Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
A couple of weeks ago I found a mini-PC that was priced - in Australia at least - at just 20% more than the cost of the RAM it includes. It uses regular laptop DIMMs so even if the PC doesn't turn out ideal it's a decent price and lets me upgrade any laptop I buy during the memory drought.
Right after I bought it the price went up and I thought I'd ordered just in time, but then the price came back down.
And a week ago memory prices had climbed to match the price of the whole computer, so I bought another one. I have them both set up and they seem to work well.
And now as memory prices continue to climb, the memory alone is 20% more than the cost of the entire computer, so, yeah, you know it. I think I'm set for computers for a while.
I tried out Ethernet-over-Thunderbolt networking today. Plugged in the cable between the two PCs and got instant 20Gb Ethernet. Magic.
It's not a perfect system - the Ryzen 7 255 lacks an NPU, and it only has one rear USB-A port and that port is USB 2.0 - and it's not one I can recommend to most readers because it costs 60% 70% more in the US than in Australia. But it's pretty good for my needs given the destruction that AI buildouts are wreaking on affordability right now.
Key to the new system is building an AI that knows things, rather than just going by statistical language patterns. That is, it has a world model as well as a language model, and the world model is definitive.
This is one of the four steps absolutely required to build a generally useful AI.
The risers swung around his neck, connectors cracked his dome
Suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones
The canopy became his shroud, he hurtled to the ground
And he ain't gonna jump no more
It may seem like I took the day off, but trust me, I didn't. It was a frustrating and expensive day. It's never fun having a complete stranger looking into your computer and maybe stealing all of your passwords.
Three year old girl helps put Reggie the Wombat to bed.
Adoption day. I think there are two dogs here because people often bring their current dog to meet the potential adopted dog, to make sure they get along.
In Fulton County, Georgia -- Big Fani's Home County -- 315,000 "Votes" Were Counted Despite Missing the Necessary Signatures
—Ace
No big deal. Don't bother checking IDs, don't bother checking if the necessary poll worker signatures are attached to the "votes."
And then prosecute Trump. He's the bad guy here.
Fulton County: 'We Don't Dispute' 315,000 Votes Lacking Poll Workers' Signatures Were Counted In 2020
Fulton County admits 2020 election did not follow rules
'When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.'
Brianna Lyman
Earlier this month, Fulton County admitted that approximately 315,000 early votes from the 2020 election were illegally certified but were nonetheless still included in the final results of that election.
The admission came during a Dec. 9 hearing before the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) stemming from a challenge filed by David Cross, a local election integrity activist. Cross filed a challenge with the SEB in March 2022. Cross alleged that Fulton County violated Georgia statute in the handling of advanced voting ahead of the November 2020 election, counting hundreds of thousands of votes even though polling workers failed to sign off on the vote tabulation "tapes" critical to the certification process.
And Fulton County admitted to it.
Ann Brumbaugh, attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, told the SEB in the hearing that while she has "not seen the tapes" herself, the county does "not dispute that the tapes were not signed." Brumbaugh continued, "It was a violation of the rule. We, since 2020, again, we have new leadership and a new building and a new board and a new standard operating procedures. And since then the training has been enhanced. ... But ... we don't dispute the allegation from the 2020 election."
Georgia's Secretary of State Office investigated the alleged failure to sign tabluation tapes and "substantiated" the findings that Fulton County "violated Official Election Record Document Processes when it was discovered that thirty-six (36) out of thirty-seven (37) Advanced Voting Precincts in Fulton County, Georgia failed to sign the Tabulation Tapes as required [by statute]," according to a 2024 investigation summary. In addition to probing the unsigned tabulation tapes, the investigation also found that officials at 32 polling sites failed to verify their zero tapes.
Georgia law requires that election officials have each ballot scanner print three closing tapes at the end of each voting day. Poll workers must sign these tapes or include a documented reason for refusal. Voting laws also require poll workers to begin each day of voting by printing and signing a "zero tape" showing that voting machines are starting at zero votes.
If there is no record of whether the tabulator was set at zero at the start of polling, there is no way of telling whether ballots from a previous election (or ballots from a test run) were left on the memory card and might later be counted. Notably, this happened in Montana, where officials discovered more votes than were cast and believe the votes were leftover sample data that had not been cleared.
