Mid-Morning Art Thread

Devil's Tower
Thomas Moran

Posted by: CBD at 09:15 AM | Comments (483) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 9/25/24

Good Morning Kids. So, is it so shocking that Kalorama Harris comes right out and declares she's going to do away with the filibuster in order to reinstate legalized infanticide throughout the land?

One of the things Democrats warn voters about Trump is that if he is elected, it will be the end of democracy. However, today, Kamala Harris revealed that it is she who wants to do away with one of the most important democratic norms in America: the filibuster. Ostensibly, it’s to return unlimited abortion to America, but the reality is that if she wins the White House and Democrats control Congress, America becomes a one-party nation...forever.

The Senate authorized the filibuster over 200 years ago, in 1806, and it was first put into effect in 1837. Its purpose is to allow a minority to invoke the filibuster to keep a bill from being voted upon unless three-fifths of the Senate’s members invoke cloture. This prevents majority rule by forcing a broad agreement on bills that will have a profound effect on America. . .

. . . Only recently, as they’ve become more radicalized, have Democrats, when in the majority wanted to do away with the filibuster. Their primary goals are to pack the Supreme Court and add Puerto Rico and D.C. as states. (That the Constitution theoretically bars D.C. from becoming a state is irrelevant if you control the Supreme Court). Once they do that, they will have achieved permanent control over the government, and the Constitution will be a dead letter. . .

. . . But the one thing you can say about Democrats is that, unlike Republicans, they never give up. And so it is that Kamala is once again urging people to vote for her and a Democrat Senate so that Democrats can end the filibuster. This time, Kamala’s using her biggest strength in the campaign to make that argument: She says she’ll reverse the Dobbs decision and reinstate Roe v. Wade. That is, reversing the filibuster will set in motion taking abortion from the states and returning it to the feds. It’s 1973 all over again:

Emphasis above mine. That's because it's not necessarily about the particular issue so much as it is about the attainment of absolute power while at the same time completely destroying the nation, culture, heritage and society in the process.

Given the fact that, there is a real perception that Trump has a shot (no pun) at actually pulling out a win come November, all this blather about restoring Roe reeks of desperation in trying to energize a base that by some accounts is losing significant support from a number of key constituencies of its base. Are there enough AWFLs and other women out there who believe that killing a child in utero for whatever reason is a personal health choice and/or a civil right that must be protected, to overcome not only sane people who at a bare minimum believe there should be at least some restrictions on it as well as blacks, latinos, blue collar workers and everyone else who is fed up with intentionally imported foreign savages gutting and eating their pets in public, along with raping, murdering and robbing them and their loved ones while sacking the treasury.

Yes gentle reader, I know Rush Limbaugh of blessed memory lamented the fact that people's eyes glazed over with talk about debts and deficits, yet this headline is going to hit home sooner or later:

The presidential campaign season is once again turning politicians into pandering game show hosts, promising voters huge tax cuts and spending expansions with no regard to the debt crisis these policies will accelerate.

Budget deficits are set to exceed $2 trillion this year — despite relative peace and prosperity — and then surge to $4 trillion within a decade under current policies.

For the first time since the end of World War II, the federal debt will top 100% of the gross domestic product.

The impending completion of the Biden-Harris junta brings an opportunity to assess their role in these rising deficits.

That is insane. Couple that with the expansion of a vast welfare state to accommodate tens of millions of foreign peasants on top of the millions already here and our own, sadly, native layabouts and welfare queens and leeches, while we complete the destruction of our manufacturing base with overregulation and taxation on top of the dismantling of the fossil fuel/petrochemical industry that drives prosperity and growth, along with the brainwashing of yet another generation of children to be nothing more than drones and slaves to big government. Hello Obama's Julia, remember her?

Meanwhile, evidently someone took a pot shot at Kamala campaign offices in Tempe Az. Do I get to say, like Democrats said about Trump that the nation would be better off if the shooter succeeded? Just asking?

Speaking of Haitians, and some cognitive dissonance for those who claim all this talk about roasting park geese and pet cats in Springfield Ohio is fake news and racist propaganda.

“DO NOT TRAVEL” blares the red warning at the top of the State Department page.

Things you’re not supposed to do in Haiti, per the U.S. government, if you ignore the BLARING RED warning and go anyway:

“Using any kind of public transportation or taxis.” 
“Visiting banks and using ATMs.”
“Driving at night.”
“Traveling anywhere after dark.” 
“Traveling without prior approval and special security measures in place.”

. . . It’s unclear how the governing authorities can square these two simultaneous claims: Haiti is a dystopian hellhole where wanton violence is so rampant that even visiting the country is an existential threat; and, tens of thousands of Haitians imported overnight into the Midwest is actually a bounty from the benevolent Diversity™ gods and any claims of adverse social effects are conspiratorial hatespeech.

Well, with Israel doing the 100% right thing by telling Biden and Blinken to gey-kock-in-yom und vayr ge-hargit, and not agree to slit their own throats by letting Hamas and Hezbollah do the slitting and drive them into the sea. it looks like Blinken is being set up to be the fall guy, in order to mitigate any chance of losing Michigan and/or Minnesota in November. And as a bonus, Blinken's a Jew (albeit a self-gasser, but still).

Any travel bans on Springfield Ohio? or anywhere else for that matter. like Chicago???

Chicago gang members and ex-convicts are warning of coming violent turf wars with newly arrived Venezuelan migrants who are part of the notorious gang Tren De Aragua, or TDA. 

Not unlike other cities across the country, Chicago has been inundated with migrants as the border crisis rages on. Since 2022, an estimated 48,000 migrants have come to the city, with the majority of new migrant arrivals hailing from Venezuela

“When the black gangs here get fed up with the illegalities and criminal activities of these migrants or non-citizens, the city of Chicago is going to go up in flames and there will be nothing the National Guard or the government can do about it when the bloodshed hits the streets,” Tyrone Muhammad, an ex-con and former gang member, told the New York Post. “It’ll be blacks against migrants.”

Can you say anarcho-terrorism? Things could get interesting come Election Day. Should Trump come close to winning or actually pull out a win, there is no way the Deep State and Junta will let him sit behind that Resolute Desk.

If two assassination attempts, plus Kangaroo courts and Shampeachments after a stolen election via the Fauci-created Chinese Lung Aids lockdowns doesn't convince you, what will?

As they did during the last presidential election, the powers that be will use any means necessary — and all means available — to maintain power and deny President Donald Trump a second term. That could mean using some sort of emergency as a justification to violate the Constitution and postpone the election.
“If they think that there’s a chance that Trump could win decisively enough in November that they can’t steal it, then I think their only option there is to in some way throw the society into chaos,” Tucker Carlson said. “It’s pretty simple. If they feel like they’re going to lose, we will have some kind of crisis.

Have a great day.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• It’s unclear how the governing authorities can square these two simultaneous claims: Haiti is a dystopian hellhole where wanton violence is so rampant that even visiting the country is an existential threat; and, tens of thousands of Haitians imported overnight into the Midwest is actually a bounty from the benevolent Diversity™ gods and any claims of adverse social effects are conspiratorial hatespeech.
  Shot: Irony? State Department Bigots Issue ‘Do Not Travel’ Haiti Advisory
  
• Well, would you look at that? Some group called the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) is filing criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), for "seven separate offenses, including disrupting public services, making false alarms, aggravated menacing, complicity and telecommunications harassment," as described by The Hill.
  Chaser: Haitian Immigrant Advocacy Group Files Criminal Complaint Against Trump, Vance
  
• Michael Goodwin: The nation and the world are in far worse shape now than when Biden took office and had he stayed in the race, he would have lost to Donald Trump in a landslide.  Americans are generous and patient, but not stupid.  Indeed, the widespread belief that we are now closer than ever to World War III captures the truth of Biden’s disastrous term. Rarely if ever have things gotten so bad, so fast. 
  Joe Biden’s disastrous legacy of crime at home and war abroad on full display in his final UN speech
  
• How the Deep State could thwart Trump and retain power.
  ‘We Interrupt This Election…’

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:11 AM | Comments (308) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 25 September 2024

Top Story

• Intel has launched its Xeon 6 server processors, boasting up to 128 cores (full-size, not "efficiency" cores) and using up to 500W of power, to compete with AMD. (Hot Hardware)
  
  Intel has been far behind AMD in this space since the first Epyc processors launched in 2017. Intel hopes to start taking back market share with these new chips, priced starting at...
  
