Good morning, kids. Start of a new week and Presidents Day. This time, the late-breaking news on Friday that the DoJ will not prosecute key henchman in the coup against the President, Andrew McCabe for leaking to the media and lying under oath about it, as well as news that Generalissimo Alexander "Bearclaw" Vindbag will also face no disciplinary actions from the Army for his behavior in regards to the Trump-Zelensky phone call and his testimony about same at the House sham-peachment hearings.
Then of course, there's the seeming dust-up between the President and the Attorney General about the latter not pleased with the former publicly blasting (and rightly so) the outrageous sentencing of Roger Stone after being railroaded and entrapped in a process crime. With the news about McCabe and then the gingivitis calendar girl and Deep State floozy with a JD Lisa Page taking to Twitter to rub it in our faces, one might get the impression that William Barr and his associate John Durham are not going to finally be the ones that will bring a terrible swift sword of justice to these criminals, but just another in a long line of Deep State operatives who talk a big game, then shuck and jive for a few years thinking that we'll all just forget about it while they let the crooks skate.
An interesting twist is arising from the decision of Attorney General Barr to name an outside counsel, Jeffrey Jensen, to investigate the Michael Flynn case. The former top prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller's team says the ploy by Barr is a "ruse" so that the Department of Justice can open a new investigation into former FBI officials James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Peter Strzok...
...I'm not sure the McCabe matter was a "loser" case. The Justice Department IG found that McCabe lied and he was fired from his job less than two weeks before retirement. He sounds guilty as hell to me, but the Washington two-step saved McCabe from trial.
I think [Andrew] Weissman is chasing ghosts. If there is a new investigation into those former FBI officials, Barr's Justice Department wouldn't need a "ruse" to look into them. This is especially true after John Durham's investigation has begun a criminal inquiry into the origins of the Russian scandal. Right smack in the middle of that investigation are Comey and McCabe.
I can almost hear many of you, with the exception of one commenter in particular, moaning and groaning that Barr is indeed leading us all down a primrose path while cementing the nation-killing two-tiered justice system that he allegedly is against. Yet the fact remains that there is now a fully-fledged assault against his character and integrity by the Democrat-Media Complex and calls for his resignation not only by them but now by over a thousand former federal prosecutors an DoJ alumni. If you care to take a gander at that list it's virtually all Deep State hacks and stooges from top to bottom.
That can only mean one thing; that Barr and Durham are indeed going to bring the hammer down on the key players in the plot to take down Trump and reverse the 2016 presidential election and destroy his chances for 2020 in the bargain should that fail. And since past is prologue with every previous attempt including the ultimate weapon of impeachment, that is the most likely outcome. So I suppose it all boils down to William Barr himself, his nature and his character. Now doubt, he is a creature of the DC establishment having worked there over the course of decades now, including a previous stint as attorney general during Bush 41's last year in office. But is he committed to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States or of the globalist Deep State enterprise to overthrow it? You don't last 30 years in DC without both fully understanding that that indeed exists as well as its power to crush you like an insect if you're even suspected of going against them.
Again, will Barr do the right thing, knuckle under or perhaps try to find some sort of "splunge" alternative that gives the appearance of a reformer while punishing the criminals with nothing more than "the comfy chair?" With those two Monty Python references, I'll end with a Chester Nimitz/Bull Halsey one: "The world wonders..."
CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION, SHAMPEACHMENT
DEMOCRAT-LEFTIST SCANDALS, CRIMES, CHUTZ-POCRISY, MESHUGAS
What is it about San Francisco politicians shagging each other on the sly, or in the open, and yet another Day-Ending-in-Y entry of a Democrat goniffing campaign funds and presenting her wrist for a tap with a feather.
AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER CRISIS, BORDER SECURITY
Looks like the administration is serious about enforcing the law in recalcitrant, insurrectionist jurisdictions which is welcome news considering that item about California shielding illegal alien predators, Trump with a goal of 450 miles of border wall for this year, of course Sandersnista will end deportations if he's elected, Mexico is essentially Somalia on the Pacific now, Amy Klownbuchar panders hard in Nevada, if you're a union member, you're nuts to vote for people who want to give your job to aliens, Maryland loves illegal alien criminals but will nail you to the wall for balloons, and GOP introduces bill to punish states over licenses for illegals. No shot unless we win it all next November.
POLITICS, 2020 ELECTION
The crowd went absolutely wild as Trump had Air Force One buzz the Daytona 500 before having the presidential limo set the pace before the race. Naturally the propagandists' heads exploded over it. Meanwhile, Trump continues shadowing and trolling the hapless Dems on the campaign trail with a mass rally in Nevada scheduled before the state's caucuses, and while to that party's horror Sandersnista holds a commanding lead in the polls, the even more horrific prospect of another Iowa-like technical SNAFU looms large. Also, a trio of links on the complete insanity of Michelito Lo-Lo supposedly courting Hillary as his running mate. And this guy's a billionaire? Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to sink in the mire, red-diaper baby Peter Puffer slams Rush Limbaugh for the crime of telling the truth about the politicization of his homo proclivities, Mikvah Waters clueless and crass, Q&A with a GOP candidate running to retake a Trump district in NM, Rabbi Fischer unpacks Trump's lingo, and two essays on the dangers of nascent Marxism including Victor Davis Hanson on "peak progressivism" and what comes after.
FIRST AMENDMENT, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, BIG BROTHER BIG TECH
Sam Donaldson flips his wig, Media propagandists say "Michael Avenatti? Never heard of him!" More on the complete disconnect between the media and real America and what to do about those who control our personal data. I say, neutron bomb the servers.
ABORTION
Senate Democrats go the full Mengele, and there's not much difference evidently between Richard Dawkins and the aforementioned German doctor's viewpoints.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL
40 Yanks have Too Wong Flu in Japan, Justin Trudeau facing the heat for shaking hands with the people who shot down Canadian citizens, India's Modi plans yuuuuge rally for Trump, time for us to ditch Duterte, more rockets hit near US Baghdad embassy, Pompeo making the rounds and the deals in Africa, the futures of Ireland, Cuba and Germany, and finally, back to Canada which is turning into a totalitarian tyranny to our north.
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE BUREAUCRACY, WASTE, FRAUD, CORRUPTION
With Dianne Fein-China-stein still in power, this is doubtful, and "Los Angeles' addiction epidemic is creating a permanent underclass, cut off from the rest of the city."
CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY
Could Harvey skate? Also, as a career criminal thanks the Democrats in NY, these insane policies are killing us, literally.
EDUCATION, INDOCTRINATION
Bemoaning the hijacking of academia by the Marxists and an adjunct NYU "professor" lead that Antifa anarchist group that went on a vandalism spree the other week. Meh, he'll doubtless get tenure for this.
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, LYSENKOISM
How dare Trump show up Scoldilocks Thundberg and desperate Fauxca-Has-Been invents blue new deal to go with the green new deal.
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Real scientists finally speak up even as a transgender freak will be allowed to compete on the US women's team.
CULTURE WARS, HITHER & YON
Adam Silver really is a clueless bald-headed stooge, or else he's owned by the Chi-Coms, Utah moving to legalize polygamy, Christian Toto rips Samantha Pee, fie on Lifetime and Hallmark, two links on conservative films rising above Hollywood and one on the latter's fall, through the glass and darkly with a look at our possible dystopian future... happening in Europe today.
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.
ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.
"Last night on CNN, Bernie Sanders called me a political hack. “That’s exactly who the f--- I am! I am a political hack! I am not an ideologue. I am not a purist. He thinks it’s a pejorative. I kind of like it! At least I’m not a communist.” James Carville
Yet the dumb SOB will vote for him. F*ck off Serpent Head.
Quote II
There are accidental vegetarians in every country, but an abundance of food is required to convince people to go vegan. It is a status symbol for people who already enjoy status. Anyone with a bit of luck and ambition can win the rat race. It takes a special kind of hunger to win the rat race and then turn one’s nose up at cheese. Bill McMorris
Quote III
"Kansas City families can rest a little easier knowing that a company responsible for facilitating years of illegal trafficking of guns is no longer operating," "When firearm companies repeatedly ignore the law and facilitate gun trafficking they bring these sort of consequences on themselves." Alla Lefkowitz, an attorney
Death by a thousand cuts.
Quote IV
Well, Bloomberg must be the front-runner because liberals are calling him a racist,"
"Keep booing. That’s how you lost the last election," Bill Maher
Quote V
“Our family’s hope is that her death was not in vain, and that preventative measures are put into place to ensure that nothing like this ever happens to anyone ever again. The tragedy in all of this is that is could have been avoided had there been no sanctuary law. The tragedy is my grandmother is never going to be here again.” Daria Ortiz
Quote VI
“NASCAR fans never forget that no matter who wins the race, what matters most is God, family, country,POTUS Donald J. Trump
As America's craft beer industry continues to boom, the waste it generates can pose challenges for sewer systems. But if it's used in the right spot, in the right amount, it's potentially beneficial and can actually save wastewater treatment plants money.
In Bozeman, Mont., the Water Reclamation Facility treats more than 6 million gallons of water every day from sinks, showers, toilets — really anything that goes down a drain. That includes liquid waste from more than 10 breweries in this city of nearly 50,000.
Because it's rich in yeast, hops and sugar, brewery waste can throw off the microbes that wastewater treatment plants rely on to remove nitrogen and phosphorus. The two nutrients can cause algae blooms in rivers and kill off fish.
"But if we can use [brewery waste] correctly and put it in the right spot, it's very beneficial to the process," engineering consultant Coralynn Revis says.
Leading police on a high-speed pursuit through a residential neighborhood is, by all accounts, not advised. They're almost definitely going to catch up, and you put everyone around you at risk of injury or death if you decide to high-step away from Johnny Law—doubly so if you're under the influence. One Jaguar XE driver found this out first-hand near Baton Rouge, Louisiana when they ran into a ditch, ejecting them out of the vehicle and unbelievably sending the car's engine flying through the front door of a nearby apartment.
Engine 913 of the East Side Fire Department rushed to the scene after receiving a call from law enforcement, only to find what was left of the runaway Jag. The British sedan struck a series of trees before coming to a rest in the ditch, which is reportedly what sent the driver—and the four-cylinder—flying. Emergency services rushed the perp to hospital in critical condition.
***
The latest from Paul Joseph Watson..............NSFW-Language
AUSTIN, Texas - Police have arrested and charged a man with a DWI after he failed multiple sobriety tests, according to court documents.
Around 9 p.m. on January 11, police responded to a welfare check on a suspect vehicle that was reported to be driving erratically at the 2000 block of Manor Road.
According to court documents, officers searched Nunez's vehicle and found a wet cigarette with a strong chemical odor. Police determined that the suspect was under the influence of a "Dissociative Anesthetic" and could not operate a vehicle safely.
Nunez later admitted in jail that he had used a cigarette to smoke embalming fluid. The cigarette was submitted for lab testing and came back positive for Phencyclidine.
Nunez was also charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance.
***
Nice. There are comedians coming up who aren't Woke and PC.
The industrial war complex is composed of folks from the left and right. Instead of promoting wars in Syria, our national defense involving Ukraine, NATO duties, take care of our veterans who are here! Now!
Veteran: The US Military has been involved in a number of actions over the years, none so controversial, or as long lasting as the Vietnam War, which began in 1955 and rumbled on for twenty years until 1975.
During that time more than 58,000 American service personnel gave their lives in service to their country.
It is a big number, but it has come to light following a report by the US Dept of Veteran Affairs that, between 2008 and 2017, more than 60,000 American military veterans took their own lives.
60,000 was the population of the town I grew up in as a child. Shocking.
The Houston Astros cheating scandal is the story that keeps on giving. Following a week where the team issued what were widely deemed as insufficient apologies for their sign-stealing scheme during their run to the 2017 World Series title, new manager Dusty Baker has issued a plea to Major League Baseball. Simply put, he wants the league to protect his players from potential retaliation from pitchers who believe the Astros have not shown enough remorse for their misdeeds.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday at Houston’s camp in West Palm Beach, Baker admonished the seemingly “premeditated” nature of threats from players around the league to get one back on the Astros during games:
Put on your big boy pants and STFU.
***
The ONT Musical Interlude
Jeff Buckley Grace (1994)
His musician-father Tim Buckley died at the height of his fame from an alcohol/heroin overdose. Jeff, apparently straight for most of his early career, was drinking and getting high regularly during the recording of this grittily opulent album, his second. Buckley’s multi-octave voice and tortured delivery sound like a mix between Robert Plant and Anthony and the Johnsons in a hot tub full of tequila. Buckley drowned after jumping into the Wolf River for a swim fully clothed and wearing work boots. There is much speculation as to whether it was intentional or not, but the beauty of these songs is unquestioned. Via rate yourmusic.com
The 26-year-old Michigan resident was arrested early Friday after relieving himself on the bumper of a marked police car, according to Florida cops who captured him mid-stream.
Police say that Johnson was in downtown St. Petersburg around 1 AM when he was observed “approaching a sergeant’s police vehicle.” He then “removed his penis from the front of his pants, and urinated on the rear bumper of the vehicle.
Noah Woods woke up to find his bedroom on fire, but he didn't panic.
He jumped out of bed, grabbed his 2-year-old sister and got out of the house through his bedroom window.
But Noah didn't stop there.
He went back in to get the family dog and pulled it to safety. Then he ran next door and woke up his uncle to alert the rest of the family.
"We've seen children alert their families before," Bartow County Fire Department Chief Dwayne Jamison told CNN. "But for a 5-year-old to be alert enough to do this ... that's pretty extraordinary."
***
Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by The Deplorable Cruise Line.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire, AceCorp, LLC and Hamsters International United Brotherhood of Rodents. Union dues are not tax deductible.
Last week, our pal The Walking Dude reported taking delivery of a surplus 1911A1 from the CMP. Whoa! What gives?! A 1911 from the CMP?! Who doesn't want some of that action? Let's find out more below, shall we?
NOTE: I'll be checking in periodically during the thread this evening so please don't burn the place down, 'kay? Remember, you're all Gun Thread Safety Officers!
******
According to their website, The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP)is a national organization dedicated to training and educating U. S. citizens in responsible uses of firearms and airguns through gun safety training, marksmanship training and competitions. The CMP is a federally chartered 501(c)(3) corporation that places its highest priority on serving youth through gun safety and marksmanship activities that encourage personal growth and build life skills.
They also do really cool stuff like selling and repairing old martial arms!
Yep. That's right. In a 2 year pilot program allowed under 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, surplus 1911 semi-automatic pistols were released to the CMP for sale to the public. Apparantly, the government was spending $2 million per year to store 100,000 surplus 1911s which had been replaced in 1985 by the Beretta M9. Here's a 2018 article on the program from the American Rifleman Magazine.
Anyhoo, Mr Lucky-pants Walking Dude jumped through all the right hoops and was a lottery winner, and agreed to his story:
Every year the CMP will receive up to 10,000 1911A1 pistols from military arsenals for sale to the public. The funds from these sales will support CMP (Civilian Marksmanship Program) programs. Pistols are inspected and sorted into 3 grades (rack, field and Service ). People who wanted to purchase a 1911 pistol submitted an application packet to the CMP. Packets were assigned a random generated lottery number The initial lottery they are still working through had almost 20,000 applications with lottery numbers assigned. When your lottery number comes up you are contacted by phone or email and provide payment prior to shipment. Two background checks are performed, an initial background check prior to shipment and another at the 01 firearms dealer the pistol is shipped to. I had submitted my packet in Sept of 2018 and was assigned lottery number 11,7xx. The scuttlebutt I'm hearing is that in 18-24 months they will be taking new applications.
