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Gavin Newsom Directs $19 Million in California Taxpayer Money to Madison Avenue to Improve California's Reputation -- Just as Gavin Newsom Is Running for President and Personally Needs California's Image to be Remade
I gotta tell you guys, I did not see this one coming. It just snuck up on me.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is hoping to to boost California's tarnished image on the national stage -- so he's throwing millions in taxpayer money at a high-powered New York public relations firm to do it for him.
The governor's Office of Business and Economic Development awarded PR powerhouse Edelman a contract worth up to $19 million to burnish the Golden State's reputation, KCRA reported.
Edelman -- which also does work on behalf of mega-companies like Dove, Starbucks, eBay and Heineken -- will be tasked with combating "negative narratives amplified online and in partisan media" about California while promoting the state's economy and tourism.
...
The contract begins on April 6 and will run through then end of the year, which nearly coincides with end of the governor's term in early 2027.
Oh you mean January 2027, as the official primary season begins in earnest. How convenient.
The state agency previously told the outlet that the campaign wouldn't be about Newsom himself, but California.
"The campaign will tell the California story, not the Gavin Newsom story," the agency said. "The effort is about California's success, not about politics."
Uh-huh. You're just rebutting "partisan narratives" but not for any partisan purpose. Sure.
A Newsom spokesperson previously told the Los Angeles Times that California's business climatehas been "falsely and maliciously maligned for years," and that the "state has a right to tell the true story."
Weird that he didn't want to tell this "true story" in years when he wasn't running for president. People and businesses have been fleeing California for six years, you know.
...
News of the contract drew ample criticism.
"Gavin Newsom is giving 19 million California taxpayer dollars to a New York PR firm to promote California in a better light to the nation. Which does not at all sound like Gavin Newsom is making a presidential campaign ad for himself," Kevin Dalton, who ran for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, wrote on X.
"Californians aren't being asked, they're being billed," added Republican congressional candidate Christine Bish.
Speaking of California politicians raiding the public fisc for their own benefit and to pay off their donors: Gavin Newsom's Obama-Biden boondoggle to spend tens of billions of dollars on a "high speed train" from LA to San Francisco -- when that route is well-serviced by planes and, well, a nice car ride if you have half a day to spare -- that even 60 Minutes noticed.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom is the very avatar of Democrat Woman.
Haughty, hectoring and pleased with herself, she is single-handedly wrecking her henpecked husband Gavin's lofty political ambitions.
No wonder he's taken to moping around and crying at press conferences.
As the California governor's presidential aspirations head south and his state's woes become impossible to ignore, he's tried in vain to reset his ailing brand -- and now his 51-year-old actress-turned-activist wife is taking over.
Over the weekend, she inserted herself into the news again with an Instagram video pontificating that the departure of Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem from President Trump's cabinet is proof that the commander-in-chief is waging a "war on all women."
"I need to call out that it's no surprise to me that the first two prominent people pushed out of this administration were women," she opined in a mint green jacket, with her long, blond tresses cascading fetchingly over one shoulder.
As she enunciated every bad word she could think of for Trump's "sexism and misogyny," she bizarrely smiled: "Devalued" -- smile. "Degraded" -- smile. "Diminished" -- smile.
"No woman is safe in Trump's Republican Party." Smile, smile, smile.
The title she posted on the screen was: "Some thoughts on the patriarchy."
Mrs. Newsom has "thoughts" -- and boy, does she want you to hear them.
Her assertiveness was on full display a few weeks ago when she elbowed her husband away from the podium and took over his press conference to scold the assembled reporters for not being sufficiently admiring of some abortion funding announcement the governor had just made.
"We just find it incredulous that we have Planned Parenthood here, and women are 51% of the population," she said. "And the majority of the questions -- all of these questions -- have really been about other issues. So, it's just fascinating."
She was greeted by "incredulous" silence.
Not only had she publicly emasculated the governor with the sort of first-spouse effrontery we haven't seen since Hillary Clinton entered the White House, but she showed herself to be incapable of using basic English.
Maybe she thinks "incredulous" is an intellectual version of "incredible."
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, said she actively works to challenge gender norms with her sons, telling an interviewer:
"I've given our boys dolls... if I'm reading a book and the protagonist is a male, I just change the he to a she."
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, said she actively works to challenge gender norms with her sons, telling an interviewer:
"I've given our boys dolls… if I'm reading a book and the protagonist is a male, I just change the he to a she." pic.twitter.com/KnDH6lp2GF
This link to Jesse Kelly contains a montage of her many ultrawoke preachings.
This one's incredible: Apparently she killed her own sister by running her over with... a golf cart. Nepo baby bitch.
But she tells prisoners that she understands their plight because she, too, killed someone "by accident" and she's very sure that's what all the people in prison did too.
Gavin Newsom's wife recalls telling prisoners at San Quentin about running over and killing her sister with a golf cart.
She said that she wasn't punished because it was an accident but that the prisoners are doing life even though theirs was "probably an accident too." pic.twitter.com/24HqCHXSZh
Libs keep asking Grok if these videos are real and recent. Grok keeps telling them they are.
Don't forget, she's also stealing taxpayer money, diverted to her by her husband and his cronies, to push DEI and transgenderism to California schoolchildren.
Sons and Nieces of High-Ranking Islamic Occupation Army of Iran Officials Have Been Living High on the Hog In the US -- But Are Now Getting Their Satanic Asses Deported Back to Their Homeland Hellhole
The son of a notorious Iranian regime leader is enjoying an affluent lifestyle in Los Angeles, the California Post can reveal.
Campaigners are calling for Eissa Hashemi, 43, to be investigated and deported for defiantly refusing to denounce his mother's sickening past.
On Monday, he appeared unfazed by the controversy and defiantly brushed off a reporter's questions, declining to speak after a workout at his fancy gym.
The college psychology lecturer is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, known as "Screaming Mary," who acted as spokesperson for violent militants who stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
She was infamous worldwide for firing off twisted propaganda during the crisis, even encouraging captives to describe the punishing ordeal in glowing terms.
Ebtekar was later promoted to Vice President for Women and Family Affairs by regime leaders -- becoming the country's first female VP and one of the highest-ranking women in the Muslim world today.
In January, protestors gathered at the $20,000 a year Chicago School in in Claremont, east LA, and other teaching institutions in the area with links to Hashemi, for rallies calling for him to be deported.
