Economics Corner with Paul Krugman and Winston’s Mom

by | Aug 21, 2020 | Economy | 200 comments

Oh sure, schedule for 1900.  What if I have a client at 1900?

Oh hey, what going on boys?  Business is booming since they started telling college students to wear masks while they’re gettin it on!


Here’s one from Krugabe without the NYT paywall.

As the U.S. economy careens toward disaster, congressional talks about what to do appear to have ground to a halt. So on Saturday President Donald Trump — speaking at one of his golf courses, of course — announced four executive measures that, he claimed, would rescue the recovery.

Unfortunately, one of the measures was vacuous, one trivial and one unworkable. And the fourth may do substantial harm.

The vacuous measure simply calls on government agencies to “consider” helping renters facing eviction. The trivial measure waives interest and defers principal repayment on student loans.

This from the same guy in 2012 that said:

What should we do to help America’s young? Basically, the opposite of what Mr. Romney and his friends want. We should be expanding student aid, not slashing it. And we should reverse the de facto austerity policies that are holding back the U.S. economy — the unprecedented cutbacks at the state and local level, which have been hitting education especially hard.  

At least we now know he thinks aiding endebted students is trivial now.

The unworkable measure supposedly provides new aid to the unemployed, who have lost pandemic benefits because Senate Republicans don’t want to provide them; but the announced program would be an administrative nightmare that might take a long time to put into effect and would require partial matching funds that strapped states don’t have. Remember, states had a very hard time implementing the first round of aid to the unemployed, leaving millions in the cold for many weeks. This would be worse.

But the really substantive measure would direct employers to stop collecting payroll taxes on behalf of their workers.

I have a better idea…its called STOP TELLING PEOPLE THEY AREN’T ALLOWED TO FUCKING WORK YOU DESPOTIC PIECE OF MONKEY SHIT.

This is pretty wild stuff from a legal and constitutional point of view. Can presidents just stop collecting duly legislated taxes whenever they feel like it? But put the law to one side and ask, what’s this all about? Who thinks a payroll tax cut, even if enacted through due process, would solve any of the problems we face?

No reputable economist I know considers a payroll tax cut a good idea.

What a fucking surprise!  I bet you don’t know anybody that voted for Nixon either.

Even if the money went to workers, which it almost certainly wouldn’t, it would go to precisely the wrong ones — workers who haven’t lost their jobs in the pandemic, not those who have. It wouldn’t encourage hiring, because what’s holding employers back isn’t cost, it’s the shutdown of activities with a high risk of infection (like indoor dining).

So let them open? Wouldn’t that encourage people to indiscriminately go to bars, nightclubs, brothels, concerts, casinos, crackhouses, underground boxing tournaments, and Denny’s?  Everyone on Earth is aware the virus is floating around the ether but somehow only kills aging boomers like you and fat asses so its likely the only people who would do that are reasonably young and healthy.  Would that not drive up demand for labor at these places which would be significantly easier on the employer from a fiduciary standpoint because the employer (albeit temporarily) doesn’t have to worry about withholding for SS?

Now, lots of bad economic ideas — like giant tax cuts for the rich — nonetheless have strong political support. But a payroll tax cut isn’t one of them. In fact, Senate Republicans have been dismissive, dropping the idea from their proposals.

Yet there it is, the apparent centerpiece of Trump’s new plan. What’s going on?

The answer is that a payroll tax cut is the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy. It’s a quack remedy that somehow caught Trump’s eye, which he won’t give up because sycophants keep telling him he’s infallible. There may be some ulterior motives — this move might end up undermining the finances of Social Security and Medicare — but that’s all secondary. Basically this is a tantrum from a president temperamentally incapable of owning up to his own mistakes.

…or its the only way he has any authority whatsoever on taxes.  Its not like he’s Obama and has the ultimate authority to enforce whatever the fuck he wants.

No. This president is EVIL and must be stopped at all costs lest we recognize the root of the problem was prior to 2017, quacks like you were perfectly okay with enabling the executive.

I’m not sure who first sold Trump on this bad idea. Its most tireless advocate has been Stephen Moore, who has a history of predicting tax-cut miracles — remember how Kansas was going to be the wonder of the world? — that never pan out. Just a few days ago Moore argued publicly that Trump could slash taxes without congressional authorization; and here we are.

Lets keep ripping on Kansas while completely ignoring Texas.

