Ace of Spades HQ

September 23, 2017

Saturday ONT (9/23/17) Screw Current Events Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

whiskey beer and football ont above fold .jpg

(Quite the Saturday night!)

*****

The Addams Family meet The Ramones.

Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:57 PM Comments

Saturday Evening Movie Thread 09-23-2017 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]

—OregonMuse

Out of Order

Back when The Simpsons was good and something to look forward to, they produced that little segment in the third "Treehouse of Horror" episode. I love this bit. Homer telling a scary story completely out of order to the point of inefficacy. Revealing key information about main characters after their respective payoffs. It's such a perfect example of terrible story telling.

I bring it up because it's one of the things I think of first when I hear of a story being told non-linearly. And yet, I know it can be done wonderfully well.

Last week we talked about the three-act structure, but because it's the most common narrative structure for film doesn't mean that it's the only one or even the best. I don't care about which is "best", but I do care about stories well told in different ways. So, let's talk about one of my favorite examples of non-linear story-telling.

Kill Bill

People usually consider Pulp Fiction to be Quentin Tarantino's best movie. I'd say that it's his most important film (none of his others changed the face of film like Pulp Fiction did), but Jackie Brown, The Hateful Eight, and Kill Bill are better, the last being my favorite.

One thing I like about Tarantino in general is that his movies tend to bear a certain feeling like that of a novel. It's most obvious in a superficial way with how he occasionally uses chapters (Kill Bill has ten of them), but also in subtler ways. Scenes play out longer than most movies. Characters tend to get explored more. Overall, it feels a bit fleshier than a movie, sort of like a novel. Some call that self-indulgence, I call that storytelling.

Volume 1

Due to theaters not really wanting to release a 4-hour kung fu movie, Tarantino agreed to break his opus into two halves. There's relatively little different from his original idea except for an added bit of dialogue at the end of Volume 1 and some pull backs on the violence to achieve an R rating (the reason for the black and white segment during The Showdown at House of Blue Leaves). Still, we're here to talk about structure.

The movie begins somewhere in the middle of the story. After a short prologue where we see The Bride shot in the head, this same character drives up to a suburban home and starts a fight with a homemaker. For those with long memories, I said that movies beginning with action scenes were doing something wrong, but that was under the implication that the action sequence would be expected to elicit tension arising from emotional attachment. That's not what happens here. The opening sequence is funny as The Bride and the homemaker use household objects to try and brutally murder each other. What's actually happening in the chapter, though?

It's an introduction to The Bride. Her abilities are shown through the sequence, but once the sequence ends, she has a conversation with the homemaker (actually Vernita Green, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad) where they outline the extent of The Bride's quest for vengeance. It's an introduction to the entire plot. Another interesting element is that this chapter takes place after the events of Chapter 5, and it makes no effort to hide that fact. At the end of this chapter, we see the name O-Ren Ishii on The Bride's Kill List with a red line through her name. It means there could not possibly be any tension around the rest of the movie, right?

Here, the movie takes a few steps backwards to explain a bit more of the specifics of the situation. We get a quick summary of the Massacre at Two Pines, an introduction to another member of the Squad (Elle), Bill attempting to walking back from his attempted murder, and an explanation of how The Bride recovered from her coma induced by the bullet to the head.

Squinting slightly and translating this to the three-act structure, this would partially function as the Set Up. What we'll find in this movie is that the set up comes and goes based on the needs of the narrative, so we see Bill partially explained, Elle partially explained, and The Bride's situation partially explained. Why only partially? Because there's a lot of explanation to be had. The story is very large. You can argue that maybe it should be cut down to be shorter, but as it is, it's very large, and the bulk of set up would weigh down the front of the movie unreasonably.

This chapter presents the back story of O-Ren Ishii, the third introduced member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. People often complain that this chapter is too long considering O-Ren's importance to the overall story, but I disagree. While the animated segment does probably go on too long for the purposes of introducing O-Ren herself, I think that the entire chapter not only introduces the Japanese member of the Squad, but also acts as a proxy introduction to the other members. We never really dig into the backgrounds of the other members (Vernita, Elle, Budd, or The Bride), so seeing how O-Ren got made shows us an example of what it takes to join the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. We can imply that the others have similar backgrounds and reasons to "[jet] around the world, killing human beings, and being paid vast sums of money".

Chapter 4 introduces Hatori Hanzo, a man who holds almost mythic importance in the world of Kill Bill. He makes the best katana swords in the world, and The Bride goes to him to get a sword to fight Bill. Hanzo eventually agrees when The Bride namedrops Bill, making the greatest sword of his career. "If on [her] journey, [she] should encounter God, God will be cut," he says upon his final inspection.

There's world building in this chapter, but also the implication that Bill's awfulness extends well beyond his treatment of The Bride when he shot her. Bill is a bad man, so bad that he inspires a man who swore off weapon making to make one more sword in order to kill him. It also further explains how far The Bride is willing to go. The looks that The Bride and Hanzo share when he realizes what she wants imply that she knows that not only could Hanzo say no, but he could also probably make a solid attempt at killing her for just trying.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago in a post about action, so I won't go in depth. Just that The Bride faces down O-Ren's gang (the Crazy 88), cutting through them all and finally killing O-Ren herself.

Aside from being an action set piece that is honestly one of the greatest put to film, there's narrative purpose to it. Killing O-Ren and getting through another name on the list, obviously, but it also demonstrates the depth of The Bride's need for revenge. She's willing to literally cut through dozens of people to get to her target, and she's good enough to do it. We're not being told that The Bride is dangerous, we're seeing it. The fact that she never faces off against another threat of that scale is indicative that Tarantino understood exactly what he was doing. He had demonstrated that The Bride was dangerous on an almost unfathomable level, so any time she comes face to face with someone, we know she's got that under her belt.

Released six months after Volume 1, Volume 2 is where the narrative really settles down and tells a much more focused story. Focused on character, focused on relationships, and focused on implications.

It's here, at the halfway point of the whole story, that Tarantino choses to tell the start of the story.

If I had to guess, it's because he decided to bring in emotion at this point, but why? We've invested time with the Bride. We understand her from a plot perspective (her quest for vengeance), which Tarantino provided as an opening into the world. And then, he introduces the why. We've seen the why referenced to several times up to this point, but never explored. The chapter itself is touching as wounded people confront each other leading to the climax we all know is going to happen. There's a sense of inevitability to the action and dialogue that colors it differently than if we started with this scene, or even if it were just near the beginning.

It's also our first real introduction to Bill as a character. He's never been seen entirely on screen up to this point, always just out of frame and giving hints of who he is and what drives him. He almost seems more like a force of nature than a character up to this point. Here, though, we see him fully. We see his wounded, compassionate side, but we also see the fear in the Bride's eyes as she thinks of what he could end up doing (and does, of course). He's cool, and extremely dangerous.

Budd, Bill's estranged brother, is a sad loser. A former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad works at a titty bar, getting abuse from its scummy owner and cleaning up shitty water in the women's restroom. He lives in an isolated and crummy little mobile home. If there's one of the Bride's targets that should be an easy kill, it's Budd, but Budd is the one who gets the best of her. Here we see the Bride descend to her lowest point since the bullet to her brain. Buried alive by the most washed up of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.

Flashback! What would a Tarantino movie be without a major flashback? (Jackie Brown, but never mind.) Anyway, this is where we discover what the Bride went through to become the killing machine we've seen. Would it have been better supplied earlier in the story? I don't think so. It's here for two very specific purposes: to provide a method for the Bride getting out of a wooden box six feet underground, and establish the tough love and respectful relationship that she developed with Pai Mei. It's a fun sequence.

Budd dies and the Bride gives Elle a fate worse than death. After escaping from her grave, the Bride finds that Elle killed Budd (probably the most sympathetic character on her hit list due to his clear view of the situation), but Elle also reveals that she killed Pai Mei with a poisoned fish head. Nearing the end of her quest, the Bride is tired and the fight with Elle is brutal (apparently inspired by hijinks on Jack Ass). Elle is probably the most personal of the Bride's targets after Bill. It's obvious that Elle replaced the Bride in Bill's bed.

Looking back over her journey, it's easy to see that the Bride, as she got closer to Bill, got there by killing the one's furthest from him emotionally and proceeding inwards. Vernita had completely left the life behind. Bill had helped O-ren become the queen of the Japanese underworld. Budd was his brother with whom Bill had a complex and strained relationship. Elle was heavily implied to be Bill's lover. In terms of her actual list, the only ones who the movie presents out of order are the first two (O-ren before Vernita).
Despite the story being told out of order overall, Volume 2 is largely in order and the main sets of action are told in an emotionally cogent order.

The ultimate showdown is surprisingly low key. At one point Bill describes a fight they could have on a moonlit beach which was supposed to be the filmed ending, but Harvey Weinstein talked Tarantino into saving some money and so we have the 15 second sword fight while sitting in chairs instead. Is the fight itself less satisfying viscerally than any of the others? I'd say yes, but the physical fight between the Bride and Bill was never supposed to be the point. It's an emotional culmination of the Bride's journey. Finding her daughter to be alive completely disarms her and allows for the literal reason why the two don't start trying to murder each other the second the Bride shows up. Calmed down, it also allows for the two to talk, and the conversation is heartbreaking. It's obvious that the Bride loved Bill, but she loved her daughter more and swore to keep her away from the life she had led up to that point.

That decision hurts both the Bride and Bill, even to that day 4 years after the Massacre at Two Pines.

The Bride then kills Bill, fulfilling the promise of the title, and we get our ending where the Bride cries in shocked relief on the floor of her hotel bathroom while little BB watches cartoons on the other side of the door. It's an ending that the Bride earns completely. She went through Hell and dozens of bad people to ultimately reclaim her daughter, and she earned it.

Conclusion

So, I never really intended to summarize the movie in such detail, and I hope that I provided more context on structure than just that, but let me continue like I totally did what I meant to do.

Could this exact same story have been told linearly and had the same level of emotional impact? I'd bet a hearty yes on that. It could have been, but what would have been lost? Just taking what's already in the movie and rearranging it, I think the introduction would have been too long before ever getting to any sort of character or plot development. The middle would have been the Showdown followed by a small fight in a housewife's home, which would have been a curious order. The final third would have been the bulk of action in Volume 2 without Pai Mei, him not having been seen since the very beginning of the movie about 3 hours before.

Essentially, it would have had to have been completely rewritten and re-envisioned, not just re-organized.

I love it as it is, though. The disorder of the story pieces works. The long sequences that could have been shorter, are all entertaining in their own right. The story comes to a satisfying conclusion without tying up every lose end unnecessarily. (Is Elle alive? Will little Nicki come after the Bride at some later date?) And, most importantly, the Bride's emotional journey is clear, fulfilling, and complete.

The structure of the film seems to follow no formal rules, but it ends up working despite the seeming chaos.

