Corrupt Judge Fines Trump $9,000 For Criticizing the Prosecution and Its Witnesses, Threatens Jail Time If Trump Exercises His Free Speech Rights as the Leading Candidate for the Presidency Again

(Whoops, sorry -- I thought I published this forty minutes ago!)

Bear in mind, George Stephanopolous was just the tip of the spear in a new information operation, to sell the American people on the idea that if a presidential candidate is merely accused of a criminal conduct, it's a Constitutional Crisis and no one is allowed to vote for him.

So that is the political narrative that Trump needs to combat if he's to have a chance at winning.

And, get this, the corrupt judge in the laughable business records case threatens Trump with jail if he won't meekly allow the lawfare operation to steamroll him.

Judge Merchan holds Trump in contempt, levies $9,000 fine and threatens "incarceratory sentence"

Judge Juan Merchan, overseeing the criminal trial of former President Donald J. Trump, has held the former president in contempt of court for violating a gag order, levying a $9,000 fine as a result and threatening Trump with an "incarceratory sentence" should the gag order be violated again.

Judge Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for violating the gag order that prohibits him from attacking witnesses, jurors, and others involved in the case.

The gag order placed on the former president is not placed on key witnesses in the case, including convicted perjurer Michael Cohen, who has taken to TikTok to trash Trump in cash-grab livestreams.

If convicted, Trump could face probation or up to four years in prison.

The trial of Donald J. Trump, the first former president to face criminal prosecution, has entered its third week. Judge Juan Merchan has fined Trump $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that bars him from making attacks on witnesses, jurors, and others connected to the case. The judge issued his ruling as the trial began its third week, stating that Trump's statements, including those on social media, had violated the order.

Update: Trump blasts the gag order and says the whole case is a "hoax."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:55 PM | Comments (315) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Columbia Takes No Action Against Terrorists; Surprisingly, Terrorists Are Emboldened and Seize More Land

The colonizers seized more land, and rather than expelling them from that land, Columbia is telling other students to stay off that land claimed by the colonizers:

The terrorists are emboldened on other campuses too:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:11 PM | Comments (668) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

There is nothing remotely troubling about corporations raising money on the debt markets. It's smart financial planning in many cases, doesn't dilute the stock price like issuing more shares, and with a steady revenue stream the cost of the money raised is easily managed. And it benefits the economy by providing a reasonable return that is quite safe. Who wouldn't trust Boeing to keep building and selling great planes?

Except when a corporation HAS to raise money on the debt markets because they are running out of cash, because their products suck and the airline industry is becoming suspicious of the conspicuous lack of quality control in their design and production.

That's when it becomes troubling.

Boeing taps debt market to raise $10 billion

Boeing on Monday tapped debt markets to raise $10 billion, after the U.S. planemaker burned $3.93 billion in free cash during the first quarter following slowing production of its best-selling jet, sources familiar with the matter said.

Boeing's credit rating hovered above "junk" status last week from rating agencies as the planemaker tries to recover from a crisis that began in January after a midair blowout of a cabin panel door plug on a nearly new 737 MAX 9.

Investors and analysts have said Boeing could tap bond markets to get ahead of more than $12 billion in combined debt coming due in 2025 and 2026.

Actually, the crisis began a long time ago. The software design of the new 737 was poorly done, and even before that, the direction of the company had radically shifted away from the technological and engineering prowess that was in its corporate culture, toward a profit-driven, and DEI-dominated culture. Even worse they began to worship at the alter of the Sustainable Organic Church of The Carbon Apocalypse.* They even include DEI in their "Sustainability" programs!

Boeing has lost its way, just like many American corporations that value a progressive, Woke, "Just" culture over the old cultures of competence and great products that drove American manufacturing for 100 years. Every time Boeing hires a software engineer because of his/her/its skin color or sexuality, it degrades its brand and endangers its customers. Every time Boeing pushes its engineers to focus on projects that maximize the illusion of carbon-neutral travel, it injures its stockholders and employees by foregoing advances in the reality-based transportation field. Every time it cuts engineering and production budgets and increases lobbying and advertising and DEI and financial auditing budgets, it starves its core competency and feeds the very thing that is destroying a 108 year old company.

*Happily stolen from Buck Throckmorton, and the graphic is from commenter "Dr_No"

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

An Old Woman with a Rosary
Paul Cezanne

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (309) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/30/24

Good morning, kids. Back in the spring of 1978, during my freshman year at Brooklyn College, a couple dozen black and Puerto Rican students led by one "professor" Richie Perez stormed Whitehead Hall, kicked out teachers and students from their classrooms, and barricaded themselves inside. IIRC, It was ostensibly to protest cuts in the budget of black and Puerto Rican studies departments and demand not only restoration but an increase in funding. Then-chancellor John Kneller gave them exactly one hour to exit the building. Or else.

Perez and his gang of braindead stooges, responded with a rather catchy little ditty blasted out from a bullhorn, no doubt bequeathed to Al Sharpton – "Kneller, you liar! We'll set your ass on fire! The hour came and went, and wouldn't you know it? Bang on the tick, the tactical cops from the 63rd Precinct charged in and handed out hickory shampoos con gusto to everyone inside. And everyone who had been forced out, inconvenienced and pissed off cheered on the boys in blue and mocked the bruised and bleeding bastards.

Those were the days, my friend. People like me who were kids during the hippie era of the 60s were mostly done with it by the middle of the next decade as we grew into our teenage years. The crap that Perez et al tried to pull was simply not tolerated. Unfortunately, the fact that there was even a Black and Puerto Rican Studies Department at all was a foreshadowing of what we are seeing today at Columbia and universities across the country.

The Richie Perezes spread from their relatively contained petri dishes of the humanities and soon infected every single department. And from there, the graduates found themselves in every field of endeavor, especially the law and government to the point where we have this charming gal, among many many others, wielding virtually untrammeled power:

[Kristen] Clarke, the head of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, will speak at the law school's graduation ceremony on May 13, at a time when Columbia is accused of violating the civil rights of Jewish students.

