Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Yes...another installment in the never-ending saga of Dildo's Yorkshire Pudding JourneyTM!
Yes, these were...fine. But not impossibly fluffy and tall and ethereal. But I got some advice from a real live Brit last night. We had him for dinner, and he tells me that his father swears by the minimalist technique of using a tiny bit of fat. No more than a bare bit to lubricate the bottom of the vessel.
That goes against every fiber of my being, which is that the more fat the better the food! We shall see if he is correct...so look for the next episode coming soon!
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Recently in the comments, somebody pointed out that it is the water in vodka that makes the difference between the various brands. My apologies, but I do not remember which commenter it was, but I think it is a very interesting point. So I made some vodka with Everclear and my wife's favorite bottled water, and did a blind taste test to see whether she could identify it. It wasn't a perfect comparison, because I don't have a graduated cylinder for precise measuring, so I think the Everclear vodka was a bit more alcoholic.
One interesting result was that she did not choose what she thought was her favorite vodka as the winner! She also didn't choose the Everclear vodka made with her preferred water, so more experimentation is needed.
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That was served to me on a recent flight. Supposedly it is "filet," although it did not specify what animal's filet, so I am tending toward rat, or maybe racoon.
I am sure that the exact temperature is specified in the instructions to the food techs (I won't call it a recipe, and I won't call them cooks), so that isn't some overdone mistake on the part of the food company. I firmly believe that it was intentional, which suggests the question: Why?
If you are going to kill the food, why not just make something really cheap instead?
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That is my first attempt at a Mescal cocktail, and it was a success! Mescal, Amaro (I used Aperol), simple syrup, lemon juice, bitters, and an egg white. Shake it all up with ice and pour it in a cocktail glass.
Very good, although I will need to play with the proportions a bit, since I and the other taster thought it was a bit too sweet, masking the tartness of the lemon juice.
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That is a simple pork Milanese, but with a small twist. I have some cornbread crumbs that I made because I am a cheap bastard and didn't want to throw away the stale cornbread. So I mixed it with regular breadcrumbs to see whether that worked. And it did, but not as well as breadcrumbs alone. I think the cornbread was too sweet. But it was fun to try, and it certainly browned nicely!
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I'll be in and out, so behave yourselves, and in particular, don't talk about boring food!
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The garlic is busily growing, with pretty impressive green shoots that are pushing a foot tall! I even fertilized them! And if they survive the deer and squirrel apocalypse, and actually grow into something edible, I will be in garlic heaven! In case it doesn't, send all of your excellent home-grown garlic to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.
The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!
Sigh...we had some heavy drinkers over yesterday for a roast, and the bast*rds drank most of my Guinness!
Why is it that people will gravitate toward that which is in short supply? I have about 40 bottles of Bourbon, but no...they had to knock off the beer first!
Whole milk in our schools? That should be entirely unexceptional, especially since reduced fat milk is a new thing. Children have been drinking whole milk from animals for at least 10,000 years (and probably longer), and in case some people are unaware, infants drink human milk, which is even richer than most cow's milk!
But the food lunatics must have their way, which means they have taken shoddy science (fat makes you fat!), ignored confounding variables, and tried mightily to transform the American diet into a horror-show of low fat, high carbohydrate foods that have made us one of the fattest societies in the world. And of course these maniacs cite that data to claim that whole milk is one of the culprits! Never mind that these same maniacs are part of the destruction of normal childhood behavior like running around at recess, and racing around the neighborhood until dark.
The rule furthers the president’s “commitment to improving childhood nutrition and supporting America’s dairy farmers by ensuring schools and child nutrition providers can once again offer students nutrient-dense dairy options that align with the latest nutrition science and consumer preference,” the USDA said in a May 8 statement.
“Whole milk and other dairy products provide essential nutrients including protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamins A, D, and B12. Whole milk is especially important for young children aged 1 to 10 to support energy needs and brain development.”
Oh, and let us not forget the massive welfare state that many of these same deluded, anti-science zealots created. Pay for poor people's food, but they will have to eat what we say! And that means more of that incredibly destructive diet!
And just for sh*ts and giggles, they throw in the very poorly studied claims that kids who eat a normal diet are getting cardiovascular disease!
In a Sept. 10, 2025, statement, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine called on the MAHA commission to drop whole milk from its recommendations, citing potential cardiovascular health risks to children.
Children are increasingly exhibiting early signs of high cholesterol, heart disease, and other cardiovascular diseases. Allowing full-fat whole dairy in school meals will only result in more such health issues, the committee said.
“Instead of addressing real changes to provide healthier school meals, the MAHA Strategy is pushing whole milk at the expense of children’s health,” Neal Barnard, president of the committee, said.
“The federal government should be putting less saturated fat on school lunch trays, not more, and it can do that by making it easier for students to access nondairy beverages and plant-based entrees.”
Oooh! "Plant-based!" The Holy Grail of the food Nazis! That's the real agenda. No more red meat, then no more whole milk, then no more animal protein, then only insect protein to supplement the "plant-based" crap. It's to save the earth! And the spotted owls! And the children!
Do you hate children?
This is all nothing more than carefully disguised social engineering that is indistinguishable from the manipulations of culture by the communists of the Soviet Union and Red China. They strive to change the essential nature of Man, and whether that is through diet, forcing us into 15 Minute Cities, making sexual characteristics fluid and changeable, destroying our religions, or many other culture-destroying manipulations. And the goal is always the same...the elites will rule us from their lofty perches, and we will wallow in the muck as society decays because of the loss of free will and individuality.
Then want us to be identical cogs in their infernal machine, and every single thing they do is in furtherance of that goal.
Good morning, ‘rons and ‘ronettes. It’s time once again for the monthly MP4-hosted Sunday Book Thread. As it’s May, it’s Goodwood Races time in England and women are encouraged to wear their finest:
So ask the barman for a Pimm’s, covfefe or tea and let’s get started!
TBR, TBRA and what’s the point?
Here on the Book Thread, we talk a lot about our To Be Read (TBR) lists and, sometimes, about our To Be Read Again (TBRA) lists. I can look around my house and find lots of books I have yet to read (some of them in my hands for years) as well as the more familiar ones I’ll pick up when I’m at a loose end. On the TBR list I’ve got, for example, Shelley Puhak’s bio of Ersebeth Batory, The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal and the Making of a Monster. I also have William Mann’s Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood, which I’ve only managed to get a quarter of a way through.
In the latter category, I have my comic strip collections, a plethora of true-crime works, 20-odd books on English and Victorian history and shelves of volumes on a variety of topics. These are the books I’ll pull down when I’m sitting to relax, or as entertainment over a meal or just because I’ve enjoyed them so much, re-reading is a pleasure.
“What about ‘what’s the point?” I hear you say. That was a thought that occurred to me the other night as I was finishing off a TBR book. I glanced up at my packed shelves and wondered – why do I keep these books which I’ve read and will likely never read again? For instance, Barbara Mertz’s Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt: I’ve read it, taken in its knowledge and shelved it. I doubt I will ever page through it again. So why do I keep it when I could trade or sell it and make room for other books?
