Paramount/Skydance Launches Hostile Takeover Bid for Warner Bros.

For those just joining the story in progress:

David Ellison -- son of the Oracle founder and multibillionaire Larry Ellison, and himself worth millions -- owned Skydance, and then used that company to purchase one of the smaller major studios, Paramount.

Then he made a bid to buy Warner Bros. studios from Warner Discovery. That offer was rejected. Then Warner Bros. advertised that it was for sale and would entertain other offers.

Netflix made a bid to buy it, and this bid was accepted.

By management, I mean.

David Ellison still wants Warner Bros. So he's making a hostile takeoever bid. That just means that unlike the Netflix bid which was arranged with the current management of Warner Discovery and has their blessing, this bid is made against current mangement's wishes and so is "hostile" to their intentions.

But it's the shareholders who get to decide. Ellison is offering shareholders a competing bid.

Ellison's bid is $30 per share, in cash. Neflix's bid is for less cash per sale -- $27 -- but shareholders would also get shares in whatever spin-off corporation they create out of the the parts of Warner Discovery they don't want. Which is I think the "Discovery" part, all the cable channels like The Murder Channel (aka Investigative Discovery or ID).

Which is more valuable? I have no idea.

Both suitors will make the pitch to shareholders and await the shareholder vote.

Paramount Skydance is launching a hostile bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after it lost out to Netflix

in a monthslong bidding war for the legacy assets, the company said Monday.

Paramount will go straight to WBD shareholders with an all-cash, $30 per share offer. That's the same bid WBD rejected last week and equates to an enterprise value of $108.4 billion.

The offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private equity firm RedBird Capital as well as $54 billion in debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management, Paramount said in a news release.

A portion of the equity financing comes from outside Middle Eastern financing partners including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Company PJSC, and the Qatar Investment Authority. Another portion derives from Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. Kushner is U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law.

Those partners have agreed to "forgo any governance rights," including board seats, as part of their non-voting equity investment, according to a Paramount filing. The modifications allow the deal to be outside of the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or CFIUS.

Shares of Paramount gained 9% Monday. Warner Bros. Discovery's shares rose about 4% while Netflix was down 3%.

"We're really here to finish what we started," Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Monday. "We put the company in play."

There are antitrust questions about any mergers between tech giants, of course. I think the Netflix bid will face more scrutiny, because while Netflix makes movies, it makes movies for streaming, not for exhibition in physical theaters. Yes, sometimes it exhibits a movie in theaters but only in a small number of theaters and only for a weekend or two before it puts it on Netflix exclusively. (They chiefly show movies in theaters just to meet the minimum requirements for theatrical exhibition to qualify them for the Oscars and such.)

So what antitrust lawyers in the government will be looking at is not just the diminution in competition that will occur if one media company swallows up another one, but the real possibility that if Netflix buys Warner Bros. it will use Warner Bros. movie production to make movies for its streaming service, not for theaters.

And antitrust lawyers do not like it when a reduction of competition in one industry causes disruptions in another industry.

And yes, movie production is a separate industry form movie exhibition. In fact, it was antitrust action by the government that forced this separation -- movie studios used to own their own movie theaters and play their movies in their own theaters. But the government considered this illegal vertical integration and forced the movie companies to sell their theaters to independent owners.

I don't think Netflix will be necessarily blocked from buying Warner Bros. A common result in these cases is that the government approves the merger but extracts a promise from the merged company that it will not take certain steps. Like Netflix would agree that it would continue showing Warner Bros. movies in physical theaters.

(Though that's hard to police -- Netflix could just move a lot of Warner Bros. production to the Netflix production side of things and just produce few official "Warner Bros."-branded movies.)

I think the NFL's monopoly on professional football was allowed only because the NFL agreed to never schedule games on Saturday when college teams were playing, to avoid using the professional football monopoly to damage the college football market.

This is a very perilous time for theatrical exhibitors. Hollywood is producing crap movies and consequently exhibitors don't have much product to show that the public is willing to pay for. Any reduction in the number of movies going to physical theaters could, possibly, kill the industry, or cull half of all movie theaters.

I don't know what the government will decide.

David Ellison is reportedly trying to induce Trump to block the Netflix buyout by promising that if he gets hold of Warner Bros. -- and its failing "news" channel CNN -- he'll remake CNN into a fair and balanced network.

Paramount CEO David Ellison assured Trump officials that if the government OKs his company's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) he would overhaul the president's media arch nemesis -- CNN.

Netflix announced last Friday it reached a deal to acquire Warner and HBO properties for $72 billion - but Paramount immediately launched a hostile counterbid, taking its case directly to shareholders.

The Netflix-WBD merger is facing a stiff challenge from Paramount, whose majority shareholder is the billionaire Donald Trump ally, Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

On Monday, Paramount made its move, offering $77.9 billion in all-cash and urging Warner shareholders to reject the Netflix deal.

On a recent visit to Washington, DC, Ellison's son David told Trump's team he would impose sweeping changes at CNN if he purchased its parent company WBD, sources told the Wall Street Journal.

David's father Larry discussed firing hosts like Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar - figures Trump dislikes - with White House officials during takeover bid talks last month, the Guardian reported.

Is that true? No idea. I do know that if you really were making this offer you would want to do it privately, not publicly, with the Wall Street Journal notified. Because the president isn't supposed to approve or nix mergers based on his personal or political self-interest. By making this supposed offer so public, it basically stops Trump from even considering taking the alleged "deal."

It could be that Netflix, not Ellison, is pushing this story out there to pressure Trump to approve their own bid.

