O Say Can You ONT?
—WeirdDave
Howdy folks! Welcome to the eve of the 4th of July!
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Opinionated Consumer Cafe
—Ace
US Coast Guard Cutter Spencer Destroys The Nazi Submarine U-175,
April 17, 1943
From @LostTemple7
Dog vouches for his brother, but not for the cat.
A stray dog that a man feeds went away for a few months. Then she came back with the litter of pups she just had.
Sylvester Stallone runs lines with a young actor.
A man put GPS trackers on his dog and cat.
Don't watch, it's gross: ejecting a horsehair worm parasite from a praying mantis. As in America, the parasite is nearly as large as the host.
Baby giraffe shows off the new legs for mom.
Let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go let's go!
Hunting dog lied on the job application.
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The Week In Woke
—Ace
Target stopped funding the Congressional Black Caucus's "nonprofit arm" (read: grift to pay off their political cronies and unemployable children and mistresses).
The CBC now threatens a boycott unless their grift is restored.
The Congressional Black Caucus is boosting a boycott effort against retail giant Target for ending its DEI initiatives, a rollback that included the termination of a corporate sponsorship program that has been lucrative for the caucus's nonprofit arm.Since 2020, Target has donated at least $1.4 million to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, a think tank that works hand in hand with the 62-member caucus. Target pledged $1 million over five years to the foundation through its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiative to "advance social justice and racial equity for Black individuals" in the wake of the death of George Floyd. The retail giant donated $200,000 to the foundation for "meeting expenses" in December to honor several caucus members, according to lobbying records.
But Target shut off the cash spigot for all of its DEI programs in January in response to President Donald Trump's executive action on DEI. The company announced it will wind down REACH and reevaluate "corporate partnerships to ensure they are directly connected to our roadmap for growth," seemingly putting funding for the CBC Foundation on the chopping block.
Now, the Congressional Black Caucus is making thinly veiled threats to endorse boycotting Target if it does not reinstate "diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that were eliminated or rolled back," according to a statement the caucus released after a meeting with Target CEO Brian Cornell and other executives last week. CBC members "warned that efforts to restore consumer and public trust without genuine action and accountability would risk inflicting lasting damage to the company's brand and credibility," according to a statement from the caucus.
Columbia President (and former NBC "News" Karen) Claire Shipman told the former university's board of trustees to fire an outspoken Jewish member who was complaining about the harassment and assaults on Jewish students and replace her with an "Arab," as she called it.
Before she became the acting president of Columbia University, Claire Shipman argued that the school needed to get an "Arab on our board" and suggested that a Jewish trustee should be removed over her pro-Israel advocacy, according to text messages obtained by the House Committee on Education and Workforce."We need to get somebody from the middle east [sic] or who is Arab on our board," Shipman, then the co-chair of Columbia's board of trustees, wrote in a message on January 17, 2024. "Quickly I think. Somehow."
A week later, Shipman told a colleague that Shoshana Shendelman, one of the board's most outspoken critics of campus anti-Semitism, had been "extraordinarily unhelpful," adding, "I just don't think she should be on the board."
Harvard is facing a billion dollar deficit due to the imminent loss of federal funding, and is begging woke corporations for donations to make up the gap.
Harvard University is asking major corporations for research funding after President Donald Trump revoked more than $2 billion in federal grants from the school over campus anti-Semitism and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.Harvard is "ramping up conversations with big technology and pharmaceutical companies in efforts to drive more corporate funding so research stays active," the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The talks remain in early stages, with no new funding agreements yet secured, according to university and company sources.
The corporate outreach comes as Trump has cracked down on Harvard for failing to protect Jewish students from violent protesters and implementing what he calls "discriminatory and illegal" DEI policies. Trump has frozen nearly $3 billion in federal funding from Harvard, revoked the school's authorization to host international students, and proposed removing Harvard's tax-exempt status if the university "keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting 'Sickness.'"
For purposes of allowing unqualified DEI law students to become lawyers, they've made the bar exam childishly easy.
For decades, the bar exam was the last line of defense -- a rigorous filter ensuring that only those with real legal chops could represent the public. Today, that filter is being shredded, sacrificed on the altar of equity and inclusion. The result? A collapse in standards, the death of meritocracy, and a profession on the brink of irrelevance.The NextGen Bar Exam, set to roll out in 2026, is not about modernizing legal education or making better lawyers. It is about making the exam easier to pass. Out go the demanding essays and complex legal analysis; in come more multiple-choice questions and "practical" scenarios that test little more than common sense and the ability to regurgitate buzzwords. The new mantra is "minimal competence," a phrase so hollow as to be meaningless.
The new system benefits neither clients, who deserve skilled and well-prepared advocates, nor the public, who depend on lawyers to guide them through a complex legal system. The only winners are bureaucrats and activists obsessed with "equity."
And even then, this is not to say that the new bar somehow guarantees equality of opportunity. Rather, it tries to force equality of outcome, no matter how much the universal bar must be lowered in the process.
Jonathan Turley on the Katanji's Oprah Winfrey "jurisprudence."
Justice Barrett clearly had had enough with the self-aggrandizing rhetoric. She delivered a haymaker in writing that "JUSTICE JACKSON would do well to heed her own admonition: "[E]veryone, from the President on down, is bound by law." Ibid. That goes for judges too."She added, "We will not dwell on JUSTICE JACKSON's argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries' worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself. We observe only this: JUSTICE JACKSON decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary."
In other words, the danger to democracy is found in judges acting like kings. Barrett explained to her three liberal colleagues that "when a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its power, too."
The last term has laid bare some of the chilling jurisprudence of Justice Jackson, including a certain exasperation with having to closely follow the text of laws. (In an earlier dissent this term, Jackson lashed out against the limits of textualism and argued for courts to free themselves from the confines -- or shall we say the "minutiae" -- of statutory language). In this opinion, Barrett slams Jackson for pursuing other diversions "because analyzing the governing statute involves boring 'legalese.'" Again, what Jackson refers to as "legalese" is the heart of the judicial function in constraining courts under Article III.
Untethered by statutory or constitutional text, it allows the courts to float free from the limits of the Constitution.
MIT student: I was chased out of the school due to being Jewish, and the administration allowed it.
[A career in academia] is no longer available to me. In January, I left MIT because of the antisemitism I experienced on campus. Now I'm suing the university.The antisemitism didn't start on Oct. 7. I joined the board of MIT Grad Hillel during my first year on campus because, as I told MIT News, "I think it's important to demonstrate Jewish culture at a time when antisemitism is on the rise."
Three months after the profile was published, Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust -- and my fellow students at MIT celebrated, posting, "Victory is ours."
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We witnessed our peers chant for violence against Jews, take over buildings, interrupt classes with antisemitic rants, and harass, intimidate and bully Jews for being Jewish.
This hostile environment was exposed to the world in December 2023 when MIT's president, Sally Kornbluth, was called to Congress alongside the presidents of Harvard and Penn, to answer for the antisemitism on her campus.
She testified, now infamously, that calls for the elimination of the Jewish people can be antisemitic "depending on the context." After that day, calls for the genocide of Jews continued, and the climate of terror on campus intensified.
...
With MIT doing nothing to curb the escalating antisemitism on campus, the situation spiraled out of control.
In November 2024, a tenured MIT professor posted online that a "Zionist 'mind infection' " is being funded by "Jewish student life organizations" such as Hillel and Chabad.
When I pointed out that his message was extremely dangerous rhetoric, the professor began targeting me personally in X posts to his 10,000 followers. He did so over and over again. In his sixth post, for example, he referred to me as "an excellent case study."
I sent the professor an email with a simple request: "Please leave me alone." He then emailed the entire Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, including students and faculty, promising to use me in his upcoming seminar as a "real-life case study" of the Jewish "mind infection."
He continued targeting me in a relentless series of mass emails, copying high-level administrators, including Kornbluth. In one of these emails, he stated that I have "powerful connections" to the media and to "influential friends in Congress like Rep. Elise Stefanik" -- which is false.
Suddenly, I became the target of widespread harassment. Students, staff and non-affiliates piled on, amplifying the professor's vitriol against me. One staff member sent a mass email painting me as a racist. My mother worried I would be killed.The most disturbing aspect of this whole episode was that Kornbluth -- who was copied on the exchange where the harassment was on display in real time -- stayed silent, as did the other high-level administrators. Not one of them intervened.
On the morning of the seminar, flyers were slipped under the doors in the graduate dormitory where I used to live, containing an article advocating for violent "resistance" against Jews. The flyer specifically targeted me. It contained a graphic styled after Hamas headbands that read, "This article and the author were banned from MIT after Zionists tweeted about it."
I was one of the Jews who had tweeted about the article, which says, "We will burn the ground beneath your feet" next to the logo of a US-designated foreign terrorist organization.
He's suing. Good. Burn it down.
The BBC took part in a calculated broadcast of "hate speech."
Bear in mind, conservative women are in jail right now for tweets about immigrants the British establishment found too "hateful" to be permitted.
Why aren't Kneecap and Bob Vylan in jail, too? Why aren't the BBC's directors?
THE events at Glastonbury this past weekend should concern anyone who believes that anti-Semitism has no place in British public life. What unfolded on one of the country's most iconic cultural stages wasn't spontaneous rebellion or edgy political commentary: it was a deliberate and co-ordinated act of provocation. Worse, it was broadcast live to a national audience, under the watch of both the BBC and the festival's organisers.Kneecap are a band whose lead singer has previously been arrested under anti-terrorism legislation and who has openly threatened to use his platform to make anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements, both on television and at Glastonbury. Despite this history, the band were not only invited to perform but reportedly informed by the BBC that their set would not be aired. In reality, what followed suggests a calculated workaround.
Just before Kneecap's performance, the BBC aired the set of a lesser-known duo, Bob Vylan, with a troubling legal background and a documented history of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric. Bob Vylan, known associates of Kneecap, were given a prime broadcast slot directly before their set. This was no coincidence. Judging by the crowd's reaction, many knew what was coming.
