Mid-Morning Art Thread

The Knight's Dream
Antonio de Pereda

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (278) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 6/ 4 /25

Good morning kids. Well, I guess we know why the Chi-Coms were buying up massive tracts of farmland as well as property adjacent to or near American military installations. That foreign governments, entities or even individuals are allowed to do so is insanity.

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States

The FBI arrested Jian in connection with allegations related to Jian’s and Liu’s smuggling into America a fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon. This noxious fungus causes “head blight,” a disease of wheat, barley, maize, and rice, and is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year. Fusarium graminearum’s toxins cause vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects in humans and livestock.

According to the complaint, Jian received Chinese government funding for her work on this pathogen in China. The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America—through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport—so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked.

Meh, Anthony Fauci was given government funds to work directly with the Chi-Coms in a laboratory on their soil to develop the Franken-virus that ran rampant across the world, with the "cure" perhaps already in the pipeline of big pharma ready to come to the rescue, or in the event cause more misery, death and illness than the virus itself.

Can this be construed as an act of war, the precursor to an act of war, or state-sponsored terrorism? The Ci-Coms and indeed their globalist friends here in the USA knew back in 2020 the threat that a Donald Trump re-election posed to their geopolitical plans and voila, a global pandemic that gave the cover they needed to rig and steal the election from him and us.

As lethal if not more than a biological pathogen are the intellectual saboteurs plying their trade in our colleges and universities under the guise of Confucius institutes. Beyond pimping anti-American and anti-Western propaganda to young skulls full of mush (pace Rush Limbaugh). Of late, they have been implicated in helping foment pro-Hamas anti-semitism on campus as well. Beyond that, Chi-com agents are actively engaged in stealing scientific research at colleges as well as industrial espionage up to and most especially in our defense and IT sectors. If only Harry Truman let MacArthur cross the Yalu River and perhaps nuked Beijing, world history might have gone very differently. No Vietnam War and subsequent killing fields, perhaps no Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union sooner than it did? And America not being reliant on Chinese slave labor and keeping our industrial base here at home.

Meh, what's done is done. It is here and it is now. What are we, that is what is President Donald Trump going to do about this? What should he do and what can and should he do?

Well, yes there is a fungus among us, and it's not just foreigners but the homegrown variety of self-hating America-hating miscreants that pose just as great if not an even greater threat than any external enemy ever can.

Apple heiress Laurene Powell Jobs, Google founder Eric Schmidt, and the George Soros-backed Tides Foundation are among the Democrat heavyweights bankrolling the anti-Israel charity of activist Kamau Franklin, who called Elias Rodriguez’s alleged assassination of two Israeli diplomats in Washington, D.C., a "morally righteous" act.

Franklin runs Community Movement Builders, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that promotes "liberation" ideology for black Americans, Palestinians, and other groups. The organization embraces radical rhetoric in support of those causes, referring to police as "pigs" and calling the state of Israel "the result of a war crime." The Heising-Simons Foundation, funded by prominent Democratic donors Mark Heising and Liz Simons, gave $100,000 to Community Movement Builders. The Tides Foundation, supported heavily by Soros, gave around $100,000 to Community Movement Builders for "equity" programs, tax records show.

Franklin also serves as treasurer for the Black Voters Matter Action Fund PAC, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Soros has contributed $2.4 million to the PAC, which spent heavily in support of Harris and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.). New Georgia Project, an organization by Warnock and professional Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, gave $50,000 to Community Movement Builders in 2021.

Wonderful and long overdue that the Muslim Brotherhood will be at long last officially declared a terrorist organization, unless the Democrats can actually summon the balls to publicly vote "NO" on the resolution and explain to the American people why. But President Trump and the GOP must declare the Tides Foundation, and every other organization and private citizen who supports Hamas, the MB and other groups that threaten not just Jews but all of us as terrorist or terror supporting organizations and move to dismantle them completely.

Well, on a positive note, completing the grade school thought of there's a fungus among us, the penis between us is at long last being addressed.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the United States Navy to remove the name of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk from oiler USNS Harvey Milk, according to several reports. A memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, which was viewed by Military.com, showed that the Navy was preparing to change the name of the ship, and a “defense official” confirmed to the outlet that Hegseth had ordered U.S. Secretary of the Navy John Phelan to change the name of the ship: A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparation to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth. The official also said that the timing of the announcement — occurring during Pride month — was intentional.

Oh the humanity! PRIED off the fantail and right at the start of PRIDE month.

And thank you Mr. President!!!

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that there are “no plans” for a “Pride Month” proclamation. . . The Trump White House is doing a complete 180 from the Biden junta's focus on LGBT issues. While Trump celebrated “Pride Month” with a tweet in 2019, he never issued a presidential proclamation for the LGBT festivities.

Seriously, what is there to be "proud" of. at the risk of ruffling the feathers of any homosexuals out there (including a number of good friends and family members), If fornication with someone of the same sex is your kink — and from a purely biological standpoint — it is not normal since sex first and foremost is about procreation, regardless of Michelle Obama's theories on the matter.

