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
Good morning kids. Well, the day that knuckle-dragging thug-pig Alvin Bragg will supposedly arrest former President Donald Trump for a non-crime has arrived. I have no more tears left because I am absolutely incandescent with rage against the tyrannical Marxist scum who hijacked my country and perhaps even more at those allegedly on our side who allowed it to happen to make a buck off of it.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it is painfully evident to all but the most clueless that this country, as it was, as it was supposed to be and how we perhaps pretended that it was until 2020 is gone. Yet, here we are with this banana republic goon show upon us going on as if the 2024 election is going to make difference. And this is assuming that whoever the nominee is actually beats the margin of fraud. But when the fraud doesn't merely affect the system but is now the system itself . . .
Two days after Trump announced his impending arrest, and two days after hordes of Republicans – even his rivals, even “Never-Trumpers” – condemned the partisan overreach of a radical Soros-funded district attorney, DeSantis finally spoke up – and it was to take a cheap shot at Trump.
“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair,” Mr. DeSanctimonious, er, DeSantis said.
“I have no interest in getting involved in some manufactured circus by some Soros-DA,” he continued. “He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in the state of Florida.”
If the weaponization of the criminal justice system isn’t a “real issue,” then DeSantis isn’t ready for the White House.
It pains me to have to say this but I happen to agree with that assessment, especially in light of the situation the nation finds itself in. And it goes double for Trump. I'll get to that in a second.
My colleagues and friends have taken the position that Trump had it coming given his puerile attacks on DeSantis. I would agree with that were it not for the fact that we're a red pubic hair's breadth away from full transformation into a Marxist dictatorship or worse, a puppet regime with the Davos-Brussels-Beijing Axis pulling the strings. I'm equally if not more pissed at the two people who should be seeing this and acting accordingly: Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. I'm usually kind of "meh" on Wayne Allyn Root, but he seems to get it, albeit unwittingly:
With the GOP divided and Democrats in control of government, the very existence of America is threatened. Look around. We are on the verge of World War III. The U.S. economy is in decline. Banks are failing. Our border is wide open. Crime is exploding. And inflation is wiping out the great American middle class. America is hanging by a thread.
Our only hope is the reelection of Trump as president. But even that is not enough. For any chance at all, America needs DeSantis to carry on after Trump. America and the world are simply in too precarious a state to fix in four years. But a lot can be done in 12 years. To that end, let me first offer Trump and DeSantis my advice on how they can work together to save America.
First, put your egos aside.
This isn’t about either of you. It’s about saving the United States of America from a communist takeover, combined with a foreign invasion at our border. Time is running out. . .
. . . With Trump and DeSantis in partnership, this strategy makes sense. But with a bitter primary fight, Trump must aim his campaign only at Republican voters. . .
. . . So, saving the greatest country in world history all comes down to putting ego aside and uniting Trump and DeSantis for the good of America.
Root is a completely clueless idiot, insofar as he is still under the delusion that campaigning is going to make a difference where elections are concerned. But he is dead on about the two of them putting their egos aside for the betterment of the nation.
If history teaches us anything, everything that we have witnessed since Election SEASON 2020 to the January 6th Reichstag Weenie Roast and beyond indicates that the Democrats along with Mitch McChicom and his ilk are going to do everything they can to steal 2024. And at this point, there is nothing to indicate that they won't succeed.
Yet so many people are Wayne Allyn Rooting themselves into the delusion that that won't happen, regardless of which of the two frontrunners they support. This has now gone beyond elections and beyond American politics as usual. When ordinary citizens are persecuted, blackballed, censored and now arrested and held as political prisoners in what was the United States of America – with an alarmingly large percentage of the population cheering it on – it's time to wake the fuck up and smell the covfefe.
That goes particularly for Trump and DeSantis. The fact that we are now at a point where we are encouraged not to hold rallies or even protest for fear that they will be infiltrated by DOJ glowies and saboteurs is abhorrent since mass rallies, protests and even a national strike are absolutely justified. Not just for what they are about to do to Trump but for what they are doing to our freedom, our economy, our security and our way of life. And let's say by some fluke they actually do beat the system and win. Is that really going to make a difference given the entire federal bureaucracy will sabotage their agenda at every turn? That is unless the military declares martial law after arresting the new president and summarily executing him and his staff in the Rose Garden, live on CNN of course.
This is no longer about just an election. This is about a movement for national survival. God-willing national revival. But if we're going to go down anyway, why not go down swinging rhetorically speaking?
I like Richard Fernandez but his finding the Left and us equally guilty ruins what could have been an otherwise good essay. The Age of Conspiracy
"The Biden [junta] is set to provide California with a waiver for its new rules, allowing it to enforce stricter guidelines than what were set out in the federal Clean Air Act . . . 'Our industry hopes these reports aren’t true,' President and CEO Chris Spear of the American Trucking Association told the DCNF in a statement." California Could Use ‘Backdoor’ to Kickstart the End of Diesel Trucks in the US, Experts Say
Robert Spencer: "This is not the way the Constitutional republic that the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us was ever supposed to work. The Democrats, having spent decades hollowing out our Constitutional protections, are now planning on doing a victory dance upon their empty shell and casting any people who dare to protest in their next Reichstag Fire production, as we all descend merrily on our way to becoming a one-party state. Can the House Republicans stop them? We can hope." It’s On: NYPD and Capitol Police Putting Up Barricades, Expecting Riots When Trump Is Arrested
Julie Kelly: "If anyone thinks conditions will improve soon, just wait until this same Justice Department indicts Trump for 'inciting' the events of January 6." The Death of Dissent
Roger Kimball: "We don’t acknowledge that we promulgate bills of attainder in this country, but that is essentially the judgment that has been pronounced against the former president." Donald Trump, Regime Foe
"Even if Democrats really were concerned about our convoluted election regulations, no serious person thinks New York’s district attorney has a case against Trump." Arresting Trump: An End-of-America Watch Party
“The Manhattan District Attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor and so he like, other Soros funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety,” DeSantis said. DeSantis Breaks Silence On Potential Trump Indictment
* * * * *
Alan Dershowitz, who is also not a fan of Trump’s but has slammed politicized investigations and impeachments of the former president, wrote recently in the New York Sun: "All decent people, whether politically opposed to Mr. Trump (as I am) or supportive of his candidacy, should be concerned about this weaponizing of the prosecutor’s office for the political purpose of preventing a potential candidate from running for office." Trump Critics Slam Looming Indictment as ‘Nonsense,’ ‘Partisan,’ Say It Will Help Him in 2024
"Trump’s real crime is that he challenged and undermined the established political order." Arresting Trump
“I have no interest in getting involved in some manufactured circus by some Soros-DA,” he continued. “He’s trying to do a political spectacle. He’s trying to virtue signal for his base. I’ve got real issues I got to deal with here in the state of Florida.” If the weaponization of the criminal justice system isn’t a “real issue,” then DeSantis isn’t ready for the White House. DeSantis Tanked 2024 In 22 Words
"We need to have Alvin Bragg testify," Stefanik told the Washington Free Beacon in a wide-ranging interview Monday morning. "This skyrockets as a top priority because it epitomizes at the highest level the political weaponization, literally against Joe Biden’s leading opponent, and it’s a form of meddling in the presidential elections." ‘Top Priority’: House GOP Leadership Puts Alvin Bragg in Crosshairs
"New York City’s George Soros-bankrolled District Attorney is signaling that he will arrest Donald Trump as soon as Tuesday over the Stormy Daniels bimbroglio from years ago. The case, made up of vapors and dandelion wishes, is the last-gasp effort by the Left to 'Get Trump.' One wonders if Bragg’s next move is to prepare the Jeffrey Epstein Suite at Rikers for the former president. After the requisite perp walk and mug shot are done for MSNBC, The Lincoln Project, and Marc Elias’s use (but I repeat myself), why wouldn’t Bragg move to slam the former president in a jail cell?" Is NYC District Attorney Prepping the Jeffrey Epstein Suite at Rikers for Re-Elect Trump HQ
"The corporate media always employs this strategy: something goes terribly wrong politically, usually as a result of corruption and malfeasance on the part of the state and the corporation (which are increasingly one and the same in an unholy union). Then, instead of diagnosing the problem, the corporate media focuses solely on the 'solution' to the problem, which is usually more of the same disastrous policy that caused the problem in the first place." WATCH: CBS News Actress REALLY Doesn't Want to Talk About Bank Malfeasance
In a supreme irony, given her government role in silencing Americans’ speech, Jankowicz declares that “I’m not going to be silent… I’m not going to let them silence me or anyone else like me,” Jankowicz claims, referencing “the bullies” who disagree with her on the internet. “And that’s a lot of what the book is about.” WATCH: 'Disinformation Czar' Nina Jankowicz Emerges From Hiding to Celebrate Herself on Cable News
"Incredulity. Astonishment. Disgust. Anger. It is these feelings – amongst others – that describe the general reaction to the revelations of the Twitter Files and other egregious episodes of Big Tech censorship of the electronic public square." The Censored Generation
CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM
"The House has already scheduled a vote to override Biden’s veto on March 23; however, with the slim majority in Congress, it is unlikely that Congress can override Biden’s veto since it would require two-thirds support from both chambers." Joe Biden Issues First Veto to Reject Bill Reversing ESG Rule
"They also note that the performance-gap between neutral and politically-driven companies began to widen in 2017-2018, about the same time that powerful asset managers like BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard began to wield their considerable influence to pressure companies to embrace ESG, at the expense of profit." Politically-Neutral Companies Outperform Both ESG-Driven Firms and Overall Market, Study Reveals
"A recent bout of the avian flu has decreased the size of American poultry flocks, raising costs for chicken and turkey while causing a severe increase in egg prices. One dozen large Grade A eggs sold for a national average of $4.20 as of February 2023, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, constituting a 110% rise from $2.01 in February 2022 and a 163% rise from $1.60 in February 2021." Eggs Are So Expensive That Dollar Tree Is No Longer Selling Them
"Critics of a potential central bank digital currency note that the asset, which would be managed by the Federal Reserve and tethered to the value of the dollar, would create opportunities for government surveillance and control of private citizens. DeSantis proposed legislation that would ban the recognition of central bank digital currencies, whether from the federal government or an overseas central bank, as money under Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code." DeSantis Unveils Plan to Battle Biden’s "Efforts to Inject a Centralized Bank Digital Currency"
"And the targets are U.S. citizens and U.S. sovereignty." (and the Democrats and RINOs are behind the lines aiding and abetting the invaders - jjs) The Southern Border is a Hybrid War Zone
"Ridership in the Los Angeles County Metro system is plummeting because of crime, but the system’s overseers are in denial about the solution." More Law Enforcement, Less Social Work
Robert Spencer: "As [DC Mayor Muriel Bowser] and Fauci walk off to find their next mark, the man calls after them: 'Y’all’s campaign is about fear. It’s about inciting fear in people. You all attack people with fear. That’s what this pandemic is.' Yes, indeed. It’s a marvel that this segment didn’t end up on PBS’ cutting-room floor. It stands as a testimony to Fauci the snake oil salesman, which is how he will ultimately be remembered." WATCH: Fauci Encounters Some People Who Don't Buy His Snake Oil
J. Christian Adams: "Don’t think there are conservative counterparts to the avalanche of leftist curriculum at Yale that I am cataloging here. There aren’t, period. And only a tiny minority of the courses relate to the actual practice of law — the real challenges for which people hire lawyers. But even those appear to have a deconstructionist bent." Yale Law School—EXPOSED
"Does the board really think some simple ban on some language in this one narrow area is going to really change things? As long as these well-funded DEI departments exist with an established university-wide agenda to demand favoritism for some simply because of their race or gender, UNC will continue to be a model for bigotry, practicing discrimination in both race and gender." Pushback? University of North Carolina Pretends to Ban "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" Requirements in Hiring
"Given all the other obstacles that Republicans face, it is unrealistic to think they can win the presidency unless they relentlessly address the Democrats’ preferred election arrangements." A Feared Repeat
While Xi’s public statements upon arrival were mostly about the growing partnership between China and Russia, Putin played his part as the junior partner in the new axis of tyranny, gushing over the Chinese leader and promising “clarification” for why Putin made things awkward for Beijing by invading Ukraine. Xi Jinping in Russia: China Will "Stand Guard over the World Order"
"The U.S. provided India with real-time info on Chinese troop movements, including satellite imagery, marking the the most detailed and fastest intelligence-sharing operation between the two countries, according to U.S. News and World Report." US Intel-Sharing Helped Indians Kick Serious Chinese Communist Ass
"Twenty years after the Iraq invasion: America’s humiliation was China’s gain." And the Winner Is . . .
