Sunday Morning Even Sweatier Links

It’s approaching 100° in the house, which puts me in an extremely ill humor. On the bright side, I’ve lost six pounds. Maybe the ineffective A/C guy will come today, maybe he won’t. And trust me, SP is in an even worse mood, so walk softly. Wonder Dog just lays on the floor and pants. Mom just sits in her chair, looks confused, and asks, “Is this Hell? Did I get here from raising you?”

As usual, there’s an eclectic bunch of birthdays today, including one of my favorite contemporary comic actors; a corrupt statist piece of shit who just won’t fucking go away; his statist piece of shit buddy who mainstreamed Judenhass into Team Blue; a wonderfully bad Santa; the snugglebunny for Sandra Day O’Connor; the guy who redefined jazz trumpet; and a delightful guitarist whom I can personally attest was a delightful person as well.

On to the news.

 

I’ll leave out the latest OMG GUNS BAD GUNS BAD!!!! freakouts from Texas since the 48 hour rule is in effect. But the reliable dolts are reliable.

 

Amerikanski meddling.

 

Wait, Team Red has the same kind of assholes as Team Blue? I am shocked, SHOCKED.

 

In other news, water is wet.

 

Never change, San Francisco, never change.

 

Wow, another opportunity for graft!

 

If you look hard enough for racism, it’s there, even if you have to enhance it un peu.

 

Old Guy Music features the birthday boy. And really, don’t bother playing blues after this, he used up all the licks.

Comments

293 responses to “Sunday Morning Even Sweatier Links”

  1. Tundra

    Christ, that sucks.

    I’m afraid I laughed pretty hard at Mom’s reaction…

    1. Sensei

      I thought Hell was Christian doctrine. I’m not sure if there is a Jewish equivalent. Aside from AZ with no AC of course…

      1. Chipping Pioneer

        I thought it was when they run out of chickens at Publix.

    2. Cy

      Hotels aren’t that expensive!

      1. R C Dean

        Unemployed, dude.

    3. Yusef drives a Kia

      And they never called me, and was in Az at the time……

      1. Old Man With Candy

        If it were our house and our choice, things would be different.

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          I still would have come by and trouble shot it properly, free, then you have ammo for dealing with parts changers, landlords suck.

          1. Old Man With Candy

            Here’s my logic:

            Inside: Thermostat kicks on the inside blower reliably. Control board produces a 24V signal when it kicks on. This tells me that the thermostat and control board are fine.

            Outside: The compressor fan doesn’t kick on. No voltage at the contactor coil. When I manually depress the contactor, the compressor and blower start as long as I hold it in. This tells me that the compressor and blower aren’t the issue, there’s 240V running, and the caps are fine.

            So I come to a wiring fault for the 24V signal line as the logical answer.

            Did I miss anything?

          2. westernsloper

            If the thing blows cold when the compressor and blower start when held down I would be fashioning a device to hold the contactor down. Sharp sticks aren’t only for poking eyes out.

          3. The Bearded Hobbit

            Do you have a portable power supply that you can use to energize the contactor?

          4. zwak

            Bad relay to the compressor contact? Do you have control voltage (24v) at that relay?

          5. Old Man With Candy

            There’s 24V at the control board output. So its relay is fine (and the A/C guys replaced the board anyway to no effect). It’s just not reaching the contactor outside at the compressor.

          6. R C Dean

            The danger of doing a DIY fix is that the landlord says “Your problem now” and stops paying for the HVAC crew to do a real fix.

          7. Old Man With Candy

            Bingo. But I am tempted to put three 9V batteries in series and attach them to the contactor coil with clip leads. That will likely not leave traces.

  2. Tundra

    With enough cameras, these systems could produce explorable, three-dimensional maps, where analysts could follow persons of interest as if a drone were hovering over them at all times, says Arthur Holland Michel, founder of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College and author of “Eyes in the Sky,” a book about this technology. The question is, will privacy-minded citizens accept it?

    Uh, how does ‘fuck no’ grab you?

    1. Sensei

      I’m sure there will be no noise either.

    2. Oh, lots of people will just bend over and grab their ankles. It’s the “If you’ve done nothing wrong you should have nothing to hide” bullshit.

      (Note how the cops always want to hide their actions.)

      1. Tundra

        Those aren’t ‘privacy minded citizens’, though.

      2. leon

        It’s because they did something wrong.

        1. Yeah, cops will release body/dashcam footage when they think it makes them look good. (And of course, local TV news unthinkingly regurgitates the propaganda.) When they think it’ll make them look bad, they claim they can’t release it because it’s an ongoing investigation.

          1. leon

            A cop procedural was on at the Gym the other day and I found myself disappointed that the cops won the shootout…

  3. Wow, another opportunity for graft!

    My town doesn’t have any battlefields.

    Well, maybe one….

    1. Gender Traitor

      I just knowed that’s what it was a-gonna be.

      1. Slammer

        Wait. There are three girls here at Ridgemont who have cultivated the look

        1. Brett L

          Would you say the’ve Been groomed?

      2. Tundra

        Ted never (?) disappoints.

        1. Chipping Pioneer

          *disappont’s

    2. MikeS

      Was this chick on your battlefield?

      1. MikeS

        I watched that entire video for what a believe is the first time ever. SMDH.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    The question is, will privacy-minded citizens accept it?

