Wednesday Morning Sitting In Links

by | Sep 23, 2020 | Daily Links | 449 comments

While Sloopy and Banjos are off creating more girl-child terrors, I’m left holding the bag. And as you can see from the pic, SP has gently explained to me why it’s MY turn to fill in the blanks. So here I am.

And indeed, these could could be the first words of people born on this day, including the subject of one of my favorite poems; the ancestor of Pearson; a rather fringe character; the Yin to Lucas’s Yang; Spudalicious’s spirit animal; a hero of mine who died before I could see him in action; a vastly overlooked guitarist, and the recent subject of Old Guy Music; Larry David’s alter ego; and a pioneer of combining music with activism, thus making shitty music and moronic activism.

All that said, let’s look at the news.

 

First, a bonus for you. I was texted by the Biden campaign to work the phones. After some back and forth for me to determine what I could get out of this, I got a copy of the script. Not a joke. It’s pretty clear what the goal is here– not persuasion, but getting people already on your side to participate. You know, like a pyramid scheme.

 

Team Red- the party of limited government. smdh

 

I used to get dragged here once a year during my last marriage. I do not miss my last marriage, and I won’t miss this place.

 

This, right here, is EVERYTHING that’s wrong with American Judaism, and why you won’t catch me near a shul. I think that since lightning didn’t come down and kill both of these assholes, this is sufficient evidence for the hypothesis of the non-existence of Yahweh.

 

Best possible timeline? Uh, maybe.

 

“We’re ready to shut down your businesses!”

 

Old Guy Music is a birthday boy playing a familiar one, and of course in ways no-one else ever could. What makes this hypnotic is the animation.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

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

449 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    Team Red- the party of limited government. smdh – a few more steps and you can have your very own NHS

    • juris imprudent

      With all of the glorious efficiency and effectiveness of every other federal bureaucracy.

  2. PieInTheSky

    I used to get dragged here once a year during my last marriage. I do not miss my last marriage, and I won’t miss this place. – dunno sounds like the kind of place with a world class wine menu

    • Nephilium

      I bet they had all three kinds of wine: red, white, and mixed.

      • PieInTheSky

        ah the 90s/2000s Romanian restaurant school of wine lists. Here the waiter also helpfully offered it was off dry. No idea of the grape region etc

      • UnCivilServant

        If they ever managed to achieve consistancy in wine production, you wouldn’t have to fret over that.

      • PieInTheSky

        something about consistency and little minds (not that I agree with that quote )

      • Nephilium

        There’s bars that still have the red or white options as their only wines. Generally the types of places where you’re switching to neat pours of liquor.

      • PieInTheSky

        is the liquor any good? What % of US bars have literally nothing palatable on offer? (Bud light does not count as palatable )

      • Sean

        Hopefully one day you’ll find out first hand.

      • PieInTheSky

        Well I probably will not because whenever I go some where I tend to google the best places to go. Which makes one avoid bad places but sometimes also leads to missing out to interesting / quality out of the way smaller places. If I get there I may need to found a dive bar, just one where my getting stabbed/shot odds are low. In less lawless places than the US, this is not of great concern.

      • Festus' Mustache

        For Pie – When I used to travel I used to just go where the taxi driver recommended. Still have most of my kidneys.

      • PieInTheSky

        But your liver is shaky?

      • Nephilium

        I don’t think I’ve ever been in a bar that I couldn’t at least find a bourbon to drink. I have ran into my share of dirty tap lines and past their prime cans/bottles being served though. It’s also looking like Yuengling is going to be available nationwide, which provides a drinkable option (if you don’t mind drinking a Miller-Coors product).

      • juris imprudent

        Beer sales dropped 2% in the U.S. last year, according to the Brewers Association, as the popularity of hard seltzer continues to spike.

        Borrowing from Mencken, no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people.

      • Suthenboy

        “…no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people.”

        I thought that was P.T. Barnum.

        I don’t know why but quotes stick in my head but often I get the attribution wrong.
        Ex. – “People who know a lot of quotes are people who cannot speak for themselves.” – I cant remember who but I remember it was a woman.

      • juris imprudent

        The original Mencken was intelligence instead of taste.

      • juris imprudent

        Then again, maybe Mencken was stealing from Barnum?

      • DWB

        I assume most are those hoppy beers are for women anyway so Seltzer popularity makes sense

      • DEG

        It’s also looking like Yuengling is going to be available nationwide, which provides a drinkable option (if you don’t mind drinking a Miller-Coors product).

        Some articles say it is a West Coast expansion, but some articles say they’ll come into northern New England (like NH) with the expansion. We will see.

      • Not Adahn

        If I ever wind up owning a bar in a non-anglophone country, I’ll be sure to put up a sign that says “liquor in the front, poker in the rear” in the local language.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Yeah, the mix bucket was just the dregs of any of the opened boxes when it didn’t look like there was all that much left.”

  3. Yusef drives a Kia

    Mornin’ Old Man!

    • PieInTheSky

      Who keeps track of time these days?

    • Old Man With Candy

      Mornin’ Mr. Michigan.

    • Plisade

      Are you living in Michigan?

  4. PieInTheSky

    This, right here, is EVERYTHING that’s wrong with American Judaism, and why you won’t catch me near a shul. – that is the only reason because you do not seem like the practicing religion type

  5. PieInTheSky

    Best possible timeline? Uh, maybe. – no I will not select motorcycles.

  6. UnCivilServant

    Morning meetings and old man links?

    Tis an ill omen for the day.

    • PieInTheSky

      is there also an ill wind about?

      • Festus' Mustache

        Judging from about five seconds ago, yes.

      • AlexinCT

        Beans, beans, the musical fruit….

    • Not Adahn

      Are you seeing the phrase “Tiz the law?” on signage? I don’t know if it’s a NY thing or a Toga thing. But it’s definitely a thing.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve not seen it.

        Caveat – I’ve not gone out much save for commutes on the office days.

      • Not Adahn

        SC on Sunday. I won’t be there, I’ll be at a Kayderosseras shoot.

      • Ted S.

        The glue factory candidate that won the Belmont is from Upstate and named Tiz the Law, which is why you’re seeing that.

      • UnCivilServant

        I keep forgetting there’s a racetrack in Saratoga.

      • Not Adahn

        I used to follow it via osmosis, but not this year.

      • Not Adahn

        Ah, that makes sense.

    • juris imprudent

      Ah but there should be SF for lunch, so to speak.

  7. Yusef drives a Kia

    Who new there were Amish Bikers?

    • Festus' Mustache

      I don’t care what their affiliations are. I want to drink beer and go fishing with those guys.

      • Brochettaward

        and go fishing with those guys.

        Would be cooler if you were going Firsting.

      • Festus' Mustache

        I gave up on that fad when I became one of the cool kids (when they stopped posting the ass-slapping GIF) but you do you.

  8. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Team Red – “We’re mildly better than certain doom.”

    • Festus' Mustache

      “We’re certain doom but not as quick!”

  9. Grosspatzer

    Old man music on Wednesday! And now, off to (((work))).

  10. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The journolist word of the day appears to be “200,000”

    • Suthenboy

      Amazing how the CDC 6% report has been memory holed.

      • Festus' Mustache

        I was bored on my breaks last night and watched Kayleigh’s Press Briefing in full. It was ridiculous how many times she had to field THE EXACT SAME QUESTION from those morons. TMITHE

    • AlexinCT

      They should report the 200 million Biden claimed would be dead by the end of his speech…

      • Festus' Mustache

        Meh, drop in the bucket (some Greeny)

  11. Pine_Tree

    The Sizzler one is one of those “I thought those were already extinct” things for me. Unless the old “Sizzler” or whatever it was in the South was different from the one mentioned.

    Another similar in my mind was “Steak and Ale”. Chain steakhouse with a pretty good name. When youngster Pine_Tree was a noob Engineer who sometimes travelled for work with per diem, that was one of the frequented places. It was about as “nice” as we could find where we were to get a bunch of steak and beer.

    • Not Adahn

      Someone once told me “never go to a restaurant that advertises on TV.” It’s a pretty good rule.

      • invisible finger

        That was my dad’s rule about movies.

      • Apples and Knives

        Dad was a big arthouse fan?

      • Agent Cooper

        Dad can’t get enough Todd Solondz

      • Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

        So he watched a lot of porn?

      • l0b0t

        Lenny’s Clam Bar is an exception to that rule. I’m pretty sure only the Howard Beach location (the original) remains, and it is only the second most mobbed up restaurant I’ve dined at here in NYC but, if you like seafood prepared in the manner of the Eye-Talians, the food is Heavenly.

    • Festus' Mustache

      The Keg was always okay but I haven’t been for over a decade.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      I went when it first went opened but don’t remember the experience.

      • Pine_Tree

        Pine_Tree in 2020 wouldn’t order a steak at a steakhouse chain, since they’re never as good as the ones at really good places. If I end up at one of those places these days, it’s for a big burger.

        But when you’re that noob I’d mentioned above, and had spent the previous 22 years being poor, and now you’ve got a good job and your employer is covering your tab at the Steak & Ale in Spartanburg, SC, then you smile about it.

    • Chipwooder

      There used to be Sizzlers everywhere. I haven’t seen one in many years, so I assumed it was defunct already.

