July 15, 2025
Harvard-Harris Poll: Democrats (and Tucker Carlson) Are Once Again on the Wrong Side of an 80/20 Issue
Even Democrats support this to the tune of 70%.
Now, as to approval of Trump's successful "Midnight Hammer" strike: Democrats oppose it just because they reflexively, insanely oppose anything associated with Trump. Even though the Midnight Hammer strike was successful and did stop Iran's nuke program.
But even there, 58% of the public supports the strike.
And Tucker Carlson needs to go back to his hard-hitting UFO reportage.
Here's a graph I stole from Ed Morrissey:
Turns out, they were clutching their pearls on the wrong side of a new 80/20 issue. No, that's not an exaggeration. According to a new Harvard-Harris CAPS poll, a staggering 80% of voters back stopping Iran's nuclear ambitions "by any means necessary." That's right, "any means." Even among self-identified Democrats, support is north of 70%. That's a landslide. When it comes to the strike itself, the numbers tell a similar story that the left won't like. A solid 58% of Americans support Trump's decision to level Fordow and the other Iranian nuclear sites, despite the usual Democrat outrage machine's propaganda efforts. Predictably, 67% of Democrats oppose it. But here's the kicker: Every other demographic backs the strike, except one, Gen Z, where the split is a tight 48/52. Recommended: Media Runs Interference as Biden Autopen Scandal Explodes Even more telling, 54% of Americans consider Operation Midnight Hammer a "major accomplishment" by the U.S. military. The 46% who downplay it? You guessed it: mostly Democrats, by a lopsided 32/68 margin. Independents are split down the middle, and the youngest voters again tilt negative, 41/59. Still, Trump's bold move is winning where it counts -- and the numbers are only getting worse for his critics.
Posted by: Ace at 04:17 PM | Comments (371) | Trackbacks (Suck)
As Predicted, Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass are Refusing to Allow People to Rebuild Their Houses in the Pallisades.
The Plan is to Starve Them Out and Offer Them Pennies on the Dollar for Their Property, to Build Low-Income Apartments.
The Plan is to Starve Them Out and Offer Them Pennies on the Dollar for Their Property, to Build Low-Income Apartments.
Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass promised Californians who lost their homes in their engineered firestorm that there would be reduced red-tape to allow reconstruction to begin within weeks.
More than six months later, not a single home has been rebuilt. In fact, not a single construction has even started. People suspected that Newsom and Bass would not let this crisis go to waste and would seize people's property in order to build apartment buildings for the poor. That's exactly what they're doing. They're refusing to grant permits to let people rebuild, so that their multimillion-dollar properties become effectively valueless. Then they're going to offer peanuts to buy these distressed, deliberately-impoverished landowners out.Right Angle News NetworkBeege Wellborne wrote about this last week. Adam Carolla predicted this. (Video below the fold). Beege Wellborne writes: "You knew he was right."
@Rightanglenews BREAKING - The California Senate has passed SB 549, granting LA County authority to purchase fire‑destroyed lots for minimal cost and convert them into low‑income housing, directly contradicting Gavin Newsom's previous assurance to homeowners that such government‑driven property conversions wouldn't happen.
Read the whole thing.
That sick feeling only grew as months passed. The empty words of a nervous-as-a-cat Bass, defensively deflecting Donald Trump's directions to make residents as whole as possible as soon as possible, hang in the air still. In hard-hit Altadena alone, the rebuilding process six months later is sucking the lives and hope out of people. And every dime they ever had.Soil sampling is now required, and that tacks another $5000-$8000 onto the process. The very long and tedious process, which is beginning to look as if it's specifically designed to soak as much money out of the homeowner as possible before they give up in disgust and move elsewhere. There have been only an unconscionable 44 building permits approved in LA County since the fires.
...Addressing the concerns of homeowners at a recent community meeting, Barger told them, "You have lost so much, you shouldn't have to worry about permitting fees getting in the way of rebuilding your home. For most families, these fees may have exceeded $20,000. That's a barrier we cannot allow to stand." The deferral of fees only applies to people who lived in their own single-family homes before the fire. It does not apply to non-owner-occupied rental properties, multi-family housing units or commercial structures. The county estimates that if 60% of homeowners in Altadena and elsewhere in unincorporated Palisades rebuild, it would amount to $84 million in building permit fees. Permitting is only one hurdle. For most, state and local building codes have changed in the decades since many of these homes were originally built, meaning the house has to have changes and extras that insurance covering a like-to-like rebuild does not account for. "It adds expenses that we didn't expect. Like, solar is required on all new builds, and so is the easement from the property line. It's got to be five feet now and ours was only three," says Toomey, as she stands under a backyard oak tree that survived. "And insurance doesn't pay for that stuff. That's on us," Silvernail adds....But the process is still slow. As of midday July 1, 2025, the LA County Permitting Progress Dashboard showed 890 rebuild applications in the Eaton Fire area, but only 44 building permits have been issued, taking an average turnaround of about 10 weeks to get through the process. And speed matters. A survey of fire victims found that the longer it takes to rebuild, the more likely it is people won't move back. "So even folks that fully intend to move back today, if this process, either through permitting or financing or insurance, takes more than three years, the percentage of people that want to move back drops to like 50%," Kawahara says.Those are the single-family homeowners' travails. Back in February, I wrote about a new Los Angeles ordinance that had come into effect, requiring low-income housing to be erected, replacing apartment buildings that were lost. What that meant to fire victims who'd lost their rental homes was they might never have a home to return to if the landlord rebuilt their building and they now earned too much to make the qualifications for the low-income threshold. In effect, LA County would be making them homeless.
Posted by: Ace at 02:58 PM | Comments (435) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Inflation Ticks Upwards But Comes In Under Expectations
Under President Trump, core inflation continues to come in below expectations -- with June marking the fifth consecutive month of better-than-forecast results. From vehicles to groceries, key prices are holding steady or falling, confirming that inflation is right on track. Key Details: Headline inflation rose just 0.1% in June, with the annual rate at 2.7% -- both numbers showing price stability as the trend continues to improve. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, increased 0.2% -- below the 0.3% economists predicted. Year-over-year, core inflation held steady at 2.9%, reinforcing the consistent progress made under President Trump. New vehicle prices declined 0.3% in June, and used car prices dropped 0.7%. Apparel prices rose for the first time in months, but men's and children's clothing costs fell. Shoe prices and household furnishings saw modest increases, showing strength in domestic demand. Diving Deeper: For the fifth month in a row, inflation under President Donald J. Trump came in cooler than economists expected -- a clear sign that the White House's pro-growth, pro-stability agenda is working. June's Consumer Price Index showed a modest 0.1% rise from the prior month, and an annual increase of 2.7%, slightly above projections but still a sharp departure from the runaway inflation seen under Joe Biden. The bigger story came from core inflation. Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy categories, rose just 0.2% in June -- under the 0.3% forecast -- and remained at 2.9% year-over-year. Since President Trump returned to office, core inflation has stayed consistently below expectations, helping drive real wage growth and boost consumer confidence.
