Quick Hits
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Joe Biden: My debate debacle wasn't very "consequential," you know.
Steve Cortes @SteveCortesJoe Biden now claims his 2024 presidential debate against President Trump, which forced him to drop out of the race, was not very consequential:
"To me it was not very consequential. First of all I thought there would be another debate, which there wasn't. Notwithstanding the fact that there wasn't another debate, it didn't disturb me because it wasn't consequential."
Just 24 days after the "not very consequential" presidential debate, Joe Biden ended his campaign for President.
Video here. He doesn't sound a day over 10,000.
Happy Election News:Don't know if this got commented on previously or not, but Illinois SuperMayor Tiffany Henyard's bid to become a Fulton County (GA) Commissioner as the Republican choice fell just a bit short.
Henyard (R) 5.40%
Willis (D) 94.60%Posted by: Count de Monet has opinions
Teeeee-riffic:
Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_BREAKING: Sen. Majority Leader John Thune has been re-elected by Senate Republicans and will serve as Senate Minority Leader in the new Congress when Dems take power. Senators Barrasso, Cotton, Capito, and Lankford have all also been re-elected to their positions. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) will now serve as NRSC Chairman instead of Sen. Tim Scott.
Bill Melugin
@BillMelugin_THUNE STATEMENT:
"I appreciated the opportunity to have an open, honest, and transparent conversation with my colleagues today, and I am honored to have their continued trust and support to lead the Senate Republican Conference in the 120th Congress," said Thune. "I'm proud of what this Republican team has accomplished together, and we remain united in our commitment to advancing conservative priorities, working with President Trump and our colleagues in the House, and holding the line against Democrats' efforts to enact their far-left, liberal agenda. We have important work ahead of us, and I look forward to serving alongside my colleagues on behalf of the American people."
Fuck you.
Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just promised "many, many investigations" to round up the huge number of "criminals" that Democrats see in their political opponents. None of this bodes well for the Republic as we restart the type of J6 show trials that marked the prior Democratic House.
Preston Byrne
@prestonjbyrneOfcom [The UK's big brother censorship organization] indicated in a hearing today that it is going to start pushing for arrest warrants for American refusers of the Online Safety Act.
It is wildly inappropriate for a foreign country to threaten Americans for exercising our constitutional rights.
The GRANITE Act would shield an American from extradition, and any time Ofcom threatened an American in this way, the American would be able to drag Ofcom - the UK's Internet censor - into federal court to confirm the order is unenforceable.
Congress: pass the GRANITE Act!
Voters aren't allowed to be their authentic selves...
Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸
@BubblebathgirlSeattle Mayor Katie Wilson doesn't care that voters passed Initiative 638 on Election Day to keep biological males out of girls' sports. On Tuesday, a week after the election, she posted that she supports the Seattle Public Schools Board's decision to challenge the measure because "every young person in Seattle deserves to thrive as their authentic self."
That's not governing. That's ignoring the result. Washington voters approved the initiative to protect girls' sports with a clear majority--about 57 percent--even while Democrats made gains elsewhere on the ballot. I-638 requires medical documentation confirming biological sex for girls' competition. That law takes effect in December. Wilson and the school board are moving to fight it in court anyway.
Posted by: beckster
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Lefty Hipster Doofus and King of Nepotism James Gunn Replaced by Skydance With a... Christian Normie
—Disinformation Expert Ace
As you can imagine, there is much freaking out about this by the very-normal people who literally freak out about everything.
First: Why were Gunn and his business partner Peter Safran fired from co-leading DC on Film?
And note that it has been confirmed that he was fired, or instructed to "resign."
After "Superman" landed in theaters last summer, former Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was ready to pop Champagne. Although the movie had only been playing on the big screen for three days, he touted the "bold 10-year plan" of DC Studios co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran and promised "the DC vision is clear" and "the momentum is real."Fast forward a year and a half, and those plans have imploded. Gunn and Safran were dismissed from the top of the comic book empire, with Marvel Studios alum Jeremy Latcham taking over as president and chief creative officer of DC Studios.
...
The executive shuffle is yet another setback for DC Studios, which has struggled for years to compete with Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe. Their short-lived leadership stint at DC follows multiple turnovers over the past decade, starting with comic book veterans Geoff Johns and Jon Berg and then Walter Hamada....
Gunn's "Superman," starring David Corenswet -- the duo's first big swing as bosses -- was touted as a hit with $618 million against a $225 million budget. Those ticket sales were promising enough, given the general decline in popularity of comic book movies. But they didn't necessarily signal the kind of lasting enthusiasm that spawns an interconnected universe. Momentum all but evaporated with July's money-loser "Supergirl," which flopped with $126 million globally against a $170 million budget. And while October's "Clayface" performed modestly with $109 million against a $44 million budget, sources suggest the body-horror thriller won't break even until the studio factors in downstream revenues.
I really liked -- maybe loved -- Gunn's reboot of The Suicide Squad. Some objected to him being put in charge of DC on Film -- the only thing he knows how to do, they said, was make crude jokes, inappropriate for young or normie audiences, and remake Guardians of the Galaxy, making every movie, even ones about a singular hero, into another story of a team of misfits learning together.
I dismissed that. Just because someone is good at one thing doesn't mean they aren't good at other things.
But I was wrong: He is incapable of writing anything but Guardians of the Galaxy Part IV.
And this is weird: Instead of focusing on DC's best-known heroes, he announced he'd be making movies about the third and fourth and fifth string heroes like -- and I know only stone-cold DC fans will even know what I'm talking about here -- Creature Commandos, Booster Gold, and The Authority.
If you're not a DC fan, you just read a bunch of words that mean absolutely nothing.
Let me tell you that as a DC fan myself, they only mean slightly more than nothing to me, too.
Insiders have raised eyebrows at Gunn and Safran's decision to focus on lesser-known characters, like Superman's cousin Kara El-Zor, aka Supergirl, and the Batman villain Clayface, rather than building out the franchise with marquee names.
I will give Gunn a half-pass for this choice, because the prior regime ruined many of the top DC characters, like Flash and Wonder Woman. (If you're thinking "But Wonder Woman was good," then I know you didn't see Wonder Woman '84. It was a disaster.)
Television efforts, too, were uneven. DC's main small-screen success was "The Penguin," a "Batman" spinoff led by Colin Farrell that was greenlit before Gunn and Safran took over. But the rest of the slate has generated less fanfare. Gunn's "Peacemaker" series, anchored by John Cena, debuted in 2022 before he stepped into the studio job. Although the initial season was popular, the second season -- which launched three years later -- failed to match the buzz of the first. "Lanterns," their first live-action TV show, had strong viewership and averaged 19 million viewers globally per episode going into the finale. Yet an insider at the company suggests the crime drama isn't quite capturing the zeitgeist, pointing out the show has yet to be renewed for a second season.
