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Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed Is Confronted With Proof His Half-Sister Was on the Terrorist Watch List; In Response, the Muslim Manlet Just Babbles About the Patriot Act and the Surveillance State and How Poor Muslims Are Suspected of being Terroris
Michigan Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed acknowledged Saturday night that his sister-in-law was involved in a federal terrorist watchlist lawsuit during the Obama administration, just days before former President Barack Obama is scheduled to campaign alongside him.
El-Sayed was confronted by Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin about court documents identifying his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, as a plaintiff in a 2016 lawsuit challenging her alleged placement on the federal Terrorism Screening Database, commonly known as the terrorist watchlist.
"There's reporting in a lawsuit that now backs it up. And documentation with the lawsuit that Mariam Jukaku, who's your sister-in-law, that she was on the terrorist watch list?" Tobin asked.
"Yeah," El-Sayed responded.
El-Sayed then defended his sister-in-law, insisting she had committed no wrongdoing and turning his criticism toward Republican Senate rival Mike Rogers.
"She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off," El-Sayed said. "You've got this system where folks are guilty until proven innocent because they've got different kinds of names, because of the infrastructure that people like Mike Rogers set up."
The exchange comes as Obama prepares to campaign alongside El-Sayed in Michigan on Oct. 24, ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.
According to the 2016 complaint, Jukaku underwent additional airport screening in 2012, and alleged she was never told why she had been flagged. The filing said she was believed to have been removed from the watchlist by 2016.
Oh, Obama and John Brennan took her off the list. That's very reassuring to me.
...
Despite El-Sayed's claim that she sued and won, a federal appeals court overturned a ruling favoring the plaintiffs in 2021, while a separate lawsuit seeking damages was dismissed in 2017.
The FBI said it does not confirm or deny individuals' watchlist status.
"It is the U.S. government's policy to neither confirm nor deny a person's inclusion in the Terrorist Screening Dataset, commonly known as the terrorist watchlist," the agency told Fox News.
The exchange follows separate allegations about El-Sayed's family's purported Muslim Brotherhood connections, which his campaign called "racist and untrue."
Left-wing Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is being slammed over a resurfaced Columbia University research paper he authored with a "racist and eugenics outcome" that concluded Arab women should only breed with their own kind for optimal health outcomes.
El-Sayed -- who has repeatedly called himself a physician though he never completed his medical school residency -- warned in the 2011 paper published in the "Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health" of the hazards of "interethnic mating" -- which he insisted increased the risk of children being born premature.
"Our findings suggest that interethnic mating may be associated with increased risk for adverse birth outcomes among Arab ethnicity mothers," he stated, back then going by Abdulrahman M. El-Sayed.
El-Sayed began the paper, titled "Interethnic mating and risk for preterm birth among Arab American mothers," with the bold claim that Arab mothers, "a growing ethnic group," have "systematically better birth outcomes" than white mothers.
He said American Arab women were 16% less likely than white women to give birth prematurely, citing his own research from 2008, while omitting to mention that same study found the gap disappeared after adjusting for maternal and socioeconomic factors.
The research, funded in part by NIH grants, concluded that Arab women having children with white men was linked to 18% higher odds of preterm birth -- below 37 weeks -- and 24% higher odds of late preterm birth -- between 34 and 36 weeks -- compared to having a child with an Arab father.
The study found no statistically significant difference in very preterm birth, before 32 weeks, based on whether the father was Arab or white, but didn't spend much ink dwelling on that finding.
Critics savaged the paper as pseudoscience.
"This is 'science' with "a pre-ordained racist & eugenics outcome," wrote Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) on X. "Scary stuff."
Others wondered what the radical Democrat's real motivation was to even research the topic.
"Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's scientific research is...odd. Arab mothers who engage in 'interethnic mating' have worse birth outcomes than those who mate with Arab men?" ripped John David Haltigan, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham. "Why research this?"
I'm feeling so culturally enriched you guys
Here's the funny thing: He got a government NIH grant to argue that Arabs must keep their bloodlines pure and not mate with whites.
If I were to agree with his taxpayer funded anti-miscegenation paper, I'd be drummed out of society.
He gets a government grant, I'd get put on an FBI watchlist.
Isn't Science magic?
Some schmolling news.
MICHIGAN EARLY VOTING UPDATE
Michigan early voting returns point to a Trump+4.3 electorate, a R+2.8 swing to the right from 2024. This shift is being driven by juiced exurban and rural turnout, a trend that hasn't been seen in other states
Follow me to stay updated!!! https://t.co/bs3fPJQZIl
Two church non-profits have taken in at least $62 million to build the Somali community in Minnesota -- leading to the rise of Ilhan Omar and the fraud scandals that have gripped that state, The Post can reveal.
Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services were at the forefront of reshaping the frigid Land of 10,000 Lakes thanks to generous government contracts stemming back generations.
"This is a very big pile of government money and a whole bunch of different groups have come to get their own slice of it," Parker Thayer, an immigration expert at the Washington, DC-based Capital Research Center, told The Post.
He added the total money pouring into Minneapolis resettlement programs alone is "in the hundreds of millions."
He noted that since 2021, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the body overseeing Catholic Charities, has received $140 million in migrant resettlement contracts from the federal government.
Say, who usurped the government in 2021?
"It is hurting the ability of these organizations to fundraise in arguably more important areas of their work. I imagine a lot of donors are being pushed away by something that is very reasonably viewed as highly controversial by a lot of people," Thayer said.
Before Minnesota became Somali central, it was known as the Hmong hub.
The state first became a test ground for a Vietnam-era resettlement program -- with powerful advocacy from then-Vice President Walter Mondale and Minnesota's Democrat governor Al Quie, according to local historians.
...
Mondale then headed the US delegation to the United Nations in 1979, where he delivered a speech which helped secure international commitments to resettlement, framing the crisis in moral terms by comparing it to a failure to protect Jewish refugees before and during World War II.
Within a couple years, the Twin Cities' Hmong population was in the thousands.
Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services -- the latter now called Global Refuge -- had built an extensive resettlement operation as far back as World War II to help Christians displaced from war-torn Europe, so were a natural go-for the federal government to help with its mass resettlement.
During World War II, however, their operations were largely funded from the pews, not Uncle Sam, said Kelsey Reinhardt, president and CEO of the nonprofit advocacy group CatholicVote.
"I don't think there's a recognition of how generous the US has been," she told The Post.
...
When Somalia was thrown into civil war in the 1990s and the US decided to take in refugees, the Minnesota operation was already an established, well-oiled machine.
The two church groups have resettled an estimated 29,000 Somalians into Minnesota since 1993, collecting a reported $2,500 per refugee to cover costs like food, initial housing and social workers.
The population today is over 100,000 in Minnesota according to data, thanks to chain migration (also known as "family reunification") and the state's generous welfare system, which became a magnet for Somalis, including those initially placed elsewhere in the US.
"They picked Minnesota because it had extremely generous state social safety net policies and welfare programs, which of course made resettling refugees there easier," Thayer said. "Refugees from Somalia then moved to Minnesota after they were resettled elsewhere, in places like South Dakota.
"A lot of these people, while claiming to be refugees, you look at their Facebook pages, or you look at indictments and find that they routinely travel out of the US back to the place they are supposedly a refugee from," he added.
The Biden administration oversaw the largest jump in living memory of migrant resettlement operations.
Minnesota has been a flashpoint in the controversial effort, where a gob-smacking $9 billion in estimated welfare fraud, largely stemming from the Somali community, was uncovered in the last year -- speculated to be the largest welfare scam in the history of the US.
Completely, totally, transcendantally unrelated: the EU Parliament actually voted to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood and object to "Islamist entryism" into the West.
Following the sanctioning of foreign Muslim Brotherhood groups by the Trump administration, the European Parliament recently took its own action against the transnational radical Islamist group.
As Europe begins to respond to the threat of radical Islam across the continent, an overwhelming majority of the European Parliament voted for a resolution that condemned the Muslim Brotherhood and its actions.
European Parliament member Céline Imart of France, who sponsored the resolution, called the vote "a historic victory because it is a European first. For the first time, Europe has voted on a text that tackles Islamist entryism and the Muslim Brotherhood."
I don't know how they mean the term "entryism" but the context I've heard it in regards SJW entryism. It's the scripted process of taking over an organization by agitating first for "just some more diverse members," then demanding not just a more diverse membership but a more diverse leadership, then changing the rules that that only SJWs can serve in leadership, then changing the rules so that only SJWs can even be members.
It's a textbook playbook for capturing an organization, outlawing the former leaders and members of that organization, and then turning that organization completely against its old goals and towards the goal of further SJW propaganda and subversion of other institutions.
I assume they mean it the same way, but in regards to Islamists invading, subverting, and ultimately taking over countries.
...
Lorenzo Vidino, director of the program on extremism at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital that, "This is something that the French and the Austrian governments have been pushing for almost a decade," noting a growing consensus across Europe that wants action.
The resolution was led by the European People's Party, or EPP, a center-right coalition that is the largest group in the European Parliament. "The voting does reflect a gap between the right and the left," said Vidino, "with the right voting almost entirely in favor of the resolution, and a good part of the left, although with some notable exceptions, voting against it."
You don't say.
...
Vidino said, "The Brotherhood remains something that is seen through the political lenses of our own political debates, where it shouldn't be... because it's a challenge to our societies."
A press release on the resolution issued by the European Parliament's news website stated that Islamist entryism targets "democratic institutions, the rule of law, equality between women and men and fundamental freedoms." It stressed that Muslim citizens must be protected from discrimination as "a democratic obligation," while "warning against treating organized Islamist networks as representative interlocutors."
The release also stated, "While Europe must remain free, open and faithful to its principles, it can 'no longer fund, consult or legitimize networks that use its language, procedures and funding to weaken its values from within,'" but "MEPs stress that anti-discrimination policies must not be used to shield Islam from criticism or legitimize organized Islamist networks."
From August 25: Denmark's left-wing PM warns of a "big enemy" growing in Europe due to unlimited immigration.
Denmark's left-wing prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has sent shock waves throughout the European left after recent comments about the Scandinavian nation's -- and the continent's -- failure to deal with radical Islam among migrant communities.
Her comments come after the mass migration chaos in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, when Frederiksen criticized the actions of Spain's leftist leader, Pedro Sánchez, during a special session on Ceuta in the Danish Parliament.