Organizers of Change.org petitions want Hashemi to be kicked out of the country.
One wrote: "While the mother has no regret of occupying the US embassy in Tehran, many Iranians have been affected by this action while her own son has taken advantage of living in the US.
"We want Issa Hashemi and his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi to be fired from the US as soon as possible."
A poster on Instagram said: "Mr. Hashemi has never publicly distanced himself from his mother's actions or legacy."
...
Another said: "47 years ago, Masoumeh Ebtekar took U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days and threatened to kill them.
"Today, her son, Isa [sic] Hashemi works for Chicago School of Professional Psychology and lives freely in Los Angeles."
And one more added: "His father was also one of the core group of leaders of the Muslim Students Followers of the Imam's Line and several of the former hostages, including my father, positively identified him as being present during their torture and interrogation.
"His mother was perhaps even crueler than some of the other captors. This guy has no business being in this country. I've been dogging him since 2015."
Okay, he's not being deported. Yet.
But the pampered niece and grand-niece of Iran's top terror commander and Austere Religious Scholar Qasem Soleimani -- assassinated by airstrike by Trump in his first term -- were just arrested by ICE and scheduled for deportation.
The niece of slain Iranian terror mastermind Gen. Qasem Soleimani -- who showcased her luxe LA lifestyle on Instagram while bashing the US as the "Great Satan" -- and her daughter have been arrested by ICE agents, the State Department announced Saturday.
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, who allegedly celebrated attacks on US soldiers and military bases, and her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny, have had their green cards revoked over their ties to the Iranian regime.
"While living in the United States, she promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader, denounced America as the 'Great Satan,' and voiced her unflinching support for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terror organization," according to a State Department letter confirming the Friday arrests.
Afshar, 47, entered the US in 2015 on a tourist visa, was granted asylum in 2019 and secured a green card in 2021 from the Biden administration.
She made at least four trips back to Iran since receiving her green card, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Hosseniy, 25, also entered the US in 2015 on a student visa. She became a green card holder in 2023.
Her online persona was at odds with the Shia Islam her mother espoused.
Photos on her since-deleted social media reveal the bikini-clad babe showing off stomach tattoos and lounging on a jetski in barely-there swimsuit.
Other Instagram posts show Hosseiny clubbing in Miami, vacationing in Alaska, and partying down in Las Vegas.
"It is a privilege to be granted a green card to live in the United States of America. If we have reason to believe a green card holder poses a threat to the US, the green card will be revoked," Lauren Bis, a DHS spokesperson, told The Post.
The State Department also referenced Afshar's extravagant life in Los Angeles, which she allegedly frequently documented on her Instagram account, which has also apparently been deleted.
This is what the Iranian regime does to women who show their hair.
Arezoo Badri was shot, put in a coma and left paralyzed for showing her hair.
Meanwhile, this is the niece of former IRGC leader Qasem Soleimani- free to flaunt her body because she is part of the regime. pic.twitter.com/JtakU96JwL
Iran on Monday hanged a man convicted in connection with nationwide protests in January. Early morning executions have become near-daily events under the cover of the war against Israel and the United States.
Most of those executed are young men, including teens, alleged to have been either involved in the protests that were brutally suppressed by the regime -- with thousands shot dead in the streets -- or members of banned opposition groups.
Undeterred by the war, the Islamic Republic continues to exact its revenge, and exiled opposition groups and rights organizations said they feared that hundreds more could be executed in the coming days.
Ali Fahim, 23, was hanged Monday after being found guilty of involvement in an attack on a Tehran base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Basij militia during the protests, according to rights groups who have followed the case.
The judiciary's Mizan Online website described him as "one of the enemy elements in the terrorist riots," and said he was hanged after the supreme court approved the original verdict.
It sounds like they accused him of messaging the checkpoint's location to Israel or the US.
For two straight years we had leftist protestors going nuts over non-existent genocide and war crimes in Gaza.
But for Iran’s butchers that slaughter protestors? NOTHING. Why is that? Where are these beacons of moral clarity now? pic.twitter.com/YCG9JoAXgf
The office of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., offers internships "for college students to gain valuable work experience ... [and] absorb the many functions of a Congressional office." If the growing harassment allegations against the leftist lawmaker and leading Democrat candidate for California governor are true, Congress may want to put the kibosh on Swalwell's tutelage program for young women.
It seems the accomplice media has been too busy falling all over themselves in their absurd attempt to make Swalwell a martyr of President Donald Trump's "weaponization of law enforcement" to pay much attention to the women coming forward accusing the swamp rat of inappropriate sexual conduct.
Swalwell's flacks are furiously trying to explain away why the smarmy Democrat's campaign spent north of $300,000 on "private attorneys who specialize in white-collar criminal defense and employment law." They told KCRA 3 in Sacramento the payments were for legal guidance to fend off Trump's "retaliatory investigations" into Swalwell that have "put his family and staff at risk." After all, If you can't trust a morally corrupt congressman who fervently peddled the Russia collusion hoax, who can you trust?
'Pattern of Manipulation and Abuse of Power'
Cheyenne Hunt, a Democrat who in 2024 ran unsuccessfully for California's 45th Congressional District seat, posted on her social media sites that she has been "working with a number of women who are in the process of coming forward and sharing their stories of sexual harassment and even alleged abuse at the hands of Eric Swalwell." Hunt, who serves as executive director of the liberal organization Gen-Z for Change, claims a "major news outlet" is preparing to publish a story on the allegations.
"So let me be as clear and transparent about that as I safely can be," she said in a video posted to her Facebook page. "I am personally working with a group of women who want to come forward and share their stories. I am also aware of a much larger group that is also in this process that I am not personally working with."
Hunt says the group has pro bono legal representation to protect the victims' "legal and physical safety" as they share their experiences about Swalwell, adding that a number of women have come forward since a previous post last month. In that post she accused Swalwell of having a "predatory history toward women."
Meanwhile, Trump appears to have made a major mistake in California. He endorsed Republican Steve Hilton for governor. The problem is that this is a jungle primary and there was no need to endorse either Republican yet -- both can win the jungle primary and then face each other mano a mano -- no Democrat candidate! -- in the general. But this means it's likely that Hilton will cannibalize a big chunk of his Republican rival's support, and easily win the jungle primary -- along with a Democrat, who will then go on to easily beat him.
