I came home from my shopping trip yesterday in a state of excitement. Let me give you a bit of background: Arizona is a very Mormon state. The community where SP and I live is very heavily Mormon. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, they tend to be really good folks, although their church’s forays into politics run to the moral-authoritarian side… In any case, when I was in grad school in Utah, I noticed that everyone at the grocery stores would load up their carts with sugary drinks (Hi C and Hawaiian Punch seemed to be particular favorites), cookies, candy, pastries, a cornucopia of sucrose and HFCS, much more so than any other place I’d lived.
My PhD advisor was a member of one of the (essentially) royal families of the church and was always happy to talk about religion and culture. I asked him about this observation, and he replied, “Look, we can’t drink. We can’t have coffee or tea. We can’t smoke. We can’t take drugs. We can’t screw around. Please leave us something!”
This made perfect sense, of course.
Now the other half: there’s a chain of coffee stands here called Dutch Brothers that have a distinctive building appearance, insanely packed drive throughs (15-20 cars in line whenever we’d pass by), and amazing customer service (employees walking up the down the line of cars taking orders and handing out goodies for any pets in the car). And the coffee is really, really good.
So while out shopping today, I spotted a building with a similar size and shape as a Dutch Brothers, with an enormous line of cars, and employees working that line. It was a place called Swig ‘N Sweets, so I thought, hmmm, a drive up for mixed drinks? Beer? I pulled out my trusty iPhone, did a quick Google, and discovered that what they sold was sugary drinks. No alcohol, no coffee, no tea, just sugar and fat. And sugary eats to go with it. The drink names were supposed to evoke something sinful- but not TOO sinful. And then it hit me- this was Dutch Brothers for Mormons! And digging in a bit, I saw that it had started in Utah and the locations are all in heavily Mormon areas. I can assume that ten percent of their profits are fed back.
This was Peak Mormon and amused the hell out of me. I couldn’t wait to tell SP, who likewise had never heard of this and was likewise amused. OK, we amuse easily. And yes, one could point out the fake meat products that we eat as being analogous…
Birthdays today include a guy who could flatten the curve; one of three generations of pieces of shit; one of the more interesting physicists of the 20th century (for example, he fucked Betty Friedan and was driven out of the US by McCarthy); an inspiration to Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, who showed the way to political power is fucking actual skilled politicians; a guy who proved PT Barnum’s maxims; and a guy who took a rather shotgun approach to comedy.
Let’s get the news out of the way.
Completely useless and damaging move. Completely unanticipated consequences.
Wait, didn’t Big Tony assure us that Santa was immune? And talk about co-morbidities! Yes, he did.
So the testing is bullshit, too.
Old Guy Music is a cover of a wonderful John Hartford song (as if there were non-wonderful John Hartford songs). It just seems unfair that someone can be such s superb guitarist AND singer. And yes, that’s Missy Raines tearing up the bass.
Two dudes banging the same chick? Or am I getting my [ethnic] brothers confused?
+ dutch rudder
at Dutch Brothers Coffee, someone holds your mug for you, then you grab their wrist to bring the mug to your mouth to take a drink.
The sign features Jay and Silent Bob.
I noticed how N/A came up with half the idea and Tres came up with the rest.
Till I speak double dutch to a real double duchess.
like, of two duchies? Are they both on the left hand side?
I groaned and laughed almost simultaneously.
Luckily for children everywhere, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist is on the case.
*sharpens axe*
BoJo really is a loser, Corbyn might have been less repressive in response to the virus. Oh, and buy a hairbrush you fucking idjit, what used to be cute isn’t cute anymore. Who wants to be oppressed by a guy who looks like he just had his hair mussed by his dad?
Is it any different from being oppressed by a guy with perfect hair and his successor with little hair? You may be right, maybe it’s his last teenage act of rebellion against an oppressive father that made him comb his hair before he left for school.
It’s an affectation that many elite Brit lads practice. The whole doofus act, in fact.
I’ve noticed that James Delingpole, whose podcast I enjoy listening to, does the doofus act too and he went to school with Johnson. He doesn’t have enough hair to give it the Johnson treatment though.
Relevant.
Exactly.
Heh, I’d forgotten about that one.
Apropos – https://youtu.be/cTCvPdIANYA?t=379
Excellent.
And it’s probably safe to do outdoor activities — sledding, ice skating, playing in the snow — provided you wear a mask.
Like the female person(?) I saw the other day, walking her dog with no one within three hundred yards of her, wearing a mask. You can’t be too careful.
I do not wear a mask walking my dog. I work with a virologist and she says it’s stupid. As if we didn’t already know that. DO NOT under any circumstances, get her started on the Dengue fever virus
I knew a guy who caught dengue fever. Didn’t look too well due him.
My dog is my social distancing. Nobody’s getting within six feet of me with the dog around.
Playing in the snow wearing the mask renders the mask useless on even a theoretical basis within about 75 seconds. ‘Wet mask’ equals ‘open barn door.’
walking her dog with no one within three hundred yards of her
What about the dog. Is everyone using covid-proof leashes that go rigid at 6ft length (patent pending), so the pooch can’t accidentally socially-encroach?
Mornin’ OM.
Greeeeaaaattttttttttt cartoon, super music. I could understand both.
If it is any comfort, the scientists in my research group would look at you and me as contemporaries.
“So the testing is bullshit, too.”
I mentioned earlier that elderly Tres Sr. is hook-line-sinker terrified of the ‘vid, and I havent seen the old fucker in months. I was considering having a test done to show (-), so he could relax and I could spend some part of Christmas with him. However I have little faith in the precision/accuracy of either the lab analysis or the sample collection method- I dont want a false positive. That would fuck-up work for me and Jugsy for half a month. Prolly just easier to phone him and say “those clorox-soaked parcels on your porch? Thats your Christmas present.”
