Tuesday Morning Links

by | Oct 5, 2021 | Daily Links | 438 comments

Good morning my Glibs and Gliberinas! And what an absolutely wonderful day it always is!

 

DOJ launching an effort to combat “threats of violence” against school officials

 

2021 set to have record gun sales.

 

To be fair, the Democrat base harassing the shit out of people is normal. They’re complete shitheads.

 

Oil at 7 year high

 

Bus driver shortage.

 

Shatner to go into space.

 

That’s all I got for today.  I’ll leave you with a song and move along with my day.

About The Author

Banjos

Banjos

Wife of sloopy, mother to three bright, curious, and highly active young girls. Perpetually exhausted.

438 Comments

  1. AlexinCT

    DOJ launching an effort to combat “threats of violence” against school officials

    They are pissed their main indoctrination vehicle was threatened, and they want payback. We truly have the most despicable people you could imagine running the country and schools.

    • Tonio

      Those threats are simply “part of the process.”

      • AlexinCT

        That’s a defense I think some mobsters once used in court without success. Mind you, that these are the people that tell you words are violence (especially when the words used are logic & facts to make them look bad) but then tell you real violence is peaceful protests. Another lie from the left, the whole insurrection bullshit thing, is falling apart, but they will keep pretending it was one of the worst events in our history, because they need to keep stealing elections.

      • AlexinCT

        At this point thinking people should wonder if the gangs are not actually working for the political team blue machine, cause it sure as hell looks like the two do each other’s dirty work…

      • invisible finger

        Probably the other way around – the blue machine is working for the gangs.

      • AlexinCT

        The blue machine is a crime syndicate, brah. They run the crime in these places, just like they run the crime out of D.C. and WEall Street.

      • Rebel Scum

        So it’s ok to challenge school board members to duels.

      • Brett L

        As long as they only harm each other, and everyone claims they agreed to fight, I’m good with it. Mutual combat should be legal.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        Just like girls having knife fights! All part of the process of growing up.

  2. waffles

    To be fair, the Democrat base harassing the shit out of people is normal.

    Is it fair to characterize your opposition by their worst? Yeah, I think so.

    • AlexinCT

      The left believes in using abuse to get their way, but wants your scalp if you use the same tactic on them…

      • Tonio

        Ding, ding, ding… Folks, we have a winner! Tell him what he’s won, Scruffy.

      • Sean

        A free trip to Gitmo! All expenses paid!

      • Rat on a train

        You must pay for your information retrieval.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        A year’s supply of Poop-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat?

    • wdalasio

      When the “not worst” respond to the worst with a nudge and a wink, absolutely.

    • cyto

      This is not the Democrat base. They are clearly organized and coached, selected paid activists using sound bite phrases and having news friendly back stories (DACA dreamer asks Senator…).

      This is a top-down campaign run out of think tanks.

      And yes, they come off like a bunch of crazy cult members.

  3. UnCivilServant

    Has anyone mentioned Project Veritas getting video of a Pfizer scientist admitting that natural immunity antibodies were better than the ‘vaccine’ effects?

    • AlexinCT

      I bet if they did they were banned by social media for “misinformation”!

      • AlexinCT

        I thought that would be a link to porn….

    • Urthona

      Not much of a bombshell. We already knew this.

    • DEG

      There was also a bit in the video about Pfizer looking into the cause of myocarditis in people that have received their vaccine. I expect if their work shows the vaccine caused myocarditis, the work will get buried. If the work shows that the vaccine didn’t cause myocarditis, the news will be trumpeted from on high.

      • UnCivilServant

        The number of incidents relative to recieving the injection relative to the control group makes me suspect there’s a link. The mechanism, I can’t guess at, but the statistics look bad.

      • Ozymandias

        From the CDC’s own site. They know it’s causing myocarditis and pericarditis in huge numbers (relative to what they expected). See slides 7-9.
        https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-08-30/03-COVID-Su-508.pdf
        This is slide 7. Age is down the left side – the first two columns are for females, the last two for males. The first column is expected cases of myocarditis (strongly suggesting they knew this could happen) and the second column is actual VAERs reported cases. Young healthy males are getting crushed by this thing. Not mentioned in the slide deck, myocarditis has had a mortality rate of 50% at 5 years and that’s been unchanged in 30 years, according to the NIH’s website. VAERs likely only captures between 1%-10% of actual adverse events according to most studies. We’re going to destroy a whole bunch of healthy people in order to protect against a virus with an IFR of .00003% for the relevant populations. Good job!

        12–15* 0–3 12 1–5 117
        16–17* 0–2 15 0–3 121
        18–24* 1–8 24 1–11 213
        25–29* 1–6 16 1–9 56
        30–39 2–21 10 2–19 72
        40–49 2–22 22 2–19 45

      • Urthona

        Covid causes myocarditis too though. All respiratory viruses do.

  4. UnCivilServant

    Morning, Banjos.

    I’m trying not o be, but I’m kinda down today.

    At least I’m no longer angry.

    • AlexinCT

      Don’t let this shit get to you man. They win if they demoralize you or ruin your life. The best thing you can do is go about living your life to the best of your abilities. They hate that.

      • UnCivilServant

        Has jack shit to do with them they or any other.

        Fuck, I was angry at gravity earlier.

      • Not Adahn

        Well, gravity does always bring me down.

    • Sean

      I had only one person flip me off on my way to work this morning. I’ll try harder tomorrow.

      • Rat on a train

        WFH?

      • Sean

        Heh, no.

      • UnCivilServant

        *debates joking about the kitten being an odd looking mouse or pointing out the missing tail*

    • slumbrew

      Sorry you’re down.

      Angry Anymore

      (though lyrics probably not relevant to today)

  5. Sean

    2021 set to have record gun sales.

    This pleases me, but it also explains why I haven’t been catching any good deals on Gunbroker.

    • UnCivilServant

      Got any recommendations for a good end mill made anywhere other than china?

      • Sean

        Nope. Sorry.

      • UnCivilServant

        Damn.

        Because the conversation a while back made me doubt that milling on a drill press probably wouldn’t get me the results I want.

      • Plinker762

        Mscdirect.com has a filter for made in USA

      • UnCivilServant

        Staring at that site, I’ve realized I don’t know enough to know what I need.

      • Not Adahn

        Wasn’t there some guy selling mills specifically for lowers? Ghostgunner or something like that?

        Not going to search for it at work.

      • Plinker762

        There are a lot of variables which determine the best cutter to use. I haven’t seen all of your previous discussions but I assume this is for an 80%. If I didn’t have a mill, I would use one of the router jigs for doing those.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t have a router either.

        Yes, the first real project is the 80%. It’s plastic, so the ability to deal with metal is an optional plus. I mostly need it to work and not cost as much as a car.

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        This should direct you to the right end mill. https://www.mcmaster.com/end-mills/
        On the left side is a scroll down that allows you to select what you are cutting and what shape of cut, along with everything else you can select for.

      • UnCivilServant

        I need the machine. It’ve got nothing to spin the steel that is built to take lateral forces. I’ve got the cutting steel.

      • UnCivilServant

        Thank you.

        *checks bank account*

      • pistoffnick

        Hit MikeS. up for advice (just not music advice). He’s a very knowledgeable machinist.

    • waffles

      Gun control is a dead issue, or at least it should be.

      • UnCivilServant

        Have you met California, New York, and New Jersey?

      • AlexinCT

        Actually the people that need and want to disarm you have not given up on that quest. They are viewing those that are arming themselves with disdains and looking for ways to use the machine to disarm them. After all, the reset ends up at risk if too many people can resist it (but more importantly are made to feel that’s their only option).

  6. AlexinCT

    This is what the reset looks like. Remember, the new society will consist of two classes: those in power – the wealthy, credentialed elites in the bureaucracies & academia, and the enforcers – and those that will not be in power (everyone else). There can only be 2 classes, just like in the old master/serf-slave system of yore.

    • waffles

      The lockdowns were used to make a new serfdom. The only problem is that happened so fast it’s incredibly obvious what happened. That gives me hope for a backlash.

      • AlexinCT

        The fuckers are counting that most people don’t want to give up their luxuries and perks and will bend the knee, and so far they are more right than wrong. The fact however is that while many just want to be left alone, the cancelers are too invested in doing this as fast as possible, and that hopefully will end up bad for them.

      • waffles

        Have you noticed that COVID relief is no longer mentioned as a selling point for the tax and spend bills? Thought it was interesting to see them give up that pretense.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Lefties also underestimate those that bend the knee then get back up sometime in the future.

    • rhywun

      the pandemic is finally dragging to a finish

      From May.

      How quaint.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Only if the logistics and distribution systems continue to function.

