Survey: Most Self-Identifying Lefties Say Killing Trump Is Justified

Start the geofencing and start getting warrants to raid old liberal women's homes.

SURVEY: 55% Of Self-Identified Leftists Say Killing Trump Is Justifiable

The more troubling trend is the rising violent rhetoric isn't just coming from the 'fringe' left, it's being 'normalized' by the left.

M.D. Kittle

The unhinged left, fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome and seething hatred for Elon Musk, is trending more violent, according to a new study that finds political violence targeting President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser is "becoming increasingly normalized."

The report, produced by the Network of Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with Rutgers University's Social Perception Lab, finds a broader "assassination culture" appears to be "emerging within segments of the U.S. public on the extreme left, with expanding targets now including figures such as Donald Trump."

Less than a year after assassination attempts on then-presidential candidate Trump and the literally explosive violence against Musk's Tesla electric vehicles, it's no secret that leftists are ratcheting up violent rhetoric and actions. The more troubling trend is that an "assassination culture" isn't just coming from the "fringe" left.

"These attitudes are not fringe -- they reflect an emergent assassination culture, grounded in far-left authoritarianism and increasingly normalized in digital discourse," states the report, titled, "Assassination Culture: How Burning Teslas and Killing Billionaires Became a Meme Aesthetic for Political Violence."

...

"The reports found widespread justification for lethal violence -- including assassination -- among younger, highly online, and ideologically left-aligned users," the authors of the latest study write.

They note the spillover effect beyond the online world, illustrated by a proposed California ballot measure macabrely named "the Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act," celebrating the alleged leftist terrorist and murderer of United Healthcare head Brian Thompson. The ballot measure targets health insurance denials, one of Mangione's reported flashpoints.

On Friday, a California man reportedly "angry with pharmacies" was arrested on charges of murdering a Walgreens employee just days after the Luigi Mangione Act was filed with the state. ABC 30 reported that Erick Velazquez, the victim, was not a pharmacist, and was a respected husband and father of two.

How many times did you hear about the "gallows" outside the White House? It was a miniature model of a gallows, not a real working gallows.

J6ers were surveilled and arrested not for taking any criminal action but just for writing about the #Rigged election. Leftwing prosecutors and judges claimed that repeating forbidden ideas constituted joining a conspiracy against the US.

So they should get the J6 treatment, on steroids. They're openly calling for the assassination of the president.

Posted by: Ace at 12:22 PM | Comments (456) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: MBAirlines - Air Travel is Broken

It’s no secret that air travel is completely broken, and the complaints I see online are growing in anger and desperation, including from many conservatives.

How has air travel gotten so much worse? Feels like every flight Im on is delayed hours. Airlines can just burn your whole day, for any or no reason, and you have no recourse. They are all terrible and none of them care.

Is this fixable?

— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) April 3, 2025

3rd flight in a row delayed by hours unrelated to weather. One before this was a stuck seat back tray. Now, we have a “staffing issue” (plane here, can’t find a pilot)

Domestic American Airlines have become a logistical/customer service disgrace, with no incentive to improve

— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) April 6, 2025

Like Mr. Sexton’s experience in the tweets above, a nightmare ordeal my wife and I recently had in trying to get from Airport A to Airport B is hardly unique. We’re certainly not the first persons to see the sun rise and subsequently set from the same terminal in the same day without ever taking off, but I do have some thoughts on the total breakdown of air travel:

• A cartel of airlines that carves up market share rather than competing for market share is not capitalism nor free enterprise, thus the airlines are not incentivized to compete or set themselves apart by being the carrier that consistently gets its customers to their destinations in accordance with the tickets being sold.

• The elite business school concept of increasing profit through cost cutting has virtually eliminated customer service in this service-intense industry. Rather than increasing profit through revenue growth, airline executives focus on mergers and expense reduction instead.

• Service is a product, but it is clearly seen as nothing more than an expense by airline executives. When flights are being cancelled, there is no one to talk to on the phone, and there are few if any available gate agents.

• I’ve twice recently had elderly relatives request wheelchair accommodations when they land, but none were there when they arrived. Whether it’s the airline’s responsibility or the airport’s responsibility to get the wheelchair there, it’s clear that airlines will take money from a senior to allow them to get from Point A to Point B, but the airlines then consider the burden of getting that senior from the jet bridge to baggage claim to be an unacceptable expense.

