Daily Tech News 9 July 2025

—Pixy Misa

• Yesterday I noted that Twitter was taking steps to make its AI chatbot, Grok, "less politically correct".
  
  It looks instead of making it 5% more Hitler, they dialed it up to 500%. (Tech Crunch)
  
  For a few hours it sounded like a cross between Heinrich Himmler and the Ayatollah Khamenei, or a moderate Democrat.
  
  Twitter has been cleaning up the mess and Grok is back to normal now, which for a chatbot means remarkably useless and only not dangerous because nobody trusts it for anything.

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - July 8, 2025 [scampydog]

—Open Blogger

Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday ONT. We had a bit of a de-lurking thread last week. Wouldn't you know it, several brave souls took the plunge and pressed the enter key - and it was fun. If you are lurking tonight, toss in a comment or four and enjoy the chaos from the other side of the monitor (or phone screen).

*****

Being arrested, right? I mean it looks like an arrest, but kind of looks like...Pride Month. Arrest it is.

ICE has a Self-Deportation page. Humor can be found nearly everywhere.

Self-deporting simply means you leave the U.S. before you encounter immigration officials. Everyone's process is different. You may want to let your employer, your friends, and your family know you're leaving. You may also want to help find support for the people you care about, pack up the things you’d like to bring with you, or make living arrangements for the next phase of your journey.

Remember, if ICE officials arrest you, you may not have an opportunity to do any of these things. Immediately after ICE arrests you, you'll go to detention for proceedings before an immigration judge - or, if you already have a final order of removal, ICE will remove you.

emphasis added

Ice Enforcement and Removal Stats Several sortable tables as you scroll down the page (likely loads slowly if sorting). Looks like these numbers need a protein shake and some hustle.

Here are a few more odd street signs of fun.

This sign is probably warning motorcyclists about an upcoming downhill turn, but it really just looks like a kid showing off on a rainbow.

*****

This section of the ONT was in draft prior to the recent and tragic flooding in Texas. Prayers and well wishes up to the people of Central Texas - especially the Camp Mystic children, their families, and all impacted.

Engineering marvels. Been fortunate to have visited most on the list at the link below - and several others on the Columbia River dam system. Any of the Horde visited/toured any dams? Fascinating to see the size and scope of the hydroelectric power plants.

A list to get the conversation started. The author of the write up has a wandering brain - see the last entry of his/her list.

Grand Coulee. Some good overhead drone shots and additional footage showing the size of things.

Lake Missoula: Cordilleran Ice Sheet blocked (dammed) the Clark Fork River, creating a massive lake in western Montana. The dam failed many times over thousands of years - unleashing massive floods. This reshaped much of north Idaho, eastern Washington, and the Columbia River Gorge. It is widely reported that parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon were under hundreds of feet of water.

Let's dive into Glacial Lake Missoula. A lot of unknowns on the specifics but the scientific community (whatever the hell that is) agrees on the broad strokes.

- The ice dam was over 2000 feet tall. - Glacial Lake Missoula was as big as Lakes Erie and Ontario combined. - The flood waters ran with the force equal to 60 Amazon Rivers. - Car-sized boulders embedded in ice floated some 500 miles; they can still be seen today! - There is no evidence of fish in the glacial lake, but there may have been in the tributaries - No human relics have been found but native oral history suggests people may have witnessed the floods.

The raging waters created what are known as the Dry Falls.

Sun Lakes—Dry Falls State Park is an important part of the geologic history of Washington State. Few sites in eastern Washington better capture the cataclysmic nature of the geologic processes that have shaped the Columbia Basin. Have you ever imagined a waterfall that was five times the width and three times the height of Niagara Falls? The pathway of this massive waterfall can be seen clearly at Dry Falls, allowing visitors to travel back in time to the years of the great ice age floods.

The Channeled Scablands

The Channeled Scablands are probably the least known of the seven wonders of Washington State, but they have the most fascinating geological story. I still meet people today who grew up in the Seattle area that have never heard of them. What are they? Most of eastern Washington State is either farmland or mountains, but then there are large swaths of the landscape where all you can see is barren bedrock and strange rocky land formations. The early settlers in eastern Washington referred to these areas as scablands because they were not suitable for farming. Their origin was a complete mystery.

The Channeled Scablands extend from the area around Spokane, west to the Columbia River near Vantage and southwest to the Snake River near Pasco. They are known as the "Channeled Scablands" because they are crisscrossed by long channels cut into the bedrock, called coulees. About 150 distinct coulees have been identified; some of them are hundreds of feet deep. The two largest are Moses Coulee, which is 40 miles long, and Grand Coulee, which is 60 miles long.

*****

Let's keep it honest: A couple of recent Presidents likely would have fared better in the meme department if someone had taken their bicycle away. Some just are not quite ready for two wheels.

Hat tip to the Road Crew Lurkers from Eastern, WA

Priorities and seeing what we want to see.

Fishing poles

*****

Harry Chapin. Folksy, storytelling style. Harry died young, at the age of 38 - automobile accident.

Kris Kristofferson. Interesting life - a bit of a polymath. Rhodes scholar, former ARMY helicopter pilot, song writer, actor.

*****

This ONT brought to you by OCD and house rules. Why didn't you make the bed? Because someone was still sleeping in it when someone else left for work?

OCD. It started innocently enough. One person mentioned that they had to put their left sock on first. Five minutes later the whole group lit up the conversation with confessions about compulsive habits and rituals.

- Folding laundry - specifically how to fold a t-shirt
- Hang vs. fold t-shirt
- Mowing lines in yard
- Crumbs on the counter
- Loading the dishwasher properly (one spiritedly claimed that his family thinks the dishwasher door only opens eight inches). Yes, the question was asked about 16 forks in one slot
- Pressing F5 like it is the only form of cardio

Hit up the comments with your if I don't do this specifically this way, the world will end, lovable quirks.

*****

All of the content of this post is factual. Except that which isn't. Please send sweet corn and a magnesium concrete float to the new email: scampydoggo@atomicmail.io Proton email address is inaccessible.

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Late ONT addition.

Thank you Joyenz for keeping us all informed. Your dad was an amazing part of this place. Godspeed to you, your family, and Ciampino. We will miss his news, space/launch updates, chemistry talk, kitties, Africa memories, history lessons, warmth, and the wit he shared with us here at AoSHQ. He was a titan.

Close it up

I Would Like to Speak to Your Meownager Cafe

—Ace

Giraffe smiling for the drone that's photographing her

Man cannon.

Bird would like to gently remind you that you're thirty seconds late for feeding time.

Giving a drink to a raven.

A sudden brawl.

The tiniest piglet.

The teeniest kitten.

Dog is proud to be riding in the car like a human.

Horses enjoy car-rides, too.

Overly-protective dog won't let parents touch the baby.

Or maybe it's just animal jealousy.

Dog is intrigued.

Self-grooming beaver.

Some dogs are born heroes. Some dogs are not.

Quick Hits

—Ace

Lot of news from the Wastelands -- the shithole cities and shithole states that are deliberately choosing to make themselves unfit for human habitation -- today.

Portland Trantifa thug arrested for kicking a child.

As Fourth of July revelers gathered in downtown Portland, Ore. on Friday, a hulking, heavyset person in fuchsia hotpants allegedly went on a violent rampage, punching and attacking people with a knife and stick. One victim was a minor. The attacker was so violent and out of control that a team of police officers had to use sedation to make the arrest.

The five feet ten inches tall, 260-pound suspect was booked into jail by Portland Police as an unidentified "Jane Doe" "female" after the suspect was released from hospital on July 5.

Ngo Comment can exclusively report that the suspect is a transgender Antifa member ("Trantifa") named Trever Eugene Osterhout, who has a history of alleged domestic violence. The 42-year-old satanist and LGBTQ+ activist uses the name "Trish Elizabeth Osterhout."

I hate to do this to you guys, but you need the visual to get a full sense of this story.

Philadelphia is a disgusting pit of a shithole city and is especially garbage-filled now that there's a garbage strike. There's a new hazard to worry about: Random trash-fires.

A large trash fire erupted in the 5000 block of Wyalusing Avenue in West Philadelphia just before 3 a.m. Sunday.

"They tried to set it on fire and I'm trying to figure out what is the point of that? You're going to set it on fire to do what? It's not going anywhere, it's going to still be here. They'll come dump it the next day," said Randall Pressley, who lives a few houses down from the site.

Pressley says people are taking advantage of the temporary city drop-off site. Instead of dumping trash bags, people and workers are dumping construction items, couches and other large materials.

Just a Mostly Peaceful night in Philadelphia.

The New York Times has investigated the Aurora, Colorado apartment-building-takeover and can now report that while Democrats denied any gang activity in the city, "The Truth is Complicated."

They don't actually mean the truth is complicated. The truth is simple: Conservatives were right, progressives were, as usual, either wrong just lying.

What the truth is is awkward, because the left conceives itself as highly intelligent and sophisticated diviners of truth, and yet they're constantly falling for hoaxes and the most absurd lies.

The Times acknowledges the awkward evidence of video showing the takeover, filmed by a resident of the apartment building, Cindy Romero.

