Wednesday Afternoon Links

by | Mar 11, 2020 | Daily Links | 372 comments

Happy mid-week everyone. I hope everyone’s day has been great. I’m still trying to figure out WTF is going on with some work travel I was supposed to have at the end of the month. But other than that, everything is wonderful. This virus thing has just gotten weird to me. I can’t quite figure out what in the hell an appropriate response to this is, but I don’t think panic-buying bumwipe and turning kids out of class is it.

And speaking of inappropriate responses, banning free assembly of private citizens seems like a police-state move.

Oh noes, the Turks and the Russians aren’t going to fight anymore? Say it ain’t so!

Rains of molten iron… great Manowar album.

So, what’s your worst job?

This seems sensible to me.

About The Author

Brett L

Brett L

Brett set out to find America, the real America, the America of strip malls and serial killers, of butthole waxing and kelp smoothies, of cocaine and maggots. He sought it in the most American part of America—Florida: swamp gas and fever dreams, where love arrives on a rickety boat and leaves when it doesn't have the money for its fourth abortion. Oh, where has Brett gone? He’s drinking at the neck of America’s wang, chewing its foreskin and working its shaft. Brett is becoming legend. Brett can never die. Brett can never die. Brett is America, facedown in his own patriotic puke: the red his blood, the white his stomach lining, and the cold, cold blue his gas station slushie, spiked with coconut rum and tetracycline.

372 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “This virus thing has just gotten weird to me.”

    #metoo

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Lowe’s has emailed me about the Coronavirus. It was a lot of words to just say “we’re still selling shit.”

      • UnCivilServant

        Plastic wrap and duct tape?

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Don’t forget hacksaws and trash bags.

      • UnCivilServant

        I was making a SARS reference.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        You think I wasn’t?

      • UnCivilServant

        You clearly deviated from recommended procedures if you were.

      • Jarflax

        Not everyone is lucky enough to have a whole body sized incinerator in their basement.

      • Bobarian LMD

        UCS just has a dirt floor in his basement.

        The gloves help prevent blisters.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        I think UCS is a “brick them up in the wall, go slowly insane” type.

      • Drake

        Picks and shovels?

      • Fatty Bolger

        Yep. I’ve also heard from Avis that they’re still renting cars, and Best Buy and Staples are still selling the shit they usually sell. It’s quite a relief. I was so worried.

      • Tundra

        Target, Nordstrom, Enterprise, Southwest, Delta and my church are all committed to my safety.

        So I got that going for me.

        Which is nice.

      • Tonio

        BestBuy has ramped up cleaning measures and cares very deeply about their employees, I didn’t read down to find out how or how much.

  2. Count Potato

    “And speaking of inappropriate responses, banning free assembly of private citizens seems like a police-state move.”

    It seems like something libertarians would argue over endlessly.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      It does not.

      • Count Potato

        Yes, it does!

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        This isn’t an argument; this is just contradition.

      • Gender Traitor

        No, it isn’t!

      • C. Anacreon

        I could just be arguing on my spare time.

      • Jarflax

        What tradition?

      • Bobarian LMD

        The opposite of protradition.

    • Ted S.

      As long as you don’t assemble pineapple and pizza.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Or mention a type of pizza that is commonly attributed to a large midwestern city.

      • UnCivilServant

        Kansas City claims to make a Pizza?

      • mexican sharpshooter

        They claim to make BBQ.

        What? Screw you, fight me!

      • pistoffnick

        Detroit
        Ohio Valley
        Chicago
        Quad Cities
        St. Louis

      • pistoffnick

        I’ve had both Chicago Deep Dish and Quad Cities style pizzas.

        I’m a big tent kinda guy

        {pitches tent}

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        Quad Cities: Right on DJ’s. Wrong on Pizza.

      • PBRstreetgang

        + 1 Move your arm up and down and make that choo-choo sound

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        The quad cities are four medium town/small cities.

        Ohio Valley style pizza? Is that where they give you shakers of crushed oxycontin instead of parmesan?

  3. Count Potato

    “Scientists identify rain of molten iron on distant exoplanet”

    I wonder how the Guardian is going to blame that on Trump.

    • Q Continuum

      Trump doesn’t believe in global warming! Look at what happened!

    • Count Potato

      “Wasp-76b is what astronomers call an exoplanet, one that orbits a star outside our solar system. Scientists have discovered that the local weather conditions include 2,400C temperatures, winds in excess of 10,000mph and a steady pelting of iron rain.”

      So climate change?

  4. Q Continuum

    I’m guessing buying guns is one of the actions that turns Asians into whites?

    • Count Potato

      Well, if you’re hispanic, it’s only after you shoot a black kid in a swing state.

    • Tundra

      I thought it was kick-ass grades and a strong work ethic.

      • Bobarian LMD

        That’s what turns white kids into asians.

      • Chafed

        K pop

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      I was out pig hunting yesterday. The guide mentioned that the local gun shop reported that Asians were buying up guns. They might have a little more experience with societal breakdown than we do.

    • A Leap at the Wheel

      Roof. Headband. AK. Some assembly required.

  5. commodious spittoon

    Because the planet is so close in, it is “tidally locked” (like the Moon’s orbit about Earth) and only only ever shows one face, its day side, to its parent star, while its cooler night side remains in perpetual darkness.

    Pretty lucky its day-side is the one facing the star. How weird would it be if the night-side was the one all lit up like it’s day.

    • Jarflax

      I must be a science denier because I have a strong suspicion that it isn’t actually possible to be confident about this level of detail concerning an object you deduce from light and gravity fluctuations, you ‘observe’ from 640 light years away

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I’m in the same line of thinking. Maybe they’re right, but if they’re deducing all of this based on 3 or 4 pixels of info, I’m quite skeptical.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Science…fiction?

      • The Last American Hero

        I’m sure they sciences the shit out of this.

    • Q Continuum

      “theslot”

      I’m guessing I don’t want to be anywhere near the slot of any Jezebel writer.

      • SugarFree

        It’s sweaty and dark and occasionally there’s a penis staring back at you.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Sounds an awful lot like a glory hole.

        Is there duct tape to prevent nasty scratches?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Based of my observation of feminists the frequency of penis sightings falls into a boolean distribution, if age 30 frequency is never.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        I forgot about tags and used greater than an less than symbols.

        If age is less than or equal to thirty, penis sighting frequency is always. If age is greater than 30, penis sighting frequency is never.

        Dare I invoke the edit fairy?

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      One set of industrial strength, prescription, reality blocking ideological blinders.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Poor, poor HIllary. It’s all so unfair, SHE DID EVERYTHING RIGHT!! And now here she is, frustrated and limited to the occasional “suicide” to relieve her frustrations. She should be killing people by the thousands! It’s so unfaiiiirrrrrrrr!!!!!!

