Oh Hai Cafe

Sunset seen through sea stacks at Capri
AndreaCostaPhotographer

On Paco's suggestion, I'm trying to bring a little more spring/summer energy to the thread.

Positano, Italy. (Or at least somewhere on the Amalfi coast.)

Peckers and a porker.

Yawning caracals.

A reenactment of Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd molesting a waitress during the 80s.

Big surf in Rio.

Oof -- this dog has Ludacris' "get out the way, bitch" playing on his mental stereo 24/7.

Hi there!

Army crawl of cuteness.

Frenz.

Cat is worried about how Bitcoin is performing today. He is spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Monkey kamikaze wing.

Some fries are needed with these shakes.

Very pretty soldiers, lieutenant, very pretty indeed... but can they fight?!"

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Bits

I kept putting off covering the huge ruling by the Canadian supreme court last week, which called Castreau's fascist measures to punish speech he didn't like unconstitutional.

I missed that, but will try to make up for it by quoting Spiked's Tom Slater on the Rise of the Liberal Strongman.

Justin Trudeau and the Rise of the Liberal Strongman



His crackdown on the truckers heralded a new era of 'centrist' authoritarianism.

At first, I assumed Justin Trudeau was just a bit tragic. When the dashing Canadian PM rose to power in 2015, the man seemed too cringe to be real. A man who confused virtue-signalling with statesmanship and Tumblr talking points with a political ideology.

I misread that as "a Tumbler account given human form," and will be using that goin forward.

A man who once chided a woman at a public event for using the word 'mankind' ('We like to say peoplekind', he retorted). But as a ruling of the Canadian Federal Court this week reminds us, beneath the colourful socks, woke bromides and disconcertingly long history of blacking up resides a dangerous authoritarian.

Remember the Freedom Convoy? This was the Canadian truckers' revolt against Covid mandates which began two years ago this week...

Trudeau's response, you may recall, was enough to make Xi Jinping proud. He invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history, granting the government sweeping powers to freeze protesters' bank accounts, break up demonstrations, crush crowdfunding efforts and compel tow-truck firms to clear the streets. The crackdown was all the more outrageous given many of the blockades were already in the process of being resolved amicably. Plus, those parked up in Ottawa had been peaceful. They held cookouts, honked horns and danced. Which is why there were remarkably few arrests. Before Trudeau sent the heavies in, that is.

Now, a top Canadian judge has decided that this outrageous clampdown was illegal to boot. Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act has been deemed an infringement on Canada's charter of rights and freedoms. It was 'not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration', the court ruled. All this gives the lie to the government's absurd demonisation of the peaceful, multiracial truckers' protests as a 'dangerous', 'far right' and even 'insurrectionist' movement. Indeed, so many of the claims made to justify the clampdown have turned out to be lies. At a separate inquiry in 2022, police had to admit that claims the truckers were 'armed' amounted to them having tools and tire irons. Not a single trucker was arrested in Ottawa for illegal possession or storage of a firearm, according to the Toronto Sun. While videos on social media showed a family friendly atmosphere, complete with bouncy castles, Trudeau talked darkly of kids being used as 'human shields'. It would be funny if it wasn't so sinister.

Imagine if Donald Trump had done this while he was still in power? There would have been a military coup. He'd probably be locked up right now, in some secretive facility buried miles beneath a mountain -- the sort of place where they keep the Bond villains and the UFOs. And yet because the Western commentariat loves Trudeau and loathes the working classes his trucker crackdown was given a free pass....

For all the talk of populists and their simpleminded working-class voters ushering in a new 1930s, we now see where the true threat to liberty comes from. And not just in Canada. Indeed, we've seen the rise of what we might call liberal strongmen -- sorry, strongpeople -- right across the Western world. From the unhinged Covid authoritarianism of New Zealand under Jacinda Ardern to Emmanuel Macron's brutalising of the gilets jaunes to Joe Biden's banana republic to the speech-policing, women's-rights-shredding rule of Nicola Sturgeon, all of the 'centrist' darlings of our age have turned out to be itching to shut up, lock up and even beat up their own citizens. Particularly citizens with the chutzpah to stand up for their rights and their livelihoods.

Read the whole thing. Yes, the left is authoritarian and increasingly brazen and open about it. They view all disagreement with them as illegitimate and therefore illegal, and are quite ready to use government force to extinguish their enemies.

And speaking of Macron's brutalization of the gilets jaunes -- French farmers are blockading Paris with their own truckers' convoy.

Macron will crush them as Castreau crushed his inconvenient dissidents.

Kurt Zindulka at Breitbart:

Calls for revolution are in the air of France once again as farmers have vowed to continue their tractor protests against the globalist green agenda with a planned blockade of Paris after rejecting "concessions" from the government.

After a week of shutting down motorways across the country, forcing politicians of all stripes to come to meet them on their turf, the farmer uprising is set to descend upon the French capital as they were unimpressed by the compromises proposed by newly-installed Prime Minister Gabriel Attall.

With their demands not being met, farmers have decided to ramp up the pressure on the metropolitan liberal elites who vote for green agenda policies without feeling the consequences and allowing the rural population to suffer.

What is being dubbed as the "siege of Paris", farmers are planning on shutting down at least seven critical entry points to the city and have hinted at enacting a blockade of the Rungis Market, the second largest wholesale food market in the world which serves as the main hub for food deliveries into Paris.

"The idea is that there are no trucks that can serve the capital, to ensure that no product enters Paris, to make Parisians understand that they need farmers to live. I say to our friends in the capital region: it's going to be a long week," the head of the Young Farmers Union Maxime Buizard said per Le Figaro.

Video of farmers dumping slurry at the gates of the Var prefecture in Toulon.

A report on the "siege of Paris."

Video of farmers blocking the entrances of restaurants in Paris.

Today is the fourth anniversary of the horrible racist, homophobic MAGA attack on Jussie Smollett by two Nigerian brothers he paid money to.

As Dan Rather used to say: "Courage."

The Film Actors Guild, for some reason, has weighed in on the Arrec Balwin manslaughter charges.

[F]AG-AFTRA is standing by Alec Baldwin after he was charged Thursday with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of "Rust."

The guild slammed the charges against him, calling it "wrong and uninformed."

"The death of Halyna Hutchins is a tragedy, and all the more so because of its preventable nature. It is not a failure of duty or a criminal act on the part of any performer," [F]AG-AFTRA said in a statement.

"The prosecutor's contention that an actor has a duty to ensure the functional and mechanical operation of a firearm on a production set is wrong and uninformed. An actor's job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert."

Really? How strange. Actors routinely present themselves on experts in all fields. But not this one, huh...?

So I guess actors'll stop pontificating about gun control, huh? After all, [F]AG says they're not experts in weapons safety.

...

Baldwin's attorney called the charges a "terrible miscarriage of justice" in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Yeah, just like Andrei Sakarov.

Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge: Biden's lying; he needs no congressional authority to close the border. He can do that now -- he just refuses to do so unless the Republicans give him open-borders concessions.

As Republican governors circle the wagon around Texas, President Biden on Saturday doubled down on a reluctant agreement to secure the southern US border - but only if if Congress passes a bipartisan bill that would also allocate funds for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and would still allow as many as 150,000 illegal crossings per month.

"If that bill were the law today I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly and bring a bipartisan bill that would be good for America and help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here," Biden said, according to Fox News' Chad Pergram.

