Ace of Spades HQ

December 03, 2024

Daily Tech News 3 December 2024

—Pixy Misa

Top Story

Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel and the guiding light through the company's attempts at a recovery over the last three years, will be stepping down from the role at the end of November. (Serve the Home)

And that's not a typo. He was gone as of December 1, but the departure was so sudden that Intel didn't get an announcement out until the following day.

There's no word as to the reason. Short notice like this is often for health reasons, but Gelsinger was doing customer visits and photo ops just last week.

Tech News

AMD's fastest CPU, the recently announced 192 core Epyc 9965, just received a 33% price cut. (MSN)

It still costs $10,000, but that's not a bad price for that powerful a chip.

No scores on CPUBenchmark for this chip just yet; the fastest chip they have listed is the 96 core Epyc 9655P.
We don't need to fear Skynet. Just mention Jonathan Turley and the whole system will reboot. (Tech Crunch)
Users of the conversational AI platform ChatGPT discovered an interesting phenomenon over the weekend: the popular chatbot refuses to answer questions if asked about a "David Mayer." Asking it to do so causes it to freeze up instantly. Conspiracy theories have ensued - but a more ordinary reason may be at the heart of this strange behavior.
This was circulating on Twitter, but Tech Crunch actually did a bit of digging:
Which brings us back to David Mayer. There is no lawyer, journalist, mayor, or otherwise obviously notable person by that name that anyone could find (with apologies to the many respectable David Mayers out there).
There was, however, a Professor David Mayer, who taught drama and history, specializing in connections between the late Victorian era and early cinema. Mayer died in the summer of 2023, at the age of 94. For years before that, however, the British American academic faced a legal and online issue of having his name associated with a wanted criminal who used it as a pseudonym, to the point where he was unable to travel.
So that's why there are restrictions on ChatGPT disseminating information about these individuals; they're victims of various types of identity fraud. But why does it crash?

Because AI is itself a fraud:
The whole drama is a useful reminder that not only are these AI models not magic, but they are also extra-fancy auto-complete, actively monitored, and interfered with by the companies that make them. Next time you think about getting facts from a chatbot, think about whether it might be better to go straight to the source instead.
ChatGPT behaves like nightmare hodgepodge of nonsense held together by duct tape and an inflated share price, because that's precisely what it is.
AMD's upcoming Radeon 8800XT might be dramatically more powerful than the current 7800XT. (WCCFTech)

Claimed numbers put it 45% faster on ray tracing. But 45% faster than the 7900XTX, a much more expensive card.

And it's also claimed to compete on non ray traced gaming with the RTX 4080, another much more expensive card.

But the question of how much the 8800XT itself will cost is open. If it is also a much more expensive card, none of that means anything.

Disclaimer: The plushies sold out?!

Close it up

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM Comments

Monday Overnight Open Thread (12/2/24) - Doof

—Open Blogger

Howdy Hordelings, and welcome to this week’s Monday ONT. Step inside and see what is on the docket tonight.

Posted by Open Blogger at 09:58 PM Comments

A Case of the Mondays Cafe

—Ace

Eagles in Alaska
by Steve Slade

Montana showing off the monts.

This must be Florida Man in his native terrain.

Working in the ocean at 3 am.

An iceberg wakes up from hibernation.

Rebellious calf scoffs at your "rules."

Sometimes you need to clean your vehicle of lions.

Steve Inman:

I can relate. Vespas are hard to drive too!

Thugs need to stop standing in the middle of the road.

A thug imposes his will on a guy minding his own business, then gets his teeth kicked out of his head.

A out-of-town New York thug starts a fight, then finds out that Alvin Bragg isn't around to protect him.

Suspected Gentle Giant gets rekt.

The Battling Bickersons decide to take their marital strife out into the public and find out no one wants to see that trash.

Just another day in DEI-occupied America.

They came at him 2-on-1. They should have brought reinforcements.

Posted by Ace at 07:46 PM Comments

Congressional Report: "Scientists" At Heart of Creating Covid-19 In Wuhan Decieved Congress, May Face Prosecution

—Ace

Interesting:

A sprawling final report by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic provokes questions over whether some in the scientific community -- including EcoHealth Alliance, the American nonprofit that collaborated on novel coronavirus discovery and engineering research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and its president Peter Daszak -- could face criminal charges stemming from the COVID-19 tragedy.

The report's findings -- the culmination of two years of work by congressional investigators, the review of more than one million documents and dozens of transcribed interviews and public hearings -- include evidence that Daszak misled the committee on questions central to the COVID-19 origins mystery. Daszak exported gain-of-function coronavirus experiments to China; shirked his duty to probe his Wuhan colleagues for lab notebooks, viral samples and genomic data; and helped to falsely persuade millions that the idea of a Wuhan lab leak was a conspiracy theory, the committee's investigation shows.

Daszak did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In May 2024, the committee's investigation helped spur the Department of Health and Human Services to initiate debarment proceedings against EcoHealth and Daszak. The debarment process is not yet finished, but could result in EcoHealth and Daszak being ineligible for federal funding for a period of years. But the new revelations spur the possibility of criminal charges related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well, namely making false statements or perjury.

Among the report's most striking revelations: the Department of Justice empaneled a criminal grandy jury to investigate potential federal crimes related to the origins of COVID-19. The status of this grand jury investigation is not public. Though the DOJ dragnet ensnared EcoHealth, neither the nonprofit nor Daszak are the target of the DOJ investigation, EcoHealth's attorney told the committee.

A February 2023 email indicates that EcoHealth stayed mum on numerous nonpublic investigations.

...

In a transcribed interview with the committee on June 16, 2023, Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute, reported that agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were asking questions about COVID-19 at a May 2023 virology conference.

While the Biden DOJ and FBI slow-played this investigation, Trump will have every incentive to see justice done.

Unless Joe Biden starts pardoning ev-er-y-one.

Which I think he might. Keith Olbermann is demanding 10,000,000 pardons for everyone on the political left:

You may say, "Oh, that's just old brokedown lunatic Keith Olbermann ranting as usual."

Well it is that, but Biden himself indicated that he was ready to start handing out pardons to any of his political or "business" cronies who might be prosecuted for his crimes:

No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son -- and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter -- who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me -- and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.

In other words: They came for my innocent drug-addict pervert short-eyes son Huntie, and that means they'll come for the rest of the Biden Crime Family. So start the pardon-printing machine.

I think Biden thinks that the Hunter Biden pardon is the most understandable pardon, so he's issuing it first. He thinks this will prepare the public for the mass issuance of pardons he has coming.

A couple of more pardon-related thoughts:

The Fifth Amendment gives you a right to refuse to answer questions if the answers may tend to incriminate you. But the Fifth Amendment no longer applies if you have immunity -- like a pardon -- for your crimes.

Hunter Biden can therefore be called before Congress to answer questions about his influence-peddling scheme, and his father's role in it, and has no legal right to refuse to answer. If he refuses to answer, that's obstruction of justice. If he lies, that's also obstruction of justice.

Note that Congress doesn't need a law-enforcement aim in its questioning. In fact, Congress may not conduct law-enforcement investigations. That's for the Executive. Congress just needs a plausible area about which they may seek to pass legislation -- such as creating rules and regulations for the scumbag sons of corrupt presidents from soliciting foreign bribes.

Biden may have done Huntie a disservice by pardoning him for everything, including child sex charges. (The pardon was plenary, so it includes that.) If Hunter could claim there was some undiscovered crime out there, he could refuse to answer under the 5th Amendment. But now that Joe Biden has cleared him of any prosecution, he may not.

And I suggest that Congress get on this, pronto.

Another thought is about Biden's many, many lies -- and the media's repetition of those lies. Watching those compilations of Biden denying he would pardon Hunter, I was reminded that Biden made those promises in explicit contrast to what he claimed was Trump's unlawfulness. Trump challenges his prosecutions; I welcome them. Trump argues that the DOJ is corrupt; I, on the other hand, have the strength of character to "trust the DOJ" even as it prosecutes my own son.

Well, we always knew that was a lie, and that Biden would pardon Huntie the moment the election was over.

Will the media now revisit its partisan propaganda about the great contrast between Biden's character and Trump's? They used this as a major, major propaganda offensive; will they now admit they were wrong? Or just lied, all along?

The media was very insistent that it was inconceivable that Biden secretly planned to pardon Hunter. That was a conspiracy theory pushed by MAGA zealots who wanted to bring Joe Biden down to Trump's low, base level.

But, once again, the "conspiracy theorists" were right, and the media, supposedly the fair and factual judge of all matters, once again took a Democrat's mere word as the uncontestable truth and lied to the nation.

Biden said that Trump must accept the prosecutions inflicted by the corrupt DOJ, because Biden's corrupt DOJ was incorruptible.

But now, to explain away pardoning his vile pervert bribery-collecting scumbag spawn, he himself says his DOJ is corrupt and engaged in a political war against him:

Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room -- with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter's cases. No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son -- and that is wrong.

This is, of course, all straight from Hunter Biden's lawyers, who have been arguing, bizarrely, for years that Hunter Biden's father was singling out Hunter Biden for a political prosecution.

The media maintained for years it was anti-American disinformation to suggest the DOJ was anything less than pure and incorruptible. Well, now Biden has stated that his DOJ is so corrupt it goes after his son to "break" Biden.

So why would Trump have any reason to trust it? If Biden's DOJ is politically corrupt in its prosecutions of Hunter Biden, surely it is even more biased in its prosecutions of Biden's political enemy Trump, no?

The media, of course, will not admit any of this, and will simply lie more and more, as it must. The DOJ is simon-pure when it prosecutes Trump, but rife with Trumpish corruption when it prosecutes a Biden.

Fugly voodoo doll Latrine John-Pissoir made that case to reporters today, insisting that Biden was telling the truth when he said the DOJ was incorruptible, and likewise telling the truth when he says it's rotten to the core:

Posted by Ace at 06:41 PM Comments

Quick Hits

—Ace

We live in an age of miracles and wonders, my friends.

Human 'washing machine' uses AI to hose down your filthy body -- because people are now too lazy to shower

Thought the Japanese toilet was advanced?

Japanese showerhead firm Science Co. has put the "pod" in "Tide pod" after inventing an AI-powered "washing machine of the future" that is purported to give people the ultimate bath.

"We're about 70% there," said company Chairman Yasuaki Aoyama while discussing when the device will be available at a lecture at the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion in late October, Japanese publication Ashahi Shimbun reported.

Dubbed the "Mirai Ningen Sentakuki," the cutting-edge shower capsule is completely enclosed like a hygiene-based cryogenic chamber and takes just 15 minutes to wash and dry the user.

"It made me excited, thinking about what kind of future there would be," declared Science Co. Chairman Yasuaki Aoyama while discussing the invention (pictured).

After the user steps into the center seat, the transparent cockpit-like contraption fills partway with water, as demonstrated in a viral YouTube video.

Sensors embedded in the seat then measure the person's pulse and other biological metrics to make sure the user is bathed at the ideal temperature.

They're then blasted by highspeed water jets harboring 3-micrometer-wide air bubbles, the Daily Mail reported.

When those pop, they produce a small but powerful pressure wave that scours grime from the skin -- the same process used to clean electrical components that can't be washed with chemicals.

Just like so many things nowadays from smartphones to restaurants, the wash pod offers far more than its primary function.

In this case, an innovative artificial intelligence system AI analyzes the aforementioned biomarkers to see if the customer is calm or excited and then projects a specially chosen video onto the plastic pod's interior to calm their nerves.

"Some people are simply too obese and weak to stand in a conventional shower and need mechanical assistance to maintain basic hygiene," said Jonah Goldberg's doctor.

I may have added a line to that article.

A New Yorker taken hostage by Hamas is admitted to be a murder victim.