  Well, you can't actually buy them, but when you can they'll be great. Really.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:15 AM | Comments (112) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (9/24/24)

*****

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

“He was my partner, my other half. One half of my heart and I’m the other half of his heart,” Tonya Lee wife of slain St. Louis police officer.

Quote II

"Why has the State Department not formally removed Malley from his position, nearly 15 months after he was placed on leave and 17 months after his clearance was suspended?" Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.)

Quote III

“Just as important for the fairness of our justice system is when we recognize when leniency is warranted — that we distinguish between the mastermind and the willing accomplice,” Sassoon, who was one of the lead government lawyers at the trial last year, said. “In the government’s view, a lenient sentence is what is just.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon
Leniency is warranted. YGTBFKM! Oh well, tell that to J6 political prisoners who did nothing more than trespass.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:02 PM | Comments (615) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Lazy Rainy Tuesday Cafe

The Adirondacks, Upstate NY

Good dad.

Dog can't get the hang of the hula-hoop. I love how game he is, though.

Lions play fraternity hazing games. Teabag more like a fleabag amirite

Furry dog makes an outstanding rain-shield.

Dog winds up being a "personality hire" at the gas station.

Kitten love ambush.

Finding where you fit in.

The Ultimate Battle: Ducks vs. Dachshund.

The Penultimate Battle: Baby Goat vs. Capybara.

Mom needs a vacation.

Some monster put a dog in a bag and threw it in a river but there are more good people than bad ones.

Posted by: Ace at 07:15 PM | Comments (366) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Foreign Election Interference: Democrats Airlift Ukranian Dictator Zelensky to Campaign for Kamala Harris and the Chinese Communist Agent Tim Walz

The Bee:

The Daily Caller:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew into a key U.S. swing state this week on a taxpayer-funded aircraft after publicly criticizing former President Donald Trump and Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

Zelenskyy touched down in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Sunday in a U.S. Air Force C-17A aircraft and toured a local munitions factory that has been producing armaments for Ukraine amid the country's ongoing war against Russia. During his visit, Zelenskyy met with high-level Democratic Pennsylvania officials such as Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Matt Cartwright and expressed his gratitude "for their support."

Prior to his trip to the U.S., Zelenskyy spoke to The New Yorker and claimed Trump doesn't "really know how to stop the war."

"Trump makes political statements in his election campaign. He says he wants the war to stop. Well, we do, too.... My feeling is that Trump doesn't really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how," Zelenskyy told The New Yorker in the interview published Sunday, noting that he was appreciative that Trump has expressed his support. "With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand. I've seen many leaders who were convinced they knew how to end it tomorrow, and as they waded deeper into it, they realized it's not that simple."

Zelenskyy was even more critical of Vance to The New Yorker, referring to him as "too radical." In an interview with the Shawn Ryan show in mid-September, Vance recently proposed a peace deal where Russia retains the territory it has seized so that a demilitarized zone could be established along the current battle lines.

The demilitarized zone would need to be "heavily fortified so the Russians don't invade again," Vance said at the time. Such a deal could also involve the provision that Ukraine doesn't join NATO to guarantee neutrality with Russia.

"This would be an awful idea, if a person were actually going to carry it out," Zelenskyy told The New Yorker. "But there's certainly no way this could ever happen... And it wouldn't necessarily end the war, either. It's just sloganeering."

Zelenskyy went on to say that Vance's ideas are "dangerous signals," and accepting such a deal would risk other American interests abroad, such as in the Middle East and Taiwan. He further went on to hint that Vance, if elected, "should be held responsible for potentially starting a global war" if his ideas are put into practice.

"Whichever President or Vice-President raises this prospect -- that ending the war hinges on cementing the status quo, with Ukraine simply giving up its land--should be held responsible for potentially starting a global war," Zelenskyy told The New Yorker. "I don't take Vance's words seriously, because, if this were a plan, then America is headed for global conflict. It will involve Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Taiwan, China, as well as many African countries."

The Biden-Harris Administration took taxpayer funds to pay for this foreign election interference effort?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Sunday to tour a munitions plant manufacturing shells for Ukraine's war effort. The trip, which used a taxpayer-funded U.S. military plane, drew sharp criticism from Republicans, with House Republican Chairwoman Elise Stefanik accusing Zelensky of using the visit to campaign for Democrats in a key swing state, calling it an "abuse of taxpayer funds."

Key Details:

Zelensky's visit to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant was part of his U.S. trip to thank workers producing 155mm artillery shells used by Ukrainian forces.

Pennsylvania Democrats like Gov. Josh Shapiro and vulnerable Sen. Bob Casey accompanied him during the tour, sparking claims from Republicans that the visit was politically timed to boost Democrats ahead of the November election.

"It's a clear misuse of taxpayer funds," Stefanik said, accusing Zelensky of "propping up Democrats" in President Biden's home state, where Casey is in a tight reelection race against Republican Dave McCormick. Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt echoed these concerns, stating Zelensky was "openly campaigning for Democrats" by appearing with key Democratic officials in a highly contested state.

Via Instapundit: this observation from the American Thinker.

President Trump was nearly murdered a mere week ago by a dirtbag who proclaimed a fanatical devotion to Ukraine's war. Now Zelensky has turned up to try to knock President Trump out another way? He should sit this one out.

Well, my mind's made up. The American media went from sixty years of Soviet Union/apologism to basically agitating for World War Three over some hacked emails and $150,000 in FaceBook ads.

My feelings about Ukraine had been conflicted. I didn't like the fact that this country was interfering in US politics by paying off Biden family members and getting Biden to demand the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor in return. But I really hated Russia. And I couldn't really blame the Ukrainians for participating in Democrat Party corruption -- this is the US's fault, at heart. We allow this party to shop around the world for foreign donors.

Also, I'd known some Ukrainians. One of the first Reagan-loving Republicans I knew was a Ukrainian immigrant. He preached Reagan when I was, get this, a liberal.

But now my feelings are resolved: Russia can have Ukraine, in full. The left turned its back on its historic ally the Soviet Union over a very fake "election interference" campaign; I will do the same over a very real one.

I have a preference that Ukraine not be politically interfered with by foreigners, but my much, much, stronger insistence is that the US not be politically interfered with by foreigners.

F*** Ukraine.

Posted by: Ace at 06:06 PM | Comments (293) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Kamala Harris: I'll Scrap the Senate Filibuster to Write Pro-Abortion Extremism Into US Law

Wait, so she's saying the federal government does have the power to intrude into abortion policy?

So she must equally believe the US government can forbid or restrict abortion as well?

Her values haven't changed. Wink.

Vice President and Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris told WPR's "Wisconsin Today" on Monday that she supports ending the filibuster to restore Roe v. Wade to protect abortion rights nationally.

"I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe," Harris said in an interview that aired Tuesday morning. "And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do."

In 2022 as vice president, Harris said she supported ending the filibuster to protect reproductive and voting rights. As a candidate for president in 2019 when she was a U.S. senator, she also said she would support ending the filibuster to pass environmental legislation known as the Green New Deal.

Joe Manchin has talked a good game about being a "centrist," but he's only now finally done something tangible to back that up.

He's not endorsing Kamala Harris. Baby steps, "Centrist."

"Shame on her," Manchin said in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. "She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It's the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids."

Manchin opposed previous efforts to eliminate the filibuster. Manchin said the filibuster should not be eliminated for specific issues either. He has declined to endorse Harris, a former California Democratic senator, due to her position on the matter.

"That ain't going to happen," he said, according to CNN. "I think that basically can destroy our country, and my country is more important to me than any one person or any one person's ideology. ... I think it's the most horrible thing."

Update: Sinema also condemned the vow to gut the filibuster.

Steve Cortes @CortesSteve 2h

Wow. Kamala Harris has now been condemned by two Democrat Senators for her radical pledge to gut the filibuster so she can ram through Marxist legislation that would destroy our country. [Manchin and Sinema]

Thanks to andycanuck.

Via John Sexton: She previously vowed to defend the filibuster, from alleged plans of the GOP to scrap it.

Her word means nothing. "Her values haven't changed." Wink.

Posted by: Ace at 04:55 PM | Comments (303) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New York's Covid Czar Arranged Group Sex Parties During the Lockdowns He Demanded and Enforced

You can't attend a funeral, but damn it all, the Regime Perverts aren't going to stop their illegal-drug-fueled wife-swapping gang-bang parties.

Remember Monkeypox? Remember that our "health experts" would not even tell people -- gay men, in this case, one of the most protected of all protected classes -- to not join in anonymous gang-bang orgies?

They couldn't even say that.

For my friends, everything. For my enemies -- the law.

The spirit of Lenin is the spirit of our age.

