Gavin Newsom: Trump Is Investigating Me and My Wife Because He's Corrupt and Not Because I Shovel Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars of Taxpayer's Money to My Wife For Her "Businesses"

A refresher on the corrupt Ultra-Karen Jennifer Siebel Newsom:

Newly released IRS filings reveal that First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and her production company, Girls Club LLC, have collectively received more than $3.7 million over the past decade from The Representation Project--the nonprofit she founded in 2011 to combat gender stereotypes through films and advocacy.

According to a detailed Daily Mail investigation published today, Siebel Newsom draws an annual salary of $150,000 as Chief Creative Officer, while Girls Club LLC receives another $150,000 yearly for licensing her documentaries Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In, for which the LLC holds the copyrights.

In the fiscal year ending March 2024, the organization reported roughly $1.7 million in gross receipts, with executive compensation--including payments to Siebel Newsom, her LLC, Executive Director Caroline Heldman ($150,000), and CFO Debra Garber ($131,942)--totaling $581,942, a figure critics call disproportionately high for a charity of its size.

Over 13 years, these combined payouts represent up to one-third of the nonprofit's annual revenue in some periods. Neither the Newsoms nor The Representation Project responded to requests for comment.

This development intensifies long-standing scrutiny of financial flows tied to the Newsom family, including behested payments--donations solicited by Governor Gavin Newsom to third-party organizations, often nonprofits or causes aligned with administration priorities. Such payments, while legal, must be disclosed under California's Political Reform Act to guard against pay-to-play arrangements.

And now the man diverting millions to his wife's grifter organization says he's being investigated for no reason at all you guys:

Gavin Newsom
@GavinNewsom

Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump's hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime - they are simply trying to find one.

He isn't coming after me because of mean tweets, but because I am considering running for President.

He hates that I consistently call him out. He is simply the most corrupt President in American history.

We have nothing to hide.

Mr. President, come after me. I am not going anywhere.

The country is watching.

Jen Van Laar:

Townhall's Cameron Arcand reports that there are multiple investigations, that they started in California, not Washington, D.C., stemming from whistleblower complaints, and that they have to do with Jennifer Siebel Newsom's taxes and with Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson. According to multiple years of tax returns reviewed by RedState, Gavin and Jennifer Newsom file taxes jointly, so if the investigation has to do with taxes, it has to do with both of them.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:37 PM | Comments (246) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Needledicked Nazi Once Mocked a Teen's Suicide Attempt

Pussy Hustler continues showing he's a New Democrat Man.

Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner appeared to cruelly mock a teen's suicide attempt in a newly resurfaced Reddit post.

The May 2012 Reddit thread begins with a photo of a teenage girl hanging out of an upper-story window, with a young man gripping her arms in an apparent attempt to save her, screenshots of the post showed.

"A girl at my old highschool [sic] tried jumping from a window because her cousin died the day before," the post's caption read. These students saved her. I have hope."

An account belonging to the Nazi-tattoo sporting Maine Senate candidate wasn't sympathetic.

"Someone clearly isn't trying hard enough," a commenter using the name P-Hustle -- Platner's screen name on the platform -- wrote in response.

Some might say that this is just "edgy" Reddit "humor."

I'd respond that many of us have been harassed, censored, debanked, or even fired for similar edgy humor, so why does the National Socialist Shrimpdick get a pass?

In another newly-unearthed Reddit post, Platner -- who had an account on the messaging app Kik which featured a half-naked photo of himself -- joked about expressing his gratitude for porn stars in military fashion.

"Thank you for your cervix," he posted in 2021 in response to a user who said that adult entertainers should be thanked for their service like veterans.

Good Heavens, he really is made of Reddit "jokes" and sexual battery, isn't he?

Yeah I know the allegations so far are about non-sexual battery committed against women, but I imagine the sexual assault allegations are being held until (I think) July 13th, when it will no longer be legal to replace him in the race.

Relatedly: The Democrats' electoral lead looks like it's experiencing shrinkage.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (227) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mitch McConnell Hospitalized Again With "Undisclosed" Condition

These people just will not retire. Their egos are too big and their bank accounts are not yet big enough.

Sen. Mitch McConnell was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, according to a spokesperson.

"Senator McConnell was admitted to the hospital this morning. He is receiving excellent care," the spokesperson said.

