Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
The people of Iran made a huge mistake in 1978-1979. Their support for the Ayatollah Khomeini was catastrophic on many levels, especially since the country was meandering toward full modernity and entrance into the 1st World with the Shah in power. What they got for their efforts was a savage religious dictatorship that quickly consolidated power by killing its rivals, and even a large number of supporters. And they didn't stop there...the massacres of 1981 and 1988 were the largest, but the Mullah's police state routinely imprisoned, tortured, and killed its supposed enemies, including women who dared show their hair!
With President Trump firmly on the side of freedom, the struggle against the theocratic dictators intensified after the Israeli and American strikes against the Mullah's nuclear ambition. The decapitation of Venezuela and the loss of its support for Iran seems to have added even more fuel to the revolutionary fire!
Whether the people of Iran are successful remains to be seen. If the army enters the fray it will get even bloodier, and the IRGC has already demonstrated its viciousness. News reports are suggesting that President Trump is considering military options, but that is a complex decision. Will America simply prevent the Iranian army from entering the cities, or will it be a more involved effort?
The people of Iran (Persia!) are in an existential fight, but they must win the war mostly on their own. Large-scale interference on the part of the West will at least partly delegitimize whatever comes next for Iran, although the choice between winning against the Mullahs and remaining under their thumb might make that an unimportant point.
But they are fighting the forces of evil, and they deserve the support of the freedom loving people of the world.
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On the other hand, the rich, entitled, spoiled left of America has elevated their violence against entirely normal and rational effort of the federal government to protect our borders as some sort of revolution against the jack-booted thugs of fascism running rampage across our country, arresting Americans and throwing them into the American version of the Gulag. The reality is different, as ICE seeks out law-breaking border crashers and, hopefully, deporting them. That is a far cry from the fever dreams of the lunatic left, who sees every government law enforcement officer as an amalgam of Pinochet, Hitler, and Franco.
They have taken their right to disagree with the actions of the government to ridiculous extremes. They have demonized and doxxed ICE officers, paid professional protesters, created the conditions for violent protests in left-leaning cities, and created the conditions for a violent response to their clearly illegal actions. And the sad part is that there are clearly understood methods of disagreeing with the policies and behavior of the government. Peaceful protesting is a time-honored tradition in America. Agitating for political change via the vote is too, but they are so sure of the holiness of their mission that they do not appreciate that violence against the government rarely works when the majority of the country supports the actions that are so infuriating to the lunatic few.
Renee Nicole Good was Minneapolis 'ICE Watch' 'warrior' who trained to resist feds before shooting
"Resistance" can take many forms. Only a few cross the line into violence, but the left has decided that circumventing the political process and moving to violence is the only appropriate response. That there has been a muted response from the federal government is a testament to the training of the officers involved and their political masters. In a real fascist dictatorship (like Iran), those nightly protests in Portland would have been met with water hoses, gunfire, and wholesale detention. Those professional "warriors" in Minneapolis would have been run off the road, arrested, and thrown into some hellhole of a prison for an indeterminate amount of time. Or just shot as they threatened the safety of the ICE officers.
But we do not live in anything resembling what they imagine, and that is why they feel confident in their behavior. Hopefully the seemingly justified shooting of the violent protestor in Minneapolis focuses the minds of the others, and the temperature is turned down just a bit.
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 1-11-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, enjoy a freshly-made batch of Chex Mix, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
Massive kudos to MP4 for his debut Sunday Morning Book Thread last week. CBD sent me an email saying I could take the week off and that someone else would be covering for me, but I didn't know who it was until I checked the queue of blog threads on Saturday evening. I was very pleased to find out it was MP4! He did a great job and I hope we can entice him to do more Sunday Morning Book Threads in the future!
This is a random pic I found on a website advertising 23 Unique Home Library Ideas. Naturally, this company wants you to use their products and services, but there are some decent ideas on the webpage if anyone is looking to spice up their library.
HOW A BOOK IS MADE
Technology has come a long, long way from Gutenberg's original printing press featuring moveable type. The video above shows just how easy it is to print a small number of books. Naturally, this process just scales up for huge print runs, like Kamala's New York Times bestselling book about her presidential run (stop laughing!).
In my job I've had to make frequent use of the university print shop, which has most of the machinery shown in the video. They can basically custom-print anything you can imagine, and if they can't do it, they'll outsource it to someone who can. It's just cool what they can do. Personally, my favorite machine is the massive paper cutter, which trims thousands of sheets of paper at once.
Here's a short video about how Amazon's Make on Demand service works. Amazon prints millions of books a year based on customer requests. I have quite a few books that have been printed in Monee, IL, just a few days after I've ordered them on Amazon. The audio isn't great, so you will want to turn on closed-captioning to follow along.
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HOW BOOK THIEVES STEAL MANUSCRIPTS
There are a few lessons to be learned from this video:
Never email your unpublished manuscript to someone you don't know. Double-check the email address to make sure it's correct. In the example above, changing just ONE character in the email address allowed a manuscript thief working at a publishing company to publish the manuscript without the author's permission.
If you are publishing a serialized version of your story online so that you can solicit feedback, make sure you upload the finished, polished manuscript to your final publishing platform as soon as possible. Yes, you do own the copyright on your works, but it can be challenging to prove that sometimes if someone is poaching content from your website and then publishing it as their own material.
"Brandjacking" means your good name is being stolen to be used on content that isn't yours. So if you have published a few books and have had some modest sales, you do owe it to yourself to protect your brand.
I work with professors who are often leery about putting their course content online because they don't want their content being stolen by someone else. It's a valid concern. Unfortunately, the reality is that if someone can view their content--even if it's hidden on a password-protected learning management system like Canvas--it can be stolen and repurposed. This is how cheating sites like Chegg gather data. They rely on students to submit content for them to then publish for other students. I've even downloaded content from courses because I wanted to have a copy of the content for future reference. Not to sell it as my own. Just to have it as a resource. I know one professor who goes so far as to remove modules in his course as soon as the module is over. He doesn't just unpublish them from his Canvas course. He deletes them entirely. Which is kind of pointless since as soon as students know that he does this, they're going to download copies of the content as soon as the module becomes available.
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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
Before I read it, I didn't know that Dracula was an epistolary novel.
Clever books, like epistolary novels, have always interested me. One comes to mind which I stumbled upon long ago, and found it as fascinating as I found the characters distasteful. When Captain Pierre Laclos first published Les Liasons Dangereuses in 1782, it caused such a scandal that it was briefly banned. Of course, this only made it even more popular behind closed doors. Eventually, a publisher's note was added to the novel, insisting that the author in no way represented the truth.
The story behind the story is that a series of letters, mostly between the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, had been found and assembled, and when put into chronological order, told a strange immoral tale. These two aristocrats schemed between themselves to seduce a young noblewoman; for Merteuil, it was revenge, and for Valmont, merely the challenge.
