Cultural Enrichment Watch: Teenage Terrorists Throw Shrapnel Bombs at NYC Mayoral Mansion, Flash ISIS Signs for the Cameras

Apparently the Junior Jihadis were attempting to murder protesters who believe that Muslims are dangerous. Thereby proving the protesters' point.

The terrorists are the sons of naturalized citizen Muslim parents.

Denaturalize and deport. We don't have to put up with this.

One of the accused terrorists busted for lobbing explosive devices near Gracie Mansion flashed a sick salute honoring ISIS as he was led in shackles from a police precinct Monday.

Emir Balat, 18, was seen holding up his right index finger -- a universal salute for the terror group -- and grinning at the press while being led by a cop and an FBI agent.

Balat, wearing a black T-shirt and beige pants, made the gesture before one of the officers flanking him slapped down his hand.

ISIS fighters have often used the index finger gesture in their propaganda. The gesture is also used by many Muslims to demonstrate their commitment to monotheism.

Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, both from Pennsylvania, were set to face federal charges on Monday.

The pair was arrested Saturday after allegedly trying to detonate a homemade "Mother of Satan" bomb during a protest outside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Upper East Side residence.

Law enforcement sources told The Post that one of the two suspects used the Arabic phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) after their police interview.

Balat, whose parents are reportedly from Turkey but who became naturalized citizens in 2017, grew up in a four-bed two-bath home in the leafy Pennsylvania suburb of Langhorne, worth an estimated $653,000, while his alleged sidekick lived in a $2.25 million six-bedroom home near the New Jersey border.

Agents were seen raiding Balat's home following his arrest, as a "terror investigation" was underway.

The two teenagers reportedly made pro-ISIS statements while in police custody, and admitted to watching Islamist terror propaganda videos, federal law enforcement sources told Fox News correspondent CB Cotton.

...

The device, which consisted of a sports drink bottle filled with volatile explosive material TATP, set inside a glass jar surrounded by nuts and bolts, according to CBS News, could have been fatal if it had detonated.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (276) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: About That “Bad” Jobs Report - Government Employees & Foreign-Born Workers Hardest Hit

Economic prognosticators were caught by surprise with the Department of Labor’s February report showing a loss of 92,000 non-farm jobs. Nominal job growth was expected. (“U.S. Loses 92,000 Jobs in Widespread and Unexpected Downturn” – Wall Street Journal)

• Those 92,000 non-farm jobs that were lost include about 10,000 government employees.

• An undetermined number of NGO (non-governmental organization) workers whose funding has been cut off by Trump/DOGE were among those lost jobs too. These are jobs that conservatives have long advocated for elimination.

• The cold weather in February caused over 200,000 people to be unable to work.

• According to the Office of Personnel Management, Trump / DOGE has eliminated 264,000 federal jobs since he took office in January 2025. That is about 11% of the federal workforce taken off the government payroll in barely a year.

• Over the past year, employment of native-born Americans is up significantly. I get differing results based on whether we are talking about within the past 12 months or since Trump’s inauguration, but there are hundreds of thousands more native-born US citizens with jobs.

• Employment of foreign-born workers in the US is down over 500,000 since Trump’s inauguration.

• If all the fretting about the fragility of the economy were real, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell would have reason to finally cut interest rates, but he won’t. (Of course this is also driven by Powell’s partisan animus to Donald Trump. Powell is an Obama/Biden loyalist who, in my opinion, seeks to harm the Trump presidency. The end of his disgraceful tenure in two months will be a breath of fresh air.)

With the changes that President Trump is making by prioritizing US citizens over non-citizens, and by prioritizing taxpayers over tax recipients, there are obviously going to be some economic disruptions. But these are also necessary, and they are disruptions that we conservatives have been seeking for decades.

Isn’t it funny how all the “economic conservatives” of NeverTrump who have preached in favor of smaller government for decades keep sneering that Donald Trump is not a “true conservative,” even though President Trump is the first Republican in my lifetime to actually slash the federal government upon taking office?

��FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT HITS LOWEST RATE IN 60 YEARS.

In January alone, President Trump CUT 42k government jobs while ADDING 172k private sector jobs.

