westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
"The mayor has explained over and over again, and under oath, he always intended to and always lived in North Miami Beach. We look forward to a speedy exoneration."Attorney, Michael Pizzi
Quote II
“It’s just a mess here,”
“We have in Chicago $160 million that was spent for the migrants with no records, no plan. And now we’re fixing to spend $51 million that was passed at city council with no record, no plan for 500 migrants for 30 days. That’s unheard of.” Chicago resident Andre Smith
A man strode up to a panel of OB/GYNs at a medical conference in Baltimore and abruptly slapped the speaker on stage — twice — while claiming the Long Island-based physician had sexually assaulted his wife, according to a video of the incident.
A woman who appeared to be the man’s wife calmly stood nearby during her husband’s nearly two-minute long, profane diatribe from the stage.
She was by his side as the pair later left the ballroom, footage shows.
Video of the scene at the May 23 conference went viral after an anonymous user put it on Twitter Friday.
In the clip, the man can be seen stepping up onto the stage, grabbing the stunned doctor’s shirt collar, and appears to push him back a step or two.
LGBTQ ideology is the new racism. The Dallas City Council reportedly decided to make job “termination” one of the punishments for city employees who don’t use a person’s “preferred pronouns.” Apparently disconnect from reality is a job qualification now.
Richard Ostfeld gets a burning, itchy welt after a tick bite but has never gotten sick from one.
Research suggests histamine in the blood kills the ticks long before they can infect him.
He has acquired tick resistance, which may help guide research and development of a tick vaccine.
We went from winter to full blown summer without spring. And the insects are brutal this year.
Frequent marijuana users tend to be leaner and less likely to develop diabetes. But the pseudo-health benefits come at a price, experts say
The stereotypical cannabis connoisseur perpetually has the munchies but is, paradoxically, perplexingly thin.
Now researchers at the University of California, Irvine, think they know why—and no, pot consumption isn’t the secret to a svelte figure.
Not a healthy one, anyway.
Frequent cannabis consumers are leaner and less likely to develop type two diabetes. But the pseudo-health benefit comes at a price, researchers assert in a June 2 article published in Cell Metabolism
All of this is to say that Bernie is right to call for fewer work hours. But why stop at 32 hours? We ought to start the conversation at 24 hours or even less. And the justification for fewer hours needs to go beyond what Bernie said about productivity. In other words, it’s not just that we have “earned” the right to work less because of how much more productive workers are now than in the past. We deserve the right to work less because the purpose of our lives as humans is not to toil for the benefit of the wealthy, or to toil to earn worthiness, or even to raise the GDP. We deserve to work less because we deserve to have more time to enjoy our lives.3 We don’t have to keep holding on to the bootstraps mentality or embrace the idea that we are a meritocracy—especially when social mobility has decreased, the rich tend to get richer, and the rest of us just keep working more.
‘Malicious and vindictive’: Woman says HOA towed late husband’s cars as she planned funeral
Dori Cousley says others treated differently, however
PLANTATION, Fla. – A South Florida woman is accusing her homeowner’s association of towing away her late husband’s cars while she dealt with his sudden death and planned his funeral.
Dori Cousley’s 59-year-old husband Richard died of a sudden heart attack.
“I was planning a funeral, planning a viewing, getting my sister-in-law here from Jamaica,” she said. “The other sister lives out of South Florida.”
A team comprised of U.S. women's soccer legends and some of the best female players in the world lost with an astounding 12-0 score to Wrexham AFC, a team from Wales made up of current, former, and guest players.
CBS Sports reported on the game featured in "The Tournament," a 7-on-7 soccer competition with a $1 million prize to the tournament winner.
Megan Rapinoe couldn't be reached as she had a dildo in her mouth.
***
The ONT Musical Interlude & Pork Belly Emporium
On this day: 5 Jun 2002
Dee Dee Ramone, (Douglas Glenn Colvin), bass guitarist with the Ramones died at his Hollywood, California apartment of a heroin overdose aged 49. He was the group's primary songwriter, penning songs such as 'Rockaway Beach', '53rd & 3rd', and 'Poison Heart'. Via thisdayinmusic.com
&&&
On this day: 5 Jun 1993
Country singer Conway Twitty died from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He had the 1958 US & UK No.1 single 'It's Only Make Believe'. Until 2000, he held the record for the most Number One singles of any country act, with 45 No.1's. He lived in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just north of Nashville, where he built a country music entertainment complex called Twitty City. via thisdayinmusic.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - A law enforcement investigation in Davidson County into drugs in the county led to a Baptist church on Sunday, deputies said.
Deputies from the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office arrived at South Side Baptist Church in Lexington after receiving reports that a man staying at the church was manufacturing marijuana, a news release stated.
“I really hope they burn in Hell,” one neighbor said. “I’m a Christian; that is so so wrong. It’s wrong. It’s wrong anywhere but especially in God’s house.”
***
Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day, video style..........
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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Determination.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire & AceCorp, LLC. The ONT is produced in the USA in a facility that uses everything that is offensive to snowflakes.
What happens to an electric fence when it's hit by lightning? Same thing that happens to everything else. Boy, that line stinks on a blog just the same way it stinks in an X-Men movie.
Here's the FBI's new spin: If we present the document alleging Biden conspired with foreign actors in a $5 million+ bribery scheme, the person who brought this information forward may be killed.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna
@RepLuna
Just left meeting for House Oversight. The @FBI is afraid their informant will be killed if unmasked, based on the info he has brought forward about the Biden family.
Is that also the reason they buried the information and never pursued it? How convenient.
Apparently Major League Baseball posted the obligatory "pride" message with rainbow logo on June 1, but then reverted to their normal trade dress.
Great:
Alliance Defending Freedom
@ADFLegal
CASE FILED: We've sued the Biden admin and CA officials for unlawfully pulling federal food funds from a church preschool, due to the school's beliefs on sexuality.
The school feeds many low-income & immigrant children. Hungry kids should matter more than a political agenda.
"The government is withholding food from families in need simply because their children attend a Christian preschool. This violates the U.S. Constitution and multiple federal laws that protect Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith." - ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus
My skepticism here is due to wondering why this secret is only being let out by someone in Foxx's circle, and how it's been kept a secret at all.
Jamie Foxx suffered a blood clot in his brain leaving him partially paralyzed and blind, it has been sensationally claimed.
In a dramatic turn of events surrounding the megastar's mysterious illness, veteran Hollywood journalist A.J. Benza revealed that a supposed well-placed source told him Foxx, 55, suffered the serious medical episode after being pressured into getting a COVID vaccine.
"Jamie had a blood clot in his brain after he got the shot. He did not want the shot, but the movie he was on, he was pressured to get it," said the podcaster, a former New York Daily News columnist and host of the E! series "Mysteries and Scandals," 11 minutes and 40 seconds into his interview on the Ask Dr. Drew podcast.
"The blood clot in the brain caused him at that point to be partially paralyzed and blind."
Benza insisted his source is "someone in the room" connected to Foxx's treatment.
He probably made this decision to boost the chances of the other liberal/"moderate" Republicans running, like big fat slob Chris Christie, who may announce on Thursday. The liberals don't want to divide the liberal/NeverTrump vote too much, or that makes it easier for Trump (or DeSantis) to win.
Haley: Here you have DeSantis who accepted $50,000 in political contributions from Disney. But because they went and criticized him, now he's going to spend taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit pic.twitter.com/YuD2E96jDj
A lot of Corporate "Cons" in the party really don't like DeSantis taking on one of their corporate frenz.
I'm sorry, what? Does she think that Florida pushing back on Disney is about criticism of DeSantis? Because that's absolutely not what the controversy is about. Disney pledged to fight and overturn a then-proposed law that protected children from sexualization in schools.
We already know that Haley supports Disney in that fight, as she made a laughable call for them to move to South Carolina recently. But for her to continue this ridiculous, false line of attack that DeSantis is just being thin-skinned is a bridge too far. Republicans who don't know what time it is have zero justification to be the Republican nominee.
Further, have none of Haley's consultants told her that this line about Disney donating to DeSantis is self-defeating? She's essentially announcing that if donors give her money, she'll do whatever they want. How is that a good thing? The fact that DeSantis told Disney to pound sand despite past contributions is the kind of fortitude the GOP needs. Spinning that as a negative is ridiculous and shows Haley remains unready for primetime.
She's continuing to take the position that Trump does, that the fight with Disney is "SO UNNECESSARY."
Sure, let's duck all the fights that must be fought.
Indian Tracey Flick also embarrassed herself with her evasiveness and general dopery.
I just don't get it. I've long been a proponent of starving the mainstream media of ratings, but instead, most Republicans simply refuse to learn the lesson and keep going on these biased shows that only exist to tear them down.
What is being gained by giving Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg credibility? Who is the person who watched The View and is even persuadable at this point? And whose mind was changed because the ladies on set got to make fun of Scott, talk over him, and produce viral clips that will now be used to further tear him and other Republicans down?
That's the point for those that might disagree with my critique. It's not that Scott didn't have some good answers on the show. It's that almost no one is going to see them. What they'll see is the audience booing Scott and him looking befuddled while they try to cut him off with a commercial break.
"Family Friendly" is the new "Fiery but Mostly Peaceful:"
This is what companies like Target and Budweiser support
This is what the US Government wants for your kids
Not some moderate version of this, there is no moderate version of this
MORE CORPORATE INSANITY: Two Lululemon @lululemon employees fired for calling the police on looters in an Atlanta, Georgia location pic.twitter.com/Hw781OgUHT
The individual behind the information that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national is a "highly credible" FBI confidential human source who has been used by the bureau in multiple investigative matters dating back to the Obama administration, Fox News Digital has learned.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley were approached by a whistleblower alleging that the FBI was in possession of a document -- an FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020 -- which explicitly detailed information provided by a confidential human source alleging Biden, while serving as vice president, was involved in a $5 million criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national in exchange for influence over policy decisions.
A source familiar told Fox News Digital on Friday that the confidential human source who provided the Biden information to the FBI was a "pre-existing" FBI source who has been used in multiple investigative matters separate from the Biden information.
President Joe Biden
The source told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source was used by the FBI for "at least several years" before the generation of the June 2020 FD-1023 form detailing the Biden allegations.
The source also told Fox News Digital that the confidential human source has been "consistently reviewed by the FBI" and has been "found to be highly credible."
The source said the individual participated in investigative matters during the Obama administration.
The FBI did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
From Margot Cleveland at the Federalist: Grassley says that he's less interested in the actual document than in the FBI's corrupt burial of it.
Why did the FBI launch a full investigation into the Pee Pee Dossier, and yet bury this one about Biden?
The confidential human source (CHS) behind the detailed allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden agreed to accept money from a foreign national to affect policy decisions was reportedly "highly credible" and used by the FBI in multiple criminal investigations dating back to the Obama administration. Friday's exclusive by Fox News provides further insight into Sen. Chuck Grassley's focus on the FBI -- as opposed to the Biden family -- as the primary scandal in play.
"We aren't interested in whether or not the accusations against [then]-Vice President Biden are accurate," Grassley said during an interview last week discussing FBI Director Christopher Wray's refusal to comply with the congressional subpoena issued for the FD-1023 form. That form, dated June 30, 2020, included detailed information from a CHS to the FBI regarding an agreement by now-President Biden to deliver preferred foreign policy positions for a $5 million payment.
Um, I'd like you to be a little interested in that.
Now, for full context, Congress does not have the full power to investigate crimes. They can only investigate crimes if doing so furthers a legislative goal, or their oversight power over certain executive agencies.
So he may be anticipating the Criminal Wray's next line of bullsh!t that he can't turn over the document because Congress just doesn't have the investigatory right to see it. He's establishing that Congress certainly has oversight power over the FBI.
After Grassley revealed he had already seen the FD-1023, Fox News' Bill Hemmer queried: "How damning is this document to the sitting U.S. president?"
"I don't know," responded Grassley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He stressed that while "there's accusations" in the FBI report, the congressional oversight committees' concern is whether "the FBI does its job." "That's what we want to know," he continued.
Friday's revelation that the CHS was "highly credible" and had served as a source in multiple prior criminal investigations -- including ones run under the Obama-Biden administration -- proves Grassley is properly focused on the FBI.
Yes, the CHS's allegations offer more evidence of a Biden family pay-to-play scandal, and unraveling any criminal conduct by the Biden family remains important. But more significant to the future of our country is uncovering government actors responsible for violating the rule of law: America can survive select injustices, but it cannot withstand a corrupt bureaucracy that obstructs justice and interferes in elections.
