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
I'll take European solidarity with Ukraine seriously when they start sending troops.
It is relatively easy to send military aid and "humanitarian" support...after all, that is simply a financial transfer from their citizens to Ukraine, of course with hefty chunks of those funds going to the well-connected.
And let us not forget the ongoing purchase of Russian natural gas and even a bit of oil by the oh-so-sophisticated EU bourgeoisie, who spout anti-Russian platitudes while heating their homes with Russian gas. The smug hypocrisy would be difficult to tolerate if they weren't masters at it. They have been safe under the American military umbrella for 80 years while simultaneously criticizing America at every turn.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council António Costa are in Kyiv for the anniversary, along with the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Norway, and Sweden.
“Our objective is a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law,” Costa, von der Leyen, and European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in a joint statement.
"We support all efforts aimed at achieving such a peace – a peace with dignity and long-term security. Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the cornerstone. No country can annex its neighbour. Borders cannot be changed by force. The aggressor cannot be rewarded," the EU leaders added.
How very high-minded of them! Now send your young men and women and trans-men and trans-women to fight alongside the Ukrainian people, and your empty words of support might be taken seriously. And rebuild your militaries so that you can at least support the American mission to protect Europe and its trade routes.
Otherwise, shut up, support American efforts to end this regional border dispute, and continue to lose your cultures and your souls to the Muslim invaders you invited in.
And here is the smuggest of them all! Macron, whose country has provided barely half of what the UK has sent to Ukraine, is the biggest chicken-hawk of them all!
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X that the war is a “triple failure for Russia: military, economic, and strategic.”
“It has strengthened NATO—the very expansion Russia sought to prevent—galvanized Europeans it hoped to weaken, and laid bare the fragility of an imperialism from another age. Because Ukraine is the first line of defence of our continent, France and Europe stand resolutely by its side.” Macron added.
Strong words coming from a man whose country has an almost unblemished record of defeat in the last 100 years. Ukraine had better hold the line, because once the Russians get to the French border, they will have a clear path to the channel.
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
Good morning kids. Let's talk about some heroes and villains, no, I'm not referring to an old Beach Boys tune. But starting off with the latter:
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s office is allegedly halting a case against several Democrats who took part in a video and encouraged military members to disobey orders, according to a report. “Three people familiar with the matter” reportedly told NBC News that Pirro’s office “decided to stop pursuing the case” against Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), and Jason Crow (D-CO).
The decision reportedly comes after a “federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., unanimously rejected an attempt by Pirro” to have the Democrat lawmakers indicted for their roles in a video in which they encouraged military members to disobey orders,
The miscreants cited above quite literally were encouraging military personnel to commit mutiny. Their excuse was that they were assuring those serving in uniform that they had their backs in the event that President Trump were to issue illegal orders that supposedly endangered the citizenry. This of course was both as a means of destabilizing/kneecapping President Trump's legitimate authority as commander-in-chief to maintain order in the face of an actual Democrat led/instigated/fueled/fomented insurrection by instigating a fiction that the President was going to institute martial law and declare himself President for life or some such other pornographic drivel. I am referring to the civil disorder and rioting and violent confrontations against ICE, National Guardsmen and law enforcement agencies who are merely doing their duty. As well as military action vis a vis the Venezuelan drug running operations, and elsewhere around the globe.
I have never served in uniform but knowing many who have and I know that even the lowliest enlisted man or woman, let alone those in the officer corps are certainly instructed and have a basic understanding and the morals and ethics to know right from wrong. It is otherwise axiomatic that those who choose to serve their country in our armed forces are innately decent moral upstanding individuals who have a love of their country, something totally alien and abhorrent to those on the Left and the Democrat Party.
And what of Jeannine Pirro? If a federal grand jury refuses to indict the traitors, there's not much she can do I suppose, or did she just throw up her hands and quit.
The Nazi soldiers made their orders very clear: Jewish American prisoners of war were to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and sent to an uncertain fate.
But Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds would have none of that. As the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer held in the German POW camp, he ordered more than 1,000 Americans captives to step forward with him and brazenly pronounced: “We are all Jews here.”
He would not waver, even with a pistol to his head, and his captors eventually backed down.
Edmonds’ moral stand in a Nazi prison camp is finally being marked with the United States’ highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, more than eight decades after he calmly faced down a German officer’s pistol.
When you consider the hideous nature and intention behind what Mark Kelly and those other traitorous bastards did with that video, and it is a complete debasing of the blessed memory of Roddie Edmonds as well as every other wonderful guy and gal who faithfully served and still serve our nation. And that makes my blood boil.
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
Victor Davis Hanson: Elite fashions harden into dogma, dissent becomes taboo, institutions fall in line—and only when reality intrudes does yesterday’s madness begin its overdue collapse. The Graveyard of Destructive Ideas
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) defended the U.S. Coast Guard for continuing to work while not getting paid during the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, noting that “America loses” as a result of the shutdown. John Fetterman Defends Coast Guard, Blasts DHS Shutdown: ‘America Loses’
The party of Roosevelt faces a consequential choice that will shape its moral credibility and political future. The question is simple: Will Democrats confront antisemitism and anti-Zionist extremism within their ranks, or continue to excuse, elevate, and normalize it? (Pimping the progressive/fascistic FDR as sane, pro-America-as-founded and Judeophilic is laughable, but hey, it's the NY Post - jjs) How anti-Israel Democrats are radicalizing the party
(Robert) Spencer believes that Mamdani deliberately omitted the part where Muslims massacred Jews. “There is no way he does not mean this as a warning to the Jews of New York,” said Spencer, “that he is going to be fostering mass Muslim migration into New York and he expects it to shake out exactly as it did when Mohammad moved to Medina.” Most Jewish New Yorkers have no idea what Mamdani is doing. They think he is just quoting his religious tradition to foster tolerance, when in fact he is threatening the entire New York Jewish community. Mamdani’s Disguised Threat to New York City’s Jews
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
During Tucker Carlson’s disturbingly dishonest, ultra-combative interview with U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, Carlson replayed his biggest tropes: America’s “toxic relationship with Israel.” Israeli leaders were in league with Jeffrey Epstein and had visited Epstein Island. (After Huckabee suggested a defamation lawsuit, Carlson immediately backtracked and uploaded an apology video.) Israel was “purging Christians from the Holy Land,” with those dastardly Jews scheming “to keep Americans from noticing.” (No apology for that one.) Apparently, Tucker Carlson Supports the Muslim Ownership of Christian Slaves
Cooper’s investigation, aired as a 15-minute segment on “60 Minutes” on Feb. 22, prioritized diminishing Trump’s hyperbolic claims while missing multiple human rights allegations. Cooper said he visited South Africa’s farms “because of what President Trump said last May about the murders of South African farmers” and ultimately reported that the country faces rampant crime with farmers becoming targets of opportunity. However, multiple South Africans told the Daily Caller that targeted attacks against white residents have been a serious issue. Vanderbilt Poofter/Anderson Cooper’s South Africa Report Whitewashed Brutal Reality Of Afrikaner Murders
The former British ambassador to the United States, hand-picked to serve Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government in that role, has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The arrest follows alleged revelations in emails published by the U.S. Department of Justice of Mandelson’s communications with now deceased, disgraced, financier and influence peddler Jeffrey Epstein. Labour Grandee, Former Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson Arrested After Epstein Emails Claims
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY, INSANITY
The political playbook has three parts: 1-Convince Americans that mass AI job loss is inevitable. 2-Channel that fear and ennui into galvanizing support for Universal Basic Income (UBI) redistribution in the long-term. 3-Co-opt populist concerns over AI data centers driving up electricity and water bills for everyday Americans in the short-term. ‘CODE RED:’ Inside the Left’s 2026 Strategy to Weaponize AI Job Loss Fears Before the Midterm Elections
Democrats drew much criticism for their behavior while he spoke in 2025, the Hill reported Monday. At the time, many of them “held signs accusing Trump of lying, others walked out mid-speech, and Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) made waves by standing and heckling the president with a cane pointed at the dais — an extraordinary scene that led to Green’s ejection from the room.” Democrats Hope to Avoid Wild Antics During President Trump’s SOTU After ‘Embarrassing’ Behavior at 2025 Speech
As always, we just need to get our voters to show up, and the Republican Party has the necessary information and money to step up and make this happen. Looking Ahead To Voter Turnout In The Midterms
Biss, the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, and Abughazaleh, a prominent left-wing social media influencer, are both running in Illinois’ 9th congressional district, which will hold its crowded Democratic primary on March 17 to replace retiring longtime Democratic Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, 81. Both were spotted next to each other at Uptown Chicago’s Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, photos from multiple accounts posted to X on Thursday show. Married Democrat Candidate Cozies Up To Much Younger Far-Left Opponent Over Drinks
Today, familiar voices are again urging renewed engagement, a recalibrated nuclear accord that would exchange sanctions relief for partial limits on enrichment. It is a seductive proposition. De-escalation packaged as pragmatism. But it risks repeating a dangerous illusion. Security Without Illusions — Iran, Munich, And A Test Of Western Credibility
There are three wildcards today. If Iran fights back by bombing aircraft carriers, bombers, bases, and the Israeli homeland, what would happen if things go badly? What would happen if an American aircraft carrier were sunk or a stealth bomber shot down? Would Congress issue a declaration of war? At what point would we need to have an all-in response? And at what point in an extended conflict could Israel think it needs to deploy its nuclear arsenal? And if it did, would Pakistan, perhaps prompted by the Saudis who have long funded them, supply a bomb or two to Iran? Iran War Risks
The Mexican military killed CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” during an operation Sunday after a shootout at his Jalisco home in which eight cartel members were killed, according to the AP. El Mencho and two bodyguards were reportedly critically wounded during the operation and died during evacuation, Mexican National Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said in Spanish at a Monday press conference. Drug Cartel Slaughters Mexican Soldiers After Deadly Raid Against Kingpin
Since 2017, at least 14 U.S. defense research projects supported by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) — which is tasked by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) with investing in “high-risk, high-payoff research programs” — have included investigators simultaneously affiliated with Chinese national laboratories, state surveillance entities, military units and nuclear weapons development institutions, according to the report published by Parallax Advanced Research, a nonprofit funded by U.S. federal, state and municipal governments... EXCLUSIVE: US Intel Funded Projects Riddled With Chinese Gov’t-Linked Researchers
Beijing’s data laws and America’s appetite for cheap, Chinese-linked tech created a quiet surveillance risk—one that may already sit inside millions of U.S. homes. Big Brother Is Here, and It’s China
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
“Americans deserve low-cost, high-quality healthcare – not anticompetitive hospital system contracts that make healthcare less affordable,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a written statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, this Department of Justice will continue taking legal action to protect consumers and drive down healthcare costs across America.” Justice Department Sues OhioHealth for Anticompetitive Healthcare Contracts
Using both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have made the first visual detection of another star’s heliosphere, in both X-rays and in the infrared. First visual detection of another star’s heliosphere
...the Webb Space Telescope has made its first detection of a supernova progenitor, in the infrared. That image is to the right, showing the star prior to the June 2025 supernova explosion. Webb imaged a star before it went supernova
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Rice boasted during a podcast last week that “it is not going to end well” for corporations, news organizations, and law firms that “bent the knee” to Trump, claiming that their deference to the president is unpopular. She said that firms aligned with Trump could face an “accountability agenda” if Democrats return to power, stating, “This is not going to be an instance of forgive and forget.” Netflix’s Stock Plunges After Refusing to Fire Susan Rice Over Threats to Trump Officials
“Saunders is one of the few writers everyone seems to really like...Saunders is also capable of more sustained effects...The reader is left with the feeling that Saunders has boxed himself into a corner artistically.” George Saunders’ Reluctant Morality Tale
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Online age verification intrinsically damages user privacy, while failing to work in both directions:
False positives are common. Platforms identify as minors adults with youthful faces, or adults who are sharing family devices, or have otherwise unusual usage. They lock accounts, sometimes for days. False negatives also persist. Teenagers learn quickly how to evade checks by borrowing IDs, cycling accounts, or using VPNs, and posting old Altered Images and Mental As Anything videos to their blogs that they've been running continuously since... 2003.
