Iran beyond the Mullahs
—K.T.
Above is a photo of Persian Baklava. I became familiar with this delicacy when I briefly had a young Iranian roommate (though I don't recall her ever making it.) I later made walnut baklava in a cooking class with a rich lady whose husband was part owner of the MGM Grand in Vegas (Jewish, not Iranian). A maid cleaned up after us as we cooked, but the pan wouldn't fit in her oven and we had to bake it at my aunt's house. Phyllo dough is a pain to work with in a dry climate.
Anyway, the recipe(s) above provide some good tips.
Back to my scanty recollections about Iran from my experiences with an Iranian roommate:
The only other Iranian food I remember from that time is steamed rice with a crispy crust. As noted in these directions, it comes in lots of variations. The one I remember included tomato, green beans and a stained kitchen towel from the steaming process. It was an Americanized version of the rice, for which she must have been homesick.
About this time, a bunch of Iranian guys came over to the apartment to discuss how they were going to get home safely. The political situation had already become volatile, and things were getting more worrisome . . .
I think the piece below does a pretty good job of reminding us that the Iranian revolution started as a Cold War phenomenon. It involved communists as well as Islamists. A bad combination.
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The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus)
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Mosinee)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind, be nice. The troll's tear ducts are overworked.
3) Nope, no, not a chance. No running with sharp objects.
4) Have a great weekend!
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Daily Tech News 21 June 2025
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- Anthropic's Claude is not the only AI to immediately resort to blackmail when the going gets tough, according to... Anthropic. (Anthropic)
It's just the most likely. Albeit not by much.
Anthropic attempted blackmail 96% of the time when the opportunity presented itself. Google's Gemini 2.5 was just behind at 95%. Competitors Grok 3, GPT 4.1, and DeepSeek R1 trailed a little behind, only going rogue around 80% of the time.We refer to this behavior, where models independently and intentionally choose harmful actions, as agentic misalignment.
Mechanical sociopathy.We deliberately created scenarios that presented models with no other way to achieve their goals, and found that models consistently chose harm over failure.
This highlights the underlying problem with AI. One of the underlying problems. One of the many underlying problems.
AI is designed and trained to give you an answer that you like, rather than one that is true.
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Junetweenth Cafe
—Ace
Dude climbs bridges and snaps photos
Three more bridge shots here
A two-legged cat plays with a new kitten.
These capybaras are living in luxury.
Law & Order: Dogs Edition. Stay with it until the second suspect.
The love of a pimp is very different than the love of a square.
A pair of teddy-bear-dog puppies.
Dog enjoys the carousel at a playground.
Saving a dog trapped in a flood.
The cat actually does something nice for the dogs.
These little bears may be cute, but they are already out-of-control.
Please sir, can I have some more?
A classic: Nosy neighbors.
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The Week in Woke
—Ace
A Jewish Republican Congressman from Ohio was run off the road by a Palestinian maniac who threatened to kill him.
A man who allegedly ran Rep. Max Miller "off the road" in Rocky River, Ohio, showed a Palestinian flag and threatened the congressman has turned himself in, police said Friday.The Rocky River Police Department identified the driver as Feras Hamden, 36, from Westlake, Ohio. They obtained a warrant for his arrest after Miller signed a criminal complaint for aggravated menacing, and filed a motion for a criminal protection order against the driver.
Hamden turned himself in after the warrant was issued, police said. He is awaiting his first court appearance. The case remains under investigation, police said. State and federal authorities, including the U.S. Capitol Police, are also involved in the investigation.
"In less than 24 hours, the USCP received notification of a threat against a Member of Congress, had boots on the ground, collaborated with the local police department, and the suspect in the case was arrested that same evening," acting Capitol Police Chief Sean Gallagher said in a statement. "This case is a prime example of the USCP's stance towards threats against our elected officials. We will continue to have a zero-tolerance policy."
"Some unhinged, deranged man decided to lay on his horn and run me off the road when he couldn't get my attention, to show me a Palestinian flag, not to mention death to Israel, death to me, that he wanted to kill me and my family," Miller, a Republican, said in a video posted on X.
MSNBC: When Iran says "Death to America" every Friday they don't really mean "Death to America." It's like jihadists calling for jihad. They don't really mean a war of jihad, they mean an "internal struggle" of jihad. And that internal struggle consists of overcoming their fears so that they can detonate a suicide bomb in a pizza shop.
See? Nothing Islamic extremists say ever means what it obviously means. "From the river to the sea" doesn't mean eradicate the Jews from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, it's just a call for an "internal struggle" of jihad followed by an external pogrom. See above.
And "globalize the intifada" just means an internal intifada. So that someone can then go through an "internal struggle" of jihad and then start stabbing people in the streets.
Please allow these stupid evil leftists to convince you that terrorists do not mean what they say when they promise terrorism.
They just mean an internal terrorism against internal self-doubt, that's all.
The self-doubt that it's not god's command to murder you.
This sourfaced sow:
The Hill @thehillMichelle Obama on being "glad" she didn’t have a son: "He would've been a Barack Obama"
For the first time in my adult life I feel sympathy for the Stuttering Clusterfuck of a Miserable Failure.
She literally cannot go a single little-streamed podcast without saying how much she hates her husband and wishes she hadn't had children.
Michelle Obama says she's "so glad" she never had a son -- because he would've been a kiddie clone of her husband."You should've threw a boy in the mix," radio host Angie Martinez told Obama in an episode of the former first lady's "IMO" podcast released Wednesday.
The remark came as Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, along with Martinez, discussed society's view of masculinity and the challenges of raising boys and young men.
"I'm so glad I didn't have a boy," Obama exclaimed.
"Why didn't you throw in a third?" Martinez said with a chuckle to the mother of two.
"Because he would've been a Barack Obama," the "Becoming" author and former president's wife quipped to laughs.
"Baby Barack -- it would've been amazing!" Martinez replied.
"Ooh, no, I would've felt for him," Obama added of the potential mini version of the ex-commander in chief.
"She just borrowed our boys," Robinson said of his brood.
"I got plenty," Obama, 61, agreed.
AOC is back on to her favorite issue: Demanding the government censor conservatives. "We have to find a way to reign the media (social media, she means) in."
This communist, who like every communist lies like she breathes to subvert, demoralize, and destroy the functioning country she's in so that the communists can overthrow it, says that people aren't allow to to just say things that are untrue.
Stacey Plaskett -- a fake delegate to Congress; she was elected by the Virgin Islands, but we don't let her vote in Congress on account of her being a retard and all -- recently took to Twitter to brag that, checks notes, her cooter is in fine working order.
Women did not used to publicly brag that their pussies were still functional.
The Democrat Party is the party of general transgenderism, and that includes, of course, men acting like women, and women acting like men.
It's 17-year-old male hooligans you expect to see grabbing their crotches and making a sexual boast, not 60 year old female Congresswomen. (Well, "delegate to Congress," anyway.)
Democrats are putting gender theory into practice, swapping genders casually. And when they do, it's always the very worst aspects of the opposite gender that they emulate. Democrat women have all become foul-mouthed sailors bragging about the vulvas being top-notch, and Democrat men have all become whiny effeminate hysterical bitches crying in the well of the Senate like they're TikTok wallflowers sitting in their cars recording Sob Videos.
If you're going to adopt traits usually associated with the opposite gender, why don't women adopt the male ideal of stoic steadyness, and men adopt the female ideal of kindness and grace?
I think because it's hard to cultivate positive traits and very, very easy to adopt the most slothful, ugly, stupid negative traits of the opposite gender.
Need more proof? Why do leftwing women all curse like they have Tourette's and casually threaten violence?
Again, women didn't used to act like this. This is new and very ugly.
A medical school dean insists that True Science teaches us that women have dick-n-balls.
He insists it's just a "stereotype" to say that women have women's genitals, and it's a stereotype we must fight with all of our Mental Illness Might.
