Food Thread: Pre-Pre Thanksgiving Fodder Edition

I am not a big fan of turkey. I think it's boring and bland, although the gravy can be damned good. But it's a tradition for Thanksgiving in America, and it's probably a better choice than the actual food the Pilgrims ate. Salmon, lobster, venison maybe, cod, ducks, geese, or maybe not much at all!

Well, maybe not. I would be very happy with venison or duck!

Anyway, turkeys are big, and they are a pain in the *ss to roast. So either fry them and risk burning your house down, or spatchcock them to make the roasting much easier and far more consistent.

And the bonus of the the turkey backbone is not to be dismissed. Roast it and use it for your gravy!

I think you will be pleased with the end result, which is a moist breast, legs and thighs that aren't underdone, and a large amount of crispy skin. Yup, the spatchcocking exposes more skin to the drying heat of the oven, and you won't have to fight over it...as much.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (337) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First-World Problems...

Do you see the problem?

***

NOW DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?

The same person who used the tip of my 10" filet knife as a pry bar probably did this. Which begs the question: is abuse of tools a capital crime? Because if it isn't, it should be!

The struggle is real.

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (266) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Famous Warmonger and Literal Hitler Fails Utterly At Fulfilling His Destiny: Ukraine War Will End Sooner?
That's Not What We Were Promised!

Let's be honest. Donald Trump is a sh*tty anti-Semite...he is a sh*tty totalitarian...he is a sh*tty misogynist.

And worst of all? He is a sh*tty warmonger!

Everything he touches turns to...peace? What the hell! We were promised Armageddon, WWIII, armies of White Supremacists marching through the streets.

And what do we get?

Zelensky Says Trump's Election Will Hasten the End of the Ukraine-Russia War

“The war will end, but there is no exact date,” Zelenesky states, admitting: “Certainly, with the policies of this team that will now lead the White House, the war will end faster. This is their approach, their promise to their society, and it is also very important to them.”

However, Zelensky did signal his government would remain somewhat defiant should Trump attempt to bring them to the table for peace talks with Russia. He emphasized that Ukraine “is an independent country” and that the “sit and listen” approach won’t work with his people.

I'll bet the money launderers in KKYYEEEEVVV are in a panic! But by all means...go it alone, without American money. That's perfectly all right. Who are we to argue if they want to continue a war whose conclusion is foregone, and one that has already chewed up hundreds of thousands of their youth. But the gravy train will end soon, or at least slow considerably, as Donald Warmonger Trump works to find common ground between Ukraine and Russia that will end this pointless war.

And one wonders what would have happened had the Biden/Obama junta simply kept President Trump's Middle East policies (including the Abraham Accords) in place. He had sidelined the various Palestinian factions, isolated Iran, brought Israel closer to the big players in the Arab Middle East, and the region was well on its way to at worst a cold peace.

Sounds positively fascistic!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (331) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-17-2024 ["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 (309) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 17 November 2024

Top Story

• A million people have left Twitter for competitor Bluesky since the election.
  
  A million of the most annoying people on Twitter.
  
  Bluesky is getting what it deserves. (Twitter)
  
  The tech is fine, but the people running Bluesky are the same ones Elon Musk fired from the Trust and Safety team the day he took charge. They are all-in on censorship, and so are the people now flocking to the platform.
  
  And since there are no conservatives to fight, they are fighting each other.
  
  Content reports have soared by 4000% as they lash out at everyone and everything, and in a truly beautiful turnaround, the most committed lefties are getting permanently banned for claiming the election was stolen.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (244) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday ONT (11/16/24) Submitted by Robert

Greetings!

It's been over a week since the election. I went to bed fully prepared for disappointment. I woke up to some great news. I felt this song best defined the moment.Pantera - Rise

Many thanks go to Mis Hum for letting me throw this together for you all. I hadn't realized how hard it would actually be! But our dear Mis Hum did it day in and day out for nine years. On behalf of the Horde you have our deepest thanks and gratitude. God bless you, sir! - Robert

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:47 PM | Comments (387) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Music Thread: I'll Do It My Way!