Okay, I'm maybe not so young that I need to worry about that problem.
The appeal process itself creates new privacy risks. Platforms must store biometric data, ID images, and verification logs long enough to defend their decisions to regulators. So if an adult who is tired of submitting selfies to verify their age finally uploads an ID, the system must now secure that stored ID. Each retained record becomes a potential breach target.
One more quote:
The age-verification trap is not a glitch. It is what you get when regulators treat age enforcement as mandatory and privacy as optional.
This is not an accident.
But how big is the problem really? Surely nobody is out there putting terabytes of age-verification data in unprotected databases accessible to anyone on the internet oh that just happened again. (Tech Radar)
IDMerit, an AI-powered age-verification service, had three billion user records exposed in an unprotected MongoDB database.
This was clearly the work of black-hearted Russian hackers trying to extort money from a wise and noble age verification service, says an article that reads exactly like an AI press release put out by a desperate company that has just lost control of three billion user records.
And down at the bottom of that page: ID Verification powered by IDMERIT.
Huh.
A very similar article appears at The HR Digest and again, down at the bottom: Powered by IDMERIT. Written - or "written" - by Diana Coker, whose work also features at... Technowize.
And the servers at DJI that store all the user data.
Because there was no security enabled at all.
You know how you sometimes scoff at film scenarios where people don't take the most basic common-sense security measures and the thieves (or the good guys, depending) just make off with everything?
Because PDF is closer to an image format than a document file. All the words you read are in there, but they might be broken into individual letters depending on the precise layout of the document and the program that generated it.
Solution: Render the PDF to a proper static image format and then use OCR to read it back.
Does that actually work?
No. Well, mostly, but as is so often the case it makes the easy parts easier and the hard parts explode.
One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.
-- Dylan Thomas
To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold.
-- Aristotle
Yeah, that's a classical quotation because I couldn't find one about a snow hat!
Winter is a grand season, and the inconvenience of a foot or so of snow on the ground is dwarfed by its beauty. Yes, it's my favorite season, and why I will never live in the south, no matter how wonderful a place it is!
The purpose of an objective scoring system is to eliminate exactly the kind of whining and whinging and loser-talk that is on full display by one of the stars of the Canadian Men's Olympic hockey team.
"You be the judge of who was the better team today," MacKinnon said after the game, according to the Canadian Press.
"Just finishing. That's it," MacKinnon added when asked what more Canada could have done. "The looks we had, we would've taken any day. I missed an open net myself, and I really wish I could have that one back."
I AM the judge.
Well...I and the scorers, who seem to have decided that contrary to what the entitled little bitch McKinnon thinks, the United States of America won the game.
By scoring more goals than their opponents.
Funny how that works!
******
This is why cats are not good pets. This is why cats should be kept in cages. This is why dogs are the only animals that should be free to roam our homes.
A UK man miraculously survived after sustaining a broken neck, fractured spine, smashed ribs, blood in his lungs and other “car crash”-evoking injuries from — wait for it — tripping over his cat.
“I can’t remember much, just falling fast — it was quick and it was over within seconds, then I was at the bottom,” victim Chris Rowley, 59, told the Mirror.
The freak “Apocalypse Meow” accident reportedly occurred on the evening of Oct. 23 while the Leicestershire-based professional musician was home alone with his hairless Egyptian sphinx kitten, Eric Morecambe.
Although...maybe the cat was just getting back at its owner for the asshole name he gave him!
They don't belong in this country if they aren't at least nominally proud of it.
Leave. Just leave! There are wonderful places in Canada and Europe where there is no patriotism, where people are completely invested in themselves, and care nothing for their country or any concept of shared culture.
So have at it!
******
******
******
AoSHQ may trigger convulsions and projectile vomiting in some new readers. Please use vomit bag in seat pocket. Knives are to be sheathed at all times unless written waiver is received by our attorneys. Ace and cobloggers specifically disavow all responsibility for content. We are not responsible for any injury, including chafing. Disabling ShowerCamTM is a violation of the terms of use.
LOL: Close friend of both Jeffrey Epstein and Queer Starmer, "Prince of Darkness" Peter Mandelson, has been arrested on suspicion of "public misconduct." This is almost certainly regarding his passing of confidential government information about the UK preparing to bail out the British banks to Epstein, who no doubt used that information for profit.
And it probably includes the payments of over $90,000 Epstein made to Mandelson and his husband. What was that money for?
British police on Monday arrested Peter Mandelson, a former U.K. ambassador to the United States, in a misconduct probe stemming from his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein. It came days after a friendship with Epstein landed the former Prince Andrew in police custody.
Both men are suspected of improperly passing U.K. government information to the disgraced U.S. financier, and the high-profile British arrests are some of the most dramatic fallout from the trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released last month by the U.S. Justice Department.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ripped the court's decision blocking President Donald Trump's use of an emergency law to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners, calling it a fundamental misread of both the governing statute and the Constitution's separation of powers.
"As (Kavanaugh) explains, the Court's decision ... cannot be justified as a matter of statutory interpretation. Congress authorized the President to 'regulate ... importation,'" Thomas wrote in his dissent. "Throughout American history, the authority to 'regulate importation' has been understood to include the authority to impose duties on imports."
The court invalidated Trump's use of an emergency law to impose tariffs in a 6--3 decision Friday morning after weeks of Trump championing that the court should rule in his favor as part of his larger effort to boost the economy, jobs and bring down costs for Americans. Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito joined Justice Brett Kavanaugh in dissenting from the ruling, with Thomas also offering his own separate dissent.
The majority of the court ruled Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president, even after declaring a national emergency, to impose tariffs -- and that Congress did not speak clearly enough to transfer its tariff-and-tax power to the executive branch.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is a 1977 law that allows the president, after declaring a national emergency in response to foreign threats, to regulate or block certain economic transactions and property interests, such as by imposing sanctions.
"The president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope," Supreme Court Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. "In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it."
In his dissent, Thomas argued that nondelegation doctrine is a narrow constraint, saying a line is crossed only when Congress delegates "core" power to make rules triggering deprivations of "life, liberty, or property" -- not "from delegating other kinds of power," such as tariffs.
The nondelegation doctrine forbids Congress from delegating core legislative power to the president.
Alarmingly, the Court's two most reliable conservative justices may retire this summer.
At least so Josh Hammer speculates:
Justice Samuel Alito is 75 years old -- and will be 76 by the end of this term. Justice Clarence Thomas is 77 years old -- and will be 78 by term's end. Alito just celebrated 20 years of service on the high court, and Thomas would mark 35 years of service this October -- nice round numbers. Alito has a forthcoming book set for release this October, around the start of the next Supreme Court term. That isn't anywhere near dispositive -- Justice Amy Coney Barrett published a book last September, and Justice Neil Gorsuch has released two books since he was confirmed to the court in 2017 -- but it has certainly fed speculation.
Thomas and Alito are, by some order of magnitude, the two most principled conservative justices currently sitting on the high court. It stands to reason that they would like to be replaced by ideological fellow travelers -- something that likely requires a likeminded president and a likeminded U.S. Senate majority. As the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was very much an ideological fellow traveler, told Chris Wallace in a 2012 interview, "I would not like to be replaced by someone who immediately sets about undoing what I've tried to do for 25-26 years. I mean, I shouldn't have to tell you that, unless you think I'm a fool."
It's better that these old guys retire when the Senate is safely in Republican hands.
But I have no earthly idea where Trump will find their equal. So far he's appointed one libertarian (Gorsuch), one soft-handed establishment RINO (Kavanaugh), and one flaky AWFUL (Coney-Barrett).
She points out that it is wrongful for a "prosecutor" who was unable to obtain any indictments to release a report smearing the very people he was unable to indict.
