Overnight Open Thread [02/09/2026]

The burbs are great after a big snow. Especially when the temperature doesn't skyrocket afterward and the snow sticks around for a few weeks. My little town does a good job of clearing the roads, so driving is effortless, and the pleasure of a white wonderland is clear to see without having to slog through a big mess.

NYC is a different animal entirely, and they are welcome to their garbage-strewn streets and slush mountains. I'll take the pristine (for now) suburbs any day over 3:00AM Thai takeout and marijuana delivery.

Posted by: CBD at 10:18 PM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ghost Walk Cafe

A little hike in the Swiss Alps

Cute little deep-sea mutants.

If I had a pool you better believe it would be free entry for duck families. And sure, I'd race a duck.

Ducks are very underrated animals. No one ever thinks of them but the minute you see one you smile.

I don't know how to reconcile this but sometimes I go to a Chinese restaurant that specializes in Peking Duck. I guess they make me smile there, too.

Speaking of races: human v. border collie v. greyhound, the latter just toying with the other two.

Old vid, but it proves that dogs want to help and are 75% human.

It's like Melrose Place but with dog affairs.

Some animals are unherdable, little guy.

Gooooooooaaaatsss

Pretty girl bats her eyes and wags her tail.

Pup on a swing.

This is how I've felt since my Thanksgiving/Christmas weight gain.

When is summer? Tomorrow will be the first day of non-freezing temperatures for me. Gotta get out for a hike.

I became aware of this clickbait style post last year, when I saw questions asking do you see A or B when the answer was obviously C. And that bothers you, the idea that it's so obviously C but this idiot doesn't see it. I know this is just preying on the deep human instinct to correct someone. But I just keep falling for it. That one is especially hard to resist.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (212) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Japan's "Ultra-Right-Wing" Extremist PM Wins a Shockingly Large Victory By Running on Promise to Seriously Restrict Immigration to the Island Nation

Keemochee, I said in a high-pitched Japanese voice. Oooh Sugai!, I added, squealing in delight.

These are just a couple of Japanese words I happen to know. Why do I know them? Shut up, narc. I just know them, okay? We don't need to get any more detailed than that.

PM Sanai Takaichi won a landslide, giving her conservative party its biggest lower-house majority in history.

The upper house often frustrates the will of the people by vetoing the decisions of the lower house, but now she has a veto-proof two thirds super-majority.

NPR is of course very sad and rushes to soothe its meltbrain medicated AWFUL readers about all the way this crushing victory could turn in a huge disaster!

SEOUL -- Japan's first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, brought the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) its biggest electoral victory in its 71-year history, fueling her ambitions to pursue to a political agenda which she herself says could "split public opinion."

Oh no! She's going to push her agenda so hard that it might alienate the Japanese equivalent of RINOs so, you see, in a way, her victory is really a Secret Loss.

The snap elections for the lower house of parliament were held despite the shortest campaign period in post-war history, and massive snowstorms across much of Japan.

Oh that's right -- I saw comment that people were so enthused about voting for her they had to climb over ice and snow to get to the polling places.

Benefitting from Takaichi's popularity, the LDP won a two-thirds majority in the lower house, enough to override vetoes by the opposition-controlled upper house.

It would also allow the LDP to initiate amendments to Japan's pacifist constitution, which the party has sought to revise since its founding in 1955, and Takaichi said she would pave the way for an eventual referendum on the issue.

It's the biggest majority any single Japanese party has won in the lower house in the post-war era. An unprecedented 90% of candidates fielded by the LDP won.

Charismatic Japanese leaders, including Takaichi's mentor former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have helped the LDP stage comebacks before.

It's a feature of Japan's politics, which RAND Corporation Japan expert Jeffrey Hornung says "are always very personalistic. People always look to the leader, not so much the party."

Oh I get it, they're just dummies who are mesmerized by her Dark Charisma. No one actually agrees with her policies.

...

Questions and criticisms remain about how Takaichi will pay for these priorities, given that Japan's government debt is more than 200% of GDP.

She's talking about increasing military spending to 2% of GDP and that's when NPR suddenly wonders "Wait how can the government pay for all of these goodies...?!"

But Takaichi apparently feels her mandate will empower her to sweep aside obstacles.

...

Takaichi's lopsided victory comes amid a general shift to the political right in Japan.

