Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: The Most Pro-American Movies of the 21st Century (to date)
—Open Blogger
On this 250th Independence Day, I thought it would be fun to revisit three films that came out in the 21st century that reflected the most positively on this great and glorious nation. There's a thread running through all this, which is probably really obvious. If you're not drunk, it'll probably leap out like a firework with a surprisingly short fuse.
You don't even have to be a great detctive to figure this one out.
Released widely in the spring of 2006, this Roger Donaldson (Species, Dante's Peak) biopic tells the story of Burt Munro, a kiwi who (on hearing he has serious heart disease and little time left) mortgages his house and grabs a ship (he cooks and cleans to earn his passage) to Long Beach, California with an idea of getting to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to race his Indian (a motorcycle made in Springfield, Massachusetts) and break the world land speed record.
After a rough start in Los Angeles, he's helped out by Tina, a friendly transvestite (Chris Williams, brother of Vanessa, "Dwight" from Dodgeball), buys a junker from Fernando (Paul Rodriguez), who accepts repayment in the form of quick tune-ups, is saved from a breakdown by Jake (a Native American played by Saginaw Grant of the Ridiculous 6), has a one-night stand with Ada (Diane Ladd) and finally makes it to the Flats where he is immediately disqualified before he can enter for not registering on time and for having a motorcycle that's essentially hand-made on the cheap with no safety devices.
The obscure Kiwi is saved through the bold actions of a wired-in white guy who browbeats the officials into letting Burt race where he breaks the speed of sound, then the speed of light, and crashes into the 8th Dimensions to fight Lectroids with Buckaroo Banzai.
OK, maybe not that last part.
But Walton Goggins is in it. So it's got that going for it. (Which is nice.)
Actually, maybe not any of it: In real life Munro knew exactly what he was doing, had no time for charming side-quests, wasn't in poor health particularly, and was legendary at the Flats.
Great movie, though. Hopkins performance was true enough to make the Munro family cry. Composer J. Peter Robinson ("Charmed", Wayne's World) channels Thomas Newman and other turn-of-the-century movie composers effectively. The cinematography is gorgeous and the color-coding is spot on. Mornings in New Zealand are pastoral blue, the roads in America are amber-waves-of-grain, and the salt flats are white hot.
Some of this doesn't play the same in 2026. The aggressively diverse encounters Burt has stick out now in a way they didn't twenty years ago. Even though the intention here is to showcase Burt's general laid back attitude, in today's world it can feel overengineered.
Still, fine film. Wherever Burt goes, there's an American who wants to help.
Just don't call him a POHMie.
Schultze Gets The Blues
An old German salt-miner retires and finds himself with nothing to do but play polkas and cough ominously. One day, while avoiding a report on lung cancer on the radio, he stumbles across zydeco music which, in true Teutonic fashion, he shrugs off. But then, shocka: He turns back to it, listens to it for a while, picks up his accordion and plays it by ear.
The dance hall scenes are adorable. The people can't stop looking at the camera.
This becomes a kind of obsession—and you know I love movies about obsessed guys, right?—and he decides to try to raise the money to go to the swamps of America where the music is made. This involves a lot of low paying jobs to cover the ever-increasing fare.
His playing gets negative reactions from most of the townsfolk, but a core group really enjoys it, and because Schultze's a likable guy, they manage to get Schultze to represent them at the traditional German music festival in their sister city in Texas.
So it's an hour into the movie before we get to America, but it looms as a presence throughout. Schultze's quarrelsome friends (one Prussian, the other Saxon) talk about "the Yanks" dismissively, but they envy Schultze and his escape to the New World. They presume he's getting rich and famous and probably lucky and he'll forget all about them. The Americans are nice, they concede.
Schultze, after the traditional music conference, gets himself a rundown houseboat to sail into the swamps to find the home of zydeco. All along the way he encounters people who are eager to help him out, offering guidance, resources, dancing, food, all around a loose theme of "You like music? I like music! We should hang out!" And this when Schultze can barely say "music".
I can (and someday might) do an extensive post on how this film was shot. Each sequence is: The camera is set down, often at a medium-long distance, and the action plays out in front of it. It never moves. Even when attached to a vehicle, it stays fixed staring back at the passengers. At 48 minutes, it swivels about 90 degrees—from Schultze and his friends to the mysterious and sexy Lisa, a waitress who performs an impromptu Flamenco dance to dramatize unplugging the newfangled electronic slot machine.
It's got none of the slick camera movement of Indian and there's no color correction or enhancement. When Lisa does her Flamenco dance, she is wearing a drab tan skirt and dark brown sweater. There are elements of Tati here, and a Wes-Anderson-without-the-twee sense of humor that makes me laugh to beat the band. And it makes me want to take a crummy houseboat into the swamps of Louisiana.
This is apparently a genre called "European Deadpan".
Detective Chinatown 2
At the opposite end from these earlier films is Detective Chinatown 2. I did a full review when I saw it the first time, but it's interesting to revisit it now after the coof swallowed Detective Chinatown 3 and its sequel Detective Chinatown 1900 didn't get an American release either. (There is a spin-off television series of the original movie called "Detective Chinatown". There's also a spin-off series of this movie called, naturally, "Detective Chinatown 2". They do not feature the actors from the movies, nor do they feature the main detective from the movies, but a different actor plays the comic sidekick, who I guess is the real catalyst for the stories. They are not comedies, and I don't understand Asian television.)