    Appeal to their innate racism, and tell them it will only be used against the darkies.

    1. Sensei

      You mean like gun control?

  5. Tres Cool

    mornin’

    And hey- we made the news here in SW Ohio ! Since Trump was in Cincinnati Thursday, Im sure it will get pinned on him somehow.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Mmmmmmornin’.

  6. I hadn’t heard the Riggins/O’connor story before, funny stuff.

    1. MikeS

      Me either. That’s hilarious.

  7. Gender Traitor

    Not wanting to miss out on all the attention, my hometown gets its own moment in the spotlight. Dem mayor will call for more gun control in three…two…one…

    1. Tundra

      Yep. Here we go, again.

      For awhile I was feeling pretty good about gun rights, but I fully expect to be made a felon within 5 years.

      1. Meh – I don’ see it. Every time there is a mass shooting, the usual talking heads go off on gun control. And there was the bump stock ban – done by Trump … and this and that against scary assault weapons and it never goes anywhere. If Trump moves too heavily against guns, he riles up the base against him. If the Dems do, they rile up their enemies against them.

        Heck the Dems had the presidency, the senate, and the house and didn’t – as far as I remember – do anything major about guns.

        If I put my tinfoil hat on, they like it that way to get donations from their base.

    2. Sean

      The typical people can’t climb those dead bodies fast enough to spew forth their gun grabbing dogma. Not a single thing about the root cause of the violence itself is said. Is it social media, public education, or the media helping to foster such hatred and violence?

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Root cause is not addressed because it’s not addressable. In a country of 330MM people, there’s inevitably going to be some violent nuts.

        1. Cy

          I disagree. Get rid of ‘gun free zones’ and you’ll see improvement.

          1. leon

            Private citizens should be free to set up gun free zones. Weather or not they should be held liable for failure to provide protection for people who show up…

          2. Cy

            Private Citizens, yes. Corporations, especially publicly traded ones, no.

          3. leon

            “Corporations, especially publicly traded ones, no.”

            Letting people buy and sell stock in secondary markets should not take your rights away.

          4. Cy

            Soft Monopolies across the midwest and in most neighborhoods (walmart) shouldn’t take anyone’s rights away.

          5. for people who show up……is no, no they shouldn’t.

            finished that for you.

          6. leon

            True, you show up, you know the risks. Schools certainly could be as they are mandatory for children to show up at.

            Related is the free rider problem of businesses outsourcing their security to police. This is why you get Starbucks calling cops to expell loiterers rather than kicking them out themselves.

        2. Sean

          That is generally how I viewed it, but I’m open to looking at root causes.

          That Cruz kid fell through the cracks of a broken system, and was probably preventable for example.

        3. Don Escaped Texas

          That’s certainly the rational view.

          I’m not sure of the figures, but the order of magnitude has to be something like this: chances you would be
          a/ shot and killed by someone you don’t know, 3,300 out of 330kk, so 1:100,000 per year
          b/ killed by a car driver you don’t know, 9,900 out of 330kk, so 3:100,000 per year

          and no one is running for president based on senseless and preventable car murders.

          1. The Last American Hero

            Well, there’s a bunch of Dems supporting the green new deal, but they think car murders come from the tail pipe rather than the 4000 pounds of steel and glass ramming into another 4000 pounds of steel and glass at high speeds.

      2. R C Dean

        “Not a single thing about the root cause of the violence itself is said.”

        I thought it was clearly Trump and his racist army of bigoted gun nuts. Get rid of them, and paradise awaits.

        1. Comic Book, D&D, Rock Music, and video games.

          Oh and pornography let us not forget pornography.

          1. leon

            First they came for the guns, and I said nothing because I had no guns. Then they came for the Porn, and I realized what fool I was.

          2. DrOtto

            +1 Suicide Solution

    3. Tres Cool

      Shots fired on 5th street…..Party in the Oregon !

      1. Gender Traitor

        Guess he just couldn’t wait ’til Halloween.

  8. straffinrun

    The mural was painted in 1936 by Victor Arnautoff, a devout leftist who at one point was investigated by the FBI for his ties to communism. His grandson says the artist included Native and African Americans to provoke a conversation about the real history of the United States.

    He could troll in 10 characters or less.

    1. Sensei

      I like how you force me to use Google’s image search on well over 50% of your avatars.

      1. No one is forcing you to anything… or are they?

      2. straffinrun

        Just google “Swalwell Swallows”.

    2. Grumbletarian

      Woke people combat racism by whitewashing mural.

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Vote for me

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., one of nearly two-dozen Democrats hoping to block Trump’s bid for a second term in the White House, made her remarks at a labor forum event in Las Vegas.

    “The individuals who do the shootings are responsible,” Klobuchar said, referring to mass shootings such as the one in El Paso that left 20 dead and 26 injured, “but I do think Trump’s rhetoric has fueled more hate in this country.”

    Klobuchar also pushed for gun reform legislation on Twitter.

    “Today innocent people—families—went to that mall in El Paso,” she wrote. “Some of them never came home. The U.S. House has passed common sense gun safety legislation. It is long past time to pass it in the Senate. The question to ask: Whose side are you on? The NRA’s or the people’s.”

    I’ll put a stop to this senseless freedom.

