March 12, 2025
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - March 12, 2025 [TRex]
[Top photo: Above the Colorado River at Lake Travis, Austin, Texas]
Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.
This is the Wednesday night ONT.Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (350) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Good Boys With Toys Cafe
From the NY Mirror in the 1950s
People had more wisdom in the olden days.
From the NY Mirror in the 1950sPeople had more wisdom in the olden days.
Posted by: Ace at 07:58 PM | Comments (239) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Quick Hits
Reese and fellow WNBA player DiJonai Carrington addressed the next WNBA collective bargaining agreement during Reese's podcast Friday. "I've got to get in the meetings because I'm hearing like, 'If y'all don't give us what we want, we sitting out,'" Reese said. "The WNBA don't pay my bills at all. I don't even think it pays one of my bills. Literally." The sports comedy X account "Hater Report" then posted a video of Reese missing the layups with the caption, "Angel Reese DESERVES more money. PAY HER PLEASE." Other users got in on the parade of sarcastic comments. "GIVE HER THE MAX," one user wrote. Another user joked, "Please give this girl a raise before she decides to sit out the next season."Reese went right out and showed why she should be paid as much as the real basketball players:
WNBA player Angel Reese may not have helped her negotiating leverage much with a viral lowlight Monday. During an Unrivaled game, Reese missed three straight shots while standing right under the basket, and one of the shots hit the bottom edge of the backboard. Reese was able to at least come away with two offensive rebounds on the possession but fell to the hardwood after missing her third shot. Footage of the sequence quickly spread across social media, and many mocked the timing of it after Reese ignited controversy with recent claims WNBA players may refuse to play games to negotiate higher pay.Greatest athlete in a three-block radius!
McDonald's is currently offering some kind of "Angel Reese Combo Meals." This is more welfare for her and the WNBA. The sales appeal of having the name "Angel Reese" on a product is less than the current value of a Hunter Biden watercolor.
Fans rip Angel Reese over her performance after star threatened to strike over lack of WNBA pay rise Fans were left unimpressed by Angel Reese's performance in an Unrivaled game on Monday night as a video of her missing layups went viral. Reese, who is playing in the 3-on-3 league ahead of the WNBA season in May, recently threatened to boycott the W if if the league does not meet players' demands for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. And fans remembered those remarks as she struggled offensively against Vinyl BC, with a video on X showing her missing four shots down low, some of which were closely contested by defenders. While her team won 74-46 on the night, Reese shot just 5-13 for 10 points, and fans mocked her over her previous boycott comments. 'She gotta be worth at least 25-30/year. Not million,....... cents,' one said. What are we going to do if she sits out this coming WNBA season?,' another sarcastically asked. 'But she wants to be paid more,' a third said. And a fourth asked, 'How does one get to the WNBA playing like this? Doesn't seem like it should be possible. ... While the average salary for Unrivaled players is said to top $200,000 for the eight-week season, Reese is set to make just under $75,000 playing for the Sky in 2025, according to Spotrac.
Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (396) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Kash Patel Announces the Prosecution of a "Director Level" CBP Employee Who Defrauded the Federal Government of FEMA Funds and Lied to Federal Agents
The best and the brightest.
FBI Director Kash PatelHere's the scam: She claimed that flooding damaged her basement, and then claimed further that FEMA should pay to fix the damages. I don't know if those claims are real. She then doubled down on fraud and claimed she could not live in her house while her basement was being fixed, so she asked for, and received, rental subsidies to pay her rent as she lived in a rented apartment. But she didn't rent another place. She stayed home and pocketed the money which was supposedly paying for her necessary second residence.
@FBIDirectorKash TODAY: Following efforts with our interagency partners, I can report that a career Director level employee at US Customs and Border Protection has been charged with allegedly attempting to defraud FEMA, as well as lying to federal agents. This is part of the new FBI’s renewed efforts to crack down on public corruption and deliver accountability for the American people. Justice will be done. Thanks to our partners @AGPamBondi @TheJusticeDept and our @FBIDetroit
team for their work.
According to the Washington Times, this dedicated Civil Servant (thank you for your service) is also being investigated for drug trafficking.
DIRECTOR AT CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION CHARGED WITH SCHEME TO FRAUDULENTY OBTAIN DISASTER AID AND LYING TO FEDERAL AGENTS Wednesday, March 12, 2025 For Immediate Release U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Michigan DETROIT -- A federal criminal complaint was unsealed today charging the Director of United States Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Center for Excellence and Expertise over Automotive and Aerospace Engineering with engaging in a scheme to defraud the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and lying to federal agents, Acting United States Attorney Julie A. Beck announced. Beck was joined in the announcement by Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Daniel Altman, Executive Director of CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). Serina Baker-Hill, 55, of Detroit, is a career employee of CBP. Following a series of floods in the Detroit area in August of 2023, Michigan's request for a federal disaster declaration was approved, which allowed residents to apply for FEMA assistance. Baker-Hill applied for FEMA assistance for flood damage and a FEMA inspector determined there was damage to the basement in Baker-Hill's home. During the inspection, Baker-Hill informed the inspector she was not able to live safely in the home while the repairs were being made. Consequently, FEMA approved benefits for Baker Hill to assist with home repairs and for two months of rental assistance. The approval letter from FEMA indicated that the rental assistance money was to be used solely to help Baker-Hill pay rent and essential utility costs while she was in temporary housing. According to Baker-Hill's bank records, none of the FEMA money was used for rental, hotel, or utility expenses. Video surveillance at the home showed that Baker-Hill and her husband continued to live in the home after receiving the rental assistance funds from FEMA. Additionally, records for the home do not show a significant drop in utilities consistent with the property being unoccupied during this time. Baker-Hill was later interviewed by FBI and CBP-OPR agents and informed them that she has never committed illegal activity of any kind and had never defrauded the U.S. government.
