Minx Dynamic Pages for Movable Type

Ace of Spades HQ

January 03, 2024

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (1/3/24)

***

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I
"If I didn't take the color bulbs out, I would say in about four weeks, we would be half-clear, half-colored bulbs. It would be a very colorful Nights of Lights," Chris Fitts, the team's leader

Quote II
"The entire myth at the heart of this whole transition is that the battery car seamlessly fits right into the gas car's position. It doesn't, and that's the problem."Edward Niedermeyer, the author of "Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motor

Quote III
“By completely prohibiting the installation of natural gas piping within newly constructed buildings, the City of Berkeley has waded into a domain preempted by Congress,” Patrick Bumatay, a circuit judge on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Quote IV
"This happened for nothing. For nothing. Hold your babies. Hold them. We can’t even let our kids go ride bikes." Mother of 10 year old murder victim

What law will be passed to stop this senseless killing? It really doesn't matter as there were several laws broken leading up to the murder. Until our society reverts back to teaching right from wrong and instilling discipline this will continue.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:55 PM | Comments (402) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Fishing With a Friend Cafe

Glacier National Park, Montana
by @mountains.and.the.wild

Cat thinks up a new way to be weird.

Excellent ball control from the young midfielder.

The Christmas Day Truce, as reenacted by the Farmhouse Players.

Evil river otters stalking their prey.

Retirement party for a K-9.

Foolish human! I cannot be restrained!

It's the eye contact that makes it sexy.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (265) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

Joe Biden's Top Five Falls of 2023.

While Congressmen tour the border, illegals cross the Rio Grande into Texas within 50 yards of the junket.

Invasion.

A "political analyst" decided to accuse Kurt Schlichter -- a veteran who served with honor in Kosovo -- of being an insurrectionist.

Kurt Schlichter
@KurtSchlichter

Jan 2
Retired 9 year ago today. A great 27 years.
Disgusted at how far the military has fallen since.

Rachel Bitecofer
@RachelBitecofer
Jan 2
You violate the oath you swore every day

From one side of their mouths, leftists claim that they are strictly truthful and fact-based; from other side of their mouths, they basely accuse random people of being insurrectionists because they don't like a post on Twitter.

Donnie Detroit
@DonnieDetroit19
Jan 2
Say the chick who never swore an oath to anyone or anything in her life.

Rachel Bitecofer
@RachelBitecofer
Back in 2010 as a university employee of the state of Georgia I had to swore an oath to the state that I had never supported or engaged in insurrection or plots against the government. That's an oath Kurt can't pass anymore.

Is this a joke?

Kurt Schlichter
@KurtSchlichter
WHERE IS YOUR PARADE?

Kurt Schlichter
@KurtSchlichter
Today someone waved her oath as a Georgia grad student at me to demonstrate how her patriotism trumps mine.
No, that actually happened.

Kurt Schlichter
@KurtSchlichter
[to the stupid fat cowperson Bitecofer:]
Please do not address me as you would a peer.
You are not my peer. You have not earned that status.
You are a ridiculous woman who poses as a patriot between handfuls of Doritos. You served nothing. You sacrificed nothing. You defended nothing. You just existed, in safety, and now presume to question your betters. Do not.
Be silent - doing so might allow you to salvage a shred of dignity. But I doubt it.

Now I know what you're thinking: With that kind of bad attitude -- shame and depression always lashing out at the world that rejects her -- this Rachel Bitecofer must be a real hot pistol.

You're wrong again. When will you learn?

Judging by the dangerous levels of fat visible around her face and neck, to say nothing of her peek-around backfat, I'm going to speculate that Rachel Bitcofer violated her sacred oath to Jenny Craig a whole bunch of times.

Picture of this poor, oafish specimen CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikipedia.

10 When is the Epstein list being released?
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice)

Unless I hallucinated, which is possible, because I'm under the weather, I read that someone had appealed the decision to release his name, and this will be reviewed for three weeks, and now they're talking about releasing the list January 23rd.
I can foresee an endless series of appeals, one guy appealing after another, to delay this forever.

Update: Wrong! Apparently the delay will only affect that one name. The other names are to be released starting shortly, maybe today.

UPDATE: Following reports on the appeal filed by one of the "Does" identified in court documents related to a civil case involving Jeffrey Epstein, a district executive for the Southern District of New York told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the "unsealing" of records IS "expected to begin today," clarifying that Judge Loretta Preska's "order to delay the release of Jane Doe's name only applies to her and not the dozens of other names on the list."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:20 PM | Comments (304) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Pro-Palestinian Insurrectionists Block Entries to Airports in NYC, Portland
Not a Single Arrest Made In Portland

At what point do the American people rise up against their criminal government and say "Enough!"?

Citizens are hunted by federal dragnets for "parading" in what is laughingly called "The People's House," meanwhile terrorist sympathizers in league with foreign governments take over the highways and airports and not a single arrest is made.

