The Morning Report — 1/5/26

Good morning kids. Obviously the gigantic story this morning remains the American raid over the weekend on Venezuela and the capture of its Communist tyrannical thug president Nicolas Maduro, whose regime for more than a decade under him and his predecessor the roasting-in-hell Hugo Chavez, has been a narco-terror state and as such, along with being closely linked and allied to Red China and Iran a major threat to our national security and the security of the western hemisphere. First and foremost , I am overjoyed for the long-suffering Venezuelan people who thanks to President Trump at long last have a chance to restore their nation and culture from the smoking ruin of a failed socialist/communist kleptocracy to once again being among the most vibrant, prosperous and free in Latin America.

Considering the carnage in terms of death and wastage of life caused by all the poisonous narcotics that either originated in Venezuela or were otherwise smuggled into our country via that nation as a hub, the removal of Maduro was more than justified. And just as a reminder. long before President Trump placed a bounty on Maduro, none other than Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants had one on him years earlier.

Along with the destruction of the Iranian nuclear weapons sites, the action to take down Maduro will likely be another jewel in the crown of President Trump's foreign policy triumphs and there are still three years left to his presidency.

The deterrent effect of this operation cannot be overstated. The cartels and kingpins that have historically poisoned the US with drugs are now on notice.

Sure, the US military will continue to bomb their vessels on the high seas. But what scares them more now is the prospect of being captured and then getting shipped to the United States to face justice.

Don’t expect everyone in the United States to cheer this historic event, though.

Ever since the failed experiments to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, neo-isolationists in Washington have warned that America must avoid regime change at all costs. Their howls of disapproval can be expected in the days and weeks to come. For now, Trump intends for the United States to run the government in Venezuela until a suitable government can be installed. And that carries with it significant risk.

If Venezuela unravels, Trump will be blamed. If the wider region descends into chaos, the president will be saddled with that, too. Will Trump’s base give him the opportunity to improve upon the regime-change failures of his predecessors? He appears determined to try.

In truth, the regime-change controversy is of secondary importance.

Bringing down Maduro was about bringing the Western hemisphere back under the influence of the United States. Maduro was not just the head of a narco-state. He was an ally of America’s nastiest enemies. n fact, Maduro met with a senior Chinese delegation in Caracas shortly before he was captured by US special forces.

But Maduro’s regime was not just an ally to China. The regime in Caracas was also a valuable partner to other rogue states like Russia, Cuba and Iran.

Even the Republic of Turkey, a notoriously unreliable NATO ally, has been an ally to the Maduro regime.

The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the fifth member of Venezuela’s “Fabulous Five” — the countries that helped prop up the Venezuelan strongman. One or more of these regimes may try to exploit the vacuum in Venezuela.

They may not be able to restore Maduro to power. But they can try to make America pay a price for ousting their ally. The Trump administration must bare its teeth now, and warn them to keep out.

If done right, the ousting of Maduro will weaken the influence of America’s adversaries in our hemisphere. It will deprive the cartels of a transit hub for shipments to the United States. And it will deprive our enemies of a valued ally.

If that’s how things play out, not a bad start to 2026.

Now just to play devil's advocate for a moment . President Trump has indeed reasserted and reinvigorated the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine. Now, if taking Maduro out along with the rise of Milei, Bukele and Kast, which hopefully leads to the ouster of Lula in Brazil and who knows, even the fall of Communism and the ultimate liberation of the tropical gulag of Cuba.

While the Red Chinese have been worming their way into our hemisphere, what if Xi and the Chi-Coms ultimately do make a move to take Taiwan, could they not then if not right now cite the President's actions against Maduro as justification?

And of course it's a good thing to check the rise of communism abroad especially in our own hemisphere but then again, look what the hell is going on right here at home in NYC!

So We bagged Maduro. Can we put the bag on Soros and decapitate the leadership of Antifa, BLM, the ACLU/SPLC/CAIR and the DNC???

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
• “I wanted to share a brief health update. I recently underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and am now recovering. I’m doing well and hopeful as I move forward,” Hanson said in the statement. “Thank you for the many messages of support and prayers—they truly mean more than I can say. As I focus on recovery, I may not be able to respond to everyone, but please know how grateful I am.”
  Victor Davis Hanson Gives Health Update After Undergoing Major Operation

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:50 AM | Comments (169) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 5 January 2026

Top Story

• CES 2026 starts tomorrow, so - given the frivolities of time zones - I will likely be inundated with stories then. Today is the calm before the storm of products you can't afford, can't buy, or can't avoid.
  