Just to be clear, Trump isn’t actually cutting the payroll tax, which would require legislation. Instead, he’s just deferring its collection; workers will still owe the money a few months later. And knowing this, many if not most employers won’t increase paychecks, they’ll just put the money in escrow on workers’ behalf. As far as most workers are concerned, this whole thing may be a nonevent.

But maybe, just maybe, Trump will both win in November and find a way to retroactively cancel those tax obligations. If so, he’ll tear a big hole in the finances of Social Security and Medicare, programs that, whatever he may say, he has always wanted to kill.

YES KILL IT.  LET IT FUCKING DIE.

The main point, however, is that we’re facing a moment of crisis. The emergency relief that sustained the U.S. economy through the coronavirus has expired, even though the pandemic is still very much with us. Unless very quick action is taken, consumer spending is about to collapse, bringing the whole economy down with it.

This wasn’t hard to see coming. Indeed, Democrats passed legislation to deal with this situation almost three months ago. But Senate Republicans did nothing, and still haven’t gotten serious about proposing remedies.

Yes, more worthless remedies aimed at making more people sucking at the governments tits.

This would be a really good time for presidential leadership. But what we have instead is a pitchman hawking miracle cures at his country club. In the process he may well have undermined whatever slim chance there was of reaching an even halfway decent deal to avert disaster.

He wasn’t hawking a miracle cure.  He said a drug had promise based on a few published studies in China… and the media pilloried him over it to the point where we can’t actually say we know if it works or it doesn’t work because the media scared the population shitless by saying you will literally die if you take it and shouted the results of a few flawed studies on a hilltop when there are 53 goddamn studies that suggest it has a useful effect.

As I said, I don’t think there’s any deep game here. Yes, Trump’s intentions are bad. But recent interviews and inside reporting make it clear that he really is completely out of his depth, with no understanding of either the epidemiological or the economic reality we face.

At a moment of crisis America is cursed with a president who is incompetent, deeply ignorant, yet so personally insecure that he surrounds himself with people who tell him he’s a universal genius.

…he may be a piece of shit, but he lives rent free within the confines of your otherwise empty skull.

About The Author

Winston's Mom

Winston's Mom

Biological mother of Winston.

200 Comments

  1. Brochettaward

    You people aren’t even trying.

    • Sean

      *sips gin & tonic*

    • Swiss Servator

      They’re at a Zoom drinkyfest – you ain’t invited.

      • Sean

        Ni hao.

      • commodious spittoon

        I wasn’t either…

      • Brochettaward

        I’m not invited because of envy. You? People just don’t like you.

      • commodious spittoon

        I figured it’s cuz I always show up naked, but I haven’t shown up in awhile.

      • commodious spittoon

        Maybe you’re right, maybe I’m not well liked around here.

      • Tejicano

        Well, it seems they are doing one of those zoom things right now – you can find a link if you scroll down. I’ve got kids doing homework and preparing for an English exam tomorrow so even if I was a Zoom-type I’m not free to attend.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m trying to finish writing a book, so I can’t afford the distraction of people talking.

        I got myself distracted on a wikiwalk after trying to figure out what part of an underground city would smell like. I need to get back to writing.

      • Tejicano

        That reminds me! I have to go back and read your latest instalment. I saw it a half day after you posted it but have not had free time to give it a read. I do enjoy this work of yours.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m glad you enjoy it.

  2. Swiss Servator

    Ah, Krugabe…is he even writing these anymore, or is it a fair to middlin’ AI with the right buzzwords fed into it?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Tom Friedman generator v2?

    • Derpetologist

      The difference between strong AI and weak AI is that a person with no familiarity with the task and just following instructions could do everything weak AI can do.

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

      ***
      The Chinese room argument holds that a digital computer executing a program cannot be shown to have a “mind”, “understanding” or “consciousness”,[a] regardless of how intelligently or human-like the program may make the computer behave. The argument was first presented by philosopher John Searle in his paper, “Minds, Brains, and Programs”, published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences in 1980. It has been widely discussed in the years since.[1] The centerpiece of the argument is a thought experiment known as the Chinese room.[2]

      The argument is directed against the philosophical positions of functionalism and computationalism,[3] which hold that the mind may be viewed as an information-processing system operating on formal symbols, and that simulation of a given mental state is sufficient for its presence. Specifically, the argument is intended to refute a position Searle calls strong AI: “The appropriately programmed computer with the right inputs and outputs would thereby have a mind in exactly the same sense human beings have minds.”[b]
      ***

      Basically, imagine you are trapped in a room with an instruction manual. Chinese characters come in through a slot and the manual tells you what characters to send out in response. If the manual was really good, you could send out Chinese characters that would simulate a conversation without understanding a single word of the conversation.

