Ace of Spades Pet Thread

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Good afternoon boys & girls and animals. Welcome to the almost world famous AoS Pet Thread. Kick off the shoes and converse with your fellow animal enthusiasts.

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A Little of This. A Little of That.

Wow. A cat who has a human like face.

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My kind of dog!! Belgian Malinoi rips out the throats of ISIS scumbags. h/t tankdemon

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Every man Everybody should have a dog.

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Good news. Missing pony is found. Found in a weird place.

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Meet The PetMorons

This is Motley. He's our first puppy. We just got him. He's a potcake rescue from St. Lucia.-Chris

Cute pup and congrats!!! Good luck with training. And thanks for thinking of the Horde to share Motley's photo with us.

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Hello there,

Devoted Pet Thread fan Peter here.

The in-your-face gray tabby is Doc, a streetwise stray given to us by a friend back in 2000. Photo taken in his prime, about a decade ago. Diagnosed with a jaw tumor in 2013, he was given a year at most but thankfully survived in good trim for over four, departing from us a year ago just after his 18th birthday. A show-off and a bit of a boor at times (he once rudely chased a Dalmatian out of our yard), he was nevertheless charmingly, brilliantly, 100 percent cat.

Not so our slightly cross-eyed flame-point, PG, who is 50 percent human. Photo a decade ago but still hale and hearty now at 16. We adopted him as a companion kitten for Doc. PG was for P.G. Wodehouse and “Perfect Gentleman” (compared to Doc). Being part Siamese, he will reply to any question you ask him, in one of 5 different languages, none of them English. He and Doc had many epic, fur-flying wrestling matches but also many snuggly naps, often including Doc’s daily head-wash of PG pictured here. Both guys utterly unique and irreplaceable.

Many thanks,

P & J.

What beautiful cats!! And they appeared to have been best buddies on top of it. You can never replace a pet. You can get a substitute but never a replacement. Thanks for the submission!!

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**First name identification only please - feel free to pare this down for length**

My wife and I recently adopted a puppy from a local rescue organization. Her name is Poppy and she came from the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota with a brother and a sister. The mother died of unknown causes when they were around 5 weeks old, and the puppies were surrendered to Turtle Mountain Animal Rescue, and then transported to Coco's Heart Dog Rescue near the Twin Cities. They believe that she is a Lab/German Shepherd mix (and I believe it too based on her ears), eventually we will be doing some DNA testing to find out for sure.

The rescue organization and her foster mom noticed an occasional limp from her front left leg. They took x-rays of the leg which were inconclusive, and they suspected a growth plate injury that would likely get better with time, but that it needed to be monitored. We ended up adopting her at approximately 12 weeks of age, and she is now almost 18 weeks. She has been an absolute joy to have around, and has integrated well with our two older dogs, but most of all with her sister Stella (black lab/border collie). They love to wrestle, chase and play tug.

Most of the time, most people probably wouldn't even notice her limp. Though you could definitely tell that something was wrong when she was tired, or after a particularly active day. Upon further examination by our veterinarian, they noted that the pain was up closer to her shoulder area. X-rays revealed a serious injury to the shoulder joint that even my untrained eyes could clearly see before they even pointed it out.

We were presented with 2 surgical options for treatment. Amputation or Arthrodesis (pins, plates and fusion of the joint to stabilize it). Arthrodesis would have required 6-8 weeks of recovery time with severely limited activity and a lot of pain...with no guarantee of success and the possibility of further surgeries and/or possible amputation. Even if everything had gone right, she would have very limited range of motion.

Amputation on the other hand has a much faster recovery time, and most dogs thrive on 3 legs, especially when done at a young age. To us, the choice was pretty clear that amputation would be the best thing for her. She had surgery on July 5th. During the surgery, the vet discovered canine bite marks near the shoulder, so they suspect that the mother or another dog must have severely bitten her at a very young age. If it had gone untreated, it would have continued to cause her significant pain that would have only worsened with time.

The first night after surgery was a nightmare with a screaming/crying/biting/thrashing dog suffering from dysphoria (due to narcotic pain meds and anesthesia drugs). Neither my wife or I could get any sleep, she needed constant attention to calm her down and to keep her from hurting herself. The only positive thing in this time was that her appetite (normally very healthy) was completely unaffected, and she was a completely different dog when she could eat.

About 24 hours after surgery, a switch flipped and she was feeling much better and getting around very well. 48 hours out and she is still doing great and has her tripod stance down perfectly. She is still sleeping a lot, which is a good thing...though she sometimes has trouble finding a comfortable spot to lay down because she doesn't want to lay on one side all the time.

If anyone out there ever has to face a decision about amputation for their pet, please know that there are plenty of 3 legged dogs out there that thrive. It can be a hard decision and process, but I can confidently say that she is going to do great.

I have attached some photos of her, and my wife also created an Instagram account for her. https://www.instagram.com/poppyhopsalot/ - Jeff

First of all, I'm not much of an editor. I appreciate you taking the time and sharing Poppy's photos and story. Cute pup. Good luck with her recovery and all of the training that comes along with a puppy.

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Thank you to those who submitted stories and photos this week. Greatly appreciated in the middle of summer.

Do you have a photo of a pet you would like to share? Is there a newsworthy story about an animal you would like to submit? Well, if the answer is "YES" you can reach us here at petmorons at gmail dot com.

Nigerian princes and financial advisers need not apply.

And "Have a great week!!!"

Close it up

Saturday Gardening Thread: July is heating up [KT]

—Open Blogger

Bluebell sent in the adorable bird babies above:

I mentioned on the blog a couple of weeks ago (can't remember if it was on the garden thread or not) that I had a bird's nest in one of my hanging baskets, and it had eggs in it. Well, the eggs hatched, and now I have babies!

They are house wrens, and there are five of them. I tried to get a picture of the mama bird, but I had to do it from inside poking my phone out the window, and it was much too dark. So here's a photo of the basket (the middle part where there are no flowers is where the nest is), and then one of the baby birds. My son climbed up on the railing to get that one for me!

Hanging basket photo below.

Usually we have house finches in our baskets, and I hope the wrens are a little neater in their, ah, toilet habits than the finches are, although I doubt they will be. I hope I get to see them fledge. In the meantime I enjoy the mama's beautiful songs and the babies' little cries as Mama draws near with the food.

Thank you for doing the garden thread and the thread above each week - I always looks forward to it for many reasons, but one of them is that it always has the most beautiful pictures on the whole blog!

Thanks, Bluebell. Most of those beautiful pictures come from members of The Horde like you.

More Wildlife

Golfman sees some wildlife in the landscape from time to time:

Rode by this deer early in the morning. At first, I just saw the tail end and thought the coyotes had got them one. Backed up and checked and there xe sat. Never flinched. They are somewhat used to maintenance traffic early in the mornings. I was probably 20 feet away.

The Edible Garden

Sometimes, you just don't want deer in your garden. MarkY sent in one solution, plus a couple of other garden photos:

Hey there! Love the thread, and thank you for doing it.

I've threatened to show our redneck deer-proof fencing. Here 'tis.

