May 15, 2025
The Morning Rant 
It was once said, "It takes a village to raise a child." Unless one of the villagers is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Then the Professional Know-It-Alls cry like like toddlers having their Teddy Bear confiscated. Over the years we have heard the mantra, "It is for the children!!!" But, it basically boils down to the cool villagers and their acolytes grifting off the rest of the village. Lording their position over the uncool villagers. The money drips here and there on children. But, most of it finds its way into a certain number of private hands and other body parts and/or orifices. Bobby Kennedy demonstrated the hypocrisy of the left and to some extent the right to the world if they happened to tune into his testimony before congress on Wednesday May 14th. It isn't about the children. It is about a certain group of elected and non-elected officials who cannot admit they are wrong or the science isn't settled (Unless they cling to their beliefs) Let's examine one of these "Politicians" who questioned Secretary Kennedy. The politician in question is one U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID). Rep. Simpson is a dentist. But, I'm not sure how much practicing he has been doing since he has been a congressman since 1999. Before that he was busy with the Idaho state legislature where he served from 1984-1998. As a "Dentist" Rep. Simpson should have known better than to match wits with Sec. Kennedy without doing any type of home work regarding fluoride use. Do better "Doc" Simpson, do better. Or at least your overpaid and under employed staff
could do better. The congressman cares about the children and the need for dentists yet doesn't know about the HHS own report. The HHS which he is a member of an oversight committee. Fluoride Exposure: Neurodevelopment and Cognition.
jack asses democrats makes one want to throw heavy items at the screen.
And here you thought you could get by without seeing the congresscritter who identifies as a "Wicked lesbian witch of the east".
It was once said, "It takes a village to raise a child." Unless one of the villagers is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Then the Professional Know-It-Alls cry like like toddlers having their Teddy Bear confiscated. Over the years we have heard the mantra, "It is for the children!!!" But, it basically boils down to the cool villagers and their acolytes grifting off the rest of the village. Lording their position over the uncool villagers. The money drips here and there on children. But, most of it finds its way into a certain number of private hands and other body parts and/or orifices. Bobby Kennedy demonstrated the hypocrisy of the left and to some extent the right to the world if they happened to tune into his testimony before congress on Wednesday May 14th. It isn't about the children. It is about a certain group of elected and non-elected officials who cannot admit they are wrong or the science isn't settled (Unless they cling to their beliefs) Let's examine one of these "Politicians" who questioned Secretary Kennedy. The politician in question is one U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID). Rep. Simpson is a dentist. But, I'm not sure how much practicing he has been doing since he has been a congressman since 1999. Before that he was busy with the Idaho state legislature where he served from 1984-1998. As a "Dentist" Rep. Simpson should have known better than to match wits with Sec. Kennedy without doing any type of home work regarding fluoride use. Do better "Doc" Simpson, do better. Or at least your overpaid and under employed staff
could do better. The congressman cares about the children and the need for dentists yet doesn't know about the HHS own report. The HHS which he is a member of an oversight committee. Fluoride Exposure: Neurodevelopment and Cognition.
ApplicationThis is maddening. The questioning/statements thrown at Mr. Kennedy by the
An association indicates a connection between fluoride and lower IQ; it does not prove a cause and effect. Many substances are healthy and beneficial when taken in small doses but may cause harm at high doses. More research is needed to better understand if there are health risks associated with low fluoride exposures. This NTP monograph may provide important information to regulatory agencies that set standards for the safe use of fluoride. It does not, and was not intended to, assess the benefits of fluoride.
Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 10:53 AM | Comments (234) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
Helen Frankenthaler If Helen thinks that painting depicts Eros in any way, then Helen needs to work on her love life. I am sure she had some grand message she thought she conveyed with this absolute mess of a painting. And I am equally sure that the critics gobbled it up, ascribing all sorts of esoteric nonsense to what is an amateurish skill with a brush. No matter how deep and complex the supposed meaning is, if the work is junk, what's the point? Give me a skillful artist who takes pride in the task over a clown with obvious lack of skill masquerading as a serious artist. The skillful artist produces works that please the eye. The clown produces works that must be deconstructed to reveal...anything!
Helen Frankenthaler If Helen thinks that painting depicts Eros in any way, then Helen needs to work on her love life. I am sure she had some grand message she thought she conveyed with this absolute mess of a painting. And I am equally sure that the critics gobbled it up, ascribing all sorts of esoteric nonsense to what is an amateurish skill with a brush. No matter how deep and complex the supposed meaning is, if the work is junk, what's the point? Give me a skillful artist who takes pride in the task over a clown with obvious lack of skill masquerading as a serious artist. The skillful artist produces works that please the eye. The clown produces works that must be deconstructed to reveal...anything!
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (302) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Report — 5/ 15 /25 
The fly in the ointment as it were is "Islam." Spencer correctly states "The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests. . . Bingo. the only way it goes away is either the internal reformation of Islam or its defeat/destruction. Spencer seems to ignore his own words vis a vis that the jihad never goes away. But for Donald Trump or any American political leader to even attempt to articulate this is tantamount to committing political suicide. Despite the fact that the last American political leader to articulate the mortal danger of Islam and to act to defeat it was Thomas Jefferson. All that said, Trump's moves in the middle east vis a vis Qatar and Syria are perhaps very good in the short term. Is a legitimate rapprochement and transformation of the Muslim theocratic/political mindset vis a vis the West and Israel likely if not actually possible in the long-term? Well, we'll have to wait and see. If 1,500 years of history teaches us anything, I wouldn't hold my breath. But to not try, whatever this President's motivations may be, would be a moral failing of massive proportions IMHO. And speaking of the Islamic threat, In that faraway Middle Eastern Shithole of Michiganistan...