This is Mark Halperin's analysis but I don't see any fault with it. The only way a Republican can win in California -- unless Californians are finally so sick of Democrats they'll go against 50 years of voting history for a change -- is to run against another Republican. This increases the odds that Hilton will lose the governor's race.
2018. Eric Swalwell says that if Brett Kavanaugh is innocent of sexual assault, he should bring into his hearing all the people who have accused him so they can speak freely.
Swalwell also said that multiple accusers means Kavanaugh is most likely guilty.
Yes, they're ahead -- but only barely. Given historical precedent and the current political environment, they should be running away with it.
But they're not.
"This lead is historically low for Democrats at this point with a Republican president," Enten said. "On average, their lead's actually slightly less. It's five points. That's less than it was back in 2018 when it was eight points and way less than it was during the 2006 cycle when it was 11 points."
Five points.
Now, I don't exactly trust the approval rating polls showing that President Donald Trump at -20 or -30, but still, with numbers like that, Democrats should be crushing the GOP in the general congressional ballot, but they're not.
"You'd make the argument, Democrats should be way ahead, and they're just only sort of slightly ahead," Enten pointed out.
In Virginia, Abigail Spannberger, a woke Deep State traitor, ran as a "moderate centrist."
Just two months into her term of office, Gov. Spanberger's approval polling is barely above water. Her win last year was supposed to be the victory of pragmatic moderation over the voices of the far left, but since then Virginia voters seem to have realized she's a left-wing partisan, not a moderate. Today the Washington Post has a story about this sudden turnaround.
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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's approval rating stands at 47 percent two months into the Democrat's term, with 46 percent of voters disapproving and 7 percent expressing no opinion in a Washington Post-Schar School poll.
Spanberger won in a 15-point landslide last year after touting her reputation for bipartisanship built on three terms representing a conservative-leaning district in Congress. But her current ratings reflect sharp polarization among Virginia voters in their views of the state's first female governor.
The approval mark for Spanberger is 13 percentage points lower than the average for Virginia governors in Post polling since the 1990s. Her near-even split between approval and disapproval is a worse net approval rating than the early-term scores of her predecessors in previous Post polls. It is also slightly weaker than ratings of her immediate predecessor, Glenn Youngkin (R), in a Post-Schar School poll last fall, showing he ended his term with 50 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval.
So where is the "sharp polarization" coming from? It's coming from Spanberger herself who hasn't been content to focus on affordability and is instead focused on issues like making sure police don't cooperate with ICE.
The Democrats, of course, intend to lie their way into office this year. They will almost all claim to be moderate, except for the designated woke warrior bomb-throwers in safe districts who will be allowed to preach the True Democrat Religion.
It's important to really push the Spannberger story and show that she lied and therefore all the other Democrats running the Spannberger Playbook are lying as well.
The left is pushing the 25th Amendment for Trump again, after assuring us for four years that Biden was a highly engaged "super-ager" who ran circles around his 30-year-old staffers.
All the way into July 2024 Gupta was defending Biden as “quite robust” and “high functioning."
Tellingly in this clip, immediately after glazing Biden, he goes after Trump, even though he wasn’t even asked about Trump.
By the way, they really freaked out when Trump called a lid on Saturday and did not interact with the press for 24 hours. They were certain he was incapacitated.
In fact, he was locked in the Situation Room monitoring the rescue effort he'd ordered.
Tuq'r Qarlson Attacks Trump: "No President Should Mock Islam" Also Trots Out His New Demented Theory That Trump Might Be the Actual Literal Antichrist of the Book of Revelations
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Let me just get this out of the way since the trolls are already here. (Is it funny, by the way, that we leave them in peace while they cannot stop attempting to annoy us into submission and threatening us that By God I'll Vote for Kamala Harris Just Like Nick Fuentes Told Me To If You Don't Obey My Tantrum!)
Below, in 2006, Tuq'r Qarlson said that he would vote for someone who declared "I'm a bigot, I don't like Islam, call me a racist, call me whatever you want."
And now? "A president should not mock Islam."
I assume that this is in reference to Trump ending some Truth social posts with "Peace be to Allah" or that kind of thing, which I'm not even sure is mockery. He might mean it in the George W. Bush kind of way.
Tucker Carlson in 2006: “I’m a bigot. If you’re really into Islam, I don’t care for you. I don’t care what that sounds like - you can call me a racist. I’d vote for you if you said that.” VS. Tucker Carlson in 2026: “No president… pic.twitter.com/j5ziSlpcVb
— Nathan Livingstone (MilkBarTV) (@TheMilkBarTV) April 7, 2026
Tuq'r is claiming Trump attacked Christianity itself and defiled Jesus by launching the rescue effort on Easter Sunday... ignoring the fact that the guy was about to be found and it wouldn't wait until start-of-business on Monday.
No, he says this was a deliberate attempt to "eradicate" Christianity itself.
Desecrating Easter was the first step toward nuclear war. Christians need to understand where Trump is taking us.
0:00 Monologue 43:23 Paula White’s Strange Easter Sunday Service 51:17 Who Really Is Paula White? 57:24 How Did Paula Become Trump’s Spiritual Advisor? 1:00:03 The… pic.twitter.com/LurDKGg8WS
And who would try to eradicate Christianity? Well, the Antichrist of course -- and Tuq'r Qarlson now asserts that Trump may be the literal Antichrist.
Tuq'r's new Conspiracy Theory is that Trump's war is not just on Iran, but on the Christian faith itself, a "stealthy but effective attack... on faith in Jesus."
He thinks that Trump might be looking for a more elevated position than the mere president of the United States: He's saying Trump wants to be Leader of the World, like the Antichrist will become.
In fairness, he believes that Jews are tricking him because he's stupid so that maybe Trump doesn't know he's the Antichrist yet.
What a stupid Antichrist stupid Drumpf is!!!
🚨 Tucker Carlson insinuates that President Trump might be the Antichrist:
"Is it possible that what you're watching is a very stealthy, yet incredibly effective attack on what, from a Christian perspective, is the true faith, belief in Jesus? ...
Tucker never stopped being the man who called Trump a "demonic force," a "destroyer," and in 2021 texts wrote: "I hate him passionately. I can't handle much more of this."
And "We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait."
Tucker just lied to get close to Trump so he could undermine him.
