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
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
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
The smug pomposity of Western Europe in the face of overwhelming data that show a rapidly collapsing culture and society is fascinating to behold. Birth rates among natives are far below replacement, church attendance has cratered, tax rates are onerous, crime is exploding, Churches are being burned or turned into mosques, free speech is now at the mercy of increasingly totalitarian governments, and on and on.
But they have "free" (but rationed) healthcare, and their trains are lovely and fast and mostly on time! Oh...lots of vacation too!
Apparently, being able to get around on nice trains trumps the loss of freedom, the lack of purchasing power to own an automobile (freedom's conveyance), Muslim rape gangs, life in tiny apartments with no air conditioning, minuscule appliances, sclerotic municipal services, and all the other complexities of an overweening regulatory and administrative state.
I have a bit of experience with living in America, and had the opportunity to live in Paris for several months, in an upscale neighborhood far from the crime and the Islamic hordes in the midst of their conquest. And I can tell you unequivocally that life in America is better.
Do you know why those hip Parisians shop every day for food on their quaint and lovely streets filled with wonderful food shops? Because their f*cking kitchens are tiny, and their toy refrigerators don't hold enough for more than a day or two of cooking! Do you know why they are...to be polite...rather odoriferous? Because they sweat all the time (remember; no A/C!), their access to clothes washing is problematic, and their bathrooms are a joke, with hand-held showers and poor water pressure.
If you want good service in a store or a restaurant, don't bother. That wonderful living wage that they pay waiters translates into disinterested and mediocre service. And in stores? Hah! Good luck. Buying a box of band-aids can take 15 minutes. And their vaunted socialized and "free" medical care is strictly rationed, and only the well-off can get speedy and high-quality care. Or...you know...just fly to America, which many people around the world do, in spite of our health-care issues.
Our poor people own cars, and have more freedom than anyone else in the world. But the privilege of paying obscene marginal tax rates so that government can subsidize public transportation is better? I don't think so.
Western Europe should pay more attention to its own existential problems, and simply appreciate that America has paid for their defense since World War II. it is disingenuous in the extreme to claim that we do not subsidize Europe...the many trillions of dollars we have spent on NATO, either directly or indirectly, is distinct from any economic benefit that a rebuilt Europe has afforded our economy.
Are many parts of Western Europe beautiful? Absolutely! Many of their cities are marvels of architecture and culture, and its physical beauty is often stunning. But it is increasingly becoming a Potemkin Village, as their governments carefully minimize or hide (Rotherham or Malmo anyone?) their massive problems.
But the biggest problem by far is Europe's curious disinterest in their own freedom. Speech is carefully controlled by government and compliant corporations, and with that control comes a diminution of the very concept of freedom and liberty. Until that changes, Western Europe will continue down the path toward totalitarianism, either externally applied by Islam, or internally applied by...themselves!
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom - go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!
-- Samuel Adams
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
Good morning kids. So, on the latest episode of the podcast, linked here as well as in the sidebar and on the outlets listed at the bottom of the post, CBD and I discussed the outstanding leadership of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in terms of revitalizing and reviving the readiness, capability and morale of our armed forces. With the ever present threat for sure posed by the Chi-Coms and a number of other bad actors including Iran, it is vital that President Trump has the absolute cream of the crop in terms of leadership at the Pentagon and so far Hegseth has proven himself quite capable. Now, with the President determined to thwart the influx of deadly fentanyl and other narcotics from overseas (primarily via south and central America, over land and via the sea lanes) that over the past decade and longer has left a staggering body count of dead and wasted lives that is akin to a small war or a very large and sadly ongoing bloody battle. To swipe the hyperbole of the Left when describing the January 6th non-insurrection non-riot, the body count is likely akin to several 9/11 style attacks combined. Add in the pain and suffering of their loved ones and the toll we have taken on so many levels is staggering. Lest we forget, the successful smuggling of these chemical weapons of mass destruction, and that's what fentanyl and opioids in the last analysis truly are, could not really happen without people in place on our shores to facilitate in the offloading and ultimate distribution of them right down to the dime-bag pushers on a street corner. Hence the crucial nature of border and immigration enforcement as well as the general law and order push vis a vis the ordering of National Guard troops to aid and assist local law enforcement in the apprehension of criminal elements, resisted by local politicians who are beholden to the insane policies of defunding the police, and decriminalization of crime by blue shit hole mayors, governors and DAs exclusively of the Democrat/Leftist persuasion.