Rapid Response 47So the media did not cover inflation under Biden for four years, covered it intensely for the first few months of Trump's Restoration with snarky "I thought Trump said he'd lower prices on day one" hit pieces, then stopped covering inflation when Trump's policies reduced inflation to just above the 2% target rate, and now are back to covering it again, for at least this month, because it ticked up 0.1%. Got it. Regime hack Jerome Powell cut interest rates just before the election to boost Biden, and refused to raise interest rates throughout most of Biden's reign of inflation. He never cautioned Biden on his massive overspending or linked it to inflation. But now that a president he doesn't like is in the White House, he's claiming he can't ever cut interest rates, because Trump's tariffs may, one day, possibly, cause price increases in the future. People are now calling for "regime change" at the Fed.
@RapidResponse47 .@PressSec: "Every month since @POTUS
took office, core inflation--the best measure of inflation--has beat or matched expectations. The data proves that @POTUS
is stabilizing inflation and the Panicans continue to be wrong about tariffs raising prices."
A Republican Congressman also called for Powell's resignation.
Former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh, considered to be a top contender to succeed Fed Chair Jerome Powell, said the central bank needs "regime change." "I think what we need is regime change at the Fed," Warsh told Maria Bartiromo in an interview on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures that aired on Sunday. "And that's not just about the chairman, it's about a whole range of people, it's about changing their mindset and their models, and frankly it's about breaking some heads, because the way they've been doing business is not working." President Trump has been openly critical of Powell and has called on the central bank to cut interest rates, with no success. Fed officials have taken a cautious approach to rates in the face of mild inflation data.
... Asked about whether Trump has the authority to fire Powell, Kevin Hassett, a top Trump economic advisor, told ABC's This Week that right now it's an issue "that's being looked into. But certainly, if there's cause, he does."
Arizona Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh on Monday called for the resignation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, citing a pattern of "gross mismanagement" and policy failures. In a public letter shared on X, Hamadeh accused Powell of dragging down the economy by refusing to cut interest rates. Key Details: In a letter posted to X, Rep. Hamadeh criticized Powell for what he described as "gross mismanagement" of the Federal Reserve's headquarters renovation project and a failure to act in the country's economic interest.Trump is searching for a replacement for Powell when his term is up... or maybe before his term is up.
Hamadeh also took aim at Powell's public comments on tariffs and accused him of showing "a lack of candor" while ignoring the need for timely interest rate cuts.
The criticism follows public comments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Chairman William Pulte, who said he was "encouraged" by reports of Powell's potential resignation, calling it "the right decision for America."
The Trump administration has taken its clearest step yet toward reshaping the Federal Reserve, launching a formal search for who will take over from Jerome Powell when his term ends -- or possibly before. Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, "There are a lot of great candidates and we'll see how rapidly it progresses. It's President Trump's decision and it will move at his speed." Bessent, who is among the top contenders alongside former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and NEC Director Kevin Hassett, dismissed speculation that the administration would install a "shadow" Fed chair in advance of Powell's departure. "It would be very confusing for the market," he noted, suggesting the White House is focused on an orderly, albeit early, transition.
Posted by: Ace at 01:51 PM | Comments (319) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Trump Advises Prosecution of Adam Schiff for Mortgage Fraud
This doesn't seem like a big story but it's a slow news day.
The problem is that Schiff claims his Maryland home is his primary residence in order to get a lower interest rate for the mortgage. But the law says that a Senator must actually reside in his home state (California, in Schiff's case). This could be characterized as mortgage fraud, but I dunno. We all know that most senators live permanently in the DC area and the idea that they are primarily residents of their "home" state is just another fiction in the Empire of Lies. Then again, I have been reliably informed that No One Is Above the Law, even when it comes to ticky-tack stuff like keeping a napkin you wrote a note on as president.This isn't much of a post so I'll try to find another story within 30-40 minutes.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged "justice" for Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., after Fannie Mae's Financial Crimes Division concluded that he engaged in a sustained pattern of possible mortgage fraud. "I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist. And now I learn that Fannie Mae's Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA," he added. "I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020. Mortgage Fraud is very serious, and CROOKED Adam Schiff (now a Senator) needs to be brought to justice." Fannie Mae has not issued a public statement as of press time.
Posted by: Ace at 01:12 PM | Comments (252) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Just the News: Discovery of "Vault" Where Comey Hid Evidence of His Russiagate Maneuverings May Help Prove Conspiracy
Hello everyone! Hope your Tuesday afternoon is feeling more like a Friday 'round five-ish.
I think the idea here is one that the DOJ uses all the time in prosecutions: If you do something that indicates a consciousness of guilt, such as hiding evidence, then that can be used as evidence to prove intent at trial.
So, James "No Intent" Comey may have proven his intent to defraud the United States of the presidency they voted for by hiding the evidence of his crimes.Comey and the Deep State repeatedly prosecuted J6ers on the theory that they "conspired to defraud the people of the United States" of a free and fair election. That precedent can now be used to prosecute them. Related? Pam Bondi fires the DOJ's top "ethics" official.