And almost as if this is a planned op spearheaded by the foreign-government paid podcast brahs Tuq'r and Cavernous Nostrils, Cavernous just happens to drop her new conspiracy theory to day, that Trump is literally running a "satanic administration."
Wow, it's such a coincidence that Tuq'r accuses Trump of being the literal Antichrist on the same day Cavernous debuts her "satanic administration under the control of zionists" op!
And she says that Trump thinks he's a "Messiah!"
What kind of "Messiah," Cavernous Nostrils? A false one, presumably...?
Like the Antichrist will present himself as, yes?
Oh no, whatever I do, I mustn't accuse these very sensible and sane Patriots of being Traitors! That would be a wrongful slur, whine the cloying faggots who accuse everyone who is not a Paulite of being a "Neocon who just wants Bill Kristol to be president."
And what does Trump think of Tuq'r's and Cavernous's new theory that he is the literal son of Satan himself?
Caitlin Doornbos
@CaitlinDoornbos
4h
President Trump went off on Carlson when I asked him about this nonsense this morning.
"Tucker's a low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what's going on. He calls me all the time; I don't respond to his calls. I don't deal with him. I like dealing with smart people, not fools."
Boy I sure think Trump is making a huge mistake running down his loyal allies like that! We all have to unite behind Tuq'r, Cavernous, and of course !!RoNpAuL!!!!
Iran Media Celebrates the Great Islamic Victory in Rescue of F-15 WSO; Joe Kent Spreads Iran Propaganda Lie That US Was Attempting to Kill the Weapons Officer Rather Than Rescue Him
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Who put forward Joe Kent's name? Whoever did should be fired. I'm guessing it was Tulsi Gabbard but I don't know that.
He's a traitor and don't give me that jazz that servicemembers can't be traitors. Benedict Arnold was a capable commander until he turned over West Point to England.
He posted a dishonest message that PJs (pararescue men, who I thought were Pararescue Jumpers, but no one seems to call them that) are "the best" while posting Iranian propaganda funneled through Iran's American agents at DropSite news that the US was attempting to murder its own man.
Ex-Trump counterterror honcho Joe Kent promotes disturbing Iranian propaganda claiming US tried to kill stranded soldier
By Emily Crane
Published April 6, 2026, 4:29 p.m. ET
Conspiracy theorist and ex-National Counterterrorism Center boss Joe Kent has been called out for promoting wild Iranian propaganda that suggested the United States was actually trying to kill a downed American airman -- just hours before he was dramatically rescued.
Kent, who abruptly resigned from his Trump administration position last month in protest over Iran, got into a war of words with CNN's Jake Tapper on Monday after the former counterterror honcho was called out for peddling the false claims.
He had shared an article from Iranian state media over the weekend that claimed the US was actively bombing the same area where the missing airman was believed to be.
Oh I'm getting to that, below. American warplanes and drones released, a former pararescue man reports based on his insider knowledge, "violence of Biblical proportions" in the "FAFO box" around the downed airmen.
No, Tokyo Joe, it wasn't to kill the wizzo. It was to eradicate hundreds of Islamic Occupation Army thugs hunting him and rushing to his position.
The pro-regime outlet was reporting that the Trump administration had "lost hope" of finding the American soldier and was now trying to kill him before he could be captured by Iranian forces.
Kent shared the post before President Trump revealed hours later that the crewman had finally been rescued in a daring operation behind enemy lines.
Tapper, for his part, was quick to ridicule Kent "nonsense" post -- arguing his theory hadn't aged well.
"Former National Counterterrorism Center director Joe Kent sharing Iranian state-linked outlet nonsense claiming, falsely, that the US was trying to kill the then-lost US pilot," Tapper posted on X.
...
A defensive Kent quickly fired back, accusing Tapper and other media outlets of trying to "promote this foolish war & attack anyone who points out how this war isn't in our nation's interest."
You know, most traitors believe they're doing the right thing by championing a foreign country over their own. Plus, traitors tend to be enormous egotists, narcissists really, who always know better than everyone else.
The media in Iran is parading the treasure trove of intelligence it collected. Underwear is only the beginning: our preferences in toothpaste, sunscreen, & preserved meats were also revealed. I regret the loss of secrets. But I gained respect for our soldiers’ dental hygiene. pic.twitter.com/r17KRZpSpO
One of the pictures shows the Islamic Occupation Army thug showing off a high-tech teriyaki beef stick. Another shows classified toothpaste.
Outstanding work, guys. Give yourselves all a bonus.
The bitter communists are celebrating the loss of the planes and helos as a big Win for Iran:
Lose all this to rescue 1 pilot and call it your greatest military success of all time. pic.twitter.com/EB36KGNxC5
— Daniel Foubert 🇵🇱🇫🇷 (@Arrogance_0024) April 5, 2026
The bitter communist Peter Baker of the Bitter Communist NYT insists that Trump is "committing war crimes" by striking roads and bridges and power plants. This is bizarre. We always do that. They're key infrastructure used by the military. They say he must be prosecuted and jailed after he's out of office:
Peter Baker
@peterbakernyt
No other modern president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes. Wartime presidents and their aides have usually insisted they were trying to follow international and US military law, even if they violated it in some cases. @ewong
This bitter communist professor says the US committed war crimes by targeting "military aged males" rushing to capture the downed pilot. He claims they might have just been civilians racing up the mountain towards the pilot so they're all war criminals.
"Age and gender," he intones, are not enough under International Law to establish that someone is a combatant.
How about context? Seems to me the only people racing up a mountain where a downed pilot is hidden are going to be people trying to capture him, not Recreational Armed Speed Hikers.
The only circumstance in which a civilian may be targeted is while they are directly participating in hostilities.
Being in a particular area does not entail direct participation in hostilities.
1) The little bird helicopters were carried aboard the C-130s, which have been modified to land anywhere. Unfortunately both C-130s got stuck in the ground and could not take off, so they and the helicopters were blown up. The helicopters did not have the range to get out of Iran and aren't capable of mid-air refueling.
2) He said there was an intense firefight -- "violence of Biblical proportions" -- between ground Basij and IRGC forces and lots of American planes and drones sent to protect the area where the downed pilot was hiding. The American forces created an "FAFO box" around the pilot's position and anyone coming with in it got the FO. Planes and drones were bombing open road just to slow down the approaching Islamic Occupation Army forces. (Which the left tells me is a war crime. But then, so was targeting the Occupation forces rushing to capture and torture the pilot.)