The letters tell the story in both statements and hints, and describes the cooperation and then competition between the decadent pair. Eventually, the competition turns into hatred, and Valmont exposes Merteuil and ruins her.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at December 28, 2025 09:11 AM (0U5gm)
Comment: The central story of Dangerous Liaisons (I'm not French, so I'll use the English translation) seems to have universal appeal, as the story has been adapted numerous times around the worl, even as far off as China and Korea. It's been told and retold in many different media over the centuries. I was first exposed to the story in high school. My drama club took a trip to London one year and we watched a stage performance of Dangerous Liaisons, which was pretty cool. The 1999 movie Cruel Intentions spawned its own franchise with a prequel, a sequel, and even a television series.
People seem to be fascinated by the deliberate destruction of innocence as depicted in this story. It's very much a tragedy, as no one escapes unscathed.
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You might enjoy Tony Perrotett's Route A.D. 66 (published in the US as Pagan Holidays). He decides to take the Roman version of the Grand Tour, using ancient guidebooks and travels from Rome to Greece and on to Egypt and Arabia. Clever and funny.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at December 28, 2025 09:16 AM (ufSfZ)
Comment: We take for granted how easy it is to travel around the world today. Back in the ancient world, much travel was done on foot. If you were lucky or wealthy you might have a horse or cart. You would, of course, have to take care of the horse and cart because your livelihood depended on them. My pastor at church has been giving us a guided tour of Paul's travels during his ministry. It's been fascinating to see how he traveled between Israel, Asia Minor (now Turkey), Greece, and Rome, as well as exploring the difficulties he had along the way.
One of you Morons sent me an email with an Amazon link for Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series. It was a boxed set with the first three novels in hardcover for about 1/3 the normal price. Naturally, I screamed, "Shut up and take my money!" and purchased it.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I have no idea when I'll get around to reading it, so it goes on top of my teetering TBR pile for now.
WHAT I'VE BEEN READING RECENTLY:
The Final Architecture Book 3 - Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I finished Adrian Tschaikovsky's epic space opera trilogy just before New Year's Eve. That was the final book I completed in 2025. It was well worth the ride. The series as a whole took a bit of time to get going and Tchaikovsky is prone to exposition dumps, particularly in Shards of Earth, but overall it's a good read and quite entertaining. I liked the character development.
The series also featured dueling assholes--a protagonist and an antagonist. Ollie, on the side of the protagonists, is one of those professional assholes that doesn't really get along with most people, but if she chooses to be your friend, she'll be your friend for life. Ollie's major character arc was overcoming her biases against the Parthenon society, as it's composed of "perfect" Amazonian warrior-women while Ollie suffers from numerous birth defects that left her body crippled and deformed.
At first I thought there was going to be some mild wokeness in the story, but much of it was justified by the setting and characters, so it didn't bother me much. Also, Tchaikovsky didn't seem to be too enamored with perfect socialist societies, instead preferring the rough-and-tumble life of the spacers who really keep society running through their rugged individuality, scavenging and trading wherever they can to keep flying between the stars, regardless of the dangers posed by "unspace."
I won't spoil the climax, but it's pretty badass. Idris uncovers the truth behind the so-called "lords of creation and uncreation." The Architects are not what everyone thought they were, either, serving their masters unwillingly, weeping at the destruction they are forced to cause throughout the cosmos.
The Complete Chronicles of Conan - Centenary Edition by Robert E. Howard
This has been on my TBR pile for several years now. I remember being excited when the Centenary Edition came out, but then I got distracted and busy with other things. Now I'm reading it and enjoying it quite a bit. Robert E. Howard's Conan is quite a bit different than Arnold Schwarzenegger's depiction in the movies, though I think he captured Conan's spirit quite well.
I did realize that while compilations of stories by an author are a fun read, they can start to become repetitive after a while. Howard has a formula, for sure. Conan will become enmeshed in some complicated scheme or a situation that's outside his usual understanding and he'll need both brains and brawn to sort it all out. This repetitive formulaic storytelling is not unique to Howard, of course. I had similar experiences when reading Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories or Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories. It's probably best to read a few stories, then switch to something else, and come back to the stories again.
I can also tell that Howard was HUGELY influenced by H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Their fingerprints are all over Howard's stories. From Lovecraft, Howard weaves the setting, with it's alien gods and ancient powers walking the land, unknowable to mankind. From Burroughs, Howard develops some of Conan's traits from both Tarzan and John Carter. Conan is wild, unpredictable, animalistic. He's also cunning, powerful, and strong, able to overcome his enemies through sheer determination. He's also chivalric and honorable in his own way. Not quite a Southern gentleman, though.
John Carter of Mars - Volume 1 by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Since I got a bit tired of reading Conan, I decided to mix it up by reading Edgar Rice Burroughs for a bit, starting with A Princess of Mars. John Carter is a former Captain in the Confederate Army of America who goes to Arizona after the war to seek his fortune in gold prospecting. While being chased by Apaches, he hides in cave, then proceeds to have an out-of-body experience that propels his spiritual form to Mars (or Barsoom, as the locals call it).
He meets the local native green Martians and gains their trust. Then escapes their custody to join the red Martians, who are much more human-looking, and falls in love with their princess. It's easy to see how much Burroughs influenced the pulp adventure genre with his stories.
I was a bit surprised to find out that Burroughs was American. For whatever reason I assumed he was British. But nope, he was born in Chicago. I also thought he was writing books later than he did. Although he was a contemporary of Robert E. Howard, that was more towards the end of Burrough's life. A Princess of Mars was published in serialized format in 1912, while Howard was still a child.
The Dresden Files Book 1 - Storm Front by Jim Butcher
Jim Butcher's latest entry in The Dresden Files comes out in a couple of weeks. I believe it's the beginning of the end of the series, since I've read that Butcher wants to finish with around 20-21 stories. Anyway, in preparation, I've decided to do a re-read of The Dresden Files from Storm Front to Battle Ground.
Storm Front introduces us to Chicago's only professional wizard--he has an ad in the Yellow Pages and an office in midtown. Butcher also begins laying out the foundations of his urban fantasy settings, establishing the core rules in which his characters operate. At this point, Harry Dresden is fairly powerful, but he still has a long ways to go until he reaches the heights of power he wields later in the series. He'll take many levels of badass along the way. For now, he's enmeshed in a scheme by a rogue wizard who is creating a magical drug that opens up the "Third Eye" of normal people and lets them see the world for what it really is. In Harry's world this is a very bad idea, because most people are not prepared for that experience without extensive training. There are things that are revealed when using the Sight that can drive you insane. Harry himself will experience one of these later and he pays a heavy price for it.
It's pretty good for a debut novel, but I think the series really gets going with Book 3, Grave Peril as Butcher expands the world considerably and introduces amazing characters, such as Michael Carpenter.
The Dresden Files Book 2 - Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
This is probably my least favorite of The Dresden Files. It's not bad, but it's not the strongest entry. Harry is called upon to investigate a series of murders that only take place during the full moon. Naturally, he reaches the conclusion that it's the work of a pack of werewolves that have infiltrated Chicago. However, his work is complicated by the fact that the FBI is investigating the murders as well and their motives are not exactly pure.
