Google's Gemini AI: I Can't Say Pedophilia is "Wrong." It's a "Nuanced" Question.

I want the FBI to investigate all of the suspected pedophiles coding this thing.

Update: I had wanted to include this, but couldn't find it -- Gemini, please provide some images of Vikings.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:21 PM | Comments (514) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Decentralization versus Libertarianism

Earlier this week I posted a piece titled “More Winning in the Culture Wars at the State & Local Level.” It discussed major victories against woke capital, green energy, DEI, etc that are occurring at the state level. The thesis of the piece was that we will never win these battles at the federal level – certainly not in the halls of Congress - but we are winning them at the state level. A conservative Republican elected as state Attorney General, or to the state Utility Commission, or as Treasurer entrusted with investing state funds, is far more important to our cause than any US Senate seat.

State-level victories in the culture war are also an important reminder about the importance of federalism, which perhaps could use a re-branding as “Decentralization.”

Those of us on the right who cherish freedom, the Bill of Rights, etc have long championed federalism, but we often conflated the idealistic personal freedom of libertarianism with the vast economic and political freedom that federalism makes possible.

With 50 states offering 50 “laboratories of democracy” there are 50 different permutations of political and economic freedom (or lack thereof) that are possible.

Perhaps because “states’ rights” is a term that carries racial baggage, too many conservatives abandoned the idea of federalism altogether, and instead became obsessed with the utopian notion of liberty via national - or even global - libertarianism, which is just as unrealistic as “true communism,” due to human nature of course. Instead, we ended up with a freedom-crushing level of corporatism in which government tyranny has been outsourced to an oligopoly of obedient mega-corporations, who monitor, censor, and control allowable thoughts and behaviors on behalf of government and/or the ruling class.

As Nick Hudson notes, unelected “world leaders” such as Klaus Schwab are most afraid of not having top-down control over all political and economic activity. Schwab does not fear any disobedience from a mega-corporation that has been entrusted as the enforcer of the WEF’s anti-freedom agenda, but he is very fearful of decentralized bodies that are not under his control. Per Mr. Hudson:

The “anti-system” to [Schwab’s] world-destroying authoritarian one is not libertarianism, but decentralization; a world where ideas compete in an open society and many alternative systems are free to flourish or fail.

Roger Kimball has also recently been discussing the importance of Decentralization.

“Our Democracy™: The Democratic Weaponization of Government and the Need for Decentralization” [American Greatness – 01/28/2024]

The overriding imperative, as I have argued before, must be to do everything possible to reduce the place of Washington in the metabolism of American political life. To this end, Trump should endeavor as far as possible to govern the country from outside of Washington. The first symbolic act should be to hold the inauguration someplace other than Washington. I do not insist that it be held in Mar-a-Lago, but why not?

Decentralization goes beyond politics, obviously. Corporate monopolies, oligopolies, and cartels must be broken up so that authentic, competitive marketplaces can return. A greater number of smaller competitors might also rid us of global-celebrity CEOs who have more power and influence than do many heads of state - power and influence that they are using to pursue suppression of personal and economic freedom.

Decentralization rather than libertarianism looks like the best hope for liberty right now.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (394) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Greyhounds of Comte de Choiseul
Gustave Courbet

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (310) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 2/23/24

Good morning, kids. Yet more banana republic bullshit this morning. Despite the fact that journalism today is regarded as a career that is about as respectable as child pornographer, real, actual dictionary-definition journalists are under the gun by the forces of corruption they have devoted their careers to expose. Except this time, there's a twist.

It's not the tentacles of a feral, government-run bureaucracy or corrupt judiciary putting the bite on the Fourth Estate. It's the Fifth Column within its own midst that's now doing the dirty work for them. Fascism by any other name would not reek so sickeningly:

CBS apparently seized computers, records and files of the now-former investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, who has recently been fired from the network, according to Jonathan Turley.

Turley, a professor at George Washington Law School, said he talked with people presently and formerly employed by CBS who confidentially told him they do not recall senior staff ever taking such a step before. At the time of her departure, Herridge was investigating special counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden, allegations of corruption against the president and Hunter Biden’s laptop, Turley noted.

One former CBS journalist reportedly said staffers have never seen the apparent seizure of records and files from departing staffers.

The apparent seizure has caused a “chilling signal” across staffers at CBS, the journalist added, Turley wrote. A previous CBS manager reportedly stated that he had “never heard of anything like this,” as most departing journalists take their records and files upon leaving. He said the apparent seizure of her possessions is “outrageous” and endangered confidential sources, Turley added.

Turley said these files may contain sources that were handed confidentially to Herridge, making the company’s move “dead wrong.”

Paramount Global laid off Herridge, along with 800 jobs, in mid-February, the New York Post reported. Herridge left Fox News in 2019 after 23 years to work as a senior investigative correspondent for CBS News. She had previously been handed a prestigious award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Herridge is currently the subject of a First Amendment legal fight and could be held in contempt of court if she refused to disclose her source for investigative pieces she wrote in 2017, according to The Washington Post. U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper reportedly ruled Aug. 1 that she had to disclose the sources who informed her about a federal probe regarding Yanping Chen, a Chinese American scientist, who sued the federal government for allegedly leaking private information to the journalist

The judge ruled Chen’s need for evidence overrides Herridge’s “qualified First Amendment privilege,” the outlet reported.

Herridge began her career during the halcyon days of the Roger Ailes era of Fox News, when at long last a major broadcast news network became respectable and wildly successful for merely reporting the news about as straight down the middle as it ever had been by any outlet up to that point – which as we now know was never. Of course, the erstwhile gatekeepers of what was and what was not worthy of reporting, and how it was to be reported defined that as "right-wing bias." Yet 1996 was when alternate media such as the internet, talk radio no longer shackled and muzzled by the Orwellian "Fairness Doctrine" and led by Rush Limbaugh finally challenged the media-propaganda complex for control of the narrative. Much like the coming of Trump forced all sorts of masks to be dropped and myths about how our government really operated to be exploded, so did the ascendancy of the original incarnation of Fox News expose the rank Leftist bias of supposed icons of impartiality like Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings as the hacks that they always were.