Democrats will be holding sparsely-attended rallies for the criminal within days. She has a perfect defense against the charges: Muh Racism.
Senior DHS official investigated for drug trafficking, charged with disaster fraud By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, March 12, 2025 A senior official at the Department of Homeland Security was being investigated for potential involvement in drug trafficking, according to new court files unsealed Tuesday. The revelation came in a case in which authorities charged the official, Serina Baker Hill, with bilking the government out of thousands of dollars in disaster relief money for a home she claimed was made unlivable because of flooding. Court documents show agents detected the disaster scam while listening to wiretap conversations between Ms. Hill and her husband, Maurice Hill, whom they suspected of drug trafficking. They were monitoring Ms. Hill's communications too because of her role as director of Customs and Border Protection's Center for Excellence and Expertise over Automotive and Aerospace Engineering. "During the course of the investigations, it was discovered that both HILL and Maurice had engaged in a scheme to defraud FEMA after flooding occurred in Detroit, Michigan on August 24, 2023," wrote FBI Special Agent Andrew J. Matas. When agents confronted Ms. Hill in a 2024 interview, she lied to them, Mr. Matas said.
... Ms. Hill is charged with lying, wire fraud, disaster fraud and making false statements to the government. That latter charge stems from her denying that she had never defrauded the government. In the court documents, Mr. Matas said the FBI has been probing Mr. Hill for drug trafficking and "other offenses." That's why they were monitoring his phone and electronic communications.
Posted by: Ace at 05:38 PM | Comments (287) | Trackbacks (Suck)
FBI Scientist Explains Why American Intelligence Now Favors the Lab Leak Theory (and In Fact Always Did)
The CIA also concluded with "low confidence" that the virus was cooked up in Fauci's Wuhan branch, but that finding was suppressed by Biden, and only revealed when John Ratcliffe became CIA Director.
But at every turn, Vanity Fair attempts to undermine the scoop this FBI scientist has delivered to them. Here's how Vanity Fair spins this revelation to its readers: Somehow, this is all Trump's fault, doncha know:As bird flu spreads, and Team Trump begins dismantling America's public health apparatus, a former FBI scientist and investigator speaks out about the evidence that led the bureau to suspect that COVID-19 was sparked by an incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.America's public health apparatus has lied to us for five years and hasn't done jack squat to contain any viral outbreak. In fact, it created the biggest one of all time. It's time to shut it all down. Despite their efforts to undermine him, the scientist's disclosures badly damage the Fake Consensus of a wet-market "spillover."
Vanity Fair can now report that FBI scientists closely scrutinized the research activities of a group of graduate students and researchers who worked under Shi Zhengli, the lead coronavirus scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). For at least three years prior to the pandemic, those scientists performed risky research on a group of viruses that included one of the closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. The FBI found that Shi's researchers, in their publications, were not candid about the inventory of viruses in their possession and the true breadth of their work, which was conducted in labs with a low biosafety level. The intelligence community also determined that, in the autumn of 2019, three of Shi's researchers fell ill with COVID-like symptoms.More spin from VF: They want you to continue trusting Saint Anthony Fauci. Don't believe these FBI Science-Liars!
WIV scientists, Bannan says, had "thousands of samples in their lab" that they'd collected from bats in Yunnan Province in southern China. The WIV had been researching them "for years," he says. Among them were viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2. Intelligence agencies still don't have a complete picture of which virus samples were housed at the WIV. But the scientists' "lack of candor" about their inventory, as well as their years of work manipulating coronaviruses to determine the changes necessary to infect humans, added to the circumstantial evidence indicating that the outbreak might have started among the WIV's researchers. Shi Zhengli and a WIV administrator did not respond to requests for comment.
A moderate-confidence assessment does not equal certainty. Nor does it mean that the FBI is correct. Typically, it means that an intelligence agency has information that is "plausible," with sources that are "proving to be high quality," but it may need more sources to reach a high-confidence assessment, says Shawn Turner, former public affairs director for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under President Obama. "We were not asked to prove anything," says Bannan. "We were asked to make an assessment," which involves the weighing of evidence. Though he considers a natural origin possible, he says, "To me, there is enough scientific evidence to say it is likely this was a lab incident." Bannan, a registered Democrat, has a PhD in microbiology, and spent almost 20 years as an FBI scientist. In 2009, he was among the recipients of the FBI Director's Award for outstanding scientific advancement for his work on the anthrax investigation. He says he decided to come forward for several reasons. One was to counter what he described as inaccurate claims espoused by some proponents of the natural-origin theory, their discrediting of government scientists, and the branding of the lab hypothesis as a right-wing conspiracy theory. He also wanted to counter what he described as the bias toward a natural spillover in the government's reviews to date, and the sidelining of scientific evidence supporting a laboratory origin. ... Shi tracked the origin of the outbreak to horseshoe bats. Her research--some of it funded by the National Institutes of Health through an American nonprofit named EcoHealth Alliance--found some bat viruses that could infect human cells through a protein called the ACE2 receptor. In March 2020, when Bannan was assigned to assist the FBI team investigating COVID-19's origins, the group confronted an obvious question. How had a bat virus seemingly primed to infect humans arrived in Wuhan in the first place? The bats in question are not believed to be native to Wuhan, and many of the horseshoe bats that Shi studied lived roughly 1,000 miles to the southwest, in Yunnan Province. ... With COVID-19, however, no infected animal has ever been identified, despite an extensive search. As Bannan puts it, "How and where the SARS-CoV-2 virus became well adapted to