So the shedding of oceans of crocodile tears for the drug smugglers that the US Navy has blown out of the water is disgusting in the extreme, although quite instructive as to who and what the anti-American Democrat Left actually care about. Hegseth as both a man and as a leader is everything that the Left is not and will never be. He, and of course Donald Trump, who Hegseth represents, is a nemesis to be destroyed. Not just because of that which is reason enough for the Left, but for what he is accomplishing, which to a large extent is the will of the people, but also for his potential future as a national political leader. — no I am not endorsing him for POTUS in 2028, but merely pointing out the salient fact that if he is allowed to continue with his successes without being hindered by his and our enemies, or should he step on a rake down the road (the laughable at best charges of infidelity or some other concocted closet skeleton), he does indeed from where I sit have a shot at national office at some time in the not too distant future (he's only 45)
The U.S. seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday.
The tanker’s ownership and origin were not revealed, but Trump said the vessel was “very large” while speaking to reporters on Wednesday. The president did not offer the rationale behind the seizure during his remarks. “As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” he said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted video of the U.S. raid on an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday.
The video shows U.S. forces boarding and taking control of the vessel as part of an operation to enforce U.S. sanctions on the sale of Venezuelan oil.
“[T]he Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the United States Coast Guard, with support from the Department of War, executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran,” said Bondi. “For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” she added. “This seizure, completed off the coast of Venezuela, was conducted safely and securely—and our investigation alongside the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the transport of sanctioned oil continues.”
. . . The decision to seize the oil tanker strikes directly at Venezuela’s main source of revenue, its state-controlled oil industry. The oil it can produce through its state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is often sold internationally to countries such as Iran and China at steep discounts because of the risk of running afoul of U.S. sanctions.
Neither of the links state the final destination of the tanker, but although I cannot find where I read it, I'm fairly sure that I read somewhere that the tanker was bound for Cuba. Oh boy! Chee-Wah-Wah on so many levels if so. First, Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez have been a gigantic pain in our ass for years, let alone the long suffering Venezuelan people who, despite being awash in petroleum are among the poorest in Latin America and the world. But yes young Americans, let's all rush to transform the USA into a socialist paradise on earth, but I digress.
Venezuela aside, a number of South and central American nations are running in the opposite direction, much to the dismay of the Castro regime that still lords over the giant tropical gulag of Cuba. Thank you JFK. As for Venezuela, that regime has a long-standing partnership and close relationship with the mad mullahs of Iran, as well as Xi and the Chi-Coms who are itching to set up shop right on our doorstep to hamper if not strangle us economically, politically and if push comes to shove militarily.
That's why it is refreshing and sane that President Trump as well as Secretary of War and Secretary of State Rubio are speaking with one very loud and clear voice in the aggressive reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine.
Western Hemisphere: The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere. This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests.
It would be quite something to finally see Cuba libré after 65 or more years of being a communist slave state, if for no other reason than to see the jug-eared dog-eating piece of shit Barack Obama (who propped up the regime after Fidel was dragged down to Hell) shriek in agony as Donald Trump dynamites the statues of Castro, Lenin and Marx at that Havana reviewing stand, in the same manner as that giant Swastika was blasted off the reviewing stand at the Nuremberg Nazi rally site at the end of World War 2 – I Have a Dream Today!