Less than 10 minutes later, Romero and her husband heard shouting outside. "Shut your mouth!" someone yelled in Spanish. (Romero, an American citizen whose father was of Mexican descent, knew enough Spanish to make out the words.) Then came the sounds of a gunfight. "There were five to six different calibers of weapon," Romero said in one of several interviews she gave afterward to local and national news outlets. She and her husband would later find bullet holes in both of their cars; the windows of other tenants' cars were shattered.

A man was then found shot to death in the alley beside this gang-free building.

Jurinsky and other Republicans pointed to the Romeros' video as evidence that large numbers of Tren de Aragua members had come with the influx of migrants. Democratic politicians suggested they were crying wolf: "There is no gang takeover in any part of Aurora," Representative Jason Crow, of Colorado, posted on X...

Events in Aurora soon caught the attention of Donald Trump, who was then campaigning on a promise to "take America back" from undocumented immigrants.

...

The more central Aurora became to Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, the greater the temptation among Democratic politicians and activists to wave away talk of gang activity in the city as a right-wing hallucination. But their refusal to acknowledge the violence that some residents were seeing with their own eyes came off not as reassurance but as erasure. At the rally, Romero described herself as a "former lifelong Democrat," explaining that the denials had turned her against the party. She thanked Trump first and foremost "for believing me." Mike Coffman, Aurora's Republican mayor, found himself caught between dueling narratives as the city became a flashpoint in national politics. "There's one side that said there's never been a problem," he said at a town hall in October. "There's another side that says, yeah, the whole city is overrun. And I think that the truth lies in the middle."

Literally no one ever said "the whole city is overrun." But Democrats did insist that there was no gang activity in Aurora.

So the truth is not "in the middle." It's all the way over on the right.

Democrats are sad that California is retreating from "green energy" (also known as "crisis-level energy shortages").

Donald Trump is coming for California's signature climate policies -- and so is California.

Stung by the party's sweeping losses in November and desperate to win back working-class voters, the Democratic Party is in retreat on climate change. Nowhere is that retrenchment more jarring than in the nation's most populous state, a longtime bastion of progressive politics on the environment.

In the past two weeks alone, California Democrats have retrenched on environmental reviews for construction projects, a cap on oil industry profits and clean fuel mandates. Elected officials are warning that ambitious laws and mandates are driving up the state's onerous cost of living, echoing longstanding Republican arguments and frustrating some allies who say Democrats are capitulating to political pressure.

"California was the vocal climate leader during the first Trump administration," said Chris Chavez, deputy policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air. "It's questionable whether or not that leadership is still there."

California leaders are still positioning themselves as the vanguard of the resistance to the president's environmental rollbacks, and polls still consistently find voters believe addressing climate change is worth the cost. Gov. Gavin Newsom has sued to block Trump's removal of California's permission to enforce its clean car standards and vowed to extend a landmark cap-and-trade program imperiled by Trump.

But they're in a far different position than during Trump's first term, when they were signing deals with automakers to keep the state's emissions rules afloat -- and even two years ago, when they were taking on oil companies by threatening to cap their profits. It's a reversal that is dismaying to climate activists, an outspoken part of the Democratic Party's base. And it's a trade-off -- freighted with significant and potentially long-lasting policy implications -- that party leaders are making in an effort to regain political strength.

"We've got some challenges, and so it just requires some new considerations," Newsom told reporters last week, after his administration proposed steering clear of the oil-profits cap as a way to keep refineries open. "It's not rolling back anything -- that's actually marching forward in a way that is thoughtful and considered."

Other parts of the country are pulling back on climate policies in the name of affordability, too. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is delaying plans for a carbon-trading system and slowing enforcement of the state's rules for clean cars and trucks, which follow California's. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is similarly pausing on carbon trading. And in Congress, some 36 Democrats -- including two from California -- signed on to the effort to overturn California's vehicle rules.

But California, as the state with the strongest suite of climate policies and a decadeslong reputation of stalwart environmentalism, is now becoming an unlikely leader in Democrats' pivot as they try to respond to cost-of-living concerns that they fret may have cost them the election.

Green Energy more like Gonna Cost-a-Lotta-Green Energy amirite

Democrat writer Ruy Teixiera writes that the Democrats are in deep denial and are incapable of self-reflection and reform.

George W. Bush famously posed this question back in 2000: "Is our children learning?" In 2025, we can follow up Bush's earnest inquiry with one of our own: "Is our Democrats learning?" It's been half a year since their catastrophic loss to their arch-nemesis Trump, so it's a good time to assess whether Democrats are indeed moving up the learning curve.

I'd say progress has been quite spotty. The party's favorability rating is still dreadful, they have only a modest lead in the generic congressional vote for 2026 and their prospects for taking back the Senate are slim. To most voters, the 2025 Democrats seem awfully similar to the 2024 Democrats they didn't like much at all.

...

Here are some reasons why the Democratic drive to reinvent the party seems to have stalled out--and may have a hard time restarting despite their political opening.

The "'tis but a scratch" problem. In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Black Knight insists, against all evidence, that his wounds are not that serious--"'tis but a scratch." Democrats, in the aftermath of losing two of three elections to the widely-disliked Trump and seeing their coalition re-configured by massive losses among both white and nonwhite working-class voters, are still in denial about how serious their wounds are. They are not but a scratch and cannot be fixed by anything less than a full-scale overhaul of the party's approach and image. Tinkering around the edges, while easier, will not work.

The breaking point fallacy. Democrats have a hard time thinking outside their own views of Trump and the GOP. They are deeply convinced that Trump is perhaps the worst person to ever walk the earth and find it difficult to relate to voters whose views are more mixed. They are convinced that a breaking point from Trump's actions will inevitably be reached where voters will wake up and realize Democrats were right all along, with happy political results to follow. This fallacy undergirded Democrats' thinking in the 2024 campaign with rather unhappy results when that breaking point was not reached. Democrats' reliably florid responses to Trump's outrage-of-the-day in 2025 indicates that they are still hoping that breaking point can be reached and that they are puzzled, indeed outraged, that voters have not yet mounted the barricades. Conveniently, the expectation of a breaking point let's Democrats off the hook from changing very much in their own party.

...

The "round up the usual suspects" problem. In the movie Casablanca, Captain Reynaud (Claude Rains) concludes the film by saying "round up the usual suspects." The Democrats have an establishment and establishments don't like change. Thus, there is a built-in tendency to blame messaging, narrative, lack of coalitional input, etc.--the "usual suspects"--rather than deeper problems of culture, economic policy, and class antagonism. Most recently this tendency was on display in the formation of a Project 2029 group drawn from various sectors of the Democratic establishment to craft a new, improved approach for the Democrats. As the Politico article on the group notes:

Some would-be allies are skeptical that such an ideologically diverse and divergent set of policy minds could craft anything close to a coherent agenda, let alone a politically winning one.

"Developing policies by checking every coalitional box is how we got in this mess in the first place," said Adam Jentleson, who has spent recent months preparing to open a new think tank called Searchlight. "There is no way to propose the kind of policies the Democratic Party needs to adopt without pissing off some part of the interest-group Borg. And if you're too afraid to do that, you don't have what it takes to steer the party in the right direction."

...

These obstacles help clarify why, despite the depth of the Democrats' recent defeat and their fragmenting coalition, their response to adversity has seemed so perversely underpowered. What could shake them out of their torpor?

Don't worry, Democrats have all sorts of ideas. One of their favorites: When (if) they take Congress back, they'll use their new congressional power to defund ICE.

Finally, some sweet common sense!

House Democrats, incensed at being repeatedly denied access to ICE facilities, are warming to the idea of using the appropriations process to force policy changes at the agency if they retake Congress.

Why it matters: ICE-focused protests and pressure from their grassroots are forcing Democrats to inch away from their instinctively defensive crouch on immigration. But there is internal division on how far to go.

"You've got a situation where our base is demanding more and more of us every day," said one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The lawmaker added that "a number of us have been told by constituents that we have to be willing to get shot" while trying to conduct oversight at ICE facilities and "be able to make news out of it."

Many Democrats are still scarred by GOP attacks on the #AbolishICE movement and hesitant to take steps that appear to be aimed at dismantling or downsizing the agency.

State of play: Just over the weekend, House Democrats in California and New York were refused access to ICE facilities in their respective states to perform checks on detained migrants.

Reps. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.) have alleged that ICE officials even sprayed "some type of irritant into the air to push us back."

Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) is being prosecuted by the Justice Department for allegedly assaulting law enforcement -- which she denies -- during a visit to an ICE facility in her state during which she was initially refused entry.

What they're saying: Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said he believes Democrats should "reassess the funding possibilities. Absolutely."

He said of being denied access to an ICE facility this weekend: "They ask for money, right? And then ... I go there and they don't allow us to go and check out the facilities."

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), a member of Democratic leadership, told Axios, "Everybody's on board with the fact that what's going on right now is not right, and ... reform is needed."

"This administration is ... rounding people up by mistake -- they don't care," said Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), chair of the center-left New Democrat Coalition. "We can't let that happen."

Javier Milei's "Crazy" Reforms Result in Three Straight Months of Growth and a Much-Reduced Inflation Rate

—Ace

Real capitalism has never been tried.

