Republican Representative Accuses House Intel Committee Head Mike Turner of Recklessly Pushing RUSSIAN Panic Porn Just to Stampede Americans Into Supporting His Corrupt Ukraine Aid Package

Get. These. People. Out. Of. Congress.

But Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) on Thursday accused Turner of having ulterior motives, citing the battle over both funding for Ukraine and a bill to reauthorize the nation's warrantless spy powers -- each of which has raised some Republican opposition.

"This revelation by the chairman was done with a reckless disregard of the implications and consequences said information would have on geopolitics, domestic and foreign markets, and the well-being and psyche of the American people," Ogles wrote in a letter first reported by Punchbowl.

"In hindsight, it has become clear that the intent was not to ensure the safety of our homeland and the American people, but rather to ensure additional funding for Ukraine and passage of an unreformed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA.) This act constituted poor judgment at a minimum and a complete breach of trust influenced by the pursuit of a political agenda at the maximum."

Ogles said Turner's actions "revealed to the American people an imminent and perhaps existential threat to the United States of America."

Yes, it reveals The Regime intends to rule over Americans as if they were all dukes and kings.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:05 PM | Comments (364) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Roundup of the Latest EV Follies (02/16/2024)

Legacy automakers made a catastrophically bad bet on EVs. They are now suspending some new product launches, slashing production on existing EV products, canceling multi-billion dollar battery projects, pivoting to hybrids, and redeploying employees from underutilized EV factories to plants that produce the vehicles that consumers actually desire, e.g. those with gasoline engines.

“The Six Months That Short-Circuited the Electric-Vehicle Revolution; Automakers went all in on battery power, but buyers have proven more hesitant” [WSJ – 02/14/2024]

Some auto executives acknowledge they got ahead of the market with overzealous demand projections.

“Some auto executives” could have avoided billions of dollars in unnecessary losses if they had talked to me before committing so heavily to the EV fantasy.

[Ford CEO Jim] Farley and other industry CEOs are still confident that EVs will eventually take off, albeit at a slower pace than initially envisioned. But for now, the massive miscalculation has left the industry in a bind, facing a potential glut of EVs and half-empty factories while still having to meet stricter environmental regulations globally. “Ultimately, we will follow the customer,” GM Chief Executive Mary Barra told analysts this month.

It’s good that Mary Barra is now acknowledging that General Motors has no choice but to “follow the customer.” Unfortunately, she had previously promised to take GM all-electric in barely a decade, mistakenly believing that GM has the capability of leading the customer down that path, rather than following the customer. GM does not have that capability.

I’ve previously covered how Ford is having to retrench from its failing EV programs. But as noted in the quote up above from the Wall Street Journal, Ford’s destructively inept CEO, Jim Farley, is still a believer in the EV transition. He is clearly willing to destroy Ford Motor Company in pursuit of the globalist anti-carbon agenda.

So how did Ford’s EV division fare in 2023? “Ford’s electric-vehicle business lost nearly $4.7 billion in 2023 and could lose another $5 billion this year, but CEO Jim Farley argues the automaker is undervalued…”

A ship that is taking on water is rarely “undervalued.” How do you “undervalue” a business that is willing to lose $10 billion in just two years on a product that customers don’t want?

Ford sold 72,608 electric vehicles in the US in 2023. Its $4.7 billion loss on EVs averages out to over $64,000 for every electric Ford sold in the US in 2023. Ford’s Board of Directors will have to address the crisis in their CEO office sooner rather than later.

*****

Even Californians Are Giving up on EVs.

In “EV friendly” California, total electric vehicle sales declined in the third quarter (Q3) of 2023 from the number sold in Q2, and then the bottom fell out in Q4, with EV sales declining another 10%, or about 11,000 cars.

“EV sales start to fall in California; Consecutive quarters of falling EV sales could derail state's zero-emission vehicle transition target” [Automotive News – 01/31/2024]

The pain was spread among all EV manufacturers, with Tesla’s sales decreasing by about 5,000 units, and the other manufacturers combining for a decline of about 6,000 units.

“Tesla California registrations fall for the first time since the pandemic” [Reuters – 01/31/2024]

Registrations of Tesla dropped 10% in the last quarter of 2023, the first fall in more than three years in the state, which is one of the most important markets for the electric carmaker and considered a national trend setter.

