Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Jack Smith Defends His Indefensible Political Witch-Hunt; Even CNN's Legal Analyst Admits Smith Is Guilty
—Ace
C3
@C_3C_3
Want your blood to boil?
The Jack Smith Investigation cost taxpayers over $35 million.
$35,000,000
All based on a scam.
Targeting enemies.
With 65% of that $35million paying their salaries.
Jack and his team got rich for sedition.
Brandon Gill grilled Jack Smith on three points:
1, why he had sought the phone records of the incoming Speaker of the House, extending back a year, when he had just become speaker 16 days earlier. This makes it look very much look like a purely political witch-hunt, as Johnson did not have power to run interference for Trump before hand.
2, why he sought these phone records in defiance of a warning from a Biden attorney that doing so would be a violation of the Speech and Debate Clause. (A clause which says that no member of Congress shall be subject to legal process for any statement they make in Congress (later extended to cover any statement they make outside of Congress, so long as it's part of their work as a congressman.)
3, why he claimed that Mike Johnson was a "flight risk" when he told Johnson's phone company to hide the fact that his records had been granted to a third party. Jack Smith claimed that keeping this secret was necessary to make sure that Johnson did not take flight from prosecution.
He now admits that Johnson was no flight risk.
Benny Johnson
@bennyjohnson
If you watch one moment from Jack Smith's testimony in Congress today, watch him get reduced to a stuttering, stammering mess when confronted with his own LIES:
GILL: "The subpoena covered the time period between November 2020 and January 2021. Is that right?"
SMITH: "Uh, I'm sorry, sir, could you say that again?"
GILL: "We're not gonna delay like this."
Jack Smith is asking to have questions re-asked because each congresman only has five minutes total time, and he wants to waste as much Republican time as possible endlessly repeating and clarifying questions.
GILL: "How many days after Kevin McCarthy was sworn in as Speaker did you subpoena his records?
SMITH: "Uh, I don't recall, but those two things had nothing to do with one another."
GILL: "It was 16 days after becoming the highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, you subpoenaed his toll records. Do you agree that that might reasonably be considered a violation of the Speech or Debate Clause?"
SMITH: "Uh, I do not"
GILL: "At the time you, you secured those non-disclosure orders, was Speaker McCarthy a flight risk?"
SMITH: "He was not."
GILL: "He was not. Then why did your non-disclosure order refer to him as a flight risk? It says right here, 'The court finds reasonable grounds to believe that such disclosure will result in flight from prosecution.' You were using clearly false information to secure a non-disclosure order to hide from Speaker McCarthy and from the American people the fact that you were spying on his toll records."
Jack Smith on why he attempted to bring Trump to trial without giving him sufficient time to read the millions of pages of documents disclosed to him: Gee I was just looking out for Trump's right to a speedy trial. I'm a hero!
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
3h
Rep. Onder just body slammed Smith on his effort to give Trump's legal team little time to read millions of pages of documents. Smith's response was that he wanted to be sure that Trump got a speedy trial, even though the Trump team was trying to slow down the trial to review his document dump...
Even CNN pointed out that Smith didn't even bother denying he rushed the case just to make a political impact:
Even CNN is now turning on Jack Smith after his House Judiciary testimony.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig zeroed in on the moment Republicans cornered Smith over rushing the Trump case right before the 2024 election — and Smith had no answer.
If you remember, Jack Smith was improperly appointed, which means that the first eleven months of his term were conducted without proper authorization by the government, including the first three indictments of Trump.
Eleven months later, Merrick Garland attempted to correct this without admitting anything needed to be corrected. Jack Smith was appointed and sworn in a second time.
This Legal Eagle has a Biden-like memory loss about the details of this episode.
🔥HOO BOY: @Lancegooden might've just caught Jack Smith & former Attorney General Garland RED-HANDED!
GOODEN: "Would you agree that taking the oath of office is a legal requirement for the job that you had?"
SMITH: "I haven't researched whether it's required or not."
In one more bit of sedition by Jack Smith, he refused to answer questions about everyone's favorite phony-ass witness, Madison Cornbread.
Jordan confronted Smith with his own report that Madison Cornbread was a trash hearsay witness without any credibility, and so would not call her himself. No judge would accept her "testimony," he concluded.
The NY Times Researches Where American-Born Roofers Went, but Can’t Put the Obvious Puzzle Pieces Together
—Buck Throckmorton
The New York Times ran a piece a few days ago seeking to understand where all the American-born roofers went, struggling to understand how an industry that used to provide well-paying career jobs is now overwhelmingly staffed by poorly-paid “immigrants.”
There are not many pieces to this puzzle, and the Times successfully analyzes each of the pieces, but it somehow cannot put these few puzzle pieces together to provide the obvious conclusion. The reason, of course, is that American-born roofers, many of whom were unionized construction workers, were replaced by poorly paid illegal aliens providing off-the-books labor while also being denied benefits, health insurance, and compliance with labor laws.
Something I keep harping on is the war on labor expense in this country. Businesses obviously need to focus on cost control, including the cost of labor, but somewhere in recent decades, we have seen a dangerous mindset take hold. It has become widely accepted that pretty much any labor expense is too high, and if labor can’t be offshored to places with wages and work conditions below American standards, then illegal forms of chattel labor need to be imported into the U.S.
There were several recurring themes throughout this article, bullet-pointed below, but somehow the Times just couldn’t (or wouldn’t) acknowledge the obvious cause and effect:
• English-speaking American roofers are virtually non-existent nowadays.
• Illegal foreign labor was hired (through subcontractors and labor brokers) at much lower wages.
• Immigrant laborers are hard-working and to be celebrated.
• Immigrant workers are ruthlessly exploited.
• Roofers’ wages have eroded, and are no longer a career wage.
• Builders are suffering a labor shortage, due to Donald Trump’s closed border and deportation policies.
• Construction / roofing is a job that Americans just won’t do any longer.
• Without unions, working conditions have eroded.
Although the link to the Times is behind a paywall, the entire article was republished at the Seattle Times, and it can be read here: “Where Did All the American-Born Roofers Go?”
I cannot quote the whole thing, but here are a few snippets:
First, construction jobs became less desirable, as eroding wages and working conditions diminished the quality and job security of the profession.
Why did the wages erode? Why did working conditions erode?
Only then did immigrants, with the encouragement of the political and business class, fill a gap that was already opening.
The sequence of “immigrants” taking those jobs seems to be out of order. By hiring off-the-books “immigrants” at below market wages, construction jobs became less desirable.
Most of those foreign-born workers are not naturalized citizens, and many lack permanent legal status. That leaves an industry of 6.8 million workers particularly vulnerable to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.
Translation: There are up to 6.8 million poorly paid illegal aliens working construction jobs in the U.S.
Builders are reporting labor shortages as some workers are detained or deported and others stay home amid immigration raids.
If only there was another potential labor pool aside from non-citizens who are in this country illegally…
When [Matthew] Moore started his career, unionized construction was a good living, especially for workers without a college degree. In 1973, a quarter of workers were unionized, and in construction it was 40%. But those numbers were already starting to decline.
I spent much of my life criticizing unions, but my gripe was always when unions wanted high compensation for not working (e.g. early retirement with benefits, idled workers getting paid, etc). I never begrudged them wanting good compensation for the work they performed. But if union labor was too expensive, the alternative was to offer competitive non-union jobs. Instead, the construction industry chose to pursue illegal foreign labor that was well below-non-union construction wages.
What was happening in California was happening across the country, both in states with a strong union presence, such as Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, and those that prohibited mandatory union membership — “right to work” states such as Arizona, Florida and Texas where the population, and housing production, was booming.
