Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Or not. Actually, I'd recommend not. Though some of the comments are good:
Not sure what these numbers mean. According to Wikipedia consumed energy in Germany was 76 percent fossil in 2023 (including a lot of lignite which is amongst the dirtiest coals). Also to note, over the years Germany has imported more and more energy from France (biggest nuclear park) to compensate for the closure of their own nuclear plants so in a way they have just outsourced their nuclear. And last, electricity prices in Germany are amongst the most expensive in Europe. All this sounds a little less shiny than the article?
They could try burning Ars readers but they're probably too wet.
780W is unremarkable for a computer power supply these days, though this has some nice features like running on mains power anywhere from 90 to 264 volts, and being able to sustain a 25% overload - right on 1000W of power draw - almost indefinitely.
Proxmox VE is a pretty neat server virtualisation and management system based on a customised Ubuntu kernel. I've been meaning to set it up at home for a long time, but it's been a while since I had a standalone server that wasn't in use.
Speaking of which, I've spent the weekend engaging in necromancy.
Apart from the new Asus laptop (the one that refused to talk to the nice 2TB Team MP44 I bought for it) and the three cheap Beelink mini-PCs I bought to build a Linux cluster, I also had four old laptops sitting around.
So I got everything assembled in what is nominally the music room (and in fact does contain an Akai midi keyboard) and I'm working through a long list of hardware upgrades that I already have the parts for, and an even longer list of software upgrades.
At the end of it I'll have eight - probably nine, actually - working computers instead of just the one.
It's all fun and games as usual. I couldn't remember the password on one of the laptops, so I stuck in the Windows 10 install drive and told it to reinstall.
The Windows installer reported that it couldn't find the SSD.
Fortunately I had another identical laptop that I could log in to, so I created a recovery drive from that, and with that I could reinstall Windows.
Those two will soon have 64GB of RAM and 4TB of SSD each. The laptops and their upgrades have been sitting around waiting for me to have time to attend to them since February.
You do know that you could just not buy iPhones, right?
Speaking of which, I also set up my Moto G14 today.
Great screen.
Works well.
1080x2400 screen, 50 megapixel camera, two A75 plus six A55 cores, which is fine for me, though I'd avoid anything that was A55 only, and a headphone jack and microSD slot, which many phones at ten times the price don't have.
Dirt cheap - I paid about $110 on sale for the 4GB / 128GB model.
This is to replace the Oppo phone I've been using as my on-call pager because that one died of battery bloat.
I'd recommend it but it's not available in the US.
Also it talks when you boot it up, which I could do without.
Alpine scrambles and beachfront strolls; multi-day singletrack adventures and quick urban escapes; soaring trees and rolling sand dunes—every state in the country has something to offer intrepid hikers. So we rounded up a bucket-list-worthy, best-of-the-best guide.
WIRED found thousands of ads running on Meta’s social platforms promoting sexually explicit “AI girlfriend” apps. Some human sex workers say the platform unfairly polices their own posts more harshly.
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The ONT Musical Interlude & Brussels Sprouts Emporium
Mis Hum:
I am saddened to report that Alex Hassilev, the last original member of the 1960s folk music group The Limeliters, passed away yesterday (4/21/24) at age 91. The Limeliters burst upon the music scene in the early 60s with their mix of harmony, comedy, and international music. The lead singer was tenor Glenn Yarbrough, and Lou Gottlieb provided a lot of the jokes. Their "Through Children's Eyes" album is a classic. Alex Hassilev was fluent in many languages and helped provide that flair to the repertoire. - Isophorone Blog
ZOO HORROR Shocking moment zookeeper is pinned down by two pandas who chase her down inside enclosure during feeding time
Another zookeeper tried to help but the situation only worsened
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The disguise in this story wouldn't pass as a Halloween costume. Genius Award Winner.
In addition to his mugshot, the Glades County Sheriff's Office also released a photo of the man as he was arrested -- showing his failed attempt at going incognito.
The photo above is what Joshua Kolotka looked like when he posed for his mugshot in Lakeport, Florida -- but it sure wasn't how he appeared when he was apprehended by police.
In a release from the Glades County Sheriff's Office, authorities claimed Kolotka tried his best to evade deputies by going incognito, wearing a wig and dress to avoid arrest.
It didn't work.
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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Rest & Refreshment.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire's hall monitors & cafeteria workers.
Saturday Evening Movie Thread [moviegique]: Hundreds of Beavers
—Open Blogger
How often do we see a movie that is exactly what it says on the tin? Since mainstream movies aren't all named "Soulless Crap", those are out. But it's long been a practice in the indies to name your movie something you can't really live up to. The odds of exaggeration go up exponentially when there's a number in the title. Two Thousand Maniacs? More like two dozen maniacs. A Million Ways To Die In The West? Fifteen, tops! (It affects music, too! "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover" has about four or five ways, depending on how you count. Shrinkflation was really bad in the '70s.)
Beaver count in Hundreds of Beavers? Literally hundreds. You lose track, there are so many. But the movie, knowing how often the audience has been betrayed, toys with us at first, giving us a couple of beavers here and there along with a lot of raccoons, bears, wolves, and other furry, skinnable critters, before the third act reveal.
Ryan Brickson Cole Tews plays Jean Kayak, a furrier in the frontier days of the country, and in the movie's setup, we see that he is a great grower of apples—and a great purveyor of applejack, to which he finds himself in thrall. His drunkenness causes him to lose his factory and apple groves, to say nothing of his reputation, and he must find another way to survive in the perpetual winter of Wisconsin (or possibly Michigan).
He attempts to trap animals for food and fails miserably, but ultimately ends up teaming up with The Master Fur Trapper, who teaches him all the tricks. When The Master meets an untimely demise, he strikes out on his own, trading with The Merchant, who runs his shop exactly like one you might find in a computer role-playing game. A knife is one penny, a rope is two pennies, a pipe is three beavers, and so on.
Did I say "like" a video game? I mean...EXACTLY THE SAME AS.
In this way, our hero "levels up" and captures more and more pelts of various sorts.
But what he really wants is The Merchant's daughter, and The Merchant demands hundreds of beavers in order to purchase an engagement ring.
But while Jean Kayak has been struggling to get ahead in the wolf-eat-dog world of fur trapping, the beavers have been making their own, possibly sinister, plans. (Even in retrospect, I'm not sure the industrious beavers were exactly villainous. It's more a collision of world views.)
Will Jean Kayak survive the frontier? Will he get the girl? Will he be able to survive hundreds of beavers?
If the little clues didn't tip you off Hundreds of Beavers (which is fun to say and type) is a comedy, brought to you by the masterminds that made Lake Michigan Monster. Without a lot of money, and with a lot of resourcefulness and creativity, Tews and director/co-writer Mike Cheslik have created a new, old kind of comedy.
The lovely Miss Graves skins a beaver. (She's also a proficient pole dancer!)
Filmed in black-and-white (in part to hide the low-budget) and "silent" (in terms of having almost no dialogue), HoB uses the tropes and gag mechanics of the silent era and Looney Toons, then blends them with video game tropes, and non-stop, wall-to-wall gag which hit way more often than not.
I mean, by the time you're registering that a joke didn't quite hit, there have been two others that did. And, almost shockingly—because who remembers how to do comedy these days?—a lot of times, the joke that only got a little smile out of you comes back later in different forms, funnier each time it comes back.
Like The General or The Gold Rush (which it cannot help but evoke), or a Road Runner cartoon, the movie trains you in its comedic language. For example, there's a gag involving a wolf whistle, which inexplicably summons an enraged woodpecker. OK, kind of cute in context, but not hilarious. As the movie goes on, Jean Kayak finds himself repeatedly tormented by said woodpecker, but ultimately finds a way to exploit this mechanism to his advantage.
On trial for beaver crimes.
It's so ingrained that by the end of the movie, you're just laughing at the whistle itself. A month later when seeing a different film, I poked my head into the theater showing HoB, heard the whistle, and laughed without even seeing what was on screen. (And the theater was about 2/3rds full.)
My only complaint, if I had to make one, was that it was slightly too long, in particular a very video-game-y segment in the third act.
But this is a quibble. I haven't seen a new movie this funny in years and I don't expect to see another until these guys do a follow-up.
Made on a budget of $200,000—apparently the various costumes cost $10K each!—it has broken $300K at the box office, playing week-after-week—three months as of today, in fact—playing in about a dozen theaters nationwide. It's the sort of film you drag your friends to.
Tews is perfect, as he was in Lake Michigan Monster, and Wes Tanks (as The Master Fur Trapper) and Doug Mancheski (as The Trader) are great in their roles. A special shout-out to Olivia Graves as Kayak's love interest, who enjoys tormenting her suitor. This is a tricky role just because we're rooting for Tews and she's making his life hard, but in a charmingly ridiculous way.
Another point of interest is Luis Rico, who plays The Indian Fur Trapper, and whose part is laden with classic Amerind movie tropes. I'm not foolish enough to believe we've gotten past our cultural madness, but it was sure nice to see a bunch of "injun jokes" that people were laughing at, without a single dudgeon being raised on high.
If you're not fortunate enough to be living near one of the dozen theaters it's in, it is available for streaming on Amazon and Apple, and will be available for purchase in a few weeks.
This is also as close to a "general recommendation" movie as I get these days. You almost have to be anti-comedy to not be able to appreciate this. Heck, you could be anti-comedy and just appreciate the craftsmanship here. The writing—the sheer effort that must have gone into packing in hundreds of gags—is admirable just as a work of art.
Plus, it's a Christmas movie!
Other Films Of Note:
Chocolat (1988): Not the 2000 Johnny Depp/Juliet Binoche romance but a "slice of life" memoir about French Cameroon in the '50s. Beautifully shot with a competent (and good looking) cast, but not a lot to say for itself.
Late Night With The Devil: Breakout horror hit of the year, this "found footage" film stretches (and even breaks) the boundaries of the genre to provide a very compelling experience.
Remembering Gene Wilder: A fun documentary narrated by Wilder, and hitting the highlights of his career. A lot of smiles with the mandatory memento mori end.
Arcadian: Nicolas Cage indulges his agent, who wrote this thinly plotted horror which makes less and less sense the more you think about it.
Le Samourai (1967): Classic French noir about a hitman with a code, complete with made-up quote from the Bushido. Hard-boiled inspiration for every filmmaker dabbling in noir ever since.
The Teacher's Lounge: Moral uncertainty plagues a German school, leading one teacher (a Pole) to an increasingly tenuous career position. Fine acting and buildup puts the writers into a corner they don't dare try to get out of in this Oscar-nominated film.
Chinatown (1974): The fiftieth anniversary of the Best Picture Oscar-winner that reminds you that Jack Nicholson used to put out some amazingly subtle performances before becoming a caricature of himself, and Roman Polanski could direct a great film, no matter how big a creep:
The Pianist (2002): We're in-between the 20th and 25th anniversary, making me wonder if this isn't part of a(nother) push to rehab Polanski by reminding us that, even as recently as 2002, he could direct a hell of a film. Adrien Brody's breakout role.
Woman in the Dunes (1964): The highest rated film I've seen in the past year (with an 8.5 on IMDB), this tells the story of an entomologist trapped in a pit with a woman for two-and-a-half hours. I don't think I "got" this one.
The Taste of Things: I loved this movie about a 19th century French gourmand and his lifelong chef/lover. The first hour-and-a-half is mostly cooking, but it slows down after that a little. Juliette Binoche looks rather good naked even at sixty.
Perfect Days: Wim Wenders gives us a story of a peaceful, happy toilet cleaner in Japan, whose life is touched by the chaos in others', but only just. A drama for people who don't like drama.
Amelie (2001): Jeunet's classic love-song to Paris is as charming as ever—a rare film where the heroine is a coward, or is overcoming her cowardice—and even more remarkable in its resemblance to A Christmas Story. That is to say, it was a nostalgic film at the time, and of a time that is so far gone, nary a trace remains.
With a little searching, you can find HoB posters for "Reservoir Dogs", "Sleepless In Seattle", "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and many others.
Tutti Fruitti has been featured before, but we are celebrating his comeback from a, what I am sure was a stroke, cough that was related to eating and drinking--cat dysphagia. Took him to the vet and spent a bunch of money to get less info than I already figured out; but ruled out an obstruction for the cough and refusal to eat or drink. So, just gently encouraged him to drink water and he slowly improved from there. At 16, I know that he does not have a long time left, but he is a fighter and worked his way back. I'm enjoying every day that I have with him.
Nan in AZ
What a beautiful cat! Glad you still have him.
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Hi K.T.
Thanks so much for hosting the Pet Thread. I look forward to your commentary and seeing the Moron Pets every Saturday.
I'm attaching pics of my West Highland Terrorist, Bodie. He's 4 years old and doesn't he look cute? It's a damn good thing because he's a real pistol. He is stubborn, headstrong and hasn't met a dog that he won't go after. He's a little dog that thinks he's big. In other words full of Westitude. And we love him.
The first pic is Bodie and his favorite toy, the sneaky snake. Second pic is just chilling.
My nic is MeLurkYouLongTime.
We can tell that we would love Bodie, too. Even though he has Westitude.
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Cats in the evening:
We have no idea what the draw is but in the late evening Sangria and Rooney camp out with the computers. They don't stay long, it's only one of the stops on their way through the house. The rest of the day and evening they fight over the chair when it's unoccupied.