Movies of Today

Opening in Theaters:
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
The LEGO Ninjago Movie
Stronger
Friend Request

Next in my Netflix Queue:
The Flight of the Phoenix

Movies I Saw This Week:
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (Netflix Rating 4/5 | Quality Rating 3/4) Poster blurb: "Funny, but not quite as hilarious as the first." [Netflix DVD]
Seven Psychopaths (Netflix Rating 3/5 | Quality Rating 2.5/4) "When movies are about movies instead of people, there's a distance created that this one doesn't quite bridge." [Amazon Prime]
The New World (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "Beautiful and heartfelt exploration of the sad and inevitably fruitless search for Eden on Earth." [Personal Collection]
The Tree of Life (Netflix Rating 5/5 | Quality Rating 4/4) [Rewatch] "An achingly beautiful portrait of loss framed similarly to Job's story." [Personal Collection]

Contact

Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.

Close it up

Posted by OregonMuse at 07:37 PM Comments

Saturday Afternoon Chess/Open Thread (Featuring Dress Pr0n) 09-23-2017

—OregonMuse

(click for slightly larger version)

Problem 1 - Black To Play (578 )

Hint: Black wins material

3r2k1/5pp1/5n2/2Q5/8/8/4P1P1/5K2 b - - 0 1

Problem 2 - White To Play (W&A 9)

Hint: Black's queen is looking mighty vulnerable there

rn3rk1/pp3ppb/2p4p/2Pn1P2/3NN3/4q2P/PP3RB1/R2Q2K1 w - - 0 1

Problem 3 - White To Play (BWTC 48 )

Hint: White mates in, at most, 8

2r2b1r/pN1k2pn/2pP1p2/4Pqnp/2Q5/2P3P1/PP4BP/2KRR3 w - - 0 1

Problem 4 - White To Play (577)

Hint: White can stave off the mate by winning material

6k1/5pb1/1p1N3p/p5p1/5q2/Q6P/PPr5/3RR2K w - - 0 1

(h/t ChessZebra)

Endgame of the Week (579)

White to move. Is his one-pawn advantage enough to win? If so, how?

Hint: Deflect the bishop at the opportune time

8/8/b7/7p/P2P4/3k3B/8/K7 w - - 0 1

Dress Pr0n For The 'Ettes

Stepping Out, 1908. Got to love those hats!

I don't understand why women wear shoes like that. Look at them; they force her to walk pretty much on her tip toes. They can't be comfortable. This is why I believe high-heeled shoes were invented by Nazi sadists.

___________

Solutions Update

Problem 1 - Black To Play

3r2k1/5pp1/5n2/2Q5/8/8/4P1P1/5K2 b - - 0 1

Black can fork White's king and queen:

1...Rd1+!
2.Kf2 Ne4+
3.Kf3 Nxc5 and wins

Problem 2 - White To Play

rn3rk1/pp3ppb/2p4p/2Pn1P2/3NN3/4q2P/PP3RB1/R2Q2K1 w - - 0 1

1.Nc2!

Traps the queen

1...Qxf2+

Best to minimize loss. Play might continue:

2.Kxf2 Bxf5
3.Nd6 Be6
4.Bxd5 cxd5
5.Nxb7 Nc6
6.Nd4 and wins

Problem 3 - White To Play

2r2b1r/pN1k2pn/2pP1p2/4Pqnp/2Q5/2P3P1/PP4BP/2KRR3 w - - 0 1

1.Qf7+ Nxf7
2.e6+ Qxe6

If instead Black tries to run for with 2...Ke8 then 3.d7+ Ke7 4.dxc8=N+ Ke8 5.Bxc6#

3.Nc5+ Kd8

Or 3...Ke8 4.d7+ Kd8 5.Nxe6+ Ke7 6.dxc8=N+ Ke8 7.Bxc6#

4.Nxe6+ Kd7
5.Nc5+ Kd8
6.Nb7+ Kd7
7.Bh3+ f5
8.Bxf5#

Problem 4 - White To Play (577)

6k1/5pb1/1p1N3p/p5p1/5q2/Q6P/PPr5/3RR2K w - - 0 1

So, in order to stop Black from delivering mate on h2, White needs to strike early and often, beginning with

1.Re8+! Kh7

The other move, 1...Bf8? leads to mate in short order:

1...Bf8
2.Rxf8+ Kxf8
3.Nf5+ Kg8
4.Qf8+ Kxf8 (or 4.Rd8+ Kh7 5.Rh8+ Kxh8 6.Qf8+ Kh7 7.Qg7#)
5.Rd8#

So, with 1...Kh7, Black avoids mate, but loses material. For example:

2.Qd3+ f5
3.Qxc2 Qf3+
4.Kg1 Qg3+
5.Qg2 f4
6.Qxg3 fxg3
7.Re7 and wins

Endgame of the Week

8/8/b7/7p/P2P4/3k3B/8/K7 w - - 0 1

In this problem, the first move is obvious: save the pawn.

1.d5 Bb7
2.d6 Bc6

Black has now got his bishop where he wants, guarding d7 and a8. But...

3.Bd7!!

A killer move that will give White time to advance his pawn.

4...Bxd7

4.a5 h4

Futile for Black is 4...Bc6 5.a6 h4 6.a7 h3 7.d7 Bxd7 8.a8=Q

5.a6 h3
6.a7 Bc6
7.a8=Q!

Not good is 7.d7? h2 8.d8=Q+ Kc2 and White is in serious trouble, i.e. 9.Qb8 h1=Q+ 10.Ka2 Qd5+ 11.Ka1 Qd4+ 12.Ka2 Qa4#

7...Bxa8
8.d7 Ke3
9.d8=Q Bg2
10.Qf6 and wins

Black's king is cut off from his pawn and rook. White can now bring his king up and trap it on either the edge of the board or against his own pieces, 10...Ke4 11.Kb2 Kd5 12.Qf4 Kc5 13.Kc3 Kd5 14.Qf5+ Kd6 15.Kd4, etc.

Hope to see you all next week!

___________

Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and past it into your chess app.

___________

So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.

Close it up

Posted by OregonMuse at 05:09 PM Comments

Ace of Spades Pet Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

(It's funny)

***

Welcome to the almost world famous AoSHQ Pet Thread. Where pets are royalty. So enjoy this week's royalty. Grab a liquid refreshment and relax.

Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 03:00 PM Comments

Saturday Gardening Thread: Fall has fallen! [KT]

—Open Blogger

Is that cat a pointer?

According to Vermont Fish & Wildlife, August 3 was opening day of zucchini season. Anybody know how long the season lasts there? Guess it doesn't matter much if frost hits. From the Old Farmer's Almananc, average first and last frost dates across the country. You can look up local charts for more specific garden information. Today, we have content on garden bounty and on cutting flowers you can plant in the fall or spring - for fall/winter bloom in mild climates or spring bloom in cold-winter climates. Inspired by Illiniwek's wild-ish flower border. I think I can handle some of those flowers on a little smaller scale.

Zucchini and Tomato Recipes

Lawrence Larson sent in a couple of the recipes he mentioned last week for using his abundance of zucchini and tomatoes.

We wear out the zucchini and tomato casserole all summer long so we use different cheeses.

Bet this one is great with the fresh dill option:

Zucchini and Tomato Casserole

4 medium zucchini, cubed
3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill weed or 1.5 teaspoons dried dill
ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon margarine, melted
2 large tomatoes, sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup grated Romano cheese (feel free to substitute to your tastes)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 2-quart casserole dish.

2. Place zucchini in a pot fitted with a steamer basket over boiling water. Steam 5 minutes, or until tender but firm. Transfer to the casserole dish. Mix the dill, pepper, and margarine, and stir into the casserole dish, evenly coating zucchini. Layer tomato slices over zucchini, and sprinkle with basil and Romano cheese.

3. Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and golden brown.

The Blueberry Zucchini bread never makes it out of our house alive because it's absolutely wonderful with coffee.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

3 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Lightly grease 5 mini loaf pans
3. Beat together eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar
4. Fold in zucchini

5. Beat in flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon
6. Gently fold in blueberries
7. Fill mini loaf containers half full - place on cookie tray
8. Bake 50 minutes
9. Cool 20 minutes in pan and then transfer to wire rack

Thanks, Lawrence. The recipes sound wonderful. Wish I had some bigger tomatoes or some zucchini in the garden right now. Oh, well. Memories:

Don't forget to check for late comments on the Garden Thread

Speaking of bounty from gardens, here's a sample of the information you may have missed if you didn't check back on last week's thread on Saturday night and Sunday:

Pat* asked about spots on her Early Girl tomatoes that turn grey underneath. She provided some instructions for lining the bottom of a raised bed with hardware cloth to keep burrowing critters out and recommended "get tough" measures for parsley and chives. She also gave her typical comprehensive garden report.

Gordon responded with a nice recipe for Pobalo peppers baked with chicken, cheese and cream cheese. Mmmmm.

JQ gave us a garden report including details on various tomatoes and an update on her hop plants.

Shanks for the memory gave a jealousy-inducing garden summary, with details on veggies and his plans for a hillside filled with daffodils (and other yellow flowers). Then there was the food from the garden and nearby farms:

This evening I made black bean pork belly with a side dish of eggplant that I simmered in a garlicky sauce.
We cracked the first jar of homemade kimchi made with garlic scapes and Mu, a crisp white Korean daikon radish. I'm a fermenting fiend this year...I bought a set of inexpensive fermenting valve cap thingies that fit on mason jars. Makes a huge difference in quality/texture and no exploding lids or weeping jars.

Ha! i just ate a peach that was a dead ringer for the photo...stopped at a farm and got two punnets of the last of the year's peaches. They are either Fayette or Flamecrest...the lean-to stand wasn't staffed (they still use the honor system hereabouts on the backroads).

Belgian waffles and sliced peaches for brekkie tomorrow.

There's a recipe for the black bean pork belly dish at the link above. Scroll down to his comment.

Has anybody taken a photo of an eggplant you grew?

In the Labor Day Weekend Thread we saw the early stages of Illiniwek's flower border, grown from seed on newly-prepared ground. Ambitious. Some of us could grow some of the same flowers on a less-ambitious scale in our own yards. Two of the first that came up in his border are also noted as good cut flowers for fall. They are Cornflower (Bachelor Buttons) and Sulfur Coreopsis. Fast growers. Cornflower prefers cool weather. It comes in shades of blue, pink, rose and white.

Sulfur Coreopsis can take more heat, but starts to look weedy late in summer from spring sowing, so it can be re-planted for fall blossoms. It comes in yellow (as suggested by the name), gold, orange and orange-red shades. Wild sulfur coreopsis is up to 7 feet tall. The one in the photo is a tall garden type called 'Towering Orange' for cutting. There are many dwarf strains.

Bachelor Buttons got that name for lasting a long time in a buttonhole. Sulfur coreopsis should be picked soon after it opens and placed in deep, cool water before arranging in bouquets.

If you would like to grow a few flowers for cutting this fall or next spring, start preparing a little patch of soil, water and do some weed control, because more recommendations are coming. Those in the South might want to get a garden pot ready.

Finally, Hank Curmudgeon sent in the following inspiration for Morons who may need a little extra firepower for that important Fall Yard Cleanup.

Gardens of The Horde

Yes, Shanks for the Memory, I am gearing up for winter gardening. Passing out some seeds to other people tonight, too. I'll probably do broccoli from plants, lettuce and arugula (not for me). Maybe some other veggies, too. And some flowers.

Anything going on in your garden?

