First-World Problems...

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)

Is America Dead, And We Just Don't Know It?

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.

***
PS. Yes, this is a dark and pessimistic view. I asked Buck Throckmorton to read this essay as a check on my dour and disheartened tone. His comment is more optimistic.

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.

I hope my supposition is incorrect, and America will come roaring back from the abyss. There are many wonderful things about this country that have provided the strength to overcome some significant challenges throughout our history. Can we draw strength from them and push back against the internal enemies that desire our destruction? That would mean that many more of us must take off the blinders and see the existential threat. That has happened recently, but it must become the default, rather than a local response to a particular issue.

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)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 01-14-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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)

EMT 1-14-24

Happy Sunday.

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

Daily Tech News 14 January 2023

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)

Saturday Overnight Open Thread (1/13/24)

***

The Saturday Night Joke

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)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread: Poor Things [moviegique]

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)

The Weekend Hobby Thread

***

Good afternoon Horde. It is time for the Weekend Hobby Thread. Hope you all have settled into winter, survived the holidays and are now finding time for your hobbies.

Please remember to leave the politics and current events at the curb.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 05:30 PM | Comments (195) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, January 13

* * *

Worth watching, sound on. Read the commentary concerning racoon life habits, too.

Courtesy Captain Covfefe. " This had me rolling!!!"

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

Posted by: K.T. at 03:31 PM | Comments (95) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Jan. 13

We've had enough frost here to worry the citrus growers and maybe damage citrus in some places. How is your weather?

Well, this is almost the middle of January - a time not well-know for flowering plants. But even in Central California, the Euryops pectinatus, like the one above, generally makes it through a few mild frosts. AKA "wolly resin bush" The green-leaved variant (the most common one sold) is pictured above, though the species is generally grey-leaved.

Golden Euryops is a vigorous grower, but you can prune it back after flowering to a desired shape. Cut off dead flowerheads after flowering. There are 96 other species of Euryops that occur in southern and tropical Africa as well as in Saudi Arabia.

I prefer the silvery grey original color. There is a dwarf.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:23 PM | Comments (73) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Pick Your Utopia

This is the start of a long weekend for some of us. Perhaps there will be time to dream about a utopian future.

Medieval peasants imagined a fantasy land where all their desires were fulfilled. It was called Cockaigne, which rhymes with Spain, and it was super depressing. The Land of Cockaigne is a simple place: the houses are made from fish pies, and roasted pigs walk around with knives in their backs for easy eating. Eggs grew legs so that peasants could indulge while lying on the ground, and animals pooped in baskets for easy clean up. In an imaginary world with endless possibilities, the medieval myth of Cockaigne focused on two things: food and laziness.

Cockaigne wasn't as bad as the rich Italians who made poor people fight over food. In fact, the stories include some fascinating insights into what the community cared about--the French peasants wanted quality wines, while the Italians wanted a mountain of Parmesan cheese. Still, Cockaigne is proof that life for medieval peasants was pretty bad, since their utopia was essentially a medieval version of the dystopia in Wall-E. . .

Don't tell these guys about the house from Hansel and Gretel made of candy--it'll make their "house of fish" look pretty sad. According to the 14th-century English poem "The Land of Cockaygne," the walls of all the houses in the utopia are made of fish pies. If that doesn't sound very appetizing, look to the roofs, where "flour-cakes are the shingles."

One French version of the story included even stranger housing materials. The walls themselves are made of fish, while "the beams are made of sturgeons, the roofs of bacon, and the fences of sausage." In a fantasy world where houses could be made of literally any material, it's pretty depressing that medieval peasants picked fish.

I have an old Joy of Cooking cookbook in which many of the family recipes, including some from the family cook (from Eastern Europe, I think) include the word "Cockaigne" in the name.

Have you ever had a utopian dream like this, even as a child?

Posted by: K.T. at 11:07 AM | Comments (322) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

(Photo H/T Blake)

***

'Mornin' Horde. Hope you are all able to sit upright and drink your favorite beverage at the moment.

