Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.
-- Marie Antoinette
And the mushy-brained left has conveniently forgotten the sordid history of its god...socialism, and one of its most evil acolytes...Stalin!
In the Stalin years, spouses, children, siblings, parents, and even ex-wives of accused enemies were often rounded up as relatives of so-called kulaks, enemies of the people or traitors to the motherland. Stalinist terror against political enemies reveals a remarkable obsession with kinship. Official instructions referred to kinship using various descriptors, but mostly through such code words as "financial dependents" and "co-inhabitants," which typically signaled wives, elderly parents, and children.
This is classic Stalinist dogma. Hold the children accountable for the crimes of the parents, and since being a Trump supporter is a crime in the eyes of the left, this young lunatic is simply following orders!
Kamala Harris now has supporters screaming at little children in strollers.
Ignoring the conspicuous lack of what I consider a cultural imperative...somebody knocking that young fascist on her ass, is it a surprise that a toddler is fair game?
The progressive movement in America has spent generations demonizing anyone with the temerity to disagree with their worldviews and their ultimate goal of a socialist paradise on earth. They have worked assiduously on multiple fronts to subvert the traditional culture and replace it with one obsessed by class, race, gender ethnicity, sexual proclivity, etc. And by placing everyone in a convenient category, they destroy that which makes us human...our uniqueness. That fool saw nothing untoward with placing an innocent child in one of those demonized categories...Kulak...Nazi...Trump supporter...anti-Soviet agitator.
Academia has fallen to them. Literature fell long ago...Upton Sinclair, Hemingway, Steinbeck, London...much of the backbone of American literature taught in our schools has socialist undertones.
And the last bastions of traditional society, simple courtesy and protecting children from the excesses of adults has gone by the wayside. In the America of yore, that buxom braindead bimbo would have been dragged away by the crowd and tossed into the bushes. Now? a few chastising words from her compatriots is the best we can get.
But that is by plan. Socialism never sleeps...never forgets...and never stops undermining the freedoms and personal responsibility that protect a free society.
When they even attack children, is there anything out of bounds?
Good morning kids. So we're a week out from election day. the October surprise could be an Israeli decapitation strike that brings down the mullahs. The latter now have zero air defenses.
Open thread so have at it and have a great day. Prayers up I get my damn computer back in the next day or so.
Breaking: The gunman in the shooting of the Orthodox Jewish man in Chicago is an illegal immigrant from northwest Africa. He crossed our southern border a year and a half ago.
The 2024 edition based on the latest M4 chip starts with 16GB.
And a minuscule 256GB of SSD worth less than $10 because Apple is determined to make cheapskates suffer.
Everything is soldered in place - everything is always soldered in place - so you can't upgrade it later. And the top configuration, with all of 32GB, costs as much as a high-end gaming or workstation PC with twice as much of everything and ten times the graphics performance.
“Now, it may be a leap for some people and a lot of others may think, ‘I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to say that.’ But please open your eyes to the danger that this man poses to our country, because I think it is clear and present for anybody paying attention.” Hillary (Never Going To Be The POTUS) Clinton
At least one mail ballot and several pieces of campaign literature were among the discarded items.
A U.S. Mail contract postal worker is accused of throwing 1,000 pieces of mail — including at least one mail-in ballot and 400 political mailings — into the woods Tuesday in Orange County instead of delivering the items just before the Nov. 5 election, according to a new federal criminal complaint.
Ottis Nicole McCoy Jr. tossed the mail into a neighborhood cul-de-sac in Alafaya Woods, authorities said in the criminal complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court’s Orlando division.
Tim Walz had a secret fling with the daughter of a high-ranking Communist official during his 1989 teaching stint in China, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Jenna Wang, 59, claims the VP hopeful showered her with gifts and seduced her at his poky staff accommodation at No. 1 High School in Foshan, Guangdong Province.
The lovers could not risk holding hands or showing affection in public because Wang's dad was a high-ranking figure in the Chinese Communist Party who would disown her for fraternizing with a westerner.
But their romance blossomed behind closed doors as they sipped tea, made love and listened to George Michael hits – leading the then 24-year-old Wang to dream about marriage and a new life in the United States.
No proposal was forthcoming from the future Minnesota governor, however, and the shame of being treated 'like a prostitute' eventually left Wang feeling angry and suicidal, she claims.
Editor’s note: Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her book “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Take It Back” was recently published by Alcove Press. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook and X.
One of the top Halloween costumes for kids this year, Red from the movie “Descendants: The Rise of Red,” is frequently sold by retailers as a short, tight red getup with lace or fishnet material and zippers. Another on Google’s annual “Frightgeist” list of the top 10 kids’ costumes, the Queen of Hearts, often resembles a French maid costume.
“Boys are dressing up as military personnel, policemen, and explorers,” Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown wrote in the 2006 book “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers’ Schemes.” “Girls dress up as hot little teenagers.”
NASA's astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been told to prepare for an urgent evacuation amid growing safety concerns.
The US space agency and its Russian counterpart, Roscomos, are tracking 50 'areas of concern' related to a growing leak aboard the station.
NASA is now calling the cracks in a Russian service module a 'top safety risk' - escalating the threat rating to five out of five.
Astronauts have been warned to stay in the American section when the module is open so they can be close to their spacecraft in case of an emergency evacuation.
