Mid-Morning Art Thread

Standing Odalisque Reflected in a Mirror
Henri Matisse

Posted by: CBD at 09:22 AM | Comments (374) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 6/ 18 /25

Good morning kids. So with things really heating up over Iran as well as here at home, both situations put the sudden rushing to the hospital last night of Kristi Noem, the head of our Department of Homeland Security, into a new light. It could be just a freaky coincidence, but the timing could not be at a more crucial moment.

First the details:

“Secretary Noem experienced an allergic reaction earlier today and was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller. . . Noem was previously in Los Angeles, California, where Democratic Senator Alex Padilla interrupted a June 12 press conference she was conducting in response to the LA riots. Security forcibly removed the senator and reportedly handcuffed him. DHS accused Padilla of “disrespectful public theatre.”

Frankly, the fat filthy bastard is damned lucky to be alive. Because, given the flood of foreign criminals already in country as well as our own homegrown Leftist Schakowsky/Soros rent-a-mob cadres that always pop up in congressional hearings when they're not burnining looting and murdering in the name of peace love and understanding, If I were Noem, and likely carrying a firearm, I'd have not given a second thought to ventilating the fat bastard who was bull-rushing me.

And given what is happening now in Iran, with the potential for President Trump to deploy MOP ordnance to obliterate the last and perhaps most important Iranian nuclear facility inside and beneath the mountains at Fordow, The erased border courtesy of Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants that was already extremely porous prior to his installation as Obama's puppet in 2020, the potential for sleeper cells to cause murder and mayhem, on top of what the aforementioned native-born self-hating America-hating brainwashed Leftist droogs are already doing to us should scare the shit out of anyone who is even minimally aware of what's been going on at least since 9/11/01 or February of 1993 when we had the first World Trade Center truck bomb attack.

So now to square the circle of open borders and Islamic terrorism, With what's happening the name Padilla should set off some very loud alarm bells. Not Alex. But in this case one JOSE PADILLA who came to national prominence in the wake of 9/11/01.

Born in Brooklyn on October 18, 1970, Jose Padilla is an American citizen and a Muslim convert who was arrested in May 2002 and was thereafter detained by the U.S. government for three-and-a-half years as an “enemy combatant” who aspired to contribute to the worldwide Islamic jihad by killing large numbers of Americans.

In his early teens, Padilla joined a mostly Puerto Rican gang called the Latin Disciples. He went on to compile a rap sheet of both juvenile and adult crimes — offenses ranging from aggravated assault to unlawful weapons possession to attempted theft. He was also involved in a violent assault and shooting where his victim later died from the injuries that Padilla helped inflict.

In the early 1990s, Padilla became a working member of the Benevolence International Foundation, a charity that had close financial ties to the al Qaeda terrorist network, the Abu Sayyaf Islamic rebels in the Philippines, and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

. . . After 9/11, Padilla spent some time living with Atef in the house where the latter was eventually killed by a U.S. air strike in November 2001. Seeking to avoid further danger, Padilla went to Pakistan, where he became acquainted with Osama bin Laden’s deputy Abu Zubaydah. Padilla approached Zubaydah with an idea: He wanted to follow Internet instructions for creating a nuclear bomb, and then detonate it somewhere in the United States. Skeptical about Padilla’s ability to carry out such an attack, Zubaydah suggested that wrapping explosives in uranium (to create a radiological “dirty bomb) might be more feasible...

. . . On January 22, 2008, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke sentenced Padilla to 17 years and four months in prison, as opposed to the life sentence the government was seeking. In explaining her decision, Judge Cooke underscored the serious nature of Mr. Padilla’s offenses, but added: “There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere. There was never a plot to overthrow the United States government.”

And where is this wonderful humanitarian and bust out quintessential Democrat today??? (Per Wikipedia) Padilla is serving his sentence at ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. Padilla's prisoner number is 20796-424; he is projected to be released in 2026.

So, With the Iranian regime apparently on the ropes, and threatening to unleash hell on Earth, Is that mere bluster of the Mad Mullahs in the bunker shrieking "Steiner will come" or the 12th Imam will QQM?!!!!

Remember, that Iran has been enriching Uranium for years. and with a non existent southern border and a very poorly watched northern border to say nothing of thousands of miles of Atlantic and Pacific coastline plus seaports where anything can be smuggled in or where corrupt LE and CBP agents can be bribed to look the other way, it is certainly a distinct possibility that quite a bit of radioactive material is already within our borders ready to be weaponized and used by who knows how many other Jose Padillas are walking our streets waiting for the Mullahs, to give the Go code, or who will just act on their own if Tehran should fall.

And, as for radioactive material for a dirty bomb, you don't necessarily need weapons-grade U-235 or Plutonium or Cobalt Thorium-G or whatever is used to detonate Atomic or thermonuclear devices. All you need is a not so very large amount of low level radioactive material such as is used in the medical profession. Strap a few pounds to some propane tanks and set it off in Times Square or near the Pentagon or wherever to create a toxic cloud of radioactive fallout. No, I'm not giving away any deep dark secrets that the evil Muslim savages haven't already figured out probably courtesy of Hose-B Padilla 25 years ago.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared “the battle begins” in an ominous post Tuesday, hours after President Trump called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”

“In the name of #Haider, the battle begins. Ali returns to #Khaybar with his Zulfiqar.” Khamenei wrote on X in Farsi, referring to Islam’s first imam, Ali, who won the Battle of Khaybar with the sword Zulfiqar.

Khamenei’s sinister message comes hours after the Islamic Republic’s state media also warned of a “surprise” on Tuesday night into Wednesday that the “world will remember for centuries.”