*SLD- Tres Sr. is 81, diabetic, has heart issues, yet continues to smoke 2 packs/day. I truly think he’s using the virus as an excuse to be a grumpy misanthrope and not have to be around people/family. I feel the same way.
While I’m as grumpy(er) as the next guy (person) I want to be around friends, I don’t have too many left. I wouldn’t go to the sweet shop but if there was a speak easy coffee shop we could meet there.
I am astounded by the reactions of some old people. Trusting the government is like believing kids are really ‘borrowing’ money from their parents.
Too bad, TC, sad for both you and your father. If you want you can visit me, no gifts needed.
Sorry to hear. My mom is the opposite: she’s out and about daily, lets the kiddo spend days with him.
In-laws are holing up at home don’t go out at all except to shop for groceries.
Users of RT-PCR reagents should read the IFU carefully to determine if manual adjustment of the PCR positivity threshold is necessary to account for any background noise which may lead to a specimen with a high cycle threshold (Ct) value result being interpreted as a positive result.
WHO: As the population positivity rate goes down, the number of false positives will go up. Watch out for that.
CDC: Record number of cases! More positives!
Some of the early research on the virus suggested it didn’t hit smokers quite so hard. Perhaps Sr. can be convinced you can visit because of this. If he smokes anyway, why not use it for advantage?
Only days after he confirmed plans for a five-day festive amnesty lasting from 23-27 December, during which up to three households could meet indoors, and said it would be “inhuman” to ask people to give up their Christmas plans, the prime minister announced new rules in response to the emergence of a virulent mutant strain of Covid-19.
More than 10 million people in London and surrounding counties are barred from mixing with anyone from outside their households.
It’s narcissistic sociopaths, all the way down.
“a virulent mutant strain of Covid-19”
I see we still don’t understand the difference between “transmissible” and “virulent”.
Suns rising, have to go take care of the chickens…..
Since the election, i’ve seen people talk about moving. Nobody thinks about Oklahoma, any particular hate toward this state? Or just never thought of it?
I was in Tulsa once for a refinery gig. One night I was stumbling drunk, and rang that giant chime-thing in a downtown park. Some native monument or something?
I was with a broad I’d met on Craigslist and it was a fun night. 8/10 would go back to Tulsa.
Meh, it’s OK by me.
Too plain and windy from what I’ve heard.
Flat, crappy weather, too low elevation, relatively authoritarian government. It’s basically North Texas.
We’re fixed on getting back to Montana.
Since I haven’t lived in either place, I think I like the landscape I’ve seen in Montana a little more than Wyoming, but the tax situation in Wyoming is vastly better (and cheaper land).
Oklahoma is a good place (one city that comes up favorably in various “top city” lists is Edmond, OK.
Fracking brought some new jobs; the fortunes of the state follow the oil market, but less so than in the past.
Demographic shift: after Katrina, many people who couldn’t afford @/ didn’t want to rebuild in New Orleans were bussed over to Houston, TX. These were largely passive recipients of Federal assistance before the move, and stated that way.
Then Houston got its own big hurricane, and the New Orleans contingent plus Houston folks who didn’t have the wherewithal to bolt or to bunker were bussed up to Tulsa.
The state is flat, homes are red brick, real estate is cheap. Unlike Texas, there is state income tax. Otherwise, culturally very similar to Northern Texas.
I might go back and retire in Oklahoma. Better than 50% chance, if I retire before I die.
Well, I’ve never been to Spain…
Where else haven’t you been?
Man, I’ve been everywhere.
I’ve been from Tuscon to Tucumcari.
+1 rock & roll doctor.
You’re everywhere that I’m not.
Excellent.
I knew it would be that song
I hate that song.
I did my basic training at Ft. Sill in beautiful Lawton. OK was far too cold and desolate for me as a young fellow; now, it looks pretty good.
Redleg? Or just random assignment to Sill? Though there are worse places than Sill for basic.
Air Defense Artillery (it has Arty in the name, send ’em to Sill). Indeed, we had 2 man rooms for basic then open bay WWI vintage wooden barracks for AIT at Ft. Bliss.
Gotta love military thinking. Only in the military would they have you believe you can find bliss in Texas.
And in El Paso no less!
Hey, my wife is from Bliss, Defense Language School there, she was a teacher, I was a problem student, needed a lot of personal attention.
46 years later I’m still a student.
Actually the school was at Biggs Airfield, across the road from Bliss.
Nobody thinks about Oklahoma
There are a few areas in the east that I wouldn’t hate ending up. The rest of the state is a no go for me. Frankly, any area of Oklahoma that I’d contemplate moving to has a superior counterpart right across the border in Arkansas.
The Cross Timber’s split the state of OK into a distinct East half (with Ozark mountains, Spiro mounds, etc. More wet and “eastern”.
The west side of the divide, which includes Ft Sill (Wichita Mountains) and my hometown, is drier and is definitely the borderlands to the Southwest. A few Mesas and SW style flora and fauna. Go West through the Texas Panhandle and you’re in New Mexico.
I despise Oklahoma. I spent near a decade in that hell on earth.
Born and raised in the eastern side of the cross timbers — loved it.
Wooded hills, constant wind, lots of storms, modest people, polite, and “minding your own business” was a thing. Oddities because of the brief period of hyperwealth that happened when the country was still libertarian. Bizarrely rich arts culture as part of that legacy. I have heard it’s changed since I left.
Oklahoma is the hellhole we gave the Choctaw so we could keep Mississippi.
Nobody thinks about Oklahoma, any particular hate toward this state? Or just never thought of it?
Too flat.
Western OK? Pretty dang flat. Eastern, some roll to the terrain. I mean, no snow capped peaks, but not pancake flat. I like Eastern OK.
