Friday Afternoon Relevant to Riven’s Interests Links

by | Jan 22, 2021 | Daily Links | 325 comments

Also, fucking huge.

Hot and spooky… just like I like ’em.

This first link isn’t really new news, but it was news to me when Warty shared it.

Remember when IT came out, and young people couldn’t decide if they should run toward or away from Pennywise? It’s like that, again.

Always read the reviews before you plan your vacation.

Maybe if you light a candle and the flame gets out of control, don’t just throw it outside?

‘Wear a mask; it’s mandated.’ Except when it isn’t because you have “bigger things to worry about.

As for local news, some speculate that this is happening too soon, but it would definitely be nice to get back to “normal.”

Play us out, Colter.

About The Author

Riven

Riven

[riv-uhn] noun 1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd. 2. often aims to misbehave. 3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.* And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.

325 Comments

  1. Chipwooder

    You’ll have to forgive Joe, he forgot what was in that EO he signed.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      He was too busy thinking of his next pudding cup break.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Tasty Num Nums!

    • westernsloper

      Forgot? I doubt he knows and or cares what is in anything he signs.

  2. Count Potato

    “Michael added: “I am not blaming the resort for this, this is my wife’s fault. But just know that this is the thing that can happen at this resort.”

    It was his wife’s fault, so it was probably going to happen anywhere.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I assume that means he gets a hall pass now.

      Got to look at the bright side of things.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Or he spends all of the community funds on the most expensive divorce lawyer and makes sure he keeps primary custody of the kiddo.

    • R C Dean

      He’s a prick for giving them a one-star review because his wife banged the masseuse.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Maybe she wasn’t satisfied.

      • Not Adahn

        I’d have to see the employees handbook before I made that call.

      • Not Adahn

        Also if it was literally a masseuse and not a masseur, I can see him giving a lower review since he wasn’t offered the same service.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        Or allowed to watch.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        I would give zero starts if I am not allowed to watch..

    • Playa Manhattan

      I’m pretty sure there’s a movie about this.

      • DEG

        Ze Hippo is close enough.

      • Playa Manhattan

        I was thinking Forgetting Sarah Marshall

      • DEG

        I haven’t seen that one.

      • Count Potato

        It’s very entertaining, albeit a bit silly.

  3. Scruffy Nerfherder

    So many vagina scented candles, so few fire extinguishers.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    “[To] protect the Federal workforce and individuals interacting with the Federal workforce, and to ensure the continuity of Government services and activities, on-duty or on-site Federal employees, on-site Federal contractors, and other individuals in Federal buildings and on Federal lands should all wear masks, maintain physical distance, and adhere to other public health measures, as provided in CDC guidelines,” the order stated.

    In some ways, the order comes as little surprise. Prior to the November election, Biden had indicated he would require masks on federal property. Meanwhile, Biden has consistently urged people to “mask up” and is calling on Americans to wear face coverings in public for the next 100 days.

    Pigeon superstition, FTW.

    • Sean

      C’mon, what’s another 100 days at this point? Grandma killer.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I’ve seen some defend it by saying the key is in “as provided in CDC guidelines,” which says you can be outdoors safely without a mask. Of course that makes no sense when you read the order, but just leave him alone, ok?

    • R C Dean

      Meanwhile, Biden has consistently urged people to “mask up” and is calling on Americans to wear face coverings in public for the next 100 days.

      While publicly violating his own order multiple times in barely two days.

      • Count Potato

        My favorite is when he pulled down his mask to cough.

      • See Double You

        Seriously, is there anyone alive who is fooled by this who doesn’t want to be?

      • Count Potato

        Unfortunately, yes.

    • B.P.

      “…on Federal lands…”

      My in-laws have a bunch of acreage bordered on two sides by endless national forest land. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to wear a mask when I wander out into those un-peopled lands.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yosemite National park is closed at present.

        It’s a rather large outdoors area where it’s pretty easy to maintain social distance. If open, it would at least allow those of us who are stir crazy to take a walk or even a drive.

        But no, it’s closed, because Gavin the Punisher says so, and now he has Biden backing him up.

        Gavin must be getting worried about the perfectly legal attempt to force a recall election in California because he has moved from dismissing it as much ado about nothing to his new position of calling it a coup attempt.

      • Rat on a train

        We have national battlefield parks all over the area. Years ago I drove through one every day on the way to work. I hope they hired extra park rangers to man the checkpoints on all the roads. They should definitely do that near Washington on the George Washington and Baltimore-Washington Parkways.

  5. Rebel Scum

    Resident Evil Village has a big vampire lady and fans love her

    Well, she seems to have a big, voluptuous personality.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        A player simply passes their mittened hands over a piece of unwanted someone else’s gear, and the item is instantly converted into gold coins equal to its fair market value and shared evenly among party members given to the king, who keeps half, gives 45% to his minions, and the party members have to go stand in line to collect an even share of the remaining 5% (unless they express insufficient gratitude when they pick up the gold, in which case they get nothing and are shipped off to a prison camp).

        fixed.

      • AlexinCT

        That’s more like it…

      • The Other Kevin

        A player simply passes their mittened hands over someone else, and whatever gear they have more than one of disappears, because who needs more than one type of dagger?

      • SirNiko

        Perfect plot hook for a skilled DM.

        Players discover the magic mittens on an orc outside of town, discover its purpose, get some gold for some junk magic gear the orc was carrying. Arrive in town, ready to spend their gold on the inn, and discover room and board is tremendously expensive! There’s no food in town, but plenty of gold because the villagers have been using more of Bernies Magic Mittens to create gold from unwanted junk.

        Any player making a knowledge check: Economics (Difficulty 5) will realize that economic inflation is destroying the local economy, and summoning more gold with the mittens is making it worse.

        A few encounters later, they find the wizard Bernie at the third of his three hideouts, defeat his underling Krugman the mad orc, and stop him from taking his magic mittens to destroy all of Greyhawk.

    • The Other Kevin

      Well of course they do. It must be that those people weren’t doing it right, so the next time it needs to be more strict. #progharder

      • Not Adahn

        It was all those Floridians visiting CA and bringing their ‘vid with them.

    • commodious spittoon

      But Californians suffered for their rates, which means they came by those numbers honestly, unlike the debauched, sinful Floridians.

  6. Rebel Scum

    Biden Ignores His Own Mask Mandate on First Day. ‘Bigger Issues to Worry About,’ Says WH Press Secretary

    Yeah, old news. What difference at this point does it make? It’s time to move on.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    The county’s education liaison team will continue to educate individuals, organizations and businesses that violate state and county health directives. Bullock’s mask mandate is still in effect, and Felton said that masking is the most common complaint reported to RiverStone Health.

    “It’s not a matter of enforcement so much as helping people understand what they need to do to stay safe,” Felton said.

    Yeah, fuck you, too.

    And I have heard people bitching about how Gianforte wants us all to die. STFU and stay home, then.

    • Endless Mike

      The bars have been staying open until 2 in Miles City for weeks now; no one was enforcing mask wearing even when Bullock was still in office.

  8. The Other Kevin

    “bigger things to worry about.”