  What to expect: AI slop, health-related AI slop, enterprise AI slop, energy AI slop, vehicle AI slop, and robots. (CES)
  
  Tell Skynet it's late.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (226) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread 01/04/2026: Lazy Winter Edition [Doof]

Good evening, Horde! It's Sunday night in the depths of winter 2026, the perfect time to kick back and ignore the looming Monday. Welcome to the Overnight Thread - your no-judgment zone for snark, strong drinks, and whatever random thoughts are rattling around in your skull after a weekend of questionable decisions.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (600) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: First 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 First January Edition? For the last week your ol' pal Weasel has been nursing a head cold with varying degrees of success. I think it's on the way out, but still feel kind of sickly, pitiful and wee. If you hear snoring, it's me in bed with a box of Kleenex and two little dogs.

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 (224) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: A Blast From The Past!

[A dip into the vast archives of AoSHQ...And from the beginning of the Scamdemic no less! It's also fun to see a few call-outs to old commenters...]

One of the many things that strikes me as odd is the proliferation of packaged popcorn. Take a stroll down the snack aisle of your local market and I'll bet you can find several different brands and packaging and flavors of pre-made popcorn.

But....why? It is incredibly simple to make, and the home kitchen version is miles better than the ridiculously expensive store stuff. I don't know how much the raw materials cost, but I wouldn't be surprised if the processing and packaging was many multiples of the cost of the corn.

And to top it off, making popcorn is fun! it sounds great, the house smells really good, and hell, you can flavor it with pretty much anything you want. In no particular order there is butter and Parmesan and black pepper and olive oil and sugar and chocolate and a host of other fun things, not to mention that old reliable...salt! I recall a fad a few years ago of restaurants serving truffled popcorn as a snack. And it was good. Because popcorn is good.

And it is miles better than when we were kids. I will often pop up a batch and discover no unpopped kernals, and that is a far cry from my youth, when the unpopped ones numbered in the dozens.

The horror...the horror.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (336) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

That lock got heavy use for many years, and it simply wore out. The Baldwin Company stood by their warranty and sent me new guts for the lock, which is a very gratifying thing.

But...it also required a new face plate (is it called an escutcheon for a lock?).

AND IT'S NOT THE SAME SHAPE!

Obviously I need to replace the entire door.

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (220) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Let Slip The Dogs Of War

We were promised forever wars by the bien pensants, and President Trump has disappointed us greatly.

The surgical strike on Iran's major nuclear facilities was a superb example of American technological superiority, logistics skill, intelligence capability, war planning, and above all, the marvel of the American military unleashed to do what they do better than any other military in the history of the world...kill people and break things.

It was no carefully titrated and calibrated attack designed to "send a message." No empty buildings far from everything were destroyed. No warning was issued...no dangerous and counterproductive rules of engagement (ROE) were handed down from the White House. The mission was given to our military, and they were trusted to complete it in the best way possible. And that meant flying more than 7,000 miles with multiple refuelings, and dropping the largest conventional bombs in our inventory onto targets that were just a few meters in diameter. The bombers were protected by the most advance military aircraft on earth. An Ohio class submarine also launched cruise missiles from...who knows where...to complete the destruction of the targets.

No losses of any kind. No leaks from a formerly porous Pentagon and administration. Nothing but a clear and unambiguous military action that was successful in its mission, and also made clear to the world that the United States Military is a force unlike anything they have ever seen.

Yesterday the rest of the military said, "hold my beer," and captured the head of the Venezuela cartel, otherwise known as the "President" of Venezuela. Maduro and his wife were taken from the heart of the country, and are now in jail in NYC. No loss of life, no equipment was lost, and the mission seems to have gone exactly as planned. Tellingly, there was no leaking before the fact, as has been the pathetic case for years. Delta Force and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment did their jobs well, which means they demonstrated that they are perhaps the best in the world.

Without the political and social binds of an insanely woke, globalist administration, the United States military showed what they are made of. Secretary Hegseth has clearly had an outsized influence on our armed forces, and an even bigger one on the previously unaccountable mandarins who thought they ran our military. He has purged or compartmentalized them so they can do no damage. He has unleashed the traditional and ferocious martial spirit of America, and our military responded overwhelmingly. No more struggle sessions...no more transsexual lunacy...no more race-baiting. Just fine Americans doing what they have been trained to do.

And that IS a message...to the world. Sure, Iran will spout their typical vitriol, but they know that we are now serious, and have the capacity to back up our words with actions. But more importantly it is a message to those who would interfere with the countries in our back yard. The new Monroe Doctrine (The Donroe Doctrine?) is being fleshed out, and it is no coincidence that conservative leaders are arising in Central and South America. They know they have a friend in America.