I don’t know. Part of me knows I’ve got dozens of ‘finished’ books which are gathering dust, but another, stronger part of me recoils at the very idea of getting rid of any book for any reason. I know that when I die, everything I have except for my Hollywood and Jack the Ripper collections (which will sell for a pretty penny) will end up in the dumpster, so why not anticipate the reaping now?
What about you? What books are begging to be read and which ones are the old friends you turn to at a leisure moment? And do you, like me, hoard your books like Scrooge hoarding his gold?
CPanel issued patches for three new vulnerabilities over the weekend, after 44,000 CPanel servers were hacked in the past week. (My own server was affected, but I managed to get it locked down before the wave of ransomware hit. And I have off-site backups.)
Since each server can host hundreds of websites, 44,000 hacked servers could affect a lot of people.
With mid-range smartphone sales dropping as memory prices bite, Mediatek and Qualcomm have cut their production orders with TSMC for 5nm and 4nm chips. AMD immediately took up the slack. (WCCFTech)
All current AMD CPUs (and GPUs) are built on TSMC's 5nm and 4nm processes - they don't use 3nm at all, and 2nm is set to arrive at the end of the year with Zen 6 - and AMD is selling every CPU they can churn out.
I mentioned that Intel's stock recently hit a 20-year high. You know who bought the dip? The federal government. (WCCFTech)
The Trump Administration converted a Biden-era grant - which came with conditions attached that Intel couldn't meet - to a straightforward share purchase.
At the bottom of the market.
Oh, and Intel is currently in talks to manufacture chips for Apple 25% cheaper than TSMC.
A man in a bar starts talking to a prostitute. He says, "How much for a hand job?" She says it's $250. He says, "$250 for a lousy hand job? That’s crazy!" She says, "Honey, follow me," and takes him outside.
"See that Ferrari? I bought that Ferrari just with money from hand jobs. I give the best in the world." So he tries it, and it's great. A week later he's horny again. He goes back to the bar and asks her about a BJ.
She says it's $500. He thinks that's too much. She says, "Honey, come out back. See that mansion up on the hill? I bought that mansion with money from BJs. I do it the best." So he takes her up on it, and it's amazing. He's drained for a month.
Now obsessed, he goes back. Desperately he says, "I gotta know, how much for the coochie?" "Oh honey," she says, "If I had one of those, I'd own this town."
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Elderly couple in church.
Wife turns to Husband suddenly during the service, leans close to his ear and says "I've just done a silent fart. What should I do?"
Husband says "Put new batteries in your hearing aid!"
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Drink of the Night
Tonight we drew the 6 of spades from our deck of playing card cocktails.
Beware of brain freeze!
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Club ONT Department of Stopping to Smell the Flowers
Photo credit: Dick van Duijn
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Club ONT Department of Music History
Philips and Sony collaborated on the size of the compact disc in the late 1970s to create a single standard and avoid a format war (like VHS v. Betamax). Philips made an early prototype in 1979 which was an 11.5 cm disc that held about 60 minutes of audio. Sony initially favored a smaller 10 cm disc but Sony president Norio Ohga pushed for more capacity. Specifically, the goal was a disc that could fit Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
They settled on a 12 cm diameter disc which was precisely enough to fit the longest known recording at the time (a 1951 version at about 74 minutes).
The size of the hole in a compact disc was determined when Joop Sinjou, the head of Philops audio products development in the Netherlands, put a Dutch 10 cent coin (known as a dubbeltje) on the table during a standardization meeting. The coin created a hole of exactly 15 mm.
— Hollywood Horror Museum (@horrormuseum) May 8, 2026
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Club ONT Department of Hallucinations
This video simulates what it looks like when you are on acid. Stare at the numbers in the middle of the screen and then look around - whoa. 😵💫 pic.twitter.com/h1rtn9O18T
The co-owner of a Boston bakery is offering baked goods as a reward for the safe return of the eatery's "mascot," a large plastic ice cream cone named Swirly.
Swirly, a fixture outside of Flour Bakery on the Boston Common, was initially feared to have blown away during the winter, but co-owner Joanne Chang said she now has good reason to believe the mascot is still nearby.
"He was possibly spotted in a nearby dorm window looking down longingly at home and we have reason to believe he may be confused about where he is," Chang wrote on social media.
She said all the bakery wants is Swirly's safe return.
"To anyone who is temporarily sheltering him: thank you for protecting him this winter, please return him safely, no questions asked, in exchange for baked goods and our eternal gratitude," Chang wrote.
O Swirly, Swirly where art thou? Deny thy temporary dormitory dwelling and return home. Break free from the shackles of communal living. If for nothing else, think of the sprinkles that you once called compatriots.
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The Club ONT Magical Jukebox
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Top 10ish Comments of the Week
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Club ONT is brought to you tonight by the hot v crazy matrix:
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The Club ONT lost and found still has several frilly hats left behind from Derby day last week. And lots of other stuff. Some unidentifiable. Some unmentionable. Please stop by and grab what's yours (or pick up a nice gift for Mom)!
When an author decides to tell a story in a world not our own, he or she has two main paths to choose from. The first is the path of Tolkien.
Build an intricate mythology, legendarium, and multiple languages to create a backstory for a world (that includes the transformation of the geology from a flat world to a globe), all that spans thousands of years, includes a creation myth, all of which is the author's real passion which he is then able to include in a sequel to a silly children's book he wrote to entertain his children. Heck, Tolkien directly references the central gems of what his son would put together as The Silmarillion, the Silmarils, in The Lord of the Rings.
Or, you can have a central conceit and create a very vague world around it with generic pieces that don't always really come together. This is how Suzanne Collins wrote The Hunger Games. I really don't think the world she created is any good at all. It's outright bad. And yet, I mostly don't think it matters.
So, I had The Hunger Games on the brain because my wife decided that our eldest son was old enough to watch it. Watched the original four movies over the course of a few days. It's a series I've seen multiple times, it being a standard bit of entertainment in the house since we first dated (seeing the four in theaters together as dates). So, watching them again, my mind drifted to the worldbuilding and how meager it all is.
It's a country set in a dystopian future that's supposedly built from the ashes of America. Collins does not provide real clues beyond generalized geographic descriptions for where any of the twelve districts that make up the majority of the country's area are or where the capitol is other than being in the mountains. This has led fans to come up with maps that all disagree with each other except on some basic points like District 12 being West Virginia or Pennsylvania and the Capitol being in the Colorado Rockies.
There seems to be little thought into why these places exist, especially when you get to the point later in the series when District 12, presumably their only source of coal, a major source of energy, gets bombed to the stone age, and...no one talks about how the Capitol could be facing an energy crisis. Does that mean that District 12's work was...unimportant? It's very possible. We see a major dam in the third film that gets blown up that seems to have more of an effect on energy than destroying all the coal miners in the country. Does this narrative hole matter?
Within the context of the story, which is laser-focused on the main character of Katniss Everdean, I don't think so. The purpose of the original trilogy of books and quadrilogy of movies is the main character's journey. The world is incidental to that, so a certain vagueness about how things worked on a grander political level is understandable. The point isn't the world, the point is Katniss's journey from no-one to symbol of a resistance. It makes sense.