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at g mail dot com

Include your nic unless you want to be a lurker.

Close it up

Posted by Open Blogger at 12:42 PM Comments

Destroying Cherished Knowledge [KT]

—Open Blogger

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

With all the things kids will not be allowed to learn in school, how will they collectively earn enough money to pay for Obamacare II?

James Jupp, a scholar of critical white studies, articulated his commitment to the destruction of "Whitestream cherished knowledge" in an article published Tuesday for the "White Scholars Working Against Whiteness" issue of the journal Whiteness and Education.

Question: Was Herbert Marcuse white enough to be considered "white"? He served in the German army. Critical Theory seems to be cherished in whitestream academia now. Must Critical Theory be destroyed? Would that include Critical White Studies?

Posted by Open Blogger at 11:16 AM Comments

Saturday Morning Weird News Dump

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

(Coffee? Yes. Kid? Nope.)

***

Saturday again. Where the hell did this week go? So, let's have some caffeine and delve into somethings that didn't get too much attention this past week here at the HQ.

Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM Comments

EMT 09/23/17 Just say No edition.

—krakatoa

A little Saturday morning salt:

Fuck you Arizona, and all the rest of you cancy-ass, incumbent protecting at all cost voters.

How's all that sneering at principled voting and beating that drum of getting the best candidate that can "win" paying off? Got-damn but wouldn't a President "I'll complete that danged fence" McCain have been just the conservative bulwark that would turn the tide?

There has always been one simple solution to the problem. You vote for the person who best represents your values. If there are no candidates who represent enough of the values you hold dear, you should never fear abstaining.

The Left will burn itself out and eat its own, win or lose. The Right simply has to demonstrate a better alternative to their anarchy, in or out of power.

This is the 2nd time in my life I have watched the Right gain the White House and the Senate and House, and utterly waste it if one were to place any credence in their campaign promises.

You cannot beat the darkness by pretending it doesn't exist. It only gains strength when people simply pull the blinds to hide its encroachment. When those people are no longer in charge of the strings, the blinds come back up and the shadows are still there, roused again, indignant at the temporary pause, and more hungry than ever.

If a candidate is so obviously contemptuous of your values as, say John McCain whose blank and pitiless gaze ought to be a dead got-damned giveaway, you don't support his or her poisonous contempt with your vote just to keep someone else out of office.

This is the primary reason why the ratchet in this country has and still continues to turn in one direction. Republicans far too often see winning the election as a the job. So, we see professional campaigners whose singular strategy is to demonstrate "electability", and what few principles they do espouse are simply different words they tell to different people to get a vote.

Every time they come back with their hands outstretched and the threat that "this time it's the end of the world if you don't say yes," and "We promise to keep our promises and this time we we mean it, if you Just. Say. Yes.".

What has that gotten us?

How many of you really think continuing to do the same thing is going to achieve a different end than that which comes slouching towards us down that comfortable and familiar path?

Saying "NO" will set you free.

and Yes, I am angry and bitter so, Yeats.

Posted by krakatoa at 06:00 AM Comments

Friday Night ONT: Mary Prankster Edition

—WeirdDave

Welcome to Friday y'all. I tell you, the hanging Windows update I mentioned last night has been giving me fits. Some Morons were very helpful last night, but what I was trying didn't work, and I don't know what to do. I'm sure there are a lot of updates I still need, but until I get this one fixed I can't get to them. Anyhoo, it's the weekend, have y'all got your budgets in order to have some fun?

Fido Friday

THIS MAKES ME SO HAPPY pic.twitter.com/QTbBUMk3Qq
— Mindblowing (@MindBlowing) September 22, 2017

Political Correctness

Former agent warns the Secret Service has a troubling obsession that’s putting Trump’s life in serious danger

Ever notice that we didn't used to have loons jumping the White House fence and all of the other stuff we see almost regularly now? A new book by Dan Bongino delves into why, and he should know as he spent years on the presidential detail. Turns out the SS is more concerned with diversity in the ranks rather than competence. This leftist obsession with diversity is going to kill us all. In any organization, “diversity” (as the left means it-race and sex, certainly not ideas) can be a great thing. However, diversity is a by-product, not a goal. A good job will have people of all races, creeds and colors striving to fill it. This creates a natural diversity that can be valuable. But by setting out to be “diverse” without considering whether the people can do the actual job, all you get is chaos. Remember that if an assassin takes someone down after out running a one legged Latino lesbian midget who is providing “security” for the victim.

Living in a Leftist Paradise

Tired Of Democracy? Singapore Is for You!

The author relates how he realized, as his plane was coming in to Singapore, that he had prescription medication in his bag which would make him subject to the death penalty after he landed. Clean? Yep. Modern? Yep. Wealthy? Singapore is all of those things. You still couldn't pay me enough to live there. I'll take my nice, messy liberty, thank-you-very-much.

Thoughtful Article

Teen-Adult Sex: What Every Parent Should Know

It's by Chad Felix Greene, a gay conservative who is quite open about his own teenage experiences hooking up with adult men. Not a pleasant read, but an important one.

Musical Interlude

How many of you have heard of Mary Prankster? If ever there was a musician that should be a Moron, it's her. A five foot nuthin', foul mouthed, tattooed, dynamo in red hightops, she was, and I mean this quite sincerely, the finest lyricist to come out of the Baltimore area since Frank Zappa. Calling her brand of music “cowpunk”, she played over 1,000 live shows in a career that spanned the decade ending in 2005.

“Tits and Whiskey” was her first big song around here, despite saying “Fuck” 13 times in the song, it received wide airplay in the Baltimore area on alternative stations.

Her catalog ran the gamut of subjects, and her songs seemed to perfectly capture the post-grunge area angst from the POV of Generation X. She wrote love songs, (Tempest);

My manner is imperious My logic is empirical And I'm bad at being a girlfriend So I'm hoping for a miracle
I fear your disappointment
When I don't turn out ethereal
Though either way for me
I know it means some new material

Now don't go thinkin' that you're special
Just because you are
'Cause I'm bound to overthink it
And I always go too far

But if you think this kind of tempest
May just be your cup of tea
Then I'd like to offer you
The heart of me

Songs the highlight the troubled nihilism of a casual sex generation (Mercyfuck);

And I don't want to live anymore
And I don't want to give anymore
If I fawn, if I flirt, I just keep getting hurt
And it's taken its toll

I wish I could fuck all my sorrow away
And fuck 'til the dawn of the next fucking day
Fuck the chorus and verse, fuck the pain getting worse
Fuck it all 'til I burn

And even songs that recognize the futility of it all and the demands of adulthood (New Tricks).

Spent more years than I remember
In a club where every member
Never feels as if he quite belongs

Searching for my pleasure in
Some brand-new kind of deadly sin
My life is just as aimless as my songs

I'm gonna make it back to college
I'm gonna quit my job
I'm gonna buy the store that I'd been planning just to rob

I'm gonna teach this old dog new tricks
Drinking from the brimming cup
As soon as I wake up

Mary Prankster was obviously just a stage name, I don't know her real name, not may people do. After she hung up her Chucks, she moved to New York where, I assume, she's still active in the creative arts somehow. I'm now in my 50s, and yet I still miss gong to a smoky dive bar and watching Mary just burn the place down.

I'll leave you with “Swan Dive”. I'm happy, successful, and more confident in myself and my life than most, but this is still the best song I've ever heard for capturing that feeling that we all get sometimes, that feeling that it's all a big sham. That feeling that any second now, the fourth wall is going to pull back and we'll be standing awkward and alone on a big stage where we don't belong while the audience laughs at us.

Yeah, I'm a big fan.

Is This Some Kind of an Oak?

American oaks share a common northern ancestor

I'll just leaf this here. It's kind of acorn-y thing to say, but more than tree puns is a waste. Don't bark at me, I'm sure they won't take root in your brain, and soon you'll be able to branch out into other subjects. I may be going out on a limb here, but I bet nothing sticks.

A Smart Military Blog

Why The Woobie Is The Greatest Military Invention Ever Fielded

Tonight's ONT is brought to you by evolution:

The Yahoo Group just discovered the wheel.

Close it up

Posted by WeirdDave at 10:00 PM Comments

Open Thread (with Lots of Content) & GAINZZZ Thread

—Ace

I figure the thing that's best here is the Making of Red Dawn (the original) featurette, also embedded below, but linked here in case you can't see it below.

Other stuff:

She seems nice.

In Australia, there's a controversy over the Australian Football League putting out a statement that it, as a corporation, supports same sex marriage. The question is, as it is here: Who the hell are these people to tell ticket-buying fans what they ought to think about a political issue?

Shock: CNN is barely covering the Menendez trial on the actual channel (though there is some scattered coverage on its doesn't-even-matter website), and the networks have almost entirely suppressed the story.

Why aren't the media and other leftist propaganda organs actually covering Valerie Plame's antisemitism? They covered the shit out of, say, Steve Bannon's alleged antisemitism, but for some reason have decided that the proven and longstanding antisemitism of a former CIA officer making decisions about Middle East policy, and influencing US opinion, just aren't worth much exploration, for some reason.

Here's the second-most obvious answer, apart from simple tribal allegiance and partisan bias: Because antisemitism has been thoroughly mainstreamed on the political left, far more that it has been on the right.

Go figure: Leftists decree that having a child is the worst possible decision you could make, both for yourself and The Planet.

Amusingly, here's the related story this bullshit site suggests you might also be interested in:

More: Why Greece needs to start having babies again soon or face financial oblivion

But ignore that. For the Anti-Human Left, the Human Voluntary Self-Extinction Project outweighs all other concerns.

They really are Agent Smith -- they really do want an end to the human race.

I meant to link this earlier, but John Sexton has written it up for us: Leaked emails show the full madness at Evergreen State College, with lots of professors complaining they are being threatened, harassed, and stalked by "Social Justice" Warriors. All of whom were permitted to take over the campus, vigilante style, by the administration, with cops ordered to stand down.

And then crazed lunatics had a free hand to impose their own weird "justice" on the Filthy Normals.

Oh, and speaking of college madness, you might enjoy Hilary Clinton Absolver James Comey being disrupted at a (planned) college address for 16 minutes.

Oh, and Jimmy Kimmel, who cheerled John McCain in his latest betrayal and lies, of course got coached up on his Obamacare talking points by Chuck Schumer.

Below, that Red Dawn making-of featurette, and then a short GAINZZZ entry.

What Have You Done to Make the World a GAINZZZier Place Today?

On my front, I've been getting wiped out by too few rest days. Plus, trying to run a low-carb caloric deficit (I think; I don't count calories) while doing so.

So I've started eating more, and eating some carbs, hoping that I'll at least have the energy to do the workouts I'm trying to do.

I don't know if that'll work. I should start taking more Glutamine (which supposedly aids recovery), but I haven't started that yet.

On the GAINZZZ front, eating more, and eating more carbs, has resulted in... well, I do have lifting GAINZZZ, but I'm also putting on fat-weight too. Not a lot, but I'm not seeing any LOZEZZZ.

I've repeatedly read (or heard) it's impossible to try to both gain and lose weight at the same time -- which I realize looks pretty obvious -- and that you have to choose one or the other, and I think I'm finding out that's about right.