Yet that is precisely what occurred, according to the whistleblower. He claimed that "in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters' team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease." The whistleblower further alleged that the FBI HQ team that handled the Auten assessment, after concluding the reporting was disinformation, placed the information in a restricted access sub-file that only the particular agents who uncovered the CHS's information could access.
Now knowing the CHS behind the FD-1023 was not just "trusted," as Grassley had previously indicated, but "highly credible," and relied upon in multiple criminal cases dating back to the last time Biden worked for the executive branch, makes the whistleblower's accusations even more damning because those additional facts mean the agents had reason to believe the buried accusations were true.
Not only does this evidence suggest FBI headquarters obstructed justice, but the date of the CHS's report indicates those responsible for misbranding the intel as disinformation sought to interfere in the 2020 election.
NARA -- the records-keeping bureaucrats who worked hard to get the FBI to raid Trump's home over alleged classified papers -- is refusing to turn over emails between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's staff, despite being demanded via a proper Congressional subpoena.
I guess these firebreathing leftwinger pencil-necks get to decide what's secret.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) refuses to hand over requested communications between Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden's staff.
Just The News reports that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by America First Legal (AFL) has been rejected by NARA, which is claiming an exemption that allegedly includes communications between the president and his advisors, as well as communications between advisors.
On Wednesday, AFL released the emails that it had received from NARA, which were heavily-redacted. Despite handing over some emails, NARA confirmed the existence of additional communications that it refused to release.
One of the points of interest in AFL's request is an email from Hunter Biden's business partner at the time, Eric Schwerin, sent to the Office of the Vice President (OVP), concerning an alleged "China Lunch" that took place ahead of an official visit from Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2011. NARA claimed that releasing this particular email "would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors."
Emails found on the controversial laptop that once belonged to Hunter Biden had already confirmed a "China Lunch," as this was the subject line of multiple emails that were exchanged between the younger Biden, Schwerin, and OVP staffer Michele Smith. The laptop communications suggested that the conversation between Hunter and Schwerin focused on who should be invited to a state event with then-Vice President Biden, with Schwerin subsequently giving Hunter's suggestions to Smith.
NARA's refusal comes as congressional Republicans have used their new majority in the House of Representatives to investigate the Biden family over allegations of corruption, influence-peddling, and abuse of power both during his vice presidency and since he took office as president in 2021.
Hunter Biden's lawyers -- who's paying for them, by the way? -- are using a court decision which Joe Biden has attacked as an argument for why he shouldn't be prosecuted for lying on his federal gun forms.
A landmark Second Amendment Supreme Court ruling that President Joe Biden called "an affront to common sense and the Constitution" has become an element in his son's legal defense, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
After the Supreme Court struck down New York state's concealed carry law in its June 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen ruling, the president said he was "deeply disappointed" and vowed to" protect Americans from gun violence." Yet his son's lawyers cited the same decision in an effort to persuade Justice Department prosecutors that a prosecution against him for one allegation--lying on a federal firearms application--would be found to be moot, two people briefed on the matter told The New York Times.
Hunter Biden's lawyers point to pending appeals court cases that use the Bruen decision to challenge aspects of the federal firearms background check system, the NYT reported.
Meanwhile, the entire Hunter Biden laptop -- minus genitals and credit card numbers -- is being posted online.
He says that Hallie Biden -- Beau's widow, who had an affair with Hunter, and possibly began that affair before Beau died -- herself was a crack addict for years.
What a shock: Wray didn't hand over the document accusing Biden of running a bribery operation.
🚨 BREAKING: "The FBI again refused to hand over the unclassified record to the custody of the House Oversight Committee and we will now initiate contempt of Congress hearings this Thursday," says Chairman @JamesComer. pic.twitter.com/EHlsz7ZzpI
I know we talked about the likelihoodThe Little Mermaid would flop on Friday, but we now have its second weekend box office. It dropped 58% from its first weekend to its second. That's pretty high. Not as bad as some of the worst-performing Marvel films, but high. And that second weekend drop kills any hopes that the Little Mermaid would keep generating millions every week consistently. In other words -- everyone has to do these dumb puns, it's the law-- The Little Mermaid doesn't "have legs."
Box office analyst and YouTuber OMB Reviews shared his analysis of the box office receipts for this past Memorial Day weekend and predicted that The Walt Disney Company's latest release, The Little Mermaid, "will end up being a box office flop."
In a recent video upload, the analyst began, "We're going to talk about The Little Mermaid, how it's doing okay domestically, but internationally, oh boy, this movie is in a ton of trouble. Seeing that it has had a simultaneous release in all of the major markets overseas with the one exception being Japan. However, if we are looking at the other markets in the East right now, it's not looking good at all for the prospects of this movie's international numbers. And the domestic really aren't that much better to be able to say it'll make up for any of its losses there."
He then asserted, "So what am I saying? I think there's a good chance that we'll see The Little Mermaid end up being a box office flop. And let's just say it couldn't happen to a nicer company."
Woke shill Grace Randolf admits the film won't make more than around $5-600 million, which isn't break-even considering its cost.
And also considering the fact that ticket sales are split between the studio and the actual theaters showing the film, which liberals always, always forget, or pretend to forget, when they're claiming the latest woke bomb isn't a bomb at all.
Disney booster and woke-ism champion Rudolph worries the movie will actually wind up making $400 million or so, which is a "disaster," she says.
On Midnight's Edge, they talked about liberal movie "journalists" trying to contrive some way for this movie to not lose money. One talked up the money it would get in television rights -- except that Disney no longer makes money by selling television rights. All of its properties turn into Disney Minus exclusives. To pump up Disney Minus and give people a reason to subscribe, they've chopped off one of the big secondary markets for movies, television.
They pointed out that there will be an internal payment of money from Disney Minus to the Disney movie studio to pay for the TV rights, around $75 million. But this is just a paper transaction moving money from one Disney account to another Disney account. That doesn't bring any actual money into Die Maus.
Relatedly, the leftwing shill media for years and years has been insanely protective of all woke movies, but especially woke Disney movies, routinely running Disney propaganda that the only people who don't like The Last Jedi,Lightyear, or The Little Mermaid are woman-haters and homophbes and racists. "Ists and phobes," as the shorthand has it.
But now Disney has scored so many bombs in a row that even "journalists" are actually starting to notice what the public noticed five years ago.
'The Force has left Lucasfilm': What has gone wrong for the studio behind 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones'--and how Disney's Bob Iger can salvage his $4 billion investment
by Christiaan Hetzner
Taking time out of his busy schedule running Disney, Bob Iger flew to the Cannes film festival in support of Harrison Ford's latest movie, even posting on social media snapshots of the aging action hero on the red carpet.
Lucasfilm Ltd. had just premiered the fifth installment in its Indiana Jones franchise and a lot is riding on the fedora-sporting, bullwhip-toting archeologist portrayed by the now 80-year-old Hollywood star. At nearly $300 million, Dial of Destiny is one of the most expensive films ever made and initial reviews suggest it could bomb big at the box office when it lands on June 30.
When Iger acquired Lucasfilm for just over $4 billion a decade ago, it paired the century-old animation company with the studio behind Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yet the match made in heaven now risks becoming an albatross around Disney's neck.
The third Skywalker trilogy started off with a bang in late 2015 with The Force Awakens, only to end with a whimper four years later as fans deserted the franchise. The studio hadn't produced a theatrical release of any kind since, allowing the Marvel Cinematic Universe--despite recent setbacks--to supplant it as Disney's cash cow.
"The Force has left Lucasfilms," said Eric Schiffer, CEO of private equity firm Patriarch Organization, in an interview. "That emotional connection it enjoyed with fans has been damaged."
The Los Angeles-based media industry investor and self-admitted Star Wars fan still counts the deal a success for Iger, but he believes it got lost producing too much subpar content for Disney.
...
Now that growth has faltered, with 4 million customers canceling their membership in the three months through March, and Wall Street is pushing Iger to end the scattergun approach of showering creators with money for new content. Instead, investors want him to end the over $10 billion in cumulative streaming losses since the launch of Disney+ three and a half years ago.
The Dial of Destiny will have to make $800 million just to break even. And that's assuming that Disney has been honest about the budget, which they almost certainly have not been. Disney is widely suspected of hiding their movies' costs, recording them as costs for other divisions, in order to hide just how poorly they've been doing under Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy's destructive leadership.
Film critic Pete Hammond recounted Iger's reaction when informed Deadline just published a rave review of the fifth Indiana Jones movie: "You could see the absolute relief on his face. 'You have made me very happy to hear that,' he told me, and he meant it.".
That's probably because first impressions have otherwise been dreadful, with a franchise-low 50% score on Rotten Tomatoes as of writing. Vanity Fair proclaimed it "not worthy of the whip", while the BBC felt Ford's globe-trotting adventurer had been relegated to a background figure in his own film, included mainly for the purpose of being upstaged by younger co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
"I'm not sure how many fans want to see Indiana Jones as a broken, helpless old man who cowers in the corner while his patronizing goddaughter takes the lead, but that's what we're given, and it's as bleak as it sounds," the BBC wrote, branding it a "gloomy and depressing" final act.
With Disney needing to shell out $9 billion at least to buy Comcast out of Hulu as early as next year, the last thing Iger needs is bad word of mouth building over the next four weeks to asphyxiate any hopes of blockbuster success.
Right now, though, grim news is all that Lucasfilm has to offer the Disney CEO. An attempt to expand on the lore of its 1988 fantasy tale Willow flopped hard when the series debuted on Disney+ in November.
Not only was it canceled after the first of three seasons, but the show was banished entirely from the platform as part of a thorough spring cleaning. Critics argued Willow in retrospect would have been more valuable to Disney as a tax write-off than as actual content for subscribers.
At the heart of this mess is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy....
Antagonized by the perceived shabby treatment of their childhood heroes, fewer and fewer fans showed up from one movie to the next. The third and final installment, Rise of Skywalker, only took in half of the $2 billion that premiere film The Force Awakens made for Disney.
It's perhaps no wonder that the company's $5,000-per-package Star Wars-themed hotel, the "Galactic Starcruiser", is shutting down. The tactical mistake of placing it in the timeline of the Disney sequel trilogy doomed it to a lifespan of just 18 months after opening.
I know that you know all this. Sorry about telling you a bunch of stuff you already knew.
But the news here is that the alleged "news media" has begun to piece this non-scoop together.
BTW, I had written earlier that Disney wants to buy Comcast out of their shared ownership of Hulu. This article says that Disney is required to do so -- and they need to come up with $9 billion (or more) in cash to do that.
Yes, the Hulu deal is a requirement... and Disney is panicking, so they are trying to devalue Hulu as much as possible over the next 12 months and negotiate an out...
Posted by: Nova Local
Oh, LOL. If that's true we should all sign up for Hulu!!!! Then cancel after Disney is forced to pay out $9 billion.
(But I don't know if it's true.)
Note that Nova made a mistake (which he pointed out) about how much this will cost Disney. Hulu is worth somewhere around $28 billion, and Comcast's one-third share is worth a bit over $9 billion.
I don't know if a Mass Subscription Effort -- the opposite of a boycott -- would jack up the value of Hulu and hurt Disney. I hope a geek media channel looks into this and gets us an answer.
More from Nova Local:
"Disney is the majority owner of Hulu, holding a two-thirds stake, while Comcast owns a third. Starting in January 2024, Comcast can use a put option to require Disney to take over its stake, while Disney can tell Comcast to sell it its stake. A transaction would be a multibillion-dollar affair. As per an agreement between the two companies, Hulu would get a fair-market value assessment from independent experts. However, the guaranteed minimum Hulu valuation of $27.5 billion means that Disney would have to cough up at least around $9 billion."
Hollywood Reporter on the exact current terms. Link
FOIA'd Texts Reveal that Rochelle Wallensky and AFT Union Leader Randi Weingartner Conspired to Change the Criteria for Re-Opening Schools, To Keep Them Closed Longer
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten voiced concern to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky about the language of the federal agency's February 2021 school opening guidance a day before it was made public, according to newly reported texts that shed light on their friendly relationship.
The text messages showing the chummy exchange between Weingarten and Walensky were obtained by the Fairfax County Parents Association through a Freedom of Information Act request with the CDC.
The text chains seem to show Walensky caving to pressure applied by Weingarten to keep schools shuttered in February 2021 and then thanking Weingarten, whom she refers to as her "friend," after the union released a statement praising the health agency.
On Feb. 11, 2021, a day before the CDC issued guidance that put the brakes on full, in-person instruction in schools, text messages show Weingarten informed Walensky that she had learned of language in the incoming guidance that seemed "at odds" with something they had previously discussed.
