First World Problems...

They fixed it!

I know I sound like a lunatic, but it is these sorts of lazy problems, caused no doubt by warped priorities (DEI anyone?) and an obvious lack of a work ethic, that is the dividing line between the First World and everyone else.

Even MAGA is going to have a tough time fixing this sort of stuff, even though it is absolutely the correct way to approach the problem.

But this is a lighthearted post, so... who has the best screw-up story? Clerks who can't ring up a box of cereal... auto mechanics who forgot to replace the oil they drained... Landscapers who mowed down all of the freshly planted flowers... political parties that chose a mean, molesting, senile fool, and then replaced him with a drunken retard... bank tellers who can't count... etc!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (263) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Government Spending? No! Government Borrowing... or Government Stealing

Government Spending. Except that is a misnomer. We should be calling it Government Borrowing, because that is exactly what it is. On the other hand... maybe it should be called "government stealing," because they are stealing our grandchildren's livelihood! It is impossible to become wealthier by borrowing every year for generations, and yet the central bank and our brilliant bar-tending, foul-mouthed elites in Congress seem to be convinced of the positive effects of government borrowing, or more accurately, government creation of inflated dollars. I don't think that even John Maynard Keynes imagined never-ending deficit spending, yet here we are!

American families that become wealthy spend less than they earn, and save what they don't spend. Yet the prevailing argument is that government is immune from those basic tenets because it can create demand with monetary policy, and that will grow the economy. Obviously government can't run out of money, but that pesky little thing called inflation is the unavoidable and economy-destroying result of running the printing presses or, nowadays, simply creating more digital funds.

Secretary Bessent on 'Reprivatization' of Economy: 'We Are Laser-Focused on Getting this Deficit Under Control'

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Breitbart News exclusively that President Donald Trump’s administration is “laser-focused” on cutting the deficit and getting spending “under control,” part of his larger vision of “reprivatization” of the U.S. economy so economic growth is no longer dependent on government spending but instead on private sector growth. Bessent said he joined Trump on the campaign trail last year and later joined his cabinet because he was “so alarmed” by the “high level of government spending” that had taken hold in recent years.

This is why President Trump and his team are disruptors. They are not content simply to slow the rate of increase of government spending/borrowing. They understand two things.

First: the size of the government budget requires borrowing...forever! That is ultimately untenable, and will destroy our economy. The budget must be cut. There is no other option.

Second: Government spending is inherently less efficient at growing economies. In fact, based on our experience over the last two generations, it is obvious that government spending retards organic economic growth, by crowding out investment and inserting a chaotically inefficient system that rewards rent seeking and outright fraud. Government must shrink, and be removed from competition for investment dollars.

Getting control of the budget will yield immediate results, as the financial markets recognize that more private investment funds will be available. Will there be short-term shocks? Of course. Those financial markets are dependent on a constant stream of government dollars created to fund the deficit and pay bond interest. And there will be uncertainty as the Trump administration formalizes its tariff plans. But when future government spending and borrowing is better understood, and the tariffs are set, business will be able to plan for the future with much more certainty.

But the biggest change will be that government will not be competing as much for investment dollars, and will not be crowding out innovation and entrepreneurialism. Simply unleashing Americans from the tethers of a huge and all-encompassing government will go a long way toward correcting the imbalance of government vs. the private sector.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (275) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 3-16-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, stay safe from spring thunderstorms, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

NOTE: Today's Sunday Morning Book Thread will be somewhat abbreviated. A massive storm rolled through here Friday night, knocking out power to most of the town. My side of town has been completely without power since Friday night and I don't know when it will come back. Parts of my neighborhood are just devastated.

Prayers up for any other Morons in the path of this brutal storm.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (358) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 16 March 2025

Top Story

• Amazon has announced Alexa+, which updates the existing voice assistant to... Something something generative AI something. (Liliputing)
  
  What's the catch?
  
