Wednesday Morning Links

by | Dec 16, 2020 | Daily Links | 513 comments

Still crying three days later.

Man, the CFP committee must be looking at LSU as the defending champ rather than the flaming pile of dogshit they are. What other reason could they have for dropping Florida only one spot?  The same number Cincy dropped for…not getting to play.  Whatever, it should all sort itself out this weekend. Then I can listen to aTm fans whine like babies. Almost makes me wish I was staying home for Christmas. Wolves beat Chelski and West Brom drew Man City.  Those midweek league games, man.  And we have a boatload of them today too. Including the huge Spuds-Liverpool match. I expect more chaos. And that’s sports.

Billy Ripken: Fuck Face

Big birthdays today are: Catherine of Aragon, incredible German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, novelist Jane Austen, sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, another sci-fi heavyweight Philip K. Dick, grifter Morris Dees, civil rights icon Jimmie Lee Jackson, rocker Billy Gibbons, baseball player (with one of the best baseball cards ever) Billy Ripken, outfielder Chris Jones, and rapper Flo Rida.

Man, that was a solid list.  And now on to…the links!

Looks like the Canadian Epstein. I wonder if we will say “I’m sore-ey, eh” to his victims?

Be ze good little Germanz and follow ze orders! Schnell! Schnell!

That thing we did that didn’t work? Well, we’re gonna do it even harder now. “When you’re a hammer”, am I right?

If you “back the blue”, just remember, the guy that caused this only served 22 months. How is he not in prison for the rest of his life, or, you know, “missing, whereabouts unknown”?

No good deed goes unpunished. I guess those dickheads complaining about this don’t want these kids to learn the concept of hard work or what it means to pull oneself up by their bootstraps.  Christ, what a bunch of assholes.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. I hope to see this news repeated in every state whose schools have abandoned the children.

Pictured: two pieces of shit.

Oh, suck it Pritzker. You were hoping for a miracle and you didn’t get one. Stop stealing money to fund your corrupt government. The same goes for you, Beetlejuice.  If specific property owners want to pay for added security, they will on their own. You don’t have to fuck over everybody around them.

California, man. I wonder how much sympathy they’re gonna get? Nevermind that a lot of other businesses did the exact same thing.

And speaking of the golden state, they may be looking at a new governor soon. Serves you right, you hypocritical piece of shit tyrant.

Don’t you assholes have more pressing issues to worry about? Also, you can’t ban words. So fuck off.

I wonder how much Cole was consumed during the filming of this video? Who cares, it’s a great song. Hope you enjoy it. I know I will.

Now get out there and have your best Wednesday of the year, friends!

About The Author

sloopyinca

sloopyinca

513 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “another sci-fi heavyweight Philip K. Dick”

    Given the rest of the news, now I’m starting to think he was perfectly sane.

    • Nephilium

      So large doses of amphetamines and hallucinogens is the true path to enlightenment?

      • Not Adahn

        What do you think The Spice was?

      • Swiss Servator

        Frank Herbert’s thing?

      • Not Adahn

        Shai Hu’lud’s gift to the universe.

      • db

        I sure wish Herbert had lived to write more in the BuSab universe

      • Not Adahn

        I wish he had lived long enough to finish the second Dune trilogy. Chapterhouse was obviously a Book II.

      • Ted S.

        Posh?

      • robodruid

        At this point, can it hurt?

  2. Count Potato

    “In need: According to the principal, 43% of students are economically disadvantaged, and 3.6% are homeless”

    They look pretty well-fed there.

    • Tejicano

      I’d bet a whole lot more students are homeless. I was homeless when I was in high school – that’s why I had to live in my parent’s house. I can’t imagine how I could have afforded to pay for a mortgage back then.

      • Shpip

        +1 “Your mother and I are rich. You have nothing.”

    • rhywun

      Of course, “homeless” includes families riding their relatives’ couches and other situations that are not, in fact, “homeless” at all.

      And if they want to bitch and moan about “economically disadvantaged”, how’s about stop pursuing policies that deliberately create more of them?

      • mrfamous

        Was going to mention this. How that statistic defines ‘homelessness’ and what we think of when we hear ‘homeless’ are very likely two entirely different things. Parent(s) is in jail, rotating from grandparents to aunts to friends until they get out. IE, homeless.

      • R C Dean

        When I was doing the census for hospital patients this year, we had to list homeless.

        We had addresses for all of them. And not “Udall Park” or “corner of Grant and Swan”, either.

      • mrfamous

        And it’s not like that’s a good situation and the kids couldn’t use some help, but using the word ‘homeless’ needlessly obscures what’s actually going on in order to evince some sort of emotional reaction from people who hear it.

        People do struggle with poverty in this country, it’s the ‘solutions’ being offered that leave a lot to be desired.

      • rhywun

        I was rotated among family friends more than once when I was little. At no point did it ever occur to me that I was “homeless”.

        It’s complete bullshit.

  3. Yusef drives a Kia

    Howdy!

  4. UnCivilServant

    speaking of the golden state, they may be looking at a new governor soon.

    Doubt it, unless he’s lost the support of the machine. After all, fraud is A-OK.

    • Nephilium

      It’s California, the way the laws are written, they don’t need fraud to keep out badthinkers.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, the idea that the voting is crooked instead of flat out stupid is laughable.

      • Count Potato

        It’s both.

      • juris imprudent

        If they just manipulated the vote counts – than the affirmative action initiative would’ve passed.

      • Count Potato

        Again, both. People stupid at voting are also going to be stupid at cheating.

      • Count Potato

        “This a SHOCKING admission from the Fulton County GA Elections Director.

        They adjudicated 94% of ballots. A voter panel then determines “voter intent”, meaning they can CHANGE the votes.

        Forensic analysis now shows there is NO audit trail for the adjudication process.”

        https://twitter.com/MichaelCoudrey/status/1338977383202783232

      • R C Dean

        So 94% of the ballots were counted per election staff, not necessarily what was on the ballot.

        Confident prediction: Biden is sworn in, nobody goes to jail for provable voter fraud, not election reform occurs.

      • juris imprudent

        We were talking California, and you might recall that Georgia is a Republican trifecta state.

  5. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Just remember, the lockdowns aren’t working because we’re not compliant enough.

    /stupid shit said on Facederp

      • Rebel Scum

        “I aim to misbehave.”

  6. Not Adahn

    If you ever get a chance to go to an Aggie home game, take it.

    It’s creepy AF, and there’s a real potential for death as they put enough shear stress on the concrete to flex it.

    • UnCivilServant

      What? Isn’t concrete know for it’s flexibility and springiness?

      /sarc

      • Not Adahn

        And remember (although you’re so young you personally might have no idea what I’m talking about) the same engineering and architecture school produced the bonfire designs! (too soon?)

        Pace Don, I was in a focus group after that disaster wherein lawyers were shopping different lawsuit targets and strategies and the hostility towards those vultures from those few dozen locals was palpable. AFAIK, there never was a big payout .

    • sloopyinca

      there’s a real potential for death as they put enough shear stress on the concrete to flex it.

      I sure hope their male “yell leaders” dressed as ice cream men are trained in first aid.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Got nothing on a soccer game in Central America.

      You get all the jumping combined with suspect structural engineering.

      Oh, and bonfires in the stands.

      • Not Adahn

        It’s not the jumping, it’s the synchronized swaying on “saw Varsity’s horn off” that makes the stands move laterally several inches.

      • sloopyinca

        True. In fact, it’s what Aggie football is known for. Well, that and their lone national championship from
        ::squints::
        1939.

      • sloopyinca

        I’m just being a dick. I hope you realize that. I didn’t have the luxury of mocking TTUN fans this year after we beat them, and I have to take it out on something.

      • Not Adahn

        Oh, I’m not an Aggie, I just worked on their campus post-graduation from Oklahoma (a school with a handful of national championships).

        It was quite a culture shock, let me tell you.

      • sloopyinca

        Yeah. Delusion is quite the culture. And aTm does delusion better than just about anybody.

      • Not Adahn

        Until you’ve witnessed a platoon of fish PTing with dance taps on their boots…

        I only wish the Pythons had a chance to experience that kind of surreality.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        And aTm does delusion better than just about anybody.

        It’s a little bit weird at times. Like, you’re often able to pick aggies out of the crowd despite them not wearing any school related apparel. They have “a look”.

        I remember when I first moved down here, I thought that aTm alums would probably be the most approachable and likeable. I saw them as kinda like Purdue, where I just graduated from. Ag/engineering school, often overlooked because of the other big name schools in the area, sports not particularly notable. Probably a lot of humble folk just like me, right?

        Nope! Very, very different culture and fanbase. Collective inferiority complex is the best way to describe it.

      • Not Adahn

        I’ve never known another school where alums choose to retire to their college town.

      • DEG

        I’ve never known another school where alums choose to retire to their college town.

        The Penn State Alumni Association newsletter has lots of advertisements for retirement communities in central PA.

    • slumbrew

      I saw the Rolling Stones at Shea Stadium (yeah, I’m old, shut up) and briefly sat down while everyone was bouncing up and down to Midnight Rambler – you could feel the whole deck flexing up and down what felt like a foot. It was disquieting.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    “We’re really trying to see what we can do to be more inclusive and make everybody feel a part of the fabric of America,” he added, “and that’s why it’s important to get rid of those old, racially offensive terms.”

    Don’t tell him about Whitestown, Indiana.

    • invisible finger

      Don’t tell him about Negro Modelo.

    • Plisade

      Because we all know that inclusive = getting rid of things.

    • pistoffnick

      “Don’t tell him about Whitestown, Indiana.”

      Or the Whiteface Reservoir just north of Doloot

    • DrOtto

      The funny thing is, being TX, it probably is being inclusive as we have a lot of things named in Spanish. Did these mental heavyweights ever contemplate that it’s actually the Spanish word for the color black?

    • The Last American Hero

      Yeah, those kids should give back that UNCF scholarship money cause racism.

  8. invisible finger

    Who in their right mind quotes Kim Foxx on distrust of the criminal justice system?? She’s Exhibit A.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Just remember, the lockdowns aren’t working because we’re not compliant enough.

    “You’re just not hitting it hard enough!”

    • juris imprudent

      STOP RESISTING!!!

  10. The Late P Brooks

    The French Laundry reportedly received more than $2.4 million through the Paycheck Protection Program while smaller, less-renowned restaurants struggled to get approval at all from the federal program designed to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, an ABC7 News analysis showed.

    Maybe they’ll find out that wasn’t such a good deal, when they get their tax bill.

    Fingers crossed.

    • straffinrun

      I’m afraid to find out why it’s called “The French Laundry”. It’s gonna have some pretentious story behind it, no?

      • Not Adahn

        Mais oui!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Sounds like some Skinemax late night movie I watched in my teens.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        When you could see through the scrambled picture.

      • db

        Ancient Gallic Secret!

      • juris imprudent

        Because the movie LA Story had already used L’Idiot?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        +1 Pointy Bird

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      French Laundry? Is that anything like a Cleveland Steamer?

      • Tres Cool

        The “Dijon Hot-Pocket”

  11. The Late P Brooks

    Why do “holiday” jewel and perfume ads seem to exclusively feature people who look like extras from a zombie movie?

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Karen needs bling too.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I was perusing the WSJ weekend fashion insert on Saturday. There were some positively anorexic models in there with knees wider than their thighs.

      And the obligatory “Is it a boy, a girl, or a space alien?”

      • R C Dean

        I get that. It has been really weird for years. All the models look miserable, half of them are indeterminate gender, and half of them (overlaps the other half) look like they have a serious drug problem. And, yes, it does appear they all live in food deserts.

