Mid-Morning Art Thread

Heaven
Dana Levin

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (272) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 2/23/26

Good morning kids. Well, as a major Nor'easter is set to pummel the east coast with a massive winter storm, the likes of which we've not had in years, NYC's Muz-unist mayor Mamdani has an opportunity to solve the city's homeless crisis by moving all of them to the middle of the Central Park lake, and providing each with a sheet of used toilet paper, i.e. the front page of the NY Times and voila, no more homeless faster than you can say Gulag Archipelago! In all seriousness, if you are in the path of the storm, please stay safe at home, stock up on food and other essentials ahead of time and and stay off the roads if at all possible.

And speaking of bomb cyclnes, a real killer-diller has erupted south of the border. . .

Americans are being asked by the State Department to remain sheltered in place in parts of Mexico due to civil unrest following the successful killing of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes on Sunday.

Cervantes was killed by the Mexican army with “complementary information” provided by the United States, The Daily Wire reported.

The State Department’s travel alert specifically notes that Americans in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Baja California, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Quintana Roo State “should shelter in place until further notice.” The states contain major tourism hubs such as Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Cancún, as well as Playa del Carmen and Tulum, among other major cities. “Due to ongoing, widespread security operations and related road blockages and criminal activity in many areas of Mexico, U.S. citizens should shelter in place until further notice,” the U.S. Department of State Consular Affairs posted to X on Sunday afternoon.

¡Hay chihuahua! Literally.

And elsewhere in the world, with Iran on the brink internally, there is still the potential that President Trump might order airstrikes or other military operations against the Iranian regime to help bring about its long overdue demise. The question of should we or shouldn't we and the consequences domestically and internationally, both long- and short-term are of course debatable.

With that said, despite making some cogent points that I happen to agree with, the author gets otherwise completely lost in a sea of isolationist idiocy.

The United States government (USG) should not go to war with Iran. Iran’s nuclear program is not a meaningful threat to the United States. How Iran is governed, how its government treats its people, and who the Iranians trade with is none of our business.

A genuinely America First strategy toward Iran would mean ignoring the country and the Middle East as a whole. The United States government has no core interests on the Asian landmass.

The USG should lift all trade sanctions on the Iranian regime, grant diplomatic recognition to whatever regime is currently in power there, and cease efforts to regulate or manage the Iranian nuclear program. Iran’s conflicts with Israel and the Arab states are not our problem.

Regarding the Middle East more broadly, the USG should shut down all of our bases and cut off all flows of foreign aid to the region. I mean this literally: no military aid to the Israelis, Jordanians, Egyptians, etc., and no humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. American officials should avoid giving any sign of favoritism to any nation, people group, or religious minority in the area.

The abject cluelessness as to the nature of the Iranian regime post the Shah and its driving force, ISLAM, for the past 1,500 years is absolutely radiant. The Jordanians, Egyptians and so-called "Palestinians" are one thing to be sure. But Israel, not only our one true ally in the region but aside from us the one remaining keeper of the flame of Western civilization and the advancement of humanity left in the world. Yes, whatever money in the form of aid that goes to Israel should be regulated and accounted for and dispensed responsibly, but the dividends to our national security are well-known and manifold as history has proven. The record is clear on that.

And as I and CBD have made clear on many a recent podcast (the latest episode linked here and in the sidebar as well as available on the usual outlets listed below). it is clearly up to the Iranian/Persian people to take matters into their own hands and take the lead in deposing their oppressors. If the US can help in that goal minus troops on the ground or the failed democracy projects of the past then we should be as minimally involved as we can. And no we should not recognize another Islamo-fascistic government should it God-forbid come to power.

Shifting gears completely, we have the Supreme Court striking down President Trump's tariff regime in a blatantly political decision. Legal eagle extraordinaire Alan Dershowitz noted:

“I thought that the lawyers for Trump made the wrong argument to the Supreme Court, and I predicted they were going to lose based on their argument. Look, if you argue that it’s fundraising activity by Congress, of course you’re going to lose,” Dershowitz said. “This, the Article One of the Constitution, says that duties and taxes can be imposed only by Congress, and Congress can delegate that authority to the president.”

“But if you argue that tariffs can be a weapon of foreign policy, a weapon of diplomacy, a weapon of preventing war, then it’s an Article II power of the president, and Congress has no power to limit it. And so I think what the president has said in his press conferences today is that we may have gone under the wrong statute, and maybe we have no power under that statute,” Dershowitz added. “But I want to prevent a war with Iran, and so I’m going to impose a very very steep sanction on Iran, not to raise money but to stop a war. I’m gonna have a big, big, big tariff on, who knows, in order to make sure that they comply with the foreign policy of the United States. Turn this into an Article II, not an Article I, function.”

Dershowitz said the president could still use tariffs as a foreign policy tool, within constitutional limits.

Funny how Roberts could rewrite the Obamacare individual mandate and declare it kosher, but is otherwise ignorant of Dershowitz's salient point regarding the wrong argument and take his red pen to make Trump's tariffs kosher too. Heaven forfend.

