Fleedom!

The LA Times "reports" -- were told what to write by Kamala's PR people -- that she's run away to the Blue Bubble of California.

So the "president" is on vacation 40% of all days and Kamala Harris has absconded to California.

Matt Margolis:

"For Harris, the impulse to escape Washington -- where she faces Republican scorn and criticism within her own party -- for downtime at home has been difficult to satisfy over the last few years," the article explains. "While President Biden has made a near weekly habit of returning home to neighboring Delaware, the taxpayer-funded, cross-country flight to L.A. is harder to justify unless it includes official business. Harris' trips home to L.A. are often camouflaged with an event to celebrate a local small business or a stop to raise awareness about one of her policy focuses such as Black maternal healthcare or reproductive rights. The vice president was also anchored to Washington during the first half of her term to cast tiebreaking votes in an evenly divided Senate."

At times, the article reads like a smarmy puff piece about a celebrity showing off her oasis from the paparazzi, with the harsh realities of Harris's lackluster vice presidency oozing through the cracks. "But the Brentwood home, largely concealed by its verdant surroundings, has become a sanctuary for one of the world's most visible figures," the article continues. "The four-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot house, less than a mile from Sunset Boulevard and roughly a 10-minute drive from the Will Rogers State Historic Park, is off-limits to reporters. In October, a group of protesters pulled up in cars outside to call for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, though Harris wasn't there to hear their pleas."

Her PR people realize that it sounds like Kamala Harris is useless -- I mean, she runs off to California and she needs to alert the press to this fact, because no one otherwise noticed -- so the LAT and her PR people then do some backfilling to insist that when she is in DC, she's really very important. A VIP VP, doncha know.

See the article for that.

Meanwhile, the President of Vacations falls to his lowest approval rate yet.

Only one-third of U.S. adults say they approve of President Biden's job performance -- a record low for his presidency and for any president in the last 15 years.

In an ABC News/Ipsos poll, conducted Jan. 4-8, only 33 percent of those surveyed said they approved of Biden, a drop from the previous poll in September 2023, when 37 percent approved of his performance. Biden's disapproval rating is 58 percent, up from 56 percent in September.

That's bad -- but Trump's numbers are only a little better.

Biden, who is running for reelection, has a lower approval rating than former President Trump, who is the leading GOP nominee for president.

Asked when "looking back" whether they approve or disapprove of the way Trump handled his job when he was president, 41 percent of respondents said they approve, down from 48 percent in September. Trump's disapproval rating is 53 percent, up from 49 percent in September

Here's the thing: We can celebrate Biden's low approval rating, but he's not going to be allowed to be the candidate if (when) those low numbers persist.

On the other hand, we in the GOP are determined to lock ourselves to the second-most unpopular candidate, and then just sort of hope that the eventual Democrat nominee earns a very negative approval rating in a few short weeks.

Meanwhile: The White House was "swatted".

White House is SWATTED: Prank caller calls 911 to say residence was on fire and someone was trapped inside

Call was made around 7 am on Monday
Led to fire trucks and ambulances swarming White House
Call is suspected to be a hoax

By Emily Goodin, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Published: 10:49 EST, 15 January 2024 | Updated: 11:52 EST, 15 January 2024

Fire trucks and ambulances swarmed the White House on Monday morning after a caller told 911 dispatchers the building was on fire and someone was trapped inside in what appears to be a 'swatting' incident.

President Joe Biden was at Camp David when the call came. D.C. fire and emergency services dispatched 13 units in response.

But the call was quickly determined a false alarm. The White House now appears to be the latest victim in the dangerous 'swatting' trend that is sweeping the country.

This is not a swatting. SWAT was not called. Firefighters do not show up at a fire with weapons hot looking to shoot at fires. When someone is swatted, armed cops show up expecting to see someone about to kill his wife and children.

A swatting is an attempted murder using amped-up but unknowing SWAT officers as a weapon. The fake 911 call at the White House, on the other hand, is literally nothing.

But this will get 100x the coverage of the multiple swattings of MTG and the swatting of the computer shop owner that Hunter Biden slandered.

Thanks to ciampino.

And also meanwhile: The Iranians Biden continues to send billions to are bombing the US Embassy in Iraq.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:10 PM | Comments (402) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Held over from Thursday, so you know it's all the hottest breaking newzzz!

But I added a lot more than you saw on Thursday.

The Biden economy's so hot even the tech giants are shedding staff.

Google has laid off hundreds of employees working on its hardware, voice assistance and engineering teams as part of cost-cutting measures.

The cuts come as Google looks towards "responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead," the company said in a statement.

...

Google is increasingly focusing on investments in artificial intelligence, as is rival Microsoft, with the latter introducing a Copilot feature that incorporates artificial intelligence into products like search engine Bing, browser Edge as well as Windows for its corporate customers.

...

The cuts follow pledges by executives of Google and its parent company Alphabet to reduce costs. A year ago, Google said it would lay off 12,000 employees or around 6% of its workforce.

...

Google is not the only technology company cutting back. In the past year, Meta -- the parent company of Facebook -- has slashed more than 20,000 jobs to reassure investors. Meta's stock price gained about 178% in 2023.