    • ChipsnSalsa

      Clearly they have been anointed by God.

  6. Shirley Knott

    Worst job? Hired as a trainer, had QA *and* support added on top. The boss (co-owner of the company) would stand behind me critiquing, and insisting I immediately change anything he didn’t like, while I’ve was typing the first draft of the reply email.
    I had a sad history of working for crazy people. Not the good kind of crazy either.
    Retirement is nice.

  7. Rebel Scum

    Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is going to announce a ban on gatherings and events of more than 250 people in virtually the entire Seattle metro area, according to an Associated Press source, in an attempt to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

    This authoritarian action has no logic.

    • Suthenboy

      It is Seattle. They have a Lenin statue.

    • The Last American Hero

      I’m going to church this weekend. If the WSP wants to arrest me, Jay can enjoy the optics.

    • MikeS

      Based on what the infectious disease expert said in the Rogan link that Scruffy linked this morning, it actually does.

  8. Florida Man

    So, what’s your worst job?-

    This doesn’t seem so bad compared to other jobs I’ve had.

    • Rhywun

      Maybe something got lost in translation because I don’t see the “humiliation” they’re claiming in the article. Or it’s just the usual sign-of-the-times fake “outrage”.

      • Sean

        They should have lowered the dispenser a six more inches. Then it could be labelled as humiliating.

      • Tundra

        No that would be awesome.

        “Ooooh yeah baby, that’s the spot!”

      • Florida Man

        When you say “human dispenser” I assume it’s being dispensed out of an orifice. This was just a dispenser mascot.

      • Q Continuum

        “human dispenser”

        Peter North to the white courtesy phone…

  9. The Other Kevin

    We’re starting to see some Corona effects. This week both me and Mrs TOK walked right in to doctors appointments where we’d normally have to wait. Now my hockey league championship in Michigan has been cancelled. We still have the Disabled Hockey Festival In April in Pittsburgh but my gut’s telling me that will be cancelled too. Like Brett, I’m not sure what to think.

  10. SugarFree

    Worst job: shoe store. It was a nightmarish hellscape of old people feet and psychotic bosses.

    • Tundra

      Everyone should work retail at some point in their life. It effectively burns away any fluffy, happy, optimism and replaces it with the armor of cynicism.

      • Florida Man

        Wal-mart did that for me.

      • Ted S.

        Don’t let Mojeaux see that!

      • SugarFree

        I am 100% serious about this:

        I have been trying for 30 years and haven’t been able to capture how awful it was in prose. Bits and pieces, yes, but not the entirety of the grinding tedium and the incompetence and occasional outright insanity of the people supervising me.

      • Tonio

        Have you tried epic poetry or interpretive dance?

      • Playa Manhattan

        Penis puppetry. It’s the only way.

      • SugarFree

        My problem is that I just don’t drink enough.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        We use fiction to transmit truths because direct communication is insufficient to the task. Thus, Al Bundy.

      • Gadfly

        I have been trying for 30 years and haven’t been able to capture how awful it was in prose.

        Your author origin story is not quite what I would have expected.

      • Nephilium

        Or a job in fast food.

        I’ve done fast food, retail, consulting, IT, temping, and inventory. The inventory job was the worst of the lot.

      • DrOtto

        I did the inventory thing back in the day, can confirm.

      • Tundra

        Pussies. I worked at a pharmacy. Imagine counting bazillions of pills…

      • C. Anacreon

        Yes, but if it hadn’t been for you, old man Gower would have screwed up that prescription and killed that kid with poison. You’ve had a wonderful life.

      • Count Potato

        I never worked retail. Well, I worked for a retail electronics store as an installer.

      • Rhywun

        As bad as retail is, hotel desk clerk is far worse. I had to get out of it for my sanity because I didn’t like what it was turning me into.

      • C. Anacreon

        No doubt in that job they told you there ain’t no sanity clause.

      • Michael

        One of my early retail jobs was at a windsurfing shop. I was often tasked with running the swimwear department where northside hotties would try on bikinis and step out to ask me how they looked. If by “armor of cynicism” you mean colossal boner, then yes, I dealt with that a plenty.

      • Aus

        I would add that everyone should work as a tax preparer in a H&R Block type store. I was forever jaded with that being my first job out of college.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      +1 Al Bundy

      • Florida Man

        Faster and more accurate. You win this round.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        *twirls mustache*

        Al Bundt sound like a guy who makes awesome cakes, though.

      • C. Anacreon

        Feathered Bundt will get you stoned to the bejeezus belt.

    • Florida Man

      Are you Al Bundt?

      • Ted S.

        I prefer Al Streusel.

      • SugarFree

        I am not an artificially intelligent cake pan.

      • Florida Man

        I’d be a lot cooler if you were.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        It would make so much more sense.

      • Jarflax

        The cake is alive

      • Gadfly

        There is nothing cool about a sugar free cake pan. I’m sorry, but if your cake does not contain sugar it is not cake.

    • pistoffnick

      “So, what’s your worst job?”

      1) Cleaner of the grease trap at a summer camp kitchen.
      2) Hoeing soybeans / detassling corn
      3) Overnight group home attendant/janitor/cook

      Morbid, but not the worst: digger of graves

      • Jarflax

        1. Door to door encyclopedia sales
        2. Vacant house clean outs
        3. Cleaning a College bar, would be in second place except I also bartended there and that part was awesome.

  11. Suthenboy

    Their fears are ridiculous. It’s not like anyone would round up Asian Americans and put them in camps.

    • grrizzly

      In the midst of the Russian collusion hysteria, I couldn’t come up with a good reason why they wouldn’t put Russian Americans in camps if it guaranteed removal Trump from power.

  12. Chipwooder

    Worst job? Telemarketing. I quit after a week.

  13. Q Continuum

    “So, what’s your worst job?”

    This really toothy one I got from a not-particularly-attractive neighbor after too many tequila shots about 10 years ago.

    • Tundra

      Still pretty good though, amirite?

      • Q Continuum

        It’s like pizza…

      • UnCivilServant

        You may want to see a doctor about that.

      • Count Potato

        Well, it’s been 10 years.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Crusty with a lot of cheese and red sauce?

  14. Q Continuum

    On the plus side of everyone’s Coronapocalypse insanity:

    I looked today and you can get two round trip tickets to Tokyo plus a week in a 4-star hotel for ~$3400 bucks out the door. If you wanna do some international travel, now’s the time.

    • Chipwooder

      On the other hand, they won’t let you back into the country afterwards.

      • Q Continuum

        Feature not bug?

      • Florida Man

        I’m flying out Saturday and coming back Friday. Hopefully I won’t be quarantined in Costa Rica. Although I guess there are worse places to spend 2 weeks.

      • UnCivilServant

        You’ll be sent to their outsourced quarantine facility. It’s in Siberia.