      Remember The Ground Round?

      • Cancelled

        I loved The Ground Round as a kid! Free peanuts!

      • Festus' Mustache

        The Olde Spaghetti Factory and Shakey’s! Dog and Suds if you were feeling a little up-scale.

      • Pine_Tree

        Hah.. The Old Spaghetti Factory in ATL was on Ponce, easy walking distance from Tech. It was cheap enough for students and full of extremely gaudy furniture.

      • Pine_Tree

        Nope. Must’ve been regional. There were/are a few others that come to mind – “Western Sizzlin'” and “Golden Corral”. Both were the kind of low-end/low-cost “steakhouses” with all-you-can-eat buffets.

      • Sean

        I remember the Ground Round and Ponderosa.

      • Nephilium

        As do I. And there’s actually still a Golden Corral a couple miles from me.

      • DEG

        I remember both.

    • DWB

      That sounds SO familiar — I think that I used to play pool in a Steak and Ale as a teenager (the building was big and had a separate bar/pool table room.)

  12. Not Adahn

    I think that since lightning didn’t come down and kill both of these assholes, this is sufficient evidence for the hypothesis of the non-existence of Yahweh.

    He kind of trapped Himself into a corner with that whole promise not to wipe out all life on Earth thing, and people have been taking advantage ever since.

    • Cancelled

      Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
      9
      “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you
      10
      and with every living creature that was with you–the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you–every living creature on earth.
      11
      I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
      12

      Notice the specificity. God promised no more world ending floods. He left all other modes of world ending on the table. How do you know that this time around he isn’t ending the world by socialism?

      • AlexinCT

        If there was a God that would bother with his ant farm that much, he isn’t that evil to send socialism to end it. That’s the devil’s kind of work.. Promising good things while buttfucking you instead…

      • Cancelled

        Have you read Genesis? Let me refer you to the fate of Lot’s wife. JHVH is a vengeful God.

      • Festus' Mustache

        C’mon Jarflax. Everyone hates their dad just a little.

      • AlexinCT

        There is a difference between vengeful and evil. A flood, asteroid strike, or even massive solar flare to end life are all vengeful, but socialism as the means to an end is plain evil.

      • creech

        You dare to parse the word of God? I bet you deny Romans 13 and would have fought with those evil Founding Fathers against good King George III who ruled by divine right? Or supported the devil Lincoln who wanted to end slavery that is approved numerous times in the Holy Word?

    • Suthenboy

      Religion is proof that cognitive dissonance has always been a thing.

  13. PieInTheSky

    So what is the deal with Hunter Biden? No fake news please, just the facts.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Nothing to see, move along!

    • PieInTheSky

      Grassley/Johnson rpt says Hunter Biden “paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and who appear to be linked to an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”

      I mean I don’t know if true but it would be interesting to know if Hunter stole our women.

      • Not Adahn

        Well, he does like them on the stripperiffic side.

      • SugarFree

        Strip clubs in the DC area have the best crack buffets.

      • juris imprudent

        Wasn’t that a biblical duty?

      • UnCivilServant

        Only if the brother didn’t have any children. Did he?

      • AlexinCT

        Incest is best, give your dead brother’s widow the test?

      • Nephilium

        And spilling his seed on the ground instead of in his brother’s widow was Onan’s sin.

      • juris imprudent

        God hates the money shot.

      • Festus' Mustache

        The cynic in me says that he was doing that before his brother’s demise. “Hey Buddy! Stop doing that!”

      • invisible finger

        Perversion is hereditary.

      • Ted S.

        +1 Marty Brodeur

      • Festus' Mustache

        Ugh. Forgot about that. Thanks TedS, thanks alot.

      • Chipwooder

        UN-CLE DAD-DY! *clap clap clapclapclap*

      • Mojeaux

        Of all the things to hold against the Bidens, that’s not one of them. I don’t see the problem.

      • Brochettaward

        I find couplings like that to be unseemly personally (I’m not going to fuck my brother’s ex, whether he’s dead or not), but the timing of Biden’s split with his wife and his brother’s death hint that there may have been an affair going on. Of course, can’t prove that.

      • Mojeaux

        Queen Gertrude gonna Queen Gertrude.

        The relationship between a man and his brother’s widow might be eyebrow raising, yes.

        However, yes, an affair is lip curling.

      • PieInTheSky

        If your brother (if you have one) would be married and would cheat on his wife with a hot mistress, and you got the chance, would you fuck the side chick? Or is it the concept of your brothers second hand stuff that bothers you?

      • Brochettaward

        I don’t want his second hand stuff.

      • PieInTheSky

        Even if we are talking smoking? Like drop dead gorgeous?

      • DEG

        Yep.

        I had enough second hand stuff from my brother via hand-me-down clothing.

      • Ted S.

        But you’ll fuck your brother’s ex if she’s dead.

      • Festus' Mustache

        “Though shalt not covet thy Brother’s PoonTang” should be the 11th commandment. Nothing good will come of that and it should keep you out of the more pleasant Heaven.

      • Mojeaux

        Onan got killed for not coveting it enough.

      • Brochettaward

        I’m not a biblical guy, but it was for not coveting enough or because he had sex with her and pulled out?

      • Mojeaux

        IIRC he didn’t want to do it in the first place and pulled out to technically fulfill the duty but not give her his kid.

        I put “not coveting enough” to be witty, but that went limp.

      • Brochettaward

        I get your response and that you were being glib with it. I just never really got the story to begin with. How is he fulfilling his duty by just fucking his brother’s widow? The whole point is to produce a kid. That is the duty. Not the sex.*

        *I have never actual read this myself, just know of the story

      • AlexinCT

        They lacked good pr0n scripts back when it sounds like…

        These days they have pizza delivery guys telling everyone they like to watch…

      • Mojeaux

        He’s not fulfilling his duty. He didn’t want to do it because it would not be considered his kid/heir. It would be considered his brother’s.

        Tamar got her revenge in the end, though. She tricked Judah into doing the honors.

      • Brochettaward

        My recollection of the story was off, though that refresher helped.

        The context I originally heard it recounted was related to homosexuality being a sin and the story was used as an example of wasting your seed.

      • creech

        If DOCTOR Jill Biden hasn’t a problem with it, why should we? She’s a DOCTOR, therefore “science” and all that.

    • Drake

      He’s a swell guy who got tossed out of the Navy for failing drug tests. Made $millions (maybe $billions) on dad’s name in the Ukraine and China. He served on the Amtrak board because he rode a lot of trains. Recently he lost a paternity case with a stripper he impregnated. Joe keeps forgetting about that grandkid.

  14. PieInTheSky

    Weather is getting chilly ion the morning, under 15. I had to get a hoodie for my morning walk two days in a row. Until now it was just tshirt.

    • Old Man With Candy

      41°C here today, damn you.

      • Not Adahn

        And? You Sephards come from a hot miserable climate. And since you’re supposed o be skinny being a vegan and all, you should be almost as heat tolerant as Mr. Lizard.

      • PieInTheSky

        wait is OMWC full vegan now? I though he was a cheese eater

      • Cancelled

        Vieux Juif avec des bonbons?

  15. Rufus the Monocled

    Ginsburg is a prophet? Did they redefine the term and not give me the memo? It’s like how the WHO changed the definition of a pandemic – essentially watering it down – back in 2009.

    So low the standards, anything qualifies.

    • Drake

      Why are they eulogizing an atheist who’s can’t even be bothered to arrange her funeral according to Jewish law?

      • Not Adahn

        Just as Jews are Schrödinger’s PoCs, Ginsberg is a Schrödinger’s Jewess.

      • Cancelled

        I have been mildly amused that the left is going on and on about her being the first woman and first Jew to lie in state and completely ignoring the fact that lying in state is a direct violation of Jewish law, and that no practicing Jew would allow a relative’s body to sit out in the rotunda for a week.

      • invisible finger

        It’s not like she ever upheld laws before.

  16. PieInTheSky

    Prejudice Reduction: Progress and Challenges

    https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-psych-071620-030619

    The past decade has seen rapid growth in research that evaluates methods for reducing prejudice. This essay reviews 418 experiments reported in 309 manuscripts from 2007 to 2019 to assess which approaches work best and why. Our quantitative assessment uses meta-analysis to estimate average effects. Our qualitative assessment calls attention to landmark studies that are noteworthy for sustained interventions, imaginative measurement, and transparency. However, 76% of all studies evaluate light touch interventions, the long-term impact of which remains unclear. The modal intervention uses mentalizing as a salve for prejudice. Although these studies report optimistic conclusions, we identify troubling indications of publication bias that may exaggerate effects. Furthermore, landmark studies often find limited effects, which suggests the need for further theoretical innovation or synergies with other kinds of psychological or structural interventions. We conclude that much research effort is theoretically and empirically ill-suited to provide actionable, evidence-based recommendations for reducing prejudice.

    • Not Adahn

      The modal intervention uses mentalizing as a salve for prejudice.

      Awww, they’re so adorable when they’re trying to look smart!

      • Nephilium

        I think I’ve found their inspiration.

      • juris imprudent

        He must be out of the business these days.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      theoretical innovation or synergies with other kinds of psychological or structural interventions

      It’s like corporate bullshit bingo for brainwashers.