"These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic," Cross told the SEB at the Dec. 9 hearing. "Fulton County produced zero signed tabulator tapes in early voting."
Crazy story here. I detailed just SOME of the problems in Fulton County in my best-seller Rigged. There were 5 -- FIVE! -- serious reasons why two of the five Fulton County officials voted not to certify the troubled county's results. All three Democrats overruled them. https://t.co/skSm4lPnHD
US Attorney's Office: 'Half or more' of $18B billed through state programs tied to fraud
As the U.S. Attorney's Office announced a new batch of charges related to suspected fraudulent billing in Minnesota's government services, officials painted a dire portrait of just how extensive the problem might be.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson on Thursday said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pulled claims for 14 programs identified by Minnesota officials as being particularly vulnerable to fraud and found $18 billion in Medicaid billing since 2018.
While not all of those payments were illegitimate, Thompson estimated "half or more" of the $18 billion was received through fraudulent means, though he said prosecutors are still working to find the exact number.
"The magnitude of fraud in Minnesota cannot be overstated. It's staggering amounts of money that's been lost," Thompson said.
The Department of Labor announced on Monday it is sending staff to Minnesota to investigate concerns about fraud in the state's Unemployment Insurance Program.
The department's decision to authorize an "on-site specialized UI strike team" in Minnesota makes it the latest of several federal agencies deploying agents to investigate reports of widespread fraud in the state's welfare programs, including those from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"I am appalled at what we are hearing about potential fraud coming from numerous benefits programs in Minnesota," Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement.
"If there has been any related abuse of our UI systems, it will not be tolerated, and I trust our specialized strike team to get to the bottom of this and report their findings directly to me," she continued. "Our mission to protect American workers remains unchanged, and I will not allow malicious actors to destroy the integrity of this trusted program."
A Georgia State Election Board investigation substantiated that Fulton County violated election rules in 2020 by failing to have poll workers sign required tabulation tapes for early votes in 36 out of 37 advanced voting precincts, affecting approximately 315,000 ballots.
These unsigned tapes broke the chain-of-custody and certification requirements under Georgia law, which mandates signed tapes as the sole legal proof of authentic vote totals.
During a board meeting on December 9th, Ann Brumbaugh, attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, contends that Fulton County does “not dispute that the tapes were not signed.”
I'm taking the computer in to a repair shop. Unfortunately I'll only be posting open threads from the phone. Now my computer doesn't even show a network ability at all
Major computer problems. Cannot connect to internet no matter if I use my home wifi or my phone hotspot, any ideas? I've rebooted and turned the wifi on and off a dozen times
THE MORNING RANT: After $32B in Losses, Ford Throws in the Towel on EVs – There Will Not Be a Full-Size Electric Pickup Truck
—Buck Throckmorton
Ford Motor Company has announced that it is de-transitioning from the “EV Transition.” Specifically, Ford has finally given up on the eco-globalist dream of an all-EV future, and the company will no longer try to cram recalcitrant consumers into electric vehicles.
This is a huge victory for liberty-loving Americans. Left-wing zealots had specifically targeted gasoline-powered vehicles in their battle against carbon-fueled freedom. The rejection of EVs by American consumers was a populist political statement, and Ford executives found themselves in the position of having to either remain loyal to the enviro-communists in Davos, which would have killed off the company, or finally accept that consumers will not acquiesce to an unelected green dictatorship.
More specifically, Ford has finally acknowledged that there is just not a market for an all-electric pickup truck. Not only has the Ford F150 ConflagrationLightning been canceled, but Ford will not even attempt to produce another full-size electric pickup. Of note, the gas/diesel F150 is America’s best-selling vehicle.
Ford CEO Jim Farley is quoted as saying, “Instead of plowing billions into the future knowing these large EVs will never make money, we are pivoting.”
Mr. Farley’s catastrophic EV misadventure has now cost Ford over $32 billion in losses. Ford had already lost $13 billion over the past four years on its “Model E” program (or “Model E-dsel” as some have joked), and the company is now about to realize another $19 billion loss in unwinding the EV mess.
To put the magnitude of Ford’s $32 billion EV loss into context, Ford’s total profit over the past seven years was about $31 billion. Some back-of-the-envelope math shows me that Ford will have lost almost $100,000 for every EV it has ever sold.