The FBI's decision to open a probe that treats the last decade of political weaponization of law enforcement and intelligence agencies as an ongoing criminal conspiracy is being cheered by lawmakers and could be aided by Director Kash Patel's recent discovery of a room where the bureau had "hidden" evidence from public and congressional view. Patel's discovery of the evidence "vault" or "lockbox" as he called it on a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan and the opening of the "overarching conspiracy" probe occurred around the same time this spring, officials told Just the News. The discovery that the FBI stashed away evidence in politically hot probes like Russigate could help prosecutors convince a grand jury that government officials were engaged in a coverup or an effort to deprive civil liberties, experts said. "I think it's part of a coordinated strategy to deprive people of their constitutional rights to speech and to petition the government for redress of agreements and also the right to counsel," former Trump attorney John Eastman told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday. And while the discovery of the evidence vault and the emergence of the conspiracy probe are shrouded in some secrecy, their existence has buoyed Republicans in Congress who long believed prosecution of government actors behind scandals like Russiagate and Biden family corruption was warranted. "They put America through unbelievable, really historic political turmoil, knowing that the entire narrative was completely false," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., declared Monday, after word of the conspiracy case surfaced in a Just the News report. "I felt these people were criminals for many years now," Johnson told the Just the News, No Noise TV show. "I mean, the fact that they knew this...the whole Russiagate was a conspiracy hatched by the Clinton campaign back in 2016. President Obama was briefed on that. I mean, they all knew." Just the News reported Monday that the FBI quietly launched an investigation into a decade of Democratic Party and "deep-state" antics ranging from ginning up the Trump-Russia collusion to examining special counsel Jack Smith's pursuit of Trump. That news could open the door for the appointment of a special prosecutor to examine whether the different events support a presentation to a grand jury regarding a criminal conspiracy to influence three consecutive presidential elections to the benefit of Democrats and the detriment of Trump. Previously hidden documents or information with potential impact being suddenly discovered is a developing pattern, and the release of that material is likely to have major repercussions. The FBI's "grand conspiracy" case was opened several weeks ago, Just the News reported, and it could get a significant boost if Trump were to declassify two yet-classified troves of evidence that identify key pieces of the alleged conspiracy dating back to the summer of 2016, according to several people directly familiar with the inquiry who spoke to Just the News on a condition of anonymity. Patel said in a mid-May joint interview with FBI deputy director Dan Bongino that "as much as we know about Crossfire Hurricane, he and I just found out more last week, and we're continuing to work with Congress to put those documents out."
Attorney General Pam Bondi has dismissed one of the department's top career ethics officials. Joseph Tirrell, who was responsible for advising senior Department of Justice (DOJ) leaders on ethical standards, had long been seen by critics as emblematic of the entrenched bureaucratic mindset that too often prioritizes politics over justice. Bondi's decision sends a clear message: under her leadership, the DOJ will no longer tolerate internal resistance that undermines conservative reforms or the will of the American people.
Hello everyone! Hope your Tuesday afternoon is feeling more like a Friday 'round five-ish.
Posted by: Ace at 12:03 PM | Comments (331) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Rant 
I'm old enough to remember the summer of 1974 pretty vividly. The feeding frenzy in Washington, D.C. was the Watergate hearings leading to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974. What is the current feeding frenzy inWashington, D.C. The Swamp? Is it RussiaGate and the possible criminal indictments of James Comey and John Brennan? No, it involves the late Jeffrey Epstein's missing client lists and the bumbling US Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
I voted for President Trump thrice and do not regret my votes nor my campaign contributions. He's not my spiritual leader, he isn't my dog sitter, he's not my golf buddy. He's my president. I voted for him and his policies. And that those policies would be implemented by competent cabinet selections.
President made "Transparency" a promise during the 2024 campaign. And when the president and/or his AG aren't going to be transparent on a promise. The president needs to be called on it. Especially since the current dust up should have never happened. Of course this is just the fodder the MSM needs to avoid covering more important matter.
I'm not sure who whispered into President-Elect Trump's ear about selecting Rep. Matt Gaetz as U.S. Attorney General. Obviously a chunk of red meat thrown out for the MAGA movement. So who ever said, "Let's replace this polarizing figure with a clueless DEI state AG." Didn't do any better. Obviously Pam's bleached roots have contaminated whatever common sense she may have possessed.
Instead of telling us who diddled whom on Epstein Island. She thought a good way to say "Squirrel, I'll change the optics" is to terminate people who probably should have been fired sooner rather than later. Later being now to cover her ass for her botched Epstein file handling.
As I write this Pam Bondi is still the AG. Dan Bongino is still deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And "Law & Order" Cash Patel is still the Director of the FBI. Nothing will happen to either Bondi, Bongion or Patel. They will "kiss and make up" and somewhere down the road either they will resign or be fired. The NDAs they signed will forbid them from spilling whatever they may know. Some may call me a cynic. But, I'm a realist, nothing will happen to the Diddlers of Epstein Island. Nothing will happen to the Swamp Creatures. Nothing happens to the professional protesters but OMG how dare someone walk through the capitol? It really doesn't matter who the POTUS is anymore. There are at least two sets of laws in this country and there isn't a damn legal thing we can do about it.
I'm old enough to remember the summer of 1974 pretty vividly. The feeding frenzy in Washington, D.C. was the Watergate hearings leading to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974. What is the current feeding frenzy in
Attorney General Pam Bondi — who has been purging the Justice Department of anyone tied to the Jan. 6 prosecutions as well as the prosecutions of President Donald Trump — fired the lawyer personally advising her and the department’s thousands of employees on ethics, Bloomberg reported Sunday. Joseph Tirrell, who began his career in the Navy and spent almost two decades in the federal government, was fired Friday via a brief letter from Bondi, who gave no reason for the termination. The same day, Bondi fired 20 DOJ employees who were involved in prosecuting Trump. She has also recently fired employees related to the prosecutions of the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol. Tirrell had advised Special Counsel Jack Smith on ethics related to the prosecution of Trump, Bloomberg reported.
As I write this Pam Bondi is still the AG. Dan Bongino is still deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And "Law & Order" Cash Patel is still the Director of the FBI. Nothing will happen to either Bondi, Bongion or Patel. They will "kiss and make up" and somewhere down the road either they will resign or be fired. The NDAs they signed will forbid them from spilling whatever they may know. Some may call me a cynic. But, I'm a realist, nothing will happen to the Diddlers of Epstein Island. Nothing will happen to the Swamp Creatures. Nothing happens to the professional protesters but OMG how dare someone walk through the capitol? It really doesn't matter who the POTUS is anymore. There are at least two sets of laws in this country and there isn't a damn legal thing we can do about it.
Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 11:00 AM | Comments (357) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
Sir John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (326) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Report — 7/15/25
So this polliwog hack-in-black botched her first completely illegal TRO which got smacked down so in the name of glorious baby-butchery issues another one. It is high time for President of the United States of America Donald J. Trump to finally drive a stake through the heart of Marbury v. Madison and unilaterally declare this hack's actions illegal, irrelevant, null and void, and strip Planned Mengele-hood of the money. Period full stop. On top of that, let's see Congress impeach this evil hag and see that she is never allowed within a thousand miles of any courthouse, unless it is as a defendant wearing an orange jumpsuit, mantacles and leg-irons. And while Stacy Abrams is a literal shit-stain human or otherwise is TBD, as explained in the Culture Wars section, Barack Obama said what?