Leftwing movie review Grace Randolf claimed that Warner Discovery shareholders are faced with two repellent options -- accept Netlix's deal and "kill the theater business," or accept Ellison's deal and (horrors!) put two movie studios under the control of a "conservative" man friendly to Trump.

The fact that she sees each of these possibilities as equally calamitous is what makes me think it's plausible that members of the left will just lie to stop Ellison from acquiring Warner Bros., and push Fake News stories about Ellison offering to fire Kaitlin Collins if Trump blocks Netflix's bid and approves his own. The left was horrified that Paramount was bought by (horror!) a conservative. It is offended and horrified that the much-bigger Warner Bros. might be purchased by the same conservative man.

Any thoughts? Do you buy this very-public offer of bribery to Trump from David Ellison?

I don't know about you, but if I were bribing the president, I would probably do it quietly.

Through a trusted intermediary.

Such as... well, as the article noted, Jared Kushner is part of the group putting up billions to back Ellison's bid.

So instead of just quietly telling Kushner to carry that message to his father-in-law, everyone blabs about it to the Wall Street Journal?

Seems unlikely to me. Sounds more like political partisans or Netflix executives trying to poison Parmount's pill so that Warner Discovery can't swallow it.

Posted by: Ace at 02:25 PM | Comments (352) | Trackbacks (Suck)

No Shock: Tech Company Offers $60/Hour Coding Job with Proviso: "No US Citizens" May Apply

Immigrants are doing the jobs that Americans just won't do are illegally blacklisted from.

The job post for LanceSoft, an IT staffing firm committed to "diversity, equality, and inclusivity," began innocently enough.

The $60-per-hour role would be based in Santa Clara, Calif., focus on "technical support," and entail a 3--10 p.m. shift. Posted on Nvoids, an IT jobs aggregator, the ad described LanceSoft as an equal opportunity employer and said that the firm, one of the largest staffing agencies in the country, strives "to be as diverse as the clients and employees we partner with."

"We embrace people of any race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender identity, and sexual orientation," the Nov. 25 post read.

This particular job, however, would not be open to a very large group of people: citizens of the United States.

In a section titled "Visa requirement," LanceSoft recruiter Riyaz Ansari wrote that "candidates must hold an active H1B visa"--and stated explicitly that American citizens need not apply.

"No USC/GC for this role," Ansari wrote, using the acronyms for U.S. citizens and green card holders. He added that "LanceSoft is a certified Minority Business Enterprise"--a status the firm has used to secure public contracts--and touted the company's "diversified team environment."

Federal law bars employers from discriminating based on citizenship status. But in the industries most reliant on the H-1B program, which provides visas to more than 700,000 immigrants, advertisements like LanceSoft's litter online recruiting boards.

The Washington Free Beacon identified over two dozen job postings since 2024 that appear to bar applications from U.S. citizens. The posts were made on a variety of platforms, including Glassdoor and LinkedIn, and typically indicate a preference for H-1B visas, though some allow for other visa types as well. Several of the firms are minority-owned businesses, meaning they receive preferential access to government contracts even as they exclude U.S. workers.

The posts illustrate what Trump administration officials say is a common form of hiring discrimination that has long been underpoliced. They come as conservatives are debating the merits of the H-1B visa program, which some argue has been abused by employers to hire foreign workers--especially Indian outsourcers--at the expense of American ones.

"A shocking number of covered entities, especially recruiters, continue to express explicit preferences for visa guest workers," said Andrea Lucas, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). "In the shadows of under-enforcement, this type of discrimination has festered."

Read the whole thing.

Trump needs to put together a squad of employment-discrimination Untouchables and begin suing these companies into bankruptcy.

Posted by: Ace at 01:25 PM | Comments (298) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Jasmine Ratchet Makes It Official: She's Running to Win the Primary to Lose the Election for Texas Senator

Remember the Atlantic's profile of her, revealing her to be an absolutely self-obsessed narcissist? That the lock screen of her phone shows a glamor shot of her smiling chubby face?

Her video announcement for her candidacy also focuses on her self-believed beauty.

Oh, and Trump knocking her as "low IQ," which she says proves the GOP is terrified of her charisma and power. It's a variation of the Rush Limbaugh chestnut "They'll tell you who they fear," which I never believed, and I sure don't believe it as regards Jasmine Ratchet.

Posted by: Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (356) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant

It's so easy to blame the Democrat machine for this ridiculous outcome, but the reality is that it is the feckless, spineless, gutless, traitorous Republican leadership in the United States Senate that is holding up confirmations.

The Democrats are doing what they always do...use every means at their disposal (fair or foul) and vote as a bloc to deny even obviously qualified and competent nominees to be confirmed. Yes, the Republicans will occasionally use some of the same maneuvers, but in general, as we can see by the flood of hard-left lunatic judges on the federal bench, that it is the Democrat Party that always uses whatever power is available to it.

Alina Habba resigns as acting NJ US attorney

President Trump had tapped Habba, who previously served as his personal attorney and later a White House advisor, for the role in an acting capacity in March.

Trump blamed the Senate tradition of blue slips for Habba’s inability to be confirmed to a permanent post, given the power of home state senators — in this case, New Jersey — to object to nominees before the Judiciary Committee. He urged Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to no longer honor the practice.

“It’s a very sad situation. We’re losing … a lot of great people,” Trump said of Democrats’ objections. “We have about seven US attorneys who are not going to be able to keep their jobs much longer because of the blue slip.”

Oh yes! The "Blue Slip!" Is it a law? No.