    1. Slammer

      These people want a hot Civil War as much as some of these shooters

    2. I’ll channel my alt-right inner-Nazi: Perhaps forced diversity and balkanization has thoroughly expected side-effects; such as increased isolation and anger for white males, seeing massive cultural shifts happening before their eyes. They don’t know how to react, even after voting for a president who promises to close the border, so, in desperation, lash out. This is culture war collateral damage.

      /not sure who much of this I believe

      1. Slammer

        I think it’s a decent argument. And add in the speed of the forced diversity.

        1. And the oppression of wrong-thought.

      2. Sounds about right.

      3. *or even how

        ::grabs second cup of coffee::

      4. straffinrun

        You could a little more to that and say these white losers shooting up places are just worried that they won’t be getting any of the sweet booty from a future govt. Free shit is a powerful anger both ways. Those who get more than others and those that pay or are left in the cold.

      5. R C Dean

        Throw in, not just forced diversity, but active and ongoing discrimination, denigration and contempt for whites, men, and masculinity.

      6. Gustave Lytton

        Not just seeing cultural shifts. There’s a breakdown in traditional morality and social ties that has left many rudderless and unafraid of the consequences of their actions.

        1. Fourscore

          Saw the LGov Patrick (TX-R) on TV, this morning, ranting/raving, “Its the video games”

          Just now Trey Gowdy, “More laws aren’t going to stop crazy people from doing crazy things” Paraphrased

    3. straffinrun

      Buttigeig says, Hold my beer, Amy.

    4. Fourscore

      60 K of my generation went to VN and came home in a body bag, courtesy of LBJ mostly but JFK, DDE and RMN are not exonerated either. The Middle East isn’t forgotten either.

      1. The Last American Hero

        Fake news. We didn’t declare war in any of those places.

    5. Rufus the Monocled

      And then she threw staplers and binders at her staff.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke also placed some blame on the president for the shooting while speaking in El Paso, which he represented when he was in Congress.

    “He is a racist, and he stokes racism in this country,” O’Rourke told reporters. “We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years. During an administration where you’ve had the president call Mexicans rapists and criminals.”

    Beto? Is he still out there?

    1. Slammer

      Mayor of town with high murder rate offers opinion on national stage

      1. Slammer

        Shit, that’s the other guy…

    2. Chipping Pioneer

      During an administration where you’ve had the president call Mexicans rapists and criminals.

      Don’t worry, Beto, he wasn’t talking about you.

  11. cyto

    I missed the beginning of your AC problems. I’ve had a couple of rounds here. I have a buddy who does AC. The last time I had some guys come out and they quoted me $500+ just for the parts. “Because this one is really old, it is hard to get the parts”. They wanted me to buy a new unit.

    It was a fan. An effing fan.

    So I called my buddy to find out where to go for parts. The part was less than a hundred bucks, and there were lots of choices. It took me all of 15 minutes to do the fix once I had the part.

    So the next time I just called him. He asked a couple of questions and said it sounded like I needed a “hard start kit”, which is a replacement startup capacitor to give it a little more umph to get the older compressor turning. Cost was minimal and the fix easy again.

    There are only so many parts on an AC. You have two fans, a compressor, some capacitors, a controller board and the copper coils. Really the only thing you don’t service is the coils and the compressor. The rest is an easy fix. Leaves me wondering why the AC guy gets so much cash.

    So if one of the fans doesn’t work… you just replace it.

    If the compressor won’t start up, you replace the capacitors for the compressor. If it runs fine but doesn’t get cold… then you call the guy because the compressor isn’t compressing or the coolant has leaked out.

    The only caveat to this is if you have a modern unit – but not too modern. They went to all computerized there for a while and apparently they weren’t very reliable. The simpler controller boards apparently work better and more reliably, so the manufacturers switched back to older technology. So if you have one of those, the computer might be the problem.

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Complications:

      1. This isn’t our house, we rent. So the landlord’s A/C guys are the ones we’re stuck with. If this were our house, we would have already fixed it ourselves.
      2. The A/C guys don’t really seem to get the logic of troubleshooting. Their approach is more of, “When things don’t work, Part X is the most common culprit. Replace Part X. If that doesn’t work, Part Y is the next most common fail.”

      So they’ve replaced the motor, replaced the capacitors, replaced the control board, replaced the contactor, recharged the coolant… none of which are the actual problem. And my suggestion on what IS the actual problem would be significantly more labor, but many less easy parts sales.

      1. PieInTheSky

        you should be able not to pay rent if the inside temp is over 80

        1. Sean

          No, his landlord should have put them up in a hotel until the a.c. Is fixed.

          Or thrown in a window unit or two.

      2. Renting or not I think I’d have run a wire by now, AC with a slightly ajar door has got to be better than no AC at all.

      3. Rufus the Monocled

        So….they’re at the part of just changing the whole unit now.

      4. Yusef drives a Kia

        The wiring harness, seriously the blower door warps the moles causing intermittent shorts

        1. Old Man With Candy

          Yeah, there’s been no doubt in my mind since this started that it’s a wiring issue. But apparently that’s tougher than willy-nilly replacing parts until things work again.

          1. break out the audio testing gear!

          2. Old Man With Candy

            Diagnosis was easy. Getting into the walls where the wiring is… not as easy.

            BTW, I have an APx555B for a few more weeks. Some of the stuff it does is absolutely amazing.