Although officials have been aware of the issue since 2019, the exact source of the leak is still unknown.
All potential cracks have been covered with 'a combination of sealant and patches' but NASA warned that the leak reached its fastest rate yet in April this year.
Concerns over the station's safety are now so high that NASA has negotiated with Roscomos to only open the hatch when absolutely necessary and to keep it sealed in the evenings.
And that's not the only cause for concern, as the space agency has warned that the ISS is at risk of being pelted with micro-meteors and space debris.
Imagine you are a newborn baby in an intensive care unit. Maybe you were born prematurely, or didn’t get enough oxygen during the delivery. There might be an IV in your tiny arm, with a small board holding it down so you can’t rip it out. You might have a tube going into your nose. You are alone, finally stabilizing after a traumatic event. But then, the doctors come in.
“It’s as if you are finally safe in your nice warm bed and suddenly, out of nowhere, someone rips the sheets off of you, opens the window to let the freezing cold air in, shines bright lights in your face—and you’re powerless,” says Christine Vaskas Churba, a music therapist at The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai hospital in New York. Vaskas Churba works in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
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*****
It's amazing what human beings are capable of doing if the (insert your favorite adjective here) government gets out of the way. Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.
DAVENPORT, Fla. - A Polk County woman’s hankering for a late-night snack ended with her allegedly ducking for cover as an Uber Eats driver spit in her face and stole her fall yard décor after she confronted the woman about taking some of her food, according to an arrest report.
*****
Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Trading Time For Vodka.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire & AceCorp, LLC. Mondays are a ploy to destroy our morale from within. Fight. Fight. Fight. And drink moar Ovaltine.
The Harris Super PAC is screaming at the top of its lungs that the campaign needs to change course and ditch the fascism talk. Meanwhile its surrogates are flooding the zone with extremely weird arguments about MSG. It's a self-created messaging prison.
Sean Davis
@seanmdav
Super PACs and campaigns aren't allowed to coordinate, so the Super PAC is directing the campaign to change strategy via the New York Times, which is itself a Democrat Super PAC that is not constrained by campaign finance laws.
Republican Party of New Mexico
@NewMexicoGOP
IT'S OFFICIAL!
President Trump is coming to New Mexico!!!
When:
Thu, October 31, 2024
12:00 pm (US/Mountain)
Doors Open: 08:00 am
Where:
Albuquerque--TBD
It's a small thing, but I think it's weird that that Trump cannot pronounce Gavin Newsom's last name. Every time he puts a "K" sound in it. "Noo-skum." I don't think it's deliberate.
-- Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) October 26, 2024
I love this tweet so much. It's a small but absolutely perfect example of how NeverTrumpaloos are so consumed with hatred for the orange man that they can't even hear or understand his beyond obvious insult name game. https://t.co/Jmf8IvOsZi
-- Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 26, 2024
It's the MacGuffinization of NeverTrump Politics, one might say, or one might plagiarize.
Cenk Uygur's glowing review of Trump's 3 hour interview with Joe Rogan: "I thought Trump looked presidential and personable. I hate that, but he did. It goes back and forth smoothly. There aren't talking points. Standard politicians including Kamala Harris are talking point… pic.twitter.com/Sw1ZJxGsGd
Leftwing cat lady femcel "witches" complain that they're trying to cast spells on Trump, but God is protecting him.
Well they don't say God -- but who else could it be?
It's happening! It's happening!
Kamala Harris is underperforming 2020 Joe Biden: Katty Kay: "Kamala Harris is doing worse than Joe Biden in 2020. Amongst independents, she's 12 points behind."
This story is from the Jerusalem Post. For some reason, the American media which is so fearful of violent Nazism isn't covering it.
Why is that, do you think?
Chicago Jewish man on way to synagogue shot by attacker shouting 'Allahu Akhbar'
The attacker was shot multiple times, and is now in being treated in a hospital in critical condition, Bruno added.
A Jewish man was shot multiple times in the shoulder as he was walking to a synagogue in Chicago on Saturday in broad daylight, Fox 32 Chicago, the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), and the Chicago Police Department announced on Sunday.
The man, 39, was shot by a 23-year-old gunman in the 2,600 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, which is home to many Orthodox Jewish families.
The gunman, who has yet to be identified, was heard on a security camera recording screaming "Allahu akbar" before engaging in a two-and-a-half-minute shootout with the police.
The Chicago Police Department told JNS that the incident was under investigation but did not directly confirm that the victim was Jewish.
However, when asked if the victim was wearing anything that identified him as an Orthodox Jew during a press conference, Deputy Police chief Kevin Bruno said that "the victim is from the community."
Bruno said that at 9:35 a.m., the man was walking in West Rogers Park "when an armed offender approached from behind and fired shots at the victim, striking the victim in the shoulder."
NEW: Video footage from yesterday as a man shoots at a Chicago Fire Department ambulance, then toward a man walking a dog, before running to engage Chicago cops in a shootout.
CPD says he had successfully shot another man in the area about 20 minutes earlier. pic.twitter.com/J0yKp6Gb4A
I'm sure everyone knows the media's game -- they only start screaming about anti-semitism or #StopAsianHate when a safely white perp does something awful. If you're non white, you can bash Jews or Asian grandmothers in the head all the live-long day without Jake Tapper batting an eye.