      Their arrogance is going to be their undoing in this regard.

    • ignoreLander

      It’s been over a year since “two weeks to slow the spread,” and the pandemic is finally dragging to a finish. Cases are down, herd immunity has more or less arrived

      From the NY Post article, back in May. Oh, the naivete — it’s almost cute.

      • ignoreLander

        D’oh! Posted before I saw rhywun’s comment below….

  7. Festus

    Yup! Nice work, Banjos. That’s the most bleak version of the tune I’ve ever heard. Pretty woman slitting your throat. I bow to your mastery. I have you in my eye.

  8. PieInTheSky

    Bus driver shortage. – is this caused by brexit, like the truck driver shortage in England?

    • rhywun

      No, it’s caused by governments paying people who used to be bus drivers to sit at home on the couch and no nothing, because emergency.

      • invisible finger

        The school bus driver I know (part-time because he’s retired) said most of the drivers he knows won’t ever come back because they eventually found better paying jobs while they were laid off when the schools were all remote last year. Since he’s retired, he only does it for the health care as he would otherwise run up against the retirement income limits.

        Of course, they can’t recruit new drivers for the reason you stated (among others).

      • Zwak, sensual panzer

        It’s almost as if an entire system sprung up naturally to deal with various issues; getting kids to school, providing jobs, etc. And when you try to play Sims God with the country it all goes to Aitch EEE Double Hockey sticks.

  9. PieInTheSky

    Shatner to go into space. – the question is is he coming back?

    • Not Adahn

      If Bezos winds up killing Shatner, I’ll become an active conspirator in his murder*.

      *Dear NSATFBIRS, this is a joke.

    • AlexinCT

      Star Trekking across the universe!

      Always going forward, cause they can’t find reverse…

      • Plinker762

        We come in peace, shoot to kill!

  10. Not Adahn

    So, the Board of Trustees has said I can have some money for Winter Steel… next year.

    However, they are allowing me to start it this year, I’ll just have to borrow equipment from the other disciplines, and one of them has agreed! Now to make score sheets and buy a shot timer for myself. Looks like they will dilly-dally so that it won’t start until December.

    • AlexinCT

      So you won’t get to horrorscoping till then?

      • Not Adahn

        I’m not planning on using a scope since there won’t be any shots longer than 25 yards.

    • pistoffnick

      “Winter Steel” sounds like a porn name…just sayin’

    • pistoffnick

      Also, “Plastic guns matter!”

      Regardless, good luck with your project.

      • Not Adahn

        Plastic guns are welcome. “Steel” refers to the targets (though there will also be clays). I am very ecumenical when it comes to boomsticks.

        Although, depending on which venue they let me have I may not be able to allow shot. And I have no idea if the targets will stand up to shotgun slugs.

      • EvilSheldon

        Shotgun slugs are a major no-go on steel targets inside 100 yards. In the 3gun world, accidentally shooting a steel target with a slug is referred to as ‘taco-ing the target’ and if you ever do it, you’ll immediately see why.

  11. PieInTheSky

    “The decision to have children has always struck me as an essentially selfish one: You choose, out of a desire for fulfillment or self-betterment or boredom or peer pressure, to bring a human into this world. It has never seemed more selfish than today”

    https://twitter.com/NYMag/status/1445049136219365382

    There are a bunch of very selfish people among the glibs but I will not name names

    • waffles

      I wouldn’t mind finding a nice woman to be selfish with.

    • AlexinCT

      FUCK BIOLOGY!

      /Science believer that thinks there are 57 genders and Gaia is to be worshipped

    • Not Adahn

      The fact that this person keeps selfishly breathing oxygen that could be more equitably inhaled by a BIPOC makes me disregard thiier hypocritical opinion.

    • rhywun

      The world isnt dying. We are merely ruining the planets ability to sustain us. It would be fine if we weren’t here.

      You first.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Without the presence of higher intelligence, the moral questions involved don’t even exist.

        If humans go extinct, voluntarily or not, the universe doesn’t give a shit, and nobody will be around to care or say “How magnanimous and thoughtful of them.”

      • juris imprudent

        It’s like the idiots don’t even know that it was REV. Thomas Malthus.

    • Rat on a train

      It’s not selfish. The government needs taxslaves.

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      Yes, keeping the species alive is soooooo selfish.

      Fucking retard.

    • EvilSheldon

      Child-free people are up there with the vegans, atheists, and bike commuters on the insufferable index.

      • PutridMeat

        Hey now! I have no children that I’m aware of. I’m certainly on the insufferable index, but you do me dishonor with a vegan comparison! I’d challenge you to a duel, but you have way to much expertise on firearms and that likely extends to practical applications. So I’ll simply taunt you from behind a browser.

      • rhywun

        I have no children that I’m aware of.

        Me neither. These things only make you insufferable if you brag about them.

      • EvilSheldon

        Sorry, a little mix-up in the vernacular there. Having no children is not the same thing as being Childfree.

        Being Childfree is not having children (often not even being willing to interact with children) for reasons that sound superficially Prog-trendy, but in reality boil down to being a narcissistic, self-absorbed twit.

        I’d challenge you to a duel, but you have way to much expertise on firearms and that likely extends to practical applications.

        As the challenged party, I believe that I get choice of weapons. So gird your liver, because we’re doing shots of tequila at three paces. Whoever passes out first makes with the apology.

    • anti pro state

      I’d like to think I’m one of the more selfish glibs in this regard. My breeding score is 4 units.

      • Rat on a train

        My wife and I stopped at 2. 2.1 is the replacement rate. We didn’t try for the remaining 0.1. We would likely miss and hit 3+ so we went with cats instead. I transferred the 0.1 allotment to a friend.

      • anti pro state

        Are you sure you didn’t overshoot? I thought the replacement rate was something like 1.8, due to increased life spans or some other factor, no?

      • Mojeaux

        We stopped at 2 also. We felt there was #3 waiting in the wings, but #2 nearly killed me during labor and delivery, then I had a postpartum infection (fever 104!) that almost did the trick. We decided that #3 would, in fact, kill me (and I was almost 40), so we decided I couldn’t sacrifice the 2 I had for the 1 I didn’t have. My Dude trotted himself off to get snipped.

      • AlexinCT

        Life gives you good hints about how things will play out if certain choices are made. Looks like you figured out that things wouldn’t play out well and did the right thing. That’s an accomplishment and signs of reading the clues correctly and taking the right actions. I wonder if you see it exactly as such or not, though. Not picking on you, but I have often seen people become unhappy or pissed that they can’t do whatever they wanted regardless.

    • Necron 99

      Who said I made that decision? I was only having fun, she made it selfish.

      Of course that was only the first one, the second was planned and we have been together over 30 years now.

    • Festus

      Nope. 80% of the population is dancing around the May-pole and we get the bees.

    • Ted S.

      I hate reading the links, too..

      • AlexinCT

        I cut out the middlemen and went straight to the criminal classes’ own words…

    • Rebel Scum

      The Biden administration is rapidly repurposing federal law enforcement to target political opposition.

      They want to reclassify dissent as “disinformation” and “domestic terrorism,” justifying an unprecedented intervention, both directly and in partnership with tech companies.

      Cite the “threats”. And let local law enforcement handle it. This is not a federal issue.

  12. Rebel Scum

    “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”

    Then they should be responsive to the parents wishes.

    • AlexinCT

      Fuck the parents and their wishes. The states needs its drones to be subservient and obedient. and too fucking many of these parents don’t like that…

      /Totalitarian master class

    • kbolino

      They already call the job a “passion”, now they simply need to rename the employees “martyrs”.

      • EvilSheldon

        I’m sure that everyone noticed this trend with the cops back in the War on Terror era. It seems so long ago…

    • ignoreLander

      Those who dedicate their time and energy

      Uhh, you mean those that chose a certain career path, for which they get paid and get three months off a year? Making it sound like they are donating their time to charity, dumbass.

      children receive a proper education

      I’d say the number of children who get a “proper education” in public schools is very small. It’s a percentage though, so a public school teacher probably wouldn’t understand it.

      • slumbrew

        The “teachers are making a sacrifice” narrative enrages me. It’s a job you actively pursued and pays quite well when you figure in actual days worked. Don’t like it? Feel under-appreciated? Get a different job.

        We don’t don’t constantly hear about what a noble sacrifice garbagemen are making, but we’d miss them a whole lot more.

  13. PieInTheSky

    Most hipster coffee places near me raised the price of a double espresso from 8 to 10 lei. Inflation is hitting Pie.

    • Not Adahn

      Wait, espressi are $2.50?

      • PieInTheSky

        single origin fresh roasted hipster coffee yes. You can get cheaper ones if you like bad coffee

    • Ted S.