ABC News has inquired about McConnell's condition and diagnosis but his team has not yet provided more information.

This is the latest in a string of medical incidents that the 84-year-old senator has faced in recent years.

So this is a possible problem. As you probably know, the governor of Kentucky is a Democrat, and would be able to appoint a Democrat replacement for this guy who should have retired 12 years ago. The Republican legislature passed a law that says the governor can only pick a replacement from a list submitted by the party of the incapacitated senator, but the governor says that goes against the state's constitution and hints that he will ignore that and appoint a Democrat.

The Kentucky state Legislature passed legislation on Thursday that would change how vacancies in the U.S. Senate are filled, over the objections of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

The Republican-sponsored bill, which would require a special election to choose a senator in the case of an open seat in the unexpired term, passed with bipartisan support as the Legislature nears the end of its session. It passed both chambers with veto-proof majorities.

It's a significant change from how the process currently works. A majority of states -- including Kentucky -- pick successors in vacant Senate seats by gubernatorial appointment. But there are some notable restrictions in the commonwealth: The governor must choose a nominee from a list of three names the outgoing senator's party submits. Beshear would have to choose a Republican, should either Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell or Sen. Rand Paul's seats become vacant.

McConnell last month announced he will not run for another term as GOP conference leader later this year. But he has vowed to serve out the rest of his term, which runs through 2027. Last year, the 82-year-old faced questions about his future after bouts of freezing in public, although Kentucky Republicans who sponsored the bill have insisted that it was not prompted by McConnell's health.

But with the change, Kentucky Republicans now have a backup plan in case there is an opening for the longtime senator's seat before his term expires.

Beshear has not hidden his disdain for the current arrangement. When the appointment rule was passed in 2021, he said it "improperly and unconstitutionally restricts the governor's power." He has also not explicitly committed to following it; when asked over the summer whether he would abide by the law should there be a vacancy, he refused to "speculate about something that hasn't happened and isn't going to happen."

I'm not sure how to read the Kentucky Constitution on this point. I fear Bashear might in fact be right:

The last part of that:

Vacancies in all offices for the State at large, or for districts larger than a county, shall be filled by appointment of the Governor; all other appointments shall be made as may be prescribed by law.

I think "offices for the State at large" would include Senators, who are of course elected by the state at large, and that would be an office filled by the governor, as opposed to other offices, which will be filled as "prescribed by law."

It's very basic law that a statute cannot modify a constitution, only a constituional amendment can. (Unless you're a Democrat pushing the constitution to the left/towards DEI, in which case practically anything can override the constitution.)

He may be right that the legislature has no power to overrule the constitution if the constitution does indeed give this power to the governor alone.

Thanks, Mitch! Give yourself a raise and take the rest of the week off, buddy.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (212) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Despite Merrick Garland's Assurances, DOJ Officials and the National Sheriffs' Association Objected to His Targeting of Christian Conservative Parents

Just the News:

Biden DOJ targeted parents at school board meetings despite FBI, sheriffs' objections, memos show

AFL said it acquired the documents as part of its ongoing lawsuit related to former Attorney General Merrick Garland's October 4, 2021 memorandum that targeted concerned parents at school board meetings during the COVID pandemic.

By Nicholas Ballasy

Former President Joe Biden's Justice Department used federal law enforcement to target parents at school board meetings as potential threats "despite warnings from FBI officials and the National Sheriffs' Association," according to America First Legal's analysis of new government documents it obtained.

AFL, a conservative legal nonprofit, said it acquired the documents as part of its ongoing lawsuit related to former Attorney General Merrick Garland's October 4, 2021 memorandum that targeted concerned parents at school board meetings during the COVID pandemic.

...

Some inside DOJ also fretted the strategy would boomerang, and create a political headache for elections,

"I don't think it's possible to state how strongly I object to this. It will completely and totally nuke our election threats efforts, and will damage the reputation of the Public Integrity Section into the bargain," one top DOJ official wrote in an email. "It's like they've affirmatively trying to make this thing not work and look political."

"If they do this, they might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force," an official wrote.

The National Sheriffs' Association also shared concerns like those of the FBI, the memos show...