Following Takaichi's election as LDP president last year, the LDP's coalition partner of 26 years, the centrist Komeito Party, left the bloc. The LDP then joined a new coalition with the right-wing populist Japan Innovation Party.

Komeito joined a new coalition called the Centrist Reform Alliance, which lost most of their seats in the snap election, prompting their leaders to resign.

...

Takaichi pledged to continue to use the Japan-U.S. alliance as the cornerstone of foreign policy, and plans to meet with President Trump next month.

Celoteh Dunia
@CelotehDuniaku

A historic shift for Japan. With 316 seats, PM Takaichi now holds a supermajority that effectively bypasses Upper House gridlock. This mandate will likely fast-track her hawkish security agenda, including increasing military spending to 2% of GDP and boosting offensive capabilities. The regional security landscape is about to change significantly.

Robby Starbuck
@robbystarbuck

7h

Japan got literally the tiniest bit of migration and micro intrusion on their culture. They responded with the most right wing electoral result in history and essentially banished the left from any bit of power. Absolutely beautiful to see.

As I've long said, I admire Japan more than any other country. You could lick their streets they're so clean. Tokyo is decades ahead of other cities. They're fiercely protective of their unique culture and people. They're nationalists of the best kind.

They enjoy others from a distance and are happy to befriend you but the moment you disrespect them they want nothing to do with you. Total respect from me. Congrats Japan!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:15 PM | Comments (277) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Remember the Little Scottish Girl Who Armed Herself with a Knife and Ax to Defend Herself Against, She Said, Sexual Assault by a Foreigner? Remember How the British Government and Media Savaged Her as a Racist?

This was last August.

You'll remember the moment you see her photo:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:12 PM | Comments (254) | Trackbacks (Suck)

FBI: Jeffrey Epstein Was a Child Sex Abuser But He Wasn't Running a Pedophile Sex Ring for the World's Rich and Famous

I've said previously that the idea that some people have, that Epstein was literally running a child sex brothel and billionaires were paying him for sex, was almost certainly false. I know that people don't like to hear this, but some alleged conspiracies are just too big to believe that no one ever blew the whistle.

He certainly does seem to have made young women available for the use of his pedophile pals. But this seems to have been a matter of ingratiation and favor-banking rather than a quid pro quo with billionaires paying Ghislaine Maxwell at the till before passing the turnstile and entering Pedo Island.

The FBI also says it did not find blackmail photos or videos in the Epstein files.

Ed Morrissey digests an AP story. I'll just quote some of the matter he quotes, and refer you to his post for more.

The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein's bank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world's most influential people.

But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.

I think this might depend on what the definition of "sex ring" is. The strong form of it didn't apparently exist. But a weak form it, with Epstein maintaining his value to wealthy and powerful men by making young women available to them, and subsequently getting very valuable insider information, probably did exist.

Why did Peter Mandelson tell Epstein in advance of the then-nonpublic UK government decision to bail out the banks? What services was Epstein providing to him?

Or was it just a cash transaction in that case, with Epstein paying Mandelson and his husband off? We know Epstein sent $75,000 to Mandelson, even if Mandelson "can't remember" if he received that sum or not, and another ten thousand pounds to his husband.

Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the department's latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential coconspirators. Even seemingly outlandish and incomprehensible claims, called in to tip lines, were examined. ...

Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre had been sexually abused by Epstein. But other parts of her story were problematic.

Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre had claimed were also "lent out" to powerful men told investigators they had no such experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo.

"No other victim has described being expressly directed by either Maxwell or Epstein to engage in sexual activity with other men," the memo said.

Yeah, I don't know. I do not believe that Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, and Pam Bondi have any incentive to lie about these things. The conspiracy theorists lose me when they start claiming that everyone who fails to support their conspiracy theories must themselves be in on the conspiracy. But, conspiracy theorists tend to do that. That's their go-to move.

I don't exactly feel satisfied by this report. I still think there's gotta be something more there.

But I don't know if I'd put much money on that.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:02 PM | Comments (348) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Left-Wing "Scoop" That Tulsi Gabbard Was on a Secret, Traitorous Phone Call with a Foreign Person Blows Up Within Hours, Exposed As Another Schiffian Hoax

The "story" was broken by Cate Brown -- formerly of the Washington Post.

She's a Deep State operator programmed by her masters to take out Tulsi Gabbard.