Some people are arguing that Ford was just a victim of Obama/Biden era mandates, but Toyota and Honda deftly navigated through those years without committing to an all-EV future in the manner that Ford and General Motors did.
This $20 billion write down is above and beyond the $10 billion+ that the EV debacle has already cost Ford. It’s great news that Ford is finally giving up on the EV folly, but this costly disaster didn’t have to happen. Toyota & Honda wisely showed restraint during peak EV hype.
To be fair to Mr. Farley, he answers to a weak Board of Directors which is apparently obedient to the Ford family. Meanwhile, the Ford family retains a powerful voting share of the company’s stock. Bill Ford has maneuvered himself into a powerful position within the Ford family voting bloc and on the Board. Mr. Ford is also a hard-left environmentalist who for decades has been trying to make Ford into a green company that would impress his communist friends in Davos. Jim Farley’s commitment to EVs was almost certainly at the direction of Bill Ford.
I can only surmise what is going on within the Ford family as Bill Ford and Jim Farley drove the company into a $32 billion ditch, but I am guessing that some family members have finally said “enough.”
Despite the great news about Ford terminating any future all-electric F150, there are clearly some “green” bones being thrown to Bill Ford. The company is promising at some future date to release an extended range “EREV” pickup that will have a gasoline-powered generator alongside an electric drivetrain. That sounds just as preposterous as the concept behind plug-in hybrids.
Ford has also announced that it is getting into the industrial-scale battery electric storage systems business, also knowns as “BESS.” Let me be the first to confidently predict that there will be a multi-billion-dollar write-off for Ford’s BESS distraction in coming years.
Ford is jumping into the battery energy storage business, betting that booming demand from data centers and the electric grid can absorb the EV battery capacity it says it’s not using. To achieve this, Ford plans to repurpose its existing EV battery manufacturing capacity in Glendale, Kentucky, into a dedicated hub for manufacturing battery energy storage systems. Ford says it will invest about $2 billion over the next two years to scale the new business.
Ford getting involved in battery storage systems makes as much sense as when Exxon decided to manufacture and sell office machinery. But I understand in part why Ford is doing this. Specifically, without the BESS announcement, Ford would have to own up to another multi-billion-dollar write-off for the zombie Kentucky battery plant. Plus, with this BESS project, Bill Ford can still feel proud that the company is engaging in a form of green, save-the-world posturing.
For those of us Tennessee taxpayers who kicked in almost a billion dollars toward Ford’s new electric truck plant (“Blue Oval City”), there may be some good news. Concurrent with these other major changes in direction, Ford has announced that the never-used, Memphis-area plant will be repurposed toward the manufacture of gasoline powered pickup trucks - but not until 2029. That would be great, but again, I fear that this is really just a stalling tactic to avoid yet another multi-billion dollar write-off. So long as Ford keeps promising production out of that plant at some date in the far-away future, the state of Tennessee can’t claw back the bad investment it made, and Ford keeps the massive loss off of its books – at least for a few more years.
Even though Ford still has a long way to go to fully extricate itself from its negligent EV commitment, killing off its flagship EV and promising that there will never be an all-electric full-size pickup truck is a monumental milestone.
As crazy as it sounds, if a mortgage applicant won’t disclose his race and ethnicity, the banker is required to visually profile the customer and report that customer’s racial appearance to the government. Bank of America was fined by the Commercial Financial Protection Bureau and some of its bankers were disciplined because they chose not to engage government-mandated racial profiling.
I’d be honored if you’d give it a read. (This article is not blocked by a paywall.)
From me at The American Spectator: “Banks Are Racially Profiling Mortgage Applicants - The Government Requires It”
If a loan applicant won’t reveal his ethnic bloodline, the banker is required to visually assess racial features & report them to the gov’t.https://t.co/PsPj48S1XP
Good morning kids. Not to toot my own horn but am I good or what?! In yesterday's Morning Report, I wrote:
we have two separate shootings on two of the nation’s top campuses, Brown University and at MIT. . .Are these incidents all connected somehow. Given the assassination of Charlie Kirk and several failed attempts on President Trump as well as the violent rhetoric and actual violence and acts of terrorism by the Left cheered on and encouraged by the Democrat propagandist media and the Democrats themselves not just in the Trump era but virtually throughout our history. Well anything is possible, and maybe the MIT Professor had links to Academia’s bête noire The State of Israel or was targeted by the Chi-Coms or other foreign state actors? Meh, just spit-ballin’ here. Don’t cost nuthin’. . .