Sorry for the long delays -- the computer broke and I've been on the phone with HP. (Who turned out to be helpful. But this is not the time I wanted to have to send out my computer for repair.)
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has reportedly given the newspaper a mandate to add more conservative voices to its opinion section -- even as he remains silent over the broadsheet's decision not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
Bezos -- the world's second richest person with a fortune that Bloomberg Billionaires Index valued at $211 billion as of Monday -- is keen on gaining a more ideologically diverse readership by expanding his newspaper's reach among right-leaning audiences, according to a report in The New York Times.
The left is continuing to melt down over the non-endorsement of Kamala Harris.
...
Washington Post staffers were reeling over Bezos' decision to block the Harris endorsement, a draft of which was said to be all typed up and ready for publication.
...
Lewis, who said it was him and not Bezos who killed the endorsement, wrote a column in which he said that the decision was actually a return to a tradition the paper had years ago of not endorsing candidates.
He said it was "consistent with the values the Post has always stood for" and it reflected the paper's faith in "our readers' ability to make up their own minds."
...
The decision sparked a backlash among staffers and readership -- with scores of social media users proclaiming that they had cancelled their subscriptions to the paper.
One Washington Post reporter said she was left "heartbroken" when her mother cancelled her subscription over the nixed endorsement.
Robert Kagan, a member of the opinions section, resigned in protest. He said that Lewis' explanation was "laughable" and that the decision not to endorse stemmed from an alleged deal between Bezos and former President Donald Trump.
...
"This is obviously an effort by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump in the anticipation of his possible victory," Kagan told CNN on Friday.
"Trump has threatened to go after Bezos' business," Kagan added, referring to Amazon.
Oh really? Why would he be afraid of something like that?
Why would a billionaire think the government is now hunting ideologically-opposed billionaires?
Disinformation Expert Lizzy
@StarChamberMaid
Bezos is worried that Trump will do to him what the Regime has done to Elon.
If them's the rules, then them's the rules.
As you probably know, Jen Rubin virtue signaled for a couple of days, calling for more reporters to resign from the LA Times after that paper declined to endorse Kamala. (They refused to resign because of Kamala's failure to openly embrace Hamas.)
Well, it's now almost a week since it was first reported that Rubin's paper, the Post, wouldn't endorse Kamala, and she continues to not resign herself. She knows she's an absolutely useless, readerless NeverTrump charity case and if she quits this job, she won't get another.
She did, however, have the #StunningBravery to post a picture of herself in a DEI shirt.
Whoopi Goldberg is now claiming Trump will break up mixed-race marriages, and send "the white guy to someone else:"
Whoopi claims Trump is going to break up interracial marriages and redistribute the white spouses: "He's going to deport and you put the white guy with someone else" "The man is out there!" she declares. pic.twitter.com/luXpWjjqC9
Big Mike doesn't qualify as an Affluent White Female Liberal, but he's an honorary one:
The Dems kept the Obamas in reserve until now & their big plan now that they’re out there appears to be to shame ppl planning to vote in their own self-interest rather than to support the life choices of these yacht-loving, celeb-glomming, bored multi-millionaires. https://t.co/nKvShQCaNe
To Pander to Young Men, AOC and Puffy Old Queen Tim Walz Spend Sunday Playing Video Games
—Ace
This is stupid, obvious, inauthentic, borderline-insulting pandering. We're all supposed to think, "Boy, this idiot and this sissy are playing video games, so I, as a typical young man, can related to them."
I'm never pandered to by the Democrat-Marxist Party and now that they are pandering to me: I think I'm offended. I'm glad they don't do it more often.
Do minorities likewise cringe when the Democrat-Marxist Party panders to them?
Do they likewise cringe when 70 year old white women claim to carry hot sauce in their pocketbooks, or 60 year old Indian women claim they grow their own chili peppers?
By the way: Kamala Harris is now saying she'll protect the First Amendment, which Trump would take away.
And if that's not preeeeeposterous enough, she also says she'll defend gun owners from having their guns grabbed by Trump!
Shannon Sharpe admits that many Black folks "revere" Donald Trump and asked Kamala why they shouldn’t vote for him.
Kamala hilariously responds that Trump will take away their 2nd Amendment. I’m not joking. She seriously says she’s the 2nd Amendment protector in this race. 😂😂… pic.twitter.com/Hli9jAiVSU
James Varney: Biden-Harris's Climate Slush-Fund Gives Out Nearly a Billions and Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to a Fund Controlled By Obama's Fomer Aides and Other Democrat Cronies
Although there isn't much public information available about the Justice Climate Fund, it appears to have been an overnight success.
After gaining nonprofit status in August 2023, the organization was awarded $940 million by the Biden administration just eight months later in connection with the White House's $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which aims to provide financial assistance to reduce carbon emissions and reduce pollution.
The Justice Climate Fund is not the only nonprofit newcomer suddenly made rich by the GGRF. Within a month of gaining nonprofit status from the IRS, Power Forward Communities, which reported 2023 revenues of $100, was awarded $2 billion.
The awards were made by the Environmental Protection Agency, which is new to the world of major grantmaking. The agency acknowledges it has never handed out such gigantic sums of money, and its inspector general told Congress last month it marked a "fantastically complex" and "unusual" setup that his small staff would be hard-pressed to follow.