      • Winston's Mom

        Given we established Derp is a simulation, and given the aboves explanation, does make him a weak or a strong AI?

        Discuss amongst yourselves.

      • Derpetologist

        I get the “prove you’re not a robot” thing when I use Google once in a while. Anybody else ever get that? No? Just me?

        Well, I like to think I’m the good version of SkyNet, robot or not.

        SkyNet is an evil program dedicated to humanity’s suffering and destruction. I am dedicated to its entertainment and enlightenment.

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

      • C. Anacreon

        We are the people,
        Of Skynet,
        Where you can shop right,
        You bet,
        Only at Skynet.

      • Derpetologist

        Ah! You! You’ve met me in real life! You can prove to the others that I’m not a malevolent robot.

        Unless of course I just paid some rando to go and talk to you guys that night…

      • UnCivilServant

        I am a malevolent robot.

      • C. Anacreon

        I’ll vouch for your sentience.

        No paid rando could have known the secrets of the commentariat like you did.

      • Derpetologist

        OK fine, but your “Mr. Anderson….” needs work.

        [marks “meets expectations” on evil AI employee eval]

      • Derpetologist

        “No paid rando could have known the secrets of the commentariat like you did.”

        Yeah, there’s no way an AI could harvest info from the net.

        No way at all!

        [laughs in 3.5 floppy]

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Dz7633PnU

    • Rhywun

      I almost feel pity for him at this point.

    • Winston's Mom

      Whats going to really whack your whackadoodle, do I use an AI to answer Krugnuts’s AI?

      • Derpetologist

        That’s like an answering machine leaving a message on another answering machine, and then the other answering machine leaves a message on the first answering machine.

        Ooh, ‘member answering machines? *I* ‘member…

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg-TqEFYcfM

      • Winston's Mom

        You’re spinning in circles. Reboot the simulator.

      • Derpetologist

        Jesus and the Devil decided to have a contest to see who could write the best program. Just before the day ended, both their computers crashed. The devil screamed, but Jesus was quiet and content.

        Why? Because Jesus saves.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5FKPLdM0DU

      • Ayn Random Variation

        Nerd

      • Winston's Mom

        I don’t want to hate you. But your making it really god damn hard.

  3. Brochettaward

    If so, he’ll tear a big hole in the finances of Social Security and Medicare, programs that, whatever he may say, he has always wanted to kill.

    It is known.

  4. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    The emergency relief that sustained the U.S. economy through the coronavirus

    OFFS

  5. Derpetologist

    suggested music: Liberty Bell march (Monty Python theme song)

    Paul Krugman Responds To All The People Throwing Around His Old Internet Quote
    https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-krugman-responds-to-internet-quote-2013-12

    ***
    Tech people have been passing around this 1998 quote from Paul Krugman where he compared the Internet to a fax machine:

    “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’–which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants–becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”
    ***

    ***
    We emailed Krugman for a comment on the quote and here’s his explanation:

    Well, two things.

    First, look at the whole piece. It was a thing for the Times magazine’s 100th anniversary, written as if by someone looking back from 2098, so the point was to be fun and provocative, not to engage in careful forecasting; I mean, there are lines in there about St. Petersburg having more skyscrapers than New York, which was not a prediction, just a thought-provoker.

    But the main point is that I don’t claim any special expertise in technology — I almost never make technological forecasts, and the only reason there was stuff like that in the 98 piece was because the assignment required that I do that sort of thing.
    ***

    “No, I didn’t. Honest… I ran out of gas. I… I had a flat tire. I didn’t have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!”

    • westernsloper

      Holy shit he really said that? I am dumb as dog shit and even I knew the internet would eventually replace the fax machine* way back in 1998 when I was rocking some awesome dial up.

      *except for dinosaurs that still have them but people use efax to work with the dinosaurs.

      • Hyperion

        I remember the .com bubble thing. When they said that’s the end of ecommerce or any sort of serious business being done online, and it was always a joke and would never be tried again and if it was, would fail again.