The Sheriffs were not aware of any "threats to school officials." That's because it was all invented, yet another hoax Moral Panic created by the left to justify endless warfare against its many, many, many enemies.

The FBI enforced the memo, AFL noted, establishing a new threat tag, "EDUOFFICIALS."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:48 PM | Comments (194) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Bitter Old Has-Beens Stage Counter-Event to WH UFC Show

The left is very angry that Trump "desecrated" the White House by staging a sporting event there. They say the White House lawn is sacred, and only for wholesome events like lurid transgender perverts exposing their fake breasts to children.

Yes, that happened under Biden. #pRiDe

But a UFC event? That's ugly and perverse.

The usual old crowd of Bitter Clingers staged a counter-concert, featuring an array of stars who made up a virtual Who's Who of Who's That?

Jane Fonda Decries First Amendment Violations at Star-Studded Event: "It's Being Allowed by Cowardly Corporations"

"Right now, the government and its cronies [are] routinely violating its First Amendment to silence artists," she said at Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment in New York.

Jane Fonda gave a passionate speech defending the First Amendment on Sunday night at the star-studded Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment.

The event, held at The Town Hall in New York, was organized by the Committee for the First Amendment, a group that originally formed in 1947 during the McCarthy era but was recently revived by Fonda.

The very patriotic event featured dementia patient Robert DeNiro declaring that loving America is like loving the spouse who beats you -- in other words, he hates the country.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:43 PM | Comments (342) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Mail: A Former "Counter-Terrorism" Propagagnda Unit Headed by an MI-6 Spy Has Been Redirected to Run Nonstop Psyops Against the British Public to Convince Them to Accept Terrorism and Third-World Hyperviolence as Normal and Perfectly British

I think we already knew this, but social media is blowing up about it, so maybe we didn't. Or maybe it was alleged but now we have more information.

REVEALED: How shadowy unit of government 'thought police' set up by ex-MI6 agent is trying to keep a lid on Britain's simmering racial tensions

While the streets of Belfast were ablaze with anti-immigration protests last week, behind the scenes a group of spies, spinners and soldiers were deploying the 'dark arts' to try to defuse tensions.

The name of the secretive Government propaganda unit trying to manipulate events makes it sound like an innocuous back-office operation -- the Research, Information and Communications Unit, or RICU.

But the dull moniker is part of the deliberate camouflage of an outfit which uses deception and skulduggery to try to manage the 'challenges' of multiculturalism.

Its techniques range from planting stories in the media, using undercover operatives to lay flowers at the scene of terrorist attacks and even, in one case, sending a pop group to sing anti-extremist songs in Muslim schools.

But as the article states later, the RICU unit is very one-sided, focusing laser-like on the traditional elements of the British public for their "far-right" anger at murder and terrorism.

The 22-strong unit was established in 2007 by the late Charles Farr, a former MI6 officer, as part of the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy.

Modelled on the Information Research Department (IRD), a propaganda unit established by the Attlee government in 1948 to blacken the names of communists and other political opponents, RICU operates out of the Home Office's Westminster headquarters.

While its original purpose was to monitor and challenge the spread of Al Qaeda propaganda and to vet the language used by public officials when describing terrorism, its tentacles now stretch far across Whitehall -- to the extent that critics say it risks strangling free speech.

When the mobs took to the streets of Northern Ireland last week following the stabbing of Stephen Ogilvie, allegedly by Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum-seeker, RICU swung into action to advise the police in the province on how to 'control the narrative'.

A source said: 'They are working with the Police Service of Northern Ireland's C3 intelligence unit to identify those posting the online 'calls to protest' in Belfast and other areas, as well as giving strategic messages to the police to ensure that the protesters were portrayed as unsympathetic thugs, rather than activists, and effecting behavioural change.'

The source said that the unit had also been advising the police in Southampton following the horrific murder of Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa -- who falsely claimed he had been racially abused and had acted in self-defence -- saying: 'RICU made sure that the liaison team dealing with the family were well briefed.'

It has also been claimed that the unit intervenes to write statements by the families of victims of potentially racially linked incidents to stop them from inflaming tensions further with their remarks.

The source said: 'You can see their fingerprints all over the statements released by the families of victims in these volatile situations -- they usually have a similar tone.'

