And Now, Zefrank’s True Facts About “Army Ant Riders”

Environment • Views: 35,143

YouTube

Where to buy the Army Ants Book: https://amazon.com/dp/067424155X/?tag=littlegreenfo-20
True Facts Shirts: https://ze-true-store.myshopify.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/truefacts

CREDITS:

Philipp Hönle for the phone call and for introducing me
to Eciton army ants and to their wonderful associates. Also
for allowing me the use of fantastic footage.

Daniel Kronauer for the chat and use of the amazing images from his new book! (link above) - the image in the thumbnail is also his!

Dr. Christoph von Beeren for all of the amazing
research on ant mimics, and ant hangers-on. Also
thank you for the use of your images of Nymphister k.

Kaitlin “Ant Girl” Baudier - http://www.kmbaudier.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPuQHwZTnKKPbNevO7h_I9w
For the fantastic footage of the bivouac, the scorpion and the
raid front! So much amazing research and footage.

Matthew Lutz - http://vimeo.com/matthewlutz
For the wonderful footage of bridge building as well as other
beautiful shots of the ants doing their thing!

Ernesto Carman - http://getyourbirds.org
For the use of the creepy swarm raid footage!

Primates Peru - Field Projects International
https://www.instagram.com/fieldprojectsorg/

For all of the incredible footage of the ant death spiral! Donate to the Future Black Scientists Fund: https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/ODY4OTg=

Andrew Core et al. for images from:
A New Threat to Honey Bees,
the Parasitic Phorid Fly Apocephalus borealis

Thank you to all of my Patreon patrons for the
patience, support and feedback

MUSIC: SoundCloud

Additional footage used under
license from:

Pond5.com
Videoblocks.com
Envato Elements

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282 comments
1
jaunte  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:04:46pm

Eciton hamatum soldier. photo: Alex Wild.

myrmecos.net

2
Jack Burton  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:21:56pm

“Old Man Johnson could’ve died in any one of five ways. His neck and back were broken, his chest was crushed, his skull was fractured… and here’s one for Sherlock Holmes - there was enough formic acid in him to kill twenty men.”

3
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:22:47pm
4
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:23:34pm

re: #2 Jack Burton

“Old Man Johnson could’ve died in any one of five ways. His neck and back were broken, his chest was crushed, his skull was fractured… and here’s one for Sherlock Holmes - there was enough formic acid in him to kill twenty men.”

5
EstebanTornado1963  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:31:04pm

Thanks a lot Trump🖕🖕🖕

6
Interesting Times  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:32:34pm

re: #5 EstebanTornado1963

[Embedded content]

Thanks a lot Trump🖕🖕🖕

As someone else so aptly put it, DeJoy needs to go to DeJail.

7
Dave In Austin  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:35:04pm

‘GET OUT OF MY CAR!’ goes Metal!

8
EstebanTornado1963  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:36:04pm

re: #6 Interesting Times

On some golf website I go on (majority of posters are republicans, of course) continually whine about USPS delays, lost packages etc, but nobody acknowledges who caused all these problems

9
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:41:34pm

I’m pleased to report that Joan Weldon, who played the beautiful and tough ant expert Dr. Pat Medford in Them!, is still with us at age 90. Weldon was primarily an opera singer and made relatively few movie and TV appearances.
She was notably poised and dignified as Medford, at one point putting the chauvinistic FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) in his place by insisting on rappelling into a freshly gassed giant ant nest along with the male heroes. She also did only a minimum amount of screaming, in contrast to the usual female sci-fi behavior prescribed by male writers of the time. One of those was when she came face to mandible with one of the giant ants, which would make anyone, me included, scream.
On the strength of this one movie, she ranks with Barbara Rush (When World’s Collide), and Julie Adams (Creature from the Black Lagoon) on my list of hottest 50s sci-fi babes. Rush is also still alive (age 93) but Adams unfortunately passed in 2019.

11
jaunte  Dec 17, 2020 • 8:49:44pm

re: #9 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo

gettyimages.com

12
Romantic Heretic  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:03:43pm

re: #5 EstebanTornado1963

My wife had fun with USPS recently.

The package arrived in her city.

Then shipped to Baton Rouge, moved to another facility in Baton Rouge, moved to a third facility in Baton Rouge, shipped to Shreveport, and finally sent back to her city.

What a way to run a railroad.

13
William Lewis  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:04:08pm

re: #9 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo

I saw Alien in the theater when it first came out in 1979 (my mother and I went to see it together since I was slightly too young to get into a R rated movie) and Sigourney Weaver’s strong woman characterization had a profound impact on me.

14
Dread Pirate Ron  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:06:04pm
15
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:06:15pm
16
i(m)p(each)sos  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:07:14pm

re: #12 Romantic Heretic

My wife had fun with USPS recently.

The package arrived in her city.

Then shipped to Baton Rouge, moved to another facility in Baton Rouge, moved to a third facility in Baton Rouge, shipped to Shreveport, and finally sent back to her city.

What a way to run a railroad.

My son was anxiously tracking a package (with a present for him) that kept moving back and forth between Buffalo and Rochester before it finally got here for good.

When you’re 12 and have no patience, can you imagine the frustration?

17
jaunte  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:13:53pm

re: #12 Romantic Heretic

I had to cancel three checks to the IRS while getting late notices and fees added on because the letters (including certified) weren’t arriving. Finally went electronic transfer.

18
danarchy  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:19:31pm

re: #17 jaunte

I had to cancel three checks to the IRS while getting late notices and fees added on because the letters (including certified) weren’t arriving. Finally went electronic transfer.

Must be lucky, haven’t had any issues with the USPS. UPS however has been consistently delivering packages 1-2 days late for months.

19
William Lewis  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:21:13pm

re: #18 danarchy

Must be lucky, haven’t had any issues with the USPS. UPS however has been consistently delivering packages 1-2 days late for months.

My experiences of late are:
USPS best.

UPS distant 2nd

FedEx, especially ground, horrific.

20
Belafon  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:29:11pm

re: #18 danarchy

Must be lucky, haven’t had any issues with the USPS. UPS however has been consistently delivering packages 1-2 days late for months.

UPS and FedEx have been having to do Christmas level delivery since March. They’re reluctant to hire more people in part because a vaccine would reduce deliveries.

21
Belafon  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:32:42pm

What Rand meant was that Fauci was underestimating the totals:

22
Belafon  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:34:23pm

The mayor of Dodge City, Kansas resigns after threats because she voted for a mask mandate in the town:

dailykos.com

23
Dread Pirate Ron  Dec 17, 2020 • 9:40:16pm
24
Targetpractice  Dec 17, 2020 • 10:02:54pm

re: #23 Dread Pirate Ron

[Embedded content]

Oh, I’ve no doubt about that. If for no other reason that pure pettiness, since Pfizer indirectly disputed Trump’s efforts to claim credit for their vaccine.

25
LeftyRambles2413 (HappyWarrior)  Dec 17, 2020 • 10:21:21pm

re: #22 Belafon

The mayor of Dodge City, Kansas resigns after threats because she voted for a mask mandate in the town:

dailykos.com

I’m so sick of this shit. This is squarely on Trump and his allies who belittle people like the mayor for the audacity of trying to keep people safe.

26
Hecuba's daughter  Dec 17, 2020 • 10:23:54pm

So — will the Biden administration expedite the Harriet Tubman $20 bill? The Trump administration delayed implementation till 2030. Of course, given the number of crises on Biden’s plate, that may not get any attention.

27
Dave In Austin  Dec 17, 2020 • 10:24:58pm

Cory Wong // “Click Bait” (feat. The Hornheads)

28
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 17, 2020 • 10:27:22pm

re: #4 A Cranky One

People are using baby Yoda as tree toppers.

mymodernmet.com

His name is GROGU.

Now the interesting thing is that people use such a figure as a tree-topper. Yoda, the character in the original SW trilogy, has for some reason been taken by American society (well, the younger ones) as some sort of hero or standard of good.

But as seen in the entire 9 movie series, Yoda is part of a death cult that kills more often just for convenience, and trains its followers to suppress emotion and simply be killing machines.

Sort of like the history of Christianity… but I digress.

29
stpaulbear  Dec 17, 2020 • 10:35:48pm

re: #16 i(m)p(each)sos

My son was anxiously tracking a package (with a present for him) that kept moving back and forth between Buffalo and Rochester before it finally got here for good.

When you’re 12 and have no patience, can you imagine the frustration?

A few years ago I had a package that was about to be delivered suddenly show up at a post office on the other side of Minneapolis. I looked up the zip code and ID’ed the likely post office. I then called the post office to verify that they had the package and asked if they could hold it for me to come pick it up. They thought that was kind of weird but I didn’t want to wait two more days for the damned package.

30
gocart mozart  Dec 17, 2020 • 10:36:06pm
31
Targetpractice  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:11:59pm

re: #14 Dread Pirate Ron

[Embedded content]

What we’re seeing is what we should have expected: Congressional Dems are negotiating with themselves, with Repubs dragging the final bill down knowing that a majority of them will never actually vote for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if, before this is all over, the final bill suddenly starts collecting various tax cuts/holidays in a desperate attempt to win over a few more Repub votes.

32
ckkatz  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:16:39pm

The package tracking apps have provided a great deal of entertainment for me over the past few years.

I ordered a pulse oximeter from Costco in November. The tracking had it simultaneously being in my local post office (UPS to USPS handoff) and being in New Jersey . It eventually showed up at my house a week later without any additional tracking entries.

This led to lots of comments about packages going to New Jersey to die; And about having a Schrödinger’s package, simultaneously in Virginia and New Jersey.

One year I ordered some Valentine’s Day roses for my ladyfriend and gave her the tracking number. We had a lot of fun watching as the roses were shipped from the grower in rural Columbia to the Bogota Airport, to Miami Airport to Dulles Airport through Customs Inspection to the UPS holding warehouse to the ladyfriend’s home. The roses were not that good, but the tracking was fascinating.

33
ericblair  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:17:53pm

IT’S 2020 DON’T BUILD THE MACHINE

34
ckkatz  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:23:18pm

Apropos to nothing, I was thinking about making about making some boilo. Something I have not done since moving from Pittsburgh to Virginia. Only problem seems to be finding some Four Queens Whiskey locally.

35
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n😷Trips  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:38:23pm

re: #33 ericblair

IT’S 2020 DON’T BUILD THE MACHINE

36
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:50:32pm

One of the original Supremes, who died way too young, singing here (in what is an extracted channel from a multi-channel recording):

Florence Ballard - O’ Holy Night [Extracted Vocals]

..

37
Dr Lizardo  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:53:05pm

re: #28 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

His name is GROGU.

Now the interesting thing is that people use such a figure as a tree-topper. Yoda, the character in the original SW trilogy, has for some reason been taken by American society (well, the younger ones) as some sort of hero or standard of good.

But as seen in the entire 9 movie series, Yoda is part of a death cult that kills more often just for convenience, and trains its followers to suppress emotion and simply be killing machines.

Sort of like the history of Christianity… but I digress.

Definitely an argument to be made that the Jedi - Yoda included - are sectarian fanatics whose dogmatism blinded them to existential dangers they were facing while simultaneously contributing to those dangers. Granted, Yoda did rhetorically ask if perhaps they’d misinterpreted that whole “chosen one” prophecy but did little else. They didn’t even question why an army of clones was almost miraculously at hand exactly when it was needed, an army that came about because of the successfully concealed efforts of one of their own.

The Jedi were largely responsible for their own undoing.

38
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 17, 2020 • 11:56:47pm

Point is that Baby Yoda is irresistibly *cute*.