Except, as many have pointed out, Biden doesn't need Congress, or the bill, to do that right now.

As we noted yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson debunked the claim, saying "President Biden falsely claimed yesterday he needs Congress to pass a new law to allow him to close the southern border, but he knows that is untrue."

"As I explained to him in a letter late last year, and have specifically reiterated to him on multiple occasions since, he can and must take executive action immediately to reverse the catastrophe he has created," Johnson continued.

Black Chicago Democrats want the city to end its "sanctuary city" status.

Government employee Cata Truss told "Fox News @ Night" Democrat voters like her are growing increasingly frustrated with the party's handling of the issue.

"There is no moneys to take care of the migrants, nor is there moneys to take care of the people that are there. And so we have a mess on our hands," Truss said Wednesday.

Truss argued Windy City residents are upset over low income communities and schools being "divested in" while funds are used for the care of migrants instead.

"This is the sentiment from the city of Chicago: We would like to have our status as a sanctuary city removed," she said. "We would also like to see a better plan in place."

Snopes reflexively claimed a picture showing Biden wearing a hardhat backwards was "false."

The black strap across this retard's forehead is supposed to go at the back of your head.

Question: The guy giving the thumb's up has a sh**-eating grin. Did all of these guys know that Joe Biden had retardedly put the hardhat on backwards, but let him take the picture anyway?

I say "Yes."

Under pressure and mounting embarrassment, Snopes were forced to stop banging the other members of the Snopes polycule and do the actual fact-check -- they render their partisan judgment first, then later get around to actually checking the facts -- and admitted the the photo was real and the hardhat was on backwards.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (249) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Nancy Pelosi: I Reject That These Pro-Palestinian Protesters Are Real. They Must Be Russian Stooges. I Demand an Investigation Into These Russian Agents.

I demand an investigation into the funding of the domestic terrorist groups antifa and BLM. How's that grab ya, Granny Rictus McBotoxImplants?

The pro-terrorist cohort that Democrats have indulged and encouraged since a few months after 9/11 is a growing political difficulty for the Democrats.

Therefore, like all political difficulties for the Democrats, from anti-charisma of Hillary Clinton to the corruption of Hunter and Joe Biden, it must Akshually be THE RUSSIANS! behind it all.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Sunday during a media appearance that pro-Palestinan protesters were "connected to Russia" and argued calls for a ceasefire were part of "Mr. Putin's message."

CNN's Dana Bash asked Pelosi if she was concerned young voters might stay home on election day, as they've repeatedly expressed frustration, and protested Biden's handling of the Isreal-Hamas war.

Pelosi said she has been a recipient of the protesters' "exuberance."

"They are in front of my house all the time. I have a feeling for what feelings they have. But we have to think about what we're doing. And what we have to do is try to stop the suffering in Gaza. This is women and children, people who don't have a place to go, so let's address that. But for them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin's message, Mr. Putin's message. Make no mistake, this is directly connected to what he would like to see. Same thing with Ukraine. It's about Putin's message. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, and organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia. I say that having looked at this for a long time," Pelosi continued.

She says she agrees completely with their message -- we must "stop the suffering," and of course Gazans are victims.

But then, incredibly, she says Putin is behind the very message she claims to support.

Why? Well, what she means is that it's politically embarrassing to have one faction of the Democrat coalition at war with the others. So while she completely agrees with everything the pro-Hamas protesters say -- she wants them to stop saying it publicly, because when they go in front of TV cameras and cause strain in the fractious Democrat coalition, that's where dissent ends and PUTIN'S PROPAGANDA begins.

Bash responded, "you think some of these protests are Russian plants?"

Pelosi said the financing "should be investigated."

"I want to ask the FBI to investigate that. But apart from that, let's just say it's all spontaneous and sincere. Let's say it's spontaneous and sincere. Young people care about the right to choose. They care about LGBTQ issues. They care about preserving the planet. They care about gun violence prevention. That's what they tell us. They care about our democracy and the freedoms that are contained in some of what I said," she continued.

Pelosi added that voters would have to either chose to stay home and "enable" or to organize and get out to vote.

Again -- "We totally agree with your positions, but you have to ask yourself, should you be protesting the Democrat Party? Shouldn't you be ballot harvesting for us instead?"

Jonathan Turley:

The Russians are back just in time for another election. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared on Sunday that pro-Palestinian protesters were "connected to Russia" and pushing "Mr. Putin's message." She called for . . . you guessed it . . . a new Russian investigation.

Protesters have targeted Pelosi's home, usually an aggressive tactic reserved for Republicans. Indeed, when protesters were toppling statues, Pelosi saw no international conspiracy or influence. Instead, she dismissed the violent riots and said "people will do what they do."

Pelosi also refused to condemn Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Cal.) when, during violent rioting, Waters declared that protesters "gotta stay on the street" and "get more confrontational." Waters has also called for protesters to confront and hound government officials at restaurants and other locations.

It appears that the protests are now far more menacing as Democratic leaders are targeted and young voters appear to be increasingly disassociated from the party.

...

It would not be surprising if Russia fueled dissent in the United States through its media and intelligence assets.

He notes that casually "investigating" inconvenient protesters as being spies in the thrall of a foreign power just because they're embarrassing you might, maybe, possibly chill protected free speech.

But that, of course, is all the Democrat Party wants to do these days. They scarcely have any policy except censorship.

And:

[T]here is ample support for the protests outside of the Pelosi's home without the involvement of Russia. Nevertheless, Russia is back as a ready-made label to demonize political opponents.

RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA

Russia Russia, Russia Russia Russia.

Russia?

Russia Russia Russia, Russia Russia. Russia? Russia Russia; Russia, Russia Russia.

Russia!

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:42 PM | Comments (219) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden's Third-Year Approval Rating the Worst Since... No, Guess

I mean, you know, the thing.

President Joe Biden's average job approval rating across his third year in office languished at the lowest point of any U.S. president since Jimmy Carter was in the White House, a Gallup poll released Thursday shows.

Biden's third year extended from Jan. 20, 2023, to Jan. 19, 2024 during which time he had an average job approval rating of 39.8 percent, the Gallup poll reveals.

The Hill points out Biden, whose current job approval rating is 41 percent, fared the worst in polls of all presidents' ratings since Carter, whose third-year polling average was 37.4 percent before he went on to lose his subsequent reelection campaign.

Carter's third year in office included some historic low points, including the Iran hostage crisis, soaring gas prices, unemployment levels, and double-digit inflation.

Biden fared worse in his third year than former President Donald Trump, whose average job approval in his third year was 42 percent, the report notes.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll finds Trump with a six point lead on Biden, but there's a big catch: Trump only has 40% support, which, as a proud graduate of Track 2 math, I can tell you is not a majority. Or even close to one.

Donald Trump leads Democratic President Joe Biden by six percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos poll that showed Americans are unhappy about an election rematch that came into sharper focus this week.

The nationwide poll of 1,250 U.S. adults showed Trump leading Biden 40% to 34% with the rest unsure or planning to vote for someone else or no one. The poll had a margin of error of three percentage points.

...

As Trump handily beat his sole remaining primary challenger, Nikki Haley in New Hampshire on Tuesday, some 67% of respondents polled Monday through Wednesday said they were "tired of seeing the same candidates in presidential elections and want someone new." Still, just 18% said they would not vote if Biden and Trump were their choice.

