"Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history," Trump declared. "Already the Biden administration has proven that they are anti-jobs, anti-family, anti-borders, anti-energy, anti-women, and anti-science. In just one short month, we have gone from America first to America last."
The former president argued that there is "no better example" of Biden's failure "than the new and horrible crisis on our southern border."
"Joe Biden has triggered a massive flood of illegal immigration into our country the likes of which we have never seen before," Trump declared, noting that Biden has loosened the enforcement of immigration law. He accused Biden of "enriching child smugglers" and having "put the vile coyotes back in business."
"Biden has failed in his number one duty as chief executive, enforcing America's laws," the former president argued. "This alone should be reason enough for Democrats to suffer withering losses in the mid-terms and to lose the White House decisively four years from now."
"We will do what we've done right from the beginning, which is to win," Trump said. "We're not starting new parties. You know, they kept saying, 'He's going to start a brand new party.' We have the Republican Party; it's going to unite and be stronger than ever before. I am not starting a new party. That was fake news."
As horrendous as the GOPe is, it has the infrastructure and wherewithal to run candidates not just for president but at every federal, state and local political office. A new party starting from scratch, even with Trump at the top, would just not be able to field such a panoply of candidates, certainly not without splitting the vote as bad or worse than the Libertarians. So, as crappy a prospect as having to wrest control of the GOP, it's much more of an attainable goal. Second wave hitting Omaha Beach as opposed to the first.
Also worthy of note and of respect are up and comers Ron DeSantis and Kristy Noem. Both have proven themselves to be outstanding executives over this past year in their handling of the Chinese coronavirus and more specifically the Democrat totalitarian virus that was and continues to be afflicting much of the nation. Despite the usual and continuing media sliming and smearing, they have come up smelling like a rose -- unlike the Angel of Death in New York who is now circling the drain despite an Emmy Award and self-congratulatory book that is not going to protect him from those within his party who want him out.
Peoples living under managerism, however, hold a tiger by the tail. The complicated modern lives they lead are held together by esoteric technical management. The management may be less effective than advertised, and leave the masses struggling, but it at least keeps the lights on. Overthrow of the managerial class means the chaotic reversion to pre-Information Age living. To cite just one glaring example, without Tim Cook and the other managers at Apple, there will be no more iPhones to type out Twitter messages about how awful Twitter is. Americans have ceded control of virtually every aspect of their lives to managers, in areas as diverse as food production, medical care, and national defense. The managerial class cannot be guillotined or thrown into gulags as in previous class revolutions -- not without a catastrophic loss of living standards or even total social breakdown.
Looking to the east for harbingers of things to come, Russia has pursued an alternative path to managerial-class eradication; but their alternative is almost as unsettling as guillotines and gulags. When the USSR fell apart, the power held by its managerial class passed into the hands of a wealthy, quasi-criminal oligarchy. The oligarchs allowed the managerial class of Russia to do their work on a leash, much as the managers allowed the capitalists to persist in a diminished capacity under managerism. Russia's path seems a likely template for the United States in the near-term future.
There is no question the next four to eight years will see the managerial class tighten its grip on the levers of power, with concomitant frustration in store for those outside the managerial pale. At some point, we might expect disaffected working-class voters to elevate a leader who promises to break the grip of the managerial class and make experts 'accountable to the people'; but who in practice subordinates the managerial class using the mechanism of an oligarchy, one that dominates everyone, manager or not.
That's when Kelly dropped a line that should be at the forefront of every single parent's brain as he or she fights the school's efforts to coopt American children: "If he's going to be activated, Doug [Kelly's husband] and I should do it." It's up to the parents, not the schools, to set values for the children -- but of course, that's not how leftists see it.
Maher then chimed in that he'd been hearing from parents -- leftist parents -- about the relentless anti-white activism the New York schools, both public and private, are pushing.
And this is what I've heard from parents -- and these are all liberal, by the way -- who say, "My kids are not ready to be told they're white supremacists." You know, I'm not ready to be told.
[snip]
You talked about this letter the school put out. ... Can I read some of the things that are from this letter, lest people think I'm losing my mind?
"There's a killer cop sitting in every school where white children learn. White children are left unchecked and unbothered in their homes," one sentence starts. Well, how old do you have to be before you can just be unchecked and unbothered. You know, what age to you get bothered?
"I'm tired of white people reveling in their state-sanctioned depravities, snuffing out black lives with no consequences." You know, "go reform white kids."
You know, it bothers me so much that I have to be on this side [Kelly's side] of this issue. Because I've always been a civil rights advocate. You know, don't make me Tucker Carlson. You're the f***ing nuts. This is insane.
"As black bodies drop like flies around us by violent white hands." There is racist problems in this country. But this is hyperbole, and this is making people crazy.
It was with those words that the amazing thing happened: Maher's audience applauded. Over the years, Maher's audiences have always been trained seals, reliably clapping at every hard left, anti-George Bush, anti-Trump, pro-Obama statement the host utters. But this time, he said that the BLM rap pushing Critical Race Theory ("CRT") on American society is dangerous insanity -- and the audience clapped.
Sure, it's anecdotal but it is interesting to note. Also, much as I utterly loathe Bernie Sanders and his even more repulsively anti-Semitic flunky Matt Duss, seems the latter is less than happy with the Biden junta's renewed military adventurism in Syria. And that has got to be reflective of not just the psycho Code Pinkos but perhaps the more amenable liberals (if such a species is not extinct by now). Along with us, there is a lot of disaffection with the current junta as well as with the notion of the legacy two-party political system. I have noted with some irony how much of the rhetoric of the Occupy Wall Street astroturfed protesters actually makes sense some 10 years later (the Jew-hatred notwithstanding). But, look who controls the Democrats.
Forgetting elections for a moment, at least on a national level, the time is ripe to get involved on as local a level as you can possibly get. School boards, community boards, etc. etc. I think that that is going to be the key in somehow clawing back and at least having a chance. It's not going to happen overnight; remember, it took the Communists 100-years to get where they are today. But if you do move in Lefty circles and your cover has not been blown, make yourself into a concern troll and sow division and dissent but from that perspective. It's worth a shot. We've got nothing to lose now.
And now a word to our sponsors - You:
If you value the content we provide, please consider hitting Ace's tip jar as well as mine at Cut Jib Newsletter. It helps keep the lights on and the content coming. It is appreciated more than you know.
"Our debates against socialism prevent us from seeing the actual socio-economic order: managers rule us all." The Oligarchical Revolution
Julie Kelly: "The Capitol Police officer did not die after being attacked by Trump supporters with a fire extinguisher on January 6. Yet news organizations and lawmakers refuse to correct the Big Lie." Where Are All the Retractions of the Brian Sicknick Story?
Victor Davis Hanson: "If Biden and his team get what they wish -- a neo-socialist, big government transformation -- we will enter tough times. But not yet and perhaps not until after 2022." Was Chinese COVID-19 Our Neutron Bomb?
CIVIL WAR 2.0: LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, CAPITOL HILL BLACK WEDNESDAY PROTEST AFTERMATH, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
"We need to consider quite seriously the bargains people make to survive when evil is abroad, for the willingness to bargain is a sign of societal breakdown." The Moral Lessons of a Liquor Store in L.A.
"Charlotte Bennett, a health policy adviser in the Democrat governor's administration until November, told the New York Times Cuomo asked her inappropriate questions about her sex life, including whether she ever had sex with older men." 2nd Former Staffer Alleges Sexual Misconduct by Gov. Angel of Death Cuomo
"Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history," Trump declared. "Already the Biden administration has proven that they are anti-jobs, anti-family, anti-borders, anti-energy, anti-women, and anti-science. In just one short month, we have gone from America first to America last." Trump Eviscerates Biden's Record in Blistering CPAC Speech
"During his CPAC speech, Trump made it clear that the Republican Party is here to stay, but that Trumpism will be the controlling platform." Trump Defines "Trumpism"
"The straw poll, often used as a barometer of which candidates are most popular among conservative voters, found that when Trump was included as a 2024 presidential candidate, he won 55% of the vote. DeSantis came in second with 21% support, followed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) with 4%. President-in-Exile Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Win CPAC Straw Poll
"Trump only teased his 2024 plans Sunday: 'Who knows, I may just decide to beat them for a third time,' he said to huge applause. But he gave promising signs that he would prefer to play the role of king-maker rather than king." Trump Shows Signs of Being King-Maker Rather Than King
"Everyone knows that Joe Biden is losing it. How long before socialist Kamala is our [next quote-unquote so-called] 'president?'" Crazy Old Biden and the Countdown to Kamala
"With more than 1.8 million signatures in hand, a special election to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom is looking more likely. That presents opportunities for Republicans... and a nightmare." Welcome to the Jungle Recall
"From now on, when conservatives hear liberal elites alert Americans in fretful tones of a rising rabble on the Right, they should respond, 'Stop trying to hide your own miserable ineptitude!'" Elite Liberal Guilt (Again)
THE 2020 ELECTION HEIST AND AFTERMATH
"Harvard's Laurence Tribe turns Clarence Thomas and his recent dissent in the Pennsylvania election case into a cartoon caricature. This is sophistry, not legitimacy." How Contemporary Con Law Became a Con Job
"Johnson & Johnson's one-shot regimen adds to the [Chinese] Covid-19 arsenal and offers important advantages over the Pfizer and Moderna options." The Third Vaccine
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
"No matter how he lives his life, as a man with a Jewish mother (his parents were Jewish Polish immigrants), Bernie Sanders is Jewish. Which is why his virulent, self-hating anti-Semitism is so disgusting." Bernie Sanders: History's Biggest Jewish Anti-Semite?
Roger Kimball: "Amazon's decision to remove Ryan Anderson's When Harry Became Sally isn't about a P.C. company removing one book -- it is a challenge to the fundamental principles underlying American democracy." The "World's Largest Bookstore" Gets Into the Censorship Business
"The social media giant contends, in all seriousness, that promoting a charity in a real African country constitutes 'hate speech' because... reasons. No, it is not a joke." Facebook Comes for Geography
"They're coming for you next: A local community college in Oklahoma has removed a monument that commemorated the pioneers who settled the state in the 1800s because some people complained it was 'not inclusive.'" Today's Blacklisted American: The Pioneers Who Settled the West
"The protesters were demonstrating against the military junta that had engineered a coup against the elected government. The party of Suu Kyi, 75, who spent nearly 15 years under house arrest, was elected last November. The military alleged fraud and a coup was staged on February 1 when Kyi was arrested. " Soldiers in Myanmar Open Fire on Protesters, Killing 18
"The rule, which dates back to a November 2019 Trump executive order, enables Commerce Department officials to shoot down technology-related transactions with Chinese entities determined to pose a national security threat to the U.S. The Commerce Department rule will take effect on March 22, according to the Federal Register." Joe Biden Reportedly Will Keep Trump's Sanctions on Chinese Tech Threats
"Congress acts as if this massive, unimaginable federal spending will not have any negative consequences, but it almost certainly will. Something that cannot go on forever will not go on forever. Massive, unchecked, and irresponsible federal spending cannot go on forever without an almost Newtonian reaction." Chinese COVID Stimulus Spending May Lead to Inflation. Are Cryptocurrencies and Gold Viable Hedges?
"Is this the world's most unsalutary health official?" Rachel, Rachel
EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT
"The Educating for American Democracy project's "action civics" is the latest in the Left's efforts to 'fundamentally transform the United States of America.'" A Trojan Horse for Woke Education
"Former President Donald Trump repeatedly tore into President Joe Biden during his CPAC speech on Sunday over a variety of issues ranging from the crisis on the southern border to the millions of American children who are not in school learning." Trump Unloads on Biden: He Has Sold Out America's Children to Teacher Unions
"As we become more culturally responsive and racially conscious, all building leaders should know that in recent years there has been research revealing radical undertones in the books written and the illustrations drawn by Dr. Seuss." Virginia School District Cancels Dr. Seuss Ahead of Read Across America Day
"The federal government controls a massive portion of educational revenue and therefore university curriculums; it must be held accountable in order to enhance intellectual freedom and learning for students of all perspectives and ideologies." An Escape Route From the Liberal Campus Mousetrap
"The obsession with race, with its vehicles of white privilege and equity, yields political power for its sponsors, which for them excuses any damage along the way." Privilege Vs. Burden
"'Steal Away' pairs the pathos of backbreaking, heart-crushing slavery -- the startling realization that a slave has to 'steal' his own self away to be free -- with the promise of ultimate deliverance in Jesus." How This Famous 'Slave Song' Reached Presidents And Royalty
"Levon Helm, The Band, and the birth of Americana." Elusive Harmony
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.
“There are always many things to consider when determining whether or not an officer’s use of deadly force is lawfully justified or not… Any loss of human life is tragic, and I take these decisions very seriously.” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater
Quote II
“He was trying to de-escalate that situation. But unfortunately, it wasn’t de-escalated despite his best efforts, and he became the victim of this vicious assault you’ve seen.” Woodrow Glass of Ward and Glass, L.L.P.,
“The court’s order today holding the CDC’s interference with private property rights under the veil of COVID-19 serves as notice to the Biden administration that the Constitution limits government power,” SLF General Counsel Kimberly Hermann
Demi Lovato has sparked backlash after branding gender reveal parties as 'transphobic'.
A nine-page Instagram post, shared by the 28-year-old singer this week, expressed staunch opposition to the soirées – where expectant parents announce the gender of their baby through any variety of items being unveiled in pink or blue.
The lengthy post, which was originally shared online by a trans activist, went on to assert that basing a baby's gender on their genitalia is 'inconsistent with science'.
A return to World War II-style meat rationing? That’s the idea suggested by writer and activist Donnachadh McCarthy.
Why does he want it? To help the environment and get post-lockdown Britain back on its feet. McCarthy is part of the Extinction Rebellion movement.
Reports state the government is considering a 40% carbon emissions tax on the food industry. For McCarthy the move will only benefit those with deep pockets. He believes rationing is a “fair way” of reducing emissions that enables access to meat for all.
It won't be long until this buffoonery crosses the Atlantic.