  12. UnCivilServant

    *grumbles* damn console bugs. Despite gains of $84 on all my other investments, the drop in CDPR stock means I’m down $200 overall. Good thing I always intended to hold on to it.

  13. Pope Jimbo

    I guess those dickheads complaining about this don’t want these kids to learn the concept of hard work or what it means to pull oneself up by their bootstraps.

    I’ll bet that the jack asses who are complaining also think that every kid should have to “volunteer” for so many hours before they can graduate high school.

    The problem with that program in Texas seems to be that it actually teaches valuable lessons to the kids and rewards them accordingly.

    • Plisade

      Maybe the problem is that the guilty white progs won’t be able to virtue signal and take credit for voting to give away other people’s money to those of inferior skin pigmentation?

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      It goes against the Marxist narrative. They can’t justify their desire to steal if just anyone can succeed. Envy is an ugly thing.

    • Tejicano

      I wonder if the wording of the law bans the flag which was used as the national flag of the CSA or if it bans the Confederate battle banner (which is the “stars and bars” which most people associate with the CSA)?

      • Not Adahn

        It will undoubtedly ban all hate flags, like that icky one with the rattlesnake on a Proud Boy yellow field.

    • Swiss Servator

      He has already fixed every other problem in the state.

    • rhywun

      Cuomo, as usual, has his finger on the pulse of what ails New York.

      • db

        He must be obsessed with his heart rate.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Look peasant, Gov Slippery Tits will tell you what is constitutional or not!

    • Pine_Tree

      Every single thing they do is Kulturkrieg. Every. Single. Thing.

    • Rebel Scum

      even while admitting the new edict might clash with the First Amendment and be struck down as unconstitutional.

      FYTW.

      “This country faces a pervasive, growing attitude of intolerance and hate — what I have referred to in the body politic as an American cancer,” Cuomo wrote in his approval message.

      How can that be when all is right now that Bad Orange Man has been defeated?

  14. Rebel Scum

    “By summer we’ll be able to return to normal, step by step,” Germany’s health minister said.

    Two weeks in order to flatten the curve, comrade.

    • invisible finger

      Return to normal, step by goose-step.

      • Plinker762

        Slowly the virus turned, step by step … inch by inch …

  15. robc

    Baseball bithdays suck, you dropping to #10 is okay. #1 is Mike Flanagan and it drops off hard from there.

  16. Count Potato

    “Trump’s covid ‘cure’ flop? States are only using 5-20% of their doses of coronavirus antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly, Operation Warp Speed chief reveals

    The majority of doses of coronavirus antibody drugs are going unused, a new report claims. According to CNBC, Operation Warp Speed ships out some 65,000 doses of the drugs across the U.S. each week. But, chief of the vaccine initiative Dr Moncef Slaoui said only five to 20 percent of treatments – made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron – are getting used. President Trump was given Regeneron’s treatment when he was battling COVID-19. He referred to the drug as a ‘cure’ (although it is not). Now, they’re going mostly unused, likely because there is only a short window of time when they’re useful – and most people with COVID-19 don’t even know they are sick during those early days of their illness.

    The federal government spent $375 million on its first order of 300,000 doses of Lilly’s drug, then another $812.5 million to max out its option to buy another 650,000 doses.

    Regeneron got a $450 million deal with the U.S. government for up to 300,000 doses of its antibody cocktail. The federal government pledged that those first doses would be free, although hospitals can charge for administering them. Now, the drugs he was so certain save lives are sitting unused on hospital shelves. Slaoui told CNBC that the reason is that the window when the drugs work is narrow – they’re supposed to be given before someone is sick enough to need oxygen or be hospitalized.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9057141/States-use-5-20-covid-antibody-drugs-sent-Operation-Warp-Speed.html

    • juris imprudent

      You can tell it was a real DoD effort – measure it in billions.

  17. Rebel Scum

    “And so the question isn’t to me, the question is to those aldermen who blocked the will of the business community in their wards who are suffering and hurting and wanted some kind of relief and were willing to tax themselves to do so,” Lightfoot said. “What possible legitimate reason could there be?”

    They did not want extra and discriminatory taxation? And you are a cunte.

    • rhywun

      wanted some kind of relief and were willing to tax themselves to do so

      I… wut?

      • juris imprudent

        Yep, that should be carved into granite as a monument to stupidity.

  18. Not Adahn

    LOLOMGWTF, this is the most laugh-a-minute training I’ve ever taken. And it’s not just the 8-bit skull and crossbones sprite thay they are using to decorate the slides.

    “Let’s take a tour of the threat landscape.”
    “Malware stands for malicious software”
    “Now let’s move on to our next stop: social engineering!”
    “Botnet — short for robot network.”

    And kudos to whoever convinced these people that “vishing” and “smishing” were actual words.

    The only thing not making me update my resume is the fact that this was bought, not produced in-house.

    • Nephilium

      So… the people teaching you to avoid con artists were themselves conned.

      That’s some great security work there Lou.

      • Pope Jimbo

        No con. The company needed to legally cover their asses and check off a requirement that their employees were “trained” in cyber security.

        Their options were to pay a lot of money for some training or pay a little for some training. The only benefit of that training was that they were able to say in court they provided training.

        The same can be said about PEN tests or PCI compliance tests. You can spend a ton of money and get your gold star, or you can pay some small outfit a little money and get your gold star.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Just remember, John “password” Podesta was on a federal Cybersecurity Task Force.

      • juris imprudent

        Of course I trust the OPM that disclosed more personal information of mine than any other organization had ever collected. They are the govt!

      • Ownbestenemy

        Truth. OPM, VA, DoD (USAF), SS all have had my information disclosed.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Yep am pretty certain that the CCP has my SF-86s.

    • rhywun

      It sounds like you get the same training I do.

      • Not Adahn

        It looks like the company that produced it is called “KnowBe4.”

      • rhywun

        I don’t remember the name of mine.

        Is it all the same dude leading every course, with another dude walking around crudely drawn animations, and a bunch of dorky extras for the staged “let’s look at this situation and see how you would respond” bits?

      • Not Adahn

        No actual people pictured. It’s mostly skull and crossbones sprites, red locks, and red locks with skull and crossbones sprites on them.

      • The Other Kevin

        That’s the company we use. Did you hear from the hacker named “Sparrow”?

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        I’ve had to take some stuff from them before.

        I think they’re just OK for exposing non-technical folks to concepts and best practices.

        Although I don’t remember the 8-bit stuff. The course I had to take had Kevin Mitnick as the main presenter. IIRC he parlayed his hacking exploits into a lucrative “security” career…good work if you can get it!

  19. Pope Jimbo

    Speaking of school lockdowns, King Walz is allegedly going to announce today that K-5 schools will be allowed to open. But nasty bars, restaurants and gyms will remain closed.

    Looks like Walz might be getting his “science” from Michael Osterholm (Minnesoda Fauci).

    In his podcast, Osterholm said it’s hard to trust data on schools and coronavirus transmission because the people collecting it are trying to support their points of view.

    Still, it’s evident that younger children are less likely to transmit the disease, he said, and it appears teachers who contract the virus are getting it from contacts outside the workplace.

    “I think that 5- to 9-year-olds can clearly be in a classroom right now with the appropriate prevention practices in place, teachers can safely teach,” Osterholm said.

    Older students, however, should remain in distance learning as long as case rates are high in their communities, he said.

    “When the house is on fire in the community, these kids are going to be getting infected, they’re going to transmit it in the school, and distance learning really is the most valuable way of learning,” Osterholm said.

    The story admits that exactly 0 kids 5-19 have died in Minnesoda from the Rona, but let’s keep pretending that teenagers are still at risk (or super spreaders).

    • Pope Jimbo

      By the way if Osterholm gets any big position in the Biden administration, you guys will look back on the Fauci era as the good days.

      Osterholm has been jumping around shouting about the coming pandemic since the ’90s here in Minnesoda. He got so bad that they finally booted him from his govt job. He found a home in a U of M campus (Duluth).

      Knowing him, it has been killing him to finally have a pandemic arrive and not getting a big time role in the CDC or some govt task force to really fuck things up.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I feel stupid for having listened to him early on.

        But at least I learned from my mistakes.

      • juris imprudent

        Oh I’d bet PA’s Health Secretary is more likely to hit the Biden Admin than MN’s is – Osterholm is cis, not trans, right?

      • DEG

        This is plausible.

        Wolf supposedly was in talks with the Biden campaign about positions in the Biden administration. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Health Secretary piggy backed on Wolf to get into the Biden administration.

      • db

        If only we could get rid of that bastard so easily.

    • Not Adahn

      Minnesoda Fauci

      Worst pool shark ever.

      • Pope Jimbo

        pocket pool shark is more like it.

    • R C Dean

      Osterholm said it’s hard to trust data on schools and coronavirus transmission because the people collecting it are trying to support their points of view

      Do tell.

    • Spartacus

      In Florida the total number of deaths in under-25s is 38. High school and college kids are an order of magnitude more likely to die in a car crash than from the plague, yet the grown-ups can’t understand why the kids aren’t taking this seriously enough. At my university, we had just over 540 cases this Fall (out of roughly 17K students, faculty, and staff). Hospitalizations: zero. Deaths: zero.

  20. Rebel Scum

    The French Laundry reportedly received over $2.4 million in PPP funds

    All the while they remain open to serve the pols and elites.

    • Not Adahn

      They have very stressful jobs, and they NEED to unwind. Simple peasants don’t have to worry their empty little heads.

  21. Nephilium

    For those in PA, the PA Department of Agriculture has sent out a threat letter to businesses staying open.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Baseless allegations

    The down-ballot parroting of Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud began right after the election. But in the weeks since, it has evolved into a self-sustaining phenomenon of its own. Republican candidates for House, legislative and gubernatorial races in more than half a dozen states are still refusing to concede.

    Echoing the president, these candidates are an early sign of what Republicans say will be a sustained, post-Trump effort to tighten voting restrictions and to reverse measures implemented in many states to make voting easier. They also may mark the beginning of a Trump-inspired trend of candidates who never fold — they just fade away after weeks and months of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud.

    ——-

    “Right now, it’s mostly kooks and crackpots,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist and one of the founders of The Lincoln Project, a Republican group opposing Trump. “But it’s pretty rapidly becoming mainstream Republican thought.”

    Likening refusals to concede with anti-mask rallies and militia marches on state capitols, Madrid said, “There’s a very wide segment of the Republican electorate that is demonstrating self- and socially-destructive behavior … Democracy requires a willing winner and a willing loser. You can’t just say this was stolen because you lost when there was no evidence of it.”

    Pooh pooh. Tut-tutt.

    And, of course, they rush off to get a quote from the Lincoln Project. Just like the smarmy little brown noser who spent every day in school sucking up to the teacher, the Lincoln Project is there to desperately seek approval from the Right People.

    Nobody likes an ass kisser, Madrid.

    • Count Potato

      They should all get quoted by the John Wilkes Booth Project.

    • Not Adahn

      a Republican group opposing Trump.

      To be a Republican group, shouldn’t you have to support at least one Republican candidate?

      • R C Dean

        Does Romney count?

      • Not Adahn

        He wasn’t up for election, so no.

    • Ted S.

      Stacey Abrams, however, was totes legit.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Get Real Madrid!

    • Rebel Scum

      are still refusing to concede.

      And?

      after weeks and months of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud

      He claimed without evidence.

      demonstrating self- and socially-destructive behavior

      Freedom is scary.

      Democracy requires a willing winner and a willing loser.

      It requires nothing of the sort.

      • R C Dean

        Democracy requires a willing legitimate winner and a willing loser.

        They’re all willing to won, some “by any means necessary”.

        What does this say about all those single-candidate races, anyway?