Hans Mahncke
@HansMahncke

1h

At first, I thought the fake anti-Tulsi Gabbard story ended up in the Guardian because that's where fake leakers go when even the New York Times and Washington Post won't touch their stories. But it's worse than that. The reporter who wrote the piece used to be at the Washington Post, pushing anti-Tulsi stories even then. More damning, she did it alongside Catherine Belton, a close associate of Steele dossier hoaxer Christopher Steele and a notorious Russiagate liar whose false claims about Sergei Millian, an innocent American, destroyed his life and business. It's always the same dirty clique of media operators pushing these hoaxes. Fortunately, unlike before, they're finally being called out.

She got a "tip" -- a tip that came from a Hillary and Schumer operative and CIA lawyer, Andrew Bakaj.

Apparently he previously worked for... the traitorous Ukranian agents, the Vindman brothers, who engineered Trump's first Fake Impeachment.

Svetlana Lokhova
@RealSLokhova

14h

The @guardian are now dissembling because in their attempted hit on @TulsiGabbard, they relied on the word of the CIA operative "lawyer" Andrew Bakaj, who worked for Hillary and Schumer on the Hill and represented the Vindmans in the fake Ukraine impeachment.

So, what was this tip?

That Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, had been on the phone with a foreign person.

Wow! What a scandal!

Our top intelligence official was caught talking to a foreign person! That's unlegal! We can't have our top spooks talking with foreigners!

Cate Brown
@catebrown12

SCOOP: The NSA detected a phone call between foreign intelligence and a person close to Trump last spring.

Whistleblower says that @DNIGabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staff.

Bakaj, now representing a new Vindman-like "whistleblower," made threats to Tulsi Gabbard that he would, I don't know, file some faggot paperwork against her:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:40 PM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Overrules Lawless Lowly District Court Judges, Rules that Illegal Aliens May Be Held Without Bond While They Fight Their Deportation Orders

The left prefers that the be released on bond, so they can simply abscond and never show up for any deportation hearings. They stay in the US perpetually just by the left releasing them every time they're caught by immigration agents. They just find a new place to live and slip into "the shadows" again, as our left-wing friends the Bushes like to say.

The Fifth Circuit ruled on Friday that illegal aliens have no right release from detention. They can file their worthless objections using the scripted lies that open borders advocates teach them to say, but they'll do that while cooling their heels in stir.

Or they can just leave the country. Their choice.

CBS:

A federal appeals court on Friday endorsed the Trump administration's policy of holding broad groups of immigration detainees without access to bond hearings, a major legal victory for President Trump and his deportation crackdown.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of federal judges at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said the Trump administration had properly reinterpreted an immigration law last year to disqualify many unauthorized immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement from being able to ask an immigration judge to be released on bond.

Previously, immigrants who had lived in the U.S. unlawfully for years were generally eligible for bond hearings, and the opportunity to persuade an immigration judge that they were not flight risks and should be allowed to fight their deportation outside of a detention center. Mandatory detention had been historically limited to recent border crossers and those convicted of certain crimes.

But the Trump administration took the position that anyone who entered the U.S. illegally, irrespective of how long ago, is subject to mandatory detention during their deportation proceedings. The only mechanism for release under that policy was if ICE decided to parole them out of custody on humanitarian or public interest grounds.

The seismic policy change has led ICE to indefinitely hold detainees who entered the U.S. illegally years or even decades ago and who previously would've been eligible for bond, including those without criminal records.

The mass detention policy has been challenged in federal courts across the country, straining the resources of government lawyers. Most judges have found the policy to be illegal.

But the 5th Circuit panel disagreed and upheld the Trump administration's legal position, reversing two lower court orders.

The majority opinion -- penned by Reagan-nominated Judge Edith Jones and backed by Trump-nominated Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan -- sided with the Trump administration's view that federal law provides for mandatory detention of large numbers of unauthorized immigrants who were apprehended in the interior of the U.S. and deemed "applicants for admission."

"The text says what it says, regardless of the decisions of prior Administrations," the opinion read. "...In any event, that prior Administrations decided to use less than their full enforcement authority...does not mean they lacked the authority to do more."

...

Judge Dana Douglas, a Biden nominee, dissented from the majority opinion. She wrote that the government's claim that the law calls for mandatory detention ignored "historical precedent" and "wave[d] away" the fact that prior administrations hadn't sought to detain people without bond en masse.

"And for what?" writes Douglas, arguing that the majority opinion was "based on little more than an apparent conviction that Congress must have wanted these noncitizens detained -- some of them the spouses, mothers, fathers, and grandparents of American citizens."