39
EstebanTornado1963  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:10:27am

re: #38 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Point is that Baby Yoda is irresistibly *cute*.

The Mandalorian [S2] - Mando LOVES Baby Yoda name Grogu (All Scenes)

40
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:10:58am

re: #38 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Point is that Baby Yoda is irresistibly *cute*.

The skill of Madison Avenue on display - making evil “cute” so people will buy merch.

See also Trump.

41
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:13:40am

re: #40 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

The skill of Madison Avenue on display - making evil “cute” so people will buy merch.

See also Trump.

Been doing that for ages: making heroes and idols out of murderers, traitors and tyrants.

42
Targetpractice  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:15:20am

re: #37 Dr Lizardo

Definitely an argument to be made that the Jedi - Yoda included - are sectarian fanatics whose dogmatism blinded them to existential dangers they were facing while simultaneously contributing to those dangers. Granted, Yoda did rhetorically ask if perhaps they’d misinterpreted that whole “chosen one” prophecy but did little else. They didn’t even question why an army of clones was almost miraculously at hand exactly when it was needed, an army that came about because of the successfully concealed efforts of one of their own.

The Jedi were largely responsible for their own undoing.

Or we could save time and just go with “George Lucas is a terrible writer.”

43
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:17:46am

re: #40 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

The skill of Madison Avenue on display - making evil “cute” so people will buy merch.

See also Trump.

To be fair, at this point in the story, Grogu is neither really good or evil. We saw an ability to use Dark Side powers, but what we don’t see is whether Grogu did that for amusement, self-defense or malice - or even simple immaturity.

What I’m wondering is how are Favreau and Filoni going to write the continuing story - because AFAIK, there’s no mention, or even a hint, of Grogu in the J.J. Abrams sequel trilogy (there’d almost certainly gonna have to be some major retconning involved). I’m sure they’ll come up with something, because they’re talented and creative writers….but it’s going to be interesting to see how they plan on tying it all together.

44
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:18:35am

re: #42 Targetpractice

Or we could save time and just go with “George Lucas is a terrible writer.”

I loved the original release as an overall piece of cinematic storytelling. But the individual elements are sometimes rather weak and the strain started to show once the trilogy became a hexilogy/nonology…

45
Targetpractice  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:21:37am

re: #44 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I loved the original release as an overall piece of cinematic storytelling. But the individual elements are sometimes rather weak and the strain started to show once the trilogy became a hexilogy/nonology…

Lucas works best as an “ideas man,” someone who throws stuff out while the people around him either shoot those ideas down or refine the ones that have promise. The problem comes when the people around Lucas are unwilling to criticize his ideas, because then those ideas that should have been shot down are the ones that get refined, crowding out the ones that had promise. Best example: Jar-Jar.

46
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:22:17am

hi

An interesting survey was published out of The Netherlands concerning religiosity in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iran’s official census lists 99.5% of the populace as some form of Muslim.

The survey (goes to the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran, opens a PDF file).

Of note:

47.7% of people report having lost their faith in this generation (their parents are religious).

32.2% identify as Shi’ite Muslim
22.2% identify as “none”
8.8% identify as atheist
7.7% identify as Zoroastrian
7.1% identify as “spiritual”
5.8% identify as agnostic
5.0% identify as Sunni Muslim
3.2% identify as Sufi
2.7% identify as humanist
All others fall less than 2%

As “atheist” still caries stigma in every religious country (and in some carries the penalty of ostricisation, blasphemy charges, lynchings, or the death penalty), such a significant shift means that the Muslim conservative minority rulers in Iran are increasingly out-of-touch with their population (much like the Christian minority rulers of the USA).

Moreover, if such polling holds (the study document notes its limitations, margins-of-error, &c), that would indicate that Iran is more non-religious than the USA.

The categories of “humanist,” “none,” and “agnostics” are other ways of saying “atheist” (the same as the USA). Humanism, none, and agnostic are not religions.

47
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:26:29am

re: #45 Targetpractice

Lucas works best as an “ideas man,” someone who throws stuff out while the people around him either shoot those ideas down or refine the ones that have promise. The problem comes when the people around Lucas are unwilling to criticize his ideas, because then those ideas that should have been shot down are the ones that get refined, crowding out the ones that had promise. Best example: Jar-Jar.

I still wonder if that whole “Darth Jar-Jar” may not have been all that far off from what Lucas may have been originally thinking (though that whole idea was abandoned after negative reaction to the character). Introduce an annoying, bumbling dimwit character in the first film, flesh out his character in the second installment, with some hints that maybe he’s not such an annoying, bumbling dimwit after all, then reveal him to be an antagonist - secretly working with the main antagonist - in the third installment.

It’s not at all a bad idea and with proper writing and execution, it could’ve been brilliant.

48
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:50:59am

Fresh of his stunning loss in the Texas lawsuit to overturn an election in the name of conservatism, Nebraska attorney general Doug Peterson joins another lawsuit; one which might have more meat behind it.

Nebraska attorney general joins 37 others in filing anti-trust lawsuit against Google (Omaha World-Herald)

LINCOLN — A multistate lawsuit filed Thursday is seeking to break up what it claims is Google’s “monopolistic grasp” over search engines and search engine advertising.

Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson was one of the leaders of a coalition of 38 attorneys general filing the anti-trust lawsuit.

“Data is extremely powerful in today’s digital economy and we need to watch to protect our consumers,” Peterson said, calling the lawsuit historic because of the number of states involved and the bipartisan support.

About 90% of all internet searches use Google, the lawsuit said, and Google uses exclusionary contracts and other means to stifle competition, depriving consumers of greater choice and innovation and of better privacy protections.

Peterson, during a virtual press conference with three other attorneys general on Thursday, accused the company of “paranoid protectionism” in blocking competitors.

He said he was also concerned about how Google accumulates huge amounts of users’ personal data, then monetizes that private information.

The lawsuit quotes a Google CEO in 2010 boasting: “We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you have been thinking about.”

(more)

49
Dread Pirate Ron  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:53:43am
50
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 12:59:10am

Posted one of these last year, but that was a short one (only two hours). Here is a longer K-mart reel to reel composition. Relive your childhood!

8 hours of vintage department store Christmas music Customusic tapes

..

51
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 1:00:20am

A recent comment on that video:

Judy Steinhilper
1 week ago
Who knew- the world sucks so much we actually miss Kmart.

52
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 1:02:59am

Here’s the one with in-stream K-mart adverts. It’s only two hours long for those who can’t hang with the all-night compilation:

Kmart In-Store Music: Christmas 1974 (reupload/recreation)

..

53
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 1:18:59am

Regarding the easy listening genre (as in those tapes), I’m a mark for Jackie Gleason. Even when he tried to be a “big band”, he really had a whole damn orchestra and when trying to sound hip (as in the jazz bands, it still sounds like a whole orchestra):

GLEASON CONDUCTS BIG BAND w KING CURTIS

..

54
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 1:25:57am

re: #49 Dread Pirate Ron

Well, if the courts won’t let Trump go after Muslims here, he might do what he can to ensure oppression in other countries.

55
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 1:28:45am

re: #50 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Posted one of these last year, but that was a short one (only two hours). Here is a longer K-mart reel to reel composition. Relive your childhood.

My childhood of (checks calendar) age fifty-six, when the Scottsbluff Kmart closed in 2016. /s

56
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 1:46:53am

So just got done watching the season two finale of The Mandalorian and all I can say is holy shit, what an ending for the season. Fucking brilliant.

57
Dread Pirate Ron  Dec 18, 2020 • 1:56:21am

YouTube

58
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:13:39am

re: #57 Dread Pirate Ron

Many a sci-fi fan has awaited a major motion picture series to bring the books to life.

Alas, so far nothing has happened along those lines.

It’s a testimony against the major studios that they can’t bring the series to screen.

59
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:19:55am

You Know It’s Bad When… (Goes to Juanita Jean’s, the World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon)

Every year, Texas Monthly publishes their Bum Steer Awards, naming the worst of the worst statewide. It’s not a list anyone wants to make, much be Bum Steer of the Year. Past winners include an ugly cast of characters like Dick Cheney, Rick Perry, Jerry Jones, and none other than 3 time winner Tom DeLay. Ugh.

The 2021 Bum Steer Awards came out last night and the Bum Steer of the Year? None other than our own Texas Democratic Party; management of the Salon agrees. Worse, they beat out COVID-19 and Ken Paxton for Worst Honors. In granting the award, Texas Monthly had some choice words like these:

“Since 1992, their fortunes have been in decline, and since 2002 they’ve been kept at arm’s length from control of both the Texas House and the Texas Senate, as well as from the Governor’s Mansion and any other statewide office. The party has a long history of launching failed comeback attempts, but all of them have either failed disastrously or come up short in a way that seems designed to demolish morale and crush hopes.”

(more)

60
Dread Pirate Ron  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:21:13am

re: #58 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Many a sci-fi fan has awaited a major motion picture series to bring the books to life.

Alas, so far nothing has happened along those lines.

It’s a testimony against the major studios that they can’t bring the series to screen.

Amazon has a director for the series. I’ll probably die before it is released.

61
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:28:45am

re: #60 Dread Pirate Ron

Amazon has a director for the series. I’ll probably die before it is released.

Amazon first announced they picked up the rights (SyFy failed over and over to make good on their promises) in 2017.

So it’s been three years and we’ve still not seen anything.

Not even promised anything.

Back in May Amazon let out some interviews of personnel associated with the effort, but since then it’s gone pretty silent.

Now the pandemic may have set back production. But if it was coming in 2021 wouldn’t Amazon have teased that by now?

62
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:32:00am

re: #29 makeitstop

That the vaccine is just sitting there is bad enough. But now there are reports that certain (blue) states are now receiving 40 percent less than they were promised, with no explanation given.

I don’t wish slow, agonizing death on anyone, but I’m going make an exception here. The cruelty makes me want to break shit.

This seems more like a distortion than what’s actually happening.

Governor Ameritrade of Nebraska yesterday noted that the state is expecting to receive 30% less of the deliveries of the vaccine than expected and paid for over the next few months.

This is not just a “blue state” problem.

63
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:34:48am

re: #58 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

re: #60 Dread Pirate Ron

Sadly, a lot of times things get stuck in development hell. I remember reading years ago that David Fincher wanted to direct Rendezvous with Rama, from the seminal novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It never came to pass, unfortunately. And it probably never will.

Cracked magazine summed up one of the possible reasons: how could there be any merchandise tie-in? After all, it’d be awfully difficult to sell toys…imagine little Jimmy with his three-foot long toy of Rama, contemplating man’s place in the universe and what it all means. It’d probably be a great film, to be sure, but the source material is pretty cerebral - and that’s something studio execs tend to shy away from.

And we’ll probably never get Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, either.

64
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:36:21am

Paramedic outed as OnlyFans model by the New York Post fights back, for herself and her fellow underappreciated first responders (Goes to We Hunted the Mammoth, more at the link)

Last Saturday, New York paramedic Lauren Kwei was outed as an OnlyFans model by the New York Post. Kwei, barely making ends meet on her paramedic salary, had turned somewhat reluctantly to selling nudes on OnlyFans for money to pay her bills. For some reason the New York Post decided that this was their business, posting an article they presumably knew could get her fired from her job.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the slut-shaming. The internet rallied around Kwei, castigating the Post for its sleazy tactics. None other than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave her a twitter shout out and a supportive telephone call. And supporters set up a GoFundMe for her, which at last count had raised more than $86,000, which should go a long way towards making up from the lost income from her now-shuttered OnlyFans page. She still has her paramedic job.

