The Morning Report — 10/6/25

Good morning kids. First, a very happy 250th birthday to the United States Navy! The Secretary of War (I just love writing that) Pete Hegseth had this to say:

War Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed a lively audience of U.S. Navy Sailors in Virginia to commemorate the military branch’s 250th anniversary, reiterating President Donald Trump’s emphasis on “America first, and peace through strength” and blasting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Hegseth received loud applause as he began his remarks to thousands of Sailors at the Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval station with over 82,000 active-duty military on base and over 29,000 civilians. Calling the crowd “the absolute best of America,” the War secretary said, “Looking out at all of you — I know you know why the President always says we have the strongest, most powerful, most lethal, most ready military on the planet, and he’s going to make sure we keep it that way.” “This is the perfect way to mark 250 years of the United States Navy. You know, President Trump has made our mission clear; America first, and peace through strength with common sense at every turn,” Hegseth continued, before emphasizing the name change from Department of Defense to Department of War. 

CBD and I discussed Secretary Hegseth's outstanding record to date as among the bright spots of the Trump 2.0 administration on the latest edition of the podcast. As a bit of a tease for the upcoming episode a bit later this week, we will be joined by a retired army veteran whose byline as an open blogger has appeared here on many occasions, and we'll get into the nitty gritty of Hegseth and the newWar Department. Should be an outstanding show.

So happy birthday and Anchors Aweigh!

Well there are wars and rumors of war. Abroad for sure but most alarmingly here at home. After 10 years and counting of blood-libeling President Donald Trump as literally Hitler and those who voted for and support him as White-Supremacist fascists (not understanding what that word actually means) ready to round up colored people of color and toss them into concentration camps, is it any wonder that cities have burned to the ground, and ICE officers are openly assaulted in the streets for doing their jobs in apprehending and deporting illegal aliens.

Most unhelpful to say the least are vile scumbag degenerates like this one shooting his mouth off and in so doing giving the green light for the truly unhinged among the Left (which is a number that is perhaps even larger than even we want to imagine possible) to attack anyone and anything even a red pubic hair's breadth to the right of Fidel Castro.

Virginia Democrat attorney general nominee Jay Jones in 2022 "fantasized" about shooting then-Republican colleague Todd Gilbert twice and wished death on Gilbert’s children, National Review reported Friday.

"Gilbert gets two bullets to the head," Jones told Republican House delegate Carrie Coyner as he laid out a hypothetical "three people, two bullets" scenario in which he listed Gilbert alongside Hitler and Pol Pot, according to text messages dated August 8, 2022, obtained by National Review. "Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time," Jones wrote.

And this bipedal metastatic cancer on everything that is just, decent, moral and righteous is actually a candidate for Attorney General?! More horrifying than that is the fact that Virginia being what it is, he'll probably win.

Small wonder then that this actually happened:

A Biden-appointed federal judge who sentenced the man found guilty of attempting to assassinate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022 is being accused of leniency in the case. Judge Deborah Boardman sentenced Nicholas Roske to eight years in prison on Friday, Fox News reported on Saturday. Roske is a transgender person, or a man living as a woman, who goes by the name Sophie. . . “The sentence is more lenient than what the Department of Justice (DOJ) had sought. Prosecutors said Roske should face at least 30 years, while Roske’s defense team had asked for eight,” the Fox article said. In a social media post on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) would be appealing the sentence

Good on Bondi. That said, here's a headline or internet meme that I'd truly like to see:

Brett Kavanaugh's would-be assassin didn't kill himself! Ditto this Deborah Boardman.

As for this notion of being in a civil war, that would presuppose that both sides are racking up body count. And so far, it is our side that is being put into hospitals, morgues and prisons as terrorists in black robes hurl law books at us while terrorists in keffiyahs and balaclavas hurl prepositioned bricks, molotov cocktails, fists and bullets at us with impunity courtesy of the former.

And so President Trump has thrown down the gauntlet by sending in the National Guard to try and put a stop to this insanity before it gets out of hand, unless of course we have blown past that point.

A federal judge on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order blocking President Trump from sending Oregon’s National Guard to Portland to defend federal agents from violent attacks by black bloc militants who surround the ICE facility every night.