[Garrett's bringing his winter clothes out of storage!]

For reasons that will remain clouded by the mists of time and rampant senility, I listened to a bunch of stuff that is definitely off my beaten path.

Now, a few of them were at a bar in Philadelphia called "Good Dog," where I had an absolutely delicious beef short rib grilled cheese sandwich. It's on Sourdough with Gruyere to make it even more decadent. The bar itself is solid, with good tap beers and an interesting choice of music...definitely worth a visit if you are in Center City.

But the music? Hmm....

*

Posted by: CBD at 07:30 PM | Comments (287) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - November 16, 2024 [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 it landed on a theme of strategy games for this week. Apparently the Wheel is interested in games of tactics and strategy. For purposes of the Hobby Thread, we are not talking about real-life diplomatic and political dynamics. We are talking about games, scenarios, and simulations done for fun and hobbying. If your professional job involves running military simulations or your education involved re-visiting battles of old, you are welcome to share.

***

Once upon a time, TRex played Stratego and Battleship, but that is about it. Difficult to play strategy games with these short arms. Besides, dinosaur history games typically involve an asteroid and end quickly. Others, however, are much more into war gaming and strategy games. Some of this fun exists in board game form with dice or cards. Some fun exists on computer. Some fun involves getting together with others to recreate military conflicts with scale figures and landscapes.

Do you play games of strategy? Are they role playing games or board games or games on a computer? What are your favorites? Are there eras in the past or military engagements of the past that you find most compelling? Do you keep close to reality or do you play in the sandboxes of fantasy and fiction? Are you wise in the ways of Dungeons and Dragons? Aside from the fun aspect of gaming, have you found that strategy games helped your problem solving skills in general? Do you play games with your children to teach them about history?

Content below to get the conversation started, but looking for participation from our gray box friends. If meaningful to you, it will be meaningful to the Horde.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (189) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, November 16

* * *

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 03:22 PM | Comments (70) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Nov. 16

Happy Saturday! Have you been able to spend some time outdoors, away from phones and computers?

From our pup's back yard in North Carolina, a few days ago:

Regards from Jerusalem,

Biden's Dog

What a great wildlife portrait! Anybody else getting wild visitors?

*

Posted by: K.T. at 01:20 PM | Comments (83) | Trackbacks (Suck)

How are lefties you know reacting to the election?

Have you noticed a shift in "woke" among people you know?

Yesterday, Ace posted two pieces which showed a contrast in tone among committed leftists (don't comment on old threads no matter how compelling):

From before the election:

The New York Times Publishes an Article Calling for a Color Revolution In the United States to Block Trump from the Presidency

Astonishing.

And from after the election:

We May Have Finally Turned the Corner on Woke

"Even leftists are now admitting that woke = broke."

Of the examples given by Ace in this post, I found it remarkable that the article by Maureen Dowd was discussed on MSNBC!

Then again, "Morning Joe" pretends to have once been something other than a leftist. Joy Reid, OTOH, thinks that Kamala Harris ran a flawless campaign and had all the celebrities. How could she have lost with all the celebrities? Our country is just racist and sexist.

Introspection can only penetrate so far at MSNBC.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:08 AM | Comments (360) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Classical Coffee Break & Prayer Revival (11/16/24)

*****

What kind of place won't allow refills? It certainly is place I would avoid with every fiber of my being. Well, that's a little strong. I wouldn't go there.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:30 AM | Comments (399) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 16 November 2024

Top Story

• TSMC has found a second bomb on the construction site for its latest fab. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  There's nothing nefarious afoot, though: The new factory is being built on the former site of a Japanese oil refinery from World War II.
  
  A 1000-pound bomb was found there in August, and a second 500-pound bomb made its unwelcome presence known this week.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (221) | Trackbacks (Suck)

All Those ONTs Will Be Lost In Time, Like Tears In Rain

They can have my memes when they pry them from my cold, dead hand.

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (506) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Selfie Cafe

Cat just wants some affection.

Cat v. Roomba. Hat-tip to Soothsayer.

Dog shocks himself on electrified fence. Donkey laughs and laughs and laughs.