• While weather delays are an acceptable reason for delays and canceled flights, extended mechanical delays are not. If mechanical breakdowns are a predictable and accepted occurrence that “just happen” in this industry, there should be sufficient backup equipment available. I strongly suspect that corporate budget cutters consider any underutilized aircraft unacceptable rather than seeing those planes as a form of insurance to ensure that customers receive the service they paid for.

• Based on my air travel in recent years, mechanical delays have increased significantly. My recent nightmare trip was supposed to be a simple non-stop between two major airports, yet there were three separate mechanical delays involving two separate aircraft. The fact that mechanical delays are now routine indicates that there is an acceptance of relaxed aircraft maintenance, servicing, and inspection. That should be unacceptable in any industry, but it is a potentially deadly way to save money for an airline.

• I also understand that “mechanical delay” is also quite likely a euphemism for other snafus, since airline cost-cutters have made staffing and scheduling so brittle that any one interruption can ripple through the system, causing a broad failure. If this is the case, it also means that airlines have normalized lying to their customers. I don’t like to think about the ramifications of institutional dishonesty by a company whose product is traveling at 600 mph at an elevation of 30,000 feet.

• The contempt that airlines have for salary expense and for any expenses related to customer service is manifested in front-line employees no longer caring. Why should they? Since airline executives have made it abundantly clear that they have a spitting contempt for providing customer service and for paying employees to service those customers, why should airline employees care about the customer experience?

With Pete Buttigieg as the hapless figurehead of the Transportation Department, the situation only worsened over the preceding 4 years. But we now have a Republican Transportation Secretary and a Republican Congress. Air travel is deeply broken as the oligopoly of non-competitive carriers continues to cut service in pursuit of profit growth in the way our elite MBAs are taught – expense reduction. Perhaps it’s time for the party of free enterprise to intervene and break up this cartel. If the airline oligopoly is going to be allowed to perpetuate and further consolidate, then it is inviting further regulation to make it feel some pain in exchange for the cruelty it is inflicting on American air travelers.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (386) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Venus And Cupid
Lorenzo Lotto

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (336) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 4/ 7 /25

Good morning kids. Of course the leading story is the aftermath and reactions to President Trump's tariff regime announcement last week. Of course. Despite the doom casting and politicization from the usual sources, already 50 countries are crying Uncle Sam and want to negotiate with Trump and team.There are other potentially massive benefits if this is given the chance it deserves to work.

Trump’s economic team has subtly suggested the impact of the import duties could extend to increasing foreign direct investment in American industries, incentivize a shift in economic investment away from market speculation and into industries focused on producing tangible value, and put downward pressure on interest rates by lowering the 10-Year Treasury Bond yield.The myriad economic objectives the Trump White House hopes to achieve through its tariff policy are ambitious, to say the least. However, if the policy succeeds, President Trump will have fundamentally moved the United States into a position to dominate the global economy for the foreseeable future. . .

One of the more important secondary policy goals that the Trump White House likely hopes to achieve is a reduction in the 10-year Treasury Bond yield. While most people focus on the Federal Reserve Bank and its interest rate policy, the yield of long-term government bonds impacts interest rates on types of debt held for longer durations, including mortgages, credit cards, and, most importantly, government debt.The tariffs are anticipated to push the 10-Year Treasury Bond yield lower, meaning the cost of the federal government’s payments servicing the national debt will be reduced. Notably, the inflationary cycle that set in under the Biden government—and was exacerbated by former President Joe Biden’s reckless spending policies—caused the cost to service the debt to increase dramatically and made it difficult for the government to take on any new debt.

I don't know the exact figure, but the amount of money from the budget each year that goes to just the serving of internets payments on the debt and not the debt itself is insane. And the total debt now stands at 36 Trillion dollars. Regardless of who was and is in offie, that is and always has been unsustainable.

