Illinois Governor (and Possible Presidential Candidate) JB Pritzker Signs Law Sealing Criminal Records to Protect Illegals from Deportation by the Feds

And also, as many people observe, to stop people from immediately looking up the criminal histories of the next scumbag to kill an innocent citizen. No more "arrested 58 times previously" headlines in Illinois.

They won't stop crime. In fact, they'll promote it.

But they will stop you from noticing crime.

Governor JB Pritzker
@GovPritzker

Jan 16

Today, we're empowering those seeking a second chance.

With my signature, Illinois will create an automatic process to seal the criminal records of those convicted of non-violent crimes.

We're opening up opportunities for those re-entering society to live healthy, stable lives.

Grok:

Illinois Governor Signs Clean Slate Act to Seal Nonviolent Records
Last updated

Jan 18

Governor JB Pritzker signed the bipartisan Clean Slate Act on January 16, automating the sealing of nonviolent criminal records for about 1.7 to 2.2 million eligible residents. It covers misdemeanors after two years, certain felonies after three or more, and petty offenses twice yearly, while excluding serious crimes like murder, sex offenses, and DUIs--law enforcement keeps full access. Supporters like Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth call it justice and redemption, citing higher wages and lower recidivism; critics including Republican lawmakers argue it protects repeat offenders and burdens background checks. The law phases in from June 1, 2026, with a task force monitoring impacts through 2034.

Simulator di tutti i Simulatori
@fleshsimulator

Jan 18

Well, I suppose that's ONE way to prevent news stories about someone with fifty prior arrests cutting an old lady in half with a sawzall on the subway or whatever

wanye
@xwanyex

Jan 17

There are so many things you can spend your time on, things to be motivated by, things that worry you, that bother you, that keep you up at night. And for progressives it just couldn't be clearer that near the top of that list is making life better and easier for criminals.

@amuse
@amuse

Jan 17

LAWFARE: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's signed of the Clean Slate Act sealing criminal records like theft, drug possession, and disorderly conduct to protect illegal criminals including MS-13 and TdA gang members from deportation.

wanye
@xwanyex

Jan 17

There are so many things you can spend your time on, things to be motivated by, things that worry you, that bother you, that keep you up at night. And for progressives it just couldn't be clearer that near the top of that list is making life better and easier for criminals.

Offenses like property crimes and narcotics charges will be wiped from records -- and taxpayers are told to trust the system

@amuse
@amuse

Jan 17

LAWFARE: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker's signed of the Clean Slate Act sealing criminal records like theft, drug possession, and disorderly conduct to protect illegal criminals including MS-13 and TdA gang members from deportation.

Of course, employers will no longer be able to discover if applicants are career thieves and drug abusters.

Commissioner Sean Morrison
@SeanMMorrison

Jan 17

JB Pritzker and Illinois Democrats passed laws allowing millions of criminal convictions to be sealed.

This isn't "reform" it's protecting criminals over citizens.

The result?
• Employers can't fully vet who they hire
• Landlords can't properly screen renters
• Businesses can't assess real risk
• Citizens lose basic transparency and protection from scammers

Public safety depends on truth and accountability, not hiding criminal histories to satisfy ideological talking points.

Once again, Illinois democrats puts ideology first, and everyday citizens pay the price.

Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (28) | Trackbacks (Suck)

As Part of the VP Candidate Vetting Process, Kamala Harris's Staff Asked Josh Shapiro If He Was a Double Agent for Israel

People whose only loyalty is to a resurrected Soviet Union sure seem overly bothered by "dual loyalty" paranoia.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was already irritated by what he describes as "unnecessarily contentious" questions from the team vetting him to be Kamala Harris's running mate when a senior aide made one final inquiry: "Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government?"

The question came from President Biden's former White House counsel Dana Remus, who was a key member of Harris's vice-presidential search team.

Shapiro, one of the most well-known Jewish elected officials in the country--and one of at least three Jewish politicians considering a run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination--says he took umbrage at the question. "Had I been a double agent for Israel? Was she kidding? I told her how offensive the question was," Shapiro writes in his forthcoming book, Where We Keep the Light, a copy of which The Atlantic obtained ahead of its release on January 27.