Man bites dog.

Introducing a seal cub to the water.

Old clip: Mama otter and otter cub.

Cat adopts a puppy.

Rescue fawn bleats.

Highland calf enjoying scratches.

Horse enjoying the beach.

Steve Inman Action Theater:

"Queen Mantifa" gets rough justice.

Compilation of road disputes, featuring some street justice for Just Stop Oil.

Guy's been waiting his whole life to deliver this kick.

This too.

A classic.

Another classic.

A Pronoun is introduced to the pavement.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (342) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Identity Politics Is a Cause of Mental Illness

I'm very excited that this important idea is getting more exposure.

The Human Toll of "Wokeness"

Today's clinical psychologists often are complicit in the excesses of identity politics.
/ Eye on the News / Politics and law, The Social Order

Andrew Hartz

We live in a politicized era. Politics, particularly identity politics, are now woven through our educational, entertainment, technology, and medical institutions. This has taken a toll not only on our culture but also on individuals' mental health.

The causal chain is clear. Proponents of identity politics attack people for their beliefs, values, race, or sex. They intimidate their targets into self-censoring; in some cases, they ruin careers. Those on the receiving end of these attacks inevitably experience distress and sometimes even develop symptoms of mental illness.

Consider a person falsely accused of racism at work. He may be required to "prove" that he doesn't harbor conscious or unconscious biases. His entire career could rest on the judgments of a boss or a diversity committee. If he fails to sway them, he may get fired, face career-ending reputational damage, or see opportunities for advancement closed off. Even if he "wins," he may lose the esteem of his colleagues.

Several aspects of this experience could harm his mental health. The Kafkaesque pseudo-legal proceedings could induce paranoia and a sense of powerlessness. The resulting career worries could lead to sleepless nights or panic attacks. The public nature of the allegations could isolate and stigmatize him, even if he is innocent. If he expresses his understandable frustration, his accusers may present that as proof of his guilt and bad character.

...

False accusations of bias are not, of course, the only example of politicized culture harming people's mental health. Another issue is self-censorship. Those who refrain from saying what they think often struggle with isolation; if no one knows what you really believe, you can feel alone, even if you have many "friends." Self-censorers can develop a "false self," an insincere, performative persona that, over time, weakens their connection to their identity and leaves them feeling empty, lost, or internally numb. Being forced to withhold one's opinion is humiliating, a sign of inferior status. And people who self-censor must think twice before they speak, stifling humor, creativity, and other joys of life. Such repression could contribute to anxiety, anger, or depression.

...

Unfortunately, the mental-health field is failing to address these issues....

Clinical psychologists need to study how identity politics affects people's mental health, and what interventions, if any, will help. The field today refuses to do so, and as a result, the victims of this ideology are among the most poorly served populations in the country. The problem is worsened considerably by the reality that many therapists, academics, and professional organizations actively promote identity politics. They argue that masculinity is toxic, vilify conservative viewpoints, and advocate for censorship. These actions contribute to widespread distrust of the profession and keep people who need treatment from seeking it.

He seems to be mostly talking about the mental health damage woke culture inflicts on the people attacked by wokies.

But the wokies themselves are the most deranged and destroyed by the woke mind virus.

Meanwhile, wokies are trying to frighten and upset each other enough that other wokies will commit suicide, which they imagine will help their political cause.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:40 PM | Comments (278) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Week In Woke

America is now divided between Republicans, Independents, and "Experts and Scholars." (Including Disinformation Experts, of course.)

Justine Bateman
@JustineBateman

To those "taking issue" with the things I've been saying lately:

1. There is nothing at all controversial with what I'm saying. I am expressing relief at a lifting of a spiritual heaviness that has been on our society for the past 4 years or more. I am looking forward to what follows.

2. If you are not familiar with my film and literary work, and are "confused" by (or verbally violent about) what I am saying, I invite you to watch my film VIOLET and read my books "FAME" and "FACE." VIOLET is a map to get from a fear-filled life to an instinct-filled life. "FAME" is about the life-cycle of Fame and how we put it on a pedestal and democratized the seeking of it. "FACE" is about women's faces getting older and why that makes people angry. All to say, this is the kind of information I deliver. I endeavor to free people from the fears that keep them from fully being themselves. The more people are themselves, the happier they'll be, and the more we all benefit.

