Cafe Bat Thread
—TheJamesMadison
stop what you’re doing and look at this baby bat eating a strawberry pic.twitter.com/J6H0g18KGO
— Mirthful Moments (@moment_mirthful) May 31, 2024
The most fashionable bat I've ever seen!
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 2, 2024
Meet the painted bat (Kerivoula picta), also known as butterfly bat, found throughout different parts of Asia. pic.twitter.com/jmp2GnBUAL
This is a Baby Goblin bat (Mormopterus minutus), native to Cuba
— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐖𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫s (@FabulousWeird) September 2, 2020
📷 RAU pic.twitter.com/pLmJE8Bn4P
Defying the Sloppy “No Dress Code” Dress Code at the Start-up I Once Worked For
—Buck Throckmorton
Last night I had some fun at the expense of tech industry “start-up culture,” so I’ll stay on that theme tonight.
A decade ago I was recruited and hired in a finance capacity to try to help turn around a struggling start-up. (It ultimately went out of business. Shocker.) The President and the CEO were hopelessly distracted by idiotic management gimmicks, and the employees wasted most of their time on peer coaching, team building, accountability training, breakthrough communication, goal setting, etc. (Among the goals imposed on me were “Embrace the Uncomfortable” and “Kickassery.”)
The CEO and the President wore jeans and sneakers, and by stressing “no dress code” what they really meant was “Dress like me in jeans and sneakers.” I didn’t. I wore dress slacks, loafers, and a collared shirt every day. This annoyed them greatly, and the President had several conversations with me about how I was dressing. Below is a compendium of how our conversations went.
PRESIDENT: We have no dress code here. People can wear whatever they prefer.
ME: That’s great.
PRESIDENT: So, just about everyone chooses to wear jeans and sneakers.
ME: That’s great.
PRESIDENT: So you can wear jeans and sneakers if you’d prefer.
ME: Thanks, but I prefer not to.
PRESIDENT: OK. Fine. But you don’t have to wear slacks and loafers. You can wear whatever you find most comfortable.
ME: I find slacks and loafers most comfortable when I’m sitting at a desk.
PRESIDENT: Well, most employees find jeans and sneakers to be the most comfortable.
ME: I don’t. Do you want me to wear jeans and sneakers?
PRESIDENT: You can wear whatever you want.
ME: I want to wear a collared shirt, slacks and loafers.
PRESIDENT: OK, but many employees find that their wardrobe makes a personal statement.
ME: So does mine.
PRESIDENT: What is your statement?
ME: That I prefer to wear slacks, a collared shirt, and loafers when I work.
PRESIDENT: Don’t you want to make an original statement?
ME: Wearing jeans and sneakers to match my co-workers would state that I am actually unoriginal, and that I am simply complying with the company dress code.
PRESIDENT: But we don’t have a dress code! In fact, many employees wear shirts with an ironic message. Our culture stresses individuality.
ME: Would it be ironic if I wore a suit and tie?
PRESIDENT: It would look like you work at a place with a dress code and that’s what’s so great about us – we don’t have a dress code!
ME: It sure sounds like there’s a dress code. But if there is not one, then I prefer to wear a collared shirt, slacks, and loafers.
PRESIDENT: When we take a group picture for our next press release, will you at least wear jeans, sneakers, and our company t-shirt for that one photo shoot?
ME: Of course. I’ll wear whatever you tell me to wear, any time you request that I do so.
PRESIDENT: You know, we often break into spontaneous fun and game activities which spill outside. Wearing jeans and sneakers allows employees to switch gears without having to change.
ME: That’s OK. I don’t want to play games or roughhouse outside. I want to work.
PRESIDENT: One thing that employees appreciate about us not having a dress code is that they don’t have to shop for work clothes. They can wear whatever is in their closet.
ME: I have a closet full of slacks and shirts but only two pairs of jeans. If you want me to wear jeans every day then I need to go shopping for new work clothes.
PRESIDENT: Does it bother you that just about all the other employees choose to wear jeans?
ME: No. Does it bother the other employees that I don’t wear jeans?
PRESIDENT: Some people here feel that your wardrobe makes a judgmental statement about how others dress. Do you feel we should have a more professional dress code here?
ME: No. You just need to be honest about the dress code you are trying to enforce on me.