I like the area around Robbers Cave State Park. Decent sized lake, very Ozarky. Used to do some rock climbing and repelling there. Can’t remember exactly but I think just south of Muskogee.
Eastern OK – sinus alley. Only place I’ve ever been that induced a sinus headache in me. They told me not to worry, as soon as the plane took off from Tulsa it would clear up, and it did.
Yup. Same issue here in Dallas. I have Claritin and Afrin on my nightstand… Never have needed them anywhere else I’ve lived.
Even in the western parts there is some interesting terrain — salt flats (with unique hourglass selenite crystals), dolomite-capped mesas ,and Quartz Mountains which look like giant balls of granite play-dough dropped on top of each other (and are also not mountains).
Speaking at a 10 Downing Street press conference, Mr Johnson said: “As prime minister, it’s my duty to take difficult decisions, to do what is right to protect the people of this country.
“Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus and the potential risk it poses, it is with a very heavy heart I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned.
Sacrifice a few natives. It will make you feel better.
Clever virus. I wonder what it will come up with to destroy humanity’s New Year’s plans.
Then lock yourself in your home you fucking twit. JHFTTC.
JHFTTC ?
Sprinkle some knowledge on me about that.
JC with choose your own adventure in the middle.
I’m partial to Jesus Tap Dancing Christ on Rubber Fucking Crutches.
“So I know how disappointing this will be. But we have said throughout this pandemic that we must and we will be guided by the science. When the science changes, we must change our response.
“And when the virus changes its method of attack, we must change our method of defence.
You fucking pathteic ignoramus.
Wait, the virus can be transmitted between humans and elves now?
I had no idea Harry Byrd lived until 2013.
Just goes to show you that crime can pay.
Vox sucks its metaphorical thumb
Basic costs are taking up bigger chunks of the monthly middle-class paycheck. In 2019, the middle class was spending about $4,900 a year on out-of-pocket health care costs. More middle- and high-income people than ever are renting, and 27 percent are considered “cost burdened,” paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent, particularly in expensive metro areas. Then there’s the truly astronomical price of child care. In Washington state, for example, which ranks ninth in the US for child care costs, care for an infant and a 4-year-old averages $25,605 a year, or 35.5 percent of the median family income; you can find costs in your state here.
Many middle-class households try to figure out what expenses they have to cover immediately with cash and what can be put on a credit card, financed, or delayed in some fashion. In March 2020, household debt hit $14.3 trillion — the highest it’s been since the 2008 financial crisis, when it reached $12.7 trillion. In the first quarter of 2020, the average loan for a new car was a record-breaking $33,738, with an average monthly payment of $569 (the average payment for a used car is $397).
And then there’s student loan debt, which, for Americans, currently totals $1.56 trillion. Not everyone has student loan debt, but among those who do — many with degrees and jobs that seemingly place them in the middle class — the average debt load is $32,731. The average monthly (pre-pandemic) payment is $393.
Tearjerker about the destruction of the middle class. Why have all those household expenses shot into the stratosphere? Who can say? All we know is the evil rich moustache-twirlers have turned the once-noble middle class yeomen into wage slaves.
Weep for an America which has been stolen from us. WEEP.
And these are the same people who taunted the MAGA-ites.
Need to raise the minimum wage to $25, err, $30, well a livable wage
Can I get my student loan retroactively paid by the Feds? It was just $22k, but I could use the cash now.
Seriously though, what do they think will happen when “everyone gets to go to college” and major in “whatever they put their minds to?”
Sure, why not? Let’s pay another 10 to 20 percent of Americans to sit around at home and have kids too, and kill another industry or two while we’re at it.
Problem solved!
The middle class paying a shit ton on healthcare? Why is that? It couldn’t be that the prices were purposely jacked up.
The rest sounds like spending money on things you want, not what you can afford.
Government subsidizes the cost of health care and health care costs rise dramatically. Government subsidizes the cost of a college education and the cost of a college education rises dramatically. I wonder if folks are able to sense a pattern emerging here.
I wonder if folks are able to sense a pattern emerging here.
“The Gov’t never has enough money?”
*facepalmsplosion*
And everyone has a phone that cost the equivalent of about 300 bucks back in 1980, when the best phone around probably cost 20.
People make expensive choices when the economy is good for a long period of time, news at 11.
Then there’s the truly astronomical price of child care. In Washington state, for example, which ranks ninth in the US for child care costs, care for an infant and a 4-year-old averages $25,605 a year, or 35.5 percent of the median family income
Makes that whole second income kind of questionable doesn’t it?
Thanks for saying the unsaid.
Rereading that, it comes of sarcastic, which is not what I meant.
Douglas Murray on Uncommon Knowledge was talking about the lack of courage in our [whole western] society to simply say the truth – since the truth does not comport with modern leftist fictions.
The immediate prog-idiot assumption would be I would deny a woman her glorious opportunity for a fulfilling caareer in wage slavery. The shit pile between their ears is an amazing thing.
Its kinda funny, as my experience with pregnant women, both the mother of my son and women I have known professionally, is that they think they want to go back to work when preggers with the first kid, but as soon as it pops out all they want to do is stay home with the child. It changes as the kids grow up, but at birth, the mothering instinct is tres strong.
Yup. We’re blessed that my wife has an opportunity to both work and stay home with the kiddos. I don’t think that she would be very happy with the idea of going back to a traditional 9-5 job if she had one waiting for her.
I knew I was going to stay home with my kids, but that I would also need to work. So I spent my entire pregnancy preparing to work at home as a medical transcriptionist. That was 18 years ago and I haven’t worked out of doors since.
Clever virus. I wonder what it will come up with to destroy humanity’s New Year’s plans.
It’s infinitely adaptable. We are defenseless.
Ya know, I like a snarky mask message or anti-mask meme, but I fear it’s a mistake to do so.