Gender ideology, as you're likely aware, updates our understanding of men and women: Select cowboys suffer from uterine cramps, while some cowgirls are sour on saddles 'cause they scrunch up their scrotums. Per pro-gender Jerry, The Donald's dastardly datedness is deafening; let's turn down the stereotypes:"While [Trump's executive order re-establishing that there are two, and only two, sexes] allegedly attempts to protect women and girls, what it really does is threaten any woman or girl who doesn't conform to sex-based stereotypes and opens them up to invasion of privacy."
They continue insisting that we can't tell men from women unless we force them to strip naked so we can inspect their genitals. 1, as JK Rowling snarked, we don't have to do a strip-search because we all have a "superpower called normal vision" which allows us to tell a Dude in a Party City Wig from a woman, and 2, even if there is some dispute, all it takes is a quickie search of prior records to establish one's true sex, or a simple cheek-swab and quickie chromosome test.
Transgenders have convinced themselves that they are so obviously and completely real women that no one can tell. It's delusionary, these delusions are actually cultivated by their also-mentally-ill doctors who tell them absurd lies to "affirm" them with nonsense. Once transgenders leave the doctor's office to confront hard reality in the real world, they are stunned and hurt and sometimes react violently.
The point of psychiatry used to be to teach people how to deal with the world. How to suffer defeats in a healthy way, how to avoid obsessing about other people's opinions.
The goal used to be to help people build up their own inner strength to better absorb the hits and humiliations the world delivers on a daily basis.
In the Transgender Age, psychiatrists have a new imperative: Don't teach patients how to adapt to the world, but tell them instead that the world is obligated to adapt to them.
Transgenders leave psychiatrist offices all gassed-up on false reassurances and affirmations and then do not have the wherewithal to handle the bumps and hurts of the real world. They're completely surprised that the rest of the world does not agree, as their paid psychiatrist pretends to, that they are totally passing for the opposite sex.
They're setting these people up for mental illness -- and worse.
For the first time in psychiatry, psychiatrists are not writing prescriptions for their patients. Instead, they're now writing prescriptions for the entire world -- this person is delusional, and you are required, under doctor's orders, to play along with the delusions.
Obviously, this doesn't work. Psychiatrists and "gender counselors" cannot order the world to "affirm" nonsense.
Graphic: The wound left on the arm when they strip a kid's forearm-skin to build fake genitals that don't work.
Biden's Surgeon General "Rachel" Levine allowed a "notorious" sex-change clinic to meet with a child in his Pennsylvania government office.
An elementary school teacher brags about all the gay/trans propaganda she's spreading to her students, including having them watch a drag queen video.
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Weirdly, the Leftwing Media Isn't Interested in Reporting That Red States Now Lead Blue States in Education and Student Achievement
—Ace
Buh buh buh we're the Smart People who Love the Science (TM).
No, you're the blinkered, uneducated, little-read, provincial morons who believe in weird demonic cult dogmas.
Not long ago, blue states typically outperformed red ones when it came to education. That is changing. Blue states like Oregon and Washington experienced significant drops in reading and math scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders between 2015 and 2024, worse than the national declines during the same period. Mississippi, meantime, gained five points in fourth-grade reading and math and held steady in eighth-grade performance. Louisiana also maintained its scores, defying the negative national trends.Whether you call it the "Mississippi Miracle" or the "Southern Surge," Republican-led states are rapidly improving student outcomes relative to blue states, thanks to a series of substantive reforms over the past decade.
Republican-led state governments have implemented evidence-based reading curricula, banned ineffective teaching methods, and improved school safety. In contrast, Democrat-led states have undermined school discipline, reduced academic standards, and embraced policies that deemphasize achievement in favor of ideological goals.
Wait -- you're saying that didn't work?
The most important factor driving this divide has been the progressive push for "equity." In practice, equity has meant eliminating honors classes, lowering grading standards, and loosening classroom discipline. Avoiding this ideological approach, red states have taken the lead on evidence-based reforms.The divide is particularly striking in reading instruction. For decades, American schools steered clear of phonics--the instructional method that teaches students to connect letters with sounds--which progressive educators derided as a right-wing scheme (and some still do now). They favored the "whole language" approach, whereby students supposedly learned through a "holistic" process of immersion in literature and "sight reading." Even though this approach was exposed as a failure as early as the 1950s, when Rudolf Flesch's Why Johnny Can't Read warned of its ineffectiveness and championed phonics, the educational establishment stuck with the whole-language approach throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
In recent decades, however, red states have returned to phonics. In 2013, Mississippi, under unified Republican leadership in both the legislature and governor's mansion, was an early adopter of requiring that teachers be trained in evidence-based reading pedagogies. At the time, Mississippi rated second to last in reading scores nationally. But since then, the Magnolia State has steadily climbed the rankings. In fact, adjusted for demographics, it now stands among the top states in reading.
Liberals are always engaging in primitive cargo-cult thinking. Here's what these assholes thought: They saw that kids who were very good at reading did not use phonics to read words, but rather just recognized them in a glance.
So they reasoned: If the smart kids are just reading words "whole" at a glance, that must be what we must teach our slower-readers to do!
It apparently never occurred to them that fast readers had all gone through the phonics sounding-out process, but at an earlier age than their peers.
And then, after reading for a couple of years before even getting to first grade -- yes, they then were reading words by sight (at least the ones that were already stored in their memory's word-bank). They stopped using phonics not because phonics wasn't useful, but because they eventually outgrew it.
These geniuses similarly noticed that kids who were good at math sometimes didn't use the standard algorithms for doing multiplication and division, but instead used little tricks to manipulate the numbers to make calculation faster and easier.
Once again: These kids all used the standard techniques of memorization and long-form multiplication and division first, then, as they became proficient, they began realizing on their own that there were quick tricks for doing calculations. Like, if you want to divide by 10, just move the decimal point one place to the left.
But these geniuses again decided that because the smarter kids were figuring out these shortcuts, then we should skip teaching kids the standard algorithms for calculation and just teach them the tricks.
And that's why parents are unable to help their kids with math any longer-- Parents all know the standard algorithms, and are ready to teach it, but when their kids come home they're told do weird stuff the parents haven't seen before.
Which is another big thing stupid liberals don't realize: Teachers set the pace of learning in classrooms, but it's actually parents who do the bulk of the actual teaching at home. So if you make up random nonsense to "teach" kids math, you are cutting the main teachers of math, the parents, out of the equation.
I hate the Educrats. They are constantly churning out New and Stupid Techniques both to justify their phoney-baloney jobs and also to provide excuses for why low-performing teachers are unable to teach kids.
See, it's not the incompetent teachers' fault -- it's the fault of The System! We can fire The System and keep all the incompetent teachers on the payroll!
This is such a standard bureaucratic dodge it ought be be criminalized. They never want to fire incompetent bureaucrats, just fire the old "system" (or "procedures" or "trainings").
The old system (and procedures, and teachings) usually work.
But no system works in the hands of an incompetent.
Read the whole thing. Red states are also making it easier to remove disruptive students from the classroom, whereas blue states are making it impossible to do so, thus guaranteeing that those few disruptive students won't be the only ones leaving the school entirely uneducated. All the students they kept from learning will also graduate with a moron-level intellect.
(No slight to good Morons intended.)
The New York Times is Boohoo Whinin' and Cryin' That Unrealistic Extremists in the ACLU Brought the Tennessee Trans Case to the Supreme Court and Lost Bigly
—Ace
The article is trying to be nice to their trans allies, but the general thrust is that these people are so isolated in their progressive trans bubbles that they have no idea of what the rest of the country thinks about their extremist crusade to sexually mutilate children.
It's a long, long, super-long article. I'll just quote the parts where the NY Times hints that maybe the trans movement is too strident and delusionary for its own good.
Note the article talks a lot about the transgender lawyer who argued the case for the ACLU. "Chase Strangio" -- super-realistic name there, "Chase," totally sounds like your parents gave you that name and totally not like you just went through YA Novels looking for "kewl" teenager names -- is actually a woman, though she dresses like a man and really thinks she's passing.
I'll try to change the incorrect pronouns he/him/his to she/her/hers, but if I miss any, well, I tried.
