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April 01, 2025

Musk: DOGE Is Now Investigating How So Many Congressmen Become "Strangely Wealthy"

He says that the US government gives billions to NGOs, who then transfer it to other NGOs, who then transfer it to other NGOs -- you know, like a criminal mafia organization laundering money through shell companies -- before that money is ultimately paid into the accounts of congressmen.

The world's richest man is dying to figure out how lawmakers on Capitol Hill got "strangely wealthy" despite their comparatively modest public salaries.
Speaking at a town hall in Wisconsin Sunday night, Elon Musk suggested that his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will investigate how certain members of Congress have achieved generational wealth.
One attendee at the town hall had asked Musk if DOGE had uncovered evidence of funds wired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

"They'll [the government] send the money overseas to one NGO [non-governmental organization], then they'll go through a bunch of them, and then I'm highly confident that a bunch of that money then comes back to the United States and lands in the pockets of the people you just mentioned," Musk replied.
"But it is a circuitous route. It doesn't go directly, but let's just say that there's a lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress where I'm trying to connect the dots of, 'How do they become rich?'"
...
Rank-and-file members of Congress make $174,000 annually. Last year, Musk -- whose net worth is pegged at $330 billion by Bloomberg -- helped kill legislation to raise congressional pay, then later supported an increase as a means of fighting corruption.
Scores of lawmakers who have spent decades in Congress are millionaires.
Two of the wealthiest include former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has a net worth of about $250 million, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), whose personal fortune hovers around $552 million.
Pelosi's wealth largely comes from her and her venture capitalist husband Paul's lucrative investments in companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Netflix.
Scott's personal fortunes largely stem from his work co-founding HCA Healthcare, a company that runs hospitals and other medical facilities around Florida, and Solantic, an urgent-care clinic chain. His work on both of those companies predates his time in the Senate.
"How do they get $20 million if they're earning $200,000 a year?" Musk further pondered. "We're going to try to figure it out and certainly stop it from happening."

Musk was in Wisconsin to rally for Brad Schimel, the Republican hoping to keep the 4-3 Republican advantage on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Of course, it's a CONSPIRACY THEORY offered WITHOUT EVIDENCE to even speculate about Congressional Democrats getting rich on the backs of the American taxpayers.

But, as it turns out, longtime Congresswoman Barbara Lee pushed to give federal contracts to minority-fronted businesses and just happened to take a little piece of each of those contracts.

The $63 million woman: Barbara Lee company tied to 287 federal contract actions, many while she was in political office

According to the Federal Procurement Data System, over $44 million went to guard services.
by Susan Dyer Reynolds April 1, 2025

In a post on X, attorney Laura Powell notes that during the 1996 State Senate race, "current Oakland mayoral candidate Barbara Lee was called out by her opponent for her company's federal contracts . . .,b> she was awarded many of these contracts without facing any competitive bids. Barbara Lee responded by saying that it was ridiculous to suggest that her close association with Congressman Dellums helped her win those contracts." Powell also quotes Lee's response at the time: "I am a self-made woman. I work very hard. I'm a product of affirmative action. I understand the barriers that are there that exclude people like me from participating."
Powell also adds a little background: "After graduating college with a degree in social work, Barbara Lee worked in Congressman Dellums's office for 11 years, then started a facilities management company in 1987. In 1990, she went to the California Assembly, while continuing to run this company, which she says grew to 500 employees before she sold it."
Powell's assessment is spot on -- it turns out The Voice of San Francisco was already looking into Lee's financial past. Not only did she make multimillions of dollars from federal contracts, mostly without competition, but she seems to have "forgotten" that part of her history: In a post on X dated April 15, 2024, Lee said, "If minority-owned businesses received federal contracts reflecting their share of the US biz sector in 2020, they would've received an additional $64 BILLION. We're calling on @SBAGov to release all FY21-23 data so we can improve equity in contracting."
...
During the 1990s, while Barbara Lee served as a California State Assembly member (1990--1996) and later as a State Senator (1996--199, W.C. Parish secured contracts with federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Posts on X and public commentary suggest that the company received significant federal contracts, however, these figures stemmed from unverified sources and lacked corroboration from official federal contract databases -- until now. A months-long investigation by The Voice turned up decades of apparent bias procurement, set-asides, and entitlement: In other words, it's easy to be successful, even have 400 to 500 employees, when contracts are steered your way -- and that's likely why the whole story has been kept under wraps, for the most part.

Curse your eyes for even having looked at those hateful words, Bigots.

Posted by: Ace at 01:22 PM | Comments (304) | Trackbacks (Suck)

An FBI Employee Confirmed the Authenticity of the Hunter Biden Laptop in October 2020.
The FBI Immediately Slapped a Gag Order on the Entire Matter to Keep Anyone from Repeating the Confirmation to Anyone Else.