Obama-appointed District Judge Michael Simon was convinced by lawyers for Oregon State that the attacks were peaceful. 

This flies in the face of footage from Fox News and “citizen journalists” chronicling violence every night as Antifa mobs hurl rocks at federal agents and their vehicles, assault journalists, and block traffic while Portland police stand by.  In fact, Portland police are doing more than nothing: they have been filmed actively gathering complaints from Antifa thugs who claim they were maced or roughed up by federal agents.

When called for backup, these pretend cops respond that they “don’t have the resources,” according to court documents tendered in the State of Oregon’s lawsuit. 

After “citizen journalist” Katie Daviscourt was given a black eye by an Antifa type who attacked her with a flagpole last week, Portland police ignored her entreaties to arrest her assailant. 

But the next night, they arrested her colleague Nick Sortor and charged him with disorderly conduct after he got into a one-sided scuffle with an aggressive group of black bloc militants who pushed him to the ground and broke his camera. 

After spending the night in a cell, Sortor told Fox News that the Portland jail was “weirdly empty because they don’t actually arrest criminals around here, just people like me that report on what’s actually happening on the ground…

“If what I was doing was disorderly, what do you call people with megaphones at three in the morning lighting fires in the middle of the street?”

Under orders from the Democrats who run the city, there’s no question that Portland cops are taking sides against the federal government, even as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has revealed that her officers are being threatened with doxing campaigns and even $10,000 bounties to kill them.

I suppose the question is; Are the Portland cops sitting on their hands for fear of Antifa or for fear of retribution from the Democrats who control the city, or worse because they are actually members of Antifa who somehow snuck onto the force. Considering that a known Communist John Brennan actually became not only a CIA operative but rose to become the head of the agency itself, my assertion is certainly a frightening possibility.

There's Portland Oregon and the entire state of Illinois as that fat criminal Schlub Pritzker is also engaging in incitement and insurrection against the legitimate functioning of federal law enforcement. This is insurrection and revolution my friends. Unless and until everyone and everything behind this is utterly smashed, we are facing a reckoning and it's not going to be pretty.

An Indiana man accused of breaking into a home and stabbing a family, including the brutal, fatal stabbing of 6-year-old Logan Tipton, is now a free man. . .

"If I ever cross paths with him, I will kill the man. I will kill him where he stands," the boy's father said.

Consider that heartbreaking statement in light of all of the aforementioned and the totally corrupt system. So what would happen in Portland should the good and honest citizens decide to take matters into their own hands to defend their lives and property. They might actually find themselves firing not only on Antifa goons but Portland Police officers who may very well be Antifa's allies but dressed in Cop drag as it were.

And this my friends is how societies break down.

Have a good day!

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. 

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• Roger Kimball: The FBI once chased Catholics and parents with the SPLC’s “hate map.” Now, under Trump, the grifters are exposed and America’s institutions are being reset.
  Trump’s Second Term Resets Washington’s Playbook
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: Portland’s left-wing mobs and officials are waging a neo-Confederate-style rebellion—defying federal law, protecting illegal aliens, and turning the city into a sanctuary for anarchy.
  Reactionary, Neo-Confederate Portland

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:25 AM | Comments (307) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 6 October 2025

Top Story

• In May, OpenAI, which has never made a profit, spent $6.5 billion to buy Jony Ive's company io, which has never made a product. The first device to ship from the partnership? Anyone's guess, they're out of ideas. (Tech Crunch) (archive site)

  The FT now says that OpenAI and Ive aim to create "a palm-sized device without a screen that can take audio and visual cues from the physical environment and respond to users' requests."

  A phone? I'm told those already exist.

  But unresolved issues around the device's "personality," how it handles privacy, and computing infrastructure might delay the launch.

  Good grief, they've created the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation.