Responding to a question from a far-left legislator on Denmark's apparent lack of "solidarity" with Spain against "anti-democratic forces" pressuring Europe, Frederiksen said, "If we talk about undemocratic forces, then Russia is our biggest enemy. The problem is that a big enemy has started to grow from within, and it is foreigners who have come to Europe," according to an English translation.
While not singling out Denmark's integrated immigrant population, she continued, "It is Hamas supporters. It is people who commit terror against European societies. It is people who do not recognize our fundamental European values. It is people who sympathize with some of the darkest forces in this world. So, Europe is threatened. The problem is that we are threatened both from outside and now from within, but it is not because of a disagreement between the Danish and Spanish governments, but because of people with an Islamic background who do not want the open, free European society, unfortunately."
Sweden-based foreign policy expert and author Daniel Schatz told Fox News Digital, "What is striking is not that a conservative politician is talking about illegal immigration, failed integration and Islamist extremism, it is that one of Europe's leading center-left prime ministers is saying it in such blunt terms. That tells you how far the European immigration debate has shifted."
Islamists are now threatening to burn down the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris if the Parisian prison system doesn’t release their terrorist friend. https://t.co/I5UptnjFtm
The UK's Censorship Police, Prevent, Harass Woman For "Over-Identifying with Israel," Visiting That Country
—Disinformation Expert Ace
What is Prevent? Google AI:
Prevent is a UK government-led, multi-agency counter-terrorism strategy designed to stop vulnerable people from being drawn into terrorism or extremist ideologies.
In reality, Prevent was created as a "counter-terrorism" organization and then very quickly mutated by the hard left into a pro-terrorism organization that is chiefly interested in harassing the Enemies of Islam.
The woman they decided to harass and accuse of being too "vulnerable" to read the news is not Jewish herself, just a supporter of that besieged nation.
Prevent decided that she is "over-identifying" with Israel and might be led astray by Evil Jewish Propaganda.
Might there be an entire global left-wing movement to falsely claim a "genocide" so that a barbaric foreign country can continue to murder and rape without military consequence?
Nah. It's probably just these turbulent Jews.
Mother referred to Prevent for 'over-identifying with Israel'
Holly Passmore says police asked why she was interested in 'Jewish issues' and described the postgraduate student as 'vulnerable'
When Holly Passmore heard a knock at her front door at about 11am on July 4 last year, she assumed it was an Amazon delivery.
Instead, the 44-year-old mother-of-two from County Durham found two plain-clothes police officers on her doorstep wanting to know why she had recently visited Israel. "They said it was a safeguarding matter," recalled Ms Passmore, who cares for her nine-year-old son, Rex, who has severe autism, while studying for a master's degree.
She assumed they were concerned she had taken her son into a war zone.
"I said, 'Well, my son didn't go to Israel. He stayed here with my mum and my daughter, who's 20'," she recalled. But the female officer replied: "No this is about you -- because you may be at risk of manipulation."
Ms Passmore suspected her support for Israel had prompted the referral. It was only months later, when she obtained police records through a subject access request, that her suspicions were confirmed.
A police intelligence report seen by The Telegraph reveals that the referral said she "over-identified with the conflict between Israel and Palestine" and was "supportive of Israel to the point that she has travelled to Israel".
Wow -- that supportive, huh?
It also described her as having "MH" -- meaning mental health -- issues and being "vulnerable to negative influence".
"Nobody would describe me as vulnerable," said Ms Passmore, who is reading Holocaust studies at the University of Haifa.
'They only asked about Israel'
Ms Passmore said that, while she has health concerns, including severe endometriosis and adenomyosis, and has been diagnosed with ADHD and autism, she has no mental health issues.
"They knew I'm not vulnerable but they wanted to monitor me because I was advocating for Israel," she told The Telegraph.
"When they came to the door they didn't discuss my health. They only asked about Israel."
The police intelligence report Ms Passmore obtained under data protection laws acknowledged that there "is no CT [counter-terror] concern with an individual being supportive of Israel as a democracy and it would not be a CT concern for a person to travel there".
...
Ms Passmore is not Jewish, but after the Oct 7 massacre in 2023, she increasingly used her account to speak out against anti-Semitism and to express solidarity with Jewish people.
Which is why, when the Israeli embassy invited her to come to Israel, she accepted. The trip included a visit to Kfar Aza, a kibbutz attacked by Hamas terrorists on Oct 7, where Emily Damari, the British hostage, was abducted.
Three days after the police visit, on July 7, she lodged a complaint, which brought two more officers, one a superintendent, to her door.
"They said that, clearly, I'm not a terrorist," she recalled, explaining they were keen to reassure her that police did not consider her a threat or an extremist in any way.
"I thought that was strange at the time. You don't usually end up with a superintendent on your couch."
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She also alleges that the superintendent urged her to stop discussing the case online. By then, her experience had attracted widespread attention online, helped by Darren Grimes, a local Reform UK councillor, and David Collier, a journalist and campaigner.
Federal agents collected garbage in hopes of obtaining the DNA of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and her family before this week's raid at her Washington, D.C. home, sources told NewsNation.
Investigators historically have used secretive "dumpster diving" to obtain DNA when search warrants were not possible or would have tipped off investigatory targets. It is legally permissible for law enforcement to collect trash that has been discarded for pickup and comb through it for genetic material.
Multiple sources familiar with the probe tell NewsNation that potential DNA evidence is critical to the investigation into Omar. They say the case is broader than the public may assume based on longstanding accusations surrounding her immigration history or marital status.
...
Federal agents seized Omar's phone during a widely publicized search Monday at her Washington residence. NewsNation has learned that more than a dozen raids actually occurred simultaneously.
...
She originally was investigated by the Department of Justice under former President Biden before the case was closed. Parts of that investigation were reopened and expanded under the administration of President Trump.
In other words, Biden's henchmen covered it up and closed the investigation.
There are so many elements of the "Omar" family's fraud that it's hard to keep them straight, but one strand involves the theory that she's not even part of the Omar family. The Omar family got a visa when she was in a refugee camp, and she pretended to be an Omar to exploit that visa.
Evidence for this consists of past social media postings in which she called a man named Elmi "father" repeatedly in discussions with her family. When asked about this curious habit of referring to a man as "father" who was supposedly not her father, she claimed there was a tradition in her particular region of Somalia of referring to men who aren't your fathers "father" out of respect or some absurd nonsense like that.
This may be one of the reasons they also seized her "sister's" phone as well. Sarha Noor is probably being investigated for being part of the Somali Fraud Syndicate, but they also might want to check how many times she refers to this Elmi person as "father," too.
The raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) home reportedly moved forward after federal law enforcement reviewed a phone seized from the Minnesota congresswoman's sister, author and health care executive Sahra Noor.
The New York Times reported that Noor's phone was taken earlier this year as investigators reportedly sought to build a case against Omar for conspiracy to commit immigration fraud -- and that text messages sent between members of her family are being used to bolster that case.
Homeland Security agents, the outlet reported, had used those messages to convince a federal judge to sign off on the search warrant that was executed on Monday at Omar's home in Washington, D.C.
The investigation into Omar and her family -- and whether or not they are guilty of immigration fraud -- began during former President Joe Biden's term in the White House but has ramped up in recent weeks as President Donald Trump's administration has also vowed to investigate whether the Minnesota Democrat is guilty of marriage fraud.
Investigators who searched the congresswoman's home in Washington, D.C., were reportedly looking for documents that were filled out by Omar and her father when they first came to the United States in an effort to determine whether or not her citizenship is valid.
...
Further complicating Omar's account is the fact that a 2023 search for any record or proof of Omar's father's naturalization came up empty, the New York Post reported.
Homan said, "Well, look, I said over a year ago the allegations were made clear and it would be investigated. And they are investigating it. I'm not going to get ahead of, you know, the bureau or agency, but, you know, I've been told they have a strong case and we'll let the evidence lead where it leads. But she'll be held to the same standard you and I are held. If she violated law, then she will be held accountable. But I don't have the specifics of the evidence they have line by line, but we'll see where it leads. I think they're doing a great investigation. I think they're going to turn over every rock they've got with this."
Lahren said, "Would this involve denaturalizing and then deporting her, if it does turn out there is some kind of immigration fraud?"
Homan said, "Of course. If you lie during the naturalization process, there is a process to denaturalize somebody. We've done it before, it's a long, tedious process, but it's been done before. I've been involved with those investigations before, and certainly, if the evidence points that way, that could happen."
Morning Greatness: Obama White Knights for Credibly Accused Scofflaw Rep. Ilhan Omar
Former President Barack Hussein Obama has stepped in on X to defend his comrade Ilhan Omar from unjust attacks by a weaponized Trump Administration. "It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can't selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say."
And he continued to explain, "The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president."
Full weight of the government, eh? The Obama machine and his deep state vultures relentlessly attacked elected official President Donald J. Trump with witch hunts, hearings and investigations. They abused the FISA process, spied on his campaign, and planted lies in the media that were used to "justify" further government overreach. During the four years of the "Biden" administration, the Obama machine sent storm troopers to Trump's private residence complete with pre-arranged media coverage, staged evidence for photo ops and ransacked his wife and child's private belongings. His operation worked with disgruntled characters to file civil suits against the president and changed the law to prosecute Trump for manufactured crimes in New York. Obama's henchmen had a television producer create a prime time broadcast spectacle of a "hearing" for the J6 protest on the taxpayer dime. Don't get me started on what they did to the J6ers with SWAT raids, debanking, surveillance, financial ruin, lawfare and ritual defamation.
Democrat Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin: We Must Relentlessly Prosecute Trump Personnel So That Young People Are Too Scared to Join the Conservative Movement
She's another degenerate CIA authoritarian now attempting a color revolution in the US.
Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin publicly called on Democrats to intimidate young conservatives who want to work for the Trump administration by prosecuting the president's staffers.
Slotkin (D-Mich.), a former CIA analyst, contended that Democrats must "go after" and make examples out of officials in President Trump's orbit who engage in corruption to send a message to young people who may want to join the administration.
"I want young people coming out of school to say, 'Should I go work for the Trump administration? That sounds fun, I might get an opportunity,'" Slotkin mused at a University of Chicago event last week that has since gone viral.