Before we get into today's Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping items (Rulz for those of you in Egg Harbor)

This an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate away until the lovely and talented KT comes along.

Be kind to the Hectors and Sydneys of the world.

Feel free to run with sharp objects if you wish, no prayers for a GoFundMe account however.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:40 AM | Comments (364) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 13 January 2023

Top Story

• Well, that was probably the lamest CES ever.
  
  The one bright spot was - oddly - Nvidia's "Super" series of video cards.
  
  The 4070 Super is 20% faster than the 4070 at the same price. The 4080 Super is not even 5% faster than the 4080, but is $200 cheaper.
  
  And the 4070 Ti Super is 90% of a 4080, but $400 cheaper. True that it's no longer competing against the 4080, but the 4080 Super, so it's only $200 cheaper, but it's still a top-of-the-line gaming card (excluding the 4090 as a semi-professional card) at an only mostly insane price.
  
  
  
• Still trying to get a Calliope Mori limited edition case from Hyte, and the Amelia Watson case is supposed to launch this month, and they look to be launching three Nijisanji-branded cases as well.
  
  I'd particularly like to get the Calli and Ame cases because there are matching custom keyboards available, and there's no Pomu in the Nijisanji lineup so I'm less worried about those. But Hyte seems determined to save me money.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (320) | Trackbacks (Suck)

This Is The Way The World Ends: Not With A Bang But An ONT

Fair Friday to you all! You know, I often get asked how I organize the memes and stuff for Friday night...

Truthfully, I had to move the folder where I keep all the used memes to make space on my HD t'other day. It was over 16GB!

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (423) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Baby Olympics Cafe

New Zealand by @rachstewartnz

Corn cannibals cook a captive cob.

Norway's fjord highways are kinda crazy.

Fans of cicadas, boy has Massimo got some great news for you!

Massimo
@Rainmaker1973

You may know that cicadas spend most of their lives as underground nymphs, emerging in cycles of 13 or 17 years (coincidentally two prime numbers).

The years when the two cycles emergence coincide are therefore rare, and one is 2024.

The 17-year cicada and the 13-year cicada, which are periodical cicadas, are scheduled to emerge in Middle Tennessee in 2024.

The broods co-emerge every 221 years. The last time the two broods co-emerged was in 1803, the same year as the Louisiana Purchase and Thomas Jefferson was president.

So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

Much like David French, this chipmunk needs a little time to decide if it wants to stuff Deez Nuts in its mouth.

A couple of buddies. An unexpected friendship. A dog is welcomed into the cow family.

Cat has the run of the coffee shop.

Awww.

Sad panda. Happy panda.

"At 10 pm tonight, let's all gather on the street in a way that seems innocent and organic but is really calculated to make people feel uncomfortable and anxious!"

Finicky seal turns his nose up at a small fish and waits for the human to show some respect and give him a big fish.

Boob tracking. Thanks to Robert.

The one thing that unites us. BIG thanks to Robert.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:17 PM | Comments (345) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Week In Woke

Via andycanuck, this writer, "TheRabbitHole84," compares the 2020 Summer of Love Mostly Peaceful Protests to the four hour January 6th protest. He demonstrates how the corrupt propaganda media has entirely memory-holed the former while propagandizing about the latter in nigh-daily stories.

And on that subject: Julio Rosas, at his "Mostly Peaceful" substack (LOL), explained why the months-long billions-of-dollars-of-damage murderous Summer of Peace riots were worse than a four hour kerfuffle in what was formerly called "The People's House" before vindictive and psychologically-twisted closeted homosexual Lindsay Graham began demanding that federal Praetorians begin executing any people actually inside the place.

Reason 1: Breakdown in public safety

The breakdown of law and order during the BLM and Antifa riots is obvious. Bears repeating that even the "97 percent of BLM protests were peaceful" statistic means that within the 3 percent means over 500 violent incidents happened across the country that lasted for months. One police station was overrun and burned, another was evacuated and led to the creation of an "autonomous zone," the White House perimeter was attacked, and a federal courthouse was under siege for over a month.