Well danged if this isn't Gun Thread worthy! One of our own Morons scores and scores bigly! Congratulations, The Walking Dude! Can we see some pictures?
As promised here are some photos of the 1911A1 I just got from the CMP. Years ago I waited too long to order a M-1 Carbine and one day they were gone never to be seen again at that price so I did not make that same mistake with the M-1 Garands and now the 1911's they offer. I really wanted a war time 1911A1 because my Dad carried one through France and all the way into Berlin when it fell. He actually got a marksmanship medal for it, a pin that looked like a little 1911A1, in addition to the marksmanship medal for rifle which is a musket in a long blue box with a wreath. He said not many people qualified for the marksmanship medal for the 1911A1. He passed away in 2017. We are losing the greatest generation as they march off into time. Not many of them left.
Man, ain't that the truth. Great story, The Walking Dude, and thank you for sharing it with us. Now let's see those pictures!
Shipped in a lockable case which much better than the cases used to ship M-1 Garands.
***
Nice foam insert with cutouts for the pistol and magazine.
***
As a gun collector you learn pretty early that you need to look in every nook and cranny of these boxes. Underneath all the foam was an Amry tech manual for the M1911A1 and a lock to safely secure the pistol from young'uns.
***
Markings right side. US govt property mark , SN (the large O in No. without a line under it indicates its the last marking iteration used by Remington Rand when they resumed production in 1943). From researching the SN it left the factory in March of 1945. To the left of the top of the grip if you look closely you can see partial stamp of the ordnance dept inspection (crossed cannons) which started appearing on pistols in 1942. Partial stampings of this are common. The 8 or & upper right of trigger and the J or 0 on the trigger guard directly below the trigger are some sort of factory inspection marks. I don't know what they mean yet and am still researching those.
***
Left side of pistol- last of 3 iterations of Remington Rand Slide marking (shorter than the slide stop) which was used from SN 980000 until end of production. Notice P proof mark near magazine release button to right of trigger. Also notice the FJA to the upper right of triggers which are the inspectors Initials (Col Frank J Atwood) only found on Remington Rand and Ithaca frames.
***
Top of slide and magazine heel- Notice P proof mark on top of slide to the right of the rear sight. The markings on the barrel indicate it is a govt contract barrel made after 1949 ".45 auto" and "7791193 " The 7791193 is the govt contract number. The magazine markings indicate it is a post WWII govt contract magazine made by Checkmate Industries.
***
Disaasembled - the C in a box on the bottom of the barrel Lug indicates the post 1949 govt contract barrel was made by Colt.
***
Barrel lug - other side.
***
Barrel Rifling- looks like new or very little use to me.
***
For more info on markings follow the Cool Gun Site link where you can find out a lot about these pistols.
The Walking Dude goes on to mention the CMP currently has lend/lease M-1 Garands returned from the Philippines for sale and he is waiting for a Winchester rack grade special which should ship out in a few weeks. For more information on the Garands they have see M1 Garand - Civilian Marksmanship Program.
******
Most of us remember Neon Madman as a collector of rare and unusual cartridges which he frequently shares with us. Well, he's obviously a pretty damn good shooter, too! I'll let his target speak for itself:
Damn, man! That's some nice shooting right there! What gun were you using?
Sweet! A Smith & Wesson revolver, and a K38 to be exact. Neon Madman tells us:
I am mainly a target shooter, favoring .22 and .38 Special. I mainly shoot revolvers in single-action mode with a two handed hold and factory iron sights, although I'll also occasionally break out one of the autoloaders for variety. I sometimes save my good targets to take along and show to my dad when I go to check on the old folks on Sunday nights. The attached target is from a week ago, and is a personal best - 6 shots of .38 wadcutter from my old K-38 at 25 feet.
Those of you who have been reading here for long will know I'm a big fan of Smith & Wesson revolvers, and the K38 model in particular. They do not call this the Masterpiece for no good reason! I have lots of old guns and lots of new guns but for dead level accuracy and the simple joy of shooting, it's hard to beat the K38.
Very nicely done, Neon Madman, and be glad you have your dad around to show your targets to. Thank you for sending this in!
******
Not all threats to your gun rights come directly as a frontal assault on the 2nd Amendment. With alarming frequency, privately owned gun ranges and shooting clubs are being dragged into court over noise complaints and safety concerns. In many cases, these facilities have operated safely for years, a fact the sometimes new "neighbors" often brought to an area by urban sprawl, typically fail to appreciate.
A good example of the clash between neighbors and shooting ranges is the Panteo Sportsman's Club in Lexington, SC which has been taken to court by residents in their area. As reported here, the range owners assert they are operating safely and the neighbors claim to be living in a war zone.
People have a right to be safe on their own property, but people also probably shouldn't locate near a shooting range if they don't like the sound of gunfire. These situations will only continue to occur with increasing frequency. What do you think is the solution?
A big thanks to our pal Will, a member of the Panteo Sportsman's Club, for sending this in!
******
NoVaMoMe 2020!!
For those who might've missed it, NoVaMoMe 2020 was announced to great fanfare a few days ago. The NoVaMoMe, a Weaselbell Production, is pretty much the social event of the season, and one you simply cannot afford to miss! Well, at least it's the can't miss social event for May 9th between 5pm and 10pm in the small geographic region of Fairfax, Virginia. All of the details and instructions for claiming a spot can be yours simply by emailing the Central Planning Committee at the link provided on the main page, left sidebar; novamome2020 at gmail dot cee oh mmm. The email address is also usually linked in our nics. As of Saturday, we're about halfway to the 100 person maximum capacity of the new and exciting venue.
Our best buddy and planner/hostess extraordinaire bluebell was quoted recently regarding the big event:
There will be plenty of Horde spouses at the MoMe, some of whom read the blog, some of whom don't, and some completely apolitical. I want to assure everyone that MoMes are a place to relax and have fun and meet your grey-box friends in person, and rarely does politics even come up! Think of it as a big family reunion, only with people you actually like.
Totally not at shiv-point, I vigorously agree with all of bluebell's comments. For the introverts and lurkers out there, its a very casual, low-key, and FUN affair. I have been to a bunch of these around the country, and can honestly say nobody comes away thinking it wasn't a great time. Some people mingle and others don't. If hiding behind a plant in the corner and just observing is your thing, have at it! If dancing naked on a folding chair with Cheetos stuck in your nose is how you like to roll, you can do that too! You can be as involved or as barely involved as you like. I swear you will enjoy yourself, and if you don't believe me, which is always smart, you can completely believe bluebell!
Don't be a sad, sad loser, and miss an evening of food, drink, laughs and valuable prizes! Register today!
Please note the new and improved gmail account morongunthread at gmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Food Thread: Peanuts And Zero-Proof Drinks And Unicorn Butt Cake: One Of These Sounds Good!
—CBD
Boiled peanuts. Goober peas. Whatever you want to call them, they are loads of fun to eat! I remember as a little kid, driving through the South with my family and stopping for gas and a bag of boiled peanuts. And then getting in trouble for making a mess, but that's another story.
Above is Weasel's version, which is a strong indication that the recipe is...um...uncomplicated. He's a man who struggles with multi-layer sandwiches like peanut butter and jelly on toast, so if he can make them, you can too!
I don't remember any flavorings besides salt, but it is, at least according to the internet, very common to spice them up with all sorts of stuff. I think I'll try it, although finding green peanuts might be tough in the wilds of New Jersey. Not really...the internet has everything.
Whole Foods has moved into the fringes of the far-left part of the progressive mainstream of supermarkets, but if this ridiculous list is any indication, they have a long way to go before I start shopping there for more than a few particular items. 10 Food Trends To Look For In 2020, According To Whole Foods
Get ready to say yes, way to zero-proof aperitifs, see West African cuisine rise to prominence and say goodbye to tired and staid kids' menus. Whole Foods Market just released its list of 2020 food trends to watch for and topping the list of predictions is a continued focus on eco-conscious eats.
More than 50 Whole Foods Market staff members including local foragers, regional and global buyers and culinary experts put together the list of 10 food trends based on consumer preferences data, their own product sourcing experiences and what's been popular at food and wellness industry exhibitions. Here's a look at the food that will be popping up on plates in the year to come.
Where to start...where to start?
How about a big LOLGF? This list is a mass of hipster douche-bag SJW crap, with every leftist political meme inserted into what should be an easy and uncomplicated experience...buying food for the family. But no, they have to thrust their soppy, ahistoric, innumerate, ignorant-of-basic-economics blather into the mundane task of going to the store for dinner.
******
I mentioned to commenter "Roscoe," when he sent me this photo that I had eaten vegemite a long time ago while visitng Australia, and I am still traumatized by the experience. I asked that he explain the deeply psychotic reasons why he eats the stuff!
I missed it by only 28 years?!?
Now I regret eating my last jar too quickly. It was probably pre-WWII.
I'm originally Aussie. And a love for black, salty, foul-smelling, brewer's-yeast extract is something that all right-minded Aussies grow up with and proudly exercise. It's another one of the primary things that makes us distinct from & superior to Kiwis, let alone the English.
Regarding your encounter, a few years back at my work we were asked to "bring a plate" for some occasion. I brought Vegemite sandwiches. There are a few co-workers who still remember being traumatized by that experience, I can tell you.
******
Commenter "Butch" emailed with the unsurprising news that I am completely full of shit when it comes to "Balsamic Cream Sauce." Remember the roasted onions with what I thought was going to be a balsamic reduction? Well...I was spectacularly wrong. BALSAMIC CREAM SAUCE
Why you people listen to me is beyond all reckoning. Except for that whole maple syrup brouhaha. About that I am 100% correct!
******
Long-time lurker "RS" has sausage on the brain, just like me! But he is luckier than I...
What purports to be the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the world serves only bratwurst cooked over a charcoal grill, It's on the banks of the Danube in Regensburg, Germany. The sausages are authentic Bavarian brats which are the diameter ob our breakfast links and the length of a over-sized hot dog. They are divine. I've eaten there many, many times.
Here's the restaurant's website, the menu, and it even has a wiki entry!
******
[Hat Tip: ibguy]
******
Food and cooking tips, Large-breasted Muscovy ducks, well-marbled NY strips, bartenders who use vermouth in Martinis, crisp bacon (although I am moving toward less crisp), thick and fluffy pita, and good tomatoes that aren't square, pale pink and covered with Mestizo E.coli: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com. Any advocacy of French Toast with syrup will result in disciplinary action up to and including being nuked from orbit. And yes, shaking a Manhattan is blasphemy...it's in the Bible!
Hurricane Irma struck Puerto Rico in early September 2017. Two weeks later, on September 20, Hurricane Maria made landfall in the municipality of Yabucoa. When the debris settled, almost 3,000 people were dead, thousands more were displaced, and the island’s already aging infrastructure was severely weakened. The island’s antiquated power grid, which had been neglected for years, took an especially hard blow. Immediately after the storm, at least 1.5 million people were left without electricity, some for almost a year, casting the island into the longest blackout in U.S. history.
Of course "climate change" was blamed. As we all know, living in the middle of an ocean has no risk whatsoever. And there is no reason to build your infrastructure accordingly for example.
The mouthy representative was joined by Miami Representative Donna Shalala, who said:
“It’s been almost 2 1/2 years since Hurricane Maria devastated the island, but the Trump administration continues delaying the disbursement of billions of dollars in disaster relief for Puerto Rico. Rebuilding Puerto Rico cannot continue to be postponed due to bureaucratic inertia in Washington.”
The government of Puerto Rico has revealed it fell victim to an email phishing scam, with the attackers making off with more than $2.6 million in stolen funds.
On February 12, the finance director of the island’s Industrial Development Company, Rubén Rivera, filed a compliant to police, noting the agency wired the funds to a fraudulent account, AP reports.
The transfer purportedly took place on January 17, after the agency received an email which suggested there has been a change to a banking account tied to remittance payments, according to a police statement.
It's time to say "Buh-bye" Puerto Rico. Give them a set amount of money and let them sink or swim on their own. Without Uncle Sam's cash trough to prop them perhaps they will get serious about governing. There is no need to take them as the 51st State of the U.S.A. as we have enough incompetent states. (Looking at Illinois and California)
As many of you know I live in the northern climbs of the great U.S.A. We face snow from the end of October to May. Now, this is not a bitch fest about where I live. I chose to live here and stay here.
One of the items that makes my life here enjoyable is my Chevrolet Z71 4x4 pick up truck. From towing the boat to a nearby lake, hauling lumber from the local lumber yard or plowing the driveway, I love my truck. Sure, it's a V8 and a gas guzzler. It's the American way and there are numerous gas stations, amirite?
There’s a pickup war coming, and it’s going to be electric.
Inspired by the success of Tesla’s performance brand, an army of American startups — and one very large legacy automaker — will roll out five battery-powered trucks over the next two years.
Although we’ve seen only prototypes, sketches and teaser photos of the five electric titans — the GMC Hummer EV, Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T, Lordstown Endurance and Bollinger Motors B2 — they look to be big, powerful and defiantly different. And more truck makers may join the battery-power revolution, including an electric F-150 from Ford.
Nikola Corporation has unveiled the Badger, the automaker's first electric pickup truck.
It has a maximum range of 600 miles by using its fuel cell — hydrogen — and battery power sources.
Nikola traditionally manufactures electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles for "heavy-duty" use, including semi-trucks, off-roading power sport vehicles, and jet ski-esque watercraft. This is the company's first time entering the soon-to-be crowded electric pickup truck market.
"I have been working on this pickup program for years and believe the market is now ready for something that can handle a full day's worth of work without running out of energy," CEO of Nikola, Trevor Milton, said in a statement.
Well that certainly is a big boast. I can see the Badger working for an urban weekend warrior who lives in warmer climates. But what about the Wyoming rancher, Minnesota logger and the other hard working and playing truck owners?
What about charging stations? What about the grid improvements that are needed to provide all the juice for these Evs?
***
I'll be looking for a "new" truck this summer. My 1998 Chevrolet with 200,000 miles needs to be put to snow plow pasture only. The EV prices aren't frightening. Look at a fully loaded pickup with a motor.
But for me, I'll stick with the internal combustion engine.
Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules), roadies, toadies, flunkies, hangers-on and other posterior osculators. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants which appear to be making a statement, namely, hey everybody, look at me, I'm a dork.
...one of the best-stocked undergraduate college libraries in Cambridge, with a collection of some 100,000 volumes, including approximately 6,000 rare books. The collection is kept as relevant, up-to-date and useful as possible by the annual purchase of more than 1,000 new titles to support undergraduate study in all subjects.
A dedicated library building was first built at Newnham in 1897. It has developed since then and was greatly expanded with a new building in 2004.
I was impressed by the library's hardwood floor. You get a better view of it in this photo.
It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®
The German word ERKLÄRUNGSNOT refers to a moment in which you have been caught in a situation requiring an urgent explanation, but cannot find the words to account for your actions. It literally means ‘explanation poverty’.