Smaller government - bigger economy.

PROMISES MADE - PROMISES KEPT! ���� pic.twitter.com/AUXVhJQYyJ

— Debra Lea (@thedebralea) March 4, 2026

*****

Climate Realism Rising

The Heartland Institute is holding its 16th International Conference on Climate Change next month, featuring a who’s who of the leading scientists and climate realists who have been educating the public on the reality of the climate hoax.

As a proud “climate denier” I will once again be attending and reporting on the conference. It is at the Hotel Washington in Washington DC on April 8th and 9th. I met several Ace of Spades readers at the previous climate conference in 2023 and I know that some of y’all will be in attendance this year. If so, I’d be delighted to shake your hand.

Climate communism seemed like an unstoppable force just a few years ago. The scientists who pushed back against media censors and government agencies pushing “net zero” are brave people who risked their reputations and livelihoods. They are heroes to me, like all the brave souls who have fought authoritarians and communists throughout the ages.

Here is a link with more information if you are considering attending. I’d be delighted to see you there.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (290) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Stilleven met Piëta
Dick Ket

Posted by: CBD at 09:33 AM | Comments (218) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 3/9/26

Good morning kids. As the conflict continues, and the Iranian regime continues to get its ass kicked, there are some mixed signals from Tehran and DC.

First, President Trump has stated our position clearly to the enemy as to what it will take for the bombing to stop:

For those at home and abroad who don’t know what to make of President Donald Trump’s talk of “unconditional surrender” from Tehran and how the next supreme leader is “not going to last long,” allow us to translate: He expects Iran to find leadership that isn’t committed to an insane Islamist agenda. That is, one that won’t seek nuclear weapons and ICBMs, sponsor global terror (including efforts to assassinate him) or work to impose Islamist puppet governments across the Middle East — all at the expense of the long-suffering Iranian people. Call it: Make Iran Normal Again.

And the response from Iran seems to be a giant flipping of the bird at President Trump;

The news of Mojtaba becoming the next Supreme Leader of Iran comes after President Donald Trump told ABC News that the next Supreme Leader of Iran would “have to get approval” from the United States, adding that without approval “he’s not going to last long.

And then there's this item which does not exactly fill me with confidence:

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump suggested the possibility of a ground operation had not been ruled out, saying U.S. forces could move in at a later stage of the conflict if necessary. “Right now we’re just decimating them, but we haven’t gone after it,” Trump said, referring to Iran’s nuclear material. “But something we could do later on. We wouldn’t do it now.”

The context here was not a full-blown ground offensive but some sort of limited special ops mission to secure the nuclear material. Even still, and I'm no expert, I have to believe this would require a large number of personnel as well as aircraft and perhaps ground vehicles. Oy. Even if successful, the fact that Khameini's son would become the next fuhrer with much of the previous Nazi high command still in power, Israeli Air Force bunker busters notwithstanding, how much longer can this go on. Unless a non-Islamic armageddon-seeking Muallahocracy takes control of Iran, my fear is that all of this will have been for naught.

And yet, we are on the cusp of a great realignment thanks to this President.

In calling for unconditional surrender, Trump is seeking not just regime change. He seeks the destruction of the Islamic regime that has held Iran in its fearsome grip since 1979, when the Ayatollah Khomeini flew in from Paris to commence his theocratic reign of terror. Richard Falk, writing in The New York Times, cheered the event, predicting that Khomeini would show the world what “a genuine Islamic government can do.” I agree that Khomeini did just that. But I reckon that all the bodies he had hung from cranes did not exactly fulfill Falk’s expectations. . .