Crowds of Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at two New York City-area airports to protest against Israel and the IDF on one of the busiest travel days of the year, US media reported.
A caravan of demonstrators stopped traffic surrounding John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, with demonstrators with bullhorns shouting, "NYPD, KKK, IDF they're all the same!"
New York's Port Authority transportation would soon have to close all entrances to JFK for anyone without a boarding pass.
Airtrain services and the ability to enter airport grounds were closed to cars without proof of a ticket, the protest organizers from "Within Our Lifetime" told US media.
The protests came a week after another of their kind occurred in New York City.

Meanwhile, insurrectionists used their vehicles to block access to the means of national transportation, which is a crime, at least for non-favored groups.

About 50 vehicles blocked inbound lanes on Airport Way, west of Northeast 82nd Avenue, for close to an hour Monday afternoon, cutting off the entrance to Portland International Airport (PDX), the Port of Portland reported.
The caravan of vehicles that blocked the road was part of a protest against the conflict in Gaza, according to the Port of Portland.
Port of Portland Police officers responded to the scene, "working to reroute shuttle buses and traffic to minimize the impact."
Some travelers said they were afraid of missing their flight due to the protest.
"It took us 30-35 minutes to go not even 2 miles," said traveler Alan Boyd. "I'm actually seriously worried about missing my flight."
He was frustrated over the timing of the protest.
"There's a time and place for everything and during holidays, disrupting families getting home is not the time to do it," he said.
An off-duty KGW producer who was stuck in the traffic jam at the airport caused by the protesters, said traffic was stopped for at least 45 minutes.

Not a single arrest was made.

A "caravan" of 50 vehicles filled with people protesting the war in Gaza blocked Airport Way outside the Portland International Airport at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 1, preventing travelers from reaching their terminals by car for several hours.
Port of Portland Police responded to the scene but made no arrests during the demonstration. No flights were delayed as a result of the demonstration, causing some of those stuck in traffic to exit their vehicles and attempt to reach their terminals by walking along Airport Way, KGW reported.

...

Port of Portland said that the protesters violated Oregon law by intentionally impeding traffic and barricading a public roadway...

But no arrests. The right is arrested for political speech -- their speech is a crime -- while the left is not arrested for committing crimes in service of their "speech."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:25 PM | Comments (201) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The 81-Year-Old Vegetable Joe Biden Lays Out in the Sun Like a Senile French Fry in a Frying Pan and Gets a Bad Sunburn

Reminder: This corrupt potatohead invalid has spent 37% of this year on vacation.

President Joe Biden escaped the confines of the White House and the travails of high office for a host of other diversions in 2023, spending more than a third of the past year ensconced at a getaway spot, a report Monday details.
According to the New York Post, peripatetic Biden could be found on his absences from Washington, DC, at either one of his Delaware residences, a posh vacation site or Camp David, a review of public records by the outlet confirms.
The octogenarian was away at one of the relaxing locations or famous retreat 138 days in 2023 -- or 37 percent of the time.

And even on his "working" days, he usually only receives the presidential daily briefing, does one quick photo-op handing out a medal or posing with lesbian basketball players, and then calls "a lid" on the day by 11:00 am!

He's been on yet another vacation, this time in the Virgin Islands (named after his game of choice), and stupidly laid out in the intense sun to get a scorching sunburn.

And this cementhead has had multiple melanomas removed from his corrupt skin.

Polls aren't the only thing burning the commander-in-chief.
President Biden was spotted red-faced in the US Virgin Islands on Tuesday as he prepared to head back to the White House after a seven-day vacation in St. Croix.
The 81-year-old president's striking new sunburn was on full display as he shook hands on the tarmac of Henry E. Rohlsen Airport in Christiansted, St. Croix, before boarding Air Force One with first lady Jill Biden.
The sun's rays apparently battered Biden, who was beet-red from his forehead to his neck -- exposed by the deep V of his unbuttoned collar.
Biden's sunburn comes after a cancerous skin lesion was removed from his chest during his annual physical last February.
Most of the more than 1 million skin cancers diagnosed in the US each year are considered sun-related, according to the American Cancer Society.
"Premature aging is a long-term side effect of UV exposure," according to the Food and Drug Administration, which notes that the damage may not be apparent until years after a sunburn or suntan.
"Avoiding UV exposure is essential to maintaining healthy skin," the agency states.
03:55
He had previously had a benign but potentially precancerous lesion excised by doctors.
Health officials and numerous scientific studies indicate that tanning greatly increases the risk of developing skin cancer and other maladies.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:32 PM | Comments (267) | Trackbacks (Suck)

New Star Wars Director: It's About Time a Woman Shaped the Story in a Star Wars Movie; "I Like to Make Men Feel Uncomfortable"

If you don't care about Star Wars -- like all good people -- feel free to skip the bulk of the post, but make sure you read the last item below. YOU WILL BE MADE TO CARE.

This woman made a few low-budget hardcore feminist documentaries. How does that qualify her to direct -- and, apparently, write -- a would-be blockbuster fiction film?