A New Yorker who was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 was confirmed dead on Monday, according to the Israeli military.
Omer Neutra, 21, had long been assumed to be alive, but was actually killed during the terrorist attack, with his body taken to the Gaza Strip by Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Neutra, of Plainview, Long Island, had been serving as an IDF tank commander.

Flooding struck the English county where Ellen DeGeneres fled after the Trump election. Unfortunately, early reports that her mansion was flooded are being denied by the abusive former talk-show host.

Ellen DeGeneres is setting the record straight about the status of her new U.K. home amid severe storms that devastated parts of the U.K.
After reports circulated over the weekend that the former talk show host's farmhouse in England's idyllic Cotswolds region had been flooded, DeGeneres, 66, spoke out on Instagram. At the end of a post toasting her wife, retired actress Portia de Rossi, 51, on their 20th anniversary, DeGeneres added a postscript: "P.S. for those of you concerned, our UK farmhouse did NOT flood," she wrote.

Others in the area were not so lucky. Multiple days of heavy rainfall and strong winds led to at least five deaths, as well as severe damage to homes, roads and rail networks in the U.K., the BBC reports.

Ho-hum: Angry femcel writing for the New York Times blames Trump's huge victory on the "manosphere" and incels who are just angry that they can't date all of these strong and empowered gross unfuckable women.

A New York Times op-ed attributed President-elect Donald Trump's success in the 2024 election to resentful young men and their creation of a "manosphere," which, according to the writer, "reinforces the male breadwinner norm."
The piece, written by playwright Sarah Bernstein, argued that "our cultural narratives still reflect the idea that a woman's status can be elevated by marrying a more successful man -- and a man's diminished by pairing with a more successful woman."

The op-ed, titled, "How Our Messed-Up Dating Culture Leads to Loneliness, Anger and Donald Trump," noted that men's and women's fortunes were trending in opposite directions. After Trump was declared the winner over Vice President Kamala Harris, many have blamed his victory on sexism, misogyny and racism.

"Now that women are pulling ahead, the fairy tale has become increasingly unattainable. This development is causing both men and women to backslide to old gender stereotypes and creating a hostile division between them that provides fuel for the exploding manosphere. With so much turmoil in our collective love lives, it's little wonder Americans are experiencing surging loneliness, declining birthrates and -- as evidenced by Donald Trump's popularity with young men -- a cascade of resentment that threatens to reshape our democracy," Bernstein argued.

After Trump was declared the winner over Harris, many have blamed his victory on sexism, misogyny and racism.

Bernstein argued that modern romantic comedies promote the idea that women should have a successful career "and also a husband who is doing just a little better than she is."

Disgusting:

She's Chief Resident of Yale's Child Psychiatry Program. She Also Says Her Husband Can't Have White Friends 'Unless They Meet Me First.' Dr. Amanda Calhoun says psychiatry 'is rooted in anti-Black racism'

Ahead of the holiday season, Amanda Calhoun appeared on MSNBC's The ReidOut to deliver a message to its liberal viewers: It's okay to cut off your conservative relatives.

"So, if you are going into a situation where you have family members, where you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you," Calhoun told Joy Reid earlier this month, "it's completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why. I think you should very much be entitled to do so, and I think it may be essential for your mental health."

While such sentiments may be common enough among the resistance left, Calhoun is no average liberal activist. She's a psychiatrist who serves as chief resident of Yale's prestigious Albert J. Solnit Integrated Adult/Child Psychiatry program--and she's not shy about her far-left activism and racial biases.

A Saint Louis University graduate, Calhoun began her Yale residency in June 2019, according to her LinkedIn page. One year later, she was the keynote speaker at Yale Medical School's "White Coats for Black Lives," a demonstration held in the wake of George Floyd's death in which "around 300 doctors took a knee in front of the Yale School of Medicine to demonstrate their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement."

"Before I was a doctor, I was a black person in America, and this white coat does not protect me," Calhoun told attendees. Her website touts similar rhetoric, including Calhoun's belief that "all doctors should be activists."

On X, meanwhile, Calhoun routinely laments what she views as systemic racism in psychiatry, arguing that the field as a whole "is rooted in anti-Black racism." Black children, according to Calhoun, are less likely to go to therapy not because of "access" issues, but rather because of "racist therapists."

The "racial gap in breastfeeding," she argued in a June 2022 Washington Post op-ed, "reflects white supremacy." And black men "don't get to enjoy old age" because "racism affects our longevity, literally shortens our lives," Calhoun wrote last year.

Calhoun's most controversial statements, however, involve her white colleagues, friends, and acquaintances.

Though Calhoun is married to a white man, she is openly hesitant toward Caucasians and gatekeeps her husband's white acquaintances. In a 2022 X thread, she said she and her husband "left our hometown" because "white neighbors would meet my husband and I together, and then straight up ignore me when I greeted them if I was alone." As a result, Calhoun wrote, she requires her husband's white acquaintances to meet her first before befriending them.

"My husband dropped a lot of white friends and acquaintances. He doesn't befriend white folks now unless they meet me first and respect me."

...

Reached for comment, Calhoun said she would "LOVE" to speak to the Free Beacon but "unfortunately, because of how viral my MSNBC interview went, my department at Yale is barring me from speaking with the media or press in any way."

"I do NOT agree with their decision at all," Calhoun wrote in an email, "but as I am a child psychiatry fellow, as you know, completing my final year of training, I have to comply with their rules, no matter how much I disagree.

I mentioned this disgusting story on Friday -- a son asking if he should disown his mother, who moved close to him so that she could see him and raise his kids for him -- because she won't say if she did or didn't vote for Trump in November.

But in case you missed it:

This is vile. This son admits his mother gave up her home and her life to be nearby to help with the raising of her grandchildren. He admits she is kind & sweet & very helpful. This is how this selfish grown man repays her love & sacrifice just because of political differences? https://t.co/yivsxoq78b
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) December 1, 2024

Lefties are fighting over wokeness:

Bill Maher's season finale ends with him and Neil Degrasse Tyson getting into a fight over vaccines.
Bill Maher calls out NDT 'You're not a doctor':
NDT: "We're incapable of truly understanding risk. This goes to vaccines. Not to poke the bear here."
Maher: "Just being skeptical… pic.twitter.com/uGHHg43Viy
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) November 23, 2024

Maher also sparred with the demented lunatic Jane Fonda. Fonda denied that California was overtaxed or overregulated, denied the far left had gone too far, and, when asked if she agrees with the far left that men can become pregnant, claimed she'd never heard a single person making that claim so it must be a "minuscule" position."

She is extremely stupid and always has been, so it's possible she's telling the truth about never having read about this extremely common claim. I know an older woman who watches nothing but CNN and is always claiming that the left is not pushing transgenderism on kids or fake pronouns. "Those are Fox News stories," she sniffs, dismissing them as false. As Maher says, CNN makes sure that its older, Boomer partisan Democrats never hear about what the real Democrat Party is up to.

Joy Reid continues to spiral more deeply into full psychosis:

LMAO Joy Reid is having a brain lock after JD Vance posts a Thanksgiving meme. 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/nNbUnBEKtT
— Ricster 🇺🇲 🦅 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@RicRicster) November 29, 2024

She shouldn't have deleted her X account, as she did one week after the election. That very light, digital contact with reality and sanity was the only thing mooring her.

Close it up

Posted by Ace at 05:41 PM Comments

Leftwing UK PM Keir Starmer: Damn These Conservatives For Unleashing This Dangerous Uncontrolled Mass Immigration On Us!

—Ace

Notably potent pugilist Keir Starmer has changed his position on changing the population of the UK.

It must be all of the toxic testosterone this man's man has in his well-built body.

In fairness, the "conservatives" were turned out of office in a gigantic voter revolt due to the economy and due to their complete refusal to even slow the rate of illegal immigration.

Sound familiar?

But, as in the US, the "conservatives" were not acting alone, but with their partners in the Regime, the hard left.

For Keir Starmer to claim that this was something the "conservatives" came up with and implemented is a claim WITHOUT EVIDENCE, as failed reporter Jake Tapper's snarky chyrons would say.

Still, this is a major shift. You don't blame a policy on your opponents unless you're promising -- even if dishonestly -- to change it.

The Trump Tide is sweeping over the whole post-Western Western world.

There's a petition circulating in the UK demanding a new election, one that would sweep the left back out of power. It has almost three million signatures. (I don't believe it has any kind of legal force, it's just an expression of popular will.)

Starmer is looking to defuse that challenge to his power.

Starmer is throwing a Hail Mary here by dropping a (half) truth bomb; Britain is wracked by violence, his approval ratings compete with the Black Plague, and millions of Britons are experiencing so much buyer's remorse that his position at the top of the Labour Party is at risk.
Britons have been going to jail for saying exactly what Starmer is saying--it amounts to, according to the government, hate speech. It also happens to be obviously true that mass immigration is a reality because the elites wanted it to happen.

Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin

Yesterday, Keir Starmer admitted that Britain has been "running an open border experiment".

A few years ago, you would have been called "far right" and likely fired from your job for saying that.

Unprecedented open border immigration chickens are coming home to roost.

David Strom wrote a couple of weeks ago about what real fascism looks like -- it looks exactly what the UK government is currently doing, arresting citizens for posting their criticisms of the uncontrolled mass immigration policy imposed by the corporate neoliberal Regime without the consent of the people, and in fact, against the clear wishes of the people.

They can't convince the people to accept their policy, so they'll just terrorize them with midnight police raids until they comply.

Now that leftwing PM Starmer is admitting that uncontrolled mass immigration from the Muslim world is resulting in social disruption and out-of-control crime, will it be legal for mere citizens to say the same thing? Or is this a special dispensation permitted only to Regime leaders looking to stave off a new election?

Farrukh @implausibleblog
2016: Boris Johnson, "Brexit so we can take back control of our immigration system"

2024: Keir Starmer, "Tories were running an open borders experiment"

"ONS say nearly 1 million people came to Britain in the year ending June 2023"

"That is four times the migration levels compared to 2019 (when the UK was in the EU)"

"A failure on this scale isn't just bad luck, a global trend or taking your eye off the ball. This happened by design, not accident"

"Policies were formed to deliberately liberalise immigration"

"Brexit was used for that purpose to turn Britain into a one nation experiment in open borders"

"Global Britain, remember that slogan? That is what they meant"

Posted by Ace at 04:34 PM Comments

Trump Nominates Revealer of the Russiagate Psyop Kash Patel to be New Director of the FBI

—Ace

He's definitely a Trump ally.

A former FBI special agent is weighing in on Trump's pick to lead the law enforcement agency where she once served, suggesting several concrete steps she says will help it regain the trust of all Americans.

"Over the last several years, the FBI became politically and socially weaponized. That must end," former FBI special agent and Fox News contributor Nicole Parker told Fox News Digital." Those responsible for the bureau's destruction must be held accountable with tangible consequences."

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday announced he intends to nominate Kashyap "Kash" Patel to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, who Trump nominated in 2017 during his first term in office.

"I am proud to announce that Kashyap 'Kash' Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and 'America First' fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People."

Wray is currently serving a 10-year appointment that began in 2017. He could either resign from his post or be fired.

In his post, Trump wrote that Patel "played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution."

"It is of paramount importance that the new FBI director reform the bureau into an agency that Americans can trust, depend on for unbiased law enforcement and protect them while upholding the Constitution," Parker said. "The FBI needs to get back to its true mission of fighting crime, keeping communities safe and be the agency that solid agents can once again be proud to work for."

Parker added that the new FBI director must overhaul the culture of the agency.

"When I was an FBI special agent, they always drilled into our heads the mantra 'Needs of the Bureau,' which I strongly denounced. It should not be the needs of the bureau, it should be the needs of the American people. As an FBI special agent, my salary came from the taxpayers. They were the ones I was sworn to protect. They were my boss," Parker said.

Patel is a solid, sensible man who has been on the right side of every single Deep State op and hoax.

That means they will stop at nothing to block him.

Patel held numerous national security roles during the first Trump administration but would be a new face at the FBI.