ONE EVENING IN 1983, A pair of local police officers in the German city of Siegburg stopped by an old butcher shop to investigate reports of suspicious activity. Inside, they found three slightly scruffy twentysomethings with kilos of contraband. Bernd Drosihn, the ringleader, tried to object, but the officers confiscated the offending substances. After a stern reprimand, they handed over a letter announcing a preliminary investigation into the crime: making “Torfu.”
“Every week, we received a new prohibition order from every possible part of the country. The bureaucrats kept at it. Tofu made them completely crazy,” writes Drosihn in his book Tofu: From Bizarre Struggle to an Unassuming Food Source for the World. So crazy, in fact, that subsequent letters included warnings about Tuffo, Tofo, Tortuffo and Tartuffo. “They were so confused and panicked in their fear of any kind of change that they couldn’t manage to arrange four letters in order.”
***
When a minor participates in "Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes" should she be given a second chance. Obviously the UK doesn't think so.
ISIS bride Shamima Begum has been left ‘very angry, upset and crying’ after being barred from returning to the UK to fight for her citizenship. She is now stuck in a detention camp in Syria after the Supreme Court unanimously rejected her request to come back to Britain yesterday. Ms Begum was 15 when she and two other East London schoolgirls travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group in February 2015. Her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
If you watch the clip, he flubs Shelia Jackson Lee’s name, calling her “Shirley” after stumbling around. He then starts tripping all over himself to list the rest of the names his handlers have given him. Eventually, he devolves into asking “what am I doing here” because this is all totally normal or something.
To be clear, what is in that clip is not a stutter. A stutter does not make you say the wrong word nor does it cause you to be unable to read a list a names. It doesn’t even stop you from speaking in a manner that is otherwise understandable. What a stutter does is exactly what the word purports. It causes a stopping on and repetition of certain sounds. You never hear that effect from Biden because his issue is not a stutter, no matter how much the media try to gaslight the public into believing it is. This is a man whose mental capacity appears to be rapidly declining before our eyes. You can watch videos of Biden from just five years ago and he’s a totally different person.
The hashtag #FireFauci trended on Twitter on Tuesday, as his repeated inconsistencies have been getting increased scrutiny.
As RedState contributor Jennifer Oliver O’Connell noted, “Masks, herd immunity, lockdowns, Fauci has been inconsistent, incorrect, or has flat out lied.”
Fox News went into significant detail about Fauci’s inconsistencies since the start of the pandemic. In early March of last year, he warned of “unintended consequences” of wearing masks, because “people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.” Fauci also advised against masking in the early weeks, reportedly because of a shortage of PPE for medical workers, but Fauci later embraced masking, and later, recommended double-masking, despite acknowledging there is no data that proves that it works. The CDC now officially recommends double-masking.
Fauci also violated Washington, D.C.’s, mask mandate when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Washington Nationals’ season opener in July. He was seen sitting with a friend with his face uncovered and also wearing his mask over his mouth but not his nose.
San Francisco Just Uprooted A Victorian House And Moved It To A New Site In One Piece
For early risers in San Francisco, the morning of February 21 was a little different than usual, as many noticed a complete house floating by through the city streets. But this was no dream or hallucination — a team of workers actually managed to uproot and transport a 139-year-old home in one piece to a new location nearby.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared indoors at a restaurant in a county where indoor dining is not allowed, but the governor's office has said he did not dine at the restaurant.
He was there to meet with the restaurant's owners, who received a relief grant, Newsom spokesperson Daniel Lopez told Fox News.
Newsom posted a video to his TikTok account with celebrity George Lopez talking about where to look for coronavirus vaccine eligibility. Newsom and Lopez were in Fresno, Calif., and are inside Los Amigos restaurant.
***
The ONT Musical Interlude
Born on this day: 28 Feb 1957
Cindy Wilson, singer and founding member with American new wave rock band The B-52's who had the 1990 UK No.2 & US No.3 single 'Love Shack'. She sang with the Ramones in the early 1980s on the song ‘Chop Suey’, with Kate Pierson and Debbie Harry. via thisdayinmusic.com
&&&
On this day: 28 Feb 1985
David Byron, singer with Uriah Heep died from an epileptic fit and liver disease aged 38. Byron was the original singer of the English band between 1969 and 1976 and gained a reputation with his operatic vocals and harmonies as one of the best rock vocalists and frontmen in the world. via thisdayinmusic.com
FEBRUARY 26--A 12-year-old Florida girl is facing criminal charges after she admitted to selling stun guns to classmates, police report.
According to investigators, a staff member at Coleman Middle School in Tampa today alerted administrators that pupils had reported that a female student possessed a stun gun on campus.
In response to the tips, a school resource officer removed the young suspect from class and questioned her about the weapon allegations. The girl, cops say, admitted to purchasing five stun guns online and bringing them to school this week for resale to fellow students.
The child said she sold three of the weapons yesterday, and police are seeking to retrieve those stun guns from the parents of the purchasers.
The girl, whose name police have released, was found today in possession of two stun guns manufactured by Vipertek, which offers some models that retail for less than $15.
Matt Montie is a varsity forward on the Wakefield-Marenisco Cardinals. During a game on Friday night against Dollar Bay, he noticed a junior varsity player for Dollar Bay was playing in shoes that weren't meant for basketball.
After his game, he gave the player the shoes off of his own feet -- an act of kindness that no one knew about until later.
Montie said he wanted to make sure he was able to play in true basketball shoes, a LeBron James model from Nike.
"I just remember being young and not being able to afford nicer shoes for basketball and I know how bad it sucked," Monte said. "Basketball shoes are a necessity. I've rolled a lot of ankles not wearing the right shoes for the right things."
***
Weekly commenter stats for week of 2-28-2021
Top 10 commenters:
1 [462 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, paying for my sins on the Scorsese streets' [64.85 posts/day]
2 [352 comments] '4'
3 [343 comments] ' rickb223'
4 [337 comments] 'qdpsteve'
5 [328 comments] 'CN'
6 [318 comments] 'G'rump928(c)'
7 [310 comments] 'Christopher R Taylor'
8 [310 comments] 'Ladyl, Insurrectionist'
9 [309 comments] 'Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is Already Dead'
10 [299 comments] 'Sponge - Saying Ashli Babbitt'
Howdy y'all! It's Sunday and it's 7pm Eastern and we know what that means, don't we? Don't we?? Sure we do! It's Gun Thread time! For the next three hours we'll laugh, we'll cry, and generally have a good 'ol time as we talk about guns, gun stuff and shooting. So settle in to the Lay-Z Boy, pop open a sarsaparilla, and let's see what we have below, shall we?
I made it to the farm-o for a quick little trip this week. It was a quick trip to check on things so I wasn't able to shoot any video, but I did manage to do a wee tad of shooting with my trusty .22 caliber Colt Colteer single-shot bolt rifle.
It's a great little rifle and a lot of fun to shoot. What is even better is plinking away to your heart's content and not feeling guilty about going thru too much ammunition. This rifle has a vintage Weaver K4 scope, and with steel at 100 yards allows me to practice many of the elements of general marksmanship; set-up on the gun, eye relief behind the scope, trigger discipline, breathing techniques, and others.
I think I paid a little over $200 for this rifle, and from what I have heard, .22LR ammunition can still be found. If the ammo shortage has shut down your range time, consider a small caliber alternative, either rifle or handgun. They really are a lot of fun!
******
First up or pal Blake shares some thoughts on concealed carry.
The original version of this was written, by me, and posted to a thread at Free Republic, in response to a bunch of people arguing about CCW, who were trying to convince people they were carrying the wrong weapon, and their weapon of choice was obviously superior. I thought it foolishness that was detracting from what I thought were pretty basic principals of CCW.
A while later, the subject came up at The Truth About Guns and, once again, I thought the discussion was going the wrong direction. I pulled the post from FR, and edited it to what you see below.
I carry and don't give a crap about the specs of what I or anyone else is carrying*. The only questions that matter are:
Is your carry gun reliable?
I shoot my carry gun, using my carry holster, in competition (IDPA). I don't shoot for score, I shoot to maintain proficiency. I don't clean my carry gun before a competition, because it needs to work, even after a month or two of carrying concealed.
Are you proficient with your carry gun?
It's all well and good to talk about the weight of your firearm and the ballistics of the round being shot, but in the end, the ability to put rounds on target is what matters. If you can put six in the 10-ring with a .22 and miss six out of six shooting a 9mm, which is the better carry option?
Do you carry all the time?
One can't choose when one will run into trouble. Either you take the responsibility seriously and carry at all times, except as proscribed by law, or you don't. There is no "swagger" factor for conceal carry. Carrying is deadly serious business and the assumed responsibility and consequences should be given serious thought.
*If anyone is interested, I carry a full-size Kimber 1911, with a single white dot front site, loaded with 230 grain +P hollow points. I shoot the 230 grain +P in competition once in a while, just so I know how they shoot and to make sure they feed reliably.
I think Blake makes some very good points. How about the rest of you?
******
Next up we have an interesting product from our pal Deplorable SOB Van Owen
Last night's Gun Thread touched a bit on the subject of cleaning, so I thought I'd pass on some thoughts about a product I used yesterday for the first time. It's called BarrelBuddy, and is basically a replacement for the venerable old cloth cleaning patch. It is a foam composite cylinder with a coarse forward portion and a smooth absorbent rear portion. You soak the forward portion with cleaner (I used Hoppe's #9) and push through the barrel with a jag.
Supposedly the cylinder shape conforms better to the bore and rifling, resulting in more efficient cleaning. It worked pretty well on my (moderately dirty) pistol and I definitely used fewer cylinders than I would have patches. It is also much less messy. Honestly, I also think it works better than a Bore Snake, but YMMV.
However, considering the price, a bag of 50 for $11.98, I think buying bulk patches is much more economical if you do a lot of cleaning. The ad copy says a bag of 50 will last you for 10 to 13 cleanings. Obviously if your firearm is really dirty, you'll use more of the things in one session. Since I normally clean after every shooting trip, that's not a whole bunch of cleanings. Even so, I plan to keep some of these on hand in different caliber sizes and stick them in the range bag for a quick cleaning session.
Anyhow, I thought some of the Gun Morons might be interested in it, since it's kind of innovative, and if we can't find ammo, we have to have SOMETHING to spend our money on.
Interesting looking product! Anyone else using these?
******
Next up our pal and delightful and talented 'ette Jewells shares a report on a recent trip to the range. I have to say I am very happy to see so many 'ette's becoming gun owners and practicing their marksmanship skills.
The first picture I was aiming for the heart.. obviously off a little but got my mojo going and did pretty fair I think.
My last eight bullets I tried for the head shot. I was aiming for his left eye in the first shot and bingo! Second shot I tried for the other eye.. eh.. I ended up way too high and too far left. The rest I just wanted to hit the middle of the face. I'm not sure where the 8th shot went lmao! Anyhoo.. I thought it was a decent day. This is at 15 feet and I'm much improved from just 2 months ago. I think I can go for 20 feet now. I don't go as much as I should but I try for at least once a week.
I'm thinking anybody with this many holes in their chest and face are going to decide to find another victim. Or perhaps find another occupation altogether. Very nicely done, Jewells! Keep up the great work!
******
Next up we have a note from our pal "John", which I suspect is not his real name, regarding ammo sales in his area.
This may not be news to you but was to me. I was finding it near impossible to buy 5.7x28mm online at a decent price. None of my local gun stores had any in stock or at a price I was willing to pay.
Or so they said.
I then went to the GunBroker auction site and found lots of 5.7 to bid on. Digging into one of the auctions a little bit further, I found that the lot was being offered by one of my local gun stores. Looks like they can make more money selling by auction than in the store. So that's what they are doing in lieu of retail in-store sales, except if you buy a gun, but that's a different matter.
I was able to win the bid at what I consider to be a "reasonable" price for these times. And I was able to go to the store to pick up the ammo to save on the shipping charges.
Don't know if anyone else is seeing this, but I think it's probably more common than most people realize.
Well, as I mentioned to "John" that's not really surprising now that I think about it. Unfortunate, but not surprising. I will say I would be pretty irritated if it happened with a shop I had patronized regularly over a period of time. Great catch and thank you for sending this in! Anyone else seeing anything like it?
******
Lastly our pal A.H. Lloyd sends in a tip on a new YouTube channel he has found.
A couple of days ago I discovered a fairly new YouTube channel for Historical Investments. It's got about a dozen videos on it and they seem to be adding more regularly.
The outfit is a vendor on Gun Broker but it's a great resource for collectors. They have a piece on Chinese Broomhandles and actually go into what the authentic characters mean. Really good stuff and fun to watch. Unlike Forgotten Weapons this guy gets into market value considerations.
To put it another way, it's like Antiques Road Show for guns. The guy sits there with the pointer and talks about traits and what adds value. Check it out!
Looks very interesting, thanks A.H. Lloyd!!
******
Homework
Last week we had a look at a YouTube video from a guy posting on YouTube as GunBlue490, who has made a bunch of lengthy videos on a variety of gun and shooting topics. The video from last week was on oil and lubrication, and is posted again here for reference.
Anyone have a chance to watch it? Anyone make it through the whole thing? What did you think? Agree, disagree, or did you just give up?
This week we have another from the same guy on the 1911 and which is much shorter at 24 minutes.
Anyone who is new to the world of 1911's, and frankly those who have had one for years, should find this interesting. We'll take a look at another next week.
Our entry this week come from our pal Geoff. Man, ain't it the truth!
******
Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Food Thread: If Bacon Is A Rut, It Is A Fine Rut To Be In!
—CBD
I am nothing if not obsessively repetitive. A few weeks ago I made pork tenderloin with bacon. And because it tasted good, I decided to make it again, but this time with MOR BACON! Yup...bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin, because one can never have enough bacon.
And guess what? it was damned fine eating. Simple and quick. The only slight complication was wrapping the bacon around the tenderloin. It separated a bit after cooking, but in the grand scheme of things it was a resounding success. A bit of salt (be careful because bacon is salty), pepper, some chopped thyme, a tiny drizzle of honey, and a quick sear to crisp the bacon a bit, then into the oven with a temperature probe. And done!
