Thursday Afternoon Links of SPewing Possessions

by | May 13, 2021 | Daily Links | 450 comments

Sometimes when you (I) stay someplace very minimalist for a while, like, you know, a hotel room, upon returning to your (my) regular environs, everything just looks like you (I) have too much stuff? Yeah, I’m in that spot right now.

So, my mission this week, which I have already chosen to accept, is to start getting rid of stuff. Not useful stuff. Not heirloom stuff. Just the assorted stuff that accumulates when one isn’t paying attention. Like I very often don’t.

I have already managed to toss a collection of old bread packaging twist ties and rubber bands from produce. The house feels so much emptier!

 

Let’s see what I links I can toss out for your amusement this afternoon, shall we?

Do you think this matters?

So done with this.

Sure, this would work. (TW: NPR)

This seems like it might work.

Can’t wait to see what’s included in this.

 

Well, that’s all the fun I can stand for one afternoon. Have a good one, kids!

About The Author

SP

SP

I've got an idea! How about we just stick to the Constitution as written and then the government can leave me the fuck alone.

450 Comments

  1. The Late P Brooks

    I need to mount some tires for my trailer, and I’m malingering.

    • pistoffnick

      Kinky!

  2. Rebel Scum

    Do you think this matters?

    Depends on who’s money.

    • Ted S.

      I’m not money.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        I’m so money.

    • Animal

      In the end, it’s always our money.

      • Fourscore

        Yep

  3. The Late P Brooks

    So, my mission this week, which I have already chosen to accept, is to start getting rid of stuff. Not useful stuff. Not heirloom stuff. Just the assorted stuff that accumulates when one isn’t paying attention. Like I very often don’t.

    METOO.

    There’s a lot of stuff around here which isn’t going to make the cut for The Big Move.

    • slumbrew

      ISTR you were going to list your place just to see if someone would pay a ridiculous price, correct? Sounds like you got a taker?

    • hayeksplosives

      We didn’t have enough time to sort through 14 years of housejunk before moving to California so it all came with us.

      Then we sorted it out, gave a bunch away, and had garage sales.

      Much lighter now.

  4. slumbrew

    Garmin is alleged to have paid millions to their ransomware attacker.

    Every one of this reminds me, “do we have good backups?”.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      maps?

      • Rat on a train

        Cities have been wiped off the map because there weren’t backups.

      • Not an Economist

        Wouldn’t a smart ransomware attacker delay the attack until after the ransomware had percolated through some of the backups? You might lose several weeks or even months of data that way.

      • slumbrew

        They often do, as I understand, so good backups are just part of the strategy. In general, as long as you have an unencrypted copy of your data, you’re good; I wouldn’t trust backups of the operating system for the reason you suggest.

        So it’s – re-image machine, restore data. Which is easier said than done, which is why you need to practice your disaster-recovery processes.

        “Stay up to date on patches” is probably the bigger part – having computer A get encrypted is bad, having it jump to every other unpatched host is when disaster happens.

      • EvilSheldon

        Properly set up backups should be write-once. Emphasis on the word ‘properly’.

    • Rat on a train

      “We have backups, but we have never successfully tested restoring from backups.”

      • slumbrew

        ^^^ this guy gets it ^^^

    • EvilSheldon

      “…do we have good backups?”

      The answer to this question is always, “No.”

    • Nephilium

      The really evil ransomwares install themselves, and don’t do anything until 1-2 months later. Then they encrypt everything slowly, and another month or two later, they start popping up the warnings that your data is encrypted. That way, even if you’ve got good backups, they’re infected/encrypted already unless you can restore quite a bit of work.

      • slumbrew

        Yep, there are some diabolical geniuses writing some of these. “Don’t get infected” is still your best bet.

      • rhywun

        “Don’t base critical infrastructure on computers” might be a better bet.

      • slumbrew

        That ship has sailed.

        “Air-gap your critical infrastructure” is more achievable.

        Though I think someone pointed out it’s not the infrastructure that was hacked, it was the accounting system – they can still run the pipeline, they just couldn’t keep track of who to bill.

      • robc

        Where I worked in rhe 90s, we did daily/ weekly/monrhly backups.

        I full week of dailies and one full month of weeklies were kept on site. Monthlies went to safe deposit box.

        I had to pull monrhlies a time or three.

      • slumbrew

        My workstation backs up to the diskstation hourly, using restic, with

        –keep-hourly 24 –keep-daily 7 –keep-weekly 8 –keep-monthly 24

        Once a day it also sends a backup the cloud (Backblaze). The Diskstation also backs up to Backblaze once a day as well.

        I haven’t set any expiration for the cloud backups – a few years there now, I should probably start dropping the oldest.

        I haven’t needed a restore yet, but I’ve tested it several times. It’d be “re-install OS, grab data from backup” if things went south.

        * https://restic.net/

  5. Rebel Scum

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has amended its guidance for fully-vaccinated Americans, no longer recommending masks indoors or outdoors, including in crowds, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced at a White House briefing Thursday.

    Oh, how wonderful. But I never participated in virus theater in the first place and I will not ever be taking the jab.

    • Sensei

      Should be easy enough to find an example card online and pick up some cardstock for the printer.

      • EvilSheldon

        Visit the Forums!

      • LCDR_Fish

        The cardstock’s not fancy, a simple blank index card should work.

  6. The Late P Brooks

    Do you think this matters?

    I just hope they get hunted down and killed before they get to spend it.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    ISTR you were going to list your place just to see if someone would pay a ridiculous price, correct? Sounds like you got a taker?

    Confidence is high. I’ll be skittish ’til I hear the fat lady singing in the rear view mirror, but I have a signed and counter-signed offer, the attorney has a buy/sell ready.

    Let’s just say I’m not selling at a loss.

  8. Rebel Scum

    Biden set to release first detailed budget of his presidency on May 27

    By “budget” you mean “endless spending”.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Why do you hate social justice?

  9. The Late P Brooks

    who’s money.

    That’s just chumming the water for Ted’S.

  10. Drake

    A band of foreign pirates just seriously disrupted the U.S. economy – that can be called an act of war. The people making decisions for Biden seem okay with it. Other Presidents would probably make it a high priority to find these people and arrange a visit from Uncle Sam. Through law-enforcement if their country is cooperative. With the Air Force if he wants to make a public statement. A private meeting with Delta or a SEAL Team if he wants to be more subtle.

    • Count Potato

      “Biden says Putin was NOT behind Colonial Pipeline cyberattack but admits hackers are in Russia and threatens retaliation: Company paid $5M ransom for unlock key that didn’t work

      President Joe Biden has said the FBI does not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for the ransomware attack that paralyzed a key gas pipeline and spurred fuel shortages across the South.

      ‘We do not believe the Russian government was involved in this in attack. But we do have strong reason to believe that the criminals who did this attack are living in Russia,’ Biden told reporters on Thursday, citing an FBI report on the cyberattack.

      Biden said the FBI believed Putin was not directly involvement in orchestrating the attack — though the U.S. president vowed that the criminals responsible would be prosecuted ‘to the full extent of the law’.

      ‘We have been in direct communication with Moscow about the imperative for responsible countries to take decisive action against these ransomware networks,’ he said.”

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9575133/East-Coast-fuel-supplies-two-WEEKS-return-normal-say-experts.html

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        He’s probably right, but I doubt it would be reported that way if OMB were still President.

      • B.P.

        Did Biden look into Putin’s eyes and get a sense of his soul?

      • hayeksplosives

        Hey, buddy, the 1980s called and wants their Cold War policies back.

  11. Animal

    So, my mission this week, which I have already chosen to accept, is to start getting rid of stuff. Not useful stuff. Not heirloom stuff. Just the assorted stuff that accumulates when one isn’t paying attention. Like I very often don’t.

    Boy howdy, that is for sure and for certain. In assessing what we wanted to move 3,200 miles through another damn country, we applied the Great Filter, trying to keep it to heirlooms and stuff we couldn’t replace, and still have a lot of crap. Some of it sizalbe, like the heavy-ass seventeen-foot aluminum canoe I’ve had since I was fourteen.

    You accumulate a lot in thirty years of married life.

    Sort of makes me miss my Army days, when everything I owned in the world fit in the back of my pickup. Sort of. But not really.

    • egould310

      “ Some of it sizalbe, like the heavy-ass seventeen-foot aluminum canoe I’ve had since I was fourteen. “

      A big aluminum canoe seems like it might be handy in AK. No shame keeping that.

      • Animal

        That’s my thinking on it, plus it’s kind of an heirloom itself. I’ve had it for forty-six years this summer and have covered a hell of a lot of water in it, including one red-letter trip of ten days alone through the Boundary Waters area, the summer I was sixteen.