Here are five things to know about Patel.

A loyal Trump ally

Patel has been a staunch ally to Trump, stretching back to the FBI investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign.

Patel got his start in politics as a staffer to then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), working as an adviser on the House Intelligence Committee.

Patel played a key role there in seeking to discredit the committee Democrats' investigation of Trump's ties to Russia. That included authoring a report analyzing FBI and Justice Department responses in their own investigations of Russian election interference.

...

"I discovered a coordinated effort to use the Russiagate hoax as a way to attack then-President Trump," Patel wrote in an April email.

"It was a big hoax!"

Patel echoes Trump on weaponization, plans for retribution

Patel regularly attacks a "deep state" that he blames for having "weaponized the government for their own political and personal agenda."

Much of his commentary about alleged government wrongdoing has been focused on both the investigations of Trump, as well as the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters.

"The FBI goes after J6ers like terrorists," he wrote in a March email.

He has also crafted his own list of "government gangsters" that includes Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland and former CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Patel has called for using the power of the bureau and the Justice Department to prosecute journalists.

"We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly -- we'll figure that out," he said during an appearance on Steve Bannon's podcast.

He's called for major FBI reforms

Patel has called for major shifts at the FBI, starting on his first day as director.

"I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day One and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I'd take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops," Patel said.

Patel, through his eponymous foundation, has elevated several whistleblowers who have made claims of wrongdoing by the FBI.

"I am on a mission to root out all government gangsters from positions within our bureaus," he wrote in a July email.

Patel has also been a critic of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), including Section 702, which allows the government to spy on foreigners when they are located abroad.

The FBI relied on a separate provision of the law to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

Nonetheless, many FISA critics have called for reforms to the law, including requiring a warrant to review information from Americans communicating with foreigners being surveilled.

During last year's battle to reauthorize Section 702, Patel argued for letting the powerful spy tool lapse. Congress will once again weigh its renewal this coming year.

"We call upon Congress to let it lapse -- better to have no authority for 7 days or so than another 365 days of spying on Trump and his supporters," Patel said at the time in a statement alongside Richard Grenell, who briefly served as director of national intelligence in Trump's first administration.

He criticized Jan. 6 committee

On Jan. 6, Patel was serving as chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who was appointed to the role about two months prior, the day after Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

His short time at the Pentagon earned scrutiny from the now-disbanded Jan. 6 committee, which asked him to sit for an interview after writing, "there is substantial reason to believe that you have additional documents and information relevant to understanding the role played by the Department of Defense and the White House in preparing for and responding to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as documents and information related to your personal involvement in planning for events on Jan. 6 and the peaceful transfer of power."

Patel ultimately sat with the panel's investigators on Dec. 9, after its slate of summer hearings in 2021.

Patel denied any wrongdoing or improper actions related to the attack but has complained about how the Justice Department handled cases involving the rioters.

He's been highly critical of that work, listing California Democrat Adam Schiff, who is moving from the House to the Senate beginning next month, as a "government gangster" and calling former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) "the main architect of this disinformation campaign."

In a May email, he wrote that Cheney "and her band of miscreants suppressed evidence that completely exonerates the Jan. 6 defendants from their ginned-up charge of insurrection."

Unfortunately, the head of the FBI is considered a cabinet-level posting and Trump will need Senate approval to confirm Patel.

I don't think he'll get it, unfortunately:

The hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe sounded the alarm on Monday over President-elect Donald Trump's choice to install MAGA loyalist Kash Patel as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, focusing much of their attention on Patel's promise to "come after" the media.

In fact, Joe Scarborough repeatedly aired a 2023 clip of Patel touting Trump's plan to seek retribution against his opponents if elected, noting that Trump "apologists" on Capitol Hill should be "deeply disturbed by this" and vow to block Patel's nomination.

Trump sparked widespread backlash over the weekend when he announced Patel, who served in numerous positions in the president-elect's first administration, as his choice for the nation's FBI chief. Critics cited his clear lack of qualifications for the position and also cautioned that this was a warning to journalists across the country that Trump was serious about his threats against the free press.

Patel, who has also endorsed aspects of the unhinged QAnon conspiracy theory, has not only pledged his loyalty to the incoming president but also said that Trump should use federal law enforcement and national security organizations to punish his critics, especially within the media.

During a December 2023 appearance on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon's podcast, Patel declared that in a new administration, Trump would fill the FBI, CIA and DOJ with loyalists who would do the president's personal bidding. Specifically, Patel said, they wanted to go after media outlets that accurately reported that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.

That's going to be a big problem with him. If that is an accurate claim -- which I shouldn't assume, as we know whenever the media "paraphrases" a statement, they twist the meaning -- then the McConnell club of saboteurs will block him. We have at least six very-nominal "Republicans" who are heavily invested in the Biden "victory," and who actively worked to thwart Trump and depose him. Collins, Murkowski, McConnell, Thom Tillis, and Bill Cassidy will all likely vote against Patel just for this statement.

Senatrix Linsey Graham would also vote against Patel if his vote was needed. But he's a cringing toady with the heart of a coward, and continues pretending he's pro-MAGA to subvert it from within. So he won't vote against Patel -- but he'll do everything possible behind the scenes to stop the nomination.

Posted by Ace at 03:34 PM Comments

Dave Reaboi: Why Did the Left Tell Antifa To Stand Down After Trump's Victory?

—Ace

The left told antifa to stand down in 2020, too.

But that was after a win. (Or, a "win.")

Why did they tell antifa to stand down after Literal Hitler was elected?

A Whimper, Not a Bang: Where Was Antifa After Trump's Victory?

The Democrats had gone to the edge of American discourse -- beyond which is the disintegration of normal political life -- and then, when they'd been repudiated by the voters, meekly pulled back. Why?

Perhaps the only disappointment for those of us elated with the outcome of this month's presidential election was the muted, downcast response from the Left at Donald Trump's massive victory. We'd expected angry riots from purple-haired Antifa goons; emotive demonstrations of impotent and self-righteous defiance by Handmaid's Tale cosplayers; and, maybe best of all, delicious cable news highlight reels reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's surprise defeat in 2016. The quiet sobbing we got instead came as somewhat of a surprise.

For the Left, it all seemed to end, as it did at Kamala Harris's victory party at Howard University, with a whimper. There was no defiant or fiery speech that night; in fact, the candidate wasn't seen at all, unwilling to face even the dedicated supporters who had worked hardest for her candidacy. Over the next few days, while there was some hissing and a few entertaining misfiring synapses at MSNBC and CNN -- including some angry denunciations of elements of the Democrat coalition -- the emotion seemed forced and perfunctory.

...

After all, when faced with an enemy that would extinguish all freedom in America and usher in a holocaust, procedural resistance in courtrooms or acts of civil disobedience are plainly inadequate. With the evil of a Hitler, there is no negotiation, comity, civility, or ordinary politics; only violent resistance is commensurate with the threat.

Some on the Left received the message clearly, as intended. Even before Harris herself began referring to him as a "fascist," Trump had already been the attempted victim of two failed assassinations. Immediately following the first shooter's very near miss, the New Republic all but endorsed this violent, final solution to the Trumpian problem, revealing a menacing, monochrome drawing of the former president on its cover complete with Hitler mustache. And below the image -- subtle, in the color of dried blood -- was the headline, "American Fascism: What It Would Look Like" in faux-Germanic typeface. Scandalously, law enforcement disappeared any information about the would-be assassins' motives, saving the Democrats having to address the fact that their manifestos dovetailed too closely with the party's messaging.

All this gathered momentum and intensity in the press until, on the evening of November 5, "our sacred democracy" simply ended. Donald Trump won the electoral college and the popular vote by wide margins, and his party was in control of every branch of the Federal government. The people had spoken with a clear and resounding voice. If you'd been following the speeches of Vice President Harris, you'd assume that what they wanted was Nazi Germany.

When the defeated Democrat finally emerged in public early the next evening, however, her tone had shifted. "Earlier today," she told the crowd, "I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition..." Would she congratulate Hitler for his victory? Would she help Hitler's team during their transition?

Reaboi thinks that leftwing protesters try to portray themselves a the vanguard of a frustrated majority, not a violent and unappeasable minority.

Trump's big win allowed them no such pretense:

In short, we didn't see post-election violence or mass protests because the scale of Trump's victory meant that such rioting would appear -- at least temporarily -- as the angry self-indulgence of a minority that had been legitimately beaten at the ballot box. But the riots will come soon enough, and Antifa will menace the streets once again. While it wouldn't have served to activate them during or after the 2024 campaign, the Democrats' rhetoric about fascism and Nazism is a boon to Antifa, which looks forward to being presented again (as it was memorably in 2020, storming the beach at Normandy) as "freedom fighters" in the media's next just cause.

I think he's right. They've been told to stand down -- for now. But the first opportunity they have to show the (fake) "frustrations of the majority," say with deportations of illegal alien rapists, then they'll get the greenlight to start burning down cities and ICE offices.

Posted by Ace at 02:27 PM Comments

"Showbiz Source:" George Clooney "Fuming" That Barack Obama "Manipulated" Him Into Calling for Biden's Ouster So That Our First Homosexual President Could Keep His Hands Clean

—Ace

Sometimes when an army is crushed, they hang their generals.

Activist actor George Clooney is outraged after being manipulated by former President Barack Obama into lobbying for Kamala Harris to take faltering Joe Biden's place in the 2024 election -- and then getting thrown under the bus by his onetime buddy when she lost, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
"George is furious with Obama for disappearing after the election disaster and leaving him holding the bag for pushing the plan with his Hollywood pals", a showbiz insider said.

...

Clooney is understood to be outraged after being 'manipulated' by former President Obama into lobbying for Harris to take faltering Biden's place in the 2024 election.

...

Clooney wrote a no-holds-barred opinion piece in July calling for Biden to drop his reelection campaign, citing his declining mental faculties.

A political mole told RadarOnline.com it was Obama who urged Clooney to call for Biden -- his own vice president -- to end his sputtering campaign, fearing the fallout if he did it himself.

"Obama and Clooney have been tight for years, and George became Barack's surrogate in leading the charge for Joe to step away", explained the source. "Barack knew he would look like a traitor if he publicly called for Joe to be cut loose. And now, he's trying to walk away from it all.

"George feels duped and vows he's not going to be anyone's political water boy anymore."

Trump cannot succeed unless he purges the Deep State of all of Obama's Marxist, civilization-destroying plants in the government.

Congress should hold hearings questioning Deep Staters' communications with Obama. It is contrary to the Constitution for government employees, sworn to uphold the Constitution, to be conspiring with a former president with no constitutional role to implement his vision.

I've never seen a former president subpoenaed by Congress, but this would be the time to press congressional power to the utmost.

Posted by Ace at 01:18 PM Comments

Demented Liar Joe Biden Pardons His Spree Criminal Son After Years of Vowing He Would Never Do So Because He Trusts the Judiciary and Wants to Uphold Norms

—Ace

That thing this old rapist promised he wouldn't do in your mouth?

Plot twist, he did it in your mouth.

He pardoned Hunter Biden for all crimes, including those we haven't yet discovered, over a nearly 11-year period beginning in 2014.

Why go back to 2014? Because that's when this disgusting foreign agent and bribery bagman started collecting Joe Biden's 10% from Burisma:

zerohedge @zerohedge Do you know why Biden picked 2014 as the first year of Hunter's pardon?
That's when he was appointed director of Ukraine's Burisma, starting a sequence of events that almost ended in World War 3. And so we go full circle.

Here's a compilation of Biden and his Bride of Chucky voodoo doll liar repeatedly vowing Biden would never pardon Hunter Biden.

It's not just Joe Biden exposed as a rancid liar. All of his media praetorian lied on his behalf, assuring us all that Joe Biden's sterling character would never, ever permit him to use government power to advance his family's wealth or interests.

One of the best supercuts ever.

