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Chavez the Hugo 2020
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Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
The Morning Rant: No American Soldiers In Eastern Europe!
—CBD
Repeat after me: "We are not the world's policeman."
To paraphrase Otto von Bismarck, "Ukraine is not worth the bones of a single United States Marine." So the idea of some security agreement with Ukraine that mirrors NATO's Article 5 is essentially allowing Ukraine into NATO without all of that pesky cooperation and standardization and massive bureaucracy and, by the way, no equal commitment from the rest of the members.
And that's exactly what they want! France and Germany don't want their soldiers to get chewed up and spit out in Donetsk. They want American soldiers to do their dirty work, so they can enjoy some strudel and a good Eiswein, or a lovely croissant and a couple of espressos while they read the news of American blood and treasure being spent once again in Europe.
Stay out of Eastern Europe's territorial disputes. They have been going on for a very long time, and most of them have been nasty wars that expose the curious lack of interest in the lives of those who are fighting them. Both Ukraine and Russia are churning through soldiers at an astounding rate, and the idea that America should provide some ironclad security in the event of another border clash is batshit crazy.
Ahead of the first meeting, Zelenskyy said on Dec. 14 that Kyiv is open to dropping its NATO ambitions in exchange for Western security guarantees.
“Thus, today, bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues, as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” Zelenskyy said in a WhatsApp chat with reporters.
It remains unclear how discussions have progressed on that and other issues, such as territorial concessions, which have been key sticking points in the process.
The Kremlin said on Dec. 15 that Ukraine agreeing not to join NATO was fundamental to the peace settlement.
This war is going to end only when Ukraine and its European cheerleaders admit that they have lost territory that will probably never be returned. Yes, that's not fair. And it wasn't fair that I didn't get the GI Joe with the Kung-Fu grip when I was eight years old, but that's the way of the world!
Russia has been exposed as a paper tiger, and the insulting argument that Ukraine is only the first step in its drive to the Channel is thoroughly debunked by the facts on the ground. Russia couldn't conquer Ukraine in three and a half years? That is a shocking realization for Putin and his generals, and no amount of obfuscation on their part will change that.
Here's my plan. Guarantee a certain level of access to American weapons, paid for in cash. Guarantee a certain level of intelligence cooperation. Guarantee support in the United Nations (remember that?) for a just peace. Continue support for Poland's military buildup, which is a wonderful buffer against any Russian intransigence.
And no American soldiers anywhere near the current battlefields or anywhere near a hypothetical future conflict. Until Western Europe decides that their culture is worth defending, what possible future benefit is there for America to enter a war that is merely a distraction from the real conflict: Islam vs. the West?
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
Good morning kids. Frankly, the less said about a certain celebrity, who along with his wife was brutally slain at the hands of their own son, the better.
Unfortunately President Trump decided to give his opinion about the victim and, despite his not being in the wrong in his opinion, was this really appropriate, or beneficial to him and the MAGA cause, when there are so many other crucial matters that need to be spoken of in the most open and frank manner possible, not offering a personal opinion about a critic in the wake of their horrific death, regardless of how accurate the opinion might be.
Queens Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino is facing a firestorm from Democrats over social media posts she made calling for the “expulsion of Muslims” in the wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack in Australia.
Paladino took down the posts in question after facing outrage from fellow local elected officials, including Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who ripped the comments as Islamophobic.
“We’re in the midst of a global jihad the likes of which the world has never seen, and we cannot ignore it,” Paladino had written on X after 15 people were killed and 40 others injured at a celebration of the Jewish Hannukah holiday on Sunday.
“We need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least the severe sanction of them within western borders,” the posts said, adding that action needed to be taken to prevent “another 9/11 or worse.”
. . . ncoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who is Jewish, said she asked Paladino to take down the post, which had been removed by Monday afternoon.
“Rhetoric that vilifies an entire community only serves to inflame tensions at a moment when New Yorkers must come together to address our shared challenges,” Menin also wrote on X. “This is a time to uplift all communities, not sow divisions.”. . . “It’s been clear for a while that progressives don’t value freedom of speech, but I find it very funny that they’re so apocalyptic about this tweet, while their own social media accounts and those of their leftist allies in the DSA spew some of the most toxic, violent, and anti-American rhetoric on a daily basis,” she said in a statement. “Once again progressives are acting like the PR wing and defense attorneys for radical Islam after a wave of terror attacks, and the West is going to have to deal with this dangerous reality soon enough.”
Well Ms. Menin, have you cracked a copy of the Koran lately? In it you will see not only references to Jews as the descendants of Apes and Pigs but that in order to truly be a follower of Mohammed it is one's duty to kill all Jews and infidels who refuse to submit to Islam. this is what is preached on a daily basis and taught to Muslim children in every mosque and Madrassa on the planet.
My only criticism of Ms. Paladino is that this is the crucial context, beyond the body count in Bondi Beach and elsewhere, that undergirds her very spot on assertion. Islam and its adherents are incompatible with the free and open and dare I say it "diverse" society that Leftists are constantly yammering on about. Of course, they themselves do not want diversity. They use that as the weapon to impose conformity to their will on a truly free society.
Instead of hurling the inflammatory call for expulsion of Muslims, justified though it is, the more effective rhetorical and political weapon would be to call on all Muslims to reject the aspects/teachings/words of the Koran and Islam I tied above. Force them to publicly reject those words, and watch them squirm as they attempt to avoid doing so or otherwise lying about what their teachings are. Public shaming and exposure would be a far more effective than feeding into the Leftist meme of white supremacy/xenophobia/islamophobia etc. Seek out the so-called "Moderate" Muslims and hold some sort of public press event in which you shove this garbage in their face and make them deny it on camera.
"Do you renounce these words?" of course they can't since they are the alleged words of their false god Allah and the pedohile prophet Mohammed. Meh, the concept of Taqqiya, gives them the out they need I guess. But Still. Words do matter but more crucially its what words you use and how you use them in order to get the points across to the public at large.
It's why Vickie Paladino and President Trump need to have someone like a Robert Spencer as an adviser/coach in this issue. Both of them for sure understand what we all do, in the self-evident truth that not all societies are equal and that some indeed are not only inferior but dangerously toxic.
Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec spoke with The Post Millennial's Editor-at-Large Andy Ngo on Monday about recent federal terrorism cases involving far-left extremists, warning that leftist political group violence is escalating and often ignored by the public and downplayed by the media. Posobiec framed the discussion by pointing to recent prosecutions and prior warnings raised during the Trump administration roundtable on far-left violence. “This is another example, Andy, I think, that in this country — and you and I, of course, both participated in President Trump’s roundtable on far-left violence — the left is getting more violent, aren’t they?” Posobiec asked.
Ngo responded by citing multiple recent federal convictions tied to extremist activity. “This allegation from the federal government," Ngo said, referring to the foiled terror attack planned by the Turtle Island Liberation Front, "comes on the heels of at least seven people in Texas being federally convicted for providing material support for terrorists in an Antifa shooting ambush attack that happened on an ICE facility early this year,” Ngo said. He added that in California, “there was another Antifa associate in the Berkeley area who was convicted and sentenced to 19 years for a number of bombings that he carried out on the Cal campus and around it.”
When the institutional Left eventually does finally link up with the organized Islamic terrorists no doubt in our midst, and they probably already have, shit is going to get more real than we had thought possible. It is a nightmare scenario in the making. Plus with the institutional corruption in government, media, the private sector and perhaps at some level in our military, Yikes. I mean Mark Kelly et al were actively fomenting mutiny in the ranks. I don't want to contemplate the consequences to us if his and his evil co-conspirators' poisonous entreaties to evil are taken to heart by even a fraction of our troops. . .
This is bloody revolution, period. Unless the conspirators as well as and most especially their political and financial backers are all rounded up and then publicly executed, we have failed. The rule of law, as we have seen with Donald Trump, the J-6 political prisoners and others is now a farce. The rubicon has been crossed. We cannot restore or begin to restore our society unless the cancer within is excised with extreme prejudice.
It's not pretty, but there it is. I call it as I see it, my friends.