It doesn't. What qualifies her is the sex organ between her legs and nothing else.

It's incredible, these diversity hires can't stop shrieking about the oppression they experience based upon their gender, sexual preference, or race, while meanwhile getting gigs and promotions based on nothing but their gender, sexual preference, or race.

They tried this before. A woman who had directed a documentary and a very low-budget independent movie was given the reigns of Marvel's The Eternals, and that was Marvel's all-time biggest flop.

Until the next several.

Previously, in 2015, she was on a Diversity Panel to talk about her very low-watt career, which is entirely non-notable except for the fact that she insists that The Patriarchy is holding her back from having a noteworthy career, she announced her goal in filmmaking is to "make men uncomfortable."

Well I'm entirely unaware of your Claudine Gay level of output so: You've failed. I am not uncomfortable. I feel nothing for you, except a gnawing sense that I really should be thinking about something else more important.

During an appearance at the Women in the World summit alongside fellow insufferable activist and director Ava DuVernay and actress Meryl Streep, Obaid-Chinoy was asked by activist host Jon Stewart, "As an activist and an artist do you make that calculation, who is my target? You talked a little bit about, 'I want women to watch this and I want them to feel empowered, and I want my daughter to have heroes.' I couldn't help[ but notice a thread through each of these. That the men were a**holes. And I'm wondering as one of them what is the balance of activating a force for change, but also trying to permeate that patriarchy, that power structure? And is that a part of the calculation of your art as well? And what's been the reaction that?"
Obaid-Chinoy responded, "Oh, absolutely. I like to make men uncomfortable. I enjoy making men uncomfortable."
She then added, "It is important to be able to lookin into the eyes of a man and say, 'I am here.' And recognize that. And recognize that I am working to bring something that makes you uncomfortable because you need to change your attitude and it's only when you're uncomfortable, when you're shifty, when you have to have difficult conversations that you will perhaps look at yourself in the mirror and not like the reflection, and then say, 'Maybe there is something wrong with the way I think,' or 'Maybe there is something wrong with the way I am addressing this issue."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (401) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Of Course: Prosecutors Drop Charges of Bribing Politicians Against Democrat Politician Briber Sam Bankman-Fried

David Strom on this entirely-predictable exercise in Democrat Establishment Protection:

Nothing to see here. Move along.
That is the message from the prosecutor in the Sam Bankman-Fried case, as he notified the judge that the government would not be pursuing a trial in the charges not adjudicated in SBF's trial over defrauding customers.

...
The charges that are dropped relate to bribery of politicians and illegal campaign contributions.
Quelle surprise.
What is so infuriating about this is obvious: it's not that SBF is getting off on these charges--how much time he spends in jail likely would not change much or at all; it's that all those bribed politicians and the ones who got illegal campaign contributions will completely avoid the public scrutiny that a trial of SBF would have brought.
Dropping the charges is about protecting the Establishment, not SBF. SBF is a minor beneficiary of the scheme to protect the people in power.
This is how the system works these days...
These days the elite is no longer even trying to pretend that there is equal justice under the law.

Correct.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:34 PM | Comments (230) | Trackbacks (Suck)

AP: Republicans Have Found a "New Weapon" -- Enforcement of a University's Honor Code Against Serial Plagiarism -- to Wield Against Innocent DEI Hires

"New weapon."

It's a weapon, guys. Ethical rules and rules of academic honesty are just "weapons."

Via Twitchy:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:20 PM | Comments (500) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Democrat Mayor of Edison, NJ Blocks Immigrant Bus From Entering City, Saying They're a "Major Security Risk" and We Can't Idenitfy Them

Uh, yes.

But it's still cool if they flood into El Paso every fucking day, right?

While speaking to New York ABC affiliate WABC on Monday, Edison, New Jersey Mayor Sam Joshi (D) stated that he turned a bus full of migrants sent to the city back because local police "did not know if any of those 40 individuals were carrying weapons, they couldn't be identified." And this is "a major security risk. It's a health risk. And we're just not going to tolerate that." Joshi, who plans to send migrants back to the border, also stated that he doesn't want to pawn problems off on other mayors.
WABC New Jersey Reporter Toni Yates stated, "The town of Edison, however, has its own answer: A charter bus to send migrants back to the southern border. The bus that arrived the other night was simply ordered to leave."
She then played a clip of Joshi saying, "Edison Township Police officers did not know if any of those 40 individuals were carrying weapons, they couldn't be identified. And that is a major problem. That's a major security risk. It's a health risk. And we're just not going to tolerate that."

As I've said, this is unconstitutional. Democrat mayors can no more block illegal immigrants from entering their jurisdictions than Democrat mayors in the 50s could block blacks from entering their towns.

But I haven't seen Abbott launch a lawsuit to stop this behavior. I don't know why.

It will keep getting worse. The leftwing psychopaths are determined to keep a policy in place that they know doesn't work, because they are incapable of ever admitting error to the right. So they will just try to keep the policy, while keeping the unwanted illegals in red jurisdictions.

