261 Comments

  1. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh

    • Tonio

      Whaddup, Tres?

      Happy Friday to everyone!

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Thanks, mang. The SU’s back from visiting her mom and it’s a long weekend (possibly the last one before our government decides to lock down yet again), so I’m gonna do my best to enjoy it.

        I hope everybody else can do the same.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Have fun. I start vacation next Friday. Please, oh please, Gauleiter Murphy, hold off for another few weeks

      • Tres Cool

        Jugsy makes her triumphant return to Chez Tres tonight, but only to leave again on Sunday.
        Tomorrow, I have a lot to do in short time.

        /considers ordering little blue pills & gatorade

      • Ownbestenemy

        These are starting to read like an imaginary girlfriend.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        To be fair, “hallucinatory” and “imaginary” aren’t quite the same.

      • Bobarian LMD

        She’s from Canada?

      • Swiss Servator

        If Tres had been talking like she was a Dunphy-esque supermodel, I might join yer skepticism…but he is quite open about his…preferences.

      • Tonio

        Don’t come a knockin’ when the trailer is rockin’.

      • Penguin

        Congrats, Tres

      • grrizzly

        Didn’t Alberta lift all the restrictions including even the need to quarantine if one tests positive?

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        I think you mean “negative,” and yeah, all remaining restrictions (they’re very few) disappear in early August.

        Meanwhile, Alberta Health’s own website for COVID is showing a fairly rapid increase in cases (mostly in the Calgary region, oddly enough), which is why I’m betting that they’ll lock down again come late August/early September and say “See, we promised you a summer and you got it! Now, back to your basements.”

      • grrizzly

        I guess I meant this:

        As of Thursday, quarantine for close contacts became no longer mandatory but just recommended

        On Aug. 16, a further scaling down of the rules is planned:

        You will no longer be required to isolate if you test positive for COVID-19, but isolation will still be strongly recommended.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Ah. Yeah, I actually saw that, and forgot about it. My apologies.

        Not sure where all this freedom’s coming from, but it sure ain’t the Chief MOH. She’d lock us down so hard we wouldn’t be able to go to the bathroom for a year if she could.

      • Swiss Servator

        “cases” – how many hospitalized, how many dead?

        Nobody answering those…

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Ackshually, Alberta Health’s been pretty good (N.B.: not perfect!) about that info — as of yesterday, in a province of approximately 4.4 million souls, there were 90 hospitalizations and 19 in ICU that were ascribed to COVID. In terms of “cases,” 990 are from the Calgary health region, 301 are from the Edmonton region, and 364 from the rest of the province.

        I look at those numbers and rejoice, but I goddamn-guarantee you that someone in the government’s looking at them and trying to figure out the earliest possible date we can be locked down again.

  2. Ownbestenemy

    Our agency is probably hiding or scrambling any moves they want to make after Biden dropped his Feds must get vaccinated or face medical scrutinty statement. Nothing was said today, no “hey we know you probably heard…” or even from the union like “not so fast”.

      • Ownbestenemy

        And…4 hospitalized and 0 deaths. No word on why the 4 were hospitalized either.

      • The Other Kevin

        I’ve been keeping an eye on the Indiana COVID dashboard. Cases are way up, most are Delta variant, and most counties are now in “condition yellow” or whatever. Hospitalizations are slightly up, daily deaths still in low single digits.

      • Sean

        Delta variant,

        How do they know that? Are they really sending all the samples in for further testing?

        How does that work?

      • Bobarian LMD

        How do they know that?

        They caught it at this party?

        Super spreader event.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        It’s a toga party not a super spreader event.

      • invisible finger

        How do they know that? The NEA told them. And teachers would never lie.

  3. Tres Cool

    Even to a hillbilly like me, it seems QI for the cop stops at the assault, since its kinda outside the scope of his expected duties as a police officer.
    Unless they teach rape at the police academy.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I thought the rape course was conducted only when the brass invites the UN team to observe our tactics

    • Ghostpatzer

      STEVE SMITH is a tenured professor?

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        He is an arboreal lawyer and rapesquatch of importance, so why not?

      • Swiss Servator

        EXACTLY. STEVE SMITH PROMINENT FOREST LAWYER!

    • Rat on a train

      QI applies because the academy didn’t teach candidates to not rape.

    • Tres Cool

      Upon reflection, at least the ruling sorta admits that QI covers criminal behavior.

    • R C Dean

      Current QI rulings from the courts are that QI applies unless the exact conduct by the cop was specifically called out in a prior court case as a violation of rights.

      Cop says he’ll shoot your dog unless you confess, and then he does? Nope, protected by QI.

      Cop strip searches your teen age daughter after he stops you for running a red light? Nope, protected by QI. That case* saying that cops can’t strip search minors when they minor is the driver isn’t on point.

      *I made this case up.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Well they do have a course on it, but this guy managed to test out of it so he never actually took that class

  4. Ghostpatzer

    Survey on National Parks link:

    Which of the following online liquor delivery companies would you consider purchasing?

    Hmm, if I liquidate my portfolio…

  5. Tonio

    To access trailheads, cars had to pull over on roads more than a mile from parking lots. In 2014 and 2016, the same trails were easily accessible.

    Hikers inconvenienced because they have to hike to get to their hike.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Trailheads right at a parking lot or side of the road are dirty, crowded and unpleasant to me. I would prefer one that makes me work a little to get where I want to be.