    I imagine the press having a serious case of the DT’s over this. If Trump had said it, they’d be writing story after story about it. “Trump doesn’t take millions of deaths seriously!” It would become an instant talking point! But no, one of Joe’s people said it, so they have to pretend like it never happened.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Imagine being relatively new talent indoctrinated in the constant outrage of the past four years where it concerns the executive office. Now you’ve got to switch gears and show deference and amazement at everything they do.

      Must be so hard for them.

      • The Other Kevin

        It must feel like a demotion. Like a hard-nosed reporter suddenly assigned to write about garden parties on the Lifestyle page.

      • Viking1865

        It’s not. My mother was an editor for years, before switching back to academia. I want to make this very clear: there are as close to zero as makes no difference honest reporters. They are, to a man and woman, DNC talking points machines, and there’s no way in hell a single reporter in that press briefing room is one of the rare exceptions.

  9. DEG

    Clint shows that the position of the wrist must be different than for an over/under grip. And contrary to popular belief, you don’t want to wrap your thumb all the way around the bar with a hook grip. Instead, you want to extend your thumb as far as you possibly can and line it up with the bottom of the bar. This will allow the pressure from the bar to go into the meatier part of your thumb rather than the joint and bone. The pain will start to go away and your deadlift will start to go up.

    Interesting. When I go back to deadlifting with the barbell, I’ll have to try it. I stuck with double-overhand except when trying a 1RM, and then I would attempt a hook grip.

    I hated mixed grip. I tried it for a while and it always felt awkward.

    Thanks!

    But we did get a brief glimpse of the new game, and it included a nine foot tall vampire woman with an amazing hat and a sinister grin.

    “Hat”, “rack”, I always mix them up.

    I’m not interested in having her crush me under her heel, but I am interested in doing other things with her.

    When on an ‘amazing’ holiday with your wife, you don’t expect them to run off with the masseuse, but according to one man this is exactly what happened during his trip to The Palms resort in Turks and Caicos.

    Walk away.

    The posh lifestyle behemoth sells clothing, perfume, and candles that allegedly smell like a vagina — one of which just exploded in a customer’s home.

    Exploding Vagina. I don’t know if that works as a band name.

    The same day Biden signed his executive order, he and his family were spotted maskless at the Lincoln Memorial—a clear violation of the order he had signed that very morning.

    Rules for thee, not for me.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      RE: Hook Grip: I have been using something similar for a while. I started using it with pull-ups and discovered that I could use it for Olympic lifts too.

      • DEG

        I never thought of using it for pull-ups.

        I just watched the video. His way of using hook grip makes sense to me.

        He mentions double overhand with straps. I’ve never used straps.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      COINTELPRO all over again except with roles reversed.

    • The Other Kevin

      There have to be no more than a few dozen “real” white supremacists out there. But I wouldn’t expect an agency with a sudden influx of funds and personnel to conclude that there’s not much of a threat and they really aren’t needed.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Expect every gun range in the country to become infested with federal agents. JFC.

      • R C Dean

        They’ll be easy to pick out.

        They’ll be the ones that can’t shoot for shit.

      • Chipwooder

        As the joke goes, if there are five guys at a Klan meeting, one of them is undercover FBI and two more are government informants.

    • Tonio

      The FBI is salivating. Crikey, they might even bring back Preet.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Janice Rehberg and her husband, former U.S. Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg, own two Popeyes restaurants and one Burger King in Billings. They also own a Popeyes in Missoula and a Burger King in Kalispell.

    The restaurant staff wear masks and gloves and follow sanitation procedures. Plexiglass barriers have been installed in drive-thrus and on counters and staff follow protocols to offer contact-less transactions.

    WTF? Don’t the drive throughs already have windows?

    • kinnath

      The local McD’s has the same thing. The plexiglass blocks all but the bottom third or so of the open window. This allows money and food to change hands, but would block sneezes/coughs from basically having a direct face-to-face path.

    • Rat on a train

      Just don’t put up bullet-resistant plexiglass in certain locations.

  11. Rebel Scum

    So you are going after antifa?

    Psaki said that Biden had tasked the ODNI to request a “comprehensive threat assessment” of domestic violent extremism, including ways to strengthen government capabilities to monitor the threat.

    “The Biden administration will confront this threat with the necessary recourses and resolve,” she said.

    Your 15 minute are up, biotch.

    Thunberg said, “How can we expect people will want climate action? How can we expect people to support any kind of action when the general public welcome awareness is so low when it comes to the climate. We have not been made aware of what is happening because the climate crisis has never once has been treated as a crisis. So how can we expect a to happen when we aren’t treating this crisis like a crisis.”

    She continued, “The Green New Deal obviously it’s not — if you include crucial aspects like the aspect of equity and so on it is very, very far from being enough, from being in line with the Paris agreement and so on. That’s not my opinion if people may think that, but it at least gets the discussion going.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Is it wrong of me that I hoped the side-effects had hospitalized him?

    • R C Dean

      After his first dose, which he publicly got in one arm, he said later that his arm was just a little sore, and pointed to the other arm. So I’m wondering if he took the vaccine at all. Especially since he is a prolific, and gleeful, liar.

      • grrizzly

        Apparently, the side effects are much more serious after the second dose. And it’s especially true for Moderna’s vaccine. Alex Berenson talks about it all the time.

    • Playa Manhattan

      People who respond poorly to the vaccine….

      Are the same people who would likely die if they actually contracted COVID.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Why would I care about that Trump administration hold-over?

  12. The Late P Brooks

    “I think the power of his example is also the message he sends by signing 25 executive orders, including almost half of them related to COVID,” Psaki said. “I think we have bigger issues to worry about.”

    Was there anybody who didn’t already know he couldn’t care less about the Constitution?

    • Chipwooder

      I have to say, even allowing for the fact that I despise her and her faction, Psaki is fucking awful at her job. A lot of halting half-sentences, talking in circles, stammering “uhhhhhhh”, etc.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      Ah, the Dem’s Jedi mind tricks. “This is not the story you want to cover”. And it works so well.

      • Brochettaward

        I mean, the Jedi mind trick was used to make someone do something they didn’t want to do already. The media doesn’t need any tricking. It all just comes natural to them.

  13. DEG

    The Clown Prince has a win

    Attorney General Gordon MacDonald of Deering became chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court on his second try Friday with the Executive Council voting 4-1 to confirm the nomination of Gov. Chris Sununu.
    MacDonald, 59, becomes the fifth AG in New Hampshire history to obtain this honor, and the first one in history to go straight from that office to the five-member highest court.
    His appointment ends a 17-month vacancy on the Supreme Court which was also the longest one in history that was opened when State Rep. Robert Lynn, R-Windham, stepped down as chief justice in August 2019 after he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.
    “Attorney General Gordon MacDonald is one of the most highly qualified individuals ever to serve as chief justice and will lead New Hampshire’s highest court with distinction,” Governor Chris Sununu said in a statement after the vote.

  14. Ted S.

    Remember when IT came out,

    No. Clara Bow was before my time.

    • Rat on a train

      1958?

  15. Certified Public Asshat

    Raise The Damn Gas Tax Already

    (Full disclosure: This is a blog for people who are interested in paying taxes for a better society. If your idea of a good country is one with zero taxes, then please close this tab now, there’s nothing for you here.)

