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June 05, 2023

Monday Overnight Open Thread (6/5/23)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

650nt.jpg

***

The Quotes of The Day


Quote I

"The mayor has explained over and over again, and under oath, he always intended to and always lived in North Miami Beach. We look forward to a speedy exoneration."Attorney, Michael Pizzi


Quote II

“It’s just a mess here,”

“We have in Chicago $160 million that was spent for the migrants with no records, no plan. And now we’re fixing to spend $51 million that was passed at city council with no record, no plan for 500 migrants for 30 days. That’s unheard of.” Chicago resident Andre Smith

Continue reading


Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:57 PM Comments


King Harv Imperial Coffee

The Great Chicken War Cafe

—Ace

stokknesiceland.jpg
Stokksnes, Iceland
by @indefinitely_lost

Dog isn't enthralled by the latest Disney Marvel tv show.

Tail on. Tail off. Tail on. Tail off.

Leaders lead.

Followers follow.

Followers follow, and get some Lunge GAINZZZ too.

Leaders lead, unless they can't keep up, then they struggle to follow.


This cat really doesn't like the water.

Having fun with a great big crevasse.

What happens to an electric fence when it's hit by lightning? Same thing that happens to everything else. Boy, that line stinks on a blog just the same way it stinks in an X-Men movie.

Dogs have different methods for drinking water.

Dog and crow are frenz.

The elite thief.

The brutish robber.

Continue reading


Posted by Ace at 07:30 PM Comments


.

Quick Hits

—Ace

Here's the FBI's new spin: If we present the document alleging Biden conspired with foreign actors in a $5 million+ bribery scheme, the person who brought this information forward may be killed.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna @RepLuna

Just left meeting for House Oversight. The @FBI is afraid their informant will be killed if unmasked, based on the info he has brought forward about the Biden family.

Is that also the reason they buried the information and never pursued it? How convenient.

Apparently Major League Baseball posted the obligatory "pride" message with rainbow logo on June 1, but then reverted to their normal trade dress.

prideforoneday.jpg

Great:

Alliance Defending Freedom @ADFLegal

CASE FILED: We've sued the Biden admin and CA officials for unlawfully pulling federal food funds from a church preschool, due to the school's beliefs on sexuality.

The school feeds many low-income & immigrant children. Hungry kids should matter more than a political agenda.

"The government is withholding food from families in need simply because their children attend a Christian preschool. This violates the U.S. Constitution and multiple federal laws that protect Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith." - ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus


Chuck Todd will leave Meet the Partisans, I mean Meet the Press, in September, to be replaced by another lockstep leftist. But this one has a vagina.

Update: Jimmy Dore has headlined this story "Chuck Todd FIRED from Meet the Press." I don't know if he means that literally.


A media "journalist," AJ Benza, claims that the actor Jamie Foxx received a blood clot from his covid jab, and has been rendered partially paralyzed and blind.

My skepticism here is due to wondering why this secret is only being let out by someone in Foxx's circle, and how it's been kept a secret at all.

Jamie Foxx suffered a blood clot in his brain leaving him partially paralyzed and blind, it has been sensationally claimed.

In a dramatic turn of events surrounding the megastar's mysterious illness, veteran Hollywood journalist A.J. Benza revealed that a supposed well-placed source told him Foxx, 55, suffered the serious medical episode after being pressured into getting a COVID vaccine.

"Jamie had a blood clot in his brain after he got the shot. He did not want the shot, but the movie he was on, he was pressured to get it," said the podcaster, a former New York Daily News columnist and host of the E! series "Mysteries and Scandals," 11 minutes and 40 seconds into his interview on the Ask Dr. Drew podcast.

"The blood clot in the brain caused him at that point to be partially paralyzed and blind."

Benza insisted his source is "someone in the room" connected to Foxx's treatment.

We'll see.

In news that no one cares about, New Hampshire liberal Republican Chris Sununu says that he won't be running for president in 2024.

He probably made this decision to boost the chances of the other liberal/"moderate" Republicans running, like big fat slob Chris Christie, who may announce on Thursday. The liberals don't want to divide the liberal/NeverTrump vote too much, or that makes it easier for Trump (or DeSantis) to win.

Mike Pence also filed paperwork to faff around and appear on CNN and lose a lot of RINO donor money while pretending he has a chance to win the nomination. #FaffAroundandFindOut


Nikki Haley went on CNN, because of course she did.

And of course she used enemy comms to attack DeSantis, continuing to run for the position of Trump's VP and attack dog:


Continue reading


Posted by Ace at 06:40 PM Comments

Grassley: Source Behind Bribery Accusation of Biden Is "Highly Credible" and Has Been Used by FBI In the Past

—Ace

So -- completely unlike the source for the "Steele Dossier," which the FBI infamously launched a full investigation into.


The individual behind the information that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national is a "highly credible" FBI confidential human source who has been used by the bureau in multiple investigative matters dating back to the Obama administration, Fox News Digital has learned.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley were approached by a whistleblower alleging that the FBI was in possession of a document -- an FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020 -- which explicitly detailed information provided by a confidential human source alleging Biden, while serving as vice president, was involved in a $5 million criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national in exchange for influence over policy decisions.


A source familiar told Fox News Digital on Friday that the confidential human source who provided the Biden information to the FBI was a "pre-existing" FBI source who has been used in multiple investigative matters separate from the Biden information.
President Joe Biden

The source told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source was used by the FBI for "at least several years" before the generation of the June 2020 FD-1023 form detailing the Biden allegations.

The source also told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source has been "consistently reviewed by the FBI" and has been "found to be highly credible."


The source said the individual participated in investigative matters during the Obama administration.

The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

From Margot Cleveland at the Federalist: Grassley says that he's less interested in the actual document than in the FBI's corrupt burial of it.

Why did the FBI launch a full investigation into the Pee Pee Dossier, and yet bury this one about Biden?

Grassley suggests it's just because the FBI is a corrupt institution.

The confidential human source (CHS) behind the detailed allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden agreed to accept money from a foreign national to affect policy decisions was reportedly "highly credible" and used by the FBI in multiple criminal investigations dating back to the Obama administration. Friday's exclusive by Fox News provides further insight into Sen. Chuck Grassley's focus on the FBI -- as opposed to the Biden family -- as the primary scandal in play.

"We aren't interested in whether or not the accusations against [then]-Vice President Biden are accurate," Grassley said during an interview last week discussing FBI Director Christopher Wray's refusal to comply with the congressional subpoena issued for the FD-1023 form. That form, dated June 30, 2020, included detailed information from a CHS to the FBI regarding an agreement by now-President Biden to deliver preferred foreign policy positions for a $5 million payment.

Um, I'd like you to be a little interested in that.

Now, for full context, Congress does not have the full power to investigate crimes. They can only investigate crimes if doing so furthers a legislative goal, or their oversight power over certain executive agencies.