Due to NYC's harassing restrictions on bus arrivals, illegals are hopping on to the trains in NJ.

Another plane carrying illegals just landed in Chicago, and Chicago's woke cornpone dunce of a mayor, who looks like he just walked out a Spike Lee movie in 1988, is very angry about it.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (446) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Morning Rant

No Quarter

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

There is a reason why the Founders (James Madison, specifically) added this to the Bill of Rights. It was a direct response to the problems that the Quartering Acts in Britain caused in the Colonies. If there was no room in the barracks, colonists were required to open their properties to the Crown's soldiers. Initially, this was businesses, but that would change.

Following the Boston Tea Party, the British expanded the Acts to include private homes. This expansion of the Quartering Acts was one of the "Intolerable Acts" that helped precipitate the American Revolution. The Quartering Acts are not merely historical curiosities because they are making a comeback in American cities.

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM | Comments (412) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Mont Saint-Michel, Setting Sun
Paul Signac

Paul Signac grew up in a Parisian neighborhood popular with early modernist artists. He attended some of the exhibitions of the Impressionists and was attracted to the art of Claude Monet. Later, he would collaborate with Georges Seurat and help develop the style now known as Pointillism.

Pointillism applies pure colors to the canvas as dots or points of paint without blending. Colors are placed side-by-side, but sometimes the bare canvas can show in between the daubs. This technique breaks down the fundamental trait of painting – the colors – reducing them to their most elemental form. It was thought that the dots will then visually react according to their relationship with each other and the viewer. If the viewer stands close to the work, the pigments are separate and individual. The overall image is lost to a crowd of dots and brushstrokes. As he gradually steps backward, they visually merge, blending in the eye and revealing the image. Called optical mixture, it is an attempt to mix art and science.

Mont Saint-Michel, Setting Sun shows both Monet’s influences on Signac, and Signac’s experimentation with visual blending. Mont Saint-Michel is a medieval abbey off the coast of Normandy, France. The site is a semi-island that only becomes connected to the mainland at low tide. The scene painted by the artist is foggy which dulls the light some. Only the radiant oranges of the sunset breaks through.

This work is not about Mont Saint-Michel. It is about color. The artist uses the time of day and the atmospheric conditions to reduce the jumble of architectural forms and textures to basic geometric shapes. At dusk the sky starts to darken and the clouds turn pink. These are reflected in the shallow water in the foreground, and together, frames the center image. The light pinks and blues also contrast with the vivid oranges and deep blues and purples that construct the buildings, making Mont Saint-Michel stand out more.

Unlike the curvy shapes that make up the sky and land, the island’s buildings are formed by geometric shapes and lines. The many additions to the monument over the centuries have created a network of squares and rectangles and vertical and horizontal lines that create surfaces for highlights and shadows.

Zoom into this piece. See how Signac applied the paints. At first, they seem to be applied in a haphazard manner. As I keep looking however, I can see the plan of the composition. Above I wrote how orange and blue “construct the buildings”. This work is about how the light of the setting sun looks through a coastal haze when reflected off a particular surface. This is the influence of the Impressionists and Monet. Signac goes further, though. He divides the colors into their basic hues. In some cases, he places them right next to each other – orange next to blue next to pink – almost on top of each other, allowing them to react and clash with one another. Orange and blue are complementary, or opposite, colors that, to me, vibrate and glow. They define the edges of the buildings. The radiance of the orange counters the coolness of the blue. Since blue is a major color in the whole painting, orange provides a glaring accent that can’t be ignored. Blue tends to blend into the rest of the landscape, but the orange almost explodes off the canvas. It seems to advance towards me while the blue recedes. Together, they create an illusion of perspective.

To me, this work feels otherworldly. Because the colors of the ground match the sky, the monument seems to hover in space. The hazy atmosphere pushes the island into the background creating distance between me and it. The points of color shimmer that causes a mirage-like effect. The lack of textures and details on the buildings make the monument more abstract than real. It feels ethereal and mysterious, like something from a legend.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:43 AM | Comments (299) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 1/3/24

Good morning, kids. As many of you had rightly pointed out yesterday, Claudine Gay might have resigned her post as president of Harvard, but she's not going anywhere. Not only is she not going anywhere, but here's something to make your covfefe come out your nose:

She won’t be leading the Crimson, but green shouldn’t be a problem.
Outgoing Harvard President Claudine Gay will still likely earn nearly $900,000 a year despite being forced to resign her position as the school’s top administrator.
Political Science professor Gay — who stepped down amid a tempest of allegations she did not do enough to combat antisemitism and academic plagiarism Tuesday — will now return to a position on the Cambridge, Mass., school’s faculty.
Prior to being named president just six months ago, Gay earned $879,079 as a Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean in 2021 and $824,068 in 2020, according to records published by the university. Her new position was not specified Tuesday, but she is expected to receive a salary comparable with what she previously received — if not higher.
It was also unclear how much of her presidential salary of roughly $1 million Gay would be entitled to after only serving in the post for six months. Her predecessor, Lawrence Bacow, pulled in $1.3 million annually before his departure, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Alan M. Garber, who currently serves as provost and chief academic officer, will serve as interim president until the school selects a new chief, officials said Tuesday.

