Ace of Spades HQ

February 26, 2025

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - February 26, 2025 [TRex]

20250224-20250222-IMG_20250222_154742680_HDR.jpg

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

This is the Wednesday night ONT. You might sense a theme this week.

[Photo: National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton, Ohio]

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (530) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trumpday Cafe

londonbridgestationphoto.jpg
London Bridge (subway) Station
Linda Wisdom Photography
@CreativeWisdom_

Family adopted a dog. Then they went back to the shelter and adopted their dog's sister, too.

Rubbing a quokka, if you catch my meaning.


POV from eagle's shoulders.

Morning glory.

Otters may be cute, but some of them are jugglers.

Aurora borealis light show.

Giving your carrot to a beaver, if you get my drift.


A genius innovation in shelving. Think of the number of dead batteries and chop sticks you can store in there!!!

Deer bounding down suburban street.

Talking toy makes for a good babysitter for puppies.

Big machines for building bridges.

Eclipse at... sunrise?

Now this is podracing!

For your morning drive, expect some slowdowns caused by fast-moving lava.

Inman:

Super Ninja Recovery.

Skynet's warming up.

Skynet Phase 2.

Bruce Wayne's early training videos.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the ocean again...


Posted by: Ace at 07:40 PM | Comments (262) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Jeff Bezos Orders His Leftwing Rag to Run Columns on the Topics of "Free Markets" and "Personal Liberties;" Opinion Editor "Steps Away" Rather Than Implementing the Plan

I've said this a dozen times already, but it is pointless for these toxic Marxist propaganda mills to attempt to change their reputations. It's like a woman attempting to regain her lost virtue after blowing the entire town. She'll never shed that reputation. She may wind up landing a man, but she's got a much smaller pool of suitors to work with. Many men will just say "pass."

Jeff Bezos will just have to accept that the Post is an amateurish Anxiety Porn publication for leftwing weirdoes and pedophiles, and reduce staff accordingly. There is no way the Post can be "restored" to being acceptable to normies.

His latest hare-brained idea is to force the leftwing op-ed page to once in a while speak up in favor of milquetoast libertarian ideas like "free markets" and "personal liberties." I guess he thought these subjects were so anodyne that not even his incompetent, insubordinate employees could object.

Wrong! The left now considers talk about "personal liberties," and people having any rights whatsoever against the oppressive government, as "incipient fascism."

It's pathetic, just pathetic.

The opinion page editor left the paper rather than push fascist ideas like personal liberty.

Jeff Bezos
@JeffBezos

I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning:

I'm writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.

We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We'll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.

There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader's doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.

I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America's success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical -- it minimizes coercion -- and practical -- it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.

I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn't "hell yes," then it had to be "no." After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won't be easy, and it will require 100% commitment -- I respect his decision. We'll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.

I'm confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I'm excited for us together to fill that void.

Jeff

Here was the Post's leftwing firebrand -- I mean, careful and honest reporter of facts -- Philip Bump's reaction:

philipbumpwtf.jpg

Philip Bump has pushed every leftwing op -- from the RussiaGate "dossier" to claiming that Hunter Biden's laptop was a Russian fake -- while screaming that it's the right which lives in self-selected bubbles of unreality.

He gave a Ted talk about this. Well, TEDx. He's not a big enough celebrity for a full TED talk.

Posted by: Ace at 06:44 PM | Comments (213) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Another Transgender Terrorist Plotted "Mass Casualty" Attack in Corpus Christi, Texas

The media have steadfastly avoided noticing this very serious trend.

In 2021, the government pressured social media companies to deplatform thousands of people, including former president Donald Trump, because of fears that their "rhetoric" was so "incendiary" it would kill people.

Calls by the left to mass-censor toxic transgender social media accounts and actual calls to violence and assassination? Zero. El Cero.

A Texas suspect's plan "similar to the deadly 2016 Dallas ambush" was thwarted by local and federal officials on Monday, authorities said.

Seth "Andrea" Gregori, 21, was arrested on a terroristic threats warrant Monday at 9:25 a.m., the Corpus Christi Police Department said.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified of Gregori making terroristic threats against Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD) Officers," the department said in a release. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the threats and secured an arrest warrant for Gregori."

Gregori was born male, but identifies as female, CCPD Senior Officer Antonio Contreras told Fox News Digital.

Authorities said that the tipster notified police after noting that Gregori had been friendly with several officers in the downtown area, and taking photos of them. The tipster also said Gregoria had recently purchased an AR-style gun.

The 21-year-old suspect allegedly modeled the attack "similar to the 2016 Dallas ambush" conducted by Micah Xavier Johnson, the FBI's Houston office said.

...

Gregori was arrested on Monday for terroristic threats impeding public service/causing public fear or serious bodily injury and criminal trespass and was being held at Nueces County Jail as of Tuesday morning on a bond of $50,500.

And a transgender vandalized and planned to set off an "incendiary device" at a Colorado Tesla dealership.

Posted by: Ace at 06:00 PM | Comments (233) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Republican Congressmen Hang Together to Pass $4.5 Trillion Budget Resolution

I don't know what's in the budget, sorry to say.


Update: TheJamesMadison has an early report:


I've been glancing through the executive summary for most of the day.

https://budget.house.gov/fy-2025-budget-resolution

It slows the rate of growth. It does not cut overall spending. It has a lot of good language about things like ending baseline inclusion of one-time spending like TARP. It relies on accelerated economic growth. It includes making the Trump tax cuts permanent.

And it's supposed to lead to a small surplus in 10 years.