Of course the treasonous, traitorous venal tyrants in our midst will do their best to prevent that from happening:
During a recent interview with the far-Left Daily Beast, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), one of six Democrat lawmakers who collaborated on the infamous video telling service members they have a duty to refuse “unlawful orders,” made an extraordinary claim. She said they felt compelled to act because:
There [were] so many people coming to us, who were on active duty who — recent veterans, family members of service members — who were coming to us individually and saying two things: One, ‘I’m concerned I’m going to sent in uniform to an American city, you know, like L.A., Chicago, Memphis, and I’m going to be asked to do things I either don’t think are legal or I’m not trained for. What do I do?
As CBD and I noted on the podcast, while President Trump perhaps ought to have informed Congress of his intentions to interdict and destroy Venezuelan drug running terrorists on the high seas and that he considers the Maduro regime and Maduro himself as complicit in running drugs and de facto terror leaders in doing so, the fact that he didn't do so beforehand makes little difference to me.
Given who and what the Democrats are, if past is prologue, someone for sure would have spilled the beans to Maduro ahead of time. Even if it meant putting the lives of American military personnel in danger. They hate Trump with the heat of 10,000 suns and hate America itself as much if not more because they, for the time being, have been thwarted in seizing absolute power. When they say "By any means necessary" they're not kidding as we have seen for almost 200 years now.
Sowing mutiny in the ranks. Look what was done to Derek Chauvin who merely did his job as a police officer, and how that affected police morale and recruitment. Luckily Trump and Hegseth are at the top of the heap and the average soldier and officer have little to fear in terms of a politicized attempt to drum someone out of the service for following orders, no matter how ridiculous or loudly SLUTkin and her ilk shriek "WAR CRIMES!" But if God-forbid a Democrat administration once again takes power, then you better believe a Stalinesque purge will sweep through the flag officer corps if not go down the line to just the average dogface for obeying, legitimate orders handed down by the C-in-C Donald Trump.
And so, with no other means to prop up their allies, that is America's enemies, resort to destroying morale and readiness. It's the Chicago/OBAMA way...
Unto my last breath, the greatest threat to America's national security was is and always will be the Democrat Left.
Have a good day.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
Victor Davis Hanson: America warns Europe that only one of them is truly fighting to reverse the West’s decline—and the clock is running out for the other to follow suit.
Cry the Beloved Europe?
“I grew up in a Somali clan-based society … [where] Loyalty to kin was absolute. Loyalty to the nation was theoretical at best,” she writes ... (The Democrat Party is KLAN-based!, with a culture of civic corruption! - jjs)
Hirsi Ali: Americans Must Suppress Somali Culture of Civic Corruption
More than 8-in-10 households headed by Somali refugees in the state of Minnesota are on one or more forms of American taxpayer-funded welfare, new data published by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals. Minnesota: ‘Nearly Every’ Somali Household with Children Is on Welfare
Out-of-control tort litigation makes American businesses less competitive, decreases worker productivity, and discourages companies from investing in their operations – instead having to hold money back for the potential of a rent-seeking lawsuit. American Families Pay The Price For Excessive Litigation
“President Trump has made enormous strides in reversing the affordability crisis left behind by Democrats. From the historic working families tax cuts to over $18 trillion worth of investment in America, the benefits of the Trump economic agenda have only begun to kick in and there is more work to be done in the new year,” the spokesperson said. White House Deploys JD Vance To Bolster Affordability Messaging
The truth is that the Trump administration is working hard to address the root causes of the high cost of living. They're doing this with intelligence, foresight, and experience, and basing their policy on bedrock economic principles. And even better: It's working. Stop Worrying About the Midterms — Trump Prosperity Will Be Undeniable by Then
When Providence police officers responded to a party on Liege Street last week, they discovered “four students passed out in the front yard of the home,” Fox News reported. Police said seven people overdosed at the party and were given Narcan. The individuals were transported to a hospital and were later reported conscious and alert, according to the report. Three People Arrested After Seven Rhode Island College Students Overdose at Party
John Stossel: “Justapedia,” says Rindsberg, “was founded by a veteran Wikipedia editor who couldn’t handle the left-wing bias.” “This is exactly what we need . . . people to be able to choose among different sources, so we’re not all forced into the Wikipedia information funnel.” Wikipedia won’t fix its woke bias — so competitors are on the rise
It's a message that every single member of our American Congress should be able to agree on, but when there were calls for objections, Sen. Dick Turdbin (D-Ill.) stepped his pretty little self up and did just that. In a Not so Shocking Move, Senate Democrats Refuse to Condemn Socialism
The tanker’s ownership and origin were not revealed, but Trump said the vessel was “very large” while speaking to reporters on Wednesday. The president did not offer the rationale behind the seizure during his remarks. “As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” he said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.” US Seizes Oil Tanker Off Venezuelan Coast, President Trump Confirms
Microsoft’s deep entanglement with China, exposed in a new report, shows how the tech giant’s pursuit of profit is undermining U.S. security and handing leverage to a hostile regime. New Report Exposes Microsoft’s Disturbing Ties To China
The record-breaking launches highlight China’s ambition to become a space superpower, with plans to expand its orbital infrastructure. China Surpasses SpaceX Rocket Launch Record.