President Biden won't pardon Hunter because Joe Biden is a man of great character! 🤣😂pic.twitter.com/lM8aTRGrq5
— MAZE (@mazemoore) December 2, 2024

Hey Andrew Weissmann, tell us more about Biden's character.

We are going to have fun with LOTS of these fools who actually believed that Joe Biden wouldn't pardon his son because he is such an honorable man. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/UyTacNAPgt
— MAZE (@mazemoore) December 2, 2024

And the left is actually defending this. Paid Iranian influence operation The Bulwark posted a single piece on this betrayal titled "Defending the Hunter Biden Pardon."

When Charles Cooke said that he couldn't wait to see the Bulwark's take on this, nasty Sarah Longwell snarkily replied "We think it's bad, thanks for reading." Cooke wants to know why, if The Bulwark "thinks it's bad," their only comment on the pardon consists of a defense of it.

Scott Jennings lit up a leftwing propaganda merchant on CNN:

Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh
NEW: Scott Jennings goes off on "brain-rotted" Democrats who are defending Biden's pardon of Hunter.

This CNN panel member got upset at him "hurling names." She claimed Biden never "lied" and Jennings absolutely LOST IT.

"Every American, except the most partisan, brain-rotted people are going to be outraged by this today."

"To sit for a year and say 'I will not do this. I will not do this. The rule of law is sacred. We have to respect the justice system. We have to respect juries, the guardrails and the norms of our democracy.' These people are LIARS."

PANEL MEMBER: "Scott, you don't need to hurl names..."

JENNINGS: "Stand up for yourself, you don't have to defend this. You don't have to die on this hill. You can say 'This is wrong.' Are you fine with the lying?"

PANEL MEMBER: "I don't think that he was lying."

JENNINGS: *Falls forward laughing*

"Joe Biden, Karine Jean-Pierre - how many minutes of tape do we have of both of these people the American people 'this will not happen.' We could play it all morning."

"If Karine Jean-Pierre had an ounce of self respect, she'd get off the plane in Africa today [and] resign."

NEW: Scott Jennings goes off on "brain-rotted" Democrats who are defending Biden's pardon of Hunter.

This CNN panel member got upset at him "hurling names." She claimed Biden never "lied" and Jennings absolutely LOST IT.

"Every American, except the most partisan, brain-rotted… pic.twitter.com/OV2i0cQVCq
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 2, 2024

Buck Sexton @BuckSexton
Anyone who truly believed that Joe Biden wasn’t going to pardon Hunter "because he said so" is an abject moron

This was an IQ test, and so many libs failed

Except I don't believe most fell for it. They were just in on the lie, as they always are.

Dank Brandon addresses the nation:

🚨Breaking Now🚨: President Joe “Dank Brandon” Biden addresses the pardon of his son, Hunter Biden: pic.twitter.com/exHt9r6AnR
— Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) December 2, 2024

I can't say I'm disappointed because I always knew this corrupt old rapist was lying. Obviously.

Hunter Biden once tried to pay $300,000 in back rent with an "artwork" literally made from his own shit.

Following the news Sunday evening that Joe Biden had pardoned his son Hunter, Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire claimed in a bombshell series of posts on X that the younger Biden had once tried to pay back rent for a property his family owns in California with "art made from his own feces."

Maguire said renting to Hunter "was a big mistake" and called him an "absolute shit bag."

The venture capitalist revealed that the deadbeat still owed his family $300,000 in back rent for the Venice, California, home he lived in from 2019 to 2020.

After hearing that Biden pardoned his son for all crimes he may have committed spanning 11 years, Maguire posted on X: "So what happens to the $300k+ in back pay rent that Hunter Biden owes my family from 2019-2020? Is that pardoned now? Thanks Joe."

In a subsequent post, the venture capitalist explained : "True story. Hunter was our tenant in Venice, CA. Didn't pay rent for over a year. Tried to pay w/ art made from his own feces. Absolute shit bag."

When asked to elaborate, Maguire responded: "Indeed, he tried to pay w/ a book of art made from his own feces. But those aren't worth anything except when money laundering."

THE MORNING RANT – Periodic Roundup of the EV Follies [12/02/2024]

—Buck Throckmorton

EV Death Pool Update: Rivian

Rivian is performing in a manner that according to any historical business metrics would have it on the path to bankruptcy in the very near future. The EV manufacturer is producing staggering losses, it is rapidly burning through its cash, and its already weak revenue figures have peaked and are now in decline.

“Rivian reports first drop in quarterly revenue since IPO, shows loss of $1.1 billion” [Detroit Free Press - 11/07/2024]

Rivian continues to lose over $30,000 on every vehicle it sells, and with a negative gross profit margin, there is no sales volume that would be profitable.

Expectations are being lowered to minimize how “unexpectedly” bad Rivian’s Q4 will be. Concurrently, Rivian continues to burn cash like it’s being consumed by a runaway thermal lithium fire. Over the past 9 months, Rivian has burned through more than $2.4 billion in cash, leaving it with just $5.4 billion.

“Rivian lowers earnings guidance after missing Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations” [CNBC – 11/07/2024]

In the quarter ended Sept. 30, Rivian said its cash and cash equivalents were $5.4 billion, compared with $7.86 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.

For some inexplicable reason, struggling automaker Volkswagen is trying to throw Rivian a $5.8 billion lifeline. VW desperately needs to liberate itself from its destructive commitment to EVs, but instead, it is aligning itself with Rivian, which makes as much sense as the fabled K-Mart/Sears merger, may it rest in peace.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration just announced that it is granting Rivian a $6 billion federal “loan” to re-start construction on its suspended new plant in Georgia.

“Nearly $6 billion federal loan will help Rivian restart construction of electric-vehicle plant” [MSN – 11/26/2024]

A nearly $6 billion federal loan will help electric-vehicle manufacturer Rivian restart construction of a $5 billion vehicle and battery plant near Covington, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., announced Tuesday.
"There was real concern last spring that construction would never start," Ossoff told reporters Tuesday morning in an online briefing. "What we have now is a major step forward to make sure this plant is built in Georgia."

There is abundant excess capacity at Rivian’s existing Illinois plant, so there is no reason to build a plant in Georgia, and even if there were some product demand, subsidizing the plant with US tax dollars is offensive. And yes, this is a subsidy. If this were a viable project, banks would be lending the money. This “loan” will almost certainly never be repaid.

*****

Gangster Government Choosing EV Winners and Losers

Tesla founder Elon Musk has famously supported Donald Trump, and he also supports elimination of the government’s $7,500 EV tax credit. This is because Tesla doesn’t need the tax credit to be profitable selling its EVs, while Tesla’s competitors do not have any model for profit in the EV game without the government subsidizing its EV sales.

So, in the upside down world we live in, in which the government seeks to pick winners and losers, the Biden administration is seeking to choose Rivian as a winner by giving it $6 billion. Meanwhile, in California, which is the country’s biggest market for EVs, Governor Gavin Newsom is trying to make Tesla a loser in the EV marketplace, by explicitly targeting Tesla for retaliation.

Specifically, with the Trump administration seeking to eliminate the federal EV tax credit, California is not giving up yet on the all-electric dream, so Gov. Newsom is proposing to have California fund its own EV tax credit…with a catch. Tesla vehicles would be specifically excluded.

“Tesla would likely be excluded from new California EV tax credits, governor's office says” [Reuters – 11/26/2024]

Tesla's electric vehicles likely would not qualify for California's new state tax credits under a proposal in the works if President-elect Donald Trump scraps the federal tax credit for EV purchases, Governor Gavin Newsom's office said on Monday.

This is effectively no different than Newsom announcing that he is imposing a stiff Tesla-only tax. This gangster-style of government that Gavin Newsom embodies is the reason that Tesla relocated from California to Texas, and it certainly influenced Musk abandoning the Democrats in disgust.

*****

The Climate Cult’s War on Auto Manufacturing Jobs

Meanwhile in Europe, there has been a burst of announcements regarding automobile manufacturing plants being closed and auto workers getting laid off. This is a direct result of the “EV transition” that Europe’s leaders have tried to impose.

Stellantis (Chrysler, Vauxhall, Fiat, Peugeot, etc] just dropped some awful news on the British auto industry…

“Vauxhall will close its Luton factory in April with more than 1,100 jobs at risk after warning it may halt UK production amid row over government's electric vehicle targets” [Daily Mail – 11/26/2024]

Vauxhall's parent company Stellantis has announced plans to close its van plant in Luton, days after it warned the government that it could slash production in Britain over Labour's tough electric vehicle sales targets.

Ford is eliminating 4,000 jobs in Europe, mostly in Germany and the UK, because of the failed EV transition.

“Ford to cut 14% of European jobs, blaming EV shift and rising competition” [CNBC – 11/20/2024]

Ford said on Wednesday it would cut around 14% of its European workforce, blaming significant losses in recent years compounded by weak demand for electric vehicles, a lack of government support for the shift to EVs, and rising competition.

This comes just a few weeks after VW announced massive layoffs of its own, and the unprecedented announcement of multiple plant closures, also due in large part to the failed EV transition.

“Historic moment for Volkswagen: Automaker plans to close ‘at least’ 3 German plants and cut thousands of jobs” [CNN – 10/28/2024]

The domestic factory closures would be the first in Volkswagen’s 87-year history, and they lay bare the challenges facing Germany’s largest manufacturer.

This is all part of the European ruling class’ eco-war against the working class. The Davos crowd would be wise to back off sooner rather than later, since pushing people out of work and into despair is a political form of lighting a fuse which might not be extinguishable.

*****

Desperation Move – Pre-Tax EV Car Payments

The “EV transition” has been such a catastrophic failure that the U.K. is now trying to incentivize people to purchase an EV by making the monthly car payments pre-tax, much like a 401K or HSA contribution in the U.S.

“EV salary sacrifice explained: How to save 40% on a new electric car” [Daily Mail – 11/21/2024]

The £500 monthly payment is salary sacrificed and deducted from your income. If you fall into the 40 per cent tax bracket, you would have paid £200 income tax on that £500, leaving you with £300. But by salary sacrificing the money, it isn't taxed. Effectively, then your Tesla Model Y which costs £500 to lease is only costing you £300.

Government loves to use taxes, tax credits, and tax avoidance to influence consumer behavior…and governments REALLY love EVs. Maybe this should be called a 401Kar.
— Buck Throckmorton (@BuckThrockmort) November 21, 2024

We can probably expect Gavin Newsom to offer up something like this in California. But excluding Tesla, of course.

*****

European EV Battery Dream Just Died

When the global eco-communists decided to “transition” the car industry, we were all assured that new jobs in the EV industry would replace the lost jobs. Battery manufacturing was one of the industries that was supposed to produce jobs. That dream has pretty much just died in Europe with the bankruptcy of Northvolt.

“Sweden's Northvolt files for bankruptcy, in blow to Europe's EV ambitions” [Reuters – 11/21/2024]

Northvolt, the Swedish maker of battery cells for electric vehicles, said on Thursday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., dealing a blow to Europe's hopes that its most developed battery player would reduce Western car makers' reliance on Chinese rivals.
"Northvolt's liquidity picture has become dire," the company said in its Chapter 11 petition, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.

This will mean that pretty much all EV battery production will come from China now. An alternative – and I know this is crazy talk – is not to mandate electric vehicles and not import EV batteries at all.

*****

Goldman Sachs’ Investors Fleeced by EV Battery Investment

I’m not sure if I’m feeling schadenfreude or if I’m just glad that important financial lessons are being learned. Either way, this is a nice palate cleanser to end today’s roundup…

“Goldman Sachs takes $900 million hit on Northvolt investment; US bank is second-largest shareholder in Swedish battery maker which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week” [Financial Times – 11/23/2024]

The losses mark a sharp contrast to a bullish prediction just seven months ago by one of the Goldman funds, which told investors that its investment in Northvolt was worth 4.29 times what it had paid for it, and that this would increase to six times by next year.