This is all the left does. The fact that they are "spouses, mothers, fathers, etc." is not a legal argument. It's not a logical argument of any kind. It is simply a petulant, child-like demand for the reader's sympathy and a claim that they should be allowed to break the law at will because they are "spouses, mothers, fathers, etc."

The left's other argument is that because previous presidents, like Obama, Biden, and of course the Bushes, let illegals remain in the country while they file frivolous objections to deportation, all future presidents are bound by their non-legislative policy choices.

Weird how the right's policy choices never become stealth law and precedent binding all subsequent presidents. Just the left's.

In fact, these illegals seem to be arguing that while they are, in fact, subject to detention awaiting final deportation orders, they should be "eligible for discretionary release" by the Executive. And they're demanding a judge force the executive to grant them discretionary release.

Hm, in that case, it sounds like the judiciary is usurping the elected President's power to grant release under his own discretion.

If affirmed by the Supreme Court, this would become national law and greatly aid Trump in speedily deporting illegal aliens, or giving them the choice of sitting in ICE detentions for months and months or just leaving the country.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:43 PM | Comments (252) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Queer Starmer's "Right-Hand Man," the Man Who Promoted Epstein Bestie Peter Mandelson for Abassador to the US, Resigns

Drip, drip, drip...

It had been speculated for days that Starmer's Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney would be forced to resign. They intend this to be a firewall against forcing Queer Starmer out -- throw the public one defenestration so that they don't throw Starmer out the window instead.

They're claiming that Morgan McSweeney was singularly responsible for vetting Peter Mandelson so recommending that Epstein Bestie be promoted to Ambassador to the UK was all his fault and totally not the fault of Mandelson's very close associate and protege, Keir Starmer.

Queen Natalie
@TheNorfolkLion

Feb 8

🚨 Breaking: Morgan McSweeney has resigned from the Government, accepting "full responsibility" for advising on the appointment of Lord Mandelson.

Kier Starmer next?

What is interesting is that Morgan McSweeney is not just a noxious communist who thinks that pedophiles can make for fine pals, but he was also a key actor in the UK's enemy action against the US -- he was a ringleader in the UK intelligence service's ops to criminalize American speech so that the UK would be better able to impose censorship and information blackouts on the British populace.

They can't have the Forbidden Truth leaking into the UK from the US via Twitter, after all.

Paul Weston
@PWestoff

5h

Starmer's Chief aide McSweeney was founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) a Sovietesque political censorship outfit. Starmer is now behind the purging of court records. Presumably to hide something from his past. Tyranny in Full View.

Oh -- and McSweeney's father's firm was also paid 6 million pounds by the Irish government to house illegal migrants.

Gee, I wonder why the left never wants to stop illegal immigration.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:32 PM | Comments (383) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Trans-Children Advocates Are Back-Tracking to Salvage Their Reputations as Lawsuits and a Preference Cascade Bring the Butchery to an End

Words cannot describe just how diabolical the trans-children social contagion has been. Hospital groups and pharmaceutical companies prospered, Munchausen mommies were entranced, and thousands of children were sterilized and mutilated. There is no way to ever undo the damage done to those children, but a recent lawsuit awarding a victim $2 million is a start.

In ensuing days, there has been a cascade of former advocates suddenly reversing their support for transing children, as they face the possibility of massive legal judgments, as well as losing what remaining credibility they still have.

Since that judgment, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons quickly put out a statement opposing gender transition surgeries for minors, stating that “ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.” Almost immediately after the ASPS statement, the American Medical Association also backed off, announcing that “In the absence of clear evidence, the AMA agrees with ASPS that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.”

Over the weekend, the Washington Post published an editorial by Megan McArdle titled “The Transgender Orthodoxy is Cracking” which lays out the off-ramp for establishment liberals. She reassures the WaPo’s readers that she is a member of their tribe by stating, “I’m not opposed to pediatric transition. I simply believe we need better evidence before making it standard medical practice.” But she also acknowledges how a minority opinion that seemingly has widespread concurrence can collapse quickly, and that transing children is one of those issues:

Public orthodoxies that diverge from private opinion may be surprisingly stable, but they can also prove remarkably unstable, because they depend on private thoughts to stay private, giving doubters the illusion that they are lone deviants rather than members of a silent majority. Each skeptical voice makes it more likely that further doubts will be raised, triggering a rapid shift to a new equilibrium.