“Today in Qatar, President Donald J. Trump signed an agreement with Qatar to generate an economic exchange worth at least $1.2 trillion,” the White House noted in a fact sheet. In addition to the agreement, the document states the U.S. and Qatar companies have come to terms on economic deals equaling $243.5 billion. The $243.5 billion in deals between the nations is headlined by Qatar Airways’ $96 billion agreement with Boeing and GE Aerospace to buy as many as “210 American-made Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines,” a White House fact sheet noted. This marks a record-breaking order for Boeing.While certainly this is all well and good, behind the President's back the Qatar-snipe PM vomited this out:
On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thania stated that a deal between Israel and Hamas can’t be reached when there’s a “fundamental difference between the two parties. One party wants just to retrieve the hostage[s] and continue the war and the other party wants to end the war and doesn’t think about the hostages.”Qatar has been a safe haven for top Hamas terrorist leadership for years where no doubt much of the strategy and tactics of the October 7th attack on Israel were planned and perhaps even directed once the IDF initially began its counteroffensive. Unfortunately, the capital of that viper's nest Doha is home to a significant American air base and our warships are docked there as well. As the home of al-jazeera, Qatar, broadcasts anti-western and anti-semitic propaganda 24/7 all across not only middle east but to the world at large. Significantly, they are not and have no intention of signing onto the Ahraham Accords, which was one of President Trump's most significant foreign policy achievements from his first term and upon which many had hoped would change the course of history in the region for the better. And then came Biden and then October 7. And the rest is history. Figuratively and quite literally. The President is also parlaying with the new leader of Syria and some, including our friend he estimable Robert Spencer have thus far been impressed with Trump's moves in the region.
Trump has done it again. That much is clear. He has outmaneuvered and out-thought everyone else, and did what many others assumed to be impossible. But what exactly has he done? On Wednesday morning, during his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who from 2017 until January of this year, was known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Al-Sharaa was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the “Syrian Liberation Group,” a Sunni jihad group that had been linked to al-Qaeda and was working to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. . . . . . In many ways, Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa is as momentous, and could be more momentous, than his first-term overtures to Kim Jong Un. The two meetings come from the same wellsprings: Trump is attempting to break longstanding logjams and end the status quo that the foreign policy establishment, both inside the U.S. and elsewhere, had come to take for granted. . . So Trump wants to make peace with old foes based on mutual economic interests. He is giving al-Sharaa a chance to demonstrate that he really is no longer a jihadi and wants to build a stable and prosperous Syria. It could happen. The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests. . . . . . Nevertheless, Trump’s attempt to create peace based on common interests and move beyond the present logjam is as welcome as it is audacious. Once again, Trump appears to be way ahead of everyone else, as he was when he established the Abraham Accords even as John Kerry was confidently telling the world that such a thing was impossible.
The fly in the ointment as it were is "Islam." Spencer correctly states "The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests. . . Bingo. the only way it goes away is either the internal reformation of Islam or its defeat/destruction. Spencer seems to ignore his own words vis a vis that the jihad never goes away. But for Donald Trump or any American political leader to even attempt to articulate this is tantamount to committing political suicide. Despite the fact that the last American political leader to articulate the mortal danger of Islam and to act to defeat it was Thomas Jefferson. All that said, Trump's moves in the middle east vis a vis Qatar and Syria are perhaps very good in the short term. Is a legitimate rapprochement and transformation of the Muslim theocratic/political mindset vis a vis the West and Israel likely if not actually possible in the long-term? Well, we'll have to wait and see. If 1,500 years of history teaches us anything, I wouldn't hold my breath. But to not try, whatever this President's motivations may be, would be a moral failing of massive proportions IMHO. And speaking of the Islamic threat, In that faraway Middle Eastern Shithole of Michiganistan...
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed the arrest of 19-year-old Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said on May 13, 2025, for plotting an Islamic State-inspired mass shooting at the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) facility in Warren, Michigan.Said, a Melvindale, Michigan resident, faces charges of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State (ISIS) and distributing information related to a destructive device, each carrying a maximum 20-year prison sentence. According to the Justice Department, Said supplied armor-piercing ammunition and magazines, recruited two conspirators, and flew a drone over TACOM for reconnaissance. His plan was set to unfold on the day of his arrest, but law enforcement stopped him cold.“This defendant was stopped dead in his tracks as he conspired with others in planning a deadly attack on a U.S. military base here at home for IS,” the Justice Department said. The swift intervention prevented a potential catastrophe at TACOM, a critical hub for military vehicle development.Said’s alleged betrayal, as a former National Guard member, underscores the insidious reach of radical Islam, even among those sworn to protect the nation.And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know. Have a great day.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- As for the reported preparation being done in anticipation of a possible Chauvin pardon, it stems from the possibility of a pardon being issued by President Donald Trump for Chauvin’s federal conviction.
'Justice' for Chauvin? Minneapolis Reportedly Preparing for Possible Derek Chauvin Pardon
- Victor Davis Hanson: Trump's first 100 days mark a chaotic counterrevolution, tackling crises long ignored—and infuriating the very forces that allowed them to fester.
The Real First 100 Days
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:41 AM | Comments (292) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Daily Tech News 15 May 2025
Top Story
- The Kids Online Safety Act is back and has the potential to change the internet - or to get struck down immediately over the obvious First and Fourth Amendment issues. (Tech Crunch)
The bill has strong bipartisan and industry support, which means it is just astoundingly awful."Apple is pleased to offer our support for the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). Everyone has a part to play in keeping kids safe online, and we believe [this] legislation will have a meaningful impact on children's online safety," Timothy Powderly, Apples senior director of Government Affairs, said in a statement.
Everyone involved in the creation of that sentence should be summarily executed.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (182) | Trackbacks (Suck)
May 14, 2025
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - May 14, 2025 [TRex]
[Top photo: Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory, Waldenbuch, Germany]
Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.