Just months ago, Argentina seemed destined for another economic collapse: soaring poverty, runaway inflation and dire warnings from economists that President Javier Milei's radical austerity measures would choke growth. Instead, the economy is expanding at a pace few thought possible -- leaving Milei's legions of critics scrambling for explanations.

In a stunning reversal, Argentina's economy posted a 7.6 percent year-over-year growth rate in the second quarter of 2025 -- its strongest in nearly two decades -- fueled by deregulation, sharp cuts to public spending and the loosening of currency controls. Retail sales, manufacturing and finance all surged, helping consumer spending jump nearly 3 percent from the previous quarter.

Since assuming office in December 2023, the firebrand libertarian economist has slashed government expenditures and secured a $20 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). His administration promised to dismantle decades of state intervention in favor of free markets -- policies that many observers warned would deepen recession and spark social unrest.

...

Milei also ripped up Argentina's rent-control law in late 2024, removing limits on lease terms and rent increases that had discouraged landlords from renting. Within months, the supply of rental housing in Buenos Aires jumped by 195 percent, according to the city's real estate observatory, and median asking prices fell by about 10 percent as more apartments returned to the market.

...

"We have the best president in the world," Argentina's economy minister, Luis Caputo, wrote on X as he shared the recent growth figure.

...

The strongest case for optimism has been Milei's success in driving down inflation. In May, consumer prices rose just 1.5 percent -- the lowest monthly figure in five years, according to Argentina's national statistics agency. That decline is widely seen as a political and economic turning point.

...

Even Milei's allies acknowledge the precariousness of the moment. José De Gregorio, a former central bank governor in Chile, said at the Peterson Institute panel: "I have to admit they are doing the right things. They have a very good chance to succeed. But we know how hard it is here."

...

Yet despite warnings about volatility ahead, Milei appears convinced that the economy is firmly on the path to recovery. On television, he keeps repeating his now-familiar refrain: "Instead of talking about growth at Chinese rates, the world will soon be talking about growth at Argentine rates."

Nazi leader Merz attacked Milei and falsely claimed his policies were ruining Argentina.

The current German Nazis may no longer be nationalist -- indeed, they are determined to give their country away -- but they remain anti-freedom and very pro-socialism.

German Chancellor Merz Insulted Javier Milei. He Needs to Apologize.

Rainer Zitelmann

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has publicly accused Javier Milei of ruining his country and "trampling people underfoot." The leading German historian Rainer Zitelmann has now called on Merz to apologize to Milei.

Dear Chancellor Merz,

I used to be one of your fans. You can check. I was a long-standing member of the Facebook group "Friedrich Merz must become Germany's Chancellor." I even enjoyed your book, mehr Kapitalismus wagen (Daring More Capitalism), back in 2008.

However, I must admit that I began to have my doubts when -- even though you were clearly in the right -- you kept apologizing and modifying your positions in response to criticism from left-wing parties and the media. And then came a statement that I would not have thought possible. Following a -- somewhat belated -- suggestion from the then-leader of the FDP, Christian Lindner, to "dare to be more like Milei," you said on German television: "To be honest, I was completely dismayed that Christian Lindner made this comparison. What is currently happening in Argentina -- I don't follow it every day -- but what this president is doing there is ruining the country, he is trampling people underfoot, and to take that as an example for Germany, I have to say I was somewhat speechless, and that doesn't happen all that often for me."

Milei has curbed inflation and poverty

To the facts: 100 years ago, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world, comparable to the United States today. Argentina did not become poor as a result of Milei's libertarian agenda, but because of the failed policies of socialists, Peronists, and statists. The country was in decline for decades. Since 1945, there has hardly been a year -- with the exception of a brief respite during the 1990s -- in which the country has not suffered double-digit inflation. All of the surveys conducted prior to Milei's election consistently identified inflation as the Argentine population's main concern. Upon taking office, Milei inherited an inflation rate of 25.5 percent per month (not per year!); today, inflation is down to 1.5 percent per month.

Yes, poverty rose temporarily, as I had expected before Milei's election victory. But it has since fallen well below the level it was at when Milei took office. From 41.7 percent, poverty initially rose to almost 55 percent and is now at 31.7 percent, ten percentage points below the level at the time of Milei's inauguration and the lowest level since 2018.

Interestingly, the left leaning media provided extensive coverage of the initial rise in poverty, yet they have been conspicuously silent regarding its recent fall. The speed at which poverty declined was even faster than I, a self-confessed Milei fan, could have hoped. This is because, when politicians implement comprehensive market reforms designed to dismantle entrenched economic structures, it often results in a short-term reduction in gross domestic product, coupled with increases in poverty and unemployment rates. This was the case, for example, with Maggie Thatcher's market economy reforms in the UK in the early 1980s and Leszek Balcerowicz's capitalist "shock therapy" in Poland in the early 1990s. As you know, Poland has now been one of the fastest growing countries in Europe and the world for several decades -- the foundations were laid by Balcerowicz's capitalist shock therapy.

...

Has Argentina overcome all of its problems? Of course not. I still expect many difficulties and setbacks. The promised "dollarization" has yet to happen. But Milei has achieved a great deal in such a short time -- you would have every right to be proud if you could manage a similar feat after one or two years as Chancellor of Germany.

Borderline Mental Invalid and Former Celebrity John Cusack Is Back to Posting Nazi Propaganda Again

—Ace

He did this on BlueSkum, of course.

And BlueSkum might have actually told him to delete the antisemitic meme.

High Fidelity star John Cusack posted a meme on Bluesky that critics have described as being "antisemitic" and evocative of Nazi propaganda.

"High Fidelity star"? Boy that goes a long way back. You have to go back a few decades to find a John Cusack movie anyone's even heard of.

Cusack, a staunch critic of Israel's actions in Gaza, shared a graphic (a screenshot of which is pictured below) linking Antony Blinken, the Jewish former U.S. secretary of state, to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Each of the photos in the graphic contains the Star of David, gesturing towards centuries-old antisemitic tropes about hidden Jewish conspiracies of influence and power.

Epstein and Maxwell are both described as Mossad agents in the graphic, an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that has gained traction in far-right circles.

Far right circles, huh?

TruNews, the Christian media outlet, and Mark Collett, a Nazi-sympathiser based in the UK, are among those who have trumpeted this idea.

No one's ever heard of those people. On the other hand, leftists with big platforms that everyone knows like John Cusack are pushing this kind of antisemitic meme.

Cusack's post was deleted within two hours of it being shared. It is not clear if Cusack voluntarily removed the post, or if Bluesky moderators intervened. Deadline has approached Cusack's reps at Independent Artist Group for comment.

The post was widely condemned on Bluesky and beyond. Mike Masnick, a Bluesky board member and founder of the Techdirt blog, described it as "antisemitic Nazi s**t." Angus Johnston, a history professor at The City University of New York, said it was "straight-up antisemitism."

Cusack has previously apologized for sharing antisemitic content on social media. In 2019, he tweeted an image depicting a hand, stamped with the Star of David, pushing down a group of people. It was captioned: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."

In the last post, I mentioned a Democrat office-seeker who called for the murder of ICE agents. But I did not include the tweet -- which he later deleted -- in which he called for murder.

Here it is:

There are no limits to the malignant bitterness of the left:

Democrats Call for the Murder of ICE Agents -- and Threaten to Murder ICE Agents' Children -- as the DHS Conducts Raid in Los Angeles

—Ace

USBP Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino @USBPChiefELC

Just moments ago in Van Nuys during federal immigration law enforcement operations, 3 subjects attempted to impede & obstruct our efforts, using improvised devices aimed at disabling our vehicles. All three were arrested & now face felony charges.

Below, a "New York Man" was arrested for threatening to kill an ICE agent and put bullets through the heads of his children.

DOJ Report Allegedly Concludes Epstein Was Not Murdered, and Had No "Client List"

—Ace

I thought then and think now that the murder theory was a longshot at best.

Notorious sex predator Jeffrey Epstein didn't keep a supposed "client list," and he was not murdered during his short stay in a Manhattan lockup, the Justice Department and FBI reportedly concluded in a joint probe.

The investigation, the results of which were detailed in a memo obtained by Axios, also found no evidence that Epstein "blackmailed prominent individuals."

The Trump administration plans to release a video to prove the agencies' findings on Epstein's 2019 death, which bred mounds of conspiracy theories.

"He's the only person in there and the only person coming out. You can see it," FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in late May.

The video falls in line with the medical examiner's assessment post-mortem that Epstein committed suicide, according to the memo.

...

No one else involved in the Epstein case will face charges, according to the memo, beyond his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years for child sex trafficking and other related crimes.

President Trump previously promised to release the apparently debunked "client list" during his re-election campaign.

Trump has asserted that he had never visited Epstein's notorious private island, where scores of underage girls and young women were allegedly abused.

But the president has said "a lot of people did" -- whom he was willing to unmask.
Photos regarding Jeffrey Epstein's suicide were obtained by 60 Minutes and aired Jan.

Back in February, Trump's DOJ released Epstein's contact list as part of a long-awaited trove of documents connected to the notorious sex predator.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Alec Baldwin and Mick Jagger were among the high-profile names on Epstein's contact list.