The depth of their hypocrisy is becoming all too apparent. Last week, it emerged that Dr Jay Varma -- the city's senior public-health adviser under then mayor Bill de Blasio, and one of the most prominent advocates for lockdowns, masking and vaccine mandates -- was not exactly practising what he preached. In a series of recorded conversations posted by podcaster Steven Crowder, Varma boasts about attending sex parties and raves while implementing policies that locked New York down.

'The only way I could do this job for the city was if I had some way to blow off steam every now and then', he is recorded saying. Poor Dr Varma. We all remember what a tense time it was. Who could blame the man for getting off his head on ecstasy and going to a couple of orgies here and there?

Certainly not the Atlantic magazine, which published a piece last Friday with the headline, 'Public-health officials should have been talking about their sex parties the whole time'. And no, this was not satire.

Dusting off NYC's Covid rule book from 2020, the Atlantic notes that city guidance 'discouraged -- but did not forbid -- group sex'.

Yeah, they took a similar position with gang-bang orgies during monkeypox. They didn't tell people not to attend them, they just told people to "use common sense" and take "practical measures" to limit one's exposure to monkeypox when being peed on by stranger perverts.

The piece helpfully points out that 'Varma explained that he'd partied responsibly, noting "Everybody got tests and things like that".' There was no word from the Atlantic as to whether or not Varma managed to get his plums sucked by fellow orgy participants when the city guidelines were to only have group sex while 'wear[ing] a face covering'. Quite the logistical challenge.

The article's author, Kristen V Brown, argues that 'public-health messaging wins trust most effectively when it leads with empathy'. She says that Varma's desire to partake in several gang bangs was 'relatable'. He 'struggled in the way that many others did', she writes, 'as he tried to navigate the crushing isolation of the pandemic'.

The Regime makes the rules for others. For itself, it's nothing but gang-bangs and luxe dinners at the French Laundry.

David Strom writes about the Atlantic article that actually praises the heroism of this covid czar for keeping his spirits up with illegal sex parties.

The first headline of this article said that Varna should have been talking about his sex parties. So that this Regime functionary could have shown the peons he rules over that he's "relatable."

This is what The Atlantic considers "relatable" -- drug-fueled wife-swapping gamgbang orgies.

Enough of the Democrat-Puff-Daddy Party. Enough.

This is the perfect article, in a way. It captures the way that our moral betters think about themselves and about the people they want to rule.

Sure, Varma used the police to jail people who violated COVID policies, but his excuse for organizing drug-fueled orgies was that he had to blow off steam. He was stressed out, you see, by having to impose tyranny on others. Who doesn't need to blow off steam?

My guess is that few of my readers organized drug-fueled orgies during the pandemic or any other time, and if they had in New York City during COVID, they would have been carted off to jail if discovered. Last I checked, MDMA (Extasy) is illegal and rarely recommended by public health officials.

Drug-fueled orgies for me, but not for thee.

What makes this article perfect is the casual way in which all this hypocrisy and lawbreaking is portrayed as normal.

You can measure how close a society is to open authoritarianism by how desperate citizens are to curry favor with the Regime, lest they be the next to be purged or jailed.

Posted by: Ace at 03:42 PM | Comments (399) | Trackbacks (Suck)

David Sachs, Elon Musk: Democrats Are Programming Their Lunatics to Kill Trump

And they know they're doing it. They won't stop because the job isn't finished yet.

David Sachs is part of that All-In podcast with "J Cal" the idiot Poor. But Sachs is more right-leaning and pushes back against "J Cal's" The View-level stupidities. He's not a conservative (I don't think) but he is supporting Trump this go-round.

KanekoaTheGreat
@KanekoaTheGreat

David Sacks points out that Ryan Routh, the man who attempted to assassinate President Trump, has tweets that sound exactly like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the corporate media.

"Let's look at the rhetoric that Ryan Routh was literally quoting on his X. He was saying that Trump was an existential threat to democracy. He was quoting what Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the mainstream media have been saying chapter and verse. If you want to ascribe motivation there, where did Routh get these ideas?"

"They've been endlessly amplified by the mainstream media, and it's not like a one-off comment. It's been the central narrative for the last several years that somehow Trump represents this existential threat to democracy, and one way or another, that threat must be eliminated. Ryan Routh simply took literally what the mainstream media has been saying."

"When you call the guy Hitler for years and again, you create billions of impressions around that, and it's not like a one-off statement, but it's something that is drummed into the public over and over again. It seems like to me you are asking for trouble."

Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (453) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Son of Second Trump Assassin Arrested on Child Exploitation Charges

Remember, he said he hated Trump "like every good person should."

No matter how vile, leftists assert, Without Evidence, that they're "the Good People." Even while collecting child p*rn. This is the central appeal of leftism: It tells the mentally ill that they're actually sane and that it's the world that has to derange itself to accommodate them, it tells criminals and perverts that they're virtuous, and it tells failures and idiots that they are actually secretly world-beaters who are just held down by "Society."

And of course it tells assassins that they're heroes.

It's a religion of endless cope for the horrid.

Oran Routh, the son of Ryan Wesley Routh--the man accused of a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump--has been arrested on federal charges of child pornography. Authorities uncovered hundreds of files linked to "child exploitation" during a search of his Guilford County, North Carolina home over the weekend.

Key Details:

Oran Routh has been charged with two counts related to the receipt and possession of child pornography, following a federal investigation into his activities. The charges against Oran are unrelated to his father's alleged plot to kill Trump.

Investigators executed a search warrant on Routh's North Carolina home and reportedly found evidence on a device located in his primary bedroom. The evidence included hundreds of files linked to "child exploitation."

A criminal complaint details a July conversation in which Routh allegedly engaged with an online seller offering child pornography material. Federal prosecutors are expected to request his continued detention during his court appearance later today.

This pervert's father, meanwhile, will continue to be held before trial.

Ryan Wesley Routh, accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, remains in custody following a ruling by a federal judge. Routh faces charges for illegally possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, while federal prosecutors prepare to seek a grand jury indictment on more serious charges, including attempted assassination.

The incident occurred on September 15th, 2024, when Secret Service agents spotted Routh with a rifle at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, where Trump was playing golf. Routh fled the scene after agents opened fire but was apprehended by law enforcement in a neighboring county.

As part of their case for Routh's continued detention, the Department of Justice released a letter written by Routh, where he admitted to the assassination attempt and offered $150,000 to anyone who could "finish the job." This release has drawn significant criticism from lawmakers, including Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, who questioned why such dangerous information was made public, warning it could inspire copycat attacks. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also condemned the DOJ, accusing it of essentially placing a bounty on Trump's head.

Posted by: Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (404) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Bloomberg: Why Is the Government Sending Illegal Aliens to Blue Jurisdictions, When It's the Red Jurisdictions Who So Dearly Need Their Diversity?

As you well know, the left is adamant that all the world's destitute be permitted to come settle the United States to free it from its current colonialist inhabitants. But you know as well that the left insists that those dirty foreigners be settled far way from from leftwing enclaves. Ship 20,000 Haitians to working-class white Springfield, Ohio -- but when 50 (fifty, five-zero) immigrants are bussed to all white, all wealthy Martha's Vinyard, these White Saviors say "We just don't have the proper welfare services to handle such a huge flow of immigrants" and they ship them off to, yes, a literal military camp.

Bloomberg has an article up offering the beginnings of an intellectual justification for why these illegal aliens that the left is so very, very fond of should be settled in "red jurisdictions." You see, the blue jurisdictions they sometimes come to are already "thriving." These illegals would bring even more thriving to these thriving areas, and really, do you need that much thriving?

So they have a plan: Let's divert the illegal aliens who cause local thriving from the already-thriving blue jurisdictions and dump them into the red jurisdictions that desperately need the "thriving" these illegal aliens can provide.

Whatever is necessary to keep them out of Martha's Vinyard.

Migrants Are Settling in Thriving Blue Counties -- Not the Red Counties That Need Them

By Elena Mejía and Shawn Donnan for Bloomberg Politics + Equality

In this year's US presidential campaign, few issues figure as prominently as immigration. Voters from coast to coast have seen their communities mired in fierce debates about how to handle an influx of migrants fueled by a record number of border crossings in 2023.

...

Often lost in all the politicking, though, is a clear accounting of what shape the recent wave of immigration has taken -- and what clues that offers about the US economy, including the labor and resource needs of the swing-state cities and towns that are poised to have outsize impact on the election.

Bloomberg News analyzed immigration court data obtained by researchers at Syracuse University that show where the 1.8 million asylum seekers and refugees who landed in the US in 2023 have taken up residence...

