Saturday Morning Wasteland Links

by | Jul 10, 2021 | Daily Links | 253 comments

“My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
“Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
“What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
“I never know what you are thinking. Think.”

I think we are in rats’ alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.

Birthdays today include a guy memorialized in the best comic strip ever; another fucking lawyer; a guy who turned beer into urine without using kidneys; a weird cult figure admired for his stupid shit, not his great shit; a guy who ate a cookie and couldn’t shut up about it; what civil rights leaders used to be before they won and had to turn to grift; the white version of Laquanda T’kiana; a believer in free enterprise; Michael Strahan’s spirit animal; a guy who had only one notable quote (“The next four years will be filled with pretty words and pretty music and a lot of goddamn nonsense!”); my favorite wrestler when I was a kid; Ilhan Omar’s spirit animal; a cop, a judge, and a bolt-necked giant; a guy who is sadly remembered for the wrong reasons; a notoriously leftist folk singer who was basically on our side; my former representative, who was a half-decent guy; and a guy who doesn’t play accordion.

And now, comme s’habitude, Links.

 

“Totally not CIA.”

 

And how about, “Go fuck yourself,” for an answer?

 

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

 

This drops into one of my areas of deep professional expertise. There is more bullshit than you can find at a cattle ranch. 

 

Do we no longer believe in constituent service?

 

Michael Pollan continues to be a neo-Puritan fuckwit.

 

I really am starting to suspect that SugarFree is writing this shit.

 

Old Guy Music is Zappa breaking the cardinal music store rule. Fuck, that was a great band.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

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

253 Comments

  1. Cy Esquire

    “First thing you did in the morning was put nuts in your mouth? Gay bashing white Supremacist!”

    If you think the nuts in his mouth was bad, wait until he gets behind the wheel!

    • Sean

      I can’t dispute that.

    • Agent Cooper

      ♫ The best part of waking up is sucking on some nuts. ♫

  2. trshmnstr the terrible

    OMWC, you need to take it easy on the Guardian. That shit will rot your brain.

    • Cy Esquire

      And a CNN link… I think he’s trying to tell us something.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I love that (virtual) paper. Any time I start questioning my own sanity and acumen, I read it and immediately feel better about myself.

      • DrOtto

        Same reason I like to watch Cops

  3. CPRM

    This drops into one of my areas of deep professional expertise.

    Yeah, unlike you, I trust THE SCIENCE.

    • Sean

      And the data.

      • robodruid

        I don’t think we are ever going to get a handle on this chemical class. Its almost inelegant, or willful. But don’t worry, the new C6 foam is just fine.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Now they’ll have to go back go sitting on the washing machine.

    • CPRM

      Many ‘movies’ assured me that’s why women love doing laundry/

      • Cy Esquire

        And riding horses.

    • Old Man With Candy

      It was that or Lauren Hutton.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Great movie!

  4. The Late P Brooks

    As the world passes the harrowing milestone of 4 million COVID-19 deaths, and new virus variants wreak chaos in unvaccinated communities, debate continues to rage over the question whether SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a research facility.

    Now a group of scientists – including world-leading virologists and a Nobel Laureate – have risen to the challenge with a critical review of the scientific evidence to date, concluding there is currently no proof the virus that causes COVID-19 sprung from a lab.

    Yeah, okay. Case closed.

    • Cy Esquire

      “There’s been an outbreak of chocolatey goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania, what do you think happened? I don’t know, maybe a steam shovel made it with a cocoa bean. Or it’s the fucking chocolate factory!”

    • rhywun

      Florid prose is florid.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, food-bats it is, then. I’m glad we settled that.

    • Suthenboy

      “the harrowing milestone of 4 million COVID-19 deaths”

      Bullshit.

      “there is currently no proof the virus that causes COVID-19 sprung from a lab.”

      Bullshit.

      • leon

        “no proof” is such a tried and true propoganda weasel. Any evidence for the narrative can not be questioned. Any evidence against it isn’t PROOF

  5. juris imprudent

    Surprised you didn’t have a little banjo birthday music. Anyway, we’re off to a memorial service for a friend of the wife.

    • Old Man With Candy

      What did you do to her?

      • Cy Esquire

        The wife, the friend or both?

      • Sean

        You’re assuming gender?!?

        Not cool.

    • Not Adahn
  6. The Late P Brooks

    new data suggests that it’s probably

    SCIENCE!

  7. The Late P Brooks

    “Use the fingers god gave you, you silly goose.”

    • Cy Esquire

      Practice makes perfect. Remember, it’s a race!

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Several of the experts I was interviewing had suggested that I really couldn’t understand

    There’s your trouble. Stop looking to so-called “experts” to guide you through life.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      When an expert tells you that a certain concept is indecipherable to laity, it’s a very good sign that said expert doesn’t understand the concept as much as they say they do.