But the hyped-up February release was panned by critics as containing little to no new information about Epstein's case.

I see some alleged MAGA people essentially accusing Trump of a cover-up.

Do I once again have to be the Real MAGA Supporter here?

Trump would have no possible reason to cover any of this up, except for the obvious possibility that he's an Epstein client himself. I strongly doubt that, given that the Deep State attempted for ten years to frame Trump for various crimes. If Trump was an "Epstein client," we'd've heard about it in 2015.

So why would he cover this up? It makes no sense.

It doesn't surprise me that there was no murder. It is a little surprising that there is no "client list," but maybe it shouldn't be.

We kept hearing chatter about a "client list."

But did that ever make sense?

When you think about Epstein's operation, did you conceive it more as a sexual influence operation, in which he'd invite well-connected politicians and billionaires to his Pedo Island and then leverage those relationships into insider information and political favors?

Or did you think he was running an actual house of prostitution, whereby "clients" would pay him cash-on-the-barrelhead for specific sexual acts from specific prostitutes?

That last possibility seems pretty unlikely to me. I never thought he was selling girls for actual cash. I always thought of the girls as inducements for the Not So Great and Definitely Not Good to come to his island and engage in some compromising behavior that could be exploited for the real money. Not a thousand here or there renting out a child prostitute.

So I don't know if this report denying an actual, literal "client" list, like an actual brothel would keep, should be surprising. It wouldn't work that way, I don't think. I don't think he'd keep a ledger of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's payments for sex. I think this operation was more of the kind where the Johns didn't want to think of themselves as johns for a child prostitution ring. I think the johns would want the illusion that the "girls just liked them" and wanted to have sex with them.

As for the denial of blackmail: Well, I do think the whole point of this operation would be influence and leverage, but again, it might not be as formal as "do this for me or I'll expose you." It might just be a subtle thing where, completely hypothetically, Bill Gates will do favors for you not because you formally extort him but just because he knows you could reveal his secrets, so it's best to keep you happy.

Sometimes the real answer is the obvious one. Sometimes there is no Secret History behind the obvious.

I don't even know if this report is accurate. It comes from Axios. It also comes, apparently, through an illegal leak, and criminal leakers do not put their freedom in jeopardy just because it's so fun to talk to the self-righteous idiot drips and wallflowers that call themselves "journalists." The leak could be distorted for political motivations, such as the always-popular "own the CHUDs" or "stir up dissent within MAGA."

So I'm withholding judgment about whether this leak is even accurate.

But even if it is, it doesn't surprise me, now that I think about it, that there wouldn't be an actual "client list" nor any formal blackmail.

Ten Members of an Antifa Terror Cell Arrested and Charged for Organizing the Ambush on ICE Agents and "Insurrectionary Anarchy"

—Ace

I want Congress to recall Christopher Wray and grill him over his partisan insistence that the Democrats' violent socialist army was "just an idea."

And prosecute him for any perjuries.

Andy Ngo @MrAndyNgo

These are the 10 alleged members of a north Texas Antifa terror cell accused of carrying out the attempted murder of federal officers at a shooting terrorist attack on an ICE facility on the Fourth of July in Alvarado, Texas.

One local police officer was shot in the neck, and survived. The group was armed with multiple rifles, pistols, body armor, escape vehicles, radios, and other devices indicating a planned conspiracy.

Multiple members of the cell are confirmed trans.

They've been charged federally with attempted murder and also face local charges of terrorism in Johnson County, Texas.

Photo scoop by @AntifaWatch2
.

Top row from left to right:
Elizabeth Soto, of Fort Worth
Maricela Rueda, of Fort Worth
Ines Soto, of Fort Worth
Savanna Batten, of Fort Worth
Seth Sikes, of Kennedale

Bottom row from left to right:
Bradford Morris (trans name "Meagan Morris"), of Dallas
Cameron Arnold (trans name "Autumn Hill"), of Dallas
Joy Gibson, of Dallas
Zachary Evetts, of Waxahachie
Nathan Baumann, of College Station
Daniel Rolando Sanchez (not pictured below)

The Daily Caller:

Ten leftists charged in a Friday "ambush" on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Texas could each face sentences ranging from ten years to life in prison if convicted, authorities said Monday.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested ten suspects accused of coordinating an armed July 4 attack on the building in Alvarado, Texas and shooting a local police officer in the neck, officials said in a Monday press conference and criminal complaint. The incident was the first of two shootings at Texas border facilities over the past four days, reflecting a trend of increasingly violent assaults on law enforcement since the Trump administration ramped up ICE deportations.

The leftist mob arrived at the scene on the evening of July 4 "wearing all black" and began shooting fireworks and writing graffiti such as "ICE pig" around the detention center and parking lot, the complaint said. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) correctional officer attempted to talk to the vandals, but two suspects later fired 20 to 30 rounds at federal and local officers, wounding one Alvarado officer in the neck, the DOJ alleged.

"It was a planned ambush with the intent to kill ICE corrections officers," acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson said at the press conference. "Make no mistake. This was not a so-called peaceful protest."

Police found two AR-15-style rifles, used casings, body armor plate carriers and loaded magazines near the scene, according to the DOJ. Officers later allegedly found more weapons in the vehicle of one of the suspects, who said he brought some individuals that he met online from Dallas to the ICE detention center to "make some noise."

Law enforcement also observed body armor and radios on other suspects arrested that night, the DOJ alleged. One wearing the body armor allegedly had a backpack containing flyers that read "fight ICE terror with class war" and "free all political prisoners."

The ten suspects alleged to have participated in the attack face charges of attempted murder, attempted murder of a federal officer, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and aiding and abetting, the DOJ complaint says. They each face a maximum sentence of life in prison, while an eleventh "co-conspirator" who allegedly tried to destroy evidence of the plot faces up to ten years in prison, Larson said. Court records do not yet list attorneys for any of the defendants.

On Monday morning, the FBI searched an apartment linked to the eleventh suspect and found "anti-government propaganda," including materials for "organizing for attack" and "insurrectionary anarchy."

Law enforcement officials also announced Monday that a gunman opened fire on a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, before local police and border agents returned fire and killed him.

The July 4th incident followed weeks of violent anti-ICE riots that sprouted in California and spread across the country. The Trump administration has charged more than 20 people with federal crimes related to the California riots.

Gunther Eagleman @GuntherEagleman

HOLY CRAP! New details are just now being reported about this incident, and it proves why Antifa MUST be labeled as a domestic terror organization:

"The ambush in Alvarado, Texas, appears to be the most coordinated of all the recent attacks on ICE and border patrol agents and facilities."

"That attack began with at least 10 people, all dressed in what investigators describe as black military style clothing, shooting fireworks at the Prairie Detention Center."

"Around ten minutes later, one or two of them broke off from the main group and began spray painting the facility and vehicles parked there with words like traitor and other slogans."

"A police officer arrived responding to a 911 call, and at that point, one of the group who had apparently hidden in trees near the facility opened fire, hitting the officer in the neck, while another attacker also across the street fired dozens of rounds at officers from the facility."

"It was a planned ambush with the intent to k*ll ICE corrections officers. Make no mistake. This was not a so-called peaceful protest. It was indeed an ambush."

"Police also discovered anarchist literature and flyers in one of the vehicles used by the attackers and a Faraday bag, a type of bag that blocks phone signals and which is commonly used by criminals to prevent law enforcement tracking their locations."

We're returning to the days of Obama's buddies in the Weather Underground:

Mike Shelby @grayzoneintel

For the first time in nearly a decade tracking the Far Left, we just witnessed a coordinated, complex ambush by a Far Left direct action cell.

And the media is SILENT on its implications. Here's what you need to know: 🧵👇

1. Last Friday, 8-10 individuals launched fireworks and vandalized an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas to draw a law enforcement presence.

After a 911 call was made, multiple shooters opened fire, at least one in a nearby treeline, wounding an arriving officer.

2. These kinds of shootings are normally conducted by individuals.

What we see here is 10 militants and an 11th co-conspirator forming a cell, selecting a target, and carrying out a coordinated, complex attack.

Armed Far Left violence is not uncommon, but this is unprecedented

3. What this shows is an operational evolution from individuals acting out of uncontrolled rage to coordinated cell-based violence.

Now that this precedent has been set, where do we go from here?

4. The Most Likely Course of Action is continued attacks involving 1-3 shooters. Larger groups will be exponentially more difficult to coordinate, and there aren't enough Far Left militants to keep getting rolled up by the dozen.

5. Far Left militants will see the relative failure of this attack against a hard target, and simply choose softer targets in the future.

The availability of federal agents' personal information through online doxxing increases this likelihood.

6. The Most Dangerous Course of Action is that this attack open's a Pandora's Box of other armed Leftist groups attempting to successfully carrying out similar relatively large scale attacks against federal facilities.

7. Another Possible Course of Action: The relative failure of the attack and swift response by federal authorities diminishes the likelihood of future armed, organized political violence.

It's a bit counter-narrative, but we've seen that [felony charges against domestic terrorists] work.

8. The Georgia RICO case is a great example.

After 61 Far Left militants were charged under the RICO Act -- and some with domestic terrorism -- the Stop Cop City movement folded.