humans is the question that compels scientists to examine the laboratory origin." ... The WIV team hunted far and wide for bat-coronavirus samples, but one source in particular--an abandoned mine shaft in the mountains of Mojiang County in Yunnan Province--stood out to Bannan and the FBI scientists. In 2012, six miners became gravely ill after shoveling bat guano from the floor of the mine shaft. Their symptoms included cough, fever, and labored breathing. They were treated at the First Affiliated Hospital at the Kunming Medical University in Yunnan's capital, where a medical student chronicled details of the incident in a thesis. The pulmonologist who consulted on their case was one of China's top SARS experts. Suspecting a viral SARS infection, Dr. Zhong Nanshan learned that the guano came from rufous horseshoe bats, the same species implicated in the 2002 SARS outbreak. Within months, three of the six miners were dead. The WIV tested their blood samples and found four of them positive for SARS antibodies, according to a separate thesis by a graduate student at China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The mine shaft became a hot spot for studying viral emergence, and the WIV collected numerous samples from there, including one it named Ra4991. Six years later, with SARS-CoV-2 overtaking the world and an army of scientists searching for a progenitor virus, Shi Zhengli and several colleagues published a paper noting that the WIV possessed a viral sample they had named RaTG13, which proved to be 96.2% similar to SARS-CoV-2. That meant RaTG13 was the closest known match at the time to the virus that caused COVID-19. What Shi failed to mention in her paper was that RaTG13 had been renamed. Its original name was Ra4991--the virus from the abandoned mine shaft where three miners likely contracted a fatal illness. As internet sleuths connected the dots between RaTG13 and Ra4991, Shi updated her published work, and tried to explain the omission.
Posted by: Ace at 04:25 PM | Comments (330) | Trackbacks (Suck)
NYT Fires Half of Its Editorial Staff
Learn to do something. Anything, really.
Brent Staples is the useless black editorial writer that no one reads, not the neocon writer Brett Stephens, who people only read when he admits he's been wrong about everything in his adult life as an "intellectual." The New York Times branded these do-nothing DEIs as low quality.
The New York Times is reshuffling its operations at the opinion section -- reducing the frequency of its editorials while shrinking its roster of editorial board writers, according to a report. The Gray Lady has reportedly offered several of its editorial board members new jobs within the opinion section or buyout packages if they choose to leave the company. Mara Gay (who is frequently seen on left-leaning news channel MSNBC), Brent Staples, Jesse Wegman and Farah Stockman are editorial board members who were given the option of accepting a buyout, the news site Semafor reported on Monday.Mara Gay is the innumerate idiot who did some quick arithmetic and asserted that if Michael Bloomberg took the $500 million he spent on his 2020 bid for president and paid it out to American citizens, he could give them each over one million dollars. Because you know there are fewer than 500 citizens in America.
An MSNBC news anchor and pundit are being ridiculed after suggesting that Michael Bloomberg could have given every American a million dollars with the amount of money spent on his campaign. While discussing Bloomberg's huge investment in advertising campaigns throughout his 2020 Democratic-run, anchor Brian Williams discussed a tweet making the claim with a glaringly obvious mathematical calculation. He suggested that because Bloomberg had spent $500 million on his campaign and there were 327 million people in America, he could have given each member of the population a million pounds with money to spare. Williams showed a screen-grab of the tweet during the broadcast that read: "Bloomberg spent $500 million on ads. The US population is 327 million. He could have given each American $1 million and still have money left over. I feel like a $1 million check would be life-changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on ads and STILL LOST." Speaking in disbelief, Williams said: "When I read it tonight on social media it kind of all became clear." Even more embarrasingly, in the middle of reading out, the tweet remarked: "Don't tell us if you're ahead of us on the math." NYT Editorial Board Member Mara Gay then agreed: "It's an incredible way of putting it. It's true. It's disturbing. It does suggest what we're talking about here which is there's too much money in politics." A Twitter with the username Andrew Kaczynski posted a clip of the mistake on Twitter with the caption "how did this end up on tv?"
Brent Staples is the useless black editorial writer that no one reads, not the neocon writer Brett Stephens, who people only read when he admits he's been wrong about everything in his adult life as an "intellectual." The New York Times branded these do-nothing DEIs as low quality.
Oh great, because voters in Montana don't hear enough about liberal New York Times' "journalists'" opinions on every fkcuing thing.
"Publishing fewer, higher-quality editorials, the thesis goes, will lead to more audience attention," according to the Semafor report. The Times is also mulling possible changes to its endorsement policy, including backing candidates in races across the country, according to Semafor.
Oh have an infarction, asshole.
A Times spokesperson confirmed the accuracy of Semafor's reporting and declined further comment. Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury, deputy editor Patrick Healy, and publisher AG Sulzberger are considering restructuring the opinion department by having more editors participate in the editorial board while reducing the number of staff dedicated exclusively to writing editorials, according to Semafor. Earlier this year, longtime op-ed columnist Paul Krugman went public with his criticisms of Kingsbury and Healy -- accusing the two executives of effectively censoring his opinion pieces before he left the newspaper late last year.
Krugman told Columbia Journalism Review that the two editorial bosses were "exerting a heavy hand on what went out under my name" and that as a result, he "approached Mondays and Thursdays (when his columns appeared) with dread." On the days his column appeared in the Times' pages, he "often spent the afternoon in rage" after publication, according to CJR.
... The final straw for Krugman was when he was told by Kingsbury that his output would be reduced from two columns per week to just one.And he had previously been reduced from three columns per week to two. It's almost as if everyone knows Paul Krugman is a crackpot asshole who spews nothing but thoughtless reflexive leftwing talking points.