The science team labels this “Exposure of North Polar Layered Deposits,” an apt description of the horizontal red and grey and blue layers that dominate the image and make this geology look more like an abstract painting than a natural landscape. Abstract art produced by nature within Mars’ north pole ice cap (It's no Rothko - jjs)
If anything, these stories illustrate again the corruption in our modern propaganda press. Such stories would have been considered junk four decades ago. Then it was traditional practice that a story needed at least two independent sources, one of which was not anonymous. No longer. Anyone can push any lie, and these news outlets will publicize it, for the sake of clicks. Unconfirmed anonymous sources at Reuters and Bloomberg claim SpaceX is planning a public stock offering
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Futurism reports that in an attempt to embrace the growing trend of generative AI, McDonald’s Netherlands division collaborated with ad agency TBWA\Neboko to create a 45-second AI-generated Christmas advertisement. However, the fast-food giant’s foray into AI-powered marketing backfired as the ad was met with intense criticism and mockery from viewers for both its “AI slop” features and anti-Christmas message, ultimately leading to its removal from the company’s YouTube channel. The video is available in archive form, and has been reuploaded to YouTube by others: McDonald’s Calls Christmas ‘Most Terrible Time of the Year’ in AI-Generated Ad
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.
Had a thunderstorm roll through last night and some of the lightning strikes came pretty close, but it passed without event. Or so I thought.
When I went to turn off the lights in the kitchen, it got very dark and very quiet. The only light remaining was the clock on the oven; everything else had lost power. And when I went downstairs to reset the breaker, it wasn't having it.
Put the fridge on an extension cord overnight - the rest of the house had power - and left it for the morning.
This morning I unplugged absolutely everything, reset the breaker - which now accepted its fate - and plugged things in again one at a time, waiting for it all to go phut.
Got down to the bar fridge and the dishwasher, which are on the same plug somehow. Took a deep breath, and plugged them in.
We have built a social platform that will look familiar to those that used legacy Twitter, but with new tools that provide a safer experience and empower the user to decide what types of content they engage in.
It's a hugbox for crazies.
Like Bluesky. But we already have Bluesky. For now; it's dying pretty swiftly.
Intellectual property attorney Douglas Masters says he is doubtful that Operation Bluebird's claims will be successful. "I don't know that the record ultimately will show that even though they [X Corp.] switched to X, that they intended to give up all of their commercial use and rights in the word Twitter," Masters tells The Verge.
Well, yeah. You can go to twitter.com right now and it works.
In a recent paper, researchers found one of the more delightful ways to bypass artificial intelligence security systems: Rephrase your nefarious prompt as a poem.
It's a bit like saying colanders will always have holes. Yes. We know.
It's pocket-sized - or at least coat pocket sized - and has a custom 12 core ARM processor, an NPU capable of 190 trillion operations per second, and 80GB of RAM.
It will be shown off at CES. No pricing yet, but 80GB of RAM suddenly costs a fair bit of money.