  
  
• The option to have your smart devices not transmit everything you say straight to Amazon HQ will be removed on March 28. (Ars Technica)
  
  George Orwell did not dream of this.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (225) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night "Club ONT" March 15, 2025 [The 3 D's]

Welcome to the grand reopening of Club ONT! A collaboration of your Sunday through Wednesday ONT Crew - The Disco, The Doggo, and The Dino. Doesn't the place look real purty after its deep cleaning and fumigation that was done while Mis Hum shut us down temporarily last week?

Keep in mind -- Wearing a cape doesn’t make you a superhero, but if paired with Aqua Net and a fake I.D., you’ll get the password and immediate entry.

This --- is Club ONT!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (500) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 3/15/2025

Sergei Eisenstein

I've gone through the work of one other Russian filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky, who was more of a religious dissident than a loyal propagandist for the Soviet regime. However, there's one Soviet filmmaker that stands above them all: Sergei Eisenstein.

Born in Tsarist Russia in 1898 (technically, the Governorate of Livonia), Eisenstein entered film through the theater. Working experimentally on stage, he had the perfect mindset for a nascent Soviet film industry looking for ways to break from Western traditions in art but also to keep costs low. His first film, Strike made in 1925, told the story of a workers' strike in 1905, part of an ambitious plan to make six films detailing the workers' revolution from 1905, the first Russian Revolution (which failed), through 1917 and the October Revolution that saw the Bolsheviks overthrow the Provisional Government. Strike wasn't a huge success, but the second film Eisenstein made, came out less than a year later.

Battleship Potemkin is one of the most influential movies ever made. It goes well beyond the well-known Odessa Steps sequence (directly inspiring things like The Untouchables) and into how to create coherent sequences through non-linear editing. The dominant mode of editing in film had been much more influenced by Melies and, mostly, D.W. Griffith: editing shots in sequence that logically cut together to convey a string of events. Eisenstein, instead, built sequences, in particular the final sequence of two naval vessels steaming towards each other, out of disparate parts (engine pistons moving, earnest looks from sailors, deck guns with flags waving above them) which put the effects that he had first attempted in Strike in a much more popular film.

And yet, both those two first films, and the next five completed films, are 100%, unquestionably propaganda for the Soviet Union. Eisenstein's career lasted from 1925 to 1945 with the screening for Ivan the Terrible Part II: The Boyar's Plot for Joseph Stalin (Stalin hated the film, refused to allow its release, Eisenstein never completed a film again and died three years later). That creates two main themes to me when discussing his work: the revolutionary aspect of his approach to storytelling and the changing needs of propaganda.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM | Comments (223) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - March 15, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin. Turns out, the Wheel is fond of fabric. It said QUILTING. It wasn't done though. It also said that quilting skills often get shared and passed down from others, so we should honor those who taught us hobbying or skills (not just quilting).

[Photo: Fabric of the Air Force Quilt, National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton, Ohio]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (150) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, March 15

* * *

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

Would you like a treat?

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

Posted by: K.T. at 03:18 PM | Comments (77) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, March 15

From Don in Kansas:

A few weeks ago it was -10℉. Yesterday it was 80℉. Perhaps it’s now spring, but I don’t quite trust the weather.

Anybody else have that kind of a weather swing?

*

Posted by: K.T. at 01:15 PM | Comments (35) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Why don't they change? You know, in a more positive direction?

As I have noted before, there are some activist lefties on my social media feed. And boy, are they in attack mode lately. It's mostly memes and mostly generalizations. Nothing that might get a conversation going, even for a couple who used to make attempts at conversations in the past. I think the rapid actions of the new administration are overwhelming them.

Instapundit posted a link to Bravo Blue: Democrats: Trying to Change Their Image but They Can't Help Themselves.

It is now conventional wisdom that the Democratic party has “lost its way.” It is said to be leaderless, lacking a “message,” and out of touch with mainstream voters. They and their ancien régime troops in the media solemnly pronounce that they must “reshape their image,” come up with “better messaging,” or something similar. Often these suggest poll-tested memes and issues rather than a fundamental core belief. So, can they change?