...
The powerful union boss then sends Walensky language that she claims "was leaked by someone in agency" to the news outlet that reads, in part, "all schools can provide in-person instruction (either full or hybrid), through strict adherence to mitigation strategies."
The following day, when the CDC released its operation guidance for schools, the phrase "all schools can provide in-person instruction" was modified to "all schools have options to provide in-person instruction."
Weingarten then texts Walensky a link to the AFT's press release on the guidance which includes her glowing statement about the CDC.
CORONADO NATIONAL FOREST, Ariz. -- As blazing sunlight ebbs to a star-studded sky along the U.S.-Mexico border, members of the Arizona Border Recon group peer through field glasses at a trio of men on the southern side in camouflage fatigues and carrying pistols and AK-47s.
The men, almost certainly members of Sinaloa cartel factions, are using their own binoculars to scan random gaps in a roughly 30-foot-high wall of thick metal bars that stretches for miles along a flatland carved by arroyos and dotted with rocks, saguaro cactus and high grasses. At times, a solo gunshot echoes on the Mexican side, a sound the AZBR knows from experience is a signal to people to start moving north.
There are chiefly two types of people AZBR teams have encountered filtering into the United States. Some of them carry packs filled with canned food, cookies and blankets. But others trek lugging much larger packs and no such rations or equipment -- indications their cargo is a more illicit sort.
The AZBR is a private group with no authority to arrest the mules, but for years its members have run patrols and cameras along the hundreds of trails and washes that web an area the group has dubbed Baby's Head Gap. It is so named for a Mexican doll's head atop a spike in the desert, an apparent warning to anyone wanting to cross that passage is done only with the cartel's permission.
The uneven landscape, with ravine ridges marked by trees and bushes running along the top, offers low visibility for Sinaloa cartel agents carrying fentanyl, as well as for AZBR teams out on days-long operations during which they share intelligence and photos with U.S. officials.
The presence of U.S. authorities in this open, gashed wasteland is light; on a recent operation AZBR members saw an occasional Blackhawk helicopter dart across the sky, but there were no foot patrols. At least in the area they patrol, AZBR leaders agree with former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who told a House committee on May 23 that Mexican drug cartels "control everything that crosses that Southwest border," including "illegal migrant crossings" that "create gaps in border security."
Because they have no law enforcement power and carry weapons only for self-defense, AZBR members are more witnesses to the disintegrating border than a force of deterrence.
The private group was founded in 2011 by Tim Foley, 64, a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper and recovering addict whose endless gulping of cans of Red Bull and chain-smoking of American Spirit cigarettes put a modern twist on Spartan habits.
"I live almost solely on caffeine, nicotine and an occasional Pop-Tart," he said.
Samesies!
Foley knows cartel members control the Mexican land he watches because in January 2022, he says, they contacted him, via a phone call from a federale, a Mexican state police officer. The caller initially offered to furnish AZBR with "any gear or weapons, gifts," which would mean "you wouldn't be our enemy then." Foley declined and two weeks later the man called again, this time offering $15,000 a month if AZBR would cease operating.
Again, Foley said, he declined, at which point the federale sighed and told him that, in that case, the cartel was going to raise the price on his head from $100,000 to $250,000, a rich bounty that luckily no one has collected.
Those who "fortified" our election have invited death and chaos into our homes.
MS-13 Gang Members, Released into U.S. by Feds, Among Illegal Aliens Charged with 15-Year-Old Boys Murder
MS-13 gang members, released into the United States by federal officials, are among five illegal aliens charged with murdering a 15-year-old boy in Frederick County, Maryland.
As Breitbart News reported this week, 21-year-old illegal alien Alexis Alfredo Ayala Lopez, 23-year-old illegal alien Jose Roberto Ramos Lopez, 29-year-old illegal alien Ismael Lopez Lopez, 27-year-old illegal alien Elmer Bladimir Reyes Reyes, and 20-year-old illegal alien Ismael Ivan Rivera Canales have been arrested and charged with murdering Limber Lopez Funez, who went missing in February before his remains were found in Gambrill State Park in April.
Investment firms like BlackRock and Vanguard are 'forcing' companies like Bud Light and Target into woke marketing campaigns, claims ex-Anheuser-Busch exec
Anson Frericks accused institutional investors of pushing ideology on firms
Pointed the finger at BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard
A former Anheuser-Busch executive has claimed that institutional investors are pushing left-wing ideology on the companies they invest in, spurring recent controversies like the ones that engulfed Bud Light and Target.
Anson Frericks, a co-founder of Strive Asset Management who previously spent a decade at Anheuser-Busch, made the claim in an interview on Tuesday on Fox News.
'You just have to follow the money. Take a look at BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard -- they manage $20 billion worth of capital,' he said.
Frericks said a lot of the money managed by institutional investors comes from big pension funds like those of the state of California, which put ideological pressure on the money managers.
According to Frericks' LinkedIn profile, he left Anheuser-Busch in April 2022.
Asked if he left the company because he witnessed pressure from institutional investors, Frericks demurred, saying: 'Not necessarily because of Anheuser-Busch, but a lot of other companies.'
In fact, institutional investors own only 5.29 percent of the outstanding shares of the brewer's Belgium-based parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev, according to NASDAQ data.
That may be, but Midnight's Edge has pointed out that woke banks also impose ESG requirements on corporations for the revolving lines of credit necessary to make payroll.
Their Memorial Day sales were down... 60%. Salesmen are making little money as they just can't sell Tranheuser's product, and may start quitting the company en masse to work for someone who respects their customer base.
Bud Light boycott is costing sales staff up to $2,000-a-month as sales tanked as much as 60% over the Memorial Day weekend - amid fears 'good people are going to start leaving brand because they aren't making money'
Salespeople working for independent wholesalers that distribute Anheuser-Busch products are feeling the pain of the ongoing boycott in their wallets
Some say they have lost commission because of the drop in sales because of the boycott tied to the partnership with trans Dylan Mulvaney
Parent company Anheuser-Busch has lost $27billion in value since the boycott began
Salespeople working for independent wholesalers that sell Anheuser-Busch beverages are feeling the pain in their wallets of the ongoing boycott of Bud Light following its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
...
Incomes have been slashed for the salespeople who work at the roughly 500 independent wholesalers that sell Anheuser-Busch products to restaurants, bars, and grocery stores.
Some reported losing $2,000 last month compared to the typical May because of the backlash.
...
Compensation for salespeople varies across distributors and markets, but according to Frericks, a typical salesperson makes around $60,000 per year, including $20,000 in variable pay, which depends largely on commission.
'Good people are going to start leaving because they aren't making money,' he told ABC.
An anonymous supervisor from a Florida-based distributor told the outlet that the average salesperson made about $2,000 less in the month of May than they normally would have over based on figures from the last handful several years.
Numbers are suffering primarily due to a decline in Bud Light sales that reached as high as a 60 percent drop off over the week that ended on Memorial Day.
Bud Light is running out of time and could lose market share FOREVER: Brand will lose retail shelf space to Miller and Coors if they cannot reverse plunging sales, warns ex Anheuser-Bush exec
Anson Frericks says retailers will begin resetting shelf space in September
If Bud Light sales continue to lag, they could lose shelf space, he claimed
In the four weeks through May 20, Bud Light sales dropped 24.3% from last year
If Bud Light sales continue to lag, the brand risks losing shelf space at major retailers to competitors and 'locking in' lower market share, a former Anheuser-Busch executive has claimed.
...
Anson Frericks, the former US president of sales and distribution for St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, said that retailers such as Walmart and Kroger typically 'reset' their shelf space allocations in the spring and fall, based on sales data.
For the fall reset in September, 'they generally take sales data from April, May, June, July, and then based off of that data in that time period, they will reallocate shelf space,' he told DailyMail.com in a phone interview on Saturday.
If Bud Light sales continue to slump, 'that shelf space will be allocated to Miller Lite, Coors Light, Yuengling, and some of the other brands that have that have taken share from them,' he said.
Missouri AG Attorney Bailey: A Judge Is Rejecting Biden's Argument That He Has the Right to Censor People's Speech
—Ace
Heartening!
This is the guy who c***-punted that Soros DA, Kim Gardner, out of St. Louis.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey
@AGAndrewBailey
The federal government had a hard time convincing a judge last week that it hasn't been working with and coercing social media companies to censor free speech.
Some notable moments from the first hearing in our First Amendment case, Missouri v. Biden:
The judge asked the feds if they had ever read George Orwell's 1984, pointing out the similarities between the case and the book.
The Court asked the feds if all the emails between them and social media companies were real because "it seems like there's a lot here." The feds were forced to admit the tens of thousands of pages of evidence are genuine.
The judge questioned the feds on several hypotheticals, asking if the First Amendment applied. He asked if an American citizen questioning the safety or efficacy of masks or a vaccine was protected under the First Amendment.
The feds' answer?
"It COULD be" but often won't be.
It's worth remembering that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was limited by the CDC because of safety concerns. But the feds censored people for expressing concerns about safety.
The judge also asked Biden's lawyers if the First Amendment covered Americans' right to say that Biden is responsible for high gas prices and inflation.
Their answer?
It depends.
The judge also asked them if the First Amendment applied to Americans' right to say that the 2020 election was stolen.
Their answer?
It depends.
I don't know this for a fact, but I imagine they're saying "it depends" because if the ruling Junta decides to brand criticism of them "misinformation," then the federal government is empowered to stamp out all criticism of the ruling junta.
The judge also pointed out that it seemed to be only conservatives who are targeted for their speech, asking the feds if they could provide one example of a liberal who was censored due to "misinformation."
The feds provided only one example of a liberal being censored, and that person is a political opponent of Joe Biden.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Court asked the feds why he should believe them when they say they claim censorship has stopped and won't happen again.
And that is exactly why we are asking the Court for a preliminary injunction to halt this vast censorship enterprise.
The federal government cannot be trusted to protect Americans' rights, which is precisely why our Founders enshrined the First Amendment into the Constitution.
My office is doing everything it can to protect Americans' right to free speech, the very bedrock of our great nation.
THE MORNING RANT: The Satanic Daycare Sex Abuse Panic and the Current Transgender Social Contagion
—Buck Throckmorton
At American Greatness, John Conlin has written an excellent piece about the daycare sexual abuse hysteria three decades ago, and how the destruction of lives in that panic was similar to the abuses of the transgender social contagion that is going on now. It’s a “read every word of it” article.
In the 1980s what now seems like collective insanity hit this country—false reports of satanic sexual abuse of children in daycare. Some called it the Satanic panic. It took almost 20 years for this insanity to be washed out of our collective system.
And it was insane. The following are just some of the claims made during this period: Children were said to have been forced to drink blood, blood-laced Kool-aid, and urine. They also reportedly ate feces and were forced to let animals eat pet food from their vaginas. There were claims they watched people being dismembered with chainsaws. Moreover, rumors of cannibalization and animal mutilation and sacrifice, with body parts used in offerings for Satan were prominent. And of course, there were plenty of stories of watching pornography and sexual abuse of these children.
Daycare abuse cases at that time boasted an 85 percent conviction rate, even as the tales of abuse grew increasingly wild. Any rational person must confess this was a society gone insane.
Those were modern-day witch trials, and those who dared to question the witch hunts were presumed to be guilty too. The media at all levels fanned the flames of “the crisis.”
The transgender mania that confronts us today is no different. One day society will look back at these times and wonder how such insanity could take root and explode across the country. Chemically mutilating children. Surgically mutilating children. Castrating young boys. Cutting the breasts off young girls. Stripping body parts of skin and muscle to “build” fake penises and vaginas. All because they “believe” they were born in the wrong body.
These individuals—the vast majority of whom have never had a single sexual experience—are being mutilated on an altar not that different from the one that dominated the Satanic Panic of years back.
If you didn’t “believe all children” during the Satanic Panic you were denying the scientific expertise of those highly credentialed people who knew best about child psychology.
On the other hand, children who did not readily offer up outlandish tales to counselors were considered terribly scarred. They were not to be believed – not until they were finally coaxed into identifying someone who abused them.
The similarities are abundant. There was a great deal of social pressure on children—and adults—to validate and confirm these tales, regardless of how outlandish they were. And once committed, there was even more social pressure to continue the charade. Turning around and saying “I made it all up” was not an easy thing to do. And thus, most didn’t. They continued the charade to the detriment of themselves and many of those around them.