And Harvey Milk was a pedophile and sexual predator. To defend him let alone honor him is despicable, period full stop.

On another front, something that kind of puzzles me is this Big Beautiful Bill BS. I kind of don't understand the sanity of more debt and raising the debt ceiling while at the same time pushing DOGE. I think both Rand Paul

. . . and Elon Musk I think are right to be upset about this.

Frankly, I;m not interested in Government Efficiency. I want Government Reduction and Elimination.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

Have a great day.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Daniel Greenfield: "Billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year"
  Two Chinese Scientists Busted Smuggling Agroterror Weapon
  
• “The alleged actions of these Chinese nationals — including a loyal member of the Chinese Communist Party — are of the gravest national security concerns,” Gorgon said in a statement.  “These two aliens have been charged with smuggling a fungus that has been described as a ‘potential agroterrorism weapon’ into the heartland of America, where they apparently intended to use a University of Michigan laboratory to further their scheme,” he added. 
  Chinese national couple charged with smuggling crop-killing fungus into US: ‘Potential agroterrorism weapon’

• Jobs gave $1 mil to Kamau Franklin's Community Movement Builders, which Google founder Eric Schmidt and the Soros-backed Tides Foundation have also supported
  Dem Heavyweights, Including Laurene Powell Jobs, Bankroll 'Black Liberation' Activist Who Called Jewish Museum Shooting 'Morally Righteous'
  
• Michael Walsh: I've long made the argument that the 19th Amendment was not an unalloyed good, a sentiment shared by half the women in the country at the time of the amendment's passage. It was not animated by misogyny but by the very real fear that the delicate balance between the sexes could be upended for no good reason other than luxurious generosity. (In fact, much of the motivation, as with that behind the 18th, was the fear of the Protestant majority that they would soon be outvoted by hordes of foreign Irish and Italian Catholics and shtetl Jews, and something must be done.) 
  THE COLUMN: The Political is Now Personal. Women Hardest Hitters (I read that as Hitlers! - jjs)

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:27 AM | Comments (301) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 4 June 2025

Top Story

• We can remember your pet for you, wholesale. (The Atlantic) (archive site)
  
  Your pet can live forever. Except when it dies. But then we can bring it back, better than new, ready to chew on your shoes and piddle on the rug all over again.
  
  Also, race horses. Because that's where the real money is.
  
  ViaGen just missed one thing: The name.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:46 AM | Comments (122) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - June 3, 2025 [scampydog]

South Fork Murderers Creek, OR

Good evening busy brains, insomniacs, overthinkers, trivia champions, armchair experts, confidently confused, and those just trying to remember which day it is. Thank you for checking in on the Tuesday, ONT.

Repeat of the wise words from AoS commenter, mikeski. Scrolling? Sure. Read the content? Just an appetizer. The commenting is the main course.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (355) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Runaway Zebra Cafe

She meant to do that.

I got you a Father's Day present, daddy.

Dog waits for his brother to wake up.

Jealous female.

Some Boxer head-tilts.

Call him up to the majors.

Who runs Bartertown? Master Blaster runs Bartertown.

Scientists pumped ten tons of cement into an abandoned ant hill. They had quite the complex down there.

Dog goes HAM on the trampoline.

A pet zebra got loose in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

A pet zebra has escaped in Tennessee, stunning drivers as it repeatedly raced down residential streets -- even bringing a busy interstate to a standstill.

The still-at-large animal was spotted several times across Rutherford County, southeast of Nashville, on Saturday, and sheriffs say the animal remains at large, unless its owner has found it and not reported it.

Dodging vehicles and narrowly avoiding getting hit, the pet caused havoc when it ran along a busy Greater Nashville interstate over the weekend.

The zebra broke loose on Saturday, just a day after its owner purchased it, the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office said.

Posted by: Ace at 07:25 PM | Comments (289) | Trackbacks (Suck)

White House to Ask Congress for a Teeny-Tiny $9.4 Billion in Rescissions to the Budget

This is almost embarrassingly small.

I don't entirely blame Trump. The GOP, as you have probably begun to suspect, is simply not serious about any of the things it claims to be serious about.

The White House on Tuesday sent a $9.4 billion rescissions package to Congress in order to codify some of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts as DOGE Chief Elon Musk publicly excoriates the GOP for its failure to address the debt in the "big beautiful bill."

"Today, we have officially received the rescissions request from the White House to eliminate $9.4 billion in wasteful foreign aid spending at State and USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS," House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed, according to The Hill.

The sum represents a small fraction of the $175 billion in estimated savings DOGE has claimed, and an even smaller portion of the $2 trillion in spending cuts necessary to eliminate the deficit.

Elon Musk minced no words in denouncing what he sees as a betrayal of the DOGE mission:

Posted by: Ace at 05:35 PM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Disney Lays Off Hundreds of Employees In Its TV and Film Divisions

You don't say.

Disney is cutting hundreds of employees across several TV and film teams as the company focuses on expanding its streaming services.