However, RICU is regarded by many Whitehall insiders to be 'out of control', after last year putting its name to a Home Office recommendation that the police should record more 'non-crime hate incidents' -- the controversial, sub-criminal measures used to inhibit people from making reference to matters of race, religion, sexual orientation or disability.

Ministers finally bowed to pressure by scrapping the measures, telling the police to stop recording everyday rows and online spats.

The unit also claimed that the prevalence of sexual grooming gangs in Pakistani communities was being exploited by the far-Right to stir up hatred against Muslim communities.

It has a long history of 'covertly engineering', in the words of one expert, 'the thoughts of people' at times of crisis, being quick to spring into action after terrorist incidents such as the London Bridge attacks in 2017. Eight people died when a van was driven into pedestrians on London Bridge and the three occupants ran to a nearby market and began stabbing people.

In the immediate aftermath of the atrocity, RICU's undercover operatives handed out flowers in the area, with the aim of perpetuating an atmosphere of 'grief' rather than anti-Muslim 'anger'.

...

RICU frequently uses social media in this way to infiltrate online conversations in 'target communities'.

However, according to Sir William Shawcross, who published a review of Prevent in 2023, the unit seems more keen to target the far-Right than extreme Islamists.

Sir William wrote: 'The bar for what RICU includes on Islamism looks to be relatively high, whereas the bar for what is included on the extreme Right-wing is comparably low.'

By way of illustrating his point, in 2023 the unit identified viewing habits which it believed indicate that someone could be susceptible to far-Right views. These included Michael Portillo's Great British Railway Journeys, The Thick Of It and Yes Minister, all on the BBC. Works by Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton were described as 'key texts' of interest to 'white nationalists/supremacists'.

...

Security expert Professor Anthony Glees responded: 'The unit that produced this report is called RICU.

'It's based in the Home Office but it's in that kind of shadowy area between what the Home Office does and what the security service MI5 ought to be doing. Or what the special branch used to do before it was turned into the counter-terrorist police force.'

Obviously the US has something like this too, or at least did. I think -- I can't recall the name so I can't search for it-- the DOJ had some kind of "anti-bias unit" that rushed in to tell families of victims of terrorist or racial violence that they must call for peace and that the death must not be used to inflame passions.

That sounds fine except this group obviously stands down and permits black radicals to inflame passions about alleged "racist" cop-killings and "nooses hanging from garage doors." We never see these radicals reciting government agitprop to "turn down the heat" and "remain calm."

In fact, it's obvious that when a Muslim or black radical group wants to inflame passions against the majority, the entire media and government apparatus turns into a machine to inflame passions further and encourage and justify rioting and arson.

I can't help but notice that the US form of this "Don't be angry, just accept it" Regime propaganda operation chooses to inflame passions when those passions might -- beyond the direct provocation of riots and arson -- help galavanize minority voters to vote Democratic. The Regime ops only seek to "turn down the temperature" when passions threaten to cause voters to turn against the Democrat/Socialist Regime.

Also obviously: This unit is working hand-in-glove with UK censors working to censor Americans, and that's all made possible by US CIA operatives working with those foreign censors to do what they themselves are forbidden by law to do, which is to censor the American public themselves.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:29 PM | Comments (356) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: Hampton Prescott Returns to Discuss the Importance of Architecture for Urban Renewal

In a post a couple of months ago I invited Hampton Prescott to contribute his thoughts about a subject that is important to me – “municipal conservatism.” Like me, Mr. Prescott understands the importance of conservatives working to not only gather votes in urban areas, but also working to make urban areas inhabitable again. Rudy Giuliani proved it can be done. Doing so will also have spillover benefits, including the construction of more housing, thus reducing overall housing costs by increasing supply.

As frustrating as the decline of urban areas is, we cannot simply wish their problems away, or completely walk away from them. They exist, even in red states. I appreciate conservatives who want to address the problem.

I am traveling right now, so I invited Mr. Prescott to provide a follow-up piece, this time focusing on the importance of architecture in the livability of cities. He kindly obliged. Read the whole thing, but here is a quote that captures the importance of the topic: ”Classical architecture isn’t nostalgia—it’s proven urban technology refined over the centuries. It restores dignity and desirability while delivering economic, social, and cultural returns.”

