Sunday Overnight Open Thread - March 2, 2025 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings, and welcome to the first Sunday ONT of March! Did the month come in like a lion for you, or like a lamb? Is that still a thing? Anyway, there's plenty of fun and interesting stuff here for you. Come on in!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (516) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: March 2nd Edition!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be March? Specifically, March 2nd? Well it did and it is, so we might as well get used to it, at least for the rest of the day.

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (327) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Cluck, Cluck. Cluck...Cluck...Cluck

I consider chicken to be almost fungible. Well, I might not buy the day-old stuff at the gas station (next to the sushi), but there are a few premium brands of chicken that are long on cost but short on flavor. I have had fresh chicken from a farm, and there is definitely a difference, but that is difficult to find with any consistency.

But there is a duck farm in upstate NY that has expanded their offerings from duck liver and ducks, to high end chicken. And judging by the quality of their duck, my guess is that their chicken will be pretty damned good.

But good enough to pay a hefty premium for it, or drive two hours? Maybe not, but I need to know! Besides, I can get ethanol-free gasoline at a large chain in NY, so there's that!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (257) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

That is a simple light switch with a sliding dimmer on the right. And after 21 years, this poorly designed switch failed! Not because of any internal issues, but because the plastic along the sliding dimmer cracked. Apparently it can only handle the mild heat from the switch for a short time.

What is the world coming to?

What's next...my toothbrushes from the 1990s are going to start to fail?

This Shall Not Stand!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (384) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Propriety, Politeness, Knowing One's Place, And Other Lessons From Our So-Called "Elites"

Ukraine's megalomaniacal President Volodymyr Zelenskyy roared into town on Friday, fully expecting to be treated as a scrappy hero, valiantly fighting the mean old Russian bear. And why not? That is how he is being treated across the world, particularly in Western Europe. Of course Western Europe hasn't seen a real hero since 1945, and their ideas of strength and heroism are suspect, since they seem to embrace dictators and terrorists rather than freedom and liberty.

But he has also been welcomed as a freedom fighter by the former powers-that-be in America. Feted by titans like Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi (and countless internet warriors with the Ukrainian flag on their X profile), who treated Ukraine as a military equal that just needs a bit of help, and propped up on the world stage as the tip of the spear against the monstrous evil of Putin and Russia... why wouldn't he feel as if he is amongst his peers?

But he and Ukraine aren't. Ukraine is a piss-ant corruptocracy that has a GDP of $178 billion. That's halfway between Kansas and Arkansas. Seriously. As for the "freedom" part? Sure... all free nations have presidents who suspend elections and whose wives go on shopping sprees with foreign aid money while their youth is churned up and spat out by a nasty border war with their much larger neighbor. And all free nations have a well-oiled graft and grift system that systematically steals large chunks of foreign aid and pumps it into their own corrupt systems, while returning 10% for the big guy!

But Zelenskyy must understand the reality of the situation. And that is at odds with the cheerleading from the neo-cons, who want forever wars to pump up their stock portfolios and satisfy their masturbatory fantasies about a Pax Americana. And the left, with its fanatical hatred of Putin wants him to be destroyed by the quagmire of his Ukraine war.

That reality is that no matter the histrionic nonsense pouring out of Western Europe, Russia is not preparing an assault on Berlin and Paris. Russia is consolidating its border with Ukraine, and that is at least partly in response to the unbelievable lies from the Western alliance about how they weren't going to expand NATO. Yup...starting in 1990 with Gorbachev, who was assured by James Baker that NATO would not expand if the USSR allowed the reunification of Germany.

Whoops!

1999: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland
2004: Bulgaria, The Baltic States, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
2009: Albania, Croatia
2023: Finland
2024: Sweden

Putin is a thug and a dictator and a murderer. He is also able to read a map, and has observed over the last 25 years the expansion of the alliance of the USSR's adversaries gradually to encircle Russia's western border.

Is it acceptable behavior among nations to use military means to consolidate one's borders? No. But it is typical and expected, and it has happened far more frequently than the other option of polite discussion and diplomatic maneuvering.

But back to the track-suited Ukrainian midget with the Napoleonic complex. Zelenskyy made the rash, arrogant, ignorant and dangerous assumption that his press was reality. Maybe in Western Europe, but not in America, where the majority would prefer that we disengage from the Russia-Ukraine border war and pay just a bit more attention to Americans in need.