  23. Trigger Hippie

    ‘Watts was involved with about 1,000 cases and perhaps 500 convictions over an eight-year period that ended in 2012, Tepfer said.

    “We think we are just in the middle of this review,” he said.’

    Sure, when it comes to light that cops plant evidence and ruin people’s lives in the big cities, it’s a media sensation. But that’s also routine for countless cops scattered across small towns and rural counties. Just a reminder for those who reflexively think this shit is racially motivated. It’s usually not, it’s sociopathic predators having fun with their prey. Not saying you all go immediately to the race angle, just most people in general.

    • Q Continuum

      A position with limitless, unaccountable power will attract people who want limitless, unaccountable power.

  24. Tundra

    Good morning, Sloopy!

    Belinda and Jane are always a great way to start the day.

    I’d love to see Newsom slapped down. Then all the rest of the totalitarian fucks.

    Speaking of slapping down tyrants.

    The first list is out. Now we get to see what happens when a bunch of people say no more.

    Our fuckhead is set to slightly loosen restrictions, yet keep restaurants shut down for three more weeks. I want him to get bone cancer instead.

    Oh look at that!

    Open up.

      • Rebel Scum

        When Trump got elected I had this feeling of dread that I would soon be living in a totalitarian state. Little did I know it would be “my side” that did this.

        Surprised that leftist authoritarians are leftist and therefor authoritarian?

    • Pope Jimbo

      King Walz’s proposal that K-5 is safe, but older kids are still deadly is laughable. I think this is his fig leaf to admit how wrong they’ve been on schools since the beginning.

      Normally, you’d bite your tongue and hope he quickly opened the rest of schools. But in this case, his actions have been so evil, he needs to be called out and mocked.

      I’m giddy about the Re-Open movement. I really want to see more of this civil disobedience.

      • Q Continuum

        K-12 cutting its own throat is the only good thing that’s come out of this. Frankly, I’d prefer to see them stay closed forever as being there is much more damaging than not.

    • Rufus the Monocled

      It’s so bad I feel the same way too. If these leaders and medical bureaucrats across Canada and USA who have caused so much destruction and misery get Covid and die it will be deserved.

      But the people who are still sleeping and in fear are no fricken better. Six months into this and you can see the terror in their eyes behind the stupid masks. Apparently masks don’t work because ‘people don’t listen’. It’s waaaaaayyyyyy out of control this hysteria.

      Responsible epidemiologists most be pissed at all the pant shitting infectious disease doctors on TV pulling out their hair saying how dire the situation is. One guy here called it ‘calamitous’. Moron. Get a leadoff this self-absorbed twit working at a big Montreal hospital:

      https://twitter.com/matthewoughton?lang=en

      This clown had the audacity to say it’s gonna be a ‘zoom Christmas’. Who fucken elected you asshole? Go do you job and spare us the drama.

      I also learned that the virologist – Dr. Drosten – who peddled the PCR test (and retracted the article – also pimped the lie of asymptomatic spread as a driver. How he and Neil Ferguson and his shitty models aren’t investigated for kick starting a world panic I don’t know.

      Virologists are the worst at the moment.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        Corrections:

        ‘must’

        ‘get a load of this self-absorbed’

      • Pope Jimbo

        After seeing the windrows of dead people from Thanksgiving dinners, who can blame govs for banning Christmas gatherings. And those damn deplorables will insist on getting together with their families for Christmas despite half of them having died from the Rona they caught at Thanksgiving.

        One of the reasons Walz said he was delaying his latest proclamations is because he is still waiting for data on T-Giving infections. Yes, he is still pretending that T-Giving dinner infections are yet to happen. Kevin Roche at the Healthy Skeptic roast him for that blatant lie.

        Here is a big lie they constantly tell, at every briefing, or it is a reflection that these people just don’t understand basic, basic concepts. They are trying to tell us that we could see the impact of Thanksgiving get-togethers for as long as four weeks. They say all the time that it takes four weeks to see the effect of a mitigation action on cases. The incubation period is the time between exposure to a pathogen and the appearance of symptoms. No one anywhere in the world things the incubation period for CV-19 is 28 days. No one. It is not even a week. For the majority of people it is within five days. So for them to continually lie about this is unconscionable.

      • Tundra

        I amend my wish for Walz. Bone cancer preceded by dick cancer.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Didn’t you see all those pictures of him in his red plaid shirt accepting the first shipment of vaccines? He was so dreamy and down to earth!

      • Rufus the Monocled

        I love Roche’s site.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        I blame the Germans.

        No seriously. A lot of this ‘thinking’ comes from Germany. Quebec seems to be following the German model to a T. German scientist Dr. Bhakdi lays it all out in ‘Corona False Alarm?’

        Sometimes I wonder if they’re all just taking orders from somewhere.

      • Not Adahn

        I am very unhappy that the border is closed. MTL and QC are my favorite places to go for a cheap vacation, and what with the trade wars, the duty free is the only place to buy Scotch.

    • ttyrant

      Tundra – did you say you’re reading Gulag Archipelago? I picked up the abridged version a few months ago and am about halfway through. For all the brutality he describes, the part that really pissed me off last night was reading how dating back for centuries, Russians viewed it as a big deal to be buried in some type of coffin. And obviously the mass graves of the gulag was yet another giant middle finger towards that cultural tradition. I’m not sure why that specific anecdote annoyed me more than all the others.

      It’s a remarkable book. For such a sobering topic, he writes with a ton of wit and sarcasm.

      • Tundra

        Yeah, I’m just getting back into it. I got the abridged version as well, with the JBP intro.

        The coffin thing is just another dehumanization technique.

      • ron73440

        I finished it a couple weeks ago.

        The part that got me was the isolation they were kept in for the first few days to help wear them down.

        Overall a very disturbing read.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Now read Alexander Dolgun’s Story and be amazed at how resilient a single human is capable of being.

      • ron73440

        I bought that book, haven’t gotten around to it yet.

      • Lachowsky

        That one of my favorite books. I have probably read it a dozen times.

        Dolgun, “The man who shit on the Organs”

      • Chipwooder

        the isolation they were kept in for the first few days to help wear them down.

        Hey, the Marine Corps does that, too. Not even kidding – most of my first 36 hours or so at Parris Island was spent sitting silently on the floor with my back to the wall, or in classrooms with my head on the desk. Same principle at work – trying to disorient you and throw off your internal clock. You don’t have a watch and there is no clock on the wall so you kind of lose track of what time of day it is and how long you’ve been sitting there.

      • Tejicano

        I’m reading the same version. I figure I owe it to the author for his major contribution to history; not just recording it but affecting it in his lifetime.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        Russians viewed it as a big deal to be buried in some type of coffin.

        I believe this is part of the Orthodox (Christian) tradition, where in anticipation of bodily resurrection at the return of Christ, one would not intentionally destroy the body after death, but put it in a coffin. This doesn’t mean they didn’t understand that bodies decayed over time, but a recognition of the hope for that resurrection.

        Anyway, during persecution in the early 20th C, mass graves/cremation would have been specifically part of that rejection of religion, along with how the Communists would purposely use holy ground (churches, monasteries, etc.) for things like garbage dumps in order to desecrate and demoralize.

      • Rufus the Monocled

        For me another value offered by many in the book, is how slowly the whole process unfolds. So slowly you can’t see or feel it.

  25. Lackadaisical

    “High school grocery store that trades good deeds for food is blasted by Twitter users who insist the ‘dystopian’ concept forces disadvantaged kids to ‘jump through hoops’ so they don’t starve”

    *looks at picture*

    Yeah, they aren’t starving, that’s for sure. Mission accomplished?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nobody ever worked for their food.

  26. Rebel Scum

    ‘Negro’ is an offensive term, so why has it remained in the name of at least 26 Texas places?

    Idk but has “colored” come back into vogue?

    “Negro Hollow”, “Dead Negro Draw”, “Negro Creek” and “Negrohead Bluff” are the names of just a few of the places you’ll find on a tour through the Lone Star State — and state officials are adamant about getting them renamed.

    I don’t see anything wrong with the Spanish word for “black”.

    • prolefeed

      ‘Negro’ is an offensive term, so why has it remained in the name of at least 26 Texas places?

      • prolefeed

        Whoops, mean to hit “blockquote” above, not “post comment”. Take two:

        ‘Negro’ is an offensive term, so why has it remained in the name of at least 26 Texas places?

        Not to mention all those racist cans labeled “Frijoles Negro”, the beer named “Negro Modelo”, etc. Better get those changed too. Oh, and that racist MLK and his racist (and sexist!) “I have a dream speech” – time to change all those streets named after him:

        “I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

        Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

        But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition

        (The middle of a racist and sexist rant, excised for the delicate of heart, followed by this racist and sexist ending that also throws in the racist uncapitalized “black”)

        And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

        And don’t get me going on all that unwoke libertarian dog whistle stuff about “freedom”. This. Must. Not. Stand.

    • Pine_Tree

      I don’t know this for a fact in the case of those TX places, but I’d really, really bet that they haven’t “remained” those.

      And that those names ARE the new ones from about the late ’70s or early ’80s.

      • R C Dean

        And that those names ARE the new ones from about the late ’70s or early ’80s.

        Yeah, at least a few of those have been renamed.

    • prolefeed

      #46 is thicc as fuck. Mmm.

  27. robc

    I clicked just to figure out what Cole was.

    And the answer, was plenty, plenty of coke.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’d pay for a subscription to Porn Hub to watch Biden and the drummer have sex. It would have to include audio of Biden dirty talking too.

        That drummer looks like she has one foot in the grave.

      • Tundra

        Belinda is still hot.

      • Pope Jimbo

        OK, you can watch her and Kamala in some hot scissoring action. I would advise you, though, to keep the sound turned off. No one can ever forget the sound of Kamala’s O-screech.

      • Tres Cool

        I concur. Given the chance, Id do my best to break her hip. Or mine. Ideally both.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Why would you push her down a flight of stairs? What did she ever do to you?

      • Tres Cool

        Do I need to draw a picture? Besides, the stairs would only be used due to an un-planned pregnancy.

      • robc

        Isn’t the guitarist the one you are more likely to find on pornhub? Or, at the least, teaching rope classes on youtube?

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Cuomo signs bill banning sale of confederate flags. No chance this is Constitutional.

    Hammer and Sickle still top shelf.

  29. robc

    In other soccer news, I saw that Arteta got the “Management support” kiss of death.

  30. Q Continuum

    RE: Canuck Epstein.

    These sooper rich and powerful guys that get caught harassing/raping girls always flummox me. You’ve got zillions of dollars, surely it’s not that hard to find willing slootz over 18 that don’t need to be coerced. And if that’s too much work, the word on the street is that there are women that will do it as a direct quid pro quo. I hear that it’s quite an ancient profession.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Usually it’s because they’re cheap assholes.

      Kraft, for example… dude could have high class hookers come to him, but instead he goes to a low-rent handjob parlor.

      • Drake

        You don’t get rich by wasting all your money on expensive whores.

      • Not Adahn

        I was very disappointed that he cut out the only one of his “girlfriends” willing to bang him out of his will. The system only works if everyone does their part.

    • UnCivilServant

      I suspect that they are more attracted to the exercise of power than the girls.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That too

      • EvilSheldon

        100% this.

        I suspect that most of them are attracted to the exercise of power in ways that a $400/hr circuit girl wouldn’t put up with.

      • R C Dean

        By definition, the $400/hour girls are in high demand, and don’t have to put up with shit.

    • Pope Jimbo

      What got me about all of this is how many of these guys didn’t even have sex with the women. They just jerked off in front of them.

      Is it because the women they meet tend to have lots of social diseases? I just don’t get it. Poor people can jerk off (I’ve been told).

