Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Everyone is aware of the radical change in America's attitude toward public assistance and government action in supposed defense of the welfare of Americans.
The vast array of government programs presented to any citizen who is not perfectly comfortable is mind numbing. They claim to provide everything! Housing, food, cell phones (!), internet access, medical care, child care, help with utility bills, transportation, discounts on taxes, higher education, and on and on. Whether those innumerable government programs actually provide those pie-in-the-sky promises is a different question, but we all know that if they do, it comes at an obscene and inefficient cost. And it is becoming increasingly obvious that the many billions of dollars spent each year are often stolen!
They programs are shoved at us every day, from signs at the market touting EBT benefits, to signs on highways with government phone numbers to call for aid, to emergency room medical coordinators frantic to find a government program to pay their exorbitant bills.
The list of who to blame is long, but the heavy hitters are FDR, LBJ, Nixon (Yup!), Obama, and Biden. They conspired to make the default attitude of Americans that of a supplicant, rather than a citizen with rights and responsibilities.
Indeed, one of the striking features of early America is not that assistance was unavailable, but that many people who qualified for relief were reluctant to seek it. Contemporary accounts from several states—including New Jersey—describe respectable men and women enduring extraordinary hardship before accepting public charity. To modern ears, such reluctance may seem irrational. To them, it was a matter of preserving self-respect.
That moral instinct—that accepting public assistance should be exceptional rather than ordinary—formed an essential part of the American understanding of citizenship until the 20th century.
The first cracks in that understanding appeared during the Progressive Era and deepened during the New Deal. Faced with industrialization, urban poverty, and the Great Depression, Americans increasingly looked to government to perform functions that earlier generations had entrusted to institutions outside of the government. Much of that expansion responded to genuine crises, and programs such as Social Security reflected the extraordinary circumstances of their time.
Even so, the nation’s underlying philosophy was beginning to change. Government was no longer viewed simply as a safety net for those unable to care for themselves; it increasingly became expected to solve all social and economic problems. The shift was gradual and often justified by necessity. But it subtly weakened the older assumption that public assistance should remain exceptional, temporary, and closely tied to preserving personal independence.
Nothing here is surprising...it is the long and sordid story of our creeping socialism.
But another consequence of this plunge into the welfare state and the welfare psyche is that even people who have no need for government assistance in its many forms have been tarnished by it.
We see destitute people overwhelming our cities, and we recoil. We turn away from those in need. And that is a rational response to people who have lost their sense of morality and shame and pride and self-respect. We have come to expect that the government will take care of it, even though we know that government is incapable of that task, and we have the data to prove it! But government has placed obstacles in the way of regular Americans to help their less-well-off neighbors. Churches must jump through hoops to provide a hungry man a hot meal. Charitable organizations are buried under oceans of paperwork and, sadly, some have become vehicles for the self-aggrandizement of their sponsors. Just look at the Clinton's "charity" for evidence of that.
Have we lost all sense of goodness and charity? No, of course not. We are still the most generous people on earth, but the taint of government has injured even that!
Welcome to my second attempt at a book thread. I'm still learning to include images so this one is just text [I helped...CBD]. And, as always, I hope everyone had a great week of reading.
I enjoy reading westerns. Not just for the shoot-em-ups (although that is part of the appeal) but for the characters and descriptions of town life and the wild country. The plot is usually fast paced, the books are often under 200 pages and in a few hours you have another novel on your 'books I've read' list. The good guys win, the bad guys lose and justice, not necessarily the law, is served. Vivid and satisfying.
It seems to be the universal opinion that Lonesome Dove is one of the best western novels ever written. I won't argue because I haven't read it yet. (McMurtry does have a place in my heart because he wrote all his books on a manual typewriter.) But when I reread a western, it's usually a Louis L'Amour book. I like the way he can provide insight into his characters and circumstances with just a few lines that reveal but don't disturb the pace of the story.
I like all of his books: Flint, Hondo, Down the Long Hills, and the older history periods like The Walking Drum, etc. But the Sackett series books are the ones that stay with me. Maybe it's the span of generations of a family at different points in history, circa 1600 to the late 1800s. Maybe it's a common thread of toughness and fortitude that binds the different family members even though the main characters, all very much individuals, face different problems in different environments. My favorites in the series are Jubal Sackett, Ride the River, and The Sackett Brand. Sadly, L'Amour died before doing a Sackett story involving the American Revolution.
Any particular westerns that got you interested in the genre or keep you coming back to it? What is the appeal for westerns? The Horde is a very varied group so I'm hoping to hear about western books or authors new to me.
If you need a place to start with westerns, check out Sgt. Mom's (Celia Hayes) books like Lone Star Sons: Being The Entertaining and Mostly If not Always True Adventures of Texas Ranger Jim Reade and his Blood Brother Delaware Scout Toby Shaw in the Time of the Republic of Texas, which is a fun read (and a fun title). It's suitable for youngsters and this not so young reader enjoyed it.
By the way, Donald Hamilton (obligatory Matt Helm reference) wrote some westerns in the 1950s and they are excellent. His book The Big Country was adapted for the movie of that name with Charlton Heston. For some reason they were never reprinted and the used copies can be hard to find and are expensive. Definitely worth it if you can find them.
In a recent YT video from Duelist1954, Mike Beliveau lists the top ten selling westerns of all time, the top ten critics choices and his own ten favorites. There isn't a lot of overlap between the lists.
I'm not the first person to notice this but some original Conan stories, especially the ones involving the Picts, are essentially westerns set in Howard's Hyborean Age. The story Beyond the Black River would certainly qualify.
I'm not a fan of most booktubers on YT. I don't care about their latest book haul or that they claim to have read so many books in a short time. Even if true, or possible, what the hell are they getting out of them. I read for pleasure and to expand my world, not to brag about some list to impress others. Having said that, a year of two ago a booktuber, Michael K. Vaughn, suggested June Roundup. This was a casual, informal suggestion to other YT channels to discuss western books during June that they enjoy and why, and reveal some unusual finds they've come across. If you like westerns it is kind of fun.
Recent acquisitions:
- A hardcover edition of Lonesome Dove
- The City of God by Saint Augustine (H/T to A H Lloyd)
- The Penguin Classics edition of Tennyson's Idylls of the King
- The Winchester version of Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur (as opposed to the Caxton version that is the standard)
Serendipity: Books I've come across unexpectedly that I'll investigate, and probably buy, at some point. (Not quite in the rabbit hole category.)
- Three Bags Full, the book the Sheep Detectives movie is based on
- Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke and a book of his poetry
- A collection of the correspondence between H. Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling
Thanks for putting up with my meanderings. What have you all been reading?
Before the DRAM Apocalypse advice was simple: Do not buy a system with 8GB of RAM unless it is user-upgradable and you plan to immediately upgrade it.
Now the advice is more along the lines of: Buy a Mac, or run Linux.
Since both of those options hit Microsoft below the water line, the company is finally bothering to start to unshit its bed. Long overdue and the outcome remains to be seen, but at least they're trying. Or claiming to try.
Apple does have long-term agreements in place, but those agreements aren't all that long term, and as the sign new agreements during the ongoing drought they find that they no longer have a decisive upper hand.
Saturday Night Club ONT - August 1, 2026 [Disco & Dino]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. We honor the 5th amendment here. And the 1st. Certainly the 2nd. The 10th is pretty good, also.
Come in in, grab a drink or 3. Keep it light and friendly. Jerks need not enter the premises (the moose out front is keeping track).
[Top photo: Terrace of the Halfway Guesthouse, located in the Tiger Leaping Gorge of Yunnan Province, China]
A guy walks into a bar, orders a shot of whiskey, drinks it, and looks inside his jacket pocket.
He then orders another shot, drinks it, and looks inside his pocket again.
This goes on for an hour.
Finally, the bartender gets curious and asks, "Hey pal, why do you keep looking inside your pocket after every drink?"
The guy looks up and says,
"I've got a picture of my wife in there.
When she starts looking good, I know it's time to go home.
-----
"Where are you going on vacation, Bob?" Dave asked his co-worker.
"Las Vegas."
"You don't sound very excited."
"Well, I'm a little concerned," said Bob. "Went to Cancun last year, and my wife got pregnant. Went to Hawaii the year before that, and she got pregnant then, too."
"Wow! Are you going to take precautions?"
"Absolutely. This year I'm taking her with me."
*****
Drink of the Night
Big penguin is everywhere!
(H/T RedMindBlueState)
In summary (Google AI)
The Fat Penguin is a creamy, tropical cocktail made with orange juice, vanilla vodka, and heavy cream.
Ingredients
2 oz fresh orange juice
1.5 oz vanilla vodka (or whipped cream vodka)
1 oz spiced rum
1 oz heavy whipping cream (or oat/almond creamer)
0.5 oz blue curacao
Whipped cream for garnish
*****
Club ONT Department of Non-pansy Humor
In 1976, after a MATCH GAME contestant guessed a fill-in-the-blank answer correctly with "The Third Reich", the home audience got a shock when Charles Nelson Reilly decided to walk from his seat wearing a drawn Nazi armband with Gene Rayburn doing the Nazi salute. The episode… pic.twitter.com/2f6OJfgP6Y
BOONEVILLE, Miss. - A Mississippi property owner uncovered more than 200 Civil War-era cannonballs while preparing land for commercial development, and historians believe even more artifacts may still be buried.
Harold Knight said he first found a single cannonball on his Booneville property before inviting people with metal detectors to search the site.
The search quickly turned up hundreds of Civil War munitions, including grape shot, canister shot and case shot, all estimated to be more than 160 years old.
Experts at the Booneville Rails & Trails Museum believe the ammunition is likely connected to either the Battle of Blackland or the Battle of Booneville, two Civil War battles fought in July 1862.
*****
Club ONT Department of Dating
*****
Club ONT Bowling League
*****
Club ONT Department of Confusion
Is this Dino pretending to be Doggo or vice versa?