    • EvilSheldon

      Eh, nobody likes road hiking.

      On the other hand, probably about 0.01% of these tourists are doing any real hiking…

      • Pope Jimbo

        real hiking

        Oh, let me guess, another long snapper fan boi?

      • Swiss Servator

        Oh, very nice….took me a drunkish second to get ya.

  6. Semi-Spartan Dad

    Thanks Riven. Sorry to go OT, but I wanted to carry this over from the dead thread.

    Found the article in Tundra’s tweet if anyone is interested.

    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.28.21261159v1.full-text

    During the blinded, controlled period, 15 BNT162b2 and 14 placebo recipients died; during the open-label period, 3 BNT162b2 and 2 original placebo recipients who received BNT162b2 after unblinding died. None of these deaths were considered related to BNT162b2 by investigators. Causes of death were balanced between BNT162b2 and placebo groups (Table S4).

    This is six months follow-up for Pfizer vax versus placebo in 44,000 study participants. 2 people out of 22,000 in the placebo group died from Covid. 2 out of 14 deaths.

    If those two deaths are significant in any way, consider that 4 people in the vax group died from cardiac arrest compared with 1 in the placebo group. A much greater difference than deaths from Covid.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      I’m still angry that the SU got her double-shot of Pfizer, but she’s an adult, we talked it over, and she made the decision herself with her eyes wide open.

      To clarify, I’m not angry at her, but rather at this veritable shit-show surrounding the vaccines that’s been going on. I’m just a bit frightened for her. I fervently hope it’s nothing, but I’ve had an unfocused feeling of dread about the vaccines for many months now . . .

      • Nephilium

        I’m the only one in my immediate family who didn’t get the vax. Both parents did (they’re older and have higher risk issues already), as did my sister and her husband. Thankfully, none of them have brought it up with me. Of course, they also know I don’t get the flu shot, nor do I get sick on a regular basis.

      • invisible finger

        SU?

      • Tres Cool

        He dropped the E. Its really Sue.

      • blackjack

        That’ll toughen him up!

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Spousal Unit.

  7. The Other Kevin

    According to the commercials, this weekend is the biggest weekend in sports ever! I don’t know about that, but I will be watching women’s volleyball tonight. US is 3-0, and the favorite China is now 0-3. But they haven’t made it to bracket play yet, so there’s still time for China to improve as their families disappear.

    • Ownbestenemy

      I know Vegas is hosting the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup Final this weekend.

      • rhywun

        Vegas?! I was expecting the usual Texas and an overwhelming anti-US crowd.

      • Plinker762

        Is that some kind of .45 model?

  8. Dr. Fronkensteen

    One might assume that a court would have found cops sexually assaulting women during traffic stops to be unconstitutional at a prior point in history, but that assumption would be wrong. Qualified immunity creates a perpetual Catch-22 where no case can proceed because no prior case has proceeded.

    Was I not supposed to rape?

    • R C Dean

      The good doctor gets it.

    • slumbrew

      There’s no civil liability due to QI but it doesn’t save you from criminal charges. Otherwise that dude wouldn’t be serving time.

      The victim wants to sue the cop, the department & the county – QI is preventing that.

      • Swiss Servator

        …and my blood boils still.

    • blackjack

      Somewhere between page 6 brazillion and page 10 brazillion, we made our legal system into something malleable enough to give it’s wielders total control of everybody and everything. Now, just to make sure we put the right people in charge of it.

    • Tres Cool

      So his counsel or union rep could argue that. “his training never included NOT raping people” so this falls under the umbrella of QI?

      “He was just doing his job”

      • Chafed

        That’s about right. There was a case a few years ago in which cops stole over $200,000. You would think it is obvious it is illegal steal and therefore impermissible for a cop to do so. Nope. QI was granted because there was no case with the same facts.

  9. Gadfly

    “Encouraging visits to some of the other 423 sites overseen by the National Park Service could ease crowding at marquee destinations, Montana’s Republican Senator Steve Daines said.”

    Or perhaps the marquee parks should charge greater entrance fees. That would provide more funding for the NPS without dipping into tax revenues and reduce congestion, killing multiple birds with one stone.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      That’s racist.

    • limey

      killing multiple birds with one stone

      You might be barred from entry to any national parks after doing that.

      • Gadfly

        But what if I use every part of the bird? Eat the meat, use the feathers for arrows, grind the bones into fertilizer? That’s Eco-consciousness right there.

      • limey

        Well, there are rules, and and and well, there are rules and you have to follow them and that’s just how it is.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      That sounds racist. It’s Jim Crow on steroids. Why not just come out and say you want separate parks for POCs? Or should that be PsOC?

      • rhywun

        I am a POCs after I’ve belted back a couple vodkas.

    • UnCivilServant

      Or, the government could just sell of the lands it shouldn’t be holding (hint, most of it)

    • Plisade

      Dammit.

  10. Plisade

    “Encouraging visits to some of the other 423 sites overseen by the National Park Service could ease crowding at marquee destinations, Montana’s Republican Senator Steve Daines said.”

    And from the article, ‘National Parks could expand this transit service if they were allocated money via the infrastructure or surface transportation bills that are currently being negotiated in Congress, Brengel told the senators. “This is where we need your help.”’

