Ace of Spades Pet Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

What time is it? Well, it is time for the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Put down whatever you were doing. Curl up on or lean back in your favorite piece of furniture and enjoy the world of pets.

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Four ears, quadruple the hearing? Cat with four ears. H/T Jane D'oh

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You thought feeding time was nuts at your place? Check this out.

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There was no intent. So the dog must be not guilty. Man survives being shot by his dog.

A dog named Charlie shot a man named "Tex" on the way to a jackrabbit hunt in the New Mexico desert.

“It went through my ribs my lung and busted up my collarbone on the right side," victim Tex Harold Gilligan told ABC News. "I had a gaping hole, you know, and a lot of blood there too,” Gilligan said. “I could see the blood and I felt it,” he said.

Yes, it is an older story. But, still a good story and a lesson for all of us.

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How do dogs choose their favorite person?

You would think that a dog’s favorite person would be whoever gives them the most food and attention, right? While that is often the case, it’s not always that simple.

Maybe you have a friend or family member that your dog loves so much they would knock you over to get to them. Why is that? It turns out that there are several factors that can influence your dog’s decision about who their favorite person is. Here are a few of them.

1. Who they socialize with early is a big factor

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A sad horse says "Good-bye" to its human.

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Bouncey-Dog

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A friend of mine's email stationary closing goes, "when God prepared to cast man out of the Garden of Eden, He saw that of all the animals, only dogs were still in a sinless state of grace. So He told them they could stay......

But, because they loved us, dogs chose to walk out with us.

And this next story shows the power of a dog over us mere mortals. H/T Miley the Duchess

This is going to be an uncharacteristic departure for me. This story is deeply personal, for our family, and for our oldest son in particular. But it is a story he’s letting me tell, because it is a story he wants people to hear.

My son Max was born in Detroit in 1997, he spent the next summer in Hong Kong when I was interning at Fidelity Investments, and moved to London before he was two when I accepted an offer to work for Fido there full-time.

He was an amazing child, and became an amazing young man. But he had his demons. And just before he turned 16 years old, those demons arrived with a vengeance. I will spare you the details, but for the next three years, he went through a personal hell. Imagine all the things you don’t want to have happen to your teenager. They happened to him. For three years my wife and I would wait on our front stoop until 5:00 am, in the shadow of the Albert Bridge, hoping that he would come home. On those nights that he didn’t, we would call the hospitals, and call the police. And sometimes the police would call us.

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Meet The PetMorons

Hello Petmorons Chief

Hope you don't mind a third posting about our GSD Max?

This time he is together with his big sister Nena.

Max is crazy about her, they are inseparable, as you can see.

I've sent two photos. You can choose either or both, as you wish.

As usual, thanks for all your work with the thread. - Ivan

They are an adorable set of sibs. I bet it can be quite boisterous there at Casa Ivan. Thanks for being a regular here at the Pet Thread.

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&

Good morning AofS PET THREAD,

We have updated our pet status from none to 1 over Mother’s Day weekend. My 15 year old daughter decided on a juvenile chameleon (full adult size up to 18 or so inches maybe bigger). We named him Charlie Brown. This is the first of this type pet and neither of us know what we are doing exactly. Info we find is confusing to say the least and at points contradictory. We now keep sticks on the dining room table for times to get him out of his cage for cleaning or just because. We don’t eat off the dining table so it’s not a yucky as it sounds.

My teen enjoys feeding him meal worms with mustard greens attached to them from a spoon. Charlie Brown enjoys eating the meal worms from the spoon while avoiding the mustard greens like the plague. Crickets are his morning meal, another critter I never thought I would intentionally keep in the house. I never thought I would enjoy a reptile as a pet, but he is pretty cool.

The second photo is of a puppy that was dropped off out at my dad’s home in the country. We know it was a house pet because it does understand commands, wants to go inside desperately, and seems very friendly. He’s kind of cute, but neither I nor my dad are not in a position to have a dog. My dad is the primary caregiver of my mom who is in stage 2-3 Alzheimer’s. I work 45 minutes away from my home every day and haven't a fenced yard. Since he lives in the country my town’s animal shelter won’t let my dad bring it there. Dad is feeding and watering the dog, and the dog follows him around outside.

It would be nice if some Moron would be willing to adopt (ie, come get it and make it part of their animal family), but that may just be my wishful thinking. Anyway, this is too long; use what you will. Love the pet thread. - Thanks, Rambling Mother

Interesting stories about these 2 critters. To be honest with you I wasn't sure where to edit it. Sounds like you enjoy your reptile. The pup is cute. Hopefully, this dog will have a happy ending to its dilemma.

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This is KatyDid, a 14 year old Himalayan with a pedigree longer than the Queen of England's. I inherited her about five years back from a friend. Katy was born in a professional cattery, and as a kitten was diagnosed as carrying the genetic markers for Polycystic Kidney Disease, a condition that kills the cat by age five. My friend, who in the past, had bred and showed Himalayans herself, agreed to take Katy because she could not be shown nor bred.I remember Pat practically dancing on the ceiling when Katy hit her fifth birthday with no symptoms. When Pat gave Katy to me, she told me to never forget Katy had PKD, and would probably not live much longer. Katy's been to the vet several times since then to be tested. Every test has come back negative. All I can figure is the original test came back as a false positive. -Captain Josepha Sabin

What an awesome story Cpt. Josepha. She's a beautiful cat and we are so happy for you and her long life to date.

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Here is our current barn cat/garage cat, Ray Stizzy. He showed up about 5 years ago. At that time there was already a black male cat living around the house who wasn't people friendly. One day a black cat came up and rubbed on my legs and tried to get into the house. I told my wife the cat is acting weird, she said she noticed that, too. A few days later we saw them both together, mystery solved, and my wife started putting out extra food.

A short time after that, he showed up with a nasty gash in his head. We took him to the vet, he received some stitches along with normal veterinarian cat care. He lived the basement as he healed, we had to be able to catch him to give him his medication, so he was moved into an Xpen. He also received his name at the vet visit. The vet tech asked for his name and that is what she and my wife came up with.

Today our original black cat is no longer with us. Ray spends his time out in the fields, goat barn, and chicken coop killing rodents. He began sleeping in the garage two winters ago. The last polar vortex we had I tried to move him from the garage to the basement, but he'd just run up the steps, back into the garage. I left the basement door open so he could go down if he wanted to, and maybe it let a little heat up. His water wasn't freezing.

Although I'm more of a dogs person, Ray is a pretty darn good cat.

Thanks for the pet thread! - Evasiveboat42

And thank you for your submission of Ray today. It seems the majority of pet "owners" here have some unusual and unique stories on how their pets became part of their lives. Thanks again.

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I read Ace of Spades every day but I think the pet thread is my favorite section. My beloved girl Kayla passed this past Wednesday five days short of her thirteenth birthday. I have a broken heart right now. She was a great friend and companion. - Art

Our condolences Art, Kayla was a beautiful dog. Amazing how they become so entwined in our lives. Twelve years pass in the blink of an eye. I appreciate your kind words for the Pet Thread.

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Quite the group of Pet Morons today. Thank you for submitting the photos and stories. And thanks to all who submit links and cartoons, etc.

Do you have something you would like to share on the Pet Thread. You can reach out to us here, petmorons at gmail dot com.

Have a great week!!

Close it up

Saturday Gardening Thread: Summer Solstice [KT]

—Open Blogger

Hello, Gardeners and Friends of Gardeners ! Yesterday was the Summer Solstice. Did you remember? That California Poppy from 40 miles north closes at night, so last night could have been its shortest night.

This week, we have a feature on a small garden pest and on a big one. Plus some fun things from The Horde.

Critters, some nice, some not so nice

From lizabtha, a ruby-throated hummingbird in the catmint:

Bet they eat those blood-sucking black flies, too.

Black Flies, AKA Buffalo Gnats, AKA Turkey Gnats

With the late rains and flooding this year, some of this information may still be useful this year. If not, remember it for next year if these insects live where you do:

How to make a hat that traps those clouds of black flies around your face. The trick is not to touch the fly strip. Short videos at the link.

Those are all of the bugs that thought that they would be able to torment me. As an added bonus, and this part is especially for all of you that know what I mean when I say that a black fly swarm around your head - the circling and singing that they do to drive ya crazy - well when they land on this strip they scream. It's incredibly loud for such a small bug and I'm not ashamed to say it's also strangely entertaining. "Who's having a good time now, black fly? Me." - The laughing gardener.

The host blogger for the post above has a little more land than her guest blogger, and wrote this piece on making dandelion salve, for arthritis relief in her case. Perhaps you were wondering what to do with your dandelions.

She belongs to the Homestead Bloggers Network, where I found this piece on keeping black flies (buffalo gnats, turkey gnats) from killing your chickens. Seems pretty thorough. The bit on vanilla-scented chickens is not overly hopeful.

This post also linked the University of Arkansas extension, which notes that flooding conditions increase black fly populations, and that they pretty much go away once temperatures hit 80 degrees. But these black flies are a serious problem while they are around. From last year:

Between heavy rain and temperatures bouncing between the 40s and 70s in the last few weeks, "we're seeing a bumper crop of black flies, likely as a result of floods in February and March," Kelly Loftin, extension entomologist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said on Monday. "These are late winter, early spring pests that usually go away when temperatures warm above 80 degrees."

Grant Beckwith, Arkansas County extension staff chair for the Division of Agriculture, said a cattle producer in DeWitt lost a prize bull and cow to the flies - identified as southern buffalo gnats.

"I've also heard reports that several horses had died and there were some deer lying dead in fields," he said. "I had one farmer tell me he was met at his carport by a deer who was inside trying to get away from the gnats. The gnats don't like to be under a roof or indoors.

Some livestock operations set set up situations which allowed to animals to congregate in heavy smoke to repel the insects.

"Buffalo gnats are a fact of life down here," Beckwith said. "The running joke is that the buffalo gnats will have you looking forward to mosquito season."

Last Thursday, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission closed its Cook Lake Conservation Education Center until further notice because of the fly outbreak. The center posted photos on Facebook page of with piles of dead black flies on the nature center's doorstep, saying "at this time, it is impossible for visitors to do anything unless covered with mosquito nets."

Hank Curmudgeon sent along this link from Pennsylvania, about avoiding black flies, with Bt. This organism is related to the one used for mosquito larvae and caterpillars. Interesting that as pollution decreases in streams, black fly populations go up.

To cheer us up, Hank also sent this great video on butterfly farming. Ever wondered where those butterfly houses get their butterflies? Hank also likes some of the other videos on this guy's channel.

Illiniwek has sent in a fun video of some big creatures that may or may not be considered to be pests, depending on your point of view. Thanks to CBD for formatting for the blog:

Illiniwek has planned for deer. Have you?

If you have deer in your yard and you're in the East, they are probably here to stay.

For every Staten Island homeowner who gets annoyed when a deer crashes through his yard and takes down a tree, there's another who feeds them out of his hand. How many deer are too many is largely in the eye of the beholder. Whatever their feelings about their hooved neighbors, Americans in deer-rich places will be coexisting with them for the foreseeable future. If you plant tulips (a deer favorite) in your garden, expect to have company.

Farm Report

I know that a lot of farmers have not been able to plant in the midwest because of flooding. What's been going on near you?

A new vineyard has gone in near me. Probably table grapes. Cotton grew there last year. Grapes will take less water. Cotton in the next field is doing well. Nearby, pistachios are nearing maturity. They are in a high-salinity area.