"I want them to be like, 'Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don't want, and so let me avoid participating in that,'" the senator went on. "I want that deterrence message sent."
...
Slotkin reflected that despite her voting to impeach Trump twice, he's still in the White House and seemingly alluded to how he survived the four criminal cases against him.
"The people around Donald Trump who are doing his bidding and enabling this have no such immunity. They have no immunity the way the president does," she added.
"And to me, he couldn't do any of this stuff without all of those people saluting and supporting it. So you go after the people who do his bidding."
Slotkin's remarks ignited a firestorm on social media from conservatives.
"Sen. Slotkin, a self-avowed 'defender of democracy,' told me and other conservative students that we should live in fear of political persecution if we dare serve our country in the Trump administration," University of Chicago student Michael Bicksel posted on X.
"Sadly for her, we will never be intimidated by her Bolshevik-style tactics."
...
Last week, Trump openly mused about going on a massive pardon spree, including a self-pardon near the end of his time in the White House.
"I don't want to see people that work for me go through years of nonsense, hire lawyers and everything else, all for nothing," the president told Newsmax host Rob Finnerty.
Elissa Slotkin was elected to the Senate in 2024 as a supposed "moderate."
But of course we know that, apart from Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, that species of Democratic politician doesn't exist in Congress anymore.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who served under John Brennan, to show her true colors.
The Michigan senator told students at the University of Chicago last week how she plans to use the power that will come to Democrats if they win Senate control in the midterms next month.
...
Slotkin pretends she is a stickler for "defending democracy." But this is how the Bolshevik left who control today's Democratic Party play the game, even as they cloak themselves in conservative disguises, as intelligence professionals, soldiers, astronauts or doctors.
Slotkin, who fancies herself as a future president, used that same term "signature cases" in a chilling speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in September when she named Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as the Trump officials she would target for political prosecutions that would see them jailed for 20 years.
She likened her planned revenge campaign against Trump officials to Poland's "Iron Broom" cleanup, in which Democrats would create "a list of signature cases that go after some of the most obvious and harmful abuses of taxpayer dollars."
"We need to hold accountable the people and institutions who stole billions of our taxpayer dollars and weaponized the government against its people," she said.
"In Poland, they called this plan the Iron Broom -- cleaning the place up."
Slotkin's threats are especially disturbing when you consider the body count of administration officials and Trump allies from the president's first term who were attacked by Joe Biden's weaponized Justice Department.
It's one aspect of the psychological warfare she learned in her former intelligence career.
Last year, Slotkin and five other "national security" Democrats launched a sly propaganda video implying that Trump was giving "illegal orders" to the military.
ON UCHICAGO CAMPUS: U.S. Senator from Michigan Elissa Slotkin hopes planned political prosecutions of republican leaders will scare young conservatives from getting involved in politics.
I honestly do not understand how any American who is not already a literal Communist or a literal Jihadist could vote Democrat after hearing what Slotkin said below.
This is LITERALLY totalitarianism. It's not the fake "fascism" the Left likes to accuse the Right of, it is the REAL THING.
Undeniably.
Irrefutably.
This is a sitting member of Congress who was in the CIA saying that dissent from what she believes will result in imprisonment.
This is straight out of Solzhenitsyn. Straight out of Orwell. This is something an early Nazi would have said in 1932 under the Weimar Republic.
Please please PLEASE share her words with everyone you know. The Democrat/Media Complex will try to bury this. It is up to us on social media, on blogs and via texts and emails to get the word out.
The only way to stop these monsters is to make sure that voters who don't really keep up on politics understand the actual threat, see it with their own eyes and hear it with their own ears.
Please. Spread the word to anyone who will listen. And even those who won't listen.
Masked mobs hijacked a nationwide day of protest, torching a 143-year-old town hall, storming government buildings and fighting police in the streets. In the middle of the chaos, protesters waved Palestinian flags.
In the heart of Paris, demonstrators climbed the monument at Place de la République, the towering statue of Marianne that symbolizes the French Republic. A Reuters photographer captured them perched on it holding a French tricolor alongside a Palestinian flag amid pink smoke. One outlet reported that rioters pulled down the statue's French flag and hoisted a Palestinian banner in its place.
The flags turned up well beyond Paris.
In Marseille, several dozen mostly young protesters battered through the doors of City Hall and briefly overran the lobby, according to Agence France-Presse. They overturned tables and chairs, smashed a screen, and knocked a bust of Marianne to the floor. Some of the intruders wore yellow vests. Others carried Palestinian flags. Someone spray-painted an anarchist symbol on the wall.
Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan said he had to phone President Emmanuel Macron, the prime minister and the interior minister to get reinforcements. The city went from one riot police comany that morning to three, plus two armored units.
Guys they just want smaller class sizes. Why won't you let them have smaller class sizes?
How can they all become Doctors and Engineers if they have one teacher per thirty students instead of one teacher per twenty-six students? Why are you being so Racist?
Paris woke Sunday to shattered storefronts, burned cars and a heavy police presence after unrest swept through the city and other parts of France.
Violent clashes broke out Saturday during nationwide demonstrations over rising living costs and poor school conditions. Hundreds of thousands marched across the country, while masked groups fought with police, looted businesses and set fires in several cities.
As with the BLM rioters -- I mean Mostly Peaceful Protesters -- these Change Agents showed a particular zeal for liberating electronics stores and high-end designer handbag shops.
The destruction was not limited to Paris.
In Limoges, about three hours south of the capital, fire tore through the city's historic town hall, built in 1883 and designated a historic landmark in 1975.
A fire tore through the town hall, Fox? Is that like "A car mowed down citizens at a Christmas market?"
Can we get any information about who started this fire? Or is it a case of spontaneous combustion?
The local prefect, Maurice Barate, told AFP that the roof had collapsed onto the lower floors and about two-thirds of the building's exterior had disappeared. He called it "a catastrophe for heritage."
...
President Donald Trump weighed in Sunday, blaming immigration for the unrest in a Truth Social post and urging France to close its borders.
"The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country," he wrote. "Close your borders and take control, before it is too late!"
That's just racist. These protests are about class sizes.
Be Better, Trump. #BeBetter.
The Interior Minister acknowledged failure even as the president Macron refused to take any responsibility.
The French government acknowledged on Monday a failure in handling the rioters who attacked the police, ransacked public buildings and looted stores in cities across the country over the weekend.
France's interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, offered a mea culpa on national radio, saying that the police had been underprepared to deal with the scale of the riots that spun out from planned protests on Saturday night. He said he had offered his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron but that it had not been accepted.
The justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, also acknowledged that the authorities had "undeniably failed" in the face of the violence -- the biggest unrest to hit France in years -- and said on French television that there had been "a failure in intelligence."
With many people in France still stunned on Monday by the scale of the damage, mayors and councilors gathered outside their city halls to show that they were still standing and to demand answers from the national government.
Benoit Payan, the mayor of Marseille, has accused the government and the police of "delivering" that city -- France's second largest -- to "looters and rioters."
...
"I want compensation down to the last cent," he added, saying: "You cannot leave a country to sink into a political crisis without an answer."
...
Amid calls for calm and order, there were questions about what would happen next.
The students who started a protest movement more than a month ago by blockading their high schools to demand better conditions are now on a two-week vacation. However, other groups have joined the protests in solidarity and to highlight their own grievances -- with some seemingly determined to keep the movement going.
Really? Professional rioters and criminal looters want to keep the anarchy going?
So... it's not about class sizes?
Macron once again spoke weakly, promising to punish the rioters while insisting he would continue to honor the foreign army's "right" to loot, pillage, and destroy.
In an address to the nation on Sunday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron refused to take any accountability for the national riots that erupted on Saturday, as he sought to shift the blame onto the far-left and even external forces like the Iran conflict while failing to acknowledge the role mass migration played in creating a groundswell of support for the unrest.
President Macron, who has become little more than a lame duck in the Élysée with six months left in his term in office, addressed the country for the first time since the youth revolt began nearly a month ago.
Rather than taking a 'the buck stops here' approach, Mr Macron did not admit to any personal failings after his government failed to foresee or prevent some of the most destructive riots in recent memory, resulting in historic buildings being torched, thousands of shops being looted, and hundreds of police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters being injured on Saturday.
Instead, the outgoing leader pointed to "extremists from far-left groups" and "criminals" as being solely responsible for the "unrestrained violence" witnessed across France.
Meanwhile, Macron appeared to completely ignore the role that the importation of millions of foreigners into the country has had on the social framework, with many of the rioters being suspected of hailing from the multicultural suburban enclaves like Saint-Denis. Instead, the president questioned, "How can French people do this to France?"
"Why burn down the town hall in Limoges, the tourist office in Lyon, storm the town hall in Marseille, or attack the prefect's residence in Bordeaux? How can they go so far? Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. We all feel anger and shame tonight. Seeing the streets of our cities so ransacked is unbearable," he questioned.
National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said that the "Macron government is on its last legs, exhausted, disoriented." In a video published two hours before President Macron's planned national address, Le Pen said that her longtime rival's government "seems incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own impotence."
"We are experiencing a profound crisis of confidence and authority that threatens democracy. This situation should alarm us: our country is caught in a vice, even held hostage, between violence and impotence," she said.
French President Emmanuel Macron is facing criticism over his decision to attend a Celine Dion concert Friday night, on the eve of nationwide demonstrations that descended into violence, leaving hundreds of emergency personnel injured and nearly 1,800 people arrested.
Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were spotted at Dion's concert at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, according to French media reports. The couple reportedly arrived and left discreetly and were among roughly 35,000 spectators at the performance.
The concert came after Macron spent Thursday and Friday in Brussels attending a European Council meeting. During a news conference in Brussels on Friday, he called for "calm and respect" ahead of Saturday's planned demonstrations, saying the right to protest must be exercised with respect for people and property.
The riots over "class sizes" have spread to other European countries which coincidentally also have large populations of unassimilated Third World foreigners.
Because we can't acknowledge what the riots are really about, the media has decided to claim the riots in other countries are over "the increasing cost of living."
Violent protests have broken out across Europe amid growing frustration over the cost of living crisis, a lack of affordable housing and deteriorating school conditions.
As many as 550,000 people turned out across France on Saturday, according to authorities, to demonstrate against declining public services. Protests turned violent in Paris as shops were looted and cars set on fire in some of the city's worst violence in years.