      People who know their shit can usually condense complex concepts down to their essentials and get a lay person to a “close enough” understanding.

      • blackjack

        As a lawyer, you probably know that experts tell you what you have paid them to tell you. The devil’s advocate has hired experts too.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Various headlines refer to the “shocking” new increases in the death toll of the condo collapse. They have been telling us for days how many people were “missing”. Did they think those people ha been teleported to safety by aliens?

    • rhywun

      I noticed that too. It’s almost like click-bait or something. Nah.

    • Old Man With Candy

      HAWT!

    • blackjack

      ” nun on nun kissing and nudity”

      Didn’t Larry flint already litigate this?

    • rhywun

      Much edgy. So transgression.

      he doesn’t think Benedetta ‘will be scandalous, at least not in Western Europe’

      Because they don’t take their religion seriously any more?

    • Nephilium

      /thinks back to Catholic school

      /shudders in horror

      • Tonio

        I know, right?

      • Old Man With Candy

        When we moved to Texas, our first house guest was a nun (SP had been an operations manager for a Catholic non-profit when we met). The reaction of our friends was, “A nun? With OMWC? I’d pay good money to see this!”

        Disappointingly, we got along great.

    • Tonio

      Well, Verhoeven can certainly shoot a titillating scene, but this concept has been exploited before.

      • Not Adahn

        Nuns all shower together, right?

    • PieInTheSky

      I read a review complaining abut the nuns gym toned bodies and well groomed bush

      • Not Adahn

        The horror…

      • blackjack

        Well, those things aren’t typically found in nun’s habits.

    • ignoreLander

      Verhoeven is an absolute master of satire. Robocop alone would have been enough but ad in Total Recall and Starship Troopers and the man is a genius. I truly hope he isn’t going for cheap shock value here and actually makes this work. Dude’s in his mid eighties so I can’t imagine he still has that fastball….

  10. Count Potato

    “Trump-appointed head of Social Security Administration Andrew Saul is REFUSING to leave the job after being fired by Biden and plans to turn up to work as usual on Monday

    It follows a Justice Department legal opinion that Saul could be removed despite a statute saying he could only be fired for malfeasance or neglecting his duties. It found that a recent Supreme Court ruling meant that he could be fired at will.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9774483/Biden-FIRES-Trump-appointed-head-Social-Security-Administration-Democratic-criticism.html

    So this is like the executive order thing?

    • leon

      Didn’t the CFPB head try doing that? Anyway, I keep hearing about this decision, but haven’t seen it, I’m generally opposed to the idea that Congress can create executive departments and head them up and then say the executive has no power to remind someone in the executive branch.

    • rhywun

      Biden fighting the Deep State.

      *snort*

      • Suthenboy

        All that shitweasel has to do is wait 5 minutes and Biden won’t remember firing him.

    • ignoreLander

      Need your state handout? Better call Saul.

      • ignoreLander

        OK, someone might need to narrow eyes at that.

  11. The Late P Brooks

    More SCIENCE!

    California will continue to require masks in school settings, state health officials announced Friday, even though federal health authorities released new guidelines saying vaccinated students and teachers no longer need to wear masks inside campus buildings.

    “Masking is a simple and effective intervention that does not interfere with offering full in-person instruction,” said California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Mark Ghaly. “At the outset of the new year, students should be able to walk into school without worrying about whether they will feel different or singled out for being vaccinated or unvaccinated — treating all kids the same will support a calm and supportive school environment.”

    We must have mask equity. Because FEELZ. Also, experts tell us there could possibly be a potential benefit in some way, for somebody, somewhere.

    • mrfamous

      The Democratic establishment (of which Newsom is a creature), is wholly owned by the teacher’s unions. Just as the Republican establishment is wholly owned by defense contractors.

      • leon

        Make your way to Utah and you’ll see the teachers union has it’s claws in the GOP

    • rhywun

      Lampposts.

  12. WTF

    Nice music selection.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    Inadvertent honesty

    If the two voting rights bills before Congress don’t reach Biden’s desk soon, Clyburn said, “Democrats can kiss the majority goodbye.”

    Huh. And that would be a tragedy of epic proportion.

    • leon

      Heh. So you’re saying that if any GOP member votes for it :cough: Romney:cough: then the party would be within reason to cast him out?

    • WTF

      “Voting rights”. Sure, that’s exactly what those bills are.

      • leon

        When Democrats lose elections, they lose their voting rights in Congress. This is to secure those rights.

    • Contrarian P

      At least he’s honest about what these bills really do. They’re designed to make sure Democrats win elections.

    • blackjack

      Look at all the gains we have cheated our way into! If we can’t codify our cheating methods into law, we might not ever win this big again!