Have a good day.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
The long march through the institutions: From Trotskyist entryism to civilizational conquest of Europe by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Patient Strategy of Entryism
The trial highlights ongoing issues with activist judges, sanctuary state and city officials, and far-left activists who have attempted to interfere with and impede ICE enforcement actions. Democrat Judge on Trial for Blocking Arrest of Illegal Immigrant. (Justice demands disbarment and imprisonment - jjs)
A federal judge, appointed by former President Barack Obama, is refusing to add additional jail time to a criminal sentence for a seven-time deported illegal alien, convicted of raping and sodomizing a woman with cerebral palsy, for his repeated violation of federal immigration law. (The Obamas were supposed to be at the Reiner home just when the son murdered the parens! - jjs) Obama-Appointed Judge Refuses to Give More Jail Time to Illegal Alien Who Raped Woman with Cerebral Palsy
The New York mayor-elect is risking incitement of the same kind of violent confrontations that marred Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas earlier this year. Mamdani’s Anti-ICE Video Courts Chaos
Why is it that now, over the past several decades, we don’t expect the same conformity from our “adopted refugees?” Gaslighted about Somali Refugees
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has established a clear pattern: When confronted with evidence that the Muslim institutions he platforms are deeply hostile to Israel – and often to Jews themselves – he shrugs, smears the messenger, and moves forward anyway. That is precisely what took place this Thanksgiving, when Shapiro was scheduled to participate at an event alongside Muslim Society of Delaware Valley (MSDV) radical imam Basheer Bilaal. Gov. Shapiro Shows Up, Speaks at Radical Imam Thanksgiving
The FBI sat on the January 5-6 pipe bomb case for years, and the media spun conservative suspicions as “conspiracies” rather than acknowledge clear partisan inaction. Delayed Pipe Bomb Arrest Reveals a Partisan Biden FBI (Partisan = complicit - jjs)
There is a full-blown constitutional mess brewing over James Comey, and at the center of it is a Clinton-appointed judge ordering the FBI to destroy key email evidence tied directly to the obstruction case against him. This is not just another technical fight over discovery rules. This is a rogue judge stepping in to shield one of the left’s favorite anti-Trump heroes from accountability. Rogue Judge Orders Destruction of Evidence Against James Comey
“We are devastated to learn of the loss of our Brown College Republicans Vice President, Ella Cook,” College Republicans of America wrote in a Sunday X post. “Ella was known for her bold, brave, and kind heart as she served her chapter and her fellow classmates.” Brown U. Shooting Victim Ella Cook Was ‘Devoted Christian,’ College Republicans VP
“Chief Smith, the commanders testified, was so preoccupied with the statistics of the select crimes that were made public that she incentivized her subordinates to lower those crimes by whatever means necessary.” House Oversight Accuse D.C. Police Chief of Manipulating Crime Data
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is reportedly poised to elevate a deeply controversial figure to one of the most powerful legal posts in his administration. According to the New York Post, Ramzi Kassem—a lawyer who has defended an al Qaeda terrorist and a radical anti-Israel activist at Columbia—is the leading candidate for Chief Counsel. Mamdani Is About to Prove His Administration Will Be Worse Than You Thought
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
Robert Zimmerman: "And yet, buried within the horrors of this past
weekend I stumbled by accident upon a ray of hope. And believe it or
not, that hope comes from one of our most disgraced and for decades most
biased mainstream news outlets, CBS News. It seems that outlet’s new
editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, is attempting to abandon the one-sided,
24/7 leftwing perspective that has dominated that news organization (as
well as all of America’s so-called 'intellectual' culture) for decades.
Instead, she is advocating openness and a willingness to let many
different opinions and ideas be heard. A ray of hope during a weekend of horror
Harris remains a top Democrat contender for 2028, with notable support among black Democrats, as she positions herself for another presidential campaign. Kamala Harris Is Preparing for 2028 Presidential Bid: Dem Insiders. (Her and greaseball Newsom at each other's throats; pass the popcorn! - jjs)
Politico published a story Sunday on Cox and his crusade against Silicon Valley and social media companies. Cox has said he supports a 16-and-under ban on social media use similar to Australia’s; his state is suing Snapchat for its “illicit business practices that are akin to peddling digital nicotine to kids”; and he has signed a slate of anti-tech bills, including legislation that bans cell phones in Utah classrooms. The outlet also reported that he is considering a sin tax on tech, similar to taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Turns Out Teetotaling, Mormon GOP Governor Is A Savage Populist Who Wants To Nuke Big Tech
Concerns have been raised about the potential harm to U.S.-brokered peace efforts, including the Abraham Accords, and the perception of Israel’s actions in the Arab world. (Pfft, it's an illusion so long as Islam exists - jjs) White House Strongly Rebukes Israel for Breaking Gaza Ceasefire.
THE UKRAINIAN "FRONT"
North Korean state media identified the regiment in question as highly trained engineers rather than frontline soldiers, and Kim himself described their area of work being in Kursk, a Russian region that Ukraine counter-invaded last year in an attempt to end Russia’s ongoing hostilities against it. Kim Jong-un Confirms North Koreans Are Dying on Mine-Clearing Duty in Ukraine War
This is not routine repression; it is the death rattle of a collapsing theocracy. Driven to paroxysms of violence by economic implosion, cascading protests, and intensifying global pressure, Tehran is broadcasting panic, not strength. Iran’s Execution Frenzy Reveals Paranoia, Not Power
The extremely slow vote count resumed on Sunday after a new 135 hour-long pause amid accusations of fraud and alleged “interference” from President Donald Trump, levied by the ruling socialist government of President Xiomara Castro. Conservative candidate Nasry Asfura, who received President Trump’s endorsement, remains in the lead at press time. Honduras Still Has No President-Elect Two Weeks After Vote
The order signing came during a Mexican Border Defense Medal Presentation in the Oval Office, after noting, “I’m taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country.” Trump Signs Order Classifying Fentanyl as Weapon of Mass Destruction
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
Nearly 15 years ago, the Democrats’ Unaffordable Care Act broke the American health care system. Since its inception, premium costs have skyrocketed, networks have shrunk, and the system has become bloated, inefficient, and riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse. While Democrats demand that taxpayers write bigger checks to insurance companies to hide the cost of their failed law, House Republicans are tackling the real drivers of health care costs to provide affordable care, increase access and choice, and restore integrity to our nation’s health care system for all Americans. Report: House Republican Healthcare Bill Lowers Obamacare Premiums by 12 Percent, Saves $30 Billion
A bombshell new review from researchers at top-tier universities, appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concludes that “evidence from randomized clinical trials does not support the use of cannabis or cannabinoids for most conditions for which it is promoted, such as acute pain and insomnia.” Shocking medical-marijuana study reveals Big Weed’s big lies
Trump didn’t hold back in a post shared on Truth Social shortly after the actor and his wife were found allegedly murdered Sunday. Their son, Nick Reiner, was reportedly taken into custody in connection with their deaths. (RELATED: Rob Reiner’s Son Reportedly In Police Custody In Apparent Double Homicide Investigation) Internet Explodes After Trump Unleashes On The Late Rob Reiner
The fundamental problems of our society can largely be traced back to the collapse of reproduction rates. Fiat Currency and Declining Births
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
It covers 99% of the DCI-P3 colour space and offers 500 nits of brightness and a 2000:1 contrast ratio. Only 60Hz at full resolution, but if you drop it down to 2560x1440 it can handle 120Hz. HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB-C are on offer for inputs. It nominally offers 10-bit colour but that's through PWM - it's really just a regular 8-bit panel.
All of that stuff is commonplace in semi-professional monitors, so why mention it?
According to the article (I couldn't verify this myself) it's currently discounted to $355 on Amazon.
The article refers to it as a "nuclear device" every single time, trying to play up the danger, citing concerns that it might break down and pollute the pristine waters of... The Ganges.
Anyway, they know exactly where it is. At the top of a mountain. Probably.
Topographic prominence is different than height, and Mt. McKinley is the clear winner in America. Then comes Mauna Kea, which didn't surprise me at all (I thought it was going to be #1), then Mt. Rainier in Washington, although it is rapidly crumbling into insignificance because it no longer has a spine. Then come a bunch of Alaskan peaks nobody has ever heard of, then my personal favorite slides in at #9: Mount Whitney! Mt. Shasta is #11, which is also in my favorites list, mostly because you can see it from miles and miles away. Hell, you can see it from Highway 5!