If I were a reporter assigned to cover Trump, the first thing I'd do is try to find out as much as I could about him. I'd try to find out what he thinks and why he thinks what he thinks. And one of the ways I could accomplish this is to find out what books he has read, what books he recommends and which books are his favorites.
I wonder how many of the reporters yelling questions at the president as he walks to his waiting helicopter have actually done this?
Anyway, I found this article that contains a list of Donald Trump's 10 favorite books. The author doesn't say how she knows this is the definitive top-10 list, so I'm taking her word for it here.
What surprised me most about Trump's book list is how much China seems to occupy his attention. 5 out of the 10 listed books are about China. The article also says:
The Los Angeles Times once reported that Trump once listed his favorite 20 books on China off the top of his head.
Oooh that Drumpf is such a big dummy! Sitting around in his bathrobe, guzzling Diet Coke and watching the Gorilla Channel all day. So they keep telling us.
Anyway, the idea that I've heard floated that Trump was going to get rolled in any deal made with the Chinese is laughable.
The first book on China on Trump's list is the one that's probably the most known: Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang
The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before — and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned, and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule — in peacetime.
Maoists and Mao's apologists really, really, really hate this book.
...Financial Times reporter Richard McGregor’s eye-opening investigation into China’s Communist Party, and the integral role it has played in the country’s rise as a global superpower and rival to the United States. Many books have examined China’s economic rise, human rights record, turbulent history, and relations with the U.S.; none until now, however, have tackled the issue central to understanding all of these issues: how the ruling communist government works. The Party delves deeply into China’s secretive political machine.
...depicts a new generation of movers and shakers who are transforming modern China. Through half a dozen sharply etched and nuanced profiles, Tide Players captures both the concrete detail and the epic dimension of life in the world’s fastest-growing economy.
Zha’s vivid cast of characters includes an unlikely couple who teamed up to become the country’s leading real-estate moguls; a gifted chameleon who transformed himself from Mao’s favorite “barefoot doctor” during the Cultural Revolution to a publishing maverick; and a tycoon of home-electronic chain stores who insisted on avenging his mother, who had been executed as “a counter-revolutionary criminal.” Alongside these entrepreneurs, Zha also brings us the intellectuals: a cantankerous professor at China’s top university; a former cultural minister turned prolific writer; and Zha’s own brother, a dissident who served a nine-year prison term for helping to found the China Democracy Party.
...shows how to navigate the often treacherous waters of Chinese deal-making. Brilliantly written by an author who has lived in China for nearly two decades, the book reveals indispensable, street-smart strategies, tactics, and lessons for succeeding in the world's fastest growing consumer market.
Foreign companies rightly fear that Chinese partners, customers, or suppliers will steal their technology or trade secrets or simply pick their pockets. Testy relations between China's Communist leaders and the United States and other democracies can trap foreign companies in a political crossfire. McGregor has seen or experienced it all, and now he shares his insights into how China really works.
I'm impressed with these choices. Trump picked books on China's history, who the movers and shakers in China are, how their government works, and how to do business in this rapidly expanding market. Again, the idea he's going to get taken to the cleaners by the Chinese is simply not credible.
Next week I'll discuss the other books on Trump's favorites list.
Who Dis:
Last week's 'who dis' was child actress Margaret O'Brien who continued to act into adulthood and her last film credit was in 2018.
Moron Recommendations
27 So a couple of weeks ago I mentioned Rosemary Taylor's Chicken Every Sunday, which was a memoir of growing up in Tucson in the early years of the 20th century.
While looking for other books of hers (she did a handful, all set in the West), I saw that she penned a sequel to Chicken called Ridin' the Rainbow. While her first book concentrated on her mother and the boarders who lived with the family, Rainbow centers itself on her father and his schemes for getting the family on to Easy Street.
If you liked Chicken, you will like Rainbow. Thumbs up!
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 09, 2020 09:11 AM (Ki5SV)
The uproarious sequel to Rosemary Taylor's bestseller "Chicken Every Sunday". With a mind full of ideas and promotions and a thrifty wife by his side to boot, father goes west. Here are all the schemes and plans that ten men could have had, some foolhardy, some implausible, but many panning out in new riches, ostrich farms, and pine nuts plantings, real estate and laundries, coffee beans and street cars. You'll learn the most original manner for getting a lady out of a cellar (don't ask), what happened to a telegram father sent the Pope, how a President was kidnapped, and what makes a mule run? Father could outwit a dowager, start a railroad in two days, and yet a New York city slicker could steal twenty dollars from him with a hard-luck story.
Reading the first book, I was struck with how you could just go to Tucson and find something to do, start some business venture, or perhaps provide some service, to earn money and even bring in a bit of prosperity. America seemed like a place where anything could happen and the possibilities seemingly endless.
___________
Always nice to get a rec/review from JTB:
33 I rarely pay attention to various book of the year type awards as they almost never contain books I care about. But there is the odd exception. I just read "The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse", written and illustrated by Charlie Mackesy. It's difficult to describe. In short, the characters meet in a rural area, get to know one another, and exchange some pholosophical observations. All this accompanied by minimalist pen and ink drawings. The end.
The effect of the book is more complicated to explain its appeal, at least to adults. There are echoes of Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows in the childhood (not childish) innocence of wonder and discovery. The setting could be The Hundred Acre Wood or the Shire. The artwork is rough and sketchy but is still very effective, even poignant, and contributes to the feel of childhood. Even the text is cursive, with the appearence of being written with a broad nib dip pen. It is almost caligraphy. Some criticisms gripe about the simplistic, sugary observations. Others that the text is difficult to read or the illustrations are too sketchy. They miss the point. And I suspect they value a sophistication (theirs) over basics in life.
I found the book to be charming and relaxing. It was easy to get into the world of the story. The 'sugary' observations are a reminder that the basics in life are important. That there is joy in discovery and friendship. And it is a wonderful distraction from the constant noise, lies and hate bombarding us from the 24 hour news cycle.
The book isn't cheap but most libraries will have it. And I noticed it is in the adult section, not the children's area. I liked it enough to get a hardcover edition to own.
Posted by: JTB at February 09, 2020 09:15 AM (7EjX1)
Looking at The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, I definitely picked up a "Wind in the Willows" impression from it. It features 100 color and black-and-white drawings. And when JTB said the book "isn't cheap", I was expecting something in the $30-40 price range. So I was pleasantly surprised that the Amazon price for the hardcover edition is $13.49.
So it may go on my Christmas list.
___________
31 I read The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd. The author of Sarum, London, and Russka turns his attention to the history of Ireland as he traces the lives of a handful of families through the ages in this work of historical fiction. A sequel, The Rebels of Ireland, completes the history. I love Rutherfurd's writing as he weaves an interesting story while giving me much new knowledge of Irish history.
Posted by: Zoltan at February 09, 2020 09:13 AM (PevXk)
The saga begins in tribal, pre-Christian Ireland during the reign of the fierce and mighty High Kings at Tara, with the tale of two lovers, the princely Conall and the ravishing Deirdre, whose travails cleverly echo the ancient Celtic legend of Cuchulainn. From that stirring beginning, Rutherfurd takes the reader on a powerfully-imagined journey through the centuries. Through the interlocking stories of a memorable cast of characters—druids and chieftains, monks and smugglers, noblewomen and farmwives, merchants and mercenaries, rebels and cowards—we see Ireland through the lens of its greatest city.
And that's just Part 1. It's 800+ pages of sprawling epic. The sequel, The Rebels of Ireland takes almost 900 page to bring you to the modern era. Sounds like something to read on a rainy winter's night.
___________
Plucked this rec out of one of this week's rant threads:
TJM, go find The Authorized Biography of James Bond ca. 1973, by John Pearson (Fleming's first biographer). It purports to be the actual Bond's life as told to Pearson by Bond. It explains a few things we'd always wondered about, like how he came by the Bentley and his knowledge of high-quality life. It features some original missions, which read very much like Fleming's, and ends with a perfect scene. Highly recommended.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 14, 2020 11:51 AM (Ejm1K)
James Bond has graced our bookshelves and screens for over fifty years. The martini-drinking, super-smooth character has become an icon and national treasure. Like most of the many million James Bond fans around the world, John Pearson assumed that the world's most famous spy was no more than a figment of Fleming's highly charged imagination. Then he began to have his doubts. He finally became convinced that James Bond was not only real but alive and well in Bermuda. With candour, Bond began to recount the story of his life to Pearson, revealing the most amazing series of adventures only hinted at in Ian Fleming's novels. This sensational biography promises to show a side of Bond never seen before.
Wikipedia calls it a "spoof novel", which is perhaps the literary equivalent of fake news. So I guess this is like a book that purports to be the "real" biography of Sherlock Holmes.
Anyway, this sounds like it might be fun for Bond fans. If fiction is blulsiht, then this book is blulsiht overlayed with an additional layer of blulsiht. Purporting to be the truth, it tells you another lie. Which is entertaining in its own way. I'll bet the Germans have a fancy, 10-deutschmark word for this sort of thing, I just don't know what it is.
Author John Pearson also wrote is considered the definitive biography of James Bond's creator, The Life of Ian Fleming. He worked with Fleming at the Sunday Times, and based this biography on
...his own memories of Fleming, on Fleming's private papers, and on a series of interviews with an extraordinary collection of Fleming's contemporaries – family, friends, enemies, teachers, colleagues, mistresses, and former spies from around the world.
First published in 1966, John Pearson's famous biography remains the definitive account of how only Ian Fleming could have dreamed up James Bond, for he led a life as colourful as anything in his fiction, which in turn became a covert autobiography. Charming, debonair and a ruthless womaniser, globetrotting from wartime Algiers to beachside Jamaica, Fleming was as elusive and opaque as his imaginary creation.
On Kindle for $9.99.
___________
So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, insults, threats, ugly pants pics and moron library submissions may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.
What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.
Buy your Jane Eyre Stationery Cards here. Or not. They appear to be rather spendy.
Halfway Into His Solo Antarctic Trek, Colin O’Brady Pooed Himself — In His Only Pair Of Underwear
To make it through the 54-day solo trip, Colin O'Brady had to pack his sled very carefully. He, unfortunately, opted for more food over an extra pair of underwear.
***
Things that make you pucker, your mother-in-law in a bikini, Yoko singing and power line marker ball installation.
Well, TMZ has a photo of a "passenger disturbance notice" that a flight attendant handed to Williams, warning her that she could be federally prosecuted for not complying with the flight attendant's order to delete the video she'd taken of the seat puncher. The attendant also threatened to kick Williams off the plane if she didn't delete the video. Williams says she deleted the video, but was able to recover it and post it to Twitter.
According to TMZ, Williams believes she may have suffered damage from the repeated punches, because she says she has had a number of back surgeries in the past as well as titanium implants in her vertebrae. She wants the seat puncher identified and prosecuted.
With 17 seasons under its belt, House Hunters made HGTV history on Wednesday when it featured its first throuple — three people in a polyamorous romantic relationship — on one of its episodes.
Titled “Three’s Not a Crowd in Colorado Springs,” the episode followed Brian, Lori and Geli on a quest to find their dream house in Colorado.
The trio wanted to find a new home that will accommodate their unique dynamic as well as provide space for Brian and Lori’s two children.
As with any episode of House Hunters, the family came armed with a list of must-haves for their new residence, including a three-car garage and a master bathroom that will accommodate three people.
At one point in the episode, Lori remarked about the lack of space in one house they were touring, saying, “This is a couple’s kitchen, not a throuple’s kitchen.”
You can’t technically keep your hands on 10 and 2 if you’re going to town on some French fries while driving. Then again, drive-thrus and snack-centric gas stations wouldn’t exist if people weren’t so prone to eating while operating a vehicle. Some foods, obviously, are easier to consume under these circumstances than others: It’s not much of a challenge, for example, to occasionally dip your hands into a greasy paper bag and lead a chicken nugget to your mouth while heading down a highway.
But that’s amateur shit! Plus, that fatty nug is just going to make you want to take a nap. And so, driving pros use a bit more discretion when choosing their mid-ride meals: The perfect driving food is usually both nutritious and easy to consume; it provides you with adequate energy without weighing you down; and it’s unlikely to create a big mess.
Or, as some of the professional “vehicle” operators below prove, the best thing to eat while driving is whatever you goddamn feel like.
I am no great shakes as a dancer. Sure, I’ve been known to get out there amongst ’em, sometimes at great length, but only under three conditions:
(1) It’s with a woman. I had the chance to partner with a man in a Hollywood movie. (Check out the costume party scene in Philadelphia—I was an extra, dressed as someone’s idea of Truman Capote, which was okay, but I didn’t know how to dance with a man. I didn’t feel up to dancing with a man.) As to dancing alone, personally, I don’t see the point.
(2) And I am in love with her. Or, when I was single, the possibility was there.
(3) And I (ideally, we) have had a couple of snorts.
Otherwise, no. I know the saying “Dance like nobody’s watching,” but I also know, from observation, that some people—and in that category I include myself, when not at least semi-romantic and tipsy—should not take that advice to heart.
The ONT Musical Interlude
On this day: 15 Feb 1965
American singer and pianist Nat King Cole died of lung cancer. First hit was the 1943 'Straighten Up and Fly Right', had the 1955 US No.2 single 'A Blossom Fell' and 1957 UK No.2 single 'When I Fall In Love' plus over 20 other US & UK Top 40 singles. He is the father of singer Natalie Cole. In 1956 he became the first black American to host a television variety show. via thisdayinmusic.com
&&&
On this day: 15 Feb 1968
American blues musician Little Walter (Marion Walter Jacobs) died in his sleep aged 37 from injuries incurred in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub in Chicago. Joining Muddy Waters' band in 1948, he was the first harmonica player to amplify his harp (on the 1951 ‘She Moves Me’) giving it a distorted echoing sound. via thisdayinmusic.com
We all know everything is covered in germs all the time, but the most common way to deal with it is to ignore it. The next level is washing your hands regularly with soap and hot water. The level above that is dousing yourself in Purell every time you touch something that didn’t just come out of a disinfected bag. After seeing this experiment conducted by a bunch of elementary schoolers, you might be at whatever level four is for the rest of your life—maybe purification through fire?
A closet and safe under a 64-year-old grandmother’s bed in a senior complex in St. Petersburg are not the typical spots where police find a cache of illegal dope and guns.
But that’s what a federal task force found in December when it dismantled a drug-trafficking organization and arrested 11 suspects, including nine from the Sunshine City, records say.
Now, recent court documents reveal how the organization used the Viridian, a senior housing complex with 188 units on Third Avenue South, as a stash house for the drugs and guns.
***
Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Bathroom Humor.
Notice: The ONT belongs to Ace. No one was around for permission this evening. This is a "wing-it" Notice.
Saturday Evening Movie Thread 02-15-2020 [Hosted By: Moviegique]
—OregonMuse
COLOR OUT OF SPACE
A strength of the written word over visual media is that it can convey abstractions that extend or even violate literal description. In a comically broad example, a writer can tell you "To all outward appearance it was a happy scene—but horror lurked underneath!" (And when filmmakers do this, as in Blue Velvet, it can be just as ridiculously ham-handed.) Personally, I can seldom bring myself to watch filmings of Ray Bradbury stories because, in my mind, those stories are always wondrous and emotionally vibrant, and that seldom comes out on screen.