It's not good. It's better than what Paul Ryan tried to put forward 10 years ago. It's much better than the perpetual CRs.

It's probably the best thing we could realistically get.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman


This was a big vote and a big win for Trump. At least two of the Freedom Caucus members, Chip Roy and Thomas Massie, have some kind of stupid scheme to always vote "no" on any budget. The trouble is, of course, that if Republicans cannot get all of their members to vote for a budget, then Republican leadership has to bargain with Democrats to get support for the budget.

And that will result in even bigger budgets and bigger giveaways, of course.

But Speaker Johnson and, one assumes, Donald Trump managed to bring Roy in line, and the House passed the budget on a straight-line vote, 217-215.

I imagine that maybe Trump's demonstrated seriousness on cutting spending caused them to cast a vote for a budget they would otherwise have voted "no" on.

Massie still voted against it. I guess he prides Muh Princibuhls over actual results.


President Donald Trump's tax cuts, border, defense, and energy promises are one step closer to enactment after the U.S. House narrowly passed its $4.5 trillion budget resolution Tuesday night, officially kickstarting the budget reconciliation process.

Following hours of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., convincing Republican holdouts to commit, a brief cancellation of the vote, and then an abrupt recalling of all House members, the resolution passed 217-215 and now heads to the Senate.

Republicans have a majority in the upper chamber with 53 members to the Democrats' 45 and two independents caucusing with them.

The passage of the House budget resolution was far from certain.

Both the high price tag and the steep spending cuts worried some Republicans, with centrists opposed to possible slashes to Medicaid and fiscal hardliners revolting against the estimated tens of trillions of dollars the resolution could add to the federal deficit over the next 10 years.

Besides extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts for at least 10 years at the cost of $4.5 trillion, the resolution authorizes a $300 billion increase in defense and border security spending, to be split among the Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Judiciary committees.

To partially accommodate its price tag, the proposal also instructs the Ways and Means Committee to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion and instructs other committees to find at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, likely from changes to Medicaid.

Just two Republican "no" votes could have tanked the resolution. Out of the four Republican holdouts who had either indicated or outright stated their intent to vote no, Reps. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, ultimately flipped after pressure from party leaders. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the lone Republican who voted against the resolution.

Trump has ordered agencies to prepare for mass layoffs and to submit plans to lay off large numers of their staffs.

There's no number for the overall cut in federal workers, but Trump wants the EPA to submit plans to layoff 65% of its "workers."

AP:

The U.S. government is facing a generational realignment as President Donald Trump directs federal agencies to develop plans for eliminating employee positions and consolidating programs.

Senior officials set the downsizing in motion on Wednesday with a memo that dramatically expands Trump's efforts to scale back a workforce described as an impediment to his agenda. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now the Republican administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection.

"We're cutting down the size of government. We have to," Trump said during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. "We're bloated. We're sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren't doing their job."

The ripple effects will be felt around the country. Roughly 80% of federal workers live outside the Washington area, and government services -- patent approvals, food inspections, park maintenance and more -- could be hindered depending on how cuts are handled.

Resistance is expected. Labor unions, Democratic state leaders and other organizations have tried, with some success, to slow Trump down with litigation, while Republicans are growing more concerned about how a slash-and-burn strategy could affect their constituents.

LOL. More on that in a second.

Agencies are directed to submit by March 13 their plans for what is known as a reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees but eliminate the position altogether. The result could be extensive changes in how government functions.

No specific targets for cutbacks were included in the memo. However, as an example, Trump said the Environmental Protection Agency could reduce its staff by 65%.

...

"The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt. At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public," said the memo from Russell Vought, director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources agency. "Instead, tax dollars are being siphoned off to fund unproductive and unnecessary programs that benefit radical interest groups while hurting hard-working American citizens."

Vought was an author of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump's second term, and he has advocated for centralizing power under the presidency and dismantling federal bureaucracy.

"We're not going to save our country without a little confrontation," Vought said last summer during a podcast hosted by Trump ally Stephen Bannon.

Do you remember the media pushing fake stories claiming that "even red state voters are revolting against Musk's vicious cuts"? The AP just referenced "Republicans growing concerned about a slash-and-burn strategy."

Well, I know this may shock you, but those protests were faked by leftwing pressure groups.

Media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CBS News pointed to town hall events, including one hosted by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), as signs of growing public opposition to DOGE. These reports highlighted heated exchanges and vocal protests as evidence of bipartisan dissatisfaction with the department's efforts to reduce government spending.

However, the Washington Free Beacon's investigation suggests a different narrative. It revealed that the protests were organized by leftist activists, with Maggie Goldman playing a prominent role. Goldman, who resides in McCormick's district, has a long history of political activism within the Democratic Party. Her background includes coordinating volunteers for Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign and running for local office with a platform advocating for a more inclusive policy agenda. Additionally, campaign finance records show she donated over $1,500 to Kamala Harris's campaign last year.

The report further detailed that protests at other GOP town halls were also organized by liberal groups, notably Indivisible and MoveOn, both funded by George Soros. These groups reportedly helped drive media coverage that framed the protests as evidence of public discontent with the Trump administration's policies, despite the organized and partisan nature of the demonstrations.

Probably paid for by USAID, we'll find out later.

Fake and gay, fake and gay, everything is now fake and gay:

Posted by: Ace at 04:53 PM | Comments (334) | Trackbacks (Suck)

MSNBC Fires "The Majority" of Rachel Maddow's Staffers

Night of the Long Faces.