Young people waved Italian flags and let off flares in Milan as they rallied against the rising cost of living in scenes that were condemned by prime minister Giorgia Meloni.
Did they only wave "Italian flags"? Of course not. It took me three minutes to find this Palestinian flag at the Milan riots, at 0:09. It's so weird that I can easily find this while "professional journalistic corporations" can't find it.
Or did Italy's tricolor get a black band added when I wasn't looking?
By the way, I found zero Italian flags being waved. I'm not saying there weren't any; I only looked for three minutes. I am saying, however, that a brief search for flags turned up a Palestinian flag and zero Italian flags, so I'm not sure where this leftwing propaganda outlet is getting its information from.
I'm just kidding. I know where they're getting it from. It's a UK outlet and they're taking their orders from the government's censorship police, like "Prevent."
More on Prevent later today. They have unmasked fully.
Authorities said more than half a million people turned out to march on Saturday including 110,000 in Paris alone. Organisers put the figure closer to 800,000.
While hundreds of thousands protested peacefully across France on Saturday, violent fringe groups targeted public buildings, looted luxury boutiques and supermarkets, and attacked police vehicles and officers.
...
More than 2,400 people were arrested across France, while nearly 1,000 officers were injured, according to the government. Police fired teargas in Paris on Sunday afternoon and protesters set fire to piles of bicycles.
One protester died on Saturday after suffering a cardiac arrest during demonstrations in the capital.
I blame the January 6th protesters, who are responsible for all deaths that occur at any riot, anywhere.
...
Milan police clashed on Sunday with protesters throwing stones and looting shops during demonstrations against crumbling public services and the rising cost of living, a day after similar unrest in several Italian cities.
Police in riot gear fired teargas and used water cannons after several hundred hooded protesters broke shop windows and set bins on fire in the area near central Piazza Duomo, sources told Reuters, adding that more than 60 protesters had been detained for checks.
A total of 28 protesters were arrested after similar clashes erupted on Saturday in northern cities including Milan, Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin, according to a police report on Sunday.
Breitbart notes the "multicultural riots" outside of Milan's Duomo.
But I thought they were only waving Italian flags...?
Dozens of rioters have been arrested following the outbreak of a "guerrilla war" outside the Duomo cathedral in central Milan as unrest from France appears to be boiling over into fellow European nations.
Stones, smoke bombs, fireworks, and Molotov cocktails were the weapons of choice for the youth hoodlums that descended upon Milan, leaving some 141 police officers injured during the so-called cost of living protests on Saturday. The violence mainly occurred in Piazza del Duomo, the square outside Milan Cathedral, the neo-Gothic church dedicated to the Nativity of St. Mary, which serves as the seat of the Archbishop of Milan and stands as the largest church in the whole of Italy.
According to Italy's public news wire service Ansa, 197 people were detained by police during the demonstration, while 28 were arrested, including 12 minors and six foreign nationals. The wire service noted that there was also a heavy contingent of "second-generation migrants" involved in the riots.
An estimated 5,000 protesters took part in the demonstration in Milan, which was called to mimic the supposed cost-of-living protests in France. While some demonstrators literally chanted in French, the protest quickly devolved into "guerrilla warfare", Ansa reported.
"Milan was reduced to a battlefield, with Piazza Duomo besieged by hundreds of young people dressed in black. They forced the police to retreat under the hurling of firecrackers, barriers, and bottles, until they occupied the city's symbolic square," the wire service wrote.
France is seeing its worst riots in decades -- violence clearly aimed not simply at the ruling party, but at France itself -- and the left-liberal establishment is still trying to blame a few bad apples.
That's true not just of President Emmanuel Macron, but of global media that claim it's mainly about student grievances over budget cuts -- at least one BBC article actually used the phrase "mostly peaceful protests."
This is nonsense: The street mobs haven't been just (or even mostly) kids for weeks now, and the vandalism began in the first days; it was last month that "protesters" set a teacher on fire.
Foreign flags (Morocco, Algeria, "Palestine") came out at the start; the crowds are mostly blacks and Arabs -- overwhelmingly from Muslim immigrant communities, in other words.
And the political statements are obvious: Burning down historic town halls; smashing a statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic.
Synagogues ransacked and other targeting of Jews.
Liberty isn't leading these people, but a hatred for Western civilization itself.
Toussi TV pointed out that no mosques had been targeted. Of course not.
140 police were injured as "protesters" literally chased them off the streets with thrown rocks and big dangerous "pyrotechnics" that they fired at them.
At 4:00, they chant (in French, or whatever pidgin they speak) "We beheaded Louis XVI, we will behead you too, Macron."
The town hall of Limoges, 140 years old, survived World War Two, collapsed after "protesters" set fire to it to "protest school sizes."
The building is gutted. The only part still standing is the stone exterior wall. Because, contra the squareheaded lesbian writer of The Acolyte, you can't set stone on fire.
Here's a little good news: Milanese citizens are throwing plates down from their balconies on to the heads of "students protesting class sizes."
The femboy in the video whines about sons-of-bitches throwing things on to the heads of Mostly Peaceful Protesters.
THE MORNING RANT: Wealth Extraction – It’s What Socialists and the “Financialize Everything” Capitalists Have in Common
—Buck Throckmorton
Free enterprise creates wealth. By contrast, socialism extracts wealth, destroying the institutions that created the wealth. It is extremely unhelpful in our battle against socialism, however, that an ascendant business class of financial raiders, who argue that they are free market capitalists, are doing the same thing as socialists – extracting wealth and leaving in their wake the ruins of the institutions that created the wealth.
There was an excellent essay a few days ago from Annang Mittal at the Daily Wire addressing this problem. He discussed how the plunderers who capture private sector wealth, without doing any wealth creation of their own, have “done more to discredit free enterprise than Bernie Sanders ever has.” That piece is linked below, along with a few pull quotes.
This is another of those horseshoe issues, where the extremes of both left and right nearly meet. The Private Equity Bros and the Bernie Bros both look at the wealth of a business and dream of extracting it for their own enrichment.
I’d also add that it is not just private equity that is raiding the capital of businesses. Much of corporate America’s executive class has embraced an ethos in which headcount is slashed, product quality is diminished, and customers are subject to deceptive revenue-mining practices. This may produce a short-term spike in profit and stock price, but it also results in long-term degradation to the revenue flow and equity of the business, as disaffected customers never return. When the dust settles, the net result is that capital has simply been extracted from the corporation, with much of it flowing into the pockets of those executives who enacted those short-sighted actions.
There are many “capitalists” who feel that any criticism of private sector wealth extractors is a criticism of the free market itself. It’s not. We defenders of free markets have an obligation to condemn those who give it a bad name so as to lessen the appeal of socialism. If a private equity firm looks at a company like Toys R Us or Joann Fabrics and decides to extract its wealth in a manner that leads to the company’s bankruptcy, why shouldn’t Bernie’s acolytes decide that they too should get in on the action?
Don’t forget, just as private wealth extraction can occur under the umbrella of capitalism, socialism can be voted in under the umbrella of democracy. If we’re supposed to accept the legitimacy of equity raiders because we’re pro-capitalism, then shouldn’t we also accept socialism as being legitimate too because we’re pro-democracy? The answer is “No.” We should reject all destructive wealth extractors, be they on the left or the right. Both deserve disapprobation.
That is why so many in the heartland voted for populism, and why a growing number of young Americans have turned to socialism. Americans have stopped believing either party’s promises of economic renewal. Rent-seeking, getting rich by capturing wealth but not creating it, has done more to discredit free enterprise than Bernie Sanders ever has. Generations watched plants move overseas, communities disappear, and watched financiers strip what remained. When people hear “the free market,” they hear “the fix is in.” Private equity did not stay in manufacturing either. It soon entered healthcare, retail, and food service, jobs that seemed safe because they couldn’t be shipped overseas.
Mr. Nittal also discusses the pattern of unloading debt via bankruptcy and offloading to taxpayers the pension burdens of now-failed companies after all sources of cash have been extracted. Nothing says “free market” quite like pawning off a plundered company’s pension obligations to the federal government:
The federal pension insurer took over the workers’ pension plan and released Cerberus from future claims in exchange for about $900,000. When Anchor was auctioned off in 2007, Cerberus walked away clean, but the workers’ pensions became the government’s problem.
That is the play. Buy the company. Borrow against it. Pay yourself first, and offload the liabilities on the public.
When an owner borrows against a business it bought and pays itself from the loan, that’s extraction. The debt is slapped onto the original business, as happened at Anchor. The business services its debt by delaying repairs, laying off workers, or cheapening the product. Eventually the customers leave and the business stops paying, so the owner shuts the business down and sells off the remaining assets. Toys R Us was bought with borrowed money in 2005 and liquidated in 2018, costing about 33,000 American jobs. Red Lobster’s 2014 buyout was financed by selling 500 of its own buildings, and when it went bankrupt in 2024 under a different owner, it was still paying rent on property it used to own. Few Americans could have named the companies that gutted these household brands.
I would rather entrepreneurs build high-speed rail, nuclear reactors, battery plants, and semiconductor fabs than find another ingenious scheme for converting a Red Lobster or a dentist’s office into a higher-yielding financial asset.
We free marketeers understand that creative destruction will render some businesses unviable and some industries obsolete. But those engaging in wealth extraction are not creative destructors. They’re destructive parasites.
As I have mentioned many times, some fundamentalist Muslims were allies of the Nazis and even fought on their side during World War II. The Grand Mufti, mentor of the father of modern jihad and inventor of the “Palestinian people” Yasser Arafat, was Hitler’s ally. The swastika and the Palestinian flag are directly connected and stand for the same evil reality: destruction of Judeo-Christian civilization, most especially the Jews. The Nazis killed Jews in France, and the fundamentalist Muslims of today have the same ideology.
And as I and others, most notably experts like Robert Spencer, Pam Geller, Melanie Phillips and others with their eyes fully open who are unafraid to write and speak the truth, there is no such thing as "fundamentalist" Islam, there is only Islam as it is preached and as it is practiced, or at the barest of minimums as it is believed and as the active participants are cheered on by the non-active non-participating believers.
France is seeing its worst riots in decades — violence clearly aimed not simply at the ruling party, but at France itself — and the left-liberal establishment is still trying to blame a few bad apples.
