First-World Problems...

It's copper. It's a sink. And it tarnishes in a matter of a few days. So the question is: Should I polish it twice a week so it looks like... you know... copper? Or let it go for a rustic look?

What? No! Of course I rarely use the damned thing. It's a bar sink whose planned function has been lost in the mists of time!

PS. Has anyone ever died from blood loss from shaving cuts?

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (307) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Is Our Strategic Relationship With Europe a "Sunk Cost Fallacy?"

It is axiomatic among the ruling classes of the West that the strategic and cultural relationship between America and Europe is the bedrock of global stability. They will trot out all sorts of platitudes reinforcing the idea that our shared culture, love of democratic ideals, dedication to market economies, pluralism, blah... blah... blah... makes us a common culture separated by an ocean.

And it couldn't be farther from the truth! The disconnect built up a huge head of steam in the 1960s as the Soviets built a massive and comprehensive disinformation campaign designed to weaken Europe and make it more accepting of Soviet socialism and distancing itself from America. It demonized the American military presence in Europe, inflated the threat of nuclear war with America as the atomic bully, nurtured an active socialist political effort, supported a maniacal post-modern interpretation of history and culture, and pushed Europe toward what can only be called an unaligned stance.

It worked. Of course with a huge amount of help from Europe itself, which grew rich by not having to pay for its own defense...relying on the United States to counter the Soviet threat. The current state of most of Europe is that of a failing, demographically challenged region that is gleefully importing 7th century savages to clean their toilets, gobble up their welfare benefits, and rape their women. They are a communitarian culture without a shred of individuality, love of country, martial spirit, or even a sense of history.

With the exception of a few eastern European countries whose experience with communism is fresh in their minds, the continent is content to drift into soft socialism, with its attendant decrease in standards of living. Yes, there are attempts to wrest control from the elites who desire that outcome; France, Germany, and Italy are pushing back with what are laughably called "Far Right" political parties. But what that really means is soft socialism with stricter border controls.

The current dust-up in Eastern Ukraine is a perfect example of Europe's failure. They are obsessive in their hatred of Russia and Putin, but use Russia's natural gas! They want Russia driven back to its original borders, but are unwilling to pay for the effort, rebuild their armed forces to present a strong and unified front, and certainly not send troops! No... they prefer that America spends its treasure on what is a regional border dispute.

They rail against Israel's defensive war against militant Islam, ignoring the reality that Israel is fighting for the entire West. Yet they trade with Iran and even evade sanctions to provide the Mad Mullahs with technology that will bring them closer to an atomic bomb.

They are happy to take Chinese and Arab money, carefully ignoring that its intent is to buy influence.

And we are supposed to continue to spend our blood and treasure to defend them?

Why America Abandoning Europe Would Be a Strategic Mistake

And while there is a consensus in DC that China and the Indo-Pacific should be prioritized in US strategy going forward, for the first time in a century the fundamentals of the future of US relations with Europe are up for debate.

How did we get here? For too long Atlanticism has been taken for granted as the cornerstone of American foreign policy, and as in a marriage of many years, what seemed obvious for so long needs to be re-articulated afresh.

Historically America's commitment to Europe has been about the fundamentals of geopolitics. The United States is a quintessentially naval power situated in a hemisphere separated from the Eurasian landmass by two oceans. Since the early twentieth century it has been a given that accessing secure maritime routes across the Atlantic -- and in a national emergency, controlling them -- is in the country's irreducible national interest. The ability to do so has ensured the security of the American homeland and the Western hemisphere, and equally importantly, the nation's prosperity and economic growth.

The author very carefully fails to address the huge difference between America's commitment to Europe, and Europe's commitment to America. It is long past the time when we should evaluate the alliances with Europe from the perspective of what is good for America. When the relationship is so one-sided, and the contempt for America that oozes out of most European capitals is obvious, why bother?