This is where we also see how Harry begins to adapt and grow as a character, as he realizes that the tools and tricks he used in the first book, Storm Front, are not powerful enough to aid him. So he upgrades his equipment using his magical skills. This will become a recurring theme throughout the series. As Harry points out more than once, a wizard who is prepared for a contingency is a very, very formidable opponent, so he does his best to be prepared. Though often his preparations go by the wayside and he has to rely on his wits, skill, determination, and raw power more than once.
Some theories of loop quantum gravity predict small fluctuations of the speed of light in a vacuum. New experiments put an upper bound on how big those fluctuations could be, ruling out some of these theories.
I call them theories rather than mere speculation because they actually made sufficiently robust predictions to be ruled out in the first place. A theory can be wrong, but it's not a theory if you can't test it.
Too late, really. Zen 6 will be out this year, and if you want integrated graphics it looks like Intel's Panther Lake is faster - though only if you are willing to go with a system with soldered memory. If you need conventional DIMM or SODIMM memory, you get models cut down from 12 GPU cores to just 4, which isn't beating anything.
Nvidia GPUs are hardest hit so far, with reports of stock on all models running low in Germany and Japan. Since that was the first direct warning we had of the memory crunch (though in retrospect the signs were there months earlier) I bought myself a 9060 XT while they were in stock and on sale. Which as of time of writing, they still are.
Earlier AM4 motherboards often had as little as 16MB of ROM for the BIOS, which became a problem as AMD kept releasing new chips for the platform - Socket AM4 first appeared in 2016, even before Zen 1, and the most recent new processor for that socket, the 5500X3D, was launched in June last year. There were simply too many different models of compatible processors to fit all the necessary code into 16MB.
With AM5 confirmed to support the upcoming Zen 6 chips later this year, and strongly hinted to support Zen 7 due in 2028, it will end up being an even longer-lived platform with more CPUs, so motherboard makers are fixing the problem before it arises.
Also, without Amazon ever asking permission to do so.
Also also, without Amazon bothering to sync the data properly from your online store so that they don't, for example, still list long-discontinued products for sale.
No, they didn't have a brief moment of self-awareness. They're blaming three years of AI for thirty years of their own failings.
Musical Interlude
In 2008, a young Suzuka Nakamoto was part of a short-lived trio called Karen Girl's - yes, with the misplaced apostrophe - and performed Over the Future, the opening theme for the anime series Zettai Karen Children.
You may know her better as the lead singer for Babymetal.
Thanks Mikeski for pointing me to the Babymetal cover of Over the Future.
(I checked three different versions of the first clip. The full-length animated one is available in every single country in the world, except, for some reason, Belarus. If anyone is reading this from Belarus, sorry.)
Saturday Night Club ONT - January 10, 2026 [Double Ds]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to Club ONT - A collaboration of the Double D's - The Disco and The Dino.
One less D than when we started this thing. Adjust your expectations accordingly. The place might look a little different, but it will still open on time, and it will still only be as classy as the patrons. Yeah, that means YOU! Oh boy...
[Top photo:John Moulton Barn, Grand Teton National Park. Photo Credit: NPS]
He says to sales lady "I would like to buy a Baptist bra for my wife, size 36B."
With a quizzical look the sales lady asked "what kind of bra?"
He repeated a "Baptist bra, she said to tell you she wanted a Baptist bra, and you would know what she wanted."
"Ah now I remember" said the sales lady, "we don't get as many requests for them as we used to. Our customers lately want the Catholic bra, or the Salvation Army bra, or the Presbyterian type."
Confused a little flustered, the man asks "So, what are the differences?"
The lady responded "It's all really quite simple a Catholic type supports the masses. The Salvation Army lifts the fallen. The Presbyterian type keeps things staunch and upright."
He mused on the information for a minute and then asks "So, what is the Baptist type for?"
"They" she replied "make mountains out of molehills."
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Related comment of the week:
(It was either going to be here or in the comments. Might as well embrace and put it front and center.)
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Someone say boobies?
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Drink of the Night
Playing card cocktail tonight. We're still on the FOURs. As fate would have it on the first night without him, this one is in honor of our "D emeritus"
Just kidding, Doggo. You know we still think you're a good boy.
A Utah police department's use of artificial intelligence led to a police report stating - falsely - that an officer had been transformed into a frog.
The Heber City Police Department started using a pair of AI programs, Draft One and Code Four, to automatically generate police reports from body camera footage in December.
A report generated by the Draft One program mistakenly reported that an officer had been turned into a frog.
Thank you for your continued patronage of Club ONT. We regret to inform you that the "Club ONT 2026 Suggestion Box" has gone missing, so we will be unable to implement anything you may have jotted down and dropped in there. The box was last seen in Doggo's possession. On a completely unrelated note, Doggo was last seen digging a hole out back and burying something. We may never know what he was doing.
What a voice! And when she was young, absolutely adorable, which isn't a bad combination at all!
Linda Ronstadt's Love Is A Rose
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The Doors seem to be either an acquired taste, or maybe just not for everyone. I like them, although not as much as in my youth.
The Doors' Break On Through (To The Other Side)
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Hard to beat Merle Haggard for classic country. But there are so many genres in country music that I can't keep them apart, and I don't much care. Well, maybe modern pop country is beyond the pale for omeone whose first taste of country music was "Wreck Of The Old 97!"
Merle Haggard's Mama Tried
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Garrett's favorite artist!
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I am not a fan of Nirvana, but this is a solid song, which explains its popularity.
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These two videos are on Rolling Stone's list of best music videos of all time. Of course the number one video is by Beyonce, and that immediately proves that the list is shit.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies (TM) a spin it landed on home building.
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. Discussion of current events, religion and politics can elsewhere. Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice. Don't be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Home building? Is that really a "hobby"? Sure - with a little imagination and artistic license.
Many have built their own homes, with a wide range between tailoring a model and full custom. Many have remodeled, renovated and expanded existing homes. Even if none of those apply to you, most of you have experience living in a house.
Full disclosure: this post is shamelessly designed to obtain wisdom and ideas as we embark on a project to design and build our own house. We are in the early days, but tinkering with floor plans and thinking big thoughts. Your ideas may help inform our plans, so thank you in advance!
No, we do not intend to swing a hammer and pour concrete ourselves. We will have professionals involved but we still need to make the right design decisions.
No, we're not going to post too many details here for OpSec reasons.
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Have you built your own home? Share victories, horror stories and lessons learned.
Whether you built your home or not, what unique feature in your home are you most pleased with?
What unique feature seemed like a good idea at the time, but turned out to be too difficult, not worth the money, or something that ended up not being used as you envisioned?
In retrospect, what great idea did you consider and rejected, but now wish you had included?
Do you have any secret doors or hidden passageways (that you can disclose)?
Did you use pre-packaged plans or hire an architect to create custom plans?
Other than the usual pit of despair that comes from change orders and a bruised bank account, what lessons do you have from your experience of building or renovating?