    • rhywun

      An overwhelming majority of Americans are against this ploy. I’d say the Dems can kiss the majority goodbye either way. And not just because of this.

  14. Q Continuum

    “When you take the oath, you are serving not just your district, but also the entire state.”

    Because no one in WV has oral sex?

    • Count Potato

      I had oral sex in a VW. Does that count?

      • PieInTheSky

        I did not know you were that flexible

  15. The Late P Brooks

    We should all just go back to drinking water straight from streams, out of hollowed out gourds. That would be healthier.

  16. Tundra

    Good morning, Old Man!

    Thanks for the lynx, especially Zappa.

    I have no idea who Michael Pollan is, but he is welcome to eat a bag of dicks.

    • Old Man With Candy

      He’s a noted author, and for the MSM, the go-to expert on the horrors and absolute evil of modern agriculture and food production.

      • blackjack

        On that, he has a point. We now make so much food, so cheaply that almost everyone is fat. That can’t be very healthy.

  17. Gender Traitor

    The end of the song was absolutely worth the wait! 😀

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Anxiety and frustration around the failure to move voting rights legislation are not just building among progressive activists but among civil rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers as well. Democrats who spoke to POLITICO said they believed failure on this front would result not only in electoral losses but would have a tangible impact on the country’s democracy if more Republican-led states pass restrictions on voting access.

    And nowhere does “the will of the people” appear.

    Because we all know it has nothing to do with that. It’s about entrenched interests frantically grasping for political power with which to smite their enemies.

    • hayeksplosives

      Does anybody really believe that US citizens who want to vote are being prevented from doing so?

      • blackjack

        Yes. By virtue of fake mail in ballots eradicating the worth of their actual votes.

      • Tonio

        Yeah, there is a small subset of blacks with a super paranoid mindset, not completely unjustified, about white people’s intentions towards them. Then there are the myriad myths about poor (proxy for black) ppl not having the time to vote (ie, having to work), not having transport to vote, not being able to register (again, due to constraints of time and transport). As long as these myths persist, and any one person is inconvenienced, then the myths will persist.

        I am disturbed by reports of eight-hour lines to vote. Were those actually a thing?

      • blackjack

        Yes. The system of cheating they implemented here in CA involved all the ballot harvesting and mail in bullshit, and they reduced the number of polling stations to less than a third of previous numbers. We could vote ant any of them, but there were hours long lines at all of them. Of course the super cheaty stuff was not throttled. All pary of the machine

  19. mock-star

    Has anyone read the Martyrmade twitter thread on the 2020 election thread? Here is the link:

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1413165168956088321.html

    I think its a decent read, but one thing popped out at me and thats this:

    “Re: “fake impeachment”, we now know that Trump’s request for Ukraine to cooperate w/the DOJ regarding Biden’s $ activities in Ukraine was in support of an active investigation being pursued by the FBI and Ukraine AG at the time, and so a completely legitimate request.”

    Does anyone here know what he (her,xir,they, whatever) is talking about here? I cant find a cite for anything about this.

    • Count Potato

      “The probe is focused on Hunter’s business dealings in China and other countries and invovles transactions with people who posed counterintelligence concerns, CNN said.

      The investigation was put on hold during the run-up to the November election due to Justice Department guidelines that prohibit activity that could influence a political race, CNN said.

      But it’s since resumed and is entering a new phase, with the FBI and IRS issuing subpoenas and seeking interviews, CNN said”

      Fox News reported that the probe includes examining the Hunter Biden laptop exposed by The Post, citing two sources familiar with the investigation.”

      https://nypost.com/2020/12/09/hunter-biden-under-federal-investigation-for-possible-tax-fraud/

      “In October, Fox News first reported that the FBI subpoenaed a laptop and hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden in connection with a money-laundering investigation in late-2019.”

      https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-tax-affairs-under-federal-investigation

      Anyway, Trump got impeached for allegedly doing what Biden bragged about doing. Which is probably why the Biden campaign didn’t bring up the impeachment.

      • mock-star

        Thanks for the reply, Count. I get all that. But I was wondering about the author’s contention that The FBI and an Ukrainian AG were investigating Hunter at the time of Trump’s email. I dont question the author’s analysis of people’s mindsets or the overall theme of what he wrote. But I do definitely question this specific allegation, and DDG hasnt led me to anything that backs it, nor has the author provided a citation.

      • mock-star

        “Trump’s email” should read “Trump’s phone call”

      • Count Potato

        I read the Feds started investigating Hunter in 2018, which would logically include all his sources of income. When was the phone call?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        “In October, Fox News first reported that the FBI subpoenaed a laptop and hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden in connection with a money-laundering investigation in late-2019.”

        When was that laptop “forgotten” at the repair shop? ?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The entire thread is a blistering indictment of our government and populace.

      • blackjack

        And nothing else will happen, because trusted news sources said it was all just fine.

