The Games We Used to Play Open Thread
—Ace
So I did this post as an open thread for Christmas, but then didn't like the reduction of the holiday to its commercialized aspect.
But I think it's okay if I post it on Christmas Eve, maybe?
"For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself." -- A Christmas Carol
Does that cover me?
Board games of the 70s, including the one where you have to escape from the sinking Titanic. I have it cued up to that one but feel free to check out the others.
Stay Alive -- the survival game. I never understood the appeal of this one.
Mousetrap. I tried to make the trap work -- I didn't bother playing, just assembling the trap -- and I was disappointed. I don't remember making the Rube Goldberg contraption actually work.
The classic -- ? -- Connect Four commercial.
Bermuda Triangle game commercial. A how-to-play for Bermuda Triangle.
Merlin commercial one. Merlin commercial Two. This song continues as an earworm in my head.
Simon in the 70s, with Vincent Price as the pitchman. Simon in the 80s and the 90s. You can tell it's the 90s because now Simon is RADICAL!
Stop Thief!, after the end of a Norelco commercial.
And of course: Mattel's handheld electronic games, including football.
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Over 100 Minnesota Mayors Declare That Tim Walz Has Bankrupted the State With Unchecked Fraud and Rampant Spending;
Tim Walz Blames "White Supremacy"
—Ace
The article says 98 mayors signed up to this letter, but now more than 100 have signed it.
Fox News @FoxNewsCITIES REVOLT: A group of 98 Minnesota mayors warned Gov. Tim Walz and state lawmakers that fiscal mismanagement, fraud and unchecked spending are straining city budgets and forcing higher property taxes.
In a letter, the mayors cited the loss of an $18 billion surplus, a projected multibillion-dollar deficit and unfunded state mandates they say are cutting services and pushing costs onto residents and businesses.
Apparently an organization exposed a sudden surge in the school lunch program, suspecting phantom students and, yes, fraud. So then their offices were firebombed.
Coincidence? We'll see but I doubt it.
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By 6-3 Vote, Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling That Trump Cannot Send the National Guard to Illinois to Protect Federal Agents and Offices
—Ace
Per the Supreme Court, violent anarchists can continue attacking federal agents and ICE offices with the sanction of the state and city governments, and Trump isn't allowed to use the National Guard to protect them.
Note the Guard wouldn't be used to make arrests or anything. He just wanted them to protect federal personnel and assets under attack by leftist street militias operating with the implicit sanction of Pritzker and Brandon Johnson.
And the Supreme Court said: No, you cannot protect federal employees from paramilitary assaults.
We'll keep that in mind next time Trantifa tries to kill judges.
Note that Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with the far left wing. As usual.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked President Trump from federalizing and deploying Illinois National Guard troops to Chicago, dealing a setback to the administration's effort to bolster security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating amid violent unrest in the sanctuary city. In a 6--3 decision, the Court declined to lift a lower-court order that had stopped Trump from sending roughly 300 Guardsmen to assist ICE as agents faced repeated attacks near an enforcement facility outside the city. The dispute traces back to October, when Trump moved to federalize the Guard after rioters descended on an ICE site in Broadview, Illinois, chanting "Kill ICE!" and "Shoot ICE!" and confronting officers. A Biden-appointed federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit refused to pause--prompting the administration to seek emergency relief from the high court.In its unsigned order, the Court said the government failed, at this early stage, to identify clear statutory authority allowing the military to "execute the laws" in Illinois.
The Supreme Court claimed that using the Guard to protect the physical safety of ICE officers executing the law was not part of "executing the law" in itself. This is an absurdly strained and lawless twisting of words to get the outcome that Roberts and Coney-Barrett wanted.
Again, we'll see what happens when these people threaten to kill them. I say, well, yo know what, we're not allowed to send in the National Guard to execute the law so I guess you'll just have to stock up on ammunition.
The majority emphasized that the administration had not invoked an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act and instead relied on claims of inherent constitutional authority to protect federal personnel and property--an argument the Court found insufficient on the present record. The application for a stay was denied, leaving the lower-court block in place. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the order, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a concurring opinion. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.Alito's dissent cut sharply against the majority, warning that the Court was standing in the way of basic protection for federal officers under threat. "Whatever one may think about the current administration's enforcement of the immigration laws or the way ICE has conducted its operations, the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted," he wrote.
Kavanaugh concurred with the ruling. He allows that Trump may send in the military itself -- not the state National Guard, but the actual Army and Marines -- if he invokes the Insurrection Act.
But don't think that this fixes the problem. He's just one vote. Even if Trump does this and Kavanaugh blesses it, it would still be 5-4 against protecting federal agents from attacks by Antifa, with Roberts and Coney Barrett joining their leftwing allies again.
Clandestine
@WarClandestine
Holy shit I think it’s actually happening.I am reading through the Supreme Court ruling in Trump vs. Illinois, and they ruled that Trump needs to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to send the troops into Chicago.
Kavanaugh in his dissent even says that this ruling "could cause the President to use the US military more than the National Guard".