Something I’ve often thought about during this current mania is that the “experts” now counseling minors on their gender identity are the political-cultural equivalents of the “experts” of 30 years ago who were so successful at getting little children to offer up incredible stories of abuse.
There quickly sprouted an entire industry of therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, entire government agencies, prosecutors, public schools, doctors and hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, parents, and crazed advocates who pushed this insanity. Most of these with a significant personal interest—both professional and financial—in seeing the insanity continue unabated.
Theirs was not an attempt to discover the truth and to identify and help whatever victims there may be but rather to encourage and spread the poison. Their goal was an ever-increasing pile of victims who would only reinforce their burgeoning industry.
There was good money in getting children to believe they were sexually abused by devil worshipers, just like there is good money to be made in convincing children that they are trapped in the wrong body.
The Satanic panic created the “Believe the Children” movement. No matter how insane and improbable the claims—and read that list from above, it was insane—their stories must be believed. This is fully mimicked in the supposed explosion of transgender children. Help them mutilate themselves—with abundant coaching from the industry—or they will commit suicide and the blood will be on your hands.
Even better for the ghouls profiting off the transgender fad, it’s like a subscription service that can never be stopped for their victims. Once those children are mutilated, they’ll need medical upkeep the rest of their lives to keep their bodies functioning.
On the transgender front, these kids are forever cash cows as they will be taking expensive drugs—and probably using mental health services—for the rest of their lives.
Repressed Memory Therapy exploded on the scene not long before the daycare panic, and those social contagions were closely correlated. Persuading impressionable people to create false memories of abuse is little different than persuading a receptive person that s/he has the wrong sexual anatomy.
The Repressed Memory Therapy Movement drove a lot of the Satanic panic. The therapists, in effect, would convince the children these insane things had been done to them—even though prior to the “therapy” they had had no memory of these activities.
The transgender movement is the same. Here the therapists convince temporarily confused kids—and what adolescent isn’t at least a little confused—that they were born in the wrong body but they can change that and become a totally new, wonderful, and special person just by taking massive amounts of hormones and going under the knife.
Back when the daycare panic was subsiding by the mid-90s, and prosecutors started to drop outrageous charges due to lack of any actual evidence, I noticed something odd. Many parents who should have been relieved that there was not satanic sexual abuse happening at their neighborhood daycare were instead outraged that their child wouldn’t be the star victim in a highly publicized trial. The behavior of those parents then is similar to the Munchausen Mommies pushing their children into transgenderism.
I will bet any amount of money that the vast majority of the young children who are discovered to be “transgender” have a mother who has mental health issues. And one who takes great pleasure in the tremendous social accolades that will be bestowed to her.
But society has a duty to protect these children from this life-altering insanity. Unlike the Satanic panic of the ’80s, let’s not wait 20 years before coming to our senses. The time to end this is now.
Pushback has started, and lives will be saved in states that are acting to protect children from the butchery. Texas and Florida are now among the 19 states that have banned child transitions.
There was no accountability for the innocent people who were jailed and had their reputations horribly sullied during the daycare panic. Their prosecutorspersecutors, such as Janet Reno, suffered no personal or political consequence.
There must be accountability for the awful crimes being committed against children in the name of transgenderism.
Also, we can expect those who are currently defending “gender affirming care” for children to walk back or deny their support at some date in the future. We see how Anthony Fauci and Randi Weingarten are already trying to deny their widely documented pronouncements in favor of Covid lockdowns and school closures. Transgender enthusiasts will certainly deny their role once this destructive fad has run its course.
“Gender affirming care” for minors will one day be looked back at with the same horror we recall eugenics, lobotomies, and the Tuskegee syphilis study. Politicians and pundits who support it must be held accountable for their role in this diabolical social contagion.
*****
Kurt Schlichter Interviewed by J.J. Sefton and CBD
J.J. Sefton and CBD play host to the great Kurt Schlichter, and every second of it is riveting.
It also reminded me that much of what I write has been inspired by Col. Schlichter. He’s the one who so eloquently brought to the conservative discussion that there is nothing about “our principles” that would ever require the surrender of our liberties.
He also hammers home the point that there are three options for living with our political adversaries.
1) We coexist in a civil society where we all abide by the same laws, and we respect each other’s rights and liberties.
2) Our guys are in charge and the left must obey us.
3) The left is in charge and we must obey them.
Brute power is the norm of human existence, and the fact that America had been able to exist under Option 1 for so many years is amazing, and more importantly, it’s the ideal.
But with the left imposing Option 3 on us, a unilateral commitment to Option 1 is a commitment to subjugation. Laws and regulations that only apply to the right can better be defined as weapons that are used against us.
If the left does not want to allow us to live in freedom under Option 1, then Option 2 becomes necessary.
The three teens accused of killing and eating a beloved swan in an upstate New York village are refugees, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
Manlius Police reported Faye the Swan and her four cygnets missing from the town pond last Monday, which prompted horror from the Manlius, New York, residents. Locals flooded Manlius police with tips the next day, which ended in the arrest of 18-year-old Eman Hussan of Syracuse, New York, and two minors, aged 16 and 17.
The posse are refugees from Myanmar and attend high school in the neighboring city, Manlius Police Sgt. Ken Hatter told the Free Beacon. Police say the three were able to steal Faye because she was nesting and did not fight back. The suspects devoured Faye with their family in Syracuse.
This is the second high-profile incident in recent months related to the murder of a precious bird at the hands of foreign nationals. The Free Beacon reported on two suspected illegal immigrants in Stanton County, Neb. who snuck into protected land and shot a bald eagle. Authorities told the Free Beacon that the two suspects had intended to eat the once-endangered animal, which is considered the United States’ national symbol.
Eman Hussan and his two co-conspirators are charged with felony grand larceny and criminal mischief. Their court dates are scheduled later this month.
If found guilty, the three risk deportation. The Immigration and Nationality Act states that offenders can be forcibly removed from the United States if they commit aggravated felonies or "crimes involving moral turpitude," which may or may not include the execution and ingestion of a cherished Anatidae. . .
. . . "These inhumane degenerates need to face real consequences," said another.
Absolutely 100% goddam right. Which is why it won't happen because the name of one of the "inhumane degenerates" sounds awfully close to being a Religion of Peace peacenik, and as such is untouchable. Meh, that's icing on the cloaca. In fact, he and the tens of millions like him that have invaded our nation are to be considered national symbols, unlike the bald eagle that was killed and eaten by some dreamy DREAMrs referenced in the article and linked here.
"I’m trying to be as politically correct as possible when I say this but I don’t know what kind of third-world life they’re coming from, but it must have been pretty bad," Unger said, before adding that his office will not release photos of the dead bird because it’s "very graphic" and "contains lots of blood."
If ever there is a metaphor for what the hell is happening to us, it's that last sentence. And as for Mr. Unger's observation, fuck that. The absolute last thing we need to be is politically correct. That's why we have have these "inhumane degenerates" crawling all over us in the first place. Kudos for the guy who told it like it is vis a vis the savages from Myanmar. And let me put some knowledge to Mr. Unger up there. However "bad" things may or may not be were these deviants came from, that cannot ever justify shipping them in here. Certainly not without some sort of minimal attempt at assimilation and acculturation. But, those words are racist, bigoted and white supremacist. And the whole point in shipping them in here is to fundamentally transform the bald eagle into a mangled mass of flesh, blood, bone and feathers.
Ah yes, the glories of multiculturalism. Funny how the adherents to that theory insist on moral relativism and that all cultures and societies are to be respected – except of course Judeo-Christianity and western civilization. I guess "Coexist" doesn't mean what I thought it means, right?
To hell with that. The past nearly 6,000 years of human development were driven by western, Judeo-Christian values. I can't blame the savages for killing and devouring a swan and a bald eagle. Subhuman retrograde dark age savages gonna savage, whether in their own home or here. You can take 'em out of the jungle but you can't take the jungle out of them. As for the drive of those who should know better to turn us natives into child-mutilating, child-raping homosexual mutants, what the hell is that all about? What's the excuse for the 100-year post-First World War mass psychosis to literally flush thousands of years of societal evolution down the shitter and turn us all into swan eating savages?
* * * * *
Horrible segue alert: Speaking of savages, how many of you had Iran-Iraq 2: Pass the Popcorn Boogaloo on your dance cards? Except this time it's the Taliban.
How amusing that two fanatical Muslim regimes, in Iran and Afghanistan, are now at one another’s throats. Though Iran is Shi’a and Afghanistan Sunni, this not a sectarian conflict, although the Sunni/Shi’a certainly helps to stoke the antagonism. It is, rather, a conflict over water, specifically over how much water Iran and Afghanistan should be allowed to take from the Helmand River that runs along their common border. The dispute is getting more intense, and now a Taliban leader has publicly threatened that his group stands ready to “conquer” Iran to enforce its own claims to water from the Helmand River. Robert Spencer wrote briefly about the conflict here, and Daniel Greenfield weighed in here. More on this most welcome conflict can be found here: “Taliban claims: ‘We will conquer Iran soon’ amid water dispute,” by Ariella Marsden, Jerusalem Post, May 29, 2023:
The Taliban threatened on Sunday that it could conquer Iran as tensions increase over water disputes between Afghanistan and Iran, leaving at least three people dead.
In a video released by the Taliban, a senior commander in the terrorist organization running Afghanistan warned that the Taliban would fight the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guard “with more passion” than they fought the US forces. He added that the Taliban “will conquer Iran soon if the Taliban’s leaders give the green light.
. . . How wonderful it would be for the civilized world if the Taliban and Iran were to come to blows over access to the water from the Helmand River. The Taliban threatens to “conquer Iran,” and while that claim is mere bravado, it might be able to keep large numbers of Iranian troops tied down in eastern Iran. The Taliban not only has more advanced weapons than Iran – the seven billion dollars worth left by the Americans – but its troops are battle-hardened, having been fighting since 2001. The Iranian army, in contradistinction, hasn’t been involved in major fighting since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, some 35 years ago. . .
. . . It’s a consummation devoutly to be wished. Who among us would not want a war that begins as a conflict over water, but then metastasizes, between two brands of Muslim fanatics who will slug it out for a long time.
For those who think that Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants and his handlers in Kalorama pulled out of Afghanistan in order to set this up, these are the same idiots who are desperate to give Iran nukes. Foggy Bottom doesn't know its ass from its elbow. This is just one of those occasional Bob Ross happy accidents that potentially could take the pressure off Israel and our allies in the Gulf. And considering the rank incompetence and insanity of the current junta, the word "allies" is used advisedly.
In the ongoing political persecution of Donald Trump, investigators have reportedly gotten their hands on the audio recording of an interesting conversation between the former president and his aides.
Via CNN:
Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.
The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said…
[Trump’s former chief of staff Mark] Meadows’ autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, during which Trump “recalls a four-page report typed up by (Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley himself. It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency.
Note what CNN chose to emphasize here. Rather than elaborating on an unelected Deep State operative drawing up plans for World War III and then pressuring the sitting president to launch it, their obsession, due to their Trump Derangement Syndrome, is with trying to prove the president mishandled classified documents (which likely shouldn’t have been classified in the first place).
Of course, CNN’s defense contractor advertisers have been salivating for an Iran war since the Bush days. So it’s not surprising at all that they don’t bat an eye at plans drafted in the dark to commence an invasion of that country — an invasion, by the way, that would make managing the Iraq insurgency look like a cakewalk. Iran’s military strength is exponentially superior to that of the Baathist Hussein regime.
I have to disagree with PJ Media's Ben Bartee insofar as Foggy Bottom has never wanted to go to war with Iran. Hence the desperate drive to give them nukes, money and all the rest of it. They want Iran to be the dominant power in the region. Defense contractors on the other hand don't give a damn who we're fighting so long as they remain in the black. The more red American blood is spilled, the blacker their balance sheets.
