Sunday Morning Molecular Links

by | Nov 22, 2020 | Daily Links | 250 comments

So what do you expect when you put together two chemists and two science nerd culinary hobbyists? Yes indeed, molecular things. Last night was proof. And we made both drinks and food out of all sorts of interesting concoctions. Direct spherification and reverse spherification are a shitload of fun to watch, and the product is a shitload of fun to consume. Yes, we’re geeks.

As are some of the people having birthdays today, which include a smart woman married to a piece of shit president; the original Mary Ann before Dawn Wells; someone with Obama’s attitude but actual achievements; the guy who was no-shit the model for James Bond; one of the funniest humans to ever walk among us; a brilliant filmmaker who saw the future better than others did; the finest pair of breasts to ever walk among us; an actress who ruined her career once she got bolt-ons; and a hot teenager who grew into a generic “beautiful” actress.

News me, baby!

 

“Because it’s fucking worthless, that’s why.”

 

Well, this should help him rest easier.

 

The implication of recursion is fascinating. But hey, fuck the cops anyway.

 

We really must be running out of things to panic about.

 

Incoherent outrage is the best outrage.

 

Dire warning about not masking a corpse. I think we may have hit peak tard.

 

The weird thing is the wearing of two masks. I guess that means he REALLY cares.

 

 

Old Guy Music is something that just fits the theme today.

 

I

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.

250 Comments

  1. Sean

    Meh.

  2. The Late P Brooks

    “It’s as vile now as it was during Reconstruction, when Democrats believed that Republicans were illegitimate and that Black voters had no right to be voting, and they did all of these terrorist activities to block African Americans from voting,” said Carol Anderson, professor of African American studies at Emory University. “It’s a very narrow, slippery slope, from saying ‘illegal votes’ to ‘illegal voters,’ so this attack on Black voters is real.”

    If you hear the whistle, you might be the dog.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Spare me the indignant rage. It’s not like the GOP didn’t force Southerners to register as Republican in order to vote at all. Or engage in carpetbagging across the entire South, directly leading to a reactionary movement.

      And the 95% of Southerners who didn’t own slaves weren’t exactly spared from the North’s retribution.

      • Rebel Scum

        You keep your nuanced understanding of America’s second war of secession to yourself!

        I read recently that during reconstruction state delegations were not seated if the voters provided the “wrong” candidates. That is one of several clear constitutional violations the Republican party was engaged in at the time.

      • The Last American Hero

        To be fair, continuing slavery in practice if not in name was kind of an issue. But hey, they still managed to pass the Jim Crow laws in spite of those union bastards so the proud spirit of the south lived on.

    • blackjack

      Racist AF to only recount the places that voted massively against you. He should pony up and see if he can reduce his vote count in the areas that he won too. In the name of fairness.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Besides which, it’s not like we trust the numbers coming out of Fairfax either.

    • rhywun

      It’s as vile now as it was during Reconstruction

      This tells me more about the author’s intent to fabricate a narrative than it does about, you know, stuff that actually happened.

      • Don escaped Two Corinthians

        yup

        and a good way to think about most of the things one reads

  3. The Late P Brooks

    But on Friday, a top lawyer for the Biden campaign decried Trump’s efforts, saying it was involved in a “remarkably brazen attempt” to disenfranchise Black voters.

    “This is straight out discriminatory behavior,” said Robert Bauer in a conference call with reporters.

    “The nigra vote belongs to us. everybody knows that.”

    • Ted S.

      To be fair, if you didn’t vote for Biden, you ain’t black.

  4. Ted S.

    “Because it’s fucking worthless, that’s why.”

    The media seem to think Biden should be running the show already anyway, so what difference should it make if Trump isn’t going through the G20 pantomime?

  5. Tonio

    Spherification cool af. I’m going to do that live as a showpiece when I can entertain again.

    • Old Man With Candy

      So far, the reaction to the reverse spherified shots has been universal. Put in mouth, it pops, and immediate laughter.

      The shots we did last night were a mix of silver tequila and Triple Sec, which after encapsulation, we sprinkled with Tajin. They looked beautiful and blew away the folks we were visiting.

      We followed with a direct spherification of some tomato water, spherification of basil water, then a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic glaze. The red and green caviar had a nice Christmas-y feel.

  6. CPRM

    The weird thing is the wearing of two masks. I guess that means he REALLY cares.

    The first mask is to protect you, the second mask is to protect me, duh. It’s #science.

    • blackjack

      So, that guy’s a two bagger?

      • Fourscore

        Always err on the side of caution, first bag could have a hole in it. I know some of ‘those people’.

      • wchipperdove

        That’s his wife.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Yeah, what’s the deal with that? Two masks not only makes zero sense, it looks stupid.

      • Ted S.

        It’s virtue signalling, nothing more.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I bet I’ll get laid by every Karen in town if I can somehow manage to wear five…might have a bit of trouble breathing though.

      • blackjack

        Old guy at work brought in his own special mask. It turned out it was a mountaineering device designed to train for high altitudes. He got progressively more tired and at the end of the day, went to the hospital, where they explained the mask to him.

      • juris imprudent

        Simulating oxygen deprivation. He wanted to live the experience of COVID.

      • zwak

        Ask Michael Hutchins about that.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, he looks absolutely ridiculous and you know he’s going to keep doing it at every public appearance until he keels over.

      • Trials and Trippelations

        So it is one Kamala’s scheme to become president? Too soon for the stairs, but slow suffocation might work

      • wchipperdove

        Belt and suspenders.

        Country AND Western.

  7. Ted S.

    So what do you expect when you put together two chemists and two science nerd culinary hobbyists? Yes indeed, molecular things.

    [hands bottle of distilled water to SP and OMWC]

    Well, they are molecules, aren’t they?

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Trollolol

    Donald Trump Jr says he will pass time in Covid isolation by cleaning his guns

    ——-

    Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son who has tested positive for the coronavirus, has said he will pass the time in isolation battling with the virus by cleaning his collection of guns.

    Trump Jr is now the fourth member of the Trump family to have become infected with Covid. The president, the first lady and their son, Barron, have recovered from the virus, as has Trump Jr’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

    In a video posted to his Instagram account, Trump Jr breezily announced: “Apparently I got the rona.” He then went on to say he had no symptoms of the virus but would stay indoors out of an abundance of caution.

    He asked his supporters for their book and Netflix recommendation before adding: “I may have a couple days of solo time and there’s only so many guns I can clean before that gets bored.”

    Maybe he can go to Texas and shoot wild pigs.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      “abundance of caution” — I am so tired of this phrase.

  9. Fourscore

    All the murders in Phoenix have been solved and now the police need to keep busy.

    Thanks, OMWC, for getting up early, above and beyond.

    Next thing will be a mask for those whose presence at a cremation is absolutely a requirement.

    When I thought things couldn’t get any worse I hadn’t allowed for the petty bureaucrats. I really love that expression, it’s refreshingly honest.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    It’s a very narrow, slippery slope, from saying ‘illegal votes’ to ‘illegal voters,’

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but the issue is not “real voters casting real votes” (no matter whose name they put on the ballot).
    That claim is just a diversionary tactic, to distract from the real issue.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Oh shush you

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’s preaching to the choir. The only people buying that angle think (or at least pretend to think, I refuse to believe people are that stupid) this is all nonsense anyway.