Is it possible that Q4 EV sales plummeted in California because total vehicle sales also fell? Nope. Not the case.

This was the fifth consecutive quarterly increase in new car sales in the state. The Q4 2023 pace of new car sales showed a slight acceleration compared with Q3, posting a 6% increase.

Sales of the various forms of hybrid are rising rapidly as even California car buyers are starting to reject EVs.

*****

Speaking of Tesla…

We’ve talked a lot in these EV updates about how part of the appeal of Teslas is the “exclusive” hassle of owning one. Here’s another exclusive hassle, the new Cybertruck is prone to rusting and needs lots of swabbing. Just a few months after the first ones were delivered, customers are already complaining that the “stainless steel” isn’t stainless.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (399) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Gray and Brass
John Sloan

Posted by: CBD at 09:15 AM | Comments (454) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report (2/16/24) Seftonless Edition

***

Good morning. Sefton has identified as a Lutheran and took the Ladies Aid hostage at the local church. He is demanding Matzo Ball Jello Salad. Negations are ongoing.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 06:58 AM | Comments (547) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 16 February 2024

Top Story

• Apple has publicly confirmed that it has broken support for persistent web apps (PWAs) on purpose. (Tech Crunch)
  
  The company went on to explain that it broke support because its operating system is buggy and insecure, and because it hates its own developers and users.
  
  They didn't mean to explain that, but they did.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (119) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Home Is The Sailor, Home On ONT

So, who had Tucker Carlson going all Walter Duranty on their 2024 bingo card? The interview was fine, but gushing over a literal Potemkin village came out of the blue. Anyway, tonight's question: How dad are you?

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (450) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Goofy Dogs Cafe

"Time Traveler" by @yeraysg

GET UP!

White peacock in flight.

Magic!

Dog is confused by the odd sound this woman makes.

Chillin' like a villain.

A cute little girl and little sheep. Has a spring-like feel, for Paco.

Mystery Image: Can you figure out what the heck this is? No, it's not a Dark Angel climbing the sky. (I'll post the answer at the end of the post, after the embedded vids.)

This has been my whole week.

This is gonna be me this weekend.

I think this is a Skekis from The Dark Crystal but I'm not sure.

Your Daily Dose of Baby Goat.

Yay, I won...

This is a dog who knows what he wants and who's not afraid to say so.

Sound ON:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (186) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Shellenberger: Sources Say That the FBI Raided Mar-a-Lago to Get Their Filthy Hands on the File About the CIA's Treasonous Decision to Spy on the Duly Elected President

Ahhh... this begins to make sense.

Last December 15th, as Americans decorated trees, lit Menorahs, and prepared to tune out for winter holidays, CNN ran an extraordinary article titled, "The mystery of the missing binder: How a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Trump."

Co-authored by Natasha Bertrand, the gargantuan expose claimed a mysterious "binder" of "highly classified information related to Russian election interference" went "missing" in the chaotic waning days of Donald Trump's presidency in January 2021, raising concerns that some of America's most "closely guarded national security secrets... could be exposed."

CNN and its intelligence sources meant "exposure" in a bad way. Sources have told Public and Racket, however, that the secrets officials worry might be "exposed" are ones that would implicate them in widespread abuses of intelligence authority dating back to the 2015-2016 election season.

"I would call [the binder] Trump's insurance policy," said someone knowledgeable about the case. "He was very concerned about having it and taking it with him because it was the road map" of Russiagate.

Transgressions range from Justice Department surveillance of domestic political targets without probable cause to the improper unmasking of a pre-election conversation between a Trump official and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to WMD-style manipulation of intelligence for public reports on alleged Russian "influence activities."

...

Corruption, not tradecraft, is what officials are desperate to keep secret.

...

As Public and Racket reported yesterday, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had foreign intelligence agencies run an illegal spy operation against then-candidate Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. This illegally acquired intelligence was used to justify the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official probe, "Crossfire Hurricane," which in turn spurred the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The documents in question are said to contain information about the legal justification for those investigations, or more specifically, the lack of justification, among other things. Should more of that information be made public, it might implicate a long list of officials in serious abuses.

Questions like these may be answered if the 10-inch thick binder of sensitive documents about the origins of the Russia probe is made public.

Fear for reputations and careers, not national security, is what has intelligence officials panicked.

Multiple sources believe that Trump's possession of the binder, or one of multiple binders, led the FBI to raid his home in Mar-a-Lago, which led to the prosecution of Trump by Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith.