3) Unfortunately some of the rescuers were wounded by bullets and shrapnel in the firefight. I expect this will be the subject of intense press curiosity over the next months. They will turn this Anti-Benghazi, where we actually committed all the forces necessary to achieve a rescue, into "Trump's Benghazi."
4) He does not estimate the number of Islamic Occupational Army thugs killed by from context it sounds like it could be in the hundreds.
5) Because the C-130s were stuck, they had to send in more C-130s to pick up the special forces operators now out in the open in Iran and surrounded by Islamic Occupation Army forces.
6) He says he was leaked the information -- actually he pretends he's speaking "hypothetically allegedly" -- that some of the joint chiefs did not want to mount the rescue at all, considering it too dangerous, but someone with the handle "SecWar" overruled them.
For Muslims, negotiation is a form of warfare, conducted by other means, and is subject to the same rules.
In the traditional Islamic view, the world is divided into the House of Islam and the House of War. The latter is assumed to be at war with Islam until it submits... weakness invites attack, strength commands respect.
Westerners, and particularly Western governments often make the ridiculous assumption that Muslims are part of the empirical, logic-driven philosophy of the West. And even more laughable...they assume that honor, and simply doing what one says one will do is a bedrock of Muslim culture, just as it is in the West.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Lies, subterfuge, propaganda...all are accepted methods of negotiation in the Muslim world. The idea that there is some sort of code of honor between people is laughable. Strength is lauded; weakness is mocked and taken advantage of. And following through with commitments is simply unheard of. Behavior is based on what is best for Family, Clan, Country. If that agrees with an agreement, then wonderful. If not...it is also wonderful.
President Donald Trump on Monday indicated that the U.S. had attempted to send guns to the Iranian people to help them fight the Islamic Republic's armed forces, but that the intermediary that was supposed to distribute the weapons merely kept them instead.
"We sent some guns," he said. "They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs. You know what happened? The people that we sent them to kept them."
"So, I am very upset with a certain group of people and they're gonna pay a big price for that," he added.
President Trump is understandably frustrated by what is a common behavior in the Muslim world. Cheating and stealing? Yeah...so? But unlike his predecessors, President Trump may very well punish that behavior, which would be a novel response in the Western world. The Muslim world has come to expect the West to negotiate from a position of weakness, because they simply do not understand the Muslim mindset. While it is unclear that President Trump understands it, it is abundantly clear that he doesn't like it.
Iran expected a typical Western military campaign...a few bombs, a few missiles, and they could then get back to their strategy of obfuscation and delay while working to create a missile force that would be unstoppable.
That President Trump turned that on its head is a testament to his resolve, and his understanding of the geopolitical reality of a nuclear Iran. But most of all it is obvious that he does not trust the Iranian hierarchy, and that is a sea change in Western dealings with the Muslim world!
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
“You’ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud,” Trump told the four astronauts just hours after they emerged from the far side of the moon. “Humans have really never seen anything quite like what you’re doing in a manned spacecraft,” Trump marveled. “It’s really special.” The commander in chief was introduced to the crew by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who noted the president “wanted to be the first person to greet you after your return from the far side of the moon.”
U.S. special operations forces rescued the second crew member from a downed F-15E fighter jet in Iran after a “heavy firefight,” successfully extracting both airmen and all rescue personnel from the country, according to multiple reports.
U.S. officials told Axios and Fox News the high-risk combat search-and-rescue mission recovered the weapon systems officer more than a day after the aircraft was shot down, concluding a complex operation that unfolded behind enemy lines. The weapon systems officer had evaded capture after ejecting alongside the pilot, using Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training to move away from the wreckage and take cover on elevated terrain while activating an emergency beacon, according to reporting cited by Fox News.
“The CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians, who were desperately hunting for our airman. On Saturday morning, we achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America’s best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy but not to the CIA,” Ratcliffe said. (RELATED: Israeli Airstrike Takes Out Top Iranian Intel Chief, Officials Say)
hopefully now we can finish the job or at long last the Persian people can rise up and finish off the Mullahs.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States attempted to supply Iranian protesters with weapons this year so they could defend themselves against another massacre, but the effort was not successful because Kurdish intermediaries decided to keep some of the guns for themselves.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States attempted to supply Iranian protesters with weapons this year so they could defend themselves against another massacre, but the effort was not successful because Kurdish intermediaries decided to keep some of the guns for themselves. Report: Trump Says U.S. Tried to Send Guns to Iranian Protesters, Suggesting Kurds Kept Them
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the operation. Israel had “just carried out a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran, located in Asaluyeh, a central target responsible for about 50% of the country’s petrochemical production,” Katz said in a video statement, Arab News reported. Israel Strikes Critical Iranian Petrochemical Plant, Officials Say
The only thing worse than a liar is a liar who is also a hypocrite,” wrote American playwright Tennessee Williams. I thought of Williams’ scathing quote when news broke this weekend that two Iranian women, 47-year-old Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarina Sadat Hosseiny, 25, had been arrested by US immigration officials in Los Angeles. Iran’s elites escape regime’s brutal rules — with traitorous hypocrisy
What do fat, blue-haired tundra wookiess, women with weeners, and your grandma in her frog costume have in common? They are all Democrats, and they are nuttier than elephant patties. Forecast: gonzo, with a chance of explosive violence and/or a stupid costume. Despotic, Neurotic, and Likely Psychotic: Liberals Have Become the Insane Clown Stasi
Some of the bluest blue states in the country are collectively flirting with disaster as they weigh new tax policies to address their respective budget crises and keep the entitlement gravy train chugging to nowhere. Blue States Turbocharging Their Own Collapses With New Tax Gambits
Until the U.K.’s political and cultural elite can defend confidently what it means to be British, the nation will sacrifice women’s safety, Jewish security, and core liberal principles such as free speech. The Islamification of Britain
The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners from March 26-30 among 800 likely 2026 general election voters, found that 52 percent support impeaching Trump, while 40 percent oppose it. 46 percent said they strongly support impeachment, compared with 37 percent who strongly oppose it, while 8 percent said they were unsure or had no opinion.