But in the area of abstraction, the Waukegan poet had nothing on the Providence patrician, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who was fond of defining things in terms of impossibilities: Non-Euclidean geometry meaning "things that don't conform to the laws of natural space", sound unlike any sounds a human could comprehend, and of course, weird alien colours (with the affected English spelling). And he managed (not always but often enough to persist over 100 years) to create a wondrous, weird, malignant universe with impossibly abstract visuals and a few choice details.
Which is damned hard to film. (I'm reminded of Adriane Lyne's query to Bruce Joel Rubin over a script direction in Jacob's Ladder: "The walls crack open revealing the unfathomable void." Lyne asked him, "How many carpenters will it take to build the unfathomable void?")
These days you could do it with a half-dozen doughy middle-aged dudes and a case of Monster.
Horror films generally are plagued by Joyce's "ineluctable modality of the visible"—that's an in-joke I'll explain in the comments—but what I'm getting at is that the instant you show something, it becomes defined and you lose some of the horror. The original theatrical cut of Alien does an excellent job of teasing the alien, showing hints and having the human crew chase around clues that fill in the picture. Then, by the end, when you see it in all its glory, you're suitably awed by it.
When the threat is known and clearly defined in a film, it becomes more an action/adventure picture no matter how many horror effects it borrows. The label "Survival Horror" sometimes get applied to such films, but one isn't usually scared by, e.g., the Resident Evilmovies. Or, say, Tremors, a fine film with a lot of suspenseful moments, but not scary. You can also contrast Alien to Aliens, or Night of the Living Dead to Day of the Dead. Particularly the latter: Zombies don't even seem like much of a threat once you know their "rules". But zombies are easy to do, and even Alien just needed a very tall, very skinny dude in an (excellently designed) rubber suit.
Now, get your costume designers on Yog-Sothoth:
"Imagination called up the shocking form of fabulous Yog-Sothoth – only a congeries of iridescent globes, yet stupendous in its malign suggestiveness."
The very first (and still one of the best) adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's stories is Roger Corman's The Haunted Palace, featuring said Yog-Sothoth. It recapitulates the mood of his successful, broody Poe stories, but with a somewhat different flavor, all to build up to one of the great cinematic disappointments:
It's actually worse in the movie, as they do a "wavy vision" effect over this static picture, and you've been built up to something dramatically that's...well, you feel like the movie—and the world—deserves better. (Coincidentally, Alien screenwriter Dan O'Bannon directed a version of this story in 1991.)
Five-hundred words is a lot of preamble for any movie review (though not my record) but I think it's important to understand the mindset of the HPL fan in going to a mainstream-ish feature based on his works: You hope (without much hopefulness) that it manages to capture some of the characteristics of the writing and that it does so without some utterly embarrassing issue cropping up.
On that front, this movie is a resounding success. For the most part, the CGI reminds me of the Eastern movies we see: It's not the best technically, but it's not trying to fool you—it's trying to win you over. So let's get into the deets:
The story is updated from the sullen New England family to modern-day refugees from city life. This is savvy: Our characters are isolated by choice, and instead of being ignorant, moody farmers, they're all-too-hip post-hippie homeschoolers. Another great aspect is that they're not cartoon cutouts. Our scarcely involved narrator Ward (Elliot Knight) first meets daughter Lavinia—an irritable poseur—as she's casting a spell that she hopes will take her out of the forest life but also will cure her mother's cancer.
Nicholas Cage plays Nathan, who's brought his brood back to the family farm, out of the city to a safe, sane place where you drink water from the well, grow organic produce, and emotionally support your financial wizard wife (Joely Richardson, The Patriot, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) who's recovering from cancer, and raise your three kids who aren't entirely sold on this whole hicksville thing. The movie does a good job getting you to like these people which, well, it's kind of a shame what happens to them. (Contrast with the 1987 version of this story starring Claude Akins and Wil Wheaton, The Curse, or even the recent Annihilation.)
"What the HELL is that?"
What happens is that a meteor strikes their small farm. This is where we first get a taste of the movie's regard for the source material: The meteor doesn't just hit. There's a build-up. Again, contrasted with other versions of the story (like the Creepshow entry "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill"), director Richard Stanley infuses the scene with an alien intelligence. As such, when the horrifying transmogrification begins, the plot feels almost like a sci-fi invasion story. Tonally, this is spot-on: HPL's universe was cold and hostile, and his monsters flew through (or lived in) the vacuum of space or sat at the bottom of the ocean for eons.
The aesthetic is also spot-on: Given the limitation of having to present an actual color, the choice of the sort of purple-pink never-occurs-in-nature oddly-saturated hue works well. The color shows up in glints and flashes everywhere, though more and more prominently as the poison from the well spreads. The family experiences the meteor differently as well, the two teenagers (played by Brendan Meyer and Madeleine Arthur, both of whom have appeared in R.L. Stine material in the past, amusingly enough) seem to be the least affected, though they experience time shifts/loss, while young Jack Jack (Julian Hiliard) seems to commune with the voices only he can hear coming from the well. Meanwhile Nathan is assaulted by a smell no one else seems to be able to detect and Theresa (Richardson) seems to be semi-possessed.
We won't even go into the alpacas.
Concerned reader "Al" writes in to ask "WHY? WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ALPACAS?!"
A nice thing is that the characters' behaviors are understandable. If I recall the original story, the transformation takes quite some time whereas here it happens in days. It's not that everyone acts rationally—they are, after all, under the influence of a malignant space disease—but that you could see how a mildly diminished capacity would result in misunderstandings which result in fatal delays. So we are spared from the whole "Why don't they just...?" syndrome common to horror films.
Some good spooky moments. No jump scares. A lot of disturbing things that felt Lovecraftian. Therese and Jack Jack have an encounter with The Color that is positively upsetting. A brief glimpse of an alien world. Another scene has Lavinia casting a spell by carving letters into herself with a box-cutter but you're not sure whether this is the influence of the meteor or her attempt to fight that influence. A nice updating of the parental characters going mad: They start acting like their parents. (So to those who wonder, yes, Nic Cage does go crazy but it's a different kind of crazy.)
One scene rips off John Carpenter's The Thing which, you know, steal from the best. Tommy Chong has a role as paranoiac hermit Ezra (another rather savvy update to "the crazy old coot who lives in the woods" trope) whose exeunt is very effectively done. Producer Josh C. Waller (who also produced Mandy) plays a sheriff who, if I'm not mistaken, has a run in with a Shuggoth.
Prince lives.
I'm not sure about the Shuggoth, but easter eggs abound: The narrator is a hydrologist from Arkham (the nearest big town) and wears a Miskatonic University shirt. He reads Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, considered by HPL to be the finest horror in the English language. And his name is "Ward". (I think they say "Philip Ward" at some point but I may have misheard that.) The weather report is for Arkham and surrounding cities like Dunwich and Innsmouth. The book Lavinia tries to cast her spell from is the Necronomicon, (but it's the Necronomicon you can buy on Amazon, not HPL's version). Fortunately, the references settle down as the action picks up.
The Boy and I had to catch it separately but we both agreed that we liked it, that it was solid, but no Mandy, a comment which isn't meant derogatorily because I probably liked this more. As good as the atmosphere is in most respects, we couldn't help but wonder if it might not have benefited from a little more of Mandy's surrealism. Nonetheless, for a guy whose last feature directing job was being thrown off Island of Dr. Moreau 20 years ago, Richard Stanley has shown a very sure hand here and I'm looking forward to the next movie in the trilogy: The Dunwich Horror.
Moviegique will be along later with the movie thread. As always, the chess/dress pr0n thread is an open thread, so there is no such thing as an off-topic comment.
Beginner Problem - White To Play (443)
Goal: White can force mate in 3 moves
Hint: The bishop on a3 plays a key support role
r6r/2p1R3/p4k1p/1p1b2p1/P1pP1qPP/B1P5/4QP2/R5K1 w - - 0 1
Greetings from Hungary ("You know I think you're a pathetic little worm, don't you?")
(I think they wrote this song about her. True fact: I first heard this song 40+ years ago and never knew *until today* that it was the radio cut. This is the cut on the album, which is considerably longer.)
___________
Problem Solutions
Beginner Problem - White To Play
r6r/2p1R3/p4k1p/1p1b2p1/P1pP1qPP/B1P5/4QP2/R5K1 w - - 0 1
Mate in 3:
1.Qe5+ Qxe5
Or 1...Kg6 2.Qg7#
2.dxe5+ Kg6
3.h5#
Intermediate Problem - White To Play
7k/1p5p/7P/pq6/8/8/R5P1/4R2K w - - 0 1
1.Rxa5! Kg8
Not 1...Qb6? 2.Ra8+ Qd8 3.Rxd8# or 1...Qxa5?? 2.Re8#
2.Rxb5 Kf7
Black must give up his queen to avoid the immediate mate. White mops up with:
3.Rb6 Kg8
4.Rxb7 Kf8
5.Ra1 Kg8
6.Ra8#
Advanced Problem - White To Play
8/r6p/PR2Pk2/8/8/1B1b4/8/6K1 w - - 0 1
1.e7+ Kxe7
2.Rb7+ Kd6
If 2...Rxb7 then 3.axb7 and the pawn skates to the 8th rank. Black can make White work for the win by not retaking the rook, and by bringing his king into play.
3.Rxa7 Kc6
4.Ra8 Kb6
5.a7 Ba6
If Black tries to immediately force the rook away with 5...Be4, then White can force a decisive simplificaton with 6.Re8 Bb7 7.a8=Q Bxa8 8.Rxa8 winning.
7.Kg2 h4
8.Kh3 Be2
9.Kxh4 Ba6
10.Kg5 Bd3
11.Kf4 Ka6
12.Ke3 Bb1
13.Rc8 Kxa7
14.Ra8+ Kb6
15.Rb8+ and wins with the skewer.
The moral of this story is, don't give up too early. It's true that White had the win, but he had to work hard for it, and in the stress of a tournament situation, time pressure, etc., there's plenty of room for mistakes.
Hope to see you all next week!
___________
Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and paste it into your chess app.
___________
So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.
"This is a game created by my pastor's brother. He's kind of a quirky, intelligent guy. I've played this game, and it's a lot of fun for cat lovers and haters alike. I thought the Ace of Spades crowd might like it.
Thanks for your consideration! - AKA California Girl (not Caligirl).
I can't be the only one
My daughter saw me beating myself up over Salem and sent me this.
It actually helps and I hoe it can help anyone else who lost a pal
***
Meet The PetMorons
Did I ever send you this? This is Emma. She's a little spitfire. Sweet and onry as heck.
She is Graylians big sister by about 5 minutes.
Sitting on my shoulder. She has learned how to climb up clothes without digging her claws into my skin.
That darn Cat! - Tim in Illinois
Amazing kitteh there Tim, be careful before she goes up onto the ceiling fan and causes mischief. Thanks.
***
This is Draper (chocolate) and Dillon (black), littermates. I took them in about a year ago. Draper's a goofball and Dillon's the sweetest. They're my buddies. - Andy
Who wants to go for a R-I-D-E? So how much spelling do you do around those characters? Raising littermates can be tough. Tell us your ups and downs.
***
RI Red sends - Max and Mia say:
"Now, that's one crazy Cat Lady!"
Max and Mia should stick to the catnip and leave the politics alone. Thanks for the submission.
***
I want to say thank you for the times you have posted pictures of our bearded dragon, Newbie.
We picked him up at a local chain pet store almost 10 years old. He was dragging his right front arm, and they were going to discard him. We took him in anyway, and a few days later his right arm popped back into a socket. This Friday morning, he was awake but sleepy. When my son got home from college in the afternoon, he was unresponsive and his beard was jet black. My wife made the trip to the vet with him and his belly was full of a thick yellow fluid indicative of heart failure, kidney failure, and a possible tumor. We made the decision to put him down, rather than draw things out with painkillers. My wife held him one last time, and let him go. This is the first time since my son was in third grade (he’s 23 now) that we have not had a bearded dragon in the house, and it seems very strange. - Christopher.
Our condolences on your loss. What a shocking find. It doesn't matter how big or small an animal is when they pass there is a huge void. Newbie had beautiful colorings. Thanks for sharing.
***
This is “Tuxedo”, who we call “Tuxter”, a pound rescue who is part chihuahua and part terrier. He’s about 10 now. Don’t leave a ribeye out to go get a drink. He will steal it. Other than that he’s a pretty good pup. He hates any phone notifications, and of course, thunder.
P.S. I’ve been reading ace.spades.mu since the beginning, but I’ve never commented. - Ken
Thank you for your long time support. Jump in and comment, we're not that bad. Rib eye steak? I think he's a normal dog. Thanks for sharing today.
***
Here are my beloved morons. That’s Domino in the middle (3 YO spoiled toy poodle), Mindy in the back and Mocha upfront. Underneath these critters is my new WHITE comforter. I now have to run the lint brush twice a day because the cats shed so bad. However l, it’s a pleasure because I SO love these beauties. Thanks for giving us a great Sat Pet Thread each week. Sure love the stories. Debbie
How dare you abuse those poor animals? I mean really Debbie. You're lucky we don't know where you are at otherwise we would rescue those pets. We are glad you shared with us today. Thanks.
***
Our German Shepherd Lena, wolfish in the snow. She's now seven, and a grand lady! - lizabth
What an awesome photo lizabth. Thanks for sharing. So with a dog called Lena are there any Olie jokes? J/K. Cool looking dog.
***
Thank you to all of you who submitted pets and links this week. Us PetMoron masters appreciate that.
If you have something to share, please forward to petmorons at gmail dot com.
We just celebrated our 4th birthday, God willing and the creeks don't rise, we'll have a few more.
Saturday Gardening and Puttering Thread 2/15/20 [KT]
—Open Blogger
Come into the garden! Time for all gardeners, putterers and dreamers to think about the possibilities . . . This is an actual garden from an actual member of The Horde, Indiana lurker:
I just wanted to drop a couple photos on you of what we have done with our 1/5 acre of suburban heaven. When we built the house twenty years ago the wife told me she was going big on flower beds and small on grass. At the time I though that's cool, it'll be less mowing. Maintaining the beds is made easier by using lots and lots of perennials mixed with small ornamental trees and a couple larger trees on the property line. This first picture is the path from the side of our garage to the back of the house.
And there's more:
In the back of the house we decided to go with a large stone patio with a fire pit. It was the best thing we ever did. It has become the gathering place for many a cocktail hour and evening party. It's a kind of neighborhood magnet for bringing us all together to have a few drinks and talk about anything that comes to mind. The pond is nothing more then a man-made retention pond. In this part of the country all developers have to have a drainage plan which ties into the county drainage plan, so retention ponds are required. We're lucky to have like-minded neighbors, who have also put landscaping in there backyards which gives us a view which is a bit park like. There is absolutely nothing organic in the view from the patio. Everything was planted and the pond was man made, but I think it all comes together well.
Remarkable. We may have questions. Love the part about the like-minded neighbors.
Travel, Art and Gardening
Thought about doing some art in the snow, maybe in Colorado? Try some in your yard if it's too early to garden.
Simon Beck's art is inspired by the natural wonder and intricate nature of snowflakes; he travels the world carving large-scale artworks (around 300 pieces to date) into snow-covered landscapes using only his manpower and a pair of snowshoes. Many of his ideas come from patterns found in nature (snowflakes, spiraled cactus spears, cannabis leaves); crop circles; mathematical equations; and even iconic artists such as Vincent Van Gogh.