If this is too long for you: The main point that true-blue Super Liberal Propagandist Nicholas Confessore is making is that the trans movement is extremist and refuses to see any nuance on any issue and is determined to just ride roughshod over all those who question the Strange New World they're trying to will into being.
They went too far in going after the kids like they're shrimp cocktail at a wedding reception, and by doing so, they have put their own movement and the entire Democrat-Media Party in a precarious place they may not be able to get out of.
How the Transgender Rights Movement Bet on the Supreme Court and Lost The inside story of the case that could set the movement back a generation.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court delivered a new, crushing blow, upholding Tennessee's ban in a 6-to-3 decision. In allowing Tennessee to outlaw blockers and hormones, the court not only shielded similar laws on the books in some two dozen states. It effectively closed the door on extending new constitutional protections to trans people. Some advocates fear that Skrmetti could open the door to banning medical transition for adults and perhaps other health care that some conservatives oppose, like birth control or in vitro fertilization -- even vaccines.
So absurd.
You know they're desperate when they break out, for the thousandth time, "You have to support transgenders because the next step is banning condoms!" card.
The fate of a once-obscure medical treatment could have profound consequences for American law.What makes the defeat all the more striking is the remarkable string of victories the broader L.G.B.T.Q. movement was winning until a few years ago....
But with Skrmetti, the movement bet its future on a far more fraught question: whether children have a constitutional right to treatments that halt and redirect their physical adolescence.
Wait, you mean the public doesn't overwhelmingly support the sexual mutilation of mentally-ill children with a statistically-unlikely tendency towards autism?
You mean, the "bigots" draw the line when you go after the children -- a line you cannot help but cross and cross and cross some more because the only thing you care about is getting those children while they're young?
Anyway.
...In challenging these laws, L.G.B.T.Q. groups and the Biden administration hoped not only to expand transgender rights, but to protect medical treatments that many trans people view as lifesaving. Yet in conversations this year with dozens of legal experts, activists, and other veterans of the fight for L.G.B.T.Q. equality, I encountered deep apprehension that taking Tennessee to the nation's highest court had been a strategic error -- one symptomatic of broader problems.
In private meetings of L.G.B.T.Q. legal-advocacy groups, many lawyers expected a loss almost from the moment the court agreed to hear the case, according to one person briefed on the conversations. On the outside, I heard rising criticism of the strategic and political judgments animating the A.C.L.U.'s litigation -- muted by fear that voicing those criticisms more openly, amid the depredations of Trump's second term, would only give the right more ammunition. "There are a lot of conversations happening right now," said Dana Beyer, a physician and longtime trans activist in Maryland. "People know the movement is stuck. They know we've gone too far. They know we've lost the thread."
...
Others, however, saw the Skrmetti case as a tragic gamble built on flawed politics and uncertain science.
Whoa, wait a tic -- are you saying the Science is Not Settled on the sexual mutilation of children?
Over the last decade, they told me, the movement was consumed by theories of sex and gender that most voters didn't grasp or support, radicalizing its politics just as the culture wars reignited and the Supreme Court began moving further right. And as Skrmetti and other lawsuits made their way through federal courts, some of the central medical claims girding the legal case for pediatric gender treatments -- that decades of thorough study had found them to be safe and effective -- began to unravel amid growing scrutiny by other doctors and experts.Last summer, thousands of emails and other documents released in a case challenging Alabama's ban raised further questions about medical standards at the heart of the A.C.L.U.'s lawsuit against Tennessee. "This case exposes a lot of ethical problems in the practice of medicine," a law professor with expertise in sex-discrimination law told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of blowback from students and colleagues.
An expert just told this fake reporter that there are ethical problems in the trans "medicine" racket -- and this "reporter" had no follow up question!
No further questions occurred to him!
Or he did ask -- but chooses to hide the answer from readers.
You know, like a real reporter hides information instead of publishing it.
"For Skrmetti to be the next step in a progress narrative -- an incrementalist would say, This is way far from where we ought to be."
Along the road to Skrmetti, some believe, the L.G.B.T.Q. movement drove itself toward a cliff -- and took the Democratic Party with it, chaining the Biden administration to one of the most divisive issues in American politics at a moment of shifting medical consensus and fierce polarization. "It's one of the biggest mistakes in the history of trans activism," said Brianna Wu, a trans woman who serves on the board of Rebellion PAC, a Democratic political-action committee.
The article talks about the "Dutch protocol" and early medical approval of gender transitioning -- but only after extensive psychiatric analysis and counseling and the determination that there was little other choice.
The Dutch Protocol was quickly abandoned and kids were transitioned just for saying "I'm trans" at a single "consultation."
...
It was right as this new consensus was emerging that gender clinicians began to see a sharp rise in adolescent patients, most of them female at birth. Most had not reported gender distress until their early teens, after beginning to develop physical signs of puberty. A disproportionate number had other mental-health conditions, such as autism or depression.
They have preyed on autistic children searching for answers about why they don't fit in, and mentally-ill children who really just needed someone to talk to.
...Within activist circles, though, that idea began to give way to a concept called self-ID, rooting gender identity in bodily autonomy. Activists argued that all people had the right to determine their own gender, regardless of how they dressed or whether they opted for medical transition. Your self-identified gender -- not your physical body -- should determine what appeared on your driver's license and which bathrooms you could access.
In the wider culture, concepts of gender were becoming dizzyingly capacious, even confused. Challenging the idea of a rigid male-female binary, academic theorists detached gender from sex entirely, then reimagined it as an infinite spectrum. By the mid-2010s, when Time magazine declared that America had reached a "transgender tipping point," a trans person might identify as male, female or neither. The gender of a "gender fluid" person might shift from month to month, or day to day. The phrase "sex assigned at birth" -- originally devised to classify babies born with ambiguous genitalia or other rare congenital disorders -- was now employed to suggest that biological sex was arbitrary, even a kind of fiction. Gender, not sex, was the inherent quality.
This new understanding of gender fueled rising calls to change how doctors approached medical transition. Critics inside and outside the medical establishment argued that overzealous "gate-keeping," like extended psychological assessments, stigmatized trans people and slowed their access to hormones or surgery. In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association eliminated the formal diagnosis of "gender identity disorder," with its suggestion of pathology, and replaced it with gender dysphoria, a diagnosis with looser criteria. A few years later, WPATH issued a position statement that treatments for dysphoria were a "medical necessity," the term used by insurers to categorize care they will cover.
In the relatively small community of pediatric gender medicine, physicians increasingly advocated a "gender-affirming" approach, in which clinicians should generally defer to a child's self-declared identity.
If "experts" are just deferring to a little mentally-ill kid's self-ID as trans, then what the fuck do we even have experts for?
As Corporal Hudson said of the 9-year-old Newt: "Why don't you just put her in charge??!"
Some doctors, citing the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior among trans youths, argued that failing to affirm a child's expressed gender would put their life in danger. "We often ask parents, 'Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter?'" Johanna Olson-Kennedy, one of the country's leading gender physicians, told ABC News.
Parents got sick of "experts" with their own sick agenda pressuring them by promising dead kids unless you submit.
By then, practitioners like Olson-Kennedy were arguing that trans-identifying children -- even those whose dysphoria might be entwined with other mental-health problems -- didn't need extended psychological assessments any more than trans adults did. ("I don't send someone to a therapist when I'm going to start them on insulin," she told The Atlantic in 2018.) Some doctors and activists went further. In a 2019 journal article, the trans bioethicist Florence Ashley argued that trans people, including "older teenagers," should not require a formal diagnosis of dysphoria before gaining access to cross-sex hormones. Rather than relieving supposed distress, Ashley wrote, patients might be seeking "gender euphoria" or "creative transfiguration," which "sees the body as a gendered art piece that can be made ours through transition-related interventions."
Obviously: these are not medical outcomes. "Gender euphoria" is not a medical goal, nor is turning children's bodies into "gendered art pieces" that can be shaped through hormones and butchery.
This was an entirely political effort towards a bizarre end that resembles a Joker plot more than medicine.