Migrants landing in swing states, and across the country, are gravitating to counties that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.

In the battleground states that will decide this November's election, about 72% of migrants in 2023 went to Biden counties while less than a third went to Trump counties, the Bloomberg analysis found. Counties that voted for Biden four years ago are home to roughly 60% of the overall US population.

Swing states received 12% of all migrants, with most going to blue counties like Philadelphia, home to Pennsylvania's largest city, and Gwinnett, which is outside Atlanta.

Much like in previous generations, migrants are headed to places with growing local economies, bolstering the labor force in places that are already thriving. In swing states, 85% of migrants settled in places that saw GDP growth from 2019 to 2022, according to the latest available data....

These newcomers are unlikely to become US citizens before the election, so they won't be casting ballots of their own.

LOL, sure.

Westmoreland, which through the 19th and 20th centuries turned coal into a manufacturing-driven regional economy that once attracted companies such as Alcoa, Sony and Volkswagen, has weathered decades of deindustrialization that led to a steady exodus of people. And for years local leaders have been plotting how to attract more residents, with mixed results. The county's population is about 10% smaller today than it was at its peak in 1979.

...

Westmoreland was the destination for just 142 migrants with cases pending in immigration court in 2023. And the politics of the region may preclude that from getting much larger.

Let's force Westmoreland to take 15-20,000 Haitians so it can start thriving again!!!

This is an especially sick thing to demand, when the town you're talking about has had a collapse of local employment due to deindustrialization, that is, outsourcing manufacturing jobs to the third world.

But let's flood this already low-employment town with lots of illegals willing to work for dirt wages. That'll really help the locals to thrive!

How much more obvious could Bloomberg be that they are making a case for liberals getting what they want politically -- a never-ending flood of third world "new voters" -- so long as those dirty foreigners are penned up with Dirty White Working Class.

Local Republican elected officials have this year worked to get the county, in which Trump took 63% of the vote in 2020, taken off a list of sanctuary communities kept by the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for tougher border policies. That became an issue because of Republican moves in the state legislature to crack down on cities and counties identified as sanctuaries and local complaints from Trump supporters.

What they're complaining about is that liberals want to declare their cities sanctuary cities, but then dirty foreigners actually take them at their word that they are "welcomed" there and move to those leftwing cities.

What they want is for red jurisdictions to call themselves sanctuary cities so the dirty foreigners will move their instead, leaving Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard pristine and almost entirely white and wealthy.

Here, they make the case that what these economically-stunted former manufacturing areas need is not new jobs but new workers to fill the few jobs that exist, because, somehow, adding new workers to an area with high unemployment will attract "outside investors" who will then start new industries and make new jobs.

Where they're getting this is unclear. I think this is just pure wishcasting and trying to concoct some fantasy about why dirty foreigners should stick to crumbling post-industrial towns where dirty Trump votes live.

According to federal data, the county's local economy was at the end of 2022 still 2.5% smaller in inflation-adjusted terms than it was in 2019 before the pandemic. The lack of workers still serves as one hindrance to drawing new investments, according to local economic development officials.

Yes whenever a town's unemployment is high, and people are leaving the area to find work in other places, I always think, "What this place needs is a flood of new third-world workers to compete with the resident population for the few remaining jobs. Just putting all those working class white people out on the street will really attract 'outside investment.'"

Kulick's program is part of his broader mission to quietly bring migrants to a conservative county that was built many generations ago by immigrants arriving from places like Italy and Eastern Europe, but has gravitated toward Trump and his anti-migrant politics in recent years.

If it wants to survive, the county will eventually have to welcome more migrants from Latin America and beyond, Kulick says. It's a matter of adapting to economic reality, he says.

Nah. I think they should just build paper mills and fat rendering plants on Martha's Vineyard. What do you think of that? Really make Martha's Vineyard thrive with foreigners and dirty industries.

Meanwhile: Springfield Ohio is thriving, baby, if your metric for "thriving" is shoplifting and vehicle theft.

Reports of shoplifting and vehicle theft increased considerably in Springfield, Ohio, following the arrival of thousands of Haitian refugees, according to data obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation through a records request.

The town, which had a population of 58,622 in 2020, has taken in between 12,000 and 20,000 Haitian refugees over the past three years, marking a population increase of between 20.4% and 34.1%. From 2021 to 2023, Springfield also saw a 51.5% jump in motor vehicle theft reports and a 112.8% spike in reports of shoplifting, data provided by the Springfield Police Division shows.

Springfield residents previously told the DCNF that the influx of Haitians has resulted in an uptick in car accidents, increased housing prices and strained public services. Bryan Heck, Springfield's city manager, sent a letter to Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott in July requesting federal assistance to deal with the pressure migrants had placed on the housing supply.

...

Springfield's police department declined to comment on the crime data, which does not include information on the immigration status or demographics of offenders.

Obviously, American citizens cannot have possession of any information that might undermine the Regime's claims.

..

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has set aside $2.5 million to help Springfield deal with the migrant surge and announced Wednesday that he would deploy the Ohio State Highway Patrol to assist with traffic enforcement in the municipality. The issue of poor driving among refugees became a flashpoint in the community after a Haitian national driving a minivan without a license swerved in front of a school bus in August 2023, killing an 11-year-old boy and injuring roughly a dozen other students.

One Springfield resident, a pastor, told the DCNF that the town had accidents every day as a result of the influx of Haitians. A local towing employee confirmed that there had been an uptick in wrecks.

Thriving, baby.

Posted by: Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (412) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Ever since the Six-Day War, Israel has diddled and vacillated and tried to please the elites in the West (primarily America) while simultaneously trying to protect its citizens from the existential threat of Islam.

Land for peace...political autonomy...hundreds of thousands of jobs for the West Bank and Gaza Arabs within Israel itself...carefully titrated responses to the never-ending terrorist attacks against its citizens.

Nothing worked. What did Israel get? Hezbollah to the North, Hamas to the South, with the even more kleptocratic but equally homicidal Palestinian Authority to the East. Thousands of Israelis have died, and the threat of both home-made and Iranian supplied missiles has never been greater. And all of this culminated in the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. October 7th should have been the catalyst for a radical departure from the status quo, but because of pressure from the Iran-loving American administration and Israel's fear of Western media disapprobation, The military response has been drawn out and muted. Yes, tunnels have been destroyed, rockets have been destroyed, thousands of Hamas terrorists have been killed...but the war has been going on for more than 11 months! Israel's goals have been muddied by the intense pressure from both the West and its own fifth column of ardent leftists.

But the magnificent operation of last week has handed Israel a tremendous opportunity to snatch back the initiative, and return to the Israel of old...lightning strikes on its enemies, daring and unconventional operations, and finally taking the fight to its real enemies.

Retired colonel Kobi Marom urges Israel to target Nasrallah in IDF ground maneuver

During the interview, Marom stated, "This week has been the hardest in the organization's history, following severe damage to its command structure. Therefore, the question is: where is Israel headed? Do Israel's initiative, attack, and significant damage lead Iran and Hezbollah to reach an arrangement? I say no."

Marom then explained that unless the IDF destroys Hezbollah’s power centers in Beirut and Baalbek, “Hezbollah will not sit down for negotiations, what Israel is trying to do is escalate attacks, and doing more of the same is a mistake. There is a rare, once-in-a-generation opportunity here; it’s time for brave decisions.”

Exactly. Israel does not have the luxury of time. A war of attrition favors the terrorists, who are content to conduct low-level attacks from all sides until the Israeli body politic is exhausted and ready for the existentially awful "Two State Solution."

Take the gloves off. Let the military planners do their work without political considerations that ALWAYS temper their plans.

And then conduct fast unrestricted war against Hezbollah and the remnants of Hamas. Make them shiver with fear, unsure when the next Israeli operation will come, but knowing that it will be fierce and from an unexpected direction.

That is how Israel can win its war.

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (325) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Richard the Lionheart Receives Communion in Hagia Sophia
Gaspare Fossati

In 1837, Gaspare Fossati, by command of the Russian Czar, moved to Istanbul to design and construct a new Russian Embassy. While there, he was hired by the Ottoman sultan to restore the Hagia Sophia. During Ottoman rule, the interior mosaics of the great Byzantine church were covered over in plaster. Fossati and his team removed the plaster, repaired the church’s structure, and restored its mosaics. He also produced a series of lithographs that documented the building’s interior and exterior. When everything was complete, the mosaics were covered up again. Fossati’s personal experience with Hagia Sophia can be seen in this work painted while he was still in Istanbul. The detail is exquisite.