    • creech

      Why the fuck didn’t Trump and his team fight back? Trump seems to have been his own worst enemy in failing to articulate reasons for some of the garbled messages he let the media get away with mischaracterizing. I’m tried of people whining that “Your votes for Jo Jorgensen cost Trump the election.” No, Trump cost himself the election – even with massive vote fraud, he could have walked to victory had he taken off the gloves.

  20. Contrarian P

    Yarmuth added that Democrats have a “deep fear” about “what happens to our democracy period. Not who wins in 2022, what happens to democracy.”

    Sure, Democrats don’t care about winning elections, only about preserving democracy, whether it benefits them or not. Pull the other one.

    • Tonio

      For some values of democracy.

  21. Raven Nation

    Murphy’s Law: bought a chest freezer a week ago, filled it with close to $1000 worth of food. Storm last night took out the power and it’s likely to be out a couple of days.

    • Tonio

      Ugh, sorry to hear.

      • Raven Nation

        Thanks!

      • blackjack

        I would fill all of the spaces inside with ice and cover the whole freezer with thick blankets. Probably make it even further than 2 days.

      • Tulip

        Buy bags of ice and you could extend that

      • R C Dean

        Blocks of ice, if they will fit and are available.

      • Spartacus

        Blocks will last longer, certainly.
        There are a number of places around here where you can buy dry ice. I’ve never done it, so I don’t know if there would be a pressure buildup as it sublimates.

        Anyway, Rule #1: open the freezer door as little as possible.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Highly highly recommend dry ice. It will keep your deep freeze items hard frozen whereas regular water ice will have to be restocked regularly to keep things under 32F. Particularly in the heat.

        I’ve bought dry ice when the power went out and I couldn’t get the generated fixed immediately. I don’t remember noticing pressure building up in the freezer. Likely worst case would be if the pressure exceeds the magnetic latch, vents, and recluses. Assuming it’s a top close.

    • Count Potato

      You could buy a generator for a few hundred bucks to save the food, and you would still have a used generator.

      • Spartacus

        That would depend on living arrangements. Can’t run generators indoors unless you want to die, so you have to have some outdoor space and noise-tolerant neighbors to run it. And extension cords. If RN lives in a house (as opposed to an apartment building or condo) it’s a great idea.

  22. PieInTheSky

    I really am starting to suspect that SugarFree is writing this shit. – she just needs a step brother

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Storm last night took out the power and it’s likely to be out a couple of days.

    Ouch.

  24. The Late P Brooks

    she just needs a step brother

    You’re a caution.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    On that, he has a point. We now make so much food, so cheaply that almost everyone is fat. That can’t be very healthy.

    BAN INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE!

  26. PieInTheSky

    This is a good argument against broad first amendments and instead have statutory based codes of what is and what is not lawful content. Why bills of rights are mostly terrible ideas.

    https://twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1413694055599403012

    I am not sure what this is trying to say but seems stupid

    • rhywun

      It is stupid. As is the linked argument.

      Conclusion: Twitter is a cesspool of stupid.

      • PieInTheSky

        but unfortunately for us twitter is the real world

    • leon

      I’m guessing this person doesn’t believe in fundamental human rights, but it’s utilitarian about it. So declaring a list of fundamental rights is hamstringing.

    • blackjack

      Thw first amendment specifically states what is and is not lawful content. If you propagandists want something else, amend the constitution or STFU.

      • PieInTheSky

        amend the constitution – though one would rather they don’t

      • blackjack

        They would never get the votes and they know it. Same with the second.

  27. leon

    Tucker had a former prosecutor on to talk about Avenatti. I’ll tell you what, I didn’t know it was possible to sympathize for the man, but she did it. She took a large chunk of her time to talk about how awful defense attorneys are and their clients are terrible too.

    • Chafed

      +1 overplayed hand

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Orders were issued

    An American Airlines flight to the Bahamas was canceled, and its passengers were delayed overnight after a group of high school students refused to wear their face masks.

    ——-

    Another passenger, Christina Randolph, said: “All they had to do was follow the rules, put the mask on, sit there. No smart-mouth comments. And they couldn’t do it,” according to WSOC-TV.

    This nation did not become wealthy and powerful by ignoring orders from lawful authority, did it?

    OBEY

    • blackjack

      FUCK JOE BIDEN! Airports are required to have mask mandates because of his support for the religious sacrament. I have to wear them all day at work, but almost no where else, apparently because there’s only a threat in places Biden has no control over.

    • Tonio

      OBEY and STFU. She seems most disturbed by what she characterizes as “smart-mouth comments.”

    • mrfamous

      I had an hour and fifteen minute flight on American a few weeks ago, and it was an epic pain in the ass. I can’t even imagine tolerating a long flight under the current conditions. Mayor Pete either relents or the airline industry is in some trouble.

