Be Back Soon

I'm at the doctor's. Not fun!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:12 PM | Comments (333) | Trackbacks (Suck)

MORNING RANT - The War on Labor Expense: There Never Was a Truck Driver Shortage

Those who seek to flood this country with inexpensive, non-citizen labor like to claim that this is necessary due to a shortage of Americans that can or will do the job here in the United States. This has certainly been the case regarding truck drivers.

But there never actually was a truck driver shortage. There has been a shortage of professional truck drivers who will work for the compensation of unskilled labor. Bringing in foreign indentured servants as truck drivers was an awful way to avoid paying market wages for skilled labor.

It somehow became an accepted fact in the business community that one of the industries suffering from a labor shortage was truck driving. This was puzzling, because driving a truck has always been a great opportunity for Americans to earn a middle-class wage and provide for their families, without needing to pursue the college route or go to a highly technical trade school. But that is not to minimize the professional skill and training necessary to be an over-the-road truck driver. It requires its own schooling, technical skills, and a professional demeanor to handle the various challenges of a job that is often very stressful. It is the farthest thing from an entry-level job or a position that requires unskilled labor.

Unfortunately, there is a growing intolerance of any labor expense in some business circles, which makes cheap foreign labor look attractive. In one of those bizarre, horseshoe-shaped political alliances, the American left is in alignment with those who seek to eliminate career-wage, blue-collar jobs in this country. For the left, it’s due to their animus toward heritage Americans, especially those of the “deplorable” working class.

In recent years, while some of us were barely paying attention, our highways suddenly became overrun with untrained, non-English-speaking foreigners who were effectively the property of the Asian “body shops” and the European crime gangs that were trafficking them into the U.S.

Fortunately, the Trump administration is cleaning up this mess and targeting non-qualified and non-domiciled CDLs (commercial drivers licenses), as well as the companies that employ and control them. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is doing great work.

Paying the market wage for skilled labor among a nation’s citizens is not antithetical to capitalism. Just the opposite. It is a fundamental input into the pricing of goods in a free market. Adam Smith, the “Father of Capitalism” was unambiguous in his contempt for the evil institution of slavery as a means to avoid paying for labor. He also understood the futility of expecting the same labor quality from human chattel compared to the quality of work from free people who willingly trade their labor for compensation in a competitive labor market. The chaos and carnage on our nation’s highways from foreign truck drivers has borne this out.

Rather than a shortage of American truck drivers, there will be an abundance of them once the invisible hand of the free market is no longer distorted by the injection of unqualified, foreign labor trafficked into the cabs of America’s big rigs.

There is a shortage of professional truck drivers who will work for the compensation of unskilled labor. Bringing in foreign, chattel-labor as truck drivers was an awful workaround to try to undercut the market price of skilled labor.

— Buck Throckmorton (@BuckThrockmort) April 27, 2026

*****

Jeffrey Carter Has My Endorsement for Nevada Treasurer

A reminder to readers/voters in Nevada, a friend of the blog, Jeffrey Carter, is running for state Treasurer in the Republican primary. He has my endorsement and he deserves your vote. Early voting starts on May 23 for the June 9 primary.

There are a great many reasons to vote for Jeff, including his financial acumen. But the thing to know is that he is one of us, an out and proud, Trump-supporting conservative who was reading Ace of Spades long before he thought about running for office. He cut his teeth in the Chicago Commodities Exchange, and then ventured into the world of venture capital, never apologizing for or hiding his conservatism nor his support for Donald Trump. (Carter writes the widely linked political site “Points & Figures.”

While I would endorse Jeffrey Carter, who is a friend of mine, irrespective of the quality of his opponent, Jeff is the clear choice in this race. His opponent, Drew Johnson, is a serial candidate who has name recognition from the races he has lost. The Carter campaign has a link discussing various ethical imbroglios involving Mr. Johnson, but all I need to know is that Drew Johnson is a fringe libertarian who admires Thomas Massie. When Mr. Johnson ran for Congress (a race he lost) he promised to provide Massie a 2nd Republican vote when Massie is working to undermine President Trump.

This is from the Nevada Independent, after Drew Johnson unexpectedly won the 2024 GOP nomination for a Nevada congressional seat:

True to libertarian form, [Drew Johnson] said the current members of Congress who impress him the most are Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), two libertarians who frequently find themselves as the lone "no" vote on bills that every other member supports,

That skepticism of his own party has frequently extended to Trump. In posts from his now locked personal account on X, Johnson called Trump a "socialist" during the 2016 race, called his presidency an "embarrassment" in 2020 over a federal execution during the lame-duck period and said Joe Biden's 2020 victory was "an endorsement of humanity, restraint & kindness."

