Mid-Morning Art Thread

A Day in October, near Waxholm, Sweden
Alfred Wahlberg

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (267) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 8/5/25

Good morning kids. So, one of the big stories is the Leftists going apeshit over Texas' new redistricting plan. So they are screaming the usual hypocritical bullshit about power grabs and attempts to steal the midterms. Coming from a party that has gerrymandered the living hell out of most of the blue states to permanently make a sizable chunk of their constituents no more than serfs who have essentially no say in how they are governed is very near the heights of chutzpocrisy:

Not merely content with near insurmountable supermajorities, Daniel Greenfield notes they want it all. (NB: I have been having trouble linking to FrontpageMag via Safari this morning but Chrome seems to be working - JJS)

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced a plan to end democracy to save democracy. Democracy, as everyone who watches CNN knows, is in a precarious state and urgently needs to be saved by protecting it from those who want to destroy it for the wrong reasons by destroying it for the right reasons. And the right reason is ending electoral democracy. In that noble democratic spirit, California, where Republicans are occasionally allowed out in public, just not in the streets of major cities, announced plans to reduce the number of its 52 congressional seats that Republicans are allowed to hold in the state from 9 to 3.

California has 5.7 million registered Republicans to 10.3 million registered Democrats (and another nearly 7 million people who refuse to choose a political party despite the best efforts of the DMV, the Department of Cannabis Control and Jimmy Kimmel Live!) and Trump won 38% of the vote there which means that statistically Republicans ought to have more seats than that even if all they did was run a random masked guy named Bob in every single election.

Instead, California has state primaries, including Senate races, in which Democrats compete against other Democrats, as if the state were run by Communist China (instead of merely being used as a model and stash house by a succession of Democrat governors.)

How do California Democrats, who make up 45% of registered voters, control 82% of the congressional seats and all of the state government? Fraud, the use of taxpayer-funded community groups for political organizing to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and also massive gerrymandering of a kind that would have made any machine Democrat from a century ago weep tears of shame and then hide out in a cemetery to consult with his voters.

Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to take the Democrats from controlling a mere 82% of congressional seats to controlling 94% of congressional seats. To put that into context, this is a more extreme domination by an authoritarian ruling party than in Communist China. In the National People’s Congress, only 86% of the delegates belong to the Chinese Communist Party (while the others, like members of the DSA and the WFP in America, belong to organizations controlled by the Communist Party). Even Vladimir Putin settled for 88% of the vote.

Newsom looked at China and Russia, and decided that he could do better and go for 94%.

There are minor technical issues with Newsom’s plan: it’s unconstitutional, illegal and makes California look like Russia with more bleached blondes. In 2008, and a last gasp of actual democracy, a majority of Californians voted in favor of Proposition 11, to add a constitutional amendment creating an independent commission to control redistricting. In 2010, 59.5% of voters voted to have that commission set congressional districts. The commission, which currently includes Isra Ahmad, formerly of the Division of Equity & Social Justice on the ‘independent’ side, and Sara Sadhwani of CHIRLA, the group linked to the recent illegal alien riots, on the Democrat side, is a farce. But at least it’s a constitutional farce.

Of course the Texas Democrats fled to the shade and protection of the vast refuge beneath JB Pritzker's gut. And Good for Texas governor Abbott for this move:

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott threatened Sunday to remove dozens of House Democrats from office after they fled to the state to block a GOP-led redistricting plan during a special session of the legislature.  In a statement, Abbott gave more than 50 Democrats who left the state to deny a quorum – effectively halting the legislative process – until 3:00 p.m. on Monday to return or face removal proceedings. Abbott said that the actions of the Democrats amounted to “an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office” and that Texas law empowered him to fill the vacancies. 

And, in a not necessarily unrelated item, as Hakeem-rent-a-camel Jeffries wets his diapers about stolen elections, which is ironic given the fact that the Democrat Party has been expert at rigging and stealing elections for decades. We have this item. Not holding my breath but still it is nevertheless good to see:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a grand jury investigation into an alleged conspiracy by Obama administration officials to manufacture intelligence about Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to multiple reports. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed a federal prosecutor, who is expected to present evidence to a grand jury, to begin legal proceedings, according to a letter Fox News first reported.