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (268) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

Woman in a Harem Courtyard
Luis Ricardo Falero

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 6/ 15 /26

Good morning kids. So the big story of course is that hostilities have ended with Iran. The headlines wherever you turn are using the phrase PEACE DEAL between the US and Iran.

The US and Iran have reached a peace deal to end their three-and-a-half-month-old war, President Trump announced Sunday evening.

The Strait of Hormuz, which carries 20% of the world’s oil, is set to reopen on Friday when a deal is signed in Switzerland, officials said.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” The signing will launch a 60-day negotiating process to determine the fate of Iran’s nuclear program and the extent of sanctions relief, according to officials.. . The agreement has not been seen publicly, but the White House on Friday described to reporters five points that are in the deal:
--Iran will destroy its highly enriched uranium
--Tehran will pledge never to obtain a nuclear weapon
--Economic relief will come after those first two steps are completed
--The Strait of Hormuz will be open immediately upon signing
--Iran must stop funding terrorist groups including Hezbollah
A senior administration official said the economic relief would be released “around physical milestones, it’s built around action and it’s built around verification.”

On a positive note as news of the "deal" was announced. . .

Brent crude, the international benchmark, fell by around four percent to below $84 a barrel, the lowest price since March 5. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, fell by nearly five percent to below $81 a barrel.

“With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!” President Trump said Sunday evening.

Stock futures tied to U.S. equities market climbed on the news.

while this is all well and good, both politically and directly as this will be reflected at the gas pump in time for the crucial midterms. As I have stated since the conflict began, any deal that leaves this regime intact is an abject failure.

The Iranian state-controlled Mehr News Agency is trumpeting the deal as a complete victory for the Islamic Republic. It involves concession after concession from the U.S., and nothing whatsoever in the other direction. Mehr states the 14 provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding in this way: According to the source, the draft includes the following provisions:
1. Permanent and immediate end to war on all fronts, including Lebanon.
2. US commitment to non-interference in Iran’s internal affairs and respect for the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran... 11. Release of $24 billion in Iran’s blocked funds during the 60-day final negotiation period, with half of that amount to be made available to Iran before negotiations begin. . .
. . . If this is even close to true, it’s the most breathtaking betrayal in American history (after Trump’s promises to the Iranian people), a new lease on life for the Islamic Republic, likely ensuring it remains in power for decades to come, and the most humiliating and unnecessary defeat in American history. Trump’s legacy will be surrender and the empowerment of America’s enemies, to an extent even worse than anything Barack Obama or Old Joe Biden did.

If you read all the points while understanding the nature of the Mullahs and the nature of ISLAM, this is merely strategic retreat in the 1500-year Islamic crusade for world domination. They know that all they have to do is wait out the next two years for Trump to exit the White House and that at best a Democrat will be elected and at worst, even if it's Vance or whomever, there will be a groundswell of opposition should that administration want to once again attack Iran once they inevitably resume their drive for nuclear weapons as well as continue to foment terrorism in the region and around the world, because gentle reader this is exactly what they are going to do.

Elsewhere, congratulations to Elon Musk for becoming the first nrillionaire in history. naturally the Democrat Left are beside themselves dropping venom and doing everything they can to denigrate this accomplishment. whatever one thinks of Musk personally or otherwise, his achievement is a shining example of the American dream as well as the work ethic that made this nation great and has been the engine of progress that took us from out of the caves to landing on the moon and building the freest most prosperous society in human history.

That is the real reason behind the venom and contempt. Like Islam, Democrat socialist leftists seek total control over everyone's life. Anything that deprives them of that must be destroyed.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know by now that with SpaceX’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), Elon Musk has become the world’s first trillionaire. The implications of this for all of us and our grandchildren are many and far-reaching. Of course, the left has found a way to narrow it all down to one simple idea: “His money is our money, or it should be.”
Envy is the lifeblood of leftist politics, and Musk is merely their latest, biggest, and most convenient target. But it’s worth being reminded that to the left, you are no different than Elon Musk. Let me explain. The left is miserable when you’re happy. It feels entitled to be the only source of your happiness, but it has no desire to make you happy. Rather, it simply wants to control how happy it will allow you to be.