I might have to try something like "eat more six days a week, but then fast one day." That's what I'm doing today.

Coincidentally -- I forgot about this guy until today -- this guy suggests doing something like that, which he calls the "Snake Diet" (because you eat a lot, then you don't eat for days) and recommends drinking an electrolyte-rich drink he calls "Snake Juice." Basically, he suggests One Meal a Day plus the weekly 48 hour fast, or some fuckin' shit like that.

He begins every video with the greeting, "HEY FATTIE!," I guess as a motivational tool, which.. well, it kinda works, I guess. Starting off a video "HEY FATTIE!!!" really doesn't sugar-coat it much.

Now, to be honest, I'm not sure that I trust this guy's advice -- though I've done a lot of the stuff he suggests -- but I do find him amusing:

I found this guy when I was searching for the right proportions of electrolytes to water, after my own bouts of deydration.

i'm not endorsing this at all. Just saying, hey, he's... well, he's different, that's for sure.

If you want to know his recipe for an electroylte-replenishing concoction, well then, HEY FATTIE!!!, here's his fuckin' recipe for Snake Fuckin' Juice.

Here's a fuckin' testimonial by a FATTIE who failed his FUCKIN' SNAKE DIET because her fuckin' hormones were ALL FUCKED UP AND SHIT!!!

If you want to yelled at some fuckin' more, here:

By the way, I really, really, really would caution anyone from following his advice on dry fasting -- that is, fasting and also not drinking water.

You need more water when you fast, not less.

I like the idea of his Only Eat Bacon For 30 Days Challenge (and only eat it in that one meal a day 2 hour eating window), and I might try a bacon and eggs only sort of one meal a day challenge, but not dry, as he suggests.

I collapsed from dehydration, and had bad dehydration effects (averted from drinking a lot of water) another time. I'd really go nowhere near the dry fast.

Close it up

Posted by Ace at 07:59 PM Comments

Obama's "Dear Colleague" Demand for No-Due-Process Rape Courts Rescinded

—Ace

Big news. Expected, but big.

"This interim guidance will help schools as they work to combat sexual misconduct and will treat all students fairly," DeVos said. "Schools must continue to confront these horrific crimes and behaviors head-on. There will be no more sweeping them under the rug. But the process also must be fair and impartial, giving everyone more confidence in its outcomes."

Here's a bit that I've only seen Duke Lacrosse Rape case debunker KC Johnson highlight --

The Dear Colleague letter has been withdrawn, as expected. The big news: footnote 5 of the interim guidance, which cites *Brandeis* opinion: pic.twitter.com/VRyGTkmCnV
— KC Johnson (@kcjohnson9) September 22, 2017

If you can't read it, it says that the standards/procedure used in these Title IX courts must be the same for adjudging other offenses. So universities can't run sexual assault hearings with any less procedural safe guards than those employed in other contexts.

Related, in a way:

An illegal immigrant is accused of raping a six year old girl.

Now, answer this for me:

If it's okay to use hearings which lack due process, review of the evidence, provision of a lawyer, etc., to expel students from college on sexual assault colleges, why can we not similarly dispense with due process rights when seeking to eject accused-but-not-yet-convicted illegal aliens from the US?

If the former passes constitutional muster, then so does the second. (Federally subsidized schools must respect rights to the same extent as the government -- and if they don't have to respect rights, then, ipso facto, neither does the government.)

And if its required to drop evidentiary standards down to near-zero to protect alleged victims in college, why is not necessary to do the same to protect the population generally?

Why do we have to wait for a full court/full due process conviction to eject an accused alien illegally present in the US, when it is now the left's insistence that no such procedural safeguards are needed to throw a US citizen out of a college?

BTW: The below post is fun so it's officially Still A Thing, if you want.

Posted by Ace at 06:54 PM Comments

Mel Brooks: "Stupid Political Correctness" Has Killed Comedy

—Ace

As many of you have pointed out, Blazing Saddles could not be made today.

Brooks agrees.

Asked if any of his films could get made today, Brooks replied, "No, no. I mean maybe Young Frankenstein and maybe a few but never Blazing Saddles because we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy." He continued, "It's okay not to hurt feelings of various tribes and groups; however, it’s not good for comedy.

"Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering into the king's ear, always telling the truth, always telling the truth about human behavior.”

BTW, Brooks' humor was rarely "racist" or antisemitic itself. But he often featured characters making racist statements. These characters' beliefs were pretty much refuted by the movie itself; for example, the black sheriff in Blazing Saddles was much smarter and craftier than the "morons" who called him racial slurs.

But Social Justice Warriors ignore nuances like that -- is it even right to call that a "nuance"? it's the obvious main point of the movie -- and take the ineffably stupid position that any word or statement they don't like, even if the context of it is intended to undermine or refute that statement, is forbidden.

One recent example of this was the Social Justice Warrior outrage over the movie Passengers. Which I did end up watching -- it was okay. Not very good. Nice looking sets of a spaceship and some good scenes, but overall, slow in the beginning, and then rushed at the end.

The plot was this: Chris Pratt is in cryosleep on a colonly ship to another world. The trip is 120 years long -- the ship only (only!) travels at half the speed of light. But his cryopod malfunctions and he's woken up after only 30 years -- with 90 years to spend on a ship in which literally not another human being is awake.

Including the crew, which... well, this isn't very realistic, but the crew is all in cryosleep too, with the computer running everything for the whole journey, which makes you wonder: Why even bother sending along a crew? You'd think if you sent them along, you'd at least wake up a few of them every six months or so to make sure the ship hasn't been hit by a meteor and undergoing a catastrophic cascade failure. (Which is exactly what's happened.)

Anyway, after a year of being totally alone, and facing the prospect of living out the rest of his life alone, and after having (Spoiler alert) attempted suicide before chickening out last minute, he makes the selfish -- but desperate -- decision to wake up a fellow passenger, and the lie to her, telling her that her cryopod also suffered a random mechanical failure.

The Social Justice Warriors attacked the film for Pratt's selfish decision to trap a woman in his same predicament, just because he wanted companionship (including romantic/sexual companionship - he'd spent a lot of days watching her various video interviews, falling in love with her).

But here's the thing: The film knows that was a horrible, selfish decision. Chris Prat's character knows it was a horrible, selfish decision, and says so, and lives with the guilt of it every day.

The main dramatic conflict in the movie is all about his horrible, selfish decision, and what the hell this woman is going to do when she finds out he actually condemned her to live and die alone on a ship just because he was lonely.

The movie offers the same critique as the Social Justice Warriors -- this desperate man did a terrible and selfish thing to a woman to alleviate his own suffering.

Yet the Social Justice Warriors acted as if portraying bad decisions, and the consequences of those decisions (both to the woman he woke up, and himself) is the same as endorsing those decisions.

You can't really read that in the film. Yet they did anyway.

The did the same thing to the movie Knocked Up, criticizing the male character's immaturity and failure to "man up" and help the woman he impregnated -- ignoring the fact that the film itself has a critical stance toward's Seth Rogen's character, and the whole dramatic thrust of the film is about him giving up his selfish, manchild ways to become a real man, capable of supporting a wife (emotionally mostly -- she makes more money than him, but he at least now has an income) and raising a child.

Oh, and of course Ms. Magazine whined that Wonder Woman wasn't fat with a "real body." Despite the fact that Gal Gadot's body obviously is "real," and despite the fact that the character, according to the movie, trained to be a warrior -- you know, an athlete of death -- "ten times" harder than any other Amazon since age 8.

So.... yeah. I'm not seeing the likelihood of such a person carrying around an extra 80 or 100 pounds.

And:

When it was announced that Gadot would play Wonder Woman, audiences went wild body shaming her for not having large enough breasts....
Especially with the body positivity movement gaining steam, the film could have spotlighted female warriors with fat, thick and short body types. While people have said that warriors can’t be fat, some of our best paid male athletes are, particularly linebackers on the football field, and no one doubts their physical strength.

So it's "body shaming" to say she doesn't have enough fat mass in her breasts, but it's Social Justice Warrior dogma that she should have more fat mass in her belly and thighs.

Very nuanced take. (BTW, her breasts were fine.)

So yes, the Social Justice Warriors would freak out about a Blazing Saddles where characters use racial jibes and play stupid about the film's overall message. They stupidly outrage about things daily because it give them power -- and an income. Most of them are paid by media companies or political agitation groups to freak out whenever possible.

They get attention and money to play stupider than they really are -- and they're already plenty stupid for real.

Posted by Ace at 04:56 PM Comments

John "Build the Dang Fence" McCain Liesplains His Obamacare Reform No-Vote: I Won't Support Any Law That Democrats Don't Support Too

—Ace

Not that surprising to see a Democrat defending the interests of the Democrat Party.

Strange that a vain, narcissistic man who claims to be The Only Straight-Shootin' Maverick Truth-Teller in DC would lie about his actual party loyalty, though.

It’s worth noting, by the way, that his rationale is rather bizarre. His key point -- one he reiterated in his tweet announcing the decision-- is this:
We should not be content to pass health care legislation on a party-line basis, as Democrats did when they rammed Obamacare through Congress in 2009. If we do so, our success could be as short-lived as theirs when the political winds shift, as they regularly do. The issue is too important, and too many lives are at risk, for us to leave the American people guessing from one election to the next whether and how they will acquire health insurance. A bill of this impact requires a bipartisan approach.

Fine, but if so, what was literally all of this about? It’s been clear since early this year, when Democrats rebuffed the original Cassidy-Collins bill, that no Democrat would support a repeal or deep reform of Obamacare. If McCain sincerely believes this, he should have been a firm no from the start, and shouldn't have teased everyone by flirting with support for the various bills the Senate considered.

Paul (and even Collins/Murkowski) ostensibly opposed it on substance. Per his stmt, McCain opposed it only b/c Democrats don't like it.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 22, 2017

Yup. Remember when Gov. Ducey's approval was supposedly what mattered? Lol. McCain doesn't want to repeal Obamacare. https://t.co/gbbdS03Rsb
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 22, 2017

When people say "it shouldn't be done on a party line basis" they are saying that obamacare shouldn't be repealed https://t.co/0tZ1VEBnL4
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) September 22, 2017

In fairness to John McCain -- he lies an awful lot, running as a "conservative" every six years and then voting like a liberal Democrat for the next five, and GOP voters have permitted this fraud to go on for decades, so why should he stop now?

If voters vote for lies, fraud, and betrayal, why should they not have exactly that in McCain-ego-sized buckets?

At least he got the support of his actual constituents: The liberal media:

Thank you @SenJohnMcCain for being a hero again and again and now AGAIN
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) September 22, 2017

It's okay to screw over your millions of dupe, rube voters if you can get someone in the media to flatter your old, brokedown-but-ravenous vanity.

Pic: Anon Y. Mous recommends this picture, which Drudge used to illustrate the story.

Says it all.

Posted by Ace at 04:14 PM Comments

Dershowitz: Why Is the Media Playing Down Valerie Plame's Nazi-Level Antisemitism?

—Ace

The Entitled Caste protects other members of the Entitled Caste. That's the whole point of an Entitled Caste.