Instagram is also cutting 60 jobs.

Instagram has cut 60 technical program manager positions, eliminating a layer of management at the company, according to a new report from The Information. The impacted employees have two months to apply for other jobs at the company. After the two month period, their employment will be terminated if they are unable to secure a different role at the company.

Amazon, which bought Twitch for some reason, is now cutting staff at the Porn For Kidz site.

Amazon is laying off about 500 employees in its Twitch livestreaming unit, an executive overseeing the unit wrote in a memo to staffers.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said the cuts were being made in an effort to "rightsize our company."

Amazon also cut staffers in its Prime Video and Amazon Studios units on Wednesday.

is laying off about 500 employees in its Twitch livestreaming unit, an executive overseeing the business wrote in a memo to staffers Wednesday.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said the cuts were being made in an effort to "rightsize our company" and align its headcount with the current size of the business.

Amazon acquired Twitch for almost $1 billion in 2014. The site is most known as a popular livestreaming platform for video gamers.

No, it's not. It's best known for Twitch Thots who show their tits and camel-toes and do porny ASMRs for children, begging kids to send them cash.

Twitch thots are always "accidentally" showing their nipples. After a Twitch Thot stopped pretending to accidentally show her nipples and just showed her nipples while daring Twitch to ban her for it, Twitch changed its terms of service to allow women to show their nipples to children. They called this "Artistic Nudity."

They then walked that back and now Twitch Thots will be forced to the old system of "accidentally" showing their nipples again.

Amazon is also cutting staff at their Amazon Video studios.

By the way, Amazon will start blasting commercials into your face on Amazon Prime starting January 29, unless you fork over another $3 per month.

NBC "News" is also laying off its, giggle, "journalists."

NBC News was undergoing a series of layoffs across the division on Thursday, impacting what was described as a double digit number of employees in its workforce.

A source familiar with the plans said that the number of those laid off would be in the 50 to 100 range out of several thousand employees...

The job cutbacks are the latest to hit a media outlet, with other organizations taking more severe action to trim their staffs. CNN cut hundreds of employees in 2022, while NPR last year trimmed about 10% of its workforce. The Washington Post recently offered buyouts that saw the departure of many well known journalists as it sought to cut its staff by 240.

Disney is also laying off workers at one of its four failing movie companies, Pixar.

Disney-owned animation studio Pixar is poised to undergo layoffs this year, TechCrunch has learned and the company confirmed. While sources at the company said the layoffs would be significant and as high as 20% -- or reductions that would see Pixar's team of 1,300 dropped to less than 1,000 over the coming months -- Pixar says those numbers are too high.

Oh, Pixar says? Well no one at Disney ever lies, so.

Imagine having not one but four separate movie divisions and seeing them all fail massively at the same time.

And then, for some reason, you get to keep your job, claiming "Covid did it." No really, they're still saying that The Bob Iger Grooming Company is seeing every division and every movie bomb due to covid.

How bad is The Bob Iger Grooming Company doing? This bad: For the first time in history, Disney and the Disney-bought-and-ruined company Pixar have been shut out of nominations at the biggest animation award show.

For the first time in 32 years, Disney and Pixar films were completely shut out of the Best Animated Feature category at one of Hollywood's major animated awards bodies.

Though Disney released both Elemental and Wish to theaters in 2023, neither film landed among the nominees in the Annie Awards' top bracket, marking the first time that's happened since the category was introduced in 1992.

The Annie Awards honor the best in animated excellence each year, and are often a predictor of the Best Animated Feature Oscar contenders each year -- with Disney and/or Pixar scoring big nominations (or victories) for Best Animated Feature at the Annies every calendar year for over three decades.

Die, media. Die screaming.

Update: Disney is re-releasing movies they claim didn't get enough exposure due to having been released during covid.

The first one of these films to be released is Soul. But Disney's hopes for Vengeance Box office are dashed. The film made $99 per showing.

Less than a hundred buck per showing. That's like 8 tickets.

Thanks to andycanuck.

Update: Film Threat raved about The Beekeeper.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:55 PM | Comments (312) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Oh really? Now that's a bad thing, huh?

Donald Trump is sparking fears among those who understand the inner workings of the Pentagon that he would convert the nonpartisan U.S. military into the muscular arm of his political agenda as he makes comments about dictatorship and devalues the checks and balances that underpin the nation's two-century-old democracy.

A circle of appointees independent of Trump's political operation steered him away from ideas that would have pushed the limits of presidential power in his last term, according to books they've written and testimony given to Congress. Most were gone by the end. In a new term, many former officials worry that Trump would instead surround himself with loyalists unwilling to say no.

Let me know what you think will happen if Congress refuses to fund Biden's war for his funders and paymasters in Urkaine. I think he'll just assert the unilateral authority to give US money to a foreign country. What do you think, NBC "News"?

Trump has raised fresh questions about his intentions if he regains power by putting forward a legal theory that a president would be free to do nearly anything with impunity -- including assassinate political rivals -- so long as Congress can't muster the votes to impeach him and throw him out of office.

This is farcical, as the great Matt Taibbi reported. This claim that "Trump says he can assassinate US citizens and not be prosecuted for it" is entirely a fiction of the leftwing propaganda media.