This work is primarily about scale. Most of the canvas is taken up by the vast nave of Hagia Sophia which dwarfs a group of people at the bottom. There has to be close to a hundred figures here, but they are puny. Since I have never visited the building, I thought Fossati exaggerated the proportions some to enhance the viewer’s awe (not unheard of in art), so I googled some photographs. From what I can tell, this depiction seems pretty accurate. If anything, he might have reduced the scale somewhat!

Fossati wants us to feel the enormity of the space. I also think he wants us to marvel at how open and light it feels. That is one of the great paradoxes of this building. Hagia Sophia is massive but feels light. The height of the building, from floor to the center of the main dome is 182 feet! I cannot imagine the awe of walking into such a space. So, imagine the awe of the first people to enter the newly finished building.

Hagia Sophia was (is) an architectural wonder. When it was completed in the Sixth Century AD, it was the largest Christian church, and the largest interior space of any kind, in the world. The dome itself was a particular problem that took several tries to get right. Around its base, a row of arched windows, which on a sunny day, creates a ring of light round the bottom of the dome. The effect was so mind-blowing, one ancient writer thought it looked like the dome was actually suspended from Heaven. An explosion of other architectural innovations spread the immense space out further.

This is a mysterious painting. It doesn’t depict history. Richard I never visited Constantinople and so could never have visited the church or had communion there. So why did Fossati paint this? What was his point? He was a Swiss working for the Muslim Ottomans. When Fossati painted this, Ayasofia was used as a mosque. I wonder how his work on the Hagia Sophia and the censored art affected him. Here is a depiction of Richard Lionheart, one of the leaders of the Third Crusade participating in a Christian sacrament in the greatest church in Christendom. Is this painting a fantasy? Does it carry a subtle message of defiance or Western/Christian pride? Possibly a desire for Christian unity in the depiction of a Western Christian leader taking the sacrament in the home church of Eastern Orthodoxy?

Probably not. However interesting that all might be, I think the primary message of this work is the magnificence of the Hagia Sophia itself. It dominates. It dwarfs. The arches, domes, half-domes, vaults, and galleries; the mosaics and marble paneling are all rendered in minute detail to amaze. While the mystery in this work’s title persists, there is an irony that I found more interesting. For a painting about vastness and monumentality, it’s pretty small — only about two by one-and-a-half feet.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:30 AM | Comments (329) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 9/24/24

Good Morning Kids. It certainly seems as if the powers that be are both preparing themselves for a potential Donald Trump victory come Novmber, while at the same time doing everything in their power to prevent it, as all the cool kids would say "By Any Means Necessary."

Even if it means touching off a nasty global war either with the Russians or in the eastern Mediterranean. No, not to help the Israelis but to actually bolster Iran's proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas who are on the verge of being obliterated by the Israelis. And that would spell disaster for the Kalorama-Kamala-Kabal insofar as putting Michigan and Minnesota in play for Trump.

Pressure has grown on Biden, who has often touted his foreign policy experience during his political career, to help orchestrate an end to the Israel-Hamas war that began almost a year ago and has embroiled the Middle East in a broader regional conflict. With the prospect of his legacy being stained by a failure to secure a ceasefire before his term ends in January, Biden is pressing those closest to him to find a solution as soon as possible, Politico reported on Monday, citing U.S. officials who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity, given that they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the matter. . .

“Keep fucking trying,” Biden reportedly told his national security officials in a recent meeting in the Situation Room, according to one of the participants of the meeting who spoke to Politico.

A successful ceasefire deal could also notch a separate win for Biden — he believes it will improve Vice President Kamala Harris’ own shot at the presidency in the November election, according to three officials who spoke to Politico. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director Bill Burns and White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have all been tasked to make a ceasefire deal their top focus before Biden’s term comes to a close.

For those wholly unaware, that is the trolls and any other LIV lurkers around here, ceasefire means Israel surrender and commit national suicide. Not only for immediate political expediency but because this junta and the deeply embedded globalist/Anti-American abscess known as Foggy Bottom that has been rotting away at our vitals and vital interests for decades has been driving to replace Israel with the mad mullahs of Iran as the main power brokers in the middle east.

WIth that said, this is happening:

Additional U.S. troops are being rushed to the Middle East during a rise in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah terrorist forces in Lebanon that has elevated risks of a wider regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.

AP reports Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would provide no details on how many additional forces or what they would be tasked to do. Their precise geographical region of deployment has also not been disclosed.

The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region. Just last month U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and told the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area.

Given who and what is running our country, such as what remains of it, US troops are not being sent to aid the Israelis. Ostensibly it will be under some bullshit pretext to protect innocent civilian "Palestinians," pardon the redundant twin fictions. Despite the recent orgasm-inducing success of the IDF pager operation as well as its conventional strikes on the soldiers of Islam known as Hezbollah and Hamas, Sadly, Israel has a Deep State of its own as well as a considerable number of suicidal leftists in its midst as insane as our own here in the USA. And the Junta here has been doing its best to oust Netanyahu and have him replaced by a leadership that will agree to the so-called 1967 Auschwitz borders in creating a "Palestinian state" that in essence will finish the job that Hitler started. Literally Hitler. No not "literal-Hitler DonaldTrump."

But since conventional wisdom and the Leftist propaganda complex insist that Trump is that and much much worse, then of course all bets are off in making sure he never takes a seat behind the Resolute Desk.
Two failed assassination attempts (Divine providence or dumb luck?) and then this:

On Monday, the Department of Justice released a handwritten letter from Ryan Wesley Routh, the suspect in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The letter, written months before the attempt, was turned over to authorities by a witness who received it along with other items in a box several months prior. . .

. . . "This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump,” the letter began, "but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster."

"It is up to you now to finish the job, and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can compete the job,” the letter continues. “Everyone across the globe from the younger to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less a U.S. president. U.S. presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity."

It certainly is curious why the Biden-Harris junta released this letter publicly, when, more often than not, the manifestos of killers are kept under wraps as much as possible. For example the manifesto of the Covenant School shooter has yet to be fully released, despite the fact that there is significant public interest in the transgender shooter’s motives. So far, only small portions of her writings have managed to be released or leaked.

For those of a certain age who don't remember something called "The Buy Lines" or even the 1971 hit single by the Honey Cone "The Want Ads" surely you are aware of Craig's List and Facebook Marketplace. If the Democrats can organize protesters to magically materialize at SCOTUS Justices homes, Senate hearings or Republican conventions, surely a Routhi rebel with a gun can be had in order for the CIA and Deep State cabal to recruit to preserve our precious democracy! (vomit). Were they behind either or both attempts? Let's just say I would not be surprised.

More than 700 members of the Deep State — a mixture of high, medium, and low-ranking government officials and staffers — signed a letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday, in a move reminiscent of the letter 51 former intelligence officials signed claiming the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. In fact, some of the signatories of the new letter also signed the Hunter Biden laptop letter, such as former Obama CIA Director John Brennan and Air Force Gen. (Ret.) Michael Hayden.

Other signatories of the new letter include Trump-haters Alexander Vindman, the former Ukrainian-American National Security Council staffer and retired Army lieutenant colonel who sparked the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump, and Malcolm Nance, a frequent commentator on the far-left MSNBC and a retired U.S. Navy senior chief petty officer who became involved in questionable volunteer efforts in Ukraine.

Recall a link from a few days back showing a very large percentage of Dems thinking it would'e been better off for the country had either of the attempts on Trump's life succeeded. Now where could they have possibly got that sick twisted notion.

Left-wing presidential historian Douglas Brinkley claimed on Monday — following two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump — that people needed to “wake up” because it would be a “doomsday scenario” if Trump were to win again in November.

Brinkley made the unfounded remarks on far-left MNSBC during an appearance on “Morning Joe” — a show that is so extreme with its hatred of Trump that it was pulled off air for a day after Trump was shot in Pennsylvania because the network was concerned that inappropriate comments would be made.

When asked by co-host Joe Scarborough what was at stake with 45 days left in the election, Brinkley responded, “American democracy, nothing less.”

Why the hell are they wasting time sending a carrier to Lebanon when they should be sailing it off the coast of Mar-A-Lago?!

Failing that, a nice nuclear exchange with Putin will do the job. After all Trump is Putin's puppet, or so Hillary Clinton and all the spooks listed above who created that fiction with the Russia collusion hoax pimped.