That one was also a disaster -- an anti-white woke screed about black supremacy.
Here's the good news: The Ellisons have decided to move away from the tasteless trashy woke hipster towards... a stone-cold normie who used to work for Marvel, when --- wait for it -- Marvel was good. He was part of Marvel from Iron Man through Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was just before the end of Marvel's golden age.
Internally, there's hope that Latcham -- an executive who helped shape the MCU -- will get back to basics with DC.
"Jeremy is the kind of guy who would go to Comic-Con to get an autograph from someone," says another source, "not someone who wants to be there signing autographs."
When Latcham was at Marvel, he'd question some edgy or divisive material, stating, "I don't think my grandmother would like this." Other executives would joke and propose things "if that would be all right with Jeremy's grandmother."
But apparently Jeremy's Grandmother was a good proxy for 85% of the normie audience.
Apparently Jermey Latcham is a Christian whose entire family lives near him on a giant spread in Texas, and who is dedicated to "mainstream, family-friendly, Christian-friendly" movies.
You can smell the artificial hormones burning over this.
It was Jeremy Latcham, a mild-mannered producer who was once a key member of Marvel Studios' exec team before moving to Texas to go independent.An occasional foray into big-budget moviemaking such as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves notwithstanding...
Which is a really solid movie, despite failing at the box office.
...Latcham was focusing on inspirational movies such as the Wright Brothers feature Flyer for the faith-focused studio Wonder Project, where he also helped make House of David, a TV show about the biblical figure. The producer is known to be vocal about his Christian faith and his desire to make uplifting projects."I had this nagging feeling that I needed to do more movies that had deeper meaning to me," Latcham said of Wonder Project during an appearance on the Bible Bros podcast while promoting the Nate Bargatze comedy The Breadwinner. "Let's be the HBO for the faith and family audience. Let's try to make movies and television shows that restore faith in things worth believing in."
Despite being Christian, Latcham apparently fought with Marvel to give James Gunn the Guardians of the Galaxy gig.
So he's not against edgy or trashy material -- in the appropriate case.
In a twist, Latcham was instrumental in Gunn's rise, advocating for the niche director's hiring on Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy, which turned Gunn into an A-list filmmaker who commands eight-figure paydays for his directing work.
DC's heroes, who are intended to play to broad, traditional normie audiences including children, are not the right characters for the Gunn treatment.
There is speculation he might also clean house at DC comics itself, which has been on a mission to forefront homosexuality and sexuality-bend characters like the most popular Robin, Tim Drake, and the formerly-popular Superboy, into gays and bisexuals.
This, of course, is causing all sorts of shrieking and screaming.
Some of the people who have lobbied and demanded for every other DC character to be turned gay are complaining that the Latcham might jam his personal beliefs down our throats.
Can you even imagine such a thing??!!>
But no he won't, because he's a professional, not a bent and twisted activist.
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CNN Director: We Focus on the Race of the Criminal When He's White But Hide It When He's a "Minority"
Plus: The Media Gins Up a Fresh Race Hoax
—Disinformation Expert Ace
You don't say.
You do not say.
This is a hidden-camera sting admission, of course. He would never admit this publicly.
This is standard CNN practice. Jake Tapper is very big on reporting crimes committed against Jews -- but, when black men were playing the knockout game with Jews in NYC, he did not report it, or if he mentioned it, he made sure he didn't run the video or name the perpetrators.
But he would generally complain of violence against Jews while avoiding any mention of the actual perpetrators of what he was talking about.
But then came the Tree of Life attack, where a synagogue was attacked by an Acceptable and Approved Villain, a white man. And then Jake Tapper really talked up the problem of violence against Jews, with the none-too-subtle suggestion that White Men, Republicans in particular, were responsible for it.
You see the same thing with rapes. White feminist women love to complain about rape... so long as it's a made-up allegation about presumably white Cornell students. (Note: It turns out most of them weren't white, but they assumed they were.)
Russell Brand, safely white, makes for an excellent Morality Play about concent.
Muslim rape gangs, on the other hand? Never heard of them. What are you talking about, Racist?
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Trump and Hegseth Honor the Heroes on This Veterans Day
—Disinformation Expert Ace
In addition to honoring the heroes, Trump also made the case for the war with Iran, although he also promised it would be over "soon."
During a speech at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday, President Donald Trump thanked U.S. service members for their ongoing sacrifices and argued that the U.S. has been pitted against Iran since 1979, when the Islamic Revolution happened.President Donald Trump defended the war in Iran and said it will be over "soon" during his Veterans Day address on Wednesday.
Trump made the statement while speaking to a crowd of veterans and their families at Arlington National Cemetery. He highlighted the 1983 Iran-backed bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and argued that Iran has been at war with the U.S. for decades.
"America did not start a war with Iran. Iran has been waging war on America since 1979. They should have been taken care of a long time ago," Trump said.
A brief background on Veterans Day:
The First World War killed as many as 22 million people worldwide and left some 23 million more wounded. An estimated 53,000 of those killed were American service members. Another 204,000 Americans would return home wounded.World War I ushered in a new age of warfare: industrial and mechanical innovations killed, wounded, and maimed troops on the battlefield in ways previously unimaginable. Tanks, machine guns, and poison gas forever scarred the men in the trenches in ways they could never forget -- and Americans back home took notice.
On the anniversary of the armistice, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day, saying:
"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."
From Armistice Day to Veterans Day
From that day until 1926, Armistice Day became a day Americans recognized unofficially, closing shops at 11 a.m. so people could line the streets for parades, public meetings, and prayer. By 1926, 27 states had already recognized the day as a holiday, so Congress decided to call it Armistice Day for the entire country. In 1938, November 11th became an official public holiday.
But "The War to End All Wars" didn't end any wars. It was just a prelude to World War II, the largest and costliest war in human history, in terms of both money and lives spent fighting it. World War II didn't end wars, either. After the Allies defeated the Axis Powers, the Cold War began, and in 1950, its first battles were fought on the Korean Peninsula. The United States, less than 40 years after the end of World War I, was suddenly filled with millions of war veterans, all of whom had fought for American freedoms and ideals.
The National Recognition of Veterans Day
In 1954, a year after the end of the Korean War, veteran service organizations lobbied Congress to amend the Act of 1938 to change "Armistice Day" to "Veterans Day" and make November 11th a day to honor all veterans.
banner"I have today signed a proclamation calling upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954, as Veterans Day," President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote in a letter to the administrator of Veterans Affairs. "It is my earnest hope that all veterans, their organizations, and the entire citizenry will join hands to ensure [sic] proper and widespread observance of this day."