Second-crop corn is coming up in some fields. Other fields have just been plowed down. We have a long growing season.

Hank Curmudgeon sent in this cool heavy equipment gif. Might not want to watch if if you have a migraine. It is remarkable, though.

Gardens of The Horde and Recipes

We posted photos and information about roses from badgerwx earlier, but here is an impressive sight from earlier in the year:

The wet year we had in the state of MD really helped the spring blooms look good this year - my roses had a really strong first bloom this year.

To set the stage, here are my main beds along the main road back in late
April. A good show from the bearded iris, May Night salvia & cheddar pinks.

Cheddar pinks sound wonderful. I hope there were a few extra fragrant blossoms to pick for the house. They go well with the other flowers, too.

Early in the month, Wee Kreek Farm Girl sent us the following update from the desert:

Just thought I would send a few updates on the garden. The arch experiment is coming along nicely and I have lots of vines growing up, now they just have to grow "over" the big show off is the Armenian cucumber.

Armenian cucumbers are really melons, so they are a good choice for the desert.

Also it is looking to be a stellar year for the grapes, Thompson red seedless if my memory serves.

The last picture is the great garlic harvest of 2019. I tried halfheartedly to grow garlic before, sticking store bought cloves in and whatnot and it never amounted to much. This year I buckled down did my research of what might do well here and ordered proper stock. As you can see that made all the difference. These are Moroccan Creole, nice big heads. I have a few smaller heads but those are from a friends garlic that they grew and gave me some. All in I have over 60 heads of garlic. Just started drying them out today and then I will have to hang them for a few weeks. Very excited on how this went. I am going to try and save a few heads to plant for next year. And I did get a few scapes so I am going to try making pesto. Hope the rest of the Horde is as happy gardening as I am.

She posted recipes in the comments on June 8 (59 - 61). Garlic scape pesto! I would used pine nuts, too. Also a favorite zucchini recipe that uses other garden ingredients. Fantastic!

Wasp Killer that works

Last week in the comments, S. Lynne recommended a wasp trap combining Frontline for pets, hamburger, red Solo cups (the sign of a gardener) and wasp attractant. This one sounds similar, and the blog post is informative. Kills meat-eating wasps and yellow jackets even in the nest:

But be careful to get the product that contains only Fipronil as its active ingredient. When Fipronil is coupled with other ingredients, the wasps will ignore it.

Thanks so much!

I have transplanted some little Salvias and China Pinks and one Hollyhock in hot weather. Worked out OK. I really firmed the soil in around the root balls.

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at g mail dot com

Include your nic unless you want to remain a lurker.

Close it up

California Report, June 22 [KT]

—Open Blogger

Well, I guess it's time for another periodic, sort of local, California Report.

Recently, I received the following notification from Pacific Gas & Electric:

Given the growing threat of extreme weather, we want all of our customers to be prepared for power outages. If extreme fire danger conditions threaten a portion of the electric system serving your community, it will be necessary for us to turn off electricity in the interest of public safety. This is called a Public Safety Power Shutoff.

This means that my electricity could be shut off for several days if there were a threat of wildfire in the foothills, even though I live in the flatlands.

They want me to prepare in advance. They have a checklist. Update contact information, Plan for medical needs, identify charging methods for phones and keep hard copies of emergency numbers, build or restock an emergency kit and know how to manually open your garage door.

These are not bad things to do in case of other emergencies, either. Every once in a while, we sneak a little preparedness information into the Gardening Thread, too.

But this whole plan for shutting off the power is a drag. Insty linked an excellent piece by James Meigs at City Journal (I have wondered how the Manhattan Institute became so interested in California):

Saturday Morning Coffee Break

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Ahh Saturday morning my little sunbeams. Let us take a look at a few stories that didn't get too much attention here at the AoSHQ.

EMT 6/22/19

—krakatoa

I always have meat without any pudding.

Hodgepodge ONT

—WeirdDave

I'm gonna throw everything left in the hopper against the wall and see what sticks. Last night it was Spam. What will it be tonight?

Hmmm. Let's take a look.

Congressman Nadler looks like he should be planning a bird-themed crime wave in Gotham:

So, Trump tweeted a video today which showed Trump 20** signs, into infinity. Ace linked it below. Of course our better in the media were quick to react:

FUNNY? The President of the United States just tweeted a video that envisions him remaining in the office for eternity in defiance of both human mortality & the 22nd amendment to the United States Constitution. https://t.co/wsvbDENhMw

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) June 21, 2019

That's right Kenneth. Trump's nefarious plan is to live forever. You figured it out.

Time was quick to note that the video was “manipulated”

The animation you shared is a manipulated version of the Oct. 22, 2018, cover of TIME. Here's the real one pic.twitter.com/P0WF2nSeNH

— TIME (@TIME) June 21, 2019

All in all today on Twitter has been somewhat like this:

We now go live to the Blue Check Brigade for their reaction to Trump's "President Forever" tweet: pic.twitter.com/1YTHq2FXD6

— Dave's Not Here (@Weirddave0) June 22, 2019

Enough of that crap. How about some science? Archimedes once said “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth” to explain the power of the lever. OK, where would that place have to be? This video answers that question:

And here's a fun video explaining how to visualize gravity:

Look! Up on the roof! It's a bird! It's a plane! Oh, it's that spider goof.

'Spider-Man' seen pressure washing roof of Florida home during rainstorm

I always think of Alexthechick when I see this picture.

I like this next one because it's subtle, and it requires a knowledge of both history and social media to get the joke.

Y'know, ever since I saw JFK, I've wondered what Jim Garrison could have produced if he went into the private sector. Well, now I have my answer: This video.

This (real) video from GE on how to reset their "C" light bulbs is the most incredible how-to video you'll ever see.

They want to see how far they can push their customers before they snap. https://t.co/gbXOc543fy

— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) June 20, 2019

Enough, people. You don't need to hook your light bulbs up to the internet. You don't need your refrigerators, buttplugs or shoe shine machines hooked up to the internet either. Leave it alone. Go outside. Enjoy the day. You're actually altering your physiology.

Young people are growing horns from cellphone use: study

Ahh, screw it. Tonight's ONT brought to you by close calls:

That was close. ��
(�� via @JimLeitrim) pic.twitter.com/C6reXD4OSv

— Darwin Award �� (@AwardsDarwin) June 15, 2019

Close it up

Open Thread or Like Whatever Man

—Ace of Spades

Another week. We had some laughs, we shared some news, I snapped at some commenters. Good times.

Bloomberg Opinion: Trump Doesn't Need to Strike Iran. His Sanctions Are Already Devastating It.

—Ace of Spades

I tend to think we do have to hit Iran if they attack more ships, but here's the other perspective: Iran is cracking under brutal sanctions and wants to change the circumstances in order to wheedle its way out of the sanctions.

Why give them that change? They're the ones that need a change of storyline. We don't.

What we're seeing unfold in the Persian Gulf is a confrontation between a U.S. president who doesn’t know when he's winning, and a Supreme Leader who doesn't know when he's losing. If Donald Trump changes his mind again and orders an attack on Iranian targets, he will have played into Ali Khamenei's hands.

It's too early to exhale after Trump's decision to cancel a military strike last night. If he could order the jets scrambled once -- without giving Congress or American allies much time to consult and advise -- he can do so again. The next time, he may not call it off.

But that would be to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Trump seems to have lost sight of the fact that his "maximum pressure" sanctions campaign against the Islamic Republic is working: Iran's economy is feeling great pain, and its isolation is deepening. For all of its proclamations of resistance and resilience, the regime in Tehran is plainly alarmed.

In its panic, it has started to lash out in ways that hurt its own interests, and erode the sympathy it has enjoyed in international circles since Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal last year...

And Trump was, for once, playing his cards reasonably well. He stated his openness to negotiations and his desire to avoid war...

This is exactly the right response to Iran's provocations: To brush them off and allow the regime to damage itself in the court of world opinion, even as it is continually weakened by sanctions...

What should Trump do instead? Hold his nerve, keep his patience and let Iran dig itself into a deeper hole.

Thoughts?

Killing them softly > killing them loudly?

As long as they're being killed, I guess I'm fine with it.

Meanwhile, a short sad fat little man howls impotently.

George Conway blasted President Trump and called for him to resign from office after he walked back a planned military strike against Iran in response to the downing of a U.S. surveillance drone.

“Trump didn’t realize UNTIL TEN MINUTES BEFOREHAND that a planned airstrike would kill over a hundred people and would therefore be grossly disproportionate to the loss of a UAV?” Conway, lawyer and husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, tweeted Friday. “To say this is amateur hour would defame amateurs.”

"Resign. If you didn’t know this until it was almost too late, you’re even more of an idiot than people think you are," Conway tweeted in response to Trump. "Do the country and the world a favor. Go back to real estate, where the worst you can do is kill banks."

Dude, if you spent that kind of energy trying to repair with your wife, maybe you wouldn't be such a spazz all the time.

Teaser: James O'Keefe and Project Veritas Breaking Story from Whistleblower on Monday, About Social Media Battlespace Preparation
Plus: Donald Trump Declares End to American Republic or Something

—Ace of Spades

I just want to get something up. I'll just add some other things into this post as I find them.

I can really get sucked into any comment thread about etymologies and this new post is way overdo, so it's a work in progress.

Oh Boy: Special Prosecutor Appointed to Probe Kim Foxx's Corrupt Handling of Jussie Smollett Case;
As Kim Foxx's Fake-Recusal Sham Was Illegal, Jussie Smollett May Be Recharged and Retried

—Ace of Spades

Oh boy is this great....!

So, I'm just spitballing based on the story from John Sexton at Hot Air and my basic sense of how these things work, but I think what's going on here is this:

1. From where an elected official derives his power from is important, and it's what makes us a constitutional republic. When a state's attorney is appointed by a governor, the governor is elected by the people, and invested with the power to appoint states attorneys, so the states attorneys' power to prosecute derives from the people, albeit indirectly.

In Illinois, states attorneys are elected directly, so their power derives directly from the people.

2. There is a specified procedure for recusal of states attorney and for appointing a special prosecutor for the cases the attorney has recused herself from. Kim Foxx attempted a fake, sham recusal, a non-recusal recusal, and did not follow this procedure. She tried to pretend she was recusing herself while just giving the case to her direct subordinate -- someone who cannot be said to be "independent" of her, as she's his boss. He knows her mind, and he knows what she wants him to do. And he's incentivized to please her.

3. So, when Kim Foxx executed this illegal, unconstitutional maneuver of appointing a fake special prosecutor who was really just her flunky carrying out her wishes, that fake special prosecutor did not have any actual authority deriving from the law or the people in an election.

4. Therefore, her deputy's decision to let Smollett off the hook without even an admission of guilt was done without any actual force of law. It was basically lawless, and can be, and should be, ignored.

Sexton quotes from the Chicago Tribune below. The judge who appointed the special prosecutor is named Toomin -- and you'll see, Toomin has some concerns about Kim Foxx.

"There was no duly elected state's attorney when Jussie Smollett was arrested. Ms. Foxx had already effected her recusal," Toomin said, nor was there any legally appointed prosecutor when Smollett was charged, or the charges dismissed.

Toomin expressed concerned about Foxx’s decision to delegate case to Magats.

"There isn’t an office of 'acting states attorney.' It existed only . . . in the imagination of Ms Foxx," Toomin said.

