The Morning Report 6/22/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. Top stories today include the impending crashing and burning of the State of Illinois. From a Leftist point of view, how did capitalism, conservatives and American greed rob poor welfare recipients of their money and destroy the state? While Tubby Riefenstahl, Robert B. Reichhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-uh and their ilk ponder a way to craft that message into something rational Americans will swallow whole, the GOP Senate leadership is set to unveil its version of Repeal/Replace. Although I have not seen the details, it does allegedly end Planned Parenthood funding completely. We shall see. In the wake of the huge win in GA-6, it's wise that the GOP not waste the momentum. Hopefully the bill will be worth it. Lastly, on this date, June 22nd, 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union and began the bloodiest, most violent land battle in human history. Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• "Vintage Trump" Rocks the House at Iowa Rally
  
• Collusion with the Russians? See McStains Circa 2008
  
• Gowdy: Maybe Dems Didn't Cooperate with DHS Because of Something Else on that Server
  
• Ill and Oys: State Faces Complete Financial Collapse, Can't Even Pay Lotto Prizes
  
• Trib Columnist: Break Up Illinois
  
• Irrelevant Political Agitation Group Rejects Offer from Egomaniac to Meet with President
  
• Trump Was Right: Study Confirms Nearly 6 Million Illegal Votes Inflicted Obama on the Nation
  
• Farsis Threaten to "Depose Trump," Preparing Missile Strikes on US Forces
  
• Republicans Face Pressure from Constituents for Swift Obamacare Repeal, As . . .
  
• . . .McYertle and Friends Unveil GOP Senate Repeal/Replace Bill Today
  
• In Wake of Ossoff Trouncing, Democrats Post Worst May Fundraising Since 2003
  
• Tubby Riefenstahl: "Dems Can't Get a Friggin' Clue"
  
• Chutz-Pocrisy Dept.: Dems Fight for $15 While Paying Interns $0.00
  
• Greenfield: You Can't Be Pro-Palestinian and a Feminist
  
• Coulter: The Left Has One Final Argument - - Kill Them
  
• James Hodgkinson: Look For the Union Label

Overnight Open Thread 6/21/17 (tmi3rd)

—Open Blogger

Good evening, Morons and Moronettes. I'm tmi3rd,, and I'm filling in this evening. The fact that there just happens to be a tropical system about to go ashore on the Gulf Coast is merely a coincidence.

Seriously.

More beneath the fold...

Well, since tropical weather has traditionally been my beat, let's touch on it very briefly...

Tropical Storm Cindy will go ashore around Sabine Pass (roughly the TX/LA line), and a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from San Luis Pass to the mouth of the Mississippi River (basically the greater New Orleans area). Winds are sustained at 50 MPH with gusts to 65 as of 8 PM EDT, and what's going to happen is that it's going to take its time moving into southern Arkansas. About 3 days in, it'll get absorbed by a cold front and haul ass off to the east.

The thing to bear in mind is that what typically gets people in trouble in tropical weather is not wind, but flooding. So anywhere you've got sustained heavy rain (particularly in the first three days after landfall with this one), you have that potential for severe flooding. If you're in the path of this storm, just please stay away from high water.

On to the fun...

So the Stanley Cup Finals finished up in the last week or so, and my Nashville Predators lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. It was a bummer of a way to lose a series, but I'm not going to re-litigate the series. Instead, I will extend my sympathy to one of the teams my Preds beat, the St. Louis Blues. The following video documents the pain fans of this franchise have been through.

CONTENT WARNING: if you're a Blues fan, this is absolutely BRUTAL.

Yikes. Sorry, guys.

Sooo... this is a thing, eh?

Australian man who binged on meth feared dead after attempting to have sex with crocodile

Welp.

...on this occasion, the man would make a fateful decision while his judgment was impaired by the drug. "He was a few hundred metres down the beach when he started pulling his clothes off," said the friend. "We thought he just wanted to streak or something but then up ahead we were shocked to see a croc."

The group of friends shouted at the man to leave the crocodile alone, which was estimated to be around 2 metres long. "We were worried he was so off his face on ice he'd try to provoke it, but nothing would prepare us for what he did next."

According to the friend, the man- now naked- leapt at the crocodile and started trying to have intercourse with it. "We were still a fair distance back, but I reckon he just about got it in," said the witness. "Of course, the croc wasn't having a bar of it, and it started thrashing around like crazy."

The man's friends were powerless to help as the crocodile clenched its jaws across the man's torso and hauled him into the water. "There was some thrashing around under the water for a few seconds before nothing- it was just still," said the distraught friend.

Tonight's musical selection...

This guy's name is Peter Kastner, and he's a session bassist from Los Angeles. He's playing a tune called "Nardis", and he's playing a really amazing instrument made by a luthier named Rob Allen. The MB-2 (or MB-5 in its 5-string version) is a semi-hollow instrument, and I was STUNNED when I picked one up for the first time.

I *SUCK* on upright bass, but I've done plenty of live and session work on bass. When I need to get an acoustic sound of one form or another, I can get EXACTLY the sound I'm after from this instrument, and I'll be picking one up shortly. Those of you who are familiar with my playing know that I'm a Pedulla guy when it's up to me, and usually wind up playing Fender in the studio. The Rob Allen basses are truly exquisite instruments, and you can check them out at roballenguitars.com.

One more musical selection...

This is just more of my study music. If I'm listening to classical, I'm conducting it and it's a distraction. So I stick to deep house.

Some closing thoughts...

So Ace and Instapundit have been spearheading the "punch back twice as hard" initiative (for lack of a better word) against the left, and I largely agree. There are a few things I want to point out that are worth imitating from the left, and there are a few worth avoiding.

As a preface- this is just my take, so it's worth exactly what you're paying for it. Your mileage may- and probably will- vary.

First of all, I agree with this piece: "Political Violence Is A Game The Right Can't Win". Here's why, part one: as the linked piece notes, yeah, we're better armed on the right, but they organize better. From the piece:

The first thing righties have to understand about Lefties is that lefties have a lot more practice building their own institutions, and assuming control of existing institutions, than their counterparts on the right do, and they share their practical experience with each other. Righties who like to build churches will build a church and worship in it. Lefties who like to build churches will build a church, write a book telling people how to build churches, go out and convince people church-building is the thing to do, run workshops on how to finance, build, and register churches, and then they'll offer to arrange church guest speakers who'll come preach the Lefty line.

Righties need to do a better job of teaching each other. And not just teaching the right-winger closest to them. The most organized groups on the Right are the pro-life and RKBA activists; everybody else on the Right should be learning from them.

Strong stuff. Here's the second part:

The second thing to understand about Lefties is how they actually function. There's a lot of independence involved. Righties like hierarchy, so often think of the Lefties as taking marching orders from George Soros or whoever in a very hierarchical fashion. Not so much. A lot of left-wing organization is very decentralized, and they negotiate with other lefty groups as to exactly how they'll do things and time things to not hurt each others' work, so the labor movement's march is not derailed by black-bloc window-smashing (see, for example, DIRECT ACTION, L.A. Kauffman's excellent history of the Left from the 60s on).

The Lefties call that approach "embracing a diversity of tactics," which, taken to its logical extent, is a weasel-worded way of saying that the lefty mainstream is comfortable with radical leftist violence. People don't like to talk about this much. But while it's impossible to imagine, say, an abortion clinic bomber getting a cushy job at an elite university, that's exactly what happened to a number of alumni of the 1970s leftist terror group known as the Weather Underground. As fugitives, they were financially and operationally supported by members of the National Lawyers' Guild; afterward, they were so normalized that the 9/11 issue of The New York Times infamously ran a profile lauding Weatherman alumnus Bill Ayres. By contrast, right-wing terrorist Eric Rudolph's fugitive days were spent hiding in the wilderness because no one would help him. He was caught literally dumpster-diving for food. Potential right-wing extremists face opportunity costs that their left-wing counterparts do not.

As you can imagine, it's time to read the whole thing. I've got one final point to make, and then the rest of the evening is yours.

On the right, we've been led around by media hosts who told us what we wanted to hear, only to find out that about half of them were in it to take our money. Thus, my skepticism of Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer. They created a spectacle, and the GoFundMe page for their legal fees is doing quite well.

Because we've had so many political candidates essentially run for office in order to do book tours and become Fox-famous, I want to see these folks put their money where their mouth is, which leads me to my bigger point:

Nobody likes a scold, and nobody likes annoying people. Ace has said this for well over a decade, and it can't be emphasized enough: we gain nothing by becoming snowflakes, SJWs, or all the things we rightfully point at, laugh at, and detest.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't hit back, but it means that we need to not become exactly what we despise about the left.

