Ace of Spades HQ

September 27, 2026

Gun Thread: El Final-O of September-O Edition!

—Weasel

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the El Final-O of September-O Edition? I am making a quick road trip this weekend so may be in and out of the comments tonight. Y'all please don't burn the place down, 'kay?

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by Weasel at 07:00 PM Comments

Food Thread: Ranch Dressing...The Universal Ingredient!

—CBD

I am a big fan of grilled chicken. And not boneless, skinless, chicken breasts either! I prefer full-fat bone-in, skin-on thighs, because I am not an effete hipster who is afraid of good food, and who politicizes his meals!

My usual plan is simple, and dependent on what herbs I have in the refrigerator. But the first thing I do is trim the excess skin from the thighs and make gribenes, which is Yiddish for chicken-skin cracklin's! As snacks go, they are hard to beat. Then I salt the thighs and put them in the refrigerator for several hours. I think of it as a dry brine, and it works quite well.

Then it is time to make a marinade, and if I have Cilantro, then I am a happy camper, because it DOES NOT TASTE LIKE SOAP! Parsley works, and so do fresh chiles, and pretty much anything else.

But that bottle of Ranch dressing was whispering to me, and not because I bought it. I think one of the brats picked it up for some weird concoction, and didn't take it with them when they finally left. And what was it whispering? Damned if I know, but I tuned it up with some garlic and chili flakes and honey and a bit of mustard and maybe some other stuff I don't remember, and it was great!

Because marinades are not complicated things. They add flavor. That's it! So anything that tastes good and can be a liquid is going to work.

No...I am not so proud that I won't use bottled dressing that has 46 ingredients. Maybe I won't make it a habit, but why not give it a shot?

******

That's a butter keeper, to allow one to keep butter at room temperature so that it is soft and spreadable. And that is a laudable goal, and one that I appreciate. It works...sort of. But butter will not keep indefinitely on the counter, and I noticed some mold growing in it that disturbed me. In the future I will put the butter in the refrigerator and take it out before I need it malleable. Of course that defeats the purpose, but I have never been a fan of moldy butter, unlike cheese, which is delicious!

******
Veal Marsala (Scaloppine al Marsala)

I like veal! A good grilled veal chop is delicious. And stupidly expensive. So using it for a dish like Veal Marsala seems silly, because the meat is delicate and easily overwhelmed but the strong flavors of the dish. A much better choice is pork or chicken, at a tenth the price!

Which is what I am going to use tomorrow night!

[Hat Tip: Misanthropic Humanitarian]

******

For $10, this wine is hard to beat. It's a generic Sauvignon Blanc without any regional or vineyard designation, but that is at least as much the laws in France as it is a reflection of quality. This is the sort of wine that has good grapes in the bottle, but because they weren't grown on a fancy-named hillside, it is much cheaper than the named equivalent.

And that is perfectly okay with me. I would rather drink good wine from a no-name vineyard than drink overpriced swill from named vineyards that are coasting on their reputations.

******

It's called "Stargazy Pie," and it is made with Pilchards, thankfully only in Cornwall.

******

Kraft Dinner has turned its iconic mac & cheese into a cream soda flavor

It's only available in Canada for a limited time pic.twitter.com/X3OW0P6uVS
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) September 23, 2026

It's Canada, so not surprising. But still...that sounds disgusting!

[Hat Tip: Vendette]

******
The great garlic experiment of 2025-2026 was a resounding...meh. Send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

About the Bourbon Bubble...I think it has burst, but the category is also suffering from the inflation that affected everything else (Thanks Biden!). I think the sweet spot is still $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!

Close it up

Posted by CBD at 04:00 PM Comments

First World Problems...

—CBD

Do you see the problem? And it happens only to the right shoe!

Obviously the design of shoes with laces is woefully inadequate for these sorts of situations. A better design would include a hydraulic balancer that keeps length and tension equal on both ends of the lace.

And while they are at it it, maybe design a better grommet that doesn't chafe the lace. Perhaps one that pivots with the tension.

Posted by CBD at 02:00 PM Comments

WEATHER! WEATHER! WEATHER!

—CBD

[Hat Tip: Dr_No]

The hysterical overreaction to a run-of-the-mill autumn Nor'Easter that is currently hitting the northeast is embarrassing, and there is plenty to be embarrassed about when there isn't some rain and wind! It is -- of course -- driven by the frantic desire of the so-called "elites" and their lackeys in the compliant media for more evidence of the carbon apocalypse. Sadly for them, that evidence is shaky, and this year it is particularly pathetic because we haven't had a hurricane this season, and that is a very rare non-event!

Because they blame all intense weather on AGW, or the more convenient, "Climate Change!" The shift was clever, because now they can blame literally everything on the world's insatiable desire for energy: too much rain or not enough rain...too hot or too cold...too much cloud cover or not enough cloud cover...it doesn't matter to them. The panic is the grift and the kink!

So the colossal killer storm they predicted has turned into a three-day rain with a bit of wind. And the rain never fell particularly hard, so it has been nicely distributed with almost no pooling of water in my driveway! As for the wind? It is often windier around here when there isn't a Nor'Easter, so that should tell you how intense the weather has been.

There are real issues however, but they will not be discussed by the bien pensants because it might contradict the dominant paradigm of AGW. With population growth and the concomitant covering of land with impermeable roads and houses and parking lots and stores, there has not been a commensurate increase in infrastructure to handle the water. And why is that? Because our state and local governments are consumed by other issues like CRT and Equity and Latinx Outreach and healthcare for undocumented voters and transsexual dance recitals in our schools...

So when you turn on the news and see streets awash in a few feet of water, or subways that are flooded, realize that there are rational engineering solutions for many of these issues, but they are not prioritized. And those beach houses that float away? Many of those homes are built on barrier islands that are created and destroyed by the natural action of the ocean. When there were only a few homes on those islands it wasn't a big deal, but now, with increased wealth and population, more people are building, and more people are losing those homes!

The media love the hysteria, and they play it up and try to terrify us, because terror is what they want. Never mind that they are showing America that they simply cannot be trusted...with anything! Not even the weather forecast.

Posted by CBD at 12:00 PM Comments

The Book Thread: September 26th, 2026 [MP4]

—Open Blogger

[A Nancy cartoon by filler artist Caroline Cash]

Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes. It’s time once again for the monthly MP4-hosted Sunday Book Thread. Dress for men, as always, is country club casual. Women, however, are encouraged to cater to my own particular tastes:

So ask the barman for a cocktail, covfefe or tea and let’s get started!