So, the bluster of a cornered rat, or is there something to this whether similar to the nightmare scenario I pondered above or perhaps something else?

Remember that Shiite Islam is predicated on armageddon being the precursor to their mythological 12th Imam returning to earth from some magic wishing well in the holy city of Qom to then usher in an eternal paradise on earth in the form of the world becoming Islamic for all time.

Now, as I understand it, the true believers regard/venerate that well as a scared site that must be protected at all costs. If a "STRAY" Israeli bomb were to take it out, it would also take out the fantasies of tens of millions of Muslims around the world. The 12th imam could never emerge. Islamic experts like Robert Spencer and others have stated this and when we had him on a previous episode of the podcast he reiterated this.

Forget Fordow. We need the John C. Holmes mega Qom Shot of all time to Seek out that well and destroy it. The psychological shock alone of that well's obliteration might well be more powerful and effective than the combined military defeats of Islam in all its wars against Israel and Western Christendom.

Meh, there's also that space rock in Mecca, but that's another story.

FYI, a quick heads up to be on the lookout for a new episode of the the podcast with me and CBD that should be posting in the sidebar by this afternoon, as well as at CJN and via our usual outlets.

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
• “Secretary Noem experienced an allergic reaction earlier today and was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller.
  Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Taken By Ambulance To Washington DC Hospital

• Can you guess who the 'No Kings' protesters were recruited by?
  Video: O’Keefe Undercover in L.A.
  
• Michael Walsh: The Iranian mullahs are no better at fighting than Darius was (way back in 331 BC - jjs). . . The Israelis have shredded their Islamic cloak of teleological inevitability and have left them naked, figures of ridicule in a land they have terrorized for too long, and in which they now cower in fear: impotent old men whose god has failed them.
  In Praise of Instability

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM | Comments (381) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 18 June 2025

Top Story

• Why it has suddenly become difficult to buy a handheld gaming device. (The Verge) (archive site)
  
  The popular models - the Switch 2 and Steam Deck OLED - are out of stock.
  
  The less popular models suddenly had price increases.
  
  The bad models are, well, bad.
  
  And the recently announced Xbox-branded handhelds are potentially all of those, but most importantly aren't out yet.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (120) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - June 17, 2025 [scampydog]

Good evening and thank you for checking in on the Tuesday, ONT. Some random, a few parts science, and 100% why not. Comment section won't bite - probably.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (627) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ministry of Silly Dances Cafe

Horses enjoy the beach.

Turtle takes on a dog. Winner: Dog. Flawless Victory.

This turtle thinks a lawnmower is just a big, loud turtle and wants to say hello.

Octopus using its camouflage.

Lazy dog 1.

Lazy dog 2.

It's not a trick, Michael -- it's an illusion.

ICYMI: Dog has a Major League swing.

ICYMI: Nosy dogs.

Baby elephant charges, but then embarrasses himself.

Dog tries to wake up his paw.

Cat misses her passed dog brother.

Golden retriever meets his new puppy brother.

Duck and little dog play.

Moo-sic appreciation.

Cuddling with rhinos.

Posted by: Ace at 08:20 PM | Comments (159) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Iran Threatens a "Surprise the World Will Remember for Centuries" Tonight

I don't want to be alarmist, but what they seem to be hinting at is dropping a nuke.

Breaking911
@Breaking911

IRANIAN STATE MEDIA: "There is a surprise tonight that the world will remember for centuries."

They also posted a video of a hand stroking a nuclear warhead.

Posted by: Ace at 07:23 PM | Comments (455) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Obama-Biden Policy of "Catch and Release" Is Over as Trump Does Not Release a Single Illegal Alien in May

There have been a couple of illegals released here and there, but you can count them on two hands.

And now: None.

Border Patrol agents didn't release a single migrant into the US last month -- a staggering drop after the Biden administration allowed 64,000 illegal crossers in the country in May 2024, The Post can exclusively reveal.

Agents caught 8,725 migrants crossing illegally at the southern border last month.

That's a 93% decrease from May 2024, when 117,905 were nabbed, according to internal data obtained by The Post.

And acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Pete Flores said it's a result of the Trump administration's tough border policies.

One of the most monumental policy changes made by Trump was the reversal of President Joe Biden's catch-and-release scheme, which resulted in millions of illegal border jumpers being allowed into the US.

"Under the leadership of this administration, CBP has received historic support resulting in another 93% decrease in illegal crossings along the southwest border this month when compared with last year," Flores said in a statement shared with The Post.

...

Border Patrol agents are nearing their goal of gaining full "operational control" of the southern border with the massive drop in illegal crossings, National Border Patrol Council president Paul Perez told The Post last week.

Perez complained that Biden had taken Border Patrol officers off the border, to have them sit at desks and fill out the paperwork for illegal aliens to get their free pass into America.

Bill Melugin
@BillMelugin_

ZERO releases of illegal aliens into the US during the month of May by Border Patrol.
Why does this matter? I am not aware of a single illegal alien being arrested for an egregious crime against an American after being caught & released at the border under the new Trump admin in the last 5 months.

Catch and release is over. A complete 180 from what we saw at the border during the Biden admin.

US Attorney Bill Essayli tells insurrectionits, "You spit, we hit."

Rapid Response 47
@RapidResponse47

.@USAttyEssayli details charges against LA rioters, over attempted arson of a police vehicle and assaulting a federal agent:

"As our president said, if you spit, we hit -- and we will hit you with a felony."

He also said that the illegal alien terrorist who threw chunks of concrete down at cops from an overpass will face a minimum of five years in prison, and a maximum of 20.

Texas is taking care of the rioters and border-scoffers:

Hundreds of immigration charges were filed in the Southern District of Texas, including against a woman assaulting and threatening federal agents.