A federal judge on Monday permanently barred the release of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into President Donald Trump's hoarding of classified documents that led to charges once seen as the most perilous of the four criminal cases the Republican faced.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, granted a request from the president to keep under wraps the report on an investigation alleging Trump stored sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House following his first term and obstructed government efforts to get them back.
Smith and his team produced a two-volume report on the classified documents investigation and a separate probe into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election after he lost to Joe Biden. Both investigations produced indictments that were abandoned by Smith's team after Trump's November 2024 election win in light of longstanding Justice Department legal opinions that say sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had already determined that the report was "an internal deliberative communication that is privileged and confidential and should not be released" outside the Justice Department, according to court papers. The Trump administration has characterized Smith's investigation as politically motivated and said in recent court papers that the report belongs in the "dustbin of history."
Cannon's order, however, blocking the release also applies to Bondi's successors at the Justice Department. Cannon, who in 2024 dismissed the case after concluding that Smith was unlawfully appointed after multiple other favorable rulings for Trump, said the release of the report would present a "manifest injustice" to the president and his two co-defendants.
"Special Counsel Smith, acting without lawful authority, obtained an indictment in this action and initiated proceedings that resulted in a final order of dismissal of all charges," she wrote. "As a result, the former defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order."
What AP hides from you, but Julie Kelly reports, is that Jack Smith continued ignoring Aileen Cannon's ruling that he was not a duly appointed special counsel and kept using his non-existent authority to subpoena documents -- and write this report!
Conversation
Julie Kelly 🇺🇸
@julie_kelly2
·
6h
I am certain Judge Cannon's legitimate and provable allegations that Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team repeatedly violated her court order dismissing the documents case in July 2024 after finding Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed with get NONE of the same coverage as phony, baseless accusations of Trump DOJ violating court orders.
As I noted in the Halligan dismissal order and threats by at least one judge to hold her in contempt for continuing to sign her name as "US Attorney" in court filings, Jack Smith continued to represent himself as "Special Counsel Jack Smith" for MONTHS after Cannon removed him as special counsel in the documents case.
She called him out again today in an order prohibiting the release of Smith's "report" on the docs investigation, which Smith prepared after he was disqualified. Smith used discovery in the dismissed case to prepare the report and, along with AG Garland, tried to publish the document before Trump was inaugurated. (Cannon denied that stunt as well.)
Cannon: "Despite the Court's holding in July 2024 that 'the actions of Special Counsel Smith in connection with this proceeding must be set aside' due to his unconstitutional appointment Special Counsel Smith and his team went ahead for months, undeterred, preparing Volume II using discovery collected in connection with this proceeding and expending government funds in the process. Defendants learned of this continued work in December 2024 through media reports and then timely raised their objections to Special Counsel Smith--but he continued unabated, offering defendants only the courtesy of brief review under strict conditions, including forced deletion of discovery materials in the custody of the defense."
She continued. "To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, IF NOT AN OUTRIGHT VIOLATION OF IT." (Emphasis added.)
So will the media offer the same level of performative outrage about Smith's ACTUAL contempt of court conduct for MONTHS that it has offered on a near-daily basis about baseless allegations Trump DOJ prosecutors are intentionally defying court orders?
Hm, maybe we do have someone to replace Alito or Thomas with. Though the faggy RINO Senators would of course balk. They want someone with a better pedigree who will reliably vote in favor of the leftwing Regime.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended Friday prayers at Al Khoei Islamic Center, associated with the Alavi Foundation, which the DOJ has cited as an Iranian front; the imam prayed for the Mahdi to strike down non-believers. pic.twitter.com/zmBFrtw7FM
On Oct 9, 2023 -- two days after Hamas' Oct 7 massacre in Israel -- the Muslim Democratic Club of New York put out a statement blaming Israel for the attack, saying they stood "in solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people"
Today, the founders of this group occupy top posts in City Hall under NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani
I've asked this before, but you all remember when the Democrat/soft-hand establishment wet themselves over Trump occasionally using profanity at rallies?
Well, it turns out that Leftists Once Again Believe None of the Things They Say They Believe. Because the moment they thought (incorrectly) that Profanity = Perceived Authenticity -- no, authenticity is authenticity, it just so happens that Trump's authentic self is given to profanity -- they started cursing like sailors.
Wait, sailors don't curse as much as AWFUL Wine-Mom Karens. Well, they started cursing like AWFUL Wine-Mom Karens.
Because California has a "jungle primary" in which all candidates compete in a single primary, it is possible that Hilton and Bianco take both slots for the general election campaign.
For a decade it's been an article of faith in the Resistance that Trump is Putin's lackey. There are a lot of facts--always have been--that prove otherwise. Now, from NYT op-ed: "Talk aside, the Trump White House has not been good for Russia." https://t.co/tHwOLAbvwppic.twitter.com/JBF8VuQszj
Drew Holden: Leftwing Media "Analysts" Are Baffled by the "Mysterious" One-Year Plunge in Crime. Spoiler: It's Only a Mystery to Propagandists Who Won't Admit the Obvious
—Disinformation Expert Ace
How did crime plunge so suddenly -- so "unexpectedly," if you will -- the moment Weekend at Biden's was shuffled out of the White House to be replaced by a law-and-order, deportation-minded president?
The leftwing media insists this is a giant mystery whose depths cannot be plumbed.
Crime--particularly violent crime--is down dramatically over the last year. Cities like New York, Memphis, and Washington, D.C. where murders, carjacking, and theft plagued the public in the wake of COVID-19, were all found to have experienced double-digit decreases in violent crime. Experts, the legacy media, and many Democrats are scratching their heads. As a recent New York Times headline declared, "What's Behind the Staggering Drop in the Murder Rate? No One Knows for Sure."
Other outlets and commentators have been similarly befuddled. New York Magazine dubbed it "The Mysterious Plunge in America's Murder Rate." Experts "said it's too early to tell what is prompting the change," the Associated Press intoned; the Washington Post cited a liberal expert who cautioned that there was "no silver bullet" to make sense of the data. For TIME, the drop in violent crime "can be attributed to a kaleidoscope of factors, none of which can singularly or definitively account for the decline." CNN shrugged that "it's nearly impossible to zero in on any one reason" for the drop. "The bottom line: Experts aren't sure why violent crime continues to fall," Axios reported
Not until 21 paragraphs into the Times piece do the authors give us a hint about how it happened: experts "do not wholly discount" policing, particularly "the multipronged effort that many cities mounted against violence in the past few years, including hot-spot policing, summer jobs for youth, cognitive behavioral therapy and focused deterrence, an approach that calls for paying sustained attention to the small number of people at highest risk of committing violence."
In other words, violent crime is in freefall across the country thanks in large part to better, more targeted policing aimed at restoring law and order. The biggest threat to our renewed ability to combat crime might be a legacy media hamstrung by the baggage of prior anti-police animus.
Holden looks at the bright white evidence that apparently blinds the media from seeing the clues:
...
The Democratic mayor of Memphis, Tennessee--long among the most violent places in America--welcomed a federal task force to the city in September. Federal agents provided additional capacity for local and state law enforcement to bring the necessary force to bear to combat crime. As even the New York Times admitted, "to date, the task force has made more than 6,300 arrests, conducted more than 68,000 traffic stops and recovered 1,532 firearms... crime rates, which had already been declining, have dropped even more since Oct. 1: Murder and sexual assault are down nearly 42 percent, while aggravated assault is down about 35 percent."
Similarly, Baltimore, Maryland, saw a 50-year low in murders in 2025. City officials credit federal support, more aggressive hiring efforts, and a focus on arresting repeat violent criminal offenders as a key source of the decline.
Read the whole thing. In case after case, crime is down because, get this, cops started enforcing the law, usually with federal help.
Relatedly: The Somali pirates who fleeced this country for billions and billions of stolen booty are angry that their piracy has been slowed and are demanding... reparations.
Brandon Straka #WalkAway
@BrandonStraka
Feb 20
SOMALI FRAUD: Somali migrants in Minnesota are demanding reparations over alleged trauma from law enforcement actions. After $10B in fraud, now they want more.
Tosca Austen
@ToscaAusten
Feb 20
You've got to be joking!
Somalis in MN are demanding reparations for "ICE trauma" while 81% of their households are sucking up government welfare?
So here we are. We give them a new life, handouts galore--food stamps (54%), Medicaid (73%), cash welfare (27%)--and now they want MORE from hardworking Americans?
Americans should demand reparation for the taxpayer dollars that were stolen from welfare and SNAP schemes.
Donkey-Chompers: If You Thought My Shocking 21-Second Brain Glitch Followed by Drunk Kamala-Level Word Salad Made Me Look Stupid, Maybe The Real Problem Is With Your Stupid Brain, Stupid
—Disinformation Expert Ace
She says you're just so used to Trump firing off quick answers, almost as if he's thought about the questions before and so has a firm answer already in mind, that you just can't appreciate a World Class Mind such as hers taking 21 painful seconds to "um" and "uh" and "err" and "uhhh" her way before delivering an "answer" that sounds suspiciously like a stoner trying to bluff her way through an oral report about a book she never even checked out of the library.
She does not explain why she thinks that cowboys existed before horses, or what philosophical Imponderable she was attempting to conjure when she said that Venezuela was south of the equator.
In the video, an emotional AOC, appearing to hold back tears, pushed back against critics who saw her faceplant in Munich, convinced she has no idea what she's talking about. Her defense? It's not her, it's you, who's the problem. "If you think that I don't understand foreign policy because out of hours of discourse about international affairs, I paused to think about one of the most sensitive geopolitical issues that currently exist on Earth, I'm afraid the issue is not my understanding, but rather the problem is perhaps you've gotten adjusted to a president that never thinks before he speaks."
They say karma dishes out what we deserve. Is that true?
No matter how .@AOC spins her rant in Munich, it was a disaster.
She knows it. She is devastated.
She can't quit talking about it.
Her voice is hoarse from it.
Munich was her big chance to be the global liberal darling and prance on to '28 and she blew it.
Spin mode can't hide how she substituted foreign policy knowledge with theatrical melodrama.