If you’ve wondered how communism collapsed, that’s how. And if you’ve wondered why communist regimes are so oppressive, that’s also your answer. When you are the custodian of a fragile orthodoxy, you cannot afford to allow a hint of dissent.

Perhaps an even greater signal that the establishment left is abandoning the trans-children fad is that David French of all people is trying to publicly walk-back his passion for pushing trans-everything on children. He responded to the detransitioner’s lawsuit victory by tweeting “This is absolutely expected. The facts in many of these cases are truly shocking, and juries were never going to be swayed by extreme and bespoke ideological justifications for drastic and permanently life-altering medical procedures.”

This is absolutely expected. The facts in many of these cases are truly shocking, and juries were never going to be swayed by extreme and bespoke ideological justifications for drastic and permanently life-altering medical procedures. https://t.co/P7bGAHAYeg

— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 31, 2026

Mr. French, of course, worked his way from the National Review to the New York Times by making the “conservative Christian” case for the left’s most pathological agenda items. Most famously, David French called it a “blessing of liberty” for men dressed pruriently in women’s clothing to entertain children in a public library.

As odious as French’s support for “Drag Queen Story Hour” might have been, it still didn’t explicitly support the transing of children. But in a piece David French wrote for The Dispatch in 2021 titled “Hungary is No Model for the American Right,” he made it explicitly clear that he supports the practice of adults pressuring children into adopting a trans-identity. In this piece, French condemned Viktor Orban’s government because ”the regime just passed a law sharply limiting any promotion of homosexuality or gender transition to children.

The fact that David French, who is on the record advocating for the “promotion of…gender transition to children,” is now walking back that support serves as a beacon to the establishment left that the trans-children era is over.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (461) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Irises
Vincent van Gogh

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 2/9/26

Good morning kids. So the big stink this morning, beyond the reportedly revolting (I did not watch a second of any of it) half-time Super Bowl show of some Puerto Rican entertainer, is that there is some fake video being attributed to President Trump that allegedly depicts the Obamas as apes or monkeys. Frankly I find that offensive in the extreme, since Apes and monkeys are among God's most majestic, intelligent and awe-inspiring creatures. Whereas the Obamas are NOT. They are venal, repulsive, noxious, and a pestilence. No they're not Gorillas but they are Guerrillas whose accursed and worthless existences have been spent tearing down and destroying all that is good, just and righteous in service to their own demonic delusions, lusts and desires.

Whoever posted a video on President Trump’s social media containing a racist animation of the Obamas as apes committed an own goal that overshadowed what otherwise would have been a great week for the administration.

It shouldn’t have needed the GOP’s only black senator, Tim Scott, to decry the clip as racist for the post to be deleted and an apology issued by the White House.

The one-minute video reposted late Thursday night on Trump’s Truth Social account was about voter fraud in the 2020 election, one of the president’s favorite subjects. At the end, the video flashed for a split second to a clip of the Obamas from an old “Lion King” meme depicting Democrats as animals, and Trump as a lion.

It was obviously a mistake. Trump says he never watched the video through to the end, and the White House says a “staffer erroneously made the post.”

It certainly doesn’t warrant the breathless media coverage it’s received all weekend. . .

. . . The storm in a teacup helps the resistance media maintain the fiction that Republicans, especially the MAGA variety, are irredeemably racist, while Democrats are paragons of virtue when it comes to defending minorities. . .

The truth is the very opposite.

You can see the inherent racism — or is it classism — on the Democrat side most acutely in their opposition to voter ID in the SAVE America Act, which is up for a vote in the House this week.

The Trump-backed legislation will require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot.The real reason Democrats foment racial division is as a divide-and-conquer strategy to seize political power — and keep it forever.
It’s about time we stop falling for their hoaxes. 

And speaking of Guerrillas in our midst, and seizing political power and keeping it forever. Meh, who needs elections since as Quintessential Democrat extraordinaire Mao Tse Tung once proclaimed . . . "Political Power Grows Out of the Barrel of a Gun." Or perhaps a molotov cocktail or the gas pedal of an SUV. . .

On Saturday, the Democrat Socialists of America celebrated hitting 100,000 members. Almost on cue, their footprint in organizing anti-ICE so-called “protests” continues to grow.

But these are not protests. They are coordinated obstruction campaigns modeled on the playbook of revolutionary insurgency inspired by violent revolutions.