***
The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits -- a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.
-- Hunter S. Thompson
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
-- W.C. Fields
Fewer men would have turned to stone if Medusa had bigger boobs.
I will be treble-sinewed, -hearted, -breathed, And fight maliciously. For when mine hours Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth And send to darkness all that stop me.
-- William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra, Act 3, Scene 13
This should be the West's mantra. We are in a war for the survival of our culture, and we are losing, even before most of us know that we are in a fight!
Conservatism is, shallowly, the conserving of the old order. It has failed, and our new goal should be a return to the old order of things. And if that means sending frigates to the Barbary Coast, bombers to Iran, and dispatching Polish heavy cavalry to save the day, well, it's not such a bad idea. But we should not do it alone, and if that means that Western Europe surrenders to the hordes, then so be it. If they will not fight for their own existence, we shouldn't either.
This made me laugh. How true it is. I love humor that has more than one meaning too!
******
What the hell is this? And why are children cursing so much funnier than when adults do it? Sure, it's dubbed (I assume) but it still gave me a chuckle, and only Ebenezer Scrooge wouldn't laugh. So...Are YOU Ebenezer Scrooge?
Who? It's classic country, recommended by commenter "Pete Bog," whose musical taste is better than his Paella-making technique.
***
And as long as we are slumming with Pete Bog's musical picks, how about Gabriel the Bull, doing Guardian Angels.
Two bands I have never heard of, but as my BiL in the business tells me, there are tons of absolutely fantastic bands that have not been, and probably never will be discovered.
Of course, the use of dirty words didn’t just differ between nations. According to the study, studies show people drop f-bombs more on social media than blogs and other mediums, especially — and perhaps contrary to popular belief — when conversing with acquaintances rather than close friends.
In fact, swearing was exceedingly rare in circles of fewer than 15 people, no matter how well they knew each other.
I think this study is a mass of bullshit, and nothing more than a make-work project for some under-utilized graduate students who are panicking that they might actually have to work some day.
Besides, they never answered the basic question: Is it "For fuck's sake," or "for fucks' sake?"
Inquiring minds want to know!
******
******
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Candace Owens proves that terrorism works. She's bullied Erika Kirk into a private meeting, in which Candace Owens' demonic evil narcissism won't be exposed to the public, and about which Owens can say whatever she likes.
Erika Kirk
@MrsErikaKirk
Candace Owens and I are meeting for a private, in-person discussion on Monday, December 15. @RealCandaceO and I have agreed that public discussions, livestreams, and tweets are on hold until after this meeting. I look forward to a productive conversation. Thank you.
8:01 PM · Dec 14, 2025
Frank McCormick | Educator
@CBHeresy
Here is how this will play out:
1. They will come to an agreement; one that Candace will not honor, but Erika will be temporarily relieved.
2. Candace will say both she and Erika had a productive conversation and that they "both want justice for Charlie"-- immediately elevating herself to Erika's level.
3. Candace will do a brief pause of her show-- entirely for optics.
4. Eventually she will come back and claim that she has received new information she cannot ignore.
5. When Candace returns to her "investigation," she will argue she is fulfilling the promise she made to Erika during the private conversation to help her seek justice for Charlie.
Everything she does after will be framed as the fulfillment of an agreement- which she will purposefully be vague about under the auspices of "privacy"- she will claim to have made with Erika.
And what will she do if Erika pushes back after this?
A tactic that all of the Nazis are deploying is claiming that they were all great friends with Charlie Kirk and know how much he secretly hated the Jews. After they spent years publicly attacking him, they claim that he was a friend that shared with them his secret Nazi leanings. Now that he's not around to contradict him.
Meanwhile, the diseased pervert Milo is claiming Charlie Kirk paid the "Faggot" -- Tyler Robinson -- to kill him to get away from Erika Kirk.
Yes, this is a "joke," not a serious assertion. (I guess.) But if this "joke" proves popular among the Nazis, I'm pretty sure Milo will endorse it as a serious theory for clicks.
A panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has delayed proceedings in U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's contempt inquiry until 2026, instructing the litigants to opine on the authority of the court to pursue contempt at all.
Boasberg has overseen a challenge involving the Trump administration's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Boasberg had planned contempt hearings this week, though the Department of Justice appealed to the upper court and even moved to boot him from the case altogether.
In the Monday order, the judges set a Jan. 5, 2026 deadline for responses addressing the question of the court's authority to pursue so-called "indirect contempt."
The matter of the actual deportations has already reached the Supreme Court, which permitted the administration to invoke the Alien Enemies Act.
Jake Tapper: I am covering every single Trump "misstep" that I can plausibly claim is due to age-related decline because, um, because I failed to do so under Biden and am now making amends.
The trailer for Andy Serkis' Animal Farm won't help with your book report
The trailer for Andy Serkis' animated adaptation of Animal Farm gets stranger as it goes.
Tucker Qatarlson is now openly engaging in Qatari propaganda.
There was a time when Tucker defenders insisted that there’s no evidence he’s compromised. pic.twitter.com/CchCI4bX0V
Australian PM: In Aftermath of Two ISIS-Connected Pakistanis Shooting Up Hannukah Celebration, We Now Turn to the Real Threat, "Right Wing Extremist Groups" and Guns In the Hands of Native Australians
—Ace
Of course.
The only problematic thing about the latest Muslim slaughter of non-Muslims is the claim that Muslim violence will lead to anti-Muslim backlash.
Many point out that while Australia banned a tennis player from entering the country -- because he wouldn't take the clot shot -- they let in Known Wolf terrorists in no problem.
Not an immediate threat, Australian "anti-terror" police decided.
@emilykschrader
As more information is revealed about the terrorists, the police have confirmed that Naveed was known to the Australian security services for his connections to ISIS, but they did not believe he posed an immediate threat. Reports indicate he and his father were radicalized at their mosque, the Al-Murad Islamic center in Sydney. The police also found explosives in their vehicle and an ISIS flag.
Australia confiscated most civilian guns decades back, and continues to have among the most restrictive gun control laws in the world, but of course it allowed the ISIS-connected Pakistani immigrant Cultural Enrichers to own six guns legally.
BREAKING: The firearms used in the Bondi Beach attack were LEGALLY OWNED firearms.
Australia has some of the most strict gun control laws in the world, and yet it did NOTHING to stop these two third worlders.
Antifa-Style Pro-Palestinian Terrorist Group Arrested, Stopped from Planned New Years Even Attacks in LA
—Ace
Attorney General Pamela Bondi
@AGPamBondi
After an intense investigation, the Department of Justice, working with our @FBI
, prevented what would have been a massive and horrific terror plot in the Central District of California (Orange County and Los Angeles).
The Turtle Island Liberation Front--a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group--was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year's Eve. The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.
This was an incredible effort by our U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the @FBI
to ensure Americans can live in peace. We will continue to pursue these terror groups and bring them to justice.
Gunther Eagleman
@GuntherEagleman
🚨 BREAKING: FBI just held a press conference announcing they FOILED a massive New Year's Eve terror bombing plot in Southern California by far-left radicals!
The four arrested "Turtle Island Liberation Front" (TILF) members -- all from the LA area:
- Audrey Caroll, 30 (leader who organized the even more extreme "Order of the Black Lotus" faction)
- Zachary Aaron Page, 32
- Donte Gaffield, 24
- Tina Le, 41
They were caught red-handed in the Mojave Desert last Friday unloading bomb-making materials to assemble and test IEDs.
Plot details from the complaint:
- Planned to bomb 5+ locations in LA/Orange County on NYE
- Explicitly called it a "terrorist act"
- Follow-up attacks targeting ICE agents/vehicles with pipe bombs to "take some of them out and scare the rest"
- Found "Death to America," "Long live Turtle Island and Palestine," and "Death to ICE" posters in their homes
The media will probably bury this because it's not the "narrative" they want... but THIS is domestic FAR LEFT terrorism.