This is the Wednesday night ONT. It is also game night! Step inside and play along.Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (347) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Funky Colt Medina Cafe
by Anna/@Aurora41155547
You'll never guess what's causing this traffic snarl. Windswept doggie. This Doberman pincher shames his ancestors. Baby flamingo practices stomping. Women takes dog out for a birthday dinner. The growing beaver menace. Dogs have secret relationship. Border collies will not stop herding, ever. Aw, a little dog sits in the shelter waiting to be adopted. (She got adopted.) From shelter to forever home. Little kid teaches a puppy. When you're not home. When your cats bully you. A dog looks out for his co-dog.
by Anna/@Aurora41155547
You'll never guess what's causing this traffic snarl. Windswept doggie. This Doberman pincher shames his ancestors. Baby flamingo practices stomping. Women takes dog out for a birthday dinner. The growing beaver menace. Dogs have secret relationship. Border collies will not stop herding, ever. Aw, a little dog sits in the shelter waiting to be adopted. (She got adopted.) From shelter to forever home. Little kid teaches a puppy. When you're not home. When your cats bully you. A dog looks out for his co-dog.
Posted by: Ace at 07:32 PM | Comments (240) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Trump Launches Civil Rights Probe Into Harvard's Defiant Continuation of Racially-Discriminatory Hiring Practices; Also Chops Funding by Almost a Half Billion Dollars
But they will plead in court: "Democrat."
EXCLUSIVE: Trump Administration Launches Civil Rights Probe of Harvard's Hiring PracticesTrump also chopped federal funding for this scumbag racist institution by $450 million. On top of the previous cuts.
EEOC investigation follows school's statement that it had increased the number of 'women, non-binary, and/or people of color' on its faculty. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating whether Harvard University unlawfully hires faculty based on race and sex, arguing that the school's own data provides evidence of discrimination. The probe is the latest federal action against the beleaguered university, which last month sued the Trump administration over its decision to freeze more than $2 billion in aid to the Ivy League school. In a document initiating the investigation, the EEOC cited materials on Harvard's website--many of them now deleted--in which the school bragged about increasing the number of "women, non-binary, and/or people of color" on the faculty. The largest increase was in the share of non-white tenure-track faculty, which rose by 37 percent between 2013 and 2023. The majority of those new hires, Harvard noted in a 2023 report, had been made in the past year. White men, meanwhile, decreased dramatically as a share of tenure-track faculty, dropping from 46 percent in 2013 to 32 percent in 2023. Every other demographic for which Harvard collects data, including white women, rose over the same period. The EEOC probe, launched on April 25, has not been previously reported. It comes as Harvard is fending off investigations from at least five other government agencies, part of the Trump administration's effort to crack down on anti-Semitism and racial preferences on college campuses. The statistics cited in Harvard's own reports could be evidence of a "pattern or practice of discrimination," acting EEOC commissioner Andrea Lucas wrote in the document, known as a commissioner charge. The agency also cited a bevy of fellowships and training programs that only accept non-white applicants, such as a Harvard Medical School internship for "underrepresented minority (URM)" students. "Harvard may have violated and may be continuing to violate Title VII by engaging in a pattern or practice of disparate treatment against white, Asian, male, or straight employees, applicants, and training program participants," Lucas wrote. "The aggrieved individuals include all employees, former employees, prospective employees, and current and prospective training program applicants and participants who are white, Asian, male, non-black, non-Native American, or straight." Harvard did not respond to a request for comment.
Because Democrats love taxes so much, Republicans are taking them at their word and proposing a five-fold increase of the tax on fake universities' multibillion dollar endowments.
The Trump administration announced Tuesday it was canceling another $450 million in grants to Harvard University after the Ivy League school "repeatedly failed" to quell race discrimination and antisemitism on campus. "There is a dark problem on Harvard's campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school's claim to taxpayer support," members of Trump's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said in a statement. "Harvard, and its leadership group who are tainted by the egregious infractions under its watch, faces a steep, uphill battle to reclaim its legacy as a lawful institution and center of academic excellence." The cuts are coming from at least eight different federal agencies, and are taking place after the task force -- which comprises the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services as well as the General Services Administration -- terminated $2.2 billion in grants last week. Reps for Harvard University declined to comment but directed The Post to an amended complaint filed Tuesday in its lawsuit against the Trump administration's funding freeze. "The Government's actions flout not just the First Amendment, but also federal laws and regulations," reads the revised suit filed by attorney Steven Lehotsky of the law firm Lehotsky Keller Cohn.
House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee released the full version of a long-awaited tax bill Monday that does for higher ed exactly what they suggested it would in a draft version Friday: dramatically increase the excise tax on wealthy colleges' endowments. If the legislation passes, the tax rate for each institution would range from 1.4 to 21 percent, depending on the size of its endowment and the number of students it enrolls, according to the 339-page bill. As with the existing endowment tax, the increases would apply only to private institutions. "Under the economic policies of President Biden and Washington Democrats, the wealthy and well-connected benefitted from taxpayer handouts," said committee chairman Jason Smith, a Republican from Missouri. "The Ways and Means Republican tax bill ends special interest giveaways and will hold the woke elite and entities that benefit from the tax code accountable."Trump tried to work with the establishment in his first term. He wanted to get along. They repaid his efforts to build bridges by demonizing him, almost completely destroying his first term with a years-long investigation into completely fabricated charges of being a RUSSIAN AGENT, and attempted to imprison him for the rest of his life. What happens to them now is on them.
Posted by: Ace at 06:24 PM | Comments (262) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Tariffs Bring In $16 Billion in April, Cutting Into the Deficit
The media loves increasing tax revenues, except when they might benefit a Republican.
While the media scrambles to portray Trump's economy negatively, they stood by as Biden's economic spinners lied about job growth under Biden.
Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago. The fiscal year-to-date deficit fell to $1.05 trillion, which is still 13% higher than a year ago.
Receipts from U.S. tariffs hit a record level in April as revenue from President Donald Trump's trade war started kicking in. Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department reported Monday. That brought the year-to-date total for the duties up to $63.3 billion and more than 18% ahead of the same period in 2024. Trump instituted 10% across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports starting April 2, which came on top of other select duties he had leveled previously. While the U.S. is still running a massive budget deficit, the influx in tariffs helped shave some of the imbalance for April, a month in which the Treasury generally runs a surplus because of the income tax filing deadline hitting mid-month.
Now that the Trump Economy is starting to roar again, the media is writing stories about why these good things aren't really good things, Bigot. A big contributor to the falling inflation rate was, get this, a big fall in US gas prices. The media needs you to know that low gas prices are bad, Racists.