This isn't the FBI trying to remain non-partisan. Remember, they organized a "tabletop simulation" which coached the media on how to suppress a "hypothetical" story about Hunter Biden's laptop being revealed to the public by, supposedly, Russian hackers. The FBI really set up this "hypothetical" wargame to coach the media to be prepared for this eventuality and censor the story when it came out.

The gag order was imposed because the FBI was running a psyop on the country pretending this laptop, which they'd already confirmed was real, was a Russian fake, and they didn't want any of their employees admitting it was all real.

Michael Shellenberger
@shellenberger
The FBI said it didn't interfere in the 2020 election, but it did. It tricked Twitter & Facebook into censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story. Now, newly released chat messages show the FBI issued a "gag order" after an employee accidentally confirmed the laptop's authenticity.

Catherine Herridge
@C__Herridge
BREAKING: FBI Imposed "Gag Order" About Hunter Biden Laptop After Employee Accidentally Confirmed Its Authenticity To Twitter
Newly released internal FBI chat messages reveal senior bureau officials actively shutting down discussion of the laptop's credibility days before the 2020 Presidential election
This is a CatherineHerridgeReports @C__Herridge / Public @Shellenberger Joint Investigation
An FBI official admitted to House investigators that an FBI employee had inadvertently confirmed the authenticity of Hunter Biden's laptop to Twitter on a conference call the morning of October 14, 2020, the day the New York Post published a story about it.
"I recall that when the question came up, an intelligence analyst assigned to the Criminal Investigative Division said something to the effect of, 'Yes, the laptop is real'," the then Russia unit chief testified in a closed door transcribed interview.
"I believe it was an (Office of General Counsel) attorney assigned to the (Foreign Influence Task Force) stepped in and said, 'We will not comment further on this topic.'"
For the first time, and with a change of administration, the FBI has now turned over to GOP House investigators the internal chat messages that show Bureau leadership actively silenced its employees.
The FBI, which had a special task force to counter foreign election interference, could have set the record straight by confirming the laptop was real and the subject of an ongoing criminal probe. Instead, FBI leadership allowed the false narrative about the laptop to gain momentum.
The FBI provided the chat messages to congressional investigators with heavy redactions.
Some of the redactions on the chats are marked "OGC AGC," which appears to mean that they were made by the FBI's Office of General Counsel and Associate General Counsel.
An individual whose name is blacked out, tells Elvis M. Chan, the San Francisco-based FBI special agent tasked with interacting with social media companies, there was a "gag order" on discussion of Hunter Biden's laptop. In a separate exchange, Chan is told "official response no commen(t)."
In the chat, the FBI officials showed awareness that the laptop may have contained evidence of criminal activity.
Asked Chan, "actually what kind of case is the laptop thing? corruption? campaign financing?"
Another FBI employee responds, "CLOSE HOLD --" after which the response is redacted.
To which Chan responds, "oh crap" appearing to underscore the serious nature of the probe, which included felony tax charges. Chan adds, "ok. It ends here".
In the same conversation, Chan is asked if "Anyone discussing that NYPost article on the Biden's?" Chan responds, "yes we are. c d confirmed an active investigation. No further comment." "C D" is likely shorthand for the FBI's Criminal Division.
Said another FBI employee, whose name was redacted by the Bureau, "please do not discuss biden matter."
We asked for a response from the bureau and the FBI employees identified in the chat messages. An FBI spokesman declined to comment.
We go in-depth on the chat messages for subscribers!

Thanks to @ComradeArthur.

Posted by: Ace at 12:29 PM | Comments (269) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

It would be funny if it weren't so destructive to the nation and to the efforts of the Trump administration to claw us back from the illegal invasion abyss created by his predecessors Obama and Biden.

This drooling, arrogant, ignorant sub-wit Obama appointee from -- you guessed it -- California, has used nonsensical logic and imaginary words in the United States Constitution that only he has the power to read to find that one administration's actions have the force of law, but the current administration's efforts are mean and nasty, so they can be ignored. Yup... Judge Chen sees in the Constitution a prohibition against "animus."

Court Halts Trump Admin's Move to Revoke Protected Status of Venezuelans

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued a nationwide injunction in response to a legal case brought by the National TPS Alliance, putting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s plan to roll back protections granted by the former Biden administration on hold while the case continues.
Noem previously said that the Trump administration would revoke TPS protections for Venezuelans on the grounds that they were contrary to U.S. interests and no longer justified by conditions in Venezuela.
In a 78-page order, Chen said the plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success in demonstrating that Noem’s actions “are unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus.”