So he may be anticipating the Criminal Wray's next line of bullsh!t that he can't turn over the document because Congress just doesn't have the investigatory right to see it. He's establishing that Congress certainly has oversight power over the FBI.

After Grassley revealed he had already seen the FD-1023, Fox News' Bill Hemmer queried: "How damning is this document to the sitting U.S. president?"

"I don't know," responded Grassley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He stressed that while "there's accusations" in the FBI report, the congressional oversight committees' concern is whether "the FBI does its job." "That's what we want to know," he continued.

Friday's revelation that the CHS was "highly credible" and had served as a source in multiple prior criminal investigations -- including ones run under the Obama-Biden administration -- proves Grassley is properly focused on the FBI.

Yes, the CHS's allegations offer more evidence of a Biden family pay-to-play scandal, and unraveling any criminal conduct by the Biden family remains important. But more significant to the future of our country is uncovering government actors responsible for violating the rule of law: America can survive select injustices, but it cannot withstand a corrupt bureaucracy that obstructs justice and interferes in elections.

Yet that is precisely what occurred, according to the whistleblower. He claimed that "in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters' team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease." The whistleblower further alleged that the FBI HQ team that handled the Auten assessment, after concluding the reporting was disinformation, placed the information in a restricted access sub-file that only the particular agents who uncovered the CHS's information could access.

Now knowing the CHS behind the FD-1023 was not just "trusted," as Grassley had previously indicated, but "highly credible," and relied upon in multiple criminal cases dating back to the last time Biden worked for the executive branch, makes the whistleblower's accusations even more damning because those additional facts mean the agents had reason to believe the buried accusations were true.

Not only does this evidence suggest FBI headquarters obstructed justice, but the date of the CHS's report indicates those responsible for misbranding the intel as disinformation sought to interfere in the 2020 election.

NARA -- the records-keeping bureaucrats who worked hard to get the FBI to raid Trump's home over alleged classified papers -- is refusing to turn over emails between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's staff, despite being demanded via a proper Congressional subpoena.

I guess these firebreathing leftwinger pencil-necks get to decide what's secret.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) refuses to hand over requested communications between Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden's staff.

Just The News reports that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by America First Legal (AFL) has been rejected by NARA, which is claiming an exemption that allegedly includes communications between the president and his advisors, as well as communications between advisors.

On Wednesday, AFL released the emails that it had received from NARA, which were heavily-redacted. Despite handing over some emails, NARA confirmed the existence of additional communications that it refused to release.

One of the points of interest in AFL's request is an email from Hunter Biden's business partner at the time, Eric Schwerin, sent to the Office of the Vice President (OVP), concerning an alleged "China Lunch" that took place ahead of an official visit from Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2011. NARA claimed that releasing this particular email "would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors."

Emails found on the controversial laptop that once belonged to Hunter Biden had already confirmed a "China Lunch," as this was the subject line of multiple emails that were exchanged between the younger Biden, Schwerin, and OVP staffer Michele Smith. The laptop communications suggested that the conversation between Hunter and Schwerin focused on who should be invited to a state event with then-Vice President Biden, with Schwerin subsequently giving Hunter's suggestions to Smith.

NARA's refusal comes as congressional Republicans have used their new majority in the House of Representatives to investigate the Biden family over allegations of corruption, influence-peddling, and abuse of power both during his vice presidency and since he took office as president in 2021.

Hunter Biden's lawyers -- who's paying for them, by the way? -- are using a court decision which Joe Biden has attacked as an argument for why he shouldn't be prosecuted for lying on his federal gun forms.

A landmark Second Amendment Supreme Court ruling that President Joe Biden called "an affront to common sense and the Constitution" has become an element in his son's legal defense, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

After the Supreme Court struck down New York state's concealed carry law in its June 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen ruling, the president said he was "deeply disappointed" and vowed to" protect Americans from gun violence." Yet his son's lawyers cited the same decision in an effort to persuade Justice Department prosecutors that a prosecution against him for one allegation--lying on a federal firearms application--would be found to be moot, two people briefed on the matter told The New York Times.

Hunter Biden's lawyers point to pending appeals court cases that use the Bruen decision to challenge aspects of the federal firearms background check system, the NYT reported.


Meanwhile, the entire Hunter Biden laptop -- minus genitals and credit card numbers -- is being posted online.

He says that Hallie Biden -- Beau's widow, who had an affair with Hunter, and possibly began that affair before Beau died -- herself was a crack addict for years.

Continue reading


Posted by Ace at 05:44 PM Comments

Have You Heard the Scuttlebutt? Disney Has Another Woke Bomb On Its Hands as Little Mermaid is Projected to Lose Between $50 and $100 Million

—Ace

A hundred million here, a hundred million there, and pretty soon you're talking real money.

I know we talked about the likelihood The Little Mermaid would flop on Friday, but we now have its second weekend box office. It dropped 58% from its first weekend to its second. That's pretty high. Not as bad as some of the worst-performing Marvel films, but high. And that second weekend drop kills any hopes that the Little Mermaid would keep generating millions every week consistently. In other words -- everyone has to do these dumb puns, it's the law-- The Little Mermaid doesn't "have legs."

Box office analyst and YouTuber OMB Reviews shared his analysis of the box office receipts for this past Memorial Day weekend and predicted that The Walt Disney Company's latest release, The Little Mermaid, "will end up being a box office flop."

In a recent video upload, the analyst began, "We're going to talk about The Little Mermaid, how it's doing okay domestically, but internationally, oh boy, this movie is in a ton of trouble. Seeing that it has had a simultaneous release in all of the major markets overseas with the one exception being Japan. However, if we are looking at the other markets in the East right now, it's not looking good at all for the prospects of this movie's international numbers. And the domestic really aren't that much better to be able to say it'll make up for any of its losses there."

He then asserted, "So what am I saying? I think there's a good chance that we'll see The Little Mermaid end up being a box office flop. And let's just say it couldn't happen to a nicer company."

Woke shill Grace Randolf admits the film won't make more than around $5-600 million, which isn't break-even considering its cost.

And also considering the fact that ticket sales are split between the studio and the actual theaters showing the film, which liberals always, always forget, or pretend to forget, when they're claiming the latest woke bomb isn't a bomb at all.

Disney booster and woke-ism champion Rudolph worries the movie will actually wind up making $400 million or so, which is a "disaster," she says.


On Midnight's Edge, they talked about liberal movie "journalists" trying to contrive some way for this movie to not lose money. One talked up the money it would get in television rights -- except that Disney no longer makes money by selling television rights. All of its properties turn into Disney Minus exclusives. To pump up Disney Minus and give people a reason to subscribe, they've chopped off one of the big secondary markets for movies, television.

They pointed out that there will be an internal payment of money from Disney Minus to the Disney movie studio to pay for the TV rights, around $75 million. But this is just a paper transaction moving money from one Disney account to another Disney account. That doesn't bring any actual money into Die Maus.