There are some questions in film criticism that never seem to disappear. Every generation argues about the greatest director, the greatest western, the greatest horror movie, the greatest performance. They're fun conversations, even if they almost never arrive at an answer. Over the last few years, though, I've found myself drifting toward a different question, one that I think reveals something more interesting about the people who make movies. If you wanted to explain a director to someone who had never seen one of their films before, where would you begin? Not with the movie that's necessarily their greatest achievement, nor even your favorite, but the one that most completely captures who they are as an artist.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized those are two different questions. Great artists don't spend their careers making the same movie over and over again. They experiment. They wander into unfamiliar genres. Sometimes they discover something remarkable by pushing against the instincts that usually define them. A masterpiece, then, can occasionally be an exception rather than a rule. It may represent the highest point of a career without representing the center of it. Somewhere else in that same filmography there may be another movie (not necessarily better, but somehow more representative) that contains the themes, techniques, and preoccupations that kept drawing the director back throughout an entire career. That's the film I've started thinking of as containing a director's DNA.
Alfred Hitchcock is probably the easiest place to begin because almost everyone already has an answer prepared. Ask someone to name the quintessential Hitchcock film and they'll probably say Psycho. Others will argue for Vertigo, and if the discussion is simply about greatness, I don't have much interest in disagreeing. Both are extraordinary films. But I don't think either one is the purest expression of Hitchcock's artistic personality. Every time I've tried this exercise, I keep arriving at North by Northwest, not because I think it's his masterpiece, but because it seems to contain the greatest concentration of the things that made Hitchcock Hitchcock.
That observation isn't even mine originally. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman famously said that his goal was to write "the Alfred Hitchcock picture to end all Alfred Hitchcock pictures," and, intentionally or otherwise, that's exactly what he accomplished. Nearly every recurring Hitchcock instinct is present. There's the MacGuffin that hardly matters once the story begins. There's the innocent man mistaken for someone else and thrown into circumstances completely beyond his control. There's the glamorous blonde, the elaborate visual set pieces, the humor that somehow coexists comfortably beside genuine suspense, and perhaps most importantly, the confidence that an audience can understand a scene through images alone. Hitchcock made psychological horror, courtroom dramas, romances, even broad comedies, but whenever he returned to what feels unmistakably like Hitchcock, he kept returning to some variation of this formula. North by Northwest isn't the summit of his career so much as its clearest blueprint.
William Wyler
William Wyler made me realize that the exercise doesn't always produce a surprising answer. Sometimes the film containing a director's DNA really is their masterpiece. For me, that's The Heiress. It isn't merely a great William Wyler film; it's difficult to think of another movie that gathers together so many of the qualities he spent decades refining. If Hitchcock's personality announces itself through suspense and visual wit, Wyler's announces itself almost by disappearing. His direction is so carefully controlled that it's easy to overlook how carefully controlled it actually is. Nothing calls attention to itself. The camera isn't trying to impress you. The compositions are elegant without becoming ostentatious. Actors move with extraordinary precision, but never in a way that feels theatrical or artificial. Everything exists in service of revealing character.
That wasn't an accident. Wyler consistently gravitated toward exceptional source material, often adapting acclaimed novels and successful plays rather than inventing stories from scratch. He seemed to believe that directing wasn't primarily about imposing himself upon a story but about refining one that already possessed dramatic strength. More importantly, he trusted actors more than almost any director of his generation. Watch enough Wyler films and a pattern begins to emerge. The emotional climaxes rarely depend upon spectacle. Instead, they depend upon people talking, arguing, hesitating, or making impossible moral decisions. The Heiress feels like the fullest expression of that philosophy. Olivia de Havilland's performance carries almost every emotional beat of the story, and Wyler understands that no technical flourish could possibly improve upon simply allowing her to perform. Other Wyler films emphasize one aspect of his career. Ben-Hur is inevitably remembered for its spectacle. Roman Holiday is remembered as one of Hollywood's great romantic comedies. The Best Years of Our Lives is inseparable from the historical moment that produced it. The Heiress, however, seems to contain all of Wyler at once.
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese presents a different problem altogether because public perception has simplified him into something he never really was. For many people, Scorsese is the gangster director, an image that's perfectly understandable given the enormous cultural shadow cast by Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Wolf of Wall Street (gangster in its own Wall Street way). Yet those films represent only one corner of an astonishingly varied career that includes religious dramas, psychological thrillers, documentaries, historical epics, literary adaptations, black comedies, and period romances. Reducing Scorsese to organized crime feels a little like reducing John Ford to Monument Valley. It's true often enough to become recognizable, but false often enough to become misleading.
For that reason, my choice has always been The Age of Innocence. It usually surprises people, but the surprise disappears once you stop thinking about Scorsese in terms of genre and start thinking about the questions that seem to fascinate him regardless of genre. Again and again, his films ask what happens when personal desire collides with the demands of a community. Sometimes that community is the Mafia. Sometimes it's the Catholic Church. Sometimes it's politics, family, or business. In The Age of Innocence, it happens to be New York high society, but the conflict is fundamentally the same. Newland Archer isn't trapped by criminals. He's trapped by expectations. He belongs to a world whose values he understands perfectly, and that understanding becomes its own prison.
Scorsese once referred to The Age of Innocence as the most violent film he'd ever made. At first glance that sounds absurd coming from the man who directed the scene of Joe Pesci getting beaten to death with a baseball bat in Casino, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Violence in Scorsese has never really been about bloodshed. Violence is what people do to one another when loyalty, guilt, obligation, or identity become impossible burdens to carry. Sometimes that manifests itself through fists and guns. Other times it manifests itself through silence, manners, and self-denial. Strip away the gangsters, and those concerns remain almost everywhere in Scorsese's work. The restless camera, the intricate editing, the fascination with New York itself. All of those stylistic signatures are present in The Age of Innocence. More importantly, so are the moral questions that seem to have occupied him throughout his career. Watch that film carefully, and the path toward Silence, Bringing Out the Dead, and even The Irishman suddenly becomes much easier to see.
John Ford
John Ford may have been the director who convinced me that a filmmaker's masterpiece and their artistic center can actually point in opposite directions. I think The Searchers is Ford's greatest film. I also think it's an outlier. It presents a vision of Ford that is darker, lonelier, and more tragic than the one that appears throughout most of his career. Ethan Edwards ends that film standing outside the doorway, separated forever from the community he helped preserve. It's one of the greatest endings in American cinema precisely because it denies its hero the thing he has spent the entire story pursuing.
That's why I'd choose The Quiet Man instead. The longer I watch Ford's films, the less convinced I become that he was fundamentally interested in the American West. Monument Valley is unforgettable, but it isn't really the subject of his movies. Communities are. Whether he's filming cavalry officers, settlers, Irish villagers, Mormons, or families struggling through the Depression, Ford keeps returning to the same basic question: how does an individual find a place among other people? That's Shaun Thornton's story from beginning to end. He isn't trying to defeat evil. He's trying to belong.
Once that idea occurred to me, a great many of Ford's stylistic choices suddenly made more sense. He devotes enormous stretches of screen time to dances, church services, funerals, military ceremonies, and shared meals, scenes that many directors would compress because they don't appear to advance the plot. Ford understood that they advance something more important than plot. They reveal the habits through which a community defines itself. Even the famous climactic fistfight in The Quiet Man isn't really about violence. The village gathers around it almost like a festival. The fight restores relationships rather than destroying them. Compare that ending with The Searchers, and the distinction becomes clear. Ethan Edwards saves the family but never joins it. Shaun Thornton joins the community he came searching for. One film is Ford's greatest tragedy. The other feels like the clearest expression of what he spent a lifetime celebrating.
Joe Dante
Joe Dante may be the oddest example because the film I'd choose isn't even my favorite Joe Dante movie. That would probably be Matinee, which I think has a warmth and emotional maturity that few directors ever achieve when looking back upon childhood. Yet if the goal is to identify the movie containing the most Joe Dante, I don't think anything surpasses Gremlins 2. It's a sequel that behaves almost like a parody of the original film, dismantling its own mythology while simultaneously celebrating everything that made it popular in the first place.
That contradiction seems to run through Dante's entire career. He genuinely loves movies, television, monster pictures, comic books, animation, and virtually every corner of American popular culture. At the same time, he refuses to treat any of it as sacred. That's the distinction I think makes Dante unique. He approaches popular culture with affection rather than reverence. Gremlins 2 spends nearly its entire running time mocking sequels, merchandising, studio filmmaking, and even itself. The Gremlins interrupt the movie, attack the projection, and threaten the illusion that we're watching a finished film at all. It feels like the work of someone who knows these traditions intimately enough to understand that genuine love includes the ability to laugh at the thing you love. If Matinee is Joe Dante looking backward with nostalgia, then Gremlins 2 is Joe Dante looking backward with a grin.
A Never-ending Game
The more I've played this game, the less interested I've become in arguing about which films are objectively greatest. Those conversations are enjoyable, but they're ultimately conversations about quality. This feels like a conversation about identity. Asking which Hitchcock film contains the most Hitchcock or which Ford film contains the most Ford forces you to think less about isolated achievements and more about recurring ideas. What themes keep resurfacing? Which visual habits never disappear? Which questions refuse to leave the director alone regardless of genre or subject matter? Eventually a pattern begins to emerge, and somewhere inside that pattern sits a single film where everything seems to converge.
That's the movie I find myself recommending now. Not because it's necessarily the best one, but because I think it's the one that best introduces the artist. Masterpieces tell us what a director was capable of accomplishing. Their DNA film tells us who they were.
The Plague of the Zombies (Rating 2/4) Full Review "Still, there's modest entertainment within. Far from enough to get this near the top of the Hammer pile, but enough for it to sit comfortably somewhere in the middle." [Library]
Rasputin: The Mad Monk (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "Still, Lee is in almost every scene, the few scenes he's not in are dominated mostly by Pasco. And that's not a bad combination. Honestly, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, but it's certainly not good." [Library]
One Million Years B.C. (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "There is entertainment to be had, but it's restrained in any impact beyond the sensationalist. Still, the sensationalist part is quite good." [Library]
The Viking Queen (Rating 3/4) Full Review "I latched onto the supporting cast and the setting most, I think, and I went along for an entertaining ride." [Library]
Quatermass and the Pit (Rating 3/4) Full Review "The dread, the scale of the antagonists, and the distinct Britishness of the whole affair created an appealing package that I found infectious." [Library]
Please check out my videos from the last few weeks:
Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.