A fool and his money are soon parted, and there are a lot of credentialed fools who bought into the EV hype.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Close it up

Posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM Comments

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

It is Cholera to Blame
Pavel Fedotov

Posted by CBD at 09:30 AM Comments

The Morning Report — 12/2/24

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. The revolting if not completely unsurprising news that broke late yesterday is that Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants, the demented venal daughter-raper pardoned his bastard-making bastard of a son and bag man Hunter of any and all crimes he may have committed between 2014 and 2024. This after repeatedly lying about ever intending to do such a thing in the media for years now. Shocking, right?! Pfft. It's perfectly clear why he did this to anyone who has more than two functioning neurons to rub together why the vegetable sham president did this:

2014 was the year that Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukraine’s Burisma, scoring a $1 million payday, and millions more for the Biden Crime Family. It was also the year that Yelena Baturina, the wife of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov sent $3.5 million to a Hunter organization and attended an event with Joe Biden in D.C. It was also the year that a Kazakh oligarch who had just taken over the BTA Bank with whom both Joe was photographed sent six figures.
Were all of these foreign oligarchs sending big checks to a man who had just been discharged from the Naval Reserve over his cocaine use or to his dad who was the one actually in power?

Joe Biden did not pardon Hunter Biden: he pardoned himself.

Hunter, an inept crackhead who could barely write coherent emails, was not being showered with checks, wire transfers and even diamonds because of his legal and business acumen.

The only reason an addict was being sent so much money that he could use it to indulge his worst appetites was because of his father. The ‘Big Guy’ was always the mastermind.

Emphasis mine, as if this is not apparent, especially to any regular reader of this site in particular and/or who has the horse sense to ignore the transparent attempts going back years to ignore and cover up the criminal enterprise fronted by elective office that is the Biden family, second only to that of the Clintons, at least that we are aware of. Sadly, I can say with near 100% certitude that there will never be any calling to account of either of these clans.

Naturally, with very few exceptions, the reaction to this from Leftist quarters is to praise the move and continue the disgusting titanic Goebbelsian-level lie that Biden and his son are victims or will be victims of political persecution, as if the gun charges as well as the verified timeline of Hunter's involvement with Ukrainian energy company Buurisma and how an unqualified, drug-addict literal son of a bitch wound up on its board of directors. And that's just two items.

While this is going on, President-elect Trump has made perhaps his most electrifying administrative pick in that of Deep State nemesis Kash Patel to head the utterly corrupt FBI, which had degenerated into, or really revealed itself to be the personal political hit squad of the Democrat/Left and anti-American Deep State it always had been:

The FBI went rogue a very long time ago. J. Edgar Hoover was a law unto himself, and everyone in political life was a potential victim. His violations of civil rights were a national disgrace. Throughout his 48 years as director, he broke the law routinely. Like his insufferable successor, James Comey, he believed he answered to "a higher authority" -- his own conscience. These are delusions of grandeur. The FBI has degenerated into one of the greatest threats to American liberty. These people think they're above the law.

Beyond thinking they're above the law, they, along with virtually the entire bureaucracy in DC – every agency, every department, every office is staffed with self-inflating egomaniacs who think they are superior elites and therefore are on a mission from God to save the unwashed, unworthy masses of American prole untermenschen from themselves. And if they (that is WE) do not comply and reject them, we deserve to get it good and hard. For our own good, of course!

These warped, twisted tyrants at the FBI, DoJ, CIA and everywhere else who engineered the Russia collusion hoax and worse, the January 6th false flag operation intended to decapitate Trump and everyone allied to him and all of us who supported and voted for him are the real criminal/traitor insurrectionists. I applaud Trump's vow to pardon those who were targeted and some still rotting away in the Merrick Garland Archipelago. Beyond that, Trump needs to go after anyone and everyone who engineered those operations.

Beyond that, Just for starters, I'd like to see Kash Patel go after this fish-eyed racialist for Operation Fast & Furious:

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who described himself as President Barack Obama’s “wingman” while in office, tried to defend President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, on Sunday night, saying he was unfairly singled out.

Considering the murder and mayhem being caused by the Biden-erased southern border, it provides a legitimate reason to go after Holder, who I believe has been and continues to be a Biden/Harris string-puller behind the scenes. A little sunlight can disinfect a very nasty rats nest of operatives who've been gnawing away at what remains of the Republic for many many years, and continue to do so. Beyond Holder, the Sunsteins and Powers must be defanged and called to account. That and the criminal enterprises of Soros, Schwalb and now Buffet and Gates.

And hear this good and loud trolls. It's not retribution. It's Justice. Long delayed and as such denied.

You know Kash Patel at the FBI is a good thing when it elicits a reaction like this:

Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe said Saturday evening on CNN that President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director signals how the former president plans to “disrupt,” “dismantle” and “distract” the agency under his second administration.
Trump announced Patel as his FBI pick Saturday, writing in a statement that the former chief of staff to the secretary of defense “has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people.” On “CNN Newsroom,” McCabe called the announcement a “terrible development” for those at the agency, stating that Patel has no qualifications for the job.

Andrew McCabe's pronouncement is a ringing endorsement, given the fact that McCabe is a traitor, and deserves to sit in whatever is left of the grease spot that is Julius Rosenberg, in Old Sparky and follow him to the infernal reaches.
Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving holiday.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY

Daniel Greenfield: Joe Biden did not just pardon Hunter: he pardoned himself.
Biden Pardons Son and Co-Conspirator
Roger Kimball: ‘The administrative state’ is that quota of political power that covertly fills the vacuum left by the failure of the legislative branch to discharge its obligations.
What is the Administrative State?
As in a dystopian suicide orgy, Westerners have staged their own downfall, defying common sense, loyalty to civilization, and love of family.
A Disaster Foretold
Neil Gorsuch chronicles the human toll of overregulation.
Defying Administrative Tyranny

ISRAEL vs IRAN & GAZA/HAMAS/Hezbollah . . . AND BIDEN

Edan Alexander was abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 has been in captivity for 421 days.
Hamas Releases Video of Distraught Crying American Hostage In Bid To Pressure Ceasefire Deal On Israel
Daniel Greenfield: Bad news for America and Israel.
Obama Signals He Controls Biden and He’s Coming for Israel
"It’s not for no reason that we insisted on 60 days," Ohad Tal, a member of Israel’s parliamentary defense committee from the governing Religious Zionism party, told the Washington Free Beacon.
Ceasefire in Lebanon Is Stopgap Until Trump Takes Over, Israelis Say
Robert Spencer: In yet another indication of his distaste for America’s most loyal and reliable ally in the Middle East, Old Joe Biden was spotted carrying one of the foremost books of pro-jihad propaganda against Israel available today. The lame duck limped into a bookstore in Nantucket on Black Friday and came out carrying Rashid Khalidi’s anti-Israel screed, “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017.” Not, you’ll notice, “The Case for Israel” or “The Palestinian Delusion.” Old Joe’s sympathies are once again quite clear.
It Figures: Biden Spotted Reading Notorious Anti-Israel Screed

* * * * *
A woman identified as 25-year-old Nallah Sutherland, a special event coordinator for the Mayor’s Office of Special Projects and Community Events, was recorded by an eyewitness tearing the posters on November 2, the New York Post reported: The witness can be heard asking Sutherland in the video, “Is there a reason you’re taking those down?” “Those were hostages. They were taken by terrorists,” he added, before Sutherland lunged and appeared to hit his cell phone.
NYC Mayor Adams’ Staffer Rips Hamas Hostage Posters, Gets Slap on the Wrist

WE-ALL-SLAM-FOR-I-SLAM
"It concerns not only our languages and customs, but also our cultural and historical foundations."
SHOT: German party will force migrants to assimilate: report (As the opposite continues at mach schnell! - jjs)
The attack, which was caught on live stream video, saw accused attacker Sulaiman Ataee allegedly stab Stürzenberger and five others at a market square in Mannheim, including a police officer who later died of wounds to his neck.
Chaser: Germany - Victim of Islamist Stabbing Attack Fined for Inciting Hatred Against Muslims
The Quebec government has long fretted about protecting its French linguistic heritage. As a result, they have opened their borders to hundreds of thousands of immigrants from French-speaking Islamic nations who might otherwise not share the secular and liberal values that define Quebec society, and who hail from societies defined by ubiquitous Jew hatred. As long as the conquerors speak French, the eventual erasure of the host society will surely be painless. The adage “demography is destiny” is veridical for a reason.
How Montreal became the antisemitism capital of North America

CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
President-elect Donald Trump hinted at mass pardons for defendants tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot – with his team vowing he would also overhaul the “Democrat-controlled” Department of Justice — a little more than an hour after President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Sunday night. “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Donald Trump hints at mass pardons for Jan. 6 defendants after Biden pardons son Hunter
“One of my biggest personal recommendations,” Patel said, “is you shut down the FBI headquarters building and open it up the next day as the Museum of the Deep State, and you send those 7000 agents in the headquarters building down range to chase down rapists, to chase down murderers, to chase down drug traffickers and let the cops be cops on the streets across America. You keep a small contingent in Washington, DC. That’s step one.”
It’s Official — Trump Names Deep State Foe Kash Patel FBI Director
Treasonous criminal traitor Andrew McCabe's reaction is proof positive that Patel at the FBI is exactly what is needed! - jjs
‘Terrible Development’: Fmr Deputy FBI Dir Says Trump’s Pick ‘Signals’ Plans To ‘Disrupt, Dismantle, Distract’ Agency
The FBI went rogue a very long time ago.
Kash Patel is just the man for the FBI
Perhaps renewed American confidence will deter what seems inevitable?
Where's Antifa?
President-elect Trump has an opportunity to hold federal bureaucrats accountable for their weaponization of the government.
In The Crosshairs: Four Ways The Biden Junta Targeted Conservatives
A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by Ray Epps, the man who encouraged protestors to storm the Capitol on January 6 and admitted to having “orchestrated” the violence that day, against Fox News. In the lawsuit, first filed in July of 2023, Epps claims that the corporate news network spun a “fantastical story” about him acting as an undercover agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tasked with fomenting violence among the protestors at the Capitol. Epps names former Fox host Tucker Carlson and several others as having specifically defamed him.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/11/29/ray-eppss-defamation-suit-fails/
The incoming Trump administration can return the department to its core mission.
Five Ways to Right the DOJ
They need a new schtick as theirs is beyond tiresome.
Nobody’s buying the left's hate hoaxes
Hakeem Jeffries is the Jussie Smollet of Boys who cried wolf - Is it just me or does this sound like complete bullshit? - jjs
‘Signed With MAGA’: Hakeem Jeffries Says Bomb Threats Targeted Dems Days After Trump Team Announced Similar Incidents

"BIDEN/HARRIS BORDER BLOODBATH," AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY
Victor Davis Hanson:Mexico understands that an open border, the destruction of U.S. immigration law, illegal immigration, and emigration of millions of its own citizens to America are entirely in its own interests.
Yes, Mexico Knows Exactly What It Is Doing
Homan said, “And if these sanctuary states and cities keep pushing back, I’ll have the extra resources to double manpower in those sanctuary cities. Because if we can’t arrest the bad guy in the jail with one agent, it means I’ve got to send a whole team out into the field to find this person, and, for officer safety reasons, we need a whole team, rather than just one person.
Homan: I’ll Contract Non-Enforcement Immigration Work So I Have the Agents to Send More to Sanctuaries
In addition, an analysis of the available statistics by RealClearInvestigations suggests that the crime rate of noncitizens is vastly understated. A separate RCI analysis based on estimates developed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) suggests that crime by illegal aliens who entered the United States by July 21, 2024 cost the country some $166.5 billion. These criminals disproportionately entered the U.S. during the Biden junta.
2A & Crime Expert JOHN LOTT: Illegal Immigrants Are Committing Crimes — Here’s The Data
Once one understands English common law, the intention behind the 14th Amendment, and subsequent case authority, it’s not even close.
Birthright Citizenship: The 14th Amendment Does Not Apply to Illegal Aliens