But once the rubble was cleared away and the National Guard was sent home, the criminal elements within our society saw just how much they were able to get away with, to little or zero consequences. It is why we saw a spike in crime in the years afterward and why the crime rate has not returned to pre-2020 levels. It is now considered "normal" to see looters come into a business, whether it be CVS or a luxury store, clean out merchandise and leave with people's only recourse to call the police, who may or not show up because of the dramatic decrease in manpower, if they even bother to call the police.

It is why cities like San Fransisco's business districts are in-name only, as many have closed for good due to the rampant crime and overall decrease in quality of life.

Take our nation's capital. Washington, D.C. ended 2023 with a total of 273 murders. To find a murder rate higher than that, you have to go back to 1997. It also doesn't even begin to touch on the city's high carjacking and theft numbers.

The New York Times is a "real journalist" institution, and you can tell, because they published a several-thousand word screed by some deranged groupie wishcasting Taylor Swift into being a lesbian.

Breastfeeding is very healthy for babies.

But it's now "problematic," because men pretending to be women can't breastfeed, and so doctors are going to have to stop promoting breastfeeding as the best and most natural method of nurturing a baby, so that the fragile lunatic transgender activists don't feel left out or different.

This is from 2021, but was just "resurfaced" by Hot Air.

Hospitals in the United Kingdom have begun using the term "chestfeeding" instead of "breastfeeding," just years after U.S. academics published a study in which they argued that the promotion of breastfeeding as the "natural" way to feed a child has many negative societal effects.

In early 2021, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals in the United Kingdom drew international criticism for swapping the word "breastfeeding" for "chestfeeding" in an attempt to be more inclusive of transgender individuals.

Likewise, Harvard Medical School referred to women as "birthing people" in an effort to "include those who identify as non-binary or transgender," as Campus Reform previously reported.

"We are concerned about breastfeeding promotion that praises breastfeeding as the 'natural' way to feed infants," wrote Jessica Martucci of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Anne Barnhill of Johns Hopkins University in the journal Pediatrics. "Promoting breastfeeding as 'natural' may be ethically problematic, and, even more troublingly, it may bolster this belief that 'natural' approaches are presumptively healthier."

Martucci and Barnhill explained that in the 1950s and 1960s, a movement of women sought to promote breastfeeding in the wake of advances in medical formula technology -- an approach that the researchers find "ethically problematic" because it may "support biologically deterministic arguments about the roles of men and women in the family" -- for example, "that women should be the primary caretakers of children."

"Referencing the 'natural' in breastfeeding promotion, then, may inadvertently endorse a controversial set of values about family life and gender roles, which would be ethically inappropriate," they state.

"Center" MEEEEE

Marginalize yourself.

Pervert groomer librarians quit their jobs when parents passed rules forbidding them from providing gay porn to children.

Apparently they believe that the parents will be upset that these loathsome perverts and groomers have quit their jobs.

Wrong.

In Campbell County, Wyoming:

The public library was stocked with horrible graphic sexual, homosexual, and transgender books for children (and briefly promoted a "transgender" performer for kids). The Library Director arrogantly defended the obscene books, mostly using American Library Association talking points.

You mean the organization run by an angry Marxist lesbian who proclaims her desire to use the libraries to indoctrinate children into communism?

Ah yes, you do mean that America Library Association:

"I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of [the ALA]," wrote Emily Drabinski, who took office in July, in a since-deleted post after she was elected last April. "I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity! And my mom is SO PROUD. I love you mom."

Back to the current article:

The Library Board was solidly leftist and openly hostile to the parents. And the County Commission (which appoints the Library Board) refused to listen to the parents -- and even shut off public comment to silence their complaints. In addition, pro-LGBT leftists would regularly come to public meetings and harass the pro-family people.