  17. Tundra

    Good morning Old Man!

    You are an excellent substitute weekday lynxster!

    That script is hilarious. I notice there is no “Fuck off, slaver” option, though.

    From the Pelosi article:

    “We have reached an agreement with Republicans on the (continuing resolution) to add nearly $8 billion in desperately needed nutrition assistance for hungry schoolchildren and families,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday. “We also increase accountability in the Commodity Credit Corporation, preventing funds for farmers from being misused for a Big Oil bailout.”

    So much bullshit crammed into such a short paragraph. I feel like she is just phoning it in at this point. We don’t have hungry people in this country. We haven’t for decades. And do people really think Big Oil is still the boogeyman? Why isn’t granny all pissed off about the bank bailouts? Or consolidation?

    Bleh.

    Anyway, nice Old Guy Music this morning! I played the sax in my younger days and – funny – I could never make it sound like that.

    I hope you all have an amazing day! The world may be a retarded wasteland, but this group of weirdos is truly an oasis of awesome.

    • Festus' Mustache

      One of these days she’s gonna spit out a plate at one of these press conferences. Alcohol degrades Poli-Grip and she’s a denture fiddler. Too many seeds in her diet, I’d venture.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Not fun, I did it on stage once, singing a song, oops!

      • Festus' Mustache

        One of my pet fears.

    • Not Adahn

      Turned completely sideways, with her foot on the gas. Amazing.

      • invisible finger

        It was certainly off the brake. 95% of people drive with their emotions, not their brains.

    • Apples and Knives

      And then looks like she’s yelling at the vehicle she just rear ended? What a lovely person.

    • AlexinCT

      This sort of idiocy is prevalent in this crowd, but they still think of themselves as S-M-R-T smart!

  18. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    Best possible timeline?

    Just thinking about how triggered my grandparents must be from seeing their neighbors do a trump parade makes me smile.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      We were held at a major intersection for half an hour last Saturday, Trump rally drive by, thousands of trucks, truly Trump land

    • UnCivilServant

      You’re not supposed to kneel atop handcuffed suspects.

      • AlexinCT

        HONKEY CAT IN BLACK FACE OF ALL THINGS!

    • Not Adahn

      If it fits, I sits.

      The bit on making calico cookies below it is pretty genius.

      • Not Adahn

        Of course dogs possess one, it’s the reason they’re so successful.

  19. Cancelled

    Named for William Holmes McGuffey’s influential primers that first appeared in 1836 and remained in print until 1921

    Still in print, and still far superior to what is out there today, I learned to read from them and taught my niece to read from them.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Did your early teachers call them Primers or Primmers? The one terrible teacher that I had in elementary school always called them Primmers. She also liked to use the term “fools-cap” for that cheap paper.

    • juris imprudent

      Not possible, we have thousands of pedagogical geniuses – every one of them with a Ph.D. – that better understand the process of learning to read. Why do you hate experts, and children?

      • Cancelled

        Not possible, we have thousands of pedagogical geniuses – every one of them with a Ph.D. – that better understand the process of learning to read about the evil of whiteness, heterosexuality, and masculinity.

  20. Tonio

    I also get those “would you like to help the Dem campaign by {registering voters|making calls} texts. In previous years I f*cked with them, now I just ignore which makes them go away faster.

    I suspect it’s as much about checking my voting intentions as anything. IE, a lukewarm friendly response means I’m on their side, a hostile response means I’m a deplorable, etc.

    • Festus' Mustache

      Hey, Tonio! Nice to see you out and about again! How’s tricks? Feeling better?

    • AlexinCT

      You are on to something there Tonio…

  21. PieInTheSky

    Globally, people want self-driving cars to spare humans rather than animals, young people rather than old, high status rather than low status, females rather than males… and dogs rather than cats. (N = 2.3 million)

    https://twitter.com/SteveStuWill/status/1308568762988163073

    Then again many still want to make the decision themselves rather than a computer. Also how does a computer tell between girl and boy (seems sexist and assume gender) and between a doctor and non doctor?

  22. Drake

    Is the mainstream media with all their efforts going to be able to maintain this farce. Biden is too frail to campaign at this point.

    The upcoming SC hearings will be a wonderful reminder to everyone that Kamala Harris is an absolutely awful alternative.

  23. Lachowsky

    Team red spent 6 years campaigning against the ACA and out of control spending. They leveraged those position to take all three branches of the federal government. In the past three years they have spent more money, driven the debt higher, and have moved to the left of the ACA in health care policy. Spineless or evil? take your pick. Either way, fuck them.

    • PieInTheSky

      Spineless or evil – both and also corrupt greedy etc.

      But like every vaguely right wing party in the developed world, I am not certain the other guys will reduce out of control spending.

      Back in the day both ideologies at least made an attempt at reducing debt/deficits. Now neither do.

      We have elections this weekend and it is turd sandwich vs giant douche

      • Gustave Lytton

        Technically, giant douche is what’s needed for that deep cleanse.

      • juris imprudent

        But God said he wouldn’t flood the earth again.

      • Mojeaux

        Fire cleanses.

      • AlexinCT

        You making a comment about California?

      • Mojeaux

        Maaaayyyyyyybeeeeee.

      • AlexinCT

        The days of fiscally responsible government are gone. When such a large part of the electorate votes for free shit, you can’t expect the crooks running for office to deliver on fiscal responsibility. You won’t get elected. So we will just have to wait until the whole thing collapses and we redo a dark age to come out of it with people that do fiscal responsibility again. And then it will again fade and we will rinse & repeat.

    • straffinrun

      But they will stop the looting. At least one type of looting.

    • AlexinCT

      That asshat McCain gave them an out by torpedoing the thing, but you are correct that they would prefer to keep an issue as an eternal fundraising scam than to fix it.

    • kbolino

      The Republicans never intended to fully repeal the ACA. The handful of voices who had actual repeal plans, people like Rand Paul, were ignored by the mainstream and castigated for not being pure enough by cliquish libertarians (who, admittedly, are politically irrelevant like all libertarians). At the end of the day, both the GOP and the Democrats win elections by appealing to what voters want, and what voters want is more bang for less personal out-of-pocket buck. Thus has every major legislative decision of the past 60+ years been ultimately about panem et circenses with a lot of overhead expenses like “civil rights” tacked on.

      The entirety of modern monetary theory is essentially an ideological version of wish fulfillment combined with an attempt to explain why ridiculously high levels of debt and taxation have not resulted in catastrophic consequences (there are many consequences, and some of them might be called locally catastrophic, but the U.S. as a whole has not collapsed and descended into warlordism). The Republicans don’t win elections by addressing the systemic problems the government creates nor by actually cutting government spending, because the systemic problems are the result of well liked government programs and cutting government spending passes the buck more directly back to the individual voter, which is not what anyone wants.

      This is electoral politics in an age of previously unimagined wealth, largely built on a handful of revolutionary industries that nevertheless have all the characteristics of non-revolutionary economics (regressive demographics, exempt from most labor laws, little to no unionization, dependent on low-wage labor and environmentally destructive industrial practices). The GOP is not interested in rejecting the spoiled children that want this to continue, but assuage their guilty consciences with baubles and low-rent “activism”, because those children comprise the majority of voters. You don’t get power without them.

  24. Brochettaward

    Bill Clinton continues to lie about how often he flew on Epstein’s plane. Also lies about recording all of those flights in the Secret Service’s logs:

    In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Staff, supporters of the Foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. He had one meeting with Epstein in his Harlem office in 2002, and around the same time made one brief visit to Epstein’s New York apartment with a staff member and his security detail. He’s not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida.”

    • AlexinCT

      Fredo Corleone of the democratic party, a.k.a. Carlos Danger, better known, appropriately it seems, as Anthony <emWeiner, had nothing on old Bill here…

  25. PieInTheSky

    “Is there any harm if convenience stores and gas stations in Indiana sell refrigerated beer (currently, they can only sell it at room temperature)?”

    https://twitter.com/RSI/status/1308547629823950850

    America is weird

    • Drake

      I worked for a company that had a Swedish subsidiary for a while. The Swedes, like most sane people, could make no sense of our regulations. There are tons of federal regulations – most arguably unconstitutional, then every state and territory has it’s own unique rules, then the counties and towns make more rules. It’s amazing anything gets done. Much of what does get done is because people generally ignore it all until the cops or regulators show up.

      • PieInTheSky

        The Swedes are not good examples when it comes to alcohol though.

        Romania is a shithole but you can buy any typo of booze in any store at any hour of any day (as long as it is open, and gas stations mostly always are). Gas stations sell cold beer, wine, whiskey etc.

      • Brochettaward

        Romania is a shithole but you can buy any typo of booze in any store at any hour of any day (as long as it is open, and gas stations mostly always are). Gas stations sell cold beer, wine, whiskey etc.

        I’m still trying to figure out why I can get beer delivered to my house through something like Doordash until 11:30 even though the Circle K will continue delivering all night long.

        Or why the movie theater will only sell me two beers even though I’m watching a 3 hour movie. And then they make me wear a little wristband with marks on them to track how many I’ve had.

        Fuck KKKorporate America.

      • Drake

        Maybe Romania is a shithole but because you can buy any typo of booze in any store at any hour of any day?