FBI stops planned New Year's Eve Los Angeles bombing by 'anti-capitalist,' anti-ICE terror cell
WASHINGTON -- The FBI arrested five members of an "anti-capitalist, anti-government" extremist group on Friday and charged them with an alleged plot to carry out coordinated bombings in and around Los Angeles on New Year's Eve, according to officials and a criminal complaint.
The "credible, imminent terrorist threat" to five unidentified companies' logistics centers in Southern California came from radical members of an offshoot of the left-wing Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF), FBI Director Kash Patel and other law enforcement officials revealed Monday.
The splinter group called themselves the Order of the Black Lotus and passed along an "eight-page, handwritten document titled 'OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN'" that laid out the bombing plot to a confidential FBI source, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday in Los Angeles federal court.
Four of the suspects were collared in Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert, where they were captured on video attempting to test improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Los Angeles first assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli told reporters at a news conference.
The arrests were first reported by Fox News.
The quartet -- Audrey Ilene Carroll, 30; Zachary Aaron Page, 32; Dante Gaffield, 24; and Tina Lai, 41 -- have been charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device. A fifth unidentified suspect was arrested in New Orleans while planning a separate attack.
Carroll and Page led the group and convened a private Signal chat where they used codenames, with Carroll identified as "Asiginaak," Page identified as "Ash Kerrigan" or "cthulu's daughter," Gaffield as "Nomad" and Lai as "Kickwhere."
The group had begun assembling the "complex pipe bombs" with "homemade gunpowder" in the desert when FBI agents arrested them on Dec. 12.
"Carroll's bomb plot was explicit," Essayli said. "It included step-by step instructions to build IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, and listed multiple targets across Orange County and Los Angeles. Carroll also made clear her desires. She said, 'What we are doing will be considered a terrorist act.'"
The sophisticated criminal scheme involved each participant wearing so-called "BlacBloc" clothing, using burner phones, wearing gloves, concealing their hair, paying for black powder pipe bomb materials in cash and even "placing a small pebble in a shoe to alter natural gait to obfuscate their identification," the complaint stated.
The “Turtle Island Liberation Front” is an antifa-style far-left domestic terror group. Their social media propaganda repeatedly calls for violence. pic.twitter.com/66i0c9xmpa
🚨 BREAKING: FBI just held a press conference announcing they FOILED a massive New Year's Eve terror bombing plot in Southern California by far-left radicals!
The four arrested "Turtle Island Liberation Front" (TILF) members — all from the LA area:
House Report: DC Police Chief Demanded Cops Falisify Crime Records to Cook the Stats "By Any Means Necessary"
—Ace
Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
🚨 BREAKING: A JAW-DROPPING report from the House just confirmed the left-wing D.C. police chief FALSIFIED crime statistics, "cooking the books" to make the city seem MUCH safer than it was.
- Chief Smith PUNISHED and RETLIATED if they tried to report rising crime data, BERATING them
- Chief Pam Smith PRESSURED commanders to lower crime stats "by any means necessary"
- Chief Smith pushed for lesser-pursued charges EVEN for serious crimes
- Required certain crimes to be reviewed by her office
🚨 BREAKING: A JAW-DROPPING report from the House just confirmed the left-wing D.C. police chief FALSIFIED crime statistics, "cooking the books" to make the city seem MUCH safer than it was.
- Chief Smith PUNISHED and RETLIATED if they tried to report rising crime data,… pic.twitter.com/5SKtDCi3fK
I'm going to post very lightly today. Either I have a fever, or, more likely, this alleged fat burning supplement I just started taking is playing havoc with me.
Charles Grassley: New Evidence Proves Obama Stopped FBI Agents from Investigating the Clinton Foundation
—Ace
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_
2h
BREAKING: Just-declassified FBI docs reveal that Andrew McCabe throttled the investigation of the Clinton Foundation in 2016, denying field agents evidence from Weiner laptop. HQ warned: "[Avoid creating] any impression we are investigating the Clinton Foundation or the Clintons"
Bruce Forman
@Brucenewsreview
5h
NEW🚨: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released a detailed FBI investigative timeline to Just the News this weekend, documenting repeated political obstructions faced by agents probing potential pay-to-play corruption in Hillary Clinton's family foundation from 2016 through early 2020.
The newly disclosed records, provided by FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, reveal agents' frustrations with barriers from FBI headquarters and the Justice Department, including orders from then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to halt overt steps without his approval and demands from then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to "shut it down."
The timeline highlights early 2016 directives limiting investigations across New York, Little Rock, and Washington field offices, despite evidence of foreign donations potentially influencing State Department actions during Clinton's tenure.
It extends beyond a shorter 2017 timeline, showing post-election delays, statute of limitations concerns raised by DOJ officials, and reluctance from U.S. attorneys to pursue leads, even after Trump administration encouragement.
Grassley stated: "The mainstream media smeared any investigation into Hillary Clinton as unfounded nonsense, but in reality, line agents and federal prosecutors seeking to follow up on legitimate leads were sidelined by partisan leadership looking to save Clinton's reputation. That's a night-and-day departure from how the Biden Justice Department handled the Arctic Frost investigation against President Trump."
The documents underscore agents' reports of being told "NO" by FBI HQ when attempting to expand probes, including interviews with Clinton aides like Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, which were never authorized.
Special Counsel John Durham previously contrasted this cautious approach with the rapid full investigation into Trump's campaign, noting the Clinton inquiries were hampered despite predication based on source reporting of foreign contributions for favorable treatment.
Department of Justice (DOJ) records provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offer a behind-the-scenes look at how top leadership during the Obama-Biden administration repeatedly interfered to prevent DOJ prosecutors and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents from investigating the Clinton Foundation's financial dealings.
"The mainstream media smeared any investigation into Hillary Clinton as unfounded nonsense, but in reality, line agents and federal prosecutors seeking to follow up on legitimate leads were sidelined by partisan leadership looking to save Clinton's reputation. That's a night-and-day departure from how the Biden Justice Department handled the Arctic Frost investigation against President Trump," Grassley said. "For too long, our Justice Department has chosen winners and losers instead of enforcing the law without regard to power, party or privilege. That must never happen again. I thank Attorney General Bondi and Director Patel for turning over these records, so the American people finally know how their Justice Department failed in the Clinton investigations."
The records, including internal emails and an investigatory timeline, were provided to Grassley in response to his oversight request and whistleblower allegations. Per the records:
On July 20, 2016--111 days before the 2016 election--an agent with the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division ordered that, "based on the sensitivities surrounding the Clinton Foundation," agents were prohibited from issuing subpoenas, conducting interviews or sharing information related to the case with other offices so as to avoid "[creating] any impression we are investigating the Clinton Foundation or the Clintons."
In November 2016, FBI Headquarters, while under the leadership of then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, stepped in to block the Clinton Foundation investigative team from accessing potentially incriminating evidence located on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the husband of Hillary Clinton's political aide, Huma Abedin. McCabe, among others, recommended the information instead be routed to the FBI's "Midyear" investigative team.
After the investigation was reopened in 2017, Main Justice holdovers from the previous administration allegedly provided prosecutors in the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas (EDAR) with documents that omitted information regarding DOJ and FBI leadership's interference. Additional requests the EDAR made to the FBI in 2018 "ruffled some feathers" and didn't result in a response.
An EDAR prosecutor concluded "there appear to be conflicts of interest for the leadership [at Main Justice, including the Public Integrity Section,] related to the 2016 [Clinton] investigations that undermine any confidence we might normally have in looking to them for assistance."
Police have arrested Nick Reiner, the son of Rob Reiner, on a charge of murder following the death of the acclaimed Hollywood director and his wife, Michele Singer.
Nick Reiner, a 32-year-old screenwriter and the middle child of Rob Reiner and Singer, was taken into custody on Sunday, Dec. 14, and booked on Monday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department records reviewed by USA TODAY. He is being held on $4 million bail.
...
Reiner has been the most forward-facing of the Reiner siblings. The writer has opened up extensively about his battles with drug addiction as well as homelessness, telling People in a 2016 interview that his struggles began as a teen.