That’s true not just of President Emmanuel Macron, but of global media that claim it’s mainly about student grievances over budget cuts — at least one BBC article actually used the phrase “mostly peaceful protests.”
This is nonsense: The street mobs haven’t been just (or even mostly) kids for weeks now, and the vandalism began in the first days; it was last month that “protesters” set a teacher on fire.
Foreign flags (Morocco, Algeria, “Palestine") Came out at the start; the crowds are mostly blacks and Arabs — overwhelmingly from Muslim immigrant communities, in other words.
And the political statements are obvious: Burning down historic town halls; smashing a statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. . . Liberty isn’t leading these people, but a hatred for Western civilization itself. Leaders of that civilization who still insist on denial will either find themselves as former leaders, or “leading” a former civilization.
Well, unless something truly drastic happens in France, meaning the liberal (pun intended) use of lethal force against the rioters followed on by the mass deportation of Muslims, the unassimilable and then the proscription of Islam in France — in other words a paradigm shift in the past 70 or more years of the trajectory of French culture — then it will be lights out in France followed on by most of Europe soon thereafter .
And as the lamps go out all over Europe, I fear we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime....
. . .it didn’t take long for Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who served under John Brennan, to show her true colors.
The Michigan senator told students at the University of Chicago last week how she plans to use the power that will come to Democrats if they win Senate control in the midterms next month.
She wants to unleash a barrage of political investigations on Trump officials in order to frighten young people away from taking jobs in the administration. “The people around Donald Trump . . . have no immunity the way the president does . . . So you go after the people who do his bidding,” she told the audience during a live podcast recording Tuesday.
“I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him,” she continued.
“I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? Like that sounds fun. I might get an opportunity.’
“I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that.’
“I want that deterrence message.”
Slotkin pretends she is a stickler for “defending democracy.” But this is how the Bolshevik left who control today’s Democrat Party play the game, even as they cloak themselves in conservative disguises, as intelligence professionals, soldiers, astronauts or doctors.
Emphasis mine because listen Strychnine-Tits, it was we the people of WE THE PEOPLE who eagerly and enthusiastically voted for President Trump three times who enable him!
And as we know, SLUTkin and her ilk have been persecuting us ever since then by unleashing the FBI an DoJ against us via wiretapping and phony lawfare to destroy anyone who even so much as bought a MAGA hat or contributed even a buck to his political campaign.
And so, Miranda Devine's description of them as the Bolshevik Left is dead on the money. Decent people will not be deterred and at some point the crimes against their "precious DEMOCRACY™ will include the death penalty offense of raising of an eyebrow in objection to their latest assault on America as founded, which will lead to us to a gulag or winding up like Ashli Babbitt, Roseanne Boyland or Charlie Kirk.
As the disposition of both Nidal Hasan or Bro-Fo Omar remain up in the air, although Hasan will face a firing squad, but its telecast is still in question.
That said, I can tell you who and what deserves besides him deserves that fate, which I'm sure you can guess from the gravamen of my discourse because unless we do what France and Europe need to do sooner rather than later, then it will be lights out for America.
Hedonism claims that anything impeding the immediate gratification of your most vulgar sensual desires is evidence of “fascism” or “oppression” or whatever new term is tossed around with zero comprehension of what it actually means. Who the Left Attracts, Part 2
. . . There is a simple solution to this problem. Do not allow them to enter the country, and, if they do, send them back. In this way, indigenous Americans would not be taken advantage of, and less fraud, crime, and transfer of wealth would be committed. Immigration, then and now
Beyond blocking oil exports, American authorities have frozen nearly $350 million in cryptocurrency assets linked to Iran, further restricting the regime’s ability to finance terrorism and rebuild its military capabilities. U.S. Blockade Cripples Iran’s Economy, Cuts Off $25 Billion in Oil Revenue
Amid ongoing escalation with the Islamic Republic of Iran, U.S. authorities are increasingly targeting entities associated with pro-Kremlin Moldovan politician Ilan Shor as part of Operation Economic Outcast. U.S. Targets A7 Network Over Alleged Role in Iran Sanctions Evasion
ISRAEL vs IRAN & GAZA/HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH . . . AND LEFTISTS. . . The U.N... AND HISTORY
The warning follows a federal lawsuit filed Thursday against California after the Justice Department provided election officials with citizenship data identifying approximately 20,000 registered voters flagged by the Department of Homeland Security as possible noncitizens. Trump Threatens Jail Time for California Officials Over Alleged Noncitizen Voters
Agents seized Omar's phone, her computer, and her passport during Monday's search. Federal agents also went through her trash looking for DNA evidence. Investigators don't comb through a sitting congresswoman's garbage on a hunch. BRO-FO Omar Has a New Problem, and It Came From Her Sister's Phone
Obama seems to think that all third worlders useful to Democrats are U.S. citizens whether they follow the rules or not, and any effort to stop them can only be politically motivated/ Obama goes to bat for Omar
Democrat megachurch pastor, Adam Hamilton, has spent his campaign for Senate in Kansas railing against billionaires and special interests, but his financial disclosure shows he has a net worth of up to $20 million and earns a salary more than twice the salary paid to U.S. senators from Church of the Resurrection. Democrat Adam Hamilton Getting Rich from His Megachurch
If Democrats win the House in November, the DSA intend to make Hakeem Jeffries’s path to the speakership difficult. The DSA has called for DSA-aligned Representatives elected in November to withhold their votes for Speaker unless Jeffries agrees to changes that would give the far-left bloc within the Democrats greater influence.Jeffries has marked himself as an opponent of the DSA within the Democrat Party, signaling his opposition to several key DSA proposals. “I do not support abolishing the Senate… I don’t support the DSA agenda as has been articulated by the DSA itself,” said Jeffries earlier this year. Inside the DSA’s Plan to ‘Hold the Speakership Hostage.’
France is seeing its worst riots in decades — violence clearly aimed not simply at the ruling party, but at France itself — and the left-liberal establishment is still trying to blame a few bad apples...Foreign flags (Morocco, Algeria, “Palestine”) came out at the start; the crowds are mostly blacks and Arabs — overwhelmingly from Muslim immigrant communities, in other words. And the political statements are obvious: Burning down historic town halls; smashing a statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. Stop pretending the French riots are anything but an attack on civilization
In France, more than half a million people poured into the streets as mobs of radical left rioters, students, labor unions, and antifa thugs rampaged through historic districts, burning government buildings and bringing the country to a "point of no return," according to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Government Buildings Torched As French Riots Reach the 'Point of No Return'
AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS
Elon Musk has made engineering the heroic, progressive enterprise we once thought it was, not the diddly work of guys in short sleeves with pocket protectors. The Use and Misuse of Science
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Comprehensive new research from the Institute for Family Studies charts the disaster geographically, outlining marriage “deserts” where nuclear families are rare and “gardens” where they flourish. Why the left doesn’t want to face the facts about marriage
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
The law covered not only sites operating within the state - which falls under Scalia's "dumb but constitutional" - but sites anywhere in the world accessible from Utah.
Sites were required to either block VPNs (and were forbidden from mentioning the existence of VPNs) or track the precise address of every single IP address in the world of which there are now 2128 which is rather a lot.
Isn't an Elizabeth Holmes documentary. (Holmes was the "female Steve Jobs" now serving time in prison for defrauding investors in her biotech company, Theranos.)
It may be a documentary on propaganda, or based on the one glowing review I read from an obvious dimwit, it may be slop.
Their new "SLOP" for AI post button is being clicked half a million times a week to downvote the content.
New PCs arrived. These are the two I ordered weeks ago - the Minisforum M1-1390 - which I picked up on sale for about $390 including tax and shipping. They cost rather more than that now. And they're also out of stock.
24-core Intel 13900HX and up to 64GB of DDR4 laptop RAM but none installed, making their utility limited unless you already have a lot of DDR4 laptop RAM sitting around from systems you built in 2021 that have now expired... Which I do.
Howdy Hordelings! Travel day for me today - returning from Corsicana where a good time was had by all! Open thread with none of the typical content. Just some random photos from the festivities this weekend. Those of you who were there can reminisce. Those who weren't can get some idea of what you missed.
Gun Thread: 2026 TXMoMe Discussion and Analysis Edition!
—Weasel
*
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 2026 TXMoMe Discussion and Analysis Edition? That's right, guys and gals, another fabulous TXMoMe is in the books. Please consider this an open thread to discuss and analyze your TXMoMe experience!
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
I'm writing this on the 13th so the event hasn't occurred yet, although I am now within striking distance of Corsicana. Future Weasel assures me it was a great time, as always. So, in the spirit of taunting those who chose not to attend, please consider the following conversation starters:
- Did you go?
- Did you have fun?
- Did you shoot?
- Rifles, handguns, or both?
- How about the food?
- Was it amazing or what?
- Did you see a lot of your pals?
Newcomers:
- Were you surprised by the funness and coolness of the event?
- Was it what you expected?
- What was the best part for you?
- Did you make a bunch of new in-person friends?
- Think you will be back?
10/18/26 Update
Yikes! was that a good time, or what? I just finished day 1 of the drive home and wanted to share some thoughts.
First, huge thank you to Ben Had, Rancher Bob and Cow Horse Queen for organizing and hosting the TXMoMe. Next, a big shout out to all those who created and executed the menu of outstanding food over two days. I'm still full! Next, an extra-bigly thank you to all the RSO's who spent two days on the handgun and rifle ranges keeping everyone safe and having a great time. Next, a shout out to our pal rhomboid for donating two nice boxes of cigars for the cool kids to enjoy, and to everyone who brought drinks and snacks and desserts for the group to share. Finally, thanks to all of the Morons who attended and continue to make the event the highlight of my year. Thank you!
That's it folks! Please discuss in the comments below!
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Springfield Armory
If you haven't been, you need to go.
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How To Shoot a Pistol
Our pal 'Jer' shows us how it's done.
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Pumpkin Carving!
A seasonal favorite.
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Pistol Malfunction Clearing Drills
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Our Pal Camoflage
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Ax Weasel
Q: Weasel, last week we covered micrometers but how do we read calipers?
A: An important topic for sure. Please see below.
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Highway Patrol!
This week's episode: Prison Break!
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Assignment Outer Space!!
Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
[Because I am otherwise engaged, I have dipped into the archives and come up with my 13-year-old comments about martinis, and because I am nothing if not a creature of habit, they haven't changed much!]