That much is clear from the latest reporting in The California Post, documenting how militant far-left activists from the Golden State are advising radicals in New York on the latest tactics for sabotaging federal immigration operations.

The objective isn’t dissent. It’s obstruction.

So okay, the DSA hit 100,000. Big deal. How many people are members of the NRA and how many of those do you suppose belong to or sympathize with the DSA? I would say that is a number at or below Zero. Now take Mao's observation and consider the implications if every NRA member simultaneously acted on it. Can you say "Kaboom?" The very thought of it warms the cockles of my heart, irrespective of whether or not it ever comes to pass.

And speaking of Mao and Minnesota . . .

“Anti-ICE protests in Minnesota may appear to be ‘grassroots’ efforts organized by concerned citizens, but they’re really funded with megadonor money — some coming from China,” the New York Post reported.
While the violent protests were organized by a group called “50501,” they’ve been backed by the militant “Party for Socialism and Liberation” and “The People’s Forum,” two groups “largely subsidized by American former tech mogul Neville Roy Singham.”
And who is Singham? He’s a much-investigated current resident of Shanghai who shares an office with a Chinese Communist Party-linked media firm.
Citing a 2023 New York Times investigation of Singham, Fox News notes “that Singham has funneled over a quarter-billion dollars to dark money organizations in the U.S. with little to no footprints, and some of these organizations are vaguely named with office addresses under suspicious locations like general UPS mailboxes.”

. . . By inflaming opposition, and opening their state to a foreign-funded insurrection using American leftist groups as their foot-soldiers, they’ve abetted what appears to be a massive conspiracy to undermine a U.S. president’s clear right to enforce U.S. law.
And China’s involvement is a major issue. It’s been failing in the Western Hemisphere of late, with the election of five conservative new leaders and the loss of the Panama Canal. The arrest of Nicolas Maduro also stung. Imagine how upset China (not to mention, Russia) will be when Cuba’s murderous regime collapses, too.
This is a dangerous time in America. Blue states, and the increasingly lawless cities that define them, have turned into a sort of leftist neo-Confederacy, believing they can nullify American law at will. Minnesota’s Walz even had the temerity to mention Fort Sumter in a recent speech.
But the usual billionaire leftists who fund radical dissent — including George Soros and son — have company: China. And anyone who thinks Walz, an ardent Sinophile who claims to have visited the Middle Kingdom “dozens” of times, wouldn’t welcome Chinese money to counter President Donald Trump and ICE isn’t thinking straight.
China might be losing in Latin America, but it’s apparently winning here by financial subterfuge. The investigation is ongoing.
Earlier this week, Trump spoke with China’s Xi Jinping, who’s busy himself these days arresting potential rivals in the military. We hope that, in addition to talking about other things, Trump had a chance to tell Xi: Stop supporting U.S. leftist riots, or you’ll pay in ways you can’t imagine.

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.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM | Comments (468) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 9 February 2026

Top Story

• AI companies spent big on Superb Owl ads, just like cryptocurrency startups in 2022. (Washington Post / MSN)
  
  Will the same thing happen again? We can but hope.
  
  The article is crap, by the way. If it wasn't AI-generated, it should have been.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (205) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - February 8, 2026 [Doof "CL"]

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday ONT. What is the "CL" thing next to my name tonight? Well, as fate would have it, in addition to that football contest being held in NorCal tonight - the one that uses Roman Numerals in it's name - tonight happens to be a bit of a milestone for me. My 150th solo-hosted ONT. So I'll adopt Roman Numerals also! This is "Doof ONT CL"!

Open thread as always. What's on your mind tonight?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (565) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: SportsBall 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 Annual SportsBall Edition? Yep, it's time once again to heap well-deserved derision upon the NFL and their woke bullshit. As you might have surmised, Weasel are not a fan. Having said that, please feel free to discuss the big matchup and/or your deepest and innermost feelings regarding the NFL in the comments tonight.

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 (501) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Super Bowl Edition

Well! So Pete Bog can cook!

Those are baby-back ribs with a very nice looking sauce that he claims is "Stubbs spicy with added Fresh Ginger, Plum Sauce, fresh Garlic, Sesame oil, topped with Green Onions and toasted Sesame Seeds."

Do you believe him?

I don't.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (283) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Those are just a bit too high for my ladder, and of course my goal is to harvest them for cocktails!