If that 18% really doesn't vote, then Trump's 40% becomes, at the polls, close to 50%.

But that's a big if. Consider that Biden's poll numbers are particularly depressed right now because the left wants him to support Hamas' From the River to The Sea Jewish extermination policy.

Will they vote for Trump -- who imposed the so-called Muslim Travel Ban -- because of anger at Biden about his "support" for Israel?

Doubtful. A lot of this "I won't vote for Biden" stuff is just bluffing. Partisans say that early in general election season, but tend to "come home" by the fall.

Also, you can bet huge money that Reid Hoffman and George Soros and the Koch network will fund a "credible" Republican challenger to run as an independent for the express purpose of taking votes from Trump and allowing Biden to win states with 34-38% of the votes.

Who will it be?

Well, it will likely be Romney. He's a real cocksucker and will be proud to run a spoiler campaign to get his fren Biden re-elected.

...

Trump's six-point lead held even when respondents were given the option of voting for third-party candidates, including anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with Trump drawing 36% support, Biden 30% and Kennedy 8%.

Right. But add Romney to the mix, and the numbers change. Utah will be gone, for one.

..

Overall, the poll gave numerous signs that voters are not happy with their choices.
Seventy percent of respondents - including about half of Democrats - agreed with a statement that Biden should not seek re-election. Fifty-six percent of people responding to the poll said Trump should not run, including about a third of Republicans.

Biden has been weighed down by the widespread view that at 81, already the oldest person ever to be U.S. president, he is too old for the job.

Three-quarters of poll respondents agreed with a statement that Biden was too old to work in government, while half said the same about Trump, who at 77 would also be among the oldest U.S. leaders ever if returned to the White House. Just over half of Democrats saw Biden as too old while a third of Republicans viewed Trump that way.
Haley, 52, is trying to marshal dissatisfaction to turn around her well-financed but flagging campaign.

"Most Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump," she said on Tuesday after her loss to Trump in New Hampshire. "The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election."

Speaking of: Liberal Democrat billionaire Reid Hoffman, who was, I believe, Nikki Haley's biggest backer, has suspended his donations to her.

Hoffman has said he'll vote for President Joe Biden in November but backed Haley financially because his "first priority is to defeat Trump." The Democratic donor gave $250,000 to Stand For America Fund Inc. last year, a pro-Haley super PAC, the New York Times reported.

"Prior to the primaries, we made an investment in Gov. Haley because we saw that her performance in New Hampshire might give her a path to defeating Donald Trump," Hoffman's political philanthropy adviser Dmitri Mehlhorn told Fox News.

But Mehlhorn said the LinkedIn co-founder needs to see a "path to victory" before making another donation to the former United Nations ambassador.

The Koch network is standing by their neocon open-borders loose-in-the-snootch gal-- for now.

A conservative group that has spent millions backing Nikki Haley's presidential campaign says it isn't giving up on her -- but acknowledges she faces an "uphill" battle and that it's focusing on Senate races.

Why it matters: AFP Action, a super PAC that has pushed for a Republican alternative to GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, has said it would "redouble" its efforts to back Senate candidates if it appeared Trump would be the Republican nominee.

The group -- part of the Americans for Prosperity network founded by billionaire Charles Koch and his late brother, David -- fears a Trump nomination would be a massive drag on other Republicans on the November ballot.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:50 PM | Comments (330) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Georgia Senate Approves Special Investigatory Committee to Find Out What the Hell Is Going on With Fani Willis' Pustular Snootch

Hear, hear.

We need to declare that filthy pit a Superfund Site and bring millions in federal resources to contain it, cap it, and clean it up.

For the next generation, you understand. I don't want children being born with hairlips or becoming developmentally delayed just because they grew up within three miles of Fani Willis' toxic minge.

Georgia's state Senate is forming a committee tasked with investigating anti-Trump DA Fani Willis. The investigative body, which will have six Republicans and three Democrats, has full subpoena power and the ability to require testimony given under oath.

By a 30-19 vote, the GOP-led upper house of Georgia's General Assembly greenlighted the special committee's creation Friday, passing a resolution (S.R. 465) proposed by Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal, who serves as the Senate's chief deputy whip.

According to the five-page legislation's Jan. 22 filing, "it has come to the attention of the Georgia Senate, through public reports and court filings," that the Fulton County district attorney is accused of prosecutorial misconduct involving the "expenditure of significant public funds" to hire special prosecutor Darrius "Sweetdick" Honeycum, Esquire, whom Willis allegedly had--and may still have--an affair with.

Edited for clarity. Media outlets keep getting the man's name wrong!

If the affair allegations are proven to be true, the "clandestine" relationship would constitute "a clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers of Fulton County and the State of Georgia," the bill says, and establish grounds for the DA's recusal from the prosecution, "potentially delaying it indefinitely." Willis would also be subject to discipline by the State Bar of Georgia.

A select group of state senators will assemble, acting as a special committee, to conduct a legislative investigation examining Willis's actions. The nine-person panel possesses the statutory powers to call on any individual to testify under oath, take the depositions of witnesses, compel the production of evidentiary records, and issue subpoenas. Accordingly, the investigating committee is authorized to undertake actions deemed necessary to "enforce such subpoenas" when parties refuse to obey.

However, the committee--slated to convene as soon as this week--can't directly sanction Willis on any discoveries, WTVC reported. Should the panel find Willis guilty of wrongdoing, its members can recommend changes to the state law or budget.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:50 PM | Comments (290) | Trackbacks (Suck)

American Nightmare: Immigrant Family Flees Back to India After Teacher Secretly Transitions Their Daughter, and Then "Stalks" Her

Before you get excited: I think this family were legal immigrants.

In June 2022, two Centennial Elementary School students in Olympia, Washington, disappeared. Their parents, Indian immigrants, had quietly driven them out of state, to Oregon, before they eventually decided to fly back to their former home country. No one in Olympia has seen the children since.

"My daughter mentioned that Tia had been gone from school for a couple of weeks," said Jess Davis, whose daughter was a classmate of Tia's, one of the family's children. (I have changed most of the names in this report to respect requests for anonymity.) "We were at an ice cream social that our neighborhood has at the end of the school year, and I was thinking about them." So she decided to text Tia's mother to ask why they weren't there. The mother "got back to me and said, 'Sorry, we are out of town,'" Davis explained. Evidently, the family was still hiding and hadn't yet left the country. The mother texted Davis again, "and said, 'Can I call you?' And she dumped it all out."

Tia, who was ten, had apparently just gone through a social gender transition at school, encouraged by her teacher. Olympia School District is one of at least 1,000 districts nationwide that have enacted secrecy policies for kids who express gender dysphoria; so for months, Tia's parents had no idea what had happened. When they finally learned of their child's secret identity, they came into conflict with a public school system that had embraced gender ideology's radical notion that parents who don't unquestioningly affirm their child's gender choices pose a danger to that child. Tia's parents' protests were, consequently, treated as illegitimate.

"Mrs. A [Tia's teacher] is stalking my daughter," Tia's mother told Davis. "What is she going to do to my daughter?"

Paper copies of the following e-mail messages, among others, from Mrs. A to Tia's school e-mail address were anonymously placed in the mailbox of local mother and activist Alesha Perkins in the early summer of 2023. Most were sent after Tia's parents had taken their children to Oregon.

"Make sure this email is deleted too when we are done bc otherwise when your mom looks, you will be outed instantly."