Richard Fernandez: "If humanity has to closely supervise artificial intelligence, much of its labor-saving advantages go away. After all, if systems must continuously require authorization from people then we haven’t gone much beyond people, which was the point." Surprised by Peril
CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
"Loudermilk argues that the audio was deliberately added to the footage for dramatic effect. He believes that this action was taken to manipulate public opinion rather than present the truth." Hey Look! Proof Democrats Doctored J6 Evidence
Thad McCotter: "In our shared free republic, we cannot defend the Constitution and our God-given liberty and equality against authoritarian ideologies with one arm tied behind our back." Left-Wing Authoritarianism
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
“It is axiomatic that the U.S. government and its officials cannot … circumvent the First Amendment by inducing, threatening, and/or colluding with private entities to suppress protected speech. Shockingly, this is exactly what has occurred through this federal censorship enterprise,” [Louisiana AG Jeff] Landry said. DHS Cybersecurity Agency Labels Private Thoughts ‘Critical Infrastructure’ To Justify Censoring You
Todd, 51, told viewers he did not want his life to be consumed by work, explaining “I’ve watched too many friends and family let work consume them before it was too late” and he’d promised his family he wouldn’t do that. Chuck Todd Out at NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ — Kristen Welker New Host
"In Musk’s defense, it’s unlikely that he went out of his way to personally censor the lab leak theory proffered by the WCWP. . . Twitter is besieged on all sides by World Economic Forum and Deep State cutouts. They didn’t magically disappear when he assumed ownership." 'Free Speech' Platform Twitter STILL Banning Lab Leak Theory
"My instinct, partially due to personal bias, is to predict that these unfair smears will backfire because the legacy media is so widely despised. While this analysis is almost always true on the right, on the left many of the normie libs that constitute the Democrat Party base still deeply respect indecent outlets like The Guardian." Corporate Media Smears RFK Jr. as Anti-Semite, Insinuates He Suffers From Psychosis
Roger Kimball: "The New York Review of Books joins the chorus of America haters deliberately distorting American history and all those who work to actually understand it." A History of Hate
The Atlantic magazine – owned by late Apple founder Steve Jobs’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs – asserts that it is “Okay to Like Good Art by Bad People” – citing pederasts and pedophiles such as Oscar Wilde and Roman Polanski as those who need representation. The article even concludes that the debauched behavior is inseparable from the art. The Atlantic Magazine is Celebrating Art by Pedophiles
" . . . instead of listening to the voters, the data, and union members, a majority of whom support keeping right-to-work legislation on the books, Governor Whitmer has chosen to do the bidding of the politically well-connected union bosses who want to force unionization. Michiganders can’t afford to accept what she is selling, particularly when she is selling out the American worker." Wretched Whitmer is Selling Workers a Lemon
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM
"Riyadh’s voluntary cuts, effective July 2023, fall under a broader plan put in place by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+), the outlet noted. The Russia-led group settled on a deal to further reduce overall production targets through 2024. The agreement increases the production targets for the United Arab Emirates while lowering those of others, translating into cuts of 1.4 billion barrels per day, according to Reuters." Saudi Arabia Announces Cuts To Oil Production To Boost Prices
"It's nice to see that the Book of Ecclesiastes was right: 'There is nothing new under the sun.'" Is Vatican City a Moral Shirker?
". . . western elites are actively trying to prevent Africa from modernizing. This modernity-for-me-and-not-for-thee looks suspiciously like the elite caricature of 'colonialism,' which they themselves proclaim to be the root of all modern evils.It is shocking, until you remember that they would happily see us living in squalor as well. Because ultimately their power and self-gratification is all they care about. Prosperity per Kilowatt
"How many criminals and terrorists are entering the U.S. illegally? Who knows? The Biden [junta] certainly doesn’t care—it’s happy to have a wide-open border. And so the terrorists and criminals will continue to enter the U.S., and possibly never be either identified or caught." WATCH: How Many Illegal ‘Got-Aways’ Is Border Patrol Missing?
It’s not like Torres-Santos didn’t give authorities plenty of opportunities to take him off the streets for a very long period of time. He “has a slew of prior charges in addition to the two shootings earlier this year, including drug dealing, driving without a license and possession of a weapon with its serial number removed,” according to Fox. Man Accused of Killing Two Children Wore Ankle Monitor From Prior Shootings
AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS
"Given the statements of senior Chinese leaders over the last decade, Beijing clearly believes that weaponized biotechnology is the silver bullet to wage war indirectly against America and its allies." Chinese COVID-19 Was a Biological 9/11
“The conditions negotiated by the Commission on behalf of the member states with Pfizer are absolutely unsatisfying, and we are not going to join the deal,” Niedzielski said. Poland Ain’t Happy With ‘Outrageous’ Pfizer Demands
"The people who abused their power and imposed tyranny during the pandemic will do it again if we don’t hold them accountable." (not only will they never repent, they will hound us to the end of time for daring to point out their culpability - jjs) No Forgiveness For Pandemic Sins Until The Guilty Repent
EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT
"The attack on traditional American values is being intensified on a grand scale by America’s teacher unions." Culture War Offensive
Lloyd Billingsley: "San Francisco reject Chesa Boudin gets his own 'criminal law and justice center' at UC Berkeley." Springtime for Boudin and Berkeley
"Where we do not have political power, as in most of the battleground states, there should be a realpolitik approach to win the game by the current rules." Republicans Need to Play the Same Game as Democrats
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
"Perhaps we should choose a presidential candidate who can stop airing personal grievances." Pardon Me for Taking Sides!
. . . Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs accused Romney of having “once again prioritized being buddies with Chuck Schumer above the welfare of our country,” as he lamented the “$4 trillion added to our debt ceiling with virtually nothing in return.” Utah Mayor, Senatorial Candidate Rips Romney over Debt Deal
"“[So-called quote-unquote "president"] Biden is the [so-called quote-unquote "president"] during a full-scale war and he has been more helpful to us than President Trump,” Zelensky told the interviewer, qualifying the statement by noting that there “was no full-scale war” going on while Trump was in office. Zelensky Admits Fear of Trump 2024, Begs for More Patriot Missile Systems
"Contrary to Francis Fukuyama's assertions, the Cold War did not end with the disappearance of the USSR from the historical scene." No 'End of History' for Imperial Russia
"A Republican senator from Texas comes out against Uganda’s aggravated sodomy law." Bad Fruit
Germany’s problem with Left-wing violence has been skyrocketing in recent years. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) announced that, as of 2021, there are now more than 10,000 “violence-orientated” extreme Leftists in the country. (it's funny because all they harp on are "far right wing Nazis" etc. - jjs) WATCH: AntiFa Attacks Saw Dozens Injured This Weekend
DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
"Note what CNN chose to emphasize here. Rather than elaborating on an unelected Deep State operative drawing up plans for World War III and then pressuring the sitting president to launch it, their obsession, due to their Trump Derangement Syndrome, is with trying to prove the president mishandled classified documents (which likely shouldn’t have been classified in the first place). . . That is what woke-washed bloodthirsty warmongering looks like." "Vanilli" Milley Personally Wrote Iran Invasion Plan, Pushed Trump to Attack
“I would not reinstate a ban on transgender members,” Ramaswamy responded. “I would, however, be very clear that for kids, that’s where my policies are very focused. We should not be foisting this ideology onto children.” (and there goes whatever admiration I had for him; we don't need "pink" triangulation - jjs) Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Would Not Reinstate Trans Military Ban
"Although these deaths occurred almost two decades ago, they should remind us what happens when our government operates without constraints." Gitmo’s Unsolved Deaths
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Deroy Murdock: "This is terrifying and outrageous. It is homophobia turbocharged with syringes and scalpels." Transgenderism is the New Homophobia
Trump has presented the most comprehensive plan to ban sex-change treatment for minors. He said in January he would call on Congress to legislate a national ban for minors and would issue an executive order “instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.” GOP 2024 Candidates Are United On One Thing: Opposing Sex Changes For Minors
"What drag queens want to do in front of consenting adults is none of my business. But for God’s sake, leave the children alone and allow them to grow up a little before you begin to sexualize them." (that's the point, pal - jjs) Federal Judge Rejects Tennessee's Anti-Drag Law as Unconstitutional
"Residents of Portland are unlikely to be aware of their local library’s upcoming Drag Queen Storytime and Rainbow Families Storytime events, as the library administration apparently intends to host these events on the q.t." Drag Under Cover
"There's never been a communist revolution that did not devour itself. Why should ours be different?" Our Descent into Clown World
Judge Mark Walker taking himself off the case because of a relative owning 30 shares of Disney stock might end up being beneficial to DeSantis, or a case of “don’t wish too hard for something, you might get it.” Regardless, the alleged perception of bias in the case is gone. Judge In Disney v. DeSantis Case Disqualifies Himself
The mushrooms in the garden “are super queer in so many ways,” says Ms. Munro, who is trying to make the museum’s gardens “a welcoming space for L.G.B.T.Q. New Yorkers.” Ms. Munro also says wisteria and lavender are queer because “[t]hey are all purple, which is this historically queer color.” (forget electroshock; these freaks need baseball bats to the head - jjs) New York Museum Says Its Plants are ‘All Queer’
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.
ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Farhad Manjoo, professional idiot, writes in the Times that AI is going to totally revolutionise programming and allow people who don't understand the question to somehow get the right answer.
This won't necessarily be terrible for computer programmers — the world will still need people with advanced coding skills — but it will be great for the rest of us. Computers that we can all "program", computers that don't require specialized training to adjust and improve their functionality and that don't speak in code: That future is rapidly becoming the present.
A.I. tools based on large language models — like OpenAI Codex, from the company that brought you ChatGPT, or AlphaCode, from Google's DeepMind division — have already begun to change the way many professional coders do their jobs. At the moment, these tools work mainly as assistants — they can find bugs, write explanations for snippets of poorly documented code and offer suggestions for code to perform routine tasks (not unlike how Gmail offers ideas for email replies — "Sounds good"; "Got it").
And they are terrible at those things, with one exception: They can be useful for finding bugs. After all, if you write the code and then have an AI check it for bugs, the worst that can happen is you waste some time verifying that the bug is not actually a bug, and at best you catch an embarrassing mistake before your customers' critical data ends up in a Laotian bot farm.
But A.I. coders are quickly getting smart enough to rival human coders. Last year, DeepMind reported in the journal Science that when AlphaCode's programs were evaluated against answers submitted by human participants in coding competitions, its performance "approximately corresponds to a novice programmer with a few months to a year of training."
Which is rather like a doctor with a few months of training. We call such people... Well, we don't call them doctors.
"Programming will be obsolete," Matt Welsh, a former engineer at Google and Apple, predicted recently. Welsh now runs an A.I. start-up, but his prediction, while perhaps self-serving, doesn't sound implausible.
Not unless you know what you're talking about, anyway.
AI can take over programming tasks but not the form of AI currently being pushed by all the same people who were pushing the blockchain as the cure for all our ills a year ago. To work for such tasks, you need a fact model accompanying the language model, and systems like ChatGPT don't have that, at all.
The lack of a fact model is also why ChatGPT lies constantly. One of the reasons. It's not that it lies deliberately, it's that it simply makes no distinction between true and false statements.
And that is what these people want to use to write the code that runs modern civilisation.
I'd suggest stocking up on gold, guns, ammo, and canned goods, but I expect this bubble to implode of its own accord. It's just too damn stupid.
DreamBerd is the perfect programming language. We know this because the documentation says so.
Sadly this perfect language hasn't actually been implemented; rather it's a parody of every breathless announcement of a New Programming Language that is set to Change The World, like... What was that one that showed up last month? Mojo, that's it. The first programming language in the world with a waiting list.
Facebook open-sourced its own AI (we're referring to Large Language Models, because that's where all the noise is right now), and the open-source community picked it up and ran with it.
The open-source versions are faster, more efficient, and produce better results than the commercial versions, and they don't refuse to answer your questions if the answer would make a Berkeley philosophy grad student cry into his chai latte.
They still share the same fundamental limitations of LLMs - they don't actually know anything - but they don't have the arbitrary limitations imposed on ChatGPT and other big tech products.
Apparently an online fantasy baseball league simply cost too much to run.
The article calls it a "fake" fantasy baseball league, and I'm not sure whether I hope that's redundant or not.
Dislaimer: Hey I'm starting to get the hang of this game. The blerns are loaded, the count's 3 blerns and 2 anti-blerns, and the in-field blern rule is in effect... right?
Expect for the word 'blern' that was complete gibberish.
“No matter what you think about the gender issue, it’s pretty remarkable that a school can punish a student for protesting censorship in America today,” ADF legal counsel Logan Spena
Quote IV
“Let me tell you something. Nothing else matters if we’re dead. Nothing else matters if we’re killing each other.” Stephen A. Smith, ESPN.
As the temperatures heat up, one frosty treat is melting away.
Rumors began swirling when a Dairy Queen worker named “Miranda” posted a TikTok on May 18 claiming the red cherry-dipped cone would be leaving the menu.
Miranda stated, “I don’t know when, or if it’s returning, but Dairy Queen is discontinuing their cherry cone dip.
New York Museum Says Its Plants are ‘All Queer’.
Alice Austen House, a designated LGBTQ+ museum based in Staten Island, New York City, is claiming all of the plants in the museum’s gardens are queer or transgender, as part of a new ‘Queer Ecologies Garden Project’ in time for Pride Month.