Lirio100
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My wife and I are empty nesters. We live in a house with many pets. Birds, cats and a dog. Everybody gets along fairly well as these pictures reflect.
The first is our lab Bella and her buddy Nola. We have raised Nola from a hatchling and Bella adopted her. They canoodle together and Bella is very gentle.
The next is our White Bellied Caique and Val. The cat tolerates this indignity somehow.
Love the site and this feature.
Regards,
DJ
Wow. Remarkable photos. And interesting stories!
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We don't want to get too political here, but there is a post I haven't completely figured out on what the border crisis means for animals, some of which are being abandoned at the border.
Here are some links from our correspondent to get you started in becoming informed and in helping:
There are also smaller operations starting up. We will try to watch some of these. Thanks for the information, including that which we haven't gotten to yet.
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What a wonderful collection of pet stories today. We have one left for next week.
Thank you for sharing your pets with us.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Until next Saturday, have a great week!
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If you start feeling nostalgic, here a link to last week's Pet Thread, the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, April 20 Some special PetMoron stories and photos there.
I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.
Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, April 27
—K.T.
More cherry blossoms
I love it when Sharon (Willow's Apprentice) goes on a photo excursion and sends us great images of plants. Perhaps we would pay more attention to the beauty around us if we focused like she does.
How is your weather? We have had a touch of an April Shower, while the cherries are ripening (not the best for the orchardists, but we have gone through so much drought).
I sent a picture last fall of my tiny fignomenal fig tree. The little discolored leaf is the last of the leaves that lasted over winter. Maybe three weeks ago it suddenly took off and looks pretty healthy now.
The second is my baby tomato, it's a little leggy because I've just started being able to set it outside in the sun recently. When it's warm enough to plant outside I'll bury it some. It's a GMO purple tomato (has two purple snapdragon genes) from Norfolk Healthy Produce. They passed USDA and FDA regulatory requirements last year and offered seeds for sale. It's an indeterminate cherry tomato. I just checked the website and they've closed sales for this year but plan on selling again in Nov/Dec. Supposedly the two genes are intended to increase the amount of anthocyanins in the fruit. The seeds were pretty expensive so I hope the price will come done then!
Lirio100
Love that little fig tree!
The plant is coming right along. Let us know how the tomatoes taste! This is what they look like:
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Art
A Daily Dose of History, April 26
By the time he was in his 40's, John James Audubon was prosperous and world famous. But not before having to overcome lots of adversity.
Born Jean Jacques Audubon in the French colony of Sainte Domingue (now Haiti), he was the illegitimate child of a chambermaid and a French sea captain/plantation-owner. His mother died when he was only a few months old and at age 6 Jean was taken to France, where he was adopted and raised by his father's wife.
Jean's father had hoped the boy would become a naval officer, following in his footsteps, but Jean was a failure at military and naval training. So, to keep him from being conscripted into Napoleon's army, Jean's father acquired forged identity papers for the boy and sent him to America. On the way over Jean adopted the anglicized version of his name: John James Audubon.
In America, after surviving a bout of yellow fever, John met and fell in love with Lucy Bakewell, eventually marrying her.
John was a brilliant and gifted man, but he failed repeatedly in business. By 1819 he was bankrupt and in debtor's prison. Lucy supported the family by working as a teacher.
As we all know now, John's true calling was as an artist and a naturalist. For nearly 15 years he had traveled around America, collecting and painting birds, while trying in vain to establish himself professionally.
Finally, in 1826, when John was 41 years old, his wife encouraged (and paid for) him to go to Europe to try to find a publisher for his collection of drawings. And there he became a sensation. His work was immensely popular, he had audiences with royalty, and his book The Birds of America became a smash hit. He is remembered today as one the greatest naturalists and nature artists in history. . .
The photo is of his drawing "Marsh Wren," which is in the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia.
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Ah, Nature
Lots of these guys around today. Not very appetizing.
- fd
Google disagreed. Recommended that I respond that they were great!
Puttering
Flower arranging: Form, color, variety
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Adventure
Monument Valley, Navajo Tribal Park
M. Gutierrez
Recognize the flower?
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Gardens of The Horde
A couple of weeks ago, we featured a photo of the front yard of a long time lurker in Washington State:
Thanks! That was fun!
You're welcome to stop by and visit if you ever find yourself in Kirkland. The picture I sent was the front yard. I recently added flower beds, patio, trees and pathways on my backyard hill.
More greatness on the way!
Here's a detail from the photo of the front yard, in case you don't remember:
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Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
This fall foliage is in Utah
But PG&E in California plans to bury electrical cable
in similar landscapes
The Grid
Electricity and Petroleum are big issues right now, with politicians being sensitized to ecological issues. Gasoline prices are especially high in California. But the state seems to have a special ongoing problem with their electrical grid. Is your state having any problems like this?
Here's the Real Reason PG&E Rates Are Skyrocketing in California
California now holds the ignominious prize for the highest electricity rates in the nation, except Hawaii. How did we get into this predicament?
Because the California Public Utilities Commission -- the five-member agency appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom that regulates the prices, service and reliability of private energy utilities -- has failed to do its job.
There are other government entities that hand out cookies to energy companies without a care for who pays the bill. But the buck stops at the Public Utilities Commission to protect utility customers.
When a private utility like PG&E decides it needs to build new infrastructure -- say, to protect against wildfires -- it's the commission that determines if the infrastructure is necessary, if the utility's proposed costs for that infrastructure are fair, and if better and cheaper alternatives exist.
The commission enjoys limited scrutiny by the courts. Decisions made by other state agencies can be appealed to Superior Court. But only an appellate court can hear commission appeals, and taking that case is discretionary. This limited judicial review means that the Public Utilities Commission essentially answers to the governor alone.
As a former commission president, I know what keeping energy prices down requires . . .
Anyway, that was originally published on April 20.
Big rate increases were passed for PG&E customers, not only for electricity, but also for advertisements so PG&E could tell customers what a great thing it was that they were being charged for PG&E burying electrical cables.
I recently noted that Los Angeles passed a "Mansion Tax" that had the elites in the area scrambling to sell their properties and contributing to the mass of "Left-ugees" now fleeing California.
The number of left-ugees will likely explode, fueled by the latest scheme now being proposed. Since California's energy rates are skyrocketing, power companies propose income-based pricing in response to an Assembly bill.
If you live in California, your electricity bill could soon be affected by how much money you earn, and your bill will start to look different by 2025.
California's three largest power companies - Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric - submitted a joint proposal to the Public Utilities Commission outlining a fixed rate restructuring that would be based on one's income.
Here are the numbers being put forth for consideration:
Put simply, the more you earn the more you pay for recurring charges (not related to energy usage) . . .
A bill to rein in a proposed monthly fee on California electric bills has been quietly shelved in the Assembly without receiving a single vote.
Assembly Bill 1999, written by Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, was a response to the California Public Utilities Commission's proposal on fixed charges. The version to be voted on next month would let California's largest for-profit utility companies charge customers $24 per month -- with fees as low as $6 for lower-income customers -- as a kind of membership fee for the power grid.
In exchange, power providers would be required to lower the rate that customers pay for every unit of electricity consumed. Customers who draw relatively little from the grid -- including those with solar panels -- would likely face higher overall bills. Customers who buy more electricity from the utilities are more likely to see their bills decline.
Irwin's legislative rejoinder would have capped the set fees at $10 per month -- and just $5 for lower income customers.
But that effort appears to be on ice, though Rivas' office says that while the bill will not move forward in its current form, talks with Irwin on possible amendments are ongoing.
Bills that cost the state money, like AB 1999, have until today to make it out of their first policy committees. . .
See the political details at the link.
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The income-based legislative wranglings above may have something to do with one solar company's sales people claiming that they are not a solar company, but rather an alternative power provider to PG&E offering lower rates, merely using your home as a place to put one of their little power plants and your wall as a place for one of their battery arrays. This is a desperate sales line which still requires the salesperson to get the mark's recent bills to see if they "qualify" as a location for that placement of a power plant on their roof.
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This is related to the PG&E rate hikes. Geege Welborn wrote it last October:
The magic juice. It ebbs, it flows, sometimes it just dang shuts off.
Old timers in Southern California - like we were, having lived in Orange County during the golden 80s decade thru early 90s - love to tell the youngsters of today about the times they've never really experienced. Cheap water - our water bill ran about $12 every...TWO MONTHS. There was natural gas for stoves and the furnace (the one night out of a thousand winter night you might need it), and there was electricity...ALWAYS...at 6.5? kwhr. San Onofre, Diablo Canyon, the coal plant in Carlsbad - Southern California Edison had it humming along, and life was good.
The infrastructure hasn't kept up with the state's population needs itself, less mind the grandiose plans, mandates, and deadlines imposed on citizens and utilities alike. They're also hamstrung by regressive progressive policies as far as proper fire control for the semi-arid desert scrub most of them inhabit. Every year CA burns. Every year aging powerlines fall into scrub and brush that was never cleared or control burned off to minimize that very outcome.
And instead of using proper fire suppression techniques?
Every year it's lather, rinse, repeat. The aging lines and poles stay the same, and the power to customers gets turned off "just in case" when the Santa Anas start to blow.
Like now. . .
California really was a Golden State before all of this . . .
They sure financed some fancy, if useless, environmental experiments through the power companies (and by the state) instead of clearing brush.
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Climate Change or Weather?
I missed this last year. But maybe there would have been more fires if California hadn't shut off the electricity when the wind blew.
I wonder what happened to all the firebugs, though?
Funny thing has happened on the way to the glorious "energy transition" to a net-zero economy: environmentalists keep getting in the way.
It is well understood that the maniacal drive to install massive wind and solar power projects, not to mention large new battery farms and "carbon-capture" facilities, all require substantial expansion and upgrading of the electricity grid. When Sen. Joe Manchin finally capitulated in 2022 to supporting President Joe Biden's blowout "green energy" subsidy bill (the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act"), it was supposed to be part of a deal in which regulatory and permitting reform would follow, not only to allow for a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia that is dear to Manchin, but other infrastructure projects, especially to enable new green energy supplies.
But the permitting reform legislation never passed Congress. Environmental fundamentalists, including 70 Democratic House members, opposed any permitting reform. The chief achievement of decades of environmental activism is the patchwork of laws at the national and state level, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), that have empowered environmentalists to slow and sometimes block development of all kinds. While NEPA and its state-level versions have not stopped all development, they can delay or increase the cost of projects sufficiently that many projects are simply deterred from even being proposed. When one lawsuit fails, environmental lawyers are often ready at the courthouse steps to file a dozen more, and the cycle of delay repeats.
Environmentalists are loath to give up their superpower, even for the supposed "climate change" kryptonite of "green energy." . .
The Sierra Club is irritating to people in California for obstructing their access to undeveloped land for recreation and such. The details here are interesting.
The Sierra Club, for example, has spent six years blocking a proposed transmission line intended to import emission-free hydropower from Canada. The Sierra Club has also opposed proposed solar power projects in California's desert areas. (The silver lining here is that the Sierra Club is in deep financial trouble at the moment, with internal rifts and mass layoffs imminent, according to The New Republic.) The Washington Post editorial page took note of this perverse state of affairs in a recent editorial, "Environmentalism Could Stop the Clean-Energy Transition."
He used to get up in the morning and sit at the window to drink his coffee, listen to the birds sing, and balance a sneaker on his head.
"I've got too much pride for somebody who's got so much to be humble about," he once said. "And trying to keep a stinking shoe from falling off the top of my head is a good way to get a little humility to start the day."
But I think he had plenty to be proud of.
Tex Ritter dubbed him "The Storyteller." Johnny Cash called him the best in the business. Kurt Vonnegut said "I'm glad that he writes songs instead of short stories or a lot of us would be out of work." Critics called him a Hillbilly Poet and the Countryfried Philosopher. The rest of us called the same thing his sainted momma called him -- Tom.
Tom T. Hall was to writing songs what George Jones was to singing them: natural, unassuming, peerless. Admittedly, Tom wasn't a great singer, but boy could he spin a yarn. He didn't so much write songs as translate life into lyrics. A Tom T. Hall tune was never an abstract meditation, never untethered and ephemeral. His melodies were concrete, incarnate creatures who first walked around in cracking leather boots upon this tired earth long before they ever crawled into our ears to rest. In a word, his songs were real.
His first hit, "A Week in a Country Jail" was drawn from his own experience of being arrested and held seven days for a speeding ticket while the judge, who had just lost his mother, apparently needed a full week to grieve before handling arraignments. "Harper Valley PTA," the chart-topper he wrote for Jeannie C. Reilly, was about a widow woman from his hometown in Kentucky. "The Ballad of Forty Dollars" was drawn from his time spent working as a gravedigger in his youth. "The Year that Clayton Delaney Died" was indeed biographical with only the names changed. And "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine" was a retelling of a conversation he had in a barroom outside the Democratic National Convention. Such examples could be multiplied. . .
The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival (4/27/24)
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
*****
Happy Saturday from the thawed Tundra. Hard to believe it is the last Saturday of April. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters (Rulz for those of you in Park Falls):
1) This is an open thread, feel free to lurk, opine & or bloviate away.