The exchange became even more tense, he writes, when Remus asked whether Shapiro had ever spoken with an undercover Israeli agent. The questions left the governor feeling uneasy about the prospect of being Harris's No. 2, a role that ultimately went to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. After Harris and Walz lost to Donald Trump, many Democrats were critical of her decision to bypass Shapiro, the popular governor of the nation's largest swing state. In his book, Shapiro says that the decision may not have been fully hers; he says he had "a knot in my stomach" throughout a vetting process that was more combative than he had expected. Shapiro wrote that he decided to take his name out of the running after a one-on-one meeting with Harris that featured more clashes, including about Israel.

The Biden/Harris "antisemitism envoy" objected to the question.

Should we also ask Muslims if they are loyal to "the Caliphate"? Actually, question retracted. We certainly should.

Posted by: Ace at 01:29 PM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT - Volkswagen’s Electric Vehicle Misfire: Its Made-In-America, Flagship EV is the Slowest Selling Vehicle in the United States

While I get some schadenfreude from documenting the financial damage that legacy American automobile manufacturers such as Ford and GM have inflicted on themselves with their EV misadventures, the mess at Volkswagen is deeply upsetting to me. Be it right or wrong, I know that the US government will bail out Ford and GM, if necessary, to help mitigate the damage done by their irresponsible executives. Volkswagen, on the other hand, is likely to pull out of the US market and close its US manufacturing operations if it can’t right its ship.

I have long been a fan of Volkswagen products. In the post-Beetle era, its lineup has provided modern German engineering and a German driving experience to the mass market. My wife and I had a Passat which was an exceptional vehicle. I might have bought an American-made VW Atlas for my most recent vehicle purchase if I wasn’t so disgusted by Volkswagen pursuing an all-EV future. I didn’t want to buy a car that VW’s executives were determined to kill off.

If Volkswagen is going to survive in the U.S., it had better re-commit to gasoline-powered (“ICE” vehicles, because its flagship electric offering, the ID.4, is the slowest selling car in the United States.

It would take 527 days to sell out the inventory of ID.4s in the United States, making it the slowest-selling vehicle in the country in January, according to metrics from CarEdge.

Have you ever heard of the Maserati Grecale? Me neither. It may be obscure and hard to sell, but it turns over faster than Volkswagen’s electric car.

The No. 2 slowest-selling vehicle in the United States in January was the Maserati Grecale.

Normal vehicle inventory takes 60 – 90 days to turn, and dealerships have historically targeted a 60-day supply of vehicles to ensure the optimum mix of vehicles without carrying excess inventory. For a vehicle which moves so slow that dealers are burdened with more than a year’s supply, they’d generally prefer to have zero units in stock. On the off chance a customer came in wanting to buy such a slow-moving vehicle, the dealer could easily get another dealer to transfer one.

Over the past several decades there has been an economic explosion in the American South, thanks in part to so many auto manufacturers locating plants in the region. In addition to those manufacturing operations, numerous suppliers also established nearby operations, and suppliers to those suppliers sprung up too. The cycle of prosperity and economic activity flows well when manufacturing is strong. Pretty much all the major Japanese, Korean, and German car companies have operations in the southern U.S. It’s a golden goose laying golden eggs.

But the EV fever somehow captured the minds of many auto executives and southern politicians, and they pursued EV investments in the South, even though the explicit goal was to kill-off the golden goose of existing ICE auto manufacturing.

In 2019, Tennessee’s then-governor, Republican Bill Haslam waxed enthusiastic about killing off ICE vehicles in favor of electric vehicles when he hyped VW’s announcement of a new Tennessee EV plant, “The shift toward electric vehicles is a trend that can be seen worldwide, and Volkswagen’s decision to locate its first North American EV manufacturing facility in Chattanooga underscores Tennessee’s manufacturing strength and highly-skilled workforce.” The state of Tennessee kicked in about $50 million of taxpayer dollars toward this ill-fated EV plant that was built alongside VW’s existing Tennessee plant.

Initial expectations were for the EV plant to assemble about 7,000 units per month, with the ability to ramp up to a volume exceeding 100,000 per year.

The actual demand has been negligible, averaging less than 20,000 units per year, even with federal rebates and aggressive pricing. But in Q4 of 2025, after the federal EV incentives expired, Volkswagen sold a nominal 248 electric ID.4s. That averages out to just 83 units per month, and annualizes to less than 1,000 units.

Volkswagen built a taxpayer-subsidized EV plant that was expected to produce about 10,000 electric vehicles per month, but it cannot even sell 100. The company may have no choice but to scrap the glut of unsold ID.4s, since consumers have made it clear that there is virtually no price at which they’re willing to buy them.