But the parents organized, protested, and made real change:

The parents forced one of the virulent anti-family County Commissioners to resign. With the pro-family replacement, the Commission restored public comment and appointed a conservative-majority Library Board. With help and encouragement from the parents, the new Library Board exited the American Library Association. Next, they created a new anti-porn library book policy. Then, on July 28, 2023, they fired the leftist Library Director when she refused to follow the new policy!

Beautiful.

(Via Hot Air's Headlines.)

The Current Year virus of children self-diagnosing themselves as transgender exploded all over the country, except in one -- South Dakota.

Forty-nine out of 50 U.S. states saw an incredible rise in gender dysphoria between 2018 and 2022, a 2024 report revealed.

South Dakota was the only state to see a drop in the number of residents believing they were a different gender to that they were born with, a condition called "gender dysphoria," according to a 2024 report from Atlas All-Payor Claims Dataset. Virginia, Indiana, Alaska and Utah saw the highest increase in diagnoses of gender dysphoria, ranging from around 183% to 274% growth.

Many of those seeking to undergo irreversible surgeries on their genitals, receive hormone therapies or other types of so-called "gender care" are under the age of 18. Young people make up around 18% of Americans, up from 10% in 2016, the report noted.

...

A previous study by the National Institute of Health found that 58% of transgender patients had a psychiatric diagnosis, compared to only 13% of cisgender (non-trans people). The report did not offer any solutions to mitigate this mental health crisis, just new pathways to indulge and make money off those suffering.

A prisoner has filed a lawsuit alleging that his "denial of transgender care" is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Biden's corrupt, Marxist DOJ wants to take a position in the lawsuit.

Guess which side they want to join!

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in a lawsuit brought in Georgia claiming that the denial of transgender care violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

"People with gender dysphoria should be able to seek the full protections of the American with Disabilities Act [sic], just like other people with disabilities," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "We are committed to ensuring constitutional conditions inside our jails and prisons so that those detained inside these facilities, including people with gender dysphoria can live safely and receive needed medical care. The U.S. Constitution requires that people incarcerated in jails and prisons receive necessary medical care, treatment and services to address serious medical conditions."

Transgenderism is a DISABILITY?!!

Do better, Racist Kristen Clarke. Do better.

Meanwhile:

End Wokeness
@EndWokeness

BREAKING: The Ohio State House has just overrode Gov. DeWine's veto of HB68 by a 65-28 margin

The bill to ban mutiIation of minors and ban men from women's sports is on track to becoming state law without him.

In the UK, they're hiring men to conduct intimate bodily searches of women, and it's a crime for a woman to object to having her body cavities probed by a Man in a Party City Wig.

Imagine, if you will, a police officer performing an intimate bodily search on your wife or daughter.

Now, imagine that the officer is a man. Would it make you happier to know that the person with the twig and berries claims to be a woman? Would your wife or your daughter breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the man about to humiliate her tells others that he is not a man?

I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure my wife would be horrified, and I know I would be enraged beyond comprehension. Having a mentally ill man in a woman's uniform grope a woman is sexual assault.

Yet that scenario is becoming a reality in Great Britain. In fact, a majority of police forces have quietly instituted policies that allow men who claim to be women perform body searches on females.

If the woman objects she could even be subject to hate crimes charges.

United Airlines is openly bragging that they've stopped hiring on merit and now hire only on race and gender and sexuality.

Good. I want to know which deathtrap "diversity" airlines I should avoid at all costs.

UPS is also now avoiding hiring qualified pilots. So if anyone in your family is ever killed by a UPS diversity deathtrap cargo plane crashing into an unexpected, fast-moving town, be sure to sue them out of existence.

And of course you know that a door blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight.

The midair incident involved a door plug, panels designed to fit into doors that typically aren't needed on an aircraft, transforming them into windows. One of these plugs was sucked out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 flown by Alaska Airlines just minutes after the plane departed Oregon's Portland International Airport on its way to Ontario, California.

Alaska and United Airlines -- the only two U.S. carriers to fly the Boeing 737 Max 9 -- have since said they have found loose bolts inside several other door plugs on the jets, which the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded.