"I kept emailing you but I was worried your mom interfered before you saw my messages."

"I was also serious I would take you into my own home anytime you need."

"You need to get a personal email set up so we still have a way to communicate!"

"I'm worried you're going to leave and I will never be able to be reached."

When Perkins publicized the e-mails on Facebook, they sent shockwaves through the community. "This is probably the most disturbing thing that I've seen because it is on such a level of coordinated deception that so many people have to play a part in, including young children," Perkins told [un]Divided, a local journalism website.

So I don't meant to unduly attack teachers, but I will repeat again: Teachers take 6 or so credits of basic, 100-level child psychology. I'm sorry to say this, but of all the "learned professions," teachers are the least learned. Their degrees are the easiest and least competitive.

And yet, these 22-year-old gals, who have nothing to their name but a thin paper credential and almost zero actual education, decide that they're Basically Just Like Psychiatrist M.D.'s and should be allowed to practice child psychiatry without a license.

I say this because the left is the most obsessed with credentials: If you're a teacher, your credentials extend to teaching children stuff that only children do not know yet.

I'm so tired of teachers saying they're "the experts." The experts in what? The multiplication tables?

We keep seeing people with very basic degrees telling parents -- most of whom have more advanced education than the teacher do* -- that they're the "experts" who have unquestionable training in deciding what sex your kid should be and which gay porn comic books he should be beating off to.

* Yes, I know, it doesn't matter what a parent's level of education is, he should still decide what his kid will learn about sex or "identity." I'm just pointing this out because teachers keep making the "I'm credentialed, I'm an expert" argument.

You're credentialed? Oh, you mean have the lowest possible level of BA? But you're more of an expert than doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.?

Oh -- and also, you're 22 years old and know absolutely nothing about anything?

Are there highly educated teachers? Are there teachers who know enough to be an actual expert in their specific field?

Sure. But the baseline required for a teaching credential is a low level of education. Nearly as low as the baseline required for that other Profession of Experts, "journalists."

If a teacher has won loads of awards for excellence, and taken years of post-graduate training in their field -- okay, maybe I'll consider you an "expert."

But the average 22-year-old girl coming out of college with mere training in grammar and basic arithmetic and kinda-sorta bullshit classes in pedagogy?

Get the fuck out of here, and get the fuck over yourselves.

And the Dunning-Kruger effect is in high effect here: Dumb people all think they're "experts" because they're so stupid and uneducated they have no idea how much there is to know about a field of study, and how many years it would take to become even highly skilled in that field, let alone "expert."

So it's consistently the stupidest people who make the wildest claims about their own levels of competence and "expertise." Studies show that actually competent people routinely underestimate their level of competency, and (wrongly) rate themselves as less intelligent than their peers.

So me someone claiming to be an "expert" and pointing at a very basic BA as the proof of this and I'll show you someone who shouldn't have gone to college in the first place.

Below, what I believe is a different case of an Unlicensed Free Range Child Psychiatrist practicing her healing arts on someone else's kid.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:05 PM | Comments (339) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Pro-American-Invasion Biden Begs Congress to Pass His Mass Amnesty Bill

Fuck you.

Note that Biden is eager to play footsie and cut deals with his Iranian frenz -- but refuses to negotiate with Republicans in good faith about the border.

President Biden urged lawmakers on Friday to move forward with a contentious proposal to combat record levels of illegal border crossings under his administration, calling it the "toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we've ever had in our country."

It's so tough that it authorizes up to 150,000 illegal aliens entering our country per month with zero deportations. Note that the highest level of illegal alien entries under Trump was 130,000 per month.

So long as "only" 150,000 illegals enter per month, no deportations.

Only when illegal entries exceed 5,000 per day -- or around 150,000 per month -- does this " " " deal " " " authorize deportations. And only if it exceeds 5000 per day for a full week.

And even then, it only authorizes them until the number of illegal aliens crossing the border per day falls under 5,000 per day again.

Why are you not satisfied with this great deal, racists?

This "deal" is not aimed at slowing illegal immigration -- it is aimed only at the bad optics of people rushing the border in great masses.

If they stop near the border and game it out to make sure that no more than 5000 per day cross into the US, then there are no deportations authorized.

Biden does not want to stop illegals from rushing the border. He just wants to stop Fox News' Bill Melugin from getting good helicopter footages of hundreds of illegals rushing the border all at once.

He just wants them to pace themselves. He just wants to stop them from giving Fox News juicy video.

The deal tying $61.4 billion in aid to Ukraine with increased border security measures is seemingly dead on arrival in the Senate -- and is staunchly opposed by several congressional Republicans -- despite months of negotiations between the White House and a bipartisan group of senators.

There are zero "increased border security measures." All the "border security money" is actually just money to house and process and provide medical care to the illegals, and then ship them into the heartland.

"For too long, we all know the border's been broken," Biden, 81, acknowledged in a statement. "It's long past time to fix it."

There is no "fixing" the border here. You're just declaring Open Borders in more words than required.

"Let's be clear. What's been negotiated would -- if passed into law -- be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we've ever had in our country," the president argued.

Fuck off and die.

...

"It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law," Biden said.

Again, the border would only be shut down when the feds admit that there have been more than 5,000 illegals entering the country per day for an extended period of time. And the border would only be shut down if Biden then chooses to exercise this theoretical authority to shut it down.

...

Some of the tentative bill's other provisions, obtained by The Post from a source Thursday, include continuing to allow migrants who fly into the country to receive humanitarian parole at designated airports, while restricting the practice at the border and US ports of entry; granting legal counsel to unaccompanied migrant children under the age of 13 and migrants deemed mentally incompetent; and increasing in immigrant visas to 50,000 annually.

This is all goody-bag stuff for the open borders crowed. We get nothing in return for this.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has branded this " " " deal " "" to be "dead on arrival," of course.

In closely related news, the House unveiled articles of impeachment against Open Borders Czar (DHS Secretary) Alejandro Mayorkas.

This is Axios, so prepare yourself for spin:

House Republicans unveiled articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday morning, blaming him for the surge in illegal border crossings and fentanyl trafficking.

Why it matters: Republicans are barreling toward impeachment over the logistical and humanitarian crisis at the border even as they balk at passing new, stringent policies that President Biden has promised to use to "shut down the border."

LOL, we're "barrelling" towards it after three years of demanding the law be enforced. Oh and also, Biden's "border security bill" is real and we're "balking" at actually increasing border security.

The House Homeland Security committee will consider the impeachment articles Tuesday morning, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has promised a floor vote "as soon as possible" after that.

Democrats and legal experts have criticized the effort, saying Republicans have failed to show that Mayorkas has committed any high crimes and misdemeanors -- the constitutional standard for impeachment.

Wrong. Refusal to execute the law is in high crime. "High crimes and misdemeanors" refers to crimes and misdemeanors that only a highly ranked government official has the capacity of committing. Mayorkas is setting aside the duly-passed law of the United States to implement an open borders policy that has been strongly rejected by the public.

The details: The articles present a series of well-worn arguments against Mayorkas.

They assert Mayorkas "willfully and systemically refused to comply" with immigration laws by releasing migrants and asylum-seekers into the U.S. rather than detaining them, and for using a tool called parole to release large numbers of migrants from detention.