At the very least expose the hell out of perhaps the greatest crime perpetrated against the American people in our history. Of course, as I had stated in the last few editorials, to expect punishment of the guilty let alone actual prosecution is unfortunately wishing for a miracle.

As Larry Elder notes:

Why does Obama need not fear charges? The race card. Consider the protests after the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a career violent criminal, was full of drugs, resisted arrest and was subdued by a restraint technique taught in the Minneapolis Police Academy. (For the truth about the death of Floyd, watch the documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis,” available for free on YouTube.) Yet, much of the country went crazy over this supposed example of anti-black police “systemic racism.” The trial was televised. Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell, a black man, took pains in his opening statement to say that the police, in general, were not on trial and that the Minneapolis Police Department, in general, was not on trial. The prosecutor said this individual cop, Derek Chauvin, was on trial for actions taken and not taken in connection with the death of Floyd. This prosecutor never even implied Chauvin was motivated by Floyd’s race, and Chauvin was not charged with a hate crime.

There's also the narrative card, which is why Hillary, Brennan, Comey and all the other pasty white criminals will never have to face the music. They were the defenders of democracy (vomit) and Trump was and remains literally Hitler. Exploding that myth cannot be allowed and the fact that we are even at this point is kind of miraculous, let alone Trump surviving several attempted physical and political assassinations and his agenda garnering all sorts of support from across the political spectrum.

And elsewhere it is encouraging to see Tom Cotton encouraging the IRS to have CAIR put in the crosshairs. Scratch their surface and aside from foreign Islmonazi supporters many of the same domestic insurrectionists and Leftist/Democrats have given them aid and comfort as well lo these many years.

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

Have a great day!

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Larry Elder: Does Obama need to fear charges?
  Think the George Floyd ‘Racial Injustice’ Protests Were Insane? What If Obama Gets Indicted?

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:42 AM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily News Stuff 5 August 2025

Top Story

• The Moon is a harsh parking lot. (Engadget)
  
  NASA's Trailblazer mission ended in disappointment.
  
  After just one day.
  
  When the batteries went flat.
  
  
  
• NASA is planning to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon. (Politico)
  
  No scrounging though the kitchen drawers for AAA cells on Christmas morning for these guys.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (118) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread - August 4, 2025 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! You've waited all day for it, and now it's here! The Monday night ONT is on time and on the money. What money, you ask? Not sure. Maybe there's some loose change around here somewhere. Come on in and see what you can find!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Fleebagger Cafe

Mount Fuji

Wake up, sleepyhead.

Monkey friends give each other hugs.

Justin Bieber has given himself a full MAGA makeover.

A big shoebill.

Baby giggles while feeding an ostrich.

Mother elephants rush to protect a young elephant.

Elephant gives birth, and then the herd comes over to protect the mother and calf.

When the wife wants some action but you're clearing a level on the XBox.

Dog refuses to leave the side of his stricken owner.

Old but good: A man rushes to save his dog from a kangaroo, and gives the bully a sock in the mouth.

Paralyzed sheep learns to pilot motorized wheelchair.

Bear who spent his life in a cage is given a paddock to play in and is already out of control.

Big chungus rescue pittie is put on a diet and has her beach-body back.

Sick sea-turtle is weighed down by thousands of barnacles but gets an Extreme Sea Turtle Makeover.

Chaos agent figures out how to work the automatic ball-thrower.

Whales do not want to be photographed right now.

Posted by: Ace at 07:20 PM | Comments (415) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Secretary of the Army Terminates West Point Teaching Contract for Former Head of Censorship Agency CISA -- the Organization That Deplatformed and Censored Conservatives for Four Years Under Biden

The left is angry that the right is not giving them amnesty for their decades-long weaponization of government against their political opponents.

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll has pulled the plug on an attempt by someone at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to hire Joe Biden's director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Jen Easterly, a retired Army colonel, a West Point graduate, and former head of CISA, was supposed to assume duties "as the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in the department of social sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York."

In an announcement distributed via X, Secretary Driscoll stated that Easterly's appointment was not approved and ordered a total review of how it came to be.