[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]
Hey...Nike! Stay Away From Our Children! Isn't Using Them As Slave Labor Enough?
—CBD
VP Vance Takes On Nike's Alleged Funding Of Youth Trans Study: 'Craziness Hasn't Gone Away'
Nike appears to have, at some point, helped fund a study on the effect of "gender-affirming" care among young male athletes to see if it's possible to impair them enough so they can "fairly" and "safely" compete in girls' and women's sports.While the company has since told OutKick that the study "was never initialized" and "is not moving forward," it's unclear when those decisions might have been made. The company has refused to provide additional context, despite the study's head researcher – Dr. Kathryn Ackerman – and a secondary researcher – Joanna Harper, a male who "identifies" as a woman – both publicly stating that Nike was funding the study.
Boycott...Boycott...Boycott.
There is no other way to get through to companies that are hellbent on supporting the destruction of our children and our culture.
Well, maybe just nuke Nike from orbit...it's the only way to be sure.
Quick Hits
—TheJamesMadison
There have been rumors that some faction of insiders in the DNC were unhappy with the election of David Hogg as Vice-Chair since it happened. There have been accusations of him misusing Committee email lists to fundraise for his own PACs, for instance. Perhaps, things are moving to the public space:
🚨 LMAO! Because of the DNC's insane diversity policies, they're now considering OVERRULING Vice Chair David Hogg's victory in favor of a Native American woman!
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 29, 2025
They will NEVER let go of DEI.🤣
Per Semafor, Kalyn Free is challenging her defeat to Hogg, a white male, at the last… pic.twitter.com/6xfWJ4J7ol
Here is a video of Spanish destruction engineers celebrating the implosion of steam stacks from a nuclear power plant:
Spain three years ago:
— Ada Lluch (@ada_lluch) April 28, 2025
pic.twitter.com/LadZ6WdiVz
I just saw it recently and thought it was kind of cool seeing dudes celebrating a good job well done.
No idea why it popped up in my feed, though. Something big happening in Spain?
Oh, maybe it has something to do with this:
Spain’s grid operator Red Eléctrica has confirmed that renewable energy sources fully met electricity demand across the country’s peninsular system for the first time on April 16.Wind generated 256 GWh, accounting for 45.8% of total output. Solar followed with 151 GWh, or 27%. Hydroelectric sources added 129 GWh, making up 23.1% of the mix. Solar thermal contributed 11 GWh, or 2%, while other renewables added another 11 GWh, or 1.9%. Renewable waste generated 1 GWh, or 0.2%.
Bully for them! I'm sure nothing bad happened.
Now, off to find other news...
How about this:
Fat Illinois man LARPs so hard he thinks he'll be able to do anything in some kind of ground-level resistance against the man who controls the military:
Dem Gov. Pritzker: “Never in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) April 28, 2025
I warned before the election, the left is planning the BLM riots 2.0.
It’s coming.pic.twitter.com/AQ9clwZFjJ
Chuck Todd sends a message that reporters need to stop acting like they did anything wrong about their coverage of Biden's mental status. I mean...I'm not entirely sure what his point is. He calls it a press failure, but, then he does the No True Scotsman thing about CNN and MSNBC not being real news, and then he says that it's all just a right wing manufactured narrative to pit news organizations against each other.
.@chucktodd went OFF on the "virtue signaling" of reporters who play into the Trump narrative of a cover-up of Biden's health by the media pic.twitter.com/VUCYsz4K1r
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) April 28, 2025
One might say that he's kind of stupid, caught in a place he can't defend, and is lashing out.
But that wouldn't be fair. I'm pretty sure he's really stupid, not kind of stupid.
100 Days Into The Trump Presidency, And Things Seem To Be Calming Down!
—CBD
I guess in a perfect world the profound shift in our management of world trade would have been planned perfectly on Day One.
But it's not a perfect world, and observing initial effects and then adjusting the tariffs is a reasonable approach.
It scares the snot out of financial markets, and the degree of indecision forces companies to minimize spending and hold off on planning until the tariffs are set.
But...is there a better way to do it? Sure. Incremental tariffs over many months or years, but that introduces the same total uncertainty, just spread out over a much longer time frame.
Tariff Relief Coming for Automakers Producing in the US, Says White House
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order later today to cushion the impact of his automobile tariffs, the White House said.Earlier this month, the president’s 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles to the United States went into effect. The tariffs are intended to bolster domestic car manufacturing.