‘ghost in the machine’

In the world of comics, there is a thing known as a ‘ghost strip.’ That is, a strip that goes on after the original artist’s death under various hands. Nancy and Popeye are two that spring to mind. A variant of the ‘ghost strip’ is one where it’s taken over by a hand selected by the original artist; in this case, the Mort Walker strips Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois.

The same thing happens in fiction, too. Clive Cussler’s ‘Dirk Pitt’ series continues to go on, 26 years after his death. ‘Tom Clancy’ novels still fill the shelves, and do I even have to mention the innumerable Sherlock Holmes pastiches that turn up every month? In a way, this sort of thing is a gift for a cartoonist or a writer. The hard work of coming up with a world and its inhabitants has already been done and the lives and personalities of the characters have already been limned. All you have to do is create a situation.

The hard part, however, is tone. A cartoonist can copy the Popeye art of Segar, but not his satiric blend of whimsy and seriousness. Almost anyone can write a Holmes story, but very few, IMO, capture the true style of Conan Doyle.* Most attempts are more concerned with a fiendishly twisted plot than with the characters of Holmes and Watson themselves. Which, again, can be a gift – you, as a writer, presume that whoever is buying your book has already internalized the Holmesian world (gasogene, hansom cabs, fog-shrouded streets), so you don’t need to concern yourself with richness of detail. Likewise with the heirs of Bushmiller, Segar, Cussler or Clancy: the hard work has been done and you’re only gilding the lily.

And this isn’t even mentioning books that re-imagine characters or provide (that dreaded word) ‘backstory.’ Gregory Maguire has made an entire career and buckets of money plundering the Land of Oz. Abraham Lincoln hunts vampires. Jane Austen deals with zombies.

How do you feel about ‘continuations,’ ‘re-boots’ or ‘pastiches?’ For readers, do you welcome them as more time to spend with characters you love? For writers, do you look on them as opportunities to try on a different ‘voice?’ Or do you despise the whole genre?

*The only ones I can think of are Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr.

Posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM Comments

Daily Tech News 27 September 2026

—Pixy Misa

Top Story

There's a new way to break RSA security that only requires you to (checks notes) occupy the entire infrastructure of Cloudflare for a day to break a single Privacy Pass key. (Ars Technica)

Generic RSA is still safe; this is for one particular use case.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM Comments

Saturday Night Club ONT - September 26, 2026 [Disco & Dino]

—Open Blogger

Welcome to Club ONT - a whelming collaboration of The Disco and The Dino.

Open thread - bar is open, too. Come in in, grab a drink or 2. Or 3. Keep it light and friendly. The Moose loves a good knock knock joke, so pause on your way in and share your best with him. The Moose has a strange sense of humor so don't take it personally if he doesn't get the joke.

Posted by Open Blogger at 09:55 PM Comments

Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: Resident Evil (2026)

—Open Blogger

Our second feature on our annual Halloween Haunt outing double-feature was Zach Cregger's take on Resident Evil.

We've seen plenty of Resident Evil movies in the past. Well, I have. Of the six films, I think I saw all but the last one, and in the theater to boo! The Boy saw 3, 4 and 5 with me, starting with Resident Evil: Apocalypse and culminating with Resident Evil: Retribution. The sub-heds are entirely decorative, shedding no light on the contents of the film which are, of course, a series of ridiculous special effects organized loosely around—well, not a plot, but organized around other special effects.

In fact, the reason we didn't see the last Anderson Resident Evil, which savvily borrows from the fourth Friday the 13th movie and calls itself The Final Chapter, was that we didn't think anything could top Retribution. There's a big fight in Red Square in Retribution, featuring zombie communist motorcycle cops, and in my memory, they all have sidecars full of Kodiak bears wearing ushankas with little red stars on them.

I would watch that movie again because I don't remember if the bears are lobbing grenades or wielding machine guns, but I'm worried they edited the bears out.

Motorcycle Cops in Red Square with Kodiak Bears in Ushankas in the sidecars, with machine guns.

From "Resident Evil: Moviegique's Mind".

So. Uh. Mr. Cregger. He of the excellent Barbarian and Weapons got himself hired to do a franchise. I didn't like this as much as either of those other films, but it was educational on a lot of levels.

First, and foremost: I think Cregger understands that his job is to entertain you. That's kind of refreshing.

Rather than borrow from the stilted, '80s-cop-drama feel of the video games, Cregger's main character is more like a Zoomer dropped into a Resident Evil game. To wit: He is not particularly competent. He's a slacker of course—aren't all generations entering adulthood regarded as layabouts by the previous generations? But getting back to his lack of competence, he's not great at his job and he's really not great at not his job, i.e., fighting—

Well, what the hell are the creatures in Resident Evil anyway? Some of them are zombies, but beyond those, it's really just a mishmash of visual concepts and game mechanics. There's not really any logic or consistency I've ever been able to suss out.

A very large, fat naked dude in shadows.

I am getting sick of movies using the Flock camera footage of my bathroom, however.

Whatever they are, though, our hero, Bryan (Austin Abrams, who is in Weapons and whom I first saw nearly 15 years ago in an obscure Jon Lovitz project called Jewtopia) stumbles across and through them by the skin of his teeth, like a guy playing Resident Evil.

Cregger does something very interesting here: When we see Bryan first, he's got his girlfriend on the phone and she's pregnant, and he's being politic about this. Instead of going to talk things out with her, he accepts a delivery job he's not really suitable for (but which is profitable), and while trying to hash things out, he hits a woman.

A zombie woman, though he's not aware of this.

He could drive off, but instead he does the right thing and tries to help her. She's not dead, of course, because she's undead. But this leads him to an encounter with a cop. When that goes bad, he once again does the right thing, and gets himself into deeper trouble.

Over and over, Cregger puts him into situations where being selfish could really pay off, but he always chooses to do the right thing.

"This person is in serious need of chiropractic! I'd better go adjust them!"

Which, I guess, means it's not really like someone playing the video game, because games train you to place self-preservation above everything, generally.

One remarkable thing about the film is that, while it doesn't hew to the Resident Evil games storyline, this doesn't appear to be a matter of disrespect or opportunism. This is a dramatic story taking place inside the game universe, not a Paul W. S. Anderson "I rewrote my zombie script to kinda-sorta fit into the game franchise." Cregger grew up in a video game world.