2) Be kind to one another. Or at least don't leave marks.
3) No running with sharp objects.
4) Have a nice weekend.
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo atsign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
3/2 Reforger asked for prayers for his Coworker “D”, a widowed mom of 4 who is having a rough time with daughter #1. D’s daughter had to be incarcerated. She went nuts, trashed her room, broke things, and even kicked a cop. She could use a lot of prayers.
4/20 Update – Coworker D’s daughter is going to go live with her dad. Mom is at wit’s end. They hope a change in scenery will provoke some positive changes, since nothing else is working.
2/29 – DaveT asks for prayers. We had prayed in the past for him, as he was trying to save his cats and his home from repossession (due to a relative who burdened the family home with debt). DaveT is over 65 and is not able to work much. The cats are elderly and one is blind, and the only family he has. Things had turned around and it looked like he was going to be fine last summer, but now a new judge is on the case and seems to want to kick DaveT and the cats out of the house. Please pray. If anyone wants to contribute, Annie’s Stew has the details of his GiveSendGo.
3/20 Update – The sham trial took place on 3/20. The judge would not allow DaveT to speak or give any evidence. He is still taking donations for a new appeal.
4/19 Update – DaveT sent word that he was in desperate need. One of the cats was dying and DaveT was not able to bear the loss, and he did not have a reason to live anymore.
4/25 Update – No new information has come from DaveT. He has not responded to emails, so we do not know his status or situation.
3/3 – Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle to maintain Moron standards asked for prayers as he is scared to death of some much-needed surgery. Pain, healing, iyiyi! Even the red tape involved in scheduling. Thank you all again!
4/10 Update – Recovering from diverticulitis surgery. It’s rough. Much pain, and there is talk of another surgery. He is miserable.
3/9 – Hadrian the Seventh asked for prayers for Her Majesty, who is having knee replacement surgery. He’d like prayers for a successful operation, but also an uneventful recovery. Her previous surgery in 2019 (on the other knee) was marked by great pain and the effect of the medication was terrible.
4/13 Update – Her Majesty is on a cane now and doing very well. The downside is that now she’s no longer bedridden, she’s going around the house finding things for me to do. She goes to physical therapy twice a week, which is exhausting, but she wants to drive the RV to Washington state in a couple of months for our National Specialty, so she’ll have to put in the work.
3/9 – Dr_No asked for prayers for his daughter, Megan. We had prayed for her in 2021, when she had cancer. Her cancer is still in remission, but she has blood clots in her lungs. She went to the local ER, where they said everything was normal. She sent a message to her PCP, to ask her to review the situation. She is still weak, and gets tired if a conversation lasts more than 1-2 sentences. Please pray that she be restored to full health. Thanks once again to the Horde for the help.
4/13 Update – The shingles have passed the most painful point (the first two weeks), and she’s now mostly pain-free. The colon cancer is still in remission. Thanks so much for sending words up for her recovery.
3/23 – Jewells would appreciate prayers for her niece, who is in the hospital for the second time in a week. She was diagnosed with pneumonia the first time, but still felt awful. She went back to ER, and they admitted her again. Her oxygen level was 76. She is the niece who is fighting cervical cancer.
4/13 Update – They suspended treatment for Jewells’ niece for 6 weeks and have her on oxygen. Her cancer is responding to the treatment, but at an awful price.
3/23 – Fenelon Spoke needs prayers for Jessie, their “retired” organist. Jessie had fallen. Nothing was broken, but it is a setback for her and she is in pain.
4/20 Update – Jessie is in less pain now.
3/28 – Reforger asked for prayers for his wife, who is applying for a promotion. The new job would triple her salary.
4/20 Update – Mrs. Reforger got the job.
3/30 – mindful webworker asked for prayers as he is going under the knife again for what will be a few hours’ surgery and maybe a week in the hospital. His surgeon used the word “mystery” three times while describing what they will be doing.
4/13 Update – After 3 intense hours, the surgeon packed out his pickaxe and jackhammer, weary but confident that he had removed all the cement-like crud blocking mindful webworker’s intestines. The next few months will be spent recovering and healing. After 9 inhospitable days, he is trying to adjust to home life. He’s asked MiladyJo to wake him every couple of hours to check his vital signs. Every day is a gift. Prayers for all in need.
4/1 – News from Washington Nearsider: His savings have expired and May's bills cannot yet be paid. Another custody hearing - to reevaluate the March 13 determination to give his ex full custody - has been scheduled for May 13th, so that's a date on the calendar towards which he has to work.
He has added one (1) client to his custom model aircraft list, and hopes to add several more, even though he can only work on one at a time. Having a known stream of income is better than not. You can contact Nearsider at washingtonnearsider at gee mail to learn about shipping and timelines or to discuss any details. Interested Morons can look at some small segment of his previous work by heading to this link: https://tinyurl.com/yzmucshu
On the job front, Nearsider had a promising interview, only to be told at the end that though his writing samples, resume, attitude, background, and presentation were all exceptional, his removal from federal service prevented any path forward. Nearsider explained the details leading up to his removal, and while the panel expressed their sympathies for his situation and their admiration at his courage, their position was unchanged. He suspects this employer was simply the first to be so direct, and that he's missed out on several other opportunities for the same reason.
Several contractors have contacted him in response to applications he's submitted and he's hoping at least one of them will be willing to focus on the writing, resume, attitude, background, and presentation vice the end of his federal career. As usual, more follows.
Since several people encouraged it, he has set up a GiveSendGo account. Please contact Annie for the details, if you wish to contribute.
4/24 Update – After receiving an overwhelming outpouring of support from the Horde, Washington Nearsider was able to pay the mortgage for May and June, and is less panicked about losing his house. He also received a promotion at Home Depot, so he is managing a department, which will also increase his pay at bit. He loves you all and is so grateful.
4/3 – Notsothoreau posted that Mrs. Salty (as in Mrs. NaClyDog) had a bad fall and broke four ribs. She tested positive for Covid, as well. Prayers for quick healing and that she is out of the hospital soon.
4/13 Update – Mrs. Salty is out of the hospital, recovering slowly. There is progress. She avoided the bogus Covid-19 Wuhan money grab in the hospital. She is a tad more independent. Occasionally she needs a non-skilled, uncoordinated, non-dancing or singing helper, whom TikTok would not show. They say thank you for all the prayers. They can testify to their effectiveness.
4/4 – J. J. Sefton could use prayers. Here was his posting:
“After suffering some sort of seizure back in February, while the initial MRI and spinal tap showed nothing, a subsequent MRI this past Friday evidently seems to indicate that I might have some sort of brain tumor/growth that would require immediate attention. As in surgery.
That said, on a positive note -- and I'm holding onto this bit of news as positive with all my might -- the medical neurology team and the surgical neurology team are apparently still reading the tea leaves to see what kind of surgery, if any, is required to deal with this. I am hoping against hope for that non-surgical option but am preparing myself as best as I can for whatever is to be.”
4/5 – Teej posted and asked for prayers for a Marine who is on hospice, with possibly two weeks left to live.
4/5 – Pipe asked for prayers for a dear friend who has lung cancer, who lives alone.
4/6 – MikeOxlong requested prayers for healing and that treatment goes well, He was diagnosed with stage 5 esophageal cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes and lungs. Traditional treatment doesn’t have a good answer, so he is taking non-traditional treatment in AZ.
4/6 – Grammie Winger posted that Rev had some tests done and he has a cracked sternum from their earlier car accident. They also found several nodules in his lungs, and an aortic aneurysm. Prayers appreciated.
4/6 – RedMindBlueState asked for prayers for an old and dear friend who just started chemo and is feeling it hard. And for the friend’s dog, who may need surgery soon.
4/6 – Paisley1333 gave an update. We had prayed for her trainer, who went through her third round of cancer in December. The trainer’s surgery was successful, and it appears they got all the cancer. While under the knife, she had a seizure (which she has daily), so the doctors got to experience that and changed her meds. This has been a huge help. So very good news and so grateful for all the prayers.
4/8 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for her husband. He was stubborn and didn’t go to the doctor for about 5 days and has shingles. He is in pain.
4/20 Update – FenSpouse is much better. He still has a little tingling but the pain from the shingles is much better.
4/10 – FortWorthMike updated the Horde. His MIL, who was going through cancer treatments, had miraculous results. The tumor is reduced so much, there is no sign of cancer. They won’t say cancer-free, but it’s just something to monitor now.
4/13 – NaughtyPine asked for prayers. There was a “psychic” who went on a murder-suicide rampage. A 9-year-old girl survived the attack, but her baby sister died in her arms. The surviving little girl needs prayers.
4/13 – Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd gave an update. His former son-in-law has died. It is something of a relief. He was an abusive, manipulative, drug-using alcoholic whose hobby was breaking into cars. He was well-known to law enforcement and the justice system. He had a remarkable capacity for wiping out wealth, either through outright theft or negligence. A.H. Lloyd’s daughter tried to leave him multiple times, but he was able to woo her back again and again. The last straw was when he used their tax refund for an Only Fans girl. The deceased is survived by his children, who he should have supported, but have been in A.H. Lloyd’s care for more than a year. Pray for the deceased if you like, but please pray for the children and their mother.
4/13 – Cybersmythe sent an update on his job search. He has received a formal offer of employment, for a job he thinks he wants. He appreciates all the kind thoughts and prayers.
4/13 – Nurse Ratched asked for prayers for her Marine, J, and his wife, M, who are having their wedding celebration on 4/13. They are sweet kids, respectful and kind to each other and would benefit greatly from the power of Horde prayers.
4/16 – Notsothoreau asked for prayers for a co-worker’s mentor and long time friend, DM, who has been diagnosed with throat cancer. Prayers for DM and also for his wife, that they would be strengthened and, God willing, that DM would be healed.
4/18 – Misanthropic Humanitarian asked for prayers, as he will be having his right knee replacement surgery on 5/6/24.
4/20 – AnchorPoint wanted to share an answered prayer, as well as a request. The answered prayer is: AnchorPoint’s dad passed away about 2 years ago. The estate was not going to be a windfall, but they hoped it would be enough to pay off their mortgage. After all the work was done and all the bills were paid, the final check was $72.38 off from the total mortgage payoff amount! The prayer request is: AnchorPoint’s relationship with one sister is bad. The sister has had a lot of trauma in her life and significant mental health issues and physical issues. AnchorPoint asks for prayers that their relationship would be restored.
4/20 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for her son. God willing, her son will graduate in May with a degree in horticulture. He has a paid internship with a multinational agricultural company in the PA Dutch area starting right after graduation. He needs to find a place to live.
4/20 – Defenestratus humbly requests prayers for a friend named Jourdan, a wonderful young woman with a 2-year-old daughter. Jourdan had gotten the good news that her breast cancer tumors had disappeared after chemo. But now she caught a nasty bug, and Jourdan has spent a week in the hospital getting blood transfusions.
4/20 - Miley, okravangelist asked for prayers for her brother. They think he is on the verge of a breakdown, stressing out over prepping. He flies off the handle and is freaking everyone else out. Miley could use prayers, too, since worrying about her brother is making her ill.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
*****
Thank you Annie for your coordination of this important feature.
The worm, created by China, was tied to a single specific IP address as its command-and-control hub.
For reasons that remain unclear, whatever server was originally attached to that IP address was shut down. So security researchers bought the address, granting them complete control over every one of the infected systems.
The first version will run at 1.6 terabits per second - 200 gigabytes per second, or about three times the speed of a full-size PCIe 5 slot - and will increase to 6.4 terabits per second the following year.
Disclaimer: Which is 8,695,652 copies of DOS 4 per second, which should be enough for anybody.
President Joe Biden suffered yet another gaffe Thursday as he mixed up the date of the Jan. 6 riots during a glitzy fundraiser hosted by Hollywood stars Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones at their Westchester home.
Biden, the oldest-ever US president at 81, made the blunder as he ripped his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, 77, in front of the star-studded crowd.
"We'll certainly never forget the dark days of June 6, January 6th, excuse me," the commander-in-chief said, according to a White House pool report.
De facto White House communications chief Anita Dunn, 66, the wife of Biden personal attorney Bob Bauer, told colleagues she had decided to call in prominent Democrats to explain to Jean-Pierre, 49, that the time was ripe to move on, sources told The Post.
"There was an effort to have some outside folks who Karine knows and trusts talk to her about why leaving last fall would have made a lot of sense for her and her career," the source said, calling it an "effort to encourage her to move along."
Jean-Pierre, the person added, "had been in the job for a year and a half at that point, which is a pretty standard tenure for a press secretary in what is admittedly a very demanding job [and] Jeff and Anita [tried] to have folks that she would listen to and trust talk to her about why it might be wise to do that."
Jean-Pierre's predecessor, Jen Psaki, was press secretary for one week shy of 16 months before leaving to take a job as a host and analyst at MSNBC.
A second source told The Post that "Jeff [Zients] and Anita [Dunn] were trying to find Karine a graceful exit" because of the ugly optics of removing her against her will.
"There's a huge diversity issue and they're afraid of what folks are going to say," added this source, who said they learned of the effort from multiple people briefed by Dunn and confirmed at least one person from outside the administration did speak with Jean-Pierre.
The revelation of Dunn's plan is likely to make for awkward workplace dynamics, the first source said, but is unlikely to result in Jean-Pierre's departure.
