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
Jim Sunk New Dawn 2025
Jewells45 2025 Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
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
More Americans are watching TV via streaming platforms than both broadcast and cable combined for the first time ever.
The finding comes from Nielson's monthly Gauge report, which was launched four years ago to provide insight on what viewers are watching, as well as how they are watching it. The latest report found that streaming accounted for 44.8% of total TV viewership in May--the largest share on record. Meanwhile, broadcast and cable TV only made up 20.1% and 24.1%, respectively, for a total of 44.2%.
...
Previously, the Gauge reported another big milestone for streaming platforms. In July 2022, for the first time, streaming topped cable viewership. At the time, it accounted for 34.8% of viewership while cable made up 34.4%. Broadcast made up 21.6%. However today, the combined total for both cable and broadcast viewing still falls behind the percentage of monthly streamers.
So everyone knows the cable channels and broadcast networks are dying, and dying quickly. Every year from now forward, they will see big yearly declines in viewership.
The broadcast channels will probably survive, diminished but still in business, as they just shift over to streaming.
But the cable channels? With everyone cutting the cord, they can no longer depend on all those forced fees from consumers for a hundred channels they never, ever watch.
I cut mine when I got sick of paying for ESPN, which I never watch, but takes something like one third of your cable bill payment. And the idea that I was paying for CNN and MSNBC -- and Fox, too -- just cinched it.
To hell with these channels. I'm not paying $100 a month just because every once in a while I watch Dual Survivor or Reno 911.
You might know that Warner-Discovery is in deep debt it can't get out of -- $40 billion in fact.
Warner-Discovery is taking all of the companies that might actually be profitable one day -- its streaming services and its movie studio -- and keeping them.
All the basket-case cable channels will be put into a new company called Global Networks. This company will contain the dying CNN and other POS channels, and will also be filled with, get this, most of Warner-Discovery's $40 billion in debt.
I guess they'll try to sell this Lehman Bros. tranche of sub-sub-sub-subprime properties to some sucker out there. But who's going to buy expensive, dying cable channels while also assuming the huge amount of debt?
It might be one of those free sales -- if you take on the debt, you can have these dying channels for free.
But... that's not free. That's taking on billions in debt to own dying channels.
Warner-Discovery is in such dire straits that even its CEO is taking a huge paycut.
CEOs do not take paycuts. Except if the company is in real trouble, and they have to cut everything, even their own pay.
Physical Media Forever
@VHSDVDBLURAY4K
Warner Bros. Discovery is cutting CEO David Zaslav's pay after shareholder backlash
-Salary from $22M to $6M
-Stock bonus target will shrink from $23.5M to $7.5M per year
With that background, you now appreciate why Vanderbilt-fortune nepo-baby and Deep State catspaw Anderson Cooper, is suddenly seeking new representation.
If Zazlav is cutting his own salary from $22 million to $6 million, what are the odds that Anderson Cooper gets to keep his $18 million?
Before you answer: The guy they've put in charge of the Basket of Deplorables cable channels is known in the industry as a slash-and-burn hatchet man that you bring in to fire lots of people to keep a company from bankruptcy.
Coincidentally enough.
You know why I think he's taking a paycut?
So he can turn to people like Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper and demand they take a paycut, too.
A dark cloud hangs over CNN headquarters as staffers brace for layoffs and a likely sale of the network amid another reshuffling by its parents company.
'I'd say the mood remains really grim,' a CNN employee told Fox News, in the wake of last week's restructuring announcement from Warner Bros. Discovery.
'People are uncertain.'
Meanwhile, CNN mainstay Anderson Cooper just signed with a new talent agency for the first time in decades - a move Variety reported was is a surefire sign he is open to new opportunities.
LOL. "He's open to new opportunities." Sure.
Another guy who's just itching to get into this Podcast Game that everyone's talking about!
I can't wait to see the semen-hued Nepo Baby read ads for Squarspace, Fum, and Factor.
...
The staffer added: 'I think they've telegraphed clearly that more cuts are coming.'
The insider noted that Wiedenfels' 'remit is not to grow stuff.'
'This company is a cash-flow giant with shrinking revenue. Like that's the deal,' the source said. 'It's merely a matter of how fast it shrinks. That's why the assets were split.'
Wiedenfels has already managed to reduce WBD's $55billion debt by $21 billion in less than two years.
His appointment by WBC CEO David Zaslav comes after several rounds of layoffs at his behest.
Less than five months ago, CNN laid off 200 staffers - all from its struggling TV division. WBD has engaged in repeated rounds as well.
A staffer told the Daily Mail at the time of the most recent CNN firings that the network had become 'bloated' after Warner Bros.' merger with Discovery in 2021.
'And we don't have streaming yet so - it's hard to imagine it doesn't get worse,' the CNN source further told Fox, referring to an anticipated portion of CNN CEO Mark Thompson's long-in-the works restructuring plan.
...
'Zaslav killed this place. He killed it,' the source said.
'The last few years under Zas has been a disaster in terms of what he has done,' the person added.
...
A third staffer who spoke to Fox also appeared to believe a collapse at CNN is imminent.
'I'm trying to figure out what I'll do next when the whole thing collapses, but I don't even know when that will be,' the source said.
Industry critics like Puck correspondent Dylan Byers have predicted doom and gloom for the future of CNN, suggesting it will meet the fate of HLN, which he has noted "no longer exists."
I sure hope Andrew Breitbart is looking down and laughing in a not-approved-by-God kind of way.
What to do when traditional conservative belief that government should not involve itself in markets, runs smack into national security concerns?
Every time the government tries to pick winners and losers, the taxpayer loses. From sports stadium subsidies to redevelopment zones to ridiculous subsidies for favored industries like "Green Energy" and EVs, the only people who come out better off are the politicians who pushed through the cash grabs and the businesses that took the free money. We taxpayers end up footing the bill, and don't get much for it.
And when there is only a single player in the market, like the production of rare earth metals, it gets even worse. Giving cash to the only player in town raises the barriers to entry into the market, and that makes it more difficult for potential competitors to push prices down and supplies up.
The Trump administration is developing a plan to use Cold War-era powers to prioritize and fund rare earth projects it deems critical to national security, people familiar with the matter said.
Officials are discussing using the Defense Production Act to tap financing, loans and other means for rare earths element-related projects, including mining, processing and other downstream technologies to bolster the U.S.'s capability to build a domestic supply chain, the people said. A specific course of action or a timeline have yet to be finalized, the people said.
MP Materials Corp., the sole domestic producer of rare earths, would be a prime beneficiary. Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg is working to line up funding for the company, people familiar with that matter said. The Nevada-based mineral processor has received millions in funding from the Defense Department. [bolding mine]
But we need these materials to maintain our technological lead in many things, not least of which is our military technology. So a rational conservative will hold his nose and support this sort of economic inefficiency, but only for the short term!
The best action by far would be to decrease the regulatory burden on potential competitors, so they can enter the market without having to spend years navigating the byzantine world of environmental and safety regulations, not to mention the watermelons who emerge from their swamps to contest every single mine and oil well and power plant and any other capital project that would improve our lives and bolster our independence from malign players throughout the world.
Given everything going on here and abroad, my initial thought was okay, Iranians? Chi-Coms? Antifa? or the Deep State? Bob replied "I think it is simply a flaw in the revised engineering of this version 2 of Starship, which failed on the last two test flights as well."
And as for what's going on here and abroad, let's kick it off with an emetic from America's "sweetheart," Ilhan the Bro-Fo Omar with this thoroughly unsurprising if not disgusting emanation of oral flatus:
America Is Becoming ‘One of the Worst Countries’ in the World
Indeed it is, if we're not there already, by allowing evil, retrograde, dark age cultures into this country, which was intended to be the last great hope for humanity to rise above the tyranny and oppression of the old world, and instead has been poisoned by letting in the flotsam and jetsam of the world such as Omar and her ilk, without even the most rudimentary vetting process and demanding assimilation. Of course to do so would be racist, Islamophobic and contrary to the tenets of our so-called precious democracy (vomit) or so we are perpetually lectured and hectored by our supposed betters.
This cancer started long before this immigration fraudster and purveyor of Taqqiya sunrises set foot on our blessed soil to befoul it. It's funny how those who supposedly escaped tyranny and bemoan what has happened to America are the ones that are promoting and imposing tyranny the hardest, loudest and longest. The shining example of the infection though likely not the start of it would be Herbert Marcuse, Theodore Adorno and the refugees from Nazism Known as the Frankfurt School who came here and hijacked the education system to turn it into the breeding ground of Marxist-Leninism for nearly 80 years. And that's why you see several generations of American-born citizens hurling molotov cocktails at ICE and police, beating up Jews on campuses and calling for the dismantling of western civilization, all in the name of "democracy!" of course!