In one week, 332 people were charged; 205 people were charged with illegal entry; 109 with felony illegal reentry after previously being deported. Most arrested have prior felony convictions and charges; 10 cases involve human smuggling.

Among those arrested was Mexican national Maria Isabel Cruz-Salas, living in the border town of San Benito in the Rio Grande Valley. While authorities conducted a worksite enforcement operation at Taqueria El Mante, an ICE Homeland Security Investigations agent attempted to detain her and she kicked him in the face, according to the charges. If convicted, she faces up to eight years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

In another case, a San Antonio woman, Michelle Lee Varela, was taken into custody after allegedly threatening an ICE-HSI agent while performing his duties. According to the charges, while authorities were conducting an immigration action and requested information from Varela about her husband's status in the U.S., she "allegedly used profanity and said if her husband was taken into custody, she would shoot them."

Wonderful.

And Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced a "You break it, you bought it" policy: No DOT funds for any state that doesn't cooperate with ICE, and no funds for repairing federal highways that lawless anarchist state governors allow their antifa street militias to destroy.

Posted by: Ace at 06:14 PM | Comments (367) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Is This Something?

Most of this will not be something.

I know what some of you are thinking: Hollywood may be so devoid of ideas that they're remaking every movie from the 80s and nineties, but there's no way they're now remaking "classics" from the early 2000s, and even if they are, they certainly won't be remaking I Know What You Did Last Summer, for the love of everything holy.

Well, guess what? You're wrong again. You're a black belt in Being Wrong About Everything.

Fox is determined to milk the Alien franchise, which started the same year as the Iranian revolution, forever. They now have a TV show about aliens coming to earth.

I don't get this. Yes, I liked Alien and I loved Aliens. But seriously, it's a limited concept. You can't just keep making movies and tv-shows and prequels about the same limited concept.

Or I guess you can. But I don't get it. I have no further questions about the Terminator, Alien, or Predator universes. Or the Robocop universe. I have enjoyed their early entries. I've loved many of them. But we need to move on. There is no more juice in these well-squeezed fruits.

Oh, and it turns out there is another Predator movie coming.

Great, Mr. Fabulous, the self-described "fifty-year-old Bougie Bitch" Pedro Pascal, is in yet another movie. It's about a brave and noble sheriff fighting disinformation and disobedience as he attempts to enforce covid lockdowns. There's a moment of someone watching a podcast on the internet, so you know that's about Dangerous and Divisive Medical Misinformation. The end of the clip shows someone firing a heavy machine gun so that's gotta be Radicalized Far-Right Extremists Incited Into Violence.

Now, I'm making a lot of assumptions. It could be that the movie is a more thoughtful look at the covid wars.

But I doubt it.

Nerdrotic says he has a Marvel source who says the new "Ironheart" Disney TV show is the worst thing that Marvel has ever done, and that includes their disastrous "Echo" show and "Secret Invasion" and "She-Hulk."

It's being dropped with three episodes on one night so that the show is finished and forgotten as soon as possible. They did something similar with Echo, though in that case they dropped all five episodes in one night. Like one of those poops where everything goes in one smooth uninterrupted motion and you can't even believe how efficient and accomplished you are at pooping.

The Superman movie continues to look over-stuffed with characters and plots but it also looks like it might be light and fun, like a comic book for kids.

Which is A-OK with me.

Let me get this off my chest:

I'm sick and tired of NERDS!!! demanding that superhero movies or any other juvenile fare be "dark" and "grim and gritty" and "realistic" and hyperviolent and filled with cursing.

This type of entertainment is -- or used to be, and should be -- kid-friendly.

I think a lot of NERDS!!! are a little embarrassed that they like entertainment which is made for kids or made to at least be kid-friendly because that would suggest they're immature. So they want these entertainments to be made more "adult," but by "adult," of course they don't mean thoughtful, contemplative, and nuanced. No, they mean they want to see Superman rip people's heads from their bodies and use his laser vision to shoot holes through people's chests.

And that he should say "f*ck" a lot.

I have to admit that when I was younger -- like, teens and early twenties -- I had the same kind of idea. That this kind of movie would be Even Betterer if it were "hardcore."

But as I've gotten older, and have approached, with increasing slowness, age 29, I've come to understand that I don't have to run away from my kid-self, or my teenaged self. My kid-self was right about a lot of things, and my teenaged self was too.

I don't need these kind of kid-friendly entertainments to be "aged up" just to validate me, so I don't feel like a stupid baby for going to see a Batman movie. It's perfectly fine for an adult to enjoy an entertainment whose primary audience is younger people and kids. Every adult, even one approaching age 29, still has his 5-year old self inside him, and his 13-year-old self, and his 18-year-old self.

Plus, a lot of children's entertainment can be pretty good. Disney cartoons from a bygone age often portrayed death in powerful and even traumatic way. Certainly Bambi portrays death much more realistically -- in that it has consequences -- than popcorn movies for "adults" that feature hundreds of people being killed with no one ever wondering if the dead enemies' wives and children will be looked after.

Kid-friendly entertainment doesn't have to be childish, either. The original Superman was kid-friendly, but it was very well done. The original Star Wars films as well. (Bit of trivia: They filmed the severed arm in the cantina sequence for the sole purpose of getting a PG rating rather than the G rating they would have gotten without it -- they felt that teenagers would not see a G-rated film because teenagers are always afraid to be mistaken for kids or little babies.)

The Indian Jones films are all basically kid-friendly, except for that one part in every Indiana Jones movie where someone gets his head chopped up by a propeller or something. Okay, maybe not for kids exactly, but a dad can watch that with his 12-year-old.

