    • creech

      Poll: How many of you, back in high school, learned that African chiefs and African tribes practiced slavery, and began capturing other tribes’ members and selling them to the white man? I read yesterday, from a black historian, that this is “common knowledge” and has been “in the school history books” for many decades. And, of course, would not affect reparations in the least.

      • juris imprudent

        selling them to the white man

        Oh, so now Arabs and Portugese are white men?

      • Chipwooder

        I knew about it, but only because I was (and still am) a history nerd who read a lot of history books on my own time. It was most certainly not part of any high school class I ever took, and my high school was actually rather rigorous.

    • Rhywun

      About time they push back. That shit is very, very dangerous.

  51. The Late P Brooks

    We have not even begun to see the real effects of the lockdown anywhere.

    And in a couple of years, Ivy League economists will be churning it out dozens of “studies” proving we didn’t lock down soon enough or hard enough, and the stimulus checks weren’t generous enough.

    • Rhywun

      Deblasio, Cuomo, and their flacks are still passing budgets that pretend everything is A-OK ?? when everyone knows that the next budgets will be tens of billions of dollars short. It’s madness.

      • R C Dean

        They’re betting on a bailout. And that’s probably a bet they will win, regardless of the election results.

      • Jarflax

        At some point, likely soon, the bail out game is going to implode. The magic of unlimited money creation works wonderfully right up until it stops working entirely and the currency collapses.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    “The fight over the 1619 Project is not about history. It is about memory,” Hannah-Jones tweeted. “I’ve always said that the 1619 Project is not a history. It is a work of journalism that explicitly seeks to challenge the national narrative and, therefore, the national memory. The project has always been as much about the present as it is the past.”

    Chocolate ration? There has never been a chocolate ration. Here are your beets. Move along.”

    • Rhywun

      I’ve always said that the 1619 Project is not a history.

      What a lying sack of shit.

      Though, to be fair, given the source everybody knew it was a gigantic pile of propaganda but pretended otherwise because it fit their needs.

  53. AlexinCT

    HAH HAH HAH!

    And it was an Indian dude (the country, not the tribes) that pointed out Gates has a virology PhD because of Windows!

      • Fatty Bolger

        Other people are wearing coats and jackets so I assume this was from a while ago.

      • Drake

        Maybe – why is he being walked like a dog? Imagine some anonymous lady trying to drag Trump away from microphones.

      • Rhywun

        Someone said that’s from January. ??‍♂️

      • Chipwooder

        It clearly isn’t July – winter coats and no masks

      • R C Dean

        Makes sense. Nobody’s wearing a mask.

    • Hyperion

      “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quietly Replaced With Cardboard Cutout”

      On a more serious note, I’m beginning to wonder if it even matters. I think the delusion that Trump will appoint real protectors of the constitution is over. Penaltax has already retired as the swing vote and has fully joined the commies, so Gorsuch has replaced him as the swing vote.

      So, let’s tally this up. Gorsuch is now the woke swing vote, and Kavanaugh has never been anything but a Bush left over. So how do we still believe that another Trump appointee will change the court? It won’t, it’s just a slower slide into tyranny.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It absolutely matters, just not as much as most people think it does. We’re going over the cliff sooner or later regardless.

      • Hyperion

        That’s what I’m saying. We’re just in delayed tyranny mode, as we have been since the beginning. Eventually, 2nd amendment is gone, first amendment is gone, and then Republic is gone.

      • Viking1865

        If Trump gets to nominate two more there’s a 20% chance or so we get another Thomas. Send Kagan and Sotomayor lots and lots of cakes and ice cream.

      • Hyperion

        “Send Kagan and Sotomayor lots and lots of cakes and ice cream.”

        I’m pretty sure those two have already had enough cake and ice cream. Send it to Grimsberg, looks like she needs some calories to pad that skeleton a little.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    According to an online job posting, the MPS plans to pay between $65,695 to $85,790 for 11 “public safety support specialists (PSSS).” The PSSS won’t be police officers, but are required to have law enforcement degrees and experience. Their list of responsibilities include: breaking up fights, event security, and providing “a bridge between in-school intervention and law enforcement.”

    So- cops who are “off duty” moonlighting as security guards for the school system.

    What a breakthrough.

    • Chipwooder

      I’m guessing they will mostly be cops who hit their 20 year mark in their mid-40s and retired and now will take these jobs to supplement their pensions.