It doesn't sweep away the fact that the world is kind of...generic and doesn't make the most sense. Couldn't Collins have named the districts? Oh well.
Problems Arising
I think this is only noteworthy because the story did continue beyond the original three books and four movies (don't split the final entry into two, Hollywood, Mockingjay Part 1 is boring). Collins, becoming one of the richest fiction authors in the world, has written nothing but Hunger Games prequels since 2013. The first, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, was published in 2020 and the movie version came out in 2023. The second, Sunrise of the Reaping, was published in 2025 and the movie version is coming out this year.
So, she has this generic world she's barely explored and has the opportunity for a guaranteed paycheck to expand it with prequels. What does she do?
She repeats herself...hard.
Our main character in the first prequel is a character from the original books, President Snow (but this time only as a poor student) while the action is only in the Capitol and...District 12, while a girl from District 12 becomes the Victor of the Tenth Annual Hunger Games. No scenes exploring any other district. Just the Capitol, District 12, and the arena for the Hunger Games. What about the second prequel? Well, it's centered around a character from the original books (Haymitch, Katniss' mentor) and how he won the Hunger Games. So...District 12 to Capitol to Hunger Games arena...again.
Is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes bad for that? Well, I think the book is terrible and the lack of exploration of the rest of the world is part of that. I think the movie version is okay because it deals with some of my other issues around point of view and pacing while providing spectacle that the books couldn't really deliver. But the frustration with the myopic view of the world continues.
Should there be more? Can Collins write stories with the same motifs, settings, and character traits and still create good things? Of course, but I don't see any kind of poetic repetition here, I just see imagination-deficient repetition. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that she obviously doesn't care about the world she built.
World Building or Story or Both?
It's not an either/or proposition. You can have both world building and story, but it's obvious that Collins much prefers her story over her world building (her story is...pretty good overall). And I end up creating a comparison in my head.
Collins is writing for teens. Effectively children. What else is for children? Fables. Fables like Hansel & Gretel. Do we need a deep construction of the particulars of geography and history of the Old Forest in the story? Or can "dark, creepy, ancient forest" be enough for the purposes of the story?
That's the proper way to think of Panem, I think. The equivalent wouldn't be Middle Earth, a fairy setting for adults (as Tolkien put it), but the Old Forest and the witch's hut. It's a generalized setting in which to place an easily digested moral that the younger than adult mind can grasp easily.
So when she decides to try and create something a bit more adult, like the creation of YA Dystopian Hitler in the backstory of President Snow, the lack of worldbuilding ends up working against the sudden move into something requiring more nuance since she wants to create a real journey from sympathetic young man to literal Hitler. We're still in fable territory with the world, and I think it clashes with the attempt at a more serious story (which I don't think she really pulls off because she's not really that great of a writer, but much wealthier and more successful than I ever will be, so what do I know?).
A newer approach that actually expanded the story in serious ways, giving us new looks at new districts we've never seen and introducing more complex politics beyond "crazy powermad person at the top" would have helped, and in order to do that you have to be invested in making the world itself feel real.
Conclusion
It's just a thought brought on by recent viewing. How important is world building? Well, I guess it depends on what kind of story you're telling. Would a geneology of the mayors of District 12 have improved the story itself? No. What about a detailed description of how the economies of each district contributed to the Capitol's GDP? Also, no.
But I do think the lack of anything makes the films and books feel a bit emptier than they are and harder to expand when, ironically, that should make it easier. Collins hadn't written herself into a box. She could expand in a whole host of ways, and yet...she just keeps going back to District 12.
The Men of Sherwood Forest (Rating 3/4) Full Review "It's a modest entertainment that understands the assignment and reaches no further beyond that." [Library]
Third Party Risk (or, The Deadly Game) (Rating 2/4) Full Review "It's an unremarkable, thin wrong man adventure that flitters from little sequence to the next, its central star doing what he can to elevate things, and largely disappearing from mind before it's even over." [YouTube]
The Lyons in Paris (Rating 2/4) Full Review "Still, it's really just silly antics with performers doing their utmost to get some laughs. I almost chuckled a few times." [Library]
The Quatermass Xperiment (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "Still, the horror is halfway decent and there's surprising emotionality hidden in the middle there, all while it looks pretty decent and has solid supporting performances." [Prime]
X the Unknown (Rating 2/4) Full Review "It's still largely an kind of dull monster flick with a disappointing monster in the end. But the use of music and the implication of the danger for a good stretch are nice." [Archive.org]
The Curse of Frankenstein (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "And yet, while it plays out, I may not feel much, but I do end up with a modestly good time watching this vibrantly colored take on a well-worn story." [Max]
Quatermass II (Rating 3/4) Full Review "I was fully on board, and it's just a disappointment that it doesn't end at the same level as most of the film operates." [Plex]
Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.
My next thread will be on 5/30.
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. For this week, the Wheel of Hobbies (TM) decided on a Montana travel theme for this Hobby Thread.
Why Montana? We may never know. The ways of the Wheel are strange and mysterious.
[Top Photo: Cathedral of St. Helena, Helena, Montana]
As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. All (legal) hobbying is welcome. We have a theme, but no need to stick with the theme. Even if the theme does not speak to you, find something else or offer something else relating to hobbying. Leave politics and religion to threads elsewhere. Pants are optional. As always, puns are welcome and encouraged.
Play nice and do not be rude. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.
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Captain Vasili Borodin had dreams of Montana. "I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a 'recreational vehicle.' And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?"
Are you wise in the ways of Montana?
Have you visited? Do you have favorite spots or scenic drives or seasons?
National parks? Ski slopes? Ghost towns? Mining history? Dinosaurs?
This is a travel themed thread. Let's go to Montana!
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Glacier National Park may be the closest the US has to European Alps. Pictures do not do it justice:
The Going-to-the-Sun Road is not accessible year round. It gets snowy. Very snowy.
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Butte is known for its mining history. They called it "The Richest Hill on Earth." Good overview and good old photos in this documentary.
The Bekeley Pit in Butte is one of the most well known mining sites in Montana. Most of the Youtube videos are heavy with indignant environmental lectures, so learn more by reading this explanation at Pitwatch, the official website set up with information about the pit.
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Remember our beekeeping and honey theme from a few weeks ago?
Montana consistently ranks among the top 5 honey-producing states in the U.S.
Montana typically produces 9-15 million pounds of honey annually from around 100,000-270,000 colonies.
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Has anyone visited the Ringing Rocks?
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Our Lady of the Rockies is built atop the Continental Divide outside Butte
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Beartooth Highway - one of the most scenic drives in the US? Absolutely.
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Yellowstone is large. This overview covers a lot of ground and will give you a good sense of the park. Of course, nothing compares to being on the ground, but a good armchair tour is the next best thing.
This is very nice. No voice over or music - just great scenery and natural sounds.
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I know what you're thinking. "There has to be some interesting ghost towns in Montana that are off the beaten path. Maybe old mining towns?" Yes, yes there is. Allow me to introduce Comet.