    • juris imprudent

      …most people have nothing to say to each other!

      Gotta give him that much, and god knows he has nothing to say to anyone.

      • Rhywun

        ??

      • Chafed

        ?

    • Tejicano

      “…most people have nothing to say to each other!”

      While this, in fact, is most probably true that doesn’t stop them from saying stuff, posting photos/videos, and “reaching out” to anybody-everybody ad nauseum 24/7.

    • Chafed

      I like the second quote.

  6. westernsloper

    I have a better idea…its called STOP TELLING PEOPLE THEY AREN’T ALLOWED TO FUCKING WORK YOU DESPOTIC PIECE OF MONKEY SHIT.

    This is why we love Winston’s Mom. That and twofer Tuesdays.

    • Gustave Lytton

      She makes it up on the VD doc referral payola.

    • Ayn Random Variation

      My friend says if you’re out of work you should just get a grant like her friend did. Another friend says we should all get 2k a month like they do in Canada

    • pistoffnick

      “That and twofer Tuesdays.”

      *Reschedules for Tuesday afternoon*

      • juris imprudent

        Afternoon? Okay, it isn’t the caboose, but still.

      • pistoffnick

        I’m a “more bang for the buck” kind of cheapskate. So to speak.

  7. Ayn Random Variation

    If the payroll tax deferral has to be paid back it’s bad. If not, it’s bad.

    • Sean

      How’s things down in Philly?

      • Ayn Random Variation

        At Oscar’s tonight. I like the outdoor scene now. But man the homeless/drug addict situation has reached critical mass here.
        Saturday there is some pushback against Antifa rally in Old town which should be an epic bloodbath

      • DEG

        Saturday there is some pushback against Antifa rally in Old town which should be an epic bloodbath

        Good.

        My favorite German place I think still has only outdoor dining.

      • Sean

        My “niece” returns to Temple this weekend. She can blend in, but it’s still not a good situation.

      • Ted S.

        Didn’t Oates and Hall meet escaping a party at Temple that turned violent?

      • pistoffnick

        Google says yes

      • Chafed

        Take pictures

    • Cancelled

      The payroll tax deferral is retarded. Sorry, I voted for the idiot, but if anyone thinks this is a good, or useful idea you are as disconnected as the people advocating $15 min wage.

      • pistoffnick

        I agree. If you really want to make a difference, make taxes voluntary.

      • Ayn Random Variation

        I agree as well just to clarify

  8. Gustave Lytton

    Has anyone seen Winston lately?

    • Winston's Mom

      Not me. That son of a bitch never calls.

      • Sean

        Heh.

      • Tejicano

        What you did, seeing it I am.

    • Brochettaward

      Winston was a retiree. He got a new job to keep himself occupied.

      • juris imprudent

        Now that’s depressing.

      • Chafed

        Please tell me that’s a joke.

  9. DEG

    I have a better idea…its called STOP TELLING PEOPLE THEY AREN’T ALLOWED TO FUCKING WORK YOU DESPOTIC PIECE OF MONKEY SHIT.

    YES

  10. Fourscore

    I’m not sure why anyone wastes time reading Krugman. Its 5 minutes gone from my life, 5 minutes that I can’t afford to waste and will never recover. Did he get into college on Affirmative Action? Is there a program for Special Ed students?

    • Ayn Random Variation

      There is zero chance he writes his articles anymore. He’s not that dumb.

  11. Playa Manhattan

    We should absolutely be slashing student aid.

    • Derpetologist

      Sure, but try getting elected with that slogan.

      Fun fact: the word slogan comes from the Irish words for “battle cry”

      ***
      Etymology. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic and Irish sluagh-ghairm (sluagh “army”, “host” + gairm “cry”).
      ***

      • Ayn Random Variation

        I thought it meant “appealing to a sheep, communist or Maddow “

      • Hyperion

        Rick Barry
        6 years ago
        I know Rachel’s gay, but I still think she’s hot. And I’m a 66 year old guy.
        Wicked-smart brain and wicked sense of humor; a deadly combination.
        I even like her off-camera nerd look!”

      • Brochettaward

        That’s how Crusty feels about Greta Van Susteren.