(more)

65
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:37:06am

re: #59 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Seems to me that the Bum Steer Awards and JJ are just looking to find any excuse to avoid talking about the real issue in Texas, which reflects the real issue in a large swath of the US: religion.

JJ and any other self-identifying progressive is loathe to admit that abortion has become the tool by which the rich and powerful GOP machinery manipulates millions of religious Americans.

Especially in Texas. (And Iowa and Pennsylvania and Ohio, etc.)

The aversion to discussing religion in politics is one of the real weaknesses of the supposed progressive talking heads.

Sure, the “Youtube atheists” talk about this stuff but they are like 1% of 1% of the US population.

The Texas Democrat party loses continually… to Je$u$. Not just the GOP, but to Je$u$.

And this needs more open discussion.

66
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:39:36am

re: #63 Dr Lizardo

It’s been noted before, but Citizen Kane couldn’t be made today.

67
Nojay UK  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:41:33am

re: #58 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Many a sci-fi fan has awaited a major motion picture series to bring the books to life.

Film and Book are two very different story-telling methods. Ringworld is a decent enough action-SF Book but putting it on the screen could be a real mistake. Remember that all of the Ringworld “action” occurs in one very small part of the Ringworld itself, only a fraction onf the entire megastructure is realised in story terms. The visuals, meh, all you can see from the surface of the Ringworld itself is a line in the sky, the “Arch”. The rest of it is basically Larry, Curly and Mo shipwrecked on a desert island among hostile natives with bones through their noses.

Another problem is that novels have too much story in them — a good estimate of a book is that it represents about a minute of script per page of the original work, and Ringworld was a real doorstopper of a book. See also the attempts to put Dune on a multiplex screen. The alternative is to make trilogies but “streamers” aren’t keen these days on sitting through four hours or more to get a resolution to a three-act play.

SF I’d like to see on screen for the story, action and visuals? “Demon Breed” by James H. Schmitz is a wonderful novella, lots of Stuff Going On and a female main action character who out-Ripley’ed Ripley before there ever was a Ripley, plus giant mutant hunting otters (Spiff and Sweeting for the win!). With a well-written script it would run to 100 minutes, no more. It’s basically what Avatar should have been without the blue-painted Honky-will-save-us main plot.

68
EPR-radar  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:42:56am

re: #66 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

It’s been noted before, but Citizen Kane couldn’t be made today.

12 Angry Men is the same. Imagine a movie today having the premise that sweet reason can overcome obstinate bigoted stupidity in US criminal jury trial deliberations.

69
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:46:22am

re: #66 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

It’s been noted before, but Citizen Kane couldn’t be made today.

Yeah, most likely. Sad but true. 2001: A Space Odyssey was a pretty cerebral flick, and I can’t imagine that getting made today. My only critique is that the “time warping stargate sequence” is overlong. Other than that relatively minor quibble, I consider it one of the greatest films ever made.

70
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:46:54am

re: #65 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Seems to me that the Bum Steer Awards and JJ are just looking to find any excuse to avoid talking about the real issue in Texas, which reflects the real issue in a large swath of the US: religion.

JJ and any other self-identifying progressive is loathe to admit that abortion has become the tool by which the rich and powerful GOP machinery manipulates millions of religious Americans.

Especially in Texas. (And Iowa and Pennsylvania and Ohio, etc.)

The aversion to discussing religion in politics is one of the real weaknesses of the supposed progressive talking heads.

Sure, the “Youtube atheists” talk about this stuff but they are like 1% of 1% of the US population.

The Texas Democrat party loses continually… to Je$u$. Not just the GOP, but to Je$u$.

And this needs more open discussion.

YouTube atheists do talk about this stuff, but atheists are not 1% of the population.

The last time Pew Research did their Religious Landscape Survey in 2014, the percentage of “religiously unaffiliated” was 22.8% of the population.

The problem about talking about religion taking over the GOP is that all Christian faiths (liberal, conservative, &c) see any sort of speech about religion influencing politics as an attack on all their faiths.

It is why your liberal family who would never vote for a Republican will all disown you if they find out if you’re an atheist.

It is why there was such a vicious floor fight in the last Democratic platform committee in even recognising atheists as an important part of American society (I wrote about that floor fight at the time as a Page at LGF; Democratic Christians have been opposing that one line in the platform for decades).

71
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:48:02am

re: #68 EPR-radar

Thing is 12 Angry Men has only a couple of sets. A modern production company could hammer out those sets in days. That movie is 100% based on the ability of actors to work together.

So it shouldn’t cost that much, unless the producer wants the highest paid actors.

Still a modern adaptation would fail not because of cost but because it would be so obviously socially aware that half the population would demand a boycott.

72
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:53:55am

re: #67 Nojay UK

The rest of it is basically, Larry Curly and Mo shipwrecked on a desert island…

Everyone loves a yarn about a three-hour tour being shipwrecked.

I guess my belief is that the Niven universe in which Ringworld takes place is more than rich enough for big-time production mini-series.

Agree that a one-off movie would miss much and be hard to do. See Jackson’s LOTR for the problem of putting a large tome on screen.

73
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 2:58:09am

Put on Youtube a year ago and apparently I am the first viewer, of a channel with just two subscribers (I am one):

Tangerine

..

74
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 3:16:35am

It appears there is a Canadian version of Jeffery Epstein.

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard arrested in Winnipeg under Extradition Act (Goes to CTV)

WINNIPEG — Winnipeg fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been arrested by RCMP under Section 13 of the Extradition Act, and has been indicted by authorities in the United States.

Manitoba RCMP confirmed Nygard was arrested on Monday.

Late Tuesday morning, the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment against Nygard, which includes nine counts.

The charges listed in the indictment include:

racketeering conspiracy;
conspiracy to commit sex trafficking;
sex trafficking of a minor;
two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion;
transportation of a minor for purpose of prostitution;
two counts of transportation for purpose of prostitution; and
transportation for purpose of prostitution and illegal sexual activity.

None of the allegations against Nygard have been tested or proven in court.

75
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 3:34:55am

re: #74 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

It appears there is a Canadian version of Jeffery Epstein.

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard arrested in Winnipeg under Extradition Act (Goes to CTV)

There were more than 100 RCMP complaints against this guy, including keeping women against their will and not letting them leave his house, treating actual workers like slaves. He’s (“allegedly”) taken teenagers for sex. He’s Canada’s Epstein right down to his treatment of female employees.

My personal cherry on top? My MIL loves his clothes and has worn them for years. (That said, mom thinks he’s a major creeper now.)

76
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 3:37:49am

If there’s an award for best handle, I’m throwing this guy in as a nominee. 664 - Neighbor of the Beast. 😁😂

77
Axolotl  Dec 18, 2020 • 3:38:46am

re: #28 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

His name is GROGU.

Now the interesting thing is that people use such a figure as a tree-topper. Yoda, the character in the original SW trilogy, has for some reason been taken by American society (well, the younger ones) as some sort of hero or standard of good.

But as seen in the entire 9 movie series, Yoda is part of a death cult that kills more often just for convenience, and trains its followers to suppress emotion and simply be killing machines.

Sort of like the history of Christianity… but I digress.

He is also the absolute worst at foreseeing and managing a crisis.

As the leader of the jedi his is crushed by a plot that was all around him. Completely incompetent leadership.

Of course it is necessary for the plot.

78
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Dec 18, 2020 • 3:44:44am

re: #76 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

665 - Across the Street From the Beast
668 - Other Neighbor of the Beast

Are still available?

79
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 3:50:17am
80
Nojay UK  Dec 18, 2020 • 3:51:17am

re: #78 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

665 - Across the Street From the Beast
668 - Other Neighbor of the Beast

666½ - Sublet of the Beast

81
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:09:40am

JK Rowling is at it again.

J.K. Rowling says 90% of her fans agree with her transphobia but they’re afraid to say so publicly (Goes to LGBTQ Nation)

J.K. Rowling is claiming that most of her fans agree with her views on transgender people but that they are all “afraid to speak up” because of their “personal safety.”

Rowling has spent the better part of this past year arguing that transgender teens are being pressured to transition and that transgender women are a threat to cis women. And now she has an interview in the upcoming issue of Good Housekeeping where she claims that 90% of the letters she has received responding to her views on transgender people have been supportive, but that they are afraid of vicious, pro-equality advocates.

(more)

82
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:10:21am

From the Just Like The Flu crowd.

As to when everyone will get the vaccine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Awesome. 🤬

83
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:14:25am

‘It’s a miracle’: YWCA of Lubbock receives $9 million donation

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced billions of dollars in donations this week, including $9 million for the YWCA in Lubbock, one of just 384 organizations chosen from a list of 6,490.

The YWCA provides childcare services, support for seniors, physical and mental health programs and recently opened a 189,000 square foot Envision Center, recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The announcement said Scott used a data-driven process based on leadership results and need in the community.

CEO of the YWCA Glenda Mathis said she was shocked to learn about the donation.

“The first time I heard about, I really thought it was internet scam,” Mathis said. “There is no way to describe it. This is definitely God’s work. Good work pays off with good results and that’s what came to the top.”

I won’t quibble with the invocation of God, since the YWCA is, after all, a Christian organization. It’s not a miracle though. It is a very wealthy person who understands that she has the power to change the world, and has set out to do it. She also knows that poor or inadequate public resources are a lot of the reason she has the money to give. Our system makes this giving possible, and also creates the need for it, by putting private profit ahead of public benefit.

84
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:19:18am

re: #82 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

Not even just male infertility issues - but also erectile dysfunction as a longer-term consequence of COVID-19, though how long that lasts is still unknown. I think I can safely assume that people with long-haul COVID will be researched for years to come.

85
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:22:42am

re: #81 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

JK Rowling is at it again.

J.K. Rowling says 90% of her fans agree with her transphobia but they’re afraid to say so publicly (Goes to LGBTQ Nation)

(more)

I read the first Harry Potter novel so I would know what my kids were on about. I found it entertaining reading but have not read anything else from her nor do I care to read or hear anything else from or about her at this point

86
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:22:42am

There’s a shitton of anti-trump (as it was) books noted, but…

The ultimate opposition book, of course, would be a memoir from Trump himself. Some 74 million people voted for the man, and if even just a tiny sliver of them were to buy his next book, it would be huge. Page Six got the speculation swirling with an item last month suggesting that Trump could land book deal for $100 million. Some in the publishing world find that figure laughable, but my colleague Gabriel Sherman subsequently reported that Rupert Murdoch “is considering a plan to offer Trump a $100 million package that would include HarperCollins publishing Trump’s postpresidential memoir and Fox News giving Trump a contributor deal or his own show.” The other publisher to watch is Simon & Schuster, whose CEO, Jonathan Karp, has a long-standing rapport with Trump and has published his books in the past. “My guess is he’ll call two people: Jonathan Karp and Rupert Murdoch,” the veteran editor said.

87
Nojay UK  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:24:06am

re: #84 Dr Lizardo

I think I can safely assume that people with long-haul COVID will be researched for years to come.

The UK is in the process of setting up clinics and study centres for the long-term effects of COVID-19 right now. I read somewhere that there are already sixty-plus centres under the NHS opening nationwide to initially collect data and track people with noticeable after-effects and start to develop treatments for their conditions.

This being the UK there will be, of course, no cost, copays and/or insurance requirements for the people affected to be treated.