  "Listen," said Ford, who was still engrossed in the sales brochure, "they make a big thing of the ship's cybernetics. A new generation of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation robots and computers, with the new GPP feature." "GPP feature?" said Arthur. "What's that?"
  "Oh, it says Genuine People Personalities."
  "Oh," said Arthur, "sounds ghastly."
  A voice behind them said, "It is." The voice was low and hopeless and accompanied by a slight clanking sound. They span round and saw an abject steel man standing hunched in the doorway.
  "What?" they said.
  "Ghastly," continued Marvin, "it all is. Absolutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it. Look at this door," he said, stepping through it. The irony circuits cut into his voice modulator as he mimicked the style of the sales brochure. "All the doors in this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done."
  As the door closed behind them it became apparent that it did indeed have a satisfied sigh-like quality to it. "Hummmmmmmyummmmmmm ah!" it said.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (104) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - October 5, 2025 [Doof]

Welcome one and all to the Sunday night ONT!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (442) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: First October Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the first October edition? The TXMoMe is just a couple of weeks away!! More on that below.

Programming Note: I am still out of town on a super-sekrit mission, so this week will again be an abbreviated, or content-lite, Gun Thread. Thanks for understanding

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (240) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Luscious Peacock Thighs, And Other Delicious Things

Yes, yes, everyone should know by now that chicken thighs are the way to go, but I am nothing if not repetitive and tedious! So here it goes again! But humor me, they are so easy and forgiving that it is shame to waste the money on any other part of the chicken, except perhaps legs, but I think the thighs taste better!

Now...I'm talking about pieces to be grilled. Roasting a whole chicken is a different animal entirely, and I heartily recommend doing that as often as possible.

Anyway, my current technique is to trim the excess skin from the thighs, and carefully reserve it for chicken skin cracklins, otherwise known as Gribenes in Yiddish.
Then I salt them, dust on my homemade dry rub, and stash them in the refrigerator, uncovered, for a day, or as long as I have, whichever comes first.

Then it is on to my gas grill, with the burners on low, for about 30 minutes. I then turn the thighs and move them around so they all cook evenly. The next part is optional, but it has worked very nicely the last several times I have done it. I paint the tops with some homemade Kansas City BBQ sauce (thank you Bluebell for the recipe!), cook for another 10, then flip, paint, and cook for however long they need to get nice and crispy and almost charred.

Yes, I have frequently lost track of time (Old Fashioneds will do that), and thighs stand up to overcooking extremely well!

Yes, this is a lazy man's technique, but they are delicious!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (177) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First-World Problems...

Sigh...what to use?

I have ricocheted from electric to safety razor to cartridge to a brief foray into straight razor insanity.

And because I have a rare skill at drawing blood, I can cut myself with all four!

Seriously. I can draw blood with an electric shaver.

Recently I have settled on a cartridge system that seems to work reasonably well, but not the five-blade silliness. No, I am a purist, and go with the four-blade system!

Finding the sweet spot is a pain in the ass though...the first, and sometimes the second shave is sub-optimal, then there are a few good shaves, then it descends into abattoir-levels of bloodiness.

And because I am a cheap bastard, I will always push the hematological envelope!

The struggle is real!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (231) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Until You See Pigs Flying Over Trenton And Richmond, Don't Hold Your Breath

Sometimes the conventional wisdom is correct, no matter how much we want it to be wrong. There are two governor races that are being sized up as referendums on the 2026 prospects for the Republican party, but neither race is being taken seriously by the corporate Republican hierarchy, which signals their lack of interest in the mid-term elections, and their lack of support for Donald Trump!

The Republican candidates are both flawed, but in different ways.

Virginia: Winsome Earle-Sears vs. Abigail Spanberger is an easy one. Winsome Earle-Sears is relatively new to politics, and simply does not have the relationships and contacts necessary to raise money on her own. Her earnest but ham-handed direct efforts may draw small donations, but the Democrats are throwing a huge amount of money at her trans-loving lunatic opponent! And of course corporate Republicans are flocking to Sears' campaign to sop up whatever money is available, but there is no coherent effort. They want her to lose with dignity!

New Jersey: Jack Ciattarelli vs. Mikie Sherrill is a clown-show of flawed candidates. The republican challenger is conspicuously light on political philosophy, but quite adept at judging wind direction! In 2015, he called Donald Trump a "charlatan," but by 2020 he was a Trump supporter! Of course he is pro-abortion until 20 weeks, and supports drivers licenses for wetbacks, so how he meshes with President Trump's policies is a mystery. He also failed to pursue the obvious failings in the 2021 NJ governor's election, preferring to lose with dignity, mostly to preserve his options to run again!