Temperature is one of two challenges with pork tenderloin because it is not particularly thick, and it doesn't have much fat (the other challenge) to cover you if you overcook it. That's why probes are so useful. I put the probe into the thickest part of the pork and pulled it as soon as it hit my target temperature of 139 degrees. You would be amazed...or not...by how quickly it carried over to about 143 degrees. Next time I will take it out of the pan as well as the pan out of the oven. The little bit of residual heat was enough to keep cooking it. But with all of that luscious bacon fat caressing it during the short roast it came out fine.
Extrapolating to all foods...what is not good wrapped in bacon?
Anyone around here old enough to remember the first iteration of Mr. Potato Head? I wasn't old enough in 1964 to do much more than drool (much like today!), but I have a vague recollection of putting the pieces into a real potato, though that might have been contrary to the spirit of the play experience.
In 1952, Polish-Jewish immigrant brothers Henry, Herman and Hillel Hassenfeld saw a good future in the latest creation of Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner, a Jew of Romanian descent.
Hassenfeld Brothers (later renamed Hasbro, and now the world’s third largest toy company) sold the first Mr. Potato Head as a kit of facial parts. It came with a Styrofoam head and instructions that suggested using real vegetables and fruits instead. After parents complained about rotting vegetables and new government safety regulations restricted toys with sharp pieces, Hasbro began selling the plastic potato body in 1964.
Fast forward to 2021 and we find that they are rebranding an amazingly long-lived toy to be more in tune with...what? Apparently "Mr." is somehow offensive to a massive 0.01% of the American people, so they will Remove it from the brand. Rest assured however, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head will still be available, just not branded as such. So conventional ideas of marriage are now taboo? Or is it the shockingly binary concept behind the toys? Maybe they could add an intersex cauliflower cousin and maybe a post-op trans rutabaga for authenticity!
Everything the left touches turns to shit, even kids' toys.
******
From a regular named "Toby" comes a very appealing entry in the World Famous Frugal Festive Dinner Contest. Sort of retro, with a dash of thumb-in-your-eye, although I would have used spray cheese instead of peanut butter for the celery.
Do many people have ceci beans in their pantry? I never even heard of them.
Appetizers:
Celery filled with Kroger brand creamy peanut butter $5
Main:
Shepherds pie...that gets the main AND sides in 1 dish $15 gets you fancy veggies and extra butter in the mashed potatoes with some Kroger cheddar to top it.
Dessert:
Banana pudding $12 with real homemade whipped cream, jello brand vanilla pudding, but still use Kroger brand vanilla wafers.
Wash it all down with a case of PBR and you have one heck of a celebration for about $50. I actually like PBR believe it or not.
Oh, raisins are normal ingredients in empanadas in the Philippines. My wife adds pineapple and raisins to her pasta salad and it is fantastic.
Raisins in anything other than desserts seem more like Satan's dingleberries than food, but to each his own!
******
here's a bit of a tease from a commenter we shall call...um...BakingTease?
Anyone know what that is? I mean aside from looking good to eat!
He promises more information in the near future, but he is in the midst of a move and has misguided priorities; like unpacking first.
******
This loaf is the next data point in my continuing investigation of "autolyse," which is pretty much just hydrating the flour very well before one adds leavening and salt. The process I am using is a modification of a sourdough bread recipe that commenter "Bluebell (Yankees Fan)" was kind enough to share with me. It turned out extremely well and wasn't too tough to manipulate, even though it was more hydrated than anything I had ever done before. High hydration makes it more difficult to work with but yields better bread.
******
It's not just red food coloring. It's got cocoa powder and powdered sugar in the batter. These maniacs are actually trying to make a real red velvet cake fried chicken! Red Velvet Battered Chicken Fingers. it's not quite as offensive as putting maple syrup on French Toast, but it's pretty revolting sounding.
Which is why I am sort of tempted to try it.
[Hat Tip: Somebody recently whose nic I have forgotten]
******
Ina Garten rarely disappoints (unless we are observing her politics), and here is a classic pot roast recipe that is everything everyone's grandmother knew about cooking. Except for two things: don't you dare use good wine. Use cheap red wine from the remainder bin at your supermarket. The cheaper the better! Company Pot Roast
The other thing is: make it the day before and chill it. That way it is easy to skim the fat from the top, and that is a step that is counterintuitive to your fat-obsessed host, but which makes a big difference in the final result.
******
Food and cooking tips, Large-breasted Muscovy ducks, young wild pigs, bartenders who use vermouth in Martinis (but not too much), pork belly that doesn't have 5-spice, an herb garden that actually grows herbs, beef short ribs that have meat on them (not the stupid little sliver of bone they sneak into the packages) 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!
A Little More Of This, And A Little More Of That...
—CBD
I know that current cars are better in every objective metric. They are faster, more nimble, safer, have far more conveniences, and the seats are absolutely more comfortable. It's all true, but there is something to be said for some of the wilder looks from the bygone years of car design.
Do I want one? No. I'll take a 1966 Mustang that has been gutted and replaced with a modern car, leaving only the gorgeous exterior, but that's about it. That doesn't mean that I can't enjoy the undeniable style of the older cars.
An added benefit of a glimpse of that age is the redolence of our youth, and that is usually amusing.
But don't forget, there were a fair number of clunkers like this one!
The hits just keep on coming...and it's glorious! Whether it will have any substantive effect other than scuttling his chances for a position on the national stage remains to be seen, and I still think he will survive this. But his wet dreams of a presidential run should be a thing of the past, unless he is so supremely arrogant that he thinks he can survive the charges of sexual misconduct AND the drawn knives of his many enemies within the Democrat party.
Because that is the interesting part of this. It exposes the tension between the factions among the Democrats, and it shows which are ascendant. The establishment Democrats -- the ones who can hide their socialist leanings reasonably well -- are under attack from the younger SJWs who are fresh off their summer rioting successes and see themselves as the saviors of progressivism in America. What's scary is how quickly they have embedded themselves in the Democrat establishment. Karen Hinton, one of the first women to come forward, was his press secretary when he was at HUD, and Lindsey Boylan, Cuomo's other public accuser, had a high-level position within his administration and is now running for Manhattan Borough President. She's no pink-haired freak with tats and piercings.
It also further exposes what we have known for years about politicians of every persuasion; that they are in the main, stunningly arrogant and superior and that they truly believe that their behavior's propriety is exactly what they say it is. In the real world that is called stupidity, but in D.C. and the state houses it is normal and appropriate behavior. Politicians' sense of entitlement is vast, as we have seen recently with their flouting of their own draconian Wuhan Flu rules, playing fast and loose with clear and unambiguous election law, and a thousand other examples of the total disconnect between them and the people they love to rule.
So it's not surprising that Cuomo thinks he can behave this way. And if two women came forward, he did it to 50, and it probably worked on a fair number of them.
Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules). 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 I don't particularly care about, I'm more curious about the babe in bunny ears over there on the right behind the plane. What is she doing there? How is she contributing to this ad? Or is she in the shot by mistake? How is she hooked up with these wankers? Questions abound.
Pic Note:
I get the impression that this is a (Turkish president) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vanity project. That is, he just hired a bunch of architects and builders and told them "money is no object, just build me the biggest freakin' library you can." And they said "OK, Boss". And this is what they built:
The library, which offers bibliophiles an intellectual feast with its millions of books, has attracted great attention from visitors day and night. So far, 60,600 people have subscribed to the library online...
The design of the library itself harbors architectural influences from the Seljuk and Ottoman era, albeit with a contemporary twist, and is open 24/7 with 2 million printed books and 2 million issues of 12,500 printed magazines. In addition, 68 databases provide access to online content, include 550,000 e-books, 6.5 million electronic theses and 120 million articles and reports belonging to 60,000 e-magazines.
It is home to the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, compiled in 1072–74 by the Turkic scholar Mahmud Kashgari among many other manuscripts and rare books.
The article didn't say how much Erdoğan's vanity project cost. No doubt a lot. It is so large, ir can accommodate up to 5,000 visitors at a time.
Ryan T. Anderson, author of the book When Harry Became Sally, announced on Twitter that the book could no longer be found on the retailer's website.
"I hope you’ve already bought your copy, cause Amazon just removed my book 'When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment' from their cyber shelves...
"Amazon never informed me or my publisher that it was removing my book," Anderson said in an article for First Things on Tuesday. "And Amazon’s representatives haven’t responded to our inquires about it. Perhaps they’re citing a religious objection to selling my book? Or maybe they only sell books with which they agree? (If so, they have a lot of explaining to do about why they carry Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.)"
Anderson went on to say that Amazon still has his other books listed, including his book on defending traditional marriage, Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom. Which is kind of odd. So it's OK to carry a book critical of same-sex marriage, but not one that argues against promoting or celebrating transgenderism. Hmmm... How can that be? It could be that transgenders have supplanted gays as the apex 'woke' species. While that may be true, I think a better explanation is that the battle for SSM has been irreversibly successful, so books like Truth Overruled can no longer damage the cause. However, the battle to force everybody to affirm that a 40-year old fat guy wearing a dress and a wig is a woman is still ongoing and whose outcome is still not certain. Therefore, suppression of dissenting voices is still at a high priority.
Incidentally, as of this writing, you can still purchase When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment at Barnes & Noble. And probably other booksellers as well.
From the Marty Feldman sketch show "It's Marty" broadcast in 1970.
Moron Recommendations
This past week I finished "Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life" by Elizabeth Scalia, who blogs as the Anchoress. It is a superb book for Lenten reflections. Scalia uses examples from her own life and others to describe how we make idols of ourselves, our ideologies and our technology. This book was originally published in 2013, and it's become even more pertinent today as we retreat into our own political corners.
Posted by: CarolinaGirl at February 21, 2021 09:08 AM (Kh9rg)
I may have to put this one on my TBR stack. Because idolatry comes in many forms, some obvious, but others are very well disguised:
While literal golden calves no longer dot the landscape, Scalia describes how legitimate loves become obsessively twisted into idols. She unmasks idolatry in a number of everyday experiences—friendships that become needy or possessive, commitments political and religious that grow so intense they lead to hatred of others, to name a few—and points to the incarnation of Christ and authentic worship of him as a way out of idolatry and into peace, happiness, and love.
32 I read It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. First published in 1935, this was Lewis' warning of the fragility of democracy and how easily Fascism could take hold in America. Of course with the rise of Mussolini and Hitler at the time the threat was from the right. Today the threat is from the left. Politicians always looking for more power, globalists, large international corporations, high-tech companies, and most media are joining forces to create a world-wide government run by and for the oligarchs. It Can't Happen Here is a prescient novel which is relevant today.
Posted by: Zoltan at February 21, 2021 09:16 AM (qb8uZ)
All of the recent Amazon reviewers are jumping up and down with glee because the main character of this novel reminds them of that evil dictator Donald Trump. Of course, left-wing fascists always shriek about impending fascism as coming from the right, and they keep on saying it even as a left-wing president has barricaded himself inside the White House surrounded by a metal fence topped with razor wire and patrolled by thousands of armed guards. But Donald Trump is a dictator! I mean, who are you going to believe, CNN or your lying eyes?
87 James Burnham "Suicide of the West" (1964) when you finish Orwell and Sinclair Lewis.
Posted by: Ziba at February 21, 2021 09:36 AM (S1hrL)
Through studious research into past civilizations, Burnham diagnoses the 20th century and finds it afflicted with destructive, even "suicidal" tendencies - all of which arise from the “Liberal syndrome” and its inherent applications. The book explores several important questions, including why Liberalism clashes with Christianity and how Liberalism is a root cause of race riots and the rapid growth in crime. For James Burnham, who died in 1986, this book is certainly one of his greatest legacies.
I first read this book sometime in the 1980s, when I first became aware that my beliefs and my temperament made me something called "conservative" and it caused a lot of things to click into place. It is definitely worth a reread. The Kindle edition is $9.99.
The Naked Socialist is the real story of socialism. Complete, easy to read, no jargon, well documented, and gives a fascinating look at the raw decay of culture and economy now at work in America. It also provides a beautifully described explanation of the lasting principles of prosperity and constitutional freedoms that must be restored relatively quickly.
The Naked Socialist strips away the fakery, the false hopes, the hollow dreams, and the meaningless promises that socialists have foisted on countless millions---not just for the present, but over thousands of years.
With clear, brief, and step-by-step examples and anecdotes, the author explains what socialism is, where it came from, how it works, how to recognize it, and why it always destroys its host nation.
You will learn that the Seven Pillars of Socialism are not at all new, but a phenomenon that first appeared more than 6,000 years ago---and why socialism managed to mushroom in nations and cultures right up into today’s current events.
More than everything you ever needed (or wanted) to know about socialism in one volume. Such a deal.
...a careful compilation of facts from hundreds of Congressional investigations of communism and dozens of authoritative books on the communist-socialist conspiracy to enslave America. It dissects the failures of the Eisenhower Administration just as effectively as it details the blunders of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson. It documents the concurrent decay in America's schools, churches, and press which has conditioned the American people to accept 20 years of retreat in the face of the communist enemy. You won't finish None Dare Call It Treason without concluding that America is in serious trouble.
The problem with the Kindle edition is that, from the preview text, it looks like someone just scanned in the text and didn't bother doing any proofreading. It looks horrible. There are many gaps in the text and inexplicable font changes, as if the OCR software was having a hard time with reading and converting the text. The free version on archive.org looks a lot more legible.
Part real-life thriller, part national tragedy, American Betrayal lights up the massive, Moscow-directed penetration of America's most hallowed halls of power, revealing not just the familiar struggle between Communism and the Free World, but the hidden war between those wishing to conceal the truth and those trying to expose the increasingly official web of lies.
American Betrayal is America's lost history, a chronicle that pits Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight David Eisenhower, and other American icons who shielded overlapping Communist conspiracies against the investigators, politicians, defectors, and others (including Senator Joseph McCarthy) who tried to tell the American people the truth.
This was probably one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I didn't want to believe it, but West documents *every one* of her claims. William F. Buckley may have banished the John Birchers from the conservative "movement", but at the end of the day, they were more right than wrong.
___________
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.