      Make your own coffee at home. It’s what a cheapskate like me does.

  14. Gender Traitor

    Holy crap was it foggy outside this morning! (Could someone please enact my labor and link The Song?)

      • Festus

        Don’t emasculate me, Red but that band is just a bad rip-off of Neil Young whom also made some middling pop tunes just like that one. What is wrong with me? I need to go back to that kindness now cape that I was wearing some months back. Sorry about that.

    • AlexinCT

      That house costs that much because the people in charge passed laws making it impossible to build new stuff to meet the demand. That’s by design. And then the evil fuckers that made it impossible to build more get to rant about how evil banks and real estate people are to give the morons that don’t get the concept of supply & demand red meat.

    • UnCivilServant

      A: That is not a representative sample of american houses.

      B: It looks like they selected the shot to be the most unflattering view possible.

      • PieInTheSky

        Is your house better?

      • robc

        Yes, and costs significantly less. It is also still under construction, so, it is probably slightly less livable right now (they poured the basement floor last week). And I am less than 4 hours drive from Carbondale. Of course, that is what, 4 European countries away?

      • PieInTheSky

        On Romanian roads for hours is like 200 miles. Romania is quite bigger than that

      • robc

        Romania has roads?

      • UnCivilServant

        Oh come on, Pie even did a Glib article about roadtripping in Romania.

      • PieInTheSky

        Romania would be the 11th largest US state just above Minnesota

      • robc

        Above Minnesota is Canada. You don’t want to be that.

      • AlexinCT

        NoDaks triggered?

      • Sean

        Yes and cheaper and newer.

      • Not Adahn

        To be fair, that is a pretty typical lower class/lower middle class house.

        Even here, there’s no way that would be $950k. Maybe a tenth of that.

      • PieInTheSky

        What I get from the tweet replies is that it has something to do to proximity to a tree.

      • Nephilium

        I didn’t know being close to trees was a selling point.

        /looks at the oaks and maples in my yard

      • robc

        Those add significant value to your property.

        Also, if one gets destroyed in a storm, there is an IRS table to determine, based on type and diameter, how much of a tax deduction you can take.

      • AlexinCT

        Gaia worshippers are told they can get a tax deduction by claiming the tree is a religious thing, making their property a church?

      • Plinker762

        Maple spooge and tannic acid

      • robc

        It is just down the road from Snowmass and Aspen.

      • PieInTheSky

        yes. aspen is a type of tree or?

      • waffles

        It’s a ski town on the high end of the price/prestige/snootiness scale.

      • PieInTheSky

        I know that but wanted to make sure people got my tree bit

      • AlexinCT

        Tree bit? Is this another attack on wooden stakes?

      • Nephilium

        AlexinCT: Don’t be such a sap.

      • waffles

        That’s the real answer. It is beyond me how these resorts will function this coming season. There’s not enough housing for employees of all the service and hospitality industry bullshit needed to make these resorts feel like resorts and not some ghostly hollowed out decadence from a bygone era. It was already difficult to live in a resort town as worker bee, it’s now 10x worse. AirBnB fucked over the ski towns worst of all.

      • AlexinCT

        I am gonna quote Biff Tanner from “Back to the future”, AND MAKE LIKE A TREE AND GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!

    • PieInTheSky

      To be honest as a Romanian I do not trust wood housing I want my house mad of brick

      • Not Adahn

        Move to one of the plains states. Brick houses were the norm there.

    • Q Continuum

      Carbondale is right next to Aspen and is obviously suffering the same effects of real estate inflation. If you want to be blown away, see how much stuff costs in Aspen proper.

    • Raven Nation

      Piggy-backing on some of the replies already posted. Yes, it’s in the Roaring Fork Valley which is even more expensive than the Denver area. Partly it’s the area itself but Carbondale is also kind of a new “hip” place to move to. And, TBF, it is a fun little town. Yeah, the population is technically under 7k, but the whole area is more populated. Carbondale is not exactly a ski town, but people do stay there and commute to Aspen or Snowmass during ski season.

      In addition, covid pushed the house prices higher again as a lot of people moved from the east coast either permanently or as a long-term second home. Rent & buying is ridiculous. It’s partly new designs and partly zoning. There’s also permit fees which are way high. But, it’s also driven to a large extent by supply and demand.

      And, yes, staffing sucks right now. My SIL works in a restaurant and they had trouble hiring people this past summer. Partly it was Pitkin County and Aspen who kept changing covid rules, but it was also extended unemployment. And, people just make enough money to make it worthwhile to live there. The ski season will probably be worse.

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      MMMMM… Berkeley prices.

      The wife and I were looking at houses there about 5 years ago, as we both worked there, and it was starting at 500k for a 2 and 1 fixer-up on the flats. But, then she was offered a job up here, and now we have a house that would go for 2mil+ there for less than we paid for one in Sacramento 15 years ago.

      • Bones

        Fabulous Carbondale! I lived there for 7 years while not going to classes. Time of my life…

      • UnCivilServant

        For any given town name in the US, you’ll probably find several in other states of the US.

      • robc

        The Illinois one is the “big” Carbondale, but it is a pretty small town. There is probably a bigger one that is a suburb of NYC or something.

      • Not Adahn

        Home of the Selukis!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I don’t think there’s any question that the mRNA vaccines tank your natural immune system for at least a couple of weeks after the shot.

      We’re evaluating these treatments based upon a single metric now, antibody levels, and we’re getting shitloads of antibodies, but dead people.

  15. Rat on a train

    USPS postal banking pilot

    “At first, [the postal worker] said she didn’t think she could take the check,” Rothstein said. “But she read the check into her scanner and it went through.” He didn’t need to show identification or endorse the check. The post office charged Rothstein a flat fee of $5.95, for any amount up to $500.

    • PieInTheSky

      I wish them great profits

    • Certified Public Asshat

      $6 to cash a check. And pay day lending is bad.

      • Rat on a train

        Damn. This week’s paycheck is only $5.85. Can you spare a dime?

  16. PieInTheSky

    Joke seen on the interwebs

    In England “booster shot” is spelled “borchestershire shot”

    • robc

      • robc

        Thanks to TPTB, but that wasn’t a demand!

      • robc

        My gif requests always get filled, I should try testing the limits.

  17. Rebel Scum

    With three months still to go, 2021 is already the second-highest year ever for firearms background checks and sales in America, putting it on a path to break 2020’s record.

    But what is untold in the new FBI numbers for September is the continued trend of women buying weapons for the first time and new owners expanding their arsenals.

    So you are saying that the gun control debate is over.

    • waffles

      That’s what I said. But nobody told the gun grabbers.

    • Not Adahn

      new owners expanding their arsenals.

      If they’re expanding their arsenals, they’re not new owners. New-ish maybe.

      • EvilSheldon

        True, but this likely indicates that new gun owners are becoming committed members of the culture. This is a good thing.

        Not a good thing for ammo availability, but I’ll deal.

      • Not Adahn

        Just cracked open the case of Belom I got from targetsportsusa.com. It ran fine, like everything else does through the CZ. The plastic boxes are very classy. Don’t know if the primer sealant makes it difficult to reload or not.

      • EvilSheldon

        It never has, in my experience. And it comes right off when you clean the brass.

  18. Rebel Scum

    To be fair, the Democrat base harassing the shit out of people is normal.

    And encouraged. But if a non-leftoid is invited into the capitol by the cops and meanders in the velvet ropes it’s muh-insurrection.

    The president, who has touted his intentions for unity among the parties, said that Republicans should “get out of the way” so they don’t destroy the country.

    More like “get out of the way so we can destroy the country.”

    He blamed Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for his party’s failure to effectively pass their agenda.

    I’m sure you can convince a couple useless R’s to solve that problem.

  19. PieInTheSky

    Today in Romanian healthcare: One of my colleagues at work had a Cerebrovascular accident is in fairly critical condition (lost blood flow to right side of brain for a period) and when people asked if we do something to help the answer was does anyone have a connection to a nurse in the hospital so he can get better care… basically in Romania the commie way of needing to know a nurse / doctor to get the correct care is still a thing in government hospitals.

  20. robc

    Baseball birthdays: Claude Ritchey, Sam West, Jim Bagby Sr (we discussed Jr a while back), John Reilly, Rey Sanchez. At 6th is the still active Tanner Roark, who sounds like the combination of an architect and a foul-mouthed little leaguer.

  21. limey

    Hoover does some great podcasts. A few months ago I gave up on the ‘Goodfellows’ podcast. I dipped my toe in again just last week and gave up halfway through. I try to listen to a good selection of the others, including the regular series, but also some of the one offs and semi-regular conversations.