Whoopi Goldberg says black people living in America have it just as bad as people living in Iran.
You mean like Oprah Winfrey who has been so badly oppressed that she is worth in excess of a couple billion dollars? Or you who for God only knows what reason has a daily TV show and rakes in millions from that and royalties from your alleged acting career. Plus every black pituitary case ever who makes millions throwing or running with some ball through some net in between hawking junk food and deodorant?
Forgetting that, it's funny that the foot traffic over the Rio Grande is only from south to north while if Whoopi were correct, Compton and Watts, Chicago, New York, Newark, Boston and every other place that burned to the ground in 2020 and all through the 1960s would be denuded of blacks heading the other way to demand citizenship in Mexico if not as far south as the Ross Ice Shelf.
So oppressed she insists on being rogered by white guys and playing Steppin Fetchit and taking on/defiling a Jewish name while those evil Israelis attack wonderful Iran! Yeah, America sucks.
I cordially invite you to get the hell out and leave all your assets to the USPF - the United Sefton Pastrami Fund. My waistline is a terrible thing to waste.
And of course today being June 19th, which given all of the above is a completely meaningless day devoid of any real significance to anyone with an iota of intelligence, self-respect and decency.
Attention Black America, I am not an oppressor and you are not a victim of anyone other than yourselves, your lack of ambition and sloth if you choose to accept this toxic Democrat narrative that only serves to keep them in power. Yeah, observe a holiday that memorializes victims of the people you vote for election after election.
If Fordow is flattened, that certainly would be a good thing. Should America be the one to do the flattening is quite another thing entirely, and I'm not very sanguine about that for a host of reasons. Beyond that, if the regime collapses, we cannot be sure of what will replace it. A worst case scenario is the same as what happened in Syria, with the projectile colitis of the Assad regime replaced by the metastatic colon/liver/pancreatic cancer of ISIS AL Qaeda.
Given the breadth and depth of the IRGC in the military and government in general, it is rather unlikely we will see any form of western-oriented government let alone Jeffersonian Democracy. The Chi-Coms and Putin are too heavily invested in the current regime to let it collapse and potentially if not very slowly move back towards the American sphere of influence. Of course, we cannot know the future, but certainly the past and the tea leaves point the way to a tense period of uncertainty as our enemies make moves to protect their interests, which include doing their best to destroy and degrade us, same as it ever was.
Whatever happens, I hope the Iranian regime can be brought down and that the long-suffering Iranian people can be liberated and once again breathe freely. Yes, the Shah's regime was no picnic either so I'm not rooting for a return of the Pahlavi dynasty, though nearly 50 years on and being totally out of power, perhaps the heir is of a different mindset than his father, who being dead for decades likely has not been much if not any influence on his son. It's up to the people and the ex-pat community to weigh in on this.
And the world at large would be safer without Iranian nukes and Iranian terrorism that has slaughtered many thousands of people around the world in the last 45 years including many many Americans.
Of course, Even if Iran is liberated from the Mullahs, Islam itself goes on, same as it has since the dark ages. Sunni or Shiite, its goal is unchanging — the submission of the entire world and the formation of a global Islamic caliphate for all time.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
Have a great day.
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
As engineers tonight were preparing for a standard static fire engine test at Boca Chica of the next Starship prototype, expected to fly on the tenth Starship/Superheavy test flight, the spacecraft suddenly exploded. (Iran? The Chi-Coms? Antifa? or the Deep State? - jjs) Major explosion during preparations for static fire test of Starship prototype
Victor Davis Hanson: The more the left rages, the more Trump rises—while Democrats trade policy for tantrums and canonize chaos in place of compromise. (they will never compromise their goal of absolute power, only the speed at which they push for it, and their ability to deceive the public-jjs) Can the Left Ever Stop Its Craziness?
Update: A source told Breitbart News that the building that was hit at the hospital had been emptied because Soroka had reduced the number of patients to 40% capacity on Wednesday to ensure that there would be adequate space in “safe rooms” or bomb shelters. The missile hit an area that connected different wings of the facility. “If the missile had hit a few meters in any other direction [it] would have been horrific.” War Crime: Iranian Ballistic Missile Hits Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva; UPDATE: Building Hit Was Emptied the Day Before; Tel Aviv Hit
The E-4B Nightwatch – which was designed to protect the Secretary of Defense and other national security officials and keep the government operating in the time of nuclear war – was spotted by flight trackers, and made a long, winding route to the capital. US E-4B ‘doomsday plane’ makes unexpected flight to DC as Trump weighs Iran strike
Trump addressed concerns among members of the Make America Great Again base that the United States would be pulled into a long-term war, while fielding a question from Brian Glenn of Real America’s Voice. Donald Trump: We Don’t Want a Long-Term War with Iran (We? We who?! - jjs)
The deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford was reportedly scheduled last year, but its arrival in the Mediterranean will still be viewed as a significant response to the rising tensions in the region. The carrier is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and serves as the flagship of America’s naval fleet.In addition to the carrier group, other U.S. warships have departed from a naval base in Bahrain, and aerial refueling tankers have been sent to the region, the latter likely towing a number of Air Force warplanes. These movements come amid reports of increased military activity following Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejecting calls for unconditional surrender. The U.S. Is Sending More Warships Towards Israel.
“I’ve had it, I give up,” Trump added, referring to Iran. “You know, the three for 40 years they’ve been saying death to America, death to Israel, that to anybody else that they didn’t like. They were bullies. They were schoolyard bullies.” ‘Two Very Simple Words’: Trump Makes His Stance On Iran Unequivocally Clear
. . . here’s the reality: Russia isn’t issuing this warning from a position of military strength. Its forces are still deeply bogged down in Ukraine, sanctions batter its economy, and its air force is depleted. Any serious intervention on Iran’s behalf is likely off the table. So, what does Russia have left? Diplomacy. Nuclear partnerships. Arms exports. And most importantly, a seat at the peace table. That’s what this noise is about. Russia’s Warning Over U.S. Aid to Israel Isn’t Just Noise
* * * * *
The press refuses to give Prime Minister Netanyahu any credit for the incredible feats he has done. (but but, but I thought the Jooz controlled the media?! - jjs) Operation Rising Lion and the Judgment of the Elites
The ICE agent had pulled Munoz over in a traffic stop, but the illegal alien refused to exit his vehicle, instead putting his car in drive while the agent’s arm was still in his vehicle. After the incident, the ICE agent had to be hospitalized. Feds Arrest Illegal Alien Sex Offender Who Dragged ICE Agent with His Car
A letter published on the Antifa-linked left-extremist platform Indymedia claimed responsibility for the incidents. The anonymous author alleged both Amazon and Deutsche Telekom are “legitimate targets” due to their connections with Israel and Germany‘s security services. The statement claimed, “Amazon’s servers and cloud services are used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to store the vast amounts of data obtained from mass surveillance of the Palestinian population.” Antifa Arson Campaign Targets Amazon.
The fact that the home had been searched by an unknown person or persons has renewed speculation among the public that Boelter, 57, may not have acted alone. A former state board appointee of Gov. Walz, Boelter visited the homes of at least four Minnesota lawmakers in the early hours of June 14, disguised as a law enforcement officer. Hortman and her husband were shot and killed, while State Senator John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette, were both critically wounded in another shooting. The other two lawmakers, whose identities have not been made public, were not at home when Boelter arrived. Someone Broke Into Assassinated Minnesota Lawmaker Melissa Hortman’s Home.
A secret FBI document cache—“Prohibited Access”—may hold explosive evidence of political cover-ups, misconduct, and a decade of justice corrupted from within. Prohibited Access: A Cache of FBI Corruption?
“Communist China is our greatest geopolitical threat,” Ricketts said, emphasizing the need for increased disclosure and action to prevent China’s purchase of American agricultural land. The bill’s introduction coincides with the arrest of two Chinese nationals accused of smuggling biological materials, including a dangerous crop-destroying fungus, into the U.S., which authorities described as a potential agroterrorism weapon. Fetterman Joins With GOP Senator to Fight CCP Takeover of America’s Farms.