Hobo Symbols From The Great Depression : The Secret Language Of America’s Itinerant Workers
60 hobo signs, used in the Great Depression by transient working class men and women who traveled by train, looking for jobs and sustenance
VICE: You’ve been married for 76 years. What was flirting like when you met?
Lambert: I fell in love with her immediately, I couldn’t control it. I was close friends with her brothers, so we’d see each other often. When I went to their house I would sit in one corner [of the room] and she in the other. That’s how we courted each other. And one day, I made the first move.
Clémence: When we got married we didn’t have a party or anything. It was during the war and there was a 6PM curfew. We wouldn’t have been able to do much anyway.
How has your love evolved over the years?
Lambert: When we were younger I would come home every evening from work at midnight and leave again at 7AM. We had five children to feed. Time in bed was just about all we shared.
Clémence: We didn't see each other that often. But now we’re older, we can enjoy our time together more. It’s allowed us to rediscover ourselves. When we got married, we never imagined we would stay together for so many years. In fact, 76 years is very short. People congratulate us on it, but it’s natural for us. Since we got married, we have never been apart, so we can't imagine ever separating.
***
(H/T Slap Weasel)
***
A company town mixed with Big Brother and you get: Woven City.
Toyota Motor Corporation started construction this week on a 175-acre smart city at the base of Japan's Mount Fuji, about 62 miles from Tokyo, the company announced Tuesday.
The city, which Toyota has dubbed the "Woven City," is expected to function as a testing ground for technologies like robotics, smart homes, and artificial intelligence. A starting population of about 360 inventors, senior citizens, and families with young children will test and develop these technologies.
These residents, who are expected to move into the Woven City within five years, will live in smart homes with in-home robotics systems to assist with daily living and sensor-based artificial intelligence to monitor health and take care of other basic needs, according to the company.
Annie’s Homegrown, largely known for its "organic" macaroni and cheese line, is taking steps to remove a potentially harmful class of chemicals, called ortho-phthalates, from its products and packaging materials.
These chemicals make plastic flexible, and phthalates have already been banned in many kids' toys over health concerns. Some scientists say the chemicals harm fertility, health of babies, disrupt hormones key for development and damage genetic material in sperm. One 2016 study in particular tied exposure to the chemicals to "diminished sperm count and deteriorated sperm quality, which may lead to infertility."
A rooster fitted with a knife for a cockfight turned on his owner and killed him while trying to escape, reports the Express News Service in Hyderabad.
Police said the animal was being readied to take part in a fight when it tried to escape. Its owner attempted to catch it but was struck by the 7cm-long (three inch) knife on the animal's leg during the struggle. Those involved in the event face charges of manslaughter, illegal betting and hosting a cockfight
Police said the animal was being readied to take part in a fight when it tried to escape. Its owner attempted to catch it but was struck by the 7cm-long (three inch) knife on the animal's leg during the struggle. Those involved in the event face charges of manslaughter, illegal betting and hosting a cockfight
“Lovers’ reading of each other’s bodies… differs from the reading of written pages in that it is not linear… What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.”
***
The ONT Musical Interlude
AND
This a H/T from Weasel, more of an ONT song than a Pet Thread song.
AND
***
Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Looking for adventure
In whatever comes our way Genius Award Winner.
FEBRUARY 22--In what may be the worst explanation for driving 50 mph over the posted limit, a 21-year-old motorist told cops that he was speeding on a Florida highway because he was “listening to a song named Ciento Veinte, which means 120, so I was driving 120.”
Cops allege that Richard Lee Ortecho, 21, was spotted weaving in and out of traffic Saturday evening on Interstate 95 near Vero Beach. Ortecho, driving a Volkswagen, was clocked at “speeds ranging between 120 mph and 127 mph” in a 70 mph zone.
Ortecho barely missed striking other vehicles, according to an arrest affidavit, and did not immediately stop when a cop car with its lights flashing gave chase.
When Ortecho finally pulled over, he said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know driving reckless was illegal,” cops report. Asked why he was driving in excess of 120 mph, Ortecho offered an odd answer.
Ortecho said he was driving while listening to the song “A Ciento Veinte,” a cut on an EP released last year by the rapper Track Insano. Ortecho noted that, “ciento veinte means 120, so I was driving 120.”
***
Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by No Explanation Necessary*:
Notice: Posted with someone's permission. We aren't sure who. No one is around tonight.
Saturday Evening Movie Thread 02-27-2021 [Hosted By: Moviegique]
—Open Blogger
Movie Review 27 Feb 2021: The Man in The Chair
In honor of Christopher Plummer's passing, I thought I would repost a review of a movie he made nearly fifteen years that nobody saw. For reviews of other recent Plummer works, check out Remember, the last Nazi warcrime story (at least it was until we deported Friedrich Berger last week!) and the out-and-proud Beginners. The 'gique also recommends the classic The Sound of Music and, of course, the always amazing Starcrash.
Plummer wouldn't wear this much eyeliner again until "Beginners".
****"STAUETTE HUNTING" (originally published December 20, 2007)****
It’s that time of the year when all the movies designed for Oscar glory are released on to not the unsuspecting masses (who often have to wait months or weeks for a wide release) but the suspecting elite.
A lot of this annual burst of energy seems to have been absorbed or deflected by anti-war films. It’s still possible these films will carry home Oscars, but I think Hollywood likes to be popular as well as right, and with the way the war seems to be going these days, rewarding anti-war films may prove to be neither.
And so we have a strange little low-budget film, The Man In The Chair, from Michael Schroeder, a man probably best known for introducing the world to a (occasionally topless) 17-year-old Angelina Jolie in the even lower budget Cyborg 2. (I have to admit I find that film watchable but that may have more to do with comparing the Jolie of then–awkward but still with a sort of presence–to the Jolie of now than any other quality of the film.)
Yeah, I could've put a pic of topless 17-year-old Jolie here, but this is a classy post.
Christopher Plummer plays lighting man “Flash Madden” who wanders around L.A. reading, drinking, smoking Cuban cigars, and yelling at the screen at the Beverly, much to the amusement of juvenile delinquent Cameron Kincaid (played by Michael Angara) who spends his time in-between school and getting tossed in jail dreaming of making a movie.
This is to Christopher Plummer what last year’s Venus was for Peter O'Toole. A film that no one is going to see, but which shows the old man’s chops and gives him a shot at the little gold statue. ‘course, O'Toole missed out on his because the Academy had given him a “get this guy an Oscar before he croaks” award in the previous years.
Plummer is not the icon O'Toole was, but his age shows far less on his face. A lot of the wide-open expressions O'Toole has used his whole career look overly broad now, with age pulling his long face down even longer. Plummer (who is three years older) seems young by comparison.
And he is good, as you might imagine. As is M. Emmet Walsh, letting himself be filmed in a most unflattering way. Robert Wagner joins the crew as the still rakishly good looking and rich arch-rival. (Also with a small role is one of my favorite character actors, George Murdock.) Another remarkably well-preserved specimen in the cast is the very lovely 65-year-old Margaret Blye.
Steve Carell, Chris Plummer, Jeff Bezos and M. Emmet Walsh at the premiere.
Am I obsessing on age here? Well, yeah, because the movie’s about aging and what we do with the aged. Also, the cast is ten years too young. Flash was a young gaffer on Citizen Kane…but I kept thinking, “okay, he had to be born in 1920, making him 87…no way is Plummer 87.” (He’s 78.)
If I had to describe this movie in ten words or less, I’d call it “an afterschool special on steroids”. It’s very well done with a top-notch cast, tightly directed and edited (though with a gratuitous shaky-blurry-cam scene transition effect, in a style most commonly used by zombie flicks).
The story is kind of pat, a little clichéd, a bit run-of-the-mill. Old people teaching younger people, and aren’t we horrible for not taking better care of, and respecting our senior citizens? Flash, through his horrible life mistakes, has learned that he might be better off now, if only he hadn’t treated people so badly through the rest of his life.
Except, well, we’re never sure about Mickey Hopkins (Walsh’s character) who seems to have been abandoned by his daughter. He seems like a very nice fellow but he can’t get his daughter to talk to him for five minutes.
I actually felt a sort of blowback after seeing this film. Are we supposed to generically care about old people? And take care of them? Even when they had an entire life to cultivate friends and family and did none of that? Do we feel sorry or empathize when they reach the end of that life alone?
Well, yeah, we do. But maybe somewhat begrudgingly.
L.A.'s greatest landmark, the San Fernando Valley's own Sepulveda Dam.
Another thing that sort of annoyed me: One of the old characters dies in this film. I won’t say who it is so as not to spoil anything but I will say I both saw it coming and hoped it wouldn’t as soon as I realized what the movie was about. OK, if you’re watching a movie about old people, it’s natural some might die, especially if the movie spans the course of a year or longer.
This movie takes place over three weeks.
And the character just…dies. Rather conveniently, too. But unnecessarily, except maybe to give the whole thing a little more gravitas (and hopeful Oscar contenders a meaty scene).
What I liked about this film was the idea that, in the retirement homes of the San Fernando Valley, you could find a top-level crew still capable of making a high quality movie. A highly romantic notion, to be sure, and one that would’ve been better served by the whole crew getting together for ANOTHER movie after shooting the first one.
Nonetheless, it’s a good film, with Oscar-worthy performances.
***POSTSCRIPT***
Well, upon review, it seems that the cast has gone on to do many more notable things, most notably dying, though not as many as you might think. Plummer, of course, went on to a career renaissance, winning an Oscar for the gay movie, and Walsh and Wagner live yet. Blye and Murdock a few years after production. Unlike your usual low-budget film, a lot of the younger actors had at least minor Hollywood careers both before and after, while writer/director Michael Schroeder does not appear to have worked since making this.
425 How come the damn Hints: and Goals: are never filled out on the beginner and intermediate chess challenges. I consider this the equivalent of a hostile work environment.
Posted by: AntiMarxProLennon at February 20, 2021 10:14 PM (o/sjX)
Heh. Right. I forget that we have n00bs that may not know how I do things. To see an actual "Goal" or "Hint", just drag your mouse past the word, as if you're highlighting a line of text. Because that's exactly what you're doing. The text is in an invisible font and highlighting it will cause it to appear. NOTE: Many invisible inks are made visible by holding the paper over a candle flame. Do NOT do this with your computer screen. You will be disappointed in the results.
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 - Black To Play (1318 )
Goal: Black can force mate in 3
Hint: Move only the knights
2kr1b1r/pp3ppp/2p5/2n5/P1N1p1b1/2N1PnPP/1P2KP2/R4B1R b - - 0 1
OK, so we had a bit of discussion last week about whether one of the Icelandic sweater babes was actually alive and/or a real human being. So I went looking for some better photos and I discovered that traditional Icelandic sweaters are actually a thing. So I'll post some today and some next week.
Icelandic Sweater Babe #1
Icelandic Sweater Babe #2
Icelandic Sweater Babe #3
___________
Beginner Problem - Black To Play
2kr1b1r/pp3ppp/2p5/2n5/P1N1p1b1/2N1PnPP/1P2KP2/R4B1R b - - 0 1
1...Nd4+ 2.Kd2
If 2.Ke1 then immediately Nc2#.
2...Ncb3+
3.Ke1 Nc2#
Intermediate Problem - White To Play
5bk1/5p1p/q2p1P2/3Pr1p1/p7/1p3Q1P/1P4PK/1B3R2 w - - 0 1
White wins by exploiting Black's weakness on the light squares
1.Qh5 Qd3
Or 1...h6 2.Bh7+ Kxh7 3.Qxf7+ Kh8 4.Qxf8+ Kh7 5.Qg7#
8/pp1b2Qp/2pk4/3p1pB1/5p2/3P3P/PPq2PP1/6K1 w - - 0 1
White can pull off a mate in 5 moves. And in some lines, even fewer:
1.Qf8+! Kc7
The other alternatives lose immediately:
1...Ke6 2. Qf6#
1...Ke5 2. Qf6#
2.Bd8+ Kb8
If 2...Kc8 then 3.Bb6+ Be8 4.Qxe8#
3.Be7+ Bc8
or 3...Kc7 4.Qd8#
Another try is 3...Be8 4.Qxe8+ Kc7 5.Qd8#
4.Bd6+ Ka8
5.Qxc8#
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.
Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Sure it's the middle of Saturday afternoon, but kick back and enjoy the world of animals.
This is my gsd Krieger. He's on a tie-out in this picture because we're keeping him on low activity for a few weeks to try and heal a knee strain. He, of course, strenuously objects to not being with his people constantly. He's a pretty typical shepherd in that he's smart but nervous, and thinks cats cannot be trusted. -Funsize
Isn't attempting to keep active pets down a hoot? Hope the old wheels are recovering nicely. Knee issues are nothing to trivialize. Tell Krieger at least he's not wearing the Cone of Shame. Good to hear from you.
***
Mis Hum,
First thank you so much for your blogs I look forward to reading them every evening and especially the Pet Thread on Saturdays. I primarily lurk as redinabluestate. The horde is way too quick for me to keep up with.
This will be the second appearance on the world famous AOS Pet Thread by my best friend Luca. We got him in July 2019 and he will be two years old in March. I’m in sales and I am used to being on the road at least two weeks out of every month. Due to The Chinese Kung Flu I’ve been forced to be home working in my basement for almost a full year (come to think of it I should have run for President!). My company will not allow travel, even locally, or meetings with clients or other employees. It’s been very depressing. Luca has become my constant companion. As the picture shows he loves nothing more than to play. He is the happiest dog I have ever had and he couldn’t have come into my life at a better time. This picture shows his way of saying time for a break and have some fun! (Please note the tail which is a blur in the picture.) The other shepherd is Bella who believes that all this frivolity and silliness is beneath her. Dogs are proof that God is love. - redinabluestate
You're welcome for the Pet Thread. I'm happy to provide an outlet for pet lovers like you. It certainly appears that Luca is quite the cubicle mate. Good on you for having two wonder critters there. Thanks for sharing.
***
Lady
(Church)
The first is Lady, and she belongs to some old friends I knew before I left California. I love everything about her adorable little face, and it was a lot of fun to draw her wavy ears. She has a bunch of nicknames, including Pretty Lady, and I think that suits her well.