T-posts that drive in the ground to where 4' shows (for us, in this soil, that means 5'). 2 X 4 inch x 4' mesh cheap wire fencing on the bottom, attached to stakes with either zip ties or baling wire. Then, 1/2" conduit, cut into 4' sections with a sawzall, and skinned with 4' chicken wire. We attached the conduit with baling wire and good pliers, the fencing wire with zip ties for speed. Net 7' or so. Adequate to discourage deer.

The ribbons are needed to show the deer there is something there. I'ts surprising how that wire can disappear in low light.

The first two years we used deer netting on the top, but with sun degradation and one incursion by raccoons, we opted for a bit more permanency.
240' perimeter. Maybe 2 (4) hour sessions to install.

It's hot here, (Kansas City) and has been since early May, with very little reprieve. We had no spring. Went from freezing temps to 90's, so few cool season crops this year. Kale knows no weather.

We keep an aisle down the middle (tar paper... did I mention redneck?). And I'll spot spray glysophate early mornings when needed... but mostly we pull weeds. The straw helps.

The zukes and cukes are being picked every other day (or thrown out for being baseball bats). Peppers are doing good (Hungarian wax, jalapenos for pickling, and sweets, plus poblanos). Maters won't ripen til the evenings cool. Beans are about to explode, and we just picked our first okra... which means we better get out there every 2-3 days. Our squash of various tribes are ripening.
Tomatillos are just about ready for green sauce.

We did plant a row of corn, but that's only for the grandkids. Corn seems to be a coon magnet, and we don't need coons in that garden. Plus, with fresh picked sweetcorn $3/dozen not 20 minutes away, it's hard to get excited about taking away good garden space for it.

The garden shed. When we bought this property, it had 4 enormous wooden electrical poles on it left over from when the local util built major transmission lines 1/2 mile north. I had them sawn into 3/4" slabs, and used them for exterior siding on my outbuildings. They looked 100 years old the day they were built, and being treated with creosote, will last that long, too. The half moon for was grins. We ran a water line into the area, and placed the shed over it, just to keep the local chillen's from turning on the water and leaving.

Again, thanks for the thread. I enjoy seeing the challenges and crops from around the country.

Sometimes persistence pays off

Le Garde Vieux writes:

This bird of paradise flower has been cultivated and kept alive mostly by prayer for 18 years by my neighbor here in northern Alabama. It FINALLY bloomed.

Eighteen years, one flower. This Bird of Paradis is the official city flower of Los Angeles, and it is not winter hardy in climates much beyond the winter temperatures of Los Angeles, where it blooms more in winter than in summer (after June Gloom). Where adapted, it is tough. But in Northern Alabama, I imagine it takes some special attention. Recovers slowly from frost damage.

You can grow it as a big houseplant in Wisconsin, though. If you MUST have a touch of the tropics from a non-tropical plant.

Anybody want to identify the red-flowered vining companion to the Bird of Paradise in the photo? From the leaves?

Garden Photography

It's been a while since we checked in with Don in Kansas. He has a post up on the name game.

Belamcanda chinensis. Or is it Iris domestica? Or Pardanthus chinensis? Or Morea chinensis? Or Ixia chinensis, Gemmingia chinensis, Vanilla domestica or Epidendrum domesticum? Taxonomists have too much time on their hands.

Be sure to check out the link at the end of the post for additional photos from Don's trip to the botanical garden. You can embiggen them or even open them in a new window for a full size view. Lots of beauty there in Kansas. And you might want to visit Don's main page for posts on unboxing mail order orchids, on little cacti and orchids and on another visit to the botanical garden.

Roses

We haven't had an over-abundance of rose photos this year. The Invisible Hand sends us an old rose photo from San Clemente:

Our backyard, when we bought this home, at 85 rose bushes. My far better half didn't like them. I fought to save this one plant. A 37+ yr old heirloom white rose bush.

The "trunk" is tres impressive, eh?

Why, yes it is. Not sure which cultivar this is. Any guesses?

Gardens of The Horde

Denver sent in a couple of photos of a familiar scenario, entitled, My Moron Tomatoes.

I have lived in my home (near Denver) for about 17 years, and have grown tomatoes for most of them. Early on, I had great beginner's luck, yield too great for me alone to eat, even growing one plant that reached almost to the roof line of the house (I had to rig up quite the cage to keep it aloft).

Attached are a couple of pictures of my non-thriving tomato plants, with leaves that are curled and deformed. I don't know what the cause is. An expert at a local nursery told me it could be herbicide residue, or summer heat. I did spray the lawn for weeds sometime back, but don't remember if I had those tomatoes planted at the time. If did, I would have protected them from the spray. I am probably going to pluck them out and try again next year because they don't appear to want to come out of it.

I see some leaf curling . . .
Later he sent this note:

By the way, I pulled them the other day. They were obviously not going to come back.

We've all been there, Denver. Gardening is real life. But you've done it before. Hope things work out better next year. Planting anything for fall?

Here in the San Joaquin Valley, we are in our Monsoon Season, which generally does not mean rain - just 100 plus degrees with humidity. Toads have commandeered one of the Garden Kitties' water bowls as a swimming pool at night.

Anything going on in your garden?

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

ktinthegarden
at g mail dot com

Include your nic unless you just want to be a lurker.

Close it up

Thread before the Gardening Thread: Wonderland [KT]

—Open Blogger

It's Saturday, which I hope means that this is not a big news day. You may have noticed that I like to visit David Thompson's blog on days like this. There's a different pace there than here at AoSHQ. David often adds significantly to his posts from the comments, so I like to wait until his posts have aged a bit before reading them.

In the case of this post, he added the photo above in the comments. Plus a link about "life among the Mao-lings" at Concordia University:

For readers, Alice's journey in Wonderland is amusing. But to be Alice is something altogether different. The experience is hard to pin down with words. With few exceptions, no one on campus is officially censored. But the culture itself exerts power. One feels constantly judged. One is always on-edge. To perceive nuance, to be sceptical, to ask questions, gets one quickly accused of moral deficiency. . .

And links about a certain male feminist who wants to fix men - "the heterosexual white ones" and about "the inexplicable demise of an intersectionally feminist bookstore" where customers were expected to "abide by" seven "guidelines".

Have you been to a place that seemed like a wonderland to you lately?

Weird News Dump

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Good morning. Or at least 'mornin.

Let's take a look at a few things that didn't get too much attention here at the AoSHQ this past week.

Emergency EMT

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

I woke up Grumpy. I should have let her sleep in......................

Truncated ONT

—WeirdDave

I usually try to bring about 6-10 links, pics or assorted other content to an ONT. I've found that more than that and good stuff gets overlooked. Well lets see now. Ace did the Die Hard anniversary, he did the Jonathan Chait troll, he did the guy stuck in an escape room. STOP STEALING MY CONTENT BOSS! What's left? Maybe we'll just talk about the weather or something. Sure is hot in Texas, innit?

Nice Find

RARE COPY OF DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FOUND IN BRITISH ARCHIVES

Dating tests completed earlier in July finally confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that the Sussex Copy, as it has been dubbed, was produced some time in the 1780s, just a few years after the original declaration on July 4, 1776.

Although there are other printed and handwritten copies of the declaration, the Sussex copy “is the only other contemporary manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence on parchment apart from the signed copy at the National Archives in Washington DC,” the West Sussex County Council said in a statement.