The mushrooms in the garden “are super queer in so many ways,” says Ms. Munro, who is trying to make the museum’s gardens “a welcoming space for L.G.B.T.Q. New Yorkers.”
Ms. Munro also says wisteria and lavender are queer because “[t]hey are all purple, which is this historically queer color.”
If the Looney Libtards can make fun of science and poke at those who are conservative, Catholic, Protestant, etc. we can poke fun of them and ridicule them as well.
It’s the summer of 2001, and I’m trying to check into the Royalton on Forty-fourth Street, but my credit card has been declined. The receptionist is in a silk blouse, and she glances behind me at my road-tired, happily expectant family: at my wife and three young kids, at my mother and older sister, her toddler daughter in her arms.
Amid a mounting debate in America over the constitutionality of gun control, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark has entered the fray with a different argument: That people should voluntarily forgo their Second Amendment rights for the betterment of society.
“I honestly believe it is the best thing we can do to change the culture of violence that threatens us today,” Tobin said.
“Let’s voluntarily set aside our rights in order to witness the truth that only peace and never violence, is the way to build a free society that is lived concretely in our homes, our neighborhoods, our communities, our nation and our world,” he said.
I was against re-upping Ronna McDaniel last January, and I worked for her opponent. We argued that if you lose five times in a row you should not get a sixth chance to fail. But we lost that argument. Ronna, backed behind the scenes by Donald Trump (which I personally observed at the GOP committee convention), won. And she won fair and square and earned my loyalty. But it has been four months and I am not seeing the change that she promised and that is sorely needed. Where’s the audit? Who got fired for not performing? And the biggest question…what’s the game plan for 2024? Maybe it’s a communications issue. Maybe there is a plan. But have you heard about the plan, because I haven’t. And I’m paying attention. Failing to plan for victory is planning for defeat.
I bought my first electric hybrid 18 years ago and my first pure electric car nine years ago and (notwithstanding our poor electric charging infrastructure) have enjoyed my time with both very much. Electric vehicles may be a bit soulless, but they’re wonderful mechanisms: fast, quiet and, until recently, very cheap to run. But increasingly, I feel a little duped. When you start to drill into the facts, electric motoring doesn’t seem to be quite the environmental panacea it is claimed to be.
To Protect Europe, Let Ukraine Join NATO—Right Now
No Country Is Better at Stopping Russia
In July, the heads of NATO’s 31 countries will convene in Vilnius, Lithuania, for a summit—their fourth one since Russia invaded Ukraine. Like each of the last three, the proceedings will be dominated by how to address the conflict. The countries’ leaders will consider what Kyiv needs to keep fighting and what their states can offer. They will welcome Finland, which joined in April, prompted by the invasion. They will discuss Sweden’s pending application. They have invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, so they will discuss Ukraine’s bid as well. If past is prologue, they will affirm that Kyiv is on track to join the organization.
“All NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in April. “Ukraine’s future is in NATO.”
I have a better idea. Let the EU defend Ukraine. The EU is pretty good at stopping farmers and other "climate destroyers" they should be able to stop Putin.
Minnesota to move biological male inmate to all-female facility, pay for vaginoplasty
MINNESOTA – Under a settlement reached this week, the Minnesota Department of Corrections has agreed to transfer a biological male inmate who identifies as a woman to an all-female facility and will allow him to pursue a vaginoplasty procedure.
Left-wing legal group Gender Justice announced the settlement agreement Thursday, saying its client Christina Lusk will also receive $495,000 in monetary compensation, about half of which will go towards legal fees.
[National Police Commissioner Anders] Thornberg estimated that more than 30,000 people are now involved in gang violence in Sweden... According to Thornberg, the situation is "extremely serious," with organized crime infiltrating and corrupting the democratic society, the business world and the public sector.
Some two million immigrants (20% of the population) now live in Sweden, according to David Jones in the Daily Mail, Many come from the most troubled parts of Asia and Africa and have not integrated well into Swedish society. Rival gangs now shoot each other on a regular basis. In Stockholm alone, 52 gangs are vying for control of the burgeoning drug trade, according to a police report, and they are becoming ever more ruthless. Some child gang members even carry explosives in their school thermos flasks. Jones writes:
(Natural News) New research out of Germany suggests that upwards of 100,000 people there died because of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “vaccines.” The same data extrapolated to the United States population suggests that at least 400,000 people here also died because of the jabs.
German researchers calculated excess mortality for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, these being the three primary years covering the COVID scam. The first year before the shots were introduced through Operation Warp Speed, the excess death count in Germany was around 4,000, which multiplied by four means 16,000 excess deaths in the U.S. that same year.
The reason for multiplying by four is that Germany’s population is currently around 83.2 million people, while the U.S. population is roughly four times that number. Thus, a simple four-times multiplier can be used to approximate the number of excess deaths in the U.S. based on this German data.
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The ONT Musical Interlude & Charcoal Grill Emporium
On this day: 4 Jun 1997
Jeff Buckley's body was discovered floating in the Mississippi River. Buckley had disappeared when swimming on May 29th in Wolf River Harbor, while wearing boots, all of his clothing, and singing the chorus of 'Whole Lotta Love' by Led Zeppelin. A roadie in Buckley's band, had remained on shore. After moving a radio and guitar out of reach of the wake from a passing tugboat, he looked up to see that Buckley had vanished. via thisdayinmusic.com
&&&
On this day:4 Jun 1967
The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Procol Harum, Denny Laine and The Chiffons all appeared at The Saville Theatre, London. Both Paul McCartney and George Harrison were in the audience to see Hendrix perform the title track from Sgt. Pepper which had been released just three days earlier. Via thisdayinmusic.com
A Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) deputy crashed a squad car into a Shorewood home after a pursuit on Thursday.
According to the sheriff's department, a detective found a suspect in a vehicle-crime-related investigation near Lake and Jarvis around 7:50 p.m.
A Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office deputy crashed a squad car into a Shorewood home on Thursday.
The detective tried to stop the suspect, but the suspect fled and a pursuit began.
As the pursuit was terminated, two MCSO vehicles collided, and one of those vehicles struck a home at the intersection.
Honoring America's Fallen: 15 Stories Of Armed Forces Members Who Made The Ultimate Sacrifice For Their Country
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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Vacation Endings.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire & AceCorp, LLC. ONT Tips, loose change, drink tokens and burner phones to petmorons at gmail dot com. Any complaints? We don't take no stinkin' complaints.
Howdy, Y'all! Welcome to the wondrously fabulous Gun Thread! As always, I want to thank all of our regulars for being here week in and week out, and also offer a bigly Gun Thread welcome to any newcomers who may be joining us tonight. Howdy and thank you for stopping by! I hope you find our wacky conversation on the subject of guns 'n shooting both enjoyable and informative. You are always welcome to lurk in the shadows of shame, but I'd like to invite you to jump into the conversation, say howdy, and tell us what kind of shooting you like to do!
Holy Shitballs! How in the ever-loving Hell did it get to be June? The year is practically half over! Not much going on in WeaselWorld, just making last minute preparations for the 2023 NoVAMoMe. Are you planning to attend? I hope so, and if you are, bluebell and I are looking forward to welcoming you! See you in less than a week!
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
First up, we have a bigly range report from our pal Washington Nearsider who recently attended a long-range rifle clinic. You tell me if you think he had fun!
I completed the two-day BangSteel long-range rifle clinic in Wythville, VA over Memorial Day weekend. It was amazing, and I encourage every single Moron living East of the Mississippi to attend. For those of you out West, I encourage you to make an excuse to get to the East side of the Mississippi and go to the BangSteel course. It's worth far, far more than I paid, and I'll be retaking it multiple times. The underlying principle which guides the course is this: "Nine out of ten rifle owners never attempt to shoot at long ranges because they believe a very expensive rig is required. It's not."
They teach normal people with normal gear to engage targets past 1000m. There is no reliance on technology, no laser range finders, no Kestrel wind calls, no barometric pressure measurements. Bring your rifle and a desire to learn - they'll teach you. When I went through the course, there were no custom builds, and no chassis rifles. They were normal people, men and women, with off-the-shelf rifles, all of which fell into what I'd call the middle to upper-middle class of weapons. My gear list is below, and I had one of the more expensive setups in the group.
Day One: All the shooters (9 of us) rallied at a Subway in Bland, Va. The instructors showed up, we all grabbed sandwiches from the store, and then caravanned out to the range, which was on top of a large hill firing into the mountain range. Instructor 2, we'll call him Forrest, took the ATV downrange to put fresh coats of paint on the steel targets at various ranges. Instructor 1, we'll call him Dan Newberry, held court, explaining the basics of long-range rifle fire and wind calls in particular.
Once class was over (about 40 minutes), Forrest took our rifles, one at a time, and verified our zeroes. He fired at 100m and 600m, punched that data into a handy calculator, and generated - for each individual - a DOPE chart, which he emailed to each shooter. Within about 10 minutes, I had my own personal DOPE chart for my rifle/round, and moved to the firing line where three spotters awaited us.
The first target was an 18" wide torso at (consults notes*) 600m. Dan provided wind calls, which at that point required a left hold of about 6 MOA. My second round impacted dead nuts in the x ring, as did my third and fourth. Dan instructed me to place a round in the head, which I did, and then immediately followed it up with a second round which impacted less than an inch from the first. We continued to engage different targets at different ranges hiding at various points in the mountains, closer and farther, ending the day at 720m.
Day Two: Cold bore shots at 720m. Dan explained that to earn a B+ in the course, a shooter had to accurately engage the 720m target on their first shot. To earn an A+, a shooter had to narrowly miss the 720m target on their first shot, add the data from the impact to their shooting solution, and accurately engage the target with a quick follow-up shot. I had the wisdom to shoot second in the morning and was behind my scope while the first shooter fired. She got good hits on shots two and three, as did I. Great success, and a note - use all the data you can when compiling a shooting solution against a target.
840 meters
We naturally split into several groups, each spotting for others while letting our barrels cool. At 840m, there was a torso nestled behind several large boulders, leaving only the head and shoulders exposed. Pic one shows an actual (target) sniper! Go find it, Morons! All of us made good hits on the sniper, and on the random pink steel pig hiding in the rocks at 780m.
1.25 Miles (or a long way)
I received a call about an emergency regarding one of my kiddos so had to leave about an hour early - I'm not sure if they engaged the target at 1.25 miles, but I guarantee I'll be back to take a shot at it.
I can now, with some degree of reliability, make wind calls out to 1200m. I have a known DOPE chart to dial my vertical, and can, within a shot or two, engage targets well past half a mile. Suppressed. This course was probably the greatest 'bang for your buck' training I've ever taken. If I didn't know how much it cost, and Dan asked for three times the listed amount, I wouldn't have hesitated to pay him, and I'd have considered it worth every dollar.
If you have the slightest interest in being able to shoot at distance, take the course. It's worth your time, they're all our people, and the instructors know what time it is.
* Take notes when you shoot at distance, and more than just round counts. There were more than a dozen times through the two-day course when I - as the lone note-taking weirdo - looked back through the notes I'd taken regarding a particular target with a particular wind value, and was able to re-engage that target rather than having to rely on a spotter's call to talk me back in. Even now, looking through my notes, I find value in them. When I got home, I re-wrote them in a neat and organized manner, rather than the scattershot scribbles I made whilst behind my rifle. Provided I fire the same round through the same rifle, I'm compiling information that will only help me later. It would be nice if there was a name for it. "Data on Previous Engagements" has a nice ring to it...
Great report, Washington Nearsider! Thank you. Hope your kiddo was OK. I can tell you had a good time! Fun, isn't it?
One teeensy-weensy comment though, regarding incorporating atmospheric data into your long-range firing solution data. Don't underestimate it's value. It's important, especially if you want to maximize your chances of a first round hit on target the next time you go out. What I suspect your instructor was doing when he 'checked' the zero on your rifle was determining a baseline against the current atmospheric conditions. The next time you go to the same range, your elevation data will almost certainly have changed. If you have faithfully recorded elevation data based on range and Density Altitude, you will already have data for current conditions.
Certain models of the Kestrel Weather Meter will calculate Density Altitude which is a combination of barometric pressure, air temperature, elevation and relative humidity compared to a standard atmosphere, all of which will affect the ballistic trajectory of a bullet in flight. The influence of these factors is not evident at close range, say under a few hundred yards, but become a significant factor the further out you go, and it's very handy to have reference elevation data based on these variables.
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Guns of the Horde
Not sure if it is his, but our pal WTM shares a photo of the Flintlock Volley Gun.