Simply put, if America loses credibility in Europe, it will lose credibility in the Pacific, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

So, it's time to conceptualize again and, most importantly, communicate to the electorate why today Europe matters to the United States' security to the degree that it has for over a century now, and -- while it may sound counterintuitive to some as China continues to expand its military at speed and scale -- that it should be prioritized going forward.

Our credibility is unimportant. We do not need the approval of the Bien-Pensants in Paris and Berlin to take measures designed to benefit America. Credibility on the geopolitical stage is effete nonsense. What counts is military and economic power. If that requires military bases in Europe, make them strict financial relationships, but the NATO conceit must end. We are NATO, and it is an idea that is past its time. Countering the Soviet threat sounds lovely in 1968, but it sounds expensive and duplicative in 2025. NATO is now a jobs program for top-heavy militaries, and even worse, its expansion has made Eastern Europe a much less safe place! And the alliance is nothing of a sort...just look at Turkey as an example. They are actively working against one of our most loyal allies, are busily trying to expand their influence in the Middle East, and are supporting Islamists across the region.

How is all of that good for us?

It isn't, but the momentum of 75 years of NATO is very difficult to stop, in large part because our sclerotic government sees the huge investment as a signal of an unbreakable commitment. But the best thing possible for America's strategic security would be to evaluate NATO and Europe from the perspective of 2025...not 1949.

We need real allies, not allies of convenience that cash our checks and then laugh that we are paying.

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (353) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 1-12-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (431) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 12 January 2025

Top Story

• Enron is promoting the Enron Egg, the first home nuclear reactor. (MSN)
  
  Which raises the question: Is it a scam if you are screaming at the top of your lungs that you are scamming people?

  Haas said that while small modular reactors do exist, they generally range from the size of a shipping container to a full-sized house. The Enron Egg, he said, is simply too small to generate power at a scale that is both economically viable and safe to operate.

  Yes. Yes it is.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (246) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Open Thread

Posted by: CBD at 10:10 PM | Comments (407) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 1/11/2025

Joel Schumacher

I walked into the filmography of Joel Schumacher without much of the way in expectations. What did I actually know about him beforehand? Mostly, it was his Batman movies, but I somehow expected that the rest of his filmography wasn't like it much. It raised questions about who this man was as an artist. There are three major throughlines in his work: fantasy/unreality, ensemble-based storytelling, and the guardrails of studio filmmaking.

However, while that's the kind of thinking that I usually have while discovering the work of a filmmaker, it's not what I was focusing on as I went through Schumacher's. The dominant thought was how I got this distinct impression that Schumacher made every movie he worked on...worse. That his guiding hand from scripting to pre-production to production to post were beset by bad decisions that made every single project worse. That's not to say that I disliked everything, but even his best films, movies like Falling Down or the John Grisham adaptations of The Client and A Time to Kill, there are choices stemming from production that feel to deviate from basic ideas of the script, approaching situations wrong from a filmmaking perspective.

These sorts of negative reactions from me are always beset by objections from fans of the filmmaker, specific films, or just the idea that concentrated criticism against a creative is naturally unfair. I just need to make it clear that just because I don't like a lot of Schumacher's films (the big one that probably creates arguments is 8MM which bored me) that isn't an attack on you. I just...don't like many of his movies.

Anyway...

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM | Comments (214) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - January 11, 2025 [TRex]

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

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and the result was clear and unambiguous. It said model trains. Choo choo!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (232) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, January 11

* * *

* * *

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

Would you like a treat?

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

Posted by: K.T. at 03:19 PM | Comments (83) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Jan. 11

Happy Saturday, everyone! Today is landscaping and puttering day (mostly). The fires have been on my mind, and it's been a while since we discussed landscaping and preparation for fire and other emergencies. The photos above and below are from Norman Winter. Entry landscaping. I guess you can think about whether anything would fall during high winds.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:27 PM | Comments (45) | Trackbacks (Suck)

When California starts looking a little redder

This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but some people we might not have expected to turn toward the red seem to have modified their positions. And some who were already reasonable have become more vocal. We have seen a lot of terrible information coming out of the Los Angeles area over the past few days about Blue Government, but more jaw-dropping details drift out with the smoke from the fires.