While World's Fastest Indian is a big-budget, carefully constructed Hollywood fantasy, and Schultze Gets The Blues is practically cinema verité when it gets to America (the director just dropped actor Horst Krause into situations with whoever was there, and Krause didn't speak much English), DC2 is just trying like crazy to make you laugh and feel good.
It reminds me of Mel Brooks or Benny Hill. There are mobs chasing the heroes through the streets of New York, tough motorcycle gangs with a romantic streak, sassy Chinese bureaucrats, cartoonishly broad racial stereotypes, and an undercover scene where our three heroes dress in nurse drag.
Subtlety is not the watchword here.
New York City in DC2 is like Paris in Amelie: There's no sign of graffiti, dog droppings, vagrants—even the crime is stylish and in good fun. When the boys go to a school to check out the number one suspects, all of a sudden the walls are completely plastered with the most aesthetic graffiti imaginable. (Set deisgn!)
Even though there's a shockingly grim set of crimes underneath it all, it's done with the kind of tone-switching the Asians do (on the whole) way better than the West. The final chase scene is reminiscent of Ferris Beuller's Day Off, as the three heroes on the lam rush to stop a grisly murder, riding in a horse-drawn carriage and leading their pursuers in an impromptu parade, while Taylor Swift's "Welcome To New York" plays.
It's so utterly un-PC, it's one of the best times I've had in a theater in ten years.
Yes, this is also how I do stealth missions.
American Exceptionalism
The common thread between all three movies, if you haven't picked it up, is that all three are based around the perspectives of foreigners of this great land of ours. If we look at @FreddieLa7's adventures, among many similar cases, we find that not only are these foreigners' views accurate, they're understated if anything.
While awful things happen every day, we are overly focused on them. The fact is, a country like this doesn't just happen: It exists because every day, ordinary people go out of their way to help others. Part of this is our tremendous affluence. But American hospitality goes back to Plymouth Rock. It is perhaps our greatest inheritance.
Sometimes it takes an outsider to remind us of that.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) is feeling explosive. It spun and spun and landed on a fireworks theme for this Hobby Thread.
Fireworks are not exclusively an American thing. Other countries certainly have fireworks traditions, but seems like America embraces fireworks as an integral part of its culture. Fireworks are 'murica.
It is because we reject the paternalistic instinct to abstain from anything that might involve risk? Does the feint whiff of danger make fireworks irresistible? Is it because Americans have space to blow things up? Is it because we like fire and explosions? Is it because we have a fascination with flight and space, so we like sending things into the air to put on a show? Is it because fireworks are democratized in a sense - accessible to individual people and not restricted to "official" displays?
Dunno. The emergency rooms of the nation can testify that fireworks present peril for the unwary. Not all fireworks, however, inherently flirt with disaster. Sparklers? Snakes? Fun for the whole family!
What fireworks are your favorites? Have you stocked up for the holiday? Have you ever made your own? What large scale displays are memorable? Do you have childhood memories of fireworks?
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Firework delivery vehicle:
Not those fireworks? Oh well... Never mind (but I've been waiting to use the photo).
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What are you hobbying?
The thread is not limited to to the theme. Anything (legal) you are hobbying is welcome. Even if the theme does not speak to you, you might learn something. If not, find something else or offer something else relating to hobbying. If all of that fails, just check in and say hello.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Leave politics and religion to threads elsewhere (unless your hobby is building or restoring churches). Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Are you wise in the ways of Zambelli?
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Time for science:
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Flying a drone through a fireworks show:
Don't try this at home.
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How does a synchronized fireworks show come together? Glad you asked.
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There are many videos across the interweb of stupid people doing stupid things with fireworks. Those will not be appearing in this content. But... was anyone in San Diego in 2012 when all the fireworks were set off within 15 seconds?
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Sydney's New Year's fireworks show on the bridge is one of the biggest each year:
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Check out the Nagaoka Fireworks festival in Japan each August:
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Drone shows are a related but separate concept. I was going to leave them out, but "explosive laden quadcopter" earned a spot in the content.
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The scale modelers of the group that make race cars should love this:
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Did some of the flyover activity yesterday pass low and slow above TRex HQ? Yes. Yes it did. It did not suck.
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an flight simulator theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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Reminder: if you put links in the comments, use a URL shortener and describe what you're linking to. Failing to do either or both makes you barrel-eligible. Don't make people click to find out what you're linking.
Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
Worried about the safety of your pets around fireworks? We have already had two nights of fireworks in the neighborhood and our remaining little dog seems to be okay as long as he is indoors. Not like some of our other dogs, the biggest of whom hid in the bathtub in the only room in the house without a window.
Any tips for helping our furry or feathered friends?
Here's another tip:
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Meet The PetMorons
We are missing photos for some PetMorons for which we have descriptions! Time to get some pets to pose! If I missed any, let me know.
On the home front, we had a tiny kitty show up and shoulder its way among the older kittens who were presented by their mama not long ago. I need to take photos of them, too!
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PetMoron Adjacent Animals
Encountered by Members of The Horde
A bit late for today's garden thread, but this afternoon my wife took a few photos of a robin in our driveway killing and eating a DeKay's brown snake! They're pretty small, so I guess it's not that different from a big earthworm?
Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar, June 20
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Amazing photos!
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Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar, July 3, from Hawaii
I have not managed to acquire many quality photos of the islands diverse fauna yet, and some of my best involve, of all things, feral chickens, which freely roam the island, including the streets of Honolulu.
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Hawaii
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Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
I closed the comments on that post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway. Been considering a pet spider since last week?
Some are not as colorful as last week's specimens but can be distinctive.
Happy Independence Day! I think the Cleome flowers above sort of resemble fireworks.
Hi KT!
The sunflowers are growing so tall in this heat. The one below is way above my head and is almost ready to bloom although the flowers will be very hard to see without a ladder
Other summer flowers are just now blooming. The cleome or spider flowers are something I started from seed this spring.
The bee balm is full of bees, as advertised
The gray headed cone flowers have just started to bloom. Yellow finches love them!
Hope you have a wonderful Independence Day!
Mrs. Leggy
Well, the birds and bees are loving your yard! Can't wait for those big sunflowers!
Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar and his wife have moved to Hawaii, and send us a recipe idea to remind us of where they are:
As a 100% pureblooded cracker, let me offer everyone a friendly, culturally-appropriated "aloha" now that I'm fully moved and integrated on these conquered isles. . .
We will be posting many of their photos in the future, but for today, "a culinary abomination guaranteed to traumatize CBD's food thread (and give diabetes to anyone even gazing upon it)"
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Hi,
I have had this strawberry plant for 3 yrs now. It produces smaller berries but sweet ones. I would like to know, do I cut off the stems where the berries grew or leave them? I can't remember them being so strong or apparent in the last couple of years?
Thank you for a wonderful gardening thread.
Sidney
Are these regular strawberries, alpine or wild strawberries?
Any cultivation instruction from those with experience?
FOODS FROM THE AMERICAS
Growing corn this year? How about popcorn? What is your favorite type?
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I keep imagining how someone one day pulled this out of the ground and had the idea to eat it
eu fico imaginando como alguém um dia tirou isso da terra e teve a ideia de comer pic.twitter.com/NkLgWgmISL
— out of context brazil (@oocbrazill) July 3, 2026
Are you a fan?
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Landscapes
From George V:
A few days ago the sunny humid day brought some pop-up showers and thunderstorms in the late afternoon to our home in southeast Michigan. With the sun low in the sky we were treated to magnificent sun showers as the storms pulled away. I was in our sun room out back watching it rain and as the last storm moved out it left a little rainbow that just spanned our back yard. I ran inside as quick as I could to get my phone. I was able to get a picture through our family room window just before it faded away. It was truly wonderful to see, and felt sort of like a blessing.
W0w. What a great thing!
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"The countryside is not a slice of untilled nature. It is a human institution built over centuries in the image of the people who made it."
I was just a kid. I wore an Uncle Sam costume my mom made, and my sister was Lady Liberty, complete with torch. My dad helped me rig up this old heavy wood-sided cart, and I painted each side with American flags. The cart was on hard rubber casters and didn’t move too good, but I…
— William M Briggs - Statistician to the Stars! (@FamedCelebrity) July 2, 2026
I remember community celebrations on ordinary Independence Days, too. How about you?
In particular, a person who will remain nameless here (with whom I had gone to a community program and who was featured on that program) accidentally stepped off the stage into a tub of watermelons at the park. Memorable!
The Cherokee Indians, allied with the British, launch a massive attack all along the western frontier, from Virginia to Georgia, against Patriot-held villages.
The 250th has once again brought the Declaration back into view, and much good can come of that fact, if we are willing and able to embrace it fully, courageously, with a willingness to hear what it is telling us. Let me try to suggest in what follows some of the ways the Declaration can be used as a tool to correct, reorient, and sharpen our sense of what is foundational to our way of life. Some of this work will involve correcting inaccurate notions of what the Declaration actually said.
First of all, it is vitally important to remember that the Declaration began by referring to the colonists for whom it spoke as a “people,” who were “entitled” to a “separate and equal status” by the laws of nature and “Nature’s God.” Those words formed the basis for all that follows. It was the “peoplehood” of the Americans, their sense of belonging together in their own separate land, that formed the basis for their declaring their independence. It did not come from their acceptance of some misty notion of America as “an idea” whose time has come, and which happens to have touched down from the heavens first in this particular place.
That the Declaration has universal implications, and has found favor all over the world as one of the great charters of human liberty, is certainly true; but it does not change the immediate context in which the Declaration emerged: as an expression of an important moment of self-recognition in the life of this particular political community. With the Declaration we declared ourselves to ourselves, proposing that we were now a distinct people among the peoples of the earth. “Something we were withholding made us weak,” wrote Robert Frost, “Until we found out that it was ourselves / We were withholding from our land of living.” The Declaration laid a foundation for the new thing that we were becoming. It was a declaration grounded in national solidarity, in the right of a people to define themselves and govern themselves.
After you read (or listen to) this piece, you might want to read Buck Throckmorton's Morning Rant from yesterday again, and listen to the music at the end. The rant also suggests the right of a people to define themselves and govern themselves. And the rant gives meaning to the music.
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Weekend
Powerline has some good posts for the weekend, including their annual post on the address by Calvin Coolidge celebrating the 150 anniversary. The address features the Declaration of Independence.