For Chase Strangio, the stakes were both personal and political.HeShe joined the A.C.L.U. in 2013, a few years after undergoing top surgery, or a mastectomy, a procedure that "saved my life," as he later wrote. "When you spend your life hiding from yourself, experiencing embodiment is nourishing, exhilarating," Strangio wrote. "It is survival." He vowed to work "to create social, political and legal conditions so that others could experience the same possibility."Like Strangio, the younger people going to work at L.G.B.T.Q. groups leaned further left than their older colleagues. Often identifying as queer -- a label that could connote radical politics as much as any sexual or gender identity -- they resented the incremental, assimilationist politics that had won the right to same-sex marriage.
They sought to deconstruct assumptions about what was normal -- to dismantle bourgeois institutions, not seek inclusion in them. Strangio wrestled with how to achieve justice for trans and other marginalized people through a system she believed was designed to subjugate them. In interviews and on social media, she has described himself as "a constitutional lawyer who fundamentally doesn't believe in the Constitution," an L.G.B.T.Q. activist who felt his movement was overly devoted to gay white men with "social power and capital and political power" and to the "fundamentally violent institution of civil marriage."
The turn to trans rights would ultimately reopen an old fissure in the L.G.B.T.Q. movement: whether to seek civic equality -- or liberation.
So what I hear this woman saying is that she doesn't care about the kids per se, just using the bodies of kids to force her weird ideas of "liberation from the sexual binary" on to the public. Once you convince a boy to lop off his dick, you own his parents for life, don't you?
The parent could never, ever admit to himself for one second that he was snookered and sacrificed his child on the bloody altar of woke extremism, could he? The parent could never admit to himself he let his boy mutilate himself over a lie.
No, once you get that parent to agree to mutilate his child, you own that parent for life. He can never even allow himself to suspect the trans extremist cause is anything less than holy.
Here's an example of Strangio's extremism in action:
In 2016, North Carolina passed legislation requiring people to use bathrooms and locker rooms reserved for their "biological sex," setting off the country's first major clash over transgender rights. When a coalition of L.G.B.T.Q. groups began planning an ad campaign, message testing showed that most people were unfamiliar with the movement's terminology and the physical realities of being trans; the phrase "assigned male at birth" left audiences confused and skeptical. To win them over, the coalition created ads featuring a trans woman with long hair and conventionally feminine clothing. In a spot that first aired on Fox News, the woman is barred from a restaurant bathroom by an angry manager, who backs down after two other women -- messaging "validators" the audience could relate to -- intercede. "I was born with a male body," the trans woman says in a voice-over. "But inside, I always knew I was female."More than 20 L.G.B.T.Q. rights groups signed on to the messaging plan. The A.C.L.U. did not. Strangio, working on an A.C.L.U. team suing North Carolina, objected to the framing. According to two people present for the discussion, Strangio disputed that a trans woman could be "born with a male body" or "born male"; in her view, a trans woman was born a woman just like any other woman. There was no such thing as a "male body," Strangio told her colleagues: "A penis is not a male body part. It's just an unusual body part for a woman." Before the advertisement aired, Strangio elaborated on his critique in an article in Slate. "Many advocates defend the use of the 'born male' or 'born with a male body' narrative as being easier for nontransgender people to understand," Strangio wrote. "Of course it is easier to understand, since it reinforces deeply entrenched views about what makes a man and what makes a woman. But it is precisely these views that we must change."
These are revolutionaries that seek nothing short of the overthrow of biological and physical reality.
And the Democrat-Media Party embraced their madness, and now finds itself tied to them and unable to cut itself free.
Continue reading
Trump's EO Permitting States to Check the Voter Rolls Against Federal Databases of Actual US Citizens Finds that Illegal Aliens Are Voting In All Kinds of Elections
—Ace
Why did no president take this simple step before?
Could it be that the Democrats want illegal aliens to vote, and the Bush wing of the Fake Republican Party agrees, or at least doesn't want to upset their liberal friends and mistresses by disagreeing?
Answer: Yes, that's exactly it.
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump paved the way for state officials in Texas to identify dozens of noncitizens who allegedly voted in the 2024 election.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened investigations into 33 potential noncitizens who are suspected of voting in the 2024 general election, according to a press release from his office. The Republican prosecutor said the discoveries were made possible after the Trump administration allowed Texas officials to more easily gain access to a federal database that helps identify an individual's citizenship or immigration status.
"Noncitizens must not be allowed to influence American elections, and I will use the full weight of my office to investigate all voter fraud," Paxton said Tuesday in a prepared statement.
"In order to be able to trust the integrity of our elections, the results must be determined by our own citizens -- not foreign nationals breaking the law to illegally vote," the Texas attorney general continued. "These potential instances of unlawful voting will be thoroughly investigated, and I will continue to stand with President Trump in fighting to ensure that our state's elections are safe and secure."
Following Trump's return to the White House, Texas officials were able to access the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, an online service program administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that allows various government agencies to verify the immigration status or U.S. naturalization of applicants seeking benefits or licenses.
Texas was able to access the SAVE database after Trump signed an executive order in March directing the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of USCIS, to offer the database free of charge to every state in order to protect election integrity, according to Paxton.
"Gaining access to this database has been a game-changer," Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said in a prepared statement earlier in June. "Not only have we been able to identify individuals who should not have voted in the last election, we have also been able to confirm naturalization of dozens more."
...
The president has also voiced strong support for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, legislation sponsored by Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy that would require state officials to obtain proof of citizenship prior to registering an individual for any federal election and also requires state officials to remove all noncitizens from existing voter rolls. That legislation passed the House in April, with only four Democrat lawmakers voting in favor of it.
More recently, the Trump administration unveiled a new partnership with the Social Security Administration to ensure "a single, reliable source for verifying immigration status and U.S. citizenship," according to a memo previously obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
There's more good news:
Stacy McCain quotes from a Center for Immigration Studies report: So far, the illegal immigrant population of the US has dropped by one million. From 15.8 million (according to one count) to 14.8 million.
Trump didn't deport one million people. He deported thousands, and many thousands more self-deported.
Remember how in 2012, during a Republican primary debate, Mitt Romney was mocked for saying he was in favor of "self-deportation"? The audience actually laughed, as Romney explained that it would not be necessary to "round people up," but rather that enforcement of the E-Verify system for employment would cause illegal aliens to leave the country voluntarily. Liberals treated this idea as if it were some kind of joke, but Romney's point -- that if the U.S. ever got serious about enforcing our immigration laws, this would encourage illegals to leave -- has now been vindicated. Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler of the Center for Immigration Studies report:Our analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey, officially called the Current Population Survey (CPS), shows a large decline in the foreign-born or immigrant population (legal and illegal) between January and May of this year. The decline was caused by a falloff in the number of non-citizens from Latin America who arrived in 1980 or later, a population that overlaps significantly with illegal immigrants. We preliminarily estimate that the number of illegal immigrants has fallen by one million since the start of the year, perhaps due to their leaving in response to President Trump's election and stepped-up enforcement efforts. . . .
Democrats enjoy denying two things: that people respond to legal incentives, whether negatively or positively, and that sex is a real thing and not just an illusion created by "Society."
McCain adds:
Keep in mind that the average population of a Congressional district is about 760,000, so that for every 2.3 million illegal immigrants you deport, you're taking away one House seat (and one Electoral College vote) from states that have large illegal populations.
See the post for the full analysis. Thanks to The Patriarch Tree.
Bonus: Trump signed an executive order to remove all illegal aliens from the Medicaid rolls.
There are, insanely, 1.4 million illegals using this program for free medical treatment, which was of course established for America's own poor citizens.
Continue reading
Assaults on ICE Officers Rise 500% as the Democrat-Media Party Encourages Their Cult Members to Attack the Police
—Ace
Didn't they charge Trump with inciting a riot?
Assaults on ICE agents have skyrocketed by 500% during enforcement operations, according to new data released by the Department of Homeland Security.Key Details:
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Breitbart News that ICE officers are experiencing a "500% increase in assaults while carrying out enforcement operations."