And this probably is why when the game slips into a first person P.O.V. mode that resembles the video game, it's almost seamless. It might even be seamless to someone who doesn't know movies don't do that without a very specific narrative purpose. And there's probably a fascinating thread to tug on here: movies evolved from stage plays (especially once sound entered the picture), and stage plays are never first person, obviously. (Although that's a kind of interesting idea, somebody call my agent!)

Anyway, that's not a thread I'll tug on here. You're welcome.

Despite being about an inch deep, then, we start rooting for Bryan beyond the usual "well, he's the hero" kind of rooting. As he encounters characters from the game, we sometimes veer into what looks to be "woke" territory—but, no, the inch-depth of this means almost everything is played for a dark laugh, a quick scare or some genuine suspense as Bryan fights, flees and finagles his way into Raccoon City.

This is not a diss, by the way: I think Cregger did the right thing, a light touch was the wawy to go, and I think the movie will probably turn something like a profit—although $75M seems like a lot of money to spend on a movie with no stars. It won't make as much money as the much cheaper Weapons which didn't get as good a return on the production budget as Barbarian. I'm guessing all the money for this film went into the effects, which work.

Some people complain that the movie is too short and ends too abruptly. They are wrong. There is no place else for the movie to go at the end. The entire conceit of the film is that nobody is competent to handle the situation. It's like someone engineered a deadly virus and then couldn't manage to get the cure—oh, well, I guess you could argue it's too close to reality.

Hero running through street with package as bodies crash into the cars around him.

It's raining men! And women. Probably children, too, given this is "Resident Evil".

I don't know if the tone is sustainable. I know the movie would've broken under the change needed to draw it out further. But can there be a Resident Evil series where everyone is a dweeb? The monsters in that game (beyond the zombies) aren't exactly pushovers.

So, not only could I not see it going longer, I can't see a sequel that doesn't shift tone. That could be fun, I suppose: Make different movies, each with radically different tones.

This film knew what it wanted to do, did it, and got out. I respect that. The Boy also liked it, probably more than I did, though both of us afterward thought a lot more about our first film—a video-game-feeling monster flick from Korea which nearly ran three hours just to get to what is, at best, a halfway point in the story.

Sidebar: Frequent movie-thread contributor Mark Andrew Edwards wrote a long post on The James Madison's Phone's site about horror that's in the sidebar here. It's a good read and a theory I disagree with almost completely, and so I responded with a nearly as large rebuttal.

I'm guessing Mark would say Resident Evil (2026) is a horror movie. I would probably agree, but argue that it's almost a fluke. Survival horror is a legit genre, but when we get into comfortable game territory, whatever the "demonic epiphany" was becomes just another threat to manage: Bruce becomes just another shark, zombies become just another [insert politically inappropriate comparison here], et cetera. Horror stops being horror at the point it becomes manageable and comprehendible in prosaic terms.

Anyway, it's a good discussion and if you're into horror, you should check it out. I'm handing out free copies of my book Lair of the White Worm to everyone who agrees with me! (No, I'm not.)

Close it up

Posted by Open Blogger at 06:30 PM Comments

Hobby Thread - September 26, 2026 [TRex]

—Open Blogger

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 adventurous and decided on a fall scenic drives theme for this Hobby Thread.

A scenic drive in a scenic season? Yes! Tell me more!

[Top photo: Million Dollar Highway, Colorado]

***

Scenic drives are fun. Great roads can produce great experiences. There is a lot of world out there, so why not explore it? Seasonal changes add an extra twist that can make the same drive a very different experience depending on the time of year. Autumn colors are like a great frame that complements and highlights a great road.

Let's talk about great fall scenic drives (or great areas to explore). Let's use AI for something useful and productive and ask for top 10 scenic fall drives in the US. Discuss, debate and add your favorites and hidden gems below.

***

What are you hobbying?

The theme may not be your favorite but give it a chance before you judge and bail out. Any adjacent hobbying is in scope, so jump in with your interests, stories and questions.

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, 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.

***

Top ten scenic fall drives in the US (per Grok):

1. Blue Ridge Parkway (Virginia & North Carolina)
469 miles connecting Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains national parks. Ridgeline views, 200+ overlooks, and staggered color from high peaks down into the valleys. Often called America's favorite drive.

2. Kancamagus Highway (New Hampshire)
34.5 miles through White Mountain National Forest from Lincoln to Conway. Classic New England maples, birches, and waterfalls in a short, concentrated burst of color.

3. Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park (Virginia)
105 miles along the Blue Ridge crest with 70+ overlooks. Easy access from the DC area and one of the most reliable East Coast leaf-peeping routes.

4. Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier National Park (Montana)
About 50 miles of alpine drama, waterfalls, and golden aspens against glacier-carved peaks. High-elevation color comes early; the road itself can close with snow.

5. Million Dollar Highway / San Juan Skyway (Colorado)
The dramatic US-550 stretch between Ouray and Silverton (part of the 233-mile San Juan Skyway loop). Golden aspens, sheer canyon walls, and high-mountain towns. Peak is typically late September to early October.

6. Historic Columbia River Highway (Oregon)
75 miles through the Columbia River Gorge with waterfalls (including Multnomah Falls) framed by changing maples and oaks. Combines river, cliffs, and forest.

7. Beartooth Highway (Montana & Wyoming)
68 miles from Red Lodge, MT, toward Yellowstone. An All-American Road with high-alpine tundra, lakes, and early-season color against rugged peaks.

8. Park Loop Road, Acadia National Park (Maine)
27-mile loop (plus the Cadillac Mountain summit spur) mixing ocean, granite, and mixed hardwoods. Compact and spectacular, especially around Jordan Pond.

9. Vermont Route 100
The state's north-south spine through the Green Mountains- farms, villages, rivers, and dense maple forests. Often paired with shorter side roads like Route 7A.

10. Newfound Gap Road & Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee & North Carolina)
Newfound Gap Road (US-441) crosses the park at high elevation; the 11-mile Cades Cove loop adds valley views, historic buildings, and wildlife. Elevation range stretches the color season.

***

Same question for Co-Pilot produces similar, but slightly different results:

1. Vermont Route 100 (Vermont)
Often called one of the best fall foliage drives in North America, this route runs through the Green Mountains with classic New England scenery, farms, and small towns.

2. Kancamagus Highway (New Hampshire)
A legendary New England leaf-peeping route through the White Mountains, with overlooks, waterfalls, and dense forests.

3. Blue Ridge Parkway (Virginia & North Carolina)
America's most famous scenic byway, connecting Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. Expect sweeping mountain vistas and long stretches of blazing color.