      • UnCivilServant

        “Eighteen years of child support, even if the kid ain’t really mine? Fuck that noise.”

      • db

        Normal sex is probably boring to them. They have enough money to buy anything, even the most deranged acts imaginable. What they want is what they can’t get (legally or in a socially acceptable manner). The transgression is what gets them off.

      • Q Continuum

        +2 girls with 1 cup

  31. Rebel Scum

    And almost half of those votes will be legitimate!

    “I think Georgia is going to shock the nation with the number of people who vote on Jan. 5th.”

    “I need 2 senators from this state, I want to get something done.”

  32. db

    Gotta go warm up the snowblower and make sure it runs.

      • db

        Electric Start FTW

  33. Count Potato


    “CNN anchor Anderson Cooper last night delivered a scathing ‘slow clap’ monologue as Mitch McConnell finally accepted Donald Trump’s election defeat.

    The Senate Majority Leader congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their victory on Tuesday morning, saying: ‘The electoral college has spoken.’

    But this acceptance of the democratic process wasn’t enough for Cooper who mocked McConnell for not bowing down when CNN called the result.

    Cooper said: ‘So, six weeks, dozens of court cases, two Supreme Court rejections, one fascist rally, four stabbings, countless threats against election officials who were just doing their jobs and more than $200 million in deceptive Trump fundraising since the election: A slow clap, everyone, for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.’

    He continued: ‘After all it’s not like McConnell said anything that wasn’t obvious the Saturday after the election, five weeks ago when the news organisations called the result for president-elect Biden.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9058673/Cooper-delivers-scathing-monologue-applauding-McConnell-accepting-Trumps-election-defeat.html

    CWAA

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      four stabbings

      STOP MAKING US STAB YOU

    • rhywun

      It’s like the four years after the 2016 election never happened.

    • Rebel Scum

      hen the news organisations called the result for president-elect Biden.

      I didn’t know that “news” orgs had that authority.

      one fascist rally

      Lying cunte is a liar and a cunte.

    • Q Continuum

      Pretty salty words coming from a wax figure.

    • Agent Cooper

      I can’t figure out who is delivering news and who is opining anymore. It’s all op-ed.

  34. Q Continuum

    “Linda Tutt High School in Sanger, Texas opened the grocery store last month, allowing students to buy food and toiletries with points which they can earn by doing good deeds, performing well in school, and helping out around the school district[…]Twitter users are calling it ‘harmful’ and ‘dystopian,’ insisting that children shouldn’t have to do anything to have their basic needs fulfilled.”

    something something gods of the copybook headings something

    PS: I just love how a major tenet of modern “journalism” is to identify some event and then make the reaction from SocMed the story. Like some dipshit “journalist” finds an obscure Reddit page about masturbation to snail porn and writes a story about the new craze of snail erotica.

    • Count Potato

      Some people like it slow.

    • Chipwooder

      It’s the opiate of the masses (of reporters) – just regurgitate the idiotic ravings of Twitter randos to save the time of actually writing yourself.

    • CPRM

      The people complaining don’t seem to have good comprehension skills:

      “Every student gets a set number of points depending on the size of their family. Then, they can earn even more points by doing things like getting good grades, mentoring younger kids, or doing good deeds. ”

      So, their ‘needs’ are met for free, and they can get extra. Nope, nobody can ever get more than anyone else!

      • EvilSheldon

        Nothing you do will ever be good enough for a Progressive.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, that “to each according to…” wasn’t about what they might think they need, it was about what the commissars decided you need.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Your reference to snail porn erotica is quite specific….

  35. Lachowsky

    “How is he not in prison for the rest of his life, or, you know, “missing, whereabouts unknown”?”

    You can’t expect me to believe for one second that every other cop in that department was either unaware of or not complicit in the behavior of their fellow officer. That whole dept needs fired.

    • The Last American Hero

      The “good” cops are the ones that look the other way when their brothers in blue misbehave.

  36. Tres Cool

    Happy Birthday to Ludwig van B. ?

    Know whats brown and site on a piano bench? Beethoven’s last movement.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    In his podcast, Osterholm said it’s hard to trust data on schools and coronavirus transmission because the people collecting it are trying to support their points of view.

    Truer words were never spoken.

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Say… what ever happened to, “NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER LOCKDOWN. STOP BEING SO HYSTERICAL.”

    That was just a couple of weeks ago, wasn’t it?

    • db

      YOU DIDN’T LISTEN TO US AND NOW LOOK WHAT WE HAVE TO DO!

      • Nephilium

        Stop making me hit you, you dumb plebes!

  39. Shpip

    Linda Tutt High School in Sanger, Texas opened the grocery store last month, allowing students to buy food and toiletries with points which they can earn by doing good deeds, performing well in school, and helping out around the school district.

    Just wait until they graduate, assuming they do. They’ll still be “doing good deeds” and “helping out,” only it’ll be called “work,” and they get to do it for a half century or so to put food on the table and keep the roof over their head.

    • Q Continuum

      ^^^ Check out Mr. Nazi over here.

    • The Other Kevin

      Sounds terrible. Why would any human being subject themselves to that?

  40. Q Continuum

    Get past the Denver Compost paywall:

    https://archive.li/mqhH6

    Moneyshot: “Public schools — *which will take budget hits through losses in per-pupil funding* — saw the sharpest declines in preschool and kindergarten enrollment, which are down 23.3% and 9.1%, respectively, the agency reported.” (emphasis mine)

    That’s almost enough to stimulate an actual moneyshot.

    • Plisade

      I’ve been thinking on the concept of state secession lately, and the thought occurred to me… Lincoln enslaved the states while being credited with ending slavery.

      • The Last American Hero

        +1 Mint Julep on the wraparound porch before heading out to the debutante ball.

      • Rebel Scum

        That. And 13a ended slavery, not Lincoln. Lincoln cared not for the plight of the salves and treated it as merely a political issue, also spent most of his efforts related to the matter on a plan for colonizing black people outside of the US.

  41. Certified Public Asshat

    Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker laid out more than $700 million in cuts Tuesday to deal with a projected $3.9 billion budget deficit, contending Republicans need to offer their own plan and blaming them for playing a role in destabilizing state finances even before the pandemic sent tax revenues crashing.

    *turns on calculator and starts mashing buttons*

    Something is wrong with your cuts JB.

    • leon

      Hey, he made a move, now it’s the GOP’s fault when they cut the workers to make up the other $3.2 billion. Don’t even think about blaming the Governor for the lockdowns that caused the shortfall. Doing right has no end.

      • prolefeed

        State Senate political groups:Democratic (40), Republican (19)

        House of Representatives political groups:Democratic (73), Republican (44), Vacant (1)

        Yeah, the people who are out of power and can’t set policy are to blame for those policies. Sounds fair.

      • R C Dean

        Republicans need to offer their own plan

        “Our plan is to vote against the gigantic deficit that you and the Dem majorities will propose, which will pass anyway.”

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Gotta go warm up the snowblower and make sure it runs.

    Non ethanol premium, FTW!

    • Tundra

      Doesn’t hurt to juice it with a little Sea Foam, too.

      • Q Continuum

        That’s what she said.

      • Pope Jimbo

        THAT IS WHAT SEA SMITH SAYS! SHE SAYS “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Try Star-Tron. I find it’s more effective than either Sea Foam or Sta-Bil.

      • db

        Both of these were taken care of last winter, and I’m happy to report that with a few pumps of the primer and a few cranks of the electric starter, the snowblower is go.

    • Not Adahn

      Yup. I’m using the excuse of “buying some fresh gas for the snowblower” to leave early today.

    • robc

      I FINALLY, recently, saw an actual properly done study looking at low dose HCQ and zinc. All the early studies were either high dose HCQ and/or ignored the zinc.

      What do you know, they found HCQ+zinc works pretty darn good.

      • R C Dean

        If you wanted to design a study that would fail, the early HCQ studies are what you would do. They targetted end-stage patients, straight HCQ, no zinc and/or antibiotic cocktail.

        Pure. Evil.

      • robc

        Also high dose HCQ that caused actual damage.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Reason number 13,848 why nobody trusts the credentialed elite.

  43. Chipwooder

    So we learned yesterday that, assuming the kids actually do go back to school in January as per the current plan, my daughter’s teacher will not be joining her in the classroom. No, she’ll still be “teaching” from home. The kids will sit in the classroom and watch her on a video screen. I’m not kidding. Oh, you may ask – are they going to let these 5th graders sit in classrooms alone? Of course not! No, they are hiring more people! These people will be “classroom monitors” and their job is supposedly going to be to make sure the kids are watching the screen instead of god knows what. I wish I were making this up.

    The hell kind of bullshit is this?

    • Q Continuum

      The kind of bullshit that should motivate you to pull your kid out of a failing state-controlled Madrassa.

      • Chipwooder

        Which is exactly what I would do……if I could afford private school. Which I cannot. Which is why I paid through the nose for this fucking house that gives me nothing but agita, because of the school district. I could buy a brand new, bigger house in fucking New Kent if the school system was irrelevant.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The West Point schools are very good. It’s just that it’s West Point.

      • Chipwooder

        Ah, but the new subdivisions in New Kent aren’t around West Point. Not that I’ve seen, anyway. Most of them seem to be around Quinton.

    • leon

      I think it’s standard fare teachers union bulshit.

    • Pope Jimbo

      So how will they spin the fact that none of the monitors catch the Rona?

      • Chipwooder

        I asked why it was acceptable for these people to assume the risks in the classroom but not the noble, holy teachers. Shockingly, I received no response.

    • Not Adahn

      That’s even better than DeBlasio’s plan of shutting down the scvhool becasue they’re too dangerous, and then using the schools as day cares because people need a place to store their kids since they’re not in school.

    • Nephilium

      How else will the school district be able to claim they don’t have enough money and need to raise taxes again?

    • Timeloose

      My wife’s school had her teaching kids’ in person at the school and on line at the same time. They gave the parents the option, which went 50/50. So the worst of both worlds with kids at school being distracted by the kids at home and the kids at home being unable to communicate with the kids at school.

      Then the Gov forced them to send all kids home and the teaches had to teach from the school. This was OK, if stupid. In her case she has to travel 45 min each way to work remotely. Now most teachers are working remotely because there is no real point in going to the classroom other than social and managerial.

      My nephew is basically getting self directed work from home with no direct teacher support. He is a learning support kid, but get no support real time or additional motivation.

      There will be a lot of F’s this year

      Stupid responses all around.

    • Rebel Scum

      What’s the pay? I don’t care for kids but that could be a good gig sitting around, doing nothing and getting paid.

    • R C Dean

      my daughter’s teacher will not be joining her in the classroom. No, she’ll still be “teaching” from home.

      Why administration doesn’t say “If you are worried about infection, we’ll supply properly fitted N95s face shields, and gloves. Good enough for COVID nurses, good enough for teachers. If you still refuse to come in, we’ll write you off as “job abandonment”. See you Monday. Or not. Your call.”

  44. Count Potato

    This is a generally good in depth article.

    https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/eli-lake/donald-trump-russia-framed-and-guilty/

    Although this part seems like bullshit:

    “This is why Trump and his supporters are wrong to say the investigations that dominated his presidency were a hoax. Russia really did intervene in the 2016 election. Its spies really did hack Democrats. And its trolls really did seek to both stoke our divisions and denigrate Trump’s opponent. Trump’s failure to acknowledge this has helped obscure Russia’s authorship of the dirty tricks aimed at helping him win the election. His lies left himself open to coercion from foreign powers.”

    Why would the Russians prefer Trump over Hillary? Their main goal was to sow discord, and they succeeded.