[I]t isn't as if Easterly was some low-profile leftie being slipped into the USMA faculty. She was one of the named defendants in the government censorship scandal that led to the Murthy v. Missouri (formerly Missouri v. Biden). She was at ground zero when the government undertook its grotesquely misguided program of strong-arming social media companies into restricting conversations on vote fraud in the 2020 election and the COVID virus response.

Sean Davis
@seanmdav

Jen Easterly ran CISA and directed its multi-year, illegal censorship operation against conservative media, including me personally and @FDRLST, the news publication I run.

Why on earth is this woman being gifted a plum sinecure at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point after what she did to this country?

Who approved this appointment of a woman who clearly has zero regard for the Constitution and the First Amendment right to free speech and freedom of the press?

Laura Loomer also brought this censor to Trump's attention. CBS "News" believes its controversial to brand this censorship agency as having practiced "censorship."

Note the sneer-quotes:

Easterly was accused of "censorship" by Loomer for her work as CISA director during the Biden administration to counter disinformation after the 2020 election.

"We're not turning cadets into censorship activists. We're turning them into warriors and leaders," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

Posted by: Ace at 06:20 PM | Comments (219) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Judge Rejects Big Letitia James' Lawsuit (Along With Other Leftwing AGs) to Force Trump to Spend Money on the One True Science of "Diversity Research"

The "science of diversity research" is just make-work jobs for otherwise unemployable DEI "scholars"/Democrat Party agitators.

The judge didn't say that. Should have, but did not.

A federal judge on Friday rejected a bid by 16 Democratic-led states to force U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to restore hundreds of millions of dollars of grants it canceled that support increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Democratic state attorneys general had urged U.S. District Judge John Cronan in Manhattan to block the National Science Foundation from canceling funding awarded to universities designed to increase the participation of women, minorities, and people in those fields, known collectively as STEM.

They had argued in a lawsuit filed in May that the Trump administration lacked the power to cap research funding and eliminate diversity programs provided by the NSF that were mandated by Congress and urged the judge to reverse grant terminations that began in April.

But Cronan, a Trump appointee, agreed with the administration that a challenge to NSF's already-completed grant terminations could not be pursued in his court but instead could only be taken up by the Court of Federal Claims, a specialist court that hears monetary claims against the U.S. government.

He said the states likewise failed to show a new NSF policy stating that research "must aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere" and that research projects that preference "subgroups of people" do not reflect the agency's priorities was inconsistent with the agency's governing statute.

The same day that policy was posted in April, NSF began canceling grants that had been previously issued that touched on among other topics of diversity, equity and inclusion. Trump has sought to eliminate DEI from the government and society.

In another win: DOJ's Civil Rights Division ended a 44-year-old consent decree -- I think that arises from a leftwing lawfare group suing and friendly government bureaucrats agreeing to give the lawfare group all that it demanded -- which mandated not just DEI in federal hiring but a determined hostility towards actual skills and qualifications.

Posted by: Ace at 05:20 PM | Comments (178) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Democrats Blow Off Governor Abbott's 3 PM (Central) Deadline to Return to Work

Governor Abbott escalated his threat: He now says that any of the fleebaggers who do not return to Texas by 3pm central (4pm east coast time) will face criminal felony charges.

But the more immediate threat is to strip them of the offices they have abandoned:

Townhall.com
@townhallcom

BREAKING NEWS from TX Governor Greg Abbott:

"This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House."

WOW.

To protest Texas' coming partisan gerrymander, Democrats fleebagged to... heavily partisan-gerrymandered Illinois and New York.

Though infuriating on one hand, on the other, you have to laugh at this stage in the game. I mean, as we pointed out, going to Illinois, which is home to one of the most corrupt and blatantly rigged Democrat political machines in the country, is not exactly the brightest idea these folks have had.

But to make matters worse for them, some of the Texas Democrats went to another blue state that is well-known for gerrymandering...

Posted by: Ace at 04:27 PM | Comments (277) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump Fires Bureau of Labor Statistics Chief Who Repeatedly Overestimated Job Growth Under Biden (and Right Before the Election, Too)

No more protection for leftists. None.

Fire them all.

President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he had sacked a Biden-appointed official responsible for compiling monthly jobs statistics, asserting that she had overstated jobs growth under the last president to aid the Harris campaign and that she had wrongly revised his own jobs numbers downwards.