The Supreme Court just admitted that Trump has the authority to invoke the Insurrection Act to bypass Posse Comitatus and send the troops to Chicago, and any other city he wants.
Trump tried to exhaust every legal avenue possible before resulting to the Insurrection Act, but the Dems resisted and refused to cooperate.
Sounds to me like Trump just got the green light. INVOKE THE INSURRECTION ACT!
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Trump Begins Sanctioning EU Officials For Attempting to Impose Communist/Sharia-Compliant Censorship on Americans
—Ace
The EU believes it can sanction everyone in the world -- but may not be sanctioned themselves.
Their beliefs are gay and retarded.
Lenka White @white_lenka17h
🇺🇸 🇪🇺 US sanctions Europe for censoring Americans.
EU's @ThierryBreton, behind the Digital Services Act, is sanctioned for threatening @elonmusk before his interview with President Trump.
"Before the interview, Breton ominously reminded Musk of @X
's legal obligations and ongoing "formal proceedings" for alleged noncompliance with "illegal content" and "disinformation" requirements under the DSA," Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers wrote.Others on the sanctions list:
-Imran Ahmed, Center for Countering Digital Hate
-Clare Melford, Global Disinformation Index
-Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, HateAid
-Josephine Ballon, HateAid
Announcing the sanctions, Marco Rubio said:
Are we gonna live in a world where some American puts up a social media posts and then gets to some airport somewhere and is arrested? Um, we're also concerned about the impact that some of their policies are having on our social media platforms. As you recently saw, you know, X. Is facing this massive multimillion dollar fine that they're gonna have to pay, I guess, if they want to continue to operate. But I think more importantly, I think it, it, it, it touches on the broader question that was asked a little bit earlier. We all talk about how these alliances, in many cases, our alliances with our European partners are built on our, on our common principles are common values as much as anything else. These aren't just a geopolitical arrangement. It is an alliance with like-minded countries with whom we share values and principles. And one of those values and principles, we hope is freedom and the freedom of expression, and we're concerned that that is eroding.
I think we fought a war to vindicate the proposition that we should be free to make our own laws, instead of having laws imposed upon us without our consent by foreign tyrants. Yes, that rings a bell.
Chuck Ross wrote about this Censorship Mafia in November.
Of course, it's all a George Soros-funded operation against the American citizenry.
The left-wing philanthropy funded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations (OSF), bankrolls a British nonprofit that works to censor conservative news websites and social media companies, including through a plot to "kill" Elon Musk's X by pressuring advertisers and investors to boycott the company.OSF gave $250,000 last year to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for "general support," according to the Soros charity's grant database. The CCDH, under the guise of stopping "the spread of online hate and disinformation," has pressured social media companies' investors and advertisers to censor supposed "disinformation" or other content it deems to be offensive.
The organization, founded by former Labour Party operative Imran Ahmed in 2018, has also pressured tech companies to pull advertisements from the conservative websites the Federalist and the Daily Wire over allegedly racist content.
The grant, which has not been reported, could resurrect a longstanding battle that Musk has waged with both the CCDH and Soros. Musk has accused Soros of "crimes against humanity" and funding groups involved in violent protests across the country this year. And he has called the CCDH a "criminal organization" and said he was "going after" the group's donors over its efforts to harm X's finances.
Last year, the CCDH quietly organized a campaign to "kill Musk's Twitter" by pressuring advertisers to cut ties with the company, according to memos published by Racket News. The CCDH, which the watchdog group Capital Research Center calls a "UK-based censorship advocacy group," met with 16 congressional offices to discuss Musk's lawsuit against the organization, and held "policy engagement" meetings with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.). The nonprofit also lobbied American policymakers toward the creation of an "independent digital regulator," according to Racket News.
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Trump Reaches the 50% Approval Mark in One Poll
—Ace
It is very rare for modern presidents to ever have majority support. Even Obama, who the media told me was a transformational figure that everyone loved (Except Racists (TM)) spent his entire presidency at 43-45% approval.
Insider Advantage says that Trump's at 50%.
President Trump is sitting at an even 50 percent approval rating nationally, placing him nine points above water nearly a year into his second term, according to a new survey from InsiderAdvantage. The poll, conducted Saturday among 800 likely voters, found 50 percent approve of Trump's job performance, while 41 percent disapprove and 9 percent remain undecided -- a solid net-positive showing at a stage when many modern presidents have already slipped underwater.The numbers show familiar but politically important divides. Trump continues to post strong margins with men, nearly six in ten of whom approve of his performance, compared to just over a third who disapprove. Women remain more skeptical, with approval and disapproval nearly evenly split but tilted slightly negative. Age breakdowns, however, may raise alarms for Democrats heading toward the 2026 midterms. Trump runs even among voters under 40 and posts clear net-positive approval among voters 40 and older, including a +5 margin with seniors -- a bloc that often turns out heavily in midterm elections.
Among voters aged 18 to 39, Trump's approval and disapproval are deadlocked, while voters between 40 and 64 give him a comfortable edge.
Gen X represent.
...The InsiderAdvantage results are more favorable to Trump than the broader national picture reflected in RealClearPolling, which currently shows the president below water overall. Still, a net-positive approval rating at this point in a presidency is a rare commodity in modern politics[.]