    I guess we are done here.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Well…. bye

    • pistoffnick

      “…paying taxes for a better society…”

      hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah…deep breath…hahahahahahahahah

      How quaint!

      • pistoffnick

        To the author of Raise the Damn Gas Tax Already,

        If you feel your taxes are too low, you are welcome to donate to the government right here:

        https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/gift/gift.htm

        But that is not what you are asking. You want to force all the rest of us to pay more.

        To that I say, “Fuck off, slaver.”

      • Rat on a train

        Haven’t you heard? Americans want services but don’t want to pay for them. They want others to pay for them.

    • RBS

      Erik Shilling
      Posts
      Twitter
      News Editor at Jalopnik. 2008 Honda Fit Sport.

      LOL

      • UnCivilServant

        The same way people who hate video games write for video games journalism sites. It seems almost mandatory these days to be either antagonistic or apathetic towards the subject matter.

      • Rat on a train

        He’s GMG Union. What else is required?

      • slumbrew

        *ensures 2009 Honda Fit Sport is not in view for next Glibs Zoom*

        (in my defense, the car came with the wife)

      • kbolino

        It’s not a bad car, if you get it with a manual. It lacks for oomph but can be fun to drive.

      • kbolino

        The purpose of the press for almost a decade now has been to make money off clickbait to pay for graduates of the Junior Marxist League to spread the narrative to the idiot masses.

  16. DEG

    Nomination of a new PA health secretary

    Governor Wolf has announced his intention to nominate his current Deputy Chief of Staff Alison Beam to serve as the Secretary of Health for Pennsylvania.

    Former Secretary of Health Rachel Levine was nominated by President Joe Biden to act as the national Assistant Secretary of Health.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      Would.

      • Endless Mike

        Yeah she’s WAY hotter than the last one.

    • juris imprudent

      If she’s competent for the public health job, what was she doing as deputy flunkie of the governor?

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Masks have become a partisan distraction, and a toxic one. Reasonable people can debate their efficacy in reducing the spread of the coronavirus—some evidence suggests they may help, other evidence suggests they may not—but what’s clear is that masks have become symbols.

    Just like the swastika armband, in 1938 Germany. You have to signal your team affiliation to the world at large. You don’t want any misunderstandings.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Reasonable people can debate their efficacy

      Yeah, right. If you question the accepted wisdom of masks, you’re an unbeliever who wishes to kill grandma. Debate is not allowed.

  18. Yusef drives a Kia

    If I said what * said, Id be out of a job in a heartbeat, and I despise masks,
    Fuck Off now, puddin cup

  19. Rebel Scum

    ChuckGrassley
    @ChuckGrassley

    I’m waiting for Pres Biden to condemn violence/looting/arson last two days in Oregon & Washington state

    C’mon, man. Antifa is just an idea.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    (Full disclosure: This is a blog for people who are interested in paying taxes for a better society. If your idea of a good country is one with zero taxes, then please close this tab now, there’s nothing for you here.)

    It’s Jalopnik.I already knew that.

    • The Gunslinger

      Nope. Munching on a banana.

  21. Nephilium

    The shutdowns continue in most of the land, and so does the Zoom/Happy Hour/article writing press gang. I’ll kick it off, as is tradition, at 20:00 Eastern.

    Fair warning, next weekend I’ll be unavailable to host.

    • DEG

      I’ll be there for a little while. I have to be up early tomorrow.

    • Tonio

      [tears up at “press gang”]

      Rum, Sodomy and the Lash?

    • SP

      But, the press gang has been very successful! So, feature, not bug.

      What are you doing next weekend?

      • Tonio

        Getting gloriously drunk with You People(tm).

      • SP

        That doesn’t sound like Neph.

      • Swiss Servator

        Wait, you will be there!?

        JOY!

      • KromulentKristen

        Will you all set up a camera or sumpin?

      • SP

        No cameras. But we might host a Zoom anyway in the background.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      I’m glad someone will. CNN won’t.

  22. Derpetologist

    NPR woke me from my hibernation.

    https://www.npr.org/2021/01/21/958915267/nearly-one-in-five-defendants-in-capitol-riot-cases-served-in-the-military

    ***
    Roughly one-third of active duty troops said they had “personally witnessed examples of white nationalism or ideological-driven racism within the ranks in recent months,” according to a 2019 survey conducted by the Military Times and Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families. Troops said they had seen “swastikas being drawn on service members’ cars, tattoos affiliated with white supremacist groups, stickers supporting the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi-style salutes between individuals.”
    ***

    Cool story, bro. Clearly troops need to spend even more time in Equal Opportunity classes and other struggle sessions.

    • Animal

      Roughly one-third of active duty troops said they had “personally witnessed examples of white nationalism or ideological-driven racism within the ranks in recent months,” according to a 2019 survey conducted by the Military Times and Syracuse University Institute for Veterans and Military Families. Troops said they had seen “swastikas being drawn on service members’ cars, tattoos affiliated with white supremacist groups, stickers supporting the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi-style salutes between individuals.”

      Utter.

      Horseshit.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Maybe not. If they’ve been getting diversity training I could see people doing this stuff to mock the training. Like in a previous company I worked for the sexual harassment training had the opposite of its intended effect.

      • Derpetologist

        I made fun of EO training once and got in some hot water for it. The military takes EO and sexual complaints very seriously. This is why I agree with Animal’s assessment.

      • Derpetologist

        Oops. Oh well, bathos.

      • Derpetologist

        I made fun of EO training once and got in some hot water for it. The military takes EO and sexual harassment/assault complaints very seriously. This is why I agree with Animal’s assessment.

      • juris imprudent

        Once? Looks to me like you did it twice – no wonder you got in hot water.

      • kbolino

        Unless you’re a politically well connected senior NCO or officer, then you can get away with it. Like DADT before it, this is all about getting rid of people they don’t like with a plausible excuse.

      • juris imprudent

        When you push identity, identity pushes back?

      • Rat on a train

        The Consideration of Others Program training in the 90s went that way with soldiers offering increasingly absurd scenarios to discuss.

      • R C Dean

        ideological-driven racism

        Well, anyone who goes to diversity and inclusion training sees that.

        swastikas being drawn on service members’ cars, . . . Nazi-style salutes between individuals

        Soldiers are known for never having a crude sense of humor or giving each other shit.

        tattoos affiliated with white supremacist groups, stickers supporting the Ku Klux Klan

        I’d have to see some examples to pass judgment.

      • Derpetologist

        I used to hang out with some pagan types, and they had gotten the stink eye from the military because of the association between Norse paganism and white power groups.

      • Chipwooder

        I knew a guy like that. They wouldn’t let him put “Pagan” in the religion slot on his dog tags.

    • Chipwooder

      Troops said they had seen “swastikas being drawn on service members’ cars, tattoos affiliated with white supremacist groups, stickers supporting the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi-style salutes between individuals.”