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS
Miranda Devine: No wonder Hunter looked so smug over the weekend when he was photographed out and about in Nantucket with his dad and the rest of the Biden clan. For a guy facing two prison sentences, he was chewing gum and acting like he didn’t have a care in the world.
We always knew Joe Biden would pardon troubled son Hunter — fitting the president would break another promise to the American people
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who described himself as President Barack Obama’s “wingman” while in office, tried to defend [so-called quote-unquote] President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, on Sunday night, saying he was unfairly singled out. (Fish-eyed racialist Commie scumbag - jjs)
Barack Obama’s ’Wingman’ Eric Holder Defends Hunter Biden Pardon
Most Democrats were radio silent after Biden pardoned his son despite his repeated lies that he would not do so.
Two Democrats Speak Out Against Biden Pardoning His Son
Pardon covers crimes Hunter Biden has committed and 'may have committed or taken part in' between 2014 and 2024
Against It Before He Was For It: Biden Pardons Crackhead Son Hunter After Vowing Not To Do So

SHAMPEACHMENTS, 2016 CLINTON/OBAMA COUP, CONGRESSIONAL PERSECUTION, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, MUELLER DECEPTION
How they weaponized the justice system to get Trump.
Leftist NY Attorney General and Judge vs. the Rule of Law

FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
Donald Trump may have overwhelmingly won reelection, but according to Google’s content police, saying anything nice about him is “demonstrably false” and a threat to the “democratic process.” Do you think we’re exaggerating?
Election Be Damned, Google’s Anti-Trump Bias Is Alive And Well
While Meta currently holds partial ownership in 16 existing cable networks, this ambitious new enterprise would be entirely under Meta’s control, allowing the company to prioritize traffic for its own platforms. This move aligns Meta with similar efforts made by Google, which has private ownership of several cable routes and has also invested in 33 additional networks.
Zuckerberg’s Meta is Building It’s Own Subsea Cables for Web Dominance.
Breitbart News has learned the New Yorker is preparing to publish a massive hit piece on Hegseth, using decade-old allegations made by a jealous former coworker that is now being recirculated to media as he prepares for Senate confirmation.
Mainstream Media Duped by Decade-Old Jealous Screed from Former Pete Hegseth Coworker

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Entitlement reform is the unavoidable challenge of our time—ignoring it risks economic upheaval, while addressing it demands resolve and compromise.
Tocqueville and America’s Spending Problem
Just as neocons infiltrated Trump's first administration (and are currently trying to weasel in to Trump 2.0), crypto enthusiasts are wary of hidden poison pills that could undermine the promise of this new crypto dawn in America.
Trump's victory is a cautiously optimistic sign for crypto
Republicans should take the side of their own voters instead of listening to decadent union goons like Sean O’Brien.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer Would Be A Disaster As Labor Secretary
Advancing American semiconductor manufacturing requires bringing in outside talent and experience.
Keep CHIPS on Track

RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM
The UN created the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 to acquire the authority to run the global economy so as to “save the planet” and “equitably” share the benefits of “sustainable” development.
Climate Changes Nothing in the Real World
Al Gore's climate movement is built on a foundation of political manipulation and scientific misrepresentation.
Al Gore’s Climate Alarmism: A Political Agenda Masked as Science
The fossil fuel industry’s influence “is bound to be amplified under Trump,” Lavelle writes, “who does not view climate change as a serious problem and who describes ‘energy dominance’ as a policy imperative.” (GOOD! - jjs)
Climate Alarmists: Trump Wants to Turn America into ‘Pariah Petrostate’
Daniel Greenfield: Marxism in science leads to women marrying brine shrimp.
Underwater Feminism

CRIME & PUNISHMENT, NON-DOSTOYEVSKY
Clarice Feldman: Criminal law should be clear so that those covered by it can understand what is permitted and what is prohibited.
Criminal law Should be Inelastic

AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE+Fauci-created CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS
"Wuhan lab leak not even mentioned."
Fauci Published A New Paper On COVID And No One Is Buying It

EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT
Republicans have long promised to eliminate the DOE. Will Donald Trump be the one to pull it off?
Here’s What Getting Rid Of The Education Department Could Look Like
According to its description, the course “examines fatness as an area of human difference subject to privilege and discrimination that intersects with other systems of oppression based on gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and ability.”
University of Maryland offers course called 'Intro to Fat Studies: Fatness, Blackness and Their Intersections' (Mostly at Stacey "Tank" Abrams thighs - jjs)

ABORTION
Unlike miscarriage, abortion directly and intentionally kills an innocent child who is living, growing, and developing.
Democrat Activists Exploit Tragic Miscarriages Like Mine To Sell Abortions

THE 2020 AND 2022ELECTION HEISTS & AFTERMATH AND 2024 SHENANIGANS
Two close state House races flipped from Republicans to Democrats, and one of those races has missing ballots.
MN City ‘Likely Disposed Of’ 21 Ballots In Race Decided For Dem Candidate By 14 Votes

POLITICS
“She’s somebody who can cut through the noise and doesn’t talk like Washington.”
Hilarity Ensues After Report on a Possible 2028 titty-Caca/AOC Presidential Candidacy
Robert Spencer: Could the Democrats’ most viable and most sensible 2028 nominee turn out to be the nation’s most notorious ex-bartender? Stranger things have happened.
Could THIS PERSON Turn Out to Be the Democrats' Most Viable Candidate for 2028?
Victor Davis Hanson: The last great hope to stop the madness.
The Fumes of the 2024 Election
That Schumer-backed policy imported roughly nine million southern migrants — ensuring the defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris and the loss of three Democrat-held Senate seats. That three-seat loss created a new 53-seat Republican majority in the Senate, thus forcing Schumer to hand over the gavel and return to minority status.
The Second Biggest Loser in 2024: Chuck Schumer
Epstein's remarks come after Democrats lost the White House, Senate, and House during this month's elections.
Democrat Strategist: The Left Has A ‘Wokeness,’ ‘Moral Condescension’ Problem
How accurate were the polls? How did this number compare to the final polls before the election? Which are the winners, and which lost bigly?
Presidential Polling Postmortem Winners and Losers

THE UKRAINIAN "FRONT"
Blinken’s announcement comes at a time when public support appears to be waning for U.S. taxpayer dollars being used to provide financial and military aid to Ukraine.
Blinken: Biden Junta Will Send Ukraine ‘Every Dollar’ Possible Before Leaving Office
British intelligence chief Richard Moore is claiming the withdrawal of lethal military aid from Ukraine would threaten security for the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union. The head of MI6 made the remarks during an address earlier this week in Paris. Moore is believed to be one of two under consideration by the Labour government’s Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to serve as ambassador to the United States. Moore’s statement appears to be connected to a significant push among NATO members to escalate the conflict in Ukraine before U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office in January.
Spy Chief Who Wants to be Next U.S. Ambassador Also Wants MORE WAR.
Trump has promised to bring the war to a swift conclusion.
Zelensky Signals Shift In War Against Russia

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL
Rebels in Syria—many with ties to terrorist and Islamic extremist groups, including al-Qaeda—have breached parts of Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, leading to clashes with government forces. The confrontation was sparked by two car bombs detonated by the insurgents on Friday. The attacks and fight over the city mark renewed hostilities in the now over-decade-old Syrian civil war.
It’s All Kicking Off in Syria Again.
Rebel forces led by the terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took Aleppo last week.
Iran Pledges Support For Assad Regime After Syrian Rebels Seize Major City
What this means for Israel is unclear. Turkey is a NATO country and has ties to the West, but it’s also a Muslim-majority nation. Their current president (and/or dictator), Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has sought to define himself as a steadfast opponent of Zionism and supporter of the Palestinians. While it’s largely suspected that Erdoğan fans the flames of antisemitism for domestic purposes, it would be a mistake to discount darker, more disturbing motives. Sometimes, the guy who acts like a vicious, Jew-hating antisemite really is a vicious, Jew-hating antisemite!
With Iran’s Proxies Destroyed and Russia Distracted, Is Turkey About to Make a Move in the Middle East?
BRICS, which stands for the countries of “Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa,” is described as being “an informal grouping of emerging economies hoping to increase their sway in the global order,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations. The group was established in 2009, with South Africa joining a year later.
Trump Threatens BRICS Countries with 100% Tariff if They Try to ‘Create’ New Currency to Replace US Dollar
The world needs Javier Milei. The Trump administration would be smart to listen to Milei and follow in his footsteps.
The Economist Changes Tune on Javier Milei: Actions Deserve ‘to be Watched Closely Around the World’
A little background on President Trump's idea of purchasing Greenland.
Making Greenland Great Again?

DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
Just before Thanksgiving, Admiral Samuel Paparo unveiled a massive turkey: America’s defense posture in Asia. Paparo became the head of America’s Indo-Pacific Command in May after commanding the Pacific Fleet for three years, and he came to Washington to deliver some bad news. The United States is not keeping pace with the threats facing his forces.
The Pentagon’s New Mission: Buy More Weapons To Buy More Time
If there ever has been a time to educate America about the strategic utility of maritime power, and its essential role in advancing American security, this is the time.
The New Cold War is at Sea

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE
“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.”
Musk, Ramaswamy, Voters Agree: Fire Federal Employees Who Won’t Return to Office (Mass pension confiscations too- jjs)

HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
. . .any attempt from Kennedy to crack down on pharmaceutical advertising would almost certainly be challenged by drugmakers on First Amendment grounds and may lack the support of Trump and Republican lawmakers who have so far refrained from commenting on Kennedy’s proposal.
RFK’s Calls To Ban One Of Big Pharma’s Most Powerful Tools Rattle Drugmakers Despite Uncertain Political Prospects
Thad McCotter: The public perception of marijuana has shifted from a Baby Boomer-era symbol of harmless rebellion to a more cautious view recognizing its potential harms.
The Real Reefer Madness: Marijuana Use in 2024
Meanwhile, Members of Parliament will debate an online petition calling for a redo of the summer’s general election, after it garnered over 2.8 million signatures…on January 6, 2025.
British Lawmakers Vote in Favor of Medically Assisted Suicide
During Friday’s extraordinary events in the House of Commons, there was one bizarre, semi-comic, deeply unsettling moment that summed up the debate over the assisted-suicide bill better than almost all the speeches
Why Britain Chose Death

ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY
American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 143 to 84, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 124 to 103.
China completes first launch of its Long March 12 rocket
If true, this incident indicates a shocking level of incompetence, sloppiness, or even malice at Russian mission control.
“Toxic smell” at Progress hatch was hypergolic fuel

FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
The High Court will soon decide whether states can protect kids from irreversible sex change procedures
The Supreme Court Is About To Hear A Major Child Gender Transition Case. Here’s What To Know.
The trans madness continues, as biological males continue to smash glass ceilings and female faces in women's sports. This past Monday, a Marxist activist in a black robe decreed that neither civil rights nor biological science factor into his reasoning process, and that biological male Brayden Fleming has every right to continue playing for the San Jose Spartans girls volleyball team. Brayden goes by his stage name Blaire, but I'll be referring to him as Brayden.
How To Stop Trans Insanity In Women's Sports

CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE
People are peeved about the trigger warning that flashes ahead of the movie “Wicked,” warning about discrimination against people with green skin.
Moviegoers Slam Absurd Woke Agenda In ‘Wicked’
Christian Toto: Progressive Oscar winner slams political correctness, liberal scolds
Trump Effect: Sean Penn Demands Diversity of Opinion
The social justice of the Middle Ages needs to be updated and redefined as the political justice of the current scene, sparing the innocent, as it should go without saying (read: Donald Trump), and focusing on those who should be justifiably purged, whether with effective censure, removal of privileges, or merited jail sentences. Mutatis mutandis, the iniquities of Formosus are pervasive in contemporary form and should be decisively dealt with. This, we might say, is what is now at stake.
Medieval 'Social Justice' With a Contemporary Twist
... and left poor old gullible George holding the bag.
It finally dawns on Clooney that his BFF Obama made him his patsy -report
Buffett remarked candidly about the inevitability of aging, stating, “Father time always wins.” Since 2006, Buffett has been donating significant amounts annually to his children’s charities and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Warren Buffett Says He’ll Donate $147 Billion to Leftist NGOs When He Dies.