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Arkansas "Republican" Says He Might Vote to Impeach Pete Hegseth
—Disinformation Expert Ace
A Republican congressman who narrowly won a seventh House term in deep-red Arkansas refused Sunday to rule out voting to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth."I want to hear the debate on it to see if it merits impeachment versus some other disciplinary action or action by the president, if he's not getting the job done in leading the Department of War," Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) told CBS News' "Face The Nation."
Hill, 69, answered "no" when host Margaret Brennan asked if he was "satisfied with how the war has been handled."
"But, I mean, I think the commander in chief has to take the responsibility for the strategy of conducting the war and how it's been conducted," he added. "But I will tell you one thing. There's nobody in America that wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
The House is expected to vote sometime this week on a resolution to impeach Hegseth promoted by lame-duck Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has vowed to force the issue unless the former Fox News host resigns.
"Not prosecuting a war perfectly" is not a grounds for impeachment. It's just a policy difference. And it's not really a policy difference at all because this pussy doesn't offer any of his own war policies that he can even claim would have been more effective.
As Jonathan Turley points out, the Democrats are admitting openly that they have scrapped the Constitution's requirement of high crimes and misdemeanors for impeachment and are now using it simply as a tool to fight for policy changes.
Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurleyRep. Jason Crow (D., Co.) just told Martha McCallum that the impeachment of Hegseth is "not really about impeachment" but rather just a desire to remove him. He said that this is just another means. That is precisely what the Framers did not want impeachment to become...
...Rep. Crow is speaking of impeachment as a way of forcing "a course change." It is exactly the cavalier attitude toward impeachment that can be so destabilizing for our country...
...He added "we have a tool called impeachment" that allows them to remove cabinet members like Hegseth if the President will not do so. When Martha pushed him on such "amorphous" objections, Crow said, "I would love to end the impeachment proceedings...just fire Pete Hegseth."
As Hegseth says: This sham impeachment is just their opening shot in using lawfare to get rid of anyone they don't like -- and that will eventually include ordinary civilians.
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Perfect: Twice-Deported Illegal Alien Arrested for Making a Bomb Threat Against a Plane In Flight
—Disinformation Expert Ace
This guy gets Cultural Enrichment right.
The deranged passenger who claimed he had a bomb aboard a New Orleans-bound United Airlines flight and then tried to rush the cockpit, has been identified as a Honduran illegal migrant twice kicked out of the US, immigration officials told The Post.
I have a scoop: He was deported once for saving too many lives as a heroic doctor, and deported a second time for being such a brilliant engineer he created limitless energy, but Big Energy wanted it kept secret.
Rony Alexander Gomez-Alberto, 34, was arrested on three separate occasions by Border Patrol for illegally entering the United States, years before he threatened to blow up the United flight 2174 plane out of New Jersey Monday night, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said.Immigration officials said that Gomez-Alberto, a Honduras native, was arrested twice in the US and deported -- first in September 2011 near El Indio, Texas, and again in October 2014 in Columbus, New Mexico.
The slippery migrant made his way back into the US a third time in 2019 near California's San Ysidro border town, where he was nabbed again, according to DHS.But Gomez-Alberto was freed from ICE custody in January 2020 after a judge ordered his release pending removal proceedings, authorities said.
Ah, even though he'd committed multiple crimes of sneaking into the country and then sneaking back, a leftwing judge ordered that he be released to flee again while he set a new clock on the potential years of procedure necessary to deport him again.
Those leftwing judges need to be purged and possibly prosecuted. Maybe they should be prosecuted as co-conspirators for all the crimes the illegals they set free subsequently (inevitably) commit.
His criminal history includes felony bomb threat, felony threat--terroristic state offenses, and disorderly conduct, according to the DHS spokesperson."Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are NOT welcome in the United States," the spokesperson said in a statement.
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Wednesday Morning Rant
—Joe Mannix
Of all the things this midterm election was about, "climate change" - remember that? - wasn't one of them. Middle-aged or older lefties still care, and a lot the youth still care (or say they do), but virtually nobody was voting climate change this year. It was not an electoral issue and practically nobody even mentioned it on the campaign trail. The Democrats weren't trumpeting how important "fighting climate change" is and the the Republicans weren't even bothering with their typical limp-wristed "sure it's a problem, but won't someone please think of the share prices" response because they didn't have to. It never came up.
Despite being muted this year, however, "climate change" remains a powerful weapon and with the communists surging into commanding majorities next year, it absolutely will be a legislative pursuit. It won't be as big as the headline-grabbers like "impeach everyone" or "turn USAID back on" or "open the border" or the virtually inevitable "government shutdown" will be, and that might be helpful to the cause. They can - and will - move on it even if they don't talk much while dismantling everything they can in the name of Mother Gaia. The Party used the increasingly-ghoulish John Kerry to telegraph is intent. At a UN climate change junket in Turkey, he made the preposterous assertion that the recent election demonstrates that the American public sees "climate change" as a "voting issue." It was an election where the issue basically didn't exist, but whatever. Any port in a storm.
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The Morning Report — 11/11 /26
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. First and foremost today is Veterans' Day,and so to all who have worn the uniform and most especially those who are still serving in our armed forces, I speak for all of us when I say I salute you and offer my gratitude for your service and sacrifices. My father and two uncles of blessed memory served their country during World War Two, one of whom did not return alive from the Pacific, and we honor him and all those who paid the ultimate price on Memorial Day. Today is set aside for all who served and still serve because without their selfless dedication and love of country we would not have made it to 250 years. So thank you and God bless you.
Surprisingly, or sadly I suppose as a reflection of the state of our nation and society for the first time in many years I'm finding a shocking lack of content reflecting on, let alone even acknowledging, what today is and what it means. But there is this one.
Veterans contribute to our communities in unique ways, with their training, leadership, ability to work as a team, and understanding of what it means to serve a cause bigger than themselves. Their military service may be over, but they still have so much to offer our churches, workplaces, neighborhoods, and families.Our country doesn’t ask every soldier to give his or her life, but every one of them is willing to. Long before any deployment, service members give up time with their families, months of training away from home, and the stability of an ordinary career, stepping up so the rest of us don’t have to...
...What does honor look like in practice? It starts with how we raise the next generation. At American Heritage Girls, one area of focus for troop life is cultivating a girl’s citizenship as a member of her community, state, and country. That same instinct should shape how every family raises its kids. Teach your children why service members’ positions demand reverence, and why that reverence shouldn’t fade once they’ve retired from the service. At a time when we feel divided over nearly everything, Americans can build the kind of unity that begins by honoring those who have faithfully protected and served.
Well, that is a nice sentiment indeed, but as last week's midterms might very well foreshadow, this may be the last official Veterans' Day holiday we actually celebrate or are allowed to celebrate considering those who "WON" the majority last week view this nation and its armed forces as the moral equivalent of the Waffen SS!