Bastard.

Lastly, congratulations to the US olympic hockey team for winning the gold medal in what by all accounts was a thrilling match against Canada. Not a fan of hockey in the first place and for sure I have not been interested in the Olympics perhaps since I was a kid. I think the last time I watched the games was the actual "Miracle On Ice" victories of 1980!

Have a great day.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
• Millions of Americans across the Interstate 95 corridor throughout the Northeast are getting prepared to be heavily impacted by a potent nor’easter bomb cyclone that will generate large amounts of snow in a strong portion of the region beginning Sunday.
  Potent Nor’easter Bomb Cyclone To Blast Northeast With Largest Snowstorm In Years

• Our discussion, in media and in law, has been about Trump’s excesses and boundary-crossing. A better starting place would be the laziness and uselessness of the Article I branch.
  America Slides Into A Congress-Shaped Hole, And Gorsuch Helps

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:35 AM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 23 February 2026

Top Story

• The US spent $30 billion giving every schoolchild a laptop or tablet. It made them dumber. (Yahoo)
  
  And particularly less capable to maintain attention to the task at hand.
  
  How do we solve this?
  
  I don't know, I got distracted and stopped reading at that point.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (114) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - February 22, 2026 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday ONT.

What a day for the USA!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (454) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Fourth February 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 the fourth February edition? Coming soon; March editions!!

I finished my taxes this week so I'm in a bad mood. Don't talk to me!

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 (250) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Snow-Roasted Pulled Pork!

Pork Butt has become oddly scarce around here, and even more irritatingly, relatively expensive. You damned hipsters ruin everything!

I found a very nice one at a local market, and as my one consideration to the impending weather catastrophe of biblical proportions ($50 says I get one foot of snow...not the two+ feet forecasted), I am making slow-roasted pulled pork.

If you look closely you will see a piece of parchment paper on the rack, which supposedly will keep the pork butt from sinking into the rack and making more of a mess. I have never tried it, so we shall see!

As for spices? Eh...I'm winging it. Salt, pepper, Mexican Oregano, paprika, some chile powder, garlic, and probably some other stuff I have forgotten. But it smells great, and I am looking forward to a large portion of it with some beans and cornbread as a reward for snow-blowing the 93 feet that the hysterics are predicting.

By the way, this will be an abbreviated Food Thread, because I was watching a hockey game this morning instead of writing it!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (212) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

That is in Harrods, a very nice department store in London.

Apparently the people of the United Kingdom are incapable of ascending or descending more than four steps, and require mechanical means to accomplish these harrowing tasks.

I cheerfully claim the mantle of the lazy, but even I can negotiate four steps without pause or assistance.

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

USA Hockey Beats Canada For The Gold Medal...Canadian Transsexuals And Thought Police Hardest Hit

The relationship between the United States of America and its northern neighbor has deteriorated significantly recently, and while it is easy and lazy to blame President Trump's tariff rhetoric and reality, the real reason is that Canada is rushing headlong into a leftist dystopia, complete with Newspeak, legal penalties for Badthink, and a medical establishment that worships genital mutilation and euthanasia.

Canada also worships its immigrants, both legal and illegal, and they are busily changing the social fabric of the country. Islam, with its virulent hatred of Jews and Christians is ascendant, and other immigrant groups have brought equally non-Western cultural mores to the country.

And of course Canada's economy is suffering under the thumb of its leftist overlords, as the country slides into an economic malaise that has it falling far behind its closet neighbor in every economic measure. Their GDP per capita is now lower than Alabama's!

Instead of emphasizing our similarities, Canada has decided to go the European route, embracing China's predatory economic policies, perhaps hoping that Canada will be eaten last! With this shortsighted decision, they have made America an adversary...one that is far more powerful, far richer, and far more able to push Canada to the side while embracing our real allies.

So the American hockey victory over Canada in this morning's gold medal game in Milan is a pleasure! Not just because the happily patriotic USA hockey team won, but because we beat Canada, and showed them that we are not a paper tiger even in their national sport. Hopefully it will be a harbinger of future economic and political events between the two countries, at least until, or if, Canada comes to its senses and admits their subservient position to the United States.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (369) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 2-22-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (ht: Anonosaurus Wrecks). 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...(library card not included)

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

NOTE: Kudos to Sabrina Chase for her excellent debut last week! It's always great to get the perspective of someone who has experience in the industry. My only qualification for this gig is that I'm a semi-literate tree rat who prefers to read books instead of shredding them to line my nest.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (494) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 22 February 2026

Top Story

• Wikipedia has blacklisted Archive.Today for links to references because it is run by a crazy person. (Tech Crunch)
  
  It's over allegations of running DDoS attacks and modifying supposedly archive articles after the fact, and the allegations are about as well supported as the recent conspiracy theories floated by Steve from Gamer's Nexus, which is to day, almost all of it is documented by multiple sources and the guy confessed publicly.
  