AR15 of the 18th Century?
Nice find, WTM! Thanks!
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Bottle Top Spin Challenge
Why make it easy shooting at large targets? Our pal RI Red raises the bar by spinning the top off of a water bottle.
10 shots in 30 seconds. 2d place!
Nicely done, RI Red! Very nicely done. But what was the range? 100yds? 700 yds?
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Lapua .22 LR Long Range and Super Long Range
I have been seeing a lot of reviews for Lapua .22LR Long Range and Super Long Range ammo recently, and here are a couple. Anyone tried it yet?
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Not using Lapua ammo, but rather Federal Gold Medal Ultra Match. A 700 yd shot .22LR shot.
I have always maintained that just about any shot is possible if you send enough bullets down range. I mean, eventually you're going to hit something, right? I remember watching a video of an extreme long-range rifle shot, something on the order of 2+ miles, and was kind of impressed until the shooter mentioned it taking 60+ shots to get the hit. Still cool? Sure. Is it effective fire? Well, you be the judge. I always suggest to people the first shot on target is great, but it's the second shot on top of the first that is impressive.
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1860's P&W Rifling Machine
I thought this was pretty nifty.
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DIY Corner
Here is a fun and informative guide on how an atomic bomb works.
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Musical Interlude
Here is The Allman Brothers Band and Ramblin Man'
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Gun Basics 101
No new video from the She Equips Herself gal, so into the archives we go. This week's video is on some things to buy after you buy a gun.
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Armed Attorneys
Good shoot? You make the call.
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Cigar of the Week
OK, it's not a $2 cigar, but rather more of a $6 cigar. The Diesel Unlimited Maduro is a Nicaraguan worth a look. A great choice to enjoy while reading the Gun Thread!
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Here are some different online cigar vendors. You will find they not only carry different brands and different lines from those brands, but also varying selections of vitolas (sizes/shapes) of given lines. It's good to have options, especially if you're looking for a specific cigar.
A note about sources. The brick & mortar/online divide exists with cigars, as with guns, and most consumer products, with respect to price. As with guns - since both are "persecuted industries", basically - I make a conscious effort to source at least some of my cigars from my local store(s). It's a small thing, but the brick & mortar segment for both guns and tobacco are precious, and worth supporting where you can. And if you're lucky enough to have a good cigar store/lounge available, they're often a good social event with many dangerous people of the sort who own scary gunz, or read smart military blogs like this one. -rhomboid
Anyone have others to include? Perhaps a small local roller who makes a cigar you like? Send me your recommendation and a link to the site!
This week's mailbag entry is from our pal WTM. Great one!
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Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Food Thread: Rubber Bands And Shrimp; One SHouldn't Be Like The Other
—CBD
Grilling is almost always the best, or at least one of the best ways to cook stuff...any stuff! But shrimp can be tough...literally. I have moved away from high heat with shrimp, preferring more gentle heat that doesn't turn the shrimp into super-ball textured chunks of rubber.
For many applications I will poach shrimp briefly in barely simmering seasoned water. I keep it to no more than three minutes, and less if the shrimp are small. That leaves them barely cooked, but tender and delicious.
The problem of course that the light charring from grilling really adds to the flavor of shrimp, so the problem is how to get some char while avoiding that horror of horrors...overcooked shrimp!
It's a dance, and one that requires constant attention. But it is worth it!
I don't often grill shrimp, but when I do I try to find the biggest ones available, so there is a bit more leeway.
Here is some weapons-grade nonsense, from no less an authority on nonsense than the World Economic Forum! Why your food choices are a political act is a messy blather of half-formed ideas, sophomoric communitarian precepts, and a very large dose of anti-market-economy bullsh*t.
Here's my favorite quotation...
The transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a structured agriculture with management and cultivation of crops and animals had massive political implications.
But the dark side of humans -- in the form of competition or even fierce, existential rivalry in the pre-settlement era -- was still there. The rise of societal structure gave birth to the concept of political elites, which would normally be formed of those most qualified or most in the position to manage the food surplus. Back then, what we would call today a national treasury, was directly linked to agriculture.
Oooh! "competition" is part of the dark side of humanity!
It's amazing to me that this evil fool could write that with a straight face. He is the beneficiary of, and current participant in human competition. Every human interaction has a touch of it, even in hard-line socialist hellholes...the sort of place that WEF types pine for...for other people.
Competition in agriculture is a grand and glorious thing. It's one big reason why modern agriculture has the capacity to feed the world, if only the WEF types would let it!
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Salt is the most important ingredient in cooking, and if you don't believe me, just leave it out of your favorite dish, and then tell us whether it is still your favorite!
One of the things I have discovered is that salting in layers makes food taste better. By that I mean after each step, check the seasoning and add a bit of salt. Stews are a great example; I salt the meat before I sear it, salt the vegetables before I sweat them, salt after I have added the liquid, and check the seasoning at the very end.
That contrasts to salting just at the very end, so that while the broth or sauce may be salted correctly since the salt distributes quickly through an aqueous solution, the rest of the stew is probably going to be undersalted and bland, even though you may have used the correct amount of salt. Or salting at the beginning, so that the meat is salted, but the broth and other ingredients may be boring.
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Longtime commenter "Martini Farmer" sent this along, and I got a good laugh out of it. Bourbon is being marketed in so many different ways, it was only a matter of time before it was segmented by religion!
He also provided a short review!
Highest proof I've had (that wasn't moonshine). Surprisingly pleasant with notes of vanilla and caramel. Not a lot of heat for the proof and rather drinkable neat.
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Oh man...this guy is irritating, and 20 minutes on PB&J might be overkill. But I have always been curious about baking Pullman loaves and this was the impetus for me to order a pan with lid. But not for PB&J...for a classic Croque Monsieur made with brioche bread.
The Original PB&J from 1901
Do we really need an exegesis on the structure of the classic PB&J? No, we don't, but it is sort of amusing anyway!
[Hat Tip: Weasel]
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Jacques Pépin's Classic Roast Chicken is exactly that...and worth making. His dishes are usually simple, with impeccable technique, which is why he has been a force in cooking for a very long time. And he knows how to teach those techniques, unlike so many talented chefs whose cook books are fun to read for ideas, but not fun at all to cook from.
The oyster imperative remains in effect, especially now that we are entering the summer months. Yup, I'm not afraid of oysters in the summer! And send pork rib roasts from the front end of the pig where all the good and fatty meat lives, carrots that don't taste like stalky chalk, spare bottles of Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year Old Bourbon, garlic...lots of garlic! (but no basil!), well-marbled NY strip steaks and elk backstrap to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
And don't think that the rest of you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: I'm still watching you! And I am watching you perverts who shake Manhattans and keeping a list for the Burning Times.
That's a Solo stove...which isn't really a stove; it's a stand-alone fire pit that is amazingly efficient, and practically smokeless. Weirdly, the smoke doesn't chase me around the damned thing, unlike every other outdoor fire I have ever built, or stood around.
And it burns clean and hot (my hand-held thermometer maxed out at 1,000 degrees F), which makes it tremendously tempting as an outdoor grill! But the cover is really just a fine mesh that probably won't support much more than a steak, and will probably decay pretty quickly.
Of course they sell an additional insert that looks great...but is ridiculously, obscenely, insultingly expensive! I'm thinking of designing and building one just to prove to myself that I can!
Maybe I should change the name of this thread to "First-World-Cheapskate Problems."
Guns & Marijuana: States Rights vs. The Federal Leviathan
—CBD
Isn't this delicious! An overbearing, overreaching, authoritarian federal government finally notices that marijuana...one of the left's sacraments...is still a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance. And I can't think of a better example of cognitive dissonance for both the feds AND the stoners!
Here is the text of question 21-G on form 4473, the federal form that everyone purchasing a weapon through a federal firearms license holder must complete.
Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance? Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.
The federal agency that regulates the firearms industry sent an advisory on Tuesday warning that Minnesotans who use marijuana cannot legally own firearms, despite a new state law legalizing recreational use.
Marijuana for adults is now legal in 23 states and even more have medical cannabis programs. But it's still a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law on par with LSD and heroin.
The St. Paul office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives noted that distinction. It means people who smoke weed or take marijuana edibles are "still federally defined as an 'unlawful user' of a controlled substance," and therefore are "prohibited from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing firearms or ammunition," the agency said in its release Tuesday.
Part of me hopes that they crack down aggressively and start arresting, prosecuting, and jailing people for these clear violations of federal law. I think it's a felony that carries a five year sentence. I am assuming that more people on the left use marijuana (although that may be wildly inaccurate if we measure it by weight of marijuana consumed...thanks Garrett and JackStraw!). So that might be a good thing...disarming and jailing Antifa-curious dopers!
But...part of me (most of me) is disgusted that there is even a form 4473, an ATF, and any restrictions on weapons purchases in the United States, except perhaps for violent felons. And I am comfortable discussing even that!
This conundrum also calls into question the supremacy of the federal government, its involvement in drug regulation, which the last time I checked wasn't mentioned in the U.S. Constitution as one of its powers.
The delightfully amusing reality is that the states are legalizing marijuana, and there isn't much the feds can do about it. My personal stance is that it is a bad idea...I think marijuana has corrosive effects on society, has been mostly ignored by scientific research from that point of view, and I believe it will be shown to be much less benign in the coming years.
But any time a state can stick its thumb in the federal eye is just A-OK with me.
Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-04-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
—Open Blogger
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, sprinkle some bacon bits on your omelet, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
The Long Room at the Library of Trinity College is often featured among lists of the world's most beautiful libraries, and rightly so. It houses over 200,000 books, including the Book of the Kells, one of the most famous manuscripts of the four Gospels from the Bible in existence. The Library of Trinity College is distinct in a few other respects as well. It serves as the national repository for all works published in Ireland and the UK, somewhat similar to the Library of Congress. The Long Room itself used to only be a single story, but because of the influx of works, it had to be expanded upwards to accommodate all those books and manuscripts.
BOOKS BY MORONS + AN UPDATE!
TheJamesMadison has a new book being released this week:
It's called Colonial Nightmare, and I've included the plot summary below as well as an Amazon link here: https://amzn.to/45Bv2UU.
When George Washington was 21 years old, he went on a dangerous mission into the wilds of the Ohio River Valley to deliver a message from the Virginia colonial governor to a French military base, Fort Le Boeuf, a message to prevent war between England and France. The journey was harrowing and dangerous as Washington, joined by frontiersman Christopher Gist and Iroquois leader Tanacharison, also called the Half-King, braved the bitter cold of an unforgiving winter.
Washington wrote of his journey as a report to the governor, but he gave an incomplete portrait of the goings on of his journey, for he was attacked. He was attacked by something he could not explain. Something not of the New World but of the Old. Something that had preyed upon innocent for centuries. Something that scared him so much that he refused to report it to anyone.
Here, for the first time, is the full account of the colonial major's journey. Far more than an act to prevent conflict between nations, it became a conflict that pitted evil against a man unlike any other, a man who had the potential within him to lead a nation.
Thanks!
David (TJM)
Comment: I've always enjoyed the premise of a historical character becoming enmeshed in a wild story that has never been told. Many episodes of Doctor Who revolve around this premise. Other authors have used this to fun effect, such as Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, in which a young Abe Lincoln confronts the "truth" behind the Civil War. George Washington is inarguably America's greatest President. He was a towering force in establishing the United States of America. Is it any wonder he might face danger and evil beyond the ken of normal men?
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We also have an update on Hans G. Schantz' Kickstarter project, The Wise of Heart:
Sorry for the late breaking news, but I've had a bit of an adventure that might be appropriate for the Sunday Book Thread.
Reviewed and approved by Kickstarter before launch, The Wise of Heart crowdfund campaign was fully funded at the original $3000 target, well on the way to a $6000 stretch goal, and less than a week from closing when Kickstarter abruptly changed their mind and tried to cancel the project on Wednesday. Ironic that a fictional depiction of the thought police suppressing discussion of transgenderism was itself suppressed.
Here's some of the press the cancellation has received:
We're back up and running at an alternate site, and while it's been a bit of a distraction, the publicity has been a net positive. We've made up all the lost pledges, and last night we broke through the stretch goal to unlock the audio book. Anyone who was looking to pledge through Kickstarter but had their pledge rejected can visit the new crowdfund site HERE
Thanks!
Hans
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HONOR IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
One thing about character motivations I've noticed in recent years saddens me a lot.
We seldom see characters motivated by honor, at least not in contemporary settings. And even in historicals they usually tack on something about protecting the innocent or getting revenge.