The failure of Volkswagen’s EV foray is an overall good thing for the American auto industry. The golden goose of ICE manufacturing lives on. But it is infuriating that politicians wasted taxpayer money on this malinvestment, and it will be especially sad if VW has to pull out of the American market and close its legacy Tennessee manufacturing plant due to the awful EV Gamble.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (612) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Charon Ferrying the Shades
Pierre Subleyras

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (265) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 1/19/26

Good morning kids. Whatever is happening with Venezuela, whatever the situation is in Iran and I am cheering on the long-suffering Persian people that they and the rest of humanity may at long last emerge from the shadow of Islamic terror, both of those pale in comparison to the mortal danger America, the American experiment and this nation faces now. Like many of you, I'd wager, despite my initial diffidence about Donald Trump 10 years ago, there is no doubt he has become one of the most important and consequential (in a positive sense) American presidents and indeed world leaders in our history. All that said, what the hell is with this fixation over Greenland?!

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that acquiring Greenland is “essential” to U.S. national security and that an impending “fight for the Arctic” is real. “President Trump strongly believes that we cannot outsource our security because … let me tell you what will happen. And it might not be next year, might not be in five years, but down the road, this fight for the Arctic is real,” Bessent began.

But as I stated, there are other frozen wastelands much closer to home that if we do nothing about them right here and right now will be our undoing.

Let me state it about as plainly as I can. The political leadership of the state of Minnesota, along with an alarming number of the citizenry, have de facto seceded from the Union and have all but openly declared war on the rest of the nation. You can read any of the links in the Civil War section or take in the totality of the headlines alone and that is a warning klaxon louder than a Concorde engine through a Marshall Amp as tall as the Washington Monument at full volume.

It seems that Minneapolis lefties have started patrolling the streets for drivers who happen to be behind the wheel of the same make of SUV as used by ICE and interrogating – not to say threatening – them. This video shows a gaggle of people’s tribunes who have brought an SUV to a stop (the video doesn’t show how) and forced the driver out to explain himself. They surround him, demand that he open the hatch to show them what he has inside, and then commence interrogating him. All that’s lacking are the Mao jackets and the caps with red stars. . . The driver’s attempts to ingratiate himself are almost as annoying: “I really appreciate what you guys are doing.” A century and a half ago, the socialist Commune took control of Paris and immediately started executing people. As they led one businessman to the killing ground, he cried out, “Why must I be shot … I know nothing of politics.”

The communard commander replied: “That is why you must be shot.” A century and a half, and they still haven’t woken up.

This is the mentality of the Cheka, the Red Guards, the Khmer Rouge – of every last attempt to introduce socialism by force -- out in the open and plain to see. One of the worst things about socialism is the way it empowers, encourages, and unleashes the foulest members of the human community. It can’t be crushed soon enough.

Elsewhere, the Neo Red Guards stormed into a church looking for blood:

The demonstrators with the Racial Justice Network stormed into the Cities Church and called out resident pastor David Eastwood, who they accused of moonlighting as the acting field office director for ICE in Minnesota.  A David Eastwood is listed as an employee with the field office, but it’s still unclear if that is the same man as the Cities Church pastor. The Post has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to check.

Mistaken identity-Schmidentity! Like the Urine-soaked lice-infested whorehouse mattress AKA Jasmine Crockett, accusing Lee Zeldin of accepting donations from Jeffrey Epstein, who as it turned out was not the infamous Epstein but someone unlucky enough to have the same name.

So, they take out the wrong guy, but the message has been sent. Mr. President, there is no alternative but to invoke the Insurrection Act, declare Minnesota in rebellion, arrest Walz, Frey, suspend the state legislature, dissolve Minneapolis' city charter, and appoint a territorial governor and mayor to run affairs and call in the armed forces to patrol the streets and restore order. Anyone who even raises an eyebrow should be arrested for conspiracy to aid and abet insurrection.

What are the risks politically? So we lose the midterms and perhaps 2028. The Democrat rigging machine will no doubt be going all out to make what happened in 2020 look like child's play. To let Minnesota get away with this ultimately means we lose the nation. This cannot stand and must not be allowed to stand. President Trump rightly rails against Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants as "the worst president in history" but if Donald Trump fails to set an example of Minnesota, he may go down not merely as the worst president but as the LAST real president in US history because the USA truly will cease to exist. In the years ahead, we may outwardly resemble America, but the spirit of this nation, the Constitution and the rule of a just and stable law based on the ascendancy of 2,000 plus years of Judeo-Christian and western history, culture and morality will come crashing down around us.