          3. Not Adahn

            Any way to put jumper in place to keep the unit running continuously? At least you’ve be able too col of the place.

  12. PieInTheSky

    there is an epic rain going on around here. Damn. That’s a lot of water

    but the temps did get down to 22

    1. Slammer

      Lol wut? 22 water is frozen

    2. straffinrun

      You’re supposed to get down to two by two’s.

    3. Do they measure rainfall in Romania by liters/m^2 or some ridiculous stuff like that as opposed to just mm or cm?

      1. PieInTheSky

        crucially mm but some news stations occasionally use l/min

        1. PieInTheSky

          l/m^2 i meant

      2. straffinrun

        Half a galosh.

        1. PieInTheSky

          actually șoșon in Romania

    4. PieInTheSky

      also why do people forget ow to drive n the rain. There were some puddles somewhere and everyone was behaving as if they were driving an Oltcit

    5. Pi Guy

      That’s 295 K

  13. PieInTheSky

    I’ll leave out the latest OMG GUNS BAD GUNS BAD!!!! freakouts from Texas since the 48 hour rule is in effect. But the reliable dolts are reliable. -Pie you say, come visit the US you say… You people are a bunch of maniacs with guns.

    1. Sean

      “You people are a bunch of maniacs with guns.”

      but enough about the Glibs…

    2. egould310

      Speaking of coming to America; if you ever do make it over here, you’re welcome to crash on my sofa.

    3. BEAM’s not a team player

      You people are a bunch of maniacs with guns.

      Huh. And here I thought that was one of the attractions of visiting the U.S.

    4. Not Adahn

      You people are a bunch of maniacs with guns.

      Until you’ve performed Flashdance while armed, you haven’t really lived.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Land of the free

    A city in Ohio has decided it will no longer hire employees who use nicotine or tobacco in a bid to create a healthier environment for its workers.

    The new policy requires employees hired after July 15 to be tobacco and nicotine-free for as long as they work for the city of Dayton, according to the Dayton Daily News. The new standard defines the use of either product as “inhaling, exhaling, burning, vaping any lighted cigar, cigarette, an e-cigarette or pipe, chewing or any other type of tobacco use.”

    New applicants will now be tested for both nicotine and tobacco during the pre-employment screening process as well as when it receives “reliable” information that an employee is engaging in the dangerous habit.

    We may have a motive for the Dayton shooter.

    1. “Public Health” types never talk about the quality of life benefits of being left the hell alone.

    2. Slammer

      What? Just to get hired? That’s nuts

    3. R C Dean

      SOP in the hospital biz for years now.

      1. The Last American Hero

        One of my hospital clients built a smoking pavilion behind the main building in the 90’s – on the books it showed up as the “Butt Hut”. Times have changed.

      2. Grummun

        The hospital I’m at hasn’t outright banned tobacco users, but if you fail a nicotine test, the “disincentive” on your bi-weekly insurance premiums is like $50. Note that they don’t care where the nicotine comes from, smokes, chew, patch or vape.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    That popout thing on the left edge of the page is really starting to piss me off.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    Pie you say, come visit the US you say… You people are a bunch of maniacs with guns.

    Just stay away from Yosemite.

  17. straffinrun

    Oh, I almost forgot. How rude of me. Mornin’ Banjos!

    1. Old Man With Candy

      Her tits are significantly larger than mine.

      1. Slammer

        Pics or gtfo

        1. straffinrun

          Which ones?

          1. Slammer

            Both?

          2. Cy

            We wouldn’t want to be sexist around here.

          3. straffinrun

            Compromise. Let’s do one of each.

          4. Tundra

            Why not both?

    1. Slammer

      Those are inner city blacks. No one on the gun control team cares

    2. PieInTheSky

      Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.

      Since this has been going on for some time I am beginning to suspect they are not truthful bout being committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market.

      1. Probably because under the GDPR there are no options that support the full range of digital offerings to the EU market.

    3. straffinrun

      Sundays are the highest for shootings? Is it the hangovers?

      1. PudPaisley

        Chicago’s had 22 people shot today, between midnight and 8 am.

        If a mass shooting is counted as 5 or more people shot, then Chicago has already had 2 mass shootings today.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Dark money is destroying democracy

    The Feds are looking into possible campaign finance misdeeds by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff and lead rainmaker, who suddenly resigned Friday, federal sources told The Post.

    The inquiry centers on two political action committees founded by Saikat Chakrabarti, the top aide who quit along with Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent,the sources said. Trent left to join the congresswoman’s 2020 re-election campaign.

    ——

    The two PACs being probed, Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, were both set up by Chakrabarti to support progressive candidates across the country.

    But they funneled more than $1 million in political donations into two private companies that Chakrabarti also incorporated and controlled, according to Federal Election Commission filings and a complaint filed in March with the regulatory agency.

    In 2016 and 2017, the PACs raised about $3.3 million, mostly from small donors. A third of the cash was transferred to two private companies whose names are similar to one of the PACs — Brand New Congress LLC and Brand New Campaign LLC — federal campaign filings show.

    While PACs must follow stringent federal rules on disclosure of spending and fundraising, private companies are not subject to the same transparency.

    The complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, a government watchdog group based in Virginia, alleged that the LLCs appeared to have been set up to obscure those federal reporting requirements.