A YouGov poll has Trump at a mere 39% with "adults" and 42% with actually registered voters. Gotta figure "adults" includes a lot of illegals.
Does this matter? Eh, probably not. I continue to think Trump wins or loses based on how the economy looks by July 2026. If it's not more in the Ace range than the garret range, Trump loses Congress and spends his last two years dodging subpoenas. If it looks good, he keeps Congress and locks in Trumpism as the dominant alternative to AOC/Mamdani communism.
I know you guys don't like poll posts but can I reply that days before a holiday are very slow news days and I have had a case of Senioritis since before Thanksgiving?
Also: I had another post ready to go, but it's a Bad News post, and I didn't want to use a Bad News post to say:
Merry Christmas! Okay It's not Christmas yet. Merry Christmas Eve!
What are your plans? I'm mostly going to be nestling.
"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"
Whoop and Hallo to thee!
(Looking it up: Laocoön was a Trojan seer punished by the gods. He was attacked by great serpents. I don't know what Dickens means but my guess is that, by hiking up his stockings high, he resembles Laocoön being devoured, one leg at a time, by serpents. The stockings being likened to snakes. If it's not that, I'm stumped.)
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Wednesday Morning Rant Christmas Greeting
—Joe Mannix
Merry Christmas, Horde! As they all do, this year has had its ups and downs but this is not the time to dwell on them. As I work on my preparations for tonight's meal and tomorrow's gatherings, I hope all of you are able to celebrate the holiday joyously!
I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas! Please enjoy a Christmas open thread and some Christmas music as you hopefully juggle your preparations, spend time with family, enjoy a feast and praise G-d as we wind down the year. The HQ is a unique place and I am, as always, grateful to be a part of it. For those of you dropping in today, once again, Merry Christmas. For anyone checking in later, I hope you had a wonderful and joyous holiday!
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The Morning Report — 12/24/25
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. It's Christmas EVE and here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. I'll try to keep it as brief as I can today. First we have reports of some kind of gas explosion at a nursing home just outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County. There are two confirmed fatalities as well as numerous injuries from the explosion and subsequent partial collapse of the structure that has left many elderly residents trapped. And with another major cold front set to sock in the northeast, the timing is perfect. Prayers for all those affected, and for those involved in rescue, recovery and emergency services.
On to a couple of major stories — first up is the Supreme Court yet again riding roughshod over the will of the American people and declaring "screw your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
The Supreme Court refused to issue a stay requested by President Donald Trump after lower courts blocked him from sending the National Guard to Illinois.The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued the restraining orders.
Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not join the majority’s explanation. .. Alito, with Thomas, in his dissent, slammed the Court for “unnecessarily” and “unwisely” departing from standard practice.
It is high time that President Trump drove a stake through the heart of the undead vampire that is Marbury v. Madison. Deploy the damned Guard and do what the Left have always done and instead of seeking redress in the courts, let the Democrat insurrectionist treasonous traitors waste their time with that and for once just do what needs to be done and declare "Catch Me If You Can" while axing the question "How many divisions do you have?!" And that would put the issue of that video of Mark Kelly, Abigail Spamburger et al sowing mutiny in the ranks front and center in a very glaring spotlight.
Do the safety and security of America's citizenry take precedence over respecting a completely corrupt justice system that in its behavior represents as much of an existential threat to America's citizenry as that of gang bangers, illegal aliens and drug dealers, if not more of a threat in that the lack of faith and trust in the rule of law results in total societal collapse and subsequent chaos followed shortly thereafter by tyranny. And that tyranny will be a combination hardcore Marxist/Maoist variety with more than a soupçon of Islamic influence.
Of course the latter will ultimately gain the upper hand when their useful idiot hosts/cohorts are no longer of use to them.
Minnesota Dem Tearfully Apologizes To Somalians After They Were Busted Stealing Billions — Organizer Asad Aliwed put together the event Dec. 12 at the Irshad Islamic Center in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Eden Prairie Local News reported. Democratic state Sens. Ann Johnson Stewart and Steve Cwodzinski tearfully shared their apology and offered support to a mosque full of Somalians on Friday. They were accompanied by Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case, who ran in a nonpartisan election.