The lawsuit is noteworthy because of its allegations of manufacturing problems, including a complaint from one Spirit employee who alleged an "excessive amount of defects" in an email to one of the company's executives. While none of the issues flagged in the lawsuit specifically involve door plugs, the claim alleges that Spirit's "quality failures were so severe and persistent that Boeing even placed Spirit on probation for multiple years."

The Bee:

As others have said: Brace for Diversity Disasters with death tolls in the hundreds.

But we have to avenge the death of St. George Floyd!

You'll never guess who's taken every spot in the UN's Trans Advisory Group.

Well, to be honest, you have a pretty good chance of guessing.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) group tasked with developing transgender health guidelines is filled with LGBTQ activists, according to a review of the its members' biographies.

The WHO's guidelines are intended to focus on transgender hormones, health workers' education regarding transgender medical issues, and access to sex change procedures, along with policies that push for the legal recognition of "gender identity," according to a WHO press release. More than half the members of the development group are not listed as having any medical background, and many are LGBTQ activists who have pushed for child sex changes, according to websites reviewed by the DCNF.

Of the 21 members of the transgender guidelines advisory board, only 10 of them have formal medical training, according to WHO's biographical document. Seven members of the board are transgender.

Countries often look to the WHO for guidance on various health-related issues.

"This new guideline will provide evidence and implementation guidance on health sector interventions aimed at increasing access and utilization of quality and respectful health services by trans and gender diverse people," the WHO press release reads.

Florence Ashley, one of the members of the advisory group, is a "transfeminine" lawyer and bioethicist, according to Ashley's website.

Ashley told TikTokers that "as a law professor who teaches criminal law, I felt compelled to inform you to be gay, do crimes," in a September 2023 video.

Ashley also wrote a book, which is scheduled to be published in Feb. 2024, titled, "Gender/Fucking: The Pleasures and Politics of Living in a Gendered Body."

"Taking the idea of intellectual masturbation a bit too literally, Florence Ashley draws on their experiences as a transfeminine activist, academic, and slut to interrogate what it means to live in a gendered body in our difficult yet occasionally loving world," a description of the book on Amazon reads.

Ashley wrote an article titled, "The Anti-Trans Panic Is Rooted in White Supremacist Ideology" in May 2023, which equated people who oppose child sex changes to Nazis.

Below, the "transfeminine" lawyer advises young people: "Be gay, do crimes."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:15 PM | Comments (209) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Anthony Fauci: Now That I Think About It, Maybe the Lab Leak Theory Was Not a Racist Conspiracy Theory Like the Paper I Ordered Into Being Claimed

I missed this yesterday: Anthony Fauci, who ordered people dependent on him for grants to write up a fake scientific paper branding the lab leak a racist conspiracy theory and then cited that paper without disclosing his Producer credit on it, now concedes the lab leak is not a conspiracy theory.

Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic

@COVIDSelect

Dr. Fauci acknowledged that the lab-leak hypothesis is not a conspiracy theory.

This comes nearly four years after prompting the publication of the now infamous "Proximal Origin" paper that attempted to vilify and disprove the lab-leak hypothesis.

Robbie Soave:

In recent months, Fauci has denied he ever categorically rejected the possibility that COVID-19 accidentally escaped from a laboratory. But he faces very serious allegations that he deterred scientific experts from considering it. At issue is "The Proximal Origin of Sars-CoV-2," a paper that appeared in Nature Medicine, a scientific journal, in March 2020 at the very start of the global pandemic. Fauci--who was then head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)--and Francis Collins--then director of the National Institutes of Health--participated in a conference call with the authors, whose initial openness to a lab leak explanation changed significantly prior to publication. The paper ultimately ruled out a lab leak as not just "unlikely"--the phrasing used in an early of the paper--but "improbable."

More recently, Fauci has contended that he always remained open to the idea, but was persuaded by scientific arguments--including those in the proximal origin paper--that a zoonotic spillover was more likely. This claim would be more persuasive if Fauci had not stated over and over and over and over again, in media interviews, that he "strongly favored" the zoonotic origin theory; his subsequent suggestion that he did not lean in either direction is flatly contradicted by his literal words.