Remember when Joy Reid was perplexed that Harris could lose with her "perfect" campaign when she had all the celebrities? Somehow, my intellectual lefties on social media failed to comment on Joy Reid getting fired, though they had looked forward to her reports during campaign season with great anticipation.

Odd that they would express no sympathy or attacks against corporate power.

Remember the frog and the scorpion and read on.

What will they do?

The Dems are floundering; they are failing. So, what are they going to do? We know a few things. They are going to “Fight, fight, fight!” After all, it worked for Trump.

I can just hear Hakeem Jeffries now: If it worked for Trump, it will work for us, right? Here we go. Woo hoo!

Posted by: K.T. at 11:01 AM | Comments (287) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[Classical? Perhaps!]

*****

Although I gave up sympathy and empathy for Lent. You are still blessed to have yours truly here today.

Before we enter the Prayer Revival there are just a few housekeeping matters to take care of. (Rulz for those of you in Eagle River)

1. This is an Open Thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2. Be Kind, Be Nice! And no jumping from the furniture onto an unsuspecting creature.
3. If you are running with sharp objects, I have several trees which need to be felled.
D. Have a great weekend!!!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 07:30 AM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 15 March 2025

Top Story

• SpaceX has launched the latest crew mission to the International Space Station, with four astronauts onboard to take over operations and relieve Butch and Sundance who have been stranded there ever since the trouble-stricken Boeing Starliner test seventeen years ago. (AP News)
  
  The mission was delayed a little because the latest new Crew Dragon module needed a new battery, so SpaceX chose to re-use an existing module.
  
  
  
• CNN wants you to know that the stranded astronauts were not stranded and the decision by the Biden administration to leave them there never actually happened. (CNN)
  
  Thanks, CNN. Where would we be without you?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (127) | Trackbacks (Suck)

A Night At The ONT

Hello Horde. Welcome to the wild and the wacky...Meme night!

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (430) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Strange Vegetation Cafe

The Giant Groundsel, a plant that survives from prehistory
atop Mt. Kilamanjaro

Strange vegetation. JackStraw will be all over this thread. He enjoys various "Wacky Weeds," if you know what I'm saying.

Little girl complains like an adult about having to walk to school while carrying a backpack. She complains the backpack weights two kilos because she has a water bottle and apple in it.

Man climbs streetlight pole to free a bird who's gotten himself stuck.

Penguin gets in on the Hunter Biden Art Grift. Duncanthrax was right!

A big pod of orcas enjoy the surf.

Goofy camel tries to join a herd of horses.

Scootering through a gorge.

The thing he's riding is a "FoilScoot," an aquatic scooter. If you want one, it only costs $8,399.

If you want to experience some real anxiety, watch this video of a free diver beneath a river's ice with no air hole.

The oarfish, often called the "doomsday fish" because Japanese folklore says they only appear to herald the coming of an earthquake or typhoon. They're rarely seen because they live in the deep ocean between 650 and 3000 feet down.

ICYMI: A very senior dog has arthritis but still has happyfeet for his owner.

The Canyon of the Crescent Moon.

The Dragon Tree.

The Dragon Blood Tree in in Yemen.

Deer enjoy the cherry blossoms in Nara Park, Japan.

Namibia, where the desert runs right into the ocean.

Corgi somehow got hired to be a police dog.

Paralyzed dog is so excited to get his new wheelchair.

Just clean up the neckhair, please.

A giant bear is scared by photographic flashes. He knows he's up to no good.

Boingggg.

Absolute jackass slams on the breaks in the middle of a high-speed highway because he missed his exit. He causes a huge traffic pile-up. I want to warn you before you click on this. It's just maddening that people do this instead of just driving a two or three miles and taking the next exit.

Posted by: Ace at 08:15 PM | Comments (137) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ten Democrats Cross the Line to Vote for Cloture on Continuing Resolution; Democrats Defeated

I kept looking for updates but missed it.

My absolute least-favorite subject to have to post about are these stupid CR battles.

So I'm glad this is out of the way.