It is tradition, nothing more. You know, the same tradition that allows congressmen to pull fire alarms, and suggest that violence against ICE personnel is appropriate, and molest congressional pages, and enrich themselves with insider trading, and allow pimps to operate out of their homes, and to sexually harass at will, and molest and rape and who knows what else...all without penalty.

President Trump needs to make this a priority, and push the Senate to ignore the blue slips and go full steam ahead with every single one of his nominations for every position available. Thom Tillis, the consummate GOPe apparatchik, supports this tradition, and has considerable clout. Until the Senate is cleansed of him and others like him (backstabbing corporate shills), this will be a constant issue. To avoid the blue slip in committee, the Senate requires a "discharge petition," whatever that is, and that is a 60 vote hurdle that will never happen.

This is a constant reminder that it isn't just a majority that is important in the Senate...getting rid of pathetic RINO senators is far more important than simply electing any Republican without a live boy or a dead girl in the back seat. That's how we get Tillis and Collins and Cornyn and Murkowski and....

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (287) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Moses and the Brazen Serpent
Peter Paul Rubens

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (361) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 12/9/25

Good morning kids. Before diving into the top story I'm afraid I have to hit you with this before or perhaps as you are having your breakfast, so apologies in advance. (Meh, if that's not emetic enough, just peruse the links.)

Shout Your Abortion has been promoting a book aimed at children five to eight years old called “Abortion is Everything,” which will begin shipping to purchasers in January 2026. A description on the organization’s website says the book tells children “about what abortion is, how it might feel, and why people have abortions.”

Stories like this remind me of that line from Apocalypse Now that charging someone for murder out here is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500
The underlying rationale of this vile tract and its purveyors, ipso facto turns Josef Mengele into an Olympian Deity, nein? He helped abort hundreds of thousands of 5-8 year olds, and 1-100 year-olds.

Still, the act of abortion itself along with the concomitant devaluing of human life and the reduction of the individual to insignificance, and merely as part of some mass that is to be shaped and molded at the whim of who or whatever sits at the top of that mass, is the sine qua non of the Left as well as its current partner in the Axis of Evil, ISLAM.

We are dealing with people in our midst, be they imported foreigners or worse native born citizens, who see themselves as on a mission from God, or Karl Marx, and given the SUPER DUPER POWER of moral superiority to Lord over and therefore weed out all of us who do not submit to their will to perfect Humanity in their image. Because they are Super Duper Supermen as the late great Spike Jones once crooned (about "Der Furher's Face")

Moving right along to what is a very significant story out of the Supreme Court yesterday, which Ace covered yesterday afternoon and could have far-reaching implications for both President Trump and please God future chief executives of the America-as-founded bent.

Trump v. Slaughter, about the removal of an FCC commissioner with the unfortunate ‘slaughter’ name, looks set to roll back more of the bureaucratic state.

“You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor complained.

Well yes. Destroying the structure of a gargantuan government with unlimited powers and no constitutional basis is an essentially conservative project.

Independence from elected officials also means independent of the electorate. That’s the realm of philosopher kings. And these days the philosopher kings are all lefties. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be more limitations on executive power. There should. And Congress should exercise more oversight over the monstrous size and power of the government. But the solution isn’t a fake independence, it’s direct engagement, and the ability of the public to also litigate when its interests are legitimately threatened.

Bingo to the estimable Daniel Greenfield. While the wide-ass Wiseass Latina was at least accidentally honest in proclaiming the existence of "independent agencies" that essentially form an unelected and virtually unaccountable fourth branch of govvernment that via its abilities to issue regulations that carry with them the force of law if they are disobeyed, completely contrary to the founding of this nation and the reason why this nation declared its independence in the first place by breaking away from a totalitarian overbearing tyrannical monarchy.

We go from her idiocy to that of this inept DEI hire Kentanji Brown-25 Jackson whose knee-jerk remonstrations were predictable.

During an exchange with U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer, Jackson expressed confusion about the Trump administration’s argument that, as she summarized, these independent agencies “aren’t answering to Congress.” Under the current constitutional framework, she reasoned, “Congress established them and can eliminate them. Congress funds them and can stop.”
. . .“So,” Jackson continued, “having a president come in and fire all the scientists, and the doctors, and the economists, and the Ph.D.s, and replacing them with loyalists and people who don’t know anything is actually not in the best interest of the citizens of the United States. This is what I think Congress’s policy decision is when it says that ‘these certain agencies we’re not going to make directly accountable to the president.’ So, I think there’s a pretty significant danger that Congress has actually identified and cares about when it determines that these issues should not be in presidential control.”

She's not only a clueless, rude imbecile, but utterly ignorant of the Constitution that she allegedly studied, which forms or is supposed to form the basis of our entire legal and governmental system. Or is she really clueless? No, it's more nefarious. To the extent that Leftists study American law and our traditions and precedents, they do so to more effectively use them as weapons to enslave us and wrest absolute power.
It's why Adolph Eichmann learned Hebrew, So as to better be able to ultimately destroy Europe's and ultimately the world's Jews.

Psaki-Psircling back to my remarks on that abortion story. Sotomayor and Jackson are part of that group that view themselves as intellectually, morally and perhaps evolutionarily superior to the rest of us, and therefore do what they do with a smugness reflected in the slogan on the belt buckles of the SS troops "Gott Mit Uns" God is with us, or more likely in the case of the Left, We Are God.

And one way or another, God has a way of dealing with apostates. Soon enough we are all going to find out which one is which.

Of course there's this bit of cheery news to buck you up. Or Buck with an "F" — —

In the handful of establishment media stories that bothered to cover the arrest of Luqmaan Khan at all, most make no mention at all regarding Khan’s immigration status. Only WHYY, which operates in Philadelphia and its environs, including Delaware, bothers to note that Khan was born in Pakistan, and is now a citizen of the United States. In other words, he is another indication that Trump, for all the abuse he is getting for terming some migrants “garbage,” was entirely correct.