    Obviously, charging (more) for admission is out of the question.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Obviously, charging (more) for admission is out of the question.

      I got the “boomer discount”, aka lifetime senior pass, which gets me AND my family in to any NP gratis. I think I paid $20 for this (it’s been a while). Smart move, providing free entry for the demographic with the most free time to visit. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its per vehicle. Loadup a vehicle with a card carrying veteran and youre in for free.

      • Nephilium

        Do i have to let them out of the trunk?

      • Tres Cool

        If you leave me enough room, I may move in there.

      • Nephilium

        /looks at the Mini Cooper

        You’re more then welcome to try.

      • blackjack

        Mini Coopers are like limos compared to the Sky.

      • Plinker762

        Remember, Pack out what you pack in, so no dead bodies in the trunk

      • Pope Jimbo

        I actually got all signed up with my Vet card to take advantage of that.

    • Spartacus

      They are going to charge more, just not to the visitors.

      • Bobarian LMD

        It’s funny, because it’s true.

  11. grrizzly

    NYT: Vaccinated People May Spread the Virus, Though Rarely, C.D.C. Reports
    The agency cited an outbreak in Provincetown, Mass., in which most of the infected were immunized. Unpublished internal documents paint an even more harrowing picture.

    Some people in the comments are slowly realizing that the vaccines are much less effective than they believed.

    And then there’s this comment:

    I think the time has regrettably come to make life intolerable for the unvaccinated, unless they have a medical reason that they can’t.
    The unvaccinated have now become a menace to society, spreading Covid and creating new and more dangerous variants.
    The unvaccinated must no longer be allowed in virtually ANY public place. That includes, all public transportation, all bars and restaurants, all work sites, etc. Only then will they they do the right thing.
    We are in a war and the unvaccinated are now fighting on the side of the virus. Enough is enough with these people.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Would prior infection be considered a medical reason? I know, I know, this virus can re-infect people unlike every other virus because it was probably manufactured in a lab.

    • EvilSheldon

      “Regrettably”, he chortles with undisguised glee…

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        ‘Zactly.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        I worry what these people would do if we had a virus with a high hospitalization and death rate.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        They would “fortify” their righteous responses of indignation, of course!

      • Gustave Lytton

        Branch covidians would be whining incessantly about the end of the world, public health authoritarians would be dreaming up technocratic final solutions, and denialists would be braying that it’s all fake. Everyone would be behaving pretty much the same as they are now basically.

    • limey

      A prime candidate for a one way helicopter ride.

    • invisible finger

      Somebody bought heavily in to the whole “vaccine” lie.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      We are in a war and the unvaccinated are now fighting on the side of the virus.

      I’m not even gonna dignify this with a “you know who else”. This is straight up out of the Nazi playbook.

      • R C Dean

        We are in a war and the unvaccinated are now fighting on the side of the virus.

        So, martial law and summary execution of anyone found without their vacks card?

        I know which side of the barricades I’ll be on.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The unvaxed must be killed obviously. Rawanda, here we come.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I thought that said unwaxed and was going to ask if you really felt that strongly about personal grooming habits.

  12. Nephilium

    It’s a Friday, and the ‘vid madness intensifies. I’ll kick off the Zoom/Happy Hour/Sanity Check at 20:00 Eastern.

    As I’ll be out of town next weekend, someone else will need to step up to host.

    • Tonio

      I can kick it off, up, and out both days next week. May need others to take over later, but that’s never a problem.

      • Nephilium

        Thanks for stepping up Tonio. I’ll be out drinking and skanking with some other reprobates.

  13. The Late P Brooks

    I was just talking to somebody yesterday who said there’s a webcam at the West Yellowstone entrance to the park, and you can see cars trying to get in backed up to the horizon by 8 o’clock in the morning.

    There are lots of touristas out there, clogging the local roads and cluttering up the Big Sky Country.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    We are in a war and the unvaccinated are now fighting on the side of the virus. Enough is enough with these people.

    *cleans pistols, loads all the magazines*

    • Loveconstitution1789

      Viruses have been around a lot longer than Lefties. Viruses and bacteria are integral to human survival. Im siding with anything that gets rid of Lefties.

    • Sean

      “loads all the magazines”

      you know how long that would take me?

      • Plinker762

        I think I have about 10K links.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Though it’s the afternoon.

    It looks like the early bird gets the traffic jam.

  16. Loveconstitution1789

    So, DoD preparing to order active military to get vaccine. Only 2 active members died while infected. Yeah 2!

    The military used to line us up and water gun innoculations into us, so no surprise that ~30% unvaccinated rates are unacceptable.

    Heres something scary…
    What if COVID19, which SARS, is in fact a biological weapon that is most dangerous in two parts. Vaccinated persons got the two parts. COVID19 by itself it clearly no more dangerous than influenza to <65 years old. All the vaccinated person develop unknown as of yet complications and die ina few years. All unvaccinated persons live.

    • invisible finger

      Prolly a question for Ozy…

    • The Other Kevin

      Somewhere Thanos weeps.

    • Drake

      They are holding off until the FDA approves one of the vaxes.

      The FDA has yanked vaccines off the market for far fewer deaths and injuries than any if the 3 offered in the U.S.

      • Drake

        Begs the next question – once they are fully approved and not “emergency usage”, will Congress drop the immunity for the pharmas?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, right…Magic 8 Ball says no.