Senior Commerce Department officials confirmed that car companies will continue to pay a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles, but they will not be subjected to other tariffs, such as the 25 percent levy on steel and aluminum or 10 universal baseline duties.
Trump’s executive action is meant to prevent certain tariffs from stacking on top of each other.
One huge advantage of the Trump technique is that it is showing the markets that the bombastic speeches and red hot rhetoric is being tempered by a rational and flexible approach that adjusts to the appearance of unpredicted events and responses.
It's probably the best anyone can hope for, and the markets and manufacturers seem to be reacting positively.
Is the Dream of Blue Texas still alive?
—TheJamesMadison
As long as I've been paying attention to politics since the late 2000s, Democrats have dreamed of turning Texas blue.
They have failed every election since.
2008 Presidential election: McCain by 12.
2008 Senate election: Cornyn by 12.
2012 Presidential election: Romney by 16.
2012 Senate election: Cruz by 16.
2014 Senate election: Cornyn by 27.
2016 Presidential election: Trump by 6.
2018 Senate election: Cruz by 2.
Oh, no...maybe it'll finally come true!
2024 Presidential election: Trump by 14.
2024 Senate election: Cruz by 9.
But maybe this time will be different! What if they get the guy who got close to Cruz to face off against either Cornyn or the guy who's most likely going to knock out Cornyn in the primary, Ken Paxton?
🚨 BETO O'ROURKE considers running for U.S. Senate in Texas in 2026 - Fox
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 29, 2025
"If it comes to pass that this is what the people of Texas want, that it's the highest and best use of what I can give to you, then yes I will." pic.twitter.com/N1J0h0SMZq
Let me say this right now:
I do not think Beto O'Rourke would have any chance against Ken Paxton. Yes, the GOP machine in Texas hates Paxton, but they've heavily weakened themselves in their pursuit to destroy him. There's a reason he's leading early polls (spit) against Cornyn, and it's not because the GOPe in Texas is getting stronger.
Also, Beto is a three time loser at this point (Senate, President, and then Governor). His last effort had him losing by 14 points.
I bet he'd raise plenty of money from Hollywood, though.
Trump Folds by having China waive tariffs on US ethane imports without giving China anything in return
—TheJamesMadison
That's how it works, right?
Any time a tariff gets rescinded anywhere it's Trump folding?
I'm pretty sure that's why I learned on Bluesky.
China has waived the 125% tariff on ethane imports from the United States imposed earlier this month, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, among a group of products that have been granted exemptions. The move will ease pressure on Chinese firms that import U.S. ethane for petrochemical production as well as provide an outlet for the natural gas liquid, a byproduct of U.S. shale gas production.
So, let me get this straight...China is rescinding import tariffs on energy products...the main driver of economic activity.
Without getting anything from Trump yet (I'm sure talks are ongoing, and this rescission is probably part of negotiations).
Man, that Trump, the big dummy. He sure is lucky here.
Kindlot corrects me:
26 Ethane is used in plastic manufacturing and is a side-product from natural gas drilling. It is not specifically an energy product. Posted by: Kindltot at April 29, 2025 01:52 PM (D7oie)
India And Pakistan Are Heating Up The Rhetoric, But As Usual, Islamic Terror Is At The Core
—CBD
It's amazing how much violence is perpetrated by Islamic terror groups that are funded and supported by Islamic nations. But what is more amazing and disheartening is the conspicuous absence of any public linkage in the Western world between Islam and that violence.
It's always blamed on the particular "resistance" group that has some sort of nebulous claim on some disputed patch of land or an ancient slight.
Gaza and Hamas? Oh, that is Israel's control over their land! Lebanon and Hezbollah? The same. Nigeria? Syria? Somalia? Niger? Sudan? Thailand? Benin? UAE? India?
According to "TheReligionOf Peace.com," 182 Islamic attacks in 16 countries in which 1220 people were killed and 802 injured."
In the last 30 days.
Where is the United Nations organization dedicated to the elimination of violence perpetrated by Islam? Where is the world-wide opprobrium directed at Islam?
It doesn't exist because the West buries its collective head in the sand. But when two nuclear powers are involved, it might be time to pull that head out and take a look around at reality.