    • Q Continuum

      “Their main goal was to sow discord, and they succeeded”

      Aided and abetted extremely effectively by the DNC.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      They posted both positive and negative things about Trump and Clinton and it was amateurish and half post election. What should have been laughed off as an unsuccessful and halfassed attempt at sowing discord succeeded beyond their wildest dreams because the Dems pretended the sky was falling for politics.

      That article may be in depth but if that’s their analysis of the situation it ain’t good.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Exactly

        The Russians didn’t achieve jack shit. The Democrats turned it into a massive win for them.

      • Count Potato

        Well, you could go read the whole thing.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I could but, well, it seems pretty long.

      • juris imprudent

        Lake can be good on other topics, but not when it comes to Trump.

    • Rebel Scum

      Their main goal was to sow discord, and they succeeded.

      Succeeded beyond their wildest dreams with the help of Dems/Leftists/MSM.

    • R C Dean

      I like that he says the investigations were legit, because of things the investigations didn’t look at.

  45. Semi-Spartan Dad

    JP SEARS REMINDS US HOW BRAVE IT IS TO BLINDLY FOLLOW THE MEDIA
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-LHdEUrGa8&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=AwakenWithJP

    I’m brave enough to know that when my gut tells me I’m being fooled, I’m wrong.

    Just saw this on Louder with Crowder and didn’t think it had been posted here yet. Maybe I missed it though. Pretty funny and sadly all too true for many.

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      He’s been on point throughout most of this madness.

      In fact, I’m surprised he hasn’t been cancelled from YouTube. Thankful, but surprised.

    • Gdragon

      JP’s content is always really well done, I’m dying ?

    • Tundra

      Oh man, that’s terrific!

  46. Certified Public Asshat

    The Biden transition uses that childhood game of musical chairs: everyone keeps walking around in circles until the music stops and then tries to grab a chair; that's the administration job they get. (Still LOL at Susan Rice chairing Domestic Policy):https://t.co/Vvq7wPW4Nv— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 16, 2020

    This actually makes a lot of sense.

    • Chipwooder

      It is emblematic of these crazy times that Glenn Greenwald makes a lot sensible points lately.

    • The Last American Hero

      Hey now, they put Granholm in charge of transportation because she was governor in a state that used to make cars or something.

  47. Rebel Scum

    Canada Nice.

    I can’t wait to continue not visiting. ///BuildTheNorthernWall

  48. The Late P Brooks

    What I just heard:

    “Dick Durbin is a centrist.”

    That’s how far the Democrats have shifted to the left.

  49. Certified Public Asshat

    As Mayor, Pete Buttigieg removed traffic lights from an intersection by a public bus stop that students used to get to their charter school. When a Black 11-year-old was killed at the intersection, Mayor Pete blamed the kid for darting across the street. pic.twitter.com/DBuOkuQlU9— Dunkie Jones (@erasmusNYT) November 30, 2019

    The not first gay cabinet member apparently does have some transportation experience.

    • Chipwooder

      You know, given as much bleating as the lefties did about how unqualified Trump’s cabinet members were, I find it endlessly hilarious that they’re just tickled pink that the undistinguished mayor of a shitty minor city is Biden’s pick.

      • The Last American Hero

        An undistinguished mayor is not Biden’s pick. A charismatic gay man who is gay and is out and did I mention he’s gay is Biden’s pick.

        If Mayor Pete was straight, we wouldn’t know his name.

      • Rebel Scum

        how unqualified Trump’s cabinet members were

        Gf’s teacher friend said about Devos that “People in the teaching community don’t like her because she is unqualified.”

        I never got a response when I stated: “Then people in the teaching community need to provide a cogent argument as to why she is unqualified.”

        Leftists think you can just say words and they are therefor true.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Ahem. Just following in the footsteps of Carter. Transportation Secretary too.

    • ruodberht

      11 year olds darting out into traffic? NEVER. Gay Pete must be racist.

      • Not Adahn

        Since black 11 year olds were disproportionately killed at that intersection, it’s prima facie racist.

      • R C Dean

        Social justice demands that 7 white 11 year olds be executed at that intersection, for “equity”.

    • Count Potato

      That isn’t exactly what she said, if you read the whole Twitter thread. Regardless, was a stupid argument because because gender dysphoria is very rare.

      • juris imprudent

        Gender dysphoria will be expunged from mental illness within a year or two. Just as the DSM has been revised on other occasions – not because of scientific research, but because of social-norming. The whole gender fluidity is the “answer” to dysphoria – which is old, bad-think, and never was sciencey.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’m species-dysphoric.

        *ARF ARF GRRRRRR*

    • Spartacus

      Hey, I didn’t consent to the sun rising this morning. I shouldn’t have to go to work today.

  50. Pine_Tree

    I missed the discussion last night on possible sites to visit if you’re aiming for Chickamauga/Chattanooga, and posted when it was probably dead this morning.

    But I’m to add a reco for the small site of the Battle of Allatoona Pass.

    It’s NW of Atlanta, so it’s pretty far from Chickamauga, but not that bad, especially if you’re also doing Kennesaw Mountain. Small, very interesting terrain, and you can get right in the earthworks.

    The Etowah Mounds are pretty close to there, too.

  51. Count Potato

    “NYC teachers union passes “Black Lives Matter at School” resolution calling for, among many other things, “disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family.””

    https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1329564019942973441

    From November, but still…

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Too late. LBJ already blew it up.

    • ruodberht

      The nuclear family, logic, science, mathematics, literature…what else is Western?

      Are these guys secretly white nationalists? They give Western-civ credit for all the good stuff.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      In fairness, the black community has been well-served by the decimation of the family so I say go for it.

    • The Last American Hero

      butbutbutbutbut I was assured that BLM the movement was TOTALLY different than BLM the harmless logo you put on your LinkedIn profile or Facebook page.

    • Rebel Scum

      disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family

      Leftists have already done this sufficiently that it is a major problem in the black community.

  52. Count Potato

    “I get my vaccine tomorrow and I’m grateful to the scientists who labored to make this day happen

    After the 2nd dose 21 days later, I will continue masking, distancing and avoiding travel, until Dr Fauci says otherwise.

    Stay vigilant, ignore the noise, normalcy is ahead.”

    https://twitter.com/VinGuptaMD/status/1338973609818132483

    I’m no pulmonologist, but that’s retarded.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “the new normalcy is ahead.”

      FIFH

    • Chipwooder

      I have always generally disliked doctors and regarded them with suspicion. Everything that has occurred over the past year has reinforced that.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My personal experience with a metric shit-ton of Ivy League pre-meds should have turned me off to them earlier. Retrospect is 20/20.

      • The Other Kevin

        I’ve been fortunate enough to have two GP’s in my life that have listened to me and don’t treat me like a moron. My doctor growing up knew my mom pretty well (she was a nurse), and my current doctor is Mrs. TOK’s best friend’s dad. He knows I look at my test results online and do my own research.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        I look at them like every other profession: 10% are great, 10% are terrible, 80% are meh.

        My son’s oncologist was – and is – incredible. The GP that didn’t give me a referral for my son to have further testing until I showed him a month of bloodwork trends and my own analysis…not so much.

        Part of the problem with the current climate is that doctors who have different opinions than what’s being trumpeted on TV aren’t given a voice (or are keeping their heads down, just like most of us).

    • ron73440

      until Dr Fauci says otherwise.

      The beatification of this “expert” continues.

    • Rebel Scum

      until Dr Fauci says otherwise

      You do you, but i do not care for what that repugnant garden gnome has to say.

    • EvilSheldon

      SCiEncE!!1! as popularity contest. I don’t think I’ve ever been so disgusted.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Easy come, easy go

    MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, said in a blog post that she has given away $4.2 billion of her fortune in the past four months. Scott said she accelerated her charitable plans because of the “wrecking ball” of the pandemic, which she noted has also “substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”

    Scott is among those billionaires whose fortunes have soared since the pandemic first crippled the U.S. in March. Her wealth is now valued at more than $60 billion, representing a boost of almost $24 billion since the start of the year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

    Her wealth is largely tied to the fortunes of Amazon.com, whose shares have jumped 67% this year as more consumers shopped online due to the pandemic. Scott’s charitable contributions come on the heels of her signing the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic campaign founded by celebrated investor Warren Buffett, in May 2019, vowing to donate most of her wealth to philanthropic causes over her lifetime.

    ——-

    Scott’s approach to charitable giving is notable — and not only for the size of the gifts, said Chuck Collins, the director of the charity reform initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies. Collins, the heir to the Oscar Mayer food empire, himself has given away much of his wealth.

    “Scott, a newcomer on the billionaire wealth scene, has surrounded herself with advisors that come from under-resourced communities, not the folks that typically sit on foundation boards,” Collins said in an emailed statement.

    I might be convinced to award provisional style points for that, but I can’t help thinking that means “community organizers, radical clergy, BLM agitators, and various and sundry self-promoting grifters”.

    Also- would.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      She’s actually cute and normal looking and seems at least fairly bright. I hope that fifty billion dollar side piece was worth it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The grifters will stab each other in the genitals to get at a well-heeled idiot like that.

      She’d be better off burning the money than funding the United Con Artists of America.

      • Tres Cool

        One of the most underappreciated movies ever.

        But cat-juggling is no mouse organ.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Heh, how have I not seen that before?

    • Tres Cool

      Her teeth and gummy-smile remind me of that whacked-out broad from the Raelians.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Sure she sounds like a big time philanthropist, but she only gives $0.72 for every dollar a male billionaire gives.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        I larfed.

  54. The Late P Brooks

    I have always generally disliked doctors and regarded them with suspicion. Everything that has occurred over the past year has reinforced that.

    As I have said for many years:

    No doctor ever got a new Jaguar by saying, “Get out of my office. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

    • EvilSheldon

      “But, but, the noble hardworking doctors and nurses on Chicago Hope!”

  55. The Late P Brooks

    I will continue masking, distancing and avoiding travel, until Dr Fauci says otherwise.

    The sheep says, “Baaaaa.”

    What does the Lemming say?

    • Tres Cool

      Lemming? What about the fox ?

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        Dang, that takes me back.

        That song was one of the first to get a moratorium in my house when the kids just wouldn’t. stop. playing it. That one, and “Let it Go” ** shudder **

  56. Rebel Scum

    Why not both?

    On Fox, GOP IN Rep Banks questions why Pelosi hasn’t pulled Swalwell from Hse Intel Cmte: Either she, too, is compromised or secondly, that she needs Eric Swalwell votes so badly in a couple of weeks for for Speaker of the House that she can’t afford to alienate him.

  57. KOVIDKristen

    Yet more lockdown OCD. Unless 100% of people do 100% of the rituals 100% correctly 100% of the time, we’re just going to have to start over again from the beginning.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      And don’t step on a crack while you’re doing them or you’ll have to do them thrice.

      • Nephilium

        We must listen to the SCIENCEspoken.

  58. KOVIDKristen

    Go Wildcats!!

  59. The Late P Brooks

    New normal

    When Virginia Hedrick first heard about the coronavirus circulating on cruise ships off the coast of California back in March, it made her think back to some of the first ships of European settlers that arrived on American shores centuries ago, also teeming with disease.

    Various outbreaks and epidemics spread across the continent in the following centuries, particularly measles and smallpox, and Indigenous people suffered hugely disproportionate rates of illness and death.

    “So some would say that it was an unintentional spread of infectious disease upon contact. Others would say it was absolutely intentional,” says Hedrick, a member of the Yurok tribe who grew up on a reservation in Humboldt County. Now, during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, American Indians are 4 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than white people, and more than twice as likely to die. For all these reasons, past and present, Hedrick says, Indigenous people should be moved toward the front of the line to receive a vaccine.