Related: Check out this thread from Omri Ceren noting that Plame is just talking the way Obama and Kerry talked about American Jews having a divided loyalty and controlling the country for Israel's interests.

Posted by Ace at 03:05 PM Comments

Shocker: Maine Socialist Susan Collins "Leaning Against" Obamacare Repeal
Another Shock: JOHN McCAIN, HERO OF CONSERVATISM, WILL VOTE TO SAVE OBAMACARE

—Ace

What we need to do is protect our most liberal senators by voting in solidarity with them, or cancelling votes so as not to embarrass them, so that the GOP is always defined by its most liberal elements.

It's worked like gangbusters so far.

BTW, I realize Rand Paul is against this bill for retaining many parts of Obamacare. I get that. But that's not why Susan Collins is against it. Remember, she was one of the last to announce she was opposing Obamacare in the first place -- probably only because she knew the Democrats had enough votes and didn't need hers. So she probably voted against it purely as a tactical move.

And Here It Is: John McCain comes in to White Knight for his fellow socialist traveler, and will protect her by voting against the bill too.

SIREN, McCain: "“I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal"
— Sam Stein (@samstein) September 22, 2017

Article here. Once again he's claiming his only problem is with procedure.

"McCain Strikes Again," Drudge headlines.

Betrayed by John McCain voting with the Democrats. Never saw this coming.

Posted by Ace at 01:18 PM Comments

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"Look, there are only two genders, OK? Male, female, that's it. Anything else is mental illness."

Posted by OregonMuse at 11:30 AM Comments

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Destruction Of Sodom And Gomorrah
John Martin

There is no message expressed or implied by the choice for today's art. No animals were harmed in the making of this post, and the girth of this artwork is in proportion to its height.

Posted by CBD at 09:30 AM Comments

The Morning Report 9/22/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. The weekend is upon us and what a week it has been. As the cleanup and recovery gets underway in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, our top story this morning is of course President Trump both internationally and here at home. His presence at the UN was a cold pmp-slap of reality in the face of the thugs and tyrants around the world as well as here at home. Interesting how the reaction to PDT is that he is somehow dangerous and unhinged and yet it's Whoa, Fat! who has threatened to detonate an H-bomb over the Pacific. It was the last three presidents, especially the Democrats who have fostered this festering of potential armageddon and yet when a real leader steps up and says "no more" he's the crazy one. Meanwhile, he scored a major diplomatic coup by getting the ChiComs to hit the NorKs in the pocket book. The disconnect with reality of the Left never ceases to stun me.

At home, in Alabama, Roy Moore evidently took it to Luther Strange who ducked and dodged direct questions about ethics troubles. Everyone in DC is looking to this as a bellwether for the fight against the Deep State GOP establishment. Unfortunately, PDT is backing Strange while Moore is the anti-establishmentarian. Also of note was that this was a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with no moderators. Would love to see this implemented going forward in presidential debates.

The Graham-Cassidy bill is gaining momentum in the Senate but there are conflicting reports as to both its odds of passing and more crucially, what it does or does not do to stop further government intervention in health insurance and care. As a palate cleanser, Tucker Carlson beats up on Meathead about the Russia hacking/collusion fantasy.

Lastly, in the face of the revelations about Obama and his flunkies using the instrumentalities of government to attack, punish and sabotage their political enemies, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is evidently going to do, for lack of a better word, nothing. I have tried my best to defend Sessions here as he was the first GOP senator to endorse candidate Trump and in the beginning was an absolute hawk on immigration and the rule of law. And yet, out of the box, he shoved the President under the bus by recusing himself from the phony Russia hack/collusion investigation and opened the door for the kangaroo court that is aiming to take PDT out, or neuter the agenda come hell or high water. It is Sessions' duty to go after this criminality, which is unprecedented in American history and it is evident that he is neither capable nor willing to do so. And in abrogating that responsibility he is in effect aiding and abetting the breakdown of trust in our law enforcement and governmental agencies. This is a cancer on our nation and society and he is letting it consume us. For the good of the nation, Jeff Sessions must resign and make way for someone who will pick up the gauntlet and prosecute those who violated their sacred oaths to the nation an rule of law. Personally, I would love to see someone like J. Christian Adams as AG. But if Sessions refuses to go, President Trump must fire him. For his sake and the sake of the nation and the rule of a just and stable law.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:19 AM Comments

Thursday Night's Ont is Cuter Than a Bug's Ear

—WeirdDave

Welcome to the Thursday night ONT. Rosh Hashanah began last night, so for Morons who are members of the Tribe, Leshana tovah! Ace wrote about Valerie Plame letting her anti-semite freak flag fly earlier, but he missed the best part:

No, we just ended your career. https://t.co/rQzGytJhdJ
— The Mossad (@TheMossadIL) September 21, 2017

Heh. The Mossad: A security service and a top notch Twitter troll. Jews. Is there anything they CAN'T do?

Awwwwe-some

If you read the morning rant, there was a great film clip posted of a little girl feeding herself with her feet. Here's another in that vein.

This amazing little one doesn't let his disability stop him from helping other. pic.twitter.com/dHB3eArlOJ
— Awesome Stuff (@_Amazingstuff__) September 2, 2017

The thing about children born with disabilities is that they don't know they have disabilities. They inhabit the body they received, and they tend to just go do what they need to do regardless, like the little girl eating with her feet and this boy helping his friend. While I certainly wish that no child was disabled, that fact that some are should serve as an inspiration to those of us who aren't, and that's one of the real tragedies of countries that claim they are “eliminating” Downs Syndrome by murdering children who have it. WE, you, I, everyone else, humanity, are so much poorer for not having them in our lives.

Disturbing Trend

Governments turn tables by suing public records requesters

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction -Ronald Reagan

Related, in response to a request to name 3 unique things about Sweden:

We don't believe in God. We trust state more than family. We eat sweet jam together with meat. https://t.co/h5JD6kUgu2
— @sweden / Sara (@sweden) September 20, 2017

This first is about to change, inshallah, IYKWIMAITYD. The second....it's just such a foreign concept to me. Has that ever, ever, ever worked out well for ANYONE in the long run? It's like watching someone hit themselves in the face with a hammer over and over:

“My head hurts” * SMASH *
“You're hitting yourself with a hammer”
“No, that's not it” * SMASH *

SMDH.

Jam on meat? Tasty. Not pork though, see point 1.

Was There Life Before Photoshop?

Someone on Twitter pointed out that North Korea's latest propaganda photo looked like the cover of a Pink Floyd album. It wasn't long before someone had obliged him:

Something like this? pic.twitter.com/Zw5piPSLYh
— Stuart Isett (@stuartisett) September 17, 2017

Now, personally I would have gone with “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason”, but still, that's fantastic. It got me thinking. I wonder how many other NK propaganda photos would make good Pink Floyd album covers? So I went looking for NK propaganda photos. The surprising answer to that question is “A lot of them”, but I only had time to make 1:

Nature is Horrifying

Want your dolly, little girl?

No? You sure? There's another one you can play with right over here.

Still don't want to play? OK, well, I'll just leave you with this picture of a squid that has HUMAN TEETH!

Scooped!

Well, Ace beat me to the punch by doing a post on the “Straight men are the white people of black people” idiocy, But here's another jaw dropping headline.

The incessant rewriting of history to feed a narrative is crazy. The ONT reached out to Avery Brooks for comment:

I always wanted to see Brooks do a DS9 scene in Hawk persona. "It don't matter if you ready, not ready Du-KAT" *sunglasses on* "Federation take you, 24/7" *Smile/hiss*

GET AWAY FROM ME YOU MONSTER!

"Who the hell are you?" �� pic.twitter.com/jquAPc0P6I
— Perfect Babies (@perfectbabies) September 18, 2017

Holodomor

I'm sick and tired of the Antifa pussies yammering on about Fascists and how evil they are and that they tried to commit genocide and blah, blah, blah. Yes, they are evil, and despicable and the ash heap of history is too good for them. BUT. Your side, the fucking Communists, isn't any better, and there's a new book out to remind us of that.

The forgotten Holocaust: How Stalin starved four million to death in a grotesque Marxist experiment

I killed more people tonight than I have fingers on my hand. I shot them in cold blood and enjoyed every minute of it. I pumped slugs in the nastiest bunch of bastards you ever saw and here I am calmer than I've ever been, and happy too. They were Communists, Lee. They were red sons of bitches who should have died long ago...
-Mike Hammer

Tonight's ONT brought to you by American problems:

The Yahoo Group favors using bazookas on intruders.

Close it up

Posted by WeirdDave at 09:46 PM Comments

Rescue K911: Heroic Mexican Navy Dog Has Saved at Least 52 People in Aftermath of Terrible Earthquake

—Ace

Dogs -- what can't they do?

And they do it for just a bone and a scratch behind the ears.

Frida, on the right, is the life-savingest dog -- but don't count out the dog on the left, "Evil." Even though that's not such a great name for a rescue dog.

Ellos son nuestros héroes caninos que han localizado a más de 52 personas. A la izquierda Frida, a la derecha Evil. Tanto qué agradecerles. pic.twitter.com/fPLz3B5L03
— Ninfa Salinas Sada (@NinfaSalinas) September 21, 2017

Per the video at the link, they wear the goggles to protect their eyes from dust, and the booties to protect their feet as they dig through rocks and broken glass.

In other news: Former Nation of Islam defender of Louis Farakhan's antisemitism Keith Ellison has the stones to make a Holocaust comparison with respect to border security.

In this, he follows Nancy Pelosi, who compared deporting illegals to interning Japanese citizens during WWII.

Oh yeah -- and speaking of, Nancy Pelosi praised illegal aliens for breaking the US law, saying "they did a great thing."

Tucker: this is what it looks like when the people in charge of a country decide to destroy it. #Tucker pic.twitter.com/cx333IbiFh
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 21, 2017

Obama gave a speech to the Gates Foundation. I don't know if this is one of those $400,000-per-speech gigs he likes to give to the wealthy. But I do know he said "I," "me," or "my" 96 times in a short speech.

James Clapper, who previously said there wasn't any wiretap on Trump to his knowledge, and that he would certainly expect to know it if there was one, now reverses himself on that "I would know" point and says he didn't know anything at all about the Manafort wiretap.

Even New York Times readers -- and even gay New York Times readers -- don't agree with the Times that bakers should be bullied by the state, as one commenter terms it, into baking cakes for gay weddings.

And even the Huffington Post reviewer finds Hillary Clinton's book deplorable:

Open thread.

Posted by Ace at 08:10 PM Comments

Two Top Swiss Islamic-Organization Officials Indicted for Making Al Qaeda Propaganda Videos

—Ace

I'm shocked. I thought they were all about the Peace and stuff.

Oh, speaking of: One of the London Tube Bombers was part of England's Islamic "deradicalization" program. I guess it didn't work.

If you want to not know more about the Tube Bombers, read the New York Times. They'll hide potentially discomforting information from you, like the nationalities of the suspects, their status as innocent refugees fleeing war (check!), and connections to Islamic terrorism.

Posted by Ace at 07:15 PM Comments

Revealed: Straight Black Men Are "The White People of Black People"

—Ace

"Intersectionality" bean-counts your Victim Oppression Factors. These include being of a minority race, being a woman (though women are... the majority), being gay, being disabled, being "trans," and even being fat.