Employees in the marketing for film and television, as well as TV publicity, casting and development, and corporate financial operations will be impacted by the cuts, a spokesperson for Disney told FOX Business.

...

It comes after Disney's ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks announced plans to lay off just under 200 employees in March.

Those cuts represented nearly 6% of the total ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks workforce, and the majority of the impacted staffers are from ABC News, according to a source with knowledge of the headcount reduction.
Disney's Bob Iger.

Crowds at Disney World were small over Memorial Day weekend. Universal's Epic Universe just opened and is making a splash. (Link replaced with a current story.)

Meanwhile, Disney just screened the Fantastic Four for the public, I think at a Long Beach theater.

They understand they have another bomb on their hands and that this is pretty much the end of the M-She-U. When the Fantastic Four fails, that will be three failures in a row, and there will be zero momentum or interest for the upcoming two part Avengers movies.

It's strange to do test screenings so close to the planned release date. Apparently they're attempting last-minute reshoots to change the ending of the movie.

Marvel Studios may have a problem on its hands. According to multiple sources, the most recent test screenings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps were held earlier this week in Los Angeles--and the reactions are mixed. Though it's still in the post-production phase, initial viewer feedback suggests the reboot might not be the triumphant return for Marvel's First Family that Kevin Feige was hoping for.

Industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider shared details from a source who attended the screening, describing the film as "mid" and "meh," clarifying that it was "not that bad, but not that good, either." Perhaps more concerning are criticisms about "weak character development" and "bad CGI," the latter of which Sneider notes should improve in the coming weeks as visual effects are finalized.

"In general, Marvel doesn't do public test screenings unless they're worried," Sneider wrote. "That was the case with Eternals, The Marvels, Quantumania, and Brave New World."

While Sneider initially reported that Marvel was high on the project internally, another unnamed source reportedly described the film as "a mess" and "a huge problem movie"--echoing language that was once used to describe The Marvels before its disastrous release.

...

ViewerAnon described the overall response as "'okay,' but not a big sample size," adding that "a couple people have said the first act's shaky but it gets better once Galactus shows up." They also noted that the version screened was "very unfinished," with only about 25% of VFX completed--something that could certainly skew audience reactions.

...

While the film isn't eliciting the kind of extreme reactions being reported from Superman test screenings, the fact that Marvel felt the need to hold a public test run suggests some internal anxiety. The studio hasn't had a runaway hit since Deadpool & Wolverine, and with Bob Iger reportedly disappointed in the 2026 release slate, The Fantastic Four was expected to anchor the brand moving forward alongside the upcoming X-Men reboot.

Woke reviewer Grace Randolph heard from people who saw the movie, and they report that the M-She-U is back in full force. (Of course.) Even though she's super-woke and stupid and hates the term "The M-She-U," she says she has no choice but to report that Disney is once again going full M-She-U and giving haters (like me) a reason to bash the film. Apparently, Galactus is defeated by the gender-swapped female Silver Surfer and Sue Storm (with the help of her newborn baby Franklin). They just didn't feel like giving the three male members of the Fantastic Four a meaningful role in the resolution of the plot.

Posted by: Ace at 04:34 PM | Comments (219) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The CNN Reporter Found Liable for Deliberately Defaming the Navy Vet Announces His Sad! Departure from CNN

I can't help but notice that a ton of #Resistance "journalists" have been fired by the leftwing media over the past year.

There have been a lot of reports that Hollywood studios and game studios have decided to use the cover of their plunging income to fire a lot of their wokest, worst-performing activists, too.

Woke activists and DEI employees are luxury expenditures. You can only afford their wealth-destroying presence when times are so good you can still make money even deliberately attempting to lose it.

Once you've had a string of $300 million bombs (in both movies and videogames), it's time to tighten the belt and shed the Woke Wealth-Destroyers.

Is that why CNN has parted ways with this professional defamer who cost the company at least $5 million?

That's my guess.

But who knows, maybe he's just really hot to get in on this Podcast Hustle he's heard so much about.

In a Monday morning X post, chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt announced that he would be leaving CNN "after 8 terrific years." But Marquardt's departure comes four months after he cost the network several million dollars and tarnished their reputation with a maliciously defamatory report against Navy veteran Zachary Young.

"Some personal news: I'm leaving CNN after 8 terrific years," he wrote to his followers.

Adding: "Tough to say goodbye but it's been an honor to work among the very best in the business. Profound thank you to my comrades on the National Security team & the phenomenal teammates I've worked with in the US and abroad."

Marquardt was at the center of a January defamation trial as his reporting about Young, a security contractor who was coordinating efforts to get innocent people out of Afghanistan, was found to be maliciously defamatory and cost CNN $5 million in economic and emotional damages, plus an undisclosed amount in punitive damages.

Through discovery, messages between Marquardt and his "phenomenal teammates" (as he described them) proved that he had targeted Young with actual and pressed malice. He had boasted to an editor that he was "going to nail this Zachary Young mfucker," and he agreed with another co-worker that Young had a "punchable face."