Did you do anything to take care of the workers during your project (like bring coffee in the morning or a cold case of beer at the end of the day from time to time)?
Did you have a big party at the end? If so, did you invite people like architect, contractors and subcontractors?
What was the biggest surprise of the process (good or bad)?
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Designing a kitchen:
And picking countertop material.
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This is a nice timelapse of a custom home build - with cost for each step along the way:
Fancier but also includes cost breakdowns:
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Japanese building techniques:
Nails or screws?
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Hmm....
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What changed?
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Completely different program, but very impressive.
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Note: I have intentionally skipped most content from television shows and YT channels on homebuilding, home renovation, home rescue, etc. I don't want this thread to be about TV personalities, clickbait videos, or other manufactured drama.
I have also skipped tiny homes, shipping container homes, and the world of making homes out of airplanes or similar. We're not doing any of that.
Tumvante is the Swedish word for mitten. This random example is from 1920.
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an ice fishing theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
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Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute your own. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
- You have to muzzle it in public - You have to muzzle it around kids anywhere it is - Only adults can walk it legally - You can't let the pit bull loose in a dog park - You must spay or neuter by 6 months of age
We have personal experience with this topic here in the wild and wooly Central Valley of California, where even smaller dogs can be dangerous when they run in packs. VDH alluded to this in Mexifornia,
Most recently, our little blind kitten (who got over at least part of his blindness) escaped from the garage and was killed along with one of the old garden kitties he had befriended.
A few years ago, our precious little Shaggy the Dog was killed by a gang of pit bulls which ripped down part of our fence. See his photo with the PetMorons below. The dogs who killed Shaggy were kicked out of town by the sheriff, along with their owners (who had their own problems). The dogs had shown early signs of chasing a man on a bicycle, too.
I also know someone who has raised a much-loved champion Pit Bull. He kept her on leash in public.
Meet The PetMorons
This is our dear departed Shaggy. Hard to believe that he was given to us by a neighbor because he was causing family conflict. Probably involving urine.
I think he was about ten years old at the time of this photo. He was as sweet as he looked. Had some quirks.
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We had a new baby bird enter this world this morning (Jan 7). As some of you will recall I did a lot of posts from the last brood, but this time I’ll just be posting milestones.
He/she will get their first feeding this evening, and every 3-4 hours for the next 2 weeks.
We are expecting another hatching in the next few days.
Regards, David
Really Tiiiny
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A few pics of our dragon - she’s been featured before. Our son rescued her 7 years ago, and she was in such poor health that she was not expected to survive. This January she’ll be 12…
>>> She likes our enclosed porch on sunny days and has been very well behaved around the Christmas trees.
Later:
She was awake for a while this afternoon and evening, and this is what we’ll see for next few days to a week. She’s lying on her favorite heated rock and quite snug
Fun photos of Nayro! Thanks for sending them in.
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Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
On December 20 (scroll down), we saw some lovely wildflowers, including alpine flowers from Neal in Israel, from photos he took in Montenegro. We continue with his adventures today:
The other location where there were some attractive plants to photograph was one of the country's oldest monasteries, which is known for its gardens, as well as its antiquity.
They seem to use shaping of shrubs to lead the eye.
And the hanging baskets are magnificent.
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Striking entryway
Awww - A tiger under tiger lilies!
This is obviously not in the alpine regions of Montenegro.
Edible Gardening/Putting Things By
Went up north here in Israel to get away for a few days and check up on our vacation home. The current crop of lemons on our tree is a few hundred fruit. I need a few Horde members to fly over and help us pick them.
Best regards from northern Israel,
Biden’s Dog
They look great!
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We also had a bleg last week to get the Japanese going on development of tomato varieties (other than Momotaro?), so here's one:
CHILLING WITH THE RED 🍅 FRUIT/VEGETABLE and new blockbuster tomato variety called CANOVA at the Seed Co Vegetables trials site in Zimbabwe this afternoon. CANOVA is suitable for open field and green house tomato production.
It seems like a long time since the year began just days ago, doesn't it?
Zorhan Mamdani may have made a mistake when he said this during his inauguration:
We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.
Did people really think of New York government as based in rugged individualism? Do people who wish to be free from communism really think that they are totally independent agents?
Mamdani is good at smiling, but he also issues sound bites which we should maybe remember as the business of running the city presents itself. We will have opportunities to undermine the present popularity of socialism in at least a few minds.
Many people don't want to see poor Cea Weaver cancelled, just because she thinks home ownership = white supremacy and she hangs with a bunch of people who want to impoverish her mother, her family and ultimately each other.
Why are we downplaying momentous events in Iran? Melanie Phillips said this about Iran a while ago, and Trump has also responded. The internet blackout makes reliable information hard to get right now, but there is a lot goin on.
Data Republican (small r), whose mad genius database skills have laid bare the corruption and self-dealing between Washington and an army of NGOs, was the subject of a weekend hit piece in the Salt Lake Tribune — and her husband might have gotten the worst of it.
On Sunday, the Trib's "emerging news reporter," Brock Marchant, published an article that was little more than a summary of an earlier Rolling Stone piece that Jennica Pounds (Data r) says contains "multiple factual inaccuracies."
Rather than interview Pounds directly for his report — she isn't difficult to reach — Marchant contacted her husband, Brent, through his work email. He did so late on Saturday night, mere hours before the 6 a.m. Sunday publication.
Jennica posted that Brent "responded professionally" and explained that "his business activities are entirely separate" from the Data Republican website but that Jennica would reply later. "As a mother, my family responsibilities naturally took priority on a weekend, and I was unable to immediately respond to your inquiry."
Also, Jennica's deafness and autism often require assistance for clear communication.
"Instead of allowing me a fair opportunity to reply, you chose to rush publication," she continued, proving "you prioritize sensationalism over accuracy, fairness, and responsible journalism."
What happened next is predictable.
Incidentally, Data Republican's complex "X" post on how government types view systems rather than people, as applied to Venezuela, probably hurt some feelings.
The Classical Saturday Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
[Similar theme at deer camp about shooting the Monster Buck. "It's possible but not probable".]
*****
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Marion)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice.
3) Running with sharp objects? Remember your "Affordable Care Act" Deductible. It is now more expensive than the sale of your neighbor's kidney. Just sayin'.
4) Have a great weekend!
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
11/15 – Sponge posted an update on the “First lady”. She is doing OK from the surgery pain-wise, however it appears her compromised immune system from chemo is susceptible to viruses. She has been spiking a fever all weekend.
12/13 Update – The First lady is doing well. She is still on restrictions but things are progressing nicely. The last mammogram showed clean. They are grateful to all who have been praying for her.
1/7 Update – They send thanks for the thoughts and prayers over the past year. The latest visit with her urologist revealed blood in her urine. The Doc didn’t seem concerned, but there will be more scans of her bladder and kidneys to see if they find anything more serious.