He told the magazine he made his first visit to rehab at 15, and would return 17 times. His 2015 film "Being Charlie," which he cowrote, is loosely based on the experience. His dad directed the film.
Trump unfortunately posted on social media, which is always an adventure, and often a bad one. Trump essentially claimed that Rob Reiner's "Trump Derangement System" infected people around him and caused his own murder.
This is very, very similar to deranged left-wingers claiming that Charlie Kirk essentially murdered himself by supporting gun rights, or by pumping "hate" out into the world. Amanda Seyfried -- a fading actress who will fade still more -- made that claim.
Hollywood actress Amanda Seyfried has decided to make the stunning and brave choice of weighing in on Charlie Kirk’s assassination by essentially saying he was asking for it.
Amanda Seyfried is "not f--king apologizing" for her comments on Charlie Kirk after his shocking murder.
"I mean, for f--ks sake, I commented on one thing. I said something that was based on actual reality and actual footage and actual quotes," Seyfried, 40, told Who What Wear in an interview published on Wednesday.
"What I said was pretty damn factual, and I'm free to have an opinion, of course."
Yes, one can offer a defense of Trump that the left has been doing this for three months with Charlie Kirk. But... in that case, what are we complaining about ourselves? If we support this kind of thing, then we can really have no objection to Amanda Seyfried or a hundred thousand other poisonous leftist murder cultists.
It sure would be nice if Trump would think once and a while instead of immediately jumping on Truth Social to show his ass.
For his part, despite how wretched Rob Reiner's politics are, and his Trump derangement (yes, he was in fact Trump deranged and I think he even conceded as much), he did not descend to Seyfried's level after Kirk's murder.
I disagreed with nearly everything Rob Reiner believed politically, but I won’t celebrate his death.
Obviously, this view was not universally shared on the left:
Worth noting 🚨
Even though the 77.3M Americans who voted for Trump, didn't care for the way Rob Reiner talked about Trump on X
One thing you won't see us doing is, celebrating the way he and his wife were murdered by their own son, like Lucy Martinez did about Charlie Kirk pic.twitter.com/C4ErQNT0pN
THE MORNING RANT: “Financialization of All the Things” is Parasitism, not Capitalism
—Buck Throckmorton
Friend-of-the-blog Alexandria Brown offered up a recent X/tweet addressing the financialization of, well, everything in business and commerce, and how it should be viewed in relation to the ideal of capitalism. Specifically, Alex wrote: ”Here's a fun question to which I have not made up my mind even a little bit: is the financialization of All The Things a form of capitalism which is at least tolerable or is it so reductive of human life and endeavors as to be past a limitation on acceptable commercial behavior?”
Those of us who advocate for free markets understand that capitalism also presents an opportunity for bad actors to misbehave within the system. Be it 20th century snake oil salesmen peddling patent medicines, or 21st century Wall Street investment bankers selling pools of subprime mortgages as high-quality securities, there have always been bad actors exploiting the opportunities within a free market.
But just because we conservatives endorse capitalism doesn’t mean we must endorse – or even tolerate - the worst practices that occur therein.
In my opinion, the “financialization-of-all-the-things” is a form of parasitism that does not create wealth, rather it serves to extract the accumulated wealth from entities where wealth has previously been created. Those engaging in “financialism” are the corporate world’s version of tapeworms and ticks.
If you have been reading my essays on corporations treating employees as a pestilence and customers as prey, I am unambiguous in my revulsion at the management strategy of using financial manipulations to provide short-term gains, irrespective of long-term damage to the enterprise.
In one recent piece I discussed the mess MGM Resorts and Panera Bread have found themselves in, with both having to apologize for bad corporate behavior. They are now trying to win back disaffected customers after employing the modern management gimmicks of:
• Revenue-mining customers with new and outrageous charges that produced a short-term boost in sales.
• Slashing headcount and customer service to reduce labor expense, giving a short-term boost to operating profit.
• Cheapening their product with reductions in quality and/or size, producing a short-term boost in gross profit.
But in every case, these actions tell customers that rather than being valued, the corporation sees customers as marks to be exploited. A great many customers may get hoodwinked once, providing the short-term profit boost that was being sought, but then never come back, thus destroying the company’s long-term prospects. A downward spiral of alienated customers, declining revenue, deteriorating facilities, and degraded reputation ensues.
These business practices were parasitic. The future cash flow of the loyal customers of MGM and Panera were represented in how those businesses were valued, be it the goodwill asset on the balance sheet or the market capitalization of the stock. But the fallout from those practices devalued the worth of MGM and Panera. When the dust settled from all the financial gimmickry and lost customers, the end result was little different than if those companies’ executives had simply pulled equity out of their companies.
Another recent essay of mine, “Sherwin Williams Eliminates 401k Match Amidst Stock Buybacks and Increased CEO Compensation,” discussed an even more stark example of how financialization is a form of parasitism. To conserve $165 million in cash, Sherwin Williams suspended its 401(k) match for employees, but this was right as it was also flushing away about $900 million in cash for stock buybacks, for the purpose of propping up the stock price. Coincidentally, much of the compensation of Sherwin executives is based on stock price and in the form of stock bonuses.
A stock repurchase is a very simple act of distributing the existing wealth of a corporation. Cash is depleted to buy back stock, and the company’s capitalization decreases accordingly. The money might otherwise be used for capital improvements, debt reduction, etc., but Sherwin executives decided to use the company’s capital to try to enrich themselves.
[Disclaimer - there are valid circumstances when it makes good sense for a cash-flush corporation to engage in stock buybacks, but a company that is eliminating its employees’ 401(k) match to conserve cash is not one of them.]
Sadly, the financial practices of executives at Sherwin Williams, Panera Bread, and MGM Resorts are not isolated. They are emblematic of a prevailing management philosophy that is being learned at elite business schools.
The world of private equity has even more abuses, with takeover targets such as Joann Fabrics getting loaded with debt to enrich their acquirers, with all the above-mentioned financial gimmickry then applied. This often leads to bankruptcy and dissolution of the company, as happened to Joann.
Companies will necessarily fail in the “creative destruction” of capitalism. But strip mining a company of its assets and loading it up with debt isn’t creative destruction, it’s parasitic destruction.
Those of us who support free market capitalism must not be afraid to condemn those who harm its reputation. Just as I can advocate for hunting while simultaneously condemning poachers, I can also advocate for capitalism while condemning those who enrich themselves by engaging in parasitic “financialism.”
Financialization of all things strikes me as a form of parasitism, effectively serving to extract accumulated wealth. While equity may not be distributed, an org’s equity and goodwill is depleted by financial machinations that bring s/t profit gain & long term loss of customers.
Good morning kids. I'm absolutely sick to my stomach over the Bondi Beach massacre. That was horrible enough but the callous indifference of much of the world and in some circles the glee at yet more Jewish blood being spilled is the twisting of the knife. Coming as it does at the beginning of Chanukah, the festival of lights commemorating a miracle of God bestowed upon the Jewish people and representative of their victory over the literal and figurative forces of darkness millennia ago, is typical of how Muslims who plan, execute and the majority who don't but nevertheless celebrate them.
Civilizational erasure, as it relates to Europe, has been in the news lately, with the renewed and scaled up predations of Islam once again commanding center stage.
Islam’s resurgence has been a full century in the making, enabled in large part by Western ignorance and enforced taboos against discussing Islam’s highly relevant 1,400-year history of mass bloodshed and conquest.
Indeed, that history is whitewashed by Western academics, whether pseudo-historians like the late Edward Said or execrable and ahistorical oikophobes like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. Wikipedia, Google, and artificial intelligence also play outsized roles in the academic and historical whitewash. . .
. . . Many Christmas markets in Europe are now closed due to “uncontrolled vehicles” and related Islamist threats while church bells and caroling fall silent in order to avoid offending Muslims. Meanwhile, the Muslim muezzin sounds triumphantly throughout Western Europe and even in American cities of the Upper Midwest. Islamic supremacism is on the march, its triumphalism augmented by its alliance with Western progressives who denounce any reminders of Christianity, including celebrations of Christmas. Burn a Koran or post a meme mocking Islam, and go to prison for a hate crime. Burn a Bible, and hey, you’re bravely speaking truth to power. Citizens of the West all know the drill by now. Will the governments of the Anglosphere learn their lesson from the Western European canary that dropped dead in the coal mine? Events in locales as varied as Minnesota and the United Kingdom (it appears as if all of Albion is bent over and grabbing its ankles, undergoing a government cavity search) suggest that the answer is probably no. To paraphrase the otherwise cartoonish James Carville, it’s the demography, stupid.