HITHER & YON
The restoration of the 12th-century Christian monument appears to have been largely faithful. Traditionalists successfully resisted modernists’ initial efforts to install a glass roof or replace the cathedral spire with a glass spike or even an Islamic minaret.
A Look Inside the Rebuilt Notre-Dame Cathedral.

NOTE: The opinions expressed in the links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.

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Posted by J.J. Sefton at 07:10 AM Comments

Daily Tech News 2 December 2024

—Pixy Misa

Top Story

The most valuable gemstone on Earth is not blue diamond, or Padparadscha sapphire, or imperial jadeite. It's a little-known mineral called kyawthuite. (ScienceAlert)

Composed of an unusual formulation of bismuth antimonite and formed in cooling magma flows, it gets its value from its scarcity.

There's exactly one stone, and it's less than a quarter of an inch long.

Posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM Comments

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (12/1/24) - Doof

—Open Blogger

Howdy Hordelings, and welcome to December! Thanks for stopping the Sunday ONT. Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the whole month of November are now in the rear view mirror. Shall we cruise on into the last month of the year and get into the holiday spirit?

Posted by Open Blogger at 10:01 PM Comments

Gun Thread: El Firsto of Decembero (The First December) Edition!

—Weasel

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 December? You know what happens in December? Do you know? Christmas! Christmas happens in December! Oh the pure, unadulterated joy of receiving gifts! Also, Boxing Day happens in December, but never once in the entire history of my life have I ever heard of anyone celebrating Boxing Day. Not even a little bit, and not even in Canada where this pseudo-holiday evidently it took root. I have a WeaselTheory that the reason people wish each other "Happy Holidays" rather than the preferred "Merry Christmas" is because Boxing Day is sitting right there on the calendar and people feel compelled to include it lest they offend the Boxing Day adherents, if there are any, which I do not believe there are. Anyhoo...

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

Posted by Weasel at 07:00 PM Comments

FOOD THREAD – Sunday 12/01/2024

—Buck Throckmorton

[Greetings to all of you who have come here for an exposition on the finer pleasures of cooking and dining. This is certainly the place to find it…but not today. Your regular host, Mr. CBD, should be back on the job by next week. Until then, here is a little something to chew on. – Buck]

Family Recipes versus Shrinkflation

There is not much I can add to how annoying it is when product sizes are made incrementally smaller. It epitomizes the quietly dishonest, business school philosophy that margins can be improved by shrinking a product’s size while holding the price steady. In this era of high-inflation, shrinkflation is also being used to disguise the inflationary increase in price per unit, since each unit is now smaller. But no one is being fooled, as more units must now be bought to get the same volume as before, which also means more packaging, with all the costs and waste involved in that.

For heirloom recipes, shrinkflation is especially frustrating. My wife is a punctual, organized person for whom recipes are not suggestions, they are a precise roadmap. She has a few cherished recipes for side dishes that are an important part of our holiday meals. But these recipes also date back to before MBAs shrank the ingredients. So, we end up buying more of each component ingredient to ensure there is enough, which must give the business school graduates a big smile. They successfully turned a two-can purchase of corn into a three can purchase, with some accompanying waste.

*****

How Many Sodas in a 12-Pack?

Related…

My wife is a fan of a soft drink named Zevia.

Over the years, the large multipack had shrinkflated from a 12-pack to a 10-pack, and then to an 8-pack, all before the latest round of Bidenflation. But Zevia can’t shrink the multi-pack any further now, since they already sell 6-packs, so instead, they have gone full circle, bringing back a 12-pack as the large multi-pack. I’d like to see more of this. Maybe one day a can of vegetables will be 16 ounces again, and a box of tissues won’t get wiped out by one sneezy day.

A “pound” of coffee has been steadily decreasing from 16 ounces over the years. Maybe when a “pound” of coffee is reduced to 8 ounces, a “double pack” of coffee at 16 oz per package will be re-introduced.

*****

The “Floz” as a Unit of Measurement

Speaking of ounces, many recipes refer to a volume of liquid in terms of “fl. oz.” I’m certainly not the only person who refers to the unit of measurement as a “floz,” am I? If my wife and I are cooking and the recipe calls for a cup of milk, then I tell her it requires eight “flozzes” of milk.

*****

Un-Sweet Potatoes

In my half-century-plus on this planet, I somehow still find that there are foods that I was always “wrong” about, and one of them is sweet potatoes. I spent most of my life thinking I didn’t like sweet potatoes, probably because my early exposure to them was canned, candied yams that were served at holidays. While I have always had a sweet tooth, I generally don’t care for sugary sweet stuff on my plate while I’m eating my savory entrée and sides.

Only in the past few years did I finally try sweet potato fries and baked sweet potatoes with nothing sugary added to them. Absolutely delicious! Who knew?

But – I’m still hesitant to order sweet potato fries at a restaurant, because too often they add cinnamon and sugar to them.

Do y’all prefer savory sweet potatoes or candied sweet potatoes?

Are any of you like me in seeking to keep savory and sweet from mingling on the dinner plate?

*****

Cornbread and Syrup

But…if something sweet is supposed to be the main course, somehow that is different. “Breakfast for supper” that prominently features pancakes and waffles is always a treat.

When I was a child, my father would occasionally prepare a Sunday night dinner for us kids of cornbread and syrup. When he was a child during the Depression and WWII, that was a common meal served to him and his sister by my grandparents as they juggled money and wartime rations.

When my father served it to us, it was a nostalgic meal for him, and a treat for us kids. Now that I think about it, I’m overdue to have cornbread and syrup for supper.

*****
Johnny Cakes & Syrup

Author Brandon Meeks, known on Twitter/X as “Shelby Foote Appreciator,” and a caretaker of southern culture, recently had a tweet about making the poor man’s delicacy, “hot water cornbread.” I wasn’t sure what that was, so a little internet searching revealed that “hot water cornbread” is another name for hoe cakes, or johnny cakes, which is fried cornmeal flatbread. It is frequently served with butter and syrup, like a pancake.

Making a little “hot water cornbread” for supper. A Southern bread so cheap the poorest among us can afford it, and so good you’d pay real money to eat it. pic.twitter.com/ugFuudoEBN
— Shelby Foote Appreciator⚓️ (@NoJesuitTricks) November 18, 2024

I realize now that the cornbread and syrup of my grandparents was actually a midwestern variation of hoe cakes.

*****

Internet Recipe Essays

So, I decided to look up a recipe for johnny cakes, and I was re-exposed to one of the most bizarre and irritating things on the internet…the recipe essay.

You click a link to a recipe for a dish you wish to cook, and then it starts with a description of the dish, followed by ads, followed by a history of the dish, followed by more ads, followed by more paragraphs discussing the pleasures of cooking, which seasons of the year this dish is associated with, where the component ingredients come from, etc. Trying to get to the list of ingredients and how to prepare them becomes a quest.

I understand putting some ads in the website, but what is the purpose for the interminable essay that must be plowed through to get to a recipe?

*****

Smoked Bologna Redux

The previous time that Mr. CBD called me up from ~~the bullpen~~ the concession stand to fill in on a Food Thread, I discussed the East Tennessee delicacy of smoked bologna, which I hadn’t yet tried.

Well, I’ve tried it several times now, including in my new favorite breakfast biscuit: Smoked bologna with egg and cheese on a biscuit. It’s fantastic! I wish I had taken a picture of it, as the thick circle of bologna had a black exterior ring from the smoke, leaving no doubt that this was not a mere slice of Oscar Meyer cold cuts.

*****

Leftovers

I once had a co-worker who would bring leftover-turkey gumbo into the office the week after Thanksgiving…always a treat.

As you enjoy your Thanksgiving leftovers, please feel free to share in the comments some of the creative things you are doing with your leftovers.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

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Posted by Buck Throckmorton at 04:00 PM Comments

First-World Problems...

—CBD

It's not really a problem...I just found a picture of Cob-logger "Weasel" as a young lad, and I figured I would share with you folks.

Have at it with your own FWPs, or just make fun of Weasel's shorts!

Posted by CBD at 02:00 PM Comments

The NCAA And Its Conferences Have Been Co-opted By Transgender Inc.
Leave The Heavy Lifting To The Women!

—CBD

Gee, what a surprise! The corrupt and pathetic sports conference mandarins have abrogated their primary responsibility -- protecting the athletes -- by being conspicuously silent on the rather important question of whether men should be allowed to compete against women. The Mountain West Conference has allowed this pathetic and embarrassing situation go on for far longer than it should, simply because they are cowardly and craven and don't want to be tagged with the cocktail-party-invitation ending image of being insufficiently woke and respectful of the beautiful mosaic of cocks and balls in the women's locker room.

But they are taking their marching orders from the vilest organization of them all...the NCAA. Two and a half years ago they allowed Will Thomas, a mediocre male swimmer from U. Penn magically to grow his hair, put on a woman's swim suit, and be a chick! He didn't even have to shave his legs, since that's what swimmers do anyway. He won the 500 yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships against a field of real women who didn't have the advantage of male puberty, male bone structure and size, and probably 15 years of training...as a man!

That seems fair.

But the real story is that the women volley ball players of the Mountain West Conference have more balls than the conference bigwigs. Six teams forfeited when asked to play against the San Jose State University women/men. Good for them, and good for their schools for supporting their decisions, or at least not pitching a woke fit and squawking about inclusion and equity and beautiful mosaics. But the conference cowards have allowed this situation to go on for the entire season, because, well, they are cowards, have no moral clarity, and are more interested in the perks than doing their jobs.

U.S. Sen. Risch Says Mountain West 'Failed' Boise State After SJSU Forfeit

Fallout continues from the shocking decision by the Boise State women's volleyball team to forfeit its Mountain West Tournament semifinal match against San Jose State to protest the inclusion of transgender Blaire Fleming on the SJSU team.

On Thursday, United States Senator Jim Risch (Idaho) posted on social media and blasted the Mountain West for continuing to allow Fleming (a biological male) to compete in women's volleyball.

"The @MountainWest has failed our Boise State women’s volleyball team," Risch posted on X. "These women have worked too hard for too long to be denied their right to fair, safe competition. We must fight to protect women’s sports."

It's nice that a United States Senator has finally noticed this issue, but the season is almost over, and perhaps something should have been done a bit earlier.

It is obvious that the sporting authorities in the United States are bought and paid-for by the current insanity that prevents this obvious, clear issue from being exposed. But the women of those six teams that forfeited should be commended for their integrity, respect for sports, and bravery in the face of the media criticism and unwavering support for a dude pretending to be a chick.

President Trump was asked what to do about this issue, and his answer was simple:

Q: "How do you plan on addressing the transgender issue in women's sports? I have 9 grandchildren, 6 of them female, all playing sports. We are very concerned for their safety."

TRUMP: "It's such an easy question. We're not going to let it happen."

Yup.

Posted by CBD at 12:00 PM Comments

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 12-01-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

—Open Blogger

(HT: California Girl NOT CaliGirl)

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 (extra guffaws not included). 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, unless you are wearing these pants...(a Thanksgiving feast on the go!)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, snack on leftover turkey, stuffing, and pie, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

As I mentioned last week, I am very grateful to all of your support for my meager contributions to AoSHQ. I believe I'm merely the curator of this space while y'all are the CREATORS of the Sunday Morning Book Thread with your own comments and contributions. As a matter of fact, nearly all of the content this week is from YOU...Thank you!