The Biden administration's phony jobs boom just went up in smoke. For months, it paraded numbers around like everything was fine, telling Americans the economy was roaring back, that job creation was on fire, and that "Bidenomics" was working. But the truth, long suspected by anyone trying to pay the bills, is now confirmed by the government's own data: those jobs never existed. According to new figures released this week, the 399,000 jobs the Biden team claimed were created between July and September of last year have completely vanished. Not only did the economy not add those jobs, but it also lost 1,000 private-sector jobs during that period. ... Nearly 400,000 phantom jobs were quietly wiped off the books. And this isn't just a one-time discrepancy. Month after month during Joe Biden's term, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published inflated job estimates, only to revise them downward later, long after the headlines had already done their PR damage for the White House.
Antoni breaks it down further: "Under Biden, these revisions were abnormal in magnitude and direction, being revised down with unusual frequency." No kidding. In fact, the BLS's more comprehensive annual benchmark, released earlier this year, revised down Biden's job numbers from March 2023 to March 2024 by a jaw-dropping 598,000 jobs.
That's not just bad math; that's deception on a national scale.
Posted by: Ace at 05:20 PM | Comments (411) | Trackbacks (Suck)
49 South Africans Are Afforded Refugee Status to Flee the Government That Openly Chants "Kill the Boer" (White Afrikaans), and the Left Freaks Out
Hey, if the rule is "Everyone has to leave and go back to their ancestor's countries of origin," I'm willing to sign up for that. Is that the rule the immigrant-heavy left really wants? Because we can make that happen if you do.
We've allowed in millions of third world immigrants who make fraudulent asylum claims about persecution -- Kilmar Abrego-Garcia admitted he was MS-13, but said he feared persecution from a rival gang.
But the moment the asylum laws are used by white people, the left says they want to build the wall ten feet higher.It should be kept in mind that the US pressured South Africa to grant full political control to black South Africans. In other words, we contributed to this rolling genocide. But lefties are cheering on the genocide and trying to keep the "Boers" in South Africa so they can be murdered.
A group of 49 white South Africans--mostly Afrikaner families--arrived in the U.S. Monday under a new Trump administration refugee program aimed at protecting them from racial discrimination in South Africa. The White House says this is the first step in a larger relocation effort to assist a population it claims is being persecuted by South Africa's black-led government. Key Details: The group arrived at Dulles International Airport after departing Johannesburg on a privately chartered flight. President Trump issued an executive order in February prioritizing Afrikaners for refugee status, citing "race-based persecution." The South African government denies any systemic discrimination, calling the claims "completely false."
PostI really enjoy the super-well-informed black racist who says they should go back "to Germany." Their families emigrated from the Netherlands, not Germany, and they did so ages ago, some back in the 1600s. Netherlands, Germany -- who cares. Just White People Countries, amirite.
Conversation
Western Lensman
@WesternLensman
🚨Scott Jennings takes on Ashley Allison on CNN over a small group of South Africans being allowed into the US -- -- this really gets to the heart of the left's animosity and rage towards these refugees: JENNINGS: The same people angriest about this had no problem with 20 million illegals coming here including gang members. I don't have sympathy for the people outraged about this after the last several years, over 50 South Africans who are clearly being discriminated against. ALLISON: The US has yet to have a "racial reconciliation" like SA has. (!?) If the white South Africans don't like the current system in SA, they can just get out of Africa and return to their 'home' countries (Europe), not the US. They are being given special treatment in the US because they are white. If they are allowed in the US, why isn't every refugee from Congo or the Sudan. They just don't like the "law of the land" in SA so they don't deserve refugee status. ----- There it is. After years of open borders and millions of unvetted illegals entering from all over the world, the left finally found a group of people that were allowed into the country that truly enrages them: A handful of fully vetted, legal, white South African families.
Hey, if the rule is "Everyone has to leave and go back to their ancestor's countries of origin," I'm willing to sign up for that. Is that the rule the immigrant-heavy left really wants? Because we can make that happen if you do.
Matt Walsh
@MattWalshBlog Remember, folks. White South Africans don't belong in South Africa even after 400 years. White Americans are invaders in America even after 500 years. But the third world illegal migrant who got here last Tuesday is just as American as anyone else and if you call him an invader you're racist.
Posted by: Ace at 04:22 PM | Comments (421) | Trackbacks (Suck)
UK PM Keir Starmer Makes Empty Promise to Reduce Immigration
Now Starmer is decrying a "failed experiment in open borders." Again, it is 100% true that anyone who is not a high-ranking leftwing government official would be arrested for saying this. But Starmer is worried about his grasp on power, so he's decided he's permitted some racist hate-speech.
Many people headlined this story "Keir Starmer commits racist hate-crime" because Keir Starmer will send his Orewellian enforcers to arrest you for expressing the same feelings about immigration that he now claims to feel.
Starmer has been attempting to exploit the Conservatives' weakness on this issue for some time. Yes, the UK "Conservatives" are in favor of the EU and also in favor of uncontrolled, never-ending immigration. That's why they were turned out of power last year, and that's why Reform stole 2/3rds of their vote in the recent council elections. Back in December 2024, I posted about Starmer blaming immigration on the Conservatives. The leftwing Starmer is every bit as pro-uncontrolled-immigration as the Tories... but it was the Tories who actually allowed uncontrolled immigration for ten years.'This happened by design, not accident. Policies were reformed deliberately to liberalise immigration. Brexit was used for that purpose, to turn Britain into a one nation experiment in open borders.' Astonishing attack on the Conservative Party from Prime Minister Keir Starmer pic.twitter.com/m5F1CoP42g -- Sir Walter Raleigh (@NxlAnglo) November 28, 2024
Now Starmer is decrying a "failed experiment in open borders." Again, it is 100% true that anyone who is not a high-ranking leftwing government official would be arrested for saying this. But Starmer is worried about his grasp on power, so he's decided he's permitted some racist hate-speech.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced tighter British immigration rules, declaring an end to what he called a "squalid chapter" and a "failed experiment in open borders." In a speech Monday, Starmer vowed to "take back control" with new rules that make it harder to obtain work, family and student visas to the United Kingdom. Migrant rights advocates criticized his wording as being more typical of the far right than of his center-left Labour Party. "The damage [immigration] has done to our country is incalculable," the prime minister wrote in a policy paper. Starmer said the changes, which still need Parliament's approval, are needed to maintain social cohesion, drive investment in the local workforce and prevent Britain from becoming "an island of strangers."An island of strangers? You're saying that tens of thousands of illegal aliens aren't family members, but "strangers"? This is obviously true but Starmer will send his cops to arrest you if you suggest this.
