Spring Cafe

From !@xnaturedaily

It's officially spring.

Beaver suffers an existential crisis: "What am I doing? Does this bring me joy? Does anything I do even matter?"

Red panda takes a treat.

Armadillos play with balls differently.

Gimme ten.

Baby tigers suck on fingers to sooth themselves just like babies.

Freestyle ax throwing.

Cherry blossoms in Japan.

A metaphor for the law-abiding American citizen.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (242) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok

Democrats are now FUMING that Trump is paying TSA agents and are desperate to stop it, claiming it's "illegal"

Play this clip on a loop in every airport in America until the elections

Video here.

Of course: The Biden White House edited reports about the covid "vaccines'" risks of causing strokes to downplay those risks, contrary to the precious science.

White House officials edited messaging on the finding that there was a higher-than-expected number of strokes following COVID-19 vaccination, according to newly released documents.

In January 2023, during the Biden administration, the White House changed wording on post-vaccination ischemic stroke from "moderately elevated" to "slightly elevated," the records show.

Officials also made other changes, including removing the words "potential risk."

More examples of the political edits to the precious science here. More in these two posts.

Hunter Eagleman™
@Hunter_Eagleman

WOW: 🚨CA Democrats under @GavinNewsom
just introduced the "MELT ICE Act" AB 1627.

It would PERMANENTLY ban anyone who worked for ICE during President Trump's term from ever becoming a cop or a teacher in the state.

This is political revenge dressed up as "protecting trust" at its best!

"No Kings," huh?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (200) | Trackbacks (Suck)

FBI Director Kash Patel Eyes Releasing the Eric Swallwell Fang-Fang Documents

Release the Fartstein Files!

FBI director pushes to release investigative files on Rep. Eric Swalwell: Reports

FBI Director Kash Patel is pushing for the release of files related to an investigation into Rep. Eric Swalwell's (D-Calif.) interactions with a suspected Chinese spy, according to reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post.

FBI agents and other personnel in California have been directed to gather and redact sensitive information from documents in preparation for sharing with senior Trump administration officials, according to The New York Times, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The files stem from a decade-old counterintelligence probe into a Chinese woman, known both as Christine Fang and Fang Fang, who reportedly helped Swalwell with fundraising and placing an intern in his office during the 2014 campaign cycle.

Swalwell was not accused of criminal wrongdoing and severed ties with Fang in 2015 after being briefed by U.S. intelligence officials on their suspicions of her. A two-year House Ethics probe into the matter concluded in 2023 without taking any further action.

The public release of files in an investigation that did not result in criminal charges would mark a highly unusual step, the Post noted.

Oh, like when they released the Mueller Report about the Russiagate hoax?

Swalwell has for years accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the issue against him in retaliation for his criticisms of the president.

Are you kidding me? He's one of the main weaponizers in Congress.

Note that The Hill points none of this out.

On Saturday, he suggested the FBI's alleged actions were tied to his rising standing in the California governor's race.

Oh! You mean the Administration is trying to interfere with an upcoming election by releasing files?

...

In a statement to the Post, an FBI spokesperson denied improper motives regarding the investigative files.

"The contentions in this story are incorrect," the spokesperson told the newspaper. "This FBI, being the most transparent in history, prepares documents for numerous different reasons, including for release to different agencies and departments to further review investigations that may have been opened under previous administrations."

Swalwell said in September that he "fully" expected to be prosecuted by the Trump administration, pointing to his name in a book written by Patel in which he listed "government gangsters" who should be held accountable.

If only. If only.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (181) | Trackbacks (Suck)

One of the Foreign Invaders and Somali Pirates Who Hijacked a Quarter of a Billion Dollars of American Money Is Sentenced to... 366 Days in Prison

A year and a day. That's it.

It's almost as if the Somali Pirates control the government of Minnesota.

The federal sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of 30 to 37 months, or 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison.

But the Somali Pirate's corrupt judge cut even that small sentence in half. Or in thirds.

Feeding Our Future defendant sentenced to over 1 year in prison

Another Feeding Our Future defendant was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison on Monday morning. He is scheduled to turn himself in to federal prison on June 2.

Abdul Abubakar Ali pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October 2022. Per the terms of the plea agreement, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of wire fraud were dismissed at sentencing.