  55. Drake

    The Antifa / BLM mob made a road trip to Springfield, Oregon yesterday. It didn’t go well. The locals showed and were ready for a fight. The cops blocked them and didn’t let them roam the town. In the end the “protestors” were asking the cops to help them get out.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Trying to export that shit is an enormous strategic error. If the people who are currently worried but safe start to feel personally threatened things can and will get ugly quickly.

    • Rebel Scum

      Why are you blocking us from leaving?

      Irony overload.

    • Hyperion

      “One of the organizers just said “They should have gave us what we should do here, because it’s different than Portland”

      I hate to tell ya’ll, but a lot of places are different than Portland, like almost everywhere. Thank God for a little sanity left.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Amazing what happens when the police aren’t directed to let them do whatever they want. SPD has blocked them from overrunning and shutting down the main drag in a previous protest.

      Not to worry! The narrative is how racist the cops are for attacking peaceful protestors and dragging a Black man through the streets.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      We were in Redneck, OR a couple weeks ago. My wife and daughter got a haircut while there. The hairdresser told them that armed locals were patrolling the streets a few weeks earlier because of rumors about protesters coming to town. The rumor was completely bogus, but if the protesters ever do try to come to a lot of these places, they are in for a rude awakening.

  56. Tres Cool

    Hey Webdom
    It’s your birthday
    That’s for real-real
    Not for play-play.

    Happy Birthday.

  57. JD is in the United Karendom

    Happy birthday, Webinar Dominatrix.

  58. Tres Cool

    Evidently the news is reporting Herman Cain is dead from CoVID.

    So much for 9/9/9

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      *slowly rotates to meet your gaze*

      *smiles, unblinking*

      • Rebel Scum

        Aww shucky ducky.

      • Chipwooder

        That was one of the more bizarre political ads ever, along with Carly Fiorina’s demon sheep.

    • Suthenboy

      No shit?
      Ouch.
      I like that guy. He never had a chance in hell of being elected, but I like him.

  59. Rebel Scum

    Delusional and deranged.

    Commissioner Eudaly

    Replying to @ChloeEudalyPDX
    On Thursday, I directed @PBOTinfo to enforce on the federal occupiers for erecting a fence in our public right of way. PBOT filed a cease and desist demand on behalf of the City—we have not received a response. …

    We are assessing the maximum fine of $500 for every 15 minutes the fence obstructs our street, & we are investigating other legal remedies. Typically, we would send a maintenance crew or contractor to remove such an obstruction, but I will not send workers into harm’s way. …

    Yes, I am afraid to direct workers to do their job and enforce our laws against the federal government—I hope that gives everyone reading this pause.

    As of yesterday, the federal government owes us $192,000 and counting. We intend to collect.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Dismantling that fence would end with federal agents hurt and killed, protestors/rioters hurt and killed, and the courthouse would be burned to the ground and he’s well aware of that. Of course, he also knows he’s just pissing in the wind so this is just preening for attention.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Eudaly is a fucking idiot. Seriously. She is Alaska room temperature stupid.

      • kbolino

        Apparently you are the only person who has realized Eudaly is a woman.

        Looking at her, I feel like she missed her calling as a nun. And the rest of us missed having her cloistered away from secular society.

    • creech

      Collect, yeah right. (Only if Joe/Heels wins.) How many divisions does Mr. Eudaly command at nearby Ft. Lewis?

  60. PieInTheSky

    given the heat I am drinking a white wine which is not bad. But they do something I don’t like put stickers with contest medals the wine allegedly won.

    Apparently gold medal at Japan Women’s Wine Awards 2019. Also Vinalies Internationales Competition

    • commodious spittoon

      “Women’s wine”? Is it wine for women, wine made by women? What possible reason would they have for discriminating between the two*?

      *besides the obvious reason

      • Jarflax

        The Japanned men were rating whiskeys that day.

      • UnCivilServant

        They needed time away, for their own sake.

      • PieInTheSky

        is that a pun?

      • PieInTheSky

        chicks don’t like tannin?

    • Suthenboy

      Made with pussy yeast?

      • pan fried wylie

        Those ferment to acetic acid rather than ethanol don’t they?

      • Tres Cool

        What you just did there. I noticed it.

  61. juris imprudent

    Speaking of headlines (and stories) that miss the point.

    So, they produced a model. Did it yield the correct infection rate (based on aerosol transmission)? Who knows – they don’t say. So my guess is, no, they did not model a transmission mechanism resulting in less than 20% of the passengers and crew getting infected. After all, what kind of hysteria can you whip up with that. We do actually KNOW how many people were infected in this petri dish.