      Yeah, I’m calling boooooooolsheeeeeeet on that one. Now, I’ve been out for almost 16 years now, however:

      -They were anal as all fucking get out about tattoos. I have a normal Celtic cross on my shoulder, and I was absolutely grilled about it at MEPS, with a recruiting gunny screaming at me to admit it’s a white power tattoo. Back then they only made a big deal about tattoos during recruiting, but I know for a fact that later on they started restricting the hell out of new tattoos even when you have been in for a while. You get a white power tattoo and you are getting bounced.

      -Stickers, Hitler salutes, etc…..one whiff of something like that is gonna put your ass in a sling. You know how many senior NCOs are black? Plenty, and they will fuck your world up. Hell, a lot of those guys live for nothing more than making the nonrates’ lives miserable in the first place, and that’s when they don’t have any extra motivation to do so. Let someone see you fucking around like that and you’re gonna be heading to have a chat with the sergeant major in two seconds.

      -Swastikas drawn on cars….if this were a legit problem, guaranteed this wouldn’t be the first anyone would be hearing about it.

      That said, the military is a microcosm of society at large. There are bad people in the ranks as there are anywhere else. Drunkards, racists, wife abusers, pederasts, etc. I knew a guy in Pensacola who was racist as hell. He was in the adjoining barracks room (our rooms shared a bathroom) and he happened to see a few WWII books among the history books on my shelf, which prompted him to expound on the greatness of Hitler. I don’t think he was kidding around. So, yes, there are a handful of these guys in uniform. The idea, however, that there is some kind of pervasive network of white supremacists is laughable.

      • Brochettaward

        Hell, a lot of those guys live for nothing more than making the nonrates’ lives miserable in the first place, and that’s when they don’t have any extra motivation to do so.

        I was going to say that the only racism I saw while in came from the blacks. Andi t could be directed at Hispanics as well as whites.

      • Chipwooder

        Honestly, I didn’t see much of it from any direction. His Holiness and I have discussed this a bit before – there is so much bullshit heaped on you as a junior Marine that you really don’t have time for hating people based on their identity. You’re all at the bottom of the hill as the shit’s rolling down it, and that is a big reason why there’s generally camaraderie. You are unified in your resentment of the people making your lives collectively miserable.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I second this. Sounds a lot like the poop-stika from Mizzou years back. Plus every one knows that Soldiers don’t draw Swastikas on things, they draw dicks on everything.

      • juris imprudent

        Maybe they were drawing swasdickas?

      • STEVE SMITH

        STEVE SMITH THINK “SWASDICKA” FUNNY!

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Hmm.. White Supremacist Phalluses (Phalli?)

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Did you tell him the Irish are the blacks of Europe?

      • Rat on a train

        Only the Black Irish.

    • The Other Kevin

      Dems get a hammer, now look at all those nails!

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      I will tell you that in the Special Operations world, there are very few taboos as far as giving each other shit. In the team room, race is absolutely on the table as something to joke about. These guys love to push each other’s buttons, you need to grow a pretty thick skin in order to fit in.

  23. Animal

    I’m re-reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago right now. It’s been, oh, twenty years since I read it last.

    I almost wish I hadn’t started it, given the current political climate. When I read it the first time, I thought, “Oh, I’m so glad that could never happen here.” Now I’m wondering, “Holy steaming crap on a poker, could that happen here?”

    • AlexinCT

      Yeah, right there with ya.. I read it a couple of months ago and was wondering what f… Now I am going damn, this looks really fucking bad.

    • juris imprudent

      …could that happen here?

      Aren’t you really thinking when will it happen here?

  24. juris imprudent

    Thank you Riven for the Colter intro – had not heard him before. Damn.

    • Riven

      You are quite welcome! He does a song called Sleeping on the Blacktop that’s also really good.

      Caroline is also excellent but sort of melancholic. Big fans over here.

  25. KromulentKristen

    Reminder for the evening crew: the celery is under the left rear tire. I’m doing the thing at ~9pm ET tonight. Also, the bank is closed.

    If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can find out tonight at 9pm on our little weekly meet up.

    If you know what I’m talking about, shut yo mouf.

    • AlexinCT

      Who shares the meeting invite?

      • KromulentKristen

        It’s in a super secret location, called “Reply #27”

      • Nephilium

        I’m going to take a guess that’s she’s referring to comment 27.

    • pistoffnick

      the field mouse is fast, but the owl sees at night!

      • AlexinCT

        Easy there Mike Honcho.

      • pistoffnick

        John has a long mustache.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        I hear the gooseberries are doing well this year… and so are the mangoes.

    • SP

      The peanut butter is stuck to the dog’s smile.

    • Riven

      The narwhal bacons at midnight

      • Count Potato

        Narwhal bacon sounds expensive.

      • KromulentKristen

        Not in Longyearbyen

    • rhywun

      Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

    • Derpetologist

      There was a famous American spy in WW2 named Virginia Hall. She lost a leg in a hunting accident and had a wooden leg she named Cuthbert. When she parachuted into occupied Europe, she broke Cuthbert and sent a coded message mentioning that she was safe but her partner Cuthbert was giving her trouble.

      ***
      The SOE office in London, not realizing that Cuthbert was actually an inanimate object required for her survival, responded with the following message: “If Cuthbert is giving you difficulty, have him eliminated.”
      ***

      • Tulip

        I just started a biography of her. What an amazing woman.

      • Tonio

        Glibs loves book reports. /PressGang

    • pistoffnick

      THIS IS NOT MY BEAUTIFUL HOUSE! THIS IS NOT MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE!

    • westernsloper

      The chair is against the wall. John has a long mustache.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Derpy!

    Are you familiar with this guy ?

    Welding videos. I think he’s pretty good, based on the ones I have seen. Good tips for beginning welders.

    Also Weld.com and weldingtipsandtricks.com

    • Derpetologist

      It’s gonna take me a while to get to that level. Right now, I’m still working on stacking beads horizontally on a t plate. From there, I’ll learn how to weld vertically, then on pipes, and some other stuff. I’m 25% done with the course.

      I’ll be getting out of the Army this year and I feel good about the new gig I have lined up. Not that I need one right away. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a soldier and a paleontologist, and it looks like I’ll get to do both. Well, I’ll be digging for dino bones at any rate.

      I might even drive up to visit my brother in Alaska and then on to Dutch Harbor so I can have another adventure:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sor5KTqNdxk

      • KromulentKristen

        SRSLY????????

      • Derpetologist

        I have a high need for excitement. Maybe if I had a wife and kids, I’d chill. Until then, I’m a mustang roaming wild and free!

        appropriate music

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpp8PQSog

  27. Derpetologist

    Has this made the rounds yet?

    https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16685

    ***
    University of Rhode Island and Director of Graduate Studies Erik Loomis recently claimed “science, statistics and technology” are racist.

    “Science, statistics, and technology are all inherently racist because they are developed by racists who live in a racist society, whether they identify as racists or not,” Loomis tweeted in reference to a New York Times article.

    “This is why I have so much contempt for those, including many liberals, who ‘just want the data.’ The data is racist!” he continued.
    ***

    [head desk]

    • Not Adahn

      Which hiring, firing, or admission decision making abilities does the “Director of Graduate Studies” have?

    • Viking1865

      I’m just glad we have elite minds like this to protect us from the scourge of mouth breathing populism.