"Kid-friendly" doesn't mean "childish." You can avoid all the things that flag a movie as R-rated while also avoiding the stuff that makes a movie seem childish -- cornball kid humor, simple-minded plots, cartoony "bouncy" background music, unrealistic characters, etc. You can make a movie that avoids the tropes of actual child fare and presents semi-plausible characters with semi-realistic adult psychologies.

What Hollywood is doing is making very, very dumb movies with child-levels of nuance but throwing in R-rated violence to age it up.

I don't know if Superman will be any good. I kind of doubt it. I don't think I'll wind up seeing it.

But I do like the idea of making superhero movies and fantasy action movies with a younger audience in mind. I have fond memories of watching James Bond movies with my dad. Fathers need movies they can share with their kids. It can't all be about reassuring 25-year-old NERDS!!! that they're totally not babies because look, Superman just snapped this guy's neck. So hardcore!

(I think James Bond books are basically boy's adventure fiction too, except the boy in question "borrowed" his dad's credit card to subscribe to Playboy.)

I just don't get the idea that these Male Power Fantasy movies have to be "dark" and "mature." Having a Space Alien Cop snap the neck of a Space Alien Bad Guy isn't "mature." It's still children's entertainment with a veneer of graphic violence to seem mature.

And don't get me wrong-- I like graphic violence, too. But I don't think Batman movies should look like the last twenty minutes of Rambo. That kind of movie should be reserved for 17 year olds, or 15 year olds who borrow their older brother's ID.

Posted by: Ace at 05:00 PM | Comments (505) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Democrat NYC Comptroller and Mayoral Candidate Arrested for Attempting to Physically Block ICE from Arresting a Criminal Illegal
Update: Poll Shows Massive Support for ICE

The Democrats are claiming this was a Mostly Peaceful Violent Obstruction of Federal Officials.

The Democrats are engaging in a cynical, communist game of escalating violent confrontations with law enforcement. One of these days they're going to provoke one of their lunatics to kill ICE agents, or provoke ICE into beating the shit out of them.

New York City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court Tuesday after he linked arms with a person that authorities were attempting to detain.

A reporter with The Associated Press witnessed Lander's arrest at a federal building in Manhattan. The person Lander was walking out of the courtroom was also arrested.

Lander had spent the morning observing immigration court hearings and told an AP reporter that he was there to "accompany" some immigrants out of the building.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is placed under arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FBI agents outside federal immigration court on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is placed under arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FBI agents outside federal immigration court on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova)

In the moments before Lander was handcuffed, agents could be seen trying to physically separate him from the man they had come to detain. Lander briefly struggled to stay close to the detainee before he was pulled away. Video taken by journalists at the scene shows that agents struggled to separate Lander from the man he'd linked arms with for more than 40 seconds before wresting the two apart.

A video of the arrest captured by an AP reporter shows an agent telling Lander, "You're obstructing."

"I'm not obstructing, I'm standing right here in the hallway," Lander said as he was being handcuffed.

Didn't Do Nuffin. The Democrat/Antifa/BLM credo.

Posted by: Ace at 03:43 PM | Comments (481) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump to Hyper-Isolationists: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Trump's rapid-response account is now posting Trump's many, many, many previous statements declaring that Iran must never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, ever, full stop no caveats.

But apparently when Trump said this over and over and over again, the hyper-isolationists all heard him saying, "I promise I will pursue Barack Obama's Iran policy and help Iran get a nuclear bomb. And also, again like Barack Obama, when Iran's regime is fatally threatened, I will step in to save it."

He ever said these things. You made them up. You wanted him to say them, but he never, ever did.

He said the opposite.

Posted by: Ace at 02:48 PM | Comments (426) | Trackbacks (Suck)

FBI Finally Delivers Documents to Congress Alleging a Plot by the Chinese Communist Party to Give Fake IDs to Illegal Aliens to Vote Against Trump in 2020

FBI Director Kash Patel
@FBIDirectorKash

The FBI has located documents which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election, including allegations of interference by the CCP.

I have immediately declassified the material and turned the documents over to the Chairman Grassley for further review.

Evidence mounts that the thing that definitely didn't happen definitely did happen.

China "fortified" the election.

These are just allegations, to be fair.

But crucially: Wray claimed that he knew of no plots to interfere with the 2020 election and did not provide these documents to Congress despite Chuck Grassley demanding them.

FBI Director Kash Patel on Monday evening turned over to Congress an intelligence report raising concerns that China had mass-produced fake U.S. driver's licenses to carry out a scheme to hijack the 2020 election with fake mail-in ballots for Democrat Joe Biden.

The newly declassified intelligence reports from August 2020 weren't corroborated or fully investigated and instead were recalled from intelligence agencies at about the time that then-FBI Director Chris Wray testified there were no known plots of foreign interference ahead of the 2020 election in which Biden defeated Donald Trump, officials told Just the News.

The new documents were turned over to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who had first raised concerns to the bureau that the intelligence hadn't been fully vetted, and instead was just dismissed even though there was evidence of the fake licenses.

"Thanks to the oversight work and partnership of Chairman Grassley, the FBI continues to provide unprecedented transparency at the people's Bureau," Patel told Just the News in a statement. "To that end, we have located documents Chairman Grassley requested, which detail alarming allegations related to the 2020 U.S. election.

"Specifically, these include allegations of plans from the CCP to manufacture fake driver's licenses and ship them into the United States for the purpose of facilitating fraudulent mail-in ballots -- allegations which, while substantiated, were abruptly recalled and never disclosed to the public," Patel also said.

So Patel says the allegations are also "substantiated." I take this to mean there is some evidence to support them, but not enough to definitely prove them. (Or else he'd use the word "prove.")