Late Friday afternoon, the Senate voted yes on cloture 62-38, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans. That sets the bill up for passage on what will likely be a party-line vote after a few amendments are voted on.

Almost before Schumer's speech on the Senate floor ended Thursday, House Dems started hammering him, and that continued through the day Friday, with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and current House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries publicly criticizing Schumer, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying that it would be "a big mistake" for Schumer to vote for cloture, which would allow the CR to pass with a simple majority, and mobilizing her base to call Senate Democrats.

Democrats were "melting down" about Schumer's cave before the vote. Kinda dog-bites-man on that one. When are they not melting down?

House Democrats erupted into apoplexy Thursday night after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he would support Republicans' stopgap government funding measure.

Why it matters: House Democrats feel like they "walked the plank," in the words of one member. They voted almost unanimously against the measure, only to watch Senate Democrats seemingly give it the green light.

"Complete meltdown. Complete and utter meltdown on all text chains," said the member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer sensitive details of members' internal conversations.

A senior House Democrat said "people are furious" and that some rank-and-file members have floated the idea of angrily marching onto the Senate floor in protest.

Others are talking openly about supporting primary challenges to senators who vote for the GOP spending bill.

LOL. Eat all the bags containing all the dicks.

Keep in mind that the leftwing cope is that all Republicans are regretting our votes.

Art Candee
@ArtCandee

The Republican CR to fund the government just passed the procedural hurdle in the Senate because of these Democrats:

Chuck Schumer
Catherine Cortez Masto
Dick Durbin
Brian Schatz
Angus King
Maggie Hassan
John Fetterman
Gary Peters
Kirsten Gillibrand
Jeanne Shaheen

Shame on you all.

Trump said he "appreciates" Schumer's decision and was "very impressed by that."

Is Trump on the level or is he trolling? Is he trying to doom Schumer by declaring him MAGA For a Day?

Either way, this is bad for Schumer.

Posted by: Ace at 07:45 PM | Comments (133) | Trackbacks (Suck)

RFK Jr.: Trump Has Lost 30 Pounds, "Despite All the Crap He Eats," Just By Taking the Buns Off His Burgers
Plus: GAINZZZ

Today is the fifth anniversary of "15 Days to Stop the Spread." Talk about a Grim Milestone.

The President of the United States just declared war.

On carbs.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested President Trump has lost 30 pounds, while commenting on the unhealthy foods the president eats.

Kennedy, during an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity, said he saw Trump the day before, adding, "I think he's lost 30 pounds." His comment came after the news host said the president "is getting healthier."

"He looks great. And he told me, he's not using ... for example, if he has a burger now, he usually doesn't have it with a bun," Hannity said.

Kennedy replied, "Oh, I didn't know that he was actually changing his diet."

"I have to say this ... and even with all the -- can I say -- crap that he eats," the recently confirmed secretary added.

The interview took place at a Steak 'n Shake in Florida after the company announced it would be using beef tallow instead of seed oils to make its french fries, a swap Kennedy has been promoting for health purposes.

...

They joked that Trump likes McDonald's, KFC, pizza and Diet Coke, which prompted Hannity to ask Kennedy if he has an issue with sugary drinks or diet sodas.

"Yes," the secretary said.

Hannity asked, "But, again, you're not going to ban it."

"I'm not going to take them away from people, but we shouldn't be subsidizing them," Kennedy said. "We shouldn't, as you said, 10 percent of food stamps, which are federally funded, taxpayer-funded program ... is going to the poorest neighborhoods."

On that point, the American Heart Association -- a grifter organization that will say anything is healthy if you just pay them enough money -- appeared in Texas to argue that people should be allowed to use SNAP vouchers on cookies and soda.

Why Does The Heart Association Favor Subsidizing Cookies, Potato Chips, and Sugary Soda? Guess.

You would be forgiven to assume The American Heart Association would top the list of organizations supporting restricting government subsidies for cookies, potato chips, and sugary drinks.