      • blackjack

        It’s Biden. He issued an EO mandating masks in all aspects of federally controlled transportation, which doesn’t end until Sept. 13th, and is subject to extension, based upon how much panic they can drum up about variants.

      • Agent Cooper

        I get to go to California for work in another week and wear masks all day indoors or outdoors on a video shoot because of unions.

  29. Q Continuum

    If I’m to believe what I see on numerous documentaries, the next logical step in your relationship is to get stuck bare-assed in the dryer.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/dear-deidre/15533695/in-love-with-my-sons-best-friend/

    Further,

    Boring: “Three bottles of wine later, and he was pleasuring me on the sofa with his mouth.”

    Better: “After getting ripped on Thunderbird he was chowing down on my poontang like a state fair funnel cake!”

    • PieInTheSky

      Call me old fashioned but I don’t get the appeal of banging a chick twice your age

      • Q Continuum

        Seasoned sled slides swifter than a green one?

      • R C Dean

        *does math*

        Well, I’m not a necrophiliac, so. . . .

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        There might be some Okinawan centurian for me at twice my age

      • PieInTheSky

        As Patrice O’Neal said pussy is only good from 16 to 29

      • Spartacus

        Patrice O’Neal, whoever that is, is 100% wrong.

      • PieInTheSky

        was… a fat guy who needed some glib fit. and according to bill burr had the best game of the comedians. He would insult women into bed. elephant in the room is a great special

      • Spartacus

        Huh. Maybe it’s just that women over 30 wouldn’t fall for his shtick. As it were.

      • PieInTheSky

        he was making a joke. it was a bit.

      • PieInTheSky

        when I first saw that I cracked up when he told the 20 year old chick in the audience I bet your pussy taste like hope

      • limey

        Unless you’re 15?

      • PieInTheSky

        true… up to like 20 probably

    • rhywun

      Jealous of the bitch.

    • Agent Cooper

      Yeah. She was really cute before.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Heinous anarchism

    A budget airline customer who refused to mask up was hit with a massive $10,500 fine.

    The unidentified flier defied flight attendants who asked him seven times to wear his mask over his mouth and nose on a Feb. 27 Allegiant trip from Provo, Utah, to Mesa, Arizona, according to the FAA.

    The passenger also argued with workers and cornered a flight attendant after the plane landed to complain about the mask policy, the feds said.

    The man touched the woman during the confrontation, which intimidated the flight attendant and made her cry, officials said.

    The FAA levied whopping fines of up to $21,500 on eight other passengers this week.

    Nearly 2,500 passengers have refused to comply the in-flight mask mandate since January.

    Made her cry?

    Off with his head!

  31. Not an Economist

    Somehow I think the chess hustler was distracted.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    She seems most disturbed by what she characterizes as “smart-mouth comments.”

    One does not question authority. That way madness and hooliganism lie.

  33. Tulip

    Hello from sunny Minnesota, not too humid, lovely weather.

    • Tundra

      Hi Tulip!

      Are you up nort?

      • Tulip

        Minneapolis area for my mom’s birthday

      • Tundra

        Happy birthday to Mom! Enjoy your stay in our crazy city!

    • PieInTheSky

      I don’t buy that. you are in the pocket of Big Gopher

    • Count Potato

      “Despite the fact that some of her friends began to call her a slut”

      No way she could see that coming.

    • blackjack

      She was “addicted!” HEH, HEH.

    • PieInTheSky

      the difficulty for doing that as a chick is way lower than as a dude.

      • limey

        I imagine it depends on your standards.

      • Q Continuum

        And your bank account.

      • limey

        True. And, after ×1000 you might find many ransoms levied against the contents of said account and other assets. I’m thinking of the dude who ostensibly flashed his crypto stash on the first date, although I don’t recall any confirmation of that story.

      • PieInTheSky

        well assuming average dude. not great looking no great bank account not famous. like that chick. we aint talking george clooney here

      • creech

        Bank account and celebrity helped Wilt Chamberlain; Bill Cosby, not so much.

      • blackjack

        The bank account is the whole problem for them. If some chick regrets fucking a broke bastard, she just lives with it and moves on. Ain’t no payday imminent.

      • PieInTheSky

        1000 is still tough.

      • blackjack

        That’s only a hundred per year, over the 10 years she had. So, twice a week. It’s not all that difficult to find two a week in a well populated city.

        That said, I fail to see why it’s any different from having sex a thousand times with just a few people. Of course, it makes any given one of them feel less special, but does anyone seriously think young dudes would turn it down because they felt ” less special?”

      • PieInTheSky

        maybe US is different. But in Bucharest an average man finding two different women a week to fuck is tough.

      • blackjack

        I live in Los Angeles. If somebody were serious, as I was in my youth, it’s easy to exceed that. It got old eventually, and way before 10 years of it.