So, Foxx could recuse herself -- and she is actually ethically required to do so -- but she didn't actually recuse herself, and attempted to keep the power in her own hands by handing it off, supposedly, to a flunky, someone not appointed to the position of special prosecutor according to the law, but was only appointed by her own whim.

So everything Magats did is... legally void. He did not have any of the legal power or right to act in the name of the state.

If Kim Foxx is actually out of the case, then she has no power to oversee this case. An official can only delegate the power she actually has, and if Kim Foxx had no power, having recused herself, then she has no power remaining to delegate to her deputy.

Where did Magats' power derive from? He had no power of his own; he's not elected. He can't have derived it from Foxx, because she, supposedly, recused herself from the case. She had no remaining power in the matter.

So... with what authority was he acting?

She's being investigated for her actions, but I assume The Guild Protects Its Own -- always -- so she'll suffer no more than a Sternly Written Letter, if that.

More interesting then is what happens to Smollett. The dismissal of charges against him is void, it was done extraconstitutionally and illegally, so that's a do-over.

Though I guess he has a lot of legal arguments he can make, like the right of a citizen to rely upon the decisions made by someone acting with the (assumed, asserted) power of the state, and not be exposed to a kind of (arguable) double-jeopardy.

We'll see.

On the other hand... well, we might find out that Smollett and Foxx were in communication during this "recusal," making him a participant in all this rather than a bystander.

Let's see those emails and phone records.

Update: From Tami:

@crepeau

And now, a statement from Foxx's former Chief Ethics Officer April Perry -- Foxx has long claimed she recused herself on Perry's advice; here's Perry saying it's more complicated than that.

https://tinyurl.com/yyg5gpbf

@crepeau

essentially - Perry is saying once she became aware that the recusal might not be legally sound, she took steps to try to remedy that, but Foxx declined to follow through.

Because she didn't want it to be legally sound. She wanted it Calvinball, where she is simultaneously recused "colloquially," for public consumption, and yet not recused, when it comes to doing favors for palz.

Some Iran Spin

—Ace of Spades

At PJ Media, the Morning Briefing notes that Democrats had their attack lines all ready for any Trump attack on Iran: but now they're confuzenated.

The Democrats are confused. They wanted so badly to burp up their pre-fab, anti-war talking points, but Trump isn't making war. What to do, what to do? Politico has it covered with a piece that was probably pre-written after news broke that Iran shot down our drone: 'Step back from the brink of war': Democrats slam Trump on report he ordered Iran strikes. The Democrats needed some opportunity to seem relevant and Politico delivered. But why would anyone care about foreign policy strategy from the party who secretly gave the Iranian terror regime billions of dollars and pulled back sanctions to sign a nuclear "deal" with no oversight?

Commenters tell me that Democrats are now attacking Trump for not launching an attack on Iran.

They're very serious people, you know.

ABC News Hits Hunter Biden on Cash-Cozy Relationships with Ukraine, China; Rush Limbaugh Wonders if the Media Hasn't Decided that Floppy Joe's Not Woke Enough, and Needs to Be Taken Out

—Ace of Spades

Selling Biden short.

ABC's chief national correspondent Tom Llamas did a surprisingly good job reporting on the suspicious foreign business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden on ABC's "Good Morning America" Thursday.

ABC did such an outstanding job, in fact, that leading conservative pundits now believe the media is turning on Biden.

"That’s it, folks. If ABC News is going after the Hunter Biden-ChiCom-Ukraine scandal, it’s over. Somebody in the Democrat-media complex has decided it’s time to take Plugs out," Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show Thursday.

ABC's report focuses on Biden's diplomatic work in China and Ukraine during the Obama years, and how lucrative business deals seemed to fall on Hunter Biden's lap in those countries soon afterward.

Story and video from ABC at the PJ Media link.

Here's video from RCP of Rush Limbaugh declaring Floppy Joe's campaign "over."

Meanwhile, a former ABC reporter, Red Sam Donaldson, is demanding that Joe Biden apologize for his racially insensitive remarks about segregation.

If you don't know what racially insensitive means, it's what we say about Democrats when we'd call Republicans "racist."

Biden Was More Than "Civil" With Segregationists. He Was a Segregationist.

—Ace of Spades

Biden's trying to dress up his previous opposition to desegregation as merely being courtly.

I'm not saying you should throw yourselves on to the bonfire of past racial sins if you were ever (or still are) an opponent of forced busing.

But the Democrat Party does say things like that. Obama opposed (supposedly) gay marriage during his presidential run and that was not just okay but great because it showed how moderate it was. Then he decided he was Totally Down With Gay Marriage and his prior position was now that of a Garbage Person On The Wrong Side of History.

The Democrats are very fond of turning yesterday's consensus Democrat position into today's anathema.

Well, Joe Biden was a fierce opponent of "forced busing" and an ally of segregationists.

Time to build a statue of him so we can immediately tear it down.

In 1973, Democratic Party leadership was teeming with unsavory Southern senators. If a freshman like Biden--who in a 1974 Time magazine profile admitted "to being compulsively ambitious"--wanted a plum committee position, he would be compelled to approach someone like J. William Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, a segregationist and anti-Semite who would later become a mentor to the Clintons. (Bill awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993 and Hillary still had her name on a shared fellowship in 2016--although no one seemed to mind very much).

And if Biden wanted to be on the judiciary committee, he would have to get along with Eastland, the "Voice of the White South," who was chair and president pro tempore of the Senate. The stories about their chummy relationship aren't new; Biden has been repeating them for decades.

...

astland took an interest in Biden because the young senator shared his position on busing, one of the most contentious racial policy fights of the early 1970s. It was during this time that busing had turned working-class, union-heavy white areas like South Boston—the kind of district that launched Biden’s political career--into"“war zones."

...

Biden, according Annis, showed Eastland "considerable deference" towards the Mississippi senator not because he was the key to freshman’s political ambitions but also an ally in the busing fight. Biden admits as much years later in his own 2008 book, "Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics."

Uh-oh, we've got a Nazi running around who hasn't been milkshaked. Alert antifa.

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"One of you 'ettes commented last time that the HR department at the company you work for has begun listing preferred pronouns in the signature line of their emails. Our tendency as conservatives is to roll our eyes and ignore such silliness, but I think we're missing an opportunity here for a little Alinsky-style guerilla theater. We need to work this rule to the max. Some of you suggested other possible prounouns we could use, such as 'Your Royal Highness' and 'Ming the Merciless.' 'El Jefe Maximo' is also good, as is 'The Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rolla.' The more outlandish, the better. Jam it up their snouts. I have heard of conservatives on Twitter making use of these personal pronouns and actually getting progressive ratfinks that they were arguing with suspended or even banned for not using them. Hey, it's *their* rule. They insisted on it. Let them choke on it. Or another thing we can do, which is going to take us out of our comfort zone, is to find some lesbian bar and have a bunch of conservative guys show up in dresses and lipstick and hang out for a few hours, buying drinks, farting loudly, laughing in deep, masculine voices, and throwing beer nuts at the other customers. I think something like that will really frost their flannel. But there's not much they can do about it. If they tried to throw us out, we could screech like the devil's own klaxon about discrimination. The point is, the best way to deal with progressive bullsh*t is not to engage them on any kind of intellectual level, which we all know is a complete waste of time, but with ridicule, contempt, and ceaseless mockery."

Imagine The Reaction Of The Hair-On-Fire Media If This Were Trump Saying These Things:

After last night's rally, Democrats are doubling down on calling Trump a "dictator" and Republicans a "hate group and a "cult."

Add in Biden saying they need a "brass knuckle fight" and a "physical revolution..."

You've got the makings of a VERY DANGEROUS call to action. pic.twitter.com/ctUnajoVFB

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) June 19, 2019

Alexa Gets Naughty:

(NSFW for some language)

Moar Fun With Alexa:

Who Dis:

(click for larger size)And if this isn't obvious enough, there's always this photo.

For the 'Ettes:

Bonus: Hey, Remember Back When Cher Used To Go Around Pretending She Was An American Indian?

Wednesday's celebs: Shelley Duvall and Robin Williams, who starred in Robert Altman's Popeye, a film which should've been better than it was.

Friday Shoe Pr0n:

Today's Edition Of The Morning Rant Is Brought To You By Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream:

Close it up

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

Boy And Girl Gazing At The Moon
Norman Rockwell

The Morning Report - 6/21/19

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. The weekend is here as well as the summer solstice, arriving at 11:54AM Eastern Time. But there's a lot to cover, so strap your board to your back and hitch a ride in your wetsuit, and away we go. First up, the president spoke about the downing of a US military drone by Iran as it was flying in international airspace and while everyone expected the angry, bloodthirsty OrangeManBad to nuke Teheran, his response was absolutely pitch perfect. He laid the blame squarely at their feet, but by speculating that it was some rogue trigger-happy general, he defused tensions while still keeping the heat and pressure on the Iranians without backing down. Secondarily, the markets appreciated his reaction, going from down 250 points to closing up 250 points after his remarks. Well played, Mr. President. You've pissed off the warmongers in the military industrial complex as well as made the media look like idiots... yet again. Look, the Iranian regime has got to go. They have been the single greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world, with the blood of scores of American soldiers and civilians on their hands. They want nukes not merely as a deterrent but because Armageddon for them is a desirable political end game. They must be eliminated. The question is, what should we do to hasten their removal?

The other issue at play here is the poorly concealed and treasonous activity of the former administration, particularly John Kerry, who is consorting with a sworn enemy and encouraging them to provoke this President. I personally do not think that the shooting down of the drone or the attack on the two tankers in the Gulf were accidents. Nor do I think the Iranians would have done that without being given some sort of assurance by Kerry and perhaps Obama and others that doing so would hasten Trump's departure and that sanctions will be lifted and the Nuke Deal will be reinstated. This is, to put it mildly, the height of folly. And I'll go on record as saying if war, in whatever form it might take, does break out, the fault will be with the traitors who are actively undermining the foreign policy of this administration.

We'll delve more into this topic at the Foreign Desk but for now, let's go to the immigration and border crisis where, with reports of upwards of 100,000 illegals evading capture and the CBP's provost reporting that the agency is utterly swamped, you'll be happy to know that your GOP-e has caved to the Democrats in a $4.6 billion dollar sham bill that addresses the crisis by swaddling the invaders in everything Tio Azucar can swaddle them in. Veto this garbage, Mr. President. Also, the provost reports that the invaders caught are coming from 52 different countries, and that means someone somewhere is paying for transportation from overseas to Mexico. This is a national security threat every bit as dangerous as that from Iran and must be addressed as such. And the threat is enemies domestic as well as foreign, as sanctuary city-protected illegal alien rapist is released only to attack the same disabled woman three days later.

Believe it or not, nothing new in the Clinton/Obama Anti-Trump Coup to report so moving on to the Democrat Scandal Sheet and Official Anti-Semitism category, the knives seem to be out for Joey Bidet with the agitprop media finally giving full and unvarnished coverage of his shady dealings with the Chi-Coms and Ukraine for the betterment of himself and sons. Hunter Biden, the inept cocaine addict is evidently still active in that Chi-Com investment firm he was set up in. Elsewhere, a member of the Polish parliament has invited Chiquita Khruschev to visit the real ones that exterminated several million Jews by her kissing cousins of the NSDAP, not the imaginary ones in conjured up in her brainwashed cerebellum run by Amerikkka. Waste of time.