The second is Church. He belongs to a friend from work. I was able to finish the portrait at the end of a rough week for both of us, so it was a nice part of the weekend. You can tell he is super spoiled. He is a fluffy little flood.
I'd be happy to sketch for a fee. it's a labor of love. if you know anyone who wants a pet portrait feel free to send my email address along. - Sobek Pundit
Once again your work astounds me. You are quite talented and I can just sense those pets here in real life. Thank you for your work.
***
MH
We have foxes in our neighborhood that like to dig a home under our porch. Here is a picture from a couple of years ago. The vixen has a bum leg, but several of my neighbors have seen her roaming around, even recently. Enjoy! - Isophorone Blog
I've seen a number of foxes in the wild. But, I've never seen a mamma with kits. Awesome photo. Thanks for contributing a good wildlife photo from the Swamp area. :)
***
(Jimmy)
&&&
&&&
&&&
Hiya,
This is SNAB, a/k/a Whipsaw. The photos are of my pet memorials. My beloved Jimmy is the dude in the black and white photo. He is also the middle stone in the ring in the next photo. It's a yellow diamond made from his ashes. He died a year to the day after my father died. I miss him terribly. He was a scruffy stray in Madison, Wisconsin. I found him eating birdseed. I said, Hey kitty, would you like some food? He jumped into my arms and we were together for next sixteen years. Another photo shows memorial stones I have in my roof garden and a large circular mosaic of Stan the Man Unusual, Maynard Maynardahanrahanahan O'Toole, Leftenant Sunshine, the Blonde Panther of Love, our Beloved Dingdong Daddio. He was the runt in his litter who grew into an enormous beautiful cat. He wasn't very bright and I attributed it to his mother having busied herself with the other kittens and inadvertently sitting on his head and depriving his brain of oxygen. Nevertheless, he persisted.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful tributes to your cats. It really sounds like they were full of personality. Plus they had great nicknames!! Poor kitteh scrounging in Madison, Yuck. Anyway he made it to a great home. We appreciate your contribution today. Thanks.
***
Well that wraps up another great pet thread. A big thank to all of you who submitted stories and pet and/or animal photos.
If you have something animal related you want to share you can reach us here at petmorons at g mail dot com.
God willing and the creeks don't rise we will see you next Saturday. Have a great week!
Those birds were identified by our Lurker. Want to take a guess?
Oh, yeah. Bird Dog at Maggie's Farm posted a photo of a rare bird. Wonder if it's some sort of cousin to the ones above?
Artful Ice
Attached is a photo I took this morning of some of the crystallized landscaping in my neighborhood here in north Fort Worth...most of the snow is already gone today, glad I got a chance to capture this at least.
I'm not a gardener - I have a plant that I've dragged between three homes that manages to live in spite of me, that's about the extent of it, but I do love all the great photos on the garden thread! Thanks for all the work.
jerake75
This is a great photo. The weather seems to have produced a few casualties on the right, though:
Caught this driving into town. The ice was all sparkling and stuff. This my camera from a Samsung phone. Not sure it captures the effect.
I like them as they always defy the winter. A hearty and robust little flower.
Yes!
Last Week
banana Dream posted a link to a video on the not-too-successful efforts of a chemistry guy to make transparent wood.
The guy that does all the chemistry stuff on youtube tried the transparent wood with limited success:
No where as good as his TP moonshine but I think he's always entertaining.
Thanks for the report, on behalf of all those stir-crazy wood shop Morons out there.
Members of The Horde are also ordering seeds and plants. You got anything to report this week?
Protected Gardening
Nick sent the following near the end of January:
Hi there. Loooong time reader/lurker on the AoS blog, and this is the first time I'm chiming in/piping up. I started gardening this year after being sent home to "work remotely", and I've been doing it ever since. I'm in the southern foothills of the Adirondacks in upstate NY. All winter, I've been winter gardening in greenhouses. I heated and lit my big greenhouse (20' x 8') until December, when it got too expensive to do so. My wife bought me a "little" (4'x4') greenhouse kit for Christmas, so I adapted it to use thicker plastic and set it up with an under-desk space heater a few days ago in a bid to save my warm-loving plants.
The cold greenhouse interior, with a space heater on "don't freeze" mode trying to keep my potatoes going for a few more weeks. I took this picture last night. I'm getting daytime highs near 95 in here on sunny days, but the nights are cold.
Brave.
The mini-greenhouse - exterior. I replaced the cover that came with it (flimsy anyway) with my own 6-mil UV treated plastic sheeting - the same stuff I built the big one out of. I'm able to maintain a constant 65 degrees in here on 600 watts of power. I expect this will improve as the season progresses. All lighting is LED - a combination of GE grow and Sansa bulbs. All combined it's about 120 watts for lighting.
The best shot of the mini-greenhouse interior I could get. Counter-clockwise from left. 2 levels of lettuce, container with borage, sunflowers and peas, 2 tomato plants and then more lettuce. I brought one potato plant that was in a bucket in here too. They've only been in here for 3 days now, so not sure how well this works yet, but it's 9 degrees out, and this is what they look like :)
Feel free to use the images and let me know if you like the topic - I'm going to be using the cold greenhouse to give myself an edge come spring in the outdoor garden (I hope!).
We enjoy seeing these photos in the winter, and would like to see how things go in the spring, too. Thanks!
Do you have any questions for Nick in upstate NY? I think the outdoor shot of the greenhouse enclosure looks kind of ghostly.
Farm Life
Over at American Digest, there was a piece on a Mennonite family that makes Sorghum syrup as part of Gerard's "Great Americans" series. Maybe you would like to order some.
Muddy Pond Sorghum is a manufacturer and seller of 100% pure sorghum syrup. We also offer pure honey, and sorghum barbecue sauce, all made by the Guenther family. Our mill is located midway between Nashville and Knoxville in the hills of Tennessee. Come visit us during September and October and watch us make sorghum syrup.
Gardens of and Puttering By The Horde
[Here] is an image of the snow 'n ice by the swimming pool. All told, we prolly had around 7" total. Other areas had a lot more. I'm quite satisfied with what we had - and as much as I like cold WX, I won't miss it now that it's gone. Well, not until we're in 100 degree days, anyway.
(Dr_No)
He was also inspired by The Famous Pat*'s Gardening Thread reminder:
Remember: We are not The Deplorables. We are The Unconquerables!
to create some artwork:
Fun!
If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden
at that g mail dot com place
Include the nic by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ,
unless you want to remain a lurker.
I had jury duty this week. It had been a little less than a year and a half since I last had jury duty. This time, the jury pool was all for a single trial - attempted murder. Because of COVID restrictions, part of the courtroom proceedings were broadcast to prospective jurors in the jury assembly room. Jury selection took 3 days.
This is the second time I have been in a jury pool for an attempted murder trial. The first time was in a federal court, many years ago. Jury selection took only a few hours back then.
This time, there was a lengthy questionnaire, and potential jurors with experience (or relatives or close friends with experience) in criminal justice, law, law enforcement, corrections, medicine or psychology got extra scrutiny. As well as those with experience as victims of violent crime. The judge emphasized again and again that jurors must follow the law as he explained it. He skillfully discouraged people from making excuses for avoiding jury duty. But attorneys were given broad latitude for excluding potential jurors.
I am dubious of jury selection procedures which allow the exclusion of people with knowledge of, say, science when scientific evidence will be presented. I have a feeling that some of this sort of thing was going on in this case.
Anyway, the defense did not want me to be on the jury.
The questionnaire also asked about membership in groups such as those pushing jury nullification and related ideas. Made me think about several ways that 'wokeness' could mess up a criminal trial.
Of course, there are 'woke' district attorneys, like the ones across the country whose campaigns were financed by George Soros. But what about when laws or members of juries go 'woke'?
Here are two important ideas that currently exist in fundamental opposition to one another: "Reasonableness" and "Wokeness."
In advanced legal systems, we depend upon the concept of "reasonableness" and specifically a standard known as the "reasonable-person standard." This simply asks: what would be reasonable in, or what would a reasonable person make of, a given situation?
On the other hand, the "applied postmodern" ideologies that we refer to as "Wokeness" or "Critical Social Justice Theory" posit a concept of radical subjectivism and socialization into power-laden biases. In this worldview, there is no such thing as a "reasonable person," and nothing can be considered "reasonable," because the very application of "reason" is a mere application of whatever is accepted by the dominant power structure at hand. No one is reasonable because everyone is biased; there are only people who speak into dominant discourses or who resist them.
These ideas are wholly incompatible with one another. It is not possible to rely upon a standard of reasonableness or to defer to a hypothetical reasonable person if no such thing is believed to exist. Even worse, the reasonableness principle is wholly undermined by the further notion that any semblance of or consensus about what is reasonable is an application of the very sort of oppressive politics that our laws and courts in free countries are supposed to guard their citizens against. . .
You might want to read the whole thing. It's short. And scary.
Music about criminality
You may recall this song, in which a young white man is invited to confess and feel shame for murder. Today, young white men are invited to confess and feel shame for being young white men.
Little did I know that the song above represented cultural appropriation from an oppressed group:
General Thoughts on Wokeness
James Lindsay's "critical social justice" framing of the word 'woke' is more specific that the Oxford Dictionary definition: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice. Alertness does not lead to the kinds of hostile behavior that we see from the folks known as 'woke'.
Some of the push-back against this word seems to be having an effect. Don't give up. From Andrew Doyle, The Trouble with Woke:
No word seems to generate more conversations at cross purposes than 'woke', whose definition varies depending on who is using it at any given time.
They used to be proud of calling themselves "woke":
For the various black civil-rights activists of the 20th century it signified an alertness to injustice, particularly racism. This usage became popularised by the singer Erykah Badu in her 2008 song 'Master Teacher (Stay Woke)', and was taken up by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013. Soon after, the term was co-opted by practitioners of the new 'social justice' ideology, and for a few years was a popular form of self-identification. We became accustomed to headlines in the Guardian such as 'Can a woke makeover win Barbie and Monopoly new fans?' and 'My search for Mr Woke: a dating diary'. In the US, articles such as 'keeping your classroom woke', 'becoming woke in the wake of "Me Too"' and 'the woke black person's guide to talking about oppression with family' became commonplace. Inevitably, those who took a critical stance on these identitarian perspectives would describe their proponents as 'woke'. It made sense, given that this is how they were describing themselves.
But not any more:
Before long, commentators who had once happily embraced the 'woke' label became dismayed at how their opponents were using it to criticise or mock them, and so they pretended that the word had been concocted by the right as a slur. ...
This revisionist strategy is unlikely to succeed, given that the proposition that identitarian writers did not commonly self-define as 'woke' can be easily disproved with the most cursory of internet searches. ... When Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wore a '#StayWoke' t-shirt on stage at the 2016 ReCode conference, nobody suggested that he was guilty of disseminating right-wing propaganda. These people were woke, and proud of it. ...
Victor Davis Hanson on the cancer of the "woke ideology". February 9. He discusses these fraught topics in a calm manner. Put it on in the background sometime when you are doing something else.
It's a long video, but includes some interesting phrases and details to help us think about how "woke ideology" affects us and our culture.
These are some casual notes I made if you just want to listen to part of the video. Don't hold me to their accuracy:
Opening:The temptation to give in to The Woke, to agree with some part of what the "woke" are preaching.
3:43 - 10:46 The leftist push to control the flow of information. Comparison of social media giants excluding conservatives to exclusion of blacks from housing in private housing developments.
14:30 - 17:26 Time for push-back. No more re-naming schools, etc.
17:27 Begins a discussion of VDH's piece, "Our Animal Farm". We discussed this piece earlier. Plus the rapid capitulation of our military leadership to "woke" ideology.
Orwell's "Animal Farm"is how the Left works. You cannot apologize to them. They do not operate on the basis of reason. They only understand reciprocity.
There is NO MODERATION POSSIBLE. You must either agree or oppose.
30:20 Theretired military has decided to take out WOKE INSURANCE by calling Trump a fascist.
Alec Baldwin has taken out Woke insurance.
Chuck Schumer has Woke Insurance.
The other kind of insurance is the Rush Limbaugh kind: total opposition. The majority of people are not really in a position to do this, so are vulnerable. Try not to let the woke hurt them.
41:00 Wokeness is like Cancer. You can't just say that you will let the tumor grow to a certain point and that will be fine.
What are we losing?
43:00 begins a discussion of Time Magazine's piece, "Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election". He compares this to the Steele Dossier of 2016 and asks why they haven't concealed these conspiracies. Then he answers his own question. They are bullies who glory in their power to bully.
They didn't have to be bullies.
50:00 On the calls to unite: VDH thinks that there will be a short-lived economic boom by the end of summer. Biden will get credit. VDH wants to see a return to civility and tolerance in our society. But he rejects the left's nihilism.
55:00 "Journalism" has actually announced that it will no longer be disinterested. "This has always been the totalitarian argument". We have seen a lot of media-generated scandals during the Trump Administration.
VDH reminds those in power not to destroy the institutions that protect them just because they are in power. Rash actions proposed or enacted involve:
court packing
ending the filibuster
messing with the Supreme Court
impeachment
They may soon suffer consequences of destroying these established institutions.
59:00 Trump probably shouldn't have held a rally on Jan. 6, but he didn't cause an insurrection or sedition. When Liz Cheney is more hyper-critical or Trump than of the left, she hurts herself.
One hour - Final thoughts: Before the civil war, there were compromises proposed for avoiding war. These were lost because radicals gained power, mostly in the South.
VDH mentions some other times in history when radicals have adversely affected our country, including when he was in school at UC Santa Cruz, and with some other rural boys fought off radical invaders in a history class.
We must recognize that again "We are now in a period of collective insanity."
Everybody regardless of political ideology must step forward and say we are not going to pick on the weak and the vulnerable.
Those who are taking advantage of this upheaval to increase their power influence and career are generally mediocrities acting in the name of purifying the culture. Comparisons to the USSR and East Germany.
We have got to be very cynical about these people.
Woke Juke Box Jury
Language warning.