India and Pakistan again teeter on the brink of conflict over Kashmir
A deadly attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir has again moved India and Pakistan closer to war as the two rivals downgraded diplomatic and trade ties, closed the main border crossing and revoked visas for each other's nationals.Pakistan has denied it was behind Tuesday's attack that killed 26 mostly Indian tourists at a scenic spot in the Himalayan region, where India claimed it restored a sense of calm despite a decadeslong rebellion. A previously unknown militant group calling itself Kashmir Resistance has claimed responsibility for the attack.
India Accuses Pakistan of Supporting Terrorism [NYT safe link]
After 26 people, most of them tourists, were killed last week in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, India's government called the massacre a terrorist attack and cited "cross-border linkages" to Pakistan.A group calling itself the Resistance Front emerged on social media to say it was behind the slaughter. Indian officials privately say the group is a proxy for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a terrorist organization based in Pakistan.
What is the goal? It is in Islam's religious texts, it is in the public pronouncements of most of its terror organizations, and it is seemingly in the hearts of the majority of Muslims. It is not being hidden!
It is simple. The subjugation of the world and the creation of a worldwide Caliphate.
When did that start? Oh... about 1,400 years ago.
Maybe it's time to admit that reality!
The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition
—CBD
It's fun to make fun of Canada. They are an odd people living in an odd country, and any culture that elevates Poutine to high cuisine cannot be taken seriously. Besides, their bacon...isn't.
But they also live in North America, and is it tempting to assume that they hold dear many of the things that formed us, here in the United States. Hell, they even sort of speak English, and drive on the correct side of the road! Individualism, personal responsibility, freedom of speech, the right to self defense against all things...you know, the stuff that makes up American Exceptionalism; they must love that stuff!
Sadly, it is becoming increasingly clear that they are an alien culture that has drawn
all of the communitarian aspects of our roughly shared European and Anglo-Saxon heritage and left behind that which has created the greatest country in history.
Prime Minister Carney's Liberal Party to lead fourth consecutive government
Pierre Poilievre seemed like a good antidote to the execrable Justin Trudeau, and Canada seemed poised to return to some semblance of normalcy with respect to taxes, illegal immigration, personal freedom, and size of government. But he was unable to articulate a vision of Canada that was independent of President Trump's barbs that mocked Canada as a country. And most of all, Canadians were intimidated by the prospect of actually taking some responsibility for themselves, their national defense, and their position in the Western world.
Apparently they prefer their cradle-to-grave soft socialism that is driving them into 3rd World status, an ascendant Islamic minority that is given preference in all things, embracing the lunacy of transsexualism, and an increasingly authoritarian thought police that strives to restrict the basic human rights of free speech!
As much as we want to assume that they are made from the same cloth as Americans...they aren't. They are Europe-Lite. All we can do is mock them for their lack of freedom and liberty, and hold their collective feet to the fire to participate in the defense of the Western world. And that will be quite a chore, since they are near the bottom of every list of percentage of GDP devoted to defense. They have ignored their NATO responsibilities, and have the arrogance to pretend that they can go it alone without the massive defensive umbrella of America.
They can't, and it is clownish to preen and strut as if they can.
Let's see how they respond when Russia or China starts playing in the Canadian arctic. My bet is a rapid recalibration of their relationship with America!
But for now? President Trump's tariff offensive is a powerful reminder to Canada that they are indeed America's hat. How the negotiations will shake out is difficult to judge, but in the meantime we can buy Wisconsin Maple Syrup and look for auto parts made in America or Mexico. Hopefully the relaxation of the Biden prohibitions on petroleum production will provide an alternative to Canadian oil, and as for lumber, I think America has a few trees left.
Canada is the mouse in the joke about the Elephant.
An elephant is ambling through the forest, and notices when he looks down that a mouse is busily trying to hump his leg!
The mouse looks up and sees the elephant gazing down in curiosity, and says:
"Don't worry, I'll be gentle!"
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter] And the Apple and Spotify feeds for CJN's podcast should be working!
The Morning Report — 4/ 29 /25
—J.J. Sefton
Spain and Portugal achieved net zero on Monday, but not the way anyone would want to achieve net zero: By going back to the cave-people times with no electricity. . .. . . Sure, they are looking into a cyberattack, or a terrorist act, or a rare weather event involving magnetic fields, or maybe some bad maintenance, and they should. But they have gone remarkably quiet lately, making one think of the one possibility they might want to be quiet about.