I guess we should give good old Judge Eddie the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he is allowed in the super-secret dungeon of the National Archives where that special last page of the Constitution is stored? You know...the one that says that the president can't be mean to anyone or act based on his feelings toward a particular group...of rapists and thieves and murderers. They all deserve to be treated like citizens, and not like the gate-crashing criminals they are.

Or he is just pulling this nonsensical holding out of his ass, and it has no foundation in our laws. The Biden administration extended the TPS protections to Venezuelans, and it seems to be axiomatic that the next administration can remove those protections. But ORANGE MAN BAD! And illegals, many of whom are violent criminals, are the darling and favored children of many of our activist judges, who want nothing more than to impose their own brand of totalitarianism from the bench.

This has to come to a head, and that pathetic excuse of a Chief Justice must take up these cases sooner rather than later. But he is a weakling and a coward, and an intellectual lightweight to boot. His passivity and inaction is destroying the gravitas of the Supreme Court, and his legacy will be that of a failure.

So it must be the Trump administration that pushes hard enough to force Roberts' effete, soft hand. Tell this judge that he has no authority over a purely administrative decision, but that if he wants, he can send his divisions to Washington to enforce his edict.

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

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (289) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Diana Surprised
Jules Joseph Lefebvre

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/ 1 /25

Good morning kids. No April Fooling! Make no mistake, since the miracle of Trump's first term and bigger miracle of surviving the slings, arrows and literal bullets fired at him and his incredible landslide victory and mandate of last November leading to the wild successes and ramping up of policies to put this nation and society back on the track from which it was derailed for so long, the forces of criminal tyranny are acing like the cornered, rabid rats that they are and lashing out.

Not content at the mere firebombing of Tesla dealerships

The behavior of Democrat supporters is quite reminiscent of the behavior of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Imagine being present in the moments before a suicide bomber sets off his charge on a crowded Tel Aviv street. Before he presses the button and causes death and destruction, you speak with him for a moment.
“Has anyone here done anything bad to you personally?”
“No.”. ... One can say that there is no comparison between a suicide bomber who sets out to kill civilians and a leftist who disfigures or destroys a Tesla car. And certainly, by outcomes, one would have a valid point. The key issue is how both the bomber and the guy making swastikas on somebody else’s car arrived at their points of action. Both have been brainwashed.

From dealerships to actual vehicles. But as the saying goes, ‘Wherever Books Are Burned, Men Also, in the End, Are Burned.' And so, right on cue we have the Left illustrating the point.

A 70-year-old man has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault after allegedly striking an Elon Musk supporter with his vehicle during an anti-Tesla rally outside a dealership in Meridian, Idaho, according to local law enforcement. ABC News reports that on Saturday, approximately 30 people gathered outside a Tesla dealership in Meridian, Idaho, to protest against the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, and his role in the Trump administration’s federal job cuts. The protest was overshadowed by a counter-protest of about 200 individuals. According to the Meridian Police Department, as a 49-year-old counter-protester arrived at the scene, Christopher Talbot, 70, of Meridian, allegedly made an obscene gesture toward him before striking him with his car.

How could that have happened? Easy, when you have evil bastards like Chris Coons, just one shining example of the Leftist variety of peace, love, brotherhood and understanding:

Coons criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to purchase Greenland from Denmark and make it U.S. territory for resource and national security purposes, arguing that the plan will not resonate with the average American because they do not even know where the island is. Trump said no options for acquiring Greenland are off the table, emphasizing that a takeover of the island is a necessity to protect the U.S. against the threat of Russia and China’s increasing influence in the arctic.

The issue is not Greenland. The issue is how an entire political party and movement view the vast majority of citizens who oppose their policies, viewing such opposition as both ignorance and more dangerously as a personal insult to their self-declared right of absolute power and moral authority to lord over us. "By any means necessary." Speaking of which:

Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that she was training Americans to help take down a potential “dictatorship” of President Donald Trump.
At her resistance lab training, Jayapal said, “It appears that the Trump administration is willing to ignore judicial decisions and so that brings us to you in this room. It brings us to the people that is really, the bulwark, the wall against the crumbling of democracy.”
Maddow said, “Help me understand this idea of the resistance lab and what you’re talking about in practical terms at these events.”
Jayapal said, “Yeah I mean, what we decided is that we really need to help Americans understand what happens when democracies fall when dictators take over. We’ve been pretty complacent in America. We haven’t had to really deal with this in any real way. And now I think people need to understand what are the lessons from other countries and working with experts who have studied democratic backsliding in countries around the world and the resistance movements that emerged to take on that democratic backsliding.”
She added, “We’ve developed a curriculum where we help people understand, how do you go after the pillars of support? Not necessarily the person at the top but the pillars of support that allow that person to continue to have power? And how do you shift allies from being sort of passive opponents to being active supporters of taking down a dictatorship?”