      • R C Dean

        You’re a funny guy, Drake.

      • R C Dean

        The wilful ignorance of the DOJ about (a) the fact that “informed consent” is required for an EUA drug regardless of whether the FDA specifically requires it and (b) “informed consent” has always meant “without inducement, whether reward or punishment” is, well, I dunno, about what I would expect these days? They obtusely misread the routine requirement that informed consent include the likely consequences of refusal, meaning the likely clinical consequences, to give a green light to firing (or, one supposes, anything at all) someone who refuses, as long as they are told, is particularly infuriating to me.

        Their breezy assertion that the threat of losing your job isn’t “coercion”, seems, at a minimum, inconsistent with sexual harassment law and undoubtedly other employment laws. But I don’t expect anyone to apply anything in a principled fashion any more. Every year is Year Zero. Every day is Day Zero.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Yes, but shift it to the regular immunization indemnity and payout fund as other vaccines that’s been in place for 35 years.

      • blackjack

        The EUA requires that nobody be forced to take it under any form of coercion. Any form. That’s not what’s happening. Even requiring tests in lieu of is some level of coercion. None is allowed.

      • R C Dean

        The DOJ determined that applies to the companies mandating the vaccine, not to the people getting the vaccine.

        No, I am not making that up.

      • blackjack

        I work for the government. They are mandating either testing weekly or vaccine. It violates the EUA. Quite blatantly.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Wait, what? Companies can’t be coerced but individuals can? Is that why you’re saying the determination was?

      • R C Dean

        Pretty much. Somewhere in all that legalese, the DOJ says that people can be fired, but the only requirement for companies mandating the vacks is they have to comply with the EUA issued by the FDA.

        If the DOJ memo was applied across the universe of informed consent, it would allow doctors and hospitals to pay patients if they agree to treatment (illegal, outside the research setting) or penalize them (charge them a fine? ban them from the practice/hospital? fire them, if they are an employee? The possibilities are endless) if they refuse (also illegal). It displays the wilful ignorance and results-driven arrogance that one expects from federal bureaucrats.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Hospitals and healthcare where they are both the innoculators and employers seems to muddle that a bit, but for general non-medical employers, my reading is that they aren’t really subject at all to the EUA terms as they’re neither the manufacturer/licensee or inoculator/user of the EUA licensed product.

      • R C Dean

        I think that’s what the DOJ was getting at, but in order to clear the road for firing the unvacksed, they had to run roughshod over informed consent.

      • blackjack

        There is no exception to the non-coercion requirement for experimental medical treatments. The Bush part 2 administration lost this battle in 2003. They are skipping history on this and I hope it bites them eventually.

      • WTF

        I’m reading Ozy’s book now, and when I read the excerpts he posted here I was thinking that at least they can’t pull that shit on you if you’re not in the military. Turns out I was wrong.

      • blackjack

        I’m debating, right now, if I should refuse both the testing and the vaccine. The tests are a punishment for not getting the vaccine. I just don’t know if I have the stomach for as much suffering as they could assign to me for doing that. Besides, I have a kid and a cushy life.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’ll gladly do as much testing as they want me to. Vaxx is a non-starter, especially now that I know they used aborted babies in them.

      • R C Dean

        There is no fetal tissue in the vacks. I don’t believe the production process involves fetal tissue, either. Whether it was used during the R&D, I couldn’t say.

      • blackjack

        The testing is a punishment for not vaxxing. I will not be punished for non-compliance with an illegal demand. I have no concerns about the origins of the actual substance. I am pissed that I am being bullied. Should have typed that in all caps.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Whether it was used during the R&D, I couldn’t say.

        I believe that was the case. Used in development. I’m sure they’re not grinding up fetuses en masse to create the doses.

    • blackjack

      Um, this seems to be unthought still. Every ‘vid test contains DNA. The government is mandating that we turn over our DNA to them. Maybe they won’t use it for anything. Or….

  17. Gadfly

    If you have a spare $28M lying around you can buy the Bel-Air estate owned by Osama bin Laden’s brother. It’s been vacant for 20 years.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      For $28 mil I could do I lot better. That pink is atrocious.

    • R C Dean

      Despite its abandoned state, the property’s price is based on “land value only,” and location.

      Holy crap. $28mm for a teardown?

      And, yet another semi-literate journalist with semi-literate editors. Its “Because of”, not “Despite”, ya feckin’ morons.

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        Heck, grab a couple of guys from Home Depot and that place will be looking sharp in no time.

      • blackjack

        2 acres in Bel Aire? That’s a bargain for that. You could build 5 houses on the dirt and get 30 mil a piece for them. Bob Hope’s house sold for, I think 15 mil. That was 5 acres, but in Toluca lake. It’s about 6 blocks from my house.

    • The Other Kevin

      Appropriate. (Another thing that could never be made today).

      • Gadfly

        LOL

      • The Hyperbole

        As well it shouldn’t, and not because un-PC/woke but because.. Jesus! that was hard to watch, the theme song parody was okay, but they should have ended it there, the rest of the skit was just horrible.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Oh, there was more? I turned it off after the title appeared.

  18. The Late P Brooks
    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Christ almighty. What is the breaking point? Canberra and the state governments seem to be sprinting towards the precipice.

    • one true athena

      wow, door to door delivery of covid? I’m sure that’s very helpful!

    • rhywun

      And if nobody answers I assume they just break in?