The policies, which include a plan to remove a loophole allowing pharmaceutical companies to write off advertising as a tax deduction, could “leave broadcasters in financial straits,” CNN reported in a Wednesday article. CNN Acknowledges RFK’s Drug Ad Ban Could ‘Cripple’ Broadcasting Giants
“Yarvin modeled Urbit’s design sketches on the early online social spaces he adored. . . Belief dissipated, as did the financing.” The Rise and Fall of Urbit
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS,
In December 2009, the Endangerment Finding was born when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under then-president Obama ruled carbon dioxide (CO2) endangered human health and thus could be regulated as a pollutant. End the EPA’s Endangerment Finding
One major uncertainty of this result is its dependence on fast radio bursts. The scientists claim the sixty bursts they used came from distances ranging from 12 million to 9 billion light years, but it is unclear how they determined those distances. Astronomer claim radio data detects much of the universe’s “missing mass”
NASA and Axiom today announced that they have rescheduled the launch of Axiom’s fourth manned mission to ISS, dubbed Ax-4, to June 22, 2025 in order to give Russian and American engineers more time to assess the leak repairs in the station’s Russian Zvezda module. NASA/Axiom announce another four-day launch delay for Axiom’s fourth manned mission
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
The high court ruled 6-3, with liberal-leaning justices dissenting, that Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1 does not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, contrary to the claims of transgender activists who sued the state. Supreme Court Upholds Tennessee Law Banning Sex Changes for Minors
Christian Toto: 'View' host's inane Iran/US commentary shocks even liberal co-hosts (bone-in-the-nose sub-literate coprolite - jjs) Is This Whoopi Goldberg’s Dumbest Rant Ever?
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com within an hour of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
TI is one of the major chip manufacturers owned and operating in the US, along with Intel and Micron. TI doesn't make flashy expensive stuff like desktop CPUs and GPUs, but they make a lot of lower-end embedded and analog chips.
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - June 18, 2025 [TRex]
—Open Blogger
Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.
This is the Wednesday night ONT.
[Top photo: Woodley Park Metro Station Escalator, Washington, DC]
No, the mystery click is not Stairway to Heaven. That would have been too easy. Besides, the DC Zoo is at the top. While a good zoo, it doesn't qualify as Heaven.
I was all set to mock ESPN for showing cornhole on television. I'm not saying that my cornhole skills are strong. After all, my small brain and short arms are not well suited. There is an American Cornhole League and lots of people apparently take cornhole seriously. My mockage wasn't aimed at those who enjoy a well placed beanbag toss or those that soak in any attention they can get for an activity more commonly found at a backyard BBQ or a craft brewery. Good for them.
I will also let others debate whether cornhole qualifies as a sport. Given the weirdness in modern Olympic games, seems like almost anything qualifies. Does throwing horseshoes qualify as a sport? Dunno. Guessing the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association might have a view, but that's not my issue.
My question was how ESPN - the world wide leader in sports - can fail to find anything more compelling to broadcast. ESPN has a big platform and the world is a big place. Lots of sport happens in a lot of places. But is ESPN really that lazy or uninspired? Apparently so. How do I know?
This is the championship in the women's category. The champion in this match was decided when one combatant's "shoulder gives out."
There is also a men's category. I refuse to provide a link.
No sign of jello wrestling (yet).
***
The Greatest Show on Dirt:
I especially appreciate the "Mow Rons Motorsport" team name.
They each have a limited number of items as it would cost a lot of money to regularly send fresh clothes to them from Earth. These are worn again and again until they're too smelly or dirty to wear anymore.
There does come a time when astronauts have to get rid of some of their dirty clothes. Some of them are put in cargo spacecrafts which burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, while other more expensive items like spacesuits are sent back to Earth for cleaning and repairs.
***
More science knowledge I learned today: an octopus has arms, but not tentacles.
An arm is a limb that's covered with suction cups from beginning to end. A tentacle has suckers only at its end, which is usually wide and heavy.
Each arm of an octopus contains its own brain. That means the arm can operate on its own, or it can be controlled by the central brain. An octopus uses its arms to build its own housing and to climb in and out of shells and other objects. It uses two arms to crawl along the bottom, so those arms are sometimes called legs.
Either way, keep your arms and tentacles inside the moving ONT to avoid injury. (I said "tentacles" not "testicles." But probably best to keep those under control as well.)
***
***
Honda makes cars, lawnmowers, and jets. But now rockets too?! Apparently so.
Honda's involvement in rocketry comes as news to me.
***
Caption contest winner from last week.
I'm not saying his injuries were no big deal that one time, when Evil Knievel tried to jump over a hundred school buses. He got plenty banged up. I'm just saying, don't forget the big picture! You know as well as I do how things turned out that other time, when a hundred school buses tried to jump over Evil Knievel.
Well played!
Credit to lurker ICanCallYouBetty
***
Air Force humor:
NKAWTG
In the news - related but not directly related since this is a quasi-smart military blog (at times): Boeing In Talks To Restart C-17 Production I never understood why production was closed down in 2015. I'm still bitter about F-22 production.
Up in Doncaster, Mr. Clarkson's parents - Shirley and Eddie Clarkson - ran a design business called Gabrielle Designs and created a prototype Paddington Bear toy in 1972, which they gifted to Mr. Clarkson and his sister Joanna for Christmas.
The plush bear was quickly praised and Mr Clarkson's parents began to sell them in shops. However, they did so without regard to the author's copyright on the bear and Mr. Bond soon got his lawyers involved to take action against the Clarksons.
As legal action brewed, the pair headed down to London to meet with Mr Bond's solicitors and by chance met the author in the lift.
Mr. Bond and the Clarksons became fast friends and awarded he awarded them the licencing rights to the toy throughout the world.
Has anyone figured out why the Pentagon doesn't have a pizza place onsite? Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ??
Let it burn. Ship every damn illegal criminal who the ACLU blocks from deportation to NYC, Boston, LA, and SF. Let them choke on illegal alien murders and rapes.
They write it off, Jerry.
Trump is said to have blessed, privately, Israel's previous strikes but is asking them to hold off on a final round of decapitation strikes, in the hopes that madmen will finally find reason.
I doubt it, but, good luck.
Candace Owens
@RealCandaceO
The same people say Iran can't have a nuke because they are religious fundamentalists are the same people who hold the heretical belief that we must support Israel's non-stop campaign of murder, blackmail, land theft bombing & starvation of the innocent because 'God will bless those who bless the 1948 created nation of Israel'.
THEN EMIGRATE THERE. If you believe it, act on it.
If you don't act on it, you don't believe it, and you should stop lying.
I wouldn't hold my breath.
During a heated exchange on The View, co-host Whoopi Goldberg claimed that the experience of black Americans in the United States is equivalent to the conditions faced by citizens under the authoritarian regime in Iran.
The discussion began when co-host Alyssa Farah highlighted the severe human rights violations in Iran, noting that the regime will "literally throw gay people off buildings" and routinely suppresses basic freedoms. She argued that such conditions are vastly different from life in the United States.
Goldberg immediately rejected the comparison, responding that the US is known to "tie gay folks to the car." She then compared life in Iran to black Americans.
"I'm sorry, they used to just keep hanging black people," Goldberg said. "It is the same."
Farah pushed back, emphasizing that Iran in 2025 is nothing like the modern United States. She noted how if she were to walk the streets of Tehran wearing a skirt and her hair showing, she would be severely punished for it. "I think it's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in Iran," she explained.
Goldberg dismissed the distinction, replying, "Not if you're black," a remark that was met with applause from the audience.
"This is the greatest country in the world," but also "just like Iran." The idiot emotionalism over any perspective on this show (valiant effort from A, here). All bad things are bad & the same amount of bad & therefore we are the worst but also the best. CLAP CLAP CLAP https://t.co/Eijr9hebwd
We're expanding this investigative series on racial discrimination at America's Fortune 500 companies. If you have evidence of racial discrimination at your company, please get in touch confidentially at chrisrufo@protonmail.com.
Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) on Wednesday accused former Biden Cabinet officials, Democratic members of Congress and the media of participating in a massive "cover-up" to hide what they claim was former President Biden's obvious and alarming cognitive decline during his final two years in office.
"There was a conspiracy to hide the president's true condition by his family, by his staff, by the media, and many elected officials. This was a constitutional crisis bigger than President Biden, bigger than any single election, and one that cannot be absolved by the collective apology of the press and an election where the president's party lost," Cornyn said in his opening statement of a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Cornyn and Schmitt rolled out their accusations against the former president and his inner circle to a mostly empty room after most Democrats on the panel boycotted the hearing.
"Most"? Try "all."
Well, okay, one Democrat showed up for a short time.
Schmitt declared that Biden was "mentally unfit to carry out the responsibilities of the most powerful office in the world."
"Given his mental incapacity, the American people deserve to know who was running the country the last four years," he said.
Schmitt called it "deeply disappointing" that most Democrats on the panel chose to "boycott" the meeting and decided not to call a single witness to testify.
Schmitt claimed that Biden's decline "did not suddenly begin in June of 2024," when he performed disastrously at the presidential debate against Trump.
"It was a persistent and obvious truth that was evident for years to anyone who was willing to see it," he said.