Kick that around and decide for yourself a) whether that's something you can get behind, and b) what it means to you. Mine is a decidedly imperfect take on it, as I threw it together in the last ten minutes before putting this post up, but again,
see what you think.

Thanks as ever for reading- I'm back to med school in another couple of weeks, so I'll be pretty busy shortly. That said, if you need to get a hold of me, please don't hesitate to come find me on Twitter, and have a good evening! I have to be up with the kids in the morning, so I won't be around too late tonight.

-tmi3rd

Close it up

Bits and Bobs Open Thread

—Ace

David Frum had a bit of a snit today.

Charles Cooke demolished his spasmodic, full-auto-ignorance tweets in two posts, the second one specifically mentioning David Frum, who, by the way, looks like he spent twenty years in Barad-Dur being raped by Gollum and learned to love it.

His every spastically uninformed argument rubbished, he then turned to -- get this! -- emotively shrieking like the sad Gollum bitch he is.

Jazz Shaw digests a good Peter Bienart piece about how Democrats -- who once routinely spoke in favor of border enforcement and even noticed (gasp!) that of course an unlimited stream of new foreign workers must depress native-born wages, have since decided that to repeat any of the things they uncontroversially said just 8-10 years ago is a vile heresy.

They did the same thing on gay marriage and Choose Your Own Adventure bathrooms, too, of course.

The FBI has bizarrely claimed that James Hodgkinson had no "particular target in mind," and that his assassination attempt was -- of course -- definitely not terrorism.

I forgot to mention this classic excuse earlier -- a Democrat operative said Ossoff lost because it was impossible to reach his voters, because they live in their parents' houses.

Sounds about right!

A precinct captain for Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff's congressional campaign complained recently that many of his constituents are hard to reach because they still live at home with their parents.

"Those were the angriest people," Jessica Zeigler told Slate, referring to the Republican parents of the young Democrats. "When you are targeting their child, or heaven forbid their child might not think the same way as them, it becomes ugly."

Living with your parents at age 27 does tend to make one angry.

The parents aren't too thrilled, either.

Speaking of Monster Babies, I linked this earlier, but it's worth highlighting: The President of Evergreen State Day Care Center says he's issued a "stern warning" to some of the thugs at his Monster Baby Nursery.

And that's all I got. Night!

Is This Something? Audio of Old Documentary on Mentally Ill Children Repurposed as Narration of Video of Social Justice Warriors

—Ace

Let me spare you the trouble of answering: Yes, this is something.

As this isn't much of a post, let me link an article I've had open for a while: Monster Babies should be neither seen nor heard and certainly not obeyed.

Let's Stop Treating the Young As If They're Political Sages

by Clare Foges

We should be challenging the naive, unaffordable views of many under-25s, not kowtowing to them

"Respect your youngers," tweeted the pop star Lily Allen after the shock election result driven by a high youth turnout. But have we come to respect the youngers and their opinions too much?

Recent years have involved increasing youth worship in politics. Come election time, TV producers fall over themselves to put together panels of young people to offer up vacuities about “choosing hope over fear” and other quotes they may have spotted on Instagram. Grey-beard presenters nod deferentially at every complaint offered up by youthful contributors, however inane or ill-informed (the passion of youth requires no substantiation). Millennial mouthpieces on social media rouse the tribe with talk of reclaiming their future and how dreadfully they have been let down by older generations.

Well, that's all they'll let me see without paying, but you get the gist.

This video (also embedded below) should be ample proof that we're respecting the young far too much.

Democrats Begin Talking Up the Unthinkable: Putting Granny Rictus McBotoxface Out to Pasture

—Ace

First, an artist's depiction of the Handel victory in #GAO6:

The stubby, dull knives are out for Nancy Pelosi, with one Democrat going on-record to say that if she were on the ballot for leadership right now, he wouldn't vote for her.

Another Democrat said it's time for the White Witch to go back to Narnia to start a hashtag campaign against Aslan's "#lionsplaining."

Meanwhile, it's Excuseapalooza on the left.

Cashew-faced Queen of Conspiracies Rachel Maddow is stealing a play from Milli Vanilli and Blam[ing It] On the Rain -- she's deep in the fever swamps exploring the "partisan implications" of some light rain in GA-06 yesterday.

Meanwhile, goofball feminist and leftwing blogger turned NYTimes columnist Jill Fillopivic (gee, isn't it strange the Times only hires leftwing bloggers?) claiming Handel was a huge "bigot" and America as a whole cannot be turned away from voting from such bigots.

So, along with #Hacks, the excuses now include "bigotry," Americans' inherent vileness and stupidity, and God Himself. Pretty much standard prog responses.

One more bit of gloating below, thanks to Tyler O'Neill of PJ Media's Hot Mic.

Content warning: may contain scenes involving mutual reciprocal homewreckers Joe and Mica.

Left Media Now Blaming Tossoff Loss on, Get This, Hacks

—Ace

That picture doesn't have anything to do with the headline, but I love it so much, and this particular picture is in hi-def, so the vivid colors of Sadz really pop.

I also love this picture:

The feelz! All the sadz! Looks like someone's got a case of the Tuesdays!

Strangely, CNN's All-Stars never appear this crestfallen when (briefly) reporting on people killed by terrorists.

Dana Bash's shockface resembles someone who has just been unexpectedly, but gently, sodomized by an elk.

Oh, and only slightly less Weepy McDrippyface than CNN are the butthurt feminists:

And if you want to see more unattractive women you wouldn't even f*** on a dare handling the loss poorly, you can check out Free Beacon's clip of The View.

Anyway, re: hacking, here are more conspiracy theories that dedicated anti-conspiracy-theory bloodhound Jake Tapper will again take no notice of.

The media had been prepping the battlespace for this contingency previously:

Good Explanation of Why Tossoff Lost

—Ace

An extended twitter essay here.

If you want the short version, see Stephen Greene's digest.

If you're too lazy even for that: People are sick as hell of the riots, the bullying, the temper tantrums, and the constant caterwauling banshee-wailing from the Monster Babies, or the Garbage Babies as Iowahawk calls them.

They're sick of the constant agitation towards violence from the left, and the media's covering that up, at least, when it's not openly justifying it.

They're sick of the left making them second-class citizens and imposing that status through both vigilante violence as well as the official actions of the corrupt and weaponized state.

They're sick of the institutions of what used to be called "America" issuing get-out-of-jail-free cards to those who threaten American citizens, thereby giving the left a hunting license to kill people on the right.

They're sick of Fake News CNN, where an anchor, shortly after a Black Lives Matter assassin shot a bunch of cops in Dallas, praised that leftwing assassin as "courageous and brave." (Skip to 2:04.)

In short, they're starting to realize the left has declared solemn war on them, and they're waking up to that awful reality, and the inescapable consequences of it.

Cop Stabbed at Bishop Airport in Flint, Michigan; Being Investigated as Possible Terrorism; Attacker Reportedly Shouted "Allahu Ackbar"

—Ace

We may never know the motive, the media promised.

The cop was stabbed in the neck. He had been in critical condition, but is now reportedly in stable condition.

Is This Something?

—Ace

Someone has made a short film goofing on nutjob/Hentai enthusiast Kurt Eichenwald.

The ending is funny, and brief, and should be watched just because it's only 41 seconds long:

A Victory For Free Speech

—OregonMuse

The left has been trying to embed the "hate speech is not free speech" meme into the national consciousness for at least the last couple of years. Well, yesterday, SCOTUS handed down a decision that addressed this very issue.

The case centered on Oregon-based, Asian-American band The Slants, which was denied a trademark because its name was considered offensive. The band countered that the 70-year-old law at issue violates free-speech rights -- and Justice Samuel Alito, in the court’s opinion, agreed.

And here is the result:

And the good part? It was an 8-0(!) decision. Even the Court's far left contingent agreed.

So progressives can just suck it.

Here's the only sour note:

Alito cautioned in his opinion that the government still “has an interest in preventing speech expressing ideas that offend.”

I haven't read the opinion, so I don't know the context of this statement, but it reminds me of my one and only beef with conservative jurisprudence, i.e. sometimes it conserves too much. That is, it sounds like the ruling was based on extremely narrow grounds that will provide progressives many opportunities for relitigation. Like Obergefell. If by some miracle it had gone 5-4 our way, the progressives would have been back within a year with another homosexual marriage case from another state, and they wouldn't have given up until they got the decision they wanted. Then BAM!, now it's settled law and any subsequent challenge is a violation of "precedent."