88
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:24:49am

Too funny not to share, and with apologies to our UK/EU lizards both…

89
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:26:09am

Found that in the comments on this article:

BoJo: Oh shit, it looks like no-deal is actually happening (link: The Guardian)

90
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:28:05am
91
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:30:55am

re: #89 thedopefishlives

Found that in the comments on this article:

BoJo: Oh shit, it looks like no-deal is actually happening (link: The Guardian)

“The prime minister repeated that little time was left,” the statement added. “He said that if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.”

So this one for Boris and Ursula:

JEFF BECK LIVE Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers

92
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:31:35am

re: #85 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I read the first Harry Potter novel so I would know what my kids were on about. I found it entertaining reading but have not read anything else from her nor do I care to read or hear anything else from or about her at this point

My mother is a big Harry Potter fan, but I have not read any of her books.

93
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:33:17am

re: #92 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

My mother is a big Harry Potter fan, but I have not read any of her books.

The books are all good. The movies are all good. That doesn’t take away from Rowling being a fanatic, which I still find highly disappointing.

94
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:34:09am

re: #92 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

My mother is a big Harry Potter fan, but I have not read any of her books.

I read the whole series, multiple times. She’s a talented writer. It’s sad that she’s a terrible person, because she is a talented writer, and there aren’t a whole lot of those to go around.

95
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:35:22am

re: #87 Nojay UK

The UK is in the process of setting up clinics and study centres for the long-term effects of COVID-19 right now. I read somewhere that there are already sixty-plus centres under the NHS opening nationwide to initially collect data and track people with noticeable after-effects and start to develop treatments for their conditions.

This being the UK there will be, of course, no cost, copays and/or insurance requirements for the people affected to be treated.

Yeah, there’s likely going to studies worldwide of long-term COVID effects; though I haven’t heard or read anything about it, I’d imagine the Chinese government is likely planning, or may indeed have already commenced, studies of COVID survivors to see what happens to them over the following years and decades.

96
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:35:48am
97
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:37:29am

re: #94 thedopefishlives

I read the whole series, multiple times. She’s a talented writer. It’s sad that she’s a terrible person, because she is a talented writer, and there aren’t a whole lot of those to go around.

H.P. Lovecraft was a talented writer (hell, he created an entire genre of horror) but a genuinely awful person with deeply-rooted racist ideas, which seeped into his writings from time to time.

98
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:38:30am

re: #97 Dr Lizardo

H.P. Lovecraft was a talented writer (hell, he created an entire genre of horror) but a genuinely awful person with deeply-rooted racist ideas, which seeped into his writings from time to time.

I still like to read Dilbert, and in general, Scott Adams’ political views rarely spill over.

99
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:39:20am

re: #98 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I still like to read Dilbert, and in general, Scott Adam’s political views rarely spill over.

This is also true; I do the same.

100
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:41:01am

re: #98 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I still like to read Dilbert, and in general, Scott Adam’s political views rarely spill over.

He’s smart enough to keep Dilbert politically neutral.

101
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:44:04am

As much as we worry about the Proud Boys fucking things up for Biden at the inauguration, it goes without saying that they’re… not bright.

102
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:44:43am
103
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:51:00am
104
steve_davis  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:52:20am

My cat likes to come up and sleep with me, presumably at some random moment when she decides it’s too damned cold for her tastes. I’m an especially poor sleeping partner, moving around a lot in order to get comfortable, so last night, she waited until I’d rolled on to my stomach with my head to the right and my left arm straight down by my side. She kind of slinked her way along my body from where she had been sleeping and enveloped my left arm at the elbow in what I can only describe as a cat tourniquet. She had both her front arms locked firmly around it above the elbow, and then I could feel her back feet below. I realized I was being locked down by a mama cat who was using her “restless kitten” instincts to keep me in place. If I made the slightest attempt to move, she would extend her claws on her front legs. I knew damned well she wasn’t really going to hurt me with them. It was just her way of telling her restless partner that she was trying to sleep and to stop moving around! And yes, being enveloped in a warm, furry armband is about as wonderful as it sounds! I’ve learned if I’m willing to just sleep on my right side, she’ll typically, eventually, just throw herself down against my chest and mold herself to me, which is also very warm and delightful, as I can normally feel her heart beating, just a bit faster than my own because, I guess, she’s a smaller mammal so she has to work a little harder to regulate body temperature.

105
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:52:42am

I’m not a video gamer, but this falls into an area I’m interested in (epilepsy).

Cyberpunk 2077: Sony pulls game from PlayStation store after complaints (The Guardian)

A female game reviewer wrote a review of the game, noting she really liked it but it has a portion where it has an element which looks like and works exactly like the strobe used in an EEG test to trigger photosensitive seizures. When she encountered that playing the game, it triggered a seizure in her.

After posting the game review (before the game came out), the folks who are concerned about “ethics in gaming journalism” (Nazis and other conservatives, misogynists, &c) attacked her with death threats, attacked her Twitter account with strobbing GIFS reminiscent of Kurt Eichenwald’s attacks, &c.

She reported all those attacks to Twitter, which did nothing. She has locked down her account to end the deluge of strobe attacks against her.

A second round of attacks then went against the Epilepsy Foundation, where the game was also discussed.

Folks at the Epilepsy Foundation discussion boards note that the programmers of the game are very unlikely to have stumbled upon an EEG strobe in appearance and function by accident.

Sony has placed medical warnings on the game and is offering refunds, as they’ve received numerous complaints of people becoming sick, triggering migraines, or triggering seizures.

106
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:53:21am

re: #91 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

“He said that if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.”

The EU is has a direct land border, or a very short sea crossing to to the UK.

Australia is over 8,756 miles away from the EU.

In 2019 the EU accounted for 47% of the UK’s total trade.

The EU comprises 11% of Australian goods trade.

Boris is a fucking moron.

107
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:56:30am

re: #106 John Hughes

Boris is trying to polish a very soft turd

108
steve_davis  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:56:58am

re: #105 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

I’m not a video gamer, but this falls into an area I’m interested in (epilepsy).

Cyberpunk 2077: Sony pulls game from PlayStation store after complaints (The Guardian)

A female game reviewer wrote a review of the game, noting she really liked it but it has a portion where it has an element which looks like and works exactly like the strobe used in an EEG test to trigger photosensitive seizures. When she encountered that playing the game, it triggered a seizure in her.

After posting the game review (before the game came out), the folks who are concerned about “ethics in gaming journalism” (Nazis and other conservatives, misogynists, &c) attacked her with death threats, attacked her Twitter account with strobbing GIFS reminiscent of Kurt Eichenwald’s attacks, &c.

She reported all those attacks to Twitter, which did nothing. She has locked down her account to end the deluge of strobe attacks against her.

A second round of attacks then went against the Epilepsy Foundation, where the game was also discussed.

Folks at the Epilepsy Foundation discussion boards note that the programmers of the game are very unlikely to have stumbled upon an EEG strobe in appearance and function by accident.

Sony has placed medical warnings on the game and is offering refunds, as they’ve received numerous complaints of people becoming sick, triggering migraines, or triggering seizures.

Those dont’ trigger seizures in me, but I experienced enough of them as a child, in a dark room, as part of the EEG test, that I still have mild PTSD when I have to do things like pass emergency vehicles on the highway. And there is no way in hell I would ever willingly go into a nightclub with strobes. Had a manager try to create a strobe effect while I was on stage once and I had to shout for him to turn that shit off, which I’m sure made my reputation as a prima donna. There’s some suggestion that Sid Barrett was epileptic and that his baked performance on stage may have been more triggered by Pink Floyd light shows than LSD.

109
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Dec 18, 2020 • 4:58:59am

re: #61 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Amazon first announced they picked up the rights (SyFy failed over and over to make good on their promises) in 2017.

So it’s been three years and we’ve still not seen anything.

Not even promised anything.

Back in May Amazon let out some interviews of personnel associated with the effort, but since then it’s gone pretty silent.

Now the pandemic may have set back production. But if it was coming in 2021 wouldn’t Amazon have teased that by now?

I’m not sure I’d want to see it.

They’d have to trim a lot to transition from book to film. A lot of bits in the first novel are 3-4 characters in a ship just talking. There is a *lot* of cultural baggage involving the main characters in the first novel and I shudder a bit wondering how they will properly explain Kzinti, much less the Puppeteers. And the special effects budget will consume all. I’d rate a good adaption as a very very challenging bit of writing.

110
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:00:48am

Figures.

111
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:03:19am

I am still generally pleased with what they did with The Man in the High Castle. I am looking forward to the (third attempt at) Dune, which seems a lot more promising than the first two botched versions.

And I hope that someday, somebody gives Starship Troopers the treatment that it deserves. The Paul Verhoeven version is a hoot, but I have to force myself to look on it as a work of its own that really only shares the title with the novel.

From what I read, it started out as a separate project that was so remarkably similar to ST that they just bought up the rights and title and took it from there.

112
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:03:29am

re: #104 steve_davis

You’re so darned cute. Your kitty stories warm the cockles of my cold, dead heart.

113
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:03:41am

re: #105 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

I am a gamer, and so this interests me from that side. What I’m most interested in is the idea that there’s no way the programmers could have done this by accident. That’s quite incorrect. Because computers work best with easily repeated patterns, it is quite plausible that they could have simply stumbled upon a repeating frequency that closely mimicked that of a strobe test. I ascribe to Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

114
Eventual Carrion  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:05:01am

re: #81 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

JK Rowling is at it again.

J.K. Rowling says 90% of her fans agree with her transphobia but they’re afraid to say so publicly (Goes to LGBTQ Nation)

(more)

So now “pro-equality” is as bad as “Anti-fascist”? Anti-equality and pro-fascist is the thing now I guess.

115
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:06:22am

re: #64 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Paramedic outed as OnlyFans model by the New York Post fights back, for herself and her fellow underappreciated first responders (Goes to We Hunted the Mammoth, more at the link)

(more)

The twists and turns of the conservative mind, such as it is, are a thing to behold.
(Paramedic Babe): “Sorry, sir, looks like you’re having a heart attack. We’ll get you to the ER.”
(Gasping Geezer): “Wait, aren’t you that chick who posed nude on the ‘net?”
(Babe) “Well, yeah, but……”
(Geezer) “Begone, harlot! Get someone else! I’ll wait.”

116
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:07:44am

re: #111 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

There’s concept art for Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness that makes me sad - mostly because we’ll probably never get to see it on the silver screen.

117
Florida Panhandler  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:12:49am

re: #48 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Anti-Trust legislation IMO is generally a good idea however when current Republicans go after search engines and other tech-related companies it is not for any sort of consumer-friendly reasons.. it is entirely meant to try and force these entities to carry and even prioritize white supremacist content.

118
Jay C  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:15:41am

re: #107 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Boris is trying to polish a very soft turd

And a noticeably malodorous one - maybe he assumes being masked up for COVID will “mask” the stink? *

And btw, I’ve seen it in various places, but can’t seem to find the source of the phrase: what does “on Australian terms” mean vis-a-vis a no-deal Brexit/EU trade?

* I realize now, more of an actual comparison than a simile

119
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:19:27am

re: #118 Jay C

And btw, I’ve seen it in various places, but can’t seem to find the source of the phrase: what does “on Australian terms” mean vis-a-vis a no-deal Brexit/EU trade?

It means WTO terms, while attempting to claim that is not a problem.

120
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:21:20am

re: #119 John Hughes

And of course Australia doesn’t want to trade with the EU on “Australian terms”, which is why the EU and Australia have been working on a FTA since 2018.