Have a great day,

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:25 AM | Comments (426) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 15 June 2026

Top Story

• AMD says that not only will its new CPU stomp all over Nvidia's new CPU - three times the performance per watt on a rack-scale deployment - but its current two year old CPUs already deliver twice what Nvidia is promising. (WCCFTech)
  
  Promises vs. promises is all whatever, but promises vs. currently shipping product when the currently shipping product wins is not great for Nvidia.
  
  What's more, Intel's current CPUs are nearly 50% faster than Nvidia's future CPUs in the same tests.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:33 AM | Comments (117) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Overnight Open Thread - June 14, 2026 [Doof]

From Johnny Cadillac

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Sunday night ONT. Big day today - Flag Day, President Trump's 80th birthday, The US Army's 251st birthday -- and even more noteworthy, it's National Bourbon Day!

Open thread, as always. Fashion and music, as always. What's on YOUR mind tonight?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:06 PM | Comments (442) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gun Thread: Pre-NoVAMoMe 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 the Pre-NoVAMoMe Edition? Time to rush your NoVAMoMe plans to completion!

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 (216) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Food Thread: Bread And Butter...A Match Made In Heaven

That color is amazing...it conjures visions of buxom farm maidens herding cows through idyllic pastures, then milking them gently for perfect, fatty, delicious milk. Then on to the creamery where the cream is churned lovingly into perfect, beautiful, delicious butter!

Add in a fresh sourdough loaf cooling on the counter, and life doesn't get much better! Well, I added a great NY strip steak and a nice green salad, and some grilled broccoli slices to placate my inner Vegan.

That butter is from a spectacular Paris department store called Le Bon Marché, which has an amazing food department...two floors of food and wine that is rivaled only by another Parisian department store! They have prepared foods and places to eat there and fresh produce and meats and cheese and fish and butter! about 25 feet of refrigerated displays filled with butter of all kinds, from everywhere in France.

They also vacuum pack it, so it has been preserved quite well! I was a bit apprehensive, but one bite of this perfectly salted butter with some of that sourdough bread eased my concern. It was perfect, even after nine months in the freezer!

Posted by: CBD at 04:00 PM | Comments (290) | Trackbacks (Suck)

First World Problems...

That is an under-cabinet low voltage light that takes a standard G4 two-prong bulb. Easy-peasy...right?

Except the prongs of the new bulb don't slide into the receptacle. Since the bulbs produce a startlingly large amount of heat, I am not surprised that the thing failed after many years. What does surprise me is the difficulty in replacing it. Those cables are six feet long, and the end is buried somewhere in the cabinetry. The back of the receptacle is riveted closed, so I can't remove the female side and simply replace it.

I will have to splice the wires onto a new receptacle without wire nuts, since there isn't enough room for them inside the housing. That should be interesting, in a deeply irritating way.

Posted by: CBD at 02:00 PM | Comments (193) | Trackbacks (Suck)

FISA Is A Catastrophic Failure, And Should Be Allowed To Die

Except...our government is fanatical about spying on us, and there is no way that a temporary pause in their ability to spy on Americans will survive. That pause is for purely political reasons, as the House simply doesn't like President Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Once that little pissing match is cleared up, they will go back to merrily supporting warrantless searches and surveillance of Americans.

Oh, they have their cute little legal subterfuges that protect them...we Americans are swept up in that surveillance by accident! Really! It's true! Our government claims, without a hint of irony or sarcasm, that when Americans are spied upon without a warrant, it is merely coincident to the surveillance of a foreign national, and they respect our God-given natural rights to safety from government intrusion.

US intelligence community's foreign spying powers expire after lawmakers reject FISA extension

The law enables the US government to surveil non-Americans abroad without first going before a judge to get a warrant.

However, that surveillance often sweeps up communications of American citizens in the process. The controversial spy power was reformed in 2024, but some critics want additional changes.

This shit has been going on forever, and FISA was supposed to be the solution to the myriad domestic spying programs that our Constitution expressly forbids.

Except that after FISA was passed in 1978, spying on Americans seems to have increased! Here is a small sample of the dozens of programs that our government used or uses to spy on us.