Dem House Candidate Offers Condolences to Australia’s Jewish Community —Only To Delete the Statement and Replace It With a Message That Omits Jews.. Pennsylvania's Bob Brooks, a former firefighter who started a lawn care business, has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna, among others
Members of the ‘devil’s party’ don’t create: they take what someone else made, and invert it.
Understand that simple reality and you will understand the macro and the micro struggles all around us. When Muslim terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into buildings, they weren’t creating anything, but they also weren’t just destroying things, they were inverting them.
What evil does isn’t mindless destruction, that’s savagery, instead evil takes the building blocks of civilization, physical, spiritual, intellectual or moral, and turns them inside out whether these building blocks are governments, universities or ideas so that they become tools of destruction.
Representative governments become unrepresentative. Educational systems inculcate ignorance. The infrastructure of civilian life, buses, planes, trucks, become weapons. And the infrastructure of ideas and morality are inverted the same way to become their opposites.
Ideological inversion is everywhere and it’s the dominant form of political discourse.
Brooks et al are Democrat/Leftists. This is who and what they are. And so, to obtain and maintain power, they'll stay silent or otherwise nod and a wink if not give a standing ovation when Jews are slaughtered, so as not to alienate if not to ingratiate themselves to Muslims and fellow anti-Semites who vote them into office.
On that cold shot of reality, I do want to wish my fellow Jews and all of you a Happy Hanukkah in spite of the horror over the weekend and take comfort in that the lights of the season should and must inspire our faith that we will ultimately be delivered from darkness and that the evil we face will be defeated.
May the Lord bless the memories of the victims, comfort their loved ones and keep all of you safe as the Christmas season begins.
Have a good day.
On a personal note, a shout out to commenter AVIATOR, for your advice and insights, they're most helpful. I'll reach out to you a little later and many thanks again.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
The attack, the deadliest in nearly three decades in Australia, has sparked worldwide condemnation and calls for increased security and action against rising antisemitism. 11 Dead in Anti-Semitic Sydney Terror Shooting.
At the time of the shooting, hundreds had gathered at Bondi Beach to celebrate the start of Hanukkah in an area known as Chanukah by the Sea, PBS reported. Emergency services began responding to Campbell Parade in Bondi around 6:45 p.m. local time after reports of shots being fired, according to The Associated Press. Twelve Killed In Shooting Targeting Jewish Community At Australia’s Bondi Beach, Police Say
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese failed to heed multiple warnings about the rising tide of hate — including from human-rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky (himself wounded Sunday), who spoke out Dec. 1 after graffiti reading “F–k Zionist Israel,” and “Israel has blood on their hands,” appeared on Bondi Beach overnight. And Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu wrote Albanese months ago, thundering that his call to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire” and “emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.” Australia’s government failed its Jews in the long runup to Bondi Beach attack
Antisemitic attacks in Australia have reportedly been rising, with the worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years occurring Saturday. A video previously posted by the Australian Jewish Association on Oct. 9, 2023 shows a large group of people waving various Palestinian flags and chanting obscenities against Jews from the steps of Sydney’s Opera House. FLASHBACK: Islamists Gathered To Chant ‘F*ck The Jews’ After Oct. 7 Just Minutes From Beach Shooting Site
According to the Bild newspaper, three Moroccans aged 22, 28, and 30 were arrested alongside a 37-year-old Syrian and a 56-year-old Egyptian suspected of planning to use a vehicle to attack people at a Christmas market in the town of Dingolfing. Germany: Five Arrested over Alleged Islamist Terror Plot Against Christmas Market
David Harsanyi: During this week’s oral arguments in Trump v. Slaughter, Justice Sonia Sotomayor threatened America with a good time — warning that the administration is “asking us to destroy the structure of government.” Great. It’s about time an unaccountable fourth branch of the state was decimated. The left flaunts its hypocrisy as Supreme Court curbs bureaucrats’ power
Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s critics cry “affordability,” but voters remember who sparked the price surge—and who’s now trying to clean it up. It’s Affordability, Stupid?
Affordability has suddenly become the centerpiece of Democrat messaging. But leftist policies make everything more expensive. The Myth of Affordability
Col. Oscar Perez, Providence police chief, said at a news conference that the detained suspect was in their 30s, WJAR reported. Authorities are not currently searching for anyone else. Suspect In Brown University Shooting In Custody
After decades of climate panic, the left quietly abandoned the weather—proof its causes shift not with science or facts, but with whatever outrage best sustains power, protest, and cultural revolt. What Happened to the Climate Change Cult?
While Europe freezes under net-zero dogma, Norway drills, profits, and keeps the lights on—funding EV virtue with oil and gas while the EU chooses ideology over arithmetic. Norway Avoids ‘Green’ Energy Quicksand
Despite holding a supermajority in the upper chamber, 21 of the Senate’s 40 Republican senators joined Democrats in defeating the proposed map (31-19). The measure had previously cleared the state House (57-41) last week. Indiana’s Redistricting Surrender Illustrates Why Primaries Matter
"Occupy cast a long shadow over left-wing politics... A great deal of the party’s intellectual leadership is embarrassed by cultural radicalism... The best predictor of support for Mamdani was the recency of one’s arrival in the city.” Mamdani and the Future of the Left
Roger Kimball: Aristotle gave virtue its theory; Trump gives it blunt instruction—common sense, hard work, and perseverance—an unscholarly ethics that nonetheless meets the moment. Trumpomachean Ethics
A congressional China panel warns Beijing’s global repression now reaches U.S. soil, urging tougher action as trade diplomacy collides with human rights, security, and American sovereignty. China Commission Urges Action on Transnational Repression
Donald Trump outplays Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, Putin... not to mention his own domestic critics. The Trump Doctrine
Trump’s National Security Strategy ditches diplomatic niceties, calling out Europe’s ruling class for decline, cowardice, and surrender—while Washington shows more backbone than Europe’s own leaders. Trump Is Right to Lambaste Europe
State-sanctioned euthanasia not only pressures patients to choose suicide, but also inevitably ends in health care systems forcing suicide on patients. Pritzker Signs Law Welcoming State-Sanctioned Suicide To Illinois (even if thousands of Dems off themselves, they'll still bevotng Democrat rom the grave, forever! - jjs)
ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY
...it has been competition and freedom that has made all the difference. Before, all rockets were owned or controlled by government monopolies, which limited risk or creativity and kept costs high. Now, they are owned and controlled by private companies, who are incentivized by competition to lower costs and attract as many new customers as possible. Even in communist China this concept has been used (under tight government supervision) to achieve the same ends. The two American launches today set a new global annual launch record
exceeding 300+
The star in the center is an ancient red giant that is in the initial stages of dying. As it does so it periodically erupts, sending out jets of material from its poles. The result is this elongated shape. The beginnings of a planetary nebula
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Nihilism’s vacuum is driving young Americans toward toxic surrogate faiths, and only a Church grounded in spiritual duty—not political obsessions—can offer the meaning they’re seeking. Nihilism, Anti-Zionism, and the Church’s Ongoing Failure
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
I mean, it costs close to $1000 for the bare unit (with 128GB of storage - basically an OS boot disk) for a device with five 3.5" bays and three M.2 slots. But it has 10Gb and 5Gb Ethernet ports, two USB4 ports, Oculink, and a PCIe x16 slot for expansion.
And a twelve-core Ryzen 370, so this is not merely a NAS but a very capable PC with a lot more storage and networking options that you typically find in small pre-built systems.
I'm not about to buy one, though, because I have plenty of mini-PCs and plenty of multi-bay external storage units. And that little Beelink NAS too.
Sunday Overnight Open Thread - December 14, 2025 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday night ONT. Cold and snowy in my neck of the woods today. How about yours? How's the holiday season coming along for you? What's on your mind tonight? Check out the content, then jump on in to the gray boxes.