    • blackjack

      If you voted illegally, then you could be described as an illegal voter. WTF is sinister about that. Drive without a license and you’re an illegal driver. Slid right down that slope, didn’t I?

    • cyto

      It is a silly diversion, but apparently one that works. If the votes are indeed not accurately tallied votes by eligible voters, it is not Trump who is flaunting the will of the voters and disenfranchising the black vote. This has been their mantra my entire adult life. Anything that does not equal a win for their team is “racist”.

      In 2000 it was a racist attempt to disenfranchise the black vote to insist on a state wide recount instead of only recounts in democrat strongholds. So the exact opposite position, argued by the identical people.

      I’m not surprised that people make such stupid arguments. I’m surprised that the press repeats them and takes them seriously.

  11. Scruffy Nerfherder

    The Orthodox priests in Serbia are exactly beloved by all. Their churches were regularly tagged with “Popovi Lopovi”” which I think roughly translates to “Priest Thief”.

    • The Last American Hero

      Team up an orthodox priest with a wizard and a paladin and you’re ready for an Eastern European dungeon crawl.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Another front in the War on Objective Reality

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is getting an international Emmy for his use of television during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the international Emmy Awards, credited Cuomo with “masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world” during the crisis. The group cited the governor’s daily coronavirus briefings that were carried live by New York’s local TV stations.

    “The Governor’s 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” the organization’s president & CEO Bruce L. Paisner said in a statement. “People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back.”

    The award, an International Emmy Founders Award, is given to a person who “crosses cultural boundaries to touch our common humanity,” according to the International Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences.

    “It’s flattering – I accepted on behalf of the people of the state, and I think it’s flattering to the people of the state,” Cuomo said of the award on Friday during a press call. “I think what the people of New York did was amazing, going from the highest infection rate to one of the lowest. I think their participation in the daily press presentations was amazing – we had over 64 million people participate.”

    Raising gaslighting to dizzying heights.

  13. Gender Traitor

    the guy who was no-shit the model for James Bond

    Srsly?? I’ve heard others put forward, but not him.

    Here he is chiming in (late in the song) with the lovely & talented MM.

    Thanks for the McGarrigles. Always a pleasure.

    • wchipperdove

      I prefer McGarnagle.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Mask idea:

    Put an image of a baby’s pacifier on it.

    That’s all it is/does. You’re welcome.

  15. Stinky Wizzleteats

    A ninety year old guy going out after officiating the funeral of a colleague in a packed church instead of hiding in his basement is sad but it isn’t exactly a tragedy. Presumably he knew the risks, had the balls to take the risks, and got dealt a bad hand. RIP Patriarch Irinej.

    • EvilSheldon

      Wimps don’t like seeing other people take risks. It reminds them of what empty losers they are.

    • blackjack

      Judging by his hat, he can only move diagonally.

    • Suthenboy

      He got sick three days after the funeral? I thought the incubation period for the cooties is 2 weeks?

      Whatever fits the narrative today.

  16. mrfamous

    I’d like to see what would happen if you ran an experiment whether people would show symptoms of cognitive decline after watching an hour of a political news show on cable.

    We seem to have gotten so incredibly stupid.

    • rhywun

      I’m more angry at the evil being perpetrated by the pols and the media than at the stupid of the people who swallow it.

      • juris imprudent

        If we are depending on the goodness inherent in the psychopaths who aspire to power as opposed to the people that vote on them, we’re screwed.

    • juris imprudent

      Have them read some thing that establishes A. Make them watch an hour long political pitch, heavy on emotion, of how it is really Not-A. Assess impact.

      I’d bet serious money not-A would win out even after initial agreement that it was A.

      • cyto

        Just play back the week of the election.

        CNN had my wife muttering to anyone who would listen “nobody in history has ever called an election on election night!” They went on and on about the certification process and the electors…. they were adamant that it was completely improper to call an election before the results were certified.

        Then 2 days later, they called the election. Before a single result was certified. And they said you were totally destroying democracy if you didn’t acknowledge the call and concede the election.

        Exact. Same. People.

        Two days separated. They all have no memory of ever having said any such thing.

    • cyto

      excellent insight.

  17. PieInTheSky

    I visited my mom in the quarantined village and o cop stopped me. I call that a win.

    • PieInTheSky

      no cop

      • Old Man With Candy

        Is o how one says no in Romanian?

        And whycome you guys aren’t Rumanian anymore? Are you trying to hide something?

      • PieInTheSky

        Are you trying to hide something? – nice try

      • DEG

        Good.

    • mrfamous

      Well, I suppose that’s something. The trend here is that the cops seem to be among the least enthusiastic about enforcing this nonsense.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    This could get interesting

    A dozen grocery stores around the state have been forced to close their doors after multiple employees test positive for COVID-19.

    Under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health order, businesses with four or more rapid responses in a 14-day period have to shut down for two weeks.

    As KOB 4 previously reported, the closures affect several essential business including grocery stores in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Roswell, Carlsbad, Farmington, Hobbs and Las Cruces.

    However, residents in southeast New Mexico said they’re worried a lack of options in rural communities will force people to travel out of state or to stand in line at other stores and cause the virus to spread.

    When asked if the governor would reconsider her position, a spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said, “The state is not forcing anyone to stand in a crowded line, as you suggest.”

    Let them eat toilet paper.

    • CPRM

      “The state is not forcing anyone to stand in a crowded line, as you suggest.”

      We’re just forcing businesses to close, limiting the amount of places people can get items, and forcing the ones remaining open to be open for fewer hours as to force more people into fewer businesses during fewer hours. It’s simple #science.

      • rhywun

        They can just get Amazon Prime and have everything delivered. I don’t know what they’re bitching about.

        /Jeff

      • cyto

        Related question:

        Why have stores cut back hours in the covid? Groceries and WalMart are open longer than they were, but still not back to regular hours. But business is back to full scale. But hours are still cut back… way back in the case of 24 hour walmart and publix. Anyone have a notion as to why?

      • Tres Cool

        +1 Burninator

      • DEG

        Some claimed they needed the extra time to have people clean and sanitize the store overnight.

        What’s the point? Unless you are sanitizing throughout the day, once customers come in, your overnight work is undone.

      • CPRM

        Some claimed they needed the extra time to have people clean and sanitize the store overnight.

        My place of business (not a store) claims that’s why we went from 24hrs down 18hrs. It’s bullshit, no extra cleaning is happening. I wonder how true that is for other businesses.

      • rhywun

        Oh I hate that “sanitize” theater. What a load of horseshit. A complete waste.

    • Homple

      “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

      …Frederick Douglass

    • Tonio

      Grocery stores do not generally have woodchippers, either as merchandise or store equipment, but they often have dumpster-size compactors.

      • Ted S.

        Dismember the politicians and feed the body parts into the bottle deposit machines.