And here's the spin: We don't have the capacity to arrest every illegal, so we shouldn't arrest any of them, and Trump briefly paroled illegals during peak surge periods. Therefore, Biden can implement mass parole of illegals (this means, paroling them into the US to await their hearings which won't happen for 8 years) as standard day-to-day policy.

The U.S. has never had the resources to detain every migrant who illegally crosses the border until they can be removed.

The Trump administration also was forced to release migrants into the U.S., especially during the 2019 border crisis.

This bullshit:

Republicans have made clear they want to campaign on the problems at the border, and have been reluctant to give Biden any legislative wins to address the crisis.

No, Republicans are simply refusing to allow Biden to pass a fake "fix" and then claimed he closed the border, when in fact the bill codifies and authorizes it remaining open. Until now, the open border policy has simply been a lawless executive policy, without backing by law; this " " " deal " " " would enshrine Biden's Open Borders policy as actual congressionally-approved US law.

Meanwhile, the GOP Party of Oklahoma has censured treasonous Senator Lankford for taking part in this open borders deceit and this disinformation operation aimed at the American populace.

The Oklahoma Republican Party approved a resolution Saturday condemning and censuring Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) for his role as a chief negotiator in the Senate border security talks between Democrats and Republicans.

The resolution -- a copy of which was posted on X, formerly Twitter -- by state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) said, "Senator Lankford playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy not only disfranchises legal immigrants seeking citizenship but it also puts the safety and security of Americans in great danger."

...

"Authorizing several thousand people to invade our borders before any action can be taken is contrary to the oath that Senator Lankford took to the Constitution and therefore outside of the area that he is authorized to negotiate in," the resolution states.

Lankford peddles the leftwing Democrat line that Republicans know this is a great deal but are only opposing it to hurt Biden in the 2024 election:

"It is interesting, Republicans, four months ago, would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, 'We're not going to give money for this. We want a change in law,'" he said on "Fox News Sunday."

"And now, it's interesting, a few months later, when we're finally getting to the end, they're like, 'Oh, just kidding, I actually don't want a change in law because of presidential election year,'" he added.

Fuck you.

We have to vote these people out of office, not only in the primaries, but in the general election, even if that means electing Democrats for a term.

Think about it: If a Democrat had this seat, we would have a good chance of booting him out and subtracting a member of the Open Borders Caucus from the Senate.

But many of the Open Borders Caucus members are nominally "Republican," and so we NEVER vote them out of office. These members of the Open Borders Caucus -- McConnell, Lankford, Thune, Corwyn -- are in office permanently because they represent (LOL) red states and the red state voters will continue re-electing them FOREVER.

They never have to change their position because they know they will NEVER be made to pay a price for it.

They defeat their small-beans primary opponents -- which is easy -- and then go on to cruise to general election victory, because we conservatives enable this treachery and reward it.

At some point we have to decide to make a (painful) stand and vote one of these guys out of office, even if that means electing a Democrat to a (painful) six year term. These people must be put on notice: We're willing to take a wound to win a necessary fight.

Below: What Lankford is letting into the country.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:23 PM | Comments (505) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden's Frenz in Iran Direct Their Proxy Armies to Kill At Least Three American Servicemen; Deathcount Likely to Grow

The Iranian terror mullahs are our Partners in Peace (TM). That's what Obama and Val Jarrett have decided. And the decrepit idiot Joe Biden is too weak to question them.

Three U.S. service members were killed and at least 25 others were injured in a drone attack on an outpost in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border, U.S. Central Command confirmed on Sunday.

But a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News the injury toll could rise to higher than 25 Americans. Most, if not all, of those injured and killed were Army soldiers based in northern Jordan near the Syrian border at a base known as Tower 22, which has been in support of the counter-ISIS mission for year, the official said.

Some of the 25-plus injured have been medically evacuated from the base, likely to Landstuhl in Germany, according to the official. It is not clear if they were hit while sleeping in the residential compound at the base. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is actively engaged in discussions taking place at the White House about how to respond.

...

The White House said President Biden was briefed Sunday morning by Austin, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer about the attack, which marked a significant escalation as it's the first time U.S. troops have been killed by enemy fire in the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7.

Yes, but they have been frequently -- nigh constantly -- fired upon and targeted by Iran's proxy terror groups, and the US media has refused to cover this, as they know it makes Biden look both impotent and foolish, given that he still thinks Iran is his Partner in Peace (TM).

The media Just Wants to Inform the Public (TM).

...

Biden blasted "radical Iran-backed militant groups" in reacting to the attack.

"Today, America's heart is heavy. Last night, three U.S. service members were killed -- and many wounded -- during an unmanned aerial drone attack on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syria border," he said. "While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq."

Maybe your next care package to Iran should be $8 billion instead of $10 billion, just to show how peeved you are.

...

In the wake of the attack, Republicans condemned Biden's perceived inaction so far and some went further, accusing the president of appeasing Iran.

"Iran's proxies have launched over 150 attacks on US troops since October, as the Iran-backed Houthis attack global shipping, and Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas attack our ally Israel. The Biden administration's failed Middle East policy has destroyed our deterrence against adversaries in the Middle East. We need a major reset of our Middle East policy to protect our national security interests and restore deterrence," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said.

Rudy W. Giuliani
@RudyGiuliani

Biden and Obama have helped to fund the Iran proxies who killed our troops.

Obama even sent them millions in cash.

What do we call that?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (543) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Will The Baltimore Sun’s New Owner Make It a Right-Wing Paper, and How Would One Actually Go About Doing That?

A wealthy, right-of-center person is buying The Baltimore Sun newspaper, and the legacy media is not taking the news well.

I’d like to discuss options on how you might rescue and “flip the politics” on a failing local paper that is infected with left-wing political bias in virtually every story, but first let’s take a look at how this story is being reported by the regime media.

“The Baltimore Sun is returning to local ownership — with a buyer who has made his politics clear” [AP – 01/16/2024]

A local buyer taking over a struggling newspaper in the 21st century is normally cause for some celebration. But The Baltimore Sun’s newly announced owner has a very specific political background, and some are concerned about what the 187-year-old publication could become.

“…and some are concerned…” is an example of the awful journalism that the Sun’s new ownership should seek to keep off of its pages. “Some people” is a lazy journalistic euphemism which really means “left-wing activists such as me.”

NBC is not taking this news well. (This following story is actually from MSNBC, but that is the authentic, unfiltered political voice of Comcast/NBC and its various outlets.)

“Why the right-wing takeover of Maryland’s largest newspaper is ringing alarm bells” [MSNBC – 01/21/2024]

Sinclair Inc. Executive Chairman David D. Smith has purchased The Baltimore Sun, the largest newspaper in Maryland. As the longtime leader of the notoriously right-wing local-TV news giant, again and again Smith has used his ample resources to advance a conservative agenda. Now his potential reach will only grow.

Journalists sure do seem bothered about unapproved topics and opinions not being suppressed, don’t they?

John Harwood is a rabidly partisan left-wing activist who has somehow found employment as an “objective journalist” at major US media outlets. As an “objective journalist,” he is completely unhinged that a metro newspaper near Washington DC might not be a mouthpiece for the left’s agenda.

Because of their bias and obsession with national politics, I’m happy to see hyper-partisan newspapers go out of business. However, there remains an important role for local papers in covering local news. It would be my ideal that they do so without serving a left-wing agenda, but they abdicated that role, so that is clearly no longer an option.