He made another assumption; that President Trump would accept his bombastic behavior, because everyone else has! But Donald Trump is not everyone else, which is why the American people made him president.

Any casual observer of Donald Trump will immediately recognize that he enjoys pomp and circumstance. He appreciates the show, and enjoys when others respect that. Zelenskyy made a conscious (or ignorant and stupid) decision to try to control Donald Trump's show, in the White House, in front of the media. And not only that; he also displayed a breathtaking sense of entitlement to OUR MONEY!

He chose badly.

Does anyone know how to say in Ukrainian, "When you are in somebody else's house; don't piss on the carpet?"

It is entirely possible that a Zelenskyy in control of himself, and who understood his and his country's proper place, could have emerged from his meeting with President Trump with some assurances that the United States would support Ukrainian territorial integrity and push for a reasonable end to the awful border war.

But we will never know, and it is now incumbent upon the people of Ukraine to find an alternative to their track-suited dictator... someone who will be more realistic, and appreciate the vast change that has occurred in America.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (558) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 3-2-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (269) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 2 March 2025

Top Story

• GPT 4.5 is here and it's... Not great. (Ars Technica)
  
  It's slightly better than GPT 4o on some things, slightly worse on others... And costs up to 30 times as much.
  
  That's not a great combination.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (300) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night "Club ONT" March 1, 2025 [The 3 D's]

Welcome to another presentation of Club ONT! A collaboration of your Sunday through Wednesday ONT Crew - The Disco, The Doggo, and The Dino. Don't make it awkward, the door is right there. Come on in! Socks are required if you are under 29. The rest of you - well, do whatever you want - as always. This --- is Club ONT!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:05 PM | Comments (443) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Music Thread: Best Songs? This Should Be Easy!

[Garrett's camping Crocs]

Best song? Not necessarily the best song ever, but I'll bet everyone has a favorite song of most groups.

Obviously groups like Rush aren't in the mix because all of their music is pathetic, so for them the calculation is more like "least awful." But...most music fans have their favorites, which undoubtedly change with the years and seasons, so the following is by no means on my permanent record!

Posted by: CBD at 07:30 PM | Comments (517) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - March 1, 2025 [TRex]

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

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin. Turns out, the Wheel is on the hunt for knowledge and culture. It said MUSEUMS. Let's go see some stuff!

[Photo: National Museum of the US Marine Corps, Triangle, Virginia]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (249) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, March 1

Courtesy Micah Lobell

The rooster Hugh Hefner braved some surprising weather in Southern Louisiana recently. How have your pets been dealing with changes in the weather?

* * *

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 03:00 PM | Comments (89) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, March 1

From Don in Kansas, Feb. 20:

It’s getting warmer — the temperature is all the way up to -6℉ now — but it was ten below, colder than central Alaska, when I snapped these pictures at the front door this morning.

Brrrr . . . There seems to be a lot of variation between the coldest and warmest parts of the country lately. Has spring come where you are? It's still officially winter for a while longer. Have you been able to plant anything? Anything growing besides frost crystals?

Posted by: K.T. at 01:00 PM | Comments (44) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Morning Open Thread

(Mystery Click? Hmmm, I wonder.)

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 10:50 AM | Comments (410) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[H/T Meme: Mindfulwebworker]
[H/T Music: Me, it's classical to me.]

Welcome to March. I think we are having the biggest snow storm of the year. In like a lion, out like a lamb and no lunch like a Zelenskyy.

Before we get into the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Manitowish Waters)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. And no, you can't use the couch as the top rope at an AWA event.
3) No running with sharp objects. Unless you have cash and/or Obamacare.
D) Have a nice weekend.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 08:30 AM | Comments (295) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 1 March 2025

Top Story

• Skype will die in May. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  May 5, to be precise.
  
  Microsoft thinks you will move to Teams. I don't think anyone who isn't already using Teams is going to switch to it because the messaging app they liked is being killed off.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (210) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Happy Hooker: My ONT Story

Howdy Horde! Boy, what a day, huh? I don't think I've EVER seen anything like that smackdown on Zelensky. Right out in public, being broadcast live. Amazing.