      • DEG

        At the grocery store I worked at when I was a kid, you had to be 18 or older to use the bailing machine.

        Some 16 year olds at another store got injured horsing around on the machine. The crushing plate moved in a vertical plane. The kids thought it would be fine during a quiet time to ride the crushing plate up and down. One got caught between the plate and the machine’s frame, causing severe injury.

        As I understood it, the store chain got into some trouble over it from the state government and/or the chain’s insurance company for allowing employees under 18 to use the bailer.

        After that, no use of the bailer by employees under 18 allowed. We weren’t even allowed to put cardboard in the bailer. Someone older had to do it for us.

      • Don escaped Two Corinthians

        At the grocery store I worked at

      • Don escaped Two Corinthians

        At the grocery store I worked at

        yes: 50 states since the sixties

        There may have been some clarifications over the years, but this came from the child labor side, not directly from OSHA: kids simply can’t operate industrial equipment or even generally work in industrial sites.

        /grocer’s son

      • DEG

        Sixties?

        Wow. The incident I heard of was in the 80s or early 90s. From what I understood, before the incident, younger teens were allowed to use the bailer.

      • DEG

        And just after I hit submit, I remembered my older brother pumped gas in the 80s while he was 16. I remember my mom worrying because that wasn’t allowed under the child labor laws in PA. Nothing happened to him or the place he worked at.

      • The Last American Hero

        I used the nailer and the compactor at 16 (late 80’s) and we were a union shop.

  19. Rebel Scum

    Trump attends his final G-20 summit but does not participate in pandemic preparedness session

    It is set in stone because the AP said so.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    The jig’s up, refuseniks

    The mask mandate issued by the Kansas governor over the summer facilitated a decrease in coronavirus cases, a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday found.

    While the CDC already knew that masks help reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus strain that causes COVID-19, the agency reported Friday that the 24 Kansas counties that complied with the July 2 executive order from Gov. Laura Kelly (D) had a net 6 percent decrease in the seven-day average of daily reported coronavirus infections by Aug. 23.

    Meanwhile, the 81 counties that opted out of the mandate experienced a net 100 percent increase in the weekly average of cases, according to the CDC.

    “The decrease in cases among mandated counties and the continued increase in cases in nonmandated counties adds to the evidence supporting the importance of wearing masks and implementing policies requiring their use to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2,” the CDC wrote in its report Friday.

    I’m absolutely certain all variables have been strictly accounted for. The CDC already knew what the answer would be, so STFU.

    Quibblers will be dealt with.

    • cyto

      Meh… it is a pretty good anecdote.

      A pretty good counter anecdote is Sweden, who have done jack all. They are still in the middle of the pack for Europe. So similar results for doing nothing at all.

      • juris imprudent

        And how have things been going in both sets of counties since Aug 23? Kansas numbers were pretty flat over the summer.

    • CPRM

      Wisconsin became a ‘hotspot’ after the mask mandate here. But I guess that doesn’t count, because reasons.

      • cyto

        My wife is from Northern Wisconsin.

        That part of the country is naturally resistant to the spread of a virus like this – people live far apart.

        But the culture is naturally conducive to the spread once it gets established. Because they go to small bars. That’s all they do. Well, that and hunting. We were up there over the summer, before there were many cases. And nobody was remotely interested in social distancing or masks. They already had mandates in Superior, so walmart was requiring masks, and Super One was requiring masks. But everyone stops at the little honky-tonk on the way home. Twice if you live more than a half hour out of town.

        When it came through… it really came through.

        I only know a couple of people here in FL who got the vid. Nobody in my extended family in GA and NC got it, and nobody close to them got it.

        But in Wisconsin? My wife has 3 lifelong friends in her closest inner circle from up there. 2 of the 3 had their mothers in the ICU last week. Several of her mother’s close friends got it.

        The family has reserved a town hall for a Christmas get-together. Wisconsin folk are tough. Or stubborn. Either way, they like their small bars.

      • CPRM

        I know, that’s where I’m located. Just stating the cherry picking. I havn’t been to a bar in…like 2 years (beer is cheaper for home consumption), but all the other businesses here I see near 95% compliance inside with mask rules, and still it’s spreading, kinda puts a chink in that argument. That’s alls I’s sayin.

      • cyto

        You are in Wisconsin and haven’t been to the bar in 2 years?

        That sounds suspect!

        When I go to the Super One in Superior, folks walk out of the grocery store, put their groceries in the truck and then walk over to the bar. If they live more than 15 minutes out of town (which is exceedingly common), they’ll stop somewhere else along the way home. I kinda thought it was a state law or something that you had to have a beer on the way back from town.

        Is this “two years” thing like my wife and her “ate healthy all week” that includes two bags of chips that didn’t count because it was late and she was stressed out?

      • CPRM

        Like I said, beer is cheaper when consumed at home, and being a Glib, I don’t much care for people.

      • Fourscore

        CPRM fit right in at Honey Harvest, Glibs, food, Kinnath’s mead, I got a really nice Hat and Hair cup that I’m using right now.

        Being that it was Sunday we got the Pope Jimbo sermon but most people slept through it. Was a fine day and no masks.

      • DEG

        I look forward to the next Honey Harvest.

        Maybe life in Biden’s America will be normal enough that traveling to Minnesoda won’t be a pain.

      • CPRM

        Yeah, I brought out 2 12 packs to share and had a couple cases in the RV for when it was done. Like I said, cheap beer. I’m glad you’re getting some joy from that mug. It was a pleasure to be your guest.

    • juris imprudent

      6% decrease on base of 100 cases vs. a 100% increase on a base of 6 cases?

      • juris imprudent

        Ha! Not far off. From the actual CDC link embedded.

        By the week of the governor’s executive order requiring masks (July 3–9), COVID-19 incidence had increased 467% to 17 per 100,000 in mandated counties and 50% to six per 100,000 among nonmandated counties. By August 17–23, 2020, the 7-day rolling average COVID-19 incidence had decreased by 6% to 16 cases per 100,000 among mandated counties and increased by 100% to 12 per 100,000 among nonmandated counties.

      • cyto

        Looks like noise in the signal. Decrease is definitely not statistically significant. Hard to say how important the increase is. And this isn’t exactly 60 million people. So the counts could have been really small and inaccurate to begin with.

        Down here we have been bouncing around at somewhere under 10% positivity – that’s all they ever talk about. Rate of positive tests among all tested. Nobody talks about overall infection rate, active infections, etc. They just don’t have ready access to those numbers… so they go with percent positivity.

        Which, of course, means that you could simply drive twice as many people to get tested and halve your rate. Or you could advise that only symptomatic people get tested, massively increasing your rate. I.E. a useless statistic. But it is the one we use to determine school closures and business lockdowns.

      • rhywun

        I.E. a useless statistic. But it is the one we use to determine school closures and business lockdowns.

        This. It’s fucking infuriating.

      • prolefeed

        So, the CDC “evidence” that masks work is 25% higher “cases” in the masked counties versus the unmasked counties after the mandate?

        Cause 16 per is better than 12 per because reasons?