Describing British society as “low trust, highly fractured, and highly politically factionalized,” Betz warned that “civil conflict” is “increasingly inevitable.” Then Betz directly accused U.K. authorities of hiding the true intentions behind their overhaul of domestic security forces: “What they’re concerned about is domestic conflict ... but that’s completely politically toxic for them to say so publicly, hence the convenience of saying, ‘We need to develop ... a citizen’s militia for the protection of critical infrastructure.’ To say that we’re doing this against the potential of Russian attack ... is convenient as a pretext.” . . . Fast-forward to this week, and Lane has written another piece that sharply articulates the disconnect between the government officials preparing Britain for war and the ordinary Britons who will be expected to do the fighting. With talk of military conscription filling the airwaves and a glut of hyperventilating government officials assuring citizens that war with Russia has already begun, Lane notes “the reality that many young Britons feel the government has actively sabotaged their interests and are wondering why they ought to risk their lives for such a state.” . . . Lane highlights the argument from another op-ed in The Times in which that author correctly observes that “defending one’s homeland is a question of societal mass mobilization ... in the sense of a shared belief in the nation and the culture that is at stake, an awareness that it is at risk and a commitment to defend it. Without a united population it is difficult to make the trade-offs necessary to transform Britain and its European allies into thoroughly indigestible military targets for our enemies.”It is as if corporate news institutions are finally awakening to this reality: When you actively destroy national unity, shared history, tradition, and cultural heritage by importing foreigners on an industrial scale, you also destroy national identity. Young British lads have no interest in fighting and dying for “multiculturalism.” British parents have no interest in sacrificing their children for “diversity.” No sane country is interested in sacrificing everything in order to preserve costly “climate change” regulations and safeguard the criminalization of so-called “hate speech.” No patriot charges up a hill to raise an Antifa or LGBT flag in defense of censorship, government bullying, demographic replacement, and mass surveillance.
Apologies for hitting you with these stories of woe, especially on Christmas eve and at the close of Chanukah, the festival of light and a celebration of the victory over both literal and figurative darkness. Let's remember the meaning of both of these holidays and resolve to continue to live our lives fully and with hope for a better future and a renewed determination to do what we must to make it a reality.
God bless each and every one of you and let me wish you and yours a very MERRY and BLESSED CHRISTMAS.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
- Police have declared a "mass casualty incident" and have asked people to "avoid the area."
Gas Explosion Leaves People Trapped Inside Pennsylvania Nursing Home
- We have intersectionality to thank for the widespread rot in higher education, as it works to “dismantle the persistent colonial structures and Eurocentric biases” of academia. Worse, intersectionality has become the ideology of terror — the next logical step for a worldview that pits people against each other based on group identity.
Toxic ideas fueling far-left terrorists came straight from our college campuses
- Statistics from media, academia, and law suggest meritocracy has given way to ideology—reshaping institutions, sidelining men, and raising hard questions about the West’s long-term viability. (this right alongside Islam - jjs)
Feminism, Anti-racism, and the Unraveling of Western Civilization
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Daily Tech News 24 December 2025
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- Do not send to know for whom the memory shortage tolls. (WCCFTech)
Today it's Apple, whose cost for the memory in the iPhone 17 has jumped from $29 to $70.
But doesn't Apple have long-term agreements to lock in costs?
Yes. Yes they do. Some of those agreements are expiring in January.
Others expired this month.
- Former Samsung executives and employees have been hit with criminal charges for leaking trade secrets on memory production to Chinese memory manufacturer CXMT. (WCCFTech)
Cool. I mean, tut tut, don't do that again.
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Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - December 23, 2025 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
Howdy Hordelings! Tuesday night ONT time. Glad you're here!
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Christmas Bells Cafe
—Ace
Unknown stream at Grand Tetons National Park
By Cynical Publius
Oh was that your tail I was biting? My bad.
The fox and the hound kitten.
Puppy is going to his forever home.
Flying Squirrel What Flies at Midnight.
Rescuing an orphaned kitten.
She makes "Cat Lady" seem like an okay thing to be.
From Sooth: A Muppet Family Christmas.
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Epstein Files Bombshell! Trump Was an Acquaintance of Jeffrey Epstein During the Period We Already Knew They Were Acquaintances and Trump Once Flew on an Epstein Plane With a 20-Year-Old Adult Woman On Board
—Ace
An adult woman? Wow.
You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
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Axios: Insubordinate CBS Liar Sharyn Alfonsi Told Viewers That Trump Officials Had Refused Comment On the Story. In Fact, They Provided Comment -- She Just Refused to Air Their Denials.
—Ace
For those wondering "How can this insubordinate liar not get fired?," I've got great news: I think she will be fired. I thought she would probably be fired before this for insubordination. I'm pretty sure she wrote her "Bari is a Trump censor" email with the knowledge that a confederate would leak it for her (or she leaked it herself).
If I had to guess, I'd guess she already knew she was on the list of candidates for firing and decided on the Jimmy Kimmel strategy of raising a stink among her left-wing allies to create pressure on the network to keep her.
But this new report from Axios means that no amount of pressure from her left-wing allies can save her. The media still pretends that straight-up lying is a fireable offense. Of course it's not; lying is the soul of their soulless profession.
If you lie and the right people notice -- like your boss, who you just tried to #Cancel -- then the pretense that lying is a fireable offense becomes reality.
The other side: The segment ends with Alfonsi saying the Department of Homeland Security "declined our request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador. The government there did not respond to our request."The segment included previous comments made by President Trump, who said El Salvador's prison system has "very strong facilities, and they don't play games."
It also includes a clip of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously saying, "These are heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, kidnappers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country, and they must be held accountable."
Between the lines: According to a source familiar with "60 Minutes" correspondence with the administration, the "60 Minutes" team reached out to press officials at the White House, State Department and DHS, all of which provided comment to CBS News.
None of those comments, which varied in length and substance, were included in the piece viewed by Axios.
CBS declined to comment.