Relatedly, the leftwing shill media for years and years has been insanely protective of all woke movies, but especially woke Disney movies, routinely running Disney propaganda that the only people who don't like The Last Jedi, Lightyear, or The Little Mermaid are woman-haters and homophbes and racists. "Ists and phobes," as the shorthand has it.

But now Disney has scored so many bombs in a row that even "journalists" are actually starting to notice what the public noticed five years ago.

This article from Forbes, reprinted in Yahoo Finance, says "the Force has left Lucasfilm," and talks about Kathleen Kennedy's record of destroying one expensive IP after another.

'The Force has left Lucasfilm': What has gone wrong for the studio behind 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones'--and how Disney's Bob Iger can salvage his $4 billion investment


by Christiaan Hetzner

Taking time out of his busy schedule running Disney, Bob Iger flew to the Cannes film festival in support of Harrison Ford's latest movie, even posting on social media snapshots of the aging action hero on the red carpet.

Lucasfilm Ltd. had just premiered the fifth installment in its Indiana Jones franchise and a lot is riding on the fedora-sporting, bullwhip-toting archeologist portrayed by the now 80-year-old Hollywood star. At nearly $300 million, Dial of Destiny is one of the most expensive films ever made and initial reviews suggest it could bomb big at the box office when it lands on June 30.

When Iger acquired Lucasfilm for just over $4 billion a decade ago, it paired the century-old animation company with the studio behind Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yet the match made in heaven now risks becoming an albatross around Disney's neck.

The third Skywalker trilogy started off with a bang in late 2015 with The Force Awakens, only to end with a whimper four years later as fans deserted the franchise. The studio hadn't produced a theatrical release of any kind since, allowing the Marvel Cinematic Universe--despite recent setbacks--to supplant it as Disney's cash cow.

"The Force has left Lucasfilms," said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity firm Patriarch Organization, in an interview. "That emotional connection it enjoyed with fans has been damaged."

The Los Angeles-based media industry investor and self-admitted Star Wars fan still counts the deal a success for Iger, but he believes it got lost producing too much subpar content for Disney.

...

Now that growth has faltered, with 4 million customers canceling their membership in the three months through March, and Wall Street is pushing Iger to end the scattergun approach of showering creators with money for new content. Instead, investors want him to end the over $10 billion in cumulative streaming losses since the launch of Disney+ three and a half years ago.

The Dial of Destiny will have to make $800 million just to break even. And that's assuming that Disney has been honest about the budget, which they almost certainly have not been. Disney is widely suspected of hiding their movies' costs, recording them as costs for other divisions, in order to hide just how poorly they've been doing under Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy's destructive leadership.


Film critic Pete Hammond recounted Iger's reaction when informed Deadline just published a rave review of the fifth Indiana Jones movie: "You could see the absolute relief on his face. 'You have made me very happy to hear that,' he told me, and he meant it.".

That's probably because first impressions have otherwise been dreadful, with a franchise-low 50% score on Rotten Tomatoes as of writing. Vanity Fair proclaimed it "not worthy of the whip", while the BBC felt Ford's globe-trotting adventurer had been relegated to a background figure in his own film, included mainly for the purpose of being upstaged by younger co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

"I'm not sure how many fans want to see Indiana Jones as a broken, helpless old man who cowers in the corner while his patronizing goddaughter takes the lead, but that's what we're given, and it's as bleak as it sounds," the BBC wrote, branding it a "gloomy and depressing" final act.

With Disney needing to shell out $9 billion at least to buy Comcast out of Hulu as early as next year, the last thing Iger needs is bad word of mouth building over the next four weeks to asphyxiate any hopes of blockbuster success.

Right now, though, grim news is all that Lucasfilm has to offer the Disney CEO. An attempt to expand on the lore of its 1988 fantasy tale Willow flopped hard when the series debuted on Disney+ in November.

Not only was it canceled after the first of three seasons, but the show was banished entirely from the platform as part of a thorough spring cleaning. Critics argued Willow in retrospect would have been more valuable to Disney as a tax write-off than as actual content for subscribers.

At the heart of this mess is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy....

Antagonized by the perceived shabby treatment of their childhood heroes, fewer and fewer fans showed up from one movie to the next. The third and final installment, Rise of Skywalker, only took in half of the $2 billion that premiere film The Force Awakens made for Disney.

It's perhaps no wonder that the company's $5,000-per-package Star Wars-themed hotel, the "Galactic Starcruiser", is shutting down. The tactical mistake of placing it in the timeline of the Disney sequel trilogy doomed it to a lifespan of just 18 months after opening.

I know that you know all this. Sorry about telling you a bunch of stuff you already knew.

But the news here is that the alleged "news media" has begun to piece this non-scoop together.

BTW, I had written earlier that Disney wants to buy Comcast out of their shared ownership of Hulu. This article says that Disney is required to do so -- and they need to come up with $9 billion (or more) in cash to do that.

Yes, the Hulu deal is a requirement... and Disney is panicking, so they are trying to devalue Hulu as much as possible over the next 12 months and negotiate an out...

Posted by: Nova Local

Oh, LOL. If that's true we should all sign up for Hulu!!!! Then cancel after Disney is forced to pay out $9 billion.

(But I don't know if it's true.)

Note that Nova made a mistake (which he pointed out) about how much this will cost Disney. Hulu is worth somewhere around $28 billion, and Comcast's one-third share is worth a bit over $9 billion.

I don't know if a Mass Subscription Effort -- the opposite of a boycott -- would jack up the value of Hulu and hurt Disney. I hope a geek media channel looks into this and gets us an answer.

More from Nova Local:

"Disney is the majority owner of Hulu, holding a two-thirds stake, while Comcast owns a third. Starting in January 2024, Comcast can use a put option to require Disney to take over its stake, while Disney can tell Comcast to sell it its stake. A transaction would be a multibillion-dollar affair. As per an agreement between the two companies, Hulu would get a fair-market value assessment from independent experts. However, the guaranteed minimum Hulu valuation of $27.5 billion means that Disney would have to cough up at least around $9 billion."

Hollywood Reporter on the exact current terms.
Link

Posted by: Nova Local

Posted by Ace at 04:39 PM Comments

FOIA'd Texts Reveal that Rochelle Wallensky and AFT Union Leader Randi Weingartner Conspired to Change the Criteria for Re-Opening Schools, To Keep Them Closed Longer

—Ace

The teachers unions really care about the kids.

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten voiced concern to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky about the language of the federal agency's February 2021 school opening guidance a day before it was made public, according to newly reported texts that shed light on their friendly relationship.

The text messages showing the chummy exchange between Weingarten and Walensky were obtained by the Fairfax County Parents Association through a Freedom of Information Act request with the CDC.

The text chains seem to show Walensky caving to pressure applied by Weingarten to keep schools shuttered in February 2021 and then thanking Weingarten, whom she refers to as her "friend," after the union released a statement praising the health agency.