When it gets a little warmer, you might want to visit Watkins Glen State Park in New York. Anybody been there?
Watkins Glen State Park is the most famous of the Finger Lakes State Parks, with a reputation for leaving visitors spellbound. Within two miles, the glen's stream descends 400 feet past 200-foot cliffs, generating 19 waterfalls along its course. The gorge path winds over and under waterfalls and through the spray of Cavern Cascade. Rim trails overlook the gorge. Campers and day-visitors can enjoy the Olympic-size pool, scheduled summer tours through the gorge, tent and trailer campsites, picnic facilities and excellent fishing in nearby Seneca Lake or Catherine Creek, which is renowned for its annual spring run of rainbow trout.
Jake Holenhead sent the following from the Everglades:
The Southern Cross constellation taken April 2012 in the Everglades near Flamingo, FL. The cross is in the center right of the photo.
A funny sign in the Everglades with a "controlled" burn in the distance.
This is a Cardinal Airplant or Quill-Leaf Airplant. It's one of the Bromeliad species. They usually attach themselves to trees, but they're not parasitic. Airplants get their nutrition from the air and absorb water through their leaves. The flower for this type is the tiny yellow thingy at the end of the purplish thingy growing out of the red quill like stalk. Airplants can be grown indoors, don't require soil, just mist them with water every now and then. They're perfect for a lazy gardener. I took these photos in the Everglades.
Sharon (willow's apprentice) sent in some intriguing photos:
The Tower Hill Botanic Gardens I frequent was closed the month of January and reopened with an interesting Orchid Show. I use "interesting" instead of spectacular because I am not sure the premise of the show worked. I'll be interested in the Horde's opinions. It combined the orchid display with Street Art. I've always thought of orchids as being elegant and this concept was really different. Not sure all my photos show the art bits intertwined with the flowers. My favorite is the statue of the lady which is a permanent piece in the garden unlike the rest of the street art but I thought the orchids draped over her shoulder was very elegant and sexy.
The Edible Garden
Around here, kale is one of the few veggies that is edible, with the frost, other than weeds. Here are 9 ways to use kale that don't involve salad. I think the tips for using kale stems are sort of over-the-top. I usually toss them.
You got other ideas? I like Red Russian kale and its variations. It is a different species of kale from the others. More tender. Often missing in markets because it wilts. Might want to grow some. The blossoms are pretty tasty, too.
More recipes and tips for kale, other cole crops and their edible blossoms, and some leftover Valentines Day blooms you can eat are discussed in this past thread. I closed the comments so nobody gets accidentally banned. Here's Kung Fu Kitty with some bolted cole crops. Broccoli on the right, turnips on the left.
And I still want to try Bulgarian Triumph tomatoes. I love the name, and it gets good reviews.
Have you chosen your tomato varieties for the coming season yet?
Gardens of The Horde
It is frosty most mornings here in the Central Valley right now, warming up later in the day. We didn't have a hard freeze until February this year, which was good for the citrus growers. Navel oranges are still in good shape. The tangerines currently available locally are on the tart side.
Our rosemary is starting to bloom.
40 miles north is further south:
Rosemary is in bloom. There isn't much for the bees right now, so they visit this every morning.
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.
Good morning! It's a little chilly there in the Central Valley of California, but it will be nice later in the day. Unfortunately, Democrats are in full control in California now. Here are a few of the nitty gritty results with regard to the current transportation situation. Just in case anybody out there is still thinking about moving here.
Ten million fewer riders took BART on nights and weekends last year than rode the trains just four years earlier.
The transit agency released those figures as it launched its annual two-day workshop for BART Directors on accomplishments of the past year, and the challenges ahead.
BART also released results of a rider survey of why fewer people took the trains.
The number one response was that people are just going out less on weekends.
Number two was weekend trains don't run often enough, but reasons three, four, and five were lack of cleanliness, worries about crime and concern about the homeless.
All that public transportation boosterism gone to waste.
The empty buses leaving the new Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco suggest that the Bay Area public transportation system isn't working.
"This is supposed to be San Francisco's Grand Central Station, it's not. There is no one here," says San Francisco resident Seth Andrews, as he points around to the empty station.
Andrews uses Bart and Muni every day. He says he is frustrated with the daily delays. "The schedules, I don't trust that at all," complains Andrews about Muni trains.
State Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) calls Bay Area public transportation "inefficient" and "unreliable."
"After investing billions of dollars in transportation in recent decades, only three percent of all Bay Area trips are made with public transit," says Assemblyman Chiu. But he thinks better integration could fix the problem.
The bill aims to set up a task force to resolve issues around ticket prices and scheduling. They need to "Move the conversation forward."
Be sure to watch how quickly this bill fixes "the problem".
High Speed Rail, Central Valley
I am seeing more actual work on the High Speed Rail line now, after seeing construction sites looking sort of abandoned, with huge equipment idled in fields and along roads, for a long time. In the cities, homeless encampments moved onto properties left idle after being bought for this project. Just like the encampments along the freeways in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, but with more dogs.
Advancing California's leadership in building a modern, clean, and sustainable transportation system, the California High-Speed Rail Authority has issued its Draft 2020 Business Plan for public review and comment. . .
The 2020 Business plan outlines the following priorities:
Complete the 119-mile Central Valley construction segment and lay track pursuant to the federal funding grant agreements with the Federal Railroad Administration;
Expand the 119-mile Central Valley segment to 171 miles of operable electrified high-speed rail connecting Merced-Fresno-Bakersfield, three of the fastest growing areas in California;
Commence testing of electrified high-speed trains by 2025 and put those trains in service by 2028-29 . .
The rest of their plans involve "bookends". Los Angeles and San Francisco. Can you think of anything to say during the public comment period that would make a difference?
One commenter on the Grassroots Motorsports forum reported that he'd already been issued a $430 fine for working on his car in his garage:
nimblemotorsports said:
umm, I have not been left alone, they levied a $430 fine yesterday. You can request a hearing to review the code enforcement decision, that costs $700 to complain.
These rules aren't from some fussy HOA, it's an entire county. As to why the county is so against home automotive repair and work, they state this reason:
5. Why is Code Enforcement Concerned About Residential Automotive Repair?
The chemicals involved in major automobile repair can pollute our neighborhoods and endanger the health and wellbeing of our residents. Furthermore, this kind of activity increases vehicle traffic and the visual impact can negatively impact property values.
It appears that "major automobile repair" is anything you don't finish within 24 hours. Or something. It's kind of vague.
I think it's kind of racist, too. I have in mind a certain "community" that likes to work on cars in front yards. But that's not what the code says. It covers garages, too. Why is there a "visual impact" if the work is in a garage?
Music
Not being able to work on your own car would have put a damper on the popularity of the Beach Boys back in the day.
I don't have that problem, coffee = black & bitter just like my soul.
***
Good morning Morons. Here's hoping your weekend goes well. Here are a few stories that didn't get their fair share of attention here at the AoSHQ this past week.
I'm pretty thin on links tonight, so this one is going to be image and video heavy. Since it's Valentine's Day, lets start out with someone who obviously has a lot of love in her.
Well, she's had a lot of sumpin' sumpin' in her, anyway.
They even demonstrate rituals and mourning when one of their own dies. I'm not anti-hunting in any way, but I think some animals are too far up the intelligence scale to hunt. Elephants are on that list.
Bless Her Heart
If you haven't seen the original, well, it's just the non-narrated part of this clip. The pseudo-Freeman narration takes it to a whole other level, however.
Apparently they were prone to ripping limbs off of inmates as they turned. Hey, I said it was an interesting idea, not a good idea. In any event, if you want to see the only working example left, go to Indiana.
Not That Fake Disney Hell
This lady on facebook said her coworker had to have a conference with her sons teacher because of a note he wrote. Y’all. Please read the note. ?ﾟﾘﾭ? pic.twitter.com/oksT80EwKv
The average time to see a doctor for the first time in the US is 24 days. The average wait time nationally for an MRI is three weeks. Taylor’s walk-in MRI clinic cuts that wait time down significantly and allows the freedom to know what’s going on that same day.
Getting the actual MRI takes about 30-45 mins and you’ll get your images and a radiologist report. Taylor is a board-certified radiologist specialist trained in Musculoskeletal Imaging at the Mayo Clinic, so you can trust the results you get.
After you get your results and report, you can then take them to your treating physician who can help you decide the best treatment for your problem.
“Our purpose is not for people to avoid seeing a licensed physician, we just want to get to a diagnosis faster and at a lower out-of-pocket expense,” Taylor said. "While this option may not be for everyone, it is a convenient and cost-effective solution for someone who has a high insurance deductible, no insurance at all or who wants to pay a low cash price," Taylor said.
There's a place in Oklahoma that does the same thing for surgeries. All prices posted before any work is performed. They could run 24/7 if they wanted.
"Ghoulish:" Social Justice Warriors -- The People Always Attacking People for Speech Which is "Hateful" and Might "Cause Harm" -- Gleefully Celebrate Jordan Peterson's Near Death
[Peterson's daughter] Mikhaila told the National Post that Peterson, "nearly died several times." She also said he had been placed in a medically induced coma in order to detox from the drug. There is some good news which is that he is now recovering and has regained his sense of humor, but she also said he is currently unable to type or walk without assistance.
Ironically, the anti-Petersonians now seem far more fanatical than Peterson’s most faithful fans.
This guy must himself be liberal, because that's not irony. That's exactly what you'd expect. Social Justice Warriors are mentally-ill and malicious people who self-medicate with hate.
This is like saying, "Ironically, it turned out Hitler was himself more intolerant than you'd expect."
But yes, the anti-Peterson fanatics are in fact the evil lunatics.
This became clear in recent days, when some of Peterson's critics -- including, amazingly, a professor at the University of Ottawa -- went online to express satisfaction that Peterson is being treated for dependence on benzodiazepine, an anti-anxiety medication. It was a shockingly ghoulish response. It was also comically hypocritical, given that these are the same people who typically spend much of their waking lives boasting publicly of their commitment to social justice, and who insist on using the language of genocide to describe acts of misgendering or cultural appropriation. All cults dehumanize their critics and perceived enemies. And the self-described social-justice proponents who regard Peterson as a secular demon are no different.
Okay, a bobble on mounting the bars, but a good performance and dismount.
One social media user named Emily Gorcenski tweeted a link to an article with the headline, 'He nearly died several times,' alongside her own commentary: 'Look at how much it sucks to be a bigot when not being a bigot is free,' adding, 'We narrowly missed the first case of they pronouns killing someone,' and 'Imagine name searching Jordan Peterson, who died when he was crushed by a falling pronoun.'
In other words, she was joking about Peterson’s near-death, conveying that she felt gleeful at the possibility he might suffer and die. Another Twitter user named 'Alexander', who had the words, 'anti-fascist' and 'They/them' in his bio, wrote, 'Jordan Peterson is a charlatan, a misogynist, and a grifter who got rich poisoning the minds of young men acting as both the Trojan horse and open gate for alt-right neofascism. The only thing regrettable about his current situation is that there isn't a Hell for him to go to.' A philosophy prof at the University of Virginia, tweeted, 'Me, a disabled vegan feminist philosopher, reading the news stories about Jordan Peterson, while strongly committed to the idea that everyone deserves compassion and illness should never be mocked,' alongside a Gif of a boy saying, 'Is this a test?' The implication is that she believed Peterso'’s struggles should be mocked. The list goes on.
...
A friend described it as 'performative sociopathy'. It shows those you wish to demonstrate allegiance to that you are so committed to your politics, you literally don't care if those you disagree with live or die.
It's not performative! Sociopathy, like most other things, can be a learned, trained, and honed way of being.
They act like sociopaths because the institutions dominated by the left have taught them that sociopathy is the quick and easy way to dominate people and feel Self-Respect.
Jerry Falwell, Jr.: Hey, I Heard From Some Dynamite Blogger That's Really Good at Shelving and Scootering That Romeny Is Positioning Himself to be the Democrat's Vice President
I don't think that any Democrat would actually offer the slot to Romeny. The one candidate who might do it -- Michael Bloomberg -- cannot do it, because he is already viewed with deep suspicion as Racist Sexist Billionaire.
See, liberals have this delusion that Mitt Romney is a conservative Republican. So they wouldn't find a Romney veepship added "balance" to the ticket, but just strengthened Michael Bloomberg's own "Republican conservatism."
Obviously Bernie Sanders would never offer. Someone like the Fiercely Heterosexual Cory Booker might, but he dropped out last month.
The leftwingers would not offer the job to Romney, and the people posing as "centrists" can't offer them the job, as the left already thinks they're Too Conservative.
But...
Do I think Romney himself has scams and schemes along these lines?
I do in fact.
He's got The Hunger.
Once you get a taste for the idea that you are special and Great enough to be President -- and that you might even be the literally Prophesied One sent by God Himself to save the Constitution -- you can never get rid of The Hunger.
Prosecutors Seek Five Years in Prison for Corrupt Former Baltimore Mayor Who Scammed the Medical/Hospital System and Diverted Hundreds of Thousands of Taxpayer Dollars into Buying Her Stupid "Healthy Holly" Books
—Ace
Here was the scam: if you were a health care or insurance organization or hospital that wanted a city contract, you had to please the mayor.
And you know what would really please the mayor?
Spending a half million of taxpayer-subsidized dollars to buy her stupid children's book.
[F]ormer Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh made a killing on sales of her self-published "Healthy Holly" children’s books; for example, she sold 100,000 copies at a total cost of $500,000 to the University of Maryland Medical System, on whose board she was sitting at the time.
Oh, I forgot about that: Yeah, she was often sitting on the boards of the companies that decided to buy her trash book.
Also, the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund puchased $7,500 worth of copies shortly before Pugh successfully sponsored legislation sought by the company.
More? Kaiser Permanente, which was seeking a city contract, also purchased more than $100,000 worth of the mayor’s self-published books, and a local nonprofit that won a big city contract just happened to purchase $87,000 worth. But when reporters tried to track down copies of this amazing best-selling series, they found 8,700 unsolicited and unopened boxes of "Health Holly" books at a decrepit Baltimore School District Warehouse.
Well they were never really "books" to begin with. They were merely markers, markers for bribery payments, by which monies could be siphoned out of the publicly-funded health system and into the Baltimore mayor's pockets.
Need evidence of that? Well, somehow, she managed to sell the same copies of the same books to multiple organizations with business before the city.
She just kept selling the same "books" over and over.
Pugh’s “personal inventory" of Healthy Holly books never exceeded 8,216 copies, prosecutors say. But through a three-dimensional scheme, they say, she was able to resell 132,116 copies for a total of $859,960. https://t.co/ZqZ0bZJr6G
How did she get away with selling and reselling the same "books"? Well, simple: Most "buyers" wouldn't bother to actually take possession of them, because they weren't ever really "books." They were just Markers for graft. Figments in the accounting books to make it look legal -- from a distance.
1. Former Democrat Presidential Candidate and Former CNN Permanent Guest Michael Avenatti Found Guilty on Three Counts of Extortion 2. Barr Appoints Independent Counsel to Review Flynn Case
Here's the first bullet point from CNBC about Avenatti -- it's about Avenatti.
Disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti was convicted of all three charges related to his efforts to extort up to $25 million from athletic apparel giant Nike.
Here are the second two bullet points from CNBC about Avenatti -- they're about, get this, Trump,
The verdict in Manhattan federal court came two years after Avenatti gained widespread notoriety for his representation of porn star Stormy Daniels in her legal disputes with President Donald Trump.
Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels hush money to keep her quiet about claims of an affair with the president on the eve of the 2016 election.
Hey CNBC, if you're providing background information about him, how about mentioning he was a fixture on Liberal Democrat Propaganda Organs and was seriously touted as a possible president by liberal Democrat media types?
Update: Has anyone done a Wellness Check on Avenatti Super-Fan and Guest of the Qatari Government Rick Wilson?
Condolences to Doha Rick following the news that his good friend Michael Avenatti has been found guilty on all counts. pic.twitter.com/evfk9kbGLI
The Department of Justice has tapped an outside prosecutor to review the case of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Fox News has learned.
A senior Justice Department official told Fox News on Friday that Jeff Jensen, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, has been assigned to Flynn’s case.
Jensen will be working hand-in-hand with the lead prosecutor of Flynn case, Brandon Van Grack, according to the official.
You will once again notice the blatant double standards as people who are constantly urging every possible outside investigation of Trump suddenly start claiming that investigations are inherently corrupt and anti-American when the targets are the sources of their leaks.
Via bonginoreport.com -- which is a less c***s***ery version of the Drudge Report -- this story from The Federalist.
Short version: the fact that the government reversed its previous no-time plea agreement, then insisted on jail time, and only later re-reversed themselves and went back to the original plea creates a legal right for Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea, without the usual burdens and requirements attached to withdrawing a plea.
The government originally recommended probation for Flynn a year ago. Recently, however, the government reversed course and recommended a jail sentence but soon reverted back to its original position. Flynn’s counsel has now filed two separate motions seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. One is based on his former lawyers having a conflict of interest in his case. The other is on the ground that the government breached his plea agreement by changing its sentencing recommendation.
The withdrawal of a guilty plea in federal court is a difficult legal maneuver in a simple case, which this case surely is not. Withdrawing a plea is only possible with the approval of the judge...
How the Santobello Rule Affects Flynn's Case
Plea agreements function like written contracts in criminal cases, and the courts enforce them. Where the terms of a plea agreement are ambiguous or uncertain, they are interpreted against the government because of the unequal bargaining power between the two parties.
In 1971, the Supreme Court decided in Santobello v. New York that if the government breaches a plea agreement, a defendant can ask to withdraw his guilty plea without having to satisfy the other factors that normally apply to a request to withdraw it.
There Is No Law In America; Why Should We Be The Only Ones to Pretend There Is?
—Ace
All nations end. That’s just life. When they tell the story of the breakup of America, having one set of laws for normal people and one set of laws for people in the government club will be part of our breakup story. Nations can’t last like that. https://t.co/rOVCi4PhAB
Let me add: if there is no law for the liberal Ruling Class, there is no law for me, either.
"Where the hell is the [Durham] report? Where the hell are the indictments? Where the hell are the charges against the politically corrupt Deep State within the Justice Department, the FBI, and why in the hell aren’t we hearing apologies from someone in that rancid, corrupt, department about what they permitted?" he asked.
Here's a semi-related thread from John Hayward:
John Hayward
@Doc_0
This "rule of law" talking point is the most absurd example of NeverTrump and Democrat desperation yet. It's the nook-nook they're sucking on to get themselves past the disappointment of Impeachment Theater not only fizzling, but backfiring spectacularly.
By any objective standard, Trump is far less of a threat to the "rule of law" than Barack Obama was. In fact, the big reason the anti-Trump circus is squawking about "rule of law" right now is they remember how concerned conservatives were about it during the Obama years.
Obama's entire agenda was an all-out attack on the rule of law. When Obamacare crashed and burned, he was out there giving speeches where he told people to just ignore the broken law and promised not to prosecute them for it.
If anything, Trump is clearly the target of people who disdain the rule of law, using laws and administrative procedures to sabotage his administration. The proverbial Crazy Hawaiian Judge is the real threat to rule of law, not Trump. Abusive injunctions are a threat.
And Trump is clearly on the right side of the biggest single Rule of Law issue there is: immigration, citizenship, sanctuary cities, border defense. The Dems, ALL OF THEM, are sworn enemies of the rule of law and openly promise to undermine it as vigorously as possible.
Trump is also on the right side of the second biggest Rule of Law issues, free speech and gun rights. The enemies of those things are the ones declaring open war on the rule of law. The 1st and 2nd Amendment are inextricably linked in defining what the law means and how it rules.
And Trump spent most of his first term under attack by one of the worst abuses of the Rule of Law this nation has ever seen, the Russia collusion hoax and its attendant abuses of the FBI, FISA, etc.
No one willing to give "the Resistance" and Obama a pass on the Russia hoax can be taken seriously when they talk about the Rule of Law. They're just tossing around loaded political terms without any commitment to what those terms actually mean.
Worse, they're perverting the Rule of Law to mean "the rule of the permanent administrative state." The Rule of Law is meaningless, indeed inverted from its true meaning, if there are no laws to bind the administrative state, no accountability, no consequences.
Argue the merits of Trump's policies all you want, but let's stop this charade that he's some kind of unique existential threat to the Rule of Law. Every Dem running in 2020 is vastly more of a threat than Trump on his worst day. /end
We lost the war -- or at least we lost it based on the expansive and absurd definitions of success that our genius Neocon Non-Warriors set for it.
There's no dodging that conclusion.
On the other hand: Who cares? The correct response to Afghanistan misbehavior is punishing airstrikes. Forever if necessary.
Do we want or need US boys patrolling this shithole forever? This shithole where rape of young boys is not only tolerated, but openly celebrated?
I don't.
A senior U.S. official said Friday the United States and the Taliban have reached a truce agreement that will take effect "very soon" and could lead to withdrawals of American troops from Afghanistan.
The official said the agreement for a seven-day “reduction in violence” to be followed by the start of all-Afghan peace talks within 10 days is “very specific” and covers the entire country, including Afghan government forces. There were indications a formal announcement could come as early as the weekend.
The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Taliban had committed to a halt in roadside and suicide bombings as well as rocket attacks. The official said the U.S. would monitor the truce and determine if there were any violations.
Should the Taliban comply, the "reduction in violence" agreement would be followed by the signing of an agreement that would initiate peace negotiations that include all Afghan sides.
New York Times: John Durham is Probing How John Brennan Put Together His Coup Effort, and That Is a Dangerous and Unamerican Violation of the CIA's Privacy!!!!
The sourcing from this obviously comes from Brennan or other CIA figures involved in cooking up the plan to use the dossier as a pretext to open a criminal file on Trump.
The New York Times dutifully relays their Message: That unaccountable bureaucrats should be unaccountable forever, and anything less than full unaccountability is anti-American and just playing into Putin's hands.
On the plus side: That means that someone's scared and trying to shut down the investigation.
So the investigation may actually not be completely worthless.
Excising as much of the Times' "You know who also investigated John Brennan? Adolph Hitler, that's who" spin, and excerpting just the actual news...
Mr. Durham appears to be pursuing a theory that the C.I.A., under its former director John O. Brennan, had a preconceived notion about Russia or was trying to get to a particular result -- and was nefariously trying to keep other agencies from seeing the full picture lest they interfere with that goal, the people said.
...
The Durham investigation has rattled current and former intelligence officers. Little precedent exists for a criminal prosecutor to review the analytic judgment-making process of intelligence agencies, said Michael Morrell, a former acting C.I.A. director who left the government in 2013.
“This whole thing is so abnormal,” Mr. Morrell said.
Mike Morrell was the CIA officer who let his boss testify to Congress that the FBI, not the CIA, "edited" the Benghazi talking points -- even though he knew the CIA had edited them, because he himself had edited them.
The station chief sent a detailed e-mail Sept. 15, the day before national security adviser Susan Rice said on Sunday talk shows that the attack evolved from a spontaneous protest. The White House has since admitted the protest never happened and it was a terrorist attack.
Morell deleted references to extremist threats linked to al-Qaeda in versions of the talking points and said he did so because he believed the information provided by intelligence community analysts and the Defense Department over the CIA's own station chief in Libya.
So of course he then permitted a lie to be uttered to Congress without correcting the record.
He then resigned from the CIA to work for the Hillary Clinton/Jon Podesta connected Beacon Security Group.
He's the guy the New York Times turns to for the skinny on what's "abnormal."
Okay.
This seems to be about unmasking, though it's written so damned obscurely that I can't say for sure:
A second fight that Mr. Durham is focused on, the people said, centered on a certain data set. The nature of the data and of the dispute remains unclear, though one person suggested that the disagreement concerned whether N.S.A. analysts could see the raw information or whether the C.I.A., before sharing it, needed to filter the data to mask names and other identifying details about Americans and American organizations.
Also interesting: Investigators want to look at the deleted Hillary emails -- which, as everyone suspected, had in fact been accessed by foreign countries and which the US could look at.
But no -- US investigators are not being allowed to see them.
Why not?
Because Barack Obama is exerting Executive Privilege.
Officials also differed over access to unclassified emails of American officials that the Russian government had previously hacked, including at the White House and State Department.
A foreign ally’s intelligence service had obtained its own copy of the stolen messages and provided drives with another reproduction of them to the United States government. Investigators, including at the F.B.I., wanted to look at those files. They argued that the Russian hackers’ chosen focus while the Kremlin’s election interference operation was gearing up might shed light on that operation.
But an index of the messages compiled by the unnamed foreign ally showed that they included emails from President Barack Obama as well as members of Congress. Mr. Obama’s White House counsel, W. Neil Eggleston, decided that investigators should not open the drives, citing executive privilege and the possibility of a separation-of-powers uproar if the F.B.I. sifted through lawmakers’ private messages.
Weird how invoking Executive Privilege is an impeachable offense when Trump invokes it, but when old slippery-assed Barry does? Then it's all for the good of America.
Let's go to the penultimate paragraph. Let's see if this provides any clues as to who the people pushing this story could possibly be:
But Mr. Durham has not interviewed the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, his onetime deputy Andrew G. McCabe or Mr. Brennan. Mr. Durham has requested Mr. Brennan’s emails, call logs and other documents from the C.I.A. to learn what he told other officials, including Mr. Comey, about his and the C.I.A.'s views of a notorious dossier of assertions about Russia and Trump associates.
Trump administration officials investigating the government's response to Russia’s election interference in 2016 appear to be hunting for a basis to accuse Obama-era intelligence officials of hiding evidence or manipulating analysis about Moscow's covert operation, according to people familiar with aspects of the inquiry.
Hmm, another non-spin way to write that might be "Durham is looking into the question of whether Obama-era intelligence officials hid evidence about Russian meddling.”
See what I mean about the thing being 99% Brennan Talking Points?
"YOU MAY NOT LIKE THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE, BUT YOU HAVE TO GET BEHIND HIM FOR THE SAKE OF UNITY" shouted the National Review editors after publishing their 'Against Trump' special edition.
"CONSERVATIVES NEED TO CONSERVE CONSERVATISM BY VOTING FOR HILLARY!" proclaimed Bret Stephens during the 2016 campaign.
"THAT'S IT, I'M FED UP, I'M LEAVING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOREVER RIGHT NOW" pouted Tom Nichols for the 12th time.
"TRUMP IS NOT A REAL CONSERVATIVE! bellowed the Bulwark as it espoused Democratic policies, acted as fluffers for Democratic politicians, and encouraged its readers to vote for Democrats.
"WHY DO THOSE STUPID YOKELS VOTE FOR TRUMP INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO ME?" sneered Rick Wilson as he yukked it up and made fun of Trump voters on CNN with his BFF Don Lemon.
"TRUMP SUPPORTERS BETTER LOOK OUT, BECAUSE HE WON'T BE AROUND FOREVER, AND WHEN HE'S GONE, OOOOH YOU'RE GOING TO PAY DEARLY, YOU'LL SEE!" said the Weekly Standard shortly before their web site went dark.
"I CAN PROVE WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT, WITH GEOMETRIC LOGIC, THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP COLLUDED WITH RUSSIA TO GET A QUID PRO QUO WITH THE UKRAINE WHICH OBSTRUCTED CONGRESS FROM INVESTIGATING HIS ABUSE OF POWER" ranted Cap'n Kristol from the lido deck as he reached into his pocket and fondled his ball bearings.
"TRUMP IS AN IMMORAL DIRTBAG!" exclaimed Charlie Sykes as he wrote his 3rd alimony check.
"TRUMP ISN'T A REAL CHRISTIAN!" screeched David French as he polished his gaudy, oversized halo.
"I'M NOT AN ANNOYING LITTLE RODENT!" squeaked Ben Shapiro as the smell of moldy cheese caused his whiskers to twitch.
"TRUMP SUPPORTERS ARE A CULT!" chanted all the NeverTrumpers in unison.
Good morning, kids. The weekend is here so let's begin with the latest act of complete Democrat desperation, which is the attempt to smear AG William Barr as some sort of rogue conspirator of the President to either derail or blunt what is sure to be the long-awaited indictments of the real coup against Trump and the American people. Yes, I know, many of you have your doubts given all that has come to naught before. Also, you could say, and rightly so, that the Dems are just reflexively flailing about wildly a la replicant Pris shot by Deckard. But if you just go on the assumption that Barr and John Durham by their impanelling of a grand jury are serious, then the Democrats reaction makes even more sense. Personally I am hoping that they indeed are quaking in their boots and if Andrew McCabe should find himself cuffed and led off the CNN set on live TV for everyone in Terminal 5 at JFK to see, that would be satisfying enough for me. But let's not start tasting each other's nether regions just yet.
That said, the latest kerfluffle is over AG Barr's "rebuke" of the President's commenting about the outrageous sentencing of Roger Stone as supposedly interfering with his ability to do his, Barr's, job. Ace covered this yesterday but from my perspective, this too will come to naught. Meh, it could even be a head-fake to throw the Dems off the scent while the hammer falls on them from out of the blue. Whatever may or may not be happening between the President and the Attorney General, I think the salient point is the Democrat-Media Complex is in full attack mode as it is trying to destroy the man by labeling him Trump's "Incredible Two-Headed Transplant" of Roy Cohn and Lavrenty Beria, so for them to suddenly back up and say "hey, the President is interfering with the attorney general!" would be ludicrous in the extreme. Meanwhile, Deep State stooge and ex-chief of staff John Kelly is opening his pie hole to criticize the firing of lower-level termite Field Marshal Alexander Vindbreaker, to which PDT naturally retaliated, drawing John "Twain-face" Bolton into the fray to defend Kelly, calling on conservatives to reject Trump.
Look, after the beat down and subsequent grinding into the dirt of the Democrats after the failure of sham-peachment and their rutting monkey display of public masturbation and feces flinging at the SOTU speech, Malig-Nancy Pelosi and her minions would truly be certifiable to even talk about let alone go forward with more investigations and another round of sham-peachment over AG Barr doing his job. And yet, all signs indicate that that is exactly what they are going to do. The last thing the Dems need is for America to see the Democrats tear each other apart over which one is the least anti-American communist candidate. But, thankfully, I think it's too late for that, as we will explore in a minute.