Civil War 2.0: A good essay on the derangement of the Democrat-Left that is turning them into vicious automatons who are now openly hell bent on not just defeating Trump but overthrowing every last vestige of America as founded (Trump merely the focus and reason for their hatred).

Politics: Treacher raises a rather salient point about Joey Bidet and his sudden labeling by the Democrats as an unreconstructed bigot, Chiquita Khruschev defends Booker attacking Bidet, Go-Go Gohmert gets heckled for stating the truth and the facts about Democrats, conservative blacks revolted by reparations push, along with the open socialist sewers of California, the illegal alien driver's licenses present an opportunity for Trump and the GOP to hit Democrats, Roy Moore is running for Senator again and Don Jr. slams him for his claims his candidacy is not anti-Trump, Piers Morgan confident of a Trump 2020 victory (he's got to get his mind right on the 2-A), all is forgiven and forgotten by Dems with Coonman Northam, Clyburn turns his ire on Pelosi and Hoyer, Larry Elder pissed no one confronted Chiquita Khruschev on her definition of the word "free" in all her free shit giveaways, more warning bells about the national popular vote, a rather positive spin on the demographic shifts in US population vis a vis electoral politics, and lastly, if 2016 was the "Flight 93 election, "Candace Owens has a new moniker for the 2020 election. Read and heed.

First Amendment and Fake News Fakery: Marco Rubio slams the WaPo for claiming Trump has lost interest in Venezuela, two essays on SCOTUS okaying the Bladensburg Cross, German State organ blocks author for their citing a Joo-hater, a look at the secret algorithms muzzling conservative voices, a call for the media to stop pimping Russky and Chi-Com propaganda, Humberto Fontova compares Trump and Che Guevara when it comes to homosexual rights, another essay on the anti flag burning proposal, and Daniel Greenfield with a warning about what this bloated commie billionaire Marc Benioff is doing with Salesforce to silence and purge his political enemies, meaning normal Americans.

Abortion: Rhode Island jumps on the baby-killing bandwagon as Governor Raimondo (what the fuck is the deal with that name?!) signs bill legalizing abortion up to birth. But, even Democrat lawmakers there protested it. The 9th Circus hands a big win to Trump which will seriously kneecap Planned Parenthood in the wallet, Los Angeles Dem calls abortion for what it is: black genocide, and in light of Justice Clarence Thomas' words on the subject, an essay on the nature of eugenics.

Foreign Desk: Back to Iran where the NY Times is reporting that Trump was all set to order major retaliatory strikes on Iran for their downing of a US drone but eased off the trigger at the last moment, but that said the US is expected to retaliate in some form within the next few days. Target Iranian bases or forces in Syria or elsewhere outside their borders or the base from where the missile or aircraft was launched that downed the drone. Maybe a SEAL raid to cripple an installation. We shall see. A Hobson's choice for UK conservatives, two essays on the long and short term threats and challenge from the Chi-Coms, is Maduro trafficking in Nazi gold stolen from Jewish victims?, and the death of Morsi is being pimped by the agitprop media as Khashoggi 2: Assassination Boogaloo. Pfft.

DEE-Fense: The trial of this Navy SEAL accused of a war crime gets turned on its ear as a medic steps forward to confess to the killing, some senators are briefed on Navy UFO sightings, and California judge hands an inadvertent, yet potentially huge win to Chi-Com industrial spying arm Huawei. Is there some sort of national security executive order that can override this? Since they are owned by the Chi-Com government, they present a clear and existential national security threat. Experts among the Horde, please weigh in.

We-All-Slam-For-I-Slam: Mostly peaceful shouts of I KEEEEEL YOU! emanating from Harrisburg as clit-clipping gets the chop, and mostly peaceful death threats from the religion of peace.

Domestic News: Angelenos have had it up to here (pointing to forehead) with the homelessness and are calling for Mayor Garcetti to step down. Pro-tip: stop voting for goddam Democrats - forever. Minnesota millionaire gets food stamps for a year to show how easy it is to scam the system, showdown between Congress and Trump on spending, bombshell SCOTUS sex case a big bust, despite a looming pension disaster, California divests from profitable investments because SJW madness, and a Pollyanna-ish essay on getting the Golden State on its feet. Again, dump all Democrats - forever.

The Economy: Correlation between Chi-Com imports and the drug trade here and south of the border.

Crime and Punishment: The headline says it all. Dear Lord...

Education: A call for the reformation of higher ed. Meh, the entire system from pre-K through post-grad is nothing but anti-American brainwashing. Scrap it all.

Red Greens: GOP lawmakers flee Oregon rather than vote on a disastrous cap and trade bill and the governor sends the state cops after them, and New York's anti-science anti-carbon bill will kill whatever is still surviving of the state's economy.

Hither and Yon: Whoopi Rape-Rape opens cake-hole and flatus emanates, films about terrorism that attempt to make the terrorists reasonable actually do just the opposite, a summer film watch list for conservatives and Christian Toto says Hollywood's Trump derangement will only help him in 2020.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

NOTE: The opinions expressed in some links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, MIGRANT INVASION BORDER WALL, BORDER SECURITY

• Over 100,000 Illegals Have Evaded Capture As Border Patrol Buckles Under the Immigration Crisis, Provost Says
  
• GOP Senators Grant Policy Wins to Democrats in $4.6 Billion Migration Budget (veto, Mr. President - jjs)
  
• Illegal Alien Rapist Released By Sanctuary City Allegedly Attacks Same Disabled Victim Three Days later
  
• Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost: Family Units from 52 Countries Have Illegally Crossed the Border

  CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, THE MUELLER DECEPTION

  No links, believe it or not.

  DEMOCRAT-LEFTIST SCANDALS, CRIMES, CHUTZ-POCRISY, MESHUGAS
  

• Hunter Biden Still Active in Chinese-Sponsored Investment Fund
  
• Member of Polish Parliament Invites Chiquita Khruschev AOC to Visit Real Concentration Camps

  CIVILWAR 2.0
  

• Dangerous Derangement

  POLITICS
  

• If Biden Is a Racist, Why Did the Media and Other Dems Let Him Stand Next to Obama for Eight Years?
  
• Chiquita Khruschev AOC: Booker Doesn't Owe Apology for Calling Out Biden "Waxing Nostalgic" About Segregationists
  
• "You Lie!" Heckler Yells as Go-Go Gohmert Correctly Notes Democrats' Links to Slavery, Jim Crow Laws
  
• Driver's Licenses For Illegals Are a Huge Opening For New York's GOP (and Trump should come stump - jjs)
  
• De Bolshevik's Most Laughable Excuse Yet
  
• Conservative Black Activists Call Reparations Proposal Unnecessary Divisive "Sham"
  
• Roy Moore Announces He's Running for Senate... Again (dude, go the hell away already - jjs)
  
• "Pure Fake News": Don Jr. Slams Roy Moore for Claiming He's Not Running Against the President
  
• Piers Morgan: Here's How I Know Trump Is Going To Win Easily (someone should get this man to a shooting range and get his mind 100% right - jjs)
  
• Democrat Groups Announce Partnership With Coonman Northam's PAC
  
• Clyburn Accuses Pelosi, Hoyer of "Tokenism" in Hiring Practices (hey, genius, what do you think all this diversity garbage is all about? - jjs)
  
• Elder: Chiquita Khruschev AOC Got a Pass on the Cost of "Free"
  
• Liberals' National Popular Vote Scheme Is Unconstitutional and Dangerous (thank goodness we have the courts [sarc] - jjs)
  
• Demographics Is Not Destiny
  
• The Democrats' Presidential Field and Communism
  
• Owens: The September 12 Election

  FIRST AMENDMENT, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, BIG BROTHER BIG TECH
  

• Rubio Slams WaPo Report Claiming Trump Losing Interest in Venezuela
  
• SCOTUS OKs Cross Memorial
  
• Bladensburg Cross a Pyrrhic Victory for Conservatives at Supreme Court
  
• German State Broadcaster Blocked Me For Objecting To Their Citing An Anti-Semitic Politician
  
• How Secret Algorithms Are Crushing Conservative Media
  
• If Media Don't Want To Be Called Propagandists, They Need To Stop Publishing Chinese and Russian Propaganda
  
• Fontova: Trump vs. Che Guevara on Gay Pride - A Media Comparison
  
• Defending Free Speech Is More Important Than a Flag Burning Ban
  
• Greenfield: The Most Anti-Conservative Company in America Is Making a Big Move

  ABORTION
  

• Rhode Island Passes "Abortion Until Birth" Bill; Senator: "We Will All Be Accountable To God"
  
• Big Trump Win In Court Could Cost Planned Parenthood Tens Of Millions Of Dollars (from the 9th Circus no less - jjs)
  
• LA Democrat Rep. Katrina Jackson: Black Abortion Is "Modern-Day Genocide"
  
• Eugenics: Hate, Not Autonomy

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL
  

• NY Times Claims Trump Ordered, Then Canceled Air and Naval Strikes Against Iran
  
• Limbaugh: Trump's Comments About the Drone Shoot-Down Were Pitch Perfect
  
• US Expected to Strike Back for Iran's Downing of Drone
  
• The Last Thing America Needs Is Yet Another Open-Ended War In the Middle East
  
• UK Conservatives to Choose Between Liberal Boris and Liberal Hunt... Or Rebel
  
• China: The Accidental Superpower (aided and abetted by US globalist presidents - jjs)
  
• Hong Kong, China, and the USA in the Age of Trump
  
• Is Venezuela's Maduro Trafficking Nazi Gold Stolen From Holocaust Victims?
  
• Khashoggi Part II? The Media and Left's Reaction to Muslim Brotherhood Leader's Death

  DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
  

• Medic Testifies He Killed ISIS Animal, Not Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher
  
• Select Senators Got Classified Briefing On UFOs From US Navy
  
• A Court Win for China Spells Trouble for US Security

  ISLAM, TERRORISM, SHARIA, DHIMMITUDE
  

• Pennsy Senate Passes Bill to Make Female Genital Mutilation a Felony in State
  
• Peaceful Death Threats

  DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE BUREAUCRACY, WASTE, FRAUD, CORRUPTION
  

• Homeless Crisis Boils Over In LA, Residents Call For Mayor To Step Down (where's Gavin Threesome? - jjs)
  
• Millionaire Gets Food Stamps to Prove Eligibility Loophole
  
• Congress vs. the Trump Administration on Spending
  
• Expected Bombshell SCOTUS Case About Federal Sex Offender Law Turns Out to Be a Dud
  
• You're On the Hook For Trillions In Pension Overpromises, and Divestment Is Making It Worse
  
• Getting the Golden State Building Again (wishful thinking considering who controls the state - jjs)

  THE ECONOMY, STUPID
  

• Study: Rising Chinese Imports in US Contributed to Increasing Drug-Related Violence and Trafficking in Mexico

  CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY
  

• Boy, 7, Reportedly Beaten To Death By Mother For Refusing To Dress Like a Girl

  EDUCATION, INDOCTRINATION
  

• We Need a Higher Education Reformation (total education reformation - jjs)

  RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, LYSENKOISM
  

• Thug Oregon Governor Sends State Police to Round Up Republicans Who Fled State to Force Vote on Cap and Trade Bill
  
• New York's New Anti-Carbon Law Won't Dent "Climate Change", Could Ruin State

  CULTURE WARS, HITHER & YON
  

• Whoopi Rape-Rape Wants Mitch McConnell To Pay Reparations... To Barack Obama (stop culturally appropriating a Jewish surname - jjs)
  
• Filmmakers Foiled in Making Terrorists' Grievances Seem Reasonable
  
• Here Are the Best Conservative Films To Watch This Summer
  
• Toto: Hollywood Is Trump's Secret Weapon in 2020; Here's Why

Perverted ONT

—WeirdDave

When ladies need it bad, they have a go-to move:

I Remember When “Eat My Ass” Was Fighting Words

‘Edible Anus’ Company Makes Chocolate Molds of Your (Or a Loved One’s) Butthole

I wonder if there's an “asshole code” like the candy code, so you can tell which asshole is which? “Oooh, gimme that one it's full of cream!” or “Yuck! I got a coconut asshole”

And, of course in the delightful year of 2019, they have a strong social media presence:

“Pfffft! There was a hair in my chocolate”

Perverts All The Way Down

Are Pride Parades Kid-Friendly? Parents Say Children Can Handle The Kink

Tell me again how the left isn't trying to normalize pedophilia. And why shouldn't they? I believe that a great deal (not all, certainly, but a great deal) of one's sexual identity comes from the way in which they become aware of their sexual nature, and if that is done in the context of kinks or perversions than they will be more likely to incorporate those kinks or perversions into their own sexual lives. From a pervert's POV it's win/win.