        If you look down the length of the canoe, you’ll see it’s a bit uneven. It got caught once when our trout stream flooded, I was probably seventeen or eighteen. We found it about two miles downstream, bent around a box-elder tree. So Dad, my brother and I hauled it back, chained one end to a big tree, the other end to the tractor, and Dad pulled on it with the tractor while my brother and I hammered it more or less straight with sledgehammers. It didn’t (and doesn’t) leak and has still given great service ever since.

        Redneck Percussive Repair Technique never fails.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Of course, when we made the move from IL to AZ two years ago, we had a massive cleanout. 20 yard rolloff, packed to overflowing.

      Not much left to cut beyond a couple of books, some rubber bands, and some twist ties.

      • Animal

        20 yard rolloff, packed to overflowing.

        Yup. We done did that, too.

      • Spartacus

        Heh. Last time I moved, it almost ended in divorce.
        I kept lugging stuff out to the curb, and Mrs S. kept bringing it back in.
        After about 30 hours of that shit we were both furious and exhausted, so we compromised.
        It’s all occupying the garage now.

        That was in 1994. I have not had the strength or the courage to attempt a move since then, even though we could afford something more upscale.
        On the plus side, my house is paid for.

      • Ted S.

        And some tin can lids, right?

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Not much left to cut

        OMWC confirmed government agent.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    By “budget” you mean “endless spending”.

    “Spend like there’s no tomorrow!” doesn’t really qualify as a budget, does it?

  13. trshmnstr the terrible

    it’s both hilarious and sad that my participation in a grade school invention competition has exposed me to more well spoken, enthusiastic, and well researched inventors than I usually encounter at my day job.

    • Animal

      Hilarious and sad, but is it surprising?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Not even in the slightest. 2 paragraph does not an invention make.

    • Sensei

      Look, do you think those patents used solely to stifle competition and not actually put into any product just make themselves?

      • Rat on a train

        What’s the latest patent angle? X on (a computer, the internet, the cloud) has to be used up. Is it X using blockchain?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        X using AI, X on blockchain, etc.

        Mostly, I try to stay out of that fray. If my inventors aren’t actually improving the technology, I don’t want to waste 5 figures getting a shitty patent that is only valuable to trolls.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Whoa! Hold on. There’s the other category of defensive patents so when sued, you can counter sue.

  14. Mojeaux

    Sometimes when you (I) stay someplace very minimalist for a while, like, you know, a hotel room, upon returning to your (my) regular environs, everything just looks like you (I) have too much stuff? Yeah, I’m in that spot right now.

    Usually, yes. This adventure just past? Not so much.

    The last time I decluttered, I threw away stuff I am now regretting having thrown away.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Aw. A great fear of mine. And GT, I also have quite an assortment of flattened boxes.

      Mo, did you see my comment earlier? ¡Travel travel travel!!

      • Mojeaux

        I did not see it. Let me go back and find it.

      • Mojeaux

        Mr Mojeaux and I have talked about traveling when the kids have flown the nest, but no plans have been made. XX is going to have to do that on her own time and dime if she wishes. If I could go back in time I would take a gap year and travel.

    • Count Potato

      I always do that.

      • Mojeaux

        I am very much a minimalist BUT I also get very attached to my things. So I’m careful about what I bring i to the house.

    • Gender Traitor

      I threw away stuff I am now regretting having thrown away.

      See?? Never throw away anything but empty envelopes, papers that have been scanned, and receipts that don’t matter!

      TO’G – ::tilts head like perplexed Irish Setter:: You flatten boxes? It’s more of a challenge to see how many you can nest together and how high you can pile them.

      At work, I can’t bring myself to throw away the boxes our paper supplier brings our stock in. He’s kinda like a Big/Odd Lots of office paper, and he’s taken to bringing our copier/printer paper in cases of five reams, which are an ideal size for things like books. The boxes are sturdy as all get out, and you can pack them full of paper but still lift them. I leave them in the supply room with the sign “Free to good home.”

      • UnCivilServant

        I break down boxes to see how many I can fit in a decent box. Because I can’t nest too many assembled boxes, and I have a lot to get rid of.

        I just take the box of boxes to the curb and they take it away.

  15. egould310

    Please god make it stop.

    • Drake

      I like how the Marine spokesman calls him a racist. None of the charges have anything to do with race and I thought everyone was assumed innocent until proven guilty. Of course Major Warnagiris could be found not guilty on all charges and they” still end his career.

      • Count Potato

        WTF?

        “Hernandez said, ”Participation with hate or extremist groups of any kind is directly contradictory to the core values of honor, courage, and commitment that we stand for as Marines and isn’t tolerated by the Marine Corps. We are proud of the fact that Marines come from every race, creed, cultural background and walk of life.”

        Supporting the President is extreme.

      • Rat on a train

        The event was racist, so all participants are racist. Due process is for the innocent, not racists.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Hopefully his torture resistance training is fresh in mind.

    • SDF-7

      Huh… I was expecting this. Of course, not having seen the Mel Gibson movie, that did fit nicely.

      • slumbrew

        It’s a good flick, as I recall.

  16. Rebel Scum

    Perhaps the VA GOP is not quite as stupid as I thought.

    “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” That’s how Winsome Sears, who is the GOP’s first black female nominee to become Virginia’s lieutenant governor, describes herself.

    Sears appeared on Fox Thursday and took sharp aim at critical race theory, the Marxist doctrine that posits that all white people are racist no matter their character, beliefs, or what choices they make.

    “We are all about school choice. We must have parental school choice,” Sears tells Fox. “I just heard the segment on critical race theory. It’s nonsense. And it says that it’s prima facie evidence that, on its face, as soon as we see a white person, well, ‘They are racist, clearly. And so is everybody else in their family.’ It’s going to be detrimental to our schools and not what we want. It supposedly is to help someone who looks like me and I’m sick of it, I’m sick of being used by the Democrats and so are many people who look like me.”

    • Animal

      And it says that it’s prima facie evidence that, on its face, as soon as we see a white person, well, ‘They are racist, clearly. And so is everybody else in their family.

      I’m not a racist. I’m a misanthrope. (Present company excepted, of course.)

    • Drake

      Either the tests are crap, the vaccines are crap, or both.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      By next week it will start looking like Road Warrior.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Buckets and Barrels??? What could possibly go wrong?

  17. Count Potato

    “Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has unveiled a new $1million a week lottery system to encourage people in his state to get vaccinated.

    Adults who have had at least one vaccine dose will be automatically entered into the draw each week, while minors will be able to win full-ride college scholarships in a bid to overcome vaccine hesitancy in the state.

    The money will come from federal pandemic relief funds and it is hoped the prizes will reverse a recent lull in vaccine take-up.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9574363/Ohio-governor-unveils-state-lottery-away-1-MILLION-week-vaccinated-adult.html

    OFFS!

  18. grrizzly

    Russia: NYET to vaccine passports.

    To the poll question, “Shops, restaurants, and offices should require a vaccine passport,” Russia completely stands out among a sea of neutered nations.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Former subjects of communist nation reject internal passports. Who’d thunk?

    • wdalasio

      Cripes! These people don’t even understand their own claims. Even the mask obsessives never claimed wearing a mask protects you. The claim was always that it protected other people in the event you were sick. Are they trying to claim the COVID viruses just congregate to him cause they want to be around important people?

      These people are a joke.

      • R C Dean

        Even the mask obsessives never claimed wearing a mask protects you.

        The rationale has flopped back and forth between wearing it to keep from getting infected, and “My mask protects you. Your mask protects me.”

        Besides, just look at the people wearing masks when no one else is around. Although those are probably mostly virtue signalling, which isn’t a list rationale, but is probably the prevalent one now (supported by the “My mask protects you. Your mask protects me.” mantra).

      • Animal

        Besides, just look at the people wearing masks when no one else is around.

        I actually think that’s a good thing.

        Stupid people should be conspicuous.

    • DEG

      No.

      He should stick to a kingmaker role.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      In a fair vote? Yes, he would easily win again.

      The audit coming out of Arizona is disturbing to say the least. Maricopa election officials initially refused to hand over anything. When they finally did hand it over to AZ Senate’s audit, the auditors found the machines had been wiped of all data and the seals had been broken on the ballot boxes.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        The point being the next election will just be “fortified” again. Doesn’t matter who the GOP puts up.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Correct. The resumption of politics as usual shows me that it has been “fortified” for a long time, to various extents.

      • Count Potato

        Remember when they did recounts in 2016 and found that Trump won by even more?

      • Not an Economist

        So no evidence of any wrongdoing.

        — news media

      • Urthona

        Also update on that Maricopa thing.

        There have already been boxes not matching reports with almost 20% of the ballots missing.

        Conservative news outlets are now starting to touch this one with a 10 foot poll. Until they get censored again.

      • The Hyperbole

        Again, as I asked Urthona, any collaborating linkys? This is the same as ‘sources say…’ or ‘people close to the President…’

    • Urthona

      I don’t really care for him, but I think if the election were held today he’d win.

      Biden’s three months have suuuuuuucked.

      • Drake

        Trump would win by even more.