Let's start with some pre-fire news by Team Blue California, though:

Big Accomplishment for Team Blue

Posted by: K.T. at 11:20 AM | Comments (329) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

*****

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. As many of you know, yours truly is a giver. But then again, so is my esteemed colleague CBD. He was looking out for you coffee lovers. Or was he? You be the judge.

Morning coffee may protect the heart better than all-day coffee drinking
08 Jan 2025
Topic(s)reventive Cardiology
Sophia Antipolis, 8 January 2025: People who drink coffee in the morning have a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a lower overall mortality risk compared to all-day coffee drinkers, according to research published in the European Heart Journal [1] today (Wednesday).

The research was led by Dr Lu Qi, from Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. He said: “Research so far suggests that drinking coffee doesn’t raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, we wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health.”

All I know is I'll drink it as often as I choose to.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:07 AM | Comments (555) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 11 January 2025

Top Story

• Chinese spy network TikTok is probably dead. (Tech Crunch)
  
  The Supreme Court heard arguments from both TikTok and the Department of Justice, but seemed disinclined to intervene in the January 19th deadline for the company to divest or be shut down.
  
  TikTok argued that divestment was impossible because the Chinese government would never permit foreign control of network's recommendation algorithm - and also that the US subsidiary has the final say over such matters. The company also claimed that it does not operate in China, which is true insofar as it goes, because TikTok, a Chinese social network, is banned in China.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (187) | Trackbacks (Suck)

You're A Better Man Than I Am, ONT

Welcome to the Friday ONT! What a year so far, huh?

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (427) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Cutest L'il Monsters Cafe

Baby rhinos have the zoomies.

Big puppy.

A Golden stops fearing the vacuum and learns to love it.

Doggy drift racers.

Bears: An Out-of-Control Cause for National Concern. Their cheap manipulations do not work on me.

I've got to "moisten the lizard," if you know what I mean.

Some kind of winter weasel.

Selling tickets to the wiener races.

Friday!

After a hard day's work, it's time to relax and reflect on all you've done.

Enchantment Under the Snow.

Posted by: Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (384) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Adam Carolla: California's Government Started These Fires, and Has an Evil Surprise Coming for Those Who Lost Their Homes: They Won't Let You Rebuild the Homes They Burned Down, Either

Trainer/host of The Biggest Loser Gillian Michaels confirmed that, saying that when her home was burned down by another regularly-scheduled disastrous wildfire years ago, it took her a full year just to get the permit to...

Bulldoze the wreckage of her destroyed home.

Not to rebuild the home. That would take another gauntlet of permit approvals.

But just to secure the right to bulldoze away the ruins of her home, she had to wait a year for the blessing of California's oppressive government.

You think they're going to just let people rebuild their homes or -- the horrors! -- even rebuild their homes with a somewhat different blueprint this time?

Oh no. Oh dear no.

Eric Abbenante
@EricAbbenante

Epic Adam Carolla rant from a hotel after the LA wildfires forced to evacuate from his home, where he predicts Hollywood leftists will be so frustrated by the rebuild effort that they will not vote Democrat:

"You guys all voted for Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles. You all voted for Gavin Newsom, and now you fucking get what you get. now that your house is on fire.
So here's what's going to happen. All these people who are deep blue Democrats are now going to have to pull a permit to rebuild, and they're going to get the 28 year old bitch from the Coastal Commission telling them to go fuck off and then they're going to vote for Trump or whoever's Trumpian next.

When they start getting the regulation, they're going to go nuts. And when they start running into the bureaucracy and the red tape, they're going to start going nuts and they're going to vote for Rick Caruso next time.

They're going to find out they're going to get bit by their own snake. They're going to convert. I am telling you, these are the bluest people on the planet and they're going to be fucking rip shit pissed when the City and the Coastal Commission tell them to fuck off.