And Wray decided that he would once again weaponize the FBI to work as the Armed Division of the DNC and so he lied and obstructed Congress from seeing these documents, despite Congress' oversight role over the FBI, and despite Congress' right to see documents to assist it in making legislation.

Posted by: Ace at 01:31 PM | Comments (378) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump: "I'm In No Mood to Negotiate," Says He's Not Looking for a Ceasefire with Iran, But Rather "an End"

"An end" to the problem of Iran's nuclear program and, perhaps, an end to Iran's 70 year war on America. Not "an end" to Iran itself. (Though he does seem to now favor regime change.)

Trump gave a 1am press conference last night to knock down claims that he's working to spare Iran and save the Ayatollah.

It sure sounds like he wants Israel to finish the job and take this to an actual end, not just a resumption of the status quo under some "deal." Trump went so far as to say that Iran "giving up entirely" is the goal and that "I'm not too much in the mood to negotiate."

He also reiterated that Iran was "very close" to having a nuclear weapon before the strikes, and vowed again that Iran would not be permitted to have one.

That last quote also included this line when asked about DNI Tulsi Gabbard's assertion in March that Iran had no nuclear weapons program.

TRUMP: I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having them.

I'd consider that a shot across the bow to those in his administration who have sought to undermine him and push their own foreign policy goals in relation to Iran.

Update: CBD says that Tulsi's quote is being used by the oppressively propagandistic Regime media out-of-context to stir up trouble.

Update: The quote was that Iran isn't currently building a nuke, not that they weren't working hard to build a nuke. Fox News war-whore Jennifer Griffin is misquoting her to push her Democrat/Deep State agenda, as usual. Tulsi has clarified that she and Trump are on the same page with regard to Iran's nuke program.

Sarah Ferris
@sarahnferris

DNI Gabbard tells us she and Trump are "on the same page" when it comes to Iran nuclear timeline

"Pres Trump was saying the same thing that I said in my annual threat assessment back in March. Unfortunately too many people in the media don't care to actually read what I said"

From Biden's dog sniffs a whole lot of malarkey.

Posted by: Ace at 12:37 PM | Comments (450) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Fordow, the underground facility where most of Iran's centrifuges are hidden is the key to destroying their nuclear weapons program. It is under a mountain, supposedly 300 feet deep, and therefore very, very difficult to destroy with conventional bombs. Israel has the GBU-28, which is a 5,000 pound "bunker buster," but it is thought to be too small to do enough damage to Fordow. Israel does not have the largest bomb in the American inventory, the GBU-57, which is a 30,000 pound "Massive Ordnance Penetrator." And even if it did, it does not have the heavy bombers to deliver it.

How Much Damage Has Israel Inflicted on Iran's Nuclear Program?
[leftist-driven reporting warning!]

At Iran's underground Fordow enrichment plant, the country's second uranium enrichment facility, the IAEA observed "no damage" following the attacks, Grossi said.

Israel's military is innovative, and could probably use a military cargo plane to deliver the GBU-57, although it would be a much easier operation if the United States simply used its own B-2s to destroy Fordow. But hopefully that is not going to happen. Yes, it would be the quickest and safest way to deal with the Mad Mullah's and their apocalyptic insanity, but in the short term this is Israel's problem, and Israel should deal with it.

The image of tiny Israel dealing such damage to both the infrastructure and the political and military leadership of Iran is a powerful message to Islam, and overt American involvement would decrease the strength of that message. Should the United States sell to Israel the ordnance needed to destroy their nuclear facilities? Absolutely. Should America drop those bombs ourselves? Absolutely not!

However, the long term is a very different thing, and if the theocracy survives this war, they will undoubtedly resume their drive for nuclear weapons with which to destroy Israel...and America. Yup, that is their stated goal, and they have spent their 45 years in power doing everything they could to achieve that goal.

In addition to their nuclear ambitions, Iran ramped up production of conventional ballistic missiles, with the ultimate goal of being able to overwhelm Israel's missile defense systems. The twin threat of perhaps thousands of missiles being launched, with a few nuclear-tipped missiles in the mix is untenable. That is why Israel acted now, because they are Iran's first target. But there is no reason to assume that those missiles wouldn't be used against the Saudis or the Egyptians or the French. And who knows whether the Iranians are planning ICBMs that can reach the eastern seaboard of America!

It is irrational for the West to humor Iran and ignore its clearly stated goals. Luckily we have President Trump, who takes them at their word! Imagine a world without his leadership and clarity of purpose. A Kamala Harris administration would be dithering and muddying and pressing Israel to withdraw from Gaza, and would have restarted the catastrophic nuclear agreement with Iran that Obama signed. The United Nations would be busily pumping out resolutions calling for Israel's destruction, and Iran's proxies would be emboldened.

Instead we have the Trump administration's masterful command of the Iran negotiations that clearly fooled the Mullahs into believing that their usual delaying tactics and obfuscation would continue to work.

Whoops! Whoopsie!

And rumor has it that they are contacting both Israel and the United States to end the war and return to the negotiating table. But nothing will have changed if that occurs, and it would be naive in the extreme for Israel or America to accede to their request.

Of course it is entirely possible that the Israeli decapitation of Iranian leadership will embolden the Iranian people to continue that work and overthrow the Mullahs. What comes after that is anybody's guess, and the odds of exchanging one group of madmen for another are not long. But Iran was (mostly) free before, and maybe they can be free again!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter] And the Apple and Spotify feeds for CJN's podcast should be working!

Posted by: CBD at 10:59 AM | Comments (506) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

School teacher
Jan Steen

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (293) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 6/ 17 /25

Good morning kids. Well, the beat goes on with wars, and rumors of wars. Both abroad and even here at home as Israel continues its campaign to degrade if not completely destroy Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure and as is now apparent, take down the regime itself.