On Feb. 11, 2021, a day before the CDC issued guidance that put the brakes on full, in-person instruction in schools, text messages show Weingarten informed Walensky that she had learned of language in the incoming guidance that seemed "at odds" with something they had previously discussed.

...


The powerful union boss then sends Walensky language that she claims "was leaked by someone in agency" to the news outlet that reads, in part, "all schools can provide in-person instruction (either full or hybrid), through strict adherence to mitigation strategies."

The following day, when the CDC released its operation guidance for schools, the phrase "all schools can provide in-person instruction" was modified to "all schools have options to provide in-person instruction."

Weingarten then texts Walensky a link to the AFT's press release on the guidance which includes her glowing statement about the CDC.

Posted by Ace at 03:33 PM Comments

Along the Disintegrated Border with the Coyotes and Smugglers of the Sinaloa Cartel

—Ace

Another great one from James Varney of Real Clear Investigations, joined by Heath Hansen of Soldier of Fortune magazine.

CORONADO NATIONAL FOREST, Ariz. -- As blazing sunlight ebbs to a star-studded sky along the U.S.-Mexico border, members of the Arizona Border Recon group peer through field glasses at a trio of men on the southern side in camouflage fatigues and carrying pistols and AK-47s.

The men, almost certainly members of Sinaloa cartel factions, are using their own binoculars to scan random gaps in a roughly 30-foot-high wall of thick metal bars that stretches for miles along a flatland carved by arroyos and dotted with rocks, saguaro cactus and high grasses. At times, a solo gunshot echoes on the Mexican side, a sound the AZBR knows from experience is a signal to people to start moving north.

There are chiefly two types of people AZBR teams have encountered filtering into the United States. Some of them carry packs filled with canned food, cookies and blankets. But others trek lugging much larger packs and no such rations or equipment -- indications their cargo is a more illicit sort.

The AZBR is a private group with no authority to arrest the mules, but for years its members have run patrols and cameras along the hundreds of trails and washes that web an area the group has dubbed Baby's Head Gap. It is so named for a Mexican doll's head atop a spike in the desert, an apparent warning to anyone wanting to cross that passage is done only with the cartel's permission.

The uneven landscape, with ravine ridges marked by trees and bushes running along the top, offers low visibility for Sinaloa cartel agents carrying fentanyl, as well as for AZBR teams out on days-long operations during which they share intelligence and photos with U.S. officials.

The presence of U.S. authorities in this open, gashed wasteland is light; on a recent operation AZBR members saw an occasional Blackhawk helicopter dart across the sky, but there were no foot patrols. At least in the area they patrol, AZBR leaders agree with former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who told a House committee on May 23 that Mexican drug cartels "control everything that crosses that Southwest border," including "illegal migrant crossings" that "create gaps in border security."

Because they have no law enforcement power and carry weapons only for self-defense, AZBR members are more witnesses to the disintegrating border than a force of deterrence.

The private group was founded in 2011 by Tim Foley, 64, a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper and recovering addict whose endless gulping of cans of Red Bull and chain-smoking of American Spirit cigarettes put a modern twist on Spartan habits.

"I live almost solely on caffeine, nicotine and an occasional Pop-Tart," he said.

Samesies!

Foley knows cartel members control the Mexican land he watches because in January 2022, he says, they contacted him, via a phone call from a federale, a Mexican state police officer. The caller initially offered to furnish AZBR with "any gear or weapons, gifts," which would mean "you wouldn't be our enemy then." Foley declined and two weeks later the man called again, this time offering $15,000 a month if AZBR would cease operating.

Again, Foley said, he declined, at which point the federale sighed and told him that, in that case, the cartel was going to raise the price on his head from $100,000 to $250,000, a rich bounty that luckily no one has collected.

Those who "fortified" our election have invited death and chaos into our homes.

And MS-13, of course.

MS-13 Gang Members, Released into U.S. by Feds, Among Illegal Aliens Charged with 15-Year-Old Boy’s Murder

MS-13 gang members, released into the United States by federal officials, are among five illegal aliens charged with murdering a 15-year-old boy in Frederick County, Maryland.

As Breitbart News reported this week, 21-year-old illegal alien Alexis Alfredo Ayala Lopez, 23-year-old illegal alien Jose Roberto Ramos Lopez, 29-year-old illegal alien Ismael Lopez Lopez, 27-year-old illegal alien Elmer Bladimir Reyes Reyes, and 20-year-old illegal alien Ismael Ivan Rivera Canales have been arrested and charged with murdering Limber Lopez Funez, who went missing in February before his remains were found in Gambrill State Park in April.

So much enrichment.


Posted by Ace at 02:24 PM Comments

Former Anheuser-Busch Executive: Companies Are Being Forced to Propagandize for Woke Causes by Woke Financial Giants Vanguard and BlackRock

—Ace

We have to make it illegal for these woke companies to manage people's retirement funds using any other criteria beyond strict economic benefit.

Investment firms like BlackRock and Vanguard are 'forcing' companies like Bud Light and Target into woke marketing campaigns, claims ex-Anheuser-Busch exec

Anson Frericks accused institutional investors of pushing ideology on firms

Pointed the finger at BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard


A former Anheuser-Busch executive has claimed that institutional investors are pushing left-wing ideology on the companies they invest in, spurring recent controversies like the ones that engulfed Bud Light and Target.

Anson Frericks, a co-founder of Strive Asset Management who previously spent a decade at Anheuser-Busch, made the claim in an interview on Tuesday on Fox News.

'You just have to follow the money. Take a look at BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard -- they manage $20 billion worth of capital,' he said.

Frericks said a lot of the money managed by institutional investors comes from big pension funds like those of the state of California, which put ideological pressure on the money managers.

According to Frericks' LinkedIn profile, he left Anheuser-Busch in April 2022.

Asked if he left the company because he witnessed pressure from institutional investors, Frericks demurred, saying: 'Not necessarily because of Anheuser-Busch, but a lot of other companies.'

In fact, institutional investors own only 5.29 percent of the outstanding shares of the brewer's Belgium-based parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev, according to NASDAQ data.

That may be, but Midnight's Edge has pointed out that woke banks also impose ESG requirements on corporations for the revolving lines of credit necessary to make payroll.

The Woke Cartel has destroyed Anheuser-Busch. A-B has lost twenty seven billion in shareholder value... so far.

Their Memorial Day sales were down... 60%. Salesmen are making little money as they just can't sell Tranheuser's product, and may start quitting the company en masse to work for someone who respects their customer base.

Bud Light boycott is costing sales staff up to $2,000-a-month as sales tanked as much as 60% over the Memorial Day weekend - amid fears 'good people are going to start leaving brand because they aren't making money'

Salespeople working for independent wholesalers that distribute Anheuser-Busch products are feeling the pain of the ongoing boycott in their wallets

Some say they have lost commission because of the drop in sales because of the boycott tied to the partnership with trans Dylan Mulvaney

Parent company Anheuser-Busch has lost $27billion in value since the boycott began

Salespeople working for independent wholesalers that sell Anheuser-Busch beverages are feeling the pain in their wallets of the ongoing boycott of Bud Light following its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

...