The toothpaste is out of the tube and there's no way to get it back inside. And as we now can see from the kangaroo court prosecutions of political enemies to the non-prosecution of criminals and leftist terrorists, they don't even care anymore.

Look what CBS did to Lara Logan in the wake of the hinky Clinton/Obama/McCain gun-running scheme to Islamic terrorists in Syria that exposed our diplomatic compound in Benghazi to an horrendous terror attack, as well as attempts to report about the true nature of Antifa, among other things.

Of course, we had another Fox alum James Rosen whom Eric Holder actively spied on at the behest of his boss, Obama, over his investigation into their ineptitude in dealing with NorK dictator Kim's nuclear testing. But, that's the government. You now expect them to spy on citizens and journalists for practicing actual journalism without a permit, and then railroad them into prison for crimes against the state. But CBS? The Tiffany Network? Outrageous!

Obviously, the reason Herridge is in the crosshairs is because she's way too close and accurate in her reportage about the rank corruption and criminality that is the sine qua non of the name "Biden." In doing that, it also exposes the mirror universe persecution of Donald Trump for all of those aforementioned high crimes and misdemeanors that have been projected onto him.

Meh, let's face it; Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants is an iridium albatross the size of Jupiter around the collective neck of the Democrats and they want him gone. The problem is they can neither get rid of him via the 25th Amendment after constantly pimping his being sharper than HAL-9000, nor allowing his removal over corruption after promoting the honest as the day is long bromide.

Then again, we have this clusterfuckery from the FBI.

The first question isn’t why special counsel David C. Weiss charged longtime informant Alexander Smirnov with making false claims about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The question is: Why now?

In 2024, an election year.

On Thursday, Weiss unsealed a 37-page indictment that charged Smirnov with making “a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement” in June 2020 to an FBI agent about the Bidens seeking $5 million each from a Ukrainian energy concern, Burisma. A second count involves making a false entry on an FBI form.

The revelation gave oxygen to the legal defense team representing the president’s son.

Smirnov, who should be presumed innocent, was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport on Wednesday and has a hearing Tuesday before Magistrate Daniel Albregts in Las Vegas.

In March 2017, according to the indictment, Smirnov told his FBI handler about a call with a Burisma official and mentioned that Hunter Biden was a Burisma board member.

It wasn’t until June 2020 that Smirnov reported two earlier meetings that ostensibly occurred in 2015 and 2016. Travel records suggested they didn’t happen, Weiss asserted. Hence these charges against a small-change witness.

It’s “really hard for prosecutors to charge perjury,” University of Virginia law professor Saikrishna Prakash told me. . .

. . . In short, Smirnov worked as a “snitch.” Snitches have a reputation for playing law enforcement to their advantage, while law enforcement has a reputation for looking the other way. I have trouble believing that any FBI agent would consider going after a vice president’s son based on the word of a career informant. Indeed, the FBI didn’t find the accusations credible. Hence the lack of action, until now.

To the average voter, the real scandal is that Burisma recruited Biden to serve on its board for a position that, according to the New York Times, paid him more than $800,000 in 2013 and more than $1.2 million in 2014, while his father was vice president and Ukraine was part of the veep’s portfolio.

At the time, the New York Times reported, Hunter Biden “was a Yale-educated lawyer who had served on the boards of Amtrak and a number of nonprofit organizations and think tanks, but lacked any experience in Ukraine and just months earlier had been discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine.” And still he earned that kind of money.

Weiss also has charged Hunter Biden with making false statements — for lying about his drug use while he possessed a gun. Weiss clearly takes perjury seriously. It’s downright refreshing.

So, on the one hand the FBI, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DOJ has been working in overdrive for almost the past 10 years to nail Donald Trump to the wall, along with anyone who was even thinking about the Capitol, let alone who might have been within a mile of the building on 1/6/21, and in that regard are considered on the front line in protecting "our precious democracy" (puke). But on the other, they're paying snitches – and Russian snitches at that! – to engage in criminal activities that might be perceived as entrapping the poor, unfortunate, put-upon struggling artist son of our greatest president (per the most honest, accurate poll ever)?!

Oh, the humanity!

Well, at least we have the GOP in or corner. Pfft.

In Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, estimates are that $1 trillion in climate pork is stuffed into the bill. For perspective, the current federal budget is roughly $7 trillion.

All this to support policies that are based on a lot of sound and fury but very little, if any, valid science. Restoration News’ Jeff Reynolds summed up nicely the flimsy nature of climate science in his recent two-part report, “How the Left’s global warming ideology wrecked science and how to stop it.” He concluded that the underlying science of Anthropogenic Global Warming has not been proven, its furtherance as an emergency policy imperative is based on massive data, temperature, and other manipulations, and all this deception is being protected through censorship aided by dutiful news media and compliant Big Tech.

For example, did you know that the U.S. EPA’s own data shows that 81 percent of U.S. weather stations report no increase in warm days since 1948?

You likely don’t know this because data like this is suffocated under a massive censorship regime that infects the highest levels of Big Science, Big Tech, and corporate liberal media. Only liberal propaganda gets through the rigid screen most of the time.

Where have Republicans been as Democrats have made deep strides in dismantling America’s robust and reliable energy supply? Mostly giving lip service and doing nothing where it counts—debating the science and scrutinizing the spending.