Any classic cocktail book will have a martini recipe that is bizarre for the typical modern drinker. A 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of gin to dry vermouth yields an unpleasant drink. The vermouth overwhelms the gin's botanicals, and you are left with the flavor of cheap, fortified wine with some herbs tossed in for flavor.
It's just not pleasant, so we back off on the vermouth, and drink 5:1 or 10:1 or plain gin. And that's probably one big reason for the explosion in boutique gins. If the typical martini is essentially pure gin, why not make it interesting?
But [13 years and] three nights ago I had a 3:1 martini that was spectacular. Rich and flavorful, but without the sere and bitter notes that typical vermouth brings to the table.
Yet....it was made with vermouth! Carpano Bianco, from an old Italian firm that makes some well known fortified wines such as Punt E Mes and Fernet Branca. The production of their white vermouth is so small that it doesn't even make the cut for their web site, unless I missed it (a distinct possibility). [They have it now]
This vermouth is flavorful, intense, smooth and complex. Nothing like the typical vermouth that is used in seemingly every bar in the world.
Obviously the standard that most vermouth makers follow has changed, and thank God these folks ignored the modernization of this drink. My guess is that the base wine has become more expensive, so most makers started using cheaper stuff. And the botanicals that are used to flavor vermouth may have gone the same route.
Admittedly a modern martini is a different experience. The crisp, cold feeling of good gin, a dash of vermouth, and a twist of lemon* is hard to beat.
But for a another experience, something akin to what your great aunt Millie drank in her flapper days, give this a shot.
*Sorry, olives don't belong in a martini. If I want vegetables, I'll order a salad (stolen from Robert Bork).
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And....just because it is great:
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The great garlic experiment of 2025-2026 was a resounding...meh. Send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
About the Bourbon Bubble...I think it has burst, but the category is also suffering from the inflation that affected everything else (Thanks Biden!). I think the sweet spot is still $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
The Cognitive Dissonance Of The Pro-Ukraine/Anti-Russia Commentariat
—CBD
There is a default assumption among the vast majority of the media, both the mass-market variety and the supposedly high-minded elites who comment on everything, no matter their expertise.
Ukraine GOOD! Russia BAD!
That sums it up nicely.
And they are half correct! What they seem to miss is that Ukraine is a kleptocratic cesspool of corruption, and their only saving grace is that they were attacked by Putin's Russia, and not by Poland or Belarus, which would have elicited a giant yawn in western capitals. And they also miss the provocation from the West that probably began with Bush senior, when Russia was still the Soviet Union. They were promised that NATO had no plans to expand east, so the buffer between western Europe and mother Russia that the Soviet Union had created wasn't necessary.
Of course that was a lie, and the NATO pressure on Russia's borders, whether real or imagined by a paranoid Putin, increased. George Kennan, who was one of the creators of the West's policy of containment during the Cold War, said:
I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake.
And it obviously was. For better or for worse, a sober foreign policy with Russia must grant some degree of autonomy on its own borders. But there is no rational analysis anymore. Russia is the ultimate evil, and everything it does is tarred by the behavior of Putin, who is absolutely a horrible man and a murderous dictator.
By extension, everything done to combat Russia is just wonderful! That includes whatever Ukraine wants to do, like firing missiles and drones at cities in Russia. Sure, Russia does that too, but let us judge both sides with the same moral compass.
Here is an essay that begins with a discussion of America's coming sanctions against Russia. The website is staffed by seemingly intelligent people who are conventionally well educated...The Ivy League!
The Senate passed the Russia sanctions bill earlier this month, and now it is expected to pass the House fairly easily. The bill should be passed, as it will increase pressure on Russia's leadership, economy, defense industrial base, and top foreign enablers.
The bill is not only about Ukraine, but will help deter Russia from attacking NATO countries. Russia has already used sabotage, influence campaigns, espionage, GPS interference, hacking, and assassination on NATO soil. On July 20 and July 21, the Lithuanian and Polish governments warned that Russia is considering new attacks on NATO allies. These could include the use of captured Ukrainian drones in a false flag or hybrid attack. In addition to Poland and Lithuania, all of the Baltic states and Romania are at particularly high risk.
Notice the assumption that Russia is just itching to expand the war? No discussion of why, but it is going to happen..."Because We Said So!"
Of course they must also discuss Russia's failures!
The war has for a long time not been going well for Putin, with over 1.4 million Russian casualties and as many as 625,000 Ukrainian casualties. Given that Putin's goal was to conquer Ukraine as a prize, he fails as he destroys the object of his goal, and his goal destroys Russia. The front is moving at a snail's pace, and the increasing range, sophistication, and lethality of indigenously-produced Ukrainian weapons are wreaking havoc on Russia's energy infrastructure and its strategic military assets, including attack submarines and nuclear-capable bombers.
From purely national security considerations, the Russian military should therefore consider changing tack, whether or not Putin agrees. The Russian army, navy, and air force are being severely degraded when they are needed to defend Russia's east against China. Military exhaustion in Russia, as in Afghanistan in 1989 with a short-lived democratization following two years later, could be the fertile soil from which a new and more stable Russian democracy emerges. With democracy would come trade openings to the West and major gains in GDP growth and general economic prosperity.
So which is it? Russia is expansionist and wants more territory, or Russia is failing and must change their strategy. Oh, and by the way, this writer seems to be calling for Russia's armed forces to stage a coup, because that is what it is called when they disobey their civilian leader. No mention of how that might shake out, or how much uncertainty that would inject into an already chaotic region.
The reality is somewhere in the middle. Yes, Russia and Putin began this border dispute without sufficient provocation, and are absolutely the aggressors. But Ukraine and the West are not blameless. As for Russia's attacks on its neighbors? They are meant as warnings to stay out of the fray, and probably not as precursors of invasions of Poland or Hungary. It is not clear that Russia has the capacity to open another front, particularly against Poland, with its large, well-trained armed forces and natural antipathy for Russia.
If Europe were truly serious about combating Russian expansionism, why have they spent more money on Russian natural gas than they have spent to assist the Ukrainian armed forces?
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 10-04-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
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 (now with 3x the recommended daily allowance of pumpkin spice). 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, finish off the bag of pre-Halloween candy, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
Today's pic is the mostly complete Secret History of the World by F. Paul Wilson. My hallway is about the only space large enough in my house to lay it all out in all its glory. It's a cosmic horror story that is comprised of multiple series, stand alone novels, and short stories, all culminating in Nightworld, which wraps up all the loose threads into a terrifying finale. The entire world is on the brink of being sucked into a hell dimension ruled over by the "Otherness," an inimical eldritch abomination that seeks to dominate our universe, one bite at a time. It's only stopped by the "Ally," another eldritch abomination that's only slightly less malevolent than the Otherness. It simply wants to stop the Otherness, but doesn't care what tools it uses among humanity to accomplish its goal. Anyway, I thought it would be kind of neat to see it all laid out in chronological order here.
"DIVERSITY" IN LITERATURE--WHY IS IT ALL THE SAME?
Although the BookTuber above is describing the state of modern fantasy, I suspect that his comments can be applied across genres in modern publishing. His main point is that some books are so similar to previous books that they blur the line with respect to plagiarism. However, this isn't a new problem, as he points out. Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara is widely acknowledged by most fantasy readers--including Brooks himself--that it's a cut-and-paste version of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This was a deliberate choice by Brooks' publisher Lester Del Rey to capture the fantasy market by providing readers with a book that's similar to--but not quite exactly--the most popular fantasy book up until that point. Several other publishers such as Bantam Spectra, Tor Books, and DAW Books took a similar approach to launch a flagship author under their brand.
Readers of genre fiction read books within their preferred genres because the *like* the tropes and plotlines within those genres, even when they may feel very similar to one another. We are creatures of habit. We *like* familiar things. Suddenly turning to an unfamiliar genre of fiction feels strange and unnatural. Now, tastes DO change and expand over time, so just because we start out liking one or two genres when we are young doesn't mean we are locked into only reading books within that genre. In fact, by consuming a large number of books within a genre, we can discover that we hunger for something different, so we'll stray outside our comfort zone to find books that may provide a similar reading experience but within a different context. For example, readers of grimdark fantasy might decide to read horror novels because they get a similar emotional experience. Or science fiction readers who enjoy exploration might turn to mysteries because they enjoy the feeling of discovering the unknown.
Another point Library of a Viking makes is that the marketing and promotion of books has become very algorithmic in its application. Publishers and content creators have detailed analytical tools at their fingertips that show where they can maximize their revenue by promoting content that fits within certain niches. They are incentivized to stay within certain lanes based on what sells to their audience. LoaV even admits that he's as guilty of this as any content creator. Even though he might prefer to discuss nonfiction books or less familiar fantasy books, he knows from experience that he'll be rewarded by focusing on the most popular books within his genre. But there's also a feedback loop in this. The more books like Fourth Wing are talked about by popular BookTubers, the more likely it is that smaller channels will also go along with the crowd to maximize their own revenue streams, thus expanding the exposure of these popular books.
Some channels of marketing and promotion don't allow for much in the way of descriptions, either. BookTok is for 30-second snippets of content. How can anyone describe a massive series of books in that amount of time? Monty Python did a sketch about a conteat to describe Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time--one of the longest and most complex novels in French literature--in a mere 15 seconds. It's simply not possible to convey the nuance of a story as rich and detailed as Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy within 30 seconds without trying to compare it to something the reader might be familiar with, such as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice. The two storylines could not be more different despite the surface level similarities, i.e., a kingdom falling into disarray through chaos and neglect due to outside threats, characters who can speak to animals, and who experience morally complicated situations that don't always lead to a happy outcome, etc.
Even here at AoSHQ, the comment boxes don't allow for lengthy descriptions of your favorite books unless you split them up into multiple comments. If you want a post a detailed review of a book you love, you'll either have to go that route--splitting up your review into multiple comments--or send your review to a COB and see if one of us will post your review. So you may be forced by circumstance to give us Morons a very brief summary and compare the book to something else with which we might be familiar.