"I was just informed that our Country's "Jobs Numbers" are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala's chances of Victory," he posted on Truth Social. "This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records -- No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers."

"I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes," he went on. "McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months. Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative. The Economy is BOOMING under "TRUMP" despite a Fed that also plays games, this time with Interest Rates, where they lowered them twice, and substantially, just before the Presidential Election, I assume in the hopes of getting 'Kamala' elected -- How did that work out? Jerome "Too Late" Powell should also be put "out to pasture." Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Posted by: Ace at 02:47 PM | Comments (392) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Somehow, Incredibly, Impossibly, We're Entering the Third Week of the Left Melting Down Over Sydney Sweeney's Tits

The Bee:

Leftist lunatics dug into Sydney Sweeney's history -- her initials are SS, for crying out loud (and that is a real argument the lunatics repeatedly make) -- and unearthed the ABSOLUTE SCANDAL that she's registered as a Republican in Florida.

Trump says now he loves the ad.

President Trump on Sunday reacted positively upon learning actress Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, adding that he now finds her viral American Eagle ad campaign to be "fantastic."

"She's a registered Republican?" Trump said in response to a reporter's question about his thoughts on her political affiliation. "Oh, now I love her ad."

The President added, "You'd be surprised at how many people are Republicans. That's what I wouldn't have known, but I'm glad you told me that. If Sydney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic."

...

On Friday, Vice President JD Vance had some fun at the expense of the left over its wild response to the American Eagle ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney.
Vice President JD Vance

"My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi. That appears to be their actual strategy," Vance joked during Friday's appearance on the "Ruthless" podcast.

Posted by: Ace at 01:35 PM | Comments (416) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Texas Democrats Flee the State to Block Redistricting; Greg Abbott Says That the State Constitution Allows Him to Declare Their Seats Forfeited

I don't know why they didn't fix this the past twenty times the Democrats did this. They do this every time there's a major vote, and we just keep letting them.

More than 50 Texas Democrats fled to Chicago on Sunday to block a redistricting plan that could give Republicans several new congressional seats. The move threatens to stall legislative business by denying the House a quorum.

Key Details:

Texas Democrats are attempting to deny the GOP a quorum in the 150-member state House, where at least 100 members must be present to move legislation forward. Democrat leaders say at least 51 members left the state.
The redistricting plan, introduced last week, would shift district lines to favor Republicans -- potentially flipping several urban Democrat seats.
Texas Republicans, led by House Speaker Dustin Burrows, are demanding Democrats return, with Attorney General Ken Paxton warning they could be arrested.

Steve Turley said that if the redistricting plan goes through, Jasmine Ratchet will probably lose her seat.

Greg Abbot says he will declare the "fleebaggers" to have resigned from their seats.

Can he actually take their seats away from them? I don't know. Even if he does, there will then be years of litigation to determine if the redistricting map was passed legally.

Governor Greg Abbott is threatening to oust the Texas Democrats who fled to Chicago to block a GOP-led redistricting bill, accusing them of abandoning their posts and violating the Texas Constitution by intentionally denying the House a quorum.

In a letter released Sunday, Abbott made clear that lawmakers who continue to skip work could be removed from office altogether. "These absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose," he wrote, noting that Democrats "hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber's business."

To justify potential removals, Abbott pointed to Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382. That 2021 opinion concluded that legislators who intentionally break quorum can be found to have "vacated office." Abbott emphasized that under this legal framework, "a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy."

He added, "That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution."

Speaking of redistricting: The Supreme Court says it wants to hear arguments on the question of the constitutionality of racially-gerrymandered congressional seats.

Since the 80s, states have prioritized race as a factor in drawing congressional districts. Bizarre snake-like gerrymanders slither throughout states to pick up black neighborhoods here and there to guarantee a "majority minority" district where blacks are guaranteed to elect a black Democrat.

Is this even constitutional? The Supreme Court seems to think it's not, because they have asked for arguments on the issue even though it was basically ignored in the lower courts.

The Supreme Court said Friday that it will weigh the constitutionality of a common form of redistricting used to protect the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters: the drawing of congressional districts where racial minorities make up at least half the population.

Experts in election law said the move signals that the court may be poised to further narrow the Voting Rights Act.

In a terse order issued Friday evening, the justices called for briefing on whether the "intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution."