We're going to have to restructure the whole thing because we can't have nine angry lesbians controlling everything that goes on in Malibu, the Palisades and Santa monica."

This is why Californians pay the highest taxes: So that their government can completely fail them in their time of need.

Matthew J. Peterson
@docMJP

Look, @adamcarolla is 100% correct about at least half of what is going to happen: the California Coastal Commission, which has more power than many a third world dictator, simply won't allow a lot of rebuilding in Malibu.

And homeowners in the Palisades and Altadena are about to walk through the gates of local government hell as they learn how hard it is to build anything in California, as well as how corrupt and deficient their systems of regional government truly are.

And Carolla *should* be right about the other half of what he says: if the result of the devastating fires doesn't "redpill" everyone who has suffered, nothing will. But changing attitudes, never mind a complicated and wholly corrupt system, is hard. Will either happen? I don't know. I hope so. I've always hoped so.

I love the Southland even though I left it four years ago. But it past a tipping point a long time ago. The spirit of the thing - the old California - was gone long before the flames leapt up throughout Los Angeles county this week. An oppressive regime, a one party state, filled with mind-numbing corruption and worse, has long since taken its place.

But, and related to this, as more than one friend has pointed out in the last 24 hours, there's something lost in all the talk about the fires: what has been lost is lot more than some random suburbs.

Altadena had some of the most beautiful homes and neighborhoods in California, representing the best of early 20th century California (author Zane Grey's estate is but one example). We lived nearby and used to wander through those streets and marvel at them.

The idyllic Palisades were not full of the usual shoddy McMansions or super-mega-gaudy estates, but real communities and beautiful suburban housing that represented the rise of the post-WWII golden age of southern California.

The iconic Malibu coastline has stood as a symbol for millions for a long time. It always did for me, at least. Commuting to Pepperdine as I did was always a joy for this reason, no matter the traffic.

And so much of all this is gone now. And one is right to wonder if it's ever coming back. Or if anything like it *can* come back.

Nothing is inevitable. I think it's possible. But if it's possible it will take monumental change. And time.

There is hope again in America, and a changing of the tide. But this is juxtaposed against a background of decline, and real loss.

What was lost this week is much more than houses. What vanished in the smoke and flames is the physical remnants of an America culture - symbols that stood for the American dream - that has already suffered a spiritual and political death.

Acknowledge the loss. The sadness. Help and pray for those who have suffered through it.

And raise a glass to a rebirth and renaissance in this country however you can with whoever is willing until your dying day, come what may. I know I will.

The only way out is through.

Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (368) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Arson?

Update: Deb Heine rounds up the arson reports.

It gets worse, reports Nellie Boles.

Los Angeles is currently battling the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles County history. The Palisades are gone--all those beautiful homes with those beautiful views just up in smoke. Evacuation orders have impacted nearly 180,000 people. Toxic air is engulfing millions more. With first responders tied up, looters are out in force. The fire hydrants have run out of water. Truly, the collapse we're seeing in Los Angeles is every California chicken coming home to every California roost.

Let's start from the top. The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent a load of their "surplus" gear to Ukraine in 2022, because it felt right to do that. From KTLA in 2022: "Boots, hoses, nozzles, body armor and medication were among the items packed and shipped out." Don't need extra of those. You're welcome, Slava Ukraini!

And don't forget: Growing firefighter diversity has been the main priority for the LA department of late, with a whole special equity bureau. And much has been made of the beautiful rainbow leading the department, run by a lesbian. Should I care that a lesbian saves me lesbianly? You might say, you're already a woman married to a woman, you're doing enough. But it's true: Unless the firefighter is singing "Come to My Window," I won't get on the ladder.

And what's an LA story without unchecked crime? With all first responders tied up, into the breach ran those who love chaos and want more homes to loot. Friend of The Free Press Andrew Huberman took this video of a group of men starting a new fire. And of course, there are missing hydrants all over the city because people have been stealing them for years. "Between January 2023 and May 2024, more than 300 fire hydrants were stolen from LA County streets, according to data from the Golden State Water Company, which manages the fire hydrants." Some of the hydrants are sold as scrap metal. Residents are asked to call if they notice a missing hydrant.