    Oh, wait, never mind. Obviously just a slight misunderstanding.

    1. I always think of “Dark money” being sung to the tune of Cher’s “Dark Lady”.

    2. Rufus the Monocled

      What made Chakabacala think he could funnel one million and get away with it?

      He’s not Hilary.

      1. leon

        I mean maybe he would have if he hadn’t tried with a full third of the value of the PACs.

  19. Rufus the Monocled

    “This mural is not appropriate,” said Francee Covington, an African American woman, one of the few people of color in the crowd examining the paintings Thursday.”

    Go. Fuck. Your. Self.

    1. You know who else thought some artwork was inappropriate…

      1. Rufus the Monocled

        Maude Flanders?

        Helen Lovejoy?

      2. Sean

        Jesse Helms?

      3. leon

        Vienna Art School Admissions board?

      4. DrOtto

        John Ashcroft?

      5. MikeS

        Tipper Gore?

      6. The Bearded Hobbit

        Ed Meese?

    2. straffinrun

      The mural was a piece of leftist propaganda. Take it down, I don’t give a shit.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s public art, so the public gets to decide.

        There’s certainly a lot of modern sculpture that I’d like to see removed.

        1. Rufus the Monocled

          Leaving artistic decisions to the public. What can go wrong?

        2. Gustave Lytton

          Pretty much all of the 1% for “art” on public projects.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      The funny part is that it may as well be Howard Zinn approved. It’s a happy George Washington trampling minorities.

      Maybe the painter should have shown an enraged George instead. People can’t seem to get satire anymore.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    SCIENCE, motherfucker!

    Americans are divided along party lines when it comes to confidence in scientists and their role in making policy, according to a survey released Friday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
    Overall, trust in scientists is increasing in the United States, with 86% of Americans saying they have at least “a fair amount” of confidence that scientists are acting in the public interest, up from 76% three years ago. Today, more people have confidence in scientists than in religious leaders, business heavyweights and even public-school principals.
    But just 27% of Republicans have “a great deal” of confidence in scientists, the survey found. Among Democrats, it’s 43%.

    ——-

    A majority of Republicans also believe scientists’ judgments are just as likely to be biased as other people’s, whereas most Democrats say that scientists make judgments based solely on the facts.

    Democrats are credulous ninnies. Film at eleven.

    1. PieInTheSky

      scientists make judgments based solely on the facts- bunch of fuckin angles they are

    2. leon

      “Americans are divided along party lines when it comes to confidence in scientists and their role in making policy”

      I actually had this conversation the other day with a friend. I trust a lot of scientists. If they were to say “know what, we made a mistake big bang ain’t real” id probably believe them, because it has no bearing on me. It’s the “role in making policy” part that gets me. You start making judgement calls and saying the only way to stop x is to give more power to government, I get skeptical.

      1. Old Man With Candy

        Scientists know more about science than the average guy. Scientists know no more about policy than the average guy.

    3. leon

      “But just 27% of Republicans have “a great deal” of confidence in scientists, the survey found. Among Democrats, it’s 43%.”

      As a follow-up, it’s strange how this gets spun as Republicans being stupid/anti-science when skepticism is key to science.

      1. Look man, all science is to be 100% accepted and followed without any question. Why are you making that face when I tell you the sun revolves around the earth?

  21. Heard about the El Paso shooting, but hell there are so many different motives/theories flying right now thank glob for the 48 hour rule. Hell, Imma just go for a 1-week rule at this rate. May the souls of the people at El Paso and Dayton rest in peace and may the killers burn.

    Off-topic, but finally moved out of my place and am chilling down in Tokyo. Loving me some tonkatsu and kebabs. To straff and tejicano: my phone service got cut off so all I got are wifi at the place I’m staying and hotspots just as a heads up. Also, if y’all are still down for the shindig at Iseya this Friday, I was thinking of being there at 19:00. Please let me know if that’s good for y’all.

    1. straffinrun

      Sounds great. Don’t even know if they take reservations, but it’ll be crowded. Usually about a 15-30 minute wait.

      1. Not too bad, it’ll give us some more time to chill and shoot the breeze so that’s okay. I’ll be the obvious looking gaijin wearing a cap with an eagle.

    2. PieInTheSky

      shindig at Iseya – slang for brothel?

      1. I plead the 5th.

    3. Gustave Lytton

      chilling down in Tokyo

      80F at 87% humidity at midnight.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Whiny Bitches of America

    2. Shit like this reassures me they’ll never achieve national dominance. They’ll be too busy tripping each other up to get anywhere.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        It must be really frustrating to the actual bloodthirsty revolutionaries.

        1. leon

          Why do your think the bloodthirsty revolutionaries have purges once they get power? It’s to kill the idiotically earnest ones among them.

    3. Scruffy Nerfherder

      “Thank you comrade”

      Said with no consideration or knowledge of the suffering that came with that word.

      1. leon

        Some of them Do know and don’t give a fuck.

    4. straffinrun

      That guy is going to have trouble doing the murdering necessary.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        He’ll be happy to sign the necessary paperwork.

    5. Scruffy Nerfherder

      “NO GENDERED PRONOUNS”

      Lol

    6. Sean

      ??

    7. Scruffy Nerfherder

      Most accurate comment: This is essentially a giant adult daycare and career advancement vehicle for left-wing college grads.