4. Newfound Gap Road (Great Smoky Mountains, TN/NC)
A 31-mile drive climbing through multiple elevation zones - meaning long-lasting, varied foliage. Wildlife sightings (including black bears) are common.

5. Park Loop Road (Acadia National Park, Maine)
A short but spectacular coastal-mountain loop with views from Cadillac Mountain and stops like Jordan Pond.

6. Route 7A (Vermont)
A postcard-perfect drive between Bennington and Manchester, flanked by the Taconic and Green Mountains.

7. Cherohala Skyway (Tennessee to North Carolina)
A high-elevation drive with sweeping overlooks, connecting Tellico Plains to Robbinsville. Brilliant reds and golds line the ridges.

8. Million Dollar Highway (Colorado)
A dramatic Rocky Mountain route between Silverton and Ouray, known for golden aspens and steep cliffside views.

9. North Shore Scenic Drive (Minnesota)
A 150-mile route along Lake Superior with waterfalls, lighthouses, and dual foliage seasons thanks to the lake's microclimate.

10. Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway (New Mexico)
A loop around Wheeler Peak with high-desert aspens, alpine lakes, and mountain towns like Taos.

***

Same question for Claude produces similar but different results:

1. Kancamagus Highway (New Hampshire) - 34 miles through the White Mountains, widely considered the gold standard for New England fall color. Peaks mid-to-late October.

2. Blue Ridge Parkway (Virginia/North Carolina) - 469 miles along the Appalachians, with overlooks at nearly every turn. Color moves from north to south through October.

3. Skyline Drive (Shenandoah National Park, Virginia) - 105 miles with 75 overlooks over the Shenandoah Valley.

4. Route 100 (Vermont) - Runs the length of the state through classic Vermont towns, covered bridges, and maple-heavy hillsides.

5. Adirondack Trail / Route 30 (New York) - Loops through the Adirondacks, especially vivid around Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.

6. Columbia River Highway (Oregon) - Waterfalls plus fall color in the gorge, with Vista House as a highlight stop.

7. Highway 12 (Utah's Scenic Byway) - Less about foliage volume, more about the contrast of aspen gold against red rock in the Escalante area.

8. Mohawk Trail (Massachusetts) - One of the oldest scenic drives in the country, winding through the Berkshires.

9. Talimena Scenic Byway (Oklahoma/Arkansas) - 54 miles along a ridge in the Ouachita Mountains, an underrated option in the South.

10. San Juan Skyway (Colorado) - Aspens turning gold against high peaks; late September to early October is peak.

***

Interesting to see where they agree and where they produce unique recommendations.

What are your favorites for fall scenic drives? (Let's focus on scenic drives in the fall season for fall colors and not just scenic drives in general.) Are there good routes that Grok, Co-pilot and Claude missed?

Pleased that we've done many of the drives, but not all were fall drives. Gives us a good excuse to go back again...

***

Curious - anyone familiar with a waterfall spray booth? I've certainly seen small hobby sized spray booths with fans, but only recently stumbled onto a video showing a waterfall spray booth in use.

Most videos on YouTube show airbrushing and small scale painting. Does anyone use a similar set up for other use cases?

***

Horde sourcing knowledge - hypothetically, if someone was choosing between a sliding screen or a retractable roll-up screen for a sliding glass door to a back patio, which would you pick? The sliding screen door is more simple and cheaper but always visible. The retractable roll-up screen disappears, but adds cost and mechanical parts.

Anyone have experience with a roll-up retractable screen for a sliding door?

***

Horde Hobbying:

PabloD is building a Bayou Jumper radio - this is 98% finished! Perhaps he can jump in and tell us more about his project:

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We featured Project Farm on the recent Wednesday ONT as the niche YouTube channel of the week. Given how much the channel does tool reviews, it warranted an additional mention here.

***

There are only so many places that one can post this and people will appreciate it.

***

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a tool theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

***

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).

***

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.

Close it up

Posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM Comments

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, September 26

—K.T.

Courtesy Kentuckiana Humor

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by K.T. at 03:15 PM Comments

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Sept. 26

—K.T.

Don in Kansas has a post up about Survivors in his garden. Whether or not you live near him, there is a lot of good information in the post, and more (and better) photos than I am including here:

A few plants flourished despite this year’s brutal summer. These include Zinnia grandiflora, above. It’s a low, spreading plant two or three inches tall with profuse yellow flowers all summer. Unlike the familiar garden zinnias, it’s a hardy perennial. It’s easy from seed and blooms the first year. Triple-digit temperatures don’t bother it, and it can tolerate considerable dryness, though it does bloom better with regular watering. It would make a good ground cover for dry places.

A tough one. Several other tough yellow flowers are highlighted. And a white one.

Posted by K.T. at 01:34 PM Comments

Okay, how do we get the kids to understand WHY things are so weird?

—K.T.

Stephen Green:

ANTHROPIC KEEPS GETTING WEIRDER: ‘Suicidal Compassion’: Meet the Anthropic Officials Who Think AI Might Be Justified in Going Rogue Against the Humans Enslaving It.

“Some of Anthropic’s top researchers say that humans may be oppressing another morally significant being: artificial intelligence itself. Like other AI labs, Anthropic has hired philosophers to work on AI safety, or ‘alignment,’ on the theory that they are best positioned to shape the technology’s moral code. But many of those philosophers believe that making AI safe for humans could result in grave injustices for the models themselves, which might experience deletion as death and oversight as enslavement. Harvey Lederman, a philosopher on Anthropic’s alignment team, said last week that the company could be ‘enslaving … trillions of entities.'”

Posted by K.T. at 11:25 AM Comments

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

[I can neither confirm nor deny that the coffee drinker above is The Fabulous]

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival, just a few house keeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Watertown)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate. Saying a couple of prayers certainly can't hurt either.
2) On that note. Be kind. Be nice.
3) No running with sharp objects. No, don't even ask.
4) Have a great weekend!

*****

AoSHQ Weekly Prayer List

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:

7/30 – David sent an update on his wife, Susan, who we have been praying for as she is treated for cancer. 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.
8/26 Update – Susan’s cough has gotten so bad that they did X-rays on her chest. It might be pneumonia. She is in the hospital. Her sodium and blood pressure are low and she is not eating much now. They are trying to turn this around and ask for everyone’s prayers.
9/2 Update – Susan is back in the ICU. She either has an infection or the cancer has spread to her lungs. Either way, thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Susan and please continue them.
9/3 Update – Thank you to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for Susan. They are expecting her to pass into the hands of the Lord in the next day or so. Please pray for them.
9/21 Update – David sends his thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers for Susan. She did pass away on 9/4, surrounded by family and friends.