NBC Philadelphia reportedTuesday that the drama began at 11:47 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 24, when “police initiated a traffic stop after Khan was, allegedly found operating a white Toyota Tacoma in Canby Park West after hours.” When the cops stopped him, Khan was “visibly nervous.” Police ordered Khan to step out of his car, but he refused and resisted arrest.
Once police searched his car, they could see why Khan was so uncooperative: “In an investigation into the vehicle, police said, officers discovered a loaded .357 Glock handgun with 27 rounds of ammunition, along with three additional fully loaded 27-round magazines. Police also found ammunition for a 9mm handgun along with an armored ballistic plate in the vehicle.”
Along with that, the cops found “a notebook in the vehicle that included handwritten details of additional weapons and ammunition and how they could be used in an attack.” This notebook was filled with “information on how someone could hide from law enforcement following such an attack.” It also “referenced a member of the University of Delaware Police Department by name and included a layout of a building with entry and exit points marked.” That map bore the label “UD Police Station.”

As Captain Kirk might say KHAAAAAAN!!!!"

We're at the point of a Khan almost every other day of the week now.

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
• Daniel Greenfield: There are no such things as 'independent' agencies.
  “You’re Asking Us to Destroy the Structure of Government”: Justice Sotomayor
  
• But you’ll hear nothing about it.
  Delaware Undergrad Had Machine Gun and Manifesto Targeting Cops

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:27 AM | Comments (392) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 9 December 2025

Top Story

• Grab a 32GB DDR5 memory kit from Crucial for just $273.99. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  In March, I paid less than that for a Crucial 128GB kit.
  
  
  
• Samsung is switching production from high-margin HBM3E memory used on AI accelerator cards to regular DDR5 used on everything else. (WCCFTech)
  
  You still can't have any.
  
  Also, Samsung a 75% gross margin on server memory. So at least someone is making hay from all that AI investor money.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (178) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread (12/8/25)

*****

The Quote of The Day

“Perhaps, we should be a little less fearful and look for ways to promote authentic dialogue and respect. I know that, in practice, this has not always been the case. I know that fears persist in Europe.” Pope Leo XIV

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 11:02 PM | Comments (237) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Cafe

by Guido Krüttgen

Love at 20,000 feet.

We all tend to pursue the unavailable.

Waking up with a strange bedpartner.

Cat IT.

This cat exemplifies the phenomenon of "fur children."

Kids today, they just learn from the TV.

Jealous dog.

Dog wants more shiatsu massage.

A dog sled in bizzaro world.

Thwarting a chaos agent.

More fun than popping bubble wrap.

Must... destroy... Christmas...

Posted by: Ace at 07:20 PM | Comments (573) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Supreme Court Seems Likely To Rule That the President Has Control Over, Get This, the Exectutive Branch

" " " Reformers " " " decided that the actually-responsible, actually-elected political leaders were too corrupt so we should give power to appointed bureaucrats who, of course, cannot be corrupt and only want What's Best for Everybody.

A plethora of "independent" agencies were created. Into these agencies were poured executive power, taken from the actual Executive. And it was claimed the actual president could not fire the commissioners of these agencies, even if they were appointed by previous presidents and were now working to thwart the will of the current elected president.

It's this last part that got the most attention from the Supreme Court during oral arguments today. What kind of a system, they wondered, allows prior presidents, who no longer have any constitutional power -- like Joe Biden -- to essentially continue governing through the commissioners he appointed, stopping the actual Chief Executive of the United States from carrying out his duties?

Why is the dead hand of the last president allowed to strangle the current one?

The Supreme Court's questions seem to indicate that they find this bizarre arrangement to be unconstitutional and will reverse a 1935 precedent called Humphrey's Executor and find that the executive power of the United States is entrusted to the elected Chief Executive and the appointments of prior presidents cannot bind him.

The Supreme Court signaled Monday that it's prepared to hand President Donald Trump another win in his drive to consolidate his power over federal agencies.

During arguments over Trump's dismissal of Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter, the high court's conservative majority appeared intent on overturning or effectively gutting a 90-year-old precedent that upheld restrictions on the president's ability to fire leaders of independent agencies across the executive branch.

"I think broad delegations to unaccountable independent agencies raise enormous constitutional and real world problems for individual liberty," Justice Brett Kavanaugh said during the arguments.

Overturning that precedent, known as Humphrey's Executor, has become a key goal for conservatives.

"The text and structure of the Constitution confer on the president the exclusive and illimitable power to remove executive officers, and as a result of that Humphrey's should be overruled," Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices on Monday, repeatedly calling the 1935 ruling "a decaying husk."

The White House told Slaughter in March that she was fired, without citing any concern about her performance or conduct. A federal appeals court ruled that Slaughter should be reinstated, but the Supreme Court said her dismissal could take effect while it considered the merits of her claim -- and now seems poised to rule against her.

...

Kavanaugh sought reassurances that such a ruling wouldn't allow presidents to fire Federal Reserve governors.

"We recognize and acknowledge ... that the Federal Reserve is a quasi private, uniquely structured entity that follows a distinct historical tradition," Sauer said, calling the Fed "sui generis," or in a category by itself.

The Supreme Court has also lined up for argument next month a case over Trump's attempt to fire Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook. The justices signaled in May that they were inclined for historical reasons to give the Fed more autonomy than other agencies. And in October they issued an order that allowed Cook to stay in her job until the court resolves that fight.

Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett suggested the court could rule for Trump in the FTC case, while leaving the knotty issues around some other agencies for another day. Alito proposed that the court could "reserve decision on those agencies that may not come before us in the near future, or perhaps at any time in the future."

Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh

🚨 BREAKING: Justice Brett Kavanaugh intellectually PUMMELS DEI Justice Ketanji Jackson at the Supreme Court on whether President Trump can fire a Democrat member of the FTC 🔥

JACKSON: I don't understand why the president gets to control everything and outweigh Congress' authority and duty to protect the people!

KAVANAUGH: "When both houses of Congress and President are controlled by the same party - them creating a lot of these 'independent' agencies with or extending current independent agencies, into these situations, to THWART future presidents of the opposite party..."

TRANSLATION: DEI Jackson wants single party rule to destroy Article 2 under the guise of "independence," Kavanaugh warns that's antithetical to the presidency.

Low-IQ Justice Jackson "doesn't understand" a lot of things.

It's not just that she's stupid. It's also that this is preferred method of left-wingers to passively-aggressively disagree. Instead of saying "I disagree," they almost always say "I don't understand why..." and then specify the thing they disagree with.

She is constantly, constantly saying "I don't understand why..."

Posted by: Ace at 06:23 PM | Comments (271) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Nepo Baby Communist Congresswoman Grijalva Blocks ICE from Enforcing the Law, Gets Pepper Sprayed, Then Plays Victim

She inherited her Arizona seat from her father, the communist ratfucker Raul Grivalja.

This antifa politician obstructed ICE operations as part of a dangerous mob and got pepper sprayed, as the other antifa rioters did.

Then she claimed, "I didn't do nuffin'."

That never gets old. Never.

Grijalva gibbered on X, "ICE just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson -- a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years. When I presented myself as a Member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed-aside and pepper sprayed."

I know you'll be shocked, but she didn't just present herself and ask politely for information. She rushed screaming at ICE officers, ordering them to leave, and tried to disrupt their operation.

Posted by: Ace at 05:20 PM | Comments (220) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Former Surgeon General "Admiral" "Rachel" Levine's Official Portrait Changed to Bear His Actual, Real Man's Name

A reversion to reality.

NPR is very sad about that.

As you walk down a particular hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., you'll find a line of photographic portraits of all the people from years past who have led the Public Health Corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Only one of those portraits is of a transgender person: Adm. Rachel Levine, who served for four years as President Biden's assistant secretary for health. She was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, and her portrait has been displayed in the hallway since soon after she was confirmed in 2021. The role is a four-star admiral position in charge of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.

Levine's official portrait was recently altered, a spokesperson for HHS confirmed to NPR. A digital photograph of the portrait in the hallway obtained by NPR shows that Levine's previous name is now typed below the portrait, under the glass of the frame.
Levine responds

"During the federal shutdown, the current leadership of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health changed Admiral Levine's photo to remove her current legal name and use a prior name," says Adrian Shanker, former deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the Biden administration who worked with Levine and is now her spokesperson. He called the move an act "of bigotry against her."

...

Levine told NPR that it was an honor to serve the American people as the assistant secretary for health "and I'm not going to comment on this type of petty action."

Well, Sir, you did call it petty, so you lied about not commenting.

NPR asked HHS who made the change and why. In response, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon wrote: "Our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science. We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health."

...

Shanker says the alteration of Levine's official portrait is unprecedented. He praised her public health work on COVID-19, syphilis, HIV/AIDS and opioids, and said rather than act vindictively towards her, current leaders at HHS should focus on the many public health challenges facing the American people.

Levine is one of the many mentally-ill people who don't like feeling "marginalized" due to their mental illness so they embarked on a crusade to make the entire world -- starting with the children, of course -- mentally ill like themselves.

It is time to say no, and no, and no again, and keep saying no to the lunatics until they understand that their sickness is their sickness and they must stop attempting to infect the healthy.

Posted by: Ace at 04:20 PM | Comments (248) | Trackbacks (Suck)

You Will Believe a Car Can Fly Open Thread

The Dukes of Romania:

Mercedes Benz goes airborne, soaring over other cars, in terrifying caught-on-video crash

A luxury Mercedes Benz sedan went airborne and sailed over other traffic in a terrifying crash -- with the entire incident caught on heart-stopping video.

Just to put your minds at ease: Despite flying through the air twenty feet above the ground, the driver only suffered some broken bones.

The dramatic wreck unfolded Wednesday night in the Romanian city of Oradea, where the car jumped a curb, nearly smashed into a bus and flew into the air and over other cars, The Sun reported.

Miraculously, the 49-year-old driver walked away with just a few broken bones, the outlet said.

Police said the driver suffered a diabetic episode and fainted behind the wheel, with his vehicle then barreling out of control and soaring into the air and eventually into a utility pole near a local gas station.

...

Cops fined the unidentified injured driver the equivalent of $365, and he faces a 90-day license suspension, the outlet reported.

WORTH IT!

Posted by: Ace at 03:20 PM | Comments (285) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Family of J5 Bomber Denies Leftwing Media Claims That Bomber Was MAGA

"Sources" put out the word to leftwing CNN and the Washington Post stating that the J5 Bomber "expressed doubts" about the 2020 election.

They pushed this claim to prop up their narrative that the bomber was inspired by Trump to plant the bombs.

In fact, he started buying bomb components in 2019 and then bought more of them during the George Floyd riots. All before the election.

So what, is he a MAGA Psychic?

Note to self: Copyright "MAGA Psychic."

Here's what I think happened. I would bet any number of dollars on this.