Critics note that many of the awardees are run by politically connected figures. The single biggest winner in the awards, which were announced in April, was the Climate United Fund, which is slated to receive $6.97 billion. The fund's directors include prominent Democrats, such as Phil Angelides, a former California State Treasurer, and Anthony Foxx, who served as Transportation Secretary in the Obama administration.
The unprecedented nature of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created as part of 2022's Inflation Reduction Act, is raising concerns about the Biden administration's efforts to spend tens of billions of dollars in its final months, a gusher of taxpayer money that will flow into a poorly understood, untested, and difficult to audit format. The tremendous sums involved, the novelty of the program, and the EPA's lack of experience in the field, as well as the unproven track record of some of the newly hatched recipients, have drawn the attention of lawmakers and others uncertain about how the taxpayers' billions will ultimately be spent and who will keep track of it all.
"These groups are political front groups that are simply created to funnel billions of taxpayer dollars to Democrat campaigns under the guise of doing something good," said Mandy Gunasekara, who served as EPA chief of staff in the Trump administration.
Daren Bakst, director of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute's Center for Energy and Environment and a sharp critic of the Biden administration's climate change spending splurge, said, "It's worse than a slush fund -- it's a slush fund to create non-profit slush funds."
...
Neither the Justice Climate Fund nor Power Forward Communities responded to questions about their plans to spend the close to $3 billion in public funds they had received.
...
EPA Special Advisor Zealan Hoover pushed back at the claim that unusual secrecy surrounded the process and criticism that there are flimsy guardrails to ensure the $27 billion is well spent.
...
...
The board of the Coalition for Green Capital, which got the second biggest NCIF award of $5 billion, includes Hugh Frater, who headed Fannie Mae at the end of the Obama administration. Another board member,Cecilia Martinez, was the top "environmental justice official" in Biden's White House before moving to the advocacy and nonprofit sector. Stephen Brown, the Coalition's chief network officer, began his Washington career in the Clinton White House, while Jessie Buendia, chief impact officer, was previously part of the California state government. Another highlighted officer with the Coalition is Daniela Nyiri, who worked on campaigns for Michigan Democrat Haley Stevens before moving to the Progressive Turnout Project.
The last NCIF installment of $2 billion was awarded to a group called Power Forward Communities, which was formed in 2023. It is led by Timothy J. Mayopoulos, who headed Obama's Fannie Mae from 2012 to 2018. One of its directors is Shaun Donovan, who served in the Obama administration for all of its eight years, including a stint as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Read the whole thing. Now that Biden-Harris know their days are numbered and unspent funds will be cancelled by Trump, they're just firehosing the money out to their cronies.
THE MORNING RANT: Mitch McConnell is Actively Trying to Defeat Conservative Republicans in Senate Races this Election
—Buck Throckmorton
The long political career of Mitch McConnell (R – KY) is winding down in the same manner as previous RINO Senators such as John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, etc – with betrayal, vendettas, and a repudiation of the conservative base. McConnell, the current Senate Republican Leader is actively trying to defeat incumbent Senate conservatives who are running for re-election, and he is making it clear that his role in his final two years in Congress will be to align with Democrats to thwart President Trump should Trump be elected to a second term.
Although McConnell still has two more years left in the Senate, he will step down as Senate Republican Leader following the 2024 election. A new Senate leader will be chosen once the new Congress is sworn-in following the election.
But as a final insult to conservatives before McConnell steps down, he has effectively allied with Chuck Schumer (D – NY) in trying to help Democrats win Senate races against conservative Republicans by how he (McConnell) allocates the millions of dollars in his Super-PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.
Ted Cruz (R – TX) is running for re-election in a too-tight race against far-left Democrat Colin Allred. Mitch McConnell is working to defeat Cruz and elect Allred.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) vented his frustration with the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, for not spending any money in his competitive reelection race, accusing McConnell of using the group to “punish” his critics in the Senate GOP conference.
“Mitch McConnell runs the largest Republican super PAC in the country and has $400 million but that super PAC is used to reward the Republican senators who obey him and to punish those who dare to stand up him,” Cruz told conservative talk show host Mark Levin during a recent interview.
McConnell has allocated exactly $0 to help Cruz get re-elected.
Asked if McConnell or the PAC had put any money into his increasingly close race against Democratic Rep. Colin Allred (Texas), Cruz replied: “Not a penny.”
“This time around he has $400 million. I’m being massively outspent again. [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer] is spending millions. And yet he spent zero,” he added, referring to McConnell.
Protecting Cruz’s seat is critical for Republicans to gain the Senate majority. Suffice it to say that Senate Minority Leader McConnell is most content when Republicans are in the minority and he can work with Democrats to thwart Trump and advance Democrat agenda items.
It’s not just Cruz who is being denied funding, it’s also conservatives such as Rick Scott in Florida, Kari Lake in Arizona, and Sam Brown in Nevada. If the Republicans were to win all those Senate races, the GOP would have a strong Senate majority to support President Trump. But Mitch McConnell is working to elect Democrats in all those states by denying funding to the Republican candidates.
In this interview with Glenn Beck, you can hear Ted Cruz discuss how Mitch McConnell is actively seeking to thwart the re-election of conservative Republican Senators, and to punish them for actually representing their constituents rather than being loyal to McConnell in pushing a liberal agenda.