Top tip: if you go beyond the town, look for a sign that says "Road not maintained. Proceed at your own risk." When you see the sign, turn around. Trust me.
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While Montana is generally known for "big sky country," it also has a place called "Big Sky" that is a skiing favorite.
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The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman is one of the world's best dinosaur museums. Extraordinary specimens. T-Rex history!! Apparently Wyoming is first on the dino bone discovery list and Montana is second.
Mandatory stop. For obvious reasons.
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I know what you're thinking. "I have an extra $30m in my checking account and I am interested in a 2006+ acre ranch in Montana. I'd really like something that comes with a resident Elk herd. Do you have any options for me?"
This car makes a statement: the Auto Union Lucca is emblematic of the technical innovation of the four rings in the 1930s. Audi Tradition has recreated the spectacular record-breaking car and will unveil it for the first time in early May in - aptly - the Italian city of Lucca. On February 15, 1935, the car set a widely acclaimed flying-start mile record on a straight section of the autostrada near Lucca, achieving a calculated average speed of 320.267 km/h and a measured top speed of 326.975 km/h. The Rennlimousine, a period term meaning "racing sedan," was completed in the spring of 2026 and will join the legendary Silver Arrows in AUDI AG's historic vehicle collection.
Audi had the Auto Union Lucca recreated by Crosthwaite & Gardiner based on historical photos and various other documents from the archives. After spending just over three years on its construction, the British restoration specialists completed the project in early 2026. All components are handcrafted especially for this model; in addition to the technical implementation, the production of the streamlined bodywork - such as the cockpit canopy and the tapered tail - was particularly labor-intensive. The hard work paid off: at the end of April, a drag coefficient of 0.43 was measured for the record-breaking car in the Audi wind tunnel.
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Random hobbying - a NASA Mars Rover replica made from matchsticks:
On display at the San Deigo Air & Space Museum.
Building the Mars rover Perseverance began in April 2020 and used 880,000 matchsticks and 28 gallons of wood glue by the time it was competed in the spring 2021.
The massive matchstick model measures over 10 feet long, 9 feet wide, and 7 feet at its tallest point. In addition to having a remote control video camera mounted atop the mast, the rover can be remotely operated to move forwards and backwards.
Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We did an car repair theme. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
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Notable comments from last week:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, contribute your own. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
Cherri Merritt thought she would never see her cat Tasha again after the longhair ragdoll mix went missing near Dallas, Texas on a cross-country road trip over seven months ago.
However, Tasha is now back home purring peacefully in Merritt’s lap after a twist of fate and a series of unexpected connections brought the cat back to Eugene.
Great story involving a lot of good people!
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How to Draw a Cat
1. Find a picture of a skull-faced cheerleader waving giant leaves. There's probably lots on the internet.
2. Draw a rope connecting her ankles.
3. Draw a rope connecting her toes by going over her head.
4. Add two triangles at the top, then slightly bigger ones over those, and voila! A cat!
Thank you for the weekend threads!
BeckoningChasm
NOW GET CREATIVE! Thanks, BeckoningChasm!
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Meet The PetMorons
Hi K.T.
This is my pup Whiskey staring at me from around the corner. So sad and forlorn he is. He does this every morning until I finish my first cuppa tea because that's when he gets his breakfast. Twenty minutes can seem like a lifetime to him, I'm sure, yet he perseveres daily nonetheless.
~~IrishEi
Love that photo! Such eyes! Such a face!
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I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had to let my Eskimo dog go over the Rainbow Bridge. Here’s my new pup, Luna, an 8-month old Eskie puppy. She was a stray who ended up in a kill shelter (and God, do I hate that term) but was saved by a foster mom. I drove to Alexandria to get her and now she is in her forever home. I’m a sad, rotten fellow, but having her makes me happy.
MP4
So happy for you and for Luna that you and a foster mom were able to rescue her! Great rescue photo!
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PetMoron Adjacent Animals
Encountered by Members of The Horde
The doves are back. This is hatching #2 for 2026. They are ready to fly the coop. Momma is currently sitting on two more eggs so look for two more hatching in late June. They love this dove box and it has been occupied every year since 2022. The nesting pair arrives in February and they leave in September.
rocdoctom
What a great thing! Those doves look cozy!
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Thank you for sharing your pets and animal photos and stories with us today.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
The pink flower is Bletilla striata, a terrestrial orchid. I planted it years ago and can't remember what the bare root looked like. I've seen it described as a root, pseudobulb or a tuber. Breck's calls it a rhizome. It is pretty dependable and not really fussy,. The plant does spread slowly but a single plant will eventually grow to more.
I love that little flower. The middle looks ruffled. I used to have some, in part shade. The rhizomes sometimes stuck out above ground. They were green.
The blue flower is Sisyrinchium angustifolium, blue eyed grass. and is a native perennial in most of the US. It's actually not a grass, it belongs to the Iris family. I was a little surprised to see it come back; I had just planted this past summer and not only were temps really low this winter it's planted in a corner that sometimes pools water. The clump is doing surprisingly well!
Lirio100
Glad you are having success with this one. Wonder who named it?
Thanks for sending in the great photos!
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Last month, we posted some photos of small flowers from Don in Kansas. Today, how about some larger ones? Be sure to click over on the link to see all of them and larger photos.
Unfortunately, the big news around these parts is our annual flooding. Between intense rain soaking the ground, and my neighbor's pond overflow discharging through my yard (allowed, as my yard has a creek, so it's the natural drainage or somesuch), it's a bit soupy.
I have a couple native plum that have more blooms, and are more fragrant, than I recall from past years, so maybe we'll see some fruit, as they're only a few years old. We have one nice little cherry tree that produced several pounds of cherries last year, and things look good so far.
Finally, I think this is a redbud along my normal walking path. Color is pretty striking.
Intrepid Liaison/Admiral Ackbar
Sorry about the flooding. Thanks for the great photos!
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Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Things I have learned: (1.) The shooter is best friends with the Vice President and his wife, and (2.) A Fox News correspondent made sure the K9 officer didn't interfere with the shooter as he removed the gun from his coat - - after guests moved from the red carpet through security to the ballroom.
It all makes sense. If the assassination attempt must be fake.
Here's Fox News war correspondent Trey Yingst running over to direct the K9 handler who spoke with the “shooter” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, just before he ran out of the room his dog hit on twice. https://t.co/iwMctKl4D9pic.twitter.com/Mk4aOroEkt
(Notes: A woman who looked like the VP's wife was at an event with the shooter in 2017 and Trey Yingst says he was reaching to shake hands with photographers near the red carpet).
* * * * *
All the people who think the assassination attempt was fake also believe that Apollo 11 was fake. Why is that?
Enemy Maintenance Democrats are working overtime to manufacture enemies and keep their armies of straw men alive.
“For me to be right, you must always be wrong no matter what” seems to be the mechanics behind a lot of sociopolitical turmoil these days, and it is often utilized by people who intentionally twist positions, most that their opponents never held, simply are not true, consist of terms that have been redefined to fit, situations that have been recontextualized, or they just never happened so they can be “right.”