Note that Cornyn asked Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson to testify. They refused.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) revealed Thursday he sought congressional testimony from CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson for a hearing later this month on former President Joe Biden's mental acuity while in office.
The pair are authors of Original Sin, a recently published book with revelations about the former president's alleged cognitive decline in the White House and the effort by those in Biden's orbit to orchestrate a "cover-up."
"We reached out to Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, and they were otherwise occupied," Cornyn told reporters.
Neither reporter responded to a request for comment.
Why is this pussy asking for a voluntary appearance? Subpoena them. They claim they have inside information that can help Congress pass legislation to stop this from happening again.
Biden's nefarious doctor and Biden, Inc. business partner also refused to testify. They have subpoenaed him, but I imagine he will just refuse to answer, citing doctor-patient privilege.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today issued a subpoena to Dr. Kevin O'Connor, President Joe Biden's physician, to appear for a deposition on June 27, 2025, as part of the investigation into the cover-up of President Joe Biden's cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized issuance of sweeping pardons and other executive actions.
Chairman Comer recently requested Dr. O'Connor appear voluntarily for a transcribed interview, but he refused. Last Congress, Chairman Comer also requested Dr. O'Connor appear for a transcribed interview to discuss his medical assessments and involvement in the Biden family's influence peddling racket, but the Biden White House blocked his testimony.
So why is Fake Jake Tapper getting a pass?
If Tapper and Thompson had written a book about Trump, and had been asked by Democrats to testify, you can be sure these straight-shootin' non-partisan Servants of the Truth would have been there with bells on.
Notice something about the Dems' side of the dais for this hearing on Biden's mental capability? There's NO ONE there
Why? Because Dems don't want to answer for the 4 years of lies & hypocrisy they fed the American people about how Biden was "fit for office" pic.twitter.com/GeTJtCCg5d
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on former President Biden and the autopen: "If you want an answer to the question 'Did Joe Biden actually assent to the use of the autopen?'... There should be a record of it. This is a binary question...I call on President Biden...release the documents." pic.twitter.com/VWhaAhAwed
Democrat Senators have more important things to do. Like whining and crying that when they charged a woman, the Mean Secret Service Bad Men pushed him to the ground.
Maryland Man Arrested for Attempting to Stab a US Attorney Plus: US Murder Rate Plummets, and Border Patrol Encounters Only 95 Illegals, The Lowest Single Day Number in History
This particular Maryland Man is from El Salvador and currently threatening to slit public servant's throats in the Albany, NY region, after fleeing from other jurisdictions due to a stack of warrants against him.
Oh, and he had just been deported, but snuck back in.
So these foreign army terrorists are trying to kill the US officials who are connected, in a very tenuous way, to their proper deportation.
An illegal immigrant in New York has been arrested for allegedly threatening a U.S. attorney with a knife.
The incident occurred Tuesday in the state capital of Albany when Saul Morales-Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, allegedly approached John A. Sarcone III, a U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, with a knife at a Hilton hotel.
Morales-Garcia allegedly pulled out the knife and lunged toward the federal prosecutor, the Times Union newspaper reports. Sarcone retreated into the hotel.
Security camera footage reviewed by police showed Morales-Garcia wielding a knife and appearing to go after Sarcone as he ran toward the Hilton's lobby. Morales-Garcia was previously deported, then apparently reentered the U.S. recently without authorization.
...
Prosecutors argued that Morales-Garcia is a flight risk, as he has criminal charges pending in Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and federal court, including an active warrant seeking his arrest in Georgia.
Who's going to cure cancer while this scholar is tied up in court?
Murder rates are plummeting. While we still have more than half a year to go, Kash Patel, the FBI's director, says that the U.S. is on track to have the lowest murder rate ever. The current record low occurred in 2014 when the FBI reported a murder rate of 4.45 per 100,000.
The question is: why? Law enforcement matters, but it is probably also that Trump is deporting criminal illegal aliens.
According to Patel, "Let good cops be cops," is the answer. "I'm gonna let you, the agents, the police officers, the sheriffs, go out there and do the work you so badly want to do. And I'm gonna give you the resources you need to do it. And I'm gonna take away the politicization and weaponization ... and that's what we've done."
...
But there is another reason. Deporting criminal illegals may cause some illegals to lay low so that they don't risk getting caught. As the Wall Street Journal noted, "ICE operations have received so much attention, prompting migrants to be more cautious, according to agents and leaders."
Since President Trump's Jan. 20, 2025, inauguration, the FBI has actively invested over 1 million hours collaborating with ICE, DEA, and local police to arrest more than 10,000 illegal aliens. They are targeting Biden-era border crossers.
A lot of these illegals have criminal backgrounds and if they cut back on the amount of time they are committing to reduce the risks of getting caught, it could have a noticeable impact on crime rates. If you believe the Biden administration, 9 percent of the so-called "non-detained" illegals who were released into the U.S. had criminal backgrounds (662,566 out of 7.4 million released). That is almost assuredly an underestimate as "non-detained" illegals were overwhelmingly those who had voluntarily turned themselves in at the border, presumably the ones we should be least concerned about. It doesn't count the 2 million "gotaways" we detected crossing the border but failed to apprehend during the Biden administration, nor the unknown millions we never saw coming across the borders. This also assumes the Biden administration didn't underreport criminal backgrounds. And many countries, such as Venezuela, wouldn't provide information on the criminal backgrounds of their citizens.
There is other evidence that Trump's deportation efforts are making a difference in causing illegal aliens to lay low. For example, illegals are leaving the labor force. From January 2021 to January 2025, under Biden's administration, foreign-born workers filled approximately 4.3 million of the new jobs created, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). However, in just the last four months, the immigrant workforce has plummeted by 773,000 -- a staggering 18 percent reversal of that growth in such a short period of time.
A March headline in the New York Times notes: "Fearing roundups, many immigrants are staying home."
Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
JUST IN: Tom Homan announces Border Patrol had only 95 encounters with illegals TOTAL yesterday, along the entire 2,000 mile southern border
Three Iranian Planes Fly to Oman as Israel Reportedly Begins Attacking the Ayatollah's Bunkers
—Ace
Iran just threatened "a surprise that will be remembered for centuries." Then they released a video strongly hinting they were about to attack the US or Israel with a nuke.
There are claims on X that three Iranian planes have landed at Oman:
Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
#BREAKING: At least THREE Iranian military planes have just left Iran and landed in Oman, the country mediating U.S.-Iran nuclear talks
A deal may be back on the table!
LFG!
Trump himself does not seem interested in a deal. First he said to reporters, "I'm in no mood to negotiate." Then, later, he posted on Truth Social:
UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!
I really do not know why people who identify as on the right are on such a jihad to save the Ayatollah. They have completely reversed their previous support for military intervention. They haven't just adjusted it. They've fully embraced the Code Pink/Blame America First position, without ever even bother to explain why they've made this dramatic complete reversal of all their past beliefs. It's like this group just radicalized each other on X, all based on emotion and groupthink, so no one is able to say why this change in fundamental beliefs occurred. They just suddenly adopt this extremist left-wing position and then act like you're the weird one for not having joined them in this inexplicable journey to the Blame America First side.
Do they likewise believe that Obama did right in knocking down the Iranian uprising and pledging fealty to the Ayatollah?
This guy offers a counter-explanation. Though both claims are made, as Jake Tapper's snarky chyrons would say, WITHOUT EVIDENCE.
He claims that three planes is excessive for just a negotiating team, and suspects the planes are carrying the Ayatollah, his son and successor, and other family members and government officials. He premises this on the claim that Israel has been attacking Khameini's hidey-hole bunkers and the Ayatollah knows it's just a matter of time before they hit the one he's in.
I don't know. I listen to this guy sometimes but I think it's mostly just because his politics seem similar to my own and because he's got that "international British RP" accent. The accent where you came from a different country but were educated in Oxford so you picked up on the tony RP accent.
It's very reassuring. Christiane Amanpour hypnotized the nation into believing her bullshit with that accent.
A Return to Sanity: Supreme Court Upholds Bans on "Gender Affirming Surgery" for Children 6-3 in a Major Repudiation of the Extremist Transgender Cult Update: Thomas Warns Against Deferring to Fake "Experts"
—Ace
Sean Davis
@seanmdav
BREAKING: In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court has upheld Tennessee's law banning genital mutilation of minors under the guise of so-called "trans" surgery.
"The Court's role is not 'to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic' of [the ban on surgically mutilating minors], but only to ensure that the law does not violate equal protection guarantees," the Supreme Court ruled. "It does not. Questions regarding the law's policy are thus appropriately left to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process."
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a Tennessee law banning specific transgender medical treatments for adolescents in the state is not discriminatory, ruling 6-3 to uphold the law.