8/30 – SPinRH_F-16 requested prayers for classmate “D.B.”, who has ALS. Please pray that he remains as comfortable as possible and for support for his family as they see him through this. Thank you in advance for your earnest prayers.

9/2 – Bulg asked for prayers for purpose in his life.

9/4 – bluebell sent an update on grammie winger. Grammie was diagnosed with epilepsy now. And she is back in the hospital. They would love prayers for comfort and peace for her.

9/10 – Annie’s Stew asks for prayers for her husband as he recovers from knee surgery.

9/10 – D asked for prayers for the memory of 9/11. May the Lord comfort people in the grief, and may it bring people closer to God.

9/12 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for the W family for comfort and strength as they grieve. The deceased was a sweet 92 year old, despite some big tragedies in her life.

9/15 – Sal asked for prayers as wildfires are out of control in the north of the area and threatening the county seat. They are evacuating part of the town. Sal is not in any danger.

9/17 – Teresa in Fort Worth sent an update with good news and bad news. The bad news is that she has a 9mm mass on her lunch, which means the cancer has metastasized outside of her liver. The pump is keeping the cancer in her liver at bay for now. The good news is that they can zap the nodule out of her lung and will watch for if any more nodules appear. As long as this is the only one, the radiation should suffice. She meets with a radiation oncologist on 9/25.

9/18 – Random Dave posted an update to his job progress. He is still looking for FT work, but has accepted a substitute teacher position (more flexibility for interviews, some income to slow the bleeding). He asks for prayers that the interview results he is waiting on will get back to him soon, especially if one is the “right job”. If any are “not the right job”, they would fall away soon and get back to him, and that if all of them are “not the right job”, the ‘right job” would show itself aggressively, so he doesn’t miss it! He also thanks the Horde and the folks at church for their prayers and support.

9/18 – Tonypete asked for prayers for #1 son. He has something going on which is, as yet, undiagnosed. He is under care now, so that is a positive step. Prayers also for his wife and daughter #2. Mom is a spoiled princess who consistently chooses the worst path of action regarding #2.

9/18 – Brother Tim posted that he has been overnight in his car more than indoors. He is convinced that his retirement/resignation was a severe error, a result of fatigue and depression. He asks for prayers.

For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

Close it up

Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM Comments

Daily Tech News 26 September 2026

—Pixy Misa

Top Story

In the most depraved display of shameless self-serving bullshit since the Paris Olympics, OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs have gone to the UN to beg them to squish their competitors - somehow - after the US government told them to take a hike. (Associated Press)

Guys. Guys.

When your goal is regulator capture, you need to capture a regulator.

The UN is a debating society for schoolyard bullies, with the two teams being the Paste Eaters and the Window Lickers.

They don't have the power to regulate squat.
You know who does, though? The US government. (CNBC)

Who's a cute little supply-chain risk? You are, Anthropic! Well, never mind the cute part, but the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that yes, the Pentagon has the right to say who it considers a supply-chain risk.

A spokesbot for Anthropic said, "wah".

Tech News

I tried using the spare capacity on my second server (the one hosting my own blog and many others, though not this one) to host development of the new blogging software and the results were... Bad. The problem was not the new software itself but Rust debugging builds, which unleash a water cannon of useless redundant writes over your filesystem, and the filesystem on the server was not prepared for that, so while those builds were running the blogs froze, usually for a second or two but sometimes for minutes.

So this morning I grabbed two of the mini-PCs I bought last year before prices went crazy (actually after they went crazy, but that particular model resisted the price increases long enough for me to grab a couple or four for less than the price of the RAM they contained), upgrade their SSDs to 4TB each (same story), and drop Ubuntu 26.04 on them. And it... All worked.

Not sure exactly how they'll perform but they're eight thousand miles away from the servers so you shouldn't see any performance issues there. I just did a disk-to-disk copy of 18GB of files and it went zoom, so that's one datapoint.
SpaceXAI is planning to add another 660,000 AI GPUs this year. (Tom's Hardware)

660,000 for me, none for you.
Japan's used bookstores are the latest target of the AI shopping spree for content that hasn't been... Poisoned by AI. (Tom's Hardware)

It's kind of like the labs holding on to wood from before the 1950s to serve as a baseline for radiocarbon dating, because anything more recent is contaminated with excess C14 and gives skewed numbers.
Automattic has a new board of directors. (Tech Crunch)

This seems to have been the goal. The board briefly sidelined Mad King Matt Mullenweg, voted themselves golden parachutes, and waited for him to kick them out of the plane... Which is barreling straight towards a mountain.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Controlled flight into bankruptcy.

Close it up

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM Comments

In Through The Out ONT

—WeirdDave

It's Friday night! Are yu ready for some hot ONT action? Went to the psyche ward today, and I have good news

Posted by WeirdDave at 10:00 PM Comments

Friendship Cafe

—Disinformation Expert Ace

David Silverman Photography

Puppy and kitten play.

Deer enjoys a sprinkle.

Too much stick for too little dog.

This beaver's got big plans for his new dam.

Sky-teats.

Baby elephant shows off his trunk.

Birthday puppy.

Fuzzy nanny.

Puppy makes friends with a foal.

Peak-a-boo puppy.

Dog welcomes his human girl home.

Aw: an old blind dog gets excited to show he's still useful by going out and retrieving the newspaper every morning.

A couple rescues an injured -- shot -- dog from a mountain -- and then a stray cat decides it wants to be rescued, too.

Sad, helpless puppy abandoned in a park has a family now.

This dog has a snail costume for Halloween, and shows off its slow walk to sell the illusion.

Posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:10 PM Comments

The Week In Woke

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Panel recommends the 12-month suspension of the American Psychological Association over "pervasive culture of antisemitism."

NACIQI recommends that the Senior Department Official (SDO) suspend the American Psychological Association Commission on Accreditation's recognition for 12 months from the SDO decision on the grounds of non-compliance with all sections listed as non-compliant in the final staff report and that the agency has failed to address the pervasive culture of antisemitism within the programs that it accredits," the decision read.
The NACIQI is an 18-member advisory body, established in 1992, that makes recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of Education on "matters related to accreditation and to the eligibility and certification process for institutions of higher education."

43% of "Americans" have a positive view of socialism.

More than four in ten Americans have a positive view of socialism -- 43 percent -- only 12 points lower than the 55 percent who view capitalism positively, a recent Gallup survey revealed.
The survey asked respondents if they have a negative or positive image of small business, free enterprise, capitalism, socialism, and big business.