My next thread will be on 8/22.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) is feeling lucky and decided on a hobby shed theme for this Hobby Thread.
The backyard shed is not unique to England, but it is an uncommonly large part of British culture. Grok says "the sheer numbers, the affectionate cultural mythology around them, media attention, competitions, and the specific stereotype of the solitary (often male) shed-dweller" make it unique. "It is treated as a recognizable part of national identity in a way that is less common elsewhere."
Why? Grok says:
1) Housing and garden patterns - Dense terraced housing and relatively small private gardens (especially in towns and suburbs) made a compact outbuilding practical. Unlike larger American yards with detached garages, British gardens often had just enough space for a modest shed at the end of the plot.
2) Gardening and allotment culture - Britain has a long, intense tradition of gardening. Sheds naturally developed as places to store tools, pot plants, and escape the weather while still being close to the garden.
3) Weather - Frequent rain makes an outdoor but covered retreat useful year-round - something less necessary in sunnier climates.
4) Post-war DIY boom and class culture - After World War II there was a surge in home ownership, DIY, and self-reliance. The shed became the affordable workshop for ordinary people. It also fitted a certain British preference for understated, private hobbies over more ostentatious leisure.
5) Cultural psychology of retreat - The word "shed" itself has Anglo-Saxon roots linked to shade, separation, or a place of quiet. Commentators often describe it as a modern equivalent of the hermit's cell or cave - a small, controllable space of solitude and concentration amid busy family or working life.
6) Media and humor - British comedy, literature, and journalism have long celebrated (and gently mocked) the shed, reinforcing the tradition.
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As the intro says, sheds are not limited to England. Sheds are also not limited to structures where you store your yard tools and outdoor furniture. For many, they are a usable living space that just happens to be separate from a main house.
Do you have a hobby shed? How do you use it? Is it a workshop? potting shed? craft shed? bar? gaming room? Did you build it?
If you don't have a hobby shed, what kind of shed would you have?
I wasn't planning on greenhouse content but many of the interweb sites on garden sheds seem to also include small greenhouses. Are greenhouses of interest to the Horde?
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What are you hobbying?
Sheds may not be everyone's favorite but give the content a chance before you judge. Any hobbying space is in scope, so jump in with your basement, spare room or garage project space. In any event, the thread is not limited to to the theme. Anything (legal) you are hobbying is welcome. Even if the theme does not speak to you, you might learn something or be entertained. If not, find something else or offer something else relating to hobbying. If all of that fails, just check in and say hello.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Leave politics and religion to threads elsewhere (unless your hobby is building or restoring churches). Pants? Nope. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
Otty's Hobby Shed 2.0 is a wargaming shed built by Chris Otterburn and his friends in 2024. After the pandemic we would regularly convene in his original hobby shed to play wargames. Ranging from Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, to World War 2 Bolt Action, Warhammer 40k, Star Wars Legion and many more.
As time went on Chris realised we had begun to outgrow shed 1.0 and he set about planning to build a new shed - one that would not only be big enough to play the scale of games we'd dreamt of but also provide comfort and surroundings so we could enjoy meeting up to its fullest. Around this time one of our friends Scott Forrest had been undertaking his own real-life battle with cancer and when Chris started the Shed 2.0 build on his own we all started to help out in getting the shed completed so Scott could get to hang out and play. Sadly, as the shed neared completion, Scott was too unwell to visit and passed away in November 2024.
Since then the shed has become a place where we go to hang out, play games, have fun and remember our friend! We continue to play wargames, drink copious amounts of tea, laugh at the ridiculous misfortune when rolling dice. Alongside that we have grown our miniature and terrain collections. Recreating the forest moon of Endor for Star Wars, the desert battles and the battle of Foy from World War 2.
Impressive DIY project!
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I know what you're thinking: "Who won Shed of the year in 2025 in the Workshop/Studio category?" Glad you asked. Mike Robinson lives in London but doesn't have much space. He built this tiny workshop on his back patio that opens and unfolds for use.
I'm impressed by people that make the most out of small spaces. As a dinosaur, I prefer more elbow room and space to spread out, but I am impressed.
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Every three year old needs a garage of their own:
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Now THIS is a backyard shed...
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Don't want to build a pub in your backyard yourself? No worries. Just order one and have it delivered (if you live in New Zealand). The company is called My Little Pub.
Pick from several options, design and customize, and they deliver the pub on the back of a truck to your backyard. Think of it like delivering a nicer shipping container. The best part? If you move, you can take your pub with you!
Disclaimer: Ace of Spades does not endorse any specific tiny pub provider.
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Origin stories like the Tyrrell Formula One team have built the lore and legend around great things coming from sheds. In this case, Ken Tyrrell bought a military surplus building and put it in his family's lumberyard. He successfully ran his racing team for years out of the small building. The shed was recently dismantled and moved to preserve it.
I put this in a recent ONT, but re-posting here in case you missed it in light of the craftsmanship involved.
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A tour of a bucket list tank museum visit qualifies for hobby thread material:
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a Las Vegas travel theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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Reminder: if you put links in the comments, use a URL shortener and describe what you're linking to. Failing to do either or both makes you barrel-eligible. Don't make people click to find out what you're linking.
Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Or just email to say hello. Do mighty things.
Scroll down in the thread for more exacting information about color sensitivities in various species. But this gives you an idea why hunters often wear orange.
Very long time lurker from Australia here.
Here are my two Frenchies, Peggy and her little brother Louis. Louis is the guy with the beer and he, sadly, really is a moron. They love cuddling up together when it's cold down here in Australia.
Peggy and Louis are wonderful.
* * *
These two are ying and yang. Tory, the white one is a pure breed husky. Chill and calm. Moon, the black one is a 4 time returned to a shelter adoption because he's kind of a lot to handle. Loves to eat drywall. Best buddies and no class envy here.
TheAlabamaGang
Wow. Great to hear about buddies with different personalities getting along so well with each other. About the drywall eating: could there be an iron deficiency?
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Here are some recent RtC pics in case folks are starving for images. I know his fans are this close to being infected with rabies. So I do my part.
1. Here he is looking imperial.
2. Here he is looking tired of all this.
3. Here is where I discovered that, behind my back, he decided to go into business as a contractor. I've blurred the phone number in case some naughty types wanted to do mischief.
4. Here he is Giving the Look.
Last summer I tore out all of the coneflowers and roses from our front garden bed, and replaced them with 40 different varieties of daylillies, about 50 plants in all.
The new bed is simply beautiful! Daylily flowers each last only for 24 hours, but each plant sports multiple stems with multiple flowers on each stem. The result is a riot of colors, with a different set of flowers blooming every morning. Something nice to get me out of bed in the morning!
I love these! There are more if we can get them formatted to present to The Horde! The one at the top is an unknown variety, and the bottom one is 'Autumn Red'.
Hoping for more photos! What a lot of work, though.
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Edible Gardening/Putting Things By
From By-Tor:
Rib eye, homegrown tomatoes, and esquites (Mexican corn) for lunch after tennis practice.
Looks great! The quality of those tomatoes makes a difference, and go with the corn!
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Ah, Nature
Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar Island update
As a 100% pureblooded cracker, let me offer everyone a friendly, culturally-appropriated "aloha" now that I'm fully moved and integrated on these conquered isles.
I have curated a veritable smorgasbord of photos highlighting both notable flora and fauna I have encountered thus far. Of particular note are the trees...not the ubiquitous palm trees most associate with these tropical climes, but instead a curious and impressive type that spreads a wide canopy, with very few lower branches, which reminds me more of something from an African savanna documentary. They come with a variety of different colored flowers, which I presume delineate different species.
Impressive! Which are your favorites? We may get more later.
Tired of discussions about a certain person in our health care bureaucracy? One person I encountered on social media who supports this individual also stated that Thomas Sowell "always lies".
The Hoover Institution has decided to concentrate on discussions of Thomas Sowell. Surprisingly, they started with his role as a historian rather than as an economist. Can you think of any individuals who could benefit from learning more history?
One of the guys participating in the Hoover Institution conversation is Coleman Hughes, who decided to read a book by Sowell because people seemed to find his name to be polarizing. That book transformed his thinking.
*
Thomas Sowell is known as an economist. But is he one of America's greatest historians?
Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson), Niall Ferguson (@NFergus), and Coleman Hughes (@Coldxman) explore Sowell's sweeping view of history, his enduring ideas, and why a new generation is… pic.twitter.com/y5CsZhpAkV
“Fauci” apparently means “jaws” or “throat” in Italian, though apparently it means “sickle” in the Sicilian dialect, and certainly Anthony Fauci behaved liked a hopped-up wiseguy capo of the Branch Covidian crime family back in 2020 and 2021, but today is reduced to chomping on his remaining dignity with his gums, his jaws having shattered on his monumental narcissism.
The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Lake Tomahawk.)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. Don't be a Fauci.
3) Running with sharp objects once again has been banned.
4) Other than 3) have a great weekend!!!!
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
5/23 – I used to have a Different Nic could use some prayers as he waits for the results of a biopsy of amass on his prostate.
6/23 Update – The latest update is that he has stage 2, “unfavorable intermediate”, which he notes is an awful name, but what it means is, it is in the middle, but bad enough that they want to treat it. It’s
more aggressive than previously thought. He is at the point where he has to decide on treatment options, which means choosing which set of pretty unfortunate side effects he prefers.
7/6 Update – He has gotten a second opinion, and selected the option for treatment, which should begin next week.
7/18 Update – He has started radiation treatment. No side effects thus far.
6/18 – buzzion asked for prayers for a friend named Christina, who has struggled with drug addiction and is in jail again. Buzzion prays that this really is rock bottom and a true wake-up call for her – even if it requires her to stay in jail.
6/29 Update – Christina’s family bonded her out of jail and she has checked into a rehab facility. Please
pray that she gets the help she needs.