As previously reported, Ali used nonprofit Youth Investors Lab to enroll in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future. He claimed to serve roughly 1.5 million meals total and that the meals were provided by S & S Catering. But no meals were ever served, prosecutors say.

Remarkably, both the government and the defense advocated for a probationary sentence, noting that Ali has taken responsibility for his actions, given valuable information to investigators and paid $92,500 in restitution so far.

Wow, $92,000. And he took responsibility for his actions?

However, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Brasel determined that Ali's role in the fraud scheme was too great for a probationary sentence. She noted that Ali recruited a friend to participate in the scheme and completely made up meal counts, rather than just exaggerating them.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (179) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Were You Inconvenienced by the Decrepit White Hippies During the CCP- and Soros-Funded No Kings Shuffle-Abouts?

Insurrection Barbie
@DefiyantlyFree

Mar 28

I got stuck in the middle of one of the idiotic CCP funded No Kings protests with my kid in this morning.

First of all it was 15 people. They were all white and over the age of 65 and lastly, if you continue to walk around with signs that say No Kings, you look like an idiot.

Literally no one was under the age of 65 in the whole crowd.

They're literally mutants.

Fetishist 'No Kings' protester in mask drags 'Trump' and 'JD Vance' behind her wheelchair

The "No Kings" protest in Atlanta took a turn for the weird as a masked artist dragged unhinged cosplayers dressed as President Trump and Vice President JD Vance behind her wheelchair.

Video of the street protest sideshow circulating online shows activist Jessica Blinkhorn clad in a black sheer skirt, a leather tube top and a full facemask reminiscent of "Mad Max: Fury Road" villain Immortan Joe seated in a motorized wheelchair as her fellow dress-up players awkwardly gyrate to techno music.

The Georgia State University teacher and self-described "DOGEWALKER" holds a metal leash in one hand, which is connected to a collar worn by a person wearing a Trump mask and dressed in his signature blue suit, red tie and MAGA hat, and a woman who appears to be mimicking Erika Kirk.

...

"This is performance as protest. This is art in action," Blinkhorn wrote in an Instagram post accompanying the unhinged video.

...

Blinkhorn has been awarded in the art world for her performance pieces about sex and disability. He received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2024 -- a prestigious award that comes with tens of thousands of dollars in grant money -- for her project SPANKBOX.

The art "depicts individuals with physical disabilities in hypersexualized poses and situations," according to the fellowship.

Uh-huh.

Video of these sexual fetishist mutants here. (Toby just emailed me to say "Almost as hittable as Sarah Longwell.")

Robert DeNiro -- or, as I think this genius should be called, Bobby "The Brain" DeNiro -- stumbled and mumbled his way through a gibberish speech written for him by ChatGTP.

C3
@C_3C_3

Mar 28

No Kings crybaby and terminal TDS patient Robert DeNiro...

Has lost roughly $350 million on his last 5 movies.

Whoops!

For decades people praised DeNiro for somehow managing to make his eyes empty and absent. Turns out, no, he's not a great actor, he's just brain-damaged IRL. When he "portrays" a man with no inner monologue who seems to be an animal motivated only by primitive instinct, that's just him.

Bobby "The Brain" DeNiro shuffle-marched alongside pogrom-stirring race hustler and OG Grifter Al Sharpton as well as spherical bull-dyke and mortgage fraudster "Big Tish" James.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (224) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Did Democrats Just Steal a Congeressional Seat?

Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh

HOLY CRAP!! A Palm Beach elections office volunteer just got arrested for STEALING an encrypted access key and computer equipment in the March 24 special election where the Democrat won by 800 votes

This is the district the includes Mar-a-Lago.

Investigators worry that the encryption -- used for training -- could be reverse engineered and used to tamper with voter registration

The theft was reported on March 27, a few days after last Tuesday's special election, per WPTV. The theft occurred on March 19, just days before election day

"During the search of [John] Panicci's home, detectives recovered the stolen items along with a substantial amount of electronic and digital storage devices. Panicci was transported to the Palm Beach County Jail and booked on charges."

Election integrity is vital to our republic.

If it's happening in Florida -- IT'S HAPPENING NATIONWIDE

Tony Seruga
@TonySeruga

You wondered how Democrat Emily Gregory defeated Trump-endorsed Republican Jon Maples by roughly 797--800 votes (51.2% to 48.8%, out of about 33,400 votes cast in a low-turnout special).

The district had previously been held by a Republican who won by a much larger margin in 2024.