"She has been pretty consistent in telling people from the minute she got the job that she was going to stay through the election," they said.
"I think Karine has decided to stay come hell or high water and that's that."
CNN's ratings disaster Poppy Harlow is bright enough to take the hint.
Veteran CNN host Poppy Harlow is leaving the struggling cable news network -- two months after the cancellation of "CNN This Morning," where a slew of on-air meltdowns had sparked last year's ouster of Don Lemon.
Oh, and China is also behind "Green Energy" propaganda, to cripple the country.
House lawmakers called on the IRS to investigate U.S.-based anti-Israel activist groups that have financial links to China, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday.
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee said they are concerned that "foreign adversaries are taking advantage of loopholes to impact American political activity with little-to-no transparency."
The letter follows reports connecting the Chinese government to a network of U.S.-based nonprofit groups.
The People's Forum, a group that helped organize anti-Israel walkouts in New York City public schools, is bankrolled by Chinese propagandist and tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, the New York Times reported last year. The organization encouraged student protesters to shout anti-Semitic chants, such as "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," a slogan that calls for the elimination of the Jewish state.
"Not only do these activities raise serious national security concerns, but they also raise questions about whether organizations like this receive foreign funding from America's adversaries and whether the Internal Revenue Service ('IRS') is conducting oversight of entities like these," wrote the lawmakers in a letter to IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel.
The letter also raised concerns about other China-linked political groups. The Energy Foundation, a U.S.-based nonprofit that promotes climate change activism, operates primarily out of China and has significant ties to the government, Fox News reported in December.
The Energy Foundation has pushed for U.S. green energy policies that would benefit China, which dominates the global solar energy and battery industries.
An official with the Palestinian terror group Hamas and the supreme leader of Iran have praised the growing college campus protests in the United States against Israel's military offensive in Gaza, including pro-Hamas demonstrations at Columbia University that have driven fear into the hearts of Jewish students.
Columbia University in New York City announced a shift to hybrid classes after protestors set up a "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" last Wednesday. This led to the arrest of more than 100 people after Columbia University President Minouche Shafik authorized police to clear the camp. The demonstrators resettled the encampment, and there have been multiple reports of Jewish members of Columbia's community feeling unsafe due to the encampment.
The demonstration has prompted calls for the Biden administration to take away the school's federal funding and discipline the demonstrators, which some say should include revoking the visas of the students expressing support for terrorist groups.
Um, obviously. Stupid American brats have the right to chant "Death to America" in America. Nasty terrorist foreigners do not. Being here is a privilege, not a right.
Oh what am I talking about, The Regime has decided that every f*cking foreigner in the world has an inalienable right to mob up in America.
On Wednesday, Izzat Al-Risheq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, accused the Biden administration of violating student and faculty rights, claiming that they are only rejecting "the genocide that our Palestinian people are the subjected in the Gaza Strip at the hands of the neo-Nazi Zionists."
USA Today quoted the Hamas official as saying, "Today's students are the leaders of the future."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also praised the protests.
"Western governments say the Resistance Front is terrorism," Khamenei wrote in a tweet. "This comes at a time when people flew Hezbollah's flag in a street in the US. The people of the world are supporting the Resistance Front because they are resisting & because they are against oppression."
Khamenei's "oppression" comment comes as the Islamic Republic of Iran has a notorious record for infringing on the rights of religious minorities through imprisonment. Iran also used lethal force to crack down on widespread protests in 2022.
Remember during the Iraq War when Bill Kristol would attack anyone questioning the war as giving support to terrorists?
Israeli counterstrikes have killed "half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revealed on April 24. Gallant's remarks came as Israel launched an unusually intense wave of bombing sorties against the Iran-backed terrorist group's forces in southern Lebanon. "These were the men responsible for belligerent actions, for the drive to strike at the citizens of the State of Israel," Gallant said during a visit to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Northern Command. The other half, he added, "are in hiding and abandoning southern Lebanon in the face of IDF actions."
Gallant signaled that Israel could escalate to a ground operation if mediated diplomatic efforts to get Hezbollah to withdraw from the border failed. "Our main objective was and remains to bring about a different security situation here and for residents of the northern State of Israel to be able to go back home to quiet and safety," Gallant said, referring to some 80,000 civilians evacuated from border communities. "The coming period will be decisive in this regard."
Google has fired more employees who were involved in protests over the tech company's cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. The workers held sit-ins at the company's offices in California and New York over Google's $1.2 billion contract to provide custom tools for Israeli's military.
Google has fired more employees who were involved in protests over the tech company's cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. The workers held sit-ins at the company's offices in California and New York over Google's $1.2 billion contract to provide custom tools for Israeli's military.
Google has fired an additional 20 employees who participated in a protest last week against the company's defense contract with the Israeli government.
This brings the total number of employees laid off due to the protest to 50, according to the group that organized the demonstrations, No Tech for Apartheid.
My count is 48 total but you know, Hamas sympathizers tend to inflate numbers, don't they?
Jane Chung, a spokesperson for the group, said some of the dismissed employees were "nonparticipating bystanders" during the sit-in protests held on April 16 at Google's offices in Sunnyvale and New York. The group labeled the tech giant's action as an "aggressive and desperate act of retaliation."
The media rule: If rightwingers get into a scuffle with cops, they "attacked hardworking policemen."
If leftwingers attack cops, write that there were "clashes with police." It's just a case of mutual combat -- no bad guys, no good guys, just all misunderstandings all around.
On MSNBC, Stelter broke out the usual bravado that the liberals live on “Earth One,” they have to see what’s happening on “Earth Two,” in "Crazyville." Stelter claimed “For Jesse Watters, Trump is God, and that is the programming every hour of every day on these other networks.” pic.twitter.com/b6ANVEvi88
The left is always looking for new transgressions. Their old ones have gotten stale -- so it's time to embrace the swastika.
Goodbye, intersectionality -- hello, "It's All One Thingism."
In this nebulous new cosmology, Palestinians -- even Hamas themselves -- aren't just engaged in a specific geopolitical fight over territory and resources. No, they're the tip of the spear of a perceived collective liberation against the West, the Global North, "colonisers," whatever you want to call the Bad Guys. It's a magical world in which all politics and world affairs once seen through intersectionality's colourful prism have been flattened into (somewhat ironically for self-proclaimed atheists) a more Biblical view of the world: black-and-white, good and evil.
"Palestine is every single issue in one issue," wrote Scarlett Rabe, a singer-songwriter who describes herself as an anti-racist mother and an abolition feminist/womanist, in a viral tweet in February. "It's reproductive justice. It's social justice. It's climate crisis... It's not just one issue; it's all the issues in one."
All One Thingism explains why a group of a few hundred masked protestors who chanted "Death to America" and "Hands off Iran" this week also employed the relatively meaningless slogan "From Chicago to Palestine." Or that another viral post on Instagram by a person wearing a "Fatties for a Free Palestine" T-shirt insisted that "Palestinian solidarity is not a niche issue. Fat liberation and Palestinian liberation go hand in hand."
During the Trans Day of Visibility, a Palestine flag flew above the Trans flag during some marches, with one sign explaining that "Liberations are linked." Some are even talking up BRICS as allies (maybe Putin and Xi aren't so bad after all?) and -- yes -- even looking back fondly at the Khmer Rouge.
See the article for the embrace of the swastika. Lefties are now defending defacing Jewish property with a swastika, arguing they've reclaimed it, like the word "queer," and are now using it as "a condemnation of genocide."
Now, the identity of the officer has been revealed, along with more details surrounding the strange situation. Michelle Herczeg was removed from her duties with the Secret Service on Wednesday. She was a former police officer with the Dallas Police Department and an Air Force veteran.
On Monday morning, Herczeg arrived at the base and began deleting apps from a male agent's personal cell phone before becoming increasingly agitated. She then engaged in erratic behavior, such as mumbling to herself, hiding behind curtains, and throwing menstrual pads and other items at an agent, telling him that he would need them later to save another agent. Herczeg continued making alarming statements, such as the other agents were "going to burn in hell and needed to listen to God."
Herczeg was heard screaming at the special agent in charge (SAIC), listing the names of female officers on the vice president's detail and asserting that they would support her and enable her to continue working. When the SAIC attempted to relieve her of duty, as a witness told Real Clear Politics, "that's when she snapped entirely."
Herczeg allegedly became physically aggressive, chest-bumping, shoving, tackling, and punching the SAIC. This prompted intervention from other agents present, with a heightened alarm as Herczeg was armed, although her gun remained holstered. Agents wrestled her to the ground, disarmed her, cuffed her, and then escorted her out of the terminal.
In prior coverage, RedState noted that the agent had previously been a subject of distress by staff and that the hiring process, including allegedly "DEI" practices, raised concerns among officers in the Secret Service, per reporting from Real Clear Politics.
In her 2016 lawsuit, Herczeg charged she was retaliated against for reporting sexual harassment and other wrongdoing by Dallas cops.
After Herczeg was allegedly assaulted by a male superior officer in May 2015, she claimed, "[i]ntimidation tactics were used as investigative tools to persuade Herczeg from seeking criminal relief against the officer who assaulted her," according to the Morning News.
The lawsuit also alleged that Herczeg was not allowed to return to a special crime reduction team after reporting the alleged assault and was also refused overtime patrol shifts, causing "stress and mental anguish from loss in payment compensation."
Herczeg further charged that DPD "tolerates unprofessional behavior such as fraternization and unprofessional male and female working relationships based on an atmosphere which finds the male officer in charge, regardless of rank or ability."
A Texas court dismissed Herczeg's suit and a court of appeals denied both her appeal in 2021 and a request for a rehearing the following year.
It sure seems like she's just a nutter and Drama Tornado anywhere she goes. And it sure looks like DEI practices were used to move her through the application process for a job involving guns and the protection of very high-ranking VIPs.
In a bizarre moment, a drag queen performing at a Massachusetts art center directed children in a pro-Palestinian chant.
Video footage shows the exchange during a "Queer Storytime for Palestine" event organized by the Valley Families for Palestine group at the Northampton Center for the Arts on April 14.
While reading her book "If You're a Drag Queen and You Know It," Lil Miss Hot Mess told the children: "If you're a drag queen and you know it shout 'Free Palestine.'"
The event included "dancing, celebrating Palestine culture, learning about queer heroes and doing arts and crafts," according to an Instagram post by the Valley Families for Palestine group. Event profits were donated to alQaws, a Palestinian organization "working for queer liberation."
Every parent there needs an exhaustive Child Protective Services investigation.
A Little Lead for Your Pencils:
Florida’s response to Joe Biden trying to inject gender ideology into education, undermining opportunities for girls and women, violating parents' rights, and abusing his constitutional authority:
Not All Heroes Wear Capes: Wherever there is injustice, wherever tyrants menace -- there is only one group of heroes you can call upon to fight for you.
"Call the Philosophy Department!" -- a new rallying cry for our age.
CANNOT MAKE THIS UP. The chair of the Emory philosophy department: "a critical theorist working in the tradition of the Frankfurt School, drawing on feminist philosophy, psychoanalysis, and political theory." https://t.co/5Ll4Vm8HfX
— Disinformation Expert Lizzy (@StarChamberMaid) April 26, 2024
Matt Walsh makes the point that society can either 1, expect and demand that young men risk their lives to protect those who are weaker, but only if society rewards such actions, or 2, society can punish men for coming to others' defense, but in that case they must accept that young men are bowing out of the "Hero Trap."
If men rush to aid other people, they are taking a serious chance they will be killed. Now, that's one risk they might be willing to assume, if they will be afforded honor and respect for having done so.
But if they're going to be prosecuted and imprisoned for looking out for other people, then the weaker in society should start taking martial arts classes and buy guns.
Kyle Rittenhouse, deadly shooter, college speaker? A campus gun-rights tour sparks outrage
...
"He has used every moment to gloat and to make light of taking life," Paul Prediger said, speaking publicly for the first time about what happened in protest of a Rittenhouse speech last week at Kent State. "As if that were not enough, Kyle has embraced and been embraced by those who peddle hateful rhetoric, who believe in nationalism that excludes those who do not look like or think like them, and who have sought to amplify a troubling desire for violence against supposed political, cultural, and religious enemies."
The provocative choice of backing the Rittenhouse tour is par for the course for Turning Point and its local affiliates, which have hosted controversial figures like Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier. But it has stirred up devastating pain and disdain in a man he almost killed.
"He has used every moment to gloat and to make light of taking life," Paul Prediger said, speaking publicly for the first time about what happened in protest of a Rittenhouse speech last week at Kent State. "As if that were not enough, Kyle has embraced and been embraced by those who peddle hateful rhetoric, who believe in nationalism that excludes those who do not look like or think like them, and who have sought to amplify a troubling desire for violence against supposed political, cultural, and religious enemies."
USA Today is really taking its time telling you who "Paul Prediger" is.
That's the new name that Gauge Grosskreutz is going under.
The man who pointed a gun at Kyle Rittenhouse's head intending to shoot him.
I don't notice USA Today finding any "outrage" in Gaige Grosskreutz.