Regardless of genre, I think it's OK to have books that provide similar structures, themes, characters, plots, etc., though we do have to watch out for the more blatant forms of plagiarism that are running rampant nowadays thanks to the proliferation of AI-generated writing. AI is only going to make the problem worse. For the most part, I don't find myself attracted to much in the way of modern fantasy or science fiction UNLESS it's a new publication from an author I already know. Tad Williams just published a new book in the world of Osten Ard (The Splintered Sun). I didn't even bother reading the blurb before ordering it because I love Tad Williams and I know I'll enjoy the story. Larry Correia is another author I'm happy to support whenever a new book comes out because he's a very entertaining author. But I don't think I'll be reading any Joe Abercrombie (The First Law Trilogy) or R. F. Kuang (The Poppy War) because they simply don't interest me, no matter how popular they are on BookTube.
What say you, Horde? Do you like books that are similar to previous books? Or are you always on the hunt for something different?
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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED RECENTLY
I've picked up a few more books recently, because apparently I'm a book addict or something...Try not to judge me too harshly. Maybe I need to join a support group. On the plus side, this should keep me busy and out of trouble for some time. If only I didn't have to work or teach class...
The Third Book of Witness - Legacies of Betrayal by Steven Erikson -- This is a short novel by Erikson standards--only 300 pages.
The Splintered Sun by Tad Williams -- This appears to be a stand-alone novel set in his world of Osten Ard.
Generations Book 1 - Timeless by R. A. Salvatore
Generations Book 2 - Boundless by R. A. Salvatore
Generations Book 3 - Relentless by R. A. Salvatore
Way of the Drow Book 1 - Starlight Enclave by R. A. Salvatore
Way of the Drow Book 2 - Glacier's Edge by R. A. Salvatore
Way of the Drow Book 3 - Lolth's Warrior by R. A. Salvatore
Liveship Traders Book 3 - Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb
Tawny Man Trilogy Book 1 - Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb
Tawny Man Trilogy Book 2 - The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb
Tawny Man Trilogy Book 3 - Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
The Rain Wild Chronicles Book 1 - Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
The Rain Wild Chronicles Book 2 - Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb
The Rain Wild Chronicles Book 3 - City of Dragons by Robin Hobb
The Rain Wild Chronicles Book 4 - Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb
Fitz and the Fool Book 1 - Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb
Fitz and the Fool Book 2 - Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb
Fitz and the Fool Book 3 - Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb
The Soldier Son Trilogy Book 1 - Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb
The Soldier Son Trilogy Book 2 - Forest Mage by Robin Hobb
The Soldier Son Trilogy Book 3 - Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb
WHAT I'VE BEEN READING RECENTLY
The Shadow of the Avatar Book 2 - Cloak of Shadows by Ed Greenwood
In this book we continue to follow Sharantyr's adventures as she battles the Malaugrym, a.k.a. the "Shadowmasters" as they once again seek to enter the Realms to pillage and destroy it for their own purposes. They've never had much luck against the archmage Elminster in the past, but now they have the brilliant plan of weaving a magical cloak that shields them from detection against Mystra's Chosen (foremost of whom is Elminster). However, things do go exactly according to plan and the Malaugrym experience a number of setbacks thanks to the meddling of Sharantyr and other Knights of Myth Drannor. Now Sharantyr and her two ranger companions storm the citadel of the Malaugrym to send a message once and for all: DON'T F*CK WITH THE REALMS!
The Shadow of the Avatar Book 3 - All Shadows Fled by Ed Greenwood
During the Time of Troubles, the gods walk the Realms in physical form, denied the cosmic powers they once commanded because two of the gods were foolish enough to steal from the Overgod AO. The chaos caused by their banishment from the outer planes keeps Elminster very busy as he tamps down numerous hot spots in the Realms. Eventually he is caught up in a magical blast as the avatars of the god of strife, Bane, and the goddess of magic, Mystra, annihilate each other, leading to the rumor that Elminster has been killed once and for all. Not the first time this has happened, but it does mean that numerous evil factions, including the Shadowmasters, the Malaugrym, once again seek to infiltrate the Realms and pillage them. Once again, the Knights of Myth Drannor and the remaining Chosen of Mystra must defend the Realms against cataclysmic forces seeking their destruction.
Part of the fun of reading these books (IMHO), is that because they are based on characters created for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, it's possible to look up the statistics of the characters in these stories. Sharantyr, for instance, is canonically a 2nd-level ranger in 2nd Edition AD&D, though she's certainly leveled up a few times by the end of these novels. Endless waves of mooks are slaughtered by her and her companions. These books read a lot like a group of characters going on a grand campaign, which is no doubt Ed Greenwood's intent. Entertaining if you like that sort of story and have experience in role-playing games.
The Farseer Trilogy Book 1 - Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
This is one of those books that's endlessly pimped on BookTube videoes. Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series is often touted as one of the best fantasy series of all time.
I'll give credit where credit is due. Hobb does a very good job of presenting a character study of a young man who is trained to be an assassin for the royal court. He wrestles with the moral dilemmas that comes with the territory of obeying his King and performing his duties while seeking to find alternatives if he feels that his King is asking him to perform a task that may be dishonorable. Fitz is caught up in the intrigue of the royal court as well, thanks to his heritage of being the bastard son of the King's first son, Chivalry. Most of the characters are presented as morally complex individuals with their own agendas. Fitz may be an assassin, but he is not an evil man, nor are those who have trained him. We do see evil in the form of the King's youngest son, Regal, who clearly seeks the throne for himself and attempts to use Fitz towards his own ends.
Is this the best fantasy ever written? No, not even remotely. I'd rate it as upper mid-tier fantasy, but well below the likes of Tad Williams or P.C. Hodgell, who can tell similar stories far better than Hobb. Her world-building in the first novel is somewhat rudimentary at best. It's a fairly generic medieval fantasy kingdom with traditional English-style medieval civilization. The magic system is only moderately interesting, but for now it's definitely a low-magic setting.
The first book is good enough that I immediately started reading the second book (see below), which continues the story of Fitz after his first real mission as the King's assassin.
The Farseer Trilogy Book 2 - Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
In Royal Assassin, Fitz is bitter and broken after being betrayed by Prince Regal, vowing to stay away from Buckkeep. However, he's pulled back into the intrigue of the court if only to verify that the young woman he fancies, Molly, is OK. Fitz has a vision of her being attacked by the Red-Ship Raiders, who kidnap the folk of the Six Duchies, then return them without souls, for reasons only they understand. Fitz will do anything to protect the people he cares about. He also learns to harness the powers he's been blessed/cursed with as a result of his Farseer heritage. Prince Regal is still scheming to claim the throne from his aging father and his weakened brother...
The Farseer Trilogy Book 3 - Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
King Shrewd is dead, killed by his own son Prince Regal. FitzChivalry also died (temporarily) but was able to escape permanent death through a minor miracle and his own unique gifts. Now he's revived, leaving his former life behind as the King's royal assassin. He has one mission--avenge his former king by claiming the life of his murderer. He's accompanied by Nighteyes, the young wolf whose life he rescued and with whom he shares a mystical bond. Will he succeed in his quest? Or will he finally be broken once and for all by the challenges and choices he now faces?
Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.
(One down, many more to go...)
Disclaimer: When Elminster comes a-knockin', the Forgotten Realms start a-rockin'!
Anything to avoid using the metric system releasing the voter rolls.
I found what I was looking for: Green bottlebrushes. Callistemon citrinus, to be exact. I planted a couple of white trees last year and four of the classic red ones, but I couldn't find the green ones except as seeds. Now I have a couple more in white and two in green. Just small seedlings so I'll need to take care of them, but easier than trying to grow them from seeds.
Also three new kangaroo paws to replace the ones lost to the cannibal onslaught, three aca-cias, two more boronias to replace the one that didn't make it through the winter, a tea tree, and... Oh, two more westringias. That one didn't die over winter - in fact it's thriving, with masses of flowers - so I bought a couple more to keep it company.
Saturday Night Club ONT - October 17, 2026 [Disco & Dino]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT - a whelming collaboration of The Disco and The Dino.
Open thread - bar is open, too. Come in in, grab a drink or 2. Or 3. Keep it light and friendly. The Moose out front has been very busy today welcoming all of his MoMe friends.
A frustrated karate student walks up to his teacher and tells him, "Master, it has been years now and my technique is not improving. What must I do to be as good as you, Master?"
The older man looks at him with kind eyes and says, "My child, have you ever observed the ants - how they work tirelessly day and night to build something that can be swept away with a single wave of the hand?"
"Yes Master, many times," the young one says.
"Have you watched how, in the fiercest storm, bamboo always bends, but never breaks?"
"Yes Master."
"And have you paused to contemplate the reflection of the full moon in still water?"
"Of course Master, many times."
"Now I see your problem, young one. You keep looking at stupid shit instead of practicing."
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Drink of the Night
Help yourself!
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Club ONT Department of Idaho Democracy
An Idaho ballot measure in the upcoming midterm election will ask voters to identify an official state gun, The advisory question is non-binding and instead will only advise the state legislature on voter preferences. Voters can pick from the following options:
Winchester Model 1894 (.30-30)
Winchester Model 1873 (.44-40)
1873 Colt Single Action Army Revolver (.45 Colt)
M1 Garand rifle (.30-06)
Colt M1911 .45 automatic Colt pistol (.45 ACP)
Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle (.30-06)
In order to make a specific firearm the official state gun, the state legislature would need to approve a separate law after the election.
The Steagles, officially known as the Phil-Pitt Combine, was the team created by the temporary merger of Pennsylvania's two National Football League (NFL) teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, during the 1943 season. The two franchises, due to both having many players leave for military service during World War II, were compelled to field a single combined team. The league's official record book refers to the team as the "Phil-Pitt Combine," but the unofficial and portmanteau variation of the "Steagles," despite never being registered by the NFL, has become the enduring moniker.
What's a "portmanteau" anyway?
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Club ONT Department of Amphibious Entertainment
When driving your vehicle into the water is authorized and encouraged:
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Club ONT Jukebox
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Top 10ish Comments of the Week
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Club ONT is brought to you by Randy
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Please don't be like Randy. The restrooms are not far away. Don't take any chances!
Saturday Evening Movie Post [moviegique]: The Howling (1981)
—Open Blogger
The year of our Lord, 1981, saw no less than three major werewolf films: The disappointing Wolfen, based on the very good Whitley Streiber book; the John Landis classic, An American Werewolf in London; and the low-budget Avco Embassy feature, The Howling. Based on the book by Gary Brandner, but not really. (I read Brandner's book decades after seeing the movie and thought: "Well, this isn't great.")