I think lefty FBI determined to tie this to Trump kept asking him if he accepted the fake results of the rigged 2020 election and eventually he made a half-hearted, noncommittal statement like "I don't know, maybe it was fixed, I dunno."

And then they ran to CNN and Washington Post: "HE DENIED THE 2020 ELECTION!"

Here are true facts: people are 1, naturally suspicious generally, and 2, even more suspicious of political power, and 3, often, unless they're twitter blowhards like Candace Owens, admit doubt about things they don't know much about.

The only people in America who are 100% certain of things that no sentient being should be certain of are ideologically deranged lefties, who believe in All the Things, passionately and zealously.

The same people who mock people for believing in God are 100% convinced they are on the right side of history and are going to Political Heaven.

At any rate, the bomber's leftwing BLM-supporting family is pushing back against what they probably see as defamation by the media.

The grandmother of the January 6 pipe bomb suspect denied in a news report Friday that her grandson was a fan of President Donald Trump, arguing that he had no party affiliation and never votes in elections.

The 30-year-old suspect has been identified as Brian Cole Jr., who allegedly confessed to planting the two bombs and told FBI interrogators that he is a Trump supporter and holds anarchist views, sources told MS NOW.

...

"He's borderline autistic," she claimed. "He's slow. He may be 30, but he's got the mind of a 16-year-old. That's why we're thinking - What the hell? What's going on?"

The grandmother said her grandson works a data entry job for his family's bail bonds business and does not like either political party, so she does not believe the charges against Cole.

"He's not politically affiliated with anything," the grandmother said. "He has no social media contacts. He's never online going back and forth with politics or anything like that. He says he don't like either party.

She also claims he's not an anarchist. On that, I think she's probably wrong.

Posted by: Ace at 02:22 PM | Comments (387) | Trackbacks (Suck)

NYT: Zelensky's Government "Sabotaged Oversight, Allowing Corruption to Fester"

Sounds like Zelensky learned from Tim Walz and Ilhan "Omar" nur.

Zelensky's Government Sabotaged Oversight, Allowing Corruption to Fester

Ukrainian leaders blame independent advisers for failing to prevent graft. A Times investigation found that President Volodymyr Zelensky's own administration removed guardrails.

By Constant Méheut and Kim Barker

Reporting from Keeev

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Kyiv's Western allies faced a dilemma: how to spend billions supporting a government fighting Russia without watching the money vanish into the pockets of corrupt managers and government officials.

The stakes were high because Ukraine's vital wartime industries -- power distribution, weapons purchases and nuclear energy -- were controlled by state-owned companies that have long served as piggy banks for the country's elite.

To protect their money, the United States and European nations insisted on oversight. They required Ukraine to allow groups of outside experts, known as supervisory boards, to monitor spending, appoint executives and prevent corruption.

Over the past four years, a New York Times investigation found, the Ukrainian government systematically sabotaged that oversight, allowing graft to flourish.

The New York Times suddenly discovers that the country featuring oligarchs who paid off Joe Biden to pressure the government to fire a prosecutor who was investigating the corruption of the company Hunter Biden was being bribed by might have a problem with corruption.

They have denied this for 10 or 15 years now.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration has stacked boards with loyalists, left seats empty or stalled them from being set up at all. Leaders in Keeeev even rewrote company charters to limit oversight, keeping the government in control and allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent without outsiders poking around.

Supervisory boards serve an essential oversight function, allowing independent experts, typically from other countries, to scrutinize major decisions inside Ukrainian state-owned companies.

They are also central to the corruption scandal swirling around Mr. Zelensky's government. Anti-corruption authorities have accused members of his inner circle of siphoning off and laundering $100 million from the state-owned nuclear power company, Energoatom.

Wait, a Urkanian energy company is corrupt and scamming aid money?

Now do Burisma.

Mr. Zelensky's administration has blamed Energoatom's supervisory board for failing to stop the corruption. But it was Mr. Zelensky's government itself that neutered Energoatom's supervisory board, The Times found.

In documents and interviews with about 20 Western and Ukrainian officials who have worked closely with company boards or served on them, The Times found political interference not only at Energoatom but also at the state-owned electricity company Ukrenergo as well as at Ukraine's Defense Procurement Agency. Some people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations.

An adviser for Mr. Zelensky declined to comment, saying that the supervisory boards were not the president's responsibility.

European leaders have privately criticized but reluctantly tolerated Ukrainian corruption for years, reasoning that supporting the fight against Russia's invasion was paramount. So, even as Ukraine undermined outside oversight, European money kept flowing.

This has been going on "for years." No shit?

Welcome to 2011, New York Times.

"We do care about good governance, but we have to accept that risk," said Christian Syse, the special envoy to Ukraine from Norway, one of Kyiv's top donors. He added: "Because it's war. Because it's in our own interest to help Ukraine financially. Because Ukraine is defending Europe from Russian attacks."

What was the excuse for overlooking Burisma's corruption of the Biden family before Putin invaded?

The political meddling with Energoatom's supervisory board is a case study in how Ukraine's leaders have blocked efforts to prevent corruption. The Zelensky administration delayed the formation of Energoatom's board and, when it finally came together, the government left a seat empty -- impeding the board's ability to act.

Had the board worked normally, it might have curtailed what the authorities now say was rampant corruption. Contractors on Energoatom projects had to pay kickbacks of up to 15 percent, according to investigators.

Mr. Zelensky was elected in 2019 on a promise to eliminate graft. But after Russia's 2022 invasion, he relaxed anti-corruption rules in the name of speeding up weapons procurement and protecting military secrets. Mr. Zelensky also worked with political and business figures whom he had once declared to be criminals.