They deleted their website and stopped most operations because they didn't have the people.

9. If these 10 individuals and an 11th co-conspirator had a successful attack and escaped, then future attacks would be come immensely more likely because of a belief in the likelihood of success.

But this attack was not successful.

10. These 10 individuals are each being charged with three counts of attempted murder of a federal agent, which carries a mandatory 10-year prison sentence.

This will reduce the likelihood of similarly sized attacks, though not to zero.

11. The Alvarado ambush is a watershed moment for this country and our ongoing Low Intensity Conflict.

We will almost certainly continue to see armed political violence against federal facilities and/or personnel.

RICO works. I'll post my take on RICO below.

Obama Massachusetts Judge Now Rules That Congress Does Not Control Congressional Spending

—Ace

This absurd judicial insurrection was launched to protect -- of course! -- Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood has a right to taxpayer money, this Cultural Enricher discovered.

Note that this isn't an injunction against an executive order. No, this judge is declaring that a law passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President is invalid.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked part of President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" that cuts Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. The ruling came just hours after the abortion provider sued to protect its federal funding.

Key Details:

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani granted a 14-day Temporary Restraining Order on Monday, halting implementation of the defunding measure.

The lawsuit argues that while the bill doesn't name Planned Parenthood, its structure effectively singles the group out by applying restrictions only they meet.

Planned Parenthood says the funding cut could force nearly 200 of its clinics to close.

Diving Deeper:

On Monday, a federal judge issued a temporary block on the Trump administration's effort to strip Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, halting a core provision of the president's signature legislative package known as the "Big Beautiful Bill." The ruling came within hours of Planned Parenthood filing suit in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

Judge Indira Talwani, appointed by former President Barack Obama, issued a Temporary Restraining Order that bars the Department of Health and Human Services from implementing the defunding measure for 14 days. In her order, Talwani instructed HHS to "take all steps necessary to ensure that Medicaid funding continues to be disbursed" to Planned Parenthood during that period.

While the legislation does not specifically name Planned Parenthood, the abortion giant is the only provider meeting the criteria outlined in the bill, making them the de facto target. Planned Parenthood's legal team contends that the provision is both discriminatory and unconstitutional. According to the lawsuit, "Many Planned Parenthood Members will be required to lay off staff and curtail services... Members may be forced to shutter a substantial number of their health centers nationwide, many of which are in rural or underserved areas."

John Sexton is baffled -- the Supreme Court just ruled that South Carolina can completely ban Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, and the Supreme Court just told lowly district court judges they could not issue nationwide injunctions.

This judge just blew off the Supreme Court, twice.

I'm really not sure how this is possible. It has been less than two weeks since the Supreme Court ruled that South Carolina could block Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood.

At issue was a provision of the federal Medicaid law that guarantees Medicaid patients the ability to choose their doctors, or in the words of the statute, they are entitled to "any qualified and willing provider." South Carolina, however, maintained that it could disqualify Medicaid providers for "any reason that state law allows." Or as Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, put it, "Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortion providers who are in direct opposition to their beliefs."

On Thursday the Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, agreed.

So today Planned Parenthood sued the federal government arguing that it could not cut them off from Medicaid reimbursements.

Planned Parenthood sued the Trump administration on Monday over a provision in President Donald Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill that would prevent its health centers from receiving Medicaid reimbursements.

In a complaint filed in Boston federal court, Planned Parenthood said the provision is unconstitutional because it singles out members for advocacy for sexual and reproductive health care, including abortions...

...

Is this a nationwide TRO or does it only apply to PP of Massachusetts and Utah? It's not clear to me because it does say funding should continue to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which is a national organization. Didn't the Supreme Court just put an end to nationwide TRO's by federal judges? I thought they did but maybe this is an exception somehow?

Matt Margolis:

It's almost impossible to overstate the sheer audacity of what's just happened in Massachusetts. In a move that defies both logic and the very foundation of our constitutional order, an Obama-appointed judge has swooped in to protect Planned Parenthood from the will of the American people as expressed through their elected representatives.

Judge Indira Talwani, sitting on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, decided that Congress--yes, Congress--doesn't actually get to decide how taxpayer money is spent, at least not when it comes to the Left's sacred cow.

Let's be clear: This wasn't a rogue executive order or some bureaucratic sleight of hand. Congress passed a law. The people's representatives, accountable to voters, made a decision to defund Planned Parenthood as part of the One Big, Beautiful Bill. That's how our system is supposed to work. If you don't like it, you organize, you vote, you persuade your fellow citizens and change the law. That's democracy. But apparently, that's not good enough for the activist bench.

Instead, Judge Talwani issued a temporary restraining order, telling the executive branch not to enforce the law. Not because the law was found unconstitutional or even legally questionable--no, the judge didn't bother to offer any real legal reasoning at all.

The ruling simply halted the will of Congress in its tracks, leaving Americans and even seasoned legal professionals scratching their heads. How does a judge order the executive branch to ignore a duly-enacted statute without first declaring that statute invalid? On what grounds?

Per MXMNews, Mike Lee wants to impeach this judge:

Conservative lawmakers denounced the judge's move. Senator Mike Lee of Utah said on X, "Unless I'm missing something, this is an abuse of judicial power. And unless there's more to the story here, I suspect the House Judiciary Committee will consider articles of impeachment."

L A R R Y @LarryOConnor

This bill was debated and voted on in committee and then on the floor of the House, then debated in the Senate and voted on there and finally ratified again in the House before the President signed it into law.

But, "NO KINGS" or something...

Hello good readers. How is your Tuesday going?

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

—CBD

Most of the readers of this website will agree that the Federal government is catastrophically, chaotically, crushingly bloated, and its restrictions as articulated by the United States Constitution have been ignored by the legislature, the executive and, sadly, by the judiciary.

But what is the proper function of the federal government in today's modern society? Obviously the founders didn't foresee a need for the FAA and its control of the airspace over America. And certainly one can argue that the states are the proper places for regulation of our airspace, and that the Constitution has a structure in place to manage the inevitable issues arising from 50 states controlling 50 airspaces.

That sounds like a recipe for disaster. Consistent regulation across the 50 states makes perfect sense for some things, and air traffic is one of those things. So as distasteful as another massive federal bureaucracy may be, it does serve a legitimate function, in spite of its axiomatic government waste and inefficiency and outright sloth.

Airlines Group Commends Trump's Megabill for Funding Aviation Infrastructure Modernization

Airlines for America, a trade association of leading U.S. airlines, commended President Donald Trump for signing into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that contains a $12.5 billion provision to modernize the country's air traffic control (ATC) systems, the group said in a July 4 statement.

The bill, signed by Trump on Independence Day, sets aside roughly $12.5 billion for "acquisition, construction, sustainment, and improvement of facilities and equipment necessary to improve or maintain aviation safety."

The amount will be appropriated to the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and remain available until Sept. 30, 2029.

The real question is: Can a competent and aggressive administrator cut through the massive inertia of the FAA (or any other government department) and modernize what is clearly an overstrained system? We have at our fingertips incredible technology that can be leveraged to make our safe skies even safer. But the track record of technological advancement in our government is pathetically bad. Are they still using floppy disks at NASA? CRT screens at the FAA?

This will be a significant challenge for President Trump and his appointee, who is a career government man, and that does not fill me with hope! Perhaps he will delegate the technological development to others and focus on what he probably knows best...navigating the labyrinth of government!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter] And the Apple and Spotify feeds for CJN's podcast should be working!

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Boats on Dry Dock
Paul Puzinas

The Morning Report — 7/8/25

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids, As I have said many times and as is clearly demonstrated by today's links across several categories, they want us dead or otherwise disposed of. As Rush Limbaugh of blessed memory would say, in a more anodyne but no less accurate way, it's not that they want to level the playing field, they want to clear the field of any and all opposition.

We are not dealing with people who see us as political rivals, with mere disagreements on policy. Their entire worldview is completely antithetical to our nation, its founding and indeed the past 2,000 years of history if not the human condition and the natural order of things over the course of tens of thousands of years of human development.

They see themselves as superior beings übermenschen if you will that have a moral duty to impose their will on us because they are the supposed defenders of democracy and human rights while we are an existential evil to be defeated by any and every means necessary.

To the border we go, and quite literally, to McAllen TX.

Authorities say Ryan Louis Mosqueda, a 27-year-old Michigan resident, opened fire on the U.S. Border Patrol facility Monday before Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement neutralized him, according to The Associated Press. “America Reports” co-host John Roberts asked Banks if the attack was a surprise. (RELATED: ‘We’re Gonna Double Down And Triple Down’: Tom Homan Vows To ‘Flood The Zone’ On Sanctuary Cities)

Assaults on ICE agents have increased by 500% while trying to arrest illegal immigrants, Breitbart News reported in June. Banks urged the administration to take a two-pronged approach to the increasing violence directed at ICE and the Border Patrol.

Well, when President Trump is equated to Hitler and the enforcement of our laws to that of Nazi Germany in rounding up Jews and sending them to concentration camps, QED.

Just last week in Portland OR.

Multiple people have been arrested following a violent riot outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon, that involved knife-throwing and explosives.