Musical Interlude
Disclaimer: And more, much more than this, I did it my way, or no way at all.
Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - December 10, 2025 [Frosty Rex]
—Open Blogger
Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the post-cafe overnight variety.
Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT which means another edition of overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Good will offerings of amusing puns are happily accepted. Pants are optional. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors.
[Top photo: "The Strip" by polynikes - Thank you!!]
"This is easy to understand. Doof has Thursday night, Weird Dave does memes on Friday night (but he used to do Thursday night), Doof (also known as Disco) posts on Sunday night with posting stats and a fashion report from Piper, TRex (also known a Dino) has the Pittsburgh scanner on Wednesdays, Doof has Tuesday night (formerly done by Doggo), the three D's (Disco, Dino and Doggo) host Club ONT on Saturday (which is now is open from time to time with a limited menu in other ONTs upon request), and Monday is a rotation between MisHum (who used to do ONTs five nights a week) and CBD. Launch times are predictable unless they're not. Got it?"
***
***
***
***
Wednesday ONT Department of Fine Art
This is the Winter Egg, commissioned by Emperor Nicholas II from the firm of Faberge, and presented to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, on Easter Day, 1913.
The naturalistic design is not the only outstanding thing about this egg. The approach to materials, too, is rare and peculiarly timeless. Rock crystal, from which the shell and the base are made, is not the most lavish choice - and it had been used in previous eggs to create a kind of ovoid display case. But the Winter Egg is different. Transparent quartz is deployed here, because in the right hands it can be made to emulate both hoar-encrusted glass and jagged ice. A beautiful material has been rendered priceless by the artistry invested in it, by an ineffable human touch.
There are, of course, plenty of precious metals and gems in the egg, too - but always they serve the design. The trickling meltwater on the craggy base is made of platinum, while the sparkling effect of the whole ensemble is produced by the careful placement of minuscule diamonds, more than 4,000 of them in all.
The surprise inside the egg is a separate work of art, and also a feat of botanical mimicry. The wood anemones are arranged informally in a woven basket that is made of platinum and set with rose-cut diamonds. Some of the windflowers - as wood anemones are also known - are fully in bloom, some still half-closed. Their pale petals are of white quartz, and at the centre of each head is a demantoid garnet set within a gold stamen. The leaves on the golden stems are carved from pale green nephrite. Source: Christies
One of 50 made. Only 43 survive.
Sold at auction recently for USD$30.2 million. Where are you going to find another one for sale?
***
The Wednesday ONT has no time for hidden musical themes. Just turn the volume up:
***
Some days are better than others...
***
Jesus will be at the Club ONT Christmas party on Saturday. Will you? Don't miss it and get a mark on your permanent record.
***
ONT Department of Military History
On November 4, 1965, CDR Clarence W. Stoddard, Jr., Executive Officer of VA-25 "Fist of the Fleet," flying A-1H Skyraider Bu. No. 135297, NE/572, from Carrier Air Wing Two aboard USS Midway, carried a special bomb to the North Vietnamese in commemoration of the 6-millionth pound of ordnance dropped. This bomb was unique because of the type... it was a toilet!
Also unique to this mission is the fact that this aircraft was named "Paper Tiger II" (a temporary name used for just this one flight.)
The following is an account of this event, courtesy of Clint Johnson, Captain, USNR Ret. Captain Johnson was one of the two VA-25 A-1 Skyraider pilots credited with shooting down a MiG-17 on June 20, 1965.
"I was a pilot in VA-25 on the 1965 Vietnam cruise.
572 was flown by CDR C. W. "Bill" Stoddard. His wingman in 577 (which was my assigned airplane) was LCDR Robin Bacon, who had a wing station mounted movie camera (the only one remaining in the fleet from WWII.)
The flight was a Dixie Station strike (South Vietnam) going to the Delta. When they arrived in the target area and CDR Stoddard was reading the ordnance list to the FAC [Forward Air Controller], he ended with "and one code name Sani-Flush." The FAC couldn't believe it and joined up to see it. It was dropped in a dive with LCDR Bacon flying tight wing position to film the drop. When it came off, it turned hole to the wind and almost struck his airplane. It made a great ready room movie.