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (378) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gone Fishin' Cafe

Dubai

Skating on a melting lake, using ski-poles to probe the ice. (IG)

Mother deer asks humans to help her fawn. (IG)

Duck-hunting dog didn't understand the assignment.

Baby goats can be exhausting.

Beaver training.

Ready for the weekend!

i got you boo

Dog and puppy bond on the couch.

Dog teaches a puppy to appreciate a good slobbery ball. I hear David French is a big fan of slobbery balls himself.

Dog welcomes a new puppy by giving it his favorite toy.

bro's ears hear news that hasn't happened yet

Oldie but a goodie: This bear is out of control but this dog ain't having it, see?

Panther purring.

I think this shows a dog and cat who have adopted each other as strays.

Fox coming for you.

Navy spending taxpayer money, awesomely.

Your dog thinks you're playing fetch, but PSYCH, you're really playing hide-and-seek.

Posted by: Ace at 07:35 PM | Comments (199) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

Update: Film Threat reports they've heard rumors from industry sources that Disney has been putting out feelers to sell Star Wars for the past seven months.

Apparently there are no parties interested in buying it.

When you've lost Lindsey Graham...

Following a tense Oval Office meeting between President Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Friday that Zelenskyy should resign and send someone else to the U.S. to negotiate or change.

"I've never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of J.D. Vance standing up for our country," he told reporters at the White House.

"He [Zelenskyy] either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with or he needs to change," he added.

Graham said he was hopeful the mineral-rights agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine would be signed but now he is not sure if a deal can be made.

A little dwarf-tossing action.

Mark Hemingway
@Heminator

Seeing a lot of private comments from pro-Ukraine policy/politico types on email/Signal, and there's near universal agreement that Zelensky, not Trump, blew this. I think that's obvious if you watch the full video.

Good acid test right now to see who's blaming Trump.

Nick Sortor
@nicksortor

#BREAKING: Secretary Marco Rubio has TERMINATED U.S. support for Ukraine energy grid restoration after Zelensky disrespected the United States in the Oval Office, per NBC

FAFO, Zelensky!

I foresee a problem with Ukrainian terrorists or assassin squads in the future. Our precious allies.

Meantime, David Strom warns, Britain is edging towards just making child rape acceptable and legal, in order to appease their Islamic rulers.

Tommy Robinson is sitting in solitary confinement as I write. He is there for 18 months because he aired a documentary.

Let that sink in. Whatever you think of Robinson--I think he is a brave truth-teller, others think he is a rabble rouser--the sentence is cruel and unusual.

Pedophiles and child rapists, on the other hand, are getting off very lightly or not punished at all in the UK.

There are countless stories like Robinson's and Thomas Becton's. People enjoying a bit of fun with kids who should be in playgrounds is apparently no big deal anymore, but sending out tweets that offend the powers that be can land you in jail or at the very least get you a threatening visit from the police.

...

Police have found men diddling with young girls and...arrest the girls for things like indecent exposure.

Some of the two-tier system of justice is based on a preference for people of color over ordinary Britons, but much of what I am seeing is a pretty open tolerance for abusing children for sexual pleasure.

The censorship and coverup of the rape gang scandals in Great Britain were about both. Most of the perpetrators were Pakistani or Bangladeshi, but a substantial number included government officials and even police.

It was all swept under the rug.

There are countless cases where race was not an issue, though. Jimmy Saville, a popular BBC figure, was known to be a pedophile but the information was never used to punish him for his crimes.

At some point you have to acknowledge that the nonpunishment of a crime is de facto legalization, and Britons who are pedos are not getting punished.

This is all part of the two-tier justice system in Great Britain, and a particularly troubling one because it normalizes the sexualization of children.

I don't want to be allies with a nation of pedophiles.

Amy Curtis is bothered by Jake Tapper being rewarded for his Biden Dementia Cover-Up:

Amy Curtis
@RantyAmyCurtis

Buckle up, because the more I think about this, the angrier I've become.

It's time for a thread.

Back in 2021, two months after his inauguration, it was clear Joe Biden was unwell. This is from March 8:

Amy Curtis
@RantyAmyCurtis

Mar 8, 2021

These are not "isolated incidents." These are not selectively edited clips. Something is wrong with Biden, and it should concern all of us.

The same people who said Trump had dementia because he lost his balance are now mum on Joe Biden who is barely coherent here.