"I'm Big Joe. 58. Long-haul trucker.
Been driving 18-wheelers for 34 years. Sleep in my cab. Eat at truck stops. Talk on CB radio to stay awake.
Lonely job. But someone's gotta move America's stuff.
Two years ago, I'm driving through Nebraska. 2 a.m. See a car pulled over. Hazards on.
Woman standing outside. Looking scared.
I pulled over. She backed away when she saw me. I'm 6'4", 280 pounds, covered in tattoos. I get it.
"Ma'am, I'm not stopping to hurt you. I'm stopping to help. What's wrong?"
Her car died. Phone dead. She'd been there three hours. Nobody stopped.
"Where you headed?"
"Hospital. Omaha. My daughter's in emergency surgery. I have to get there."
No hesitation. "Get in. I'll take you."
"In your truck?"
"Safest vehicle on this highway."
She hesitated. Then got in.
***
Started a code. "Code Angel" we call it. When truckers see someone broken down, stranded, in trouble, we stop. We help.
Word spread. Truckers across the country joined.
Last year, we helped 1,200 people. Dead batteries. Out of gas. Medical emergencies. Domestic violence victims escaping. Runaways needing safe transport to shelters.
We've got a network now. Truckers, CB radio, truck stops. Someone needs help? We mobilize.
***
So tomorrow, if you break down, if you're stranded, if you're running from something bad,
Look for the trucks. We're watching. We're listening.
We might look rough. But we'll get you home.
Because the highway doesn't have to be lonely.
Not when 4,000 truckers refuse to drive past people in trouble."
Bravo, Big Joe - and all of you other truckers out there. Please check out the whole thing and share this story.
Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees.
$30 per seat per month.
$1.4 million annually.
I called it "digital transformation."
The board loved that phrase.
They approved it in eleven minutes.
No one asked what it would actually do.
Including me.
I told everyone it would "10x productivity."
That's not a real number.
But it sounds like one.
HR asked how we'd measure the 10x.
I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards."
They stopped asking.
***
The CFO asked about ROI.
I showed him a graph.
The graph went up and to the right.
It measured "AI enablement."
I made that metric up.
He nodded approvingly.
We're "AI-enabled" now.
I don't know what that means.
But it's in our investor deck.
***
Adoption means mandatory training.
Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches.
But completion will be tracked.
Completion is a metric.
Metrics go in dashboards.
Dashboards go in board presentations.
Board presentations get me promoted.
I'll be SVP by Q3.
I still don't know what Copilot does.
But I know what it's for.
It's for showing we're "investing in AI."
AI adoption is the latest way to virtue signal. By asshoes.
It's that time of the week - when we turn the ONT over to our good friend Piper for a bit. Here's this week's fashion pr0n.
------
Ho Ho Holy Mother of Pearl, Look at These Sweaters
Last night was the Ace of Spades HQ Club ONT Christmas party, and your faithful friend here sacrificed her retinas for you. All for you. The theme this year was apparently "You will have colored lights and you will like it!” And oh boy, they were everywhere. I arrived, as would be expected, in unimpeachable couture while surrounded by... whatever the opposite of that is.
Let us begin.
• AOP: He arrived wearing what he described as "my dress sweater" which featured Santa Claus riding a unicorn while shooting guns made of candy canes. The unicorn had googly eyes. Actual googly eyes that moved when he walked.
• Bezerker: Wore a 3D felt Christmas tree sweater with battery-powered fairy lights that pulsed like a seizure in fabric form. He kept yelling “I’m a tree, hug me!” while sequins rained off him like dandruff from a disco ball. One of the bulbs shorted out mid-evening and started smoking.
• CBD: A hand-knitted abomination that appeared to be Santa Claus wrestling Krampus while riding a flamingo. The flamingo had LED eyes that changed color every time someone said the word “eggnog.” By 10 p.m. the flamingo was strobing demonic red and CBD was yelling into the cheese tray he doesn’t even celebrate Christmas.
• Doof: A sweater with red and green stripes that somehow managed to clash with each other, paired with a light-up Rudolph nose that blinked in Morse code (I believe it was spelling out "RUSH"). He claimed it was vintage. I countered that "vintage" is not a synonym for "crime against humanity."
• J.J. Sefton: Showed up in a sweater that was 50% menorah, 50% Christmas tree, 100% war crime. It lit up to spell “OY TO THE WORLD” in alternating Hebrew and English. He claimed it was “inclusive.”
• Scampydog: I am honestly traumatized. I hope you never get the pine tree sap out of…I just can’t.
• Perfessor Squirrel: A sweater depicting cats in Santa hats playing poker, their little 3D paws were posed holding tiny felt cards with pantless ladies on them. He kept insisting it was “kitsch”. I needed three more champagnes.
• Buck Throckmorton: Wore a sweater that simply said “NAUGHTY” in glitter script across the chest, except half the glitter had fallen off so it read “AUG T”. He spent the entire night telling people it was performance art about the price of metals.
• T-Rex: A bright red sweater depicting a T-Rex trying to wrap presents. “It’s ironic”, he explained.
• Tonypete: A tasteful black turtleneck… underneath a light-up sweater vest of snowmen doing unspeakable things to each other with candy canes. When confronted, he just said “HEYoooooo”.
• MisHum: A sweater with a giant QR code on the front. When you scanned it, it rickrolled you to Frank Zappa’s Merry Christmas album.
• Nurse R: Arrived in a sweater that looked perfectly normal from the front (classic Fair Isle). From the back: a full-sized embroidered Nicolas Cage as Santa screaming “MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU FILTHY ANIMALS.”
• JQ: A sweater covered in tiny multi color sequined felt hats. She looked like she had been attacked by a Bedazzler-wielding toddler who had recently discovered caffeine.
• Ace: A fractal reindeer sweater. Reindeer wearing sweater wearing reindeer wearing sweater, ad infinitum. He paired it with corduroy pants the color of despair and announced, “This is my formal holiday look.” I have never respected and feared a man more.
The pièce de résistance of the entire evening was when someone (I refuse to name names but his initials are Tankdemon) started an ugly sweater contest late. The voting was done by applause. There was a three-way tie for first place because everyone was too drunk to count properly. Democracy is dead.
Merry Christmas, you magnificent degenerates. Never change. Except your sweaters. Dear heavens, please change your sweaters.
------
Thanks, Piper! Great time at the party last night. Special thanks to Club regular and bartender JQ for these lights she found for each of the 3 D's.
Many thanks to my fellow Club ONT hosts Dino and Doggo for their efforts with the Club! Not just last night, but week in and week out -- you guys are the best!
***
DJ Doof - Guess The Theme
Difficulty level 3 out of 5
What's the common thread / common meaning / common leitmotif?
***
Weekly commenter stats for week of 12-14-2025
AoSHQ Commenter Statistics:
Number of posts: 96
Number of comments: 24178
Number of unique hashes: 1826
Top 10 commenters:
1 [554 comments] 'Bulg' [78.68 posts/day]
2 [457 comments] 'jim (in Kalifornia)'
3 [437 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, seeing life through the shadows with Otto Preminger'
4 [380 comments] 'whig'
5 [378 comments] 'Sponge - F*ck Cancer'
6 [350 comments] 'Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ '
7 [335 comments] 'Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere '
8 [291 comments] 'Skip '
9 [280 comments] 'runner'
10 [269 comments] 'Tom Servo'
Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [254 names] 'Macedonian Content Farmer Alliance' [36.07 unique names/day]
2 [107 names] 'It's just another scam'
3 [79 names] 'Quarter Twenty '
4 [46 names] 'Count de Monet'
5 [37 names] 'Duncanthrax'
6 [36 names] 'The Grateful - Acta Non Verba'
7 [35 names] 'Karen Muddlumps, democrat scold and do gooder'
8 [29 names] 'pookysgirl, Mama Bear Extraordinaire'
9 [29 names] 'Miklos has land mines under his lawn'
10 [28 names] 'mindful webworker - it's all relatives'
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Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the Second December Edition? Only 11 Days until Christmas! Have you done all of your shopping for shooting stuff or are there still some things on your list? Do tell.