    8. 0x90

      These precious navel-gazing fucks need to stop appropriating the culture of the working class.

  22. straffinrun

    So this is where you end up going when you allow your 10 year old daughter to find an activity for your first day of vacation. At least the resort we’re staying at is all-you-can-drink and eat. Leaving tomorrow and will be back in time for Friday night with the boys.

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      It’s like they’re staring at you, preparing to attack.

      1. straffinrun

        They all look alike to me. So do the flowers.

    2. That’s a Hella lot of sunflowers. Hope the family had a good time and hell yeah, my dude.

    3. blackjack

      So, did you back petal on letting her choose?

      1. Tundra

        Uh oh. Pun pollination incoming…

        1. MikeS

          He’s a real pistil, isn’t he?

          1. Sean

            if Swiss is stalking around here, expect a narrow gaze

          2. Gustave Lytton

            I’m going to leaf before then.

        2. blackjack

          Wait, those weren’t “pun flowers?”

    4. MikeS

      A sunflower field is a tourist destination? Not being snarky, legit question.

      1. straffinrun

        Japanese like simple stuff like that. It’s a tourist area because of the mountains surrounding the area. Lots of nature.

        1. MikeS

          It does look like a beautiful setting. I suppose the large number of city dwellers has something to do with it as well? Connect with nature…open spaces…that sort of thing?

          1. straffinrun

            That and it’s a 2 hour drive from Tokyo, so it’s far enough out of the city to see nature but not too far for an overnight or two stay. It’s where we usually go camping.

      2. westernsloper

        Last year a local farmer had a large field of sunflowers. There were cars lined up there every morning for photo ops for weeks.

        1. MikeS

          Having probably a dozen or more within 5 miles of me, I sometimes forget that it’s not a common sight for the majority of people.

  23. peachy rex

    CRICKET SMITH SAY “LAY BACK AND THINK OF AUSTRALIA!”

    1. +1 Stickey Wicket

  24. straffinrun

    Lamborghinis, Burkas, Sex Party Invites And ‘Chop Chop Square’: A New York Lawyer’s 15 Years In The Middle East

    “There’s an Arabic phrase, ‘marble on the outside, shit on the inside.’ That is the best description of Qatar itself,” Shaykhoun, 47, said. It’s a country where image is everything, and usually misleading, she said.

    1. Where do I sign up?

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of rambling nonsense

    At least 20 people are dead in El Paso, Texas, and once again some ghoul with a rifle has reignited the moronic inferno of online commentary that follows such events. Was this an act of terrorism? If the gunman’s alleged manifesto proves genuine, does that mean the so-called alt-right or online white nationalism shares blame for this atrocity? Should zealots have access to deadly weapons? Is Donald Trump—recently seen on Twitter gloating about the burglary of a congressman’s home in Baltimore—capable of a statesmanlike response that acknowledges and repudiates his support from those who openly or tacitly celebrate the crime? (A second mass shooting, in Dayton, Ohio, in the early hours of Sunday morning left at least nine dead; the motive there remains unclear, but that has not restrained similar speculation.) If you are spending any time at all litigating the perfectly obvious answers to these questions, you should stop, drop, and roll, because the flames are consuming you, and pretty soon nothing will be left but a pile of soot and a charred iPhone.

    A four-page statement appeared online minutes before the shooting yesterday. Police are investigating whether the gunman wrote it. It is, unlike the Christchurch, New Zealand, manifesto, straightforward and written in language comprehensible to normal people, rather than in allusive, wink-laden online jargon. One benefit of that straightforwardness is that, if police confirm the strongly suspected link between the gunman and the manifesto, no debate will be necessary about what motivated the killer, or what fountains of ideas he drank from.

    ——

    As we learn more about the perpetrator, we will doubtless discover that he said vile and alarming things, online and off, long before he started killing. In retrospect, all these statements will feel like tragic missed opportunities to straitjacket a young man and save both his life (he will soon face Texas justice, after all) and the lives of at least 20 others. But keep in mind how commonplace, on a sentence-by-sentence level, portions of that manifesto are. Just how many straitjackets can our society afford?

    Atlantic writer pukes up inchoate outrage. We all know who is to blame for these atrocities. Straitjackets for everybody.

    Everybody who doesn’t think like me, that is.

    1. straffinrun

      You should only be able to purchase a gun if you are wearing a straitjacket. It’s common sense.

    2. Man, that guy is so far up his own ass I’m sure he’s popping out of his own mouth.

    3. westernsloper

      As we learn more about the perpetrator, we will doubtless discover that he said vile and alarming things, online and off, long before he started killing. In retrospect, all these statements will feel like tragic missed opportunities to straitjacket a young man and save both his life (he will soon face Texas justice, after all) and the lives of at least 20 others.

      Soon an algorithm will emerge, based on science on who will become a mass shooter.

      1. if (subject == white && subject == male):
        gun_purchase = False

  26. AlmightyJB

    “SFUSD officials said it may cost as much as $600,000 to paint over the mural, which includes legal costs.”

    I should have been a lawyer. No matter what the situation is, the lawyers always make bank.

    1. BEAM’s not a team player

      Jeebus.

      Gimme $500,000.00 (USD, natch) and I’ll go get a coupla cans of Benjamin Moore and a roller and have it painted over by this afternoon.