Yep. It wasn’t about the unions. Non-unionized construction workers were displaced too.
And with that decline in union strength came a decline in the economic standing for both union and nonunion workers. In 1973, the average union construction worker made $1.71 for every $1 the average American worker earned hourly. Today, unionized construction workers earn $1.15 for every $1 an average worker earns. And nonunion construction workers make just 86 cents for every dollar earned by the average American worker, often without health or retirement benefits.
Not only did construction pay effectively get halved by replacing Americans with “immigrants,” but it is well understood that the current system provides layers of contracting to deflect accountability for the inherent illegality of the construction labor system.
[Mariano] Martinez had arrived in the United States on the cusp of a major immigration boom. Workers interviewed for this article who crossed illegally during that period described a southern border that was more porous, even as barriers were going up. With the help of smugglers, many managed to get across on foot or in vehicles. In a common practice that continues today, builders avoided knowingly hiring workers lacking permanent legal status by keeping laborers off their payrolls and instead hiring subcontractors or labor brokers who employed the workers.
And again, it’s not just the pay, it’s also the lack of benefits and worker protections. Illegal laborers have no rights and no ability to redress illegal exploitation.
By then, the high demand for housing and fewer worker protections had led to tough working conditions. For Mario, 47, who first came to the United States in 1997 from Morelia, Mexico, as a teenager, roofing paid better than picking cucumbers and bell peppers, but it wasn’t easy. Mario was an adult by the time he started roofing, but many roofers living in the country illegally are minors, doing one of the deadliest jobs in the country usually without health insurance.
Illegal minors working off the books without health insurance is an extremely disturbing thing that has been accepted by “pro-immigration” Democrats and “pro-business” Republicans. There is no amount of empathy or profit that mitigates this level of exploitation.
Yet builders still feel that they are paying too much…
Immigrants who held onto their jobs say they have seen no meaningful wage gains in decades, and are still making today what they made before the Great Recession.
There is much more along these same lines, focusing on the current shortage of construction workers, but I’ve extracted enough to make the point. To fill that construction labor shortage, here’s an idea - how about once again hiring legal Americans at wages that can provide for a home and a family. If new home prices go up a little, so be it. But remember, home prices never went down when builders started subcontracting out to illegal labor at extremely low wages.
Roofing used to provide a career wage, and was heavily unionized in some places. As you read this piece, it becomes quite clear why unions held appeal to American roofers. Illegal laborers cannot object to unsafe conditions, no benefits, and no labor laws to abide by.
If the alternative to unionized labor is off-the-books, illegal labor, then unions are the ethical choice. But those don’t need to be the only options. There is a third option – hire legitimate, legal, non-union, American labor.
Several emergency declarations have already been issued as a massive winter storm barrels toward more than 35 states, putting more than 200 million people in its path and threatening “considerable disruption” across the US.
Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas were the first to issue preemptive emergency declarations after the National Weather Service warned that “nearly everyone east of the Rockies” will be affected by snow, ice, or cold from Friday into early next week.
The potentially historic winter storm, dubbed Winter Storm Fern, is expected to span more than 2,000 miles, putting more than 200 million people at risk of crippling snow and travel chaos starting Thursday night.
Please be safe, avoid traveling unless absolutely necessary and take all appropriate precautions, especially if you live in an area that typically does not experience severe/extreme winter conditions and you and your vehicles aren't used to dealing with it.
Vice President JD Vance doesn’t believe there’s a need to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota for the time being, he told The Daily Wire on Thursday. Vance touched down in Minneapolis, meeting with federal immigration officers to assess the chaos on the ground. For weeks following the fatal shooting of an ICE watch activist, left-wing agitators have followed federal agents arresting illegal immigrants across the Twin Cities trying to thwart their actions.
Given the incitement and the loud proclamations of Democrat leaders from Walz to Frey and Pritzker and others that they will refuse to cooperate with ICE and other Federal Law enforcement officials in enforcing our laws to protect our sovereignty and citizenry, by virtually ordering their own police forces to physically confront and thwart their efforts. If that is not a green light for the Democrat Party's organized or even lone wolf street thugs and brain damaged fools to physically attack ICE officers . . then I now give you this massive dog-whistle cum Fuhrer Befehl declaring open season on ICE agents.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes wildly suggested that residents can open fire on masked ICE agents if they feel their life is in danger under the state’s self-defense laws.
The Democrat, in a sit-down with 12 News anchor Brahm Resnik, warned that Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows citizens to use deadly force if they believe they’re in imminent danger, could become a “recipe for disaster” if protesters clash with immigration officers.
“It’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks,” Mayes said in the Monday interview, calling ICE “very poorly trained.” “And we have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.” A flabbergasted Resnik repeatedly challenged Mayes, cautioning that her remarks could be interpreted as a “license” to residents to shoot a federal agent. She shot back that she was merely stating a “fact,” not encouraging violence.
“If you’re being attacked by someone who is not identified as a peace officer — how do you know?” the state’s top prosecutor pressed, adding that “real cops don’t wear masks.”
“I mean if somebody comes at me wearing a mask, by the way, I’m a gun owner, and I can’t tell whether they’re a police officer, what am I supposed to do? No, I’m not suggesting people pull out their guns, but this is a don’t tread on me state.”
The attorney general, who was elected in 2022, unleashed her jaw-dropping comments as immigration officers begin to spread into parts of the Grand Canyon State.
. . . She vowed to prosecute any ICE agent who violates state laws after operations in Minnesota sparked widespread unrest when an federal officer fatally shot protester Renee Nicole Good when she clipped him with her car during a heated confrontation on Jan. 7.
Arizona GOP Rep. David Schweikert blasted the attorney general, calling her rhetoric “reckless.”
To conservatives, it might appear at first blush that these anti-ICE radicals and DNC Commiecrats are all about the F word. It seems to reflect unimaginable rage and irrational hysteria relating to an issue about which the radicals are so passionate that all reasonable expression is abandoned. Don’t be lulled into believing, though, that the beginning and end of these incoherent, obscene rants is that they’re suffering from some serious lack of creative expression or a mind-wiping anger. It’s more than that.
They have a mission beyond the superficial rage they would have us focus on. . . When the left protests, there’s more than rage or frustration. There’s seething enmity. We saw it with the Pussy March when Trump was first elected, during the impeachments and prosecutions levied against him, during the George Floyd/BLM/DEI protests, and now with the ICE insanity.
Every time a congressional Commiecrat, the governor of a blue state, or the mayor of a blue city speaks, bile drips out all over. Journalists and talk show hosts spew their anti-anything American venom daily and with impunity. Don Lemon did it at the church invasion in Minnesota and then brazenly lied and hid behind his immunity as a “journalist” and the fact that he is a gay, black man. Do I hear Jussie Smollett, anyone?
It’s more than rage about the issues or mental illness, prescription meds, weed, or street drugs driving the behavior. It’s even more than demonic possession. Again, these are the things they want us to perseverate on, while they pursue their mission: a collective determination to destroy.
It’s easy to think of our Commiecrats as zombie-like, reacting in lockstep, converging on something en masse, walking in hordes over cliffs and into raging rivers. The impression they give is that they’re not responsible for their actions. That lets them off too easily. . . They don’t do this merely out of rage about an issue but because it is the only path to revolution and cannot be brought about by polite debate and collegial cooperation. . . They don’t need the facts or stats, logic, or reasoning to accomplish their goals. Just a place to compulsively and convulsively shout “F you” while destroying everything in their way—not just buildings and property, but love of country, American culture, and resilience—courageously remaking this nation as they believe it should be, as Obama once said.