Insult meet injury. Meanwhile, this Alan Garber has a bit of 'splainin' to do too:

Harvard University’s Provost and Interim President Dr. Alan Garber has made millions from sitting on pharmaceutical company boards during his time with the school. Garber made more than $2.7 million from board seats with pharmaceutical firms Exelixis, Inc. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals since becoming Harvard provost in 2011, the Harvard Crimson reported in 2019, citing company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Both firms confirmed to the outlet Garber received compensation without performing any additional duties beyond his board memberships.

Meh, is that a tempest in a Teapot Dome? For sure, he's not a diversity hire. He's a legitimate MD and considering he graduated in the late 70s early 80s timeframe, likely knows his stuff. Then again, Anthony Fauci graduated years before him and set up shop with the government, and arguably guilty of crimes against humanity for helping to both create and unleash the Chinese COVID plague and then covering up his crimes in a bid to save his skin as well as help the globalists lay the groundwork to sabotage the 2020 election. As for Garber, a cursory look at his record and just the fact that he is where he is proves his own leftist-in-good-standing bona fides. No way he could've risen up the ladder at Harvard were he not a true believer.

That said, he is interim for a reason: there is no way that Harvard is going to hire anyone who is not superficially identical to Claudine Gay: Black and female. If they can find one who's also a crippled, obese, Muslim, transexual lesbian midget, even better. Maybe if they hired Carol Swain, who is black, female and one of the authors Gay shamelessly ripped off, that might make up for it. But, of course, the idea is for Harvard – like Gay and every other Leftist who commits a crime – to circle the wagons and blame the victims.

It's both a blessing and a curse that she was forced to step aside. Curse in that anyone with eyes to see knows that along with the litany of proof of both her lack of ethics and lack of real-world qualifications to run what was once considered the nation's premier university (let alone clean the blackboard for Miss Crabtree), the root cause of why she was hired in the first place, mirror universe MLK Jr. that strives for color of skin over content of character, is an abject failure at best and a cancer on society at worst.

It's a blessing (for them) because every crackpot leftist, racialist, grievance-mongering scumbag is crawling out of the woodwork to denounce those who exposed her as the real racists and bigots. I don't need to quote any of the Ibram X. Krements and their bilious, spittle-flecked bullshit straight out of Jive Kampf. You can quote that shit in your sleep. Whether the protestations fall on more receptive than deaf ears is the question.

But I digress, as is my wont to do. On top of all of this, let's not forget that the exposure of the plagiarism and inventing shit out of whole cloth that constitutes the majority of her work, the volume of which is wafer-thin, only happened after her 100% genuine enthusiasm for the annihilation of the Jews was exposed in Congress. The chutzpocrisy of her, and the other two stooges from U-Penn and MIT, using the First Amendment to declare allowing their universities' Hamas boosting "Einsatz-groupies" the right to their opinion when conservative non-leftists are hounded, threatened, censored and even fired from their posts, was just astonishing to behold.

That alone was shitcanning-worthy, and while at most it received a yawn, a few billionaire donors to their credit were disgusted enough to take back some very hefty donations. As I had been saying since this whole thing broke, while I find it interesting that so many libs I know were shocked to see the rabid Jew-hate on campuses all over the country seemingly come from out of nowhere, they were completely blind to the aforementioned hounding of non-leftists and conservatives. In fact, they were cheering it. The anti-semitism, horrible as it is, is merely a symptom of the rot that has been creeping slowly, then all at once, through academia and indeed every segment of our society for nigh on six decades and even longer.

Claudine Gay in and of herself isn't the problem. She's merely a symptom of a much deeper, darker and deadlier disease that we as a society are dying from:

Claudine Gay is a mediocre scholar—having authored 11 insight-less papers and no books—and hardly a superstar of the Ivy League constellation. But she comes from a privileged background and was elevated for advancing progressive orthodoxy while checking the right intersectional boxes. Her ascent thus epitomizes the illiberal takeover of higher education. She is the apotheosis of an anti-intellectual movement that values DEI, identity, and activism over truth-seeking, merit, and education.
This illiberal takeover goes beyond what conservatives have criticized for decades: hippies invading the faculty lounge at Berkeley. It manifests in the shifting and narrowing of the range of permissible views, such that everyone on campus walks on eggshells and is unable to discuss certain ideas. University officials placate, facilitate, and even foment mobs that can’t be reasoned with, while everyone else keeps their heads down so as not to be caught in the cancellation crossfire.
The system those students and officials have created is designed to prefer political commissars over rigorous scholars, and it took a giant leap forward last year when Harvard picked Gay as its next leader and trumpeted her status as the first African American and second woman to hold the post. Gay now makes history again, this time for serving the shortest tenure—barely half a year—beating out Lawrence Summers, whose time at Harvard’s helm was cut short in 2006 after his “off-the-record” comments about the dearth of women in science and engineering were deemed politically incorrect.
Gay was previously the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, through which she made a name for herself—not for educational initiatives, but for deepening identitarian structures. For example, she shut down the research lab of brilliant young (and black) economist Roland Fryer, now my Manhattan Institute colleague, after he produced empirical work on policing that contradicted the progressive narrative. In 2020, Harvard’s alumni magazine breathlessly reported that Gay had announced “a series of initiatives to address racial and ethnic equality—including faculty appointments and the addition of an associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging” despite Harvard already having an entire office dedicated to “equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.”
Ironically, these efforts at making students feel welcome have backfired. In its most recent rankings, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression named Harvard the worst school in the country for free speech—the only one earning an “abysmal” rating. . .
. . . It doesn’t take long to destroy reputations built over decades and centuries. The question now is whether Harvard and its peers are willing to “do the work” to restore their tarnished stature. A month ago, celebrated Harvard professor Steven Pinker laid out a five-point plan to accomplish just that. Given the lack of contrition in Gay’s resignation letter and her willingness to blame her situation on a racist witch hunt—both points supported by the Harvard Corporation’s parallel statement—I’m not holding my breath.

Speaking of that letter, after being forced to step aside as a result of mountains of irrefutable evidence of plagiarism what does she do? Hands in a resignation letter that itself she copied from someone else!

At first glance, you might think she's just flipping the bird to everyone. But is she really that clever? I don't think it's clever at all. In fact I don't think she gives two shits that she plagiarized her own resignation letter because I think she too believes the corrosive, cancerous Big Lie that she's a victim and therefore she's actually entitled to do things that are not only wrong but beyond the pale in a civil society. She didn't Burn-Loot-Murder anyone and then ride the coattails of the ACLU and SPLC mafia and use "victim of an unjust society" defense, like so many of the Trayvons, Gentle Giants and Freddie Grays of this world. That is the Sharptons, Jacksons, and Farrakkkans who use their corpses to beat us into submission.

And that's because the poison her brain is pickled in, that she swims in and the she was chosen to spread to every student on that campus has as its base element that American society and culture are illegitimate and any non-minority is literally irredeemably and genetically pre-disposed to be racists, bigots and slavemasters intent on keeping her and every other minority in chains.

This is another aspect of the horrific phrase "by any means necessary." When you believe the bromide that you are a victim, then anything goes in redressing your supposed oppression; whether it's robbing someone at gunpoint or faking your qualifications to run a university.

Beyond that, the hideous nature of affirmative action, now known as D-E-I, is that by giving undeserving individuals college scholarships and other advantages when they are far from prepared, you set them up for failure. So many black youths who leave high school with C's or even D's and enter college find themselves dropping out after their first year, if not their first semester. Anyway, that used to be the case. For all we know, thanks to the lowering or even complete abandonment of standards, they get that sheepskin four years later just for showing up. If that. Because these days, if you fail any student who isn't white, Jewish or Asian, you better have a very good reason, if you as the responsible professor are allowed to have one in the first place.

Psaki-psircling back to that first point about the dropouts, you can imagine what all that false hope and esteem building bullshit does to someone who suddenly can't cope. You get bitter and then believe the tropes of an unfair, unjust racist society where minorities cannot and will never get ahead. Not in a white man's world. Lather, rinse, repeat. And it's all intentional.

Recall the Bakke case from the late 70s. Ultimately Allan Bakke did become a very successful doctor while the black student Patrick Chavis who took his seat . . .

In 1997 Chavis had his license suspended by the Medical Board of California, who spoke harshly of his “inability to perform some of the most basic duties required of a physician.” As McGowan later wrote, the board condemned Chavis’ “poor impulse control and sensitivity to patients’ pain.” A doctor who had worked with Chavis had given the board’s investigators “a tape recording of patients screaming horrifically, with Chavis responding, ‘Don’t talk to the doctor while he’s working,’ and ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire.’”
Chavis was also found guilty of gross neglect and incompetence in his treatment of three liposuction patients, two who somehow escaped bleeding to death (one had lost 70 percent of her blood) and one who wasn’t as fortunate. Tammaria Cotton, the woman who died, complained during her liposuction of sudden difficulty in breathing, to which Chavis responded, “If you can talk, you can breathe.” Chavis did not stay to administer emergency medical treatment to any of the three. Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby discovered that Chavis’ sole training in liposuction had been “a four-day course at the Liposuction Institute of Beverly Hills — only half of which he completed.”
had his medical license revoked and ultimately wound up shot dead in LA while being carjacked.

LATE ENTRY: Co-blogger and friend KT has this link to Bill Ackman's reaction about Gay's resignation.