  22. Festus

    Judi caved and it’s all my fault. I feel so beaten. She wanted to fight so hard but it’s not like were in our 20s and off for a gap-year. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt the shame like this for decades. The time I peed on the basement stairs when I was 17? When I woke up in a different city after drinking everclear? The time I got stranded in an airport 500 miles from home?

    • Festus

      Beating up a drunk that pissed me off to the point that I just went with it? I feel like I’m the one that kicked the dog.

    • Nephilium

      Sorry man.

    • Tulip

      Didn’t work cause I won’t sign up for Twitter. Scroll down to things that trigger FBI investigation

      • Ownbestenemy

        Some of those are funny in a sad way. Especially the gymnastics one.

  23. R.J.

    Well, our company is going to fire people who are not vaccinated by December 1st. Management will take a hit. There is no actual mandate, correct? Thst means a crazy amount of lawsuits.

    • PieInTheSky

      The unvaccinated should starve before the covid has a chance to get em

      • Festus

        You’ll be fine!

    • kbolino

      There is no actual mandate, correct?

      Not one formally issued by the Federal government anyway, they’re still “working on it”.

    • UnCivilServant

      Because she’s looking for something to be offended by.

    • Festus

      Huh. I thought (((they))) were all that way…

      • Festus

        Racist that I am, Katherine Hahn not Jewish?

    • Rat on a train

      They were killed off making all the Holocaust films.

    • limey

      I find Katherine Hahn funny, but Silverman not so much. You need a certain chutzpah to play Joan Rivers?

      • Q Continuum

        Silverman is so painfully unfunny they use her routine as torture at CIA black sites.

      • Not Adahn

        Still would tho.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I wouldn’t be surprised if Rivers hated Silverman. Joan was an independent, no bullshit thinker. Silverman has the intellect of a turnip.

  24. Tundra

    Good morning, Banjos!

    I think that Shatner story is amazing! 90 years old and still kicking ass.

    The rest of the news isn’t so rosy, though. It’s not fun paying more than $100 to fill the truck. Thanks, Biden!

    Oh well, at least the weather is gonna be gorgeous again today. I hope y’all have a groovy day!

    • AlexinCT

      I think that Shatner story is amazing! 90 years old and still kicking ass.

      Speaking of ass, I hear the line that will be added to the Shat’s grave stone to identify him will be:

      “He got more ass than a toilet seat”…

      That was going to be mine, but the Shat can have it.

  25. Count Potato

    “Tesla Inc. must pay nearly $137 million to a Black former worker who said he suffered racial abuse at the electric carmaker´s San Francisco Bay Area factory.

    The jury in San Francisco agreed that Owen Diaz was subjected to racial harassment and a hostile work environment.

    Diaz’s lawsuit described the Fremont, California, plant, as a ‘hotbed of racist behavior’ where he was subjected to daily racist abuse including the N-word, over a course of 11 months from 2015 to 2016.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10059747/Black-ex-Tesla-worker-claimed-racial-abuse-awarded-137M.html

    For $12M a month you can call me anything you want.

    • Festus

      I’m thinking about going back to flipping boards in a sawmill. Too bad I’m a mostly white fellow.

      • AlexinCT

        You are playing the game wrong… It doesn’t matter what you are, as much as what you identify as…

        My employer is freaking out because I am constantly – in a serious manner – making fun of everything and anything related to this woke shit, and they don’t know what to do when you tell them you are absolutely serious and thinking you need a lawyer because they are being “Da man”…

    • db

      All those damn California racists.

    • juris imprudent

      Hahahaha – that’s Eric Swalwell’s district! Full of racists you say?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Good, poison Musk against woke even further. We need people like him on our side.

    • slumbrew

      elevator operator… $6.9million in damages for emotional distress and $130 million in punitive damages

      HTF do you come up with that damages number? He’s 52 – 13 years from retirement. That’s about $531,000/yr. until retirement.

      Apparently I should have gone with ‘elevator operator’ instead of computer science.

  26. Rebel Scum

    Oil prices soared Monday, hitting multi-year highs with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies seen keeping to its existing plan of a gradual increase in supply, declining to add more output to the global market even under pressure from consumers.

    I wonder what has changed in the last 9 or so months.

  27. Count Potato

    “The 2021 Nobel Prize for physics was today awarded to three scientists working on models to predict global warming and the interplay of planetary systems.

    One half of the highly-coveted prize was split between Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann for their work in the ‘physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.’

    The other half went to Giorgio Parisi for the ‘discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales’.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10060547/Climate-modelling-discovery-patterns-win-Nobel-Prize-physics-2021.html

    I’m going to take a wild guess the first one is bullshit.

    • Q Continuum

      The Nobel Prize became meaningless when Obama got it for the great achievement of his melanin content.

      • AlexinCT

        I think that’s when it jumped the shark for sure, oh master of the female floatation device, but the thing had already gone stupid when they gave it to Arafat….

      • Drake

        For excellence in highjacking.

    • PieInTheSky

      depends of the meaning of reliable

    • Rat on a train

      Although the models were not capable of predicting the recorded past, they did provide the desired forecast of the future.

      • waffles

        As long as the forecast reliably favors your preferred policies what’s the problem>?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      ‘discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales

      *cough*bullshit*cough*

      There’s simply not enough computing power on the planet to model that.

      • juris imprudent

        Sure there is – you just have to dumb down the model to get the results you want.

      • Compelled Speechless

        Paging Dr. Ferguson, Dr. Neil Ferguson…..

    • Rebel Scum

      I’m going to take a wild guess the first one is bullshit.

      I’d say that they both are.

    • db

      Maybe they were being routed by Facebook

    • EvilSheldon

      Finally I’m getting my cyberpunk dystopia!

  28. Chipping Pioneer

    Is there a shortage of short bus drivers?

    • AlexinCT

      Considering how many people act as if they belong in one of these buses based on their politics, I would say “yes”….

  29. slumbrew

    Good follow-up on the Facebook outage (F.U., Facebook, for your vague explanation):

    https://blog.cloudflare.com/october-2021-facebook-outage/

    Also, more hilarity, via the twatters:

    Lmao. Friend at Facebook confirmed they ended up bringing in a guy with an angle grinder to get access to the server cage

    I dunno, maybe your fancy remote-locks should have some sort of local override (and matching alarms).

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s called being too clever for their own good.

      Instead of assuming everything breaks sooner or later, they ditched the backup and alternate entry options. Probably so someone could add and achievement bullet point to a report.

    • PieInTheSky

      If it wasn’t it the news I would not have noticed outage

    • db

      would have been hilarious if the metal dust from the grinder shorted out the servers but probably not very likely.

    • Zwak, sensual panzer

      This reminds me of the dude with an internet-connected chastity device.

      • db

        Angle grinder, not dangle grinder.

    • Gustave Lytton

      bringing in a guy with an angle grinder

      ?‍♂️ I’m sure it took a while to find someone with one of those. Or knows what they are.

      “I’ll run home and grab mine.”

      “Just go to the Home Depot nearest and buy five, cutting disks, and some safety glasses.”

      Or really, if you can get access to those Knox Boxes for FD access, they really don’t hold up to physical abuse such as smashing with a sledge. Tweakers broke into an office building we had space in by opening the Knox box. Of course, knowing how utterly competent their disaster planning is, the Knox box probably contains a spare badge not an override key.

  30. slumbrew

    That Shatner pic – the props people had to know, right? Did Shat request that design?

  31. Tundra

    You know, I get the feeling that the CCP might be a bunch of evil, lying shitheads.

    I have no idea if this paper is legit, and I don’t really care. The idea that this virus was circulating many, many months before the fuckers admitted anything is so painfully obvious by now.

    China is asshoe.

    • waffles

      Even if the release was unintentional the cover up was wholly coordinated and intended.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Incompetence —> Malice

      • slumbrew

        I’m in the “incompetence for the release, malice for the cover-up” camp.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Same

      • Tundra

        It’s gonna be interesting when a GOF’d MERS virus gets out.

      • Q Continuum

        That sound you hear is one giant simultaneous orgasm from the Malthusians.

      • slumbrew

        In a “bodies piled in the streets” definition of “interesting”?

      • db

        they made a movie about that, I think

    • db

      Back in mid-2020, I saw a graph of the infection trajectory. It’s (or used to be) fairly well known that infectious agents that cause widespread disesase are introduced and present well in advance of the resulting pandemic being noticed. The graph I saw showed various possible release/introduction dates based on varying assumptions of transmissibility and other factors. Within the limits of confidence of the work I saw, they showed an initial release date in China of somewhere as late as September 2019 and as early as March or April, I forget which.