Matt Orfalea put together a supercut showing Anthony Fauci repeatedly dismiss the lab leak theory he now claims he was "open" to.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:20 PM | Comments (172) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New York's Dingbat Mummy Governor Hochul Declares a Fake "War" On the Shoplifting She Made Legal; California Searches for Ways to be Anti-Theft Yet Pro-Thief

The blue states are enjoying the fruits of their ideology, and they're not enjoying it much.

New York unleashed criminals upon the citizenry through "decarceration" reforms.

Now citizens are having their stores picked clean by the organized looters that make up the Democrat Party -- the Democrat Party is nothing but organized looting, after all -- and Hochul feels the need to pretend to do something about that with the 2024 elections on the horizon.

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared war against shoplifting on Tuesday, saying retail thievery in New York has spiraled out of control -- with many products in stores under lock and key.

Hochul unveiled a multi-pronged plan to tackle the shoplifting scourge, including boosting penalties for offenders who assault retail workers.

"I say, 'No More!' The chaos must stop!," she said during her 2024 State of the State address delivered in Albany.

Well you used to throw thieves in jail. That system worked pretty well. You could consider going back to it.

The governor's plan would create a new category of crime to prosecute those who sell stolen goods online and set up a new "smash and grab unit" in the New York State Police Department to prosecute theft rings.

Oh, nevermind, silly me thinking you actually wanted to address the problem. How foolish of me. You just want to appear to be doing something about it. A new block in the organizational flow chart. Whew. Yes, that will trick some of the voters, without the racist step of actually locking up criminals aka the Democrat Party base.

Hochul also vowed to provide dedicated funding to district attorneys to prosecute property crime, primarily retail theft.

Oh more funding for government! So much innovative thinking! Wow, this really isn't Your Granddad's Democrat Party!

She noted that grand larceny crimes were up double digits compared to figures before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

Don't forget "after the George Floyd riots and progressive demands to Decriminalize Crime."

"Across our nation and state retail theft has surged, creating fear among the customers and workers. Thieves brazenly tear items off the shelves and menace employees," Hochul said.

"Owners go broke replacing broken windows and stolen goods, driving many out of business. These attacks are .... a breakdown of the social order."

...

Conspicuously absent from her plan, however, was any talk of specifically imposing tougher penalties for serial shoplifters.

LOL, of course not. Hardened career criminals are the Democrat Party base.

California is similarly looking for ways to reduce crime without taking the painful step of actually throwing Democrat criminals in prison.

John Sexton:

Newsom is laying out his priorities at a politically fraught moment for Democrats navigating rising concerns about public safety, exacerbated by highly visible incidents of people making off with merchandise. Elected officials who have backed lighter sentencing in an effort to reduce mass incarceration are looking for ways to address crime without abandoning a yearslong movement away from lengthy prison terms.

Those dynamics have amplified calls to roll back Prop 47, a 2014 ballot measure that reduced drug and property crimes to misdemeanors and drew support from a cross-section of California Democrats, including Newsom. But the Democratic governor is resisting calls to revisit the initiative, instead embracing a mix of new penalties and bills that solidify existing law.

Newsom is asking lawmakers to create new categories of crimes targeting "professional" offenders who have stolen property or burglarized vehicles with the intent to resell them and to enhance penalties for people who resell large amounts of stolen goods. He also wants to clarify existing powers to arrest retail thieves and aggregate separate offenses, making permanent a law allowing charges for organized retail crime.

In other words, he wants to continue doing nothing about the actual thieves, and hopes that if he just imprisons a few of the guys buying the stolen merchadise from the thieves, somehow that will fix everything.

Um, no. No matter who the actual thieves sell to, whether it's an organized gang or to people on the street, they're still making money off this risk-free crime.