Choo Choo MFer

World Cup

Why Do Americans Call It ‘Soccer’ Instead of ‘Football’?

I brought some of these facts to a snooty British bint who was snooting about the word soccer last week on Twitter. He sneered at me and said “I know all that bullshit, it doesn't matter, that's why nobody likes Americans”. I gave him my best O'Rourkean reply:

He snooted at that two. Hmm, maybe I should find the conversation and reply back “HA-HA! Croatia, bitch!”

Trolling for Clicks

Let's be honest, America: Dogs are parasites, not man's best friend

I read the clickbait article. It completely ignores that humans get as much from dogs as dogs get from us. The relationship is mutualistic, not parasitical. The whole article struck me as an attempt to force a mutually beneficial relationship into the victim/oppressor mold that is so prevalent on the left these days, a legacy of Marxist thought that has pervaded every aspect of what passes for "analysis" in the West.

Best Play by Play Ever

Language warning. pic.twitter.com/p3rGV1bIWG

— Yitz, Red, White, and Jew (@MeerkatYitz) July 13, 2018

Moron Birds

Drunk gulls found 'stinking of alcohol'

Related: OK, which one of you is this? Fess up. Naked Guy Chillin' at Busy South City Intersection Proves STL Is Buck Wild

This Photo Made Me Cry

Nurse captures heart-wrenching photo of parents comforting daughter as she dies of cancer

At the request of several people, I have changed the embed of the photo to a link. Click here.

May flights of angels sing you to your rest, little one.

Shithead

Remember last week when I posted an article about how Obama let Hamas run wild with his batshit insane version of “diplomacy”? Well, it looks like he shut down US operations against major drug smugglers too. It's going to take us a long, long time to fully recover from that cockholster, if we ever do.

Problematic

Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ and Hollywood’s Misunderstanding of Disability

Seems it's “ableism” to want to cure someone of a disability using “white science” or something. Somewhere in this chick's attic is a portrait that is smart as fuck.

Tonight's ONT brought to you by Daisy:

Close it up

Open Thread: Die Hard Turns 30

—Ace of Spades

Interesting piece about the novel Die Hard was based on. Nothing Lasts Forever was a sequel to The Detective, which itself was made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra as the titular detective.

The sequel was literally dreamed up when the writer fell asleep while watching the Towering Inferno. Sinatra was too old to reprise the role by then, so the name was changed from "John Leland" to "John McClane" and offered to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who turned it down.

A bit of trivia you probably already know: the scene where Hans, pretending to be "Bill Clay," meets John McClane wasn't in the original script. They only wrote that sequence after hearing Rickman's version of an American accent. And maybe after realizing that it's, what's the word, insane to never have the hero meet the villain face-to-face until the final confrontation.

I've seen them talk about Rickman's "American accent;" they claimed it was "great." I guess they mean it was hilariously bad? Seriously, he does not sound American at all. I guess it's funny but it kind of makes McClane look pretty dumb for even pretending along with this nonsense.

Regarding Die Hard With a Vengeance: You probably know this, but the reason the ending of that film was choppy and look like it was a rush-job filmed only an afterthought is because it was a rush-job filmed only as an afterthought. In the original version of the movie, "Simon" actually escapes after the cargo ship detonation. Only three years later would we see McClane finally track down Simon and confront him.

That original ending can be seen here.

It's not good. So both endings of that otherwise-good movie are bad.

One important legacy of Die Hard: A young British author was inspired by the sight of McClane's barefoot heroics to write his own story of barefoot heroics. That author? JRR Tolkien. "The Hobbit" was conceived as "Reverse Die Hard in a Mountain," another "siege" action-thriller, with the dwarven crew of thieves as the heroes and the dragon, a scaly Mr. Nakatomi trying to guard his loot, as the villain.

"The Hobbit" was also made into a movie, cashing in on the popularity of Die Hard.

Burglar Breaks Into Escape Room; Captured After He Can't Figure Out How to Escape

—Ace of Spades

Burglar breaks into escape room, can't figure out how to escape

Police in Washington say a man who broke into an "escape room" on Sunday damaged the room so badly that he couldn't escape.

Rye Wardlaw allegedly broke into Northwest Escape Experience, in Vancouver, Fox 12 reported, citing the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

An owner of the escape room -- a locked room full of puzzles and clues that participants must solve in order to escape --told the news station Wardlaw did so much damage to the business that he couldn't escape after breaking in.

"He apparently didn’t know how to use the lock on the front door and was stuck," Tamara Bertrand said.

From inside the room, Wardlaw reportedly called police and told officials he was calling from the escape room because his own home was being burglarized. While trying to escape, Wardlaw allegedly broke the backdoor handle before calling 911 several times.

Vancouver?

Canada's having a spate of robberies by fuckheaded criminals, aren't they?

Cucks: We Don't Like Trump Saying that Obama Let Putin Take Crimea. Only We're Allowed to Say Obama Let Putin Take Crimea

—Ace of Spades

If that tweet is a jumble, here's the cuck's tweet:

And here's the cuckling from February of this year:

This tweet from Donald Trump is inviting a lot of mockery this morning.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts. Total Fake News!

There's just one problem: Trump has a point.

Barack Obama sold out our Eastern European allies on missile defense. He slow-walked aid to Ukraine and did little more than shrug when Crimea was annexed. He said "never mind" on his own "red line" in Syria and turned a blind eye to Putin’s intervention there, in large part because of his obsessions with getting the Iran deal. The Russian meddling in our elections started on Obama’s watch -- and not just our elections but those of many of our allies. When Mitt Romney famously said Russia was our No. 1 geopolitical foe, Obama mocked him for it as did countless liberal journalists who are now converts to anti-Russia hawkery.

Here's the problem with Jonah Goldberg and why we've ejected him from the movement forever:

He never took a damn thing he's written seriously. It's all just a hustle, a paycheck. So it's very easy for him to forget things he's written before -- he didn't mean them when he wrote them, so it's easy enough to slough them off like a snake's old skin now.

At some point we all realized these people didn't mean a word they were saying at any time. And since they didn't give a shit about their #PaycheckConservative bullshit, we stopped giving a shit about it too.

I've heard stories from multiple sources about multiple NeverTrumpers. The highlight of these stories is that NeverTrumpers do believe the fantasy narrative they made up to comfort themselves. To wit:

Few in the GOP support the idea of Trumpism itself, that it's all a cult of personality centered around Trump. And therefore all you have to do as a NeverTrumper is denigrate Trump (and his supporters) or wait for Trump to implode. After that happens, the "spell" everyone is under is broken, and the cucks like Kristol, French, Hayes, and Goldberg, and Sasse and Kasich and Ryan, just get handed their party back.

This is delusional, of course.

First of all: Trump didn't convince us that these people were liberals and betrayers. We already believed that, based on years of grim evidence. We supported Trump because he declared what we already believed.

These people lie and lie and lie, never putting the majority of the base's concerns as any kind of priority, just paying lip service to those concerns as they ruthlessly sacrifice the base's actual primary concerns to secure their own primary concerns, or the concerns of their liberal friends and corporate donors.

We're tired of that. We don't want you any more. Whether it's Trump or whether it's a literal circus clown: We will take the literal circus clown over you.

We. Are. Done. With. You.

Forever.