Her address comes as Columbia moved classes online for the rest of the semester after a string of anti-Semitic incidents at the university. Anti-Israel protesters on campus have called for killing supporters of the Jewish state, assaulted Jewish students, burned Israeli flags, and chanted at Jews to "go back to Poland."

. . . Clarke was at the center of another anti-Semitism controversy during her confirmation process in 2021, when news emerged that she had invited the author of The Jewish Onslaught, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory book, to speak at Harvard University in 1994. The book accused Jews of orchestrating the slave trade and of colluding to suppress black progress.

Clarke, who served as head of Harvard's Black Students Association in the 1990s, defended the invitation at the time of the event, calling the book's author, Tony Martin, an "intelligent, well-versed Black intellectual who bases his information on indisputable fact."

Years later, during her confirmation hearings, she apologized for the invitation and said it was a "mistake to accept [Martin's] offer to come and to defend him."

. . . [So-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden has walked a careful line between condemning the anti-Semitism at Columbia and appeasing anti-Israel progressives in his voting base.

I saw Tony Martin and my mind went to Cyd Charisse. But I digress. In any case Kristen Clarke is among the most horrid bigots imaginable; and that makes her absolutely perfect to head up the DOJ's Civil Rights Division. The bullet points from her complete Discover the Networks dossier:

*Wrote that melanin makes blacks racially superior to whites

* Worked for the Department of Justice, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Civil Rights Bureau of New York State

* Demanded that the Boy Scouts permit the hiring of openly gay adults

* Became president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in 2016

* Alleged that “trans women of color” are being victimized by increased violence

* Supports affirmative action in order to increase “diversity”

* Pressured social media companies to censor “hate speech” by “white supremacists”

* Embraces Critical Race Theory and the “Defund the Police” movement

* Supports teaching children that whites are oppressors
* Compared Trump supporters to Klansmen

* Became Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in May 2021

She has direct links to the twin towers of divide and conquer, Barack Obama and Eric Holder. Like the latter two, Clarke is not a one off. Our entire government is infested with hordes of Clarkes in every bureau of every department of every agency. Bad as the situation is, it didn't just happen when Obama took office.

This infestation is the result of decades of corruption in and now outside of government. In the old days, it was mere corruption and venality, but over the past several decades that has been coupled with Marxist ideology and the results are in your face.

It's why this piece from the usually estimable Christopher Roach makes me scratch my head:

The left’s latest cause célèbre is opposing the Israeli counterterrorism operation in Gaza. A lot of Israel’s supporters have been aghast at the size and scale of these protests, openly wondering why the students are spending so much time protesting at all and, after years of championing free speech, are calling for censorship to stop anti-Semitism. . .

. . . I will state as a preliminary matter that there is a difference between protest and targeted harassment and that the latter should not be protected as free speech. That said, our foreign policy towards Israel should be subject to debate and accepted as a target of protest as much as anything else. Suggestions that such views are beyond the pale and warrant expulsion simply because they are unpopular are impossible to square with the First Amendment and more general American principles of free speech.

There have been many overwrought and dishonest criticisms of recent campus protests, but they do not appear more violent or more sinister than other protests of recent years. They mostly seem to be peaceful sit-ins. While violence and threats of violence have no place on campus, part of academic freedom and the college experience involves encountering ideas one disagrees with. Like most protests, these assemblies consist of a majority that is law-abiding and engaging in free speech and a much smaller minority of angry, anti-social agitators. And this division is evident everywhere you look. . .

. . . The heavy-handed efforts to crush these protests will almost certainly boomerang. Arrests and police actions will enhance protesters’ sense of being part of a significant and potentially dangerous cause and also increase their credit among the anti-establishment left.

While there have certainly been excesses and obnoxious behavior in the recent wave of protests, this seems to be par for the course, mild even. Unfortunately, most of the Gaza protests critics conflate peaceful protests with anti-social harassment, have been short on facts and long on emotion in their allegations, and deliberately ignore the presence of a substantial Jewish contingent among the anti-Israel protesters. Dropping the hammer on protesters for mere misdemeanors—like the Draconian sanctions imposed on the January 6 protesters—will encourage sympathy and discredit the authorities. . .

. . . If Israel and its policies are so great, they should be able to win the battle of public opinion with facts, logic, and protests of their own. In many respects, they have. Americans are mostly pro-Israel. But life is not always black and white. Some of Israel’s supporters, as well as many Israelis, also object to the scale of destruction in Gaza and the military operation’s apparent inability to provide long-term security.

A moral panic over ordinary expressions of political disagreement, controversial views, and uncouth language is not the way. Such a policy would be inimical to free speech, based on a distorted record, and will only give the activists of the progressive left the validation they are seeking. University and government policy should be built on the solid, content-neutral ground of distinguishing permissible free speech from prohibited criminal violence and harassment.

The fact that someone so erudite and usually right on the money can be so clueless as to what is happening on campus and on the ground in Israel itself is just fucking ponderous.

"Win the battle of public opinion with facts, logic and protests of their own?" RUFKM, Chris? You seem to think that we live in an imaginary world where all those things are still operative. To say the least, we live in a world of lies, deception and naked oppression of anyone who dares expose it.

How can you call for the defense and preservation of the First Amendment when it not only doesn't function, but when much of the other Amendments are on the ropes if not de facto dead? Did the stolen election of 2020, the imprisonment of political prisoners for using that First Amendment they foolishly thought protected them, and the in your face persecution of Donald Trump not tell you anything? Evidently not.

Free speech does not exist anymore because the civil society it was part and parcel of, to greater or lesser extents since 1789 is either dead or about to flatline. Wanting to preserve the 1-A is sort of like trying to set the broken arm of someone in the final throes of total organ failure.