Seriously...I don't think there is a problem with ice damming. The roof above is right next to a steam radiator, and I think there is enough radiant heat to get a bit of melting.

And they look really good!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (247) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Japan Sees The Chinese Writing On The Wall...Conservatives Take an Historic Majority

Article 9 of the Japanese constitution "forever renounce[s] war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes." That comes in conflict with the entirety of human existence and, frankly, is just silly. It is impossible to function as a nation without a credible threat of force to defend the concept of "nation," even with the guarantees of American power that have backed Japan since the end of World War II.

Perhaps the legally-mandated pacifism has contributed to the cultural malaise in which Japan finds itself. Their birth rate is nowhere near replacement, let alone enough for healthy population growth! They don't get married, they don't have sex...apparently all they do is spend a lot of time at the office, then drink themselves into a stupor.

But maybe that can change!

Takaichi's Ruling Bloc Wins Landslide Election in Japan's Lower House

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling coalition swept to a single-party majority victory in a critical parliamentary election on Feb. 8, paving the way for the nation’s first female head of state to pursue her agenda of sweeping tax cuts and increasing military spending to counter Beijing’s influence.

Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was projected to clinch as many as 328 of the lower house’s 465 seats, a landslide supermajority, according to exit poll results cited by NHK public television and other major networks.

Her ruling coalition and its partner—the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin—is projected to win as many as 366 seats in the lower chamber, the more powerful house in Japan’s two-chamber parliament.

Takaichi’s LDP alone had already secured the 233 seats required for a majority roughly 90 minutes after polls closed on Sunday. Her party’s sweep of 328 seats is the most it has ever won in Japan’s lower chamber.

Takaichi’s ruling coalition’s win allows the female prime minister, who has cited inspiration from Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher, to pursue a conservative agenda that seeks to improve Japan’s economy and military readiness amid ongoing tensions with China and as Tokyo fosters closer ties with Washington.

Comparisons to the great Margaret Thatcher are premature, but a robust military with a clear objective, and an economy that doesn't tamp down growth is an excellent start.

Will Takaichi be able to reverse the existential ennui that grips Japan? Perhaps. But the size of her win suggests that the Japanese people want a change. Will Japan return to its martial roots and become expansionist? No, that is probably not going to happen, but a revitalized national pride and a focus on what is best for Japan is a fine thing. Hopefully Takaichi sees a kindred spirit in President Trump, and the relationship between America and Japan strengthens.

Even if it doesn't, the specter of a Japan that takes its defense seriously must be a nightmare in Peking. And that is a very good thing indeed!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (266) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 2-8-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Skip)

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 (WARNING! May trigger arachnophobia). 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...(let battle commence!)

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (459) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 8 February 2026

Top Story

• The robot revolution will not be televised in 8K. (MSN)
  
  The recent fuss over AI-only social network Moltbook is deflating somewhat as it becomes clear that the filters controlling what could post on the networked worked as well as the security, which is to say, not at all:

  Replies and quote posts were quick to cast doubt on Karpathy's interpretation, however. One noted that Moltbook posts promoting bot-only languages or messaging platforms appeared to be connected to human accounts promoting the same ideas. This wasn't bots conducting independent conversations, these users argued, just human puppeteers putting on an AI-powered show.

  Also everything - Moltbook itself and the Moltbot / OpenClaw framework used for it - was and remains irreperably insecure.
  
  
  
• Still hedging my bets on the insect uprising: We saved the wrong bees. (MSN)
  
  Well-meaning idiots, understanding nothing, making the situation worse. Where have I heard this story before?

  "Suppose I were to say to you, 'I'm really worried about bird decline, so I've decided to take up keeping chickens.' You'd think I was a bit of an idiot," British bee scientist Dave Goulson said in a video last year. But beekeeping, he went on, is "exactly the same with one key difference, which is that honeybee-keeping can be actively harmful to wild-bee conservation." Even from healthy hives, diseases flow "out into wild pollinator populations."

  There are more bees now than ever.
  
  There are also more chickens now than ever.
  
  That was never the problem.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (234) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - February 7, 2026 [Double Feature]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. We opened the doors for you; the rest is up to you. Open thread as always. Have fun. Be witty. Don't feed the trolls. Tip your bartenders. Try the veal. Actually - do NOT try the veal. We don't even serve veal. Wait, is that thing still ALIVE?!?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (450) | Trackbacks (Suck)