Many paragraphs later, USAToday finally tells you that the man who they're quoting as an authority, "Paul Prediger," is actually Gaige Grosskreutz. Who obviously has a huge bias against Rittenhouse -- and that bias should mean that USAToday shouldn't be quoting him at all on this matter, nevermind letting him rant through most of the article before finally, after people have stopped reading, confessing that the authoritive source for this story once tried to murder Kyle Rittenhouse, and got his arm blown off for that attempted murder.
After Prediger -- formerly known as Gaige Grosskreutz -- criticized his speaking tour, Rittenhouse posted a video clip on X, formerly Twitter. It showed Prediger admitting he pointed a gun in Rittenhouse's direction before being shot. Rittenhouse did not include text in the post.
Americans think crime is on the rise, but the media keep telling them they're wrong. A Gallup survey last year found that 92% of Republicans and 58% of Democrats thought crime was increasing. A February Rasmussen Reports survey found that 61% of likely voters say violent crime in the U.S. is getting worse, while only 13% think it's getting better. Journalists purport to refute this by citing official crime statistics showing a downward trend.
Americans aren't mistaken. News reports fail to take into account that many victims aren't reporting crimes to the police, especially since the pandemic.
The U.S. has two measures of crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting program counts the number of crimes reported to police every year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics, in its National Crime Victimization Survey, asks some 240,000 people a year whether they have been victims of a crime. The two measures have diverged since 2020: The FBI has been reporting less crime, while more people say they have been victims.
The divergence is due to several reasons. In 2022, 31% of police departments nationwide, including Los Angeles and New York, didn't report crime data to the FBI. In addition, in cities from Baltimore to Nashville, Tenn., the FBI is undercounting crimes those jurisdictions reported.
Another reason crimes reported to the police are falling is that arrest rates are plummeting. If victims don't believe criminals will be caught and punished, they won't bother reporting them. According to the FBI, if you take the five years preceding Covid-19 (2015-19) and compare them with 2022, the percentage of violent crimes in all cities resulting in an arrest fell from 44% to 35%. Among cities with more than one million people (where violent crime disproportionately occurs), arrest rates over the same period plunged from 44% to 20%.
Arrests for property crimes dived even more sharply. FBI data show that in 2022, 12% of reported property crimes in all cities resulted in an arrest. In cities of more than one million people, only 4.5% of reported property crimes in 2022 resulted in an arrest.
Based on the National Crime Victimization Survey, only 42% of violent crimes, such as robberies or aggravated assaults, and 32% of property crimes, such as burglary or arson, were reported in 2022. While the Justice Department doesn't track the number of prosecutions, the percentage of arrests that resulted in a prosecution appears to have fallen that year as well.
The FBI decided to scrap its old system of collecting crime data at the exact same time the Democrats were enacting their disastrous "decarceration" schemes. This was guaranteed to produce a discontinuity in the data, since pre-2021 stats are recorded and categorized differently than post-2021 stats. Even if they were actually recording all crimes, Democrats would point to the inconsistency in data treatment to explain away any increases in crime.
Fifty women have been randomly attacked by strangers so far this year in the lower half of Manhattan, an NYPD official said.
"The trend that I'm getting from the people that we're arresting, the majority of them are homeless, the majority of them seem like they need some kind of help with mental illness," Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at One Police Plaza Tuesday.
Most of the attacks don't appear to be copycats and cops don't consider them a trend, Kenny said.
But some of them have become high profile because of victims posting on social media, he said.
"This is no new phenomenon," Kenny said. "It's just being reported at a higher rate and getting a lot more publicity than it normally does because of social media . . . we welcome that. We want to encourage reporting so that we can make these arrests."
Out of the 50 female victims, 37 were attacked in the street and 13 in the transit system, he said.
Some were punched and others were struck with objects.
Arrests have been made in 14 of the attacks, he said.
All of the assailants appear to be black, homeless, and mentally ill. The exact sort of people the left was determined to release from jail and bail requirements in the name of "equity."
The left has an answer to this, of course. The problem isn't "decarceration" programs aimed at releasing dangerous repeat felons from jail.
Women report being assaulted by men of different races and ages. Still, across the different stories, a couple of similarities pop out: The alleged victims are mostly young and pretty, and most of them say they were minding their own business when they were attacked. Some were on their phones or reading on tablets. Others were speaking to friends or daydreaming. Whatever they were doing, they were just living their lives, and that, it seems, is what enraged their assailants.
The alleged victims are mostly young and pretty, and most of them say they were minding their own business when they were attacked.
Are there any points-in-common among the assailants, Amanda? I'm thinking about racial and Housing Status traits that might make your "this is all MAGA hatred of women" thesis less plausible.
Whatever the scale of this problem eventually turns out to be, it's not surprising that these stories have gone viral and captured the public's imagination.
1, the problem is decarceration, and that's obvious, which is why you're handwaving away the importance of the cause.
2, as usual, committed gnostic Marxists insist that crime isn't real, not really real anyway, and the only real crisis here is one occurring in "the public imagination."
While it rarely turns to violence, most women who spend much time walking around in public have experience with men who berate them for paying attention to something other than the man who is now, often out of nowhere, spewing invectives. In our modern era, that often manifests with men who are infuriated at women for looking at their phones. But I'm old enough to remember when I would get yelled at for reading books in public.
I grew up in a town where it was illegal to dance. True story, my word as a Kevin Bacon.
Whatever the excuse the angry man concocts, the impetus is always the same: The eyes of a woman are directed at someone or something that is not him, and he is indignant over it. So he will make sure she has no choice but to look at him, either by getting in her face or -- in these alarming New York cases -- punching her. If he cannot capture her adoring gaze, well, he will make her stare at him in fear.
So, nothing about the fact that these are obviously mentally-ill homeless men who are being mass-released from prison by your Marxist allies?
She's claiming this phenomenon is just due to the usual fascination of trivial "feminists" -- fucking Internet Drama. MAGA men are ruining my mentions on Twitter! Ugh! Something must be done!
These stories resonate, as well, because the nation is having a moment of increasingly unhinged male fury at women for daring to have lives that are centered around something other than catering to a man's every whim. Unleashed by Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, there's an upswell of loud male entitlement shouting at us from every corner.
The black homeless mentally-ill men playing the knockout game are all MAGA diehards, huh?
Now she's going to flashback to Internet Drama from fucking 2015:
We see it in the male fans of Jordan Peterson, who clamor to his events to hear him croak out a just-so story about how lobsters justify their faith in male dominance. Or the rise of "tradwives" online who make a living pretending they're unemployed and housebound.
Can she draw a line between black homeless mental patients playing the knockout game with women, and more Trivial Internet Drama about men not liking the feminist propaganda trifle Barbie?
Let's see:
Or Ben Shapiro setting fire to a Barbie doll because he can't stand that a blockbuster comedy starring a woman is about anything but her quest for male affection.
Let's connect it up with abortion -- really explore the studio space.
Or MAGA pundits telling lies about birth control, in hopes of tricking women into having babies before they're ready. Or conservatives writing op-eds that blame women for male loneliness, telling women they must self-sacrifice to relieve male pain by marrying Donald Trump voters. Or right-wing men yelling because Taylor Swift has cats or because she dates a hunky, vaccinated NFL player instead of, I dunno, having babies with a guy in ill-fitting cargo shorts.
I have to tell you, feminists tend to be among the ugliest, most out-of-shape, least alluring women on the fucking planet, but they're always complaining of the aggressive persistence of devoted and implacable Gentlemen Suiters vying for their (cold, asexual, femcel) affections.
These poor dishrag-dingy drulls are absolutely irresistible to men! They're just absolutely beset by unwanted male attention, 24/7/365!
This insane spin is of course being parrotted by all the lower-IQ FemPCs.
This is yet another example of the left pretending that all of society's ills are due to White Christian Straight Men. They can't castigate the black homeless men actually sucker-punching women because they're higher on the progressive stack, but they still have to Defend Wimmins and talk about the attacks, so they just pretend that MAGA is primarily a movement of the black, homeless, and mentally-ill.
This is like that stunt video of a woman walking down the street and being cat-called. Every man seen cat-calling her was black and Hispanic, but feminists pretended not to notice that and scolded White Incels about it for a year.
Or more recently, and more directly on-point: We watched the videos of mostly black (and some Hispanic) men sucker-punching Jews on the streets of New York, which Jake Tapper and other propagandists turned into a ritual denunciation of white MAGA voters and their antisemitism.
What people are failing to grasp about this kid's mad hate speech rant is that the reason it's been captured on video is because he delivered it to the Columbia University administrators themselves during a disciplinary hearing. And they let him walk away right afterwards! https://t.co/XbOGjSj3LK
— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) April 26, 2024
Self-Proclaimed "Mary Poppins of Disinformation" and "Disinformation Czar" Nina "Stanky Janky" Jankowicz, Has a New Grifter Operation She'd Like the CIA to Donate To
Do you smell that? That's the smell of just-laundered CIA and State Department money.
Former Biden administration disinformation head Nina Jankowicz has launched a new organization to fight against conservative efforts to combat online censorship.
Jankowicz launched the American Sunlight Project this week to fight what she believes to be a campaign by conservatives to undermine the anti-disinformation industry. She co-founded the organization alongside Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, a communications specialist who worked for left-wing group Protect Democracy during the 2020 election cycle.
The American Sunlight Project wrote a letter on Monday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio.), Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.), and Representative Dan Bishop (R., N.C.) accusing them of "McCarthyism" for investigating the disinformation industry and its pressure on social media platforms to censor speech.
"The Weaponization Committee has selectively released congressional testimony to discredit them, make them targets of harassment, and create a chilling effect across the field of disinformation research. These tactics echo the dark days of McCarthyism, but with a 21st century twist," the letter reads.
'Mary Poppins Of Disinformation' Returns With New Group To Defend Disinformation Industry
Nina Jankowicz says criticism of 'disinformation researchers' poses 'greatest threat' to country
The Biden administration's former "disinformation czar," ousted after an apparent attempt to create an Orwellian ministry of truth within the Department of Defense, has launched a new nonprofit that declares criticism of "disinformation researchers" such as herself as a chief threat to the United States of America.
"The campaign against counter-disinformation work is the greatest threat to freedom of expression and academic integrity since the McCarthy era," Nina Jankowicz said in a press release, pledging that her group would not "allow it to continue."
"Once researchers are free to conduct their essential work, the American people will gain a better understanding of the nature and severity of the disinformation threats we face," she said. "Disinformation knows no political party. Its ultimate victim is our democracy."
The group, the American Sunlight Project, was announced as a bipartisan advocacy organization founded by Jankowicz that was "launched to expose and oppose efforts to weaponize disinformation in the United States."
"The organization will investigate the networks and money driving disinformation and educate the public about the threats disinformation poses to their daily lives," it says. "The first step in the group's program will involve countering the organized campaign currently challenging the work of disinformation researchers."
Another cashew-head. Why does it always have to be cashew-heads?
Axios Poll: Majority of Americans Open to Trump's "Harshest" Immigration Policy, "Mass Deportations;" 42% of Democrats Support This, and 45% of Latinos
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Why It Matters: Because Axios is stupid and gay, so if even their poll is finding this, it means something.
Axios commissioned a Harris poll and discovered something unsurprising, even if the establishment was shocked.
Americans support mass deportations of illegal aliens. I suspect they would support mass deportations of some legal aliens who express anti-American views as well, come to think of it.
EXCLUSIVE POLL: Americans are open to Trump's harshest immigration plans.
Half -- including 42% of Democrats -- say they'd support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, per a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll. https://t.co/fXPKxpGlQj pic.twitter.com/UIWn2SRKn7
-- Axios (@axios) April 25, 2024
"I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations," said Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll and a former pollster for President Clinton.
I'm not at all. This is what is called a backlash, dude.
Axios adds:
Americans are open to former President Trump's harshest immigration plans, spurred on by a record surge of illegal border crossings and a relentless messaging war waged by Republicans.
* President Biden is keenly aware the crisis threatens his re-election. He's sought to flip the script by accusing Trump of sabotaging Congress' most conservative bipartisan immigration bill in decades.
* But when it comes to blame, Biden so far has failed to shift the narrative: 32% of respondents say his administration is "most responsible" for the crisis, outranking any other political or structural factor.
Axios Vibe Check: Amid a record number of border crossings, nearly two-thirds of Americans said illegal immigration is a real crisis, not a politically driven media narrative.
"Axios Vibe Check?" God Almighty, get your gaytarded shit under control, Axios.
A certain number of those are braindead NPC zombies and Stinkies who claim that Trump is being treated better than other defendants. But most are saying Trump is being treated savagely.
Here's another swing state poll, from Hispanic-heavy Nevada:
Unrelated: Howard Stern badgered Biden (yes, Biden has refused to give an interview to the NYT for his entire presidency, but is now sitting down to be "grilled" by Noted Journalist Howard Stern) about whether he'd debate Trump.
When Mr. Stern asked Mr. Biden if he would debate Mr. Trump, the president replied: "I am, somewhere, I don't know when, but I am happy to debate him."
This is not a real agreement to debate. He's just saying this because he knows how weak, pathetic, and senile he'll sound if he rules it out. So he'll keep on offering this "maybe, somewhere, I don't know when, if we can work it out" style answer when the media asks him about it, which they will not ask him about, because they know this hurts Biden and they do not want him to debate Trump. Our "journalists" are now all-in on deplatforming, and they know Biden is so senile and frail he wouldn't survive a debate politically -- and maybe not physically, either.