        And no one called them on that bullshit?

  21. Rebel Scum

    Well, this should help him rest easier.

    The Kenosha Kidd ain’t a layabout.

    And he is going to be railroaded no matter what because he is a far-right, racist murderer. CNN told me.

  22. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    Spherification is really groovy! Never seen that before, so thanks for the videos!

    So, in stupid governor news, when confronted by a reporter over the data from Lifetime Fitness that gyms are not a ‘vid source, our fuckwit said “It’s not about numbers. It’s not about data. It’s about neighborliness.”

    Oh, ok cunt.

    I’m tired of commies. I’m gonna go for a walk.

    Have a wonderful Sunday, peeps!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Thanks for making that clear.”

  23. Rebel Scum

    If changing lanes would be impossible or unsafe, proceed with due caution and reduce the speed of the vehicle, maintaining a safe speed for road conditions.

    Reduce speed by how much? Sounds like some state revenue agent law enforcement horseshit.

    • cyto

      Here in FL you have to slow down to 25mph if you can’t get over.

      On a road with a minimum speed of 45mph. Sounds safe.

      I haven’t heard much about it since they first implemented the law, so maybe they softened it a bit.

      Strict enforcement of this law could be an easy money-maker. It is sometimes surprisingly difficult to see stopped vehicles and merge in heavy traffic. I have been surprised by the presence of police with lights on with too little time to safely merge in heavy traffic many times since the advent of the new law. If you are behind a semi truck in heavy traffic, you might not see a stopped emergency vehicle until you are within a hundred yards or less. Good luck merging in bumper to bumper traffic with that kind of warning. If traffic is already near capacity, making an entire lane merge on limited warning is impossible, and strict attempts to comply are guaranteed to cause a traffic jam, and potentially accidents.

      This on is a tough one, because it is designed to address the issue of police getting hit while doing traffic stops. It isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence, but it is common enough that if my job involved standing on the side of the road, I’d be looking to get some help with getting people to move over too.

      • DrOtto

        Just make it illegal to hit police cars on the shoulder, problem solved.

  24. Rebel Scum

    We really must be running out of things to panic about.

    We have to ban plastic. I foresee no dire consequences to modern life.

  25. Rebel Scum

    Church patriarch dies from Covid-19 after leading open-casket funeral of bishop killed by the virus

    I have questions regarding this headline. The more I read it the more I think my brain might blue-screen.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Incoherent outrage is the best outrage.

    That whole article is retarded.

    • Rebel Scum

      Enthusiasm?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Can’t watch that, Twitter says people behaving themselves might upset me.

      • cyto

        That is astonishing!

        For those who don’t click… it is a twitter post of a video showing people standing around with Trump flags and signs, and a truck with Trump flags drives by honking the horn.

        That is all.

        Twitter has deemed this “sensitive content” and requires you to click past a warning to view it.

      • Sean

        I was trying to link to the video a little lower. The “fuck Gavin Newsome” chants.

      • DEG

        That was my favorite video of the three.

      • TARDis

        Well, did you not see that black guy walk through the group and get assaulted by all those freakin’ racists? Horrifying!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        In Beverly Hills.

      • The Hyperbole

        I got no such warning, apparently Twitter knows I can take it.

      • cyto

        I did see a place to click for settings about the content warning. Presumably that’s so you can see boobies without a click.

        I object to putting a Trump flag in the same bucket with an ISIL decapitation video.

    • DEG

      Potentially sensitive content.

      Fuck.

  27. juris imprudent

    So after an excellent night’s sleep, I’ll more calmly restate the TOP.MAN fallacy of the president being charge of the economy.

    Calvin Coolidge was the best president of the 20th century precisely because he conducted himself with proper humility and respect for the role. He was soon succeeded by the worst president of the 20th century, FDR, from whom all of the subsequent vain-glory stems. After all, just as Trump promoted himself as “I alone can fix this”, so too did FDR consider himself utterly indispensable to the nation in 1940 (having served his two terms).

    This embodies the myth of the rightful ruler, and as all myths are, it is a primitive expression of social psychological need. Reality is that tax cuts (and sometimes this board sounds like a Republican club – abortion and taxcuts) are enacted in Congress. To hear Trump being given credit, particularly when he has been anything but skilled in dealing with Congress (and his promotion of spending puts most Dems to shame) is just silly. It’s exactly like Democrats whining about the “Reagan tax cuts”, which in BOTH cases were authored by Dems in Congress.

    The perception that power resides in the Executive to manage the economy is pernicious – no matter how it is expressed. It is magical thinking. And little wonder that progressives indulge in it the most. It isn’t a temptation we should allow ourselves, unless you don’t really mind being as mindless as a progressive.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s pernicious because Congress has ceded almost all of its authority to the administrative state.

      • cyto

        The administrative state absolutely has the power to wreck the economy.

        Make it great? Meh… probably not. I mean, there are a few things that the state provides that enable a functioning economy. A fair and consistent set of laws and courts to enforce them. A reliable currency. Access to foreign markets.

        But the power to wreck an economy? It knows almost no limits…..

      • juris imprudent

        While that is true, it does not establish that the administrative state can actually manage the economy. That’s a trope of the idiot left, and we shouldn’t be so keen to mimic it.

      • blackjack

        I can’t “manage” my neighbor’s yard, but I sure could do burnouts with my motorcycle on it. Likely fuck it up real good. If I leave it to them, they’ll mow and weed it and it’ll get progressively better. If they knew I might come back and wreck it at any moment, they’re gonna be way less apt to invest time and money into making it nice. Once I move, they might just start to try and make it great again. But they need assurances that I won’t be coming back to destroy it all over again.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Perfect analogy.

      • blackjack

        There’s a raft of implemented decisions by the executive branch that have had huge effects on the economic output.

        Obama care was drafted and passed by congress. It could only have come to fruition under Obama. It drastically affected the economy. Numerous EOs had huge effects. Cafe standards, energy sector restrictions, choosing who’s too big to fail, subsidizing solar and wind, cash for clunkers, all of these constrained the economy and were only enacted because Obama was president.

        It’s foolish to think that the president has no effect on the economy. There are so many obvious examples.

    • mrfamous

      Am I wrong to not be concerned that 2020 has ushered in the era of executive takeover? The legislatures across the country are MIA, almost all of what’s being done is being done by mayors and governors, and at the federal level, the lifetime legislator in chief is planning on enacting a series of new laws on his first few days in office.

      I’m in agreement in what you’re saying _should_ be the case. But it really doesn’t seem like it is right now.

      Now a lot of this is because a huge chunk of the people are demanding precisely this: a big ‘ol powerful executive to impose their will on their political enemies.

      • cyto

        I don’t know. Maybe post it on Twitter and see if they censor it. That’ll let you know if the era of the executive takeover is official policy or not…

      • juris imprudent

        Now a lot of this is because a huge chunk of the people are demanding precisely this: a big ‘ol powerful executive to impose their will on their political enemies.

        Yep, which is all the more reason not to join in the festivities. I suppose it’s all just a rear-guard action, I just won’t be part of the faction that agrees with the tactics but not the objectives.