It’s too easy for the pro-panic people to claim moral high ground: “My father died of COVID. It’s real, please just wear the mask.”
But the mask is a symbol, a literal in-your-face reminder that you don’t have self ownership.
The real problem caused by coronavirus panic is the freaking business closures, travel restriction, capacity limits, prohibitions against visiting institutionalized family members—those things matter far more than the mask, and the damage will last far longer.
Mark my words, the travel restrictions are not going away. They want that control.
I like to counter that with ”Your 80 something father died of COVID ? My sympathies, you’re right, we should all stop living our lives for your lose. My dad died of a heart attack at 49, so no smoking, no junk food, no booze, exercise everyday. A friend committed suicide in his late 20s, so no drugs okay? An army buddy of mine feel asleep at the wheel, no driving at night while we’re at it, ok? Unless you want people to die!”
Or you know, death is a part of life and we should learn to live with it?
People always complain that war is sacrificing the young in order to save the old, yet here we are and a certain class of people are more than willing to justify themselves doing it for their own petty pet causes.
I’m at the point where I want to bring up the apparent rise in suicides, overdoses, domestic violence and the like and argue that that pro-lockdown people actively want all of these things to happen. It’s no more disgusting than their moral preening that people whose economic livelihood is dependent on ending the lockdown are supposedly responsible for killing Granny.
My standard answer is that the ride to the nursing home is one way. It’s not a spa, you’re not going there for fun.
I’m with you Ted’s. The few times I’ve brought it up the response is silence or changing the conversation.
“Masks didn’t save your father, did they?”
That happened to me when I was not masked up in the trendy grocery store. Old guy said he had lost 3 friends to the vid and that it was real so I should be wearing a mask. His was falling off his face with at least an inch gap between cloth and his schnozz. I was speechless and did not know what to say. Later, I realized that guy knew near 1/3 of all the people who had died in that county. All from elderly care facilities. I should have asked if he had seen them before they passed and perhaps he was the one who killed them because his mask was as useful as not wearing one.
And then the blind squirrel pick up a nut:
We’ve been normalizing low savings rates at the same time that we’ve become more and more comfortable taking on consumer debt — a symptom, as financial analyst Karen Petrou put it, of “deep economic malaise.” In the early ’80s, the income-to-debt ratio hovered between 0.55 and 0.65, which meant that a household’s overall debt level amounted to between 55 percent and 65 percent of their income after taxes.
It sniffs the nut, fondles it, rolls it it around a bit.
Then it tosses the nut aside in order to gnaw on a stone.
Sone president is going to lose the game of interest rate hit potato.
They are going to be despised like Hoover, despite the correction that occurs being a good thing.
Wouldn’t that be the debt-to-income ratio?
I was going through our box of important papers yesterday and lo and behold, a gift card to “swig n sweets”. I’ll have to go check it out.
*refreshes the box’s ‘IMPORTANT’ Sharpie label*
It’s too easy for the pro-panic people to claim moral high ground: “My father died of COVID. It’s real, please just wear the mask.”
Exactly.
They are desperate for an easy, simple answer to a question for which no such thing exists. They want magic, not SCIENCE.
Good, not too long, Tom Woods podcast with Ivor Cummins, bringing us some actual truth about the way viruses spread, the sheer uselessness of quarantine, and how the data is misinterpreted.
https://tomwoods.com/ep-1798-ivor-cummins-on-neglected-covid-truths/
Will be listening. Thank you. I usually check what he’s put out every week or two.
Icelandic town evacuated after massive landslide, with photos
Yeah, that’s a lot of rain.
Good to see Notre Dame still sucks. I hope Sloopy is prepared for anOSU’s annual CFP asskicking.
Yeah, he’s going to be insufferable if he’s doing the morning links on Monday, especially with the Liverpool result.
Heh. About time they cranked up the goals.
City at #6. Chelsea #8. Arsenal at #15. ???
IIRC, you are not a fan of Manchester United. LEGO however, has released a very nice model of Old Trafford Stadium.
https://youtu.be/nWzJc1pXKGA
Yeah, they can fuck right off but I always liked St. James’ Park.
Health care rationing is bad
An NPR investigation looked into McSweeney’s death and about a dozen reports of discrimination in Oregon: Of doctors and hospitals denying equipment like ventilators; insisting that an elderly or disabled person sign a DNR — maybe when they couldn’t understand it and in the middle of a crisis — or even denying a COVID-19 test.
These decisions are made behind closed doors, NPR found, and as a result are little known and little understood. McSweeney’s case offers a rare look at how those decisions are made.
When people met Sarah McSweeney they saw different things.
Most saw what she couldn’t do. McSweeney had quadriplegia, cerebral palsy and other disabilities.
Because she couldn’t walk, or even use her hands, someone had to push her in her wheelchair.
Because she couldn’t speak words, she communicated by making sounds and gestures.
Because she couldn’t eat solid foods, someone fed her a supplement of nutrients through a tube to her stomach.
A smaller number of people, but the ones who knew her best, saw something different. They saw what was possible for McSweeney. They saw the choices she made and the things she did.
“She absolutely adored going into malls and getting her makeup done. And getting her hair done and doing typically girly stuff that girls like to do — get pedicures and manicures,” says Kimberly Conger, the nurse manager for Community Access Services, or CAS, the nonprofit agency that provided services and ran the group home where McSweeney lived.
Another tearjerker from NPR.
It’s all Trump’s fault. None of this would ever have happened if Hillary Clinton (Or Obama) had been elected in 2016.
None of this happens to people like Charlie Gard in the NHS, either.
Where’s my DNR, I want to sign it like John Hancock, so there will be no misunderstanding.
I have almost complete contempt and scepticism of doctors after this pandemic. The speed at which they jumped to get in line so that they could make the “hard ethical decisions” of being the arbiter of “who is more socially valuable” disgusts me.