  19. Rebel Scum

    Um…ok.

    Biden COVID adviser Andy Slavitt: Biden Violates CDC guidance to always wear a mask because he’s “very important”

    He’s also very super famous.

  20. wdalasio

    Other Presidents would probably make it a high priority to find these people and arrange a visit from Uncle Sam.

    Can the president offer a pre-emptive FCPA pardon for the company putting out a contract on the hackers?

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Go old school. Letters of marque and reprisal.

    • The Gunslinger

      Nope. Bouncy new curls.

  21. Rebel Scum

    I’m sure it will be fabulous.

    New crew coming through to #TheProudFamily: #LouderAndProuder! Meet Maya’s parents, Barry & Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins, voiced by @ZacharyQuinto & @TheeBillyPorter. Plus, Penny’s best guy friend Michael Collins, voiced by EJ Johnson. Original Series coming soon to #DisneyPlus.

    • slumbrew

      Hard pass.

    • Animal

      They lost me with “Louder.” I fucking hate loud people. I don’t care what they’re being loud about. I just want them to shut the fuck up and stop annoying me.

      • EvilSheldon

        They lost me with Zachary Quinto. How in the fuck did that talentless little insect ever manage a film career?

      • Count Potato

        He was pretty good in Heroes.

      • nw

        I thought he did a good job in Heroes.

      • rhywun

        I heard he was good in Heroes.

      • Nephilium

        He wasn’t bad as the voice of Robot on Invincible.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        WHAT? SPEAK UP! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

  22. Rebel Scum

    He never played defense anyway.

    The NBA announced Thursday the creation of a new award — the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award — to recognize players who are making strides in the fight for social justice. Each NBA team will nominate one player for consideration; from there, five finalists will be selected and ultimately one winner.

    “I’m really proud of what the NBA has been doing all along in terms of activism and their efforts for equality and inclusion,” Abdul-Jabbar said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I think they’ve done a great job. I’ve always felt that was something important and teaming up with them to be involved in this award is very meaningful.”

    The winning player will receive $100,000 for the charity of his choice; the other four finalists will receive $25,000 apiece, also for charity.

    “In addition to being one of our greatest players, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has devoted much of his life to advocating for equality and social justice,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a release announcing the award’s creation. “With this new award, we are proud to recognize and celebrate NBA players who are using their influence to make an impact on their communities and our broader society.”

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      The hell I don’t! LISTEN, KID! I’ve been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I’m out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!

      • Rat on a train

        +1 pilot knee pads

    • B.P.

      “I’m really proud of what the NBA has been doing all along in terms of activism and their efforts for equality and inclusion,”

      It’s equity, not equality. Get with it.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        I demand equity in the NBA. Every team should have a .500 record.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I demand equity in the NBA.

        Me too! Show me the money!

      • R C Dean

        Alternatively, an NBA team has 15 players. So “equity” would mean they are limited to two black players, two latino players, etc. And I suppose half the players would have to be women.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        And half the players should be below average height, otherwise they are being ableist.

  23. Count Potato

    “What Women Want: To Keep Wearing Masks to Thwart the Male Gaze

    For many people, a preference for continued mask-wearing isn’t about science or safety, but simply a desire to remain unseen

    You know what they say, girls just wanna cover up their faces to avoid the burden of unsolicited male attention.

    That’s what plenty of women told the Guardian, anyway, about their desire to continue rocking a face mask outside even if science has declared it no longer medically necessary. The most recent manifestation of the ongoing mask vs. no mask debate hosts two main camps: on one side, there are those who would like to continue wearing masks outdoors out of an abundance of caution and as a sign of respect for their fellow man, while on the other are those who argue that if medical experts say we need mask no longer, then unmask we must out of respect for science.”

    https://www.insidehook.com/daily_brief/news-opinion/women-keep-face-masks-male-gaze

    • slumbrew

      Have they tried a burka?

    • Rebel Scum

      To Keep Wearing Masks to Thwart the Male Gaze

      It’s not like am necessarily looking at you face…

      • Rebel Scum

        I* am…

    • Q Continuum

      Fine, keep wearing masks. IDGAF.

      Wait, this isn’t about your agency or choices. This is about your pathological need to be validated for every pathetic choice you make.

    • Desk Jockey

      Does anyone else read these things and imagine the otters from South Park ? “Hail Science”

      • Nephilium

        /raises hand

      • Rat on a train

        I will smash your soul like a clam on my tummy.

    • SDF-7

      Because if there’s one thing that’s obvious about human societies — it is that women never, ever would drive cosmetics, jewelry or other ways of changing their appearance.

      Could you imagine such an alternate timeline? Why, our booming burlap sack industries would be gone!

    • wdalasio

      My guess is that, for most of these people, letting the rest of us not see their face is a favor.

      • The Other Kevin

        I was thinking of that the other day. There are a lot of people with bad teeth who are getting a second look who normally wouldn’t.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        I guess that explains why the article referenced The Guardian.

    • wdalasio

      Sorry to double post. But, they could have stopped dancing around the core issue – wearing masks makes them feel like they’re part of the “in” crowd. They’ve convinced themselves that if they don the face diaper, they’re smarter, scientifically-minded enlightened individuals who respect their fellow man (that’s literally what the article frames the decision as), as opposed too the Neanderthals who just don’t get it.

    • B.P.

      My choices are wear a mask “out of an abundance of caution and as a sign of respect” (for random hypochondriacs) or don’t wear a mask “out of respect for science”?

      • dbleagle

        Less than 1% of Americans set foot in Iraq and Afghanistan in the two decades of war that we have fought. Starting with GW Bush no president asked Americans to sacrifice for the war effort. In fact, days after 9/11 Bush explicitly told the American people to carry on life as before the attacks. Ahhhhhhh but COVID gave these same people the chance to feel like they were part of something bigger than themselves. As a bonus they could be part of TWO big things at once- they could “stop” a virus that spread into the general world population, AND stop OMB. PLUS as a super bonus they could wear a talisman to show they were part of the “good guys”. Not something icky like an armband, but something kewl and medical, a face mask.

        I agree that there are 10’s of millions of US citizens fucked up by fear from 2020. I also think the opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves, and at low personal risk, is part of the reluctance to let go of VID theater. I would like to see a scientifically valid study looking at perceptions about VID risk between combat* vets and the general population.

        *combat vets being defined as those in any war who actually actively participated in combat with an armed enemy. e.g. Being on a ship that fired cruise missiles at the enemy, or maintaining aircraft in Bahrain gets you “combat veteran” status. But the personal risk is orders of magnitude less than for an infantryman, or a truck driver / MP who were driving up and down Route Tampa for a year dodging IED’s and ambushes. My gut perception is that those two types of combat vets may view risk differently.

      • Sensei

        My whole career has been related to insurance. I like to feel I have a pretty good handle on risk from multiple angles.

        OTH, my uncle, who I love dearly, is Vietnam era combat vet. You don’t want to get him started on the risk calculation here.

      • Fourscore

        Yeah, when the coolers broke down at the club and we had to drink warm beer there was hell to pay. No one should be expected to be that hardcore.

    • R C Dean

      If, hypothetically, there was a culture that called for women to cover their faces, I wonder how women would be treated in that culture?

      Hypothetically, and all.

      two main camps: on one side, there are those who would like to continue wearing masks outdoors out of an abundance of caution and as a sign of respect for their fellow man, while on the other are those who argue that if medical experts say we need mask no longer, then unmask we must out of respect for science.

      Two main camps, my ass. They did allude to the virtue signalling aspect of the maskers (“as a sign of respect for their fellow man”), although traditionally hiding your face was the exact opposite. Nobody is saying we should take off our masks because Science Says they aren’t useful. Science isn’t Saying to take them off at all, only that they are useless and so that is not a reason to wear one. The non-maskers are mostly people who just don’t want to wear a mask without a damn good reason. They aren’t saying they won’t wear a mask because Science Says not to. They are saying they won’t wear a mask because there is no good reason to, which is different than Science Says not to.

  24. DEG

    “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Walensky said, announcing the sweeping change. “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing.”

    Funny, I’m not vaccinated and I’ve been living life for a while. Fuck the CDC.

  25. R C Dean

    I have already managed to toss a collection of old bread packaging twist ties and rubber bands from produce.

    But those are useful!

    Now, if you have a pallet of each, I could see getting rid of some.

    • Gender Traitor

      The lid of our ceramic sugar bowl has a wide knob that’s too shallow to grip. One of those small, wide rubber bands used for broccoli is just perfect for getting hold of it.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    I’ll tell you something, boys and girls- mounting brand new tires (tires still made of soft, pliable rubber, instead of whatever godawful plasticine nightmare innumerable heat cycles and years of UV radiation turns rubber into) is a pleasant change of pace.

    I got that going for me.

    • pistoffnick

      A happy ending?

    • slumbrew

      A number are quite glib-fit

      • DEG

        Yes.