      • Hyperion

        My late grandmother on my dad’s side, loved her wrasslin. It used to be a joke to dare someone to go over to her house and tell her wrasslin is fake. She’d be ready to fight you. I remember the first time I did it, she went on a rant and chased me out of the house with a skillet ‘come back here you little shit, I’ll show you how fake it is!’.

        If your granny chases you out of the house with a frying pan because you said wrasslin is fake, you might be a redneck.

      • Derpetologist

        Beautiful, just beautiful.

        My family has a home movie of me and my cousins and siblings when we were young. In one scene, my sister goes crying to my grandma because we were mean to her in the pool. Without taking the Marlboro out of her lips, she said “honey, the next time they do that, you just *belt* ’em one” and punched the air.

        Oh, how I miss her. She was a proper southern belle and dropped out of college to marry my papaw. She gave me my first Latin book.

  12. Count Potato

    “The answer is that a payroll tax cut is the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy. It’s a quack remedy”

    CWAA

    • Ayn Random Variation

      That’s where I knew he didn’t write this.

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      I think his wife writes his columns.

      • one true athena

        Could be. Or one of the little toadies at the NYT. It’s all the same sludge.

  13. J. Frank Parnell

    The answer is that a payroll tax cut is the hydroxychloroquine of economic policy.

    There’s fraudulent studies saying it doesn’t work?

    Trump said it’s good so a lot of people feel obligated to say it’s bad regardless of the evidence?

    It needs to be combined with zinc?

  14. Count Potato

    I can tie my shoes without shitting myself. Where’s my Nobel Prize?

    • Ayn Random Variation

      Validate leftist vomit and you too can win a Nobel Prize!!

    • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

      Facts not in evidence.

  15. C. Anacreon

    I do love the way you tear Krugnuts to shreds, Winston’s Mom! One of my favorite Glibs features.

    And well done on the hydrochloroquine points. One thing most folks don’t know, due to our smug media, is how many front line docs (and I know many) are taking hydrochloroquine prophylactically to protect themselves. Or how it’s used extensively for covid p6 in Europe, despite how they are reportedly so much better at handling the virus than we are in the USA.

    One of the most amazing things of the past few months has been how many non-medical people on my Facebook feed suddenly became experts in FDA approvals and how physicians prescribe (all wildly inaccurate, of course).

    • Playa Manhattan

      What the media won’t admit:

      -The science says it probably helps. Probably.

      -Under medical supervision, it’s perfectly safe

      And this is all because Trump touted it in a press conference.

      • KSuellington

        Hey PM, you got little kids. How’re you guys taking the school closure bullshit here? If this goes on much longer it may be our final push out of the state. The situation here in this shithole has deteriorated rapidly.

      • Chafed

        My youngest is sad and angry to be starting high school from her bedroom.

      • Playa Manhattan

        Youngest one starts private school next next week.

        The other two…. the oldest is a nerd, and does well with the airquotes “distance learning”. Middle one needs interaction.

        I’ve seriously looked at short term leases in Las Vegas and Phoenix. Long term, Texas.

    • Count Potato

      what’s covid p6?

      • Winston's Mom

        Its where you p on 6 COVID patients….whule wearing a mask of course.

      • C. Anacreon

        It’s from trying to post on the phone and the tiny window to type in gets half covered by the up down right left arrows on the one side, so you don’t see your typos.

        That was supposed to be ‘pts’, which I probably should have spelled out anyway, shorthand for ‘patients’.

      • Hyperion

        I thought maybe it’s PTS – Post Trump Syndrome, when after Trump is gone, you wonder around in a dazed and confused state, trying to figure out what you’re supposed to be outraged about now, since our long national nightmare is finally over and utopia has arrived.

      • Tejicano

        So it’s like your outrage boner lasts more than 4 years but you don’t know where to stick it anymore?

      • Count Potato

        OK, thanks.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    recent interviews and inside reporting make it clear that he really is completely out of his depth, with no understanding of either the epidemiological or the economic reality we face.

    Right. And if Obama, confronted with the same set of circumstances, had gone on the teevee and said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” you would have jizzed so hard you’d still be quivering.

    • peachy rex

      They’re still riding the “inside reporting” horse, huh? Also, not really sure that the mental acuity angle is one the Dems should be leaning into right now.

  17. nw

    We’ve been gone for weeks.
    We can’t find the meetup links
    Summer is lonely

    • Nephilium

      If you’re looking to join us:

      Here.