    ——-

    California health officials have made clear they want equity and transparency to be among the main priorities in deciding how to allocate the first scarce supplies of a vaccine. For example, in divvying up the first doses for health care workers, the state is prioritizing hospitals located in low-income areas before those in wealthy areas.

    “We will be very aggressive in making sure that those with means, those with influence, are not crowding out those that are most deserving of the vaccines,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said recently at a press conference.

    Newsom is referring to current inequities of money, power and access — but state officials also seem willing and even eager to also take into consideration historic injustices when deciding vaccine allocation. The state asked more than 70 organizations to join the Community Vaccine Advisory Committee to help develop an equitable vaccine distribution plan, including the Sacramento-based policy advocacy organization Hedrick runs, the California Consortium for Urban Indian Health.

    Our new State Religion will judge harshly, and smite the sinners.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I have no issue with prioritizing the most at-risk communities. It’s the logical decision.

      Painting it as a social justice issue steeped in 500 years of racism is a bunch of bullshit.

    • Pope Jimbo

      The reason that the Indians are having such a hard time with the Rona is strictly racism. Couldn’t be that they eat horrible diets, get really fat and drink way too much.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        They eat horrible diets because whitey convinced them that they should.

    • Chipwooder

      Whoa, whoa – the Cleveland Indians are changing their name! Doesn’t that solve the problems of American Indians?

      • Nephilium

        No. Chief Wahoo is a blood debt that must be paid with championships.

  60. Rebel Scum

    Milquetoast Mitch: Roll over and show the Democrats your belly.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Republican senators Tuesday during a private caucus call not to object to the election results on Jan. 6, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

    McConnell told his caucus that challenging the results would force Republicans to take a “terrible vote” because they would need to vote it down and appear against President Donald Trump. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) also echoed McConnell’s remarks.

    It’s Trump’s party now. Better act like it or you will be relegated to controlled, faux opposition because you will never win another national election.

    • juris imprudent

      Was it you that objected to my characterization of you being a fanboi of Trump? Or was it someone else? Trump will have no enduring influence on the party. Jan 22 his relevance goes to zero.

      The Repubs are quite happy to be the only-slighter-lesser evil of the duopoly. Trump didn’t change that, and neither will anyone else. You might as well go back to believing in their happy talk about smaller govt.

      • Chipwooder

        Kind of disagree with that first point. I don’t think Trump’s going away, if for no other reason than his ego. There is no rival figure nationally within the GOP who is particularly popular who will effectively block him.

      • juris imprudent

        The party prospered this election cycle even as he sank. No relevance. He may make a lot of noise, but it will signify nothing.

      • Agent Cooper

        “Jan 22 his relevance goes to zero.”

        Disagree, but it depends on what he does.

        The Republicans need Trumpism more than Trumpism needs the Republicans.

      • juris imprudent

        What exactly is Trumpism in your mind?

      • Rebel Scum

        you that objected

        No. But I am more a reluctant defender because the attacks on him are usually stupid, hypocritical or dishonest. Plus, dude ain’t that bad and has provided much entertainment. Also, since the LP is useless he was a step in the right (teehee) direction. He gave the GOP a bit of a spine but now they will return to being as useless as ever, which is unfortunate for the few decent things they claim to stand for.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, I’ve been a “reluctant defender” in other venues, so I get that.

        I don’t personally care for his brand of political comedy, but de gustibus. I really want more substance, the style is an afterthought for me.

    • EvilSheldon

      The Republicans don’t need to win elections. They’ve figured out that the grift comes in regardless.

      They can just let the collapse proceed apace, and hope that they have the financial means to ride out the worst of it.

  61. ron73440

    I made this three weeks ago, tasted it fresh and told my wife”huh, maybe I do like eggnog.”

    Got into it on Saturday, main problem is every drink goes a little faster than the last one.

    I recommend this if you want a good party drink, but it’s 20% and doesn’t taste like it at all. 5 ladles and a six pack of Dead Guy Ale did me pretty good.

    • EvilSheldon

      Aw yas. I usually replace the rum/bourbon/congac mix with a whole bottle of B&B, but it’s amazingly good either way.

      Alton Brown’s aged eggnog : store-bought eggnog :: Winston’s mom with an 8-ball : STEVE SMITH with an 8-ball

      • ron73440

        First time making it so I just followed the recipe.

        Not cheap, but worth it.

        At 20% abv, it is so smooth.

  62. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of the beatification of Foochy:

    The psychoanalysis-by-twitter genre as applied to President Cartoon Villain has been quite popular, for four years.

    Why hasn’t anybody cast their professional gaze upon the accumulated pronouncements and admonitions of that scheming, self-aggrandizing little martinet?

    I’m sure it would be quite fascinating and enlightening.

    • ron73440

      Why hasn’t anybody cast their professional gaze upon the accumulated pronouncements and admonitions of that scheming, self-aggrandizing little martinet?

      Because he believes in the science.

      Obviously he can’t be crazy.

      I’s all of the doubters that have mental issues.

      • Spartacus

        For 30 years now, otherwise intelligent people have deliberately mixed scientific research with activism.
        Now they are bewildered because people conflate the two, and regard science the same way they regard activism (or any other form of propaganda).

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      It’d also be equally inaccurate but they’d just be kissing his ass and good quality fake analyzing him anyway.

  63. The Late P Brooks

    They eat horrible diets because whitey convinced them that they should.

    DAMN YOU, FRITO BANDITO! DAMN YOU TO HELL.

  64. juris imprudent

    One of my biggest beefs of the Obama era wasn’t with Obama himself. Oh, he was annoying and arrogant enough; no, my real beef was with the sycophants – those who worshiped him as the messiah. I see the same shit happening with Trump – a faction that thinks he is the greatest; that he had some great plan for governing – which for some reason he couldn’t focus on sufficiently to put in place.

    I guess some people just have to believe in Top.Men. and the only real difference is the flavor of the ass you’re licking.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      If you want to see some Trump worshiping TDS go on over to The Conservative Treehouse and take a look at the comments. That’s absolutely going to happen, hell it’s happening already.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      There are those of us who view him as a valuable wrench in the gears instead.

      The sole purpose of the machine seeming to be grinding us into dust.

      • juris imprudent

        Yet he was really ineffective as that – in real terms of governance. Oh sure, he was entertaining as a media figure. But how many trillions of dollars of spending did he sign off on?

      • EvilSheldon

        Much of the conservative side of the political spectrum still sees ‘0wning da libs!!’ as a core virtue. This, while paying the libs salaries, sending their kids to the libs to be educated, and consuming the libs’ media programming.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        And the results would have been better with?

        Of course, everyone here would have probably preferred Rand, but it wasn’t going to happen.

      • Rebel Scum

        2024…

      • juris imprudent

        This of course points to the problem of putting all of the responsibility on the President. Bad idea.

      • Rebel Scum

        who view him as a valuable wrench in the gears

        Yup.

    • Drake

      Trump has one superpower – baiting leftist into exposing themselves and their agendas. In 2015 the only people using phrases like “deep state” where conspiracy nuts like Alex Jones. Now nobody paying attention thinks the deep state and election fraud isn’t real.

      The tax cuts were nice, the pause in the progressive agenda was nice. So was the draw down of foreign wars and actual peace talks in the Middle East.

      What comes after Trump, and maybe after the Republican Party, won’t be nearly as harmless. Their is an incredible amount of anger building up out there among the normals.

      • juris imprudent

        You were entertained by his political performance.

      • Drake

        That too. He spoke like a normal person not a robot set only to repeat talking points.

      • Rebel Scum

        Trump has one superpower – baiting leftist into exposing themselves and their agendas

        All that but especially this.

        You were entertained by his political performance.

        Obviously.

    • Agent Cooper

      I visit The Gateway Pundit for laughs sometimes.

      I agree — there’s a Trump Cult of Personality as well, but to me, the importance of Trump is that he was an outsider who exposed (what we already knew) a lot of crap.

      • juris imprudent

        So if we all knew it, how exactly was it exposed? Oh, he didn’t play nice in the sandbox and we were all entertained by the snotty kids getting sand kicked in their faces?

        Fuck, is that the best we can hope for these days?

      • Not Adahn

        …yes?

        Under what plausible scenario could someone who didn’t beilieve in the righteous of governemnt and also their personal suitability to wield power wind up in a position of authority?

      • juris imprudent

        So government of sociopaths, by sociopaths, for the people – is that about right?

      • Not Adahn

        When has it ever been different? Power attracts the power-hungry, those with power are valuable and thus worth buying. Unless your government is so weak that electing a dog as chief executive makes no difference, you’re going to wind up with a self-selecting class of politicos.

      • mrfamous

        Seven Samurai for the win.

        Biden’s plan appears to be to place the country under house arrest for 100 days. Cuomo just banned the sale of Confederate flags. Small businesses are in danger of going completely extinct because of their inability to pay tribute to their local overlords. What am I supposed to do? Yes the lesser of two evils is still evil, but ‘evil’ is the only meal on offer.

      • Not Adahn

        I’d say eat the rich ruling caste, but there’s no way in hell I’d ingest any of that superannuated rancid filth.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My question is “What were you expecting?”

        The GOP is a rat’s nest of grifters who are content to fiddle while Rome burns as long as they collect their checks.

        Trump is an outpouring of voter rage over the duopoly. The duopoly is fighting back hard. The enemy of my enemy can be a useful ally/tool.

      • ron73440

        One thing Trump has shown, we are more fucked than I thought we were.(Still not cynical enough sometimes)

        Even if we had Rand Paul as President, the entrenched bureaucracy has no qualms with resisting and too many politicians are one the same page.

        Is there a way out of this mess?

      • Lachowsky

        He definantly made it obvious that if the president bucks the deep state, the deep state bucks back. And the deep state has a much bigger horse.

      • EvilSheldon

        I mean, eventually you die…

      • juris imprudent

        Honestly, I expected the Republicans in Congress to do their job, not sit around while the Emperor told them what to do. Sure, I was wrong, but I figured that he had no real hold over them since he had no natural base within the party. We are now a parliamentary system, where the executive leads the whole govt (if his party is in majority). I hate that, but I recognize it.

      • ron73440

        Honestly, I expected the Republicans in Congress to do their job

        What does that entail?

        Vote to expand and continue to fund the State?

        How many of them are worth a damn? 5 at most Paul, Lee, Amash, Massie, and Cruz.

        And half of them are good sometimes.

      • juris imprudent

        Well you see, I foolishly had the idea that they were elected for some reason other than to be props (or foils) to the President.

        I admit my error. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to embrace the suck.

      • Not Adahn

        Their job is whatever gets them re-elected.

        You get more of what you reward.

      • ron73440

        Well you see, I foolishly had the idea that they were elected for some reason other than to be props (or foils) to the President.

        I think I’m missing your point.

        It has become obvious that no matter who the president is, the bureaucracy will do what it wants, and the legislative and judicial ranches will do nothing meaningful to slow it down.

        I didn’t vote for Trump(or anyone), but I understand why people did.

    • Jarflax

      There will always be a majority that wants a Messiah. It is wired into us on a deep level. That said I think you are so invested in dismissing Trump that you miss the reason I and others like me (not the Trump true believers) desperately want Trump to stick around. It is not that Trump was competent, or even that he represented good principles. He wasn’t competent and his ‘principles’ were all over the place. It is that he represented a giant fuck you to the bureaucrats and leftists. More importantly, he represented the only ‘fuck you’ they will see short of armed conflict. Trump was the last stop for many of us before openly hoping for rebellion.

      • Sean

        Well said.