A source close to the House Intelligence investigation said, "We think a lot of that product in Mar-a-Lago is" what investigators "went through." The FBI was "worried that there was a copy [of the binder] there," said the person.

A source close to Trump said, "I think [retrieving the binder] was part of [FBI's] motivation. It was Russiagate. It was years of FISA [surveillance warrant] abuse. It was doing a 702 [FISA] query to surveil 300,000 Americans. It was using taxpayer dollars to fund the Steele memo and get Justice Department lawyers when we fired Christopher Steele. It was the mountain of corruption we uncovered."

Other sources pour cold water on that, and point out that if the dossier contained revelations, Trump would have told us all already. He's not known for restraint or discretion.

Maybe there's a middle possibility: The file isn't the one the CIA wanted to keep secret, but they thought it was, so they trumped up a national security crisis and sent their stateside agents in the FBI to steal it back for them.

More at the link.

I subscribe to Shellenberger and would recommend him to anyone interested in not only this story, but in the government's campaign to censor Americans.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (188) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Puck: The White House "Reporters" All Knew That Biden's Dementia Had Entered the Galloping Phase, But Covered It Up

Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, Puck bothered to ask White House "reporters" if they noticed that Biden was in steep mental decline, and they said yes, the "reporters" had discussions among themselves about it all the time.

They just didn't see fit to share this with the public they supposedly serve.

Dylan Byers:

This week, I surveyed members of the White House press corps--reporters, on-air correspondents, photographers, etcetera--and they all emphasized that the symptoms of Biden's age had become more noticeable in recent months and a frequent discussion topic at the desks behind the Brady briefing room. "Anyone who covers this White House knows he's showing the signs of his age--he whispers, he shuffles, he misremembers," one White House reporter told me. "Anyone with an elderly parent knows what this is."

Since the beginning of Biden's term, many White House journalists have reported on, or alluded to, concerns surrounding Biden's age in often gentle or euphemistic ways. Nevertheless, several of the journalists I spoke with said the true significance and importance of that issue, as they observed it, was not reflected in the coverage--often due to the sense that it was sensitive or unseemly, or because there was no obvious evidence that it had affected his performance as president beyond optics. Or, left unsaid, perhaps because they didn't want to ruin their relationship with the White House by being the lone wolf to speak up.

Or, just maybe, reporters are an all-Democrat Guild who fight hard to elect Democrats and suppress negative information about them to the extent possible.

"It was something that felt indelicate to talk about," one member of the White House press corps told me. In retrospect, some journalists felt like it probably warranted more coverage: "The amount of time we spent talking about it versus the time we spent reporting on it was not the same," one of the reporters said. "There should have been tougher, more scrutinizing coverage of his age earlier."

Like in 2020, maybe?

No, of course not. Notice they're now setting up the Modified Limited Hangout Fallback Position that while Biden is showing mental decline, he only started really showing it in the past few months. Thereby absolving themselves of the cover-up before 2020, and the coverup from 2021 until a coupe of months ago.

They're only (anonymously) copping to an Insufficiency of Effort in the past couple of months. Since Christmas, basically.

Morrissey commented:

Of late, we hear plenty from the news industry about a "crisis" for democracy as their platforms downsize or fail. They are a necessity for a well-informed republic, media professionals insist, But how can they make that argument while at the same time refusing to actually inform the public, especially about a critical failure at the head of government and state?

They work in a Higher Sort of Truth, peon.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (239) | Trackbacks (Suck)

"Drillable Hours:" Some Thoughts on the Sweetick/Fani Gangbang of Lies
Update: The Judge Scolds Fani, Tells Her to Answer the Questions Posed With Fewer Histrionics Or He'll Strike Her Testimony

One thing I'm thinking with the hearing is this:

They are trotting out a lot of claims with no evidence -- "Fani paid me back for all of these trips, but only in cash, and no, I have no deposit slips for when I deposited this cash into my account, you'll just have to take my word for it as a He-Wore selling his man-pussy" -- and Fani's claim that of course she keeps thousands of dollars in cash in her apartment to pay for trips "because my daddy told me a woman should always have six months of cash lying around."

She is using this lie to explain why there are no bank records showing her withdrawing money to repay Sweetdick.

He has no records of ever depositing the cash; she has no records of every withdrawing it.