Over the past decade or so, I’ve watched various local papers struggle through downsizings, staff reductions, and re-organizations, and I’m always amazed that no matter how many jobs they cut, they still have a staff of local writers who use the paper’s pages to obsess about national politics and national political figures. Those political obsessives are the ones who need to be cut, with resources dedicated instead to local stories.

At the same time, whatever local news coverage a paper does provide still tends to get infected with politics and contextual bias. (e.g. “Residents of Maple Crossing, an area that Trump carried in the last two elections, voiced support for the racially charged proposal…”)

I’ve occasionally pondered what I would do if I were to purchase a local newspaper, or if a David Smith hired me to overhaul a local paper, and how I might recreate it as a local news source that would not advance a left-wing agenda. Just off the top of my head here are a few ideas.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (298) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

The Mystical Nativity
Sandro Botticelli

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (409) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 1/29/24

Good morning, kids. What a difference four years makes. Almost to the day, Qassam Soleimani, the Iranian equivalent of Heinrich Himmler in terms of power and influence in that regime as well as the chief architect and implementer of global terrorism was taken out by a strike ordered by President Trump. Before that, Trump had cut off Iran from billions in payments, tabled that insane Obama treaty that allowed them to have nukes while internal civil unrest was reaching a boiling point due to a collapsing economy and people having had enough of Sharia law barbarism.

America was riding high economically and diplomatically, and quite a bit of it on the fact that President Trump had allowed to the extent that he could the tapping of our vast reserves of oil, coal and natural gas. China and Russia were contained, the ankle-biting, backstabbing ingrates of NATO were put on notice and the Iran people were a red pubic hair's breadth from overthrowing the Mullahs.

And then . . .

Well, awakening from that bit of reverie of le temps perdu, we have the nightmare of what happens when Joey Fog-Brain and the Foggy Bottom bottom dwellers take over the controls.

Iran’s terror militias launched a wave of rocket attacks against American soldiers in Iraq and Syria under Biden. There were dozens of these attacks last year alone. In the spring of 2023, Scott Patrick Dubis, a 52-year-old military contractor who had worked on U.S. military bases in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Qatar, was killed by an Iranian backed attack. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin responded by promising that, “as President Biden has made clear, we will take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing. No group will strike our troops with impunity.”

But Iran and its Jihadi proxy militias could and did go on attacking our troops with impunity. We launched a few light airstrikes for show and the attacks went on. American personnel kept being wounded in Iranian attacks and sometimes we responded and sometimes we didn’t. After the latest wave of attacks and responses, the Shiite regime in Baghdad demanded that the United States leave Iraq. And Biden, obediently, began negotiating the withdrawal. Now, three US Army soldiers were killed and over 30 were wounded in an Iranian-backed drone attack on a position on the Jordanian-Syrian border. This is the worst death toll in some time.

A few months after the Shiite Islamic regime in Tehran commemorated the takeover of the U.S. embassy with chants of “Death to America”, it succeeded in inflicting more death on Americans. Biden has issued a statement vowing that, once again, “we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing.” Like Austin’s previous statement after the murder of Scott Dubis, that means that no one should expect a quick meaningful response. The message to Iran and its Islamic terrorists is that they have nothing to worry about. And Iran’s message to us is that we can never pull out far enough until we have surrendered the entire region, the rest of the world and then finally our own country to the enemy. . .

. . . October 7 was only one of the points of Iran’s Jihadist ‘blitzkrieg’ across the region as it prepares to become the dominant power in the Middle East. And while it was devastating to Israelis, it may be less significant than the takeover of the Red Sea or its existing nuclear program, under which it now has enough enriched uranium to build several nuclear warheads, its simultaneous launch of three satellites or its ballistic missile program that can deliver nukes.

All of this foreshadows a struggle on a grand scale that will test America and the world. . .

. . . On Oct 7, Israeli soldiers braced for rocket attacks by retreating into shelters only to face a massive assault by thousands of armed Jihadis overrunning their positions under the cover of rockets. Israel wasn’t ready for that kind of attack and the real question is are we ready? Iran will keep testing and pushing us. And if we fail to take the initiative, the attack will come.

We were not ready for the seizure of our embassy in Tehran. We were not ready for the Marine Barracks bombings in Beirut. We were not ready for 9/11. We were not ready for the fall of Kabul. We were not ready for the takeover of shipping in the Red Sea near Yemen. What aren’t we ready for next? We only have so much time to wait around and find out.

Now, with a completely erased southern border as well as our northern border which no one is really watching at all and with quite probably the literal bastard son of Fidel Castro running the show up there, along with Venezuela as a de facto western outpost for the mullahs, another 9/11/01 or multiple 9/11s all over the place are bound to happen right here in the good old US of A. But back to the estimable Daniel Greenfield's observations, he is dead on the money when it comes to the who, what, where and why. Yet, he is both right and wrong about what needs to be done: finally confronting the head of the snake, which is the Iranian regime itself.

There is nothing more I want than to see Iran get a massive thermonuclear Qom-shot right in its eyes. But the combination of an ill-prepared military that is now more concerned with fighting "climate change," witch hunting white, Christian and competent soldiers out of its ranks while promoting the inept and glorifying transsexualism and homosexual perversions as the height of military preparedness, as well as a degrading of our material and logistics capabilities to even fight a protracted war, and most of all, a cogent strategy to actually WIN a war by absolutely destroying the enemy and conquering it makes even contemplating a significant military operation stupid to the point of insane. Don't forget the small matter of Xi across the China Straits champing at the bit to Overlord the shit out of Taiwan.

Fighting Iran and really actually going all out to destroy their regime, liberate the people and restore or install an America-friendly government is orgasmic to contemplate, I don't think we can or perhaps should do it. It's the right fight at the worst possible time.

And yet, the fools who were prevented (so far) from sending our own blood and treasure to the Ukrainian borscht belt to touch off a nuclear exchange with Putin, have shifted their gaze at Tehran.

On Sunday afternoon, U.S. Central Command announced that three U.S. service members were killed and 25 injured from a one-way attack drone that hit a military base in northeast Jordan, near the Syria border.

Iran-proxy forces have targeted U.S. troops in the region since Hamas’s terrorist attack in Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,200.

There have been more than 150 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since mid-October, with at least one critically injured. Sunday’s attack was the first time U.S. troops have been killed in such an attack in recent months.

Cotton and Graham, both military veterans, called for retaliation. . . Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) also called for retaliation. “Target Tehran,” Cornyn replied on X.

Talk about being put between Iraq and a hard place. If the situation weren't so incredibly dangerous, I'd be laughing my ass off. How the hell can Biden attack Iran when he and his Kalorama Klown Komintern Kontrollers have been hot and horny to give Iran nukes and billions in a bid to have them supplant Israel (even if it means and probably hoping for its destruction) as the dominant power in the region?

This is as bad or worse a political pickle for him than faking support for Israel in the wake of 10/7 while having to somehow appease the rabid Left Jew-haters of his base to force them to surrender. Ditto the situation at the border where everyone is screaming bloody murder to seal the damn border while his own hard lefty base is insisting to keep the floodgates jammed all the way open.

As for this situation in Iran, like everything else Democrats and Leftists do, it's ideologically-driven insanity. And now they've painted themselves into a corner. It's one of the most gigantic clusterfucks of all time.

From my perspective, we have to confront Iran and yet we are sorely lacking in the ability and more crucially the will to not only confront them but to finish the job like we did in Rome, Berlin and Tokyo 79 years ago. Worse than a feckless, useless government is the fact that we are no longer a unified nation, to the point of being in a rapidly warming state of civil war.