      • Rebel Scum

        *Sean’s avatar*

      • Tres Cool

        I agree with Eric Deters Jr. down there. The 2016 election win wasnt a landmark move for the US and liberty- but it WAS a giant hoagie-smack across the face of career pols in DC (and elsewhere) that they can be ignored. And someone that has spent 20-30 years of their life shamelessly kissing ass and prostituting themselves in hopes of a new bureaucratic do-nothing job can be squashed by an obnoxious, old, orange, cheetoh, with tons of money and a hot wife. Not mention being in the WWF hall of fame.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        ^This

      • db

        Trump was horrendously ineffective at most things I would want. But as Jarflax says, he was a giant middle finger to the bureaucracy as a symbol, if not in action.

        I have tried to explain to friends and family that I held Trump in exactly the esteeem in which I held Obama, Clinton, Bush, etc., which was basically zero.

        I have had a really hard time finding anyone who disdains the whole notion of our political class like I do. Too many lean one way or another. I myself lean a bit conservative, but never enough to be a supporter of any of these douchebags, possibly excepting Rand Paul–but he’s also a bit of a slippery dealer as well.

        The simple fact, to me, is that none of these people deserve the respect they demand, or that so many people give them. Trump is not an aberration, he is exactly what this system deserves, and until we have a better system, that’s what we’ll continue getting.

        These fuckers put on the veneer of respectability, and Trump did his best to peel it away.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, those people that want a messiah – they get what they deserve. Unfortunately, the rest of us get it too.

        If “fuck you” is all we have to vote FOR, then FYTW might as well be the whole written Constitution.

  65. Not Adahn

    Heroic NYPD seizes arsenal of deepfake human trafficked ghost guns!

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Well it does look pretty dangerous.

      • Not Adahn

        Does that even accept metallic cartridges?

    • CPRM

      *looks over at cache of airsoft guns* Glad I don’t live in NYC.

      • Not Adahn

        You say car-byne, don’t you?

  66. The Late P Brooks

    Trump will have no enduring influence on the party. Jan 22 his relevance goes to zero.

    I don’t think he goes to zero, but I think the business-as-usual wing (especially the Chamber of Commerce types) of the Republican Party will be delighted to see the back of him. As for his enduring influence on voters? Who knows. I doubt they will accept substitutes, even if Trump gives them his stamp of approval.

    A lot of the enthusiasm seen at Trump rallies in the past few years will be refocused on work and life, and away from politics. Cynicism will triumph.

    • Drake

      The relevance of the Republican Party goes to zero on the same day. If Trump starts a MAGA or America First party, the GOP is dead.

      • juris imprudent

        You do recall that he tried that already, being Jesse Ventura’s second fiddle in Perot’s Reform Party.

        This is the goddam fucking cult of personality. Jesus, for people who disdain govt this is appalling.

      • Drake

        For most it wouldn’t be a personality cult – it would be burning hatred towards what this country has become and the people who did it.

    • mrfamous

      The only hope the Republicans have in Presidential politics in the near future is the Democrats screw up really bad, and begin lots of infighting at the same time. The AOC/Sanders wing waging public war with the Harris/Buttigieg wing could open the door for a mediocre Republican (which is all they have) to slip in.

      But traditional Republicanism died with Romney in 2012. There is almost _zero_ of these under 40 and the blue collar ex-Democrats from the industrial Midwest want nothing to do with the Bushes and Romneys. If they wanted someone to look down on them and send their kids off to die in the Middle East, they could vote for Democrats to get that.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Nope, as long as the left keeps pushing , and they will because that’s what they do, righties will have to push back because everything’s politicized now. If the Reps try to go back to business as usual, and they will because that’s what they do, they’re done.

    • Rebel Scum

      How ’bout that phrase in the Constitution saying “…to promote the GENERAL welfare”…seems like protecting us from COVID falls under that category…

      No, that is not what it means.

    • ron73440

      That is pretty bad.

  67. The Late P Brooks

    And yes:

    Personality cultists are bad, irrespective of the object of their idolatry.

    I liked President Cartoon Villain because he thwacked the hornets’ nest of establishmentarianism. He even, in his inimitable Clouseau-ian flailing, did some beneficial things. I would have been quite happy to see another four years of teeth-gnashing and garment-rending.

    • juris imprudent

      I wish he had had more of an attention span than a fruit fly on meth – and actually done some of the things he talked about. You know, like actually getting troops out (instead of being talked OUT of doing that). He had no real confidence in his own ideas – he’d float it out there, get some applause and then fold as soon as the adults told him no.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Good summary…he had good instincts but was sorely lacking on the follow through, probably because his knowledge level is shallow and he folded to the experts.

      • KOVIDKristen

        ^^THIS…the last years have been a roller coaster of hope & disappointment. Trump has a weak personality and, despite his mouthing off, a weak President.

        I have been entertained, as someone firmly employed inside the Beltway, with all the consternation he’s caused among the bureaucrat class. It’s really hard to put into words how much the DC establishment, all sides, hate the guy.

        Also, his lower-level appointees have been excellent. He probably got to where he is because he has some kind of knack for hiring people. He should really just be an HR director.

      • KOVIDKristen

        It’s really hard to put into words how much the DC establishment, all sides, hate the guy.

        I should also mention how irrational the hate is/was, because the guy literally did nothing that would change these people’s lives in any way.

      • juris imprudent

        This gets to the real divide – and it is about how people FEEL not what is real.

      • Lachowsky

        The DC establishment all get their bread buttered by the military industrial complex. Candidate Trump threatened to end some of their wars and it freaked the whole lot of them out.

      • KOVIDKristen

        I know – I work inside the belly of the beast.

      • Lachowsky

        I think that he is criminally incurious about why people supported him in the first place.

  68. The Late P Brooks

    If Trump starts a MAGA or America First party, the GOP is dead.

    He’d need a coherent message and some sort of identifiable set of philosophical principles.

    Stomping on other people’s sand castles can only get you so far.

    • juris imprudent

      ^^^THIS

    • Pope Jimbo

      Disagree.

      I’m not saying the MAGA Trump party would succeed. I’m saying if he left the GOP would be dead.

      Not keeping Trump as part of the GOP would mean the exodus of most of the GOP voters. All those blue collar workers he brought in? All those minorities he got that no other GOP candidate got? All the people who are absolutely fed up with The Man? All of them gone.

      Trump isn’t the cause, he’s the symptom. If the GOP doesn’t realize that and adjust accordingly (and they won’t), then the voters are going to go somewhere else to find a bigger middle finger to vote for or will just stay home. The GOP won’t be able to get those people’s votes by scaring them with Kamala Harris or Warren or even Bernie.

  69. Lachowsky

    So…

    Im up about 25% in my 401k for the year after being down as much as 30% in late march. The entire stock market is a giant fed driven bubble at the moment that is gonna have to pop at some point. I dont see any way it pops though as long as fed keeps buying up assets and pumping money into the banks. Inflation is a coming, and bailing out of the market too soon devalues everything i have in it. Im tempted to quit while ahead and move into something safe, but i dont see the fed under Biden changing is policy of fast easy money anytime soon.

    What to do. Ride it out til the collapse? Cash out and spend it quick while it can still buy something? Move into gold? i dont know, but something nasty is going to happen in the financial markets sooner i believe rather than later.

    • juris imprudent

      Our real problem is the dollar devaluation that has to come, and in particular the moment it ceases to be the world’s reserve currency. As long as everything floats on the dollar, we get by; the minute that changes we look a lot like Mexico.

      • mrfamous

        My hope is we can continue to kick the can down the road long enough to where I’ll be gone. If we’re gonna play Keynesianism, I might as well follow Keynes’ lead.

      • Jarflax

        When that house of cards falls an awful lot of the underpinnings of our peaceful world order fall with it.

    • mrfamous

      As my savings account rate continues to tumble, I almost have to take my money out and try and put it in some sort of securities. Yes I risk losing it, but then with inflation that’s exactly what’s going on leaving it in an account earning 0.52% APR (and dropping).

      Frustrating knowing what a disaster this game is and also knowing you’re forced to play it anyway as you have a life to live regardless of how stupid it all is.

      • Lachowsky

        That’s the evil of the Fiat money/Federal reserve inflationary system. It forces everyone to become a speculator with any saving they have in order to keep up with the inflation.

        Forcing everyone into the financial markets makes it to where any big hit to the financial markets affects everyone, instead of just those wealthy enough to play in those markets. Since any big hit affects everyone, there is a huge incentive for the fed to prop up the markets, which creates the inflation that forces everyone into the markets in the first place.

        Every intervention begets a larger intervention later. There is a limit to how much intervention the markets can stand, and I’m thinking printing up 4 trillion in a year may be just a bit too much.

      • R C Dean

        I almost have to take my money out and try and put it in some sort of securities.

        That is exactly what they are trying to force people to do. Your deposit is a bank’s liability, so shifting your money out of banks is a backdoor bank bailout.

        As a retail investor, you are chum in the water for the algos and high speed traders, who will pick your bones in the stock market.

        The People Who Matter win, again. You lose, again.

      • mrfamous

        I know. But I’m stuck. It’s like the masks, I know they don’t work, but I have to use the gym and grocery stores and can’t do so without a mask. It’s their game and it’s stupid, but they’re forcing me to play. As bad as I might do in the market, almost any index fund is gonna do way better than 0.52% (at least until the full collapse happens).

    • Mojeaux

      I personally am very anti precious metal. Granted, that is because of a stupid buying decision on my part, but the market never really moves except in short bursts and timing those is a bear.

      I have no actual suggestions other than that. I feel a bubble pop coming on, also, but panicked decision-making has cost me a lot of money.

      • R C Dean

        the market never really moves except in short bursts and timing those is a bear

        I would never speculate in precious metals, which is probably the most rigged market on the planet, since every government has a stake in manipulating it.

        I hold physical metal as deep SHTF insurance. I only plan to sell it to pay for essentials.

        The system is currently rigged to punish anyone that tries to save

        Crushing capital formation will work like a charm, I’m sure.

      • Raven Nation

        “I hold physical metal as deep SHTF insurance. I only plan to sell it to pay for essentials”

        That’s how I tend to look at it. Gold/silver are hedges, not savings or investment plans.

      • EvilSheldon

        Yup, this.

      • Mojeaux

        sell it to pay for essentials

        I don’t think it will be worth much for trade. You can’t eat gold. I’ve been thinking about currency items and I think alcohol, water, toilet paper, rice, beans, and maybe blankets is the way to go.

      • juris imprudent

        Lead is the only precious metal (IMO) for SHTF.

      • Mojeaux

        Because reasons, we cannot have such things in the house.

      • Sean

        Bacon and bourbon.

      • robc

        You can’t eat gold.

        But you can trade it for sex. At any time in history, past, present or future.

      • kinnath

        I don’t think it will be worth much for trade.

        Except humans have gone out of their way for thousands of years to acquire and hoard precious metals. That’s why they are “precious”.

        The have real utility all on they own.

      • Mojeaux

        IIRC, you’re the one buying junk silver, yes? I think that has real utility. Gold, no, unless they start getting carved out as pieces of eight.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        The currency collapse in Argentina demonstrated that both gold and silver have real value when trading for food. Gold jewelry was all many families had to barter with for food and it was eagerly accepted by the traders.

      • Mojeaux

        That is something I didn’t know.

        It does make me feel a little better about gold.

      • kinnath

        By utility, I mean you can make useful stuff from precious metals. They were desirable long before they were stamped out into coinage.

        Yes, I just started buying junk silver. Assuming that silver coinage will be usable as “money” if/when shit hits the fan.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        There’s an interesting podcast interview I listened to with a guy from Argentina who recounted his experience of the collapse, including what was helpful for surviving it and what wasn’t. I’ll post it if I can find it.

      • Lachowsky

        I think a U.S. currency collapse would likely make gold less valuable than the Venezulean currency collapse. When Venezuela destroyed the value of their money, there were still many many viable markets around the world with many customers willing to pay for gold. When the U.S. dollar goes tits up, that is going to trigger a more global collapse which will kill much of the gold market.