...
To make matters worse, Glastonbury also hosted a scheduled talk by Palestine Action, a group that was recently proscribed by the UK government under anti-terrorism legislation. Their inclusion wasn't just provocative; it may well constitute a direct violation of UK law. That one of Britain's most visible cultural institutions gave a platform to an organisation designated a terrorist group is not only outrageous -- it raises urgent questions about institutional responsibility and legal oversight.
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This is not just about Glastonbury. It speaks to a broader institutional failure -- across the BBC, the arts sector and civil society -- to recognise and respond to anti-Semitism when it comes cloaked in the language of activism. The double standards are glaring. No other form of bigotry would be tolerated so openly at a major UK event, let alone amplified to millions via public broadcast.
What we witnessed was not a mistake. It was a choice. The BBC and Glastonbury's organisers must answer for it. Who signed off on these decisions? What safeguards failed? And what's being done to ensure it never happens again?
I would defend them if the UK were a nation that defended free speech -- but they don't. They send people to jail for objecting to unlimited third world immigration.
Kneecap and Bob Vylan must go to jail as well.
But they won't.
And the head of the BBC won't be punished, either.
Avon and Somerset police have confirmed that they are assessing coverage of the event to decide whether a criminal investigation will be mounted.In Two-Tier Keir's Britain, there is no guarantee of that, but on the face of it Vylan should be in the dock for his call to kill Jews -- and so should the BBC senior executives who allowed this torrent of hate to be broadcast live on their platform to millions of people world wide.
This stands out as one of the worst misjudgements in the 100-year history of the BBC, and it is so serious that director general Tim Davie should be sacked for gross misconduct and a flagrant disregard to ensure impartiality. Even culture minister Lisa Nandy has asked for an explanation.
There are no extenuating circumstances. Since the October 2023 massacre of more than 1,000 Jews by Hamas terrorists, Jewish groups have been warning the Corporation that their coverage of events in Palestine has been seriously biased, but precious little has been done to redress the concerns. The BBC response is almost invariably to say -- without a scrap of evidence -- that their critics are wrong.
How did this horror story happen? It's because for the BBC, Glastonbury is a sacred event. Every year, it sends a reputed 1,000 staff to Worthy Farm to facilitate the worship. They stay in L400-a- night hotels and write acres of self-congratulatory verbiage about how wonderful their coverage will be.
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It's been obvious for years that Glastonbury organisers Michael Eavis and his family -- condoned by the BBC -- have made the festival into a major far-left political event. Sponsorship has been totally dominated by right-on organisations such as Oxfam and Greenpeace and audience flag-waving features constant reminders of that agenda.
In effect, the BBC have used the excuse of artistic merit to ignore their Charter obligation for impartiality, and now that self-righteous complacency has blown up in their face. But they should have seen it coming.
The Pride group founder who has attacked JK Rowling constantly online has been arrested for sexually assaulting children. This was a pastime he engaged in with his boyfriend, who was also arrested.
A man has been jailed for 24 years for raping an "extremely vulnerable" 12-year-old boy after the pair met on a dating app.Stephen Ireland, 41, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, raped the child at the flat he shared with his then-partner and co-defendant David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on 19 April 2024 after messaging on Grindr.
Ireland was also sentenced to a further six years on extended licence, while Sutton was jailed for four-and-a-half years for making indecent photographs of children and possession of an extreme pornographic image.At Guildford Crown Court on Monday, Judge Patricia Lees said Ireland "took advantage" of a vulnerable child.
The boy - referred to in court as Child A - who had been reported missing at the time, told police they had sex in the flat, smoked a bong which was later found to have contained methamphetamine, and that pornography was played on a laptop.
The court heard the boy had initially told Ireland he was aged 17 -- but when he later claimed to be aged 13, Ireland replied: "OK -- we just have to keep it a secret."
"Your response was telling," Judge Lees told Ireland, who sat in the dock dressed in a large red T-shirt and showed no emotions throughout the hearing.
"Far from finding that repugnant, you found that exciting, and sought to do it again."
In a Telegram chat that took place after their encounter, Ireland sent Child A a message in which he described his age as "naughty and kinky", the court heard.
On the same day, Ireland asked the boy if he would have a threesome and sent the child pictures of himself and Sutton.
Jurors heard that Ireland sent a picture of Child A to Sutton, describing him as a "14-year-old baby" who "wants to play with men's bodies", and the pair exchanged messages about the child.
...
"You fed off one another," Judge Lees told the defendants during the sentence hearing on Monday.
"You definitely supported one another in your perversions."
So close to Pride Month?
SO CLOSE TO PRIDE MONTH?!?!
Ofcom is the UK's Orwellesque media regulator. It's supposed to insure that the state media remain impartial, given that everyone, on the left and right, is compelled to pay for the BBC if they own a TV at all.
In practice, what it does is ruthlessly enforce a left-wing speech code on all media outlets, including the ones that are privately funded.
Now Ofcom is warning a privately-funded news channel, GB News, that they have to keep indoctrinating the public that trans women ARE women-- even in the face of a UK Supreme Court finding that they're not.
Media regulator warns GB News that it cannot treat the controversy as settled despite Supreme Court ruling in AprilBroadcasters must give airtime to claims that biological men are women when covering trans issues, Ofcom has said.
The media regulator warned GB News in a letter seen by The Telegraph that it could not treat the controversy as settled, despite the Supreme Court victory for women's rights campaigners in April 2025.
The court decided that under the Equality Act, the word "woman" means a biological woman rather than a person's self-identified gender.
As a result, women-only spaces have a legal right to be protected. Sir Keir Starmer has told hospitals and universities to obey the law and ban trans women from female lavatories "as soon as possible".
However, Ofcom has said that the judges' ruling does not mean the matter is "settled".
In the past, the regulator has said that it considers it "settled" that climate change is real and a man-made phenomenon.
Therefore, in situations discussing climate change, broadcasters do not have to provide an opposing view such as a climate change sceptic.
GB News wrote to Ofcom asking it to confirm that the ruling had settled the matter of the definition of a woman by saying it was defined by biological sex and not gender identity.
The station also asked the regulator to confirm that television companies would be able to refer to people such as sports stars solely by their biological pronoun.
But Ofcom said the Supreme Court only ruled on the definition of a woman in terms of the Equality Act and not on its meaning in other contexts.
The decision suggests broadcasters will continue to have to present both sides of the debate: those who believe there are only two sexes and those who believe a person's gender identity can change their actual sex.Ofcom's response also suggests that broadcasters should use a person's preferred pronoun.
In its letter, GB News wrote: "We would be grateful if Ofcom could confirm that in light of the Supreme Court judgment, it is now a settled matter that the terms 'man', 'woman' and 'sex' can only be understood to mean biological sex, biological woman and biological man and, as a consequence, it is also a settled matter that a 'trans woman' is not a biological female, and a 'trans man' is not a biological male."
It added: "Following the Supreme Court judgment we are of the view that (provided there is no deliberate intention to cause harm or offence), contributors should generally be able to use biological pronouns."
In its reply, Ofcom said that it could not agree with the broadcaster's "dogmatic" pronouncements.
There is additional reporting on the UK Pride founder who repeatedly raped young boys, if you can bear it.
A man has been jailed for 24 years for raping an "extremely vulnerable" 12-year-old boy after the pair met on a dating app.Stephen Ireland, 41, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, raped the child at the flat he shared with his then-partner and co-defendant David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on 19 April 2024 after messaging on Grindr.
Ireland was also sentenced to a further six years on extended licence, while Sutton was jailed for four-and-a-half years for making indecent photographs of children and possession of an extreme pornographic image.
At Guildford Crown Court on Monday, Judge Patricia Lees said Ireland "took advantage" of a vulnerable child.
The boy - referred to in court as Child A - who had been reported missing at the time, told police they had sex in the flat, smoked a bong which was later found to have contained methamphetamine, and that pornography was played on a laptop.
The court heard the boy had initially told Ireland he was aged 17 -- but when he later claimed to be aged 13, Ireland replied: "OK -- we just have to keep it a secret."
"Your response was telling," Judge Lees told Ireland, who sat in the dock dressed in a large red T-shirt and showed no emotions throughout the hearing.
"Far from finding that repugnant, you found that exciting, and sought to do it again."
In a Telegram chat that took place after their encounter, Ireland sent Child A a message in which he described his age as "naughty and kinky", the court heard.On the same day, Ireland asked the boy if he would have a threesome and sent the child pictures of himself and Sutton.
Jurors heard that Ireland sent a picture of Child A to Sutton, describing him as a "14-year-old baby" who "wants to play with men's bodies", and the pair exchanged messages about the child.
Ireland along with Sutton, who was a volunteer for Surrey Pride, were found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children including voyeurism, arranging commission of a child sex offence, and possession of prohibited images of children, after a trial at Guildford Crown Court earlier this year.
In August 2022, Ireland and Sutton discussed arrangements to procure a 13-year-old boy for Sutton's 25th birthday in October of that year, the court heard.
Ireland and Sutton were also found guilty of one count of voyeurism and one count of perverting the course of justice.
The court heard that Ireland had watched live camera footage of Sutton having sex with a 16-year-old boy at their flat in March 2024.
The teenager did not know he was being recorded, with Ireland sending Sutton messages such as "he doesn't know I'm here" and telling him what to do, the court heard.
"You fed off one another," Judge Lees told the defendants during the sentence hearing on Monday.
"You definitely supported one another in your perversions."
Ireland and Sutton also perverted the course of justice by intentionally deleting material and search history from their phones after they were released on police bail in June 2024.
Ireland was sentenced for one count of rape, three counts of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, sexual assault, conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child, arranging commission of a child sex offence, six counts of making indecent photographs of children, four counts of distributing indecent photographs of children, possession of prohibited images, and possession of an extreme pornographic image.
Sutton was sentenced for offences including voyeurism, possession and distribution of prohibited images of children, and perverting the course of justice.
Judge Lees said: "Stephen Ireland is a man who prided himself on being versed in and highly alive to the vulnerabilities of young people linked to the Surrey Pride organisation he was at the time pivotal to.