    • Agent Cooper

      It’ll be a hot dog in a hallway wedding night.

  34. limey

    I have a poster print of an F-15E. I have absolutely no connection to the USAF, or McDonnell Douglas, but I suppose I could put it up on the wall as a reminder of what glorious things humans can achieve when government squeezes it’s subjects for half their paychecks then funnels taxes into bottomless defense contracts which are still mostly paid for by borrowing from future generations?

    • limey

      DESERT STORM MOTHERF&$@ER!!!111 SHARIF DON’T LIKE IT!!!11111

  35. prolefeed

    I was thinking about the Overton window moving recently when the Biden health secretary appointee floated the trial balloon of federal agents going door to door “asking” about vac status.

    Dry run to test whether citizenry will knuckle under for gun confiscation? Or is my tin foil hat showing?

    • limey

      Seems reasonable to me. The tinfoil hat window moves in perfect correlation with the Overton window. Correlation does no equal causation so it must be pure coincidence, however.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Ah yes, but this is a non-issue to cosmos, systemic racism is the real problem.

      Actually had someone tell me this in earnest.

      • prolefeed

        Indoctrinating kids to be racists via CRT is “systemic racism”. Dunno if that is what they meant.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        No, most certainly not

    • Gustave Lytton

      First thing my wife said. His agents are going to go door to door and take your guns at the same time.

      Partially in jest. And my wife doesn’t have patience for political nuttery but she’s picked up on that part.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Not unreasonable. His (SHHS) larger quote, that hasnt gotten much attention is

      “We want to give people the sense that they have the freedom to choose. But we hope they choose to live, and we’re going to make it possible for them to have a good life, and by the way, protect their family and loved ones at the same time. We hope people make the right choices. We want them to have the right information. But we are America. We try to give people as much freedom and choice as possible. But clearly, when over 600,000 Americans have died, the best choice is to get vaccinated.”

      • blackjack

        You are free to choose what we tell you to choose. If you choose otherwise, we will haunt you, mock you and restrict your options until you, rightly, choose as we have dictated. End of transmission.

      • Ownbestenemy

        That part of the interview is worse than his “we spent money on you and we have the right to do this”

      • rhywun

        choose to live

        Oh go fuck yourself.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yep and that is why prolefeed is not that far off. If it is framed as part of ‘life and pursuit of happiness’ then the government will say “we are helping you choose to live by removing these weapons of war”.

        I give it a year.

    • EvilSheldon

      I think that they’re hoping for a violent response, which they can then use to twist the screws even tighter.

  36. PieInTheSky

    Kotaku wrote a ridiculous article about how UNFAIR it is that Sony charges $25,000 to advertise your game in the PlayStation store.

    In response, somebody emailed Kotaku’s head of ad sales and found out how much it costs to advertise on their site:

    $25,000

    https://twitter.com/VitoGesualdi/status/1410674323774328832

    • limey

      Everything is so terrible and unfair even when it is apparently equitable by their own standards?

      • limey

        Fluid, amorphous standards are no standards at all.

    • leon

      I’m guessing the author has some indie developer friend with a “good idea” (maybe social justice shoved in) and thought he could get a spot on PlayStation for $500. And it’s not fair that his good idea has to pay the same as any other crap.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    The system of cheating they implemented here in CA involved all the ballot harvesting and mail in bullshit, and they reduced the number of polling stations to less than a third of previous numbers. We could vote ant any of them, but there were hours long lines at all of them. Of course the super cheaty stuff was not throttled. All pary of the machine

    Forcing you to stand in that line was a vital part of their meticulously crafted SCIENCE!-tistic plague suppression tactics.

  38. Spartacus

    “My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
    “Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.
    “What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
    “I never know what you are thinking. Think.”

    This sounds like the conversation every night in the Spartacus household when I get home from work.
    She just doesn’t understand that leading a slave rebellion is a demanding and draining job.

  39. PieInTheSky

    after my last windows update my temperature widget thing got switched silly degrees. wtf does 88 mean? 31 it seems…

    • Spartacus

      Yep, 88 means 31.
      Makes you wonder what other settings got changed without your knowledge.

  40. The Late P Brooks

    Misdirection; like the old Statue of Liberty play

    President Joe Biden is being attacked for $3 gasoline. But the truth is the White House isn’t to blame for high gas prices — and has few options to lower them.

    The seven-year high in gas prices is all about supply and demand. Gas was dirt cheap last spring because highways sat empty during the height of the pandemic.

    This year’s successful rollout of Covid-19 vaccines allowed people to return to the skies and roadways, lifting energy demand as a result. That’s a good thing.
    The problem is that supply is having a hard time catching up. And Biden doesn’t have a magic wand to fix that overnight.