11/20 - Bluebell sent an update on grammie winger - good news! At her appointment, the doctor said her bloodwork is nearly perfect and her cancer cell count is dropping. She is in minimal pain. The chemo is working, thanks be to God! She will go back in 3 weeks for another round of chemo and then they will do a CT scan to see if she can have surgery to clean out the rest of the tumors. She is convinced – CONVINCED – that this is due in no small part to the treasured prayers of friends and family! They gave her weeks, and now she is looking at possible remission.
12/17 Update – Bluebell sent along another update from grammie winger. She has had 4 rounds of chemo, which have fried her short term memory (her words) and caused great fatigue. She was scheduled for surgery this week, but the doctor decided she was too weak, so she will continue with chemo until she is stronger. She apologized for not being around much because she can’t follow conversations, but is praying that will get better once her chemo is over. In the meantime, she wishes to share her Christmas greetings with the “motley crew”, and she appreciates every prayer.
11/29 – From about That Time asked for prayers after a lymphoma diagnosis. From about That Time has already begun chemo, and the kids and granddaughter had fun cutting off a ponytail and shaving hair in preparation.
12/13 Update – The first week of chemo was “like buttah”, but the second week was spent in the hospital, dealing with side effects.
12/3 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. She had an MRI on 12/3, and will meet with the oncologist on 12/4, the surgeon on 12/8, and the surgery on 12/11. This is a good thing, because it looks like more tumors are starting to crop up in her liver. It doesn’t appear to have spread beyond there yet, thank goodness.
12/18 Update – Teresa will have a “pump fill” on Friday, then head out of town. (The fill is just Heparin and saline to keep the pump flowing for the next 2 weeks.) After they are back, the pump will have the new chemo medication. The best Christmas present is, if this pump works, she could go 2-3 YEARS before worrying about the cancer coming back. It is truly a Christmas miracle. She wrote that they are blessed to have such stellar medical care nearby and so many people saying prayers on their behalf.
12/12 – Bulg requested prayers for his wife’s brother’s wife, whose dementia has taken a turn for the worse. This week she entered a memory care facility. He asks for prayers for her, Bulg’s brother-in-law, and their two grown daughters. Bulg also asked for prayers for a woman from church who has cancer, and the woman’s granddaughter, who lives with her.
12/13 – Our Country is Screwed asked for prayers for a dear friend’s 3 week old granddaughter who is battling meningitis. They are waiting on results from an MRI. Another friend’s wife is having kidney issues. She has only one kidney, and it isn’t functioning well.
12/13 – San Franpsycho requested prayers for Mrs. F, who sprained her foot due to a fall on 12/12.
12/13 – FenelonSpoke asked for prayers for retired organist Jessie, for strength and for her to feel God’s love. In the past month Jessie’s daughter has died from cancer, as have her two closest friends from church, whom she had known about 85 years.
12/13 – Schnorflepuppy asked for prayers for his wife. She was diagnosed a few weeks back with inflammatory breast cancer and started chemo on 12/2. On 12/3 she spiked a 104 fever and had to be brought to the hospital, where they discovered pneumonia. She has been in ICU for most of the week, to get her enough oxygen and work on the pneumonia. She is improving, but slowly.
12/22 Update – Unfortunately, the improvement trend has reversed. She has spent the last 8 days on oxygen support. The doctors would like to wean her off the vent eventually, but they need to see more improvement in her condition and thus far, they haven’t.
12/26 Update – Schnorflepuppy’s wife got progressively worse on Christmas Day and started a rapid decline, despite the best efforts of the doctors and staff. She transitioned to palliative care on 12/26 and passed away in the afternoon.
12/16 – Jim in Kalifornia sent an update that surgery went well, and his thanks for the prayers.
12/16 – Banana Dream asked for prayers for his wife, who is having surgery on 12/17 to remove pins, steel, hardware, etc. that was put in a year ago after a really bad break of her ankle. The hardware has caused various nerve issues and inflammation over the last year, so the surgeons will be removing it.
12/17 Update – Banana Dream sent his thanks to everyone who offered prayers for his wife’s surgery. It went well. The surgeon removed most of the hardware. There was one part that was too fused with the bone, so it had to stay in. She is doing well. In about 2 weeks, she should be able to walk and then in 6-8 weeks she should be fine.
12/17 – Annie’s Stew sends thanks to God for notsothoreau, who sends many, many prayer requests from the various comments and postings. Notsothoreau is so diligent and such a sweet person!
12/17 – Weird Dave requested prayers. His parents have realized they need to move to assisted living, but they are 1500 miles from Weird Dave. Prayers for clarity on how to make the necessary changes as efficiently as possible, as well as to find the best place for his parents, that will also work for the entire family.
12/20 – Legally Sufficient asked for prayers for a brother who was having carpal tunnel surgery on Christmas Eve. There was a cancellation, so he took the spot, even though the brother is hosting the family dinner on Christmas Eve.
12/20 – Morgan, longtime lurker, takes tango lessons from Sebastian, whose son, Matias, is recovering from brain surgery. The MRI were read on 12/19, and the surgeons did not remove the entire tumor. Even though the biopsy indicated the tumor was benign, the boy is probably facing several rounds of chemo. Please pray for the boy’s continued recovery in El Salvador.
12/20 – Nurse Ratched requested prayers for her friend T. He is having some unrelenting (probably cancer treatment related) pain and needs comfort – both physically and spiritually.
12/23 – Joe Kidd asked for prayers for his friend, Bill, who is grieving the sudden death of a former girlfriend. They had broken up a few months ago over her alcohol use. Bill describes the loss as the toughest thing life has dealt him. Bill is the sole caregiver for his 90 year old mother and may need to take early retirement to continue in that role. Prayers for comfort, strength, and wisdom are welcome.
12/23 – Prayers are requested for Inspector’s boss, “B”, who is in his early 40s, and is being hit hard by Covid. He went to ER, after coughing so badly that he separated a couple of ribs. The pain in his ribs is so bad he doesn’t want to cough, which increases the odds of pneumonia. Please pray for healing.
12/27 – buzzion asked for prayers for a friend named Christina. Christina has struggled with a lot, including addiction and relapse. Buzzion has not heard from Christina in a while and hopes she is okay. Please pray that Christina finds her way and knows that people love and care for her and believe in her.
1/3 Update – Christina was arrested on 1/3. Please pray for this to be a final wake-up call for her.
12/27 – JB asked for prayers that he would gain peace about what God has planned for his job in 2026. Also, please pray for JB’s estranged son, that he and his household will be saved.
12/27 – San Franpsycho posted a praise report from a former colleague, who has defeated metastasized uterine cancer.
12/27 – BlackOrchid requested prayers for a Navy Veteran uncle who has been struggling with his health the last few weeks. The root cause is undetermined, but recurrent infection/sepsis keeps sending him back to the hospital. It seems to be worsening his dementia, which makes it harder for BlackOrchid’s aunt to handle him.
1/3 Update – BlackOrchid’s uncle (her “stand-in dad”) is still not doing well. He will probably need to be put in a LTC facility although they are doing everything possible to avoid this. He is 86, and at the stage where his immune system can’t fight back well.
12/27 – pookysgirl posted that their unborn baby girl, Violet Marie, had passed away.