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Democrats Block School Choice Tax Credits in the Big Beautiful Bill
—Ace
I'm sure the bill is flawed, but giving parents a way out of our deliberately-catastrophic fake education system is a great boon.
But only some of them. The Democrat-hired, John-Thune-permitted Senate Parlimentarian ruled that the provision to provide tax credits for private school was not a purely fiscal matter, and to get a vote on it, Republicans had to agree that only parents in states whose governments permitted them to use these tax credits could do so.
In other words: All of the blue states are going to forbid any of their citizens from using their own tax money to send their kids to good schools that they themselves pick.
Why? To protect the teachers union failure factories, of course. The teachers unions have a couple of truly disgusting imperatives, but the most sacred of them is having a monopoly on teaching children. They know if parents have any other choice, they'll flee the teachers union monopoly.
But maybe blue state voters will get angry enough when they see red state parents choosing their own schools that they'll demand that blue states opt in to the program, too.
And if not: F**k 'em. Let the blue states burn to the ground.
Buried in the 940-page "big, beautiful" budget blueprint is an unprecedented tax credit that, if approved, will be a long-sought victory for the private school choice movement in its drive to expand and break into Democratic states that for decades have blocked its path.The tax credit program, which would provide scholarships to K-12 students to pay for private schooling, would mark a significant shift in federal education policy. The scholarships would be the first major federal initiative designed to propel the nationwide growth of private school choice, a largely conservative and Christian movement championed by President Trump and suburban Republicans alike.
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Beyond boosting participation, the program is also a wedge to crack into states controlled by Democrats. These blue-state lawmakers, backed by teachers' unions, have long resisted private school choice as a threat to public school enrollment. The granting of scholarships, advocates say, would plant a seed of interest among families in Democratic enclaves at a time when enrollment and academic performance have been steadily declining at public schools."In terms of the number of students served and the geographic scope, it would be the most important piece of school choice legislation ever," said Patrick Wolf, a prominent scholar of the movement at the University of Arkansas. "Advocates hope it will provide a proof of concept in blue states and show that if a few thousand kids get scholarships the public school system won't crater."
But the potential of the scholarship program to meet the advocates' goals has been weakened this week in the Senate. The program was included in the massive budget bill because, as a standalone measure, it wouldn't survive a filibuster by Senate Democrats. The budget bill can be passed by a simple Senate majority, provided it only addresses fiscal matters.
The Senate parliamentarian, however, objected to the scholarship program, ruling, to the dismay of Republicans, that it seeks to impose a policy on the states. In response, Republicans had to amend the initiative to allow states to decide whether to participate, a change that could hamper the movement's efforts to breach liberal jurisdictions.
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"We're all disappointed that the bill is not as good as it was when it went into the committee," said Jim Blew, co-founder of the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute and former assistant secretary in the Department of Education under Betsy DeVos. "If the Senate version is the final, it's a big win for families that want to choose a better school for their children."
A Blue State Workaround
The tax credit is partly a workaround of the blue wall of opposition to private school choice. Some 15 mostly Democratic states have never passed or have overturned measures that use public funds to pay for students' private education. The battles have been heated, with state teachers' unions typically leading the resistance to protect public school funding. In Colorado, the state education association helped defeat a ballot measure last year that it feared would lead to the establishment of a voucher program. Voters in Nebraska shot down an existing voucher program in 2024. Illinois is the only state in which the legislature ended a private school choice program. In the big blue states of California and New York, choice advocates have made little headway.
If the federal program becomes law, however, some Democratic states may come under pressure to opt in, partly because it doesn't draw on local tax dollars. It's free money.
"Leaders of blue states would have to explain to their citizens why they rejected free federal education dollars, instead leaving all that money for red states," said Wolf. "That's a tough sell."
Is This Something?
—Ace
Running Man remake with Maverick's Val Kilmer replacement, Glen Powell.
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James Varney: "Biden" Authorized $42 Billion In Graft to His Political "Environmental" Allies in Just the Last Two Working Days of His Potemkin Presidency
—Ace
Bumped. I took the post down when the BBB vote came in.
$42 billion in 48 hours. Less when you consider they were only working, at most, 10 or 12 hour days.
In its last two working days, the Biden administration's Energy Department signed off on nearly $42 billion for green energy projects -- a sum that exceeded the total amount its Loan Programs Office (LPO) had put out in the past decade.
In two days, they pushed more graft to their leftwing political allies than they did, in total, over the course of ten years.
The frenzied activity on Jan. 16 and 17, 2025, capped a spending binge that saw the LPO approve at least $93 billion in current and future disbursements after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election in November, according to documents provided by the department to RealClearInvestigations. It appears that Biden officials were rushing to deploy billions in approved funding in anticipation that the incoming Trump administration would seek to redirect uncommitted money away from clean energy projects.
The agreements were made despite a warning from the department's inspector general, urging the loan office to suspend operations in December over concerns that post-election loans could present conflicts of interest.
The Biden Crime Family specializes in conflicts of interest.
In just a few months, some of the deals have already become dicey, leading to fears that the Biden administration has created multiple Solyndras, the green energy company that went bankrupt after the Obama administration gave it $570 million. These deals include:Sunnova, a rooftop solar outfit that thus far had $382 million of its $3.3 billion loan guaranteed, filed for bankruptcy this month. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Li-Cycle, a battery recycling facility, had a $445 million loan approved in November, but since then, the company was put up for sale and has filed for bankruptcy. The Energy Department said no money has been disbursed on that deal. Li-Cycle did not respond to a request for comment.
A $705 million loan was approved on Jan. 17 for Zum Energy, an electric school bus company in California, and its "Project Marigold." At $350,000 and more, electric school buses currently cost more than twice as much as their diesel counterparts. So far, Zum has received $21.7 million from the government, according to usaspending.gov. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
A $9.63 billion Blue Oval SK loan on Jan. 16 was the second largest post-election deal, topped only by a $15 billion loan the next day to Pacific Gas & Electric, with most of that for renewables. The Blue Oval project in Kentucky -- a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and a South Korean entity -- has been dealing with numerous workplace complaints, and construction of a second EV battery manufacturing plant there has been delayed. More than $7 billion has been obligated on that deal, according to the Energy Department. Blue Oval did not respond to a request for comment.
The money and the hasty way in which it was earmarked have drawn the attention of the Trump administration. "It is extremely concerning how many dozens of billions of dollars were rushed out the door without proper due diligence in the final days of the Biden administration," Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement to RCI. "DOE is undertaking a thorough review of financial assistance that identifies waste of taxpayer dollars."
The enormous sums came from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which injected $400 billion into the LPO, a previously sleepy Energy Department branch originally intended to spur nuclear energy projects. That total represented more than 10 times the amount the LPO had ever committed in any fiscal year of its existence. Prior to the post-election blowout, the office's biggest fiscal year was 2024, when it committed $34.8 billion, records show.
Even with the rush to push billions out the door in its last months, close to $300 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act money remains uncommitted by the LPO. Trump administration officials have already nixed some smaller deals. Secretary Wright recently urged Congress to keep the money in place as the LPO now aims to use it to further the Trump administration's energy policy, particularly with nuclear projects.
Note that this is in addition to the $20 billion graft bonanza you already know about.
That unprecedented gusher of cash from the LPO echoes the efforts of the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency to push $20 billion out the door before it left office. As RCI has previously reported, the EPA -- which had never been a consequential grant-making operation -- was tasked with awarding $27 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and Solar For All programs. It did so in less than six months in 2024, including an unorthodox arrangement in which Biden officials parked some $20 billion outside the Treasury's control. That money was earmarked for a handful of nonprofits, some of which had skimpy assets and were linked with politically connected directors.
Yeah I'll bet.
Read the whole thing.
Update on BBB: I think Hakeem Jeffries ended his stupid inarticulate ramblings after breaking the (meaningless, trifling) record.
I think the vote will happen soon.
JD Vance @JDVanceGOP Congressman just texted me:
"I was undecided on the bill but then I watched Hakeem Jeffries performance and now I'm a firm yes."
"Big Beautiful Bill" Passes House, Goes to Trump's Desk for Signing
—Ace
JD Vance @JDVanceGOP Congressman just texted me:
"I was undecided on the bill but then I watched Hakeem Jeffries performance and now I'm a firm yes."
Congress has officially passed President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" on Thursday afternoon after back-to-back sleepless sessions for both the House and Senate.The massive agenda bill now goes to Trump's desk to be signed into law just in time for Republicans' self-imposed Fourth of July deadline.
The bill -- which advances Trump's policies on tax, the border, defense, energy and the national debt -- narrowly passed the House of Representatives in a mostly party-line vote.
It's a commanding victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and for the president himself, both of whom spent hours overnight trying to persuade GOP critics of the bill.
"The President is very engaged. He was very helpful in the process. He helped answer questions and articulate his vision and what this bill will mean for the country, and his agenda, and how urgent it is for us to get it done," Johnson told reporters the morning ahead of the vote.
The House initially passed its version of the legislation by just one vote in late May.
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Atlantic Writer Tells Her Fellow Liberals: You're Living in an Anti-Scientific Media Bubble Impervious to Fact, Everything You "Know" About "Trans Affirming Medical Care" is a Lie
—Ace
A writer at The Atlantic spills the beans and informs magazine's braindead Affluent Winebox Female Liberal audience that the "science" of transgenderism is entirely fictitious.
Oof. Karen's going to open and finish three whole wine boxes tonight.
The Liberal Misinformation Bubble About Youth Gender MedicineHow the left ended up disbelieving the science
Allow children to transition, or they will kill themselves. For more than a decade, this has been the strongest argument in favor of youth gender medicine--a scenario so awful that it stifled any doubts or questions about puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.
"We often ask parents, 'Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter?'" Johanna Olson-Kennedy of Children's Hospital Los Angeles once explained to ABC News. Variations on the phrase crop up in innumerable media articles and public statements by influencers, activists, and LGBTQ groups. The same idea--that the choice is transition or death--appeared in the arguments made by Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration's solicitor general, before the Supreme Court last year.