      • Florida Man

        They’ll have to shoot me before I’ll go anywhere cold. It’s a death sentence either way.

      • Playa Manhattan

        I’m reading that there’s a 3log reduction in the viability of the coronavirus outside the body in hot and humid weather.

        Costa Rica is the place to be.

      • UnCivilServant

        That doesn’t sound right – an environment that’s all wet and 98.6 degrees should be perfect for it.

      • Playa Manhattan

        You’re confusing viability with necessary conditions for reproduction.

        An individual coronavirus is only viable for a few minutes in the human body after it is created.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m not confusing anything – just making at ill-constructed joke at the expense of overwarm, overhumid locales.

        I confess it was niether funny, nor scientifically accurate.

      • Florida Man

        If the US falls while I’m going, I’m going to be king of the ashes when I return.

      • Playa Manhattan

        If they ban international flights to the US, you can always fly to Tijuana and walk across. There’s a bridge from the airport that goes over the border.

      • Gadfly

        A Florida Man emerging as king of the ashes sounds about right. I’d imagine Florida Man is uniquely suited to thrive in Mad Max type situations.

      • Chipwooder

        My guess, not long now. Was it on the AM links thread where I read that Milan’s airport has been shut down for the time being?

      • C. Anacreon

        And even though it’s closed the Milan Malpensa airport will still find a way to lose people’s luggage.

    • grrizzly

      Paid business? Otherwise it’s not dirty cheap.

  15. Sean

    Worst job? Pet store at the mall. I think I lasted 1 or 2 days.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Door to Door sales. One night of slams and fuck-offs.

  16. LCDR_Fish

    Turks and Russians are still fighting….just not in Syria right now.

    Also…you think Seattle is suspending the constitution. NJ says “Hold my Beer”

  17. commodious spittoon

    Worst job: reception for a scumbag DUI attorney. The stress, lying constantly, collections calls… ugh.

      • commodious spittoon

        Nah, a tiny defense firm. The guy was nice enough, but his practice sucked.

  18. Gender Traitor

    Worst job: Evening shift at 24-hour child care center from Hell. Not sure I lasted more than one or two shifts.

    • Tonio

      You encapsulated horror in ten words. Well done.

      • Gender Traitor

        Speaking of horror, worst < one day work assignment: Way back when I had delusions of becoming a teacher, I was subbing. One winter morning I got a call asking if I could fill in for a little while at a residential school for emotionally disturbed kids. It had snowed heavily, and the regular teacher (who lived one county over) had to shovel in front of his garage to get his car out.

        The school was out in the country near the small Indiana city where I lived. As I approached it, I saw a large 19th-century building on a snowy hillside. I felt as if I were driving into a Dickens novel.

        I was in charge of six middle school-aged boys – about five too many. Most memorably, at one point one boy lifted one of those all-in-one chair desks over his head and went after another kid with it. Discarding any common sense or instinct for self-preservation, I grabbed it.

        I graciously declined any future opportunities to sub at that school.

    • pistoffnick

      Heh. Mrs. pistoffnick worked at a place called “Kids Come First”.

      First off the name – ewwwwww.

      Second, the parents would sometimes leave kids there for 12 or 18 hours. The kids obviously didn’t come first in parents minds.

      • A Leap at the Wheel

        That’s worse than the Michael Jackson Clothing Store joke.

        “All boy’s pants half off.”

  19. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Worst Job: Amusement park area “host”aka trash boy

    • JaimeRoberto Delecto

      Could be worse. Could be piss boy.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Close. Cleaning amusement park bathroom stalls and urinals is down there at the bottom of desirable things to do.

  20. Tundra

    I’ve actually liked most of my jobs, but I did quit my sole foray into the restaurant world after a few weeks. I realized that I really didn’t want to know what happens behind the scenes.

    My best job was probably running cars around the country for a high-end European dealership. I still can’t believe they trusted a 17 year old with a Porsche…

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Let’s be real, can you really trust anybody with a Porsche?

    • Florida Man

      My best job was probably running cars around the country-

      So that’s why Vanishing Point resonates with you so much.

      • Tundra

        Absolutely. I logged a lot of miles before I was 18. It was a glorious job. And there were times where the combination of caffeine and white crosses definitely made me feel like Kowalski.

        I got pulled over several times, though, by troopers who thought it was suspicious that a little kid was driving a really nice car (possibly quite fast).

        After that I made sure to carry a letter from my boss.

      • Chipwooder

        I got pulled over several times, though, by troopers who thought it was suspicious that a little kid was driving a really nice car (possibly quite fast).

        I had an experience like that. My first job out of college was as a editorial assistant for a business publishing company in the LA area. Several of their magazines were related to the automotive industry – Auto Rental News, Automotive Fleet, Fleet Financials, Limo, etc. – and they used to get press cars from the manufacturers. Most of them were ordinary cars, but sometimes we’d get fancy ones – even an Acura NSX once. The execs would take them for a week or so each, then mid-level editors, and so on down the line. Being the low man on staff, I’d get maybe a day or two with them.

        So we had this Jaguar XK8 convertible in what one of the editors called “arrest-me-red”. I worked in Torrance and lived in Long Beach, and the direct route home was taking the 405 to the 710. However, since the traffic on that route was always awful, I started taking the back route on 110 onto Terminal Island and then over into Long Beach. Since Terminal Island is just the port of LA, there isn’t much traffic there. Well, shortly after crossing over the bridge, I got pulled over in that Jag for going 75 in a 55. That car was so smooth, fast, and quiet that, with the lack of traffic, I honestly had no idea I was going that fast. So here I am, a scruffy 23 year old with a Virginia driver’s license (even after almost a year in CA, I hadn’t bothered to get a new one) driving an $80,000 car that had no plates or registration, just a letter on Jaguar letterhead saying that my company was authorized possession of the vehicle between two sets of dates. I had no business cards, being a peon, and no way to prove I worked there. That cop made me sit by the side of the road for over an hour while he tried to track down my boss to verify who I was and that I had the car legitimately.

        And then, on top of it, the ticket was like $300 at a time when I was making all of $22K paying rent of $800. Fuckers.

      • Playa Manhattan

        I still take the back way to Long Beach. They’re building a new bridge that costs some ridiculous amount of money

    • Timeloose

      Doing roofing and construction for your 6 ft 6 alcoholic uncle with anger issues. Worst job I’ve worked.

  21. mexican sharpshooter

    Worst Job: You remember that scene in Platoon where they were burning the refuse out of latrines? They still do that.

    • Chipwooder

      My f-i-l has said that the smell of burning diesel and shit is by far his most vivid memory of the Vietnam War.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Smell often triggers memories, in all seriousness. The olfactory is the only sense where the environment comes in direct contact with the brain. All others rely on an indirect mechanism to fire the neurons.