And Newsom and the Democrats will continue protecting them and guaranteeing them lifetime employment as state-sanctioned bandits and raiders.

Hey Newsom -- what will your "reforms" do to stop daily thieves who pick stores clean and then sell the stolen merchandise on the sidewalk in front of their victims' store?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:20 PM | Comments (256) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tom Cotton to Woke, Anti-White Job Recruiters: You Know, Discriminating Against Members of One Race is Illegal, Right?

Tom Cotton is putting recruiting firms that discriminate against white men on notice that they are breaking the law.

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton sent letters Thursday to ten recruiting firms regarding their diversity quota hiring practices after reporting revealed that recruiting firms are conspiring with companies to exclude "non-diverse" candidates from the hiring pool.

The Daily Caller first obtained the letters to the following ten different recruiting firms: Robert Half, Kelly Services, Randstad North America, Korn Ferry, ManpowerGroup, Egon Zehnder, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates and Diversified Search Group. In the letters, Cotton calls on the firms to refuse any request to racially discriminate while recruiting.

"Compliance with DEI mandates may violate federal law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, for example, prohibits private employers from basing hiring decisions on race. A member of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ('EEOC') has warned that 'diversity programs pose both legal and practical risks for companies,'" Cotton wrote in the letters.

A group is preparing to sue MIT for rejecting more-qualified male applicants in favor of less-qualified female ones.

The alumni have formed a nonprofit called FairAdmissions@MIT and currently seek male plaintiffs rejected by MIT despite "top SAT/ACT scores, great grades, strong recommendations, and substantial extra-curricular activities," the group's website states.

"This is about a return to meritocracy," said a member of the group who asked to remain anonymous for fear of possible retaliation against him for organizing the litigation.

"The entire political center of the institution has shifted so far left, and this is directly correlated," he said. "The point is to treat applicants as individuals, not as members of an identity group."

DEI is a luxury corporations indulge in times of plenty. But now, in the Bidenomics Economy, they're cutting back on Luxury Virtue Signaling.

For some reason. I don't understand. The Democrat Media Propoganda State keeps telling me this is a Miracle Economy.

(Daily Caller News Foundation) -- Corporations are quietly reversing their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices amid intense legal pressure from conservatives and even their own shareholders, multiple outlets reported.

Conservative activists, shareholders and investors have issued challenges to various corporate diversity policies, including Republican attorneys general and others sending letters challenging racial recruiting quotas, alleging unlawful discrimination. Companies have increasingly become worried about DEI following the Supreme Court striking down race-based admissions at universities in June, and they have reversed course by eliminating certain policies and renaming initiatives in anticipation of further legal turbulence, Axios reported.

Further, a coalition of lawyers and investors have begun exploring ways to utilize corporate law in an attempt to pressure firms to scale back on their DEI policies following a rise in antisemitism concerns on elite college campuses, Semafor reported on Thursday.

Diversity policies could negatively impact shareholders, as companies run the risk of missing out on qualified applicants, the coalition argues, according to Semafor. It also contends that inconsistent implementation of workplace regulations, influenced by racial or other DEI factors, could potentially violate federal employment laws.

"Shareholders have every right to question whether the DEI programs that made us feel good in the past are now unjustified because their true economic and social effect is simply replacing one form of discrimination with another," shareholder plaintiffs lawyer Mark Lebovitch, who has participated in these discussions, told Semafor.

Corporations began implementing DEI policies at warp speed following George Floyd's death in May 2020, shelling out around $340 billion to advance "racial equity" between then and October 2022, according to the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility.

"Anything that smacks of a quota" is no longer acceptable, Diana Scott, leader of the Human Capital Center at The Conference Board, told Axios.

Companies like investment giant Blackstone are focusing on socioeconomic diversity in place of racial diversity, according to Fortune. They are also using terms like "wellbeing and inclusion" instead of DEI, Scott told Axios.

"Companies are really starting to look at other ways to do the work without saying that they're doing the work," Cinnamon Clark, co-founder of DEI consulting firm Goodwork Sustainability, told Axios.