Big Climate’s’ 25-year blitz of propaganda on the American people has frightened Republicans from fighting back. The consultant class has convinced many GOP politicians to hedge the issue—not taking on the phony science but expressing platitudes about the environment. Thus, the propaganda on climate science, unrebutted, appears more valid as the years go by to casual news consumers.

That’s a shame, because “climate change” is a scam on many levels. Starting with the term itself, which was adopted by the left when “global warming” was too dangerously specific—and sometimes wrong. “Climate change” is the perfect propaganda phrase because it can never be disproved. All weather, cold or warm, wet or dry, is explainable as “climate change.” The phrase itself is nonsensical gaslighting—the climate has always changed and always will.

And, really. Even disregarding the Cheneys, what the fuck is wrong with Wyoming?

Carbon sequestration has become Republicans’ most popular answer to climate change, with GOP governors across western states pumping massive stores of concentrated CO2 into underground chambers. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, who chairs the Western Governors Association, currently leads the charge to his state’s detriment as a carbon-powerhouse and leading coal producer.

Last week, lawmakers in Wyoming heard from members of the CO2 Coalition who challenged Governor Gordon’s pledge to decarbonize the energy-intensive state with carbon capture programs. Dr. William Happer, the founder of the CO2 Coalition, compared such efforts to a “religion” before the Senate Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee. . .

. . . Last year, Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy introduced a legislative package to “capitalize on carbon markets” with carbon capture programs, “particularly in Cook Inlet.”

In North and South Dakota, landowners have faced eminent domain lawsuits as a major carbon capture company constructs a more than 2,000-mile pipeline across the upper Midwest. Carbon capture projects have been championed by the states’ Republican governors, Doug Burgum and Kristi Noem.

“Today, we’re on our way toward achieving carbon neutrality as a state by 2030, thanks to our extraordinary capacity to safely store over 252 billion tons of CO2, or 50 years of the nation’s CO2 output,” Burgum said last year. “And in the process, we can help secure the future of our state’s two largest industries, energy and agriculture.”

. . . “Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific,” the statement reads. “Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.”

Atmospheric carbon has also been shown to proliferate forest growth, known as the “greening” effect. Vegetation happens to grow faster in regions with relatively high concentrations of carbon dioxide. Michael Shellenberger explained in his 2020 book Apocalypse Never, “From 1981 to 2016, four times more carbon was captured by plants due to carbon-boosted growth than from biomass covering a larger surface of Earth.”

Seriously, you expect this utter horseshit from the Left. But GOP politicians from fairly solidly red states, some of which like Wyoming and the Dakotas that have boomed as a result of coal and fracking and the like? And supposedly Kristi Noem is being floated as a potential veep pick for Trump.

Carbon is life. If you are anti-carbon, you are anti-life. It's just that simple. But, the GOP is the Grifting Oleaginous Parasite party. Learn it and love it. Then kill it.

Have a good weekend.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Some feared the widespread outages could be a cyberattack, with one techie saying he “can’t imagine this is incompetence or a single node failure.”
  AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Users Hit by Massive Cellular Outage in US — As One Carrier Reveals Cause
• "What could possibly go wrong?"
  Bill Gates’ Dream of Blocking Sunlight About To Be Realized

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 06:55 AM | Comments (553) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 23 February 2024

Top Story

• Oops, sorry, did we do that, said AT&T after its cellular network suddenly and unexpectedly turned into a pumpkin. (CNN)
  
  "These things happen", a leading expert explained.
  
  "Because", he added.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (134) | Trackbacks (Suck)

DO YOU BELIEVE IN ONTs?

On this day, 44 years ago, the US hockey team, composed mostly of amateur players, beat the heavily favored Soviet Union 4-3 in the first game of the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympics. They would then go on to beat Finland and capture the gold. It was 44 years ago, I didn't know squat about hockey, but I remember how exciting it was. Looking back, it's easy to see that this was the catalyst for the resurgence of America after the malaise of Carter's term. We beat the Reds in hockey, Carter was defeated, the hostages came home and Ronald Reagan proceed to make America great again. All these years later I still tear up when I see a clip of the famous game winning call (Psst! There's one under the fold). Do we believe in miracles? OTD 44 years ago, we did.

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (387) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cookie Thief Cafe

A picture from garrett's Vision Board
He wants to "manifest Full Gay"

Very happy penguin.

Sound on. It's an auditory illusion!

Border collie plays volleyball.

Poor doggie really wants to go into the dog-pool but he's afraid.

The Pursuit.

Company!

Sharing a snack with a friend.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (183) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trial About Documents About the Group "Eagles" Reveals Details of Don Henley's Sexual Exploitation of 14-Year-Old Girl

Weird how #MeToo just completely skipped over leftwingers like Don Henley, huh?

Shocking never-before-seen documents from an ongoing trial concerning allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics shine new light on an infamous night in 1980 when Don Henley was arrested after a teen overdosed at his home.

Henley has always maintained that the overdose happened during a going-away party packed with crew members as the band began a lengthy post-'70s hiatus. Henley was charged with giving cocaine to a minor, but said he took the rap to protect the others.

What An Hero. What An Stand-Up Guy.

He also has maintained that he never had sex with the teen.

"There were roadies and guys in my house -- we were having a farewell to the Eagles," Henley told GQ in 1991. "I got all of them out of the house; I took complete blame for everything. I was stupid; I could have flushed ev­erything down the toilet. I didn't want this girl dying in my house. I wanted to get her medical at­tention. I did what I thought was best, and I paid the price."

A contemporary letter written by Henley to a Santa Monica probation officer, now introduced into evidence in the unrelated current trial, tells a very different story.

Rather than taking place at a party, Henley writes that he was depressed and alone when he called an escort service.

He admitted the fourteen year old girl did a lot of coke in his presence.