During the trial, it came to light that Marquardt had fabricated a call with Young, falsely giving the impression that he tried really hard to get a hold of him before the story went to air. In footage that was left on the cutting room floor, but was played for the jury, he joyfully called the fake phone call "theater!"

Posted by: Ace at 03:29 PM | Comments (247) | Trackbacks (Suck)

ICE's "Operation Patriot" Rounds Up Almost 1500 Mostly-Criminal Illegal Aliens in the Leftwing Shithole State Massachusetts
Updated: Family of Boulder Antisemitic Terrorist Arrested

To be honest, I'm not sure why Trump is sending ICE into the blue states right now. I think I'd rather he just works with jurisdictions that cooperate -- so that all illegals migrate from non-sanctuary states and cities to the sanctuary states and cities. Let them enjoy the skyrocketing crime rates as the rest of the country enjoys falling crime rates.

Brooke Taylor
@Brooketaylortv

#NEW: 142 criminal aliens from the Houston area were deported to Mexico in the past two weeks who have illegally entered the United States a combined 480 times and been convicted of 473 criminal offenses. This includes documented gang members, convicted child predators, and a criminal alien who illegally entered the U.S. 21 times.

Once all the illegals are cleared out of cooperating jurisdictions, then go to the blue states. (Maybe.)

But that's just my preference. ICE just executed "Operation Patriot" in May, nabbing almost 1500 illegals in Massachusetts alone.

Operation Patriot, the largest ever ICE operation, resulted in the arrest of nearly 1,500 illegals, including murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and child sex predators, in the deep blue sanctuary city-heavy state of Massachusetts.

Operation Patriot concluded on Saturday after netting 1,461 illegal aliens throughout the Greater Boston area and the state of Massachusetts, which includes numerous sanctuary jurisdictions.

Sources at ICE told Fox News that 790 of those arrested had criminal convictions or charges and 277 had final removal or deportation orders. The sources said that all the targeted criminals were roaming the streets of Massachusetts cities freely before being apprehended.

The operation ran throughout May and included ICE teams from other states in the Northeast and authorities from the FBI, DEA, and ATF.

Fox News was embedded with ICE Boston on Thursday as part of this operation. While Fox News was embedded with ICE, agents arrested a murderer, two child rapists, including one living next to a playground, one fentanyl trafficker, one adult rapist, and one child sexual assaulter, all within the span of a few hours.

Prior to this, the largest ICE operation was Operation Tidal Wave in Florida, which netted 1,120 arrests. Fox News was told Operation Patriot was significantly more difficult because, unlike Florida, ICE received no local assistance from Massachusetts sanctuary jurisdictions.

Sources said the operation was in direct response to leaders in the city of Boston and Massachusetts refusing to cooperate with ICE.

The sources said "hundreds" of the arrested targets had been released by local sanctuary jurisdictions with ICE detainers ignored. ICE also said it encountered daily interference from anti-ICE activist groups throughout Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healey has responded to ICE's operations in her state with outrage. Healey took to social media on Sunday evening to demand answers after ICE agents arrested 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes, who was an illegal and a junior at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts.

In her post, Healey says she is "disturbed and outraged" and that she wants answers immediately explaining why the student was taken into immigration enforcement's custody.

Healey asserted that "the Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it's making us all less safe."

ICE and Tom Hohman continue making the same point: if you'd just hold illegal criminals when we send you a detainer request, we could just pick them up at the jails.

But you refuse. So we have to go out into the field to round up the illegal criminals and, when we're out there, we're also going to arrest illegals who aren't wanted criminals. So you yourselves are to blame for these "collateral" arrests of illegals.

Speaking during a press conference on Monday, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons commented on the resistance from Massachusetts leaders, saying: "If sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us into our custody instead of releasing them into the public, we would not have to go out to the communities and do this."

Doing the Jobs Americans Won't Do Update:

An illegal immigrant in the Bay State is accused of raping a child, according to police who say the victim was "tied, bound or gagged."

Lorenzo Lopez Alcario, 30, was recently arrested by Marlboro Police on five charges: rape of a child with force; pose/exhibit child in sexual act; assault and battery; resisting arrest; and assault.

He's accused of having sex with a child under-16 in April.

"... And did compel such child to submit by force and against such child's will, or did compel such child to submit by threat of bodily injury, and such sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse was committed while the victim was tied, bound or gagged," reads the criminal complaint.

Alcario was arrested over the weekend, and he was arraigned in Marlboro District Court on Monday. A not guilty plea was entered on all charges.

...

Alcario was held without bail on Monday, pending a dangerousness hearing later this week.

...

Earlier this year, a different migrant rape case was reported in Marlboro. A migrant who was staying at a state-run shelter in Marlboro was arrested for allegedly raping his 14-year-old daughter, according to officials.

The alleged sexual abuse at the Marlboro Holiday Inn was recorded as a "Serious Incident Report" by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities.

The shelter site had been investigating the pregnancy of the 14-year-old girl. The father had reportedly impregnated his daughter in the past, according to the serious incident report.