.@tedcruz tells me Mitch McConnell would rather PUNISH him for refusing to play ball than keep Texas red: “Chuck Schumer has been explicit: I am his number one target in the entire country…McConnell spent ZERO in Texas…If you’re at home frustrated how come so few Republican… pic.twitter.com/Gi0at5KI9x
Back in 2016, after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s untimely death, President Obama nominated anti-constitutionalist Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. McConnell, the then-Senate Majority Leader, had an obligation to Republican voters who gave the Senate a Republican majority to deny confirmation to the radical nominee. Rather than have hearings and rallying the Republican Senate majority to vote against Garland’s confirmation, McConnell simply ran out the clock by never holding a vote, serving the same purpose. Once Trump was elected, Neil Gorsuch was nominated and confirmed.
Good job, Senator McConnell. You actually did your job…at least one time. But that is actually the least we should expect. How much of a battered-wife syndrome do we conservatives have that for eight years we’ve been offering slobbering praise to McConnell for not betraying us at that moment? We conservatives so thoroughly expect to be betrayed by the GOP establishment that if there is just one time when we are not betrayed, we reward the politician with a lifetime of future betrayals.
But for now, McConnell is focused on working with Democrats to stop Trump’s agenda.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a scathing assessment of the modern Republican Party in an upcoming biography, saying the “MAGA movement is completely wrong” and that Ronald Reagan “wouldn’t recognize” the party today.
With Mitch McConnell promising that he’ll be ”arguing more with [MAGA Republicans] probably than the Democrats”, Ace offered this succinct observation.
So who is Mitch McConnell allocating his Super-PAC’s money to? It’s going to liberal “Republicans” such as Larry Hogan of Maryland, who as Governor made anti-Trumpism a primary focus of his administration, and who is promising if elected to work with Democrats to stop the Trump agenda.
A McConnell-linked super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund [a super PAC supporting Larry Hogan], gave $2 million to Maryland’s Future in July.
After this election, the Republicans will pick a new Senate Republican Leader. Senator Mike Lee of Utah is already discussing McConnell’s despicable betrayal of us and preparing the battleground now to prevent any more kapos like Mitch McConnell from having the power to undermine our agenda. Senator Lee wrote the following in a thread on Twitter.
1) McConnell’s attacks on Donald Trump & Rick Scott are indefensible. Those running for Senate GOP leadership posts need to weigh in on this & commit never to sabotage Republican candidates & colleagues—particularly those who are less than two weeks away from a close election.
2) We must have clarity from the candidates running to replace McConnell on where they stand on these attacks. They must be clear on how they plan to lead the conference, and on the role of its members.
3) The Senate Republican leader is supposed to help Republicans, not undermine them. Sadly, we’ve had too much of the latter. That must end now.
4) Remember: McConnell’s Super PAC has withheld campaign support from Ted Cruz and Rick Scott this election season, an incomprehensible move for a Senate GOP “strong leader” who wants to keep Texas and Florida and gain a majority in the Senate.
With Mitch McConnell now fully allied with Chuck Schumer and promising to work with Democrats to advance an anti-Trump agenda, a slim Republican majority in the Senate is not enough. Don’t be surprised if McConnell serves out his final two years as an Independent rather than a Republican and caucuses with the Democrats if that will help the Democrats maintain control of the Senate.
Good morning kids. Hope you all had a good weekend. Another open thread. Hope to get the computer back this week. Feel free to share links and discuss amongst yourselves. HAPPY MONDAY.
If it encounters such a thing, it will happily fill the void with something it just made up, often creating strange or offensive sentences out of nothing at all.
Which wouldn't be a huge problem since we've come to expect that of chatbots.
Except that Whisper is used for medical transcriptions.
Lawyers everywhere are salivating like dogs hearing the dinner bell.
Software licenses tend to disclaim everything disclaimable and many things that aren't, and companies only get into real trouble when they screw up in very specific and public ways and yes I am looking at you, CrowdStrike.
“We have some people, mostly foreigners, running across fresh lava, so to speak, and going very close to the crater. If something happens, no one will come and get you.” Dagbjartur Brynjarsson
Quote II
"Just by being born here, our son benefits from the love, support and hope of so many people -- even though he has achieved absolutely nothing in life yet," Toshiki Kato
Quote III
“The havoc that was created deserves, in my opinion, to be fully compensated for,”
Delta CEO Ed Bastian
*****
The Comments of The Week
Last nights comments addressed to Jim Sunk New Dawn Galveston, displayed what a great community we have here at the AoS.
WILLINGTON, CT (WFSB) - A man was arrested for going 118 MPH on I-84 in Willington Saturday morning.
State police say that at around 7:21 a.m., a trooper was patrolling I-84 east near exit 69 in Tolland when they were passed by a blue Hyundai Elantra with New York license plates.
WATCH: Tearful Team Captain Says Nevada Tried to Force Women’s Volleyball Team to Play Against Transgender Player
Last week, the women’s volleyball team at the University of Nevada forfeited its game against San Jose State due to the team’s concern about playing against a transgender player. Still, the forfeit came despite the pressure from Nevada administrators to play the game anyway.
Nevada’s athletic department officially announced the forfeit on Friday, noting that the team would not have enough players to take the court.
Remember all those great ideas George Soros had about crime and open borders? Guess what the spawn of Satan, whose every idea is designed to increase human misery, is pushing now? Legal weed.