"Twenty years after the Iraq invasion: A diplomat recalls sweltering heat and balmy beer." Memories from Baghdad
DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
"While Biden [junta's] new budget request actually shrinks the size of the fleet in the face of threats from China, Russia, and North Korea, the Secretary of the Navy says climate change is one of the Navy’s 'top' priorities." U.S. Navy’s Priority in 2023? Climate Change
The debacle was ignited after a man offered to provide Pride flags to local businesses for the purpose of displaying them in shop windows in Witham. Kilmartin, 81, responded on Wednesday, writing on Facebook: “I don’t want Pride sex flags along my high street. I don’t even want heterosexual flags along my high street.” UK Tory Councillor Suspended for Saying She Does Not Want "Pride Sex Flags" on High Streets
Jessica Anderson, Heritage Action executive director: “Just as state legislatures have worked to protect children from harmful cross-sex hormones or experimental surgeries, they are also tackling the broader problem of activist educators and administrators attempting to influence young children and push the left’s radical gender ideology.” Here are the 14 States Moving To Prohibit Sexually Explicit Drag Shows for Minors
"Accurate, non-politicized descriptions of biology are essential to crafting policy to preserve the integrity of female-only spaces." Understanding the Sex Binary
CULTURE WARS, NATIONAL SUICIDE
Robert Spencer: " . . . the irony is just off the charts here. Woody Guthrie was so pro-Soviet that when Stalin’s Soviet Union concluded a pact with National Socialist Germany in August 1939, Woody dutifully followed the party line and started writing antiwar songs about how bad it would be for the United States to get into a war against Hitler because he didn’t want to see America throwing its military might against a state with whom the Workers’ Paradise had a non-aggression pact. What was that Nora Guthrie was saying about 'insurrectionists?' She may hope we have forgotten about her father’s fanatical Stalinism. At least some of us haven’t." Commie Woody Guthrie’s Daughter Doesn’t Want "Insurrectionist" Josh Hawley Using "This Land Is Your Land
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have now entered into a partnership with a group that apparently wishes for people to understand boyhood as “fluid” and eradicate the idea that “boys will be boys.” (paraphrasing the immortal words of Willie Cicci, "The Boyhood had a lot of fluids!" - jjs) Prince Harry's Charity Teams with Group That Advocates for Boyhood to be "Fluid"
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.
Well, more specifically, it will launch in a rideshare package on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Tiny, short-lived satellites are pretty cheap to get into low-Earth orbit if you can find someone with a bit of spare room on a scheduled launch.
Also - in case the 1950s sci-fi technobabble above doesn't tip you off to how unlikely this thing is to work, it's being promoted by a wireless power company that is big on renewable energy, and the whole article reads like a press release from Sam Bankman-Fried's cousin who runs a wind power startup with plans to deploy on the Moon.
They now have OLED displays - 2880x1800 on the 14" model, and 3200x2000 on the 16". That's paired with an Intel 1360P, up to 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD.
The 14" model lacks the Four Essential Keys, but the 16" model has a narrow numeric keypad, which isn't perfect - it forces the keyboard off center - but is better than having to hit Fn-Ctrl-Shift-UpArrow.
In fact, with Microsoft's PowerToys app you could configure the numeric keypad as a 15-key macro pad, which would be quite interesting.
I'm looking more for a 14" notebook, but LG's Gram series is famously lightweight; the 16" model is lighter than my current 14" notebook.
MARCH 20--After using a butter knife to cause extensive paint damage to a 2023 Nissan, a Missouri man vacationing in Florida copped to the criminal mischief, describing his felonious conduct as a “spring break mistake,” police report.
The defendant, however, is a 52-year-old real estate executive, not a collegian sharing a St. Petersburg hotel room with eight friends.
According to cops, the vehicle’s owners, a married couple, spotted a man standing near their car Thursday evening and “making motions” near the driver’s side. When the duo confronted the man, he “laughed and ran off down the street.”
The images appeared on Twitter in late 2016 just as the presidential campaign was entering its final stretch. Some featured the message “vote for Hillary” and the phrases “avoid the line” and “vote from home.”
Aimed at Democratic voters, and sometimes singling out Black people, the messages were actually intended to help Donald J. Trump, not Hillary Clinton. The goal, federal prosecutors said, was to suppress votes for Ms. Clinton by persuading her supporters to falsely believe they could cast presidential ballots by text message.
The misinformation campaign was carried out by a group of conspirators, prosecutors said, including a man in his 20s who called himself Ricky Vaughn. On Monday he will go on trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn under his real name, Douglass Mackey, after being charged with conspiring to spread misinformation designed to deprive others of their right to vote.
“The defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one of the most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution,” Nicholas L. McQuaid, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in 2021 when charges against Mr. Mackey were announced.
After Vice raised $500 million in 2014, its CEO and co-founder Shane Smith remarked to a friend that he’d become “post-economic.”
Brash, decadent, and charming, Smith was the burly, bearded face of Vice Media through its decade of apparent prosperity, from the late aughts until the late 2010s. Vice’s image as a new kind of culture business intertwined with his own image as a big new media mogul: He drove a vintage Rolls Royce, bought a mountain in Costa Rica, and reportedly dropped over $300,000 on a single Las Vegas dinner. He handed out bonuses in the form of fistfuls of (company) cash at a holiday party. He bought the $23 million Santa Monica mansion made famous by the movie Beverly Hills Cop.
But as investors sell off what’s left of Vice, it’s increasingly clear that the lavish spending helped create an illusion of prosperity.
Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late
IPCC report says only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage to world
Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late
IPCC report says only swift and drastic action can avert irrevocable damage to world
Scientists have delivered a “final warning” on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of the world’s leading climate scientists, set out the final part of its mammoth sixth assessment report on Monday.
The comprehensive review of human knowledge of the climate crisis took hundreds of scientists eight years to compile and runs to thousands of pages, but boiled down to one message: act now, or it will be too late.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.”
The first act should be shutting down the UN. No need for all of those tax dollar swilling grifters to be flying back and forth from wherever to the US.
Then use the UN building to house all of the illegal immigrants until we can cart them back to their country of origin in EVs diesel powered buses.
Marcus Moore started his business "Moore Crunch" last October for two simple reasons: he likes snacking and he likes pretzels.
Moore is 29 years old and he has autism. Although he's worked at local grocery stores over the years, he has always wanted to grow and be self-sufficient.
"I have autism and didn't like that I couldn't take care of myself without the help of my parents," he said. "They love me and I love them but I'm also trying to live on my own and fit in where I can. I also love pretzels! So, I thought I would see if people would love pretzels as much as I do and I started Moore Crunch."
American company begs for help as Mexican military seize facility: ‘This forcible seizure of private property is unlawful’
President Joe Biden’s failures on foreign policy, the supply chain and American exceptionalism combined to allow the Mexican military’s “insane” seizure of an Alabama-based materials company’s operations to go unanswered.
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The ONT Musical Interlude & Weber Grill Emporium
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The Quotes of The Day
Quote I
“The pain and trauma caused by a legacy of systemic racism and police brutality against Black and Brown Philadelphians is immeasurable,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney
A federal judge on Monday will weigh pleas by four major book publishers to stop an online lending library from freely offering digital copies of books, in a case that raises novel questions about digital-library rights and the reach of copyright law that protects the work of writers and publishers. From a report:
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Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire & AceCorp, LLC. Direct supervision provided by the steno pool of Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, S.C. Complaints? Unhappiness? Discontent? Work it out Buttercup.
However, AJC's Greg Bluestein reported that several Democrats are not excited at the prospect, writing, "But interviews with more than three dozen Democratic officials, party leaders and activists suggest she may not have the same unified support she enjoyed after her first defeat to Kemp in 2018."
"Like many other Democrats, [Chair of Monroe County's Democratic Party Yvonne] Stuart praised Abrams' work mobilizing voters and laying the groundwork for the party's 2020 gains. But she said she worried that Abrams lost partly because 'she fell into the trap of becoming too much of a celebrity' in between her campaigns," Bluestein wrote.
Stuart said, "I do believe there might be another charismatic Democrat that can take us all the way in 2026."
Remember when the leftwing propaganda media kept running video of "packed" hospitals early in the pandemic? And when people who knew something said that that kind of overflow was routine in hospitals, because they choose to keep themselves understaffed for the sake of profitability? And so that being at 90%+ capacity was quite normal, and in fact their whole business plan?
EXCLUSIVE: 24 hours of HELL in top NYC hospital: Patients left lying in hallways, urine soaked floors and staff incapable of providing answers for desperate family members - as city's healthcare system is stretched to breaking point
A woman rushed her mother to the Mount Sinai Hospital on Madison Avenue on March 8 because she suspected the 67-year-old was having a stroke
This was ruled out within 10 minutes - but then a nightmarish day for the cancer sufferer and her daughter began as they were left waiting in limbo at the ER
'Every corner was filled with people,' she said, describing trash littering the floor, urine pots kicked over and homeless people seeking treatment left ignored
The job cuts would mark the second largest round of layoffs in the company's history, adding to the 18,000 employees the tech giant said it would lay off in January. The company's workforce doubled during the pandemic, however, in the midst of a hiring surge across almost the entire tech sector.
These companies made absurd profits during the lockdowns -- and they hired a lot of people they only needed for that period of lockdown, too.
A lot of people were making $175,000-per-year salaries who would not have made anything like that except for the Regime's decision to lock us all in our houses.
Would you believe that Google's mass firings from January are still going on? Google's reported mishandling of its biggest round of layoffs ever has employees up in arms, and they're doing everything from walking out on the job to sending angry letters to management.
First up, European Googlers are just now being laid off due to the January announcement. Reuters reports that more than 200 workers were laid off from the Zόrich, Switzerland, branch of the company this week. The employees at that office walked out for a second time in protest of the move and even offered to take pay cuts or reduce working hours to stave off the job cuts. Google's layoffs seem driven by a desire to placate the stock market, though, so it's no surprise that these offers fell on deaf ears.
I think they like when people walk off the job: They're just telling Google "fire me next."
...
Current and former employees feel Google is being cruel in how it's treating employees who were on medical or parental leave during the layoffs. CNBC reports that Google has decided to not honor pre-approved leave for laid-off employees. Some Googlers formed a group called "Laid off on Leave," which is attempting to get Google to honor its previously agreed-to timelines for employees going through major life changes.
Making Google honor its previous leave agreements isn't just about employees getting paid when they have medical or family issues; it's also about having continual medical care when they need it most. ...
While employees' severance packages might come with a few more months of health insurance, being fired means instantly losing access to Google's facilities. If that's where a laid-off Googler's primary care doctor works, that person is out of luck, and some employees told CNBC they lost access to their doctors the second the layoff email arrived. Employees on leave also have a lot to deal with. One former Googler, Kate Howells, said she was let go by Google from her hospital bed shortly after giving birth. She worked at the company for nine years.
So Google is required to keep people on staff just to pay their medical bills?
Why, it's almost as if they're being forced to be a for-profit company, instead of just a Guaranteed-Work Program for minorities, trans people, and the dim-bulb daughters of wealthy upper class families!
Maybe you guy shouldn't have made those "A Day in the Life of a Google Development Person" TikToks you did, in which you advertised to Google's shareholders that there was so little work for you to do that you could literally attend two meetings in a day, and spend the rest of your day in the spa or playing foosball or drinking organic teas.
New York will make it easier for students to reach "proficiency" on state math and English language arts tests, calling last year's lower scores the "new normal."
A scoring committee that reports to the Board of Regents said Monday that they must take into account the results of last year's tests for students in grades three through eight. Some schools posted shocking results -- in Schenectady, no eighth grader who took the math test scored as proficient. And the scores for the third through eighth grade tests throughout the state were much lower in 2022 than in 2019, a result no doubt of the absence of in-person learning during the first year and beyond of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The committee handles all scoring, not just this year's changes.
And keep in mind: New York's previous standards weren't exactly up there with Japan's or Korea's, either.
And now they're even lower. Because the leadership and main body of our teacher corps just wants to talk about their own pronouns and get validation from children that they're not getting from their fathers, and because they were lazy and status-grubbing and demanded to "teach from home" like the white collar workers they envy.
Jonathan Haidt points out that kids' mental health has really declined. John Sexton at Hot Air:
Jonathan Haidt has a forthcoming book on this topic titled Kids In Space: Why Teen Mental Health is Collapsing which should be out next year. The gist of his argument has two basic parts. The first is that there is lots of evidence showing a growing mental health crisis among teens, especially teen girls. There doesn't seem to be a lot of disagreement on that point. Last month the CDC released data which also found teen girls are having a very tough time.
"If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we've ever seen," said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health, who said the rise of sexual violence almost certainly contributed to the glaring spike of depressive symptoms. "We are really alarmed," she said...
Almost 3 in 5 teenage girls reported feeling so persistently sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row during the previous year that they stopped regular activities -- a figure that was double the share of boys and the highest in a decade, CDC data showed.
The other part of Haidt's argument is about the cause. The data seems to suggest that this crisis is relatively new. The numbers indicating mental health problems seem to take off around 2011-2012. That's when indicators of depression and self-harm among teens started to rise. Haidt believes that's because the crisis is tied to the adoption of smartphones and social media.
Sexton quotes the New York Time's viciously partisan Michelle Goldberg, who previously claimed that girls were just committing suicide more because -- get this -- Because Trump, but then finally looked at the actual data and saw that the inflection point for rising suicidality/depression/chronic stress began in the Age of Obama, 2011-2012, and then also realized, Say wait, Trump wasn't on little girls' minds then...
Sexton quotes Matthew Yglesias, who says that this does have something to do with politics: Specifically, the left's embrace of catastrophism (the claim that every negative thing is a catastrophe that will destroy the world or Literally Genocide Trans People, etc.) and permanent victimhood as a status symbol.
