Monday Overnight Open Thread (6/24/24)

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:00 PM | Comments (553) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Week Cafe

From Discover Civilizations
photographer unknown

Lending a hand to a lamb. Was he stuck? Or was he just itching his back?

Meeting the new pupper.

When I first saw this I thought it was a giant spider. Now that I know it was just some chimps in some kind of polymorphously perverse sex-limbo, I wish I could go back to believing it was a giant spider.

Fluffy nap-time.

Rescued sea otter pup gets groomed, complains about it.

Give it to me straight, Doc--how bad is it? How long have I got?

Juggling as seen from above. It's weird.

Boobies.

Kitten has grown up with seven dogs and her meows are more like barks.

Arigato, human.

Copycat.

Not on my watch.

A cat's secret maneuver -- the under-pounce!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:29 PM | Comments (378) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is introducing a resolution directing the Sergeant at Arms of the House to arrest and detain Merrick Garland until he turns over the Hur tapes.

Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on Monday informed lawmakers that she would bring a resolution to require the House sergeant at arms to detain Attorney General Merrick Garland and bring him before the lower chamber.

The House this month held Garland in contempt of Congress in a 216-207 vote over his refusal to turn over the audio tapes of special counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Joe Biden. The Department of Justice has indicated it will not prosecute Garland.

Luna's resolution would hold Garland in "inherent contempt" over the matter, according to The Hill. The House has not done so in just under 100 years.

"Under inherent contempt, the individual is brought before the bar of the House by the Sergeant at Arms, tried by the body, and can then be detained either in the Capitol or in D.C.," Luna wrote. "This process demonstrates the seriousness with which Congress views non-compliance and the potential consequences for those who refuse to cooperate."

I think the idea here is that Congress has this power and must have this power itself. If they just turn over their contempt charges to the Executive, the Executive can, as they're doing here, refuse to prosecute the party in contempt. Congress must have the power to compel evidence in their own body, or else they don't have this power at all.

As she notes, it has been done in the past -- but not in a long while.

I doubt our Brave Heroes in Congress are willing to take this step.

Trump is floating the idea of a drug test for both himself and Biden before the debate. Biden, for obvious reasons, will not agree to it.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that he and President Joe Biden should submit to a drug test prior to their participation in the first presidential debate on Thursday.

"DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!" he posted on Truth Social.

Biden has for years faced scrutiny over his age and fitness for office. Trump previously suggested that Biden would be "jacked up" on drugs during the debate and speculated that the president had been using cocaine during the State of the Union in order to deliver a solid performance.

Axios thinks you should feel bad for Biden:

Alex Thompson
@AlexThomp

It has affected the president: Aides know to tiptoe around him when there's bad family news, and he's often angry or distracted about the legal and political attacks on them, per 5 ppl familiar w/ the dynamic.

His family's struggles -- along w/ the still raw grief over his son Beau -- can manifest w/ tears and an "impenetrable sadness," 1 person close to him said.

It's all led Biden to rely more heavily on those he's known the longest -- creating a protective inner circle around him.

This was the state of the Biden family when he ran for president in 2020:
both of his adult children were struggling w/ addiction to drugs
Hallie Biden had only just gotten sober from crack cocaine
Her 2 school-age children went through a period when both of the adults in the home were addicts

Not only that, but cannibals ate his uncle!

How does this All-American Football star find the strength to soldier on?

@AlexThomp

Hunter's troubles have been well-aired, but Ashley Biden also has paid a heavy price under the glare of the presidential spotlight as she left behind her rehab diary which was later stolen and published on a right-wing site.

In a letter in April during the woman's criminal trial, Ashley wrote:
"I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online...The despair I have often felt will never truly go away."
J
The diary includes convos w/ Joe Biden. After a relapse in July of 2019d
"My dad cried on the phone, saying he has the debate in a week + 'now has to worry about you.' And he cried. Maybe he knows what he is doing + it's worked but my feelings of guilt often are overwhelming."