“In December 2008, while living in Boulder, Larson sent a detailed email to the U.S. Secret Service threatening to kill the President of the United States.”
And that pretty much answers the question, the guy’s a nut bar that needs to be put away before he does actually kill someone.
Looked him up. Former member of the Libertarian Party.
Because of course he was. Naked fat guys on stage, failed assassins/kiddie diddlers, washed up GOP detritus, it’s the Libertarian Moment™!
Mornin Glibs.
I hope y’all have a great day.
I’ll post more pics this evening.
Anti-intellectualism, it is
Less than two years into office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is being forced to defend his job.
Battered by several crises, including the coronavirus pandemic, crippling unemployment, devastating wildfires and one very poorly timed fancy dinner, Newsom faces a recall effort that shows no signs of slowing.
——-
Dan Newman, a spokesman for the governor, said Californians will have to decide whether they want a “distraction and circus” to pull attention away from the state’s problems. He said a special election could cost taxpayers upward of $100 million as the state works to distribute Covid-19 vaccinations, reopen schools and kick-start the economy.
“This is a ragtag crew of pro-Trump, anti-vaccine extremists, along with some ambitious Republican politicians who would like to be governor,” Newman said. “I don’t think it’s something anyone wants. I’d be surprised if Californians wanted to spend the extra money and have another election the following year.”
The current recall effort is one of six such attempts since Newsom took office, Newman said. It started in February, even before the coronavirus upended life around the world. At the time, Newsom opponents were frustrated that he had endorsed a bill to compel companies to classify independent contractors as employees with legal protections and benefits. A November ballot initiative overturned the law, but the political damage was done.
——-
Newsom’s missteps have attracted attention from Republicans outside California and others fed up with pandemic control measures that are pummeling the economy. Last week, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee waded into the controversy, throwing their weight behind recall efforts.
“California’s liberal elite send their kids to private school & dine out while lecturing YOU about danger of leaving your home. Governor Newsom’s shutdown holds families hostage. It’s time to go @GavinNewsom,” Huckabee said in a tweet.
——-
“Republicans see it as a way to destabilize the political system and to make government ineffective,” said the director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles, Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University. “They want to create paralysis. This is the same as overturning the 2018 [gubernatorial] election.”
It’s nothing but an attempt to turn the clock back to slavery and superstition.
Why won’t those stupid rethuglitards accept Newsom’s genius?
“Republicans see it as a way to destabilize the political system and to make government ineffective,”
Yes, because all was stable and running efficiently until now.
Well, we got rid of Gray Davis and it felt good back then. Arnie was a dick also, though. I imagine if we can kick this latest sorry asshole out, we might at least spare the rest of the country from his further ambitions, so there’s that. Besides, he is a top level piece of shit. As in, far worse than almost any other governor, except maybe Coumo, but they are neck and neck.
“ and one very poorly timed fancy dinner, ”
That’s one way to downplay it. They keep calling it a mistake. The mistake was that he got caught. Not that he was doing something wrong.
And no discussion of his kids in private school in person during the epidemic or the PPP and state aid gaming for his winery.
“one very poorly timed fancy dinner”
Bitch set me up!
Recall Gavin 2020.
Less than two years into office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is being forced to defend his job.
Only two years. They couldnt wait four? Impatient peasants.
a building with a similar size and shape as a Dutch Brothers
The father of a buddy in college made his entire fortune de-branding buildings of franchises that had failed. He’d get the call and load up, hire a local contractor, quickly design new facades, and then install them. Basically, he made it difficult for it to occur to anyone wonder why that Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, White Castle, whathaveye had gone out of business.
He could make a fortune in DC, re-purposing useless buildings
In a special election, Newsom would be forced to defend his record just two years into office. If the recall efforts fail and he runs for re-election in 2022, Newsom will have campaigned every two years since 2018.
“This is not about rational public policy,” Guerra said. “It’s not about policy at all. It’s about punishing the governor and distracting him.”
Whycome them hicks no want Great Works?
This is actually true. We want to punish him for being Stupid and sadistic at the same time. Actually we just want him to lose the ability to punish us further.
So much this.
Everything that goes wrong in California is the fault of the non-existent GOP.
^^^^ it always amazes me that that is the take, and that is seems to work.
It’s just assumed, then assumed it’s fact.
I had to school one of my proggy friends who ranted that Rs were keeping OTC birth control from happening. I looked up line and verse of where the Rs were trying to do that but Ds kept blocking it.
She was shocked, but willing to think about it. Then some proggy MD came in and started talking about the Bad Things that would happen if women were allowed to do that.
I played the this-hurts-minority-and-poor-women-most card and that was the end of that conversation.
+1 Emmanuel Goldstein
When California weaseled its way into Dem control, they didn’t realize that anything that was bad after that would fall on them. That is the issue with manufactured one party control of a state.
Just understand, the Repubs were complicit in turning CA into a one-party state – they preferred to have a few, safe seats to anything competitive back before the redistricting commission. That set the path they’ve been on ever since.
Oh, it’s quite true, but it doesn’t absolve the Dems from all the shit that has happened since; fires, power outages, homeless, and so on.
Good morning, Old Man!
That WHO article is interesting. Am I reading it right that the further the virus has spread through a community the less accurate the tests? I asked but never got an answer to the cycle threshold of the test I’m taking tomorrow. It’s almost like they don’t want customers to know what’s up…
Nice tune. I always loved that song.
I hope you all have a fantastic day!
The cycle result should be part of the test report, but isnt. If you test positive on 10 that is entirely different than cycle 30.
I’m in the beginning of week 4 on a 10-week workout plan. Bam ! I had no idea that this would be so good for me. Thanks Lord H for finding this plan for me. Also, I turn 50 today. As the gubbinator has still closed dine-in service we ate at a pizza place last night on their outdoor patio. 34 degrees and worth it !