        Get to work you lazy drunks!

      • l0b0t

        Nah, New Orleans has very similar laws and it’s not a shithole… Oh, oh wait, lemme rethink this.

      • Agent Cooper

        “can buy any typo of booze”

        Seems to be working.

      • Not Adahn

        “This Burbun is terrible”

      • l0b0t

        Burbun

        Now I’m imagining an evil chef who has crafted steamed bao full of sandspurs.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      In MD the booze laws vary by county.

    • Nephilium

      It’s all holdovers from when the progressives managed to push prohibition through. There’s some interesting (to me at least) stories that contrast the laws in various states and how it’s impacted brewery growth in the states. Keep in mind that the last states legalized homebrewing just seven years ago.

    • DWB

      Indiana is a special kind of stupid

    • banginglc1

      It’s the liquor store lobby. Liquor stores are the only place that can sell cold beer in Indiana. They like it that way. And they donate a lot of money to politicians to keep it that way. They were losing the battle a few years ago and gave in to Sunday sales as a compromise.

      A man names Jay Ricker found a way around the laws by putting restaurants in his gas stations. Those restaurants got a “carry out” license to sell cold beer. The legislature changed the law specifically to thwart him. It was one of the dirtiest things I’ve ever seen happen.

      If you google his name, you’ll find a lot more about it.

      • banginglc1

        Oh . . .and he sold all his gas stations after that, I think he’d had enough of the dirty politics.

      • Tejicano

        Sometimes I like to buy a beer from a vending machine here in Japan simply because I can.

      • UnCivilServant

        Then regret the decision when you try to drink it?

      • Tejicano

        Never. Japanese beers are generally good and there’s always room for one more.

      • UnCivilServant

        there’s always room for one more.

        So you’re saying they’re unsatisfying?

      • Not Adahn

        They’re not bland, they’re subtle.

      • Tejicano

        Seriously? I like them enough that I can always have another.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m just messing with you, man.

      • PieInTheSky

        The first time I went to Munich in the hotel hallways on each floor there was a vending machine with cold Paulaner

    • Brochettaward

      That’s some good science there, Lou.

  26. straffinrun

    Morning, Old Man. How I saw that music video is probably how people saw my Japanese lessons.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Regal pomp

    When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returns for the final time to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, an army of more than a hundred of her former clerks will meet the casket and accompany it up the stone steps leading to the great hall where the liberal icon presided for almost 30 years.
    The Supreme Court, built on precedent and rooted in tradition, will honor Ginsburg in a private ceremony and then a public viewing, but her former clerks, standing guard, won’t leave the casket.

    What is it with yearning for a titular nobility, in this country? She worked for the government. Big fucking deal.

    • creech

      Will the army of clerks be racially balanced? Or will it be evidence of “systemic racism” practiced by this particular Justice? It is rumored she only picked one black clerk in her forty years on the bench.

    • Brochettaward

      What is it with yearning for a titular nobility

      It is some creepy shit.

    • EvilSheldon

      Another word for hereditary bureaucracy is “court.”

      • PieInTheSky

        Eunuchs is one way of not making it hereditary

      • EvilSheldon

        So is regicide.

    • Cancelled

      I suspect that he desire for an aristocracy is universal. You can change the forms; you can even ban patents of nobility, but people will find someone to hold up as their superior whatever you do. Eliminating patents of nobility might just be what gave us the Kardashians. Think on that and despair.

  28. Certified Public Asshat

    A small group of protestors came to my block just now using sirens, whistles, and other noisemakers to wake a bunch of people up then chanted “if we don’t get no justice you don’t get no peace” for a few minutes then moved on. Not totally sure what the cause even is, no signs etc— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 23, 2020

    Truly a mystery.

    • creech

      “And if we don’t get no peace, you don’t get no justice.”

    • R C Dean

      White supremacists?

    • Agent Cooper

      The Grammartarians?

  29. PieInTheSky

    An overwhelming 78% of Britons support the new lockdown measures announced today, including 44% who “strongly support” them.

    Just 17% of Britons are opposed…

    https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1308470349743480835

    As K Nimitz would say, freedom loving Britain

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Oye, wat a bunch o’ fookin pussies.

    • straffinrun

      This takes a lot of, if not all of, the shine off of the conservatives historic electoral win. US has it bad, but the UK really has no one worth voting for.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Farage would be OK, maybe Rees-Mogg who’s a Tory backbencher, but all the rest seem to be varying degrees of suck.

    • Charlie Suet

      I think people on here are going off the deep end on this. You can make a reasonable case that these new rules are pointless and authoritarian. I don’t agree that they’re particularly egregious – Sweden is the Western exception, not the rule. I suspect London is just as free currently as New York, if not more so.

      Generally speaking the UK will always be less free than the USA because we don’t have your/their constitution and we’re not federalised, so people can’t vote with their feet and move. Traditionally I’d also have said that the average Yank is more economically literate than the average Brit (though that’s changing in the wrong way).

      Your coastal elites are just as authoritarian and controlling as our London twats though. This game you play where you pretend that Britain is a police state, glad that can’t happen here is pretty complacent stuff.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        We’re mostly joking and we kid because we care, at least I am. We certainly have our share of authoritarian jackasses here too.

      • Not Adahn

        I suspect London is just as free currently as New York, if not more so.

        It helps to be looking directly into the CCTV camera when you say that.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Brown rice matters

    The Uncle Ben’s rice brand is getting a new name: Ben’s Original.

    Parent firm Mars Inc. unveiled the change Wednesday for the 70-year-old brand, the latest company to drop a logo criticized as a racial stereotype. Packaging with the new name will hit stores next year.

    “We listened to our associates and our customers and the time is right to make meaningful changes across society,” said Fiona Dawson, global president for Mars Food, multisales and global customers. “When you are making these changes, you are not going to please everyone. But it’s about doing the right thing, not the easy thing.”

    ——-

    Since the 1940s, the rice boxes have featured a white-haired Black man, sometimes with a bow tie, an image critics say evokes servitude. Mars has said the face was originally modeled after a Chicago maitre d’ named Frank Brown. In a short-lived 2007 marketing campaign, the company elevated Uncle Ben to chairman of a rice company.

    Dawson said months of conversations with employees, customer studies and other stakeholders led the company to settle on “Ben’s Original. She said the company is still deciding on an image to accompany the new name.

    They should make him Chinese, just to make certain he isn’t perceived as a caricature.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      yawn. milquetoast change to appease the screeching woke leftists. It’s the least that your average company can do these days.

    • Brochettaward

      WACIST!

    • Cancelled

      We listened to our associates and our customers and the time is right to make meaningful changes

      I do not think that word means what you think it means.

    • Mojeaux

      it’s about doing the right thing, not the easy thing.”

      It’s easy enough to do when everyone around you is doing it and you’re one of the last ones on the trend.

      a bow tie, an image critics say evokes servitude

      Um… *looks at every man in corporate America*

      My brother wears bow ties. He looks snazzy, but it normally a natty dresser anyway.

      • Agent Cooper

        George Will, Slave.

    • invisible finger

      So Uncle Ben has now been converted.

      • Swiss Servator

        It may be later in the morning, but don’t think you got away with that one…

        *narrows gaze*

    • blackjack

      Cornpop’s wild rice?

  31. Scruffy Nerfherder

    SJWednesday: Cartoons For Postmodern Loonies

    Narrator: You’ve probably heard the argument before.

    Person 1: (pointing at a feminine person in a stereotypically “sexy” pose) That photo is terrible! She’s being sexuality objectified!

    Person 2: No it’s not! She can do what she wants with her body! It’s sexually empowering!

    Narrator: It can be difficult to tell the difference between sexual empowerment and sexual objectification when the only distinguishable difference is that one is supposedly “good” and the other “bad.”

    Narrator: So what is the difference? That would be power.

    That is, who is controlling a person’s presence in the sexual situation? If the person being “looked at,” or sexualized, has the power in the situation, then they are sexually empowered.

    (Image of a see-saw, with one end holding one person labeled “looked at,” another person labeled “looking.” This see-saw has the “looked at” person proudly holding a rock labeled “power.” The see-saw is tipping in the “looked at” person’s favor. The “looking” person is neutral. This see saw is labeled “Sexual Empowerment.”)

    Narrator: However, if that person has no or little power, they are being sexually objectified (basically, made like an object instead of a person).

    • straffinrun

      If the point of your cartoon takes that much text, stop doing that.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Narrator: It’s important to remember that fictional characters are not capable of giving consent either. Arguments that the character is empowered are hinged on the idea that they would consent if they were real. But ultimately, the power all stays with the creators, as the character’s desires can only be speculated upon. It is the responsibility of the creator to portray active consent as if the character were flesh and blood.

      • Agent Cooper

        I thought head-desk day was Friday, but this has been a terrible week, so …

    • Cancelled

      An attractive woman has an immense amount of potential power regardless of her social or economic status. And the potential power inherent in her appearance in no way limits her potential power from other avenues. Trying to deny this is a big part of what went off the rails in feminism.

      • Mojeaux

        Trying to deny this

        The attempt to deny this is because they know it’s true and they think if they say it enough times, it will not be true.

      • AlexinCT

        Denying reality seems to be a primary tenet of those that want people mentally unable to realize how bad marxism is.