Incomes have been slashed for the salespeople who work at the roughly 500 independent wholesalers that sell Anheuser-Busch products to restaurants, bars, and grocery stores.

Some reported losing $2,000 last month compared to the typical May because of the backlash.

...

Compensation for salespeople varies across distributors and markets, but according to Frericks, a typical salesperson makes around $60,000 per year, including $20,000 in variable pay, which depends largely on commission.

'Good people are going to start leaving because they aren't making money,' he told ABC.

An anonymous supervisor from a Florida-based distributor told the outlet that the average salesperson made about $2,000 less in the month of May than they normally would have over based on figures from the last handful several years.

Numbers are suffering primarily due to a decline in Bud Light sales that reached as high as a 60 percent drop off over the week that ended on Memorial Day.

Supermarkets and package goods stores are going to star reapporitioning the shelf space previously given to A-B to other companies.

Bud Light is running out of time and could lose market share FOREVER: Brand will lose retail shelf space to Miller and Coors if they cannot reverse plunging sales, warns ex Anheuser-Bush exec

Anson Frericks says retailers will begin resetting shelf space in September

If Bud Light sales continue to lag, they could lose shelf space, he claimed

In the four weeks through May 20, Bud Light sales dropped 24.3% from last year

If Bud Light sales continue to lag, the brand risks losing shelf space at major retailers to competitors and 'locking in' lower market share, a former Anheuser-Busch executive has claimed.

...

Anson Frericks, the former US president of sales and distribution for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, said that retailers such as Walmart and Kroger typically 'reset' their shelf space allocations in the spring and fall, based on sales data.

For the fall reset in September, 'they generally take sales data from April, May, June, July, and then based off of that data in that time period, they will reallocate shelf space,' he told DailyMail.com in a phone interview on Saturday.

If Bud Light sales continue to slump, 'that shelf space will be allocated to Miller Lite, Coors Light, Yuengling, and some of the other brands that have that have taken share from them,' he said.

LOL.

Posted by Ace at 01:18 PM Comments

Missouri AG Attorney Bailey: A Judge Is Rejecting Biden's Argument That He Has the Right to Censor People's Speech

—Ace

Heartening!

This is the guy who c***-punted that Soros DA, Kim Gardner, out of St. Louis.



Attorney General Andrew Bailey
@AGAndrewBailey

The federal government had a hard time convincing a judge last week that it hasn't been working with and coercing social media companies to censor free speech.

Some notable moments from the first hearing in our First Amendment case, Missouri v. Biden:

The judge asked the feds if they had ever read George Orwell's 1984, pointing out the similarities between the case and the book.

The Court asked the feds if all the emails between them and social media companies were real because "it seems like there's a lot here." The feds were forced to admit the tens of thousands of pages of evidence are genuine.

The judge questioned the feds on several hypotheticals, asking if the First Amendment applied. He asked if an American citizen questioning the safety or efficacy of masks or a vaccine was protected under the First Amendment.

The feds' answer?

"It COULD be" but often won't be.

It's worth remembering that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was limited by the CDC because of safety concerns. But the feds censored people for expressing concerns about safety.

The judge also asked Biden's lawyers if the First Amendment covered Americans' right to say that Biden is responsible for high gas prices and inflation.

Their answer?

It depends.

The judge also asked them if the First Amendment applied to Americans' right to say that the 2020 election was stolen.

Their answer?

It depends.

I don't know this for a fact, but I imagine they're saying "it depends" because if the ruling Junta decides to brand criticism of them "misinformation," then the federal government is empowered to stamp out all criticism of the ruling junta.

The judge also pointed out that it seemed to be only conservatives who are targeted for their speech, asking the feds if they could provide one example of a liberal who was censored due to "misinformation."

The feds provided only one example of a liberal being censored, and that person is a political opponent of Joe Biden.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Court asked the feds why he should believe them when they say they claim censorship has stopped and won't happen again.

And that is exactly why we are asking the Court for a preliminary injunction to halt this vast censorship enterprise.

The federal government cannot be trusted to protect Americans' rights, which is precisely why our Founders enshrined the First Amendment into the Constitution.
My office is doing everything it can to protect Americans' right to free speech, the very bedrock of our great nation.

Stay tuned- this fight is far from over.

Posted by Ace at 12:20 PM Comments

THE MORNING RANT: The Satanic Daycare Sex Abuse Panic and the Current Transgender Social Contagion

—Buck Throckmorton

At American Greatness, John Conlin has written an excellent piece about the daycare sexual abuse hysteria three decades ago, and how the destruction of lives in that panic was similar to the abuses of the transgender social contagion that is going on now. It’s a “read every word of it” article.

The 1980s Satanic Panic and Transgenderism Today [American Greatness – 5/27/2023]

In the 1980s what now seems like collective insanity hit this country—false reports of satanic sexual abuse of children in daycare. Some called it the Satanic panic. It took almost 20 years for this insanity to be washed out of our collective system.

And it was insane. The following are just some of the claims made during this period: Children were said to have been forced to drink blood, blood-laced Kool-aid, and urine. They also reportedly ate feces and were forced to let animals eat pet food from their vaginas. There were claims they watched people being dismembered with chainsaws. Moreover, rumors of cannibalization and animal mutilation and sacrifice, with body parts used in offerings for Satan were prominent. And of course, there were plenty of stories of watching pornography and sexual abuse of these children.

Daycare abuse cases at that time boasted an 85 percent conviction rate, even as the tales of abuse grew increasingly wild. Any rational person must confess this was a society gone insane.

Those were modern-day witch trials, and those who dared to question the witch hunts were presumed to be guilty too. The media at all levels fanned the flames of “the crisis.”

The transgender mania that confronts us today is no different. One day society will look back at these times and wonder how such insanity could take root and explode across the country. Chemically mutilating children. Surgically mutilating children. Castrating young boys. Cutting the breasts off young girls. Stripping body parts of skin and muscle to “build” fake penises and vaginas. All because they “believe” they were born in the wrong body.

These individuals—the vast majority of whom have never had a single sexual experience—are being mutilated on an altar not that different from the one that dominated the Satanic Panic of years back.

If you didn’t “believe all children” during the Satanic Panic you were denying the scientific expertise of those highly credentialed people who knew best about child psychology.

On the other hand, children who did not readily offer up outlandish tales to counselors were considered terribly scarred. They were not to be believed – not until they were finally coaxed into identifying someone who abused them.

The similarities are abundant. There was a great deal of social pressure on children—and adults—to validate and confirm these tales, regardless of how outlandish they were. And once committed, there was even more social pressure to continue the charade. Turning around and saying “I made it all up” was not an easy thing to do. And thus, most didn’t. They continued the charade to the detriment of themselves and many of those around them.