“Domestic politics had become another theater of hybrid warfare...Both of these prior episodes ended in ignominy.” The Information State Isn’t Going Away
EDUCATION, AND WHAT PASSES FOR IT
There's lots of Americans who decide not to go to college or take advanced degrees because they don't want to be in hock. They shouldn't be forced to cover the cost of irresponsible, regretful borrowers.Colleges should cover the cost when student borrowers default
THE 2020 and SUBSEQUENT ELECTION HEISTS , SHENANIGANS/FRAUD and AFTERMATH
If “Election Day” means anything, it must mean one day—no extensions, no ballot harvesting, and no ambiguity—just a clear, final, and verifiable expression of the people’s will. Election Day and Election Reforms (Not Week, Month, Season)
DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST AND RINO SCANDALS, MESHUGAS, CHUTZPOCRISY, INSANITY
“Death by torture is rampant” for Falun Gong practitioners in communist China, Levi Browde, the executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center – which raises awareness about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China – said during a discussion on Breitbart News Saturday, detailing the “largest civil disobedience movement in Chinese history” to expose the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Exclusive: Levi Browde Details ‘Largest Civil Disobedience Movement in Chinese History’
In a Truth Social post, President Donald Trump said the airman “was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue.” Iranian Rescue Mission Underscores Hegseth’s Predecessors’ Incompetence
ACTUAL SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY
The lunar fly-by is scheduled for this evening. As the capsule swings around behind the Moon, there will be a communications black-out from 6:44 pm (Eastern) to 7:25 pm (Eastern). NASA is making a concerted PR effort to compare this to the Apollo 8 mission around the Moon, but the differences are gigantic. Apollo 8 went into orbit around the Moon. There was considerable risk it could get stuck there if its engine failed to fire properly when behind the Moon on its last orbit. Thus, that Apollo 8 blackout was quite tension-filled. Orion completes small mid-course-correction engine burn as it prepares to swing around behind the Moon
The focus of the picture was a strange crater in the floor of Mawrth Vallis, a channel that drains northward from Mars’ cratered southern highlands to its northern lowland plains. You can see the crater in the full image if you click on the picture. It is intriguing because its rim is strangely abrupt and flat on all sides, something that is not seen with impact craters, which have a raised rim of material plowed out by the impact. Cracked bedrock on Mars?
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Rapinoe also scoffed at the IOC’s claim that it followed scientific evidence showing the male body has distinct and real physical advantages over the female form, and that it based its decision on that evidence to ensure fairness in women’s sports. Megan Rapinoe Slams Olympics Over Trans Athlete Ban, Claims They Did Not Follow the ‘Science’(just what Dr. Mengele said-JJS)
Allen—a television producer and founder of the Allen Media Group, turned comedian—sued the McDonald’s fast food chain for $10 billion in 2021, alleging the company engaged in discrimination against black-owned media companies when making decisions regarding itsadvertising budget. CBS Replaces Colbert With ‘Woke’ Comedian Who Sued McDonald’s for ‘Racism.’
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
If you've used Claude Code, you've noticed that it loves running shell commands to examine your codebase, rather than, say, reading it. Or having simple fixed-function code built into the software to do it on your computer.
And it also loves to ask you for permission to run those shell commands.
The vulnerability comes into play when a very long string of shell commands are run together. For the first fifty commands it will check - manually if needed, and in its history of permitted and denied commands if it's in there already.
And on the fifty-first command, it rests. And executes it regardless.
So if someone triggers a long string of commands and the first fifty are innocuous, after that they can take full control of your computer - because Claude Code runs on your computer, and just communicates with the Claude AI service as needed.
The particularly lovely thing here is that Anthropic already fixed this.
But both versions are present inside Claude Code and it using the broken one.
Bartlett Lake has up to 12 performance cores, the most of any mainstream Intel processor. Except that while it runs on common Socket 1700 motherboards, it's not a mainstream processor and only sells to industrial users, and is not supported by common Socket 1700 motherboard BIOSes.
Except it turns out that by changing one digit in the BIOS and reflashing it, it works fine.
The rescue was an Easter miracle. The enemy was large and violent. The rescuers were brilliant, strong, decisive and as cool as anyone can be.
-- President Donald Trump
Bravery never goes out of fashion
-- William Makepeace Thackery
But the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.
-- Thucydides
Where all your rights become only an accumulated wrong; where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to garner the fruits of their own labours...then surely it is a braver, a saner and a truer thing, to be a rebel in act and deed against such circumstances as these than tamely to accept it as the natural lot of men.
-- Sir Roger Casement
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
I love America. American Exceptionalism...all 250 years of it... is a power that is unrivaled in the world. But I cannot remember a time during which I was more proud of my country and being an American than right now. Our magnificent armed forces, made up entirely of the American people, morphed from a pathetic, woke, mess of a force just a few years ago, into a cohesive group that is entirely focused on one thing: destroying our enemies in defense of our nation. They are magnificent, and represent the highest ideals of our great country.
******
And here's the other side!
Chloe woke up at 6:45am and immediately felt proud of herself.
She had, after all, not eaten a single animal product in four years. The planet was healing. She could feel it.
6:52am - Applied her morning SPF. The SPF contains beeswax. Chloe does not know this. Moving on.… pic.twitter.com/2OckmKzAiM
We aren't the only culture that loves its pets! This is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Great place, and absolutely huge. Wear walking shoes! Although there is a great pub about a five minute walk down the street, so all will be rewarded with a pint of a delicious English cask ale.
AoSHQ may trigger convulsions and projectile vomiting in some new readers. Please use vomit bag in seat pocket. Knives are to be sheathed at all times unless written waiver is received by our attorneys. Ace and cobloggers specifically disavow all responsibility for content. We are not responsible for any injury, including chafing. Disabling ShowerCamTM is a violation of the terms of use.
Dog is the star of the game -- he retrieves the kicking tee after kickoffs. This isn't normal, right? I've never heard of this before.
A golden retriever was used as breeding dog with each of her puppies taken from her. Now she's been rescued. And she treats stuffed animals as if they're the puppies taken from her.
A hero dog protected his family from a bear that slashed and bit him. He's healing up now. The bear remains at large and out of control.
This guy is funny. He's a good shot, so he must know about gun safety. But his familiarity breeds contempt. For example, can you spot which weapon-handling mistakes he's making in this video?
I've cued up these videos to the most explosive parts, but there's a lot of good stuff throughout them.