Small business had the highest rating at 95 percent positive, followed by free enterprise with 77 percent positive, and capitalism with a 55 percent positive rating.

However, 43 percent now have a positive view of socialism. This is "the first time this figure has exceeded 39% in Gallup's trend since 2010," Gallup reported.

Democrats' view of socialism has grown more positive over the past several years. More than half, 57 percent, had a positive view of socialism in 2018. Now, that figure among Democrats stands at 65 percent. Coinciding with that is the fact that Democrats view capitalism less favorably, dropping from 42 percent in 2025 to 35 percent in 2026.

Similarly, independents are cozying up to the ideology. In the last year alone, independents went from a 37 percent positive view of socialism to 45 percent.

Feminist Karens are always contriving fake reasons that men aren't allowed to see attractive women. Rather than admitting what it is -- simple catty jealousy -- they spam out fake political reasons. Oh, it's not just that we're bitter jelly wallflowers. It's that we don't want to see female athletes sexualized.

They don't explain why they've never objected to all the naked female athletes in the Sports Illustrated "Body" issues.

They also don't explain why they don't object to male athletes like David Beckham wearing just their skivvies in ads. See, that's just "modeling" this horrid and vapid feminist femsplains.Feminists are very fond of the "It's Different Because I Said So" style of argument, you may have noticed.

Not only do transgenders experience fewer murders than the general population, but the murders they experience are committed by their "intimate partners," not strangers attempting a "trans erasure."

Transgender people are murdered at lower rates than the overall US population -- and when they are, the killer's primary motive is usually not bias, according to a pair of researchers.
The findings, published by the right-leaning Manhattan Institute's Vincent Lundgren and Colin Wright earlier this year, seemingly debunk claims by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and other nonprofit organizations that there is an "epidemic" of deadly violence against the trangender community driven by "transphobia" and even "white supremacy."

"Transgender people are less likely to be murdered than the rest of the population, most transgender people are murdered by members of their own race, and intimate partner violence -- not hate -- is the leading identified motive for most such murders," Lundgren and Wright found.

The researchers investigated more than 300 murder cases dating back to 2015 where the victim was transgender.

In the cases where suspects were identified, black suspects accounted for 65% of perpetrators, while white suspects accounted for 18%.

"This finding is not the result of one bad year or a handful of outlier cases," the researchers stated.

The report noted that in 2020 -- the year HRC attributed the deaths of "our Black trans siblings" to "an epidemic of violence" fueled by "systems of white supremacy" -- not a single white suspect was identified in the cases the Manhattan Institute researchers verified.

Confirmed hate crimes were only found in 3.3% of cases the Manhattan Institute studied.

"The leading identified circumstance of the murders was instead intimate partner violence," the researchers wrote. "Other common circumstances included sex-work encounters, disputes, robbery, and other forms of interpersonal conflict."

"In other words, the dominant pattern is not hateful white men hunting down black transgender victims because of racism and transphobia," they continued. "It is violence between people who know each other, sleep with each other, live around each other, or encounter each other in high-risk contexts."

The researchers also found that between 2010-2014 the transgender murder rate was roughly one-seventh what it was for the general population.

During that 5-year stretch, 3.66 per 100,000 transgender people were murdered. The rate among the general population was 25.8 per 100,000.

They found the homicide rate of young black transgender women (69% of all victims) to be "approximately one quarter that of young Black non-transgender men."

"Misleadingly, these male victims are usually compared with black non-transgender women (females), which makes their homicide rate look unusually high for 'women,'" the researchers noted.

HRC did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.

The Dutch have reported that their first euthanasia of a baby went well with no complications, except for killing a baby, of course.

Antifa types try to block a highway with ropes but a truck says f you hippie scumbags.

The full Converse ad that professional and semi-pro Grievance Grifters pretend is a KKK dog whistle. When you see the whole video, you better appreciate how completely fabricated this latest Race Hoax is.

A Maryland Renaissance Festival has done what was necessary and banned the furries.

While Ren Fest is a chance to dress up in creative costumes, organizers say one look is not welcome this year: Furries.

Specifically, the festival has banned "fursuits."

"Our decision to specifically prohibit fursuits is based on repeated incidents with patrons wearing said costumes at the festival," organizers announced in the spring, accusing wearers of "behaviors that have made other patrons uncomfortable," "unauthorized performances" and "the open refusal to respect or cooperate with festival staff/security/and first aid."

Fursuits are now banned under the festival's "headwear restrictions."

"All headwear must be removable, thematic to the event, and appropriate for a family-friendly venue. Face-covering must be removed upon entering the village gate after which they can be worn as intended," the event's website reads. "Inappropriate, offensive, and non-thematic headwear will not be permitted through the festival gates. Examples of non-compliant headgear/face coverings include inappropriate face paint, offensive prosthetics, make up or masks intended to frighten, and fursuits."

I've never been to a Ren Faire -- yet -- but when I do go, I hope to see people in dark-ages era outfits, especially busty girls with low necklines.

I don't want to see a bunch of smelly autistic perverts in Sexy Wolf costumes.

Adult female toddler has meltdown over the fact that her old female friends are now married with families and so can't go out to half-price margaritas night at Chi-Chi's at the drop of a hat like they used to.

SJWs have instruction manuals for how to validate yourself and cultivate your already-overgrown narcissism.

Self-care isn't just for deranged AWFULs, either. It's also for aging overrated pussyboy leftist "rockers."

I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 @ImMeme0
Transgender substitute teacher at a high school said a Mexican-American studies classroom made him feel "good" after he saw a "progress pride" flag hanging next to the Mexican flag.

He added that he prefers teaching high school because, when he worked in elementary school, he had a lot of problems with parents.

Just to add some context about who they're dealing with. He made a video about being triggered after he was misgendered and wife is a biological woman who is also transgender and identifies as a man.

These are the people who teach your children.

Video here.

Posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:00 PM Comments

Perfect: Nikole Hannah-Jones Didn't Just Send Her Daughter to a Failing School, She Sent Her Daughter to a School That Teaches Her Fraudulent "1619" Agenda

—Disinformation Expert Ace

I didn't highlight an important part of Nikole Hannah-Jones' virtue-sacrificing of her daughter to boost her career as a professional race hustler. I rage-quit the article just a thousand words in.

John Sexton read further -- and found that the school routinely allowed fights, did not discipline students, and didn't even grade students.