Remember when I said you'd be arrested for that in the UK? I wasn't just lying like Jake Tapper. A former cop was just arrested for questioning the rise of antisemitism in the UK -- I think he may have suggested that the rise was due to New Diverse Arrivals -- and was arrested for having "Brexity books" in his house.
His proposals come less than two weeks after the far-right anti-immigration Reform U.K. Party, led by Nigel Farage -- a confidant of President Trump -- made big gains in some local and municipal elections across England. Data shows net migration to the U.K. has more than tripled in the past decade. Indians are the largest recipients of U.K. visas. And in recent months, Americans have been applying for British citizenship in record numbers. Experts say the changes aim to reverse an unexpected spike in immigration after Britain left the European Union. "After Brexit, a new immigration system came in under the previous [Conservative] government that was surprisingly liberal, and there was a big and unexpected increase in migration to the U.K.," says Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. "When they saw how big the numbers were, they started to roll back some of those liberalizations and made some restrictions." "The current government is keeping those existing restrictions and rolling back the liberalizations, taking us back to a system that's broadly similar to what we had for non-EU citizens before the U.K. left the EU," she says. ... Polls show most Britons want their government to do more to fight illegal types of migration, especially smugglers carrying people to England in small boats across the channel from France. ... In a statement emailed to NPR, Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, a charity that works with migrants and refugees, called Starmer's language "dangerous." "Shameful language like this will only inflame the fire of the far-right and risks further race riots that endanger survivors of horrors such as war, torture and modern slavery," Smith wrote. "Starmer must apologize." One of Starmer's own Labour members of Parliament, Nadia Whittome, wrote on social media that the prime minister's language "mimics the scaremongering of the far-right."
Another left-wing lawmaker, Zarah Sultana, questioned whether Starmer's speech had actually been written by far-right lawmaker Farage. And another former Starmer colleague, parliamentarian John McDonnell, compared the prime minister's "island of strangers" reference to the "divisive language of Enoch Powell." Powell was a Conservative member of Parliament who made an infamous 1968 speech that's widely considered one of the most racist and incendiary in modern British history.
BernieMeanwhile: Diversity is our strength.
@Artemisfornow May 10 FREE SPEECH - A retired special constable was arrested for a post on X about the rise of Anti Semitism. The police searching his house considered his reading material, including books by Douglas Murray as "a bit Brexity" Arrested for what? Just questioning the narrative
A group of young men stormed the Montfavet church in Avignon on Saturday evening, shouting, "Allahu Akbar" and threatening to burn the church down -- an act of intimidation that forced police to guard the building during Sunday's morning Mass. The incident occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m., just as the evening Mass had ended. According to Fr. Laurent Milan, the parish priest, the confrontation began when a teenage boy arrived at the church claiming he wanted to convert. Soon after, around 10 others followed, some stating they were Muslims and asking to come inside. According to reports by La Provence, the group quickly turned aggressive. "One of them began running around. They gathered around the priest and started hurling insults. It was chaos. We struggled to get them out," one parishioner told the French news outlet. According to Fr. Milan, the young men hurled explicit insults targeting Christianity and made repeated threats. "They didn't insult me directly, but they shouted things like, 'Jesus, we're f***ing you,'" he said. "They were shouting 'Allahu Akbar,' and told us several times, 'We're going to come back and burn your church.'" The priest filed a police complaint that same night, and five witnesses are understood to have already spoken to law enforcement. A police source confirmed an investigation is underway for "non-public insults because of religion" and "threats of dangerous destruction to persons." As of Sunday, no arrests had been made, while worshippers arriving for the day's morning service were met with patrol cars and visible security. According to Fr. Milan, the church has seen a spike in anti-social and threatening behavior in recent weeks. Just days earlier, on May 7, another group of youths disrupted a parish meeting by shouting and banging on the windows. "We've had a computer stolen, candles taken," he said. "Some even throw their ball against the church walls during Mass, deliberately trying to disrupt us." "This isn't just disrespect," Fr. Milan added. "This is a threat, and it's not the first."
Posted by: Ace at 02:20 PM | Comments (464) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Federal Judge Upholds Trump's Power to Use the Alien Enemies Act to Deport Tren de Aragua Gang Members
A federal judge on Tuesday said the Trump administration can invoke the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport criminal illegal immigrant members of the Venezuelan Tren De Aragua gang, but that it has not given adequate prior notice to those subject to removal, before those deportations can take place, which would allow possible due process and habeas legal challenges. The 43-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines, a Trump appointee, conflicts with other rulings challenging the administration's deportation efforts. "Having done its job, the Court now leaves it to the Political Branches of the government, and ultimately to the people who elect those individuals, to decide whether the laws and those executing them continue to reflect their will," Haines wrote.The decision is here.
Posted by: Ace at 01:15 PM | Comments (265) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Jake Tapper's Publisher Puts Together a Compliation Purporting to Show that Tapper Reported on Biden's Dementia.
Mark Halperin Looks at the Clips In Context and Finds It's a Lie.
Mark Halperin Looks at the Clips In Context and Finds It's a Lie.
Jake Tapper's defense against bias is always the same: "I asked a question."