    As if Team Biden the slightest interest in getting gas prices back down. Electric cars are the future, America!

    Or you could take the train.

    • blackjack

      Pretty sure Biden dwclared war on guzzoline AND doubled down on all of the silly covid theater. He explicitly endorses high gas prices and wrecking the economy by locking down.

    • leon

      I wonder why supply is so tight?

    • Suthenboy

      “…the truth is the White House isn’t to blame for high gas prices — and has few options to lower them.”

      “I believe this” said no one ever. There is no horse shit beyond these people.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Getting OPEC+ to move is key because the group is really the only game in town. No one else has the firepower to quickly ramp up production. OPEC+ is still holding back production it sidelined when Covid erupted last spring.

    ——-

    The United States is an oil superpower in its own right. However, the core group of OPEC pumps more than twice as much oil as the United States. And US output is down by about 2 million barrels per day from the pre-Covid peak.

    I wonder how that happened.

    • PieInTheSky

      bad luck?

    • Q Continuum

      Hacks gonna hack.

      Individuals that would be providing infinitely more value by mixing lattes.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Some of Biden’s critics have blamed high gas prices on the president’s decision, on his first day in office, to rescind the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
    Yet that argument makes little sense. Keystone was not even scheduled to begin bringing barrels from Canada until 2023, at the earliest.
    “The cancellation of Keystone XL has no current impact to pricing or US supply,” said Parker Fawcett, a Platts energy analyst.

    Bigger picture, the attention on high gas prices underscores how reliant the US economy remains on fossil fuels despite the climate crisis.
    “Once we move beyond the immediate crisis, complacency sets in and people go back to enjoying SUVs,” said Bordoff, co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School.
    Bordoff said the most important thing to do is to limit the US economy’s oil addiction.

    “This is going to happen again and again,” said Bordoff. “It’s in the national interest, not only because of the climate crisis, but for our own energy security, to reduce oil consumption.”

    Aaaand there it is. We must make petroleum unaffordable (for the average Joe Sixpack, anyway). It’s for your own good, America. We know what’s best.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      We’re not going to starve tomorrow, what’s the worry?

    • Nephilium

      No one changes their actions in the current day based on changes in the future!

      • Ownbestenemy

        We have had a $1.00/gallon increase in 6 months and looks like we will his $4.00/gallon or more here in a week or two.

        Luckily all my wifes clients all understand why her prices have increased as it is the largest expense for the job.

      • blackjack

        We got 2.00 a gallon increase. The price of everything reflects that. Im paying just under 5 bucks a gallon for super. Thank the dogs i got the little sky for my commute, instead of the TBSS. 25 mpg vs about 9.

    • creech

      Yep, no businessman ever takes future conditions into present pricing or investment decisions.

    • EvilSheldon

      You’re an energy analyst, and you’re not aware of the existence of futures contracts?

      Oh, of course, what was I thinking? You’re not an analyst, you’re a shill, paid to give legitimacy to government press releases.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Crap. Drugs. Ass.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Assume a can opener

    The current boom in deficit spending by governments around the world probably owes at least something to Olivier Blanchard, who in 2019 wrote, “Put bluntly, public debt may have no fiscal cost.” Blanchard, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, argued that if the economy’s growth rate is durably higher than the government’s borrowing rate, a lump of debt becomes more affordable over time because interest payments shrink as a share of the economy.

    And if pigs had wings, they’d be eagles.

    • leon

      Interest rates will be low forever!

  44. Ownbestenemy

    Who would have thought…we have dragonflies this year in in my backyard.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Oops damesflies. Havent seen them for a few years

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      We have butterflies! Lot’s of them, giant moths as well, like birdsized moths,
      it’s been decades since I have seen butterflies like this,

      • blackjack

        I’m in north FLA. Millions of lizards, one raccoon, and a huge Land crab in the front yard. The size of a football.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        “Millions of lizards” we have those up here, long legged and stupid, they love to run in front of cars,
        /Stupid lizard Deer

      • Ownbestenemy

        I have all the normal critters. Bunnies, roadrunners, quails, bats, owls, lizards, damesflies, hummingbirds and tarantulas.

        That which is unseen and I am okay with as long as they remain such: coyotes, rattlers, scorpions, black widows and brown recluses. Another that also needs to be unseen are tarantula hawks and centipedes. Creepy little bastards those are.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Bugs, and they all want to eat me, one of the things that might drive me out of here and back to the scorpions and rattlesnakes

  45. The Late P Brooks

    And now- the bad news:

    Now, a pair of research papers by Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff and co-authors question Blanchard’s original conclusions. The authors say saddling future generations with more debt doesn’t pass the test of Pareto improvement, which is the standard Blanchard held himself to. A policy is Pareto-improving if it makes some people better off without making anyone worse off. If even one person is harmed by a policy, it’s not Pareto-improving.