There is no "spell" to break and there is no cult of personality. What there may be is an anti- Cult of Personality -- millions of Republicans united not in worship of someone but united in antipathy bordering on hatred for a group of charlatan liberals who've been sabotaging the alleged conservative movement for decades.

We're not coming back, and you're not coming back, either. This has little to do with Trump, except he was a self-financing option we could turn to in order to express our hatred.

Goodbye, chumps. You're liberals in fact; you might as well just make it official and get your party registration cards.

PS: The fact that you continue to tell yourselves fantastical fairy tales that a child wouldn't believe to comfort you like a woobie shows that you are not, in fact, Really Good at Politics as you endlessly claim on Twitter, and you are not, in fact, "elite" as far as cognitive ability.

You're dim and you believe in silly fictions instead of reality.

Go watch some soccer, Cosmopolitan "Conservatives."

Trump, Accurately, Says That the Clinton News Network Is Fake News; the Clinton News Network Reacts Predictably

—Ace of Spades

The media is once again insisting that you can't criticize them, for fear that your criticism of actual bias and unprofessionalism will have Vague Hypothetical Connections to Other Things:

Here's some of that Real CNN news everyone loves:

This is pretty funny:

Unrelated, but someone trolled Jonathan Chait (who just wrote up the laughable defense of Trump/Putin conspiracy theories) pretty nicely.

I guess this is like a sexual assault, by the pansy media's rules?

Max Boot: I've Decided to Become More Like a Stereotypical Liberal So I'm Into Soccer Now

—Ace of Spades

Like a teenager trying on new identities, seeing which one the Kewl Kidz like the best.

By learning to appreciate soccer, I have also learned to appreciate the limits of American exceptionalism. Yes, we are a great nation, but that doesn’t mean that it’s our way or the highway. In fact, we become even greater if we learn to treasure the customs and attitudes of other lands. I suppose, in the end, my change of heart about sports is related to my change of heart about politics. In both fields I eschew the Trump Doctrine: "We're America, b---." No, we’re part of the world.

I don't have anything against soccer. I do, however, have something against weaklings, weaklings who at late states of their lives must scramble to remake themselves into something more acceptable to their New Leftist Best Fwiends.

Waiting for Ace, Or Someone Like Him

—OregonMuse

This is pretty funny: "Let's go to a real network..."

Trump to CNN's Jim Acosta: "CNN is fake news. I don't take questions from CNN. CNN is fake news! I don't take questions from CNN. John Roberts of Fox. Lets go to a real network." pic.twitter.com/6cyRRuDyd7

— Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) July 13, 2018

The Morning Rant

—OregonMuse

"So the hard left, which is increasingly encompassing mainstream Democrats, now says it's OK to punch a Nazi. But that just raises the question, who's a Nazi? This a serious question. If they're going to be advocating violence, they'd better have the permissabilty to do so well defined. But of course, they don't. Ask them who a 'Nazi' is and the usual slurs come out: racist, bigot, homophobia, white supremacist, ad nauseum. So the more you argue about it with them, the more it comes down to is that a Nazi is anybody with whom the hard left disagrees. Because every disagreement is not because of honest policy differences, but because of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Yes, I know this is stupid. Yes, I know this won't end well for them if they continue down that path. But they don't see it, and the reason is because there used to be no downside to their provocations. Back in the day, if the progs called a conservative a racist, he would cower, try to explain that he wasn't a racist, and ask for forgiveness if he was a racist and didn't know it. But now, I think that's done. I think most normal Americans are tired of being called racists by the prog PC Gestapo and are simply ignoring them. The progs, starting to realize that their slurs and cuss words are all used up, are thinking, Gee, maybe we should be violent now. That'll show 'em. Again, if they go that route, it won't end well for them. But there appears to be nothing stopping them from goose-stepping into the abyss."

Attention Liberals & Progressives:

Winning:

No Doubt President Trump Is Shaking In His Boots:

They're So Brave:

Not shown: Lady McMullin, Lady Wilson, Lady Goldberg, Lady Stephens.

(h/t Evi L. Bloggerlady)

Can I Get a Witness?

"Look at those crazy googly eyes.
Could she be high on flakka?"

THEN WHERE WAS KNIFE?

Miami man with no arms charged with stabbing Chicago touristhttps://t.co/QwZtHrwkwE pic.twitter.com/vjOc1Ih6HM

— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) July 11, 2018

Feeling low? This Trump Shadenfreude list will cheer you right up.

Have a great weekend!

Close it up

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

An Experiment On A Bird In An Air Pump
Joseph Wright Of Derby

The Morning Report 7/13/18

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. The weekend is here and none too soon. It's also Friday the 13th so if you have triscuit-deco-phobia, stay away from 13-sided crackers (crazy-ass or otherwise). Obviously the big story in the lead was sleazy, traitorous ex-(or not?) FBI agent Peter Strzok's testimony before the House yesterday. With the boss' stellar coverage yesterday, assisted admirably by the wit and snark of the Horde, whatever needed to be said was said con gusto. Lots of links to sum it all up below. We all know the score here, and really what I have to say I don't think is going to add anything remarkably insightful or new (I think I just insulted myself). That said, Strzok's body language, comments and his facial expressions just spoke volumes about not only the kind of smug, loathsome, elitist, self-inflating ubermensch he thinks he is, but who the people who run our government, infect our body politic and control our media think they are as well. Despite the grilling that Strzok took from Gowdy, Goodlatte and Gohmert - who should be the Attorney General and as such do to the DoJ what Pruitt did with the EPA - he knows he's not going to face any recriminations whatsoever. Someone here please tell me that I'm dead wrong but I bet by the time the NOOD gets posted, there will be no comments forthcoming. And that explains why he acted, strutted, preened and postured the way that he did.

And then there's the Democrats. Ah yes, the loyal opposition (*pukes*) who regard the Constitution as an obstacle or a shield depending upon the direction of the rhetorical and legislative (or otherwise) artillery flying around, and would do away with the electoral process altogether, followed shortly thereafter by a sizable number of the populace as Billy Ayers once fantasized. It was a truly disgusting display, the highlights, or more accurately lowlights of which, included some shrieking dolt from New Jersey comparing the hearings to Benghazi, to Sheila Jackass-Lee claiming Strzok and the FBI had attorney client privilege to the low point of Steve Cohen proclaiming he'd give Strzok a Purple Heart for what he had to endure. Are you f***ing kidding me, Cohen?! As someone who is, as I type this, within arm's length of an actual purple heart earned by an uncle the hard way, getting killed in action, I can honestly say that that remark will not play well in Peoria to say the least. You can guess my own thoughts about my fists and his whore-mouth.

As horrible as they were, and worse, the notion as I stated that Strzok and his ilk will doubtless not only go unpunished but will be feted in all the finest salons of the Left and get book deals, speaking gigs and their own shows on MSLSD and the Airport Radar Channel (aka CNN), there is good news. Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Glenn Simpson, Rod Rosensmegma, et al would be unknown and all of this buried forever were it not for one thing: the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States. Many here are jaded and skeptical that most people, save for political junkies and others are really aware of all of this. But PDT has made people aware of it in his own inimitable style. Add this shameful, disgusting, amateurish kindergarten temper tantrum to the Abolish ICE theatrics, the PussyHat resistance garbage and the confrontations with political leaders and ordinary citizens, and the Democrat-Left is going full speed over a cliff.