Well, the gunman offed himsef and it turns out he was a Portuguese national, as was his victim at MIT. What his connection to the victims at Brown is unclear, except for the fact that he attended Brown at one point. But here's the kicker:
Israeli officials are reportedly investigating a possible Iranian connection to the murder of senior MIT nuclear scientist Prof. Nuno F. G. Loureiro, who was reportedly shot at his home on Monday evening by unknown assailants and died in the hospital a few hours later. Professor Loureiro, 47, was the director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose faculty he joined in 2016. He was born and raised in Portugal, earning an undergraduate degree from the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon and a Ph.D. from Imperial College in London, then spending several years at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon before moving to the United States. . . “The Israeli investigation is being conducted against the backdrop of Loureiro’s sensitive field of research,” JP reported. “However, informed sources have emphasized that at this stage, there is no unequivocal determination or evidence linking the murder to a state or intelligence operation.”
The Jewish magazine Forward on Wednesday sought to debunk social media rumors that Loureiro was killed because he was an outspoken supporter of Israel and Jewish people as unfounded. The rumors appear to be based on some social media posts that were mistakenly attributed to Prof. Loureiro, but actually written by someone else using the same name, along with a photo posted to social media that claimed to show a “Stand With Israel” sign in the professor’s window. . . There has been much speculation about such a connection, since the killer has proven remarkably elusive in both cases, and Loureiro’s home in Brookline is only about 50 miles from Brown University, so it would not be difficult for the killer to get from one murder site to the other in less than two days.
Well about me saying "Am I good or what?" I'll go with the "or what" choice. As I said, given everything going on both at home and abroad and the Venn diagram of events intersects at quite a few points. Almost any day of the week, the links we have can be played almost like that old game called "Mad Libs" no not angry leftists but a play on the expression Ad-lib, although there are myriad Mad Libs/angry leftists that populate virtually every link to one degree or another. Where or how the victims and perpetrator in these killings are connected vis a vis the motive is still unknown, and as President Trump is fond of saying, we'll just have to wait and see. Unless of course the propaganda media and their paymasters in the institutional left deem the truth way to inconvenient and damaging to their narrative.
How bad is the establishment media? How much does it present propaganda disguised as news? How low will it stoop? Here’s a case study.
A “Sioux Falls man” was arrested on Tuesday. It seems that this particular Sioux Falls man was minding his own business, not bothering anybody, livestreaming on Facebook, when he suddenly decided to let the world know that all was not right in the world of Sioux Falls Man. He announced, right on his Facebook livestream, that he was planning to burn a building down. He also brandished a gun and a knife. . . Having thus advertised his intentions to the world, Sioux Falls man was arrested, and the local media covered the story. Yet the way that one Sioux Falls “news” outlet presented the facts has implications that go far beyond Sioux Falls and the story of one local boy who went bad. . . You’d reasonably expect, or even assume, that this was a photo of the Sioux Falls man who was livestreaming and announced his plans to commit an act of arson. Yet not only was it not a photo of the perp, but it was a photo that showed someone who was about as different from the perp as it would be possible to get. . . the real Sioux Falls man who issued this arson threat was not the man in KELO’s photo. Instead, he was a black man named Mohamed Mansarry. Likely because of all the attention KELO received from their false photo (End Wokeness has 3.9 million followers on X), it has taken down the story that it initially circulated with the misleading photo; now all there is at that link is a Page Not Found notice. . .
The story that KELO now has up carries Mohamed Mansarry. But what was going on with that other photo? One X user offered the most likely explanation: “The media operates as a laundering service for the regime’s persistent failures. This visual deception in Sioux Falls is a blatant example of narrative control. KELO News substitutes a stock photo of a white man for Mohamed Mansarry to preserve a hollow multicultural illusion. This is a calculated attempt to sanitize demographic reality. You liberal sycophants swallow this visual poison because you fear the truth more than the fire Mansarry threatened to start. The press functions as the propaganda wing of a crumbling state that relies on your blindness to survive.”
