Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about the environmental impact of The Sherwin-Williams Company pouring red paint all over the North Pole?
Google tells me that the surface area of Earth is approximately 197,000,000 square miles, which leads me to believe something like 100,000,000 square miles is being covered by that paint spill.
Maybe it’s a solution to global warming. In which case, instead of red paint, couldn’t they do something more reflective, like silver?
MyFAFO: Mike Lindell of MyPillow has completed the “f-ck around” phase and is now experiencing the “find out” phase, as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:
MyPillow is auctioning off hundreds of pieces of equipment and subleasing manufacturing space after several shopping networks and major retailers took the company’s products off shelves … sewing machines, industrial fabric spreaders, forklifts and even desks and chairs are up for auction.
Major chains stopped stocking MyPillow items after Lindell spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money spreading lies about the 2020 election, and attempting to overturn the democratically elected government of the United States.
Lindell apologized to employees and suppliers who have been affected by the downturn in MyPillow’s business, and said, “I have learned my lesson.”
HA HA HA HA HA no, of course he didn’t:
“It was a massive, massive cancellation,” Lindell said in a phone interview Monday. “We lost $100 million from attacks by the box stores, the shopping networks, the shopping channels, all of them did cancel culture on us.”
They did a cancel culture on us! Help, help! Police! There’s been a cancel culture!
It’s never been clear to me exactly what “cancel culture” is supposed to be. As the right-wing is often fond of reminding us, the American economy is a free market.
In a free economy, customers should be allowed to decide, “You know, the person who makes this product is kind of a sleazeball, and I don’t think I want to spend my money on it any more.”
Ditto for opinions that suck. In a free economy, viewers, listeners and readers should be allowed to say, “This guy is a dummy, and I don’t want to watch this show or read about him.”
(Believe me, I’ve seen my ratings, and a lot of Pittsburghers are exercising that right over their radios from 12 to 3 p.m. Saturdays.)
But conservatives have developed a bizarre notion — amongst others — that “freedom” means that you are required to listen to their opinions, regardless of how stupid they are. Otherwise, they are the victims of “cancel culture.”
And, apparently, to Mike Lindell, the self-appointed arbiter of fair elections, Target, Costco, Walmart and other large chains should be required to sell MyPillow products, and customers should be required to buy them.
I feel bad for his employees, but Lindell can cram it into the lie-hole underneath his mustache. (He’s also being sued for $1.3 billion for defamation of character and libel by the makers of electronic voting machines.)
Also, I’ve been told by people that bought MyPillow products — before Lindell boarded the last train to cuckooland — that they were overpriced, and not that good for the money.
By the way: A few months ago, Lindell was claiming that MyPillow was “doing great.” So was he lying then or is he lying now? Or does he simply say whatever serves his purpose at any given moment?
Speaking of opinions: Our Internet radio station, Tube City Online Radio, carries The Rick Smith Show from 10 a.m. to 12 noon weekdays. I was listening to dumb-ass callers try to troll Smith and I don’t know how he doesn’t lose his mind on them.
Actual call I heard:
Caller: “Why do you Democrats think 5 year olds should read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’?”
Rick: “I don’t. I read it in high school.”
Caller: “Oh. Then you should have no problem with book bans, then.”
Wait, what the hell is that supposed to mean? Did the caller think this was some kind of “gotcha”?
Another caller started out, “I’m an undecided voter and you know, President Trump might not be the most articulate person, but the stock market was doing good, unemployment was low, we were respected around the world …”
That’s the equivalent of, “Mr. Burns, your campaign seems to have the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?”
You’re not an undecided voter, sunshine. Who do you think you’re kidding?
Whoops: Speaking of the Internet station, I owe an apology to Alert Listener Charles, who wrote to me a few weeks back to ask why the “old-time radio” block that airs on Sunday nights seemed to be repeating the same shows every week.
I told Charles that I upload fresh episodes every week — usually “Jack Benny,” “Fibber McGee & Molly,” “Dragnet” and a sci-fi or detective show.
Well, this past Sunday, I happened to be in the station and watched — to my fascination and horror — as the computer in the studio hijacked the signal and started playing a program from mid-April. Just as Charles said, it’s apparently been doing that every Sunday at 7 p.m. for several weeks.
I’ve been uploading new programs to the network server, but the computer in the DJ booth has been over-riding those programs. That’s strictly a syntax error on Line Number J-A-Y, and I apologize to Charles and any other listeners who have tuned in only to hear the same thing, over and over.
The good news is, I now have a backlog of old-time radio shows from 1953 that should take us through the end of August.