        It’s a good gallery overall.

        No face diapers too.

    • Urthona

      That asshole has a knack for ruining half decent news too. The CDC is way late, of course, but even they have to acknowledge the science now.

      • Sensei

        Exactly my thoughts. Sigh…

    • Sean

      Go smoke crack with Hunter and touch little kids, you commie rat fucker.

    • R C Dean

      So Gropey Joe is now on record that mask mandates for the unvaccinated are perpetual, regardless.

      I wonder whatever happened to “herd immunity”, anyway?

    • EvilSheldon

      Nah, I think I’ll continue to do what I like. Thanks though.

    • Rat on a train

      Fuck off slaver.

    • Nephilium

      Wait… Biden is Jigsaw?

  27. Sensei

    How about a little happy news.

    Bose built a hearing aid that could save you money—and a doctor’s visit

    For the longest time people with hearing loss had two choices. 1, Spend boatloads of cash and go to the audiologist and get a set of hearing aids. Usually for thousands. 2. Do without.

    Despite screams bodily injury from those invested in the current system our overlords in DC have relented and allowed people to OVERTLY sell and design hearing aids. Prior to this they were usually crap and designed as “hearing enhancement devices” for those with normal hearing.

    • slumbrew

      That’s cool. Their test says I have ‘mild hearing difficulty’, which seems about right for a 50 year old who wasn’t careful with his ears when he was younger.

    • Ted S.

      My sister’s FIL was an engineer who quit his job to do charity work fitting third worlders with cheap hearing aids, back in the 80s.

  28. LJW

    “Fully vaccinated Americans can return to life without masks, CDC says”

    This has nothing to do with the drawing eyes away from the fact that the Biden admin is screwing up from every angle…I’m sure they had some polling done to make this decision.

    • slumbrew

      That’s an incredibly cynical and accurate take.

    • Urthona

      60% approval rating, bitches!

      (72 Democrats and 1 Republican polled)

    • creech

      I had a discussion with an emergency room doctor yesterday. He says there is plenty of scientific literature now that clearly indicates COVID-19 was likely enhanced in a laboratory and it isn’t coincidental that Wuhan has such a laboratory program. He did say, regarding masks, that “they are better than nothing.” While individual COVID-19 viruses are small enough to pass through even N-95 masks, those present in large droplets – like from a sneeze – will be trapped by the mask. Also, six feet distancing works, but not as well as 12 ft. or 20 ft. or 100 yards. But if you aren’t sneezing (which you can’t really control if dust or some pollen or something enters your nose unexpectedly) then you can be within normal “personal spacing” distance without always infecting others if you have COVID.

      • Urthona

        All that is true.

      • grrizzly

        Masks are better than nothing…

        Bullshit. Your doc didn’t independently rewrite the science of face mask wearing of the 100 years from the Spanish Flu to April 2020. It was known that there was no significant positive benefit of face mask wearing outside of hospitals. Everything during the covid pandemic confirmed it. In the US the states with the highest covid deaths per capita are the ones with the most universal mask wearing in the last 12 months: NY, NJ and MA. If masks help a little, why is MA worse than almost any country in the world?

        You people tell yourselves that masks are better than nothing because you don’t want to admit how much you were scared. You obeyed. You’ve been complicit for the last 12 months. Your mask protects you or me as much as a swastika armband that you’ve been wearing everywhere.

      • The Hyperbole

        Remind me again, how much in fines and how much jail time you did you pay/do for not masking?

      • R C Dean

        As you well know, Hype, the mandates were directed mostly at businesses. And some well-publicized scalps were taken early, pour encourager les autres.

      • The Hyperbole

        Yeah, I know that, I’m just tired of Grrizzly’s “if you wear a mask you’re a pussy” tuff-gai posturing, especially since he’s admitted that when “work” or “travel” required it he caved and obeyed as well. He can lecture me about the hill I chose to die or not die on when he takes a stand of his own.

      • grrizzly

        I live in the most mask-crazy town in fucking Massachusetts. And I was able to live a normal live without donning a mask for months at a time. If someone didn’t even make an effort to ignore the masquerade, if someone behaved like a good, brainwashed sheep the entire time, then I will treat his claims that “masks help a little” as self-serving bullshit.

        If I could do this in Somerville then people in less fascist parts of the country could do as well. But most of them didn’t. I think of them accordingly.

      • blackjack

        This entire time, I’ve only worn one at work (required, now until Sept. 13th thanks creepy uncle Joe!) and in businesses. The law is that the business gets fined/sanctioned if they allow patrons to be maskless. Never once otherwise. Even walked the streets of San Francisco without one, to the consternation of my wife. I’ll wear one if my paycheck is on the line or to prevent the harassment of a business I patronize.

      • DEG

        There was one instance of a person being cited for violating Nashua’s mask ordinance. As far as I know, that’s the only instance of enforcement of said ordinance at all. I do not know about enforcement in other NH municipalities.

        I know of no attempts to enforce the governor’s general mask order on individuals when it was in effect. The order was riddled with holes.

        I know of many enforce actions for his other orders, which included requirements that employees of business wear masks. Businesses were fined for not making employees wear masks, among other violations (spacing, capacity, and some “unspecified” violations). I know of no enforcement action because the business did not make customers wear masks. The state AG’s office imposed fines for violations. The NH Liquor Commission yanked liquor licenses for at least two businesses.

        And Hype, I’ve ignored mask orders and mask ordinances for almost the entire duration of the insanity. There are a few cases where I’ve masked up, but those are by far in the minority. No fines issued to me.

    • Animal

      Nope. Not clicking. Nope. No need. It’s Twatter, so I’m assuming it’s just morons, moroning.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      How did they get my home videos?

  29. Fourscore

    Thanks SP. You touched on something that is closing in on the us. Like most folks, we have accumulated stuff that was important and thought to be necessary at one time or another.

    I’ve been trying to figure out who wants/needs/will enjoy/maintain a few things that are still in the bottom of the river. While not collectable still useful and expensive and in good shape. Tools and other outdoor sporting goods stuff. 35 mm cameras that haven’t been used in 20 years, still with a 1/2 roll of film in them. Lots of similar things. My kids don’t want them, grand kids have no interest.

    The missus has taken pictures of her jewelry and named the heirs. I want her to give them those things now but her family is generally not interested. Her SIL gave her some very expensive jewelry, after a few years I convinced her to return it to her SIL, Podunkville people don’t wear those things.

    I’m giving my AK grand daughter my old low mileage F150, filling it up with ‘necessities’ but the problem is they will have is sort of like Animal’s, only in reverse. Barging the stuff out, when they leave the village. I f they return to the lower 48 in a few years what do they do?

    We could sell the excess but our wants are limited at this stage in our lives, particularly after the recent trials. We gave a niece 2 pieces of property, about 12-13 acres, with the caveat not to sell until we’re gone. I was hoping she would want to build and retire here but no way is a city girl gonna move to the woods. My kids are Texans, for better or worse and would have a tough time adjusting to the woods. Woe is me.

    Thanks for kicking me in the butt, SP.

    • LCDR_Fish

      This may be random, but when I hung out at dvdtalk.com 20 years ago, there was a trade forum that actually worked pretty well for swapping rare/expensive/[un]wanted flicks. A more general option here may not be the worst concept within the community – even if the process is slower and probably a little pricier in terms of shipping, etc. But might not be a bad option benefiting all parties concerned.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      My kids are Texans, for better or worse and would have a tough time adjusting to the woods.

      This is a not insignificant part of the reason why we’re back in TX. Wife is a Texan and had a hard time with “all the clouds and claustrophobic woods”

      • UnCivilServant

        But…but… I’ve been to east Texas – there’s nothing there.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        A huge ass struggle of ours is trying to find something in all the “nothing there” of East TX. We don’t want to be living in close proximity to Dallas or Houston, and I refuse to live west of I-35 (I hate the prairie), so we’re stuck trying to find signs of civilization in East TX.

      • Not Adahn

        Dripping Springs/Bee Caves/Driftwood etc. are all west of I-35 IIRC. I don’t know if you condiser Buda or San Marcos “civilized.”

  30. Pope Jimbo

    My body, your choice

    The push to mandate vaccinations as a condition of employment is underway. See, there is this thing in the Constitution that gay-rone-tees employers right to fire anyone who doesn’t tow the company lion. It is called the Right of Association.

    Fuck, I’m so sick of people claiming that people have to get vaccinated to “protect others”. If I’m responsible for other people’s health, I’m going to go start slapping people in the Chip Aisle at the local supermarket. Maybe abduct some fatties and lock them in my basement until they lose enough weight so that they won’t die from the Rona.

    The guidance says that employers who have a valid job-related reason can mandate vaccines before employees come back into work.

    There are two exceptions: when employees have a medical disability that qualifies their exemption under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and when the employee has a “sincerely held” religious belief, protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, that leads them to object to vaccination.