      • Mojeaux

        See, I think it’s the other way around.

        I think it’s when people who cannot deal with reality decide (as Jar said below, like toddlers) that IT’S NOT FAIR and they try to find ways to make it fair for them– They seek like-minded people.

        I really doubt that for most of them the label “marxism” ever enters the picture. I think the tribe of marxists together just want what they want without regard to ideologies. Once they realize (if they ever do) that their envy has a name (“marxism”, “socialism”, “communism”), then they know it but they just still want what they want.

        IOW, it’s just not that deep for them. They just want what they want.

        That said, there is a cross stitching subreddit and they stitch and post the most marxist things ever, so they are self-aware. One lady self-drafted a hammer-and-sickle pattern, and a comment on the post said, “It warms my heart to see so much socialist stuff posted here.”

        But I really don’t think most of them are that self-aware. They just want what they want.

      • AlexinCT

        I hear ya Mojo, but seriously, you have to really have no grounding or been warped so bad that you can believe anything to believe the lies marxists peddle after their track record of the last 100 years….

        I am just saying that people that have convictions and hard beliefs tend to be far less likely to fall for pedantic marxcist lies.

      • Tejicano

        Earlier today I was reviewing something that happened several years ago which really shows how deep the feelings of envy go.

        This happened at a primate shelter in California – IIRC they take care of primates which had previously been pets but for whatever reason their previous owners could no longer care for them.

        Somebody (I believe it was the chimpanzee’s previous owner) was bringing a birthday cake to one of the chimpanzee residents. Somehow, 2 or 3 other chimpanzees got loose from their cage and viscously mauled the person bringing the cake. The other chimpanzees were violently incensed that one of their social group was going to have a cake but they were not going to be sharing it.

        When I read the account I could only think of how Marxists operate.

      • B.P.

        “IIRC they take care of primates which had previously been pets but for whatever reason their previous owners could no longer care for them.”

        They had friends over and the pets ripped the friends’ faces off?

        Also, chimpanzees and Marxists…. they all want cake.

      • AlexinCT

        But do they rule the night?

      • Tejicano

        Yeah, the article mentioned that this chimp was brought in because it bit “part of a woman’s finger off”. Having read a bit about how violent chimpanzees can be I wondered whether that “part” had been the first fraction of an inch back from the tip, or if that was a nice way of saying “ripped it off along with most of the connecting musculature”. My bet would be closer to the latter.

      • invisible finger

        “They just want what they want.”

        No, they also don’t want you to have what you have.

      • Mojeaux

        Indeed. Very important point.

      • Cancelled

        That is the mental process at the heart of progressivism (and a number of other world views some of which are on the right to be fair). Reality does not work the way they want it to so they deny reality, and get increasingly shrill and loud when that does not work. Toddlers do this also.

      • Mojeaux

        That is the mental process at the heart of progressivism

        Yes, but it may just be an inherent personality trait, to want what one wants and throw a fit when reality doesn’t conform.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I’d say that the personality trait is inherent to all, and the difference is that they didn’t have it beaten out of them.

      • juris imprudent

        The difference being a healthy toddler will outgrow it.

      • Mojeaux

        Sometimes life has to kick them in the ass a few times for them to get it.

      • juris imprudent

        Life is always prepared to do that; it takes some serious over-protection to enable retention of that kind of wrongness.

      • Mojeaux

        it takes some serious over-protection to enable retention of that kind of wrongness.

        See: helicopter parenting

        I don’t know how that started or came out of the latchkey generation, but I believe in my heart of hearts that L&O: SVU turbocharged it and still continues to. At some point, you must helicopter whether you want to or not to keep CPS off your ass.

      • Apples and Knives

        “At some point, you must helicopter whether you want to or not to keep CPS off your ass.”

        Yep. My wife and I try to push free range as far as we can but just like movies from the ’70s couldn’t be made today, there are parenting norms from the ’70 that don’t fly today. As it is, I’ve gotten panicked phone calls from other kids’ parents letting me know my 9yo and his best friend were out walking by themselves along a “busy” street.

      • AlexinCT

        This

      • Agent Cooper

        Camille Paglia.

    • The Other Kevin

      Needs moar labels.

    • invisible finger

      If only we had a society where individuals could empower themselves rather than decide power tribally.

    • R C Dean

      “If the person being “looked at,” or sexualized, has the power in the situation”

      What situation?

      What power?

  32. Festus' Mustache

    Tapping out now. OMWC links are dirty pool on a weekday. Some of us have shit to do. Thanks for filling in.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      No independent thinkers allowed in the Borg that’s the Democratic Party.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      For many former Democrats, the ‘mostly peaceful protests’ were the pivotal moment that they abandoned the mainstream media and started seeking out other perspectives. They began listening to independent journalists and, more importantly, seeking out the source material itself. One man wrote: ‘I started to notice how a lot of what he [Trump] would say the media would take out of context or frame in a negative way. I felt like I’d been lied to for almost four years.’

      Cheer up, you’ve always been lied to.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    If the point of your cartoon takes that much text, stop doing that.

    Just a few more labels…

    • Not Adahn

      Chip? Is that you?

    • AlexinCT

      Next up: demand all eels and sea snakes be made extinct cause they are penis-like!

      • Tejicano

        Somebody’s been watching too much porn.

      • AlexinCT

        The idiots that felt those statues needed to go because they look like man parts?

        Cause I go to tell you, they are ugly statues, but I wouldn’t want to tear them down for any other reason…

    • Not Adahn

      *cringe*

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Self-limiting actions

    • AlexinCT

      Darwin awards…

    • Cancelled

      I dunno, learning a lesson that valuable might be worth a finger or two. Such an experience might turn this oblivious idiot to the path of wisdom.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    I watched Harlem Nights, recently; Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. Redd Foxx was in it, to, so that was a plus. It was a pretty good movie. Not awesome, but pretty good. I bet you couldn’t make it now.

    Such demeaning.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I saw that in the theater and remember being disappointed at the time considering the talent that was appearing. Maybe I need to rewatch it.

  35. Nephilium

    It’s OK guys. The CDC has guidance for Halloween masks.

    • LJW

      “No, Halloween costumes aren’t substitutes for face masks, CDC says”

      And cloth masks are substitutes for hazmat respirators, yet you continue to push them as virus stoppers.

      • LJW

        Are not* stupid phone

  36. Brawndo

    Not gonna lie, when I looked at that phone tree for the Biden campaign, I thought that under deceased it would say “I’m sorry for your loss. We’ll mark them down as likely Biden voters”

  37. The Late P Brooks

    The CDC has guidance for Halloween masks.

    Slutty nurses?

    • Pope Jimbo

      Slutty Fauci is going to be the biggest seller

  38. Scruffy Nerfherder

    SJWednesday: Ballroom Blitz

    Ballroom dancing, nowadays a multibillion-dollar industry, has emerged and developed within western, (post-)industrial, (post-)modern societies. As such, its representations rely heavily on heteronormative gender performances, most of which – as shown in this paper – reiterate rape culture codes. To do so, focusing on how heteronormativity is staged and performed in Rumba, the challenging situation that dancers face is first identified. Embodying DanceSport’s aesthetic and technical norms disrupts dancers’ adequacy to the gendered symbolic order, resulting in the dire need to overstate their genders, in order to achieve a subject position. Second, the ways through which male dancers perform dominance is brought into focus. With a close textual analysis of the performance of the six best couples from the World Championship 2019 with methods such as Feminist film theory, semiotics or nonverbal communication, a range of signs, from non-reciprocal gaze and touch, through polarizing positions emphasizing male dominance and female submission, to abstracted physical violence, are identified. Here, a comparison of two couples shows how these signs are used in different manners and, most importantly, various intensities by the dancers, drawing finally, like a photo negative, a possible subversive performance, in which the partners would be equal and these signs obsolete.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      LOLGF

      • whiz

        I was expecting this.

    • Count Potato

      What?

    • DEG

      I was at a swing dance in back in the pre-Lil Rona Panic days where certain folks were going out of their way to ask people, “do you lead or follow?” Those folks were the “you can’t assume someone’s gender” type folks.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    As such, its representations rely heavily on heteronormative gender performances, most of which – as shown in this paper – reiterate rape culture codes.

    Get a life.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The amusing part is that there are a lot of gay men reiterating these “rape culture codes” in the ballroom industry. I wonder what she has to say about that.

      • Cancelled

        The amusing thing to me is that most of the posturings and symbolism they are referring to are found among most mammal species. Almost like aspects of sexual interaction are biological?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *twerks in agreement*

    • Brochettaward

      It’s funny because JK herself is pretty woke just not by the furthest of the fringe left woke standards.

      • Brochettaward

        Also Harry Potter gave her plenty of fuck you money so…

      • AlexinCT

        Funny how you lose your wokeness when the woke crowd still comes after you for not being woke enough…

        That having been said.. That shirt, to me, is a “stay the fuck away to avoid some real bad crazy” warning…

  40. The Late P Brooks

    It’s not so much that we’re a bunch of incompetent quacks, it’s that people have figured it out

    The Trump administration’s bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent efforts to meddle with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are taking a substantial toll on the nation’s foremost public health institution.