FACTS: On March 19, during a volunteer training session at the elections office (4301 Cherry Road) ahead of the March 24 special election, Panicci allegedly stole an encrypted access key from a voter registration terminal. Surveillance photos reportedly captured the act.

He maintains a Facebook profile under John Panicci (@JohnWPB), describing himself as a "huge tech nerd."

The key was programmed only for training databases, not live voter registration or election systems. However, investigators expressed concern that someone technically skilled could reverse-engineer the encryption and misuse it in a real kiosk.

The theft was reported to detectives on March 27. They identified Panicci, obtained search and arrest warrants, and executed them at his Lake Worth/Greenacres-area home on March 28. They recovered the stolen key and equipment, plus a large amount of other electronic and digital storage devices.

He faces charges related to theft of computer equipment/property crimes (including taking/damaging electronic devices). He was booked into Palm Beach County Jail and held on $6,000 bail, with a no-contact order regarding the elections office. The investigation is ongoing, including a review of seized devices.

It appears that Panicci was in communication with Debbie Wasserman Schultz's DC office over a dozen times since Christmas.

If you recall, Wasserman and her Assistant United States Attorney (federal prosecutor) in the District of Columbia, brother, Steven Wasserman, who bungled the case, provided cover for the Awan brothers (Imran Awan, Abid Awan, and Jamal Awan), who were Pakistani-American IT staffers who worked as shared/contracted technicians for numerous Democratic members of Congress.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (202) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Washington Post "Reporter:" My Iranian Handlers and Sponsors Tell Me the US is Dropping Land Mines From Planes On to Residential Neighborhoods and I Believe Them Very Much

This reminds me of Operation Sorry, Charlie (Chicken of the C-4). The Iranian propaganda site I found claimed the cans of tuna -- which maybe resemble "mines" a little -- were dropped from the skies on to residential neighborhoods.

I wonder if there's a connection. Though these "mines" don't look like flat tuna cans.

After making this ridiculous claim, the Washington Post then issued a
correction stating that this "independent journalist" was invited to Iran by Iran's state media and led around by the nose by government "representatives."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:30 PM | Comments (297) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Stronk Black Female Democrat Congresswoman Found Guilty in Stronkly Embezzling Millions of Dollars of Taxpayer COVID Funds

Remember when the GOP kicked out George Santos based only on allegations?

Why is this gangster bitch still in Congress?

It's always (D)ifferent, isn't it?

Indicted Florida Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was found "guilty" on 25 of 27 ethics charges early Friday, a sweeping bipartisan verdict after a rare public House hearing that now all but seals her fate in Congress.

The decision came after more than six hours of testimony Thursday night, where an evenly divided subcommittee -- four Republicans and four Democrats -- weighed evidence from a two-year investigation into allegations that millions in federal COVID-era funds were improperly funneled into Cherfilus-McCormick's political operation. While the panel did not release a vote breakdown, members from both parties aggressively questioned her defense throughout the hearing before ultimately siding with investigators on nearly every count.

At the center of the case is a network of transactions tied to Trinity Health Care Solutions, a company linked to the congresswoman's family that received more than $6 million in government funding tied to pandemic-related services. Ethics investigators concluded that millions of those dollars were routed through entities connected to Cherfilus-McCormick -- including a consulting firm she owned -- before making their way into her campaign through loans and contributions, some of which were deemed illegal. A House report found that at least $3.6 million in taxpayer-backed funds ultimately reached her political operation.

The case now moves to the full committee, where Chairman Michael Guest and Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier said lawmakers will determine after the April recess what punishment to recommend. Possible outcomes range from censure to expulsion -- one of the most severe penalties Congress can impose on a sitting member.

Cherfilus-McCormick rejected the findings and said she intends to fight the allegations. "I look forward to proving my innocence," she said in a statement, adding that her focus remains on serving Florida's 20th Congressional District.

Pressure is already building from within her own party. Washington Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez wrote on X, "You can't crime your way into legitimate power. Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed."

The ethics ruling comes just weeks before Cherfilus-McCormick is set to stand trial in federal court on 15 criminal counts tied to many of the same allegations. Prosecutors say she diverted pandemic relief funds for political use and personal expenses, including luxury purchases. If convicted, she faces up to 53 years in prison.