Having three werewolf movies of three different budgetary levels is informative, I think: Wolfen, starring a hot-on-a-comeback Albert Finney and Gregory Hines cost $17M and made $10M. American made $30M domestically on a $6M budget. Howling made $17M on about $1.7M budget. The two cheaper movies are so much more fun, it's not even close.
"OK, now you sing 'Scaramouche, Scaramouch, can you do the Fandango?'!"
The Howling is the sensitive story of a newscaster Karen (Dee Wallace, E.T., The Hills Have Eyes) who is terrorized by serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo, "Star Trek: Voyager") in an intense prologue where she's walking the streets to meet him while under the watchful eye of—well, I'm not 100% sure. Her boss (Kevin McCarthy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) is ready to cut from a boring talk show to her for footage, though there's actually no cameraman around. Her cameraman/producer (Dennis Dugan, "Richie Brockelman, P.I.", director of many Adam Sandler movies) is back at the station listening, until her wire is taken out by the "neon", according to the wire expert.
Meanwhile, Dr. Waggner (Patrick MacNee, The Avengers, A View To A Kill) is on the talk show they're preparing to cut away from, droning on about "embracing the inner animal".
This is a great opening. It's suspenseful, as Karen finds a pay phone with a "Have A Nice Day" sticker on it—well before The Watchmen—and waits for Eddie to call. He does and she moves from the phone booth to a sex shop nearby.
This is on Western Ave, theoretically, but they did this thing in movies where they just took every adult shop from Koreatown to Santa Monica and edited them all together to make it look like Los Angeles was just one big, uninterrupted series of sleazy entertainment venues. When I lived there, there was one adult store on that street—used in every decadence montage—with some kind of smaller, venue across from it. Even Hollywood Blvd. was never that densely packed.
In the booth in the back of the store, Eddie has her watch violent pornography while explaining how she's different from all the shallow people in Los Angeles. And if the happy-face stickers weren't enough to tip you off, this little speech should. It's the exact sort of piquant mixture of Phoebe Cates telling Zach Galligan why they don't celebrate Christmas in Gremlins.
"Now, when you say 'You're next!', what exactly do you mean?"
It ends with a twitchy rookie firing bullets into Eddie, and the traumatized Karen gets sent away to Dr. Waggner's The Colony with her husband Bill (real-life future husband Christopher Stone), where they meet the various residents who don't seem to have any particular issues beyond being slightly annoying. Well, John Carradine (The Grapes of Wrath, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) is old and possibly suicidal.
Karen thinks something's off in The Colony, but Bill's getting seduced by the local witch, played by the gorgeous Elizabeth Brooks. Her acting was better than I remembered it, too. She has to do most of it with looks and gestures, and a sex scene which was unlike any other I've seen before or since.
Anyway, Karen starts to suspect some of The Colony residents, and calls up her producer, who sends his girlfriend (Belinda Balaski, Gremlins, Explorers), and this ultimately leads to the Big Reveal.
"Soylent Werewolf is made out of people!"
The pacing on this movie is terrific. Dante talked about the editing, which is mostly quite good. When we finally get a werewolf transformation, it's (like American Werewolf) unlike anything we've seen in cinema. No dissolves on a static photo, oh, no: Pulsing skin and stretching bones, the works, within the limitations of the budget, which were severe.
Amusingly, I found the transition both less and more impressive than I did 45 years ago. I was swept up at the time, and astounded. The whole thing takes about three minutes and feels a little long now, and the mechanics a little more obvious. But it's still very effective. And it's "real"! Not a computer in sight!
Rick Baker left the production to work on American Werewolf, but he left behind his assistant, 21-year-old Rob Bottin, who of course would immortalize himself the next year doing the effects on The Thing.
Pino Donaggio did the score, which—well, in places, it's outstanding. In others, it's more like a guy banging on his DX-7. This may well have been budgetary. The real place the low-budget shows, I think, is that the music doesn't really transition well between scenes. You have a musical bit over the action, then it'll just stop for a few beats until the next shot starts. Sometimes it'll go to the end of the shot and switch, sort of jarringly, to the next theme, which might be a different style entirely.
I might have been the only one who noticed, of course.
Full of what we now call Easter Eggs, of several varieties. The characters watch TV, but what is on? Well, The Wolf Man. An old cartoon about the Three Little Pigs. Or they read, but what do they read? Well, Howl, of course. Or, after one of the character's has been turned but hasn't transformed, You Can't Go Home Again.
There used to be a lot of smoking in movies.
Beyond that, there are just a zillion small roles and cameos: Roger Corman waits outside the phone book while Karen is talking to Eddie. Forrest Ackerman is in the occult bookshop—run, of course, by Dick Miller, credited, of course, with the character name of "Walter Paisely", which was something of a running gag. Future horror director Mick Garris (the TV movies for "The Stand" and "The Shining") has a cameo and was in attendance at this showing. Johnathan Kaplan (probably best known for producing and directing "E.R."), art director Bob Burns (who also did the art direction for the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Re-Animator), and future 2-times Oscar nominee Michael Chapman (for his cinematograpy on Raging Bull and The Fugitive).
Screenwriter John Sayles has a small role as a morgue attendant who places his lunch sloppy joe in-between the internal organs of his newest guest. And he has a massive role in turning a so-so horror into a biting commentary on both society and werewolves. (It's about time someone took them down!)
Early small role for Meschach Taylor. Slim Pickens in a relatively late role as the sheriff. Old John Carradine would only rack up another 30+ credits before he passed way in the late '80s. (And at least on credit in the mid-'90s!)
It's very 1981—adult stores and early serial killer vibes, though not much gore and little nudity—which I understand "modern audiences" might find problematic, but The Boy enjoyed it. Definitely a gem.
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. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) is feeling random and decided on a hobby scrapple theme for this Hobby Thread.
[Top photo: Location unknown, but gold star for clever use of a dump truck for home landscaping design]
While some among the Horde are busy doing the thing at the place, the Hobby Thread remains on duty to serve the on-line community of Morons. Instead of a single theme, think of tonight's content as hobby scrapple. It is a random mix of hobbying odds and ends.
The content may not be your favorite but give it a chance before you judge and bail out. More importantly, what are you hobbying? Jump in with your hobbying, interests, stories and questions.
Anything (legal) you are hobbying is welcome. If nothing resonates, offer something else relating to hobbying or just check in and say hello.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Leave politics and religion to threads elsewhere (unless your hobby is building or restoring churches). Pants? Nope. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Is skateboarding quickly in the Austrian Alps a hobby?
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Learn how to spin yarn from the Irish Linen Centre:
Textile arts history nugget...Singer stopped making household sewing machines in the US in 1980. Link here. The company went through financial troubles and a bankruptcy. The Singer brand was purchased in 2004 and combined with Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff in 2006.
Singer, Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff are now part of one company. All three belong to SVP Worldwide. An American brand, a Swedish one and a German one are sold as three separate heritages but as far as I can tell, no manufacturing occurs in America, Sweden or Germany. The three compete at different price points.
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Lesson: if you find an old comic book when cleaning out old boxes, don't automatically throw it away,
The Merrimack Valley Collection is a legendary comic book collection in which someone bought comics off the rack and stored them in a cardboard box for almost 80 years. Heritage Auctions sold many of these comics in a couple of auctions in Dallas last week. The top selling comic was Captain America No. 1 from 1941 in very good condition, and it sold for $716,750.
Another standout was original art from Gary Larson's 1985 Far Side comic about socially insecure clowns. It sold for $112,500, more than double the previous Far Side record of $51,600.
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Amazing. This is one of those videos that you click with little expectation of watching the whole thing and...you end up watching the whole thing.
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The world is a little more fun with eccentrics in it.
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Stop-motion model building? Great concept well executed:
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Restoring a Stanley No. 1 handplane (I knew old some old handplanes were rare, but didn't appreciate the story of this one):
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Fundamentals of filing:
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Impressive:
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Halloween hobbying:
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did a furniture theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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Reminder: if you put links in the comments, use a URL shortener and describe what you're linking to. Failing to do either or both makes you barrel-eligible. Don't make people click to find out what you're linking.
Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Or just email to say hello. Do mighty things.
We call on France to exercise restraint when dispersing the freedom fighters on the streets of Paris. These brave warriors for justice must receive immediate humanitarian aid, and their safety must be guaranteed in accordance with international law. Failure to comply will leave us no choice but to bring a case before the ICJ, in close cooperation with that renowned champion of human rights, Afghanistan.
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Garrett's Sus iPod Edition Everybody wants you
Everybody wants your love
I'd just like to make you mine, all mine Just imagine he's singing that to a dude. BTW I thought this was a completely different band from Garrett's Sus iPod, the Bay City Rollers.
Podcast: The Nobel Peace Prize farce, Ilhan Omar in hot water, Talarico's disappearance, Guilfoyle is a crook, Should Nidal's execution be streamed, Bugs Bunny, and more!
Our very own "Weasel" has won the Nobel Prize For Physics:
A Rigorous Investigation into the Quasi-Static Equilibration of Shoulder-Fired Ballistic Platforms: Rear-Bag-Mediated Suppression of Angular Perturbations and Its Implications for Sub-MOA Precision.
[CBD]
Podcast: A sea change in Israel? France might fall before the UK! Trump's Iran rhetoric is manipulated by the commie media (film at 11!), Brazil looks good, and Rubio looks even better (maybe)!
Christian Toto Roasts Digger: "We have an A-list star (Tom Cruise) stretching his talents in ways we haven't seen in some time. The story has something to say about the world (Climate Change) and human nature in all its complexities." Sounds...boring! [CBD]
Nearly one thousand Roman silver denari found in woods near Cologne, Germany, probably deliberately buried in 125 AD It's about seven pounds of ancient silver. Alas, it's not an artifact of the massacre of the XIXth Legion at Teutonburg Forest, which is about a hundred and fifthy miles away.
Podcast: Vote Early...Vote Often! Oil exports are returning to normal, Trump relaxes CAFE standards, ChiComs fund AI backlash, the descendants of our business titans are anti-American, Boston is nuts, and more!
Podcast: CBD is solo and just checking in! Trump's UN speech is a success, the Last Ditch Bar in Western MA keeps their lunacy in the spotlight, and the White House plays hardball with the media and the judiciary...as it should!