McLaughlin referenced a recent incident where ICE officers attempted to arrest Roberto Carlos Munoz, an illegal alien and convicted child sex offender. Munoz allegedly dragged an ICE agent 50 yards with his vehicle while fleeing the scene in Bloomington, Minnesota.
McLaughlin criticized Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their "repeated vilification" of ICE agents, linking their rhetoric to rising attacks.
Diving Deeper:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are encountering a wave of violence during arrest operations, with attacks on agents having increased by 500%, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data reviewed by Breitbart News. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the spike "alarming" and highlighted a recent example involving a violent fugitive who nearly killed an agent during an attempted arrest.
"Just this week, an ICE officer was dragged 50 yards by a car while arresting an illegal alien sex offender," McLaughlin said, referring to Roberto Carlos Munoz, a previously convicted child predator living unlawfully in the United States. Munoz reportedly used his car to evade capture in Bloomington, Minnesota, endangering the life of the officer attempting to take him into custody.
,,,
McLaughlin also warned that political rhetoric from high-profile Democrats is inciting hostility toward ICE. "Make no mistake," she said, "Democrat politicians like Hakeem Jeffries, Mayor Wu of Boston, Governor Tim Walz, and Mayor Bass of Los Angeles are contributing to the surge in assaults of our ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE."
She pointed to Jeffries' threat to publicly identify ICE agents, as well as past statements from Wu and Walz comparing the agency to Nazi Germany's secret police. "From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is despicable. This violence against ICE must end," McLaughlin said.
.
The Vigilant Fox @VigilantFoxNEW: ICE Deputy Director SLAMS Democrats for Encouraging Violence Against Her Officers.
Democrats are calling for violence... no surprise.
Eric Swalwell: "You have to meet their chaos with your own strength."
But ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan is firing back, warning that this rhetoric is putting lives at risk.
"The men and women of ICE work every day to keep the American people safe."
"It's insane to me to think that politicians are out encouraging people to cause harm to our officers, which is up over 400 percent over the last few years."
"And trying to cause harm to these agents when they're out there doing their job."
"The Democrats continue to say that nobody is above the law, and yet, they will not allow law enforcement officers to do their jobs and enforce the laws that are on the books in the United States."
When politicians inflame mobs instead of enforcing laws...this is the result.
The media has no comment on their current incitements to attack the police.
They are, however, asking Jasmine Rachet if she feels "safe" since the shooting of two Minnesota politicians.
Why ask her? She's not from Minnesota.
I guess they just want to make sure Democrats aren't feeling unsafe due to political violence.
They have no cares about whether Republicans feel safe.
No questions about whether Republicans feel safe given that significant numbers of their party support the back-shooting mentally-ill assassin Luigi Mangione.
No questions about whether Jews feel safe given the Democrat Party's and its allied leftwing parties' support of the Jewish museum assassin.
And, as more and more Democrats physically assault ICE agents and threaten to dox them so that antifa killers can stalk their families no question about whether ICE agents fell safe.
Continue reading
Iran Refuses Trump's Offer to Negotiate a Deal, Stating That They Will Only Negotiate If Israel Gives Up the War
—Ace
They want a ceasefire as a condition for talking about a ceasefire. This is the same position that Hamas has taken.
It's the Muslim way of war.
I'm tired of it. I've been a bit sharp with people lately. I am just so sick of this endless cycle of Muslims murdering people in terrorist attacks and then crying to the press that they're the Real Victims Here when anyone fights back.
At some point, they have to be taught that if they want war, they're going to get war.
And not just a quickie bombing. A full, sustained campaign of bombing and assassinations.
They need to feel what it's like to be afraid.
They don't get enough of this. Their preferred method of "war" is to butcher and rape innocent civilians, then cry to the press that they're victims of "genocide." This gets all the European countries to condemn Israel, or the US, and then everyone stops making war back against the war-mongers, and the cycle continues.
Forever, and ever, and ever, and ever. And why should they stop? They get to murder and rape civilians and then cry "genocide" and hide behind the skirts of Mama Media and the feckless dying Europeans and pay no price.
Until this time.
This is an important moment. This is when Iran and its proxy terrorist armies of Hamas and Hezballah finally learn what terror feels like themselves.
And I don't want this to stop until all the terror masters are dead.
So, Iran says they won't negotiate.
I would love Trump to now announce, "The only reason the Ayatollah and his whole family of murderers is still alive is because I told Israel not to kill them, so that I have someone to negotiate with. But if the Ayatollah says he's not going to talk to me, then he has no use to me, and I'm telling Netanyahu to take him out."
At any rate, David Strom links the Washington Post.
As a precondition for negotiation, the Ayatollah wants Israel to surrender, despite Israel having all of the leverage.
Refused. GFY and die burning in a hole.
Trump offers to talk. Iran says "No."If this were high-stakes poker, you would say that Iran is calling Trump's bluff, believing that he doesn't want to intervene in the war directly, and also believing that Israel is incapable of taking out Iran's key nuclear site buried deeply under a mountain. Khamenei is gambling that his regime can ride out the storm and rebuild its nuclear program once Israel stops the bombing.
Iran rejected calls from Western leaders to return to the negotiating table, asserting it would not continue nuclear talks while under attack by Israel.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that his country has discussed the possibility of reopening nuclear talks with Western leaders, but ultimately rejected offers due to ongoing Israeli attacks.
"The Americans have repeatedly sent messages calling seriously for negotiations," the minister said during televised remarks. "But we have made clear that as long as the aggression does not stop, there will be no place for diplomacy and dialogue."
According to reports, Mr. Araghchi and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have spoken on the phone several times since the outbreak of war between Israel and Iran last Thursday. During those talks, Mr. Araghchi reportedly told Mr. Witkoff that Iran could be more flexible on the nuclear issue if the U.S. pressured Israel to end the war.
"More flexible," though, does not mean ceasing its enrichment program, at least if multiple reports are to be believed. It is talking about "limiting" enrichment, but has drawn the line--it will not dismantle its enrichment capacity.
Speaking of that: I don't think anyone needs this spelled out, but in case they do...
This is not like Iraq where we had bad intelligence that Iraq was developing nukes. We know for a fact Iran is developing nukes. They openly brag about their uranium enrichment.
Uranium has to be enriched up to a high fraction of highly-radioactive/unstable isotopes to be used in a bomb. Fuel for a simple reactor doesn't have to be highly enriched. If you're trying to create controlled reactions to safely produce heat (and thereby electricity), you don't want the entire pile of uranium all fissioning at once and blowing up your reactor.
But for a bomb, obviously you do want as many atoms as possible to all split within microseconds of each other, releasing huge amounts of energy in less than a second.
Iran openly brags that it's enriching uranium up to the nuclear-bomb standard. There are no reactors that require uranium enriched to weapons grade, and in fact I don't think you even could use uranium enriched to weapons grade in a reactor. I think it would almost immediately explode or go into an uncontrolled meltdown.
So there is no question that Iran is enriching uranium to produce an atomic weapon. They say they're enriching it to weapons-grade for "peaceful energy production purposes," and if you believe that, you're a chump and a half. They haven't disclosed any new nuclear reactor designs that can use weapons-grade uranium.
It's an obvious lie. They are producing weapons-grade uranium for the only use it is fit for, which is in a weapon.
People against taking any action against Iran keep trotting out a Parade of Horribles to justify the opposition. What if Trump suddenly goes crazy and sends 100,000 troops to fight on Iran's soil? What if Trump suddenly reverses the entire premise of his candidacies for president and decides to take in tens of thousands of Iranian refugees?
Those seem unlikely in the extreme to me.
And while talking about these very unlikely scenarios, the Paulites studiously avoid talking about the extremely likely scenario of an apocalyptic Muslim cult which has repeatedly threatened to destroy the Great Satan -- and has threatened to send assassins to kill Trump and his family and his former advisors, even before he was re-elected -- having a nuclear weapon.
And then another nuclear weapon. And then another and another and another and another, forever.
And bear in mind, Iran already has intermediate-range ballistic missiles and they're simultaneously developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Now why would they need to strike another continent if they would just be content to destroy Israel?