Happy Monday!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (266) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Housing Affordability Requires Vast Swaths of Virtually Uninhabitable Urban Areas Be Reclaimed

An issue I have periodically revisited is the need for “municipal conservatism” as an alternative to Democrat-administered destruction of our cities. In a 2024 piece at The Blaze, I wrote “Republicans need to offer our struggling cities an agenda focused on delivering excellent city services, including effective policing, cleanliness, anti-vagrancy measures, public safety, reliable utilities, and family-friendly parks. This agenda should promote a political climate that supports small businesses, primary education, churches, families, and patriotism. Democrat-run cities have grown hostile to these foundational elements of urban civilization, creating an enormous opportunity for Republicans.” This is not “small government conservatism.” It is “civil order conservatism.”

Hampton Prescott, one of my favorite follows on Twitter/X (@HamptonPrezcott), is a real estate professional in Atlanta who is heavily focused on this exact issue. (He also covers architectural trends, commenting on the correlation of bad commercial architecture with the state of urban environments.)

The Trump WH was close to figuring this out when they deployed the National Guard to crime ridden cities. The ONLY way to solve housing affordability is to reclaim vast swaths of urban areas that have been rendered effectively uninhabitable due to lack of safety. https://t.co/pgkBbEW5Jg

— Hampton Prescott (@HamptonPrezcott) March 13, 2026

Because I want to keep fueling discussion about the importance of municipal conservatism, I invited Mr. Prescott to provide me an essay as to his thoughts on the subject. He kindly obliged. Here it is:

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (440) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Vel. Normandy
Alexey Bogolyubov

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (262) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 3/30/26

Good morning kids. And so we had the so-called "No Kings" protests in a number of cities and towns across America over the weekend. Is it just me or, for a tyrannical king, Donald Trump is the most piss-poor example in history. As longtime commenter of note MP4 once quipped, if he and by extension we really were a fraction of the Nazi fascists they shriek we are, they'd all have been smoke up a crematorium chimney long ago. And this past weekend would've seen the protesters bullet-ridden corpses stacked up like so much cordwood or scooped into dump trucks as seen in Soylent Green. Of course, the things that so many braindead Americans railed against are all part and parcel of the Democrat/Left playbook. Despite parading around in the moldering skin suit of "Democracy" it is they and they alone that have spent the better part of two centuries tearing down the very pillars of the civil society they claim to be defending. It is the sine qua non of projection.

In Saturday’s “No Kings” protests, the usual “resistance” crowd managed to again show their rage at President Donald Trump and their fury at being out of power; they may even have succeeded in mobilizing Democrats for the midterm elections — but they also broadcast the opposition’s complete lack of any coherent political message.

Forget about the waving of Soviet flags and tributes to anti-American dictators at various rallies: The entire “No Kings” conceit is a lie. Democrats against “kings”?  Hah! They love them — as long as the king has a (D) after his name.

Not long ago, Democrats applauded every abuse of executive power by President Barack Obama.

From unconstitutional rewrites of the Affordable Care Act (a k a  ObamaCare), to immigration amnesty for “dreamers” (DACA) and their parents (DAPA); to unilaterally declaring the Senate to be in recess so he could pack the National Labor Relations Board with union lackeys, Obama was not shy about autocratic behavior. 

“I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” he declared when Congress refused to bow to his will, vowing “to sign executive orders, and take executive actions and administrative actions.”

He did, and Democrats didn’t complain, but applauded. 

Tom Friedman, The New York Times’ smug voice of liberal “wisdom,” fantasized of what Obama could achieve “if we could just be China for a day.”

Obama lost, often at the Supreme Court. That didn’t stop him.

Nor did it stop President Joe Biden, who became infamous for ignoring Supreme Court decisions.

When the Supreme Court said that extending a COVID-era moratorium on evictions would be unconstitutional, Biden just did it anyway.

The same when the Supremes told Biden he lacked the power to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt. Democrats didn’t protest against Biden acting like a king. In fact, they encouraged him to go even further.

Then there were the coronavirus restrictions, imposed and extended by every Democratic governor.

Blue states shuttered businesses and locked kids out of schools — when Americans in fact could’ve conducted most normal activities safely.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom even banned religious worship in private homes; he’d eventually lose in the Supreme Court — but Democrats had no problem with it. So when it comes to “no kings,” Dems aren’t just accusing Trump — they’re falsifying their own history.

The truth is that Democrats cheer authoritarian behavior — as long as they’re in charge.