"Her father has had sex with her multiple times, both on the journey to the U.S. and in the U.S.," reads the report.

Marco Rubio had a blunt warning for foreign illegal alien terrorists: We're not just coming for you, we're going to deport your dogshit terrorist-adjacent families as well.

Update:

StopAntisemitism
@StopAntisemites

Fox News reports the wife and five children of Boulder terrorist Mohamed Soliman have been arrested by ICE and Homeland Security.

They're now in federal custody.

A clear nod to Secretary Rubio's warning yesterday about dangerous individuals exploiting our immigration system.

Posted by: Ace at 02:24 PM | Comments (371) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Deranged Democrats Begin to Fret the Mental Health Gap

Democrat poll analyst Nate Silver notices that Democrats are winning with those with diagnosed mental illness.

And, on the other hand, are being trounced among the much larger group of people in good mental health.

Charlie Kirk
@charliekirk11

Nate Silver's latest blog post notes that conservatives are up 31 points among those with self-described excellent mental health, and down 26 among those with poor mental health.

Democrats have turned themselves into the party of the neurotic, the unstable, and the miserable.

If you're happy and well-adjusted, vote Republican.

It's almost as if the Democrat Party is the party of grievance and misery and mental illness and scapegoating others for your huge failures.

Below, he uses the term "Village Democrats." He doesn't mean that they're part of the Village People, who of course have realigned and now support Trump.

He uses the metaphor of "The Village" to describe risk-adverse, controlling people -- Democrat Establishment and Regime people -- and "The River" to describe risk-taking, entrepreneurial explorer types.

It turns out that young men are turned off by neuroticism, hysteria, weakling grievance-mumbling, and efforts to control them.

Meanwhile, unlike during the Bush Era, moderate men might think it's those Villagey Democrats who want to police their speech and their behavior. And that they're just generally unchill, turning everything into a "political conversation". Last year, Trump fared better among voters who don't consume a lot of political news, which liberals like to read as a sign that these voters were poorly informed. But that could also indicate that Trump was winning the more apolitical, "normie" vote.

Obviously, this mapping is far from perfect. Some Silicon Valley leaders are free speech hypocrites and they mix uncomfortably with other Republicans on issues like tariffs and immigration. And although some Riverians see themselves as classical liberals who want government to get out of the way, others are also not so keen on democracy. This faction of the River tends to believe in the "great man theory of history" and they don't want to let anything stand in their way.

Still, I don't doubt that some of Democrats' problem with young men is that they're seen as what in the poker world we'd call "nits": neurotic, risk-averse, sticklers for the rules, always up in everyone's business.

And it's almost as if people who are mentally healthy do not want mentally ill people making decisions on their behalf.

What an inversion -- remember when mentally sane people made decisions on behalf of their mentally-incompetent patients? Now it's literally the other way around. The lunatics run the asylum.

Posted by: Ace at 01:17 PM | Comments (464) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Federal Trade Commission Opens Investigation Into Media Matters and Other Leftwing Media "Watchdogs" for Colluding to Suppress Free Speech

And I hope they trace the money to George Soros.

And I hope there's an avenue towards a class action lawsuit against Soros.

The Federal Trade Commission has launched a sweeping investigation into more than a dozen left-wing watchdog and ad industry groups accused of coordinating advertiser boycotts against right-leaning websites and platforms, including Elon Musk's X.

Key Details:

FTC's probe targets possible antitrust violations through advertiser collusion to defund conservative media.

Groups like Media Matters and Ad Fontes Media received investigative demands for communications and financial records.

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson warns that advertiser boycotts are "a serious risk to the free exchange of ideas."

Diving Deeper:

The Federal Trade Commission has opened an expansive investigation into roughly a dozen advertising and advocacy groups that may have violated federal antitrust laws by organizing boycotts aimed at defunding conservative and right-leaning media platforms, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The probe marks a sharp escalation in the federal government's scrutiny of politically motivated censorship in online advertising, and directly challenges the long-standing practice of left-wing watchdogs targeting platforms they deem objectionable. At the center of the investigation is the question of whether progressive organizations conspired to pressure advertisers into pulling ads from platforms like X--formerly Twitter--under the guise of avoiding "hateful content."

The FTC has already sent investigative letters to groups like Media Matters and Ad Fontes Media, demanding internal records, communications with other watchdog organizations, and documents related to their campaigns targeting certain content. Vanessa Otero, CEO of Ad Fontes, confirmed receiving one of the letters on May 20 and said it related to a "possible collusion" inquiry.

Media Matters, a left-wing advocacy organization with close ties to the Democratic Party, is a key focus of the investigation. The group has publicly campaigned to cut off advertising to Elon Musk's X platform, publishing reports that claim X has allowed antisemitic and "hateful" content. However, critics argue that these efforts are thinly veiled political censorship campaigns aimed at silencing opposing viewpoints.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, recently appointed and outspoken about online censorship targeting conservatives, has framed these advertiser boycotts as more than just market preferences.