Note that she could easily pull a Jay Leno. When NBC wanted Leno's show to reduce costs, Leno famously took a $10 million per year pay cut so that he could pay his staff with no job losses or pay cuts.

The Pretend Socialist Rachel Maddow will not be taking even a $1 million pay cut to keep any of the people she knows and works with employed.

MSNBC has reportedly informed a majority of staffers who work on Rachel Maddow's primetime opinion show that they are being let go as part of the network's restructuring that resulted in the cancellation of Joy Reid's program as well as those of other hosts.

The Comcast-owned, left-leaning channel told Maddow staffers, who also worked on the other canceled shows including "Alex Wagner Tonight," that they have the option of applying for new roles at the network or accepting a severance payout, according to the news site Guardian.

Maddow, MSNBC's most prominent anchor and top-rated host, will retain her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, along with several senior producers, the Guardian reported.

However, the rest of her team, along with producers from other recently canceled shows -- including those hosted by Alex Wagner, Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin and José Díaz-Balart -- will need to find new jobs either within the network or at a different company, according to the report.

A network insider reached by The Post denied that the move constituted layoffs. The network insists that the shakeup was a reallocation of resources to support the network's evolving priorities, according to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

LOL, Corporate Media. They're not layoffs, they're just a "reallocation of resources to support the network's evolving priorities."

MSNBC claims that the non-laid-off employees will have the opportunity to apply for other jobs at MSNBC, but MSNBC lost half of its ratings and is being sold off because it's a dying brand. What "other" jobs will these non-laid-off employees be applying for, exactly?

..

The restructuring coincides with broader financial pressures at MSNBC, which is being spun off from parent company NBCUniversal.

The network is searching for cost-saving measures, mirroring CNN's recent move to lay off 200 employees under its new chief executive, Mark Thompson, who has been aggressively pushing for a stronger digital strategy.

Sources in Washington, DC, have privately voiced concerns that the new roles MSNBC is posting may predominantly be based in New York, where union-negotiated hourly pay rates are reportedly lower.

Employees worry that accepting new positions may require relocation, further complicating their employment status.

...


She added that in six months' time, MSNBC would have more employees than it does currently, an assertion intended to project long-term stability despite the current upheaval.

Magic 8-Ball Check: Doubtful.

Rachel Maddow's head is so long the bitch's brain is vertical.

Bitch's hat size is #2 Pencil.

Posted by: Ace at 03:45 PM | Comments (448) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tulsi Gabbard To Fire 100 "Intelligence" Community Perverts Who Wasted All Day In Government-Permitted Groupchats Talking About Fake Vaginas and Anal Bleaching

Leftists ruined the workplace like they ruined everything else.

One of their ruinous ideas was "bring your whole self to work." This is an explicit rejection of the impersonal professionalism that had served us well as a workplace ethos for 300 years of modern history. We don't want your "whole self" at work -- we don't want your sexuality or your politics or your fetishes.

We just want your work self at work -- amiable and impersonal, hard-working and, yes, somewhat anonymous.

Your "whole self" can wait until you get home or to your transgender clinic.

And of course the right was never permitted to bring our own "whole selves" to work -- talking about Jesus was forbidden. Mentioning any conservative political leaning was punishable by summary firing.

The transgenders and fetishists who invaded the federal government have been using government resources to talk about the most disgusting personal kinks instead of working:


Top officials Tuesday denounced a newly exposed transgender sex chat room where employees of federal intelligence agencies talked about "castration, artificial vaginas, [urine] fetishes, sex polycules, and gangbangs" on a government messaging system during work hours.

The shocking forum involved workers at the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo and investigator Hannah Grossman exposed the messages.

The employees also discussed male-to-female transgender surgeries, celebrated the death of televangelist Pat Robertson, and attacked Italians, Christians, conservatives, heterosexuals and Tulsi Gabbard, the new director of national intelligence.

NSA officials established a first-of-its-kind transgender inclusion policy at the agency four years ago.

On Tuesday, top intelligence officials condemned the chat room and said it no longer existed.

The lurid exchanges, exposed on social media, garnered the attention of President Trump's government efficiency adviser Elon Musk, who posted on X: "MAJOR housecleaning is needed."

The two investigators uncovered the extraordinary exchange in chat logs provided by the NSA's Intelink Messenger program, which hosted groups called "LBTQA" and "IC_Pride_TWG."

And Tulsi Gabbard is set to fire them all.


More than 100 intelligence community employees will be terminated and have their security clearances revoked as the intelligence community investigates group chats that allegedly discussed explicit behavior, officials said.

...

"This behavior is unacceptable and those involved WILL be held accountable," Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted on X.


She said the "disgusting chat groups" were immediately shut down when President Donald Trump issued his executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the federal government, which she called the "DEI insanity the Biden Admin was obsessed with."

"Our IC must be focused on our core mission: ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people," Gabbard said.

Deputy Chief of Staff Alexa Henning said in a post on X Tuesday evening, "The DNI sent a memo directing all intelligence agencies to identify the employees who participated in the NSA's 'obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit' chatrooms and to terminate their employment and revoke their security clearances. Deadline: Friday."

Posted by: Ace at 02:36 PM | Comments (438) | Trackbacks (Suck)

One Media Hero Steps Forward to Blow the Lid Off the Biden Dementia Cover-Up.
That Hero? Biden Defender Fake Jake Tapper.

originalsinfaketapper.jpg

Jake Tapper's been blowing the lid off this coordinated lie for years.