Hyperbole? You tell me.

Have a great day.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• The evening train between Malaga and Madrid went off the rails and slammed into a train coming from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to the Spanish rail operator Adif.
  At least 20 killed in high-speed train derailment, crash in southern Spain

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM | Comments (382) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 19 January 2026

Top Story

• The reason why RAM has become four times more expensive is that a huge amount of RAM that has not yet been produced was purchased with non-existent money to be installed in GPUs that also have not yet been produced, in order to place them in data centers that have not yet been built, powered by infrastructure that may never appear, to satisfy demand that does not actually exist and to obtain profit that is mathematically impossible.
  
  — Unknown
  
  
  
• The mythology of conscious AI. (Noema Mag)
  
  This article gets one important thing right: LLMs are not conscious.

  In a 2022 interview with The Washington Post, Google engineer Blake Lemoine made a startling claim about the AI system he was working on, a chatbot called LaMDA. He claimed it was conscious, that it had feelings, and was, in an important sense, like a real person. Despite a flurry of media coverage, Lemoine wasn't taken all that seriously. Google dismissed him for violating its confidentiality policies, and the AI bandwagon rolled on.

  I commented on that story at the time. Lemoine is a crazy as a sack of rats on crazy pills. And was also completely and very obviously wrong, which is not the same thing.

  As AI technologies continue to improve, questions about machine consciousness are increasingly being raised. David Chalmers, one of the foremost thinkers in this area, has suggested that conscious machines may be possible in the not-too-distant future. Geoffrey Hinton, a true AI pioneer and recent Nobel Prize winner, thinks they exist already.

  Wait. David Chalmers said what?
  
  Huh. He did say that. A mostly sensible article summarising the evidence on both sides, concluding that pure feed-forward LLMs are not conscious but extended LLMs with recurrent processing - feedback loops - could be. (Boston Review)
  
  Back to Noema:

  Taken together, these biases [anthropocentrism, which is irrelevant, human exceptionalism, which is irrelevant, and anthropomorphism, which is actually the key here - Pixy] explain why it's hardly surprising that when things exhibit abilities we think of as distinctively human, such as intelligence, we naturally imbue them with other qualities we feel are characteristically or even distinctively human: understanding, mindedness and consciousness, too.

  A little bit of nonsense thrown in at the start but an accurate description of the problem in the end.
  
  But then it all falls apart:

  The very idea of conscious AI rests on the assumption that consciousness is a matter of computation.

  Which is rather like assuming that water is a molecule made of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms.

  More specifically, that implementing the right kind of computation, or information processing, is sufficient for consciousness to arise.

  Because it is.

  This assumption, which philosophers call computational functionalism, is so deeply ingrained that it can be difficult to recognize it as an assumption at all.

  As much as the molecular structure of water is an assumption.

  But that is what it is.

  Nope.

  And if it's wrong, as I think it may be, then real artificial consciousness is fully off the table, at least for the kinds of AI we're familiar with.

  "Kinds of AI we're familiar with"? Do you mean feed-forward models, which are definitely not conscious, or enhanced systems with feedback loops?

  Challenging computational functionalism means diving into some deep waters about what computation means and what it means to say that a physical system, like a computer or a brain, computes at all. I'll summarize four related arguments that undermine the idea that computation, at least of the sort implemented in standard digital computers, is sufficient for consciousness.
  
  First, and most important, brains are not computers.

  And we're dead.
  
  Brains are obviously computers and it is trivially easy to prove this.
  
  Take a line of BASIC code, like:
  
  10 PRINT 3+7
  
  What does that do?
  
  It prints 10.
  
  How do you know?
  
  Because you can execute that code in your head.
  
  How can you do that?
  
  Because your brain is a computer.
  
  It may be more than a computer - though nobody has produce a coherent, let alone convincing argument for this - but it is unquestionably a computer.
  
  There follow dozens of paragraphs of irrelevancies I won't get into, but suffice to say that it all goes downhill from there.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (142) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - January 18, 2026 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday night ONT. So glad you stopped by. Wouldn't be the same without you!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (496) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Third January Edition!

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 third January edition? Who could have seen that coming?!