Biden does not call the shots in "his" own White House. Decisions like this are above Biden's pay grade. Pay no attention to the stupid, senile words that dribble out of his mouth.
Shock: Pro-Hamas Smelly Filthy "Protesters" Turn Violent In Atlanta, Austin, and NYC
—Disinformation Expert Ace
I'm gutted. I never saw this coming.
At Emory University (Atlanta), "protesters" were raging insanely both against Israel and against police. This new protest is basically just a continuing antifa production against the police training center being built, which they call "cop city."
Chaos ensued as Georgia police officers took several people into custody during a pro-Hamas protest at Emory University. Many students were arrested as Atlanta Police officers and Georgia State troopers wrestled the demonstrators to the ground.
One demonstrator was seen being tasered. A video captured several students being sprayed with tear gas. Some witnesses reported rubber bullets being fired at the protesters. Police pinned protesters to the ground and restrained them with zip ties. A female protester was carried away by officers as she sang and screamed.
Students set up a Gaza solidarity encampment on the lawn of the school's quad.
They were also protesting Atlanta's 'Cop City', according to local reports. Protesters demand "total institutional divestment from Israeli apartheid and Cop City at all Atlanta colleges and universities,' according to Fox 5."
They are repeatedly told "you can protest all you like, but you can't take over university lands and set up your filthy homeless tent cities," and so they do exactly that, then they cry when they're arrested.
Let me again underline the irony that pro-Palestinian "protesters" are seizing land that does not belong to them and are then crying when someone comes to kick them off that land.
Amid a wave of pro-Palestine demonstrations across American campuses, the University of Texas at Austin gained control overe the situation. On Wednesday, over fifty protestors were detained by Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers after a campus protest escalated beyond the administration's permitted boundaries. The protest at UT Austin mirrors similar unrest at Columbia University and other institutions, yet the response from state officials has ignited a debate over the balance between free speech and public order.
Governor Greg Abbott swiftly endorsed the arrests, describing the protestors' actions as antisemitic and asserting that such demonstrations would not be tolerated in Texas. "These protesters belong in jail. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period," Abbott stated on X.
HAPPENING NOW: Mass chaos breaks out at college campuses across the United States as pro-Palestine protests intensify.
Columbia, Harvard, USC, University of Texas at Austin and others are getting swarmed by protesters.
As RedState reported Tuesday, things got so intense at the NYU protests that the NYPD was called in to clean house and reestablish order. In the process, dozens were arrested including some professors who had previously formed a human wall around the agitators to protect them from consequences.
READ: Chaotic Scene As NYPD Descends Upon NYU in Riot Gear, Arrests Dozens of Pro-Hamas Extremists
Among the students arrested were Moné Makkawi, whose LinkedIn profile sports "she/her" pronouns and which notes she's a Ph.D. candidate in Middle Eastern studies.
On Twitter/X, Ms. Makkawi goes by the handle "Girl Boss Gulag," but she didn't sound like much of a fearless tough Girl Boss when describing her arrest and detainment in the following mini-thread:
after abducting me & hundred of other nyu students + faculty yesterday, NYPD female officers in holding cells stole my possessions, then talked about it in front of others that were detained after I was released, bragging about how they were teaching me a lesson for protesting.
Abducted? Say, you're supporting the people that kidnapped and raped Israeli women, right?
Yes, they take away your property, except for most clothes, when you're arrested.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this uneducated dolt don't know that.
these people have no interest in protecting or serving anyone but capital, most of them are white supremacists even if they are black/brown. the way they move and operate reflects a deep disdain for the black/brown people they target, harass, surveil, police.
they train with the iof, learn their logics, exchange tactics, and so on. Palestine is never far
Hopefully Trump will revoke her visa and reunite her with her precious Palestine.
Not only did Columbia make the horrific decision to mobilize NYPD on their own students, but the units called in have some of the most violent reputations on the force.
NYPD had promised the city they wouldn't deploy SRG to protests.
So why are these counterterror units here?
They were observing, not acting. Only this double-digit IQ drama queen would try to milk outrage out of that skinny tit.
The NYPD responded:
NYPD Chief of Patrol
@NYPDChiefPatrol
Truly amazing! Columbia decided to hold its students accountable to the laws of the school. They are seeing the consequences of their actions. Something these kids were most likely never taught. Good SAT scores and self-entitlement do not supersede the law. I am sure you would agree that we have to teach them these valuable life skills.
Secondly, I was with those "units" last Thursday that you describe as having, "the most violent reputations." These "units" removed students with great care and professionalism, not a single incident was reported.
The only incidents that day on campus were the student's hateful anti-Semitic speech and vile language towards our cops. I am sure you agree any hateful speech is unacceptable. You should rethink your comments to a simple thank you to the NYPD and hate has no place in our society.
Maybe you should walk around Columbia and NYU and listen to their remarks of pure hatred. I will ensure those "units" will protect you as they do for all NYers 24/7/365.
Lack of accountability = consequences
Hate from anyone, anywhere has no place in our city and country
A pro-Palestine encampment at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City appears to have sparked a conflict between students and law enforcement.
The FIT Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group shared video via Instagram Thursday showing crowds of protesters chanting and holding signs in and around the school's Shirley Goodman Resource Center. The account wrote students are "NOW GUARDING THE ENCAMPMENT FROM NYPD AND SECURITY."
Another clip from the altercation shows uniformed security guards forcing open doors and fighting to gain entry to the building as students pound on drums.
"FIT SECURITY IS ASSAULTING PEACEFUL PROTESTORS AT ENCAMPMENT," the account wrote.
No, they were attempting to access a building which they have legal access to and you do not.
The protest follows a decision by the school to ban SJP from organizing on campus, it wrote. Students now demand the school divest from Israeli companies, publicly condemn Israel, drop charges against students and show "complete financial transparency."
WE WILL NOT OCCUPY FIT UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET," the SJP wrote.
They mean "We will occupy FIT until our demands are met," but they're uneducated hobos. So, some allowance must be made, as usual.
FOGGY BOTTOM, DC -- In the same neighborhood that holds the U.S. Department of State and its openly anti-Israel staffers in the nation's capital, antisemitic students at The George Washington University established a Hamas Youth (TM) camp on Thursday similar to the one at Columbia University to champion barbaric terrorists in the Gaza Strip and call for an intifada to eliminate Israel and murder Jews.
Signs in the crowd made vile declarations such as "FINAL SOLUTION" while camped-out students chanted "there is only one resolution // intifada revolution" and "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free."
They Just Want to Breathe (TM).
By Thursday afternoon, the camp had some 20 tents, hundreds of student demonstrators, and a portable bathroom set up on GW's University Yard. A statement from the university on Thursday morning stated that demonstrations were not allowed there and instructed the antisemitic students to move to another location on campus. Students did not comply and the university did not take action to enforce its policies. GW also said overnight encampments aren't permitted and that demonstrators and their camp would be "required" to be gone by 7:00 p.m. Thursday.
The University of Southern California announced on Thursday that it has canceled its main-stage graduation ceremony for students, a move that follows campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war and a controversy over its selection of a class valedictorian.
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The university said that it could not host the ceremony, which was scheduled for May 10, because of new safety measures that would have increased the amount of time needed on the day to process the 65,000 students and guests who usually attend.
This week, the university has been rocked by turmoil by pro-Palestinian protesters, resulting in the arrests of more than 90 people.
Here's a smile: Obviously the NPCs at formerly-prestigious university Harvard joined in and followed. They too set up an illegal camp on the campus grounds.
.@Harvard administration may have grown a little bit of a spine and let the sprinklers go off today around 4am on the lawn where their pro-Hamas campers are illegally occupying a lawn. The tents became flooded with water in 32 degree weather. Their camp remains in tact, but at… pic.twitter.com/NjXBlD9K3w
— Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus (@CampusJewHate) April 25, 2024
Harvard University's anti-Israel tent encampment was temporarily thwarted overnight -- by a slew of sprinklers that flooded protesters' tents -- as demonstrations rocked other campuses across the country.
Dozens of sleeping protesters who were trying to catch some shuteye were disturbed when the sprinklers suddenly turned on in the middle of the Ivy League's Cambridge campus.
"As protesters spend their first night in the Harvard Yard encampment, the biggest threat to their stay has not come from administrators or Harvard University police officers, but the Yard's sprinklers," the Harvard Crimson student-led paper said early Thursday.
The first sprinkler switched on just outside the encampment in Harvard Yard at about 2:30 a.m. as temperatures dipped to 36 degrees.
Then, just before 4 a.m., a sprinkler located in the middle of the tents started spraying out water, prompting students to quickly start handing out buckets.
"Two more sprinklers turned on at the edge of the encampment near Massachusetts Hall," the newspaper said in a live blog update at 4:05 a.m.
"The sprinklers began to hit tents on the edge of the camp before protesters rushed over to cover the sprinklers with buckets and sit on them."
Harvard's Palestine Solidarity Committee said in an Instagram post some of the students' tents were flooded with freezing cold water after the 4 a.m. burst. A video showed a student struggling to readjust a tarpaulin in a wet tent.
As Monk once said of The Dirties: "They make their own sauce."
Little question: The school year is ending in two weeks. That means everyone will be taking their final exams, and turning in their final papers, over the next couple of weeks.
Have the Dirties cleared it with the students actually interested in getting a degree for the $80,000 per year they're paying that the school will be turned into a No-Go CHAZ/CHAP situation during the most critical two weeks of the year, or nah?
THE MORNING RANT: Follow-Up to Post Regarding Reliance on Falsified Government Economic Data; Also ESG Investments Facing Major Outflows
—Buck Throckmorton
My post this past Monday was titled “Why Do Intelligent People Continue to Rely on Government Data That is Known to Be False?” In it, I discussed the persistently false economic data published by the government, especially the Department of Labor’s inflation and jobs reports, and how intelligent(?) people in positions of authority “make critical decisions based on that data, even though there is a near certainty it will be revised to a less favorable report (or simply proven false) once the headlines become stale.”
Reader TGSam then sent the following from Jim Bianco to my attention, which shows that not only are the Department of Labor’s jobs reports not reliable, but the DOL doesn’t even really put any effort into producing their fraudulent weekly jobs report. It would appear that they pick a round number and just run with it for weeks on end.
Mr. Bianco points out the statistical improbability of there being exactly 212,000 claims for initial unemployment week after week. (The number is always rounded to the nearest thousand, but the likelihood of it being 212k every week is extremely improbable.) He writes:
Below is the number of initial filings for unemployment insurance. How is this statistically possible? Five of the last six weeks, the exact same number. Effectively the same number in the last 11 weeks, except for the holiday weeks (President's Day and Easter).
Consider, The US is a $28 trillion economy. It has 160 million workers. Initial claims for unemployment insurance are state programs, with 50 state rules, hundreds of offices, and 50 websites to file. Weather, seasonality, holidays, and economic vibrations drive the number of people filing claims from week to week. Yet this measure is so stable that it does not vary by even 1,000 applications a week. Just the number of applications incorrectly filled out every week should cause it to vary more than this.
Below is the number of initial filings for unemployment insurance.
How is this statistically possible?
Five of the last six weeks, the exact same number.
Effectively the same number in the last 11 weeks, except for the holiday weeks (President's Day and Easter). --- Consider… pic.twitter.com/vZbWWC7DRr
A little digging shows that the Department of Labor intentionally empowers it employees to work some statistical magic on the actual (“unadjusted”) jobs figures they have compiled. At the link where the DOL issues its weekly press release announcing the number of new unemployment filings, there is this explanation for the “seasonal adjustment” that has been administered:
C. Seasonal Adjustments and Annual Revisions
Over the course of a year, the weekly changes in the levels of initial claims and continued claims undergo regularly occurring fluctuations. These fluctuations may result from seasonal changes in weather, major holidays, the opening and closing of schools, or other similar events. Because these seasonal events follow a more or less regular pattern each year, their influence on the level of a series can be tempered by adjusting for regular seasonal variation. These adjustments make trend and cycle developments easier to spot. At the beginning of each calendar year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) with a set of seasonal factors to apply to the unadjusted data during that year. Concurrent with the implementation and release of the new seasonal factors, ETA incorporates revisions to the UI claims historical series caused by updates to the unadjusted data.
As I dove into that website, I saw that the “seasonal adjustment” is actually done every single week, bringing the initial filing report back to the boilerplate 212k number that is constantly being reported.
But again, to Mr. Bianco’s point, even if the seasonal adjustment is done weekly using some mathematical formula that is applied to the unadjusted number, then there should still be some variance from 212k.
It seems rather clear that the “adjusted” figure is just a number pulled out of the air by a DOL employee who can’t be bothered to spend 5 minutes coming up with a new phony number to replace the prior week’s phony number.
*****
Related - a gentleman named Don Harrison, with whom I’ve developed a friendship through mutual friends at the Heartland Institute, sent me the following note in response to the question “Why Do Intelligent People Continue to Rely on Government Data That is Known to Be False?” I found his note to be a terrific essay unto itself.