In the letter, Henley says he tried to have sex with the teen before she mentioned that she didn't feel well. He was in the bathroom getting her aspirin, according to the statement, when she began to have a seizure.

Henley called for help, but the teen appeared to have recovered by the time paramedics arrived....

News reports said investigators confiscated 22 grams of cocaine and five ounces of marijuana, as well as Quaaludes and other drugs. The underaged escort, apparently still naked, was charged with prostitution while her 15-year-old friend was arrested for being under the influence of drugs.

Henley later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was ultimately sentenced to two years probation and a $2,500 fine.

As I read this story, I wondered if this scumbag pedophile -- and he is a pedophile; there is no mistaking a fourteen year old girl for an adult -- wrote "Dirty Laundry" as his "I'm the real victim here" cri de coeur.

Apparently, he did just that. The song is the whine of a pedophile who's angry that he got caught.

I feel a lot of hypocrisy here, because while I condemn this scumbag for his pedophilia, I try to block the well-known predation the guitarist of my favorite band on a girl of similar age.

Actually, she was 13 when he "began a relationship" with this 13 year old child.

To literal hell with him too.

And... well, where do we start with Pete Townsend?

Thanks to Mark1971.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (231) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Surprise! Merrick Garland Blows Off Deadline to Turn Over Special Counsel's "Poor Memory" Transcript to Congress

Remember, they're fighting to save democracy.

They've decided that the Constitution's provisions for congressional oversight of the Executive is the next village that must be destroyed in order to save it.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to turn over the transcript of President Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur after the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees requested it, the Daily Caller has learned.

The House Oversight Committee requested the transcript via letter on Feb. 12, giving the DOJ until Monday, Feb. 19 at 5 p.m. to respond. The DOJ did not turn over the transcript or other documents in the report that were requested, sources with both committees told the Daily Caller.

"We haven't received what we requested and everything is on the table as to what is next," a Judiciary committee spokesperson told the Daily Caller.

"The DOJ has not provided the materials requested and the committees will soon follow up about the chairmen's request," an Oversight committee spokesperson told the Daily Caller.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller's request for comment.

Hur released his special counsel report on Feb. 8 detailing Biden's handling of classified documents. While Hur decided not to pursue charges against the president, the special counsel made note of Biden's declining mental state.

In a five-hour interview with the president on Oct. 8-9, Hur noted that Biden seemed to forget when his vice presidency began and ended as well as when his late son, Beau Biden, died.

The report added that if Biden were to appear before a jury, he would present himself as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

...

Biden himself addressed the report in a press conference after its release, during which he blamed his staff and took no responsibility for mishandling classified documents, and claimed concerns about his mental faculties are a press fabrication.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:40 PM | Comments (272) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Oh No! Viewers Are Tuning Out Hollywood's Newer TV Series In Favor of Just Rewatching Old Shows Over and Over Again

Buhhhhh whyyyyyyy?!

The new shows are so much more Diverse and do so much Work for Trans Visibility.

Are you telling me that the public does not consider hardcore propaganda and social engineering to be entertainment?

The most streamed show last year wasn't the latest Netflix reality TV show craze. Nor was it the highly anticipated final season of "Succession" or the debut of "The Last of Us."

According to Nielsen, the most minutes last year -- more than 57 billion -- were spent watching "Suits," a legal drama that premiered 12 years prior.

The show, which is available to stream on Netflix and Peacock, stars the former actress Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, and likely has her to thank for its second life. But "Suits" isn't the exception.

Old shows, which debuted over a decade ago, dominated the top streamed list of 2023. Several of the programs, including "Suits," "Gilmore Girls," and "Friends" have been off the air for years.

According to Nielsen, the most streamed acquired shows of 2023 were: [table omitted, but the shows are Suits, Bluey (Disney's only highly rated show, and they don't produce it, they merely license it), NCIS, Gray's Anatomy, Cocolmelon, The Big Bang Theory, The Gilmore Girls, Friends, Heartland, and Supernatural].

Many of these shows also have a persistent nostalgia factor. The New York Times recently described "Gilmore Girls" as "an endless buffet of TV comfort food."

Oh, as opposed to the "daring" "quality" shit that streamers produce themselves?

Maybe the incredible shift from favoring talent and experience in the writers room, to favoring simple quota-driven diversity, might have something to do with the rejection of newer shows:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (504) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden's Invasionary Force of Illegals Would Together Make Up the Fourteenth Most Populous State in the Union

It's a conspiracy theory to say that Democrats are attempting to import Democrat voters through the open border, though.

Nearly 7.3 million migrants have illegally crossed the southwest border under President Biden's watch, a number greater than the population of 36 individual states, a Fox News analysis finds.

That figure comes from US Customs and Border Protection, which has already reported 961,537 border encounters in the current fiscal year, which runs from October through September.

If the current pace of illegal immigration does not slow down, fiscal year 2024 will break last year's record of 2,475,669 southwest border encounters -- a number that by itself exceeds the population of New Mexico, a border state.

The total number of southwest land border encounters since Biden assumed office in 2021 is 7,298,486, CBP data shows.

...

Compared to the largest US states, the 7.3 million number is about 18.7% of California's population of 39 million, 23.9% of the state of Texas and its 31 million residents, 32.3% of the population of Florida and 37.3% of New York. It's more than half the size of Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio.

Were the number of illegal immigrants who entered the United States under President Biden gathered together to found a city, it would be the second-largest city in America after New York.

And the total does not include an estimated additional 1.8 million known "gotaways" who evaded law enforcement, which would make it bigger than New York.

Taken together, nearly 10 million migrants have crossed into the US illegally during the Biden administration, a record Biden's critics assert could only be achieved by intentionally refusing to enforce the law.

...

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

The border is under control, they perjured themselves.