7/11 Update – Thank you to everyone for your prayers. Christina is doing well in rehab. Please pray
that she continues through this and keeps working through it even after getting out of her program.
6/20 – bluebell gave an update on grammie Winger. Grammie had some major surgery related to hercancer in March and is pretty much housebound. She said she isn’t keeping up on news since her
diagnosis; she doesn’t have the energy. She said she thinks of her grey-box friends often with fondness.
Please keep praying for her. Your prayers are a source of great comfort to her.
6/27 Update – grammie winger requested bluebell to let the Horde know that she is hospitalizedagain, with sepsis, and cannot eat or walk. She is very tired and cannot speak for long. She is being fedby tube. They don’t know how long she will be hospitalized or where she will go after (rehab, hospice,
etc.). Bluebell has a mailing address for grammie, so please contact bluebell to send a card or note togrammie winger. Please pray for her, that her suffering will be eased, and pray for her family, who are
suffering along with her.
7/25 – grammie winger popped in to say thank you for all the cards, letters, and encouraging words. You are a treasure.
6/27 – “A” sent thanks for the prayers for a family friend, who is at home recovering with the family anddoing much better. “A” has an additional request for long-time friends (J and S) who are in the midst of
intense family problems and requesting healing, peace, repentance, and restoration in the family.
7/18 Update – “A” sends his thanks to all the prayer warriors for all the personal concerns listed here.The requests above are all doing better. Prayer really works. Sometimes the results are not what we expected but end up being what we really needed for other reasons. Thank you all!
7/2 – Publius asked for prayers for his 96 year old mother, who had emergency surgery when a massive hematoma on her leg ruptured, and they couldn’t stop the bleeding due to her being on blood thinners.
Things were not looking good, but Publius posted later she received blood thinner reverser medication,
and was fully conscious and alert after surgery.
7/10 Update – Publius’ mother was moved to a nursing home for post-acute therapy. At this point, sheis very weak but is coming back physically. But her mind is in La La Land.
7/13 Update – Publius’ mother has experienced an absolute miracle. She has come back, fully conscious and cogent. The Lord Almighty has decided her time is not complete.
7/3 – San Franpsycho posted that Mrs. F. was admitted to the hospital from the ER visit, and asks forprayers for a complete and immediate recovery for her. She was conscious enough to phone him late
last night, and it was a great relief that she was awake even for a short period. She continues with IV fluids and atb. Further steps and hopefully improvement await the results of lab tests. The caring concern shown by so many morons has been a great relief. Thank you.
7/5 Update – Mrs. F. remains hospitalized while being treated for salmonella poisoning. She has had some improvement, but is on Day 5 of not being able to keep down any nourishment.
7/11 Update – Mrs. F. came home on 7/7, and has finished her oral antibiotics. They are very grateful for the prayers for healing.
7/7 – Weak Geek asked for prayers for the survivors of RG and KG, a couple in their 90s who were pillars of their church for decades. They were knifed to death on 7/3 by their grandson. The entire congregation is stunned. Please pray for them too, and the pastor, trying to help deal with the tragedy.
7/11 – Mis Hum asked for prayers for Some Rat. He has some serious health issues at this time.
7/11 – Fen requested prayers for comfort and strength for “C” and her mother. “C” is in her 30s and her
father died after a several months long struggle with cancer.
7/11 – P, a long time lurker would appreciate prayers. He says he should have asked for prayers last year, when his stage 4 prostate cancer was first diagnosed, but he was too busy freaking out. A year andnine months later, he is still on hormone therapy and his PSA spiked recently. It’s back up to 92. He is
supposed to start a drug trial soon. He knows from experience that prayer helps, and would greatly appreciate if anyone could include him in their prayers.
7/13 – Captain Obvious posted that he could use some prayers, as he was experiencing some kind of cardiac arrhythmia.
7/15 – Captain JS’ daughter needs prayers for his/her daughter. Early on 7/15, she experienced complete heart failure. She is in the ICU on a heart/lung machine. They will operate to see what is happening. Captain JS sends thanks in advance for the prayers and has faith in their power.
7/15 Update – Thanks to all who responded to Captain JS’ request for prayers. The daughter is still unconscious but is still alive. The doctors suspect a blockage to the left side of her heart. They are planning to take pictures and then insert a stent.
7/18 Update – Captain JS’ daughter passed away. Her heart, brain, and other organs were too damaged to regain function. Captain JS sends his thanks to the Horde for all the prayers.
7/25 – Matthew Kant Cipher humbly asks for prayers for Marshall, a long-time friend and HS classmate of Mrs. MKC, who is currently hospitalized with heart failure.
7/25 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. She is still doing fine. Her chemo pump seems to beworking and everything appears stable for now. She says she is incredibly blessed! She is working on astocking for an as-yet-not-born grandchild. She would appreciate prayers for a successful IVF procedure
and pregnancy for her daughter and hubby. Next week, Teresa and her husband will be going to California to visit their daughter who lives there and her family.
7/29 – Notsothoreau asked for prayers for Billy Ray’s mother, who was just admitted to the hospital
with pneumonia. She is a cancer survivor and chemo destroyed her immune system, so this is a big worry.
7/29 – TecumsehTea wrote that MrTea’s diagnosis is colon cancer stage 4. They are praying for guidance for how to proceed.
7/30 – David sent an update on his wife, Susan, who we have been praying for as she is treated forcancer. Susan is still doing well and her numbers are headed in the right direction, but they are still having issues with the side effects of the chemotherapy. It is manageable, but they have to increase the number of office visits for additional treatments. Some days are really good right now, but others are
only bearable with the Lord’s grace. They are so grateful for the prayers on their behalf.
7/30 - Isophorone Blog requested prayers for his mother. His father passed this past Sunday. His mother had been in the hospital for an entire month previous to that, so they never got to see each other at the end. His mother is out of the hospital, but in declining health.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted ina 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.
Assuming you're not using integrated graphics. If you are, it works exactly as you would think.
But if you have a graphics card, and the graphics card has enough memory of its own, and your single DIMM has enough memory, and you have an AMD X3D CPU, the performance loss is only around 3% on average.
And given that I have a 128GB kit (2x64GB) and a 96GB kit (2x48GB) I could run four systems rather than two if they all had X3D processors. Not that I need four systems, but I could.
Friday Overnight Open Thread - July 31, 2026 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
Hola! Friday night meme time. Where is Weird Dave, you may be wondering. Well, he's tending to some some health related stuff tonight - so you are stuck with the fill-in meme team from Doof Enterprises, LLC. Prepare to be whelmed!
Disability reveal parties are the new gender reveal -- and they're even more unhinged.
Simone fell down the rabbit hole after an autism reveal cake-cutting video went viral on X. What started as one awkward TikTok turned into a full cultural phenomenon: color-coded diagnosis guessing games, AuDHD parties, autism cupcake toppers at Walmart, Oriental Trading disability party favors, and people treating their mental health diagnoses like a baby to nurture and celebrate.
We watch the videos (including the "my brain is bad" one and the completely unhinged joke-diagnosis party that ends in pure Adderall cheers), dig into the Reddit posts from people who actually have autism and hate the idea, talk about why so many people suddenly want disabilities they don't have, and connect it to identity collapse, tax-advantaged ABLE accounts, and the pure Darwinian spectacle of watching people turn their diagnoses into their entire personality.
Malcolm makes the point that people want to feel proud of something, but Current Year Norms say you can't be proud of your race (obviously), your culture (that's almost race), your country (so racist), your religion (race-adjacent) or your accomplishments (which you only have due to your race).
So what are people allowed to be -- nay, encouraged to be -- proud of?
Obviously: Their sexuality -- as long as it's Not Straight! -- and their mental illnesses.
I missed this earlier: DSA candidate for WI governor said she had an anxiety attack because there were too many "old white people" near her.
Francesca Hong For Governor
@FrancescaHongWI
I ate two bites of my kid's cheeseburger at a Culver's in black river falls and told him they ran out of ice cream. Mostly just wanted to leave bc I was on the verge of a anxiety attack...to many old white people who didn't think we spoke english
Well, your proficiency with written English is extremely low, so....
Every single individual who has entered the West illegally should be deported. Every person who has entered legally and who is loyal to an ideology that is antithetical to the West's foundational values should also be deported. This is a battle for the soul of humanity. Wake up. Grow a pair.
Do we really need more of these hateful, ignorant, backwards monsters?
And the jobs they have are all e-mail type fake jobs at NGOs or political organizations.
Mamdani & Champagne Socialist Allies Masquerade as Working-Class Heroes
The Democratic Socialists of America presents itself as a diverse, working-class movement, but its own membership surveys tell a different story. According to internal data, 85 percent of DSA members are white, and 58 percent hold professional or managerial jobs--while just four percent are blue-collar workers.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organization is making a serious play for control of the Democrat Party, advertising itself as a racially diverse, working-class movement. But a closer look at who actually makes up the DSA reveals not the workers it claims to represent, but affluent, mostly white professionals.
Superficially, the DSA's diversity talking points seem to be borne out by the most conspicuous DSA politicians--Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, et al. But according to its own internal membership surveys, 85 percent of the DSA's members are white, nine percent are Hispanic, five percent are Asian American, and four percent are Black.
What about the claim that the DSA is a working-class movement? Those same surveys find that fully 58 percent of DSA members are employed in the professional/managerial class. Only a paltry four percent are blue-collar workers. The rest of them are disabled, unemployed, or students.
Join AMAC
As Ruy Teixeira of the American Enterprise Institute describes the DSA: "Its rhetoric and program uses the phrase 'working class' over and over again, as if repeating that phrase magically makes its members working class. But it doesn't, and they aren't."
Woman's death at Boston home owned by Rep. Ayanna Pressley's husband ruled a homicide: officials
Pressley said she is 'devastated' by the death, and her office confirmed neither she nor her family were involved
The death of a woman found at a home owned by the husband of Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., has been ruled a homicide, authorities said.