      Seems like there is more uncertainty with less lethal strains because their effects take a lot longer to be noticed and recognized as a new threat. Simliarly with less transmissible diseases, they take a while to be noticed and their origins are harder to pinpoint.

    • Rebel Scum

      I will take this as further evidence that the flu I had in Nov 2019 was actually convid and the pandemic was over at about the time it was announced in the US.

  32. PieInTheSky

    Top Trans Doctors Blow the Whistle on ‘Sloppy’ Care
    In exclusive interviews, two prominent providers sound off on puberty blockers, ‘affirmative’ care, the inhibition of sexual pleasure, and the suppression of dissent in their field.

    https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/top-trans-doctors-blow-the-whistle

    I really am unsure on this topic. My instinct is that giving puberty blockers to pre-pubescent children is wrong. Then again some of the pro people say that they rarely regret this when they grow up. I doubt we have enough data either way. But both the pro and anti side accuse each other of fake data and bad studies. And I cannot really make any sens of it. But my instinct is children don;t know shit to make such a decision

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I am firmly in the “fucking with a human’s natural development because of feelings is evil” camp.

      • juris imprudent

        fucking with a human’s natural development because of feelingsideology is evil

        FTFY

    • slumbrew

      my instinct is children don;t know shit to make such a decision

      This, right here.

    • slumbrew

      Is there any other decision with such far-reaching consequences we allow a child to make? I’m having trouble thinking of one.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Suicide

      • slumbrew

        allow is a big strong in that case – hard to stop if determined but parents don’t allow their kids to commit suicide if they can help it (contra some crazy parents).

      • slumbrew

        *bit

      • PieInTheSky

        give the pedos time to gather the political capital…

      • R C Dean

        Abortion?

        Allowing minors to consent to medical care began with abortion, and the Overton Window didn’t have to shift much to get from “reproduction” to “gender”.

      • slumbrew

        I’m talking about true children – if they’re seeking abortions they’ve hit puberty and (arguably?) not children anymore (though they may still be minors in the eyes of the law).

        They’ll letting actual children decide to take hormone blockers to avoid puberty.

    • Tundra

      There is no way a child can make an informed decision. People that are true, no-shit trans are vanishingly rare. Statistically can’t even be represented. This is all about creating customers for very expensive treatments. Consider:

      In 2007, the year the U.S. began implementing the Dutch Protocol, the U.S. had one pediatric gender clinic, and it overwhelmingly served patients like Jazz: natal males who expressed discomfort in their bodies in the earliest stages of childhood. (At age 2, Jazz reportedly asked Jeanette when the good fairy would turn him into a girl. Jazz’s own social transition did not appear to proceed from peer influence and predated social media.)

      Today, the U.S. has hundreds of gender clinics.

      The Medical Industrial Complex is asshoe, too.

    • UnCivilServant

      It’s very simple – People who have been ‘transitioned’ commit suicide at a rate massively higher than that of the general population. Those who at one point claim to want to transition but don’t are indistinguishable from the general population in the suicide stats.

      From those who did get ‘transitioned’ and get their voices out, regret is common, because it reveals that their problems were not that they were born into the wrong body, but that there was an issue in their head that is still untreated, but now they’ve been surgically mutilated to boot.

      • PieInTheSky

        well the pro side say this is all fake and not backed by data and regret is very rare.

        also those who commit suicide do so because they are not 100% accepted by society in their new “gender”

      • UnCivilServant

        And? Their livelyhood rests on pushing people into surgery. They’ve even gone so far as to trash the existing safeguards such as manditory mental treatment and presurgical lifestyle changes. That does not indicate people who have the best interests of the patients at heart.

        And if regret is so rare, why go screeching for censorship of those who go public with their regret? Shouldn’t there be a slew of “I’m perfectly happy now” testimonials to coutnerbalance? It’s almost as if there’s a dearth of satisfied customers to call upon and genetal mutilation doesn’t fix anything.

      • PieInTheSky

        all I am saying I can’t trust anything anyone is saying…

      • db

        I have a couple of friends who had gastric bypass surgeries. Their doctors required extensive psychological counseling, required them to demonstrate the capability for dietary discipline, and other demonstrations of their ability to maintain a healthy lifestyle before their surgeries were authorized.

      • Fatty Bolger

        And even so, half of them fail long term. At least they’re mostly just back to where they started, unlike failed transitions.

      • Mojeaux

        So, like, I’m 53 and just now figuring out maybe my dad wasn’t a monster after all. I had to have teenagers to get there.

        There are young regretters out there, but I’m betting the regret won’t really start until they’ve started to figure life out a little bit more.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (Are those still being done? I know one success, one draw as you describe, and one very latent death.)

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        (uh, gastric bypasses, that is. Me and my unclear antecedents!)

      • Mojeaux

        Are those still being done?

        Gastric bypass? Yes, but they have fallen out of style in favor of gastric sleeve (stomach stapling for those of us who remember the 70s and 80s).

      • db

        It’s possible my friends had a more modern procedure done, and I used the wrong terminology. However, they definitely had to go through the psych and lifestyle stuff before thye could have the surgery.

        I know another guy (since deceased) who had it done and couldn’t keep up with the lifestyle changes, sadly.

      • UnCivilServant

        It does sound a bit like a catch-22 though. If you can keep up with the lifestyle could lose weight without the surgery. If yu can’t, you’re going to rip the staples and kill yourself.

      • db

        I think it’s more about the lifestyle changes being required to maintain. Severely obese people have real problems getting active enough to burn off what they have accumulated. The surgical head start can get them out of a dangerous health situation and reduce overall risk years earlier than diet and exercise alone can.

        People get themselves into bad obesity situations, but it can be very good to have a quicker way out. Certainly it should not be used as a quick weight loss tactic, and that’s why all the psych and lifestyle demonstrations are reuqired.

      • waffles

        It really it some mental gymnastics. Transitioned people wouldn’t commit suicide so much if society would just accept them more is kind of obscene.

      • juris imprudent

        That does get to the underlying condition – I must have the validation of everyone I encounter. Talk about pathological narcissism.

      • EvilSheldon

        Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner, folks!

      • AlexinCT

        I do not pretend to understand people’s psychology, but I have to wonder how in a country and world where people now have a standard of living people couldn’t even dream of just a mere century ago, so many people are so lost and desperate to do insane things to get attention or correct their feeling lost. Life is not supposed to be a cakewalk, and I am not sure why so many people expect it to be. My ex constantly complained she was not happy all the time, despite the fact that she lacked for nothing, for example.

        We have people pretending believing biology is irrelevant, science requires censorship because of misinformation and can be done by consensus, that government will solve all the big injustices and problems, and that anyone that disagrees with them must be evil fucking monsters. I think we need to have a disaster that forces these fools to have to worry about where their next meal comes from so they can get properly refocused.

      • PieInTheSky

        despite the fact that she lacked for nothing – better sex?

      • AlexinCT

        Don’t project your personal issues on me, brah…

      • PieInTheSky

        oh quality is not an issue for me I don’t get any

      • Mojeaux

        how […] so many people are so lost and desperate to do insane things to get attention or correct their feeling lost.

        Lack of purpose leading to boredom.

        “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”

      • juris imprudent

        Prosperity creates its own rot.

      • AlexinCT

        I suspect you are correct Mojeaux, but that bodes real ill for humanity. If progress makes such a large segment of people that become bored end up getting mental problems, that means we as a species are facing a possible serious problem for growing forward. I think we need to understand that people only learn to be strong when they are challenged when young (and have the protection of those caring for them), and the crazy shit we do where we inflate kids egos while they have yet to accomplish anything of worth, before sending them into a world that will stomp on them, is tantamount to abuse. We made this problem ourselves in the name of “protecting” people.

        I am constantly surprised at people that do real destructive things under the guise of making things better for others: not ever being able to see the consequences of what they are doing. So many people seem to want to be saved from the reality that choices and actions have consequences, and those that think that they helping them do this, have only done things that have hurt the poor souls they mean to help. What we should be doing is helping people understand you have to deal with consequences, and hoping someone else does that for you, will hurt you far worse.

      • Mojeaux

        Ever heard the phrase, “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations”?

        Or “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times”?

        Hardship, progress, prosperity is a never-ending cycle in human existence. We are at the back end of that cycle where weak men are creating the hard times to come.

      • AlexinCT

        Spot on lady…

      • Mojeaux

        My and Alex’s conversation upstream brought something to mind. For the last few years I have been reading and trying to incorporate daily affirmations into my life. Yesterday, while scrolling through FB before its unfortunately temporary demise, I saw some daily affirmations posted by someone I KNOW is struggling with depression and doesn’t believe one word of them. I, too, struggle with depression and I don’t get any joy or even temporary relief from daily affirmations, although I have tried.

