Month: October 2020

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We can't forget this critical fact: Mask-wearing didn't have to be politicized.

It wasn't inevitable. Trump made it that way, not only with his personal refusal to wear one, but even more importantly by deriding people who wear masks as weak and encouraging protests against efforts by Democratic governors to impose public health measures to contain the virus. He turned refusing to wear a mask into a badge of tribal identification, a way of saying "MAGA 2020! To hell with you, liberals!"

And despite his insane insistence that 224,000 dead Americans — with who knows how many more to come — is the best we could possibly have done, all we have to do is look around the world to see how things could have been different.

We could have been like Canada (just under 10,000 deaths), or Japan (1,700 deaths), or Germany (just over 10,000 deaths), or South Korea (fewer than 500 deaths). Why did those countries succeed where we failed so spectacularly?

Two closely related reasons: They had competent leadership, and their populations didn't go to war with themselves about whether to take simple public health measures — in part because those leaders weren't so spectacularly stupid as to encourage people to flout them.

But Trump did. And even though he's likely to lose the election primarily because of his failure on the pandemic, his narcissistic recklessness will keep killing people even after he's gone.

Trump's last gasp: The pandemic isn't real and everything's fine (behind paywall)

Source: Washington Post
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Being an Old Fart…

…I have no idea who this Froy is, but he looks like someone I might've chased after when I was that age.

Richard Madden, however, I'm well aware of. Rawr.

And if Froy is getting "his guts rearranged" by him, well, all I can say is more power [bottom] to the boy!

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Can't Say I Disagree with the Agenda…

Found somewhere on the interwebs:

"You Trumpsters better pray that liberals never gain control of the WH again because we are going to pay you back so fucking hard for all this shit. Planned Parenthoods on every damn corner. We are going to repaint Air Force One pussy hat pink and fly it over your beloved Bible Belt 6 days a week, tossing birth control pills, condoms, and atheist literature from the cockpit. We are going to tax your mega churches so bad Joel Olsteen will need to get a job at Chik-Fil-A to pay his light bill. Speaking of Chik-Fil-A, we're buying up the company and giving them to any LGBTQ person your sick cult leaders tortured with conversion therapy. Have fun with the new menu, you bigoted fucks. Try the McPence: it's a boiled unseasoned chicken breast that you have to eat in the closet with your mother. We're going to gather up ALL of your fucking guns, melt them down, and turn them into a gargantuan metal mountain emblazoned with the face of Hillary Clinton. ALL parks will be renamed Rosa Parks, asap. We're replacing Confederate statues with BLM Leaders and Mexican immigrants. Every single public school will be renamed after a child that was kidnapped by this regime. And after we fumigate the WH, we're repainting the whole thing rainbow. Fox News Headquarters will be taken over via Eminent Domain and turned into a family refugee shelter. We're turning Hannity's office into giant unisex bathroom with changing tables and free tampons. And every single time a Trumpster complains about any of the changes, we're adding an openly gay character to a Disney movie."

All by Executive Order.

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Source Unknown

Probably apocryphal, but still funny nonetheless:

My wife and I went into town and visited a shop. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket.

We went up to him and said, "Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?"

He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. 

I called him an asshole. 

He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tires.

So Shirley (my wife) called him a shithead.

He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing more tickets as he walked around the car. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

He finally finished, sneered at us, and walked away.

Just then our bus arrived, and we got on and went home.

We always look for cars with Trump 2020 bumper stickers. We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired.

And I kept thinking that if this couple were black they'd both be dead and there wouldn't be a funny story… How sad is that?

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There's a Challenge Out There Right Now













The irony is not lost on me that Toobin wrote for the New Yorker. And it's funny, until it's not.

I guess guys will be guys… but sometimes you just don't want them to be.

…and you can Google image a lot lot lot more of these, should you be so inclined.

[Source]

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So Like Thousands of Others Yesterday…

…this happened.

As long as I get the old phone returned to Verizon in a timely fashion, this was essentially an even trade on our current plan.

The blue is definitely an interesting color. It's not exactly what I was expecting, but then again, it's nothing I can't live with. There wasn't anything wrong with my old phone; I did this to get back to the squared off corners and ditch the need for a case on the thing just so I wouldn't drop it.

Is it faster? Does it take better pictures? How's the 5G working?

To be honest, I haven't noticed any major speed differences. I'm a basic bitch when it comes to my phones. I don't do any gaming or video recording/editing, so any purported speed increase is being lost on me.

I haven't taken many photos yet, so we'll have to wait and see if they're any better than what I'd been getting previously. This is still the base model, so I'm not going to be seeing all the whiz-bang effects that are touted for the Pro or Pro Max models anyway.

5G? I can't get any consistent readings via Speedtest. If 5G is set to ON (vs. Auto) in iOS, it's reporting at best 33.4 Mbps down and 6.1 up. Alternately, if set it to Auto, I get 12.7 down and 3.6 up. If I turn off 5G altogether and select LTE, it's testing at 31.8 down and 5.03 up. So I guess this confirms the initial reaction Ben and I had when it was announced these phones would do 5G: "Don't care."