Reporters keep plunging to bizarre new lows in coverage of Donald Trump. The new jam: his lawyer argued presidents can assassinate rivals. Except he didn't, at all.

Trump's "election interference" criminal case is on hold, pending an appeal heard by a trio of judges this week. Citing a traditional interpretation of Article II of the Constitution, the former president is asserting he must be impeached and convicted in the Senate before he can be criminally tried for any official act.

MSNBC, in an article by former New York County prosecutor Jordan Rubin, unsuprisingly panned the claim in, "Trump's immunity argument highlights the absurdity of his position." The relatively restrained Rubin wrote:

Donald Trump didn't have a strong chance of winning his immunity claim heading into oral arguments Tuesday in Washington, and the argument itself showed why... Judge Florence Pan pointed out that, under Trump's theory, a president could order SEAL Team Six to murder the president's political rivals and, so long as they're not convicted in an impeachment trial, they're off the hook.

That's not really Trump's argument highlighting the absurdity of anything, and more like Judge Pan's doing so, but whatever. Rubin also said Trump is a good bet to lose his argument, adding, "Trump lawyer John Sauer asked the panel to pause any decision against the former president" while "he challenges it on higher appeal."

Trump is arguing that he cannot be prosecuted for any act in furtherance of his constitutional mandate. Guaranteeing the security and accuracy of election results does fall within his mandate. Straight-up murdering people because he's Big Mad does not.

But the propaganda media not only distorts his argument, but then they argue that Trump is claiming "I can whack a guy if I feel like it and it's all legit."

...

Even more incredible was a parade of reports appearing to claim Trump himself argued the "SEAL Team Six" idea. "Sen. Schatz warns of 'new turn' for Trump with 'Seal Team 6' claim," was the header for a Chris Hayes interview of Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz. Schatz said it was "one thing" when Trump was "essentially engaging in stochastic terrorism," but here "the official position of Trump's lawyers is going to be that he could order a murder of his political rivals using SEAL Team 6."

Wow. Really? Yes, according to Newsweek, which wrote in its opening paragraph:

Democratic Senator Brian Schatz has claimed "American democracy is at stake" in the upcoming presidential election after Donald Trump's attorney argued presidential immunity would extend to political assassinations during a Washington, D.C. court case.

There's a long list of similar headlines. The Hill: "Trump team argues assassination of rivals is covered by presidential immunity." Mediaite: "Trump Lawyer Argues Presidents CAN Order Seal Team 6 To Assassinate Rivals In Stunning Appeals Courtroom Exchange." The Bulwark, semi-humorously: "Trump's Lawyers Argue Biden Can Assassinate Him."

Maryland's Jamie Raskin, gaining fast in the always-heated race for a rep as the dumbest current member of congress, fretted to fellow gentleman-scholar Wolf Blitzer on CNN:

As a member of Congress, my first thought was, well, then if the president is going to order out for the assassination of his political rivals, and say there's a narrow margin in the Senate of a two or three vote in the opposition party, what's to keep him from murdering members of the Senate to make sure that he doesn't get convicted there in order to deny a two-thirds majority?

See Taibbi for reportage on what really happened. This leftwing judge kept asserting that Trump's theory would mean that that he can whack anyone he likes, and his team kept saying, "No, it doesn't mean that at all."

And the media's take? "Trump argues he should be allowed to kill people like fucking Jason Vorhees at summer camp."

Back to NBC "News:"

Now, bracing for Trump's potential return, a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs.

Oh you mean an extraconstitutional, election-"fortifying" unelected "resistance" is organizing to stop a duly-elected president from executing the office to which he was fairly elected by the American people?

I mean, you're doing that... again?

The plan includes threats to (checks notes).. use the power of the state to harass and prosecute Trump's appointees.

Wow, we sure don't want Trump using the power of the state to harass and prosecute his enemies!

Those taking part in the effort told NBC News they are studying Trump's past actions and 2024 policy positions so that they will be ready if he wins in November. That involves preparing to take legal action and send letters to Trump appointees spelling out consequences they'd face if they undermine constitutional norms.

1, Trump is bad because he might prosecute political enemies

2, We're going to keep Trump in line by threatening to prosecute his political allies

Democracy cannot survive with half of the country insisting on the right to destroy anyone who disagrees with them.

Democracy is already dead, thanks to the left.

A poll finds the public split on whether Biden's disastrous economy or "protecting democracy" is the more important issue.

Bear in mind, Biden voters have literally no positive reasons to vote for this catastrophic stroke patient except for protecting abortion-on-demand and "protecting democracy." So obviously all Democrats will claim that "protecting democracy" is super-important.

That said, the fact that 50% of likely voters say that "protecting democracy" i more important is a bad sign for Trump. That means that 50% of the public is announcing they'll vote for Biden, because obviously no one but Biden voters would say that this is the more important imperative.

Likely voters across the political aisle diverge on whether having a strong economy or functioning democracy is a bigger concern over the next few years, according to a new CBS/YouGov poll.

Fifty percent of the total likely voters polled said having a strong economy is the higher concern, while the other half of respondents said having a functioning democracy was the bigger concern.