Hopefully that doesn't mean "Nation Building" like the vile Bush wing of the Republican party loved to do, and failed at. But the President has already said that we will be running Venezuela only until they sort out their own mess, which is quite different than the open-ended quagmires we have been in over the last 20+ years.

President Trump seems to want a strong and free Western Hemisphere, unburdened by the hangover of Soviet socialism or Chinese expansionism. And that is a fine plan, because with strength and freedom comes free markets and wealth and emergence from the 3rd world squalor that has enveloped much of the region, courtesy of socialism!

Am I entirely happy with the way the President decapitated Venezuela? No. In a perfect world he would have consulted our representatives in Congress, but they have made it perfectly clear that they cannot be trusted to support the best interests of the country, or oppose the administration in a principled way.

So what President Trump did was the next best thing, and it is also in the best interest of the American people!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (443) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread (01/04/2026) [MP4]

Good morning, book lovers! CBD was kind enough – or foolish enough, depending on your view – to ask me to host a Sunday Book Thread, and so here I am.

If you were around when the Book Thread posted pictures of my home library a while back, you might have noticed that one set of shelves contained books on true crime and mystery, which is going to be today’s topic. I, myself, make a distinction between the two: ‘true crime’ is something like Jack the Ripper, Lizzie Borden or the Son of Sam. A ‘mystery’ would be something unexplainable, such as Offyreus and his perpetual motion machine, the Bermuda Triangle or the vanishing of Richard Colvin Cox. Of course, some of these can be combinations; the Borden case is both true crime (her parents were axed to death) and a mystery (who did it and how?). I’m going to highlight a few books in each category that I enjoy.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (379) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 4 January 2026

Top Story

• The US Invaded Venezuela and Captured Nicolás Maduro.
  
  ChatGPT and the Perplexity search engine are here to help you understand why this is not only a bad thing, but absolutely did not happen. (Wired) (archive site)

  "What's likely going on is a mix-up with real events that are often described in dramatic or misleading ways online. Here's what actually has happened:
  
  What the U.S. did not do
  ❌ No U.S. military invasion of Venezuela
  ❌ No arrest or capture of Nicolás Maduro
  ❌ No overthrow of the Venezuelan government by U.S. forces
  Maduro is still in power in Venezuela."

  
  
  I have used Grok as an augmented search tool on occasion and it's often pretty good. When you don't know the exact name of what you are looking for it will match things up better than Google.
  
  Sometimes it misses things or simply gets it wrong, but I haven't seen it get things this wrong. (Grok told me in answer to a poorly-worded question, "No, the US did not capture Nicolás Maduro today. It happened yesterday." which was true at least in my own time zone.)

  "Pure LLMs are inevitably stuck in the past, tied to when they are trained, and deeply limited in their inherent abilities to reason, search the web, 'think' critically, etc.," says Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist and author of Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us. While human intervention can fix glaring problems like the Maduro response, Marcus says, that doesn't address the underlying problem. "The unreliability of LLMs in the face of novelty is one of the core reasons why businesses shouldn't trust LLMs."

  This problem has been greatly alleviated by AI providers enabling live search, which loads fresh data into the context window - the AI equivalent of short-term memory.
  
  But it can't be properly fixed without continual learning, which is an unsolved problem with LLMs.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night "Club ONT" January 3, 2026 [The 3 Ds]

Welcome to first Club ONT of 2026. A collaboration the 3D's - The Disco, The Dino, and The Doggo. New Year wishes to you: May your coffee be strong, your Wi-Fi stable, and commenting be witty.

Did you get a new calendar? Mark Club ONTs for each 2026 Saturday - in pen.

[Top photo: Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, MD]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (478) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 1/3/2026

Otto Preminger

Before I started watching the complete filmography of Otto Preminger, I didn't really know what I was going to get. Oh, sure, I'd seen the highlights. I'd seen Anatomy of a Murder, Advise and Consent, and Laura, but he completed nearly forty films in his nearly fifty years making movies. Could I say that those three films were representative of him?

It's not like Laura and the other two have a whole lot in common, but you could draw lines of comparison, but what about Forever Amber or The Moon is Blue or Bonjour Tristesse or Hurry Sundown? What do they have to say about Preminger? Well, that's why I do these runs, so that I can find out.

And you know what I found out about Otto Preminger?

I do not think he was a very good filmmaker.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:30 PM | Comments (232) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - January 3, 2026 [Angler Rex]

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) its first spin of the new year and it landed on ice fishing.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (121) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, Jan 3

* * *

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 03:18 PM | Comments (48) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Afternoon Open Thread

Walter Kirn: "If you go back and watch my recent podcasts w/ @mtaibbi you will note that I've consistently predicted a short, sharp conflict with Venezuela.