    • juris imprudent

      A retard on Twitter, film at 11.

    • DEG

      About ten years or so ago, I knew a woman who was training to be an immigration lawyer. She seriously thought logic was “white male patriarchy”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        “I’m so sorry you’re r retarded.”

    • Tonio

      2 + 2 = 4 is racist because whitey invented it.

      • Count Potato

        Indians are white?

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        I thought that was the Arabs so it should be ok

      • Count Potato

        Arabic numerals are ackshually Indian.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Can’t he gambol?

    • B.P.

      Wow. “Racist” is more versatile than “fuck.”

    • creech

      This asshole is writing and speaking English, which is a known racist language developed by slavers, colonizers, and white supremacists. Until he communicates in a non-slave gathering African tribal language, or Navajo, or Inuit, no one should pay any attention to him.

    • Gadfly

      “Science, statistics, and technology are all inherently racist because they are developed by racists who live in a racist society, whether they identify as racists or not,” Loomis tweeted in reference to a New York Times article.

      Democracy was developed by racists who lived in a racist society. I guess the capitol rioters are the true anti-racists.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Troops said they had seen “swastikas being drawn on service members’ cars, tattoos affiliated with white supremacist groups, stickers supporting the Ku Klux Klan and Nazi-style salutes between individuals.”

    Nazi paraphernalia like this?

  29. The Late P Brooks

    “Science, statistics, and technology are all inherently racist because they are developed by racists who live in a racist society, whether they identify as racists or not,” Loomis tweeted in reference to a New York Times article.

    Fascinating. But- I just don’t think we have spot which would be a good fit for you. Good luck in your future endeavors.

    NEXT!

    • Fourscore

      Well, we do have a custodial position available, that would seem to work with your education and experiences.

  30. rhywun

    happening too soon

    Just in case anyone was under the delusion that “normal” is the new hotness, signs just appeared in my residential building today demanding face diapers in all common areas.

    Too bad we all dropped dead ten months ago already.

  31. commodious spittoon

    My work team went out to a Chinese buffet for lunch. The spacious indoor seating areas were taped off. Instead we were made to sit in the porte cochere in front, which is all of five feet wide. So rather than eating indoors on comfortable family-sized dining tables spaced several feet apart, we ate on dinky card tables spaced two feet apart in the cold. Cargo cult precautions. Nobody takes it seriously but everyone abides by it. It’s so fucking Soviet, which I guess is the point.

    • Chipwooder

      My favorite Chinese buffet is still takeout only. Grrrrrrrr….

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        How does that work? And why don’t we just go back to the manned cafeteria model (or Automat, for that matter)?

      • Chipwooder

        It’s not one of those places that is 100% buffet. They do a small lunch buffet usually with maybe 6 or 7 entrees – 2 of them are always lo mein and fried rice, and the others are stuff like beef with broccoli, twice cooked pork, orange chicken, etc. Plus they have egg rolls, dumplings, and soup, all for $8. There’s no buffet at dinner or on the weekend, it’s just a regular restaurant then.

      • Rat on a train

        I’m not sure why, but Philippine restaurants are all cafeteria style.

  32. Count Potato

    “This mommy blogger committed the unpardonable sin: Donating to Trump’s campaign. Now many of the people she’s helped are joining forces to cancel her. ”

    https://notthebee.com/article/mommy-wars-are-back-and-theyre-getting-political

    “There’s a popular baby sleep trainer on IG who has incurred the wrath of the liberal mob because she donated to Trump. They’ve posted all of her training videos (which typically cost $) for free online & are encouraging everyone to unfollow her. The unity is palpable, y’all.”

    https://twitter.com/conservmillen/status/1352100357279789063

    • The Other Kevin

      But they wouldn’t have turned in Anne Frank, though. That would be different.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      People suck.

      • STEVE SMITH

        STEVE SMITH THINK THEM PEOPLES SUCK.

    • Not Adahn

      Surely there’s a trumpist IP lawyer willing to go pirate hunting?

      • Mojeaux

        That’s a whack-a-mole endeavor for a low-level infraction for zero payoff.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    rather than eating indoors on comfortable family-sized dining tables spaced several feet apart, we ate on dinky card tables spaced two feet apart in the cold. Cargo cult precautions. Nobody takes it seriously but everyone abides by it. It’s so fucking Soviet, which I guess is the point.

    It’s incredible. Last spring, one of the bartenders at the place I *used to* go told me, “They make the rules, we enforce them.”

    Ja wohl, sister. Auf wiedersehen.

  34. The Gunslinger

    First Edward Van Halen and now Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. Ouch.

    RIP Bad Henry.

    • creech

      Saw Hank play many times. He’d come to Philly with the Milwaukee Braves and the Phillies couldn’t get through the Aaron-Mathews-Adcock section of the lineup without at least one home run hit, it sure seemed like, every game. Dick Allen is the only player I ever saw hit one farther at old Connie Mack Stadium than Hammering Hank.

    • The Gunslinger

      Some Hank Aaron stats.

      There are 3 players all time with over 6000 total bases. Aaron has 722 more than 2nd place Musial.

      If you take away Aaron’s 755 home runs he still has more than 3000 career hits.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        And now it’s cool to strike out 200 times in a season. Baseball is becoming stupid.

      • The Gunslinger

        My biggest pet peeve about todays game is watching players hitting .240 that swing as hard as they can even when the defense plays a shift. I think a player could bat .400 if they slapped the ball the opposite way against the shift if the defense didn’t adjust.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Its what a sport does at that level when their media contracts start drying out. Change the game or encourage it to be high scoring, action packed. See hockey, basketball and to an extent football

      • Trigger Hippie

        ^

        Nearly unwatchable at this point. I’m just glad I got to see the Royals make two WS and win one of them by playing lights out defense, putting the ball in play, tringing together base runners, stealing bases, and having a great, great, bullpen. They put pressure on the opponent at all times.

        SmallBall is entertaining, muscled up no-necks knocking it out of the park or sitting down after a K is boring as shit.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of happy hour… I wasn’t going to go, but I need milk. By the time I drive down to the grocery store…

  36. Derpetologist

    suggested music: Entry of the Gladiators (cliche circus music)

    https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/11/opinions/joe-biden-values-poetry-taylor/index.html

    ***
    The nation had been wading through the vote count for days. It seemed like no one could say anything new. And then, just in the moments before Pennsylvania went blue, one piece of talk caught my ear, and got my heart leaping, again. I was surprised by how much it suddenly mattered. It wasn’t policy. It wasn’t history. It was a list of the authors Joe Biden loves, among them Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who Biden quotes often, and the Greek dramatist Aeschylus, and the African American poets Langston Hughes and Robert Hayden. Joe Biden values these voices.

    Just then, Pennsylvania got called, and people around me turned their attention to honking their horns in the streets. Dancers danced, musicians played, kids blew whistles and people sounded, as Walt Whitman once did, a few barbaric yawps. And all through the day, I felt a private dawning wonder: We are going to have a president who loves literature (and a vice president who sings the praises of novelists as diverse as Toni Morrison, C.S. Lewis and Richard Wright). We are going to have a president who quotes poetry.
    ***

    Then there was a mighty crack, and Lucy and Susan saw that Stone Table had been broken!