Just to reiterate a point I tried making on Friday, while it's great that numerous countries are now signaling a willingness to drop their tariffs and trade barriers on US goods, but in order to really bring jobs back home, along with the dismantling of as much of the regulatory state and bureaucracy that can be accomplished, How about major tax holidays and reductions for any enterprise, or person who opens a factory on US soil and employs actual US citizens. While the dismantling and off-shoring of our manufacturing sector has been going on since the 60s, it was the granting of Red China most-favored nation trading status and a seat at the WTO in the 90s that accelerated the death spiral of America's industrial base. And the blame rests both with the Clinton Dems and Bush era GOP that followed, with the headlong rush towards globalization, mixed with domestic power politics, despite what it did to the nation and people who elected them and their parties. But somehow Trump is an inept, dangerous fool for attempting to put things right.

And while that is going on, we still have to contend with this insanity:

Democratic strategist James Carville said Friday his “Politicon” podcast that those who cooperate with President Donald Trump’s administration were comparable to Nazi collaborators in World War II.

Carville said, “How disgraced must these law firms feel now? How disgraced must these companies that are sucking up to him – that are giving him tens of millions of dollars for access. Do you know what’s going to happen? Do you know how this ends? Do you know these collaborators, what the country is going to feel towards collaborators with this regime? Maybe you need to go in history and see what happened in August of 1944 after Paris was liberated. They didn’t take very kindly to the collaborators. No. It was not a very pretty sight in the streets of Paris.” He added, “I’m not saying that these people should be placed in pajamas and have their head shaved, marched down Pennsylvania Avenue and spit on. I’m not saying that, but I’m saying that that did happen. And I’m saying that these people betrayed the French nation in the same way that I think that these law firms and these giant corporate conglomerates are betraying the United States. What their comeuppance is I can only guess. I don’t believe in any kind of, don’t believe you should assault anybody.”

Except that by carefully and consciously making this analogy, it's exactly what he's saying! There's a direct line to what he is saying, to what Bill Ayers believed once he and the Weathermen overthrow the government that he'd have to liquidate 25 million citizens who refused to recognize his power straight down to the actual Hitler and his Nazis he equates Trump and MAGA Americans with.

And on that note, we have this item that also revolts without necessarily being surprising.

Gov. Josh Shapiro attended an ‘iftar’ dinner at a mosque where an imam had previously declared that “Jews are the vilest people”, and announced a huge grant for the hate mosque.The $5 million grant, described as the largest ever given to a Muslim institution, came only 5 years after the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in Philly was forced to apologize for posting hateful Islamic sermons by an imam delivered at its mosque declaring that the Arabs were superior to all races, that Jews were the “enemies of Allah” and the “vilest of all people”.

The imam also appeared to call on Muslims to take over the world.“By Allah, if faith had taken root in our hearts, things would have been different. We would have imposed the word of Islam upon the world, like those before us did,” Imam Abdelmohsen Abouhatab told the congregation at Al Aqsa.

He also quoted a Hadith describing the eventual Muslim extermination of the Jews.

With Jews like Josh Shapiro, we don't need Nazis. Can we ask Carville about what he thinks of those who cooperate with this Imam and all who think and act like him. Of course not.

Have a good day.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• In Colorado, and around the country, parents can be stripped of their rights to oversee their child’s medical decisions by government courts. (Hat tip to commenter Muldoon - jjs)
  Exclusive: Colorado Father Fights To Keep Government From Sterilizing His 14-Year-Old Son
  
• (Although) Roberts actually stayed in the official U.S. Ambassador's residence in Prague back when Norm Eisen was representing us there. This would be between 2011-2015 . . Roberts has strong ties to numerous rabid anti-Trump radicals, including James Boasberg, Beryl Howell and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Roberts appointed Boasberg to the FISA court. Boasberg's approval of the FISA warrants against Trump, made possible by Kevin Clinesmith's falsification of FBI documents, proved to be utterly corrupt. (And Boasberg is a crucial hack-in-black sabotaging DOGE and the deportation efforts - jjs)
  John Roberts flew to the Czech Republic to spend a week with Trump-hating Leftist lawfare strategist Norm Eisen? (And Norm Eisen insists that John Roberts "is not corrupt?")
  
• Would you hire Bill Clinton to be your marriage counselor?
  Hillary Clinton Can Go Straight to Hell

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:30 AM | Comments (340) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 7 April 2025

Top Story

• Turning your spacecraft off and on again and hoping for the best: The real story of Orion. (Ars Technica)
  
  Turns out more things failed on that test flight last year than they let on.
  