Move over Sydney Sweeney: America has a new heroine perfectly fitted to the July 4 semiquincentennial today: She is Sophie Cunningham, Sophie being an adaptation of sophia, the ancient Greek word for wisdom. And sort of like Helen of Troy, our Sophie has launched a thousand memes. So as we celebrate today the sophia of our founding, let Sophie help point the way!
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over (Rulz for those of you in Bunker Hill)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate away.
2) Some people need to be reminded, be nice. Be kind.
3) Running with sharp objects takes away from the concentration required to detonate the fireworks.
4) Have a wonderful Independence Day celebration. Happy Birthday America!!!!
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
4/3 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. Her chemo seems to be holding things steady for now. Unfortunately, as she is receiving a steroid, she has gained about 25 pounds. Her blood sugar has also jumped up about 40 points (which only happens when she is on steroids).
6/1 Update – Teresa had a CT scan and has seen the surgeon. Everything looks good/stable. There are no new tumors and the ones that are there have pretty much stayed the same or shrunk. No metastises seen. Additional good news is that she can stay on the current medication, and just alternate it with other meds. She continues to respond extremely well to the protocols. She sends her gratitude for each and every prayer.
6/19 – Teresa in Fort Worth sent an update. Her cancer marker numbers continue to go down; hopefully that means everything is working! In other news, she has started working on another stocking, this time for her grandson, who will be implanted soon via IVF. Prayers for a successful procedure and pregnancy would be greatly appreciated!
5/16 – Tonypete asked for prayers for Jane who is dying of breast cancer, and for Cheri who is in jail (again) for drug related crimes.
6/13 Update – Jane and her husband have sold their home and have moved back to Green Bay, to be with family when she dies.
5/20 – D gave an update on his wife Susan and her continued battle with cancer. Her cancer markers are still headed in the right direction. She is on a new antibiotic, and it is causing some side effects, but it is keeping her out of another surgery, so that is a win. Thanks again to everyone for their prayers. May 1 marked one year since they found out about the cancer, and Susan is doing so well.
6/24 Update – Everything is going well. The chemo seems to be working, but it’s very hard. The prayers help, so please keep praying for them.
5/23 – I used to have a Different Nic could use some prayers as he waits for the results of a biopsy of a mass on his prostate.
6/2 Update – I used to have a Different Nic sent in an update. He has been diagnosed with risk group 2 prostate cancer. It appears to be localized to the prostate but this will be verified via another scan. He has doctor appointments lined up for the next month or so before he starts treatment.
6/23 Update – The latest update is that he has stage 2, “unfavorable intermediate”, which he notes is an awful name, but what it means is, it is in the middle, but bad enough that they want to treat it. It’s more aggressive than previously thought. He is at the point where he has to decide on treatment options, which means choosing which set of pretty unfortunate side effects he prefers.
5/26 – Doof posted a request for prayers for his mom. She is back in the hospital. She is very weak from one or more infections, and is sleeping a lot. She isn’t really talking when she is alert for a few minutes.
6/14 Update – Doof’s mother passed away.
5/29 – Bulg requested prayers for his sister, her husband, their four children, and the rest of the family as his sister is dying. She is in palliative care in the hospital, with a lot of blood clots, and is not expected to last long.
6/14 Update – Bulg’s sister passed away on 6/14. They all could use prayers of comfort.
6/9 – “A” requested prayers for a long-time friend now suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, who just fell and broke his hip. He came out of the anesthetic really confused. His wife and family also need prayers of support and strength to help him.
6/13 – Dash my lace wings asked for prayers for a friend named Lisa, who was diagnosed with liver duct cancer. She has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks and is afraid she will never leave.
6/20 Update – Lisa has been allowed to go home for hospice care. Cancer has metastasized throughout her body; this looks like the end for her.
6/27 Update – Lisa passed on 6/22, at home, in the presence of family. Thank you for your prayers.
6/13 – Tonypete requested prayers for an acquaintance (B), who has destroyed every relationship she has ever been a part of and spreads hate and torment to everyone around her.
6/18 – buzzion asked for prayers for a friend named Christina, who has struggled with drug addiction and is in jail again. Buzzion prays that this really is rock bottom and a true wake-up call for her – even if it requires her to stay in jail.
6/29 Update – Christina’s family bonded her out of jail and she has checked into a rehab facility. Please pray that she gets the help she needs.
6/20 – bluebell gave an update on grammie Winger. Grammie had some major surgery related to her cancer in March and is pretty much housebound. She said she isn’t keeping up on news since her diagnosis; she doesn’t have the energy. She said she thinks of her grey-box friends often with fondness. Please keep praying for her. Your prayers are a source of great comfort to her.
6/27 Update – grammie winger requested bluebell to let the Horde know that she is hospitalized again, with sepsis, and cannot eat or walk. She is very tired and cannot speak for long. She is being fed by tube. They don’t know how long she will be hospitalized or where she will go after (rehab, hospice, etc.). Bluebell has a mailing address for grammie, so please contact bluebell to send a card or note to grammie winger. Please pray for her, that her suffering will be eased, and pray for her family, who are suffering along with her.
6/20 – Polliwog the ‘Ette said that prayers for Inspector would be much appreciated. Inspector is still in the hospital. They are working on getting his strength up so it’s safe for him to go home. He is more alert and focused than when he was admitted, and he has been able to eat multiple full meals, which is an improvement and will help him continue to improve.