Because Her Pappy told her to always have $30,000 in cash (or whatever the figure is) on hand, squirreled away in a hidey-hole in her dirty Fuck Shack.

Sweetdick was asked to provide bank records so he could prove his claims. He refused. He's offering his lies as a defense, and when someone asks him to prove it, he says "No thanks."

Similarly, he refuses to release his lawyer from privilege so he can say what he observed as far as the start of the affair. Sweetdick says it began in 2022; his lawyer... says he will not answer due to client-lawyer privilege. When Ashleigh Merchant asks him if he will release his lawyer from privilege to answer this one question, he says "No thanks."

This is how criminals at a criminal trial behave -- but these are public officials and officers of the court at a disqualification hearing. And they're lying and evading like common fucking streetrat hoods.

So they can claim these things, offering bizarre family lore about a woman needing to have six months salary on hand in cash to explain away the lack of bank withdrawals, but... does anyone believe them?

What I'm thinking is that they are preparing for their perjury trial. These lies are are defense for perjury charges. You can't prove they're lies, so they might get by with reasonable doubt.

But these obvious self-serving lies are NOT fit to fight a disqualification hearing. In a criminal trial you can just lie and say "Now you prove I'm lying, and if you can't, that's reasonable doubt."

But that's not the standard in this hearing. This hearing does not require these things be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, just by preponderance (majority) of the evidence.

And so we have one witness, Fani's friend, who says she knew about the relationship dating from 2019; we have Sweetdick's lawyer, Lone Ball McQuaid, saying he absolutely refuses to answer about when he observed the beginning of the relationship.

We have financial records proving Sweetdick paid for all of Fani's flights (except for one very inexpensive flight from Atlanta to Miama, which costs about the same as Big Gulp), and only Sweetdick's and Fani's evidence-free claim that she paid him back.

In cash.

Do you have deposit slips for when you deposited that cash into your account? No I don't.

Do you have withdrawal slips proving you took that money out to repay him? No I don't. My Pappy told me that a Stronk Empowered Woman should always stuff her fucking pillow with six months' worth of rent and expenses in cash, so I just took the payment out of my fucking Money Pillow.

Is the judge really going to buy this unbelievable bullshit?

These are public officials. They're supposed to be forthcoming with the truth, not hiding it, not invoking privilege and refusing to turn over records.

Not daring the White Judge to say these two Strong Empowered Liars of Color are lying.

Instead, they're acting like skeevey hoodrats who do a lot of cash transactions in paper bags.

And when you ask them what they're doing with $20,000 in a paper bag, they go, "What money?"

Update:

Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley

...Judge issued a caution to Willis that he will strike her testimony if she continues to fail to answer specific questions...

Another Update: Why are there zero bank records of her withdrawing cash from the bank?

Because, silly, she'd just take out an extra $50 from Publix when she went shopping:

she's claiming she replenished $4K from *one* vacation not with bank withdrawals but getting the extra $50 out from the checkout at Publix. Ooookay.

Posted by: the dandy at February 15, 202r

The dandy also points out that she's supposed to report any gifts she's received -- AND any reimbursements of those gifts.

She reported neither. Now she says she just reimbursed gifts without having ever reported them, and there are no records of this, so you'll just have to take her word as a Liberal Democrat for it, and she didn't know she was supposed to report these things, and how can you question a Strong Independent Black Woman like this after what they did to George Floyd?!?!

Joel Pollak
@joelpollak

Fani Willis is lying. Her denials are far too specific. Asked whether Wade visited her at a place she was living, she says he never visited her at South Fulton. The judge has to caution her to answer the questions, or he'll have to strike her testimony. She's discrediting herself

Also, lawyers are digging into the question: Why did you not inform your staff that you were involved in a romantic relationship with someone you hired a contractor, as the rules require?

She says "I didn't know about that rule."

What-ever.

Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley

...Willis was just asked if she was aware that she is required to disclose any personal relationships with those under contract...

...She said that she was unaware of that requirement.

This gets at their general credibility -- they generally lie and refuse to acknowledge the affair, so why would anyone expect them to tell the truth in this hearing?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:32 PM | Comments (435) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Another Harvard Administrator Accused of 42 Counts of Plagiarism in Her Dissertation

Ivy League more like Jivey League amirite

A Harvard Extension School employee was accused of plagiarism in a 42-count anonymous complaint submitted to administrators, according to a report.