This wasn't a one-off. Throughout the campaign and his presidency, it was clear Biden was unwell. Wandering off, not taking questions.

He had prompts telling him STAGE DIRECTIONS

She links a Daily Wire piece from 2022 showing Biden holding a note-card explaining to him that he should walk across the stage and then... "YOU Take YOUR Seat."

They had to specify that he shouldn't take someone else's seat.

And of course: We saw that Biden was given cheat-sheets before every #Rigged press conference showing the reporters he should call upon -- noting their name, showing a photograph, and then, incredibly, telling him exactly what question the corrupt fake journalist had agreed to ask him.

A year ago, Robert Hur declined to prosecute Biden because his cognitive decline was so bad and apparent no jury would've convicted him.

Democrats were livid.

...

And what did media do? They attacked Robert Hur wasn't a doctor, and couldn't assess Biden's cognitive condition.

A search for "Hur" on Jake Tapper's account yielded one result...

And it was an interview with Adam Schiff, attacking Hur as a non-doctor partisan election interference agent.

Jake Tapper has worked at CNN since 2013.

He was a journalist throughout the Biden 2020 campaign and administration.

And only now can he say the quiet part out loud.

Biden was unwell.

...

This is the biggest scandal in American history.

A president who should;ve been removed from office was instead protected by media because he has a (D) after his name.

Remember when Trump was demented because he held a glass of water funny and walked down a ramp weird?

Our leader was incompetent.

While Russia invaded Ukraine. While Hamas attacked Israel. While saber-rattled in the Pacific.

We never knew who was calling the shots.

We never knew who had his finger on the nuclear button, except that it WAS NOT Joe Biden.

This should END the media. This should END Jake Tapper's career.

They put partisan politics above not only the Constitution but the safety and security of the American people.

Joe Biden had access to highly classified state secrets, highly classified intelligence.

And they ALL KNEW.

If you believe they didn't, you're a moron.

Jake Tapper didn't magically find staffers to talk to now. They talked for the last four years.

They knew.

And they smothered the story to protect Joe Biden and the Democrats.

It is breathtaking in its cravenness.

And, no, the Democrats shouldn't get a pass.

Kamala Harris -- who said she was fit to lead this nation -- knew. And she didn't do her job to protect us.

Even after the Democrats removed Biden from the race, they kept him in the White House because whoever was calling the shots wasn't giving up the power.

So the Left can shut their damn mouths about Elon Musk not being elected.

The cadre of assholes was running the Biden administration wasn't elected either.

But -- unlike Biden -- Trump has his faculties and campaigned on giving Musk a big role in his administration.

This revelation should lead @PamBondi @TheJusticeDept to call hearings IMMEDIATELY.

Get Jake Tapper in front of Congress to name names and call THOSE people to testify.

Call Joe Biden and Jill Biden.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY

They put this entire country at risk to prop up a Democrat.

Jake Tapper shouldn't be getting a book deal, he should be getting a subpoena.

And trust in legacy media should fall to zero.

They will sell us out for the sake of the Democratic Party.

They will put our lives at risk.

And then they will write a book about it.

We don't despise them enough.

Woke bluehair on DEI committee admits, on video, she brought her three-year-old child to a drag show and had him "tipping the drag queens." 911, I would like to report a Grooming Incident.

Eric Swalwell promoted a GoFundMe for Noted Crisis Actor Michael Fanone, who is now officially a charity case.

I guess he's unemployable?

As of now, the GoFundMe has raised almost $80k.

And he can't find a job? Even with Democrats like Swalwell? Where's Nancy Pelosi? Surely, the multi-millionaire can find a gig for her favorite officer, right?

Oh, and by the way, there was another fundraiser for Fanone in 2023 that raised $400k... where did all of that go?

Round Mound of Evil Clown Brian Stelter is tearing his hair out -- whoops, correction, his hair fell out when he was 17 -- over Trump kicking the AP off of Air Force One.

As you can well imagine, Brian Stelter has always crusaded for the principle that the press should have access to the government, no matter what their politics.

Except... when he wanted Biden to kick Fox News out of the White House because it's "right wing propaganda."

Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Media Whines: The Billionaires We Counted On to Keep Paying Us No Matter How Much Money We Lost are Rebelling!

A cri du coeur from perpetual cri babies.