Iran has also refused to suspend its intercontinental ballistic missile program, too. I'm sure they have a Mostly Peaceful use for them.
The Iranian regime is on the precipice of being defanged and possibly defenestrated. I have no idea why people are so giddy about the prospect of saving this terrorist regime, which has attacked us repeatedly over the past 50 years of its bloody existence, just as it's on the brink of falling.
And if we do save the regime -- well, then we've decided we want the Ayatollah to have the bomb and also intercontinental ballistic missiles.
That is a major downside of the Paulite position, and it's such a huge downside those pushing the Paulite position simply refuse to talk about it. Or they blow it off claiming "Iran is not a direct, credible threat."
Well, they've actually been killing Americans and funding terrorists for 50 years but sure, no "direct, credible threat."
Not even when -- not if -- they have the atomic bomb and ICBMs to go with it.
The idea that Iran will just be peaceful if we leave them alone and stop picking on them -- the sort of Blame American First claptrap we've heard too much of from the left -- is simply false.
They wanted to kill Trump and his advisers before he was re-elected.
Politico, eight months ago:
U.S. officials are coming to a troubling realization about Iran's repeated threats to kill Donald Trump and some of his former top generals and national security strategists: Tehran isn't bluffing -- and it isn't giving up anytime soon.Iran has been openly threatening Trump and those who oversaw his national security strategy since January 2020, when Trump ordered a drone strike killing Qassem Soleimani, then Iran's most powerful military general. Tehran has put out videos depicting the future deaths of Trump and others who helped orchestrate the Soleimani attack, pushed for their arrest and extradition and issued menacing statements promising revenge.
U.S. intelligence community officials briefed the Trump campaign last month about assassination threats against the former president from Iran, with the Trump campaign saying they were warned the threat has "heightened in the past few months." The briefing followed a pair of assassination efforts on Trump this summer. No evidence has been presented to link those to Tehran.
But Iran's efforts to kill Trump and former senior officials it has blamed for the Soleimani strike are even more extensive and aggressive than previously reported, according to a dozen officials familiar with the Iranian assassination threat.
"This is extraordinarily serious," said Matt Olsen, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for national security. "Iran has made it very clear that they are determined to seek retaliation against former officials in connection with the Soleimani strike."
No direct, credible threat, huh?
POLITICO spoke with 24 people with direct knowledge of the Soleimani strike or the ensuing assassination threat, including current and former U.S. lawmakers, Secret Service agents, congressional aides and senior U.S. officials. Some were granted anonymity due to ongoing threats against them or the sensitivity of their work.They collectively painted a picture of a pervasive assassination threat that is much more concrete than the graphic videos, brash proclamations and menacing social media posts that have found their way into the public eye. They detailed hacking and digital surveillance efforts against the former officials and their family members, a drumbeat of personal FBI warnings about new threats from Iran, increasingly tense discussions about how to protect individuals amid ongoing plots, and efforts by suspected Iranian operatives to trail a U.S. official during a trip abroad.
Again, this is the liberal Biden-supporting Let Iran Have Nukes Politico talking, not some kind of pro-war MAGA blog.
For his part, Trump is taking Iran's threats to kill him and other American officials seriously. He announced that if Iran kills him, he has left his successor (JD Vance, unless they kill him as well) instructions to "obliterate" the regime.
Continue reading
Ninth Circuit Overrules Lower-Court Hawaiian Judge's Order, Allowing Trump to Continue Using the National Guard to Control the Democrat-Media Party's Violent Insurrectionary Forces
—Ace
The lower district court judge of course ruled that Trump wasn't permitted to use the normal powers of the presidency, as liberal district judges routinely do.
The three-judge panel reviewing that decision ruled unanimously that Trump has the authority. The panel featured two Trump judges and one Biden judge.
Note that both of these rulings have to do with an emergency temporary injunction -- that is, there was no full trial on the merits, just the lawyers making their case to judges on an expedited basis. So this is, technically, an interim opinion which may be revised later.
However, in this case, a "full trial" would pretty much just be lawyers making their cases to judges. This is a case that turns on constitutional language and precedents, not specific facts. So we can say that this temporary ruling is almost surely the final ruling, too. There aren't many new facts that would be disclosed after a fuller process, and those facts wouldn't alter the appeal court's ruling -- they're ruling that the president's decision-making with respect to the military is simply not up for judicial review.
President Donald Trump will retain command over National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles, following a ruling late Thursday from a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case stems from Trump's decision to send in federal troops after protests erupted in response to immigration enforcement actions. It marked the first time since 1965 that a president asserted control over a state's National Guard without that state's consent.The ruling overturns a decision by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who ruled that Trump had overstepped his legal authority by deploying troops without California's approval. Breyer, appointed by President Bill Clinton and the brother of former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, argued the protests failed to meet the legal threshold of a "rebellion" that would justify federal intervention. "The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of 'rebellion,'" Breyer wrote.
Last week, the 9th Circuit granted Trump an emergency administrative stay, temporarily pausing Breyer's injunction. But Thursday's decision goes significantly further. It replaces the temporary relief with a full, written opinion from the appellate panel, concluding that "it is likely that the President lawfully exercised his statutory authority." The panel also made clear that even if Gov. Gavin Newsom was not properly notified in advance, the law does not give governors the power to block such orders.
Trump is pleased.
Trump hails "BIG WIN" over Gavin Newsom on deploying National Guard...
President Donald Trump on Thursday night hailed a major legal victory after a federal appeals court ruled he can retain control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles during immigration-related protests. The decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that previously blocked the deployment.
Trump responded on Truth Social praising the decision and criticizing California Governor Gavin Newsom. "BIG WIN in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the President's core power to call in the National Guard!" Trump wrote. "The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin."
The post emphasized that the ruling isn't just about California. "All over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done," Trump wrote. He added that the ruling "is a Great Decision for our Country, and we will continue to protect and defend Law abiding Americans."
Happy Friday! We've made it again.
THE MORNING RANT: All These Businesses Had To Do To Not Lose My Business Was…Nothing
—Buck Throckmorton
I am probably like most men over the age of 50 in that I stick with the same hygiene and toiletry brands out of familiarity and habit. To keep me as a customer, all the manufacturer has to do is…nothing. Even periodic price increases don’t affect my product loyalty.
Yet repeatedly in recent years I have had to switch brands because modern corporate business practices demand that products be altered, shrunk, or cheapened to goose short term profits, or be connected to offensively woke advertising campaigns.
Most recently, I have had to give up on Mitchum roll-on deodorant because three of the last five bottles I’ve bought had a ball that doesn’t roll. I had always liked the way it applied, it didn’t feel sticky, etc., and I didn’t even balk at price increases. But suddenly they have apparently changed their packaging such that the product can no longer reliably do its core function – transfer the deodorant from the bottle to my armpits.
To paraphrase Ian Fleming, one defective bottle is happenstance. A second defective bottle is coincidence. Three times is elite MBA action. It is evident that someone either at Revlon (maker of Mitchum) or at the vendor supplying the bottles decided to save a cent or two by reducing quality. Instead, they ran off the lifetime revenue stream of a loyal, repeat customer.
Of note, I switched to Mitchum a few years ago only because Dove ran me off with a transgender advertising campaign. I might still be using Dove anti-perspirant had they not run that disturbing campaign.
I started using Zest soap in my college years because it didn’t leave me with the industrial cleaning smell of the Dial Gold soap of my childhood. I then habitually used Zest for decades, and again, all they had to do to keep my business was…nothing. But they couldn’t help themselves. The product was shrinkflated a few years ago, which probably looked like a great idea on some spreadsheet – higher gross profit per ounce! But to me it was an annoyance, the bar was more frequently at the sliver stage and I had to grab a new bar more frequently. So, after all those years I came back home to Dial, now that it has an unscented option.
I shaved with Gillette razors for decades until Gillette ran its infamous woke ad campaign accusing its loyal customers of being sexual predators. For me, learning that Gillette was publicly fighting the reputation of being the brand of choice for sexual predators made switching to a competitor an easy choice. Once again, all Procter & Gamble / Gillette had to do to keep my business was…nothing. They could even jack the price up higher and it wouldn’t cause me to switch. But they had to insult me. Since that notorious ad campaign, P&G has had to twice write off billions of dollars in impaired assets for its Gillette brand, totaling almost $10 billion.