The end result always seems to be that progressive victories become permanent, but conservative ones rarely do so.

Second look at conservative judicial activism?

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report 6/21/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. Well, summer is officially here, and there's no better way to celebrate than to laugh at and mercilessly mock anyone who claimed that that twerp namby-pamby pajama-boy was going to win yesterday's special election. $23 million dollars flushed straight down the shitter. Maybe they should've spent the money on inner-city youth programs, or food stamps, or housing or any of their other pet projects that the gaggle of Ossoffs in Congress institute that takes our money to theoretically do the same. That is a rhetorical statement.

In any case, in the grand scheme of things, it's just one House seat and makes little difference. From a messaging and psychological standpoint, it is a YUUGE win for us and even YUUGER-ER loss for them. They won't spin it that way, of course. And now, if McYertle can just stand firm, tell Chuck Schemer to vayr ge hargit and ram home the O'care Repeal/Replace bill, 2018 and even 2020 are ours to lose (unforeseen circumstances notwithstanding). Even the witch hunt seems to be losing steam, please G-d.

No matter what, enjoy your Irish coffee this morning stirred with some schadenboner. AND . . . Here's a little extra something that is Nelson-Muntz-laugh worthy. Can you guess what party she's from? Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• Despite Early Night in Tblisi, Handel Easily Handles the Great White Dope in GA-6
  
• GOP Wins Special in SC-5, Keeps Mick Mulvaney's Seat
  
• PDT Congratulates Karen Handel for Big Win, Claims MAGA Mandate Stronger Than Ever
  
• Trump Effect: Chi-Coms End 14-Year Ban on American Beef Imports
  
• Report Claims Seth Rich Was Not Victim of Botched Robbery But Murdered, Killer Still at Large
  
• FBI to Release Report Today on Last Week's Democrat Terrorist Attack by Sanders Supporter, AND . . .
  
• . . . 1 In 4 Democrats See GOP as Existential Threat to "Way of Life". . .
  
• . . . Rush: Democrats Constitute the Largest Hate Group in the Nation
  
• US/Russia Brinkmanship in Syria as PDT Adopts More Robust Position
  
• PDT Set to Give Employers the Advantage at NLRB, View to Reverse Business-Killing Obama-era Regulations
  
• CNBC Survey: Ban on Muslim/African Immigration Actually Gaining Support in US
  
• Teh Ted Gives Powerful Defense of First Amendment at College Free Speech Hearings
  
• Evergreen State Young Brownshirts Support Free Speech. . . Only When They Do the Speaking
  
• Conrad Black: Great Again
  
• Anatomy of a Witch Hunt
  
• Otto Warmbier Family Objects to Autopsy, And . . .
  
• . . . A Reminder: Three Americans Still Being Held by Whoa, Fat! NorKs
  
• MOH Worthy: Most Senior of Sailors Killed in Destroyer Collision Disregarded His Own Life While Rescuing Shipmates

Overnight Open Thread (06-20-2017)

—CBD

From A Sticky Note Guide to Life

Is war a biological necessity? As regards the earliest cultures the answer is emphatically negative. The blow of the poisonous dart from behind a bush, to murder a woman or a child in their sleep, is not pugnacity. Nor is head-hunting, body-snatching, or killing for food instinctive or natural.

What? No, not all quotations on the ONT are smart. This one is an example of a pretty fvcking stupid one. But then, it's Harvard, so you shouldn't be surprised.

The great questions of the time are not decided by speeches and majority decisions -- that was the error of 1848 and 1849 -- but by iron and blood

The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not

******

Here is An Incomplete List Of Complete Bullshit Websites, from "SCIBABE," who usually makes me chuckle, and almost always has a nice, logical perspective on things.

******
Civil Forfeiture is about as anti-freedom as it gets. The jack-booted thugs of government simply steal stuff from people who can't defend themselves. And look who doesn't like it! As usual, Justice Thomas is spot-on. Of course since he strayed off of the plantation he is vilified by the Left and even soft liberals; people who would normally agree with a Black Supreme Court Justice who is on the side of the little guy. Justice Thomas's Doubts About Civil Forfeiture

Accordingly, Thomas strongly signaled that he thinks the long-standing deference to law-enforcement agencies is untenable. "In the absence of this historical practice, the Constitution presumably would require the Court to align its distinct doctrine governing civil forfeiture with its doctrines governing other forms of punitive state action and property deprivation," he surmised. He left unsaid that such a realignment would almost certainly narrow forfeiture's scope.

The justice's discomfort with forfeiture has built slowly since his early tenure. In 1993, two years after he joined the Court, he noted in a partial concurrence in U.S. v. James Daniel Good Real Property that he was "disturbed by the breadth of new civil-forfeiture statutes." He and the other justices ruled in favor of the plaintiff, James Good, whose home in Hawaii had been seized by federal marshals without notice or legal proceedings almost five years after he'd completed a prison sentence for drug possession.

******
I asked Garrett for some input on great covers. That was humbling. Here is a wild one that he suggested.

******

******
Richard Feynman was no Al Gore, but he had the rarest of minds; he could see through bullshit better than most. I wonder what Feynman would have thought of today's enviro-religious mania: AGW.

Here's a hint, courtesy of Andrew Branca's Law Of Self Defense blog:
Richard Feynman "Cargo Cult Science"
Just read it....the linked YouTube video is someone reading the speech, and he has an irritating voice.

But even today I meet lots of people who sooner or later get me into a conversation about UFOS, or astrology, or some form of mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of awareness, ESP, and so forth. And I've concluded that it's not a scientific world.

By the way, Branca's book is excellent, and well worth a read if you carry or even have weapons in the home for self defense.

From Andrew:

In terms of a discount on the book for the moron community, we have a moron-specific 20% discount on the book permanently in place: just use discount code AOSHQ at checkout. That discount code never expires, but it applies only to the book.

******
Oh...for Fvck's sake!

I get that there are going to be fashion trends that don't please me. Hell, most of the 1970s-...uh....until now....are awful in some respects. I freely admit that I am a fuddy-duddy, and anything other than a button-down and a pair of khakis is too God-damned hipster for me. But at some point, the fashion designers of the world lost their minds and started doing this kind of crap. Fine; blur the lines between man and woman. I get it. You want to be provocative. But there is an aesthetic that must be respected. Call it sexy, call it interesting, call it whatever you want. But when it looks like you are an asshole and just doing it for its shock value, it's gone too far.

As for the model? Dude...either shave your legs or go to the gym!

******
I really like punk...at least some of it. But the idea that it was the vanguard of some socio-political change is laughable. It's music. Not philosophy.
Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Cliff Richard And More Explain Punk In 1979

At first it was shocking, because until then you'd known the status quo. It hoped to be shocking and in some ways it was. But the thing was that the music was great and suddenly realised, after a day or two of horror - [ADOPTS POSH VOICE] 'My God! What's going on! What's happening to our England?!' - that these guys were just shaking it up and it needed shaking up...

******

Do you linger around too long? Never know it's time to leave the party? Our newest sponsor, Lingerex, has the solution for you! #Gutfeld pic.twitter.com/DUC6rmgr6A

— Greg Gutfeld Show (@GregGutfeldShow) June 18, 2017

******
Link to the Decision Desk HQ
Link to the NYT Handel vs. Ossoff probability meter.
******
©2024 by AceCorp LLC. All Rights Reserved. Do not taunt proprietor with Makita, DeWalt or Milwaukee products. Shelves are non-weight-bearing and are for decoration only. Lefty loosy, righty tighty. All tips are pooled and eaten by waitstaff after closing.

contact CBD

Close it up

DECISION DESK CALLS GA-06 FOR HANDEL; REPUBLICANS HOLD SC-05

—Ace

John Ossoff is a ROCKSTAR, BABY!

...

The New York Times Election Needle is back (remember it from November 8, 2016?), and it's pointing towards Handel.

Previous post follows. Will update when John Ekdahl gives me the secret sign.

...

Results at Decision Desk HQ.

The Democrats are also trying to win a vacated seat in SC-5, though that seems unlikely.

Today, Karen Handel won 100% of the vote cast by candidates, because the Man Child Ossoff lives three miles outside the district "to support his girlfriend," though I wonder how moving into someone else's place constitutes supporting them.

Jon Ossoff and his minions have given many and sundry answers as to how far he lives from the district he would represent. Sometimes he says a mile and a half, sometimes two miles. (His staffers say either "a couple of blocks" or "three blocks.")

It is unclear if Ossoff's change in distance was prompted by Washington Free Beacon reporter Brent Scher. He painstakingly documented his two-hour journey on Monday to walk more than three miles from Ossoff's home to the sixth district.