When you create a lawless environment and turn the criminals and lunatics out of prisons and asylums en masse, you're going to have vicious and/or insane people setting fires during an arson, as vengeance on the world.

And that's what's happening. I don't know how many of these fires were deliberately set by arsonists, but we know at least some were. More on that later.

Infrastructure that could have provided more water for those fires has been on hold, tied up in red tape. Ten years ago, California voters approved spending $7.5 billion to build water storage and improve state water facilities--but by 2023 not one dam had been finished, per the Los Angeles Times. Not a single one. But a decade into various environmental regulations and reviews, they are moving. ...

And what about controlled burns? Didn't they at least do that? No. "Forest Service Halts Prescribed Burns in California. Is It Worth the Risk?" reported KQED in October. See: If a controlled burn got messy, it would look bad, like, politically, and also, fire can be scary! So the U.S. Forest Service didn't do them.

Here's Michael Wara, energy and climate expert at Stanford University, explaining: "I think the Forest Service is worried about the risk of something bad happening [with a prescribed burn]. And they're willing to trade that risk--which they will be blamed for--for increased risks on wildfires." Which, he says, can then just be blamed on "Mother Nature."

Or "global warming."

The left can't excuse its failures by reciting its catechisms of "global warming, global warming, global warming." They're the ones who have been warning us for fifty years that global warming will cause more environmental disasters. So obviously they believe in an elevated risk of wildfires due to "global warming."

So riddle me this: Why do they take absolutely zero steps to mitigate the risks of the global warming they shriek about?

Do they just want the fires to burn down whole cities so they can say "I told you so" and have fresh fuel for demands we outlaw, well, fuel?

"Global warming" does not excuse their failure to take steps to clear the forest of deadfall. It indicts them further, because, by their own theory, global warming makes the need to practice prudent forest management even more urgent.

Back to the arsonists that the left has cultivated in large numbers.

Posted by: Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (333) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Washington Post Fires Its "Gender Columnist" After Killing Her Last Article

Actually, I think her position was ended -- there will be no more "Gender Columnist" -- but she might keep a job there.

They're trying to distance themselves from their vicious embrace of wokeness.

It won't work and they shouldn't try. They are now hated by most and appeal only to a tiny audience. They will not change that. Their only play is to continue appealing to that tiny audience, and to just cut staff and salaries to reflect their reduced position.

The Washington Post is planning on eliminating its "gender columnist" position after the writer penned a piece that was ultimately scrapped by the paper's editors, Fox News Digital has learned.

Monica Hesse, who made headlines in 2018 by becoming The Post's first-ever "gender columnist," will not hold that title much longer after writing a column about gender was "killed" by her editors, two sources tell Fox News Digital. It is unclear what Hesse had written in the column and what the editors objected to.

Hesse, currently a columnist for the paper's Style section, is expected to be reassigned either to its Opinions section or remain in Style as a reporter, the sources added.

"It's sad and so unnecessary," one source told Fox News Digital.

Neither Hesse nor The Washington Post responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Hesse first joined The Post in 2007 as an intern for the Style team before becoming a Features general-assignment reporter until breaking ground as the paper's "gender columnist." In 2023, she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her columns "convey[ing] the anger and dread that many Americans felt about losing their right to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade."

Her gender-based commentary has also raised eyebrows among conservative critics over the years. In 2022, Hesse accused Florida's parental rights legislation removing progressive gender ideology from the classroom of being "homophobic and transphobic bills cloaked in neutral language."

In another piece, she defended drag queens reading books to children, insisting "Drag queens are not the ones sexualizing drag story hour."

In 2023, Hesse accused critics of First Lady Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman of "sexism" for allowing their spouses to seek office despite their mental impairments.

...

During the 2024 election cycle, Hesse defended Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz for putting tampons in boys restrooms in schools as Minnesota governor.