You would be wrong. The AHA flew its top lobbyist to Texas to testify against a very simple bill that would restrict SNAP recipients from using their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from purchasing these products. After all, the largest percentage of the assistance goes to buying sodas, one of the biggest sources of non-nutritious calories in a child's diet.

Texas Senate Bill SB 379 is very short and to the point. It doesn't cut benefits, doesn't even restrict most processed foods; it just bans purchases of sugary drinks, candy, cookies, and potato chips using SNAP benefits. And since SNAP is supplemental--intended to increase the amount available to purchase food for lower-income folks, it doesn't even prevent such people from purchasing these products with their own food budget.

...

Frankly, you shouldn't be surprised. The AHA is part of the "blob," and the blob is all apart ensuring that the current establishment remains fat and happy. It's stated purpose is to promote heart health; its real purpose is to perpetuate a system in which its donors and partners make as much money as possible.

...

I looked up who funds the AHA Nutrition Forum, and as you would guess, it is filled with big food industry corporations including Cargill, PepsiCo, and seed oil companies. And even more troubling is that the VAST majority of Heart Association funding comes from Big Pharma.

Conflict of interest, much?

It's so much worse than that. The American Heart Association lets companies print their "Heart Healthy" seal of approval on the most unhealthy foods.

They still think it's the 1970s and that they can get away with telling you that health beef tallow is bad for your heart -- but seed oils are good, healthy substitute.

I'm not at all down with banning foods. But I would like to see the real science promoted by the government. Not what Kellogg's and Pepsi pay NGOs to claim to be healthy.

Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (279) | Trackbacks (Suck)

A New Beltway Mystery: Follow the Biden EPA Money

The biggest heist in human history.

Here's what makes this potentially criminal, according to the reporting of Real Clear Investigation's Jim Varney: They didn't just push out billions to their political cronies, but then they covered their tracks attempting to make it impossible to trace the money.

In law, that is evidence of conscienceness of guilt. If you shoot someone while hunting, you could claim that you thought your friend was a deer so you didn't have a guilty mind.

But if you attempt to conceal the body, or flee the scene and pretend you weren't there, juries can infer from your actions that you knew you were guilty of a crime.

When the Biden administration announced $27 billion in environmental grants last April, it set the clock ticking on a predicament: how to get the unprecedented sums for the President's envisioned NetZero future out the door before the fiscal year ended on Sept. 30?

The task was complicated by the fact most of the money -- $20 billion -- would go to just eight nonprofits that, like the Environmental Protection Agency itself, had never handled such gargantuan grants.

In hindsight, it's easy to suspect that corners were cut, or laws were broken, or, at the very least, extraordinary measures were taken.

Those possibilities are clearly on the mind of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as he tries to unravel what happened to Inflation Reduction Act spending that the Biden White House's Office of Management and Budget and the EPA decided to expedite before the November election -- an effort that included moving the roughly $20 billion to a private institution, Citibank, away from oversight of the Treasury Department.

On Wednesday, Zeldin moved to terminate the arrangements as the enriched nonprofits have filed lawsuits looking to protect their grants. The battle has thrust into the spotlight what had been a rather quiet attempt by the Biden administration to spend the $27 billion.

The money was put into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a new entity born in 2022's Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats pushed through Congress without any Republican support.

...

The grants, unveiled April 4, 2024, came with its built-in deadline to push the money out just months away. So a political deal was struck between the White House's Office of Management and Budget and EPA, current agency officials told RealClearInvestigations. As a hedge against future administration attempts to curb the program, the deal classified the now-suspect $20 billion in a novel way making it hard to track.

Zeldin has asked the EPA's inspector general and the Department of Justice to investigate the unorthodox arrangement.

...

The fund was broken into three parts. The two largest, the National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA), received huge sums, totaling $20 billion. Notably, as RCI reported last October, grants went to nonprofits that had paltry assets, had been granted their nonprofit status only the month before, or had people associated with them that had previously served various federal or state Democratic administrations. For example, the Coalition for Green Capital, Wise's former outfit, was awarded $5.1 billion.