Video below.

Also below, the two widgets from Decision Desk which will update the results from GA-06 and SC-05.

Deck of Many Things Open Thread

—Ace

Senator Feinstein endorses the "heckler's veto," and says that if her leftist fellow travelers get all rioty and stabby, then it's prudent for colleges to shut down the speaker that the rioters are trying to shut down.

Compare this to Kevin Williamson's observation that it's not rhetoric that leads to violence, but violence endorsed by and permitted by authorities that leads to further violence.

Is it any wonder that James Hodgkinson thought he had the official sanction of the state to commit assassinations, when agents of the state are handing out get-out-of-jail-free-cards for leftists committing violence?

Eric Holder, cited for contempt of Congress and also notorious for being the lawyer who got the Clinton donor fugitive financier Marc Rich a pardon, is positioning himself as a hard-left leader of #TheResistance so he can run for president in 2020.

Yahoo News reports that the former AG’s goal is "to lead the legal resistance to Donald Trump's agenda -- and perhaps even run against the president in 2020."

"Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes," Holder told Yahoo. "But that's about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general."

Al Franken admits that the "Impeachment" talk from the Democrats is all posturing for elections, as he cautions that, were Trunp to be impeached, the much-more dangerous "zealot" Mike Pence would become president.

Which is why they'd then have to impeach him too, as quickly as possible, so that the presumably-Democratic Speaker of the House could then ascend to the Iron Throne.

And then the coup would be complete, and Katy Bar the Door.

The Bachelor spin-off show, Bachelor Losers Reunite In Shame, suspended production after foggy allegations of sexual abuse -- rape was suggested -- arose.

Well, now the show's back in production. It appears that a female contestant got very drunk -- or was encouraged to drink by producers, hoping for some drunken shenanigans -- and made moves on a sexual nature on male contestants who were "unable to give consent."

It's unclear if this simply didn't happen at all, or it was some kind of fairly minor thing like petting a drunk guy's package.

Anyway, now everyone's saying nothing happened.

Even though the entire cast was sent home and production was suspended during the investigation.

Rita Panahi wants to know where all the leftist voices, so effusive about calling terrorism terrorism in the Finsbury Mosque attack, make up so many excuses to avoid doing so when it comes to Islamic terrorism.

Here's just one example of that:

Meanwhile, Twitter Author John Scalzi, Children's Author JK Rowling, and Astroturf Comment Author David Axelrod all fulminated over Trump's failure to Tweet about Finsbury; yet today, they've said nothing about the Brussels attack (at least, not before I goaded them about it).

NSC Refuses to Turn Over FOIA'd Docs on Unmasking to Judicial Watch; Says They've Been Turned Over to the Obama Library, Which Will Keep Them Secret for Five Years

—Ace

How very convenient.

Judicial Watch announced on June 19 that the National Security Council has revealed that documents regarding the unmasking by President Barack Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice of “the identities of any U.S. citizens associated with the Trump presidential campaign or transition team” have been removed to the Obama Library.

Such documents, by law, cannot be released to the public for at least five years, and after that the library may still erect hurdles to access them. In effect, documents reportedly related to Congress’ investigation of Russia collusion in the 2016 election are now sealed, including materials gathered by the Obama administration in 2015-16 and perhaps earlier.

Meanwhile, Powerline blogger Scott Johnson has received a letter from a lawyer in some confabulated lawsuit against Trump demanding that he preserve his notes of an interview he had with Trump.

Terrorist Wearing Explosive Belt Shot But Not Killed in Brussels Train Station; Small Explosion Heard

—Ace

There's a picture of a small fire in the train station here, which is probably due to the explosion. It's not been reported yet if the explosion was controlled, or if someone just chucked the belt away before it blew up.

Or, you can see it in this tweet:

Here's a short video of troops arriving at the train station.

Reports say he was "neutralized." Some tweets say there are reports he was seriously wounded, but is alive. Police say the situation is "under control" now.

The motive may never be known, if CNN has its way.

Update: Maybe the situation is less under control than previously advertised. Reports out that special police forces (anti-terror squads, I imagine) have been deployed to hunt for second suspect.

The Motive May Never Be Known Update: Man allegedly shouted "Allahu Ackbar" as he attempted to detonate the explosive belt.

More recent reports suggest the man was in fact killed, not just injured.

Flashback: Left Delighted in Otto Warmbier Finding Out His "White Privilege" Didn't Work In Other Countries

—Ace

One racist magazine, "Affinity" (as in "racial affinity for members of the same race), actually is still celebrating the White Man getting tortured, made comatose, and then killed.

Media Interest In Murdered Muslim Girl Disappears When Her Suspected Killer Revealed to be an Illegal Hispanic Alien;
ICE Places Federal Detainer on Suspect

—Ace

Cops suspect she was raped before she was murdered.

Authorities suspect Nabra Hassanen may have been raped before she was murdered on Sunday, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation.

The killing of Hassanen, a 17-year-old Muslim girl from the area, sent shockwaves through the country after a recent string of violent attacks on Muslims and racial minorities. Police say they are not investigating her death as a hate crime.

It can't be a hate crime because only Whites have the privilege of being accused of hate crimes.

Meanwhile, ICE has put a detainer request on the suspected rapist/murderer illegal alien, and we'll see if Virginia Democrat Governor Terry MacAuliffe honors the detainer or chooses to #Resist.

A 22-year-old man charged with the murder of a 17-year-old girl in Virginia over the weekend has had a detainer placed on him by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a suspected illegal alien.

ICE places detainers on suspected illegal aliens who have been arrested on local criminal charges so they can take custody of them when they are released from local custody, according to the agency's website.

Darwin Martinez Torres was charged with the murder of Nabra Hassanen on Sunday in what police are describing as a road rage incident, Fox 5 DC reports. Torres got into a dispute with a group of people early Sunday morning after they left a sleepover at a mosque in Sterling, Va., according to Fairfax County Police.

After Torres drove his car at the group, he chased after them with a baseball bat and struck Hassanen, police said, before taking her away in his car. He was arrested by a Fairfax County Police officer on Sunday, and Hassanen's body was later found in a pond.

More Fake News:

Media Label Murder of Muslim Hate Crime, No Mention Killer Was Illegal https://t.co/OeGaymBcmt

— MediaResearchCenter (@theMRC) June 20, 2017

"Hunt Republicans" Democrat Consultant Faces Tucker Carlson

—Ace

And comes out looking like a a lunatic with little stubby baked-bean teeth. (I saw someone say that; forget who.)

Twitter has still not suspended his account.

And compare the New York Times' coverage of the Gabby Giffords shooting (which had nothing to do with politics; it was literally a local crime story that just happened to have a politician as one victim) with the one-and-done (well, two and done) coverage of an attempted assassination in which the assassin was carrying a list of six Republicans to murder.

Same with CNN -- obviously. All these sissy betas do is pilot-fish the New York Times:

And the Washington Post too:

The Tortured Logic Of The WaPO Is A Pathetic Attempt To Subvert The Law

—CBD

Sorry about the link, but it is illustrative of the lack of intellectual rigor on the Left. The writer freely admits that the facts do not match a "hate crime" charge, but suggests that it is one anyway, because of FEEELZ!
Nabra Hassanen's death may not legally be a hate crime, but it sure feels hateful

A hate crime, as we understand it, fits into a tight, legal narrative. It's a crime motivated by prejudice -- whether it's based on race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

And so far, investigators do not believe Nabra was picked out, targeted and killed specifically because she was a Muslim wearing an abaya, walking to her mosque. And it seems that she was not killed simply because she was a young woman walking outside in the darkness.

But no....the writer dips into the fetid swamp of stupidity that is the current state of journalism.

But her mother said detectives have told her that Nabra was struck with a metal bat.

There is no doubt that hitting a 17-year-old girl with a bat and dumping her body in a pond would be an act born of hate, which is rage's twin brother.

Screw the law! Let's go with mushy feelings.

Fine.

Deport all illegal aliens because they perpetrate hate crimes against poor Muslim teenagers. And that makes me feel bad. And illegals are scary, and that makes me afraid. So deport away!