      • Sean

        Welfare check!

  19. The Late P Brooks

    I love this Dell keyboard. It’s a high quality piece of equipment.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      I hope that keyboard complies with the California Energy Mandates, citizen.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Hoping to quell public anger over the lockdowns and discourage vaccine resistance, Morrison said Friday that vaccinated Australians would be able to avoid some lockdowns once the rate of inoculation in the country hit 70%. He said once that rate hits 80%, broad lockdowns in major cities would no longer be necessary.

    “If you get vaccinated, there will be special rules that apply to you. Why? Because if you’re vaccinated, you present less of a public health risk. You are less likely to get the virus. You are less likely to transmit it,” the prime minister told reporters, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

    Good little boys and girls get a special treat.

    Bad little boys and girls get locked in the coal cellar.

    • R C Dean

      He said once that rate hits 80%, broad lockdowns in major cities would no longer be necessary.

      He’s lying about that. Now that Delta breakthroughs are a thing, they will continue to have the “case” rate that gives them cover to impose their beloved lockdowns.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Correct. We’re on the precipice of widespread lockdowns 2.0. A few jurisdictions are ahead of the curve, but the cascade will begin again. Weeks, maybe a couple months away at most.

        Hoepfully the insanity is contained to the insane asylums posing as leftist strongholds, but I’m not holding my breath.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I’ve heard various YouTube and Twitter talking heads saying by the end of the second week in August and the blue states are cooperating with the feds and will comply. If that happens, goodbye economy and goodbye everything. It’ll be irrecoverable.

      • Chafed

        Neither am I but I will offer one hopeful sign. Here in the People’s Republic of California, our lockdown was as bad as anywhere until the recall against Newsom began. Once it got certified, the state started dialing back restrictions. By late fall, Congressional reelection campaigns will be under way. I am willing to bet every swing district Congresscritter and swing state Senator (up for reelection) will be paying attention to lockdowns. This is the sort of thing that even low information voters care about.

      • Chafed

        Yup. These lockdown enthusiasts will never willingly give up their power. There will always be a reason. I wonder how much of Australia wishes they hadn’t give up their guns.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Next to none? Even if they hadn’t, there would still need to be a large hump to using them. The Aussies don’t seem to have that either. Neither do we. Closest was the country where the mob stormed the parliament.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And of course, there’s also the group of Aussies who never turned in their guns. They aren’t using them either.

      • Chafed

        My thought is if gun ownership were far more widespread than it is in Australia, then the authorities would have had a lot more to think about before going into perpetual lockdown mode.

      • blackjack

        You mean like here? LOL.

      • R C Dean

        the authorities would have had a lot more to think about

        Assumes the authorities “think”. Without, I daresay, evidence.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Of the western countries, excepting those wily Swedes, we have it the least bad, depending on the state.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I don’t disagree that there’s a level of harshness in Australia that hasn’t happened here, but that’s a win in the margins.

        People are still comfortable. So long as they think they can keep inflation at bay, they’ll keep paying everybody off to kick the violent revolution can down the road another 6 months. I think the message from Jan 6th did get through, even if the left won’t admit it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        “the state will use its power to crush you without getting its hands bloody and no one will come to your defense”?

    • grrizzly

      Impfen macht frei

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Bad news, Shirley

    CDC mask decision followed stunning findings from Cape Cod beach outbreak

    ——-

    But within weeks, health officials seemed to be on to something much bigger. The outbreak quickly grew to the hundreds and most of them appeared to be vaccinated.

    As of Thursday, 882 people were tied to the Provincetown outbreak. Among those living in Massachusetts, 74% of them were fully immunized, yet officials said the vast majority were also reporting symptoms. Seven people were reported hospitalized.

    The initial findings of the investigation led by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, seemed to have huge implications.

    Before Provincetown, health officials had been operating under the assumption that it was extraordinarily rare for a vaccinated person to become infected with the virus. And if they did, they probably wouldn’t end up passing it on to others, such as children too young to qualify for the vaccine or people who were medically vulnerable.

    ——-

    But that assumption had been based on studies of earlier versions of the virus. Delta was known for its “hyper-transmissibility,” or as one former White House adviser put it “COVID on steroids.”

    “What has changed is the virus,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and Biden’s chief medical adviser.

    The vaccines- they do nothing!

    Also- every time I see that “Foochy is our nation’s top infectious disease expert” nonsense, I just assume we’re all going to die. If he’s the best we’ve got, we’re in a tight spot.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      How sick were the people with these breakthrough cases? Asymptomatic? Mild? Deathly? That matters far more than the number of cases. The virus is just being pressured by the vaccines to become more transmissible and that’s what’s happened but what’s the severity?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The last number I have heard for breakthrough infections per vaccinated individuals was ~1:25,000s.

        The overall seven-day rolling average of COVID deaths nation-wide is 6:1,000,000

        The case rate is 1,414:1,000,000

        Making a death per case rate of 0.42%.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        According to the CDC’s own data.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The state-level data on coof deaths is deliberately opaque.

    • Chafed

      He is worse than useless. Biden would do himself a real favor by tossing him out.

      This also, once again, raises the horrible reporting by our incurious press. The promise of these so-called vaccines is if you get infected, then your illness will be mild or asymptomatic. Who gives a crap if millions of people are infected but not sick or only have mild symptoms? Once again the conflation of cases with hospitalization muddies the reporting on how this is actually affecting a broad swath of people.