Update: Commenters are saying that that 50% includes Republicans as well, who might have their own (justified) concerns about the left destroying democracy itself.

Eric Blade read further into the article than I did -- whoops -- and yes, more than one third of Republicans say defending democracy is more important than the economy.

Broken down by party identification, 64 percent of Democratic voters said having a functioning democracy as a higher concern, and 36 percent listed having a strong economy as the bigger concern. Among Republican voters, 35 percent said a functioning democracy was a greater concern while 65 percent said a strong economy was more of a concern.

Okay, well, my interpretation of the 50% as being all (or nearly all) likely Biden voters is just wrong, then.

Like Martin Luther King Jr. before me, I have erred and been made to pay dearly for my sins by racists (you).

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:32 PM | Comments (345) | Trackbacks (Suck)

All she will commit to, weakly, is blocking those under 18 from surgeries. She will not say she would block those under 18 from being prescribed irreversible, sterilizing hormone blockers.

Haley was asked a very direct question by a caller who identified himself as "John" about men becoming women. She did not, however, offer a direct answer. Instead, Haley said people over the age of 18 "can live any way they want."

The question and fake answer:

HOST: And with that, let's go to our last question, John. John, you're live from Dubuque.

JOHN: Hi, Ambassador.

HALEY: Hi, John.

JOHN: A lot of the stuff that Trump does, you know, and says, really bothers me, and I'm concerned about it. You know, one thing I saw him do was, he said that, uh, he had trouble answering the question, could a man become a woman? And I'm just wondering what, what your response to that question is?

HALEY: Yeah, I mean, I think first of all, let's look at the facts. Again, I'm sorry that we didn't make it to Dubuque, and, and I hate that we're not there but I appreciate you coming on here.

Look, I mean, I have said, I want to start with Trump and then get to the question. You know, this is a hard truth on my part. I believe Trump was the right president at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies. But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. And everybody on this call knows that. And we can't be a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won't survive it. And I think a lot of that is how he communicates and what happens. It just sets us all in disarray, and we can't afford a President Kamala Harris.

Now, can a man become a woman. There's been a lot that's been talked about when it comes to all of these roles and all of these issues. I strongly believe that we should not allow any gender change surgeries to anyone before the age of 18. Period.

She's trying to sound tough here, while doing the absolute minimum.

We-- kids now can't get a tattoo until they're 18. We shouldn't have them permanently change their body until they're 18. And that includes puberty blockers, that includes any sort of hormones that would do that.

After the age of 18, we want to make sure people can live any way they want to live. I don't think government needs to be in control of anybody's life. You go live the way you want to live, you should be free to live the way you want to live, and every-- government and everybody else should stay out of your way.

But prior to 18, it is an important time, especially when you're going through your teenage years that can be confusing. I don't think we should ever in any way have any sort of permanent changes. But after 18, I'm not going to say anything. I think that, you know, you always have to believe in freedom and allowing people to live the life the way they want to live, and if that's how they choose then, you know, I don't think government should have any say in that.

Thank you for that question.

MegynKelly.com comments:

At no point did Haley actually address the question of biological males 'transitioning' to female and, presumably, the other queries that arise from that, including trans athletes' competition in women's sports, the use of women's locker rooms, etc.

In fairness, Nikki Haley's answer to this question is just Trump's rope-a-dope answer to this question, and people pretend that he's a warrior on the issue, so why not Nikki too?

The former South Carolina governor is not the first 2024 Republican candidate to make headlines for their position on this topic. Back in September, Megyn sought clarity from former President Donald Trump on where he stands on biological men in women's spaces and how he feels about gender reassignment hormones and surgeries for minors.

She also asked him directly: "Can a man become a woman?"

After a pause and chuckle, Trump offered this: "In my opinion, you have a man, you have a woman. I think part of it is birth. Can the man give birth? No, although they'll come up with some answer to that also someday. I heard just the other day, they have a way that now the man can give birth. No, I would say, I'll continue my stance on that."

Men will soon be able to give birth, Trump says, and that will settle the issue. I mean, if they can, hypoethetically, give birth, then they're women and should be allowed to compete in women's events and use women's bathrooms.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked the same question by Glenn Beck during a September sit down. "No, how ridiculous that we're even asking that question," he responded. "And you know, sometimes people will knock me because they'll say that he's talking about woke and you shouldn't worry about-- like, like people say, 'Who cares about it, right?' Look, society needs to be grounded in truth and if you're telling me a man can get pregnant and you're telling me a man can become a woman, that is not true and I'm not going to accept that as true. I'm not going to be complicit in a lie."

Trump has always been very, very liberal on this issue. He announced his leftwing take on the issue in 2016 stating that the state government of North Carolina should not block North Carolina cities and towns from mandating genderless bathrooms, stating that people should use "the bathroom they feel is appropriate." And he has not evolved since the first liberal take.

Transgender people should be able to use whatever bathroom they want, Donald Trump said Thursday.

"Oh, I had a feeling that question was going to come up, I will tell you. North Carolina did something that was very strong. And they're paying a big price. There's a lot of problems," the Republican presidential candidate said during a town hall event on NBC's "Today."