Switching out Americans for third worlders and releasing violent predators from prison gave him kicks for a while. But way too many Americans had not yet become McDonald’s-fattened, glassy-eyed deadbeats who spend most of their time sprawled across a filthy couch ordering DoorDash pizza, playing video games and not looking for work.
Legalizing marijuana is the last step, the silver bullet to the heart of what’s left of our country. Tantalize the public with a drug that will turn them into low-IQ losers, crashing cars, committing suicide and rushing to emergency rooms with their cannabis-induced scromiting (uncontrollable screaming and vomiting at the same time — one of the many charming side-effects of widely available pot).
*****
The ONT Musical Interlude & Indian Summer Emporium
The influence of a corrupted mainstream media that grows more despised and distrusted by the day was already on the ropes and Joe Rogan’s sit-down with Donald J. Trump could be the knockout punch.
On Friday, the highly anticipated interview between the former president and the most popular podcaster on the planet came to fruition as their 3-hour conversation blew up on social media and alternative media platforms with more than 19 million viewers in the first 24 hours alone.
The Trump-Rogan interview “signifies the end of legacy media” in the opinion of another podcaster, Shawn Ryan who shoveled dirt on the media coffin in a video that the former Navy SEAL posted to X on Saturday.
*****
Weekly commenter stats for week of 10-27-2024
Top 10 commenters:
1 [642 comments] 'Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden' [90.14 posts/day]
2 [544 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, finding suspense, madness, and humanity with Michael Powell'
3 [441 comments] 'Bulgaroctonus'
4 [419 comments] 'andycanuck (hovnC)'
5 [348 comments] 'JackStraw'
6 [314 comments] 'Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere '
7 [313 comments] 'Skip '
8 [292 comments] 'Hadrian the Seventh'
9 [281 comments] 'whig'
10 [275 comments] 'Cicero (@cicero43)'
Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [222 names] 'Ciampino - eggs are now in short supply again' [31.17 unique names/day]
2 [107 names] 'It Is Balloon!'
3 [105 names] 'Ciampino - shame'
4 [92 names] 'I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper'
5 [82 names] 'Mullah Miklos'
6 [64 names] 'Duncanthrax'
7 [58 names] 'Count de Monet'
8 [35 names] 'Rich stupid and off key is no way to go'
9 [30 names] 'Quarter Twenty '
10 [27 names] 'Moron Analyst'
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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Duck Decoys.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire & AceCorp, LLC. ONT tips, loose change, drink tokens and burner phones to petmorons at gmail dot com. Everything else, "Hey Siri!" or "Hey NSABob!".
Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be the end of October? In just a few days, it will be Halloween and the Great Pumpkin will visit the range. Will you be prepared? Have you been practicing your Fundamentals?
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
FUNdamentals
Are you so dedicated to your focus on fundamentals that you forget to have fun at the range? Remember, you can't have fundamentals withoutut having FUN! Practicing solid fundamentals and having fun are not mutually exclusive, so enjoy yourself at the range.
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Bitch Slapping Us With History
From our pal mindful webworker a look at Carbine Williams by The History Guy.
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Winchester Promo
Have any of you done something like this with your dad? Have any of you dads done anything like this with your boy or girl?
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Gunsmith of Williamsburg
This is really good! Even without a gunsmith, Colonial Williamsburg is very cool and worth your time.
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The History of the Hose Clamp
Tonight we celebrate our pal the hose clamp.
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The Brain From Planet Arous
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Six Pounds of Fury and Terror!
It's been almost exactly one year since we said goodbye to WeaselDog, and Fun Size Joe needed a sister, so please welcome our new little furry pal Unnamed Little Furry Pal! She's about three years old and weighs in at a solid six pounds. We brought her home yesterday from the local animal shelter and she makes FSJ look positively big by comparison. He is being a such good boy and sharing all of his stuff and our new little girl is settling right in!
So far she is laying low and figuring things out, but I can tell there is a big attitude inside the little package! Any suggestions for a name?
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Musical Interlude
Here is Albert King and SRV jamming Texas Flood. This is music, people.
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Gun Basics 101
New video from the She Equips Herself gal! This week's video is on... well, just watch the video..
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Cigar of the Week
This week our pal JSpicy , The Moron Formerly Known as Ooohm (TMFKAO) shares his favorite online cigar shop Fox Cigar.
Q: Weasel, should we continue calling Ooohm "Ooohm?"
A: No. Please refer to Ooohm as "JSpicy"
Anyhow...
When I'm not shaking my fist at imaginary kids on my lawn or wishing I had a lawn, my mind often wanders to the depressing state of online customer service. Today's know-nothing CEO's appear more interested in sucking out our personal data than delivering us beef jerky and booze. It's a damn shame.
What does that have to do with Cigars you ask? As it happens, plenty. First of all, I'm usually smoking a cigar when I'm shaking my fist at imaginary kids. Secondly, I was a life-long BigCigar customer but got fed up with their fees, email spam, weird clubs and poor customer service.
Then I happened upon a company that stocks the cigars I want, at competitive prices and great customer service. You think they'd be called Unicorn Cigars. Well you're wrong. They're called Fox Cigar company.
Did I mention free shipping? For cigars. Yeah. Delivery is quick, packaging is great with humidification packs in every order. Stickers too! The hand written notes make my day.