The order came in a case challenging Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts out of the state's six House seats.

The court heard arguments in the case in March and had been expected to rule by June. But on June 27, the justices punted the case into their next term and ordered that it be reargued.

Now, Friday's order loosely sketches the terrain on which the justices want further arguments: the claim that the longstanding practice of drawing majority-minority districts under the Voting Rights Acts may be unconstitutional because of its focus on race in drawing district lines. The voters challenging Louisiana's map had already advanced that constitutional claim in the case, but the justices' call for further briefing on the issue suggests they want to consider the claim more fully.

Below, Steve Turley argues that ending the racial gerrymanders will effectively wipe out all Democrat congressional representation in the south and guarantee the Republican Party a minimum of 230 seats in Congress. (218 seats are needed for the majority.)

Posted by: Ace at 12:32 PM | Comments (346) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT – EU Capitulates to Trump’s Tariff Agenda: Why Aren’t Free Traders Touting How Great This Is for Europe?

President Trump’s one-sided trade deal that he just imposed on the European Union has caused a lot of anger and despair on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, was compelled to make trade concessions that come across as near-total capitulation to Trump’s terms. She had no choice. This was necessary so as to not to cost the 27-nation EU a greater loss of access to the enormous American market.

How one-sided is it?

• Tariffs on most products being imported to the US from Europe will increase from about 1% to 15%.
• Tariffs on vehicles being imported to the U.S. will increase from 2.5% to 15%. The short-term impact of this will be more tariff revenue for the U.S., which will be eaten by European manufacturers if they want to sell their cars here. The long-term impact of this will be the movement of European car manufacturing to the US, bringing manufacturing jobs to the US, and costing the EU jobs.
• The 50% tariff that Trump imposed on steel, aluminum, and copper imports will remain in place.
• The EU will roughly double the amount of US energy that it imports, to about $750 billion per year.
• European manufacturers will commit to $600 billion in capital expenditures for industrial development in the US.
• The EU will eliminate tariffs on products exported from the US to Europe.

This is a staggering reversal of the unfair trade practices that existed before – trade practices that helped crush American manufacturing, but were celebrated by “Principled Free Traders” who rejoiced at every American job lost to “free trade.”

Of course, what existed before wasn’t “free trade” at all, it was unilateral surrender to foreign mercantilism. However, the Principled Free Traders repeatedly told us that surrendering to non-reciprocal, one-sided trade was a beautiful thing because:

- American consumers get lower prices! The free traders didn’t even care if the lower-cost of imports was due to price-supports from unfriendly foreign governments.
- Trade that eliminates American manufacturing jobs allows American labor to be better deployed to “thinking” jobs rather than to manual labor.
- Tariffs are a tax on consumers. If the US had imposed counter-tariffs, that would have been a “tax on consumers.”
- A utopian global economy requires an upfront American capitulation to set the example of how other countries should behave in a libertarian world without economic borders.

David Harsanyi articulates the globalist, America-last position in his frequent writings about the beauty of surrendering to non-reciprocal “free trade.” At the Washington Examiner a few months ago he wrote, “Trade isn’t fair. Americans should pray it never gets fair.” He added, “Trade allows average working-class Americans to buy all kinds of things they could not otherwise afford because of trade. Forcing working-class Americans to make things foreigners or machines can make cheaper only undermines the creation of better jobs for them and their children.”

It seems to me that the EU’s capitulation to Trump has put Europe in the position that free traders always advocated for the US. Shouldn’t this trade deal therefore be great news for Europe per free trader logic?

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (370) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Watercolor
William Sommer

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (318) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 8/4/25

Good morning kids. Hope you all had a nice relaxing weekend so now as we scan the links and ponder current events, I'm reminded of what the late great Rush Limbaugh of blessed memory labeled "The Daily Soap Opera," that is what the establishment media was reporting and the way in which it was reported.

That said, boy does this item really hit home, especially now that Tulsi Gabbard is putting the klieg lights on the intel community and its attempted and coup against Then-candidate and now twice-elected president Donald Trump (thrice if you include the stolen 2020 election).