So, when you hear a Karen ranting, “F you,” it’s not anger about the American Dream slipping away, but about the fury needed for their Marxist Utopian Dream. And make no mistake: they relish in that fury. If you doubt me, listen to Minnesota Church Stormer-in-Chief William Kelly rant about death threats against him, inviting people to “Go ahead, kill me...because...you can kill the revolutionary, but you can’t kill the Revolution.”
As tensions rise in Minneapolis and other sanctuary cities and ICE officers confront violent protestors in the line of duty, some teachers are indoctrinating their students to believe the left’s woke narratives—even when they are demonstrably false.
At Manson Northwest Webster High School in Iowa, a language arts teacher, identified by other outlets as Kim Keller, was caught in an audio recording delivering a virulent partisan diatribe to her class in which she accused ICE agents of murdering Renee Nicole Good—and told her students they would likely be next.
The teacher begins by scolding her class for allegedly laughing at TikTok videos about the incident: “Then why are you laughing? Because that is what is happened [sic]. And if you do not process that, you need to process that right now.”
The angry tirade that follows is full of misrepresentations and outright lies.
The school is not on the Upper West Side of Mamdani's Manhattan but in Iowa. Trouble in River City folks.
Have a great weekend. Again, stay warm and stay safe!
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
The backlash to the supposed Republican renaissance and sweeping cultural conservative agendas is here. . . Across the country, the jargon of wokeness invented on campuses is spilling back out into the broader culture again, much like it did in 2020. . . The truth is, the right declared victory too early. Wokeness never died. . . It’s the weed that grows back stronger. We ignore it at our own peril. Woke never really died, it’s coming back with a vengeance — and we should be terrified
It’s not that lefts are angry, incoherent dimwits (although many are). However, for most, rage is their power source, and their goal is America’s destruction. The True Meaning Behind All The Rage
Radical leftist former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly known as AMLO, and his protege and current Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have both publicly embraced the concept of reconquista and actively discouraged Mexican Americans, much less Mexicans illegally present in the United States, from assimilating or in any way embracing American identity, the book reveals. Officials under both presidencies have declared illegal immigrants who send remittances home “heroes” and champion propaganda songs that celebrate rejecting American identity. SHOCK CONFESSION: Mexican President Admits That Mass Migration Is a Tool to Reclaim and Conquer America’s Southwest
“Our efforts were not aimed at interfering with authorities...The Chicago Chief of Patrol told police officers en route to help the ICE agents to stand down...This is not an action movie...Crime in Memphis fell by 41 percent.” How Pro-Immigrant Activism Turned Dangerous
With four murders and several other shootings, the year is not starting out well for Macon, Georgia. Yet Another Macon Murder-Funeral
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
The European Union on Monday unveiled an "anti-racism" plan that presses member states to censor online "hate speech" and adopt an "intersectional approach" to "structural racism." The plan, which also calls for training on "unconscious bias" and "microaggression," is likely to intensify the Trump administration’s diplomatic fusillade against European hate speech laws. It also illustrates the degree to which American racial politics have been exported to the European Union. European Union Doubles Down on ‘Hate Speech’ Censorship in New ‘Anti-Racism’ Strategy
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS,
Robert Zimmerman: "What must be understood about Mann is that he is a very typical leftist radical, who thinks that because his cause is just and good, he is somehow immune from any consequences for bad behavior. Such leftists increasingly believe they are allowed to lie, cheat, defame, and even sometimes commit violence, because anyone who disagrees with them is evil. Mann did not do the last item (though many other leftists now are), but he did all the others, and truly believed he could get away with it. He is now finding out otherwise. Fake scientist Michael Mann slapped down hard by DC superior court
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) were suing Trump’s Health and Human Services Department (HHS) over a freeze on $27.5 million worth of Title IX family planning grants to Planned Parenthood. The Trump administration, however, quietly restored the grants, prompting the ACLU and NFPRHA to drop their lawsuit. EXCLUSIVE: Planned Parenthood Asks Trump Admin Not To Refund Them
As with all conspiracy theories, anything that fails to prove the “truth” — especially anything that debunks it — just becomes more proof of the plotters’ reach: The believers will never be convinced otherwise. You’ll never guess what the new Epstein scandal is
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY
Hunt, who is vying in a brutal three-way Texas Senate primary, was absent while House Republicans advanced a rule teeing up votes on four appropriations bills, including a measure funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Though House Republicans did not end up needing Hunt’s vote to advance the funding bills, GOP leadership has voiced irritation about the Senate hopeful’s frequent absences while he campaigns ahead of the March 3 primary. ‘Expected Him To Be Here’: Mike Johnson Stunned Rep. Wesley Hunt Was Missing For Key House Vote
The contrast between the international assemblage of sophisticates and the president from Queens brings onto a global stage one of the longest-running dramas in American political history. Mastering the forces unleashed by Jacksonian America is the key not only to Trump's presidential success, but also to the preservation and renewal of the American-led international order. If the announced agreement with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte holds, this act in the drama will end on a high note. Andrew Jackson Comes to Davos
Fred Fleitz: European leaders panicked over imaginary Trump crises, only to be outflanked at Davos as he exposed their failures, calmed Greenland fears, and seized the global stage. Trump Owned Davos
The Beijing-controlled puppet government in Hong Kong began a trial under China’s tyrannical “national security law” on Thursday for the leaders of a group that organized candlelight vigils in memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. China Prosecutes Hongkongers Who Mourned Tiananmen Square Massacre (Truman failed when he prevented Macarthur from crossing the Yalu and driving all the way to Peking to skin Mao alive - jjs)
How much influence does the deep-pocketed Gulf country hold in America? Qatar as Daddy Warbucks
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
“President Trump’s historic Rural Health Transformation Program could not come at a more urgent time,”. . . “After years of targeting and neglect under the Biden administration, across the United States, hospitals are entering a systemic distress cycle that is visible in financial markets before doors close to patients. In 2025 alone, at least 90 hospitals have experienced credit rating downgrades, service eliminations, or full closures. These distress events reveal a patterned, multi-signal collapse with credit downgrades often preceding a loss of essential services.” Exclusive — Report: Rural Hospital Closures, Downgrades Represent ‘National Health Access Emergency’ Trump Can Fix
What causes these gullies remains an open question. ... More recent research suggests they are formed by the seasonal dry ice frost cycle that in the high latitudes has carbon dioxide condense to fall as snow in autumn and then sublimate away in the spring. New gullies on Mars?
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Though to be fair Intel showed off new consumer products at CES when AMD and Nvidia couldn't be bothered, and the integrated graphics on Intel's latest Panther Lake chips looks to be faster than AMD's fastest mainstream models (though slower than the Ryzen AI Max if you use it for gaming and not AI.)
Basically it's obfuscating your typing patterns to block side-channel attacks. Though your data is encrypted, if it just sends one packet each time you press a key a lot can be inferred from the timing.
Companies affected include Discord, Tinder, Riot Games, and Dropbox. With this attack you can receive spam from their official Zendesk servers even if you're not a customer.
Faced with queries from real professionals, even the best models struggled to get more than a quarter of the questions right. The vast majority of the time, the model came back with a wrong answer or no answer at all.
It can't replace junior programmers and it can't replace anyone else.
Thursday Overnight Open Thread - January 22, 2026 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
Howdy Hordelings! The time for the Thursday ONT has arrived. If you're a Moron's Moron, you are in luck tonight! Lots of right-in-the -wheelhouse content tonight. Won't ya step inside and check it out?
Big snow storm approaching the east coast. Even Florida was hit with a cold spell recently.