  18. Drake

    As I was picking up food, the restaurant had CNN on. Somebody was breathlessly telling Anderson how many people got the vivid atbthe Sturgis bike rally. I said “now do the protests and riots” but that wasn’t part of their narrative.

    • Rhywun

      20-something last I heard and of course there is no proof “where” someone gets it?

      • Chafed

        Nor that they are symptomatic, need medical care, or died.

  19. Nephilium

    Alright… for this reason alone, I now am a huge fan of Carlos Santana.

  20. straffinrun

    All I want for you my son is to be satisfied.

    • Brochettaward

      Well, alls your father wanted for you was for you not to be gay.

      You failed him.

      • straffinrun

        Had to let that comment breath like a fine wine.

      • straffinrun

        True. It aged like a three day old open can of Milwaukee’s Best.

    • pistoffnick

      Ain’t nothing simple anymore.

    • Hyperion

      That’s what mama said, but then I went down to get drunk with that old Curtis Lowe again.

      • pistoffnick

        Well, I got your drinkin’ money
        Tune up your Dobro

  21. Stinky Wizzleteats

    It just ain’t fair if Winston isn’t around to defend hisself. Hey, Winston, where you at?!

    • Brochettaward

      I already explained above. Winston is a retiree. He got a part time job that takes up more of his time.

      • salted earth

        you know an awful lot…

      • Gustave Lytton

        He has some of being socks…

      • salted earth

        i am growing increasingly paranoid

      • Plinker762

        Paranoia the Destroyer

      • Brochettaward

        Some days, I’m not sure all of you aren’t my sock puppets.

      • Not an Economist

        Winston tells him mother everything.

      • C. Anacreon

        You know, in her photo above, I think she’s trying to smoke a Winston.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        She looks kind of like 1995 Pamela Anderson on a cocaine binge. I’d give her a chance, I think I could change her (to meth, it’s much cheaper).

      • C. Anacreon

        If I’m not mistaken that’s Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous.

      • Chafed

        It is.

      • C. Anacreon

        I went to Winston-Salem on business once. What’s interesting is everyone in the Salem area smelled like menthol.

      • KSuellington

        And the Winston area?

      • Chafed

        *bites tongue*

  22. Mojeaux

    Angel food cake is cotton candy with flour.

    Discuss.

    • pistoffnick

      Sugar is the devil.

      • Mojeaux

        Yes. Yes, it is.

    • Nephilium

      But Angel Food Cake has egg whites, cotton candy does not.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Interesting. And not wrong.

    • UnCivilServant

      Don’t tell me what to do.

    • Annoyed Nomad

      Does it come in bright colors?

  23. hayeksplosives

    Outstanding!!

    Better to laugh than cry.

    • hayeksplosives

      Ugh. The level of smug is crazy (among the activists)

    • one true athena

      Antifa goons, who took a first aid class. That’s what they really are.

      • dbleagle

        The medical part of the Special Forces Medic Course (MOS 18D) is 57 weeks by itself. But okay “rose hips”, you are a medic.

        A mere army combat lifesaver has more training than you and do many more trauma treatments than you.

      • This Machine

        I wanna see one of these radical chic roleplaying wannabes try to cric someone. Preferably one of their comrades.

    • Chafed

      They are getting the quality care they deserve.

  24. hayeksplosives

    The local golf club bar/restaurant is still closed to CovidPanic, but they had a food truck today, so we went after I got home from work.

    We sat on the clubs patio and chatted with some folks we know from the community.

    A new neighbor was there, and after listening to us talk a smidge of politics in which I mentioned I am libertarian (the other couple is liberty leaning Republican ), new guy says “Oh, I have a favorite question for libertarians.”

    I said I have a favorite libertarian answer: fuck off, slaver. He then asked his question “do you think 16 year olds should have the right to vote if they have a job?”

    I told him not in our government/society, because we have strayed so far off course that now having a vote means taking more of someone else’s property or freedom.

    He tried again but revealed himself to be a whiney bitch who thinks government should be more actively protecting people.

    His rationale for 16 year olds voting is that if the teens are experiencing violence at school, they should be able to vote for leaders who will protect them. Dude is 39.

    I didn’t make a friend, but I no longer need to give that jackass a moment more of my time.

    • UnCivilServant

      do you think 16 year olds should have the right to vote if they have a job?