6/21 – B posted a request for prayers. He said that, due to his own shortcomings, and a moment of madness 6 years ago, B has been estranged from his two sons (age 41 and 36). He has tried to reach out and apologize to them over the past 6 years, to no avail. B asked the Horde to pray for their hearts to open, to allow him to properly apologize, and try to be the father he should have been. The boys are losing their mother to early-onset Alzheimers, and B needs them to know that he’s a better person today than he was then, and he can be counted on.
6/27 – Tom Servo posted prayers of thanks to God that his 38 year-old daughter, who was released from a psych hospital this week after a particularly bad breakdown. She has 2 children, which she does not have custody of, but she still sees, and they are wonderful. She has received more professional care, and it appears to have helped quite a bit. She has new medication and a new commitment to living in a way that will keep her from making a return trip to the hospital.
6/27 – George V sent his thanks to the Horde for their prayers. We had prayed for his wife in May, when she had a heart valve replacement, and there were indications of problems in her lymph nodes. She received the biopsy results, and both came back negative for cancer! Thank God for his goodness!
6/27 – “A” sent thanks for the prayers for a family friend, who is at home recovering with the family and doing much better. “A” has an additional request for long-time friends (J and S) who are in the midst of intense family problems and requesting healing, peace, repentance, and restoration in the family.
7/3- Isophrone Blog requests prayers for his parents, they are both elderly and in failing health.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
Allegedly. BLERK stands for "Big Last-Level Cache" and is Intel's answer to AMD's X3D parts. 65W stands for, probably, about 150W. (AMD's 65W parts use 89W peak, for comparison.)
It's a compact system measuring 8"x8"x3", and features Radeon 7600 XT graphics (a little faster than the Steam Machine's 7600M), and a Ryzen 7940HX CPU, which is dramatically faster than the semi-custom processor in the Steam Machine.
What it doesn't have is any memory (apart from the 8GB on the graphics card) or storage. Well, I assume it's 8GB; I doubt they've included a 16GB card.
A dog was found dying on the side of the road with two broken legs (due to being hit by a car). A woman rescues her and names her Faith and Faith will walk again.
Cute story about a couple whose dog died -- but then a neighbor's dog, who apparently wasn't well-loved, began digging under the fence to visit the other couple.
Oh: And anti-MAGA bullies -- trantifa types -- are ending up in jail over their retarded Droog hyperviolence.
I linked this before: An angry Karen has road rage and physically assaults a man, and then discovers why, historically, women have generally not physically assaulted men.
I didn't like Pete Holmes superhero parody stuff because I'm a self-hating nerd who hates when people pander to me with nerdy shit I'm supposed to like.
But then I watched his great impression of Bale Batman and was won over.
Here are his original "Badman" sketches. Most of them are so-so, but there are two must watches. The one at the beginning of that series shows Batman trying out a lot of bad voices, including celebrity impressions, as his "Bat-Voice."
The other great one I linked a few months ago -- it's the climax of The Dark Knight Rises, and Talia al-Ghul wants to explain her evil plot to him, but Batman just wants to keep bragging that he banged her.
The best ones are Cyborg (despite how lame that character is), "the Batman," and Superman. The Joker one is okay. The Aquaman one is lame, as is the Wonder Woman one.
But for the outtakes, the Wonder Woman one is the best. They really left all their best jokes on the cutting room floor, maybe because they kept laughing at them. Other good outtakes ones include Cyborg again (which has a joke I guess they considered too dark and disturbing for the official video), Superman, and "The Batman."
You might want to watch the Wonder Woman video, as lame as it is, just as a set-up for the very funny outtakes video. Batman is #Based. "It's amazing I haven't gotten canceled yet," he says.
THE MORNING RANT: Independence Day and (Repeatedly) Stolen Lands
—Buck Throckmorton
It’s sad that Independence Day is a national day of mourning for the American left. This year it’s especially tough for them, since the celebration is even grander due to this being the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
My local paper is honoring the semiquincentennial by running a different story every day which highlight reasons for their shame about being American. In the past week, the featured stories have included slavery, lynchings, the slave trade, the KKK, and segregation. There is no triumph in those stories about what was overcome under the stars and stripes either, just pure venom at what a sinister country this is.
But it’s long been this way. For decades it’s made me sad that the left couldn’t stop hating on America for even one day of the year, but they can’t. I recall listening to the NPR station back in the late ‘90s, and it’s Independence Day coverage was heavily focused on injustices and land theft committed against Native Americans and Mexicans. I fully understood that NPR was providing emotional support to its listeners on a very difficult day. Those of us patriotically celebrating the USA have always caused emotional distress to the left.
Because Democrats are desperately fixated on this country being built on stolen land, they’ll never accept the U.S. as being a legitimate country to take pride in. At this point, all we on the right can do is laugh at them and hope their fervent anti-patriotism propels their party into further disrepute.
At the recent Texas Democratic Convention, it opened with, what else, a land acknowledgement to the native Karankawa Indians. This is what attendees heard: “I would also like to acknowledge that we gather on the traditional homelands of the indigenous peoples of the coastal bend and the area known as Corpus Christi. The Karankawa were the people of Corpus Christi Bay.”