        Today, I saw a list of daily affirmations, starting with “and I realized that the reason they don’t work is that deep down inside, you know you’re none of those things, you can never be those things, you don’t deserve whatever it is you’re told you deserve just because you exist, that the universe really isn’t magically going to give you a pill full of self-esteem, and maybe, just maybe, you don’t want all those things because THEN what would you do with yourself? The struggle may be real, but it’s necessary.

        I’ve determined that daily affirmations are toxic.

      • Mojeaux

        Well, shit. Gilmore’d.

      • AlexinCT

        I will challenge people that say they don’t deserve things. Especially good things. Especially since how you see things is a question of perception. If you choose to see every setback or anything that happens that isn’t what you wanted as a failure, you will start failing. I have had setbacks. I have also learned the most important and life changing lessons from my failures. That changed my perspective from seeing things, especially bad things, as “something that happened to me” (which is demoralizing as hell) to “something that happened and provides me with valuable knowledge and experience” (which allows you to feel you are growing and are better prepared for the next challenge).

        Life is an endless chain of challenges. How you deal with them is defined by your state of mind. I know it is easy for me to say because I have been a bullheaded asshat that has never allowed things that happened to make me bend the knee. My mother suffered from depression and had a medical condition that made her life hell most of the time, but she lived 40 years longer than the best Vegas betters would have given her because she came to learn that how you took things that happened made a difference (I always reminded her that she could own things, or be owned by them). Everyone should find someone that will remind them of the good things and that bad things can be minimized if you mind them the right way.

        Never give up or surrender, even though you know none of us will win the battle with life and time.

      • R C Dean

        Especially since how you see things is a question of perception.

        Ding ding. You can see every success as undeserved, and every setback as inevitable, and you will lock into a cycle of failure.

        Or you can see the exact same successes as earned, and setbacks as temporary, and your odds of cycling up are much better.

        Daily affirmations are an attempt to break the cycle of failure and change your mindset. They may not work for some (many?) people, but they are pointing in the right direction at least.

      • Mojeaux

        I don’t deserve things just because I exist.

        I deserve things I work for, goals I pursue. I think I deserve to be a best-selling author because my stuff is GOOD and people like it. But you can’t just write and publish the book. You have to market it too. That is where I don’t do the work, so I don’t really deserve to be a best-selling author because I’m not doing the work. There is some guilt that comes with that that I think I deserve to be a best-selling author without putting in the effort. I don’t deserve it. I know I don’t deserve it. It’s UNFAIR that marketers who can barely write books become best-selling, but that’s how it is. It’s UNFAIR I have to be able to market my books because that is not how it’s supposed to be, but that is how it’s done, and I’m not doing it.

      • ron73440

        Moj, I agree you’re an awesome writer.

        I can’t get into the romance, but the stuff you put on here is wildly entertaining.

        The woman with the dog husband is one of my favorite short stories.

      • Mojeaux

        Aw, thanks, ron. ?

        That story was one I just tossed off to help my kid in her English class (shhh) (I know, bad mommy, BAD mommy).

      • AlexinCT

        Mojeaux, one of the most telling characteristics of people that become successful, and something I practically never, ever see people mention when talking about the successful, is how often they fail at things but never give up. Every setback just encouraged them to come at things from a different angle (read Scott Adam’s How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life for a very good perspective on what helps successful people get successful) and to keep trying.

        You write awesome stuff, but the truth is that the medium you have chosen has many gatekeepers and a whole bunch of dreck that impedes those that are good from getting recognized. Don’t give up. Part of being successful is being at the right place, with the right idea/product, at the right time. Your right place/time might be right around the corner, and you could end up missing it because you gave up. Figure out a system that will allow you to try to find this right time/place, don’t set goals, because that only means you have an end point in your journey, and not a means to get there, and work at it. Be realistic about the system. You might not become the next Steven King (highly overrated since he stopped drugging, drinking, beating his wife, and went stupid politically) but you could find a way to make a living at it.

        Sometimes things are not meant to be, but life is about playing the game, even if it doesn’t go the way you want it to…..

      • Plinker762

        You don’t worry about your sexual identity when being chased by a sabertooth tiger.

    • KSuellington

      For almost a whole year about age 5 my middle son wanted to be a cat. We never allowed him to transition to one. We did get a cat and he stopped wanting to be a cat. The end.

      • KSuellington

        Heheh, exactly. Thanks T, I’ll play that for him this evening. I don’t even think he remembers that phase now.

    • Not Adahn

      Top Trans Doctors

      The best doctors that have changed their apparent sex?
      The best doctors for changing other people’s apparent sex?
      The best doctors who never went to medical school but self identify as doctors?
      The people who self identify as doctors the best?
      Doctors who specialize on trans people who do the penetrating?

      Damn you English language!

      • UnCivilServant

        Doctors who only do top surgery.

      • Not Adahn

        Tits go on, tits come off. You can’t explain that.

    • Q Continuum

      Socialists are absolutely obsessed with child sexuality.

      • Q Continuum

        “In the year after her operation, Jazz would require three more surgeries, and then defer Harvard College for a year to deal with her depression.”

        I thought the shiny new pussy magically cured all psychiatric maladies.

    • AlexinCT

      If only people could see how women talk about men in private….

      • Ownbestenemy

        No shit…both sexes are absolutely crass among themselves about the opposite.

    • Tundra

      Oh, sweetie, you have no idea.

    • EvilSheldon

      You’re a Twitter drone. Saying that you’re an object to me is giving yourself way too much credit.

    • Rebel Scum

      There is a distinct lack of a sammich in my vicinity.

  33. PieInTheSky

    “Don’t tell me I shouldn’t be afraid of [group]. When I was 16 a [group member] assaulted me. I’m afraid of [group] every night when I walk to my car alone. I’m forced to text checkins to friends when I go out cause who knows what [group] might do.”
    This is more ok to say about:

    https://twitter.com/Aella_Girl/status/1444900811746709506

    • Ownbestenemy

      We all must have the same life experiences, same fears, same sex, and on and on. It is the only way that statement works.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Go ahead, be afraid if you want to.

      But your fear doesn’t put any moral burden on me.

    • EvilSheldon

      How ’bout I just tell you that you shouldn’t be afraid?

    • waffles

      I saw her on Twitter and only later found out she’s even better known for posting nude pics of herself. On twitter she’s more dudely than many dudes. Interesting character, that one.

      • PieInTheSky

        one of the top earners on onlyfans or she was at some point

      • AlexinCT

        My kind of girl…

    • Mojeaux

      This was a tweet with a poll. Followup tweets indicate that the person was actually trying to make a point about “if it’s okay to say about men, it should be okay to say about other groups because we all do it”.

      • EvilSheldon

        Yup, I saw. And her overarching point isn’t really wrong. Men commit a disproportionate amount of the interpersonal violence in the world, and black and Hispanic men in their late teens to mid-twenties commit almost all of it. Anyone who has ever sized up a dangerous personal encounter has used that knowledge, probably at a pre-conscious level.

        I think my point still stands, though.

  34. DEG

    Mornin’ Banjos.

    “Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said of the effort in a statement Monday. “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”

    I remember when Mitch McConnell got harassed in a restaurant and protesters showed up at his house. Oh. Right. THAT’S DIFFERENT!!11111111!

    But what is untold in the new FBI numbers for September is the continued trend of women buying weapons for the first time and new owners expanding their arsenals.

    🙂

    “A reason we have to raise the debt limit is, in part, because of the reckless tax and spending policies under the previous Trump administration. In four years, they incurred nearly $8 trillion in four years $8 trillion in additional debt and bills, we have to now pay off,” Biden said.

    But $3.5 trillion is OK. THAT’S DIFFERENT!!!!!!!1111!1!1

    Ministers from OPEC, Russia and their allies, a group known as OPEC+, are due to meet online later Monday, with the market eagerly awaiting to see whether they decide to go beyond the existing deal to add 400,000 barrels per day to supply every month until at least April 2022.

    Meeting on-line? It sucks being low on the totem pole in this Lil Rona Panic world. The big-wigs still get their nice junkets, but the lower guys don’t.

    Captain James T. Kirk is blasting off into the final frontier. In the latest sign of the strange new world we inhabit, the actor William Shatner will join the crew of Blue Origin’s New Shepard on a spaceflight that’s slated to launch on Oct. 12.

    Good!

    The song is good.

    • Ownbestenemy

      “A reason we have to raise the debt limit is, in part, because of the reckless tax and spending policies…”

      I won’t argue with Trumps spending. However let’s ignore the tax portion. Didn’t they decry he gave tax breaks to everyone

      Still a recipe for disaster

      • juris imprudent

        Didn’t they decry he gave tax breaks to everyone

        Indeed. Don’t you understand, tax breaks only belong to the deserving.