Something I’ve often thought about during this current mania is that the “experts” now counseling minors on their gender identity are the political-cultural equivalents of the “experts” of 30 years ago who were so successful at getting little children to offer up incredible stories of abuse.

Continue reading


Posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM Comments

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Capuletti Playa.png


Dama En La Playa
Jose Manuel Capuletti

Posted by CBD at 09:30 AM Comments

The Morning Report — 6/5/23

—J.J. Sefton

amerswandive.jpg

Good morning kids. Considering that there's a war for the minds, bodies and souls of America's children, and that some of the worst offenders are, as the great Kurt Schlichter pointed out on the latest episode of the podcast (and I'm paraphrasing from memory) mothers desperate for some sort of validation or meaning in their lives who sacrifice their kids genitals and minds on the altar of Moloch in order to be stylish, I don't know why something like this is upsetting me to the degree that it is.

The three teens accused of killing and eating a beloved swan in an upstate New York village are refugees, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Manlius Police reported Faye the Swan and her four cygnets missing from the town pond last Monday, which prompted horror from the Manlius, New York, residents. Locals flooded Manlius police with tips the next day, which ended in the arrest of 18-year-old Eman Hussan of Syracuse, New York, and two minors, aged 16 and 17.

The posse are refugees from Myanmar and attend high school in the neighboring city, Manlius Police Sgt. Ken Hatter told the Free Beacon. Police say the three were able to steal Faye because she was nesting and did not fight back. The suspects devoured Faye with their family in Syracuse.

This is the second high-profile incident in recent months related to the murder of a precious bird at the hands of foreign nationals. The Free Beacon reported on two suspected illegal immigrants in Stanton County, Neb. who snuck into protected land and shot a bald eagle. Authorities told the Free Beacon that the two suspects had intended to eat the once-endangered animal, which is considered the United States’ national symbol.

Eman Hussan and his two co-conspirators are charged with felony grand larceny and criminal mischief. Their court dates are scheduled later this month.

If found guilty, the three risk deportation. The Immigration and Nationality Act states that offenders can be forcibly removed from the United States if they commit aggravated felonies or "crimes involving moral turpitude," which may or may not include the execution and ingestion of a cherished Anatidae. . .

. . . "These inhumane degenerates need to face real consequences," said another.

Absolutely 100% goddam right. Which is why it won't happen because the name of one of the "inhumane degenerates" sounds awfully close to being a Religion of Peace peacenik, and as such is untouchable. Meh, that's icing on the cloaca. In fact, he and the tens of millions like him that have invaded our nation are to be considered national symbols, unlike the bald eagle that was killed and eaten by some dreamy DREAMrs referenced in the article and linked here.

In fact, dig this pull quote:

"I’m trying to be as politically correct as possible when I say this but I don’t know what kind of third-world life they’re coming from, but it must have been pretty bad," Unger said, before adding that his office will not release photos of the dead bird because it’s "very graphic" and "contains lots of blood."

If ever there is a metaphor for what the hell is happening to us, it's that last sentence. And as for Mr. Unger's observation, fuck that. The absolute last thing we need to be is politically correct. That's why we have have these "inhumane degenerates" crawling all over us in the first place. Kudos for the guy who told it like it is vis a vis the savages from Myanmar. And let me put some knowledge to Mr. Unger up there. However "bad" things may or may not be were these deviants came from, that cannot ever justify shipping them in here. Certainly not without some sort of minimal attempt at assimilation and acculturation. But, those words are racist, bigoted and white supremacist. And the whole point in shipping them in here is to fundamentally transform the bald eagle into a mangled mass of flesh, blood, bone and feathers.

Ah yes, the glories of multiculturalism. Funny how the adherents to that theory insist on moral relativism and that all cultures and societies are to be respected – except of course Judeo-Christianity and western civilization. I guess "Coexist" doesn't mean what I thought it means, right?

To hell with that. The past nearly 6,000 years of human development were driven by western, Judeo-Christian values. I can't blame the savages for killing and devouring a swan and a bald eagle. Subhuman retrograde dark age savages gonna savage, whether in their own home or here. You can take 'em out of the jungle but you can't take the jungle out of them. As for the drive of those who should know better to turn us natives into child-mutilating, child-raping homosexual mutants, what the hell is that all about? What's the excuse for the 100-year post-First World War mass psychosis to literally flush thousands of years of societal evolution down the shitter and turn us all into swan eating savages?

* * * * *

Horrible segue alert: Speaking of savages, how many of you had Iran-Iraq 2: Pass the Popcorn Boogaloo on your dance cards? Except this time it's the Taliban.

How amusing that two fanatical Muslim regimes, in Iran and Afghanistan, are now at one another’s throats. Though Iran is Shi’a and Afghanistan Sunni, this not a sectarian conflict, although the Sunni/Shi’a certainly helps to stoke the antagonism. It is, rather, a conflict over water, specifically over how much water Iran and Afghanistan should be allowed to take from the Helmand River that runs along their common border. The dispute is getting more intense, and now a Taliban leader has publicly threatened that his group stands ready to “conquer” Iran to enforce its own claims to water from the Helmand River. Robert Spencer wrote briefly about the conflict here, and Daniel Greenfield weighed in here. More on this most welcome conflict can be found here: “Taliban claims: ‘We will conquer Iran soon’ amid water dispute,” by Ariella Marsden, Jerusalem Post, May 29, 2023:

The Taliban threatened on Sunday that it could conquer Iran as tensions increase over water disputes between Afghanistan and Iran, leaving at least three people dead.

In a video released by the Taliban, a senior commander in the terrorist organization running Afghanistan warned that the Taliban would fight the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard “with more passion” than they fought the US forces. He added that the Taliban “will conquer Iran soon if the Taliban’s leaders give the green light.

. . . How wonderful it would be for the civilized world if the Taliban and Iran were to come to blows over access to the water from the Helmand River. The Taliban threatens to “conquer Iran,” and while that claim is mere bravado, it might be able to keep large numbers of Iranian troops tied down in eastern Iran. The Taliban not only has more advanced weapons than Iran – the seven billion dollars worth left by the Americans – but its troops are battle-hardened, having been fighting since 2001. The Iranian army, in contradistinction, hasn’t been involved in major fighting since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, some 35 years ago. . .

. . . It’s a consummation devoutly to be wished. Who among us would not want a war that begins as a conflict over water, but then metastasizes, between two brands of Muslim fanatics who will slug it out for a long time.

For those who think that Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants and his handlers in Kalorama pulled out of Afghanistan in order to set this up, these are the same idiots who are desperate to give Iran nukes. Foggy Bottom doesn't know its ass from its elbow. This is just one of those occasional Bob Ross happy accidents that potentially could take the pressure off Israel and our allies in the Gulf. And considering the rank incompetence and insanity of the current junta, the word "allies" is used advisedly.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, in view of the above situation, this revelation is somewhat of an eye-opener:

In the ongoing political persecution of Donald Trump, investigators have reportedly gotten their hands on the audio recording of an interesting conversation between the former president and his aides.