        The value of gold is kept high because there are people with disposable income who want it. Killing the dollar will seriously cut the number of people in this category.

      • Mojeaux

        @Raven Nation, yes, that’s correct. Nickels, dimes, and quarters. Small units for trade.

      • Raven Nation

        @ Mojeaux. Thanks!

      • kinnath

        Junk silver aka constitutional silver aka 90% silver US coins.

        Dimes, Quarter, Half-Dollar, Dollars.

        Currently trading around 20 times face value.

        That means they are basically units of $2, $5, $10, and $20.

        Silver fluctuates a lot, but not as much as gold.

        Useful for buying small stuff after a currently collapse.

      • Jarflax

        If you think it will collapse to the point where gold is worthless you should buy guns, lots of guns. Because the only way gold becomes worthless is if we collapse to the point where it is tooth and claw, and in that world food stores get looted. I don’t think that is likely though. If we end up with famine it is probable that it will be planned famine and your food stores will have been confiscated.

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        your food stores will have been confiscated

        …which is why you don’t tell anyone about them. Ever.

      • Mojeaux

        Correct. All the preppers preach keeping your trap shut.

      • Mojeaux

        you should buy guns, lots of guns

        Can’t.

      • Tres Cool

        “I feel a bubble pop coming on…”

        Someone had Chipotle.

      • Mojeaux

        How did you KNOW?

    • kinnath

      The system is currently rigged to punish anyone that tries to save instead of spending every dollar on consumables.

      I fully expect a repeat of the Carter years (10% inflation and 10% unemployment) in the very near future.

      I have no idea how to deal with this.

      I have started hedging on some key items: guns, ammo, silver, non-perishable goods. But this is a relatively short-term solution (at 63, I worry about the next 25 years). My kids and grandkids are pretty much fucked at this point.

      • Mojeaux

        My kids and grandkids are pretty much fucked at this point.

        That’s where I am. I look at them and think, “What should I have done to prepare them for this?” but…they don’t know any better. Anything I say would seem silly and possibly deluded. They’ll plod blindly into this authoritarian regime doing their thing, not knowing they’re frogs, the water’s warm, and there might have been something better.

    • EvilSheldon

      Buying real property is the traditional hedge against economic uncertainty.

      • db

        I have plenty of property here in PA. I need to branch out into saner states. I have been looking at Wyoming and Tennessee.

      • Lachowsky

        I bought a reant house at the end of 2019. That seems to have been a good idea so far.

      • Raven Nation

        We’re looking at doing that too but are concerned about the federal edicts regarding renters that came out this year. And whether they will be permanent going forward.

        You had any pushback from renters?

      • Lachowsky

        None at all, as neither lost their jobs. Had they, I dont know how it would have gone. There is some pretty anti-landlord federal stuff that has come out this year that i imagine could really fuck me over if it was ever used against me.

        Im not a rich guy, and that house house only nets me about 200 dollars in income a month.

      • ron73440

        Im not a rich guy

        Liar!!!

        Obviously you are a Kulak and a wrecker and need to be put on the reeducation list while we confiscate your house for the Greater Good.

        *echoes* Greater Good!

      • Raven Nation

        Glad to hear that.

      • db

        The trick is to do premium properties (or at least as premium as you can afford in a certain class of property), keep them well maintained, and very nice inside and out. Charge high rents, and you get people who will value the property.

        Also, ABSOLUTELY DO REAL BACKGROUND CHECKS on prospective tenants. Toss their applications if anything questionable comes to light. I know this from bad experience.

      • Raven Nation

        Thanks, we’ll definitely keep that in mind.

    • robodruid

      #1 Buy cheap land
      #2 build an ammo factory

  70. The Late P Brooks

    Im tempted to quit while ahead and move into something safe, but i dont see the fed under Biden changing is policy of fast easy money anytime soon.

    I don’t disagree with anything you say, but I don’t think you should do anything rash.

    Biden will take some of the pressure off the Fed by juicing fiscal policy. Interest rates (in the establishmentarian-verse) cannot be allowed to rise, or the whole house of cars will collapse. It’s like going down an icy hill in your pickup truck towing a heavy trailer; if you even tap the brakes, you’re going to find yourself in the ditch before you can say, “Oh shit.”

    • Lachowsky

      How much more juiced can fiscal policy get? Krugman’s stupid ass trillion dollar coin idea is a drop in the bucket compared to what they have been doing this year.

  71. UnCivilServant

    Lul, while poking around the directory tree I’ve found something I didn’t expect in the Cyberpunk 2077 installation – the rulebook for Cyberpunk 2020.

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      I love discovering those types of things.

      Did you play the (live-action) RPG at all?

      • UnCivilServant

        No, I played ran Shadowrun.

      • UnCivilServant

        (I also Ran the D&D game through high school. Both helped hone my storytelling skills.)

      • Not Adahn

        I still have my character sheets from middle school, especially including the giant pile o’ loot that the DM gave us when he graduated to the 9th grade.

    • EvilSheldon

      Cool!

      I think I have the hardback rulebook in storage somewhere…

    • Hyperion

      The rulez is, you will be forced to sit through several ultra boring episodes of you playing a video editor in real life. It’s almost as exciting as watching paint dry, but not quite.

  72. db

    So, I was out and about earlier and thought I’d stop in at the liquor store to pick up some Sauvingnon Blanc (no white wine remaining in my cabinet), and found that our local “PA Fine Wines and Good Spirits” store is “CLOSED DUE TO EMERGENCY.”

    WTF? I don’t watch the news, so maybe I missed Gauleiter Wolf’s decree? Or is this something specific to our local store?

    • Mojeaux

      Could be a family emergency.

      • db

        I wondered about that. I think P Brooks, below, has it sussed though.

      • Sean

        They gots the commie cough?

        Try another store.

      • db

        Unfortunately, in our neck of the woods, the nearest other store is a half hour drive away. I don’t need white wine that bad. I have a case and a half of various commercial reds, plus two cases of my homemade Cabernet Sauvignon. And a Sauvignon Blanc kit to start making.

      • robc

        I don’t know why, since I don’t grow my own barley, but buying juice to make wine seems like cheating to me.

      • db

        A bit, yeah. I was hesitant to get into winemaking because I felt I had more control over the brewing process. Yeah there is some chemistry and stuff with wine, but with beer you get to make up your own recipe, not just throw shit in a bucket.

        But I was quite pleased with my first batch, so I think I’ll continue making wine. Probably never going to get into it in earnest (my palate is geared more toward beer) but it is really nice to have some decent bottles around, and here in PA, the prices for commercial wines are criminally boosted by the PCLB.

      • creech

        You need to move closer to the friendly confines of Total Wine in Delaware.

      • ron73440

        Still have the “temporary” Johnstown flood relief tax also.

      • db

        Sorry, but moving to eastern PA (even though we have family in Chester Co.) is a non-starter for me.

    • Kwihn T. Senshel

      Small town near me had their McDonald’s closed on a Saturday a few weeks ago. Sign said “due to emergency” as well… I’m guessing too many people called out sick or something.

  73. Lachowsky

    By the way, Everyone is Arkansas knows that hiring Chad Morris is a sure fire way to kill your program.

    If Gus Malzahn would have listened to us he would still be the coach at Auburn.

    • robc

      He was on the verge of being fired every other year. So, he just accelerated the firing. Plus gets $21MM. Plus can go to Vandy if he wants.

  74. The Late P Brooks

    our local “PA Fine Wines and Good Spirits” store is “CLOSED DUE TO EMERGENCY.”

    Blizzardgeddon?

    • db

      oh FFS it’s barely even snowing right now here.

      • juris imprudent

        First flakes just falling now. But you know the fine public employee union-members of PA – they can take no risks whatsoever.

      • db

        Priority One is they all make it home safe at the end of their shift. Or cancel the shift.

      • creech

        Hey, these public servants deserve a day off. Many still have sore and numb fingers and hands from all the ballots they filled in last month!

      • db

        heh.

  75. hayeksplosives

    In going to sign this Recall Newsom petition. I know “signing” online petitions is social signaling, so I want to sign the real one and get this hypocritical tyrant out of here.

    Surprise, surprise: Google could not find me a link to the Recall Newsom effort. It found articles about the recall effort, but nothing useful.

    I then went to the CA GOP site directly (top results for CA GOP is articles and wikis about the CA GOP, but it reluctantly proferred cagop.org which had a link on their front page to this:

    https://recallgavin2020.com/

    There I put in my county and found lots of places where I could go sign a legal pen-and-ink signature. I have liberal acquaintances who want Newsom out too, so this could work.

    I saw most of the signature locations in San Diego North County were at restaurants, wineries, and guns/ammo stores.

    When I’m over this @&$!!$ illness, I’m gonna go make friends at the ammo store. Also going to copy the whole signature locations list so I can direct my business in the future.

    https://recallgavin2020.com/

    • juris imprudent

      Interesting, I googled it and it was the 4th item after news.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Probably location based filtering if I were go take a stab at it.

    • KSuellington

      That is the only one that counts. I printed out a few copies and keeping them in my work truck to get anyone who I meet who is amenable and not already signed it to do so. We have until March to make this happen. I know it is a long shot but I am going to do my small part to make it happen. If we had a real opposition party in this state they would be dropping some serious cash and effort to bolster this movement. Get rid of Guv Greaseball!

  76. The Late P Brooks

    I don’t think it will be worth much for trade. You can’t eat gold.

    When paper money is only good for wiping your ass, gold might stage a comeback.

  77. DEG

    Randy Economy, a senior adviser to the recall Gavin Newsom 2020 official campaign, told Fox News that the group had between 828,000 and 840,000 signatures as of Monday.

    Economy said the campaign hopes to reach the threshold required to have the measure placed on the ballot by mid- to late-January.

    Oh yeah!

    Better than PornHub.

  78. KOVIDKristen

    Back to the vet on Friday. Dog has been having diarrhea & has lost a shitton of weight. Also just had another “episode” where he kind of looks confused & lists to the right.

    I can’t take this level of anxiety. I’m about to break.

    • Mojeaux

      Oh, KK, I am so sorry. It’s so awful when they decline and you can’t decide what’s best for them.

    • db

      I’m so sorry you’re going through this. It’s terrible when your furry friends are sick.

      I know it’s probably not something you want to consider, but we lost our long time buddy cat last year. He was very brave and tried his best not to be sick, but it was so much stress on him and on us. We ended up euthanizing him because he was suffering and we knew he had a cancer that couldn’t be cured. We had spent a lot of money on surgery and chemo for him, but in the end it came down to easing his pain.

      • Mojeaux

        in the end it came down to easing his pain.

        Yes. We put our old lady kitty to sleep after listening to her struggle to breathe. We didn’t know what it was until we found out it was congestive heart failure.

        She was 13 years old. It was time for her to not suffer anymore.

    • Tundra

      I’m sorry, KK.

      You won’t break. Your pup needs you now. Be his best friend.

    • DEG

      Sorry.

  79. db

    Just got an invitation for a “Virtual Memorial” for a deceased co-worker next week. I’m not sure if I’m going to attend. I’d feel like a heel for not going, but I hate memorials and probably won’t care for what the “leadership” has to say about this person, whom most of them barely knew.

    But it may be bad optics for me not to attend. If it were an in person wake, I wouldn’t have even been invited, much less expected to go out of my way to attend.

    • Not Adahn

      Log into the meeting and mute it?

      • Kwihn T. Senshel

        Especially if video isn’t required on your end.

      • db

        I guess that’s an option.

      • DEG

        Yeah, it’s a decent option.

        Sorry about your coworker.