As for selection, I'm fancy so I buy my cigars in bundles and they carry my two favorites - Factory Smokes and Havana Q.
If you're looking for good smokes, good prices, free shipping and an excellent customer experience give foxcigar.com a try.
Now get the heck off my lawn!
Excellent, JSpicy! Thanks for the recommendation! I've added the link below.
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Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
This week's mailbag entry is from our pal Mis Hum. Looks like a TX MoMe!
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Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
At the beginning of a meal it is delicious, with smoked duck breast, or the French classic, crispy chicken gizzards and lardons on a bed of some green stuff that is unimportant. At the end of a meal, it is a wonderful palate cleanser, especially with a crisp and bright vinaigrette.
But as anything other than a counterpoint? Nah...it's not worth the trouble. How many dinner salads or lunch salads have you eaten in which the best part was the green stuff...no matter how high quality and artfully dressed and displayed? When was the last time you ate the green stuff and left the last of the steak tips or grilled chicken?
Every once in a great while I will have a salad that stands on its own. Many years ago at a restaurant in D.C. (called "The Pig!"), I had a summer salad made with incredible produce. It was a marvel of the farmer's art.
I read an article in "Imprimus" about the dangers of price and wage controls, and the author claimed that current total inflation was "22%."
I am unsure on what planet he shops, but anyone who believes that number needs to call me about a great deal on a barely used bridge across the East River!
I use a lot of grape tomatoes, and they have doubled in the last few years. Eggs have tripled. Olive oil has doubled. Bread has gone up significantly, but I don't buy much of it except for burger buns (and I should bake them more often!), but I'll guess at least 50%.
Yeah...yeah. Food and energy prices are "volatile," so they are excluded from the published numbers. Isn't that convenient!
Stop believing and repeating the Junta's lies.
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Clarified butter is a wonderful thing, but is a pain in the ass to make. And if you want to buy it, that's going to cost you! The Indian version is called "ghee," and is the version of clarified butter that is most readily available...for more than $1/ounce! Ouch.
But there are ways to make it at home, and commenter "Tom Perry" has been thinking about it...a lot!
A little background: I used to be a line cook. I got all my training on the job, and had the good luck to work with some real chefs. The apogee of my cooking career was back in the early nineties when I was the saute cook at a mid-to-upscale Cajun Bistro.
Having done that, I always thought of myself as a good cook, but that was a long time ago and there came a point where my skills got rusty and my repertoire was very limited. Lately, I've been getting a lot of satisfaction (and some failed experiments) from home cooking, and I'm learning new stuff, some of which I should have known a long time ago.
When I worked at that bistro, I used olive oil or whole butter for everything in my station, but there was clarified butter in the grill station for blackening steaks and whatnot. The way we made clarified butter was quick and dirty; there was always some residual milk solid in there. I learned recently that this style of "clarified butter" isn't the same thing as truly purified butter oil. That's the background.
Now here's something your readers might like: a couple of insights and one weird trick about clarified butter aka butter oil.
First off, pure butter oil is superior stuff. It's shelf-stable, solid at room temperature, has a rich aroma, and will bear just about any heat you can get into a skillet, without smoking. On the down side it's expensive and you have to make it yourself. To make it properly tends to be time-consuming, fidgety and wasteful.
The hard part is separating the pure oil from the milk solids and other crud. If you heat the butter until it bubbles, foamy crud floats to the top. Can you skim this stuff off without taking a bunch of oil with it? A ladle works poorly, a shallow spoon is better, and a rubber spatula might be best.
But then there's the crud that sinks to the bottom. If you let the butter rest in a glass container for a while, this crud will settle out thoroughly, leaving beautiful clear oil on top. But when you try to pour off the oil, the crud wants to float with it. You can either leave a fair amount of oil behind, or try to filter out the crud with a coffee filter, which will clog up, or cheesecloth, which allows some crud to get through and also traps some oil.
I watched Chef Jeanne-Pierre's video about making clarified butter. He likes to heat the butter for a long time until it really stops bubbling, then let it rest in a glass measuring cup. Once it's settled out, he pours the top oil off and uses cheesecloth for the final stage. I decided to try it his way, even though I didn't have any cheesecloth. I put my butter in a clear mason jar to let it settle. By chance, I put the mason jar on top of my chest freezer.
The top of my chest freezer is slightly cold. When the milk solids settled, they cemented to the glass. When I poured the oil off, the crud on the bottom didn't want to pour at all; it was glued in there. The resulting clarified butter was perfect.
I think there are a few minor tweaks to Tom Perry's technique that might be fun to try, but it sounds like he has it down pat.
Clarified butter is simply grand for cooking. It has a wonderful flavor, doesn't burn like regular butter, and will impress the hell out of your snooty 2nd cousin who fancies himself a chef!
I'm going to try this technique and calculate the yield and cost/ounce. Yes...I am a geek.
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I had the pleasure of helping out a bit with the cooking at the recently completed 2024 Texas Moron Meet-up. While I feel confident that I can feed 12 people without much trouble, feeding six times that number is an altogether different process. Luckily, Cowhorse Queen, Ben Had, and Rancher Bob were on top of everything, but even with their excellent planning, it was a lot of work. Just slicing food for that many people takes a very long time!
One lesson that was really hammered home was how the depth of food in pans has a significant effect on how quickly and how well it cooks.