For Nevadans, Jeffrey Carter is the best candidate to be Nevada’s next Treasurer.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (254) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Young Girl Bathing
Auguste Renoir

I love the colors, but the subject is odd, and on the edge of being faintly disturbing.

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 5/ 11/26

Good morning kids. While no doubt President Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu do not view the situation with Iran as such, it certainly seems by all outward appearances that for sure these "negotiations" with the Mullahs or whoever the Mullah du Jour may be, resemble Kabuki theatrics. Despite the absolute necessity of denying and depriving the Armageddon-seeking Dark Age death cult of Islamic controlled Iran of acquiring nuclear weapons as well as exporting terrorism around the globe and brutalizing their own citizenry, what is the end game here, or what acceptable end game can we expect? With the divisions at home not only from the usual America and Trump-haters on the Left but popping up from the right, the battered regime in Tehran may actually survive an onslaught that we had expected and hoped should or would have crushed them. Echoes perhaps of the 1968 Tet Offensive...

Where foreign policy issues are concerned, such as with Iran, a sign of political division always creates a weakness for diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict. This has been underscored not only by Kimmel’s jokes but by the comments of various leaders of the Democrat party, like those of Senator Mark Kelly and former Vice President Kamala Harris. The latter, as a presidential candidate in 2024, said all options were on the table to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear armed—only now to criticize the option Trump selected. Ultimately, it was political division and an uninformed anti-war movement that forced an end to the Vietnam war, leaving millions of Vietnamese subject to communism.

And yet, President Trump remains adamant. . .

President Trump on Sunday appeared to reject Iran’s latest proposal in ongoing negotiations over a peace deal, calling the Islamic republic’s offer “totally unacceptable.”

“I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘Representatives.’ I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president also warned the country against “playing games” after Tehran refused to discuss its nuclear program in its latest response to America’s peace proposal through Pakistani mediators.

Trump slammed the rogue Mideast country for delaying negotiations historically, ranting on the social platform.

“Iran has been playing games with the United States, and the rest of the World, for 47 years (DELAY, DELAY, DELAY!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Yet between his mixed signals as well as the treasonous behavior of the Left and their media/culture allies, the Mullahs perceive, and perhaps not mistakenly, that time is on their side. Especially with a crucial midterm election approaching and the final months of President Trump's term that could see his political will and power on the wane as he departs office, with no guarantee that a successor will carry on his agenda should whoever the GOP candidate is come out on top in 2028.

If only the President and really the GOP were to treat the Democrat Left and its record of political and physical terrorism against the American people as “totally unacceptable.”

Because that is what the Democrats look upon America as founded as well as any setback they endure in the quest for absolute power as.

As night follows day, progressives’ response to the Virginia Supreme Court’s tossing of Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s outrageous gerrymander is to demand an instant court-packing move to undo it.
To lefties driving today’s Democratic Party, it’s not “democracy” unless it’s hard-wired to let them run roughshod — and when their power-grab schemes run afoul of the rule of law, their only answer is a fresh scheme.
Specifically, progs want to ram through a law instantly dropping the retirement age for the Virginia court to 54, which would allow the legislature to replace enough justices to restore the gerrymander.
Spanberger’s already caved to the left in pushing an outrage she’d promised to oppose; will she find the spine to say no now?
Wiser minds would call off the madness — but then again wiser minds would’ve avoided this mess in the first place. ..
Nationwide, even moderate Dems are now talking about seizing their next available chance to pack the US Supreme Court, grant statehood to DC and Puerto Rico simply to gain them four safe Senate seats and abolish the Senate filibuster — and so lock in progressive power forever.
Anyone paying attention should realize these lunatics need to be kept out of power until the party comes to its senses.

The Democrat party will never "come to its senses." This is akin to expecting Islam to have a reformation wherein it rejects its goal of the domination of humanity for all time.

Have a good day!

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• Roger Kimball: Failed regimes are faltering while political and military reality is asserting itself with unmistakable force.
  No News Is Good News—Except When It Isn’t: Labour’s Rout, MAGA’s Surge, and Iran’s Slow Surrender

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 06:55 AM | Comments (311) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 11 May 2026

Top Story

• Valve's Steam Machine - the GabeCube - appears to be on its way. (Notebook Check)
  
  It's not going to be cheap thanks to the RAMpocalypse, but shipping manifests show that Valve has collected 50 tons of something in a warehouse, and the latest update to Steam includes four new product codes and a reservation queue that again appear to correspond to the new device.
  