"Drying up the advertising will dry up the idea, so the risk of an advertiser boycott is a pretty serious risk to the free exchange of ideas," Ferguson said at a recent conference.

Ferguson's stance sharply diverges from the previous FTC approach, which often turned a blind eye to coordinated efforts to de-platform right-leaning content creators under the umbrella of "brand safety."

Advertisers, for their part, have defended their decisions, claiming they are simply aligning spending with corporate values. But the FTC under Ferguson is questioning whether those values have been manipulated by activist groups acting in concert to silence specific viewpoints--something the agency now suggests may constitute illegal market behavior.

It's Tuesday -- do you know where your duck is now?

Posted by: Ace at 12:17 PM | Comments (383) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

It is difficult to be sanguine about the current Supreme Court's chaotic approach to the clear and unambiguous 2nd Amendment. Aside from the two stalwarts -- Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito, the court whipsaws back and forth with competing rulings.

The decade began well, with a solid ruling in the Bruen case, slapping down New York's onerous and blatantly unconstitutional carry licensing scheme. That sent ripples throughout the country's blue, anti-gun states, forcing them to shift from the nonsensical "may issue" to a more sane "shall issue." But the fascists in the blue states promptly attacked the ruling with a series of onerous modifications to their gun laws, including vast areas of their states that were newly restricted to concealed carry, and doubling down on magazine restrictions and "assault weapon" bans.

And the cowardly worms on the Supreme Court sank to the occasion and declined to address these clear violations of our God-given natural rights to self defense and resistance to malign government.

Supreme Court Declines to Challenge Maryland 'Assault Weapons' Ban: The Supreme Court also rejected a challenge to Rhode Island's magazine ban, leaving both laws intact for now, with three justices dissenting.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear two high-profile challenges to state gun-control laws—one in Maryland banning semiautomatic rifles such as the AR-15, and another in Rhode Island prohibiting magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

Both denials came in a June 2 orders list that did not provide an explanation for the denials. However, three justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch—dissented, indicating that they would have taken up the cases.

In the Maryland case, sometimes referred to as an “assault weapons” ban, Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred with the majority in its decision to deny review, but said the Supreme Court “should and presumably will” address the constitutionality of AR-15 bans within the next term or two.

Kavanaugh, otherwise known as J. Wellington Wimpy, assures us that the court will...eventually...maybe...take up these cases in the future.

Well! I am relieved that my 2nd Amendment rights are defended by such capable people!

There is no rational reason why the court can't strike down these various unconstitutional state laws by simply referring to their own previous holding in Bruen. Only a deeply dedicated anti-gun zealot could claim that AR-15s aren't in common use, since it is the most popular rifle in America. Only a deeply dedicated anti-gun zealot could claim that 30 round magazines aren't in common use. Hell, that's what the AR-15 was designed for! And most of all, only a deeply dedicated anti-gun zealot could carefully ignore the clear link between the 2nd Amendment's protections and military weapons. Militias aren't groups of hunters on leisurely walks through the forest on deer hunts. The security of a free state is not dependent on access to shotguns for upland birds.

The 2nd Amendment protects our right to arm ourselves with the military weapons of the day. Muskets and single-shot rifles in 1791, and the closest the horrid National Firearms Act of 1934 allows us today... the ubiquitous AR-15.

In a country that respects its founding documents, that would be an M-4 (full-auto), but the idea that we must be restricted to 10 round magazines and something other than the AR-15 is simply not backed up by any intelligent reading of the Constitution.

So...do we have six deeply dedicated anti-gun zealots on the United States Supreme Court? The evidence suggests that we do.

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

Posted by: CBD at 10:48 AM | Comments (260) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Girl in a Courtyard, Algiers
Philippe Pavy

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (273) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 6/ 3 /25

Good morning kids. in the main, I am extremely pleased with the direct results of President Trump'spolicies as well as the indirect effect of them causing the Left to tear itself apart as their opposition and personal animus towards him have alienated vast swathes of the American public across the board and as a number of the links show have them forming a circular firing squad. It's a glorious thing to see them in one of the biggest gordian knots imaginable. Even they understand it is no longer an effective strategy to attack President Trump personally and worse (for them) to go after his policies when from trade to inflation, the economic outlook is growing rosier and rosier with prices falling, ditto inflation and revenue via the tariff regime and the path towards rejiggering the balance of global trade more in our favor increasing and most crucially on immigration with the latest round of barbaric assaults have shown.

The Democrats must somehow convince the American people that open borders, anti-law enforcement, pro-transsexualism continuing the drumbeat of fictitious white supremacy, misogyny and abortion as healthcare are the sane, moral and righteous things to support lest one be an anti-Democratic Nazi/fascist, etc. etc.

Newsflash: it's no longer cutting the mustard. Despite some Democrats knowing they're in deep shit and desperate, there really is nothing they can do. Here's the SHOT:

Democrat New York Rep. Ritchie Torres expressed concern during a Monday podcast that his party’s frenzied opposition to President Donald Trump could damage its electoral prospects.