Axios was able to view it, of course, because despite the piece being held up by Bari Weiss, somehow it wound up airing in communist Canada.
Which is almost certainly another case of gross insubordination.
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Hunter Biden: Of Course My Father's Calamitous Bug-Out from Afghanistan Was a "F***ing Failure;" And Of Course We Shouldn't Allow In Immigrants That "Drain Our Resources"
—Ace
Is Hunter Biden now a racist?
Wait a sec, he already was -- "no yellow." (Who doesn't like Asian chicks? Only a Nazi.)
Even Hunter Biden isn't pretending anymore.The former president's son admitted this week that his father's handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was an "obvious f**king failure," putting a blunt, unsparing label on what many Americans have long viewed as one of the most humiliating and deadly episodes of Joe Biden's presidency.
Hunter made the remarks during an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show, where he also broke from Democrat orthodoxy on immigration. While arguing in favor of legal immigration, Hunter criticized policies that elevate illegal entrants over Americans who served the country. "We need vibrant immigration," he said, "but we don't want immigrants that are coming here illegally draining us of resources and also being prioritized above people that are actual literal heroes that are coming home" after decades of war. The comment echoed a core argument advanced repeatedly by Donald Trump, who has framed Biden-era border policy as both reckless and morally inverted.
But it was Afghanistan that drew Hunter's sharpest verdict. Asked directly what his father got wrong in office, he pointed to the August 2021 withdrawal that left Americans and allies scrambling as the Taliban swept back into Kabul. "I think one of the failures was the way in which they executed the withdrawal from Afghanistan," Hunter said. "I think it was an obvious f**king failure." Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate during the evacuation, a loss that became a defining symbol of the administration's collapse overseas.
That assessment stands in stark contrast to Joe Biden himself, who insisted in 2023 that he made no mistakes in the withdrawal despite bipartisan criticism, military testimony, and the visible chaos that unfolded on the world stage. The administration has long resisted accepting responsibility, even as the consequences linger.
So what's going on here? Let's put aside the idea that Hunter Biden has suddenly embraced honesty.
As we've seen, Democrats are now pushing the idea that out-of-control illegal immigration isn't Democrat policy, but was all Biden's fault, and only Biden's fault. The Democrat policy is perfect -- the Real Villain Here is Biden's faulty implementation of that policy, and now that Biden is out of office and will probably be dead within the year, it's time to throw that weight out of the sinking ship.
As to why Hunter Biden would participate in the Democrats' scheme to claim that Biden is the Devil who Deceived them -- I read someone on X stating that Hunter Biden is $15 million in debt. Daddy's not going to be able to get him million dollar checks from Chinese spymasters and Russian oligarchs any longer. He needs a new patron, and that patron will of course be in the Democrat Party.
And the Democrat Party network of bribery is currently shutting its wallets to the Bidens. Joe Biden will almost certainly not be able to fund a Biden presidential library.
E X X ➠A L E R T S @ExxAlertsBREAKING: Biden's presidential library fundraising has hit rock bottom, per New York Times reporting.
Key details from IRS filings:
- Zero new donations in 2024, Biden's entire final year in office.
- Foundation seeded with just $4M leftover from his 2021 inauguration.
- Projects only $11.3M total by end of 2027, a tiny fraction of the $200M goal aides have discussed.
- Far below what recent presidents raised for their libraries.Insiders now say discussions are underway to merge the project with existing Biden institutes at the University of Delaware to make it viable.
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Trans Teaching Assistant who Flunked a Christian Student for Rejecting Trans Propaganda Has Now Been Fired
—Ace
I would say that the student's essay could be docked some points for relying so heavily on non-academic sources -- the Bible -- but then, the trans TA's rejection of all her arguments was based exclusively on quasi-religious fantasy and myth-making, wasn't it?
And, in addition, the trans bully was attempting to compel a Christian to renounce her faith and accept the trans pseudoreligion as the one true religion. So a bit of citation of the Bible is appropriate. If someone pushes their garbage mental-illness religion on you, you have every right to reject it and defend your own.
I'm glad this noxious woman-abusing male bully is now kicking rocks.
A transgender graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oklahoma has been removed from instructional duties after failing a conservative student's Bible-based essay on gender -- a grading decision the university later concluded was arbitrary following an internal review.The controversy erupted in late November when Samantha Fulnecky, a 20-year-old junior, submitted a written response for a psychology course that rejected modern gender ideology through a Christian lens. The assignment asked students to write a 650-word analysis of an academic article examining whether conformity to gender norms was associated with popularity or bullying among middle school students.
Instead of echoing the paper's progressive framing, Fulnecky grounded her response in faith, writing that she does not believe there are more than two genders "because that is how God made us."
...
The paper was failed by her instructor, Mel Curth -- a transgender graduate student who uses she/they pronouns -- who told Fulnecky she did not properly address the academic prompt and relied on "personal ideology" rather than empirical evidence. Curth also characterized portions of the essay as offensive, objecting to Fulnecky's use of the word "demonic" and arguing that strict gender norms, by definition, create stereotypes.