I think the discussion around gender and the role of social media is an important one. But I also don't believe that liberal boys are experiencing more depression than conservative girls because they are disproportionately hung up on Instagram-induced body image issues -- I think there's also something specific to politics going on.
Some of it might be selection effect, with progressive politics becoming a more congenial home for people who are miserable. But I think some of it is poor behavior by adult progressives, many of whom now valorize depressive affect as a sign of political commitment.
Sure seems like leftwing people are very, very mentally ill. More than half -- 56% -- of liberal women aged 18-29 report that a medical professional has told them they have a mental illness. That's more than double the rate of conservative women.
Also note that they younger people are, the more mentally ill they are.
Libs of TikTok's Book Event in New York City Cancelled Due to Credible Threats; Latitia James' Government-Sponsored Drag Queen Strory Hour for Children Goes Off Without a Hitch
—Ace
Remember this, and remember the media's silence, the next time the media starts whining that if you criticize a person or organization on the left, you're literally trying to get them killed.
Chaya Raychik of Libs of TikTok attempted to exercise her right to free speech, but the event was cancelled because of threats of disruption from the left.
At an event in which children were present.
Think Jake Tapper will be discussing this today? Because I don't.
BRAVE BOOKS
@BraveBooksUS
We have received threats of potentially inappropriate and unsafe behavior at the NYC story hour with Chaya Raichik on Sunday and have advised Chaya we cancel the event. With children being involved, we dont want to take any chances.
We will find a way to combat this moving forward. Stay tuned for an announcement in the coming days.
The attorney general's event was quite an extravaganza. According to press reports, about 200 guests, including families, "enjoyed four back-to-back Story Hours" at The LGBT Community Center.
We're at @LGBTCenterNYC with some amazing Drag Story Hour NYC storytellers, New York families, elected officials, and community leaders to kick off our Drag Story Hour read-a-thon! pic.twitter.com/PfcS80Yc1l
The left just wants to turn your children into Therapy Animals and Comfort Pets for mentally-ill gay and trans people. That's all they want. Is that too much to ask?
On Wednesday, Raju offered an update on Fetterman's condition that generated a lot of opposition.
"John Fetterman is making progress in his recovery from clinical depression and could leave Walter Reed within next two weeks, a person close to the senator told me. The senator's physician recently informed him that he will be 'as good or better than his best days post-stroke,'" he tweeted.
"Fetterman's stay has lasted this long because the doctors have been trying to get his 'medication balance exactly right,' per source. For instance, doctors learned his blood pressure med was too high, which may have contributed to dizziness when he went to GW hospital last month," he added.
I mean -- that's possible, but wouldn't they have reported he had, you know, low blood pressure then, too? Yes one can get dizzy from having blood pressure that's too low -- it happens to me during fasts if I get dehydrated -- but they would have reported he had low blood pressure, wouldn't they have?
Or maybe they're just concealing lying about all of his symptoms -- in which case, why should anyone believe what they're claiming now?
Mitch McConnell has been released from the hospital after his own fall at a "private dinner." He gave himself a concussion and a broken rib. He's doing rehab now.
Do any of these old f***s ever plan on leaving office or do they all intend to die on the public dime?
In case you missed it, I was leaked correspondence between John Fetterman and his devoted wife Gisele.
You may find that John's letters are best accompanied with this musical accompaniment, and that Gisele's flow nicely with this.
"Ron DeSantis has a Florida Problem" because... he's too popular here.
This might be the most fantastical concern troll of the week--and there's stiff competition.
The article is about Ron DeSantis' popularity in Florida permitting him to go "too far" on social issues like abortion and wokeness.
Ron DeSantis would seem to have everything going for him in the Republican presidential primary. There's just one small question: Will the good vibes now result in election doom later?
As the Florida governor cast out to early nominating states in recent days, even some of his supporters could see a problem brewing for him back home. Lawmakers in his home state are advancing controversial bills on gender and diversity policy -- base-pleasing issues for Republicans, but a potential liability in a general election. And on one cultural issue that did hurt Republicans in the midterm elections -- abortion -- DeSantis is going even further to the right, preparing to sign a bill banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape and incest if victims offer proof of a crime.
"Wow," said Amy Tarkanian, a former chair of the Republican Party in Nevada, where DeSantis traveled over the weekend. "A lot of people don't even know they're pregnant at six weeks. I'm pro-life, but that's pretty extreme."
"I'm pro-life but I'm against limiting abortion." This is said all the time.
In the run-up to the primary, DeSantis solidified his place as Trump's chief rival for the nomination largely based on an electability argument. He was MAGA, like Trump, but without the former president's baggage or toxicity to moderate Republicans and independents -- the kind of voters Republicans will need to run Joe Biden from the White House next year.
But as DeSantis edges closer to announcing, he is testing the limits of how hard right he can go without undermining his rationale for running in the first place. It's a significant risk in a primary in which Republican voters -- sore from losing the White House in 2020 and a less-than-red-wave midterm two years later -- are desperate to nominate a candidate who can win.
"In a way, the Republican dominance of the Florida Legislature may end up hurting DeSantis because his proposals can become reality," said Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist in Arizona. "That may help him in a primary in Iowa or Texas or South Dakota, but in a general election in Arizona, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, it could be ruinous for him."
That fear isn't lost on Republican primary voters, either. In hypothetical matchups with Biden in a Morning Consult poll this week, DeSantis fared no better than Trump, with each trailing the incumbent Democrat by 1 percentage point. Moreover, when asked in arecent Yahoo News/YouGov poll who had the best chance of winning in 2024, DeSantis didn't stand out against Trump, either, with about as many Republicans and Republican-leaning independents naming Trump as DeSantis. That is a major shift from December, when far more Republicans viewed DeSantis as the more electable Republican.
At any given fundraiser or VIP room where he's present, Ron DeSantis is usually easy to find--in the corner, keeping to himself.
...
During his donor retreat in Palm Beach in late February, an attendee stood up and called him "DeSatan," according to Republicans familiar with the outburst.
At his recent book tour stop in Davenport, Iowa, a volunteer English teacher and seasoned caucus enthusiast posed for a photo alongside the governor with the term "fascist" carved out within her design of a paper snowflake.
DeSantis has been slimming down -- another sign he's running for president -- so the leftwing media is now claiming, without evidence, that he's on Ozempic for weight control, and he must be, because he's totally a Fatty-Fat-Fatty by nature:
Tara Palmeri
@tarapalmeri
Is DeSantis on Ozempic? He's lost a dramatic amount of weight since his inauguration two months ago
I don't know if he's on Ozempic and neither does this whore; she's just doing her duty as a Brave Media Truth-Teller to flood the zone with anti-DeSantis stories.
Um, yeah, so this is what I think they call the Bargaining phase of grief, isn't it? They're demanding DeSantis be a George Bush-like "a thousand points of light" Democrat Lite to prove he really deserves to be president.
Ron DeSantis -- why is he politicizing communism?!?!
NBC's Chuck Todd accused DeSantis of playing politics when he told an audience in Vegas that every November 10th, Florida schools teach kids about the dangers of communism.
"He's going out of his way to politicize something," Todd cried. pic.twitter.com/AQWUMeomIC
-- Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) March 12, 2023
These are the same people who insist that students must hear about slavery non-stop, but when you mention that communism was bad too, they cry in outrage: "Stop indoctrinating children with your political lies!!!"
Adam Kinzinger is now boasting that Trump will "wipe the floor" with DeSantis when we get to the "battle of personalities."
So apparently there is someone Adam Kinzinger hates more than Trump.
I wonder why.
David Frum
@davidfrum
Fascinating to watch Governor Ron DeSantis walk his nervous, wavering line on Ukraine. He's so tough against Disney!
The Washington Post is even in "Second Look at Trump" territory, positively comparing Trump's "free-wheeling" campaign style with the "scripted" DeSantis.
Trump campaign staffer Jason Miller even calls this a "Must Read"!
That headline is much more pro-Trump than the actual article. The article is mostly just a neutral comparison of styles -- but "free-wheeling" is almost always taken to be good, and "scripted" as bad -- he's lying! -- so it's not completely neutral. Just more neutral than the headline would suggest.
This is the first neutral-to-good article the Post has written about Trump in eight or ten years -- and of course it's only because they hate DeSantis more.
And that's not the first time the media has complained about this. A few weeks ago they complained that DeSantis was too "careful" in his remarks. Sub-text: He won't make gaffes and give us easy Hit Pieces on him! What a scumbag!
This is not really related to the main subject, but just to get this out of the way: Trump responded to DeSantis' barely-a-dig dig.
He said that DeSantis is a groomer, citing the leftwing account Meidas Touch, and also floated the idea that he might have some sexual allegations coming his way, from a man.
Note that Trump pushed the DeSantis-Might-Be-A-Groomer claim from the left months ago. He gave it more prominence than "Meidas Touch" ever did. So no, this is not Trump "counterattacking;" it's just him repeating an attack he's made a few times before.
I'm not super-complaining about this -- I supported Trump completely in 2016 and 2020, knowing he did this kind of thing, so I bought the ticket, and am now obliged to take the ride -- but I continue to be perplexed at people insisting that it's not fair to do the same to Trump in return.
And Trump demanding that people treat him fairly is just, well, too much.
Jason Miller, by the way, is delivering some real body-blows on DeSantis over the past week.
But on Monday afternoon, the campaign told News4Jax that it's pronounced Dee-Santis. Hard D: DeeSantis. Just the way he pronounces in the ads," a campaign spokesperson wrote in an email.https://t.co/3Vv1yU1zgzhttps://t.co/ZkgdcseVWP
He's correcting reporters about the pronunciation of his name. This shows that he's a weak and insecure man, most likely with profound homosexual tendencies.
This shiftless homo doesn't write his name the same way every time. Obviously he has a low character. This is the sad signature of someone wholly owned by Globalist Backers.
San Fransisco District Supervisor Has Completely-Unexpected Complaint About City Police Force
—Ace
Via Instapundit and David Strom, a San Francisco district supervisor "strongly" supported the movement to defund the police in 2020.
Hillary Ronen
@HillaryRonen
Aug 16, 2020
I want to make it clear that I believe strongly in defunding the police and reducing the number of officers on our force. For decades we've had an imbalance in our city's budget, with hundreds of millions of dollars going to SFPD to have them do work they are not qualified to do.
Hillary Ronen
@HillaryRonen
After fighting to create Mental Health SF which redirects funds to mental health care crisis teams instead of police, I believe without a shadow of a doubt that SFPD is not where we should be putting our money.
But we have a big fight on our hands to make these cuts happen.
Hillary Ronen
@HillaryRonen
If I've learned anything from my years in City Hall, it is that our best wins come through collaboration. We need unprecedented unity between those who wish to defund the police if we are to get passed this finish line together.
You'll never guess what she's saying now.
Actually, I'm pretty sure you saw the Spoiler Twist Ending of this movie coming back in 2020.
Do you see? It's the police department's fault that they don't have enough manpower to send additional cops to her district. Why did the police department defund itself?!?!
Meanwhile, a CNN crew hired security to guard their car in San Francisco, right outside what is supposed to be the embodiment of law and order in any city, City Hall.
The fact that CNN even had to hire security to guard their car right in front of the locus of legal and political power in San Francisco is insane enough.
That's right, robbers broke into the car and looted it, despite the security guard right next to it.
Got robbed. Again. @jasonkCNN & I were at city hall in San Francisco to do an interview for @CNN. We had security to watch our rental car + crew car. Thieves did this in under 4 seconds. Security stopped the jerks from stealing other bags. But seriously- this is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/3zcCzckavW
San Francisco's City Hall is not the locus of law and order. It is in fact the locus of criminality and mayhem. The thieves and bandits are on their home turf in front of the San Francisco's City Hall.
Teenager Sues Doctors and Health Care Company For Cutting Her Healthy Breasts Off, Telling Her Parents That They Had to Choose Between "A Dead Daughter or a Live Son"
A teenager is suing a health care company and the doctors who put her on controversial puberty-blocking drugs at age 12 and removed her healthy breasts in a double-mastectomy surgery when she was just 13 years old, accusing them of "intentional fraud and concealment."
Layla Jane, an 18-year-old detransitioner represented by attorney Harmeet Dhillon, claims in a letter of intent to sue that she was rushed into the life-altering medical services while she and her family were not properly informed of risks and other vital information, such as the rate of desistence for childhood gender dysphoria.
"Layla immediately started puberty blockers and testosterone at age 12, and had a double mastectomy at age 13," the legal letter states.
"Two of Layla's initial providers advised that per Kaiser's official policies, Layla could not start cross-sex hormones until she was 16 and advised that surgery was not permissible until age 18," the letter claims. "But, soon thereafter, Layla ended up in the hands of Dr. [Susanne E.] Watson, Dr. [Lisa Kristine] Taylor, and Dr. [Winnie Mao Yiu] Tong. These doctors immediately approved Layla for cross-sex hormones and a double mastectomy at ages 12-13, without performing an adequate evaluation and treatment of Layla's extensive mental health co-morbidities."