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned over plagiarism allegations, but her resignation has contributed to escalation of the debate about corporate DEI as critics have linked the movement to her alleged lack of qualifications for her role, according to The New York Times.

Billionaire Bill Ackman suggested corporations should receive pushback for their DEI programs in a piece for the Free Press on Wednesday following Gay's resignation.

"Here we are in 2024, being asked and in some cases required to use skin color to affect outcomes in admissions (recently deemed illegal by the Supreme Court), in business (likely illegal yet it happens nonetheless), and in government (also I believe in most cases to be illegal, except apparently in government contracting), rather than the content of one's character," Ackman wrote. "As such, a meritocracy is anathema to the DEI movement. DEI is inherently a racist and illegal movement in its implementation even if it purports to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed."

Shareholder activists have also sent letters to 25 corporations alleging their DEI initiatives unlawfully discriminate and violate fiduciary duty to investors since 2021, with several of them making changes afterward, according to Reuters in December. American Airlines, BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase and Lowe's have edited their DEI language to be less racially oriented following conservative lawsuit threats.

Consulting firm Paradigm Strategy CEO Joelle Emerson disagrees with the characterization that DEI is discriminatory but acknowledges that argument is gaining steam in a commentary piece for Fortune on Thursday.

"Their strategy is working: critiquing DEI has become more mainstream," Emerson wrote. "Increasingly, even people who likely support some of the most common and visible examples of these efforts (parental leave, fair pay, and hiring processes that promote objectivity and mitigate bias) are questioning whether the movement that produced these policies has gone astray."

American Airlines, Blackstone, Lowes and JPMorgan Chase did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation's request for comment.

BlackRock declined to comment.

And on that: Blackrock just announced its own layoffs. Most of these will come from their ESG division. (ESG -- Environmental, Social, Governance investing -- pours money into nonprofitable woke corporations that push DEI.)

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:20 PM | Comments (325) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hunter Biden Caves; Will Submit to Closed-Door Deposition

Breaking.

Hunter Biden caves and AGREES to testify in Congress if Republicans issue a new subpoena after made-for-TV stunt as vote to hold him in contempt is set for next week

'Enough of his stunts. He doesn't get to play by a different set of rules. He's not above the law,' said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise

The contempt articles - voted out of the Judiciary and Oversight committees on Wednesday - will go to the House Rules Committee early next week

Then they will hit the House floor. If approved, Hunter's case will be referred to the Biden-led Department of Justice for prosecution, which is unlikely

By Kelly Laco

Hunter Biden caved and agreed to Republican demands for a closed-door deposition as the GOP moves forward with holding him in contempt following his shock made-for-TV appearance on Capitol Hill in blatant defiance of their subpoena.

His agreement is contingent upon the GOP sending a new subpoena for his testimony. The GOP's original subpoena came in November, before the House's December 13 vote to formally authorize the Biden impeachment inquiry.

'If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition,' Hunter's attorney Abbe Lowell wrote Friday in a letter to Republicans obtained by DailyMail.com.

Don't get excited. I predict with 100% confidence he will plead the fifth. (Actually, he'll read a prepared, heavily-lawyered statement making vague claims about his innocence first.) He won't say he's invoking the fifth clearly; he will say he declines to answer, without specifically giving the fifth amendment as his justification to not answer.

After that, the House can attempt to compel his answers anyway. They can declare that his answers cannot be used against him in any prosecution -- I think they have that power on their own. Maybe they have to get the DOJ to agree to that. (In which case, Merrick Garland will drag his feet.)

Hunter Biden will fight to not answer anyway, saying he wants full immunity for everything he ever did. Not just that his answers can't be used against him, but that he simply cannot be prosecuted for any crimes based on any evidence.

He will fight in court through the election. And then, after the election, Joe Biden will pardon him, his corrupt brother and sister-in-law, and all members of the Biden family who took money from foreign sources, including his old ugly rapist self.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:19 PM | Comments (264) | Trackbacks (Suck)