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report 6/20/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. Well today's the big day in GA-6. The Democrats are convinced that John Ossoff, a carpetbagging dork who doesn't even live in the district he's running in, will defeat the GOP candidate Karen Handel, and finally hand President Trump the defeat that will effectively end his presidency. One congressional seat, after having lost well over a thousand up and down the line since 2010. And of course, if he loses, the reaction will be it's no big deal. Also of note, evidently McConnell really is going to move ahead with the Obamacare Repeal/Replace bill and the Democrats are livid that they are being shut out of the process. My advice to them is have a nice big cup of shut-the-f**k-up considering how this garbage was rammed down our throats in 2010. That said, I should temper my enthusiasm considering that it's a fair bet the final bill will do precious little to actually restore the status quo to 2010, let alone promote free market solutions. We shall see. A potentially huge case concerning gerrymandering is going to go to SCOTUS which will have huge ramifications for the balance of power in Congress. The Democrats are hoping for a decision (sound familiar) that will reverse their electoral wipeout and preserve, if not artificially increase, their power. What else is new, right? Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• Showdown in GA-6 Today as Desperate Dems Pin Hopes, and 10s of Millions, on Pajamaboy Carpetbagger
  
• Rush: MFM Suddenly Hedging Their Bets in Handel v Ossoff
  
• Is Syria Wagging the Russian Dog?
  
• Democrat Strategist Launches #HuntRepublicans After Democrat Terrorist Attack
  
• GOP Lawmaker Challenges DC Gun Law in Wake of Democrat Terrorist Attack
  
• Did Democrat Terrorist Seek to Kill off Republicans so Dems Could Engineer Impeachment Coup?
  
• Pencil-Neck Schiff, Other Dems Block Witnesses from Testifying in Collusion Probe
  
• Dems Freaking Out that GOP Crafting O'Care Repeal/Replace in Secret, Leaders Consider Canceling August Recess for Vote
  
• Of Course: Soros, Clinton-pal Teneo Among Donors to the McCain Institute (What's That?!)
  
• Huh? State Dept. Warns Hungary Anti-Soros Law "Another Step Away" from NATO
  
• SCOTUS Takes on Gerrymandering Case that Could Fundamentally Reshape Congress
  
• Female Democrat Senators Question Only Males at Islam Hearing, Ignore Female Activists
  
• Nabra Hassanen and the Media's Addiction to Fake Islamophobia
  
• Poll Puts Joey Bidet the Paste-Eater at Top of the Heap for Dems in 2020 Prexy Race

Monday Night ONT-Making the Sausage Edition

—WeirdDave

A lot of people have asked me how I go about writing the ONT (full disclosure: Nobody has asked me this), so I thought I'd lift the curtain and give y'all a glimpse at how the magic happens. My job entails being in front of the computer a lot, and a lot of this is dead time-I'm calling potential clients waiting for the phone to be answered, or I'm on hold with an insurance company-things like that. To amuse myself, I spend a lot of this time surfing the web. I always have my eye out for interesting or funny pictures or video to open the ONT with, and when I find one I save it. I have a whole file full of pictures like this:

The sun smiles, and the birds smile back

All during the week, if I find something that looks ONT worthy, I save it. I have a second browser open at all times, my “ONT browser”, and everything goes there. When the time comes to write the ONT, I have anywhere from a dozen to several dozen tabs to chose from. An ONT needs about a dozen links or clips (much more and things, good things, get overlooked. Thinks I thought long and hard about get ignored by you heathen bastards. Things I loved don't even get commented on. * sniff *) First thing I look at is to see if there's a theme buried there.

If there is, great, that's the theme. If not, well then I start with the most interesting or funny links. (For the record, the above screen shot is not mine, it was sent to me in a report I asked Kurt Eichenwald to compile for me. I just used it to prove my point. Honest. Really. Would I lie about a thing like that?)

But where do I get the source material? Well, there are a bunch of places.

Twitter

Lots of people will tell you that Twitter is a dumpster fire. This is true. But remember, Las Vegas was a barren desert until Bugsy Siegel had the foresight to look at it and see an unlimited vista of crime, adultery, gambling and prostitution, and today millions of people live and work in Sin City (Don't tell anybody, but I prefer Den City). If Twitter is a dumpster fire, then it's a dumpster fire behind Ft. Knox, and the ashes are just filled with little nuggets of gold. Things like heroism:

Former US Special Forces soldier-turned aid worker runs through gunfire in Mosul to save a child from ISIS������������ pic.twitter.com/2Dnr6qg4I2

— tom alex (@rejialex7) June 18, 2017

And photobombs:

Photobomb time!!! ������������ pic.twitter.com/0PCog4b3pL

— Girls Bible (@Love__Fall) June 10, 2017

and cruel practical jokes:

Raccoons will wash their food before eating it. What happens when you give it some cotton candy? pic.twitter.com/ZQHW1Vv04Q

— Fascinating things (@YupThatExist) June 13, 2017

The aid worker in the first clip's name is David Eubank, and his story is the stuff legends are made of. Hey Hollywood, that's your hometown newspaper, how about a film on his amazing life instead of trying to reboot My Mother the Car?

Twitter is also where I find stuff for the “Troll of the Week” segments, although I don't have one at the moment. It's also good for links to stories, like the LA Times one just above. Honestly, I could mine Twitter for ONT material forever, but I do check other sources.

Imgur

Now Imgur is the place to go for gifs. Believe me, you can spend literal hours on Imgur, just clicking the “next post” button. The community votes on the best ones, so just go to the front page and start clicking. I'll see you back here around dawn. Imgur is also where I host all of the wacky waving arms and legs gifs I use here. The Pixy image hosting system has the capacity of a mouse's bladder, so anything that moves pretty much has to go over there.

And this one is really just too cute. And clever.

Tumblr

What do you find on Tumblr?

Don't check your phone while walking. pic.twitter.com/DB7kd8GZyj

— Darwin Award �� (@AwardsDarwin) June 9, 2017

No, not that (more on that later). Tubmlr is blogs, memes, gifs, etc. It's highly politicized-almost as much as Twitter- but at Tumblr you get conversations, and a real chance to see exactly how clever people can be. Like this exchange: (Ironicaly hosted on Imgr).

Or this:

Contributions

People send me stuff for the ONT. This, for example, is fastfreefall's new bike riding shirt:

and the COBS were talking about this amazing video in our own sooper sekrit COB email:

Caught on video! Two planes carrying 9 sky divers colliding in mid-air@susanbellfilm pic.twitter.com/Z893f0RMCe

— Ron Baalke (@RonBaalke) June 17, 2017

I just wonder what the planes landed on.

Themes

I don't always do a theme for the ONT, but sometimes they're fun. I'll tell you how this one came about. I saw the clip from above of the lady watching her phone and walking into a cellar on Twitter. “Ha!” thought I, “That should be on Tumblr!”, and from that awful pun came this ONT.

Making the Sausage

So then I aggregate the links, write a little commentary on each one, which is harder than it should be for two reasons. #1, I'm disgraphic, so I can't spell cat if you spot me the k and the t. This is why my wife proof reads my threads. She's gone today, so I expect this one to be worse than usual. #2, I can't touch type. That's right, I'm just like an Ozark nymphomaniac (she's a-huntin' pecker), and it takes work for me to bang these out. I'm actually pretty fast at typing, but I look at the keyboard and not the screen. Then I have to look back up and scan for typos.

After that I resize all the pics so they don't blow out the margins, make any memes that I want to use and then wash the whole post through the unicode to HTML converter to kill any black diamonds, and viola! One ONT, ready to go.

Tonight's ONT brought to you by Lib tears:

The Yahoo Group got bored reading this self indulgent crap 2 paragraphs in and went to have a drink.

Close it up

Scenes From the Final Dissolution of the Former United States of America

—Ace

Below the jump, Michael Moynihan interviews the Racial Supremacist "protesters" at Evergreen.

Brett Weinstein has meanwhile put his family into hiding due to threats to his safety.

Real threats, by the way. Not threats of hearing opinions he doesn't like.

Exit Quote: "Yeah, fuck free speech."

Bind Me Whip Me Give Me A Speeding Ticket!

—CBD

Former dominatrix fights to keep her job as a police officer
If Hudson County is that pristine that this is a legitimate concern it is a surprise to me. It's one of the most famously corrupt places in New Jersey, and that is saying a lot!

Hudson County sheriff's officer Kristen Hyman is accused of conduct unbecoming a public employee and faces a disciplinary hearing June 27, The Jersey Journal reported on Thursday. The department says the videos, produced from 2010 to 2012, have sparked ridicule for it.

The department suspended Hyman on May 26, six days before her academy graduation, saying she failed to disclose that she appeared in the films and sometimes saw clients privately for money.

Court documents show that Hyman told investigators she never appeared naked and didn't perform any sex acts in the videos.

This seems to be a case were our inner Libertarian should stand front-and-center and say, "This isn't our business."

Will she make a good cop? That's the only question.