Well, as much of the interview shows, Torres and his ilk are still clueless as this next quote clearly indicates;

“I feel like there’s a symbiotic relationship between the far left and the far right. The far left has no greater friend than the far right, and the far right has no greater friend than the far left,” he said. “It’s Newton’s laws of physics, right? Every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. And I feel like Donald Trump produces a reaction in the form of an emboldened far left. The far left had far less relevance under Biden than it has in the present moment.”

There is no such thing as a far left and a far right. The only thing the Left and Democrats crave is absolute power. What the disagreement is is upon how far and how fast they think they can go in order to achieve their goals, and at one point can they just drop all pretense of being the sane, normal defenders of "our precious democracy" and on "the right side of history" bullshit. It's not about messaging, Ritchie. It's about your message and your intentions.

As for the Right, far or otherwise, that is normal America, the so-called Silent majority who, if Torres and his ilk have their way will soon become the SILENCED majority.

With that shot, we now have the chaser;

Jasmine Crockett Vows To Launch Impeachment Inquiry Into Trump If She Becomes Chair Of Influential Committee

No need to go beyond that headline, except to say thank God for our enemies.

And yet, despite all of the above President Trump still on occasion engages in some head-scratching moves. In particular this drive to keep the Iranian mullahs in power by thinking he can convince them to renegotiate the insane in the first place Nuclear deal.

The U.S. will reportedly allow Iran to enrich civilian-grade uranium in a proposed nuclear deal, marking a major concession from American negotiators, sources told Axios on Monday. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly offered the deal to Iranian officials Saturday, with the proposal apparently including provisions to restrict uranium enrichment to civilian-grade 3% purity in strictly above-ground sites, and also to allow oversight from the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), two sources with direct knowledge of the deal told Axios. Trump administration officials have previously insisted that any possible deal with Iran would not permit domestic enrichment.

Iran does not need nuclear fuel. It''s swimming on top on an ocean of oil and natural gas. It wants nukes in order to do to Israel and the West what the Egyptian illegal alien Religion of Peace Peacenik did to that elderly Jewish couple in Boulder Colorado.

The only thing Iran needs is regime change. No I do not mean via American boots on the ground. And that should've happened long long ago, but alas here we are. And who the fuck is Steve Witkoff. In one sense I understand Trump going to an outsider and not trusting a DC Foggy Bottom bottom dweller the likes of whom have burned him in the past and likely are still infesting all if not most of that town and in particular the State Dept. But Witkoff likely has ulterior motives, such as that potential deal of transforming Gaza into Monte Carlo 2 as well as having some shady dealings with the Qataris IIRC. Ugh.

In any case Psaki-Psircling back to Boulder Colorado, this is a golden opportunity for Trump to investigate and completely shut down the sources of incitement from CAIR to SJP, to a whole host of domestic scum and thugs who have a hate on not just for Jews but for America itself and have for years. Pull on the thread and the whole rotten tapestry will unravel. I'm sure beyond Soros you have the panoply of charitable foundations that have funded the poisoning of the Ameican mind for generations. It's a target rich environment. Yeah, go after Harvard but these organizations are a big part of the problem.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

Have a great day.

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:41 AM | Comments (339) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 3 June 2025

Top Story

• A pro-AI subreddit (one of the individual forums on the Reddit site) has started banning crazies who think the AI trees are talking to them. (404 Media)

  The moderators of a pro-artificial intelligence Reddit community announced that they have been quietly banning "a bunch of schizoposters" who believe "they've made some sort of incredible discovery or created a god or become a god," highlighting a new type of chatbot-fueled delusion that started getting attention in early May.

  Yep, that sounds like Reddit alright.

  "LLMs [Large language models] today are ego-reinforcing glazing-machines that reinforce unstable and narcissistic personalities," one of the moderators of r/accelerate, wrote in an announcement. "There is a lot more crazy people than people realise. And AI is rizzing them up in a very unhealthy way at the moment."

  Oh. Those guys.
  
  They are also crazy.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (126) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread - June 2, 2025 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings, and welcome to the Monday ONT! Please step on in, get comfy, and dazzle us with your brilliance and wit in the comments. Lurkers - this means you, too!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (422) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Some Kittens Just Want to Watch the World Burn Cafe

Hungry elephant wanders into convenience store to steal snacks

Mount Etna erupts, sending tourists scrambling.

ICYMI: Birthday party for a dog.

Chicken Run, in real life.

He lost his dog. But he found his dog. And another dog. And, a goat.

Pet owners: "I don't understand why I wake up tired every morning!"

Bird knows his colors.

Aw: boy calms frightened puppy.

The buddy system.

Cat: I think I'll destroy your $250 automatic tea pot now.

Neighborhood watchdog.

This sea turtle is an absolute unit.

An apex predator showing off his survival skills.

A bear, who is out of control, gets put in check by some pigs who recognize the Bear Menace.

They must have been serving Tangerine:

Posted by: Ace at 07:25 PM | Comments (308) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Paris Breaks Out in Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Riots

Paris' soccer team Paris-St. Germain won the League of Champions tournament on Sunday.