    Kotlikoff, who calls himself a deficit realist rather than a deficit hawk, argues that accumulating debt to pay for current expenses is like a Ponzi scheme in that money from new players (the young) is used to pay off people who started playing the game earlier (the old). The Ponzi scheme collapses when the economy’s growth rate falls below the interest rate. “For awhile it all looks great, then somebody gets nailed,” Kotlikoff says in an interview.

    “Olivier is a fantastic economist and he’s a friend of mine but I don’t think this was his best effort,” Kotlikoff says, referring to the American Economic Association presidential address in January 2019 that was the basis for Blanchard’s paper.

    Eventually, you run out of suckers.

    • R C Dean

      What, you mean borrowing for group A’s benefit when group B will have to pay the debt isn’t Pareto-improving?

      Good thing economists are just making this revolutionary breakthrough before we go too deep into debt.

  46. Scruffy Nerfherder

    What do you say to a libertarian who proclaims DeSantis is a tyrant?

    • EvilSheldon

      “What else is new?”

    • blackjack

      Desantis has overcorrected a bit, but among the govenors we have, he’s bottom 5 for tyranny. I am ruled by Newsom.

    • PieInTheSky

      well every governor is a tyrant. depends on why they saying it

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Banned free market vaccine pasdports

      • PieInTheSky

        I mean if a private business asked for proof of vaccination it is their business to lose

      • leon

        Ignore them, the libertarians who are concerned about biasness using a vaccine passport will be writing “I used to be a libertarian” articles in two years.

      • blackjack

        That is just a reversion to the old way. Aint nobodies business if choose not to treat a disease I don’t even have. Only public schools were mandating certain vaccines and even they had easy exceptions. None of the vaccines required were for a disease with such a small death/destruction toll.

      • R C Dean

        He correctly sees them as the camel’s nose under the tent for mandatory vaccine papieren.

    • Q Continuum

      Tallest midget?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Pretty much. They’re complaining about DeSantis and Abbott when there’s every other governor in the country that’s demonstrably worse.

        Just Democrats in LP garb.

    • rhywun

      Show him a picture of Cuomo.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    What do you say to a libertarian who proclaims DeSantis is a tyrant?

    Nobody ever ran for office so he could leave you the fuck alone.

    • ignoreLander

      Nobody ever ran for office so he could leave you the fuck alone.

      Might be the best quote I’ve heard. I’m stealing that, no doubt about it.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    We just want our fair share

    The Seattle region is on the verge of a major shift. As King County’s COVID-19 vaccination rate climbs above 70%, businesses are reopening, workers are returning to the office and life is inching back toward normal.

    The sense of relief is palpable. Before we fully exhale, however, we must take a moment to reflect on the persistent inequities that led to higher case rates, hospitalizations and deaths among local Black, Indigenous and people of color communities. The events of the past 15 months have shown us that disparities surrounding race, gender and geography don’t just affect certain groups — they threaten our economy, undermine our democracy and tear at the fabric that holds our communities together.

    The coming weeks and months present a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revisit our region’s values and priorities, to collaborate on a vision of the “normal” we want to achieve moving forward. Shared prosperity — the idea that we all do better when we all do better — must be central to the way Greater Seattle charts its path to recovery.

    One place to start: the Scorecard for Shared Prosperity. The scorecard is a Civic Commons tool that works as a data-driven economic gauge for leaders within the private, philanthropic, government and community sectors. It tracks our collective progress using measurements like food insecurity rates, postsecondary education rates and the percentage of cost-burdened households.

    The goal is simple: Create a fair system in which everyone has access to the opportunity and resources they need to thrive.

    “Fuck off, slaver,” said the Little Red Hen.

    • Q Continuum

      something something world ends something women and minorities hurt most

    • Ownbestenemy

      The goal is simple: Create a fair system in which everyone has access to the opportunity and resources they need to thrive.

      To achieve this we will weigh a persons race and gender against the needs of the community and services provided. As of today, group X and Z are priorities but check tomorrow as we have no actual information to lean on and someone might send a mean Tweet and we will then prioritize groups B and Y.

      • rhywun

        As long as group W remains the root cause of every problem in the world.

    • rhywun

      we must take a moment to reflect

      Knock yourself out.

    • prolefeed

      Shorter: “The goal is communism.”

    • Cy Esquire

      Making cuts is a lot easier when you’re the one with the knife.

  49. Gustave Lytton

    Too much white pepper on the eggs this morning.

    • Ownbestenemy

      One does not simply put too much white pepper on their eggs. #couldntresist

    • PieInTheSky

      white pepper – racist much?

  50. Ownbestenemy

    If I was a stickler for systems and timetables I would be anxious that the noon post not available and is messing up my daily schedule.

    I mean, how am I to know what beer to drink?