Mark Hemingway
@Heminator Since Trump got elected, Ruth Marcus, Jim Acosta, Norah O'Donnell, Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell, Chris Wallace, Joy Reid, Neil Cavuto, Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, Lester Holt all resigned or were fired. They shut down 538 and now they're getting rid of the entire NYT editorial board. Amazing.
Posted by: Ace at 03:23 PM | Comments (331) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Trump To Lay Off 1,300 Department of Education Layabouts and Slapdicks, Cutting Staff by Nearly Half
Just kidding. But also kinda serious.
The Trump administration has begun cutting over 1,300 employees from the Department of Education, reducing its workforce by nearly half. The move is part of a broader effort to downsize the federal government and refocus the agency's mission. Key Details: The department will reduce its workforce from 4,130 to approximately 2,200 employees.David Strom wonders about a CNN report which claims that allegedly "libertarian" organization CATO is actually worried that Trump is cutting too deep.
The agency says the cuts target redundant and unnecessary operations while maintaining core student aid and civil rights functions.
Secretary Linda McMahon framed the reduction as a step toward restoring efficiency and accountability in education.
The department is consolidating its Washington, D.C., offices, closing some leased spaces nationwide.
The move has sparked protests from unions and Democrats, who argue it will harm students. Diving Deeper: The Department of Education has begun one of the most significant workforce reductions in its history, as the Trump administration finalizes cuts to over 1,300 employees--nearly half of the agency's total workforce. The decision, which takes effect over the coming weeks, is part of a broader push to streamline the federal government and reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies.
Such sweeping reduction "is a reason to be concerned," one expert previously told CNN. "If [Trump] says, 'We're going to have a 50% reduction in staff,' there is reason to be concerned about how the system will work: Is that enough people?" said Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute. "We're going to learn whether or not they can do the job with fewer of them."Note that CNN admits that he said this previously, speaking as a hypothetical. Still, it's odd -- or completely expected, actually -- that an organization that claims to be libertarian or conservative and hammers donor checks based on that representation would turn out to be yet another controlled opposition front.
Posted by: Ace at 02:15 PM | Comments (517) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Politico: Internal Democrat Polling Shows "Massive Branding Problem"
Ah, of course. Politico reports this in terms of the Democrats' preferred framing, that their problems only have to do with "messaging" and "branding," and not at all with their core pseudo-religious cult doctrines.
You just have to stop saying "LatinX" and then bob's your uncle!The Democratic Party's brand is in rough shape in the congressional battlegrounds. Nearly two months into the second Donald Trump administration, a majority of voters in battleground House districts still believe Democrats in Congress are "more focused on helping other people than people like me," according to an internal poll conducted by the Democratic group Navigator Research. Among independents, just 27 percent believe Democrats are focused on helping them, compared with 55 percent who said they're focused on others. The polling, shared first with POLITICO, is one of the first comprehensive surveys of voters in swing congressional districts since November 2024. House Democratic members and staff are scheduled to hear from one of the researchers, who will present their findings, at their caucus' Issues Conference on Wednesday in Leesburg, Virginia. The meeting is aimed at guiding members' messaging as they prepare for the 2026 midterms, and the survey suggests the party has an enormous amount of work to do to repair its image. "The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people's challenges," said Molly Murphy, one of the pollsters who worked on the research by Navigator, a project within the Hub Project, a Democratic nonprofit group. "Even though voters are critical about Trump and some of the things he's doing, that criticism of Trump doesn't translate into trust in Democrats. The trust has to be earned." Especially alarming for Democrats were findings around voters' views of Democrats and work. Just 44 percent of those polled said they think Democrats respect work, while even fewer -- 39 percent -- said the party values work. Only 42 percent said Democrats share their values. A majority, meanwhile -- 56 percent -- said Democrats are not looking out for working people. Only 39 percent believe Democrats have the right priorities. "We've always had the stigma of being the 'welfare party,' but I do think this is related to a post-Covid feeling that we don't care about people working, and we've had a very long hangover from that, which feels really, really consequential," Murphy said. "How can you care about working people if you don't care about work? It's going to be really hard in the midterms if voters don't think we care about work." Republicans, too, face their own branding problems, according to the survey, with 54 percent of voters saying they view Republicans in Congress unfavorably. Only about a third of voters said they approve of the GOP's handling of the economy.David Strom points out that this means 46% of the public approves of congressional Republicans -- which Strom remarks is nearly miraculous. When are congressional approval rates ever above 50%? Or even close to 50%?
Sounds like they don't have a problem with their brand so much as a problem with their core ideology of elevating niche preoccupations over more important concerns that affect everybody. When a party is disfavored by the public, you always see retirements. It's not just that the losing party fears they may be turned out of office unless they resign. It's also that it's no fun to work in the minority, with little chance of actually doing anything. Plus the opportunities for grift are so much poorer when you don't have power. No one's giving insider information to a corrupt Democrat who can't even pass a bill to boost their stock price. Two Democrat Senators have already announced they won't seek reelection. Now a third joins them.
But Democrats' difficulties appear to go deeper. For example, the poll found a whopping 69 percent of voters said Democrats were "too focused on being politically correct." Another 51 percent said "elitist" described the Democratic Party well.
Conventional wisdom around midterms usually has the party in the White House losing steam as voters correct for overreach. So why have three Senate Democrats already announced their intent to retire ahead of the 2026 elections?Obviously it's way too early for tea leaves. BUT, now that you've mentioned it, if we are looking at tea leaves, it sure seems that Democrats don't believe they'll be taking the majority in the Senate any time soon.