      • DEG

        The legislatures across the country are MIA

        Just wait. Voters brought in new legislators in some states.

    • kbolino

      The President has played a significant role in setting the legislative agenda for quite some time now. In general, there are three approaches to the Presidency:

      Madisonian: The President is steward of the executive branch that Congress has erected and regulated. The will of the people is best expressed through the diverse array of legislators who are answerable at the local (House) and state (Senate) levels. Congress should accordingly set its own agenda and the President should serve only to check its excesses.

      Jacksonian: The President is the chief officer of government and heads the premier of the three branches. The will of the people is best expressed through the single, national representative of them, who isn’t bogged down by petty local and state distractions, and who speaks to the common man across the land. Congress should accordingly take its agenda from the President’s initiative.

      Jeffersonian: The President and Congress work jointly to make and execute the laws. The will of the people is best expressed through a balance of local, legislative interests and national, executive interests. Either branch can bring issues to the attention of the other, and both serve as checks on the other’s excesses.

      The names take inspiration from their respective Presidents, but don’t exactly match the philosophies or behavior of their namesakes. The modern Presidency tends to be Jeffersonian with Jacksonian tendencies. Accordingly, President’s tend to have input on the legislative agenda and take credit when their initiatives become law (however tortured they get along the way).

      It was definitely Trump’s prerogative to pass the tax cut, but the details were hashed out in Congress. He couldn’t have done it on his own, but I don’t think it would have happened, at least not the same way, without his input.

      • juris imprudent

        It was also Trump’s prerogative to spend like a drunken sailor with a found wallet stuffed with cash.

  28. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Why are you linking a YouTube video of Christopher Walken?

  29. The Late P Brooks

    our fuckwit said “It’s not about numbers. It’s not about data. It’s about neighborliness.”

    !!!!!!!!!

  30. DEG

    President Donald Trump on Saturday did not participate in a virtual G-20 session on global response efforts to the coronavirus and improved pandemic preparedness, even as Covid-19 cases surge and break daily records in the U.S.

    Good.

    Black, who is charged with two counts of intentionally giving a weapon to a person under the age of 18 causing death, allegedly bought and stored the alleged murder weapon for Rittenhouse.

    Fuck.

    If a person who drives a vehicle approaches a stationary vehicle and the stationary vehicle is giving a signal by displaying alternately flashing lights or is displaying warning lights, the person shall do either of the following:

    Sounds like four way flashers count. If that’s the case, I’m impressed the state legislature made an even handed law instead of making it apply only to emergency vehicles because fuck tire changers.

    “To know we are polluting near the top of the tallest mountain is a real eye-opener,” she said in a statement.

    Go fuck yourself.

    The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, died in a Belgrade hospital on Friday after contracting coronavirus, according to a statement from the church.

    If it were the flu, or a host of other maladies, this would not be newsworthy. I also think if he had worn a mask before he contract Lil Rona, it would not be newsworthy.

    I know. I’m going out on a limb here.

    President-elect Joe Biden got testy with a CBS News reporter who asked him a question on Friday about his plan to get children back into classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    I’m going to go out on a limb here again. Biden will never get the same treatment Trump received from the media.

    • cyto

      Stunningly, several members of the press tweeted support for the CBS reporter. They praised his “hard hitting” question.

      “Will you push the teachers union to get kids back in school?”

      I mean, compared to the softballs he’d been getting, yeah… I suppose.

      Meanwhile, Trump gets “why did you murder 2 million people?” and “will you concede the election before it is held?”

      I’m gonna say he gets less of the kid gloves treatment than his old boss, who was only asked one real question during his entire time in politics – and that was from a plumber on the street. He still hasn’t been asked about anything from the campaign spying on Trump. That’s astonishing. Never even bothered to ask about any of it. Now that we have the discovery from the Flynn case, we know that Obama was personally involved in the whole thing. Heck, just being involved in setting up Flynn and prosecuting him after the FBI says they investigated and spied on him for a couple of months and found nothing is something that he should have to address.

      Nope. Not a question..

      So I doubt Biden has that much leeway. But everyone knows he’s really the placeholder, and Harris is grabbing the reigns. She’ll surely get the kid gloves treatment. And then we’ll see… because she can’t play the game like Obama could. She’s gonna earn the disdain of every one of them at some point. So we’ll see how far they are willing to tow that particular lion.

      • DEG

        I agree that Biden will get a little grief from the press, and for the reasons you state. The treatment will be nowhere near what Trump got.

        Harris? I think once she takes the reins she’ll get a kid glove treatment. First woman president and all that.

      • cyto

        It really will be fun watching them all swallow extra hard every time she takes to the podium.

      • TARDis

        My head involuntarily hits my desk every time I think about all the women screeching about inequality when then know we would have never of this POS if she didn’t get her start by getting on her knees. Are they expecting retribution on behalf of the matriarchy? First executive order: Off with their penises!

  31. DEG

    Fuck the LPNH

    I will never give them any more support.

    • juris imprudent

      We want to be a real political party too! /LP

    • wchipperdove

      Well, at least the commenters are pushing back.

    • CPRM

      2. Libertarians recognize that willfully spreading a deadly disease is a NAP violation. Wear a mask.

      Masks can stop AIDS, cancer, heart disease and Ebola?

      • TARDis

        I have made it a habit to loudly exclaim in the men’s restroom, “I wish these masks actually worked!”

      • Tres Cool

        If only Michael Douglas wore a mask, he wouldn’t have throat cancer.

    • mrfamous

      Me as well. Sometimes the slope really is slippery. What we choose to have for breakfast could cost someone somewhere their life. If that’s the new standard, then totalitarianism is therefore justified.

    • kbolino

      willfully spreading a deadly disease

      How many bases can you steal in five words?

      • mrfamous

        Three and a half by my count. ‘Disease’ is arguable.

      • rhywun

        Heh it is impressive.

  32. wchipperdove

    OK, now and then I see a photo showing a line of cars, with people in Hazmat suits doing something or other, and it’s obviously related to the Crovid.

    Is this some kind of outdoor testing? I sure hope so. Please tell me they’re not forcing drivers entering a city or state somewhere to be tested before they can enter. That would be no-shit Orwellian.

  33. Tundra

    Fucking Greenwald is getting better every column.

    The New Ruling Coalition: Opposition to Afghanistan Withdrawal Shows Its Key Factions

    The departure of Trump is not going to rid us of this The-Fascists-Are-Coming movie. It’s been far too profitable a series for far too many institutions to let it go. Even with Trump gone, they are going to use every FBI tactic to exaggerate the threat of these domestic movements to keep you in such a state of fear that you acquiesce to whatever powers they claim they need to defeat these forces of domestic right-wing darkness — just as they did in the Cold War with domestic Communism and after the Oklahoma City bombing when the Clinton Administration demanded backdoor internet access in the name of stopping right-wing militias and again after 9/11 when people like Newt Gingrich wanted to curb free speech in the name of stopping the threat of Islamic radicalism inside the U.S. This playbook is as old and obvious as it is pernicious.