Now listen, I’m a guy who believes it’s imperative to celebrate the good and de-emphasize the bad in those who came before us and helped shape this country, but the Karankawa were so rough that even the “civilized tribes” kept their distance.
The Texas Democrat Convention kicks off with, what else, but a land acknowledgement…for cannibals!
The Tonkawas of Central Texas allied with and fought alongside white settlers because the Tonkawas were sandwiched between the Karankawas to the southeast and the Comanches to the northwest. History is complicated, but land acknowledgements aren’t. They are simple, no-cost outlets for white guilt.
But speaking of stolen land - in the great 19th century battles on the Texas frontier between white settlers and Comanches, both sides were fighting over stolen land that neither were native to. The Comanches had been a small, weak Shoshone tribe in the Mountain West until they acquired horses and moved east, creating the powerful “Comancheria empire in the southern plains by displacing the Apaches. The indispensable Traces of Texas provides an account from “Comanche Empire” on the Comanche colonization of the plains:
They came to the plains from the west, slipping through the canyon passes of the Sangre de Cristo Range in small, roving bands. Like so many other native groups of the age, the Numunu moved to the great continental grasslands seeking new opportunities, to build a new way of life around the emerging ecological triad of grasses, bison, and horses. They were few in number, possessed little wealth beyond a handful of mounts, and seemed indistinguishable from their more prominent allies, the Utes. New Mexico's Spanish officials noted their arrival to the southern grasslands in 1706 and wrote it off as a minor event. Yet by midcentury, the Numunu, now called Comanches, had unhinged the world they had almost unnoticeably entered.
Despite its modest beginnings, the Comanche exodus to the southern Plains is one of the key turning points in early American history. It was a commonplace migration that became a full-blown colonizing project with far-reaching geopolitical, economic, and cultural repercussions. It set off a half-century long war with the Apaches and resulted in the relocation of Apacheria ---- a massive geopolitical entity in its own right ---- from the grasslands south of the Rio Grande, at the very center of northern New Spain. The Comanche invasion of the southern plains was, quite simply, the largest and bloodiest conquering campaign the American West had witnessed ---- or would witness until the encroachment of the United States a century and a half later.
But the Comanche invasion was far more than a military conquest. As they made a place for themselves in the southern plains, Comanches formed a series of alliances with the adjacent Indians and European powers, rearranging the political and commercial geography of the entire lower midcontinent. Seen from another angle, the Comanche invasion was a momentous cultural experiment. It brought death and destruction to many, but it also introduced a new, exhilarating way of life ---- specialized mountain bison hunting ---- to the Great Plains, irrevocably altering the parameters of human existence on the vast grasslands that covered the continent's center. Finally, Comanche arrival to the southern plains was a major international event: it marked the beginning of the long decay of Spain's imperial power in what is today the American Southwest. The Comanche conquest of the southern Great Plains was a watershed event that demolished existing civilizations, recalibrated economic systems, and triggered shock waves that reverberated across North America.
The most famous story that came from the clash between whites and Comanches was the kidnapping of young Cynthia Ann Parker in 1836. She spent over 24 years with the Comanches before being recaptured in 1860 by Texas Rangers. (The movie “The Searchers” is about her recapture.) Cynthia Ann had married chief Pete Nocona and by now she only knew the Comanche way of life. She never fully readjusted to white society. As if her story wasn’t remarkable enough, her son Quanah Parker became a legendary warrior and was the last great leader of the Comanches before being re-settled on a reservation.
While that story is painful, something special has happened in ensuing decades that is uniquely American. Both sides of the Parker family have found common ground in their shared heritage, and family reunions are now attended by white and Comanche family members.
“Our symbolism is to offer water and tobacco,” [Tina Parker Emhoolha] explained. The girls placed the offerings, and Emhoolah broke a stick to symbolize an end to any lingering resentment or blame “for what happened here on that day.” Everyone bowed their heads.
If any onlookers had stumbled upon the scene, they might have questioned grieving for a tragedy almost two centuries past. But it was the origin myth and original wound of the family standing around the marker. The raid of 1836 led to Quanah’s birth, a blending of Comanche and Anglo bloodlines, and the complicated identity the Parkers carry today.
*****
The special culture and nation that emerged in the United States once its borders were finalized included white settlers, Native Americans, freedmen of African heritage, Tejanos, Cajuns, and others. There was both good and bad in all those clans and cultures. We generally adopted the best from each culture, and there is no need to feel shame about the worst aspects of any culture or incidents in our history. It all came together to make this country great.
In that spirit, our friend James Hooker (Nancy Griffith’s band leader and a founding member of the Amazing Rhythm Aces) has put out a timely song as America faces adversaries who seek to rip this country apart. Here is his song for Independence Day, “Calling All the Clans Together.” We have an amazing country. It’s worth fighting for.
Happy Anniversary, America! I wrote this in 2009 - I think! Getting started a little early on this, but...... Y'all pass it around if you like. "CALLING ALL THE CLANS TOGETHER" pic.twitter.com/5D0hRM8z0x
— James Hooker - "The Fastest Man In Pompeii" (@THE_JamesHooker) June 7, 2026
On her social media, Chevalier had bragged about being a Communist and praised Stalin. Now she’ll be a full-time government employee while wielding power over the lives of millions, but it would not have happened without the intersection of pro-terrorist activism and socialism. . . Democrats welcoming their first “Death to America” congresswoman is certainly a trend of sorts.