Advertisement Jeanne Shaheen made the surprising announcement this morning that she would forego a fourth term, following Tina Smith in Minnesota and Gary Peters in Michigan. Shaheen probably would have had a decent incumbent advantage in New Hampshire -- and Chris Sununu had already passed on challenging her.
Posted by: Ace at 01:15 PM | Comments (402) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Inflation Is Cut By More Than Half In Trump's First Month In Office
He said inflation would start coming down "on day one."
Promise kept! The last reading on inflation under the Usurper Zombie was 5.7%, annualized. Trump's first reading is 2.4%, annualized.In his first full month back in office, Trump oversaw a sharp slowdown in inflation, which fell more than expected in February. The monthly rate dropped by more than half from January under Biden as gas prices declined, energy costs eased, and core inflation hit a four-year low--early signs that Trump's policies are already making an impact. Key Details: February's monthly CPI increase of 0.2% was lower than expected, well below January's 0.5% under former President Joe Biden. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, came in at 3.1% annually--its lowest level in four years. Energy prices dipped 0.2% in February, with gasoline prices falling 3.1%, offering relief to American consumers. Diving Deeper: Inflation took a noticeable step down in February, delivering an early economic win for the Trump administration just a month into his return to the White House. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday that consumer prices rose 0.2% over the month and 2.8% year-over-year, both coming in below economists' expectations. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, also slowed to a 3.1% annual increase--its lowest level in four years--signaling that price pressures are easing. E.J. Antoni, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, pointed to this dramatic reversal, noting on X that inflation had "reaccelerated since January of last year" before plummeting under Trump. His analysis shows that price growth, which had been stubbornly high throughout Biden's presidency, immediately slowed once Biden left office.
Posted by: Ace at 12:07 PM | Comments (397) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Wednesday Morning Rant
Obviated Democracy
There was a European election a few months ago and it was perhaps an example of Our Sacred Democracy in action. At the end of November while the dust was still settling around Trump's re-election and the mad scramble was fully underway, Romania had an election of its own. A man called Calin Georgescu got enough votes in that election to proceed to the runoff. His platform is unacceptable, as he is a nationalist, a Ukraine skeptic, a COVID skeptic and, if reporting is to be believed, also a Nazi, a moon-landing denier and a stooge of Putin.
He was, of course, a "far-right candidate." Whether that's true or not, I have no idea. But in the wake of his electoral surge, there was an inevitable recount. He won that, too. Then it went to court. The opponents to the election outcome argued not that the election was fake, but that it was manipulated by Russian social media operations, unleashing dormant TikTok accounts and buying off influencers to back Georgescu without disclosure, in violation of the law.
Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM | Comments (243) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope
Henri Rousseau
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The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope
Henri Rousseau
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (341) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Report — 3/ 12 /25
And on a few stomach-turning fronts, the Democrats continue to do what Meathead Reiner has failed to do since Trump won his massive landslide victory last November, and that is set themselves on fire. But is it even possible for that which emanates from the Infernal reaches to set itself on fire in the first place. Only time will tell in the long run, but putting the hyperbole aside for a moment, we have the Democrats falling all over themselves defending a terrorist cheerleader and quite likely directly linked to terrorists themselves, in protesting his deportation.
Emphasis mine, as it raises some very interesting questions, particularly who gets to decide what defines each of those things. As Justice Potter Stewart stated vis a vis obscenity, I'll know it when I see it. If you'v read my opinions here and elsewhere, you know where I stand on Democrats and Leftists. So I'm most curious as for President Trump to amplify his thoughts on what constitutes being "anti-American" and how to deal with that?! Believe me, everything wrong with this country has its root cause in our educational system dating back to John Dewey, the infestation of the refugees from "the Frankfurt school" like Marcuse and Adorno all the way up to Bill Ayers and his acolytes that resulted in garbage like the 1619 Project and Ibram X. Krement's hideous racialist Jive Kampf screeds being pumped into several generations of American kids' heads creating as Rush Limbaugh said "skulls full of mush."
The other aspect to the virulent opposition to giving this fiend the boot is that it "intersects" (SWIDT?) with the immigration issue, specifically finally getting serious about sealing the damn border and deporting en masse as many illegal aliens as we can round up. Something that hasn't been done in well over 60 or more years.
As we have pondered since the election, was that event the signal of a sea-change in the mindset of the American people and electorate? Or is the demise of the Democrat party, even those declaring it from within the movement itself premature, or what is really going on here?
Yeah, keep it up genius. Filthy courveh. 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.
And on a few stomach-turning fronts, the Democrats continue to do what Meathead Reiner has failed to do since Trump won his massive landslide victory last November, and that is set themselves on fire. But is it even possible for that which emanates from the Infernal reaches to set itself on fire in the first place. Only time will tell in the long run, but putting the hyperbole aside for a moment, we have the Democrats falling all over themselves defending a terrorist cheerleader and quite likely directly linked to terrorists themselves, in protesting his deportation.
Watching Democrats try on different arguments to thwart Donald Trump, I’m reminded of a story involving the late Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight. After John Feinstein wrote an unflattering portrait of Knight, he responded by attacking the author mercilessly. In one barrage, Knight called him both “a whore and a pimp,” leading Feinstein to quip: “I wish he’d make up his mind so I’d know how to dress.” So it is with Democrats as they search desperately for a way to rally the public against Trump.