Three weeks later, an arrangement was made between OMB and EPA in which the money was designated "non-exchange" rather than "exchange" -- a first for EPA funds, according to current officials. That label allowed for the money to be moved to recipients in lump funds rather than parceled out over the length of the deals with the nonprofits, which in most cases were slated to run until 2029, 2030, or later, records show. It also called for an outside financial institution to manage the money, in part because the agency had zero experience in handling grants of this size.

Although the language in the Inflation Reduction Act dealing with the Greenhouse Gas funds does not use "shall," the word Congress usually employs to indicate that something is required, the law did impose a deadline of Sept. 30 -- the end of the fiscal year -- EPA officials and legal experts agree.

On June 27, as the EPA was making its deals with the nonprofits, Biden had his disastrous debate with Donald Trump, and on July 21 Biden ended his re-election campaign and threw his support to then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The Greenhouse Gas fund money remained unobligated at that point, according to EPA officials.

The deals were finally completed and the National Clean Investment Fund and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator money was obligated to the nonprofits on Aug. 16, according to a timeline provided to RCI. That left $7 billion, the portion that comprised the third component of the fund, Solar For All.

At that point, the $20 billion, though obligated, remained with the Treasury, officials said. A memorandum of understanding between EPA and the Treasury Department on moving the mountain of cash was not signed until Sept. 6.

Two weeks later, the Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee held a hearing to learn more about EPA funding oversight, calling the agency's inspector general Sean O'Donnell to testify. O'Donnell made clear he had never seen the maneuvers the EPA was making with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and said neither he nor his staff would be able to stay on top of it.

...

Yet it was not until Nov. 12, three working days after Trump beat Harris in the 2024 election, that the EPA began talks with Citibank about taking control of the $20 billion, Trump administration officials told RCI. During those negotiations, on Dec. 5, Project Veritas released an undercover video of an EPA official laughing about what he considered an extraordinary process, likening it to "throwing gold bars off the deck of the Titanic."

The Citibank arrangement effectively removing direct EPA oversight, and with interest on the $20 billion going to the grant recipients, was signed on Dec. 27, agency officials told RCI....

Critics of the spending said the timeline smacks of shady politics.

Steve Milloy, a skeptic of apocalyptic global warming, said he has received a government grant and his experience was profoundly different than the one enjoyed by Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund winners. His process was an uncomfortable one that lasted 10 months, he said.

"They crawled up my ass, and that was for a small grant," he said.

The contrast is striking, in his opinion.

"I've never seen anything like this," he said. "It is fishy ... I think they thought they would win reelection and panicked when they lost. It seems like all of this is being done without due diligence or accountability."

Posted by: Ace at 05:45 PM | Comments (200) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daredevil, a Series Disney Was Counting on to Revive Its Failing Marvel Franchise, Posts Low Ratings in Debut
Plus: Is This Something?

The show isn't that bad. Kingpin, they say, is based on Trump, but I don't hear that there's much wokeness in it. I don't really like it, but it's mostly like the old Netflix show, which I also wasn't a big fan of.

What I mean is, it should satisfy the old audience.

But the old audience isn't tuning in.

Interest in the Marvel brand is now down at Star Wars levels, so even relatively "good" (by comparison) projects are passed over.

Marvel Studios had high hopes for Daredevil: Born Again, positioning it as a major revival of the Netflix-era Daredevil series and a key effort to win back longtime fans. However, despite Variety and Disney painting the numbers as a success, a closer look reveals a starkly different story.

According to Disney, Daredevil: Born Again drew 7.5 million views in its first five days. Variety calls this a "strong launch," but in reality, this number falls well below expectations for a series of this magnitude.

For comparison, The Acolyte--a series that performed so poorly it was shelved after one season--managed 11.1 million views in its first week. That was already considered underwhelming, coming in 3 million below Ahsoka. Even Agatha All Along, widely regarded as a disastrous misfire for Marvel streaming, managed 9.3 million in its first week.