There's a lot of Oppression One-Upsmanship going on. (Or: One-Upspyrsynshyp.)

White women are routinely castigated by the Intersectionalist Victim Oppression Gold-Medal holders for being Mostly Oppressive. After all, they only have one Victim Oppression chit to their credit. They need to shut up and let the true victims finally get the chance to whine about their victimization.

I agree with the first part, but not the second.

Even gay people are denigrated by Gold Medal holders for being "cis" as far as gender identification. Trans people often call them selfish for hoarding their Victim Oppression power and not using it to help trans people, who are the real heroes here.

As I noted last week, female lesbians are insulted for being "vagina fetishists" for refusing to have sex with "trans" women who are sexually attracted to women. And of course what I mean by that is men who want to hook up with lesbians, but who wear their hair long and put on make up and claim that they're girls. See, they're girls (with penises) attracted to other girls.

Girls who dig other girls. Like lesbians. Except, you know -- with penises. And even though they like girls, see, they're "gay," because they're actually girls themselves.

But with penises.

By the way, a lot of men want to have sex with lesbians. We call these odd creatures "straight men." Sometimes they betray their own depraved sexual impulses by accidentally posting Busty Lesbian Porn links on their blogs.

That's old news, though.

But this is a new one. Inevitable, yes. Predictable -- well, should have been.

But new.

Left-wing writers are taking the victim narrative to a new level this week, decrying "straight black men" as the "white people of black people."
In a column for The Root's 'Very Smart Brothas," writer Damon Young accused straight black men of having the "type of privilege created for and protected by whiteness." Black men, while victims of the white man's oppressiveness, are the oppressors of the nonheterosexual/male black person.

...

According to Young, straight black men are overrepresented in social justice circles and racism counters....

Posted by Ace at 06:08 PM Comments

Sheryl Atkisson: Looks Like Obama Spied on Trump Just Like He Spied on Me

—Ace

A pattern of using pretexts to spy on problematic American citizens.

Many in the media are diving deeply into minutiae in order to discredit any notion that President Trump might have been onto something in March when he fired off a series of tweets claiming President Obama had "tapped" "wires" in Trump Tower just before the election.
According to media reports this week, the FBI did indeed "wiretap" the former head of Trump's campaign, Paul Manafort, both before and after Trump was elected. If Trump officials -- or Trump himself -- communicated with Manafort during the wiretaps, they would have been recorded, too.

But we’re missing the bigger story.

If these reports are accurate, it means U.S. intelligence agencies secretly surveilled at least a half dozen Trump associates. And those are just the ones we know about.

Besides Manafort, the officials include former Trump advisers Carter Page and Michael Flynn. Last week, we discovered multiple Trump "transition officials" were "incidentally" captured during government surveillance of a foreign official. We know this because former Obama adviser Susan Rice reportedly admitted "unmasking," or asking to know the identities of, the officials. Spying on U.S. citizens is considered so sensitive, their names are supposed to be hidden or "masked," even inside the government, to protect their privacy.

In May, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates acknowledged they, too, reviewed communications of political figures, secretly collected under President Obama.

Nobody wants our intel agencies to be used like the Stasi in East Germany; the secret police spying on its own citizens for political purposes. The prospect of our own NSA, CIA and FBI becoming politically weaponized has been shrouded by untruths, accusations and justifications.

You’ll recall DNI Clapper falsely assured Congress in 2013 that the NSA was not collecting "any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans."

Intel agencies secretly monitored conversations of members of Congress while the Obama administration negotiated the Iran nuclear deal.

In 2014, the CIA got caught spying on Senate Intelligence Committee staffers, though CIA Director John Brennan had explicitly denied that.

...

Journalists have been targeted, too. This internal email, exposed by WikiLeaks, should give everyone chills. It did me.

Dated Sept. 21, 2010, the “global intelligence” firm Stratfor wrote:

[John] Brennan [then an Obama Homeland Security adviser] is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning information from inside the beltway sources....

The government subsequently got caught monitoring journalists at Fox News, The Associated Press, and, as I allege in a federal lawsuit, my computers while I worked as an investigative correspondent at CBS News....

She then recounts her own fight against hacking, and her lawsuit against the government, with our government fighting against her. She says the keylogger software used to hack her is federal government proprietary software.

It recalls what Daniel Greenfield wrote at Townhall: Once you start spying illegally, you have to keep spying illegally, because now you have to keep yourself out of jail.

Meanwhile, Don Surber tries to figure out why the We Bugged Trump story was leaked to CNN -- was it planted by an anti-Mueller hand trying to get Mueller in trouble, or a pro-Mueller hand trying to help him?

He thinks it's the latter.

Ben Domenech has some questions of his own. Remember, the wiretap was removed when the evidence it produced was "not conclusive," then it was re-applied for.

5. When was the wiretap renewed? On whose orders was the request made, and what new justification was involved?
6. If the evidence contained within the conversations the government wiretapped were indeed "not conclusive" about acts of collusion, as two sources tell CNN, why was the wiretap renewed (presuming that was the case) after Manafort left the campaign? Was it investigating the same activity, or new ones?

7. This was a 2014-based investigation given Manafort’s activity on behalf of a Vladimir Putin-friendly political party in Ukraine at the time. Back in April the Podesta Group revised their FARA reporting on their involvement in that Ukraine election, when their activity was directed by Manafort. Was the Podesta Group or any of its officials included in any wiretaps in 2016?

...

10. Was any of the justification contained within the application for the wiretap’s renewal dependent on the Steele Memo, whose many claims cannot be substantiated or have been significantly debunked? We know according to prior CNN reporting it was used for approval from a FISA court regarding Carter Page.

...

12. Why did Attorney General Jeff Sessions say there was no basis for Trump’s tweet when it seems clear that in fact someone as senior as Manafort, working and operating within Trump Tower, was indeed wiretapped?

By the way, for those on the SubRight determined to defend CNN and their hero Jake Tapper at every turn, even Clapper is now confessing that sure, maybe Trump was intercepted -- incidentally, of course.

"Its possible" President Trump's voice was picked up in a wiretap of Paul Manafort, says former spy chief Clapper https://t.co/2ELM48axAa
— CNN (@CNN) September 21, 2017

The SubRight defenders of the media and Obama's spy ring are cutting the baloney thinner and thinner to claim that Trump wasn't really surveilled.

Posted by Ace at 04:54 PM Comments

Sources: Political Appointee Samantha Powers, Who, As Ambassador to the UN, Had No Obvious Intelligence-Analysis Role in Government, Made "Hundreds" of Unmasking Requests In the Closing Days of the Obama Administration, Averaging One Per Day

—Ace

It was all just a coincidence that Obama's top political appointees were unmasking US citizens caught in intercepts, and then Obama just happened to change the rules to allow such information to be shared easily throughout government in his last days as Prezzy.

Samantha Power, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was 'unmasking' at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016 – and even sought information in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, multiple sources close to the matter told Fox News.
Two sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said the requests to identify Americans whose names surfaced in foreign intelligence reporting, known as unmasking, exceeded 260 last year. One source indicated this occurred in the final days of the Obama White House.

One might suspect that she was using pretexts to engage in political spying, but that would be crazy conspiracy talk. Better to assume, as our super-pro-government Establishment Republican twitter idiots do, that this was all perfectly ethical, and not bother harboring any suspicions or asking any questions.

Because, of course, as all True Conservatives know, the most important precept in True Conservatism is assuming that government is always benevolent and that man is not fallen, but rather as innocent as the angels.

Posted by Ace at 03:17 PM Comments

Valerie Plame: You Know, American Jews Are Responsible For Most of American Wars

—Ace

You remember Valerie Plame, right? She suggested her husband for the job of debunking Bush's claims about Iraqi weapons research.

The media made her a hero when she was "outed" -- in the context of letting the world know how her husband had gotten this job -- even though she wasn't really "in" in the first place. She worked out of Langley -- actual covert spies avoid Langley, for obvious reasons.

Since then she had a movie made about her, glamorizing her and indeed beatifying her. She's also a big supporter and fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, and is on the board of Ploughsares, a key part of Ben Rhodes'/Obama's "echo chamber" to give Iran the nuclear bomb so that it can wipe Israel off the map:

The same echo chamber pushing Iranian talking points.. pic.twitter.com/WUd9SXENrn
— Nick Short 🇺🇸 (@PoliticalShort) September 21, 2017

So, that background established, here's what Valerie Plame decided to retweet today:

America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars https://t.co/oUH7b0QPMt
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Now you might charitably think: "Well, maybe she was just retweeting it to alert people to this writer's anti-semitism."

But your charity would be misspent. Here she doubles down and calls the article "very provocative, but thoughtful." (Emphasis added.)'

And she adds: "Many Neocon hawks ARE Jewish." (Emphasis in original.)

1) First of all, calm down. Re-tweets don't imply endorsement. Yes, very provocative, but thoughtful. Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish. https://t.co/m5oGgKPo2a
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Then she tells people to set aside their preconceptions and just read the article and think about it "clearly:"

3) too many who are so ready to go to war. Haven't we had enough for awhile?
4) Read the entire article and try, just for a moment, to https://t.co/wyd3uJ06nt
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

put aside your biases and think clearly. https://t.co/dHsVF8ZCH6
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

More below...

Here's one of the key claims of the article she finds "thoughtful:" that Jewish pundits should be specifically labeled as Jews -- with the equivalent of a yellow star -- to make sure they don't trick gentiles into any more wars:

From the linked piece. A yellow star on the lapel might also do the trick. Or maybe a forearm tattoo. pic.twitter.com/IQMP636bxm
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) September 21, 2017

Warning the public that Jews are in fact (((Jews))), this "thoughtful" article opines, is like labeling rat poison as rat poison.

The article then went on to make the totally-not-antisemitic claim that Jews Control the Media and Politicians. You know -- ZOG. The Zionist Occupied Government.

Ah, yes. Put aside your biases and consider the thesis that wealthy warmongering Jews secretly control everything. "Thoughtful” indeed. pic.twitter.com/adzBFxMayB
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) September 21, 2017

Now, after having called the article "thoughtful" and imploring people to just read it and think about it "clearly" -- about the ideas that Jews Control the Media and Government and Start All Wars-- she does an about face and claims she didn't even really read it and so she didn't realize the article had "undercurrents" of antisemtism:"

OK folks, look, I messed up. I skimmed this piece, zeroed in on the neocon criticism, and shared it without seeing and considering the rest.
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Apologies all. There is so much there that’s problematic AF and I should have recognized it sooner. Thank you for pushing me to look again.
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Honeydoll, that wasn't an "undercurrent," that was an overcurrent. It was the main current. It was the only current.

I love how now that she's been caught tweeting antisemitic propaganda, she uses the Social Justice Warrior buzzwod "problematic" (indeed, "problematic AF") as a Get Out of Jail free card, to say "Hey, Progz, I'm still down with the struggle against Nazis."