Boston Police officers responded to a report of a shooting in the city's Mattapan neighborhood on July 18 at about 1:52 p.m. and found Yoseliani Ann Marte Ocasio, 18, with a gunshot wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
Her death was ruled a homicide on Thursday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, authorities said in a statement.
Property records show the home where she was found dead is owned by Conan Harris, Pressley's husband.
Michigan's AG cannot attend the state Democrat convention, she says, because she's "not safe." She's Jewish in a Hamas Party.
She's 'not safe' because she's also Jewish.
Holy schamoly.
That's what the Hamas wing has brought the Democratic Party to in this day and age. That a senior member and one of the highest-ranking elected officials in the state - in fact, the chief law enforcement officer of Michigan - cannot attend her own party's convention because of the viciousness of the anti-Semites they have enabled.
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Dana Nessel would seem to tick off all the prescribed woke boxes, but then there's that teensy problem of 'Jew' and Israel.'
It didn't use to be a problem, and I guess it wasn't when the people of Michigan elected her.
But now the woman is afraid to even show her face at her own party's convention because of the howling and uncontrolled mobs of radicals who have taken over the party?
In case you're wondering, "Wait, am I still the 'Nazi' for objecting to the Democrats' anti-Jewish pogroms?" -- why yes, yes you still are the "Nazi." Silly racist!
Welcome to a public park in California: - Taken over by drug addicts and dealers - Cartels control the surrounding area - People using fentanyl in the open - No police anywhere
A student at the Oxford Union tells Tommy Robinson he is lucky they've put security on for him otherwise their Pro-Islam supporters outside would beat him to death
This is the Oxford Union, how far it has fallen as an institution when this is the sort of argument made pic.twitter.com/pMpdw4NatT
She's threatening a pogrom... against the majority population of the UK. She's literally bragging about her fellow Muslims "rioting" and being eager to murder someone they disagree with -- and demanding she be praised for not giving them permission to kill their enemies.
And this, she thinks, is an advertisement in favor of Muslim migrants.
It's also a brazen declaration: You are colonized. Bow to your colonial masters or we will literally kill you.
What does this cunt think would happen to her baby-raping cousins if not for the generosity and indulgence of the British people?
🚨MY GOD!!!!!
The Muslim invaders from Morocco are now SMASHING THE GRAVES of the people of Cueta and THROWING THE PIECES AT THE CITIZENS OF SPAIN.
Citizens are now FIGHTING BACK against the invaders with anything they can find.
The Media Is Joining Fauci In Pleading the Fifth About Their Covid Lies
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
Dr. Anthony Fauci was not the only one taking the Fifth this week. The media effectively invoked the same privilege to avoid self-incrimination for their years of deifying the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
...The media has also effectively taken the Fifth on these subjects, declining to publish many of these contradictions. Media outlets have the same reason as Fauci: There is no spin that would reconcile their own prior coverage and gushing reviews of Fauci.
The Vigilant Fox 🦊
@VigilantFox
Jeffrey Tucker founded an institute devoted to studying the COVID lockdowns and mandates.
He just spent four days reading Fauci's private diary.
He says nothing could have prepared him for the "cold terror" he felt trying to figure out what demonic force was possessing this man.
TUCKER: "I've spent four days reading that diary... It's a massive treatise, but it's utterly fascinating and introducing me to a side of Fauci... I just... no matter how many bad thoughts I've had about Fauci in the past, nothing could have prepared me for what I read in that diary."
"It's a little bit like if you read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and just take out the Dr. Jekyll part and just read the Mr. Hyde part. That's what it's like."
"2020 is disgusting enough, but 2021 is where it gets really evil."
"This is where you just can't... your disgust turns to something else. Actually, a kind of A terror. Cold heart. Cold terror. What is possessing this man? I mean, what demonic force has inhabited his spirit that would cause him to do this?"
"I've never seen anything quite like it. And there's nothing that could have prepared me for that diary. Nothing."
All the focus on Fauci is burying the more important story, which is that scientists enforcing a common narrative to the detriment of truth has become extremely common. It's a strong case of in-group behavior in academia that, I believe, most of them are not fully aware of.
As @LocasaleLab put it so aptly "the academic system punishes honesty".
And this is the real story: This isn't just about Fauci. Fauci is just an extreme and very visible example in a case that has attracted a lot of public attention. But misleading the public about the status of scientific research has become extremely widespread.
Peter Navarro
@RealPNavarro
I had over a million hydroxychloroquine tablets sitting in warehouses, ready to be distributed to doctors and patients across America.
Fauci's own diary from March 2020 shows he viewed the drug as safe and supported making it available.
But when President Trump endorsed hydroxychloroquine and the media erupted, Fauci flipped.
Former CBS News journalist Brittney Hopper claimed Thursday that she got into trouble after questioning Dr. Anthony Fauci, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hopper appeared on News24 in Australia to discuss Fauci's decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right more than 100 times during his congressional hearing Wednesday, refusing to answer any questions.
Before reacting to Fauci's hearing, the independent journalist, who previously worked for CBS News Los Angeles until 2022, gave her own history reporting on Fauci and how he was deified by the mainstream media.
"I have so much to say because this was during the time when I was on CBS News. I was reporting extensively on COVID," Hopper said. "I was out there on the front lines. And I remember after a couple of years of dealing with hearing this man and interviewing this man and having to wear masks and having our kids out of school for years, I remember questioning what he was doing. And I got in trouble and pulled off air for a couple of days because I started questioning him.
"You weren't supposed to question the agenda and the narrative at that point. And I apologized, and I went back on air covering what I was supposed to do as I've mentioned before on here. I was their puppet on mainstream media for so many years. Hopefully, more and more people are waking up to, you know, really, the lack of journalistic integrity that we're seeing."
Jeffrey A Tucker
@jeffreytucker
Jul 30
People should STOP saying that this is Fauci's "private diary." It was a daily log prepared by Fauci with the assistance of aides, as should be obvious to anyone who looks at it. It was property of the NIH, an official document. It was not "leaked." It was legally released.
"Journalists" who haven't sat in a science class since 11th grade declared themselves to be top experts in the field, and knew that any suggestion that the Wuhan novel bat coronavirus might have come from the Wuhan novel bat coronavirus laboratory was racism.
Good Lord. Abby Phillip is a disgrace. Fauci lied about:
1) the origin of the virus 2) how deadly it was (or wasn't) 3) the efficacy of masks and other treatments 4) his involvement in pushing for shutdowns 5) his smearing of other world-renowned epidemiologists
Check this out: Fauci admitted that the Wuhan lab, which he funded, was in fact performing illegal gain-of-function research.
As this commenter says, Fauci changed the definition of "gain of function" so he could claim that gain of function wasn't gain of function according to the new definition he literally just wrote.
But here he just calls it what it is: gain of function.
wait, I thought his whole defense was that they redefined gain-of-function to let him get away with his funding, but here he actually calls it gain-of-function.
Someday historians are going to look back and be astonished at the amount of absurd bullshit Americans took pride in believing during this era https://t.co/SmdTiCxVFF
I think the answer is that Fauci, and Faucism, represented the apotheosis of what the managerial/academic/journo class desires: An excuse for sweeping power, based on (alleged) expertise, in which they could ride roughshod over those stupid proles and flyover people while preening about the allegedly superior moral and intellectual qualities that justify their rule.
Then it turned out that they were wrong about nearly everything and -- as Fauci's diaries demonstrate -- knew it at the time, at least at the top. And their overreach is one of the things that gave us Trump 47.
CNN's "expert" tells us that even questioning whether Anthony Fauci lied is an "assault on Science."
That's not from 2021 -- that's from Wednesday night.
They've been completely wrong about everything for a decade -- "RussiaGate," Joe Biden's competency, Hunter Biden's laptop, Fauci, covid, etc. -- but just keep doubling down.
They have been wrong about everything and so can never admit a single error, because that admission would just be a prelude to the next admission, and that a prelude to the next.
They are deeply stupid people who believe they are geniuses whose words should be accepted without question and are literally going insane from the cognitive dissonance of their belief in their own superiority running into the reality of their deep inferiority and incompetency.
Again: Cambridge "Professor," a "Poster Boy for Diversity," Found To Have Plagiarized His Ph.D. Thesis and Claimed to Have Personally Interviewed Subjects When He Actually Just Lifted the Interviews from Other Sources
And once again, the defense isn't "this isn't plagiarism."
The defense is, as it always is: "You're racist for noticing."
Cambridge's diversity poster boy in plagiarism row
Youngest black professor in university's history is subject of bitter argument between academics
The "argument" is the same one we saw when Claudine Gay, then Harvard President, was found to be a serial plagiarist. The argument is, basically: "Yeah but they're DEI anyway, do we really expect them to abide the same rules that apply to real hires?"
And once again the left gives the game away by arguing, "No, they're not required to abide the same rules that apply to real hires, because they're not real hires and everyone knows it."
When Jason Arday became a Cambridge professor at the age of 37, he was lionised by the academic world and became a poster boy for the university's diversity drive.
He had beaten almost impossible odds to get there. Diagnosed with autism, and non-verbal until the age of 11, he had only learnt to read and write at 18 but obtained a degree and a doctorate before forging a career in teaching.
Now, on the eve of the publication of his autobiography, the University of Cambridge's professor of sociology of education has become the subject of a bitter row over plagiarism that has pitted his peers against each other.
On one side of the argument are professors at other universities who believe Prof Arday's published works, including his PhD thesis, contain passages that are remarkably similar -- and in some cases identical -- to other academic papers, without proper attribution.
There are more than one hundred such plagiarisms.
On the other side of the argument are friends and close colleagues of Prof Arday, the youngest black professor in the university's history, who believe he is the victim of a racist smear campaign and have tried to make it an issue for the Government.
What started as a row between academics is now lapping at the shore of politics.
Both Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University -- which awarded Prof Arday his PhD -- are on his side, insisting that he has done nothing wrong and the allegations are unfounded smears.
Cambridge said he had been the victim of a "vile campaign to undermine his credibility".
The stakes could hardly be higher, as accusations of plagiarism can be career-ending for academics, and accusations that later prove to be false can be equally damaging to those who make them.