Incredibly and miraculously, The Israeli air force and special forces have evidently been so successful that the regime supposedly is now crying uncle and is ready to negotiate some sort of settlement in order to stop Israel from taking them down. They want to reman in power both for the sake of remaining in power and staying away from the blast radius of an Israeli bomb or from dangling by the neck from a lamppost courtesy of a long abused and oppressed citizenry. And lest we forget, that Iran is ruled by hardcore Muslims whose goal is the eradication of every Jew and un believer on the planet and the latter's complete transformation as planet Islam. So as history has shown us time and again, and as the Arabic word and concept Taqqiya tells us, they are not to be taken at their word. They will do whatever they can in order to regroup for the next assault on Dar al Harb to bring it by force into Dar al Islam.

Whether Trump sees this or not, he has signaled that the G-7 proposal to allow monitoring of Iran's nuclear program instead of calling for its dismantling is a total non-starter, as it should be.

President Trump has stated unequivocally that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons so that raises the question and red flag of how he intends to prevent that from happening. He is of course right but as I, being an ardent supporter of Israel and America, feel strongly that our direct involvement of troops on the ground and/or the deployment of the Air Force would be a disaster.

While Israel has done an amazingly effective job, so far as we can tell, places like the Fordow facility are deep underground beneath a mountain, and the only way to take those out is with heavy ordnance delivered by heavy bombers or missiles capable of delivering a payload that can collapse steel reinforced concrete and stone maybe a half-mile thick. Well, that or deploying tens of thousands of troops to storm the facilities with a direct frontal assault.

Trump has in fact directly warned the people of Tehran to evacuate the city. Is something afoot or is this just him throwing a giant tootsie roll into the swimming pool.

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Monday to declare that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon” and that people should evacuate Tehran. . . “Reports of Iran’s eagerness to end the fight came as Israeli fighters attacked regime institutions in the capital city of Tehran, including the state broadcaster, after achieving total dominance of Iranian airspace,” it added.

On that note, for those Iranians who were glued to their sets . . .

Israel hit an Iranian regime-controlled television network on Monday, another example of the Jewish state's broadening of its campaign against the Islamic Republic
Israeli warplanes struck Iran’s state-controlled broadcaster on Monday, causing an explosion that scattered debris live on television and forced an anchor to hurriedly flee offscreen.

If only a bomb drifted off course by a measly 10,000 miles or so and hit MSNBC as Banjo Boy Scarborough and his concubine Mitzi Baryshnikov were doing their daily polishing of Al Sharpton's sewer lid medallion. Oh well, just a thought.

Elsewhere, if anyone wants to understand why Israel is doing what it's doing. . .

Jihadi gunmen murdered at least a hundred Christians in the Nigerian village of Yelewata, central Nigeria, on Friday night, the latest in a long string of bloody attacks on farmers by the violent Fulani herdsmen. . . “Many people are still missing, aside dozens injured and left without adequate medical care. Many families were locked up and burnt inside their bedrooms. So many bodies were burnt beyond recognition,” AI Nigeria wrote.

It's not necessarily about Iran and nuclear weapons. or about Israel and Jews. It's about Islam and what it has wrought all over the world for the past 1500 years or so. To think you can negotiate with that, or that they want the same things we do; peace, security and a future for their children. Remember that these are the same people who have children for the express purpose of turning them into guided bombs, draped in C-4/Semtex laden belts and vests ready to detonate themselves on buses, inside pizzerias and fly airplanes into skyscrapers, as their ticket to paradise.

Meanwhile, in the good old USA . . .

60 years after the two Columbia professors outlined their plan to turn America into Cuba or the Soviet Union? They published their manifesto in the leftist publication, The Nation, in 1966, which I will summarize.  

Cloward-Piven’s objective is chaos and turmoil, or in their words, “A massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.” This is followed by: “A federal program of income redistribution has become necessary to elevate the poor en masse from poverty.”

Is there a better recap of COVID, including lockdowns, closed businesses, schools, and churches, which required the ruling class to spend trillions of dollars they didn’t have to rectify the damage and destruction unleashed by the same ruling class that then tried to correct it?

In Cloward-Piven terms, a crisis is: “A publicly visible disruption in some institutional sphere.” How do they create such a crisis? “Crisis can occur spontaneously (e.g., riots) or as the intended result of tactics of demonstration and protest which either generate institutional disruption or bring unrecognized disruption to public attention.”

Last week, Los Angeles became the epicenter of the Summer of Cloward-Piven. Protests escalated into riots, causing property damage and assaults on law enforcement. These events were hardly spontaneous. Pallets of bricks arrived at strategic locations. Posters had been printed and were ready for use. Shock troops were mobilized, often through help wanted ads on Craigslist, generously paying “peaceful protesters” to burn cars and smash windows.

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

• It remains to be seen what will happen in this case. Local media naturally ignored the fact that the woman was part of a mob attacking the vehicle. In Florida, the driver would be protected by law for engaging in self-defense. “If you’re driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety,” Florida Gov. DeSantis said last week during an interview. “So if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you.”
  Los Angeles Rioters Attack Car, Driver Runs Them Over
  
• (What could possibly go WONG-jjs) The research was conducted at the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence (CEBSIT) within the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This group answers directly to and is controlled by the Communist Party-run State Council of China.
  CCP-Run Lab Launches First Neural Device to Control Computers With Your Brain.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM | Comments (374) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 17 June 2025

Top Story

• Intel's rumoured next-next generation Nova Lake processors have been rumoured again. (WCCFTech)
  
  Albeit with more details this time.
  