She then claims she missed the "gross undercurrents" of the piece:

I missed gross undercurrents to this article & didn’t do my homework on the platform this piece came from. Now that I see it, it’s obvious.
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) September 21, 2017

Compare and contrast her first statements -- before the pushback -- to her subsequent claims that she just didn't see this carefully-hidden antisemitic messaging:

Life comes at you fast, @ValeriePlame. pic.twitter.com/sRwuKcymUS
— MonBossyMothma-WR (@nowhere_nh) September 21, 2017

So, several problems with this "I just skimmed it and didn't pick up on the carefully-hidden cryptonazi messaging" claim.

First of all, she already told people to just read it carefully and think clearly about it, implying she already has given it such a read herself.

Second of all, the massage here isn't very well hidden. "I just skimmed it" is no defense when the "undercurrents" are right there in the HEADLINE:

American Jews are Driving America's Wars

Oh, and if she missed that "undercurrent," here is the sub-hed:

Shouldn't Jews recuse themselves when dealing with the Middle East?

Subtle, I know. But if you read between the lines a bit, you might be able to detect the faintest ripples of an "undercurrent."

So she's claiming "I didn't read the headline. Jeeze, no one reads the headlines! This is the internet, after all."

Further, the whole article is about this. Which parts of the article did she skim which do not make the claim announced in the headline? It's all about this. There is no part of the article you can read where you don't see the plaintext message that Jews drive America's wars.

Even further, she immediately doubled down and insisted that yes, "Most Neocon hawks ARE Jewish."

She knew exactly what the article was claiming. She emphatically agreed with it.

But now she's seen the pushback -- and probably gotten calls from media buddies and Democrat Operatives telling her to go into damage control mode if she wanted their continuing proection -- and she claims she didn't read what she already declared she did read.

Lastly: She has a history of animosity to Jews, and has made no big secret of it:

Cringe pic.twitter.com/foh9Jv9Sdv
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) September 21, 2017

Welp. I guess we should’ve seen this coming back in April. pic.twitter.com/B24xxP17zU
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) September 21, 2017

So she also retweeted another story by this Philip Geradi -- stating that she, too, "didn't like" Israel.

Well put, Mr. Giraldi: Why I Still Dislike Israel http://t.co/8fxErjzAij
— Valerie Plame Wilson (@ValeriePlame) December 31, 2014

Got the message yet?

Maybe you don't yet -- so here's Plame retweeting the same author writing an article about the "Dancing Israelis" on 9/11-- suggesting, it seems, that the Jews did 9/11 and then celebrated their Jew Coup.

Oh, man. The rabbit hole goes deep. pic.twitter.com/nkQUnFHtTA
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) September 21, 2017

The headline there?

The Dancing Israelis
Trump was right about 9/11, but they weren't Muslims

That is, it wasn't Muslims celebrating: It was Jews.

The article claims "to be sure" this doesn't prove Jewish complicity in 9/11, but then allows: "There are Israeli fingerprints all over the place."

Very provocative -- but thoughtful, I think you'll agree.

In fact, Jeff B. says she links this same guy a lot, always for the proposition that Jews start American wars:

This is a farcical lie. She has retweeted this author's other pieces (all on the same "Jews start wars" theme) many, many times in the past. https://t.co/cTmgUCu7zX
— Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) September 21, 2017

I'm sure she just "skimmed" all those articles too, and totally missed the "undercurrents" so slyly hidden in the headlines, sub-heds, and first paragraphs.

Prediction: despite the media's go-to Narrative being all about the "mainstreaming" of Naziism and Nazi memes, they will play this story down, and only feature her claiming she didn't mean what she plainly (repeatedly) meant, and will take her apologies as authoritative and the end of the matter.

Bonus: This isn't from the same writer, but it is from the same site that Valerie Plame finds so valuable.

Guys, I really don't see what the fuss is about with Valerie Plame endorsing this "alternative media" website: https://t.co/IWfy9lMFrZ pic.twitter.com/6XXvwA5lmN
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) September 21, 2017

Close it up

Posted by Ace at 01:57 PM Comments

Jimmy Kimmel Threatens to "Pound" Brian Kilmeade; Amazingly, Brian Stetler and Sopran Deb, Who Routinely Decry Threats Against the Media, Claim That Kimmel Meant Give "Fist Bumps" to Kilmeade

—Ace

If your political tactic is always accusing your opponents of threatening the media, but a fellow left-liberal propagandist threatens a member of the media, what do you do?

Follow your claimed rule and criticize him?

Hell no -- claim that you believe that a threat to "pound" someone the next time he's encountered is instead a promise to give him Obama-style "fist bumps."

"I don't get anything out of this, Brian, you phony little creep. Oh, I'll pound you when I see you," Kimmel threatened.

To which alleged media critic Brian Stetler and alleged reporter Sopran Deb responded:

If you watch the video, I believe Kimmel meant "pound" as mocking Kilmeade for offering fist bumps in person. https://t.co/g3hZqtm09O
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 21, 2017

I interpreted it the same way you did
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 21, 2017

Jimmy Kimmel probably thinks he's a tough guy. He did take some boxing lessons -- that's where he met future partner Adam Carolla. Adam Carolla was a boxing coach, and coached Kimmel.

So... a guy who's taken boxing lessons threatens to "pound" someone he clearly hates and this means, according to these sissy liars, "offer fist-bumps to"?

Well here's a question. Apropos of nothing, I'm taking martial arts lessons.

If I say that if I ever encounter these two lisping sissies in real life I'll "pound" them, do they assume I mean "give them fist bumps," or do they report me to the Twitter Social Justice Warrior Safety Council?

Posted by Ace at 12:25 PM Comments

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"Every day, more and more is coming about how operatives connected to Obama were carrying out an extensive wiretapping operation against Donald Trump. I thought wiretapping your political opponents was a major crime. At least, it *used* to be. Where are all the Pulitzer-seeking reporters who dream of being the next Woodward and Bernstein?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

At presser, @HassanRouhani tells me Iran is waiting for an apology from @POTUS for his offensive remarks yesterday at @UN
— margaret brennan (@margbrennan) September 20, 2017

Posted by OregonMuse at 11:33 AM Comments

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Ship of Fools
Or The Satire Of The Debauched Revelers,
Or An Allegory Of Gluttony
Hieronymus Bosch

Here we have the all-too-frequent issues with color transfer from real to film to digital to computer screen.

Here is a better version, but smaller, so I couldn't use it for the post.

And here....
And here....
And here....
And finally here...

Posted by CBD at 09:30 AM Comments

The Morning Report 9/21/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. On this first full day of autumn, we're loaded for bear so let's dive right in. First up, Puerto Rico is without power in the wake of Hurricane Maria as it continues to barrel westward across the Caribbean, while rescuers are frantically combing through the rubble in Mexico City which was pulverized by Tuesday's earthquake.

Domestically, even as our worst fears of the utter lawlessness of those wielding power in DC have been confirmed, Robert Mueller is doubling down and searching for any shred of wrongdoing by anyone even remotely associated with the President in the effort to derail and delegitimize his presidency and the will of the American people. Related to that is the revelation that Samantha Power unmasked Americans during the final year of the Obama occupation at a frantic pace to achieve the exact same thing; first in a bid to prevent his election and then to destroy it before the stench of the Obama taint could be eviscerated from the Oval Office. Not enough praise for Daniel Greenfield's piece Ace posted yesterday afternoon that puts everything into stark and shocking focus.

After the President's phenomenal speech at the UN, the big question is will he keep the Iran nuke sellout in place or will he scrap it? His comments during his speech, which in effect was a slap at Obama that rhetorically pinned his ears back, seem to indicate that he is inclined to do so, though there is friction between Rexxon who wants to keep it (that's shock, right?) and Nikki Haley who wants it scrapped. She is turning into the President's best pick so far. And when Pence runs in 2024 I would think she would be the natural pick for veep.

Mitch McCriminal is trying to whip votes to pass the last-ditch Obamacare Repeal/Replace which some accounts describe as merely a window-dressing "overhaul." I'm not enough of a wonk to fully get it; some sources I generally trust think it's actually pretty good, all things considered and some feel it's a stunt. I've also seen reports that Rick Santorum stands to profit handsomely by some aspects of this (it was on Hoft's site, so color me skeptical). In any case, I fully expect McStains and Murkowski to torpedo it at the last minute because, principles.

Fresh off being completely humiliated by the beast of her own creation, Nancy Pelosi spewed praise on the illegal aliens who used their children as pawns and brought or sent them here to which Tucker Carlson responded as only he can. Palate cleanser is an understatement.

Lastly, as the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah comes tonight, I leave you with two things of note. First, the US has opened its first permanent base in Israel's Negev Desert. That is kind of surprising and in the wake of PDT's UN speech might be telegraphing a message to Iran. And we say farewell to a man named Mitchell Flint. After his service in World War 2 as a US Navy fighter pilot, he went on to volunteer in the nascent Israeli Air Force during its war for independence in 1948. He passed away peacefully at the age of 94. (Click here for "A Wing and a Prayer")

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed. L'shana tovah to you all!

Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:00 AM Comments

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (9/20/17) Woot Woot ONT Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

(Waiting for The ONT? Wait no more.)

*****

Quotes of The Day

Quote I

One thing I am convinced more and more is true and that is this: the only way to be truly happy is to make others happy. When you realize that and take advantage of the fact, everything is made perfect. William Carlos Williams

Quote II

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Deuteronomy 5:21

Politicians should pay attention to this command.

Quote III

Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil. Thomas Paine

Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:03 PM Comments

"You Have Insanity In My Earpiece:" Leaked Tape of Lawrence O'Donnell, Who Is Not at All a Maniac, Having a Meltdown

—Ace

Fuck it, we'll do it live, left-liberal style.

See Sexton's post for a transcription of the more floridly crazy parts, plus a remix of the tape.

Original video below. Caution for frequent profanity and images of an aging anger-junkie.

Posted by Ace at 07:50 PM Comments

After Self-Reflection and Soul-Searching, Media Concludes It Has Been Politically Biased: Too Tough On Democrats

—Ace

Nailed it.

Posted by Ace at 06:26 PM Comments

Media Strangely Silent About Their Own Role in Covering Up the Spying Scandal

—Ace

These are so sweet. Read from top to bottom... pic.twitter.com/fIQtosZy2t
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 19, 2017

Also see Don Surber's great post, The Media's Wire-Tap Dancing, about the media's before-and-after coverage here. Before: Claiming it was a vast rightwing deranged conspiracy theory to say Trump had been wiretapped. After: Reporting he'd been wiretapped, but, somehow, forgetting completely to note their prior swearing on a stack of Bibles that this was unpossible, Because Obama Good By Definition.

The whole Russian meddling was a ruse to justify spying on Trump. The mainstream media went along with the gag because they wanted to protect Obama, and they wanted to overturn the election.
The billionaire financiers of these news organizations – particularly Sir Rupert Murdoch at Fox News, Carlos Slim at the Times, and Jeff Bezos at the Post – all backed Clinton as did Bob Iger, chief executive officer of Disney, which owned ABC and ESPN. While certainly much of the Fake News reflected liberal editors, who hired social justice warriors as reporters, corporate interests benefited from the protection from competition big government regulations provided. Bezos in particularly wanted to government’s aid in expanding his online retail empire, which is why he bought the Post.

The media became biased long before John Kennedy became president.