Tennessee's law prohibiting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to treat minors with gender dysphoria would, she said, "increase the risk of suicide."But there is a huge problem with this emotive formulation: It isn't true. When Justice Samuel Alito challenged the ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio on such claims during oral arguments, Strangio made a startling admission. [Sh]e conceded that there is no evidence to support the idea that medical transition reduces adolescent suicide rates.
At first, Strangio dodged the question, saying that research shows that blockers and hormones reduce "depression, anxiety, and suicidality"--that is, suicidal thoughts. (Even that is debatable, according to reviews of the research literature.) But when Alito referenced a systematic review conducted for the Cass report in England, Strangio conceded the point. "There is no evidence in some--in the studies that this treatment reduces completed suicide," [sh]e said. "And the reason for that is completed suicide, thankfully and admittedly, is rare, and we're talking about a very small population of individuals with studies that don't necessarily have completed suicides within them."
Here was the trans-rights movement's greatest legal brain, speaking in front of the nation's highest court. And what [sh]e was saying was that the strongest argument for a hotly debated treatment was, in fact, not supported by the evidence.
Even then, [her] admission did not register with the liberal justices. When the court voted 6--3 to uphold the Tennessee law, Sonia Sotomayor claimed in her dissent that "access to care can be a question of life or death." If she meant any kind of therapeutic support, that might be defensible. But claiming that this is true of medical transition specifically--the type of care being debated in the Skrmetti case--is not supported by the current research.
Advocates of the open-science movement often talk about "zombie facts"--popular sound bites that persist in public debate, even when they have been repeatedly discredited. Many common political claims made in defense of puberty blockers and hormones for gender-dysphoric minors meet this definition. These zombie facts have been flatly contradicted not just by conservatives but also by prominent advocates and practitioners of the treatment--at least when they're speaking candidly. Many liberals are unaware of this, however, because they are stuck in media bubbles in which well-meaning commentators make confident assertions for youth gender medicine--claims from which its elite advocates have long since retreated.
Perhaps the existence of this bubble shouldn't be surprising. Many of the most fervent advocates of youth transition are also on record disparaging the idea that it should be debated at all. Strangio--who works for the country's best-known free-speech organization--once tweeted that [she] would like to scuttle Abigail Shrier's book Irreversible Damage, a skeptical treatment of youth gender medicine. Strangio declared, "Stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on." Marci Bowers, the former head of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the most prominent organization for gender-medicine providers, has likened skepticism of child gender medicine to Holocaust denial. "There are not two sides to this issue," she once said, according to a recent episode of The Protocol, a New York Times podcast.
Boasting about your unwillingness to listen to your opponents probably plays well in some crowds. But it left Strangio badly exposed in front of the Supreme Court, where it became clear that the conservative justices had read the most convincing critiques of hormones and blockers--and had some questions as a result.
Trans-rights activists like to accuse skeptics of youth gender medicine--and publications that dare to report their views--of fomenting a "moral panic." But the movement has spent the past decade telling gender-nonconforming children that anyone who tries to restrict access to puberty blockers and hormones is, effectively, trying to kill them. This was false, as Strangio's answer tacitly conceded. It was also irresponsible.
After England restricted the use of puberty blockers in 2020, the government asked an expert psychologist, Louis Appleby, to investigate whether the suicide rate for patients at the country's youth gender clinic rose dramatically as a result. It did not: In fact, he did not find any increase in suicides at all, despite the lurid claims made online. "The way that this issue has been discussed on social media has been insensitive, distressing and dangerous, and goes against guidance on safe reporting of suicide," Appleby reported. "One risk is that young people and their families will be terrified by predictions of suicide as inevitable without puberty blockers."
When red-state bans are discussed, you will also hear liberals say that conservative fears about the medical-transition pathway are overwrought--because all children get extensive, personalized assessments before being prescribed blockers or hormones. This, too, is untrue. Although the official standards of care recommend thorough assessment over several months, many American clinics say they will prescribe blockers on a first visit.
Meanwhile:
During the fake "Pride Month" of June, our publicly-funded libraries become key communications and command nodes for woke gay zealots, writes James John Murawsi of Real Clear Investigations.
While librarians and their supporters consistently decry critiques of their LGBTQ advocacy as censorship, less attention has been paid to the actual content of the books the librarians promote. RCI's review of dozens of titles on display, lots of them heavy on pictures and graphics, found some gender identity books aimed at children as young as 2 years old, and others that put LGBTQ in the vanguard of a political revolution against the capitalist patriarchy.Among the queer histories, biographies and teen fiction, some books are written for queer-affirming families to support youngsters whose sexual interests span nonbinary pronouns, transgenderism and pansexuality. A recurring trope in these books is the glamorization of medicalized sex changes as brave and heroic, with several books featuring children proudly discussing their chest binders and displaying chest scars from top surgery.
For elementary schoolers, there's "Gender Identity for Kids: A Book About Finding Yourself, Understanding Others, and Respecting Everybody!" This 98-page primer recommended for children ages 7-10 introduces young readers to such concepts as sex assigned at birth, intersex, transgender, agender, bigender, pangender, polygender, misgender, genderfluid, genderqueer, genderflux, neutrois, androgyne transphobia, as well as overtly leftwing political concepts including patriarchy, colonization, intersectionality, safe spaces, and allyship.
"Their gender is fluid," the book says of a child named Finn, "which means it can change direction over time, just like the wind or the clouds in the sky!"
Teens can find fantasy novels such as "Whiskey When We're Dry," which is set in 1885 and tells the story of a female homesteader who cuts her hair and binds her chest, and "Rainbow Rainbow," which features a nonbinary writer "on the eve of top surgery," a sperm donor, and a "sex-addicted librarian."
A surprising number of books expressly criticize heterosexuality, the nuclear family, and the gender binary as obstacles to liberating humanity from capitalism, racism, colonialism, and other forms of oppression purportedly produced by white, male, Christian, Eurocentric cultural norms. A nonfiction work on display, "The Tragedy of Heterosexuality," describes straight culture as oppressive, repellent, repulsive, and pitiable -- in short: "a sick and boring life."
The books consistently define queerness as anything and everything that's not heterosexual and "cisgender," an expansive understanding of the gay pride movement also affirmed by several of the libraries that display identity flags or bookmarks celebrating an omnium-gatherum of sexual identities that constitute the movement's pantheon: Demisexual, Bisexual, Intersex, Asexual, Agender, Nonbinary, Genderfluid, Pangender, Polyamory, Polysexual, and Two-Spirit.
Although wokeness is in retreat in some quarters -- corporations are scaling back DEI programs and 24 states have moved to block medicalized sex changes for minors -- librarians have emerged as the unlikely shock troops of the queer resistance. Their version of what the movement stands for and what should be celebrated during Pride Month offers a more militant crusade against conventional society than many Americans may realize.
BBB Update: Hakeem Jeffries, still filibustering, proclaims that the passage of the bill means "a deportation machine will be unleashed on steroids."
Second look at the BBB...?!?!
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Media in Grim Funk as Much-Heralded Trump Recession Continues Not Arriving
Update: Americans Fill the New Jobs While Illegals Lose Theirs
—Ace
147,000 jobs created in June, beating expectations. It's not huge job growth, but it's steady and it's better than what the doomsayers in the media and in the banks keep wishcasting.
The unemployment rate also fell to 4.1%. I remember the media insisting the economy was doing great under Biden because unemployment was 4.6%. Any chance the media will apply the same rule here?
Even better: Real wages increased and inflation remains low.
For the fourth consecutive month, the U.S. economy under President Trump has outperformed expectations--adding 147,000 jobs in June and pushing unemployment down to 4.1%.Key Details:
The Department of Labor reported Thursday that 147,000 jobs were added in June, exceeding economists' forecasts of 110,000. Unemployment fell to 4.1%, defying predictions of a rise to 4.3%.
Revisions to prior months also boosted job totals. April's job creation was revised upward by 11,000 to 158,000, and May gained an additional 5,000, bringing that month's total to 144,000.
Wages continued to climb, with average hourly earnings up 0.2% in June and 3.7% over the past year--well above the current inflation rate. Private-sector production and nonsupervisory workers saw even stronger growth at 0.3%.
Diving Deeper:
The U.S. labor market remains resilient, as employers added 147,000 new jobs in June--far surpassing expectations and bringing fresh momentum to a workforce shaped by President Trump's trade and tax policy agenda. The June report from the Department of Labor, released Thursday, showed not only stronger monthly job growth but also a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1%, despite forecasts calling for a slight increase.
Economists had been bracing for signs of a slowdown, especially following the rollout of Trump administration tariffs aimed at strengthening domestic industries. Instead, job gains were broad-based and upward revisions to April and May added another 16,000 positions to the employment tally.
Private employers were responsible for 74,000 of the new positions, while the public sector contributed another 73,000. Within the federal workforce, employment shrank by 7,000--underscoring the Trump administration's stated effort to rein in government bloat.
...
Wage growth continued at a healthy pace, with average hourly earnings rising 0.2% in June and 3.7% over the past year--figures that outstrip inflation and reinforce optimism about workers' real purchasing power. Non-supervisory and production employees in the private sector saw a stronger 0.3% monthly gain.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt touted the report on Thursday morning, noting on X that this marks "the FOURTH month in a row" of beating job expectations, and emphasizing that "American-born workers have accounted for ALL of the job gains since President Trump took office." She added, "The economy is BOOMING again and it will only get better when the One, Big Beautiful Bill is passed and implemented!"
Even better:
Wokeness @EndWokenessMost important data from June:
🟢 830k new jobs for native-born
🔴 348K jobs lost for foreign-born🟢 437k gain of new full-time jobs
🔴 367k loss of old part-time jobsMajor reversal of the Biden era
Thanks to Aetius451AD. Other commenters pointed out that the jobs went mostly to actual Americans.