Let them back into power, and they’ll prove it once again.

In essence, yet again their protests were puerile, infantile and pointless. And not to be glossed over, in a number of instances Violent.

No Kings demonstrations in Portland, Oregon got out of hand in the evening with protesters sporting gas masks attacking police officers who were trying to control the crowd, according to video posted on X by FreedomNews.tv. There was no immediate word on arrests.

In Dallas, Police had to separate No Kings demonstrators from “Pro America” counter demonstrators as the two groups engaged in heated clashes. Video of the scene showed a protester being hauled away and arrested and other shouting “f–k you” at apparent pro-Trump demonstrators who were carrying flags and automatic weapons.

A large mob of demonstrators waving Palestinian and other flags hurled cement blocks towards Department of Homeland Security agents in Los Angeles.

In short, like Gazan terrorists and Persian oppressors, these usurpers think nothing of preserving their occupation of positions of influence by imperiling their own countrymen, women, and children.

They’re figuratively huddling behind you, and putting their citizenry’s security and substance at risk in direct dereliction of their sworn duty to “insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.”

You, the American people, are the Democrats’ human shields. 

As I stated last week, the phrase "Death to America" is not native to the Iranian mullahs. It was and is the goal of the anti-American Left and its epicenter in the Democrat party.

Have a great day!

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

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• ...The incident happened while the president's aircraft sat on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport. Military pilots moved quickly, intercepted the plane, and deployed flares to get the pilot's attention and force a change in course.F-16s Scramble Near Trump’s Air Force One After Security Scare

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:35 AM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 30 March 2026

Top Story

• Intel's Arrow Lake Refresh isn't even on store shelves yet and it's already had a price increase. (WCCFTech)
  
  10% officially and up to 25% in online listings. Still decent value if it weren't for all the other headwinds Intel is facing here.
  
  Sailing straight into an F5 tornado.
  
  
  
• But you can save a lot of money on audiophile-grade cables. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Mostly by not buying them. Once again, there is no detectable difference between $4000 cables and a $7 pair from the Amazon Basics range.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (128) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - March 29, 2026 [Doof]

The Alaska Highway (from @Globe32048 on X)

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday night ONT. What's on YOUR mind tonight?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (351) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Final March 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 fifth of five March editions? This is madness!

Coming Soon: April editions.

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 (218) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: You Say Dumplings, I say Kneidlach: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off!

I couldn't resist the photo! There is a joke somewhere about it being the major food groups of the Irish, but I would never stoop so low!

That is a full brisket from Wild Fork Foods, which is a frozen-food purveyor with a robust shipping business and also a bunch of stores across the country. I have been pleased with some of their stuff, although it is obvious how they manage costs...their butchers are not the most impressive trimmers in the industry. But that brisket is sold as trimmed, and they do a good enough job at an excellent price, so all I have to do is trim a bit more fat, and it's off to the races, or into the roasting pan for a quick sear.

Well, actually it takes a fair amount of time, because it's a big piece of meat!

What? No! I am not smoking it, because braised (or roasted) brisket is one of the foods of MY people! Passover starts in a few days, and I have a bunch of people for the Seder. While I would have preferred another main course, I was informed that brisket was on the menu this year. No, I have no free will when it comes to these things...why do you ask?

Come to think of it, smoked brisket would be good! There are Jews in Texas...well, do you make traditional or Texan-style for Passover? It's tradition, not religious law, so I could make collard greens and smoked brisket and a big pot of beans, and nobody could complain.... much.

The only thing that is non-negotiable is Matzoh-Ball Soup. For two reasons. First, that's what my mother made, and second, mine is spectacular! And yes, I use duck fat instead of vegetable oil. Of course my mother once made Matzoh-Ball Soup with bacon bits inside, so you can probably guess that I didn't grow up in a Kosher home!

By the way, if you really want to show off, call them "kneidlach," because that's the Yiddish word!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (205) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Yes, it's an old house...coming up on 100 years old in a few years. And of course we'll have a party, with cake and some gasoline and matches!

That is the last of the original moulding (molding?), and as you can see it was pieced together with what I can only assume was scraps from the rest of the house. The math suggests that the house was built in the beginning of the depression, so it is entirely possible that the builder tried mightily to save every penny.

But that line between pieces irritates me every time I see it, so that is the next thing to be replaced.