Until now, the row had been happening away from public view -- but the publication of a blog this week, which features a side-by-side comparison of Prof Arday's thesis with that of another student, has brought it out into the open.
An analysis of Prof Arday's PhD thesis for The Telegraph identified more than 100 passages that are identical or nearly identical to a 2009 PhD thesis by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a Brunel University student.
...
...
Fellow academics began to raise concerns about the legitimacy of his published work when they carried out due diligence before inviting him to contribute to other academic papers.
...
One professor of education at a Russell Group university, who has asked to remain anonymous, said they noticed "inconsistencies" in his published research when they carried out checks before asking him to contribute a chapter on a book about decolonisation.
When they looked at his doctoral thesis, they "identified extensive textual overlap with an earlier PhD thesis submitted by another academic at a different university".
Their assessment was that "the similarities were not confined to isolated passages but formed an extensive pattern of close paraphrasing", which would not necessarily be detected by computer programs designed to detect verbatim copying of text.
'Evidence should be rigorously examined'
Robert Dingwall, emeritus professor of social sciences at both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University and a government adviser during the Covid pandemic, said: "In the current climate, it is difficult to comment on allegations of plagiarism against a prominent minority scholar without seeming to take sides on EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion].
"Plagiarism is, however, rightly treated as a serious academic offence, at any level. We have a collective duty to call it out where there is robust evidence.
"From what I have seen, there certainly appears to be a prima facie case here. It may be difficult to find a suitably impartial adjudicator but, as a matter of fairness to all parties, the evidence should be rigorously examined and the subject invited to provide a detailed response, rather than being the victim of continuing smears and innuendos.
"This is a moment when universities in general, and sociologists in particular, must be willing to show that they are capable of living by their own standards of professional integrity."
'Potential public attack on Jason'
Supporters of Prof Arday became aware last year of questions about his academic legitimacy, and responded with furious accusations of racism.
In September 2025, Times Higher Education had a bombshell story in the works: A star sociology professor at the University of Cambridge had allegedly plagiarized parts of his Ph.D. thesis and several journal articles. In one of the articles, the borrowed text appeared in quotes from subjects the professor, Jason Arday, claimed to have interviewed himself.
But after Arday enlisted Carter-Ruck, one of the United Kingdom's leading defamation law firms, to send Times Higher Education a letter, the publication spiked the story, according to three sources who spoke to Retraction Watch.
One of the sources was David Sanders, a biochemist at Purdue University in Indiana, and a sleuth who contributes to the Times Higher Education on topics related to academic misconduct. He reviewed a 63-page dossier of text comparisons prepared by the publication last year and came back with his own findings. "There is no question that there is extensive plagiarism," Sanders told us.
The allegations against Arday finally emerged last week following a Substack post from Nathan Cofnas, a philosopher at the University of Ghent in Belgium. Cofnas, who is known for his controversial writings on racial differences, independently identified dozens of passages in Arday's 2015 dissertation that were taken nearly verbatim from the 2009 dissertation of Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a reader at Brunel University of London. Cofnas says he learned about the unpublished Times Higher Education story only after he began working on his own piece about Arday.
Arday is known for his work on topics related to race, inequality and education. His interest was more than scholarly: From humble beginnings as a nonverbal autistic kid in South London, he became, at age 37, the youngest Black person appointed to a professorship at Cambridge.
That achievement was covered by the BBC, CBS News, and Good Morning America. He is listed as a collaborator on more than $10 million in recent grants from two U.K. funding agencies, U.K. Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Arday's achievements have not been limited to academia. He has said he has raised more than $8 million for charity and performed impressive athletic feats, including running 30 marathons in 35 days. His forthcoming memoir, Great and Unfortunate Things, is slated to be published next month by Simon & Schuster.
Oh, he also lies about stupid things, like his record as an ultra-marathoner. He claimed to have run 600 miles in 6 days -- 100 miles a day. Then that claim disappeared from his website and was replaced by the claim he ran 600 miles in 12 days.
He did this with a bunch of claims about his running.
The reality (if we now know the reality, which we might not) about his running is impressive, but still he lies about it to puff himself up.
The Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row is facing questions over claims he has made about his athletic prowess and charity fundraising.
Prof Jason Arday says he once ran 600 miles in six days for charity, 300 miles in three days, and 30 marathons in 35 days, partly with a broken leg.
But experts in ultra-distance running have cast doubt on his claims, expressing surprise that he is not known in the ultra-distance community despite achievements that would put him among the world's top athletes.
Prof Arday also claims to have been a professional footballer and snooker player, and to have raised £5.5m for more than 70 charities.
Some of the country's most respected academics have called for an independent investigation into allegations of plagiarism surrounding Prof Arday after The Telegraph reported last week on striking similarities between his PhD thesis and another student's.
The University of Cambridge insists there is no case to answer, and that he is the victim of a "vile campaign to undermine his credibility". Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded his doctorate, has also said his work had been checked and cleared.
Running 600 miles in six days
In 2023, Prof Arday became the youngest black professor in Cambridge's history at the age of 37. His memoir, titled Great and Unfortunate Things, will be published next month, in which he recounts being non-verbal until shortly before his 12th birthday and only learning to read and write at the age of 18.
Questions about Prof Arday's autobiographical details have been swirling in the academic world for years, and those questions have intensified during the ongoing plagiarism row.
On several occasions, he has described running 600 miles in six days from Edinburgh to London for charity, but on one occasion, he said the distance was 500 miles.
Experts in ultra-distance running cast doubt on whether this was possible for an unknown amateur athlete, given that the world record for a six-day run is 650 miles, which was achieved on a flat circuit with a large support team and medical help on standby, as opposed to an undulating road route with little or no backup.
Prof Arday has also said that he fell and suffered a hairline fracture on the 21st day of his 30-marathon challenge, causing his leg to swell to twice its normal size, but managed to carry on and run another nine marathons.
...
"Running 100 miles in 24 hours is also perfectly possible, but it's very hard to keep that going for two more days, without good breaks for sleep. Not impossible but pretty unlikely.
"The 600 miles in six days is, again, not impossible, but would be remarkable, akin to the very best record-breaking ultra-runners. It seems odd that there appears to be no evidence of that. Usually runners are very keen to share news of runs like that on places such as Strava. If you're claiming to have done runs as impressive as those, you should provide evidence, which is very easy via GPS sports-watches."
It's been reported that there are no reports of these feats of endurance, except for his varying and changeable claims.
Liberal Appeals Courts Reverse Lower Rogue Judges' Injunctions Against Ending Temporary Protective Status
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Oh, these liberal appeals courts panels haven't started doing their jobs willingly. But these lawless Biden and Obama DEI appointees are routinely ignoring Supreme Court rulings and substituting their own District Judge-Made Law, and the appeals courrts can't go that far.
Liberal court stuns with ruling that hands Trump major immigration win
The panel of two Biden appointees and one Trump appointee ruled on TPS for migrants from South Sudan and Ethiopia
DHS lawyer says public needs to know which judges are in 'open defiance' of SCOTUS on immigration
DHS Chief Counsel James Percival said a group of federal district judges--not the judiciary as a whole--are repeatedly blocking deportations and Temporary Protected Status rollbacks despite SCOTUS rulings, calling it "naked political activism."
A liberal-led federal appeals court handed President Donald Trump two immigration victories Wednesday, reversing separate district court orders that had delayed the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from South Sudan and Ethiopia.
The judgments from the First Circuit Court of Appeals come after U.S. District Judges Brian Murphy and Patti Saris issued back-to-back orders temporarily blocking the Trump administration's termination of TPS for Ethiopia and South Sudan, respectively, late last week. The rulings drew sharp criticism from legal experts and Trump administration officials, who called the judges "rogue" and argued their decisions defied the Supreme Court.
The three-judge First Circuit panel consisted of Judges Julie Rikelman and Seth Aframe, both appointed by President Joe Biden, and Judge Joshua Dunlap, who was appointed by President Donald Trump.
In nearly identical rulings, the majority liberal panel found that the lower court judges' orders conflicted with the Supreme Court's decision in Mullin v. Doe, which held that courts cannot block TPS terminations based on non-constitutional claims.
"Mullin held that 'the TPS statute's judicial-review bar applies to all non-constitutional claims' challenging the Secretary of Homeland Security's determination with respect to the termination of a TPS designation," the judges wrote.
Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan told Fox News Digital that the First Circuit correctly applied the precedent established by the Supreme Court.
"These are clear wins for President Trump following his big win at the U.S. Supreme Court, explaining that district courts are not supposed to second guess TPS terminations, and even as this plays out, we're moving towards the end of this litigation because district courts should not be hearing these disputes, and that's what the Supreme Court said," Wessan told Fox News Digital.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson welcomed the rulings as "a win for the rule of law and common sense."
"Temporary Protected Status is exactly that--temporary," the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent."
The lawsuits were brought by African Communities Together, a New York-based immigrant advocacy organization that serves as the lead plaintiff in both cases, alongside individual TPS recipients from Ethiopia and South Sudan. The plaintiffs argue DHS unlawfully ended the protections in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution, alleging the agency failed to properly assess conditions in the two countries and that the decisions were motivated by racial discrimination.
..,
While the Supreme Court's decision in Mullin v. Doe foreclosed most statutory challenges to TPS terminations, it left open the possibility that courts could consider claims alleging constitutional violations.
However, Wessan said the district judges were operating outside the "legal bounds" by blocking the TPS terminations before any constitutional claims had been established.
"If they want to let the plaintiffs amend their complaint, they're allowed to do that, but in the meantime, TPS is over," Wessan told Fox News Digital.
"[Americans] have got to vote Democrat." Here are several examples of ABC's The View engaging in electioneering by encouraging people to vote for Democrats and suggesting anyone who doesn't is "voting for a cult." 📽️ by @Banned_Billpic.twitter.com/BhB5Zkkfny
Today this film that has lived in my head for over 30 years comes to life in front of my eyes. 'The March' is a 1990 film shaped after 'Camp of the Saints' - A group of several thousand Africans migrate westward across northern Africa and sail across the Strait of Gibraltar to Europe. Their message is: "We are poor because you are rich."