  I'm not sure I'll get one - it's a low-end console replacement and I have multiple systems more powerful - but it's good to see signs of life.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (105) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - May 10, 2026 [Doof]

From Earthglory

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday night ONT. A whelming place to end your weekend. Open thread, as always. Fashion and music, as always. What's on YOUR mind tonight?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (425) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Mother's Day 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 Hallmark Shitballs! It's our festive annual Mother's Day Edition where it only seems fitting to pay tribute to the shooting Mom's in our lives, so Happy Mother's Day to all of you Mom's out there! In fact, all the shooting 'ettes deserve a special day of their own, don't you think?! Ma Barker, pictured above, certainly fits the definition of a shooting mom... or did she? While there is some question regarding her level of participation in the "gang" bearing her name, some of her sons were unquestionably familiar with firearms. In any event, it's an interesting story, some of which is chronicled at the Oklahoma Historical Society's website, and Wikipedia even has some interesting things to say on the subject.

Wishing a bigly Gun Thread HMD to all the Mom's out there!

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 (186) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Was The Original Yorkshire Pudding Made From Yorkshiremen, Or Yorkshire Terrier?

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (158) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Sigh...we had some heavy drinkers over yesterday for a roast, and the bast*rds drank most of my Guinness!

Why is it that people will gravitate toward that which is in short supply? I have about 40 bottles of Bourbon, but no...they had to knock off the beer first!

Well, actually...during, but still!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (152) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Food Fanatics Will Never Stop!

Whole milk in our schools? That should be entirely unexceptional, especially since reduced fat milk is a new thing. Children have been drinking whole milk from animals for at least 10,000 years (and probably longer), and in case some people are unaware, infants drink human milk, which is even richer than most cow's milk!

But the food lunatics must have their way, which means they have taken shoddy science (fat makes you fat!), ignored confounding variables, and tried mightily to transform the American diet into a horror-show of low fat, high carbohydrate foods that have made us one of the fattest societies in the world. And of course these maniacs cite that data to claim that whole milk is one of the culprits! Never mind that these same maniacs are part of the destruction of normal childhood behavior like running around at recess, and racing around the neighborhood until dark.

USDA Restores Whole, Reduced-Fat Milk Options in Child Nutrition Programs

The rule furthers the president’s “commitment to improving childhood nutrition and supporting America’s dairy farmers by ensuring schools and child nutrition providers can once again offer students nutrient-dense dairy options that align with the latest nutrition science and consumer preference,” the USDA said in a May 8 statement.

“Whole milk and other dairy products provide essential nutrients including protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins A, D, and B12. Whole milk is especially important for young children aged 1 to 10 to support energy needs and brain development.”

Oh, and let us not forget the massive welfare state that many of these same deluded, anti-science zealots created. Pay for poor people's food, but they will have to eat what we say! And that means more of that incredibly destructive diet!

And just for sh*ts and giggles, they throw in the very poorly studied claims that kids who eat a normal diet are getting cardiovascular disease!

In a Sept. 10, 2025, statement, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine called on the MAHA commission to drop whole milk from its recommendations, citing potential cardiovascular health risks to children.

Children are increasingly exhibiting early signs of high cholesterol, heart disease, and other cardiovascular diseases. Allowing full-fat whole dairy in school meals will only result in more such health issues, the committee said.

“Instead of addressing real changes to provide healthier school meals, the MAHA Strategy is pushing whole milk at the expense of children’s health,” Neal Barnard, president of the committee, said.

“The federal government should be putting less saturated fat on school lunch trays, not more, and it can do that by making it easier for students to access nondairy beverages and plant-based entrees.”

Oooh! "Plant-based!" The Holy Grail of the food Nazis! That's the real agenda. No more red meat, then no more whole milk, then no more animal protein, then only insect protein to supplement the "plant-based" crap. It's to save the earth! And the spotted owls! And the children!

Do you hate children?

This is all nothing more than carefully disguised social engineering that is indistinguishable from the manipulations of culture by the communists of the Soviet Union and Red China. They strive to change the essential nature of Man, and whether that is through diet, forcing us into 15 Minute Cities, making sexual characteristics fluid and changeable, destroying our religions, or many other culture-destroying manipulations. And the goal is always the same...the elites will rule us from their lofty perches, and we will wallow in the muck as society decays because of the loss of free will and individuality.

Then want us to be identical cogs in their infernal machine, and every single thing they do is in furtherance of that goal.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (231) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Book Thread: 05/10/2026 [MP4]

Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes. It’s time once again for the monthly MP4-hosted Sunday Book Thread. As it’s May, it’s Goodwood Races time in England and women are encouraged to wear their finest:

So ask the barman for a Pimm’s, covfefe or tea and let’s get started!

TBR, TBRA and what’s the point?

Here on the Book Thread, we talk a lot about our To Be Read (TBR) lists and, sometimes, about our To Be Read Again (TBRA) lists. I can look around my house and find lots of books I have yet to read (some of them in my hands for years) as well as the more familiar ones I’ll pick up when I’m at a loose end. On the TBR list I’ve got, for example, Shelley Puhak’s bio of Ersebeth Batory, The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal and the Making of a Monster. I also have William Mann’s Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood, which I’ve only managed to get a quarter of a way through.