Like Hunter Biden, maybe?

It's all too much. They have lied about this for a decade to protect corrupt American politicians, and now they're reporting on it as if it's a scoop.

People wonder: Why? Why now? Why stop lying now?

I don't know. It could be that parts of the Regime are annoyed that Zelensky is resisting some concessions to get a peace deal, and they want to pressure him. Perhaps the Regime has decided they just don't feel like fighting the Russians to the last American dollar any longer.

Posted by: Ace at 01:17 PM | Comments (339) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Caught on Tape: Pro-Jihad, Pro-Antifa Muslim Minnesota AG Keith Ellison Gave Pep Speech to Somali Fraudsters: "Let's Just Go Fight These People"

Audit him and then throw him in prison.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told participants in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, "I'm here to help." He also said of state officials, "Let's just go fight these people," according to a 2021 audio recording now receiving renewed scrutiny after more than 50 guilty pleas in the scandal.

The audio, which Ellison has not denied, reveals fraudsters complaining that Minnesota agencies refused to reimburse them for money they claimed to have spent feeding children--claims found false in court. The fraudsters accused agencies of racism, and Ellison seemed to take these claims seriously, saying he would forward them to his staff.

...

After the meeting, during which fraudsters suggested they would support Ellison's reelection campaign, donors connected to the fraud ponied up cash.

...

Bill Glahn, a policy fellow with the conservative-leaning Center of the American Experiment, first published the audio recording.

"Yeah, I have an ax to grind, sure, but the facts are the facts," Glahn told The Daily Signal in a phone call Thursday. He noted that meeting attendees mentioned a Feeding Our Future lawsuit.

"Attorneys working for Keith Ellison were representing the Department of Education in this lawsuit filed by the people in the room, and he's pledging his support to the plaintiffs while he's representing the defendants," Glahn said. Glahn called this "highly unethical."

Rather than just saying, "I'll look into this," Ellison gave "pledges of support" and added "his own anecdotes about how state government is racist," Glahn explained. He also noted that Ellison didn't have time to act on his pledge "because the FBI raided [Feeding Our Future] offices five weeks later."

...

The recording reveals Ellison echoing racism complaints.

"Every time East African business owners enter a market segment, these various departments and counties come in arbitrary fashions, create unnecessary roadblocks and hurdles, and at times conduct business in a very racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic manner," complains Abshir Omar, a consultant for Feeding Our Future who has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Ikram Mohammed, another Feeding Our Future consultant who faces fraud and bribery charges, describes the denial of funds as "a form of violence against our community under the color of law."

Ellison says of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, "he knows that there's a lot of unfair discriminatory stuff going on with East African businesses, I know it." He notes he does not trust Jodi Harpstead, then commissioner of the Department of Human Services, to stop discrimination.

The Somali pirates kept their billion dollar theft going by telling anyone looking into the embezzlement that they would cry racism and destroy them if they blew the whistle.

Continuing this same tactic, Ilhan "Omar" Nur is now smearing anyone pointing out that Somalis seem to treat America as an enemy ship to be plundered as a Nazi.

Posted by: Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (399) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Periodic Roundup of the EV Follies - 12/08/2025

[The header is a recent photo of EVs showcasing their spontaneous combustion feature at the Rivian dealership in Franklin, TN]

President Trump has unwound the eco-communist regulations imposed by the Obama/Biden administrations, which sought to deny Americans driving freedom.

Specifically, Biden’s regulators had imposed unattainable Corporate Average Fuel Economy (“CAFE” goals, which effectively served as an EV mandate. It also served to drive up the price of all cars, in part because of the fee that manufacturers of internal combustion (“ICE” vehicles had to pay to EV manufacturers for carbon credits. If you bought a gas-powered car in recent years, your purchase price almost certainly included a premium that was diverted to an EV manufacturer to purchase carbon credits.

That anti-freedom insanity has finally ended. President Trump states that his actions will save consumers $109 billion in the cost of compliance built into auto manufacturing.

“Trump rolls back Biden-era fuel efficiency standards for vehicles” [USA Today – 12/04/2025]

When Never-Trump agitators are complaining about Trump not focusing enough on the economy (by which they mean they want him to roll back tariffs and open the border back up to illegal immigration), remember that what you drive and how you propel it is a pocketbook issue, and this action will save consumers money.

And by the way, have you seen how cheap gasoline is? I’ve seen it at under $2.20 per gallon this past weekend. By promoting “Drill baby drill” we have cheap gas to propel our ICE cars.

President Trump’s actions only roll back the CAFE standards to pre-Biden levels that were set by Congress, but almost overlooked at the time of the One Big Beautiful Bill is that that bill zeroed out all penalties for non-compliance with CAFÉ laws. Auto manufacturers finally have the freedom to build and sell what consumers want to buy.

I’ve been harsh toward Ford CEO Jim Farley and his company’s EV debacle, but he clearly sees now that there is no way forward with EVs, and he is listening to customers and dealers now. Farley was in attendance with President Trump and offered praise.

“Ford CEO hails Trump fuel standards reset as a 'victory' for affordability and common sense” [Fox Business – 12/04/2025]

"What you should know is that this is a victory for affordability and common sense. As the president said, we will be able to offer more affordability on our popular models, and we'll be able to launch new vehicles built in America that are more affordable because of this rule change," Ford CEO Jim Farley said…

"Frankly, [the Corporate Average Fuel Economy] was totally out of touch with the market reality. We were forced to sell EVs and other vehicles. We're not going back to gas-guzzlers," he continued. "We have a lot of EVs and a lot of hybrids at Ford, but now customers get a chance to choose what they want, not by what we force on them."