I saw a video of a black guy saying he saw, in his neighborhood, black guys doing landscaping work. Obviously, those jobs have been taken by illegals for decades.
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The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition
—CBD
The problem with civilian oversight of our armed forces is that a fair amount of the oversight occurs in the United States Congress, and as we have seen over the past several weeks, they are a bunch of sleazy, brazenly corrupt, ignorant functionaries who have lost sight of the important work with which they have been tasked.
And the rest of the oversight lies with the executive branch! Sure, the current commandant of the USMC, General Eric Smith, was chosen by the drooling retard, Joe Biden, but the guy before him was chosen by President Trump.
The Feather Merchants: Senior Leaders Subverted the Marine Corps
The last commandant told the nation that amphibious operations were obsolete and the Navy could get by with fewer amphibious ships. Consequently he released it from the commitment to maintain enough ships to maintain a 24-7 amphibious presence in the world’s most likely trouble spots (the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and the Western Pacific).Now, the current commandant says we need more big deck amphibs to maintain the 24-7 commitment; but he enthusiastically supported the last guy’s position when he was the Assistant Commandant. When asked how many amphibious ships the Marine Corps’ current Assistant Commandant could not come up with a number.
The senior marine leaders have now admitted that they cannot logistically support the new anti-China force — that they call Force Design — due to Navy procurement failures in contracting the new small amphibious ships needed to support the concept. After six years not a single keel has been laid even though the Marine Corps gave up much of its conventional combat power to create the new concept called “Force Design.”
Amphibious operations are obsolete in 2019, but magically reappear as a military option just a few years later? And General David Berger (Trump's appointee), who was clearly a hyper-political buffoon, was allowed to alter radically the mission of a 250 year old military organization without significant push-back from the civilians who should know better?
It is entirely possible that the future of the United States Marine Corps will shift away from the current doctrine. It is also possible that they will remain an amphibious force. But one thing is certain; it is incumbent upon the senior leadership and their civilian bosses to make sure that they can complete their missions...whatever those will be! And without the equipment for their fancy new direction, the Marines will be a bunch of riflemen with no way to get into the fight.
There have been politics in the military forever. Every country has to deal with it. But when politics is ascendant, and the mission is secondary, that is a problem. General Berger may have had the best intentions, or he may have been a political hack who pushed his own crackpot idea just to have something unique to differentiate himself from the other monkeys on the flagpole.
I have my suspicions, but either way, the civilian oversight failed the Marine Corps, and it failed America. The current tone in the defense department is gratifying to see, with the Secretary of Defense stripping away much of the extraneous nonsense and focusing on one thing...the mission of fighting and winning wars. But he can't do it alone, and Congress must take seriously its oversight, and make sure that the massive defense budget is spent on things that make that mission possible, and not on pie-in-the-sky predictions about the future of warfare.
That doesn't mean that our armed forces should remain static. On the contrary, they must be at the cutting edge of new technology (drones anyone?) and new developments in strategic issues. But they must be able to win current battles before they shift to fighting future battles!
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter] And the Apple and Spotify feeds for CJN's podcast should be working!
The Morning Report — 7/ 3 /25
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. CBD and I had a few thoughts and choice words for this Big Beautiful Bill on the latest episode of the podcast, linked here and in the sidebar and the usual outlets with Rumble coming a little later this morning. So, one passing thought on the BBB bill and then no more. As a couple of commenters noted, and I should have realized, If this bill was so horrible for the country vis a vis deficits crazy spending and what not, why did all the Dems and 3 RINO's vote "No?' Was it solely to ding Trump politically? Could be. And while we all want Trump to just take a chainsaw to the bureaucracy at one fell swoop, that's just not politically feasible so perhaps he thought he can do it piecemeal over his next three years.
Per a regular and astute commenter whose handle I forgot. His response to me about the BB:
You got caught up by the hype that some of the bad actors on our side have been throwing around trying to derail this bill. Or they are just ignorant. The Blackburn amendment was 100% theater and has no impact on illegals getting Medicaid. The core text of the bill already removes all funding for anyone who is ineligible through cutting off the Medicaid expansion loophole. If states want to fund illegals through their Expansion programs, they do that on their own dime. The Federal Govt gives them $0 in reimbursement.The amendment was just to get Democrats on the record as voting affirmatively to give Medicaid to illegals. That is putting them on the record as supporting the 20 of yet another 80/20 issue.
Rule of thumb is to watch how the White House reacts to any situation. If they yawn and do nothing, then it was theater and not worth setting your hair on fire.
This is a good bill, a lot of good things in it, and worth the pork that had be put in to get Murkowski’s vote.
It is also NOT a budget bill, way too many people keep thinking it is. Save the ire for the appropriations bills that are coming in September.
Okay, basta cosi, so let us move on. Today, I give you a couple of prime examples of foot-in-mouth disease. Sadly the images of the individuals in question will doubtless cause loss of appetite if not projectile regurgitation.
Celebrity drag queen Pattie Gonia closed out LGBTQ Pride Month with a vulgar, derogatory message for President Donald Trump. . . Pattie Gonia then employed a vulgar slur in a jab at president Trump and said, “Better to be a faggot than a fascist.”
If only this vile shitstain cracked a book in school instead of spending hours on end fellating syphilitic hobos in gay bar toilets, he'd know that a "faggot" is a bundle of sticks, which in Latin are called "fascis," from which the word "fascist" is derived. as well as fascism, which is an offshoot of scialism/communism.
From the merely radiantly stupid of the aforementioned, we go to raging incitement:
Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington defended characterizing United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as a “terrorist force” during a Wednesday CNN appearance, demanding the White House apologize for the agency’s enforcement operations.
Unlike the clueless deranged pervert who doesn't know the meaning of the words he spouts, this utterly repulsive coelacanth/wog mongrel knows full well what she is saying. Equating ICE with a terrorist organization legitimizes and gives a green light for anyone to physically target ICE and other law enforcement agents as a legitimate response to, what this miserable parasite deems as a, dare I say it because she will, "genocide" against colored people of color for merely being colored and on this side of what she and her ilk regard as an illegitimate border.
And this comes directly on the heels of some Los Angeles vice mayor calling on indigenous criminal LA latino gangbangers to show up in force and prevent Ice and the cops from rounding up illegal aliens by any means necessary, which of course in their case means deadly force.
So, if ICE agents and police are terrorists then by extension so is the United States government, of which ironically and tragically (for us) she is a part. Funny but I don't see her resigning her seat in Congress and calling for violent revolution. I might actually have a tiny bit of respect for her if she did. But no, she's an unprincipled coward. They're strategy is to bring us down from within by corrupting the minds of the young, impressionable and the dimwitted such as the aforementioned bundle of sticks with the Jasmine Crockett eyelashes, Pelosi girdle and RuPaul handmedowns.
"But, but, but Mamdani is so dreamy!!!"
A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot prevent migrants who cross the southern border from making asylum claims. Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee, held that the president does not have “unilateral authority to limit the rights of aliens present in the United States to apply for asylum” as he did in a day-one proclamation declaring an “invasion” at the southern border.
Hard to reconcile all of the above and most of the links with the fact that America turns 249 tomorrow.
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
- (Coelacanth/Wog mongrel) Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington defended characterizing United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as a “terrorist force” during a Wednesday CNN appearance, demanding the White House apologize for the agency’s enforcement operations.
Democrat Rep Justifies Labeling ICE As ‘Terrorist Force’
- And obsessing over socialism will be a good way to ignore the real issue, and thereby sink America.
The Problem with Mamdani Is Not Socialism
- “I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile.”
‘Heartbreaking’: 21-year-old Congressional Intern Fatally Shot In DC
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Daily Tech News 3 July 2025
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- At release, Nvidia's 5070 Ti was a little faster than AMD's competing 9070 XT but at a significantly higher cost. In the months since, things have changed. (WCCFTech)
Now with a few months of driver updates behind it, the 9070 XT is faster overall - and the 5070 Ti is more expensive than ever.
It's not a huge win for AMD, but given that their card is also 20% cheaper, there's not much reason to go with Nvidia in any but the highest price brackets which are completely unaffordable anyway.
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Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - July 2, 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. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Be nice to your fellow commenters.
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Wednesday Week Cafe
—Ace
Eltz Castle, built AD 1157
Grumpy cat will not be ignored.
Husky and owl have quick make-out sesh.
Horses playing some game that we humans will never understand.
Rescuing a stray puppy wandering in the street.
Happy dog hops down the street.
A bear and tiger say Love Is Love, H8rz.
Grandma is a magician. She just conjured a divorce proceeding.
Elephant's got some shake with those fries.
Giving a good boy his birthday pinata.
Puppy found wounded and dying in the street due to being run over by a car is nursed back to life. The first images are tough but it gets a lot better from there.
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Quick Hits
—Ace
Trump to Hamas: I worked out a 60 day ceasefire deal for you. You'd better take it.
Israel has continued vaporizing Hamas terrorists.
Israel's military "eliminated" a founding Hamas military leader and mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attack, Tel Aviv officials said Saturday.Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa was killed during a targeted airstrike on the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City, Israel Defense Forces said.
Al-Issa was one of the final remaining founding members of the terrorist organization's military wing and played a crucial role in the Oct. 7 attack that launched the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
therine Herridge @C__Herridge · 9h Took a legal settlement to mandate more transparency @60Minutes @CBSNews in the future• 16 million will be allocated to PresidentTrump's future presidential library + plaintiffs' fees, costs.
• Prompt release presidential candidate interview transcripts in the future
• No apologyAs the senior CBS News investigative correspondent, I insisted CBS release the fulll, unedited transcript of my 2020 interview with President Trump.
I was surprised that it was not standard practise at the network.
My training is that releasing full, unedited transcripts with a major newsmaker is about standing behind the integrity of the final edit and report.
That's what good journalism does.
Note: FCC news distortion complaint remains open
Hamas terrorist supporters like Mamdani always demand that Israel agree to a ceasefire but literally never demand that Hamas do likewise.
Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_A real quote from Karine Jean-Pierre on August 31st, 2023:
"The President [Biden] has done more to secure the border and to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else. He really has!"