I think we are in the midst of a political and cultural sea-change gradually building before our eyes. Kanye West, #WalkAway, the rallies, the great economic news, the scorn of the media, the total exposure of the cuck-con-con artists, PDT's incredibly good polling numbers despite the propaganda war against him, etc. etc. and so many other things we see day by day, taken in toto, are not merely anecdotal or one-offs. Circling back, yes it would be eminently satisfying and just to see all these traitors tried, convicted and thrown into PITA Federal lockup for 50 years. But I'm satisfied that the guy I voted for only to prevent Hillary Clinton from being President has, in 18 short months, opened a lot of peoples eyes and set a match to the Leftist machine. And they are obliging by every day dousing themselves in gasoline. Stay tuned for Gun-Moll Gummy Boo-Boo later this morning. The Feminazis should be all over this one.

Moving along, McCarthy and Ryno for once have outmaneuvered the Dems and will put a Dem sponsored Abolish Ice bill up for a floor vote. Of course, the three Dems who sponsored it will vote no. Despite the proclamations from the Media and Eurabians to the contrary, the President masterfully handled our freeloading NATO allies who have cried uncle and will fork over do-re-mi to pay their fair share, some concern about the NorK negotiations, and Secretariat Kerry and Handsy Bidet hated that Russia-Germany pipeline but that was before PDT hated it too. As for Cory Gardner, yes all things considered Russia is a bad actor. But saying they should be put on the list of state sponsors of terrorism is probably not a wise move at this time, given the politicization of "muh kolluzhnikovs" and the fact that they're a nuclear power. Sheesh.

Politically, CNN is pimping Maxine Waters to run for president in 2020, Democrat-Socialite Loopy Velez is crying foul about Joe Crowley, Andrew Cuomo faces even more corruption allegations that he can sue SCOTUS over and Pelosi's challenger to her minority job is not going to go quietly.

On the gun front, California foul-up with registration could mean gun owners are at risk of being arrested and the Annapolis newspaper shooting is gone-goodbye from the headlines. Hmmm. We've got a number of good essays on "progressivism" (so-called) across couple of categories, Clock-Boy got his clock cleaned, Ohio is going to see a massive $2 billion Stormy Daniels theme park (Gropey-Land! Kidding). Don't walk under any black cats today.

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

IN THE LEAD: STRZOK MAGIC SHOW

Racist ONT

—WeirdDave

That's right, y'all, walking is racist, and since I walked over to the computer to write it, I guess that makes the ONT racist too.

I Wonder if They Cover “Racist”?

The Curious Origins of 16 Common Phrases

Not for the Faint of Heart

IF THIS WASP STINGS YOU, 'JUST LIE DOWN AND START SCREAMING'

JUSTIN SCHMIDT IS an entomologist, and has accordingly been stung by a lot of bugs. So he invented something called the Schmidt sting pain index (named after some guy called Schmidt, apparently), which ranks the pain of insect stings from one to four. Down at one is something like the fire ant, which is so named for a reason, while up at four is the bullet ant, which is so called for a very, very good reason.

Joining the bullet ant at four is a critter that lives right here in the southwestern US: the tarantula hawk. It’s actually a kind of solitary wasp with a sting whose resulting pain only lasts three minutes, but it’s so fiercely electric that it could only be described as totally unacceptable. "There are some vivid descriptions of people getting stung by these things,” says invertebrate biologist Ben Hutchins of Texas Parks and Wildlife, “and their recommendation—and this was actually in a peer-reviewed journal—was to just lie down and start screaming, because few if any people could maintain verbal and physical coordination after getting stung by one of these things. You're likely to just run off and hurt yourself. So just lie down and start yelling."

Read the entire horrifying thing. Next time a woman tells you she doesn't need a man, show her a tarantula hawk.

Related: The Thailand Cave Rescue Shows Why Men Are Necessary

Related to the related: Here is an excellent interactive timeline recounting the rescue. And let's not forget the toxic masculinity of Petty Officer 1st Class Saman Kunam, retired Thai SEAL who gave his life to rescue those kids. His praises are being sung in Valhalla as we speak. “Greater love has no man than this”.

(To understand this cartoon, you need to know that the soccer team rescued were called the 'Wild Boars')

Please join me in a moment of silence for this brave man.

Rest in Peace, Warrior. Amen.

Speaking of “Warriors”

Less than a third of German military assets are operational says report

>Number of weapon systems ready for action:
Typhoon jets: 39 of 128
Tornado jets: 26 of 93
CH-53 transport helicopters: 16 of 72
NH-90 transport helicopters: 13 of 58
Tigre attack helicopters: 12 of 62
A400M transport aircraft: 3 of 15
Leopard 2 tanks: 105 of 224
Frigates: 5 of 13
Submarines: 0 out of 6

That's the entire Bundeswehr. Nobody else in (western) Europe is doing much better. Compare that to the TOE for a single US Mechanized Infantry Division. Throw in a little air cover from the zoomies, and the US Division would mop the floor with the entire Bundeswehr. And the US Army has 20 divisions, give or take, about half of them active. No wonder NATO is squealing like a stuck pig at Trump's demands that they pull their weight. I get that we're going to be the 800lb elephant in the war room, but I don't think it's asking too much for NATO to be a pack of wolves at our side, do you?

Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation

New Jersey Man Finds Wife, Mechanic Lover, Dead in Garage From Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Well, on the bright side, he must have been a good mechanic, he obviously got the car running. And it really is nice to see a woman who knows how to handle a stick. I wonder though, did the CO get them both simultaneously? Because if not....ew.

The article doesn't say what kind of car it was, but I think the husband who found them drove a Plymouth. It says that he left the garage in a Fury.

Which makes for a nice segue to.....

4-CHAN THEATRE!

So much to unpack there. I'll just throw it to the Horde. Thoughts?

More Proof That Progs are Really Just Children

Starbucks to Eliminate Plastic Straws Globally by 2020

Read the article and you'll see that to combat the nonexistent environmental threat from, um, straws, Starbucks will be introducing the....sippy cup. For adults. I'm NOT kidding about that. Next time you order a coffee from Starbucks, it might be served in your very own sippy cup. Stay tuned to see if they introduce bibs to cut down of laundry pollution.

Tonight's ONT brought to you by job opportunities:

Close it up

Washington Post, Hit Piece 1: Kavanaugh Is So Poor His Debts Exceed His Savings!
Washington Post Hit Piece 2: "The Elite World of Brett Kavanaugh"

—Ace of Spades

Two, two, two dying newspapers in one!!!

Hit Piece One: LOL, Brett Kavanaugh can't manage his paltry finances and sometimes gets short on money!!!

The Washington Post breathlessly reported this major news:

White House spokesman Raj Shah told The Washington Post that Kavanaugh built up the debt by buying Washington Nationals season tickets and tickets for playoff games for himself and a "handful" of friends. Shah said some of the debts were also for home improvements.

In 2016, Kavanaugh reported having between $60,000 and $200,000 in debt accrued over three credit cards and a loan. Each credit card held between $15,000 and $50,000 in debt, and a Thrift Savings Plan loan was between $15,000 and $50,000.