CNN Finally Stopped Covering It Last Week

What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane

We has humans always seem to have a hard time accepting that a single individual can do something that has an impact far greater than their stature. JFK being assassinated was a seminal event in so many people's lives that they just can't believe that it was caused by one loser communist with an Italian rifle. It was too big, too important, it has to be a conspiracy, so they invent a cause that's on par with the effect. Same thing with 9/11. Here, the conclusion is that it was the pilot, acting alone, who, for whatever reason, depressurized the cabin killing everyone, flew for six more hours, then nosedived into the ocean. The bit on killing everyone is especially chilling:

An intentional depressurization would have been an obvious way—and probably the only way—to subdue a potentially unruly cabin in an airplane that was going to remain in flight for hours to come. In the cabin, the effect would have gone unnoticed but for the sudden appearance of the drop-down oxygen masks and perhaps the cabin crew’s use of the few portable units of similar design. None of those cabin masks was intended for more than about 15 minutes of use during emergency descents to altitudes below 13,000 feet; they would have been of no value at all cruising at 40,000 feet. The cabin occupants would have become incapacitated within a couple of minutes, lost consciousness, and gently died without any choking or gasping for air. The scene would have been dimly lit by the emergency lights, with the dead belted into their seats, their faces nestled in the worthless oxygen masks dangling on tubes from the ceiling.

We surrender control, or at least the illusion of control, over our own lives every time we step on a jetliner. It's scary to think that one madman could end our lives and we'd be helpless to stop it, but well, there ya go.

Gee-Haw Wimmy Diddle

I just wanted to type Gee-Haw Wimmy Diddle. I think I have a some new invective. “Gee-Haw Wimmy Diddle folks, don't just stand there, get moving!”

Rubbing the stick over the notches creates both vertical and horizontal vibrations, and leads to an elliptical motion of the nail in the center of a propeller, which begins to rotate. This is a Gee-Haw Wimmy Diddle https://t.co/IbcIMuiKHs [explanation: https://t.co/dHpgXY2W0C] pic.twitter.com/F8tUEBEqoa

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 20, 2019

Politics

Yes, Tariffs Make Stuff More Expensive, But Sometimes It’s Worth It

All the free trade absolutists (but only on us, donchakno) screaming about tariffs making stuff more expensive are missing the point. Of course they make stuff more expensive. Nobody is saying that they don't, but that's not the point. Tariffs are about leverage. What would they prefer? War?

The Alt-Right Is The Mirror Image Of The New Left

He describes the intersection of the two as “It helps to envision our political spectrum not as a line but as a circle. At one point in that circle, the alt-right and the progressive left meet and become of a piece.“ I've always felt a more useful political continuum from left to right is a line not a circle, but a line that measures individual freedom from government coercion. Thus the "far right" becomes pure anarchy, and the left encompasses all big govt totalitarian systems, be they fascist, communist, socialist, monarchical, theologian or whatever. The debate becomes where the optimal place to stop is (hint: It's pretty far to the right, but not all the way). Here, watch this helpful video(from the John Birch Society!):

Speaking of the John Birch society, here's their founder, Robert Welch:

In 1958 #RobertWelsh warned ALL abt the #NWO - still true today! We MUST STOP it! #AmericaFirstpic.twitter.com/UpecYUiRvF

— ������Lady De’Plorable������ (@LadyRedWave) June 19, 2019

Yeah, yeah, I get it. JBS, har, har, har. Now, with 60 years of hindsight, tell me where he was wrong. I'll wait.

Tonight's ONT brought to you by grandpa:

The Yahoo Group would rather be dead than Red.

Close it up

GAINZZZ Thread

—Ace of Spades

As you probably know, because I never shut up about it, I went 27 1/2 days on an almost pure fast, no calories. The "almost" part is there because after my doctor scared me and told me to go off the fast, due to mild dehydration, I started breaking it with some bone broth and olives on day 23.

Then I decided I was wrong to break it and continued it, though after that, I did have two cups of bone broth a day to make sure I got my electrolytes in. Two cups of bone broth together are 80 calories. I bent the fast a little, but I don't think I really broke it.

The only other calories I've had were from sugar-free Metamucil every two or three days -- apparently 20-40 calories a serving. Soluble fiber, I think, while not digestible by your own processes, gets digested by your intestinal flora into butyrane and other short-chain fatty acids, which then enter your blood stream as actual nutrition.

Anyway, so, those small number of calories aside, no calories for 23 days, then 80 calories per day for the last four days.

I've had a few bad days -- I got dehydrated last Thursday and Friday -- and I've had the occasional... GI problems, but only occasionally and pretty lightly.

But some of the days I felt, no exaggeration the best I've felt that I can remember. Some days I've had very high energy and great optimism and a feeling of well-being. (I think that depression is pretty much just low energy, and good feelings and optimism are just high energy. At least for me, it works out that simply.)

A big problem I had is that, because I'd been drinking so much, and peeing so damn much, I keep waking up in the night, sometimes twice, to pee. So my sleep wasn't great most days.

Hunger almost entirely went away on day seven or eight, so it got super-easy, barely an inconvenience past that point.

Hunger would come back occasionally, but usually only due to stimulus, like someone eating in front of me. And not very ravenously.

Most of the time I could watch recipe/cooking videos now without torturing myself.

At some point, I wanted to eat not because I was actually hungry or felt that I needed to eat, but because I was bored of not eating, if that makes sense.

Eating is a pretty major sensory stimulus -- I would say it's the most sensuous experience people routinely have, outside of sex -- and you do start to miss it.

My weight dropped from 181 to 161, from 23.5% body fat to 19.1%. Since then, I held pretty stable at 163, but the last couple of days, the scale says I gained four more pounds back.

Not sure why because I've been doing One Meal A Day (OMAD) many days, and Nearly One Mean a Day (NOMAD -- copyright me, just one main meal plus some olives or something light an hour later) most days.

Gaining four pounds in two or three days is a lot of regain, so I think that maybe that's a lot of water weight I should have regained earlier but didn't. I stopped making a point to drink lots of liquids the moment I ended the fast, so maybe I just got dehydrated post-fast, or kept the mild case of dehydration going.

I had quite a headache for four days running so maybe that's confirmation that I was dehydrated, and maybe the regain is due to my trying to drink a lot of fluids since then.

I have not yet returned to weightlifting or martial arts, because I'm very lazy. I really have to get back to that.

Overall, it was a good experience. I felt pretty good most days -- some days I felt really good. I didn't make it quite to my main goal of 28 days, and not to my extended goals of 31, 35, or 40 days, but maybe next time.

I would definitely not recommend a long fast like that to anyone; it's something you build up to, like a skill. You need to get good at fasting, and get your body accomodated it, starting with just going 16 hours without any food, then 20, then 24, then 36 (a full day, plus that night), then two days, then three days, then four, then five. Shorter fasts to just get acclimated to it, and develop the needed knowledge base (like how much salt you, personally, need to supplement per day).

Once you're up to five days you can go for seven, and then after seven, you can probably go as long as you like, but I wouldn't recommend going too far in early days.

In fact, I wouldn't suggest that anyone who hasn't been fasting for short periods of time on and off for a year ever try more than five days, because at the five day point, refeeding syndrome becomes a possibility, which could result in hospitalization or death if you shock your system with too much food too quickly.

So, I did that, and sort of can't wait to go again in August, maybe. I was knocking on the door of being actually fit, and didn't quite get there. (I had/have sort of loose and pock-marked skin in my belly, due to fat being sucked out of there.)

I'm thinking just keep to keto and intermittent fasting for a couple of months, then see if I can get to the most stubborn and oldest fat I have on my body, the stuff I've had since I was 11.

This isn't just about weight loss, though excess weight is connected to a lot of chronic conditions. It's also about my fasting glucose levels being too high -- hanging right around 100, which is considered the starting point of being "prediabetic," and wanting to drop that to about 90. (It was down in the high fifties during the fast, but then, of course it was.)

I'm still being insulin resistant and therefore very sensitive to carbohydrates. Supposedly one can, over time, reverse these conditions, or at least lessen them.

So: Tell me about YO GAINZZZ.

Oh, and also: Open thread. GAINZZZ talk is invited, but you can talk about whatever you like.

Democrat Doxxer, Immediately Hired by Sheila-Jackson Lee Despite being Fired for Doxxing, Gets Four Years in Prison

—Ace of Spades

Now, I don't want to speculate about what Cosko's dating life might be in prison.

That I leave to garbage-bathers that specialize in that sort of thing, like National Review and Jonah Goldberg, who had a great deal of fun in speculating that the swinger Roger Stone might enjoy "swinging" in prison as well.

But I am concerned about a young man's welfare, so I do have to ask: will this upstanding young Aristocrat be bullied or abused in prison?

Let's check the evidence:

Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine. He's got the fine features, luxurious lashes, and long, elegant swan-like neck that puts other men on notice that if you so much as look at him funny, he will bathe in your blood before the children of Babylon.

He looks like a young Randal "Tex" Cobb.

He might have to smuggle a lot of money and contraband into prison, though, to buy off his more persistent suitors.

You know, smuggle it in his tight, coltish ass-cubby.

So he got 4 years.

After growing angry over the GOP’s handling of the nomination process he posted the personal info of Graham (R-SC), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and now-former Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch on Wikipedia. He then released the info about Kentucky Sens. McConnell and Paul.

...

Cosko pleaded guilty to five felonies in April, including making public restricted personal information, computer fraud, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

US District Court Judge Thomas Hogan said the sentence is intended to signal that politically driven criminal harassment will be punished severely.

"We have...a society that has become very vicious," Hogan said. "It's very concerning to the court and unfortunate that you played into that."

The sentencing comes after a second ex-Hassan aide, Samantha Deforest Davis, was charged with helping Cosko.

Well, the prosecutors sought five years, and the judge knocked one year off, despite acknowledging that we have become a vicious society and this little twink's actions are both an example of that and a potential source of inspiration for other twink sociopaths.

But judges always have to show themselves to "be fair and empathetic," at least when sentencing a well-connected rich Democrat.