      • Tonio

        It is the last sense to “go” as one gets older.

    • Bobarian LMD

      Oh fuck, I forgot all about driving the ‘Honey Wagon’ out to recover our unit porta-potties after the National Guard borrowed them for their two week annual training.

      Specialist Murphy and Private Bobarian were very unhappy recovery specialists that day.

      I’d rather play keyboards for the Grateful Dead.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        You were shit-sucker six? My squad leader many moons ago worked in the OPFOR Intel section at NTC and they used the shit truck as an indicator as to where the BLUEFOR set up their FOBs.

      • C. Anacreon

        Playing keyboards for the Dead had the same life expectancy as the drummers for Spinal Tap.

  22. Sensei

    Worst job – working for two micromanaging jerks in large well known publicly traded financial services company.

    I have also worked retail at full commission at Radio Shack (RIP) and as unionized worker at a grocery store and as bank teller. The bank job and grocery store gig were boring, but not awful. However, it gave me great respect for people who have to deal with general public.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is going to announce a ban on gatherings and events of more than 250 people in virtually the entire Seattle metro area, according to an Associated Press source, in an attempt to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

    Hysterical ninny is hysterical.

    • Tonio

      Final NoVa Glib meetup so I can meet you?

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Certainly! April is probably best for me, and I can travel a bit. We met just down the street from me last time.

    • Shirley Knott

      Good for you!
      Hopefully the panic won’t disrupt the house sale nor the move.

    • MikeS

      Woot!

    • Tundra

      Congrats, trashy!

    • Chipwooder

      I’m jealous!

    • Count Potato

      congrats!

    • Tundra

      I thought that’s where we started.

    • Chipwooder

      The left is still going to hate you, Bret, you fucking dolt.

    • commodious spittoon

      If I don’t end up with a significant raise after my review next week, I’m going to learn to weld.

      • commodious spittoon

        Or I’ll learn to post…

    • Rhywun

      But it’s already been “Holocaust” since about January 2017.

  24. Scruffy Nerfherder

    So I finished the Osterholm interview

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw

    Takeaways:

    OIsterholm seems to have a practical approach to the problem, but he acknowledges that there is most definitely a problem.

    Covid-19 is primarily spread thru shared air, not from surface contact.

    N95 respirators work, but there are not nearly enough to protect everyone and backorders currently stretch to over a year at current manufacturing capacity.

    It’s highly contagious prior to becoming symptomatic at about 5 days.

    Risk factors for complications include: age, obesity, lung issues, and high blood pressure

    Mortality rate appears to be ten to fifteen times that of the standard flu. Viral pneumonia being the primary cause factor of death.

    A vaccine is probably years away. The attempts at SARs vaccines were dropped when SARS went away, but the early tests indicated a poor antibody response that actually increased the complication rate of test animals.

    Expect an event that lasts months (four or more). The main objective for disease control being not to overwhelm the health system.

    Concerning other issues:

    It’s not an engineered virus. Genetic studies indicate originally from a bat thru a pangolin.

    Probiotics don’t do shit other than help you shit.

    Vitamins don’t really help either.

    It’s worth watching the entirety of it. He addresses a number of conspiracy theories and dispels a few rumors. There’s also an interesting subsection on CWD.

    • Sean

      I did not watch it. Any talk of antivirals helping those more at risk?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        No mention that I caught. Seems to be primarily symptom management.

      • MikeS

        Yeah, about the only advice I really caught (other than limiting exposure) was just to do everything you can to be healthy and keep your immune system strong.

        (Rogan said drastically cut alcohol intake, but that sounds crazy)

      • Gustave Lytton

        There’s been use of one of Gilead’s antivirals. Spacing it at the moment and about to drive, but it’s under a compassionate care exemption that’s expecting to be ended and moved to a testing scheme. I’ve heard it’s been used successfully in one or two cases.

    • Count Potato

      “Covid-19 is primarily spread thru shared air, not from surface contact.”

      Yikes! Is that true?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Yes

    • Tonio

      It’s highly contagious prior to becoming symptomatic at about 5 days.

      That’s not good.

      • Ted S.

        So the quarantine doesn’t need to be two weeks?

      • MikeS

        You can be symptom free from 2-14 days.

      • Gustave Lytton

        One possible method would be proactive use of surgical masks or other barrier devices to prevent outward transmission of respiratory droplets. Doesn’t need to be N95 to reduce outward spray.

        But goes against the current advice, there are several downsides to mask use, there aren’t enough surgical masks in stores, challenge of differentiating between N95 and lesser devices and the rationale, and cultural issues with mask wearing.

      • MikeS

        But since it’s airborne, surgical masks only limit the spread, not prevent.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Correct. And I what I’ve read elsewhere, airborne from exhalation/coughing/sneezing, not aerosolized (generally, certain hospital procedures can create aerosol dangers).

      • Gustave Lytton

        But if you prevent spread, you also prevent acquisition. And prevent above should probably be prevent or reduce the probability.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Just use bandanas like they did in the wild west. You never heard about old timey bandits and train robbers getting coronavirus, did you?

      • MikeS

        /grouchy old man voice

        “We just got the gonorrhea. And we LIKED it!”

      • Tundra

        I’m going with this.

        Should help a lot with the whole social isolation thing.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Not bad. But if you want social isolation, it’s hard to beat the medieval option.

    • Drake

      The challenge is to keep this curve from going too high. If the timing is bad and the number of “serious but recoverable” totally overwhelm the hospitals, a lot of them are going to die. If we can stagger the cases over a longer period of time, not so bad.

    • Michael

      Covid-19 is primarily spread thru shared air, not from surface contact.

      Yeah, this is the aspect that got me worried. My daily commute to work is on a train line that runs into downtown from the god damned airport. I think I’ll be going back to cycling to work starting now.

    • Drake

      Natural or engineered, I’m going to have a very hard time believing it didn’t come from the Wuhan Virology lab. That’s like saying a nuclear explosion or massive EMP that occurs 100 yards from the Los Alamos Lab was just a coincidental natural occurrence. I don’t believe in those kinds of coincidences.

    • IRBE

      I think the spread via air is not supported (one article) and extremely variable and untestable. This is a BL4 vector. There are only a dozen or so labs that meet that criteria to do real testing. Not this epidemiological inferences. Bullshit is what that is. They don’t know shit about the infectious ability of this virus. How many virus is need to cause infection. No one whats to test that.

      This bug is hardy, lives long than flu. It has definitely been engineered and different from wild type..otherwise we would have seen this before. My guess it was a research bug for doing studies of SERS or MERS.

      He brings in some salient points about how long this may pandemic may last (months/quarters/half year). It aint going away so fast.

      But he is making shit up and trying to selling a book and getting grant money.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        Apologies for the stupid questions from the guy who last took a chemistry or biology class in high school:

        This is a BL4 vector.