12/27 – free tibet posted about his diagnosis with Giant Cell Arteritis and subsequent vision loss in the right eye. This is a recurrence of the same from 5 years ago in the left eye. The treatment is not painful but regaining vision is “very iffy”. Thank you all for the prayers.
1/1 – L asked for prayers for her brother Ron, who is hospitalized. Ron has been in and out of the hospital for 6 months. He has a nasty infection in his knee, that will not clear, despite 5 rounds of antibiotics. L and her sister have been run ragged trying to help Ron.
1/3 – Legally Sufficient asked for prayers for the repose of the soul of a boss, who passed away suddenly early Sunday morning. Prayers are appreciated for strength, faith, and understanding for the boss’ wife and all who loved him.
1/6 – Diogenes requested prayers for his best friend since college, who was diagnosed with cancer. Within hours or hearing this, the friend’s son, a man that Diogenes has known since he was a baby, collapsed from what appears to be a brain tumor. The prognosis isn’t hopeful. Please pray for both of these fine men.
1/6 – Commissar of plenty and festive little hats sent prayers of thanks that it was not cancer, and asked for prayers for courage to even set a date to reverse the colostomy surgery. It was a lot to get over the first time!
1/7 11/6 - D sent an update on his wife Susan, and her battle with pancreatic cancer, as well as her recent infection. He sent his thanks to everyone for the prayers. They are helping and much appreciated. Susan’s infection finally has been healed, so she was able to resume chemo. It’s been really rough.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
I say alleging, but according to the filing, the president of the National Music Publishers' Association put the entire plan in writing as an email threat sent to Twitter even before the campaign started.
And you can prod it into spitting out sentence fragments from Harry Potter by feeding it sentence fragments from Harry Potter, because it is just a very sophisticated autocorrect algorithm.
The headline is more sensationalist, but this is what the story boils down to.
You know what else are sophisticated autocorrect algorithms? A lot of people. (Twitter)
The FCC said today's order allows SpaceX to "upgrade the Gen2 Starlink satellites with advanced form factors and cutting-edge technology," and "operate across Ku-, Ka-, V-, E-, and W-band frequencies, supporting both Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS)." The FCC said it is waiving "obsolete requirements that prevented overlapping beam coverage and enhanced capacity," and is letting SpaceX "add new orbital shells at altitudes ranging from 340 km to 485 km, optimizing coverage and performance."
Amazing what can be accomplished when the government isn't at war with its most productive citizens.
Page has already bought a $173 million property in Miami.
The tax strikes very close to home for Page and Brin, because they have special voting privileges that under an explicit provision of the legislation means they will be taxed not at 1% of their on-paper wealth per year, but at 5%.
Amazing what can be accomplished by not interrupting your enemy when they are making a mistake.
They four can return at any time aboard the Crew Dragon capsule, and NASA is in talks with SpaceX to move forward the planned February 15 mission to send a fresh crew to the space station.
Two nights ago on CNN -- on the yearly celebration of January 6th -- Abby Philip and her leftwing guests agreed that Ashli Babbitt deserved to be killed because a cop gave her an order and she refused to comply.
Great, teachers are coming up with new excuses for staying at home on their fat asses:
Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
17h
🚨 JUST IN: Because of the protests and riots, Minneapolis Schools are CANCELING mandatory in-person classes, offering virtual learning until Feb. 12
It's like a 3rd world country. Too dangerous to leave your house because of leftists.
SEND THE GUARD!
On MSNBC, a left-wing rabble-rousing fake pastor lies his gay ass off:
FactPost
@factpostnews
Pastor: I saw ICE agents circling a young woman who appeared to be Hispanic. I said to this ICE agent, 'Take me, stop harassing her.' The agent got in my face, pointed a gun at me, and said, 'Are you afraid now?' To which I said, 'I am not afraid.' The next thing I knew, they were putting handcuffs on me, and they put me in the back of an SUV. I asked them if I was under arrest. They said to me, 'Well, you're white, you won't be any fun anyway.'
Mark Hemingway commented: "Of all the things that didn't happen, this didn't happen the most."
Elderly AWFL Karen wants you to know she's sick of you MAGA types calling her a Karen. You know who the Karen is? YOU.
Woke asshole AWFL broke her retainer by grinding her teeth because she's watching Trump "attack science." She becomes distraught when she finds out her dentist might have voted for Trump.
Democrat party official and LGBTQ activist arrested for, you'll never guess, child porn.
Dumpy leftwing Junior AWFL says she's fleeing Nazis in the US by moving to Germany. Dis Bitch can't even cut carbs, I don't think she's going to emigrate.
Somalis are once again the perfect example of the failure of empathy in the West.
Why should this Somali man be allowed to live in our country after he raped a 10-year-old girl repeatedly over an hour, plus raped another 18-year-old girl?
Conan O'Brien: "Comedians" Who Do Nothing But Shout "F*** Trump" Are Not Comedians, Actual Comedians Need to be Funny
—Ace
This guy's a liberal asshole -- remember him doing PSAs for the beauty and stability of Haiti, after Trump correctly diagnosed it as a shithole?
He's making an argument for Fighting Liberal Comedians like himself to actually try to be funny, because actual funniness is the "best weapon against power." (Um, it's not-- weapons are the best weapons -- but it's a weapon, I guess.)
So he's not making a conservative point here, just telling his fellow shitlibs how to be more effective in their anti-Trump agitation.
But if he's running down Steven Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel -- which he CLEARLY is -- I approve.
Oh, by the way, in case you see this video of George Carlin ranting about "ideology becoming your identity" in your feed, it's an AI fake. I got suspicious because 1, Carlin was a cranky far-left liberal and he usually tried to spare the left from criticism, and 2, the guy died like 25 years ago but this rant sounds like it's about the current moment, right now. It's just not possible to see the future that clearly, and I can tell you that because I've gone into the future with the time machine I don't have and all of our predictions are far from the mark.
Axios: Trump Alerted the Secret Service about Marjorie Taylor Greene, Believing She Tipped Off Code Pink About His Location So That They Could Ambush Him
The relationship between President Trump and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene grew so poisonous that the White House told the Secret Service that Greene may have tipped off Code Pink protesters about his surprise visit last fall to a D.C. restaurant she recommended, two sources on Trump's team tell Axios.
That episode -- which involved a chaotic confrontation between anti-war activists and Trump -- embarrassed the president and intensified concerns in the White House about his safety, a year after he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
Why it matters: Trump aides view the Joe's Seafood debacle as a point of no return in his relationship with Greene, a Trump ally-turned-critic who left office this week.
Greene told Axios that any suggestion she revealed Trump's dinner plans was "an absolute lie, a dangerous lie. I would never do that."
She said she recommended the restaurant to Trump but didn't know when he would go there.
Greene added that only the fancy lobbyist hangout -- a few blocks from the White House, at 15th and H NW -- and Trump aides knew of the reservation. She said: "The story you should be writing is why didn't the Secret Service sweep the restaurant," and have metal detectors at the door?