In the latter category, I have my comic strip collections, a plethora of true-crime works, 20-odd books on English and Victorian history and shelves of volumes on a variety of topics. These are the books I’ll pull down when I’m sitting to relax, or as entertainment over a meal or just because I’ve enjoyed them so much, re-reading is a pleasure.

“What about ‘what’s the point?” I hear you say. That was a thought that occurred to me the other night as I was finishing off a TBR book. I glanced up at my packed shelves and wondered – why do I keep these books which I’ve read and will likely never read again? For instance, Barbara Mertz’s Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt: I’ve read it, taken in its knowledge and shelved it. I doubt I will ever page through it again. So why do I keep it when I could trade or sell it and make room for other books?
I don’t know. Part of me knows I’ve got dozens of ‘finished’ books which are gathering dust, but another, stronger part of me recoils at the very idea of getting rid of any book for any reason. I know that when I die, everything I have except for my Hollywood and Jack the Ripper collections (which will sell for a pretty penny) will end up in the dumpster, so why not anticipate the reaping now?

What about you? What books are begging to be read and which ones are the old friends you turn to at a leisure moment? And do you, like me, hoard your books like Scrooge hoarding his gold?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (280) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 10 May 2026

Top Story

• NASA is planning a rescue mission for its Neils Gehrels Swift Observatory - a.k.a the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer - which is sinking fast and will re-enter the atmosphere later this year without a boost. (Spaceflight Now)
  
  Which is precisely what they plan to give it.
  
  
  
• Also sinking fast and being closely tracked by NASA is Mexico City. (The Guardian)
  
  Large parts of the city are subsiding by more than two centimeters a month. This causes problems.
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (142) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - May 9, 2026 [D & D]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. Come in in, grab a drink or 3.

Did you remember a gift for Mom? Does the top photo give you some inspiration?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (435) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 5/9/2026

Worldbuilding

When an author decides to tell a story in a world not our own, he or she has two main paths to choose from. The first is the path of Tolkien.

Build an intricate mythology, legendarium, and multiple languages to create a backstory for a world (that includes the transformation of the geology from a flat world to a globe), all that spans thousands of years, includes a creation myth, all of which is the author's real passion which he is then able to include in a sequel to a silly children's book he wrote to entertain his children. Heck, Tolkien directly references the central gems of what his son would put together as The Silmarillion, the Silmarils, in The Lord of the Rings.

Or, you can have a central conceit and create a very vague world around it with generic pieces that don't always really come together. This is how Suzanne Collins wrote The Hunger Games. I really don't think the world she created is any good at all. It's outright bad. And yet, I mostly don't think it matters.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM | Comments (190) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - May 9, 2026 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) decided on a Montana travel theme for this Hobby Thread.

Why Montana? We may never know. The ways of the Wheel are strange and mysterious.

[Top Photo: Cathedral of St. Helena, Helena, Montana]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (165) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, May 9

Courtesy Terry Glenn

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:31 PM | Comments (45) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, May 9

The pink flower is Bletilla striata, a terrestrial orchid. I planted it years ago and can't remember what the bare root looked like. I've seen it described as a root, pseudobulb or a tuber. Breck's calls it a rhizome. It is pretty dependable and not really fussy,. The plant does spread slowly but a single plant will eventually grow to more.

I love that little flower. The middle looks ruffled. I used to have some, in part shade. The rhizomes sometimes stuck out above ground. They were green.

There is also a white version of the flower.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:26 PM | Comments (31) | Trackbacks (Suck)

At what point do conspiracy theories go too far?

Is Thomas Sowell right?

Are any of those barbarians involved in conspiracies?

*

Posted by: K.T. at 11:14 AM | Comments (137) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[Ahhh, the simple comforts of life.]

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:00 AM | Comments (316) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 9 May 2026

Tech News

• Maybe we should just not install software for a bit. (Xe Iaso)
  
  There's another new - or newish - Linux privilege escalation bug. It's literally called Copy Fail 2: Electric Boogaloo.
  
  But under the hood it's abusing the same module as yesterday's Dirty Frag, so if you already applied the mitigation for that, you're protected from CF2EB.
  
  
  
• Also, my recommendation is don't install Ubuntu 26.04 just yet. Unlike 24.04 which worked smoothly from release day, Ubuntu 26.04 still has some odd quirks. Particularly if you want to use it under WSL and integrate with JetBrains IDEs (CLion in this case, but they'll all be the same here) where it just doesn't work.
  
  I went back to 24.04 and had no more issues.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (141) | Trackbacks (Suck)