        What does that mean?

        This bug is hardy, lives long than flu.

        Is the hardiness what makes you think it’s engineered?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        BL4 is a containment and safety protocol, generally reserved for the most infectious and deadly of diseases.

      • IRBE

        SN is correct. Flu is tested and manufactured in BL2 labs (2 levels lower). We would lose 2 or 3 log of Flu virus titer in minutes at room temp. There is some data that Corona virus can live hours.

      • Tundra

        Good stuff, thanks.

        So what do you think about the strategies so far (closing shit, social isolation, travel restrictions)? Too little too late?

      • IRBE

        Maybe…but you gotta do something. I think it is not about ending the spread and more about managing the spread so it does not overwhelm the health system. More time..more research..improved strategies to isolate..better support for respiratory management for those sick or compromised. It is sound risk mitigation for something that little is known about.

      • Tundra

        Thoughts on travel?

      • IRBE

        Just cancelled trip to Cabo. Not worried about getting sick..just could not rationalize the 2 week quarantine and subsequent loss of business revenue.

      • Tundra

        Yep. That’s my dilemma.

      • grrizzly

        So, the first-world country of 60 million people cannot treat 10,000 patients with a bad kind of flu? Pathetic.

      • R C Dean

        “Mortality rate appears to be ten to fifteen times that of the standard flu. “

        Too early to make that call, at least in functional health care systems. I think mortality is going to wind up being on par with a bad flu strain.

        So does the infectious disease medical director at my hospital.

      • IRBE

        Based on what I know (very little), there is the possibility that there will not be a corona season (like flu) but and ebbs and flows that puts constant pressure on the health system depending on the recovery times for those that need special care.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      Risk factors for complications include: age, obesity, lung issues, and high blood pressure

      Well, I’m fooked. Nice knowing you all.

      • IRBE

        You can always start smoking or working with asbestos. Vaya con dios, mi amigo!

      • Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

        Social distancing may be your best friend right about now.

  25. Invisible BEAM of the comment stream

    Worst job: working in a paper re-processing warehouse, which took great slabs of sheets and cut them down into the sizes you use everyday, like 8.5″ x 11″. My first task was to clear out all the weeds growing outside the building (the City of Toronto actually cited the warehouse operators for that problem), during a hot, humid and very polluted thermal inversion in Toronto summer of 1975. Second task was to repair all of the broken windows in a curtain wall separating the north side of the building from the rail line just a dozen yards away. Guess why the windows were broken? Every time a train would do a coupling/uncoupling outside the warehouse, the resulting shock waves blew a few windows out (some while I was standing next to them). Once you re-pointed ’em, the glazier’s putty remained soft enough for a year or two to deaden the shock . . . The third job was actually cutting the paper bales, with one of a series of bed-sized guillotines that were occasionally known to randomly actuate while you had your hands underneath the blade, re-positioning or pulling out the cut paper. The year before I got there, someone almost lost both his hands when exactly that happened, even though all the safeties were engaged.

    Second-worst job: concrete crew. ”Strong back, weak mind” was a job prerequisite. It didn’t help that the crew chief was the company owner and made numerous costly mistakes over that time that we had to fix for no pay.

    Third-worst job: Bridge maintenance crew, working for the Alberta government.

    Fourth-worst: Night janitor during summer of ’78 at the University of Alberta while the Commonwealth Games were going on. People are very dirty animals.

  26. A Leap at the Wheel

    Worst job – big box store rented-mule in pre-walmart day in rural Pennsyltuky. I was too young and stupid to deal with the shitty manglement and unsafe working conditions. Everything you see about anti-social homeless behavior on the west coast, my customers were doing decades before it was cool.

  27. Certified Public Asshat

    Democratic Establishment Screws Us Again

    I should’ve known that Democrats would look at the current political landscape — which is tragically skewed to amplify and aid the BillyJoeJimBobs of this country — and decide that the easiest way to defeat Republicans was to simply become them. I should’ve known that there’s only one political party in this country, and that its only goal is to profit off your misery and then gloat about it. I also should have known that me saying such things wasn’t gonna make a goddamn speck of difference. No wonder Biden thinks Republicans will magically work with him once he’s elected. He IS one. If you think Bernie Bros are obnoxious online, wait till you get a load of the Biden Hive. They’re somehow worse than Biden himself.
    I should’ve known that we are a nation of deaf ears, and that voters could agree with everything Bernie had to say while simultaneously refusing to vote for him. I should’ve known that the loudest voices in the room would be people who are like, “I’m more of a moderate… there are SOME things I like about a suicide pact.” I should’ve known all of that because I am an American, and this is how America works. It’s a land of false hopes, and the horrible irony is that those false hopes are the only thing around to keep a lot of us going.

    Delicious tears.

    • Suthenboy

      I am scared to say it too loud, they might get a hint, but they never seem to talk much about policy. They make constant ad hominem attacks.
      Attacking and threatening voters: a winning strategy in any election.

      *Of course they aren’t trying to win an election. They are trying to secure their place in the progressive hive by virtue signaling “I am not one of the deplorables”

    • Tonio

      “tragically”

    • Fatty Bolger

      Yes, it’s a terrible place to live. Just terrible. Imagine if it was nice, we might have an immigration problem or something.

    • B.P.

      “I should’ve known that we are a nation of deaf ears, and that voters could agree with everything Bernie had to say while simultaneously refusing to vote for him.”

      They were only acting like they agreed with Bernie to get you to shut up.

      • Rhywun

        “It’s his turn.”

    • Heroic Mulatto

      I should’ve known that there’s only one political party in this country, and that its only goal is to profit off your misery and then gloat about it.

      He is so close to enlightenment, and yet, so far.

    • Tonio

      Dancers, LJW. They are dancers. Who is the state to draw a distinction between Katya of the Bolshoi and Kay-Tee of the Poledance Palace?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Great show. I saw them in San Diego.

  28. Suthenboy

    I am still highly suspicious that Hillary will swoop in to save the day. That is probably why they put the doddering moron as their soon to be nominee. “We have no choice now. Joe is just too far gone. Hillary will have to make the sacrifice.”

    It will be glorious watching her get her ass handed to her a third time.

  29. OBJ FRANKELSON

    Worst job? Buser at a titty bar or sweeper/odd job guy at a grain elevator. The former, while the scenery was alright, had its distinct downside. Do you know how hard it is to clean vomit off of the velvet chairs in the private dance booths? As for the latter, nasty dirty work for shit pay and I probably had a lower chance of going boom when I was in Iraq in ’04.

    • Suthenboy

      I am looking at this right now: ….Well shit. It isn’t on their website.
      In the print catalog that I got out of my mailbox an hour ago Midway USA is selling surplus Beretta 81’s for 219.99

  30. B.P.

    “This virus thing has just gotten weird to me.”