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Perhaps an unknown stipulation in the AOSHQ users' manual - If something qualifies for both the Food Thread AND the Gun Thread, it automatically becomes ONT material. (This may or may not be true, but thus far, I am not aware of Ace having implemented Community Notes).
Zach Clark isn’t the first person to ever try using a potato as a gun silencer, but he recently became the first to have it legally approved as a silencer by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). He reportedly did it to point out the absurdity of the law that allowed him to do it, a law that now allows anyone to submit their own silencer designs, regardless of how crazy they might be.
“It’s a good way to highlight to normal people that like, ‘Yeah, this is dumb. ‘This whole law is kind of dumb,” Clark told The Reload. “There are other people who have talked about submitted forms for pillows. One is particularly funny because, for the documentation, it’s just a picture of Mike Lindell holding a My Pillow. People have submitted forms for Monster Energy cans. So, there are definitely a lot of people who are going that angle.”
***
“Serial number Samwise01 was denied, but Tate001 and Tate002 were approved,” Zach Clark said. “It happened with some of my 3D-printed suppressors, too. I had three that were denied that used the exact same documentation as the other 40 that were approved. So who knows? I’m assuming with what’s going on at the ATF right now, they’re just flying through them. So, there might not even be a thought process. The person could just be clicking, yes, no, because there’s chaos over there.”
OK, fess up - which one of you did this??
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Ginger vs Mary Ann. How old are you? Ongoing AOSHQ themes converge!
Your humble host is 100% in the Mary Ann camp!
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No math on the blog? What about two Morons arguing over a number, then using math to settle their differences? It can happen!
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Food Thread Adjacent
If this isn't Moron level behavior, I don't know what is!
(Click for source on X)
“My girlfriend got on to me the other day because she doesn’t understand why I can’t just pick eggs out of the carton like a “normal” person. She’s standing there watching me and says, “Why can’t you just go row by row like everyone else?”
I said, “Because no egg should ever know when its time is coming.”
She stared at me for a second, shook her head, and said, “You’re a psycho,” then walked off.
Little does she know…I’ve got a whole tournament system going on. I take two eggs, tap them together, and whichever one doesn’t crack moves on to the next round.
Only the strongest survive. 🥚 💪 😂”
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Art Thread Adjacent?
Don't jump ahead to the comments until you either get it or give up!
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DJ Doof - Guess The Theme
Easy one tonight. Difficulty level 1 out of 5
What's the common thread / common meaning / common leitmotif?
(Aside from them all being live recordings from the 90s)
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Tonight's ONT brought to you by knowing your place
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Tonight's ONT features content on loan to Doof Enterprises, LLC. Enjoy it while it's here - the rightful owners will be taking it all back without notice!
Your feedback may or may not be very important to Doof Enterprises. Follow Mr. Doof on X @doof2112 or do the email thing – doof2112 at proton dot me.
Obviously I'm horrified at these woke Socialist Oligarchs using their corporate fiduciary power to push their personal political agendas -- the power of the corporation is meant to be wielded for the benefit of shareholders, not the woke cocksuckers sitting in the corner suites -- but I don't know if someone has a legal right to someone else's business.
Then again, these are banks, one of the most regulated industries in the world. It's very likely the left has cluttered the US code with all sorts of "fairness in banking" regulations.
President Donald Trump on Thursday, Jan. 22, sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its CEO Jamie Dimon for $5 billion, accusing the bank of dropping Trump as a client for political reasons after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit, which Trump had threatened for days, was filed in state court in Florida as Trump returns from Davos, Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum.
I find this problematic:
"Plaintiffs are confident that JPMC's unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations, and b>JPMC's unsubstantiated, 'woke' beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views," the lawsuit reads. "In essence, JPMC debanked Plaintiffs' Accounts because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so."
See, the problem is that JP Morgan will argue that it was good for the corporation to "distance itself" from Trump. Corporations get away with doing a lot of political crap -- which should be ultra vires, against the compact that created and governs the corporation -- by calling it "goodwill."
If a lefty CEO wants to donate to BLM -- obviously not something in the interest of the shareholders -- he can justify it by saying it creates public goodwill for the corporation, and therefore actually does benefit the shareholders, albeit indirectly. And judges rarely second-guess CEOs about their "goodwill" decision making. (They ought to, because CEOs use corporations to vindicate their personal agendas, but judges stay hands-off to allow corporations to donate huge amounts of money to the repulsive left.)
And I'm afraid that Trump, by stating in his own filing that JP Morgan felt it had to "distance itself" from him due to the "political tide at the moment," has made JP Morgan's defense for it.
NEW: Multiple sources tell me & colleague @davidspunt that the federal magistrate in Minnesota who refused to sign off on an arrest warrant for Don Lemon is Douglas L. Micko and that his wife works as an Assistant Attorney General in Minnesota AG Keith Ellison's office.
Stephen Miller
@StephenM
Everyone serious understands that the justice system is rigged. Far-left prosecutors, magistrates, judges and juries unhesitatingly shield their violent activists and gleefully imprison their political opponents. Unrigging the system is necessary for the survival of the Republic.
Apparently William Kelly, the asshole "Da Woke Farmer" who yelled profanities at church-goers and dared Pam Bondi "come get me," claims to be some kind of veteran.
This guy says, Nah.
Patriot_Pack
@dig_metal
William Kelly, better known as DaWokeFarmer, got booted from the U.S. Army with a bad-conduct discharge.
He was in from about 2007 to 2011, but his stories don't add up--no combat infantry vet, no Afghanistan deployment, no Warrant Officer gig.
Reality check: He was just an HR admin (MOS 42A), zero combat or overseas action.
Back in 2008, court-martialed for stealing, which led to:
- Dropped to Private (E-1).
- That punitive BCD, basically "other than honorable" with major baggage.
Dude fabricates his military record, he's a proven thief, and an alcoholic on top.
Yet this is the fraud the left loves to elevate. Wake up, folks. #StolenValor #Exposed
Tucker Carlson: I condemn America for ending the war with Japan by dropping two nuclear weapons because they are inherently evil, actually they're "demonic" and literally created by demonic forces, and no one should have them.
"I can guarantee you that if the Ayatollah gets a nuclear weapon, he will use it," Lindsey Graham said on Fox News last year. "I believe that with all my heart and soul."
Oh, and of course, there's warmonger-in-chief Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists that "there is only one difference between Nazi Germany and the Islamic Republic of Iran... [Iran] is first seeking atomic weapons and, once it has them, will then start a world war."
What are the chances Iran would actually launch a nuclear attack? History suggests they're zero, no matter what Senator Graham says.
Weird, because he's about to tell you Iranian nukes could be used to pressure Israel to leave the poor Palestinian peace-lovers alone. Why would the warmongering Jews leave them alone unless they knew Iran might nuke them?
No country in the so-called 'Axis of Evil' has ever deployed a nuke, because doing so would be an act of suicide.
In fact, the United States is the only nation to unleash its nuclear might as an act of war. It's strange how Washington considers that a point of pride.
There he is, attacking America for dropping the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima again.
Weirdly enough, he thinks that nuclear missiles in the hands of the Ayatollah would bring peace and justice to the region:
Could the Iranians obtaining The Bomb wind up being a good thing? Whether anyone in the foreign policy establishment admits it, North Korea's nuclearization has undeniably stabilized the Korean Peninsula. The region has seen no wars, coups, or interventionist-forced regime changes since 2006.
Oh, it's also good that North Korea has nukes.
Would Iran becoming a nuclear power have the same effect on its region?