With that, this happened yesterday in Los Angeles' Macarthur Park, made famous in song by both Richard Harris and Donna Summer, but made infamous as a third world shit hole populated by bums, drifters, drug addicts and illegal aliens. Of course, the leadership of the city and state of California are the root cause of the problem,

A Border Patrol official declared Monday that agents will be sticking around Los Angeles until their “mission is accomplished” as Mayor Karen Bass lashed out at federal law enforcement conducting an apparent immigration sweep at a local park.
Heavily armed officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the military units deployed by President Trump arrived at MacArthur Park in force, with the agents seen carrying rifles and traveling across the grounds on foot, horseback and in armored vehicles.
Bass, who was due to meet with California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the morning, showed up in the middle of the operation to yell at the agents to get out of the park, slamming the action as a “political stunt.”

. . . Bass was only at the park momentarily after speaking with CBP Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David Kim, who handed her a direct line to “the head of Customs,” she added, noting that the agents left moments later.
One Border Patrol official promised that federal agencies aren’t backing down — and had a few choice words for Bass herself.
“The federal government is not leaving LA. … The federal government does not work for Karen Bass. We’re going to be here until that mission is accomplished,” Border Patrol El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino told FOX Los Angeles.
“Better get used to us now because this is going to be normal very soon,” he added.

Elsewhere we have several judges throwing up roadblocks to several Trump initiatives via the OBBB, as well as Deep State Traitors like Brennan, Comey and Clapper among others semingly plotting to coordinate mass acts of insubordination within the bureaucracy.

Gallows cannot be constructed rapidly enough to suit me.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

Have a great day!

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• After a communications revolution the universe changes.
  This Age of Conversation
  
• The Crowned Class and the Soft Coup of 'Moral Immunity' — This isn’t about Judge Dugan. It’s about the growing class of public officials who see their job titles as shields, not responsibilities.
  They Say ‘Nobody’s Above the Law’—Until It’s Their Judge

Daily Tech News 8 July 2025

—Pixy Misa

• Apple has filed an appeal against the EU's latest half-billion-dollar fine for - and I quote - "having money the EU wants". (Hot Hardware)
  
  Okay, so maybe I don't quote. But when it comes to a fight between communists pretending to be politicians and communists pretending to be capitalists, I'll side with the pretend capitalists unless they're also French.

Monday Overnight Open Thread - July 7, 2025 [Doof]

—Open Blogger

Howdy Hordelings! Monday ONT time has arrived. Today is July 7. Or 7/7. Or maybe for you it's Seven and Seven? No matter your preference, please step on in and hang out for a while!

***

Did You Expect Anything Different?

If so, please see me for a tremendous deal on blinker fluid!

Epstein List Hangs Itself Moments Before Release https://t.co/jIryS3jgaA pic.twitter.com/BEg719mGfk

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 7, 2025

Unbelievable. And by "un"believable, I mean TOTALLY BELIEVABLE!!

***

A Tad Bit Longer Than 17 Years

On a recent trip to Cape Cod, I was pleasantly surprised to be there during the emergence of the Brood XIV 17-year cicadas. I've experienced 3 emergences of Brood X cicadas in central MD - 1987, 2004, and 2021. These noisy little critters annoy a lot of people when they emerge from their mostly-underground life to clumsily fly around, make a lot of noise, mate, and die. I, on the other hand, have always been fascinated by them.

Cicada "John Doe" (2008-2025) in Mashpee, MA

Aftermath of cicadas laying eggs in tree branches

As luck would have it for you ONT readers, "the algorithm" fed this article to me recently. I think it's KEWL!

47 Million Years Old: Oldest True Cicada Unearthed in Europe

For the first time, a fossilized true cicada has been identified from the Messel Pit deposits. Eoplatypleura messelensis is among the oldest known representatives of modern true cicadas in Eurasia and marks the earliest record of the subfamily Cicadinae worldwide.

This discovery, made at the UNESCO World Heritage Site near Darmstadt, enhances our understanding of the region’s ancient fauna, fills a significant gap in the cicada fossil record, and sheds light on the evolution and spread of this insect group in Europe during the Cenozoic era. The findings were published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

The adult female cicada from the 47-million-year-old oil shale of the Messel Pit is remarkably well preserved, with a body length of about 26.5 millimeters and a wingspan of 68.2 millimeters.

“The family of true cicadas (Cicadidae) is one of the most species-rich insect groups today. Nevertheless, there are only very few fossil finds compared to the large number of modern species,” explains Dr. Sonja Wedmann from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt.

She adds, “Within this family, the Platypleurini group is particularly striking. It has a wide distribution and includes many species with unique traits. For the first time, we have now described a fossil from this group of cicadas.”

Check out the whole thing.

***

Genius Name for a Business

Another noteworthy item from my trip to The Bay State. I discovered a place while looking at a map. I want to go there and shake the hand of the person who decided on the name.

I want to believe it went something like this...

"So -- we've got this place with horses and we'd like to have cute little pony parties."

"OK. What's the problem?"

"Well, we want to have a clever angle. Ya know - something that will make us stand out from the competition. What would make a Gen X parent choose US?"

"Hmmm. I got it!"

Yup - It's real. Honestly - can you think of a better name for a business???

***

Cool Vids

Genius

1000 IQ right here pic.twitter.com/waVL1lF5Hj

— Dudes Posting Their W’s (@DudespostingWs) July 6, 2025

Wholesome Fun

We need more of this in our crazy world...pic.twitter.com/p3BhFB37UN

— The Best (@Thebestfigen) July 3, 2025

A True Artist

Great 😂 pic.twitter.com/1BzDHWMwOs

— The Best (@Thebestfigen) July 6, 2025

***

Fun in the Summertime

Cooking Outdoors is the Ultimate Summer Sensation: Poll Ranks the Eight Best

The most quintessential sensations of summer are smelling a grill, relaxing at the beach, and diving into a swimming pool, according to a new survey.

The nationally representative poll of 2,000 American grill owners found that time near the water (68%) and pool hangs (68%) top the list of iconic summer ‘feels’—with the scent of cooking over the grill (87%) coming in at number one.

***

Asking what they’ve been cooking so far this summer, classics like hamburgers (82%) and hotdogs (73%) are prevalent, but also fancy fare like steaks (74%) and seafood (36%).

One- third of respondents said they’re likely to toss literally anything that’s “grillable” on the grill.

***

The Fourth of July was the biggest grilling event of the year for 60% of those polled.

TOP 4th OF JULY MAIN DISHES
Hamburgers (68%)
Hot dogs (60%)
Grilled chicken (45%)
Ribs (35%)
Sausages (30%)
Kebabs (18%)
Pulled pork (16%)
Pork chops (15%)

TOP SIDES
Potato salad (56%)
Chips (51%)
Baked beans (50%)
Deviled eggs (37%)
Coleslaw (33%)
Mac and cheese (33%)
Fruit salad (31%)
Broccoli salad (14%)

Check out the whole thing to find out what other summertime sensations made the list

***

DJ Doof - This Date in Music History Version
from thisdayinmusic.com

On this date in 2006: Syd Barrett died from complications arising from diabetes aged 60. The singer, songwriter, guitarist was one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, active as a rock musician for only about seven years before he went into seclusion. He joined Pink Floyd in 1965 but left three years later after one album.

On this date in 1980: Led Zeppelin played their last-ever concert with drummer John Bonham when they appeared at Eissporthalle, West Berlin at the end of a European tour. The set included: 'Black Dog', 'The Rain Song', 'Hot Dog', 'All My Love', 'Trampled Under Foot', 'Since I’ve Been Loving You', 'Kashmir', 'Stairway To Heaven' and 'Rock And Roll'. They finished the show with a 17-minute version of 'Whole Lotta Love'.

Born on this date in 1940: Richard Starkey, ( Ringo Starr, ) drums, vocals, Rory Storm, The Beatles. He sang lead vocals on one track on most Beatles albums

***

Tonight's ONT brought to you by protective vehicles

***

Comments, questions, suggestions, or emotional outbursts? Operators are standing by somewhere to help!

Close it up

Cave Canem Cafe

—Ace

A happy frisky wolf.

Baby elephant is unsteady on the new legs but he's got star power.

The cat's used to displacing other animals, but now he's met his match.

Beach bird bully says "Locals only."

Horse asks his buddy for help.

Whales making all sorts of racket.

I think someone blew pot smoke into this shark's nose.

Stroking the cobra, if you mark my meaning.

A shoebill.

Raptor deep throat.

Grizzly Man II.

Report: Fired USAID and Deep State Operatives Are Planning to Use Their Regime Change/Color Revolution Skills Against Trump

—Ace

Pretty sure this is treason.

Trump Fired Them. Now They're Plotting to Stop Him. Former USAID and State Department officials worried about the future of democracy in America say they're actively organizing to resist Trump, inside and outside of government.

By Jose Pagliery

Some of the democracy-building experts President Donald Trump fired this year from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department are now reapplying the skills and knowledge they built up over decades to undermine Trump's power.

For years, these officials were stationed across the globe actively supporting opposition movements in autocratic nations. Now they've got time, a network of former colleagues and a growing sense of moral indignation.