To shade her humiliation, she ran into the arms of .@nytimes
for rescue and even THEY couldn't defend her.
That's how bad it was. Don't ever let her forget it.
One of the Australian conservative commentators suggested she did a lot of Cope Drinking over the weekend, resulting in a Kamala-Harris-like hangover hoarseness.
(I first wrote "horseness" but that's not due to her being drunk, that's just her genetics.)
Also note that her sad Simp Beard is on the bed snoring.
What a stateswoman.
If you can believe it, this e-girl thot is responding as e-girl thots do, sniping and bitching on Twitter.
BAR NONE: Sen. John Kennedy mockingly compares AOC to former VP Harris after her comments at the Munich Security Conference.
He says Republicans should continue to use "Operation Let Her Speak."
"So far it's working, and my message to my friend the congresswoman is: You go… pic.twitter.com/bxtph0NNf0
My having been a waitress makes me 1000x more qualified to govern on behalf of working people than whatever lifelong politician nonsense you've swung from your whole career.
Why should working people vote for you if this is what you think of them?
Reminder: AOC was never "working class." Her father was an architect and she grew up in the leafy, tony NYC suburb of Westchester.
Kevin Bass
@kevinnbass
Feb 21
Your father was an architect. You were a privileged DEI admit to Boston University. You worked as a waitress in your 20s. You made it in politics because you look good on camera. Everything you have has been handed to you. You have no understanding of the working class.
Cristiona
@Cristiona
12m
Where did you go to college? Where did you grow up? What did your parents do?
Rich kids often have low wage jobs, because their parents pay for everything. You have no idea what it means to be working class you cosplayer.
There's a concept I heard of years ago called "genteel poverty." Children of the wealthy who have dreams of working at high-status jobs, but find those high-status jobs elusive, often work as servers and waitresses. This, in their class, is not considered low-class; it's just slumming until the dream job comes along. Note all the poets and actors working in the service industry.
They refuse to take more serious-but-unglamorous jobs like insurance or office work because those jobs would in fact reduce their status. Those jobs aren't for footloose dreamers waiting for their big break; those jobs indicate that someone has accepted her reduction in social status and is now a lowly member of the mid-level managerial/clerical class.
If you're a waitress, you're an undiscovered superstar just waiting for your big shot; but if you take a job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, you're just a car rental agent.
Donkey-Chompers' stint as a waitress is not evidence of her "working class" background but her real background as a child of privilege with no actual talent to sell in the job market and a snobby attitude towards the real work that most people do.
Teaching yourself how to accept $10 bills by pushing your (sus) breasts together and taking it out of a patron's hand is not preparation for the presidency.
After Killing of Top Narcoterrorist In Military Raid, Cartels Engage In Widespread Violence and Arson Across Mexico
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Mexican police, with the assistance of US intelligence, killed a narcoterrorist during a raid.
They drug terrorists retaliated by killing a mayor and setting Mexico ablaze.
Major drug lord 'El Mencho' killed in Mexican military operation with US intelligence support
Nemesio Oseguera's death triggers widespread cartel violence across Mexico as armed groups block highways and burn vehicles
Cartel leader's death sparks violence in Mexico, US embassy issues shelter-in-place order
Major Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as "El Mencho," was killed in a military operation Sunday morning, the country's Defense Department announced, marking one of Mexico's most significant blows to organized crime amid pressure from President Donald Trump to intensify the crackdown on drug cartels.
The announcement came as government officials warned of clashes in Jalisco state and widespread criminal activity across the country, prompting the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to issue shelter-in-place advisories for multiple states.
On Sunday, Mexican troops reportedly conducted operations in Tapalpa, Jalisco, targeting Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a former police officer who became the elusive leader of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), a major supplier of fentanyl to the United States.
Known as "El Mencho," Oseguera Cervantes carried a $15 million U.S. bounty and rose to power following the arrest of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel. Over the past 15 years, CJNG has grown from a local criminal group into a global trafficking organization operating out of its stronghold in Jalisco.
...
The Mexican Defense Department said the operation was conducted as part of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the U.S., whose authorities provided complementary intelligence that contributed to Oseguera Cervantes' capture.
...
During the capture, the CJNG ringleader became wounded and died en route to Mexico City, the Defense Department said.
Four others were reportedly killed at the scene of a shootout between Mexican troops and criminal suspects in Jalisco, with Oseguera Cervantes among three additional individuals who were wounded and later died.
Authorities said they detained two other members of the criminal organization and seized a range of weaponry, including armored vehicles and "rocket launchers capable of downing aircraft and destroying armored vehicles."
...
Widespread criminal activity has been reported in Jalisco, the cartel's stronghold, as well as in northern regions that serve as key border and transit corridors for the organization.
The Security Cabinet of the Government of Mexico noted that multiple buildings were reportedly damaged during the "violent incidents," including roughly 20 branches of Banco del Bienestar, a state-run banking institution.
At least 21 highways remain blocked, with authorities reporting that five have already been reopened.
Photos showed numerous roadblocks and burning vehicles, with dark smoke rising into the sky, across the country -- tactics officials say cartels often use to slow or block military operations.
...
"We remain in Code Red. We reiterate the recommendation to avoid leaving your homes. The clashes are occurring in several federal entities," Jalisco state Governor Pablo Lemus Navarro added.
...
The operation against Oseguera follows sustained pressure from the Trump administration on President Claudia Sheinbaum's government, urging Mexico to step up its fight against drug trafficking amid threats of potential U.S. intervention.
"There is absolute coordination with the governments of all states; we must remain informed and calm," Sheinbaum said on Sunday. "In the vast majority of the national territory, activities are proceeding with complete normality."
The president of Mexico was installed into office by the narcoterrorists. She is both an extreme leftist, an open borders (with the US) extremist, and a catspaw of the cartels.
Wall Street Apes
@WallStreetApes
14h
Cartel violence is being allowed in Mexico because President Claudia Sheinbaum works for the Cartel
A Senator from Mexico went on Fox News and exposed it all
* The President of Mexico works for the Cartels
* She was funded by money from the cartels
* It's not just the President, there are an entire group of Mexico politicians labeled the "arco politicians"
* Mexico is a "Narco state"
* Mexicans are afraid of the alliance between the Mexican government and the cartels
* The Morena (political party) is financed by the cartels, that's how they get elected
* Once they get elected the deal is for the Mexican government to then protect the cartels
* The President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo doesn't want this information getting out
* Mexicans and the Politicians who are no paid off by the cartels want Donald Trump to help with the cartels
The Mexico Senator exposing all this says she is now being threatened with prison for speaking out "The President has threatened me to proceed against me with criminal prosecution to get me out of the Senate and get me in jail just because I told you in this space in Fox News"
And now the assassination of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo, an own cartel critic...
The cartel runs the Mexican government
She says that she will not join America in taking action against the cartels burning Mexico to the ground because drug terrorists have "human rights."
Trump has repeatedly offered her US help in confronting the cartels, and she has always insisted that they not be touched. Because she's on their payroll.
Meanwhile:
The Mexican drug cartel known as CJNG—one of the most ruthless criminal enterprises in the world—saw its profits explode from 2021-2025, with drug and human trafficking supercharged by Biden’s open-border policies.
That's not an idle claim. "El Mencho" was in fact the beneficiary of San Francisco's Sanctuary City policy. Dianne Feinstein gave him a helping hand when he needed one:
A reminder that the chaos in Mexico today as a result of the cartel targeting operation can be traced all the way back to El Mencho starting his criminal career in California
He was a beneficiary of the Sanctuary City welcome helpfully offered by Democrats, back under then-San… https://t.co/orpsMjodp9
Our Communist Enemies to the North are promoting travel to Mexico over travel to America, calling Mexico "safer." I guess that depends on the city, to be honest.
Mamdani Calls Upon New Yorkers to Do the Jobs the Government Just Can't Do -- Shoveling Snow; He Says All Applicants Must Show ID Before Shoveling Snow
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Wait, is he saying that black and brown people aren't allowed to shovel snow? And married women?
Because I have been repeatedly told that black and brown people (and married women) don't have ID and don't know how to get ID.
Should we crowdfund an employment discrimination campaign against NYC?
Mamdani is begging for cheap labor to shovel snow because his Theater Kid Incompetence was revealed when he allowed the late January snow to stick around in huge four-foot piles of snow, garbage, and rat feces for a month.
But he says you need to bring ID.
Iliftfordoughnuts
@AndriaDont99498
Feb 21
Breaking:
Zohran Mamdani can't afford any more city employees so he's giving citizens the " Opportunity " To work for half the city worker rate and without the benefits. But only if they bring 3 forms of ID. You need that to shovel snow. Just not to vote.
Florida doesn't require ID to shovel snow. So Mamdani is lying when he says he's forced to require ID by "federal law."
While I hope everyone stays safe during the upcoming blizzard in the Northeast USA, you have to admit that Mayor Mamdani requiring an ID to shovel snow but not to vote is a bit crazy. Yes, I love living in the Sunshine State, where common sense and warm weather are the norm. pic.twitter.com/HxSF27ano4
Yet Another Would-Be Trump Assassin, Programmed to Kill By the Traitor Left
—Disinformation Expert Ace
As you certainly know, a 21-year-old lunatic from NC snuck into Mar-a-Lago by jumping on the back of a truck that had been cleared to pass through the gate. He carried a shotgun and a can of gasoline.
Unknown to this loser -- but easily discoverable by anyone with a sane mind -- Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, but at the White House doing events.
Secret Service and security demanded the man drop the gun and the gas. He dropped the gas, but then raised the shotgun to his shoulder, preparing to fire.
He was killed.
But he was programmed to kill by Democrats' (and Thomas Massie's and MTG's) insane conspiracy theories that Donald Trump is a Secret Epstein Pedo.
Text message sent last week by the 21-year-old who was killed by Secret Service today after attempting an armed infiltration of Mar-a-Lago. Co-workers told TMZ he recently "became fixated on Epstein" and was "deeply disturbed by what he believed was a government cover-up" pic.twitter.com/WYYo7zf9Yu
The left wing is claiming the kid was a Trump supporter. Obviously, he was not. You don't try to kill a man you "support."