The FAC said that it whistled all the way down.
The toilet was a damaged toilet, which was going to be thrown overboard. One of our plane captains rescued it and the ordnance crew made a rack, tailfins and nose fuse for it. Our checkers maintained a position to block the view of the air boss and the Captain while the aircraft was taxiing forward. Just as it was being shot off we got a 1MC message from the bridge, "What the hell was on 572's right wing?"
There were a lot of jokes with air intelligence about germ warfare. I wish that we had saved the movie film. CDR Stoddard was later killed while flying 572 in Oct. 1966. He was hit by three SAMs over Vinh." Source
Bonus points if you know why an "E" was added to the toilet bomb.
***
ONT Department of History and Languages
Hat tip: OrangeEnt
***
REMINDER
Saturday's Hobby Thread requires Horde participation. We are honoring the Christmas ornament. Please send photos of ornaments from your collection to the Hobby Thread email address. What qualifies?
Could be something sentimental, something you made as a child or an adult, something special given to you, something you picked up on your travels, something whimsical or fun, something particularly novel, something really old, something handmade, something intricate or fancy, something irreverent and cheeky, etc.
Don't worry about sending your "favorite." We all know that many ornaments are treasures for different reasons.
If there is a story behind your photo, send a brief description. I may edit or inappropriately embellish, so be warned.
Send individual photos - one ornament for each photo (unless there is a cohesive set that go together). No limit, but the humble Hobby Thread only has so much space to work with.
If you don't usually drop into the Hobby Thread, this weekend would be a good time to stop by and say hello. It is going to be fun.
THANK YOU!
***
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was from Chicago? Apparently so.
From Wikipedia:
Robert L. May created Rudolph in 1939 as an assignment for Chicago-based Montgomery Ward. The retailer had been buying and giving away booklets for Christmas every year and it was decided that creating their own book would save money. May considered naming the reindeer Rollo or Reginald before deciding upon using the name Rudolph. May chose a reindeer because of his daughter's love of the deer at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, IL. May also said he was treated like Rudolph as a child. In its first year of publication, Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of Rudolph's story.
While May was staring out his office window in downtown Chicago, pondering how best to craft a Christmas story about a reindeer, a thick fog from Lake Michigan blocked his view - giving him a flash of inspiration. "Suddenly I had it!" he recalled. "A nose! A bright red nose that would shine through fog like a spotlight."
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen
Comet and Cupid and and Donner and Blitzen
But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all - LEROY!!!
Amazing that TSO started as a side project from Savatage. Songs like Prelude to Madness are thinly disguised orchestra metal. Warning: 80s Savatage isn't for everyone. Take in small doses.
***
Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ?? Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Yesterday I posted a too-good-to-be-true video I was sure was AI. Today, I present one that's even more obviously fake as f***. I don't even need your help in finding the fakery and AI slop here.
High speed photographs of goofy dogs catching treats in dey moufs.
Felix Hernandez is a photographer, digital artist, and miniature creator who builds detailed scale models and dioramas by hand, then blends them with photography and digital compositing to craft immersive, surreal scenes.
The National Republican Senate Committee Tricked Jasmine Ratchet Into Running for Texas Senate; Kumala Harris Still Wants to Run for President
—Ace
Marxist rag the New Republic reports on Republicans high-fiving each other for manipulating low-IQ narcissist into running for Senate. Apparently the Democrats were not polling to see how the plus-sized imbecile would do in a primary, so the Republicans did run one. And then they publicized the results when it showed her as a genuine threat to win the primary.
A source familiar with the process told NOTUS that GOP machinations to prop up Crockett's run first began in June, when Texas Democrats met to discuss 2026 midterm elections--and the firebrand Democrat wasn't invited, or included in any initial polls.