Elsewhere, Mollie Hemingway dissects Chuck Todd's idiotic statement about FISA abuse and the thoroughly corrupted DoJ, while Margot Cleveland has a story on the continued persecution of General Michael Flynn. More and more, it is now evident that he was set up and taken out early because he was hell bent on day one of clearing out the Obama-Clinton nest of termites and traitors that have been eating away at the vitals of the administration. If there is justice, he will be fully exonerated and restored to his post as head of the NSA where he can preside over that agency's complete dismantling in Trump's second term. Seb Gorka underscores that with his call to weed out and completely eradicate every last Vindman. Make it so.
CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION, SHAMPEACHMENT
CIVIL WAR 2.0
Ace posted that video of some fat, loud-mouthed Ana Navarro with a beard stooge getting smacked around after picking a fight with the wrong guy in a MAGA hat. And yet, after the terrorist in a van, drunk on the words and music of people (if you can call them that) like Maxine Waters
and Roger Waters that both dehumanize and call for confrontation and violence, we have two more examples of our speech as violence and their violence as speech.
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM
Again, if you're an actual Jew and not of a self-gassing JeBBO (Jew By Birth Only), to vote Democrat is madness.
DEMOCRAT-LEFTIST SCANDALS, CRIMES, CHUTZ-POCRISY, MESHUGAS
Awesome! After totally scamming Schiff-for-Brains and then Mikvah Waters, the Russian Jerky Boys just nailed Bernie. Also, long time 9th Circus hack, now deceased, accused of sexual misconduct and no wonder Fed Chair Powell told Rancida Taliban to STFU and STFD. Time to cut Puerto Rico loose.
AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER CRISIS, BORDER SECURITY
The big news on the border is Trump going after Sanctuary cities and states big time. Andrew "big Fredo" Cuomo is seemingly going to cave over his insurrectionist ways vis a vis DMV records and ICE cooperation while an upstate sheriff blasts the anti-ICE law, Connecticut is also in the cross-hairs and while this is great news, to really put the screws to these states the President should also target and punish those businesses that hire illegal aliens. Elsewhere, PDT has extended the state of emergency at the southern border, Ron Desantis with a big if not partial win on E-Verify (which the CoC whores obviously oppose), Border Patrol seizes ammo heading south to the cartels; paging Eric Holder. Also a church is shielding an illegal alien criminal and if you want to know what fear and desperation smell like, look no further than idiot Democrat sham-peachment stooge Val Demings.
POLITICS, 2020 ELECTION
Oh boy, pass the popcorn! It's now open warfare between Skeletor Carville and Sandersnista, which cannot bode well for the Dems either for 2020 or the future of their party, and they are dying of exposure - exposure of who they are and what they stand for to a heretofore blind electorate, which is why the Dems are in absolute panic mode over Bernie possibly costing them the House if they can't steal the nomination from him. Meh, the economy, sham-peachment and PDT's coattails might also be something for them to worry about in that regard.
Also, a look at a potential Trump landslide, Midget Mike turning into a flash in the pan, Left freaking out over tech titan Larry Ellison hosting a Trump fundraiser, Elizabeth Wan campaign sucking fumes, Biden attacks Limbaugh over his completely accurate description of how the Dems view Peter Puffer, Obama tech nerds trash Biden, SEAL hero who killed Bin Laden not pleased with Peter Puffer puffing up his being in uniform, Hope Hicks returns to the administration, advice for the GOP, Conrad Black thinks the Dems only hope, if they have any at all, is with Amy Klownbuchar, Doug Jones is fading fast in Alabama, Michelito Lo-Lo uses same meme maker that handled that disastrous Frye Festival fiasco, it is way past time for West Virginia to oust the feckless, useless Joe's Man-Chin and install a real conservative, could Out-the-Ying Yang be eyeing a run at Gracie Mansion, Eric Greitens fully exonerated at long last, it's going to be hot in Milwaukee this summer, what Bernie's followers don't know about socialism could kill them and Victor Davis Hanson on the Dems' disastrous February. And they still have nine more months to go.
FIRST AMENDMENT, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, BIG BROTHER BIG TECH
Is this criminal still in the US, hiding in Debbie Wasserman-Test's Hellman's-encrusted locks? Oh, Mr. Barr...
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL
Pompeo heading to dark continent and Middle East for confabs, Xi installs lackey in Wuhan epicenter, Helen Raleigh with the voices that are being silenced, NorK official reportedly executed for breaking quarantine after return from China, US Navy seizes Farsi weapons cache in the Gulf, and more on Trump's peace plan which essentially calls to recognize Jordan as "Palestine."
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE BUREAUCRACY, WASTE, FRAUD, CORRUPTION
Cocaine Mitch is the man, but after sham-peachment, I worry about a certain group of GOP-e senators, Census Bureau a hot mess of incompetence (shocking, right?), California freelancers are not pleased, and SSI reforms that of course the Left will resist. Entitlement reform and massively cutting the size of government and spending should be Trump's Border Wall for his second term.
CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY
Margot Cleveland points the spotlight on Pete Puffer: "For all the outrage about Mike Bloomberg's policing comments, the press ignored the nearly identical sentiments Pete Buttigieg voiced mere days earlier during a Democrat primary debate." Also, Daniel Greenfield with a surefire way for Trump to really seal the deal with American Blacks.
HEALTHCARE
14th case of Too Wong Flu confirmed in US, big Nevada union not a fan of anyone taking away their health insurance, making Toothy McBigTits do a fast backtrack on Bernie's Medicare for All madness, which is also voting booth poison in early voting states, and Michelle Malkin on vaccine bullies and their media gatekeepers being the real public health threats.
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Lopecia Pressley tears her hair out over the Constitution or something, Francis the Talking Pope may be a commie stooge but on this he is dead right, remember that National Lampoon cover with the Soviet "female" athlete? Good times. Also doing laundry isn't racist. At least I thought it isn't, or wasn't. Feh.
CULTURE WARS, HITHER & YON
Samantha Pee launches her pudding-sharp wit to attack Prager U and gets a rhetorical kick in the teeth for her troubles, Christian Toto ponders the media being tired of Hollywood's agitprop proclivities, a new documentary on the abject failure and destruction brought about by over 50 years of the welfare state on urban America, and it's Valentine's Day, which means we have to endure a torrent of hatred from the twin-headed demon of Leftism and Islam. They hate love because they fear it. Happy Saint Valentine's Day to all.
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.
ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Arrested (video at link) for walking around in a bikini in The Maldives. She's screaming she's being “sexually assaulted” (I didn't see that in the video, it just looked like getting arrested to me). Sweetie, they're Islamist. To them your outfits invite sexual assault. I always wonder what these leftists think is going to happen to them if they successfully import sharia to the west. The Tolkien Trust Uses Lord of the Rings Income to Fund Muslim Migrants and Terrorists. None of their pet causes-not gays, not trans, not sexual freedom, not female equality, not abortion, none of them-will survive. If they think they're living in The Handmaiden's Tale because some Christian tells them, just tells them, mind you, doesn't do anything to them, that they believe homosexuality is a sin or abortion is murder, what are they going to do when the real thing shows up on their doorstep? How fucking stupid are they? Pretty fucking stupid:
Maybe they'll get kinder, gentler Islamists and be allowed to choose: Crane, roof or wall.
Now, she's still a lib, but the SJW rift in the knitting community drove her to check out the Trump rally. What did she find? Read the article to find out. In case you don't know, the rift I'm referring to happened about a year ago when the premier website in the knitting community, Ravelry, announced that it would no longer allow members to feature any Trump or republican themed patterns (members design and sell patterns for things like socks, hats, sweaters, etc which other members can buy and them make the items themselves) because they were “hate speech”. This was the typical SJW intrusion into a formally non-political space, and the results were the same as always: outcry, demands for purity, etc. I think the founder of the site, even after banning those icky right-wing knitters, came under fire for insufficient purity or something until he “discovered” that he was gay or bi or trans or some such nonsense. Suffice it to say that it ripped apart what heretofore had been a happy little community of people dedicated to the fiber arts. My wife is a knitter, she designs and sells patterns, and her sales fell off the cliff after all this went down. Ravelry is the 800lb gorilla in that web space and there just aren't good alternatives with sufficient traffic to replace it. (By the way, my wife is selling a lot of her samples (after you design a pattern, you have to knit and photograph an example of it so people can see what it looks like), if you're in the market for that kind of stuff hit her up. Be warned, hand knit items made with home spun, small batch dyed yarn aren't just beautiful, they're expensive)
I do wish I knew what the real story was. China is lying, that's a given, but by how much? Their actions do not match a country of a billion and a half people dealing with a couple of thousand deaths. But what's the real story? I don't know. I don't even know if the footage “smuggled” out showing violent detention of people and dead folks on the streets is real either. If only there were a group of people, or some organizations, dedicated to investigating current events and letting the rest of us know what is going on.
That's great Ted, but that doesn't appear to be a select fire weapon. No reason to give the gun grabbers more, er, ammo, in their campaign of misinformation. Also, does anyone know how to get melted plastic off the barrel of a gun? I was at the range and I put the AR-15 down on a sandbag after running through a few mags. I didn't notice that someone had repaired the bag with duct tape, and the hot barrel melted the tape onto itself. I'm not sure how to get it off.
Tonight's ONT brought to you by patience:
Special thanks to Moron Black Orchid who gave me the help I asked for with the web banner last week, and also a shout out to the dozen or so of y'all who were kind enough to offer. You guys are the best!
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ robust start in the race for the presidential nomination is triggering alarm among congressional Democrats, with many warning that a ticket headed by the self-declared socialist could be devastating to the party’s chances of winning the Senate and holding the House in November.
In anxious huddles around the Capitol, apprehensive Democrats are sharing their worries that Sanders’ socialist label and unyielding embrace of controversial proposals like “Medicare for All” and the Green New Deal will repel voters in the affluent, moderate districts that flipped House control in 2018 and in closely divided states where Republican senators are vulnerable.
It's about time someone else worried about these Wealthy White Suburban Soccer Moms.
...
Another freshman from a competitive district, Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., said Democrats need a presidential nominee who "doesn't scare all those future former Republicans more than Trump scares them." And while acknowledging that Republicans plan to tar all Democrats with the socialist label, "There's one candidate for whom that would not be a lie."
You are socialists, you just try to Con the Rubes about it.
Some Democrats say they'll triangulate against Sanders, representing themselves as staunch defenders of capitalism that you'll want and need as the last best defense against Sanders' communist dreams.
LOLGF.
But I have a feeling this will become a frequent talking point on Pierre Omidyar's Bulwark webzine.
Except they'll also support Bernie Sanders, of course.
What I did mind was a sinking feeling that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for all its inclusiveness, had wound up excluding more viewers than ever.
The site's columnist dragged the Oscar ceremony in ways that sounded like a right winger's lament, dubbing the night "an evening of cultural instruction." That's a fancy way of saying, "woke."
The column ends by praising the one comedian who dared target La La Land recently.
Extend a hand, and someone will take it. Deliver a muddled, dressed-up lecture (with music), and you validate what Ricky Gervais so chillingly said at the Golden Globes in January: "No one cares about movies anymore."
As I've mentioned, I want them to get #Woker. I don't want them to realize they're going bankrupt until after the banks foreclose their asses.
Don't cave in to Right-Wing Pressure, Hollywood! You are artists -- we need you to exhibit the bravery that we Civilians could never even aspire to have!
Be brave, be strong, and above all -- Be Woke, Hollywood!
You fly those freak-flags. You fly them high and proud.
And you greenlight that Charlie's Angels sequel with an all-trans cast. And you greenlight that Terminator Sequel starring Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Greta Thunberg.
Here are two quick reviews of movies I saw. I don't watch many movies any more. They're terrible.
Here's where I depart from many: I wouldn't say it's great. I would say if you expect great, you will be disappointed. It's not great.
But it is good, and worth watching. Good is good enough, especially by today's standards.
My problems with the movie are these:
1. I expected more Apollo 13 style "let's engineer our way around this problem with the car" stuff. I was thinking that would be the main fare in the movie, especially afrer the opening set-up stuff about how difficult it is to build a car that is fast enough and durable enough to spend 24 straight hours racing over LeMans' not-so-great roads.
There's really only one Major Thing like that. And it's more a case of Rules Engineering than engineering with steel. It's interesting, but not what I was hoping for.
Did you guys see Tucker: A Man and His Dream? I only dimly remember it, but I remember a lot of stuff involving the small team of engineers hand-building the Tucker prototype. I loved that stuff.
In Ford V. Ferrari, they're often in a garage (a hangar used as a garage), but you just see people doing mechanic-type things in background.
2. I didn't see the main characters as anything except Matt Damon and Christian Bale acting on screen. The Matt Damon character -- Carol Shelby -- was barely characterized. He's just a Solid, Loyal Guy Who Loves Racing. I mean, that's great, but there's not much there beyond being a Good Guy Greg.
The Ken Miles character is given flaws -- he's so uncooperative with others he's self-destructive -- but he's played in a broad, nearly comical way that made it hard for me to take him seriously as a real person.
I hear the real Ken Miles was quite the character, but in the movie, I dunno, he comes off fake to me.
3. There is this Snidely Whiplash Interfering Executive at Ford who has the problem of the Villain who Does Evil Just to Do Evil. I mean, he does everything short of twirling his mustache and tying Ken Miles' wife to the railroad tracks. I get that he's a composite for all the bureaucratic bullshit at Ford, but... he doesn't work as a character. I don't buy him.
I did buy Henry Ford II. The part where Matt Damon kidnaps him is kind of silly, but I bought his performance and characterization.
The Lee Iacocca part was maybe good, but all I could see was The Punisher In a Suit.
So those are my complaints. But the movie is still good. The racing parts weren't as good as the racing parts in some other racing movies I've seen -- I remember being really thrilled by the racing in Days of Thunder -- but there was a scene of night-driving in the rain on not-so-great streets in Ford V. Ferrari that were really nice.
Great? No, not for me. It made me want to see the Ron Howard racing movie with Chris Hemsworth, which I've heard has some visceral racing scenes.
But it's definitely a good movie that almost everyone will like.
And also: The cars -- which I wanted a lot more of -- were of course gorgeous. Some of the best parts of the movie are just Matt Damon driving around in his roadster. Just beautiful cars, even the ones that are supposed to be clunky.
Oh, one last thing: In The Founder, the producers cooperated with the McDonald's corporation and changed some details to McDonald's PR benefit, in exchange for letting the filmmakers use their trademarks and stuff.
One thing the movie changed was claiming that a big dispute with the McDonald brothers was over using a cheaper, easier-to-make shake formula instead of real ice cream.
That happened, but much later. The actual dispute between Kroc and the Brothers McDonald was Kroc's desire to use frozen pre-cut french fries instead of the freshly cut ones the MacDonald's insisted on.
I think McDonald's wanted to avoid that knock on everyone's favorite McDonald's menu item.
Returning this to Ford v. Ferrari:
I'm pretty sure I saw no Ford trademarks or symbols in this movie. And I think I know why:
This movie was brutal to Ford. Ford Motor Co. was really the villain. Not Ferrari, but Ford.
I guess it's a good thing that the movie pulled no punches with Ford. But if you're a Ford fan expecting the movie to be a love letter to the Ford Motor Corporation... no, it's more like a poison pen letter.
Oh, one more good thing: There's a fair amount of Italian in the scenes where they meet with Ferarri.
Escape Room. I expected too much of Ford v. Ferrari and wound up a little underwhelmed. I expected nothing from Escape Room and... really liked it.
As soon as it was over, I started watching it again.