"Any boy who casually was like 'Oh you got ur period? I stashed a pad from the bathroom in my backpack in case one of my friends needed it' -- that boy would be king stud. That boy would be drowning in prom invites," she wrote on X.

...

The move by The Post to eliminate its "gender columnist" position could be seen as an ideological pivot to the center as the liberal paper adjusts to the return of President-elect Donald Trump.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Post who quashed his paper's endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the election, alluded to making reforms in an op-ed defending the endorsement decision.

"Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn't see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose," Bezos wrote in October. "Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility."

Bonus 1:

Posted by: Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (346) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Leaked Memo: Karen Bass Demanded Fire Department Slash Budget by an Additional $49 Million... One Week Before the Wildfires Blazed

Guys, I'm starting to think the left has a bunch of very misplaced priorities.

Leaked memo reveals LA Mayor Karen Bass demanded her fire department cut an extra $49 million just ONE WEEK before wildfires broke out

By JOSH BOSWELL FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass demanded her Fire Department make an extra $49million of budget cuts last week, a leaked memo revealed.

This cut is already on top of $17.6million of cuts in her latest budget.

The extra cuts, requested just days before fires broke out and devastated swathes of Los Angeles, would have shut down 16 fire stations and crippled the department's ability to respond to emergencies, sources said.

DailyMail.com interviewed current and former senior LAFD officers briefed on the shocking proposed cuts, and exclusively obtained the memo from an LA Fire Department (LAFD) whistleblower who posts on social media under the moniker 'LAFD Watchdog'.

The memo is dated January 6, only a day before the devastating Palisades Fire started.

...

'They did not want this out. It's an internal memo not to be distributed,' one currently-serving 25-year veteran of the Fire Department told DailyMail.com.

'It comes from top brass downtown, City Hall.

'They're trying to allocate more money for the homeless, and they need to start taking from everybody.

'But we already exhausted our budget. It's already tapped. That's why they cut the fire academy in half, so they could save more money. That's why we're not testing if hydrants work any more. We're doing everything we can to save money.

...

'We have fire engines we can't get parts for. When one breaks down we strip it of parts to put on other fire engines because we can't buy any more parts.

'If you shut down 16 stations, that's about 750 personnel. Then they expect us to take the same call volume. And yesterday we did 3,800 calls, almost twice of what our daily call volume usually is.

'We're already shy 200 paramedics, and we're on the verge of another 200 quitting because we can't do this any more.

'If we don't work overtime, they suspend and threaten to terminate us. It's untenable.'

...

Meanwhile, Bass, who was on a trip to Ghana to attend the West African country's presidential inauguration on Tuesday has been heavily criticized for the trip - as a warning was sent out about 'critical' weather conditions days prior.

Bass defended her leadership when asked at a press conference on Thursday and said: 'I just said what I believe is the most important thing for us to do right now. That's going to continued to be my focus.'

Even celebrities, who are not only the most gonzo-leftwing people in the country but who further will literally lose their careers if they upset the Progressive Blob, have had enough.

Now, to be honest, most of the celebrities making noise about Newsom and Bass resigning were already Suspected Conservatives. Sarah Michelle Gellar, for example, supports Israel, and I think Gillian Michaels supports keeping girls sports for, you'll never believe this, girls.

Still, they seem emboldened, which suggests to me that they're themselves receiving strong signals from their friends and colleagues that the Never-Criticize-the-Left rule is suspended, at least for now:

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jillian Michaels and Sara Foster have joined Donald Trump in slamming local and state officials amid the devastating Southern California wildfires.

RadarOnline.com can reveal the fitness personality, 90210, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars took to social media to express their frustrations while slamming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

...

Gellar, 47, took to Instagram to air her frustrations at Bass, 71, who has been slammed online for her response in the midst of the disaster as well as previous fire department budget cuts.

She tagged Bass in her story and wrote: "City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping."

...

Foster, 43, made her feelings clear on X, writing: "We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared.

"Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits."