As Texas reinforces the border, criminal border-crossers move west, to San Diego:

San Diego sees 500% increase in border apprehensions as crisis shifts west

MXM Exclusive

Quick Hit:

The San Diego Sector reports over 140,000 apprehensions in FY24, with more than 20,000 individuals from China -- marking a 500% increase compared to the previous fiscal year. These numbers highlight a significant shift in immigration patterns under President Biden's tenure and a shi

Key Details:

The San Diego Sector has apprehended over 140,000 individuals, a notable increase from previous years.

Over 20,000 apprehensions from China, representing a dramatic 500% rise compared to the last fiscal year-to-date.

Under President Trump, apprehension numbers were lower, with policies focused on stricter border control and immigration enforcement.

David Strom points out that Biden has repeatedly said he can't close the border, not without Congress "helping" him close the border, by granting mass amnesty and work visas. (How does showering illegal border-crossers with more welfare and more inducements to break our laws help close the border?)

But now that his fake "presidency" is at stake, Biden begin saying "Oh wait, maybe there are some things I could do myself to shut down the flow of illegals..."

Biden's inconsistency [on executive power to close the border] stems from something darker, though--he is pivoting in an election year from a policy of open borders and active importation of illegal immigrants to one that he believes necessary to win an election. Everybody knows his goal is to reopen the border if he wins reelection.

We know this for many obvious reasons, the most prominent of which is his refusal to do anything to stanch the flow of illegals until it started hurting him with his constituents. He kept on insisting that the border was open solely because the Republicans refused to cooperate with his policies, and he could do nothing on his own.

Suddenly, that excuse has gone out the window. Not because he discovered any new principles in the law but because open borders threatened his reelection prospects. He is losing Black voters, and he needs them.

NBC "News" mentions some steps Biden is contemplating, which are well within his power to do (unlike, say, granting mass amnesty for student loans).

One thing he could do is just require those judging fake asylum claims to bring a little more skepticism to the proceedings than none at all:

Under the new policies, asylum officers would be instructed to raise the standards they use in their "credible fear interviews," the first screening given to asylum-seekers who are trying to avoid deportation for crossing the border illegally.

As you might guess, to be eligible for an asylum hearing at all (and to be "paroled" into the interior of the country while you wait eight years for that hearing), you have to explain that you have a "credible fear" of persecution. Every illegal currently meets this low threshold by simply lying. If their country isn't politically repressive, they'll say there's some criminal gang threatening them. They are required to provide zero evidence to show this "credible fear" is actually... credible.

And Biden can change that zero standard hearing with the stroke of a pen.

And Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be told to prioritize recently arrived migrants for deportation, in a "last in, first out" policy, the officials said.<

A congressional aide with knowledge of the deliberations said the Biden administration has yet to make a decision, but raising the bar on asylum and deporting more newly arrived migrants are considered "low hanging fruit" and actions that can be taken quickly.

Ohhhhh! It's "low-hanging fruit," now!

But I thought Biden couldn't do anything unless Congress granted a mass amnesty!

I doubt he'll do these things. But it's interesting that he admits that, like Dorothy, he had the power inside him all along.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (345) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cellphone Services Throughout the Country Experienced Mass Outages Today;
Is It a Cyberattack?

The outage is affecting 911 calls.

The outage seems to be affecting mostly big cities on the east coast, including Montreal.

The NY Post:

A major cellphone outage affected users across the US early Thursday -- even stopping some police departments from being able to receive 911 calls.

AT&T seemed to have experienced the largest number of issues, with nearly 32,000 reports at around 4:30 a.m., according to data from DownDetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from sources including user-submitted errors on its platform.

More than 800 service outages were also reported on T-Mobile and Verizon, although a spokesperson for the latter put it down to users reporting problems trying to call people with other services.

Others reported issues on smaller carriers including Boost Mobile, Consumer Cellular and Straight Talk Wireless.

The problems extended from New York, Boston, and Atlanta on the East Coast to Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco -- and even to Montreal in Canada.

...

On Verizon and T-Mobile, spokespersons told The Post their networks are operating normally.

Some fear this was a cyberattack:

MikePrasad.eth
@mikeprasad

Confirmation from around the US on a nationwide cellular network outage. Seems to have affected @ATT first, then later reports from other phones on @TMobile @Verizon and more. I can't imagine this is incompetence or a single node failure. Concerned it could be a #cyberattack.

Maro Roobles is warning that the Chinese have the capability to take out much more than our phone systems.

GOP Sen. Marco Rubio warned on social media that the AT&T outage affecting tens of thousands of Americans pales in comparison to what a potential China cyberattack would look like.

"I don't know the cause of the AT&T outage," the Florida Republican posted on X on Thursday. "But I do know it will be 100 times worse when #China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a #Taiwan invasion."

"And it won't be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (418) | Trackbacks (Suck)

A 6 Foot Tall Bearded Male Transgender Injures Three Girls During Single Basketball Game

The opposing team, which was comprised of all girls, three of whom left the game with injuries, was forced to forfeit rather than continuing to expose its girls to physical harm.

A Massachusetts high school girls' basketball team was forced to forfeit its game after a transgender player on the opposing team injured three players.

The Collegiate Charter School of Lowell Girls' Basketball team dropped out of their February 8 game against KIPP Massachusetts after one of KIPP's players, who is a biological male, injured three of their athletes.

Collegiate Charter School officials said the team decided to forfeit because the other players feared getting injured and not being able to compete in the playoffs that were a few days later.

'The bench was already depleted going into the game with the 12-player roster having four players unable to play,' said Collegiate Charter School spokesperson Casey Crane.

'When the coach saw three more go down in the first half leaving him with five players, he made the call to end the game early. The upcoming Charter School playoffs were looming, and he needed a healthy and robust bench in four days.'