The gall of these filthy degenerates to dare utter the word "democracy" makes me retch. I'd like to know what's cooking in these labs of hers. I will assume Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs.

A Tesla is an easily identifiable target. And if the driver and/or passengers get incinerated in the process, to these fiends it's all about eggs and omelets, and sending a message. Suddenly my mind wanders to the erased southern border, now being sealed. How many latin American gangsters and criminals were set to be, for lack of a better word "groomed" by the Democrats to fill in the ranks along with Antifa, BLM and whoever else to become the Leftist Brownshirts. And how many yet remain? The infrastructure of domestic terrorists goes back to the Vietnam War era and no doubt still remains and there are those in and out of government, grayer, fatter and balder yet as insane as ever and rabid in their hatred of this nation, people and heritage, still champing at the bit to take us down.

The FBI has released long-requested records concerning the 2017 Congressional Baseball Game shooting, which targeted Republican lawmakers. The shooter, James Hodgkinson, opened fire at the Alexandria, Virginia practice session, critically injuring Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA). Hodgkinson was killed by police during the attack.President Donald J. Trump’s newly confirmed FBI Director, Kash Patel, announced the handover of documents to Congress amid years of contention about the agency’s classification of the incident. The FBI had initially termed the attack “suicide by cop” rather than domestic terrorism, a decision that ignited criticism from Republican congressmen demanding transparency and clarity as to how the bureau came to that determination.“I can report that as of 30 minutes ago, the FBI has provided the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence all requested documents related to the Congressional Baseball Game shooting in 2017,” Patel wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He added: “These are documents sought by Capitol Hill officials for almost eight years. Providing these documents was one of our top priorities in delivering a new FBI era of transparency. Thank you to the committee and Chairman Rep. Rick Crawford for your partnership in getting Americans the truth.”In the years following the attack, various government entities, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), labeled Hodgkinson’s actions as domestic terrorism. Critics have argued that the shooter’s act was politically motivated, targeting Republican members who were practicing for an annual game.

Send Dick Durbin and Bernie Sanders to Gitmo to get waterboarded until they confess and divulge their full connection to Hodgknson. Beyond that, the entire Soros criminal enterprise must be RICO'd and dismantled. Much of the subversuion, violent and otherwise has and continues to emanate from his Open Societies liminal enterprise, and others. Hence the freakout over DOGE's work because taxpayer money to the tune of billions has been the other major source of the funding of our annihilation.

Question for Coelacanth Jayapal, how are your resistance labs going to overcome at least 200 million of us armed to the teeth. Our resistance lab is the Second Amendment. Resist that.

Same shit different country, as you can see what has been done to Marine LePen and the will of the French people. Ditto several other European nations that see where mass forced immigration/Islamization of their nations has and continues to lead. Cue "Winds of Change."

Le Pen is not the only person to believe that the move was primarily political. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini summed up his thoughts in a post on X, saying, “Those who fear the judgment of voters often seek reassurance from the courts. In Paris, they have condemned Marine Le Pen and would like to remove her from political life. A bad situation that is also being observed in other countries such as Romania. What is happening against @MLP_officiel is a declaration of war from Brussels, at a time when the belligerent impulses of Von der Leyen and Macron are terrifying. We are not intimidated, we are not stopped: full speed ahead, my friend!”

While I have my personal issues with much of Europe due to tragic family history, There is much I love about the continent, as the cradle of our culture and western civilization, and I recognize that as goes Europe, soon so to do we here on this side of the pond.

Have a great day — And to my fellow Wisconsinites. . .

TODAY is Election Day so Vote Early & Often! Go BRAD SCHIMEL!

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

‘If allowed to proceed unchecked, the CSDDD will eviscerate U.S. sovereignty, economic prosperity, free markets, and individual liberty.’
New Heartland Study: European Union Is on the Verge of Vassalizing America Through New Global ESG Law
We need a historical perspective — and precise concepts — to fully appreciate the existential threats to the West from both within and without, so that we may ultimately choose the right means to prevail.
Upheaval and Pushback
Kurt Schlichter: The next three crucial steps.
Time for the Trump DOJ and FBI to Deal the Pain

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:30 AM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 1 April 2025

Top Story

OpenAI has raised another $40 billion in funding, valuing the company at $300 billion. (Tech Crunch)

And claims that the service is used by 500 million people each week, which I rather doubt, unless they're counting everyone who uses a service that uses OpenAI in some way.

So I guess we're not going to be rid of them any time soon.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (150) | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 31, 2025

Monday Overnight Open Thread - March 31, 2025 [Doof]

Happy 70th Birthday, Angus Young!