Like Trump, 82, Foster also called on Newsom and Bass to resign as she claimed their "far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party."

The Barely Famous actress is not the only celebrity to call out Newsom and Bass.

Former Biggest Loser trainer Michaels, 50, didn't hold back when expressing her "outrage" at state officials.

The fitness guru understands first-hand the trauma victims are experiencing as her Malibu home was burned in the 2018 Woolsey fire.

Although she consider her family "lucky" because they "didn't lose everything," she said the experience still greatly impacted herself and her children.

She told the Daily Mail: "People are dead, homes have burned, it is not your first rodeo. It is not.

"And when you know that you have a state that is prone to fire and -- I'm going to give it to you -- you've got global warning, you have literally have a tinderbox.

"Isn't this the part where you take the highest taxed, highest income tax, highest sales tax, highest gas tax and rebuild the infrastructure?"

Michaels further claimed Newsom did not take swift enough action and believed the National Guard should have been called in sooner to help with firefighting efforts.

The 50-year-old added: "I'm sorry, and the reason for me this is super serious is because this guy wants to be your president. This now goes from a California problem to a country-wide problem."

Obviously Joe Rogan and Mel Gibson are no longer afraid to be associated with the right. They called out Newsom and California's gonzo progressive circus.

Posted by: Ace at 03:36 PM | Comments (407) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Meta (FaceBook) Announces End of DEI Programs

A surprise but a welcome one, to be sure.

Axios is very upset by this and they say it's just Zuckerberg positioning himself to be friendlier to Trump. The thought that DEI programs are wasteful and illegal and racist and also lead to a bad workforce never, ever crosses their minds, not for a single moment.

Nope, DEI is good and great and good for corporations and any corporation that goes back to merit-based hiring and promotion obviously just wants to appeal to the Baddest Orange Man.

Exclusive: Meta kills DEI programs

Mike Allen, Sara Fischer

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta is terminating major DEI programs, effective immediately -- including for hiring, training and picking suppliers, according to a new employee memo obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The move is a strong signal to Meta employees that the company's push to make inroads with the incoming Trump administration isn't just posturing, but an ethos shift that will impact its business practices.

Context: Meta said it was changing course because the "legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing," per a memo by Janelle Gale, vice president of human resources.

Yes, because race-based hiring has been illegal for oh, about 100 years but the left demanded the law be suspended as regards discrimination against white, male, straight and Christian people. That five year suspension of basic law is coming to an end because it's illegal and unfair and the American public has had enough and said so in no uncertain terms two months ago.

The moves come just three days after Meta ended many of its efforts to fact-check and police speech on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Coordination with the government to censor speech is also illegal, FYI.

The announcement also follows a host of public moves by tech companies and executives to align with the politics and cultural views of President-elect Trump and the MAGA movement.

So none of these companies changed their policies to be more friendly to the leftwing woke Biden Administration? That was just them expressing their true favored policies, but this reversion back to the old ways (and the legal ways) must be due to political pressure?

State of play: Friday's memo by Gale -- announcing changes to "our hiring, development and procurement practices" -- was posted for Meta employees in Workplace, the company's internal communications tool.

"The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing," Gale wrote.

"The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI. ... The term 'DEI' has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others."

It's illegal and always has been, at least since the modern era of civil rights law.

...

Zoom in: Citing the "shifting legal and policy landscape," Meta's memo announced five big DEI pullbacks.

Cutting Meta's DEI team: Meta will no longer have a team focused on DEI. Maxine Williams, the company's chief diversity officer, is taking on a new role at Meta, focused on accessibility and engagement, Gale wrote.

Ending equity and inclusion programs: Meta will instead build programs "that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background," Gale said.

Sunsetting supplier diversity efforts: Meta will end efforts to source business suppliers from diverse-owned businesses. Moving forward, the company will "focus our efforts on supporting small and medium-sized businesses that power much of our economy," Gale wrote.