  At one point they were uncertain whether they could dock with the ISS or return to Earth. Not which one was safer, but whether either one was possible.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (136) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - April 6, 2025 [Doof]

Sunset over the Gulf of America - Naples, Florida

Howdy Hordelings! Hope your Sunday has been a good one. I'm currently returning from a weekend in sunny and humid Naples, Florida (yup - the Pickleball Capital of the World!), so our good friend T Rex, the Dino himself, will be your chaperone for the first hour or so tonight. Please behave yourselves or else he might slap you with his little arms. Collect yourselves and step on in to enjoy tonight's ONT.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (358) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: First April Edition!

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

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be April? Do you know what that means? Do you know? Hmmmm??

Q: Weasel, what does it mean?
A: It's NoVAMoMe planning time!

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

Posted by: Weasel at 07:00 PM | Comments (298) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Whelkome Back My Friends To The Thread That Never Ends!

Come for the food...stay for the comedy!

Those are whelks, a sea snail found everywhere, including the Atlantic on the northeastern seaboard and across the pond in the U.K. and France. I have seen them for sale at a fish store (Randazzo's...a great place) on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which is a great Italian shopping street, but I don't remember anywhere else.

They are mighty tasty, especially dipped into some excellent mayonnaise. I have never seen mayonnaise for sale in the markets here, so it is possible it was homemade. But the dirty little secret of a bunch of restaurants and cafes in France is that they buy a lot of food already prepared -- from their equivalent of Cysco -- so maybe there is wholesale mayo available here.

Those whelks are briny and sweet, with a pleasing texture that is sort of like a firm clam (stop that!). I enjoyed them, and if they are on the menu again at that local place (they were a special), I will definitely get them again.

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (273) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

Uh Oh! A two-parter! At least there is no math!

What is that? That is a electric switch panel. Nice and simple, although why two of them are next to each other and one is larger is a question best left to French engineers, whose idea of efficiency is based on the concept that the shortest distance between two points is a cube.

Maybe the larger one controls both lights (nope)? Maybe it controls the power socket about two feet away (nope)? Maybe it is an extra switch for future lighting needs? Sure, maybe. I don't know. It's France...who can guess why they do things.

And here we have a three-part socket under a desk. Two power outlets, and one internet cable that is unused. It's about 25 feet from the aforementioned switch panel, and hopefully it is becoming obvious what the hell is going on here!

Yup! The large switch controls the right-side power plug. The one into which I had my monitor plugged. And since this is a new place and we were figuring out which switches did what, the monitor mysteriously turned off and on. But it wasn't obvious, because A. no line of sight between the switch and the monitor, and 2) the monitor wasn't always on.

The first electrician couldn't figure it out. The second one did!

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (159) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tariffs: Good, Bad, Or Indifferent?

The hell if I know!

But the volume of nonsense coming from people who can't balance a checkbook and don't understand even the most basic economic laws is getting hard to tolerate. Of course, some of it is reflexive Trump-Hate, and some of it is typical Democrat resistance to anything a Republican does.

It is important to separate the geopolitical effects of tariffs from the straight economic effects. Those economic effects are immensely complicated, and back-of-the-envelope analyses from journalism majors is of limited utility.

Tariffs and market share do not have a one-to-one correspondence. For instance, if we place a 10% tariff on assless chaps from Canada, that doesn't necessarily mean a 10% reduction in domestic demand for that product. They might be the best assless chaps in the world and are highly sought after, so the reduction in demand might be much smaller than 10% (inelastic demand). Or they may be the worst assless chaps available, in which case an 10% increase in their price might destroy their market share (elastic demand). Will domestic manufacturers of assless chaps pick up that demand? Probably, but maybe Croatian assless chaps are also quite good, and they get some of the demand.

The point is that economic changes are not static. There are millions of individual decisions that go into into economic activity (Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand"), and they change every day, so trying to predict outcomes is an exercise in futility.

What is more important in the long term is the profound change in our trade policy. Gone (I hope) are the days of free trade for our "trading partners" and regulated trade for us. Take a look at the graphic and you will see some startling disparities, and that is even after the U.S. tariffs are increased!

Obviously this chart is incomplete, and leaves lots of questions, including how "currency manipulation and trade barriers" is calculated. And...Average tariffs on all products? Highest tariffs? Are the tariffs weighted by trade value? But President Trump's strategy is already showing some success. Mexico is negotiating; Israel has cut all tariffs to zero; India and Vietnam are considering cutting tariffs.