    • one true athena

      But it’s still the unvaccinated who will kill us all! It’s all their fault! Burn the heretics so we can all get the gods favor again!

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Out of 882 people, 7 were hospitalized. That’s some real end-of-the-world stuff, right there.

    • Hyperion

      If only one children can be saved, you must give up all your icky freedoms.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Every place I went today had a “help wanted” sign in the window.

    The Biden Boom Times are upon us.

  24. Hyperion

    Hey wokesters, I see there is still no one here who works, besides me.

    On a rare positive note, I just got back from a pub in the city, an no one was wearing masks. Also talked to a couple employees at the pub who railed against ever wearing masks again. They just flat out said it’s not science, but bullshit and they aren’t doing it. Keep in mind, this a deep deep blue state. Although that neighborhood is a mix of blue collar (dock workers) and upscale neighborhood, so they tend to be less woke and more shitlord.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Who gives a crap if millions of people are infected but not sick or only have mild symptoms?

    I have been saying that since the beginning. “Asymptomatic” is a fancy word for “NOT SICK”. So what if you can torture a positive test out of them?

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Did she get even more silicone or is her head shrinking?

      • robodruid

        Its an unusually bad set of pics.
        OR they have a new “real doll” out.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        She probably has had enough work done to be legally ruled a replicant.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Why not both?

    • The Gunslinger

      Nope. Rapunzel never wanted a man to climb her tower to save her, she was just kinky and wanted someone to pull on her hair…

      • Lord Humungus

        and spank that bottom red ‘n’ raw.

      • blackjack

        That someone musta got lost!

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Of all the crimes perpetrated in he past year and a half, the monstrous fiction that the government can or should keep you safe from every threat and alive forever might just be the worst.

    • Sean

      I think “nonessential” jobs was a bigger deal.

      • blackjack

        Without the Sammy Hagar song. Serious safety restraint you used there!

      • Gustave Lytton

        I couldn’t figure a way to work in mandatory helmets

  27. Count Potato

    “Johnny Depp has scored a major court victory in his battle to discover if ex-wife Amber Heard stuck to her promise and donated her $7million divorce payout to charity, Dailymail.com can exclusively reveal.

    Heard, 35, declared she didn’t want Depp’s cash after their explosive 2016 break-up and vowed to split the settlement between two good causes – the American Civil Liberties Union and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

    But lawyers for the Pirates of the Caribbean star, 58, believe the gesture was a sham and have spent a year chasing exactly how much was donated.

    They filed a petition in New York Supreme Court for the ACLU to hand over documents proving Heard stuck to her pledge, after it refused to cooperate.

    Now a judge has granted 23 of the 24 requests in the actor’s ‘motion to compel’, meaning the organization must produce the paperwork relating to Heard’s charitable contributions.

    The only thing Judge Arthur Engoron refused was a request for documents relating to the actress’s role as a ‘brand ambassador’ for the ACLU.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9844843/Johnny-Depp-WINS-motion-forcing-ACLU-reveal-Amber-Heard-donated-7M-divorce-settlement.html

    • R C Dean

      split the settlement between two good causes – the American Civil Liberties Union and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

      I only see one good cause.

      • PutridMeat

        My reaction was, “man I didn’t realize that the Children’s Hospital of LA evil.”

        While it’s certainly possible that the sacrosanct with compassionate names are centers of corruption and grift, I really need to get a handle on my growing cynicism and hate. It is flowing through me. The hate that is.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        I’m sure your GP can write a prescription that will help the cynicism flow more freely as well.

      • Nephilium

        I was going to post the exact same thing.

    • R C Dean

      The only thing Judge Arthur Engoron refused was a request for documents relating to the actress’s role as a ‘brand ambassador’ for the ACLU.”

      The judge has a limited imagination. That looks like an open door for a kickback of some of her “donation” to me.

    • blackjack

      He’s right here, but I still should have kicked his ass when I had the chance.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      eunuch.com? Lord have mercy.

      • R C Dean

        I would have guessed that was a new Reason website.

  28. Pope Jimbo

    There just ain’t no winning if you are BIPOC

    Being BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) in the Midwest can be a disheartening experience filled with discrimination, isolation, and a sense of otherness promoted by people both within and outside communities of color. For years, study after study has deemed cities and small towns throughout the Midwest to be some of the worst places for People of Color to live in the United States, if not the rest of the world.

    Rural Midwestern towns, often famous for their imagined or exaggerated images of mom and apple pie—in other words, Whiteness—have always been home to People of Color. While there are often common, timeless threads in their experiences, the last few years of navigating the Trump presidency, the murder of George Floyd, and the COVID-19 pandemic have created a unique environment for BIPOC in the Heartland today.

    The story is full of heart rending story after heart-rending story…. Or maybe not. It might be full of people working overtime to come up with examples of “racism” that they encountered in small towns.

    • Pope Jimbo

      For years, study after study has deemed cities and small towns throughout the Midwest to be some of the worst places for People of Color to live in the United States, if not the rest of the world.

      We know! Ilhan Omar has been shouting this from the mountain top ever since she was forced to move away from Somalia and come here to the Midwest for maximum oppression.