    “It’s clearly not just ‘I’m an anti-vaxxer,’” Ellingstad said.

    In these cases, employers can prevent workers from coming into the workplace if they’re not vaccinated, but they have to consider whether they can make reasonable accommodations — perhaps allowing them to work remotely or wear PPE — before considering taking action, according to the EEOC.

    • Pope Jimbo

      To understand this issue, it helps to know that the U.S. is an at-will employment jurisdiction, said David Larson, a professor of law at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. That means that in most cases, employees work at the discretion of their employers and can be fired at any time and for most any reason.

      “So if you’re a Packers fan, they can fire you,” he said.

      Bullshit. At least in all the states I have ever had to manage people. If you want to get rid of an employee you better have a lot of documentation ready. That will include all the times you put together a Performance Improvement Plan.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Agree or not, isn’t the rule of thumb employees can be fired for a good reason or no reason but firing for a bad reason is a particularly dangerous no-no?

    • Chipping Pioneer

      I’ve told the wife that I’m dying on that hill.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Seems that hill will be crowded. EEOC + Bidens tweet most likely means I will be forced to choose.

    • Sensei

      I’m sure they’ll get full approval on a few, but at the moment I’d love for an employer to require something not FDA approved.

    • R C Dean

      when the employee has a “sincerely held” religious belief

      Why, the government requiring employers to give exemptions to people based on their religious beliefs isn’t an establishment of religion at all, nosireebob.

    • rhywun

      “It’s clearly not just ‘I’m an anti-vaxxer,’” Ellingstad said.

      Clearly. ?

    • westernsloper

      Look for the vacc to be taken off of “Emergency Use Authorization” and go to “Approved” soon. Nobody can force someone to participate in an experiment but forcing “approved” vaccinations has a long and lasting history around the world. And as a side not, I am not an anti vaxxer. My shot record is as thick as my passport. I have been shot up with everything out there because they would pay me good money to work in some shit hole that required I be vaccinated against X. So I did it. This is new territory.

  31. Chipping Pioneer

    Hooray! Yet another 12 days of stay-at-home order in Ontario! No fishing trip in a couple of weeks! Probably no vacation a couple of weeks after that!

    • Gdragon

      I would say that it is all but guaranteed to be longer than that too given that Doug mentioned “July and August” and left out June entirely during the brief time he talked about the possibility of loosening the restrictions.

  32. Tulip

    I am redoing my kitchen and going through all the cupboards. I’m taking advantage to get rid of stuff, including things I have carted around the country. I have some crystal champagne flutes and crystal margarita glasses (who uses crystal margarita glasses? Not me), and it’s time to just get rid of them.

    • westernsloper

      who uses crystal margarita glasses?

      Rich people who don’t know how to drink margaritas. Shit gets broken when done right.

    • slumbrew

      Pretty sure our glassware reproduces when we’re not looking.

      • Nephilium

        /looks at the free glasses acquired last week.

        What do you mean?

    • westernsloper

      What do you want for a crystal margarita glass? I need to class my place up a bit. When I need a new drink glass I go get a fountain drink at the corner store.

      • Tulip

        I’ll show them to you on zoom and we can talk

  33. Ownbestenemy

    Reading some of the replies, I am reminded of those Japanese soldiers who remained holed up on South Pacific islands for 30 years after WWII ended

    Iowahawk regarding CDC mask thing. He ain’t wrong.

    • LJW

      The people on Twitter are the same people who think the hospitalization rate is 30% to 50%

  34. hayeksplosives

    My youngest stepson’s gal is pregnant with my hubby’s first granddaughter.

    Her water just broke. Here goes nothing!

    • UnCivilServant

      Hopefully, here comes a healthy baby.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I remember that!

        Congratulations!

      • UnCivilServant

        I was not making an intentional reference, I was trying to play off the “here goes nothing”

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I remember the reference to the pregnancy, if you mean me.

    • DEG

      Hopefully things go well.

    • wdalasio

      Congratulations to them! I hope everything goes smoothly and the baby is healthy!

    • Mojeaux

      Yay, a baby!!!!

      More importantly, someone ELSE’S baby.

      Good luck to her!

    • Fourscore

      Congrats, ‘Splosives, you are a Grandma by default. Babies don’t know the difference. Even UCS’s heart would melt with a baby in his arms.

    • blackjack

      Grats. Babies are huge fun when you can give them back to the parents for the hard part.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I have an alibi.

    • Cannoli

      Congrats and best wishes for a safe delivery!

    • Not Adahn

      Gtats granny!

  35. westernsloper

    I figured Biden would agree with the hackers and shut the pipeline down. Pipelines are evil.

    • Fourscore

      Seems like the darkside is encroaching on Joe’s territory

  36. westernsloper

    Fully vaccinated Americans can return to life without masks, CDC says.

    That narrative change gave me whiplash.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      You’d think people would remember us here at cassandras dot com, especially after the radio campaign.

      • westernsloper

        I don’t know what that means.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Uh, that we here always knew (know) better, is all. Accurate bollocks meter.

        *not a real site, that I know of

      • slumbrew

        If we’re Cassandra, nobody is going to listen to us, by definition…

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Wha?

      • slumbrew

        Cassandra was cursed to utter true prophecies but never be believed.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        ?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I made the joke; what are you telling me for?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Miss Mo, a couple of years ago I would have counseled XX to do a hostelling tour of Europe. But I still recommend some sort of travel.

        I probably sound like the dog in the Beggin’ Strips ad. “Bacon bacon bacon, it’s bacon!!”

      • Mojeaux

        We just had to have a come-to-Jesus meeting and we all agreed she could chill for a couple of months before we start easing her into real life on her own.

        Travel is probably not going to be part of that. That said, if it is, we will have no say, and we can only pray she’ll be safe.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Oh, sorry, only if she’s interested. Didn’t mean to assume.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Oh, and hope you’ve been checked out for whiplash.

      • Mojeaux

        Naw. It was a close-quarters, low-speed deal.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        OK hun.

        I forgot to note the make and model of the new car that I mentioned I saw get lightly but redeemably crunched yesterday! Jeep!

      • Gender Traitor

        I was lucky to have the money to go to college. A “tour of the continent,” even a low-budget one either before after that, wasn’t in the cards.

        These days, my only interest is in seeing more of my native country – except for the large cities on either coast.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        *Jeep?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        sigh

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Sorry, I was trying to remember which new-model cars were particularly resistant to minor crunching. Paid too much attention to offender and not victim, but it seemed trivial.

      • blackjack

        I’m just a Jeepster!

      • egould310

        Thank you Blackjack for Jeepster.

      • blackjack

        Cool version, huh? His Les Paul reminds me of mine. I have a TV yellow 2012 Melody Maker with two p90s.

      • westernsloper

        I was just woman splained. This is some kinda bullshit right here!

      • Mojeaux

        Well, ackshually…

      • The Hyperbole

        Don’t get hysterical Slope.

      • Nephilium

        Listen to Handy…

        READ A BOOK!

      • slumbrew

        Thank you for that. That runs through my head with regularity.

        That and “Not baked goods, Professor – baked bads!”

      • westernsloper

        Now that is going to be going through my head for two days. The best ear worm.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I already knew it was the nuttiest sort of book.

      • Ted S.

        I’m sorry you have to worry.

  37. westernsloper

    Walensky, speaking at the briefing on Thursday, said that while the CDC’s decision “may serve as an incentive for some people to get vaccinated, that is not the purpose.”

    “I want to be clear that we follow the science here,” she said.

    So the science changed overnight. Got it.

    • Urthona

      Except last week when things were exactly the same.

    • R C Dean

      So the science changed overnight.

      Yup. Absolutely no reason they couldn’t have made this announcement the day vaccines were approved.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        I think the real justification for keeping the mask mandate at the beginning is that the vaccine is new and we don’t really know how the virus will behave in vaccinated people, but that’s not a message they wanted to go out. I’ve been shadow banned on Twitter for pointing that out.

      • blackjack

        They knew everything they know now back in March of 2020. We have studied masks and viruses for centuries. This was a fairly minor virus that was in the right place at the right time. It was used as a political tool and so were we. The biggest question is, why are they wrecking literally everything they touch with all the power they stole? The stupid things they are doing have blatantly obvious outcomes. They knew all this was going to happen and did it anyway. Why?

        Btw, I am old enough to remember Aids, which is the closest thing to this. It killed magnitudes more people and we actually didn’t know anything about it at first. If they had tried to shut down the world’s economic engine and take away all of our rights back then, they’d have never lived long enough to regret it.

    • Timeloose

      I would love to know how employers and business are expected to violate HIPA rules by requiring vaccination proof.

      The FYTW clause?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Are they really violating the law if prosecutors refuse to prosecute?

      • Mojeaux

        How many Lowes would Rob Lowe rob if Rob Lowe would rob Lowes?

      • Gender Traitor

        Hometown boy! 😀

        I know it’s all wrong, but when I read The Proviso, I got an image in my head of Knox looking like Rob Lowe.