Via CNN:

Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.

The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said…

[Trump’s former chief of staff Mark] Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, during which Trump “recalls a four-page report typed up by (Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.

Note what CNN chose to emphasize here. Rather than elaborating on an unelected Deep State operative drawing up plans for World War III and then pressuring the sitting president to launch it, their obsession, due to their Trump Derangement Syndrome, is with trying to prove the president mishandled classified documents (which likely shouldn’t have been classified in the first place).

Of course, CNN’s defense contractor advertisers have been salivating for an Iran war since the Bush days. So it’s not surprising at all that they don’t bat an eye at plans drafted in the dark to commence an invasion of that country — an invasion, by the way, that would make managing the Iraq insurgency look like a cakewalk. Iran’s military strength is exponentially superior to that of the Baathist Hussein regime.

I have to disagree with PJ Media's Ben Bartee insofar as Foggy Bottom has never wanted to go to war with Iran. Hence the desperate drive to give them nukes, money and all the rest of it. They want Iran to be the dominant power in the region. Defense contractors on the other hand don't give a damn who we're fighting so long as they remain in the black. The more red American blood is spilled, the blacker their balance sheets.

What a world.

Continue reading


Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:46 AM Comments

Daily Tech News 5 June 2023

—Pixy Misa

Top Story

  • The end of programming as we know it, part one. (New York Times)

    Farhad Manjoo, professional idiot, writes in the Times that AI is going to totally revolutionise programming and allow people who don't understand the question to somehow get the right answer.
    This won't necessarily be terrible for computer programmers — the world will still need people with advanced coding skills — but it will be great for the rest of us. Computers that we can all "program", computers that don't require specialized training to adjust and improve their functionality and that don't speak in code: That future is rapidly becoming the present.
    Yes, it's called automatic programming, and we've had it since COBOL.

    Programming used to be hard.
    A.I. tools based on large language models — like OpenAI Codex, from the company that brought you ChatGPT, or AlphaCode, from Google's DeepMind division — have already begun to change the way many professional coders do their jobs. At the moment, these tools work mainly as assistants — they can find bugs, write explanations for snippets of poorly documented code and offer suggestions for code to perform routine tasks (not unlike how Gmail offers ideas for email replies — "Sounds good"; "Got it").
    And they are terrible at those things, with one exception: They can be useful for finding bugs. After all, if you write the code and then have an AI check it for bugs, the worst that can happen is you waste some time verifying that the bug is not actually a bug, and at best you catch an embarrassing mistake before your customers' critical data ends up in a Laotian bot farm.
    But A.I. coders are quickly getting smart enough to rival human coders. Last year, DeepMind reported in the journal Science that when AlphaCode's programs were evaluated against answers submitted by human participants in coding competitions, its performance "approximately corresponds to a novice programmer with a few months to a year of training."
    Which is rather like a doctor with a few months of training. We call such people... Well, we don't call them doctors.
    "Programming will be obsolete," Matt Welsh, a former engineer at Google and Apple, predicted recently. Welsh now runs an A.I. start-up, but his prediction, while perhaps self-serving, doesn't sound implausible.
    Not unless you know what you're talking about, anyway.

    AI can take over programming tasks but not the form of AI currently being pushed by all the same people who were pushing the blockchain as the cure for all our ills a year ago. To work for such tasks, you need a fact model accompanying the language model, and systems like ChatGPT don't have that, at all.

    The lack of a fact model is also why ChatGPT lies constantly. One of the reasons. It's not that it lies deliberately, it's that it simply makes no distinction between true and false statements.

    And that is what these people want to use to write the code that runs modern civilisation.

    I'd suggest stocking up on gold, guns, ammo, and canned goods, but I expect this bubble to implode of its own accord. It's just too damn stupid.

Continue reading


Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:10 AM Comments

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (6/4/23)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

6 4 0nt.jpg

***


The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

“I would love to be on the cutting edge of medical science, to be able to bridge the gap of humans and technology,” Adam Woodworth


Quote II

“I was shocked, I was dismayed, I was stunned. I couldn’t believe that was happening, that they would stop the national anthem of all songs.” David Rasbach, the founder and director of the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir


Quote III

“No matter what you think about the gender issue, it’s pretty remarkable that a school can punish a student for protesting censorship in America today,” ADF legal counsel Logan Spena


Quote IV

“Let me tell you something. Nothing else matters if we’re dead. Nothing else matters if we’re killing each other.” Stephen A. Smith, ESPN.

Continue reading


Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:45 PM Comments

Gun Thread: First June Edition!

—Weasel

060423 calendar scaled.jpg
Yay! The calendar is back!!!

Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!

Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be June? The year is practically half over! Not much going on in WeaselWorld, just making last minute preparations for the 2023 NoVAMoMe. Are you planning to attend? I hope so, and if you are, bluebell and I are looking forward to welcoming you! See you in less than a week!

With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?

Continue reading


Posted by Weasel at 07:00 PM Comments

Food Thread: Rubber Bands And Shrimp; One SHouldn't Be Like The Other

—CBD

Shrimpgrilled.jpeg

Grilling is almost always the best, or at least one of the best ways to cook stuff...any stuff! But shrimp can be tough...literally. I have moved away from high heat with shrimp, preferring more gentle heat that doesn't turn the shrimp into super-ball textured chunks of rubber.

For many applications I will poach shrimp briefly in barely simmering seasoned water. I keep it to no more than three minutes, and less if the shrimp are small. That leaves them barely cooked, but tender and delicious.

The problem of course that the light charring from grilling really adds to the flavor of shrimp, so the problem is how to get some char while avoiding that horror of horrors...overcooked shrimp!

It's a dance, and one that requires constant attention. But it is worth it!

I don't often grill shrimp, but when I do I try to find the biggest ones available, so there is a bit more leeway.

Anyone have any clever tricks?

Continue reading


Posted by CBD at 04:00 PM Comments

First-World Problems...

—CBD

firepit cooking.jpg

That's a Solo stove...which isn't really a stove; it's a stand-alone fire pit that is amazingly efficient, and practically smokeless. Weirdly, the smoke doesn't chase me around the damned thing, unlike every other outdoor fire I have ever built, or stood around.

And it burns clean and hot (my hand-held thermometer maxed out at 1,000 degrees F), which makes it tremendously tempting as an outdoor grill! But the cover is really just a fine mesh that probably won't support much more than a steak, and will probably decay pretty quickly.

Of course they sell an additional insert that looks great...but is ridiculously, obscenely, insultingly expensive! I'm thinking of designing and building one just to prove to myself that I can!

Maybe I should change the name of this thread to "First-World-Cheapskate Problems."

Posted by CBD at 02:00 PM Comments

Guns & Marijuana: States Rights vs. The Federal Leviathan

—CBD

maryjane gun.jpg

Isn't this delicious! An overbearing, overreaching, authoritarian federal government finally notices that marijuana...one of the left's sacraments...is still a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance. And I can't think of a better example of cognitive dissonance for both the feds AND the stoners!