But not all questions are the same, of course. On the one hand, there is a Tim Russert-style interrogation where he rejects your first rehearsed answer and presents evidence to you that prove that answer is false. And then there is the "friendly inoculation" style of asking a question. When Jake Tapper "interviews" one of his Democrat allies, he's very friendly and very helpful towards them. And this includes in asking questions posed by Republicans. He doesn't present the evidence that the Republicans have accumulated and demand that his Democrat Pal answer each and every point of evidence. No, he says something like, "Republicans are making an issue of this stupid nonsense, how do you respond?" This is an inoculation, not an interrogation -- he's not challenging the Democrat, he is providing the Democrat a service by offering him the opportunity to present his rehearsed, canned spin answer to the public on a highly-rated television show. Did I just say "highly rated"? Pardon me, I just did crack for the first time. Then the Democrat can go around the country saying "These questions have all been asked and answered." The Inoculatory Question is like a vaccine dose -- it's a tiny, harmless bit of a question designed not to infect you, but to make it harder to infect you with the allegation. Jake Tapper is getting a lot of well-deserved criticism for serving as Field Marshal of the Democrat-Media Party's Dementia Cover-Up Parade, and he asked his publisher to defend him. I don't know for a fact that he asked his publisher to play PR agent for him, but I do know it. Jake Tapper absolutely cannot abide any kind of criticism, especially when it's about this Handgun Control, Inc. spokesman's, and former Democrat congressional staffer's, obvious political activism. I've mentioned this before, but in one of my many DM interactions with Jake Tapper, he attempted to rebut something I'd written about him having obvious Democrat sympathies. He said, and I quote: "You have no idea of what my politics are." Sure, Jan. Sure. Mark Halperin has been as annoyed with Jake Tapper playing reporter on the Biden Dementia Conspiracy. Of all liberal reporters, Jake Tapper is the second-least credible on the issue, after only Joe Scarborough. His co-author, Alex Thompson, no one really questions because Thompson did show an "interest" in the story and did do some mealy-mouthed reporting on it, back before the election, even before the debate. His "reportage" was weak but at least it was something. And who knows -- his editors probably toned down his stories because they're all co-conspirators in the greatest political fraud in American history, too. But Jake Tapper? The guy who insists, WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that all of Biden's slurring and Lost Time Events are due to his "childhood stutter"? A stutter that was only made known in 2019, when Biden's handlers needed to conjure excuses for why Biden so frequently forgot words and mistook dead foreign leaders for living ones and attempted to summon the ghost of a congresswoman he was delivering a eulogy for. If you don't know how that worked: The lying media, including Jake Tapper, pushed the hoax on the country that when Biden lost his train of thought it was only because he was straining to keep his stutter under control. He wasn't having mental lapses, you see, he was just fighting heroically to keep a stutter under control, which sometimes caused him to invent words like "TRUMPALAZIZURE." The "childhood stutter" that did not evidence itself for fifty years of this asshole's corrupt political career. Jake Tapper pushed that lie -- without ever once asking where the evidence for this was, and without ever once notifying his (very small) audience that there was no evidence for it apart from the say-so of Biden's campaign staff. Below, Mark Halperin looks at the full clips that Tapper's publisher presented in his defense, and finds that these are deceptive edits. Tapper never really asked about Biden's dementia or presented him with the evidence for it, like his attempting to summon the ghost of a dead congresswoman. Instead, he merely asked about a poll showing that the public doubted Biden's fitness, and let Biden answer with the canned answer he always responds with, and offered no follow-up questions to this at all. He let Biden inoculate himself from the charge, and then MovedOn.org like a good trained attack dog. If you're interested in this story and the media's conspiracy to deceive the public, try to make time to watch Halperin's entire opening statement here. He flat-out says that Jake Tapper was part of the media conspiracy and is now creating "alternate realities" in which the press was trying desperately to get to the truth but was "stymied" by politicians lying.Posted by: Ace at 12:12 PM | Comments (319) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Wednesday Morning Rant
Troll Week
I am by no means sure that the Trump Administration does "theme weeks," but weeks like this make me wonder. If there has been a theme for the past week or so, that theme may be "trolling." It hasn't all been trolling, of course. Presidenting is serious business, and Trump's fairly blunt attack on the interventionist, manipulative, ineffective and disastrous Uniparty of the past thirty years during his address in Saudi Arabia was not trolling. Nor is his deal-making in that country (though I admit generous skepticism as to how much of it actually comes to fruition).
But much this week has a tinge of trolling about it. Like all good trolling, it has a real purpose. The goal is not merely to needle your enemies and make them howl in rage, but to also achieve your own ends. Trump has done a good job on that front, too. The past week has been both hilarious and fairly effective in terms of the agenda. Here's a roundup of my favorite stories of the past week.
Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM | Comments (274) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
William Etty
William Etty
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (267) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Report — 5/ 14 /25 
Is that a threat or a promise, Hakeem? In the immortal words of legendary Democrat Joseph Stalin, "How many divisions does Hakeem Jeffries have?" I assume he has some way of mobilizing some of the 11-plus million illegal alien invaders Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants allowed in during his fraudulent term, or some number of Schakowsky/Creamer Antifa affiliated rent-a-thugs.
Of course there's always everyone's favorite braying Moscow-mule-slinging dimwitted Donkey-chompers mouth:
She wouldn't know from problems if they hit her in the face, which maybe they are:
During an exchange with Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, [Haeem] Jeffries repeatedly said “they’ll find out” when pressed what might happen if the House Democrats involved in the incident were to be arrested by federal authorities or get sanctioned. . . . . . “It’s a red line. It’s very clear,” Jeffries said. “First of all, I think that the so-called Homeland Security spokesperson is a joke. It’s a joke. They know better than to go down that road. And it’s been made loudly and abundantly clear to the Trump administration. We’re not going to be intimidated by their tactics.”
Is that a threat or a promise, Hakeem? In the immortal words of legendary Democrat Joseph Stalin, "How many divisions does Hakeem Jeffries have?" I assume he has some way of mobilizing some of the 11-plus million illegal alien invaders Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants allowed in during his fraudulent term, or some number of Schakowsky/Creamer Antifa affiliated rent-a-thugs.