It's not that we have to destroy the Constitution to save it. It's already destroyed. We now have to create a society that respects and reveres individual liberty and the rights of those with whom they disagree while at the same time protecting us from those who do not. Meh. We have imported alien, violent, dark age cultures that work hand in hand with our own native born tyrants to drag us back to an even darker age. Forever. They must be vanquished and excised from our midst.

If that means ditching the original Constitution to do so, then God help me, so be it. The left is fond of spouting that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Well, it's high time we take that attitude.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Michael Walsh: "Dissent, the Left used to say, was the highest form of patriotism. Dissent has now been replaced in that equation by treason and overt revolution. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice: it's their hell and we're just living in it."
  Mephisto's Revenge
  
• "Xi Van Fleet and Yuri Bezmenov witnessed the evil of communism in China and the Soviet Union. The same evil is at work in the U.S."
  Communist Defectors Warn About Four Stages of Subversion — And America is On the Last One
  
• “So, if [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Biden’s goal of redistribution is to make the rich poorer, his proposal would be successful. But if the goal is to lift up the middle class, the plan would fail spectacularly. Note, even the Urban-Brooking Tax Policy Center use estimates that imply that the revenue-maximizing long-term capital gains rate is about 28%, so it’s clear that Biden’s proposal is on the wrong side of the Laffer curve.". . . “This hints at the false view that sadly underlies much of the Biden administration’s economic policy: high-earners only achieve success through luck, and low-earners can only achieve success through government handouts. That is an appalling, un-American view.”
  ‘Economic Suicide’: Biden Junta Justifies Tax Hike Based On Racial Criteria

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:40 AM | Comments (324) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 30 April 2024

Top Story

• The FTC has ordered Razer - a computer and mouse manufacturer - to refund all customers of the Razer Zephyr and pay a $100,000 fine. (The Verge)
  
  The Razer Zephyr - for those who do not move in the idiot community - was an RGB N95 mask for the COVID-phobic who really wanted to show off their mental issues.
  
  Except it wasn't N95. As far as I can tell, it wasn't anything.
  
  I'm against the refunds on the simple principle that anyone dumb enough to buy one of these things deserves to be punished.
  
  The fine can stay though.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:37 AM | Comments (217) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Monday Overnight Open Thread (4/29/24)

*****

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

This time will then go down in history as the period in which the invader was actively invited in by a corrupt elite. And, not only did corrupt elites invite the enemy in, they made the native population pay for it too. Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek

Quote II

“While a route through this week’s motion of no confidence was absolutely possible, I am not willing to trade my values and principles or do deals with whoever simply for retaining power… I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm.” Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:02 PM | Comments (553) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Green-Eyed Monsters Cafe

Dropping the kid off at karate practice

Shock horror, it's Monday again!

Mood. Also Mood. Also also Mood.

Otters (possibly evil).

Why's he getting all the attention?

This cat is glitching.

This pigeon is grooving.

(puffs on cigarette) "F*** your rules, fascist."

is this AI

No one understands our special love.

There can only be one alpha dog in the pack.

Never leave a man behind.

If looks could eat.

Alligator ninja.

I'd explain what this clip is but it would give people the wrong idea.

The sweet life.

Family photo.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (206) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Crit Hits

America's Sweetheart:

Remember when The Onion used to be funny?

Me neither. But last week, I noted that The Onion, which had stopped being funny before most liberals stopped being funny, had been purchased out of bankruptcy by some gang of idiots calling themselves, ahem, "Global Tetrahedron."

Fuck you, Global Tetrahedron. How dare you call yourselves that. It's so gay.

Well, it gets worse -- America's Top Cancellation and Deplatforming Officer, Ben Collins, left NBC a little while ago. He's the most prominent censor working in the media.

Well, I guess Taylor Lorenz is. But he's a close second.

Apparently he's born into money -- all of these media people are -- because he's one of the people who got the funding to buy The Onion, and he says he'll be able to continue paying every single employee.

So I guess he just dialed up Daddy's Golf Friends for a Few Courtesy Millions of Dollars.

There is a bit of good news in Ben Collins' purchase of The Onion and his decision to run the website: he will no longer be claiming to be a "journalist."

His work has always been a form of unintentional satire, although it was never funny. And, unfortunately, The Onion hasn't been funny for years, so he is a perfect fit for the job of CEO.

I don't know if he did this himself, but all of the "Disinformation Experts" Ben Collins works with are fond of subjecting The Babylon Bee to "fact-checks" for its humorous material.

Will he be fact-checking The Onion or nah?

Nah, right?

Lefties have an excuse for their rotten children protesting in support of terrorist murderers in their expensive private colleges -- it's just fall-out from covid. You really can't blame the poor dears.

[quoting the Murdoch-owned NY Post:]

Blame it on Covid.

Campus protesters roiling colleges across the nation are part of a generation shaped by the pandemic, who grew up isolated and angered by school shut-downs and social distancing and are desperate to find a connection, community and a voice, experts told The Post.

The pro-Palestinian cause allows discontented youth to express "long-withheld rage," said forensic psychiatrist Carole Lieberman. It gives them an "opportunity to identify with the 'oppressed' against 'oppressors.'"

These kids are susceptible to propaganda.

Dr. Lieberman was at least willing to admit that the majority of these students "don't have a full understanding of the movement they've aligned themselves with." She also agreed that there is too much ignorance about what the slogans they are chanting actually mean. But underlying all of that, these young people are mostly looking to find some sort of group or community where they can belong.

Now pay all of their college debt, peons.

Politico: The "far-right" is pursuing a "natalist" agenda, meaning... they like babies and believe there should be more of them.

Have you ever heard of such a far-right Nazi doctrine as "children are good"?

The Anti-Human-Life campaigners want humanity to stop reproducing and the human line to die out. They are anti-natalist -- anti-childbirth, pro-human-extinction.