And while we're on the subject of what happened last week, just freaking wow!
In 2024, Kamala Harris won 4,835,250 votes in Texas. In 2026, Gina Hinojosa, the gubernatorial candidate from her party, picked up 5,230,929 votes and James Talarico, the Senate candidate, scored 5,445,156 votes.Where did Texas Democrats find 395,679 more voters than in a presidential election?
In October, Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden announced the big news. Texas had hit a record 19 million registered voters or specifically, 19,041,684 voters.
Not only was Texas up a whopping 17,119,632, nearly 2 million from its 2022 numbers, but there were now 418,000 more voters than there had been in 2024.
. . . The outcome in Texas was the work of a giant political machine in which tax-exempt foundations passed along money to non-profit groups which then funded local non-profit community activist groups: some of which benefit from government funding aimed at helping minorities. Money moved, sometimes illegally, between C3s and C4s and PACs, violating laws against using non-profits for electioneering, while being focused on one thing: registering voters.
How many of those voter registrations were legitimate? How many of those registered were actually citizens? How many local community organizers ensured that they would be getting more grants by finding dead voters or voters who didn’t exist?
Not a smidgen of corruption or fraud and any suggestion that our elections aren't completely fair and free of fraud is MAGA republican propaganda!!!
Elsewhere, this utter abomination is yet another foretaste of what we are facing.
With the stroke of a pen, California Governor Gavin Newsom has delivered a devastating blow to the rule of law and a cruel insult to the families of murder victims.
Well, looking to 2028, with Greaseball Newsom as a potential frontrunner to be at the top of the ticket in the Democrat Party, I had the thought that with this complete debasement of morality and the rule of law Newsom might have spawned a potential Willie Horton 2.0 advertisement!
Of course this presupposes that he actually does win the nomination and that the GOP along with whoever is at the top of our ticket has the brains to weaponize this and use it to devastating effect as Bush the elder did against Michael Dukakis.
It also presupposes that the Democrats won't steal 2028 like they did 2020 and now several key states last week, and if Texas' fully communized state government decides to join that insane national Poplar vote compact, the Electoral College is effectively abolished and we're screwed, seemingly, forever.
Senate Republicans chose current Majority Leader John Thune as minority leader in January. Oof. No one even challenged him, even though the Democrats flipped seven seats and will likely flip two more. Some senators tried to delay the leadership vote, but that failed.
Anyway, God bless you veterans and on that note I bid you all to despite all the horrid news and things we are facing, have a good day.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- One new voter for less than two new people.
How They Stole Texas
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Daily Tech News 11 November 2026
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- Zen 6 is here but not for you. (WCCFTech)
Only the server versions are shipping now, but that tells us pretty much how the desktop versions will perform, because the CPU chiplets used are identical; only the I/O die changes.
And what we see from the CPU chiplets is 27% better performance at the same clock frequency, 10% higher clock frequencies (and desktop chips may go higher than that), and 50% more cores - twice the total performance.
Also interesting is the Zen 6c low-power chiplet. Unlike Intel's low-power cores it is functionally identical to the full Zen 6, just implemented in a denser, power-optimised layout. But where Zen 5c had 16 cores with 2MB of cache per core - twice as many cores but half the cache per core of Zen 5 - Zen 6c has 32 cores per chiplet and 4MB of L3 cache per core. 128MB in total, which is more than a desktop 9800X3D chip.
And the 32 cores all being on a single die means there is no added latency between the cores and between the cores and the cache. Or not much, anyway; L3 cache accesses look to be about 10 cycles slower than Zen 6.
As to when we'll see Zen 6 on the desktop - that's unanswered. Engineering samples for the laptop versions are already circulating, so it's up to AMD's marketing, so somewhere between tomorrow and never.
- Tom's Hardware found a 93% performance gain comparing a 256-core Zen 6c with a 192 core Zen 5c. (Tom's Hardware)
So right in the ballpark of 2x.
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Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - November 10, 2026
—Doof
Howdy Hordelings! The Tuesday ONT has arrived. On time, as always. Open thread, as always. Ready to be whelmed?
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World's Worst Watchdogs Cafe
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Shoebill stork & son
When cats stop plotting against their owners and start attacking them.
Dogs: Acceleration 10, agility 3.
Wild squirrel enjoys scritches.
Squirrel buries his nut in the fur of a Bernese mountain dog.
Dog who waited six years for a home can't stop smiling.
Darn, I forgot to link this classic for Halloween.
In an update to a Halloween post, the yard decoration of a red-haired girl levitating spookily over a yard -- apparently a character in Stranger Things -- has been taken down due to a neighbor's complaint.
He wasn't just a Grinch. The neat Levitating Girl display drew lots of crowds of strangers to the neighborhood, and he feared the crowds were providing criminals and home invaders with an excuse to go into the neighborhood and case houses.
I don't know -- is that a good enough reason to ask that it be taken down?
Either way, this is what happens when a society decides it no longer wants the law and order of a high-trust society and instead wants the disorder, danger, and fear of a low-trust society.
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Quick Hits
—Disinformation Expert Ace
DHS announces another round of dangerous illegal criminals arrested.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had apprehended an array of criminal illegal aliens with prior convictions for murder, sexual assault, and drug trafficking.The announcement comes as part of the DHS's "Worst of the Worst" initiative, which aims to spotlight the criminal illegal aliens with the worst criminal records and showcase the danger presented by their presence in American communities.
"Under President Trump, there will be no amnesty for illegal aliens, including in sanctuary cities which put illegal aliens over their own citizens. Just yesterday, ICE arrested murderers, sexual predators, and drug traffickers," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. "We will continue to carry out the American people's mandate to arrest and deport illegal aliens from our nation."
With Trump's second term nearly two years in, federal agencies have deported roughly one million people through convention methods, though agencies have claimed at least 2 million more through voluntary exits. Direct arrests and enforcement efforts have prioritized those with criminal records.
Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
DANGEROUS ILLEGAL MISSINGShageldi Bashimov, an illegal alien from Turkmenistan convicted of aggravated battery, was RELEASED from an Illinois prison despite having an ICE detainer.
Bashimov is now wanted by authorities.
This is the Democrats' plan for the country: Free foreign criminals who terrorize Americans.
The House Oversight Committee released its final report on Jeffrey Epstein.
Surprise, Trump was not involved with the guy he called the cops on.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released the final report Tuesday on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and the federal government's handling of the criminal case against the late financier.The report is critical of how Democrats on the committee were "obsessed with trying to implicate President Trump and insinuate that he was involved in the crimes of Epstein and Maxwell." Despite these efforts, according to the report, the report did not find any evidence implicating Trump in Epstein's crimes.