Note there he also implicitly endorses the leftwing boycott of the state by Hollywood and liberal sports leagues. He seems to have continued this "bow to leftwing corporations" line with his refusal to endorse the Bud Light boycott, and his attacks against Noted Gobalist Corporatist Ron DeSanctimonious for standing up to Trump's big donor, Disney.

Referring to comments from an unnamed commentator who on Wednesday said North Carolina should "leave it the way it is right now," Trump said he agreed.

"Leave it the way it is. North Carolina, what they're going through with all the business that's leaving, all of the strife -- and this is on both sides. Leave it the way it is," he said, referring to companies that have canceled plans to move or expand businesses in the state as a result of the law, which bans transgender individuals from using a bathroom that does not match their gender at birth.

"There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go. They use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate," Trump said. "There has been so little trouble. And the problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and the economic -- I mean, the economic punishment that they're taking."

The only "problem" with mandating that people use the bathrooms of their real sex is the "strife and economic... punishment" that the left uses to destroy conservative states and voters who dissent. Otherwise, "so little trouble"!

Anyone who thinks that the 71-year-old lifetime Hollywood liberal Trump is going to suddenly "evolve" on this issue is coping very hard.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:40 PM | Comments (375) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Truly, she too Has a Dream.

A dream of going on a taxpayer-paid vacation in Napa Valley and getting grape juice sucked off her toes after stomping some grapes.

Via David Strom, Fani Willis went to a black church for political campaigning purposes -- that's allowed; you're just not allowed to politick in a white conservative church -- and admitted that she has sinned and needs "grace."

And then she said: You know who else was smeared by an FBI sex scandal? That's right, Martin Luther King Jr. I'm just like him, when you think about it.

First she claimed that her taxpayer-provided Cockslinger had "impeccable credentials."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:30 PM | Comments (305) | Trackbacks (Suck)

I'm about to just defect from this party and never, ever vote for it again.

The only good thing is that Speaker Johnson replied "absolutely not" to this deal -- but what can a razor-thin House majority do when the entire Republican Party is Corporate Open Borders?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:18 PM | Comments (331) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Boeing was once a well-run engineering company that became very profitable from its well-engineered products. It is now a poorly-run manufacturing company being managed in the manner taught in elite MBA programs, placing an emphasis above all else on cost control and expense reduction.

It is also a company whose current version of its workhorse product, the 737 Max, continues to have catastrophic in-flight failures.

Part of the 737 Max fleet has been grounded, again, this time after a door plug came off the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines airplane while in flight. Back in 2018 and 2019, there were two fatal 737 Max crashes, both apparently related to poorly designed and programmed flight stabilizer systems.

This story from 2019 came out in the wake of the fatal crashes:

It remains the mystery at the heart of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max crisis: how a company renowned for meticulous design made seemingly basic software mistakes leading to a pair of deadly crashes. Longtime Boeing engineers say the effort was complicated by a push to outsource work to lower-paid contractors.

The Max software -- plagued by issues that could keep the planes grounded months longer after U.S. regulators this week revealed a new flaw -- was developed at a time Boeing was laying off experienced engineers and pressing suppliers to cut costs.

Increasingly, the iconic American planemaker and its subcontractors have relied on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour to develop and test software, often from countries lacking a deep background in aerospace -- notably India.

In 2019 there was an exceptional piece in The Atlantic. It discussed Boeing’s new direction in the aftermath of its merger with McDonnell Douglas, and the destructive takeover of Boeing by the cost-cutting executives who ran McDonnell into the ground. Their obsession with cost cutting and their contempt for the engineers and aviators who made Boeing great ultimately destroyed the great company. The relocation of Boeing’s corporate headquarters to Chicago was largely for the purpose of separating the brilliant money men now leading Boeing from those annoying engineering and manufacturing guys back in Seattle.

“How Boeing Lost Its Bearings: A company once driven by engineers became driven by finance” [The Atlantic – 11/20/2019]

Below are some excerpts. The entire piece has been archived and can be read here.

In the plane’s trailing vortices was greater Seattle, where the company’s famed engineering culture had taken root; where the bulk of its 40,000-plus engineers lived and worked; indeed, where the jet itself had been assembled. But it was May 2001. And Boeing’s leaders, CEO Phil Condit and President Harry Stonecipher, had decided it was time to put some distance between themselves and the people actually making the company’s planes. How much distance? This flight—a PR stunt to end the two-month contest for Boeing’s new headquarters—would reveal the answer. Once the plane was airborne, Boeing announced it would be landing at Chicago’s Midway International Airport.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (321) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Two Tax-Gatherers
Marinus van Reymerswaele

Posted by: CBD at 09:43 AM | Comments (295) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Good morning, kids. Today is the official federal holiday commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, which unlike many, for once falls on his actual birthday. For sure, he had his faults and his flaws like any other human being, but his core beliefs and what he fought for, and the ways of nonviolence that he advocated to achieve them stand in stark, absolute contrast with what the Anti-American Left and its co-conspirators in the Democrat Party have done to this nation in the 60 years since Dr. King's heyday (and really since Burr murdered Hamilton).