      1. “whoops I fell several times against the mural, accidentally spilling the open can of paint I happened to be holding in my hand.”

  27. westernsloper

    No good on the A/C Old Man. I don’t run A/C in the summers and often go to bed when it is above 90 in the house. I would tell you it is no problem, you will get used to it, but we get no where as hot as AZ. Especially this summer which has been uncharacteristically cool and wet.

    1. PieInTheSky

      s no problem, you will get used to it – i did not have ac until I turned 18 and i did not get used to it i always had trouble sleeping as a kid on hot summers

      1. PieInTheSky

        luckily i spends most summer holiday at grandma so not in Bucharest, in a remote hill village which generally cooled down at night. no UHI

      2. straffinrun

        Our doctor told us to use the a/c all night on hot nights. You don’t enter into the deep sleep stage very easily when it’s too hot.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Chuck Todd is ashamed of you, America.

    1. Oh jeez, I better change my ways. The last thing I want is to disappoint talking head propagandists.

  29. Slutty Sunday is heating it up even more.

    http://archive.li/DM6x5

    1. 5,11,44,52. Wowza, bless the summer heat and the glorious gift that is the bikini.

  30. So, I’m thinking of a kickstarter for a website “MILFs Demand Action” gun-themed porn site.

    Any takers?

    1. PieInTheSky

      just milfs or are there barely legal (to purchase firearms) babysitters involved?

      1. ^^^Brilliant.

        You can be our European talent scout.

      2. AlmightyJB

        Milf teaches babysitter.

    2. blackjack

      Every time something happens, the headlines would be ” MILFDAs pounce!”

    3. DrOtto

      I saw a Mom’s Demand Action bumper sticker and that’s how I read it out loud. I think it’s a great idea.

  31. PieInTheSky

    So this fitness YouTube popped up in my recommendations

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPej2dr2J5s

    I always wonder if women dress like this at the gym just because they are comfortable and in now way do they want the male gaze or…

    1. All (straight) women want the male gaze, some are just more conflicted about it.

      1. PieInTheSky

        i have seen women a my gym dressed just like that, with nipples poking out of vaguely transparent sports bras

        1. Motivation Pie, motivation.

          1. PieInTheSky

            see Q that is a perfectly good pair of tits right there. There is no reason to go larger than that.

          2. Correct on the first point, incorrect on the second.

          3. MikeS

            Pie is wise.

        2. AlmightyJB

          Only reason to go to a gym really.

    2. leon

      I love the Buff Dudes. They have some funny gym vids. Also they don’t seem to care to much about making slightly inappropriate jokes.

      1. The ass slap in the beginning was surprising.

        1. leon

          Pretty sure she’s his wife.

          1. PieInTheSky

            no the other guy is married

          2. leon

            Ahhh that’s right. I get them confused. It took me a while to realize they were brothers.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    We have a HATE epidemic in this country.

    Round up the haters.

  33. Yusef drives a Kia

    PSA: If anyone, ANYONE, needs AC help, contact me first. Tres knows, we solve problems via comment or text, so remember, Yusef is here!

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I need help with my AOC, it’s on the fritz. It keeps blowing hot air all day, then suddenly turns frigid when I go to bed.

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        That’s the new style Socialist AC, next up, chocolate!

      2. MikeS

        *golf clap*

      3. egould310

        The external monitor I connect to my laptop is branded as AOC. Luckily the little “A” decal fell off. I took a black Sharpie to the logo on the neoprene case.

    2. Old Man With Candy

      Yeah, this one we’re dealing with sucks because it takes actual skill to fix (even though a moron like me could figure the problem out quickly).

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        sick. Betting it’s the harness in the furnace, they plug in at right angles to the card, and can bend against the door, and then fails, this has happened, very rare.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    Oh, goody. Booker has a plan to end gun violence and white hatred.

    1. MikeS

      When you mention Booker and “white hatred” in the same sentence, I assume it’s the hatred towards white people that Booker and his ilk have.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        Unless you’re a dumbass like Zuckerberg that gives his city $100M for him to disappear.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Apparently, impeachment will solve this problem.

    1. Sean

      It’s elegant in its simplicity. Or something.

  36. AlmightyJB

    Alyssa Milano, Piers Morgan, and Michael Avenatti. The axis of asshole.

    1. MikeS

      I do my best to not pay attention, but I thought Piers Morgan occasionally says something smart?

      1. AlmightyJB

        Even if that’s true, he probably says it in a pompous asshole tone. I can’t stand that guy.

        1. MikeS

          Oh, no, don’t get me wrong. I completely agree with you on that point.

    2. straffinrun

      What happens when they walk in a bar?

      1. MikeS

        Everyone else walks out?

        1. Yusef drives a Kia

          Lol

      2. westernsloper

        A Rabbi, a priest, and lawyer all point and laugh?

      3. leon

        Pretty sure Avennati is the only one who will be disbarred…

      4. Avenatti and Morgan spitroast Milano.

        Obvi.

        1. straffinrun

          Your bars are better than mine.

          1. It can be the first scene in my gun-themed porn site above.

  37. MikeS

    From the Bill Maher story: all I can say is; that asshole is still alive on TV?

  38. The Late P Brooks

    LOOPHOLES MUST BE FILLED.

    Strict federal gun laws are our only hope.

    1. When the grabbers finally ram their agenda through and shit like this continues to happen, what will the propagandists say? They’ll put themselves out of business!