In the complaint, Harvard Extension School administrator Shirley R. Greene was accused of plagiarizing 42 times in her 2008 dissertation at the University of Michigan, according to the Harvard Crimson.

According to the report, Greene's dissertation compares her summary of Jean Kim's theory of Asian American ethnic identity formation along with a summary that was similar to Janelle Lee Woo's 2004 Ph.D. dissertation, but Greene didn't cite Woo.

The complaint was sent to the chair of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' professional conduct committee at the Cambridge, Massachusetts institution on Friday, according to the report.

In another instance, Greene's dissertation contains a table comparing "ethnic identity development" stages that were suggested in five scholars' models, according to the report. Her dissertation displays a table that was similarly formatted and contained similar descriptions of academic concepts.

Jonathan Bailey, who operates the Plagiarism Today blog told the outlet that portions of the complaint were "especially worrisome" while some were "plain silly."

So all of these "elite institution academics" do is write near-identical papers about race and "ethnic identity," huh?

And we're spending tens of billions of dollars to pay for these vital endeavors, huh?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:52 PM | Comments (404) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Transracial Goofball Rachel Dolezal Fired from Job as Schoolteacher, Presumably Due to Spicy OnlyFans Side-Hustle

In a further sign that she's in a downward career spiral, she announced she intended to start dating Anthony Weiner.

(Just kidding.)

(But I'm calling it now.)

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:55 PM | Comments (514) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Climate Insurrectionists Vandalize The Display Containing The Actual Physical Copy of the Constitition With Red Powder

I don't expect there to be any consequences for this desecration of a national artifact.

Not even for "parading."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:11 PM | Comments (361) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Joe Manchin: Here's an Idea I Just Thought Up and Definitely Have Not Been Focus Grouping for Months: How About I Run Third Party with Mitt Romney as My Running Mate?

The Calvin Coolidge Project
@TheCalvinCooli1

Just in: Joe Manchin says he would ask Mitt Romney to be VP should he run as a third party candidate in 2024 saying, "Hypothetically, if I was picking my running mate, really who I would ask right now is Mitt Romney," He mentioned former Senator Rob Portman as a VP choose too.

Rob Portman? They think there are enough fans of Northern Exposure to swing an election?

This would be a net win for Trump. The thing is, all of the NeverTrump Republicans and neoliberal corporatists who would vote for a Democrat ticket just because Noted Severe Conservative Mitt Romney was the undercard are already voting for third party candidates, not voting, or voting for Biden.

The only group of people who would switch to vote for this ticket in large numbers are disaffected Democrats, and disappointed neoliberal Biden "Republicans."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:00 PM | Comments (551) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Witness: Fani Willis Sexually Trafficked Nathan Wade, Imprisoned Him, Hooked Him on Heroin, Made Him Her He-Whore, and Then Gave Him the "Street Name" of Darrius "Sweetdick" Honeycum, Esq.

I can't back that headline up. It might be a just a tetch exaggerated.

However, a former employee and former "good friend" did finally testify that Fani has been Ridin' Dirty with Sweetdick since October-November 2019.

Nathan Wade, who is now known on the streets by his callboy name of Darrius "Sweetdick" Honeycum, Esq., filed a statement with the court that their relationship did not begin until after he was hired to be the Very Special Prosecutor in the Trump persecution. Fani Willis then submitted that statement as her answer to the disqualification motion, thereby affirming that perjured statement herself, with her own signature appended to it.

They are both repeatedly perjuring themselves because it's already bad, and disqualifying, if Fani started banging Sweetdick after she hired him, given that he then basically engaged in kickbacks by using some of the $650,000+ she paid to him with taxpayer money to pay for cruises, air flights, and hotel rooms.

But if she was already banging him and decided to hire her Callboy with taxpayer money... well that's misuse of taxpayer funds for personal benefit right there. And conflict of interest, because Fani Willis has a personal interest in keeping her Hired Wang living large. She has an incentive to keep this clownshow going and ring up the maximum number of billable hours.

As mentioned in the sidebar, Sweetdick's lawyers have objected to virtually every single question and answer. They claimed an impossibly broad "attorney-client privilege" for his sometime lawyer Terrence Bradley, claiming that not only were actual communications privileged, but anything Bradley just observed with his eyes.

Note that lawyer-client communications are protected, not lawyer-client personal observations. But Bradley claimed the latter were protected, and refused to answer.