[Hat Tip: Curmudgeon]

And a musical interlude below the fold that seems apropos...

RIP: Otto Warmbier, Returned from North Korea in a Coma after 17 Months Detention, Dies Days After His Return

—Ace

Thanks, Kim!

Incidentally, Warmbier's fellow roommate recently spoke with the press and said Warmbier had done absolutely nothing wrong to warrant his imprisonment and abuse by the North Koreans.

He says Warmbier didn't steal that propaganda poster that the North Koreans say he did -- and used as a pretext to sentence him to 15 years of hard labor, and a fatal coma.

Their second night in Pyongyang was New Year's Eve and the whole group went out into the city square before coming back to the hotel for more drinking. This is the night that Warmbier allegedly committed the offense inside the hotel for which he would later be given a sentence of 15 years hard labor.

The charge was that Warmbier allegedly went into a staff-only area of the hotel and tore down a propaganda banner hanging on the wall, intending to steal it. Two months later, North Korean state media broadcast a staged event showing a tearful Warmbier confessing to that crime and begging for forgiveness, clearly under duress.

Gratton said that in the four days they spent together, Warmbier never said anything about a banner and that he saw zero evidence that Warmbier was planning any such act -- quite the opposite. The first Gratton heard of the alleged attempted theft was when it was mentioned in news reports weeks later. Gratton and Warmbier weren't together 24 hours each day, but they traveled together during the day and hung out each night.

"I've got nothing from my experiences with him that would suggest he would do something like that," he said. "At no stage did I ever think he was anything but a very, very polite kid."

Man Rams Car Into Police Van on Champs-Elysee in Paris

—Ace

Motive unknown, but a #KnownWolf

A suspect who tried to attack security forces on the Champs-Elysees shopping district in Paris Monday afternoon -- when he rammed his car into a police van -- had a rifle and explosives in his vehicle, French investigators said.

The attacker died shortly after the incident, the French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said. The attacker, a 31-year-old man from the Paris suburb of Argenteuil, was badly burned after his car exploded when he deliberately crashed it into a police van. The police van caught fire, but it was quickly contained, officials said. The bomb squad was called to the scene.

Authorities discovered a gas tank and an AK-47 rife in the attacker's car, Fox News confirmed. The man had been flagged by investigators earlier for extremism, French police said.

Last night, of course, a van was driven into a crowd exiting the notorious Finsbury Mosque in London.

One person was killed, ten injured.

The vehicular attack took place as the notorious Finsbury Mosque, and several others, were letting out worshippers.

US Shoots Down Syrian Plane

—Ace

Well, not psyched about being further drawn into the Syrian Civil War, but can't complain too much about the shoot-down itself.

A U.S. strike aircraft shot down a Syrian government fighter jet Sunday shortly after the Syrians bombed U.S.-backed fighters in northern Syria, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The Pentagon said the downing of the aircraft came hours after Syrian loyalist forces attacked U.S.-backed fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, in the village of Ja'Din, southwest of Raqqa. The rare attack was the first time a U.S. jet has shot down a manned hostile aircraft in more than a decade, and it signaled the United States' sharply intensifying role in Syria's war.

The incident is the fourth time within a month that the U.S. military has attacked pro-Syrian government forces.

Syria claims the jet was attacking ISIS forces, and the US says that's total bullshit.

Russia, which supposedly hacked the election in favor of Donald Trump and has a huge Kompromat File on him they can use to force him to do their bidding, is now threatening to track, and maybe even shoot down, every flying thing in the skies over Syria in response to the US shootdown.

They've also turned off the "deconfliction" hotline which allows US and Russia to make sure we're not shooting at each other.

The country's defence ministry said it would track US-led coalition aircraft with missile systems and military aircraft, but stopped short of saying it would shoot them down.

A hotline set up between Russia and the US to prevent mid-air collisions will also be suspended.

"All kinds of airborne vehicles, including aircraft and UAVs of the international coalition detected to the west of the Euphrates River will be tracked by the Russian SAM systems as air targets," the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Don't Look Now, But Trump Is Beginning to Dismantle the Obama-Mandated College "Sex Bureaucracy"

—Ace

High time.

However, this move is a little bit on the tepid side-- while the new memo will de-escalate the Obama-era Pressure on colleges to create "sex bureaucracies" and extra-constitutional kangaroo courts, it will not affirmatively roll them back -- just take away the pressure for colleges to create and perpetuate this bizarre system.

Given that colleges want to do this crap, more will be necessary.

Though, it should be said, with the federal government no longer mandating the sex bureaucracy, colleges will find themselves more exposed to lawsuits prosecuted by the victims of the sex bureaucracies.

On Friday, The New York Times reported on an internal memo published by Propublica showing the Trump administration's first steps in overhauling this "sex bureaucracy." The Times interpreted the move as "scaling back investigations into civil rights violations at the nation's public schools and universities."

The memo, written by Candice Jackson, the acting head of the DOE's Office of Civil Rights (OCR), reversed one part of the Obama administration's campus sexual assault policies, but it is an important first step in reforming the system. Under Obama, OCR investigated colleges when women accusers claimed the colleges were too lax on the men they accused of sexual assault.

"Whenever they had an allegation by some student that her Title IX rights had been violated by a college, they would not only look into the particulars of her complaint and fault the college for not giving her what she wanted, but they would launch a systematic investigation going back for years," Stuart Taylor, co-author of the book The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities, told PJ Media.

"They would even pressure the colleges to retry accused males who had been found innocent before, exposing these guys to double jeopardy," Taylor added.

In other words, when a woman complained to OCR that her college was not penalizing the man she accused of rape or sexual assault, OCR wouldn't just investigate her case (assuming that the accused man was guilty). The office would also delve into the college's past, attempting to find previous cases where the school was too easy on accused students.

#NoSafeSpace: Left Howls in Horror as Right-Wing Protesters Stage Minor Protest in the Middle of Their Trump Assassination Fantasy

—Ace

A brief interruption by protesters -- which is what happens at every Trump rally and every speech by a Republican -- is now being called the Worst Thing Ever by people who either believe, or have been conditioned to accept, that the left simply has greater privileges than the right.

I don't believe that, and while, for years, I had in fact been conditioned to accept it, I've taken back my own mind now and hatefully reject the claim that the left gets to live life to the full while we cower and ask their permission just to breathe a little extra of their air.

John Sexton has a great recap detailing how the left has employed these Shutdown/NoPlatform tactics again and again, with no blowback whatsoever, and no criticism at all from the Unbiased Mediators of the National Debate (the media).

But I'm sure they're all in a tizzy this morning.

CBS News: Was the Steve Scalise Assassination Attempt to Some Degree "Self-Inflicted"?

—Ace

While the left howls over the Alex Jones interview -- and the ninnies of the right help empower the left to have exclusive power to decide what can and cannot be said publicly -- CBSNews' Scott Pelley asks if the GOP wasn't really responsible for the assassination attempt on its own members.

Hillary R. Clinton, Will You Please Go Now?

—OregonMuse

Hillary! And Her Familiar

(If you're really feeling perverse, you can click on the pic for an even bigger version. I'm such a giver.)

This is the most disturbing picture of Her Thighness I've seen in a while. It accompanies this HeatStreet piece, People Won't Stop Trying to Make Hillary Happen. What has more amusing photoshopped pics of Her Thighness. And you masochists out there can click on it for an even bigger version.

Oh, and she identifies strongly with Wonder Woman:

“Now I haven’t seen Wonder Woman yet, but I’m going to, in part because it’s directed by the fabulous Patty Jenkins.

“But something tells me that a movie about a strong, powerful woman fighting to save the world from a massive international disaster is right up my alley.”

God's wounds, the woman is absolutely shameless.

And apparently she doesn't know that if she has to tell everybody she's a strong woman, she's not a strong woman.

Warner Bros. supposedly wasn't happy about this:

A source at Warner Brothers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Heat Street: “It’s great that Hillary Clinton will see the movie but her remarks aren’t particularly helpful and our publicity team certainly won’t be spreading them about.

“Wonder Woman doesn’t need Hillary Clinton’s endorsement—it will make $250 million by the end of this week. We’re anxious to keep politics out of Wonder Woman any way we can.

I say "supposedly" because the only sources are 'anonymous' and the statement reads too much like what I would prefer such a statement to say. Even so, maybe it means there is still a modicum of sanity left in Hollywood.

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

Ah...some information about the artist, courtesy of commenter WitchDoktor.