Example: in Dumas's Three Musketeers (and the magnificent 1970s film) the Musketeers are motivated solely by honor. They are fighting to preserve the Queen's honor -- even though they are at the same time fighting a war against forces backed by her family and the guy she was having an affair with! A Musketeer defends a lady's honor, period.
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 28, 2023 09:25 AM (QZxDR)
"Honor" can be found in virtually every genre of literature, though expressions of honor can be subtle and difficult to spot unless you are looking for them. Consider a romance novel, for instance. Can characters in a romance be motivated by honor? Of course! A love triangle may form in which a woman is caught between the affections of two men, one of whom she's married to and does not love, while the other has captured her heart. It would dishonor her husband to carry on an affair with her paramour, so she must make difficult decisions about how far she will go with her extra-marital affair. Perhaps the two men have a previously existing friendship as well, and while the lover would like to have an affair with his friend's wife, he knows it would betray that friendship. In fact, numerous early medieval romances explored this very dynamic in relationships through the code of chivalry knights were expected to obey (e.g., King Arthur, Queen Guenevere, and Sir Lancelot).
"Honor" as a motivation shows up quite frequently in many of the epic fantasy stories I read, as many of them rely on characters adhering to a rigid code of behavior. Culture (even fantasy culture) can play an important role in shaping a character's perceptions of honorable behavior. Rand Al'Thor from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series is a great example. He was raised in a small farming community by a loving surrogate father who adopted him when he was a baby. His basic values involve an appreciation for hard work and caring for his fellow villagers. When he leaves the farm to go on an adventure, he is mentored by a warrior from the Borderlands who schools Rand on the values of strength, courage, and other herioc virtues he'll need. Finally, he adopts the ways of his original parentage when he meets the Aiel, an even more hardcore warrior culture that teaches him about their own ideas of honor and obligation. Time and time again, his personal notions of honor clash with the society and people around him, leading him to make difficult decisions that are necessary, but may seem cruel unless you know the full story behind his decision. For instance, at one point, the law requires him to condemn a traitorous noblewoman to death, but Rand is emotionally incapable of harming women (this is a HUGE plot point), so he sentences her to exile and banishment, seizing her lands and property. This is too much for her to bear, so she hangs herself, preferring death to exile. Her honor could not accept being reduced to living the live of a peasant.
Characters motivated by "honor" can be tricky, though it can also lead to interesting conflicts at the main characters have to sort through the ramifications of their actions according to the standards of honor within the culture in which they function.
In Servant of the Empire, for example, an important secondary character, Keyoke, loses his leg during a major battle. He defended the honor of his Lady and his house. According to the standards of his culture (loosely based on feudal Japan), the honorable thing to do would be to take his own life since he is no longer able to function as a warrior. However, a slave captured in battle has a different idea. In Kevin's culture (loosely based on feudal Europe), a wounded warrior can still serve honorably because he still has battle experience accumulated over many decades of service that can be of use to the house in their ongoing conflicts with other houses. Kevin is able to persuade Keyoke to accept this transition, even though it goes against everything Keyoke was trained to do, because Keyoke loves the Lady of his house as though she were his own daughter. Thus, love of family triumphs over love of honor.
P.C. Hodgell's Chronicles of the Kencyrath explores the concept of personal honor throughout the series. The main characters are often called upon to resolve "Honor's Paradox" which is where you have to decide where your honor lies. If your lord asks you to commit a dishonorable act, do you obey because you are honorbound to obey your lord's commands? Or do you find some way to fulfil the command that satisfies honor? Or do you call out your lord for their behavior? The characters are all bound by honor to never tell a lie, but naturally some characters are able to twist the truth to serve their ends, often with disastrous results. Much of the story involves uncovering various layers of the truth that have been hidden for decades or even millennia as a result of dishonorable actions. This is a very real issue, when you consider the fate of whistleblowers who are coming forward to denounce the FBI and other governmental organizations who are engaged in extremely dishonorable behavior (by normal standards).
What conflicts in honor have you seen in your favorite stories? Does honor get in the way of the story? Or does it drive the plot?
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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
Most of my reading this past week was learning the rules to a new game system for a session on Friday evening. The game in question was Ars Magica, which came out in the 1990s and tried to address two problems the creators had with D&D: the power imbalance between wizards and guys-with-swords (wizards start out weaker, wind up vastly stronger, so either sword guys have to be nerfed at the start, or wizards get nerfed later on); and the lack of historical grounding.
The solution to the second problem was the simple, and universally applicable principle: "Just use Earth, ya big baby." So it's set in medieval Europe -- just one where all the fantastic folktale creatures are real and lurking just out of sight.
The first problem was solved by saying "screw it." Wizards are more powerful, so everybody either plays a wizard, or part of a wizard's team of non-magical sidekicks.
Fun stuff. You can see a lot of the Vampire RPG in AM's genetics -- the wizards belong to different orders, which get different power specialties and have certain character stereotypes, and they do a lot of pointless intriguing against each other. But overall enjoyable.
Posted by: Trimegistus at May 28, 2023 09:20 AM (QZxDR)
Comment: I've heard of Ars Magica but I didn't know it was created to try to fix the problem of "Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards." This is a common problem in fantasy storytelling, where the magic-using types tend to be vastly overpowered compared to their sword-wielding companions. I suppose one way to fix this is to make every major character have access to magical power of some sort.
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My pleasant surprise this week was The Scarlet Circus, a romantic short story collection by Jane Yolen with the tales loosely based on fairy tale characters and elements: merfolk, dragons, the Sword in the Stone, genies, even adult Alice returning to Wonderland.
One story is about a slave finding a genie's bottle on the beach:
"I stared at the bottle. If I had any luck at all, the bottle had fallen from a foreign ship and its contents would still be potable. But then, if I had any luck at all, I would not be a slave in Arabia, a Greek sailor washed up on these shores, the same as the bottle at my feet. My father, who was a cynic like his father before him, left me with a cynic's name -- Antithias -- a wry heart, and an acid tongue, none proper legacies for a slave."
What follows is a charming love story between Antithias and the female genie inside the bottle.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 28, 2023 09:24 AM (+RQPJ)
Comment: Always nice when you can find a collection of short stories that resonate with you. Odd Magics by Moron Author Sarah A. Hoyt is another delightful collection of classic fairytales given a modern twist.
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I am reading a short book (around 120 pages, with one quarter of them nothing but black and white photographs), Armour, A Lake Superior Fisherman, with text and photographs by the author, Peter Oikarinen. A native of Michigan's Copper Country and graduate of Michigan Tech in Applied Physics, Peter took up part time employment with Armour Sarkala, another Finn, who lived by Lake Superior and commercial fished its waters. All this occurred around the same time that I myself was a student at "Da Tech" (mid-70s), so I became engrossed in the stories told here. That my father's father and my father were engaged in commercial fishing made matters resonate even more for me.
Told in a series of short stories or vignettes, Armour's life prior to fishing and his tribulations as a small time operation in the increasingly restricted Lake Superior commercial fishing business served as the framework on which Peter hung his vivid descriptions of the weather, working conditions, camaraderie among the fisher folk and Finns, and life on the Keweenaw Peninsula in the second half of the Twentieth Century. His photographs nicely complement the text.
I liked this book and recommend it highly.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 28, 2023 10:05 AM (5pZqO)
Comment:Back in 2014, I took a work trip to the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan to visit Michigan Tech. It really is beautiful country up there. Well worth the trip--at least in the summertime. Winters can be pretty brutal due to lake-effect snow. Lots of interesting history in that region. Great fodder for any interested storytellers who want a bucolic locale for their stories.
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The best answer to really dull "classics" required by teachers is the undeservedly obscure middle-school delight No More Dead Dogs, by the inimitable Gordon Korman (who published his first middle-school novel while still in middle school). Our hero simply will not lie about anything -- and he DIDN'T ENJOY HIS TEACHER'S FAVORITE BOOK! which gets him sentenced to the drama club production based on said book. Shenanigans begin, and they Do. Not. Stop. It's a wonderful little romp, which I used to recommend especially to the parents of boys who didn't like to read.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at May 28, 2023 10:52 AM (SPNTN)
Comment: I tend to feel we like to throw children into the deep end of literature without giving them the necessary understanding of *why* great literature is so great. We force them to read rich, complex texts but do not provide them the foundational knowledge they need to appreciate it to the fullest. Not sure I have a good answer for that, but forcing students to read works that they believe are dull or boring probably isn't doing them any favors. Maybe start with modern stories inspired by the classics and then work backwards?
More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (798 Moron-recommended books so far!)
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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:
Servant of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts -- Political intrigue continues as Mara Acoma strives to consolidate her legacy after defeating her most hated rival house.
Mistress of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts -- Tragedy strikes the Acoma household, sparking a potential civil war that threatens to tear the Empire asunder...
That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!
If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or discussion topics that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...
Season 4 Episode 1: CBD and J.J. Sefton can think of no better way to kick off Pride Month than with our extra special guest, author and commentator extraordinaire Col. Kurt Schlichter, who discusses the national divide and what's to be done, the situation in Ukraine and what we need to do to take back the country.
O.K. Family and I are just going to watch part of one of the movies many of the horde seems to enjoy- Die Hard. None of us have ever seen it ,but I really enjoy the acting of Alan Rickman. Haven't seen a lot of movies with Bruce Willis.
Have a good evening.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke
If only I could go back so I could watch Die Hard with innocent eyes once more... I look forward to the update. As NC Ref 61 said, "Merry Christmas!"
Forgotten 80s Disco Mystery Click: From the Garrett Collection Based, I think, on a sixties song it samples from: Smile for a while and let's be jolly/Love shouldn't be so melancholy/Come along and share the good times while we can Here's the song it samples, thanks to "Biden's dog smells a whole lot of malarkey"
Eugene Sledge, speaks about "The Costs of War."
The author of With the Old Breed on Pelelieu and Okinawa gave this talk in 1994 and it is well worth your time. Meant to include it in the Memorial Day thread but forgot. [J.J. Sefton]
Excited to announce the relaunch of Christian Faith and Family Day at Dodger Stadium on July 30th. More details to come-- but we are grateful for the opportunity to talk about Jesus and determined to make it bigger and better than it was before COVID. Hope to see you on July 30th!
LOL, "relaunch." So the Dodgers didn't host this for years and years and now suddenly realize they forgot to invite Christians to their games. Gee, what could have prompted this sudden realization?
Notice they're not hosting Christians... during "PRIDE" Month. Oh no, not that.
Liz Wheeler
@Liz_Wheeler
How dare you try to pander to Christians because you need us as consumers while at the same time you HONOR an anti-Christian hate group that blasphemes Jesus with "Jesus and Mary striptease" and "dildo dipped in drugs blessings" & "semen" filled chalices? You are grotesque.
Mollie
@MZHemingway
Are you going to reuse the cross from the blasphemous pole dance performed by the anti-Catholic hate group you guys are honoring in June?
No "Hero" award, I notice. It's clarifying to know that the Dodgers hold Christians in lower regard than Satanic perverts.
On the cooldown from my run I passed a guy carrying a case of beer... Yuenling Light. And I don't live in Pennsylvania.
Update on the Bigot Suburbs of NYC:
Several New York counties have already declared states of emergency in an attempt to block the mayor's efforts.
Rockland, Orange, and Onondaga counties have all filed in court to reverse the bussing efforts, saying that the hotels where the illegal immigrants are staying in are in violation of local ordinances.
Posted by: Ferd Berfall
Shut up and take your cultural enrichment, bigots.
WOKE DISNEY CUT OUT THE ENTIRE LOVE STORY IN "THE LITTLE MERMAID" BECAUSE IT'S ANTI-FEMINIST TO SHOW A WOMAN WHO WANTS A (HETEROSEXUAL) RELATIONSHIP A mermaid needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle! The feminists are extremely dogmatic on this: A man can never be shown teaching a woman anything, because women have nothing to learn from men. That's why the dead Carrie Fisher taught Ray in the last Star Wars movie, instead of the alive-and-very-available Mark Hamill. And they are absolutely insistent that women should never want a relationship with a (spit) man. If she wants another woman, that's good and "diverse," but no woman can ever be shown to be attracted to a man. That would be un-empowering. They're not against all relationships -- just the heterosexual kinds. It's incredible. Male-female love is just now absolutely taboo at Disney. But they'll keep cramming movies with their Not-So-Secret-Gay Agenda! They are determined to headf*** every child who is negligently taken to see their movies.
It's called Colonial Nightmare, and I've included the plot summary below as well as an Amazon link here: 