At issue in the case, United States v. Skrmetti, was whether Tennessee's Senate Bill 1, which "prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow 'a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex' or to treat 'purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity,'" violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The ACLU claimed that because girls who experience "precocious puberty" at ages as young as nine are given hormone blockers to delay their puberty until 12 or 13, it's "discriminatory" to forbid girls from taking hormone blockers to stop their puberty altogether, and then flood them with testosterone to create weird and unconvincing fake "boys."
That's like saying the law should treat a doctor who cuts into you to remove a tumor the same as a thug who stabs you on the street.
That law prohibits states from allowing medical providers to deliver puberty blockers and hormones to facilitate a minor's transition to another sex.
It also targets healthcare providers in the state who continue to provide such procedures to gender-dysphoric minors-- opening these providers up to fines, lawsuits and other liability.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that the law question is not subject to heightened scrutiny "because it does not classify on any bases that warrant heightened review."
"This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field," he said. "The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound."
United States v. Skrmetti was one of the most closely watched cases of the Supreme Court's term, with potential ripple effects for ongoing legal battles over transgender rights -- including bathroom access and participation in school sports.
The ruling could also serve as a legal pretext in future cases involving LGBTQ+ protections, including whether sexual orientation qualifies as a "protected class" on par with race or national origin.
"The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements. Nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best," he added. "Our role is not 'to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic' of the law before us ... but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process."
All three liberal justices notably dissented in the case.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a scathing dissent that cited a long history of laws discriminating against others, noting that transgender persons in the U.S. make up less than 1% of the country's population. There are an estimated 1.3 million adults and 300,000 adolescents aged 13 to 17 who identify as transgender, according to the UCLA law school's Williams Institute.
She noted that SB1 "expressly classifies on the basis of sex and transgender status, so the Constitution and settled precedent require the Court to subject it to intermediate scrutiny."
"The majority contorts logic and precedent to say otherwise, inexplicably declaring it must uphold Tennessee's categorical ban on lifesaving medical treatment so long as 'any reasonably conceivable state of facts' might justify it," Sotomayor said, adding: "By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims."
"In sadness, I dissent," she said.
"Lifesaving medical treatment." Get f***ed you vile ugly swine.
...
Justice Samuel Alito cited "hotly disputed" medical studies on the alleged benefits of such medical treatments, and told the government's attorney that those studies "found a complete lack of high-quality evidence showing that the benefits of the treatments in question here outweigh the risks."
"Do you dispute that?" Alito asked during oral arguments.
In his concurrence, Justice Thomas had this to say about fake phony Expertism:
This case carries a simple lesson: In politically contentious debates over matters shrouded in scientific uncertainty, courts should not assume that self-described experts are correct.
Deference to legislatures, not experts, is particularly critical here. Many prominent medical professionals have declared a consensus around the efficacy of treating children's gender dysphoria with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical interventions, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. They have dismissed grave problems undercutting the assumption that young children can consent to irreversible treatments that may deprive them of their ability to eventually produce children of their own.
They have built their medical determinations on concededly weak evidence. And, they have surreptitiously compromised their medical recommendations to achieve political
ends.
The Court today reserves "to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process" the power to decide how best to address an area of medical uncertainty and extraordinary importance. Ante, at 24. That sovereign pre-
rogative does not bow to "major medical organizations." Post, at 5, n. 5 (opinion of SOTOMAYOR, J.). "[E]xperts and elites have been wrong before--and they may prove to be wrong again." Students for Fair Admissions, Inc.
That last part is Thomas citing himself, from a previous concurrence.
Meanwhile, another lowly district court judge, this one, get this, a Biden judge from Massachusetts, issues another insupportable nationwide ban.
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Tuesday broadened the scope of an earlier ruling that blocks the Trump administration from enforcing a controversial passport policy requiring Americans to list their sex "at conception," rather than their gender identity. The order now applies nationwide, protecting all transgender, nonbinary, and intersex Americans.
U.S. District Judge Julia E. Kobick, a Biden appointee, wrote that the plaintiffs in the case--originally just six named individuals--share the same injury as the broader class: an inability to obtain passports that accurately reflect their gender identity. Kobick concluded that the administration's policy is likely unconstitutional and not tied to any "important governmental interest."
The initial lawsuit was filed in February by the ACLU, its Massachusetts affiliate, and the law firm Covington & Burling LLP. It alleges the policy is driven by "impermissible animus" toward gender-nonconforming individuals. Following that, attorneys asked the court to expand the ruling to cover all individuals impacted by the rule, a request Kobick granted Tuesday.
The ruling halts enforcement of a key portion of President Trump's executive order, signed in his first hours back in office, which directed federal agencies to base official documents--including passports and Global Entry cards--on an individual's sex assigned at birth, not their gender identity. The policy also suspended the State Department's prior option that allowed applicants to self-select their gender marker, including the nonbinary "X" option.
Of course, the Democrat-Media Party's violent transgender street militias are threatening to murder Supreme Court Justices:
Far-left Trantifa extremists on @bluesky are encouraging people to assassinate the Supreme Court Justices who ruled that it was legal for Tennessee to ban the medical transitioning of minors. pic.twitter.com/bGHnayk4O4
Blue-collar workers have seen real wage growth of almost two percent in the first five months of President Donald Trump's second term, the largest increase for any administration in nearly 60 years.
The 1.7% pay bump is in stark contrast to negative growth under Joe Biden, according to new data from the US Department of the Treasury.
Since Richard Nixon in 1969, Trump has been the only president to record positive growth for blue-collar workers in his first five months. He also achieved 1.3% in his first term.
Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington. Subscribe here!
The recovery from a 1.7% decline recorded in Biden's first five months, as inflation outpaced earnings, suggests a shift in economic conditions for this financially stressed segment of the workforce.
"The only other time it's been this high was... during President Trump's first term," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told me on the latest episode of the "Pod Force One" podcast, out Wednesday.
"We've seen real wages for hourly workers, non-supervisory workers, rise almost 2% in the first five months. ... No president has done that before."
Falling inflation has driven the significant improvement in blue-collar wages, lifting workers' take-home pay and living standards.
Bessent says wage growth is also fueled by the president's "emphasis on manufacturing" and commitment to remove illegal migrants from the workforce.
"Biden opened the border, and it was flooded," said Bessent. "And for working Americans, that's a disaster because it's pressure on their wages."
As soon as Trump took office, the percentage of voters saying the country was on the right track shot up from 26% to 42%. (It has now dropped to 41%, which is probably just statistical noise.)
Hello everybody, how is your Wednesday? Are you keeping your School Clothes neat and tidy?
Thanks to @POTUS’s pro-growth, America First policies, real wages for hourly workers are up nearly 2% in the first five months of @realDonaldTrump’s second term — the strongest growth in 60 years.
No president has done that before — except President Trump in his first term.… pic.twitter.com/gasjQn33eb
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) June 17, 2025
Last week, Ace posted a column about a Congressional sideshow wherein Governor Hochul (D[emon], NY) claimed not to remember any of the particulars about an incident in New York City where an illegal alien decided to turn a citizen into a human torch on a subway train. (reminder: don't comment on old threads). While I don't believe for a minute that Hochul wasn't well aware of the details and used the typical "I don't recall" dodge, the wider point is important.
Mark Halperin has been talking about this for a while. Democrats don't know what the public knows, or what the public is thinking, because the left-wing media "wraps them in blue bubble-wrap" to protect Democrats from being confronted with the horrors caused by their policies. Democrat politicians never realize the public is getting sick of being set on fire by lunatic illegal aliens, or having their daughters kidnapped and raped by illegal aliens fleeing their home countries because of outstanding rape charges, because the Blue Bubble-Wrap Media refuses to report on these stories.
All lefties wrap themselves snugly in this Blue Bubble-Wrap and go for years without ever realizing that their policies are causing rapes and murders.
This observation about "blue bubble wrap" is certainly true, and it underscores a serious risk. The apparent ignorance about the current state of affairs that many officials and Party loyalists exhibit (and for many of them, it is true ignorance) is evidence of the real underlying problem of censorship: an intelligence vacuum.
When there is no outlet for information because it is either crushed by the state (as it was throughout the West until Musk bought Twitter, and as it remains in many places and on most other platforms) or self-imposed by the loyalists and officials, it creates the appearance of total control. When you censor any negative information and suppress your opponents through official acts or informal policy, it makes it much harder for your opponents to learn anything. It makes it much harder for them to communicate. It makes it hard for them to figure out if their experiences are unique or widespread. It makes it hard for them to coordinate opposition. It helps to alienate them and atomize them because they think they are alone. These are all reasons for large-scale censorship, and the Party loves it for those reasons.