Shortly thereafter, "French soccer fans" began setting cars on fire, attacking cops, and looting sneaker stores.

Some Racists say that these were not French soccer fans at all, but illegal alien conquerors using the cover of crowds to loot and pillage like the barbarians of old.

Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (248) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Corporations Are Feeling Less "Pride" this June for Some Reason

It's almost as if corporate "Pride" bombing was always an empty political gesture.

How is your Shame Month going so far?

PBS is shrieking that it's Trans Holocaust (TM) All Over Again (TM).

They're propagandizing your children on your taxpayer dime, of course. See the end of the post for that.

It's June, so it's natural that PBS would kick off "Pride Month" by broadcasting a completely one-sided interview condemning Trump's "horrific" actions directed at the T in LGBT. On PBS "News," transgenderism is almost always celebrated and defended. Somehow, it's not one side of an ideological battle. The Left thinks there's just glorious LGBTQ orthodoxy, and there are hateful bigots who don't deserve any air time.

Here's how Sunday's PBS News Weekend kicked off the show with openly gay anchorman John Yang:

JOHN YANG: And World Pride celebrations underway in the nation`s capital in the shadow of Trump administration policies targeting the community.

JUNE CRENSHAW, Capital Pride Alliance: The Trump administration wants us to disappear and really showing up for World Pride is a direct "No" to that request.

The half-hour show concluded with the pro-Pride package, which began like this:

JOHN YANG: WorldPride, the international LGBTQ plus celebration is underway in Washington, D.C. against the backdrop of the Trump administration rolling back LGBTQ rights and protections, particularly for transgender people. The co-creator of the ACLU's "Freedom to Be" campaign, which advocates for trans people's rights, says that makes the event all the more significant.

GILLIAN BRANSTETTER, ACLU: There is nothing that Donald Trump has done or can do to LGBT people that we have not faced before. We have to show up for one another and show that, no, the power actually lives with us, the people. And if, you know, he wants us sitting in our home, scrolling on our phones, terrified of what will come next, I think what`s important for us to do is remember that courage is contagious.

PBS is clearly part of the contagion of "courage." You can see that this year's "Pride" parades are anti-Trump, carrying banners saying "WE RESIST." There wasn't even a sentence of opposition from Team Trump or anyone else opposed to the transgender agenda.

But other corporations whose income is not forceably extracted from the public seem less "courageous."

Including 12 NFL teams.

MLFootball
@_MLFootball
🚨🚨TRENDING🚨🚨

12 #NFL TEAMS DID NOT POST LGBTQ PRIDE MONTH MESSAGES ON THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA.

• #Jets
• #Ravens
• #Bengals
• #Browns
• #Steelers
• #Colts
• #Titans
• #Chiefs
• #Raiders
• #Cowboys
• #Seahawks
• #Saints

Last year, nine teams did not post messages.

Some very large corporations have also resisted changing their corporate logos to "pride" designs:

Posted by: Ace at 05:35 PM | Comments (288) | Trackbacks (Suck)

CBS "News" Ditzy Dingbat AWFL Margaret Brennan Embarrasses Herself Yet Again

Once again, she brings Democrat Talking Points to a factfight and loses.

She repeatedly attempts to claim that Trump's tariffs will cause rampant inflation.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calmly points out that this dizzy bitch made the same claim in March, and inflation then collapsed.

If you come at a career business savant like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, you better not miss. CBS Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan hilariously had to learn that the hard way on Sunday.

Brennan tried to corner the Treasury Department head from a number of fronts on the economy, such as tariffs and inflation. In response, Bessent repeatedly made Brennan look completely foolish.

Regarding inflation in particular, Brennan whipped out a piece by anti-Trumper strategist Karl Rove (whom she dubbed a "conservative"), arguing that Walmart wouldn't be able to break even if it just ate the tariffs President Donald Trump was placing on imported goods, thereby leading to higher prices on consumers. "Before consumers, the reality is there will either be less inventory or things at higher prices or both."

Bessent was quick on the draw, and reminded Brennan that she was one of the Armageddon geniuses prophesying the supposedly impending catastrophe of spiking inflation since March, which has not materialized. "Margaret, in March you said there would be big inflation. There hasn't been any inflation," Bessent retorted. "Actually the inflation numbers are the best in four years, so why don't we stop trying to say this could happen and wait and see what does happen?"

The uninformed-yet-arrogant hack then insisted repeatedly that large corporations dependent on Chinese imports like Walmart and Target forecast the "most probable" economic outcomes in their quarterly reports. Bessent responded "Actually no Margaret," and pointed out that these reports are required by law to discuss the worst-case possibilities to apprise investors of risk, or else face lawsuit for not disclosing material possibilities. She once again insists that they're warning of the "most probable" outcomes, and I think it's pretty clear she's a bullshitter who is asking questions straight from the DNC's talking points.

Posted by: Ace at 04:35 PM | Comments (321) | Trackbacks (Suck)