The Morning Report 6/19/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. Well, the week is mere moments old and promises not to disappoint (/s sarc); late yesterday a man in a van plowed into a group of people outside the notorious Finsbury Park mosque in London. One person is dead (although it's unclear if the victim was struck by the vehicle as he evidently had collapsed from a heart attack) and at least 10 are reported injured. The attacker reportedly said "I want to kill all Muslims" and "I did my bit" as he was led away by the bobbies. And now, I have to be extremely careful in my commentary for reasons that sadly are apparent to all of us. First, there is absolutely ZERO justification for this individual's actions. Violence is to be condemned, and its perpetrators, enablers and cheerleaders shunned in the strongest possible way. Now, the potential land mine; I was going to write that I understand why this incident happened, but even that can be interpreted as an approval. What I suppose is more accurate is to say that what happened was inevitable.

We are all human beings and someone is going to take it upon himself to "retaliate" against threats, perceived or real. If one looks at what has happened to England, virtually all of Europe and what may yet happen here, the only thing that is shocking is that this sort of incident took so long to occur. And yet, despite all we have been through, this is an isolated incident and solely the actions of one person. The inescapable truth is that Islamists and the Left are at war with us. Organized or not, both of those totalitarian ideologies openly and directly inspire and demand our subjugation, surrender or death in their unending quest for absolute power and control.

Unfortunately, the reaction from the Left and organized Islam to last night's incident will be to use this as proof positive that there is a war on the followers of Mohammed and their allies by racists, bigots, haters, nationalists, and the forces of darkness, etc. etc. Sure as night follows day, this will be used as a pretext to not only crack down on free speech with even more odious censorship, but will incite acts of retribution which, in a twisted Orwellian manner, will be covered up and/or excused by the usual suspects in the MFM and elsewhere. And in this country, watch this incident bury the actual Democrat-inspired terrorist attack last week while hit jobs and smears against Steve Scalise, Republicans and others continue. Ironic, in a sickening way, that they openly boast how Scalise had it coming, yet G-d forbid anyone were to use the word "karma" to describe what happened last night in London. Brace yourselves.

Anyway, lots of other things going on so we've got the usual links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• 1 Dead, 10 Injured as Man in Van Mows Down Worshippers Outside Finsbury Park Mosque
  
• Pentagon: US Shoots Down Syrian Aircraft for First Time, Incident Viewed as Escalation
  
• No Immediate Answers for Deadly Collision Between US Destroyer and Jap Cargo Ship
  
• Report Indicates Mueller Has Not Decided to Actually Investigate the President
  
• GOP: Handel v Ossoff in GA Special Election a Referendum on "the Resistance"
  
• Jason Chafe-Itch Sez Trump Administration Less Transparent Than Obama's
  
• Heh: Environmental Impact of Illegal Immigration One Lawsuit the Left Wants to Avoid
  
• Oh, Really?! O'Reilly Hints at Starting Own Network to Compete Against Fox
  
• Surprisingly, Not the College, the Country: Colombia Marks First Legal 3-Way Gay Marriage
  
• Deep State Behind Trump Leaks, Sez . . . Oliver Stone?!
  
• Rush: By Enabling the Witch Hunt Against PDT, GOP Puts Itself at Risk for 2018
  
• Revolution Interrupted
  
• Ceaser Seizure Again! Protestors Disrupt Another Shakespeare In the Park Assassination Porn Show
  
• Congressman: "Nothing" Will Make Palestinians "More Conciliatory" Towards Israel
  
• Bernie Sanders is Fighting for the Little Guy: Himself
  
• Thank You, DeBolshevik; Proposed Law Would Force NYPD to Give Heads Up to Terrorists
  
• Chi-Com Breakthrough In Quantum Physics May Lead to Hacker-Proof Internet

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (6/18/17) Sperm Donor Appreciation Day

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Quote I

Most fathers don't see the war within the daughter, her struggles with conflicting images of the idealized and flawed father, her temptation both to retreat to Daddy's lap and protection and to push out of his embrace to that of beau and the world beyond home. Victoria Secunda

Quote II

I don't know why Alzheimer's was allowed to steal so much of my father before releasing him into the arms of death. But I know that at his last moment, when he opened his eyes, eyes that had not opened for many, many days, and looked at my mother, he showed us that neither disease nor death can conquer love. Patti Davis

Quote III

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change. Katharine Hepburn

*****

The ONT Musical Interlude

June 18, 1977, Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Dreams', the group's first and only US No.1, was also a No.24 in the UK. Stevie Nicks has stated she wrote the song at the Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California, in about 10 minutes. via thisdayinmusic.com

June 18, 1942, Born on this day, Paul McCartney, The Beatles Wings, solo. The most successful rock composer of all time. McCartney first met John Lennon on July 6th 1957, who was impressed that Paul could tune a guitar. With The Beatles he scored 21 US No.1 & 17 UK No.1 singles plus McCartney has scored over 30 US & UK solo Top 40 hit singles. He has written and co-written 188 charted records, of which 91 reached the Top 10 and 33 made it to No.1 totalling 1,662 weeks on the chart. via thisdayinmusic.com

*****

Father's Day

*****

*****

Someone needs a better story. Genius Award Winner.

*****

Parents living vicariously through their children? Or just a Junior Genius Award Winner. h/t ibguy

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Not all pro-athletes are jerks. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Medium Rare.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. 32 FL OZ (1 QUART) 946ml

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The Art of the Political Nickname (MJ)

—Open Blogger

I started reading this site many years ago for a few different reasons, but chief among them was that most political news is boring. It doesn't matter what team you're on either. The left and right are predictable in their analysis and moral preening.

Everything is breaking news, followed by an outrage, then some banal pap spouted by either a totally serious you guys, 'expert' that gets an arm fracture while shooting a 12 gauge automatic pistol modified to shoot silenced full metal jacket assault bazooka rounds, or you get John Bolton.

Love me some Bolton. He's a national treasure and the rest of those upper lip flaunting losers can go eat a bag of dicks. They're all racing to reach peak cliche.

Which brings me to my second reason for reading and loving this blog: it's funny.

Nothing else out there can provide this level of humor by the author and commenters while still providing thoughtful discussion on the day's newsworthy events.

You guys kill me.

With that in mind, I'd like to share one of the funniest rips on a politician that I've read in a really long time. When I saw it I giggled like a wee little school girl. You may have heard the nickname before but it's new to me and I haven't really seen it used over here.

I present to you...Chelsea Clinton...AKA...

Chubble!

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Food Thread:Blades...Sharp, Not-So-Sharp, And Duller Than Kamala Harris

—CBD

This is the knife I use probably 90% of the time, for chopping and paring and mincing and trimming and even carving. Why not use specialty knives instead of a run-of-the-mill small chef's knife? Well, it fits my hand perfectly, is the perfect weight, and since I smoothed the back of it (at your urging) I don't even abrade my fingers! And it's really sharp. or was for a few years. But my daily steeling and monthly sharpening gradually dulled the knife. So slowly that I didn't notice.

But I finally realized that it was not cutting it (Damn...what a wit!) so I took it to a professional knife sharpener who returned it to its former glory, and even sharpened my pocket knife for free.

$5 and it's razor sharp. So sharp that if I use a bit too much force it cuts into the cutting board. I like that....

What's your favorite knife? And are you a talented enough sharpener that it is as sharp as when you bought it?

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Here is far, far more than you would ever dream of knowing or would want to know...about soybeans, A Giant-Sized History of Soybeans ( Vol.8 ) - The Complete History
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From OregonMuse, a reminder that Hipsters are really, really, really bad for the world.
24 Of The Worst Things Hipsters Did To Food In 2016

Although this one gave me a chuckle.

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Commenter "ETF3" gave me a heads-up about David Liebovitz's My Paris Kitchen that was on sale for the Kindle. As is sometimes the case, a simple note expanded into an interesting discussion.

Hope all is well. Quick heads up relative to the food thread. David Lebovitz's cookbook "My Paris Kitchen" is on sale at the moment for $2.99 for the kindle version at Amazon. I have it in hardcover as a cookbook should be. It's not essential but I enjoy it and view it as a nice part of my overall French cooking collection (I've certainly got worse, regrettably). I like his website and ignore his politics. It is one of those cookbooks that if you don't already have it, grab it for $3 on kindle and give it a test drive. Alert the moron horde if you see fit. We should let the other cooks know when we find such bargains. [ETF3]

That's an excellent point, and one that has kept me from building a large collection of electronic cookbooks. Cookbooks are not simply repositories of cooking instructions. They are mazes where the perfect dinner is just a turn of the page away. How does one browse a Kindle book?

As for the politics?