    In interviews with half a dozen current and former CDC officials, they described a workforce that has seen its expertise questioned, its findings overturned for political purposes and its effectiveness in combating the pandemic undermined by partisan actors in Washington.

    “I have never seen morale this low. It’s just, people are beaten down. People are beaten down partially by a public who not only distrusts us but who actually think we want to infringe on their civil liberties,” said one current CDC employee. “The other factor is the active undermining by senior members of our own administration.”

    ——-

    “As I talk to former colleagues at CDC, the feeling I get is just an overwhelming sense of despair. People are working incredibly hard to reduce the impact of the pandemic and the sense that they’re being blocked by people at the political level, and that the work that they’re doing is not being appreciated by the American public,” said Rich Besser, a former CDC director who now runs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

    “The feeling right now is that public health is not being allowed to lead and to demonstrate the path forward to reduce transmission and increase economic activity,” he said.

    ——-

    Blah blah blah ignorance and ingratitude

    ——-

    “What does concern me is that we’re not seeing strong support for the agency from the top, and that can be demoralizing. One role of the CDC director is to have the backs of the scientists and all of the people working hard across the agency, and we’re not seeing that,” Besser said. “I don’t know what Dr. Redfield is doing behind closed doors, but we haven’t been hearing from him out front condemning interference in CDC publications.”

    CDC sources said there had been no talk of mass resignations to protest the administration’s handling of the pandemic, or its meddling in public health science. Some have joked of moving to New Zealand or Australia, but most say they will continue their work to promote public health.

    “People in public health by and large are people who just see suffering and want there to be less of it. That’s what drives you into public health. I mean, God knows you don’t do it for the money,” the first CDC employee said. But, the employee added: “The overall tenor of things, the drumbeat is just too disheartening.”

    Bungled response?

    “Why won’t they let us SAVE them? Move to Australia, you totalitarian fucks. Nobody’s stopping you (except the Australian immigration authorities).

    • PieInTheSky

      except the Australian immigration authorities – and the wildlife. Have you seen the snakes and spiders? They even have a damn tree that while it does not kill you it makes you wish it had.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      People in public health by and large are people who just see suffering and want there to be less of it.

      Something about roads to Hell being paved…

      • invisible finger

        Personal rant to blow off steam…

        A couple weeks ago my 86-year old mom’s broker suggested she was too heavily weighted in stocks and should consider selling some and putting the proceeds into a bond fund. She told him she wanted to talk to my oldest sister and I first. My sister works for a broker and told her that would be a conflict of interest for her and she could lose her job. So I took a look at her statements for the first time.

        This guy had her in over 90 stocks. And odd sizes, most under 100 shares. I just told her “Mom, you have more stocks than some mutual funds have! It looks like this guy was just trading to make commissions and you okayed it all. Sell anything that is less than 1% of your portfolio and put it in a bond fund. Ask the broker what bond fund he recommends.”

        Today she calls me and says “My broker would like to talk to you. He wants to know how aggressive I want to be.” I cut her off right there and said, “I am not making fiduciary decisions for you unless I have something in writing that permits me to do so and I’d want to discuss it with an attorney first.” I reminded her of the shit we’re going through with two other sisters making closing my brother’s estate difficult. And I added “I think your broker is corrupt or incompetent or both. I didn’t like seeing all those tiny trades he did, but if you allowed it that is on you. But he should know better than to even suggest he talk to me – his fiduciary duty is to you, not to me. If you don’t feel comfortable making a decision, ask him for his recommendations. It’s not like you ever disagreed with his recommendations before.”

        Then I called my sister and she said “The broker is an ass. He is supposed to document every conversation about an account – who he communicated with and when. If somehow someone finds out he discussed mom’s account with you it could cause a problem with the estate. He’s at a big company, so they’re probably logging every incoming and outgoing call automatically. Don’t call him.”

        My mom’s mental faculties are fine. She left all financial matters to my dad who passed 18 years ago. I told her, “If you’re uncomfortable handling this, either let your broker handle it or sell everything and put it in CD’s. CD’s don;t pay squat, but they are simple. You can have it simple, or you can make money. But you have to choose one or the other. Otherwise if you ignore it, it will go away.”

        Sometimes big families are great and sometimes they are a big pain the ass.

      • invisible finger

        f’n squirrels.

      • AlexinCT

        Never trust those people..

        I mean the family members…

        Just kidding.

    • prolefeed

      “People are beaten down partially by a public who not only distrusts us but who actually think we want to infringe on their civil liberties,” said one current CDC employee.

      Maybe, when people tell you that you’re infringing on their civil liberties, you might want to consider the possibility, however seemingly inconceivable, that you’re the bad guy here.

  41. Shpip

    When you think of a dude who’s 5’8″, 265 (that’s 173 cm, 120 kg for Pie), you don’t necessarily think of the term “professional athlete.”
    Yet we have one. “What sport?” you may ask.

    Bowling? Nope.
    Calf roping or steer wrasslin’? Nope.
    LPGA? Nope.

    He just made the jump from High-A to Major League Baseball, and he’s making a splash.

    • PieInTheSky

      I’d think top powerlifters are in that range

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Back in the days that pro basketball was good I used to like to watch this guy, Spud Webb @ 5’7”:

      https://youtu.be/r1YRJvFvlgg

    • Tundra

      Kirby looked like that.

      Hit like that, too.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Puck was only 80kg though. But yeah, he was the best bad ball hitter I ever saw.

    • prolefeed

      Babe Ruth wasn’t exactly slim, either.

      • Gdragon

        Babe Ruth was generally large though, he was probably at least half a foot taller than Alejandro Kirk is.

        I’ve been jokingly calling Daniel Vogelbach
        “Engelberg” for years but he isn’t a catcher.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      They’re just following the standard walk-it-back a hair when challenged schtick.

      It’s the same with all of these orgs, BLM, Antifa, Defund the Police, etc… They’ll say something outrageous and push on it for a while until it becomes useful to deny they meant what they said. Then they will accuse you of putting words in their mouth when you bring it up.

      It’s a tactic to shift the Overton Window incrementally.

      • Count Potato

        It’s a also “motte and bailey”.

      • prolefeed

        The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

        If “walking it back a hair” gets something more milquetoast like this, then that’s OK with me. If they swapped out “at the very center” with “as a central component”, I doubt anyone here would object to the second sentence.

      • R C Dean

        Even that is arguably an overstatement. Sorry, but the current valorization of the contributions of blacks overstates them, in the big picture. Blacks have played a role, but not a central role in any objective/fair evaluation. Now, the “consequences of slavery” is an odd and indefinite term. I believe it attempts to collapse racism into slavery.

        The larger issue, of course, is that the Marxists behind this, BLM, antifa, etc. constantly lie and are never called out on it. If this restatement had been done with some public discussion, there might be some legitimacy to it. It was done via a stealth edit, when they saw they couldn’t consolidate the ground they were claiming. No, fuck you, you ran this out there as “America was founded for no other purpose than to enslave Africans”. You don’t get to pretend that’s not what you meant.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe I need to rewatch it.

    It’s hardly great art. I imagine those guys had a lot of fun making it.

    Maybe it’s the walking-on-eggshells context of today, but it’s an interesting time capsule. And a couple of hours of escapism.

    • l0b0t

      “Just because your name is Lady Heroin, doesn’t mean you gotta sell the stuff.”

      • DWB

        “- Sugar Ray: I want somebody on him. Vera, do you have a girl?
        – Vera: I’ve got a girl who’s pussy is so good, if you threw it up in the air it would turn into sunshine.”

        Quick : How’s Sunshine doing on that pick up man?
        Bennie Wilson : Oh, he proposed to her four times already, said he would leave his wife & kids and convert from Catholic to Baptist. Now you know that’s some mean pussy to make a man change gods.

      • AlexinCT

        But we keep getting told we live in a patriarchy…

  43. The Late P Brooks

    This just in

    Cindy McCain, the widow of longtime Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said Tuesday night on Twitter that she endorses Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

    Bless her heart.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Trump disparaged her father, mostly deservedly so IMHO, so this comes as no surprise. It’s for the best anyway, her endorsement is sort of counterproductive anyway.

    • Chipwooder

      And absolutely no one cares.

  44. KibbledKristen

    There’s a guy on the street corner that has been walking in circles aggressively rapping for the last 2 hours.

    • AlexinCT

      What’s he saying?

      “Fuck the police” or “Bitchez, gimme some ass” cause I would keep my distance either way…

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I read that as aggressively raping. You probably want to steer clear either way.

      • Swiss Servator

        STEVE SMITH NO THERE!

      • Gdragon

        STREET SMITH keep it real! And by real…

    • Not Adahn

      rapping, rapping on the chamber door?

      • PieInTheSky

        as recited by one of the great voices of glibertarians?

      • Mojeaux

        great voices of glibertarians

        Not mine. I sound like a 12- 15-year-old redneck.

      • PieInTheSky

        also no sexy accent

      • Mojeaux

        That’s what I said.

        Redneck is so not sexy.

      • AlexinCT

        You just need to find the right audience to find it sexy Mojo…

  45. Not Adahn

    Wackadoodle froggie continues xer prison career. Xer lawyer is using delay tactics.