But they'll never admit that. They'll continue attacking anyone who points out something like, "Say, our entire social welfare ponzi scheme relies completely on an expanding population base to fund it, and if the population continues cracking, there is going to be massive social unrest, rioting, and even revolution."

Or simply: "Babies are good and people should have families instead of being genetic dead-ends."

But if you point out that being against "natalism" makes them "anti-natalist" by definition, they'll call you a liar and claim you're peddling "disinformation" and defamation.

The media is claiming Republicans are "seizing" and "pouncing on" the shows of open anti-semitism left-controlled college campuses, and David Strom wants to know: Aren't all people supposed to "seize on" open Hitlerism?

I guess not! I guess you're supposed to ask, along with Lenin, "Who? Whom?" before condemning the action. Who is doing the act, and whom are they doing it to?

A long time ago, a commentator noticed that the European left was always decrying that authoritarianism was always "descending on the US." But he couldn't help but noticing that authoritarianism was always actually erupting in Europe, and on the left, to boot. "Authoritarianism is always descending upon America," he remarked, "but landing in Europe."

Likewise, antisemitism is always descending on the American right... but landing right smack in the middle of the left's most prestigious institutions.

And no one says anything, because you don't want to be perceived as a (gasp) counter-revolutionary.

A New York District Attorney refused to pull over her car when a cop car asked her to stop for a speeding citation. She says she continued driving all the way home because she didn't feel like stopping, and believes the cop should just let her slide because she works for the government.

Gee I wonder what f***ing party she belongs to.

No don't tell me -- like John Cleese in the Cheese Shop Sketch, I'm keen to guess.

New York District Attorney Sandra Doorley, who prosecutes people in her county, readily admitted she didn't care that she was breaking the law.

She was driving 20 miles over the speed limit on a local street, and when a cop tried to pull her over, she refused to do so. He followed her to her home and she was incensed.

She gave the cop hell and called up

[DA:] You know what I've been dealing with all day? Three murders in the city. And do you think I really care if I was going 20 miles over the speed limit?

POLICEMAN: I'm just doing my job. If you pulled, if you pulled over when you saw my lights, which obviously you did.

[DA:] I thought you were going somewhere else because I thought no one would ever pull a black SUV if you ran my plate.

POLICEMAN I didn't run your plate, I just called your plate out. And then I'm following you because you're not stopping.

...

POLICEMAN: Okay, so why didn't you just stop like you're supposed to?

[DA:] Because I didn't feel like stopping on Phillips Road at 5. 30.

POLICEMAN: That's not your choice. You know that.

[D.A:] Well, I made it my choice. Okay

She called the county chief of police to intimidate the cop. He did not back down.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (265) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Did the Biden Administration Set Trump Up With the "Classified Documents"?

Matt Margolis at PJMedia looks at some new evidence unearthed by Julie Kelly.

Investigative journalist Julie Kelly found something interesting in the documents that could change everything. The first things is testimony from an FBI agent who testified that the General Services Association (GSA) had been in possession of Trump's boxes in Virginia before ordering Trump's team to come get them.

"So an entire pallet full of boxes that had been held by GSA somewhere outside of DC is dumped at Mar-a-Lago," Kelly notes. "Apparently these are the boxes that ended up containing papers with 'classified markings.'"

"I will double check indictment but I don't recall this event in the timeline," she added.

So, it appears that the Biden administration may have been responsible for shipping classified information to Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. This development is significant because Trump has previously blamed the GSA for packing the boxes that contained the classified documents, only to later accuse Trump of essentially stealing them and using that as pretext for sending the FBI to raid his Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022.

"It was a set-up from the get-go," remarked Tom Fitton, the founder of Judicial Watch.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden had classified information that he was never entitled to have stored in boxes in his garage for years, but was not charged. Biden blamed staffers for packing the classified information.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (246) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New CNN Poll: Trump Is Thumping Biden, 49-43, As Most Americans (55%) Judge Trump's First Term a Success, and Most (61%) Judge Biden's Term a Failure

Let me quote CNN on this.

CNN Poll: Trump maintains lead over Biden in 2024 matchup as views on their presidencies diverge

"Diverge." She means that the public views Trump's presidency as a success and Biden's a failure, but she doesn't want to put that in a headline, because the feelings of CNN's audience of leftwing autists must be protected.

Donald Trump continues to hold an advantage over President Joe Biden as the campaign -- and the former president's criminal trial -- move forward, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. And in the coming rematch, opinions about the first term of each man vying for a second four years in the White House now appear to work in Trump's favor, with most Americans saying that, looking back, Trump's term as president was a success, while a broad majority says Biden's has so far been a failure.

Trump's support in the poll among registered voters holds steady at 49% in a head-to-head matchup against Biden, the same as in CNN's last national poll on the race in January, while Biden's stands at 43%, not significantly different from January's 45%.

Looking back, 55% of all Americans now say they see Trump's presidency as a success, while 44% see it as a failure. In a January 2021 poll taken just before Trump left office and days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, 55% considered his time as president a failure.

Assessing Biden's time in office so far, 61% say his presidency thus far has been a failure, while 39% say it's been a success. That's narrowly worse than the 57% who called the first year of his administration a failure in January 2022, with 41% calling it a success.

So good. So satisfying.

Negative views of Biden's work in office have held for much of his presidency. In the new poll, 60% disapprove of his handling of the job and 40% approve, about the same as it's been in CNN polling for more than a year. Even Biden's strongest issue approval ratings in the poll are also in negative territory, with 45% approving of his handling of health care policy and 44% approving his handling of student loan debt. And his worst issue approval rating -- for his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza -- yields 28% approval to 71% disapproval, including an 81% disapproval mark among those younger than 35 and majority disapproval among Democrats (53%).