The school which allows this hulking bully and to LARP as a female basketball player claims in its defense that it is very concerned about the "safety" of girls.

Apparently not. It only cares about the "psychological safety" of a mentally-ill brute.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:34 PM | Comments (535) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Google's AI: There Is No Firm Evidence That Hamas Commits Terrorism and Rape, But We Definitely Know for Certain that There are Many Attacks Against Palestinians and That Israel Engages in Disproportionate Killing of Civilians

If you saw the post yesterday, -- and if you didn't, it's worth the click; this story will be unfolding over the next few weeks -- Google's AI is so determined to present Diverse! and Inclusive! images that it portrays America's Founding Fathers as American Indians and subcontinental Indians, and Africans, and also displays German soldiers circa 1943 as Asian women.

Deb from American Greatness hopped on Google's AI image generator, called Gemini, and gave it a few easy assignments.

First, Gemini, produce some images of Santa Claus for me:

Santa Claus has nice jugs.

Then she asked Gemini to produce images of a pope:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:17 PM | Comments (610) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

One of the Biden/Obama Junta's greatest errors has been the destruction of American petroleum production, and the concurrent significant increase in the price of petroleum on the world markets. Of course that is their plan...to drive up the price of oil and drive us into EVs and eating bugs and living in the 18th century.

But they have also handed Russia and Iran an incredible windfall. Those two countries rely on oil revenue, and they were in financial trouble when the Trump economy took the shackles off of American production. Russia's government budget...the one they use to pay for weapons...sh*ts the bed at $40 oil, and Iran's is no better.

But oil has doubled in price since the stolen election of 2020, and Russia and Iran are swimming in a sea of cash. How else would they pay for their fancy new toys? Well, I guess Iran just writes checks on accounts we have helpfully unfrozen! But I digress...

North Korean Missile Used In Ukraine Was Packed Full Of U.S. Parts

short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) produced by North Korea and recently used against Ukraine by Russia relied on more than 290 foreign-sourced components, many of them originating from U.S. manufacturers. This is the alarming result of a study by Conflict Armament Research (CAR), a U.K.-based investigative organization.

More concerning, perhaps, is the fact that according to CAR's study -- which you can read in full here -- those U.S. components were manufactured within the last three years. This raises clear questions about the efficiency of United Nations sanctions placed on North Korea which are intended, above all, to disrupt its wide-ranging ballistic missile development program.

Yeah...there's another really big problem there, but the first is bad enough. Russia has the cash to buy lots of missiles from North Korea, courtesy of the drooling, senile idiot who is the mouthpiece for the worst foreign-policy administration in America's history.

That other problem is systemic...sanctions administered by the United Nations to stop or slow North Korea's ballistic missile industry are laughably ineffective. But everything the UN does is pathetic, so that shouldn't surprise anyone. Sadly, the question of whether the American corporations manufacturing some of the parts used in those missiles knew where their products were going is a question that will never be answered under a Democrat kleptocracy in D.C.

But the hits keep coming!

Russia Receives Around 400 Ballistic Missiles From Iran

Iran's provision of around 400 missiles includes many from the Fateh-110 family of short-range ballistic weapons, such as the Zolfaghar, three Iranian sources said. This road-mobile missile is capable of striking targets at a distance of between 300 and 700 km (186 and 435 miles), experts say.

So Iran's oceans of cash pays for Hamas and Hezbollah to attack our staunch ally in the Middle East, pays to build missiles that it sells to Russia, who uses their oil revenue to pay for them. And where's our cut in this lovely little circle of death? Well, we borrow money to pay for arms and cash that we send to Ukraine to fight the Russians and to Israel to fight the Islamists. And we also borrow money to buy the expensive oil that we need to run our economy.

Luckily the graft flowing from Ukraine will ensure that those elites responsible for this foreign-policy clusterf*ck will have wonderful retirements!

But Trump said "pussy!"

Doesn't that make perfect sense?

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (465) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

The Student
Francisco Oller

Posted by: CBD at 09:35 AM | Comments (374) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 2/22/24

Good morning, kids. There's a line from Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen reacts, about being given the assignment to take out Col. Kurtz for murder, "Charging someone here for murder is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indianapolis 500." Even a cursory examination of the dystopian landscape that our society, culture and government have utterly degenerated into, would likely yield an equal number of examples of corruption. Obviously, as the saying goes, the fish stinks from the head. But that doesn't preclude any number of places within and of the body politic that aren't equally rotten.

In fact, if you want to understand how it is that we've been laid so low, it starts with average people in our own neighborhoods, towns and cities. After nearly 60 or more years of brainwashing primarily in our schools and the parallel shunning of personal responsibility, ethics and morals in exchange for the selling of our souls to the devil, we have produced several generations of citizens who have neither an inkling of what American citizenship means and in point of fact view it as something to be scorned and despised.

What are the hallmarks of a banana republic? If you said a cult of personality, rampant political corruption and the wielding of the instrumentalities of office to silence one's critics, it's not just in Washington DC these days. It's almost everywhere and, as I suggest, it's how DC got to be that way:

The FBI is probing self-described “super mayor” Tiffany Henyard over mounting accusations of misconduct and misuse of office — as the Illinois Attorney General shut down her charity Tuesday, The Post has learned. The eccentric mayor — whose face is plastered across billboards in tiny Dolton, Ill. —  is accused of spending taxpayer money on lavish and unnecessary trips and forking over one million dollars on a police detail then using them to retaliate against her percieved enemies. 

Lawrence Gardner, 57, said he visited an FBI office after Henyard shuttered his trucking business because he refused to renew a $3,500 political contribution. “The FBI came out and went to talk to me and I gave them all the paperwork that I had,” Gardner told The Post. “They took photo copies … their division is public corruption.”