It happened to me this week when a person attacked me for things I never said, I never did, I never believed, nor have I ever espoused—and no matter how much direct, objective, and in some cases, publicly known, evidence I presented, he just would not accept any of it. His entire package of grievances was a neatly tied up box of manipulated rhetoric, things taken out of context, false memories and mythmaking that was completely and totally false.
People ridiculed President Trump in his first term when he founded the Space Force as a new branch of the military. Well who’s laughing now? True, it might seem that building a wall against alien incursions is impossible, but didn’t Star Trek solve this decades ago with modulated shields? And we’re already long past making analogies between the Administrative State and The Borg. And this, you see, is why I have to re-appear here, because let’s face it, John is just weak (by his own admission) about sci-fi-pop-cul. Meanwhile, the Persian Gulf ceasefire punctuated with “kinetic activity” continues. And oh yeah—Spirit Airlines died. I suspect this is not a coincidence. I’ll bet it was an alien front all along, and Trump’s Space Force is on it!
* * * * *
Dance
Watch Bob Fosse's snake performance in "The Little Prince" from 1974 and tell me you don't see Michael Jackson's entire dance career born in real time.
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
3/10 – Update on Susan, who we have been praying for as she battles cancer. She is hospitalized again with an infection in her colon that quickly turned bad. The doctor says the signs are sepsis but they are running tests to make sure. The good news is that the pancreatic cancer was and is responding to the chemo and her cancer numbers are going down. God bless and thank you!
4/18 Update – Susan is doing outstanding. Her weight is better than expected. They have increased her dosage for chemo, and her cancer numbers are the lowest they have been since they started keeping track of them. They are so thankful for the mercy they have received. Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers.
3/14 – Retired Buckeye Cop asks for prayers for Mrs. Cop’s cousin, “A.B”. He has been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. He is a retired police officer who was hit by a car years ago. He attempted to deal with the pain by self-medicating with too much Tylenol, which ended up poisoning his liver. His only alternative is a liver transplant, but he is uncertain if he wants to have surgery.
4/11 Update – A.B. got a second opinion and testing determined his live score was 15. (21+ means transplant time.) That’s bad, but not as critical as initially thought. He went to the Cleveland Clinic for a third opinion, and testing found that his score had dropped to 9 and a liver transplant was not even something to consider. The doctor suspected a reaction to Ozempic and told him to stop taking it for 6 months.
3/28 – Hrothgar asked for prayers for a dear and long time close friend and former neighbor, Daniel, who is scheduled for open heart surgery in mid-April. Prayers for his wife would be appreciated as well, as she will be carrying a heavy load for the next few months.
4/18 Update – Daniel survived his complex open heart surgery. He is sitting up and it seems like it went well, but they are not going to release him as quickly as he would like, so he is not happy. Thanks to the Horde for the prayers and please keep praying for his dear wife, who now has even more to put up with.
3/28 – Jordan61 posted that Mr. Jordan61 is back in the hospital. His sepsis has returned and gotten into where his compression fracture is, and he has vertebral osteomyelitis. The doctor is supposed to come in today and let them know the plan.
4/9 Update – On 4/1 Mr. Jordan61 was released from the hospital with six weeks of IV antibiotics, which Jordan61 is administering every 8 hours. He’s in a lot of pain; they’ve given him oxy, fentanyl, and dilaudid, and nothing seems to touch it. From what they were told, the pain won’t subside until the infection is cleared up. For the time being, he is bed-bound and they are limiting his movement as much as possible to keep the pain to a minimum. Jordan61 will send updates with progress.
4/25 Update – Mr. Jordan61 is making slow but steady progress. He can get up and walk for short periods of time, and can sit in the living room for an hour or so per day. He is halfway through the IV antibiotics, with 3 weeks to go. A physical therapist will be coming to help him build strength and learn how to move without aggravating his back injury. Thank you all for the prayers!
4/3 – Teresa in Fort Worth posted an update. Her chemo seems to be holding things steady for now. Unfortunately, as she is receiving a steroid, she has gained about 25 pounds. Her blood sugar has also jumped up about 40 points (which only happens when she is on steroids).
4/24 Update – Teresa in Fort Worth provided an update: The pump that was put in to battle cancer in December can only be used for 6 months. After that, it starts to damage the liver. So she may have to go back onto the medication that made her lose her hair and messed up her vision and nails, and then return to this medication after a break. This is not good news, since this new medication is working so well. But for now, she is doing well and is incredibly grateful for the time that she has been given so far.
4/11 – Eromero craves prayers for Mrs. E., as she has been diagnosed with lymphoma. She begins infusions on 4/23.
4/25 Update – Mrs. E. reports that she feels fine. Praise be to God that she has had only one distressful episode during the infusions. Thank you for all the past and continued prayers.
4/18 – Vmom deport deport deport asked for prayers for Captain Whitebread, who is back in ICU with a leg infection that sounds very serious. She also asked for prayers for her husband’s mental and emotional well-being as he faces transition of a possible forced retirement in 3 months.
4/29 Update Captain Whitebread’s son posted that Captain Whitebread had several more infections and passed away on 4/29.
4/18 – Warai-otoko offered a prayer of thanksgiving that he got a new job that he is really enjoying. Wifey also got an offer for a new job that sounds great, after a decade of putting up with her old job.
4/18 – fd posted that MIL went into the hospital with multiple issues. Then Dad went in. MIL is still there, and Dad is out. Both will be okay – as well as can be expected for 87 and 89 year olds. Also GSD Bruno started chemo for lymphoma and is responding well. Prayers from the Horde have helped.
5/2 Update – MIL and dad are back home. Bruno seems to be doing well. Thank you all, sincerely, for your thoughts and prayers.
4/18 – neverenoughcaffiene asked that Devyn be kept in prayers. She is a young mother of 2 with a mass on her esophagus. The Doc said it was scar tissue and hopefully the second opinion will agree.
4/18 – Smell the Glove could use some prayers as therapy and rehab occur after gout/sepsis.
5/2 Update – The gout has cleared and the infection in the lower back is healing.
4/18 – PA Dutchman asked for prayers for his family. His dad passed away on 4/9 after complications from a fall. He was 95 and a veteran of the Korean War, 34th Inf Rgt. Mostly prayers are need for PA Dutchman’s mom, who is absolutely heartbroken.
4/18 – PabloD has been having dizzy spells for the past few weeks. He is seeing a doctor soon, and is requesting prayers that figure it out and that it’s nothing too serious.
4/18 – Sam Adams requested prayers for a friend, Mary F, who was just sent to a long-term recovery facility after having a tracheostomy.
5/2 Update – Mary’s breathing is improving, and they are weaning her off assisted breathing. She is now off the ventilator for 12 hours a day, and they are aiming for 14 hours soon. Many thanks to all of the Moron Horde for the prayers.
4/18 – Doof provided an update on his mother. She is doing better. She moved into her own room in an assisted living facility. It’s walking distance from Doof’s house, which is great. Her mental state has improved dramatically. She can no longer walk but she does stand with some assistance and can transfer between a wheelchair and bed or a lift/recliner chair. This facility is more of a home and less of a hospital, which hopefully will provide a good opportunity for her to enjoy life. He appreciates the Horde’s prayers and asks for prayers that she settles in comfortably and develops new friendships.