    And one key tactic they will absolutely continue to use is the multi-pronged campaign to demand, coerce and cajole Silicon Valley giants to continue to silence and censor whoever is an adversary of this new neoliberal ruling coalition — whether on the right or on the left. If you have any doubts about that, just listen to the new left-wing darling, the newly re-elected Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Ed Markey, when he spoke to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a Senate hearing late last month and demanded more censorship: “The issue is not that the companies before us today is that they’re taking too many posts down. The issue is that they’re leaving too many dangerous posts up.”

    Solid piece.

    • cyto

      Trying to get himself disappeared in both of the two largest countries in the Americas! That’s how you do it!

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Libertarians recognize that willfully spreading a deadly disease is a NAP violation. Wear a mask.

    *blows whistle, throws flag*

    Too many men assumptions in the backfield.

  35. DEG

    I just finished a boozy coffee.

    Fuck it. I’m getting another.

    • DEG

      Mmm… good.

  36. juris imprudent

    Salon, so you are warned.

    The markups have resulted in hospital profits skyrocketing by 411% from 1999 to 2017, hitting a record $88 billion.

    Narrator: Less than 1 out of 5 hospitals in the U.S. are for-profit.

    You can also laugh at the headline, which claims that these hospitals are overcharging patients, and not insurance companies.

    • CPRM

      Well, they are overcharging patients who pay in cash, because the insurance industry has so fucked the metrics that prices don’t match services.

    • R C Dean

      “Overall, hospitals across the US charge an average of $417 for every $100 of their costs.”

      There is no hospital in existence with a 400% operating margin. Generally, a hospital makes a 5% margin in a good year.

      And no, even the list price nobody pays isn’t 4x the third party payor price.

    • cyto

      That’s weird. Why wait to consider it? Is the data not in?

      • TARDis

        Yes, but it’s being processed by Dominion machines. The software needs some tweaking.

      • LJW

        FDA says they need time to review it. I say give people the option to take it knowing that the FDA hasn’t reviewed it. Authoritarian bureaucracy.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Right to Try!

  37. Tundra
    • cyto

      Bonus in the tweet he’s replying to: “our government has not adequately supported people enough to incentivize them not to work.”

      • Tundra

        Wow.

        Relevant.

    • Old Man With Candy

      What does it say? He’s got me blocked.

      • Tundra

        Jemele Hill:

        Kelly Stafford is entitled to her opinion, but calling Michigan a “dictatorship” is irresponsible. We have to sacrifice personal freedom to get this pandemic under control. The failure is our government has not adequately supported people enough to incentivize them not to work.

        Malice:

        “We have to sacrifice” is code for “you have to submit”

        Here’s my counterproposal: Go fuck yourself

      • Old Man With Candy

        I’m on board with that.

      • cyto

        How did you manage to get blocked by a blue check mark?

      • PieInTheSky

        my question is why would you have a twitter account to be blocked?

      • Old Man With Candy

        Antisemitism.

      • CPRM

        Checks out: ABC, CBS, NBC…Then they dox you, and OMFG someone needs to kill this crazy Jew Right Wing Nut Job!

      • rhywun

        Queen of the Derp

        She will not be overthrown.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Me as well. Sometimes the slope really is slippery. What we choose to have for breakfast could cost someone somewhere their life. If that’s the new standard, then totalitarianism is therefore justified.

    butterfly flaps wings

    sun sets over pink mountain

    airliner crashes

    • Tundra

      Beautiful.

  39. Urthona
    • mrfamous

      Yep. This precisely why our elections are such a sham: the only way to even compete is to turn it into a game of strategy: who can conjure up the most votes?

      This stuff is far too important to leave the people be and let them decide for themselves. It’s a battle of which thumb can push hardest on the scale.

      • Q Continuum

        I’ve been saying this for a long while. The Dems worked overtime on corrupting the election process, so the only way to compete was for the Pubs to become equally corrupt. Congress neutering itself coupled with the incredible expansion of executive power means that we creep ever closer to electing a monarch every four years. If they succeed in getting rid of the electoral college, our lives will be determined by which party has the stronger machine in LA, NYC, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix.

        Counterpoint: maybe that means there won’t be anymore political commercials for those of us who live in bumfuck land.

      • Don escaped Two Corinthians

        Dems worked overtime on corrupting the election process

        I’m not saying there is zero corruption, but I don’t know why it’s an impossible stretch to go from on the one hand saying the world is going to hell, almost everyone is stupid and self-serving, the MSM and schools are destroying everyone’s ability to think, and other hand thinking it would be remotely difficult to amass enough free-stuff morons to vote against a complete asshole.

      • mrfamous

        It’s certainly possible, but that’s far more difficult and unpredictable than simply gaming a system whose rules have been such that it’s really easy to game. That folks are gaming the system and engaging in all sorts of shenanigans because otherwise Trump would have won, it’s because they always do those things regardless of winds up winning. In their minds, “winning” is based on who executed the most clever strategy.

        Now you could argue that the massive expansion of mail in balloting made this election more susceptible to that nonsense than others, but as long as you have a system like ballot harvesting that encourages the participants to not play fair, they ain’t gonna play fair.

        Fraud happens because those that benefit would rather have a predictable fraud laden system than the unpredictability of a cleaner system. And they’re the ones who set the rules. Ballot harvesting would be mercilessly mocked if we saw it going on in some tinpot dictatorship, but somehow with us no one would dare take advantage of such a ridiculous system.

      • Urthona

        Ballot harvesting is indeed a joke.

        However, Republicans figuring out how to do it better (hint: conservatives go to church…..duh) greatly increases the likelihood that this stupid practice can be jettisoned.

      • Don escaped Two Corinthians

        that’s the best you’ve got? why not answer the premise directly?

        I’m sticking with occam this time

      • blackjack

        Occam points to a rigged election.

      • ruodberht

        Don, your opinion here is literally the opposite of the parsimonious one. It requires believing something other than our lying eyes.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    It really will be fun watching them all swallow extra hard every time she takes to the podium.

    Something something President Harris leads by example.

  41. juris imprudent

    Then again, just when I’m all doom and gloomy, you get a breath of fresh, clean air.

    One of Prop 16’s advocates told a reporter, “I am glad we did this. We were able to talk about systemic racism.” She lamented that they “weren’t able to get through to voters.”

    Maybe all that talk of racism is exactly what did get through to voters.

    • rhywun

      And it lost despite universal support from every politician, media hack, and Hollywood derp in sight.

  42. cyto

    Jamie Lee Curtis had a fine set…. but finest ever? I gotta dispute that. My teenage self identified a photo of Kathy Ireland in Sports Illustrated as the finest set in history.

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BTlIB2GHkc4/X2I0G-VF4kI/AAAAAAAANQ4/lO7ov2fmNqoczgPkxn53kKNMDMdCgOYcgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1678/KathyCenterfold.jpg

    No, they are not all that huge like the scream queen’s… but I was a high school boy who had never seen anything like it. You are never gonna change his mind.

    Interestingly, I think my dad might have Janet Leigh in the same bucket – so full circle?