But then, five minutes in, I thought, "Wait, am I really watching Escape Room again? What the hell is wrong with me? Is my life this empty?"
And then I turned it off. Still -- I had the intent to watch it again.
Saw featured what would come to be known as an "escape room" and popularized real-life escape room entertainment in the US and the world.
And now the popularity of escape rooms inspires the movie Escape Room, which is just like Saw, except it's just like Saw.
Well, not exactly like it. The movie also borrows some ideas from Cabin in the Woods and Hostel.
But it's good. Not great -- obviously.
But if you're up for a contrived funhouse suspense movie, this should satisfy.
And I do say "suspense," because this is suspense-based horror movie, not a gore-based horror movie (as in Saw).
Only after the movie was over did I realize, "Wait, I've seen almost no blood at all." There is always a dark tone and atmosphere of menace, and some harrowing scenes of coming death and coming gore, but the camera never focuses on the deaths. It assumes you can fill in the blanks.
I felt like I was seeing blood, I guess. But I wasn't.
The movie, it turns out, was not rated R as I would have guessed. It's rated PG-13. Not for graphic violence, but for the constant suspense that some graphic violence is coming.
Here's the biggest knock I can lay on it, besides it borrowing from obvious sources: The characters are stock and stereotypes with almost nothing to them except the stereotype.
The "Game Geek Stereotype?" OMG, this is the stupidest rewrite of Dr. Sheldon Cooper, except even more divorced from reality. This guy is still arguing this is all just a game with "good special effects" after they're nearly incinerated by a fireball in the opening Oven Room Trap.
This guy's smart? He can't tell the difference between real fire and... carnival attraction special effects? He thinks the technology exists to make realistic fireballs (including blistering heat!) chase after you in a duct?
Does he think this movie takes place on the Holodeck of the Enterprise D?
Whatever, though. You gotta have the Nerd Stereotype.
And what about the stereotype of the smart, smarmy, manipulative White Wall Street Asshole who's about nothing but money and status and high-priced thrills?
Well, he's in this. But here's the twist:
He's black.
And I'm kind of pissed off that the beloved stock character of White Wall Street Asshole has been race-swapped. Will they ever stop taking from us?
The Designated Asshole Characters are really a problem. They're important stock characters in a horror movie, to be sure, but they're clumsily written.
They're assholes in unrealistic ways. Ways that don't help them. Ways that often seem unjustified, even in the tense circumstances. They're literally just being assholes to be assholes.
At some point, the Designated Assholes say things which are actually true like "We don't have time to mourn! We have literally minutes before this next trap kills us!," and then other people argue with them.
Because you gotta keep that pointless bickering going.
The Thing was a great movie for showing how people become realistically vicious to each other when under unbearable stress.
This movie, on the other hand, just has some Asshole Characters being assholes because they read in a screenwriting book that screenplays should include conflict.
This is really only a problem for the first half of the movie, though. After that, some Assholes are eliminated, and other assholes -- in a horror movie cliche that I still always love when I see it -- become much less assholish when they start to realize that maybe they should start cooperating a little if they want to live.
Oh, and some of the escape rooms -- death-traps, actually -- were really great production design. The Pool Hall Trap is my favorite, and I imagine everyone's favorite. All but the silly Outdoor Arctic Set (which I didn't buy, and seemed to almost be a Holodeck) were pretty good.
The movie ends strangely -- they decide they don't want to just bait a sequel. They decide they're going to get the ball rolling and film the first ten minutes of the sequel.
In fairness, I do want to see the sequel.
So kind of an interesting possible choice for a low-effort movie night. It's a horror movie, sort of, but without nasty graphic violence, and just a lot of fear of bloody death. The characters are stock as hell and spend the first forty minutes being way too bitchy and snarky and unpleasant, but they get better when they start realize that these "escape rooms" are not games but death-traps.
I know it's weird that I'm claiming Escape Room was more enjoyable than Ford v. Ferrari, but it's an expectations game, you know? That's why I'm trying to dampen expectations for FvF. It's good, yeah. Just... don't go in expecting something great, something like... Escape Room.
In an exclusive interview, Attorney General Bill Barr told ABC News on Thursday that President Donald Trump "has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case" but should stop tweeting about the Justice Department because his tweets "make it impossible for me to do my job."
Barr's comments are a rare break with a president who the attorney general has aligned himself with and fiercely defended. But it also puts Barr in line with many of Trump’s supporters on Capitol Hill who say they support the president but wish he'd cut back on his tweets.
Barr is one of the few people in Trump's administration I trust. Does Trump trust him? Is he capable of hearing advice and adjusting his behavior?
Well, we've seen no signs thusfar. But I guess we can hope.
"I think it's time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases," Barr told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas.
The DOJ was already reviewing the insane Stone sentencing recommendations and preparing to overrule the rogue prosecutors. But Trump's tweets make it seem like Barr is making political decisions at Trump's behest.
Which Barr is actually permitted to do, and Trump is permitted to order him to do.
But this causes unnecessary problems -- and now new calls for the only man I trust in the DOJ to recuse himself or appoint another Special Counsel.
Which is the same playbook they ran with Sessions -- where it worked.
Can it work again? Can the Democrats make a conflict-of-interest allegation and then get a Democrat Deep Stater in the DOJ to issue a memo offering the opinion that the AG should recuse?
I wouldn't bet against that. And I sure wouldn't help the Democrats run the Sessions Playbook on Barr.
Trump cannot make Barr appear to be his political catspaw and expect Barr to remain the AG. And to avoid recusing himself.
And Trump should really, really want Barr to remain the AG and avoid recusing himself.
Jake Tapper asks Rep. Swalwell if the House will push impeaching @realDonaldTrump over the Roger Stone situation: We're not going to take our options off the table. We don’t wake up in the morning wanting to impeach him...but we're not going to let him torch this democracy... pic.twitter.com/HqTANTdVLw
"There’s blood in the water," said Quentin James, executive director of The Collective, a political action committee that backs African American candidates. "Black voters are starting to leave him now.... A big reason lots of black voters were with Biden is they thought he was the best person to beat Trump. And they thought one reason for that is that he had the support of white voters. Now they see he has done so poorly with white voters and he no longer looks like the electability candidate."
...
"This is horrendous. We're all scared," said a Biden adviser, speaking anonymously because the comments conflict with the brave public face the campaign is trying to broadcast. "I think we're going to make it to South Carolina. I know we're supposed to say we're going to and we’re going to win. But I just don’t know."
As noted by RedState, Van Jones predicted this too. He noted that Biden expects black voters to make up with all his "deficits" with other voters.
But he also pointed out that black people switched to supporting Obama when they saw Obama could win white votes. (In Iowa, I think.)
But now they're looking at Biden -- the supposedly "electable" candidate -- and seeing that no one is voting for him except black people.
Biden's event in South Carolina -- which was an attempt to distract from his disaster in New Hampshire -- was itself, get this, a disaster.
The exodus seems to be happening.
Meanwhile, NeverTrump quislings and kapos -- who joined a Republican Party they had no particular attachment to just to take it over and lead it ruinously -- are now attempting to issue orders to their new party, the Democrat Party.
The problem? Just as in 2016 with the Republican party, essentially no one in the Democrat party cares what they think. In fact, the tiny number of overly-represented media voices that have centered their existence around defeating the orange man is becoming more and more unwelcome in their new home.
Honestly, I kind of get it. Republicans had to deal with this unearned sense of entitlement and superiority throughout the 2016 election. Now they want to jump into a new party and start dictating who that party should nominate in the very next election? That’s pretty presumptive on their part.
It also shows an out-sized self-evaluation of their own intellect. These are the same people who got every single thing about 2016 wrong. Why would any Democrat heed their "warnings" about Bernie Sanders when they’ve shown to be awful at political prognostication? The fact that Never Trump are so certain he'll lose to Trump actually makes me think Bernie might perhaps be the toughest challenger.
Portman, 38, attended the awards show wearing a black and gold Dior dress with a cape embroidered with the names of the female directors who were snubbed by the Academy: Lorene Scafaria (“Hustlers”), Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”), Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”), Mati Diop (“Atlantics”), Marianne Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”), Melina Matsoukas (“Queen & Slim”), Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”) and Céline Sciamma (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”).
Fellow spoiled-brat out-of-touch nutter Rose McGowan attacked Portman for... not "walking the walk" regarding female directors?
"I find Portman’s type of activism deeply offensive to those of us who actually do the work. I'm not writing this out of bitterness...
And this is not just about the money.
... I am writing out of disgust. I just want her and other actresses to walk the walk," McGowan said. "Natalie, you have worked with two female directors in your very long career- one of them was you. You have a production company that has hired exactly one female director- you."
But that's just normal Hollywood battiness and cattiness.
Gervais had previously tweeted, "I tried to warn them."
@rickygervais
I have nothing against the most famous people in the world using their privileged, global platform to tell the world what they believe. I even agree with most of it. I just tried to warn them that when they lecture everyday, hard working people, it has the opposite effect. Peace.
Forewoman of Roger Stone Jury Criticizes Trump In FaceBook Post; People Discover She Has Long Been a Rabidly Anti-Trump, Anti-Republican Zealot Who Ran for Congress as a Democrat and Tweeted About Stone Before the Trial
—Ace
This conviction will have to be thrown out. This woman is obviously biased beyond any capability of dispassionate evaluation. And she wasn't just a juror, but the jury foreman, so she probably influenced the other jurors.
And also, it seems highly likely she lied in the voir dire process of weeding out biased jurors to get on the jury.
he jury foreman on the Roger Stone trial came forward on social media Wednesday to defend the four prosecutors who withdrew from the case after the Department of Justice overruled their excessive sentencing recommendation.
A Facebook post written by Tomeka Hart, the senior program officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was picked up by multiple news outlets. But the reports left out some highly pertinent details about her background--namely that Hart is a hyperpartisan Democratic Party activist who is rabidly anti-Trump and a Russia-collusion truther.
In this tweet, for example, she retweets someone laughing at Roger Stone for complaining about his excessive-force arrest. See, a White Man has no right to complain about that...!
On that Roger Stone juror -
Of the utmost importance will be her responses to these juror questions on:
(1) Social media and the Mueller investigation
(2) Running for office
If she answered in the negative... things will get interesting.
By the way: When she realized people were finding her most floridly lunatic conspiracy tweets, she began deleting huge swaths of her social media history.
Who knows which tweets we missed because she had made sure to delete them in the first few minutes after being caught.
Her Twitter feed shows dozens of references to Trump, many of them links to negative stories about the Republican. In a Twitter post on Aug. 19, 2017, Hart quoted a tweet referring to Trump as the "#KlanPresident," in an apparent reference to the KKK.
This one's good, too.
There is absolutely no way that a person that tweeted out that the President and all of his supporters are racist was capable of being an impartial juror in the Roger Stone trial. https://t.co/2OEUPSuiTJ
That would probably explain how this incredibly biased forewoman was never struck.
Correction: I thought this must be the same biased Democrat juror, but a friend tells me: no, that's another biased partisan Democrat the judge allowed on the jury.
Canada, to the extent that anyone ever thinks about it, is America's hat, has a surprisingly good sniper corps, and is rapidly descending into Leftist hell, filled with a compliant, reliably progressive population that has forgotten what freedom feels like.
And what better way to demonstrate your progressive bona fides than to fête a convicted terrorist, a man who killed an American medic! It's delicious! Celebrate anti-Western terrorism and take a shot at America...all in one fell swoop.
Omar Khadr, a scion of a “Palestinian” and Egyptian family that made a home for itself in Toronto, killed a US medic in Afghanistan. For this action he was awarded ten million dollars by the Canadian government and was called a “magnificent gentleman” by the moderator of a Q&A session following a talk that he was invited to give at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The only reason Mr. Khadr is famous and the only reason he was invited to give the talk was his and his family being members of the Al-Qaeda terror organization on whose behalf he fought against the United States and against his own country of birth and citizenship, Canada. Regardless of this fact and although Mr. Khadr in his entire life has done nothing of note other than killing an American military medic, no questions were allowed about his crime, his subsequent ten year stint at Guantanamo, or his release and the award of ten million dollars for being “wrongfully imprisoned”.
It's amazing that the Left consistently approves of murder. Where have they not? Oh, I guess the Nordic socialists aren't too keen on killing, although abortion is quite popular there...But socialism invariably descends into murder.
It's too bad that Canada is as far down the slippery slope to the next socialist nightmare. They have been loyal allies of ours for a very long time, and the Canadians have a reputation for being ferocious fighters. But all things must pass, and the days of Canada being a free and independent country seem to be ending.
But we are not immune to the lunacy that is driving that descent. One of the grand dames of Hollywood was an out-and-proud cheerleader for the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese, and that hurt her career not a whit. And I recall a recent president and his ghostwriter, who seems to have gotten his start as a homegrown terrorist. The list goes on and on. Hell, how many communists and their fellow travelers did we have in government beginning in the 1920s, and continuing today? We can begin with the entire list of Democrat candidates for president!
Apparently Ben Sasse's high-dollar corporate donor gave him permission to call Michael Avenatti a "Scumbag Lawyer" Anyone want to bet me we won't be hearing about "muh precious norms of civil discourse" from the Fussies? Anyone want to bet that suddenly they'll be very, very quiet about "coarsening our public life"? Mind you, Avenatti is a scumbag, and I think it's okay to say so. But schoolmarmish little scolds like Sasse -- and the NeverTrump sissybitch martinets and gang-pecking Twitter-roosting hens who support him -- are constantly telling me that Trump's deployment of vulgarisms like "scumbag" are literally tearing this nation apart and eroding the Constitution itself. So where's the concern about prissy norms being violated by the Dreamy and Rubio-esque Ben Sasse?
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Novelty rapper's attempt at a 2nd hit is 2 lame It got worse: He then recorded a soundtrack song for a movie reboot of a 60s comedy. You know, people who say the 80s had great music aren't remembering much of the 80s. They're just remembering the stuff that was good enough to keep being played 30 years later. if you only look at any decade's Top 100 songs (or Top 100 movies, or top 100 books, or top 100 anything), it'll look pretty great, creatively. Except... except for the past two decades, of course.
Commenters are debating US WWII military equipment/weapons platform, and someone suggested this guy Nicholas Moran as an authority His take is that the Sherman was the best tank, given the US's Flood Them With Numbers strategy. He also says the Shermans were light enough to be easy transported to Europe, whereas "sixty ton monsters" could not be. Commenters mention that Shermans -- being lighter, I imagine -- could travel quickly whereas Panzers could not.
@EWErickson
A lot of people got emotionally invested in the prosecution of McCabe. Some did it for grift. All of them are now disappointed. But they’ll fundraiser off supposed injustice.
@EWErickson
No matter how reasonable an explanation the DOJ provides, they won’t be believed because truth doesn’t matter when there are windmills to slay and money to make.
McCabe Skates! I think I am about done paying taxes to a system that has all but formally declared me a second class citizen. [krak/t] cont'd: our system of justice is a social construct. We the people defer justice to an impartial other, with the promise that the other will indeed be impartial. That promise is currently broken.
More very important twitterings from the quite-dispensable NRO "Is hot dog milk?," asks a friend Twitter is the reason that Open Mic Night is held on a comedy's club worst-attended night. It sucks. People aren't funny, unfunny people in particular. But everyone pays their zero point zero dollars to get into Twitter's Open Mic Millennium and thinks she's Rita Rudner.