But the flip side of it is that it also denies the censors themselves of any information of what's actually going on. It's all smooth sailing with clear horizons all the time. They have total control and there are no major threats or opposition. That vacuum grows and gets harder and more untenable the longer it goes on. The final result is a sudden implosion that always seems to come out of nowhere. There is a reason small events appear to precipitate major, disruptive changes including the fall of governments. There is no feedback loop and no ability for the system to adapt. It denies itself vital information in the name of maintaining control, and then some small event is finally the "straw that broke the camel's back." They end up in shocked disbelief when some tiny thing causes the whole thing to collapse. Just whip out your ouija board and ask Ceausescu about that.
Setting aside the moral depravity of it, a major danger of censorship is the information vacuum it creates. At small scale in a personal echo chamber, it leads to shock and horror when the person is exposed to a contrary opinion he never knew existed in reality. At the largest scale in the center of a totalitarian regime, it leads to the utter inability to know when something is wrong and eventually a small incident easily leads to collapse.
This "blue bubble wrap" Ace talked about is the intelligence vacuum that leads to an inability to fathom the possibility that something is wrong. It isn't new, but our flavor of it is a bit different. The ability to pierce the vacuum without an implosion - to deflate that "bubble wrap" - is a valuable thing. Our system has various means of doing that, including communication and elections. It's why those are always battlegrounds - not the contests or messages themselves, but the venues as such.
Good morning kids. So with things really heating up over Iran as well as here at home, both situations put the sudden rushing to the hospital last night of Kristi Noem, the head of our Department of Homeland Security, into a new light. It could be just a freaky coincidence, but the timing could not be at a more crucial moment.
“Secretary Noem experienced an allergic reaction earlier today and was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller. . . Noem was previously in Los Angeles, California, where Democratic Senator Alex Padilla interrupted a June 12 press conference she was conducting in response to the LA riots. Security forcibly removed the senator and reportedly handcuffed him. DHS accused Padilla of “disrespectful public theatre.”
Frankly, the fat filthy bastard is damned lucky to be alive. Because, given the flood of foreign criminals already in country as well as our own homegrown Leftist Schakowsky/Soros rent-a-mob cadres that always pop up in congressional hearings when they're not burnining looting and murdering in the name of peace love and understanding, If I were Noem, and likely carrying a firearm, I'd have not given a second thought to ventilating the fat bastard who was bull-rushing me.
And given what is happening now in Iran, with the potential for President Trump to deploy MOP ordnance to obliterate the last and perhaps most important Iranian nuclear facility inside and beneath the mountains at Fordow, The erased border courtesy of Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants that was already extremely porous prior to his installation as Obama's puppet in 2020, the potential for sleeper cells to cause murder and mayhem, on top of what the aforementioned native-born self-hating America-hating brainwashed Leftist droogs are already doing to us should scare the shit out of anyone who is even minimally aware of what's been going on at least since 9/11/01 or February of 1993 when we had the first World Trade Center truck bomb attack.
Born in Brooklyn on October 18, 1970, Jose Padilla is an American citizen and a Muslim convert who was arrested in May 2002 and was thereafter detained by the U.S. government for three-and-a-half years as an “enemy combatant” who aspired to contribute to the worldwide Islamic jihad by killing large numbers of Americans.
In his early teens, Padilla joined a mostly Puerto Rican gang called the Latin Disciples. He went on to compile a rap sheet of both juvenile and adult crimes — offenses ranging from aggravated assault to unlawful weapons possession to attempted theft. He was also involved in a violent assault and shooting where his victim later died from the injuries that Padilla helped inflict.
In the early 1990s, Padilla became a working member of the Benevolence International Foundation, a charity that had close financial ties to the al Qaeda terrorist network, the Abu Sayyaf Islamic rebels in the Philippines, and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
. . . After 9/11, Padilla spent some time living with Atef in the house where the latter was eventually killed by a U.S. air strike in November 2001. Seeking to avoid further danger, Padilla went to Pakistan, where he became acquainted with Osama bin Laden’s deputy Abu Zubaydah. Padilla approached Zubaydah with an idea: He wanted to follow Internet instructions for creating a nuclear bomb, and then detonate it somewhere in the United States. Skeptical about Padilla’s ability to carry out such an attack, Zubaydah suggested that wrapping explosives in uranium (to create a radiological “dirty bomb) might be more feasible...
. . . On January 22, 2008, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke sentenced Padilla to 17 years and four months in prison, as opposed to the life sentence the government was seeking. In explaining her decision, Judge Cooke underscored the serious nature of Mr. Padilla’s offenses, but added: “There is no evidence that these defendants personally maimed, kidnapped or killed anyone in the United States or elsewhere. There was never a plot to overthrow the United States government.”
And where is this wonderful humanitarian and bust out quintessential Democrat today??? (Per Wikipedia) Padilla is serving his sentence at ADX Florence prison in Florence, Colorado. Padilla's prisoner number is 20796-424; he is projected to be released in 2026.
So, With the Iranian regime apparently on the ropes, and threatening to unleash hell on Earth, Is that mere bluster of the Mad Mullahs in the bunker shrieking "Steiner will come" or the 12th Imam will QQM?!!!!
Remember, that Iran has been enriching Uranium for years. and with a non existent southern border and a very poorly watched northern border to say nothing of thousands of miles of Atlantic and Pacific coastline plus seaports where anything can be smuggled in or where corrupt LE and CBP agents can be bribed to look the other way, it is certainly a distinct possibility that quite a bit of radioactive material is already within our borders ready to be weaponized and used by who knows how many other Jose Padillas are walking our streets waiting for the Mullahs, to give the Go code, or who will just act on their own if Tehran should fall.
And, as for radioactive material for a dirty bomb, you don't necessarily need weapons-grade U-235 or Plutonium or Cobalt Thorium-G or whatever is used to detonate Atomic or thermonuclear devices. All you need is a not so very large amount of low level radioactive material such as is used in the medical profession. Strap a few pounds to some propane tanks and set it off in Times Square or near the Pentagon or wherever to create a toxic cloud of radioactive fallout. No, I'm not giving away any deep dark secrets that the evil Muslim savages haven't already figured out probably courtesy of Hose-B Padilla 25 years ago.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared “the battle begins” in an ominous post Tuesday, hours after President Trump called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
“In the name of #Haider, the battle begins. Ali returns to #Khaybar with his Zulfiqar.” Khamenei wrote on X in Farsi, referring to Islam’s first imam, Ali, who won the Battle of Khaybar with the sword Zulfiqar.
Khamenei’s sinister message comes hours after the Islamic Republic’s state media also warned of a “surprise” on Tuesday night into Wednesday that the “world will remember for centuries.”
Remember that Shiite Islam is predicated on armageddon being the precursor to their mythological 12th Imam returning to earth from some magic wishing well in the holy city of Qom to then usher in an eternal paradise on earth in the form of the world becoming Islamic for all time.
Now, as I understand it, the true believers regard/venerate that well as a scared site that must be protected at all costs. If a "STRAY" Israeli bomb were to take it out, it would also take out the fantasies of tens of millions of Muslims around the world. The 12th imam could never emerge. Islamic experts like Robert Spencer and others have stated this and when we had him on a previous episode of the podcast he reiterated this.
Forget Fordow. We need the John C. Holmes mega Qom Shot of all time to Seek out that well and destroy it. The psychological shock alone of that well's obliteration might well be more powerful and effective than the combined military defeats of Islam in all its wars against Israel and Western Christendom.
Meh, there's also that space rock in Mecca, but that's another story.
FYI, a quick heads up to be on the lookout for a new episode of the the podcast with me and CBD that should be posting in the sidebar by this afternoon, as well as at CJN and via our usual outlets.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
Have a great day.