  43. The Late P Brooks

    “We have to sacrifice” is code for “you have to submit”

    Exactly.

  44. cyto

    Speaking of machines with algorithms to change the results….. YouTube suggested this

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jqCdBKl0ME&ab_channel=EngineeringExplained

    The SSC Tuatara is a hypercar that is designed to be the fastest ever production car. They did a speed run and claimed a top speed of 331 mph.

    I was blissfully unaware of this, but shortly after they posted their record, controversy ensued. This being the age of the internet, someone analyzed the video of the run and compared it to google maps, and claimed that they were not going more than 250.

    So this Engineering Explained guy decided to do a deep dive. The company used a GPS measuring tool for their speed run and proclaimed that to be definitive.

    But Engineering Explained guy analyzes the data, and it doesn’t add up.

    So he calls the company. It seems that there are adjustment factors that can be added to the back end of the software.

    And now you know the relevance.

    He shows that they probably had a factor applied to the software to make it appear to be reading out quite a bit faster on the GPS screen than they were actually going.

    If you are either a car nerd or a data nerd, this video is a fun watch. Everyone else…. well, enjoy your day.

    • Don escaped Two Corinthians

      I didn’t watch the video, but I’m guessing part of the rationalization is the timestamp

      which would be a whole lot easier to speed up ten or twenty percent than screwing with the other systems

    • CPRM

      It loses validity in assuming Google Maps is accurate.

      • cyto

        He handles that.

        The google maps was used to come up with an estimate of the distance between two medians.

        He controls this by analyzing a video of the Koenigsegg doing a speed run on the exact same stretch of road. Their speed run matches exactly – GPS, video and stated results. The SSC does not.

        That’s what I found interesting. He didn’t just call shennanigans and be done with it.

        He checked the instantaneous speed at each second on the timestamp and calculated a distance travelled in that second – then totaled up the entire run. The distance for the SSC was too long. The distance for the Koenigsegg matched perfectly.

        He checked the gearing and the RPM against the two known configurations of the car. The gearing for top speed would support 331 mph and would have indicated that the car was travelling this fast at the top RPM shown in the console – which conflicts with the run time and distance we get from the video. But the gearing from the normal configuration would match the speed from the video at the observed RPM, and would match the distance he calculates. This only leaves the GPS data to contend with. The speeds indicated do not match the video. But he talked with the manufacturer and they indicated that they were not involved with the setup, but their equipment was properly calibrated and tested before shipping out. They also indicated that there are settings in the software that would be capable of applying a “correction factor” to the GPS data – outputting the wrong speed.

        He makes a really convincing case that this is what happened.

        And he very sweetly and unconfrontationally ties it in a nice little bow by relating his conversation with SCC – they have additional footage of the runs…. but will not share it. They have gearing data – that they won’t share. They have the screen capture of the GPS output on video… but did not keep the GPS raw data (which would definitively answer the question)

        The company says they are focusing on preparing to redo the speed run.

        Which is also revealing. If you have a car in hand that can run back and forth at 300+ mph, exactly how much additional prep is needed? Call the county and request a road closure for an hour? Maybe a half hour? Then drive the car back and forth… done.

        He says the specifications indicate that it should be capable of 345mph. So he seems to think they’ll be able to do it.

        But why they put out a video with claims that could be debunked is a mystery.

    • blackjack

      A real top speed run has to be backed up with a return run that’s within a small percentage of the record. It’s not like mankind has never measured high speed vehicles before. These guys should have went to Bonneville if they wanted to prove the speed they allege. I, however, can tell you all about how big the fish I almost caught was.

  45. juris imprudent

    An expanding conspiracy theory is not a good sign.

    Speaking to Glenn Beck on Friday, Powell described what has just happened as “a global criminal conspiracy” that involves China, our own intelligence services, and various European countries. Beck was right that if even 25 percent of what Powell alleges is true, it would count as perhaps “the biggest” such crime in history. If.

    • juris imprudent

      And speaking of conspiracy theorizing – the embedded link in the above about Hammer & Scorecard…

      https://jordanschachtel.substack.com/p/debunking-hammer-and-scorecard-a

      Yet there is no evidence that Hammer and Scorecard is a real program that ever existed. The idea is the work of a serial fraudster by the name of Dennis Montgomery. He is the single source for this claim.

      • cyto

        This is a good read. I find it entirely plausible that the Trump machine latched on to something like this and sold it.

        Also – confirmation bias for me. Because if you have a machine that flips the count, you don’t need mail in ballots. And they hung their hat on getting mail in ballots this year – and waited to count until after the results were in elsewhere – exactly what you’d need to do if you needed to add in 20 or 50k votes and not have it be found. Also matches the bizarre Pennsylvania Supreme court ruling that signatures need not match and postmarks are not needed. That certainly makes a large scale fraud operation a lot easier.

        None of that has anything to do with a vote-counting level computer fraud. Plus, a vote counting fraud machine is completely defeated by a hand recount (in states that have paper ballots)

      • blackjack

        It’s totally possible that the extra ballots were going to justify the machine “adjustments” but Trump got too many votes and they had to make even more at, say, 3-4 o’clock in the morning. Conceivably, there’s some serious mismatched counts out there and that’s what the legal team has proof of. We really don’t know exactly what they have and won’t until it’s done it’s job ( or failed to, as the case may be.) The whole thing is highly unusual anything’s possible at this point. I just know that what the dems and the media are saying is improbable and the fact that they are shutting down any attempt at clarifying is a huge tell. DO NOT LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN!

      • cyto

        Yeah, red flags flying everywhere.

        If there was no fraud, you wouldn’t jump up and down and contest the very notion of a recount. You’d say “have at it”. You wouldn’t announce that checking signatures is racist. You’d say “go right ahead”.

        It would only humiliate your enemies and increase your legitimacy.

        Instead, they scream that there is no evidence, even when covering a story about the evidence.

        Which was exactly what was wrong with their handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story. 60 minutes saying “it is unverified” about the laptop and Trump saying “what do you mean? it is a laptop. Of course it can be verified”…..

        “It is unverified”.

        That story was such a giveaway as to the game being played. And now they cover this story the same way. It makes you suspicious.

    • cyto

      Well, we already know that the CIA and FBI were directly involved in an actual conspiracy against the Trump campaign. That can’t even be controversial at this point… we have it in their own handwriting. They even involved foreign diplomats and foreign agents.

      So the fact that anyone would believe that they would rig a US election is kinda on them at this point.

    • grrizzly

      Other than China, we know that this “global criminal conspiracy” was already in place four years ago. There’s hard evidence of their attempt to rig the 2016 election. Dude, you’re not even trying anymore.

    • DEG

      “Tell these girls to return my calls”

      Heh.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    FDA says they need time to review it.

    If Trump, then no approval.

  47. mrfamous

    I’m starting to think you crazy bastards in Florida might be our last hope. I may have to move there.

    • Gustave Lytton

      It’s the cigar that seals the deal.