The credit card debts and loan were either paid off or fell below the reporting requirements in 2017, according to the filings, which do not require details on the nature or source of such payments. Shah told The Post that Kavanaugh's friends reimbursed him for their share of the baseball tickets and that the judge has since stopped purchasing the season tickets.

So he ran up, briefly, a bunch of credit card debt buying season tickets on behalf of friends and then had most of that debt paid off when his friends paid him back.

Wow.

But what can you expect when you're living in, as another Washington Post article has it, The Elite World of Brett Kavanaugh.

If they only knew how elite -- look at Brett Kavanaugh getting off as he lords it over the homeless, showing off all the food he has!

Round Up of Strzok's Testimony, and Reactions

—Ace of Spades

Louie Gohmert's questioning, accusing Strzok of lying, and wondering if Strzok also gave the same smirk to his wife as he lied to her.

Trey Gowdy keeps asking Strzok how many subject he had interviewed before he swore to his luvvah that he would get Trump impeached, and Strzok keeps refusing to answer, claiming the FBI has forbidden the answer.

In the second panel I think the FBI gave him the go-ahead to answer, and I think the answer was, as you would guess, "Zero witnesses." Zero witnesses interviewed before deciding impeachment was the end-game.

Strzok refused to answer who he was referring to when he wrote an email about "the dossier" he had received from "Corn and Simpson."

He also wouldn't say whether he had spoken to Nellie Ohr-- who worked for Fusion GPS.

Strzok declared that even asking him about his bias "is just another victory notch in Putin's belt and another milestone in our enemies' campaign to tear American apart."

I wonder if he used that line when his wife asked him where he was last night. "Your questioning my whereabouts last night," I imagine him thundering, "is exactly what Vladimir Putin wants, Traitor."

Here's a half-hour of Democrats attempting to shut the hearings down with one objection and point of order and parliamentary inquiry and motion to MoveOn.org after another, if you can bear it.

"What does Trump support SMELL like?"

Here's a tart exchange in which the arrogant, smirking Peter Strzok, who does not like you questioning his authority, fedsplains that he was not fired from the Mueller probe for bias, but just the appearance of bias.

A Democrat wanted to award Peter Strzok a Purple Heart for braving a barrage of... questions.

Even Wolf Blitzer, who is stupid, and his stupid CNN mouth-breathers pronounced Strzok's texts "so damning" and did not seem reassured by Strzok's preposterous denials of bias.

Business Insider Writer Censored For Saying That a Female Actress Should Be Allowed to Play Another Woman (Herself Pretending to be a Man) Resigns In Protest

—Ace of Spades

Just because Scarlett Johanson's a woman does not mean she is permitted to play female characters.

In more SJW news: The chairman of Papa John's pizza -- Papa John himself -- was forced to resign. He's still being beaten up for saying the NFL protests led to a downturn in his own business, which apparently is being treated as a RaceCrime in itself.

He was on a conference call about how to avoid being destroyed by Social Justice Warriors and would up, get this, being destroyed by Social Justice Warriors.

On the May call, Schnatter was asked how he would distance himself from racist groups online. He responded by downplaying the significance of his NFL statement. "Colonel Sanders called blacks n-----s," Schnatter said, before complaining that Sanders never faced public backlash.

Schnatter also reflected on his early life in Indiana, where, he said, people used to drag African-Americans from trucks until they died. He apparently intended for the remarks to convey his antipathy to racism, but multiple individuals on the call found them to be offensive, a source familiar with the matter said. After learning about the incident, Laundry Service owner Casey Wasserman moved to terminate the company's contract with Papa John's.

In an emailed statement on Wednesday afternoon, Schnatter confirmed the allegations. "News reports attributing the use of inappropriate and hurtful language to me during a media training session regarding race are true," he said. "Regardless of the context, I apologize. Simply stated, racism has no place in our society."

Even though he was not using the word from his own lips, but rather saying what Colonel Sanders had done (without pushback), a Social Justice Warrior got offended and leaked a recording of the conversation, and now he's out as chairman of his own company.

Never, never hire a Social Justice Warrior. They are hate machines who will destroy any venture because they get off on that. They're never in the business of whatever business is stupid enough to pay them to "work;" they're only in the business of hyperpoliticization, sowing division, and destroying the work of others.

Also, don't hire a PR firm which might contains SJWs to advise you how to avoid being destroyed by SJWs.

And one more SJW outrage: Actor Henry Cavill said, in the wake of #MeToo, he's more circumspect around women and doesn't "woo and chase" them any longer, for fear of being called "a rapist."

"It's very difficult to do that if there are certain rules in place," Cavill said. “Because then it’s like: 'Well, I don’t want to go up and talk to her, because I'm going to be called a rapist or something.'"

He further commented on how "the chase" is no longer allowed in dating.

"Now? Now you really can't pursue someone further than, 'No'. It's like, 'OK, cool,'" he said. "But then there’s the, 'Oh why’d you give up?' And it’s like, 'Well, because I didn't want to go to jail?'"

Which caused the SJWs to promptly call him pretty much a rapist.

Which is exactly how you disprove the charge that you're just looking for a chance to call someone, anyone a rapist. Calling them a near-rapist for saying they don't want to be called a rapist.

Oh, and in some good SJW News: Joy Reid has had a ratings plunge from "almost no ratings" to "even more almost no ratings" due to her old posts about her previous positions on homosexuality and illegal aliens. Also known as "Hillary Clinton's former official positions on homosexuality and illegal aliens circa 2010."

Boy those #Hackers sure got her, huh?

Pornographic Performer and Claimed Adulteress Stormy Daniels Arrested For Lewd Contact with Paying Patrons at Ohio Strip Club

—Ace of Spades

Hoo-er.

The charges have now been dismissed, because the law against strippers touching paying customers (that is, kinda-sorta trading sexual contact for money) only applies to those who "regularly" appear at the venue, not those who parachute in for quick bump-and-rubs like Stormy.

So she committed the lewd contacts for money, but she got off on a technicality.

Well not a technicality, really; it's what the law says.

But it seems like poor draftsmanship. Why would you make an exception for nude performers touching paying customers just because they only show up at your strip club occasionally?

Two, Two, Two Cucks In One

—Ace of Spades

Nepot Jon Podhoretz (a lot of these guys are entitled trust-fund nepots, aren't they? Never hired-- only sired) was aghast that Louie Gohmert asked if, given Peter Strzok's serial dishonesty with his wife, he could be trusted in his testimony:

However, just five minutes later, this waste of Huttspace was eager to smear Jim Jordan with a wrestling "coach" joke:

It's interesting to note for which people (those on the leftwing side) their exquisite sense of Propriety and Decency kicks in and spurs them into righteous indignation and vigorous defense, compared to the deplorables for whom there's no such thing as a low blow.

They're not #Principled -- they're just on the other side.

Ahoy From Bill Kristol, Captain of the Cruise of the Concerned

—Ace of Spades

Cap'n Bill is really fighting to "save" the GOP, but he might just have to sacrifice the House to do so:

All hail the Deep State:

Also, Cap'n Bill thinks that anyone bringing up the involvement of Hillary's private prosecutorial service Perkins Coie in the Jim Jordan investigation/smear must be a con man or something.