Sadly, he is running against an awful candidate who is implicated in three different issues that should have sunk her campaign. She was implicated in a cheating scandal at the Naval Academy, she scammed her two teenage children into nominations for the naval academy class of 2029, and she claims ignorance about the now-typical stock grift of congressmen that supposedly netted her $7,000,000. Whether that is true is secondary to her evasions about it and the other issues.

But hope springs eternal!

Hope in Virginia and New Jersey: Republicans Could Actually WIN This Thing!

Conventional wisdom has the GOP dead in the water in Virginia and New Jersey — the only two states that’ll be electing new governors in Nov. 2025. This highly focused spotlight gives the Commonwealth of Virginia and/or New York Junior an outsized role in determining long-term political mojo: The winning party owns the opening momentum in next year’s midterms.

And conventional wisdom has the Republican Party in a world of hurt.

New Jersey, after all, is a Democratic stronghold. Hasn’t gone Republican in a presidential race since 1988. Out of their 12 congressmen, only 3 are Republicans.

Meanwhile, from 1952 through 2004, Virginia went red in every presidential election, sans ’64. But since 2008, they’ve gone blue every single time — and often by lopsided margins. The three times Trump was on the Virginia ballot, he never got within five points of his Democratic opponent. (His worst defeat was in 2020, where he lost to Biden by over 10 points.)

The optimism is marvelous, but almost entirely without concrete successes on the ground where it counts. Is there a significant Republican GOTV effort in Virginia? No. Is there a significant upsurge in Winsome Earle-Sears' fundraising? No. Although to be fair, I did get about 17 increasingly frantic text messages since I sent her some money!

And in New Jersey? Sure...Sherrill has been rocked back by the allegations, but she has a compliant media backing her, and as is their wont, the Democrats are circling the wagons to protect her. Is there a significant GOTV effort funded by the Republican party? Hah! I have not gotten a single in-state communication about the governor's race or, for that matter, any NJ race!

These two races expose the weakness of the Republican party as a counter to the Democrat party's fantastic legal and illegal efforts. Think about the disarray of the Democrats this year, and imagine how these two sates would be fairing with a well-organized state Republican party and solid, well-organized support from the national party.

But the real question as we begin to look at a post-Trump political landscape is whether the Republican party can energize the base without the incredible draw of Donald Trump? Converting his popularity into meaningful, long-term electoral changes requires more than what the Republican party is doing today.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (183) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Reading Thread 10/05/2025

Howdy Readers! Welcome to the Reading Thread, your Sunday morning source for the insightful, lively and spirited discussion of books 'n stuff. I'm filling in for a while as this space re-invents itself under new management so please set your near-term expectations accordingly low.

What do we have this week? Why, it's none other than Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and published in 1818. As I mentioned in the other editions of the Reading Thread you may not always get such fabulous selections as this.

Anyhoo, feel free to discuss reading and books in general and share your thoughts on this week's selection if you're so inclined. There may even be a special added bonus below!

I know you're just as excited as I am, so just jump below the fold to get started!

Posted by: Weasel at 09:00 AM | Comments (340) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 35 September 2025

Top Story

• The Eternal September is finally over after 34 years as AOL shuts down its dialup service. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Looking around and seeing the current state of the internet, I think they might have left it running a little too long.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, how does my upgraded 500Mb internet feel?
  
  Exactly the same as before, on 100Mb, to be honest. Moving from ADSL (I got about 16Mb down and 2Mb up) to a nominal 100/40 connection was a huge upgrade. At least it was until I got hit by lightning and my modem exploded.
  
  Since I mostly look at (and work on) US-hosted sites, that trans-Pacific latency erases any obvious gains. The new plan is cheaper, though, and the next step down goes all the way to 50/20 and only saves $2.
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (147) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night "Club ONT" October 4, 2025 [The 3 Ds]

The Club is ready for liquid chemistry, goggles, and irresponsible comments.