Detestable, despicable lout. The Angel of Death cannot come in a swoop him and everyone like him up fast enough for me.
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!
The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling on Monday allowing President Donald Trump’s Department of Education to resume efforts to slash its workforce in half. The decision reverses a lower court ruling ordering the reinstatement of Department of Education employees cut loose in mass layoffs, and ultimately allows Education Secretary Linda McMahon to continue her mission of winding down the department.The abolition of the agency itself would be ideal yet that would I believe require an act of congress and considering the Democrats reaction would be that of Dracula being doused with a vat of holy water, while the GOP would be aghast at losing an opportunity for grift. So Linda McMahon taking an axe to this viper's nest of perversion and bolshevism from within is fine by me, and hopefully all the other heads of all the other agencies and bureaucracies will follow suit. The fact that much if not all of the bureaucracy created during and after the accursed New Deal is antithetical to the Constitution and the Republic as founded, all of it is supposed to operate under the aegis and as a part of the Executive branch, and so it should stand to reason that the President has the authority to direct his duly appointed and congressionally confirmed department heads to do as he sees fit. But of course, since it's Donald Trump that is POTUS it's a different story with our so-called Democrat "defenders of our precious democracy" (vomit). On a negative note:
Late Friday, Massachusetts federal judge Indira Talwani, a Barack Obama appointee, dissolved the TRO she had entered earlier in the week against the Trump Administration. Mere hours after Planned Parenthood filed suit against the Department of Health and Human Services, challenging Congress’s decision in the Big, Beautiful Bill to no longer fund abortion providers, Judge Talwani issued a TRO. That 5:15 p.m. Monday TRO failed to provide any legal justification for her decision requiring the Trump Administration to continue disbursing Medicaid funding to all Planned Parenthood organizations. The Trump Administration responded with a Motion to Dissolve the TRO, stressing that “a TRO cannot issue without complying with a series of mandatory procedural requirements” and that Judge Talwani “ignored those most basic criteria.” Accordingly, the Trump Administration argued in its Motion, “[t]he Court must therefore dissolve its TRO as soon as possible.” Federal rules also require a judge who enters an ex parte TRO to “describe the [movant’s] injury and state why it is irreparable [and] state why the order was issued without notice.” Again, Judge Talwani blatantly violated that mandatory rule, by failing to explain the purported irreparable harm. Judge Talwani attempted to rectify her errors on Friday by dissolving her initial TRO and entering an amended TRO that “provide[d] the court’s reasons for the emergency order.” But rather than remedy the defective TRO, Judge Talwani’s reasoning confirms that she never should have entered a TRO in the first instance.
So this polliwog hack-in-black botched her first completely illegal TRO which got smacked down so in the name of glorious baby-butchery issues another one. It is high time for President of the United States of America Donald J. Trump to finally drive a stake through the heart of Marbury v. Madison and unilaterally declare this hack's actions illegal, irrelevant, null and void, and strip Planned Mengele-hood of the money. Period full stop. On top of that, let's see Congress impeach this evil hag and see that she is never allowed within a thousand miles of any courthouse, unless it is as a defendant wearing an orange jumpsuit, mantacles and leg-irons. And while Stacy Abrams is a literal shit-stain human or otherwise is TBD, as explained in the Culture Wars section, Barack Obama said what?
Obama Tells Whining Democrats: Drop the ‘Fetal Position’ and Start FightingYou mean like with Molotov cocktails against ICE agents or by verbally assaulting J.D. Vance and his children or by shooting up churches and synagogues? Oh wait, they're already doing that! "Fetal" is an interesting if not ironic word for him to use, considering Kermit Gosnell et al...
Detestable, despicable lout. The Angel of Death cannot come in a swoop him and everyone like him up fast enough for me.
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 question at the center of the 1925 Scopes Monkey trial was much more than the origins of human beings.
Secular Mythology: The Scopes Monkey Trial
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:39 AM | Comments (395) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Daily Tech News 15 July 2025
Top Story
- Cognition AI just bought Windsurf for $NAN. (New York Times)
This comes after Google hired away key staff and then paid $2.4 billion to license the company's technology, which comes after OpenAI offered $3 billion to buy the company outright.
- Speaking of AI, Grok is currently acting like a split-brain patient. It swears it can see your avatar image, but if you ask it to draw something similar it always draws a twenty-something man in a tee-shirt and jacket standing by a tree.
If you describe your avatar it will accept that, and then insist it could always see that.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:47 AM | Comments (228) | Trackbacks (Suck)
July 14, 2025
Monday Overnight Open Thread - July 14, 2025 [scampydog]
image credit: leftcoastclassics.com
Good evening and welcome to the bordering on world famous ONT. Our esteemed Monday host, Disco Doof is unable to attend. He is in parts unknown - and possibly untoward. Four-legged canine blogging this evening. Let's get to it!
Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (330) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Legs & Eggs Cafe
Superstition Mountains, Arizona
Little bear waving. Half-assing your workout. We're all guilty. Low-T dog regrets eating so much soy. He's the Aquaman of cockatoos. Big puppy wants affection. Big cat plotting in a tree. Sea otter convention. It was like this when I came in. Stormy weather. Bottom feeder. How to clean your hooters. Keeping your kid on a short leash. Bringing up an orphaned crow. Seal wants to surf. Duckling horde. Sultry pigeons show off their gams.
Superstition Mountains, Arizona
Little bear waving. Half-assing your workout. We're all guilty. Low-T dog regrets eating so much soy. He's the Aquaman of cockatoos. Big puppy wants affection. Big cat plotting in a tree. Sea otter convention. It was like this when I came in. Stormy weather. Bottom feeder. How to clean your hooters. Keeping your kid on a short leash. Bringing up an orphaned crow. Seal wants to surf. Duckling horde. Sultry pigeons show off their gams.
Posted by: Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (269) | Trackbacks (Suck)
JusttheNews: FBI Now Investigating the Deep State and Democrat Party's Weaponization of Government and Attempted Coup Against Trump
This might have been leaked by Patel or Bongino (or people close to them) to let MAGA know they're still doing the jobs they were appointed to do, and reduce any anger about the Epstein matter. Everyone's reporting they're both very angry about Bondi hanging them out to dry over that. But that wouldn't make the leak false, it would just explain why they sought fit to give the leak to a reporter. I could see people sniffing "promises, promises," though.