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday ?
Happy 29th and holding!
Happy Birthday!
Great news on the workout front, too. It’s the one thing that keeps me off the tower.
Enjoy your day!
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
We’ve all heard of big companies moving from California to Texas recently. Now big football games are doing it too.
The College Football Playoff semifinal scheduled to take place at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California, has been moved to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the Rose Bowl announced Saturday. The game will take place Jan. 1 and be broadcast by ESPN.
According to the release, the decision to move the game was based on the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Southern California, along with the inability for players’ and coaches’ families to attend because of state restrictions during the pandemic. Since March, all sporting events in California have been unable to host fans and participants’ families.
The Pasadena Tournament of Roses made its first appeal for a special exemption for the Rose Bowl Game in November and followed up with a second request to the state this month. Both requests were denied.
Superspreader! Do better, Texas.
“Do better” Goddamn I hate that phrase.
I was hoping they would let Duke host again.
This makes me wonder about the Rose Parade – is that cancelled too, or just no spectators lining it?
One of my good high school friends was (is) Mormon. It always was so hard of me to wrap my brain around the fact he had never tasted Coca Cola. Sure enough, when all the buds would be hanging out, pre-beer drinking days, he would never order Coke.
His parents were stuck in my state because of work. When we graduated, it took him about a month or so to move to Salt Lake City; been there for 30 years now.
The #2 guy in the company I worked for in the late 90s was Mormon. He was BYU undergrad, MIT PhD in Economics. He got a diet coke with a splash of Dr Pepper every morning from the convenience store next door.
I guess the caffeine thing didnt take.
I drink coke all the time, it’s not a thing. Le sigh.
Apparently the caffeine from soda thing is a grey area, but if you want to be in a leadership role in the Church, you’re not gonna risk drinking a Coke, unless it was labeled caffeine-free.
I asked my former Bishop once why the Church doesn’t ban chocolate, since it has some caffeine, and he said, “If I announced that ban, the next Sunday we’d be missing about two thirds of the congregation.”
It’s only gray because members can’t just leave the rules alone. They must know WHY and then make shit up when the leadership doesn’t fall in line with MOAR authoritarianism.
In reality, caffeine’s not gray. The leadership has said outright they’re not going to ban caffeine and never did.
^^^ this. There’s a large segment that needs there to be a reason that they have to point to for why they should obey the Rule. Sometime back they came up with that it must be the caffeine in the coffee and tea that made it bad. Of course this ads confusion because the caffeine in soda and chocolate and that some teas don’t have caffeine etc.
I don’t try to explain it other than I promised not to so I’m not going to.
We DO like our plethora of rules, don’t we?
See Miracle of Forgiveness.
There’s an uberspiritual family in our ward. She can’t even bring herself to say “coffee table.” She calls it a “hot chocolate table.” I wanted to ask why she bought one if she can’t say its name.
How does she refer to rubbing alcohol?
No idea. She’s too nice to snark at.
“You and I, let’s call it pocket bread.“
If he was unmarried and a faithful Mormon, he’s probably also hadn’t tasted alcohol or pussy, so the Co-Cola thing is kinda burying the lede.
I’ve got another birthday to note today.
The best bass player of the punk generation.
Mike Watt
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aeov75xE3-E
A true hero.
Here’s another.
pistoffnick will probably like this one, too.
Great video.
People who know things
President Donald Trump convened a heated meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, including lawyer Sidney Powell and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, two people familiar with the matter said, describing a session that began as an impromptu gathering but devolved and eventually broke out into screaming matches at certain points as some of Trump’s aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn’s more outrageous suggestions about overturning the election.
Flynn had suggested earlier this week that Trump could invoke martial law as part of his efforts to overturn the election that he lost to President-elect Joe Biden — an idea that arose again during the meeting in the Oval Office, one of the people said. It wasn’t clear whether Trump endorsed the idea, but others in the room forcefully pushed back and shot it down.
The meeting was first reported by the New York Times.
——-
One person described the meeting as “ugly” as Powell and Flynn accused others of abandoning the President as he works to overturn the results of the election.
“It was heated — people were really fighting it out in the Oval, really forceful about it,” one of the sources said.
One of the sources described an escalating sense of concern among Trump’s aides, even those who have weathered his previous controversies, about what steps he might take next as his term comes to an end.
At least we can be certain CNN would never run with a story like this if it were not 100% verifiably true.
Remember there other day when the right had that SCOTUS heard arguing fiction? Yeah, this is the same thing but published by CNN.
when a lame duck fires cabinet officers, no fiction can intrigue
OK, this is Fake News. There is no such thing as good Dutch Brahs coffee.
Trust in government is vanishing!
Chuck Todd says so. No theories as to the possible origins of this tragedy.
Finally, some good news!
Santa has fallen in with a bad crowd
What could be more fun that watching Whitmer and Social Distancing Santa zooming with a bunch of kids?
I’d rather watch Sexual Harassment Santa.
Fake News!
Everyone knows you don’t watch Sexual Harassment Santa. You sit in his lap and listen while he whispers in your ear.
Someone should throw a bucket of water on. I’m pretty sure she’d melt.
Doomsday LARPers on parade.
It’s like an ourobouros of hysterics.
The virus is modifying itself! It’s even more scarier!
PUT THE MASK ON!!!!!
PANIC!
More good stuff from Ivor Cummins. Published papers on the ineffectiveness of lockdowns on virus spread.
https://thefatemperor.com/published-papers-and-data-on-lockdown-weak-efficacy-and-lockdown-huge-harms/
One issue is the apples-to-oranges comparisons made between countries or states. Apparently, having had SARS some years back has benefited Japan and some other Asian nations, for example. Tokyo didn’t shut down but they repeatedly tested a group meant to be representative cross section of Tokyo. The virus spread (positive antibody tests) was 50%, but the death rate is low. Why? Japanese elderly are in way better shape than American elderly, with higher Vitamin D, notably.
