homeaboutarchivescommentscontacteverything

A perfect shitstorm

Without employment to intrude on life, I am becoming feral. Showers and brushing my teeth feel extremely optional. Meals are when I'm hungry, sleep is when I'm sleepy. Last night I snored for only two hours, but what does it matter? Any yawn can become a nap.

#97
2/11/2022

Free time is such a marvelous thing, I was expecting to do some writing. First, though, there are 119 movies I've been meaning to watch...

♦ ♦ ♦

In a press conference a few weeks ago, President Biden said, "I did not anticipate that there would be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that President Biden didn’t get anything done." 

That's why the world will go down in flames — fools like Biden seem to honestly think Republicans will shake their hands and strike a fair compromise, do the right thing for America, and all that shit, but — how many years has Biden been Rip Van Winkled, that he could still believe that? 

♦ ♦ ♦

My brother is taking a two-and-a-half-week Caribbean cruise. I don't understand it. He's a math guy. He knows the numbers. Knows this is a big risk. Knows there's a pandemic.

"Always wanted to take a cruise," he says, so he's sailing in a week.

Then again, he's old. Even older than me. If he's thinking there's not enough time remaining to keep delaying the things he wants, well, I can see the logic in that.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Blue states are rolling back mask rules – but experts warn it’s too soon 

It'll always be "too soon," while damned fools refuse to wear a mask or be vaccinated.  

♦ ♦ ♦

Canada-U.S. border city seeks court order to remove truck protesters 

Cops don't like to arrest their right-wing ideological soulmates, but will they do it if big money demands it? I'm seriously not sure. Could be a minor dilemma for Officer Unfriendly. 

Fox News can’t get enough of Canada’s freedom-loving truckers 

DHS warns that trucker protests in U.S. could begin on Super Bowl Sunday 

Everything that keeps all our systems humming is more precarious than most people seem to realize. A foolishly shortsighted "just in time" inventory system... plus supply chain disruptions from COVID-19... many millions of petulant fools unwilling to wear a paper mask in a pandemic… and now, some of them want to bring everything to a halt.

If they're stupid enough to do blockades, it could be a perfect shitstorm (and at this point it's pointless to preface anything about the right-wing with "If they're stupid enough to do this").

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Dollywood offering to pay education tuition for all employees 

As of Feb. 24, all seasonal, part-time and full-time employees at Dollywood Parks and Resorts can enroll in the program on their first day of employment.

It's remarkable what a business can do, and still be profitable, if the ownership isn't maniacal about squeezing out every possible penny of profit.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Christian revival at public school prompts student walkout in West Virginia 

Much of the Christian right-wing simply doesn't believe in any separation of church and state. Theocracy now! 

♦ ♦ ♦

Why a high-ranking FBI attorney is pushing ‘unbelievable’ junk science on guns 

♦ ♦ ♦  

Louisiana Senate candidate literally torches a Confederate flag in new campaign ad 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Amir Locke’s killing by Minneapolis police is infuriating — but so is the widely televised body cam footage 

Why must we, as Black Americans, continue to televise our murders in order to mobilize U.S. society to end racist laws? And what message does it send to non-Black America to have a multitude of videos readily available of Black people being brutalized or killed? 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Google, Comcast/NBC Universal, CVS, CitiBank — big companies that support the worst Republicans 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Goodbye to the print editions of Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Parents, and People en Español 

♦ ♦ ♦

The Albanian Air Force has been grounded since 2005. This guy snuck in and took pictures. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Further remembrances of Douglas Trumbull 

♦ ♦ ♦

Frank Lloyd Wright, noted asshole with a knack for architecture, designed this Wisconsin house, and you can rent it via AirBNB for $525 nightly. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

One-man amphibious helicopter 

♦ ♦ ♦

One-word newscast:
Amazon
cops
COVID
Futurama
QAnonsense
Trump
Trump 

♦ ♦ ♦

 Mystery links  — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

—①—
     —②—
          —③—

♦ ♦ ♦
 
♫♬  Sing along with Doug
2/11/2022 
 
Cranky Old Man is annoyed and complains and very occasionally offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that's made me smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.
 
Tip 'o the hat to All Hat No Cattle, Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.
 
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S., and always Stephanie...

18 comments:

  1. >It's remarkable what a business can do, and still be profitable, if the ownership isn't maniacal about squeezing out every possible penny of profit.

    Man, I say this to myself all the time. The good will and loyalty a company can gain by treating its' workers like human beings? That's a lot of good will.

    ~~~~~~~~~

    >Goodbye to the print editions of Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Parents, and People en Español

    From the article :

    “Naysayers will interpret this as another nail in print’s coffin,” Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel said in his memo to staff. “They couldn’t be more wrong.”

    Motherfucker, are you HIGH?

    ~~~~~~~~~~~

    Qanon's insanity is never going to stop escalating, is it? It will never end, and it will, out of necessity, get more and more insane.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. • Yessir, being decent humans tends to impress the other humans. Trouble is, it might reduce profits by 1/10th of a percent, and the shareholders wouldn't like that.