During a bleak period for the Los Angeles Times in 2006 under Tribune Co., editors quietly courted billionaire media mogul David Geffen to buy the newspaper, hoping that, in the spirit of civic-minded duty, he would run the Times as a public trust and protect its editorial integrity.

They mean "protect it from the pressure of having to actually appeal to an audience large enough to sustain it," of course.

Almost 20 years later, the longstanding dream of billionaire White Knights swooping in to rescue journalism appears to gradually be turning into a nightmare, with some of those moguls revealing themselves, as fantasy characters go, to be something closer to Lex Luthor than the saviors that were envisioned.

Instead of the enlightened ownership for which journalists had hoped, the fear now is these corporate titans view newspapers as just another asset to help fuel their larger business objectives. For some, that has meant currying favor with the new Trump administration.

The latest rude awakening comes at The Washington Post, where owner and Amazon.com Inc. chairman Jeff Bezos on Wednesday mandated that the newspaper's opinion pages only publish work that is supportive of "personal liberties and free markets."

"Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others," Bezos wrote in a note to staff.

Let me correct my prior misreading: I thought he ordered the paper to start running op-eds supportive of free markets and free speech. No, he went a lot further than that -- he says all op-eds must be consistent with those imperatives. He says that other venues, like I guess the garbage-tier New Republic and Salon, can publish the anti-free-speech, pro-censorship op-eds.

It's the "Free Speech" part that really bothers the left, which stands for almost nothing now except censorship to protect them in their ill-gotten positions of power. They're fine with free markets. The Democrats used to be protectionist, but now that Trump is talking about tariffs, they have of course reflexively, retardedly chosen to support whatever the position opposite of Trump's is.

Bezos says that the Post can no longer crusade for censorship and deplatforming of voices the left considers threatening to their sinecures, and that is the hill they will die on.

The newspaper's top opinion editor, David Shipley, quit in protest, and journalists in the newsroom -- already in the midst of an exodus to other outlets -- threatened they would do the same if Bezos' meddling found its way to the news side of the operation.

Halperin mentioned that one of their economics "reporters," who isn't even affected by the op-ed policy as "reporters" are supposedly separated by a "firewall" from the opinion pages (yeah, sure, pull the other one), declared on twitter, pre-emptively, that he would quit if his boss ever attempted to give him direction.

If Bezos weren't such a softdick, that guy would already be fired.

As concerns about billionaire newspaper owners go, Bezos has received fairly stiff competition from Patrick Soon-Shiong, the proprietor of the Los Angeles Times, whose pivot to embrace the Trump administration has similarly alarmed staff, prompted resignations and thrown the future of an already-struggling enterprise beset by rounds of layoffs into further chaos.

The for-profit model of journalism, with its naive faith in supposedly public-spirited plutocrats as owners, is utterly failing in this time of existential threat to democracy."

-- Samuel Freedman

...

...

Other warning signs of billionaire media ownership flared during the run-up to last year's presidential election, when both Bezos and Soon-Shiong spiked editorial endorsements of Kamala Harris, in what many saw as a hedge-betting maneuver to avoid angering the notoriously vindictive Trump should he win.

Those actions prompted waves of canceled subscriptions that, in the current climate, such publications can ill afford.

Since then, Soon-Shiong has provided a steady drip of fodder to irritate and embarrass his newsroom, including interviews with conservative outlets, talking about affixing a "bias meter" to stories, or the Times' editing of an op-ed piece about health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that appeared to mislead readers and outraged its author.

Bezos' decree on his paper's opinion section triggered immediate condemnation and derision. Former Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan, writing in The Guardian, called it "a death knell" for a "once-great news organization." Marty Baron, the Washington Post's former executive editor, said he "couldn't be more sad and disgusted" by Bezos' decision.

George Conway, a high-profile attorney and fixture on MSNBC, posted on X: "Please do yourself, your journalists, and your country a favor by selling the formerly venerated journalistic institution you seem intent on destroying." He described himself as "a former contributor and subscriber to the Washington Post."

When a billionaire is spending $100 million of his own money year after year to subsidize a failing enterprise, he would like one of three things in return for his investment:

1. The possibility of one day making money, or at least no longer losing it. But the Washington Post is clearly a failing paper and would go bankrupt without Bezos shoveling a hundred million dollars into every year. The media is collapsing, and nothing will stop that.