Illegal crossings surged to the highest levels in recorded history 4 months later.
This may be better than Maryland Man:
ABC News @ABCThe leader of an MS-13 clique in the suburbs of New York City faces sentencing Wednesday in a federal racketeering case involving eight murders, including the 2016 killings of two high school girls that focused the nation’s attention on the violent gang.
It's a clique you guys. Like in Mean Girls.
Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktokBREAKING: Randolph Moss, an Obama-appointed judge, just issued an order OVERTURNING Trump's declaration of invasion at the southern border.
This activist judge wants to turn the US into the Biden-era open border disaster.
Justice Alito warned that Amy Coney Barrett's weak opinion in the universal injunctions case would just send lefties scurrying to file class action lawsuits.
He was right.
Eric Daugherty @EricLDaughHOLY SMOKES...Justice Alito CALLED IT.
Remember the victory we had at SCOTUS over nationwide injunctions last week?
Alito wrote: "...district courts should not view today's decision as an invitation to certify nationwide classes without scrupulous adherence to the rigors of Rule 23. Otherwise, the universal injunction will return from the grave under the guise of 'nationwide class relief,' and today's decision will be of little more than minor academic interest."
JUST DAYS later, a judge grants SWEEPING class protection for asylum seekers who are trying to enter the country.
The nationwide injunction cabal lost a battle, but the war is not over.
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The CIA Covered Up Their Role in the RussiaGate Coup, Says a New Report
—Ace
Miranda Divine:
A bombshell new CIA review of the Obama administration's spy agencies' assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump was deliberately corrupted by then-CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who were "excessively involved" in its drafting, and rushed its completion in a "chaotic," "atypical" and "markedly unconventional" process that raised questions of a "potential political motive."Further, Brennan's decision to include the discredited Steele dossier, over the objections of the CIA's most senior Russia experts, "undermined the credibility" of the assessment.
The "Tradecraft Review of the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment [ICA] on Russian Election Interference" was conducted by career professionals at the CIA's Directorate of Analysis and was commissioned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe in May.
The "lessons-learned review" found that, on December 6, 2016, six weeks before his presidency ended, Barack Obama ordered the assessment, which concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin "aspired" to help Trump win the election.
The review identified "multiple procedural anomalies" that undermined the credibility of the ICA, including "a highly compressed production timeline, stringent compartmentation, and excessive involvement of agency heads."
It also questioned the exclusion of key intelligence agencies and said media leaks may have influenced analysts to conform to a false narrative of Trump-Russia collusion.
"The rushed timeline to publish both classified and unclassified versions before the presidential transition raised questions about a potential political motive behind the White House tasking and timeline."
The review found that Brennan directed the compilation of the ICA, and that his, Comey's and Clapper's "direct engagement in the ICA's development was highly unusual in both scope and intensity" and "risked stifling analytic debate."
Brennan handpicked the CIA analysts to compile the ICA and involved only the ODNI, CIA, FBI and NSA, excluding 13 of the then-17 intelligence agencies.
He sidelined the National Intelligence Council and forced the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier despite objections of the authors and senior CIA Russia experts, so as to push a false narrative that Russia secured Trump's 2016 victory.
"This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding 'We're going to screw Trump,'" said Ratcliffe in an exclusive interview.
"It was, 'We're going to create this and put the imprimatur of an IC assessment in a way that nobody can question it.' They stamped it as Russian collusion and then classified it so nobody could see it.
Here's what the evidence showed happened here. If any of the co-conspirators want to correct this and tell us how the paperclipped dossier made it to CNN airwaves in mere days, please contact me and I'll correct.
But this is what the evidence shows:
Comey and Brennan were trying to get the press to report on the "dossier." But even CNN wouldn't report on it, because nothing in it was verified. Comey himself said -- I think in a 60 Minutes interview -- that CNN told him they couldn't report it without a "news hook."
What's a news hook? It's a dishonest pretext for publishing false information that you want to smear someone with. For example, you might not be able to report a slander, but you can report that "DC insiders are buzzing" about the contents of the slander. That way you avoid saying if the slander is true or false, and you avoid a lawsuit, while still pumping that information out into the world.
The New York Times used this backdoor defamation when they reported not that John McCain was having an affair with a lobbyist, but merely that "insiders" were "concerned" about the excessive time and attention he was giving this woman. Hint, hint. See, they can't say he's having an affair, because they don't have confirmation, so they'll just talk about his "insiders" worrying he's having an affair.
Now I totally believe he was having an affair -- he is and always was trash -- but "reporters" aren't supposed to report claims they can't verify.
The "news hook" approach lets them get around that impediment.
Now, when CNN told Comey that they needed a "news hook" to report on the "dossier," he got together with Brennan and Clapper to paper-clip the dossier to one of Trump's intelligence briefings. They told Trump not to even worry about it, because it was all unverified "scurrilous" gossip, so he didn't.
But then they immediately leaked the fact that it had been paperclipped to the intelligence briefing to CNN, providing CNN with its "news hook" for reporting Hillary Clinton campaign oppo nonsense with no verification. CNN didn't report the contents of the dossier, which was unverified and WITHOUT EVIDENCE as Jake Tapper's snarky chyrons like to say, but they could not report that Trump was briefed about its contents.
This achieved just what the conspirators Brennan, Clapper, Comey, as well as Tapper, Perez, Bernstein, and Sciutto wanted -- they legitimized the dossier by having the highly-partisan "intelligence" heads recognize it as worth briefing to the president, which made it worth Tapper telling his seventeen viewers about.
From the start, the paperclipping of the dossier wasn't intended to inform the president, it was to create a pretextual "news hook" for Hillary Clinton's oppo dump lies that were otherwise unreportable.
"This led to Mueller [special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry, which concluded after two years that there was no Trump-Russia collusion]. It put the seal of approval of the intelligence community that Russia was helping Trump and that the Steele dossier was the scandal of our lifetime. It ate up the first two years of his [Trump's first] presidency."You see how Brennan and Clapper and Comey manipulated [and] silenced all the career professionals and railroaded the process."
The CIA review notes that, before work even began on the ICA, "media leaks suggesting that the Intelligence Community had already reached definitive conclusions risked creating an anchoring." The term "anchoring" refers to a cognitive bias in psychology and suggests that the media leaks may have influenced the analysts working on the ICA to shape their findings to conform with the leaked narrative rather than conducting an objective analysis.
On December 9, 2016, both the Washington Post and New York Times reported the IC had "concluded with high confidence that Russia had intervened specifically to help Trump win the election."
The Post cited an unnamed US official describing this as the IC's "consensus view."
The "highly compressed timeline was atypical for a formal IC assessment which ordinarily can take months to prepare, especially for assessments of such length, complexity, and political sensitivity," the review found. "CIA's primary authors had less than a week to draft the assessment and less than two days to formally coordinate it with IC peers before it entered the formal review process at CIA on December 20."
...
The review criticizes the ICA for including the Steele dossier, a salacious and discredited opposition-research product written by former British spy Christopher Steele, who was working for the Hillary Clinton campaign, which claimed Russia possessed sexually compromising blackmail material on Trump.
Despite the fact that "the ICA authors and multiple senior CIA managers -- including the two senior leaders of the CIA mission center responsible for Russia -- strongly opposed including the Dossier, asserting that it did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards," Brennan insisted it be included.
"CIA's Deputy Director for Analysis (DDA) warned in an email to Brennan on December 29 that including it in any form risked 'the credibility of the entire paper.'"
But Brennan responded that "my bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report."
Brennan showed "a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness," said the review.
No, he included the dossier just so he could then phone Tapper and say, "It's done, we paperclipped it to Trump's report, you can report on the dossier now, we made your 'news hook' for you."
None of this caused Tapper, Perez, Sciutto, or Bernstein any consternation, and none of them admitted that their sources were so riven by partisan political animus that they tricked Trump into accepting a "briefing" just so that briefing could be reported within days on CNN.
Read all of Miranda Divine's report. It's good.
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_BREAKING: The highly classified version of the Obama-ordered CIA report on Russian 2016 interference includes in main body a reference to the debunked Steele dossier "as the 4th supporting bullet for the judgment Putin 'aspired' to help Trump win," new after-action review reveals
HUGE: Just-released CIA after-action review of Obama/Brennan's 2017 ICA re Russia-Trump shoots down media narrative ICA didnt rely on Hillary dossier. IT DID. The dossier not only was summarized and attached as an annex but referred to in "the main body" of the classified version
BREAKING: In a Dec. 29, 2016 email, the CIA's deputy director for analysis warned director Brennan that inclg the debunked Steele dossier in the classified ICA risked "the credibility of the entire paper," but Brennan insisted: "The information warrants inclusion in the report."
BREAKING: On Dec. 18, 2016--before the ICA was finalized--Brennan sent a pressure note to CIA officials and analysts that he'd met with Comey and Clapper and that "there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature and INTENT of Russian interference in our recent election."
BREAKING: In crafting the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment on "Russian interference," Brennan shut out not only DIA and DOS' Bureau of Intelligence and Research but also the National Intelligence Council, which w/ NSA might have added dissent re his Putin-Trump conclusions.
REAKING: Brennan withheld the fact he was including the Hillary dossier from key CIA analysts authoring the ICA until Dec. 20, 2016, when the first ICA draft was entering the review process. When CIA officials confronted Brennan with flaws in the dossier, Brennan overruled them.
Meanwhile: Christopher Wray blocked a report about China interfering in our politics on Biden's behalf because he had previously falsely declared there was no such interference.
So he ordered the Albany FBI office to withdraw their report so as not to discredit his perjurious congressional testimony.
Catherine Herridge @C__HerridgeNEW: Heavily redacted @FBI emails released via @ChuckGrassley @FBIDirectorKash
* FBI HQ interfered with Albany NY investigation into alleged Chinese 2020 Election Interference* Designed to shield then FBI Director Wray from political blowback over his Congressional testimony
* Emails suggest FBI HQ was focused on optics, not fact finding two months before the election
AMONG KEY EMAILS: pg. 23
"A new 1023 will be needed, that will have updated date of acquisition and contact, with an updated source context statement. AND it will have to run the gamut at HQ for review/approval.