      • Mojeaux

        It’s not wrong, just not in line with what’s in my head and what’s in my head is a karate teacher I had once. ?

      • Mojeaux

        In a pinch, Aaron Eckhart will suffice.

      • westernsloper

        *deletes comment*

      • Ted S.

        Cue RC Dean to tell us that it’s not a HIPAA violation.

  38. Gustave Lytton

    I think I’m going to avoid grocery shopping tomorrow.

    • westernsloper

      Why’s that? I just did my weekly Wmart lazy ass thanks for loading that in my car shopping this afternoon. I love grocery pickup. Shopping used to seriously cut into my sit on my ass time.

    • slumbrew

      You can’t make me click – that’s going to be a picture of Andy Reid

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Where’s Q work again?

    • DEG

      A variation of the Anna Kournikova virus from twenty-some-odd years ago.

    • commodious spittoon

      Can’t judge till we see the pic.

      • westernsloper

        ^ this man gets it.

      • Mojeaux

        Tonys Kansas City was good to me in the early days of my self-publishing when I was blogging regularly.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Of of my junior high girlfriends was a regular on that site until a few years ago.

        Blue eyes, blonde hair, a strictly regimented workout routine and fake boobs purchased by the first of your three husbands can get you a bit of press in podunk KC.

  39. UnCivilServant

    In an effort to clean up some ilder models which are in a state where I can’t properly paint them without removing the existing paint job I bought a bottle of specialized paint remover for plastics that won’t hurt the details. It’s “AK Paint Stripper” and on the bottle there is a silhouette of an… ‘entertainer’ with a pole. I didn’t know it was there until the bottle arrived. It’s even more SFW than Q’s Chive pics, so I guess it’s a joke.

      • commodious spittoon

        Balancing act burlesque showgirls… wire strippers.

    • Don Escaped Texas

      my money it’s pyrrolidone

      aircraft remover was methylene chloride; it wouldn’t strip your plastics . . . . it would devour them

      • UnCivilServant

        The bottle… doesn’t say.

        It has caused no damage to any of the test models I’ve used it on. And it’s very quick at removing the stubborn primer layer.

        *two thumbs up*

      • Don Escaped Texas

        oh

        “very quick” pyrrolidone

      • tripacer

        One of my favorite things is the Kleen-strip brand “aircraft paint stripper”. It comes in a sky blue jug with the word AIRCRAFT and an airplane prominently displayed. The first thing it says on the side label is “NOT FOR USE ON AIRCRAFT”.

    • UnCivilServant

      How about a tax on proposing taxes.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        A tax on being a rent seeking attention whore would be nice (I realize the man’s a genius but damn).

    • westernsloper

      Is that trolling? What is the carbon footprint of a rocket?

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Remember the kid in Peanuts whose name was 5?

      • Count Potato

        Wasn’t there a girl named Six on some TV show?

      • Trigger Hippie

        Yep…Blossom’s friend has a fat, round ass.

      • Count Potato

        I just looked. Short, not that pretty, but she had an ass.

    • DEG

      Australia tried it.

      Prices rose across the board.

      They ditched it.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        It does work for his interests though with his electric auto company and all. I’m sure he could get an exemption for his research and testing with national security implications (SpaceX).

      • westernsloper

        Canada is rolling along nicely with it.

    • blackjack

      Well, thanks to Elon I now know that bitcoin is run by burning coal. Why can’t they make zero emission cryptocurrency like Elon’s cars? They don’t run on dirty coal. Elon says that coal is the dirtiest form of carbon energy. I have doubts as to his level of genius.

      • Sensei

        And all the steel in the cars just magically appears.

        NJ is still about 50% nuclear so I like to tell people my car is atomic powered.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Hey, you’re right. Good catch.

  40. The Other Kevin

    Good thing they paid off those pipeline hackers. Now that they have all that money there’s no reason to do it again. Especially now that they know how to do it without getting caught,

    • Trigger Hippie

      Perverse incentives are perverse.

    • Tejicano

      The problem with getting paid off for a crime of that scope is living to spend it.

      • The Other Kevin

        It’s all in Bitcoin, so just look out for someone buying $5M worth of pron.

      • Tejicano

        If I ran the zoo I would be I would be issuing a Letter of Marque to some Triple Canopy-type organization to put together a team of hackers, linguists, and finance people to find out who did this.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        If they really are in Russia they’ll be just fine unless certain elements there decide there’s too much heat from the job. If that happens it won’t be us meting out justice though.

    • blackjack

      Old man Getty is rolling in his grave.

    • rhywun

      Some flunky probably had their password-protection policy changed from every ninety to every forty-five days and said “Done.”

      • Count Potato

        Apparently, it was phished.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      Maybe the put some explosive dyes in the bitcoin they sent.

  41. Tejicano

    My wife and I are at a transition point where we are paring down on a lot of stuff. We’ve been living in our current place for 15 years so a lot has built up.

    The transition is as follows: My f-i-l owns the building immediately adjacent to our building. We – both he and us – will be tearing down our buildings to re-build a larger, taller apartment building on the joint property. This process will take about two years so my wife and I are buying a condo nearby to live in for the duration. That will become rental property after the new building is done.

    So we have some things that will go to the new condo, some that have to go into storage, and a lot of other stuff that has to go away. Japanese don’t do garage sales so a lot of the furniture we have to pay to dispose of. I have some items which I hope to get rid of on a local military base – like a Versa-Climber and some tools. I don’t care to make money on them as much as find a good home for them. It would be a waste to just have them disposed of.

    • Sensei

      Japan, where an empty urban single family lot has more value than one with a 20 year old house on it.

      • UnCivilServant

        I like my 110 year old house.

        Admittedly, it has been rennovated.

      • Sensei

        My home is from the late 20s. Horsehair plaster walls in most rooms still.

        I won’t miss it when I flee the state.

      • UnCivilServant

        The land is worthless without the house because it’s such an odd lot. It’s barely any bigger than the foundation. I’ll bet you* a house you can’t build within X feet of the property line anymore. You wouldn’t be able to build a shed on the lot of this house burned down.

        *Not really.

      • commodious spittoon

        I considered buying an $18k, , 900+/- sqft lot, even went as far as designing a home small enough to sit on it, but man, that’s crazy. Might as well be living in a townhouse.

      • UnCivilServant

        When I move out of this house, I want a lot measured in acres. Even if it’s 1/4 or 1/2 acres.

      • commodious spittoon

        I grew up on 3/4 of an acre, and now I’m thinking that’s not nearly enough.

        Recently been reading about how to bury a quonset hut.

      • Count Potato

        Horse? I thought most houses in the U.S. used goat.

        Anyway, real plaster is better than sheetrock.

        I lived in a house that had nipples on the wall because it used to have gaslights.

      • rhywun

        This lot steps away from my home in Brooklyn has been empty for six or seven years. Meanwhile, around my old home in Astoria, Queens, they couldn’t tear down old houses fast enough to put in new condos. I went back after a few years and half the buildings around my house had been replaced.

        Zoning FTW.

        PS. I totally want that mini-palazzo across the street.

      • Sensei

        There is a strong preference for new housing in Japan. Large parts of it are premanufactured.

        My friend just rebuilt her house in metro Tokyo in preparation for retirement.

        Naturally, she suffered a stroke not soon after it was done. Fortunately, doing surprisingly well with just minimal permanent paralysis.

        As best as I can tell fro around the world little to no cognitive issues.

      • Tejicano

        There is one house in my neighborhood from the 1930’s. That is totally an outlier – not just here but in the entire country. Even the oldest structures are only about 50 or 60 years old.

        Japanese have a total disregard for old buildings. Only temples and shrines are allowed to stand for a long time and even those are rebuilt periodically.

        They don’t really build things to last. Even their chain link fences are not galvanized, like they expect to have to replace them by the time they get completely rusty – so they get completely rusty and have to be replaced sooner than we would in the US.

      • Sensei

        You mean Osaka Castle didn’t originally have an elevator?

      • UnCivilServant

        Wait, it wasn’t home of the Otis clan?

      • slumbrew

        PS. I totally want that mini-palazzo across the street.

        ZOMG – WANT.

      • Tejicano

        Yeah, our building is about 50 years old so not much life left in it anyway.

        The teardown is going to cost somewhere between $100k – $200k (f-i-l is paying for his so I’m estimating the total).

        I am hoping to keep one apartment set aside to run as an AirBNB – that way we will have a place for visitors to stay without having to set aside what could be living space for an empty room.

        At least I will have a place to park my car without have to pay $250 a month for that. And we will have a monster rooftop BBQ area.

      • Sensei

        Sign me up!

        You should be built by the time I can actually get back to Japan and see my friends.

        Sigh…

      • rhywun

        My apartment building is 66 years old and it’s one of the newer buildings on the block.