      • Lord Humungus

        yeaaaah…. I just got back from the local watering hole and there were four black people there, intermingling with us simple Midwest white folks. One older black dude had a white date he was chatting up. No one gave a shit.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It so damn transparent, too. “those fucking flyover hicks are ignoring us and pretending we aren’t talking about them . Let’s narrow it down so it’s clear that we are talking about them!”

      • J. Frank Parnell

        No one gave a shit.

        But that’s the problem! Apathy is violence!

        You should have spent two hours telling the dude about every story you ever heard about a black guy getting lynched for looking at a white woman and apologizing and assuring him that you are totally fine with interracial relationships, then lectured his date for an hour on the importance of not fetishizing black men.

        /that White Fragility chick whose name I’m too lazy to look up.

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Robin DiAngelo, the Faith Popcorn of the race-grifting set.

    • rhywun

      What a load of horseshit.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A whole generation desperate to be hated by the right people.

      • EvilSheldon

        That ‘isolation’ and ‘sense of otherness’ you’re feeling? It’s because you’re an asshole that nobody likes.

    • Hyperion

      We had an intern a couple of years … well, maybe 3, I keep forgetting it’s been 18 months since I’ve been to the office. Anyway, we had this kid from the inner city as an intern, and when he first met with me and my manager, he says ‘I love you guys, you don’t have any racism!’. Uhh, wut? Me and my manager just looked at each other.

      When I met with him later that day, he told me again ‘You guys are great, you don’t have no racism’. And I said ‘What happened, was someone not nice with you somewhere?’. So he tells me, ‘No, my Grandma tells me that don’t go to Texas or anywhere like that because people are racist’. And do I said ‘Well, I don’t doubt that your grandma experienced this, maybe in TX or somewhere, but that was probably a long time ago, I’m pretty sure you’ll be OK if you go to TX’.

      Good thing, he didn’t talk to any of today’s white proggies, or they would have told him that my boss and I were definitely racist and that we proved it by acting like we aren’t racist.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Having lived in the city, the suburbs and the sticks, the city is easily the most racist of them all.

      • Hyperion

        Especially in the north, like Boston.

      • blackjack

        I have lived in socal for most of my life. There has never been any area where blacks or Mexicans could not walk the streets safely. There has been many times that white people could not go to certain areas safely. Huge swaths of city, actually.

      • Hyperion

        Among my earliest memories in Cali, we lived in Van Nuys. That’s when we were still poor before we moved to Simi Valley. I was 4. I distinctly remember I was outside playing and the bully big kid who lived down the street, he must have been like 10 because he was a giant, came over and said ‘You’d better hide, because the negroes are coming and they’re going to kill you and your parents!’. So I went inside and locked the door, I was terrified. I had no idea that a negro was, but they sounded really bad. That was during the Watt’s riots, no shit. The bully kid didn’t himself seem too scared. I guess that’s because he was a giant 10 year old.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      POCs don’t like their mothers or pie. It is known.

  29. Hyperion

    I shouldn’t have gone out. I had a Margarita at the bar and it was soooo good, I just ordered a bottle of Patron. I have to have another one, yummy…

    • R C Dean

      R C’s Margarita Recipe:

      4 oz tequila
      1 1/4 oz Salerno Blood Orange Liqueur.
      1 oz lime juice
      1/2 oz + agave nectar

      • Hyperion

        Thanks. I don’t have any of that stuff right now. I just ordered a bottle of the cheap mix, Dailys. When I used to make them, I used Triple Sec and lime juice. The one bar wench made me at the bar as strong, just the way they should be. I hate it when someone mixes a weak Margarita.

      • Hyperion

        Finally got my Patron. 3 parts Daily’s, 2 parts Patron. Ice crushed in blender. Pink Himalayan salt on rim Not bad at all.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Also from that abcnews link:

    Walensky hinted that the biggest driver was new unpublished research on a person’s “viral load” — the amount of virus in a person’s nasal passages — being considerably high even after being vaccinated with a U.S.-authorized vaccine.

    “What we’ve learned … is that when we examine the rare or breakthrough infections and we look at the amount of virus in those people, it is pretty similar to the amount of virus in unvaccinated people,” she said.

    So… not very much?

  31. Penguin

    Re: “Jolene” – I’ve seen Dolly Parton at 26 years old, when she wrote the song. Who I’d like to see is the woman who could easily take her man.

    • Hyperion

      He was an ass man, you know, and Jolene had da bootay!

  32. Pope Jimbo

    Uffda. What the hell is going on? Are you trying to tell me that if your estimate to build light rail blows up a couple hundred million and you now have no idea when passenger service will start, all of a sudden a bunch of nosy politicians are going to want an audit?

    Two DFL lawmakers have requested an independent review of cost overruns, delays and overall management of the beleaguered $2 billion Southwest light-rail project.

    Rep. Frank Hornstein and Sen. Scott Dibble, both staunch supporters of public transportation, have asked Legislative Auditor James Nobles to conduct an expedited review of the Southwest line, already the most expensive public works project in state history.

    The request comes as a contingency fund to cover unexpected costs for construction of the line has dwindled so much that the project will likely tap an additional $200 million from Hennepin County to help finish the job.

    The two pols asking for the audit are both big supporters of the light rail project. Things must be really bad under the covers if they are getting ready to bail.

    • rhywun

      Do a headcount in the Caribbean for all the workers supposedly building it.

  33. Hyperion

    Mask up again, mask up forever!