"To call an entire group of people 'demonic' is highly offensive, especially a minoritized population," Curth wrote in written feedback, while also pointing out what Curth described as internal contradictions in the essay's reasoning.
"Minoritized"? Like you really weren't a minority, but oppressors forced minority status on to you?
Jesus save us from these heathens and their corrupt gutter language.
...On Monday, the university announced it had completed its investigation and determined that Curth's grading of the paper was not applied fairly. In a statement, the school said the decision was based on a review of Curth's own statements and concluded the graduate teaching assistant would no longer have instructional duties.
As far as applying rigid academic standards to this essay: It was a 650 word essay. This is an assignment we used to give to middle-schoolers. It's basically an opening argument, two paragraphs, and a conclusion that merely restates the opening argument. It's not as if this was a real essay. It's a time waster.
The student was being compelled to accept the framing that we have two sexes merely because of "gender norms." She has every right and duty -- particularly as a believing Christian -- to refute that assumption. A Jewish student cannot be required to write an essay affirming the assumption that Jews deserved the Holocaust.
It's very clear that this tranny is not interested in actual academic work. He's interested in forced prosyletization to a captive audience.
Below: The Hottie vs. the Nottie.
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BOOM! US Economy Grows By Big 4.3% In Third Quarter
—Ace
4.3% is the annualized growth rate. What "annualized" means is "if we took this quarter's actual growth rate and multiplied it by four to find the growth we could expect over an entire year, if it continued."
The actual growth rate for the quarter is then something like 1.08%, but don't worry about that, because we always talk about the annualized growth rate. There is no mathematical manipulation going on to make the number seem bigger than it is. This is how we always measure it.
Just to know how to evaluate GDP growth, here's a quick but Expert primer, because I'm an Expert in literally anything I talk about:
Less than 0% (negative "growth"): the economy shrank. Recessionary.
0%: No growth, and pretty recessionary, because the population always grows. Zero growth thus means that everyone lost a little.
1%: Weak, barely perceptible growth. Either a poor economy or maybe even one about to fall into recession.
2%: Growth, and not really a sign of a recession, but sluggish and unimpressive growth that no one will brag about. Also nothing to panic about. Very meh. To put it terms you can understand, if we were using the Hustler boner meter to rate the economy rather than pornography, it rates one erect penis and one droopy one (out of a possible four erect penises, obviously). It's the "garrett" of economies, then. At this level, the economy is a vaguely unwelcome presence that won't shut up about its bike but you just shrug and just think about the blissful oblivion of death.
3%: Solid growth. No one can dispute the economy is growing. No one would dispute that this is a good solid economy. People's moods will naturally be a little elevated during a period of this level of growth. Think "Jack Straw smoking a bone while steering his yacht with his bare foot and listening to a 15 minute double drum solo." I know that sounds like the Holocaust, but I mean, think about this from Jack Straw's perspective. He likes 15 minute double drum solos because he was raised wrong and don't know no better.
4%: Very high growth. Starting to get into actual "BOOM" territory, if sustained, if it's not just a one-quarter wonder. Think: Me riding down the street on my Vespa, carrying my J. Crew messenger bag, looking at the world with optimism and cheer and thinking of all the vertical surfaces I can stick shelves on.
5%: Outstanding growth. This level is rarely seen and means the economy is running on all 12 cylinders. (Yes, 12 cylinders, it's now a sportscar.) Sustained 5% growth means Golden Times. Think "Sydney Sweeney wearing a low-cut top with beads of golden honey sweat trickling down between her breasts as she washes and details your Camaro." (Artist's conception.)
Clinton had some of this during the internet bubble and the deficit actually fell (despite his best efforts to increase it) because tax takings were so large and welfare spending fell.
This level of extraordinary growth can't be sustained forever, maybe just a year or two. This is about the best level of growth you can realistically hope for.
You occasionally see 6% or 7% quarters -- or even higher -- but usually only in like Latin American countries when they recover from one of their frequent recessions/depressions, or China up to about ten years ago. When it happens in America, it's a one-quarter wonder. I think GWB had one 7.2% quarter but I think that was like six months after the economic apocalypse of 9/11 -- so a one-quarter wonder, with the American economy rebounding back from a deep shock-recession, like Latin American countries do with their always-volatile economies.
Apart from some weird one-off circumstances, like recovering from 9/11, advanced, stable economies almost never grow in a sustained way at these levels.
So, the 4.3% growth is very high and not too far away from "It's Morning in America again."
And it's not even a one-quarter wonder -- the last quarter showed strong 3.8% growth. It looks like it's real and building.
Is the economic turn we desperately need for 2026 and 2028, too, finally here?
Let's hope. It looks good at the moment.
The US economy grew 4.3% in real gross domestic product in Q3 (annualized), the best quarter of growth in the past two years. It exceeds the 3.8% growth in Q2 that had largely been seen as driven by rebalancing of the trade deficit. It's the first BEA analysis of overall economic activity since September, thanks to the Schumer Shutdown:Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025 (July, August, and September), according to the initial estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 3.8 percent.Due to the recent government shutdown, this initial report for the third quarter of 2025 replaces the release of the advance estimate originally scheduled for October 30 and the second estimate originally scheduled for November 26.