2. Prestige. But the Washington Post is a joke and basically a party-school gay sorority for retards. It is an anti-prestige organization. It brings shame upon itself and its owner.

3. Influence. This is why Bezos probably bought the Post in the first place, to have a voice in Washington DC as they eyed up anti-trust actions against Amazon.

But the paper has alienated most of the country and, most critically, the political party currently in power and maybe, possibly in power for the next 8-12 years (God willing).

Again, the Post is an anti-influence organization.

Instead of delivering any of those things, these "journalists" have decided to die on the hill that WE get to decide what this paper's political/editorial slant is, not some mere owner/employers.

WHY should they have that power?

Oh right-- because all "journalists" are "experts" in whatever they're arguing about this second. They're all so much smarter than billionaires and tech moguls, don't you know.

What we hear time and time again, from fired bureaucrats and from "journalists" who produce nothing except puff pieces for the left and hit pieces against the right -- We don't think it's faaaaiir that you Big Meanies expect work and results from us. We want to be paid like those 20-year-old tech girls are paid, and paid to just sit around and do yoga and drink lattes all day.

Below, retired Post editor Marty Baron is Big Mad at Bezos. It's the end of democracy that the owner of a newspaper should believe he should have some say in the newspaper's direction.

How dare he usurp the authority of the bureaucrats, I mean "journalists," that are his employees!

Posted by: Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (339) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Doomcock Was WRONG: Narcissistic Incomptent Kathleen Kennedy Calls Her Media Supplicants to Tell Them "I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE, EVER! I'M RIDING THIS BOMB ALL THE WAY DOWN!!!"

For the first time in ten years, people allowed themselves to hope for the future of LucasFilm.

Kaffeine Kennedy can't have that.

I think Clownfish TV said that this particular "reporter" is a dyed-in-the-wool Disney shill and a Kathleen Kennedy shill specifically.

If you don't believe Clownfish, check out this opening labial ball-washing:

I thought I'd seen it all in trade journalism, but the piranha-like frenzy on Kathleen Kennedy and the successor speculation that followed Matt Belloni's Puck report that Disney was putting her out to pasture is a new one on me. Belloni for years has been beating on Kennedy like she owes him money, and this week he reported Kennedy was retiring. I recall he essentially did the same thing more than a year ago, and yet here she still is, producing The Mandalorian movie and prepping the Shawn Levy-directed Star Wars film that Ryan Gosling is circling, as well as numerous other film and streaming projects with A-list participants.

Still, the trades followed with gusto, dishing speculative reporting on who might succeed Kennedy. The takeaway was chaos and that Kennedy was being pushed. The reality is different and far more orderly.

According to insiders, Kennedy has been working on a succession plan for a couple years, eyeing candidates from within in process with Bob Iger and Alan Bergman... I admire Belloni's hustle and ability to turn over hard ground, but his penchant for defining industry people like Kennedy in disparaging ways, well, I just don't understand that.

...

Kennedy arguably is the most successful female producer/executive in Hollywood history. She has produced more than 70 films that have collected 120 Oscar noms and 25 wins, and she herself was awarded the honorary Oscar with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, with eight other Oscar noms. Her resume is dotted with classics including Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense, the Indiana Jones franchise, E.T., Munich, Lincoln, The Color Purple, War of the Worlds, Poltergeist, Schindler's List, the Back to the Future franchise and so many others. While it has always been a challenge to please the Star Wars faithful and there have been some misfires, the five Star Wars films she has produced have grossed nearly $6 billion, with streaming series successes topped by The Mandalorian and Andor.

Sorry, Matt, the woman is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, not someone who deserves to be batted around like a piñata. She also deserves to own her own narrative and demystify this pseudo-drama. Deadline gave Kennedy that opportunity, catching her just before she headed off to be honored tonight with husband Frank Marshall at the Oscar Wilde Awards.

DEADLINE: We've read all these speculative reports that you are out, that there's a frenzy for the next person who's going to take over Lucasfilm. What is the truth?

KATHLEEN KENNEDY: The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that's important to say. I am not retiring. What's happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bo

...

DEADLINE: This flurry of press coverage, it sounds like chaos. What's the reality?

KENNEDY: Chaos? There has never been any chaos because we know exactly what the plan is.

Really? It didn't seem like your make-it-up-on-the-day sequel trilogy had a plan.