Welcome to Club ONT! A collaboration the 3D's - The Disco, The Dino, and The Doggo. Come on in. The Club has no velvet ropes nor safety vests. There is that one moron at the door that's not checking dental plans - easy to sneak past him.

Pssst...Have you heard about TX MoMe X? The meetup is happening. The place to be! Excuses prohibited. See the left side bar on main page for Ben Had contact info.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (428) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread [moviegique]: Dead of Winter

In the past few weeks, we saw Spinal Tap: The End Conitnues, which was quite good. (In a world of pathetic, warmed-over moribund properties, this is a hilarious, pathetic warmed-over moribund property.) We also saw Riefenstahl, which is interesting but ultimately kind of gormless with some terrific close-up film of the '36 Olympics.

We also saw The Long Walk, based on a Stephen King novel, and so I figured you might enjoy a review of a movie weighted down by its own stupidity. But that turned out to be a spoiler-laden 3,000 words.

Then we saw Chain Reactions, with a bunch of old lefties reflecting on Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that turned out to be 2,000 words.

Fortunately, then we saw a good movie, which was easy to sum up in less than 1,000 non-spoiler-y words. And so I present:

Dead of Winter

"Emma Thompson is the love child of Marge Gunderson and Rambo" is your high concept take on Dead of Winter, the new thriller from Brian Kirk (best known as a director on "Game Of Thrones" and "Penny Dreadful") working off a script by composer Nicholas Jacob-Larson and actor Dalton Leeb.

Seriously, this screenplay is the only one either has to their credit.

The story is simple, but not shallow: Barb (Thompson) has come out to a remote lake in northern Minnesota for some reason, and getting a bit lost along the way she stops at a cabin where she interrupts Camo Jacket (Marc Menchaca, "Ozark", "Generation Kill") in the midst of his wood gathering.

Yeah, he has no name. The cast of ten has only five characters with names. This is an interesting kind of economy—you don't really notice it when people don't have names, but you really notice it when they do. Barb, as it turns out, is a widow, and one of the people who has a name is her late husband "Karl".

Anyway, she interrupts Camo Jacket and notices a little blood on the ground, and that he's a little awkward. But he points her to the lake and off she goes.

While she's off at the lake, we see her fishing, and clutching a tackle box like it's her most prized possession. She gets her truck stuck in the snow and while she's trying to get it out, we see Camo Guy chasing a young, bound girl, and dragging her back.

And that's the opening.

Ooh, yer gonna wanna put some "Bactine" on that.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:30 PM | Comments (185) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - October 4, 2025 [Santa Rex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. A spin of the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) landed on Christmas crafting.

If you are tempted to say "I don't make things for Christmas, so there is nothing here for me," let the thought pass. No Moron could possibly say such a thing. Stick around. You might be entertained or learn something. You might enjoy hearing from others and seeing what others are hobbying.

I have faith that you can find something in the content that resonates or contribute your own hobbying interests. Dig around in the content and soak in the comments. Be curious. Glad you're here.

TRex has been detailed for duty elsewhere, so behave yourself in the comments. The Grateful will be looking out for unapproved shenanigans.

[Top: Half off Christmas hobbying!]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (124) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, October 4

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:12 PM | Comments (71) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Berry Enticing Guest Gardening Post [Lex]

Don't those berries look enticing? Their fresh season is over in the Boston area, I think, but I have a friend who makes blueberry pie for Thanksgiving using frozen berries. Think about it: Blueberries are American berries, perfect for Thanksgiving!

As you read the inspiring guest post from Lex, think about berries that might be suited to your climate and maybe even to your own garden next year.
K.T.

Take it away, Lex!

The Great Blueberry Bush Battle

Posted by: K.T. at 01:05 PM | Comments (75) | Trackbacks (Suck)

How, exactly, do people "disagree better"?

Utah State Seal

Candace Owens thinks Charlie Kirk's assassination
might have something to do with the new Utah State Flag and bees

There was a big fight in Utah over "modernizing" the State Flag, which used to resemble the State Seal. Candace Owens has added some new dimensions to the conflict which I don't think have been completely thought through.