  62. pan fried wylie

    If the postal service starts shuttering branches, how will that affect Amazon being their sugardaddy?

  63. DEG

    Happy Birthday WebDom!

  64. Rebel Scum

    So you are saying you will compromise and give the Dems everything they want.

    McConnell said, “About 20 of my members think that we’ve already done enough. They’re deeply concerned, and it’s understandable, about the size of our national debt now, which is as big as our economy for the first time since World War II. And so, I do have a reasonable number of members who don’t think we ought to do another package.”

    He continued, “That’s not my view. And it’s not the majority of our conference’s view, nor is it the view of the president. We have divided government. So, we have to sit down with the Democrats and work out something. And, hopefully, we’ll begin to do that before the end of the week.”

    • Jarflax

      The Democrats want the death of white people, and dispossession of wealthy people, and depowering of penis possessors. I say we give them what they want. Henceforth, all white Democrats will be shot on sight, all corporations run by democrats will be liquidated, and all Democrat owned penises will be chopped off.

      • pan fried wylie

        all Democrat owned penises will be chopped off

        POC Hardest Hit.

      • pan fried wylie

        *That’ll show Whitey!

  65. The Late P Brooks

    Tightening the tourniquet

    Michigan will limit indoor gatherings to 10 people and ban indoor service at bars as the state experiences a spike in coronavirus cases, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) announced Wednesday.

    “Tonight, after an uptick of #COVID19 cases due to social gatherings, I amended Michigan’s Safe Start Order & issued revised workplace safeguards. As of July 31st, statewide indoor gatherings will be limited to 10 people & bars will be closed for indoor service across the state,” Whitmer tweeted Wednesday.

    “I’ve said this from the start — these are difficult decisions, but I will do what is necessary to protect the brave men and women on the front lines, avoid overwhelming our healthcare system, and save lives,” she continued, also urging Michigan residents to “practice social distancing, wear a mask, and encourage those around you to do the same.”

    It grieves her deeply, but her recalcitrant, unruly subjects must once again feel the bite of the lash. Obedience is not optional.

    All hail Imperator Whitmer.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The brave men and women on the front lines schtick has replaced the first responder rhetoric nicely hasn’t it? Or just think of the children. Whatever works really.

    • mrfamous

      I dunno, maybe some of the strictest rules in the world still being unable to prevent an increase in cases might be trying to tell you something. Hint: it’s not “crack down even harder!”

  66. pan fried wylie

    Following up RE: Turpentine in CA, I gathered up all the solvents I have on hand.

    turpentine: not for sale or use in California
    odorless mineral spirits: not for sale in SCAQMD (Souther Cali Air Quablahblahblah)
    denatured alcohol: not for sale or use in California

    Goof Off: no sale/use restrictions listed, just Prop65 sticker
    lighter fluid/naptha: no sale/use restrictions listed, just Prop65 sticker

    Goo Gone: no restriction or Prop65. Also doesn’t work on anything.

    So…do they just sell a different product with extra hoops jumped through, or do Californians just not use solvents?

    • Suthenboy

      Acetone?

    • Chipwooder

      Wait, what? You can’t purchase turpentine in California??

      • Hyperion

        The chillins will be huffing that stuff, what is wrong with you!? I mean, and apparently the adults will do it as well, judging by the current state of Cali.

    • Jarflax

      Amusing that turpentine, mineral spirits, and alcohol, which are benign enough to use on skin are banned and Goof Off, which is just about the most brutal skin and lung destroying substance around is ok. …and a quick google tells me why, when did Goof Off stop using xylene?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      With Cali’s enormous homeless problem not allowing the sale of denatured alcohol might actually be a good thing. You just know they’d strain it through bread and drink it or something.

      • Hyperion

        Let them. They won’t let them eat tide pods, how exactly do we start calling this much degraded gene pool?

      • Jarflax

        Denatured alcohol should not exist. I am generally against banning products, but I am willing to make an exception for products which are literally another product with poison added to it to kill anyone who drinks it.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        A high school friend’s alcoholic uncle went completely and permanently blind after drinking it once. Methylated alcohols are bad news.

      • Fatty Bolger

        I agree. That’s some sick fucking shit. Similar to laws not allowing people to have Narcan when it could save lives.

      • EvilSheldon

        Word up.

        Now do Percoset.