His family says they're "big Trump supporters," but that's not the same as this deranged killer being a supporter. The left believes that Trump support, unlike IQ, is genetically determined.
Immediately after the left programmed this robot to kill Trump, All-Purpose Expert Tom Nichols writes a piece, which Vanity Billionaire Press magazine The Atlantic gladly publishes, calls Trump a Nazi threat to the existence of the United States.
Thus, again, implicitly making the case that another couple of assassins should try to kill Trump. I'd say that publishing this just after one assassin tried to kill him makes this close to an explicit incitement to political murder.
Since the start of Donald Trump’s second term, Republicans have deployed ever more Nazi imagery and rhetoric, and espoused ideas associated with the Nazi Party, @RadioFreeTom argues. He examines how this dark fringe reached the center of the GOP: https://t.co/rahixGbMHe
This is a classic example of assassination prep, the purpose of which is to implicitly encourage and justify terroristic violence against half the country.
Personally, I believe that Tom Nichols is an intolerable threat to the country.
#AssassinsWanted, as Craig Kilbourne would "joke."
By the way, here's the owner of The Atlantic, Steve Jobs' unattractive AWFUL widow, cavorting with Ghislaine Maxwell.
Since the start of Donald Trump’s second term, Republicans have deployed ever more Nazi imagery and rhetoric, and espoused ideas associated with the Nazi Party, @RadioFreeTom argues. He examines how this dark fringe reached the center of the GOP: https://t.co/rahixGbMHe
Related: The latest trans shooter was flagged by Open AI for his many posts discussing gun violence.
They chose not to report him to the police.
I wonder why the trans killer got this kind of benefit of the doubt from supposedly anti-violence campaigners. It's almost as if some kinds of violence are privileged.
Canadian trans shooter was flagged via internal systems at Open AI for writings about real-world violence, including gun violence.
Over a dozen Open AI employees debated telling law enforcement.
OpenAI leaders decided not to inform authorities about a potential mass murder. https://t.co/UO75qVh4nY
A 2018 Yale study found that when white liberals talk to Black people, they dumb down their vocabulary. It's the beating heart of wokeness: Minorities are oppressed and in need of your beneficence. Here is Gavin Newsom literally presenting himself as dumb to appeal to Blacks. https://t.co/LakQPhRWGOpic.twitter.com/yQgFabSzx9
She writes about that study, which shows that white liberals "dumb down" their speech for blacks whereas white conservatives speak the same way to blacks and whites, here.
It's what a 2018 Yale study found: There is a difference between how white liberals and white conservatives talk when they talk to Black people. And that difference is this: When white liberals talk to Black people, they do something called "presenting lower competence." They literally dumb down their vocabulary, using fewer syllable words than they do when they talk to white people. And white conservatives don't do this.
"A new study suggests that white Americans who hold liberal socio-political views use language that makes them appear less competent in an effort to get along with racial minorities," the study found. "According to new research by Cydney Dupree, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM, white liberals tend to downplay their own verbal competence in exchanges with racial minorities, compared to how other white Americans act in such exchanges."
Researchers found that Democratic candidates use fewer multi-syllable words in speeches delivered to minority audiences than they use in speeches delivered to white audiences--whereas the difference wasn't statistically significant in speeches by Republican candidates. The pattern held over decades of speeches that the researches studied.
Hilariously, they found that you have to literally tell a white progressive that a Black person is very smart ahead of time to get them to cut this out: "Initial data from follow-up studies suggest that describing a black person as highly intelligent, thus reversing the stereotype, or as already highly motivated to get along with whites, thus removing the need to prove goodwill, can reduce the likelihood that a white person will downplay their competence in their interactions with the black person."
The study proved not just that individual white progressives are racist, but that there is a system-wide failure to view Blacks as equals that is endemic to the progressive movement. Their entire woke worldview, which posits that minorities are oppressed and therein lies their virtue, is in essence racism disguised (from themselves as well as others) in an aura of self-righteousness. After all, what could be more racist than the patronizing view that Black people need to be protected from our big vocabularies?
Remember, Gavin Newsom just discovered he's dyslexic and that dyslexia will serve the same function as Joe Biden's Elder-Age Suddenly Discovered Childhood Stutter.
Newsom’s dyslexia is the Biden stutter, a sympathetic catch-all excuse for mistakes of all kinds that can be turned against anyone who notices said mistakes. Making laying the groundwork for it this obvious is a choice. I’d play it a little more subtle if I were him.
THE MORNING RANT: Musings on the Door Dash Lifestyle; Dave Barry Takes a Waymo Ride
—Buck Throckmorton
I may not understand the “Door Dash Lifestyle,” and I certainly don’t live it, but it’s still fascinating to me. On the one hand I am horrified at the Door Dash business model and its use of illegal, off-the-books labor. At the same time, I am mystified at its customers’ spending habits, especially when we hear of the financial squeeze those same consumers are under in regards to housing, inflation, etc. From DoorDash’s own website, half of its customers have household income below $75,000 per year, and 33% of its customers are in households with income below $50,000.
So, today’s post has a few quick items related to the Door Dash / food delivery industry, including a little bit of humor. But first, here is a link to my initial Door Dash piece from three months ago titled “Behind the Restaurant Meal Delivery Industry, there is a Black Market Exploiting Illegal Foreign Labor.” In it I documented that, “If you are having restaurant food ‘dashed’ to your residence, there is a very good chance that the person delivering your meal is part of a black market of non-citizen labor, illegally subcontracted by the actual ‘independent contractor’ of Door Dash, Uber Eats, and the like.”
Waymo’s cars are driven without humans. But when a departing passenger leaves a door open, the car won’t move until a person closes it. For that task, Waymo is turning to gig workers from companies like DoorDash.
The [Google]-owned self-driving car company confirmed on Thursday that it’s running a pilot in Atlanta to compensate delivery drivers for closing Waymo doors that are left ajar. DoorDash drivers are notified when a Waymo in the area has an open door so the vehicles can quickly get back on the road.
Chris Bakke sees a humorous way for DoorDash to lean in to this new revenue stream, stating that “If I ran growth at Doordash, I would pay Doordashers $5 to open doors on random Waymos so that Waymo has to hire our Dashers to close them for $6.25.” Per the Reddit post below, Waymo is actually paying DoorDashers $11.25 to close doors.
If I ran growth at Doordash, I would pay Doordashers $5 to open doors on random Waymos so that Waymo has to hire our Dashers to close them for $6.25. https://t.co/BvclHW6PN1
DoorDash said Wednesday its revenue rose 38% in the fourth quarter as it gained new U.S. customers and added new services like restaurant reservations.
DoorDash just reported its largest jump in orders ever.
As inexplicable as it is to me why someone would want cold restaurant food delivered for twice the price of eating at the restaurant, or picking it up myself, I did read an explanation on “The DoorDash Lifestyle” from someone named “SightBringer” on Twitter/X that helps me see it in a different light:
The “DoorDash lifestyle” is an artifact of three massive structural shifts older generations don’t see because they didn’t grow up inside them. Let’s break the illusion.
1. The marginal cost of money changed for Gen Z. For older adults, spending thirty dollars feels like spending thirty dollars. For kids today, the psychological cost is closer to: “three microtransactions worth of friction.”
Because their financial environment is built on:
• Instant digital payments
• Low-commitment gig incomes
• Parents transferring money fluidly
• Side hustles paid in irregular small bursts
• Stimulus-era normalization of cash flow volatility.
Teenagers today often have:
• $30 now
• $0 tomorrow
• $50 on Friday
• $15 in crypto
• $70 in Cash App from someone they did homework for
• A $20 Venmo from grandma
• $60 from a weekend shift.
There is no “budget.” There is flow. And in a flow economy, a $30 DoorDash order is not a “luxury”. It is just another digital outflow in a stream of constant micro inflows.
2. Consumption is now social currency. Older generations spent money to solve problems. Gen Z spends money to signal identity, reduce friction, and avoid emotional drag.
DoorDash is not about food. It is about:
• Eliminating effort
• Eliminating planning
• Eliminating discomfort
• Eliminating logistics
• Eliminating decision fatigue
This generation pays premiums to remove negative psychic load. Food delivery is an anxiety-management subscription. And they learned this from:
• Amazon Prime
• Uber
• TikTok dopamine tuning
• Frictionless apps
• The collapse of effort-based value signals.
Convenience is the default baseline now.
3. The middle class collapsed, but lifestyle costs decoupled from income. This is the part most boomers and Gen X don’t understand. Kids aren’t behaving like they’re poor. They’re behaving like people living in a post-middle-class economy where:
• Ownership is dead
• Savings are pointless
• Buying a home is impossible
• College is a debt sentence
• Inflation destroys the dollar
• Wages do not map to adult milestones
• Upward mobility is gone
So what happens? They shift to a present-maximization mindset. If the future is unaffordable anyway, why not buy the burrito now? Younger people are not reckless. They are rational inside a broken incentive system. The real truth - DoorDash is a symptom.
A society where:
• Future stability is gone
• Wages stagnate
• Housing is unattainable
• Attention is fragmented
• Convenience is normalized
• Friction feels archaic
• Everything is mediated digitally
…will produce kids who treat $30 like a tap on a screen, not a financial decision. They’re not “funding a lifestyle.” They’re surviving inside the economy they were handed.
That is eye-opening and educational, although I don’t necessarily agree with everything stated here. When I got my first job after college in the late ‘80s, I also couldn’t fathom ever being able to buy a house, much less enjoying constant travel to destination weddings and bachelor parties as is common today. I imagined how much more lifestyle flexibility I’d have if I just made $100 more per month, which is about $300 in 2026 dollars. But neither was I serving a lifetime “college debt sentence.” (That is a brilliant phrase.) I was seeking to avoid debt, not resigning myself to a lifetime of suffocating debt inflicted by my alma mater.