So Zelensky and Shapiro are signing artillery shells at a munitions plant in Pennsylvania. Suddenly I remember a Bugs Bunny cartoon where his job was to hit the shells with a mallet to see if they're good, and if not he scrawls the word "DUD" on it. Go for it boys!

Sheesh.

Just briefly, I know Mis Hum published an update on my health situation a few weeks back on his Saturday morning coffee and prayer thread but for those who missed it, my last MRI was negative, which means essentially for now I am cancer-free, and have just started a 6-month course of chemo maintenance with regular MRIs to monitor for any recurrence, presumably for the rest of my life. All things considered, my doctors are very upbeat that that could be longer than the standard prognosis. Again, I cannot thank everyone enough for their prayers and messages of support.

Have a good day.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• The board notes that “Mr. Trump may well win this election fair and square” but stresses that “Democrats returned 18 million ballots by mail compared with about 10 million from Republicans across 20 states with party registration data” in 2020 and that “it will probably still take longer to tally the high volume of ballots in [Democrat-voting] urban centers such as Philadelphia and Milwaukee than the lower number in redder, rural areas.”However, The Washington Post concedes that the Democrats’ mail-in voting advantage narrowed in 2022, with the left-liberal party casting 7.6 million mail-in ballots compared to 5.1 million for the Republicans.
  Media Preps Public to Expect Trump Win Followed by Mail-In Ballot Reversal.
  
• The breakdown at the border has at once become a symbol of our polarization and an accelerant of it.
  Undermining America

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:05 AM | Comments (470) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 24 September 2024

Top Story

• AI superintelligence will be here in 20 years says Sam Altman who would never ever lie about such a thing. (Ars Technica)

  "It is possible that we will have superintelligence in a few thousand days (!); it may take longer, but I'm confident we'll get there," he wrote.

  Wanna bet, Sam?

  It's easy to criticize Altman's vagueness here; no one can truly predict the future, but Altman, as CEO of OpenAI, is likely privy to AI research techniques coming down the pipeline that aren't broadly known to the public.

  No. He's not.

  So even when couched with a broad time frame, the claim comes from a noteworthy source in the AI field-albeit one who is heavily invested in making sure that AI progress does not stall.

  No. It doesn't.

  Elsewhere in the essay, Altman frames our present era as the dawn of "The Intelligence Age," the next transformative technology era in human history, following the Stone Age, Agricultural Age, and Industrial Age. He credits the success of deep learning algorithms as the catalyst for this new era, stating simply: "How did we get to the doorstep of the next leap in prosperity? In three words: deep learning worked."

  The problem with that is that "deep learning" hasn't worked, and can't. There's no point making ever larger and more expensive models - if there ever was - because we've run out of data to feed them.

  Not everyone shares Altman's optimism and enthusiasm. Computer scientist and frequent AI critic Grady Booch quoted Altman's "few thousand days" prediction and wrote on X, "I am so freaking tired of all the AI hype: it has no basis in reality and serves only to inflate valuations, inflame the public, garnet [sic] headlines, and distract from the real work going on in computing."

  Yes.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:17 AM | Comments (134) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread (9/23/24)

*****

Subject: Weekly commenter stats for week of 9-22-2024


Top 10 commenters:
1 [634 comments] 'Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden' [89.00 posts/day]
2 [512 comments] 'Bulgaroctonus'
3 [416 comments] 'andycanuck (CEzQx)'
4 [348 comments] '18-1'
5 [327 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, going full throttle with Tony Scott'
6 [321 comments] '...'
7 [311 comments] 'BruceWayne'
8 [308 comments] 'Braenyard'
9 [282 comments] 'Skip '
10 [279 comments] 'The ARC of History!'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [265 names] 'Ciampino - is good for the gander' [37.20 unique names/day]
2 [100 names] 'Penguin Pete'
3 [60 names] 'Count de Monet'
4 [56 names] 'Missus Hezz Bow Lah'
5 [46 names] 'Moron Analyst'
6 [37 names] 'Duncanthrax'
7 [35 names] 'Helena Handbasket'
8 [31 names] '18-1'
9 [31 names] 'mikeski'
10 [30 names] 'I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper'

*****

The Comments of The Week

One of my least favorite things to do. It's really difficult to narrow the choices down to only a few each week.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:59 PM | Comments (390) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Equinox Cafe

Alex Dawson photography

Mondays amirite

No seriously: someone's got a case of the Mondays.

When do we gain that hour? (Answer: Not until November 3rd.)

Woman hears a disturbance in her pool. (IG)

Romney roadtrip.

Meet cute.

A couple fights for bedspace.

Quokkas are such sweet-tempered creatures that they'll even pretend they find jugglers entertaining.

An oldie: Man punches kanagaroo to get it to stop headlocking his dog.

Owning a pet has health benefits for the owner, including instilling a sense of calm and quiet.

Cat is impatient for dinner.

Mama cat is tired of waiting and will serve herself.

Posted by: Ace at 07:21 PM | Comments (303) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

End of an era: Last full-sized K-Mart store in the US to shut down.

There's still a single small store open in Florida.

Kmart, once a retail giant with over 2,300 stores, is set to close its last full-size store in Bridgehampton, New York, on October 20. After the closure, only a smaller location in Miami, Florida, will remain operational in the U.S., along with stores in U.S. territories.

...

Kmart's remaining footprint in the U.S. will be reduced to a smaller store in Miami, Florida. According to an August report from the *Miami Herald*, this location is much smaller than the traditional Kmart stores, resembling the size of a convenience store.

A school called the police to report "violent" behavior from parents -- specifically, they wore "XX" wristbands to protest a boy being permitted to compete against them
in a "girls" soccer game.

The school takes the position that objecting to this is terrorism.

Superintendent: bands were 'threatening, harassing, intimidating'

A New Hampshire high school called the cops on several parents who showed up at a girls soccer game wearing wristbands with "XX" on them.

The two Xs, which signify women's chromosomes, were to protest the participation of a biological male on Bow High School rival Plymouth Regional HS's team.

According to NH Journal, parents had asked the Bow High athletic director to do something about the situation ahead of time, but he noted his hands were tied "in the wake of a federal judge's ruling that the term 'girl' includes males who identify as female."

As a result, the parents engaged in a silent protest by wearing the wristbands at the game.

Upon seeing the parents' "XX" bands, however, school officials not only stopped the soccer match, they told the parents to remove the wristbands and "issued [a] police-enforced 'No Trespassing order'" against two of them.

In a letter to one of the parents, Anthony Foote, Superintendent Marcy Kelley (pictured) said "prior to and during the soccer game [Foote] brought and distributed pink armbands ... to protest the participation of a transgender female student on the other team."

Wearing the armbands, Kelley said, "violate[d] school policy against 'threatening, harassing, or intimidating...any person.'" She added "no person shall 'impede, delay, disrupt or otherwise interfere with any school activity.'"

Kelley alleged the district had to get additional cops to "ensure order."

Note that soccer is indeed a contact sport. Slide tackles, multiple players jumping in each other to deflect an airborne ball, etc.

Rutgers' president has stepped down over his wait-and-see posture on antisemitism at his school.

Rutgers president to step down following backlash over handling of anti-Semitism
Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway announced he will step down at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, following recent pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus.

Holloway has faced criticism for his handling of anti-Semitism, with some accusing him of empowering anti-Israel sentiment during his tenure.

...

"I will take a sabbatical the following year during which I will return to long-standing research projects before joining the faculty on a full-time basis," Holloway explained. "This decision is my own and reflects my ruminations about how best to be of service."

...

Holloway has said that being a university president has become more difficult in the past few years due to "no-win situations" that people in the profession increasingly face, according to the New York Post.

"We're all seeing people we looked up to who are saying, 'I'm out.' And I think we're going to see a lot of that," Holloway explained. "These jobs are difficult in good times, but when you're facing absolutely no-win situations constantly, in this era of hyperbole about failing to do X, Y, and Z...none of us signed up for that."

Collin Rugg
@CollinRugg
NEW: Black undecided voters in Georgia say the economy was better under Donald Trump, think Kamala Harris is weak.

The focus group was conducted by Daily Mail pollster J.L. Partners' James Johnson.

The voters voiced their concerns that Harris is a "weak" leader who keeps changing her positions.

Some notable quotes from the focus group:

1. "If you look at the statistics now, we're far worse now than we were before. Everything is worse now with Biden and Harris."

2. "Even though Trump didn't make all the right choices, the economy just worked better under him. I think it was the overall business mindset that helped."

3. "She kept saying that she's a warrior but I don't think she is a warrior."

4. "If you put her next to Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton, it's like there's no comparison. They would eat her up."