Instead of equality of opportunity, and content of character over color of skin, we have been "fundamentally transformed" into a dystopian society where things are just the opposite. I just have to write the name "Claudine Gay" and you can well imagine Dr. King somewhere in the great beyond weeping, if not hurling epithets. It's bad enough that we have a hierarchy based on the most irrelevant things such as racial, ethnic and sexual characteristics, but the purveyors of this poison have as central tenets the notion of oppressed and oppressors, where the latter are defined with the immutable characteristics of being genetically pre-disposed to being such. That is, an evil that must be eradicated, "by any means necessary."

Naturally, this is patent nonsense. Then again, so were the rantings and ravings of a certain Viennese housepainter who wrote the book Mein Kampf. Since Dr. King's assassination (and as an aside, the FBI lurks not far below the surface yet again), far too many individuals have been brainwashed and bamboozled into believing the same kind of poison. And here we are, virtually at each other's throats. Except it's more like a big hobnailed Manolo Blank jackboot is on ours.

The question remains, can we throw it off, because unlike those pressing down on our larynx we do not have the luxury of "any means necessary." Merely the instrumentalities of a system that has been so corrupted as to make regular order, elections, and even peaceful protest impossible. Friend and Cob CBD touched upon this yesterday in his piece "Is America Dead and We Just Don't Know It?

Well, maybe not dead but not at all well. Arguably one of the most horrid individuals in this nation, Malig-Nancy Pelosi opened her filthy sewer and belched this out.

During a recent appearance on CNN, Nancy Pelosi made a bizarre declaration that has many scratching their heads as to what she meant.

In the segment, host Phil Mattingly openly wonders why the polls are so close and asks her about it.

“You lay out what the former president has said he wants to do in terms of repealing Obamacare, in terms of being proud of Roe versus Wade being struck down, in terms of more tax cuts, along the lines of what you saw in 2017, that also polls much better for Democrats than it would for him,” Mattingly began. “And yet this is a neck-in-neck race and no one feels very comfortable in the Democratic side of things that Donald Trump isn’t going to be the next president.”

“Well, I don’t think that nobody feels, I think many of us know that it’s impossible for him to be the president again with what he’s proposing,” Pelosi told him.

Malig-Nancy Pelosi is many things, among them arrogant, corrupt, venal and drunk on power. She's also loud and in your face, yet of late, mercifully out of the public eye. So for her to suddenly pop up kind of raises the hair on the back of my neck.

If she were ever in a non-puff-piece interview, she'd fall apart into a mass of gibbering stammers before leaving in a huff. She has zero rhetorical skills except for being able to string pre-digested talking points and slanders which the media gobble up unquestioningly and uncritically. Propagandist Mattingly did ask her how she felt so confident but she merely stated it was because people supposedly overwhelmingly preferred Biden's "successes" over Trump's promises of "disaster."

But obviously there's more to this beneath the surface. While Pelosi is an octogenarian and for sure slowing down, she's nowhere near as limited in her mental capacity as Joey. "Many of us know it's impossible for Trump to be President." Remember four short (long) years ago, Pelosi guaranteed Donald Trump would not win the 2020 election. She wasn't confident, she wasn't wildly optimistic. She guaranteed that there was no way he would win.

Now four years later, with the same "temporary" measures like mail-in ballots, same day registration, ballot harvesting and non-verification, all as a result of the lockdowns still in place, you better believe she just tipped her mitt. Yet, on an optimistic note, if I can be optimistic pace CBD and Buck Throckmorton above, the situation in the nation and with the people is radically different from four years ago.

A change is coming that moves beyond mere electoral politics, rigged or not. Maybe this is a harbinger:

. . . I undertook what is, I believe, the first such analysis of the cumulative data from 17 current polls with a subset of Black voters, which revealed a striking, if not historical, shift in Black voting preferences toward the Republican Party, and particularly to Donald Trump. . .

. . . The aggregate of all 17 polls showed that 21.9% of black voters intend to vote for Donald Trump, with many individual polls showing Trump polling above 20%; for example, ActiVote had 34.4% of the black vote going to Trump.

The Trump preference range of individual polls varied from Blacks Yahoo News at 7% to HarrisX at 38%, demonstrating the importance of aggregation for a more comprehensive understanding.

Even if, on election day, it drifts back, I very much doubt it would drift back to the 12% Trump received in 2020. Even, say, 16% + stay-at-homes in the right cities would be a huge game changer. . .

. . . The potential electoral impact is clear. The concentration of Black voters in pivotal states urban areas like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Detroit switching to Trump by 17% could significantly impact the election outcome. These polls are Biden/Trump head-to-head; the inclusion of Cornel West if he gets on the ballot is a further challenge to Biden. . .

. . . The historic shift in Black voting preferences, as indicated by aggregated polling data, suggests a potential paradigm shift with far-reaching consequences for the Democratic Party. High-profile Black voices, combined with these polling numbers, indicate a notable trend that, if confirmed at the ballot box, could reshape the political landscape. The upcoming election may witness a significant increase in Black support for Trump, with potential repercussions for Democratic electoral strategies.

This has not come out of the blue. I noted indications of shifts among Black men in 2016 and 2020. Change usually does not come in a rush unless massive forces like the Great Depression, which shifted the Black vote nearly en masse from GOP to Democrat. But the shift from John McCain (4%) to Donald Trump (12%) -- and now polling at 21% -- shows which way the wind is blowing, and if confirmed at the ballot box, a new paradigm will be in place.