P.S. Thanks to TRex for a great Hobby Thread yesterday!

PIC NOTE

This picture was sent to me by "California Girl" who should NOT be confused with CaliGirl. Both are 'Ettes from California, I take it, though apparently different nics. "California Girl" is a lurker who rarely comments. This is a repeat, I think, from a bookstore in Portugal, but it fits the theme of today's Sunday Morning Book Thread where most of the content is supplied by YOU, the 'rons and 'ettes that keep this place interesting.

WRITING HACK FOR A FIRST DRAFT

(HT: OrangeEnt

OrangeEnt sent me a link to the video above. In case you don't want to watch the video, here's the main point: writers can often "speed up" writing a first draft by inserting markers for thoughts and ideas so the can easily come back to them later when they have figured out exactly what they want to write. He calls this the "TK Method" because a common trick is to insert "TK" in your manuscript at those points you need to revisit later. For instance, if you don't quite know the name of a villain's henchman, you can insert "VillainHenchmanTK" into your manuscript. When you have thought up a good name for him, a simple find-and-replace will help you fix that minor issue. Similarly, if you know that a particular moment needs to be included in a scene, but you don't quite know the details of how it will play out yet, you can use "TK" along with a short descriptor, such as "Chap2ClimaxTK". Again, you just need to do a quick find "TK" option in your writing software to find all of the TK spots. Why "TK?" Well, it's a letter combination that doesn't occur in too many English words. You can use whatever letter combination you like, as long as it's unique enough to be identifiable in your manuscript.

One downside I can see is that you would need to do a thorough search of "TK" before you submit a manuscript for publication, or your editor may come back asking for missing details.

I don't write manuscripts, but I often put placeholders in my work-related writing and then send it out to my team for assistance with filling in those key details (e.g., a date for an event or a link to a website).

Any Moron Authors want to chime in on tips and tricks that help with writing their first drafts?

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2024 BLACK FRIDAY/CYBER MONDAY BASED BOOK SALE

Hans G. Schantz is back with another Based Book Sale event:

The 2024 Black Friday/Cyber Monday Based Book Sale is live with over two hundred based books including 75 new to the sale all for free or $0.99:
https://basedbooksale.substack.com/p/2024-black-fridaycyber-monday-based

And there are an additional couple hundred books in the Everyday Based Book Sale

https://basedbooksale.substack.com/p/the-everyday-099-or-free-based-book

Cheers!

BOOKS BY MORONS

James Y. Bartlett, author of the Swamp Yankee Mysteries, which take place in a fictional town in the fictional state of Rhode Island, has started a new series. This one features Johann Sebastian Bach as the protagonist/sleuth.

I've reimagined him as a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Keith Richards, and given him a posse: Bach's historical cousin Elias Bach (whom he hired for a few years as personal secretary and tutor for his children) fills the Dr. Watson role; and Anna Magdalena Bach, his second wife, brings the feminine perspective to these 18th century adventures.
The first book in the series, The Organ Job, now on sale, finds Bach and crew in the Hessian city of Kassel to inspect the new pipe organ at the Martinskirche. But they learn that the church organist's eldest daughter, married to the Lutheran pastor of the church, died suddenly in a midnight fall down the stairs of the rectory. And Pastor Mundt has now let it be known he wants to marry the organist's younger daughter-—someone Elias has become sweet on. So the investigation begins and meanwhile Bach learns that an old aristocratic enemy of his is staying with the Prince of Hesse, and plans a musical revenge like only Bach can!

Yes, the heads of Bach scholars will explode, (just wait til you see what Bach does to get ready to compose his music!) but these contrapuntal mysteries will entertain music and mystery lovers alike.

Book Two, The Coffee Garden, is scheduled for release next month!

Thanks,

James Y. Bartlett

Amazon Link: The Organ Job

FREE BOOK BY 'ETTE

Moronette Author Diana Pool is offering FREE copies of her book with the stated goal of increasing market penetration, which will hopefully lead to more sales.

I have a book available on-line with print copies and electronic copies that may be purchased. I have had some encouraging sales to date. While I would like to recover costs associated with the book production (graphics for the cover, costs for formatting to get the document through the Draft2digital platform, and purchasing some books to give away; but never the hours of my life put into the project associated with writing, editing x97, and other stuff) it is obvious that I need market penetration to enable me to become a recluse on a large but haunted mansion in a windswept, godforsaken corner of the planet. To address this issue I am offering my book - Selinon, by Diana Pool at no charge until the end of December. If more than 3 people download the book, I may extend this option until the next double blood ghost moon appears in the night sky. Is there a way to make the book thread readers aware of this one neat and free trick to lose weight, make yourself infinitely appealing to your secret crushes as well as wolverines, and be placed on the FBI watch list at absolutely no cost?

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Earlier this week I finished Agatha Christie's Murder in Retrospect, aka Five Little Pigs. A Poirot story, it features solid plotting and surprises, good analysis by Hercule, and much better characterization of the people involved than I expected. I'm beginning to think that Christie deserves the reputation she has as a mystery writer, and that she deserves better regarding her portraits of people.
I've picked up Curtain Up, an examination of Christie's work in the theatre, and a couple more of her own works.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (omVj0)

Comment: Agatha Christie is definitely on my bucket list of authors I need to read. I picked up a collection of her Hercule Poirot short stories some time ago at a library book sale, but it's just been sitting on my shelf. However, I am thinking of reading many more short stories as part of my reading goal for 2025, so I shall have to move this book up the list...

+++++

Is it possible to hate-read a book? Yes, yes it is. I started to dislike this book within the first five pages, then turned to strong dislike, followed by disgust and then even self-loathing. By the end I kept reading as punishment for buying the damn thing.
So, I just finished up 'the book of elsewhere' by Keanu Reeves and China Mieville. I confess to buying it because I love Keanu, even though I have read Mieville in the past and loathed his work.

I am extremely sorry to say that Keanu did not improve the book. Imagine ChatGPT swallowed the thesaurus and then got the prompt to 'make a hyper-pretentious novel about death and immortality and a tusked pig that will not die, with a wide cast of characters that are pretty indistinguishable, with stream-of-consciousness intellectualoid writing. And make it lame'.

That would have been a step up from this drek. Aaagh.

Posted by: Candidus at November 24, 2024 09:21 AM (zGvse)

Comment: Consider this an ANTI-recommendation. These can often be useful as well, since it's nice to know what books to AVOID at all costs. In fact, I often read 1- and 2-star reviews of books just for that reason as I want to know if there are legitimate gripes against a book that is otherwise highly regarded.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

With the exception of the first book below, all of the remaining books were scavenged from the library book sale I went to right before Thanksgiving Week. It's tough trying to plough through my TBR pile sometimes...

The Last King of Osten Ard Book 4 - The Navigator's Children by Tad Williams

I finally finished Tad Williams' most recent epic fantasy series and I suppose it was well worth the wait. He gives his characters a fond farewell at the end of this story, while also leaving open a couple of threads in case he ever wants to revisit the world of Osten Ard in the future. The main climax of the action happens around page 437 of this 700-page book. The remaining 263 pages are simply the characters coming to grips with the aftermath. There is also a "scouring of the Shire" sequence afterwards as Williams resolves one of the remaining plot threads. Overall, it's a good series and well worth reading if you enjoy Tad Williams' style of epic fantasy. (I did like Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn a bit better, though.)

The Select by F. Paul Wilson

This medical thriller is quite interesting from a political standpoint. Published in 1994, Wilson clearly criticizes the state of the medical industry back in those days, but reserves his harshest criticisms for those who favored "Hillarycare," which evolved into "Obamacare" in 2010. He's not a fan of tiered medical care that plays favorites among demographic groups (e.g., race, class, or those that are deemed "useful" to society). There are definitely shades of the WEF hinted at throughout the story, though I don't know if the WEF was even a thing back in 1994. I'm sure the foundations were there, though.

Demon Seed by Dean Koontz

One thing I like about Koontz's novels is that he explores different storytelling techniques. In Demon Seed, he plays around with the idea of an unreliable narrator which just happens to be an artificial intelligence that escaped its confines and now seeks to recreate itself in "human" form (for a loose definition of "human") by implanting its consciousness in a bio-engineered organism. It's also fixated on a woman in whom it believes it has fallen in love. Though it's actually quite psychotic and possessive, much like the man who created it. We can also see some shades of the later Frankenstein series of novels written by Koontz, which have similar themes.

Star Wars - Han Solo at Stars' End by Brian Daley

This is one of the earliest entries in the series of Star Wars tie-in novels that would eventually become known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Han Solo is recruited to find an old friend who has gone missing. In the early days, Solo was a mercenary and smuggler and he still has a bit of an edge to him in this story. He's not completely heartless, but he readily admits he prefers to shoot first whenever he can. It's a standard adventure story set in space, hearkening back to the pulp science fiction stories of yesteryear.

Midnight by Dean Koontz

In the small town of Moonlight Cove, California, people are changing. They are being "converted" from Old Human to New Human. Naturally, the story begins when the antagonist's dream for creating his own race of superhumans starts to fall apart. Dean Koontz seems to find transhumanism fascinating because he has written several stories that involve a mad scientist (or mad AI--see Demon Seed above) determined to elevate humanity to its next level of evolution. Often through horrific experimentation with questionable results.

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston

An atom smasher designed to probe the conditions that existed at very beginning of the cosmos, the Large Hadron Collider is the largest, most powerful machine ever built by man in the the real world. In the fictional world of Blasphemy, "Isabella" is an atom smasher nearly twice as powerful as the LHC. It tears a hole in the universe and makes contact with an entity on the other side...It must answer the ultimate question: "What does God need with a starship?"

Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas and his even odder companion Annamaria find themselves guests at a fancy estate. For what reason, they don't know, other than Annamaria's certainty that she needs to be there and Odd needs to help the spirits that haunt the place.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 11-24-2024 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Many Morons and Moronettes contributed, though, for which Huggy Squirrel is eternally grateful.

Close it up

Posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM Comments

Daily Tech News 3 December 2024

—Pixy Misa

Monday Overnight Open Thread (12/2/24) - Doof

—Open Blogger

A Case of the Mondays Cafe

—Ace

Congressional Report: "Scientists" At Heart of Creating Covid-19 In Wuhan Decieved Congress, May Face Prosecution

—Ace

Quick Hits

—Ace

Leftwing UK PM Keir Starmer: Damn These Conservatives For Unleashing This Dangerous Uncontrolled Mass Immigration On Us!

—Ace

Trump Nominates Revealer of the Russiagate Psyop Kash Patel to be New Director of the FBI

—Ace

Dave Reaboi: Why Did the Left Tell Antifa To Stand Down After Trump's Victory?

—Ace

"Showbiz Source:" George Clooney "Fuming" That Barack Obama "Manipulated" Him Into Calling for Biden's Ouster So That Our First Homosexual President Could Keep His Hands Clean

—Ace

Demented Liar Joe Biden Pardons His Spree Criminal Son After Years of Vowing He Would Never Do So Because He Trusts the Judiciary and Wants to Uphold Norms

—Ace

THE MORNING RANT – Periodic Roundup of the EV Follies [12/02/2024]

—Buck Throckmorton

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

The Morning Report — 12/2/24

—J.J. Sefton

Daily Tech News 2 December 2024

—Pixy Misa

Sunday Overnight Open Thread (12/1/24) - Doof

—Open Blogger

Gun Thread: El Firsto of Decembero (The First December) Edition!

—Weasel

FOOD THREAD – Sunday 12/01/2024

—Buck Throckmorton

First-World Problems...

—CBD

The NCAA And Its Conferences Have Been Co-opted By Transgender Inc.Leave The Heavy Lifting To The Women!

—CBD

Sunday Morning Book Thread - 12-01-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

—Open Blogger

The NCAA And Its Conferences Have Been Co-opted By Transgender Inc.
Leave The Heavy Lifting To The Women!