"I don't think I should have been allowed to change my sex before I could legally consent to have sex," Layla said during a Fox News appearance this past week.
The doctors told her that her extensive co-morbidities -- that is, her pile of psychological problems -- would be cured if the family just let them chop off their 13-year-old daughter's tits.
There is no medical evidence to support this. They are lying to children and parents just to make money lopping off girls' tits.
"What's going on in Florida, is as my mother would say, 'close to sinful.' I mean, it's just terrible what they're doing," Biden said while speaking with actor Kal Penn.
"It's not like ... a kid wakes up one morning and says, 'you know, I decided that I want to become a man or I want to become a woman ... I mean, what are they thinking about here? They're human beings, they love, they have feelings, they have inclinations," Biden continued. "It's cruel."
"And the way we do it is we make sure we pass legislation like we passed on same-sex marriage. You mess with that, you're breaking the law and you're going to be held accountable," Biden added.
Kal Penn is a former Obama staffer. So Joe Biden refuses to give Fox the traditional Super Bowl interview, preferring to be interviewed by "journalists" who are actually former actors and who used to work with Biden in the Obama Administration.
But now it turns out that the Manhattan district attorney's office, which has Trump in its sights, just may be stepping back from the brink: Business Insider reported Saturday night that Trump's indictment is "on hold" until one more witness testifies Monday afternoon.
That's about all that has come to light, as the relevant authorities are being quite closemouthed about this whole thing. Insider says that "a source with knowledge of the investigation" told them on Saturday night "there is one more witness." The indictment is apparently not a certainty until this witness testifies.
But who is this witness? The Insider's source wouldn't say, and so all that we're told is that "a separate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Insider that the witness is not Allen Weisselberg, Trump's former CFO, who is serving a five-month sentence for admittedly masterminding a payroll tax-dodge scheme at the Trump Organization."
A source with knowledge of the "hush-money" investigation has confirmed to the New York Times that Rudy Giuliani lawyer Robert Costello, a former legal advisor to Michael Cohen, will be appearing before the grand jury on Monday with the sole intention of undermining Cohen's credibility.
American Democrats are continuing their descent into a Trump-induced madness from which there obviously won't be any return. They've escalated their insane war on Donald Trump to a point that has the potential to backfire in grand fashion. They really didn't think this one through. Then again, they haven't thought any of their Trump tantrums through. They're blinded by rage and won't stop until they get some red meat footage for the 14 viewers who still watch MSNBC and CNN.
...
Megan wrote a VIP column over the weekend that perfectly described what kind of effect arresting Trump will have. In it, she says that "ship-jumpers" like her will be "back on the Trump Train." That will no doubt be playing out in large numbers across America. That's plain to see for everyone but the Democrats:
SFK
@stephenkruiser
#TrueStory. The Democrats' daddy issues are going to turn him into an unstoppable political martyr.
I will not be re-boarding the Trump Train over this, though I do feel that sense that maybe I should, just to teach the left a lesson. Or maybe I should just claim I'm back aboard.
If Democrats really wanted Donald Trump to fade away, as they claim, they would stop persecuting him.
Maybe they are so blinded by hatred that they can't see that every time they use the heavy hand of the law against the former president, they just cement his status as a MAGA martyr.
Or maybe they are so terrified of running against Ron DeSantis in 2024 that they actually want to martyr Trump to ensure he wins the Republican presidential primary ready for a repeat contest with Joe Biden.
In that scenario, Democratic prosecutors in New York and Georgia, and a partisan DOJ, play the role of picadors in a bullfight who soften up the bull with a thousand cuts before the decrepit old matador staggers out to finish him off.
Whether or not Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg really is about to arrest Trump this week, as has been reported, over trumped-up hush-money charges relating to a one-time assignation 17 years ago with porn star Stormy Daniels, Friday's leak from the court could not have come at a better time for President Biden.
The story that the first former president in American history would be charged with a crime, fingerprinted, put in a holding cell and maybe even perp-walked to humiliate him before the world is a dream come true for salivating Trump-haters.
But, more significantly, the story took the spotlight off the bombshell bank records released the previous day by the House Oversight Committee, showing $1,065,000 had been funneled from a Chinese energy company, through Biden intimate Rob Walker, to four immediate family members of Joe Biden: his son Hunter, brother James, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his late son Beau, who also is Hunter's former lover.
Also listed as a recipient of the Chinese money, which was doled out to the four Bidens in regular small increments between March 6 and May 18, 2017, was an as-yet-unidentified family member, listed only on bank wires as "Biden."
Wait -- there's a fourth Biden who received Chinese communist money, now?
That was a big weekend of news I missed.
Comer's team has subpoenaed further bank records and is expected to reveal the identity of that mystery person this week.
In anyone's language, that is a huge story.
Even the New York Times had to cover it, although with a typical "Republicans pounce" angle, and "balanced" by a story about an "investigation" by House Democrats into a supposedly missing gift to Trump from the Japanese prime minister of a $3,000 golf driver and $500 putter.
But the golf clubs are thin gruel against the impending exposure of the Biden family's foreign influence-peddling scheme, with then-VP Biden at its center.
So for the Democrats' spin machine, it was time for a Trump scandal, always their tactic in a "Break glass in case of emergency" moment like this, guaranteed to distract media attention, and keep voters in the dark about the real scandal swirling around Biden.
I don't think this is just about distraction -- I think this is also about intimidation.
The Democrats ordered up this political prosecution to get Republicans to back off of Joe Biden and his Chinese Connection.
Just as Hillary Clinton needed an answer to her own national security investigation and dialed up the completely-invented "Trump is a Russian Agent" scam to deflect from her own crimes, so too is the DOJ now dialing up some Very Dangerous and Scary Pro-Life Protesters so you don't notice the antifa and Jane's Revenge firebombers.
Shideler:
In a very real way, the FBI jujitusing a rash of anarchist attacks against pro-lifers into a reason to investigate pro-lifers is very similar to the J6 situation & Russia Collusion Hoax before it.
For the better part of a year, anarchist and black identity extremists launched massive violent riots. 2 billion dollars in damage, numerous people killed. Serious people (AG Barr) were calling for seditious conspiracy prosecutions & POTUS was threatening the insurrection act.
The DOJ/FBI was being hammered on its failures to investigate and prosecute, including when anarchists like Lisa Fithian openly called for preparing to occupy govt buildings in the event the 2020 election didn't go their way.
So with J6 we see an overwhelming demand to use the term insurrection and for DOJ to charge seditious conspiracy (including using as evidence the fact defendants armed themselves against Antifa which had attacked numerous previous rallies in DC).
And before J6 with the Whitmer fednapping case. The story HAD to be about right wingers storming government buildings in a seditious conspiracy. Why? BECAUSE that is what the radicals on the left were being accused of and the accusation needed to be neutralized.
That's why J6 couldn't be the story of a rowdy protest that got out of hand. It needed to be about seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government and an insurrection --specifically those words.
Similarly with the Russia Collusion hoax. We think of the previous Clinton scandal as being about classified information. Which is true. But perhaps more importantly, Clinton was being accused of selling access, including to Russia.
[Link to TheHill.com article]
FBI's 37 secret pages of memos about Russia, Clintons and Uranium One
The FBI actually released a few documents -- but they were just already-public letters from members of Congress demanding answers in the Uranium One case.
It was therefore imperative that the DOJ investigate Trump for foreign ties, and not just any foreign ties. It needed to be Russia.
In each case, what you see is the FBI/DOJ coming under criticism by conservatives for failing to enforce the law. And each time the response was "oh yeah. We'll enforce it good and HARD. Against you."
Complain about firebombs at pregnancy centers. We'll arrest sidewalk counselors. Complain about a presidential candidate selling Uranium to Moscow, we'll claim yours was a Russian agent. Complain about insurrection? We'll show you insurrection.
Again: What Trump is being accused of -- disguising a payment that he didn't want to put in campaign finance disclosures -- is exactly what we know for a fact Hillary Clinton did in 2016, when her campaign fraudulently listed payments to FusionGPS as "legal services" to be paid to her DC political lawyers. In fact, her DC political lawyers were just used as cleanskins to hide the payment; Hillary paid the FusionGPS money to them, claiming it was for "legal services," and her lawyers then paid the money to FusionGPS.
The money was not for "legal services." It was to pay for a fake dossier about a political opponent and then push that dossier to the FBI and the media.
Are we going to arrest Hillary Clinton next? If not, why not?
Below, Ron DeSantis blasts the Soros prosecutor Alvin Bragg, and the rest of the Soros prosecutors. He condemns this as an obviously-politicized prosecution and weaponization of law enforcement by Democrats.
He does get in a small dig at Trump, saying "I don't know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence." But that aside, he's pretty firm on the outrageousness of this.
BREAKING: Gov. DeSantis responds to Trump possibly being indicted.
"I don't know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair..." but says Alvin Bragg is a Soros-backed DA who is going after Trump for political reasons. pic.twitter.com/M0JiQP3KVb
If anyone has a problem with that dig, I refer them to the constant attacks that Trump and his allies have made on "Shutdown Ron," including evidence-free suggestions that maybe he got friendly with high school girls when he was a teacher, or Trump directly threatening DeSantis by saying "I know things about him even his wife doesn't know," and the oft-quoted justification that "politics isn't bean bag" or "politics is a contact sport." Trump has not shown Loyalty to DeSantis, so DeSantis is entitled to counterpunch.
When you drop sleazy attack after sleazy attack on someone, you can hardly expect that person to then vouch for your virtue.
THE MORNING RANT: 20th Century “Think Tank Conservatism” Cannot Save Our Cities
—Buck Throckmorton
Is lawless anarchy in major American cities the “limited government” that libertarian-leaning conservatives have been promoting for decades? If not, what is the conservative prescription to rescue our failed cities?
Christopher Roach had a great piece at American Greatness a couple weeks ago. It was about Chicago specifically, but it discussed in broader terms how Koch/CATO-style “small government” offers no solutions to the anarcho-tyranny in our major cities.
Before I get to Roach’s piece, I’ll mention that this is something I’ve previously covered, and as much as we conservatives may take some schadenfreude in watching cities suffer from their far-left policies, this country cannot survive if our major cities are all dystopian wastelands. We need to offer a conservative alternative. Here’s a snippet of what I wrote a few years ago.
It used to be that Democrat mayors and city councils were all about jobs programs, generous salaries and benefits for municipal employees, and a smorgasbord of services for residents. In exchange, the taxes and corruption of the power structure was tolerated, but citizens always felt they could rely on a certain level of policing and civil order. Republicans, by contrast, offered “limited government” and lower taxes, and they were routed at the polls for decades.
With our major cities now boarded up and in ruins, this is an ideal time for Republicans to assert a “municipal conservatism” that our dying cities are desperately in need of. But the worn-out, libertarian, anti-government Republican platform of old will not fix the anarchy that has overtaken our cities. Heck, the left’s demand to abolish the police could itself be defined as “anti government.”
What Republicans need to offer is city services done right: Policing; Patriotism; Cleanliness; Safety; Usable parks; Schools that teach the “Three Rs”; Anti-vagrancy; Pro-small business; Pro-church; Pro-America. The opportunity is huge because Democrats now oppose all of those building blocks of civilization.
Sure, let’s go ahead and promise to clean up the graft, to eliminate full-retirement for 50-year-olds, to reduce red tape, to replace pensions with 401ks, etc. But above all else, let’s promise and deliver a return to civil order in our cities. There is a huge demand for it.
Chicago and Lightfoot indirectly illustrate a real problem with the “think tank” crowd who form the heart of Conservatism, Inc. All of these Koch-funded outfits, the Catos and AEIs, are libertarian-leaning. They counsel that big government is the problem, which is obviously true some of the time, with examples ranging from Chicago’s once-stringent gun control regime to the voluminous and burdensome Code of Federal Regulations.
But this is not the whole story or even the major obstacle today in America’s cities. There are also serious deprivations of liberty imposed by crime and disorder. If you do not feel safe at night going to the store, shopping, or getting on the train, you are not really free. It does not matter that this threat does not come from the government, but, in those cases, from government’s absence.
An absence of citizen-controlled municipal policing simply means that the policing of the streets is turned over to gangs and criminals. Is that the small government that Koch and Cato argue for? Is releasing criminals without bail the liberty that Koch and Cato adore?
Much of modern government has the quality that Sam Francis described as “anarcho-tyranny.” Extreme restrictions and chaotic anarchy exist side by side.
In unpoliced paradises such as Chicago, the criminals enjoy a libertarian existence free of government interference, while the law-abiding must endure a web of restrictions and mandates to navigate modern life.
For those seeking to live “within” the system, a million rules and procedures keep them in line, whether it is vaccine mandates, parking tickets, gun control, various taxes, or endless paperwork. You wouldn’t want to lose your cushy corporate job, professional license, or ability to see your kids, would you?
At the same time, those who have already encountered the criminal justice system enjoy a certain kind of outlaw freedom.
Rudy Giulani in his tenure as New York City mayor showed us what can be done to restore failed cities. People like me were sometimes critical of him for not being enough of a small-government conservative. I was wrong. More and more I realize how remarkable his tenure was as a municipal conservative.