Could it finally prompt America to leave the area alone, and incentivize Israel to drop its stated goal of controlling the Gaza Strip and the West Bank? Would it make the Iranian government less oppressive because it wouldn't have to worry about the West's constant decapitation ambitions?
🚨 Michael Fanone got completely demolished in today’s hearing. He lost control of his emotions repeatedly and every outburst made it clear why January 6th spiraled the way it did.
His testimony was supposed to prove a point but it only exposed his inability to handle pressure… pic.twitter.com/NCARtmEIPZ
While Fanone screams about Republicans failing to support his bent-over faggot-ass enough, he also is calling for vigilantes to literally shoot and murder ICE agents.
Michael Fanone, the former Jan. 6 Metro DC police officer who became a left-wing activist and Democrat Party booster, says in an interview that people need to riot and arm themselves to kill federal law enforcement agents. pic.twitter.com/mNGD7BhGqb
Democrats can't make up their minds about whether or not they're giving illegal welfare benefits to illegals. On one hand, they want their illegal voters' votes, so they'll take credit for giving them welfare illegally.
On the other hand, they don't want native American citizens to know they're stealing their money to give it to foreign invaders, so in the very next breath they're denying what they just took credit for a minute ago.
Gavin Newsom literally this morning:
NEWSOM: "I'm proud of [giving illegals medicaid benefits]... we're one of 16 states to provide care to people regardless of their immigration status."pic.twitter.com/kAdZL2hOyNhttps://t.co/MCkRVXPuAg
Murders plummeted more than 20% in U.S. last year, the largest drop on record, study shows
Murders plummeted more than 20% in 2025 from the year before, the single-largest one-year drop on record -- and it might be the lowest murder rate in the U.S. since 1900, a study released Thursday by the Council on Criminal Justice found.
The annual crime trends report analyzed data from 40 large cities across the United States for 13 different crime types, including murder, carjacking, theft and drug offenses.
Note that the numbers were cooked under Biden, with carjacking, theft, and various other crime numbers fraudulently reduced, so the real fall from 2023 and 2024 is actually must greater.
Alongside homicides, which dropped 21% from 2024, carjackings have declined 61% since 2023, while shoplifting is down 10% since 2024.
Probably just due to stores in cities closing to stop the rampant, government-permitted looting.
In general, the overall crime rate declined, with violent crimes at or below levels seen in 2019, the analysis found -- drug offenses were the only category that rose during this period, while sexual assault remained even.
Researchers pointed toward multiple reasons for the large drop in homicides, but cautioned that "identifying decisive factors with certainty is challenging."
LOL, of course, no "researcher" can possibly figure out why the murder rate should drop at the same time we're locking people up and deporting foreign marauders.
Must be an environmental factor. Like maybe people are eating less eggs or something.
Senior research specialist Ernesto Lopez, lead author of the report, said that while the "overall reduction in crime, especially homicide, is welcome news," he noted homicide rates had been steadily dropping since the late 2000s, prior to a notable spike in 2020.
"It is possible that these rates reflect a longer-term downward trend punctuated by periods of elevated homicides," Lopez said.
Insane. I mentioned this on Friday, I think, but "years of steadily dropping" (after the Biden Crime Wave peak) doesn't explain a sudden single-year 20% plummet.
"Steadily declining" means "falling 3-4% per year." This minor trend does not explain the huge fall.
A group of criminal justice experts convened by CCJ had varied answers as to what caused such a precipitous drop in homicides, but they were generally in agreement that the stabilization of routines, an influx of COVID-19 relief funds and program intervention were strong drivers.
Oh of course -- it wasn't enforcement, imprisonment, and deportation which lowered murders by one-fifth, it was, of course, liberal government spending.
This must be due to Liberal Government Spending as well:
Trump's Second Term Sees Record ICE Gang Arrests and Crime Drop
20 hours ago
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeted violent offenders from groups like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, with the FBI disrupting 1,800 gangs--a 210% jump from 2024--and making 67,000 total arrests. These efforts aligned with a 20% national drop in murders, the sharpest ever, as preliminary data showed homicides potentially at 1960s lows in major cities. While DHS credited removing dangerous criminals, including nearly 3 million illegal immigrants who left the U.S., analysts noted two-thirds of ICE arrests involved people without U.S. criminal records, and critics pointed to broader post-pandemic trends.
-25,000 violent crime arrests, up 100% from last year -6,000 child victims identified or located, up 22% -Espionage arrests up 35% -Fentanyl seizures up 31% -Nihilistic Violent Extremism arrests up 490%
Another Church Disrupting Water Buffalo Arrested Update: Loud-Mouthed, Foul-Mouthed Bearded Jerkoff Arrested Too, After Telling Pam Bondi "Come Get Me"
—Ace
Insurrectionist mayor Jacob Frey has refused to condemn the church intimidation, now demands that the ringleader be freed to eat all of our food:
Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
2h
🚨 BREAKING -- ANOTHER PERP WALK: Chauntyll Louisa Allen has officially been charged with CONSPIRACY TO DEPRIVE RIGHTS due to her role in the St. Paul Church riots
The ringleader, Nekima Levy Armstrong, was also arrested this morning.
They're in federal custody at the direction of @AGPamBondi
.
NEXT UP: Don Lemon?! 😏
Physical ugliness and morbid obesity are contributing factors to radical extremism in women.
That's not a joke. It's an insult, but it's seriously meant: No one whose prom night was a dream winds up in antifa.
As I have said over and over and over again, the biggest threat to this country right now is the ongoing left-wing judicial insurrection against the rule of law, and the abject refusal of Republican representatives to do anything about it.
This guy reports that not only are the feds going to charge every single church disruptor, but they'll be going through texts and emails to find co-conspirators who did not show up for the invasion but who conspired to make it happen.
And remember, "conspiracy" only requires agreement that a felony should be committed by someone who's part of the conspiracy.
They used that a lot to lock up not J6ers but merely people in text chains with J6ers.
So let justice be done here equally.
That might be how they wind up getting Don Lemon -- maybe a leftwing judge can claim he was a "journalist" when in the church, but if he's taking part in the planning, then he's a co-conspirator.
Update 2: Federal law enforcement tells me that every person who entered that church is getting a warrant and that they are also using phone records to add conspiracy charges on top of everything else.
(I specifically asked about Don Lemon; haven’t heard back yet lol)
Another one bites the dust: Chauntyll Louisa Allen, St. Paul school board parasite and professional chaos merchant, just got federally indicted for CONSPIRACY TO DEPRIVE RIGHTS.
Her crime? Helping orchestrate the sacrilegious invasion of Cities Church...storming a house of God mid-service, terrorizing worshippers, screaming in their faces, all because the pastor dares to serve his country with ICE.
And the high priestess of this blasphemous mob, Nekima Levy Armstrong...self-anointed civil rights queen, race-hustling attorney, the venomous ringleader who planned and executed the whole disgusting spectacle...hauled out in cuffs this morning.
Federal custody. No soft landing. No media bailout.
Just cold steel and the long-overdue taste of consequences.
These people aren't activists.
They're domestic terrorists in activist drag.
They psychologically crave the thrill of domination...invading sacred spaces, silencing prayer, bullying the faithful because it feeds their bloated egos and fragile power fantasies.
They thought churches were fair game, that worshippers had no rights worth protecting.
They needed to believe their cause sanctified any violation. That delusion just got shattered by federal indictments.
You feel it?
That's justice finally sharpening its blade after years of deliberate dulling. No more free passes for the approved class of agitators.
No more looking away while they desecrate what others hold holy.
Keep. The. Motherfucking. Arrests. Coming.
Every last one of them. Round up the whole mob.