4/24 – Notsothoreau asked for prayers for a friend’s father (Cory), who needs prayers for strength and peace as he is going through some troubled times.
4/27 – Matthew Kant Cipher sent his thanks to those who prayed for his friend Layne (who is also his son’s FIL). The Horde may recall that in August, Layne was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He has since undergone courses of chemo, immunotherapy, and radiation. His latest scans came back clean. The cancer is in remission; praise be to God! Prayers are also humbly requested for Mrs. MKC, who is dealing with a new flare-up of a GI condition that had been leaving her alone until a recent procedure re-aggravated it. It is very frustrating/discouraging as she waits to see a new GI doctor.
4/25 – Retired Buckeye Cop asked that we would continue to lift his 16 year old grandson (LH) up in prayers, as LH continues to consider the call to priesthood in the Catholic Church. LH recently went to a meeting with a group of young men who are considering the priesthood.
4/25 – Fenelon Spoke asked for prayers for “I”, who Fenelon visited and anointed with oil, and prayed for healing of her health concerns.
5/2 – neverenoughcaffiene requested prayers for parishioners at her church, who lost their newborn daughter, Astrid.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
There's another new - or newish - Linux privilege escalation bug. It's literally called Copy Fail 2: Electric Boogaloo.
But under the hood it's abusing the same module as yesterday's Dirty Frag, so if you already applied the mitigation for that, you're protected from CF2EB.
Also, my recommendation is don't install Ubuntu 26.04 just yet. Unlike 24.04 which worked smoothly from release day, Ubuntu 26.04 still has some odd quirks. Particularly if you want to use it under WSL and integrate with JetBrains IDEs (CLion in this case, but they'll all be the same here) where it just doesn't work.
AI coding tools are like hiring an autistic teenager to program for you. Great if your requirements are clearly defined and you check their work carefully.
But if you just blindly deploy whatever they produce, that's on you.
It's not that AI is intrinsically bad, anymore than email is bad.
It's just that it makes being annoying far too easy:
Material created with the assistance of AI is not bad in itself. It's the purpose to which it's put.
A good use of AI is when it enables people to do something they couldn't do before, to contribute to a community when they couldn't before. Done with the care and good intent of a human behind it, this is a nett positive.
Bad AI slop, on the other hand, is monkeys throwing crap over the fence for a purpose other than furthering the community. This includes spam, engagement farming, and simply thoughtless noise in a space which is not for that purpose.
Mojo is a Python-like language (more so than, for example, Nim) that compiles directly to binary and has similar safety features to Rust. It's designed to work with Python in both directions: Importing Mojo modules into Python code, and importing Python code into Mojo programs, though apparently the latter is more robust than the former.
Not sure how well it works otherwise; the first release some years ago actually had a waiting list. At least now you can just click a link and download it. Well, you can't, but apparently you can install it with uv or pixi.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: Begin at the beginning, and proceed to the end, and then stop.
So... I twigged that was AI because the guy has no reaction to any of this, and this kind of AI video always features giggling and this kind of fractured speech. But I thought it was cute, so I posted it so you'd enjoy it.
Hey, sometimes you still enjoy things that are Faked.
I hate AI slop (when it's dishonestly presented as real) but the torrent of slop is overwhelming my defenses.
Democrats Melt Down Over Virginia Supreme Court Ruling, with Socialist Democrat Influencer Hasan Piker Demanding Violent Revolution and the "Smart" Commentators of the Left Unable to Read a Simple Court Decision
—Disinformation Expert Ace
The left is spamming out wholly ignorant objections to the ruling.
A major one is: But other states passed new maps! Why can't Virginia pass a new map?!?!
Headquarters
@HQNewsNow
Republicans: Pass new maps in Tennessee, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas ALL without a vote -- upheld
Democrats: Pass new maps in Virginia with a vote from the will of the people -- overturned
Make it make sense.
By the way: When they say "Without a vote," they mean without a public vote on a referendum.
Do you know why there was no public vote on a referendum in those states?
That's right, because those other states didn't require a constitutional change to pass the new map, so there was no referendum.
Charles C. W. Cooke
@charlescwcooke
Okay. I'll "make it make sense." Virginia has a constitution that applies in Virginia but not in those other states, and the government of Virginia did not follow that constitution, which is illegal.
To be more specific: States like Virginia wanted to Virtue Signal that they were anti-gerrymandering (which they're not, they just wanted to lock in the current gerrymander they approved of) so they passed a constitutional amendment limiting gerrymandering.
Then, just to show the left believes in nothing they claim to believe, they attempted to undo that amendment through a rushed and unconstitutional process.
The other states always left this power in the hands of the legislature, so the legislature is able to change the maps with a vote.
It's not so hard to understand is it? Aren't you the guys always claiming that you're the Smartest Kids in the Class (TM)? Are you entirely incapable of reading anything but BlueSky for your "research"?
Another stupid objection they keep on making: If this process was deficient from the very beginning -- which the Court ruled it was -- why didn't the Court make this ruling earlier?
This is a hilarious one. The Virginia Supreme Court was going to rule on whether this process was adequate or defective -- but the Democrats pushing the new map insisted that it was illegal for the Court to rule on the referendum before the referendum had been voted on and was entirely concluded.
The Democrats themselves insisted that the Court had no power to rule on this except after the referendum was voted on and was in the process of being implemented.
The Court read the Democrats' arguments and... agreed.
Here's another Smartest Kid in the Class (TM) Sam Stein babbling that this wasn't "handled" correctly. What he means is, if this was f***ed up, why didn't you stop us earlier?
Another one: The very, very smart (just ask him!) Dweeb Goblin Will Saletan:
Will Saletan
@saletan
Can someone explain why--if this was the court's basis for nullifying the redistricting measure--the court didn't rule this way when the challenge arose before the referendum?
It looks like the court waited to see which side would win, and then intervened.
With an ugly mug like that, you'd think he would know how to read.
There's a very easy way to find the answer to that question: RTFO. Read the fucking opinion, Retard Who Is a Genius.
By the way, do you want to know why the Democrats argued the Virginia Supreme Court should not rule on the process until later? For the same reason all litigants make such arguments: Because they knew the Court would probably find the process was defective.
What they were hoping was: If the process went forward, it would create its own political momentum, and then the Supreme Court would be too afraid to rule when the referendum has passed and would allow the defective process to stand.
But they weren't (thankfully!).
This is a stupid argument anyway -- whether the process was ruled unconstitutional six months ago or now, it doesn't matter. It would have been ruled unconstitutional then, or now. There was nothing the Democrats could do, because what they were trying to do was forbidden -- the Virginia Constitution demands a schedule for amendments that requires time for cooler heads to prevail, and the Democrats were trying to rush this process and ignore the built-in scheduling requirements.
So whether the Court ruled earlier or later -- the Democrats just were not permitted to rush the amendment.