In one of the dumbest "tests" he does, he puts a grenade in an oven and then blasts it with a flamethrower for a minute (from a yard away, mind you) to see what happens. I don't know if this is real. There's a cut between the grilling of the grenade and the actual detonation.
Shooting a whole bunch of propane and oxygen tanks with an M60.
Can you blow up oxygen and propane tanks inside a van you've rigged to drive in a circle by shooting it with a .50 cal machine gun? I should warn you this one's a damp squib but it's fun watching the van get shot to pieces.
In this one, he shoots at a Pepsi vending machine with ever-larger calibers. He only does real damage with the Barret and I think the .408. I've cued it up to the part after that, when he decides to just put a grenade in it.
Iran has rejected a new cease-fire proposal from the United States, insisting instead on a permanent end to the conflict along with firm guarantees against future attacks, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
The decision, announced on April 6, comes just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face potential strikes on key infrastructure, including power plants and bridges.
Iran communicated its response through Pakistan, signaling that it is unwilling to accept a temporary pause in hostilities.
“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, said in remarks to The Associated Press.
“We only accept an end to the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”
As we round the moon, the crew will be the farthest away from earth men have ever traveled. (They always have to work some kind of a "FIRST!" into these missions, much like commenters.)
King Charles has not been shy about his great admiration for Islam. He has praised it profusely while condemning Christians for hatred and bigotry against Muslims. Not only did Charles apologize for the Crusades, but he has also expressed his respect for Muslim claims to a permanent caliphate in Spain, since the Moors conquered the Iberian peninsula fair and square - before the reconquesta restored Christianity to that part of Europe. Charles has condemned Christians for misunderstanding sharia, and also for misunderstanding our lying eyes when we are appalled at the sight of a woman in a burqa.
In Charles’ 2024 Christmas address, the King was contemptuous of those who engaged in “anger and lawlessness” following the Southport knife attack, but he had not a word of criticism for the attackers. 13 people were stabbed in that incident. The dead included three children under the age of 10. King Charles made it abundantly clear that his sympathies were with the knife wielders, not their victims.
Charles is also famously enamored of another non-Christian religion, the climate cult, throwing his support behind the goal of a net zero future, which would impose a lower standard of living and crippling energy costs on his subjects.
While I have no great affection for British royalty, the institution should serve as a bulwark to protect Christianity against an emerging caliphate. King Charles is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and his royal duties include protection of the Christian faith therein. The King has clearly abdicated that role.
Anglican Bishop Ceirion Dewar recently published a widely distributed letter to King Charles, addressing the existential crisis resulting from Britain surrendering its Christian heritage.
As a Bishop, I cannot stay silent. I have today drafted and sent an open letter to His Majesty King Charles III, the text of which reads as follows:
To: His Majesty, Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and the Realms, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Bearer of the…
— Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar FSHC (@BishopDewar) March 17, 2026
I’ve posted the entire transcript of the letter below the fold, but here are a few quotes that capture the gravity of the letter:
• “I write to you neither as a politician nor as a commentator, but as one of your loyal subjects who, as a bishop of Christ’s Church, cannot remain silent while the Christian foundations of this kingdom are steadily dismantled.”
• “From the abbeys of medieval England to the parish churches of our villages, from the preaching of the Reformers to the missionary zeal that carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the Christian faith has not merely influenced Britain — it has defined her.”
• “Christian belief is mocked in the public square. Christian morality is dismissed as intolerance. Christian institutions are pressured to surrender doctrine in order to conform to the ideology of the age.”
• “What would once have been whispered is now proclaimed openly: that Britain must become a post-Christian state. It is in this context that I write to you, Your Majesty. For the British Crown does not stand apart from this crisis.”
• “Your Majesty, may I be so bold as to observe that your coronation oath was not a poetic formality. It was a solemn vow made before Almighty God to maintain and preserve the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law.”
• “And so, I write to say this, Your Majesty: The Christian character of this nation is under profound and accelerating assault. If the Crown does not stand visibly and courageously in defence of that inheritance, history will record that the guardians of Britain’s institutions watched in silence as the foundations were removed.”
The full letter is below, but first, I have a crazy, absurd idea as to how Prince Harry, of all people, could be a savior to his homeland when he finally cuts his losses and terminates his regrettable marriage.
Harry is a lost man, the legal son of the King, but not in line to the throne, and questioned if he is actually a true family member from the royal bloodline. He was apparently happiest in life when he was just another bloke hanging with his military buddies. He struggled in a royal role, and he has struggled even worse trying to be the pet-husband of a Hollywood AWFL.
A liberated Harry would have the opportunity to return to Britain as “the People’s Prince,” fighting for traditional British Christian values on behalf of the commoners his father sneers at. These are people being condemned to a hostile, immigrant occupation with King Charles’ consent. Having a castaway member of the royal family come to their defense might make a difference in saving the country.
Now, here is the full letter from Bishop Dewar:
To:
His Majesty, Charles III,
King of the United Kingdom and the Realms,
Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
Bearer of the ancient title Defender of the Faith.
Your Majesty,
I write to you neither as a politician nor as a commentator, but as one of your loyal subjects who, as a bishop of Christ’s Church, cannot remain silent while the Christian foundations of this kingdom are steadily dismantled.
Sir, there are moments in the life of a nation when silence becomes a form of betrayal. If I refused to speak to Your Majesty now, this would be such a moment.
For more than a thousand years the Crown of this realm has stood in solemn covenant with the Christian faith.
The laws of this land were shaped by it.
The liberties of our people were nurtured by it.
The conscience of our civilisation was formed by it.
From the abbeys of medieval England to the parish churches of our villages, from the preaching of the Reformers to the missionary zeal that carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the Christian faith has not merely influenced Britain — it has defined her.
Yet today that inheritance is being quietly but deliberately eroded. Across the institutions of this nation there is a growing hostility toward the faith that built them.
Christian belief is mocked in the public square. Christian morality is dismissed as intolerance. Christian institutions are pressured to surrender doctrine in order to conform to the ideology of the age.
Within the very Church that bears the name of England, voices have arisen that appear more eager to mirror the spirit of the age than to proclaim the eternal truth of the Gospel.
Meanwhile, beyond the walls of our churches, powerful political movements openly speak of removing Christianity from its historic place within the life of this nation.
What would once have been whispered is now proclaimed openly: that Britain must become a post-Christian state.