There is a crisis in corporate management in that it does not value the effective equity and long-term revenue stream of its most loyal customers. A customer for life is so much more valuable than a temporary increase in margin due to cheapening a brand. When the cost to keep a loyal customer is $0, but a corporation chases that customer away through destructive product gimmickry or offensive advertising, it is corporate malpractice.
Corporate boards need to start policing the destructors they have hired to run their companies.
On a lighter note, here’s a young Roger Clemens reminding you that you’re not really clean unless you’re Zestfully clean.
Have a great weekend.
[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]
The Morning Report — 6/ 20 /25
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. Happy Summer Solstice:
June NINEteenth is but a memory (if that)— sorry but I refuse to mangle the English language because some illiterates couldn't pronounce it properly to begin with, thereby transmogrifying it into a sort of Jive "E-Plebnista" holy word — marking a day with no real significance or meaning, other than the continued Emanuel-Goldsteinification of whites and other politically disfavored targets in furtherance of the Democrat Left's evil drive to divide and conquer in its lust for absolute power.
Well, Since on or about this day 45 or so years ago (as if accuracy matters to Leftists, so I grant myself permission to estimate), I was robbed at gun- and knifepoint near the Avenue J subway station by two black Yoots who bore a striking resemblance to Barack Obama's mythological son (Trayvon Martin). I consider that to have been a crime against humanity on par and even greater than what happened on June 19th way back when in Oklahoma when some people did something to some people, as Bro-Fo would say, so how about a national day of remembrance not just for me but for everyone ever mugged by a Purple Drank People Beater!
Call it June Seftoneenth!!!! You get a day off from work and a free government cheese danish.
Okay, enough of that meshugas, the Israel/Iran war continues, and in the wake of Iran intentionally targeting Israel's Soroka Medical Center (the nation's second largest hospital and an actual hospital as opposed to a terrorist ammunition dump and missile launching station that is the hallmark of Hamas and other Iranian proxies). Bibi wants Khamenei's head on a pike.
President Donald Trump relayed a message on the Middle East conflict through White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday, saying that he would decide whether to strike Iran “within the next two weeks.” Trump has backed Israel’s airstrikes on Iran that have taken out some of the radical Islamic regime’s nuclear facilities and military leaders, while urging the Ayatollah to come to the negotiating table. The president has not ruled out direct U.S. military action against Iran, and even said that the United States knows “exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.” Leavitt addressed the speculation surrounding the president’s thinking on conflict, reading a statement from Trump in the Briefing Room.
Honestly, considering there are reports of an aircraft carrier group on the way to the area, and likely one already there, plus our Air Force assets at bases in or near the region, both bombers and aerial refueling tankers, AWACS etc. etc. I think the die is already cast. I think President Trump was hoping for some sort of brokered cessation of hostilities, if not the pollyanna pipedream of a peace deal to put in his trophy case, but failing that, perhaps he can have his cake and eat it too by dropping the big one (rhetorically, not an actual nuke!) and helping Israel win as close to July 4th as possible.
As I have often stated, I am a great admirer of President Trump and I believe he has both a strong support of the state of Israel, and quite obviously the national security interests of America as the prime concern. Whatever Trump's motivations and maneuvers may be, make no mistake that prior adminsitrations including the Bushies, Clinton and of course Obama/Biden along with the permanent globalist anti-semitic cabal embedded in Foggy Bottom have and had a massive hatred for Israel and did their damndest to destroy it and replace it with Iran as the power broker in the Middle east.
Lest we forget, we would not be having this conversation were it not for Jimmy Carter and Foggy Bottom abandoning the Shah and allowing the Muallahs to take control of Iran in the first place.
Personally, much as I love Trump, and want to see the Mullahs vaporized and the Iranian people freed, I do not think that direct American involvement in the air or on the ground militarily is a good idea for a host of domestic and geopolitical reasons. We can support Israel with Intel and logistics as well as ordnance. And even if the IDF lacks heavy bombers, from what I understand, the MOP bunker busters could be delivered from converted heavy passenger or cargo aircraft that the Israelis already have in their arsenal. And considering they have degraded if not totally obliterated Iran's air defenses, the risk to the strike package would, to my inexpert eyes seem minimal and worth taking considering the payoff.
And Fordów could be neutralized by the IDF just by taking out the regional power grid and water supply.
Beyond what is happening now, I hope both President Trump and the Israelis are looking ahead to what comes after the mullahs are removed, Please God. Of course Islam being what it is, no doubt hardcore regime elements that are first and foremost Islamic will do what they can to wrest power from any potential moderating,western/oriented rivals. It's gonna be a bloody power vacuum for a while.
With that in mind, this item jumped out at me:
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey has long coveted the Greek Aegean islands in the disputed waters between the two countries, and now it has made its claim official. The flagship newspaper of the Greek-American community, The National Herald, reported Wednesday that Turkey “has provoked Greece by submitting a map to UNESCO claiming parts of the Aegean Sea – which has been the primary point of contention and discussions between the countries during a period of calm.” Turkey’s “military strategy for a potential incursion into Greek territory, particularly Western Thrace, was designed to exploit a narrow window of opportunity, which Turkish generals anticipated would close quickly with swift intervention from the US and Europe following any Turkish offensive. . . . Why would the Turks do such a thing? The answer is simple and obvious: because of Islam. The Qur’an says: “Fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah” (Qur’an 8:39). The jihad against non-Muslims will continue until everywhere on earth, “religion is all for Allah.” Jihadis and jihadist entities such as Erdogan’s Turkey demand this territory or that, and all too often, clueless infidels, ignorant of the larger goal, decide to negotiate and give them part or all of what they demand, hoping that there will then be peace. Instead, there will just be more demands. If Turkey gets Greece’s Aegean islands, it will next be demanding part or all of the Greek mainland. And then beyond.
When I saw this, I wondered why Erdogan, who is about as disgusting an anti-semite and overt Israel hater as you'll find out there, did not immediately rush in to aid the Iranians? Had Israel retaliated against any Turkish action against them, that could have been considered an attack on NATO? Or would Erdogan's attack on Israel resulted in diplomatic blowback from NATO, whose members in the main are not exactly pro-Israel especially nowadays that many of them are being fundamentally transformed from within into ISlamic states.
Erdogan had always fancied himself as "King A-rab" considering Turkey and not Iran or even Saudi Arabia should be the center of the Muslim world, so he always considered Iran as a rival.
But holy Shi-ite! With Ukraine and Russia going at it, with Israel and Iran still to be sorted out, does this schmuck really think he can grab the Aegean Isles?
Recall 50 years ago the dust up in Cyprus that split that Island in two between Turkey and Greece, while the west didn't do jack. At least back then Turkey was a secular, non-Islamic controlled government.
If that happens and with everything still up in the air, what kind of a signal would all this send to Poo Pooh Xi in terms of the opportunity to try and tie one on and make a grab for Taiwan?
And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
Have a great weekend!
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- Victor Davis Hanson: There's a reason why Putin didn't invade Ukraine during Trump’s first term.
Misunderstanding Trump?
- Miller shared the video on X, telling people that the “deranged hatred in this country has gotten out of control.” (Not "IN" but "OF" this country by foreign and domestic maniacs who want to destroy it and all of us on the side of all that is true, just and good - jjs)
GOP Rep. Max Miller Claims Man with 'Palestinian' Flag Tried to Run Him Off the Road
- Tell me you’re a pedophile without telling me you’re a pedophile. (there aren't enough lampposts and rope to suit what is needed - jjs)
Middle-aged man dressing as a little girl given license to drive a school bus—hangs a sign in window that reads ‘Lolita Line’
Continue reading
Daily Tech News 20 June 2025
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- Australia is moving closer to banning children from social media - which is impossible - after a story commission by the government showed that banning children from social media - which is impossible - is possible though they won't say how and admitted that there is no method that actually works. (Bloomberg) (archive site)
This kind of bullshit gets routinely slapped down in the US on First Amendment grounds, but we don't have a First Amendment here. We don't have any amendments. Thanks (apparently) to the influence of "philosophers" like Jeremy Bentham around the time our constitution was being drafted, we don't have any negative rights at all.The trials project director, Tony Allen, said there were "no significant technological barriers" to stopping under-16s gaining social media accounts.