    If you believe Biden has a favorite poet, let alone a favorite Irish one, I have a famous bridge to sell you.

    • Brochettaward

      I can’t tell if this is one of those individuals who is too far gone that there’s no helping them. True believer or dishonest piece of shit?

    • Count Potato

      That doesn’t seem hard to believe.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      His favorite poem is something like this:

      There once was a man from Nantucket…

  37. Count Potato

    “It’s time for this question to be front and center: Should Fox News be allowed to exist? Brain-mashing as a business model shouldn’t be legal.

    I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t understand why you’re not allowed to manufacture bucatini that doesn’t have a certain threshold of iron in it but you can broadcast brain-mashing falsehoods and goad people toward terrorism.

    If the Fairness Doctrine, applying to broadcast, was constitutional, why would a new Fairness Doctrine, applying more broadly, be a violation of that same Constitution?

    Twelve percent of Americans supported the terrorist insurrection on the Capitol. After the fact. You cannot pin this only on leaders. This has been institutionalized incitement in which the media played a giant role, and democracy is endangered by it.

    Are there huge questions of a slippery slope? Of course. Could this regulation be abused? Of course. These are the hard things we’d have to figure out. But none of that means, to me, that a business model of incitement and falsehood is absolutely protected.

    And in the interim, I’d love to hear more of the bottom-up ways people suggest.

    The advertiser pressure has worked. I’ve heard talk of cable subscribers demanding incitement-free packages.

    What are the other mechanisms you see?”

    https://twitter.com/AnandWrites/status/1352601886780698624

    The comments are even worse, if such a thing is possible.

    • Rebel Scum

      broadcast brain-mashing falsehoods and goad people toward terrorism.

      Such as telling people, in no uncertain terms, to harass and intimidate administration officials seen in public?

      terrorist insurrection on the Capitol

      What terrorist insurrection?

      But none of that means, to me, that a business model of incitement and falsehood is absolutely protected.

      Looks like we get to continue playing word definition bingo!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      And I think those advocating for an end to the First Amendment ought to go under the guillotine. I mean it is a slippery slope and all, but the risk is just too high to bear.

  38. grrizzly

    Joe Biden: “There is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

    • Rebel Scum

      Because it is not a pandemic. It is endemic. It is here to stay and will, like other coronaviruses, mutate to be less harmful and more transmissible. Now may we please stop the virus theater and get on with our normal lives?

    • Ownbestenemy

      IOW – Fauci, WHO, etc, SHUT UP with the positive news…

    • Count Potato

      I like how YouTube added warnings.

      • Rebel Scum

        To a parody, yeah…

        But there was a disclaimer on a White House vid I linked earlier too. I think it is just any mention of the election/president/etc. Still stupid.

    • The Gunslinger

      Heaven help us.

  39. Chipwooder

    Imagine being this person. Dear God.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Complete with RBGs and musical bears (and pet beds).

      • Count Potato

        For her 37 cats.

      • Chipwooder

        Oh man, I didn’t even notice that she has Ginsberg administering the oath. Talk about a cultist.

    • Count Potato

      Wow.

  40. grrizzly

    United Airlines CEO wants to make Covid vaccines mandatory for employees — and encourages other companies to do the same

    • Swiss Servator

      First person that has a bad reaction will take them for big $.

      • rhywun

        I wonder if they’re hiring.

  41. grrizzly

    NBC Sports Network will shut down in 2021 and sports rights will move to USA Network

    The NBC Sports Network is shutting down.

    The network will stop operations by the end of 2021, a person familiar with the plan confirmed to CNBC. NBC will transfer its sports media rights, including the National Hockey League, to USA Network.

    The plan to halt operations will allow NBC to attract more reach for its sports content. USA Network is available in 86 million homes, while NBCSN has an estimated 80 million household reach.

    One of the few TV channels that I regularly watch.

    • KromulentKristen

      Me too. So will USA cover the Tour dee France from now on? As long as they have Bob Rolle & Phil Ligett…

      • Tonio

        I grudgingly acknowledge my skinny-tire brethren who ride alpine pitches.

  42. Rebel Scum

    Btw the Bern! in the tree stand is a good one.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      That ranks up there with the butt slap GIF.

  43. Rebel Scum

    Fascinating.

    NEW: @SpeakerPelosi says President Trump is an “accessory” to murder after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, which led to the deaths of five people.

    But who murdered who?

    • Gustave Lytton

      Ashli Babbit is a murder victim when it suits them.

      • Rebel Scum

        That’s what I am getting at. I have heard conflicting reports about the cop that supposedly got his head bashed in and everything about Babbit is hush hush, as in, haven’t even heard of an investigation let alone charges. But she is arguably a murder victim at the very least. The other deaths were apparently health related. The dishonesty hear, as everywhere all the time, makes my blood boil. Not to mention the devaluation of the term “insurrection/sedition/terrorism” that is currently at play.

      • Rebel Scum

        here*, even. And I haven’t even had a drink yet. And should be “manslaughter” victim at the very least.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Oh STFU you corrupt hag.

    • rhywun

      led to the deaths of five people

      That lie is never going to go away, is it?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It will go away, just like Charlottesville.

    • juris imprudent

      I’ve been thinking about grabbing a pic of the impeachment gang and making it into a meme with the following text:

      All of the obsessiveness of Inspector Jaubert
      All of the competence of Inspector Clouseau

  44. Spudalicious

    Exploding vagina scented candle. That’s the type of news you can only find someplace like the Glibs.

  45. Count Potato

    “RUSH NOW: Democrats spent four years telling the American people that our elections aren’t safe and secure claiming Trump was illegitimate as the election was stolen. Now they’re surprised that Americans agree with them.”

    https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1352674354312704001

    Notice the warning.

  46. Count Potato

    “The media incuriosity over why Washington continues to be utterly militarized, why none of the supposedly planned January 20 day violent protests at state capitols happened, and whether this threat is being exaggerated to justify the Draconian security proposals, is stunning.

    Again, just six months ago, it was considered so taboo, so incident, to propose the deployment of the military on US streets to quell protests & riots that 2 NYT editors were *fired* just for airing (not endorsing) that view.

    Now, militarize away.”

    https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1352665358432428039

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Greenways always attracts a steady flow of replies from leftists that feel betrayed by him. It’s refreshing in how they show their stupidity with such aplomb.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        It’s sad how many of them buy into the idea that those guys were going to lead a coup. I can see bringing in some National Guard, but 25K is way over the top.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        What’s even scarier to believe is that, rather than bringing in all those troops under the pretense that they had to stop a few hundred hooligans while claiming “INSURRECTION!” in order to tile up their base, would be that somehow their Intel actually brought them to the conclusion that an attack such that it required 25 THOUSAND troops to repel it was likely.

        These people live in a fantasy world of WHITE SUPREMACIST! and “INSURRECTION!”. I have no doubt that their entire intelligence apparatus is honed in on it, eager to portray just exactly what they’re looking for.

        Expect a repeat of Ruby Ridge.

      • hayeksplosives

        My husband made the analogy to a crazy bitch screaming “My God! Put down that knife!!” to her domestic partner even though he’s not attacking her and had no knife.