Anyway, a little over a year ago, I wondered how the electorate in Utah could have chosen both Senator Mike Lee and Governor Spencer Cox. Our own commenter Bonhomme answered some of my questions.

Spencer Cox has made a name for himself with his "Disagree Better" campaign. He has enlisted other governors in this program. It generally involves giving in to "the other side", but he has sometimes "circled back" to more conservative positions under pressure. And there is something to be said for the idea that government officials working at the state level are forced to be somewhat more practical than the feds, because they "have to fix the potholes". Though he also has some big ideas, like the Olympics, that involve compromise with, well, you know who.

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Cox did a pretty good job of keeping people informed of the actions of law enforcement and of the plans of the State of Utah. Many people were impressed. This brought new attention to the "disagree better" idea, but there seems to be more rancor, anger and disdain than ever in both the legacy media and social media. Strange.

The Atlantic turns its attention westward

Posted by: K.T. at 11:10 AM | Comments (284) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[Sammich making optional]

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over before we start. (Rulz for those of you in Little Suamico.)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. Yes, even to the trolls.
3) Running with sharp objects? If I have written it once I have written it 12,702 times. No running with sharp objects.
4) Have a wonderful first weekend of October.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 07:54 AM | Comments (428) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 4 October 2025

Top Story

• Thwarted plot to cripple cell service in NY was bigger than first thought unless it wasn't: Sources. (ABC)
  
  Over on the sidebar you'll find a link by CBD to an article about a planned attack against communications infrastructure in New York City, discovered and averted twelve days ago by the Secret Service.
  
  They found 100,000 activated SIM cards and over 300 specialised (and, in the US, illegal) SIM servers set up to use them, in a handful of rented locations in the city, capable of sending out thirty million SMS messages per minute and overwhelming and crippling nearby cell towers.
  
  The latest update us that the Secret Service has found another 200,000 SIM cards in another location nearby in New Jersey.
  
  So the question is, who was behind this rather sophisticated plot, and what were they hoping to achieve? The Secret Service links it to China, which is probably true but only at the surface level.
  
  Most likely this wasn't a nation-state planning a terror attack at all, but an organised crime ring using those hundreds of thousands of numbers to make scam calls. The hardware was probably smuggled from China, but not to declare war, just to make an illicit buck.
  
  That's speculation, but what we know for sure - because it put the Secret Service on the track in the first place - is that this same network was used in swatting attacks against members of Congress in December of 2023.
  
  And it would be foolish of a nation-state actor to allow such an elaborate plot to be foiled over such a minor and secondary objective. Though dumber things have happened.
  
  
  
• Second pass at today's thread because my computer decided to reboot right when I was looking for the video for the interlude and I hadn't saved yet. That'll teach me.
  
  * Spoiler: It didn't teach them.
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (154) | Trackbacks (Suck)

A Poem Lovely As An ONT

Hello everyone! We made it to another Friday. Two weeks until the TxMoMe. How's everyone doing tonight?

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (494) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Spooky Season Cafe

The Haunted Tree.

Compilation of images from classic horror movies.

Compilation of trash B-movie horror trailers.

Dog is scared of black cat lawn decorations.

Filming a Paranormal Activity-type haunting.

A very spooky Statue of Liberty. (It's fake, CGI.)

They do everything bigger in Texas.

I'd like to save this for closer to Halloween, but I don't know how long it will be available: the full cartoon "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." I got a rock!

Melanistic leopard.

Saving a whole family of deer who got themselves stuck on the slippery ice of a frozen lake.

Kitten gets itself stuck on an ocean rock. A man saves it. The kitten's mom is first happy to have the kitten back, but then teaches it a lesson.

Baby fox vs. eagle, while the crows all yell Fight! Fight! Fight! (No actual violence.)

Basic armadillo nonsense.

Very scary!

Posted by: Ace at 07:42 PM | Comments (401) | Trackbacks (Suck)

YouTube (Owned by Google/Alphabet) Settles Lawsuit for Banning Trump's Accounts to Rig the 2024 Election; Will Pay Trump $24.5 Million

This is a couple of days old but I missed it and I know you did too because you wouldn't cheat on this site.

Google's YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit President Donald Trump brought after the video site suspended his account following the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol following the election that resulted in him leaving the White House for four years.