Apply the law with lethal evenness...no selective mercy, no political favoritism.
The same statutes that protected their protests now protect the churchgoers they terrorized.
Beautiful symmetry.
And don't stop there.
Next up: Don fucking Lemon and every smug, riot-apologist ghoul who spent years cheering this kind of intimidation from the safety of their studios.
Drag them in too. Make them explain why disrupting worship is "speaking truth to power" when they do it, but "insurrection" when anyone else dares.
The great correction is underway.
The era of unequal justice is bleeding out.
And it feels ***damn glorious.
And it's not just wallflower women attracted to radical leftwing politics, of course. You also have heartbreaker Alpha Chads like this potential David French bedroom visitor:
How are these real people
It blows my mind that people like this even exist tbh
WATCH: Don Lemon has an EPIC crash out over @NICKIMINAJ-- calling her a "racist bigoted homophobe," an "ignorant pick me" and says he would burn her records.
Sorry, Don, but you're an irrelevant, washed up TV anchor while Nicki Minaj is one of the biggest stars in the world. pic.twitter.com/fuVPibjoqx
As you all know, the very gay low-IQ retard Don Lemon, whose busted-up broke-out asshole resembles the Bikini Atoll during the 1960s H-bomb tests, has a major, major problem with women.
Don Lemon on CNN about Nikki Haley:
“A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s, 30s, and maybe 40s.”
"Don Lemon does not like women — in particular, strong women ... He’s so friggin’ bananas and hateful that even CNN fired him — which says a heck of a lot."
23-year-old “Nasra Ahmed” alleges she was “kidnapped” and brutalized by ICE at a MN news conference:
“That man, he called me the N-word… and then he arrested—they arrested me. It was multiple people. They used a lot of force…I actually got a uh… scab…”
Weird how her head had no marks on it in an earlier video but was suddenly bandaged up for her press conference.
Note how her story evolves. First, the ICE agents just "asked for ID" but "added their two cents" (how dare they!) and "baited" her.
Then, she claims she was "kidnapped." And also suffered a wound on her head which apparently had a 24-hour incubation period before it actually became visible.
So, with any claim made by a Somali thug, we need to ask: What really happened?
Church Invasion Ringleader A R R E S T E D by DHS and FBI
—Ace
I had just written this forty minutes ago:
The Church Invaders must have been advised by attorneys that they did violate the FACE Act and possibly the KKK Act as well, because they're now rewriting history to craft their legal defenses: They're now claiming they didn't disrupt the church services at all, they just sat down to participate in the services.
Except... we can see them on videotape disrupting the service and announcing beforehand they intend to "disrupt" the church services.
Nikema Levy Armstrong, organizer of the church storming in Minneapolis, just went on CNN and claimed "we did not rush into the church. We sat down and participated in the service."
Except, she said on Don Lemon's livestream that they're doing it to "disrupt business as usual" pic.twitter.com/Sy5htvyGsF
It doesn't matter. They are animals without morals or conscience. They do not even recognize any difference between truth and lie. "Truth" is whatever helps them gain power and control over their betters.
And now:
Homeland Security Investigators and FBI agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong who played a key role in orchestrating the Church Riots in St. Paul, Minnesota.
She is being charged with a federal crime under 18 USC 241.
The Cuban people have been suffering under the yoke of a particularly brutal communist dictatorship since 1959. They were propped up by the USSR for 30 years, with oil and industrial machinery and weapons (so many weapons!) in return for being a convenient thorn in the side of America, and a fomenter of revolution across the world. After the Soviet Union fell, they had to scramble for oil, and Venezuela stepped up! Shocking nobody with a brain, China also began to strengthen it ties to the Cuban government.
But with the capture of Maduro, and the Venezuelan government increasingly dancing to America's tune, at least with respect to petroleum, Where will Cuba get its oil?
Mexico! And with the permission of the Trump administration, which makes a certain amount of sense. Penalizing the people of Cuba by denying them what little in basic necessities they have is a cruel and unnecessary step without first beginning the process of ending communism in Cuba.
"Cuba's rulers are incompetent Marxists who have destroyed their country, and they have had a major setback with the Maduro regime that they are responsible for propping up," a White House official said, adding that Cuba should "make a deal before it's too late."
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post earlier in the month: "Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela."
"In return, Cuba provided 'Security Services' for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE," he continued. "THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE."
Ah...another deal!
What kind of deal can there be that frees the Cuban people? The communist rulers of Cuba will not go willingly, and they have a comprehensive security and surveillance apparatus that would make the Stasi blush with embarrassment.
Will we demand that the Cuban communist party give up power and then force the government to have free elections? Or we will sponsor an invasion, like we did in 1961? That went well. Actually, it did for American communists. JFK and the Democrat Party supported the communists by withholding air support!
We can strengthen the embargo, push back against Chinese influence, eventually begin to decrease oil imports from Mexico, support dissidents within Cuba (if they dare to speak publicly against the pervasive terror), and what else? Of course we could invade and make short shrift of the Cuban army, but it would be bloody, and we would suffer casualties. Or perhaps decapitation strikes that destroy the leadership?
But Cuba is a special case. Their communism is protected by the geography of the Island. There are no land borders that can be used by smugglers, both of goods, and of arms and ideas. Their communication is controlled quite well by the state, and their army is comparatively well fed and well paid. And they have survived for 67 years just a few miles from the coast of their Great Satan!
The conventional wisdom was that with the softening of America's tone, Cuba's communism would wither, and it would become a soft socialist state. That never happened, and with three generations of indoctrination, the odds are long that it will happen now.
The people of Cuba need our help, but what that help will be is the big question!
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
Good morning kids. As someone who has written professionally for many years, including books, screenplays and editorials, I can honestly say that one thing I am particularly proud of is, believe it or not, a single word! Chutzpocrisy For the sake of those who are not regular readers of this column, it is a mashup of the Yiddish word "chutzpah" which means gall and the English word hypocrisy.
Given the nature of the Democrat/Left insofar as who and what they are and what they have done to our nation and society, more and more with each passing year if not week or day, the things that they do and say are so perfectly encapsulated in that word. Today's example comes from a particularly loathsome bastard, one Hakeem Jeffries.
On Wednesday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) commented on the possibility of a government shutdown over ICE by saying that, among “things that we believe are appropriate in this instance, are demanding be part of any final bill,” would be a requirement that “ICE should not be able to storm houses of worship, hospitals, and schools.”
The unmitigated chutzpocrisy of this radioactive glittering turd is so unbearable that even Ray Charles wearing iridium-coated Raybans could feel a searing pain in his eye sockets were he watching from the surface of a supernova 5 billion light years from earth,
Storming houses of Worship, hospitals and schools?! Not even a single peep when Don Lemon who might have organized and led a band of "agitators" and stormed into a Minneapolis church over the weekend to "protest" ICE's rounding up of criminal illegal aliens in that city in particular and all over the nation in general. Ditto the raking of police stations with gunfire as well as synagogues and religious schools with little children in them.
The words "agitators" and "protest are in quotes because this was an act of dictionary and legal definition terrorism carried out by terrorists. Irrespective of the fact that this might have been the church where the priest was identified as supposedly being in the employ or otherwise working with ICE, the act of violently and loudly bursting into a church during a service to shriek at the parishioners is beyond abhorrent. It is straight up evil.
Asking Hakeem Jeffries what he thinks of this is a waste of breath. His silence speaks volumes. He like all the other demonic vermin in the coven known as the Democrat party are cheering this on.