In fact, not all lawyer-client communications are protected. Just those made in service of preparing for a case or seeking advice. If Sweedick rolled in one morning and said "Smell my fingers," that's not a lawyer-client privileged communications.

I don't know how that was resolved as I had to stop listening for a bit. I imagine the judge rejected this claim, but I think they mentioned that any denial of a claim of privilege would be certified to the state supreme court for their ruling.

Then a former employee and former "good friend" of Fani Willis', Robin Yeartie, was called, and the lawyers repeatedly objected to every question about her knowledge of their affair, claiming it's "hearsay" for her to report what Fani Willis told her. (Statement against interest is an exception to the hearsay rule.) Ultimately, this witness did testify the affair began in October or November of 2019, making Fani and Sweetdick perjurers. They're not impeaching her testimony, painting her as an angry ex-employee who was disciplined for poor work performance. The only headway Sweetdick's lawyers have made is getting this woman to say she had no knowledge of Fani and Sweetdick actually cohabitating.

At Hot Air:

Why is this important? Attorneys cannot willfully lie or misrepresent the truth in court filings. They risk both perjury charges and disbarment for doing so. They can refuse to answer and risk a contempt charge, and then hope an appellate court will intervene. But that's not what Willis did; she declared that her relationship started in 2022. Yeartie's testimony exposes that as a lie, assuming Judge Scott McAfee finds it credible. And that alone could and almost certainly would disqualify her in this case, forcing an end to Fulton County's participation in the case.
Advertisement

That's still a big if, but Yeartie moved the ball quite a distance to that today. We'll see if Merchant has any other witnesses willing to testify to it.

At the moment, Merchant has Wade on the stand and is grilling Wade on his own prior representations to this court and in his divorce. He's trying to dance around conflicting claims over the receipts and bank records over his travel with Willis. I don't know if Wade's semantics are impressing the judge, but I don't think they're impressing anyone else.

Sweetdick's on the stand now. He's claiming he didn't perjure himself when he claimed he had no affair "during his marriage" because, in his mind, the marriage was "irretrievably broken" and therefore, in his mind, the marriage was over.

Imma start calling him Sweetongue!

Apparently the defense to perjury is going to be: Maybe we had sex before she hired me, but in my mind, the "relationship" didn't begin until 2021!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:00 PM | Comments (452) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Do you want an example of the unbelievable stupidity and parochialism of the media? Because it doesn't get much better than this!

Peter Savodnik, late of "Vanity Fair, as well as GQ, Harper's, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Wired and other venues" conflates Tucker Carlson's naive interview of Vladimir Putin with the attitude of the entire American Right. Never mind that there has been significant criticism on the Right of Carlson, and widespread mockery of Putin's interminable lecture disguised as an interview.

Savodnik is too stupid...too lazy...too entrenched in coastal smugness to understand that there is a huge difference between being skeptical of our involvement in Ukraine, and giving Putin tongue baths.

Why Is the American Right Pandering to Putin?

It isn't. And Tucker Carlson does not represent the American Right. And if Savodnik had paid any attention he would have discovered deep disagreement with Carlson's foreign policy opinions. Yesterday is a great example. Ceasefire in Gaza above all other considerations is not a mainstream opinion in conservative America, and the philosophy behind it is suspect. Carlson's pie-in-the-sky ideal of America as some quasi-religious force for good has never existed, except in the abstract.

The Right is far more interested in what is best for America, and its rational calculation that Ukraine is most assuredly not good for America does not mean that America should support Russia and Putin. My guess is that "A plague on both your houses" is probably the most popular sentiment!

But Savodnik's stupidity also exposes the weakness in the globalist left's support for Ukraine in its border war. They speak as if it is axiomatic to support anyone and anything against Russia and Putin, yet there is no articulation of the geopolitical necessity for that support. PUTIN BAD is not a political philosophy.

Is Russia going to continue on into Poland or Romania once it conquers Ukraine? No. First, Russia is having a tough time just with Eastern Ukraine. They have a long way to go before they hit the Western border (if they even want to try). Second, Poland is a much tougher opponent, and along with Romania is in NATO. So feckless as NATO has turned out to be, an attack on a member state will elicit a martial response that is more significant than America and Europe's support of Ukraine.