      • blackjack

        My house was built in 1947. It could use some upgrades, but it’s not bad for us. The majority of our street has been mcmansioned already. We’re probably the 4th or 5th worst house on a block with about 20.

      • one true athena

        yeah, when we sold our old house in West LA a few years ago, we were the last in our neighborhood with the original footprint of our 1948 house ~ 850 sq ft.

  42. Trigger Hippie

    *checks YouTube feed against my better judgment*

    Wow. Youtube is really going full tilt on the Anti-Isreal propaganda videos..

    Fuck the Jews, right TPTB?….

    *coughs nervously*

    • Chafed

      I’m not the least bit surprised. No doubt intersectionality is involved.

  43. Tundra

    We’re moving. Getting rid of shit is the most cathartic experience there is.

    I fucking hate clutter.

    • pistoffnick

      It’s like I don’t even know you, Tundra!

      I SAVE EVERYTHING!

      Just yesterday, I was asked do you have at work. You know what, I did! It took me a few seconds to remember where I stored it, but it saved the company over $500 in parts and labor.

      I regularly scrounge through the metal recycling bins at work. It is amazing what people throw away. I will probably never have to buy another drill bit or washer in my lifetime.

      • Tulip

        Argh! The thought of all that stuff is giving me hives.

      • pistoffnick

        It’s like I don’t even know you, Tulip!

      • blackjack

        That’s what I’d like to think too, but then I need a special bit or endmill. I almost always get frustrated looking for hardware and go to the surplus place and buy a whole bag of whatever I need. I have 5 Harley magnetos. I still buy them when they come up for sale cheap. I only have three bikes that can use them.

    • pistoffnick

      My boss was writing a test report. During the actual test, he wrote down some load readings on a piece of folded paper. Six weeks after the test I still had that piece of paper in a pile on my desk. It saved the day.

      /Not sorry for my messy looking desk. A messy desk is a sign of an intelligent mind. *taps temple

      /My stepdad is also a hoarder. He has a farm with at least 20 outbuildings. I helped him build the largest one which is the size of a football field. He knows where everything is. It might take him a half a day to extract it from where it is located…

      / I scoff at these “Just In Time” strategies.

      • Tundra

        I admire people like you who who remember what and where. I’m not that person.

      • Don Escaped Texas

        we finally disagree

        You can always have notes and tidbits . . . wherever those might belong.

        But that’s got nothing to do with a mess. I’ve been 5S for over two decades for a simple reason: I’m the laziest son of a bitch you ever met. I’m too lazy to move something twice, to step over something, to lose something, to knock something in the floor and destroy it because gee I didn’t remember that was there, to burn half a day in the emergency room because I tripped over something in the way or out of place. The way to throw out the batter isn’t to toss it to center field first; if you move a bishop four times before you swap it for a knight, the other side is three moves ahead of you.

        Do precisely what you should with every move; always create and maximize clarity and value. This is my prayer for everyone.

  44. blackjack

    I have ten Harleys, A 1962 Chevy truck, a mill, a lathe, an air over hydraulic press, a blast cabinet, a giant Matco toolbox, a massive collection of parts, two small block Chevy motors, a Motorcycle lift, two air compressors, a large welder and a bunch of other stuff. Moving is something I will resist with all my might. I really should start paring some of it down, but things are going to be more valuable than money soon, and all of my stuff has more than tripled in value.

    • blackjack

      That’s before the normal household stuff. And we have the Saturn Sky, a 2002 Camaro z28 and the Saab-rolet. I’m getting stressed just talking about the not likely possibility of moving.

      • Tundra

        I’ve already unloaded a ton of stuff. It’s easy once you get going.

      • blackjack

        Well, I sold my trailer (which would have been useful if I ever move. Dammit I shouldn’t have sold that!) and I sold my 1972 Nova. So i got somewhat lighter. They were blocking my driveway and I tripled my money on both, so there’s that.

      • blackjack

        Btw, I bought two bikes and the trailer for one price, used the trailer to bring it all home, used it a few more times and then sold the trailer for what I paid for the bikes and the trailer. Those two are now free bikes.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      but things are going to be more valuable than money soon

      Minimalism is a luxury of a well functioning economy. Otherwise, it’s called grinding poverty.

      • LJW

        You call it starvation, I call it weight loss!

    • Tulip

      There’s things, and there’s clutter. Nothing wrong with getting rid of clutter.

      • Fourscore

        We’re savers, I’ll save a 1/2 length of stove pipe, a piece of chain I found long the road. Enough telephone wire/coax cable to use in a half dozen new houses/garages. Occasionally I’ll use a small part of something.

        I did find an almost new 300 ft tape measure, in case I’m building a football field.

        Some talk about losing a sock to the wash machine, I look at it as finding a sock. I will wear 2 odd socks but my feet never seem to know the difference. Some will laugh but I don’t care.

        I’ve been re-gifted stuff that the previous owner didn’t want. I find a wall somewhere to hang that garage sale item on out in the garage.

        OTOH my yard has no junk. Rarely do I leave a tool overnight in the garden.

  45. robc

    Clearly the hackers havent read REAMDE.

    • rhywun

      Neither have I. Is it any good?

      • commodious spittoon

        I don’t remember a lot of it, but I don’t remember hating it. I just read Cryptonomicon for the fourth or fifth time. I doubt I could do that with REAMDE. Hell, I’ve read Zodiac at least three times, and that always felt like his weakest book.

      • Tundra

        Maybe weakest, but still entertaining and not a months-long commitment.

      • commodious spittoon

        I really enjoyed rereading it. I tried getting dad into the Baroque Cycle books, and he flamed out in the middle of Quicksilver. I should have started him out with Zodiac, it’s a relatively simple quasi-techno environmentalist thriller, and also doesn’t take up hours of your free time talking about fucking women in stockings, or Captain Crunch, or bizarre psychotic hallucinations semi-involving the German military hierarchy.

      • rhywun

        I struggled my way through Cryptonomicon once but I’ve read some of his others multiple times. He definitely has his ups and downs IMHO.

    • kinnath

      Just a big, damn cat.

  46. commodious spittoon

    Is it a thing among communications majors that they learn to parrot back at someone something they just heard explained, in slightly different or sometimes exactly the same words they just heard it explained to them? Every time I explain something to this twerp he has to recite it back at me. It’d be one thing if he’s asking me questions or to elucidate something I’d said, or to clarify some point I’d made and maybe mildly upbraid me for being opaque, no, it’s literally just repeating what I’d told him in a way that makes me think he’d gotten his degree by slightly rewording the essay prompts and fluffing the other 450 words with minor variations on same. It is really, really difficult to take him seriously. But he’s the CEO’s son and I can’t call him a fucking twerp.

    • Mojeaux

      they learn to parrot back at someone something they just heard explained, in slightly different or sometimes exactly the same words they just heard it explained to them?

      Supposedly it’s to make sure that you know they were listening and understood.

      • commodious spittoon

        What, like if he stood there a dumb mute and I had to rap on his head a few times I wouldn’t get that

        I don’t even know what to say. It’s so fucking sterile and unsettling when he does it, I feel like I’m talking to HAL, but not the HAL that controls the computers but HAL I’m trying to train.

        I feel bad for so many reasons about this situation. Here’s a kid who graduated from a four-year program at an out-of-state college, probably not cheaply, coming to work for his dad’s company as basically an intern, doing work I started doing with an associate degree from a cheap in-state diploma mill.

        And then I think, here’s a kid doing the shit I do who had the full college experience, and he’s ten years younger than I am, and I struggled through a two year degree program.

        And then I think: lulz that Terminator LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND line, that’s pretty funny.

      • Mojeaux

        We all feel inadequate some days, up against some people.

      • commodious spittoon

        Mojeaux knows how to throw shade.

      • Mojeaux

        I was not throwing shade. I was trying to commiserate.

      • commodious spittoon

        Basic human decency.

        Um… not shade.

        Yes well EVEN STILL

      • Mojeaux

        Yes well EVEN STILL

        ?

      • Akira

        Supposedly it’s to make sure that you know they were listening and understood.

        Yea, I’ve read about that in a lot of sales/persuasion/negotiation psychology books (I think they call it “mirroring” or “active listening”). The way I interpreted it, you’re supposed to respond in your own words but throw in a few restated fragments of what they said, not just repeat in slightly different words like what Commodius is describing.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      Send me his deets. I’ll tell him.

    • straffinrun

      “I apologize. Doesn’t it sound like I just repeat things without thinking about it?”

      • Chafed

        Gaijin salaryman gets it.

    • blackjack

      I would guess that it’s his way of cementing the information in his own mind. Schools make you write notes of what you’ve heard because the more interaction and the more different ways of interacting with a given piece of info, the more apt it is to stay in your memory banks. Kid’s probably trying to do that.

    • Gustave Lytton

      It was going well until Part 3 then it was like he just wanted to skip through the rest.