    Public officials telling the masses that the world is about to end every day for five decades may have created a collective shrug instinct among the general public, which might not be the best instinct when something serious comes along.

    Also, this link contains a world map of coronavirus cases…

    https://time.com/5800901/coronavirus-map/

    most of Africa is gray, which I take to be a reporting thing. But why is the virus abiding by the Warsaw Pact? Russia has 10 cases, Ukraine 1, Hungary 9, etc.

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Corona virus is repelled by brutalist architecture.

    • Chipwooder

      But why is the virus abiding by the Warsaw Pact

      Lower levels of international travel, perhaps?

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        While this is probably a good assessment, I like my explanation better

      • Drake

        Russia closed it’s border with China a while ago.

    • Rhywun

      Bullshit numbers and/or relatively little travel to there.

      • Count Potato

        Maybe because it’s hot in Africa.

      • Drake

        Heat and humidity might be an answer – I hope so we head into Spring.

      • Rhywun

        I was referring esp. to Russia.

      • Tonio

        ^Rhywun gets it.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        That and I heard that when the Wuhan virus got there it was jumped by Ebola, malaria, and a bunch of other African diseases which kicked its ass.

    • Michael

      Whoever chooses colors directly adjacent to each other on the Pantone chart for maps like that should be flogged mercilessly.

  31. Rebel Scum

    Questioning Joe’s Fitness ‘Disgusting Smear’

    Bedingfield said, “I have to say this is a disgusting smear tactic, and this kind of thing is exactly why people want Joe Biden to be president. This kind of false, misleading, basically conspiracy theory, a desperate —”

    Henry interrupted, “I’ll let you talk Hang on. How is it a smear tactic to ask you about a video where the vice president, in his own words, struggles to complete a sentence? How is that a smear tactic?”

    Bedingfield said, “Ed, respectfully, how many times have you struggled to complete a sentence on air? That’s ridiculous. Let’s roll the tape. That’s ridiculous.”

    Henry shot back, “I’m not running for president, Kate.”

    • commodious spittoon

      I’m not super worried about Sundown Joe’s mental acuity, given what his party stands for. Why fret about the icing on a turd cake.

    • Suthenboy

      Neither is Joe. He said the other day he is running for Senate.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    You can be symptom free from 2-14 days.

    Obviously, we need to quarantine everybody who does not exhibit any symptoms.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    tragically skewed to amplify and aid the BillyJoeJimBobs of this country

    This will undoubtedly come as quite a horrifying revelation to the drooling moron who wrote that, but there are a lot of those BillyJoeJimBobs out there. Far more of them than paired lesbian mommies or genderswapped “theys”.

    • Suthenboy

      It is Xe’s.

      I think it is hilarious that the wokesters so badly want to declare a shooting war on…..the people that grow their food, keep their electricity and water on and manufacture all of the guns and ammo.

      • Suthenboy

        50 guys with rifles and a light machine gun could shut down all of the interstates/airports in any major cities and the pinkos would be eating each other in a week.

      • Drake

        I’ve trained and hung out with SF guys. Taking down a country with semi-trained locals is a lot of what they are trained to do. And we have a lot of those “Veterans” in the general public.

  34. Rufus the Monocled

    This is getting hysterical.

    • Ted S.

      Wuhan virus, or something else?

      I’m sure Quebec is immune because the virus doesn’t speak French.

  35. The Late P Brooks

    The other night, I found myself on the periphery of a discussion about (grant-funded) solar power installations. I had to chew on it for a while, for some reason, but i finally settled on what it is which angers most: they (the people whose livelihood is based on this crap) have transformed the “means” into the end. For us, here in our Glibertarian bubble, energy is merely a means to an end: light after the sun has gone down, warmth in the winter, all that stuff. I want energy. Clean is okay, but affordable and reliable are mandatory.

    The people who push “clean” energy couldn’t care less if it’s affordable or reliable, as long as they get their money up front from the scam.

    • Suthenboy

      That nails it. Yes, that is exactly it.

    • Suthenboy

      Also noting that what you just described is otherwise known as ‘a scam’.

      • Tundra

        My electrician buddy does nothing but solar right now. I asked him what would happen if the subsidies dried up. He said “Solar would be dead. I’d just go right back to regular commercial work.”

      • commodious spittoon

        DOESN’T HE KNOW THE WORLD IS ENDING!?

    • dorvinion

      Honestly, I want to solar PV and solar heat (as much as possible) just for the fun factor.

      Fun as in DIYing the design and install and seeing just how much of my homes constant load (~300-400 watts mostly from my computers ) I can shift to PV and batteries.

      Just have to wait for a couple of my neighbor’s trees that shade my roof about 70% of the time to croak first.

      • Tundra

        Look up Massie’s off the grid videos. He’s a true nerd.

      • Aus

        Second this. Massie’s homestead is admirable. I really want something like his someday.

      • dorvinion

        I’ve seen his setup. I don’t want to go quite that hard core.

        Just enough to take on my standard always on load would be good enough for me.

  36. The Late P Brooks

    50 guys with rifles and a light machine gun could shut down all of the interstates/airports in any major cities and the pinkos would be eating each other in a week.

    A few strategically overturned semis, and “Escape From New York” would be a reality show.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      Give me a break. The PR chop shops by Shea Stadium would strip those things to the axles in 3 to 4 hours.

  37. Fatty Bolger

    So tomorrow the market shoots up 1000+ points again, right? Seems to be the trend.

    • Aus

      I hope you’re right, but my gut says it will be another big drop.

  38. Pan Zagloba

    So, how many flaws can you spot in this totally sober and objective BBC article about Our Current Plague?

    Here’s some to get you triggered:

    Going back to the long-forgotten Mueller investigation, if the president hadn’t totally contradicted his own press teams over the reasons for firing FBI director James Comey, would there have even been a need to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller?

    America does not really have a welfare state. The safety net it offers its citizens is threadbare, to say the least.

    The Financial Times estimates the cost of the coronavirus testing to be borne by individuals could cost thousands. If you’re barely subsisting and living “pay cheque to pay cheque”, where do you find the money for that?

    Currently, there is no federal sick pay in the US. Eleven states, as well as Washington DC, offer sick pay. That means there are 39 states which don’t. It means that the US has fewer work days lost to illness than virtually anywhere else on the planet. But what if you want the employee to stay at home?

    The NHS is bureaucratic and cumbersome, but there are levers the UK prime minister can press in London that will result in things happening around the country. The US president has a button which, if he presses, can lead to nuclear Armageddon, and another one on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office that will lead to one of the White House stewards bringing him another Diet Coke.

    US capitalism is fantastic when markets are booming and the state lets you get on and lead your life without interference. Maybe not so good when the chips are down.