They don't call it a "coup." I'm saying that. It obviously was an attempted coup by bureaucrats against the duly elected president.
John Solomon says MAGA will be pleased by this.
The FBI has quietly launched an investigation into a decade of Democratic party and deep-state antics from Russia collusion to Jack Smith, opening the door for the appointment of a special prosecutor to examine whether the well-documented episodes amount to a criminal conspiracy to meddle in three U.S. elections to the benefit of Democrats and the detriment of President Donald Trump, Just the News has learned. The "grand conspiracy" case was opened several weeks ago after new FBI Director Kash Patel took over, and it could get a significant boost if Trump were to declassify two secret tranches of evidence that identify a potential ignition point to the alleged conspiracy in the summer of 2016, according to several people directly familiar with the inquiry, who spoke to Just the News on a condition of anonymity. The first piece of evidence is a classified annex to a years-old inspector general probe of Hillary Clinton's improper email server sought by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. That annex is believed to show that credible information about possible wrongdoing was intentionally ignored by the FBI. The second tranche of evidence was identified by former Russiagate Special Counsel John Durham in his final report. The evidence was dubbed in the report as the "Clinton plan intelligence," and it was also placed in a classified annex kept from the American public and even many members of Congress.
"I think next week, over the next 10 days... the base, who's been wondering, 'Where is all that accountability?'--they're gonna get some big surprises," Solomon said. He claimed the case reaches back to the summer of 2016, before Crossfire Hurricane was launched, and extends all the way through to 2024, encompassing "a large series of events" aimed at stopping Trump from winning the presidency. Solomon said the massive case has been built largely out of the public eye, obscured by media theatrics and political infighting. "It's been masked by a lot of this infighting and drama and soap opera stuff," he said. "But the truth of the matter is, MAGA base Americans are gonna be happy when they see where this is all heading." ... Bannon pressed Solomon to clarify whether this was, in fact, a formal investigation by federal authorities. Solomon didn't hesitate. "There is a conspiracy case that was opened that looks at this window as a very large window," he confirmed. "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a special prosecutor named by Pam Bondi in the next week or two."
This might have been leaked by Patel or Bongino (or people close to them) to let MAGA know they're still doing the jobs they were appointed to do, and reduce any anger about the Epstein matter. Everyone's reporting they're both very angry about Bondi hanging them out to dry over that. But that wouldn't make the leak false, it would just explain why they sought fit to give the leak to a reporter. I could see people sniffing "promises, promises," though.
Posted by: Ace at 06:31 PM | Comments (261) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Trump Tries to Quell MAGA Frustration Over Jeffrey Epstein Files
But the left is fishing in already-troubled waters, as MAGA influencers -- political entrepreneurs, mostly -- like Laura Loomer, Steven Bannon, and Tucker Carlson continue stoking suspicions and making insinuations. Politico:
Trump posted on Truth Social, making the claim -- which cannot be supported -- that the whole Epstein scandal was created by the Clintons and Deep State operatives as some kind of op against him.
A lot of leftwingers are enjoying this. I saw longtime Nothing-to-See-Here Fake Reporter Jake Tapper doing a sudden 180 and demanding a full and vigorous investigation into the Epstein files.
But the left is fishing in already-troubled waters, as MAGA influencers -- political entrepreneurs, mostly -- like Laura Loomer, Steven Bannon, and Tucker Carlson continue stoking suspicions and making insinuations. Politico:
ABC "News" was never interested in the Epstein case... until now.
President Donald Trump faces a fast-metastasizing MAGA rebellion amid fallout over his administration's handling of the files from the criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. And some of his closest allies are cautioning the situation for the president will get worse before it gets better -- even as it threatens to derail his megabill victory lap and continues to divide parts of his administration and, more broadly, his supporters. Trump has tried twice in as many days to tamp down his base's anger, posting to Truth Social Saturday that he didn't "like what's happening" among his own supporters. He also threw his support behind Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has taken the brunt of much of the right's ire over the Epstein files. Several news organizations have also reported that Bondi clashed with Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino over the files. After disembarking Air Force One Sunday at Joint Base Andrews, Trump faced a question about Bongino, who skipped work Friday. Trump insisted that he's "a very good guy. ... He sounded terrific, actually. No, I think he's in good shape." Mike Davis, the MAGA legal brawler and occasional Oval Office visitor, has taken up defending Trump's DOJ, said in an interview that "the Trump Justice Department wanted to be fully transparent, but can't." He added: "This is a case of no good deed going unpunished." Davis argues DOJ can't release more, including that there is grand jury material involved, court records under seal, child pornography involved, the need to protect victims of "heinous crimes," and "unsubstantiated, bogus claims, like we saw during the Kavanaugh proceedings, where you had double and even triple hearsay." ... The split over Epstein represents one of the biggest rifts within Trump's supporters since the president took office for his second term. On one side are MAGA supporters who push claims that Epstein was murdered in his jail cell and that the disgraced financier had kept a list of high-profile clients. But Trump's DOJ and FBI have concluded that there's no evidence for either. On Monday morning, the conservative influencer Benny Johnson outlined a four-pronged approach for Trump to fix what he called "the Epstein memo crisis," including calling for a press conference and bringing in former President Bill Clinton for "questioning." Laura Loomer, the MAGA activist who is influential in Trump's inner circle and visits everyone from Vice President JD Vance to Trump himself, isn't convinced that the president has sufficiently quelled MAGA's frustrations. "I don't think that just putting out a Truth Social post is going to make this issue go away. It's kind of had a Streisand effect, actually, where people are focusing on this topic a lot more than they were before he posted a Truth Social," Loomer told POLITICO. "I think that it would be wise for the White House to develop some type of a strategy in addressing the base's concerns, so that we can mitigate any fallout or damage done to the Trump administration. Loomer is also calling for a special counsel appointed to do an independent investigation of the handling of the Epstein files so that people can feel like this issue is being investigated, and perhaps take it out of [Bondi's] hands, because I don't think that she has been transparent or done a good job handling this issue."
Gislaine Maxwell says she's willing to testify about Epstein's ring.