121
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:29:35am

In the category “Nebraska: The Good Life”:

122
steve_davis  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:33:54am

re: #97 Dr Lizardo

H.P. Lovecraft was a talented writer (hell, he created an entire genre of horror) but a genuinely awful person with deeply-rooted racist ideas, which seeped into his writings from time to time.

sigh…Lovecraft was most assuredly not a “genuinely awful person with deeply rooted racist ideas.” He was a damaged person who was raised by a succession of women, and whose father died from tertiary syphilis in an insane asylum. I would imagine that haunted him, especially with his mother also dying insane. He was largely self-educated, which means that his world view well into his twenties was generated by the various eighteenth-century writers he encountered through his grandfather’s library. Adding to his misery was that he was born into an upper-crust portion of Providence society, but a business failing forced him and his mother into a lower middle-class world that his mother clearly wasn’t designed for. Read his 5 volume letters collection and you’ll encounter someone who is actually genuinely funny and whose warmth for other writers sparked numerous famous authors, including Robert Bloch. As for his “deeply rooted racist ideas,” he had no more of them than Edgar Rice Burroughs, William Faulkner, or Ernest Hemingway. Consider that what we would now rightly consider “deeply racist” in his works—for instance, his continual reference to the residents of various small towns devolving due to intermixture with foreign blood (my paraphrase there) was, until well into the late 1930’s, considered pretty standard stuff. You can even see this sort of thing in Toynbee and Will Durant. Genetics was a fairly new field. Anthropology was nowhere near as sophisticated as it is today, and it was perfectly reasonable, for instance, for academics to argue that the black cultures in Africa weren’t capable of creating the kinds of works in places like Timbuktoo that we now know they did in fact create. Hence, the argument that Phoenicians were responsible for much of black African ancient culture. Well, sorry. Lovecraft gets a lot of unfair press.

123
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:36:00am

This is awful. Thread, twenty-six tweets.

124
Belafon  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:37:41am

re: #76 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

If there’s an award for best handle, I’m throwing this guy in as a nominee. 664 - Neighbor of the Beast. 😁😂

[Embedded content]

There’s a book called “668 Neighbor of the Beast.” amazon.com

125
mmmirele  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:38:25am

I know we talked about this a couple of days ago, but here’s the story of the air conditioning repair guy, David Zuniga, who was targeted by ex-Houston PD cop Mark Aguirre, being funded by Steven Hotze, a longtime and well-known anti-LGBTQ Republican in Houston.

Zuniga said Aguirre faked an injury immediately after the incident to draw Zuniga closer.

“He said, ‘Help me! Help me!’ with his hand inside his coat,” Zuniga said. “Then when I tried to help him, he pulls out a gun. That is when I was told to get on the ground.”

Zuniga said he feared for his life and felt he was near death.

“Very, very close, because when I saw him unlock the safety I thought, ‘He is going to shoot me,’” Zuniga said.

click2houston.com

Now that this guy has been in the news, I’m pretty sure he probably has legal representation for the inevitable lawsuit against Aguirre, Hotze, Liberty Center and anyone else. Let’s hope the lawyer doesn’t fuck it up.

126
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:38:27am

re: #28 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

His name is GROGU.

Now the interesting thing is that people use such a figure as a tree-topper. Yoda, the character in the original SW trilogy, has for some reason been taken by American society (well, the younger ones) as some sort of hero or standard of good.

But as seen in the entire 9 movie series, Yoda is part of a death cult that kills more often just for convenience, and trains its followers to suppress emotion and simply be killing machines.

Sort of like the history of Christianity… but I digress.

We’ve been using a small stuffed monkey as a tree-topper for years. This year we added a feature.

127
jeffreyw  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:38:37am

Good morning!

128
Dave In Austin  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:40:52am
129
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:43:19am

re: #41 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Been doing that for ages: making heroes and idols out of murderers, traitors and tyrants.

It always interested me that Marilyn Manson’s first band all adopted stage names that were ‘first name, movie star - last name, murderer.’

Marilyn Manson
Daisy Berkowitz
Twiggy Ramirez
Madonna Wayne Gacy

130
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:44:59am

re: #122 steve_davis

I still like Lovecraft and I consider him one of the greatest American horror authors ever. Some of his social views have aged like milk left on the counter for a month, to be sure, but I still enjoy reading his works and there’s no denying his legacy, not just on American horror fiction, but worldwide, having inspired folks such as Junji Ito, the manga artist and many others.

131
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:46:38am

At first glance the men in these pictures look considerably older than they probably were. Most were recalled reservists rather than new conscripts but the average age was still about 24. The beards contribute to that but I think the stress of war shows too.

132
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:47:24am

re: #130 Dr Lizardo

I still like Lovecraft and I consider him one of the greatest American horror authors ever. Some of his social views have aged like milk left on the counter for a month, to be sure, but I still enjoy reading his works and there’s no denying his legacy, not just on American horror fiction, but worldwide, having inspired folks such as Junji Ito, the manga artist and many others.

You have to take the social mores and such of the time into account when looking at historical figures. It’s why I generally roll my eyes when I see “Lincoln was a racist” articles since they often are ignoring that point on purpose.

133
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:53:18am

re: #132 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

You have to take the social mores and such of the time into account when looking at historical figures. It’s why I generally roll my eyes when I see “Lincoln was a racist” articles since they often are ignoring that point on purpose.

True - both Lovecraft (and Lincoln) lived in an era when the notion of White Anglo-Saxon supremacy was taken for granted as nothing less than “established scientific fact” and to suggest otherwise would certainly have been considered quite a radical concept, if not entirely outlandish.

134
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:54:23am
135
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:56:28am

re: #33 ericblair

Great. The Mimbari are on their way. /

136
mmmirele  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:57:05am

re: #83 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo

‘It’s a miracle’: YWCA of Lubbock receives $9 million donation

I won’t quibble with the invocation of God, since the YWCA is, after all, a Christian organization. It’s not a miracle though. It is a very wealthy person who understands that she has the power to change the world, and has set out to do it. She also knows that poor or inadequate public resources are a lot of the reason she has the money to give. Our system makes this giving possible, and also creates the need for it, by putting private profit ahead of public benefit.

She gave $40 million to Prairie View A&M, which makes me happy, because for so many years PV was the unacknowledged stepchild of Texas A&M, not even part of the system and had to fight to get there. If I was going to give money to a university, it’d be to an HBCU, not my alma maters, which have *healthy* endowments.

137
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:58:25am

2 strip clubs can stay open and set own COVID rules, California judge rules (CBS News)

Two San Diego strip clubs can remain open and make their own determinations about providing a safe environment for dancers and patrons during the pandemic, a judge ruled Wednesday. The decision dealt a setback to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s health order that calls for such establishments to be shuttered.

The scope of San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil’s preliminary injunction appeared to extend far beyond the two clubs that sued the state to potentially all of the thousands of restaurants in San Diego County, the state’s second-largest county after Los Angeles. On Wednesday night, Supervisor Jim Desmond tweeted that the judge “has directed the county to allow businesses with resturant services to operate their business safely and responsibly.”

(more)

138
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 5:59:24am

re: #137 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

2 strip clubs can stay open and set own COVID rules, California judge rules (CBS News)

(more)

[Embedded content]

Ugh. They are determined to kill us all.

139
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:01:37am

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

140
jaunte  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:01:40am

re: #137 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

A judge just ruled that he would pretend not to see a connection between the Supreme Court remaining in separate home offices and the spread of COVID.

141
Romantic Heretic  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:02:15am

re: #67 Nojay UK

Oh, yeah. Demon Breed would make a great movie. Especially as it has a smart, capable woman as the main character.

I wonder if they would include the ending scene where a confederation of aliens decided, “Leave the humans alone. They’re fucking dangerous!”

142
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:02:46am

re: #133 Dr Lizardo

True - both Lovecraft (and Lincoln) lived in an era when the notion of White Anglo-Saxon supremacy was taken for granted as nothing less than “established scientific fact” and to suggest otherwise would certainly have been considered quite a radical concept, if not entirely outlandish.

Ditto for Male Supremacy

143
Romantic Heretic  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:02:59am

re: #135 lawhawk

Great. The Mimbari are on their way. /

Keep the gunports closed!

144
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:05:40am

re: #138 thedopefishlives

Ugh. They are determined to kill us all.

Think of the property market crash and quick pick-ups for the 1% if you kill off a significant portion of the populace.

Won’t someone think of the poor job creators just trying to create new job openings in the economy?

145
Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:08:06am

re: #137 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

2 strip clubs can stay open and set own COVID rules, California judge rules (CBS News)

(more)

[Embedded content]

Unlike cargo cult churches, strip clubs are unlikely to be frequented by vulnerable old people, and not at all by school children who can be counted on to spread the disease to vulnerable groups during the holidays.

146
Hecuba's daughter  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:11:06am

re: #63 Dr Lizardo

Sadly, a lot of times things get stuck in development hell. I remember reading years ago that David Fincher wanted to direct Rendezvous with Rama, from the seminal novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It never came to pass, unfortunately. And it probably never will.

Cracked magazine summed up one of the possible reasons: how could there be any merchandise tie-in? After all, it’d be awfully difficult to sell toys…imagine little Jimmy with his three-foot long toy of Rama, contemplating man’s place in the universe and what it all means. It’d probably be a great film, to be sure, but the source material is pretty cerebral - and that’s something studio execs tend to shy away from.

And we’ll probably never get Guillermo del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness, either.

There is a youtube video explaining how the original pilot episode for GOT was reputedly so terrible that it almost killed the series before it had a chance to air. The widely condemned series ending demonstrated what happened when the showrunners no longer had the source material to guide them and gives a taste of how dreadful this pilot could have been.

147
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:13:36am

re: #128 Dave In Austin

And whose fault is that? Media that spins individual wealth and self-indulgence over citizenry informed about events that can affect them in subtle and not so subtle ways?

A media that spews misinformation like Niagara Falls and spends a fraction of the time fact-checking that misinformation, especially when it’s coming from Trump himself.

Media breaking society has been an ongoing part of the problem for decades. An entire political party that has divorced itself from facts and reality is part of the same problem.

148
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:13:41am

re: #145 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo

Unlike cargo cult churches, strip clubs are unlikely to be frequented by vulnerable old people, and not at all by school children who can be counted on to spread the disease to vulnerable groups during the holidays.

It’s noted reading the order that it would apply to the thousands of restaurants in San Diego as well as the two strip clubs in question.

149
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:15:36am
150
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:17:18am
151
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:17:48am

re: #149 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

[Embedded content]

That’s because the second coup is usually backed by the military, and whichever side the military chooses wins. Unfortunately for the racist fascist element in our country, I don’t think the military is going to throw their weight behind a coup any time soon. High command seems pretty dead set on making sure they stay out of these petty squabbles.

152
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:20:05am

re: #122 steve_davis

He was a damaged person who was raised by a succession of women

Yup, that old being raised by women thing, that’ll fuck you up every time.

153
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:20:47am

re: #152 John Hughes

Yup, that old being raised by women thing, that’ll fuck you up every time.

That’s definitely my problem. /s

154
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:24:54am

He’s pardoning people not because they necessarily deserve it, but because Trump thinks this somehow benefits him. Everything always comes back to how any action Trump takes ultimately benefits him personally and directly.

155
Hecuba's daughter  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:24:59am

re: #137 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

2 strip clubs can stay open and set own COVID rules, California judge rules (CBS News)

(more)

[Embedded content]

Sounds like the judge is getting guidance from Gorsuch. I suspect if he had lost family members to the disease, he might have a different perspective but he seems to be suffering from a standard GOP ailment: a complete lack of understanding of any issue unless it affects them personally.