20th Century conservative political cliches about small government are irrelevant now. Let us hope that in some failing city, be it Chicago, or Philadelphia, or wherever, there is a bold politician who will shake up municipal politics like Giulani once did, but updated for the pathologies of the 2020s and beyond.
Good morning kids. Were it not so utterly tragic, I'd be laughing my ass off instead of retching my guts up. For just over two years, we've endured the abject disaster of an economy induced into near total free-fall, the nightmare of rushing headlong to touch of World War 3, the confirmation that the origins of and response to General Tso's Sicken (Chinese COVID) were a total disaster, a national crime wave made worse by a non-existent border, rank incompetence in every department and that the titanic big lie that J-6 was a Trump-led violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the government and seize power has been exploded with the release of 44,000 hours of video that seem to indicate DOJ agents provocateur were the source of all the violence that day.
So, the cherry on the parfait, the "waffer-theeen" mint that an engorged Mr. Creosote is about to swallow is that House investigations are confirming the un-spinnable fact that Joe "Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants" Biden (with help from his family) is quite probably the most corrupt politician to ever hold office in American history, having obtained the bulk of his lucre by selling his office and selling out America to the world's worst actors, including our worst enemies.
That last item, washed down with two jeroboams of transexualism, woke-ism, DEI-ism and another "ism" beginning with a "j" – journalism – surely is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Then, seemingly out of nowhere comes subpar-thinking affirmative action hire and Soros stooge Alvin Bragg to snatch the mint and switch it with a Tums. Or in this case, to my non-legal eagle eyes is for all intents and purposes, the close moral equivalent to a bill of attainder against the junta's greatest nemesis.
If Democrats really wanted Donald Trump to fade away, as they claim, then they would stop persecuting him.
Maybe they are so blinded by hatred that they can’t see that every time they use the heavy hand of the law against the former president, they just cement his status as MAGA martyr.
Or maybe they are so terrified of running against Ron DeSantis in 2024, that they actually want to martyr Trump to ensure he wins the Republican presidential primary ready for a repeat contest with Joe Biden.
In that scenario, Democratic prosecutors in New York and Georgia, and a partisan DOJ, play the role of picadors in a bullfight who soften up the bull with a thousand cuts before the decrepit old matador staggers out to finish him off. . .
. . . But, more significantly, the story took the spotlight off the bombshell bank records released the previous day by the House oversight committee, showing $1,065,000 had been funneled from a Chinese energy company, through Biden intimate Rob Walker, to four immediate family members of Joe Biden: his son Hunter, brother James, and Hallie Biden, the widow of his late son Beau, who also is Hunter’s former lover. . .
. . . So for the Democrats’ spin machine, it was time for a Trump scandal, always their tactic in a “break glass in case of emergency” moment like this, guaranteed to distract media attention, and keep voters in the dark about the real scandal swirling around Biden.
Enter Bragg, the Soros-funded, soft-on-crime DA who has been talking about Trump being indicted on something or other since at least 2019, and who made “Get Trump” a part of his election campaign.
His case is a joke. The allegation is that Trump falsified business records by concealing a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels which was made by his estranged former lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016.
Everything rests on the word of Cohen, a convicted perjurer, who testified before Bragg’s grand jury for three hours last Monday, and then again on Wednesday. Before that he had been in for interviews with the DA’s office at least 19 times.
But on Monday the grand jury will hear testimony from Bob Costello, a former legal adviser to Cohen before they fell out, who has acted for Trump’s some time lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and is a former supervisor with the Southern District of New York.
Costello will cite evidence contained in the 2020 book “The Fixers: The Bottom-Feeders, Crooked Lawyers, Gossipmongers, and Porn Stars Who Created the 45th President” that Cohen keeps changing his story about the Stormy Daniels payments and can’t be trusted.
Costello knows because he was an on-record source for the book and Cohen granted him a waiver of their attorney-client privilege to reveal what he had told him about his troubles when the feds first came knocking — and it’s nothing like what he’s saying now.
When prosecutors were told about the book Friday, they knew nothing about it, says a source, which doesn’t say much for their due diligence.
But now it turns out that the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has Trump in its sights, just may be stepping back from the brink: Business Insider reported Saturday night that Trump’s indictment is “on hold” until one more witness testifies Monday afternoon.
That’s about all that has come to light, as the relevant authorities are being quite closemouthed about this whole thing. Insider says that “a source with knowledge of the investigation” told them on Saturday night “there is one more witness.” The indictment is apparently not a certainty until this witness testifies.
But who is this witness? The Insider’s source wouldn’t say, and so all that we’re told is that “a separate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Insider that the witness is not Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s former CFO, who is serving a five-month sentence for admittedly masterminding a payroll tax-dodge scheme at the Trump Organization.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, whose betrayal of his former client started this whole business about Trump having paid hush money to a porn star (which is what he might be arrested for, not any of the literally dozens of other crimes that Democrats have claimed he has committed over the last few years, up to and including trying to overthrow the government of the United States), “has told reporters he expected to be the grand jury’s final witness when he testified last Monday and Wednesday.” So whoever is slated to appear on Monday is a surprise witness. . .
. . . The principal charge is expected to be a felony, “falsifying business records in the first degree,” which would be based on the claim that Trump was involved in falsifying records to conceal the payment to the porn “actress.” Meanwhile, Trump continues to deny that he had any liaison with the porn star at all, and certainly there are precedents for wealthy individuals and groups paying out sums to claimants even though they know the claims are false, just to get them to go away. . .
. . . In the U.S., the Democrats enjoyed tremendous gains in both houses of Congress and won the presidency on the strength of Watergate, and they’ve never forgotten that lesson; in fact, tarring their opponents as criminals on bogus charges has become a cornerstone of their political strategy. And that is a prelude to treating them like actual criminals, complete with arrests, handcuffs, and perp walks. Whether or not it comes Tuesday, it’s coming.
While Spencer's observation is certainly true, the state of the nation today is markedly different from the Watergate era. Divided as we were even back then, there was still a level of trust in the institutions and traditions of the American governmental and legal system, as well as in the media, and even with diametrically opposed views on the issues of the day, still at least a modicum of respect for those with whom you disagree and the commonality of nation and heritage. Today, that has all but vanished on every front. In fact, an overwhelming percentage of the American people believe that we have a two-tiered justice system that favors those in power and the Left in general.
Whatever the calculus of the junta in going after Trump, they will only succeed in making him into a martyr. I have not been sanguine about a Trump candidacy in 2024. My biggest negatives are his age, his puerile name-calling against DeSantis, and most distressing, his making the theft of the 2020 election the central pillar of his campaign. He's had some flashes of brilliance with his trade package and his intent to go to war against woke-ism in all its forms. But so far, his negatives outweigh the positives. YMMV, but I think a lot of people are feeling this way about him.
But that said, I have always thought of him as the leader of a movement that goes way beyond mere electoral politics. In fact, it's kind of strange to read Miranda Devine's analysis insofar as the Democrat calculus of preferring to face Trump rather than DeSantis for fear of him wiping the floor with Biden or whoever, since they regard Trump to be a pushover. Considering they have all but institutionalized election fraud in the key swing districts and states they stole in 2020, what does it matter who is running?
For me, this has less if anything to do with who the candidate is in 2024 than mere distraction and above all else, retribution against Donald Trump. That's what all this is about.
Love him, hate him or whatever, Donald Trump intentionally or not started a movement that exposed the hypocrisy and corruption that has now completely subsumed our government and much of our society. Whatever they do to him or try to do to him, what he started will not be stopped. There is no going back now to the way things were. A lot of it was a lie, and there are powerful forces and more alarmingly a great deal of the citizenry duped into or otherwise consciously supporting the transformation of America into a socialist disaster to be served up to the Davos-Brussels-Beijing Axis, or perhaps a resurgent Islamic global caliphate.
So, go ahead and slap the cuffs on Trump. It worked so well for the British when they did it to Gandhi, didn't it?
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
"The ideology of global free trade is not American—nor is it the free market system. America had the highest tariff rates in history at the same time we saw the greatest economic expansion in history." An American System for America Prosperity
"In California, public officials now favor the lawless and deviant over the law-abiding and hardworking." The Great Abdication
Victor Davis Hanson: "The list of serial embarrassments at Stanford reads like the suicides of Greek tragedy, where divine nemesis follows hubris." What Happened to Stanford?
Robert Spencer: "The Left’s reaction to Donald Trump’s political career has from the beginning been a classic case of a conviction in search of a crime. Charging their foes with bogus crimes is a venerable and tested Leftist tactic, going back to Stalin’s trials of his former Bolshevik comrades, whom he forced to confess to various fabricated charges of subversion in order to justify his executing them and consolidating his power as an unquestioned autocrat. . . . tarring their opponents as criminals on bogus charges has become a cornerstone of [Democrat] political strategy. And that is a prelude to treating them like actual criminals, complete with arrests, handcuffs, and perp walks. Whether or not it comes Tuesday, it’s coming." Hold Everything: Now Trump Will Likely NOT Be Arrested, at Least on Tuesday
Miranda Devine: "If a legal witch hunt is the Democrats’ plan to win in 2024, it just shows how desperate they are. Why don’t they try winning elections the old-fashioned way, by presenting candidates and policies worthy of voters’ approval instead of perverting the justice system in the pursuit of power?" (. . . and stealing elections - jjs) A Potential Trump Indictment is a Sideshow Gift to the Biden Crime Family
"You cannot expect your base to show up for you on Election Day if they believe you are willing to acquiesce to a rigged system." Donald Trump, American Dissident
"Bragg just wants to see Trump in hand cuffs . . . They hate that he was president. They hate that he's running again. They hate that his supporters still back him. But most of all, they hate that he makes them and their anger look foolish, they hate that he has bested them time and time again." The Vindictive Prosecution of Donald Trump is Based in Democrats' Hatred of His Supporters
"If Trump is really arrested on Tuesday, it will say something deeply disturbing about the state of our country." Government Tyrants Play with Fire
"Tolman asserted Saturday that Bragg’s legal theory that Trump tried to hide a campaign expenditure by using his then-lawyer to pay porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in alleged hush money before the 2016 presidential elections would have applied to Clinton when her campaign hid a payment for the phony Russian pee dossier against Trump as 'legal fees.'” Former U.S. Attorney Argues Trump Could Be Indicted for Same Thing Clinton Was Fined For
Jonathan Turley: "While many celebrate Bragg restoring life to the statutorily deceased, they should consider what he has created. . . A fifth of Americans now view the government as the greatest threat facing the nation. What is truly shocking is that 53% in one poll agreed with the statement that the FBI acts like 'Biden’s Gestapo.'” Bragg Brings a Criminal Case Back From Dead, But May Have Reanimated Trump's Chances
“The idea of indicting a former president of the United States at a time where there’s a crime wave in New York City, the fact that the Manhattan DA thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority I think just tells you everything you need to know about the radical left in this country." (two-faced Judas is salivating - jjs) ‘Politically Charged’: Mike Pence Says He Is ‘Taken Aback’ By Potential Indictment Of Trump
Last year, the Federal Election Commission fined Hillary Clinton for misreporting payments made to a law firm during the 2016 campaign to hide spending. The law firm in question was Perkins Coie, which hired Fusion GPS to conduct research that resulted in the Steele Dossier, which was later used by Congress to impeach Trump. Clinton classified these expenses as “legal services” and was fined $113,000 for the misrepresentation. Trump and Hillary Have Been Accused of the Same Crime, but Hillary Never Faced Potential Arrest
"He continues to be an interesting candidate because he bypasses platitudes and focuses on issues that are core to American survival." (pushing for the veep slot on a Trump ticket? - jjs) Vivek Ramaswamy’s Viral Take on the Threat to Arrest Trump
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
"The Swiss government brokered the deal. According to people familiar with the matter, the Swiss government was preparing to nationalize the bank if a deal could not be worked out. The purchase price will be paid in shares of UBS." Crisis Averted? UBS Agrees To Buy Credit Suisse for $3.25 Billion
"Banks bet big that Powell meant what he said about not raising interest rates. Now they're paying for it." Fed Chief Powell’s Banking Blowup
"The next logical step is for the government to insure all bank deposits, which is tantamount to nationalizing the entire banking system. But to what end?" Connecting Dots: Chinese COVID to SVB and Beyond
"A bank’s mantra should be safety and resilience, rather than maximum efficiency and profits." Bad Banks Should Fail Faster
"What’s more, bonuses were reportedly doled out to US staff just hours before the Santa Clara, California-based bank collapsed. The bank was taken into FDIC ownership, while SVB Financial Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it looks to find buyers for their remaining assets." SVB’s London Bankers Received Up To $36 Million In Bonuses Days After BoE-Orchestrated Bailout
"As colleges go woke, dumb down curricula, and raise tuition fees, Pickpocket-in-Chief Joe Biden wants you to foot the bill." The College Debt Relief Swindle
CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
The picture this paints is of a national security state that answers not to any single president but to a higher authority. That “higher authority” is not “God,” as is usually the referent object in such a case, but to a shadowy cabal that, although comprised of mortals, is nonetheless beyond the control of the democratic levers ostensibly available to the electorate in a representative form of government, such as the United States purportedly is. FBI Whistleblower Claims FBI Is Now a 'Weaponized Apparatchik' of the Biden Junta
Deroy Murdock: "The United States is crumbling, in large part, because radical Leftists from coast-to-coast refuse to do their jobs so they can battle the racist ghosts of yesterday. Americans suffer badly while political and business leaders take their eyes off the prize and pretend that Martin Luther King never lived and George Wallace never died." While Leftists Fight the Racist Ghosts of Yesterday, America Falls To Pieces
"Winning the cultural civil war means separating the pro-freedom majority side of the political spectrum from the anti-liberty minority." Stop Conflating Leftists with Liberals
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
“What I’m trying to do is get information into the hands of the citizens so that they make the best decisions to elect the right representatives,” O’Keefe said. “I actually believe that if people had any idea what was actually going on — in the three letter agencies and the schools — then they would be rightfully outraged.” James O’Keefe Says New Media Group Will ‘Decentralize Journalism’ After Project Veritas Split
Frankly, it’s amazing that, at this late date, given the endless parade of brazen lies on Russia’s non-existent meddling in the 2016 and 2020 elections, the debunked “safe and effective” mantra vis-à-vis [Chinese] COVID-19 shots, and a thousand other examples of duplicity — that apparently 50% of the country still puts any stock into the corporate media. (Unfortunately, this study did not delineate between corporate media and independent media, which is a shame. I suspect the trust differential would be enormous.) Poll: Half of U.S. Population Believes National Media 'Intend to Mislead, Misinform'
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, DEMOCRAT-LEFT WAR ON FOSSIL FUELS, JUNK SCIENCE, LYSENKOISM
"Pleasantly surprising news out of Holland – the BoerBurgerBeweging, or the Farmer–Citizen Movement, a political party founded in 2019 to protest the Dutch governments'mistreatment of the country's farmers, won big in this past week's elections." Dutch Farmers Strike Back
"When Haaland was pressured to approve the ConocoPhillips Willow Project, a modest oil field in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, she did so against her will. . . Haaland’s actions show she prefers Alaska oil remains locked down. With her hand forced on Willow, Haaland announced her agency would not only reduce the scope of the project by 40%, it would take another 16 million acres of Alaska off the table for any future development. Haaland is taking the equivalent of West Virginia." Biden’s Interior Secretary Dishes Out Icy Revenge On Alaskans
The rise in terror watch-list arrests at the border pairs with surge of as many as 4.9 million migrants who have crossed into the United States under the [junta] of [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Joe Biden, according to data from the Federation for American Immigration Reform." 16 People On FBI’s Terror Watch-List Arrested At U.S. Border, Authorities Say
Terry Jeffrey: "How many on the terrorist watchlist have actually succeeded in illegally crossing our southern border into the United States? There is no way to know. What we do know is that it only took 19 foreign terrorists who had made their way into the United States to hijack four domestic flights on Sept. 11, 2001." More Caught Illegally Crossing Southern Border in Fiscal 2022 Than During Entire Trump Presidency
AMERICA AND THE WORLD IMPRISONED: CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS AND FACTS
Lloyd Billingsley: "Long before [Chinese] COVID, the seeds of the pandemic were already in the ground." Fauci B.C.