Posted by: Ace at 06:15 PM | Comments (291) | Trackbacks (Suck)

"Drone King" Leon Panetta Claims That Israel's Precision-Targeted Campaign Against Hezballah Terrorist Is Itself "Terrorism"

Is he making policy or just doing politics, appealing to his increasingly-pro-Hamas voter base?

If he's serious about this, then the US can never, ever use aerial attacks again, because our attacks kill more unintended civilians than a bunch of exploding Hezballah radios do. The only method of making war that is more precise that blowing up someone's personal security comms device is firing at them by sniper. And even snipers sometimes hit civilians.

Is he serious?

Shouldn't someone in what we laughingly call the "American press corps" ask him?

Is Panetta announcing that from now going forward, America will not kill a terrorist except by sniper? Inserting a sniper into a hostile foreign country? In every case we intend to kill a terrorist?

Really?

Really?

Or is just pandering for the Muslims of Dearborn, Michigan?

Duane Patterson notes how very, very precise "Operation Grim Beeper" has been:

By May of 2009, it is believed that north of 50 bad guys had their ticket punched with Panetta hitting a joystick button from Washington. Mind you, it's a policy with which I'm totally supportive. Dead terrorists make the best terrorists, I always say, and if it can be done remotely without risking American personnel, icing on the cake. But now that the Israelis have upped the technology game to a ridiculously impressive level with Operation Grim Beeper and Radio Boom-Boom, Leon Panetta, Mr. Drone, has a problem with it?

In 2009, drone warfare was the most precise method of counterterrorism in the history of mankind, but there still were civilian casualties, including children. According to the Watson Institute, over the course of the entire War on Terror, Afghanistan and Pakistan phase, there were roughly 70,000 civilian casualties through early 2023. That's all forms of warfare - air, sea-based strikes, and ground forces.

By contrast, in Afghanistan alone from early 2004 through early 2020, drone strikes had a much lower ratio of combatant-to-civilian casualties. Worst-case estimates were 900 civilians, 180 of them children, were killed compared to 10,000 bad guys dispatched off this rock to go find their 72 virgins. That's about a 10-1 ratio, far better than conventional warfare. Now compare that to what the Israelis pulled off last week.

See the link for video of Panetta now claiming that putting explosives into common technology (albeit technology sold to Hezballah) is making a "war of terror" on Hezballah, and constitutes "a form of terrorism."

Meanwhile, Netanyahu says the gloves are off.

In case that needs to be said.

The Jerusalem Post:

The IDF hit over 300 Hezbollah targets during two major rounds of strikes against Hezbollah on Monday. ...

These waves of air strikes constituted the fifth and sixth round of massive air strikes on Hezbollah since Thursday of last week, especially in southern Lebanon, including further from the border than in some prior cases.

Among the attacks was a significant strike against Hezbollah deep into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. A senior Hezbollah official, Ali Aburia, was reportedly killed in one of the IAF strikes on Lebanon, Sky News Arabia reported on Monday, citing multiple sources.

Posted by: Ace at 05:10 PM | Comments (242) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hitpiece Media Goes After Alleged "Sexting" Affair Between RFKJr. and "Star" Political Reporter Olivia Nuzzi

I don't know what to think about this story.

Here are some articles about this "emotional, digital relationship" which some are calling "an affair" and the Kennedy camp is calling "a set-up" by a "journalist" with sketchy ethics and maybe a Fatal Attraction itch in her pants.

Olivia Nuzzi is a "star" reporter, which means she worked for the unprofessional scandal sheet The Daily Beast. Only in a shithole country would that Animal House of trashcan Marxists be considered a journalistic outlet which could launch a career.

She then began working for New York magazine. That is itself a Democrat propaganda sheet (and celebrity gossip site) masquerading as "journalism."

She's now been suspended for having formed some kind of "personal relationship" with a subject she was covering -- RFKJr. -- and not informing her bosses about it.

She was engaged to another trash leftwing propagandist, Ryan Lizza, who got booted out of The New Republic for #MeToo type allegations.

Another leftwing propagandist and gossip, Dylan Byers, describes both Nuzzi and Lizza as fame-chasing star-fuckers.

Of course, the most cynical, cold-hearted Washingtonians already assumed that neither Nuzzi nor Lizza would ever live this down in small-town D.C., where everyone can recite their colleagues' (and nemeses') curricula vitae. Nuzzi, many assumed, would be cold-shouldered from journalism and perhaps forced to leave town to pursue aspirations developing projects in Hollywood, or working for Bari Weiss. Lizza, perhaps, would continue his long drift from his former New Republic wunderkind status. And on some level, many privately expressed surprise but not shock. After all, Lizza and Nuzzi delighted in their pseudo-celebrity status in town, starfuckers and name-droppers in a uniquely Beltway manner, or, honestly, just like everyone else.

...

In the insular and navel-gazing world of American media, Nuzzi and Lizza are known to almost everyone, partly by their own intention. And the R.F.K. revelation thus became an invitation to scrutinize the broader drama of their relationship.

Nuzzi and Lizza had been engaged for two years, up until a month or so ago, when they broke up. In the immediate aftermath, some of Nuzzi's associates advanced the idea that Lizza had leaked news of his ex-fiancée's SMS dalliance to Haskell and New York, perhaps through anonymous channels, in order to exact some measure of retribution. Again, there are certain things only certain people know for sure, but my reporting thus far leads me to believe that this hypothesis is not true.

Although Nuzzi seems like a standard-issue leftwinger, the left wing hates her for having actually written about the "conspiracy of silence" about Biden's mental decline. They are now claiming she only reported that as a favor to her digital paramour, RFKJr.

The salient question for Haskell and Vox Media chief executive Jim Bankoff, of course, is whether her relationship with R.F.K. influenced any of her coverage--including, most notably, her memorable July feature about "the conspiracy of silence" to protect Joe Biden from scrutiny over his mental decline. (At the time of publication, Kennedy was still running on a third-party ticket.)

In an interview with The New York Times in March, Nuzzi asserted that the 2024 campaign was "a three-man race," and she knocked "the establishment press" for refusing to take Kennedy's candidacy seriously.

That is not remotely suspicious. 1, it's arguably true, and 2, everyone in the media recognizes the practice of "source-greasing," which is when you flatter your source in a story in order to get him to favor you with interviews and leaks.

But anyone who blows the whistle on the media plot to hide Biden's dementia must be doing so for whorish or racist reasons. Or both.

Their two-year-long engagement between Nuzzi and Lizza ended last month. Byers reports the rumor that Lizza leaked details of this "personal relationship" to the press out of spite, but covers himself legally by saying he does not believe it is true.

Part of the "emotional, digital relationship"? Nuzzi sent RFKJr. "demure" nudes.

New York magazine political reporter Olivia Nuzzi allegedly sent "demure" nudes of herself to former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during their scandalous "sexting" affair, according to a report.

Nuzzi and Kennedy's relationship was strictly digital, but allegedly included risqué pics from the 31-year-old Washington correspondent, Puck News reported late Friday, citing a source.

The pair allegedly began "sexting" sometime after Nuzzi met with the 70-year-old Kennedy scion for a feature piece on the then-White House hopeful that was published in November, sources had previously told The Post.

The Kennedy camp denies this, claiming that this woman attempted to entrap him by sending him porny pictures and other come-ons. We'll get to that later.

The star reporter was placed on leave Thursday after New York mag editors became aware of the inappropriate relationship.

Kennedy's team had said that he and Nuzzi only met in person "once" for the November piece -- however, Puck News reported Friday that there were multiple meet-ups.

The Post has reached out to Nuzzi for comment on the allegations she sent nudes.

In a separate Friday night statement, a spokesperson for Kennedy called the latest revelation "unreservedly and unconditionally false" before again claiming the former presidential candidate and Nuzzi met just once.

...

Sources told The Post that the top brass at the magazine were already aware of the relationship and confronted Nuzzi, despite reports that she had come clean to editors.

Nuzzi maintained the relationship was "never physical" and that Kennedy had never been used as a source.

"The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I've disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York," she said in a statement, without naming Kennedy.

...

The duo "weren't being particularly careful" about keeping their relationship under wraps, another source told The Post Friday.

"There's a reason New York mag found out," the source explained.

Sources from the Kennedy camp claim that this woman charged hard at RFKJr., "bombarding" him with porn.

They're even claiming RFKJr. might sue her.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is investigating a possible lawsuit against sexting New York magazine writer Olivia Nuzzi -- who allegedly "bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos" while tricking him into unblocking her numbers, according to a mutual friend.