”I think intelligent people are so often wrong because they ARE intelligent, and because of how their intelligence has come to be nurtured and treated in our modern age. First, people with high IQs are now identified at an early age, and funneled into courses of study that focus on the use and manipulation of symbols, both verbal and mathematical. This gives them a very narrow understanding of the way the world works. In addition, they have been told from an early age how brilliant they are, which teaches them to prize their own thinking above all else. And when they do reach out for another opinion, they almost exclusively deal with people who have similar backgrounds. They have no conception of the implications of William Buckley’s statement that he “would rather be ruled by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory than by the Harvard University faculty.” A large group of people will have a store of wisdom, intelligence and experience that a smaller coterie of the best and brightest cannot hope to match. The most distinguishing shortcoming of the intelligentsia is not near-sightedness, progressive politics or an addiction to Starbucks; it is hubris. They don’t know what they don’t know.
I am sure that part of the reason for Thomas Sowell’s true genius is a background that acquainted him with a wide slice of life and taught him humility. As I get older, I am very grateful that I grew up in circumstances that were in some ways similar to his. By the time I got out of high school, I had played sports, planted tobacco, acted in school plays, fished, captained the It’s Academic team, flipped burgers and won oratorical contests. Today a middle-class kid with an academic bent has a tightly overseen routine with no opportunity to get his hands dirty. My tobacco planting, fishing and burger flipping would have no place in his life. All the managers when I worked at McDonalds were former NCOs. You learn things from a Marine with a scar from the corner of his mouth to his ear that he got from a North Korean bayonet in the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir that you can’t pick up in a classroom.
Bottom line: high IQs that are nurtured without an acquaintance with a breadth of experience result in a kind of sterile, and dangerous, stupidity.”
Thank you, Don. Interestingly, Mr. Harrison’s passion and area of expertise is anti-ESG investing. He was a featured guest last month with Jim Lakely and the Heartland gang on their weekly “Climate Realism” broadcast, discussing the topic of “Is ESG on the Outs?” which can be seen at this link if you’re so inclined.
Coincidentally, this heartwarming story about the backlash to ESG investing was just published yesterday:
US fund managers suffered their worst-ever quarter for ESG-focused products as the pace of client redemptions intensified. Client withdrawals from US funds targeting environmental, social and governance goals reached $8.8 billion in the first three months of 2024, according to fresh data compiled by Morningstar Inc.
The scale of redemptions from US ESG funds dragged down global inflows, which were a modest $900 million in the first quarter, Morningstar said.
Victory in the culture wars will not occur in Congress, or in the courts, or most anywhere at the federal level. But we can deliver resounding blows to the left in local elections and in how we use our money.
“Sustainable funds have been facing many headwinds in the past couple of years, including elevated energy prices, high interest rates and an ESG backlash in the US,” said Hortense Bioy, global director of sustainability research at Morningstar.
Millions of us using our wallets as weapons are having an impact and causing pain to the woke left. Don’t let up.
Good morning, kids. Much like George Jetson had a collapsible flying car in a suitcase, Harvey Weinstein, had a collapsible Posturepedic in his back pocket, and whipped it out con gusto to threaten career death to female starlets unless they gobbled his pockmarked johnson. Yet, he had his 2020 rape conviction tossed by the NY State Court of appeals yesterday.
Having worked in the film biz during his heyday in the 90s, scores of anecdotal stories abound from men and women of how he screwed them over, both figuratively and quite literally. Mira Sorvino, whose career tanked when she came forward with accusations, and whose late father Paul wanted to justifiably tear Weinstein limb from limb, had this reaction on the X-Twitter deal:
“Day after #DenimDay honoring sexual violence survivors, Harvey Weinstein’s conviction overturned, due partly to ‘Molineux witnesses’ testifying to prior bad acts, like lioness Annabella Sciorra,” Sorvino’s post read, referring to a term meaning “witnesses in a trial who are allowed to testify about criminal acts that the defendant has not been charged with committing,” The New York Times noted.
“Since when don’t courts allow evidence of pattern of prior bad acts to be admitted?” she added. “He’s a prolific serial predator who raped/harmed 200+women! Disgusted w/justice system skew [to] predators not victims.”
In the interest of full disclosure, I was neither a juror nor an observer of the trial, and so was not privy to the evidence that led to his conviction, my anecdotal experience/knowledge of his reputation notwithstanding. In one sense, I feel bad for Sorvino and the other victims.
That said, with all due respect to Ms. Sorvino, I could care fuck all. She's "disgusted" at the justice system? Funny how she and all the other supposed "victims" of Harvey Weinstein were dead silent when the same NY court convicted Donald Trump of libel and awarded multi-millions of dollars to E. Jean Carrol for her cock and bull story of being raped and/or groped by Trump. Which he had neither been charged nor convicted, as if that matters these days, but I digress. For publicly defending himself by calling her out for the liar she was – which is in the febrile, reptilian, pea-sized mind of Leftists a crime against humanity – Trump got what he deserved.
Despite the prosecution’s best efforts to insinuate former President Trump‘s involvement in—or even knowledge of—the “catch and kill” scheme, Pecker’s testimony continues to fall short of any direct implication. The prosecution frequently used the “catch and kill” term as well as referring to Cohen and Pecker’s activities as a “scheme,” hoping to convince the jury of illegal activity when, in fact, there appears to be none.Under cross-examination by Trump‘s attorney Emil Bove, Pecker even admitted he’d never heard the term “catch and kill” before the prosecution used it. Bove asked Pecker if “it was always your intention, dating back to the early days of this friendship, not to publish negative stories about President Trump?” The tabloid newsman responded, “Yes.”
Pecker also acknowledged he has held back negative stories about other notable public figures, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, businessman Ronald Perelman, and Obama Chief of Staff-turned-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Further undermining the prosecution’s case, he added that it was his understanding that Cohen was acting in a personal capacity for Trump, not on behalf of the presidential campaign.
Like the E. Jean Carrol case, will this matter in the end with a judge, prosecutor and likely 12 angry New York City hand-picked stooges? Doubtful.
Writer Ray Bradbury once said, “Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.” In Thursday’s case before the Supreme Court on the immunity of former President Donald Trump, nine justices appear to be feverishly working with feathers and glue on a plunge into a constitutional abyss.
It has been almost 50 years since the high court ruled presidents have absolute immunity from civil lawsuits in Nixon v. Fitzgerald. The court held ex-President Richard Nixon had such immunity for acts taken “within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.” Yet in 1974’s United States v. Nixon, the court ruled a president is not immune from a criminal subpoena. Nixon was forced to comply with a subpoena for his White House tapes in the Watergate scandal from special counsel Leon Jaworski.
Since then, the court has avoided any significant ruling on the extension of immunity to a criminal case — until now. There are cliffs on both sides of this case. If the court were to embrace special counsel Jack Smith’s arguments, a president would have no immunity from criminal charges, even for official acts taken in his presidency. It would leave a president without protection from endless charges from politically motivated prosecutors. If the court were to embrace Trump counsel’s arguments, a president would have complete immunity. It would leave a president largely unaccountable under the criminal code for any criminal acts.
The first cliff is made obvious by the lower-court opinion. While the media have largely focused on extreme examples of president-ordered assassinations and coups, the justices are clearly as concerned with the sweeping implications of the DC Circuit opinion. . .
. . . The other cliff is more than obvious from the other proceedings occuring as these arguments were made. Trump’s best attorney proved to be Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. If the justices want insight into the implications of denying any immunity, they just need to look north to New York City. The ongoing prosecution of Trump is legally absurd but has resulted in the leading presidential candidate not only being gagged but prevented from campaigning.
Alvin Bragg is very personification of the danger immunity is meant to avoid. . .
. . . I have long opposed sweeping arguments of immunity from criminal charges for presidents. The devil is in the details, and many justices are struggling with how to define official versus nonofficial conduct. The line-drawing proved maddening for the justices in the oral argument. The most they could say is similar to the story of the man who jumped off a building. As he passes an office window halfway down, another man calls out to ask how he’s doing. The jumper responds, “So far so good.”
As the justices work on a new set of legal wings, anything is possible as the nation waits for the court to hit ground zero in the middle of the 2024 presidential election.
So, let's say SCOTUS does manage to perform a Solomonic miracle and "mostly peacefully" cleave the baby in half. The only thing that will do is enrage a perpetually enraged Democrat-Left to either dissolve or permanently pack SCOTUS with a bench full of Roland Freisler/Enorgon-Erdogon-Enron-Gorgon clones.
That underscores my argument that this nation is divided not only on a panoply of issues but on the legitimacy of the nation itself, and on those of us who are desperate to restore and preserve what it once was. Or at least as we had imagined it to be.
The annihilationist rhetoric about Jews heard on campuses around the country, horrendous as it is, is not merely about Jews, nor did it spring up in a vacuum. It happened because of decades of anti-American and anti-Western indoctrination on said campuses going at least as far back as when individuals like Theodore Adorno and Herbert Marcuse fled actual European Fascism and paid us back by injecting the poison of Marx and Gramsci into the American educational system.
Presto chango, 80 years later and voila! We live in a nation that resembles the bastard child of 1968 Chicago with 1938 Nuremberg. Everything is upside-down, thoroughly corrupt almost everywhere you turn, and really nowhere to run.
Even if we somehow win in 2024, or win every election for the next 40 years, and both of those are seriously in doubt, we will still have at least a third of the population (not including the millions of illegal foreigners who I wouldn't count on for help) wanting us dead as well as a propaganda/brainwashing complex disguised as academia that will produce yet another generation of useless pod people who will be eager to line us up and shoot us into a ditch. Ironic considering their hatred of the Second Amendment.
I used the "R" word yesterday maybe reluctantly but now, there really is no other way out. Face it. America as it was is virtually if not completely gone. If we somehow survive the coming maelstrom of internal conflict and end up victorious, we must reconstruct a society and form of government that never again allows the scum who destroyed us in the first place to ever be within a billion billion light years of power and influence. If that means ditching the Constitution, so be it.
If a revolution is what they want, then we should be the ones to give it to them. Good and hard.
Jack Posobiec: ". . . aside from its obvious evil, there’s another problem with communism: by necessity, it is viciously, unimaginably petty. And yes, this is a necessity. When the entire basis of your ideology is the government centrally planning who gets what resource, down to the last thumbtack, pettiness is the inevitable conclusion. Which may explain the existence of one Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)." Is There Anything Elizabeth Warren Doesn't Want to Micromanage?
Victor Davis Hanson: "Why Biden plays Iranian poker with American and Israeli lives." War By Affirmative Action?