Gov. JB Pritzker, in a statement, said the allegations “raise serious concerns for people struggling to maintain housing — and the communities that have been profiled and relentlessly targeted by the federal government during its violent immigration enforcement operations. State law prohibits discrimination, and that includes aiding or abetting conduct intended to interfere with housing and civil rights. Illinois will not tolerate conduct that puts anyone in Illinois at risk of discrimination or harm.”
To be clear about what’s going on here, the Pritzker regime in Illinois has decided to define cooperation with federal law enforcement as a form of illegal discriminatory conduct that it can penalize.
After demonstrating that landlords can be penalized for tipping off ICE, then it’ll be the turn of other small businesses, and then finally cooperating with ICE will be deemed a ‘hate crime’.
Meh. This is from the same people who created the Garland Archipelago and rounded up anyone who was within 5 miles of the Capitol on January 6th 2021 for the crime of protesting the election the Democrats stole. Just as no Democrats will ever face justice let alone go to prison for all their crimes, you can bet that this landlord is going to be sent straight to Joliet Prison courtesy of a rigged prosecutor, Judge and jury. The message is now loud and clear, the Democrats now run Barter Town, they have proclaimed themselves Master/Blaster and Aunty Entity rolled into one. Defy them and one way or another it's (finger across neck in slicing motion).
Frey said, “In Minneapolis, we will not cooperate with ICE or any federal agency around immigration enforcement work, we will not. And there’s a good reason, by the way, that we won’t, and it’s not just the moral imperative here, it’s also the fact that I want our police officers focusing on safety.”
. . . The church invasion is the place for DOJ to make its stand and to enforce federal criminal laws, but more needs to be known about Lemon’s role in the crime. Don Lemon: Criminal? Journalist? or Both
On Wednesday’s broadcast of MS NSDAP’s “Morning (Intern-Murderer) Joe,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) commented on the possibility of a government shutdown over ICE by saying that, among “things that we believe are appropriate in this instance, are demanding be part of any final bill,” would be a requirement that “ICE should not be able to storm houses of worship, hospitals, and schools.” — (And yet where was this filthy criminal degenerate when Don Yellow bitter fruit Lemon invaded and terrorized a Minneapolis church over the weekend? He was cheering it on - jjs) Jeffries on Shutdown over ICE: We Won’t Vote for Funding Without Changes, Including Making Churches Off Limits
ICE and other federal immigration officials began “Operation Catch of the Day” as Wednesday dawned with coordinated raids in counties all over the Democrat-led state. The campaign was peaceful and without widespread protests or obstruction by leftist activists because local police departments were assisting the federal forces in their duties. Immigration Agents Sweep Across Maine with Local Police Help Despite Dem Gov’s Orders to Stop
What’s playing out in Minneapolis and other major cities controlled by Democrats is as simple as this: That party willfully ignored our nation’s laws to import millions of destitute foreigners for the purpose of loading them up with welfare and earning their political support, and now that they’re out of power, they’re trying to keep their new constituents here by any means possible. Democrats Created An Unconstrained Immigration Problem. It Requires An ‘Unconstrained’ Solution
Frey said, “In Minneapolis, we will not cooperate with ICE or any federal agency around immigration enforcement work, we will not. And there’s a good reason, by the way, that we won’t, and it’s not just the moral imperative here, it’s also the fact that I want our police officers focusing on safety.” (When will this dangerous treasonous criminal be thrown into a dungeon to rot? - jjs) Frey: There’s ‘Moral Imperative’ to Not Cooperate with Feds on Immigration Enforcement Work
The chants echoing through the streets of Iran today leave no room for ambiguity. The people have made an unequivocal statement: they reject the monarchy as a relic of the past and the current theocracy as a pillar of oppression. The Irreversible Tide: Iran’s Steady March toward Democratic Revolution
Independent journalist Nick Shirley was on Capitol Hill Wednesday with a blunt message for Washington: Americans have reached their breaking point. Testifying before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, Shirley said he was there “on behalf of all hardworking, law-abiding, taxpaying citizens here inside of the United States,” and he made clear that patience with government waste and fraud has evaporated. Nick Shirley Goes Nuclear During Fraud Hearing on Capitol Hill
The moment came during Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments in Trump v. Cook, which centers around a request brought by the Trump administration to pause a lower court injunction preventing Cook’s removal. As The Federalist previously reported, Trump fired Cook in August over allegations that she committed mortgage fraud prior to joining the Fed. At SCOTUS, Lisa Cook’s Attorney Admits Trump Can Fire His Client From The Fed
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump v. Cook, the case testing whether President Trump can fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook based on allegations of mortgage fraud. Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed concern that granting the president too much deference in removal decisions would effectively create at-will firing authority, rendering the Federal Reserve Act’s “for cause” requirement meaningless. But Kavanaugh’s worry overlooks the law’s actual check on presidential abuse: the Senate confirmation process. Lisa Cook’s Supreme Court Case Shines Spotlight on the Senate’s Forgotten Fed Veto
CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY
With four murders and several other shootings, the year is not starting out well for Macon, Georgia. Yet Another Macon Murder-Funeral
Authorities shut down 24 industrial-scale laboratories and seized approximately 1,000 tons of chemicals used to produce street drugs like MDMA, cathinone amphetamine and methamphetamine, according to a Europol press release. Officials said they arrested 85 suspects. The criminal activities allegedly generated enormous profits. Traffickers were seeing 30-fold returns on the resources invested, Europol’s European Serious Organised Crime Centre head Andy Kraag told DW. (RELATED: Chinese Fentanyl Kingpin Extradited To U.S. After Elaborate Mexico-To-Russia Escape Plot) European Police Bust Major Drug Ring, Arrest Dozens Across Continent
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS,
An estimated 1.6 billion barrels of oil and 28.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in famous Permian Basin may now be technically recoverable,..showing while resources matter, innovation can make all the difference. (Drill it like your prom date was Ann Margret in fishnets and stiletto heels! - jjs) U.S. Geological Survey Report Shows Massive Untapped Oil, Gas Reserves in Texas
America can’t defend its jets, grid, or future by outsourcing critical minerals; responsible domestic mining is a national security imperative, not an environmental indulgence. America Can’t Secure Its Future on Imported Minerals
THE 2020 and SUBSEQUENT ELECTION HEISTS , SHENANIGANS/FRAUD and AFTERMATH
. . . a seemingly innocuous program to entice foreign investors became a massive operation for laundering foreign donations to American politicians, primarily Democrats. The plot revolved around a program established by the 1990 Immigration Act called the Employment-Based Fifth Preference (EB-5) visa. It was ostensibly intended to encourage foreign investors to put big money into American business and job creation. CCP SPY $$$ SPIGOT EXPOSED: How a U.S. Visa Program Designed by a Chinese Spy Lets Beijing Funnel Money into American Elections
L'AFFAIRE EPSTEIN
Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna asked U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer to let them weigh in as “friends of the court” and appoint a special master or monitor to oversee the DOJ’s public release of records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed in November. Federal Judge Tells Massie, Khanna To Pound Sand On Expediting Epstein Files Release
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took aim at California Governor Gavin Newsom during a speech at the World Economic Forum this week, focusing on Newsom’s economic record, his presence in Davos alongside Alex Soros, and his handling of issues such as homelessness, budget deficits, and pandemic-era policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Roasts Gavin Newsom at WEF: ‘Patrick Bateman Meets Sparkle Beach Ken’
America can secure its Arctic interests through partnership, not plunder—working with Denmark and Greenland as trusted allies rather than proving that power makes right. Reconciling US Needs vs. Danish Claims
The Trump White House has hinted at possible land strikes against cartels for several months. However, President Trump’s remarks at Davos are the latest and most direct confirmation that the U.S. military will soon take direct action against cartel operations on land. Trump Confirms Land Strikes on Cartels Are Coming.