With Republicans, you put them in solitary confinement and ship them off to Riker's for process crimes.

But you know, we should remain very invested in nurturing the current order and power structure. We're obviously on top of it, right? We should be the most vigorous defenders of the political/power hierarchy, because we're so clearly its primary beneficiaries.

We should continue living in our fantasy reality, pretending it's still 1986 or whatever and it's still perpetually Morning in America.

Shock: The FBI Used Another "Dossier" It Did Not Verify and In Fact Was Specifically Warned Might be Fake, to Start an Investigation into Paul Manafort

—Ace of Spades

Remember, it was critical to Hillary Clinton that the FBI have active investigations opened into the Trump campaign, because she had a high profile investigation into her own actions, and she desperately needed to be able to play the They Do It Too Card.

Our shining knights of fidelity, bravery, and integrity were all too eager to provide her with just that card.

The second document, known as the "black cash ledger," remarkably has escaped the [scrutiny the "Steele" "dossier" got, after-the-fact], even though its emergence in Ukraine in the summer of 2016 forced Paul Manafort to resign as Trump's campaign chairman and eventually face U.S. indictment.

In search warrant affidavits, the FBI portrayed the ledger as one reason it resurrected a criminal case against Manafort that was dropped in 2014 and needed search warrants in 2017 for bank records to prove he worked for the Russian-backed Party of Regions in Ukraine.

There's just one problem: The FBI's public reliance on the ledger came months after the feds were warned repeatedly that the document couldn’t be trusted and likely was a fake, according to documents and more than a dozen interviews with knowledgeable sources.

For example, Ukraine’' top anticorruption prosecutor, Nazar Kholodnytsky, told me he warned the U.S. State Department’s law enforcement liaison and multiple FBI agents in late summer 2016 that Ukrainian authorities who recovered the ledger believed it likely was a fraud.

"It was not to be considered a document of Manafort. It was not authenticated. And at that time it should not be used in any way to bring accusations against anybody," Kholodnytsky said, recalling what he told FBI agents.

Likewise, Manafort’s Ukrainian business partner Konstantin Kilimnik, a regular informer for the State Department, told the U.S. government almost immediately after The New York Times wrote about the ledger in August 2016 that the document probably was fake.

Manafort "could not have possibly taken large amounts of cash across three borders. It was always a different arrangement -- payments were in wire transfers to his companies, which is not a violation," Kilimnik wrote in an email to a senior U.S. official on Aug. 22, 2016.

He added: "I have some questions about this black cash stuff, because those published records do not make sense. The timeframe doesn’t match anything related to payments made to Manafort. ...It does not match my records. All fees Manafort got were wires, not cash."

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team and the FBI were given copies of Kilimnik's warning, according to three sources familiar with the documents.

Now, you really should real the whole thing, but this is incredible:

It's illegal to submit, as part of an official record, evidence to a judge -- for example, in seeking a warrant against Paul Manafort-- which the person submitting knows to be fraudulent, or which may be fraudulent.

It can result in an actual criminal charge being filed.

So, what did Mueller and Weismann do?

They could not submit the "black cash ledger" as evidence in seeking probable cause warrants against Manafort -- that could expose their own corrupt asses to federal charges.

But they were determined to jam it in there anyway.

So they submitted media reports as evidence supporting the warrant, based on leaks about the likely fraudulent ledger, as part of their application.

They effectively submitted the contents of the "ledger," without submitting the ledger itself -- in order to avoid having to tell the judge, straight up, that they'd been warned by several informed sources that the thing was a forgery and a sham.

Bring charges against them anyway. This is a transparent dodge and still constitutes submitting fraudulent "evidence" to a tribunal.

Coming soon from David French, Jonah Goldberg, and "Popehat:"

The Conservative Case for Perpetrating Serial Frauds on Federal Courts

A question worth probing: Did someone on Mueller's own team leak the contents of the sham "ledger" to the media precisely so he could get a story written up and cite that -- which was an intentional product of his own illegal leaking -- as evidence rather than having to cite the phony ledger itself?

Company Proposes, Exhibits Standing-Room Only Airplane "Seating"

—Ace of Spades

Except it's not seating, it's standing, with a little bit of leaning, plus a bicycle-like saddle delivering pressure right where you want it, in your groin.

That should make turbulent air especially fun.

You'd get a discount, I guess.

Maybe this would be plausible for a shuttle-type plane, a one-hour or 1:20 flight.

Maybe.

Meanwhile, Huntington Park, California deploys "HP Robocop," a "crime-fighting robot," though it seems to be more of a remotely-piloted drone that travels on the ground (slowly) rather than flying.

The robot, dubbed "HP Robocop," is described as an "autonomous data machine" and is expected to be officially unveiled by the Huntington Park police department on Tuesday.

Equipped with 360-degree video cameras, Huntington Park police will deploy "HP RoboCop" to monitor and surveil areas such as parks and city buildings. The robot will then be able to relay video footage from its cameras to police headquarters in order to facilitate fast and safe responses from police officers.

"HP RoboCop" will also be able to roll down sidewalks and recite phrases to members of the public, such as "excuse me" and "good day to you."

Take this back. This is not the future I ordered. No, I don't know who ordered this. No one ordered it, I would expect.

I would like you to make a whole new future, the one I specifically ordered. I need a total re-do.

As Democrats Talk More and More About Reparations, Americans Harden Their Position Against Them

—Ace of Spades

The radicalized cadre of white liberals is forcing the Democrat party to the hard left, and making the candidates all support a series of very unpopular positions.

I guess the Democrats will be running on a platform of reparations and forcing high school girls to shower with boys.

A Fox News poll in April found that 60 percent of Americans oppose paying cash reparations to descendants of slaves, while just 32 percent support it. A Rasmussen poll in the same month found that just 21 percent of likely voters think taxpayers should pay reparations to black Americans who can prove they are descended from slaves.

However, in a finding that could put 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls in a bind, the Fox poll found that among Democratic primary voters, 54 percent said they were likely to support a candidate who backed reparations, while 33 percent said they were not likely.

Additionally, Data For Progress found in a poll last year that while the measure had only 26 percent of Americans in favor, it had net positive support among voters under 45. A Point-Taken Marist poll in 2016 found that while 68 percent of Americans were opposed to reparations, 6 in 10 black Americans said they were in favor.

Woman Comes Forward, Claiming that Hunter Biden is Her Baby's Secret Father; Sues to Prove It

—Ace of Spades

She says she already has proof the baby is a Biden -- it won't stop nuzzling her cleavage

Lunden Alexis Roberts, 28, filed a petition for paternity and child support against Joe Biden’s lawyer son, saying she gave birth to his kid, "Baby Doe," in August 2018, according to court papers.

The two-page suit was filed in Independence County, Arkansas, on May 28 -- nearly two weeks after Hunter tied the knot with a South African woman named Melissa Cohen.

Roberts wants a court to establish that the 49-year-old father of three is her baby’s biological dad. She is also seeking child support and for him to provide health insurance for the now-10-month-old infant. All out-of-pocket expenses would be split between the two parents, the filing said.

Kamala Harris Accuses Trump of Trying to "Remake" America's "Demographics"... By Deporting Non-Americans?!?!

—Ace of Spades

Sounds like someone else just admitted to trying to remake the country's demographics by making non-Americans Americans.

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

—CBD

I (and most of the people around these parts) haven't been a neo-con for a very long time. But the Leftist/Democrat disinformation engine has been put into overdrive...the usual suspects are claiming that Pompeo and Bolton and Trump are provoking Iran because they are frantic for war.

Well, we have been at war with Iran for 40 years...the problem is that we didn't admit it. Iran has been the world's leader in fomenting terrorism against America and its allies, and is directly responsible for many of the American combat deaths in Iraq, via their roadside bomb technology.

Iran Shoots Down U.S. Spy Drone; CENTCOM Says It Was In International Airspace

So this is not surprising at all. If the drone was over Iranian territory, which is what the Mullahs claim (and I don't believe), then that's the cost of intelligence gathering. However, if the drone was truly over international airspace then we must respond. But contrary to the hopes and masturbatory dreams of the Democrats, we do not need to send armored columns into Iran. it is a fragile country, with many targets of opportunity that can be destroyed from afar, without risking American lives. Electric grids, their single gasoline refinery, military communications...all are excellent targets. And outside their borders they are even more vulnerable. Lebanon, Syria, Yemen (and others) have Iranian troops, advisors, military equipment, or all three.

And what is the argument against an American response? Well, the Iranian navy could close the straits of Hormuz, at least temporarily. That would send shock waves throughout the world. But who buys the most Mideast oil? China. And who can ramp up production, courtesy of fracking? America. However, any closure of the straits would demand a world-wide response, so both the closure and the Iranian navy's days would be numbered.

Iran is clearly testing the resolve of the current administration, and hoping that internal political pressure will force President Trump to moderate the sanctions because of the threat of war. But President Trump has shown that when threatened, he tends to punch back...harder. So Iran's typical game might not work now.

One option would be to keep any response under the radar, so Iran won't know for sure what happened. I like the idea of keeping them off balance and unable to point to American "provocation" and play the victim card.

Mid-Morning Open Thread [Kris]

—CBD

Cornelia, Mother Of The Gracci, Pointing To Her Children As Her Treasures
Angelica Kauffman

Angelica Kauffman painted at a time when women were heavily restricted from the royal academies, but she showed so much undeniable talent that she was a member of five across Europe. This work is an excellent example of Neoclassicism, a style about heroism, virtue and idealism. It is heavily theatrical and melodramatic. It was the first of two (or second of three depending on who you ask) major artistic expressions of the late Enlightenment period.

For me, the key elements in this work are composition and color. Cornelia dominates the painting, standing just off-center to the right, dressed in white, gold and purple. These three colors have high significance and give her an almost angelic, queenly, noble quality. Farther right, Cornelia holds her young daughter’s hand as she talks with another woman. The girl’s attention is on the shiny objects in the woman’s box. The other woman sits and is earnestly showing off her jewelry. She is also dressed in white and gold but these colors are covered with a vivid red, the color of carnality. Immediately, just by the colors alone, we are given a hint that there is something different about Cornelia.

These three figures are all connected and form one large mass of females. Two boys are to the left. The older boy’s colors mimic his mother’s, linking them and possibly saying that he is the nobler of the two. The younger boy is in red, maybe representing his immaturity. Red on both ends of the composition also frames and unifies the piece further. The younger boy is hunched over, forcing him to look up to his older brother too. This may foreshadow their adulthood when the younger will follow the older into politics and take over after the older is murdered.

A space separates the male and females but Cornelia unifies the groups using her eyes that look to the right and by her gesture towards the boys that draws the viewer’s eye to the left. The eyes swing back and forth across the canvas taking it all in. Cornelia is the tallest form in the painting and as we move to the edges the figures squat, creating a shallow triangle. This may be an homage to Greek pedimental sculpture, but it also makes everyone, including the viewer, look up to Cornelia, literally and figuratively. Kauffman’s attempts to move the eye around the piece while keeping the focus on Cornelia is important because those reds are so bright and dominant. The separation of the sexes may represent the gender expectations in Rome and Kauffman’s time. The boys are holding a book and a scroll signaling their focus on education and the intellect while their sister focuses on emotional and earthly things.