“Various terrorist organizations” lobbed mortar rounds at efforts on the location laying the groundwork for the pier while U.N. officials were touring the area, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing the Israeli military. The U.N. officials retreated to secure spaces and no one was injured in the attack, but the incident underscored concerns about security for the roughly 1,000 U.S. troops involved in facilitating delivery of much-needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Biden’s Gaza Pier Site Comes Under Attack As US Troops Prepare To Begin Construction
Douglas Murray: "Khan wants to bring individual cases against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a head of the Israeli army, most likely the chief of the general staff. If this happens, it will throw kerosene onto the already flammable international situation. And further ignite things here at home." International Criminal Court’s vicious smear tactics against America’s allies
“How are news outlets dedicating wall-to-wall coverage to campus protests, but not the discovery of mass graves in Gaza of people with their hands tied & clothing stripped? Why do we not know more? Where are the journalists and resources being dedicated to that story?” — Titty-Caca AOC (No, she's not referring to the Jews - jjs) Media Hoax: No, Israel Did Not Dig ‘Mass Grave’ At Gaza’s Nasser Hospital
"The rhetoric of genocide surrounding the Israel/ Hamas conflict must be clarified to arrive at a peaceful conclusion that saves the lives of Arabs and Jews in the region." "Palestine" is Free. . . In Israel (Only with coupon, while supplies last- jjs)
USCPR provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based “fellows” in return for spending eight hours a week organizing “campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.” They are trained to “rise up, to revolution.” The radical group received at least $300,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations since 2017 and also took in $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund since 2019. It has three “fellows” who have been major figures in the nationwide protest movement. Nazi Collaborator George Soros is Paying Student Radicals Who are Fueling Nationwide Explosion of Israel-Hating Protests (This would never get off the ground if the students weren't already brainwashed to hate Jews by the professoriate - jjs)
José Garza is the District Attorney for Travis County, where UT Austin is located. He has received nearly half a million dollars in donations from George Soros-funded organizations like Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC, according to campaign finance documents. Soros-Backed DA Lets Pro-"Palestinian" Protestors Walk Scot-Free In Texas
"What we are dealing with right now on college campuses is a sprawling—systemic, one might say—conspiracy to deprive Jewish students of basic equal rights." Restore Order and Crush the Campus Jihadist Thugs
Fred Fleitz: "For years, leadership at U.S. colleges has incubated and tolerated extreme left-wing ideologies that led to the current anti-Semitic and anti-Israel protests." (The Jew-hate is just the latest manifestation of the America-hatred that's been going on for decades - jjs) Anti-Semitism Should Not be Part of the American College Experience
"The amount of illegals pouring into the country has exceeded multiple states’ populations. And with the Biden administration ensuring that illegal aliens would be counted in the Census, this massive new population could permanently rig Congress and the Electoral College in favor of Democrats. The crisis is deliberate. The Democrats think they want to replace Americans with illegal immigrants, despite the many criminals, gang members, potential terrorists, and foreign agents who are part of the illegal invasion. This is the purposeful upheaval of America." California Takes the Lead in Illegal Migrant Apprehensions
Illegal aliens shipped to Martha’s Vineyard last year by Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis will be given work visas as “crime victims,” according to the latest insanity coming at you from [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden’s open borders. Illegal Aliens Sent to Martha's Vineyard Get Special 'Crime Victim' Visas
BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS & DEMENTIA WATCH
Robert Spencer: "So is this senescent corruptocrat in the habit of making the sign of the cross when thinking about people and things that he hates? It sure seems that way. And now he has given us the bizarre spectacle of a Catholic apparently praying that more children will be killed. Pious Old Joe, you can always count on him." Old Joe Biden Goes to an Abortion Rally, Does the Most Tone-Deaf Thing Imaginable
Daniel Greenfield: "War stories made up by my demented president." What’s Eating Joe? (BSE and syphilis are eating his cerebral cortex - jjs)
"Arguments revealed that a majority appears to agree that presidents do enjoy some scope of immunity after their term in office, but the ultimate question will be the establishment of a standard. . . That process could take months. And the Supreme Court appears likely to hold that decision itself would be appealable.That course, if the Court takes it, would ensure the final outcome of a Trump trial in D.C. comes well after the November 5, 2024 Election Day – a stinging blow to Smith and [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden, Smith’s boss and Trump’s opponent in that election." Supreme Court Poised to Agree with Trump: Former Presidents are Immune from Some Prosecutions
"Dreeben has a long track record of partisan lawfare. Prior to his tenure at the DOJ, he served as a staffer to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). It was Dreeben who, despite the Mueller team knowing that the Russian collusion accusations were false, engineered the legal strategy of pursuing Trump over “obstruction of justice” for opposing the Democrats‘ witch hunt." DID YOU NOTICE? Biden DOJ’s SCOTUS Attorney Was Also Robert Mueller’s Russiagate Lead
"Writer Ray Bradbury once said, 'Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.' In Thursday’s case before the Supreme Court on the immunity of former President Donald Trump, nine justices appear to be feverishly working with feathers and glue on a plunge into a constitutional abyss.. . . As the justices work on a new set of legal wings, anything is possible as the nation waits for the court to hit ground zero in the middle of the 2024 presidential election." Jonathan Turley Op-Ed: Oral Arguments Suggest SCOTUS About to Plunge Into Constitutional Crisis in Trump-Immunity Case
The third day of the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump did not go well for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. David Pecker, the prosecution’s lead-off witness, continued to poke holes in Bragg’s case.While the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid testified that he believed the “catch and kill” scheme coordinated by attorney Michael Cohen was “for the campaign,” Pecker also insisted that, at the time, he did not believe Trump was aware of Cohen’s activities. Trump Trial Day 3: Trump Lauds ‘Breathtaking’ Pecker, Who Continues to Shaft Bragg
Bove sought to flip the script and demonstrate the McDougal deal was just “standard” procedure. He highlighted multiple instances where Pecker’s magazine suppressed damaging stories for other individuals in the public eye, including for politicians like Rahm Emanuel, current U.S. ambassador to Japan and former Democratic mayor of Chicago, and former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Trump Defense Attorney Fires Crippling Shots At Alvin Bragg’s Case Just Minutes Into Cross-Examination
"While Judge Cannon seems to be playing this trial down the middle, the prosecution of Joe Biden for also possessing classified documents at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and next to his Corvette in his Wilmington, Del., garage is proceeding.... oh wait. Hold the presses on that one. The Corvette exception applied in that case. If only Trump had been cool enough to put on the sunglasses and drive around with the documents in a Corvette." What Do New Documents in 'Plasmic Echo' Case Reveal About the Feds' Surveillance of Trump?
"We all know that what’s happening in New York is election interference, but we also need to understand the very fundamental rights that are pushed aside to 'get Trump.'” Democrats Need To Be Held To Account For Denying Trump’s Due Process Rights (How about abolishing their party and imprisoning them for treasonous behavior - jjs)
CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
"The interlocking of U.S. security and spy agencies is the foundation of the American police state because the parameters of both groups have been so widened in the past two decades." Spies are the foundation of the American police state
"A recent book chronicles how critical theorists captured American intelligence agencies." The Deep-State Virus
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
This comes in response to what the site’s founder, Jim Hoft, describes as a series of “lawfare attacks” allegedly initiated by “the radical left.” Hoft detailed the issue in a post on Wednesday.“TGP Communications, the parent company of The Gateway Pundit, recently made the decision to seek protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Florida as a result of the progressive liberal lawfare attacks against our media outlet,” Hoft wrote. Gateway Pundit Files for Bankruptcy Protection
"Leftists have long sought to capture more regulatory authority over the internet using Title II regulations. Essentially, net neutrality regulations seek to prohibit internet service providers (ISPs), such as Comcast and Verizon, from blocking, slowing down, or allowing for “paid prioritization,” by which users can pay for faster, more consistent service." Democrat FCC Majority Votes to Restore Obama-Era Net Neutrality Rules
"The [so-called quote-unquote "president"] has earned a reputation for ghosting the White House press corp, routinely yielding the floor to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre while being relatively absent. His press dodging became so problematic that even the Washington Post called him out on it in an article last year." New York Times: [Dangerous Fake President] Biden Dodging Press Sets a "Dangerous Precedent"
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM
"This land is Joe Biden's land now. . . Had China seized 13 million acres of sovereign Alaska territory, the difference would be one of degree, not of kind." The Feds' Unconstitutional Land Grab
Robert Zimmerman: "[Bill] Nelson exhibits the same kind of utter ignorance about basic space science as did congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) when she proclaimed on April 8, 2024 that the Moon 'was made up mostly of gases.'” These are the Idiots WE Have Put in Power
"The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) pushed the White House to boost its support for domestic solar manufacturers as part of a gamble to to weaken calls for even more stringent tariffs from American companies, according to Bloomberg News. The efforts attempted to preempt petitions that could lead to new or strengthened protections for the American industry, the outlet reported." China-Tied Solar Trade Group Reportedly Lobbied White House In Effort To Forestall New Tariffs
"Climate hustlers have yet another moneymaking boondoggle lined up." Another Climate Folly: Carbon Capture and Storage (Frankie Carbone got captured and stored – in the back of a meat truck - jjs)
CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY
“Since when don’t courts allow evidence of pattern of prior bad acts to be admitted?” she added. “He’s a prolific serial predator who raped/harmed 200+women! Disgusted w/justice system skew [to] predators not victims.” (Funny how there's no reaction to what the courts did and are doing to Trump - jjs) ‘Horrified’: Oscar Winner And Other Hollywood Stars React To Overturned Weinstein Rape Verdict
The worst part about that one was that another girl had warned teachers and staff that it was going to happen (five hours in advance), but the school just brushed it off saying that nothing would happen. As Stephen put it, "It never does happen. Right until it does." Trans Boy Beats Another Girl in Indiana
"Pissed-off parents of Atrisco Heritage Academy High School students in Albuquerque, New Mexico are now demanding to know why – and how – the school hired a provocative dancer to perform at the school’s prom, after video went viral online showing a drag queen performing a striptease-like dance on the school gym surrounded by teenage students." New Mexico High School Hires Erotic Dancer In Drag to Perform At Prom
"The College Board, creator of the SAT, is abandoning merit for racialism—and it doesn’t intend to let the Supreme Court stand in its way." Don’t Trust Our Test!
Bobb previously worked as a lawyer for former President Donald Trump and a reporter for One America News Network (OAN) before her appointment to the RNC. Despite the indictment, Bobb expressed her honor in joining the RNC and reiterated her commitment to restoring confidence in the electoral process. “I’m honored to join the RNC and thrilled the new leadership is focused on election integrity. I look forward to working to secure our elections and restore confidence in the process,” Bobb said at the time of her appointment. One of the People Indicted by Arizona’s Far-Left AG is the RNC’s Election Integrity Chief
"Government officials created a vast security corridor hours before the president arrived and far beyond the specific area he would visit. Perhaps the de facto lockdown was to ensure Biden heard no heckling? Should people be honored when their personal schedules are disrupted by the [spurious] commander in chief, the same way medieval peasants offered thanks if their crops were trampled by the king’s courtiers? Is Biden entitled to force Americans to pay any price for that blessing of perpetuating his power? Will Thursday’s disruption enter local lore as the Westchester equivalent of the Bridgegate scandal that tainted former New Jersey Gov. Chris [Crisco] Christie?" Biden Vexes Commoners with Yet Another Election Money Grab
“The fact is that the strategy isn’t working. There is no strategy,” Fred Fleitz, the vice chair of America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security said. “And Trump understands that. And it’s just not fair for these Democrats to say, well, we’re going to Trump-proof NATO. We’re going to Trump proof aid for Ukraine.” Republicans Sound Alarm On Efforts To Shield Ukraine Funding From American Voters
Comparisons have been drawn to Franklin Roosevelt’s "Arsenal of Democracy" and the "greatest generation" that mobilized America’s industrial might into a defense industrial base (DIB) that could equip the militaries of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union simultaneously during World War II. But this generation has different priorities than ensuring that Ukraine beats back Russian aggression, Israel defeats Hamas, and Taiwan deters a revanchist China. Our defense leaders are focused on putting the D-E-I in the D-I-B. Putting the DEI in the DIB
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
So much for “following the science.” Newly released documents indicate that bureaucrats affiliated with the Medicare program ignored advice they solicited from medical experts in their efforts to deny patients care. Worse yet, the individuals with disabilities who were harmed often came from minority households — the same groups the Biden [junta] claims to be helping with its “equity” agenda. It’s but the latest signal of how the left will use rationing tactics to deny patients costly care. Medicare Bureaucrat Denies Test To Transplant Recipients Despite Doctors’ Advice
"Why can't we keep using 'men and women' and 'mother and father?' That's worked fine for a few thousand years." (Except this is year zero, kulak bigot scum! - jjs) We Won't Live By Your Wokeness
"A new film dramatizes the life of an almost unbelievable heroine." (Timely - jjs) Irena’s Vow
NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.
ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah, Here I Am at Intifada: "Are we willing to do whatever is necessary to preserve our freedom? The other side has clearly demonstrated what it is willing to do, and is actively doing, to take it away. That requires self-preservation 'by any means necessary.' As Allen Ludden (or Bert Convy) might say, the password is Revolution. Contemplating such a thing is unfathomable. But seeing New York City “fundamentally transformed” into Nuremberg-on-the-Hudson, the unfathomable quickly becomes not only fathomable but quite reasonable." My latest at Taki's Magazine. Please read and comment! [J.J. Sefton]
WTF?! New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial And yet Donald Trump was forced to pay off a psychotic liar and rape-fantasist for libel? A "libel" that accurately called her out as a liar for lying about him raping her in a Bergdorf's elevator? With the Alvin Bragg/Letitia James' Stalinist show trials still going on? It is to laugh. And vomit [J.J. Sefton]
CJN is shocked at how shocked Jews and other liberals are to discover anti-Semitism coming from the movement they supported for decades, while being somewhat heartened that maybe the scales are at last falling from their eyes. Happy Passover to all!
After his groundbreaking poll showing widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, Jim Lakely, VP and Dir. of Comms at the Heartland Institute discusses a shocking poll showing an equally large percentage of respondents willing to commit election fraud this November, and what it says about the state of our nation and society.
Reddit rumor: Games Workshop changed the lore of Warhammer 40K because Amazon -- which infamously ruined Tolkein with Rings of (Girl) Power -- demanded that insert a female character in power armor. There actually is a an all-female unit of "Fighting Nuns" called the Sisters of Battle. There is already-existing lore about female fighters. But according to this rumor, Amazon said that the Sisters of Battle weren't enough, they wanted female characters in the emperor's bodyguard (the Custodes). There are additional claims/speculations that Henry Cavill may walk away from the project, which I find hard to believe, because this is his dream project. He called this "the greatest professional honor of my life." He's been playing the game and reading the novels since he was 10. He is probably the wokies' greatest weapon in this fight.
86 All Agents of Control ". . . [the chaos] of elegant, natural freedom and independence [what Adam Smith referred to as 'the invisible hand'] is in direct contravention of those who have unleashed ideologically driven chaos by destroying freedom of choice in the quest to 'control' individuals as just one mass of a populace. Again, for our own good because we're too stupid and unenlightened to know what's good for us." My latest essay at Taki's Magazine. Please read and comment. [J.J. Sefton]
A reviewer from Tablet calls Civil War a "good movie" with "stupid politics" The film relies on a mostly unexplained premise that a future third-term U.S. president has dissolved the FBI, turning the United States into an authoritarian state. Garland doesn't beat the audience over the head with his intentions or his politics. However, in his press tour for the film--including an advance NYC screening earlier this week I attended--he revealed that he felt no need to explain why the country broke apart. "Everyone knows," he says. Indeed, we do.
Without making it explicit in the film, Garland clearly wishes to make an allusion not just to the orange man--and his all-too-familiar badness--but the much-lamented rise of "dangerous populism" across the West. Garland is subtle in how he takes sides, but he clearly aligns with the elitist interpretation of rising mass dissatisfaction as driven by the bad behavior of deplorables and their ignorant love of "disinformation."
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