Boy oh boy (no racist pun!) do I have a dream today.

Whatever one thinks of polling especially this far out (or near, since elections are either light years away or right around the corner depending upon one's perspective!) is an eye-opener. In normal, non-rigged elections, if Dem support from blacks drops below IIRC 93%, that is a major alarm bell for the former. What this aggregate poll shows is a potential disaster. Even if as we can all assume the key swing states which have large urban areas that will be rigged for Biden, the amount of cheating will have to be so massive that it would be even more obvious than what we witnessed four years ago.

Here's the kicker, though. Unlike four years ago, we now have a significant number of Americans across the board who believe that 2020 was at least compromised and at most outright stolen (I had that poll some time last week, perhaps it was from National Pulse). That significant number via polling and anecdotally now includes blacks who are seething about the economy, transexual/homosexual indoctrination and most of all open borders. Now try stealing 2024, which no doubt the Dems will or have the battle plan to attempt it.

Be that as it may, as I said, I believe a sea change is coming regardless of elections and all their attendant now kabuki-bukkake crap. For all intents and purposes, and like it or not, Trump is going to be the standard bearer this year. If he does overcome the cheat, what can he do as chief executive with a bureaucracy that is going to essentially mutiny the moment he takes his hand off that Bible?

This of course assumes that said bureaucracy doesn't physically move against him and take him out. Remember: Trump is now literally Hitler, a tyrant who is going to throw people into concentration camps or worse. He is evil. And by defining him – and never forget by extension all of us as evil – then "any means necessary" can be used to stop him, and with a clear conscience. Dangerous days ahead, my friends.

Of particular note at press time but no time to cover:

Top Story

• FAQ to the Future: How we defeated deepfakes. (MSN / LA Times) (lolcow division)
  
  Apart from the obvious failure - the article is actually titled "An FAQ from the future" - and the manifold technical absurdities, the glorious idea promoted by the article is a digital Ministry of Truth:

  The newest phones, tablets, cameras, recorders and desktop computers all include software that automatically inserts the FACStamp code into every piece of visual or audio content as it's captured, before any AI modification can be applied. This proves that the image, sound or video was not generated by AI. You can also download the FAC app, which does the same for older equipment. The FACStamp is what technologists call "fragile": The first time an image, video or audio file is falsified by AI, the stamp disappears.

  This of course is totally voluntary - for about five minutes:

  A bipartisan group of senators and House members plans to introduce the Right to Reality Act when the next Congress opens in January 2029. It will mandate the use of FACStamps in multiple sectors, including local government, shopping sites and investment and real estate offerings. Counterfeiting a FACStamp would become a criminal offense. Polling indicates widespread public support for the act, and the FAC Alliance has already begun a branding campaign.

  Scratch a journalist, find a fascist.
  
  Never fails.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (208) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quote I

‘For a long time, we agonized. I went out in the snow and prayed to God for guidance. Without His consent, I felt I would be violating the memory of my friends; that I would be stealing their souls.’ Plane crash survivor Roberto Canessa

Quote II

“I thought I was responsible for setting academic standards and making sure that the grades and degrees the school was conferring actually held its value.” Professor Kendrick Morales

Quote III

“That border fight is coming and we’re going to die on that hill,”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA)

Thank you Morons for coming out for The ONT and sharing your thoughts with us. The best gang on the webz.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:59 PM | Comments (446) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread Lite - it's like lite beer, only different

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Apologies, guys and gals, but you're getting the low-calorie edition of the Gun Thread tonite. I am on a quick roadtrip to Tennessee with WeaselWoman and Fun Size Joe. No worries, WeaselCatv2 is being looked-after by the kitty sitter people. I promise to be back next Sunday with more wacky hijinks!

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (304) | Trackbacks (Suck)

I am in the land of the Cuban sandwich...Cubano for those in the know...and as part of a Cuban food brawl last night we got a few of them. Very tasty, but as odd as it may sound coming from someone whose food ethos includes "more is better," they were overstuffed with meat, and that meant they weren't really pressed the way a great Cubano should be.

The glory of the Cubano is the crispy, buttery bread that adds that fantastic crunch to every bite. The ham and the cheese and the mustard are vital*, but if my hands aren't a bit greasy and my mouth isn't a bit sore from the cracklingly crisp bread, then someone hasn't done their job!

Overstuffing the sandwich, as well-meaning and delicious as that can be, means that the sandwich can't be pressed down hard in the press, and the bread doesn't get compressed and crisp. It's still a good sandwich if the ingredients are good, as evidenced by the two sandwiches I ate along with the Arroz Con Pollo, the garlicky yucca, the rice and beans, the pork with onion that was surprisingly good, pulled chicken, a couple of grilled shrimp, and...um...I think that's it.

*Did I forget to mention the pickles? They add a fantastic vinegary component to the sandwich that is just delicious!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (307) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Yup. Boeing has done it again! What a lovely little oversight. let's not install the hardware necessary to prevent A BIG HOLE IN THE PLANE!