"Take it from those of us who worked in authoritarian countries: We've become one," said a currently employed federal official, who spoke to NOTUS on condition of anonymity. "They were so quick to disband AID, the group that supposedly instigates color revolutions. But they've done a very foolish thing. You just released a bunch of well-trained individuals into your population. If you kept our offices going and had us play solitaire in the office, it might have been safer to keep your regime."

"Pay us to not work or we'll organize a coup."

Prison for all of them.

The former officials tell NOTUS they're holding workshops on a tactic called "noncooperation." They're building a network of government workers willing to engage in even minor acts of rebellion in the office. And they're planting the seeds of what they hope could become a nationwide general strike.

Some in the informal network of Trump opponents are sharing an old CIA pamphlet with allies who still work in the government: It's called "Simple Sabotage."

"Widespread practice of simple sabotage will harass and demoralize enemy administrators and police," it says. "The saboteur may have to reverse his thinking... where he formerly thought of keeping his tools sharp, he should now let them grow dull; surfaces that formerly were lubricated now should be sanded; normally diligent, he should now be lazy and careless."

The community is composed of diplomats and human rights activists who were once on the U.S. government payroll encouraging Latin American dissidents to fight dictators and supporting African independence movements. They were involved to varying degrees with an ultimately successful uprising in the Middle East.

Some have found post-government work in academia and nonprofits.

No shit.

Others are still looking for jobs.

You don't say.

Several have begun moonlighting as strategic advisers to American activists, protest organizers and,b> federal employees willing to engage in civil disobedience.

One group that has, until this story, remained under the radar but is starting to play a prominent role in this space is "DemocracyAID." It has no website or formal legal entity -- yet. But it's already hosting invite-only workshops with federal employees who hear about them from friends, vetting each person before they're allowed into a trusted circle and teaching them case studies, like the Danish underground insurgency against Nazi occupation. The lesson from Denmark is that what starts as office socializing can morph into trusted networks; seemingly uncoordinated work slowdowns transition into long lunch breaks that annoy the bosses as everyone goes home to "tend to their gardens."

...

DemocracyAID is the brainchild of Danielle Reiff, another former USAID diplomat who retired from government work in late 2024. As Trump targeted her former agency this year, she started a group chat on the encrypted app Signal to "keep the community together."

...

The focus quickly shifted from salvaging the foreign assistance infrastructure to redeploying inside the United States. Reiff and Tucci joined forces, held dozens of meetings, sketched out a general structure and split it up into working groups that concentrate on separate missions like communications and training. They now have 200 volunteers and an Instagram account, @friendsofUSAID, with over 88,000 followers. A recent post shared "5 ways to keep up the momentum" of last month's "No Kings" protests.

Archived article here.

Thanks to comrade Arthur. Sen. Eric Schmitt posted about this so the Senate knows about it, too.

Revealed: The Six-Page Memo That Conned Biden Into Debating Trump Early (So That the Democrat Party Could Force Him Out)

—Ace

Matt Margolis suggested that Biden's staff knew that Biden was declining rapidly, and so their gamble was to schedule the debate as soon as possible and give Biden a week off so that his dying brain could repair a little. They figured that Biden would be worse in July than in June, worse in August than in July, worse in September than in August, etc. So the "best Biden" was the current Biden, and every day they delayed a debate, Biden would be 1-2% more mentally degraded.

So there's that interesting theory, and then there's the older theory that Biden's inner circle wanted to pressure him to leave the race but they could not budge the stubborn vegetable, and figured that he would melt down in the debate so bad that even this brain-dead husk could see it for himself.

I'm not sure which theory is true. It's possible that both are. It could be that Biden's staff knew that he would get worse literally every single day, so current day Biden was as good as Biden was going to get, and also wanted the debate early so that if Biden melted down they would have time to attempt to push Anyone But Kamala into the nomination.

Either way, the memo advising Biden that YOU need to debate as soon as possible to put YOUR campaign in the best position to win has been leaked, and not even to Fake Jake Tapper.

With friends like these: In the ill-fated briefing document, dated April 15, 2024, Biden's senior advisers told him not to wait for the autumn dates proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates -- the first of which, they noted, was scheduled after mail-in ballots would start going out -- but instead to arrange a head-to-head with Trump within a matter of weeks. The memo was obtained by journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, in the process of reporting their new book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," which is out tomorrow.

Read it and weep: "By holding the first debate in the spring, YOU will be able to reach the widest audience possible," Biden's top aides told him -- and by the way, every reference to Biden is written in attention-grabbing all-caps and bold -- "before we are deep in the summer months with the conventions, Olympics and family vacations taking precedence. In addition, the earlier YOU are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see YOU standing next to Trump and showing the strength of YOUR leadership, compared to Trump's weakness and chaos."

Biden was apparently so mentally degraded that he needed to have the word "YOU" written in all-caps bold to get his attention. Democrat memo more like Ace of Spades HTML protocol, am i rite

...

And there's more: The book says support for an early debate was not unanimous among the president's aides, and that Some members of Biden world felt he should not go head-to-head with Trump at all. One unnamed donor called the White House in May, the book reports, "alarmed" by a recent appearance by the president at a Chicago fundraiser, and urged his team to "find an excuse" to get him out of the debates. This was rejected out of hand.

Of course. Biden thinks he's a real fighter and could whoop Trump behind the shack.

Among Biden's many fantastical vanities, his belief that he's some kind of tough-guy All-American pugilist turned out to be his most disastrous.

The whole memo is like this, with the bolded all-cap YOU and YOUR.

I just remembered -- we've seen photos of Biden's briefing notes written in this style. Stuff like: "YOU will walk out on stage when YOU are introduced by the host. YOU will walk ten paces to the podium, then YOU will take out YOUR speech cards and read from them."

MEMO TO BIDEN:

YOUR staff is deliberately sabotaging YOU.

YOU are a semi-ambulatory VEGETABLE. YOU could not debate a CHICKPEA. YOU are a shambling SWAMP HUSK from a 1950s HORROR MOVIE.

YOU are now more MONSTER than MAN.

YOUR brain is rotten and YOUR "memories" are mostly just childhood sports fantasies mixed with half-remembered parts of 70s and 80s action movies. No, YOU did not defeat THUNDERLIPS (The Ultimate Male) at a charity wrestling match. That was ROCKY III.

Please stop saying this. YOU are causing headaches for YOUR staff. We cannot keep fabricating new timelines in which YOU led the Dallas Cowboys to victory in SUPERBOWL VI.

YOU are being set-up to fail so that YOUR presidency can be stolen from YOU and given to Kamala Harris or the GAY NERD.

As Kamala Harris would say, YOU are NOT being Positioned for Success.

Trump May Prosecute Disgraced Ex-Communist CIA Head John Brennan for Perjury

—Ace

Matt Taibbi on the central role John Brennan played in legitimizing Hillary Clinton's completely fake oppo research "dossier" into a product of official US intelligence:

Miranda Devine of the New York Post, who broke the fateful story about Hunter Biden's laptop, has struck again with an exposé on the origins of Russiagate that implicates former intelligence chiefs John Brennan, James Comey, and Jim Clapper in an elaborate fraud. From the story, which is centered on a new CIA report commissioned by John Ratcliffe:

Brennan handpicked the CIA analysts to compile the ICA and involved only the ODNI, CIA, FBI and NSA, excluding 13 of the then-17 intelligence agencies.

He sidelined the National Intelligence Council and forced the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier despite objections of the authors and senior CIA Russia experts, so as to push a false narrative that Russia secured Trump's 2016 victory.

"This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding 'We're going to screw Trump,'" said Ratcliffe in an exclusive interview. "It was, 'We're going to create this and put the imprimatur of an IC assessment in a way that nobody can question it.'"

The CIA report is focused mainly on the publication of the infamous Intelligence Community Assessment of January 6th, 2017, which concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought "to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability" while maintaining a "clear preference for President-elect Trump." Publication of that Intelligence Assessment, which was ordered by Barack Obama on December 6th, 2016 and included material from the infamous Steele dossier, set in motion a series of events that led to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. It was the trigger for years of Russiagate lunacy that consumed Trump's first term.

Racket readers may remember reports I co-authored with Michael Shellenberger and Alexandra Gutentag last February, describing how Brennan, Comey, and Clapper "cooked the intelligence" in that 2017 ICA. For instance, the chiefs suppressed junior analysts' belief that Russia may not have preferred Trump, seeing him as "mercurial," "unreliable," and "not steady," while viewing a possible Clinton presidency as "manageable and reflecting continuity." The notion that the ICA was manipulated isn't new, as Aaron Mate at RealClearInvestigations reported the ICA's preparation "deviated from standard CIA practice," and similar reports came out via former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, current deputy FBI director Dan Bongino, and others.

However, this new report contains a wealth of new details. It's not clear what this may or may not mean for any possible future criminal investigation, but Ratcliffe's CIA investigation fills in a lot of blanks. Some key conclusions:

CIA chief was warned not to include the Steele Dossier

The new CIA report criticizes the intel chiefs for including the Steele Dossier in the report, saying that "ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles" and "undermined the credibility" of his key conclusions. That isn't just a post-factum conclusion, however. The report reveals:

CIA's Deputy Director for Analysis (DDA) warned in an email to Brennan on 29 December that including it in any form risked "the credibility of the entire paper."