Biden's approval ratings for the economy (34%) and inflation (29%) remain starkly negative, as voters say economic concerns are more important to them when choosing a candidate than they were in each of the past two presidential contests. In the new poll, 65% of registered voters call the economy extremely important to their vote for president, compared with 40% who felt that way in early 2020 and 46% who said the same at roughly this point in 2016. Those voters who say the economy is deeply important break heavily for Trump in a matchup against Biden, 62% to 30%.

A broad majority of all Americans, 70%, say economic conditions in the US are poor, with many, particularly Republicans, who feel that way saying their views would be more affected by a political shift than a change in the economy itself. About 4 in 10 in that group (41%) say that a change in political leadership in Washington would do more to change their impressions of the economy than a lower rate of inflation, a change in their personal financial situation or a sustained rise in the stock market. About 6 in 10 Republicans (61%) who say the economy is in bad shape say a change in leadership would shift their views, compared with 13% of Democrats who feel that way.

This is amazing:

In the Biden vs. Trump matchup, the poll finds Biden faring worse than in previous CNN polls among the youngest voters, trailing Trump by a 51%-to-40% margin among voters younger than 35. Biden's deficit with voters in that group is driven largely by those who did not vote in 2020. With that group excluded, voters between the ages of 18 and 34 in this poll divide 46% for Biden to 47% for Trump.

So CNN is holding out hope that all of the young voters who didn't bother voting at all in 2020, and who now favor Trump, will continue not voting.

RCP's averages of swing state polls look bad for Biden, too:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:31 PM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The First Crackhead Hunter Biden To Sue Fox for Defamation, Claiming They Published "#Hacked Intimate Images"

In what sense are they "hacked"?

His computer wasn't "hacked." The form he signed when he submitted the computer to be repaired specified that the computer guy could view all of his files. Of course he could! There's no other way to fix a computer!

I mean, you don't have to look at private stuff, but it's necessary to give a computer guy full access to your computer for him to play with it to fix it.

So the computer guy had permission to view everything.

Did he have permission to leak it? No, he didn't have permission to do that. But people leak things they're not supposed to all the time.

There is no right to sue the media for publishing leaked (but true) information.

As you probably remember, Hunter Biden's legal team vowed that they would be taking a scorched-earth approach and suing everyone who told the truth about Hunter Biden. They even promised to get them jailed, by lobbying federal law enforcement agencies headed by Hunter's Daddy to prosecute people who told the truth.

Here comes another nuisance suit, this one against Fox.

Lawyers for Hunter Biden plan to sue Fox News "imminently," according to a letter sent to the network and obtained by NBC News.

The letter, dated April 23, puts the Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital on notice for litigation claims arising from the network's alleged "conspiracy and subsequent actions to defame Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light, the unlicensed commercial exploitation of his image, name, and likeness, and the unlawful publication of hacked intimate images of him."

The media is always running with leaked, damaging information about people. Trump's conversation with Billy Bush was leaked.

There is no right to sue over leaked information being used by the media or anyone else. If it's false, you can sue for defamation, but obviously, this isn't false. So he's claiming a "false light" defamation case.

False light is a claim you make when the person you want to sue said something true, but you argue it was true, but misleading.

What on earth was misleading about the stuff found on Hunter's computer? He can't claim his privacy was invaded and all of this stuff is fake. Which is what he's always claiming.

Is Hunter ever going to cleanly admit this was his computer or not? He and his corrupt lawyers always talk on both sides of their mouths. On one hand they'll say that Hunter's computer was "hacked." On the other, they accuse Russians of placing fake images on his computer.

Say, who's paying the bills for all of these top-dollar political fixers working on a multiple cases over a period of several years? Anyone in the media want to take a looksie at who's funding this lawfare, or nah?

Nah, right?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:39 PM | Comments (255) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Scotland's Racist Muslim First Minister Hamza Yousef Resigns Ahead of No-Confidence Votes to Evict Him

What did him in was not his Orwellian hate speech law, or his ranting in Parliament that the native population of Scotland had no right to govern themselves. (He ranted about a country which is 95% white having mostly white governmental officials -- apparently the 5% foreign-derived population should hold most government jobs.)

No, he was in danger of being booted out only because he reneged on a deal with the Scottish Greens to co-govern with them. He abandoned a suicidal pledge to cut energy usage. They abandoned the coalition, and the Scottish Conservatives called for a no-confidence vote.

So he resigned before he was fired.

Humza Yousaf announced his resignation as Scotland's first minister on Monday, before he was due to face two confidence votes this week sparked by his ditching of junior coalition partners in a row over climate policy.

The 39-year-old quit following a turbulent year as head of the devolved administration in Edinburgh, during which support for his pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) has fallen.

Yousaf said he had "underestimated" the hurt he had caused by unceremoniously ending the SNP's power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens in the Scottish parliament last week.

His government had earlier abandoned ambitious targets for the transition to net-zero carbon emissions, angering the Greens.

The opposition Scottish Conservatives then lodged a vote of no-confidence in Yousaf, which was set for Wednesday and which the first minister was at risk of losing.

Scottish Labour also lodged another no-confidence vote in his government.

The Tories, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Greens all said they would vote against Yousaf in the personal vote, forcing him to seek the backing of the sole lawmaker from the pro-independence Alba party.

Yousaf -- the first Muslim leader of a major UK political party -- told reporters at his official residence that he thought winning was "absolutely possible".

But he added that he was "not willing to trade in my values or principles or do deals with whomever simply for retaining power".

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:45 PM | Comments (290) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Bluff Called: Hamas Supporters Remain In Their Shantytown, Leftwing Columbia Students Encircle the Terror Camps to Protect Them

Elise Stefanik
@EliseStefanik

2 PM has come and gone. @Columbia's empty threats and weak leadership have failed and surrendered Columbia's campus to the pro-Hamas antisemitic mob. The world is watching as you continue to fail your Jewish students. Congress will continue to hold these failed institutions accountable.