How are the TruCons gaseous releases any different than those from their overt, admitted Democrat-partisan allies?

Democrats Turn Strzok Hearing Into a Monkey Poo Fight

—Ace of Spades

If you're watching, you know it's hard to watch.

It began with Peter Strzok reading a prepared statement in which he claimed he totally, completely wasn't biased at all, and certain reporters were moist at his honeyed words:

Ken Dilanian, hinted by William Browder to be a primary cog in Fusion GPS' political spin operations, was effusive:

The media was cheering almost as hard as their Democrat counterparts actually in Congress:

When questioning began, it was immediately halted by an hour or more of endless Democrat objections and points of order that weren't points of order and interruptions to make non-germane motions, such as demanding that Steve Bannon be re-subpoenaed. The Democrats spent a lot of time trying to stop any questioning of the man they claim has nothing to hide:

Once the antifa-style disruptions ended, Peter Strzok began contradicting himself.

First he asserted again that he did not remember writing the "We'll stop it" text, then he offered up specific details about why he wrote it.

His memory seems to toggle ON and OFF depending on his needs at any particular moment:

He then contradicted himself some more:

Then he claimed when he said he could "SMELL" the Trump support in a Wal*Mart he didn't really mean "smell." He also said he had nothing against the SMELLY Wal*Mart people. It was all just a friendly intercounty rivalry.

And the county that Strzok found so hillbilly-SMELLY turns out to have voted for Hillary by big margins -- but apparently not big enough for the unbiased Strzok:

He continues insisting he has no bias at all:

All that said: Republican questioning is ineffectual and keeps pushing on irrelevancies and silly points, like Gowdy taking four minutes to parse Strzok's text that Hillary should win by 100 million to zero. Gowdy really drilled down into those numbers, for some reason.

No one has asked yet about the IG's findings that Strzok's (and the rest of the gang's) answers as to why they didn't seek Anthony Weiner's laptop emails sooner were gibberish, nonsensical, and did not persuade the IG that there was not bias involved in the decision.

My problem is that a lot of questions (especially duplicative questions about Trump voters "SMELLing") seem to be designed to convince the public that Strzok is a bad guy, rather than questions designed to commit him to a specific factual claim that can be proven or disproven and thereby expose him to legal jeopardy.

Since then, however, Representative Ratcliffe had more interesting questions, causing Strzok to claim a fresh loss of memory:

Meanwhile, the Cucks are cuckening:

This Vox reporter sure liked David French's tweet (and Pastor AllahPundit's retweet of it).

Though they all seem to think it's natural and right that Strzok should have a low opinion of "the people he's investigating," they don't seem to remember that Strzok was also investigating Hillary Clinton and her gang, and yet seemed to hold Hillary Clinton and her confederates in a high level of esteem.

Gee I wonder why. And I wonder why they forgot that, despite also (supposedly) investigating Hillary Clinton, Peter Strzok was very fond of her, and imagined she should win the election "100 million [votes] to zero."

If they're claiming that a prosecutor is unavoidably disgusted by the person he's investigating, I'd like these TrueCons to explain how Strzok managed to so beautifully avoid it in Hillary Clinton's case.

Or -- wait. Do they think the Hillary Clinton email thing is just a trumped-up Hobbit Conspiracy Theory as their liberal pals and newfound fans do?

I guess "Owning the Cons" is the only important thing to them now.

#ImWithHerForever.

Because Strzok has refused to answer any question which he claims is about an ongoing investigation -- including simple stuff like "how many people did you interview before declaring Trump must be stopped?" -- despite having no legal basis to do so, Goodlatte says he'll be recalled to face a contempt charge.

Take This Bridge To The Content...

—CBD

Our esteemed host may or may not arise at his usual hour, so in the meantime:

When unions get higher wages for their members by restricting entry into an occupation, those higher wages are at the expense of other workers who find their opportunities reduced. When government pays its employees higher wages, those higher wages are at the expense of the taxpayer. But when workers get higher wages and better working conditions through the free market, when they get raises by firm competing with one another for the best workers, by workers competing with one another for the best jobs, those higher wages are at nobody's expense. They can only come from higher productivity, greater capital investment, more widely diffused skills. The whole pie is bigger - there's more for the worker, but there's also more for the employer, the investor, the consumer, and even the tax collector.

That's the way the free market system distributes the fruits of economic progress among all people. That's the secret of the enormous improvements in the conditions of the working person over the past two centuries.

The Morning Rant: J.V. Edition

—CBD

Maybe that's the real difference between conservatives and these miserable pricks (aside from stupidity)...they just don't know how to appreciate the world. Well that, and they dress like assholes and smell like patchouli.

Feminist scholar slams hot-wing-eating show for 'inequitable gender hierarchies'

The professor of media studies apparently sees toxic masculinity at work in the popular YouTube show Hot Ones, whose host and celebrity guest each eat a plate of hot wings “dressed with hot sauces of increasing intensity.”

Her research “examines how media representations of food, cooking, and dieting construct and negotiate masculinities in our current historical moment,” and Contois’s paper in Feminist Media Studies sees dark forces at work in the three-year-old web series produced by First We Feast:

In all that time, only eleven women had been solo guests on the show, a stark underrepresentation that piqued my academic interest. … My analysis of Hot Ones informs feminist media studies, as it reveals how this YouTube show creates, maintains, and manipulates inequitable gender hierarchies through the interrelated performances of gender, food consumption, and celebrity.

Lighten up Emily. Go have a few beers and get laid. You might like it and you will certainly be more relaxed.

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

Lord Ribblesdale
John Singer Sargent

The Morning Report 7/12/18

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. Lots of stuff to cover so let's get to it. While the Brett Kavanaugh nomination is obviously still at the top, the actual storylines surrounding it are as old as the stains on Hillary's Watergate-era 18 Hour Girdle. Once again, bereft of any legitimate concern or criticisms of Brett Kavanaugh, the Democrat-Left Media complex is once again resorting to smear tactics including the race and gender card, the sexism/misogyny card, the frat boy cruelty card and now... the credit card. Yes, gentle reader, Brett Kavanaugh, a federal-level judge who has a stellar record of jurisprudence is completely unfit for service as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States because he once had credit card debt and paid it off. That big reveal by the way comes from the National Laughingstock, aka Washington Post. There's nothing more to add to this. The age of Trump, along with a so far free and vast internet and talk radio, means that the Media/Propagandists of old have lost complete control of shaping public opinion and so can only respond reflexively, as they have always done. Only this time, significantly more people are on to the game, whether they know it or not. PDT, whose attacks on the Media and other sacred cows have caused "the smart set" elite to recoil in horror, has destroyed their undeserved credibility, such as it was, and the illusion of a free and independent press. And right along with it, Leftwing politics and the illusion of Democrat Party fairness, equality, justice and looking out for the little guy has gone right down the shitter with it. I'll circle back to this later.