3. I have never cared if I am talking to a "left-leaning" or a "right-leaning" media outlet when it's time for me to deliver something publicly. What I have to say is for ALL people, and not for just one set of people or another. What I am delivering is for everyone who needs to hear it, and that group is not divided along "party lines."

4. For those of you who have reached out to tell me to "beware of the group with whom you are associating," I say, "Fuck off."

I have something to do here. If you don't like it, move the fuck on

Confused hysterical stupid white leftist woman feels bad about being white and condemns white people and then gets angry and says "why are we still talking about race," before resolving her cognitive dissonance and deciding white people invented race.

Whoopi Goldberg defamed a beloved Staten Island bakery, claiming they wouldn't serve her. Frankly, they did her a favor. She's obviously a diabetic and does not need more cupcakes.

A sweet moment soured.

Whoopi Goldberg has claimed an NYC bakery refused to serve her because of her political beliefs -- and the 145-year-old eatery has fired back.

On Wednesday's episode of "The View," Goldberg and co-hosts Sunny Hostin, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Joy Behar and Sara Haines took a moment to celebrate her 69th birthday.

To mark the special occasion, the ladies indulged in some Charlotte Russe desserts, a New York specialty that the "Ghost" actress said were her mom's favorite growing up.

But the sweet moment didn't last, as Goldberg claimed that the bakery, which she chose not to name, declined to take her order due to her left-leaning political views.

The shop was identified by Entertainment Weekly as Holtermann's Bakery on Staten Island, a family-owned spot loved by locals.

"Now, I should tell you, Charlotte Russe has no political leanings, and the place that made these refused to make them for me," Goldberg said on the show, prompting strong reactions from the audience and her co-hosts.

"They said that their ovens had gone down, all kinds of stuff," Goldberg claimed, "but folks went and got them anyway, which is why I'm not telling you who made them."

We need RFKJr. to put this dumptruck on a diet.

The bakery said they couldn't take the order because it was too big and they had too much business at the moment.

And, as someone said, they might have noticed that Whoopi appeared "overserved" as far as cupcakes.

People are demanding the bakery sue her and Disney-owned ABC for their latest smear.

These people have to be locked up in court 24/7 -- like they did to Trump -- until they learn they cannot just smear people and call them "a known white supremacist" as some black extremist just smeared Pete Hegseth.

Whoopie Goldberg also told lefties to disown their family members who didn't support Kamala Harris.

In St. Helens, South Dakota, a teacher under investigation for sexually molesting students for eight years was allowed by the corrupt school board to teach students. He was later arrested. That's when parents found out the district had allowed a pedophile to remain in classrooms with their children. This Groomer Board must resign. Even students have had enough.

The UK will not survive, and it doesn't deserve to.

Cultural enrichment intensifies.

A DEI police sergeant in Philly is threatening to kill retired police who voted for Trump. She's telling them that, as retired cops, they are no longer protected from cops like her:

@PhillyPolice allegedly posted this unhinged meltdown online where she threatened retired cops and their families who voted for Trump saying "You will be the subject of whooping, stop and frisk-- and ultimately shot."

A woke school board in Durango, Colorado wants to fly gay and BLM flags and yet block other people from flying their own flags. So they're calling their own propaganda "government speech," which they claim is superior to mere citizens speech. They're just admitting it now.

If you missed it: AOC removed her pronouns from her Twitter bio. That will be the extent of the Democrat "correction:" No more "Latinx," no more pushing pronouns on everyone. She "accidentally" removed her pronouns before, but then apologized and put them back when she was called out. This time she hasn't put her pronouns back.

The Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua is now operating in every city in Tennessee, or, as Martha Raddatz would call it, "a handful of cities in Tennessee."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (337) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden Pressured Israel To Not Hit Iran's Nucular Facilities.
But Iran Was Running a Secret Nuke Facility That They Claimed Had Nothing to Do With Nukes.
So Israel Bombed It. Hey, It's Not Nuke Facility, Right? Right?