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
“Secretary Noem experienced an allergic reaction earlier today and was transported to the hospital out of an abundance of caution. She is alert and recovering,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Taken By Ambulance To Washington DC Hospital
Michael Walsh: The Iranian mullahs are no better at fighting than Darius was (way back in 331 BC - jjs). . . The Israelis have shredded their Islamic cloak of teleological inevitability and have left them naked, figures of ridicule in a land they have terrorized for too long, and in which they now cower in fear: impotent old men whose god has failed them. In Praise of Instability
“Rather than a model for the future, Los Angeles today offers a masterclass in urban dysfunction,” Kotkin wrote last week in “Los Angeles has fallen.” “Drive through the streets of the South Side or along Central Avenue – historically black L.A.’s main thoroughfare, now predominantly Hispanic – and the ambience increasingly resembles that of Mexico City or Mumbai: cracked pavements, dilapidated buildings, outdoor swap-meet markets and food stalls serving customers, much as one would see in the developing world.” L.A. Riots: Just One More Symptom Of Far-Left California’s Sad Decline
The exiled Crown Prince of Iran took to social media Tuesday to encourage dissident Iranians to rise up and help topple the Islamic Republic’s oppressive, 46-year hold on the nation. Reza Pahlavi, 64, is the eldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran and his third wife Farah Diba. He was officially named Crown Prince of Iran at age seven in 1967 during his father’s coronation. The Islamic revolution overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, forcing the shah and his family into exile. ‘End This Nightmare’: Exiled Crown Prince of Iran Urges Iranians to Rise Up Against the ‘Falling’ Regime
A review of Persian-language outlets based outside Iran, which have broadcast a stream of comments and video updates from Iran residents in recent days, indicates that the conflict is widely seen as a war between Khamenei’s regime and Israel, not as an attack on the populace. (This is a very big deal and crucial both now and after the regime Please God is sent back to Hades from whence it came - jjs) ‘They strike, we dance’ — Iranians damn the regime amid Israeli barrage
The Israel-Iran conflict, now in its fifth day, has seen extensive military operations by both sides. Overnight, Israeli forces conducted targeted strikes on key Iranian military sites, including a command center in Tehran, where Maj. Gen. Ali Shadmani, Iran’s wartime chief of staff, was killed. Shadmani had been appointed just days earlier, following the death of his predecessor, Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, in another Israeli strike on Friday.According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the strike that killed Shadmani occurred “in the heart of Tehran” late Monday, with the target presenting a “sudden opportunity.” In a statement, the IDF declared that Maj. Gen. Shadmani’s death “adds to a series of eliminations of Iran’s most senior military leadership and degrades the chain of command of the Iranian armed forces.” ICYMI: Israel Eliminated Iran’s Top Military Leader, Again.
Vice President J.D. Vance on Monday defended President Donald J. Trump’s position on Iran in response to “crazy” accusations circulating on social media. Writing on X, Vance stated, “Look, I’m seeing this from the inside, and am admittedly biased towards our president (and my friend), but there’s a lot of crazy stuff on social media, so I wanted to address some things directly on the Iran issue.”Vance noted Trump “has been amazingly consistent, over 10 years, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” adding that Trump has encouraged his foreign policy team to reach a deal with Iran to achieve this goal, emphasizing that “Iran cannot have uranium enrichment” and that the America First leader has made it clear this would happen “one of two ways—the easy way or the ‘other’ way.” Here’s What VP Vance Had to Say About Trump and Iran…
Christopher F. Rufo: The underlying theory is that Donald Trump is an authoritarian leader on the cusp of becoming king. The “No Kings” Protest Is Pure Fantasy
Border Patrol agents did not release any illegal migrants into the United States during the month of May, a decrease from the more than 60,000 who were released into the U.S. the year before, according to a report. Promise Kept: Trump Blocked Every Border Migrant in May
Since Richard Nixon in 1969, Trump is the only president to record positive growth for blue-collar workers in the first five months of his term. During his first term, Trump also achieved a 1.3 percent increase. The current wage growth recovery follows a 1.7 percent decline during Biden’s initial months in office, when inflation outpaced earnings. Working Class Hero: Blue-Collar Wages Surging Under Trump.
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS,
Reviewers scrutinized several of the grant applications for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), the EPA program that awarded $20 billion to green groups connected to Democrat donors and insiders, identifying concerns such as “excessive” executive pay, curious financial statements and limited oversight, according to documents first obtained by The Free Press and additional findings uncovered and compiled in PPT’s new report. The GGRF budget far exceeded any budget in all of EPA’s history, and the PPT report argues that the program was not administered with appropriate levels of oversight. EXCLUSIVE: Biden’s ‘Gold Bars’ Went To Politically-Connected Orgs Over Internal Red Flags, Watchdog Finds
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) initiated the lawsuit in March after the Trump administration cut roughly $400 million from the Ivy League university over its alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus. In the opinion, Trump-appointed district judge Mary Kay Vyskocil stated the challenge lacked standing as the plaintiffs themselves did not suffer any direct harm, and noted that Columbia itself was “conspicuously absent.” Trump Admin Scores Victory Against Columbia
After then-President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law throughout South Korea in December 2024, he was impeached and a “caretaker” government was put in place until elections could be held. Lee was elected June 3 and sworn in June 4. In the days since assuming office, Lee has taken a hard line on digital regulation, and it’s making some in the U.S. uneasy. (Beware slippery slopes - jjs) EXCLUSIVE: Tensions Mount As South Korea Plans On Targeting US Tech While Letting China Slide, Critics Say
This focus appears correctly centered on the FCC’s actual legal statutory authority to regulate the limited bandwidth of the electromagnetic spectrum to avoid conflicts in its use. Under Biden, the FCC instead focused on expanding its power beyond that statutory authority, claiming it had the right to determine how satellites were built, when they would be de-orbited, and in what manner. None of those activities have anything to do with bandwidth and the FCC’s legal responsibilities. Under Trump FCC shifts from regulating satellite construction and de-orbit to streamlining red tape
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
President Donald Trump showered praise on America’s soldiers for their sacrifices on Saturday during the 250th anniversary parade, celebrating the U.S. Army while the left-wing late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel mocked and ridiculed the event. “After all the hype, and money, somewhere around 50 million dollars, it was… boring,” Kimmel said Monday on Live. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Mock U.S. Army 250th Anniversary Parade: ‘Big, Stupid, and Boring’
A new YouGov survey reveals tattoos are more common among Republicans than Democrats. Pollsters asked 1115 U.S. adult citizens if they’d ever had a tattoo. 19% of Democrats answered “Yes, currently.” 27% of Independents and 27% of Republicans said the same. YouGov asked Americans the same question in 2015. They returned nearly opposite results. A decade ago, 26% of Democrats and 26% of Independents said they had a tattoo, while just 16% of Republicans said the same. Cultural Shift No One Is Talking About Perfectly Explains Why Democrats Are Bleeding Voters
Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - June 17, 2025 [scampydog]
—Open Blogger
Good evening and thank you for checking in on the Tuesday, ONT. Some random, a few parts science, and 100% why not. Comment section won't bite - probably.
I know you will assure me that I am foolish and that you want me to have full happiness and don't want to be in my way. I'll bet you are surprised that I don't even have a girlfriend (except you, sweetheart) after two years. But you can't help it, darling, nor can I - I don't understand it, for I have met many girls and very nice ones and I don't want to remain alone - but in two or three meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real.
From publius:"Feynman did remarry, twice. Second ended in divorce, and the third lasted until his death. Here's a picture of him dancing with his third wife at the Nobel Ceremony in 1965. He was clowning a bit there, of course. There's some other pictures of him at the Nobel Ceremony. She died about a year after he did."
Perfect sphere found by astronomers. Riddle was bugging me, so I did what any self respecting Moron would do. I emailed publius.
In data collected by a powerful radio telescope, astronomers have found what appears to be a perfectly spherical bubble. We know more or less what it is - it's the ball of expanding material ejected by an exploding star, a supernova remnant - but how it came to be is more of a puzzle.
Venus: Rises about 2 hours before the Sun in June, and shines very brightly, low in the eastern sky, in the morning all month.
Mars: Visible in the west for a couple of hours after sunset all month. Drops lower in the sky as June continues, and passes very close to Regulus in the constellation Leo on June 16 and 17. (They will be about half a degree apart, or the width of the full moon.)
Jupiter: Visible quite low in the west after sunset for the first week of June, then lost in the Sun's glare after. Will re-appear in July in the morning sky.
Mercury: Becomes visible low in the west about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset in the last week and a half of June.
Saturn: Rises around 3 a.m. in early June, and around 1 a.m. by the end of the month. Begins the month near Venus in the dawn sky, but rapidly pulls away, rising higher as June goes on.
More from publius"Venus and Earth's orbital periods have a ratio that is very close to 13:8, meaning Venus completes 13 orbits per 8 earth orbits almost exactly. Venus thus has 5 inferior conjunctions occurring very close to the same point in the sky every 8 years. That works out to a cycle of about 9 months between conjunctions. Since Venus is an inferior planet, we can never see it overhead during the middle of the night, only on the eastern morning or western evening side of the sky close before sunrise or close after sunset.
The window around these inferior conjunctions are when Venus gets close and bright. During a window of several months around the inferior conjunction, Venus first appears bright in the western sky right after sunset when it's on the eastern side of the sun, then disappears into the sun at inferior conjunction. It then quickly whips to the western side of the sun to appear in the early morning, still close and bright. It then continues in its orbit, getting dimmer and father away and closer to the sun in the sky, until it repeats the cycle 9 months later. So Venus flips between "Evening Star" and "Morning Star" modes. Believe it or not, when Venus is near maximum brightness during the Evening and Morning Star modes, they get a lot of UFO reports from those not familiar with what's in the sky above them.