Say, Alex, did she perchance happen to mention anything else interesting about Biden in her diary...?

Neither Ashley nor Hunter wanted to be the reason their father didn't run -- and they encouraged him to do so. So did Jill.

Val Biden had serious doubts, she later wrote.

"I didn't want the family to go through it. I was worried the family couldn't go through it."

Oh poor them.

I've heard that apples don't fall far from trees. Say, what about Trump's idea for a drug test?

Biden's debate prep includes... simply training himself to be able to stand for 90 minutes.

That's where we are.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:13 PM | Comments (291) | Trackbacks (Suck)

DHS: Trump Supporters, Military People, and Religious People Are Most Likely to be Violent Terrorists

On Thursday, it was reported that this "Homeland Intelligence Experts Group" included James Clapper and John Brennan, who had both foisted the "Russian Agent" hoax on America, and then foisted the "Hunter Biden laptop is disinformation" hoax. The Group intended to recruit domestic spies from the Democrat socialist cadres of public school teachers and Karen leftwing mothers to inform on other parents, and even their own family members, if they expressed dangerous thoughts.

You know, thoughts like "The Constitution did not establish a fourth all-powerful branch of government called 'the intelligence community'" or "civil service bureacrats have no authority to overrule and subvert the will of a democratically-elected president."

Or: "Borders -- we should have them."

All are threats, especially the "religious" people.

Say, there's a particular religion whose harder-line adherents champion terrorism as a tactic of warfare blessed by their god "Allah."

You don't mean them by any chance, do you?

No of course not, he means "Christians who don't vote the way we want."

Now it turns out they intended to brand Republican-leaning cohors as dangerous terrorists who must be surveilled and entrapped.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory board suggested that supporters of former President Donald Trump -- as well as those who served in the military or are religious -- have a greater possibility of posing domestic terrorism risks, according to internal files obtained by America First Legal (AFL).

Named the "Homeland Intelligence Experts Group," the now-disbanded board was created in September 2023 to provide DHS with "expert" analysis on subjects like terrorism and the trafficking of certain controlled substances like fentanyl.

The panel, according to the conservative legal nonprofit's findings, included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, both of whom signed onto an October 2020 letter falsely dismissing Hunter Biden's infamous laptop as Russian disinformation.

The documents revealed that the board suggested "supporters of the former president" accounted for "most of the Domestic Terrorism threat" in the U.S.

"There is a political backdrop to all of this. It seems that most of the Domestic Terrorism threat now comes from supporters of the former president. It is not like you want a political advantage, but people have attacked the government and its institutions for the last six years," meeting notes from the board stated.

Citing unnamed "researchers">..

Internet "researchers" like Nina Jankowitz and vicious leftwing statists like CIA plant Renee DiResta.

... the board also claimed that specific traits -- like those who served "in the military" or are "religious" -- are "indicators of extremists and terrorism" that the U.S. should be "more worried" about.

"If you ask researchers to dive into indicators of extremists and terrorism, they might indicate being in the military or religious," the board said. "This being identified as an indicator suggests we should be more worried about those. We need the space to talk about it honestly."

Obama forced the "intelligence" services to stop treating Muslim terrorism as a genuine threat and re-direct their efforts at stopping the Patriotic American threat.

The "intelligence" services were only too happy to comply with the new mandate to treat Republicans as insurrectionists and terrorists. As long as they had some threat that would justify their budgets, it didn't matter to them that they would stop focusing on the Islamic terrorism threat to focus on the American non-terrorism non-threat.

The fact that they get to harass and entrap people they hate and rig the elections is just a special bonus.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:06 PM | Comments (228) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Kansas AG Kris Kobach Accuses Pfizer of Concealing Covid-19 Non-Vaccine's Risk of Miscarriage

Pfizer was given immunity (by Trump, alas) from lawsuits due to injuries from the vaccine.