Ann Marie Pincivero (Ukraine flag in bio) offers a string of masking hashtags to eulogize the kitten slain at the hands of anti-Science™ MAGA terrorists: “ Poor kitty! Pets can’t mask but people can! They need to protect their pets! But when they won’t even protect their children I guess there’s little hope of that?! #BringBackMasks #WearAMask #N95 #SARS2 #LongCovid #MassDisabling #ProtectKids #ProtectPets #PetsGetCovidToo” "Zero- [Chinese] COVID" Cultists Accuse "Anti-Maskers" of Kitten Murder
"The controversy over the explicit survey comes as schools across the country have faced scrutiny from parents over inappropriate content in the classroom. In 2021, thousands of parents in the Worcester, Mass., public school district pulled their children out of the district's sex education classes over content they called 'dangerous.'" Boston School Distributes Explicit Survey on Oral Sex, Transgenderism to Middle-Schoolers
“When it comes to our liberties, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance,” Bedrick said. “So we always have to be vigilant. But I think we also have to recognize that the government doesn’t need to be funding private education for the government to try regulating it.” Republicans in Red States Including Tennessee Join Dems to Resist School Choice Policies
"Serving a largely low-income student body, a New York City charter school has flourished by emphasizing proven pedagogical approaches." The Joys and Rigors of a Classical Education
ABORTION
“We will continue to pursue legislation that offers even greater protection to the pre-born children of our state — particularly in the area of medically-induced abortions that are so dangerous,” Merilee Boyack, chairwoman of Abortion-Free Utah, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Utah Pro-Life Orgs Take Victory Lap Over Abortion Clinic Ban, Eye More Legislation
"While five cities in the Gopher state already use RCV for municipal elections — Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Bloomington, Saint Louis Park, and Minnetonka — Minnesota Senator Kelly Morrison has introduced a bill that would require RCV for all state and federal elections. While the bill is currently in committee, it has a companion in the Minnesota House that’s waiting for a hearing." Minnesota Could be Third State to Adopt Ranked-Choice Voting, Following Alaska and Maine
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
"Students from Washington, D.C. to Arizona are participating in their school’s week-long events that many have criticized as being antisemitic and anti-Jewish, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)." (fuck the ADL; it's now a Marxist front group that supports the Jew-hating leftists - jjs) ‘Targeted And Unsafe’: Universities Across The Country Are Holding ‘Israel Apartheid Week’
Though the tragedy in East Palestine has been overshadowed in the news by banks crashing and the Biden family getting caught with millions of Chinese communist dollars Trump’s impending arrest, the small town in eastern Ohio is still reeling from the derailment or — more accurately — the spilling of toxic waste, much of which is still sitting in the town’s backyard, and the burning of toxic chemicals, which, as one local put it, “was burnt because they didn’t want to clean their own damn mess.” Here's What We Saw in East Palestine
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY
Lee's spending could tarnish her progressive image as she vies for retiring Democrat Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat. A former left-wing activist known for her communist sympathies and ties to Soviet front groups, Lee has pitched herself as "a voice for the people." Lee is leaning on her progressive bona fides as she battles for Feinstein's seat against her well-funded California colleagues, fellow Democrat representatives Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. From 'Comrade Barbara' to Limousine Liberal: Barbara Lee Dropped $20,000 On Luxury Cars, Filings Show
“I don’t know. I don’t know what the future look like, Jen. When I left the legislature, I thought I was never going to run for office again, and here I am in my fifth year as governor of this state. I know enough about myself that if I see a problem that’s not getting fixed and I think I can do something about it, I’m going to roll my sleeves and try. All that being said, I am 51 years old. I’ve signed up for —” Wretched Whitmer Leaves Door Open for Future Presidential Run
“What she has said is, she doesn’t want to be focused on politics right now. I have worked with her very closely over the last two years, I mean, really in a very positive way. She’s very effective in the United States Senate. We have got a lot done. And I look forward to doing that over the next months and the rest of this year.” Mark Kelly Does Not Get Behind Kyrsten Sinema When Asked About Re-Election
THE UKRAINIAN "FRONT"
"As always, the devil is in the details. But NATO — aside from some frontline nations like Poland and the Baltic States — is not likely to get serious about defense against Russia until Russian tanks are rolling into NATO territory." NATO Looking to Send 300,000 Troops to the Russian Border
"Russian state news service TASS said it was Putin’s first-ever visit to Donbass, a region in eastern Ukraine, and while there, he received a report from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin about efforts to rebuild the port city within the eastern region." Putin Visits Russian-Occupied Mariupol
"So, of course, the war proved to be a fiasco. As one history-minded observer wrote last week: 'This month marks the 20th anniversary of the greatest western foreign policy disaster since the Fourth Crusade. It was the pre-eminent modern-day example of folly, driven by wishful thinking, utopianism and a lack of interest in history and how human societies differ.'” Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of the Iraq War Folly — Lives Lost, Lessons Learned, and Why America Comes First
Daniel Greenfield: "The sight of South Africa’s military and a Chinese warship conducting exercises ought to make it clear that the ANC is our enemy. And that any further foreign aid just funds our enemies." After Billions in US Aid, South Africa Sides With China
Thad McCotter: "Only the 'blame America first, last, and only' Left can think that rogue nations will behave better in a multipolar world." Pax Americana or Pox Multipolar?
“The two tourists managed to escape the crowd and were eventually escorted back to Israel by security forces, where they will be given medical treatment for their injuries. . . What happened on Saturday is being faced by Israeli motorists and passersby on a daily basis. In late February, two Israeli brothers were murdered by a Palestinian gunman as they were driving on the highway near Nablus.” German Mainstream Media Silent as Palestinian Mob Attacks Country’s Tourists Visiting Israel
Robert Spencer: "The feds can now turn all their attention back to finding angry Trump supporters they can claim are “domestic terrorists” if they dare to protest on Tuesday against the Left’s destruction of our free republic and replacement of it with a comic-opera banana republic in which the foes of the Dear Leader end up arrested for daring to oppose him. The authorities can hope no more actual terrorists like Kola get in the way of their scenario as it plays out this week." By the Way, a Real Terrorist Just Threatened to ‘Crucify’ New York Cops
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE COURTS, WASTE/FRAUD/ABUSE
"An independent Judiciary is crucial to a functioning USA. Committing legislatively to nine SCOTUS justices helps ensure both." (overturn Marbury v. Madison and make SCOTUS benign again - jjs) Keep Nine and Ban Court-Packing
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
Deane Waldman, M.D.: "Americans cannot make their own medical decisions or decide how to spend their health-care dollars — bureaucrats do that." In Health Care, Freedom is the Biggest Shortage
"Why it is taking months for the FAA to issue this license is disturbing." (because they can't get their affirmative action candidate confirmed? - jjs) Starship launch still stalled by FAA
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
“While kids who were already receiving gender-affirming treatment prior to Thursday can continue to do so, they aren’t able to undergo sex reassignment surgeries under the new rule.” Florida Bans Gender Transitioning for Minors
"Trust the science: Bad mothers are behind the explosion of militant LGBT identification." The War by Women
". . . Yet none of them seemed aware either of the irony that they were literally appropriating womanhood, or that if museums got rid of those artifacts, only their Euro-centric, or non-diverse collections would be on display, which would also be perceived as problematic." IRONY ALERT: 5 Black Men Dressed as Women Complain About Cultural Appropriation
"Rubio lamented the misfortune of a U.S. taxpayer-funded stadium allegedly censoring messages to appease communists. 'So just imagine that. A U.S. citizen taxpayer-funded stadium operated by the Miami Marlins in Miami, Florida, in the United States and Americans are not allowed to take in T-shirts or flags or signs … that have messages that the Cuban regime finds offensive.'” Report: Miami Marlins Blocking Anti-Communist Slogans at Cuba v. United States Baseball Game, Marco Rubio Says
"As with our lawsuit against the National Archives, we will enter a period of mediation with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to see if we can get to the bottom of why our clients were targeted. This is just one of many coordinated efforts to harass and abuse pro-lifers in federally funded institutions. That directive came from someone, and whoever it was must be held accountable, and we’re going to do the work necessary to hold them accountable." Pushback: Smithsonian Ordered to No Longer Violate the First Amendment
"Fanatic leftist academics, who can only view the world through a racial prism, can’t read Shakespeare or anything else with real understanding." William Wokespeare and the Dogs of Virtue
"Parental income is our best predictor of children’s outcomes. Pay Attention, Class
As Christians, it’s important for us to discern the truth of our faith and stand against the liberal theologians, pastors, and churches who would try to undermine it for a left-wing agenda. Start with your Bible, of course, but books like Christianity and Liberalism go a long way toward helping believers understand Christianity. It’s a quick read and worth your time. Sunday Thoughts: Christianity and Liberalism at 100
"O.J. Simpson continues to reinvent himself, and now he appears to be coming full circle." O.J. Simpson Is Back
"Writer John O’Hara chronicled life in an industrial city—the kind that has almost vanished from the American landscape." Balzac of the Fishbowl
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.
The teeny tiny problem it presents is that people can hack your phone simply by calling it.
Or your watch.
Oops.
I've noticed I've been receiving a lot of spam calls to my mobile phone recently. Fortunately it doesn't use a Samsung chipset. I also have a Samsung phone but it's safely powered off right now.
If you have a Pixel 7 there's a fix right now so you just need to grab the latest update. If you have a Pixel 6 you're fucked: The solution is to turn off WiFi calling and voice-over-LTE, but Google in its infinite wisdom doesn't let you do that.
“I hope that you realize what damage you have done to the city. I hope, that after today’s city council meeting, you will pack your suitcase and get the hell out of my city.” reporter William Kelly
Quote II
“This campaign for reparations is led by leftist grifters looking to sell their latest lucrative book about being oppressed and progressives who expect a gold medal for their virtue signaling,” Ex-BLM member Xaviaer DuRousseau
Billy Baldwin: ‘Any uprising’ by Trump supporters over arrest ‘will be over in two Ashli Babbitts’
Billy Baldwin’s Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) was dialed all the way up Saturday as the fraternal coattail-riding actor employed a vile form of measurement that appeared to celebrate use of deadly force against unarmed Americans exercising their First Amendment rights.