      1. leon

        Hahahahahahahaha hahaha hahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahaha

      2. AlmightyJB

        A Statist work is never done.

        1. and the more laws – enforced at the end of a gun – will equal more deaths at the hands of the police. Yay laws!

  39. AlmightyJB

    “The Mayor reported that the police were already in the vicinity and the shooter was dead in “less than a minute” after the shooting began.”

    https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-
    shaw/2019/08/04/second-mass-shooting-erupts-ohio/

  40. The Late P Brooks

    It’s not about politics. It’s about painting the President as a racist who enables and instigates white supremacy.

  41. Poor HKG, try as they might the Mainland’s not gonna let them go without bloodshed.

    https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2019/08/be-water-seven-tactics-are-winning-hong-kongs-democracy-revolution

    From the comments at instapundit: “Fortunately for China they have an ally in Google, which will help China do their best to keep as much of this hidden as possible from people in China.”

  42. Dog bites man.

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/former-google-engineer-says-google-will-try-to-prevent-trumps-reelection/

    At what point is this considered an in-kind campaign contribution? If the FEC weren’t also anti-Trump I’d say they should look into it.

  43. straffinrun

    What is officially “Glibtime”? Eastern?

    1. Wherever SP is. So, Arizona time (neither Mountain nor Pacific due to AZ’s awesome rejection of DST).

      1. straffinrun

        Really? SP time. That’s awesome and sounds pre Galileo.

      2. Gustave Lytton

        Ahem. Mountain Standard Time year round. Although until the site gets retimed, Glibtime(*) is still CT.

        *any time is time to be Glib. Or drinking.

      3. MikeS

        I thought it was The Central time because the server resides there.

        1. Central time because the Foundation is incorporated in Texas.

    2. AlmightyJB

      It’s EST. The official time zone of the universe.

      1. Gustave Lytton

        Only 3/10-11/3

        *shakes fist at GWB*

        1. If Trump found a way to poleax DST by executive order, he would have my vote forever.

          1. Gustave Lytton

            Throw in incandescent bulb bans, and I’m in.

          2. MikeS

            And low flow toilets.

    3. PieInTheSky

      All I can say is the morning links drop at 3PM and the second post of the day at 7PM and the evening links at 11 PM

      1. straffinrun

        Gustave is right. Guess that wasn’t as big a mystery as I thought.

        https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/usa/chicago

        1. PieInTheSky

          Gustave is right. – no I am right. it is 6 30 PM and in 30 minutes the horoscope will drop

          1. Not Adahn

            …maybe. I didn’t get it finished until Friday evening.

        2. Gustave Lytton

          Things I usually don’t hear irl.

    1. …YOU go to prison!… and YOU go to prison!… and YOU go to prison!…

      1. westernsloper

        Ha

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Economics is broken

    They might look less good if the assumptions on which the equilibrium models that got us here were more widely known. The idea of perfect markets under perfect competition, for example, asks us to believe in a world where everybody knows everything, there are an infinite number of companies, no barriers to setting up a business, where any product can stand in for any other (say, a banana for a tractor) and, crucially, there are no “externalities” (economic speak for “consequences”) from production or consumption.

    All models use a few simplifying assumptions, but those underpinning mainstream economics more often distort and detach from reality. It’s one of the reasons why students have rebelled, forming groups to demand that universities take a more pluralistic approach to teaching economics. Katie Kedward left a banking job in the City for ethical reasons and sought a degree that would make sense of economics. Despairing at the unreality of mainstream courses, she found a rare exception: a master’s in ecological economics at the University of Leeds. The course, though, isn’t even taught in the economics department but the School of Earth and Environment. That’s why new groups are emerging to promote heterodox economics, which draws on the insights of the study of complexity, neuro and behavioural science, ecology, feminism and the core economy of family, mutualism and community.

    Yeah, that’ll fix it.

    1. PieInTheSky

      The idea of perfect markets under perfect competition, for example, asks us to believe in a world where everybody knows everything, there are an infinite number of companies, no barriers to setting up a business, where any product can stand in for any other (say, a banana for a tractor) and, crucially, there are no “externalities” (economic speak for “consequences”) from production or consumption. – which branch of economics assume s that?

    2. Gustave Lytton

      those underpinning mainstream economics more often distort and detach from reality. It’s one of the reasons why students have rebelled, forming groups to demand that universities take a more pluralistic approach to teaching economics

      “Wah! Make reality conform with my childish beliefs!”

      1. Yusef drives a Kia

        Math is hard!

    1. westernsloper

      Ya, but extra points for the author using the term “meat sword”.

  45. Fatty Bolger

    “If you look hard enough for racism, it’s there, even if you have to enhance it un peu.”

    You don’t have to look very hard to find it in France, to be honest. In fact, I’ve had almost exactly the same experience described from French employees, where they were very rude and gave the cold shoulder to a black lady, then were very nice to me and fulfilled the same request quickly (not knowing I was actually asking on her behalf). I have a family member who was stationed in Paris as a diplomat, and she says casual and overt racism is very typical. It’s especially bad for black Africans, regardless of religion.

    1. 0x90

      Plenty of casual racism in spain; strong anti-roma sentiment is common as well, along with some related general prejudice among northerners against southerners (i.e. andalucians).