In my youth I did that sort of work, and I was taught early on how to avoid exactly that sort of problem. And if the trim carpenter who installed that moulding wasn't as good as I was, he was very bad indeed!

I can't even blame the foundation!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (141) | Trackbacks (Suck)

No Kings? If We Had A King, These Morons Would Be In Jail

The "No Kings" demonstration on an overpass across Route 4 in Bergen County New Jersey was an anemic, lightly attended hissy fit by a few dozen true believers, even though it is a fairly liberal area.

But what do they believe? Everything they are told by the Democrat party apparatus, without questioning the underlying data or even whether it makes any sense at all. The Democrats have cultivated cadres of shock troops they can mobilize to wear their old Tie-Dye shirts and chant awful rhymes about the cause de jour, and that has been the case for a very long time. "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out!" Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Western Civ Has Got To Go!" "Hey, Hey, LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?" Those are 60 years old, and even stupider today then they were in the 1960s.

Today's chants are no more intelligent, and no more representative of an honest protest movement based on political differences. "No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!" Really? A cursory examination of real fascist dictatorships would yield the uncomfortable fact that street protests were and are sometimes met with machine gun fire, mass arrests, and one-way flights on helicopters. Or, "Say It Loud, Say It Clear, Immigrants Are Welcome Here!" That's particularly brain-dead, since it carefully conflates legal vs. illegal immigration, which the parrots on the street don't understand, but their masters on the left certainly do!

The left has always embraced chants and songs and long-winded diatribes that can be trotted out to answer any challenge. That most of these things are utter nonsense, employing circular logic, false historical narratives, and flat-out lies is secondary to their power to inflame the hearts of their true believers.

That is one reason why Charlie Kirk was so effective. He was able to answer their jingoistic canned phrases with facts, and since these people are intellectually bereft, they would often sputter and stutter and stalk off, because their logical basis for their beliefs is simply cant, and without a firm historical or data-driven foundation.

Yet it often works, especially when the left employs their dancing monkeys in the entertainment industry to provide the rhyming and the singing and the angry denunciations of today's crisis.

But the two-edged sword of social media and instant communication has broadened the reach of these script-reading sub-wits, while simultaneously exposing their stupidity to the world. Sure, Springsteen will draw people to the protest, but he looks and sounds like an aging lesbian, especially when he is surrounded on stage by his peers, who also look like aging lesbians! Did Billie Eilish further the cause of... um... indigenous people, or just expose herself as an ignorant and entitled fool? When George Clooney flies to a climate conference on a private jet, he might make a splash on the talk shows, but a lot of people see his rank hypocrisy.

Below the fold is a wonderful example of the intellectual vacuousness of 2026's entertainment spokesmen. It's painful and laughable...you choose which!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Book Thread: (03/29/2026) [Sabrina Chase]

The Secrets of Publishing, part 2 : Bookstores and Libraries and Distributors, oh my!

Greetings, O Book Thread! They let me come back. (Actually, the lock on the door of the server room is a little flimsy...)

So how are bookstores picking their books anyways?

Back in the good old days, a bookstore owner or minions would have some vague idea, from recommendations or personal experience, what books were good and could sell. Then the big publishers consolidated, were run by accountants and NOT book lovers, and books became items in a catalog to be ordered like produce by people who voluntarily eat brussel sprouts. And the bookstores were the same. Books were treated as widgets and rather than personal knowledge bookstore owners went with the recommendations from the publishing houses and ordered only from the big distributors. Maybe some smaller publishing houses that are trendy and/or had kompromat on their purchasing department manager.

But what about small, innocent publishers and indie writers? Can they get their books in bookstores?

Yes, but it is non-trivial. First, you have to get your books in the distributor catalogs and it must have a print version, not just ebook. There are two main ones, Ingrams and Baker&Taylor. They charge a fee per book. Also, your book has to have an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) and it can NOT be the one Amazon gave it. [Sidebar: Publishers hate Amazon and so do bookstores. They firmly believe Amazon is stealing all their business. Well, that part is true ... .

Anyway, they refused to let Amazon books sully their premises. So, you have to have your own ISBN. And they cost money.] All of this is annoying but doable, except ... bookstores demand the right of RETURNS.