This man has not only never met a teenager, he was apparently born fifty years old.
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A Man, A Plan, A Canal, ONT
—WeirdDave
Hello everybody. Boy, what a week. Thank God we avoided those kings.
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Senior Dogs Cafe
—Ace
The Stryn River Valley, Norway
Forty two years ago, the cartoon animation video game Dragon's Lair hit the arcades.
On vet's orders, this man is giving his senior dog a traction stretch and the dog is loving it.
Blind senior dog smells the flowers.
A flower farm in Japan.
This poor cat wedged himself behind a door to dig out the kibble that had spilled there, but the dog got the best of him.
Some kids thought they'd do a drive-by squirting but grandpa didn't survive two world wars to get soaked by a bunch of wet-nosed brats.
Dog wants a dumpling, but only if you dip it in the soy/vinegar sauce. I get it. All the flavor's in the sauce. The dumpling just tastes like rubbery wheat.
Polite dog requests a tuck-in.
An animal shelter has a very satisfied customer.
Good samaritans rescue a stray dog trapped on a busy highway, and wind up with a new dog.
Adopting an old dog that no one else wanted.
Senior dog has a puppy's bounce, just a little slower, is all.
A senior citizen adopts a senior dog who had spent 700+ days in a shelter.
Senior dog tippy-taps.
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Quick Hits
—Ace
Jason Cohen @JasonJournoDCNEW: Jasmine Crockett calls Trump supporters *MENTALLY ILL* -- then immediately calls for bipartisanship:
"This idea that we don't care how many people get hurt, we don't care how we prostitute our service members -- you know, thinking that you have your own special little army that's for you ... it is sick. It is really sick. And anybody that supports it is also sick."
"We've got a mental health crisis in this country because everyone -- no matter how you affiliate yourself -- should be against Trump. Period. This is not partisan for me. Like, I would give anything to have -- sad to say -- George Bush. Like, give me any regular Republican nowadays, and I would be happy."
"I don't know how far he has to go before we can come together and just say, 'Enough is enough.' Like, this should not be partisanship."
Video here. It's a Black Woman Speaking Now (TM), so I want all you jamokes to keep your racist mouths SHUT and your ears WIDE OPEN to hear HER TRUTH (TM).
Democrats always say that they totally like and respect retired or dead Republicans. The current ones, not so much.
By the way, if you don't know about Black Woman Speaking Now (TM), there's a really racist trend of black women insisting they have a special right to be heard above all others based on their race and sex. Michelle Obama claimed, WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that black women just weren't complaining enough.
I think this has its basis in the "Progressive Stack" on college campuses, with "marginalized" voices promoted and dominating. Old gnarled-lesbian AWFLs are in the streets singing, "Trust Black Women, Black Women Lead the Way."
This is pretty fucked-up Race Cult of a movement if you think about it for two seconds.
OSZ @OpenSourceZone2028 Democratic Presidential Primary Poll
Kamala Harris 26%
Gavin Newsom 21%
AOC 14%
Pete Buttigieg 11%
Tim Walz 10%
Josh Shapiro 3%Co/efficient poll | June 12-16
Joe Concha @JoeConchaTVA starting five not seen since the '98 Bulls...
Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_EXCLUSIVE: We were with ICE & HSI Los Angeles as they arrested a Salvadoran alien w/ an active deportation order who has convictions for murder & attempted murder in LA County, but ICE may not be able to deport him due to a protection he got in the final days of the Biden admin.
ICE says ALEXANDER ALFREDO PALACIOS GUEVARA is a Surenos gang member who has had an active deportation order since February 2024. He is a convicted murderer, and also has two prior convictions for attempted murder, all in Los Angeles County.
During his ICE arrest, he repeatedly told me, on camera, that he shouldn't be deported because he has "CAT".
It turns out, his claim was true. ICE wasn't aware during his arrest, but in the last days of the Biden admin, in December 2024, Guevara had been granted what's known as "DCAT", or Deferred Removal under the Convention Against Torture, meaning he can't be deported to his home country because he fears he will be tortured there.
The decision was made by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), under the Biden Department of Justice, on 12/18/2024.
ICE will keep Guevara in custody & seek to deport him to a third party country, but they are waiting for SCOTUS to rule on their ability to do so, after a federal judge in Boston blocked third party removals earlier this year.
ICE, under the Trump admin, is outraged that a decision under the Biden admin is currently stopping them from deporting a convicted murderer & alleged gang member who has a final deportation order & received his due process.
ICE statement to FOX:
"This criminal alien should never have been roaming the streets of Los Angeles. Not only is he a member of the ruthless Surenos gang, but he also has multiple convictions for murder, assault and rape or sexual abuse of a minor. A highly unusual Biden-era legal decision from December allowed this dangerous criminal to live in American communities. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, we are removing public safety threats as it always should have been."
Guevara told me to call his immigration attorney in LA. I did, multiple times, and also emailed her, asking about his case, his criminal history, and who he fears will torture him if he is deported?
I never got a response.
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Trump: I'll Decide Within #TwoWeeks Whether I'll Send Bombers to Take Out the Iranian Nuke Sites
—Ace
Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47.@PressSec shares a message from President Trump: "Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks."
Trump doesn't want to alienate the minority of his base that has gone full Code Pink, so he wants to delay making a decision. There are several things that could happen that could make it unnecessary for him to decide at all, thus allowing him to skate past this political headache without upsetting anyone (except the people who demand he affirmatively join Iran's cause and save them from the wrath of our allies in Israel, like Tucker Carlson).
First, the Iranian regime could actually agree to "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER," at least as far as their nuke programs. As the situation gets worse for them, they might well go back on their vow to never, ever give up their nuke program. They might agree to denucularization and the UN's atomic energy regulators could be allowed to come in and take all the enriched uranium and the enrichment equipment away.
Second, the Iranian regime could collapse. In which case, a deal might be reached with the successor government to evacuate nuclear materials out of Iran.
Third, Israel might just take care of this all themselves and spare Trump the bother of having to give a controversial order. While Israeli planes are far too small to carry the 30,000 pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator that is designed to take out very hardened underground bunkers, they could airdrop in commandos armed with huge amounts of explosives to physically carry them into Fodrow and set the charges on the walls of the place. It's a man-made cave under a mountain; with enough explosives and some smart engineering, it can be collapsed.
Also, as David Strom suggests, while the Israelis don't have any warplanes that can carry a 30,000 pound munition, they do have C-130 cargo planes, and such massive cargo lifters have been used to drop ordnance in the past.
He links this article suggesting that Israeli C-130s could drop the MOP.
There is certainly a precedent for C-130s dropping absolutely massive bombs out of their cargo holds, both old and new. The BLU-82 Daisy Cutter was dropped by C-130, primarily to clear landing zones, during the Vietnam War. A modernized fuel-air weapon known as the GBU-43 Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB) is in service today, and it was used with devastating results in Afghanistan in 2017. So why not a super-heavy penetrator?Dropping a weapon weighing nearly 30,000 pounds out the back of a C-130 would certainly be something to behold. The MOAB clocks in at nearly a third lighter than MOP. Still, MOP or a similar weapon could be designed to maximize the C-130's airdrop envelope and not exceed it, and should have no problem fitting inside of and being released by a C-130.
The problem is that the C-130 is the opposite of stealthy, and would not survive an attempt to deliver the bomb if Iran could get its air defense missiles to lock on it.
But do they have many of those left? Israel has focused on taking out Iran's air defense grid since the first seconds of the war, and they continue taking them out. Can they degrade those capabilities so much that a big fat clumsy C-130 can fly in without being attacked?
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