The hysteria over a long war was all propaganda.

Maduro & Co held no cards."

Posted by: K.T. at 02:54 PM | Comments (438) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Jan. 3

My husband was in the Army for 38 years and we lived in several different climates (coastal CA, central valley CA, Baltimore, Tidewater VA, and Hawaii). We retired to Las Vegas and while I was never much of a gardener, I managed to keep our living quarters looking OK over the years. Not here. Unless you love cactus, this is easily the most challenging garden environment ever. Fortunately I can buy amaryllis bulbs. They are from Eden Gardens, a wonderful garden supplier. They were badly hit by the North Carolina floods, but still managed to fulfill their orders on time.

Anyway, here’s part of my “harvest” this year. The flowers are so large that they sometimes fall over, but this is not a problem because they do really well when cut and put in a vase.

Ps. I always enjoy your thread. Thanks.

Margsnow

A low-key thread on a busy day today, starting with some beautiful flowers!

It's okay to switch between specialty and news threads on the weekend.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:04 PM | Comments (60) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump Speaking Now: "This Is Big Stuff"

The screechy communist whore vice president shrieked on TV after Maduro's capture.

Venezuela's socialist regime appeared rattled and scrambling Saturday after its own vice president publicly admitted she does not know where dictator Nicolás Maduro is, hours after President Trump announced that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been captured and flown out of the country following U.S. military action. Speaking by phone with state-run broadcaster VTV, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said the regime had lost contact with both Maduro and Flores and demanded that Washington provide what she called "proof of life," an extraordinary on-air concession from a government that has long projected absolute control.

"In light of this brutal situation and this brutal attack, we do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores," Rodríguez said during the broadcast, accusing the United States of having "violated, attacked, and assaulted" Venezuela. She repeatedly pressed the Trump administration to account for Maduro and Flores, framing the operation as an act of aggression rather than addressing the disappearance itself. Rodríguez went on to claim Maduro had warned Venezuelans such an operation could happen, blaming what she described as American "energy greed" for the strike.

Audio at the link.

Does she sound scared? Well, Bulg says she's so scared that four sources say she's already fled to Tucker Carlson's other favorite "conservative" country, Russia.

Reuters is reporting that the Venezuelan VP is in Russia, according to four sources.

Posted by: Bulg

Press conference link below:

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (1099) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump Orders Air Strikes on Venezuela, Sends In Delta Force to Capture Nicolas Madura and His Wife

My mood, thanks to Michael the Texan.

Maduro and his wife have been captured and brought to the US to stand trial for drug trafficking and, if I know my Trump, election interference in the 2020 rigged election.

Obviously, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Glenn Greenwald, and all the leftwing pinko pacifists who now, apparently, represent the True Conservative Right are the hardest hit.

As for me? I voted for Trump's foreign policy, not ANSWER's foreign policy, not Ron Paul's foreign policy, and certainly not fat alcoholic Nazi Tucker Carlson's foreign policy.

Good luck trying to bend Trump to your will, Qatar-funded FARA faggots.

Posted by: Ace at 10:07 AM | Comments (368) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[H/T Meme Sharon Willow's Apprentice]
[H/T Music Sock Monkey]

More fun and pithy comments next week, perhaps.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (692) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 3 January 2025

Top Story

• Contract prices for memory are expected to rise by 50% this quarter, on top of the massive increases in the previous quarter. (WCCFTech)
  
  And that's if you can even get a contract. Spot prices are out of control.
  
  
  
• Which may be why Corsair has been cancelling orders for memory kits that were accidentally sold at only double the old price, rather than four times. (Notebook Check)
  
  The sales took place on New Years Eve, which is coincidentally when I bought 128GB of Corsair DDR4 RAM on Amazon - I noticed it was selling for close to pre-apocalyptic prices and pounced.
  
  The reported cancellations mostly involve a specific 48GB DDR5 kit, though, which is not at all what I ordered. And one 64GB kit I ordered has already shipped, so it looks like I lucked out. Waiting to see a shipping notice on the two 32GB kits.
  
  Every time I think maybe I bought too much memory I see another story that suggests things are going to get even worse. Memory rarely fails, and the next two generations of AMD CPUs will still support DDR5, so I should have enough to keep me going for years.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (267) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Should Ohh Enn Tee, Be Forgot, And Never Brought To Mind

Hello all! Welcome to the first meme ONT of 2026! Got some fun stuff for you, plus some Christmas leftovers. Let's start with this. It's a new year, but what if you were given the chance at a new life. Total reset, the clock rolls back to the day you were born. What traits would you choose if you could?

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (504) | Trackbacks (Suck)