Following that somber note, here is something related to today’s topic that is a little more light-hearted. Dave Barry wrote a recent piece at his Substack about his first Waymo experience:
I will reveal later whether or not I survived, but first let me give you a technical explanation of how these amazing futuristic machines work.
Each Waymo vehicle is equipped with 29 cameras as well as an array of laser, radar and audio sensors, which collect literally millions of data points per second and feed them to a sophisticated AI-controlled onboard computer, which is in constant, instantaneous contact via satellite with a 14-year-old boy somewhere in Asia — he goes by “Kevin” — who steers your car remotely with a joystick.
No, that’s probably not how it works. I have no idea how it works. I do not fully understand how toasters work. But however Waymo does it, it has to be a better system for operating vehicles than the one we currently employ in Miami, which involves using Miami drivers.
----------------
My point is that I, for one, welcome the arrival of Waymo’s self-driving cars. Even if they’re not perfect — even if there’s some “glitch” in their software that causes them, at random times, to deliberately aim at pedestrians or oncoming trucks — they would still be above-average drivers in Miami.
----------------
It worked its way through heavy traffic, negotiated some clogged narrow streets and got me efficiently to my destination without hitting anything. My only criticism is that it’s too polite for Miami. At one point, another car cut us off, and the Waymo merely braked to avoid a collision without making any effort to let the other motorist know that he was an idiot.
I’m a self-driving car skeptic. When Waymo hits my town, I have some mischievous ideas about summoning Waymo up the switchback mountain roads with blind, hairpin turns around Chattanooga. And if Waymo successfully gets me up and back down the mountain, I’m willing to cut a deal with DoorDash to let them close the door behind me.
Good morning kids. Well, as a major Nor'easter is set to pummel the east coast with a massive winter storm, the likes of which we've not had in years, NYC's Muz-unist mayor Mamdani has an opportunity to solve the city's homeless crisis by moving all of them to the middle of the Central Park lake, and providing each with a sheet of used toilet paper, i.e. the front page of the NY Times and voila, no more homeless faster than you can say Gulag Archipelago! In all seriousness, if you are in the path of the storm, please stay safe at home, stock up on food and other essentials ahead of time and and stay off the roads if at all possible.
Americans are being asked by the State Department to remain sheltered in place in parts of Mexico due to civil unrest following the successful killing of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes on Sunday.
Cervantes was killed by the Mexican army with “complementary information” provided by the United States, The Daily Wire reported.
The State Department’s travel alert specifically notes that Americans in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Baja California, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Quintana Roo State “should shelter in place until further notice.” The states contain major tourism hubs such as Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Cancún, as well as Playa del Carmen and Tulum, among other major cities. “Due to ongoing, widespread security operations and related road blockages and criminal activity in many areas of Mexico, U.S. citizens should shelter in place until further notice,” the U.S. Department of State Consular Affairs posted to X on Sunday afternoon.
¡Hay chihuahua! Literally.
And elsewhere in the world, with Iran on the brink internally, there is still the potential that President Trump might order airstrikes or other military operations against the Iranian regime to help bring about its long overdue demise. The question of should we or shouldn't we and the consequences domestically and internationally, both long- and short-term are of course debatable.
The United States government (USG) should not go to war with Iran. Iran’s nuclear program is not a meaningful threat to the United States. How Iran is governed, how its government treats its people, and who the Iranians trade with is none of our business.
A genuinely America First strategy toward Iran would mean ignoring the country and the Middle East as a whole. The United States government has no core interests on the Asian landmass.
The USG should lift all trade sanctions on the Iranian regime, grant diplomatic recognition to whatever regime is currently in power there, and cease efforts to regulate or manage the Iranian nuclear program. Iran’s conflicts with Israel and the Arab states are not our problem.
Regarding the Middle East more broadly, the USG should shut down all of our bases and cut off all flows of foreign aid to the region. I mean this literally: no military aid to the Israelis, Jordanians, Egyptians, etc., and no humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. American officials should avoid giving any sign of favoritism to any nation, people group, or religious minority in the area.
The abject cluelessness as to the nature of the Iranian regime post the Shah and its driving force, ISLAM, for the past 1,500 years is absolutely radiant. The Jordanians, Egyptians and so-called "Palestinians" are one thing to be sure. But Israel, not only our one true ally in the region but aside from us the one remaining keeper of the flame of Western civilization and the advancement of humanity left in the world. Yes, whatever money in the form of aid that goes to Israel should be regulated and accounted for and dispensed responsibly, but the dividends to our national security are well-known and manifold as history has proven. The record is clear on that.
And as I and CBD have made clear on many a recent podcast (the latest episode linked here and in the sidebar as well as available on the usual outlets listed below). it is clearly up to the Iranian/Persian people to take matters into their own hands and take the lead in deposing their oppressors. If the US can help in that goal minus troops on the ground or the failed democracy projects of the past then we should be as minimally involved as we can. And no we should not recognize another Islamo-fascistic government should it God-forbid come to power.
“I thought that the lawyers for Trump made the wrong argument to the Supreme Court, and I predicted they were going to lose based on their argument. Look, if you argue that it’s fundraising activity by Congress, of course you’re going to lose,” Dershowitz said. “This, the Article One of the Constitution, says that duties and taxes can be imposed only by Congress, and Congress can delegate that authority to the president.”
“But if you argue that tariffs can be a weapon of foreign policy, a weapon of diplomacy, a weapon of preventing war, then it’s an Article II power of the president, and Congress has no power to limit it. And so I think what the president has said in his press conferences today is that we may have gone under the wrong statute, and maybe we have no power under that statute,” Dershowitz added. “But I want to prevent a war with Iran, and so I’m going to impose a very very steep sanction on Iran, not to raise money but to stop a war. I’m gonna have a big, big, big tariff on, who knows, in order to make sure that they comply with the foreign policy of the United States. Turn this into an Article II, not an Article I, function.”
Dershowitz said the president could still use tariffs as a foreign policy tool, within constitutional limits.
Funny how Roberts could rewrite the Obamacare individual mandate and declare it kosher, but is otherwise ignorant of Dershowitz's salient point regarding the wrong argument and take his red pen to make Trump's tariffs kosher too. Heaven forfend.
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
Millions of Americans across the Interstate 95 corridor throughout the Northeast are getting prepared to be heavily impacted by a potent nor’easter bomb cyclone that will generate large amounts of snow in a strong portion of the region beginning Sunday. Potent Nor’easter Bomb Cyclone To Blast Northeast With Largest Snowstorm In Years
Vandals poured a toxic chemical across the Trump-Kennedy Center’s outdoor ice rink early Friday morning, forcing officials to cancel that evening’s performance. A brown-black substance spread across the ice surface caused severe damage to the outdoor arena, Fox News reported. A gallon-sized container was left behind on the damaged rink. Officials confirmed the substance was toxic, though the exact chemical has not been publicly identified. (Maxine Waters' thigh cream - jjs) Kennedy Center Vandalized In ‘Targeted’ Attack Amid Left-Wing Backlash Over Trump Renaming
Records reviewed by Breitbart Texas reveal that Jason Houser — who has labeled Trump’s immigration policies “racist” — and Troy Miller — who, as Biden’s Acting CBP Commissioner, often amplified Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ claims that the Biden-era border was closed to irregular migration — joined a Tuesday meeting with senior Trump administration CBP officials to discuss NTC changes. EXCLUSIVE: Ex-Biden DHS Officials Behind Record Border Failures Now Advising CBP on High‑Risk Traveler Screening
This is the Democrat Party today: A man who is running for a seat in the House of Representatives, Justin Pearson, has just refused repeated opportunities to affirm that there is, somewhere in the United States, a criminal illegal alien whom he wishes to deport. Dem Congressional Candidate Refuses to Say He’d Deport a Single Illegal Alien
“But if you argue that tariffs can be a weapon of foreign policy, a weapon of diplomacy, a weapon of preventing war, then it’s an Article II power of the president, and Congress has no power to limit it..." Alan Dershowitz Says Trump Team Made ‘Wrong Argument’ In Tariff Case
Abdullahi’s involvement with MAS dates back to at least 2012, when she served as a youth director in Columbus and later as a national program director. The organization’s youth programs have been marred by scandals nationwide, including an incident in Philadelphia where children were taught songs about beheading Israeli Jews, and a fundraiser selling merchandise glorifying Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. Upon her election to public office in 2022, Abdullahi appeared to distance herself from MAS, updating her LinkedIn profile to indicate she no longer worked for the group. Unmasking The Muslim Brotherhood Ties Inside Ohio’s General Assembly
The Supreme Court decided President Donald Trump exceeded his powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in a 6-3 ruling issued Friday which struck down his use of the act to impose reciprocal tariffs. Greer reminded Raddatz that the administration had authority for tariffs under other laws aside from IEEPA. (RELATED: Scott Bessent Lays Out Future Of Trump’s Tariffs, Trade Deals) Jamieson Greer Says Trump Still Has ‘Very Durable Tools’ For Tariffs, Trade Deals
Jennifer Fasulo, a Spanish teacher at the high school in a suburb outside of Syracuse was placed on a paid leave of absence in late January, just weeks after she agreed to help students establish a Club America chapter, her supporters say, according to a report by the New York Post. New York High School Teacher Ousted After Helping Students Launch Turning Point USA Chapter
After years of Marxist professors spewing their propaganda at captive students who needed the class for graduation, the pendulum is slowly swinging to the Right. Texas Ousts DEI from Education
The Civil Rights Division filed a motion to intervene Wednesday in the case against Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), according to a DOJ press release. The lawsuit targets the district’s Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other (PHBAO) program, which classifies neighborhoods as “Anglo” or non-Anglo and distributes resources accordingly. DOJ Joins Lawsuit Alleging Anti-White Discrimination In Nation’s Second Largest School District
Bruen affirmed the right to carry; now the Court must close the loopholes and declare that the Second Amendment secures a right—not a privilege—untethered from shifting traditions. The Supreme Court Needs to Expand Bruen
THE 2020 and SUBSEQUENT ELECTION HEISTS , SHENANIGANS/FRAUD and AFTERMATH
“Epstein’s beliefs are a cold, dark shadow of what global governance says cheerfully. . .Childhood and dying represent life at its messiest and least efficient. . .The inputs are too impure. They must be refined.” Jeffrey Epstein’s Necrophilia—and Ours
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY, INSANITY
The requirement has drawn sharp criticism given the city’s relaxed approach to voter ID. The Department of Sanitation of New York is recruiting temporary workers ahead of a major blizzard expected to dump nearly two feet of snow on the five boroughs, according to the agency’s official website. Registration demands three categories of documentation: two small photos sized 1.5 inches square, a pair of original IDs along with photocopies, and a Social Security card. Mamdani Requires Three Forms Of ID For Residents To Help Shovel Snow
Roger Kimball: Democrats cheer or jeer the Court as convenience dictates; their lone consistency is power—pursued relentlessly, defended fiercely, and projected onto opponents. The Left’s Elastic Principles On Judicial Authority
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) traveled to the Munich Security Conference with big ambitions and came home with a reputation problem. The trip was supposed to bolster her foreign policy credentials ahead of a future Senate or presidential run. Instead, it turned into a masterclass in unpreparedness, and now she's doing damage control in the worst way possible: a tearful late-night Instagram rant. Titty-Caca AOC Has Instagram Meltdown. It’s a Sight to Behold.