Their only guiding light — to be against whatever he is for — is creating confusing contradictions and leading them ever deeper into political parody. Consider that the same members of Congress who refused to stand as Trump honored a child with cancer and families who lost loved ones to murderous illegal immigrants are now defending an Arab immigrant who is a leader of a group that sympathizes with terror organizations Hamas and Hezbollah and calls for the “end of Western civilization.” Defending him is a strange hill to die on, but the Dems have become a very strange party. The suggestion that he’s a political prisoner led an astonished GOP senator, Tom Cotton, to respond by asking if it’s true “that Dems are fighting for a pro-Hamas foreigner who has made life hell for Jews on campus?” Sadly, it is true, with House Dem Jamie Raskin confirming it with an outrageous attack on the White House. The arrest of Khalil “is ripped straight from the authoritarian playbook,” Raskin said in a statement, and charged it proves Trump “is hellbent on wielding fear and intimidation as weapons to crush political dissent.” Ho hum, another day in the crazy lane. The case is instructive for another reason, too. Columbia anti-Israel agitator Mahmoud Khalil being deported over ‘pro-Hamas propaganda flyers,’ White House says Beyond the Dems’ madness, they and their lickspittle media are hell-bent on distorting the facts by echoing Khalil’s claim that he was just exercising his free speech rights. This is especially rich coming from the party that created cancel culture and defended the Biden junta's censorship regime on social media. . . . . . Trump’s promise —
As Trump himself put it, his team “will not tolerate pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American” activity on college campuses. “We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again.”
Emphasis mine, as it raises some very interesting questions, particularly who gets to decide what defines each of those things. As Justice Potter Stewart stated vis a vis obscenity, I'll know it when I see it. If you'v read my opinions here and elsewhere, you know where I stand on Democrats and Leftists. So I'm most curious as for President Trump to amplify his thoughts on what constitutes being "anti-American" and how to deal with that?! Believe me, everything wrong with this country has its root cause in our educational system dating back to John Dewey, the infestation of the refugees from "the Frankfurt school" like Marcuse and Adorno all the way up to Bill Ayers and his acolytes that resulted in garbage like the 1619 Project and Ibram X. Krement's hideous racialist Jive Kampf screeds being pumped into several generations of American kids' heads creating as Rush Limbaugh said "skulls full of mush."
The other aspect to the virulent opposition to giving this fiend the boot is that it "intersects" (SWIDT?) with the immigration issue, specifically finally getting serious about sealing the damn border and deporting en masse as many illegal aliens as we can round up. Something that hasn't been done in well over 60 or more years.
As we have pondered since the election, was that event the signal of a sea-change in the mindset of the American people and electorate? Or is the demise of the Democrat party, even those declaring it from within the movement itself premature, or what is really going on here?
Democrats are in deep, deep trouble, according to their own internal polling. Politico’s Elena Schneider, revealing the Democrat numbers, wrote on Tuesday that the Democrat brand is in the gutter. “The Democratic Party’s brand is in rough shape in the congressional battlegrounds,” Schneider wrote. “Nearly two months into the second Donald Trump administration, a majority of voters in battleground House districts still believe Democrats in Congress are ‘more focused on helping other people than people like me,’ according to an internal poll conducted by the Democrat group Navigator Research. Among independents, just 27 percent believe Democrats are focused on helping them, compared with 55 percent who said they’re focused on others.” Democrat pollster Molly Murphy is quoted in the Politico piece as saying while voters were somewhat critical of Trump in some spots, the Democrats have serious damage to fix with their own brand before voters trust them in government again. Murphy and others from Navigator, which is part of Democrat nonprofit the Hub Project, are expected to present these polling numbers to House Democrats in Leesburg, Virginia, at their Issues Conference later this week. “The Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people’s challenges,” Murphy said. “Even though voters are critical about Trump and some of the things he’s doing, that criticism of Trump doesn’t translate into trust in Democrats. The trust has to be earned.”What these people are not asking themselves is what is the Democrat "Brand" in the first place? It can't be supporting things that the majority of American people reject as insanity/depravity and/or declaring Trump to be literally Hitler, and that the Left are the defenders of "our precious democracy." Of course, this kind of rhetoric is most unhelpful to their cause, yet still they persist:
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.) suggested Tuesday that Americans elected President Donald Trump because the country is in its "angry teenage years" and voters' brains have not fully formed.
"I don’t think there’s anyone who feels like what’s going on right now is normal, even if you voted for Trump," Slotkin said on The View. "We’re about to turn 250 years old, right? We’re still pretty young for a country."
Yeah, keep it up genius. Filthy courveh. 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
- As birthrates drop in developed nations, mass immigration reshapes demographics, raising concerns about cultural integration, intelligence decline, and the long-term stability of advanced economies.
Immigration and Fertility by Nation
- "An affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice."
Daniel Greenfield: Dems Suddenly Decide Targeting Lawyers is Wrong
- Christian Toto: Sober, relentless look at antisemitism's rise on college campuses and beyond
‘October 8’ – 2025’s Most Important Documentary
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:42 AM | Comments (340) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Daily Tech News 12 March 2025
Top Story
- Apple's Mac Studio has been updated with the 32-core M3 Ultra CPU, which is great if you want to run Handbrake transcoding all day but kind of sucks for anything else. (Tom's Hardware)
Well, I don't have Passmark scores for this particular chip, but the 24-core M2 Ultra was slower than a 12-core previous-generation AMD desktop chip, and the latest 16-core M4 Max is slower than a 12-core previous generation AMD laptop chip.
So it's perfect if you're spending someone else's money, have a square foot of desk space, run Handbrake transcoding all day, and electricity costs ten dollars per kWh.
It also looks pretty. I'll grant Apple that.
But you still can't upgrade memory or storage after purchase. You can configure as much at 512GB of RAM and 16TB of storage, but that will cost you over $14,000.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (167) | Trackbacks (Suck)
March 11, 2025
Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - March 11, 2025 [scampydog]
View from the Bandon Lighthouse - looking out over the Coquille River and Pacific Ocean.