Hope you remain free of encounters with violent criminals and The Woke this weekend.
The Saturday morning deep thought: Apparently RSVP’ing to a wedding invitation “Maybe next time,” isn’t the correct response.
Good morning Horde. Just a couple of rules here in this open thread.
Rules? Of course there are rules!
1A) No pulling the 'ettes hair.
1B) No you can't use the inkwells.
2) No running with sharp objects.
3) Chew with your mouths closed.
4) Be nice to one another.
5)Clothing optional.
6)Opine and/or bloviate away
7) Have a great weekend!
I just don't get lefties. I know I don't usually do commentary on Fridays, but this has been bothering me for a while. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the hell out of it, but to me it would be like knowing someone who doesn't wipe their ass after they poop. I mean, how could you not? It's so bloody simple and obvious, and everyone else does it as a matter of course, but for some reason they never put the concept of toilet paper and bumhole together.
I'm talking of course about the wailing and gnashing of teeth on the left. If you follow any kind of social media, it's been so delicious to see. There's even a Twitter feed, @BidenLs, that collects them. They are furious that they haven't gotten stimulus checks, moreso when they realize that the government's vassals are going to get 15 times that amount:
That's $21,000 in case you weren't paying attention. For a family with both parents working for the government, that's roughly 2/3 of the annual median household income not to work. They're amazed that Biden (or whichever puppet master has his hand up Biden's butt) ordered air strikes in Syria. Guys, it wasn't Trump that was starting and expanding endless wars, that was the policy of the Obama administration, and you're surprised when Obama 2: Electric Boogaloo does the same thing? They're shocked at the casual racism coming from Joe “You have to have an accent to work at 7-11” Biden (Blacks can't use the internet). These guys have always been the racists. It's so obvious in almost everything they say and do, how can you not have seen it? The list goes on.
I just don't get it. Moths at street lamps show more cognitive ability than most leftists. They're baffled and dismayed when the same people do the same things that they've always done, over and over, simply because, for 5 minutes during an election campaign, they said they'd do something different this time. Pinky swear, just the tip, I promise. And the next time around they'll go right out and vote for them again. SMDH.
As I said, it's amusing to watch in a laughing-amongst-the-ruins kind of way, but I just don't get it.
Enough of that, on with the usual Friday memes and madness.
Blast from the Past: A Commentator Describes Northern (Liberalish) "Conservatism," in 1897
—Ace
Holy mackerel.
You read this description of "Northern conservatism," and its endless capitulation to radical progressivism, and subsequent defense of the victories of radical progressivism as the new status quo to be championed, and you tell me this wasn't written just yesterday.
He wrote in the late nineteenth century that the women's rights movement would certainly prevail, because its only opponent was Northern Conservatism, which failed to ever conserve anything.
It may be inferred again that the present movement for women's rights will certainly prevail from the history of its only opponent: Northern conservatism.
This is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation.
What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn.
American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. . . .
Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain.
It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle.
It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth, and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom.
It always when about to enter a protest very blandly informs the wild beast whose path it essays to stop, that its "bark is worse than its bite," and that it only means to save its manners by enacting its decent role of resistance: The only practical purpose which it now serves in American politics is to give enough exercise to Radicalism to keep it "in wind," and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy, from having nothing to whip.
No doubt, after a few years, when women's suffrage shall have become an accomplished fact, conservatism will tacitly admit it into its creed, and thenceforward plume itself upon its wise firmness in opposing with similar weapons the extreme of baby suffrage; and when that too shall have been won, it will be heard declaring that the integrity of the American Constitution requires at least the refusal of suffrage to asses. There it will assume, with great dignity, its final position.
Dabney was a Confederate Army chaplain so that partly explains his vehemence about Northern conservatism.
And yeah: He thought that slavery was a conservative institution worth conservatively conserving.
Dabney defended the biblical "righteousness" of slavery and opposed public schools.
That said: Man, is this a near-perfect description of today's form of "conservatism," treating the victories the left scored five years ago as the New Tradition to be defended, or what?
Fake Conservatism is not standing athwart history shouting "Stop!" but rather meekly mumbling, "Just wait five years and then we'll join you as passionate brothers-in-arms."
A "conservatism" that is nothing but "What the progressives wanted five years ago" is not any kind of philosophy. It is only a never-ending retreat.
Thanks to RealityStation.
Semi-related: The Incela Corridor boys all fall over themselves to salute their leftwing handlers, so I guess this is related:
Under Pressure, Malevolent Elf-Queen Fauci Backpedals and Allows That Maybe You Can Get Together With Friends and Socialize After You've Been Vaccinated
—Ace
Days ago, Malevolent, Incompetent Elf-Queen Fauci had a new declaration: Even when they're vaccinated, grandparents will not be allowed to hug their families.
The Undersized Troll also declared that people will no longer be permitted to "congregate" -- anywhere.
“You yourself, what you can do, when you are together with another person, we are looking at that. And we are going to try to find out very quickly what recommendation could be made about what people can do.”
After objections to this nasty little goblin is just making it up as he goes -- as well as to rising suspicions that Fauci's constant statements that the vaccine will not free you from having to quarantine yourself and wear masks -- i.e., the vaccine doesn't actually work -- might be contributing to people refusing to get vaccinated, the bug-chasing Bathhouse Dick has recalibrated his last off-the-cuff bullshit into new off-the-cuff bullshit.
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Biden, said that "even though it isn't backed by data," if two vaccinated people want to get together, they can, "though the risk is not zero."
...
Fauci stated, "What we're saying right now, even though it isn't backed by data, it's backed by common sense that if you have two vaccinated people, and they want to get together, be they family members, or friends that you know, are vaccinated, you can start getting, as individual people, even though the risk is not zero."
There is a non-zero risk that if someone starts exercising after years of being idle, he might have a heart attack and die. A non-zero risk of a bad outcome has never been a reason to remain locked up inside your house like a fucking vegetable on life support.
In addition, the efficacy of lockdowns of the healthy is not "backed by data." Quite the opposite.
And yet here we are, in week 46 of the Two Weeks to Flatten the Curve.
This is not science. This is mental illness. This is a group of control freaks and attention whores who want control and demand attention, on one hand, and on the other hand, a lot of neurotic people who live as virtual shut-ins by personal choice and want to see their bizarre lifestyle choices both mainstreamed and made mandatory.
Never forget who on the "conservative" side was the most forward-leaning in shrieking that we must "Trust Fauci" and obey everything the government tells us like good little drones.
And yet many on the pseudoright still support Fauci.
Some on the pseudoright have only very recently -- within the week -- began disputing Fauci.
But for a year, they were supporting every bullshit, non-scientific diktat he issued, and furthermore, abusing the rational people who actually read the science as Grandma Killers.
As usual: they were repeating the attack lines the left had scripted for them, and they were deploying them against their only real enemies -- genuine conservatives- - with obvious relish.
NRO editors 4/2020: “Came the coronavirus and a new Andrew Cuomo appeared. His briefings have been clear and direct; he has avoided preening and admitted error. (LOL) His stricken state is grateful for the transformation.” https://t.co/XEazqBTMfl
LOL NRO July months after a few outlets on the Right (including American Greatness) already had been slamming Cuomo. Always leading from behind pic.twitter.com/GJVd0pZj1N
My back-to-back columns 11 months ago this week. It’s so gratifying to see each governor finally get the treatment they richly deserve: pic.twitter.com/oUsyl7FJko
I have very mild gains. Lost three pounds on a five day semi-fast. Meh. Slowly picking up the pace on my walk-runs.
Otherwise, no GAINZZZ to report.
What about you-all? What are your GAINZZZ?
Are you psyched that the government is going to take covid as yet another crisis that shouldn't be allowed to go to waste, and make new completely-wrong "health" demands?
What a joke. No one needs the government to get them healthy. The government has historically been wrong on its health guidelines. The government hasn't made a peep about people getting healthier to mitigate Covid risk. https://t.co/OIsEpJEKiu
The US Government avoided labeling sugar a fattening substance because of intense lobbying (and some payoffs) from... The Sugar Institute.
Who used to run ads like this:
Oh, by the way: This "Master of Science" says that advocating for the Mediterranean diet is...
Wait for iiiiittt...
"Upholding white supremacy."
Via SC Reviews -- people responding to this Woke Retard point out that one of the continents that borders on the Mediterranean is... wait for it... Africa.
Lady GaGa's Dogs Dog-Napped; FBI Investigates Case To See If... TRUMP SUPPORTERS Kidnapped the Dog
—Ace
No, really: They've decided to take jurisdiction in a local dog-napping because of the possibility that MAGA Terrorists kidnapped the dog because this idiot sang (or warbled) at Joe Biden's (fake) inauguration.
FBI investigates whether the dognapping of Lady Gaga's bulldogs was politically motivated because she sang at Biden's inauguration
The FBI is reportedly probing whether the dognapping of Lady Gaga's bulldogs was politically motivated
Source claimed it could be politically motivated since she sang at President Joe Biden's inauguration
The revelation that Gaga's dogs could have been 'stolen for ransom' comes just hours after horrifying video showed the moment her dog's walker, Ryan Fischer, was shot in the chest in Los Angeles on Wednesday night
Fischer, 30, had been walking Gaga's beloved dogs Koji, Miss Asia and Gustav, when he was shot in the chest
Two of Gaga's dogs, Koji and Gustav, were stolen while her third bulldog, Miss Asia, managed to escape
...
It's currently unclear whether Gaga's dogs were specifically targeted, but French bulldogs are in high demand and can sell for as much as $10,000 if they have pedigree lineage
Gaga, 34, is offering a $500,000 reward for the safe return of Gustav and Koji 'no questions asked'
Without ransom demand (made by interstate communications), this is a purely local crime.
But the FBI wants to meet some celebrities, and also wants to target half the country as criminal terrorists, so.
There's no evidence for this claim. This is all just speculation -- or, more accurately, optimism on the FBI's part that they can conduct further political investigations.
Meanwhile, the FBI takes the position that Antifa needs no investigating because it's just an ideology.
While also meanwhile:
@ZoeTillman
Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin just held a briefing about DOJ's approach to domestic terrorism/extremism, and confirmed that re: Jan. 6, 300+ people have now been charged and 280+ arrested.
Investigation is "moving at a speed and scale that is unprecedented."
Posted by: Tami
Defund them. Defund them. Defund them. Make them Learn to Code.
And never convict in a case in which the FBI presents evidence. They are a criminal organization. They are engaged in a conspiracy against the citizens of the United States.
Update:
I posted about this in the previous thread. The description of perps is "two black men" and I'm sure those two white supremacists were mad as hell that Gaga sang for brain impaired Joe.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke
Well as you chase off conservative readers, you're going to need to find... alternative sources of funding, eh? Just as The Dispatch and Bulwark have already done.
Well this is interesting. The Dispatch also is paid by Facebook to be a “fact checker.” https://t.co/NObahml27j
Keep in mind the "fact checks" FaceBook pays for: To claim that pro-life groups are lying when they say Joe Biden supports abortion until the moment of crowning (he does, but it was inconvenient to say so before the election), and to claim that accurately quoting George Soros about his own admitted participation in Nazi wealth-seizure operations is "misinformation."
But he who pays the piper calls the tune, eh?
And, having driven away all their previous payers by waging war on real conservatives for five fucking years straight, they now turn to left-wing tune-callers, and the music changes.
While they're all claiming there's been absolutely no change in the musical direction at all.
Update:
87 Ketchup on hot dogs. Threat or menace?
Posted by: National Review
Three Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the Equality Act on Thursday. Reps. John Katko (R-NY), Tom Reed (R-NY), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) voted with Democrats on the vote to ensure "sexual orientation and gender identity are included among protected classes -- without protection for religious objections."
If the bill becomes law, it would likely upend the national culture as Americans have known it, affecting women's and girls' sports, privacy in public facilities, and faith-based institutions.
Katko, Reed, and Fitzpatrick disagreed with their Republican opponents that say the legislation would force women and girls to share private spaces with men.
Lie! They know damn well that's what it would do; this is a Failure Theater pose. They vote for the thing and then later claim "But I didn't know it did that! Please send me money so that I can do the impossible and overturn this law I passed! Money please! I am ready to FIGHT FOR YOU!"
Fuck you.
Republicans also say the bill could facilitate men participating in women's sports if they identify as female.
If the Equality Act passes in the Senate as well, President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.
The hard left really loves... how polite and respectful the attack was!
No Mean Tweets in this attack!
El Kabong
@El_Kabong81
I see someone switched the NPCs to War Mode this morning.
The true believers are assmad, but the ones who think whatever their phones tell them to are going full Conan.
Apparently Biden (or whoever is, unconstitutionally) really in control of our armed forces) ordered a strike on militants backed by our "Partners in Peace," Iran.
Jack Posobiec
@JackPosobiec
Kamala Harris was not informed prior to the Syrian bombing and is very upset about being left out of the loop, per WH official
Update via Tami:
@JackPosobiec 7m
Biden refused to take a meeting with House Democrats on Syria this morning per WH official
Flashback to Cumala whining about Trump's strike on Syria in 2018, and demanding Congressional approval:
Emotionally-frangible mental spastic David French has also changed his view on the need for congressional approval, oddly enough!
I probably should have included this as one of my proverbs last time:
There are three things that baffle me, yea four things I do not understand.
Because certain aspects of government and politics impress me as being completely dysfunctional and I just don't see why they need to be this way.
For example, why is it so difficult to pass a Covid relief bill? Not that I want one, all that we're doing is piling an another trillion dollars onto our our already ridiculously bloated national debt that will eventually have to be paid by some Chinese guy, but I don't understand all of the wrangling and fighting that's going on. It should be a no-brainer:
1. Determine how much money FedGov should put into the pot.
2. Find out from the IRS how many American citizens are eligible to receive relief money.
3. You might have to jiggle with (1) and (2) a bit to come up with reasonable numbers, but that's OK.
4. Divide (1) by (2) to get the per-person amount.
5. Send the per-person amount to everyone who is eligible.
6. The end.
There. Now, was that so hard? But I keep hearing about how the relief bill has to have things like $25 million to refurbish the Kennedy Center and $40 million to teach gender studies in Pakistan, and I think, why are these things in a Covid relief bill? What do they have to do with providing relief to Americans whose jobs or businesses have suffered losses due to the pandemic? And why is seemingly every member of congress trying to shoehorn his or her pet spending project into the bill? And I "seemingly" because I'm hearing *not one* voice in Washington complain about this. Oh, I've heard protests over this or that item, but I have yet to hear anyone say, "every dollar in this bill needs to go to American taxpayers and that's the end of it. Now, let's get busy and pass the bill and get the money sent out."