Oh...where are the clarion calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine? The scale of destruction and death dwarfs that of Gaza, yet the American and European left is conspicuously silent. I wonder why?

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (379) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Pythagoreans Celebrate Sunrise
Fyodor Bronnikov

From Ace: The Sweetdick disqualification hearing is underway, live.

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (447) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Fake Morning Report Because Of A Cheese Curd Incident

[Hat Tip: JM]

Well, you'll have to suffer my links instead of Sefton's actual, real, well-thought-out, grown-up news links. He had a cheese-curd accident (really, an explosion), and coupled with that sh*tty fake Manhattan that Wisconsinites drink, it was a near thing. But he will be back, better than ever, after the grafts heal.

• The Biden/Obama Junta is comfortable with the deaths of their adversaries!
  Bombshell Report Reveals Mayorkas 'Personally Rejected' RFK Jr. Secret Service Protection
  
• Donkey-Chompers may be the stupidest person in our federal government!
  AOC: There Will Be 'Grave Impacts' on Democracy If Trump Becomes President
  
• The one thing you can count on in finance is that everything changes..all of the time.
  Nvidia market cap threatens Alphabet after overtaking Amazon
  
• What a f*cking surprise. Academic elites are nasty anti-Semites. And that pinched-faced scold "Judenrat" Kornbluth needs to die in a fire.
  MIT Leaders Assembled a Faculty Advisory Group on Campus Anti-Semitism. Then They Ignored It.
  
• Because the Republican party is a bunch of worthless catamites.
  Democrats Capture Majority in Pennsylvania's House After Special Election
  
• This is actually a big deal!
  China Rapidly Outpacing US In Shipbuilding Capabilities In Bid For Maritime Dominance
  
• I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.
  Ingham Clerk Barb Byrum, detective husband allegedly used 'local political influence' to reinstate son at school with his rape victim
  
• Because our military now sucks.
  Why is the U.S. Navy Running Out of Tomahawk Cruise Missiles?
  
• In spite of the Biden/Obama Junta's hatred of him!
  Domestic Support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Rise
  
• What a f*cking genius!
  Sen. Rick Scott: McConnell 'Not Representing Republicans'
  
• Where are the fathers of his victims? They should beat this little ass to a pulp, and then move on to his parents.
  Male High Jumper Tops High School Girls' State Record
  
• They'll probably lose, but the sentiment is grand. And more people need to order $1.13 dental floss from Amazon and have it delivered for free. Teach them a lesson!
  Lawsuit: Amazon Showing Ads on Prime Video Is 'Deceptive,' 'Unfair'
  
• Good! Let Europe pay for Ukraine's war.
  Zelenskyy turns to Europe for aid as Trump bashes US funding package
  

Posted by: CBD at 06:50 AM | Comments (583) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 15 February 2024

Top Story

• In a clear sign of the End Times, the UN and the European Court of Human Rights have both affirmed that forcing companies to create encryption back doors to enable governments to spy on their civilian populations is a violation of human rights. (Ars Technica)
  
  I mean, duh, and I don't expect this will stop anyone for even a minute, but it's still a little surprising to see them state the obvious.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (141) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (2/14/24) VD Edition

***

A touching Love Story submitted to us by the Sentimental CBD.

A woman awakes during the night to find that her husband is not in bed. She puts on her robe and goes downstairs to look for him. She finds him sitting at the kitchen table with a hot cup of coffee in front of him. He appears to be in deep thought, just staring at the wall. She watches as he wipes a tear from his eye and takes a sip of his coffee.

'What's the matter, dear' she whispers as she steps into the room, 'Why are you down here at this time of night.

The husband looks up from his coffee, 'It's the 20th Anniversary of the day we met.'

She can't believe he has remembered and starts to tear up.

The husband continues, 'Do you remember 20 years ago when we started dating, I was 18 and you were only 16,' he says solemnly.

Once again, the wife is touched to tears. 'Yes, I do' she replies.

The husband pauses The words were not coming easily. 'Do you remember when your father caught us in the back seat of my car'

'Yes, I remember' said the wife, lowering herself into the chair beside him.

The husband continued. 'Do you remember when he shoved the shotgun in my face and said, "Either you marry my daughter or I will send you to prison for 20 years'

'I remember that, too' she replied softly.

He wiped another tear from his cheek and said "I would have gotten out today."

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:50 PM | Comments (371) | Trackbacks (Suck)