Kobach is filing a lawsuit not for damages for injuries, but for violating the state's consumer protection law with its false and misleading claims.

Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a civil lawsuit Monday against pharmaceutical company Pfizer, alleging that "Pfizer misled the public that it had a 'safe and effective' COVID-19 vaccine," violating the state's Consumer Protection Act.

The state seeks "civil monetary penalties, damages, and injunctive relief from misleading and deceptive statements made in marketing its COVID-19 vaccine," Kobach said.

In the complaint, Kobach alleges that Pfizer willfully concealed, suppressed and omitted material facts relating to the COVID-19 vaccine, the "most egregious" ones regarding safety of the vaccine for pregnant people, in regard to heart conditions, its effectiveness against variants and its ability to stop transmission.

"Pfizer marketed its vaccine as safe for pregnant women," Kobach said. "However, in February of 2021 (they) possessed reports of 458 pregnant women who received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy. More than half of the pregnant women reported an adverse event, and more than 10% reported a miscarriage."

Wow, is that true? If it is true, how is not the biggest news in the world?

The percentage of "adverse events" -- which is a term that means any negative reaction -- was higher in pregnant women than the general population by roughly 17 percent, according to a study published in the journal Medicine in February 2022.

An earlier study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April 2021 offered preliminary findings that did not show any significant safety concerns among pregnant individuals who received the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, indicating that observed miscarriages were not unusual and likely not a direct result of the vaccine.

"Likely" not a "direct" result.

Lot of hedging there.

Why wouldn't they just admit that there were some signs it might be unsafe for pregnant women?

Russell Brand points out that pregnant women are not a huge demographic, so it wouldn't have cost Pfizer much to offer a warning to pregnant women.

So why didn't they? Brand's theory is that they didn't want to admit a risk to anyone -- if there were widespread vaccine skepticism, that would cost them some money -- so all risks had to be covered up.

And of course there's the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis.

Kobach says that Pfizer marketed the vaccine as safe in terms of heart conditions such as myocarditis and pericarditis. He referenced a question Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO was asked in January 2023 of if the vaccine caused severe myocarditis, to which Bourla responded "we have not seen a single signal, although we have distributed billions of doses."

I don't know if the grant of immunity covers a lawsuit alleging false claims. If it doesn't, this lawsuit could be interesting.

Below: Kobach's press conference. He points out that Pfizer never tested whether the vaccine stopped transmission, but they claimed that it did.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:54 PM | Comments (269) | Trackbacks (Suck)

CNN's Kasie Hunt Cuts the Mic of a Trump Spokeswoman for Doubting the Objectivity of Former Democrat Aide and Gun Control Spokesman Jake Tapper

As Rand Paul's wife Kelley points out, Kasie Hunt (more like Hussie K*** amirite) previously called the savage beating of Rand Paul "her favorite story," with a lilting giggle in her voice.

A "news" channel has issued its Royal Decree that the bias of a moderator isn't news at all.

Tapper and Bash are about as anti-Trump as you get, and when Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt appeared on CNN Monday to discuss the upcoming debate and happened to mention their bias, anchor Kasie Hunt had an absolute tantrum on the air.

When Leavitt pointed out that Trump was preparing to "go into a hostile environment on this very network with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years," Hunt insisted that both Tapper and Bash were "professional."

But Leavitt came with receipts.

'Well, first of all, it would take someone five minutes to Google Jake Tapper, Donald Trump, to see" that Tapper consistently likened Trump to Adolf Hitler. Then Hunt lost it and accused Leavitt of "attacking" her colleagues.

"I would like to talk about Joe Biden and Donald Trump -- who you work for -- if you're here to speak on his behalf, we will have this conversation," Hunt added.

"I am stating facts that your colleagues have stated in the past," Leavitt responded.

"I'm sorry, guys ... Karoline, thank you very much for your time. You're welcome to come back at any time," Hunt replied.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:50 PM | Comments (358) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Israel Is Moving into Lebannon to Fight Hezballah Directly, and Biden's Pro-Hamas Functionaries Couldn't Be Angrier

AP's pretty pissy, too.