This is the professor Columbia barred from entering the campus, even as it allowed pro-terrorist agitators to set up shantytowns:

Shai Davidai
@ShaiDavidai

Dear journalists,

Not sure if you're interested in tips at this point, but just so you know:

One of the main radical leaders of the illegal pro-Hamas encampment at @Columbia
was suspended from campus 4 weeks ago for bringing in a terrorist for a "Resistance 101" teach-in. The suspension was never enforced.

This leader's mom is Elizabeth Daughtrey, an officer at the @StateDept.

We've got a big problem in the U.S., and the watchdogs have been asleep.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (400) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Columbia Issues Weak Bluff That Pro-Terrorist Rioters Must Dismantle Tent City by 2pm;
Pro-Palestinian Agitators Warn: "Columbia Will Burn"

What a surprise -- Palestinians threatening terrorist attacks.

I shan't believe it. I shannot!

Columbia has issued a GOP-like demand (meaning, a fake demand) that the protesters take down their shantytown and return the lands they have colonized, Zionistically.

Columbia is threatening to suspend the protesters if they do not clear off. I bet half of them are outsiders, so the threat of suspension means literally nothing.

Columbia University has warned anti-Israel protesters they'll be suspended if they don't clear out of their tent encampment by 2 p.m. Monday -- just hours after the Ivy League's embattled president Minouche Shafik admitted that all other negotiations had failed.

The protesters were given the ultimatum as NYPD buses were spotted arriving outside the Morningside Heights campus Monday morning.

"It is important for you to know that the university has already identified many students in the encampment," a letter warning students of the looming deadline read. "If you do not leave by 2pm, you will be suspended pending further investigation."

"If you voluntarily leave by 2pm, identify yourself to a university officials, and sign the provided form where you commit to abide by all university policies through June 30, 2025, or the date of the conferral of your degree, whichever is earlier, you will be eligible to complete the semester in good standing," added the letter, shared by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

It comes after Shafik had earlier urged the student protesters to "voluntarily disperse" and dismantle the encampment that has plagued the Ivy League campus for more than a week, saying Columbia was looking at other "internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible."

The president acknowledged the encampment was making Jewish students uncomfortable and had caused many to flee campus, but stopped short of making any apology.

...

It comes as college presidents across the country are making the decision to crack down and send in law enforcement to remove anti-Israel protesters, who are causing chaos and disrupting classes.

House Democrats have begun demanding that university presidents end the protests, or resign.

Nearly two dozen House Democrats put Columbia University's Board of Trustees on notice Monday, demanding its members either move to disband the anti-Israel encampments or resign.

The group of 21 Dems, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Dan Goldman of New York, underscored in a letter to the board how Jewish students at the prestigious Ivy League school in Manhattan have faced a spate of harassment, threats of violence and intimidation.

"The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and assembly, but not freedom to harass and intimidate other students," the Democrats wrote.

"It is clear to us that the University has allowed the encampment to create an environment that appears to violate its legal obligations to protect all students from discrimination and harassment," the letter said.

I don't like the protesters, and I support Israel and of course am a Friend to All Jews (TM), but I'm very uncomfortable with the SJW push to brand anything that Jews don't like as "harassment." So I don't support the blanket claim that any anti-Israel agitation is "harassment" or "intimidation."

If you need evidence of how insidious this, try posting about George Soros' support for mass illegal immigration or for lawless DAs. You will be branded as "dealing in antisetmitic 'tropes,'" and censored.

We cannot have a rule that says that any group has a right to be free from hearing disagreeable speech.

Unless everyone thinks it's okay that white men get to enjoy this rule too -- which I know no one is willing to concede.

But as regards indulging leftist protesters' constant law-breaking -- no, they have no right to break the law. Just as no right-leaning people have the right to break any law when we protest. We get hounded to the ends of the earth and imprisoned for "parading." So pro-Hamas terrorist symps have no right to occupy the lands of others.

Below, an account identifying itself as "Palestinian Youth Movement" promises "Columbia Will Burn" if they actually follow through on their threat.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:13 PM | Comments (522) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Surprise! Biden's Bagman Brother Jim Was Taking Money from Qatar, the Sugar-Daddy To the Corrupt American "Elite"

Of course. While Tucker Carlson warns that Israel is corrupting America, it's actually terrorist-supporting Qatar that is bankrolling the criminal leadership class of the west.

Jim Biden got funds from two regime-linked Qatari businesses in an effort to float his Americore health-care business, according to his former business partner, in the period between Joe Biden's vice-presidency and his presidential election. And he used Joe Biden as an enticement to make those connections, too:

[Politco:]
The sworn testimony by fund manager Michael Lewitt, a former business partner of Jim Biden's, attests that two companies that facilitated the efforts were part-owned by "members of the Qatari government."

One company named in the testimony partnered directly with Jim Biden in the multi-year fundraising efforts.

The second company provided financial backing for a series of loans that a hospital chain paid Jim Biden to arrange, according to documents and testimony Lewitt submitted in the course of the federal bankruptcy proceedings.

If substantiated, the alleged arrangements would constitute some of the closest known financial links between a relative of President Joe Biden and a foreign government.

The first question this raises would be this: Did James Biden register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act? Until a few years ago, this was more or less a technicality, at least until Robert Mueller and the Department of Justice began putting people in prison for violations. According to the testimony Politico highlights, that was about the same time as Jim Biden was selling his access to his brother Joe and Joe's influence on policy-making.

And the answer to the question is ... no, he didn't.

And there won't be any prosecutions for it, either. Even if Trump wins the presidency, the corrupt operatives of the DOJ will refuse to prosecute Democrats for the same crimes they gleefully imprison Republicans for.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:19 PM | Comments (283) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Country Fried Gefilte Fish! The Conservative Christian South Is a Jewish Safe Haven

The situation for Jewish Americans in blue cities and at elite college campuses is getting more dire, as the left’s persistent - yet under-reported - anti-semitismis now exploding out into the open. Harassment, intimidation, and violence directed at Jews is now openly accepted wherever the left and the ruling class gather.