  The top of the line Core 9 model will reportedly include 16 performance cores, 32 efficiency cores, and 4 low-power efficiency cores.
  
  Which would be a lot.
  
  The next models down would be the Core 7, with 14 P-cores, 24 E-cores, and 4 LPE-cores.
  
  However, both would use a base power of 150W, meaning - this being Intel - in reality they would run at more like 300W.
  
  Which is also a lot.
  
  They would also - according to a separate rumour - provide 32 PCIe 5.0 lanes and 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes.
  
  Not counting the PCIe 5.0 connection from the CPU to the chipset.
  
  The CPU provides the same number of I/O lanes - at the same speed - as AMD's current chips. But the chipset does a lot better than AMD, providing 24 total PCIe 5.0 and 4.0 lanes, against AMD's 870E which uses two chips to provide just 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes.
  
  Oh, and DDR5-8000 memory.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:37 AM | Comments (86) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread - June 16, 2025 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! Thanks for stopping by the ONT to end your Monday. Please grab a beverage of your choosing, check out the content, and leave some wit and wisdom in the comments.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:58 PM | Comments (444) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Derangement Under the Sea Cafe

A goblin shark. A weird creature that lives
deep in the abysses of the sea.

Only living in open oceans with depths of at least 4,265 feet, goblin sharks are rarely observed or recorded while alive. Scientists believe the animal only comes to the water's surface at night and spends most of their life living in nearly-complete darkness.

Goblin sharks are not fished commercially and are mostly captured by people fishing other species.

The only living member of the genus family Mitsukurina, the goblin shark's lineage dates back 125 million years.

Nicknamed the "living fossil," goblin sharks are believed to be on average three to four meters in length, though a female goblin shark measuring six meters long was caught in the year 2000.

A fifteen-foot hurricane storm surge buries a beach town in water.

Puffin enjoys a swim.

Someone's getting lucky tonight.

Hippo wants to meet his admirers like I met Nigel Farage at the Trump Hotel.

Cat dressed up in costume.

Happy mama dog cuddles her puppy.

Dog goes shopping in the pet aisle.

The sassiest bulldog.

Dog fetches a duck for his mistress.

Dog hangs out with strangers in a hot tub.

A belated Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Dogs reach an agreement after a tense negotiation.

Posted by: Ace at 07:28 PM | Comments (548) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

Thousands of prisoners -- many of them political prisoners -- escape from Iranian prisons in a mass jailbreak. This signals a disintegrating regime.

Iranian propaganda explains why Iran keeps bombing Israel's apartment buildings -- you'll never guess.

Tucker Carlson decided he was a big enough man now to boss Trump around. Trump disagreed.

There's a small but vocal contingent of people who call themselves conservatives but are calling out President Donald Trump for his support of Israel in its strikes against Iran. Chief among them is Tucker Carlson, who posted this on X on Friday:

The real divide isn't between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it -- between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who's calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran. On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now.

As my PJ Media colleague Scott Pinsker put it, "Carlson's enemies are all 'warmongers,' and he, of course, is a 'peacemaker.' (So brave and noble.) He just so happens to be a 'peacemaker' who strongly objects to the dismantlement of Iran's nuclear WMD program."

Side note: plenty of genuine conservatives are blasting Carlson in the comments as a "fraud." Good on them.

Trump is firing back at those who say that supporting Israel doesn't necessarily serve American interests and is thus not "America First." He explained it all to The Atlantic's Michael Scherer, who asked the president a question about the views of people like Carlson.

"Well, considering that I'm the one that developed 'America First,' and considering that the term wasn't used until I came along, I think I'm the one that decides that," Trump told Scherer. "For those people who say they want peace -- you can't have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don't want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon--that's not peace."

Tucker is a craven operator, and routinely ducks from attacking Trump directly, instead attacking Trump's advisors and Secretaries as a way to attack Trump without explicitly attacking Trump.

But sometimes he slips up and says something like "Trump isn't really in control of the US military, Benyamin Netanyahu is." From Tucker Carlson's newsletter:

This Could Be the Final Newsletter Before All-Out War

Israel launched its long-awaited attack on Iran last night, bombarding the Islamic Republic with dozens of missiles and striking its top nuclear facility and at least five military bases.

The assault reportedly killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami and other top military leaders, and Israel believes other officials and nuclear scientists also perished. The episode came just days after White House envoy Steve Witkoff warned that Iran could unleash a "mass casualty response" if the Israelis bombed its nuclear facilities.

Earlier this week, unnamed Washington sources expressed concern over Israel's ability to fend off Iran's retaliation, which would inevitably lead to Benjamin Netanyahu ordering the American military to step in and fight on his country's behalf. Tehran launched its first counterstrike last night, firing over 100 rockets at its attacker within hours of the initial assault.

Ultragay California senator Scott Weiner, who has a thousand ideas for legislation and, for some reason, the top 999 all involve reducing criminal penalties for pedophiles, has another brilliant idea. It involves upending the Constitution and allowing gay pincushions like him to exercise authority over federal agents and troops.

Senator Scott Wiener
@Scott_Wiener

We're announcing new legislation -- the No Secret Police Act (SB 627) -- to ban local/state/federal law enforcement, w/ some exceptions, from covering their faces when interacting w/ the public & require them to wear identifying info

Secret police behavior tanks trust & must end

A man brandished a rifle at a Utah "No Kings" pre-riot. A "peacekeeper" armed with a gun attempted to shoot and kill him, but shot and killed an innocent bystander instead.

At least three shots rang out, causing some people in the immediate area to flee, according to videos near the incident obtained by KSL. Several other videos were also uploaded to social media.

On scene, officers found Folasa Ah Loo and attempted life-saving efforts.