  Which is a wee problem for me because those (Archive site) links I've been sprinkling through posts for the past year as more and more news sites decide they don't want anyone to read them?
  
  Well, those links point to Archive.IS, but it's the same software and the same person.
  
  I've switched to using Brave to prepare these posts, because it seems better at dodging around that problem, but it does mean that if you're using a different browser you might not be able to read the linked content.
  
  On the other hand, I always, always present the full unvarnished truth without so much as editorialising.
  
  Mostly.
  
  Sometimes.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (230) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - February 21, 2026 [2 D's]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. Do you believe in miracles? A special greeting to any Winter Olympians among us tonight. Rumor has it that a member of the very first Jamaican bobsledding team is a lurker. As is an assistant equipment manager from the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" men's hockey team. Free drinks and unlimited restroom tokens to anyone wearing an Olympic medal!

Bar is open. As is the dance floor. Come on in!

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

Nobody Does It Better? James Bond on Netflix [Lex]

Forgive me Ace (and others), but I am a Netflix subscriber. Have been for 20 years or so. I once told my son’s friend Netflix used to send DVDs in the mail. The little shaver was unaware Netflix existed pre-streaming. More to my bane was the inability to catch up, as easily as Netflix made it, with movies and shows I missed any given year. Though the streaming service does have older films and some TV series, it pales in comparison to what you could get via their immense DVD library.

Naturally, Netflix chooses to promote its original material, and there are some winners, but mainly the stream is not so merrily navigated—with a glut of not only original films and shows but also much dross from the last 30 years of cinema.

It was getting so bad, I had thoughts about trying another service. Enter not the dragon but 007 when, in January of 2026, Netflix added the entire James Bond catalogue. This comprises 26 movies, the first being Dr. No in 1962 and the most recent No Time to Die in 2021. With this move, Netflix succeeded in keeping me around for a little while yet.

As of this writing, I have not rewatched the 26 films. I believe I have seen them all over the years and many multiple times. Since the movies went live, I have mainly focused on the Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig pictures because I had never seen any of them more than once, and, after rewatching a few, remember why; these iterations of Bond aren’t very good.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - February 21, 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. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) a spin and it landed on panning for gold.

[Top photo:Alaskan miner panning for gold, 1916. Library of Congress collection]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (131) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, February 21

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 03:18 PM | Comments (65) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Feb. 21

KT,
You know no matter how one feels about the world, it still spins around the sun tilting this way and then that way. Here is a little February beauty for our enjoyment. Be glad, much is good in life.

Best,
rdohd

A wonderful photo, and a great thought to go with it!

Posted by: K.T. at 01:22 PM | Comments (34) | Trackbacks (Suck)

When will the left show us what "The Right Side of History" should look like?

Reactions to the Epstein Files

I am starting to get the impression that some people on the left are disappointed in the results of the release of the "Epstein Files".

Urgent public message to lefty guru Heather Cox Richardson:

I truly cannot stress how much Americans are GRAVELY underreacting to what is happening in America right now.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:00 AM | Comments (331) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

[Photo H/T: BirdRockDoc (Lurker)]

My kind of establishment. I wonder if The Fabulous was to leave me alone if I would get a puppy and a shot of espresso.

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between from behind enemy lines this morning. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few house keeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Escanaba)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be exceptional. Don't be Pretti Good.
3) Running with sharp objects will be on your permanent record.
4) Have a great weekend!!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 07:39 AM | Comments (450) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 21 February 2026

Top Story

• Discord continues to go from strength to strength, at least insofar as the levels of mishandling its introduction of age verification and the number of users fleeing the platform. (Ars Technica)
  
  I never much liked Discord; its interface is awkward and annoying. But the age verification thing was pretty much forced on it by fascist governments in Europe and, uh, Australia.
  
  On the other hand, the company did itself no favours by claiming that uploaded ID documents would remain secure after they had already leaked.
  
  And even less so with the latest incident where, after reasserting that documents would be deleted immediately after they were verified - which we already knew was untrue, because deleted documents can't be leaked - they contradicted themselves in an official announcement and then deleted the announcement and pretended they had never announced it.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (71) | Trackbacks (Suck)

A Meme Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

Welcome everybody to Friday meme night!

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (334) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Vehicular Tension Cafe

Chicago under the El, I assume
From this account but I don't think he's the photographer

Dogs that jilt their male owners in favor of the girlfriends.

Poor German shepherd overrun by fur-vermin.

Chubby dog on a strict diet pretends to be starving whenever a guest drops in.

Ears One. Ears Two.

A puppy at a "Puppy Yoga" session picks its new owner.

Extreme Makeover: Stray Dog Edition.

Old dog left chained outside all the time with no food or water is rescued.

Newborn elephant stands for the first time.

A cow appreciates all the hard work the guardian dog does.

Man holds the strings while dog strums the guitar.

The Olympics featured one moment I care about: A wolfdog decided to join in a skiing race.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:20 PM | Comments (198) | Trackbacks (Suck)