The blackout was unprecedented, and it happened just shortly after this happened:
. . . For those keeping score at home:
April 22nd: Spain brags about hitting 100% renewable power.
April 28th: Spain has the nation's largest blackout in history.
European officials are seemingly not very concerned about the possibility that the continent’s green energy agenda may leave it vulnerable to Chinese aggression in the future, according to Politico.Trump administration officials met with a group of European officials in the U.K. earlier in April, warning the Europeans that China is taking advantage of the West’s climate policies to further its own geopolitical goals, Politico reported. Despite the Trump administration’s cautions and Europe’s recent experiences relying on malign actors for energy, European officials mostly shrugged off the warning and signaled that the continent is still intending to make its energy system go green in the long-run.
It's a multi-front global assault on American international diplomatic and economic preeminence that we have enjoyed almost uninterrupted since the end of the second world war, which has allowed America to steer the course of global events and keep the peace (more or lesss). Naturally, from Mao until now, the Chi-Coms could not abide by that.
American officials usually accuse China of trying to take over our manufacturing, but that’s old news. China took over our manufacturing long ago. And the parts it still hasn’t taken over are usually the parts that it doesn’t want or that are too uneconomical to be worth taking over.Taking over America’s manufacturing was never China’s endgame. Taking over our economy is.Undercutting, stealing and dumping its way to manufacturing supremacy was how China got its foot in our door. Americans came to think of China as an assembly line for cheap junk, but the cheap junk built China’s production capacity. The next step was moving up to components for bigger products and then the products themselves. Once the components were being made in China, it made more sense for the companies to simplify by moving everything to China. . .
. . . China has assembled all the building blocks for taking over our economy. It has hijacked our manufacturing from the ground up. What began with 99-cent store fare now includes high-end smartphones, ebikes and laptops. Its hackers and employees from Silicon Valley to our defense industry provide pipelines of stolen techniques, trade secrets and R&D to supplement whatever we haven’t exported already to provide China with assured manufacturing supremacy. After swallowing our manufacturing, China began consuming our retail sector. Amazon cannibalized our brick and mortar retail by dumping Chinese products in America on a massive scale, but Chinese retailers cannibalized Amazon and turned it into a front for their products. China’s retailers have been figuring out how to rapidly move products into this country, how to set up warehouses and eventually how to master rapid last-mile delivery. And then Amazon will have nothing more to offer Americans than a billion-dollar woke version of Lord of the Rings.
Kind of ironic that the same Red-Green commie stooge fifth columnist idiots in our country who complain about consumerism and fossil fuels destroying the planet are the greatest mass consumers of Chinese crap as well as electric vehicles and other Green technology that rely on strip mining and leave behind oceans of toxic waste once batteries and other components can no longer be recharched etc. To say nothing of the fact that slave and child labor in China and all over the third world are used and abused in the initial manufacture of these goods and their components. But America as founded is evil, illegitimate and white supremacist and so must be destroyed. I guess Greta Thunberg finds it more enjoyable these days goose-stepping all over the world and railing against Israel.
In any case, before long I fear we shall see who comes out on top, the Chi-Coms or Islam, the legacy of President Trump and the movement to restore America notwithstanding. Unless the world, us included, can shake off so many delusions in the next decade or so, we're in for some very interesting times indeed. And we are living through them right now!
. . . . So insidious and unrelenting has been the Leftist encroachment upon our basic civil liberties that only lately are we starting to understand that the America we thought we knew is on the verge of -- perfectly legal! -- dissolution.. . It's guerilla lawfare at its deadliest, waged under the false flag of "restoring norms" when by norms they mean simply: their way. They're hoping for a provocation that will force Trump into a Jessep-like confrontation with the Tom Cruise character, perhaps played by Chief Justice Roberts himself, in which Trump will openly thumb his nose at the Court and its minions and thus trigger the "constitutional crisis" the Left is trying so hard to provoke.
They have, they say, a "higher loyalty"; we are nation of laws, not men. But what they really mean is that their "higher loyalty" is not to the country or the constitution but to themselves and their guild, and that the laws of this nation are to be written, litigated, and enforced not by its citizens but by lawyers. Our duty is to explain to them by any means necessary that they're wrong. And for that we'll need more than a few good men.