Well...duh! But going from seven pounds of potatoes in a big roasting pan to 11 pounds makes a huge difference, not just in the amount of time needed to cook them but the final consistency and level of browning. Everyone reads about "crowding the pan" being a no-no, and it's true!
Ben Had made some delicious Gyros on the first night, using a modification to the classic spit-grilled technique. It was essentially meatloaf, but damned delicious!
Then the next night she had fajitas on the menu, and they were damned fine eating as well, especially the grilled onions that I would have made in the oven had I been allowed to be stupid.
Saturday night was plain old pulled pork and coleslaw. For about 75 people! What's a synonym for delicious? Because these were it! And the serendipity of a sort of burnt ends on the bottom of the pans was noted and will be trotted out at Chez Dildo!
These meals could not have been made without the enthusiastic participation of a bunch of Morons who happily rolled up their sleeves and did a huge amount of prep work. Thank You... Thank... You... Thank You!
But there's more! People brought snacks and a few side dishes (Stephen Price Blair's eggplant was a revelation!). There were curry empenadas, and bacon bread and stuff I sadly missed, and all sorts of things to eat.
Commenter "Aviator" and his lovely wife and son (he's not lovely, but he's nice) brought water and beer and soda and ice for everyone! What an undertaking! And they pulled it off without a hitch.
I am certain that I am forgetting a bunch of people who stepped up and helped make this event a success, so please accept a general "Thank You!."
Except the Bacon Wench. Harrumph! I didn't get any! ;)
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What if you made French toast in a waffle iron? Then you would have little divots for all the syrup, and CBD would have no idea why the back of his head is suddenly knotted up and his eye is twitching.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at October 16, 2024 05:05 AM (DDGz9)
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I have written often about the technique of braising, and since it is a pretty straightforward technique, and one that lends itself to stretching one's food dollar, it is a popular thing to do.
But...it isn't foolproof. Paradoxically, food cooked in liquid can and does dry out. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. I made the same dish a short time apart. I froze the leftovers, and tried them almost side by side with the newer version. One was noticeably drier. Still pretty tasty, and had I not been able to compare I might not have had the lesson driven home so well.
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A Proper BLT
[Hat Tip: dhmosquito]
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We are entering tomato hell, so beware. And send me garlic that isn't grown in heavy metals and human waste in China, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
Who are those poor deluded soulsWe know who shake their Manhattans! These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.
$1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty of fifty years, but it is worth it!
Trump's appearance on Joe Rogan was just posted Thanks so much to Sharkman Joe Rogan may start challenging Trump, but so far, Rogan is so frustrated about Kamala and the Regime that he's talking over Trump to make Trump's points for him. He can't wait to break in and interrupt, for example, that the FBI just amended its crime statistics showing crime increased a lot, and that David Muir of ABC therefore lied in his debate "fact check." Maybe Rogan's just buttering him up for tough questions later, but he sure seems to have warmed to Trump so far.
Wicked Backlash: How one woke DEI hypernarcissist's attempt to cancel and drag a fan (for making a fan-edit poster!) is causing even liberals to say they no longer want to watch the movie Football teams do psychological screenings on draft picks and free agents to make sure they're not hiding any ticking mental time-bombs. Hollywood needs to do the same. Oh, once you're in the business word gets out if you're a headcase or prima donna or backbiting viper. But they need to start interviewing people they elevate to stars with an eye to assessing psychological stability. I know that sounds Orwellian but they're already excluding conservatives from Hollywood just for being conservative. It's not like it would affect us, we're already on the blacklist.
Megyn Kelly: the two fundraising/strategizing groups for House and Senate Democrats are telling House and Senate candidates that they should not try to link themselves to Harris or her campaign
Emerson Poll: Harris 50, Trump 47; with leaners pushed to choose, Harris 51, Trump 47 Yes it's a lead, but 1, Emerson leans to the left, so this could be Trump's lead, and 2, it's a small lead which can be demolished by a combination of the demoralization setting in among the progressive civilization-razers and enthusiasm from Republicans.
Pitch Meeting: The Shining He notes something that just randomly popped into my head the other day: So the hotel is in the Colorado mountains, and it closes during the winter. Wait, what?
CBD and Sefton chat about Trump as Hitler, the election, Reason Magazine's pot budget, why American boots on the ground in Israel is a bad idea, and more!
For Duranies and disco fans: Duran Duran has covered Evil Woman, a song I never liked, but I do like Duran Duran's super-throwback-disco version And for classic rock fans: friend-of-the-blog Buck Dharma has released his newest Blue Oyster Cult album, Ghost Stories, and it's great. One song is a first-time effort by his son. Check out track 3, "So Supernatural." And speaking of covers, check out track 4, "We Gotta Get Out of This Place." They also cover "If I Fell" and "Kick Out the Jams." Amazon link here. Disclosure: If you buy the album, I get a 0.00% commission. But you'll have a good album.
The return of nasty staff-ripping Kamala Harris, attacking her staff for her own failures and inadequacies:
Ryan Fournier
@RyanAFournier
Kamala had a very bad morning according to some sources.
She tore her campaign manager Julie Chavez apart on a call that lasted around 30 minutes.
Kamala told her that she's horrible at her job and would be the reason she loses.
It's all setting in for them. It's over.
Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