Bookstores hate risk. And for various stupid historical reasons, they want to return books that don’t sell, but sending books back is expensive, so they would cut off the cover and send THAT back, and “pulp” the rest of the book. Which is why you sometimes see “if you bought this book without a cover it has been stolen”. Now they don’t even want to do the cover. They just want to either dump the book entirely to get their refund. Oh, and they want a huge chunk of the cover price too. You can actually have a negative invoice if there are too many returns. I have books in the catalogs but not a lot of sales to bookstores. A book with no push from publishers (yes they can provide monetary incentives to bookstores to pick their books) means bookstores overlook it. They will of course have Oprah’s picks and a few other celebrity things but the rest is just based on pub listings and push.

Why bother with bookstores then?

Because a big vector for reader discovery is libraries and they also use the distributors. Even librarians with an interest in new books (and indie) don’t have the time or the resources to hunt them down individually. Their purchasing systems, and I actually worked at a company that made that software so I know a good bit about it, require the ISBN at a minimum and often also the distributor catalog or they can’t make a purchase. This is print and ebook, by the way.

And THEN you get the stupid library purchase rules for ebooks. An ebook is just a computer file, so why can’t they just have infinite copies? They don’t want to pay for infinite copies. Some publishing houses had insane rules like making libraires purchase a new license after 6 borrows (as if the file expired). Things have calmed down a bit and you can now allow “library licensing” where they pay a higher per-book price, once, and only allow one borrower at a time. It’s an “evolving situation” as they say at the War Department …. BUT! I am happy to say that without any effort on my part beyond getting in the catalog, my books are showing up in libraries! Including in Dubai. I have no idea who in Dubai asked for my book. I want to know.

Anyway, people who want more than the sample chapter on Amazon will go to the library to see if an author is worth the money, so I want my free ice cream samples out there. But it is annoying.

How can we get good books in bookstores again?

Good question! Going to bookstores and having them order books (in the catalog) that you know or suspect are good. They then know there is customer demand. Also know the tradpub industry is dying but like any ginourmous dinosaur, they die slowly. You won’t get an accurate feel for the book industry from a bookstore. Really and truly, indie by sales (units and dollars) is already doing better than tradpub. Even I, with my very first indie ebook, sold MORE units and got MORE money than the contract I was offered by tradpub. And all the intellectual property rights remain mine. (Bwahahah!)

Publicity remains the real problem. Tradpub doesn’t understand what the market wants either. You may have heard of Brandon Sanderson breaking Kickstarter with his secret book project in 2022. These are books his tradpublisher didn’t want at first, so he published them himself. That Kickstarter raised 41.7 million dollars in DAYS. The most funded project in Kickstarter’s history.

People really do want to read good books. They will pay good money for those books. Tradpub has proven they don’t know what people really want. The tricky thing is, still, connecting the writers to the readers … and nobody has figured that out yet. But we are working on it!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 29 March 2026

Top Story

• DDR5 RAM prices have dipped slightly following Google's TurboQuant announcement that allows AI models to run in a fraction of the amount of memory. (Notebook Check)
  
  While TurboQuant is real and does substantially reduce the amount of memory taken up for quantized vector database used to store LLM weights while - and this is the trick - not noticeably increasing noise in the models, any connection with commodity DDR5 memory pricing is best expressed in the polar co-ordinate system that TurboQuant is built on.
  
  By which I mean it is imaginary.
  
  
  
• Meanwhile the third horseshoe of the Tech Apocalypse has dropped with SSD pricing headed into orbit. (YouTube)
  
  Thanks Steve.
  
  This has been expected since DRAM prices headed the same way starting in November, but it was delayed by the large volume of devices already in the retail channel.
  
  Now reality has hit, hard, with prices doubling and further increases likely. The video notes that spot prices have increased ninefold, though that doesn't mean that drive prices will increase by the same amount.
  
  What it does mean is that the smaller manufacturers who didn't have existing long-term contracts have just been wiped out, while the companies making the NAND flash chips - Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix, again, plus Western Digital, Kioxia, and China's YTMC, can set whatever prices they choose.
  
  (The second horseshoe was the graphics card market, though that has been muted so far unless you were looking to buy an RTX 5070 Ti or higher. Prices of AMD and Intel cards have increased a little, but nothing like the devastation that has hit the memory market.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (173) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - March 28, 2026 [D Squared]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. Come in in, grab a drink or 3. If you do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around, you'll find out what its all about.

[Top photo: Pittsburgh Lightning, Dave DiCello]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (341) | Trackbacks (Suck)