The report wraps up a 15-month investigation, which included 19 transcribed interviews and depositions with key witnesses, the release of documents from the Department of Justice and the Epstein estate, and an extensive review of financial records.
...
The report provides details on how Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in 2019, and Ghislaine Maxwell, who us serving time in connection with recruiting young women for Epstein, had a network that facilitated the recruitment and control of young women who were abused, as well as how Epstein cultivated relationships with powerful individuals that were leveraged to establish financial and social legitimacy.
Stop me if you heard this one before: a Democrat politician lies about his service history and claims Stolen Valor for votes.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who won re-election on Nov. 3, reportedly lied about his military service, claiming he saw combat when he did not.In his 2015 book, "The Work," Moore claimed that he went through months of pre-deployment training with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, but Fox Baltimore reported that it found no Army records substantiating that claim. Moore has also claimed to have led troops in combat and to be a paratrooper, but neither are accurate representations of his military service, the outlet said.
His service was good, but he was not in combat, says former supervising officerRetired Lt. Col. James A. "Jamie" Gottschling, the Army officer who supervised Moore, told Fox Baltimore that while Moore served honorably, he wasn't in combat.
"Be honest," Gottschling told the outlet when asked what he would say to Moore. "His service in Afghanistan was good. He was a valued member of the brigade staff." But he added, "It's disingenuous to say that you led paratroopers in combat or that you did what would be direct action activities in a combat zone."
Neither Moore nor Gottschling responded to inquiries from Just the News.
Moore said in his May 2022 victory speech, after first being elected governor in Maryland, that he had "led soldiers into combat in Afghanistan," The Hill reported at the time.
Gottschling was able to highlight Moore's actual daily activities in Afghanistan, which did not include combat or leading troops. The Lt. Col. told the outlet that Moore is airborne qualified, but did not train with the brigade before they deployed in 2005, nor did he conduct any training jumps. Moore arrived in Afghanistan on Aug. 15, nearly five months after the 1st Brigade of the storied 82nd Airborne Division had deployed.
"He's not a paratrooper," Gottschling told the outlet.
Instead, Moore said Gottschling's daily work included analyzing reports from infantry battalions and reconstruction teams, coordinating civilian assistance, and training Afghan officials how to communicate with the public, Fox Baltimore reported.
"He did a really good job trying to train the Afghans how to kind of sell their own story," Gottschling said. Gottschling told the outlet that Moore was not part of the brigade's kinetic combat activities, but was involved in "information operations."
Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok1h
BREAKING: Mozzy Clark, a former female inmate, just WON her case against the Washington Department of Corrections after they put a man pretending to be a woman in her cell.
The man reportedly harassed and assaulted her while correctional officers ignored her complaints. Clark was awarded $150,000.
Men DO NOT belong in women's prisons
Continue reading
Mike Johnson Takes Accountability and Steps Down from House Leadership; Jim Jordan Elected to Replace Him
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Mike Johnson did what McConnell's protege and butt-boy John Thune refuses to do: He stepped down from leadership.
Jim Jordan was elected in his place.
I'm not thrilled about that either, but at least someone demonstrated some accountability.
House Republicans on Tuesday selected Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to lead Republican lawmakers in the minority in the next Congress.Members of the conference chose between him and Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
The vote was 106 for Jordan and 73 for Scalise, according to Punchbowl News.
House Speaker Mike Johnson decided to step down from leadership after the party's loss in the midterms.
In an update: One of the world's richest communists, the pro-rape Venture Socialist Bernie Sanders, declares that Schumer must go.
First thing I've agreed with him on in years.
Overton @Overton_NewsAnd...here...we...go.
This is going to be a bloodbath between the socialists and the establishment within the Democrat Party.
85-year-old socialist Bernie Sanders just publicly came out AGAINST reelecting Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic Leader in the next Congress.
SANDERS: "I personally have known Chuck Schumer for over 30 years. And I like Chuck. Nobody who works harder than Chuck Schumer."
"But in my view, the time is now for change."
"And I will not be supporting Chuck to be reelected as the Democratic leader."
Continue reading
Jennifer Welch Bitches That She's Being "Cancelled" Just For Encouraging Assassinations and Murder
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Whoops. I thought I posted this an hour ago.
Before that: Glenn Reynolds thinks about the Democrats' Assassination Culture.
Dave Chappelle joins the pack of lefty haters with a fetish for political violence
It's been heartwarming to see, once these contentious midterm elections were past us, how the Democrats rolled up their sleeves and got right to work on delivering the things they'd promised: affordability, equal opportunity and world peace.Haha, just kidding.
Instead they immediately started seeking revenge.
...
For all their "Love Trumps Hate" sloganeering, what we've seen from leftists lately is pretty much all hate, aimed at anyone who counters their agenda -- not just Trump, but his supporters, staff and donors.
Comedian Dave Chapelle's ghoulish remarks about the murder of Charlie Kirk are typical.
...
Kirk paid the ultimate price for expressing conservative principles, and Chappelle is willing to approve that publicly -- to his audience's glee.
Meanwhile, NYU professor Scott Galloway last week damned Trump ally Elon Musk as a "traitor to the West" and called for his public execution, a la Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
If we're going to start executing traitors to the West, I've got a little list. . .
But Musk isn't on it, and Galloway might not like who is.
...
Sarah Palin was accused of murder for putting out a list of "targeted" congressional districts; Jeffries' comment is at least as much of a threat.
If I had to guess, the Venn diagram of people who would cheer if Trump were assassinated, and those whose lawns bear "Hate Has No Home Here" signs, is pretty close to a circle.
All this is unspeakably dangerous, of course.
You can't have a democracy without civil society, and you can't have a civil society in which one large chunk of it is salivating at the prospect of murdering the other.
But that's what we see today, with much of "mainstream" culture egging it on.
And it's not just that this language is ugly and divisive: Democrats are actively promoting violence with this heated rhetoric.
They are creating -- deliberately, I think -- a climate in which unstable people are encouraged to commit acts of violence against their political enemies, without leaving obvious fingerprints.
On Friday, when an armed-to-the-teeth Venezuelan migrant was arrested near the White House saying he'd been "hearing voices telling him to kill President Trump," my first thought was: "Were those voices on MS-NOW, Bluesky, or on Jennifer Welch's podcast?"
Welch, who calls for speakers she disapproves of to be M U R D E R E D, is whining that she's being "cancelled" for dancing right up to the edge of a serious crime.