Although the CEO of Stellantis (Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep) was also in attendance with President Trump, General Motors’ CEO, Mary Barra, was noticeably absent. She had been an extremely obedient puppet of the Obama/Biden regimes, committing to them that GM would quickly become a 100% electric car company. Despite the change of administrations and customer rejection of General Motors’ EV products, Ms. Barra has still not backed away from that all-EV commitment. I suppose she’s still waiting for permission from her Obama/Biden-era handlers.

*****

Speaking of Ford pivoting back to the gas-powered vehicles that consumers will actually purchase…

“Ford’s EV sales plunge 60% in November with the F-150 Lightning still on hold” [electrek – 12.02.2025]

While hybrid sales rose 13.6% to 16,301, Ford’s EV sales plunged 60.8% in November. Ford sold just 4,247 all-electric vehicles last month, a stark contrast from the over 10,800 it sold in the year prior.

Sales of the flagship Ford F150 Conflagration Lightning plummeted 72% to just 1,006 units, which annualizes to just 12,072 units per year. Ford initially expected to be selling about 150,000 electric pickup trucks per year by now. It’s a good thing that CEO Farley finally woke up.

Bill Ford has been the voice of the Ford family for years, and he has been pushing hard to make Ford a company that his eco-communist friends in Davos could embrace. If CEO Farley is finally backing off from the EV commitment, he had to get Bill Ford’s permission. While I’m not a Ford family Kremlinologist, I suspect that other Ford family members are finally pushing back on Bill Ford and his destructive agenda for the company.

*****

Blue States Are Helping My Cause with EV Charger Taxes

High-tax states like to tax everything that generates economic activity, which also disincentives those activities which they tax. This story makes me smile, as it further disincentivizes EV ownership in Maryland. [h/t to our very own Mr. Doof]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (353) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Symphony in White, No. 3
James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (323) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 12/8/25

Good morning kids. Early doctor's appointment and a long-ish drive in cold weather so I'm going to have to be brief this morning and likely post a bit early.

This essay from what I gather is a rather young lady, I find quite interesting and perplexing at the same time:

Although most teenagers didn’t realize it at the time, Covid was the event that would radicalize them. American youths watched as their schools, friendships, and routines were ripped away from them under the false pretense of health precautions. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally admitted what many had long suspected — that the Covid vaccines killed American children. At least 10 deaths were directly related to the vaccines that were allegedly going to save their lives, according to an FDA memo. . . Now that we know that the vaccine had deadly effects on children, young people will respond to this in one of two ways. For those who are caught in the legacy media bubble, they will never be exposed to this truth. . . The other response from teenagers will be outrage. . .The young people who experienced this gross misuse of power will never trust institutions again. . . American teenagers have a fractured relationship with the federal government, one that may never be healed. It is no surprise that there has been a rise in conspiratorial black-pilling on platforms like X.

And yet how does this jibe with the many recent (and I fear accurate) polls, not only from our good friends at the Heartland Institute but elsewhere that show an alarming percentage of the younger generations and even older ones are ready to embrace socialism, probably the most onerous, repressive and abusive governmental system imaginable, with the worst of the lot, the Red Chinese, the one that unleashed COVID on us in the first place, with the eager help of our own Mengele Anthony Fauci fueled by US taxpayer dollars no less.

In any case, as you try and square that circle of black-pilled GenZ embracing socialism — — There is of course a variety of links to discuss on the topics of the day. On top of the heap is the violent crime and fraud centering on the illegal and illegal alien elements and their Democrat/Leftist allies both in and out of government.

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
• Immigration Gone Wild: A border abandoned and laws ignored have turned public frustration into a sweeping backlash that now threatens even legal immigration.
  Immigration Gone Wild
  

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 06:50 AM | Comments (356) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 8 December 2025

Top Story

• Windows 11 25H2 is entering a broader rollout phase now that 25H2 is just about over. (Hot Hardware)

  The broad rollout of the Windows 11 25H2 update has started, and users who want to fast-track it are being referred to the relevant update options in a new blog post on Microsoft's site. Windows 11 25H2 comes with an assortment of additional Copilot+ related features (exclusive to those with sufficiently-powerful NPUs rated for 40+ TOPS) and improved Wi-Fi 7 support for enterprise users, among other features.

  My latest PC - which looks set to arrive tomorrow - doesn't have an NPU at all.
  
  How... Unfortunate.

  Key improvements for all users include several fixes and additions made to Task Manager, Windows Search, and the Windows UI in general. Task Manager uses fewer resources and properly reads RAM speed in MT/s instead of MHz, for example, while the Windows UI now makes it easier to shrink the size of taskbar buttons. As Windows 11 continues to evolve into an "agentic OS", support for AI features outside of Copilot+ PCs is also being added with Windows 11 25H2, including the ability to use AI features within File Explorer.

  I don't mean to be rude, but have they tried penicillin?
  
  
  
• In completely unrelated news, I just bought a copy of Windows 10 Enterprise IoT LTSC, the version that's supported through to 2032 and contains no AI features of any sort. While the Ryzen 255 processor in this system is nominally new, it's just a rebadged Ryzen 8745H, which is just a Ryzen 7840H with a new sticker, so Windows 10 should run just fine. It doesn't have any efficiency cores either, which are something the Windows 10 scheduler can trip over.
  
  Since Microsoft is strangely cold towards individuals who want to install the IoT edition, I downloaded the ISO from the Internet Archive and verified the hash on another helpful website.
  
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (125) | Trackbacks (Suck)