UPDATE: One final thought. Claudine Gay is not an outlier. It's a fair bet that an alarmingly large swathe of academia at every level has likely done the same things Gay has to gain their credentials, especially in any field of study that is not the hard sciences, i.e. liberal arts. So long as they are as committed to brainwashing students, then they have nothing to fear, unless their big mouths and social media accounts put them beyond the range of effective wagon-circling.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY

"While leftists may feel like they run the place because they dominate certain indoor professions, the truth is that they are still a mere half of the U.S. population, and they are also inept at numerous crucial tasks and skills. They had better learn to get along with the other half of the country if they want to keep enjoying their current lifestyle." (But still . . . - jjs)
Fascinating Charts Show the Rise of Uniform Leftism Across America's White Collar Professions
Michael Walsh: "In 2024, we hold these truths to be self-evident . . . "
Enough!
A court filing in Washington, D.C., said the government recommends the “high end of the applicable guidelines range” of six months of incarceration, one year of supervised release, and $500 in restitution after the 62-year-old Epps pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds. Epps is reportedly set to face sentencing next Tuesday. (While dozens of his victims rot in the Garland Archipelago and have their lives destroyed?! - jjs)
Prosecutors Recommend 6 Months of Prison for FBI/Pelosi Confederate Ray Epps
"If things go bad on toast, it’s going to be ugly, but without near-universal military and police support for tyranny, the outcome is going to be bloodily bad for those who try to impose it."
If It All Goes Wrong, with Whom Will the Police Side?

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 08:04 AM | Comments (387) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 3 Mercedonius 2023

Top Story

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is Amelia Watson.

Yes, again, everybody's favourite Bri'ish time-travelling detective, Amelia Watson, is already shipping from Amazon Japan when my supposed pre-order from Amazon US is scheduled for May.

Didn't save money this time because the pre-order price was particularly good, but didn't cost any more either.
The I in LLM stands for Intelligence. (Haxx)

In which the author makes the very good point that the output of LLMs like ChatGPT can be worse than useless, because the entire model is designed to produce output that is plausible rather true.

Which means that significant effort is required to show that the plausible output is nonsense and should not be adopted, just as is the case with university presidents.

In this case it's the creator of the utility curl, which is used basically everywhere - every Linux system, every Mac and iOS device, every Android phone and Raspberry Pi has curl on it.

And his particular problem is AI-generated bug reports, reporting bugs that simply do not exist.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:10 AM | Comments (211) | Trackbacks (Suck)

January 02, 2024

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (1/2/24)

***

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I
"Indeed, it has been difficult beyond words because I have looked forward to working with so many of you to advance the commitment to academic excellence that has propelled this great university across centuries." Harvard president, Claudine Gay

Quote II
“Yeah, well, since I heard that with my own ears, I believe them, and I don’t know why someone played with the computer, and it’s not there" Mark Epstein

Quote III
"The problem is, is that we have this generation of parents that doesn't want to take accountability for not doing what they need to do to raise kids that are self-sufficient, that are socialized or kind." Music teacher and TikToker Teresa Kaye Newman

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:59 PM | Comments (474) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Emo Cats Cafe

Dolomite Mountains
by @ronald_soethje
Cliffhanger was filmed in the Dolomites,
which is why the mountains looked little like the Rockies

Cat says "I love you." Sort of.

This senior dog was left by his former owners tied up outside when they took off. But this little grandma dog was rescued and is now loved.

Pittie was kept in a cage only for breeding purposes, then abandoned when it turned out she was infertile. But a nice woman adopted her, and now she won't stop talking.

A glimpse of summertime.

It's technically a stick.

Hound crooning.

Making your husky make even stranger noises than he usually makes.

This is why I don't eat vegetables. (Unless they're in a pizza situation, obviously.)

This cat needs you to know you're two minutes late in feeding him and he's not going to put up with your lackadaisical shit much longer.

Cat is alarmed.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:30 PM | Comments (179) | Trackbacks (Suck)

20th Anniversary Repost: Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Originally published in May, 2011.

The background for this post is that French philosopher and journalist and public intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy rose to the fulsome defense of his friend Dominique Strauss-Kahn, after DSK was accused of raping a hotel maid in New York City. Despite another accuser coming forward to accuse him of attempted rape -- his own goddaughter! -- it actually turned out that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was innocent of the crime.

Although it then turned out that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of being a client of an underaged-girl prostitution ring, arranging dozens of "orgies" for his high-ticket friends. This so-called "Carlton Affair" (named for the hotel in Lille, France where the "orgies" took place) is still an ongoing investigation, the last time I read about it.

However, at the time this post was written, it appeared to most, incorrectly, that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was indeed guilty of raping the maid in New York City. It certainly appeared that way to New York City prosecutors, who indicted him.

Bernard Henri-Levy's passionate defense of him turned out to be correct.

But at the time, his defense seemed very strange. Henri-Levy spoke about DSK as a man who lived life to the fullest, and who cut a sharp figure, and suchlike, as if these observations were proofs of his innocence (or worse, excuses for his rape). For example, he wrote a column called "The Dominique Strauss-Kahn I Know:"

: "And what I know even more is that the Strauss-Kahn I know, who has been my friend for 20 years and who will remain my friend, bears no resemblance to this monster, this caveman, this insatiable and malevolent beast now being described nearly everywhere. Charming, seductive, yes, certainly; a friend to women and, first of all, to his own woman, naturally, but this brutal and violent individual, this wild animal, this primate, obviously no, it's absurd."