    I probably would have waved it off as “some brit retard talked to some ameri-retards about what shithole deplorables live in, cure is More Socialism, no one even notices this shit” but no, I can confirm from real life these talking points get repeated.

    • Tundra

      So nice of them to care so deeply about the most successful country in the history of the planet.

    • Suthenboy

      I don’t care. They can say what they want. We are still us and they are still them. They can’t change that.

      I noticed that a lot of things are in short supply in Europe but arrogance and sanctimony are not on that list.

    • Rhywun

      America does not really have a welfare state.

      lulz

      • DOOMco

        There’s a fucking claim

    • Nephilium

      Honestly, if too many companies start pushing for work from home, there’s going to be issues with the network infrastructure in quite a few places. If they’re specced out for a certain percentage of work from home, and you go massively over that, you’re going to have a bad time.

    • Michael

      The NHS is bureaucratic and cumbersome, but there are levers the UK prime minister can press in London that will result in things happening around the country.

      I’m guessing that the “please hold for an available operator” lever is the one that sees the most wear and tear:

      https://twitter.com/michaeltinmouth/status/1237308267552034821

    • Suthenboy

      Charlie Gard agrees wholeheartedly.

      If there was ever a case that illustrated that the NHS has nothing to do with healthcare and everything to do with control that was it.
      Commies want power. That is all. They dont care about health, women or minority rights, social justice, equality, fairness etc etc.
      Power and crushing anyone who is a threat to that power is all this is about. What better tool for control than a monopoly on healthcare?

  39. The Late P Brooks

    So tomorrow the market shoots up 1000+ points again, right? Seems to be the trend.

    My nervously quivering finger is slowly beginning to hover over the “buy” button of a couple of things I either currently own and want to cost-average down, or recently sold for a nice profit.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Dead cat bounce. Be careful.

  40. Juvenile Bluster

    I keep hoping that my office will close and force me home for a few weeks. Hasn’t happened yet. but fingers crossed.

    Seriously, we really should be doing that to the extent possible. If you can work from home right now you probably should be doing that.

  41. The Late P Brooks

    Currently, there is no federal sick pay in the US.

    And…?

    • Pan Zagloba

      And so America will die, because Trump.

      It’s like you didn’t even click on the link.

    • DOOMco

      It’s the worst thing that could ever happen?
      Or something

      • Tundra

        Little DOOMette is getting more adorable every day!

      • DOOMco

        She really is.

      • Tundra

        She still looks vaguely disappointed in you.

        Chicks sure learn that early.

      • DOOMco

        I have this effect on women, what can I say.

  42. Count Potato

    I can’t seem to find any evidence covid-19 is airborne.

    • Tundra

      Just what Osterholm said.

      Pretty fucking important distinction I would think.

    • Suthenboy

      Honestly I dont think they know much about it. Mostly guessing? Saying things for panic control?

      What’s with the Chinese eating weird shit? Butthole of toad, dried bat, rat shit with black pepper and raw armadillo peckers never looked like food to me.
      Of course they were going to catch some kind of cooties.

      • Tonio

        Careful there, you might summon something un-natural like.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      Because it’s not. It’s transmission vector is droplets. It will not live if just picked up by the air and blown about on the wind. On the other hand, measles is an airborne disease. It can live in the air for 2 hours.

  43. Grummun

    Worst job? Food service in University cafeterias when I was in school. Worse than vehicle gate attendant at state fair, out on the pavement, in August.

    • Juvenile Bluster

      I once worked a summer job at the Miami Dolphins (and then Marlins) stadium as a parking attendant. That was brutal.

  44. Drake

    I’m trying to my son’s flights to return to school a week later. Can’t get through on the phone right now (supposedly they’ll change for free due to virus). Seeing one-way flights available for $28. That’s scary low.

    • Don Escaped ORD

      I should buy a couple of vacations whether I use them or not

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        I looked at southwest earlier. Prices were about $20 less than normal one way. Not quite enough to pull the trigger, but not a bad deal.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Well, that’s before luggage, $25-50 each. Carry-on, that’s another fee. I suppose you’ll want cushions on your seat? Breathable air? These and many other amazing options are available, for a modest additional fee.

      • Drake

        Flying him back and forth to school is a no frills affair. No luggage, no seat selected, no nothing.

      • R C Dean

        If he wants an education, he should hitch hike.

  45. The Late P Brooks

    So nice of them to care so deeply about the most successful country in the history of the planet.

    Which brings me back to that fucking Frontline(?) biography of Henry Ford.

    They desperately want to trash a man who pretty much singlehandedly created one of the largest and most successful industrial enterprises in history, and played a huge role in creating a vast market where none had previously existed. Henry Ford was a self-taught tinkerer, and a colossal asshole. Yeah, go with that.

    • Tundra

      He did as much for individual freedom as Sam Colt and John Browning.

      Fight me.

      • Viking1865

        But he was an anti-Semite, therefore nothing else he did matters.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Fix it again, Tony.

      • Pan Zagloba

        Fuck America, Fiat 500 and its progeny are the working man’s car.

      • Old Man With Candy

        A real working man drives a Deux Cheveaux.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        You need a car that reliably takes you to work. Fiat is Italian for “broken”.

      • Don Escaped ORD

        Theory:

        a car can’t get you laid

        but it can keep you from getting laid

  46. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    Question for the masses: what is empowerment and how is it different from freedom?

    If I had to give my best attempt at an analogy, I’d say that empowerment is to freedom as positive rights are to negative rights.

    • Pan Zagloba

      “Empowerment” is when government pays Right-Thinking People (directly or through an intermediary) to fuck with Deplorable Scum on behalf of (but never to any benefit to) Oppressed Masses.

      “Freedom” is the same but when I’m the Right-Thinking Person.

    • Suthenboy

      Having options is freedom.

      Also, words dont have meanings, meanings have words. The left, though not consciously aware of that does play games with words in order to confuse and conflate. If you look at whatever they are trying to cram down people’s throats you will notice that every single policy they have reduces or entirely removes your options. Every single one.

      I dont listen to their gobbledy goop anymore. It is just gibberish that is impossible to interpret with certainty but it is a good bet that they mean the opposite of what they say. I look at what they do.

      • AlmightyJB

        I think the academic left knows exactly what they’re doing with their word games, now their sheep on the other hand. Words are just labels. You can move them around to different objects and hope they stick, but they don’t change the underlying object. It still is what it is. Politicians love ambiguous words with multi-definitions or words that cover a large scope like “regulation”, where they can talk about different things to different audiences using the same words without getting caught in their lie.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      I’d say that empowerment is to freedom as positive rights are to negative rights.

      I would agree with that insightful analogy. Empowerment is an aggregate of self-autonomy and self-efficacy; that is, do you have the ability to do something. Whereas, freedom refers to the relative state of constriction against doing something.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      Y’know, for being all about wokeness, that first picture is awfully white and male.