The top U.S. military officer warned on Sunday that any Israeli military offensive into Lebanon would risk an Iranian response in defense of the powerful Hezbollah militant group there, triggering a broader war that could put U.S. forces in the region in danger.

Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iran "would be more inclined to support Hezbollah." He added that Tehran supports Hamas militants in Gaza, but would give greater backing to Hezbollah "particularly if they felt that Hezbollah was being significantly threatened."

Are you kidding? Hezballah IS Iran. They fund it, they arm them, they train them, they allow Hezballah to conduct training exercises in Iran.

Are you kidding me?

Brown spoke to reporters as he traveled to Botswana for a meeting of African defense ministers.

Israeli officials have threatened a military offensive in Lebanon if there is no negotiated end to push Hezbollah away from the border. Just days ago, Israel's military said it had "approved and validated" plans for an offensive in Lebanon, even as the U.S. works to prevent the months of cross-border attacks from spiraling into a full-blown war.

Thousands of Iran-backed fighters offer to join Hezbollah in its fight against Israel
Advertisement

Netanyahu said Sunday he hoped a diplomatic solution could be achieved but said he would solve the problem "in a different way" if needed. We can fight on several fronts and we are prepared to do that," he said.

...

U.S. President Joe Biden's senior adviser, Amos Hochstein, met with officials in Lebanon and Israel last week in an effort to deescalate tensions. Hochstein told reporters in Beirut on Tuesday that it was a "very serious situation" and that a diplomatic solution to prevent a larger war was urgent.

..;.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech last Wednesday that militant leaders from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other countries have previously offered to send tens of thousands of fighters to help Hezbollah, but he said the group already has more than 100,000 fighters.

The leftwing position on this, as held by Biden and the rotten governments of Europe, is that Israel should simply absorb unending warfare against it, and unending deaths, because if they retaliate or, even worse, attempt to win a war that enemies are waging against it, this will cause "instability in the region."

Well the current status quo is intolerable, so we'll have to risk "instability."

And of course the WEF caucus has decided that Iran is our Partner in Peace (TM), for reasons too bizarre to even fathom. It could have just been Obama's deep-rooted antisemitism that is driving this realignment with the terror mullahs.

An even bigger reason for the pressure by leftwing governments in the US and Europe is, of course, that we have large Muslim populations, and those populations vote with the left.

So once again, Dearborn, Michigan gets to set US policy.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:57 PM | Comments (234) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Seven Years Later, "Fact-Checking" Site Snopes Gets Around to Fact-Checking the "Fine People on Both Sides" Hoax

Happy Monday, everyone! This is the week we win!*

I'm sure Fake Jake Tapper will highlight this on his little-watched daily propaganda show.

Former President Trump's 2024 campaign said that President Biden lied following Snopes debunking Biden and other Democrats' claims about Trump's 2017 press conference related to the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally.

"The Charlottesville lie was another hoax perpetuated by the corrupt Democrats and their mouthpieces in the fake news media, just like the Hunter Biden laptop, the Russian collusion scandal and so many others, all in an attempt to smear President Trump. Joe Biden's campaign must end any advertising that pushes this lie because President Trump has, once again, been proven right," said Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, according Fox News.

The Snopes' fact check story said: "In a news conference after the rally protesting the planned removal of a Confederate statue, Trump did say there were "very fine people on both sides," referring to the protesters and the counterprotesters. He said in the same statement he wasn't talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, who he said should be 'condemned totally.'"

...

The FactCheck.org analysis points out that Trump had issued a statement from the White House where he referred to "KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."

The article notes that Biden loves spreading this Dangerous Russian Disinformation.