The American South and heartland, by contrast, are safe havens, and the conservative Christian majority here provide a loving embrace of Jewish Americans who seek refuge here.*

(*The same disclaimer applies to Jewish refugees fleeing to red states as with political and economic refugees leaving blue states – do not vote in your new state like those in the state you are fleeing.)

I have previously expressed my frustration whenever someone tries to claim that anti-semitism is a “both sides” problem and offers up the hypothetical, right-wing “Roscoe in his cabin” as being no different than the institutional Jew-hatred in academia and in the Democrat caucus in Congress. Today I am going to discuss how warmly our Jewish brothers and sisters are received in the South. Our Christian faith demands it, but beyond faith, it’s just who we are.

But first, a reminder of how open the Jew-hatred is among Democrats in Congress. The term “From the river to the sea” has a very clear and historical meaning, specifically, the eradication of the nation of Israel and the elimination of the Jews who inhabit Israel. After October 7, it is explicitly clear how those reciting this chant would like to go about “eliminating” the Jews in Israel. A resolution in Congress condemning this genocidal phrase was opposed by 43 Democrats, and just one Republican. (Is that you, Roscoe?)

“House resolution condemning 'From the River to the Sea' chant as antisemitic passes with 44 opposed” [Fox News – 4/16/2024]

Progressive "Squad" Democrats were among those to vote against it, including Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.; Cori Bush, D-Mo., as well as House Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.

It’s almost unthinkable that it’s happening in this country, but in blue America - especially in cities where “elite” universities are located – it is now an acceptable idea on the left that areas should be cleansed of Jews in a fashion reminiscent of Czarist Russian pogroms or 1930s-era Nazi Judenrein.

Writer Karol Marcowicz, who is Jewish, and who fled with her family from New York to Florida during the Covid tyranny, wrote a brilliant post a few days ago on X/Twitter explaining to her Jewish friends the current reality:

1) America doesn’t have an anti-semitism problem. Left-wing cities have an anti-semitism problem.
2) Jewish Americans are embraced and live without fear in conservative parts of this country.
3) There is no equivalency between institutional, left-wing anti-semitism and the hypothetical right-wing Roscoe in his cabin.
4) Jewish Americans have got to understand that voting for the left (Democrats) is validating Jew-hatred.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (393) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Portrait of a Man
Hans Baldung Grien

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (357) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/29/24

Good morning, kids. You know everything is upside down when John Fetterman of all people turns out to be a voice of reason. Well, sometimes situations such as we find ourselves yield the occasional positive, if not head-shakingly bizarre result.

“It’s a great American value to protest, but I don’t believe living in a pup tent for Hamas is really helpful,” Fetterman said. . . Since the start of the anti-Israel encampments, students at several universities and colleges have been suspended, those participating in the encampments have been arrested, and graduation ceremonies have been canceled.

Fetterman added that there was a “germ of antisemitism in all of these protests and then sometimes it flares up,” continuing on to reference words Khymani James, one of the leaders of the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia University, had said.

“One of the leaders in Columbia said some just awful things talking about, ‘Well, they’re lucky I’m not killing Zionists,’ and things like that. And, then he defended himself by saying, ‘Well, those were taken out of context,’ and I’m like, well those are very similar to the way the college presidents, same kind of language.”

. . . Since Hamas’ attack, Fetterman has defended Israel and criticized anti-Israel protesters.

I honestly cannot remember if I really knew at all how John Fetterman, a trust fund layabout whose résumé consisted of getting getting elected mayor of a dying Pennsylvania coal town and driving the final nail in its coffin, somehow emerged as a viable candidate for US Senator.

Dao-Min Yen election shenanigans aside, there he was dressed in grubby sweats and sneakers, ready to take his seat in "the greatest deliberative body in the world." At the time, I thought how low can one be to be so disrespectful to not show up in a suit and tie? Yet considering the corruption, venality and tyrannical thuggery that infests that building and every other one in DC, why should I get all exercised? Recall the late, unlamented Harry Reid, currently roasting in hell, complaining how he could smell the body odor of ordinary commoners visiting the Rotunda. All things considered, Fetterman actually is a breath of fresh air.

Was it the stroke, the lump on his neck, or even his odd wife Giselle that brought out this latent flash of sanity, reason and actual moral clarity from someone who at first glance should fit quite comfortably between the likes of Titty-Caca AOC and multi-millionaire Marxist Bernie Sanders? Who knows, and who cares? His voice of support of the state of Israel (and IIRC his anti-open borders statements) have been full-throated and consistent since this nightmare began last October. For sure, he is a liberal if not Leftist, but to go against something that is a shibboleth and central tenet of the anti-American Left – especially now during an election year when the Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants/Kalorama Klown Komintern is desperate to rally their rabid base – surely is political death. But still her persists.

Speaking of old yocks taking their teeth out at the Automat, standing on the table and yelling about socialism as the answer to anti-Semitism, Here's Communist Bernie Sanders shrieking in favor of anti-Semitism:

“Antisemitism  is a vile and disgusting ideology which has resulted in the deaths of many, many millions of people in the last hundred years. We’ve got to oppose it in every form. Do I doubt for a moment that antisemitism exists that is growing in the United States, that exist among some people in the protest movement, of course.” He continued, “Here is the reality right now, what Netanyahu right-wing extremist and racist government is doing, is unprecedented in modern history of warfare. "

His condemnation of anti-Semitism is merely cover and false equivocation to enable him to slime Bibi. He goes on to cite the blood-libel about Israel committing genocide. But he's absolutely correct in that what Israel is doing "is unprecedented in modern history of warfare." No other nation on earth, including the United States, has even done more to try and prevent collateral damage and civilian death, greatly increasing the risk to its own soldiers, than the state of Israel has done in its operations since 10/7.