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Anthropic hopes that Claude's output will reflect the content of the constitution by being:
Broadly safe: not undermining appropriate human mechanisms to oversee AI during the current phase of development;
Broadly ethical: being honest, acting according to good values, and avoiding actions that are inappropriate, dangerous, or harmful;
Compliant with Anthropic's guidelines: acting in accordance with more specific guidelines from Anthropic where relevant;
Genuinely helpful: benefiting the operators and users they interact with.
If Claude is conflicted, Anthropic wants the model to "generally prioritize these properties in the order in which they are listed."
If only someone had given thought to a prioritised list of general rules - laws, you might call them - to govern the behaviour of autonomous thinking machines - robots, essentially - and all the myriad ways in which things might go awry.
Maybe a Boston biochemist in 1942, while we're engaged in idle speculation.
Nvidia hasn't said anything about this, but eagle-eyed observers have spotted the chip in shipping manifests for test hardware, most recently in a Dell laptop.
He notes that sometimes - sometimes - an AI tool can come up with an elegant solution to a small problem, maybe even a better one than you could have built yourself. But overall, 95% of the code his company creates is still built by humans, because at the end of the day for a system to be reliable, people have to understand it.
Which is a complete and welcome turnaround from the demented slopfest of Gas Town which has one simple rule: We don't know what is going on and we don't care. Oh, and a second implied rule: The solution to too much slop is more slop.
This is on a site originally slated for a Foxconn factory, a plan that never went anywhere. Microsoft purchased the land from Foxconn and the first two datacenters are under construction now.
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - January 21, 2026 [TRex]
—Open Blogger
Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the post-cafe overnight variety.
Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of random overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Pants are optional. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors.
[Top photo: Memphis Bridge, Spanning Mississippi River, Memphis, Shelby County, TN. 1968. Library of Congress collection]
Official 2026 Wednesday ONT Prediction Challenge Update
14 contestants submitted guesses for the numbers challenge.
27 contestants submitted guesses for the events challenge.
Perhaps we will do a mid-year status update.
Thank you for playing!
***
Random trivia - IKEA estimates that on average, it sells one Billy bookcase every five seconds. Other than Perfessor Squirrel and the book thread participants, I'm impressed that so many people have so many books that they need shelves to store them in an easily accessible manner. (BTW, the interweb says today is Squirrel Appreciation Day. Perfessor - we appreciate you!)
The Billy bookcase was named after an IKEA advertising manager,Billy Likjedhal. It was first developed by IKEA in the 1970s.
IKEA is an acronym. It stands for Ingvar (founder's first name), Kamprad (founder's surname), Elmtaryd (his family's farm) and Agunnaryd (the village in Smaland where he grew up).
On 31 December, the Finnish strongman [Juha Andersson] challenged the popular record for the heaviest deadlift with one finger, a title which has changed hands (or fingers) three times within 2025 alone. Yet Juha was more than confident that he could take the crown due to his championship background in competitive finger pulling, and on the last day of the year, the ultimate showdown began to see who has the toughest middle digit in the world.
And turns out, Juha was right - because on his second attempt, he easily yanked 336.42 lbs (152.60 kg) off the ground with just one finger, narrowly beating Egmond Molina's (Aruba) best of 334 lbs (151.5 kg) from four months prior.
"Competitive finger pulling"? Apparently so. In Germany it's called "fingerhakeln" and the Finnish version is named "sormikoukku."
Cue the "pull my finger" fart jokes (for the record, fart jokes are still funny).
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The Wednesday ONT respects the Horde enough not to waste precious virtual ink on anything said by Gavin Newsom. However, an exception must be made this one time for his comments from Davos:
This is diplomacy with Donald Trump. He's a T-Rex. You mate with him, or he devours you, one or the other. The Europeans could be (devoured) if they continue down this path and process. They need to stand tall, stand firm, stand united.
Others can debate the geopolitics but if you had "mating with a T-Rex" on your political bingo card for 2026, congratulations! I look forward to other dinosaur references in the vocabulary of public policy.
In related news...
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When the ugly weather arrives for many of you this weekend, remember there are people in Alaska that camp in the snowy wilderness for fun.
Pants highly suggested.
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Speaking of weather, here is a live picture of the weather situation:
Lincoln Logs are among a handful of classic toys made in the USA with American trees, but that's likely to change in a matter of weeks.
Pride Manufacturing - the Maine factory that makes Lincoln Logs and other wood products - is closing in April after losing its biggest contract, to make cigar tips for another company.
That leaves toymaker Basic Fun scrambling to find a new factory to manufacture the century-old brand that was founded by Frank Lloyd Wright's son, John, and has been a staple in families' toy chests for decades.
Production of the $10 million brand will likely move overseas and cost consumers about 10% more, according to Jay Foreman, chief executive of Boca Raton, Fla.- based Basic Fun.
Basic Fun, which makes other classic toys - including Lite Brite, Care Bears and Tonka Trucks - has initiated a 45-day search for a US supplier but it is also preparing a back-up plan in China to make sure it can produce enough toys for the holidays, Foreman said.
The plastic pieces that come with Lincoln Log sets - including roofs and other accessories like farm animals and farmers - are made in China. They are shipped in bulk to the US and packed into the boxes and tins of wood parts that were made by Pride Manufacturing.
The Burnham, Maine, factory made the sets starting in 2014. "After our largest customer made the decision to relocate their sourcing for cigar tips, our highest volume product, the facility became financially unviable," the firm said in a statement.
Because some of you are likely more interested in the cigar angle to this story:
The customer, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, is John Middleton, a downmarket cigar maker and subsidiary of tobacco conglomerate Altria Company.
Altria did not immediately respond to a request for comment about about why it yanked its business from Pride, which is the only cigar tip operation in the US, according to sources.
The tips are made from birch wood and are sold as part of John Middleton's Black and Mild cigars, which come with FDA-approved flavored wood tips.
Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Please do not send our mail to Greenland (yet). Are you lurking ?? Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Podcast: CBD and Sefton talk about insurrection in MN coming to NYC? Trump's Greenland rhetoric was over the top, the Gaza Peace Panel is anything but, Minnesota churchgoers need to step up, and is it possible that if the Persian people toss out the Mullahs they will begin a Muslim reformation?
Long-time Coblogger and commenter "Niedermeyer's Dead Horse" is having significant health issues, and would appreciate the thoughts and prayers of The Horde. If you wish to reach out, use @NiedsG on X/Twitter. [CBD]
Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
30m
JUST IN - DOJ investigating Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for conspiracy to impede immigration agents -- CBS
Podcast: CBD and Sefton chat about the end game in Iran, what to do about the Fed, its supposed "independence," and its hyper-politicized chairman, the housing crunch, and Trump's harebrained suggestion to decrease credit card interest!
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and an always interesting observer of the human and political condition, has died. RIP. [CBD]
Tousi TV: France closes embassy in Tehran, US Department of State advises all US citizens to get out of Iran He's been saying that Tuesday will be a decisive day. Other reports say that Trump is in the last stages of planning an action against the mullahs. (And other reports say that Tucker Carlson Simp JD Vance is attempting to get Trump to agree to "negotiations" with Iran -- for fucking what? What do we get out of saving the fucking mullahs and letting them kill and torture their own people? Apart from Tucker Carlson getting to pretend he's a Big Man Influencer and that he's worth all the Qatari money he's receiving.)
Asmongold predicted that AWFLs would turn on immigration the moment we started importing hot women into the country, and he was right via garrett