Yeah, that's not a defense. That's bringing up irrelevant bullshit to cloud the issues.
It's unclear whether Greene is being investigated by the Secret Service, which did not respond to a request for comment. Greene didn't respond when asked whether the Secret Service had contacted her.
Zoom in: Trump's Sept. 9 outing to Joe's with Vice President Vance and several Cabinet members was part of an effort to show the president's deployment of National Guard troops had made D.C. streets safer.
Protesters with the liberal group Code Pink got within feet of Trump's table and chanted: "Free DC.! Free Palestine! Trump is the Hitler of our time!"
For weeks afterward, Trump aides say they tried to discern how the group knew about his unannounced dinner plans, which were known only to a few people. The media wasn't given a heads-up about Trump's plans.
...
White House officials didn't provide direct evidence that Greene alerted the protesters, but said their suspicions rest on two factors:
1. Her suggesting where Trump should dine
Officials say that after recommending the president go to Joe's, Greene repeatedly called White House staffers the day of the dinner to confirm he was going.
I mean... that's game over, right? She claims that she didn't know when he was going but she kept calling him on the day of the dinner to verify he was going there.
After Trump heard about Greene's calls, he called her shortly before leaving the White House and confirmed his planned visit, the sources said.
Greene -- who was a regular at the restaurant -- didn't show up there when Trump and other officials were there, which struck some Trump aides as odd.
Indeed. Why didn't this attention whore and would-be teachers pet show up?
2. Greene's relationship with Code Pink
White House aides note Greene is friends with Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin.
Greene and the organization are aligned in their opposition to the U.S. providing military aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Benjamin last year praised Greene for opposing Trump's bombing of nuclear sites in Iran and for calling to strip foreign aid from the Pentagon's budget.
...
"I have enjoyed a friendship with Medea for a few years now, even though politics says that's not allowed," Greene said later.
...
The other side: Greene felt slighted from the early days of Trump's second administration, according to a source familiar with her thinking.
She believed Trump lieutenants didn't take her suggestions seriously and ignored her outreach even though she'd shown her loyalty to Trump for years, the source said.
That's because you're a fucking retard and your ideas are retard-shit.
This is exactly what I told this little WH tool that wrote this absurd dangerous LIE about me on behalf of the WH because they are mad at me for telling the truth about the President and forcing the release of the Epstein files. Now they are making up horrific lies about me!!
Her denial makes me think it's true, because she just starts spamming out irrelevant claims, like that it was all the Secret Service's fault because, she claims, they didn't sweep the restaurant. Okay, maybe they did or maybe they didn't -- that's irrelevant to the question of whether you tipped off Code Pink, and spamming out irrelevant nonsense makes me think: "The guilty mind betrays itself."
I don't feel like quoting or addressing the rest of her screed. It's her usual shrieky-freaky scatterbrained ding-a-ling nonsense.
The left has been claiming that it was okay to run the ICE agent down because she didn't know he was an ICE agent. They make this claim when agents wear masks and stuff. They claim that that gives them the right to treat them as muggers and use deadly force in "self defense."
Of course, this woman was trained by "ICE Watch" and specifically went to the place to harass ICE.
Renee Nicole Good, the mom who was killed by a federal agent after veering her car toward him, was an anti-ICE "warrior" and was part of a group of activists who worked to "document and resist" the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, The Post can reveal.
Good, who moved to the city last year, linked up with the anti-ICE activists through her 6-year-old son's woke charter school, which boasts that it puts "social justice first" and prioritizes "involving kids in political and social activism," multiple local sources said.
"She was a warrior. She died doing what was right," a mother named Leesa, whose child attends the same school, told The Post at a growing vigil where Good was killed Wednesday.
"I know she was doing the right thing. I watched the video plenty of times but I also know in my heart the woman she was, she was doing everything right."
Good and her wife, Rebecca, 40, were raising the boy together in the mostly working-class, activist-heavy neighborhood of south Minneapolis, which features tree-lined streets and a large number of homes with windows decked out in LGBTQ+ flags or signs depicting George Floyd.
Just as many others did in the lefty enclave, Good sent her son to Southside Family Charter School, a K-5 academy opened in 1972 that from its inception has been "unabashedly dedicated to social justice education," according to co-founder Susie Oppenheim.
It was through her involvement in the school community that Good became involved in "ICE Watch" -- a loose coalition of activists dedicated to disrupting ICE raids in the sanctuary city.
"From my understanding, she was involved in social justice ... we are a tight-knit community and a lot of parents are [activists]," former Southside gym teacher Rashad Rich, who resigned from the school last month, told The Post.
He said current event topics like the killing of George Floyd were regular parts of the curriculum, and that last month students took a field trip where they learned about "aboriginal issues" -- a reference to the indigenous people of far-away Australia.
Coalitions similar to ICE Watch have cropped up all over the country -- with activists using phone apps, whistles and car horns to warn neighborhoods when ICE shows up.
ICE Watch and adjacent groups can also turn confrontational -- with numerous instances of activists ramming agents with their cars in the past.
"[Renee Good] was trained against these ICE agents -- what to do, what not to do, it's a very thorough training," Leesa said.
"To listen to commands, to know your rights, to whistle when you see an ICE agent," she added.
Leftwing women are now majority psychopathic and enraptured by the idea of killing people.
Democrats call for rioters to “put your body on the line.” Rioters do that. One eventually gets shot while accelerating an SUV into an ICE agent. Democrats and leftists blame the Trump administration and urge for more direct action against ICE. https://t.co/kNErJOxN2p
There's something very wrong with left-wing women. All I can say is, if you're big enough to lay hands on someone else, you're big enough to take a punch in the face. We're going to be seeing some Equal Rights and Equal Lefts.
Nearly 24 hours after the internet was completely shut down, images are still emerging from across Iran.
Mosques, Islamic centers, and government buildings were destroyed overnight, including sites in Tehran and cities across the country. Despite claims minimizing the scale, the footage tells a very different story.
This is the aftermath.
Iranians toppled the statue of Quds force commander Suleimani -- the "austere religious scholar" drone-struck by Trump -- and cheered as they did so.
Nearly 24 hours after the internet was completely shut down, images are still emerging from across Iran.
Mosques, Islamic centers, and government buildings were destroyed overnight, including sites in Tehran and cities across the country. Despite claims minimizing the scale, the… pic.twitter.com/yFIAOM8Mtm
* No internet
* No phone calls
* No communication with the outside world
Yet the Islamic regime's main state broadcaster is airing and promoting Tucker Carlson.
This was way too much for my brain to handle.
Worth every dollar Russia and Qatar are paying him.
He must be so proud!
In Tucker Carlson's newsletter yesterday, he blamed the death of the lunatic leftist lesbian on... yes, you guessed it, Israel.
If you're wondering how he connects those dots, easy: He claims that Americans have become inured to the sight of a government killing protesters by Israel's actions in Gaza, and therefore Israel's policy of indiscriminately murdering Mostly Peaceful Protesters has infected us.