Kennedy, 70, has hired security expert Gavin de Becker to probe the saga because he is allegedly pursuing civil -- and potentially criminal -- litigation against the 31-year-old star political reporter, according to Jessica Read Kraus, who knows them both.

"This had nothing to do with romance," de Becker said of the sordid saga. "He was being chased by porn."

Nuzzi -- who was placed on leave last week -- allegedly tricked the married politician into receiving her racy messages after he first blocked her number over a flirtatious remark she made just two weeks after her profile on him was published in November 2023, according to Kraus.

"A few weeks later, Nuzzi emailed him, asking to be unblocked, claiming she had urgent information about a hit piece being prepared against him," Kraus wrote on her "House Inhabit" Substack.

This third party, Jessica Reed Kraus, says that Nuzzi made up a claim that she had important information about an upcoming hit piece on him, tricking him into unblocking her. But then she sent porny pictures.

"He unblocked her for that conversation, but later that night, she sent him a provocative picture, prompting him to block her again," Kraus alleged.

...

"Once unblocked, she bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos that he found difficult to resist. After brief exchanges, he would block her again," Kraus alleged.

Other friends Kraus said she spoke to believe Nuzzi allegedly "set him up."

This "independent reporter," Jessica Reed Kraus, is pro-RFKJr. She says Nuzzi cultivated her as a "friend," but it was always just to glean gossip and personal details about RFKJr. Kraus describes Nuzzi as an obsessive stalker.

Here's some of Kraus' story:

As this scandal unfolds, I find myself questioning the very instincts that led me to trust her as a friend in the first place. In hindsight, it's clear our connection was anchored solely in her interest in RFK Jr. By befriending and infiltrating my inner circle, she could easily keep tabs on him as he (we) traveled across the country -- something I initially mistook for simple journalistic curiosity. I, too, am a deeply curious person; I figured perhaps all reporters are wired this way. I saw no harm in sharing petty gossip about my experiences.

My husband was the first to voice concerns. From the beginning, he was skeptical of her motives, worried she was using me to gather gossip and leverage my access for her own benefit. I brushed off his concerns, but over time, I couldn't ignore the signs.

As I reflect, my overall take is that I was a pawn. It's clear that her initial curiosity toward Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gradually morphed into something more, to which I offered insight and proximity. It started with innocent questions about his character, policies, and public appearances, but soon escalated into an invasive fixation on his personal life. Olivia would ask me almost intimate questions about him and his relationships with staff and his wife after each campaign stop -- who he was seen talking to, what his mood was like, and whether he showed any signs of flirtation. There was an undercurrent of fascination that went beyond journalistic intrigue, bordering on obsession. Her constant desire for updates, coupled with the tone of her inquiries, made it clear she wasn't merely reporting: She was weaving some kind of fantasy. I could sense her emotional investment growing. In that shift, the gossip centered less on politics and more on tracking and dissecting his every move. I noticed that whenever I criticized him, pointing out what I disliked or disagreed with, she was quick to defend him. I found it odd. Her judgment as a veteran political journalist seemingly dissolved as the months progressed. She appeared like a dazed schoolgirl discussing RFK, having lost the ability to view him objectively -- a red flag I noted. She had become a full-fledged Kennedy fangirl.

My suspicions were further confirmed when I noticed some of the gossip I shared began leaking.

Up until meeting her, I had managed to keep a tight grip on sensitive information. Suddenly, tidbits I mentioned in confidence to just a couple of people began circulating in mainstream circles, sometimes even reaching political assassins like Lis Smith, a high-profile Democratic strategist opposing my efforts. It became clear that someone in my life was betraying my off-the-record remarks.

Recently, I urged Denise, who had also grown close to Olivia, to stop sharing campaign information with her. "I'm sure she's leaking whatever we give her," I warned.

...

In short, I felt foolish for letting the situation drag on so long. While I appreciated our different styles and audiences, it dawned on me that her appeal -- how she gained people's trust and access -- was rooted in seduction.

As for the leak, I am not privy to the details of how it occurred, but based on what I know, I strongly suspect it's what Olivia wanted all along. In recent weeks, she began dropping hints about reckless texting with RFK, each cryptic revelation feeling intentional, as if she hoped I'd press her for more -- or better yet, leak it myself.

What I can relay, based on both parties involved, is that they agree on the basic facts: It was not an affair; there was no physical relationship. They met in person just once for an interview. It was, at most, "a fleeting flirtation."

According to sources, Olivia repeatedly lied about the texts when confronted by her editors. Several see this as New York Magazine's excuse to attack RFK, particularly as his recent alignment with Trump has led to a polling surge for him. With Kennedy's endorsement comes a wave of support from suburban mothers -- a valuable demographic for Team Trump. Amplifying a trite sex scandal serves to deter his appeal within this voting bloc.

Friends of Kennedy believe Nuzzi set him up. They recount that just two weeks after New York Magazine published her article, she made a flirtatious remark during a phone conversation. In response, Kennedy blocked her number. A few weeks later, Nuzzi emailed him, asking to be unblocked, claiming she had urgent information about a hit piece being prepared against him. He unblocked her for that conversation, but later that night, she sent him a provocative picture, prompting him to block her again.

For most of the next 8 months, Kennedy kept her blocked, except for a few occasions when Nuzzi contacted him from different emails and phone numbers, insisting he unblock her for urgent discussions about an imminent hit piece. Once unblocked, she bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos that he found difficult to resist. After brief exchanges, he would block her again.

Security expert Gavin de Becker is currently investigating the situation for civil litigation that Kennedy intends to file, as well as for potential criminal referrals. "This had nothing to do with romance," said de Becker. "He was being chased by porn." de Becker added that Kennedy had repeatedly declined multiple invitations from Nuzzi for personal meetings.

Kraus spoke with another subject who also said that Nuzzi was inappropriately flirtatious to get him to drop his guard:

Clarifying that the flirtation wasn't overtly sexual, the source elaborated, "I'm not saying she was inviting me to sleep with her, but working with Olivia is very different from any other journalist, male or female. There's a fine line between sexual seduction and informational seduction -- and she crosses it. All the time."

According to the source, Nuzzi employs subtle methods to create a personal connection -- misconstrued words, friendly giggles, and telltale signs. The source emphasized that Nuzzi's tactics are not unique but have become a model for many young female journalists. "What Olivia Nuzzi has perfected has become a talent that others are emulating. Being flirtatious, being inappropriate -- this is how she gains unique access. It's problematic in the #MeToo era, where seduction can easily lead to damaging accusations." The source mentioned Mark Robinson, Christopher Rufo, and RFK Jr. as examples of high-profile figures potentially targeted by these methods.

"Isn't it odd that [RFK is] the first man accused of a digital affair? New York Magazine knows what kind of journalist she is; it didn't matter until she crossed a line and sent inappropriate pictures to her subject. It didn't matter until her subject was Robert Kennedy. No matter what it takes, they need to take him out."

Obviously RFKJr. might be putting out the word that he was pursued by an obsessive stalker who had dreamed up a fantasy relationship with him for the same reason that Bill Clinton did the exact same thing.

I don't know what to think here.

I guess, first of all: Journalists are a mentally-ill, morally rotten lot. They tend to be psychopaths or borderline psychopaths. They routinely deceive people into revealing personal information that they then use to destroy those people. Yes, this is the job, but what kind of psychopath wants that kind of job?

Second, one of these stories reports that New York Magazine knew about this "relationship," whatever it was, for months. So why reveal it now? Well, you reveal it now to destroy RFKJr., to keep his endorsement from helping Trump.

Third, the affair, or almost-affair, between "reporter" and "source" is common in DC. The entire town is filled with sluts, adulterers, cads, and outright perverts. But the DC press corps refuses to report on this out of "professional courtesy," and Mutual Assured Destruction.

But they decided to risk the M.A.D. because it was really, really important to them to Get Trump.

95% of all press behavior (and bureaucrat behavior) of the past eight years is explained by this. They keep breaking all rules and violating all codes of ethics -- or, here, a prudent group agreement to keep all of their many, many affairs and grotesque sexual deviancies private -- because the imperative of stopping Trump is more important than any ethic, rule, or prudent social compact about hiding everyone's affairs.

Jeebus, I don't know what to say. A Kennedy likes pussy. Who knew?
Posted by: Puddinhead

LOL, exactly! Suddenly the media's all shocked about a Kennedy dalliance!

John Ekdahl @JohnEkdahl

"Too horny for a Kennedy" should come with some type of award.

Thanks to andycanuck for that.

Posted by: Ace at 04:00 PM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)