Of course there's always everyone's favorite braying Moscow-mule-slinging dimwitted Donkey-chompers mouth:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has warned the Trump administration that they will be in for a “problem” if they arrest any more Democrats. The congresswoman issued her warning in an Instagram video posted on Sunday in response to the recent arrests of three Democrat New Jersey members of the House — Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez, and LaMonica McIver — during a visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. AOC accused the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of “public intimidation.”
She wouldn't know from problems if they hit her in the face, which maybe they are:
AOC’s town halls used to be monthly events – now are only held once in a blue moon, there’s virtually no way to get in a question, and sometimes she only phones in and doesn’t bother coming in person, galled constituents said. The latest town hall took place in Jackson Heights last month. It turned into a mess with AOC only taking six questions before she fled.. . .Jackson Heights resident Gloria Contreras pointed out that AOC only tackles issues if it gets national attention: “She’s about her and getting worldwide attention while ignoring her constituents.” . . . The constituents still fume over AOC’s killing of an opportunity to bring an Amazon headquarters to Queens, which would have created 25,000 jobs. The thing is…will the district keep voting in AOC?Well I think to ask the question is to answer it. If not her, then a clone of her. The problem is the constituents are thoroughly brainwashed into believing the myths, shibboleths and lies about the nation and society in which they are a part. Crack that nut and the Democrat/Left would go the way of the Dodo. But that said, in poll after poll not only on the issue of the border and immigration (illegal and otherwise), the Democrat/Left are on the short end of the stick across a broad spectrum of the American electorate including some of the bluest districts in the nation. Yeah, Jackson Heights and Corona are solidly Latino but Latinos understand that it's they more than anyone who have to deal with the violence of the illegal aliens in their midst more than anyone else. It's why blacks and other minorities ultimately recoiled from the anti-police and decriminalization of crime movement that took over the Democrat party in the wake of the 2020 mostly peaceful summer of love. There is a definite political and cultural realignment happening that I think (hope and pray!) will have long-term positive ramifications for the nation and society going forward. Many of the Democrat/Left's sacred cows - and sacrilegious udders like AOC - are being rejected by younger and younger cohorts like Gen Z and that is not good news going forward for Leftism and Democrat electoral success, election thievery notwithstanding. So what is left for the old Red Guard but to turn to violence and stupidity, like yet another impeachment attempt, this time over the idiotic kerfluffle ginned up by the Qatari jumbo jet gift to Trump.
As the congressman’s seven articles of impeachment are privileged, under House rules, Congress is forced to vote within two legislative days on whether to send the resolution to committee or table it. House Democrats reportedly “erupted into fury and profane invective” over Thanedar’s gambit, telling Axios that the vote will put a lot of Democrats in a tough position. “It’s going to cause Democrats in [competitive] seats to make tough decisions,” said one House Democrat.Keep plucking that Chicken, Democrats! All the way to 2028 and beyond. And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know. Have a great day.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- A New Haven woman was criminally charged when she was wrongly identified as a woman who used a racial pejorative against a parking lot attendant.
In New Haven, it’s not free speech if you hurt someone’s feelings
- Robert Spencer: The Left’s idolatry of violence is nothing new.
Emma Goldman: ‘Revolution is Indeed a Violent Process’
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:25 AM | Comments (382) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Daily Tech News 14 May 2025
Top Story
- The Kosmos 482 space probe has landed safely - sort of - in the Indian Ocean. (Space)
Safe for everyone else, anyway.
The probe was supposed to go to Venus, more than 50 years ago, but got slightly lost.
(Oops, already covered by the ONT. I only read that after writing this post.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (181) | Trackbacks (Suck)
May 13, 2025
Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - May 13, 2025 [scampydog]
Venn. We no like you.
Friendly mystery click
Friendly mystery click
Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (472) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Red Panda GAINZZZ Cafe
Men Posting Their W's. Some neat wilderness biking. (IG) "Joe Biden" explains the plot of Star Wars.
Science girlScience: Cats are magnetic and are repelled by aluminum foil. A baby tiger enjoying its pacifier. Mother and baby laying down to sleep. A big Argonath-sized statue in Japan. She thinks she's a person. Rabbit mating rituals. Elephants love-bomb their caregiver. Cat owner wonders why she wakes up tired every morning. Dog lady > cat lady, but it's close. Ducks enjoy being tossed. The sea was angry that day, my friend. Big cats walking and snarling. Dancing robot.
@gunsnrosesgirl3 After years of anticipation, careful planning, and pinpoint astronomical timing, Leonardo Sens succeeded in taking this extraordinary photograph.
Men Posting Their W's. Some neat wilderness biking. (IG) "Joe Biden" explains the plot of Star Wars.
Posted by: Ace at 07:38 PM | Comments (304) | Trackbacks (Suck)
AWFL Wisconsin Judge Who Aided and Abetted the Flight of a Fugitive INDICTED on Obstruction of Justice Charges
But Democrats have the right to break the law!
A federal grand jury indicted Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan on May 13 after a daylong hearing on charges that she tried to assist an undocumented immigrant escape arrest from her courtroom last month. Dugan, 66, was previously charged with obstructing a U.S. agency and concealing an individual to prevent an arrest. The two charges carry a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $350,000 fine, but sentences in cases involving nonviolent offenses typically are much shorter.).She will enter a plea on Thursday. She is expected to plead "Democrat." And now: Fresh insurrections.
Posted by: Ace at 06:56 PM | Comments (173) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Democrat-Media Party In Full Conspiracy to Blame Only Biden and His Six Closest Advisors for the Greatest Electoral Fraud Ever Perpetrated on the American People.
Biden/Harris campaign strategist David Pfloufle is emphatic -- none of this was my fault, it was all Biden!
Since 2015. Which Republicans all spotted and talked about it. Meanwhile, Jake Tapper, who's now trying to cash in, insisted that this was all a Republican cheapfake lie up until June 2024.