Also not a nuke facility: The Ayatollah's home and his concubines' apartments.

Well, well, well. Remember when Israel agreed to US terms to avoid nuclear sites while retaliating for Iran's massive ballistic missile attack? It turns out that the Iranians' attempts to play cute with the IAEA gave Israel an opening to destroy a key research facility -- and leave the Iranians unable to complain about it.

When the Iranians first began pursuing nuclear weapons, much of that work took place at a facility in Parchin. After their program got exposed, the Iranians shuttered Parchin and moved that work into more defensible locations. The Iranians have insisted ever since that Parchin no longer played an active role in nuclear research, but that turned out to be a lie, Axios reports. And both the US and Israel knew it:

Israeli and U.S. intelligence began detecting research activity at Parchin earlier this year, including Iranian scientists conducting computer modeling, metallurgy and explosive research that could be used for nuclear weapons.

Flashback: Last June, the White House officials privately warned the Iranians in direct conversations about the suspicious research activities, Axios reported.

The U.S. hoped the warning would make the Iranians stop their nuclear activity, but they continued, the officials said.

The concern over the Taleghan 2 facility at Parchin hit levels so high in US intelligence that they stopped reporting that they had no evidence of Iranian nuclear-weapons development. So when it came time to craft the response to the October 1 missile attacks, the Israelis had a golden opportunity to end that threat, or at least severely curtail it, without violating the agreement with the US. In any other administration, this would have had the blessing of the US, and perhaps it did:

President Biden asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack the Iranian nuclear facilities in order not to trigger a war with Iran, U.S. officials said.

But Taleghan 2 was not part of Iran's declared nuclear program so the Iranians wouldn't be able to acknowledge the significance of the attack without admitting they violated the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Now the Iranians can't complain about this target, not unless it wants to admit to pursuing nuclear weapons. The realization of this loss could explain why the Iranians went from shrugging off the Israeli retaliation to threats of a counter-retaliation strike almost immediately. Iran still insists that it will counter-retaliate at some point, in fact, although the outcome of the election in the US might have them thinking twice about it.

Beege Wellborn writes about Trump's plan to set up a board of examination for all currently-serving senior officers to separate the wheat from the woke.

The American public has had enough. The first clue came when the Secretary of the Army's reviled "warrior caste," which makes up the bulk of any recruiting class in most of the armed services, simply stopped showing up to raise their right hands to enlist.

Panic set in, but instead of pivoting to appreciating the tradition of service these families have going back generations -- and yes, they are overwhelmingly middle-class whites -- the administration doubled down on DEI approaches and woke ploys to attract the diverse troops they wanted (and whom they actually already had), but in the new and improved 72 gender categories that they could fly rainbow flags over.

Traditional patriotic Hispanic, white, black, and other families with a history of service were diverse, yes, but the cool factor was sadly lacking.

Needless to say, recruiting tanked.

The Marine Corps made their numbers this year by, like, 1.

What happened next was November 6th and a belief that President Trump and whoever his Defense Secretary turned out to be would go in with a firehose to wash the woke stench from the five-sided building and return it to its proper military bearing. This is going to happen and not a minute too soon.

They will be scrutinizing general officers for performance and booting those who do not meet the parameters.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Trump transition team is ing an executive order to "create a board to purge general officers." Such a board, the article's subhead warned, "could upend military review process and raise concerns about politicization of military."

The Pentagon denizens are shaking in their boots and insisting it will be a catastrophe.

There's precedent for this: General George C. Marshall set up a "plucking" committee to purge officers too old or incompetent to continue serving. It worked out well. The world did not end, and the military improved.

See the article for more.

Posted by: Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (271) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The New York Times Publishes an Article Calling for a Color Revolution In the United States to Block Trump from the Presidency

Guys they're just protecting our democracy by ending democracy.

If the people use their votes in bad, authorized ways, the smart Guardians of Democracy will just have to take their votes from them and disqualify the people they elect.

That's what this article says.