Former Democrat Party presidential hopeful and current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is giving the CIA an enema, and she's putting the hose where it is most needed: in the sketchy, unofficial offices of Operation Mockingbird, the CIA's not-so-secret department dedicated to propaganda. . . The CIA has been bribing/threatening/installing journalists to do their bidding since the beginning of the Cold War. It is believed they had/have roughly 400 journalists, news reporters, and publishers throughout the world, writing what the CIA tells them to write. . . Tulsi Gabbard believes Operation Mockingbird isn't merely still alive and kicking, but that  it's being used to slander President Trump. In my opinion, it is also being used to spread globalist codswallop.) Even better, Gabbard is dedicated to tearing it down.

While it certainly is alarming and disgusting that for such a long time right up until the present day IC operatives infiltrated the national and global media to pump out propaganda, irrespective of the original intention to counter/thwart Soviet/communist influence. The composition of the pavement of the road to hell is something we are or by now should be well aware – given the societal/cultural and governmental corruption of individuals and institutions that many events over the past few years have exposed, one has to ask, were these CIA embeds even necessary?

For example, were Lois Lerner and John Koskinen at the IRS ordered to subvert 501-C3 status of conservative Tea Party or other non-Democrat Leftist groups or simply because they were innately Leftists did they do it all on their own? Were everyone from the editorial boards of the Times and WaPo, the anchors at CNN to late night talk show stooges given marching orders from the CIA or did they rail against everyone and everything non-Democrat all on their own?

All of that said, I think back to late January of 1968 when in the wake of the complete failure of the NVA/Vetcong Tet Offensive, Walter Cronkite took to the airwaves of CBS to unilaterally declare to the American people that we had lost the Vietnam War, despite the facts on the ground that indicated it was a disastrous debacle for the communists. So whose war was Vietnam? Wasn't it the Dems' and the CIA's?

Poll after poll over the past several years indicates that trust in the media is digging its way to China. Gabbard's revelations, assuming they are given honest coverage (ha!) are not exactly going to help. That said, she is doing yeoman's work in exposing the 2015-present coup against President Trump. How or whether her revelations about Operation Mockingbird will help or even hinder her efforts to expose the corruption/treason of the Deep State is TBD. Surely and lamentably, the perpetrators of those crimes will more than likely go unpunished let alone be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, from someone who had the gall to believe he can appear in public wearing a MAGA hat ejected from a stadium, to Colorado's doughy fey governor punishing his own cops from working with the federal government to anti-Semitic mobs attempting to swarm NYC's Grand Central Station, the beat, and beat downs go on.

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

Have a great day!

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• The more information comes out, the more disturbing things become.
  Was the Death of Seth Rich a Hit by the Deep State?
  
• Thad McCotter: Chinese engineers accessed Pentagon systems via Microsoft’s cloud—raising alarms over Big Tech’s ties to America’s top adversary.
  Microsoft and the DOD’s Digital Escort Service: How in the World Did This Happen?
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: Trump is rewriting the rules of politics, economics, and culture—and no one, not even the experts, knows what happens when the old orthodoxy finally breaks.
  Trump’s Unknown Frontiers
  
• The CIA has been bribing/threatening/installing journalists to do their bidding since the beginning of the Cold War. It is believed they had/have roughly 400 journalists, news reporters, and publishers throughout the world, writing what the CIA tells them to write.
  To Kill an Operation Mockingbird: Tulsi Goes to War With the CIA's Propaganda Yobbos

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:30 AM | Comments (356) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 4 August 2025

Top Story

• Did Craigslist really kill newspapers? (Poynter)
  
  Yes. Sort of. Maybe. But also mostly no.
  
  Newspapers had been in slow decline for thirty years when Craigslist launched in 1995.
  
  What the site did certainly do was accelerate a process started by the newspapers themselves.
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (124) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - August 3, 2025 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! It is Sunday ONT time! Nice of you to stop by and end your weekend here. What's on your mind tonight? Do tell!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (338) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: First August 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 August? Is it all hot and melty where you are? It's been all hot and melty where I are, that's for sure. So hot and melty, in fact, that it's made even the thought of outside activity unthinkable. How about range time? Do you usually shoot indoors or outdoors? Please let us know in the comments how you manage your range time in the face of meteorological adversity.

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 (201) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Truffles Have Ridges?

There is an upscale department store in Paris called Bon Marché. If you need a €3,000 pocket book, or a €400 men's manicure kit, that's the place.