At the tail end of the latest edition of the podcast CBD and I were reminiscing about the good old days growing up in the greater NYC area. For me it was the Flatbush/Midwood section of Brooklyn, having graduated from what was an outstanding example of what the concept of the Melting Pot ought to be: Midwood High School, where whatever your religion, ethnicity or background, we all somehow managed to get along and embraced not only our heritages but our common heritage of being American. Anyway, when we were off the air, CBD asked me about notable alumni:
Unfortunately one of my predecessors was Woody Allen and some years after I ventured as far away as across the street to Brooklyn College, came the truly execrable Hakeem Jeffries. I don't know if fellow alums Didi Conn, Morty Gunty or David Peel collectively offset the latter two.
Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead,” network medical analyst Jonathan Reiner said the “manic cadence” of President Donald Trump’s White House address raised medical concerns.
One of Dr. Reiner's former patients was the late VP Dick Cheney. IIRC way back when when Cheney either had one of his dozens of heart attacks or was diagnosed with a serious heart ailment early on in Dubya's first term, I believe Reiner operated on him, and he became a go-to press source for politician-related medical stories. Anyway, Oh Johnny, my old friend and classmate, it pains me to say this but that you've let yourself descend to the level of being a flaming asshole paid propagandist with an MD shingle is disgusting and disappointing beyond belief. I'm ashamed and embarrassed for you, and I cannot believe we came up together in the same environment.
Perhaps this story is too personal but it is nevertheless illustrative of the nature of both the media as well as how one's personal politics can cloud any sense of ethics and decency, or more frighteningly that their personal politics and blinkered uninformed worldview gives them a sense of moral superiority that they are justified in doing what they do. Lying is truth telling to them. They have gone full Orwellian 1984. Meh, basta cosi.
Patriots of the Caribbean: Sen. Mike Lee Bill Authorizes Privateers to Combat Cartels Outside U.S. Borders — “The Constitution provides for Letters of Marque and Reprisal as a tool against the enemies of the United States,” Lee said. “Cartels have replaced corsairs in the modern era, but we can still give private American citizens and their businesses a stake in the fight against these murderous foreign criminals. The Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization act will revive this historic practice to defend our shores and seize cartel assets.”
God forbid the Democrats seize control . . . I can imagine them one day deputizing Antifa goons to use deadly force on suspected conservatives! Nous Somme les deux Charlies maintenant - Kirk et Hebdo .
Have a great weekend!
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
A high-profile Zohran Mamdani appointee resigned Thursday after newly unearthed posts revealed a series of antisemitic comments online — including rants about “money hungry Jews” and defunding NYPD “piggies.” The short-lived appointment fell apart once the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey demanded answers Thursday from Mayor-elect Mamdani’s team about whether its members knew about Catherine Almonte Da Costa’s past antisemitic posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. Da Costa, whom Mamdani tapped on Wednesday as the city’s next director of appointments, had several vile stereotype-laden posts from 2011 and 2012, the ADL revealed in a post on X Zohran Mamdani appointee resigns after vile antisemitic social media posts resurface (Meh, the Islamunist bench of Einsatz-Groupie Jew-haters runs very deep - jjs)
BONDI BEACH CHANUKAH BLOODBATH
Cops from New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) responded to a tip of a “violent act” in planning, according to an NSW Police statement. The men were headed for unknown reasons to Bondi Beach and five were arrested, reported news.com.au Australian Police Reportedly Ram Car To Foil Suspected Second Terror Plot In Days
There’s no denying that Biden's economic legacy is a disaster. Inflation averaged nearly 5% during his tenure and peaked at a jaw-dropping 9.1%, the worst inflation crisis in generations. Democrats' reckless spending spree fueled the fire, and American families paid the price. The Economic Comeback Under Trump Is Very Real
Professor Loureiro, 47, was the director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose faculty he joined in 2016. He was born and raised in Portugal, earning an undergraduate degree from the Instituto Superior Tecnico in Lisbon and a Ph.D. from Imperial College in London, then spending several years at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion in Lisbon before moving to the United States. Report: Israel Investigates Possible Iran Link in Killing of MIT Nuclear Scientist
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