Leftists everywhere began building their hopes up greater than a child on Christmas Eve as they set to imagine how things would unfold in the coming week should the ever-closing in walls actually close in on former President Donald Trump.
Report: Biden Regime to Arrest 700-1,200 ADDITIONAL January 6 Capitol Protesters
Federal prosecutors in Washington D.C. have told court officials to expect an additional 700-1,200 arrests and charges in connection with the January 6 Capitol protests. Over 1,000 protesters have already been arrested and charged, with the most common guilty plea being picketing in a federal building, essentially trespassing. While such an offense generate a fine if any action at all, federal prosecutors and judges have thrown the book at January 6 protesters and have signaled that they will continue to do so.
CNN Reporter Robbed Multiple Times in SF Shines Unflattering Spotlight on California’s Crime Crisis
“Got robbed. Again. @jasonkCNN & I were at city hall in San Francisco to do an interview for @CNN.”
Umpteen stories about the crime crisis in San Francisco have been written just in the last month alone, with CBS News, NBC News, and the SF Chronicle among the numerous outlets interviewing frustrated residents and business owners alike who say they are at their wits’ end and that the city is failing them.
ABC 7 News has a crime tracker for Bay Area cities including San Francisco, and the stats don’t lie.
“Robberies over the last 12 months are up 5% compared to the annual average over the last three years, according to San Francisco Police Department data through March 12,” the site noted on the “robberies” tab as of this writing.
How a man stranded in freezing, snow-bound Oregon woods used a drone to call Uganda for help
Casey Ryan had a free Sunday. His wife and four children were out of town. The 37-year-old Eugene photographer could do whatever he wanted.
Instead of loafing around the house, Ryan decided to seek out the contentment and peace he always found in nature.
He called a buddy, explaining his newly hatched plan to explore a section of the Willamette National Forest. His friend was in. The two men, along with Corduroy, Ryan’s chocolate lab, climbed into Ryan’s four-wheel drive. Not too long later, Ryan turned onto Forest Service Road 19.
Boomers Are Unimpressed With Current Trends in Society, Miss the Good Ol' Days
Someone on a social media platform asked, “what’s your most painful boomer take”? Over 600 suspected boomers aired their opinions on various issues across life and society. Many boomers seem to have nostalgia, lamenting the shortcomings of modern times.
Public outrage over this news forced Biden's minions to rethink their plan. But they didn't take long to sneak back to it.
The Energy Department announced regulations that will ban the sale of nearly all gas stoves on the market. It would ban the sale of 96% of gas stoves currently being purchased, to say nothing of the models bought years ago. The stoves that meet the new regulation requiring minimum emissions technology comprise only a 4% market share. So this would be, for all intents and purposes, a ban on gas stoves.
Too inept to realize the stove that is plugged into a receptacle uses electricity more than likely produced by a fossil fuel. I believe there is a special place in Hell for them.
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If you are too mentally ill to realize what gender you are. Why would anyone hire you to handle large sums of money? And one final question, how can you look at him and not laugh uncontrollably?
The current public EV charging infrastructure is scarce enough without having internal combustion engine (ICE) cars taking up charging spots. While there may have been some confusion when public car charging first hit the scene, there really isn't much of an excuse for parking an ICE car in an EV charging spot anymore. Which is why, according to ABC News, in certain parts of Australia, you can actually be fined for doing so, up to $3,200.
Four of Australia's states and territories—Australia Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria, New South Wales (NSW), and Queensland—have introduced fines for parking an ICE car in an EV charging spot. The fines range from the lowest in Victoria ($369), to the highest in ACT ($3,200) for what is now called "ICE-ing."
It is nice to know that the USA isn't the only Woke nation.
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The ONT Musical Interlude & Cabin Fever Emporium
&&&
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On the bright side they won't be spending lots of money on footware. Genius Award Winners.
Eight years after first using the drug, Oliveri got pins and needles and woke up unable to walk.
Experts are worried about nitrous oxide's potential harms amid the rise of super-size canisters.
When Vito Oliveri first tried nitrous oxide in his twenties he didn't expect a legal drug that gives a quick high to temporarily paralyze him and his fiancée years later, leaving them unable to walk their four dogs.
As recently as early last year, Oliveri, 34, who lives in Portland, Oregon, near some of the best ski resorts in the US, would often ski or take trips to the lakes with his fiancée, Emily Shuford, 30.
"I'd typically be on the mountain on a Monday like today, but we just can't. Emily uses a cane and I probably can't walk a mile. We've been limited to the house, probably since April of last year," Oliveri
So much for the Kinder and Gentler Sunday ONT.
I think we have all been bored in the past. Hopefully they won't be bored in Stillwater with their new loves. Genius Award Winners.
EXCELSIOR, Minn. — Two men face felony charges stemming from the December break-in and vandalism of a chocolate shop in Excelsior that led to a big community reaction.
Alexander Running, 19, of Lester Prairie, and Karsten Luttschwager, 20, of Minneapolis are both charged with 3rd-degree burglary and 1st-degree damage for property for allegedly breaking into Truffle Hill Chocolates and spraying a fire extinguisher throughout the entire store, ruining all the chocolate during the lead-up to the busy Christmas season.
The Piano viewers were left in tears following an emotional final that saw blind 13-year-old Lucy win the show.
Presented by Claudia Winkleman, the series follows passionate pianists who perform at public pianos in train stations across the UK.
Unbeknownst to the performers, they are being watched by musicians Lang Lang and Mika, who are looking for one amateur musician to perform at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
One of the performers to reach the final was Lucy, a young girl from West Yorkshire who is blind and has autism. Lucy won week two of the show after wowing crowds at Leeds City station with her rendition of Chopin’s Nocturne in B Minor, leaving Lang Lang speechless.
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Weekly commenter stats for week of 3-19-2023
Top 10 commenters:
1 [501 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch' [70.37 posts/day]
2 [414 comments] 'Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)'
3 [411 comments] 'jim (in Kalifornia)'
4 [344 comments] 'andycanuck (Vwz3I)'
5 [342 comments] 'Skip '
6 [339 comments] 'Aetius451AD Work Laptop'
7 [321 comments] 'polynikes'
8 [298 comments] 'Oldcat'
9 [289 comments] '18-1'
10 [279 comments] 'rhennigantx'
Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Semi-Open Carry Laws.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire and AceCorp, LLC. For a transcript of tonight's award winning ONT send $5.00 and SASE to petmorons at gmail dot com.
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!
Q: Weasel, who is finally making a trip to WeaselAcres?
A: Weasel! Weasel are finally making a trip to WeaselAcres!
Yep, that's right guys 'n gals, I am taking a few days off this coming week and headed to the farm. The weather sounds great and I can't wait to get down there! I'll have some sort of trip report next Sunday. Also - be sure to keep an eye on the 2023 NoVAMoMe info below (no updates for this week).
With that, step into the dojo and let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
Many of the friends I have on the U.S. Rifle Team are now in Bloemfontein, South Africa for the 2023 F-Class World Championships. Matches commence this coming Tuesday, March 21st. Every four years, the very best shooters in the world get together for individual and team matches to decide the very best of the very best shooters in the world. It is difficult to describe the level of skill necessary to be competitive at this level of the sport, not to mention the preparation and logistics involved in getting yourself and all your gear safely to the range.
This is both the Super Bowl and Olympics of Long-Range competitive shooting. Imagine all those years of training and practice and preparation culminating in the range being called hot and getting down to the business of shooting at a 5-inch circle from a kilometer away. You have to be a very cool customer to bring together and focus all of the skills necessary at the precise time and place required. There is an enormous mental component of competing at this level, and its difficult to describe to those who haven't been there and experienced it.
I am not a believer in participation trophies, and at the end of the day there is only one winner. That's the way it is, and that's the way it should be. I have, however, always been impressed by those participating in this sport and the level of grace and good sportsmanship exhibited at even the most routine weekend club level matches. This is also the way it should be. You buy the ticket and you take the ride and may the best guy or gal win. In that respect, everyone involved is a winner.
So my hat is off to all of the competitors from all of the countries around the world who are gathering in Bloemfontein for a few days at the range to decide who is best. I encourage you all to follow the results as the matches start next week. I'll write a little bit about scoring for international competition next Sunday and we can analyze some of the results.
Good Luck to all the competitors, and GO U.S.A.!
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Here is something I have long wanted to mention here on the Ol' Gun Thread, and that is how to assess function and condition of used revolvers. Many, many, many of the firearms in the WeaselCollection are vintage, and thereby necessarily purchased in used condition. When looking for a gun I am not typically looking for an example in pristine condition, and find that some honest wear is absolutely A-OK. What is honest wear in my opinion? Well generally I'm looking for signs of normal use under typical conditions and reasonably good care. A little holster wear doesn't bother me at all.
Here's our old pal GunBlue490 with a nice long video on inspecting and evaluating a used Smith & Wesson revolver.
How about you all? As I mentioned the video is longer at nearly 50 minutes, so you may want to save it to watch later. For discussion this evening, do you have an affinity for vintage firearms? If so, why? I happen to appreciate the machining and gunsmithing involved in the production, but there could be other reasons. I will tell you that I have purchased a lot of firearms online, and never really felt as though I was on the short side of the transaction when the firearm showed up. Perhaps I have just been lucky, but I wouldn't hesitate to purchase used again.
Anyhow, this excellent video will give you some things to look for in a used revolver when performing an inspection.
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Guns of the Horde
OK - our pal scampydog is just showing off!
Attached is a lever gun pron pic before the boat accident. Winchester & Marlins. Need to add an 1866 or three.
Holy Atomic Flaming Shitballs! Very nice collection, scampydog, congratulations!!
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Range Reports
First up, our de-lurking pal Bushi Bear took a nice new Walther to the range and files the following report.
I purchased my first firearm in October - a full-sized Walther PDP with a 5" barrel. Somehow knowing that my middle aged eyes were having trouble picking up the PDP's white dots, Santa brought me a Holosun RDS for Christmas. Man, it's fun to shoot! I'm trying to go the range twice a month and last Monday, snuck out of work for some Trigger Therapy.
Single Shots
Double Taps
Dos Fingers
The first photo single shots were pretty decent, so I moved on to double taps. I have a tendency to pull them low left (I'm left handed) when I shoot faster. I was told this was because I am anticipating the shots. The third photo was a new drill for me. Holding the pistol with only thumb and forefinger. Oddly, I didn't seem to anticipate on that one.
Congratulations on the new Walther and that's some very good shooting, so keep up the good work!
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Next up, our pal Rihar shares a trip to the family property for a day of shooting!
My family has some property near LaGrange Texas (of Chicken Ranch and ZZ Top fame). Its a "Century Ranch" and I hope it stays in the family for centuries to come.
We go there for family gatherings and it has a gravel pit we use as a gun range. This is probably old hat to some of you but we had a chance recently to shoot some "hellfire" shotgun shells for our 410. They cost way too much but they were fun to shoot. I don't know why they are buckshot. I think bird shot would make more sense but what do I know.
These photos aren't in our gravel pit. In the background is a shed that served as a "convenience store" for the sharecroppers my grandparents worked with in the 30s and 40s. They would sell "soda-water" and peach ice cream there. The property is near the Colorado River about 100 miles from the Gulf of Mexico but someone caught a sea turtle in it near our property in the 40s and my grandmother wrestled down and made soup out of it. Or that's how she told the story anyway.
Very nice Rihar! Thanks for sharing this. Nothing quite like just shooting for fun!
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Next, our pal PacosMojo has a skerry result at the range with reloads.
Why you always decrease the maximum recommended powder charge by 10%. Especially when playing with a non-SAAMI specification cartridge (8.6 Blackout) chambered in a home built rifle, and using an insanely fast-twist rate barrel (1:3, yes you read that correctly). Oh, and I substituted a similar weight traditional cup and core bullet for the recommended solid copper projectile, which explains why the bullet blew up into multiple pieces around 30 feet from the barrel and you could see a bunch of holes in the fresh snow. Thankfully, the rifle and Paco managed to survive unscathed. You wouldn't believe I've been reloading metallic cartridges since 1995, would ya? I wouldn't either! Fellow morons, heed these words and learn from my stupidity.
Yikes!
Please - if you aren't going to listen to a guy on the internet calling himself Weasel, then listen to the guy on the internet calling himself PacosMojo! Regarding powder charges, start low and work your way up!
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GPS Lady
This is sort of wacky and I thought you might enjoy it.
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NoVAMoMe 2023
Not so fast on the gun stuff, buckaroos! We have a little bit more on the NoVAMoMe to discuss. In fact, this will be the first of a long and seemingly endless series of reminders to get yo' big butt off the couch and come out and meet some of your online friends. Let's kick things off with a few NoVAMoMe FAQ.
Q: Is it fun?
A: Yes. Just ask anyone who has been to one. You will have fun, or else.
Q: When is it again? Did you say June?
A: Yes. A thousand times yes! June 10th, from 1pm til 6pm or so.
Q: I'm sort of a dork. Can I just slink-in, watch for a bit and then slink out without having to actually speak with anyone?
A: Yes. In fact, we have strategically placed large potted ferns for lurkers to hide behind.