Good evening and Happy Tuesday ONT. Spring is inbound! Change of seasons and change of the times. America is finding its legs again. Thank you for spending some of your Tuesday evening here. Let's get to the ONT.
Good evening and Happy Tuesday ONT. Spring is inbound! Change of seasons and change of the times. America is finding its legs again. Thank you for spending some of your Tuesday evening here. Let's get to the ONT.
Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:59 PM | Comments (397) | Trackbacks (Suck)
TGIT Cafe
by Mei Xu
by Mei Xu
Posted by: Ace at 07:34 PM | Comments (344) | Trackbacks (Suck)
USAID Official Orders All Remaining Employees to Shed All Remaining Documents
Unbelievable. But wait -- the Highly Suspicious Shredding Party is Trump's fault, Politico has decided.
A senior official at USAID instructed the agency's remaining staff to convene at the agency's now-former headquarters in Washington on Tuesday for an "all day" group effort to destroy documents stored there, many of which contain sensitive information. The materials earmarked for destruction include contents of the agency's "classified safes and personnel documents" at the Ronald Reagan Building, said an email sent by USAID's acting executive director, Erica Carr, and obtained by POLITICO. "Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break," the email said. Carr instructed staff to label the burn bags with the words "SECRET" and "USAID/B/IO/" (agency shorthand for "bureau or independent office") in dark Sharpie. The email didn't provide any reason for the document destruction.
The effort also underscores the tumultuous way in which the Trump administration is dismantling an agency that once managed a $40 billion annual budget and had more than 10,000 staff around the world.Trump made them destroy evidence of their lawbreaking!
Posted by: Ace at 06:32 PM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Republicans Scramble to Pass "Clean" Continuing Resolution Bil
CR Passes 217-213
CR Passes 217-213
Conservative BriefI saw Thomas Massie once again declared he will not vote for any budget, but Chip Roy xeeted favorably of this one. Someone at Hot Air pointed out that if Democrats do force a shutdown, it will beTrump deciding which programs get priority and get funded during the shut-down, and which are drained of all money. That is a not-so-bad backup plan. The Hill:
@ConservBrief BREAKING NOW Houses of Representatives PASSES Continuing Resolution Bill by a vote of 217-213. Bill now heads to the Senate.
House Republicans are racing to pass their bill by 11:59 p.m. EDT Friday to avert a government shutdown, teeing up a final vote on the legislation Tuesday afternoon. The chamber voted 216-214 to adopt a rule -- which governs debate on legislation -- for Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) continuing resolution. The measure would keep the government funded through Sept. 30. It's unknown whether the bill will have enough support to pass, as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has maintained he would not vote in favor of it. Several other Republicans are undecided, even after hearing support from Vice President Vance. Democrats are expected to oppose the legislation in large numbers as they raise concerns about the cuts included in the bill. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are cautious about blocking the funding bill, fearing a government shutdown could backfire on them politically.And as usual, that's the only thing they care about. Notice the media is now making the case for a shutdown -- while in the past, they've screamed that the country would be destroyed by a shutdown. Anything to prop up their degenerate Communist party. Only 29% of voters support a shutdown -- almost all of them #Resistance progressives who will do anything to thwart Trump and his voters.
Posted by: Ace at 05:32 PM | Comments (344) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Disney's Snow Woke Expected to Tank at Box Office as Projections Keep Falling
As we suspected: Only about 20% of the country favors this constant woke propaganda. Unfortunately, it turns out that it's the woke propaganda enthusiasts who control all the media.
But the public has had it up to their eye teeth in woke and won't be having it any longer.Disney has its abrasive woke non-star Rachel Zegler on lockdown, almost certainly because they know she's a toxic person who will hurt the film's prospects even further if she's allowed to publicly run her giant yap.
Snow White has more than just poisonous apples to worry about, judging from the upcoming movie's revised box office forecast. The live-action re-imagining of Disney's animated classic is already facing an uphill battle thanks to all the controversy swirling about the Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler-led film. However, now the most recent projections indicate that Snow White could make far less than the $63 million to $70 million originally predicted back in early February. Well, according to a new report published by The Hollywood Reporter, Snow White is now eyeing a more modest neighborhood of $48 million to $58 million domestically. Originally, long-range forecasts published by Boxoffice Pro indicated director Marc Webb's take on the beloved character might make somewhere between $65 million to $85 million, and, even on the low end, that window was much more promising than the new numbers in the revised forecast.
Here are some of Fair Rachel's greatest hits:
With just days to go before the release of its live-action Snow White remake, Disney is drastically reducing its usual Hollywood premiere spectacle. The studio is still hosting an event on March 15 at the El Capitan Theatre, but it won't include the extensive red carpet and media presence typically associated with a major Disney release. Instead, only photographers and a house crew will be allowed to cover the event, with no traditional press interviews taking place. Disney has not commented on this shift, but even Variety acknowledges that this decision comes amid ongoing controversy surrounding the film. The move follows months of backlash and marketing missteps, making it clear that Disney is playing defense as the film nears its March 21 theatrical release. In the past, Disney has gone all-out for live-action remakes, with elaborate red carpet events, numerous interviews, and a media blitz to build hype. The decision to scale back this aspect of Snow White signals a lack of confidence in the film's reception. For context, even underperforming Disney films have received full red carpet treatment. ... This premiere downgrade aligns with Disney's broader approach to limiting Snow White's exposure. As we previously reported, lead actress Rachel Zegler has been noticeably absent from American press appearances. Instead, Disney sent her on a scripted, highly controlled press tour in Japan, where she was unlikely to face tough questions about her past comments or the film's creative direction. This is a stark contrast to how Disney promotes its other high-profile films. Usually, the lead star is front and center in talk shows, interviews, and press junkets leading up to the release. The decision to keep Zegler largely away from the American media suggests the studio is trying to prevent further controversy.