And it hints at even more radical methods.

This was published before the election. They're already planning a "color revolution" in the US -- a supposedly spontaneous uprising by "the people," but actually fomented and coordinated by the US "intelligence" services.

There Are Four Anti-Trump Pathways We Failed to Take. There Is a Fifth.

By Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

Mr. Levitsky and Mr. Ziblatt are professors of government at Harvard and the authors of "Tyranny of the Minority."

Democratic self-rule contains a paradox. It is a system premised on openness and competition. Any ambitious party or politician should have a shot at running for office and winning. But what if a major candidate seeks to dismantle that very system?
America confronts this problem today. Donald Trump poses a clear threat to American democracy. He was the first president in U.S. history to refuse to accept defeat, and he illegally attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Now, on the brink of returning to the White House, Mr. Trump is forthrightly telling Americans that if he wins, he plans to bend, if not break, our democracy.

...

We have been studying democratic crisis and authoritarianism for 30 years. Between the two of us, we have written five books on those subjects. We can think of few major national candidates for office in any democracy since World War II who have been this openly authoritarian.

...

We spent the last year researching how democracies can protect themselves from authoritarian threats from within. We have found five strategies that pro-democratic forces around the world have employed....

The traditional American response to extremism is laissez-faire which makes it almost odd to call it a strategy. We rely on the self-correcting power of electoral competition. The belief is that all opinions should compete freely, allowing the marketplace of ideas, or what John Stuart Mill called "the collision of adverse opinions," to play out. If we let all candidates compete, the thinking goes, good ideas and candidates will ultimately beat out the bad ones.

Did you hear that? They just dismissed leaving it up to the public to vote for the representatives they choose as a "laissez faire" non-strategy which must be rejected in favor of more... proactive measures.

Electoral competition is, of course, essential to democracy. But a laissez-faire approach has two important limitations.

As they say: Ignore all the rhetorical throat-clearing before the "but." What comes after the "but" is the real position.

First, in the United States, competition is distorted by an 18th-century institution, the Electoral College, that allows election losers to win power.

Oh, that's the least of it.

...
Yet democracies are not helpless. There are four other strategies for fending off authoritarian threats from within. One of these is a far more muscular approach, known as militant or defensive democracy.

Born in West Germany as a response to Europe's democratic failures in the 1930s, the militant democracy approach empowers public authorities to wield the rule of law against antidemocratic forces.

In the beginning of the article these fascist communists were whining that Trump might prosecute Democrats for their crimes (after Democrats prosecuted Trump and his allies for four years).

They say the fix is simple: We'll just use the government to prosecute them!

Haunted by the experience of Hitler's rise to power via the ballot box, West German constitutional designers created legal and administrative procedures that allowed the state to restrict and even outlaw "anti-constitutional" speech, groups and parties...

Arguing against unlimited immigration, and against covid shut downs, are two forms of "nazi-like" speak these people have attempted to suppress.

They pretend they're talking about suppressing Hitlerism. They're really just talking about suppressing speech that is merely anti-leftist or simply dissident.

Nevertheless, most contemporary democracies employ elements of militant democracy.... Last year, a former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who, like Mr. Trump, tried to discredit and then overturn an election, was barred from public office for eight years.

And they cite that as a success.

The United States has a tool on the books for disqualifying anti-constitutional candidates: Section III of the 14th Amendment disallows former public officials who have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding office. Intended to bar Confederate leaders from public office, Section III might have been used to disqualify Mr. Trump from the ballot -- as Colorado's Supreme Court ruled in late 2023 with regard to its state's primary ballot. Earlier this year, however, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, barring congressional legislation, the 14th Amendment could not be used to keep Mr. Trump off the ballot. With that decision, for good or ill, America chose to forgo the path of militant democracy.

A third approach to defending democracy is partisan gatekeeping.

Long story short, they whine that the Republican Party should have banned Trump and his voters but were too cowardly to do so, so now we have to resort to more stringent measures.

..

Today's Republican leaders have abandoned gatekeeping. Even after Mr. Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, they protected and supported him. Had Senate Republicans voted to convict and disqualify Mr. Trump after his second impeachment, he would not be a candidate today. But they did not....