[click for a larger version]

It is incumbent upon government to protect vital industries, regardless of whether they are efficient. We need a significant steel industry, and it doesn't really matter that South Korea or China or India can make steel more cheaply. It is a national security issue. We need a significant agricultural industry so that we can feed ourselves! We need significant domestic production of chips and other computer technology. The list goes on and on, and while it would be nice if they are the most efficient and best in the world (and some are!), that is secondary to being able to produce those products in times of need.

Switzerland famously subsidizes its farmers to the tune of almost $2,000/per person (not per farmer!), and that makes sense. Why should Switzerland be at the mercy of the whims of the rest of Europe? They want to be able to feed themselves. But should that be at the expense of America? 137% tariff on dairy products?

And just like that... countries are lining up to negotiate more reasonable trade.!

BREAKING: Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett just announced that over 50 countries have already reached out to begin negotiations following President Trump's new tariff policies:

"I got a report from the USDR last night that more than 50 countries have reached out to the… pic.twitter.com/6TFPfyH3mr

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 6, 2025

The goal of President Trump's tariffs is to drive manufacturing back to America, and stop the funding of foreign economies by American consumers. Increasing the cost of imports will push demand to domestic production. That's basic economics. Can it be done without economic dislocation in the world markets and the accompanying possibility of recession? Maybe... Maybe not. But if, at the end we get a revitalized American economy with more manufacturing and a more equitable trade system, the the short-term pain will be worth it.

Nobody knows how this is going to progress, because no major country has shifted its trade policies so comprehensively and so quickly. And the 20-something journalism majors who confidently write about this complex economic and geopolitical issue can be ignored. They simply don't have any idea what the f*ck they are writing.

Are there rational criticisms of President Trump? Absolutely.

I think his communication with the American people has been lacking. I hope that in the near future he lays out his plans, explains the potential downside, and more importantly explains the tremendous upside of an all-encompassing trade policy that favors America over all other nations. That means more good jobs, more domestic product demand, more tax revenue for the Leviathan, and an American economy that is insulated from the depredations of foreign governments that absolutely do not have the best interests of America in mind.

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter] And the Apple and Spotify feeds for CJN's podcast should be working!

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (330) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 4-6-2025 ["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 (306) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 6 April 2025

Top Story

• What's truly inside that bright red flame retardant used on bright red flames from the fires caused by California's definitely not bright but certainly Red government? No-one would say so we drank some to find out. (LAist)
  
  If you scroll way down in the article you'll find a table with the tiny legend:

  Measurements in micrograms per liter.

  Most of the metals mentioned are benign in the quantities found. Zinc and manganese you will find in dietary supplements because you need them to live.
  
  But what does 591 micrograms per liter mean for arsenic, a well-known poison?
  
  Well, the LD50 for arsenic in humans is somewhere between 1 and 3 mg per kg of bodyweight for adults. (It's better known for rats because nobody complains if you try it out on them.)
  
  Which means that if you drink twice your bodyweight in flame retardant, you'll likely die. So don't do that.
  
  To be fair, LAist interviewed scientists who told them exactly that, and they put it in the article:

  That said, multiple health experts told LAist that the risk to members of the public exposed to the retardant when doing activities like hiking, is likely low, given the concentration of contaminants present in our samples.

  "It should not be a reason for panic, but maybe it's a reason for caution," said Dr. Ana Navas-Acien, professor and chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, who reviewed the results.

  Also, the stuff hangs around afterwards, and residents and cleanup workers should be careful with it. You can suffer ill effects from doses far short of lethal.
  
  Fortunately, the stuff is, as we noted, bright red.
  
  

• Reminder: Daylight savings has ended here in Oz, so from tomorrow I'll be posting at 4:30 AM, since otherwise I have 15 minutes tops from the end of my work day to the post needing to go up.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (200) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night "Club ONT" April 5, 2025 [The 3 D's]

Welcome to Club ONT! A collaboration of your Sunday through Wednesday ONT Crew - The Disco, The Doggo, and The Dino. You have cracked the code - the Club is open. Don't just stand there, come on in!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (387) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 4/5/2025

Roger Corman

There's a moment in the documentary Corman's World, during a section dealing with Roger Corman's lack of embrace by the film industry in Los Angeles that caught my attention. About a moment after Nicholson is mugging to the camera about how Corman had refused him more than scale for writing The Trip, which had led to Nicholson essentially cutting Corman out of any residuals from Easy Rider, Nicholson says "If Roger feels unappreciated, I'll go over to his house tomorrow night."