And speaking of that rushed effort: the timing requirements were that a referendum be passed in one legislative period, and then an intervening general election be held, and then the vote be held after that general election. This is to make sure the public has the chance to vote out the rascals if they don't like the amendment they're trying to force through.
But the Democrats passed the referendum while voting was taking place for the next general election. In other words, there was no intervening election between the passing of the referendum in the assembly and the vote by the people, because the election was already happening when the assembly passed it.
And voting was already happening because Democrats created a clownlishly long campaign season instead of an election day.
Greg Price
@greg_price11
In the end, Virginia's ridiculously long early voting period is what sunk the Virginia referendum.
Amending the VA Constitution requires two votes in the General Assembly with an intervening election in between.
The first vote in the redistricting referendum was 40 days into early voting in 2025, when over 1.3M people had voted.
Hilariously, the key argument made by the lawyers in favor of the referendum was that only Election Day counts as the election.
The Smartest Kids in the Class (TM) -- just ask them, they'll tell you they're the Smartest Kids in the Class (TM) -- keep asking the same questions and people keep posting the same link to the same publicly-published court opinion.
And the Smartest Kids in the Class (TM) continue refusing to read a fairly straightforward opinion, not super-cluttered with legalese.
They don't read, because the Smartest Kids in the Class (TM) are above reading. They just know through Diverse Lived Experiences.
They're treating this opinion like it's The Hound of the Baskervilles or something. I mean, come on. It's not that hard.
Meanwhile, the violent communist and terrorist cheerleader that the Democrats all insist is a moderate mainstream voice calls for violence.
AGAIN.
hasanabi
@hasanthehun
the va supreme court denied the results of the redistricting referendum. scotus gutted the voting rights act and tennessee carved up the last dem district destroying black voter power in the state.
those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable
Overturn this decision? It’s a ruling from the state Supreme Court on a state constitutional matter, who are you going to appeal it to? God? https://t.co/689ZnCRyvO
Related: You know Steve Cohen, the very African American Congressman from Tennessee's 9th District who shows you he's African American by eating KFC in Congress?
And yes this is real:
Well, the Republican who will probably replace him is... get this... a black woman.
And the left insists: It's racist anyway, I don't care if a black candidate replaces the white one.
Lydia Moynihan: It's a little ironic that the woman now who is likely going to win the 9th Congressional District in Tennessee is a black Republican instead of a white Democrat male. But that's racist?
The two most consequential races in California have devolved into twin spectacles, with years of visible dysfunction hollowing out Democrats' case for competent leadership.
Why it matters: California is the ultimate paradox of Democratic rule. A state of immense wealth, innovation and cultural power is increasingly unable to deliver the basics of housing, public safety and disaster response.
The big picture: Those failures have been building for years.
But COVID and last year's catastrophic fires have transformed long-simmering frustration with California governance into a visceral public indictment of the people running the state -- one now playing out in the races for governor and Los Angeles mayor.
Psst: It's not a "paradox" that socialism turns rich orderly societies into poor chaotic ones. It's happened every single time.
Yes, you will need a photo ID to enter Barack Obama's ugly Soviet Konstuktivist library of lies.
It remains, of course, racist and unconstitutional to require an ID at someplace less grand and important, like a polling station.
I wonder why?
The Washington Post modeled the effects of a law requiring voters to show ID at polling places. Guess what it found?
By the way, you can buy ugly tchotchkies to show your support to the Obama Temple of Ego.
He also wants to sell you communist organizer Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, and black supremacist antisemite Ta-Nehesi Coates' racial provocations.
Libs of TikTok
@libsoftiktok
6m
BREAKING UPDATE: Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen has RESIGNED amid an investigation for having an alleged romantic relationship with the lawyer who argued the Democrats' Utah redistricting case, which she ruled in FAVOR of.
🚨 JUST NOW: Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen RESIGNS — the same justice who helped give Democrats +1 Congressional seats out of Utah for the midterms
She's embroiled in a scandal of reportedly having an AFFAIR with an attorney involved in that redistricting case
But then again, this is the same sixth runner-up beauty queen who gushed over little children mutilating themselves with "transgender" surgery only to re-invent herself, Madonna-like, as a firebrand anti-trans crusader.
So of course now she says that anyone who opposes Islam are "Israel Firsters" flooding her with a "torrent of demands" that she "hate Muslims."
Megyn Kelly had Tucker Carlson on her show today to talk about his Muslim viewers and defense of Islam.
Megyn said that yesterday she “received a torrent of demands” from the Israel First people and some conservatives “to hate Muslims”
DOJ Moves To Denaturalize Alleged Terrorists And War Criminals
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is moving to denaturalize 12 individuals for offenses and allegations including providing material support to terrorism, war crimes and sexual abuse of a minor, the Daily Caller has learned.
The DOJ is expected to announce on Friday that it is filing denaturalizing actions against 12 individuals, originally from Iraq, Colombia, Morocco, Somalia, Gambia, Bolivia, Uzbekistan, Kenya, India, China and Nigeria.
The Cultural Enrichment Officers are all from a diverse array of races which makes this very, very racist.
Ali Yousif Ahmed, a native of Iraq, is one of the individuals the DOJ says they are taking action against. Ahmed came to the U.S. in 2009, claiming his family was attacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. Ten years later, Iraq asked the U.S. to extradite Ahmed to Iraq, claiming he was facing criminal charges for the premeditated murder of two Iraqi police officers in 2006.
"Upon further investigation, United States learned that, in 2015, Ahmed illegally procured his naturalization, which warrants his denaturalization, because he lied under oath about his criminal and family history when he sought admission to the United States and naturalized as a U.S. citizen," a document on the denaturalization process and shared with the Caller read.
Khalid Ouazzani, a native of Morocco, applied for U.S. citizenship in 2005 and then again a year later, according to the DOJ. Ouazzani was allegedly "planning--with two men later convicted of trying to bomb the New York Stock exchange--ways to support AlQaida" in 2003. Then after being naturalized, Ouazzani pleaded guilty to sending al-Qaida tens of thousands of dollars with money he had fraudulently obtained Ouazzani also took a pledge of pledge of allegiance in 2008 to al-Qaida.
The DOJ is also looking to strip Baboucarr Mboob, a native of Gambia, of his naturalization, claiming he was involved in war crimes, the Caller learned. Mboob was a military police officer in the Gambian army and participated in the execution of six officers following the orders from his commanding officer who believed were victims in plotting a counter-coup against then President Yahya Jammeh, according to the DOJ.
Mboob concealed his involvement in the war crimes during the naturalization process, but later admitted to executing his fellow officers, the DOJ told the Caller.
Say, Ilhan "Omar's" father is a war criminal and genocidal warlord, isn't he?
Hmm, does that mean we can arrange a No-Muslims Day?
No, right?
Oh did I mention the waterpark in question is taxpayer funded?
A "Muslim only" event at a taxpayer-funded Texas water park has been canceled following criticism and threats by Gov. Greg Abbott to pull public safety grants.
A local Islamic group had rented out the Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie for its annual Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) "Epic Eid" celebration on June 1.
Representatives for both the water park and the city of Grand Prairie sent the following statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday evening confirming the event is canceled:
"After further review and in the best interest of the City of Grand Prairie, the June 1 EID event at Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark has been canceled."