When authoritarians make it onto the ballot, prodemocratic forces may turn to a fourth strategy: containment, in which politicians from across the ideological spectrum forge a broad coalition to isolate and defeat the authoritarians.

The Deep State/Regime did this. It was all unconstitutional and often straight-up illegal.

But if you want to make an anti-fascist omlet you have to break a few eggs!

...

That leaves a fifth strategy: societal mobilization.

This is calling for a color revolution in the US. He again returns to Germany's criminalization of the AfD as a good start for Trump and his voters.

They call for all corporations to band together -- with Regime government forces, of course -- to fight the "authoritarians."

Say, what is it called when corporate power is united under government power to impose a single-party rule on a people...?

...

Although many individual business leaders have worked to defend democracy, leading national business associations like the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce remain on the sidelines, refusing to repudiate Mr. Trump's authoritarianism.

...

The U.S. establishment is sleepwalking toward a crisis. An openly antidemocratic figure stands at least a 50-50 chance of winning the presidency. The Supreme Court and the Republican Party have abdicated their gatekeeping responsibilities, and too many of America's most influential political, business and religious leaders remain on the sidelines. Unable to rise above fear or narrow ambition, they hedge their bets. But time is running out.

What are they waiting for?

They're the anti-fascists, remember?

The left is creating a roadmap for what we should do to them.

If you say these are the rules: I believe you.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:32 PM | Comments (363) | Trackbacks (Suck)

We May Have Finally Turned the Corner on Woke

Even leftists are now admitting that woke = broke.

Jennifer Sey explains how she went from leftist to Trump supporter.

Going into the election, I was scolded by people telling me why what I was prioritizing in my voting choice was wrong. COVID-19 is over. Boys in girls' sports isn't happening. No one is getting censored. You're getting it all wrong. Subtext: You're an idiot influenced by far-right loons, and you're a bigot to the core. What happened to you, Jen?

Here's what happened to me. I get to care about what I want to care about. And for the last 10 years, the far Left has been not only telling us what we need to care about but smearing us and canceling us if we don't agree.

We dissident former lefties have been called racists, misogynists, Nazis, grandma-killers, transphobes, bigots, and fascists and generally cast aside as unworthy of employment or membership in polite society. The election was a big middle finger to all of that.

The Left canceled too many of us. The outcasts spoke up and rejected the crazy on Nov. 5. Sure, we may have chosen our own brand of crazy. But, that brand of crazy knows men and women are different, boys don't belong in girls' sports, inflation is real, free speech is the most fundamental right in a democracy, and Vice President Kamala Harris was installed, not elected, as the Democratic candidate.

No matter how much propaganda Democrats spewed at us about "joy" and Harris being "brat," we saw through it. The Left mobilized all of the legacy media and Hollywood. It had Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Bruce Springsteen, Cardi B, Meryl Streep, Oprah, Jennifer Garner, Reese Witherspoon, Julia Roberts, CNN, and the New York Times. And it wasn't enough.

Millions of people who never in a million years thought that they'd cast a vote for President-elect Donald Trump did so as a vote against elitism and smugness and an entire class of overeducated, hysterical coastal elites who think they get to tell us all what to think and how to live -- and punish us with cancellation if we disagree.

Democrats, as you start calling us all irredeemable racists -- a strategy that no longer works to coerce us to do what you want -- look in the mirror. It's you. Not Trump. Not us. Until you realize that, there is going to be a whole lot more losing.

Here's why: Democrats view anyone who disagrees with them as garbage. They feign outrage about jokes and staged campaign events, but we no longer buy their faux outrage. We like jokes, and stunts, and rambling with authenticity (even when it goes on a little too long).

They venerate experts, who are wrong again and again. We want to be left alone by the so-called experts. When it was obvious COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures were terrible policy (led by Democrats' experts), what did they do? They carried on: masking two-year-olds, keeping schools closed for a year and a half, and demonizing anyone who wondered about the lab leak or learning loss. They blacklisted anyone who challenged them and encouraged our neighbors to report on us for "violations."