Cotton, Cornyn and Graham I trust about as far as I can throw them. And I'm sorry to have to lump Tom Cotton in there but bellicosity while being willfully ignorant of the political climate here at home as well as all the other factors I noted is nuts.

As nuts as any of their party looking for a "bipartisan compromise" on the border situation:

The negotiators have been haggling over how much more money to throw at the problems created by the Biden [junta's] own open border policies. But unless that money is used to build a virtually insurmountable wall and to hire thousands more Border Patrol agents assigned only to guard the border and prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country, the additional funding will be wasted.

As one Border Patrol agent, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, “No one wants to do this job. It’s thankless, long hours, and then we rarely if ever see the fruits of our labor. We didn’t sign up to be Uber drivers or babysitters just letting tons of aliens in.” A second Border Patrol agent said that “babysitting illegal aliens who get free flights and phones probably isn’t something people want to do,” adding that “my agency lost what its purpose is, it’s not doing what it was meant for. To keep the bad guys out and protect the Constitution of the United States.” A third agent remarked that “It has been made very clear by this current administration, that rather than accept full responsibility for the current and ongoing illegal immigration crisis that they caused, they’ve chosen to scapegoat Border Patrol agents time and time again.”

Providing more money to recruit and hire additional Border Patrol agents to babysit illegal immigrants and process their asylum claims will be throwing more good money after bad. . .

. . . The Biden [junta] is talking out of both sides of its mouth. On the one hand, the administration claims that it wants to work with Republicans to enhance border security. But on the other hand, it refuses to work with Texas, which is being overrun by illegal immigrants, to achieve real security at the southern border with Mexico. In fact, the Biden administration went to court recently, seeking an order permitting Border Patrol agents to cut through razor-wire fencing that Texas had installed near the border to protect its residents from the illegal immigrant invasion. After the Supreme Court, by a narrow 5-4 majority, gave Border Patrol agents a green light to do just that, at least temporarily, the [junta] celebrated. . .

. . . The negotiators are reportedly considering more restrictive asylum provisions for inclusion in the new legislation. But unless all asylum loopholes are closed for good, and the Biden administration does what it has not done to date – fully enforce the law – the new legislation will not be worth the paper it is written on. . .

. . .The immigration crisis now tops the list of the American people’s most serious concerns, even ahead of the economy. No so-called “bipartisan” deal with the Biden administration and Democrats will come close to solving the problem. The only way to stop the surge of illegal immigrants invading the United States is to defeat the current occupant in the White House who allowed the invasion to happen in the first place.

It's a waste of time. If the Geriatric Oleaginous Potemkin party does not realize by now that anything and everything they agree to with the Left is the moral equivalent of waving a piece of paper and declaring "peace in our time!" then they're useless. Meh, my contention is they know exactly what they're doing. They are collaborationists. Always have been and always will be, at least since the end of the Civil War or so.

Immigration and the border are literal gold being handed them on a silver platter. Beyond this one election, in which this issue alone is going to be the prime driver of the electorate to give Trump a massive win, it's becoming an issue to cleave lifelong Democrats away from their enslavers or at a minimum open their eyes. And yet, the GOP and CoC.

Ugh.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• Roger Kimball: "The Constitution aimed to limit the power and reach of government; its rival aims to make government triumph everywhere."
  Our Democracy™: The Democratic Weaponization of Government and the Need for Decentralization
  
• "How a Washington public school’s transgender secrecy policies drove an immigrant family out of the country."
  “We Thought She Was a Great Teacher”
  
• Victor Davis Hanson: "Trump must concentrate on the disaster of the Biden [junta] and reiterate nonstop the agendas of 2025 that will save us from tottering on the brink." (The good doctor still doesn't understand that Trump is who he is for better or worse, but his observations are otherwise on the money - jjs)
  Trump Has Reason to Rage—But Needs to Stay Calm and Get Even Rather than Mad
  
• Michael Walsh: "Last week, four fearful women and a spectacularly weak man, hiding behind their robes of office in a Court whose only constitutionally mandated member is the Chief Justice – leaving the rest to be self-aggrandized – refused to protect the nation without a word of explanation. Message: obey. Perhaps they've forgotten the opening words of the Declaration: 'When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. . .' If so, what happens next is on them."
  The Cold Civil War Gets Warmer
  
• "The alleged fraudster began her scamming in 2016 when she created the bogus business called 'Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development (CHYLD).' Mello claimed her business provided services to military members and their families through the 4-H program but instead just funded a lavish lifestyle for herself." (Isn't this really the story of how the United States Congress and Democrat legislation actually functions? - jjs)
  Con Artist Accused of Stealing $100 Million from Army to Spend on Luxe Homes, Cars is Allowed to Retire with Full Benefits: "I Earned It"

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 08:02 AM | Comments (340) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 29 January 2024

Top Story

• Good news, everyone: Japan's Moon lander is working. (The Guardian)
  
  It landed more or less safely, but with the solar panels facing the wrong way, so it only had battery power. (Since there's no atmosphere on the Moon, solar cells that aren't in direct sunlight produce no power at all.)
  
  Mission control shut it down, in the hope that after a few days the angle of the Sun would shift enough to reach the solar panels.
  
  It did.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (240) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (1/28/24)

***

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

“I know folks may question my style, but don’t question my leadership,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson

Quote II

“First of all, technology fails. These limiters are GPS based, or use cameras to read speed signs, or similar things. There are already incidents where people had limiters placed in their cars, and instead of complying, they ripped out road signs or cracked open the car and destroyed the device or the GPS unit," Automotive legal expert, Herschel Williams

***

The Comments of The Week

Not only are the Commenters smart, they are funny and clever as well. Thank you.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:00 PM | Comments (491) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: WW Birthday Edition!

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

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving hell did it get to be Weasel Woman's Birthday? Please join me in wishing her many happy returns of the day! I may be scarce in the comments tonight as we enjoy the pizza* I have generously agreed to pay for tonite. Or Chinese. I mean, we really like pizza but we had it last week, so maybe we should get chinese tonite so we don't have pizza twice in a row. But the last time we ordered chinese it took them a full 35 minutes to deliver which is obviously a problem, so maybe we should get pizza after all. Except the really good pizza place doesn't deliver so that means we have to get into the car and drive all the way to the bottom of the hill to pick it up. Why, I ask you, why would WW cause me so many problems? It's like she's trying to be difficult!

*up to three toppings. Valid one day only. May not be combined with any other offer. Void where prohibited

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 (322) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Melted Patties And RedHots In Our Booze!

That was the height of culinary accomplishment and joy back when I was a callow youth, scrounging for nickels to head to Friendly's for a "Patty Melt!"

But I lost touch with my roots, and moved on to the new brazen hussies of the hamburger world...smashburgers and gourmet beef grinds and brioche buns and burgers topped with pork belly and...

Yet there is something undeniably delicious about a simple Patty Melt. The crunch of the grilled bread, the meltiness of the American cheese, and the sweet tang of the sauteed onions conspire for a primal and satisfying meal.

And it isn't as easy as it looks! That bread needs to be crisp from the grill but fried in butter, and just one side. The other side needs to be able to soak up the burger juice! The onions can't be over-caramelized or the sandwich will be unbalanced. And most important...the burger can't be too thick!