        Anyone overhearing her overreacting would assume she’s under attack.

        The left is the crazy bitch, and the pro-freedom groups are the partner being accused of threatening her.

      • Akira

        The Left goes through this process a lot:

        1. Claim without evidence that X is going to happen
        2. Take some drastic precautions against X
        3. Nothing remotely like X ever happens
        4. Insist that only their wise precautions stopped X, but next time X will totally happen

        I’m sure the line in the history books will be that gentle old President Biden was in constant danger from heavily-armed white nationalist insurgents, but the National Guard managed to hold off the salvo enough for him to be inaugurated and begin his unity and healing. Maybe they’ll even add “he was inaugurated under sniper fire” a la Hillary.

    • kbolino

      Don’t forget, Trump proposed cutting off travel in January to stop the spread of COVID. He was pilloried over it. The courts, DoS, and DoD all ignored/overrode him. The news media called it racist.

      Now, these same people are praising countries that have used travel restrictions extensively for how well they’ve handled COVID*.

      * = I’d argue that they’re just delaying the inevitable, but hey hypocrisy is hypocrisy

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Pretty girl

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        She thanks you.  ;-)

        It’s a privilege to photograph these young ‘uns, although there are some who just can’t keep themselves humble about the whole thing. For the most part, though, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the character of the young ladies waltzing through my studio.

        I’m thinking of continuing these uploads at semi-random intervals, assuming people like ’em.

  47. Chipwooder

    He ain’t lying.

    @JesseKellyDC
    I still cannot believe we watched Antifa/BLM terrorize American cities for months without a single public arrest by the FBI. Not one.
    But they’re tracking down the capitol people like it’s John Dillinger.
    Bill Barr sucks.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      DC is broken. I’m fairly certain it can’t be fixed. At this point, I hope Antifa goes berserk. Let them be the ones to draw the ire of the grifter class.

    • kbolino

      The existence of the swamp is plainly evident now. They don’t care about appearances anymore.

      • Don escaped Qanon

        not a shot at you, of course, but

        Trump came to power making fun of Madame Clinton and saying she had had decades to get things done and her time was over: he was here to drain the swamp. All I heard him flap his gums about was Kenya and swamp. So, since he’s easily the greatest president ever, how could there possibly still be a swamp? Is it that he was always running his motor about things he never knew anything about, or was he promising things he was never man enough, brain enough, or manager enough to achieve?

        I think Republicans deserve to get their money back on the Great Orange One.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I think dismantling DC will require an insider, but I don’t think an insider with that desire who can get elected exists.

        Never mind that all of DC is united in their opposition to the idea. We’re probably past the point of no return.

      • straffinrun

        Where’s Alaric when you need him?

      • kbolino

        was he promising things he was never man enough, brain enough, or manager enough to achieve?

        This is no small part of it. I don’t think he realized the scale of what he would be up against, and he allowed himself to be snookered by some very slimy people. His business experience, while considerable, did not prepare him for government.

        When Reagan was President, the media was still the enemy, but the civil service (grudgingly) obeyed, the courts upheld his actions, and his cabinet was not working against him (Olly North notwithstanding). He also had government experience as governor of California, and the Democrats did not feel nearly so insecure, partly because they still had the filibuster in the Senate and a solid majority in the House. The existence of the USSR as an existential threat probably helped keep many in line too.

        By Trump’s time, I think even Reagan would have been undone. The culture at large and especially the culture around DC and government is different now than it was in the 1980s. The government is also much larger, has much more cashflow, and many more dependents (mostly, I’m speaking of employees, contractors, grant recipients, etc.). The triumphal “post-war consensus” is also long gone, and everyone acts like every policy position is a life-and-death matter. It is said sometimes that the U.S. has become ungovernable, but frankly the only thing that’s really ungovernable is government.

      • Viking1865

        The government is also much larger, has much more cashflow, and many more dependents (mostly, I’m speaking of employees, contractors, grant recipients, etc.).

        The richest state in the union is MA with a GDP per capita of 65k. DC’s is 160k. Not a typo. Over twice as wealthy.

        It’s an imperial capital. It’s not the governing center of a free republic. These people will never give up that wealth and power, not willingly.

      • hayeksplosives

        As Massie points out, nothing is produced, grown, or invented in DC.

        Purely a parasite.

      • Viking1865

        Nah I’m sure if Donald had just stopped tweeting mean things the 700,000 civilian DOD employees would have said “Hey man we’re just sponging off the taxpayers, this eloquent and erudite criticism of Big Government David French wrote and Donald Trump tweeted out as opened my eyes.”

        Then they would have all quit en masse, and all the proper and dignified GS-12s and 13s all across Northern Virginia would have donated their salaries back to the treasury, if only Trump was a better human being. Then Congress would have come together and worked out a hard but neccesary fiscal deal to put the country back on the path toward good fiscal sense, if only Donald Trump had been a more focused President.

      • kbolino

        The biggest criticism I have for the Republicans is not that they’re cucks or terrorists or whatever the fuck is the criticism du jour. It is that they played a huge part in creating this scenario. The War on Terror was a massive handout extracted from the poor/lower-middle-class and their children and given to the rich/upper-middle-class and their children. The Democrats aided and abetted it, but it was the GOP that drove it. Forget China (for the moment, anyway), they made sure all that money landed in their own pockets first.

      • straffinrun

        The GOP was the “pull yerself up by the boot straps!” guys as they strapped boots on 18 year old men and sent them to get killed in some hellhole thousands of miles away.

      • Ownbestenemy

        ^^ And I fell for it but luckily I only gave my 6 years in an American desert.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        . So, since he’s easily the greatest president ever, how could there possibly still be a swamp?

        Gah this is such an annoying schtick. I was hoping it would go away now that BOM is gone.

      • Viking1865

        “how could there possibly still be a swamp”

        It’s almost like enormous and well funded power structures act in their own interest. Thus….The Swamp. Trump, even if he was 100% dedicated to actually draining the swamp, and I fully acknowledge that it might have always been a con to grift off the rubes, is one man.

        “Is it that he was always running his motor about things he never knew anything about”

        I mean, you can take offense to “The Swamp” as the name if it hurts your feelings. If you want to call it “The Entrenched Collection of Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Lobbyists That Rule The Nation”, call it that. But the concept absolutely exists: that the concentration of wealth and power into the DC bubble creates enormous suffering for the majority of the country, and that reform is desperately needed.

        ” was he promising things he was never man enough, brain enough, or manager enough to achieve?”

        When Barack Obama used an EO to stop the enforcement of written law, the courts allowed it. When Donald Trump tried to rescind that EO and enforce the written law, the courts blocked it. This is an absolute inversion of the rule of law, and somehow Trump was labeled the authoritarian.

        Donald Trump has massive flaws. But the idea that Donald Trump could have been eloquent enough or kind enough or smart enough to get an entrenched power structure to vote and work against their own wealth and privilege is ludicrous. It was never going to happen.

        But hey, the right sort of people are in charge again, and that’s what matters.