      • R C Dean

        What do you think he means by “reckless tax policies”?

        Now, giving a tax break to high earners in high-tax (Democrat) jurisdictions, that’s just sound economic policy.

      • Swiss Servator

        BRING BACK THE SALT!!!!!!!!!

        /High end Blue State homeowners

      • Not Adahn

        Just as soon as St. Dr. Fauci says salt is good for you.

  35. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    You know what makes a workplace toxic? Managers at war with each other. Makes it real fun for us plebs.

    • PieInTheSky

      well go into management

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Fuck. No.

    • Tundra

      You know what makes a workplace toxic?

      Yes. Other people.

      • AlexinCT

        Especially those in HR that need to justify their existence and decide the company needs diversity training…

  36. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    Yoyo the rescue pittie, who has been adopted, meets the daycare pack for the first time! He’ll continue with them after he is re-homed.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHxAeK8r4Dk

    • slumbrew

      My dog would never want to leave there.

    • ignoreLander

      Damn what a doggy paradise that place is — why would they ever leave?

      • slumbrew

        I wonder at what age his daughters will realize what an amazing childhood they had?

    • slumbrew

      The pile of Viszlas in the pool is just great – they look so happy.

      • Not Adahn

        I had a friend who roadied for Pile of Viszlas.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        The Boxer, Bandit (the one who found him in the tree), plays a game with the Viszlas – he noses his toy piggie into the pool, the Viszlas all jump in after it, then Bandit meets them on the ramp to repossess the piggie. I think there’s one round of the game in the video today, but they do it over and over and over again.

  37. The Late P Brooks

    Nobel-worthy

    Vaccinations prevented at least a quarter of a million Covid-19 infections among seniors and tens of thousands of deaths just between January and May of this year.
    The report from researchers at HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation found that vaccinations of Medicare beneficiaries were linked to a reduction in about 265,000 new Covid-19 infections, 107,000 hospitalizations, and 39,000 deaths in that time period.

    According to my model, I saved the universe.

    • robc

      You know, I totally believe vaccines saved the lives of a bunch of seniors.

      That isn’t the issue.

  38. Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

    I was thinking about the similarities between Jimmy Carter’s reign and Biden’s. Aside from the fact that JC seems like a 1/2 way decent human, there are some parallels – both are the successors to a disastrous Republican Presidency. Both are causing and exacerbating and economic meltdown. Both are dealing with a significant number of Americans trapped in a faraway land. There’s probably more.

    Anyway, in 1979, along comes Ronald Reagan. His message was one of optimism and hope. It was a general positive approach (“happy days are here again” type of shit).

    So what’s stopping the GOP from going whole hog on a similar type of hopeful messaging? If it’s happening, I haven’t seen much of it. DeSantis would be the closest, I think, but he also has a strongly antagonistic bent. Everything from the GOP is just as angry and contentious as the Dems.

    I guess I’m forgetting that the GOP hates to win.

    • PieInTheSky

      I feel the quality of candidates, as low as it was in the past, is getting worse. At least in the EU probably the US. Aint no Thacher coming to England to replace that extreme right wing libertarian government of theirs

    • Tundra

      This problem can’t be solved with voting. GOP is not even an opposition party anymore (if they ever were).

      Even if he were to win, DeSantis would prove to be as impotent as Trump. The problem isn’t who is in the big chair, it’s the fascism.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        I’m not necessarily talking about effecting Big Change (though Reagan certainly did), but just offering a different, positive message. A winning message. Just winning, not necessarily changing anything.

        But I don’t see anything coming from the GOP that could be considered positive or even offering some sort of opposition.

      • Ownbestenemy

        That should perk up the ears of the middle, everyday American and it might in a couple of years to realize it’s insane Left/Right politics all the time now.

        Those two camps will destroy any candidate that is now centrist…when years ago it was the other way around.

      • slumbrew

        The Happy Warrior thing is hard – need to have a thick skin and unflagging optimism.

    • Homple

      “Everything from the GOP is just as angry and contentious as the Dems.”

      Everything from the Allies is just as angry and contentious as the Axis.

      • kbolino

        People hear “the winner writes the history books” and they think this means the books are written after the battle is done and the winner already decided. The reality is that the winner(-to-be) started writing the history books before the fighting even began*. The GOP is losing the propaganda war, and not just “barely”. The right/conservative movement does not control any of the centers of cultural power, and its own organs from National Review to AEI to Cato are, to borrow a phrase, “cucked” (e.g., literally paid off by Google to deep-six negative press, for example). The framing of the narrative is a reflection of the power differential and not any extrinsic properties of the message, wording, tone, etc. Understanding this is key to understanding power, but Republicans don’t want to understand (never mind wield!) power, they just want to bask in its afterglow.

        * = The best war is one you never have to fight, and when you realize “the winner writes the history books” applies even when no battle was even fought, and you don’t even know there was a winner, you begin to understand how narratives are constructed, reified, and then built upon over time

      • R C Dean

        The reality is that the winner(-to-be) started writing the history books before the fighting even began*.

        Indeed. Vast amounts of energy were expended during the heat of WWII to pre-set the postwar world. Perhaps the single best example is de Gaulle, who maneuvered mainly to be the next boss of France, not to beat the Germans. But they all did it. Yalta wasn’t about defeating Hitler, it was about divvying up the spoils. Eisenhower could have taken Berlin and staved off an immediate humanitarian disaster and a couple of lost generations of East Germans, but Stalin made sure he got his revenge on the Germans at Yalta.

    • juris imprudent

      I guess I’m forgetting that the GOP hates to win.

      PJ O’Rourke said it best: “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”

    • db

      At what point in Carter’s term did Reagan appear with his positive message? It’s still very early on in this particular shit show.

      • kinnath

        1980 election. So the caucus/primary season started around Jan/Feb of 1980.

      • db

        Was it really that late? I know that our campaign timelines seem to have started earlier and earlier in recent decades, but 1Q 1980 seems pretty late for Reagan to have come on the scene against Carter.

      • Gadfly

        Wiki says he announced in Nov 1979 (so the campaign timelines have indeed gotten longer, as Trump announced in Jun 2015). But “come on the scene against Carter” is a bit difficult to nail down, as he was a prominent politician beforehand and had in fact barely lost the Republican primary in 1976 against President Ford, which if he had won would’ve had him facing off against Carter (who ran away with the Dem nomination), so I can imagine he was probably critical of Carter far before Nov 1979.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        ’64 RNC?

      • db

        Right, but at the time, his message wasn’t counteracting a general trend of negativity (that was widely recognized, at least).

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I know; I should have added a ?.

  39. The Late P Brooks

    I saw an article yesterday about how some people are unfairly conflating the “racial justice” protests last summer with the “end DEMOCRACY!” protest in January. It included some impassioned hogwash from a federal judge about how January’s assault on the Capitol represented a categorical difference because government institution.

    Somebody should tell her the protests in Portland featured ongoing arson attacks on a federal courthouse.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That judge who made those statements is a slap in the face of impartiality. He made up his mind before he even saw his docket

      • juris imprudent

        Barbarians attacking the Temple!

  40. juris imprudent

    We have met the enemy…

    Every couple of years, people here vote for whoever vows convincingly to bring those aspirations to them. Every couple of years, they are disappointed yet again and look for hope elsewhere.

    Somehow the thought that government is simply unable to deliver on those aspirations does not enter into the equation. No, no, we just need the right Top.Men – and you see this fallacy not just on both sides of the aisle, but shot through the electorate. This is one of Gurri’s points about the death-spiral between politicians and voters: the politicians promise what they can’t deliver and voters get more cynical (but never wiser). I’m putting the finishing touches on my article on the Gurri and Lasch books, so there will be more on this subject.

    • wdalasio

      To be fair, the broader quote tells a somewhat different story:

      Most of the people here want the same things people have always wanted here — opportunity for themselves and a good education for their children.

      Every couple of years, people here vote for whoever vows convincingly to bring those aspirations to them.

      I understand that that’s not full bore libertarian or anything. But, is it really all that much for people to want? It sounds to me a lot less like a desire for salvation from the right Top Men than simply a government that doesn’t screw up their lives.

      • R C Dean

        The problem is too many have been brainwashed into believing only the government can give them opportunity for themselves and a good education for their children.

      • juris imprudent

        The problem is it is pretty well established that govt doesn’t deliver the goods (because we aren’t talking about more of govt leaving us alone). When you keep voting for govt to do this, it isn’t just the fault of the politicians.