Below, Brave Jake Tapper attacks Laura Trump for noting Biden's cognitive decline. Jake Tapper insists there's no way she could possibly diagnose Biden's cognitive decline, so what she really must be doing is ridiculing a man with a disability. See, he has a "stutter" which we all just heard about for the first time in 2019.

Posted by: Ace at 01:22 PM | Comments (569) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Trump Holds First Meeting of Full Cabinet

Live, in progress.

Paul A. Szypula
@Bubblebathgirl

Strong speech by @elonmusk at Trump's first Cabinet meeting. Musk talks about @DOGE:

- "We can find a trillion dollars in savings."
- "DOGE is a support function for the president and for the agencies and departments."
- "Find 15% reduction in fraud and waste."
- "We bring the receipts!"
- "We won't be perfect, but when we make mistakes, we'll fix it quickly."
- "We need to move quickly if we're to achieve a trillion dollar deficit reduction."
- "We can do it and we will do it."

Posted by: Ace at 12:12 PM | Comments (493) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Morning Rant

mannixape2.jpg

The Beginning of the End?

Nothing makes journalists happier than when the news is itself news. Well, that's usually true, but sometimes when the news is the news, it isn't because of "firefighter" journalists speaking "truth to power" or whatever, but because of major industrial shakeup.

Comcast made news this week for firing the execrable Joy Reid, but this is possibly - perhaps even likely - related to the slightly older piece of news that Comcast will be spinning off much of its cable TV portfolio into a new independent subsidiary that will immediately IPO and trade on its own. They haven't bothered to give it a name yet, calling it just "SpinCo." That may be an apt name, because the new corporation will contain NBC News' intellectual weak sister CNBC and that weak sister's inbred idiot cousin, MSNBC - though not NBC News itself.

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM | Comments (329) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Apollonius Boxer.jpg

Boxer at Rest
Apollonius of Athens


Note: Being a three-dimensional medium, sculpture is difficult to appreciate properly in a two-dimensional format. This essay is my best effort with this limitation.
****

Boxer at Rest comes from an era of art history known as Hellenism which spans the centuries between the death of Alexander the Great and the Rome’s conquest of Greece. During these centuries, the Greek world expanded beyond its peninsular homeland into modern day Turkey, the Middle East, and north Africa. The innovations of Classical Greek art — idealism, naturalism, and heroic beauty — were mixed with realism and drama. Art, especially figurative art, became more grounded with more down-to-earth subject matter. Humanity was even added to images of the gods.

Unearthed in Rome in the late 19th century, Boxer at Rest is a masterpiece of ancient bronzeworking. Bronze was a much sought-after medium for Greek artists because of its durability and moldability. Marble, the medium we now tend to associate with classical sculpture, is fragile and unforgiving. It can fracture easily and has weak spots that must be braced with struts and supports. Bronze is different. If a mistake is made, the figure can be melted down and the metal reused. Statues are hollow and free-standing, able to mimic the human body better than stone. Unfortunately, many bronzes have been lost to history and works like Boxer at Rest are rare. A large amount of the “ancient Greek art” seen today in museums are marble Roman copies of Greek bronze originals.

The figure in this work is of a defeated boxer resting after a bout. He sits exhausted, with slouched shoulders. He hasn’t even taken off his leather hand-straps (himantes) yet. His arms lay weightlessly in his knees and his legs stretch out asymmetrically. He’s exhausted. His head turns to an extreme angle to his right as though listening to someone behind him — a manager or disappointed supporter. While his limbs relax, his thick, muscular torso and shoulders are still tense.

For me, the charm of Boxer at Rest is in the details. The turned head is so real. I can envision him plopping down onto that rock after a disappointing fight when someone behind him calls out. He’s too tired to move so he only turns his head. If you zoom in on his face, the expression reflects his body language. His eyes stare and his brows are knitted. I can see him panting through his partially open mouth. His face and ears are deeply scarred. Some wounds are fresh. They are still bleeding. The nose is broken, the left cheek is swelling, and his ears are cauliflowered. To add to the realism, copper is added to the cuts to mimic blood. He also likely had eyes to complete the lifelikeness.

Classical Greek art was about the ideal — the best and most beautiful, about the perfection of the human figure. This meant a work was a flawless, unemotional, godlike figure in the nude to display the full beauty of the male human form. With Hellenism, that beauty was seen and celebrated in the common human. This is not a god. Sure, this boxer is strong, muscular, and tough but he’s also highly expressive. He is gassed, sad, and disappointed. You don’t see this emotionalism in Classical art. I can feel this work.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:30 AM | Comments (355) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 2/ 26 /25

MagaBlaster.jpg

Good morning kids. First off, a victory at least in the short term, politically, for both President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson in that the budget resolution passed just minutes after the initial vote had been cancelled. Now that said, the actual details of a final budget have yet to be agreed upon. And yet with all the waste and corruption exposed just with the revelations of what USAID had been doing, let alone the rest of the government, the political wind is at Trump's back vis a vis the base that put him in office in a landslide having had quite enough of the madness of business as usual, plus the other depredations of open borders, crime, and cultural rot/perversion.

The question is, can Trump and his allies muster the will and the power to craft a budget that is reflective of the MAGA and DOGE mission to rein in the tyrannical, corrupt, beast that is the Federal government. For sure the Democrats will resist as will the GOP-E RINOs, grifting, oleaginous parasites who have had their snouts in the trough by aiding and abetting in our destruction since the New Deal came into being 80 years ago.