Moving on to Spygate and the Mueller Witch Hunt, Peter Strzok is set to testify to Congress today, despite "Gun-Moll-Gummy Boo-Boo" Page's blowing off a Congressional subpoena yesterday. Given the arrogant disregard these two tits and their overlords have for the rule of law, I don't expect Strzok to plead the Fifth; I expect him to lie through his teeth safe in the knowledge that, effectively, he faces no real recriminations for doing so. Yesterday, Rep Lee Zeldin Tweeted out his revulsion at Page and his desire to see her cuffed and dragged in front of the committee if need be. In any case, I suppose like the exposure of the Media by PDT, even if the players involved face no real punishment, this entire thing is a lesson and wakeup call to a great many Americans, even some of us right here who never in their wildest nightmares could imagine law enforcement and intelligence operatives behaving in such brazen, clearly dangerous ways. A blessing in its own way, although rotting in prison would be eminently more satisfying, not to mention just. Aside from that, the smear campaign against crusader Jim Jordan seems to be falling apart; the main accuser, judging by the links, is turning out to be a real piece of work. In other words, typical Leftist.

Moving along let's start with Amnesty/Immigration news. Bill DeBolshevik evidently crossed the border illegally whilst whoring for the media in Texas. Meanwhile New York City is overrun with derelicts, scumbags and vermin - mostly registered Democrats, the Columbia and NYU professoriate and attendees of Anna Wintour fundraisers, but I digress. Despite the insane calls to abolish ICE (and thereby America as founded - see the link), there is growing pushback; Rep Diane Black from Tennessee has introduced a zero tolerance bill against illegals and those who employ them, a petition drive has shockingly made it on the ballot in of all places Oregon to abolish that state's sanctuary status, Sally Yates, who is another one who should be in Leavenworth for the rest of her days, is a warped slag, and the new rules about asylum seekers could really help cut off the invasion.

On to the political scene where even the Leftist pollsters can't seem to fake the numbers, which all point to a less than stellar performance for the Democrats in November. Nice to see, but still, polls are polls and meant to shape public opinion, not reflect it. Beat-Off O'Rourke flew out to LA again to fundraise for his Texas Senate campaign against Ted Cruz. Can you say "Wendy Davis?" Meh, another illustration of why we need to repeal the 17th Amendment. Nevada Dem Senate Candidate Jacky Rosen, who has been boasting about her acumen and record as a small business owner has a tiny problem - no one can find any record at all of her business. And wicked-smart Andrew Cuomo promises to sue if SCOTUS strikes down Roe v Wade. That sound you just heard is Chis Cuomo emitting a Nelson Muntz laugh. And in all seriousness, Rush yesterday made a prediction that ties much of this together. Given the nature of the courts and the bureaucracy, in that the courts make permanent the unconstitutional diktats of the Federal bureaucracy and other institutions (Planned Parenthood, ACLU, etc.), if they ever lose that, they lose virtually all their real political power. And that is because of not only the Constitution, which Katy Tur(d) claims is outdated, but the electoral process itself which cannot be relied upon to guarantee Leftists victory every 2-4 years. So Rush predicts that eventually, along with ICE and the Constitution, the Left will eventually call for an end to elections. Maybe Andrew Cuomo will push for having a vote on that.

On the international scene, the President put NATO in its place, called out Merkwuridge Merkel for being a Russky stooge with a secret gas pipeline deal, Britain's Brexit debacle and political crisis and Michael Ledeen on Trump's opportunity to bring down the Mullahs.

Closer to home, Fake Flake cries uncle on PDT's nominees, tax revenues are up thanks to the PDT's tax cut riding the Laffer Curve, Stockton, California is going to guarantee income for all, the TSA means "tits, scrotums of adolescents," and the Janus ruling might become the first huge blow to break up big education's Brainwashing Inc. Please G-d.

In Red-Green Climate Scam news, the acting head of the EPA is even more determined to break up the agency than Scott Pruitt, CO2 plant food levels are down yet no cheering from the Red-Greenies, and the Chi-Coms aren't buying into the recycling scam.

From hither and yon, U Kansas takes down the defaced Colors and NBA star Draymond Green gets a bite of a reality sammich for defying the Left and visiting the evil Jooz in Israel. Did they teach him the cloud-sucking trick?

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

BRETT KAVANAUGH SCOTUS CONFIRMATION

Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (7/11/18 ) Really Open Thread Edition

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

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John Muir

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The ONT Musical Interlude

July 11, 1992, A range of eight 'ties', designed by Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead went on sale in the US. President Bill Clinton bought a set. The collection grossed millions in the US by the end of the year. Tie Pin Station

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July 11, 2014, Producer and drummer Tommy Ramone (Thomas Erdelyi), from the influential punk rock band the Ramones died aged 65 following unsuccessful treatment for bile duct cancer. He was the last surviving original member of the Ramones before his death. Erdelyi was also an assistant engineer for the production of the Jimi Hendrix album Band of Gypsys. via thisdayinmusic.com

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Well this certainly was awkward. Genius Award Winners, RIP.

A man returned to his New Jersey home Monday night to find both his wife and her lover dead in the garage, after the pair apparently died of carbon monoxide poisoning while having sex, law enforcement sources tell NBC 4 New York.

The 39-year-old woman and her 56-year-old lover — who sources believe was her mechanic — were discovered just before 9 p.m. Monday at a house in Newark.

Must have been a better lover than a mechanic. Just thinkin' out loud.

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Democracy Dies in Doltishness: Washington Post Quotes Onion Parody Site "The Clickhole" In, Get This, Anti-Trump Article

—Ace of Spades

In an article about some British people trying to make Green Day's 2004 release "American Idiot" chart again to sync with Trump's trip, the Washington Post quoted from a Clickhole article "written by" Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, confessing the song had been about George Bush.

If the clickbait retard writing this article wasn't a clickbait retard, she'd've realized that The Clickhole is a parody site and this article is obviously a parody. Everyone knew "American Idiot" was about George Bush, as you'd expect from a poppy fake punk band.

Enough Time Has Passed To Reveal George W. Bush Was The ‘American Idiot’ (By Billie Joe Armstrong)

Billie Joe Armstrong - Musician
2/28/17 12:09pm

When my band Green Day released our album American Idiot almost 13 years ago, we knew we were lobbing a grenade into the lap of the culture. With the fallout from 9/11 and the Iraq War revealing deep divisions in American society, our confrontational lyrics and attitude clearly touched a nerve, if our 15 million records sold are any indication. But now that enough time has passed to let the dust and controversy settle, I finally feel comfortable revealing that the "American Idiot" I sang about was none other than President George W. Bush.

Don’t believe me? Go take a listen to “American Idiot” with this new info in mind, and I think you’ll find it all starts to finally click.

I like to think that the song, and the album as a whole, takes on new meaning with that final piece in place. When I sang, "Information age of hysteria / It's calling out to idiot America," I wasn’t just calling out America in general--I was calling out President Bush's America. The "alien nation, where everything isn't meant to be okay" wasn’t just some frightening hypothetical: It was our own country! And when I sang, "'Sieg heil' to the president gas man" on "Holiday" later in the album, keen-eared listeners might rightly suspect that I was once again referring to George Bush. Not very kindly, I might add!

As BEN ROTHLISBURGER might say, IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE HE SAYS HE'S REVEALING A 13 YEAR OLD SECRET WHICH WAS NEVER A SECRET!!!

Yeah, the "'Sieg Heil' to the president gas man" might have been a teeny tiny little clue that this was about Bush.

But the Washington Post, being written by a bunch of young idiots and edited by a bunch of middle age idiots, thought this was real, and cited it for yet another clickbait #Resist article.