This raises serious questions about the future of Marvel's television projects. If Daredevil: Born Again, with its strong brand recognition and returning fan-favorite cast, can't outperform some of Marvel's weakest streaming entries, is the studio truly capable of turning things around? Disney and Variety can attempt to spin these numbers, but the reality is clear--this was supposed to be a major comeback, and instead, it signals further decline.

...

At this point, Marvel Studios is facing an uphill battle to regain audience trust. The push to reclaim the momentum of the past is growing more desperate, and projects like Daredevil: Born Again were meant to be the remedy. Instead, with a launch this lackluster, it seems the studio is still struggling to bring audiences back. If Marvel's legacy characters can't drive engagement, what does that mean for its future?

Midnight's Edge calls the ratings a "disaster."

Below: Is This Something?

Posted by: Ace at 04:24 PM | Comments (363) | Trackbacks (Suck)

House DOGE Subcommittee Demands FBI/DOJ Investigation Into the Coordiated, Democrat-Financied Violent Terrorism Against Elon Musk and Tesla

Open their books. Subpoena all of their financial records and emails.

The House DOGE subcommittee, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), is demanding a federal investigation into what she calls "organized attacks" on Elon Musk and Tesla. Greene has sent a formal request to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, citing incidents of vandalism, arson, and violence that she argues should be classified as domestic terrorism.

Key Details:

Greene and fellow House Republicans on the DOGE subcommittee have sent a letter to the DOJ and FBI, calling for an investigation into a "wave of organized attacks" against Tesla and Elon Musk.

The letter cites incidents such as a shooting at a Tesla dealership in Portland and vandalism in Colorado, with Greene claiming these acts are linked to Democrat-affiliated groups.

The subcommittee seeks to determine who is behind the attacks, whether NGOs are involved, and if any federal funding is indirectly supporting these actions.

Diving Deeper:

Greene took to X (formerly Twitter) to publicize the subcommittee's request, writing, "Who is behind it? Who is funding it? Is there a link with Democrat-leaning NGOs? We look forward to exposing these terrorists and bringing them to justice!" The letter, co-signed by Reps. Brian Jack (R-GA), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Michael Cloud (R-TX), William Timmons (R-SC), Brandon Gill (R-TX), and Pat Fallon (R-TX), details the committee's concerns over growing hostility toward Musk and his enterprises.

The subcommittee's concerns stem from Musk's role in curtailing government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This move, Greene argues, has made him a target for left-wing activists opposed to fiscal restraint. Protesters have disrupted Tesla showrooms, defaced vehicles, and, in more extreme cases, resorted to violence.

A particularly troubling case mentioned in the letter involved a March 6 shooting at a Tesla dealership in Portland, Oregon, where gunfire shattered windows and damaged vehicles. While no injuries were reported, the incident raised alarms about escalating aggression. Another incident saw a woman spray paint "Nazi" on Tesla cars in Colorado, echoing the broader hostility Musk has faced since taking control of X and pushing back against left-wing influence in technology and media.

Greene and her colleagues are pressing federal authorities to answer several questions, including identifying those orchestrating and funding the attacks, potential connections to Democrat-linked NGOs, and whether federal tax dollars are being used to support these activities. "The American public deserves transparency and assurance that their tax dollars are not being used to fund domestic political terrorism," Greene wrote.life."

Here is what they're "protesting" to save: communists and violent anarchists and terrorism-supporters being paid hundreds of millions of dollars by exploited taxpayers.

A Columbia Professor Marched for Hamas--and Received Millions in Public Funding

Jennifer Manly has been associated with over $100 million in grants over the past 20 years.

Columbia University has been ground zero for the Ivy League's pro-Hamas demonstrators...

This student-led movement is also supported by some faculty. We have identified one Columbia professor, neuropsychologist Jennifer J. Manly, who participated in the pro-Hamas protests and stood in a human blockade intending to prevent administrators from dismantling the unauthorized encampments last April. In photos taken of the event, Manly is visible wearing an orange vest and standing with fellow Columbia professors as they marched for Gaza, in front of banners reading "Demilitarize education" and "Palestine is Everywhere"; others called for financial boycott and divestment from Israel.