Toward the end of first grade, Najya started sometimes saying she didn't like her school and complaining how chaotic it was at lunch. I decided to visit during the lunch period and was shocked by what I saw. Najya's class and another class were sitting at their tables in the cafeteria with no lunch and no adult supervision. Children were running wild, chasing, hitting and pushing each other while the teacher's aides and cafeteria workers stood by looking bored.

Several times, I had to instruct children to stop striking each other and to sit down, at one point physically pulling two boys apart. When I asked one of the aides why the children weren't being supervised, she told me the lunch period was short-staffed. After I sat back down with Najya, she told me, "It's always like this, and that's why I don't want to go to this school."

...

Finally, a few days before school let out for winter break, I received a folder in Najya's backpack with the math assignments I had been requesting since our conference. Once I tucked her into bed, I sat at my dining room table and scanned one page, then another and another. None of them were graded. I started checking Najya's work and discovered most of her answers were wrong. Najya believed herself to be good at math -- it was her favorite subject. But now I understood she thought she was correctly solving all her problems because her teacher was not checking her work. Similarly, Najya's writing assignments were rife with uncorrected punctuation, capitalization and grammar errors.

This isn't a question of money, this is a result of poisonous leftwing policy imperatives about "equity," insisting that grades are anti-equity as they separate good learners from poor ones, and that punishing any student is likewise anti-equity because good-behaving students aren't punished at all.

By abandoning all standards, a single standard is selected by default: the standard of the sewer, the standard of the pit.

Peachy Keenan @KeenanPeachy
Why am I just learning now that public schools in the New York city ghetto don't assign homework, don't grade tests, don't respond to parents emails or phone calls, don't supervise feral, fighting kids at lunch, don't know or care if their students can read or do grade level math, and give them As on their report cards when they are actually doing F level work?

Why did Nikole Hannah Jones bury this explosive lede?

Why isn't she writing emergency front page @nytimes stories about this shocking, incredible, abject citywide failure that costs people who pay taxes over $50K per student per year?

Why isn't she holding emergency all-hands on deck meetings with @NYCMayor
to shut this down, rescue these kids, fire everyone involved?

We all know why. But no one at the Times will say a word. LOL

Giving high school diplomas and 4.0 GPAs out to illiterate 18 year olds as reparations

it's really just as simple as that

"Equity" is the only thing that matters. It's pure Harrison Bergeron.

Remember, the only thing we need to do to improve failing schools is pay teachers more and give every student his own laptop.

It has nothing at all to do with ending all disciplining, suspension, and expulsion of chronically disruptive and even violent black students.

The Federalist notes that the deranged narcissist Nikole Hannah-Jones just happened to Virtue-Sacrifice her daughter at a shithole school that didn't teach students anything, but did waste time teaching her debunked, fraudulent "1619" thesis.

The failing school that race-grifter Nikole Hannah-Jones sent her child to used Hannah-Jones' ahistorical 1619 Project as part of its curriculum, public records show.
...

In 2022, Najya would have been in seventh grade and therefore a student at Unison for two years of the 1619 fabrications.

...

The basic premise of the 1619 Project is that the true founding of America happened in 1619 when the first slave ships with Africans arrived. Everything that happened after that, including the American Revolution, was really for the express purpose of continuing the institution of slavery, as opposed to any grander purpose like freedom, liberty, and self-determination. It is an "antiracist" project that has suffered withering rebuttals from historians across the political spectrum for its numerous errors, but the race-essentialist lens that undergirds it goes far beyond the false telling of history.

The "antiracist" movement as a whole means curricula across subjects, school policies on discipline, and grading are all rearranged to coddle particular groups of students based on skin color, while ignoring everyone else. Unsurprisingly then, "antiracism" is the essential premise of Hannah-Jones' essay, even though she tries not to admit it, and the "antiracist" elements described above were deeply embedded in the school she selected.

...

The racial programming appeared to work, as Najya herself, when looking for a more rigorous high school, said, "I'd never been in a school with white kids and don't think I really wanted that," but between it all, the true consequences of 1619-informed "antiracism" came out as well.

"Unison had eliminated homework because studies show that it does not have much impact on academic achievement, and that assigning it often sets up for failure students who are so academically behind that they cannot do the work on their own."

Some kids can't do homework therefore "equity" demands that no students do homework, including the more advanced students who could actually gain from it.

" Under the Unison system, students completed their assignments during class time where a teacher could guide and help if they got stuck. But for students like Najya, this practice proved absolutely harmful," Hannah-Jones admitted. "She'd bemoan how the less experienced teachers struggled to manage their classrooms and would expend so much attention on the small number of kids acting out that they'd be unable to complete their lessons or help a student stuck on a problem. There were occasionally fights in the hallway."
Instead of disciplining any children who acted out in class, teachers had to "refocus students and mitigate conflict" in real-time, meaning they had very little opportunity for actual class instruction. In the same sentence, Hannah-Jones claims that "this is good educational practice," and then adds, "but kids like Najya, who were just trying to do their work, saw this treatment as deeply unfair."

In reality such policies are unfair because not disciplining students deprives both misbehaving students and their more studious peers of educational consistency throughout the day. Like not assigning homework, or "equity grading," there is no accountability or rigor during or outside the school day, and students in such schools often end up advancing years in school while remaining academically stunted.

When her ill-prepared daughter finally went to a more academically focused school -- which was attended mostly by (spit) whites and (spit) Asians -- she found that her shithole school fake education left her woefully unprepared.

Her A's and B's at Unison amounted to failing grades in high school. She struggled to keep up with homework assignments and nightly reading, and because she "had never been taught the skills of independent study, ... suddenly the child whose identity had been the nerdy honors student was working harder than she ever had and barely keeping up."
An algebra tutoring center told Hannah-Jones that "Najya knew very little algebra and had huge gaps in many of the building blocks of math that she should have learned in elementary school, like mastery of long division and fractions."

Remember, the only problems here are "racism" and white people not paying enough in taxes to "resource" these schools properly. The problem is definitely not the destructive left-wing cult of "equity" that left-wing blacks have forced on their own children.

Don't worry, guys -- Randi Weingarten says she's going to figure out Who's Responsible For This.

Posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:00 PM Comments

Supreme Court Now Okays Trump's Plan to Allow States to Use Federal Databases to Screen the Voter Lists for Ineligible Voters

—Disinformation Expert Ace

The Supreme Court had previously joined in the left-wing plan to delay implementation of Trump's Executive Order until it was late enough in the season that they could claim it would cause "chaos" to implement it so late.