Yet America remains far more conservative than it is liberal, with 35% of adults describing themselves as “very conservative” or “conservative” while 28% call themselves “very liberal” or “liberal” and 33% identify as “moderate.” That’s a problem for a party that has been hijacked by the radical left. So they choose Potemkin Village candidates like Spanberger, former astronaut Mark Kelly and Tim “Midwestern dad” Walz, with national security credentials or other conservative-coded attributes to trick moderate voters. Miranda Devine: Dems will roll out their perfect agent of subterfuge, Abigail Spanberger, in response to SOTU
Ocasio-Cortez’s Munich performance was laughable—but her nostalgia for workerist politics ignores a century of Marxist failure, revisionism, and the authoritarian wreckage that followed. Titty-Caca AOC’s Ignorance Is No Laughing Matter
A Sunday report in the New York Times citing senior Iranian officials and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, detailed that Ali Larijani — a former Guards commander and current head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council — has effectively taken control of national security operations as tensions with Washington intensify. Khamenei Activates Wartime Succession Plans amid Assassination Fears; U.S. Strike Planning Enters ‘Advanced’ Phase
Cartel gunmen have begun carrying out terrorist attacks in various states in Mexico in response to the death of the country’s most powerful terrorist cartel leader, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes. Mexico’s government confirmed the death of the cartel boss, which resulted from an enforcement operation. Mexico Erupts in Flames After Death of Largest Terrorist Cartel Boss, El Mencho
The visit was a strategic re-entry into a region Washington neglected for too long, one that now sits squarely inside the map of great-power competition. America First Comes to the South Caucasus
Trump in January had approved Department of War (DoW) Secretary Pete Hegseth’s request to increase defense spending to $1.5 trillion in Fiscal Year 2027, up from the previous year’s $900 billion, a record at the time. This move, however, was heavily scrutinized by several members of the administration, including Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought, who is widely considered to be a deficit hawk, the outlet reported Saturday, citing four anonymous sources. Pentagon Reportedly So Awash With Cash It Doesn’t Even Know How To Spend It (the United Sefton Pastrami Fund is always a safe investment in national security! - jjs)
If during launch the helium stopped flowing it would almost certainly result in a failed launch. This issue not only impacts the tentative March 6th launch date that NASA announced yesterday, if a fix is not found quickly it almost certainly means no launch can occur before this launch window closes on April 6th. Problem pops up during SLS roll back after wet dress rehearsal countdown
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
The target yet again is 3D printers and their offensive ability to print in 3D things that are absolutely legal to own but the state government does not want you to have.
You will need at least an AMD FX 4350 and a Radeon HD 7850 to run it, or in other words, any reasonably capable potato. Despite using 125W the 4350 was significantly slower than a modern ultra low power budget chip like Intel's 6W N150.
It does cost $30 so maybe wait for a sale, but it is remastered and getting very positive reviews.
I maintain a million-line Python 2.7 back-end application at my day job. It just works, and while moving to Python 3 is not hard, testing a million lines of code is.
Using AI to generate and validate a vast swarm of tests makes that upgrade viable.
It also means that people who don't know what they are doing can churn out unmaintainable slop at hitherto unimaginable rates.
Earlier in the game, Hughes took a stick to the face which caused damage to his teeth. Because hockey players are tougher than nails, he remained in the game and eventually scored a goal that will be part of US hockey lore forever. This photo after the game became an instant classic.
Hughes loves his country
“This is all about our country. I love the USA!”
- Jack Hughes
This is how you do it.
Americans want to root for and love our Olympic Athletes.
You know who DOESN'T love their country?? The Huffington Post
Notice that GFY response? Jimmy's Seafood in my hometown! Jimmy's has gained notoriety for battles with PETA. So glad to see them weighing in here, too.
Back to the hockey team and an amazing patriotic moment
🚨 EPIC PATRIOTIC SCENE!
The American flag waves HIGH above the ice as Team USA, gold medals gleaming around their necks, belts out The Star Spangled Banner in pure, unbreakable unity! pic.twitter.com/rXKjXm0Zva
The 1970s were a turbulent time for the American auto industry. Not long after the decade's kick-off, the dense fog of the Malaise Era set in, giving us numerous love-it-or-hate-it models, many of which sported an iconic Bustleback design. Emissions standards were implemented, leading to the widescale adoption of catalytic converters (which was definitely a good idea) and brutally low engine outputs. However, there was one gleam of light that made life easier for professional mechanics and DIYers alike: it was when U.S. automakers began switching to metric bolts.
The keyword here is began, because metric bolts didn't fully replace standard, otherwise known as Imperial, English, or SAE fasteners, for many years. Popular internet forums have no shortage of discussion revolving around this topic, but in terms of when America's big three automakers first committed, that would be the early '70s. Though, conversion was slow — to the point that some vehicles came equipped with both standard and metric fasteners.
Much more at the link.
-----
Got insomnia? Or just have about an hour and a half to kill? Then this article / video might be for you!
It's that time of the week - when we turn the ONT over to our good friend Piper for a bit. Here's this week's fashion pr0n.
-----
Spring 2026 Fashion Trends: Fresh, Playful, and Surprisingly Wearable
Spring is always about renewal, and the Spring/Summer 2026 collections feel like opening the windows to let a fresh breeze in. After a whirlwind of designer changes (nearly 15 new creative directors debuted!), the runways delivered optimism, color, craftsmanship, and pieces that actually work in real life.
This season strikes a balance: maximalist pops of color meet versatile, easy-to-style silhouettes. Whether you're easing out of winter layers or planning your warm-weather wardrobe, these are the trends worth knowing (and shopping), from budget steals to worthy splurges!
1. Colors Are Taking Over Forget safe basics running the show, Spring 2026 is vibrant! Colors you didn’t think about dancing together just do like they were born to be side by side.
Key shades to keep an eye on:
• Icy/Powder Blue (or Klein blue)- it's the color of the season.
• Deep Merlot/Burgundy — rich and grounding, easing over from winter but lighter now.
• Ballerina Blush & Butter Yellow — gentle pastels with a modern twist.
• Bold pops like cobalt, magenta, lime, tomato red, and grape purple for when you are ready to make a statement.
How to wear it: Start with a little accessory if you're shy, or go full monochromatic for that wow. Icy blue and Merlot? Yes. All the way yes.
Budget pick: Snag an icy blue button-up or sweater from H&M or Amazon for under $40—perfect for layering.
Splurge pick: A refined icy blue knit or tailored piece from Max Mara or Simone Rocha feels eternally elegant.
2. Sporty-Prep & Metropolitan Prep Vibes
Prep's getting a youthful, sporty update; classic lines with a fun twist. It's polished, practical, and perfect for changeable spring weather.
Highlights:
• Button-up jackets, oversized blazers, and chic trench coats.
• Minimal athleisure mixed with sharp tailoring.
• Borrowed-from-the-boys pieces like utility shirts or slouchy separates.
It feels effortlessly put together.
Budget pick: Oversized blazers and utility shirts at Zara or ASOS—often under $80.
Splurge pick: Structured blazer from Celine or Bottega Veneta add a luxury touch.
3. Feminine Details with Edge: Lace, Fringe, and Texture
Romantic touches are everywhere this season, but grounded with real craftsmanship—think delicate without being too precious.
Standouts:
• Lace accents & layering — sweet but never cloying.
• Fringe dresses and textured pieces (crinkle fabrics, pointelle knits).
• Sculptural shapes, drop-waist dresses, and voluminous skirts or pants.
These add movement and personality, ideal for dresses that go from morning coffee to evening plans.
Budget pick: Lace-trim tops or fringe from Mango look so elevated.
Splurge pick: Romantic looks from Victoria Beckham, Simone Rocha, or Chloé, pure runway romance.
4. Double Denim & Denim Everything
Denim's back bigger than ever, but fresher than your old jeans-and-jacket routine.
• Double denim (head-to-toe or mixed washes).
• Denim accessories (bags, shoes, hats) inspired by Miu Miu and Loewe.
• Dark or straight-leg jeans with unexpected colors.
It's nostalgic but updated, perfect for casual spring days.
Budget pick: Straight-leg or wide-leg from Uniqlo or Amazon under $60—great for mixing washes.
Splurge pick: Slim or straight-leg from Celine, Khaite, or Dior turns it into an investment.
5. Versatile Dresses & Clever Layering
Dresses are the real stars this season, adaptable, detailed, and so easy.
Top styles:
• Fringe, shirt dresses, crinkle-texture, drop-waist.
• Clever layering (open cardigans, lightweight knits over dresses).
• Slip dresses with '90s revival charm.