    • slumbrew

      That’s an impressively stupid take, even for the New Yorker.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      My Chinese, black, and Indian coreligionist friends are gonna be happy to find out that they’re really white.

      • Chafed

        White adjacent.

    • Tejicano

      Hoh-Leeee-Faaooque…

      Not even aware there are black southern Baptists. Like, millions.

      • Akira

        Not even aware there are black southern Baptists. Like, millions.

        That’s what I think of every time I hear a “progressive” ranting about all those damn Bible-thumping rednecks down South who vote against their various utopian schemes.

      • Chafed

        It’s stunning. There is no, I mean NO, appreciation for the wide variety of people in the US.

      • slumbrew

        I strongly suspect they think “they’re Baptists, not Christians”. They understand nothing.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Someone should tell the local vietnamese Presbyterian churches too

    • hayeksplosives

      Middle Eastern Jewish dude from Nazareth is white.

      Got it.

  47. Ownbestenemy

    The teens have helped my wife and me decide how to cut back on someBill’s. Day two of me making dinner for the family and day two of them not eating it and instead buying supermarket sushi.

    Problem solved. Dinner for two from here on out and no more catered items that we know they enjoy.

    • Tejicano

      We just recently we got to the point where our 12 year-old and 10 year-old willingly eat “pizza” (store bought or Pizza Hut take out). So we now have that as an emergency option when required. My wife had always catered to their desires until a few months ago when I finally got her to realize that it isn’t worth the stress of always trying to come up with three different dinner menus to please two different children and two flexible adults.

  48. hayeksplosives

    I’m reading “Fool’s Errand “ by Scott Horton, on the war in Afghanistan.

    I’m not sure what to think about Mr Horton. Some of what he says makes total sense, but it irks me that he’s a bit of an apologist for radical Islamic terrorists and bin Laden.

    I have heard Horton on the Tom Woods show and he brought out the same mixed reactions in me when talking about Iran.

    I also get the feeling he’s a bit anti-Israel.

    Do any of you guys have thoughts on Horton?

    • tripacer

      Is he the one who said “A person’s a person, no matter how small”?

      • hayeksplosives

        *smacks forehead*

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Scott’s great but he does cut others slack for things he’d condemn us for. He definitely believes that Israel has outsize political influence here and he’s correct but he’s sometimes unfair in assigning blame for various international occurrences. On balance he’s alright in my view.

  49. Yusef drives a Kia

    Happy Friday everybody, let’s see the sun rise and the Covfefe flow….

    • TARDis

      Indeed.

      Prosit! (but with Java)

      Mornin’, early Glibs.

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, TARDy! ::raises travel mug::

  50. Sean

    Re: clutter

    It’s gotten bad here since the commie cough apocalypse. It’s not me, it’s the gf (mostly) and all the shit from DeadAunt.

    I really would like to clear a bunch of stuff out. ?

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Unlike Turkeys, Cats can fly, this is known, they have great landing gear,

      • Tres Cool

        “The turkeys are hitting the ground like bags of wet cement!”

        -WKRP in Cincinnati

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        +1 Les Nessman…that was a good show.

      • Gender Traitor

        Concur. And the call letters are perilously close to actual Cincy stations. There’s a WKRC TV station and a WKRQ radio station. I often listened to the latter while I was at Miami U. Sometimes wondered if the writers knew the jocks there.

        Good morning, Stinky.

  51. Tres Cool

    I went in to work early, got home early, and Im on Tall Cans® numero dos

    suh’ fam ?

    • rhywun

      Woke up too early again. Draggin’.

      • Tres Cool

        And Jugsy makes her triumphant return to the Palatial 2X-Wide from NYC tonight.

        There’s gonna be cellulite all over the place once I get ahold of her.

      • rhywun

        Huzzah!

      • Tres Cool

        She’s staying in midtown next week. Im 1 stressful night with surly union assholes away from telling them to kiss my dick, and go with her.

      • Gender Traitor

        How ya gonna keep her down in the township after she’s seen the bright lights of the big city? 😉

        Good morning, homey, rhy, Teji, Sean, & Yu!

      • Tres Cool

        sup’ pimp-juice

        You see our most recent shooting ?

      • Gender Traitor

        I don’t think so – I haven’t checked the local news yet this morning.

        ::checks local news::

        Well, crap. They’re not even waiting until after dark now. 🙁

      • Sean

        *waves*

    • Tejicano

      I’m on the train heading home. Friday evening. I had four short cans with the guys at work.

    • Tres Cool

      what goody, fam

      • UnCivilServant

        I donno.

        My whole darn day is interviews and knowledge transfers from retiring employees.

        A whole day of manditory social interaction… *shudder*

      • Gender Traitor

        Don’t worry – you always have us to counteract it with antisocial interaction. And with any luck, the soon-to-be retirees won’t give a shit.

        Good morning, U.

      • UnCivilServant

        But we need the knewledge transfer, because we’re taking over part of their work. I’m just hoping there’s enough motivation for them to complete it.

      • Tres Cool

        Ill interact with you anytime.

        /wink wink
        /nudge nudge

      • Tres Cool

        Ick.
        Thats why I prefer overnights on this gig. Limits my exposure to akshual people. Ironically, I dont mind presenting before a group.
        When I worked for the steel mill, I was punished with providing environmental training to the new hires. Every other week I had to spend 3 hours discussing our environmental policy and employee responsibility over 3 areas- air, water, and waste. (Sometimes radiation, too).
        It was challenging to keep a room full people with no interest or care about environmental issues awake and engaged over that time.

      • Gender Traitor

        Presenting is more like performing than interacting. Unfortunately, there’s some material that you’d be hard-pressed to make entertaining.

        I found it tricky to run Excel training classes – the presentation was a piece of cake, but then there was the running around trying to help each person as they were actually trying to do something with it.

      • Tres Cool

        At least when I “performed” I was allowed to talk….

        Heh.

        /laughs @ own joke

  52. Festus

    Had a bear of a night at work. Someone’s box of paint exploded on the line and by the time I arrived it had already been sucked up by the concrete. The best I could do was crawl about on my knees scraping the worst of it off with a razor. There were about 60-70 unrelated packages affected and a whole shit load of equipment but thankfully, not in my purview. I am cranky. I’ll try to keep to my new regimen but today will be a challenge. On a brighter note, Grandson turns 17 today!

    • UnCivilServant

      Is it at least a good color for concrete?

      • Festus

        White line-marking paint is my guess. The floor damage was minimal but the rest of the mess was a sight to behold. Paint on the floor basically for eternity. I don’t care, I’ll treat it like every other stain and disregard it after a bit. The crawling about made my back and knees very unhappy.

    • Gender Traitor

      Yikes! What sort of paint was it? I’m not familiar with any formula of paint prone to blowing up. What a nightmare! ::thinks with dread about old cans of paint in garage::

      Good morning anyway, Fes, and Happy Birthday to your GrandFes!

      • Festus

        Good Mornin’ to you! GrandFes turned into a cool kid. Working, driving, steady girl, learning guitar and still in school. He has a HD mechanic apprenticeship waiting for him at his Step-Dad’s company but only if he finishes High School. That boy has drive and purpose. I wish that I’d been a better mentor for him when he was growing up but he’s turned out better than anyone expected.

      • Tres Cool

        High Definition Mechanic ?

        He’ll change your clutch in 1080p ?

      • Festus

        What I mean to say is that his behavioral issues and his Mother’s antics at the time irritated me to no end. She settled in and he has settled down. Now she’s a semi-wealthy hobby farmer and their blended family is very happy from all available evidence. Plus he shovels my roof in the winter…

      • rhywun

        I’m not familiar with any formula of paint prone to blowing up.

        O RLY

      • Festus

        Have you ever witnessed a package line? That’s how.

    • TARDis

      Good Morning, Festusglob. Sounds like you’re having a colorful day.

      • Festus

        White isn’t a color, Racist!

      • TARDis

        Sets color to RGB(255,255,255). OMG Windows is racist! It’s not me, I swear!

  53. Gender Traitor

    Still a bit cool, but looking lovely outside, with the prospect of a beautiful day in store. Payroll has hit our accounts, so with any luck my co-workers won’t have blown up my voice mail, at least about THAT. And so far (knock wood,) no accidents or slowdowns showing on the traffic map for my commute. Fingers crossed that it’ll be a good day.

    • Festus

      High 60’s yesterday. The shorts are donned until November because I never need to dress for the occasion.

  54. Sean

    Two days in a row now, I’ve had people get mad at me for passing their ass on the right hand side.

    GTFO of my way. Your car sucks and your face is stupid.

    My commute is just over year 1 of a four year construction project nightmare. It’s almost 50% of my drive. Surly, I am.

    • TARDis

      *salutes*
      I hate moving roadblocks. Passive aggressive shit weasels they are.

    • Festus

      I read that as “grabbing their ass”. Lefty, are you?

      • Sean

        I do grab a lot of ass, but only my gf’s.

    • Festus

      “It’s not even an island!”