      • kbolino

        I fully acknowledge that it might have always been a con to grift off the rubes

        I think this is true, and his final pardons stand as damning evidence of it. Yet I also think Trump tried more sincerely than his 4 immediate predecessors. They are all out to enrich themselves and keep their cronies protected, and in that regard Trump wasn’t too different; though obviously he was a lot less effective at the enriching part, partly due to being forced to tread water instead by a nationwide conspiracy* to ruin him.

        * = A conspiracy can exist even without overt coordination, though I’d argue there’s more coordination than anyone in the press cares to investigate or publish; while nobody has to tell all of those secretaries of state, attorneys general, and prosecutors to harass Trump and his associates, the likelihood that they never worked together is practically nil

    • hayeksplosives

      I think people, even those who watch network news, are starting to see the double standards.

      • kbolino

        Babylon 5 has got to be cursed. Every member of the TNG cast is still alive but like half of B5’s cast is gone (though, admittedly, a couple of DS9ers have kicked the bucket, too).

      • Ownbestenemy

        Losing Jerry Doyle sucked. I know he was pushing to create a media empire when he passed away.

      • hayeksplosives

        Yeah, and he had the backing of Bruce Boxleitner, a quiet conservative.

        Jerry even ran for office as an elephant but was doomed in California.

      • Not Adahn

        There needs to be an FBI investigation into B5’s craft services company.

      • hayeksplosives

        Mira wrote her own epitaph in her final days:

        <blockquote< I look at the stars. It’s a clear night and the Milky Way seems so near. That’s where I’ll be going soon. “We’re all star stuff”, I suddenly remember Delenn’s line from Joe’s script. Not a bad prospect. I am not afraid.
        In the meantime, let me close my eyes and sense the beauty around me. And take that breath under the dark sky full of stars. Breathe in, breathe out.
        That’s all.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Eloquently put.

      • hayeksplosives

        Beautiful.

      • EvilSheldon

        Yow.

    • straffinrun

      Or Willie Sutton. “Because that’s where the money is.”

  48. Not Adahn

    The equipment survey was released from USPSA nationals. The most popular red dot was one I’ve never even heard of (C-More RTS2). Now I’m off to the internet to see what’s special about it.

    https://uspsa.to/DgICZ

    • Not Adahn

      Also, apparently there really are only two revolver manufacturers

      • dontreadonme

        What Smith revolver shoots 9mm?

  49. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Taibbi brings the pain.

    “ West Wing was General Hospital for rich white liberals, a seven-season love letter to the enlightened attitudes of the Bobo-in-Paradise demographic. If that’s the self-image of the national press, it’s no wonder they make people want to vomit. The coverage of Biden’s inauguration, another celebration of those attitudes, was an almost perfect mathematical inverse of late-stage Trump reporting, a monument to groveling sycophancy.“

    • straffinrun

      Orange man was stoopid, but Biden is wicked smaht. How do you like those apples?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I like them with pudding.

    • Viking1865

      There was a group of kids in college when I was in DC. They used to host West Wing Wednesdays where they’d watch an episode and try to analyze it as serious policy. 6 or 7 of them. All of them are now in politics.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I tried watching it only to find all of the characters ridiculous.

        Anyone who has even the slightest understanding of how venal and petty politicians are should find Sorkin’s noble servant canard revolting.

        JFK was a drug addled serial cheating ephebophile. LBJ, the foul mouthed election fixing racist, probably had him killed along with several others. Nixon was an anti-Semitic asshole. Carter, probably a nice guy, but hopelessly incompetent. Reagan was senile before the end of his second term. Bush Sr was a New England WASP fascist that sold out his constituency. Clinton is a serial rapist. It goes on and on.

        Yet people still believe that Sorkin claptrap and they project those beliefs onto the worst people in the world.

      • kbolino

        When they fired Spacey from House of Cards I was a little surprised. It got far more realistic when the lead actor turned out to be just as depraved as a real politician.

        The West Wing is what they masturbate to; Yes, Minister is a bowdlerized version of what they actually are.

      • juris imprudent

        Taibbi just mentioned The West Wing as General Hospital for rich, white liberals.

    • one true athena

      YEah, Sorkin really should answer for that show somehow. So many people I know found it formative of their idea of politics, and as someone who even briefly worked in DC, I found it completely barfworthy. (and worse it made Martin Sheen think he was actually important, which is also gross)

  50. hayeksplosives

    I do not endorse violence and vandalism.

    However, I see such outbursts as becoming more frequent, and there’s a simple reason why:

    When a group of people realizes that there is no longer a peaceful way for them to affect their own fate, such as through fair elections and representative legislative bodies adhering to the constitution, they will resort to the only avenue remaining: violent protest.

    Rigging the election so blatantly has left a big dent in people’s faith in the system.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Those who lose faith in the ballot, resort to the bullet.

      • Rebel Scum

        Life involves four boxes…

      • hayeksplosives

        This reference I do not recognize.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Soap box, ballot box, ammo box, coffin?

      • kinnath

        jury box

      • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

        Found online:

        “There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.”

      • EvilSheldon

        You know who first made that reference? Fredrick Douglass.

    • Not Adahn

      Both rifles are mounted in the aluminum gatling frame similar to kits marketed by Cabelas. With tripod. Magazines and stocks not included.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Worst ASMR video ever.

      Ewwwwwww……

      • straffinrun

        Can’t unhear that, can you?

    • KromulentKristen

      The ASMR and the smug virtue signal made me barf

      • straffinrun

        I’m thinking it was Hollandaise sauce.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        And I’m out…

        *hurk*

    • westernsloper

      Ok, that was totally unnecessary.

    • commodious spittoon

      Looks like a much uglier Brent Spiner from Independence Day…

    • commodious spittoon
  51. hayeksplosives

    Drugs, ass, gravity, etc.

    Trump opened his DC luxury to the National Guard that wee stuck sleeping on the floor of a capitol parking garage.

    This immediately prompted Dem lawmakers to insist the guardsmen be brought back to stay indoors.

    Total chumps. They are perfectly content to engage in craven, immoral, rude and ungrateful behavior. They just don’t like getting caught and called out on it.

    https://www.oann.com/president-trump-offers-his-d-c-hotel-to-national-guard-troops-who-were-kicked-out-of-capitol-building/

    • But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

      The troops are already there — there’s video of it on Twitface even as we speak.

      Good for Trump.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I am seriously waiting for the calls that Trump is violating the 3rd Amendment as a private citizen now…

      OR

      Calls that any NG member/unit that stays at his hotel is part of the “private army” or whatever is going around online.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That sounds just stupid enough to be proposed by Clyburn or some other Congressional asshat.

  52. Derpetologist

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gutfeld-left-wing-hypocrisy-violence-us

    ***
    REP. STEVE COHEN, D-TENN: The Guard is 90-some-odd percent, I believe, male. Only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden … They’re probably not more than 25 percent of the people that are there protecting us who voted for Biden. The other 75 percent are in the class, the large class of folks, who might want to do something.
    ***

    [head desk]

    • Viking1865

      I like how when hes making an explicitly racist and sexist argument he makes sure to use “folks.” That should be de rigeur. Like, next time Farrkahan decides to tell us about the dangers of TEH JOOOOOOSSSSS he can drop a “folks” in there and make it all ok.