It's one thing to demand federal bureaucrats justify their jobs. Better still would be Congressmen and Senators, especially Republicans, justify funding these leeches and the agencies in which they work. What does the EPA really do, Lisa Murkowski? Ditto the Dept. of Education. Etc., etc. etc. all the way throughout the radioactive wasteland known as the Federal Triangle (Bartertown aka Bipartisantown).

It's also one thing to rail against welfare, high speed rail, Obamacare and all the rest of the pork that is bankrupting us and putting your children and grandchildren into hock up to their eyeballs. The crux of the biscuit as it were lies in the very word and notion of ENTITLEMENTS. Yes, I get it, we honest taxpaying law abiding citizens have been forced to pay into a system that came into being long before we were born, with no option to not participate in it. Whether we wanted to be a part of it or not, we are a part of the welfare state.

Structurally changing it is one thing, and a very good and long overdue thing that both DOGE and taking a wrecking ball to as much of the bureaucracy that can be done.

As CBD and I touched upon in the last podcast, the notion of entitlements and what that means in light of the Trump MAGA movement. But deprogramming the citizenry of this mentality that we are "entitled" to other peoples' money is quite something else. Look, I get it, we paid into it and when it's our turn, we are indeed "entitled" to get back what was ours in the first place. Hopefully, I want what Trump is doing to start a sea change in the mentality of the citizenry to empower themselves to go back to a time when individual liberty was undergirded by a foundational requirement of personal responsibility to prepare for our future needs of our own volition.

That mentality runs antithetical to how the anti-American Democrat Left gains and maintains power. By becoming mother and father to as many people as possible from cradle to grave, in exchange for giving them the power to take and spend your money as they see fit.

If we can break future generations of that habit, then we really will have made America great again. Two very good essays touch upon this brainwave. First this one:

All of this is actually quite normal. The Romans called this cultural cycle a saeculum, which refers to a period about as long as a human life (80–90 years). In modern times, we refer to these cycles as “turnings,” a term popularized by demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe. A turning is approximately 22 years, and the fourth turning is one in which there is radical social upheaval. We are plainly in a fourth turning right now.

Fourth turnings often (but not necessarily) resolve in violent revolution. The last fourth turning resulted in World War II; the one before that resulted in the Civil War; the one before that resulted in the Revolutionary War and establishment of the Constitution; and the one before that resulted in the Glorious Revolution. The cycles repeat throughout history like clockwork—as predictable as human nature.


Going further is this excellent essay.

. . . a realignment that had been going on for decades suddenly picked up momentum. The Democrat strategy should be obvious by now, and it is not primarily oriented to identity politics. That’s just the ideological window dressing, with plenty of evidence to debunk its substance. Productive private sector workers and entrepreneurs, regardless of their ethnicity or gender, have overwhelmingly rejected the Democrats, along with their woke and green rhetoric. But the economic strategy the Democrats are pursuing may yet work. It appeals to three constituencies.

The first of these constituencies is government workers, about 15 percent of households. This figure, while high, understates their influence because spouses of government workers are likely to share the economic priorities of their partner. Anyone working for a government contractor also benefits when the public sector expands. When government grows, these voters prosper.

Add to that the next constituency of Democrats, the households in America that pay no taxes, conservatively estimated at 40 percent. These are people in lower income groups that are often receiving government subsidies, whether it’s welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, or other benefits. These voters benefit when government aid programs are increased. And when you add together the government workers and the households dependent on government assistance—or at the least indifferent to its expansion because they don’t pay taxes anyway—you already have over 50 percent of the electorate.

It’s at this margin that the battle for the future of America is being fought. And every time another government regulation or tax is imposed on small businesses or households that still manage to maintain financial independence, the resentment they feel against expanding government begins to compete with the economic necessity of depending on government handouts to survive.


No wonder the Left wants to destroy the Family, God and Judeo-Christian morality and ethics because it places the responsibility for our lives, happiness and flourishing on ourselves as individuals.


Speaking of societal dissolution, another crazed beast created by Leftist insanity has mercifully been thwarted:

A Texas man arrested for allegedly planning a “mass casualty event” against law enforcement was “transitioning” genders, a police source confirmed to the Caller.

The FBI’s Houston office announced Monday that it arrested Seth “Andrea” Gregori after he allegedly plotted an attack against police “similar to the 2016 Dallas ambush.” In that 2016 attack, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed police officers in Dallas, Texas, killing five and wounding nine more in a mass shooting. Johnson was reportedly angry over white police officers shooting black suspects.

. . . KENS5 News reported that Gregori allegedly intended to target “white cops” in the CCPD but would leave “Black and Mexican cops alone,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Gregori was arrested for allegedly making terroristic threats against Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD) officers, according to a CCPD press release.

I imagine this is in part because of the tremendous success of the de facto Trump enacted Operation Wetback 2.0 is shipping the illegals the hell out and discouraging others from entering in the first place. And of course Trump's campaign against DEI and Transgender psychosis being imposed on normal society. Near political terrorism straight up.

The louder, shriller and cruder the calls for violence against Trump, Musk and all of us become, it merely reflects the desperation of those whose power and influence are being threatened.

Stay strong, people because we shall overcome. It won't be easy, but while evil never rests, it will not reign supreme forever.

Be on the lookout for a new podcast episode in the sidebar and over at Cutjibnewsletter.com later today.

And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.


    ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY

  • Attacks on water and electrical facilities around the nation are nothing new, going back to at least 2021. We were reminded last May that cyber attacks against our water systems were taking place. We knew that Russia and Iran were targeting smaller communities. But those attacks were taking place over the internet.
    Did Someone Tamper With the Water in Prescott Valley, and Why Isn't This a Bigger Story?
  • This old guard seeks to defend what the majority sees as indefensible, and we are finally exerting political will to address the obviously dysfunctional institutions at the root of the problem.
    The Cultural Cycle Is Upon Us Again
  • Democrats push regulations that crush small businesses while benefiting big corporations and government, realigning America’s political landscape toward economic dependency and corporate favoritism.
    The Economics of Leftist Populism

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:30 AM | Comments (422) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 26 February 2025

Top Story

  • Framework has announced three new models: The low-end education-focused Laptop 12, a new Laptop 13 with AMD's Ryzen 300 series chips, and the all-new Desktop. (Tom's Hardware)

    The new Framework 13 keeps the upgradeable memory, with up to 96GB to accompany an up to Ryzen 370 twelve-core CPU. Still no Four Essential Keys though.

    The Framework Desktop is a mini-ITX system in a compact 4"x8"x9" case.

    Using AMD's latest Strix Halo CPUs, up to the Ryzen 395, with its 16 CPU cores and 40 graphics cores.

    Memory this time is soldered, though you can specify up to 128GB of it, and it's only a 100% markup over retail. The company said that it worked "for months" with AMD but couldn't make the memory user-upgradeable while maintaining the 8000MHz target frequency. (The new Laptop 13 uses 5600MHz memory.)

    There are two M.2 slots for storage, so you're free to upgrade that at least.

    Plus two USB 4 ports, two DisplayPort ports, HDMI, 5Gb Ethernet, two regular USB ports, a headphone jack, and two of Framework's flexible expansion ports at the front, though the video is already prewired to the rear of the case so you can't put the DisplayPort or HDMI options there.

    Price for the 128GB model is $1999, which is not exactly cheap, but a Mac Studio configured with 128GB of RAM will set you back $4799, which is even less exactly cheap.

    Laptop 13 ships in April; Desktop ships in Q3.


Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (138) | Trackbacks (Suck)

February 25, 2025

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread. February 25, 2025. [scampydog]

Moon Tub Spring.JPG

Photo from Tub Spring Meadow, up the hill from Wallowa, OR

Eva Green sighting in Mystery Click


ONT! Good evening and happy Tuesday. It is national chili day. We'll set the over/under at 64 chili comments.

Why does Irish chili only have 239 beans? Because anymore and it'd be too farty.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM | Comments (316) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

Sheldon Whitehouse voted in favor of bills and massive wealth transfers that benefited his wife's "non-profit" environmental grift.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is being accused of violating ethics rules after backing laws that financially benefited his wife's environmental organization.

The Democratic senator and climate hawk voted for key laws that provided funding for grants to the environmental non-profit group that works with his wife, Sandra Whitehouse, and pays her through a consulting firm.

The ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), is asking the Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chairman Chris Coons, D-Del., to investigate Whitehouse "to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest." The group works primarily to draw attention to potential Democratic lawmaker ethics violations.

Ocean Conservancy has received more than $14.2 million in federal grants since 2008, per USASpending.gov. During 2024 alone, it was given two sizable grants, one for $5.2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for marine debris cleanup in September and another for $1.7 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), again to assist with marine debris cleanup.

The former was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) championed by the Biden administration and voted for by Sen. Whitehouse. The latter was funded through the EPA's annual appropriations bill, which Whitehouse also voted for.


Supposedly, Doomcock is Finally Right. Puck says that Kathleen Kennedy, Destroyer of Billion-Dollar IPs, reckons she's done enough brand damage and can now retire.

According to Puck, Kathleen reportedly turned in her resignation notice, ending her 13-year run as head of Lucasfilm at the end of the year:


After years of speculation, and polite urging from observers like me, Kathleen Kennedy has informed Disney, as well as friends and associates, that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year, per three sources. Disney and Kennedy's personal publicist declined to comment.

[...]

Kennedy has been telegraphing her exit lately, selling her and husband Frank Marshall's Malibu house, offloading art, and talking to friends about working with Frank more. She's also been collecting career honors from everyone from the Austin Film Festival to the American Society of Cinematographers to this week's Oscar Wilde Awards in L.A. Departing this year will allow a successor to handle the 2026 release of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars movie since 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. This year she's got only the second season of Andor, which will likely be an Emmy contender (the trailer looks good), and some kids' stuff on Disney+.

These rumors have been circulating for some time, and while it's still not wholly confirmed, as Puck notes, the reports are likely true.

This is a "who cares" thing for me. These brands no longer have any value or appeal. They were destroyed. People had been emotionally invested and begged them to not destroy billion-dollar modern myths, but they did anyway. Now no one cares. Star Wars is a dead brand, even Indiana Jones is a dead brand.

Their toys no longer sell. There are no new young fans being created.

They sought the "modern audience." Well, they got it. Except the modern audience doesn't exist. There is groundswell of twenty million radical left BIPOC transgenders who have taken up the mantle of LucasFilm Fandom.

Disney can't sell LucasFilm now, because Bob Iger can't take realizing (admitting publicly) that he's taken LucasFilm from a $4.05 billion evaluation to whatever it is now -- $1 billion? -- but eventually Iger will retire and Disney will unload it someone else.

Maybe whoever buys MSNBC will be interested in making flop Star Wars prequels and side-quels.


Sonny Hostin wants to be the next Joy Reid.

And there are rumors that she might be -- rumors are flying that ABC has ordered the ugly hens of The View to stop being so toxic and divisive, and may be looking to dump most of them.

So here's Sonny Hostin make her appeal to Middle America.