156
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:25:06am

re: #145 Shiplord Kirel: Fan of USPS, Goodyear, and Oreo

Unlike cargo cult churches, strip clubs are unlikely to be frequented by vulnerable old people, and not at all by school children who can be counted on to spread the disease to vulnerable groups during the holidays.

Hmmm……strip club churches? That might actually go over pretty well here.

157
Romantic Heretic  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:25:09am

re: #128 Dave In Austin

Consumerism and citizenship are almost opposite ideas.

A consumerist society will sell itself to the devil in order to get the best deal.

Eg. America in its current state. Lots of consumers, not enough citizens.

158
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:26:46am

re: #157 Romantic Heretic

Consumerism and citizenship are almost opposite ideas.

A consumerist society will sell itself to the devil in order to get the best deal.

Eg. America in its current state. Lots of consumers, not enough citizens.

Like the Chinese experiment in communism, Americans have taken capitalism to its logical extreme, and proven that extremes just don’t work. However, similar to the Chinese and communism, we’re too damn stubborn to acknowledge that it just doesn’t work and back off to find a more reasonable compromise. Nope - damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

159
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:26:49am

re: #156 Dr Lizardo

Hmmm……strip club churches? That might actually go over pretty well here.

Church of the Holy V.

/sorry, not sorry

160
jaunte  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:26:51am
161
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:28:08am

re: #81 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

JK Rowling is at it again.

J.K. Rowling says 90% of her fans agree with her transphobia but they’re afraid to say so publicly (Goes to LGBTQ Nation)

(more)

That’s brilliant
and Trump didn’t think of it
Everyone supports me, just no one will say it

162
mmmirele  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:28:15am

re: #156 Dr Lizardo

Hmmm……strip club churches? That might actually go over pretty well here.

If churches want to shove themselves under the restaurant/strip club extension, I’m good with that, so long as they also pay taxes and give up their property tax exemptions.

163
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:28:19am

re: #154 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

He’s pardoning people not because they necessarily deserve it, but because Trump thinks this somehow benefits him. Everything always comes back to how any action Trump takes ultimately benefits him personally and directly.

I guarandamntee there’s money involved. There is nothing that fucker wouldn’t sell.

164
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:28:27am

The first child hospitalised from the Nebraska Panhandle with MIS-C from Covid-19 has been released from Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver. At least five children are known to have come down with the syndrome here.

Gering boy first to be treated for inflammatory disease in western Nebraska (Scottsbluff Star-Herald)

When 10-year-old Chase Cline contracted COVID-19, his mother Amanda Cline said, he suffered minor symptoms. Just weeks later, the boy would be hospitalized, suffering serious effects from a rare inflammatory disorder associated with the coronavirus.

Chase is one of multiple children from the area recently hospitalized at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver that have been diagnosed with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Officials with Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children have confirmed that multiple children diagnosed with MIS-C from the area have been treated, but are unable to provide a specific number. The Star-Herald has talked to three parents of children, including Chase’s mother, Amanda Cline, all of whom say they are aware of at least five children who have been treated in Colorado in recent weeks.

(more)

165
lizardofid  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:28:28am

re: #154 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

He’s pardoning people not because they necessarily deserve it, but because Trump thinks this somehow benefits him. Everything always comes back to how any action Trump takes ultimately benefits him personally and directly.

Pardons will be granted after careful consideration calculation.

Oh, good morning!

166
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:30:23am

re: #165 lizardofid

Pardons will be granted after careful consideration calculation clearance of funds.

Oh, good morning!

FIFY

And backatcha. Well, it’s morning at least.

167
lizardofid  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:31:00am

re: #159 lawhawk

Church of the Holy V.

/sorry, not sorry

What about masking?

//

168
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:33:46am

re: #167 lizardofid

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Maybe people will take covid19 more seriously - especially white guys - because the reports are now indicating that covid19 can cause reproductive health issues - infertility and erectile dysfunction and covid19 can be spread by sexual relations. This is an insidious disease, and the GOP plan was to kill as many as possible to get to “herd immunity” even though that’d mean millions dead.

They’re already 1/3 of the way to the first million.

169
Belafon  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:36:04am
170
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:36:15am

If only.

171
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:36:52am
172
Belafon  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:37:37am
173
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:38:14am

re: #158 thedopefishlives

Like the Chinese experiment in communism, Americans have taken capitalism to its logical extreme, and proven that extremes just don’t work. However, similar to the Chinese and communism, we’re too damn stubborn to acknowledge that it just doesn’t work and back off to find a more reasonable compromise. Nope - damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Let me know where you can see any communism in modern day China, because I can’t find any.

174
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:39:16am

re: #173 John Hughes

Let me know where you can see any communism in modern day China, because I can’t find any.

Okay, fine, so eventually the Chinese backed off - after they tanked their entire economy, society, and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Actually, that’s starting to sound familiar.

175
Belafon  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:39:28am
176
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:39:31am

re: #168 lawhawk

Maybe people will take covid19 more seriously - especially white guys - because the reports are now indicating that covid19 can cause reproductive health issues - infertility and erectile dysfunction

Yeah….I can hear it now - OMG MUH BONER!! Maybe they’ll realize it’s not just “a couple days of coughing” when they can’t get it up anymore.

177
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:40:07am

re: #92 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

My mother is a big Harry Potter fan, but **I have not read any of her books**.

Your mother’s a writer? //

178
Dr. Teddy's Person  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:40:28am

re: #154 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

He’s pardoning people not because they necessarily deserve it, but because Trump thinks this somehow benefits him. Everything always comes back to how any action Trump takes ultimately benefits him personally and directly.

Also, the pardon power is pretty much absolute. So, staff wanting to give Trump some wins to cheer him up are probably encouraging this.

179
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:41:40am

re: #171 lawhawk

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

Stuxnet the bastards.

Cripple their infrastructure. Destroy their banking sector. Bring on the food riots.

180
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:42:33am

Kristi Noem (R-Gov. SD) was a Republican elector.

She did not vote in the Electoral College vote in South Dakota. An unannounced change in plans meant she met personally with Donald Trump instead.

The state GOP chair was appointed as a substitute to cast her vote for Trump.

Noem’s change in her Monday schedule comes after a weekend of duck hunting in Arkansas, meeting with a Florida opioid-awareness activist on an airplane in South Dakota, and receiving an award in D.C.

None of the three events were announced ahead of time. The state plane was not used during any of Noem’s weekend travel, Fury said.

Noem, a supporter of Trump, was replaced as an elector by Dan Lederman, chair of the South Dakota Republican Party, Bob Mercer of KELO reported on Saturday. The change was not publicly announced by any South Dakota official.

Kea Warne, deputy Secretary of State, said Monday that she learned about the swap mid-week last week but was not given a reason for the change.

Noem meeting with Trump on Monday instead of voting for him in Electoral College (Rapid City, SD Journal)

Three Republican legislators who attended Gov. Noem’s in-person budget hearing last week now have tested positive for Covid-19.

181
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:43:39am

re: #179 Dr Lizardo

You want to kill Russians because you were so stupid you used Microsoft Windows?

182
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:45:28am

re: #177 Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don’t play one on TV

Your mother’s a writer? //

She is. That said, she has nothing published.

However, that was a poorly constructed sentence. If she’d written the Harry Potter series, I imagine she wouldn’t be living in a tiny apartment in Chicago resisting being evicted.

183
Belafon  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:45:57am
184
Belafon  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:47:36am

re: #181 John Hughes

You want to kill Russians because you were so stupid you used Microsoft Windows?

Because they have attacked our electronic infrastructure. If it were just Windows, that would be easy to take care of.

185
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:49:53am

re: #181 John Hughes

You want to kill Russians because you were so stupid you used Microsoft Windows?

Of course not, but there must be some sort of retaliation. The Russian government needs to learn an exceedingly painful lesson - it has to hurt, so they won’t forget. So the next time someone cooks up a harebrained idea like that, he or she gets slapped down hard, like “JFC, are you stupid? Remember the last time we did that, huh? Remember the retaliation from that? FFS, we’re still recovering from that bullshit stunt.”

I admit, I’m pretty hardline about that kind of thing. Your mileage may vary.

186
jaunte  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:50:52am
187
jaunte  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:50:59am
188
William Lewis  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:51:19am

re: #42 Targetpractice

Or we could save time and just go with “George Lucas is a terrible writer.”

“I like the music”

189
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:54:49am

re: #161 Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don’t play one on TV

That’s brilliant
and Trump didn’t think of it
Everyone supports me, just no one will say it

You’re forgetting the ‘shy Trump voters’ trope.

190
Hecuba's daughter  Dec 18, 2020 • 6:58:34am

Trump, Carson, Christie, and Giuliani all had COVID and, after special treatment unavailable to the general public, recovered quickly. Of them, only Christie gave a warning and advised that we be very careful and follow medical guidelines. My questions: is it possible that this treatment is a true cure for the disease that is too expensive and/or too limited in supply to be released for standard use or were they always going to have a relatively mild form of the disease? Alternatively, this treatment may still being evaluated and has not yet received official medical approval.

191
gocart mozart  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:02:42am
192
William Lewis  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:03:16am

re: #97 Dr Lizardo

H.P. Lovecraft was a talented writer (hell, he created an entire genre of horror) but a genuinely awful person with deeply-rooted racist ideas, which seeped into completely infested all of his writings from time to time.

FTFY. I’m just glad for writers like Ruthanne Emrys who can take the Mythos and make it great despite his legacy of hate.

193
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:04:33am

re: #190 Hecuba’s daughter

Trump, Carson, Christie, and Giuliani all had COVID and, after special treatment unavailable to the general public, recovered quickly. Of them, only Christie gave a warning and advised that we be very careful and follow medical guidelines. My questions: is it possible that this treatment is a true cure for the disease that is too expensive and/or too limited in supply to be released for standard use or were they always going to have a relatively mild form of the disease? Alternatively, this treatment may still being evaluated and has not yet received official medical approval.

There’s no way to know what the extent of their illnesses were. Of those mentioned, Christie’s case was the most serious. Did the treatment make a difference in his case? Likely. Did it make a difference in the other cases? That’s not as clear.

There’s no way to evaluate any statement coming from Trumpworld given their pernicious and pervasive lies.

194
Barefoot Grin  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:13:54am
195
steve_davis  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:14:02am

re: #152 John Hughes

Yup, that old being raised by women thing, that’ll fuck you up every time.

he had no male presence in his life and was dandefied by a serious of mostly daft women. I didn’t mean to suggest being raised by women was some kind of damning issue, but just that in his case, he wound up being an incredibly sheltered twenty-something, with a lot of blowhard chauvinism and anglo-saxon male triumphalism that he either picked up from the set of odd women raising him, or that he overcompensated with because he simply had no real sense of what a normal man behaved like. His mother kept him in dresses and refused to cut his hair until he was something like 8 years old, because she was completely off her rocker, and his aunts were not apparently a whole lot better.

196
Jay C  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:15:16am

re: #193 lawhawk

There’s no way to know what the extent of their illnesses were. Of those mentioned, Christie’s case was the most serious. Did the treatment make a difference in his case? Likely. Did it make a difference in the other cases? That’s not as clear.

There’s no way to evaluate any statement coming from Trumpworld given their pernicious and pervasive lies.

Quite true about that last bit: but it’s also likely that Trump, Christie, et. al., got treated for COVID (and probably a range of remediatory treatments) immediately after a positive diagnosis; and at a level of care that we mere plebs are unlikely to receive, in general.

197
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:16:43am

re: #154 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

He’s pardoning people not because they necessarily deserve it, but because Trump thinks this somehow benefits him. Everything always comes back to how any action Trump takes ultimately benefits him personally and directly.