It is in this context that I write to you, Your Majesty. For the British Crown does not stand apart from this crisis.
The Sovereign of this realm bears a title that is not merely historic but sacred in its origin and meaning: Defender of the Faith. Those words are not decorative. They are a charge.
They speak of a monarch whose duty is not merely to preside over the ceremonies of the Church, but to stand as a guardian of the Christian inheritance of the nation.
Yet many among your subjects now ask, with increasing anxiety: “Who will defend that inheritance today?”
They see a nation drifting from its foundations. And they ask whether the Crown will remain silent while that inheritance is dismantled.
Your Majesty, may I be so bold as to observe that your coronation oath was not a poetic formality. It was a solemn vow made before Almighty God to maintain and preserve the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law.
Those words bind the conscience of the sovereign. They remind the Crown that its authority is not merely constitutional but moral. The monarch is not merely a symbol of national continuity, but a custodian of the spiritual inheritance that shaped this realm.
History records moments when kings and emperors were confronted by the Church and reminded that their authority was accountable before God. In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan stood before the Emperor Theodosius I and reminded him that even the ruler of an empire must bow before the moral law of Christ.
That tradition of prophetic witness has never disappeared. Nor should it. For when rulers forget the foundations upon which their authority rests, the Church must speak — not with hostility, but with holy clarity.
And so, I write to say this, Your Majesty: The Christian character of this nation is under profound and accelerating assault.
If the Crown does not stand visibly and courageously in defence of that inheritance, history will record that the guardians of Britain’s institutions watched in silence as the foundations were removed.
The issue before us is not nostalgia. It is civilisation. Remove Christianity from the story of Britain and you do not create a neutral society — you create a moral vacuum. And history teaches us that moral vacuums are never left empty for long.
Your Majesty now stands at a crossroads that few monarchs in modern history have faced.
For the erosion of Britain’s Christian inheritance will not ultimately be judged by speeches made in Parliament or debates in the press. It will be judged by whether those entrusted with the guardianship of our ancient institutions chose to defend them — or merely preside over their quiet surrender.
You may preside over the quiet dissolution of Britain’s Christian identity. Or you may rise to the ancient responsibility entrusted to the Crown and speak with clarity about the faith that built this kingdom. The first path requires little courage. The second will require a great deal. But it is the path that history honours.
Your Majesty’s subjects are not asking for religious coercion. They are asking for leadership. They are asking that the sovereign who bears the title Defender of the Faith remember what that title means.
They are asking that the Crown hear the growing cry of anguish from Christians across this land who feel that the spiritual inheritance of their nation is being surrendered without resistance. And they are asking whether the Crown will stand with them.
For the faith that shaped Britain is not merely a cultural ornament. It is the wellspring from which our laws, our liberties, and our moral imagination have flowed. If it is cast aside, the nation will discover — too late — that it has severed itself from the very roots that sustained it.
Your Majesty, to many the Crown is a symbol of authority. But before God it is also a symbol of stewardship. And stewardship carries with it the duty to defend what has been entrusted.
May Almighty God grant Your Majesty the wisdom to discern this hour, and the courage to fulfil the sacred duty entrusted to the Crown.
Yours faithfully,
Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar FSHC
Missionary Bishop Diocese of Providence
Confessing Anglican Church
Good morning kids. I hope you all had a blessed Easter weekend. I had a few personal issues to deal with so unfortunately I'm going to have to keep his morning's post very brief. should be back up to speed by tomorrow with my usual panoply of of links and commentary . Thanks for your patience
Have a great day!
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-everything-we-know-about-the-daring-mission-to-save-an-american-warfighter-in-iran: Inside One Of The Most Complex Missions In U.S. Special Ops History
Iranian terror mastermind Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s niece — who showcased her lavish Los Angeles lifestyle on social media while bashing the U.S. as the “Great Satan” — was arrested by federal authorities over the weekend and will be removed from the U.S. with no chance of ever returning.
These children have access to all benefits and rights of American citizenship, including being eligible to run for president. That cannot be a permitted practice.
If “Election Day” means anything, it must mean one day—no extensions, no ballot harvesting, and no ambiguity—just a clear, final, and verifiable expression of the people’s will.
What this photograph as well as the handful of other Voyager-2 images of
Triton tell us is that we only have gotten a tiny taste of what’s there,
only enough to tell us we don’t understand what we are seeing in the
slightest. This is a truly alien world, cold, dark, and composed of
materials far different then that found in the inner solar system. Voyager-2’s most detailed look at Neptune’s moon Triton
ALSO: The Morning Report cross-posts at CutJibNewsletter.com usually within an hour or so of posting here, if you want to continue the conversation all day.
Classic Rock Mystery Click This is super-obscure and I only barely remember it. Given that, I'll give you the hint that it's by the Red Rocker. And I guess you think you've got it made
Oh, but then, you never were afraid
Of anything that you've left behind
Oh, but it's alright with me now
'Cause I'll get back up somehow
And with a little luck, yes, I'm bound to win Now twenty people will tell me it's not obscure, it was huge in their hometown and played at their prom. That's how it usually goes. When I linked Donnie Iris's "Love is Like a Rock," everyone said they knew that one and that his other song (which I didn't know at all) Ah Leah! was huge in their area.
Podcast: CBD and Sefton talk birthright citizenship, the 14th Amendment and SCOTUS, no boots in Iran, Artemis II and refocusing NASA, the NBA's hatred of everything non-woke, and more!
In more marketing for Project Hail Mary, scientists say they've found the biosigns indicating life growing on an alien planet. It's not proof, just signatures of chemicals that are produced by biological metabolism, and it could be nothing, but scientists think it's a strong sign that this planet is inhabited by something.
In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists announced the detection of dimethyl sulfide (along with a similar detection of dimethyl disulfide) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18b. This is actually the second detection of dimethyl sulfide made on this planet, following a tentative detection in 2023.
Tons of chemicals are detected in the atmospheres of celestial objects every day. But dimethyl sulfide is different, because on Earth, it's only produced by living organisms.
"It is a shock to the system," Nikku Madhusudhan, first author on the paper, told the New York Times. "We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal."
He means they tried to prove the signal was caused by things other than dimethyl sulfide but they could not.
What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet. Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*
Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.
A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV. Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.
A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR? Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR. Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too. LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.
The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring. I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do. But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.
Finish the job, Mr. President! Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]
Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!