How lucky that nobody was in the seat next to the blown fuselage, and everyone got back in a controlled manner, unlike the iPhone that took a 16,000 foot fall.

Normally I wouldn't care, but I had to go through Cleveland and spend a lovely few hours wandering around the airport, because United canceled my nonstop flight and rerouted me through The Mistake On The Lake.

Harrumph!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (313) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Looting (Valencia)
Carlos Saenz de Tejada

We have been invaded by what can only be described as Visigoths, sacking us like they sacked Rome in 410. Illegals are pouring across our undefended borders and taking whatever they can grab...welfare benefits, free cell phones, flights and bus rides to their preferred looting opportunities, food, clothing, education! Yes...even their kids are being sent to our schools.

But they take more than just the progressive handouts that are the lifeblood of the grand socialist experiment in 21st century America. Many are also criminals, in addition of course to their lawbreaking the second they stepped onto American soil. They rob and steal and kill each other and us. They bring a third-world esthetic to our shores that has no concept of our grand experiment in self-rule; that has no sense of history or responsibility or sense of pride in country and civilization and the common goal of our culture.

And even worse, if that is possible, a fair number of these invaders are single men of military age, very possibly dispatched by our enemies in preparation for violent action. Whether of the lone-wolf variety or a concerted effort to destroy infrastructure and technological capacity, or even along the lines of Israel's October 7th Pogrom remains to be seen.

And all of this is at our expense. We pay for those benefits, we suffer the additional crime, we suffer the degradation of our society. And all of this emanates from the first crime...illegally entering our country.

Yet America has done so very little to combat this existential issue. We have allowed the ratcheting down of our cultural expectations of immigrants. We have allowed the change in vernacular that used to differentiate between the welcomed legal immigrant and the gate-crashing, law-breaking illegal alien. And we have allowed our governments to open our borders and extend every bit of the welfare state -- and more -- to people who just a few generations ago would have been incarcerated and then deported. And they have created an entire subculture that is completely independent of traditional America, unlike the immigrant neighborhoods of the 19th and early 20th centuries that were steppingstones to integration into the larger American society.

And for what? Cheaper labor at the very bottom of the pay scale? Reliable Democrat voting bases in the inner cities? The destruction of traditional American culture even in the heartland? Massive shifts in spending away from taxpaying Americans?

That sounds like a country that has given up. That sounds like a country that has abandoned its traditions, its Judeo-Christian core, its unified cultural norms that have endured for centuries.

That sounds like a country that is dying...or already dead. And the armies crashing across our borders are simply looting the corpse.

My sentiment is that this country is not yet dead, but our ruling class (who actively dislike the country they rule) has invited the invaders for the specific purpose of killing our country off as an outpost of western civilization.

Even if I am wrong, the country seems to be approaching a time when we will not have a choice to remain willfully unaware!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (273) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (381) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Happy Sunday.

Posted by: krakatoa at 05:31 AM | Comments (236) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Top Story

• Why is my LG washing machine downloading 3.7GB of data a day? (Twitter)
  
  This is rather like giving your eight year old your credit card details and wondering why your house is full of Lego. Why did you do that if you didn't want that result?
  
  And also like it in that you can't remove the WiFi settings from your LG washing machine once it's been set.
  
  So don't do that.
  
  (I have an LG washing machine. It has WiFi. Its total downloads to date are zero.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (103) | Trackbacks (Suck)

John falls asleep next to his wife, in bed. After some time, he sees St. Peter. John: “am I dreaming?” St. Peter: “no John, you’ve passed away in your sleep… unfortunately, we’re not ready for you yet. We’ll need to send you back, but unfortunately, we can only send you back as a chicken.”

John thinks about this for a moment, and agrees. There’s a blinding flash of light, and when John opens his eyes, he finds that he’s in a chicken coop.

The chicken next to him says “hey, you haven’t laid any eggs today. The farmer will slaughter you if you don’t lay any” John: “I don’t know how” Chicken: “it’s easy. You just go ‘bock bock booock’ and squeeze real hard.”

John: ok, I’ll give it a try. Bock bock BOOOOCK” John squeezes hard, and out pops a massive egg.

Chicken: “whoa! That’s a massive egg!” John: “I think I can lay a bigger one. Watch this: bock bock BOOOOOOOOCK” and John squeezes harder than before, and out pops an even bigger egg!

Chicken: “goodness, that’s the biggest egg I’ve ever seen!”

John: “hold on, this one will blow your mind… BOCK BOCK BOOOOOOO-”

And at that moment, John’s wife elbows him in the ribs and shouts “JOHN, YOU ARE DREAMING…STOP POOPING IN THE BED” (H/T TNDeplorable)

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:45 PM | Comments (429) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Yorgos Lanthimos. I like the way that sounds: YorGOS LANthiMOS!

Sorry, I can't see a movie from this bizarre Greek filmmaker without going on about his name. It may be, in fact, that I don't like his movies per se but I enjoy any excuse to say his name. Yorgos. Lanthimos.

Seriously, though, the deal with YL is this: He's weird. He makes odd movies that, shall we say, challenge sentimentality.

Mark Ruffalo is less credible as a lothario than as a heartbroken schlub.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (193) | Trackbacks (Suck)