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.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- Lawmakers, alumni of these schools, and the public must demand accountability, defund schools with ideological mandates, and restore medicine to its core mission: saving lives through reason and evidence.
Report: Thanks To DEI, Most Medical Schools Now Teach Doctors To Damage Patients
- Heather Mac Donald: Disparate-impact theory preserved the hegemony of the civil-rights regime long after the original impetus for that regime had all but disappeared. One would be hard-pressed today to find any mainstream institution that discriminates against black Americans in admissions, hiring or promotion. The reality, in fact, is the opposite: Every mainstream institution is desperate to hire and promote as many remotely qualified blacks as possible; it is white males who are disfavored and excluded from positions based on their skin color.
Trump is restoring merit — by slaying rules that enforce reverse discrimination
- Michael Walsh: . . . the enemy has done of the courtesy of naming himself: the legal profession. The Resistance 2.0 is now being fought by white-shoe law firms in the halls of justice and Congress, its Lilliputian hordes attempting to hamstring Donald Trump's second term -- not in the streets and with a phantom electorate, as they did the last time -- but in the courtroom. Call it by its name: lawfare
THE COLUMN: Can We Handle the Truth?
Continue reading
Daily Tech News 29 April 2025
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- We didn't get hacked or hit by ransomware. We didn't need to. We run Oracle. (CNBC)
45 hospitals belonging to Tennessee-based Community Health Systems lost access to all their electronic records for five days because... Oracle accidentally deleted them.
Continue reading
Monday Overnight Open Thread - April 28, 2025 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
Howdy Hordelings! Hope your Monday has been a good one. We made it through Day 1 without the boss. Give yourself a high-five, grab a beverage of your choosing, and settle on in to the ONT. Lurkers, please don't be shy - say hello! Regulars - eh, it doesn't matter what I say - you're gonna do what you do anyway.
Continue reading
The Venture Capitalist and the Start-up Lemonade Stand
—Buck Throckmorton
Disclaimer – I greatly respect the many impressive and successful venture capitalists investing in startups producing real products and fulfilling genuine product needs. I applaud the entrepreneurs who are creating these new companies, as well as the VCs who fund them. They are important, and I regret that there are so many charlatans and carnival barkers making a mockery of the process of steering capital to business start-ups.
But I have spent way too much time - including a few wasted years in my own career - around people cosplaying the start-up lifestyle, and watching incubators get all excited about the latest “Carbon-Neutral Doggie Waymo” or, God help us all, yet another time-sucking software product to help companies monitor employees’ goals and “engagement.”
With that said, Chris Bakke had a hilarious tweet recently about taking his child’s lemonade stand to venture capitalists. I particularly like how he got “AI” into the name of the “lemonAIde” business.
It's spring break and my son started a lemonade stand. I asked him how much lemonade he sold in the last hour."$3" he said. I told him, "Here's $20 for one glass of lemonade. In one hour I'm going to come back and buy a lemonade for $1,000. You're going to take that $1,000/hr revenue - multiply it by 24 hours - then multiply it by 365 days, and tell VCs, 'I have $8.76M in run rate revenue with 99.9% net margins, and 100% of our latest cohort of customers have expanded revenue with us. You're also changing the name of your lemonade stand to 'lemon(AI)de' and incorporating it as a C Corp"
My son was holding back tears.
I said, "Doesn't it feel good to be a millionaire, bud?" He said, "Dad I'm 4 and I don't know what any of these words are."
I said, "Welcome to life as a tech CEO - neither do I" and drove away.
It's spring break and my son started a lemonade stand.
— Chris Bakke (@ChrisJBakke) April 18, 2025
I asked him how much lemonade he sold in the last hour.
"$3" he said.
I told him, "Here's $20 for one glass of lemonade. In one hour I'm going to come back and buy a lemonade for $1,000. You're going to take that…
There were some pretty funny responses too, including the following:
“Forbes five under five.”
“Can I tokenize this business and sell LEMON token on the blockchain? Will split proceeds 70/30.”
“Wait until he realizes his allowance is paid in vested equity.”
“Is there a way to secretly dilute the solution and sugar content of the lemonade to maximize return to investors? What if you set up your shop in a Third World nation with less regulatory oversight?”