And did I forget to mention that this Economic Powerhouse Who Built Our Country happens to own her very own "learing center"?
And yes, she spelled it that way.
And while this isn't being reported -- I'm 100% certain that the Excellence Early Learing Center is paid for by government funds.
The head of a Texas Islamic group that rented out a taxpayer-funded waterpark for an event that was advertised as "Muslim only" runs a childhood education center with the exact same unfortunate 'Learing Center' typo first seen at an infamous daycare in Minneapolis.
The "Excellence Early Learing Center," as its misspelled website header reads -- located in the Fort Worth suburb of Hurst -- offers a variety of programs for youngsters from infants to pre-K, and promises to provide children with "the loving, personal care that they need to thrive and feel confident."
The center boasts "multiculturalism, small classroom sizes, healthy eating and a warm, loving environment that feels like home" and staff with degrees in "education, accounting, biology, pharmacology, science, nursing and mathematics from their home countries."
Its owner, head operator and curriculum designer is Aminah Knight, who boasts a master's degree fro the University of Southern California and a doctorate from Vanderbilt University.
Earlier this week, Knight and her DFW Epic Eid organization drew massive criticism for a flyer advertising an event at Epic Waters in Grand Prairie billed as "Muslim only" and requiring modest swimsuits for all attendees.
Epic Waters, a sprawling, 80,000-square-feet indoor waterpark opened in 2017 at a cost of $88 million -- funded by a 0.25% sales tax hike residents approved at the ballot box in 2014.
The FAQ for the third-annual event, which was being held to celebrate the Muslim holiday Eid, initially proclaimed "the entire waterpark has been exclusively reserved for Muslims."
Reform Gains Over 1,300 Seats as Labour Loses Nearly 1,200
—Disinformation Expert Ace
And there's still damage to come -- just 117 of the 136 councils have reported so far.
These are council (local) elections, not the general elections for Parliament (the national legislature), which do not have to be scheduled before 2029.
But council members do have power locally -- and these elections are a mighty harbinger of what will come.
The Greens gained 296 seats so far, almost all at Labour's expense.
(Numbers updated at 2:53 pm.)
Labour had controlled Wales for 27 years. Not only did they lose control -- Plaid Cymru won 42 seats, with Reform stomping in for 39 in second -- but even the Labour First Minister for Wales lost her seat in the vote.
Politics UK
@PolitlcsUK
2h
🚨 BREAKING: Welsh Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan has lost her seat in the Senedd
It's the first time in British history that a sitting head of Government has lost re-election to the house they led
The SNP kept control in Scotland, with Reform gaining zero seats, because Scotland is a mess and not worth thinking about. Their Muslim First Minister Hamzi Yusef hates the actual Scottish people and gives fiery speeches denouncing the Scots.
Keir Starmer, noted for his outreach to gay Ukrainian male model prostitutes -- just offering them a bad for the night, that kind of charity -- says that he's not stepping aside... sort of. What he actually said was that he would not walk away and "leave the party in disorder," which means, I'm pretty sure, that as soon as the party agrees on a successor, he will step down. He just doesn't want a big fight for control.
Astute post from Maxi@AllForProgress on X. Applies to the US too.
"There are the usual notes on procedure. People like my parents, Britain's ultimate swing voter category, were buried with doorknockers, and their earnest heartfelt pleas, in the final few weeks of campaigning. An avalanche of appeals after five years of having not a single party representative knocking on their doors, inquiring after them, or following up on their concerns.
There is still no party on the slate that understands that such elections as these are won between campaigns, through diligent attention to voters and relentless follow-up, not with three weeks to go. This, to my mind, is the single greatest predictor of governmental success, and it's a test that none of the current bottle are passing.
Whatever; the cumulative picture is the one we've watched forming for some time. Britain is shopping, rotating through every available political product, trying them on for size, and finding them generally wanting.
The political market is wide open. The next general election will reward whoever spends the intervening period building something vast, intense, and serious. . ."
Posted by: whig
While the cowardly chattering classes acknowledge the catastrophe, they refuse to address the reasons for it. They resort to gauzy evasions like "The public just wanted a change."
A change from what, exactly?
Or "the public has lost faith in the traditional major parties."
But why has the public lost faith, exactly?
Or they'll claim that Keir Starmer just isn't charismatic. Yes, correct, he's a gray dullard who looks like he'd lose a naked wrestling match to Anderson Cooper*, but... couldn't there be other, more tangible reasons the public has made the longtime former Two Major Establishment Parties of the UK minor parties?
What reasons might explain that, do you think?
Say -- what was Reform's One Single Endlessly Repeated Campaign Promise, anyway? Maybe that could provide a clue to this Mystery.
Even as the establishment faces a reckoning a long time coming, they still pretend away the reason for that reckoning.
When ordinary British citizens were immediately framed as “far right” in the aftermath of the 3 young girls from Southport being murdered, I realised something had gone badly wrong in this country.
A 14yr old invader has avoided jail after being convicted of raping a schoolgirl just three months after arriving in Britain on a small boat.
The teenager, who arrived as an unaccompanied minor last June and was placed in foster care, was found guilty in January of rape and two… pic.twitter.com/caa3efdHIA
Australia: We can't deport this rapist because he's "too mentally retarded" to deport and he would lose access to Australian welfare services and he needs those!
Australian authorities were totally fine with opening the borders to "refugees" like this. But now, after he commits horrific crimes, he is too retarded to be deported. pic.twitter.com/44SvLyGY2j
An African refugee who sexually abused his niece, 9, has been allowed to stay in Australia after a tribunal found he would lose access to disability support if deported.
He has been on the NDIS since 2020 as his IQ is in the lowest percentile.https://t.co/X8wu8BQ3os
Iran has run out of oil storage capacity and instead of shutting down their wells -- which could cause long-term damage -- they're now deliberately causing an environmental catastrophe by flooding the ocean with oil.
BREAKING: Islamic Terrorist Regime IS DUMPING OIL INTO THE SEA! 🚨
As we warned: the regime has run out of storage capacity.
For days now, they’ve been faking tanker transfers while pouring massive amounts of extracted oil straight into the ocean. Deliberate. Criminal.… pic.twitter.com/DryBpziffO
Exit Question: Why are the Jews tricking Iran into murdering its citizens? And also, are the Jews faking traffic numbers to make it appear as if Me-Again Kelly and Taqiyya Qarlson are losing audience?
Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove
"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"
"It's f**king f**ked." -- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source" Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.
Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat
🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER
He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight
It's over
"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)
No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.
Only a cult does this.
Now they've lost 84%.
Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.
That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.
Cataclysmic
Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.
Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...
The British Patriot
@TheBritLad
🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.< br>
If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.
Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.
Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult. Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.
Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick
Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party
STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98. Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years. Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.
Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that. People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs. Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.
Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:
That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time. I always thought the gag was original to the comic book, but in fact the "Threat or Menace" headline was a satirical joke about media bias and sensationalism for a long while. The Harvard Lampoon used it in a parody of Life magazine: "Flying Saucers: Threat or Menace?"
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