    You mask up again, slaver cunte, and cover it with plastic, stretched tight until you cannot breathe. It’s the only way to know you’re safe.

    • rhywun

      A lot of numbers in there and none of them support the proposition in the title.

      Pic as expected. What a sourpuss.

      • Hyperion

        Karen ain’t gettin any.

      • blackjack

        I’m so mad that i didn’t get around to getting vaxxed. I was busy eating ( a lot!!!) and ignoring that obesity is the number one comorbidity.

    • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

      I like big boobs, I cannot lie,
      But most of those I must deny.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Wobbly

    An emotional hearing this week in which police officers attacked in the Capitol riot testified before a House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 turned more Americans against the need for the probe, according to a Morning Consult poll.

    Among voters of all parties, 53 percent supported the investigation, down from 66 percent in the survey in June and 58 percent just a week ago. Four out of five Democrats were in favor, while only a quarter of Republicans were, along with half of independents.

    Only 49 percent of those polled said they had watched all or even part of the committee hearing that dominated the news cycle on Tuesday.

    And the survey had more bad news for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who appointed all of the members of the committee, including the two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois: The number of voters who blame former President Donald Trump for the riot fell to 56 percent from 61 percent in June.

    ——-

    Democrats and their two GOP allies on the committee had hoped that the opening hearing, with its at times searing and heartfelt testimony from the officers, would inspire more Americans to demand answers about the riot. Instead the poll indicates the opposite.

    In the run-up to the probe, Pelosi took the risky and unprecedented step of rejecting two members appointed to the committee by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). She argued that Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio would harm the “integrity of the investigation.”

    In response, McCarthy pulled all five of his GOP picks off the panel, leaving only Cheney and Kinzinger, both avowed enemies of Trump, as the sole Republicans, allowing Democrats to call the effort bipartisan.

    Thursday’s poll continues a downward trend in multiple surveys, with both CBS News and Rasmussen reporting declining interest in the investigation just days before the hearing.

    Maybe people were disgusted by that parade of pampered pantywaists.

    • blackjack

      +1 “this is more violence than I have ever seen in my 20 year career!” So, it’s your testimony that you have never been exposed to any violence in your entire career?

    • rhywun

      Finally, a reverse nut-punch to start the weekend off right.

      • Pope Jimbo

        reverse nut-punch

        Ball cup?

      • Sean

        No, no…it’s “cup the balls.”

      • Pope Jimbo

        You talk like a fag and you’re shit is all fucked up

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      He either had brass knuckles or lead lined gloves (or his hands are too heavy for his arms but that’s doubtful). He was way outclassed.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I can’t figure out what the fuck is going on other than a bunch of stupid assholes.

      • blackjack

        It’s not easy. it seems like the winning party in the fight was anti-vax and antifa decided to protest them. Maybe. I can’t figure out what the original beef was for either the protesters or the counter-protesters. But, That girly dude got flattened. The white shirt guy obviously started it, but damn! he finished it too.

    • Drake

      I think that was a woman who got decked. She really shouldn’t be street-fighting. Maybe she gained a little wisdom.

      • Animal

        Maybe she gained a little wisdom.

        Doubtful.

      • limey

        Must be one of those Dwarf women.

      • westernsloper

        It was a dude in women’s pants so and acceptable mistake.

      • Plinker762

        Trans violence!

      • blackjack

        Speed shifting with no clutch?

      • Plinker762

        Pound those synchros

  35. Pope Jimbo

    Florida Man is no longer needed. Florida Woman now has penis snakes.

    DNA analysis confirms that an eel-like creature pulled from a Florida canal two years ago is a caecilian, otherwise known as the “penis snake.” The same canal has since yielded several other specimens, leading to concerns that the non-native amphibian has taken root in the United States.

    • limey

      Did anyone seriously ever refer to a caecilian as a “penis snake” before jOurNaLisMs needed to excrete some “news” about them?

  36. Pope Jimbo

    Moar election/poll fixing

    I’m sorry but any poll that doesn’t crown the Packer Backers and the drunkest idiots is bogus and evidence that the whole system is rigged

    • Lord Humungus

      You would have to be a raving alcoholic to be a Lions Fan /Michigander

    • blackjack

      Go back a couple of decades and they could have done, “drive by shooting per game” and the Raiders would’ve taken the title.

      • Hyperion

        The Raiders fans are the only fans so mean that they go to Baltimore and beat up the Ravens fans. Just sayin.

      • blackjack

        I have seen actual cases where defendants got gang enhancements for wearing Raiders gear. SRSLY.

      • Hyperion

        I talked to a chic online who lived in Oakland on a dating site, back when I was single before 2010.

        One of my female friends was over at the time and she leans over my shoulder and says ‘Who is that gangsta bitch?’.

        So I said ‘Stop, she’s really good looking and she’s an ex Raider’s cheerleader’. I mean she had pics in her Raiderettes attire, so I guess she was.

        And my friend said ‘Man, that bitch will cut you and shit, stay away from her!’.]

        Heh, I don’t know, she was pretty good looking, but she did turn out to be a bitch so I stopped talking to her.

      • Ted S.

        That’s only because Philadelphia plays then in Baltimore only once every eight years.

      • Hyperion

        You’re probably right.

  37. westernsloper

    National parks are so crowded that Congress is getting involved

    Ya, that will fix it.