You can plot this from a geocentric reference plane, and see the relative position of Venus and the Sun over this 8 year cycle. Venus' path makes a nice 5-sided pattern centered around the earth, sometimes poetically dubbed the Five-petal Rose of Venus, seen here on this Earthsky page."
Big AoS thank to you publius!
***
That's one way to learn.
If you're going to do something stupid please keep your face very far away from it pic.twitter.com/BRJCKTQMnf
Merriam-Webster defines safe space as: a place (as on a college campus) intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.
Sure doesn't look like they have much conviction with that definition. These ICE/No Kings/Antifa/Commie/Leftist rioters are up in everyone's face (with theirs covered, just like their Klan predecessors) - not exactly the safe space champions they pretend to be.
Liberals are unwilling and/or unable to live by their own rules. Actions and behavior by convenience, and when it suits them. Their moral code, impulse control, and self restraint disappear just like limited time offers. They simply do whatever they want - without concern for consequences. Consequence winds are changing, however.
First day of summer is June 20th. Unless you live in Phoenix, where it's know as "just another day of 110+ heat."
Let's roll through some decades of summer songs. Which songs left a dent in your summer brain? Make your case in the comments. (and if linking in comments, please use tinyurl or another link shortening tool).
1950's: Thought about Lollipop, but we are going with Eddie Cochran. Summertime Blues, 1958.
1980's: Damn, this decade is tough as a Gen X'er. The Clash. Should I Stay or Should I Go, 1981.
1990's: All the 'cool kids' spent a summer mocking the video. Yet they danced and sang along. Rob Van Winkle. Vanilla Ice. Ice, Ice, Baby, 1990.
2000's: Flame away in the comments. This came down to: Nelly/Country Grammar, Ride Wit Me or.... Buckcherry. Crazy B*tch, 2006. NSFW.
2010's: Lost musical decade. Kids won a lot of the radio car battles. Meghan Trainor. All About that Bass, 2014.
Will close the summer song - musical section with this all-timer.
*****
This ONT brought to you by: Seen around town.
That friend that is fun, has three dirty jokes for every occasion, inked, and is uninterested in approval from the easily offended.
Random dude at a convenience store asked for directions. He was heading down to the Minneapolis suburbs later in the day to lip off to the protesters.
*****
Kindly direct all white New Balance dad shoe donations to:scampydog at proton dot me. Nevermind. The children think they are funny. Father's Day gift pictured below.
Is this real or just an empty threat? A last second bluff?
I think it's probably a bluff. Or maybe it's a half-bluff: Maybe they have built a nuclear weapon but have never tested it and have no idea if it will work or not. And they're threatening to test it tonight on their enemies.
Bonchie:
When a nation led by Islamist lunatics says they are going to launch a nuke, that's not something you can just write off as rhetoric. No doubt, Israeli and American forces are on high alert, and all possible countermeasures are ready to be used.
This does seem to put to bed the idea claimed by isolationists that the entire case against Iran is manufactured and that they had no intention of developing a nuclear weapon. As the vice president, who is the furthest thing from a warhawk, explained on Tuesday, the intelligence they've seen is clear, and even if it weren't, there is no other reasonable explanation for the levels of enrichment Iran has sought and achieved.
I do not understand the near-religious commitment of the Neopaulites to the idea that Iran just wants to be left alone and if we just leave them alone they'll leave us alone. They've been directing terrorist attacks against us for 46 years, and have repeatedly vowed to destroy "The Great Satan."
They also believe that the 12th Mahdi will only arise after Iran proves itself worthy be defeating the West.
Let's pray it doesn't come to that.
My guess is that this is an 11th hour bluff from a regime that is falling and desperately needs the US to retrain Israel to save it.
But I'm nowhere near certain of that. They might be planning on packing all of their enriched uranium into warheads and hitting Israel and US bases with highly radioactive dirty bombs.
JD Vance is positioning himself as a Neopaulite, against military action in nearly all if not all circumstances, but he's weighed in: Iran has no plausible reason for enriching uranium to nuclear-bomb-grade except for producing a nuclear bomb.
JD Vance
@JDVance
Look, I'm seeing this from the inside, and am admittedly biased towards our president (and my friend), but there's a lot of crazy stuff on social media, so I wanted to address some things directly on the Iran issue:
First, POTUS has been amazingly consistent, over 10 years, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Over the last few months, he encouraged his foreign policy team to reach a deal with the Iranians to accomplish this goal. The president has made clear that Iran cannot have uranium enrichment. And he said repeatedly that this would happen one of two ways--the easy way or the "other" way.
Second, I've seen a lot of confusion over the issue of "civilian nuclear power" and "uranium enrichment." These are distinct issues. Iran could have civilian nuclear power without enrichment, but Iran rejected that. Meanwhile, they've enriched uranium far above the level necessary for any civilian purpose. They've been found in violation of their non-proliferation obligations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is hardly a rightwing organization.
It's one thing to want civilian nuclear energy. It's another thing to demand sophisticated enrichment capacity. And it's still another to cling to enrichment while simultaneously violating basic non-proliferation obligations and enriching right to the point of weapons-grade uranium.
I have yet to see a single good argument for why Iran needed to enrich uranium well above the threshold for civilian use. I've yet to see a single good argument for why Iran was justified in violating its non-proliferation obligations. I've yet to see a single good pushback against the IAEA's findings.
Meanwhile, the president has shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military's focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens.
He may decide he needs to take further action to end Iranian enrichment. That decision ultimately belongs to the president. And of course, people are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy.
But I believe the president has earned some trust on this issue. And having seen this up close and personal, I can assure you that he is only interested in using the American military to accomplish the American people's goals. Whatever he does, that is his focus.
Naturally occurring uranium comes in a lot of different atomic weights. Some of these isotopes are not suitable for a bomb. Only a couple can be used in a bomb. "Enrichment" consists of increasing the fraction of the highly unstable isotopes in uranium so that it can be detonated in a nuclear explosion. Power-producing reactors do not need uranium to be so high in heavy unstable isotopes. Only bombs do.
Iran is lying when they claim they just want to enrich uranium up to bomb-grade just to power their reactors. Reactors do not require enriched uranium. Only bombs do.
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click Hints: breakthrough solo album from 1980 of a musician known for his work in big 70s groups. Stand up in a clear blue morning
Until you see what can be
Alone in a cold day dawning
Are you still free? Can you be?
And that old grey wind is blowing
And there's nothing left worth knowing
And its time you should be going That's a gift for you, Bumblebee. Enjoy it, Coach DickNBalls.
Podcast: Should America join the fun in Iran, masks on cops? NYC mayoral candidate beclowns himself, Tucker Carlson is an idiot, rare earth mining subsidies? and more!
Troops wearing Union army uniforms walked by, and then the First Cavalry wearing their cavalry hats and big yellow buff leather gloves. They even had a horse-drawn wagon. Now WWI uniforms.
BTW, Tampon Tim, China stages a lot of Chinese army parades, too. Weird that you didn't compare Trump's military parade to the parades staged by your patrons in China.
A commenter says the Real America network will cover the Army's 250th Anniversary Parade starting at 4pm. (Eastern, I guess.) The Right Side Broadcasting network will cover it starting at 4:30.
Israel bombs Iran. Finally. Iran's top nuclear scientist says the nuke plant at Natanz has been completely destroyed. Though it's in Iran's interest to lie about Israel having been successful, so they can start their nuke program again while claiming it's all been destroyed.
Podcast: The Los Angeles riots: should we let it burn? Why are the Democrats all in on rioting? Who is supporting it? Trump says, "No Enrichment!" The Scandinavian Troll in the news... And more!
ANTIFA affiliate “No Kings” (funded by Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton ) is scheduling riotscivil disobedience in cities across the U.S. on June 14. Included in their itinerary is a small-town “road game” at the ICE Detention Center in rural Taylor, TX this Saturday at 10 AM. Good ol’ boys in Central Texas will have a rare home field advantage if their visitors get rowdy. [Buck]
Lost 90s Mystery Click, Post-Grunge Alt-Rock Edition Don't scream about, don't think aloud
Turn your head, now baby, just spit me out
Don't worry 'bout, don't speak of doubt
Turn your head, now baby, just spit me out
Read my new book "Burned", describing how the media was TRICKED by activists into reporting the anti-ICE protesters were peaceful and lawful...
Space Ice: Batman & Robin Space Ice has avoided all superhero movies (I think) in the past, but now that he's out of Steven Seagal movies, he might have to transition. Or maybe he's just covering it because it's Arnold. Wrong! He's done Madame Web and Morbius and probably a bunch more I've forgotten.