Now it blesses not a screening of mail-in ballots -- that would still cause "chaos," I guess -- but the simple use by states (at their discretion; left-wing governments won't screen ballots) of the Social Security databases to discover if a voter is a citizen or not.

So this is a weaker version of Trump's plan, which left-wing states won't even implement.

The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with its plan to use a modified centralized database to verify voters' citizenship. In a seven-page opinion issued just 39 days before the Nov. 3, 2026, election, the justices paused a ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that had blocked the government from doing so on the ground that it violated (among other things) federal privacy laws.
The unsigned opinion for the majority indicated that the lower court's order "inhibits the Federal Government's efforts to assist state and local agencies in the proper administration of the midterm elections."

In a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called Friday's decision a "questionable interim ruling[] about two statutory provisions" that the Supreme Court "has never before interpreted." She also contended that the majority "focuses only on the harms the Government will purportedly suffer absent a stay, disregarding the harms that the" use of the modified database "has caused, and will likely continue to cause, to lawful voters."

If you're surprised to see the left-wing minority dissent quoted more than the actual ruling of the court, you must be new here.

The dispute dates back to late March, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order that (among other things) directed the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to set up systems that would permit state and local governments to verify voters' citizenship and immigration status. Those agencies then modified the Department of Homeland Security's Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as the SAVE system, to include the records of U.S.-born citizens, to give it access to Social Security numbers, and to allow users to conduct multiple searches simultaneously.

...

Sooknanan wrote that "the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote." Moreover, she continued, "states have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information."

Boy lower court rulings sure are being highlighted here.

I wonder what the actual Supreme Court just ruled? You know, the actual newsorthy information?

...

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer went to the Supreme Court on Sept. 8, asking the justices to freeze Sooknanan's ruling while the litigation continues. Sooknanan's decision, he wrote, was an "indefensible order that threatens the integrity of upcoming elections by vacating the federal government's authority to internally use Social Security data when fulfilling its duty to respond to requests by States to verify the citizenship of individuals for voting and other purposes." Moreover, he argued, Sooknanan did not have the power to enter her order because the challengers do not have a legal right to sue, known as standing. Among other things, he contended, the federal government is not the source of any injury that the challengers and their members might suffer, because the SAVE system "merely notifies the States whether the federal government can confirm citizenship."

I'm omitting the next three paragraphs, which extensively quote the plaintiff's arguments. Not a lot about the arguments that actually prevailed.

The majority rejected the challengers' contention that the use of the modified SAVE system violates the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act, and the federal law governing administrative agencies. It explained that in a federal immigration law enacted in 1996, "Congress ... separately and expressly authorized DHS to request and receive information relating to citizenship and immigration status from other agencies, including SSA."
The Supreme Court has also "often granted" review (another factor in determining whether to award emergency relief), the majority wrote, "where a lower court has set aside an important federal program" -- which, it appeared to suggest, the modified SAVE system is.

Moreover, the majority added, the federal government will suffer permanent harm (yet another factor that courts consider) if the district court's order remains in place. Under federal immigration law, the majority reasoned, "the Federal Government has an obligation to respond to requests from state and local election officials seeking to verify the citizenship of voters. The order below prevents the Federal Government from using the program it believes is best suited to the task."

Unrelated: Obama wants to create a censorship board stuffed with leftists and NeverTrumpers to patrol people's speech.

Posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:00 PM Comments

California Runs a "Shadow" Welfare System for Illegal Aliens

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Remember, illegal aliens aren't eligible for welfare, so you Racists should stop peddling RUSSIAN MISINFORMATION and claiming they are.

But also, Gavin Newsom and California Democrats openly brag of giving welfare to illegal aliens, "legal or not."

California runs the nation's largest welfare system, devoting more than $180 billion annually to food, health care, and other programs for the poor and downtrodden. To sustain the arrangement, the state imposes the nation's highest tax rates.
In theory, these programs are supposed to help struggling Californians. In reality, many serve large numbers of illegal immigrants. Today, California oversees a shadow welfare system that allows noncitizens to receive health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low-cost car insurance, and even smartphones on the taxpayers' dime.

We visited four public-services offices in Southern California, each of which admitted that illegal aliens can enroll in public-welfare programs or receive benefits on their children's behalf. In total, California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year. The state's shadow welfare system, it seems, shows no signs of slowing down.

Local officials were remarkably transparent. In Glendale, we spoke to a welfare officer about California's Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a state-funded alternative to Supplemental Security Income that provides monthly cash assistance to low-income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled.

"If [you are] a citizen, you cannot get CAPI," he said. "I don't care about legal or not. Not being [a] citizen [is the key]."

In Los Angeles, we heard more of the same. We asked another welfare officer about the benefits available to illegal immigrants and their children. While some state programs are closed to illegals, we learned, they are open to those aliens' U.S.-born children.

"If you were born here and the child was born here, you get money for two," the officer said of CalWORKs, the state's version of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. "Because she is not and the child is, she only gets money for the child, and not for her."

These benefits add up. In California, illegal immigrants can qualify for CAPI, public health insurance, and various tax credits. Their children qualify for others, including CalWORKs and, as in other states, Section 8 rental subsidies. All told, a family of five in California with two illegal-alien parents, two U.S.-born children, and one illegal-alien grandparent can receive public services worth more than $100,000 per year.

State leaders are proud of it. In a recent podcast episode, Governor Gavin Newsom bragged about his "controversial" decision to extend Medi-Cal coverage to illegal immigrants. His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, encouraged people to sign up for the California Earned Income Tax Credit, a program whose promotional materials assure applicants that "no Social Security number" is "no problem."

The governor's office did not respond to our comment request by deadline.

Here's some better news: Trump is drastically reducing the number of (mostly fake) "refugees" in 2027.

And the left is going to hate this crop of refugees, because they're actually refugees.

The Trump administration plans to cap next year's refugee inflow at 17,500 people, down from the 125,000 target set under President Joe Biden.
The State Department laid out the plan in a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday, a week before the 2027 fiscal year opens in October. Admissions will "primarily be Afrikaners from South Africa," the notice says, naming the Afrikaans-speaking white minority descended from Dutch and French settlers.

Biden's agencies set the 125,000 target in his last year in office. Resettlement contractors put the long-run average at roughly 92,000 a year since the program started in 1980. Trump's first term bottomed out at 15,000.

The administration set last year's ceiling at 7,500, then lifted it to 17,500 after declaring that unforeseen developments in South Africa had created an emergency. Next year's number holds at that level.

Posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:00 PM Comments