The fun began when noted Christian theologian Hostin declared (shouted) about how opposition to the cancer of "woke" ideology is "ungodly" and "not Christian."

...


That's how I feel. My parents, you know, they grew up in the Civil Rights movement. I grew up in the late '60s/'70s. I was always a part of it, and so I've never been asleep. And so it angers me when people are, like, 'this woke stuff's got to go.' That's telling me that you don't care about my lived experience! You don't care about the oppression of the LGBTQ community! You don't care about the oppression of the disabled! You don't care about the oppression of immigrants! You don't care about your fellow neighbor, and that is ungodly! That is not Christian! So.

Big Ben has tolled thirteen o'clock in the former United Kingdom. The police are now intimidating grandmothers for the crime of... criticizing the Labour government.

Furious Brits have slammed Manchester Police and Labour for 'shameful' behaviour targeting a grandmother exposed by The Mail on Sunday.

Two police officers were caught on camera paying a visit to a grandmother simply for criticising Labour politicians on Facebook.

Detectives have been accused of acting like East Germany's Stasi secret police for quizzing Helen Jones over her calls for the resignation of local councillors embroiled in the WhatsApp scandal exposed by The Mail on Sunday.

Police conceded that the 54-year-old had committed no crime -- yet Mrs Jones said she has effectively been silenced by the officers, as she was intimidated by them calling at her door and is too terrified to post on social media again.

Voters have rallied to her defence and blasted the 'shocking' incident as a waste of police time and accused the Government for alleged 'abuse of power'.

Former Tory Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg called the behaviour 'extraordinary'.

It is the latest in a string of incidents in which police have investigated people for social media posts, including newspaper columnist Allison Pearson, feminist writer Julie Bindel, and former policeman Harry Miller, whose name was added to a database for his 'non-crime hate incident'.

Greater Manchester Police has one of the highest crime rates in Britain and fails to solve almost three out of four shoplifting incidents.

Mr Rees-Mogg told MailOnline: 'It is extraordinary that the police even for a moment thought that expressing mild criticisms of an elected politician of the governing party could constitute harassment.

'It is not just that this is a poor use of resources but it has sinister undertones.

'Opinion is legal and confidence in the police is damaged by this type of interference in free speech.'

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'This is a total waste of Police time.

'People's free speech is being infringed.

'So-called Non Crime Hate Incidents are not working. The Police should only investigate actual crime, or where there is a real and imminent risk of it.

'The Police must get back to their actual job.'

Tory MP Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, told MailOnline: 'It's absurd that the police are spending their time investigating critical tweets.

'Thefts and burglaries are going unsolved and yet the police are wasting their time with nonsense like this. We desperately need to go back to common sense policing.'

Fascism is forever descending upon America, but landing in Europe.


Posted by: Ace at 06:30 PM | Comments (281) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Rolling Up the Deep State Saboteurs: Noem Said She Found the ICE Raid Leakers, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino Want Comey Investigated

Noem said she found some of the classified-information leakers who leak details of ICE raids to put officers' lives in danger, and is looking for others.

I have found some leakers, we are continuing to get more.

They will be fired, there will be consequences. And remember, when they leak information to the press in order to blow an Op, they are putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy. They are risking their lives and putting their families in the position where they have to live without those individuals any further. So, you bet, we have used every tactic that we have.

...

If you remember we talked, just last week, about how I'm using polygraphs to go after and to really interview these folks. Because we are a national security agency, I have that tool I can use. Also looking at their emails, looking at their communications. And it's amazing how these bureaucrats who have an agenda to stop the work that we're doing to bring safety to America, how they will sell each other down the river if it's just to protect themselves. So, don't worry, I am doing everything to find these leakers, and to get rid of them; so that we can do our work, and so our law enforcement officers and agents can do it safely.

She announced this in an interview with Sean Hannity.

Related: Bill Melugin reports that anti-ICE "activists" are doxing ICE agents, marking them for possible execution.

Bill Melugin
@BillMelugin_

NEW: Per multiple federal law enforcement sources, anti ICE activists, which have been disrupting & live streaming ICE operations in the LA area in recent days, have now put up posters doxing SoCal ICE & HSI agents, revealing their faces, names, & phone numbers. I'm told ICE is aware and investigating. I've redacted one poster, which translates roughly to to the following:

"CAREFUL WITH THESE FACES"

"These armed agents work in Southern California. ICE and HSI racially terrorize and criminalize entire communities with their policies. They kidnap people from their homes and from the streets, separating families and fracturing communities. Many people have died while locked up in jails, prisons, and detention centers."

"Possible execution/implementation measure/action 2/23/25".

(Appears to warn of possible ICE operation about to take place in this area today?)

It is unclear which activist group is posting these.

icedoxingandcallforejecucion.jpg

We learned long ago that the pardoned criminal James Comey assigned female FBI agents to spy on Trump's campaign, acting as "honeypots."

Kash Patel and Dan Bongino just began the follow-up on this long-neglected plot thread:

Collin Rugg
@CollinRugg

BREAKING: The FBI has launched an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey for his "honeypot" operation targeting Trump in 2016, according to the Washington Times.

The announcement comes just days after Kash Patel was sworn in as the new FBI director.

As reported by the Washington Times, the FBI is looking into an off-the-books operation launched in 2015 by Comey.

According to a whistleblower, two undercover female FBI employees infiltrated Trump's 2016 campaign to act as "honeypots."

"In the intelligence community, a honeypot commonly refers to an undercover operative, usually a woman, who feigns sexual or romantic interest to obtain information from a target," the Washington Times reported.