Meanwhile, halfway around the world in the Western Hemisphere, the Communist dictatorship in Cuba is entering its final days. The daring extraction of Nicolás Maduro from Caracas at the beginning of January cut off Cuba’s supply of oil. Most of the island has been without power for days. Riots have erupted in Havana. “Down with Communism” is the refrain. On Thursday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that he is open to talks with the United States on “any issue” in order to build “a civilized relationship between neighbors” that is “mutually beneficial.” In Costa Rica, President-elect Laura Fernández says that she wants to work with the Trump administration to confront organized crime in order to avoid becoming ridden with drug cartels in the way Mexico has been. “Mexico, for me, is a reference point for where we don’t want to end up.” As I write, Trump is meeting in Miami with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele, Argentina president Javier Milei, and other Latin American leaders at the Shield of the Americas ceremony. The goal? First, to crush the drug cartels that have been poisoning Americans for years. Second, to stop the flow of illegal immigration to the United States. Third, to work together to forge mutually beneficial commercial and security relationships.
. . . It is difficult to keep up with Donald Trump’s dizzying pace. Since January 20, 2025, and with ever-increasing velocity, he has been stuffing decades into weeks. I don’t think there has ever been anything like it in American history.

Indeed. President Trump in both his terms, both domestically and in foreign policy has succeeded in overturning the tables of he money-changers in the temple, so to speak. At the barest of bare minimums he has exposed the hypocrisy and charade of the professional political class and done what he could, almost singlehandedly to attempt to reverse course.

Ah yes, Meanwhile in CUBA indeed! . . .

Federal prosecutors in South Florida are preparing a comprehensive investigation into numerous government officials who oversee the communist regime that controls Cuba. The United States Attorney for the District of Southern Florida is spearheading the inquiry, which is focused on uncovering evidence tying Cuban Communist Party officials to allegations of drug, immigration, economic, and violent crimes, with the aim of allowing the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring swift indictments should the regime fall.Notably, the investigatory actions in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Southern Florida come as President Donald J. Trump ramps up pressure on the Cuban government to abdicate its rule and transition away from the communist ideology imposed by the island’s late dictator, Fidel Castro, and subsequently enforced by his brother Raúl Castro. Since the removal of Venezuelan narco-dictator Nicolás Maduro from power earlier this year, Trump has contemplated action against Cuba, which maintained close ties to the Marxist regime in Venezuela. The U.S. President has even floated the possibility of military action against the communist island once current hostilities with the Islamic Republic of Iran conclude.The case being built by U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones in South Florida could provide pivotal legal and political justification for potential Trump administration actions against Cuba. As part of the effort, Quiñones has formed a working group that includes prosecutors from his office, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as the Treasury Department, the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

¡Hay Caramba! (Listen closely to hear the sound of Fredo Corleone and Hyman Roth packing their bags in a hurry!)

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
• "It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death."
  Mamdani Breaks Silence After NYPD Confirms Bomb Was Used In Terror Attempt
  
• The investigation could serve as a legal and political pretext for action against Cuba, similar to the case with Venezuela’s Maduro.
  Why is the DOJ Building a Criminal Case Against Cuba’s Communist Leaders?

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:20 AM | Comments (346) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 9 March 2026

Top Story

• Two court cases have ruled that AIs aren't people. (Yahoo)
  
  And they're not lawyers either, though lawyers also aren't people. Mostly.
  
  
  
• Will Anthropic's Pentagon controversy scare startups away from a trillion-dollar firehose of money? (Tech Crunch)
  
  No. Are you stupid?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (73) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - March 8, 2026 [Doof]

Photo credit - Beauty of Nature on X

Sunday night ONT is here! Did you enjoy your extra hour of daylight? Or are you in one of those non-conformist areas that stays on standard time all year? Didn't President Trump say he was going to do away with the bi-annual clock changes? Or is is semi-annual? Doesn't bi-annual mean twice a year OR every other year? I'm so confused! Anyway - what are your thoughts on Daylight Savings Time? Keep doing it? Stay on Daylight Time perpetually? Stay on Standard Time perpetually? Why do I ask so many questions? Do you hear me? Do you care?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:01 PM | Comments (416) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: March 2/5 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 Second March Edition? Seems like only last week it was the First March Edition!

I am out of town which means two things; a) this will be a lower than usual effort on my part, and 2) I probably won't be around much in the comments tonight. Please be nice to each other!

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 (225) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Quiet, Young Dog!

Plain old Hush Puppies! I used to eat them... a lot...at a good southern-influenced restaurant in NYC, and of course I order them whenever I see them on the menu in the real South!