The increase in real GDP in the third quarter reflected increases in consumer spending, exports, and government spending that were partly offset by a decrease in investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
Just to clarify: "real GDP" already accounts for inflation. This is growth above the rate of inflation, annualized for comparative purposes. The last six months of economic activity has shown a combined growth of 4.0% or a bit better, which is a fantastic momentum by anyone's reckoning.
Previous growth was explained away by experts by claiming that the apparent growth was mostly due to technical factors due to Trump's tariffs. (Imports reduce GDP, so reducing them "increases" GDP, at least on paper.)
But Ed Morrissey explains that the new numbers appear to be unaffected by changes in tariff policy. See his post for that. It's dangerously close to math and you know that we do not do that here.
He also notes that the WSJ breaks out my favorite leftwing buzzword: "Unexpectedly."
The U.S. economy grew at an unexpectedly robust pace in the third quarter, powered by strong consumer spending.Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 4.3% annual rate for the July through September quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday in a shutdown-delayed report.
It was the highest growth rate in two years, and reflected robust spending by consumers on services like healthcare as well as spending on recreational vehicles. Growth picked up from 3.8% in the previous quarter, and beat the 3.2% forecast among economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
There is a chance this number will be revised down after a time. "Big numbers" are often revised back to be closer to the mean (that is, back to a more moderate level, whether up or down).
But even if it's revised down a touch, it's still a big number.
And it could also be revised up, of course. The leftwing bureaucrats in the BEA always seem to produce bigger initial numbers for Democrats and worse numbers for Republicans than time eventually reveals to be the accurate numbers.
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The Morning Rant-CBDless Edition
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
Mr. CBD is on a remote scouting mission. Something about Bourbon, snails, maple syrup and unsalted butter.
Lately life has been happening here in the Frozen Tundra and current events and politics has taken a back seat. I know there are multiple problems around the world including here in the Good Old USA.
For the first time in my *life* the USA has a president who is not a politician. Of course that would be Donald J. Trump. The nearest example of a president who was not a full-time, life-time politician was Ronald Reagan.
This country is poised to become a bigger and better light on the shining hill. However, the GOP Stupid Party and the new "Pundits" are in the process of soiling their beds and stepping on some type of appendage.
The first two years of Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0 could have been terrific legislative sessions. Just imagine every Trump Executive Order becoming codified law? True, those laws could have been reversed with a Democrat Communist administration. But, it would have been work and would have slowed down their stupidity.
Yes the Stupid Party and Paul Ryan had how many years to draft a better health insurance plan? It was easy to piss and moan about it. But, they had no intention of repealing it let alone come up with something better.
Now 14 years after that Affordable Health Care Act Obamacare Bullshit is still forefront in the Washington DC fight between the Commies and the Estupidos. In the long run the Commies will win.
We know the Commies claim they love and cherish democracy. We know it's a lie. But the likes of John Thune and Gary Johnson would rather let the Commies walk over them when it comes to the silent filibuster and judicial blue slip shenanigans to name just a few.
Johnson should be leading impeachments against the sitting federal magistrates and judges who have been playing whack a mole with Trump's agenda. Granted, the senate will not convict them. But Judas Fvcking Priest, fight. Expose the leftist judges.
And that is why you have President Trump.
Now, we got rid of the "pundits" such as Bill Kristol, Rick "PenisHead" Wilson, Charlie Sykes with the 2015 Trump run - 2016 Trump election.
But, nature hates a vacuum and now we have Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro to name just a few who have replaced the Never-Trumpers. I'm not sure what we should call this group, perhaps NutCasesTM But whatever it is called, I want to be part of the Never-NutCases.
Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes can go and have their Third Reich love fest without me and the Conservative movement.
Candace, no one. And I mean no one cares about the genitalia of a French woman. And the ONLY person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk has been arrested.
Ben Shapiro, I support Israel. I always have and always will. But, the USA interests come first and should always come first. We are $38 trillion in debt. We need to put America First not Israel First.
I live in a high gas sales tax state. So many of you may have seen lower prices. But, I'm enjoying the $2.67 gallon gas. I've seen the grocery prices coming down. It looks like prescription drug prices are going to come down significantly.
Mike Johnson, John Thune, govern! You have 9-10 months to make significant inroads to restore common sense. Mike Johnson, John Thune, (I won't ask MTG or Mitch McConnell for example) Are you ready and willing to run with the MAGA platform or is your new leadership, same as the old leadership?
And lastly to the Nut-Cases, shut your mouths. Take your fingers away from your key boards. And take some time to read and comprehend President Reagan's 11th Commandment. Take your problems behind closed doors.
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The Morning Report — 12/23/25
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. It's Christmas eve EVE, and so with that in mind I'm going to try to keep the editorials through the end of the week a bit shorter if at all possible, breaking and/or critical news items deserving of further exploration notwithstanding.
And away we go. I don't claim to be an expert on defense issues, but this move on the part of President Trump just makes no sense to me.