      Are they fully supporting themselves and a net taxpayer?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Are they adults or minors?

      • UnCivilServant

        Minors, since adulthood appears to start at 26 these days.

      • hayeksplosives

        Can they be listed as dependents on someone’s tax return?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hah. Was going to make a 26 year old child joke.

    • Tejicano

      I would have told him “Thanks for the fluffy hypothetical but how are you going to define and verify ‘job’?” Two hours a week? 40 hours? How long has he/she had this job? Is he/she actually doing work or just helping around mom&pop’s place? What if he/she is volunteering 40 hours a week doing maintenance/cleaning at the woman’s shelter? There’s no way to define this in the real world so , no, I don’t agree they should be able to vote.

    • EvilSheldon

      “I think that voting should be against the law.”

    • KSuellington

      Well duh, the 16 year old kid could vote for the anti violence at school candidate. That guy who keeps advocating school beatdowns and special concessions to bullies needs to be voted out.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “if the teens are experiencing violence at school,”

      I suppose molested toddlers should get to vote too.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        And his line of thinking is that “Victimhood brings knowledge and moral authority.”

        Took me a second to figure out his angle.

      • Spartacus

        Maybe I’m missing something. What does this have to do with having a job? They’re worried about teens experiencing violence at school, so the solution is to let them vote, but only if they have a job. I don’t see the connection. Why not just give them the choice of which school to attend so they can look for a better one?

    • Spartacus

      Of course, the flip side of that is “Should a 39 year old get to vote if he doesn’t have a job?”

    • one true athena

      Ninja make bad security guards, is what I’m getting out of that headline? Good assassins, supposedly, but can’t protect their own museum?

  25. UnCivilServant

    Should “compostery” be a word?

    • hayeksplosives

      It’s perfectly cromulent.

    • pistoffnick

      People who use “compostery” as a word are full of shit.

      • Akira

        I knew this thread would decompose into namecalling fairly quickly…

    • Plinker762

      Get ye to a Compostery.

      • C. Anacreon

        A coming together meetup of people who post on Glibertarians is known as a Compostery.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Compensatory compostery”

      Sounds legit.

  26. UnCivilServant

    🙁 My internet has decided to go intermittant.

    I hope it stays up.

    • UnCivilServant

      *long string of incoherent profanities*

      • Gender Traitor

        E-mail working?

      • UnCivilServant

        It should, since I’m not hosting it, but every few minutes I get kicked off the internet again and have to reset my modem for a little bit of time online

      • UnCivilServant

        I answered your email.

    • UnCivilServant

      Oh, it’s been upped to “an outage” on Spectrum’s website.

      Lets see how long my connection lasts this time

      • UnCivilServant

        I know that in theory, intermittant internet connecitivity should not impede my ability to write.

        But it is a disruption of the status quo, and thus a distraction. I have become fixated on the problem and not the story.

      • UnCivilServant

        They are no longer listing it as an outage.

        We’ll see.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m forgetting character names when they’ve been in the last half dozen scenes.

      I should sleep.

      • Chafed

        Sounds like a good idea.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I know I am. First thing I’m wondering is why was the funeral service held at the WH. But probably makes more sense logistically and it’s way down on my tax dollars shouldn’t be used for that crap list. Certainly below vacations jaunts and staffers for the president’s spouse.

      But I still wouldn’t tweet something like that (hopefully). What happened to the press corps offering at least a token, if not a sincere one, of appreciation of Trump’s loss of his brother?

      • Chafed

        It was a chance to make a snide remark at Trump’s expense. I guess his editor would approve.

      • Akira

        The best thing about Trump is that he gets people to show their true colors (and that’s not even really to his credit).

  27. Tres Cool

    another overnight, and another beer @ 06.30.

    • Tres Cool

      “Oliver says he strongly opposes the bill. He doesn’t know what the punishment would be for non-compliance but expects that most people will respond well to the mandate.”

      Oh, when the option could be prison, he’s probably right.

    • Sean

      Nice try, but you failed.

      I’m already pissed off. It’s a default state.

      Mornin’

      • Tres Cool

        If a Shawn yawns, does a Sean yean ?

      • Sean

        I yeaned my gf pretty good last night.

    • Tundra

      We’ve been speculating about where people say ‘no more’.

      I think mandatory vaccinations is that point.

    • Tres Cool

      Someone has been missing leg day it would seem.