Hinderacker at Power Line’s reaction to Trump's tweets spoke for many, "This is astonishing to me, as I have never heard a word about this story. If the Obama administration abused the FISA process to wiretap a political opponent, it is a scandal of the first order -- the worst political scandal of my lifetime, easily. And the press has known about it and covered it up? Unbelievable."

Confident the president had no proof of subterfuge, the press mocked him.

"A Conspiracy Theory's Journey from Talk Radio to Trump’s Twitter," read a New York Times headline on March 5.

"Stephen King trolls Trumps wiretapping tweets as only a horror writer could," read a Washington Post headline on the same day.

"White House aides struggle to defend Trump wiretap claims," read a Post headline on March 6.

As Dan Greenfield suggested, the guilty must commit more transgressions to cover up their previous ones.

Posted by Ace at 05:27 PM Comments

Once Obama Began Illegally Spying On His Political Enemies, He Had to Keep Doing It To Find Some Crime to Justify His Lawbreaking -- Or Else He'll Be the Next Nixon

—Ace

Bilstering piece by Daniel Greenfield.

Once Obama and his allies launched their domestic surveillance operation, they crossed the Rubicon. And there was no way back. They had to destroy President Trump or risk going to jail.
The more crimes they committed by spying on the opposition, the more urgently they needed to bring down Trump. The consequences of each crime that they had committed spurred them on to commit worse crimes to save themselves from going to jail. It’s the same old story when it comes to criminals.

Each act of illegal surveillance became more blatant. And when illegal surveillance couldn’t stop Trump’s victory, they had to double down on the illegal surveillance for a coup.

The more Obama spied on Trump, the more he had to keep doing it. This time it was bound to pay off.

Obama and his allies had violated the norms so often for their policy goals that they couldn’t afford to be replaced by anyone but one of their own. The more Obama relied on the imperial presidency of executive orders, the less he could afford to be replaced by anyone who would undo them. The more his staffers lied and broke the law on everything from the government shutdown to the Iran nuke sellout, the more desperately they needed to pull out all the stops to keep Trump out of office. And the more they did it, the more they couldn’t afford not to do it. Abuse of power locks you into the loop familiar to all dictators. You can’t stop riding the tiger. Once you start, you can’t afford to stop.

If you want to understand why Samantha Power was unmasking names, that’s why. The hysterical obsession with destroying Trump comes from the top down. It’s not just ideology. It’s wealthy and powerful men and women who ran the country and are terrified that their crimes will be exposed.

It’s why the media increasingly sounds like the propaganda organs of a Communist country. Why there are street riots and why the internet is being censored by Google and Facebook’s “fact checking” allies.

It's not just ideology. It's raw fear.

The left is sitting on the biggest crime committed by a sitting president. The only way to cover it up is to destroy his Republican successor.

A turning point in history is here.

If Obama goes down, the left will go down with him. If his coup succeeds, then America ends.

That's the conclusion, but don't think that's the only good part: the case he builds prior to that is also juicy.

Posted by Ace at 04:25 PM Comments

Prosecutors: Anthony Weiner Should Spend Two Years in Prison

—Ace

That'll keep him from masturbating, I figure.

From the New York Post: Weiner knew damn well she was a minor.

Legal papers filed ahead of Weiner’s sentencing next week say the serial sexter took part in three video chat sessions via Skype during which the girl "made clear that she was not just a minor -- she was, in fact, only 15 years old."
"That did not stop Weiner," the feds wrote.

And Rachel Maddow created a conspiracy theory claiming that all of this crap -- the initial disclosure of the sexts, back in 2011 -- was a forgery by right-wingers. And, by the way, her conspiracy theory resulted in many innocent people, including myself, getting targeted by harassers, stalkers, and death-threat anonymous emailers.

She's never paid a price for that -- she's never even been asked about it by any of her media buddies who claim to be so opposed to conspiracy theories and the downstream damage they may cause.

Posted by Ace at 03:25 PM Comments

Oh My: Climate Scientists Admit Past "Models" Were Wrong, Admit That the Rapid Warming Predicted by Models Hasn't Been Seen, and Revise the Schedule for the Apocalypse to Put It Off for 20 Years

—Ace

Defining doomsday down.

The National Laughingstock (the SJWashingon Post) sheepishly confesses:

The new research, thus, seems to potentially empower a critique of climate science that has often been leveled by skeptics, doubters and “lukewarmers” who argue that warming is shaping up to be less than climate models have predicted…
Overall, the dispute raises questions about how widely the carbon-budget concept has proliferated -- and just how much we actually understand it.

“It goes to show, this carbon-budget approach is still much more, let’s say, immature scientifically than what we often assume,” [Center for International Climate Research’s Glen] Peters said.

Posted by Ace at 01:35 PM Comments

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"The mainstream media has been telling us that climate change is an imminent threat, PDT lied about being wiretapped, the Emmy Awards Show was must-see TV, and Antifa is just a rowdy group of mostly peaceful counter-protestors. And they wonder why nobody trusts them?"

I'm Just Waiting For This To Actually Happen:

Posted by OregonMuse at 11:30 AM Comments

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

Notre Dame De Paris And The Flower Market
Marie Francois Firmin Girard

~~She~~He is a favorite of mine, and ~~her~~his technique is just stunning. I hear ~~she~~he makes great sammiches too! [For a dude. Correction courtesy of IllTemperedCur]

Seriously, the confluence of glorious, architect-quality drawing and the realistic yet gentle portrayal of the path along the Seine is delightful, and clearly lands on the "art" side of the line.

For those of you who prefer different art, here is something for you that should be less taxing on your artistic aesthetic.

Posted by CBD at 09:30 AM Comments

The Morning Report 9/20/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Midweek and above the fold, as Hurricane Maria bears down on Puerto Rico a 7.1 earthquake has rocked Mexico and there are reports of a 6.1 quake hitting New Zealand. Prayers for the victims and if you are on or near Puerto Rico, the governor has said "get out or die." Words to live by; literally.

The big story is President Trump's address to the U.N. General Assembly. For me, it was the most incredible and perhaps significant speech given by an American president at least since Ronald Reagan and perhaps ever. It pulled no punches, had memorable lines and most importantly, it was the pure and unvarnished truth. For me, most significantly was the long overdue public indictment of totalitarian socialism and communism laid at the feet of the criminals, thugs and tyrants still enslaving and destroying the lives of a good portion of the 6+ billion human beings on this planet. If nothing else, this is why I am so grateful that he is president.

In other news, Paul Manafort is up in arms and calling for the DoJ to go after the Obama administration and I assume James Comey for what amounts to thuggery and political persecution that makes Watergate look like a grade school kid boosting a pack of gum at the candy store. Meanwhile, as Trump dazzles at the UN, former national savior and pick for ambassador to Russia, John Huntsman, is pushing the Russia stole the election meme. Sheesh.

The GOP effort to get the Obamacare Repeal/Replace block grant scheme is gaining steam but the big question is will the usual gang of scum and "goniffs" vote to screw the American people (I'm looking at McStain and Murkowski in particular)?

Meanwhile, Jeanne "shabeen" Shaheen sez that Nancy Pelosi was the victim of, get this, Russian agents at that hijacked press conference. Make mine a borscht burrito, please. Keep plucking that pierogi, toots.

Lastly, there is a fine essay about the potential railroading of Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the Eric "Loosie" Garner case. I recommend. Anyway, as always, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:14 AM Comments

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (9/19/17) Abbreviated Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:01 PM Comments

Saturday ONT (9/23/17) Screw Current Events Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Saturday Evening Movie Thread 09-23-2017 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]

—OregonMuse

Saturday Afternoon Chess/Open Thread (Featuring Dress Pr0n) 09-23-2017

—OregonMuse

Ace of Spades Pet Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Saturday Gardening Thread: Fall has fallen! [KT]

—Open Blogger

Destroying Cherished Knowledge [KT]

—Open Blogger

Saturday Morning Weird News Dump

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

EMT 09/23/17 Just say No edition.

—krakatoa

Friday Night ONT: Mary Prankster Edition

—WeirdDave

Open Thread (with Lots of Content) & GAINZZZ Thread

—Ace

Obama's "Dear Colleague" Demand for No-Due-Process Rape Courts Rescinded

—Ace

Mel Brooks: "Stupid Political Correctness" Has Killed Comedy

—Ace

John "Build the Dang Fence" McCain Liesplains His Obamacare Reform No-Vote: I Won't Support Any Law That Democrats Don't Support Too

—Ace

Dershowitz: Why Is the Media Playing Down Valerie Plame's Nazi-Level Antisemitism?

—Ace

Shocker: Maine Socialist Susan Collins "Leaning Against" Obamacare RepealAnother Shock: JOHN McCAIN, HERO OF CONSERVATISM, WILL VOTE TO SAVE OBAMACARE

—Ace

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report 9/22/17

—J.J. Sefton

Thursday Night's Ont is Cuter Than a Bug's Ear

—WeirdDave

Rescue K911: Heroic Mexican Navy Dog Has Saved at Least 52 People in Aftermath of Terrible Earthquake

—Ace

Two Top Swiss Islamic-Organization Officials Indicted for Making Al Qaeda Propaganda Videos

—Ace

Revealed: Straight Black Men Are "The White People of Black People"

—Ace

Sheryl Atkisson: Looks Like Obama Spied on Trump Just Like He Spied on Me

—Ace

Sources: Political Appointee Samantha Powers, Who, As Ambassador to the UN, Had No Obvious Intelligence-Analysis Role in Government, Made "Hundreds" of Unmasking Requests In the Closing Days of the Obama Administration, Averaging One Per Day

—Ace

Valerie Plame: You Know, American Jews Are Responsible For Most of American Wars

—Ace

Jimmy Kimmel Threatens to "Pound" Brian Kilmeade; Amazingly, Brian Stetler and Sopran Deb, Who Routinely Decry Threats Against the Media, Claim That Kimmel Meant Give "Fist Bumps" to Kilmeade

—Ace

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report 9/21/17

—J.J. Sefton

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (9/20/17) Woot Woot ONT Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

"You Have Insanity In My Earpiece:" Leaked Tape of Lawrence O'Donnell, Who Is Not at All a Maniac, Having a Meltdown

—Ace

After Self-Reflection and Soul-Searching, Media Concludes It Has Been Politically Biased: Too Tough On Democrats

—Ace

Media Strangely Silent About Their Own Role in Covering Up the Spying Scandal

—Ace

Once Obama Began Illegally Spying On His Political Enemies, He Had to Keep Doing It To Find Some Crime to Justify His Lawbreaking -- Or Else He'll Be the Next Nixon

—Ace

Prosecutors: Anthony Weiner Should Spend Two Years in Prison

—Ace

Oh My: Climate Scientists Admit Past "Models" Were Wrong, Admit That the Rapid Warming Predicted by Models Hasn't Been Seen, and Revise the Schedule for the Apocalypse to Put It Off for 20 Years

—Ace

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report 9/20/17

—J.J. Sefton

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (9/19/17) Abbreviated Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Shocker: Maine Socialist Susan Collins "Leaning Against" Obamacare Repeal
Another Shock: JOHN McCAIN, HERO OF CONSERVATISM, WILL VOTE TO SAVE OBAMACARE