  41. AlexinCT

    I wonder if it is not a coincidence that this big Powerball win was in a state that will take close to, if not more than 60% of the winnings in taxes?

      • Not Adahn

        I’m sure the FBI was behind is investigating it.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        El Unico!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nothing or not doesn’t matter anymore.

      All they need is a pretext.

    • kinnath

      Media won’t play for me.

      • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

        Me neither

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      We got a security warning that there was a “suspicious vehicle” outside the Supreme Court about an hour ago

    • Ownbestenemy

      Nothing on the media so….nothing?

    • Ed Wuncler

      You know they are hoping that it’s some crazy right winger so they can justify their crackdowns on the wrong opinions.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s always a crazy right winger, even when it isn’t.

        *points at Gabby Giffords*

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        We aren’t violent, therefore anyone that uses violence is right wing whether they actually are or not because that’s the right’s defining characteristic.

      • Rebel Scum

        There is no one more vengeful than an man that just wanted to be left alone. . .

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Voila, we’d have bought ourselves the equivalent of a trillion-dollar increase in the debt limit, without any impact on inflation,” says Diehl.

      We are so fucked.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Fuck it, if it’s that easy we can mint a couple hundred of the things. Oh, that’d be crazy?

      • R C Dean

        without any impact on inflation

        Is that coin part of the money supply? If it is, its inflationary. If its not, its purely decorative, meaningless, the equivalent of a Franklin Mint commemorative coin.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        You obviously don’t understand the economic wizardry involved here.

      • Rebel Scum

        equivalent of a trillion-dollar increase in the debt limit

        Which solves nothing.

        without any impact on inflation

        *sigh*

    • ron73440

      Did anyone else get a brain tumor reading that article?

    • Ed Wuncler

      “I am sitting in a class. It’s on sexual histories, a class I took to broaden my horizons from my journalism degree. I try not to think of the student loan I’ll be incurring from taking it.”

      I’m blessed enough where we can put some money aside for my daughters to attend college but made it fucking clear to my wife that if they decide to go into the grievance studies, I’m cutting the spigot off and telling my daughters to either find another major that actually produces value or figure out a way to pay for their bullshit ass degree.

      I read all of this and it’s exhausting as fuck,

    • AlexinCT

      Best sort of destruction is self destruction…

    • waffles

      “2SLGBTQQIA+”?

      • kbolino

        Two-spirit (2S), lesbian (L), gay (G), bisexual (B), transgender (T), queer (Q), questioning (Q), intersex (I), asexual (A), and others

        None of these groups really have much in common, apart from gays and lesbians; bis were the first addition, and the first to cause some eyebrow raises, though not nearly as much as the trans; as she points out, the acronym exploded over time, revealing the general activism over focused interests trend that developed.

      • waffles

        The clips of Trudeau stumbling over that mouthful are something to behold.

      • Rat on a train

        A isn’t “attack helicopter” or would that need the H?

    • Sean

      I made it halfway through the article before realizing I couldn’t fap to it. TL;DRIA

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dude with his back to the column has the right idea.

  42. The Late P Brooks

    “Voila, we’d have bought ourselves the equivalent of a trillion-dollar increase in the debt limit, without any impact on inflation,” says Diehl.

    Humpty Dumpty School of Theoretical Economics and Imaginary Numbers.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The FBI is wholly corrupt, as is its parent, the DOJ.

      • Not Adahn

        Pish tosh. J. Edgar Hoover would never have created a corruptible organization!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        As I was pointing out to my wife this morning, we are way past salvaging the USA. Our best hope is dissolution and secession, and that will be very unpleasant.

      • ron73440

        we are way past salvaging the USA.

        Yep, When I saw that legal arguments and facts don’t matter, I lost what little bit of hope I had left.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Lefties wont let Americans be just like they couldnt do it in 1861.

        Its civil war 2.0 resolution and commies in America should flee to commie china now.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      We already knew that.

  43. hayeksplosives

    The packer/shipper company is doing their “survey” of our stuff today to size a truck and crew for the move. To my surprise, it’s virtual. So I gotta download some app and basically be ready to show them around the house.

    Weird.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Huh. Weird indeed but at least it documents your possessions.

    • Mojeaux

      We’re packing and moving right now, little by little (I mean, the new place is only 4 miles away), so I empathize with you. I personally am not going to pay people to do something we can do ourselves, no matter how exhausting. The movers are coming on the 18th to get the big stuff.

      • robc

        Yeah, when our house finishes, I am moving all the boxes from storage unit to the house. Hiring movers for the big furniture, but I am not paying them to load and unload boxes. Basically, can do about 75% myself.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Same. Big items from our 2nd floor condo to the house…movers. All the boxes and small pieces like broken down beds? Us and the kids.

      • Mojeaux

        I have a sofabed. I wanted movers to move it. I figured, why not throw in most of all the other heavy stuff so my family doesn’t break their backs?

        My truck has some electrical issue that needs to get fixed, so it’s not dependable right now anyway.

      • Gender Traitor

        Just remembered one way Two Men and a Truck went above and beyond: when they pulled the truck with the big stuff into the driveway, they accidentally broke a low-hanging branch off our magnolia tree. One guy said, “Tree trimming no extra charge!” (The tree was fine, BTW.)

      • Mojeaux

        I hired Two Men and a Truck when we moved into this house. It’s only right they move us out again.

      • hayeksplosives

        I’m not paying them; my new employer is.

        I’ll take it!

  44. Rebel Scum

    “Don’t shoot me, Joe.”

    US Capitol Police on Tuesday took into custody a suspect from a “suspicious vehicle” parked near the Supreme Court after giving the person commands and using a flash bang device.

    “One of our teams just moved in and extracted the man from the SUV. The man is in custody. Everyone is safe,” Capitol Police said on Twitter.

    More than a half-dozen law enforcement vehicles, including a tactical vehicle, could be seen in the area after USCP said on Twitter they were investigating a “suspicious vehicle” and closed roads in the area.

    The Supreme Court, which returned to in-person arguments for the start of a new term Monday, is hearing arguments again Tuesday in the courtroom.

    These things are happening with suspiciously increasing frequency.

    • R C Dean

      Not mentioned: Whether there actually was any threat.

      Given the hate the Left has for SCOTUS these days, I would not assume its a right-winger, either.

      The man is in custody. Everyone is safe

      Well, not sure I would say the dude they arrested is safe.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        That was my thought as well. I would expect crazy right wingers to attack Congress, the WH, or any number of the agencies, not SCOTUS.

      • Q Continuum

        We’ll figure out soon enough; if they keep the story in the news, he’s a Deplorable, if it disappears, he’s a Commie.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Keep pushing people against the wall. Right now it is sick people…eventually, it becomes the boring dad out in the suburbs with a wife, two kids and a dog that feels they have nothing left.

      • Mojeaux

        Falling Down was a prophecy.

      • EvilSheldon

        …who was a multi-tour Afghanistan vet back in the day, who still knows something about fire and maneuver.

        The most disgusting thing about bullies, is how shocked they look when you finally haul off and break their nose…

    • UnCivilServant

      Looks like the hole in the ground that passed for a toilet at the four corners monument.

      We’re richer than the richest kings of judea? where’s my harem of concubines?

    • Sean

      Lt. Bookman, hardest hit.

  45. R C Dean

    On the trillion dollar coin:

    “The Fed would neutralize the monetary effects of this coin by selling some of its treasury holdings back to the public and destroying the money it received,” the economist said. “On the one hand you have the Treasury creating a $1 trillion coin, on the other hand you have the Fed contracting the money supply by $1 trillion… so there’s no net monetary effect.”

    That’s not the way it works. That trillion dollars of treasuries isn’t going to be sold to the retail public. Its going to be sold to institutional investors. Banks who buy it will now be able, through the miracle of fractional reserve banking, to loan more to the public, putting money in circulation. Other institutional investors will also use it to create cash, through a variety of swaps and other deals. None of them hold treasuries for the nominal interest rate, really. They hold treasuries because they are cash equivalents, and easily converted to cash without even selling them.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Every organized crime syndicate in the world is thinking “And I was the monster?”

      • db

        Every government in the world is practically an organized crime syndicate all with varying levels of benevolence.

      • db

        there should be a semicolon in between “syndicate” and “all.”

        I’d like to see one of those “Tolkein Character or Pharmaceutical Trade Name” style quizzes but comparing various governments and crime syndicates/mafias.

      • ron73440

        Dave Smith says the government is the mafia pretending to be a human rights organization.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Heh. Explains a lot. “Prego, Don Corleone.” Except the Don was probably more efficacious overall.

    • cyto

      Worse than institutional investors, they play the shell game with social security. Somehow they think an IOU to yourself means you get to spend the money three times.