* I don't know what this means. Sounds optimistic, though! Kinda gets me in a plundering kind of mood!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:43 PM | Comments (336) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Stonehenge and the Actual Philanthropath Villains of “Just Stop Oil”

You have certainly by now seen pictures or videos of vandals from Just Stop Oil spraying Stonehenge orange.

“Climate activists spray Stonehenge with orange powder, demanding end to fossil fuels in UK” [Fox News – 6/19/2024]

You might also have seen them doing similar vandalism to private jets at an airport where Taylor Swift flew into.

“Climate activists spray paint private jets, mistakenly believe Taylor Swift’s plane was at airport” [NY Post – 6/20/2024]

There is much anger being directed at these vandals, and demands for their punishment, but it is misdirected.

Like worker bees in a beehive, these activists are hard-working, passionate, and devoted, but ultimately they are disposable to the Queen Bees.

Who actually heads the Just Stop Oil hive? Well, it’s funded by philanthropaths with names like Disney, Kennedy, and Getty. I pointed this out in a recent piece at The Pipeline, Just Stop ‘Just Stop Oil’.

So who is funding Just Stop Oil and the Climate Emergency Fund? Its wealthy, left-wing benefactors include Rory Kennedy (daughter of the late Robert Kennedy), Abigail Disney, and co-founder, oil heiress Aileen Getty, among others.

The outrage and demands for retribution against Just Stop Oil’s street criminals has been passionate and sincere. I respect Robert Malone and share the passion he expressed in this tweet (below), but arresting two Just Stop Oil vandals is akin to swatting two mosquitoes. It doesn’t do anything to prevent more of the same.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (357) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

The kitchens, Moulin de la Galette
Santiago Rusinol

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (318) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 6/24/24

Good Morning Kids. So a mob brazenly roamed one of the most Jewish neighborhoods in LA and started beating up on Jews in front of a synagogue as the LAPD essentially did nothing mostly because the city's commie mayor Karen Bass and CA's fey, brilliantine, pompous ass of a tyrant governor Gavin Newsome collectively allowed it to happen.

And in a not necessarily unrelated story about the transmogrification of America into a leftist police state we have these revelations:

The Department of Homeland Security was born in the ashes of 9/11 and was initially authorized by the 2002 Homeland Security Act. 
From the start, DHS was an agency looking for a mission. Were they spies? Cops? Paper pushers? As it turns out, the answers to those questions are yes, yes, and yes. . .

. . . "Homeland Intelligence Experts Group." The innocuous name hides the fact that the biggest heavy-hitters in government intelligence and law enforcement were on it.
And you've never heard of it.
Thankfully, the good folks at America First Legal (AFL) used the auspices of the Freedom of Information Act to ferret out the activities of this group. The panel included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan  –  two of the most political appointees in the history of their respective agencies. . .

. . . It actually gets worse, There is a Stasi-like attachment to trying to get Americans to tattle on one another.

Certain efforts outlined in the files released Thursday showed how the board hoped to enhance its ability to collect information about Americans.

The group of "experts" said the "See Something, Say Something" campaign following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City fell short because "Americans have an ambivalent feeling of telling on each other."

"We see people who go off the rails. We need people to say something. We need a nationwide campaign to push it to the locals," the meeting notes stated.

"To get a mother or teacher to come forward, it needs to be a public health catcher's mitt," one board member noted. . .

. . . "The security of the American people depends on our capacity to collect, generate, and disseminate actionable intelligence to our federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, campus, and private sector partners," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement at the time the "Experts Group" was formed in 2023.

The East German Stasi encouraged children to turn in their parents for "anti-socialist thinking." We're not close to that point yet. But we're a lot closer since Joe Biden became (pseudo) president.

It's a hop skip and a jump to jailing parents for refusing to allow the state to transform their sons into daughters and vice versa, or climate denialism, or election denial, or name the river in Eqypt of your choice. Solzhenitsyn's psycho wards are right around the corner.

And the goons who set America ablaze four years ago this summer and the ones beating up Jews on the streets will be the enforcers, while your own kids rat you out to the DHS.