I guess this post kind of illustrates the dangers of rushing to judgment. Whatever else DSK has done, or not done, it is now accepted as fact that raping a chambermaid was not among his sins. And however ridiculous and emotion Henri-Levy's defense of his friend seemed at the time, he was 100% right.

So this post was completely unfair.

Still, it was, I think, pretty funny. So pretend it's late winter 2011 and we're all still thinking that DSK is guilty and Bernard Henri-Levy is some kind of weird groupie justifying his hero's behavior.

BTW: Please don't comment on old posts, if you go looking back for other pieces. The system reads comments on long-dead posts as "Spam," and bans people for doing it. That's why I'm republishing these in a new, clean post.

Bernard Henri-Levy's "guest post" below.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (131) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Is DEI DIEing?

Eyepatch John McCain introduces a bill to forbid federal funding for any colleges that demand pro-DEI loyalty oaths.

Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw is the latest Republican politician to introduce legislation to combat mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statements in higher education.
On Dec. 18, Crenshaw announced proposed legislation that would prohibit federal funding to any college or university that forces its students to write or support DEI statements.
"We can see the utter moral bankruptcy in higher education with the spread of antisemitism on college campuses," Crenshaw said in a press release.
"Make no mistake -- the DEI bureaucracy is directly responsible for a toxic campus culture that separates everyone into oppressor vs oppressed," he continued. "That's why I am dropping legislation to protect free thought and prevent federal funding for universities that force students to write diversity, equity, and inclusion statements."
More specifically, the bill would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 "to prohibit institutions of higher education from requiring ideological oaths or similar statements, and for other purposes." If enacted, the legislation would also bar colleges from imposing such statements on prospective employees and applicants.

The Washington Examiner says DEI is in retreat.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, in higher education was deceptively sold as a set of policies designed to promote "the fair treatment and full participation of all people," particularly groups that "have historically been underrepresented." But DEI offices have proved to be epicenters of division and ideological conformity, stirring hostilities and imposing an intolerant monoculture.
Fortunately, 2023 saw more than a dozen states start to take action against the DEI hydra, with six achieving concrete steps that other states should follow.
In Florida, colleges and universities are no longer allowed to allocate any money to DEI programs. Institutions across the state have, in consequence, eliminated DEI jobs, such as chief diversity officers. This is greatly to the good of real education and social cohesion. These officers are often in charge of college "bias response teams" that function as "woke" police on campuses. A Supreme Court case is set to shut many of these programs down, but states can take proactive steps now to solve the problem faster.

Texas and other states are following DeSantis' lead.

John Sexton wrote that corporations are retreating from the hardcore racist discriminatory policies they ran to implement after the non-murder of St. George Floyd.

Quoting Reuters:

JPMorgan (JPM.N) received a letter in May 2022, alleging 10 of its DEI initiatives were discriminatory and unlawful. Around February 2023, the descriptions of the bank's "Advancing Hispanics & Latinos" and "Advancing Black Pathways" programs were changed, according to archived versions of its website.
The programs that were previously for Black and Latino students now invite applications from all students, "regardless of background."...
Investment manager BlackRock (BLK.N), which received a letter in April, removed language stating a scholarship was "designed for" members of specific underrepresented groups...
The companies where Reuters found changes included Pizza Hut operator Yum! Brands (YUM.N), American Airlines (AAL.O) and Lowe's (LOW.N), which declined to comment...
In their most recent executive compensation plans, Yum! Brands removed references to specific racial groups and American Airlines dropped numerical diversity targets.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:15 PM | Comments (257) | Trackbacks (Suck)

CNN: Happy New Year, Here's Some Gay Porn

CNN rang in the new year by showing two gay men jamming their tongues in each other's mouths for about 10 seconds.

I mean, I assume they're gay. Does that make me a bigot?

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:00 PM | Comments (362) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Reports: Israel Killed the Leader of Hamas' "Military" Wing in Lebanon Drone Strike

They'd been hunting this demon for ages. Hamas maintains spiderholes in other countries, where its terror commanders live in safety while plotting rapes and murders.

Until those spiderholes are hit by missiles.

Yashar Ali
@yashar
BREAKING
Islamic Republic state media is confirming that senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed in an explosion in Beirut tonight.
This is a significant development. Israeli intelligence has been trying to kill al-Arouri for years and the United States has had a 5 million dollar bounty on him.
Al-Arouri is a deputy political leader for Hamas and one of the founders of al-Qassam Brigades, the so-called military wing of Hamas.
The United States has listed al-Arouri as a designated global terrorist since 2015.
In 2014, al-Arouri was the Hamas leader who announced that three Israeli teenagers (including a dual US national) were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank. He referred to the murders as "heroic."