Versatility is key—pieces that transition day to night or pack light for travel.
Budget pick: Shirt dresses or textured minis from H&M or Zara around $50.
Splurge pick: Lace-trimmed or sculptural from Dior or Altuzarra—timeless and special.
Bonus Trends to Watch
• Electric florals — bold, graphic prints.
• '90s influences — slips, clean minimal black & white.
• Artisanal touches — handcrafted details, bold textures.
Spring 2026 feels celebratory —like joy wrapped in fabric.
-----
Thanks, Piper!
***
DJ Doof - This Date in Music History Edition
On this date in 1976:
Florence Ballard of The Supremes died of cardiac arrest, age 32. She sang on 16 top 40 singles with the group, including ten number-one hits.
Born on the date in 1973:
American musician Thomas Scott "Flip" Phillips - drummer, percussionist, keyboardist and co-founder of the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge
Born on the date in 1963:
English musician Roger Charlery, known professionally as Ranking Roger. He was a vocalist in the 1980s ska band the Beat (known in North America as the English Beat) and later new wave band General Public.
***
Tonight's ONT brought to you by Moron self-branded businesses
(Photo credit - Diogenes at the SF airport)
***
Tonight's ONT was created by unsung minions at Doof Enterprises, LLC. No medals or accolades - just cranking out the whelming content that you've come to expect!
Your feedback may or may not be very important to Doof Enterprises. Follow Mr. Doof on X @doof2112 or do the email thing – doof2112 at proton dot me.
Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the fourth February edition? Coming soon; March editions!!
I finished my taxes this week so I'm in a bad mood. Don't talk to me!
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
Last week we talked about range time objectives and the value of having a plan. If you had to identify the biggest 'problem' preventing you from achieving your marksmanship goals, what would it be? Stance? Grip? Sight alignment or trigger mechanics? What, exactly, are your goals and how were they determined? Are establishing goals and measuring progress important to you? Do you have a logical and methodical strategy for practice and improvement? If not, why not?
Not everyone wants or needs to be a great marksman. Just because you like to shoot doesn't mean you have to go all nutty about it like someone we know. As long as you are safe, perhaps achieving and maintaining a level of basic competency is all you are after. Does this describe you? If you had to guess, what percentage of all shooters do you think would fall into this category?
Let us know what you think in the comments!
******
Biathlon Competition
Whoa! Our pal rhomboid brings the info on biathlon!!
The shooting sport I've long loved is biathlon. Love nordic skiing, but never lived anywhere you could do it as a regular serious hobby, so biathlon was sadly never a real option for me. On a trip to Lake Placid in the mid-90s I did encounter the Russian junior biathlon team (first noticed them as they skated past me like I was standing still - though in fairness I was doing classic style). Watched at the range for a bit - the chain-smoking, vulgarity-spewing Russian coaches didn't disappoint! And I think I still have a Russian 22LR box in my ski wax bag. (I also rented speed skates and glided around the speed skating oval where Eric Heiden and his sister won all those golds in 1980)
Competitive biathlon uses special 22LR rifles for the shooting portion (there are large-caliber centerfire biathlons with long-range targets, nordic field, and moose, which are not part of the international circuit that includes the Olympics). Almost all of these rifles are Anschutz, and most of those are Anschutz 1827 Fortner models, whose ergonomics and features represent the evolved state-of-art. These rifles have a straight-pull action, and use 5-round magazines, which are carried in various kinds of mag-holding slots in the stock. There are also small holes in some stocks for individual "extra" rounds, which are allowed in some formats for make-up shots.
The minimum weight is 7 pounds. Sights are non-magnified diopter with globe front sights (generally). There is a semi-rigid loop harness like a backpack arrangement that allows the skier to ski comfortably with the rifle on their back. There is a small sling attached to the fore-end, through which competitors stick their support hand to tighten up grip and stability. Minimum trigger pull is 1.1 lbs. There can be features aimed at reducing the effect of snow on the rifle and sights, should the skier fall during a race.
And the shooting is what makes biathlon a unique and amazing kind of race. It combines the most aerobic sport there is, cross-country skiing, with a sport that's all about breath control and fine motor skills. You glide into the range with a heart rate of 175, and now need to hit small targets (1.8" in prone, 4.5" in off-hand) 50 meters away. Fast. A good biathlete will clean the 5 target array in 20 seconds - any more, or any misses, and you're likely out of the running.
Competitors generally use 40g 22LR lead solids, with special cold-temperature lubricant and a bit of extra powder. There are usually two shooting sessions, first prone, second off-hand (standing), with a ski lap of the course before/after. Some longer events have 4 shooting sessions.
No other sport like it. And not only does biathlon center around the tension between speed and precision, thanks to the leverage of the shooting portion, it is the most dramatic kind of race around. The clear leader can, with one or two missed shots on his last range session, fall to 15th place - just like that. Missed shots result in either time automatically added to the competitor's finishing time or a lap around a penalty loop next to the range, which adds varying amounts of time depending on conditions and the skier.
I got a one-month subscription to Peacock primarily to watch the biathlon and cross-country in Italy this past week, and it's been spectacular. An indication that biathlon is moving out of its niche is that it is now the mostly highly rated TV winter sport in Europe. Which is incredible really. The amazing advances in cameras (number, type, and quality, to include drone-mounted) and production approach have made both biathlon and cross-country very watchable events. And there's no race format that's more dramatic.
Very nice, rhomboid! Thank you very much!
Does anyone else have biathlon shooting or competition experience?
***
Here is a look at how the Anschutz biathlon rifles are made.
******
Springfield Armory
Well worth a visit if you're in the area. Also worth a visit even if you aren't in the area.
******
Our Pal The Howitzer
******
I Hate When This Happens!
******
Big Yo-Yo
******
Highway Patrol!
This week's episode: Hired Killer!
******
The Giant Claw!
******
Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Pork Butt has become oddly scarce around here, and even more irritatingly, relatively expensive. You damned hipsters ruin everything!
I found a very nice one at a local market, and as my one consideration to the impending weather catastrophe of biblical proportions ($50 says I get one foot of snow...not the two+ feet forecasted), I am making slow-roasted pulled pork.
If you look closely you will see a piece of parchment paper on the rack, which supposedly will keep the pork butt from sinking into the rack and making more of a mess. I have never tried it, so we shall see!
As for spices? Eh...I'm winging it. Salt, pepper, Mexican Oregano, paprika, some chile powder, garlic, and probably some other stuff I have forgotten. But it smells great, and I am looking forward to a large portion of it with some beans and cornbread as a reward for snow-blowing the 93 feet that the hysterics are predicting.
By the way, this will be an abbreviated Food Thread, because I was watching a hockey game this morning instead of writing it!
I think that the current hysteria over food additives, spearheaded by RFK Jr. is overblown. Yes, some of these additives maybe be unhealthful for humans. Or not. We really don't know for sure.
But...I am a big fan of eating foods with as few ingredients as possible, for aesthetic and culinary reasons as well as health.
Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said she wants to know how the FDA plans to evaluate BHA for safety.
Previous toxicology studies on BHA have relied on lab testing and animal experiments, and it’s not always clear how well those results translate to humans, she said.
Human studies aren’t really possible, she added, noting that they’d take too long, cost too much and raise major ethical concerns.
The problem is that food is so hyper-politicized that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction, or propaganda! For instance, pushing animal welfare may seem to be a noble and caring pursuit, but it has many malign influences on the food supply chain, not least of which increasing the price of food. That might not be a huge deal in America, but the people on the margins will struggle, and some will die.
And of course the real goal of many in the animal welfare movement is the outlawing of meat production, because "MEAT IS MURDER!"
Tasty, tasty murder!
******
I am a big fan of manly drinks like the Martini and the stirred Manhattan (shaken Manhattans are for effete pseudo-Texans), but a well-constructed cocktail is usually going to be tasty, no matter what its reputation.
I have a friend who used to be a successful bartender, and often when we sat at his bar he would make what many would consider "girlie" drinks for me, just to make me squirm with embarrassment. Sadly for him, he was excellent at his craft, and they were always tasty! Hell, his chocolate Martini was a revelation!
So here is a good beginning for what many would consider the quintessential girlie drink; the Cosmopolitan Cocktail. I would cut the Cointreau in half and replace it with more vodka, but it's a start!
Inflation bit us all firmly in the ass under the Biden/Obama dictatorship. Yes, inflation is down, but for many foods, prices are not. So economizing is more important for many people, and this website does a reasonable job at showing how we can eat fairly well without breaking the bank. One thing I don't like is the reliance on packaged foods that are far more expensive than their homemade equivalents. Vegetable broth? Come on...how tough is it to make?
But Cheap Eats is still a good place to start if you want to economize but don't have enough cooking experience to do it on your own.
******
******
A friend graciously gave me some genuine grown-in-the-USA garlic, and I tasted one clove and planted the rest, because my pathetic failure last year is an anomaly...right? I hope so, because it's in the ground (actually, a large pot), and it had better work this time!
In case it doesn't send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
Forgotten Early 80s Schmatlz Mystery Click Honey, I was your hero
And you were my leading lady
We had it all
Just like Bogie and Bacall
Ooof, it's worse than I remembered.
China Is Not Our Fren: Chinese government posts AI generated content featuring attacking and killing American soldiers. Pay attention to the ridiculous AI banter of the US soldiers. [dri]
Podcast: Sefton and CBD discuss AOC's brilliant entrance into geopolitical policy, Jesse Jackson's demise, Transsexual Psycho Killers, is NYC about to get taxed even more? Olympic athletes who bite the hand that fed them, and more!
Podcast: CBD and J.J. Sefton ramble about CO2, how Epstein's mess has crossed the Atlantic, the future dismal prospects for the UK, CA tax lunacy, To The Moon Elon!, the NFL, and more!
Podcast: J.J. Sefton and CBD discuss the outrageous denial of legitimate, constitutionally-mandated federal activity by the blue states, China's army is purged, the Democrat playbook never changes, the Donroe Doctrine, 20cm artillery shells, and more!