OK, I've seen enough.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Here are five reasons why.
  The 10 Commandments Are about More than the 10 Commandments
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "The Biden junta's agendas may have fundamentally changed the country for decades, if not longer—and will require tough remedies that may be almost as unpopular as the wreckage they wrought."
  The Logic in All the Madness

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 06:25 AM | Comments (417) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 24 June 2024

Top Story

• Meritocracy is bad, say people without merit. (Tech Crunch)

  "The post is misguided because people who support the meritocracy argument are ignoring the structural reasons some groups are more likely to outperform others," Mutale Nkonde, a founder working in AI policy, told TechCrunch.

  "A founder working in AI policy" is code for oxygen thief.

  "We all want the best people for the job, and there is data to prove that diverse teams are more effective."

  If they are more effective, then by definition, they are at the top of a meritocracy.
  
  The problem is, they're not, and you know they're not, but you are not allowed to admit it.

  Emily Witko, an HR professional at AI startup Hugging Face

  Oxygen thief.

  told TechCrunch that the post was a "dangerous oversimplification," but that it received so much attention on X because it "openly expressed sentiments that are not always expressed publicly and the audience there is hungry to attack DEI." Wang's MEI thought "makes it so easy to refute or criticize any conversations regarding the importance of acknowledging underrepresentation in tech," she continued.

  Well, yes, because DEI is fraudulent.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (73) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (6/23/24)

*****

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

“I think people give me grace for disagreement because they know I’m not full of s—, and with so many politicians you can’t say that,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)

Quote II

"I have agreed with the NATO secretary general: NATO will have a military mission in Ukraine, but Hungary will not participate in it, not even with money." Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

*****

The Comments of The Week

The best Commenters on the webz. Once again a difficult project this week.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:02 PM | Comments (310) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Late June Edition!

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

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be late June? And why is it so hot? Oh, right, unless you live at the North Pole it's supposed to be hot in June. Evidently we're in a "heat dome" as the weather people are now calling it. Not like it hasn't happened before, it was just called summer.

Anyhoo...

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

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (265) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Butts and Jalapeños And Soy Beans That Oink!

I haven't made a classic smoked pork butt in many moons, mostly because I really like the Cuban-style that's done in the oven with all sorts of delicious flavors.

I am not claiming that it is better, but it is certainly easier, and in addition to being a cheap bastard I am also quite lazy! Smoking my butts takes more work.

I have a big Weber R2D2-style smoker, and it does an excellent job, but it needs tending during a long smoke, and that is sort of a pain in the ass, because it really isn't designed for adding fuel. Oh...arriving at the correct temperature is also time consuming, but it can be done with a beer in my hand, so...

Anyway, I have a nice dry rub recipe that I use on pretty much everything, although I would like to try a minimalist recipe...something like plain old salt and pepper, à la beef brisket.

Anyone ever try that?

But why am I thinking about it? Because I had an excellent pulled-pork sandwich at a fun brew pub in NH. Pulled pork on sourdough with cheddar, coleslaw, and this is the kicker: Jalapeños! That added a bit of zing that made the sandwich!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (310) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First-World Problems...

After barely 20 years, the plastic has become brittle and the damned thing no longer holds the lines securely. The blinds function perfectly, but it is aesthetically less than pleasing.

I guess the answer is to burn down the house and move somewhere that doesn't have sunlight!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (202) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Nationalism, Patriotism, Pride in Culture: These are The Hallmarks Of Successful Countries

Iceland is a tiny country...375,000 people! But it is about 40,000 square miles, so they have plenty of land, and a significant 1st World economy, so why can't they handle lots of Venezuelans, and for that matter, Syrians and Pakistanis and Malaysians and...

Who do they think they are?

Iceland Reverses Course Freezes Out Rush of Venezuelan Migrants

The turnaround marks a major departure from recent policy that allowed Venezuelans near unquestioned asylum in Iceland. And the shift has been months in the making. Earlier this year, for example, the Immigration Appeals Board upheld several decisions by the Directorate of Immigration which ruled against asylum filings involving Venezuelans.