Why do I remember it? I was a child when I saw it. But some of the images were haunting in a way I cannot describe. For over 30 years - THIRTY YEARS - I have thought of this scene...the migrants slowly moving into quaint British towns, peering through windows at unsuspecting families, invading homes, demanding what those fat, rich Westerners have. When I tell you not a week goes by where I haven't thought of it, I mean it.
Not. One. Week.
Watching those Muslim men pouring into Cueta brought it to mind, although I had no idea what it was called. The magic of modern AI led me back to it and I have chills watching this again. Listen to the tv host as he says, "It's a publicly stated attempt to come into our streets, our homes, and shame us into helping them. Or, as they say...WATCH US DIE."
They always tell you what their intentions are. They always tell you what they're going to do. And look at the studio audience in this film. Completely white. Is there anywhere in the UK you can see that anymore? From 1990 to today...that's how long it took to bring the magic of the movies to life. But it's here now.
Yes, they always tell you. In 1990 I would have been 15 years old. 15yo me was hardly conservative. Still, this scene in particular stuck with me and has been locked away in my brain since that moment. Frankly, it's almost a relief to spill it out onto the page finally. I think this flag planted in 15yo me because that little girl was way more intuitive then I've ever given her credit for. 15yo me knew there was something ominous in the presentation, and she filed it away for a time when she wasn't completely submerged in a socialist household. 15yo me saw something dastardly, a warning. I couldn't articulate that at the time. I probably even felt an affinity for the migrants at the time. And yet, this scene has never left me.
Today, I understand. Today I finally see. This was a projection...an announcement. 36 years...
These globalists are patient. They don't mind moving slowly. They've been executing the reality of this film for that long, and now they have arrived. A full scale invasion, much like the premise of this film.
They always tell you.
We need to recognize the long game, and understand that the incremental changes are not to be ignored. They are part of the plan. It may be too late for Spain, for Europe. They did not heed the warnings given by the globalist elites themselves. They are overwhelmed and disarmed.
America: I believe the Lord tattooed my heart with that movie and this scene for this very day - for me to tell you - THIS IS US. WE ARE NEXT. The invasion is coming and it will look exactly as they planned and exactly as they told us.
We have already experienced a bit of this during Biden, but that was a fraction of what is to come. Heed these warnings. It is time to close ranks and protect what is ours. They have already announced themselves. We can no longer be so foolish as to believe they didn't really mean it.
They always tell you.
On the invasion in Cueta: THEY ALWAYS TELL YOU Today this film that has lived in my head for over 30 years comes to life in front of my eyes. 'The March' is a 1990 film shaped after 'Camp of the Saints' - A group of several thousand Africans migrate westward across northern… pic.twitter.com/2tkYSnOXkx
Members of Mamdani's DSA pledge to 'support' and 'defend' China: 'Survival of Chinese socialism is a crucial matter'
About a dozen Democratic Socialists of America activists have publicly pledged to "support" and "defend" China amid an apparent push by the communist nation to court members of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's party.
Friends of Socialist China, a London-based group, touts 952 signatories on its pledge to "support the People's Republic of China and to promote understanding of Chinese socialism."
Eleven self-described DSA or DSA International Committee members are among those that "resolve to support, defend and build understanding of Chinese socialism," The Post found.
...
The pledge argues that "the global advance to socialism is indispensable if humanity is to survive and to flourish," while decrying capitalism as "totally incapable of solving the problems of poverty and inequality" and being " inextricably linked with war, empire, racism, misogyny, alienation, and environmental destruction."
"Why China?" the pledge continues. "We support all states building or aspiring to socialism, and we favour the highest level of unity and friendship between them. We foreground China in particular because its size and level of development give it an objectively critical role in the global transition to socialism."
...
The document lauds China as "the most prominent force pushing for the establishment of a multipolar system of international relations and a new international economic order" and "a global leader in the struggle to avoid climate breakdown.
Speaking of foreign Chinese communists subverting the American way of life, Francesca Hong is now the presumptive Democrat candidate for Wisconsin governor.
Her main rival, Mandela Barnes, quit the race, stating that it's obvious who the candidate will be.
Former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has ended his campaign for governor.
The decision by Barnes came amid reporting by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel into allegations that Barnes was taking advantage of his role in the party to have sexual encounters with young adult women.
They're literally all terrorists, communists, and sex criminals.
Hong is an anchor baby granted birthright citizenship because her Chinese parents gave birth to her as "students" and, one might speculate, Chinese agents.
Megan Basham
@megbasham
Francesca Hong was born to non-citizen immigrants. In other words, she has citizenship in the U.S. because she was born here when her parents were on student visas. And now she is running as a socialist in order to dismantle the American way of life.
The one plank she says she never signed up for is abolishing the Senate.
But guess what? She's a foreign communist and therefore a liar. She has and continues to support abolishing the Senate:
Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong's campaign told Fox News Digital Tuesday that she does not recall posting on social media in favor of abolishing the Senate in 2021 and said that was not her current position.
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) co-chair Megan Romer went viral Sunday for confirming that the DSA supported abolishing the Senate, eliminating national borders and prisons, replacing the presidency and the Supreme Court, and more during an interview with Shannon Bream on "Fox News Sunday."
Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor Tom Tiffany said in a post to X that Hong believed in all the ideas mentioned in the viral video.
"This sounds a lot like DSA-backed @FrancescaHongWI. Does she want to abolish the police? Yep. Does she want to abolish prisons? Absolutely. Did she call for abolishing the U.S. Senate? Yes. Socialism is knocking on Wisconsin's door. This November, we slam it shut," Tiffany wrote.
DEM SOCIALIST RUNNING FOR WISCONSIN GOVERNOR PUSHED 'ABOLISHING THE POLICE'
Francesca Hong speaks on stage at the Wisconsin Democrats 2026 Convention.
Gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong speaks on stage during the Wisconsin Democrats Convention on June 14, 2026, in Madison. (Getty Images for WisDems)
When reached for comment, Hong's campaign said Tiffany was lying and said she never supported abolishing the Senate.
"Tom Tiffany is once again telling lies and inventing quotes, because he can't run on his record," Hong communications director Allison Geyer told Fox News Digital. "Rep. Hong has never called for abolishing the U.S. Senate. Tiffany cannot produce a single statement where she did, because it doesn't exist."
"She has spoken about police and prison abolition in the past as an aspirational goal, but it is not her current position, and it's not something she will pursue as governor," she continued. "She does not support replacing the presidency with the Supreme Court. Eliminating national borders isn't her position either, and it's not even part of the official DSA platform."
"DSA is a membership organization, not a political party. Rep. Hong is not endorsed by DSA national, and doesn't agree with everything in its national program," Geyer added.
Tiffany's campaign pointed Fox News Digital to a post on social media from February 2021, in which she wrote on X, "Abolish the Senate."
Here she was speaking to the foreign also-anchor-baby America hating terrorist Hasan Piker, supporting each and every goal of the communists, including seizing corporations and installing socialist puppets to run them "for the public."
🚨 Francesca Hong’s DSA Wishlist for Wisconsin
Hasan Piker’s stream with DSA-backed Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong had another revealing moment.
Hasan ran through a rapid-fire socialist policy menu: repeal Act 10, universal childcare, free school meals,… pic.twitter.com/7TaSIUctCK
🚨 Hasan Piker's Producer Says "The Whole Squad" Knows Roy Singham, Admits Singham Is "Friends With a Lot" of Chinese Communist Party Members
This is Eric Hovagim, a producer and researcher for Hasan Piker, discussing his personal friendship with billionaire activist funder Roy Singham and Singham's wife, Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans.
"I'm friends with Roy Singham. He's dope."
Hovagim laughs off the idea that Singham has secret ties to the Communist Party of China, before immediately acknowledging that Singham "is friends with a lot of them."
He says he also personally knows Evans and texted her when the Treasury subpoenas arrived. According to Hovagim, she told him not to worry because "they do this shit to us literally all the time."
He then makes clear that these relationships extend beyond him to other Americans in his China-based social circle, including Dana "Showtyme" Burton and Dante Muñoz.
"The whole squad out here, we all know him."
Hovagim also praises Evans as "the real deal," citing her relationships with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, and Nicolás Maduro's son.
The most revealing part may be how ordinary all of this appears within Hovagim's social and political world. Singham is not described as a distant donor or shadowy figure. He is a friend whom "the whole squad" knows, while Evans is someone Hovagim can text directly when subpoenas arrive.
🚨 Hasan Piker’s Producer Says “The Whole Squad” Knows Roy Singham, Admits Singham Is “Friends With a Lot” of Chinese Communist Party Members
This is Eric Hovagim, a producer and researcher for Hasan Piker, discussing his personal friendship with billionaire activist funder Roy… pic.twitter.com/S312gpMpei
Being a foreign terrorist, he enjoys lying. Called out for praising Mao while wearing a Mao suit, he claims this was all a made-up "Fox News story" and that he was merely wearing a "Chinese suit."
Just a total coincidence it was the suit popularized by Mao, as he embarks on a campaign to rehabilitate the murderous communist Mao, you Racists.
Hasan Piker calls on his followers to kill capitalists:
“Yeah kill them! KiII those motherfuckers and murder those motherfuckers in the streets. Let the streets soak in their fucking red capitalist blood, dude.”
"Apocalypse:" Invasion of Africans, Some Prisoners Wanted for Murder, Set Fire to Cars, Loot Stores, and Use the Streets as an Open-Air Shithouse as the Left Executs Its Plan to Replace Native Populations with Pro-Communist Third Worlders
An unprecedented wave of nearly 50,000 illegal migrants from Africa has flooded the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, prompting Spain to deploy its military -- as locals liken the invasion to an "apocalypse."
Harrowing local media reports reveal residents and business owners in Ceuta -- a Spanish territory located on the north African coast -- are terrified to open their doors amid the rush of migrants, many of whom arrived wearing nothing but swimwear without a penny or possession to their name.