It's a wonderful microcosm of Corman as he worked for decades: a terror to work with but building marvelous relationships at the same time.

Corman is, of course, known primarily as a film producer, not a film director. I am more concerned with him as a director for the purposes of this essay, though. That isn't to say that I haven't dabbled in his producing career. I've worked through the complete filmographies of both Joe Dante and Martin Scorsese, so I'm well aware of some of the more famous examples of his producing work (Hollywood Boulevard, Piranha, and Boxcar Bertha in particular).

However, I was really interested in who Corman was as a director himself. Instead of a shepherd for other people's work as producer, what kind of filmmaker was he when he was in as total control as one usually can be on a film set? I also had only little exposure to exploitation and B-movies in general, and I wanted an introduction (I had considered doing Budd Boetticher first because of his connection to Randolph Scott). So, in my eternal quest to discover cinema, I dove headfirst into the world of Roger Corman, the King of Cult, the King of the B's.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM | Comments (159) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - April 5, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. The Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) received overdue service recently. We gave it a spin this week and wow, it was ready to go. It had a grand time spinning and spinning and spinning... Eventually it landed on drawing and sketching.

[Photorawing of the 1980 Zakspeed Ford Capri]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (123) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, April 5

Courtesy sabatourdali

* * *

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 03:27 PM | Comments (86) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, April 5

Hi Katy

I'm sorry you weren't feeling well this past week. If I could, I'd send you a bouquet of tulips. For now this photo will have to suffice. Spring is arriving in Virginia!

The Pilot

Thanks. They look wonderful in that setting!

Posted by: K.T. at 01:21 PM | Comments (55) | Trackbacks (Suck)

French Elites are extra confused by President Trump

French elites are not the only people concerned and/or confused by President Trump's announced tariff plan this week. I heard a guy on the radio refer to him as an "agent of chaos", and tell a story about another businessman who enjoyed that role and thought that it was productive.

But French elites are extra confused. There is a long history to their confusion.

Sarah Hoyt linked a piece by Erik at No Pasaran that explains a lot about the recent inability of French politicians to "get" Trump, no matter how clearly they learn to speak in their university diction classes:

Why Does Donald Trump Bother the Élites in France and Europe So Much?

"Besides appearing on a French radio station, Sébastien Laye ruffled feathers at LinkedIn as he tried to solve a central riddle (merci pour l'InstaLien, Sarah):"

Posted by: K.T. at 11:02 AM | Comments (337) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. According to the calendar it is April 5. One would not know that looking at the lakes here in the frozen tundra.

Before we enter the Prayer Revival, just a few house keeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Slinger)

1. This is an open thread unless you are that person, then it is not. But for the remainder of you it is an open thread and feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2. Be kind, be nice. Most trolls are mentally ill. And no jumping on the furniture.
3. Running with sharp objects is not permitted. You are not even allowed to think about it.
4. Have a nice weekend.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus) at 08:30 AM | Comments (270) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 5 April 2025

Top Story

• In a pre-emptive response to the latest reciprocal tariffs, China has banned the sale of terbium, erbium, thulium, and thallium to the United States, so-called "rare earth" elements critical to the production of advanced technology such as Nixie tubes and bubble memory. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  There are a few things to note here:
  
  First, of course, it makes little sense to make a totalitarian fascist dystopia your sole supplier of anything.
  
  Second, rare earth elements are not rare. What they are is messy and annoying to extract and refine, a fact that China used to take over the market. Australia, Brazil, Canada, and, yes, the United States all have significant mineral reserves available. And studies suggest that a square mile of seafloor mud is enough to provide the entire world with these metals for a year.
  
  Third, China of course does this kind of thing all the time, and has restricted or outright banned sales of rare earth elements to other countries before.
  
  Fourth, and perhaps most interesting, China now only produces 10% of its own rare earth resources. The same problem with them being messy and annoying to extract led it to move production to illegal mining camps operating in Burma, bypassing what passes for the government and working with local militias.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (151) | Trackbacks (Suck)