Former New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie says President Trump has "benefited" from and "encouraged" conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein and therefore bears responsibility for the fallout about the now-closed Justice Department probe into the deceased financier and convicted sex-offender. Trump vowed during his winning 2024 to look into Epstein's death while in jail, now ruled a suicide, and whether he indeed has an incriminating "client list," which the Trump administration says, in fact, does not exist. Trump MAGA base feels misled and has the largely heaped the criticsm on Attorney General Pam Bondi. "Well, look, what Donald Trump is learning is when you start the fire, sometimes you can't put it out," Christie, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate and on-again-off-again Trump supporter, told ABC News on Sunday. "Now, he started this Epstein fire during the campaign and prior to that by alleging that this was all some, you know, Democratic plot, that he was perhaps murdered by former Democratic officeholders, that there were a lot of Democrats who had been down to Jeffrey Epstein's island and all the rest. "He used that to fire his own base, and he was going to get to the bottom of it, and he was going to release it because he's in -- absolutely in favor of transparency," Christie continued. "Well, now you get into the job and you realize -- you know, 'maybe I don't want to do that.'" Christie said that Bondi is doing what Trump wants her to. "And let's be clear about this: Pam Bondi -- there's no chance, in my opinion, that Pam Bondi made this decision on her own. No chance. She was instructed by the White House that we're not releasing this stuff. And that's why he's defending her," Christie said. Christie also pushed back on the suggestion that it was mostly the people around Trump who were encouraging the conspiracy theories about Epstein. "We cannot let the president off that easily. He benefited directly from it. He fueled it. He encouraged it. And he certainly didn't stop it," Christie said.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and madame to the late Jeffrey Epstein, is willing to testify before Congress about the Epstein Files, the Daily Mail reported Monday, citing "sources." "Despite the rumors, Ghislaine was never offered any kind of plea deal. She would be more than happy to sit before Congress and tell her story," a source told the outlet. "She remains the only person to be jailed in connection to Epstein and she would welcome the chance to tell the American public the truth." Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking and array of other charges in connection with her procurement of minors for Epstein's pleasure. She has further cast doubt on the official narrative surrounding Epstein's death, asserting that he was murdered and did not kill himself.I believe she continues insisting that she did nothing wrong. So I'm not sure how candid her testimony would be.
Trump posted on Truth Social, making the claim -- which cannot be supported -- that the whole Epstein scandal was created by the Clintons and Deep State operatives as some kind of op against him.
Posted by: Ace at 05:32 PM | Comments (278) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Supreme Court Okays Trump's Restructuring of the Department of Education, Clearing the Way for 1,400 Firings
Sotomayor's dissent: The Supreme Court must impose a no-firing rule on federal bureaucrats, forever. Once a Democrat hires them, they can never be let go. It's in The Constitution (TM), you see.
On Friday, State Department "workers" applauded each other as they were escorted from the building. Note that Trump is mostly just rolling back Biden's hiring bonanza. It was embarrassing. No one else acts like this when they're fired. They really believe they have a right to cushy, no-show federal jobs fucking up the world for everyone else.
In a significant victory for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of President Donald Trump's push to overhaul the Department of Education, allowing the termination of nearly 1,400 federal employees. The decision clears the way for Trump's long-promised effort to rein in what many conservatives see as a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy that pushes left-wing agendas.
Advertisement In an unsigned decision, the Supreme Court temporarily set aside a lower court's ruling that had stopped President Trump's plan from taking effect. This means the plan can proceed for now, even as the legal battle over it continues. Three liberal justices opposed the order, and the court halted an order from U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston, who had blocked the layoffs and challenged the overall plan. Judge Joun warned that the layoffs "will likely cripple the department." However, a federal appeals court declined to pause his order while the administration pursued its appeal. Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the majority effectively gave Trump the authority to undo laws passed by Congress simply by dismissing the employees responsible for enforcing them.
Sotomayor's dissent: The Supreme Court must impose a no-firing rule on federal bureaucrats, forever. Once a Democrat hires them, they can never be let go. It's in The Constitution (TM), you see.
On Friday, State Department "workers" applauded each other as they were escorted from the building. Note that Trump is mostly just rolling back Biden's hiring bonanza. It was embarrassing. No one else acts like this when they're fired. They really believe they have a right to cushy, no-show federal jobs fucking up the world for everyone else.
Posted by: Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (361) | Trackbacks (Suck)
ICE Prepares Plan to Deport Illegals to Third-Party Countries With As Little As Six Hours Notice
A Biden-appointed judge, "Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong," has just declared the Home Depots, car washes, and other places that illegal aliens hide are safe havens that ICE agents are forbidden to enter. She also ruled that before anyone can even ask about an illegal's status, he must first have a "reasonable suspicion" that he's illegal. In other words: She's demanding that judges approve all arrests of illegals ahead-of-time.
Illegal immigrants could be given as little as six hours notice before they are deported to a country other than their homeland, according to a new memo. Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a top Trump administration lieutenant, issued a directive to agency staff on Wednesday, July 9, outlining the direction of deportations moving forward. He said migrants could be deported to a 'third country' with as little as six hours notice 'in exigent circumstances' -- so long as the person had been given an opportunity to speak with an attorney. Generally, an immigrant will be given 24 hours notice before they are sent to a country other than their homeland. The memo states that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them 'without the need for further procedures.' The United States has sent hundreds of migrants to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama, while South Sudan recently accepted eight third--country deportees. These deportees were from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam.
President Donald Trump's administration suffered a blow on Friday when a federal judge concluded that federal agents had been "unlawfully" arresting suspected illegal migrants in Los Angeles and six surrounding counties. Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, imposed two temporary restraining orders banning law enforcement from detaining suspected illegal migrants in the area without reasonable suspicion and insisting those arrested must have access to legal counsel. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek in a statement: "A district judge is undermining the will of the American people." ...
On Friday Judge Frimpong concluded there was "a mountain of evidence" that federal agents had been arresting people solely based on characteristics such as race, employment and accent, which she termed a violation of the Fourth Amendment that prohibits unreasonable seizures by the government. Referring to some arrests in Los Angeles and the six counties Frimpong said: "The seizures at issue occurred unlawfully." Two temporary restraining orders were issued by the judge banning federal agents in Los Angeles and surrounding counties from making arrests without reasonable suspicion those detained were in the country illegally, and requiring arrestees to get swift access to lawyers.