The whistleblower claimed Comey ordered the investigation and "personally directed it" despite not having a specific crime.

The operation was likely a "fishing expedition" to "find" a crime against Trump.

During a recent interview before the election, Comey was visibly concerned about what Trump would do if reelected.

This may be related to the earlier story about the FBI destroying records.

Posted by: Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (311) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Karoline Leavitt Says She Is Taking Back the Power to Decide Who Enters the WH Press Room From the Far-Left Propaganda Organization the WHCA

Good.

They were given this role with the understanding that they would be neutral and objective. They have violated this understanding.

The White House said Tuesday that it would take over which outlets are allowed into the press pool covering the president, wrestling such control from the White House Correspondents' Association.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said moving forward, the White House press pool, a small group of reporters that travels with and cover the president's daily activities, will now be determined by administration officials. Traditionally, the press pool is coordinated by the Correspondents' Association, which White House officials across multiple administrations have traditionally given deference to.

"It's beyond time the White House press pool reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025," Leavitt said during a briefing with reporters.

The goal, Leavitt said, is to give new or alternative media companies greater access to the administration while still keeping certain "legacy" outlets in the rotation.
MOST READ: Texas pushes to tighten rules for Botox, similar treatments

Leavitt's announcement comes as the White House continues to bar The Associated Press from access to President Trump in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, and in other spaces where typically only the pool gathers, due to lack to space.

The barring came in response to the news organization indicated it would not change its influential stylebook to reflect Trump's renaming of the "Gulf of Mexico" to the "Gulf of America."

In related news, a DC judge finally turned down a lefty for a temporary restraining order against the President:


A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday declined to restore The Associated Press's access to certain spaces open to the media at the White House, saying AP failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits and emphasized that additional briefing on the matter is necessary "given the stakes" for both parties. The judge set an expedited schedule and ordered arguments on a preliminary injunction for March 20.

Leavitt celebrated the judge's ruling Tuesday and said the White House wants "more outlets and new outlets to cover the press pool."

The WHCA -- the same people who put on the savage Trump-bashing "Nerd Prom" for "journalists" and their leftwing celebrity guests every year -- complained that they weren't being treated fairly.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the WHCA said the White House "did not give the WHCA board a heads up or have any discussions about today's announcements."

"This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps," the organization said.

"For generations, the working journalists elected to lead the White House Correspondents' Association board have consistently expanded the WHCA's membership and its pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets."

Posted by: Ace at 04:21 PM | Comments (397) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Nick Sortor: Eric Swalwell Is a Huge National Security Threat. He Openly Bragged About "Orgies" and "F***ing 10s" to Lobbyists Who Were Perfect Strangers to Him as I Eavesdropped

Sortor claims he was a direct ear-witness to Swalwell "compromising" himself to lobbyists who could use his drunken disclosures to blackmail him.

He has video, but it's not of Swalwell bragging about the orgies. It's video of Sortor asking him about his admissions.

Nick Sortor
@nicksortor

#BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Eric Swalwell PANICS when I ask about his Chinese spy girlfriend Fang Fang, and whether that's a bigger "national security threat" than Elon Musk

I sat next to a drunk Swalwell at dinner for 90 minutes. He was IMMEDIATELY compromised by a group of lobbyists he'd JUST MET, spilling intimate details about his job and asking for HELP CHEATING ON HIS WIFE.

MASSIVE national security threat. This guy should have his clearances revoked.

Swalwell spent his dinner bragging about "ORGlES" on Capitol Hill, telling them he's bored of his wife and "only wants to f*ck tens."

Worse, he spoke about ABUSlNG his power on the House Intel Committee (which he's since been booted off of), saying he pushed to SUBPOENA Ivanka Trump because she's "hot as f*ck"

THIS GUY MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE. He CANNOT keep his freaking mouth shut.

After I began questioning him, Swalwell jumped back into the group of lobbyists to hide from me, but I pressed on.

Dude looked absolutely TERRIFIED and 100% guilty. He knows he's been caught.

More to come later. I have about an hour and a half of audio to go through 😉

And big shoutout to @LauraLoomer
for assisting me with digging into this clown while I was focusing on listening in!

Posted by: Ace at 03:19 PM | Comments (406) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Rachel Maddow: MSNBC, the Corporation That Pays Me $25 Million Per Year to Do One Hour of Work Per Week, Is an Unfathomably Racist Organization Devoted to White Supremacy

By Jove, I think she's got it!

Yes I know that Rachel Maddow is working five hours per week now, but that's only for the first 100 days of the Trump Restoration. Then she goes back to one hour per week.

In case you missed it, Joy Reid's face rained down Tears of Shame after her summary firing.

But then she delivered her final address to her tiny audience of 47,000 permanently meltbrained covid hysterics, transgender face-piercers, drag queen child groomers, and Black Hebrew racists.

She wanted to talk about, get this, fascism and how to #Resist it.

Among the civil rights she says that #Resistance has brought us? The "right to work from home."

What? That's a great civil rights victory?

"We begin tonight with what I think is the question; when you are in the midst of a crisis and specifically a crisis of democracy: How do you resist-- when fascism isn't just coming, It's already here? So, what, if anything, can you do about it?" Reid began her show Monday. "For one thing, you can try to learn from history, from what people in this situation, in countries around the world and in America have done before. As my friend Rachel Maddow always says, history is here to help."

Posted by: Ace at 02:11 PM | Comments (375) | Trackbacks (Suck)

<< Page 97 >>

Processing 0.01, elapsed 0.2151 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.2103 seconds, 25 records returned.
Page size 72 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.