Again, the reporting will contradict Director Wray’s testimony."
NOTE: FD-1023 is used to record information from
confidential human sources
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_BREAKING: Internal FBI emails released by Senate Judiciary reveal the FBI suppressed intelligence of alleged pro-Biden Chinese interference in the 2020 election to insulate then-director Wray from criticism, after Wray provided "inaccurate and contradictory testimony" to Congress
BREAKING: A declassified Sept 2020 intel report from an FBI CHS warning a Chinese plot to use data from U.S. TikTok accounts to create "tens of thousands" of fake Chinese student mail-in votes for Biden was recalled by FBI HQ "for a political reason," FBI intel analyst complained
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today released internal Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) emails revealing the FBI suppressed intelligence of alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 election to insulate then-FBI Director Christopher Wray from criticism, after Wray provided inaccurate and contradictory testimony to Congress.The FBI declassified and provided the requested records to Grassley, along with an accompanying cover letter, after Grassley initially received some information from whistleblower disclosures. The FBI emails offer an inside look at the Bureau's decision to recall and suppress an Intelligence Information Report (IIR) from the FBI's Albany Field Office on September 25, 2020. The IIR contained information from an FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS) alleging the Chinese government was producing "tens of thousands" of fraudulent drivers' licenses to manufacture mail-in votes for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
According to the FBI, these allegations, despite showing initial signs of credibility, were allegedly never fully investigated due to the FBI's sudden and "abnormal" decision to halt the investigation and bury the IIR's existence, preventing any additional FBI field offices, as well as other Intelligence Community elements, from accessing or studying the document. The FBI's stated reason for doing so was because "the reporting will contradict Director Wray's testimony."
"These records smack of political decision-making and prove the Wray-led FBI to be a deeply broken institution. Ahead of a high-stakes election happening amid an unprecedented global pandemic, the FBI turned its back on its national security mission," Grassley said. "One way or the other, intelligence must be fully investigated to determine whether it's true, or if it's just smoke and mirrors. Chris Wray's FBI wasn't looking out for the American people -- it was looking to save its own image. Now's the time to rebuild the FBI's trust. Director Patel's willingness to work with me to establish renewed transparency and accountability is a critical part of that process, and I applaud him for his efforts."
Political Reasoning
Following the IIR's recall, an FBI Albany intelligence analyst summarized the concerning series of events that led to the suppression:
"Most concerning to me, is stating the reporting would contradict with Director Wray's testimony. I found this troubling because it implied to me that one of the reasons we aren't putting this out is for a political reason, which goes directly against our organization's mission to remain apolitical and simply state what we know. Likewise, at the field operational level, I do not feel it is our job to assess whether or not our intelligence aligns with the Director.... My concern is that I think it gets dangerous if we cite potential political implications as reasons for not putting out our information."
Source Credibility
An FBI Albany official noted "the IIR was coordinated and disseminated in textbook fashion." Further, a re-interview of the FBI CHS yielded additional context that supported the initial IIR's findings. An FBI Albany official described the CHS as "competent" and "authentic in his/her reporting." The CHS described the confidence in his/her sub-sourcing as a "9-10 range. [V]ery, very confident."
Decision for Recall
According to an Assistant Section Chief in the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, the IIR immediately generated "a lot of attention from all [Headquarter] divisions."
Upon receiving the IIR, an FBI Albany official stated, "We have no reason to recall at this point." Minutes later, the Albany Field Office was commanded to recall the IIR at the direct request of officials at FBI Headquarters, including Nikki Floris, then-Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division. Months before dismissing the IIR, Floris provided an unnecessary briefing to Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) regarding their investigation into the Biden family. The briefing -- though classified -- was later leaked to the press in an effort to falsely smear the senators' investigation as Russian disinformation.
Following the IIR's recall, FBI Headquarters informed field offices that "all raw reporting concerning the election will now require [Headquarters] coordination," which had not been previously required.
In other words: The political commissars at the FBI get to scrub any reports vindicating Trump or proving that the Chinese rigged the election to Biden.
Was Wray pardoned? I don't think he was.
Disney Pixar's Latest Bomb Elio Was Filled With Gay Themes and Messaging Before Executives Ordered Them Excised
Plus: Marvel's New "Superheo" is a Black Teen Genius Girlboss and Sociopathic Criminal Who Literally Sells Her Soul to the Devil
—Ace
Hire gay activists who are only interested in gay activism and this is what you get, every time.
BTW, the Hollywood Reporter's spin is that the movie wouldn't have bombed, and would have been a hit, if only the children's cartoon had released still containingall the in-your-face gay propaganda that its gay propaganda "creatives" had stuffed into it.
Because yes, you know that what the American public is clamoring for is "more gay propaganda for our too-young-to-know-what-sex-even-is children. Especially now. Especially when even "nice" normies have had so much of this crap they're now rudely saying ENOUGH.
Inside 'Elio's' "Catastrophic" Path: America Ferrera's Exit, Director Change and Erasure of Queer ThemesCreatives at Pixar who saw the original director's previous cut of 'Elio' tell THR about the movie's challenging production process: "'Elio' just [became] about totally nothing."
If a movie isn't about gay propaganda then it's "totally about nothing."
Got it.
Doesn't that mean the film, as originally made, had nothing in it except for gay propaganda
But no, they're saying that the original movie was nothing but the gay propaganda, so that the removal of that gay propaganda resulted in a film "totally about nothing."
Those who worked at Pixar while its latest film release, Elio, was in production were delighted by footage they saw roughly two years ago.
Oh that's right -- this stinker was in the can for years. Disney executives were probably just delaying because they didn't want to release yet another gay propaganda bomb, but also didn't want the PR headache from their gay "creatives" boohoo whinin' and cryin' to the leftwing media.
Among the moments cited as favorites by those at the animation studio at the time included a sequence in which the titular boy collected trash on the beach and turned it into homemade apparel that included a pink tank top; the movie's team would refer to Elio showing this off to a hermit crab as his "trash-ion show."
Is this Ru Paul for Kidz?
But if you bought a ticket to Elio and don't remember seeing this, it's not just that you chose the wrong time to refill your soda. According to multiple insiders who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, Elio was initially portrayed as a queer-coded character, reflecting original director Adrian Molina's identity as an openly gay filmmaker. Other sources say that Molina did not intend the film to be a coming out story, as the character is 11. But either way, this characterization gradually faded away throughout the production process as Elio became more masculine following feedback from leadership. Gone were not only such direct examples of his passion for environmentalism and fashion, but also a scene in Elio's bedroom with pictures suggesting a male crush. Hints at the trash fashion remain in the released film, with the boy wearing a cape decorated with discarded cutlery and soda can tabs, although without any explanation for the unusual attire.Elio's turbulent ride began well before its calamitous nosedive at the box office durin the June 20-22 corridor. Indeed, the summer of 2023 became a fateful one for the animated film about a lonely boy beamed into outer space by an intergalactic organization after being misidentified as the leader of Earth. The writing was first on the wall for the troubled production when the film from Molina, known as the co-director of Pixar's Oscar-winning 2017 hit Coco, conducted an early test screening in Arizona. Although viewers expressed how much they enjoyed the movie, they were also asked how many of them would see it in a theater, and not a single hand was raised, according to a source with knowledge of the event. This sounded alarm bells for studio brass.
It was around this same time that Molina screened his latest cut of the film to Pixar leadership. There are differing accounts of the exact feedback that the director received from Pixar boss Pete Docter when the lights went up, with rumors circulating in some of the studio's circles that Molina was hurt by the conversation. The part that is clear is that Molina exited the project soon after, and much of Elio was reworked under new co-directors Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi.
Remember when adults of both sexes were expected to act professionally if they were members of a profession? Remember how they used to be expected to take criticism and direction gracefully?
No more. Now it's nothing but hysteria and tantrums at the lack of required Affirmation.
After a yearlong delay, the film arrived in theaters June 22 and bombed with just $20.8 million domestically, the lowest opening frame at the box office in Pixar's history."I was deeply saddened and aggrieved by the changes that were made," says former Pixar assistant editor Sarah Ligatich, who provided feedback during Elio production as a member of the company's internal LGBTQ group PixPRIDE. Although she praises Sharafian and Shi as filmmakers, Ligatich notes that a number of creatives working on the film stepped down after the directors shared their first cut of the movie. "The exodus of talent after that cut was really indicative of how unhappy a lot of people were that they had changed and destroyed this beautiful work." Another Pixar source disputes that people stepped down in response to Molina's departure.
Nobody cares about your endless f*cking Teen Goth Girl feelings, you f*cking basket-cases.
The changes to Elio were clear to one former Pixar artist who worked on the film and asked to remain anonymous: "It was pretty clear through the production of the first version of the film that [studio leaders] were constantly sanding down these moments in the film that alluded to Elio's sexuality of being queer."
...
"Suddenly, you remove this big, key piece, which is all about identity, and Elio just becomes about totally nothing," says the former Pixar artist.
...
Media reports have cited its production budget as $150 million, but former Pixar employees tell THR that the film cost far more than that. The artist who worked on the movie was not privy to the specific figure but estimates it was well north of $200 million, given that Molina's version was nearly complete, which she says makes the "catastrophic box office" feel worse....
The Elio production resulted in fraught feelings for those with ties to Pixar who have come to question whether the company intends to prioritize diversity. Docter sparked debate when he noted in a 2024 interview that the studio should make the "most relatable films" possible, which was perceived as advocating for a shift away from underrepresented characters and voices.
...
In the meantime, the pain of the Elio process still stings for the creatives who saw the movie's trajectory become something of a cautionary tale. "I'd love to ask Pete and the other Disney executives whether or not they thought the rewrite was worth it," says the artist. "Would they have lost this much money if they simply let Adrian tell his story?"