Q: Will bluebell be there? I really want to meet bluebell.
A: Of course! Well, assuming things go well at the parole hearing.
Q: Is there food and drink?
A: Yes! $30 for a bigly buffet, and a cash bar. We had to bump up the food price a bit to cover costs this year.
Q: Can I make references, even veiled references to the secret MoMe location on the blog?
A: NO!Seriously, please don't.
Q: Sounds great, Weasel! How do I sign up?
A: We will again have an online page with registration and payment specifics, however, it's not yet live as we're still working out a few of the details. Keep an eye out here on the ol' Gun Thread or the main page sidebar for more info in the coming weeks.
OK, I'm talking to YOU Mr. or Ms. I'll Go Next Time. Guess what? The next time is here. It's a really fun event and we would love to have you join us. Hopefully some NoVAMoMe veterans will speak up in the comments and encourage the introverts to stop being big baby chickens and make this the year to come out of the shadows!
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Musical Interlude
Here is CCR with Green River.
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Gun Basics 101
I thought there was a new video from the She Equips Herself gal, but I must've been imagining things. Here is a video from 2020 on home defense considerations and the shotgun vs handguns.
Aganorsa Leaf is a brand with a bewildering range of names for different lines - I won't even try to sort it out here. And when one searches for the name, one also gets many other brands and cigars as results, since the company is one of the largest tobacco growing conglomerates in Nicaragua and provides leaf to many premium brands. They use Cuban-seed for their tobacco and Cuban styles and methods in their operations. This is my first try of their products, but their overall reputation is very high, so it won't be the last.
In any case, I picked up the Aganorsa Leaf La Validacion Connecticut, in the box-pressed toro vitola (6.25 X 52) at the local. It's a nice-looking golden-brown stick with an Ecuador Connecticut wrapper and (of course) all Nicaraguan binder and filler. The profile here is a flavorful medium. One of the many current Connecticut wrapper cigars that while smooth, has more flavor than has often been associated with that wrapper leaf. Excellent construction and burn, lots of smoke, and for flavor notes I would include cedar, and some subtle baking spice. A solid choice for those looking for flavor in a medium profile. You can find them online for $6-8.
Excellent, rhomboid! Thank you!
Programming Note: I haven't forgotten about the write-up on cigar humidification - I just haven't had time to pull it together. Totally my fault! - Weasel
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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.
This week's mailbag entry is from our pal Ex Ex. Great one! Love it!
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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: It IS The End Times: French Toast With Maple Syrup Is Back On The Menu!
—CBD
Why yes, that is French Toast. With buttermilk ice cream. And cinnamon sugar. And maple syrup.
And I ate it.
No...not because I have had some sea change in my life that has driven me towards horrible food combinations. I am nothing if not rigid and unwilling to change. It was a far simpler reason.
It was polite.
At an excellent breakfast joint we shot the breeze with a charming and amusing waiter (actually a manager filling in) about food and travel and life. I think we spent half an hour chatting with him, and he brought us that dish as a treat.
So I dug in with gusto, ate the damned thing (far too sweet!), thanked him for the delicious dessert, and then went back to the hotel and brushed my teeth!
I am intellectually and emotionally allergic to French Toast with maple syrup, but not physically, so it never even occurred to me to decline the gesture.
Meals are not just for fuel. They are part of what makes us human, and the joy of sharing food with others, and even the process in a restaurant is a civilized and enjoyable thing that is completely separate from the act of eating.
At some level we were in his home, as it were, and refusing that hospitable gesture would have been unthinkable.
When we are invited into someone's home for a meal, I think that the assumption is, or certainly should be, that the event is for the enjoyment of each other's company, and that the meal is a delightful bonus. So what if you don't like peas or broccoli or lamb or hamburgers...eat it, smile, say how delicious it is, and enjoy the company!
Oh boy...here is some weapons-grade nonsense from an overtly political group whose entire raison d'être (aside from making money with their fake certifications) is the blending of politics and food production. Just look for the word "equity" in their blatherings as proof. How a strawberry grown by a farmer of color is better than the identical strawberry grown by a person of pallor is beyond me, but then I'm not a crypto-communist political agitator!
“Strawberries aren’t the only problematic produce item. 90 percent of blueberry samples were contaminated with toxic pesticide residues, including pesticides linked to cancer and nervous system harm,” according to the EWG.
“Among the 54 pesticides found on blueberries were several bee-killing neonic pesticides. Not only have these pesticides been linked to the massive decline in bee populations worldwide, they’ve also been linked to neurological damage in children.”
The organization says 75 percent of non-organic fruits and vegetables sold in the U.S. are “riddled” with potentially toxic agricultural chemicals. Some of the pesticides detected have been banned in the U.S. or Europe because of concerns about how they harm people.
“Despite the abundance of science linking exposure to pesticides with serious health issues, a potentially toxic cocktail of concerning chemicals continues to taint many of the non-organic fruits and vegetables are eaten by consumers,” said Alexis Temkin, EWG toxicologist.
Conspicuously absent is any data showing actual risk. Today's analytical technology is absolutely incredible. We can discover chemicals at vanishingly small concentrations...parts per trillion is easy! And that's how these organizations make their money. They terrify overwhelmed consumers with gloomy and scary articles and press releases about how they found 38 different carcinogens in their kids' fruit cup! But that's not the whole story, or even the most important part.
Yes, many chemicals are dangerous, but as is often quoted, "Sola dosis facit venenum" ..."the dose makes the poison. So PPT of some chemical that is associated with some heightened risk, but very possibly does not cause it is interesting but in most cases nothing of import.
And unsaid is the alternative to eating these foods...the higher cost of supposedly safer organic alternatives, or the alternative foods that may be less healthful.
These are fear-mongering scum, and we should attack them with the reality of the data, that modern agriculture is not perfect, but has done far more good than bad. We can feed the world...eliminate hunger...if it weren't for these busybodies who want everyone to be equally miserable in their food consumption.
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Misanthropic Humanitarian is trolling me again. He sent an Epicurious article (I don't link them any more because they are anti-beef, anti-white commies) about a very interesting variation on a classic cream cheese frosting. But...it was written in that typical irritating style of too many food writers today...over-long, verbose, pompous, self-referential, and just generally irritating.
Besides, another name for the frosting is "ermine," which is a type of weasel!
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Commenter "Kathy" sent me an interesting recipe for homemade corned beef -- obviously for Saint Patrick's Day -- but I have been catastrophically disorganized the past few weeks and just didn't post it in time. But she also sent along a video How to Make the Ultimate Tuscan-Style Roast Pork with Garlic and Rosemary, which is a classic dish done a little bit differently.
Pork loin is nice, but nothing spectacular until it is tuned up with extra flavor, which that recipe does rather easily. Kathy tells me that it was definitely worth the effort!
Maybe one day I will do that but with a bone-in pork roast. I'll bet it is possible to open it up the same way as the boneless version.
Anyone ever try that?
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From commenter "Bitter Clinger" comes some musings about beer...
I came into work one morning and found this beer precariously positioned against the glass door to the cooler. I immediately said to myself "Heh. Schrödinger's Beer".
But as I am wont to do when by myself, I pondered over a greater issue, wondering if the fate of this Heineken was representative of the European beer market in the United States, alive and yet dead simultaneously, with the rise of the craft beer.
Being a child of the 70s means that I was a bartender and novice drinker during the cultural void of the 90s, a time when beer was largely associated with bikini clad twins, anthropomorphized bull terriers, the McKenzie Brothers and Bob Eucker, During those days, the burgeoning beer lover could still count on a few imports to class up even the shittiest of hole in the wall joints. A man could order a Heineken and drink it with his pinky sticking out for a touch of class, prove his manliness with the oversized Foster's Oil Can, drink for effect with a Molson Ice, or prove your worldliness with German lager or an English ale.
It was always fun to visit English or Irish themed pubs or European beer markets and try beers from around the globe. But of late, the frequency with which I see many of these old brands in grocery stores or bars seems to have diminished greatly in favor of a slew of sometimes good, sometimes mediocre craft beers.
My evidence of such a shift in preferences is largely anecdotal, though I have read some articles that have indicated that while imports as a whole are on the rise, it's largely due to the proliferation of shittier Mexican brands, while European beers are losing market share over the last 5 years or so.
Anyhow, if this be the way of the future, I'll always look back fondly on the era of the import, when the lovely St. Pauli girl adorned many a watering hole. I wonder what imported beers Teh Horde celebrated with in those days?
I remember seeking out Molson on tap when I was a callow youth. It was rare, and I guess good. Nowadays my taste has moved toward different sorts of beer, but whenever I see Molosn on tap I am reminded of evenings at Googly's (I think it is long gone) in the West Village...drinking pitchers of Molson and eating good burgers!
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Passover is coming soon, and with it comes my yearly agony...what to serve for the main course at the Seder!
Lamb is a classic, for obvious reasons, and here are six recipes that have possibilities. two of them need tweaking (lavender with lamb? Pshah!), but they are all a good start.
I will probably Sous Vide two whole legs, then finish them on the grill if the weather agrees. If not I can always stick them in a hot oven, but grilled lamb is one of those foods that tickles the senses in every way, so I am hoping!
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Just send me oysters. Lots of oysters, and I will provide special dispensation for those without taste who insist upon maple syrup with their French Toast. And 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, an herb garden that actually produces herbs (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.
[My apologies in advance for presenting a First World Problem...but then having a solution!]
Yeah...I am one of those people who has that special skill for losing small parts. You name it...guns or computers or plumbing or cars or just fixing some random equipment in the house, and I will invariably drop a small part onto the floor, or even more fun shoot it across the room...propelled by some tiny little spring that is shockingly powerful!
Magnets! Ain't they grand! That silly little pressed metal container has a few cheap rare-earth magnets embedded in the base, and it holds everything nicely...even on end, so it is easier to pick up when needed.
It's pretty much perfect, and a marvelous First World Solution to a First World Problem.
Oh...anyone who can identify what's in the magic magnet bowl gets a one year platinum membership to AoSHQ, with ampersand utility AND Troll-B-Gon!
Manhattan's Soros DA Alivin Bragg contacts police in anticipation of indictment of Trump next week No more protection for Democrats, including presidents, their families, and their corrupt wives like Hillary. LOCK THEM ALL UP. If one side is going to risk political civil war by jailing the leaders of the other party, then we're all playing that game. Alvin Bragg better stay within NYC's limits, too. That m*****f***er looks like violates drug laws on the daily, and I can see Red State Police sniffing at his hotel doors to see if any illegal substances are being consumed.
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Hall and Oates Deep Cuts Edition This is from 1980's Voices. It was never a single, but maybe it should have been. Operator, International Oh-One-One, oh/Put your love on the line, put your ear to the phone/Baby, it's no longer than a night and a day/But where you are is so far from the U.S. of A/And it ain't so easy, easy on the heart
S3E8: The Irish Democracy episode, as author, historian and editor of The-Pipeline.orgMichael Walsh joins CBD and J.J. from his home in Ireland to ask the ultimate question of "what are you prepared to do" to fight for whatever is left of America, the Trump vs DeSantis battle, will the Chi-Coms implode before we do, the abject incompetence of those who would be our overlords, climate madness, and a whole lot more!
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click In the early-mid eighties, a big band's singer went solo, and made this song, written for his girlfriend Sherrie.
Former Rep. Pat Schroeder, Colorado lawmaker and women's rights pioneer, dead at 82
She knows who she will be voting for in the next election cycle
Posted by: SMOD
Your weekly reminder that the left supported Russia for 100 years exactly (1917 to 2017) and took its side in every dispute, arguing against every military system designed to deter them or shoot down missiles, arguing endlessly that we should concede the entire world to the Soviet Union, even laughing in a 2012 presidential debate at the notion that Russia was a "global foe."
But then in 2016 Russia spent $150,000 on FaceBook ads to stir up political trouble which a failed alcoholic lesbian claimed was "stealing the election."
At that point, the left became the absolute most unhinged of Dr. Strangelove level Russia hawks, and began attacking anyone who didn't now want to start a nuclear exchange with Russia a "RUSSIAN AGENT."
Just forget about those previous 90 years, eh, comrade? Like when the Democrat party was made up of front groups directly funded by the KGB?
Leftists have no patriotism, except to leftism itself. They championed Russia when it was invading the world and funding terrorist groups to attack Europe, Israel, and the US. They finally decided that Russia might be a Bad Guy when they ran $150,000 in ads on FaceBook that Hillary Clinton said "stole" the election from her.
S3E7: CBD and J.J. Sefton discuss the release of the J6 videotapes by McCarthy and Carlson, destroying the Leftist meme about a Trump-led violent insurrection, rabid Marxist Gigi Sohn's FCC nomination is dead but equally rabid Commie Julie Su is set to destroy free enterprise if she becomes FTC head, Chinese COVID-19 came from a lab!, Americans kidnapped and killed south of the non-existent border, and more!
Jonah Goldberg is 53 years old.
Again, I can't stress enough the income streams this discount mediocrity and professional fat fuck has simply because of the family he belongs to.
He does less work in a day than a ship's parrot and it's pretty much a given that he has a macro on his keyboard that automatically generates 7/8 of anything he writes.
Posted by: Azathoth