Advocates for Venezuelans, though, are protesting the country’s turn against them, arguing that conditions in Venezuela are no better now than they were a year ago, so the reversal of support by Iceland’s government is problematic.

But the number of Venezuelans trying to emigrate to Iceland has also exploded. In 2018, there were 14 such immigrants. But by 2022, that number had climbed for more than 1,200, Iceland Review added.

Human rights advocates, including Icelandic Red Cross, Amnesty International, and UNICEF, have stood in opposition to the change in the laws.

Maybe they just want to avoid this sort of stuff....
Migrant Charged With Raping 13-Year-Old Confesses He Recorded The Assault

Or this sort of stuff...
Berlin Police Chief: Young Foreign Males Behind Violent Crime Wave

Or maybe it's none of our damned business, and Iceland has every right to run their country as they see fit. If they want to be drowned in a sea of immigrants who will change the character of their country...or keep those immigrants out and retain the unique Icelandic culture...it is entirely up to them.

That's called Nationalism, and it is not a dirty word. In fact it is a wonderful word when paired with Patriotism, which is also not a dirty word.

But those two words are in direct and unmanageable opposition to the goals of the organizations that are critical of Iceland's decision. They are globalists, and their interests are antithetical to the concept of the nation-state, and explicitly reject the uniqueness of those states. Their ultimate goal is the complete erasure of borders, and the creation of a global village, in which economic success of one area is immediately subsumed by the relative failure of others. So Iceland would support the failed state of Venezuela by subsidizing their population, via direct payment such as through the various AGW schemes, or accepting refugees and paying for their lives within the porous borders of Iceland.

Actually...it would be both. And what that would mean for the people of Iceland is a radical reduction in their standard of living, both economic and social.

But what would they get for that?

Nothing.

And that is the crux of the issue. There is no benefit to wealthy 1st World countries, and eventually their citizens will push back, just as Iceland has.

Hopefully it isn't too late for America!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (244) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-23-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Colossus of Maroussi)

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

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (284) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 23 June 2024

Top Story

• AI is exhausting the power grid in its tireless search for progressively more refined bullshit. AI companies are proposing to solve this using unicorn farts. (MSN)

  A ChatGPT-powered search, according to the International Energy Agency, consumes almost 10 times the amount of electricity as a search on Google, and is, somehow, even less helpful.

  True. That 900% increase in power consumption is pumped directly into Nvidia's bank account.

  The companies also argue advancing AI now could prove more beneficial to the environment than curbing electricity consumption.

  I'm sure they do.

  "If we work together, we can unlock AI's game-changing abilities to help create the net zero, climate resilient and nature positive works that we so urgently need," Microsoft said in a statement.

  You have to admire the artistry of that statement. I have never seen so much bullshit condensed into a single sentence in my entire life.

  The tech giants say they buy enough wind, solar or geothermal power every time a big data center comes online to cancel out its emissions. But critics see a shell game with these contracts: The companies are operating off the same power grid as everyone else, while claiming for themselves much of the finite amount of green energy. Utilities are then backfilling those purchases with fossil fuel expansions, regulatory filings show.

  No shit.

  Left unmentioned are the heavily polluting fossil fuel plants that become necessary to stabilize the power grid overall because of these purchases, making sure everyone has enough electricity.

  You could have been building nuclear power for the past thirty years, but no.
  
  There is some good news here, though. Google is backing geothermal energy, OpenAI and Bill Gates are backing new nuclear reactor designs, and Microsoft is investing in fusion.
  
  Maybe this means our clean energy future will come with ads, but that will annoy the communists twice as much, so I guess I can live with it.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (229) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Overnight Open Thread (6/22/24)

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The Saturday Night Joke

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:48 PM | Comments (360) | Trackbacks (Suck)