Kauffman is a woman in a profession dominated by men, painting for a female audience. Here, Cornelia is presented as the Ideal Mother, a model for women everywhere. While the other woman and the girl are preoccupied by shiny baubles and shallow things, her priorities are raising good, well-educated, grounded men. The Gracci brothers are known to Roman history as reformers and martyrs, and Kauffman answers the question of where such men come from… they come from good mothers.

[Kris has graciously agreed (after much begging from me), to write an occasional art thread. Look for her name on the headline so you won't be surprised to find actual informed art criticism on these august pages]

The Morning Report - 6/20/19

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Thursday and we're loaded with all sorts of juicy stuff guaranteed to make you nutsy-fagin so here we go. First up in the border and immigration crisis, a story that broke late yesterday where the FBI has arrested a Syrian refugee for plotting to blow up a church in Pittsburgh. Since the deviant in question is neither Jewish, Christian, conservative nor an NRA member, soon after the white patriarchy is blamed, we will be admonished against Muslim backlash before the incident is memory-holed. And this bastard came right in through the front door, presumably during the Obama reign of error. Who the hell knows what's streaming across our border now? Wait a second, we do know; Africans from the ebola belt as well as Pakistanis and Bangladeshis IIRC, along with the illiterate, destitute peasantry of most of Central America courtesy of bus, train and plane tickets paid for by a certain Nazi collaborator among others.

Meanwhile, one brave bureaucrat in New York State has defied Andrew Cuomo and his Democrat apparatchiks in the state legislature by stating he will refuse to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens. I fully expect him to get the Kim Davis treatment or worse. Yet despite this insanity, despite President Trump's victory predicated on border security and sane immigration policy, we have a GOP that wants to help... by greasing the skids for the invading hordes to get comfy and have legal aid bought and paid for by our tax dollars (see the link in the politics section about the "Tessio Republicans"). Elsewhere, ICE is giving priority to booting illegals with final removal orders, along with halitosis and un-dissolved flecks of Efferdent, Nancy Palsi projects, a legal immigrant looks at the madness, a study indicates the US is no longer the number one destination for asylum seekers (gee, how did that happen do you suppose?), and finally Chiquita Khruschev AOC sets a rhetorical trap for herself and her fellow Maoists with her "concentration camps" bilge.

To the Clinton/Obama Coup + Mueller Deception and Cover-Up and Congressional Inquisition where we have some interesting developments. Margot Cleveland over at The Federalist is high on Michael Flynn's new attorney exposing even more of Spygate criminality to a broader audience, with Manafort rotting in jail and the Dems itching to go after Trump once he leaves office in 2036 (inshalla [sarc]), Monday's SCOTUS ruling on double jeopardy puts a dent in his issuing of pardons, and Mueller might regret going after Roger Stone.

Looking at the Democrat Scandal Sheet, fresh off the news of the conviction of this Jackson Cosko stooge, news comes now of a second Congressional staffer being charged in the "doxxing" of Republicans during the Kavanaugh hearings. So that means it goes from a one-off incident to what I think was a plot to sabotage and smear the nominee and his supporters by any means necessary. And this fish stinks from the head. The head being Maggie Hassan and possibly Dianne Feinstein. Oh yes, gentle reader. I haven't forgotten her involvement in this. Stay tuned. Elsewhere, the FBI and DHS are probing a Leftist subversive organization for trying to steal massive amounts of Michigan voter data, and Louisiana's John Bel Edwards gets money from Hollywood almost immediately after returning from a Tinsel Town junket. Also, Maizie Hirohito, born of a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Whorehouse from a pimp momma, is circling the wagons around fellow detestable Dem dolt with the deep decolletage Chiquita Khruschev AOC, claiming her disgusting comparison of US detention of illegal aliens to concentration camps is just an attempt to protect Trump. Also in that vein, an excellent essay on the Left's eternal lying about Auschwitz and its meanings. More on this story in a moment.

Politics: Trump's re-election kickoff rally was by any metric an incredible success. He hit it out of the park rhetorically, both in terms of underscoring the accomplishments despite the resistance as well as dollars: $28.4 million in the first 24 hours which I believe is more than the total raised so far of the putative Dem leaders to date. He also perfectly described who and what the Democrats are. Meanwhile in the Swamp, at another dog and pony show to pimp slavery reparations - yet again - the Dems went apeshit when two black witnesses took to the microphones to denounce the concept. One of them, former NFL star Burgess Owens dropped a truth nuke on the hearings by rightfully declaring that every misery and indignity suffered by black Americans throughout our history is the fault of Democrats. Linked in the First Amendment section, a hack from the NY Times without even realizing the insanity of his statement belched up that blacks testifying against reparations "have no other qualifications than being black." Let that sink in.

Meanwhile, poor Joey Bidet is taking all kinds of flak for praising his past collegial relationship with two horrible, unreconstructed Democrat racists, the Southern Baptists go insane and embrace identity politics, Fauxca-Has-Been and Bernie Sandersnista go at each other, Tubby Riefenstahl warns Dems about enormity or something, three good links look at the GOP in all of this with Tu-Ca telling it like it is about the Koch CoC Whores, Obama will not sheathe his shit-Midas finger for 2020, and David Harsanyi on that tragedy behind Chiquita Khruschev's utter pig-ignorance vis a vis concentration camps.

First Amendment and Fake News Fakery: Target of the Columbia Journalism Review speaks out about being smeared for connecting the dots between journalists and Antifa, Josh Hawley on the warpath against Big Tech/Brother, California Church and ACLU sue election official over banned Black Lives Matter banner, smack down of Chris Cuomo on nationalism, and Republicans ask DoJ why Al Jazeera is not considered a foreign agent of Qatar?

Guns: Judge smacks down California attempt to ban gun shows.

Abortion: Tom Cotton slams companies over hypocritical pro-abortion stances.

Foreign Desk: Mexico ratifies PDT's USMCA trade deal, US official claims an Arabian Gulf of Tonkin incident with shoot down of US drone in international waters, the usually pro-Iranian Germany blames Iran for tanker attack, Victor Davis Hanson says Trump holds all the cards with Iran, Chi-Coms facing all kinds of internal strife in its cities, two Russkies and one Ukie charged with shooting down that Malaysian Airliner (not the one in Don Lemon's black hole theory), and Daniel Greenfield talks about Israel's new town named after Trump.

DEE-Fense: A look at the growing menace of cyberwarfare.

We-All-Slam-For-I-Slam: Canuck gets 26 years for aiding and abetting 2009 Iraq terror attack that killed US soldiers, and BBC imam bitches about Jooz and the Holocaust. Meh, another day ending in I KEEEEEEL YOU!

Domestic Affairs: New Jersey man gets five years in the slammer for getting his own reparations, Bill Cassidy blames Medicare and Social Security for debt and deficits and sez cutting bureaucracies elsewhere won't matter much, Dems have no solution for the latters' looming implosion, a look at the madness of California taxation, and Justice Thomas' credo. Screw Danny Glover; Clarence Thomas is a real expert on the legacy of slavery.

The Economy: Lockheed Martin announces $142 million Arkansas plant, the big upside of tariffs despite a little initial pain, and Cuomo's licenses for illegal aliens will destroy wages for legal citizen cabbies.

Crime and Punishment: NXIVM sex cult leader found guilty. Has Gillibrand ever been grilled about her former relationship with them (no, of course not)? Mayor Buttplug's anti-violence commission in South Bend is a flop. Mayor Pete: Make America Go South and Bend Over. Also, the Feds make a record 33,000-pound cocaine seizure. Where's Murkowski?

Vatican Sex Abuse Scandal: Whistleblower in the Vatican claims DC Basilica's rector a member of the "Gay Mafia." They rub glitter on the bullets instead of garlic...

Education: Rabbi Fischer on Chiquita Khruschev's concentration camp comments as a symptom of our rotting educational system, and K-12 Red Ed. Well, the latter explains the former.

Feminazism and Transgender Psychosis: IAAF is having none of the tranny garbage deeming biology not identity as defining who you are, and three high school girls file lawsuit against the junk-tuckers competing with them.

Hither and Yon: Blame the French for plummeting birth rates, two essays on Taylor Swift's SJW implosion, John Stossel on the moral case for capitalism, high tech is now lowbrow for the elite and that's unfair for the masses (I think I got that right), and a look at the fundamentalist religious cult of the Progressives. They truly are what they mock so mercilessly. Projection ain't just a river in Egypt.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

NOTE: The opinions expressed in some links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, MIGRANT INVASION BORDER WALL, BORDER SECURITY

• FBI: Syrian Refugee Who Pledged Allegiance to ISIS Arrested for Pittsburgh Church Bomb Plot
  
• New York County Clerk Is Refusing To Give Driver's Licenses To Illegals (insurrection cuts both ways, Andrew - jjs)
  
• Senate Heads Toward Addressing Border Crisis... By Funding Refugee Resettlement and Legal Aid
  
• Acting ICE Director: ICE Deporting Illegals with Final Removal Orders from Judges
  
• Palsi Pelosi: Trump's "New Threat of a Mass Deportation Dragnet is An Act of Utter Malice and Bigotry"
  
• Immigration Madness: A Legal Immigrant Weighs In
  
• Study: The US Is No Longer the Top Destination For Refugees (hallelujah, if true - jjs)
  
• Chiquita Khruschev AOC's "Concentration Camps": Dems Now Morally Obligated to Build Border Wall

  CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, THE MUELLER DECEPTION
  

• Cleveland: 5 Ways Michael Flynn's New Lawyer Could Expose More About Spygate
  
• Trump-Haters Salivating Over SCOTUS Double Jeopardy Decision
  
• Russian Hack or CrowdStrike Ruse?: Mueller May Live to Regret Indicting Roger Stone

  DEMOCRAT-LEFTIST SCANDALS, CRIMES, CHUTZ-POCRISY, MESHUGAS
  

• Second Congressional Democrat Staffer Charged in Scheme to "Dox" Republicans Amid Kavanaugh Confirmation Fight (what did Maggie Hassan know and when? - jjs)
  
• Maizie Hirohito Says Outrage Over Chiquita Khruschev AOC Comment Is "Manufactured" To Protect Trump (sez daughter of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Whorehouse - jjs)
  
• Leftists Have Always Lied About Auschwitz
  
• FBI, DHS Contacted Over Stealth Dem Effort to Gain Voter Data
  
• Film Studios Donate to John Bel Edwards After Hollywood Trip

  POLITICS
  

• Trump 2020 Campaign Raises Record $28.4 Million in First 24 Hours (early night - jjs)
  
• Trump on the Democrat Party: "More Radical, More Dangerous, and More Unhinged"
  
• Trump's Orlando Speech: Unprecedented and Remarkable
  
• Burgess Owens on Reparations: "Every Bad Thing That's Happened to My Race Over the Years" Goes "Right Back to the Democratic Party"
  
• Republican Lawmaker Booed For Explaining Why Slavery Reparations Could Be Unconstitutional
  
• Black Witness Booed For Testifying Against Slave Reparations In Congress
  
• Joe Bidet Praises "Civility" of Two Arch Segregationists
  
• In Last-Minute Move, Southern Baptist Convention Supports Anti-Christian Racial Identity Politics
  
• Stalinist Sanders Sez Trotskyite Fauxca-Has-Been Backed by "Corporate Wing"
  
• Democrat Establishment Now Sees Fauxca-Has-Been Warren As "Compromise Nominee"
  
• Tubby Riefenstahl Warns Dems About the "Enormity of the Fight Ahead" After Watching Trump Rally (he said "enormity" - jjs)
  
• Memo to Joe Bidet: Republicans Are Not Likely to Go Back to the Old Ways in a Post-Trump Era (that remains to be seen, inshalla - jjs)
  
• Tessio Republicans: Worse Than Democrats?
  