Redd said preliminary investigations show that Folasa Ah Loo was not the intended target but an "innocent bystander participating in the demonstration."

With witnesses-provided information, officers pursued Gamboa to the area of 200 East 100 South, where he was apprehended, taken to the hospital and later booked into the Salt Lake County Metro Jail for investigation of murder, police said.

Gamboa had a minor gunshot wound and was "hiding in a group of people," Redd said. Officers also recovered a backpack Redd said was removed from Gamboa by bystanders that contained an "AR-15 style rifle," black clothing and gas mask.

Two other armed individuals wearing high-visibility vests who were "possibly part of the event's peacekeeping team" were also detained initially, Redd said.

According to a police booking affidavit, the peacekeepers called out to Gamboa to drop his weapon after drawing their own.

"Arturo Gamboa was acting under circumstances evidencing a depraved indifference to human life and knowingly engages in conduct that creates a grave risk of death to another individual and thereby causes the death of the other individual," according to the affidavit.

Redd added that the two peacekeepers are not in custody and the one who fired the rounds is cooperating with police.

Oh, so someone packing a gun at a riot and shooting someone dead is a "peacekeeper," huh, Marxist Regime Media?

Weird, when Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed a criminal who was illegally carrying a gun and pulled it on him to shoot him at pointblank range, you didn't call Rittenhouse a "peacekeeper."

You called him a white supremacist murderer.

In fact, you claimed that Guage Grosskruetz, the criminal carrying the pistol he was not allowed to possess because of his record, was the peacekeeper, and Rittenhouse should have allowed himself to be executed on the street by this "peacekeeper."

Instead of disarming him, which is what My Boy did.

The media isn't condemning these twitch-fingered shooters -- who literally killed someone dead due to incompetence and most likely an eagerness to "Kill a MAGA terrorist." They're excusing them as "peacekeepers" who made a teeny-tiny little mistake in murdering an innocent man.

Because they're on the far left, and therefore are protected members of the left's street militias.

Speaking of: I have been calling the left's antifa and BLM allies their "paramilitaries" and "street militias" for years.

Glad to see Tom Cotton thinks similarly:

Posted by: Ace at 06:19 PM | Comments (397) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Iran Is Now Begging the US to Step In and Force a Ceasefire on Israel

Killers, but of the absolute coward type.

Which we've come to expect from the Fruits of Islam.

Things aren't going well for Iran. While the Islamist nation has managed to kill some civilians by indiscriminately lobbing ballistic missiles at Israel, when it comes to the actual business of winning the war, the scoreboard isn't even close. The latest evidence of that? Iran is now begging for a ceasefire.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Mullahs are looking for an off-ramp, burning up the backchannels to try to get the United States to bail them out.

Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said.

In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials it would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn't join the attack, the officials said. Iran also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained.

I'm not sure if what's left of the Iranian leadership doesn't understand how negotiations work, but they probably should have taken them seriously before Israel began its military operation to destroy their nuclear program. It took only three days for the IDF to establish air superiority over Tehran, and they are now bombing regime targets with impunity. That includes the launchers being used to shoot missiles at Israel. Once that threat is minimized, the Mullahs will have nothing left to respond with.

Meanwhile, there are reports that Iran's 86-year-old tyrant the Ayatollah Khamenei, who is in poor health, is being shuffled from underground bunker to underground bunker to keep him safe from Israeli drones, jets, and commandos.

Donald Trump is said to have already vetoed an Israeli opportunity to kill Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since the conflict erupted on Friday.

But Tehran's 86-year-old supreme leader will still be fearing assassination, hiding out in 'as secure a location as they can manage' as Israel continues to target high ranking officials with deadly precision strikes across the country, onlookers believe.

Speaking on the BBC's Newscast over the weekend, The Economist's defence editor, Shashank Joshi, assessed that Khamenei would likely avoid any public appearances as his remaining loyalists work desperately to keep him out of Israel's crosshairs.

'I think they'll be concerned that Israel has clearly penetrated them inside out, so they will be looking to all possible corners from how to keep him safe, perhaps moving him from place to place,' he said.

Anna Puma said that there are rumors that Khameini is talking to Russia about allowing him to resettle and hide there. Some are claiming he's already fled.

I've heard unconfirmed reports stating that Israel has thoroughly compromised the entire Iranian government and military with double-agents secretly working for Israel, and that this explains the highly accurate intelligence Israel has. And also, its ability smuggle in weapons and even set up drone bases inside Iran.

Sources within Iran told London-based Persian-language outlet Iran International that Khamenei was moved to an underground bunker in Lavizan, in northeastern Tehran, in the hours after Israel began its attacks on the capital at the end of last week.

He is believed to be holed up with his family, including his son, Mojtaba - who has been pegged as a potential successor to the ageing supreme leader.

Israel has already taken out top ranking officials including the chief of staff of the Iranian military and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Chiefs (IRGC) since Friday.

A strike killing Khamenei would be deeply controversial and create untold chaos within Iran's political system. It would also depend on Israeli intelligence being able to locate the supreme leader - and the air force to deliver the crucial blow.

...

While Israeli strikes so far have done much to undermine Iran's military and nuclear programme, removing Khamenei 'could cause total upheaval and chaos', he said.

...

Asked if there was an Israeli plan to kill Khamenei that had been vetoed by Washington, Netanyahu told Fox News: 'We do what we need to do, we will do what we need to do and I think the United States knows what is good for the United States'.

I've also heard that Iran's uranium enrichment centers are currently unusable because, in addition to serious surface bombing, Israel has also cut all electricity to those nuke factories.

Posted by: Ace at 05:20 PM | Comments (452) | Trackbacks (Suck)