Howdy Hordelings! Happy Monday to you all. Ready to say goodbye to March? Got your April Fool's Day jokes and pranks all ready to go? No fools here yet. The ONT is the place where the smart people say go find another fool!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:55 PM | Comments (499) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Rock-It Man Cafe

the Scottish highlands
by Jim Scott Photo

Turtle Titanic. It still gets me so mad.

Turtle Noah.

Turtle Dune.

Unfair!

Baby elephant practices its scary charge against some birds.

Dog on a swing.

The cat is jealous of the baby.

Very old but still adorable: Sea otter is so excited.

Ibex crawling up a dam like a spider.

Dog amuses himself while being groomed.

Power-washing the marmot, if you know what I mean.

Who Did It Best?

William Shatner talk-sings as host of some Sci-Fi Movie Awards show in 1978. (Gee I wonder what movie won all the awards?)

The star of Late Night With David Letterman, Chris Elliot, gave us a perfect recreation of the number.

And then Stewie recreated it again for The Family Guy.

I'm a Rock-It Man!

To give Shatner credit, he did a great cover of Pulp's Common People. Here's the cartoon version for those who prefer it.

Posted by: Ace at 07:15 PM | Comments (335) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Mexico GOP Headquarters Firebombed

Will Democrats continue their encouraging, inciting silence about the campaign of terror waged by their Street Paramilitaries?

Yes, yes they will. Their base voters (and I mean that in the negative sense) demand a "fight," and they do in fact mean physical violence against property and persons, and of course Democrats are craven weaklings who can never stand up to their lunatics.

It really IS the liberal establishment who are promoting and enabling this violence. For all the talk about "stochastic terrorism" when a conservative says "men are men, and women are women"--we are accused of GENOCIDE for repeating what every biology textbook in work history has said until 5 minutes ago--nobody says a peep when Democrats call for Elon Musk to be murdered, Tesla owners to be harassed, property to be destroyed, or Tesla owners beaten up.
That was idealism. Just as the murderous and destructive riots of 2020 were "social justice."
The Brownshirts thought they were making Germany safe for Germans. They didn't pat themselves on the back for being evil--they were idealists. So was Stalin, and Mao's cultural revolution brigades. And the Baader-Meinhof gang. And so on. If idealism can justify this sort of political violence, then every totalitarian government is justified.

Posted by: Ace at 06:02 PM | Comments (274) | Trackbacks (Suck)

As Snow Woke Crashes and Burns, Hollywood Scrambles to Cancel Woke Projects In "Crisis Mode Panic"

Snow Woke opened beneath expectations, and lost 66% in its second weekend from its weak opening.

It fell so far, in fact, that the unthinkable happened. They had consoled themselves with the idea that because this past weekend featured no major releases, they would at least keep the #1 spot.

In fact, the non-woke Jason Statham took the #1 spot.

"Snow White" is no longer the fairest of them all at the box office.
The Disney live-action remake starring Rachel Zegler was unexpectedly unseated from its spot at No. 1 during its second weekend in theaters. In an upset, the new Jason Statham action movie "A Working Man" topped the domestic box office charts with $15.2 million in its first weekend, while "Snow White" grossed another $14.2 million during its sophomore frame, according to estimates from Comscore.
For "Snow White," this was a sharp decline from the film's initial $42 million debut last weekend. How steeply a movie declines in its second weekend can be indicative of whether it will continue to perform well in the weeks to come, making this a worrying sign for Disney.
The box office debut of "Snow White" last week was already considered a disappointment compared to how other Disney live-action remakes have performed. The live-action "The Little Mermaid" opened to $95.5 million over three days, while "Beauty and the Beast" opened to $174.7 million, "Aladdin" started with $91.5 million and "Cinderella" opened to $67.8 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

For years and years, we've wondered, When will the left get the message? When will the media finally get the message?

The disaster of Snow Woke may have been the message that finally got through to them.

Rachel Zegler's Snow White flop sparks anti-woke U-turn: Hollywood whistleblowers reveal how trans actors and liberal films are being dumped in 'crisis mode' panic
By CAROLINE GRAHAM FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
...
More than a dozen Hollywood insiders ranging from an Oscar-nominated producer to the writer of one of the most successful TV shows ever have spoken exclusively to the Daily Mail about an industry in 'crisis mode.'
'When the #MeToo [in late 2017] and George Floyd protests [May 2020] happened, every studio in town jumped on the woke bandwagon,' a Disney insider says.
'Five years on,' he adds, 'everyone is desperately trying to save themselves and Hollywood. You can't underestimate the fear behind closed doors. This feels like a battle for survival.'

I'm rooting for mass casualties.