She mocked the original film as being dated and creepy. She said that is about Snow White being a leader. The "Fairest of them all" doesn't mean beauty but who is most fair and just. She posted "Free Palestine" while her co-star, Gal Gadot, is Israeli. She said she should be paid if she has to wear a Disney princess dress for several hours a day. She wished "No peace" to Trump supporters. The media keeps trying to blame racism, but there are many other reasons fans are upset.Gal Gadot seems to be firing back against the Li'l Terror Supporter Rachel.
Disney's Snow White has been a public relations nightmare from the start, but now, it seems the controversy has gone beyond bad trailers and box office projections. The two lead actresses, Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler, appear to be on completely opposite sides of one of the most divisive global conflicts of our time--and it may be showing in more ways than one. At an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) event this week, Gadot received the ADL International Leadership Award and delivered a passionate speech affirming her support for Israel and condemning what she sees as growing hostility toward the Jewish community. The speech comes just months after Zegler posted "#FreePalestine" while promoting the Snow White trailer, directly tying the Disney film to her stance on the Middle Eastern conflict. While Gadot never directly mentioned Zegler, the timing, wording, and strong rebuke of those who "celebrate hostility" certainly feel like a pointed response. And if that wasn't enough, the tension between the two actresses became even more obvious when they appeared together at the Academy Awards this week.When the pair presented an award together at the Oscars, people noticed they stood as far apart as possible and did not make eye contact with each other. They seemed ashamed to encounter each other in public, like when you run into your brother-in-law at a porno store. Or so I am told. The movie opens March 21st. I hope it is the final nail in the coffin of woke propaganda.
Posted by: Ace at 05:12 PM | Comments (455) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Ukraine Agrees to 30 Day Ceasefire; Rubio Will Take the Deal to Russia
Meanwhile...
Either Russia accepts or they reveal that the negotiations are pointless.
Eric DaughertyVideo of the announcement here. I can't embed it because Twitter may have disabled embeds, given the mass denial-of-service attack on them. Which Elon Musk said was made by IPs originating in Ukraine.
@EricLDaugh SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: We've offered Ukraine an immediate ceasefire. They accepted. We will now take this to the Russians. The ball is now in their court.
Clay Travis
@ClayTravis Ukraine has agreed to a 30 day ceasefire. Incredible work by Trump team. Now if Russia agrees, Trump may have gotten cease fires in the Middle East and Europe in his first 60 days. Nobel Peace Prize worthy:
Meanwhile...
US Homeland Security NewsBonus: This sniveling foreign agent again.
@defense_civil25 Update: US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been implicated in funding a Ukrainian organization, Molfar, which labeled Vice President J.D. Vance and other US officials and public figures as "foreign propagandists" aligned with Russia, according to an investigation by The Grayzone. Molfar, established in 2019, describes itself as an open-source intelligence community platform which "collects lists of Ukrainian enemies to bring war criminals to justice." The group's website identifies USAID and the US Civil Research and Development Fund (CRDF) as partners, indicating financial and operational support from US government agencies.
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_ BREAKING: Eric Ciaramella, the anonymous "whistleblower" who helped Adam Schiff orchestrate an impeachment of Trump over a phone call w/ Zelensky, just decried on a podcast "these unwarranted personal attacks by Trump" on Zelensky, whose regime Ciaramella's been secretly advising
Posted by: Ace at 02:44 PM | Comments (471) | Trackbacks (Suck)
After Downplaying the Price of Eggs for Four Years, Democrats Are Now Babbling About the Price of Eggs.
But the Price of Eggs Has "Plummeted" Under Trump.
But the Price of Eggs Has "Plummeted" Under Trump.
The Democrats' major attack on Trump is that he promised inflation would begin to fall on "day one" and it hasn't fallen yet. That was the point of that embarrassing robotic-repetition-of-the-same-message we saw on Monday of last week.
Disgraced coked-up hasbeen loser Al Franken just pushed this Democrat talking point last night. Scott Jennings pushed back. But bad news for Democrats on that front.Remember when Democrats thought they had a winning message to combat Trump's popularity by harping about egg prices? They just lost their favorite talking point. "Instead of leaning into Trump's teardown of the federal government or his alliance with billionaire lieutenant Elon Musk, they're steering to what they perceive as the everyday concerns of Americans -- none more important than grocery prices and eggs in particular," the Associated Press reported earlier this month. ...It is very important we see some kind of improvement in the rate of inflation. The earlier we see it, the more likely we are to actually win the midterms.
According to Trading Economics, after reaching an all-time high of $8.17 per dozen in early March, egg prices have plummeted to $5.51, which now sits below the nearly $7 average when President Trump took office in January.
As the above chart shows, prices were trending up in the final months of Biden's presidency. However, Democrats didn't acknowledge the rising prices until after Trump took office in an attempt to blame his policies for the rising prices. The ironic thing about the Democrats' attacks on Trump is that he inherited the egg price situation from Joe Biden. The Biden administration's disastrous decision to slaughter 150 million egg-laying chickens in an attempt to contain avian flu is what sent prices soaring. Major restaurant chains like Denny's and Waffle House were forced to implement egg surcharges just to stay afloat. Some markets saw prices reach absurd highs, with a San Francisco Safeway charging a mind-boggling $10.99 per dozen.
Posted by: Ace at 02:27 PM | Comments (456) | Trackbacks (Suck)
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