He doesn’t give a damn who they are or what they did
Like everything else he does, its only about people kissing the ring.

198
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:18:26am

re: #196 Jay C

Quite true about that last bit: but it’s also likely that Trump, Christie, et. al., got treated for COVID (and probably a range of remediatory treatments) immediately after a positive diagnosis; and at a level of care that we mere plebs are unlikely to receive, in general.

and a reminder that COVID mortality is not a fixed statistical rate but rather one that depends on the availability and quality of medical care

199
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:22:07am
200
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:23:18am

The cow was unavailable for comment.

201
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:24:23am

re: #182 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

She is. That said, she has nothing published.

However, that was a poorly constructed sentence. If she’d written the Harry Potter series, I imagine she wouldn’t be living in a tiny apartment in Chicago resisting being evicted.

I know egregiously bad writing, grammar, and spelling when I see it.

And I know when smart people just don’t have to be spot on and still get their meaning across.
Sometimes its just fun…

And let’s not go into autocorrect….

202
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:25:07am

re: #179 Dr Lizardo

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

Stuxnet the bastards.

Cripple their infrastructure. Destroy their banking sector. Bring on the food riots.

Yep. Make Putin feel it.

Cyber-head on a cyber-pike, as it were.

203
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:26:11am

re: #189 makeitstop

You’re forgetting the ‘shy Trump voters’ trope.

Yeah but that doesn’t get him to 100%!!!

204
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:27:37am

re: #200 thedopefishlives

At what point does Nunes there get slapped down hard by a court as a vexatious litigant?

Asking for a friend.

205
Jay C  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:27:42am

re: #198 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

and a reminder that COVID mortality is not a fixed statistical rate but rather one that depends on the availability and quality of medical care

And also that a COVID infection is not necessarily an automatic death sentence: even if the ~2% mortality rate is way higher than the “ordinary flu” the denialists keep harping on about. It’s a horrifically serious disease, but -despite all those high-level officials who have reported infections - that most would recover (care-quality being important) is not unexpected.
Disappointing, though, in one aspect: as the Mrs. and I were discussing last night, while we really don’t want to wish a deadly disease on anyone, we were quite willing to make an exception for Donald Trump….

206
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:28:13am

re: #184 Belafon

Because they have attacked our electronic infrastructure. If it were just Windows, that would be easy to take care of.

Solarwind Orion only runs on Windows. If your electronic infrastructure is made out of tissue paper it will be hacked. (In this case, tissue paper stuck together with snake oil all protected by a password of “PassW0rd”).

We still have no idea whether it was “the Russians”.

207
jaunte  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:28:23am

re: #194 Barefoot Grin

Treasonous.

208
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:29:08am

re: #204 Dr Lizardo

At what point does Nunes there get slapped down hard by a court as a vexatious litigant?

Asking for a friend.

Considering that Sidney Powell et al. have yet to be slapped with vex lit status despite losing the same case in multiple courts 60 times, I don’t think he’s anywhere near that.

209
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:29:17am

re: #199 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

The US death toll would be significantly lower if everyone wore a goddamned mask!

210
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:29:56am

re: #194 Barefoot Grin

211
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:30:28am

re: #204 Dr Lizardo

At what point does Nunes there get slapped down hard by a court as a vexatious litigant?

Asking for a friend.

Based on what we’ve seen with these idiotic election suits, it’s gonna take quite a lot

212
jaunte  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:30:29am
213
Decatur Deb  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:31:07am

re: #184 Belafon

Because they have attacked our electronic infrastructure. If it were just Windows, that would be easy to take care of.

re: #181 John Hughes

You want to kill Russians because you were so stupid you used Microsoft Windows?

For a very long time, US doctrine has been that all special weapons are the same. Response to a bio, chem or nuke attack could be answered with any of the 3, usually nuke. Cyber weapons are moving into the realm of “special” as we become critically dependent on the computer infrastructure. We’re not there yet, but the deathtoll from a cyber hit will soon outweigh a chem attack.

214
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:34:48am

re: #205 Jay C

And also that a COVID infection is not necessarily an automatic death sentence: even if the ~2% mortality rate is way higher than the “ordinary flu” the denialists keep harping on about. It’s a horrifically serious disease, but -despite all those high-level officials who have reported infections - that most would recover (care-quality being important) is not unexpected.
Disappointing, though, in one aspect: as the Mrs. and I were discussing last night, while we really don’t want to wish a deadly disease on anyone, we were quite willing to make an exception for Donald Trump….

One can break the risks into two parts
- the chances of getting
- your reaction once you get it

While you might not die, you surely could

Its a he’ll of a risk to choose to take for minor inconvenience (masks) and totally unnecessary voluntary behavior choices (dining out, bars, family gatherings, travel etc)

215
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:35:05am

re: #185 Dr Lizardo

You want to kill Russians because you were so stupid you used Microsoft Windows?

Of course not,

Then why did you say “stuxnet” and “food riots”?

Stuxnet was for taking out computer controlled physical equipment? What equipment do you want to crash? Power networks?

You think people don’t die in “food riots”?

The Russian government needs to learn an exceedingly painful lesson - it has to hurt,

But you’re not suggesting hurting the Russian government. You’re suggesting hurting the Russian people.

Not to mention there’s no publicly available proof that it even was “the Russians”.

216
Rightwingconspirator  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:35:49am

re: #181 John Hughes

You want to kill Russians because you were so stupid you used Microsoft Windows?

Don’t blame the robber, blame the crappy lock on your door?

I don’t think so.

217
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:36:27am

re: #210 lawhawk

[Embedded content]

The first admin ever that wasn’t minimally competent enough to handle transition

218
Teukka  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:39:34am

Ongoing presser of the Swedish government:
New restrictions that will apply from December 24 to January 24:
o The maximum number of restaurant visits is reduced from eight to four people
o Alcohol sales are prohibited after 20:00
o Wear masks in public transport
o All non-essential staff must work at home
o The school will continue to plan for distance education
o The midday sale is canceled

219
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:39:35am
220
Dr. Matt  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:41:22am


‘I can’t hide my disgust, my disdain’: judge lambasts Michael Flynn: In an unexpected moment, Judge Emmet Sullivan subjected Trump’s former national security adviser to a stinging rebuke

Months after Flynn led chants of “lock her up” at the Republican national convention, in reference to Hillary Clinton, it was the three-star general who was then forced - without hesitation or excuses - to admit to his crimes.

Even then, Sullivan told Flynn he ought to consider a delay in his sentencing because there were no guarantees, the judge said, that he would not be incarcerated. After a brief recess, Flynn, looking subdued and a little stunned, returned with his answer: he would take the delay and thereby possibly avoid a harsher sentence.

Then came more bad news for Flynn on what Sullivan had in mind. He was clearly keen to convince Flynn that jail time was still on the table.

“I didn’t say ‘wink, wink, nod, nod’,” Sullivan declared. “I’m not promising anything.”

221
Decatur Deb  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:41:59am

re: #215 John Hughes

Then why did you say “stuxnet” and “food riots”?

Stuxnet was for taking out computer controlled physical equipment? What equipment do you want to crash? Power networks?

You think people don’t die in “food riots”?

But you’re not suggesting hurting the Russian government. You’re suggesting hurting the Russian people.

Not to mention there’s no publicly available proof that it even was “the Russians”.

Then “We” and “They”, all the ‘Theys”, better get good at choosing leaders with a degree of discernment. If we make it to Jan 21 without tripping MAD, I’ll call 2020 a good year.

222
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:42:21am

re: #218 Teukka

Ongoing presser of the Swedish government:
New restrictions that will apply from December 24 to January 24:
o The maximum number of restaurant visits is reduced from eight to four people
o Alcohol sales are prohibited after 20:00
o Wear masks in public transport
o All non-essential staff must work at home
o The school will continue to plan for distance education
o The midday sale is canceled

What’s the “midday sale”?

223
Jay C  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:42:31am

re: #217 Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don’t play one on TV

The first admin ever that wasn’t minimally competent enough to handle transition

[Embedded content]

I dunno, I don’t think “competence” is the issue here: ISTM more like the Trump-Admin people are just being dicks.

224
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:43:40am

re: #217 Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don’t play one on TV

The first admin ever that wasn’t minimally competent enough to handle transition

That assumes this isn’t deliberate.

225
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:43:58am

(one hour ago)

226
A Mom Anon  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:47:03am

re: #85 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

It sucks. I began reading the first book aloud to my son when he was maybe 7 or so. Over the years we read all of them aloud at bedtime til he was 12, at which point he decided that he wanted to read on his own at bedtime. Those were some of the best memories I have of when he was a kid. He’s 26 now. He loved all the books and movies. Still does. Sigh.

227
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:47:29am

re: #225 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

[Embedded content]

(one hour ago)

So it’s all about saying, “Trump and Republicans helped through the pandemic but Dems didn’t.” Fuck this partisan bullshit, I’m done.

228
John Hughes  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:48:13am

re: #221 Decatur Deb

all the ‘Theys”, better get good at choosing leaders with a degree of discernment.

I would remind you that you are just getting to the end of a 4 year period where the US was “led” by someone who wasn’t chosen by the people. In other countries the people have even less choice over who their “leaders” are.

229
Teukka  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:49:59am

re: #222 Dr Lizardo

What’s the “midday sale”?

Sorry, that slipped past me… “Mellandagsrean”, (EN: “midday sale”) is a traditional sale that occurs between the Christmas and New Years holidays, often also between the New Years and Epiphany holidays. Hasn’t occured in like half a century (60’s was latest IIRC), and even then, that time was just one or two of the days. Then we had the period during WWII…

230
Decatur Deb  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:50:09am

re: #228 John Hughes

I would remind you that you are just getting to the end of a 4 year period where the US was “led” by someone who wasn’t chosen by the people. In other countries the people have even less choice over who their “leaders” are.

No reminder necessary. No one said the Holocene was going to be fun.

231
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 7:59:06am

re: #229 Teukka

Sounds like the after-Christmas sales department stores like Sears used to do; a clearance sale of Christmas merchandise or related overstock.

232
Decatur Deb  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:15:03am

At last! A solution to my Christmas shopping problem!

Illegal winery found at Alabama wastewater plant, authorities say
al.com

233
Teukka  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:18:49am

re: #231 Dr Lizardo

Sounds like the after-Christmas sales department stores like Sears used to do; a clearance sale of Christmas merchandise or related overstock.

Precisely. And some chains here stock cheap items for sale during the post xmas sale because they know they will experience a customer influx large enough to make it worthwhile.
So yeah, you know shit is big when that sale is NOPEd…
FUCK YOU, YOU CROWNED BASTARD!
*mutters incoherently, shakes fist*

234
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:23:00am

re: #232 Decatur Deb

At last! A solution to my Christmas shopping problem!

Illegal winery found at Alabama wastewater plant, authorities say
al.com

I’ve heard of making wine out of a lot of things, but wastewater? /s

When we were decommissioning the USS Saratoga (CV-60), an inspection team found a still in a void in the forward part of the ship.

235
Barefoot Grin  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:23:34am

re: #232 Decatur Deb

At last! A solution to my Christmas shopping problem!

Illegal winery found at Alabama wastewater plant, authorities say
al.com

Not one of those snobby Napa Valley wines, by god!

236
Sherlock Hound  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:27:14am

re: #176 Dr Lizardo

Yeah….I can hear it now - OMG MUH BONER!! Maybe they’ll realize it’s not just “a couple days of coughing” when they can’t get it up anymore.