...

DEADLINE: I recall these same retirement predictions were rendered a while ago, and you reupped and here you are. What do you make of this fixation on your job status?

KENNEDY: I truly don't know. And any discussion previously about me retiring or quitting or any of those things, that's complete rumor mill because through all these reports, I have just continued doing my job and continuing my contract. Nothing unusual. It all has just been manufactured.

I can explain why people talk about this: Because everyone's shocked she wasn't fired eight years ago.

And we all know why she wasn't: She wears the +3 Ring of DEI Protection and the +2 Vest of Post-#MeToo Eternal Job Security for Stronk Women.

...

KENNEDY: It is something I think about all the time. It's fascinating to think about how you sustain a brand, especially Star Wars, which is just about to celebrate its 50th anniversary....

Then when you have a brand that's this expansive, you're also -- and this is something we work very hard at -- you try to find different entry points for different generations because that's what Star Wars has always been. It's a very generational brand, and we want to sustain that, and we work hard to sustain that.

This just in: Star Wars toys are rotting on the shelves at discounters like Ollie's because no one under 40 cares about Star Wars any longer.

Not a single question about The Acoylte. She keeps bringing up The Mandalorian, which was briefly a success before she ordered it be improved to appeal to The Modern Audience.

On to The Toxic Fandom. Or Toxic Former Fandom.

DEADLINE: You've got a long resume of big movies. Compared to that, how much tougher is the challenge of so much public scrutiny and second guessing by the rabid fan base? It's not uncommon to develop a project with big names who fall out when visions don't align, but they get reported as a big implosion.

KENNEDY: What you just said, though, is so interesting to me, Mike, because that is the development. It doesn't matter if you're doing Star Wars or anything else. What's troubling and frustrating is that our development gets scrutinized, and I don't know any other production company where their development gets scrutinized like that. It's very hard for anything to happen within Star Wars without some aspect of it becoming public before you even want it to become public. So I guess managing the message in some way is also quite a challenge because, of course, not every single thing we put in development we going to make. That's not unusual. We want to make those things that we feel are the best. We want to make those things that, as time passes, feel relevant to what the audience is responding to. So there's constant discussion around that. So yeah, that's a tricky one because a lot of the scrutiny around Star Wars and the negativity has been about development. Of course, we're going to develop lots of different things with an understanding that not everything gets made.

She babbles about all the obviously-canceled projects she announced, insisting they're all still in development. (No word on Rion Johnon's or Patty Jenkin's movies, though.)

She insists that Taika Watiti is still working on a Star Wars movie, even after he puked up Thor: Love and Thunder.

KENNEDY: Well, I keep waiting for Taika [Waititi], and he is working with another writer now. He's so busy. I love him. I think if we ever do get a script from Taika, it's going to be fantastic. I already saw a first act that I loved, but tying him down, it's tricky.

DEADLINE: I still remember seeing his Thor: Ragnarok, entering with low expectations, watching his exuberant vision and thinking, "This is what you want when you go to a movie theater on a Saturday night."

KENNEDY: It's so true. And that's exactly the tone we're always looking for with filmmakers who can pull that off. It's not like they're a dime a dozen. You're really trying to find the diamond in the rough and he's one of them.

...

DEADLINE: Any regrets?

KENNEDY: No, I mean far from regrets....

DEADLINE: Two final questions. Will you step out as Lucasfilm boss this year?

KENNEDY: We really don't know at this stage. There's so much going on, Mike. I don't know.

DEADLINE: When it happens, who'll make the decision?

KENNEDY: Me. It's my decision. This is 100 percent my decision.

TJM sees this as a deniadmission: She's admitting she's looking for a successor, who she thinks will be named by the end of the year, but still casts this as a denial that she's leaving LucasFilm, for some egotistical reason:

She admits in this very interview that she's putting together a succession plan that will take effect by about the end of the year.

"Kennedy added: "What's happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bob and Alan about what eventual succession might look like. We have an amazing bench of people here, and we have every intention of making an announcement months or a year down the road.'"

She confirms the report in this interview that's being billed as a counter to the report.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman

Meanwhile, Captain America is such a bomb that it's literally collapsing the movie theaters it's shown in.

Posted by: Ace at 04:25 PM | Comments (292) | Trackbacks (Suck)