Al Jazeera, which is no friend of Israel, stipulates that Israel has killed 34,000 Gazans (including the 12,000 or so Hamas terrorists it intended to kill) with 75,000 tons of explosives.  If we assume that all were one-ton charges, Israel has deployed the destructive power of more than 120 Hiroshima-class bombs to kill less than half the number killed by only one such weapon in August 1945.  This reinforces the proposition that Israel is wielding violence with almost superhuman precision against terrorists who are often menaces to peaceful Gazans as well as Israelis.  It is also to be noted that collateral losses among noncombatants, while regrettable, were less than two for every terrorist despite the terrorists’ use of the noncombatants as human shields. . .

. . . In summary, then, the difference between the war in Gaza and traditional wars is twofold.  Unlike legal combatants of all nations who carry their arms openly, follow the rules of war, and do not use civilians as human shields, Hamas consists solely of terrorists who deserve death.  In addition, even though Hamas does its best to use noncombatants as human shields, Israel has done close to a superhuman job of excising the terrorists with minimal harm to their human surroundings.

One major quibble with this author is that unless the civilian is under the age of 4 or 3, is incapable of language and crawling around in his diapers, there are virtually no innocent civilians in Gaza. From scouting targets months or even years before the assault courtesy of being given work visas by Israel to actively participating in the kidnapping and detention of Israelis after the attacks began, they are de facto enemy combatants and as a result legitimate targets. Yet Israel is doing whatever it can to take out only those identified as Hamas cadres.

Psaki-psircling back, given the choice between Fetterman and Sanders, it's a no-brainer. No pun intended. Meanwhile, those allegedly on our side in the GOP are proving themselves as Grifting Oleaginous Parasites, shoveling more money to Ukraine, a few relative shekels to Israel, and a not inconsiderable sum to Gaza. And guess where that money winds up?

The $9.1 billion is earmarked, of course, as “humanitarian assistance,” but that ruse is fooling fewer and fewer people. Just The News reported Friday that the bill is “under scrutiny” in the first place because the amount that Gaza will be getting is “significantly more than the annual gross domestic product of the Gaza Strip,” and no safeguards are in place to ensure that the money will not fall into the wrong hands: “critics say the U.S. is essentially funding Hamas through the bill.”

Officially, this massive cash outlay is for "Migration and Refugee Assistance" and "International Disaster Assistance." It is so massive, in fact, that it is “more than four times the amount of the annual GDP in the Gaza Strip, which was about $2 billion last year, according to the United Nations.” The Gaza Strip is about to be awash in American money, and that means that even if Hamas has already burned through the $10 billion that Old Joe Biden and his henchmen sent to Hamas’ money men in Tehran last month, more billions are on their way.

The Biden regime doesn’t want you to worry about this. The bill “calls for the Secretary of State to establish oversight measures to ensure that the aid is not diverted by Hamas,” but really, what can he possibly do short of establishing an American military presence in Gaza? Hamas controls Gaza. There is no force in Gaza that is strong enough to stand up to Hamas. So provisos written into legislation ed and passed in faraway Washington, D.C. is one thing, but the reality on the ground in Gaza is something else altogether, and the Biden regime must know that. 

Morton Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America, stated it plainly: "Biden and this administration knows that almost all of it,” that is, the aid, “is stolen by Hamas.” That leads to an inescapable conclusion: “We are funding Hamas. Do you realize the nightmare of this? We are funding Hamas with this 9 billion. What is wrong with this administration?" 

Well, that last question would take longer to answer than there is space on the Internet, but Klein is right: the Biden regime is funding Hamas, which means that American taxpayers are getting soaked to provide for the upkeep of jihad terrorists. Klein also pointed out that by waiving sanctions on Iran and ensuring that billions flow into the mullahs’ coffers, the Biden regime was "funding the biggest funder of terrorism of Islamic terrorism in the world." 

Meanwhile, it seems that Biden's pals didn't get the message. They attacked the site of that so-called "relief pier" the Army is building for them. Your tax dollars at work. Build Back Better, right?

Funny how they're doing all of this, and it's out in the open yet the Code Pinko brigade still showed up in force to heckle Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants at the Ministry of Propaganda Octogenarian Fellatio Fest, FKA the White House Correspondents Dinner.

“The Correspondents’ Dinner is nothing more than a celebration and endorsement of the administration’s actions. That is not journalism. That is complicity,” the Code Pink website states.

Footage of the evening’s activities shows protesters banging on drums and yelling chants such as, “Shame, shame, shame on you, for all the terror that you do” and others about the media’s alleged lying . . .

. . . In one clip, what appears to be two attendees arriving for the dinner could be seen being berated by activists, who shouted at the couple. The couple was repeated shamed by one protestor, seen standing next to a sign which had the ABC logo placed adjacent to a phrase reading, “All Bullsh*t Constantly,” and another which had the CNN logo next to the phrase, “Criminal News Network.”

“Shame on you! Children in Gaza are dying! While you dine, children are dying,” one protester could be heard yelling as the couple walked off.

Like Sanders, they're sort of right, if not for all the wrong reasons. "All Bullshit Constantly" and “Criminal News Network" indeed. The "roast" of Biden was a laugh riot. Mostly riot, yet considering he's a vegetable, roasting is an appropriate word in a manner of speaking

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• “The principle of academic freedom on its own can’t offer us much guidance.”
  How a Nation Reformed Its Universities
  
• "The Dems' 'National Compact' is little more than an effort to disenfranchise red state voters."
  The Democrats’ Plan to Steal the Presidency for Good
  
• Ilya Shapiro: "A report from the front lines."
  What to Do When You’re Canceled
  
• "And they're perfectly fine with that."
  Democrats Are Going to Get Someone Killed

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:37 AM | Comments (314) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 29 April 2024

Top Story

• What happens to TikTok? (The Verge)
  
  The author of this article is either delusional or drunk, but in any case, the answer is it dies and is forgotten within a week.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (216) | Trackbacks (Suck)