“I could have sworn Jim Cramer was just raving about this company!”
For those of you missing Ace’s evening Cafe and feeling that I’m out of my wheelhouse, please know that I’m bootstrapping my way through his absence, dealing with an aggressive burn rate, and knowing full well that vultures at the accelerator are ready to come in with an elevator pitch if any of you think I’m dishing out nothing but vaporware.
[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]
Cafe Thread Attempt
—TheJamesMadison
Marta Kostyuk brings her dog on court after beating Emma Raducanu in Madrid.
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) April 25, 2025
Too cute. 🐕❤️
pic.twitter.com/8VTC1sZ7Ln
Dating advice:
If you‘re on a date with cute girl, and a random dog takes an instant liking to you, your chances of going home with her have just increased noticeably pic.twitter.com/Agkbn0E4Ez
— John Dory (@johndory1914) April 23, 2025
Big, fluffy dog:
The Adorable dog is so cute and happy 🐕🧡 pic.twitter.com/LKd94T1j54
— dogs so cute that could save the world (@dogssaveworld) April 16, 2025
The Media Is at the Height of Its Power and Aren't at all Scared that Their Influence has been Slipping for Decades and is now Undeniable
—TheJamesMadison
I mean, just look at CNN!
CNN's full-scale collapse continues rapidly. It reaches a remarkable new low led by @kaitlancollins and @abbydphillip: fewer than 500,000 viewers total in prime-time! That's almost impossible to do even if you wanted it.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 27, 2025
Also, they're well below 100k for viewers under 55. pic.twitter.com/4gG4jMWBTH
Okay, sure, CNN is doing badly. They promised and promised and promised their viewers that Trump was going to end up in jail and Kamala was going to be president. But that's no reason to tune them out, right?
They said it. That makes it happen, right? It's not like people have decided to tune out televised news to a large extent, leaving only a minority who even turn it on, much less are convinced by it, and it's not like their viewership is very, very old, or anything.
Oh wait, I've been informed that all of those things are true. Too bad.
Next, the press told itself that it's very serious and very important and that it's just unfortunate that Biden's aides were able to trick them into thinking Biden was in great shape:
.@AlexThomp: "President Biden's decline and its coverup by the people around him is a reminder that every White House regardless of party is capable of deception...We, myself included, missed a lot of this story and some people trust us less because of it." #whcd #nerdprom pic.twitter.com/L9CtbB3HIZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 27, 2025
I think we should give them medals. And raises. And to jail anyone who thinks they lied for several years about the health status of the most powerful man on the planet. It's not like they'd ever lie about anything else. Nope. They're just honest people who can be tricked into believing things that are obviously not true.
Wait...is that better?
I'm being informed that no, it's not, in fact, better.
For some reason, I'm reminded of the below clip from Steven Spielberg's 2017 movie, The Post where Ben Bradlee (played by Tom Hanks) explains how he was Jack Kennedy's friend and refused to run bad stories about him. He's going to make up for this journalistic malpractice by turning on Nixon, a man he already disagrees with, and try to destroy him.
That makes him a pure and good journalist, right? Hurting the people he wants to hurt anyway because he treated his friend too well?
Right?!
[moviegique]: Warfare
—Open Blogger
TJM: I spiked moviegique's post on Saturday night because our unspoken schedule said one thing, and I felt really, really bad about it. So, highlighting this on a Monday afternoon, with much more traffic, seems like a nice way to try and make up to him. Sorry, moviegique. Now, everyone read his wise words. Take over, moviegique:
Tonight we have three movies under consideration: Warfare, The Ballad of Wallis Island, and When Fall Is Coming. But to spare the fools who read the content a 2,200 word post, I've posted the review for Warfare here as being the most likely one to interest the readers of a Smart and Cruel Military Blog.
Interested parties can read the reviews for the other two on my blog:
Wallis Island is a delightful comedy-drama: Funny but not all fluff.
When Fall Is Coming is a French drama about a woman with a troubled relationship with her daughter which is rather complicated by the daughter's death. The movie takes a pleasant turn into mystery/suspense-land as the mother and her friends are potentially implicated in the death.
I've decided on May 17th, I'm going to present a defense of the 2005 Pride & Prejudice. So you may want to set your alarms for then (or set them to ignore).
And Now For Our Feature Attraction!