  48. DEG

    Oh fuck

    A Utah-based coffee company says it will end its sponsorship of a Blaze Media podcast after the host shared a photo of Kyle Rittenhouse wearing a T-shirt with the company’s logo, according to a report from The Salt Lake Tribune.

    Elijah Schaffer, a reporter at Blaze Media, tweeted a since-removed photo of the 17-year-old wearing a Black Rifle Coffee Company shirt with the caption, “Kyle Rittenhouse drinks the best coffee in America.” The teenager, accused of killing two people during protests in Wisconsin in August, was released Friday after supporters raised his $2 million bail.

    • Q Continuum

      The fix is in on the kid; he has about as much chance of a fair trial as Harvey Weinstein did.

      He should probably be looking for countries with no extradition and ways to get there.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He can be Snowden’s bodyguard.

      • prolefeed

        You only need 1 out of 12 jurors to deadlock. This is a case that gets decided in voir dire.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      BRCC alienates more than half of their customers and for some reason thinks that they’ll get a fair shake. Jesus dumbasses, just keep your damn mouths shut on the matter.

  49. Toxteth O'Grady

    Mock election ’20 T-shirts for sale: https://thedudesthreads.com/pages/political-humor
    The other day I met a guy wearing a “John Galt 2020 | You Know Who I Am” shirt. He said he was trying to memorize the Atlas Shrugged speech. He was like Thomas Massie on speed.

    • CPRM

      He said he was trying to memorize the Atlas Shrugged speech.

      Hell, I haven’t even memorized all of Fight Club (the movie) after over 1000 watches, and I’m sure that is fewer words.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I wonder if he would fit in at Glibs, or be a cross between Ken S. and Agile Cyborg.

      • Yusef Von Gomez The Blind

        Ummmm,

    • blackjack

      No maddog 2020?

  50. DEG

    How in the hell did the Stinky Inky editorial board approve this article?

    Philadelphia ranks among the worst U.S. cities to do business, with high taxes and burdensome regulations. Most major cities face similar complaints. But Philadelphia is particularly unwelcoming to new and transplanted businesses, academics, business owners, and public policy experts said, helping to ossify Philly as the nation’s poorest big city.

    There’s a lot of stuff in the article critical of city regulations and taxes.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “poorest big city”

      Huh, I had no idea.

    • rhywun

      Mahe Bayireddi is a cofounder of Phenom, a hiring-software maker that keeps about half of its 700 employees in Ambler, about 20 miles north of Philadelphia. While Bayireddi expresses admiration for Philly, a suburban base helps with employee recruitment and retention. “The people who have kids and families, they are living in the suburbs. The schooling and the housing, it really does matter,” Bayireddi said.

      Bullshit. Dollars to donuts the deciding factor to build in bumfuck was because that’s where Bayireddi and his buddies live.

      • ruodberht

        Ambler is…not bumfuck.

  51. Q Continuum

    RE: Biden losing it on reporters.

    Jus say’n that frontotemporal dementia’s hallmarks are difficulty with spoken language and inappropriate anger/aggression.

    The pre-Harris administration may be shorter than originally thought.

    • Ownbestenemy

      They have to act out Weekend at Joes for two years. It will be a cake-walk too. A very favorable press will help prop up one side while Harris holds up the other.

  52. Gender Traitor

    Just opened a new tab in Firefox and saw

    You can help Mozilla and Princeton University researchers stop the spread of online disinformation. Donate your browsing data to Project Ion.

    …followed by a “Join Us!” button.

    Hell to the no. Time for a new browser? Any suggestions?

    • Q Continuum

      Brave.
      Opera.
      I actually like the new Edge pretty well.

    • CPRM
    • rhywun

      Wow, that’s disappointing.

  53. The Hyperbole

    Why I have little faith that Trump’s hot shot legal team will ever release the Kraken – Rudy is still spouting nonsense that was dismissed yesterday. You can look it up yourself the county had 64% turnout, I did a quick scan and not a single precinct was over 80% turnout.

    • Urthona

      What a dumbass.

    • CPRM

      What you need to know
      – There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Wayne County or across Michigan, according to the Detroit Free Press, WXYZ Detroit and other journalists

      – Most ballot-counting discrepancies in Michigan stem from human error, according to the Michigan secretary of state and the AP

      – Trump’s claim that there are “more votes than people” in the county are false, according to journalists

      – The Wayne County Board of Canvassers agreed to certify county results on November 17

      That is the statement Twitter pushed me to with that link. Odd thing is, I watched a news conference from a canvasser from Wayne County yesterday where she said they weren’t given a written report, as required by law (or so she alleged), and were instead told the totals out loud with no supporting documents. I’m not inclined to believe every JabberJaw, but this runs counter to said narrative.

      • blackjack

        These are the same people who told us the Russians hacked our elections and that’s why Trump won ’16. They are liars. Evidence apparently means “unnamed sources” but not signed and sworn affidavits.

      • The Hyperbole

        Unless they just published it in the last couple days, all the info she’s asking about is available online, Wayne Co. had 1.5 million registered voters and received 900,000 votes. If 70% of the precincts had over 100% the other 30% must have had 0% turnout. It’s farcical, if you’re going to make wild claims at least make them believable.

      • blackjack

        According to Wayne county. Let’s ask Brennan, Strzok and Comey if it’s legit.

      • cyto

        One point to this – the people doing these poll watcher and certifier jobs are usually retired housewives and such. Team D spent a massive amount of time and money recruiting and paying for lawyers to be involved all over the country, particularly in sensitive areas. They are paired with the old lady who is the secretary for your condo association, selected by the local GOP because she wanted to do it.

        Further evidence… when they said “we are calling it for the night… come back at 10am tomorrow in Atlanta, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, the GOP people just went home. Nobody stayed to stand watch. Amateurs.

      • CPRM

        I’m a bit daft, and there are a lot of links there, can you link the one with the official canvass report that shows the explanation for mismatched results (her claim)? I’m drunk prolly off to bed, but I’ll check back.

      • The Hyperbole

        The Official Results Summary Report under the 2020 November 3rd – General Election seems to be the 72 page report she mentioned I only see a spot for unresolved write-in votes there.

        I looked at the Voting Statistics under Precinct by Precinct Reports to get the percentages, again I don’t see anything marked mismatched, or under and over votes, but not in any precinct is the reported votes greater than the registered voters so I’ll confess to not really knowing what she’s talking about there.

      • The Hyperbole

        Sorry for the late response, but in case you do check back, after some research it seems she’s talking about “unbalanced” precincts which has nothing to do with the number of votes vs the number of voters or population, it’s the number of votes counted vs the number of votes they should have, i.e. people that signed in to vote plus the number of absentee ballots received against the number of votes counted, I think the second chart above would show that as “cards cast” vs “voters cast”. I couldn’t find any discrepancies but I read we are talking about a difference of less than 500 spread out over all those precincts where over 70% were ‘balanced’ It’s like finding the d in those strings of characters people were posting the other day.

  54. Sethly

    Color us officially interested in starting up our own home gastrochemical division!

    It’s too bad the sheep needed to preserve their toilet paper in dry ice, because I wanted a lot more of the margarita shots. :-/