Liebovitz is a solid chef, and while his writing is pleasant, I can't seem to avoid irritation at his gratuitous mentions of his boyfriend or the silly political commentary. He thinks he is clever, but really, it's just obnoxious. [CBD]

Chefs are like actors; dancing monkeys with a particular skill-set. When I want to hear their political philosophy, I'll ask. In the meantime, just shut up and cook.

I entirely agree in regards to Liebovitz's irritating comments but I just tune it out to get the good stuff he has. That seems to be be life of a conservative in many respects.

I really only like hardcover cookbooks. I have a few softcover and they disappoint me, not necessarily for the recipes but for the wear and tear in use. I have a couple of kindle cookbooks but honestly no matter how good they are they get relegated to the forgotten. My favorite cookbooks are The Bread Bakers Apprentice and virtually anything by Julia Child. I've spoiled the kids and they now have a pronounced preference for home cooked bread and birthday cakes made by dad. Worse things have happened. [ETF3]

Oh...in addition to his children enjoying good food, they can shoot, as some of you may remember from a Gun Thread late last year.
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Artisanal'ette sent me this photo of her obviously successful attempt at Silver Palate Molasses Cookies.

A good molasses cookie is a fine thing, but most of the ones I have had have been too sweet and too mild. I really like the pop of the spices and the tang of the molasses.
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Weasel and Bluebell are spearheading the Moron Cookbook project, and they, and the other intrepid and deluded members of the team, deserve our thanks. It is a lot of work, especially since you Morons are...um...morons....and can't spell. Or write. By the way, in my submission I misspelled "CBD." Really.

And don't forget that you can submit your favorite recipes even if they are shamelessly and brazenly plagiarized from someone else: just tell them where you got the recipe and they can do the rest. Remember, originality is overrated. Head over to moroncookbook.com and submit!

This is an impressive project, and I would like to thank everyone involved. Even ignoring the the reality that getting The Horde to act in concert is like herding cats, it is a huge amount of work being done by people who have actual lives outside of AoSHQ.

PS. My only involvement is the easy part....mentioning it in the Food Thread. And misspelling my nic.

PPS. Weasel would like you to remember to ENABLE JAVASCRIPT when you submit recipes on the website.

PPPS. A special thanks to Bluebell....

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That's pretty much what I look like after I dip caramels into chocolate. Only taller. And older. And fatter. And maler.

I love the seemingly simple and straightforward process that this recipe describes. It sounds so easy!

CHOCOLATE COVERED CARAMELS

INGREDIENTS:
CARAMELS
1 cup butter
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

CHOCOLATE
1 pound bittersweet chocolate
1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS:
Grease an 8 x 8 inch square pan.

In a heavy 4 quart saucepan melt butter over medium heat; add brown sugar, corn syrup and milk. Stirring constantly, heat to 242° F, or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a firm but pliable ball. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour into prepared pan.

When caramel has cooled and set, cut into ¾ inch squares. Chill in refrigerator until firm.

Melt chocolate with 1 tablespoon butter in the top of a double boiler or in a bowl in the microwave. Do not overheat. Stir until smooth.

Dip caramel squares in chocolate and place on wax paper to cool.

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Food tips, extra Pappy van Winkle bourbon, fresh Morels and other goodies:
cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com

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How Dumb Are The Democrats That They Make Megan McCain A Voice Of Reason?

—CBD

Oh...this too:

Sunday Morning Book Thread 06-18-2017

—OregonMuse

Kirby Library, Lafayette College, PA

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, where men are men, all the 'ettes are gorgeous, safe spaces are underneath your house and are used as protection against actual dangers, like natural disasters, or Literally Hitler, and special snowflakes do not last. And unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, who will never be president.

Another Conservative Book List

Some interesting items on this Washington Free Beacon list of 7 Books Every Conservative Should Read. Subtitled 'Book recommendations for students of all ages', there are some unexpected ones, for example, The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life by Charles Murray.

Among the curmudgeon’s day-to-day tips for the workplace:   • Excise the word “like” from your spoken English • Don’t suck up • Stop “reaching out” and “sharing” • Rid yourself of piercings, tattoos, and weird hair colors • Make strong language count   His larger career advice includes:   • What to do if you have a bad boss • Coming to grips with the difference between being nice and being good • How to write when you don’t know what to say • Being judgmental (it’s good, and you don’t have a choice anyway)

Every fresh, new college grad probably needs to read this book. Especially whiny millennials that have racked up $180,000 in student loan debts so they could pursue their study of intersectional Zoroastrian poetry.

Another book on the list is the all-time classic The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 by George H. Nash. This history is "indispensable for anyone interested in learning more about libertarians, traditionalists, anti-Communists, William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review, the debate between freedom and virtue, and the original neoconservatives. The big weakness of this 1976 book is that it was published in 1976. There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then. What it desperately needs is a sequel.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

To GLOAR is to stare at something vacantly.

Usage: Before AoSHQ was AoSHQ, ace's blog was known as The Chronicles of Gloar.

To GOVE is to stare vacantly, or 'to look about like a simpleton'.

Usage: And before that, ace's blog was known as The Pompatus of Gove.

Library of Apostate

Pic Note

Apostate tells me:

My youngest son is playing Star Wars on the computer. The upper shelves are mostly law books. The second shelf above the desk is full of almost all the Great Books of the Western World collection, 1985(?) version. All the crap in front of them and to their right are math, science, and engineering texts and notes. Down and left of the Great Books are old or antique books, including several historical and Masonic texts from the 19th century. Assorted references and fiction are on the right in several layers. The bright red book on the right middle shelf laying horizontal is a proof copy of my first novel I ordered from Lulu a few years ago. Left middle shelves and below are graphic novels and comics, most prominently including Conan and the Knights of the Dinner Table. The upper right has an old Time-Life series on different eras and civilizations; it's from the 60s (I think), before SJWs and the likes of Howard Zinn ruined history. Many more books on history, espionage, and foreign and military affairs are boxed up in the garage. I have some Judaica and mystical works squirreled away elsewhere.

One day, I dream of having a proper, dedicated wood and stone library with old world decor and a properly tamed fireplace.

The embiggened version shows pretty good detail.

Crossing the Streams

Perhaps this should be a topic for the food thread, but Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York looks interesting, and I've never lived there:

New York is the greatest restaurant city the world has ever seen.

In Appetite City, the former New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes leads us on a grand historical tour of New York's dining culture. Beginning with the era when simple chophouses and oyster bars dominated the culinary scene, he charts the city's transformation into the world restaurant capital it is today. Appetite City takes us on a unique and delectable journey, from the days when oysters and turtle were the most popular ingredients in New York cuisine, through the era of the fifty-cent French and Italian table d'hôtes beloved of American "Bohemians," to the birth of Times Square--where food and entertainment formed a partnership that has survived to this day.

The book has photographs, rare menus, menu cards, and other illustrations. It sounds like one of those books you just kind of flip through randomly looking for interesting stuff.

Thanks to MP⁴ for recommending this book on a morning thread earlier this week.

Moron Recommendations

Just finished reading a collection of Poul Anderson sci-fi that ended on the short story called "Industrial Revolution."

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KO6DL42

The premise? An entrepreneurial asteroid mining facility, funded with borrowed capital from a bank but turning a handsome profit and poised for growth, is visited by an earth warship commanded by officers who are members of the Social Justice Party -- no kidding, they're called the SJs -- who have won elections back on Earth on a platform of bitter "you didn't build that" socialism. The warship attempts to sabotage the facility and drive out its owners so it can be seized by the government. The CEO, an engineer, and his team outwit the warship's officers but the story is told in flashback as the first incident of a war between Earth and the productive asteroid mining colonies.

The story was first published in 1963.

Posted by: undocumented SMOD at June 17, 2017 12:43 PM (e8kgV)

The Poul Anderson Megapack (Kindle) can be purchased for $0.99. Which means, I assume, that the material is all public domain stuff which you can probably find on the web for free if you look long enough.

Or pay $0.99 to these guys who did it all for you already.

Books By Morons

Moron author Vince Milam released his 4th novel, The Suriname Job: A Case Lee Novel, last month:

When a mysterious client asks former Delta Force operator Case Lee to investigate a rebellion in South America, he uncovers an incredible global conspiracy. Welcome to revolution, murder, and behind-the-curtains intrigue. As events unfold, the spies and mercenaries come to a hard realization. You may mess with a lot on this good earth, but you don't mess with Case Lee.

This novel will be available for 99 cents until mid-July.

Vince is also the author of the three spiritual thrillers that comprise the Challenged World series. Here's the first one, the second, and the third.

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Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

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So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

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