      • The death of Ent Weekly surprised me. It was in doctors' offices as recently as a few years ago, and seemed to be cram-packed and overflowing with ads. Betcha it was still profitable as fuck, just not profitable as fuck enough.

      • Might need to revise my forecast for the looming Collapse of Everything. I had pollyanna-hoped 'normal' could last the rest of my life, so the hell could begin without me, but QAnon has accomplished so much, now I wouldn't lay long odds against complete collapse in 2022.

      Delete
    2. Are you serious about expection a collapse of everything? Things are bad but I don't know about that!

      Delete
    3. If you're seriously asking if I'm serious, yes, I'm serious. Google Climate change, COVID-19, World War 3, science denial, maybe a few other variables I'm forgetting at the moment — all have rather unpleasant worst-case scenarios.

      Delete
  2. Wasn't Obama fooled just the same way? I seem to remember him saying sometething about how amazed he was that thhe Republicans weren't willing to work with him.

    Obama and Biden aren't stupid. I think they knew. It's all a sham isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't remember Obama *saying* anything to that effect, but to me it seemed obvious that the Republicans had him absolutely stymied for the first five years of his time. And after that, mostly stymied.

      Delete
    2. President Obama had a Democratic Senate AND House for the first two years of his presidency. During that time, the Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act and other social legislation that you can easily find a list of. During the last six years, the Republicans did everything they could to shut down the mechanisms of governance. Anybody who thinks Obama was "fooled" by this wasn't paying attention. If anybody wants to read a book, Obama wrote a pretty good one about his time in office, and David Axelrod wrote a good book about the first term.

      Very, very slow change is what The Great Compromise is all about. It is, of course maddening, as events outpace our ability to respond governmentally. Don't throw away your masks.

      John

      Delete
    3. I'm impatient. Got no time left for being patient. And in politics, on my side almost all I see are people always looking to compromise, and on the other side I don't see anyone to compromise with. Slow change for the better would be nice, but the change I've noticed over recent years hasn't been slow, and hasn't been for the better.

      Of course, I don't understand anything about it. I don't understand how any human who's not a millionaire would want to be a Republican — the party of Mean and Stupid.

      My masks will never be thrown away until the stringy strap snaps. Masks for me always and with no complaints, for the rest of my life. Just seems like common sense to me now.

      A piece of paper over my face is good for America, and keeps me from catching a cold as well as COVID. One fine day I dearly hope, people seeing me in the store and in the diner will chuckle and wonder why that old duffer is still wearing a mask.

      Delete
    4. Just in case I wasn't clear about the Great Compromise, I wasn't defending it. The framers compromised because they thought one former British colony in the middle of North America had a better chance of survival than two. But the future CSA states knew this too. I suspect there was a chance to trade a single, defensible nation for a timetable on ending slavery and granting full citizenship to former slaves. Of course you can't second guess history, but the Great Compromise was a bad deal for everybody who didn't believe in universal suffrage, and it gave us some terrible presidents.

      jtb

      Delete
    5. A timetable, though. Imagine the frustration for someone who's a slave in 1820 but promised freedom by 1850 and then dead in 1835. I am 3/5 of the way toward freedom! :)

      Sounds like the promise of a bonus or promotion is we hit the targeted goals. Or a vote for Kyrsten Sinema...

      Delete
  3. I don't agree with Amanda Calhoun, about the broadcast of police murders of black people, or anyone else, or any heinous crime. When something awful happens the public has a right to know. It ought to be shown with warnings though.

    Thanks for these updates.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. The public needs to see the videos of this, and all the police murders. No doubt it's extra infuriating if you're black, but not as infuriating as being shot out of a good night's sleep.

      Delete
  4. "Might need to revise my forecast for the looming Collapse of Everything."

    Don't worry...somewhere out there in the darkness of space is an extinction-level event asteroid with Humanity's name written on it and we'd never know until it was too late. And even then people wouldn't be bothered to look up from their phones. (I've been saying this for years, LONG before "Don't Look Up" happened.)

    Regards,
    Mark Alexander | voenixrising.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like the cut of your jib, sir. A good reminder that humans aren't really in charge.

      If Republicans are running things when the asteroid comes though, they'll find a way to make even extinction worse.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, if we could only build a wall between the asteroid and the Earth.

      jtb

      Delete
  5. Yup, every 65 million years whether we need it or not. Of course it could be next week, but we get fooled by our laughably short lifetimes: events in the universe have their own timetable and it's unimaginably longer than we can easily fathom. The next mass extinction will most likely be triggered by a climate-based event like the Devonian Extinction 365 million years ago. Not much cheerier at that.

    John

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm a pessimist at heart, can't deny. It would be lovely to be mistaken, but I see several huge, complicated crises where humans are responding dumbly and enthusiastically ignoring inevitably awful consequences.

      Then again, I'm out of work and not looking for a job, so who am I to complain?

      Delete

🚨🚨 BY THE WAY 🚨🚨
The site's software sometimes swallows comments. If it eats yours, send an email and I'll get it posted.