After Mamdani’s three endorsed candidates, including Chevalier, who oppose Israel and support Islamic terrorism, won, former VP Kamala Harris called to congratulate the Islamic politician and ask him for tips about breathing some life into her own flailing 2028 presidential campaign. . . Oct 7, like Occupy Wall Street or Black Lives Matter, had become a social contagion and a hysterical cause that could be used to recruit a new army of political foot soldiers for the far Left. Riots and clashes blooded them, social media confrontations indoctrinated them and now they’re moving into higher office on behalf of the DSA. . .What is happening is that the Democrats are disintegrating into a radical party even while losing more of the country. The DSA isn’t becoming popular so much as Democrats are becoming so hollowed out that even small groups of pro-Hamas activists can take over the party.
That’s bad news for America, but it’s even worse news for the Democratic Party.
this is not merely about Jews and Israel. In the view of this freak and really everyone like her is that Israel is the little Satan but America is the Great Satan! That was is and always will be the central motivating factor not merely of the DSA but of the Democrat Party as a whole, as it has always been ever since Aaron Burr slaughtered Alexander Hamilton in 1804 and ever since. It cannot be said enough but everything wrong with this country, all the pain, suffering, misery, dislocation and the wastage of blood treasure and human potential is directly the fault of or has been exacerbated by the will to power of the Democrat/Left, period full stop. Since losing the Civil War which they initiated in order to perpetuate slavery, they have done everything they could to seize power even if it meant glomming onto Satan himself to bring this nation down. No evil, perversion or lie was too horrendous to embrace if it got them a fraction of an inch closer to their goals. Even to this day is is evidenced by who and what is the driving force of what once supposedly was one of the two mainstream political parties of the USA. I still marvel how a Gus Hall/Angela Davis boosting card-carrying communist could ever have become a CIA agent let alone rise to head that agency itself. Meh, look who hired him, a dog-eating anti-American Muslim Commie whose principal booster was William Ayers, a man who fantasized about wiping out 25 million people who refused to accept a Weather/Underground run America once he and his cohorts seized power. That might have been back in 1968 but it was only a week or so ago where we had a story about a Democrat candidate who supported the mass roundup of ICE agents and Zionists and their forced castration.
Nearly one-third of Democrats favor political leaders who identify as democratic socialists, according to a new poll, as recent primary victories by self-described democratic socialists have drawn renewed attention to the Democratic Party’s ideological direction. The Pew Research Center survey comes after democratic socialist candidates scored a series of high-profile Democratic primary victories in recent weeks, including last week’s victories in New York City and Tuesday’s upset of 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) by Democratic Socialist candidate Melat Kiros in Colorado, highlighting the movement’s recent electoral momentum.
On that very sour note, we're still standing. But for how much longer? Was the election of President Trump a harbinger or was it merely a speed bump on the road to Hell? And what of the coming of the DSA? Was that a speed bump on our way back on the road to American renewal or is that GOD FORBID a harbinger?
We'll have to wait and see, I suppose and with that I bid you all...
Have a wonderful July 4th Independence Day weekend.
Wait till you get a load of the hypocrisy at work here… “Minnesota officials, including Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, last month pardoned an illegal immigrant who was previously convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl and who was slated to be deported,” reports Fox News. Tou Lue Vang, a 42-year-old Laos national, “was convicted in 2006 of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Between 2002 and 2006, he repeatedly sexually assaulted the girl.” (Credibly suspected pedophile) Gov. Tim Walz Pardons Illegal Immigrant Who Sexually Abused Child for Years
The detained suspects now face immigration proceedings. The raid highlights ongoing federal efforts to enforce immigration laws and combat fraudulent employment practices. In September, deportation proceedings commenced against hundreds of South Korean illegal workers caught working at a taxpayer-funded construction site in Georgia, with White House Border Czar Tom Homan stressing that “companies that hire illegal aliens… undercut the competition of paying U.S. citizen salaries.” ICE Detains Over 30 Suspects for Identity Fraud in a Single Factory Raid. (padlock the factory and arrest the damn owner! - jjs)
Iran’s move to seize Tehran’s historic St. Peter Evangelical Church and evict the 20 families who live there makes one thing clear: Whoever’s actually in charge of the Islamic Republic is just as radical as the previous cadre. The regime’s action clashes directly with President Donald Trump’s claim that the new mullahs are “very rational people,” “not radicalized” like their predecessors in office. No: It’s a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Iran has made it perfectly clear that the same old sick regime is still in charge
The number of foreign-born people in the labor force fell by 700,000 from June of last year, dropping from 32.6 million to 31.9 million, according to data released Thursday by the Department of Labor. The foreign-born civilian population fell by 571,000, from 49.1 million to 48.6 million. That marks a significant reversal from the labor market of recent years, when a surge of immigration under the Biden administration rapidly expanded the foreign-born Trump Effect: The U.S. Workforce Is Becoming More American
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM
The allegations have sparked calls for greater scrutiny of ELI’s judicial education programs and its historical collaborations with Chinese entities, citing concerns around ideological indoctrination. Critics argue that such partnerships may have facilitated knowledge-sharing that disproportionately benefits China’s energy and industrial interests. Green Group Training US Judges Has Links to CCP.
AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS
In September 2021, former [so-called quote-unquote] President Joe Biden mandated that federal employees and contractors receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Shortly after, the CIA’s chief operating officer directed the Counter Espionage Department (CED) to begin investigating employees and contractors who did not comply, the lawsuit alleges. (RELATED: CIA Spooks Spied On Tulsi Gabbard’s Team As It Probed Deep State, Whistleblower Alleges) CIA’s Counter Espionage Department Investigated Unvaccinated Employees, Lawsuit Alleges
The investigation’s escalation underscores the importance of Fulton County in the 2020 Presidential Election, which allowed former President Joe Biden to claim victory in the state of Georgia, which was critical to his overall victory. This represents another phase of the FBI’s ongoing investigation into voter fraud during the 2020 Presidential Election, the direction of which depends on the findings of this operation. FBI Deploying Analysts to Atlanta for 2020 Election Fraud Investigation.
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY, INSANITY
The most unapologetically pro-America president in American history gets to preside over arguably the most celebratory term in our nation’s storied history. Trump: The Perfect President for America 250
The Pew Research Center survey comes after democratic socialist candidates scored a series of high-profile Democratic primary victories in recent weeks, including last week’s victories in New York City and Tuesday’s upset of 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) by Democratic Socialist candidate Melat Kiros in Colorado, highlighting the movement’s recent electoral momentum. Poll: Nearly One-Third of Dems Prefer Leaders Who Identify as Democratic Socialists
For a while now, Republicans have been hoping that Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) would consider leaving the Democrats and either become a Republican or an independent who caucuses with Republicans. I’ve never believed that would happen because, at the end of the day, Fetterman votes with his party roughly 95% of the time. When you vote 95% of the time with your party, that doesn’t make you a moderate. Fetterman himself has made it clear he’s not going to leave the Democrat Party and pointed out — accurately, I should add — that he’d make a terrible Republican. Now We Know What Will Get John Fetterman to Leave the Democrat Party
After a string of incredible wins over Democrat incumbents, Harris is reportedly courting the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and its growing cohort of insurgent candidates. Harris has signaled she is “thinking about” another presidential run in 2028. As DSA candidates rise in power, the move looks like a strategic alignment with the far-left radicals intent on controlling the Democrat Party. Kamala Harris Kisses The Ring In Clearest Sign She’s Not Done Yet
Separatist rebels in the Papua region of Indonesia killed an American pilot and burned a civilian plane Thursday as a “message” for the U.S. and Indonesian governments, according to a spokesperson. . . The incident is the latest in a decades-long conflict between TPNPB and the Indonesian government. Separatists In Indonesia Shoot American Dead In Message To US, Group Claims
Cool image time! The two pictures to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, were taken more than two decades apart by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The show a specific spot on the Martian south pole ice cap, at a location where there is also a perennial cap of dry ice that is also slowly shrinking in size. Long term monitoring of the dry-ice cap at the Martian south pole
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Traditionally, we like to celebrate genius and indulge in romantic fantasies about the source of special insights, but overlook personal suffering as a companion. The Sorrows Of Young Wittgenstein
HITHER & YON
The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four bishops in Switzerland without the permission of Pope Leo XIV, who, citing the “attentive and generous attitude” of his papal predecessors, had issued a heartfelt letter Monday reminding that to “tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.” The Catholic Church’s teaching of apostolic succession traces the continuing teaching authority of the bishops back to the Apostles chosen by Jesus Christ during His ministry throughout Judea and Galilee. Catholic Church Excommunicates Breakaway Traditionalist Bishops And Their Followers
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
The article says the total amount involved is 1.1 trillion won (KRW), but that's a mistake; it's actually 1.1 quadrillion won.
$64 billion goes to expanding the company's existing facilities at Cheongju for producing NAND flash and packaging chips. $389 billion goes to the new campus at Yongin with initial production planned for next year and meaningful scale in 2028. The site was originally planned for completion in 2045, but that's been accelerated to 2033 - still a fair way out, but factories will come online in stages throughout those years.
And $259 billion to a brand new campus that they have not even settled on a location for just yet.
14th - and for some reason, 12th - generation chips are still readily available, and Intel has committed to continued production. 13th generation chips have disappeared from the market but nobody really misses them because they are the same as 14th generation chips only slightly worse.
Aren't Raspberry Pi board extremely expensive now, I hear two of you ask.
Well, yes, but actually no. This project is built around the Pi Zero family, which while low-end (all versions have 512MB of RAM) has weathered the DRAM Apocalypse better than other models.
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click It happened one summer, it happened one time
It happened forever, for a short time
A place for a moment, an end to dream
Forever I loved you, forever it seemed
One summer never ends, one summer never began
It keeps me standing still, it takes all my will
An Update about Grammie Winger: She is doing poorly...she is in the hospital and is having a tough go of it. She would love to hear from you folks, so anyone who would like to contact her is welcome to her address! Please contact Bluebell at moroncookbook@gmail.com for her contact info. (I expect her local post office to be furious with us!) [CBD]
Podcast: Sefton and CBD commiserate about the NYC primaries and whether the contagion will spread, J.D. Vance is becoming a cypher, Texas Antifa gets a wake-up call, and more!
NEW: Just heard something extraordinary from a former White House official who worked with former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in Trump45's NSC: "McMaster had weekly phone calls with George Soros. We have no idea why." Neither could be reached for comment.