Thanks to previous reports (including material from John Brennan's own book Undaunted), it was already known that Brennan not only overruled NSA chief Mike Rogers but "two senior managers for the CIA mission center for Russia" to reach the much-disputed conclusion that Putin "aspired" to help Donald Trump win the election. The new CIA report's inclusion of an email from a senior CIA official specifically warning against use of the Steele Dossier is damning.

Regarding the objections of those two "senior managers," Ratcliffe had more detail:

The two senior leaders of the CIA mission center responsible for Russia argued jointly against including the "aspire" judgment. In an email to Brennan on 30 December, they stated the judgment should be removed because it was both weakly supported and unnecessary, given the strength and logic of the paper's other findings on intent. They warned that including it would only "open up a line of very politicized inquiry."

It's one thing for Ratcliffe to criticize the ICA, but these specific email warnings add significantly to the pile of evidence that the key pillar of Russiagate was manipulated.

Taibbi writes that the FBI only endorsed the fake "intelligence" report because they themselves had predicated their illegal surveillance of Trump on the Steele Dossier -- and were eager to sign up for any report that legitimized their own crimes.

Why the FBI endorsed the ICA

According to the report:

FBI leadership made it clear that their participation in the ICA hinged on the Dossier's inclusion and, over the next few days, repeatedly pushed to weave references to it throughout the main body of the ICA.

This is a significant revelation, because while the NSA expressed only "moderate" confidence in the Intelligence Assessment, the FBI appeared to change its mind.

On October 31, 2016, a week before Obama ordered the ICA written, senior FBI officials told the New York Times in a much-criticized piece called "Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia" that "even the hacking into Democratic emails, F.B.I. and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump." In the first week of December 2016, the FBI and CIA reportedly gave conflicting briefings to Congress on the question. Shortly after, the FBI publicly backed the CIA's interpretation.

The reason for the FBI's turnaround has always been a mystery. The FBI by December 2016 already knew it had an issue with its use of the Steele Dossier to obtain FISA surveillance on Carter Page, and the FBI's lead Trump-Russia investigator Peter Strzok had privately questioned Steele's reliability. By inducing the CIA to throw its weight behind the flawed document (one the CIA itself had pooh-poohed as "internet rumor"), the FBI and Comey gained crucial bureaucratic cover.

And, of course:

It was Brennan all along

From the report:

One business day before IC analysts convened for the only coordination session on the ICA, Brennan sent a note to the CIA workforce stating he had met with the DNI and FBI Director and that "there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our recent Presidential election." While officers involved in drafting the ICA consistently said they did not feel pressured ...Brennan's premature signaling... risked stifling analytic debate.

As has been made clear, there was no "strong consensus" about Russia's intentions among the three agencies. The NSA was lukewarm at best, the FBI gave public statements contradicting the ICA conclusions, and even within the CIA -- even within Brennan's hand-picked group of CIA analysts -- there was serious dissent. Brennan steamrolled that dissent in a number of ways, beginning with this "premature signaling" effort, and moving on to override his own team.

Ratcliffe wrote that "Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness," describing a scene in which he overrode the objections to the Steele Dossier by those two CIA "mission center for Russia" analysts. When confronted, Brennan reportedly said, "My bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report."

Overall, the report looks very bad for the intelligence chiefs Brennan, Comey, and Clapper, who submitted the flawed ICA to the National Intelligence Council just "hours before it was due to be published," as Devine wrote. Those same figures then briefed President-Elect Trump about the ICA's contents, ostensibly to warn him about the possibility of Russian efforts to compromise him. Shortly after, the details of that briefing were leaked to the press. In this manner, the otherwise classified issue of "blackmail" and the pee tape and so on became public, leading to years of the Russiagate circus.

Now Miranda Divine is back with a new report: Brennan mau face perjury charges over his false testimony to Congress, denying his central role in the conspiracy.

John Brennan, the disgraced former Obama CIA director, may have opened himself up to perjury charges after a new email was uncovered in a scathing internal review by CIA career professionals of the agency's 2016 Trump-Russia collusion assessment.

Brennan is said to be under renewed scrutiny by authorities over discrepancies between his sworn testimony to federal investigations and his written orders to underlings conducting the Intelligence Community Assessment commissioned by President Barack Obama in December 2016 that found Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump.

The review, declassified last week, found that Brennan insisted on the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier, over the strong objections of the CIA's two most senior Russia experts, who said it "did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards."
John Brennan testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.

Then-CIA Deputy Director for Analysis (DDA) David Cohen warned in an email to Brennan on December 29 that including the dossier in any form risked "the credibility of the entire paper."

But Brennan "formalized his position in writing, stating that 'my bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.' "

...

Last week's CIA review by the deputy director of analysis found that when Brennan was "confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two [Russia] mission center leaders -- one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background -- he appeared more swayed by the Dossier's general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns."

The decision to include the Steele dossier in the assessment "ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment."

...

Including the dossier reference in the main body of the ICA "implicitly elevated unsubstantiated claims to the status of credible supporting evidence, compromising the analytical integrity of the judgment."

By forcing the dossier into the ICA, the virulently anti-Trump Brennan also elevated the credibility of the vile fictional smear sheet which he had been shopping to Democratic leaders and the press during the 2016 election campaign.

The review found that former FBI Director James Comey also insisted on the dossier's inclusion in the ICA. "FBI leadership made it clear that their participation in the ICA hinged on the Dossier's inclusion and, over the next few days, repeatedly pushed to weave references to it throughout the main body of the ICA."

Again, reinforcing the idea that Comey wanted the Steele Dossier included because the needed it to be legitimized to justify his illegal spying on Trump.

Yet in congressional testimony under oath on May 23, 2017, Brennan claimed the Steele dossier "wasn't part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done."

Now we know that is not true. The Steele dossier was forced into the ICA by Brennan and it appeared not just in the "annex" but was referenced in the main body of the ICA that ended up triggering the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller that crippled the first two years of Trump's first term and served to delegitimize his 2016 election victory.

Brennan continued to play innocent in various media interviews, including those he was paid for as an MSNBC contributor. In 2018, he told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he first heard "just snippets about" the Steele dossier in the "late summer of 2016."

Note: Politi"Fact" says it's "Mostly False" to say John Brennan was a communist.

He merely admits voting for the communist party, that's all.

You liars!

CBS "News" Fears Mass Layoffs Under New Skydance Ownership

—Ace

Won't someone think of the journalists!

[I] can guarantee that the 42-year-old Ellison -- the son of mega-billionaire Larry Ellison of Oracle fame, who is a MAGA supporter of the president -- isn't thinking about the CBS News legacy as he prepares to complete his $8 billion combo.

In fact, from what I hear, continuing in the grand tradition of Murrow, Wallace and Cronkite is not at the top of Ellison's mind because, for one, it ain't so grand any longer, and two (maybe most important), he knows it's a lousy business.

It's not worth the trouble that it generates. We don't even know if it's profitable since Paramount doesn't disclose the news division's P&L statements. Plus, its product has moved so far to the left that it angers more than half the country.

Full disclosure: I don't know David Ellison personally but people I trust do, and they tell me he's substantive, much more than a lucky sperm kid that being Larry's son confers. His independent studio Skydance has produced such recent blockbusters as "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning."

He doesn't get his news from TikTok -- far from it.

For the time being, he wants to keep the news division but also move away from its progressive leanings. (A person close to him says look for investments in "truth-based" news.) He does appreciate the CBS News legacy that he is about to buy -- as long as the numbers are working and he believes they aren't, I am told.

And that's where things could get scary for the news division.

Ellison, I am told, equates CBS with football more than he does with Cronkite. If he's looking to grow stuff, he and his point man in running the new company, former NBCU chief Jeff Shell, are looking at CBS Sports as the tip of the spear.

Everything else is about to get the mother of all efficiency reviews, my sources say.

Layoffs are likely, as are smaller salaries and squeezed budgets.

In Ellison's worldview, CBS News' legacy has cachet but when an anchor like Tony Dokoupil gets upbraided by management -- as he did last year -- for questioning the work of far left author Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Coates' rationalization of the Oct. 7 massacre, something needs to change.

...

If I were in the news division, I would be afraid, very afraid.

One can imagine that part of the reason CBS "News" "journalists" fought the Trump settlement is precisely because they wanted to block the Skydance sale from happening, because they knew the new management would fire their lazy, incompetent hack asses.

Paramount slashed 3.5% of its workforce in June.

And that came after it cut 15% of its workforce in 2024.

The latest cuts come after the media giant slashed about 15% of its workforce last year, part of an effort to trim costs by $500 million and return the company to profitability.

For the first three months of the year, Paramount reported net earnings of $152 million on revenue of $7.1 billion, compared with a loss of $563 million on revenue of $7.6 billion in the year-ago period.

From May: CBS "News" may get rid of Leslie Stahl and Scott Pelley.

Staffers are now speculating whether Pelley and Stahl will be the next to go, following the exit of former 60 Minutes showrunner Bill Owens last month.

Both correspondents had made their loyalty to McMahon and Owens known, as the network continues to navigate the president's suit.

Meanwhile, at CNN and ABC "News:"