When you're spending over $200 million of other people's money, you don't get to tell "your story," especially if your story is all about niche themes that resonate only with 3% of the audience plus their "allies."
Again: Where did professionalism go? That is a huge topic that people need to discuss. Gone are the days where a professional could be expected to put aside his personal bullshit and dispassionately deliver services to a client. Now it's all about "bringing your whole self to work," and demanding that a mere job provide you with the personal satisfaction and fulfillment that only family, friends, and church can provide.
Unprofessional "professionals" are all bleating, Why doesn't the public trust us any longer?
Well, it's because you exclusively serve yourselves.
Meanwhile, Disney's other bomb factory Marvel has produced what sounds like the most morally repugnant kid's show in history, one in which the supposed "superhero" main character goes on a crime spree of armed theft and extorting millionaires into signing over their companies to the crime ring. In one case, her fellow criminals shoot and murder mere security guards.
Under the law, this makes her guilty of felony murder. When you and a group all go out to commit a crime, each member of the gang is legally responsible for any of the murders which ensue, given that everyone knows that a crime may result in killing people.
But this "superhero," "Riri" Williams, remains absolutely certain in her own entitlement and her unshakable belief that the world owes her fame and wealth and she is justified in committing any crime necessary to achieve these selfish goals.
ThatParkPlace.com on the first half of the six-episode "season:"
There really isn't a way to review Ironheart outside of just calling it what it is: bad.
It's a bad show. It's bad on every level. From the lazy bad cinematography to the lackluster bad graphics, bad wooden performances, and bad writing, Ironheart is the culmination of everything that's gone wrong with Marvel television. It's not just a misfire--it's a final nail.
If Echo was lifeless and Secret Invasion was dull, Ironheart is downright insufferable.The show feels like the endgame of the M-SHE-U, where every creative decision revolves around identity first, and storytelling last--if at all. There's no subtlety, no nuance, no curiosity about heroism or conflict. Instead, what we get is a self-righteous character surrounded by a parade of unlikable people delivering one smug lecture after another.
...
Riri Williams is not just unrelatable--she's unlikable. She's arrogant, cold, and completely lacking in empathy. She constantly reminds the audience that she doesn't want to be a hero, has no moral obligation to anyone, and is building her suits and AI "because I can."That's not strength--that's narcissism. Her every action is self-serving, yet the show insists we root for her because of her identity and not her choices. They try to dress it up in a narrative about her dead stepfather but it just rings hollow.
By the end of episode three, Riri commits a stone cold murder.
There's no ambiguity.
She has the ability to save someone--easily--and instead she watches him die and then agonizes over that and the fact that she left a crucial piece of tech behind at a crime scene.
This is our protagonist...
Well, not just the protagonists. Lots of movies have criminal protagonists (but usually those criminal heroes show much more regard for human life than this entitled sociopath does).
She's supposed to be a hero.
And not just a hero, a superhero.
Some thought that Riri Williams might learn from her cold-bloodedly murderous ways and go through some kind of growth and personal redemption in the second half.
Riri's criminal "friends" turn on her--and we're supposed to feel bad. But this is just karma on a platter. She lied, manipulated, used people, and now the consequences have arrived. Characters tell her flat-out that she's selfish and wrong, but Riri never truly owns it. She doesn't evolve. She doesn't reflect. She simply powers through with the same arrogant attitude, insisting she's in the right.Then comes a baffling action sequence where these gang members--who previously took down grown men with ease--get beaten by Riri without her armor. Not only does she magically win, but she scores multiple kill shots... and no one dies or even gets hurt. Slug, one of the thugs, literally survives a vehicle crash that should have turned anyone into pavement paste. But Slug just climbs out without a scratch, shrugs it off, and walks away. Real stakes? Real danger? Forget it.
How can they up the stakes after Riri has already committed a felony crime spree and actually murdered an innocent guard?
Would you believe... Marvel's version of the devil, Mephisto, appears and offers to buy Riri's soul?
And she... accepts Satan's bargain?
And then... the grand finale of this Ironheart finale review. Mephisto appears. Yes, Sacha Baron Cohen makes his long-awaited debut as the literal devil. And what does Riri do? Does she fight him? Does she rise up to battle the ultimate evil and finally become a hero?Nah.
She sells her soul to him. Seriously.
No big battle. No showdown. Just a straight-up soul trade to bring back her dead best friend, Natalie....
And that's how it ends. No resolution. No meaning. No point.
I think there is a point, but not one the "creatives" here would admit to.
So that's how the show ends. It's supposed to be a cliffhanger. It's not, because they'll never make another Ironheart episode. She ends the show as a murderer damned to hell not just by her callous murder but by literally selling her soul to the devil.
Yay, minority and female empowerment...?
This is another piece of "entertainment" that Disney has had in the can for years but has been waiting for the right moment to release it. Like when you hold in a fart in church until they come by with the donations plate and you let it out then to blame it on the altar boy.
I heard someone remark that this show is like what a racist KKK grand cyclops would create to attack black people. It thinks it's "empowering" black youth. How? By telling them to be criminals and to murder people without a second thought?
Oh, and of course the show stars a transgender.
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CNN Poll: Trump Now More Beloved By Republicans Than Even the Great Ronald Reagan Was
—Ace
Before getting to that: CNN's and MSNBC's ratings are falling. Again.
MSNBC and CNN suffered staggering losses in viewership over the past year -- while Donald Trump's ascendancy supercharged Fox News in the cable news ratings war.The left-leaning networks -- which will both be spun off by their respective parent companies -- suffered year-over-year declines in all major metrics for the second quarter compared to the same period last year, according to the latest Nielsen data, which was reported by AdWeek.
Comcast-owned MSNBC, with its rabid anti-Trump lineup of anchors, drew an average 1.008 million primetime viewers from April to June, a year-over-year decline of 15%, Nielsen figures show.
In the the advertiser-covered 25-to-54 demographic, primetime viewership plunged 20%, to 91,000 compared to last year -- despite star anchor Rachel Maddow returning to full-time duty during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
Jen Psaki took over her 9 p.m. primetime slot Tuersdays through Fridays midway through the second quarter ratings period.
The exodus of eyeballs was even worse during the day, with total viewership plummeting 26%, to an average of 596,000, and 31%, to 57,000, in the key demo compared to the same quarter last year.
CNN, which has languished in last place despite paying anchor Anderson Cooper a reported $18 million in salary, averaged 538,000 total viewers in primetime for the three-month period and 105,000 in the demo, according to Nielsen
Year-over-year, the network saw declines of 13% in total viewers in primetime and a 15% drop in the 25-54 demo.
The cable news pioneer, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, dropped 14% in total viewers during the day, to an average of 406,000, and 16% in the demo, to 71,000, year-over-year, according to Nielsen.
It's not just ratings. We know the deranged left thinks and dreams and obsesses about politics and defeating TRUMPHITLER!!! every waking moment. They are voracious propaganda addicts and doom junkies.
They are not watching the news because:
1, Trump keeps on winning,
2, the leftwing propaganda outlets cannot hide this fact no matter how hard they try,
3, they're beginning to suspect that their propaganda outlets are lying to them,
and
4, the Democrat-Media Party seems completely unable to even get a simple information operation going that the public cares about. Ten years of hysteria and hoaxes have finally ended the left's ability to mount a proper psyop. Leftwing lunatics not only know they're losing, but they look at the Democrat-Media Party and see no signs and no reasonable hope for improvement in the near term.
So they tune out. The plummeting ratings aren't just doom for CNN and MSNBC. They're also a strong signal of complete demoralization of the left.
On to the finding that Trump is the most popular president among Republicans in history:
I say this not to slight Trump but to boost Reagan: Most liberal Rockefeller/Bush Republicans remained in the party under Reagan. They didn't approve of Reagan, but they still called themselves Republicans.
Liberal fake Republicans hate Trump so much they're now just Democrats, though some still continue to play True Conservative on MSNBC. So Trump's Republican Party is more Republican and conservative (and Trumpian) than Reagan's Republican Party was.
But still, this is wild: 65% of Republicans strongly approve of Trump. Not just approve, which I think is at something like 90%, but strongly approve.
Rarely do presidents deliver so much to their base that a supermarjority are strong supporters.
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Trans Erasure: The University of Pennsylvania Agrees to No Longer Allow Men in Women's Sports and to Expunge All of Will "Lia" Thomas's Fake Records
—Ace
The University of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Department of Education announced a deal on Tuesday that will strip Lia Thomas of the swimmer's records and titles.Thomas, who is the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division 1 title, last competed for Penn in 2021-22, setting program records in the 100, 200, and 500 freestyle races and winning a national title in the 500 freestyle. However, moving forward, those accomplishments will be updated and marked with an asterisk in the official record books.
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into Lia Thomas, claiming the swimmer competed at a heightened advantage over other swimmers. The situation, which is part of the Trump administration's investigation into transgender athletes in women's sports, came to a close on Tuesday when the Department of Education and Penn came to an agreement.
As part of the deal, Penn will restore records that Thomas broke to their original holders and send personal apologies to those swimmers and any swimmers who lost to Thomas. Additionally, the Department of Education said Penn now must "not allow males to compete in female athletic programs" while using "biology-based" definitions of male and female athletes moving forward.
"While Penn's policies during the 2021-2022 swim season were in accordance with NCAA eligibility rules at the time, we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules," J. Larry Jameson, Penn president, said in a statement, via ESPN. "We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time."
The trans extremists could have gone the path of just seeking and accepting a compromise accommodation. Instead, they insisted on complete and utter humiliation of their opponents, going scorched earth on anyone who dared question whether it's fair or even safe to allow men to dominate girls in their own sports divisions.
Having rejected compromise and accommodation in favor of humiliation of their opponents and unconditional surrender, the trans movement will now suffer the same terms in their defeat.
And now on to the true enemies, the insane woke falsely-"educated" class of jihadi wine-moms and fake intellectuals fomenting social revolution and civil war just because they can't get over having lost a couple of elections. (Well, they lost three, but were credited as "winning" the presidency in one loss.)
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