    Ms Ferrier appeared in court on Tuesday afternoon in Buffalo, New York, with the aid of a French-speaking translator, according to local media.

    She asked for a court appointed defence [sic] lawyer during the hearing. That lawyer also requested an identity and probable cause hearing, to have the court determine that she is the individual named in the complaint.

    The judge scheduled these next hearings for 28 September. She will be in the custody of the US Marshals until that time, as prosecutors argued she poses a flight risk.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        No wonder that anger..

  46. PieInTheSky

    Costco removes Palmetto Cheese from 120 of its stores after the founder of the brand calls the Black Lives Matter movement a “terror organization” on his public Facebook.

    https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1308692852642373632

    • UnCivilServant

      Costco hates the truth?

    • Not Adahn

      I had no idea one could make cheese from palmettos.

    • Drake

      Maybe they cab sell through Palmetto Armory now.

    • prolefeed

      I’ve just about quit shopping at Costco, between the mandatory and enforced masking, and them quitting selling blue cheese. Just nothing there I can’t get elsewhere. Except for the bacon bits, of which I have several months supply. This latest bullshit ain’t helping.

      I’d cancel my membership, except the credit card has massive cash back, far in excess of the annual membership.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Depraved Orange Man is depraved

    “The U.K. just shut down again. They just announced that they’re going to do a shutdown, and we’re not going to be doing that,” Trump told Fox 2 Detroit during an interview at the White House on Tuesday. “We understand the disease, we understand how to handle it.”

    ——-

    Meanwhile, White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that the daily new number of coronavirus cases remains too high as the nation nears the forthcoming influenza season. Rather than reporting nearly 40,000 cases a day, as the country is now on average, the daily figure should be below 10,000.

    “Ultimately some will lead to hospitalizations and those will lead to deaths,” Fauci said during CNN’s Citizen conference on Tuesday, adding that the U.S. needs to reduce its daily number of cases “down sharply to a very low level.” “When you have a lot of cases floating around, it’s much more difficult to contain that than if you have a relatively low number.”

    Boot on face, forever. It’s for your own good.

    • prolefeed

      Why the fuck is Fauci still working for the CDC? Can’t Trump fire his ass?

      • Sean

        November.

      • Cancelled

        Is it too bright for you‽

  48. CatchTheCarp

    I saw a guy wearing a mesh mask yesterday. I couldn’t tell it was mesh until I noticed he was sipping a soda thru a straw while wearing it….hahaha.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s a fishnet mask.

      • B.P.

        Hawt.

      • CatchTheCarp

        Not sure of the material but it wasn’t fishnet. Found some on Amazon, reading the comments/reviews is always good for a few chuckles, for example this one:

        If you buy this, you are what’s wrong with this country.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    Waaah, waaah, waaah, whycome them hicks no obey me?

    Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said in a new interview that the “divisive state” of U.S. society is a roadblock to the country’s coronavirus pandemic response, calling out individuals “taking sides” on public health measures like wearing a mask, social distancing and more.

    “From a research and public health standpoint, I try my best, and I think I’m successful, in giving a consistent message as often as I can get the message out, something that is just based on the scientific data, based on evidence, which is something that is really very important,” Fauci told “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Monday.

    “One of the things that I think gets in the way is that we are in such a divisive state in society that it tends to get politicized. It’s almost one side versus the other,” he continued.

    STFU, Foochy.

    • PieInTheSky

      Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert – this formulation makes it seem he is the absolut best, but my impression was that he is simply in charge of the government agency. Tzar is better than expert in this case.

      • invisible finger

        ^THIS.

    • Suthenboy

      “….Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert…”

      That is as far as I needed to read but if I had stopped there I would have missed this gem: “Fauci told “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Monday. That totally lends complete credibility to everything the good doctor had to say.

    • Count Potato

      That’s a man.

      • PieInTheSky

        thiccness does not discriminate

      • Cancelled

        But I do

  50. Brochettaward

    Streaming subscription services with forced ads = fuck you.

    • invisible finger

      What platform are you using? Roku inserts ads where other platforms do not.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        That happens occasionally on Amazon Prime Video regardless of platform.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      I’m getting ads at the end of YT videos. As if I’m going to sit through that.

      PS. Here is the original Obsession ad spoofed on SNL, which I should remember but don’t. Glad that reek fell out of fashion. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W0p-pOf4KB8

  51. The Late P Brooks

    “What has evolved now is that almost people take sides, like wearing a mask or not is a political statement, and that’s really very unfortunate. Totally unfortunate, because this is a purely public health issue. It should not be one against the other,” Fauci told Noah.

    If it’s “purely” a matter of public health, you should be able to provide some sort of empirical demonstration of effectiveness. You know, like “Population A, wearing masks, has experienced a MUCH LOWER incidence of infection than maskless population B.”

    Not just, “We think it might make a difference, but you’ll have to just take our word for it.”

    • Suthenboy

      Shut up. He is an expert. A top expert even. A top man. Do as you are told and stop asking questions.

      • prolefeed

        I’m gonna take a bold stance and say that if politicians, or their appointees, mandate and enforce mask wearing, that’s by definition political, you shitweasel.

    • invisible finger

      This was obvious in MARCH. If his mental ability is that slow, why listen to any of his suggestions since they will probably be six months too late.

      Also, it stops being “public health” when you put law enforcement behind it. Then it absolutely IS political.

  52. The Late P Brooks

    I had no idea one could make cheese from palmettos.

    It’s a miracle of modern SCIENCE.

  53. PieInTheSky

    ok but hear me out:

    40-judge pool hears all cases, all 40 vote, only 9 randomly selected votes are counted & those selected write the opinion. Everyone votes their honest opinion, nobody favor-trades or coalition-builds bc they can’t know if their vote is gonna be valid or not.

    https://twitter.com/palecur/status/1308456538105806848

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      That’s too stupid for words. Eventually a sizably minority decision would be implemented because math.

      • AlexinCT

        They want stupid. Especially stupid that is easily rigged.

    • R C Dean

      nobody favor-trades or coalition-builds

      Yes, they do. Precisely because they don’t know which 9 will count, they build voting blocs to logroll and trade votes.

  54. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Political, like not condemning the BLM gatherings/riots when others were making pseudo public health excuses for them. Get bent Fauci.

  55. cyto

    Jumped on reddit to check r/SpaceX.

    2 political ads desquised as regular posts are in my inbox as suggested trending.

    One is in maybe maybe. It is an attack on trump for playing golf while people die of covid. Completely off topic, bit 15k upvotes. Usually would be immediately deleted as off topic.

    The other is in r/politics. Says supreme court nominee is a member of religious group that inspired the handmaid’s tale.

    Never been on r/politics and never discuss politics on reddit, only space science.

    Dems definitely using social media stealth advertising

    • PieInTheSky

      supreme court nominee – was she nominated? or potential nominee

      • cyto

        I saw that one twice. Was on MSN/Bing feed and r/politics. It vanished from my inbox must have been sponsored nothing else disappears

        I do not recall exact verbiage, but the gist was that Barrett is the nominee and she is in favor of women’s servitude and would probably hold you down while her husband rapes you.

        You will probably see it somewhere soon.

      • kinnath

        The last I saw was that Trump would announce on Saturday and 5 pm.

        Barret is presumed to be the favorite.

    • cyto

      Have not seen Republican version. Only noticed 4 so far… Those two and two yesterday. But I do not do Facebook or Twitter, where most of it probably lives.

      I did note that googling ‘Trump peace deal’ only returned articles critical of trump peace deals and claiming that they really are just fake. That has to be gamed as well.

    • Not Adahn

      Share Blue was a real thing that actually existed.

  56. BakedPenguin

    NTD’s China in Focus has some coverage that’s even more in-depth than Newsish.

    • Count Potato

      Needz moar sexy correspondents.

    • Tejicano

      Woah! Yunan province (pop: 46 million) has been put on wartime status due to an “official” count of fewer than a dozen COVID cases.

      • BakedPenguin

        Yeah, I think things are not going well. The government is trying to keep things hushed because they are really looking like they lost the Mandate of Heaven.

        I found it amusing that there were massive gas explosions in Beijing, and the basic response was “nothing to see here.”

        Oh, and CP – I’m never going to disagree with that.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m just waiting for the catastrophe of the three gorges failing.

        It’s only a matter of when now.

      • R C Dean

        I think they’ve already got a catastrophe going, if the flooding/locusts/crop failures are near as bad as it sounds like.

        Of course, who knows how reliable any info about China is.

      • UnCivilServant

        Yeah, but when that dam goes, the death count will be somewhere rivalling the tsunami, simply because the lowlands downstream are packed and the CCP won’t admit there’s a risk and evacuate anyone until after the water wiped it all out.

  57. The Late P Brooks

    Dems definitely using social media stealth advertising

    Dems are Russian bots? It all makes sense…

  58. Count Potato

    “JK Rowling triggers ANOTHER transphobia row after directing fans to website selling ‘offensive’ badges and posters saying ‘transwomen are men’ and ‘dead men don’t rape’

    JK Rowling is embroiled in yet another transphobia row after she directed fans to a website selling badges and stickers saying ‘transwomen are men’.

    The author, 55, appeared to take aim at her critics yesterday, tweeting a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: ‘This witch doesn’t burn’.