Rye Bread is classic, though I have dreams of a Patty Melt made with my homemade sourdough. And I have vague memories of having one with plain old white bread, which probably had a kick of some extra seasoning. That's the perfection of the rye bread...it comes preseasoned.

Sure...Patty Melts are slumming in comparison to the current burger fashion, but isn't retro cool? Maybe I'll buy some vanilla syrup and make an Egg Cream to go along with my patty Melt!

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

First-World Problems...

Look...I get it. Modern windows are amazingly efficient, and one reason is that they are no longer separated into small panes. That makes them much better insulators...and ugly looking. So the answer was fake slats? I think they are called mullions (maybe), which is faintly creepy in its own right.

But the wonderful technology of modern windows has failed the mullion industry! The damned things attach using stupid little metal clips that fall out when the window frame flexes...from wind pressure or expansion or contraction. And then the mullions fall out.

We can put a man on the moon and keep Joe Biden ambulatory...but we can't design a mullion that stays put?

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (212) | Trackbacks (Suck)

United Nations Relief & Works Agency Is A Front For Terrorism: Prove Me Wrong!

UNRWA is a 75 year old United Nations program that is unique. No other group of refugees has a UN organization specifically dedicated to them, and there have been countless migrations away from wars and disasters in those 75 years.

Want a list? Here's a selection of the big hitters since the formation of UNRWA in 1949:

• Venezuela
  
• Syria
  
• Afghanistan
  
• Yemen
  
• Vietnam
  
• Yugoslavia
  
• Iraq
  
• Rwanda
  
• Mozambique
  
• Sudan

No dedicated UN organizations for any of these people, and the reasons are obvious. First, the United Nations cares not a whit for refugees except as they can be used to generate funding from the member countries. Second, most of these people were absorbed into neighboring countries or simply returned home, so the various crises were temporary. And third and most troubling, there was no unified bloc of UN member countries dedicated to the destruction of any of these sources of refugees, except for Israel.

The Arab world was ferociously against the reestablishment of the state of Israel, and immediately started a war whose intent was its destruction. They lost, and the Arabs who had been living in the area and left, many at the direction of those Arab countries, had nowhere to go.

Why is that? Because the Arab countries surrounding the new state of Israel did not want them! So they dumped them in refugee camps and begged the world and the UN for help. Which they got. But those camps rapidly morphed into cities, with markets and malls and hospitals and all of the accoutrements of modern life, with the bonus of funding from the rest of the world.

That funding -- for schools and food and infrastructure -- was funneled through the UNRWA, which now employs almost 30,000 people, most of whom are themselves the descendants of those original refugees! How the great-grandchild of someone who left Israel in 1948 is considered a refugee is a question for the ages!

Refugee: noun: a person who flees for refuge or safety, especially to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc.

Seems reasonable, but with the growth of those refugee camps came the opportunity for tremendous graft, and a political cudgel with which to beat Israel. So there was no impetus for resettlement of the original refugees, and in fact the opposite occurred. The "Palestinians," complete with a Soviet-inspired terrorist organization known as the "Palestine Liberation Organization" became the darlings of the unaligned world, and their plight was front-and-center at the UN. Israel became both a proxy for the developed Western nations, and a convenient focus of anti-Semitism.

The oceans of money (from the UN, the EU, and oil-rich Arab countries) pouring into these "refugee" camps was increasingly used not for the maintenance and improvement of the residents, but for the creation of a vast structure of indoctrination via education. And the primary subject was the demonization of Israel with the ultimate goal of its destruction. With so much graft opportunity, is it any wonder that much of that funding was also redirected to the various terrorist organizations that sprang up? The PLO was the progenitor of them all, stealing most of the money for its leaders pleasure. Yasser Arafat (The first head of the PLO) amassed a fortune that Israel estimated at $1.3 billion!

And the current leadership is no different. In Gaza, the Hamas leadership is fabulously wealthy, using their terrorist organization for personal gain and much of it for personal safety (some live abroad). But a lot of the money is redirected for the purchase of weapons, the construction of a quasi-military infrastructure, and the funding of a large fighting force.

And who administers those funds as they flow into Gaza? Who is employed as teachers and administrators and nurses and doctors? The descendants of the original refugees who have been indoctrinated into the cult of death whose focus is the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. And they turn around and teach that to their children! Many of the schools in Gaza are run directly by Hamas and funded by UNRWA.

Is it reasonable to assume that UNRWA knows what is being taught in its own schools and those they fund? Is it reasonable to assume knowledge that the funds supposedly allocated for civilian construction are being redirected for the construction of a vast complex of tunnels and terror facilities? Is it reasonable to assume that huge amounts of money are used for purchase of weapons rather than food?

How can UNRWA claim ignorance when the evidence is literally all around them? Hundreds of miles of tunnels cannot be built in secret! How can UNRWA claim ignorance when there is direct evidence that their employees participated in the pogrom of October 7th? How can UNRWA claim ignorance when even the EU has criticized them for their use of educational materials in their schools that call for the destruction of Israel; when the curricula of their schools is explicitly dedicated to Jew-hate?

That the people of Gaza (and the West Bank) are rabid Jew-hating death-cultists is bad enough. But the fact that the United Nations, through its Arab-controlled UNRWA actively funds the systems that perpetuate it is even worse. Because as the world has seen since the creation of the PLO in 1964, the aim is simple...kill Jews and destroy Israel.

And the UN is culpable.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (345) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 01-28-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion)

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 (306) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 28 January 2024

Top Story

• Is your Apple II or Commodore PET just not delivering the joy it once did? Enter the 65F02. (e-basteln)
  
  This is a 100MHz drop-in replacement for the original 1MHz chip.
  
  Of course that wouldn't do much good with the original 1MHz RAM still in place, so it has 64k of 100MHz RAM on board as well.
  
  It automatically maps out the memory and I/O addresses of your computer so that devices like floppy drives and video still work, while everything else runs at full speed.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (238) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Overnight Open Thread (1/27/23) Audience Participation Edition

***

The Saturday Night Joke


A woman decided to give herself a big treat for her 70th birthday by staying overnight in a really nice hotel.

When she checked out the next morning, the desk clerk handed her a bill for $250.00.  She demanded to know why the charge was so high "I agree it's a nice hotel, but the rooms aren't worth $250.00 for just an overnight stay - I didn't even have breakfast!"

The clerk told her that $250.00 is the 'standard rate,' and breakfast had been included had she wanted it.  So she insisted on speaking to the Manager.

The Manager appeared and forewarned by the desk clerk, announced: "This hotel has an Olympic-sized pool and a huge conference center which are available for use."

"But I didn't use them."  'Well, they are here, and you could have."
He went on to explain that she could also have seen one of the in-hotel shows for which they were so famous."We have the best entertainers from the world over performing here."

"But I didn't go to any of those shows.." 

"Well, we have them, and you could have." 
No matter what amenity the Manager mentioned, she replied, "But I didn't use it!" and the Manager countered with his standard response. 
After several minutes discussion, and with the Manager still unmoved, she decided to pay, wrote a check and gave it to him.
The Manager was surprised when he looked at the check.  "But Madam, this check is for only $50.00" 

"That's correct I charged you $200.00 for sleeping with me." 

"But I didn't!" 

"Well, too bad, I was here, and you could have."(H/T Hrothgar)

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:48 PM | Comments (419) | Trackbacks (Suck)