• How the GOP Will Retake the House in 2020
  
• Tu-Ca: "Conservatives Might Want to Pause and Rethink the Relationship" with the Kochs (bingo! - jjs)
  
• Good News, America: Obama Doesn't Plan to Shut Up in 2020
  
• Democrats' Problem Is Not the 70-Somethings Leading the Party, It's Their Socialist Young
  
• Harsanyi: The Problem With Chiquita Khruschev AOC's Shameful Ignorance Of History

  FIRST AMENDMENT, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, BIG BROTHER BIG TECH
  

• Black NY Times Writer Mocks Blacks Testifying Against Slave Reparations: They "Have No Apparent Qualifications Other Than Being Black" (is there a word combining "Orwellian" and "schmuck?" - jjs)
  
• The Columbia Journalism Review Smeared Me For Pointing Out Connections Between Antifa and Journalists; They Should Retract
  
• Senator Hawley Plans to Strip Big Tech of Legal Immunity
  
• California Church Teams With ACLU, Sues Election Official Over Black Lives Matter Banners
  
• There Has Always Been an American Nationalism, No Matter What Chris Cuomo Thinks
  
• Republicans Ask DoJ Why Al Jazeera Isn't Registered As Foreign Agent Of Qatar

  SECOND AMENDMENT
  

• Federal Judge Blocks California Board's Attempt to Ban Gun Shows

  ABORTION
  

• Tom Cotton Slams Pro-Abortion Companies: They "Want Men and Women, Not Family Men and Women"

  FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL
  

• Mexico Ratifies Trump's Trade Agreement
  
• US Official: Iran Shot Down American Drone Over International Airspace (Persian Gulf... of Tonkin? - jjs)
  
• Germany: "Strong Evidence" Iran Carried Out Tanker Attacks
  
• Trump is Right to Face Down Iran's Empty Threats
  
• V.D. Hanson: We Hold All the Cards in the Showdown with Iran
  
• China's Urban Crisis
  
• The Other Malaysian Airlines Flight: Three Russians and a Ukrainian Charged With Shooting Down MH17, Killing 298
  
• Greenfield: The History of the Israeli Community of Ramat Trump

  DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
  

• Cyberattacks: A New Age in Modern Warfare

  ISLAM, TERRORISM, SHARIA, DHIMMITUDE
  

• Canadian Man Gets 26 Years for Conspiracy to Kill US Soldiers
  
• BBC's Imam: "Zionists are Hiding Behind Holocaust"

  DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE BUREAUCRACY, WASTE, FRAUD, CORRUPTION
  

• New Jersey Man Faces 5 Years in Prison for $3 Million Food Stamp Fraud (meh, it's just "reparations" - jjs)
  
• Sen. Cassidy: Medicare, Social Security Are Driving the Federal Debt, Closing a Federal Department Would Not Have a "Meaningful Impact" (well, then abolish Social Security and Medicare - jjs)
  
• As Fiscal Outlook Darkens, No 2020 Hopeful Has A Plan To Save Social Security
  
• Government Needs a Tax Diet
  
• Justice Thomas' Credo

  THE ECONOMY, STUPID
  

• Lockheed Martin Announces $142 Million Expansion of Arkansas Plant, More Than 300 New Jobs
  
• Yes, Tariffs Make Stuff More Expensive, But Sometimes It's Worth It
  
• New York Democrats Gift 250,000 Illegal Alien Drivers to Uber, Delivery Companies; Wages of Citizen Cabbies Will Be Destroyed

  CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY
  

• Jury Finds Leader of Sex Cult Involving Smallville Star Guilty Of All Charges (will Gillibrand face heat for this? - jjs)
  
• Mayor Buttplug's Anti-Violence Commission Fails To Reduce Shootings in South Bend
  
• Feds Make Record Seizure of Over 33,000 Pounds Of Cocaine Worth Over $1 Billion (sound of Lisa Murkowski fainting - jjs)

  CHURCH SEX ABUSE SCANDAL, COVER UP
  

• Vatican Whistleblower Claims Rector of Washington, DC Basilica Is a Member of the "Gay Mafia"

  EDUCATION, INDOCTRINATION
  

• Rabbi Fischer: What Chiquita Khruschev AOC's "Concentration Camp" Comments Tell Us About the Deconstruction and Breakdown of American Education
  
• K-12: Red Ed

  FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
  

• Women's Gold Medalist Is "Biologically Male," Sports Governing Body Says
  
• It's Happening: Three High School Girls File Discrimination Complaint Over Dominating Transgender Athletes

  CULTURE WARS, HITHER & YON
  

• Fewer Kids? Blame the French
  
• Toto: Taylor Swift Can't Shake Off Social Justice Scolds
  
• A Swift Demise
  
• Stossel: The Moral Case for Capitalism
  
• The Wealthy's Analog Snobbery Shouldn't Crowd Out a Low-Tech Life For Those Who Need It Most
  
• Worshipful Procession: The Progressive Liberal Protest March

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (6/19/19)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quote I

“It’s bullshit. We lost. Suck it up. I don’t like harvesting, but suck it up.”

“We got a problem here in Orange County. Instead of bitching and crying [about ballot harvesting], go do it yourself. It’s legal.” Mission Viejo’s Republican Mayor Greg Raths

Quote II

“It [Communism] is not new. It is, in fact, man's second oldest faith. Its promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: "Ye shall be as gods." It is the great alternative faith of mankind. Like all great faiths, its force derives from a simple vision. Other ages have had great visions. They have always been different versions of the same vision: the vision of God and man's relationship to God. The Communist vision is the vision of Man without God.
It is the vision of man's mind displacing God as the creative intelligence of the world. It is the vision of man's liberated mind, by the sole force of its rational intelligence, redirecting man's destiny and reorganizing man's life and the world. It is the vision of man, once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in his image, but because man's mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals. Copernicus and his successors displaced man as the central fact of the universe by proving that the earth was not the central star of the universe. Communism restores man to his sovereignty by the simple method of denying God.” Whittaker Chambers, Witness

Quote III

"I also want to thank, in particular, the federal protective service whose officers saved who knows how many people this morning by responding to the active shooter situation by neutralizing the shooter," "These guys are our heroes today. We owe them a debt of gratitude." Erin Nealy Cox, U.S. Attorney

Quote IV

"I was OK with being a drug addict. I was OK with that being my life. But I wasn't OK with having kids and letting that be part of my life." Amelia (Last name withheld)

Quote V

"True Conservatives"

They're diseased whores who used to suck off the right for money, and now they suck off the left. Either way, their only marketable skill is sucking people off. Ace

Quote VI

“What’s at stake here is not my future, or ours, or even our family’s. We will be fine,” Sullivan continued. “What is at stake are the values that underwrite the best traditions of higher education, the very same traditions that have sustained Harvard for nearly 400 years. In America, everyone is entitled to a defense, in America, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and in America, everyone is entitled to due process of law under our Constitution.” Ronald Sullivan

***

So, the world's population is expected to stop growing by the end of the century.

For the first time in modern history, the world’s population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century, due in large part to falling global fertility rates, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the United Nations.

By 2100, the world’s population is projected to reach approximately 10.9 billion, with annual growth of less than 0.1% – a steep decline from current levels. Between 1950 and today, the world’s population grew between 1% and 2% each year, with the number of people rising from 2.5 billion to more than 7.7 billion.

***

The ONT is always looking out for you. Tonight is no different. The ten most dangerous countries in the world. Our advice, stay away at vacation time.

The ongoing domestic and international conflict category includes deaths from organized conflict and relations with neighboring countries. The societal safety and security category includes political instability, violent crime, and the incarcerated population. The militarization category includes access to weapons and weapons imports and exports.

In 2019, overall global peacefulness increased for the first time in five years, but the world is still less peaceful than it was 10 years ago, the report says. This year, Afghanistan replaced Syria as the least peaceful country in the world.

***

I'm a parent, not a perfect parent. Mrs. Mis. Hum. raised three great children despite me. Guess I'm opinionated and think quite a few parents today are doing it wrong. Overprotective parenting is more than an annoyance; it's an evolutionary aberration.

Children have been raised a certain way for most of human history, but only in the last half-century has the approach to parenting drastically changed. Families have gone from having natural births, shared rooms, physical contact, and frequent breastfeeding to delivering by C-sections, sleeping in separate bedrooms, formula feeding, and emphasizing 'personal space' at home.

While these changes have improved mortality rates and infant health in many cases, they have also come at a cost to the mental and emotional development of children whose brains are wired for a different kind of upbringing than the one they're getting.

Any parent who walks their child with a kiddy leash at the mall ought to be ..........

***

The Parable of the Nazi Pizza.

Race is a valuable commodity. That’s a simple truth, in the advertising world as well as in Hollywood. And just as race is a valuable commodity, so is racism. In fact, I’d argue that racism sells even better than race. A person whose race is X will see an attractive actor of X in a commercial, and that person might—might—be tempted to purchase the product being advertised because the commercial pitchperson looks like them. It’s a decent advertising strategy, but by no means guaranteed to work. On the other hand, if the person whose race is X sees an online essay or article that attacks people who are X, it’s damn near certain that the person of X will get angry and make an outrage post in which the offending link is shared.

The awesome online power of race is nowhere stronger than in the world of opinion journalism. Nothing gets social media more riled up than opinion pieces about race. People love approvingly sharing posts that insult other races, and people love angrily sharing posts that insult their own race. Race gets hits. The problem is, our benevolent media overlords are supposedly working to cleanse racism from the internet. So, how do you fight racism while still benefiting from the ad-rate-setting clicks, likes, and shares that are generated by provocative pieces that deal in racial hatred?

I’ll answer that question with the Parable of the Nazi Pizza.

***

Using canned chicken breast in a pinch is understandable. But, a whole canned cooked chicken?

The ONT Musical Interlude

John Kay solo work between Steppenwolf reunifications.

&&&

***

Attempting to recreate the movie "Stripes" is tonight's Genius Award Winner.

A drunk driver was arrested last week for driving a tank through the streets of Pajęczno, Poland.

The vehicle, a Soviet T-55 tank that's at least 60 years old, belonged to the Polish military. But on June 12 shortly before 10pm it looked like it was attacking residents, who quickly called police.

According to Polish newspaper Twoje Pajęczno, the unnamed driver, 49, was only responsible for putting the tank on and off its trailer. But the trailer broke and, when it was being repaired, he drunkenly decided to take the war machine out on a joyride.

By the time the cops arrived, he had parked the 40-ton machine, which was uninsured, on a main street and was standing nearby. Another man, believed to be his passenger, was also present.

It's not clear if the muddled motorist caused any permanent damage to Mickiewicza Street but he was arrested and, once he sobered up, questioned by police. He faces up to eight years in prison if charged with creating "direct danger of a catastrophe in land, water or air traffic," or two years for driving under the influence.

***

Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

Scientists Are Using Music To Help Build The Brains Of Premature Babies
June 18, 2019

Researchers in Switzerland have discovered that certain music helps strengthen brain development in premature babies.

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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Truth Tellers.

Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire and AceCorp, LLC. Watch out for fake ONTs.

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