The story that KELO now has up carries Mohamed Mansarry. But what was going on with that other photo? One X user offered the most likely explanation: “The media operates as a laundering service for the regime’s persistent failures. This visual deception in Sioux Falls is a blatant example of narrative control. KELO News substitutes a stock photo of a white man for Mohamed Mansarry to preserve a hollow multicultural illusion. This is a calculated attempt to sanitize demographic reality. You liberal sycophants swallow this visual poison because you fear the truth more than the fire Mansarry threatened to start. The press functions as the propaganda wing of a crumbling state that relies on your blindness to survive.” ‘Sioux Falls Man’ Is Arrested, and There’s Something Weird About the News Coverage
Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead,” network medical analyst Jonathan Reiner said the “manic cadence” of President Donald Trump’s White House address raised medical concerns. (Oh Jonathan, My old friend and classmate, it pains me to say this but that you've let yourself descend to the level of being a flaming asshole propagandist with an MD sheepskin is disgusting; I'm ashamed and embarrassed for you - JJS) CNN’s Reiner: ‘Manic Cadence’ of Trump’s Speech Raises Health Concerns
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‘The EU’s AI Act should be a wake-up call for every American who cares about sovereignty and free expression.’ ‘The idea that a laissez-faire approach to artificial intelligence protects free markets is no longer tenable when Europe is already writing and enforcing the rules.’ New Heartland Institute Study: Europe Is Now Regulating America’s AI
Robert Zimmerman: "The frightening part to me, however, is the weak response by parents. Only half are convinced this technology is harming their kids, and even those who do believe so are not taking it away from their children, only limiting its use in a variety of superficial and generally ineffective ways." New study: AI is corrupting the minds of children
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS,
“Trump Media & Technology Group built uncancellable infrastructure to secure free expression online for Americans, and now we’re taking a big step forward toward a revolutionary technology that will cement America’s global energy dominance for generations,” TMTG Chairman and CEO Devin Nunes said in a statement.Trump Media Announces $6 Billion Merger With Tech Giant To Spearhead ‘Fusion Energy’ Revolution
Stefanik, whose team argues she has the best shot at defeating incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, is facing Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Even though Stefanik currently leads Blakeman by 31 points, President Donald Trump has asserted both are “great people” and declined to get involved in the race at this point. Elise Stefanik Went Full MAGA — So Where Is Her Trump Endorsement?
“So, all this stuff they’re doing with the not getting off of the trans for everyone, not getting off of the just racial politics, the victimhood politics, the soft on crime politics…none of this stuff is actually helping their brand, amongst themselves.” Shock Poll Reveals Democrats at Worst Level of the Century (take another poll New Year's eve 2100 and call me - jjs)
The Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization Act authorizes President Donald Trump to commission American operators under letters of marque to seize cartel property and persons on land or sea outside the United States. Exclusive — Patriots of the Caribbean: Sen. Mike Lee Bill Authorizes Privateers to Combat Cartels Outside U.S. Borders (I can imagine Democrats one day deputizing Antifa goons to use deadly force on suspected conservatives! Nous Somme Charlie Kirk et Hebdo maintenant - jjs)
The Indo-Pacific is where global power now concentrates, and decades of U.S. neglect have left deterrence against a rising China urgent, fragile, and racing against time. Deterrence by Denial in the Indo-Pacific
I negotiated directly with the drug companies in foreign nations to which were taken advantage of our country for many decades to slash prices on drugs and pharmaceuticals by as much as 400 500 and even 600% in other words, your drug costs will be plummeting downward, and I use the threat of tariffs to get foreign countries who would never have done it to pay the cost of this giant dollar reduction. ‘I’m Doing What No Politician Has Ever Done’: TrumpRx Delivers Historic Price Cuts Up to 600%
The deadline for this report suggests that Trump’s executive order today is precisely aimed at providing Isaacman the political clout he needs to pull those astronauts from [the spring SLS-Orion lunar] mission, for legitimate safety concerns. When he releases this report in March, he will do so with great fanfare, in a manner that will allow him to take such a politically charged action.
New Trump executive order today guarantees major changes coming to NASA’s Moon program
Flammarion Crater is of interest because some scientists believe it once held a lake. These channels on the periphery of the crater floor support that hypothesis, especially as they seem to drain downward into the crater. Ancient Martian drainage into crater lake, now turned into ridges
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
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.
My Apple ID, which I have held for around 25 years (it was originally a username, before they had to be email addresses; it's from the iTools era), has been permanently disabled. This isn't just an email address; it is my core digital identity. It holds terabytes of family photos, my entire message history, and is the key to syncing my work across the ecosystem.