Read the whole thing.

Justine Bateman proclaims the end of cancel culture.

Justine Bateman is over cancel culture.

The filmmaker and actress, 58, said the quiet part out loud over a Zoom call Tuesday afternoon, about a week after former President Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris. Pundits upon pundits are offering all kinds of reasons for his political comeback. Bateman, unlike many of her Hollywood peers, agrees with the ones citing Americans' exhaustion over political correctness.

"Trying to shut down everybody, even wanting to discuss things that are going on in our society, has had a bad result," she says. "And we saw in the election results that more people than not are done with it. That's why I say it's over."

Anyone who follows Bateman on social media already knows what she's thinking -- or at least the bite-size version of it.

Bateman wrote a Twitter thread last week following the election that began:

"Decompressing from walking on eggshells for the past four years." She "found the last four years to be an almost intolerable period. A very un-American period in that any questioning, any opinions, any likes or dislikes were held up to a very limited list of 'permitted positions' in order to assess acceptability." Many agreed with her. Replies read: "Same. Feels like a long war just ended and I'm finally home." "It is truly refreshing. I feel freer already, and optimistic about my child's future for the first time." "Your courage and chutzpah is a rare commodity in Hollywood. Bravo."

Now, she says, she feels like we're "going through the doorway into a new era" and she's "100% excited about it."

In her eyes, "everybody has the right to freely live their lives the way they want, so long as they don't infringe upon somebody else's ability to live their life as freely as they want. And if you just hold that, then you've got it." The trouble is that people on both sides of the political aisle hold different definitions of infringement.
Justine Bateman is over cancel culture. Here's why.

Bateman referenced COVID as an era where if you had a "wrong" opinion of some kind, society ostracized you. "All of that was met with an intense amount of hostility, so intense that people were losing their jobs, their friends, their social status, their privacy," she says. "They were being doxxed. And I found that incredibly un-American."

Elon Musk buying Twitter in April 2022 served, in her mind, as a turning point. "The air kind of went out of the Woke Party balloon," she says, "and I was like, 'OK, that's a nice feeling.' And then now with Trump winning, and this particular team that he's got around him right now, I really felt the air go out.

Now, she says, she feels like we're "going through the doorway into a new era" and she's "100% excited about it."

...

She also hopes "that we can all feel like we're Americans and not fans of rival football teams." Some may feel that diminishes their concerns regarding reproductive rights, marriage equality, tariffs, what have you.

But to Bateman, she's just glad the era of "emotional terrorism" has ended.

Time will tell if she's right.

Leftwing hag Maureen Dowd admits woke = broke, after supporting woke cancellations for a decade.

Some Democrats are finally waking up and realizing that woke is broke.

Donald Trump won a majority of white women and remarkable numbers of Black and Latino voters and young men.

Democratic insiders thought people would vote for Kamala Harris, even if they didn't like her, to get rid of Trump. But more people ended up voting for Trump, even though many didn't like him, because they liked the Democratic Party less.

...

Democratic candidates have often been avatars of elitism -- Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and second-term Barack Obama. The party embraced a worldview of hyper-political correctness, condescension and cancellation, and it supported diversity statements for job applicants and faculty lounge terminology like "Latinx" and "BIPOC" (Black, Indigenous, people of color).

This alienated half the country, or more. And the chaos and antisemitism at many college campuses certainly didn't help.

"When the woke police come at you," Rahm Emanuel told me, "you don't even get your Miranda rights read to you."

There were a lot of Democrats "barking," people who "don't represent anybody," he said, and "the leadership of the party was intimidated."

...

Democrats learned the hard way in this election that mothers care both about abortion rights and having their daughters compete fairly and safely on the playing field.

Mark Judge objects to Maureen Dowd pretending that wokeness is what other people do. She supported the woke attacks on Kavanaugh and Judge based on no evidence by a mentally-shaky liar's WITHOUT EVIDENCE claims.

Even nasty leftist Matthew Yglesias says it's time to turn the page from woke:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:23 PM | Comments (372) | Trackbacks (Suck)