    • mikey

      Just finished painting my car. The data sheets for all the materials for the different layers said check local laws for use (IOW illegal in CA). I think I read once that it’s basically illegal to paint your own car in CA.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    Evidently the news is reporting Herman Cain is dead from CoVID.

    At this point, my immediate reaction is to ask what else was wrong with him.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Apparently he had a serious case of cancer 15 years ago that almost killed him. Probably had a lot of residual organ and vascular damage.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Cain was alright in my book. RIP.

  68. KibbledKristen

    Happy birthday!

  69. The Late P Brooks

    And now, a message from the Fear and Hate Party

    Former first lady Michelle Obama debuted her podcast with an urgent message to Americans: November is not the time to sit out the presidential election.

    Former President Barack Obama joined the former first lady for the first episode of her namesake podcast, during which the couple discussed the current state of America. Whereas the former president is the “eternal optimist,” according to Michelle, Barack said his wife takes the view that things have to get “super, super bad before folks figure stuff out.”

    “Well, I hope we’re at that point…,” Michelle said. “As cynical as I can be, I agree, we don’t have an alternative.”

    Michelle noted that her husband, who she called the “yes, we can, man” in reference to his campaign slogan, believes people will learn before we “crash into the sun.”

    ——-

    Young people overwhelmingly vote Democratic and the activism displayed by young people in the wake of George Floyd’s May 25 death after an officer knelt on his neck gave Michelle and Barack hope, but the former first lady was concerned it might not carry over to the polls. Michelle worried the same people who are leading protests and calls for change hold such a cynic view of government that it would turn them off to voting.

    “I hear too many young people who question whether voting, whether politics is worth it,” Michelle said.

    Crash into the sun! It’s super bad, out there. America will never survive another term of President Cartoon Villain. When the time comes, take a break from smashing and looting and burning, and VOTE!

    Anybody who doesn’t think this is directly co-ordinated with the DNC is nuts.

    • Fatty Bolger

      lol. “Please don’t let the riots by our supporters in cities we control stop you from voting for us!”

      • Hyperion

        Hogan is actually trying to do something good here. Not that it’s the first time. He’s working on a plan to open all the polling places for early voting before the majority dems can force their vote by mail only plan. Because you can be assured that all the polling places around here on election day will be patrolled by antifa and BLM goons.

        Filling out a paper ballot here, you may as well wipe you ass with it if you check any GOP boxes and mine will be across the board, as always, because the dems here suck in an east coast sort of way. Not that they don’t all suck now, they just suck worse. The dems in Baltimore managed to ban replica guns, I am not kidding you. They also banned pepper spray and tasers, before they had to overturn it because getting their asses sued. A lot of well do do wife’s here carry those things, because why wouldn’t they?

      • Fatty Bolger

        The dems in Baltimore managed to ban replica guns, I am not kidding you. They also banned pepper spray and tasers

        Well, that’s why Baltimore is world famous for being one of the safest places on Earth.

        I was watching a British show called New Tricks and laughed at this dialogue:

        ROBIN: Cait tells me you grew up round here, Gerry?
        GERRY: That’s right.
        ROBIN: Rough corners.
        GERRY: Rough what?
        ROBIN: Street corners.
        GERRY: (sarcastically) This is Bermondsey, not Baltimore.

      • Hyperion

        If you need more Balmer jokes, I have plenty. They just make themselves up, seriously!

      • UnCivilServant

        Sorry the only one to come to mind is “Who has the only booming business in Balmer? The Em-Balmer.”

    • Hyperion

      “Michelle Obama Says America’s Gotten ‘Super, Super Bad,’ Implores People to Vote”

      Well, it has gotten worse, but not for the reason she’s pushing. For the exact opposite reason she’s pushing.

      • Chipwooder

        “Super, Super Bad”

        Good to see she’s putting that Princeton education to use by sounding like a 15 year old’s TikTok video.

      • Hyperion

        You can put dumb people into Princeton, but you can’t take the dumb out of dumb people.

        Next up, when the people don’t listen to her, she’ll come back with ‘I’m a stab ya!’.

  70. Rhywun

    In before I lose power:

    Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that parts of southern Brooklyn are on the brink of massive power outages Thursday

    The climate justice warrior added, “I hope you rubes use this time to reflect on the good you’re doing for the planet. Go green!”

    • Hyperion

      Is woke boy’s power going to be off? I think I’ve already figured out the answer, I so smart.

    • UnCivilServant

      The uhaul index is a fairly accurate measure of migration within the US.