But making them? Yup, it's easy, but I can't remember the last time I tried.

Well...tonight that changes!

But I think I will make an interesting dipping sauce, just to be difficult. Maybe Tahini-based, or even Chipotle-honey!

Or butter. Plain old butter!

Am I overthinking this?

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (271) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Interesting issue...did the grease gun shrink with disuse, or has the industry standard canister gotten bigger?

Either way, my best course of action is to raze the garage, and rebuild it with an integrated grease delivery system.

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (208) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tucker Carlson: Lord Haw Haw With A Bow Tie

Listening to Tucker Carlson's increasingly unhinged blather about America's absolutely justified war against the Islamic Republic occupying Iran is reminiscent of Tokyo Rose or Lord Haw Haw during the Second World War.

Tucker is spouting unbelievable nonsense that directly contradicts empirical evidence, yet he continues to be platformed by social media and the compliant dinosaur media because his message is in part rabid criticism of Donald Trump and American Hegemony.

And what's the other part? Well, foaming-at-the-mouth Jew-hate, in the guise of blaming the Israeli government for manipulating Donald Trump into going to war against Iran, suggesting disloyalty on the part of American Jewry, and further claiming that there is no Iranian intransigence...that it is entirely caused by American and Israeli aggression.

The supposed plot to kill President Trump and other officials? DISINFORMATION!

Tucker Carlson sarcastically floats nuking Iran if they actually try killing Trump in fiery clash with Ted Cruz over Israel conflict

Except...

Pakistani man found guilty in Iran-backed plot to kill US politicians

A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been found guilty of plotting to assassinate US politicians and officials.

Asif Merchant, 47, hired a hitman in New York to kill prominent American officials and targeted US President Donald Trump in 2024.

And here's the NYT link.

Oops!

Tucker Carlson is nothing more than a paid propagandist, trying to undermine his own country at the behest of his masters in Tehran and Qatar. Although he seems to be working for the Mullahs for free, because they are otherwise engaged and probably don't have the cash to pay him anyway. I guess it's just a labor of love for him.

At least Lord Haw Haw had the decency to leave Great Britain and go to Germany during World War II. Tucker insists upon enjoying the advantages of being an American citizen in America while simultaneously working to injure the country and strengthen its existential enemies in Iran and elsewhere. He is also viciously critical of "Christian Zionists," whom he claims are deluded, and have misinterpreted the Gospels. And we all know what an amazing scholar of the Bible Tucker is, so I guess we should take him seriously.

Curiously unmentioned in his rants are the facts of 47 years of Iranian warfare against America and the West. Also unmentioned are the many thousands of innocents murdered by Iranian proxies in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, and that is right out of the Goebbels Handbook!

Optimistically, Tucker Carlson's influence is going to wane, as his obvious partisanship and even more obvious stupidity begins to eclipse his measured and calm demeanor.

My personal theory: Tucker Carlson is dumber than a rock, but for many years at media outlets with writers and editors and producers and executives controlling his stupidity and hatred, his idiocy was hidden.

Now, without that advantage, the true Tucker Carlson emerges, and wow...he is a f*cking idiot!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (221) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 3-8-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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 (test results not guaranteed). 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, especially if you are wearing these pants...(HT: Piper, who wore these to the TXMOME last year.)

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (377) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 8 March 2026

Top Story

• Look to the skies: For the first time a spacecraft has diverted the orbit of an asteroid. (Science News)
  
  Two asteroids, in fact, the pair Dimorphos, which was the direct target, and Didymos, around which it orbits.
  
  The deliberate impact not only shortened the orbital period of Dimorphos by half an hour from its original twelve, but slowed the orbit of the pair around the Sun by... 10 micrometers per second.
  
  The experiment was four years ago; it took a while for the difference to add up to enough to detect.
  
  
  
• Don't bother looking to the skies: Astronomers have found a galaxy that is estimated to be made of 99.9% dark matter. (CNN)
  
  If it's dark, you ask, how did they find it?
  
  With extreme difficulty. With extreme difficulty and three telescopes.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (190) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - March 7, 2026 [2 Ds]

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

CSA (Club Service Announcement) - Daylight Savings Time will cause us to lose one hour of Club time tonight. Adjust your partying timeline accordingly!