"Businesses closed. Shops shut because if you open a business, it gets overrun ... We're scared. The streets are packed. There are no measures in place. It's every man for himself. They're not giving us any help," a terrified downtown restaurant owner who didn't want to give their name told state-owned Spanish media outlet RTVE.
This invasion was engineered by the socialist Spain Supreme Court, which ruled that if invaders cross into Ceuta, they get to stay:
The shocking surge comes after a ruling by Spain's Supreme Court earlier this month, which said migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla, another Spanish autonomous city in northern Morocco, cannot be kicked out under the enclaves' special border-rejection regime.
"It has been a slow trickle since the Supreme Court's ruling, but today has been an explosion," a spokesperson for Spain's Guardia Civil police told Reuters on Thursday.
Spain's Interior Ministry estimated Friday that around 49,000 people had crossed by sea and land from Morocco over the past 24 hours -- a sea of humanity representing nearly 60% of Ceuta's population of 85,000.
RTVE broadcast images of burned cars on the Moroccan side of the border after reported clashes.
Meanwhile, the socialist Spanish government -- which just months ago launched a program to give legal status to some 500,000 illegal immigrants in the country -- said it deployed 200 specialized police officers and 60 troops from the mainland to assist Ceuta's own forces.
260 men to stop 60,000? Absurd. This is the Biden Maneuver, where he deploys workers not to stop the invasion but to "process" their fake asylum claims and fix them up with the paperwork to stay for ten years.
However, the reinforcements were powerless in the face of such a massive migrant deluge, which consisted mostly of military-age men.
"It's like an apocalypse. Waves of people everywhere. You can see as many people wandering around as you want," José Carlos Lara, owner of a sign-making business just over the border, told RTVE.
He said local authorities have "no capacity" to deal with the chaos, and that the new arrivals are already sleeping in the streets and washing themselves in public fountains.
A video shared on X by David Santos, director of right-leaning Spanish media outlet La Bandera, shows a migrant defecating on the side of a building in broad daylight.
Lara added that other business owners -- particularly food stores -- have shut their doors in a panic, fearing widespread looting.
Two days ago, the King of Morocco released 1,789 prisoners.
King Mohammed VI granted a royal pardon to 1,788 people to mark the July 2026 Throne Day celebrations, with the Ministry of Justice releasing 1,679 inmates through sentence remissions, term reductions, or commutations.
Throne Day Royal Pardons
Total beneficiaries: 1,788 individuals were pardoned, including 1,679 current inmates and 109 people who were not in detention.
Releases and reductions: 9 inmates received full pardons for the remainder of their sentences, while 1,668 had their prison terms reduced....
Non-detention cases: For individuals not behind bars, pardons covered outstanding fines, prison terms, or both. Details are reported by Middle East Online.
This "migrant," fleeing Morocco because he's accused of murder, seems to have decided Spain will be his new home:
🇲🇦🇪🇸 One of the Moroccan migrants who illegally crossed the Spanish border today fled Morocco because he is accused of murder.
“I have problems with people, with a colleague who died. I can’t stay there because they say things that are not good for me. A person can die, and I am… pic.twitter.com/yXSxahmQfW
"Spain's socialist Prime Minister announced he would be giving amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Now, his country is being invaded by hordes of military aged men from Africa," Gill posted on X. "Because that's what happens every single time a politician offers amnesty."
Once in you're in Europe, you can go anywhere in Europe, because the Schengen treaty dissolves all borders within Europe.
This means that the Spanish socialists will not just turn their own country into a third-world shithole, but all of Europe.
Some European leaders want to suspend Spain's membership in the Schengen agreement, at least until they stop trying to flood Europe with third-worlders:
Mario Nawfal
@MarioNawfal
🇫🇮🇪🇸 Ministers in Finland's government are backing Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's threat to SUSPEND the Schengen Agreement with Spain.
It comes after the unprecedented wave of migrants that poured into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, yesterday.
Mari Rantanen and Riikka Purra said member states that do not adequately guard the external border to the EU should lose their place in the passport-free zone.
Meloni says stronger measures are needed, as arrivals in Spain continue to rise, and its government JUST granted legal status and work permits to around 500,000 undocumented migrants...
Other EU countries are fearful of "secondary movement" (migrants informally overstaying in other EU countries).
Source: Brussels Signal / Writer: Michael
I do not envision that happening. The EU bureaucracy is as globalist/socialist/third-worldist as any collection of criminals and sex-pests on the planet.
Don't worry, though: Spain's socialist president will put up some buoys.
🇪🇸🇲🇦 Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez’s “response” to the migrant invasion in Ceuta:
“We’ll deploy buoys at the pier as a temporary measure… while we see what legal changes we need to make, if any.”
49,000 migrants just FLOODED the enclave, leaving at least 18 dead and forcing a…
THE MORNING RANT: Google and Outlook’s Search Functionality, Another Technology that Apparently Doesn’t Exist Any More
—Buck Throckmorton
There’s a meme about technical capabilities that we once had, such as landing humans on the moon, that are unreproducible in modern times. It always ends with a somber, “That technology doesn’t exist any more.”
Fifteen years ago I never would have believed that the ability to search for work emails would be lost to progress, but that has happened. If you use Outlook at work, then you know what I’m talking about.
Let’s say I’m looking for an email between me and Acme Oil Company regarding a Power of Attorney. There was a time when I could click on the folder where I move emails involving Acme Oil, and then simply search that folder for “power of attorney.” I would then be presented all emails in that folder with the three-word sequence “power of attorney,” in sequential order, starting with most recent email.
For some inexplicable reason, Microsoft decided to improveenshittify Outlook such that the search feature has become almost completely useless. Now if I search for “power of attorney” in the Acme Oil file to find an email from last month, it will provide me a long list of emails, but probably not the one I’m looking for. It will also present me emails from other clients that are not even part of my search containing the words “power of attorney.” It will also provide me every email that ever contained the words “power,” “attorney,” and most importantly, the word “of.” Comically, it also prominently displays “Top Results,” which tend to be heirloom emails from a long time ago, and unrelated to my current search.
It’s not just Microsoft that has destroyed its search capabilities. Google has also sabotaged its product for some reason, perhaps political, or maybe to entice more clicks. Whatever the reason, Google now seems determined to not let you find what you are searching for, or at a minimum, they are now making it a quest.
Someone should invent a version of Outlook that can search for emails and find them.
— Habeas Corpus Linguistics (@HabCorpLinguist) July 10, 2026
Responses to this tweet are pretty funny. A few are below the fold, along with a further exposition on Google.
Never forget that the Artemis II crew that flew by the moon last April had to call Tech Support back on Earth, because both of their Outlook versions were inoperable.
Artemis II crew is thousands of miles away from Earth
And they’re asking ground crew for help because they have two versions of Microsoft Outlook open and neither is working
There were stories when I was younger that American auto manufacturers intentionally degraded the quality of their vehicles in the 1970s. The alleged reason was the hope that planned obsolescence would increase the sales frequency of buyers. While this is likely an apocryphal story, the American automakers lost their dominant market share because they seemed indifferent to quality while others started focusing on quality.
Something similar is happening with Google. It came to dominate online search by having the far superior product. Back in the day it could find something I was looking for better than any other search engine. In fact, Google seemed to know intuitively what I was seeking even if my query was poorly worded. But now, Google has degraded its product so badly that it frequently refuses to produce the result of an easy search. As Jesse Singal notes below, you can give it direct quotes from a piece you are searching for, but Google will often still refuse to produce the article (which Grok quickly retrieves.)
Sabotaging your own product, as Google and Outlook have appeared to do, is an amazing business strategy to grow a business.
The degradation of basic Google Search is *really* alarming. I can't think of any web tool I've been using longer -- three decades at this point? You can paste in a unique string of text, in quotes, and it will sometimes still fail to find what you're looking for.
The Short Unhappy Life of a Russian Soldier: Why recruits die in 20-30 minutes Interesting video. Some key parts: drones were responsible for 70-80% of all battlefield deaths in mid-2025, and I bet it's higher now. The Russian army is incredibly corrupt. Men get assigned to the most dangerous frontline units, the "Storm" units, unless they pay a superior $2,000 to be assigned to a different unit. Furthermore, there is often no real training for recruits -- commanders pocket the money that would have gone towards fuel and ammo costs incurred during training. Much "training" consists just of taking a single picture of soldiers doing something soldier-y, like fording a river, and publishing that as proof that the training was done. Even when it is done, training is only two weeks long.
Podcast: CBD and Sefton discuss the Berlin attack, Iran...Again! Sefton's mini Odyssey review, Data Republican's blockbuster reveal about the DNC, and more!
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click She's totally committed to major independence
She's a lady through and through
She gives them quite a battle, all that they can handle
She'll bruise some, she'll hurt some too
Podcast: Illegals registered and voted in NJ! Leftist violence is baked into the Democrat cake, Iran's capabilities are being degraded, Londonistan? And...come on SC...no senate dynasties!
FDA is providing an update regarding the sample of lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico which was reported positive on July 18, 2026. Due to the complexity in detection of Cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive. Information about the sample has been removed from the July 18, 2026, update below. FDA has notified Taylor Farms and continues working with the firm to ensure product implicated in this outbreak has been removed from the market. FDA and state partners continue to collect and analyze product samples. As of July 19, 2026, there are no confirmed positive sample results for product testing for Cyclospora.
Podcast: Trump Slaps Mullin down; he wants the auto stops to continue, we need employment enforcement at our big corporations, The gerontocracy in the Senate, the Iranian junta is true to form, but Trump responds forcefully, and more!
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Northern Lights Division
Our topic today is music That's right, like
'Cause my brother and I are now experts in the field, eh
Yeah, right, 'cause we're a band now
Uh, yeah, so Except for him, I'm a band
Aw, how can you do that?
You're making me look bad
You're such a Hosehead
CNBC ranks Tennessee as dead last in its “Worst States to Live” analysis. The specific reason is that cross-dressing men in TN are denied access to children and women’s private spaces. Texas finished 49th. The “worst” states were all red states. [Buck]