So how DO elderly Japanese die?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/624209/japan-leading-death-causes/
The LDS kids at my high school had a thing for street racing.
iow adrenaline.
The LDS kids at my high school were the worst of the bunch. They acted like Rumspringa was a thing for Mormon teens. It quite baffled the Baptist kids, one of whom was me.
(I’m not a Baptist any more.)
Mitt Romney is HORRIFIED by the Roooshun hack.
Trump is in cahoots with the Roooshuns! He left the kitchen door open so they could sneak in and steal the good silver.
I’m pretty sure it all works out in the end – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Russians_Are_Coming,_the_Russians_Are_Coming
Of course you know- THIS MEANS WAR!
Obligatory
We need a modern day version of the Salem Witch Trials, to investigate the mutifarious abysmal failures of President Cartoon Villain and his administration’s intentional slaughter of 300,000 Americans!
Start with this kid.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/18/ryan-kaji-9-earns-30m-as-this-years-highest-paid-youtuber?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
OFFS.
Child influencer sounds like the self-description of that nutter who was busted at the Denver airport with the 12 year old.
Does he have a memorable catch phrase like “whatcha you talkin bout Willis?”
“It’s Pumpkinninny!“
I’m far from being anti-capitalist but this is clearly targeting very young kids and using the kid as a product himself. And the stuff they peddle with his face on it is expensive.
Can’t wait to see how much of that money the kid will actually see.
I’m just glad the young one in this house is done with it and has moved on.
That kid is going to be found passed-out in a gutter by his 12th birthday. Maybe 13th.
Thanks for that heapin’ helpin’ of vacuous platitudes, Senator Romney. It was quite Presidential.
Good luck with your NBC-approved (yet completely doomed to failure) campaign for the White House.
Look at the bright side. During his last run, I managed to convince quite few people that his given name is Mittens.
Since it’s now the 2024 primary season, who will run? Pretty weird the Democrats’ incumbent will presumably be too old, decrepit, and demented. Just kidding, who gives a fuck?
If Biden stays in office until ’24, I’ll eat my shoe.
If Biden stays this side of the grass in 3 years, I’ll eat your shoe.
Next up-
CDC whistleblowers lament the anti-SCIENCE sabotage of the greatest public health agency on Earth.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Slutty Sunday sez: Limey Trump has sure been an enormous disappointment.
https://archive.li/zYnyj
No face diapers. Excellent.
Choker necklaces? In other words, a gallery of women into D/s?
#12. Dirndl. Yes.
Oh, those poor CDC wistleblowers. It’s hard to believe they survived the inhuman torment of working in the federal government without a Democrat in the White House.
Joan of Arc engulfed in flames had it easy, compared to them.
Wait, didn’t Big Tony assure us that Santa was immune? And talk about co-morbidities! Yes, he did.
NPR just said that right after I read those links.
*I should have started a fire when I first woke up at 4 and then decided to go back to bed. Fricken cold in here.*
“We cried wolf, and we cried wolf, and we cried wolf, and nobody listened. And then the wolf came, but nobody believes it.”
Some people don’t understand the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.
They don’t teach that cis-hetero speciesist crap anymore.
Hey, in PA we even re-elected the Wolf.
This place sounds like Hell on Earth.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/12/school-reopening-teachers-unions-parents-brookline-massachusetts.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Also: LULZ to the Blue on Blue conflict. Elite, overeducated snobs vs. teacher’s union thugs. It’s classic.
“but I’ll be damned if I do it myself.”
We pay good taxes for this, now dammit, deliver!
Can’t wait for the same conversation to apply to our Healthcare.
#progWorld
If education is a fundament human right, the United States is the biggest Hunan rights violation violator of all time.
Hunan rights violation
Biden haz a sad.
HOLY MACKEREL! I just opened the curtains for the first time today – the beach is PACKED with surfers. Dozens of people in full wetsuits toting short boards, gingerly picking their way through knee-high snow drifts, from the surf shop, cleverly located at the subway station, where they store their surfin’ stuff (you can step off the A train and rent a board/wetsuit, or store your own in their rental lockers). I hate NYC, but I still dig The Rockaways.
And it’s snowing.
LOL
https://twitter.com/AP4Liberty/status/1340661843057111041
sugar == only socially acceptable drug
Some people can control their addiction better than others.
Truth
It’s already got the “Addtl Sugar” labeling, it wont be long before there’s an Age Requirement to purchase based on some arbitrary threshold of that measure.
“Products providing 15%+ DVA in Added Sugars will be prohibited to sale to minors.”
We’ll remember 2020 for the gleeful prurient doomsday LARPing made possible by the panicdemic, and its essential role in the destruction of President Cartoon Villain’s administration.
As someone said yesterday: “All you need to know is that Birx, Fauci, Cuomo and Whitmer will look back on 2020 as the greatest year of their lives.”
yawn: what administration?
stroking it to an embassy move and 200 miles of fence? he’s the feel-good zero of all time
The story is that the man is such an infant that he achieved nothing that would have survived his presidency for even a decade no matter the election. Maybe next time thinking Republicans will get off their dead asses and outvote their proles so that some actual legislation gets passed (or revoked, whichever makes more sense) so that the county is better off.
Owning the libs ain’t a policy achievement.
Compared to?
“All time.” Literally nobody else in all of history was less effective or more irrelevant.
I like the increased standard deduction.
no objection
+1 not having to itemize
Of course it is.
I do like the way you mentioned the embassy move but nothing else wrt Israel for some reason.