Ending the "Diverse Slate Approach" to hiring: While Meta will continue to source candidates from different backgrounds, it will no longer use the diverse-slate hiring approach, which ensures a diverse pool of candidates is considered for every open position. "We believe there are other ways to build an industry-leading workforce and leverage teams made up of world-class people from all types of backgrounds," Gale wrote.

Ending representation goals: Having representation goals, "can create the impression that decisions are being made based on race or gender," Gale wrote. "While this has never been our practice, we want to eliminate any impression of it," she said. She noted the company, "previously ended representation goals for women and ethnic minorities."

Zoom out: Data suggests tech employees tend to be more liberal than their employers. But over the last year, the public sentiment has shifted about corporations taking a stand on major issues like DEI, as well as environmental, social and governance issues.

Zuckerberg says that Biden officials would routinely "scream" at his people and "curse" at them, demanding they take down memes he didn't like.

When he refused to take down some memes and posts, Biden began investigating his companies for anti-trust violations and the like.

Right now the entire media is pushing the idea that Zuckerberg is acting due to (perceived future) pressure from Trump -- but they've denied for years that he previously censored people due to Biden.

Despite Zuckerberg himself saying that he was coerced by Biden.

Posted by: Ace at 02:40 PM | Comments (271) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Karen Bass Slashed $17 Million from LA's Firefighting Budget, With the Monies Cut Mostly from Fire Prevention.
Here's What Angelinos Got In Return.

They used that money to pay for "gay men's choruses" and "trans cafes."

I'm sure you're all shocked. Stunned, even!

The City of Los Angeles cut funding for its fire department and allocated thousands of dollars to various progressive programs, including a "Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe" and a Gay Men's Chorus.

Fires swept through Southern California on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes in Los Angeles County, and high winds only fueled the destruction. The Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, was slammed for slashing the Los Angeles Fire Department's (LAFD) budget by $17.6 million for fiscal year 2024 to 2025, Fox 11 reported, citing LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia.

Bass claimed in a press conference that none of the reductions made "would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days." She added that the city is "in tough budgetary times."

Los Angeles allocated $100,000 to the Civil + Human Rights and Equity Department for a "Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe," according to its 2024 to 2025 budget. The funding's purpose is to "support a safe haven for unsheltered transgender individuals in Hollywood," the document noted.

Similarly, the Cultural Affairs Department Special Appropriations budget allocated $100,000 for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Awards.

The budget also appropriated $8,670 for the "One Institute the International Gay and Lesbian Archives."

The ONE Archives at the University of Southern California (USC) Libraries currently has an exhibit titled "Sci-fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation," which focuses on the occult and "the LGBTQ movement."

The budget also allocated $13,000 for "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Heritage Month Programs" and $14,010 to the "Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles."

Los Angeles' African American History Month, American Indian Heritage Month, Latino Heritage Month and Asian American History Month Programs were each allocated $13,000.

The budget also appropriated $170,000 in total for "Social Justice Art-Worker Investments."

The LAFD was blasted for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and its 2023 to 2026 strategic plan stated that DEI was one of its "key goals." A stated priority of the city's first "LGBTQ" and woman fire chief, Kristin F. Crowley, is "promoting a culture that values [DEI]."

DEI in a fire, as Boss Moss said.

Governor Hairgel is also to blame. He vetoed spending for the training of seasonal firefighters -- that is, firefighters who would not be paid all year long, but just for wildfire season.

He claimed that he would later restore money to train this pool of emergency wildfire firefighters but, get this, he lied.

I think this is the straw that broke the camel's back. I think Newsome, Bass, the Woke Lesbian Fire Brigade have now given millions and millions of Democrats the permission necessary to finally walk away from the party.

I really think this is one of those major inflection points in history. At some point, people just get sick of the endless excuses for catastrophe and failure and decide they're tired of the government they pay for police and fire services being turned into little but a massive transfer-of-wealth mafia to take money from Enemy Groups and pay off Friend Groups.

Posted by: Ace at 01:25 PM | Comments (500) | Trackbacks (Suck)