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 (233) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Render Unto Yorkshire (Pudding) The Things That Go With Yorkshire (Pudding)

I recently bought a large chunk of converted vegetarian food to break down into steaks. There was a fair amount of lovely-looking fat which I couldn't bear to waste, so I rendered it into about a pint of gorgeous, pure-white beef tallow.

And what to do with it? Well, aside from using it as a cooking fat for all sorts of delicious stuff like fried eggs, and mixed into hamburger if it doesn't look fatty enough, and sautévegetables in to get them nice and brown and crispy?

Yorkshire pudding! Which goes wonderfully with the aforementioned steaks!

Although...these were a decidedly unimpressive batch. They didn't rise and get puffy and airy as much as I wanted, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I used too much beef tallow. I know...it's strange just writing those words, but that may have been the problem.

However, they were delicious and fatty and absolutely fun to eat, so, I can't complain, just observe.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (259) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

This is why America is fat!

We have been lied to by "Big Weight," and who knows how long this has been going on!

They are lucky I don't have a scale for the bigger dumbbells, or I would be contacting my attorney!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (244) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Greenland, NATO, The EU...The Clownshow Continues

Whether Greenland is a vitally important strategic island that absolutely requires American possession is a question for the ages, but it is a militarily-important bulwark in the North Atlantic. It is an excellent point from which to defend the Atlantic from the Arctic Ocean and the Barents Sea. Does it have enough rare earth elements and other resources to make it even more important? Yeah...probably not. We have plenty of that sort of stuff in America, it's just that we have an insane regulatory state that makes using our own resources a massive undertaking.

Because it is a territory of Denmark, the few people who live there are treated as vassals, when they are treated at all. That is entirely unsurprising, because the track record of European colonialism is mixed at best.

Greenlanders Blast Danish Rule: 'They Stole Our Future'

This shouldn't be taken as a sign that Greenland natives are anxious to come over to the United States. Denmark is trying to make amends to the natives who were thusly mistreated, to the tune of roughly $46,000 each in reparations. That's just; unlike the calls for reparations in the United States, these payments are being made to the living people who suffered under an unjust policy, which is quite a different kettle of fish.

Many Greenland natives would rather the island be an independent nation. But that's not a tenable solution, especially in today's tense geopolitical atmosphere, where the Arctic is increasingly a vital strategic area, with all the major nations - the United States, Russia, and China in particular - looking to that region's resources. Greenland has to be under someone's defensive envelope, and even as a Danish possession, they fall under the protection of NATO, as it would as a possession of the United States.

President's Trump's saber rattling with respect to "taking Greenland" is entirely unnecessary, and could have been neatly avoided by playing up the miserable living conditions of the people of Greenland, and the equally miserable way they have been treated by the Danes. America could have been their knight in shining armor, bringing equality and prosperity to their shores. Making some offer to purchase or in some other way take possession of Greenland as a reasonable transaction between allies would have disarmed the reflexive nationalism that is bubbling up in Denmark and Greenland. Is the President's threat of military action a serious one? I doubt it. It is more of his unpredictability, which serves him quite well in many ways. But with Greenland I think it is bolstering the enemies of America.

On the other side of the equation, the idea that the EU will rush in with military force to protect Greenland is clownish in the extreme. Force projection is a joke in the EU. They can barely keep their few planes flying, much less maintain any sort of heavy lift capability. In fact, in a recent military exercise, Germany sent 13 soldiers to Greenland, and they had to use a Polish airline to get them there. And less than two days later they were ordered out, presumably because of President Trump's comments.

And the ridiculousness doesn't end there. Threats to throw America out of Europe if we take Greenland? Sure...that would mean an almost instant Russian victory in Ukraine, the loss of many billions of dollars of American spending in Europe, and the very real threat of an expansionist Russia, because there is simply no real military on the continent.

So...everyone calm down. Greeenlanders? Take nice big checks written by America, and maybe some good high-paying jobs in our expanding military infrastructure and mining efforts. Denmark? Smile, cash the check, and relax now that you don't have to deal with Greenland. And the EU? Just sit down and shut up. Nobody cares what you think.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (297) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 1-18-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: OrangeEnt)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (301) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 18 January 2026

Top Story

• Same: Elon Musk wants $134 billion in his OpenAI lawsuit. (Tech Crunch)

  The figure comes from expert witness C. Paul Wazzan, a financial economist whose bio says he has been deposed nearly 100 times and testified at trial more than a dozen times in complex commercial litigation cases.