Pre-1978

• COINTELPRO
  
• Operation CHAOS
  
• Project RESISTANCE
  
• Operation MERRIMAC
  
• MINARET
  
• SHAMROCK
  
• Post-1978
  
• CARNIVORE
  
• PRISM
  
• Section 215
  
• Total Information Awareness (TIA)
  
• Stellar Wind
  
• Hemisphere Project
  
• Section 702
  
• Main Core
  

FISA is so obviously a rubber stamp for fishing expeditions based on political or personal expediency that it's embarrassing that any legislator defends it. But most of them do, and it's only the dust-up with Bill Pulte as DNI that they even bothered to look up from the trough and actually do something.

Most of the Bill Of Rights address these affronts to our freedom and liberty, yet our government cavalierly disregards those rights, claiming the always convenient, "National Security Imperative," or whatever phrase is in fashion to describe the destruction of our freedoms.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

-- Samuel Adams

He said that in 1776, and it applies today. Government should serve us, not the other way around. And...government should also fear us as a free people. The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees that, and today we see shocking examples of countries whose citizens have become subjects exactly because their governments no longer fear them.

This is not a call to arms; this is simply a recognition that we must defend all of our rights, no matter how trivial-seeming or unlikely. Most of us will never be swept up in the surveillance of a foreigner, and most of us will never be surveilled coincident with an investigation. Except...we can never know that with certainty unless we fight back against the rapidly encroaching totalitarianism of our government.

Yes, that sounds melodramatic...just like the wholesale arrest and detention of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators after January 6th, 2021 sounded like a conspiracy-theorist's fever dream.

Posted by: CBD at 12:00 PM | Comments (240) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 6-14-2026 ["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 (from the pages of DRAGON^® magazine!). 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 (346) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 14 June 2026

Top Story

• The US government has responded to Anthropic's constant warnings of imaginary dangers with a global ban - except for US citizens on US soil - on access to the company's Mythos 5 and Fable 5 security-focused AI models. (Tech Crunch)
  
  This whole story is dumb but at the same time it's amusing to watch Anthropic's continuing push towards regulatory capture leave them stuck like a rat in a trap.
  
  To mix my metaphors, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei cried "risk" one too many times and ended up being devoured by it.
  
  
  
• Speaking of dumb 75 datacenter projects totaling $130 billion in value were blocked in just the first four months of 2026. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This leaves SpaceX, by the way, pulling in $2 billion a month renting out its datacenters to its capacity-limited competition.
  
  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman blames this trend on Chinese influence, and while Altman absolutely is a compulsive liar, that probably is a large factor. Chinese datacenter rollouts are not facing the same headwinds.
  
  
  
• Speaking of which, OpenAI is facing investigation from multiple states attorneyses generalseses. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Oh no.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM | Comments (170) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Club ONT - June 13, 2026 [D&D]

Welcome to Club ONT - a collaboration of The Disco and The Dino. We built this place for you so you can have some fun. Come in in, grab a drink or 3. Keep it light and friendly. Jerks need not enter the premises (the moose out front is keeping watch).

[Top photo: Old First Church, Bennington, Vermont]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (439) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: Backrooms

Another good and in some ways significant film—twelve out of twelve new films in a row, for those counting—has crossed our paths, being yet another trampler of a once undefeatable franchise.

The origins of Backrooms go back to a 2019—ancient history!—creepypasta about an eerie interdimensional space that looks like a very ordinary but empty office building or, in fact, a furniture store. Although much of the concept (which I don't know, honestly) was developed collectively on the Internet, 16-year-old writer/director Kane Parsons created, wrote, directed and starred in a YouTube series based on his take on the story and, now, at the ripe old age of 20, has directed a movie that's easily smashed the $100M barrier, made 20x its budget back already and trounced the flagging Mandalorian.

Of course, only 20x its budget (so far) makes it a big compared to Obsession, which had now made over 220x it's budget, but I doubt anyone's going to complain. And Backrooms may have even better legs, because while it's not a better film, it does have a massive trove of Easter Eggs for fans.

"Backrooms" looking at "Obsession"s legs in the distance.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:30 PM | Comments (363) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - June 13, 2026 [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.

This is the second anniversary of TRex assuming the Hobby Thread helm. Hooray! That makes this my 105th Hobby Thread (not counting a few previous oddball contributions through MisHum). Thank you all for being here and participating. None of this works without you (even the lurkers).

In honor of the occasion, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) took the night off and left a note that said "all of the above." What does that mean? Read on hobbyists...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (206) | Trackbacks (Suck)