Here is the text of question 21-G on form 4473, the federal form that everyone purchasing a weapon through a federal firearms license holder must complete.

Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance? Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.

That's pretty clear. Of course Bank of America will immediately cross-reference all marijuana purchases with gun purchases in in Minnesota, and turn over their findings to the ATF...right?

ATF: Until recreational cannabis is federally legalized, pot users cannot own guns

The federal agency that regulates the firearms industry sent an advisory on Tuesday warning that Minnesotans who use marijuana cannot legally own firearms, despite a new state law legalizing recreational use.

Marijuana for adults is now legal in 23 states and even more have medical cannabis programs. But it's still a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law on par with LSD and heroin.

The St. Paul office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives noted that distinction. It means people who smoke weed or take marijuana edibles are "still federally defined as an 'unlawful user' of a controlled substance," and therefore are "prohibited from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing firearms or ammunition," the agency said in its release Tuesday.


Part of me hopes that they crack down aggressively and start arresting, prosecuting, and jailing people for these clear violations of federal law. I think it's a felony that carries a five year sentence. I am assuming that more people on the left use marijuana (although that may be wildly inaccurate if we measure it by weight of marijuana consumed...thanks Garrett and JackStraw!). So that might be a good thing...disarming and jailing Antifa-curious dopers!

But...part of me (most of me) is disgusted that there is even a form 4473, an ATF, and any restrictions on weapons purchases in the United States, except perhaps for violent felons. And I am comfortable discussing even that!

This conundrum also calls into question the supremacy of the federal government, its involvement in drug regulation, which the last time I checked wasn't mentioned in the U.S. Constitution as one of its powers.

The delightfully amusing reality is that the states are legalizing marijuana, and there isn't much the feds can do about it. My personal stance is that it is a bad idea...I think marijuana has corrosive effects on society, has been mostly ignored by scientific research from that point of view, and I believe it will be shown to be much less benign in the coming years.

But any time a state can stick its thumb in the federal eye is just A-OK with me.

Posted by CBD at 12:00 PM Comments

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-04-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

—Open Blogger

060423-Library.jpg

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, sprinkle some bacon bits on your omelet, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Continue reading


Posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM Comments

6/04/23

—krakatoa

Happy Sunday.

Posted by krakatoa at 06:43 AM Comments






Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]
Top Headlines
CJN podcast sidebar.jpg
Season 4 Episode 1: CBD and J.J. Sefton can think of no better way to kick off Pride Month than with our extra special guest, author and commentator extraordinaire Col. Kurt Schlichter, who discusses the national divide and what's to be done, the situation in Ukraine and what we need to do to take back the country.
Here's the link to What Is a Woman?, which Twitter -- including, it seems, Elon Musk -- is shadowbanning and keeping people from retweeting
It's only good for 24 hours and went live 8pm Eastern on June 1, to celebrate "Pride" Month
O.K. Family and I are just going to watch part of one of the movies many of the horde seems to enjoy- Die Hard. None of us have ever seen it ,but I really enjoy the acting of Alan Rickman. Haven't seen a lot of movies with Bruce Willis.
Have a good evening.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke

If only I could go back so I could watch Die Hard with innocent eyes once more... I look forward to the update. As NC Ref 61 said, "Merry Christmas!"
Forgotten 80s Disco Mystery Click: From the Garrett Collection
Based, I think, on a sixties song it samples from: Smile for a while and let's be jolly/Love shouldn't be so melancholy/Come along and share the good times while we can
Here's the song it samples, thanks to "Biden's dog smells a whole lot of malarkey"
Daily Caller: Here are some more stores carrying GroomerWear for babies
The Gap and J. Crew also have decided they do not want your business
They're -- get this -- rebooting an old show, Matlock this time, and the Big Creative Breakthrough justifying this reboot is, get this, that they're gender-swapping him!
The creativity, it's epochal! Help! My expectations have been subverted and I can't get up!
Via Anonosaurus Wrecks
Saul Rubinek talks amusingly about Clint Eastwood's directorial style on Unforgiven"I only have two takes -- [hat] brim up and [hat] brim down."
Eugene Sledge, speaks about "The Costs of War." The author of With the Old Breed on Pelelieu and Okinawa gave this talk in 1994 and it is well worth your time. Meant to include it in the Memorial Day thread but forgot. [J.J. Sefton]
LOL:
Clayton Kershaw
@ClaytonKersh22

Excited to announce the relaunch of Christian Faith and Family Day at Dodger Stadium on July 30th. More details to come-- but we are grateful for the opportunity to talk about Jesus and determined to make it bigger and better than it was before COVID. Hope to see you on July 30th!

LOL, "relaunch." So the Dodgers didn't host this for years and years and now suddenly realize they forgot to invite Christians to their games. Gee, what could have prompted this sudden realization?
Notice they're not hosting Christians... during "PRIDE" Month. Oh no, not that.
Liz Wheeler
@Liz_Wheeler

How dare you try to pander to Christians because you need us as consumers while at the same time you HONOR an anti-Christian hate group that blasphemes Jesus with "Jesus and Mary striptease" and "dildo dipped in drugs blessings" & "semen" filled chalices? You are grotesque.

Mollie
@MZHemingway

Are you going to reuse the cross from the blasphemous pole dance performed by the anti-Catholic hate group you guys are honoring in June?

No "Hero" award, I notice. It's clarifying to know that the Dodgers hold Christians in lower regard than Satanic perverts.
On the cooldown from my run I passed a guy carrying a case of beer... Yuenling Light. And I don't live in Pennsylvania.
Update on the Bigot Suburbs of NYC:
Several New York counties have already declared states of emergency in an attempt to block the mayor's efforts.
Rockland, Orange, and Onondaga counties have all filed in court to reverse the bussing efforts, saying that the hotels where the illegal immigrants are staying in are in violation of local ordinances.
Posted by: Ferd Berfall

Shut up and take your cultural enrichment, bigots.
WOKE DISNEY CUT OUT THE ENTIRE LOVE STORY IN "THE LITTLE MERMAID" BECAUSE IT'S ANTI-FEMINIST TO SHOW A WOMAN WHO WANTS A (HETEROSEXUAL) RELATIONSHIP
A mermaid needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle!
The feminists are extremely dogmatic on this: A man can never be shown teaching a woman anything, because women have nothing to learn from men. That's why the dead Carrie Fisher taught Ray in the last Star Wars movie, instead of the alive-and-very-available Mark Hamill. And they are absolutely insistent that women should never want a relationship with a (spit) man. If she wants another woman, that's good and "diverse," but no woman can ever be shown to be attracted to a man. That would be un-empowering. They're not against all relationships -- just the heterosexual kinds.
It's incredible. Male-female love is just now absolutely taboo at Disney. But they'll keep cramming movies with their Not-So-Secret-Gay Agenda!
They are determined to headf*** every child who is negligently taken to see their movies.
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