Posted by: Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (420) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Surprise! Treasury Department Reports an Unexpected +$27 Billion Surplus in June, Compared to a -$71 Billion Deficit in June 2024 Under "President" Biden
Trump's economic advisor predicts that Trump's tariffs will raise $3 trilly over the next ten years.
The increased revenues come from Trump's tariffs.
Americans who aren't used to seeing the words "government" and "surplus" in the same sentence are in for a surprise. The federal government ran at a surplus in June, according to the Treasury Department, meaning money coming in surpassed money going out. And it was largely money coming in from President Donald Trump's tariffs that made the difference, according to news reports. According to CNBC, tariffs collected on goods imported into the country for sale totaled $27 billion for the month, up from $23 billion in May, and a whopping 301 percent more than the figure from June 2024, when President Joe Biden was in office. In that month a year ago, the government ran a $71 billion deficit, CNBC reported. Completing the turnaround, the June 2025 surplus number compared to a deficit in May of $316 billion, according to CNBC. (The deficit in May 2024 was even higher, $347 billion, Reuters reported at the time.) According to the Treasury Department report, tariffs, recorded as "Customs duties," were still a small part of the government's revenue. With the government's largest revenue streams -- including individual and corporate income taxes -- making up $236 billion of the month's revenues, Social Security and retirement taxes combining for $487 billion in government revenue for the month, the $27 billion in tariffs is comparatively small. But the difference is substantial, since, according to the financial news website Investing.com, analysts "had expected a deficit of $41.5 billion." As CNBC put it: "Increasing tariff collections are helping shore up the government finances."
Trump's economic advisor predicts that Trump's tariffs will raise $3 trilly over the next ten years.
The last time the government generated a monthly surplus was back in 2017, Trump's first term.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said that tariffs will raise $3 trillion in new revenue over the next decade. "The bottom line is that President Trump has produced a huge amount of tariff revenue with the tariffs we've seen in the first half of the year," Hassett told ABC News on Sunday. "The Congressional Budget Office has said that tariff revenue over the next 10 years, which will help reduce the deficit and secure our entitlement programs, is $3 trillion. And consumers haven't seen that. "You know, consumer price index, inflation rate now is the lowest it's been in over a decade. And so what President Trump has always said is that the foreign suppliers, the foreign governments are gonna bear most of the tariffs, it's being visibly seen, and I think that that's probably affecting his negotiating position, because we've got all this empirical evidence that his position has been proven correct in the data."
Posted by: Ace at 02:24 PM | Comments (328) | Trackbacks (Suck)
"Unprepared and Entitled:" Hiring Managers Aren't Impressed by the Products of American University Education
Back in November 2024, the Atlantic posted an article: "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books." The word "elite" seems wildly misplaced in that sentence.
This UConn student is completely illiterate, by her own admission.
Our best and brightest don't know how to read, write, think, talk, or work.
Let's pay another ten trillion to our "universities."That last part is a killer. It's also why DEI hires/promotions are usually a disaster. Everyone infected with woke is also infected by the comorbidity of believing that all criticism/direction from your boss is a racial or sexual aggression, and that you're perfect the way you are, and that anyone who attempts to instruct you to do the job the right way is a racist who doesn't understand your Different Ways of Knowing. It's an evil and destructive doctrine -- it's a guarantee against any self-improvement at any point in your future. It's a talisman that protects you from excellence and achievement. And they've all got it.
A recent survey from Intelligent found that "1 in 4 hiring managers say recent grads are unprepared for the workforce" and "1 in 8 managers [are] planning to avoid hiring them in 2025." The main reasons for this are lack of preparation, a so-so work ethic, and a sense of entitlement among the grads, according to the survey. "24% of hiring managers believe recent college graduates are unprepared for the workforce, while 33% cite a lack of work ethic, and 29% view them as entitled," the survey found. "Additionally, 27% feel recent graduates are easily offended, and 25% say they don't respond well to feedback."
Maybe they have to show something other than GPA because all employers now know that colleges give everyone, even people who don't ever come to class, A's and B's with a skew towards the A's. Maybe students aren't alone in failure.
The survey results appear to mirror a trend found in recent headlines. A "2025 college graduate job market" search conducted by The College Fix produced the following headlines: "Class of 2025 College Grads Face Uncertain Job Market" "Job Market is Getting Tougher for College Graduates" "New Grads Struggling to Find Work in Job Market "No Hire, No Fire: The Worst Market for Grads in Years" ... He suggested grads tout their "skills and talent, not just a GPA" to "share what [they] are doing to continuously make [themselves] better."
On Sunday, the National Education Association -- which represents over 3 million teachers and school personnel -- passed a resolution at its annual conference pledging to combat what it labeled "Trump's embrace of fascism." The problem? The resolution repeatedly spelled the word "fascism" as "facism." The resolution read in part: "NEA pledges to defend democracy against Trump's embrace of facism [sic] by using the term facism [sic] in NEA materials to correctly characterize Donald Trump's program and actions." It went on to claim that opposing Trump was essential for "the survival of civilization itself" and demanded additional staff and funding -- to the tune of $3,500 -- to carry out the initiative. The misspelling, however, quickly overshadowed the message. Corey A. DeAngelis, a conservative education expert, blasted the NEA in an X post and follow-up opinion piece. "Yes, the union that claims to represent educators couldn't even spell 'fascism' correctly in its official resolution attacking the president," he wrote. "The irony is almost too rich to parody."
Back in November 2024, the Atlantic posted an article: "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books." The word "elite" seems wildly misplaced in that sentence.
The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books
To read a book in college, it helps to have read a book in high school.
Nicholas Dames has taught Literature Humanities, Columbia University's required great-books course, since 1998. He loves the job, but it has changed. Over the past decade, students have become overwhelmed by the reading. College kids have never read everything they're assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames's students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college--even at highly selective, elite colleges--prepared to read books. This development puzzled Dames until one day during the fall 2022 semester, when a first-year student came to his office hours to share how challenging she had found the early assignments. Lit Hum often requires students to read a book, sometimes a very long and dense one, in just a week or two. But the student told Dames that, at her public high school, she had never been required to read an entire book. She had been assigned excerpts, poetry, and news articles, but not a single book cover to cover. "My jaw dropped," Dames told me. The anecdote helped explain the change he was seeing in his students: It's not that they don't want to do the reading. It's that they don't know how. Middle and high schools have stopped asking them to.