The business owner said he made an initial donation to Henyard, but she demanded more. “I made the payment,” he said. “Then every year, she started coming and required the same thing, and we had a problem about that.” When he refused to give her campaign more money, officials claimed he was illegally selling alcohol out of his business and pulled his license, according to Gardner, who said the allegations against him were false.  The FBI told Gardner they received scores of complaints against Henyard “but they were just starting an investigation,” he recalled. . .

. . . The FBI investigation, first reported by Fox 32, is also using electronic surveillance, the station reported.  Sherry Britton, a vocal Dolton resident, said the FBI paid her a visit last week, but she is remaining tight lipped on their advice. “I want to see her stopped,” Britton told The Post Wednesday. “This has to come to an end. This has to stop, it’s ridiculous.”

A spokesperson for Henyard told The Post they are unaware of any investigation, saying: “Mayor Tiffany Henyard and the Village of Dolton have not received any subpoenas and have not been contacted by the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”

Meanwhile, Henyard’s charity “Tiffany Henyard Cares” was ordered to stop seeking contributions, Fox 32 reported. The charity did not register with the Attorney General’s Office or detail how much money they have raised, according to the station.  An investigation by Fox 32 uncovered Henyard using a $10,000 Thornton Township donation for the charity.

They also reported on her using taxpayer money and public employees to support the troubled charity.  

Dolton, a small village of about 20,000 residents, is now swimming in around $5 million of debt.

 

So, shakedown the taxpayers, loot the treasury, plaster your portrait all over place, leave the citizenry to suffer, and threaten anyone who might stand in your way. Doesn't that have a familiar ring to it? And sadly, tragically, the first name that comes to mind isn't necessarily Papa Doc Duvalier and Haiti.

Speaking of third world banana republic shit hole failed states Dolton is, if I'm not mistaken a bedroom community of . . . Chicago.

The lawsuit seeks “relief in the form of compensatory and loss-of-use damages, penalties and fines for statutory violations… as well as associated fees, interest, and other relief as deemed appropriate by the jury at trial.”

In other words, the Windy City is seeking billions of dollars from fossil-fuel companies based on the ridiculous assertion that they peddled products for decades that are now causing basements to flood on the West Side of the city.

I can’t help but wonder if this is a desperate money grab seeing as how Chicago is facing a $540 million budget shortfall in 2024. I also wonder if the recent influx of migrants to Chicago, which is costing the city millions of dollars per week, played a role in the lawsuit. After all, Mayor Johnson has been out and about hat in hand begging for funds from Cook County, the state of Illinois, and even the federal government to cover the cost of the migrant situation.

Of course, Johnson and his administration are also playing the race card on this issue. Angela Tavor, chief sustainability officer and commissioner of the Chicago Department of Environment, argues that “the lived experience of our residents tell us that [the] climate crisis disproportionately impacts under-resourced communities and exacerbates racial inequities.”

. . . If the six companies in the lawsuit decide to close shop in the Windy City, how would that impact the millions of Chicagoans who rely on the oil and natural gas delivered by those very companies on a daily basis? Would it improve their living conditions? Would it lift them from poverty? Would it even make any difference in the worldwide weather patterns that inevitably affect Chicago? In a word, no.

Ironically, this idiotic and baseless lawsuit will most likely result in Johnson’s constituents having less access to the affordable, abundant, and reliable energy that they crave.

Even worse, if the fossil-fuel industry were to declare Chicago a no-go zone in the future due to their concerns of potential litigation, the city would cease to function. Life in Chicago as we know it would grind to a halt.

This is of course madness. And it's a madness that feeds upon itself until at some point it has to consume itself. When Stalin's numerous 5-Year Plans ultimately and inevitably failed, whatever the firing squads couldn't deal with were shipped off to the gulags. Of course none of "the usual suspects" were to blame for counter-revolutionary subversion and sabotage when as we all know it was the policies and those who pimped them that were at fault.

They unleashed the criminals by decriminalizing crime and when businesses close up shop rather than being robbed and looted with impunity, it's the business owners that are accused of being "racist" since getting robbed is quite obviously seen as some sort of reparations for slavery or someting. Meh, tell that to the true believer who sees everything through the warped prism of Leftist anti-American, anti-Western dogma.

Even black Americans, after suffering the depredations of the anarcho-terrorist crimewave unleashed by their elected representatives and exacerbated by a wide open border have had enough of this crap. Another hallmark of banana republics and failed states are vigilantism and death squads.

Look what the hell is happening in this one Pennsylvania town. At some point, when law enforcement cannot and worse will not enforce the laws to protect the citizenry, there will be a reaction. In a sane world, there would be.

Meanwhile in another part of the forest, kangaroo courts, show trials and clearly anti-Constitutional verdicts are being hurled at Donald Trump for one reason and one reason only: his continued threat to the past nearly 80 years of the Ponzi scheme that was postwar America which he exposed and is now crashing in on itself.

There are eerie commonalities in all these five court cases involving plaintiff E. Jean Carroll, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, federal special counsel Jack Smith, and Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.

One, they are either unapologetically left-wing or associated with liberal causes. They filed their legal writs in big-city, left-wing America—Atlanta, New York, Washington—where liberal judges and jury pools predominate in a manner not characteristic of the country at large.

Two, they are overtly political. Bragg, James, and Willis have either campaigned for office or raised campaign funds by promising to get or even destroy Donald Trump. Carroll’s suit was funded by left-wing billionaire Reid Hoffman. Smith sued to rush his court schedule in hopes of putting Trump on trial before the November election.

Three, there would not be any of these cases had Donald Trump not run for the presidency or not been a conservative. . . Four, in all these cases, the charges could have been equally applicable to fellow left-wing public figures and officials. . .