The settlement of the more than four-year-old case earmarks $22 million for Trump to contribute to the Trust for the National Mall and a construction of a White House ballroom, according to court documents filed Monday. The remaining $2.5 million will be paid to other parties involved in the case, including the writer Naomi Wolf and the American Conservative Union.

Alphabet, the parent of Google, is the third major technology company to settle a volley of lawsuits that Trump brought for what he alleged had unfairly muzzled him after his first term as president ended in January 2021. He filed similar cases Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Twitter before it was bought by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 and rebranded as X.

Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle Trumps' lawsuit over his 2021 suspension from Facebook and X agreed to settle the lawsuit that Trump brought against Twitter for $10 million. When the lawsuits against Meta. Twitter and YouTube were filed, legal experts predicted Trump had little chance of prevailing.

Just as Jake Tapper was claiming that the three-day suspension of Jimmy Kimmel was the greatest assault on speech in human history, Google/YouTube admitted that it had banned accounts presenting perfectly legal -- and, in fact, perfectly true -- facts about covid and the non-vaccinating vaccines. (Apparently Jake Tapper doesn't watch the news. Or else he's just a hack lifelong Democrat activist. You choose.)

Too little, too late, says Wendi Strauch Mahoney at American Thinker.

Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc. finally put in writing what many have suspected for years: Senior Biden-era officials "conducted repeated and sustained outreach" to the company and pressed YouTube to remove COVID-related videos that did not violate YouTube's policies.

In a Sep. 23 letter to House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Alphabet's counsel called such government attempts to dictate moderation "unacceptable and wrong" and said YouTube will create a pathway for creators banned under now-retired COVID-19 and 2020/2024 election policies to return. Google's mea culpa followed a March 6, 2025 subpoena issued by Jordan.

The House Judiciary Committee summarized the admission, underscoring five key points from Google:

Biden officials pressured the company to censor Americans and take down lawful content.

Google considers that pressure "unacceptable and wrong."

Public debate should not hinge on deferring to "authorities."

The company will not empower third-party fact-checkers to label or remove content.

European speech rules, including the Digital Services Act, risk forcing removal of lawful American speech.

In unusually plain language for outside counsel, Alphabet told Congress that during COVID-19, "White House officials" sought removal of non-violative videos and that the broader political atmosphere -- "including President Biden" -- sought to influence platform decisions. Alphabet says it "consistently fought against those efforts on First Amendment grounds."

Google excused its behavior, arguing that the "COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented time in which online platforms had to reach decisions about how best to balance freedom of expression with responsibility, including responsibility with respect to the moderation of user-generated content that could result in real-world harm." But this reads as a convenient, too-little, too-late defense. Google knew what it was doing and chose policies that harmed lawful speech anyway. Even Alphabet's lawyers now concede that "it is unacceptable and wrong when any government, including the Biden Administration, attempts to dictate how the company moderates content" -- a striking admission, given that the COVID- and election-related speech at issue was plainly protected by the First Amendment.

To illustrate just how materially damaging the removals were, Richard Baris speaks not only to his own experience, but also many others' all too common experiences with Google. Baris (People's Pundit) is a well respected data analyst and commentator whose polling outfit, Big Data Poll, has accurately predicted several presidential elections, including 2024.

During his appearance on the Sep. 24, 2025 QuiteFrankly podcast, Baris describes the excruciating consequences of being suppressed and then banned by Google's YouTube. Like so many others, he was repeatedly struck, demonetized, and throttled by Google, actions that translated to significant lost income, lost audience, and throttled fact-based reporting.

Baris said the strikes and demonetization were ironically triggered by concrete pieces of journalism and data analysis. In one instance, he said he aired and analyzed remarks from the U.K. health minister -- summarizing that masking children "didn't prevent" transmission and could harm cognitive and social development. He said the video was struck for "medical misinformation." YouTube, he said, repeatedly threatened channel closure when he and his team presented longitudinal findings and compared them with published studies. Baris believes that much of it was political, and he is not wrong.

Posted by: Ace at 07:00 PM | Comments (178) | Trackbacks (Suck)