It also has three floors dedicated to food! The bottom floor is an excellent wine store, the next floor is a mind-bogglingly marvelous food court, and the next floor is filled with kitchenware and cooking stuff and beautiful china and glasses and flatware and linens and....

Let's focus on the food today! That photo is a plate of rigatoni in a truffle-cream sauce, served at a tiny truffle bar in the middle of this amazing food court. It doesn't have a kitchen; it's more like a reheating station about the size of a small island in an American kitchen. But they managed to pump out this deliciousness, and my friends had equally marvelous stuff (one had risotto with truffles).

The cream sauce was perfect, with tiny bits of truffle that I imagine was the dust and small pieces left over from processing. Then they shaved that pile of truffles on top, and had sufficient attention to detail to make the pasta perfectly. The rigatoni's ridges were perfect for holding onto that rich cream sauce, and I vaguely remember having to resist licking the plate.

Was it expensive? Not by NYC standards! The food culture in France can be overwhelming, but aside from the restaurants that cater to those who wish to be seen, even the highly rated places seem reasonable by American city standards.

That food culture is distinct from ours, which I think focuses on the event of the meal even more than the food. I like that very much, and wouldn't give it up for anything!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Look carefully. The blade has two sides, only one of which is sharp. Yet it can be removed and flipped over so that the dull side is presented to the food being peeled.

Unless there is some way to sharpen the tiny blade with a tiny stone, I see no reason to remove it. Yet inexplicably, somebody removed mine, and FLIPPED IT OVER!

Clearly there are imps at work in my home, and I may be in need of some sort of exorcism, or at least a cleansing by fire!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (191) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The West And Islam Are Incompatible: We Just Haven't Admitted It Yet

Muslims are busily murdering Christians throughout Africa and the Middle East, and in almost every Muslim country they are a persecuted minority. Notice I didn't mention Jews in Muslim countries! They have already been driven out, and while there are scattered and tiny Jewish communities in some Muslim countries, the vast majority were expelled, especially in the Middle East.

While Islam holds a special hatred of Jews and Judaism, Christianity is also in its crosshairs. And there are many more Christians than Jews, so Christianity is a much bigger and easier target! Just look at current day Syria, or Egypt, where Coptic Christians used to be a majority, but are now a persecuted minority. And Nigeria seems to be among the worst, with an estimated 50,000 Christians murdered by Islamic terrorists in the last 15 years. Iraq, Indonesia, Pakistan, Libya, Congo... you name the Muslim country, and there has been persecution.

Apostasy against Islam is a capital offense in many Muslim countries, including such modern and enlightened places such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, yet they are treated as if they are civilized countries! And Christianity is an obvious placeholder for Western Culture!

And this is nothing new. Islam has been on the march for its entire existence, and it is only the post-modern conceit and stupidity that all cultures are of equal worth that has fooled the West to welcome its savagery, and has conspicuously ignored its intransigent political philosophy.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die: but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

-- Winston Churchill: The River War

That quotation is 125 years old, yet it could have been written yesterday. Except Churchill would have been far more pessimistic about the West's chances, and would have railed against the ignorance of our current leaders.

We are in an existential battle for the existence of our culture, and we haven't even admitted to ourselves that there is even any difference between Islam and Christianity/Judaism. Until we are honest with ourselves, and recognize that Islam is a political philosophy that uses a carefully crafted religion to achieve its goals, we will continue to lose ground to a 7th century culture with 21st century weapons and communication.

And those goals are antithetical to everything that Western culture has created over 3,000 years. The rationality of science, the equality of Man, the recognition of the individual, self determination, the abandonment of the concept of Woman as chattel, the free exercise of religion: all of these and more are in jeopardy.

Will the West awaken to this danger? Will there need to be a catastrophe on the scale of a world war to rip off our blinders? Will it be a Pakistani or Iranian nuclear device (or one supplied to a Muslim nation by North Korea or Russia or China) detonated in a Western capital? Will it be a biological attack that destroys American agriculture? Will it be an attack on Israel that triggers an Israeli nuclear attack on a Muslim nation?

Who knows, but perhaps a fight is preferable to the creeping destruction of the West!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (359) | Trackbacks (Suck)