I effectively have over $30,000 worth of previously-active "bricked" hardware. My iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Macs cannot sync, update, or function properly. I have lost access to thousands of dollars in purchased software and media.
You might be thinking at this point that this guy is an idiot for giving a single company complete control over his personal and work life in this way.
Thursday Overnight Open Thread - December 18, 2025 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
Joyce Bealer (U.S.), 3rd Place Landscape Photographer of the Year
Howdy Hordelings! Thanks for stopping by the Thursday ONT.
Happy Hannukah to those who are celebrating.
Coming up on the shortest daylight day of the year.
Two weeks to get your 2025 charitable donations in.
OK - enough preambling. Let's step inside, shall we?!?
In what the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) called “an extremely rare event,” an adult Michigan man became infected with rabies following a kidney transplant. According to a CDC report, the man received a left kidney from a deceased donor in Idaho in December 2024. The procedure went perfectly, and the patient made a full recovery, but just over five weeks later, he started experiencing worrying symptoms.
The unnamed kidney recipient first started experiencing tremors, leg weakness, confusion, and urinary incontinence, but things only got worse. Within days, he was hospitalized with fever, difficulty swallowing, signs of hydrophobia, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction. He soon had to be mechanically ventilated because he couldn’t breathe by himself, and died a week into his hospitalization.
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Having visited Zion National Park recently, I can attest to crowd sizes and shuttle bus congestion. This might be a good way to address those things.
America's national parks are becoming increasingly popular, with over 330 million visits recorded in 2024 alone. As more travelers head outdoors, the National Park Service (NPS) has been experimenting with different entry and reservation systems to manage growing crowds.
That's what federal and state officials discussed recently during a meeting hosted by Utah's Public Lands Coordinating Council. At this meeting, officials revisited the idea of implementing timed entry systems at Zion and Arches National Parks to manage congestion during peak travel seasons.
While state leaders have expressed hesitation about expanding timed entry—particularly at Zion—a former NPS superintendent argues that some form of reservation system is becoming unavoidable as park crowds continue to surge.
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She's handling this better than I think I would have
Target employee who was harassed over her Charlie Kirk shirt speaks out— says she does not want the woman who harassed her to lose her job over it
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. I really wouldn’t want to see her lose her job over it.” pic.twitter.com/5rEUHHkfkb
The nasty shopper issued an apology. Sincere? You decide.
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I'm aware of the "No math on the blog" rule. Rules must sometimes be broken!
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Physics / weights and measures are math adjacent. Apparently they worked differently back in the stone ages.
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One week until Christmas. Have you watched many Christmas movies yet? You're probably aware of the "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" debate. But how about "Is Home Alone a Christian movie?"
Annual reminder that Home Alone is a Christian movie.
Watch this scene very carefully, where Kevin is drawn to the beauty and warmth of the church.
As he walks inside to "O Holy Night", he hears the words "Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices!"
Annual reminder that Home Alone is a Christian movie.
Watch this scene very carefully, where Kevin is drawn to the beauty and warmth of the church.
As he walks inside to "O Holy Night", he hears the words "Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices!"
A sanctuary candle passes across the foreground, indicating that Christ is present inside the church.
Kevin then has an encounter with a Christ figure: Old Man Marley. Kevin makes a confession to him, then shakes his hand and we see a bandage on Marley's hand.
It's never explained why his hand is wounded, but earlier in the movie we saw that his hand was actually pierced ALL THE WAY THROUGH — like the nails driven through Christ's hands on the cross.
At the end of the movie, Kevin cannot save himself from the burglars, and so Marley appears again to rescue him.
What's the common thread / common meaning / common leitmotif? Other than they're all songs from prog rock bands.
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Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told Just the News on Wednesday that federal and local officials involved in the prosecutions of President Donald Trump may face legal action if the Department of Justice identifies a conspiracy to deprive him or his followers of his civil rights.
"The Department of Justice is at the heart of considering these issues right now, so I can't really talk about the specifics, but in general terms, yes," she said on the Just the News, No Noise television show.