Thirty of her sponsors have announced they will no longer associate with this bloodthirsty botox-drunk witch
Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktokUPDATE: 30 companies have now confirmed they will not advertise on the "I've had it" podcast after hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan laughed at Charlie's m*rder:
Cash App
Chewy
Boll & Branch
Zenni Optical
Momentous
Honeylove
Casper
HexClad
Ethos
Branch Basics
Ladder
Nutrafol
Jones Road Beauty
ZipRecruiter
PAKA
Ember
BetterHelp
Primal Queen
Monarch Money
iRestore
HomeServe
Ridge Wallet
Lola Blankets
NOBL Travel
Dupe
One Skin
IQbar
Quince
Cozy Earth
ASPCA
Michael Knowles
@michaeljknowles18h
Crone Jennifer Welch has reportedly lost $7.6 million for cackling on air at Charlie's murder. That is a good start.
Here are the phone numbers of her two remaining advertisers:
* Article: 1-888-746-3455
* Quince: 1-888-618-9322
Note that the post of above says that Quince (whatever that is) already said they would no longer sponsor this skeleton-faced madwoman's show.
Western Lensman @WesternLensmanJennifer Welch says her advertisers were "harassed" into dropping the show.
"Sadly, some of the advertisers have caved. But we still have other advertisers, and we're still standing."
Little companies are apparently stepping in to try to save them.
They read a message from a brewery in Wisconsin that called Charlie Kirk "an awful human being" and wanted to help sponsor the show.
Welch called that "so sweet," then did a shout out for the company for free.
At last count, around 30 sponsors have dropped the podcast.
It's not because they were harassed. It's because these women are toxic.
But hey if you're a little company, just drop these hateful hags a message bashing Charlie. Maybe that'll get you a free ad read.
Continue reading
Only Eight GOP Senators Have Called for a Delay In Senate Leadership Elections as John Thune Rushes to Push a Re-Election Vote;
Charles Schumer Might Be Purged by the Islamocommunists He Supported
—Disinformation Expert Ace
John Thune and his cronies want to rush the election of the next Senate leaders and hold a vote today.
Eight GOP senators have called for a delay to figure out if they need "new faces," given the big loss.
But it takes a majority of GOP senators to vote for a delay.
Senator Ron Johnson says if they hold the vote today, he'll walk out.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) pledged to walk out of the room if his Republican colleagues proceed with leadership elections on Tuesday, after calling a conference to discuss the party's direction following significant losses for the GOP in the midterm elections.
"If you hold the election, I'll leave the room," he told the Washington Examiner in a Monday interview. "I'm not going to participate in elections for leadership tomorrow."
To delay internal elections, which are cast by secret ballot, Johnson will need support from a majority of the Senate GOP conference.
The Wisconsin Republican has been floated as a potential replacement for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) for when Democrats take control of the Senate in January, as some conservatives air frustration with Thune's leadership.
Johnson, who has denied his interest in leadership in the past, again shot down the prospect on Monday, but he did not definitively rule it out.
...
The senator added that his request for a conference meeting was not a "hostile act" and was only intended to give the GOP the time to assess whether they wanted a change in leadership.
"We all like John Thune. We like him, OK?" Johnson said. "I don't want to say anything bad about him, but again, at some point in time, our supporters absolutely believe we have to hold people accountable, and probably are looking for a new face, or new faces."
GOP senators met today and did not agree on either holding or delaying the election.
Senate Republicans met Tuesday to discuss their future and were expected to reconvene in the afternoon as they decide whether to keep South Dakota Sen. John Thune as their leader. The meetings come just a week after steep losses in the midterm elections that cost them their majority.Thune is expected to be reelected in the secret ballot election, given that he remains popular with his GOP colleagues and is so far running unopposed. But senators left the closed-door meeting after two hours of discussions with no resolution on a way forward after an election wipeout that cost them at least seven Senate seats.
"We want to be thoughtful and do the right thing," said West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice as the meeting broke up. He said no obvious alternative had emerged, but "there is a legitimate argument that, good gracious, if we lost as badly as we lost, why would we continue on with the same leadership?"
At the same time, the current GOP leadership "didn't cause this problem to happen," Justice said. "They do a good job."
Did they?
The Washington Times writes that Chuck Schumer might lose his own post as Democrat leader as the Islamocommunists want a more radical -- and, let me add, less Jewish -- leader.
In a way, it is poetic justice. The newly elected hard-left Democrats whom Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York nurtured and fed now want his blood.Several of the Democrats elected this year to the Senate, such as Troy Jackson of Maine, Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, Adam Hamilton of Kansas and James Talarico of Texas, have announced that they will not support Mr. Schumer for majority leader when the new Congress convenes next year.
Veteran Democrats -- such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Christopher Murphy of Connecticut and Tina Smith of Minnesota -- have voiced frustration with Mr. Schumer's candidate recruitment and leadership in legislative battles.
Once the militants won their primaries, Mr. Schumer did everything he could to support them, including providing significant funding through his Senate Majority PAC.
Mr. Schumer's PAC gave $30 million to Mr. El-Sayed, despite the Michigander's hatred of Israel. Mr. El-Sayed will not even say whether he believes Israel has a right to exist, while the Palestinian cause is dear to his heart. That did not seem to present a problem for Mr. Schumer, who is Jewish.
When a Muslim terrorist attacked a synagogue that housed a kindergarten, preschool and daycare in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on March 12, while condemning the attack, Mr. El-Sayed said, "Hurt people hurt people." This would seem to rationalize the attack on children by a man whose brother Ibrahim, identified by Israel as a Hezbollah commander, was killed in Lebanon.
...
Though a liberal, Mr. Schumer is not liberal enough for members of the Democratic Senate class of 2026. They want a minority leader in their own image -- not one who is merely skeptical of Israeli policies, but one who is rabidly anti-Israel; not one who seeks to reform the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, but one who wishes to "rip it apart," in the words of Sen.-elect Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota.
...
Even if Mr. Schumer somehow survives the purge, he will be constantly looking over his shoulder to see how close the wolves are and what he needs to do to appease them next.
Obama-Connected Democrat Operative Van Jones Smiles as He Admits the "Affordability" Op Was, In Pure Obama Fashion, an Organized Astroturf Campaign
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Running an astroturf operation? With Concerned Christian Conservatives fretting about whatever the Democrats' Fake Issue of the Day is?
Where have I heard this before?
Jones admitted that the economy really isn't as bad as portrayed, and that the Democrats knew this (surprise!), but rather than simply program their candidates and campaigns with duplicitous messaging, they took it several steps further. And the Republicans never figured it out.Jones told Collins how the Democrats discreetly organized tens of thousands of people to serve as chartered trolls as part of the "American Accountability Network." Jones did not make clear whether these people were compensated or not.
I'm pretty sure they were.
"The Republicans never figured out what we were doing," Jones said in-studio to a smiling Collins. "There's something called the American Accountability Network (AAN), tens of thousands of online humans, not bots, coordinated to make the affordability message a winning message online. 32.5 million people hit on Instagram every day. 88.8 million hit on Twitter, X, every single day. And 185 million Facebook hits every single day. And they never figured it out."