Our research has revealed that Manly is not only employed by the university but also subsidized by the American taxpayer. According to the National Institutes of Health and other publicly accessible databases, she has been named in connection with over $100 million in grants over the past 20 years. Much of her research is based on the so-called social determinants of health thesis, which posits that racism, sexism, and homophobia can cause brain disease in "Black and Latinx communities"--a thesis that critics have described as pseudo-science. (Manly, Columbia, and NIH did not return requests for comment.)

Manly's appearance at a pro-Hamas rally, coupled with her activist academic research, raises serious questions about the medical establishment, which has directed large sums of taxpayer dollars to ideologues disguised as professors and to activism disguised as science. And it gives further grist to officials in the Trump administration, who have argued that funding cuts are necessary to disrupt the pipeline of left-wing radicals.

Manly's work routinely advances the idea that racism causes physical illness, such as Alzheimer's disease. She claimed in an interview last year that "we shouldn't blame people for their lifestyle choices in terms of their brain health." Rather, "systems of oppression" and "discriminatory beliefs" cause black people to suffer dementia at disproportionate rates. "Any biological differences are driven by . . . racism," Manly has said, later defining racism as "the pathway through which race is 'biologized.'" Her academic work reflects these views. One paper Manley coauthored blamed "historical patterns of segregation" for higher rates of dementia among blacks. Another paper blamed "structural sexism" for declining memory, with the effect found to be stronger among black women.

Manly's work is lavishly funded by taxpayers. Most recently, the National Institutes of Health gave her and her team nearly $700,000 to produce work linking racism to brain disease. As part of this grant, in January 2025, Manley and colleagues published an article implying that blacks living in states with "high lynching proportions" experienced higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a factor associated with greater risk of dementia. The authors claimed that "racism is associated with inflammation and dementia risk" because it "cumulatively taxes the body resulting in worsening biological and cognitive health." Another paper concluded that "racist U.S. policies" had an "influence on cognitive health over time and dementia risk later in life."

Posted by: Ace at 03:24 PM | Comments (286) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Of Course: German Intelligence Rated It as 80-95% Likely that Covid-19 Was Manufactured in the Wuhan Lab (But Kept It Secret All These Years)

From David Strom: You don't hate the Regime enough.

For five years, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has assumed that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory. The BND classifies the laboratory theory as "probable" and is "80 to 95 percent" certain. Since then, the German government has kept secret the BND's findings that the virus originated in the biolab in Wuhan . This is reported by NZZ, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

To date, it remains officially unclear whether the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is of natural origin or originated in a laboratory. Despite intensive research, no intermediate host has been identified that naturally transmitted the pathogen from animals to humans. At the same time, controversial experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that supported the laboratory theory came into focus.

Virologists meeting at the foreign intelligence service?

According to reports, several scientists at the German foreign intelligence service, the Federal Intelligence Service, have been meeting in recent weeks, initiated by the Federal Chancellery. The first meeting took place last year, with the participation of renowned virologists. A central topic of these discussions was the possible origin of the virus. According to Zeit, the Federal Chancellery has been keeping relevant information under wraps for five years.

Strom quotes from the Daily Mail, which has additional details:

In Wuhan, the BND agents 'struck gold,' coming 'as close to the origins of the pandemic... as possible in China,' German media Die Zeit reported.

They found unpublished dissertations from 2019 and 2020 that allegedly discussed the effects of coronaviruses on the human body.

Additionally, uncovered materials revealed Chinese scientists had 'an unusually large amount of knowledge about the supposedly novel virus available at an unusually early stage.'

Based on the materials BND agents found and analyzed, they used a 'Probability Index' to measure the reliability of information, which determined the lab-leak theory was 'probable' with an '80 to 95 percent' certainty.

Further, the agents also accused Chinese scientists of actively carrying out dangerous experiments with the deadly coronavirus MERS.

Posted by: Ace at 02:20 PM | Comments (329) | Trackbacks (Suck)