Senior Democrats have turned on Joe Biden in a bombshell new book claiming to expose the shocking full extent of his decline. The book, by co-authors CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, also alleges the former president and his inner circle 'totally f***ed us' and handed the election to Donald Trump. Exposing what they say was a concerted and long-term cover-up of Biden's failing powers, Tapper and Thompson say that in one disturbing incident the frail president allegedly failed to recognize legendary Hollywood mega-star George Clooney and 'was barely capable of stringing two sentences together' even before his grueling 2024 campaign began. Due out in a few days, their book suggests that, despite repeated assurance from those close to him, Biden had been in cognitive decline since as far back as 2015.
Just Biden, Jill Biden, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Bruce Reed, Anita Dunn, and some of Biden's family, and absolutely no one else in the Democrat-Media Party were responsible for this grand deception.
And that a 'Politburo' of trusted advisers, including Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, and Bruce Reed, plus members of Biden's family, effectively aided him as he 'stole' the election from the Democrats and 'the American people' because of their selfish insistence that 'an addled old man' should stand again.
The authors don't mince their words - and neither do the slew of furious Democrats who have contributed to the book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.Every one of their words is minced. This is a new cover-up to replace the old cover-up, now that the old cover-up has been exposed and threatens to destroy the entire Democrat-Media Party. The wound must be stanched. The bleeding must be cauterized. Blame must be affixed to seven people firmly and all others need to be defended and excused.
In fairness, I don't recognize him either. He now looks like Count Chocula What Got The AIDS.
In one excoriating summary, Tapper and Thompson suggest the decision to push Biden to run for re-election in 2024 was 'shockingly narcissistic, self-delusional and reckless -- a desperate bet that went bust and part of a larger act of extended public deception that has few precedents... 'The decision to run again, the Original Sin of this president, led to a campaign of denial and gaslighting, leading directly to Donald Trump's return to power.' So outraged are influential Democrats that a number have allowed their names to be used in the book, including David Plouffe, who managed Obama's successful 2008 campaign. 'We got so screwed by Biden as a party,' Plouffe is quoted as saying. In one of the most shocking revelations, Biden was reportedly so impaired that he didn't recognize Clooney at a star-studded June 2024 Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles, the book says, claiming it left the actor 'shaken to his core.' 'It was obvious to many standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was,' the authors write.
I reported all of these things. So did the coblogs. So did the commenters. But Jake Tapper now wants a million dollars for reporting what better reporters -- pretty much everyone else in the world -- reported five years ago.
Another Hollywood VIP guest reportedly said: 'It was like watching someone who was not alive. It was so awful.' ... In another passage of this new book, Tapper and Thompson describe how in June 2023, former president Barack Obama allegedly visited Biden to 'kick the tires.' He told Biden that Trump would be formidable and left Biden with a warning. 'Just make sure you can win the race,' he said. ... From production trickery during filmed appearances, to severely limited work periods for the ageing president, the book also reveals the extraordinary measures taken to prevent the public - and the rest of the Democratic Party - from seeing what they say was the true scale of Biden's infirmity. At 82, Biden was already the oldest president in the history of the republic when he finished his term in office. When the White House aides filmed his appearances, they would use more than one camera, allowing 'jump cuts' (switching from one view to another) to obscure his stumbles, according to the book. But the president's issues weren't a recent development. The authors claim that by 2020, during Biden's first campaign, he already could no longer follow conversations and a special team was hired to edit his verbal stumbles out of campaign ads. The authors say he had trouble recording even mundane thoughts without fluffing his lines. 'Biden often couldn't make it through one or two minutes without botching a line or two,' one source says.
Original Sin says that from January 1, 2023 to April 27, 2024, the president had undertaken only four public events before 10.00 am.How many times did we point out that Biden did all of his photo ops between 11 am and 4pm? That's why we called him Sundown -- because people with dementia begin getting fuzzy around sundown. But Jake Tapper, Super-Reporter, is just getting around to reporting this now. All of this was available to be reported years ago. You don't need "Democrat staffers suddenly telling the truth" to just check Biden's f***ing daily schedule, which is and was published every day.
We all saw this. Some of us reported it. Some of us covered up. And of course the people who covered it up are now being showered with cash and praise.
One prominent Democratic strategist who once publicly defended Biden is quoted saying that the former president 'stole' the election from the American people. Another leading Democrat had been assured that the president was 'fine', but when he met Biden in person, he found the First Lady, Jill Biden, was finishing some thoughts for him. 'He was clearly not f***ing fine,' this source tells the authors.
Biden/Harris campaign strategist David Pfloufle is emphatic -- none of this was my fault, it was all Biden!
He notes that putting Biden on Rogan would have been a disaster. See the article for that. Most amusing was Pfloufle's call on the "masculine" Tim Walz.
"Trying to defeat Donald Trump in just 107 days was a 'f***ing nightmare,' admits Harris campaign adviser David Plouffe," in a new report (no link, alas) shared by Steve Guest on X this morning. Plouffe blamed Biden for clinging to power too long, leaving Harris too little time to mount an effective campaign: "He totally f***ed us." But Concha argued that Plouffe "helped run a patently horrible campaign, and of course to save his own skin, passes the buck." He rattled off a brutal list of missteps, including skipping the Al Smith dinner, ignoring Joe Rogan, tapping Tim Walz, and cozying up to Liz Cheney. When Concha puts it like that, Plouffe looks pretty bad, doesn't he? The thing is, Concha is entirely correct that Plouffe's decisions on Al Smith, Rogan, Walz, and Cheney all led to disaster. What Concha misses is that, as bad as those choices were, the alternatives were worse.
I saved Walz for last because he's the funniest example of Plouffe's dilemma. Harris needed a white male for "balance," preferably someone with executive experience and the ability to deliver a swing state. That left her with Walz or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Shapiro would have been the better choice -- popular, sharp, and governor of a crucial swing state. But Harris couldn't afford to alienate the "River to the Sea" crowd, and that made Shapiro's Jewishness a political liability. So it had to be Walz. I'll never quit laughing at Gov. Jazz Hands getting the veep nod because he could bring "masculinity" to the ticket.
Posted by: Ace at 05:49 PM | Comments (262) | Trackbacks (Suck)
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