"The Republicans could not understand it wasn't bots. It was actual human beings," he said.
They are bots. Human-shaped bots.
Tim O'Brien adds:
He added that Democrats were having trouble getting any "traction" on culture war issues, but thanks to the AAN, the left "figured out how to get around all that."
Witch-faced shill Kaitlin Collins had no negative commentary on an admitted massive disinformation campaign, but instead was "fascinated."
Collins found all of this "fascinating." Of course, it's fascinating when Democrats do it, but if Republicans did it, it would be criminal to Collins and her ilk.
Video at the link.
Anti-American Operative Thomas Massie Demands Impeachment of Pete Hegseth; Pete Hegseth Blasts Him
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Yesterday I worried when I saw that Pete Hegseth would be delivering an address today. I feared he would be announcing his withdrawal from the administration.
I guess he still might do that but it's more likely he was announcing his coming rebuttal of Thomas Massie's latest screed against him.
Massie's argument was that Pete Hegseth should be impeached for limiting lawyers' ability to veto operations or impose lethal restrictions on troops fighting for America.
A veteran of the Global War on Terror offered his own reaction to Thomas Massie's work on behalf of the Caliphate.
InfantryDort
@infantrydortNah man. I'm not gonna let this go unchecked. As a GWOT veteran I can't.
I listened to Massie drone through his articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth and I recognized the sickness immediately.
We fought under this ridiculous worldview during GWOT, and it cost us dearly.
Massie is merely an acolyte of the bloodless bureaucratic religion that puts the lawyer in the center of the kill chain, treats every American use of force like a moral emergency, and somehow always finds more sympathy for the enemy being hunted than for the American sent to hunt him.
His whole speech I began wondering who he actually was speaking for, and that's not good.
GWOT vets know EXACTLY where that road leads. Another approval. Another review. Another JAG opinion. Another commander afraid to make a decision because one bad headline will destroy his career faster than losing the fight ever could.
We were lectured for years about "courageous restraint." We were told that killing one enemy might create ten more. We were taught to fear our own lethality while the enemy studied our hesitation.
And then we spent twenty years bleeding into the fucking sand.
So spare me the sermon about how dangerous it is to remove lawyers who think their job is to become a veto point over command. Spare me the sudden reverence for process from people who watched Afghanistan collapse, watched thirteen Americans die at Abbey Gate, watched the Taliban retake Kabul, and somehow found no constitutional apocalypse worthy of impeachment then.
Now the outrage is that the machine is actually being used. That commanders are expected to command. And that enemies are being treated like.... actual enemies for once.
That civilian leadership is telling the bureaucracy to get the hell out of the way of lawful military action.
From where I sit, the betrayal isn't that Washington finally found some aggression for a change. The realest betrayal is that men like Massie still think the lesson of the GWOT was that we needed more hesitation.
No. WE NEEDED MORE VICTORY.
And I'm done pretending those are the same thing. We're all done with it. Massie is dead wrong here, he knows it, you know it, and I know it.
Sincerely,
-A seriously disgruntled GWOT vet who knows Hegseth is the cure to what ails our military here.
A former military lawyer notes that Massie continues whining that the US attacked narcoterrorists smuggling drugs to the US by boat without having a lawyer give them permission.
It's always, ALWAYS drugs with these fucking hippies.
- Article IV.The basis for the next article is a claim that: "Secretary Hegseth willfully and systemically refused to comply with laws and directives mandated for the protection of civilians during the commission of armed conflict, chilled and rendered ineffective such components to prevent and mitigate harm to civilians, and therefore, foreseeably effected the death and injury of over 200 civilians [referring to the attack reportedly directed against an elementary school in Minab, Iran], to the manifest injury of the United States."
Tbh nearly every line of this article misrepresents various aspects of international AND domestic law in such an egregious manner that I'm tempted to do a deep-dive on just Article IV. Maybe there will be an opportunity to do so at some point in the future.
For now, I'll just focus on the core of this allegation: that SECWAR Hegseth failed to comply with legal "obligations" involving civilian harm mitigation & reduction (CHMR).
...
The MAIN point to address here is that Congress doesn't possess the constitutional authority to FORCE DoW to implement specific CHMR practices. Congress can appropriate funds for such practices (Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 12). And Congress can "make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces" (Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 14).But POTUS is appointed as commander-in-chief of the military (Art. II, Sec. 2, Cl. 1). And practices related to civilian harm mitigation & reduction are strictly within the purview of CiC authority since they don't involve making rules for the armed forces (that authority is exercised by adopting the Uniform Code of Military Justice ... more about the UCMJ below).
...
- Article V.
The essential basis for the next allegation is: "Secretary Hegseth abused the authority and trust vested in him as Secretary of Defense not only by directing the unlawful use of lethal military force, resulting in the summary execution of at least 243 persons in international waters, but also by using his office to compel members of the Armed Forces to carry out such operations under false legal authorities that he caused to be constructed and imposed upon the chain of command."
This claim is centered on the campaign of attacks directed against suspected narcoterrorists in international waters.
...
The MAIN problem here (out of many) is the assertion that: "By subjecting persons merely suspected of criminal conduct to lethal military force without judicial process, without congressional authorization, and without establishing a lawful basis for treating such persons or vessels as military targets, Secretary Hegseth arrogated to himself and the Executive Branch the roles of judge, jury, and executioner and asserted a unilateral power to determine who may live and who may die."
Of course, the "without congressional authorization" element returns us to the analysis from the WPR articles involving the concurrent constitutional powers to "declare war" (Congress) AND engage in "hostilities" (POTUS).
Even so, the assertion that suspected narcoterrorists operating drug boats on the High Seas are MERELY "suspected of criminal conduct" is a gross misrepresentation of international law involving the resort to force (jus ad bellum) & domestic implementation thereof.
See, this article explicitly acknowledges that an interagency task force developed a classified memo that presented "a legal basis for such strikes" by determining that the "United States is engaged in a noninternational armed conflict (NIAC) with 24 Latin American Designated Terrorist Organizations."
Whether one disagrees with this determination or not, the EXECUTIVE BRANCH HAS THE AUTHORITY TO DO SO. And when it DID determine the existence of a noninternational armed conflict against drug cartels, by definition the adversary was no longer merely "suspected of criminal conduct."
Yes, trafficking narcotics IS criminal conduct. But saying it is ONLY criminal conduct would be like claiming al-Qaeda operatives are "only" criminals since they're engaged in activity that is against the law.
A drug dealer at home is a criminal. A narcotics trafficker on the High Seas that ISN'T part of a group the government has determined to be an adversarial belligerent in a (noninternational) armed conflict is ALSO a criminal.