At the House of Mouse, the disastrous box office failure of the $270 million Snow White reboot, which earned a lackluster $43 million on opening weekend, was the 'final nail in the coffin' of 'wokeism.'
...
.
Recounting meetings with snobbish Hollywood executives over the past several years, an Oscar-nominated producer tells the Daily Mail how he'd, 'hear people dismissing the "flyover states" [those in the middle of America],' adding, 'duh, those people are the ones who watch our shows and go to the movies.'
He cited this year's Oscars, which had the lowest ratings ever, for showcasing 'movies no-one cares about.'

...
'[Y]ou have films like Emilia Perez [about a cartel boss who transitions from male to female] which appeal to no one except a handful of ultra-left liberals.'

Has Hollywood finally realized the search for "The Modern Audience" is an expensive and futile snipe hunt?

'When woke first came in it was about the bottom line,' the producer explains. 'Studios thought going woke would attract a new, younger audience and make them money - but all it did was piss everyone off.'
An insider at Amazon's Prime Video streaming division told the Daily Mail that 'this was never about genuinely helping minorities... for most studio executives DEI was another way to make money. Now it's backfired and everyone is scrambling to change direction.'

The article quotes several older white writers and producers stating that they were brought in as secret employees on troubled minority-heavy productions.

But then they made those writers and producers keep secret about the White Taint they brought to these projects.

'Their DEI hires couldn't actually do the job. So, they had old white men like me re-writing things. The money was good, but I couldn't get any credit. That's the hypocrisy of Hollywood.'
Now, the anti-woke backlash is in full swing.
This week Mel Gibson, a director who was famously cancelled for drunkenly spewing anti-Semitic slurs during a 2006 drunk-driving arrest in Malibu, California, announced he will start filming his long-awaited follow-up to 2004's The Passion of the Christ in Italy this summer.
...
'The mood in Hollywood under President Biden wasn't conducive to someone making a movie about faith and God and certainly not someone like Mel who'd been cancelled. Now Hollywood's woken up to the fact that the mood has changed.'
The Disney animated show Win or Lose, which revolves around a middle-school softball team gearing up for a championship game, recently removed a transgender character.
The Disney executive who spoke to the Daily Mail privately admitted that this was a direct result of the anti-DEI backlash, the studio put out a statement in December saying: Mb<'We recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline.'
Amazon, which owns The Apprentice - the show which made Donald Trump a TV star - has added every episode to its Prime Video streaming service after mothballing it for years.
'The numbers have been incredible,' one Amazon insider told me. 'Now anti-woke programming is making money. But it could be too little too late. So many jobs have been lost because of [DEI].'

A&E is bringing back Duck Dynasty, which the liberal executives hated, and Cops-like show called Live PD is coming back, too -- after it had been cancelled in the post-George-Floyd anti-cop panic.

...

'There is a course correction when it comes to entertainment,' Abrams said. 'When Live PD was cancelled the vast majority of people criticizing it had never watched an episode.'

Trump's The Apprentice is on the charts for the most-streamed series.

Posted by: Ace at 04:54 PM | Comments (275) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Democrats Defeat Four Conservative Constitutional Amendments in Lousiana

Trump's shock and awe campaign is energizing the Democrat base and it seems that conservatives are too drunk on the November win to match their enthusiasm.

Louisiana voters overwhelmingly rejected four proposed constitutional amendments which aimed to reshape the state's approach to justice, juvenile crime, taxation, and judicial elections. Each amendment was rejected by more than 60% of voters.
"This was a 'primal scream' kind of vote, driven by robust Democratic EV turnout that I'm not seeing being offset by a strong GOP Election Day vote," John Couvillon, an award-winning pollster, said in a post on X.
"Although we are disappointed in tonight's results, we do not see this as a failure. We realize how hard positive change can be to implement in a state that is conditioned for failure," Gov. Jeff Landry said in a statement. "We will continue working to give our citizens more opportunities to keep more of their hard-earned money and provide a better future for Louisianians. This is not the end for us, and we will continue to fight to make the generational changes for Louisiana to succeed."

Tomorrow Wisconsin will vote for a Supreme Court justice --and this may tilt the court from a 4-3 Republican split to a 4-3 Democrat advantage.

And if the Democrat wins, they will gerrymander the state to conjure two extra Democrat congressional districts.

Musk offered a $1 million prize to two voters picked at random in an effort to get out the Trump vote.

Hopefully this increases enthusiasm a little.