  I have acted as an expert witness once. You couldn't pay me enough to do it again... Though $134 billion would be tempting.

  Wazzan, who specializes in valuation and damages calculations in high-stakes disputes, determined that Musk is entitled to a hefty portion of OpenAI's current $500 billion valuation based on his $38 million seed donation when he co-founded the startup in 2015.

  Much of the article is devoted to ad-hominem attacks by the partisan lunatics at Tech Crunch, who think fraud is okay against people for whom they feel irrational hatred.
  
  
  
• Better be quick, Elon because an analysis of OpenAI's finances suggests they could run out of money as soon as 2027. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  If you're wondering why the beancounters at the big memory manufacturers are being wary of rapid expansion in the face of unprecedented demand, well, it's because they are able to read a spreadsheet and they do not like what they see.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:05 AM | Comments (173) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - January 17, 2026 [Double Play]

Welcome to Club ONT - A Double Play collaboration of The Disco and The Dino.

Looking for more fun than you can bear? Well, come on in and see what's bruin! Please leave the cubs outside, things can get a little bit grizzly in here. Stock up on restroom tokens, avoid using the woods outside for - well, you know what bears do in the woods!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (336) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Saturday Evening Movie Post [with moviegique]: Dr. Zhivago

We enter the bleakest time of the year for dedicated moviegoers, what Red Letter Media used to call "F--- You, It's January." I think later they rebranded it as something like "F--- You, It's Forever" when looking at the dismal line up of...2019? I don't precisely recall, but it is hard to look at the slate of major releases with a sense of optimism.

We saw a good quasi-documentary about Storks called "The Tale of Silyan," which tells a true-ish story while featuring gorgeous images of storks and landscape, from National Geographic.

Then there's "The Plague," an odd '90s coming-of-age story with strong horror elements. But, you know, junior high is already a horror story. It was solid. Joel Edgerton stars as the world's most clueless gym coach.

We ventured out to a classic L.A. theater tp see the delightful 1958 Jacques Tati film, "Mon Oncle". I can't recommend it strongly enough. It's partly translated from French but partly not because the dialogue isn't that important. It's almost a silent cartoon comedy, very gentle, and at this point, painfully poignant, as this is a France which, even mocked, shall nevermore be.

Speaking of painfully poignant, however, I went on the the 30th or 31st to see Dr. Zhivago. I nearly wept for the artistry, and realizing this is another thing that will not be created in the future. The beauty, the scope, the blocking, the set design--I mean, turning 1960s Spain in the summer into 1915 Russia in the winter. And the story itself is delicate. Nobody saves the cat.

It's the 60th anniversary, so I thought I'd re-up the 50th anniversary review I wrote. I'm pretty much in accord with myself on this latest viewing (not always the case), but I liked it even more this time.

I still find the elision of Lara and her abusive customer's relationship jarring. It's there but we have to do some heavy inferring.

Sharif had to tape his eyes back to look less Egyptian. Can you imagine?

It didn't do my heart good to watch tiny, dimwitted tyrants telling people what they should and shouldn't be allowed to have, and I despaired that those people are still running around, still thinking they should run things.

Nonetheless, I will be surprised to see a better movie this year, unless I go see "Lawrence of Arabia".

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (284) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - January 17, 2026 [TRex]

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. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) a spin it landed on sea glass.

[Top photo: Glass Beach, Kauai, Hawaii]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (136) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, January 17

Courtesy Michael Johnson

* * *

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 03:03 PM | Comments (60) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Jan 17

Outdoors, in California:

I hope you are doing well. Our first daffodil bloomed! Such a happy flower.

NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker

Posted by: K.T. at 01:16 PM | Comments (30) | Trackbacks (Suck)

People who keep us thinking past artificial intelligence

R.I.P. Scott Adams

Scott Adams never lost the ability to surprise me with his ideas and observations. He could comment on the same event or situation everyone else was looking at and reveal a new angle or a whole new world. My brain grew every time I heard his voice. What a loss. What a figure.

Walter Kirn

*

Scott Adams Quotes

Which is your favorite? Do you recall the context of your favorite?

Posted by: K.T. at 11:11 AM | Comments (242) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[Poetry H/T: Doof]

*****

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 Minnehoeplis.)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. And yes those are real banhammers.
3) Running with sharp objects will result in severe sanctions. Run accordingly.
4) And finally. Have a nice weekend!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (365) | Trackbacks (Suck)