    She followed up her message with a link to the Wild Womyn Workshop, writing: ‘If you are (or know) a witch who wants one of these, don’t buy from cynical chancers.’

    Furious critics were quick to point out that the website sells a series of other items they deemed ‘transphobic’, with users sharing images of badges reading ‘f*** your pronouns’ and ‘trans activism is misogyny’.

    Wild Womyn Workshop, which has a category dedicated to ‘gender critical’ items, also sells a badge reading ‘dead men don’t rape’ alongside stickers stating ‘trans-ideology erases women.’ ”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8763695/JK-Rowling-triggers-transphobia-row.html

    • Mojeaux

      I believe Reddit took down r/gendercritical and other TERF/ish subreddits.

  59. Not Adahn

    To those who disagreed with my characterization of Mr. Hickock, an explanation:

    I use the definition of “Fudd” as someone who says/acts/believes “my guns are good, your guns are bad.” If you find yourself saying “nobody needs…” or “only police should possess…” I’m probably going to consider you a Fudd.

    ISTR Hickock supporting a particular ban (bump stocks?) so that’s why I’ve slotted him into that group.

    Regardless of how you define Fudd, I think we can all agree that he is rather tall.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Did he actively support it or did he shrug it off as not that big of a deal? Neither’s good but they’re not quite the same.

    • R C Dean

      #AllGunsMatter

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “ Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus”
      Time can get fucked on that one.

    • Not Adahn

      That latter one must obviously be a porn actress.

    • Suthenboy

      They are commie cockroaches.

      You know who else was Time’s man of the year/most influential person?

    • invisible finger

      So they blamed dementia on Gale’s own decision t play football.

      • Mojeaux

        The whole thing upsets me. These dudes are paid a gabillion dollars for the use and abuse of their bodies for maybe 10 years of their lives. The whining (and extra special rules) is tiresome. Save your money, buy a car dealership or get a commentating job, and make sure you’re set up medically.

    • Pine_Tree

      I think that when it comes to impact-induced injuries from football, we ain’t seen nothing yet.

      Here’s what I mean: I’m almost 50, and spent my childhood in the rural South, and played and watched lots of football. I know how it was played back then, and the apparently-not-insignificant amount of players who had long-term brain trauma got it from that – the way it was played THEN.

      It’s played a lot differently NOW. The example I’ll use to exemplify is defenders who don’t even try to tackle (wrap-up, etc.), but just collide. So take that 30 years down the road, and the amount of brain injury that’ll surface on today’s players, in my opinion, will be much, much larger than the previous generation.

      • R C Dean

        Best thing you could do to make football safer is take away the helmets.

        Also, 74 isn’t exactly early for getting dementia. I get the need to displace pain by blaming someone, but I don’t know what connection there is between concussion trauma and dementia.

  60. PieInTheSky

    I have no idea how to square all my uber liberal family members telling me to get out of LA before the election because, “if Biden loses there will probably be riots.”

    https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy/status/1308139296088489984

    And with this work day is over time to leave the office.

    • PieInTheSky

      And back. Say what you will of the paandemic craze, it improves commute times.

      • R C Dean

        Damn, Pie. A 2 minute commute?

        It takes me longer than that to walk across my hospital.

    • Count Potato

      “I’m just so confused. It makes sense coming from Conservatives but I’m like “so the party you’re voting for is gonna burn my city down if they lose? Okay.””

      This.

  61. The Late P Brooks

    I use the definition of “Fudd” as someone who says/acts/believes “my guns are good, your guns are bad.” If you find yourself saying “nobody needs…” or “only police should possess…” I’m probably going to consider you a Fudd.

    I never really paid that much attention. I mostly assumed “Fudds” were hunters, who don’t really shoot “for fun”.

    I definitely agree they fall into the category of people who couldn’t care less bout your interests/hobbies/rights as long as theirs are not (yet) in jeopardy.

    • Not Adahn

      There was some overlap with the hunting community, which is why Cuomo would say things like “you don’t need more than seven bullets to shoot a deer.” But there are people that say things like “AR-15s aren’t needed for home defense” that have never stepped into the woods before.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Need has nothing to do with it. You have no authority to tell us what we can or can’t have.”

      • robc

        That is my response any time “need” comes up. And not necessarily about guns.

    • Count Potato

      Fudd is like the opposite of tacticool.

    • Pine_Tree

      I think, and it’s kinda shown in this thread, that the gun culture isn’t truly sure whether the definition of Fudd is benign (like, old-timers, or not tacticool, etc.) or malignant (hostile to modern arms, etc.).

      I probably lean towards the benign side, but part of that’s just sympathy for oldsters on my part.

  62. DEG

    The agreement includes tens of billions in funds for the Commodity Credit Corporation — a priority for Republicans and bipartisan members from agricultural states and districts, which will replenish crucial aid to farmers. The aid will come with some restrictions, after Democrats raised concerns that the money was being utilized by the Trump administration to distribute funds to favored political interests.

    The measure also includes nearly $8 billion in nutrition assistance — a central Democratic priority during the negotiations.

    Fuck you, cut spending.

  63. DEG

    Remember when dunphy said cops were held to higher standards?

    The off-duty cop, who may have been drinking, is accused of slashing tires on the very streets he patrols – but he’s still being paid and hasn’t been charged weeks later, according to a published report.

    FOX56 WOLF notes the accused cop still hasn’t been publicly named in Pittston, where the mayor says the officer remains on paid leave three weeks after the incident.

    • R C Dean

      Not asked (presumably) or answered:

      This is a crime that was apparently committed by a cop. Off-duty.

      Why hasn’t he been charged, instead of being protected with anonymity and rewarded with an extended paid leave?

      We absolutely have a systemic law enforcement problem. Its just not racism.

  64. Count Potato

    “A reminder that it has been 42 days since Harris was tapped as the VP pick.

    There are 42 days until election day.

    The senator has not once formally taken questions from the press.”

    https://twitter.com/deepa_shivaram/status/1308568971592044544

    So neither of them are taking questions?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Keeping their heads down and hoping Trump says or does something that wrecks himself is the obvious strategy.

      • Sean

        The obvious strategy is playing out in the courts with states allowing for massive fraud with the mail in ballots.

        Civil unrest in major metros is just a couple weeks away folks. Plan accordingly.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Voter fraud is always in the Dem playbook.

    • Suthenboy

      It is going to be a landslide. I am not sure what happens after that but it is not going to be pretty.

    • robc

      Violation of Rule #1: People vote for someone, not against. You have to give the people a reason to vote FOR you.

      Biden/Harris are literally hoping that not-Trump is enough.

  65. Count Potato

    “Expect violence from Trump supporters, maybe lots of it, both to disrupt voting on Election Day and in the days that follow. Is this overheated? So far Trump and his party have borne out every prediction by pessimists and made fools of optimists 5/”

    https://twitter.com/paulkrugman/status/1308734643080921088

    CWAA

    • Akira

      So far Trump and his party have borne out every prediction by pessimists

      Wasn’t it Krugman himself who said that the economy would immediately crash and never recover if Trump got elected?

    • UnCivilServant

      What are you people saying when you drop the initialism ‘cwaa’?

      • Cancelled

        Christ What An Asshole

      • Cancelled

        Personally I do not feel Krugman’s sphincter is all that impressive, but then I find Demi Rose unappealing as well.

      • Suthenboy

        CWAA = Christ, what an asshole

      • kinnath

        christ, what an asshole

        I had to ask a while ago

      • Apples and Knives

        I think it’s “Christ, what an asshole.” But I could be wrong.

      • Apples and Knives

        Well, I guess this time I wasn’t.

      • Akira

        Christ, We’re All Assholes.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Is Krugman the stupidest Nobel recipient or just the most mendacious?

      • Suthenboy

        That is a tough call on both counts

      • Gender Traitor

        Bear in mind that for the latter, he’s competing with Obama.

        Also, why not both?

      • kbolino

        I’m not entirely convinced there’s a mind there to assess anymore. Whoever won that Nobel is long dead. The name is attached either to a catfish or a husk.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Now I know it’s not going to happen. Mr. Always Wrong has weighed in.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It seems like the people who value his opinion would have dropped him by now. Anyone who picked an investment strategy immediately after the election based on his prognosticating passed over quite the opportunity.

      • BakedPenguin

        Well, it’s not going to happen from Trump supporters. There’s a reason “prog-jection” became a term.

    • AlexinCT

      That guy is a fucking idiot.

  66. Nephilium

    Completely off topic, but how long do you need to tell a tier 1 helpdesk guy he needs to note the tickets, and confirm things are actually working before closing them? The guy is supposedly on my team, and is responsible for a full quarter of the tickets I’m getting because he’s half assed everything and left out steps.

    • UnCivilServant

      If you’ve had to tell them enough times to ask that question – you need to find some way to replace them.

      • Nephilium

        If I had the authority I would. His direct supervisor has been copied on all of the complaints and doesn’t have a high opinion of him either.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Start writing him up. Either it will be a wakeup call for him, or will help you get him canned.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    So neither of them are taking questions?

    We have to elect it to find out what’s in it.

    • Sean

      Spoiler alert: Socialism and racism.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      *golf clap*

    • SugarFree

      I assume about a 100 lbs of tapeworm.