But a narcotrafficker on the High Seas that IS part of a group the government has determined to be an adversarial belligerent is a criminal AND a civilian taking direct part in hostilities (DPH).
And what do we do with civilians DPH? Sure, we can detain them - but we can ALSO make them the object of attack pursuant to LOAC. That's what DoW did, that's what SECWAR Hegseth directed, and none of it constitutes a "high Crime or Misdemeanor".
Massie is also crying that Trump "kidnapped" Maduro, who again is a federally indicted drug-trafficker and therefore is a being deserving of special protection by nasty drug-obsessed hippie douchebags.
Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurleyI am reviewing the eight articles on the impeachment of Sec. Pete Hegseth. In my view, six of the eight articles should be nonstarters, including the Iranian articles. Presidents, including Clinton, Obama, and Biden, have asserted the authority to commence such operations...
...Outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie said yesterday that he filed the articles because he wants to "litigate" the underlying war powers of Congress. I agree with Massie about the need for Congress to assert its constitutional authority over the declaration of war. However, Trump was acting within the authority long asserted by his predecessor. More importantly...
...Massie is not going to "litigate" the matter through impeachments. Courts have not limited this authority and are unlikely to do so. This is a call for an impeachment by members who tolerated the exercise of the authority by Democratic members...
...It is equally baffling to seek to impeach on the basis of the "kidnapping" of former President Maduro. Trump was acting within the authority recognized by the courts in the Noreiga case. That was, to use Massie's term, "litigated." ...
Hegseth's own rebuttal was also unsparing.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday railed against the Republican congressman who introduced articles of impeachment against him and aggressively defended his leadership in the Iran war and other military operations."What one disgruntled and defeated congressman is attempting is not oversight, and it's not accountability. It's a political spectacle, a personal manifesto driven by ego and resentment," Hegseth said a day after Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., put forward the eight impeachment articles.
"It's a farce, and it's a stunt, and everybody knows it," Hegseth said during his first Pentagon news conference in six months.
The articles accuse Hegseth of waging war in contravention of Congress, carrying out extrajudicial killings tied to boat strikes in the Caribbean against purported drug smugglers and suppressing free speech by targeting Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a military veteran.
Massie, a libertarian who lost his Republican primary in May after clashing with President Donald Trump, kicked off the impeachment battle less than a week after a blue-wave midterm that will flip House and Senate control to Democrats.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is poised to be speaker of the House in the next Congress, on Sunday said Democrats are a "hard yes" on impeaching Hegseth. He reiterated his support on Monday in a press conference.
Hegseth added:
"This is not patriotism. This is sabotage"
Hegseth got a good grade from the boss.
"Pete Hegseth gets an "A" PLUS, PLUS, PLUS for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated, former Congressman, Thomas Massie, a TOTAL LOSER!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
Continue reading
The Morning Rant: John Thune (And Others) Must Go!
—CBD
The paradigm of the brave and strong political maverick is mostly cover for rebellion and faithless behavior. We have far too many examples of it on the right side of the aisle, and the tiny number of examples on the left is telling. John Fetterman is the only one I can think of, and his rebellion doesn't extend to his votes. But even then, he is a big target and might not survive his next election.
In our lifetimes the worst example is John McCain, the supposed hero (I doubt it) and naval aviator (lousy at it) who made a name for himself by screwing his party, his state, and his country.
John Thune is rapidly rising in that pantheon of sh*t, and he is not the only one in the current Republican Party. There is some perverse pride among the politicians who confound the reasonable expectation that they support their party and their President. It reminds one of a rebellious toddler who has just learned the word and concept of "No," and uses it at every opportunity, even though the outcome is demonstrably worse than the other option.
His sabotage of the SAVE Act is well known, and an indelible stain on him as a senator and a human being. But he also kept the Senate in pro forma sessions to prevent the President from making recess appointments, which was damaging to the will of the people and to President Trump's platform. These things should disqualify him from any position of authority in the Senate, and make it difficult to win reelection in 2028.
Perhaps worse than his resistance to any meaningful legislation and work in the Senate was his arrogant pomposity in the face of overwhelming support for the SAVE Act. His pretend high-mindedness was galling, even as he pretended to be some sort of expert on the inner workings of the Senate. It was obvious that he was merely an obstructionist.
7 GOP Senators Move To Delay Thune's Coronation After Midterm Massacre
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is driving the effort and has collected the five signatures needed to request a meeting of the full conference, The Hill reported. Republicans Ted Budd of North Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah and John Kennedy of Louisiana signed his letter, according to Axios.Two other Republicans, Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Jim Banks of Indiana, endorsed the delay in their own statements without signing, Bloomberg reported.
Johnson called Tuesday’s outcome a “stunning defeat” in the letter, The Hill reported, and has argued that rushing the vote would be “political malpractice,” according to the Federalist. Johnson wants the conference to examine what went wrong before it installs a leadership team.
“If you hold the election, I’ll leave the room,” Johnson told a Washington Examiner reporter Monday. “An election defeat of this magnitude demands change,” he added on X.
That bolded part is vital. The Republican Party failed in many ways, and while the blame does not rest solely with the feckless Senate leadership, John Thune's failure should be the catalyst for an examination of how the Republicans in the Senate support the administration's goals and how they respond to the American people's support for popular legislation.
Managing the decline is no longer an option! Although if an election cycle as a minority party will purge the Senate of its pathetic Corporate GOP placeholders, perhaps that would be worth it. Regardless, the idea of the maverick has damaged the prospects of the Republican Party, and the purge should be swift and violent and all-encompassing.
The left operates in lockstep, and savagely punishes the outliers who disturb the carefully crafted image of a unified party. That is why the emergence of the DSA is so disturbing...their party hierarchy cannot control them! And that is a good thing for the Republican Party and the conservative movement. But...the left never loses sight of its goals, and they will eventually integrate the DSA and its far-left analogues into the Party, or perhaps it will be the other way around. But either way, the path is always toward unity.
That is a lesson that has evaded the Republican leadership. JD Vance came from the Senate, and as vice-president he could have been a vital bridge between the administration and the Senate, but that would have required loyalty to the President and the goals of the American people, and he would have had to sublimate his own political goals...something he has clearly not done.
President Trump could have been more collaborative with the Senate, and perhaps that would have changed the trajectory of the SAVE Act defeat. But that is asking him to change his spots, and is simply not a reasonable expectation. And, after all, the President is the de facto head of the Party, and has every right to expect loyalty to his strategic vision, especially when it is supported by the vast majority of the American people!
But that requires a sea change in the way Republican lawmakers see themselves, and the voters must speak loudly and forcefully for that to occur!
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. And if you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow me it would be much appreciated!
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