      Doesn’t really challenge my presupposition that Bernie’s support is almost solely hipsters who spent 6 years getting worthless degrees and hate capitalism because they won’t get real money from their parents until those codgers finally kick the bucket.

    • Pan Zagloba

      The New Right has no ideas, and even the two ideas they do have are weak: a vague “industrial policy” that has no chance of winning in their own party, and the constant screeching to restrict immigration that has no chance of abetting working-class concerns about health care, trade, automation, retirement security, education, and more. Of course, they can win an election on those ideas, and probably a few more, but what is Tucker Carlson’s answer to Medicare for All? How can these hucksters ensure wage hikes without infuriating their donor class and corporate sponsors?

      By reducing the supply of cheap labor, thus boosting the price of remaining labor? Which is why Old Right is #nevertrumping like mad, and what remains of working class will go to their fentanyl overdose clutching a MAGA hat?

      Just spitballing, here.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        but what is Tucker Carlson’s answer to Medicare for All?

        Tucker Carlson’s answer to Medicare for All is that he wants Medicare for all. He was the one who sneered at “libertarians” and stated that Liz Warren on economics sounds like “Trump at his best”.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        Tuck you.

      • Suthenboy

        I dont care what someone else’s answer to medicare for all is. How about my answer? Less regulation and a free market. In places where that has happened prices for medical care are half or less than the current bureaucratic nightmare that dominates the market.

      • Tundra

        Just being able to go back to what was available before is a good start.

        I’d also loosen things up so those who want to go retail can.

      • Suthenboy

        I agree. Retail medical boutiques and a freer market in insurance. When people have options the market sorts out the best model in short order.

        Of course the ‘medicare for all’ people are really saying ‘You won’t have any options’. Prices will skyrocket, quality will plummet….which is exactly what they want.

      • DOOMco

        Yeah, that at least looks better.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Money is the cheapest way to pay.

  47. SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

    You know it’s gonna be expensive when the plumber says “this is gonna be a nightmare”

    *crosses fingers and hopes for a number with 3 digits before the decimal*

    • Tundra

      Dreamer.

  48. Old Man With Candy

    Worst job- working for a crooked nanomanager, who got grant money by bribing a senator. I hated him, he hated me, and we left in great sadness because we loved living in that area so much. This made me hate him more.

    Bright side of the Racist Anti-Chink Virus: I was supposed to go to a conference in Detroit. Two days after they sent out a note assuring us that the conference was definitely proceeding, they canceled it. So… no Detroit. This makes everything worth it.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      -1 Dr. Klahn

      • Old Man With Candy

        I loved that movie-in-a-movie.

        Fun trivia: I knew the girl who was in the courtroom scene and the guy who played Rex Kramer.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I think the second time I saw it was in the Netherlands. Dubbed in Dutch and subtitled in English.

        Slightly surreal experience.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I just realized that they have reused the name Rex Kramer a couple of times.

  49. robc

    I should wait 4 minutes, but suck it Liverpool.

    • Don Escaped ORD

      I don’t care

      But watching is what you do at ORD

      Second beer. Guy next to me coughing uncontrollably

    • Ted S.

      Can’t wait to see how everybody’s favorite sore winner spins this.

      • robc

        I am sure he is blaming the lack of golden goal.

      • Ted S.

        Remember the silver goal?

        I think it decided one game, at the 2004 Euros.

      • robc

        No I dont, what the hell was that?

      • Ted S.

        If you scored a goal in the first period of extra time, you still played to the end of that period, and if the other team didn’t equalize you won.

        Yeah it’s nuts.

      • robc

        Best Chang is underhand serve ace vs Lindl.

      • Rhywun

        Ugh I hate that underhand shit – the punk’d move of tennis.

      • Rhywun

        Who’s that?

        I blame Liverpool sucking for the last few weeks.

    • Ted S.

      And Dortmund need to stop gutlessly selling off players.

      • Rhywun

        Hey, somebody needs to train Bayern’s players.

    • Raven Nation

      I’m starting to wonder if the corona virus is the universe responding to LFC about to win the league.

  50. grrizzly

    You cannot win them all.

  51. R C Dean

    Worst job:

    Processing plant maintenance crew. Alternated packing raw asbestos onto steam lines and scraping scum off of aerators in an effluent pond.

  52. straffinrun

    This virus thing has just gotten weird to me. I can’t quite figure out what in the hell an appropriate response to this is

    Brett nails it.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Thanks! Will finish it later. But was thinking about Cmilk’s earlier video when CGTN was running attaboy stories about this on YouTube.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      I don’t know why people think serpentza’s wife is hotter.

  53. KSuellington

    Worst job: Covering asbestos heating pipes with unfaced fiberglass. Blowing fiberglass insulation into tight crawl spaces sometimes 18 inches or under. You could not be claustrophobic and I am not but sometimes when the temps got really hot in there and you were blocked in on three sides and had to slide over ceiling joists it got pretty scary.

    • DOOMco

      Yeah, any small crawlspace work sucks. Even pulling wire gets bad. So many businesses here are just old homes in downtowns. Having to pull wire for a card reader through that junk is not a great time. I haven’t had the displeasure of blowing insulation down there luckily.

      • Sean

        “down there”

        Wait…I think he meant attic crawlspaces. I’ve never heard of blown insulation in ground crawlspaces.

      • DOOMco

        Yes, that’s where I was thinking.

        Maybe I need sleep?

    • DenverJ

      Maybe not my worst ever, but the condos I worked for last job had a crawlspace under the buildings with an opening to ground level every 200 ft or so. There were no openings through the stem walls, just holes dug under them which one is supposed to crawl through. It would sometimes take hrs to get to your destination. We’d drag a sled with our tools behind us through the mud. Often, we would have to set up a sump to pump ground water (or water from a leak we were trying to get to) in order to get through the tunnels under the walls.
      The mud was like an alien life form: it would get on a tool, that tool would touch another and then that would be coated, and so on. We’d wear those white paper suits and respirators and such- would take 10 minutes just to suit up.
      Also, so many spiders you wouldn’t believe.

  54. commodious spittoon

    To listen to CBS, it’s the end of the world. We all die from virus, global warming Trump to blame. What do they expect him to do? Something, and lots of it, yesterday.

    • commodious spittoon

      They’ve moved on to the good news: Biden!, complete with a musical upswell.

    • DenverJ

      Women and minorities hardest hit

  55. Aus

    This was much better than I was expecting:

    Dave Rubin interviews the Auto Worker from the Biden video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A6Auf5dZ5k

    That guy sounds like a future politician

    • DOOMco

      Added to the list, thanks!

    • MikeS

      For one thing, it wasn’t trivial. For another, the only person I saw getting any shit about it was the white male.