[Top photo: Ocean Beach Brewery, courtesy of San Diego Magazine]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (592) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 3/7/2026

The Oscars

A couple of years ago, I went through all of the Best Picture winners and wrote about the whole experience over the course of about a year. I've been revisiting the whole exercise recently with an eye towards this year's ceremony, and I think I've come away with new thoughts.

Firstly, I think One Battle After Another will win the big award. Why? Well, I still haven't seen it (that'll change if it wins, it's on HBO Max), but it won the Golden Globe, the PGA, and the DGA awards. It's historically unusual for a movie to win that much (the different organizations have a lot of overlapping voters) and lose. I don't really care. I've only seen Frankenstein, F1, Train Dreams, and Sinners from the list of nominees (I'd vote for Frankenstein out of the three I've seen).

However, the point of this is to wonder...why the hell should anyone care?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM | Comments (240) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - March 7, 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 and it landed on paper cutting.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (134) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, March 7

Courtesy Terry Glenn

* * *

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 03:19 PM | Comments (82) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, March 7

Happy first Saturday in March! Don't forget to Spring Forward!

Sometimes the professionals do a good job with landscaping. What can we learn?

*

Posted by: K.T. at 01:27 PM | Comments (40) | Trackbacks (Suck)

These Mullahs are serious!

NO! Now is not the time for resignation!

Yesterday, Ace mentioned reports of visits to the UK for certain medical procedures by the apparent favorite of the Mullahs to be the new Supreme Leader of Iran.

He is said to be an avid gardener when not planning the massacre of protesters or celebrating terrorism. Harmless, yet "ten times as dangerous as his father", as some have called him.

I, myself, am kind of wondering why the UK would not be just a little bit uneasy about this guy owning SEVERAL luxury properties in London. And why Spain would have been happy about his recently deceased father owning property there.

Tim Orr studied Islam in London. He wrote a piece that was published in Substack and elsewhere: The Iranian Revolution and the Failure of the Secularization Thesis

History occasionally produces events that overturn the intellectual frameworks used to interpret the modern world. The French Revolution did this in 1789 by demonstrating the political power of mass mobilization, and the Russian Revolution did it again in 1917 by introducing an ideological state built on Marxism. Yet the Iranian Revolution of 1979 posed a challenge even more unsettling to modern assumptions. It had become a modernizing state that many believed was steadily moving toward secular development, given Peter Burger’s at that time on the secularization thesis, which he later rejected. It argued that as societies modernize, religion gradually loses social, political, and cultural influence.

Yet, suddenly, Iran produced a theocratic government led by clerics. For many scholars and policymakers, the outcome seemed almost inconceivable beforehand, given its shift to a more secularized government. The shock was not simply political; it was intellectual as well. The Iranian Revolution revealed a blind spot in modern political theory: the enduring political power of religion.

Prior to the revolution of 1979, most academic work, led by Burger, which was built upon the work of Max Weber and Émile Durkheim, assumed that modernization caused religion to retreat from politics as secular regimes rose to power. Industrialization, urbanization, and advances in education pushed religion away from the public sphere and toward private life. Indeed, Iran appeared to be heading in this direction under the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah, whose regime was committed to economic modernization and an alliance with the West. . .

Posted by: K.T. at 11:00 AM | Comments (359) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[Correction on Number 3. Go fishing. The book can be read later.]

*****

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 Grantsburg)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. Be excellent, don't be Pretti Good.
3) Running with sharp objects? Sure, go ahead, ER doc needs to get braces on that love child.
4) Have a great weekend!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (450) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 7 March 2026

Top Story

• New NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has killed the Exploration Upper Stage project for the SLS and will be open to bids for a replacement that might actually exist some day. (Ars Technica)
  
  Development of the Exploration Upper Stage has been in progress since 2016, with the initial launch date set for 2021. It's five years behind schedule and with $3.5 billion spent so far - nearly ten times the initial estimate - is no close to reality.
  
  The lead contractor for the project was Boeing, for what it's worth.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (108) | Trackbacks (Suck)