But it never happens that way. In order for things to get done in Washington DC, many palms must be greased (hey, another proverb!). I guess that's just how things are done. About the only thing we can do is complain about it. The only thing we can do is to point out how much money reaches the American taxpayer as a percentage of the total amount that is actually allocated. Kind of like how charities are evaluated, that is, how much of your donation will actually go to help starving children in third-world countries and how much goes to "administrative" costs. After a certain point, if the "administrative" costs climb pass 30%, 50% and higher, it's really not a charity any more, it's a scam.
As I said, I really don't want a Covid relief bill. But it looks like we're going to get one, anyway. If Trump were still president, there'd be a chance that the 'scam' spending might be minimized. But not now. With Sleepy Joe at the helm, all of the spigots have been cranked wide open.
Biden ordered the strikes against facilities near Syria's border with Iraq that the militias use. The Department of Defense (DOD) statement did not specify whether the strikes inflicted casualties beyond the structures. Iranian-backed militias fired rockets at both the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and another U.S. base in Iraq in recent weeks.
"At [so-called quote-uquote] 'President' Biden's direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern Syria. These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel," the Department of Defense announced Thursday night."
I ain't no Henry Kissinger, but why in the world if I were the quote-unquote so-called 'president' (nudge nudge wink wink) would I attack the forces of a nation that I am desperately trying to appease by once again doing everything in my power to allow it to manufacture a nuclear weapons arsenal? Could it have something to do perhaps with the fact that at least half of this country is still seething that a national election was stolen? That their livelihoods were destroyed on the pretext of a virus that is now provably marginally more lethal than seasonal flu? That voices of dissent and protest have been silenced and persecuted while the majority of citizens are blood-libeled as unreconstructed, evil subhuman racist traitors and insurrectionists? That our borders are about to be erased as tens of millions of illiterate foreign peasants are set to become first class citizens while the rest of us are relegated to a figurative and possibly literal gulag? That if our children survive nine months in the womb without being sacrificed to Ba'al, Huitzilopochtli and Pazuzu so that their organs can be harvested, or avoid surgical transformation from Boris Karloff into Elsa Lanchester are then brainwashed into hating their heritage, their parents and themselves?
The U.S. Navy's reading list for officers and sailors includes books exploring issues in anti-racism and gender politics, potentially overshadowing traditional education in military history and strategy.
Four of the 16 books listed under a section dedicated to personal and leadership development discuss topics such as anti-racism, the criminal justice system, and gender politics. Their titles include Ibram X. Kendi's bestselling How to Be an Antiracist, The New Jim Crow, Sexual Minorities and Politics, and Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward. Kendi's book in particular has garnered significant controversy, with many of its ideas spreading from college campuses to public health institutions and public sector unions.
The 4 books mark a major departure from the other 33 books on the list, which focus on the history of the Navy and naval planning.
Remember that mathematics is racist, which might put artillerymen or the fire control officers on board a warship in a bit of pickle when it comes time to plotting a solution. Then again, they just plug it into the computer... which no doubt will have been programmed by someone who underwent the same training that drummed into his/her/xer head that 2+2 = 5.
Now that transsexuals are allowed to openly serve, here's hoping they get sent right in where it's hot so that the Farsis can get a good long look and thank their lucky Mecca space rock they're facing off against Corporal Klinger and not a bitter-clinger purged long ago from the ranks.
Old and Busted: Lock and Load.
New Hotness: Tuck and Mince.
Be sure to scan all the headlines as there are a number of things of import happening now including the push for the minimum wage increase being nixed in the Senate bill by the parliamentarian, who no doubt will soon get a visit from his local BLaM-tifa welcome wagon.
"What passes for "progressive" today at Smith and at so many other institutions is regressive. It taps into humanity's worst instincts to break down into warring factions, and I fear this is rapidly leading us to a very twisted place." Toxic Wokeness Taints a Campus and Causes a Liberal Staffer to Resign
CIVIL WAR 2.0: LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, CAPITOL HILL BLACK WEDNESDAY PROTEST AFTERMATH, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
"[Former Persian Division Director Setareh Derakhshesh Sieg's] return comes just after she was placed on administrative leave at the beginning of January amid an investigation for 'multiple forms of misconduct' including allowing certain staff to 'charge excessive overtime,' engaging in 'potentially fraudulent expenditures,' abusing government funds, and falsified education credentials, The Federalist reports." IGNORING CORRUPTION: VOA Exec Booted for Misconduct, Fraud & False Credentials Swiftly Rehired Under Biden
"The Democrats have no interest in governing the country with the aim of enhancing the country's fortunes for the benefit of the entire population." The Democrats Are Not Governing
Lloyd Billingsley: "Lessons in unity and purpose from the nation's ex-Left for people on the Right." Power to the People!
THE 2020 ELECTION HEIST AND AFTERMATH
"The bill now goes to the Georgia House of Representatives, where the Special Committee on Election Integrity voted Wednesday to approve HB 531, which contains a number of election reform measures, including the requirement of photo ID for absentee ballot applications." Georgia State Senate Passes Bill Requiring Photo ID for Absentee Voting
Julie Kelly: "The Trump-appointed justices' alliance with the liberal wing of the Supreme Court is not a betrayal of Republicans or the president who appointed them. It's a betrayal of the Constitution." Kavanaugh and Barrett's Share of the Shame
"All that work for, and faith in, Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett! As with John Roberts before, we are once again the victims of unrequited affection and lost labor." Kavanaugh and Barrett: John Roberts Retreads?
CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS, FACTS AND AMERICA IMPRISONED
"Since Biden won the 2020 election, a surge of unaccompanied minors has been apprehended at the border. In January alone, Customs and Border Protection took almost 6,000 unaccompanied children into custody. However, Psaki said Trump's policies were to blame." Piss-Hockey Psaki Blames Trump Administration for Current Migrant Crisis
"Those facilities aren't needed because of [Chinese] COVID. That's absolutely not true. Those facilities are needed because this administration is now encouraging, incentivizing, and facilitating illegal entry in the United States and the numbers have skyrocketed." Former Border Patrol Chief Says Biden Is Lying About Child-Detention Facilities
"Perhaps Americans should expect nothing more from the network that gave Andrew Cuomo at least 47 softball interviews since March 2020. CNN's Chris Cuomo, the governor's brother, gave his brother no fewer than eleven softball interviews. In fact, a CNN spokesperson told The Washington Post that CNN executives consciously chose to violate the network's rule against having Chris Cuomo interview his brother on air." Angel of Death Cuomo's Political Future Is Imploding, So the Legacy Media Is Looking the Other Way
"The corporate press will try to cast the annual conference as a gathering of fringe lunatics who are splitting the GOP. Don't believe them." Prepare for a Deluge of Dishonest CPAC Coverage
"This is exactly the policy New Yorkers have been voting for for generations. The bigots who have taken full control of the modern corrupt Democratic Party in the past two decades now run the government of New York City, and they are quite willing to use their power to blackball and destroy anyone who opposes them. Worse, I fully expect the New York City electorate to heartily endorse these actions in future elections, as it has for decades." Today's Blacklisted Americans: Two Educators in NYC Fired for Refusing to Do Black Panther Salute
"As long as the Communist Party is in charge in Beijing, the world will remain as vulnerable to future pandemics as it was to [Chinese] Covid-19." Secrecy Remains the Chinese Government Model
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE BUREAUCRACY, WASTE, FRAUD, ABUSE
"The U.S. Supreme Court has a real chance to deliver a grievous blow to a system that blights one of the nation's leading institutions. Let's hope it doesn't blow it." (SCOTUS doesn't need to packed; it's already "fortified." - jjs) End the "Systemic Racism" of Affirmative Action
"It's not just that the act will hamstring law enforcement; it's also one determined to destroy civil society based upon pernicious, racist ideas about Blacks." The Biden Junta's Dangerous and Racist BREATHE Act
"Bay Area school board's mockery of school-age parents gives the public rare insight into the goals and attitudes of public-school officials -- highlights union resistance to school re-openings." Unions Fight Return to Schooling
Our intrepid science reporter with "Two space stories today that are bookends of each other." First: [We are now] seeing a range of people and news organizations advocating
similar anti-SLS positions, positions that would have been thought politically impossible only a few short years ago. The clock is ticking on SLS. If any of its planned upcoming tests or flights fail, it will face a firestorm of hostility. And even if they succeed, its days appear numbered." Another Detailed Essay Demanding SLS Be Cancelled
Second: "Whether these giant government rockets from China will be practical and efficient is an unanswered question. Just building something to compete is not the same thing as actually competing. The rockets have to be affordable, with the ability to launch frequently to make in-space exploration possible. If not, they will nothing more than big photo ops for incompetent politicians, kind of like SLS is for the U.S." China Commits to Building Its Own SLS
Larry Elder: "It is also interesting that we are having this hearing at a time when racism as a barrier to success has never been so insignificant." The Case Against Reparations: Part 1
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.
Now, the City of Winnipeg Complaints Department is a parody account, but the erotic snowmen are real (pics at link, semi-NSFW). It's like a million degrees below zero in Winterpeg, you'd think the residents would be inside keeping each other warm rather than out making sculptures of it.
Town officials in Ridgefield, Connecticut are blaming a “poor decision” for an attempt at drying a local baseball field by pouring 24 gallons of gasoline onto the area and setting it ablaze.
At least the game featured base runners with blazing speed.
Not all of these are things that are bigger than we might think, although many of them will make you think. I didn't realize how big the Mars rover is, for example.
Getting Out
There's a movie called The Shawshank Redemption, have any of y'all ever seen it? I don't think that it's ever been shown on TV, so you might have missed it. In any event, there's a scene where a trustee gets out of prison and, unable to handle the outside world, he hangs himself in his room. In the movie he was in for something like 50 years, but think how fast things are changing these days. Even a much shorter stay in prison has got to be disorienting. Here's some food for thought.
There's one in here that I've seen done. I knew a guy who had a whole bunch of stickers that said “Now Voice Activated! Simply say “Dry Now”” made. He used to put them on the hand dryers in bars that he visited. It was funny to hear drunk people shouting at the hand dryer in the head.
There's nothing really new to me about what he says except the “pressing the flour onto the chicken on the second dredge”. I tried it and it really made a difference. Mine didn't crunch quite as loud as the chicken in the video, but it was close. This is a winner.
New York Times Reports on a Black Student Who Lied About Being Racially Targeted at Smith College, Claims A Lie Is Just Someone's "Deeply-Felt Sense of Personal Truth"
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- In midsummer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute, a Black student at Smith College, recounted a distressing American tale: She was eating lunch in a dorm lounge when a janitor and a campus police officer walked over and asked her what she was doing there.
The officer, who could have been carrying a "lethal weapon," left her near "meltdown," Ms. Kanoute wrote on Facebook, saying that this encounter continued a yearlong pattern of harassment at Smith.
"All I did was be Black," Ms. Kanoute wrote. "It's outrageous that some people question my being at Smith College, and my existence overall as a woman of color."
The college's president, Kathleen McCartney, offered profuse apologies and put the janitor on paid leave. "This painful incident reminds us of the ongoing legacy of racism and bias," the president wrote, "in which people of color are targeted while simply going about the business of their ordinary lives."
The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN picked up the story of a young female student harassed by white workers. The American Civil Liberties Union, which took the student’s case, said she was profiled for "eating while Black."
The truth? The truth is that that dormitory was closed to students for the summer. It was being used only for a summer camp for very young kids.
And, you know, when parents have entrusted young kids to you, you restrict who can interact with them.
This woman went into this dorm anyway and... laid on the floor.
As she was not a young child, and the staff had been told to shoo anyone except the program's participants and officials out of the dorm, security was called.
And then began the screaming that she was being targeted for "being black," rather than being told to leave a place reserved for a summer camp for young children.
Ms. Kanoute was determined to have eaten in a deserted dorm that had been closed for the summer; the janitor had been encouraged to notify security if he saw unauthorized people there. The officer, like all campus police, was unarmed.
This was obvious from the start, but it did not stop the media, the ACLU, and Smith College itself from spreading word of another (fake) hate crime.
And despite the fact that the people who followed the schools orders and tried to get a student out of a restricted area had their lives overturned by cries of "racism!," no one has apologized to them, not the media, not Smith College, nor this racial arsonist student.
Smith College offered various concessions to minority students to make up for the non-hate-crime they did not suffer, but...
they did not offer any public apology or amends to the workers whose lives were gravely disrupted by the student's accusation.
And this nasty little bitch did attempt to publicly destroy these workers -- a janitor, a cafeteria worker. A lunch lady. You know -- those with all the structural racist power in our society.
The repercussions spread. Three weeks after the incident at Tyler House, Ms. Blair, the cafeteria worker, received an email from a reporter at The Boston Globe asking her to comment on why she called security on Ms. Kanoute for "eating while Black." That puzzled her; what did she have to do with this?
The food services director called the next morning. "Jackie," he said, "you're on Facebook." She found that Ms. Kanoute had posted her photograph, name and email, along with that of Mr. Patenaude, a 21-year Smith employee and janitor.
"This is the racist person," Ms. Kanoute wrote of Ms. Blair, adding that Mr. Patenaude too was guilty. (He in fact worked an early shift that day and had already gone home at the time of the incident.) Ms. Kanoute also lashed the Smith administration. "They're essentially enabling racist, cowardly acts."
Ms. Blair has lupus, a disease of the immune system, and stress triggers episodes. She felt faint. "Oh my God, I didn't do this," she told a friend. "I exchanged a hello with that student and now I'm a racist."