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
OK, you win. Good marksmanship isn't the result of hard work, diligent practice and a focus on fundamentals. You've worn me down and I am now prepared to share the one weird trick that allows you to skip all the hard work and achieve instant and easy results. It's quite simple really, and frankly I am a little surprised you haven't figured it out already, so here it is.
Magic Beans or Shooting Crystals
That's right people. Rabbit's feet don't work. You have to source magic beans or shooting crystals and keep one or two in your pocket at the range and you're instantly a master marksman. Crazy huh? So much quicker and easier than working logically and methodically towards a goal over time and measuring progress along the way.
That's what you fundamentals deniers want, right? A quick and easy fix which allows instant gratification, or am I mistaken here?
Unfortunately, Magic Beans and Shooting Crystals aren't always easy to find, so you may have to do it the old fashioned way. If you find yourself in this position, here is a video on managing flinch and fixing bad habits.
There isn't an easy way, people. It's hard work, diligent practice and focusing on fundamentals.
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M1917 Masterclass
An excellent tutorial for anyone with a Smith & Wesson revolver.
Did you learn anything?
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$15 Gun
Heck, for $15 I'll take two.
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Christmas Decorations
11 days to Christmas, people. Have you decorated your house? Please tell me you aren't just throwing up a half-assed string of lights again this year.
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Too much? Too much you say? Well how about a nice simple train set set up around the tree?
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Our Pal The Perfect Circle Piston Ring
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Ax Weasel
Q: Weasel, are manners important?
A: Why yes, yes they are.
Well, what can I say about an old standby? There is a reason it is an old standby which I'll discuss in a moment.
But first the cigar. The Romeo y Julieta was one of the original Cuban cigars, and politics being what they are, what we see (and buy) today is produced now in the Dominican Republic. It offers a blend of tobaccos that produces a medium to full-bodied, and full-flavored profile. It does this well! I often speak of cigars in thirds, and the first third lets you know you are smoking a good cigar. It gets your attention. The wrapper and binder are Nicaraguan leaf, with a filler mixture of Nicaraguan and Honduran tobaccos. The flavor is rich and robust, with earthy undertones and a smooth tobacco aftertaste. The second third mellows out into a fine aroma and smooth smoke. Towards the end, a peppery sweetness lingers after each puff, thanks to the thick wrapper. And I like this as it blends well with any worthy scotch or bourbon. But if you like wine with your cigars (I won't judge) go with a merlot, or a lighter cab if you can find one.
90 rating by the guy who rates things. I concur.
Standby cigars always have room in my humidor. In this last week as the rains fell here in Western Washington and I watched the rivers rise, I didn't think it was time for new or different cigar. This was a time to pull out an old reliable and face the tempest with confidence. And so I did.
At about $6-8 a pop not a wallet buster but look for sales. You can find them.
Excellent, Diogenes! Thank you very much!
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Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Food Thread: The Unbearable Heaviness Of A Bad Yorkshire Pudding
—CBD
Nothing special about that pint, except for its deliciousness and its novelty. I had never seen their cask ale before!
Well, the little Christmas tree in the background is nice, which is why I chose the photo. And I used to drink "Samuel Smith's Pale Ale" in bottles when I was a callow youth. It was expensive, so I could only have one, but as I recall it was quite good!
This one is called "Old Brewery Bitter," which amuses me, because it isn't bitter at all. I guess it's true, we are two people, separated by a common language!
This a bit of an abbreviated Food Thread. I have a Birthday/Hanukah celebration this afternoon, and apparently I am the only person on earth who knows how to cook!
I'll be in and out, so try to keep the conversation civil, or bawdy, or silly, or....
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"Garden & Gun" is a fun Southern food and society (but in a good way) magazine that isn't too full of itself. Here is their Christmas cookie extravaganza, complete with some weird ones, but enough good, solid choices to be worth a read. "Brown Butter Sandwich Cookies with Chai Spice Buttercream" is not on my baking list, but "Ginger Molasses Cookies" and "Butter Pecan Cookies" certainly are!
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That is pork belly, and it was absolutely delicious! Unfortunately the Yorkshire Pudding was a mediocrity, and perhaps the single best example of the fall of a once great country. I think the restaurant, which has always been solid, made them too early, and they dried out. I get that it can be a challenge for the home cook to make Yorkshire Pudding, but a restaurant kitchen that touts its roasts? Sorry, that's a resounding fail.
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Lamb shoulder chops for the win! Sure, they are a bit sinewy, and can be chewy, but they are delicious and "lamby" and easy to cook. All I did was marinate them in garlic, olive oil, Rosemary, S&P, then grill them on high heat for less than 10 minutes! Delicious!
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[Hat Tip: Weasel]
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A friend graciously gave me some genuine grown-in-the-USA garlic, and I am going to taste one clove and plant the rest, because my pathetic failure last year is an anomaly...right? I hope so, because It's in the ground (actually, a large pot), and it had better work this time!
Send all of your extra antelope to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
Is there any purpose to over-long laces? Is it some hipster code for "I bought the coolest hiking shoes?" Or is it a testament to the inability of shoe companies to use measuring equipment?
Am I supposed to double-knot, or maybe triple-knot? These things are long enough to tow a boat off the rocks!
Obviously I have to discard these shoes, and probably rebuild the closet in which they are stored. It might be easier to start over...raze the house and build new!
[1:58? A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds]
Megyn Kelly finally calls out Candace Owens
Whoops, I meant she bravely attacks Sydney Sweeney for "bending the knee." (Sweeney put out a very empty PR statement saying "I'm against hate." Whoop-de-doo.)
Megyn Kelly claims she doesn't want to call people out on the right when asked about Candace Owens but then has no compunctions at all about calling people out on the right.
As long as they're not Candace Owens. Strangely, she seems blind and deaf to anything Candace Owens says. That's why this woman calls her "Megyn Keller."
She's now asking her pay-pigs in Pakistan how they think she should address the Candace Owens situation, and if they think this is really all about Israel and the Jews.
Podcast: Pete Hegseth is everything the left hates...and we love! Illinois is the next flashpoint for federal supremacy with regard to our borders, Trump's communication leaves something to be desired, and more!
I have happily forgotten what Milo Yiannopoulos sounds like, but I still enjoyed this impression from from Ami Kozak.
Well, bamboo is actually a type of grass, and underground, it's all connected in a sprawling network, just like the parts of this story I never wanted to tell. I wish I hadn't been put in this position, that I didn't have to write about any of this, that I didn't have to subject myself or my loved ones to embarrassment and further loss of privacy.
We're back to the fucking bamboo. Guys, I don't think I can pay for bamboo ruminations.
I think he added that because he was embarrassed about all the bamboo imagery from Part 1. He's justifying his twin obsessions: His ex, and bamboo. Which is not a tree but a kind of grass, he'll have you know.
On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi's story seemed more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked into a "New & Notable" rack next to the escalator, below Malala Yousafzai's "Finding My Way." Not many had sold so far, a store employee said.
A few blocks uptown, at a branch of the local independent chain McNally Jackson Books, a few volumes lay on a table of new and noteworthy nonfiction near the front of the store. No one was lining up to get them, or even browsing. Bookseller Alex Howe told CNN around 3 p.m. that though the store had procured "several dozen" copies, not a single one had yet sold -- a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in media and publishing work in the area.
"We ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door," Howe said. "I'm not sure where we're gonna put them because right now, supply is outpacing demand." (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the store.)
She trashes Ryan Lizza for his "Revenge Porn" here. Emily Jashinsky says that when the Bulwark's gay grifter Tim Miller asked why she didn't report on the (alleged) use of ketamine by RFKJr., she broke down in tears and asked to end the interview.
Podcast: Sefton is back with CBD to discuss killing narco-terrorists (we are both for it!), the TN special election, Trump's communication skills, and more!
Incumbent Senator John Cornyn (RINO - TX) betrayed his party and his country by voting in favor Biden's Afghan resettlement bill in 2021. Cornyn voted to bring in the Afghan who shot two National Guard soldiers on US soil. A vote for Cornyn is an endorsement of importing unvetted, radicalized murderers. [Buck]