Alex Garland is a talented director. I think. A novelist who transitioned to movies with scripts like 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Dredd, he made a big splash with his directorial debut Ex Machina, which was good, overrated but also easily the peak of his efforts—leading as it did into Annihilation, a muddled distaff remake of Stalker, and then descended into the risible Men and Civil War—well, let's just say there's no confusion as to his politics.
It gives one pause, whether to watch a movie about a squad in Ramadi during the Iraq War, under these circumstances. However, he had a co-director and co-writer on this, first time writer/director Ray Mendoza, a Navy Seal who was part of the squad that took part in the events detailed in this film. Once again, The Boy and I decided to roll the dice.
Rolling the dice can pay off, people.
They're watching 2005's "Call On Me" video which is confusing because it looks like the sleaziest Aerobicize video from 1981.Continue reading
War is the "H" word.
"Hello. May we come in and borrow all of your furniture and punch a hole in the wall? (The answer is yes.)"
Some Immigration News
—TheJamesMadison
Alright...Dem politician news...check.
Old news that had some slight update recently...check.
Looks like next should be something...immigrationy.
First, that story of the 2 year old citizen being deported: Tom Homan had some thoughts:
🚨 HOLY SMOKES: Border Czar Tom Homan just laid down the hammer on the media. He said - we're deporting the ENTIRE family.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 28, 2025
"What we did is remove children with their mothers who requested it - that's a parental decision. Parenting 101. I'll tell you what - if we DIDN'T do it,… pic.twitter.com/ZARHCBdPJY
It looks like the mother was an illegal. The father never showed up to the deportation hearing and is in hiding. The authorities were asking the mother where they wanted the child to end up (either with her or with her sister-in-law, it seems). The mother chose to take the daughter with her. Also...Homan wants to deport the father too, in order to be with the family since he's also illegal.
Next, Colorado Governor Polis had some thoughts on the raid on an illegal nightclub that rounded up over 100 illegal immigrants:
Gov. Polis's response to a multi-agency raid on an illegal nightclub in Colorado Springs, where more than a hundred illegal immigrants were detained, was pathetically wimpy and weak: https://t.co/VIy8ZFypSZ
— Sean Paige (@SeanPaige) April 28, 2025
But what would one expect from a @GovofCO who has systematically… pic.twitter.com/pUbA8KbtN9
I mean...okay. That's a choice. Is he planning on running for president or something (he is).
Thirdly: the person who stole Kristi Noem's purse was apparently an illegal immigrant let into the country despite an expediated removal order.
Authorities said they arrested a second suspect in the theft of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's purse in the District after tracking down the illegal immigrant in Miami. https://t.co/4gskOmuYl9
— Washington Times Local (@WashTimesLocal) April 28, 2025
But, remember, Biden's administration was serious about the border. Their press releases in October of 2024 said so.
Remember the Helicopter Crash that was supposed to be Trump's fault for firings that didn't happen at the FAA? Turns out it was the pilot's fault for not doing what she was supposed to do. Whoops.
—TheJamesMadison
Whoopsie!
The @nytimes story on the January DC plane crash hides its takeaway until the last sentences: the lady helicopter pilot ignored multiple warnings from her right seat about altitude (and his directly telling her to turn away) and flew straight into a passenger jet.
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) April 27, 2025
The end. Ugh. pic.twitter.com/7emtYkZTwQ
I scanned the article, and it seems to describe the chaos of running an airport, especially one in the middle of DC. Seems like a high-stress job with a lot of moving parts, but one part refused to move. She just didn't move to the left when her warrant officer told her that's what ATC wanted.
But it's Trump's fault because DOGE sent out letters to federal employees about their weeks.
Gerry Connolly, top Democrat on the Oversight Committee and Rep since the Dawn of Time, to step down at the end of this Congress
—TheJamesMadison
Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will step down from his leadership post on the panel and not run for reelection.The Virginia Democrat, whose constituency includes many federal workers, cited the return of his esophageal cancer - first diagnosed in late 2024 - as the reason for his planned departure.
VA-11, his district, is very heavily Democrat, so don't expect a pickup. Do expect, however, a Resistance idol to take the primary and the seat next Congress. Someone young, dumb, and full of...ideas about how Trump needs to be impeached for the good of illegal immigrant gangbangers.