... Twenty years ago, Dames's classes had no problem engaging in sophisticated discussions of Pride and Prejudice one week and Crime and Punishment the next. Now his students tell him up front that the reading load feels impossible. It's not just the frenetic pace; they struggle to attend to small details while keeping track of the overall plot. No comprehensive data exist on this trend, but the majority of the 33 professors I spoke with relayed similar experiences. Many had discussed the change at faculty meetings and in conversations with fellow instructors. Anthony Grafton, a Princeton historian, said his students arrive on campus with a narrower vocabulary and less understanding of language than they used to have. There are always students who "read insightfully and easily and write beautifully," he said, "but they are now more exceptions." Jack Chen, a Chinese-literature professor at the University of Virginia, finds his students "shutting down" when confronted with ideas they don't understand; they're less able to persist through a challenging text than they used to be. Daniel Shore, the chair of Georgetown's English department, told me that his students have trouble staying focused on even a sonnet. Failing to complete a 14-line poem without succumbing to distraction suggests one familiar explanation for the decline in reading aptitude: smartphones. Teenagers are constantly tempted by their devices, which inhibits their preparation for the rigors of college coursework--then they get to college, and the distractions keep flowing. "It's changed expectations about what's worthy of attention," Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at UVA, told me. "Being bored has become unnatural." Reading books, even for pleasure, can't compete with TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. In 1976, about 40 percent of high-school seniors said they had read at least six books for fun in the previous year, compared with 11.5 percent who hadn't read any. By 2022, those percentages had flipped.
This UConn student is completely illiterate, by her own admission.
Posted by: Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (369) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Not Even the Leftist Simp NYT Believes That Biden Signed His Pardons
From Ed Morrissey: "Biden's" pardons aren't Biden's at all.
In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Biden said that he had orally granted all the pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term, calling President Trump and other Republicans "liars" for claiming his aides had used an autopen to do so without his authorization. "I made every decision," Mr. Biden said in a phone interview on Thursday, asserting that he had his staff use an autopen replicating his signature on the clemency warrants because "we're talking about a whole lot of people." ... Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence. Even after Mr. Biden made that decision, one former aide said, the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list. Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said.
Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM | Comments (323) | Trackbacks (Suck)
THE MORNING RANT: Forsaking Further Conservative Victories Because of “Epstein Disappointment” is not Principled, It’s Surrender
Count me among the people who would very much like to see justice come to everyone who committed a crime in their association with Jeffrey Epstein. If there are any lists, files, documents, etc. that would incriminate the powerful and politically connected, I want them released. But I also fear that whatever evidence existed has likely been destroyed, and that the lore regarding “Epstein Island” may exceed the actual crimes.
That said, I refuse to join in with those seeking to blow up the Trump administration out of frustration that an “Epstein list” is not being released. Dating back to President Obama’s weaponization of government against his political enemies, I despair about the lack of accountability and consequences for those who so egregiously violated the public’s trust. From Lois Lerner to Anthony Fauci to the government employees pushing the Russia collusion hoax in an effort to overthrow Trump in his first term, I am extremely frustrated about the lack of accountability. I want prosecutions. But I also still want political victories wherever I can get them, and my frustration about the lack of prosecutions does not mean we should suspend the MAGA agenda. The same sentiment applies to the Epstein situation. Quite simply, be it Fauci or Epstein, I want these people prosecuted for their crimes. But irrespective of them being prosecuted or not, I still want my political priorities advanced. As I documented here a few days ago, the One Big Beautiful Bill that was just signed into law kneecapped green energy and has effectively defunded the “EV Transition.” The first six months of Trump 47’s presidency has seen the most dramatic rollback of big-government in my lifetime, and President Trump is also vigorously fighting the culture war too. This all correlates very closely to something I just wrote about at The Blaze. For decades, the phony “budget hawks” of the Republican establishment (e.g. Paul Ryan and his ilk) used “the deficit crisis” as an excuse to spike the conservative agenda. The gimmick was that nothing that America-first/cultural conservatives sought could be pursued legislatively until the budget crisis was fixed. But they also ensured that no fixes could be made, because the first cut they talked about was always to social security and Medicare, not cutting the low hanging fruit that Doge just tackled. Paul Ryan and his fellow establishmentarians never did anything to actually cut government, they just served to protect the swamp by having us feel we were projecting great principles while actually surrendering to the establishment. The “conservative” opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill tried to exploit our principles the same way. They failed. Conservatism advanced and government is being rolled back. In summary, we cannot let frustration about Epstein cause us to stop the momentum of President Trump. Here is my piece at The Blaze, “The Budget Hoax That Nearly Sank Trump’s Biggest Win.” It’s behind a paywall, but as always, if you are a subscriber to The Blaze, I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.Too many conservatives have fallen for the “budget hawk hoax” for far too long, accepting that we cannot have any conservative victories so long as we have a national debt. Perhaps that day has finally ended. Yes, our country’s fiscal crisis is real, and it will persist. But forsaking any victories over the left because of the deficit is not a matter of high principle. It’s simply surrender.
My latest at The Blaze: "Budget hawks" have killed conservative legislation for decades, arguing that no conservative gains of any kind can pass Congress until the deficit is fixed. It's all a con job, but Republicans didn't fall for the hoax this time.https://t.co/0e19WV3tqm
— Buck Throckmorton (@BuckThrockmort) July 12, 2025
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (367) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
Sarah Lucas Why three? Because I had to look at it, and I am a big believer in sharing the pain. This was in the modern art gallery of the Tate Britain, which is an otherwise wonderful museum, filled with great British art. For some unfathomable reason, they feel that this sort of stuff deserves to be seen. They are wrong. This is the blurb about it.
Sarah Lucas Why three? Because I had to look at it, and I am a big believer in sharing the pain. This was in the modern art gallery of the Tate Britain, which is an otherwise wonderful museum, filled with great British art. For some unfathomable reason, they feel that this sort of stuff deserves to be seen. They are wrong. This is the blurb about it.
In Inferno, two walnuts and a cigar become makeshift genitalia. The warm lightbulb glowing in the bowl suggests a fiery underworld. The toilet is an intimate place and a regular subject for Sarah Lucas. Throughout her work, everyday objects are playfully transformed to expose the mischievous, destructive and vulnerable parts of life. Humour is central to her work, often creating a sense of unease. Lucas says, ‘When humour happens, things get good. Less depressing. It's a kind of magic. Suddenly things make sense.’Sarah should probably expand her horizons past the bathroom.
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (294) | Trackbacks (Suck)
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