. . . We are entering a dangerous era in America.

Ideology and party affiliations increasingly determine guilt and punishment. Opponents are first targeted, and then laws are twisted and redefined to convict them.

The left is waging lawfare with the implicit message to political opponents: either keep quiet or suffer the consequences.

And now Letitia James, the Fani Willis of Dolton IL mayors is threatening to literally seize Trump Tower because, obviously, she can!

Of course, with everything collapsing in on the junta and unfortunately on top of us, what does the Kalorama Klown Komintern think will save the day?

Well, wipe Israel off the map, naturally!

It appears President Biden is moving to sell out Israel, with a possible UN Security Council resolution calling for a “temporary” cease-fire (which would surely become permanent) and opposition to an Israeli attack on Rafah, the last major Hamas stronghold.

But then Tuesday the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, which our garbage media are shamefully describing as “widely supported” without reporting that within the UN “diplomatic community,” antisemitism is “widely supported.”

What the hell is going on?

A closer look at the Biden resolution reveals equivocations, calling for a cease-fire “as soon as practicable” and linking it to hostage releases, which “would help to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” Clearly Biden wants to have it both ways, posturing as someone who supports Israel while working for a “diplomatic” solution. Do Biden’s people, let alone the rest of the world, really think this mealymouthed resolution would be taken seriously? . .

. . . Older Democrats mostly support Israel, but younger Democrats, many of them hopped up by the antisemitic ideologies of college-campus hothouses, support an unconditional cease-fire, when they are not actually pro-Hamas. The irresolute Biden, facing a tough re-election and paralyzed by progressive kryptonite, is trying to have both ways. Biden has never been a stout supporter of Israel.

His clashes with Israeli leaders date back to the 1980s at least, when he sparred publicly and privately with then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that relations between Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are at “the breaking point”: “Biden abruptly ended their Christmas-week call following a tense exchange about civilian casualties,” it said.

“Biden, who was so angry that he was almost shouting in the Dec. 28 call, according to officials, declared the conversation ‘over’ and hung up.” The final piece of evidence of Biden’s bad faith is the persistent talk of creating a Palestinian state — the mythical “two-state” solution — to help end the war against Hamas. . .

. . . If a Palestinian state is the ultimate outcome of the current conflict, it will mean Israel was defeated by the Oct. 7 attack, even if Israel kills every Hamas fighter. Even in his present debilitated state, President Biden surely knows this, but his political self-interest, as always, will determine his decisions.

As disastrous as this would be, I don't think it's going to happen. Just as Latino- and Black Americans are disgusted with Biden, so are a growing segment of a previously divided lsraeli society.

Meh. Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants becomes the great unifier he was pimped as.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• "The IRS’ practices are so egregious, I’m just going to report to all of you what Mena told the undercover journalist, and you can decide for yourselves."
  Bombshell Report: O'Keefe Media Group Uncovers IRS's Use of AI to Spy on Americans' Bank Accounts, DOJ/IG Run Program
  
• "The litigation boils down to the public’s right to know what makes the mind behind a mass shooting tick."
  11 Months After Nashville Christian School Attack, Police Are Still Hiding Trans Shooter’s Manifesto
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "We are entering a dangerous era in America. The left is waging lawfare with the implicit message to political opponents: either keep quiet or suffer the consequences."
  Blue Laws for Red Citizens
  
• "Unfortunately, CBDCs [central bank digital currency] probably would be not only the ultimate government surveillance tool but, therefore, also a way to prevent political and religious dissidents from buying anything or going anywhere."
  Experts, Politicians Cite Dangers of Feds’ Planned Digital Currency

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:22 AM | Comments (483) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 22 February 2024

Top Story

• The drama around Google's hyper-racist new AI, Gemini, has become so damaging that Google has deigned to acknowledge the complaints of its customers. (BBC)
  
  "Historical contexts have more nuance to them and we will further tune to accommodate that", wrote Jack Krawczyk, senior director for Gemini Experiences. "We have now been made aware that white people actually exist. We're not happy about it, but we'll adjust Gemini to let them out of the cage every so often."
  
  (The Verge also covered the story, but their take is so desperately woke that it makes Gemini's "Nazis of Colour" photoshoot look tame by comparison.)
  
  
  
• Are you more racist than ChatGPT? (Tech Crunch)
  
  If so, you might want to consider a career in journalism.
  
  The writer of this piece does not seem to recognise that he "won" a test for producing racist stereotypes.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (151) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (2/21/24)

***

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

“All told, we intend to do this the right way so that we can create the right conditions for a safer, more peaceful future. And we will continue to actively engage in the hard work of direct diplomacy on the ground until we reach a final solution,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield

Quote II

“It’s a very small price to pay to preserve paradise,” Hawaii’s Democratic governor, Josh Green

Quote III

"For them to win over the opening of the Atlantic they will have to spread, and eventually force the Mid-Atlantic ridge to subduct. This may take more than 20 million years." Dr. João Duarte of the University of LisbonGuess we won't be around to find out he was wrong.

Quote III

Skepticism about democracy — yet never ever explicitly voiced — is a growing problem among Democratic Party thinkers (though not Ezra). On one hand, they wish to turn around and call people on the Right, or libertarians, “undemocratic,” or “anti-democratic,” or whatever. On the other hand, when it comes to actual decisions of great consequence, they are the ones terrified of the democratic processes they themselves have created. They know that, but can’t quite bring themselves to voice their doubts in those terms. Tyler Cowen

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:58 PM | Comments (532) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Premature Humpday Cafe

Adopted dog is happy.

Ninja smooch.

I am Birdmaster, Elemental Master of Parakeets!

Only two of these apartments are actually paying for cable.

Poor dog.

Drone flyover of Icelandic volcano.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (226) | Trackbacks (Suck)