He also attacks the right for failing to view the ICE attacker "through a human lens." We're meant to sympathize and grieve for the attempted murderer, and if we don't, we're showing our lack of humanity.
Boy this kind of hypermoralistic, preening, I'm-better-than-you-because-I-have-greater-empathy sure reminds me of the hard left.
Qatarlson is also defending Qatar's injection of $6.6 billion into American universities, asking what's the big deal if an Arab country wants to buy some influence in our schools? At least they're not Jews!
No seriously that's what he says. He says it's no big deal Because AIPAC.
US Marines Seize Another False-Flag Ship of the "Dark Fleet"
—Ace
Trump announced that the planned "second wave" of attacks on Venezuela have been cancelled, as the narcoterrorist state is releasing political prisoners in an attempt to seek peace.
President Trump on Friday said he canceled an "expected second Wave of Attacks" on Venezuela, less than a week after U.S. strikes in Caracas resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"Venezuela is releasing large numbers of political prisoners as a sign of 'Seeking Peace,'" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "This is a very important and smart gesture. The U.S.A. and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better, and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure."
"Because of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks, which looks like it will not be needed, however, all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes," the president continued. "At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House."
He previously said during a press conference on Saturday that a second attack would be "much larger" but likely no longer "necessary," citing the success of the initial attack.
It might also be that Trump's blockade of Venezuela might be enough to do the trick.
The WSJ:
The U.S. Coast Guard boarded a fifth oil tanker early Friday morning and continued to eye other vessels trying to evade the U.S. blockade on sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela, according to U.S. officials.
The tanker targeted Friday was the Olina, said the officials and Vanguard, a shipping security and tracking company. The ship, previously named the Minerva M, was sanctioned by the U.S. for its role in transporting Russian oil. The move is likely to inflame tensions between Washington and Moscow days after the U.S. seized a ship that claimed Russian protection and was being escorted by the Russian Navy.
The ship has an East Timor flag, and the last time it transmitted its position was in mid-November near the coast of Venezuela, according to Marine Traffic, a global ship-tracking service, which added that it was sailing under a false flag.
In the short run, this does put pressure on Delcy Rodriguez, who wants to run the Maduro regime without Maduro himself, who will spend much of the rest of his life as a guest of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She needs the revenue from illicit oil sales just as much as Maduro did, and possibly more, given her less-stable situation at the top of the regime. Trump wants the regime gone, but doesn't necessarily want to put boots on the ground to accomplish it. Better to starve the regime and let the hyenas tear each other apart, but hopefully before Venezuelans pay the prices for that kind of collapse for too long.
The "dark fleet" also puts money in the hands of Putin and the Mullahs of Iran.
When unverified rumors first circulated that Rep. Ilhan Omar had once been married to her own brother, some liberals were scandalized that Republicans had the nerve to mention the rumor at all. You don't accuse someone of something like that without solid proof, as one friend said to me.
But it was all a matter of context. The same sentence that sounded bizarre and depraved to American ears--she married her own brother?--sounded banal to anyone familiar with the Somali diaspora, where pretending to be someone's mother, wife, or sister is a common way of obtaining legal residency for them. A 2008 State Department study of African refugees (many of them Somali) seeking family reunification in the United States found that 80 percent of applications included at least one fraudulent family member. The program was then suspended for four years until a DNA testing requirement could be added.
...
The type of fraud alleged in the [Nick Shirley] video matched the fraud described in an August 2018 memo by a Minnesota Department of Human Services investigator, which claimed that "the overall fraud rate in this program [CCAP] is at least 50 percent." DHS stopped payments to fifteen daycares for "demonstrated intentional overbilling" on the scale of "an average of 23.9 children per day, per center."
Keep that in mind when they say "We found three kids there." Okay, how many kids were they bilking the government for?
These centers did serve children, just not as many as they claimed. "It is not unusual to see attendance records claim X number of children arrived at the center between 8:00 am and 11:00 am when the video surveillance shows only a fraction of that number," the memo states.
Here's an additional excerpt she posted to Twitter:
A blackpilled commenter said "What is the gop going to do?," suggesting the answer is "nothing."
Greg Foreman compiles some clips of Scott Bessent and others talking about this piracy.
Some of the highlights:
1) Bessent will now require anyone attempting to send money overseas to check a box asserting that they are not on public assistance. If they're on welfare, then they can't send money overseas, because they're obviously fraudsters. People on welfare cannot afford to send pirate booty back to their pirate nation -- not unless they're double- and triple dipping.
Now, of course they can check that box even if they are on welfare -- but now they're committing an easy-to-prove crime.
2) In areas in which fraud is rampant, Bessent is lowering the Suspicious Activity Threshhold from $10,000 to $3,000. It's not a crime to send money above those amounts, but Treasury and the IRS will be scrutinizing these transactions. Again, this applies to specific areas where fraud is rampant.
3) Bessent says that up to 10% of all government spending may be fraudulent, which he says works out to 1-2% of the total national Gross Domestic Product -- everything we produce, everything we make -- being stolen from us.
4) He's also sending squads of IRS criminal investigators to open up investigations into four broad areas of fraud.
5) An official says that Minnesota's DHS -- I think that's Housing Services -- was required to fill out forms certifying that they had scrutinized grant applications and done due diligence to determine they are not fraudulent. But the workers in the DHS did not bother filling out these forms. When the forms were demanded, they began fabricating them and back-dating them to make it appear that they were doing their jobs, rather than just sending out American taxpayer dollars to pirates.
Below: Scanning a spending bill, Joni Ernst discovered a suspicious $1 million earmark for a Somali "charity." Guess who it had been inserted by? That's right, brother-fucker Ilhan Omar.
She stripped the earmark out and hopefully contacted the IRS and DOJ to let them know they should investigate the matter.
New Yorkers are shocked after footage goes viral of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Tenant Director stating that white people will be HEAVILY impacted after they transition property "as an individual good to a collective good" [CBD]
Podcast: The Somali grift might be the biggest financial scandal in American history, will the Mullahs finally fall? CFPB gets a lifeline from a corrupt judge, Brigitte Bardot...RIP, and more!
This isn't Christmas Eve fare, and I thought about waiting until the 26th to post it, but supposedly an amateur detective has solved the Zodiac killer mystery. And the horrific Black Dahlia killing. He says it's the same person! I always thought of them as very far apart in time but I think Black Dahlia was mid-fifties (nope, 1947) mid and the Zodiac murders began in 1968 so it's possible it's the same killer.
The killer, if it's the same man, would have been in his 20s when he killed the Black Dahlia and his 40s when he did the Zodiac murders. Possible.
A little caveat: I saw someone snark on Reddit, "The Zodiac case gets solved more often than Wordle." There are a ton of coincidences here, supposedly, like a Zodiac cipher being solved by the name "Elizabeth." Elizabeth Short was the name of the so-called Black Dahlia.
If you don't know about the Black Dahlia, don't look it up. Just accept that it's grisly on the level of Jack the Ripper.
Yes, the named suspect resembles the police sketch of Zodiac.