Agreed, Trump did some stuff we would all probably agree with (changing the standard of conviction for college courts, exiting the Paris Agreement, etc) that will all be reversed immediately in a Biden administration. However his Supreme Court picks were pretty good, and infinitely better than Hillary Clinton’s would have been, and that will last more than a decade.
A few years back I spent a little over a year on a contract in Ogden, Utah. The guy I worked with was Mormon, but I found it interesting that he drank Diet Coke by the gallon, and swore like a sailor. He was a great guy – we were doing seminars on change control from Guadalajara to Montreal, from Boston to the Bay Area, so we traveled a lot, and the first time we grabbed some dinner I asked if he minded if I had a beer – he said “Of course not. I’m a Mormon, you’re not. Have a beer if you like.” Some religious types get all pissy about that, but he didn’t.
Anyway, after I got to know him pretty well, I asked him about the Diet Coke. “I thought you weren’t supposed to drink caffeinated drinks?”
He looked at his big 1-liter bottle of Diet Coke on his desk. “Well,” he said, “it’s really more of a guideline than an actual rule. Besides,” and he grinned at me, “I’m really not a very good fuckin’ Mormon.”
Someone predicted something about this. It won’t happen until Biden is inaugurated. As it stands now, Ct values are top secret and shall remain so until OMB has left Casa Blanca.
Ct values will always be top secret until a “better”, more data-secret test replaces PCR testing.
My guess is ct values will always be hidden due to the HPAA excuse. Because if the truth about PCR testing becomes widespread then the HIV racket will get exposed.
Please splain the HPAA excuse? I get daily notifications to download the state’s tracking app so they can notify me if I come close to someone who tested positive for the plague. I think HPAA is out the window. They just don’t want to let us know they are running these tests at a Ct of 40 and all the asymptomatic cases are asymptomatic because they do not have Covid and the numbers quoted daily are complete and utter horse shit. That is not to say the virus does not exist, it just does not exist at a level to justify the actions that have been taken.
Why do I have to explain it? I’m not suggesting it is valid, I’m saying it will be an excuse used by bureaucrats to hide useful information. Just like “national security”.
Aaaaaah, yes, I agree.
She can’t even bring herself to say “coffee table.” She calls it a “hot chocolate table.” I wanted to ask why she bought one if she can’t say its name.
She couldn’t in good conscience call it a “card table” could she?
Face cards are not prohibited. Or if they are, I haven’t heard of it. That’s a Baptist thing.
Christmas plans for millions of people have been thrown into chaos, after Boris Johnson banned gatherings in London and large swathes of the southeast and slashed the period of relaxed restrictions to just one day in the rest of England.
Fuck him.
Luckily for children everywhere, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist is on the case. “I took care of that for you, because I was worried that you’d all be upset,” Dr. Anthony Fauci responded. “So what I did a little while ago: I took a trip up there to the North Pole, I went there and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself.
That story is more believable than any of the other bullshit Fauci has passed.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) reached an agreement late Saturday night on language to curtail the Federal Reserve’s special lending authorities, setting the stage for passage of a coronavirus relief deal and an omnibus spending package as early as Sunday.
Fuck you, cut spending.
There is more to life than virus avoidance.
Life is full of risks and the world is full of people with different risk tolerances or comfort levels with taking risks.
At the county fair, some run happily to the bungee jump while their friends say “no thanks” and wait in the beer tent. Yet another might pass on the beer due to risk, but he goes out and has a ciggie. We don’t agree what the risks even are, what they’re worth, and we don’t need to agree.
What makes COVID-19 so special that now we ALL must be coerced to do what some politician or committee has decided is the lowest risk?
I suppose in a way they used “the children” to pass seatbelt and helmet laws, because kids can’t make those decisions for themselves, and now the state wants to keep all of us infantile.
^this comment should be published as an editorial in every newspaper in the nation. (And also in publications people actually read.) Perfectly put.
now the state wants to keep all of us infantile.
This sums up a lot of government action, not just the Lil Rona Panic.
Oh, so now the vaccine means you can’t transmit the ‘Vid? Because a few days ago it was “you have to keep wearing a mask after you are vaccinated”.
They’ll eventually decide on a nonsense narrative that is too confusing to question.
The correct way to view the current state of the medical research is to “do as you’re told.” This recommendation will expire in 4,000 years.
Old Guy Music is good.
Ummm, gay?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/dear-deidre/13525487/sex-partner-four-years-erection/
If your erection lasts longer than four years, you’re supposed to see a doctor, right?
Probably, but first make sure you’ve bragged to all your buddies and every chick who ever turned you down.
That’ll take longer than 4yrs wont it?
Certainly if I had to brag to every woman who turned me down. There are supercomputers that can’t count that high.
Run. Run away.
Today in headlines you never thought you’d read.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/woman-who-decapitated-owl-sick-23194123
And the coffee is really, really good.
Wow. Just when I thought 2020 was finally going to end. Dutch Bros is awful. I’ve watched as that chain has metastasized from a couple drive thrus in Southern Oregon, and shook my head in disbelief. Sugar drinks covering over the taste of their espresso. And never, ever order a black coffee. Sorry, it’s really an Americano. And a crappy one at that. Then there’s their shitty tit cup lids, as my wife calls them.
When I worked graves, there weren’t many options when I forgot my coffee. 7-Eleven had better brew than Dutch Bros and if not them, I’d skip it that day rather than drink their swill.
.
There are at least 2 more businesses like that: Sodalicious and Fiiz, both which have gone from Utah into Boise, and beyond, I’m sure. There is a Sodalicious around the corner from my office, and we drop in from time to time. Seems like a pretty simple business model with low food costs, especially when you’re looking at $3+ for soda. A high school friend owns several of another brand in Eastern Idaho and seems to be doing quite well.
Much like running a coffee shop — I know a guy who put his three kids through Uni on the strength of the profits from a single location.