“THUH SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!”
Oh, wait…
//

237
Belafon  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:27:32am

re: #206 John Hughes

Solarwind Orion only runs on Windows. If your electronic infrastructure is made out of tissue paper it will be hacked. (In this case, tissue paper stuck together with snake oil all protected by a password of “PassW0rd”).

We still have no idea whether it was “the Russians”.

The code inserted into SolarWinds had nothing to do with Windows. It had to do with a poorly maintained password and a lack of review of code changes.

These days, Windows isn’t any less secure than the other OSs.

cvedetails.com

238
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:28:11am

re: #226 A Mom Anon

It sucks. I began reading the first book aloud to my son when he was maybe 7 or so. Over the years we read all of them aloud at bedtime til he was 12, at which point he decided that he wanted to read on his own at bedtime. Those were some of the best memories I have of when he was a kid. He’s 26 now. He loved all the books and movies. Still does. Sigh.

I was impressed at how the Harry Potter books got so many kids excited about reading. A fan fiction translation from some young school students was already making its rounds in Germany before the official translation was even released.

239
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:29:10am

re: #236 Sherlock Hound

“THUH SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!”
Oh, wait…
//

“THUH SOUTH IS…..flaccid. And why can’t I smell anything?”

240
🌹UOJB!  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:29:13am

re: #204 Dr Lizardo

At what point does Nunes there get slapped down hard by a court as a vexatious litigant?

Asking for a friend.

When he gets indicted for sedition.

241
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:31:39am
242
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:32:54am

Disney+ gonna be fire next year, it looks like:

Click to Reveal

ign.com

Holy shit.

243
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:33:32am

I have to say that this year’s Perfume Season is bringing some good tunes.

244
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:33:37am

re: #242 Dr Lizardo

There might be spoilers in that article, so read at your own risk!

245
Citizen K  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:34:50am
246
A hollow voice says,1st round on points. Onward!  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:34:54am

re: #127 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

Good morning!

Western good morning!

247
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:36:28am

re: #237 Belafon

The code inserted into SolarWinds had nothing to do with Windows. It had to do with a poorly maintained password and a lack of review of code changes.

These days, Windows isn’t any less secure than the other OSs.

cvedetails.com

That goes back to the Heartbleed exploit we were discussing the other day, where the overwhelming majority of machines still vulnerable in the USA run Linux versions.

Almost no machines running Windows XP, 7, or 8 are affected, and Windows 10 has the fix built in.

Heartbleed Report (goes to Shodan)

248
Colère Tueur de Lapin  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:43:01am

re: #199 lawhawk

This is a good thread. I unrolled it to use. Thank you.

249
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:53:49am

Well-oiled machine.

250
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:54:57am

re: #223 Jay C

re: #224 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

oh i know it’s deliberate

but since they’d likely never admit to that*, what’s left?
it has to be they don’t know what to do or how any of this works //

* though with this crowd yeah, they just might

251
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 8:59:26am

re: #250 Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don’t play one on TV

oh i know it’s deliberate

but since they’d likely never admit to that*, what’s left?
it has to be they don’t know what to do or how any of this works //

* though with this crowd yeah, they just might

see?

re: #249 makeitstop

252
Dr. Teddy's Person  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:02:38am

😁😂🤣😂😁

253
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:15:04am

The genocide continues:

1 in 5 prisoners in the US has had COVID-19, 1,700 have died (Scottsbluff, Nebr. Star-Herald)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — One in every five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times as high as the general population. In some states, more than half of prisoners have been infected, according to data collected by The Associated Press and The Marshall Project.

As the pandemic enters its 10th month — and as the first Americans begin to receive a long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine — at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected, more than 1,700 have died and the spread of the virus behind bars shows no sign of slowing. New cases in prisons this week reached their highest level since testing began in the spring, far outstripping previous peaks in April and August.

“That number is a vast undercount,” said Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer at New York’s Rikers Island jail complex.

(more)

254
Hecuba's daughter  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:15:38am

re: #217 Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don’t play one on TV

The first admin ever that wasn’t minimally competent enough to handle transition

[Embedded content]

In this case, I am confident that there is information that they want to withhold from the Biden administration as long as possible — either due to a pending operation that they want to keep secret or due to their not yet having destroyed all documents they want to keep from Biden’s eyes.

255
Dr. Teddy's Person  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:20:06am

Ronnie is having a sad about the deficit. 🤬🤬🤬

256
🌹UOJB!  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:21:03am

Ah Ron Johnsonwax channeling his inner Ayn Rand…

257
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:23:08am

so Pence is gonna be there in congress to certify that Trump (and he) were defeated.

then he’s gonna bolt to the middle east and poland. (and likely stay away for the duration, i’d guess)

probably puts to rest any possibility of a president pence pardoning trump

that leaves him with the self pardon.

258
🌹UOJB!  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:23:18am

Honestly, Ron Johnsonwax has the face that just begs to be smacked with a custard pie.

259
lawhawk  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:29:54am
260
Jay C  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:30:05am

re: #258 🌹UOJB!

Honestly, Ron Johnsonwax has the face that just begs to be smacked with a custard pie.

I was going to add “with [some unspecified heavy object]” but the general effect is OK as is…

261
A hollow voice says,1st round on points. Onward!  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:41:50am

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

262
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:44:23am

re: #258 🌹UOJB!

Honestly, Ron Johnsonwax has the face that just begs to be smacked with a custard pie.

I was thinking ‘brick,’ but ok.

263
A hollow voice says,1st round on points. Onward!  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:47:59am

re: #262 makeitstop

I was thinking ‘brick,’ but ok.

I like custard pies. They deserve better..

264
🌹UOJB!  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:49:39am

Nice. We are going to have another government shutdown and I’m waiting to see if I am going to be ordered to work without getting paid starting Monday…

265
danarchy  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:50:21am

re: #247 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

That goes back to the Heartbleed exploit we were discussing the other day, where the overwhelming majority of machines still vulnerable in the USA run Linux versions.

Almost no machines running Windows XP, 7, or 8 are affected, and Windows 10 has the fix built in.

Heartbleed Report (goes to Shodan)

As an IT consultant I get to look at(and fix) lots of environments. By far the most vulnerable servers I find are linux based. Not because of anything intrinsic to linux, but because most people aren’t linux admins, and they set up a linux server to address something, usually because it is free, and then proceed to do no maintenance on it. I run into linux machines that haven’t been updated for the better part of a decade.

266
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:51:30am

re: #262 makeitstop

I was thinking ‘brick,’ but ok.

Flaming cactus.

267
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:52:25am

re: #266 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Flaming cactus.

That works, too.

268
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:54:11am

re: #265 danarchy

As an IT consultant I get to look at(and fix) lot’s of environments. By far the most vulnerable servers I find are linux based. Not because of anything intrinsic to linux, but because most people aren’t linux admins, and they set up a linux server to address something, usually because it is free, and then proceed to do no maintenance on it. I run into linux machines that haven’t been updated for the better part of a decade.

Yep, that tracks. Also, many Linux admins are seriously hardcore when it comes to testing upgrades and ensuring no breakages or downtime.

269
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:55:01am

COVID-19: Christmas event at Hendersonville church spawns 75 COVID cases (Asheville, NC Citizen Times)

Forget the taxes. It’s time to start charging churches for the medical bills of people they infect outside the church.

HENDERSONVILLE - A Dec. 5 holiday event at a Hendersonville church has spawned 75 COVID-19 cases, according to the Henderson County Health Department.

The event took place at First Baptist Church over the Dec. 5 weekend. Some who attended told the Citizen Times the church was crowded, many people were not wearing masks and choir members, without masks, were singing shoulder to shoulder.

“To date, the Health Department has identified 75 individuals who have tested positive as a result of the event,” the department said in a Dec. 17 press release. “The Health Department is working to identify any additional close contacts of these individuals.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines close contact as being within approximately 6 feet of an infected person with COVID-19 for a cumulative 15 minutes, according to the release.

(more)

270
Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don't play one on TV  Dec 18, 2020 • 9:59:30am
“Donald Trump will exit the White House as a private citizen next month perched atop a pile of campaign cash unheard-of for an outgoing president, and with few legal limits on how he can spend it,” the New York Times reports.

“Deflated by a loss he has yet to acknowledge, Mr. Trump has cushioned the blow by coaxing huge sums of money from his loyal supporters — often under dubious pretenses — raising roughly $250 million since Election Day along with the national party.”

anyone got any quelle surprises left?

271
thedopefishlives  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:00:29am

re: #270 Dangerman; Not a Dr. & don’t play one on TV

anyone got any quelle surprises left?

This is the real reason he doesn’t want anyone in the GOP to acknowledge he lost: He doesn’t want them poking holes in his cash cow.

272
🌹UOJB!  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:01:17am

When Trump plays Pardonpalooza today the question won’t be who he pardons…I

It’s who gets left out!

273
Axolotl  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:02:53am

re: #122 steve_davis

sigh…Lovecraft was most assuredly not a “genuinely awful person with deeply rooted racist ideas.” ….Well, sorry. Lovecraft gets a lot of unfair press.

Forgive me if I don’t think the author of this poem being called a racist is “unfair press”:

When, long ago, the gods created Earth
In Jove’s fair image Man was shaped at birth.
The beasts for lesser parts were next designed;
Yet were they too remote from humankind.
To fill the gap, and join the rest to Man,
Th’Olympian host conceiv’d a clever plan.
A beast they wrought, in semi-human figure,
Filled it with vice, and called the thing a Ni**er.

274
Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:03:46am

re: #252 Dr. Teddy’s Person

😁😂🤣😂😁

[Embedded content]

Yeah, we’re sneaky like that.

Also.

There are only two types ships. Submarines and targets.
That is all.

275
unproven innocence  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:04:47am

re: #179 Dr Lizardo

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

Stuxnet the bastards.

Cripple their infrastructure. Destroy their banking sector. Bring on the food riots.

Uh… maybe not. As I recall, it was Kaspersky Labs that was the first of our adversaries major organization to figure out (and publicize) exactly how Stuxnet worked.

276
makeitstop  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:05:14am

Well, former military brass running around with their hair on fire doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence…

277
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:05:49am

re: #274 Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire

Yeah, we’re sneaky like that.

Also.

There are only two types ships. Submarines and targets.
That is all.

Hmm. I thought it was destroyers and targets.

278
Anymouse 🌹🏡😷  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:09:44am

I’m going to see my way out for now. Catch y’all later.

279
Hecuba's daughter  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:11:09am

re: #277 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Hmm. I thought it was destroyers and targets.

Nope. That’s the standard saying: submarines and targets.

280
b.d. (We Won!)  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:11:17am

re: #277 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Hmm. I thought it was destroyers and targets.

And I thought submarines were boats?

281
Dr Lizardo  Dec 18, 2020 • 10:14:15am

re: #275 unproven innocence

Uh… maybe not. As I recall, it was Kaspersky Labs that was the first of our adversaries major organization to figure out (and publicize) exactly how Stuxnet worked.

I gotta admit, I’d totally forgotten it was Kaspersky Labs that figured out Stuxnet. That jogged my memory when you mentioned it.

282
Teukka  Dec 18, 2020 • 11:04:08am

re: #258 🌹UOJB!

Honestly, Ron Johnsonwax has the face that just begs to be smacked with a custard pie.

re: #262 makeitstop

I was thinking ‘brick,’ but ok.

re: #266 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

Flaming cactus.

re: #267 makeitstop

That works, too.

So… Ron Johnsonwax appears to fulfille the conditions to be classed as “Backpfeifengesicht“… All Lizardim in favor?


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