"The Civil Rights Division and the DOJ generally do have the tool of a criminal conspiracy statute for conspiracy against rights, and this dates back to the start of the Ku Klux Klan, and when the Klan and its predecessors used to go after people, and they could involve, sometimes local law enforcement to do that," she said. "And so we have the ability, if we can prove a conspiracy to violate someone's civil rights, that that could be a criminal matter."
...
"That also goes for lawyers who leak and betray confidence as a breach of privilege, and for people who violate their oath as attorneys, they could also face bar sanctions if there's a bar referral after an investigation like that," Dhillon explained.
"So, I would say all of those things are on the table for lawyers and DOJ officials and others who conspired with them at the state level, state prosecutors, state police and so forth, who conspired to violate civil rights. And it could also include executive branch officials from the first administration who knowingly conspired and orchestrated a violation of federal civil rights."
The four Republicans who signed on Wednesday morning and pushed it to 218 were Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa.
All four of them represent competitive districts that could make or break the GOP's narrow House majority. Democrats have been slamming each of them as complicit in the impending lapse of the funding, which first passed in 2021 under President Joe Biden in a bid to cap premiums for "benchmark" plans at 8.5% of income. ...
"House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments," Fitzpatrick said. "As I've stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge. Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome."
It's possible this was Failure Theater from Johnson.
Update: I assume this is the car rented by the shooter, found abandoned in New Hampshire.
Podcast: Will Ukraine be a flashpoint for a Korean conflict, Trump's intemperate Reiner comments, it's the economy stupid! the Monroe/Trump Doctrine, Bondi, Brown, MIT, and more!
Megyn Kelly finally calls out Candace Owens
Whoops, I meant she bravely attacks Sydney Sweeney for "bending the knee." (Sweeney put out a very empty PR statement saying "I'm against hate." Whoop-de-doo.)
Megyn Kelly claims she doesn't want to call people out on the right when asked about Candace Owens but then has no compunctions at all about calling people out on the right.
As long as they're not Candace Owens. Strangely, she seems blind and deaf to anything Candace Owens says. That's why this woman calls her "Megyn Keller."
She's now asking her pay-pigs in Pakistan how they think she should address the Candace Owens situation, and if they think this is really all about Israel and the Jews.
Podcast: Pete Hegseth is everything the left hates...and we love! Illinois is the next flashpoint for federal supremacy with regard to our borders, Trump's communication leaves something to be desired, and more!
I have happily forgotten what Milo Yiannopoulos sounds like, but I still enjoyed this impression from from Ami Kozak.
Well, bamboo is actually a type of grass, and underground, it's all connected in a sprawling network, just like the parts of this story I never wanted to tell. I wish I hadn't been put in this position, that I didn't have to write about any of this, that I didn't have to subject myself or my loved ones to embarrassment and further loss of privacy.
We're back to the fucking bamboo. Guys, I don't think I can pay for bamboo ruminations.
I think he added that because he was embarrassed about all the bamboo imagery from Part 1. He's justifying his twin obsessions: His ex, and bamboo. Which is not a tree but a kind of grass, he'll have you know.
On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi's story seemed more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked into a "New & Notable" rack next to the escalator, below Malala Yousafzai's "Finding My Way." Not many had sold so far, a store employee said.
A few blocks uptown, at a branch of the local independent chain McNally Jackson Books, a few volumes lay on a table of new and noteworthy nonfiction near the front of the store. No one was lining up to get them, or even browsing. Bookseller Alex Howe told CNN around 3 p.m. that though the store had procured "several dozen" copies, not a single one had yet sold -- a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in media and publishing work in the area.
"We ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door," Howe said. "I'm not sure where we're gonna put them because right now, supply is outpacing demand." (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the store.)
She trashes Ryan Lizza for his "Revenge Porn" here. Emily Jashinsky says that when the Bulwark's gay grifter Tim Miller asked why she didn't report on the (alleged) use of ketamine by RFKJr., she broke down in tears and asked to end the interview.
Podcast: Sefton is back with CBD to discuss killing narco-terrorists (we are both for it!), the TN special election, Trump's communication skills, and more!
Incumbent Senator John Cornyn (RINO - TX) betrayed his party and his country by voting in favor Biden's Afghan resettlement bill in 2021. Cornyn voted to bring in the Afghan who shot two National Guard soldiers on US soil. A vote for Cornyn is an endorsement of importing unvetted, radicalized murderers. [Buck]