The entire left-wing influence operation has been put in motion to discredit and ruin Elon Musk. They've sicced their astroturf mobs on his car dealerships. They've attacked him relentlessly for every cut, every firing he's recommended.
But Musk keeps coming. Indeed, his investment of millions of dollars in the pivotal Wisconsin Supreme Court race will prove whether the left is making any headway in its smear campaign against him or whether Musk will have the last laugh.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court race set for April 1 will demonstrate the breadth of Musk's influence. He and his affiliated groups have spent upward of $20 million, with another $2 million for a controversial program to offer $100 to those who sign a petition in opposition to "activist judges" and give their contact information on the petition. His plan to give $1 million each to two Wisconsin voters at a rally on Sunday was challenged in court by the state Attorney General Josh Kaul. The appeals court refused to hear the case.
"This is kind of a test case for Elon Musk," said Dane County Judge Susan Crawford, a former prosecutor and the Democrat running against Waukesha County Judge Republican Brad Schimel. "He wants to make sure that nothing stands in the way of what he's doing to try to dismantle the federal government."
That hysterically exaggerated rhetoric is why Musk has a good shot of prevailing.

Florida is holding two special elections to elect replacements for Matt Gaetz and NSA head Mike Waltz.

But polling shows that must-win races in doubt.

The special congressional elections Tuesday to replace former GOP Reps. Mike Waltz and Matt Gaetz were supposed to be nearly-sure wins for Republicans trying to add to their narrow House majority, considering both districts lean heavily Republican -- yet each appears tighter than expected going into Election Day.
In Florida's 6th congressional district race, state Sen. Randy Fine is competing against teacher and Democrat Josh Weil, in a district that stretches from the north-central coast to the middle of the state. Trump won the district by 30 points in 2024.
But a survey conducted last week in the race to replace former Waltz, who resigned his seat to become Trump's national security adviser, shows Fine winning just over 48% of the vote, while Weil received just over 44%. However, the pollsters reported a 4.9% margin of error, greater than Fine's lead.
...

Other concerns are Weil having a nearly 10-to-1 fundraising advantage over Fine and less than 51% of voters in the district approving of the job Trump is doing as president.
Fine on former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast last week acknowledged the early vote gap.
"The Democrats are mad and the Republicans aren't. And we have to make them mad. We have to make them understand just what's at stake," he said, later adding, "I know we have good election days, but we need to run up that score right now."
The elections come as Republicans hold a narrow 218-213 House majority.

Patronis is being outspent 7 to 1 by the Democrat:

"I've never been outspent in a race before. They're out spending me seven-to-one. Dollars are coming in from all over the country and it's crazy. My opponent has so much money," he also said on Saturday's "Fox and Friends Weekend."
Valimont, whom Gaetz defeated handily in November has brought in more than $6 million, compared to Patronis' $1.2 million.
Trump in 2024 won the Panhandle district with 66% of the vote.

There are a lot of Trump-Only Voters that the GOP desperately needs to convert to Republican voters. But they're basically Democrats or cynical independents who hate Republicans or hate all politicians generally -- they just make one single exception for Trump.

I don't know how we convert these Trump Only voters to more regular and reliable voters.

Posted by: Ace at 03:55 PM | Comments (330) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Kash Patel: The FBI's Years Long Stonewalling on the 2017 Congressional Baseball Game Assassin Is Over

At long last.

FBI Director Kash Patel announced this week that he had handed over to Congress long-sought bureau records related to the 2017 congressional baseball game shooting following years of House Republicans arguing the bureau was stonewalling on why it had labeled the attack "suicide by cop" instead of domestic terrorism.
James Hodgkinson, an extreme left-wing activist living out of a van in northern Virginia opened fire on Republicans at an Alexandria baseball field on June 14, 2017 after asking GOP congressmen who had left the practice early if the players were Republicans or Democrats. GOP Congressman Steve Scalise nearly died as a result of the attack. Before opening fire, Hodgkinson reportedly asked if the players on the field were Republicans, and then proceeded with his armed assault.
Republican congressmen have for years harshly criticized the 2017 decision by the FBI, led in an acting capacity at the time by Andrew McCabe, not to label the shooting by Hodgkinson as domestic terrorism despite his targeting of elected Republican leaders as they practiced for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. The FBI had instead dubbed the attack "suicide by cop" -- a position the bureau refused to reverse until 2021, and a position the FBI has never fully explained.
...