Ms. Blair was born and raised and lives in Northampton with her husband, a mechanic, and makes about $40,000 a year. Within days of being accused by Ms. Kanoute, she said, she found notes in her mailbox and taped to her car window. "RACIST" read one. People called her at home. "You should be ashamed of yourself," a caller said. "You don’t deserve to live," said another.
Smith College put out a short statement noting that Ms. Blair had not placed the phone call to security but did not absolve her of broader responsibility.
Eh, so some unfashionably-middle-class white people (aka, whypipo) are being threatened and ruined over a lie.
But they're subhuman, so who cares? The smallest Narrative is worth more than any white person's life.
A report found that there was no evidence of any racial bias here.
In addition, Ms. Kanoute expanded her accusation to claim a "pattern of discrimination" lasting an entire year.
But they found no evidence of that, either. In fact, Kanoute could not even point to any evidence of this:
The report said Ms. Kanoute could not point to anything that supported the claim she made on Facebook of a yearlong "pattern of discrimination."
Smith College chooses to see the report as a "validation" of the racial wolf-crier's "lived experience."
Still, Ms. McCartney said the report validated Ms. Kanoute's lived experience...
And the New York Times, of course, chooses to frame it this way, too: As an unresolvable conflict, with no real answers, between established facts and some racial paranoid's (or racial hustler's) "deeply-felt personal truth."
The story highlights the tensions between a student's deeply felt sense of personal truth and facts that are at odds with it.
Well, those low-paid workers -- a janitor, an unarmed security guard, a lunch lady -- have some "deeply felt senses of personal truth," too, and those deeply felt senses of personal truth happen to align with the actual, factual truth.
But so what? They're white, so their facts don't count. This accuser is black, so her lies do count.
Is everyone enjoying the moderate centrism of the Biden years so far?
Say, when is that Return to Normalcy coming? The one promised to me by the NeverTrumpers?
None of this bothers the NeverTrumpers, who accept every Cult Doctrine that their leftist allies tell them to accept.
To defend oneself against unceasing aggressions from the left in a never-ending Culture War is to be an uncouth Culture Warrior oneself.
So NeverTrump never calls out the left for culture warring -- it only chastises the right for fighting back, or for even noticing it's being warred upon.
The left tells NeverTrump that it's "alt-right" to ever contradict a black person's claims -- even if they're proven lies, or at least proven to be racially-animated paranoid delusions -- and NeverTrump agrees.
Oh wait, I just remembered, there is one black person NeverTrump will gladly call a liar: Candace Owens, naturally.
But it's "alt-right" to contradict any other black person. It's "impolite." It's bad manners, you know.
To dispute any of the left's Cult Doctrines would cause upset among NeverTrump's leftist twitter pals and side-pieces, so it just isn't done, you know.
Teachers refuse to teach. However, they will teach your children that they are racist by singing very poorly and trying to become famous on the Chinese social media platform TikTok.
I'm not even going to call them teachers any longer. I am going to call these lazy, dull-minded lunatics and superannuated children mockingly what they call themselves: The Real Heroes (TM).
Give your children a cookie and some indoctrination:
This lisping, hyperemotional imbecile is the perfect archetype of a progdem.
This representative took down the American flag and replaced it with the "trans flag" to bait Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene responded by putting up a sign that says "There are two genders, male and female."
The Post propgandizes it this way:
Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted for attacking colleague’s transgender child: "Sickening, pathetic, unimaginably cruel" https://t.co/vI86g6QOHb
I have two updates to the story about China forcing US diplomats to be anally penetrated.
First: China says they only did anal swabs on those who consented.
And US diplomats say... they gave consent because they thought if they refused, it would be... homophobic.
Well, sure. A bit, I guess!
3/ REPORTED: Biden staffers who underwent anal exams by Chinese Communist Party doctors explain that they felt pressured to consent because they felt as though refusing the exam would be anti-gay/transphobic. ;)
Rand Paul Is the Only Republican Willing to Ask Biden's Transsexual Deputy Secretary of Health About His Views That Parents Should Be Cut Out of a Child's Decision to Amputate His or Her Genitals
—Ace
A clip of Rand Paul asking the question -- multiple times, because Levine repeatedly evades answering -- if he still believes that parents' wishes should be ignored and that we should obey a child's alleged desire to amputate parts of his body.
Most alarmingly, Dr. Levine has advocated for sex changes for pre-pubertal people, otherwise known as "children."
A professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, Levine has given lectures in various settings since at least 2012 on how to perform sex changes and gender conversion therapy on children.
According to Levine, children ought to be given the latitude to choose their own gender. Levine has advised adults to "try not to force them one way or other [sic]" and instead to follow the child's lead.
"For prepubertal children," Levine said in a 2017 speech at Franklin & Marshall College, "they might present in different ways. They might present at school in the gender they were identified at birth, or they might present as the other gender, or they might be more gender-fluid." Levine has described children as young as five or six as "knowing" which gender they wanted to be.
Once, however, the child reaches the "young adolescent" stage, Dr. Levine recommends puberty blockers, a practice which Dr. Levine apparently followed at Penn State Hershey Medical Center as Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders. In speeches, Levine describes prescribing puberty blockers and cross-gender hormone injections to children who expressed anxiety about the natural process of puberty.
Additionally, Levine has expressed doubts about the "controversial" requirement in some standards of medical ethics that patients receive psychological evaluations before undergoing such drastic medical regimens.
This is the moderate, centrist government that NeverTrump and the Republican Establishment put into office, just to spite actual conservatives and to prove that they own us.
By the way: Moderate, centrist Merrick Garland claimed that he hasn't had time yet to even consider whether women and girls should be forced to compete in sports with biological males.
Remember, Merrick Garland, the moderate, centrist nominated by the moderate, centrist Biden for AG, claims to have never thought, even once, about whether or not women and girls should be forced to compete against men in sports, including contact sports.
I clerked on the DC Circuit when Judge Garland served on that court and am well aware of his work. He is a brilliant jurist and an incisive thinker about Constitutional law.
The notion that he hasn't had time to consider this issue is, well, less than candid. https://t.co/Yc9M3dZTJx
Now they say "whoops, we forgot that diplomatic personnel are immune from our orders."
The Chinese government has promised to stop using anal swabs on American diplomats to test for COVID-19 after Washington complained that the practice was undignified, the U.S. State Department said.
"The State Department never agreed to this kind of testing and protested directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when we learned that some staff were subject to it," a State Department spokesperson told VICE World News on Wednesday.
The spokesperson said Beijing had assured Washington that the test was given "in error" and that diplomatic personnel were exempt from the test, which was mandatory for incoming travelers in some parts of China.
...
On Thursday afternoon, China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied Beijing had asked U.S. diplomats in China to undergo anal swab tests.
I wonder which State Department employees volunteered for second servings.
I cannot think of anything that could more perfectly encapsulate the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the corrupt, tyrannical US Uniparty.
Daily Mail: Hunter Biden Wasn't Just Banging His Brother's Wife, He Was Also Banging His Brother's Wife's Married Sister
—Ace
I'm not even mad. I'm impressed.
In addition, newly available emails and texts suggest the possibility that Hunter Biden was already banging his dead brother's wife on the day after he died.
EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden was living with his brother Beau's widow Hallie while sending raunchy texts and FaceTiming in the shower with her married SISTER as they declared their love and she called him her 'prince'
Hunter Biden began dating his late brother Beau's widow, Hallie Biden, shortly after Beau died of brain cancer in 2015
The unconventional relationship was first exposed in March 2017 with Joe Biden issuing a statement giving his blessing to the couple
DailyMail.com can reveal Hunter was also exchanging sexual text messages with Hallie's then-married sister Elizabeth Secundy around that time
In a 2016 text conversation recovered from his abandoned laptop hard drive, Hunter offered to teach Secundy 'how to masturbate'
Secundy, 49, who was married to husband Joel Secundy, referred to Hunter as her 'prince' and told him she loved him in the texts
Another conversation showed Hunter texted Secundy telling her he had been up late watching 'bad porno movies like I'm 13'
Secundy separated from her husband and father of her three children in 2015 after 15 years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized three years later
...
Hunter Biden had a controversial affair with his brother Beau's grieving widow Hallie, while exchanging raunchy texts, 'partying', and even renting a house with her sister, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Hallie Biden's older sister, Elizabeth Secundy, who was recently separated from her husband of 15 years, referred to Hunter as her 'prince' and told him she loved him, in a series of text messages dating back to 2016.
Although Hunter Biden claims he started f***ing his dead brother's wife a year after his death, texts indicate it started a lot earlier than that.
But emails and texts from Hunter's abandoned laptop, logged on spreadsheets and reviewed by DailyMail.com, reveal his romantic relationship with his sister-in-law was even more complicated and scandalous.
A text message exchange recovered from the laptop hard drive revealed a sexual conversation between Hunter and Secundy from September 2016 - at the time he would have been dating Hallie.
Hunter offered to teach Secundy 'how to masturbate' and referenced buying her 'panties'.
Secundy, now 49, also referred to Hunter as her 'prince' and told him she loved him in the texts.
....
Hunter's older brother - Joe Biden's eldest son - Beau died from brain cancer in May 2015 at the age of 46, shaking the family to its core.
...
Files recovered from Hunter's laptop show the president's son drafted several long, emotional messages to his friends and family he was arguing with, and saved them as notes on his computer.
In one undated note, Hunter refers to his ex-wife accusing him of 'f***ing' Hallie the day after her husband died.
'It really really was devastating to me that you adopted Kathleen's narrative: 'Dad and Aunt Hallie (K's words exactly to me tonight on phone with girls in room) were F***ING the day after Uncle Beau died,' he wrote.
It is unclear who the note was addressed to and whether Hunter ended up sending it.
Now that's his ex-wife's accusation -- but why did she think that? People have reasons for their suspicions. And given that we know ultimately, on some date, he did start dating his brother's widow -- I can't say that his ex-wife's suspicions that this was going on a lot earlier than he admits are preposterous.
Hunter Biden announced he was done fucking his dead brother's wife and his dead brother's wife's sister and would be spending more time with his Ukranian fixers.
Oh, and per the media's and establishment GOP/uniparty rule:
I denounce this entire post as RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION.
Elon Musk to Washington Post: Drop Dead (and Say Hello to Jeffy!)
—Ace
A few weeks ago, Elon Musk fired his media relations team, figuring, he would no longer communicate with the media. He decided he did not need the media to get his word out, and the media were nasty to him anyway.
So he essentially fired the whole media.
The media has been extremely angry about this, because publishing other people's press releases is 90% of their phoney-baloney jobs. Once everyone realizes they can just release press releases to the public, without having to launder it through a fake "journalist," 75% of the remaining "journalism" jobs go bye-bye.
So they've upped their attacks on him since then.
The Washington Post, acting like a mafia defending its turf by threatening shop-owners of consequences if they don't play ball, pumped out a completely gratuitous hit-piece on him, with no real news hook to even serve as a pretext for it.
Liberal Yuppie Twitter Addict Baseball Cvck still babbling away on Twitter He's much more poisonous for the dying National Review than Kevin Williamson is. At least with Kevin Williamson, you have to go to the website to be bothered by him. But Twitter Addict Baseball Cvck is just babbling on Twitter all day long, telling all conservatives that National Review is now just another liberal Yuppie website like Slate or New Republic. Except that the latter two don't sell you progressivism and leftism and tell you it's "True Reaganite Conservatism" like Baseball Cvck does.
Infuriating Never forget the pseudoright made this possible. As usual -- they are the Defeat Mechanism of the right, and the Victory Mechanism for their hard-left pals.
National Review's effete cvck Dan McLaughlin makes it pretty plain that his primary objection to the GOP's voters is class-based Fuck off and die, cvck. Back into the Peeping Closet with you. Friends of mine assure me that country clubs are quite Trumpy and based. So maybe Ted Cruz's wording isn't very accurate. But I do get the dispute: Baseball Cvck wants the GOP to be in control of liberal-leaning urban professionals -- Acela Corridor Yuppies -- just as it has been for 30 years, and he resents that his small social class (which is 85% on the hard left, by the way, so they're always trying to appease their leftwing wives and side-pieces) doesn't get to control a party that it no longer has anything in common with. As someone said, you cannot lead a country you've never even visited.
John Durham announces resignation from office of US Attorney for Connecticut The press release doesn't say he's also resigning as special prosecutor for the Russiagate conspiracy, but many are assuming that. Update: I'm hearing he is in fact staying on as a special prosecutor -- for all that that matters.
Leaked Emails Confirm UN Gave Names of Dissidents to CCP This is almost unbelievable. They were detained by the Chinese, and at least one died in custody. What's next? UN peacekeepers raping women they are supposed to protect? Oh...wait... [CBD]
Gina Carano Reveals that Lucasfilm/Disney forced her to take part in a confess-your-sins Maoist Struggle Session with 40 of their gay/trans employees Remember, they're claiming that the bullying from transextremists had nothing to do with her firing, that it was all about her "denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities" -- that is, they are legally defaming her by falsely claiming she denigrated Jews. They don't want to admit this is about their own lunatic transsexual extremist woman-harassers, so they're blaming it on The Jews. This is just the continuation of a cancellation campaign started by jealous AF transsexuals who tried to bully the obviously-female Carano into posting her pronouns, like a mental patient. She refused, and the #FireGinaCarano hashtag was created -- and spread by Disney/Lucasfilm employees. Disney/Lucasfilm doesn't support strong women. It persecutes them, to appease fake women. Protect your children, save your nation: #CancelDisneyPlus.
US Navy now recommending "anti-racist" books by scalding-hot anti-white racist and incompetent Ibrahim Khendi Remember, it is a foundational cult doctrine that no amount of hatred -- not even violent, Knockout Game hatred; not even go-on-a-shooting-spree-serial-killing-white-people hatred -- directed at whites can be "racist," ever. No matter what evils you commit against whites, no matter what bodycount you rack up, you cannot be racist against whites. Whites are beneath all of society's protections. And this is what your US Navy is now teaching is a core American value that they will KILL to defend.
.jpg)
 (1).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
 (1) (2).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