President Donald J. Trump has revealed plans for the U.S. Navy to develop a new line of “Trump-class” battleships, starting with the construction of two vessels. The America First leader shared the news from his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he is vacationing over the holidays, joined by War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan. Trump described the vessels as components of a new “Golden Fleet,” with ambitions to produce up to 25 such battleships. He stated that these would be the “largest we’ve ever built.”“They will have 100 times the force, the power, and there’s never been anything like these ships,” Trump said. “We envision that these two ships will be the first of a whole new class of battleships that will be produced in the years to come.”The lead vessel in the class will bear the name USS Defiant. This development follows shortly after the Navy abandoned efforts to develop a different, smaller warship due to escalating expenses and extended timelines.
Hey, I ain't no Alfred Thayer Mahan but in the immortal words of Isoroku Yamamoto via Toshiro Mifune "R-U-F-K-M?! don't bogart the wasabi, Nagumo!"
Will dressing up like Teddy Roosevelt and running up a White House stairway as if it were San Juan Hill (watch Arsenic & Old Lace), while deploying a great white, er Golden, fleet really deter Xi and the Chi-Coms? Will it help get out the vote 11 months from now? Maybe in Newport News or Pascagoula (assuming they still build ships there?).
Meanwhile in the all American town of Lawrence, Massachusetts:
Mayor Brian DePena appeared in court on Friday, where he required a translator to participate in proceedings at a Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission proceeding on Friday.The hearing concerned former Lawrence Police Chief William Castro, a political ally of DePena, who was stripped of his policing credentials following an improper police chase. Castro was accused of driving the wrong way down a city street during the chase and filing a false police report, claiming he was responding to an armed bank robbery when he had actually been responding to someone attempting to cash a bad check . . . DePena testified on Castro’s behalf during the commission proceeding, but it was the mayor’s request to use a translator that drew significant attention. . . DePena is a native of the Dominican Republic and immigrated to New York in the early 1980s before settling in Lawrence in 1989. Over 80 percent of the city’s population is now Hispanic, according to the US Census.
The mayor of an American town cannot even speak English. Forget illegal immigration, this fool is a Legal Immigrant. both my parents' families (my father's side escaping the pogroms of Ukraine at the turn of he last century and my mother's side barely surviving the death camps of the Nazis,) came here to embrace and become fully American. Initially they barely spoke English but quickly learned enough to find work and support families while instilling the ideals and culture of this ountry on their children.
That an illiterate unassimilated foreigner was elected to public office by an equally alien electorate in our country is among if not its greatest failings in its history.
Wow, it looks as if the 2020 election was indeed stolen. I'm sure you're all shocked!!! I know I am.
And Mike Pence and George Conway can go pump each other.
And more "Walzing Muh shill dough" this time up in Maine. Funny how these desert dwellers all wind up living here in states that can get about as cold as the Arctic Circle.
But best not talk about it because that can be very unhealthy.
Ebenezer Scrooge has nothing on Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is thwarting cancer treatment for kids in a possibly futile attempt to get Congress to pass his priorities.Last week, the Vermont socialist was the sole vote opposed to fast-tracking legislation that will make it easier for kids with cancer to access treatments and clinical trials and incentivize companies to develop pediatric therapies.
His complaint: the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, named for a teen cancer patient who died while advocating for its passage, is a pared-down version of a previous package that included other health-care measures as well, including funding for community health centers.
Without those add-ons, he’s withholding support of a bill that was teed up to pass easily — and that even he otherwise supported.
Yet without his vote, it didn’t win unanimous backing, so it’ll now have to make its way through a much more arduous procedural process when Congress reconvenes next year. . .Pray it doesn’t cost the lives of any kids who could’ve benefited. But make no mistake: This is super-villain behavior, as more rational lawmakers pointed out.Right-wing Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also supports funding community health centers, fumed: “To say that you’re not going to give a chance for children to have a cure for cancer if you don’t get what you want” is “selfish” and “tragic.” Amen to that.
Up yours NY Post for describing Bill Cassidy as "Right Wing," which by doing that is essentially saying Nazi/fascist/racist etc, ad nauseum One day, if Bernie and Mamdani take over, you can do like they do in England when you have a toothache. Make like Moe howard did to Curly, and tie one end of a string to your rotten tooth and the other to a doorknob.
Dentists refuse to provide free dental care creating a major dentist shortage.
Just wait until we have "Free" healthcare here and free housing, education and food like every other "civilized nation" such as Cuba does as I have seen posted too many times by a bevy of scumbag leftists on Twitter and elsewhere. Yeah, life is such a paradise in Havana and Pyongyang but you insist on staying here in evil and illegitimate America.
Have a great day!
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
- Glenn H. Reynolds: Because the DEI fad didn’t just wreck American lives. It went a long way toward wrecking America.
DEI hollowed out a generation — and sapped America’s promise
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Daily Tech News 23 December 2025
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- NIST's time servers stopped providing an accurate reference time after a power failure. (Tom's Hardware)
Sounds serious, if you rely on an accurate reference time.
- Their facility in Boulder Colorado lost power for several days, and their backup generators ran out of fuel. (Jeff Geerling)
Due to this, their NTP service drifted out of sync by five microseconds.
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