As he sprayed bullets at the GOP members practicing for a baseball game, Hodgkinson's gunfire struck Scalise in the hip, hit lobbyist Matt Mika in the chest, and injured two Capitol Police officers, Crystal Griner and David Bailey. Scalise nearly bled to death and required multiple surgeries before returning to Congress. The shooter, who was killed by police, had written down the names of GOP congressmen.
McCabe, who was deeply involved in the FBI's roundly criticized Crossfire Hurricane investigation, took over the FBI after the May 2017 firing of former FBI Director James Comey, who himself had played a key role in the false Trump-Russia collusion saga. It was during McCabe's tenure that the bureau rejected calling the shooting "domestic terrorism." McCabe did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News through his LinkedIn page.
...
Hodgkinson supporter of Democratic presidential primary candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, was killed by law enforcement after the attack. Infuriated by Trump winning the 2016 election, he had posted on Facebook that "Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co." and had joined other groups such as "Terminate The Republican Party" and "Join The Resistance Worldwide!!"
The FBI declared just a week after the shooting in June 2017 that it did not consider the baseball shooting a terrorist attack, saying, "The FBI is investigating this shooting as an assault on a member of Congress and an assault on a federal officer. At this point in the investigation, the FBI does not believe there is a nexus to terrorism." The FBI held onto this position for years.
...
"Much to our shock that day, the FBI concluded that this was a case of the attacker seeking suicide by cop," Wenstrup said. "Director, you want suicide by cop, you just pull a gun on a cop. It doesn't take 136 rounds. It takes one bullet. Both [Department of Homeland Security] and the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] published products labeling this attack as a domestic violent extremism event, specifically targeting Republican members of Congress. The FBI did not. The FBI still has not."

This is chilling. Particularly when you consider that the Democrat Party and permanent Deep State are currently agitating for more political violence against Trump, Musk, and anyone associated with the right.

Posted by: Ace at 02:52 PM | Comments (381) | Trackbacks (Suck)

France Convicts Marie Le Pen of Fake Embezzlement, Bans Her From Running in 2027, an Election In Which She is the Front-Runner

Where have I seen this tactic before?

Auron MacIntyre
@AuronMacintyre
In western liberal democracies jailing or shooting the opposition candidate is quickly becoming the preferred election strategy

CNN claims she's just a "figurehead" so this isn't an attack on democracy, you see.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen banned from 2027 presidential race, throwing French politics into disarray
French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds, in a politically explosive ruling that has shattered her hopes of winning the presidency in 2027.
A Paris court also handed Le Pen, who was the frontrunner for the next election, a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended, to be served under house arrest, and a 100,000 Euro ($108,000) fine. Le Pen will file an appeal, her lawyer said.

The imprisonment is on hold. The thing they really wanted- - banning her from running -- is imposed immediately, even during her appeal.

Europe is a totalitarian hellhole and we should no longer spend a dime defending it.

Her party, National Rally (RN), was ordered to pay 2 million Euros in fines for the 4.1 million Euros that it was accused of embezzling.
The court's presiding judge, Bénédicte de Perthuis, said Le Pen's actions amounted to a "serious and lasting attack on the rules of democratic life in Europe, but especially in France." She said Le Pen's immediate ban on standing for office was tied to "democratic public unrest" that would result from the election of a person convicted of embezzlement.
But the decision itself looks set to spark significant unrest. Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's protégé who succeeded her as RN's president, said it was not only Le Pen "who is being unjustly condemned: it is French democracy that is being executed."
Marion Maréchal, Le Pen's niece and a Member of the European Parliament for a rival far-right party, said her aunt had "led our side on the path to victory. This is her only guilt, and that is why she is condemned."
Calm and composed as she entered the court on Monday, greeting supporters, Le Pen grew increasingly agitated, shaking her head as the court president spent more than an hour detailing the embezzlement scheme.
"The question therefore arises in a singular way in this criminal case which makes its decision 'in the name of the French people.' The court must not ignore the requirement to seek a social consensus," the presiding judge said.
De Perthuis said her fellow judges had weighed the "two risks" in their sentencing: the risk of a person convicted for embezzlement being elected for political office and the "major risk to public order" if a likely presidential candidate was banned from running.
...
Le Pen had branded the case against her a "witchhunt," mirroring language that US President Donald Trump used against legal proceedings that targeted him.
Her right-wing European allies also quickly rallied to her defense after the decision.
"Je suis Marine," Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister and a champion of socially conservative politics in Europe, posted on X following the conviction, with Italian far-right leader and Matteo Salvini slamming the decision.

March 30, 2025

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - March 30, 2025 [Doof]

DC’s cherry blossoms reach peak bloom

Howdy Hordelings! Hope you are having a very nice Sunday here in the early days of Spring. How are your brackets? Did you make sixteen sweet picks? Or perhaps you really just don't care. Whatever your feelings on that, the ONT is here for you to end your weekend. Step on in!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (477) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Finally Final End of March 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 end of March Edition? Not the first, not the second, not the third, not the fourth, but rather the fifth edition of the Ol' Gun Thread this month! Next week, by the way, we will have the first edition of April. Don't worry. I'll remind you.

I did not make it to the farm-o as planned this weekend, dangit! Trying again this week!

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 (299) | Trackbacks (Suck)

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