In July, the National Republican Senatorial Committee published a poll that found that Crockett was the preferred candidate among Democratic voters. "When we saw the results, we were like, 'OK, we got to disseminate this far and wide,'" the source told NOTUS.
After the NRSC included Crockett's name in their poll, other surveys started to include her too. The source told NOTUS that those polls were then aggressively seeded into progressive digital spaces by NRSC allies to "orchestrate the pile on" of promising polling numbers and drive the narrative that support for Crockett was "surging."
The source dubbed the system of trying to pull in a weaker candidate who would lose to the Republican challenger as an "AstroTurf recruitment process."
This is a deception campaign that will go down in history as the greatest since the Allies convinced Hitler they would invade at Calais rather than Normandy:
Jasmine Ratchet is denying she previously said that Latinos who voted for Trump have a "slave mentality," despite being confronted with the exact quote.
Tapper literally read Jasmine Crockett her OWN quote where she suggested Latino Trump voters have a “slave mentality.” Her response? “That’s not what I said at all.” Girl… he just read it to you. 😂 She is the greatest gift the right could ask for.
1, Kumala says that her grief over losing the election is only surpassed by the grief she felt at the passing of her mother. In other words: She's not over it, not hardly.
Defeat hit Ms. Harris deeply. She had not felt such grief since the death of her mother, she has said, a line that sears even as she repeats it so often as to become a talking point.
2, She's engaged in a passive-aggressive womanly sniping contest with Gavin Newsom. In other words: she's not happy about Mr. High T being anointed the next nominee.
3, Her allies are out in primary state knocking the "white boys" of the Democrat Party, trying to gin up black and especially black female interest in Kumala 2.0 by ginning up racial/sexual hate against her expected primary opponents. Like Gavin Newsom, again. (And Josh Shapiro, too.)
"That's what so many of the white boys -- the Josh Shapiros, the Gavin Newsoms of the world and even Pete, although I would vote for Pete -- that's what they miss about Kamala," said Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina legislator who has been an informal Harris adviser, referring to the governors of Pennsylvania and California and to Mr. Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary. "She is so important to so many people."
And there's this:
I have said it since late Spring, when I heard from two birdies in her orbit: @KamalaHarris badly wants to run again in 2028. https://t.co/gR7dlePc9N
Oh, and she's fixed all of her baggage, too. See, she's now eager to use profanity in public statements, which demonstrates her authenticity.
Friends and allies swear she is more relaxed now. She is certainly more relaxed about swearing.
On a recent long-form podcast, the likes of which she got so much heat for avoiding last year, Ms. Harris let fly a two-word phrase -- rhyming with "bucket" -- to describe her new ethos. She says she is now on her "freedom tour."
This is Kamala Harris unleashed. But it is still Kamala Harris, the profanity a proxy for plain-spokenness. She is the first woman to serve as vice president, and well attuned to the double standards of gender and race. Lawyerly language remains her safe space, and she still defaults to acting as if every question is part of a deposition where answers can and will be used against her.
Lawyerly language? You mean her ding-a-ling word salads?
That's not lawyerly language. That's a retard who doesn't know the answer when she's called on in class and is just scatting and babbling until the class bell rings.
Fed Cuts Prime Rate 0.25%; Trump Pivots to "Make America Affordable Again"
—Ace
A big reason for the loss of support from independents is the persistent Biden inflation and not-yet-hot economy.
The Fed is resisting actually boosting the economy, making the smallest possible reductions in the prime lending rate incrementally to have the smallest possible positive impact on the economy.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its third interest rate cut of the year as policymakers moved forward with the cut to support the labor market despite elevated inflation.
Fed policymakers voted to lower the benchmark federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a new range of 3.5% to 3.75%. The move follows rate cuts of that size in September and October, which were the first of the year.
Policymakers have been tracking economic data showing a slowdown in the labor market in recent months as companies adjust to shifts in trade and immigration policy. Meanwhile, inflation has trended higher as tariff-related price hikes filter through the economy.
Those dynamics have put the Fed in a difficult spot as it looks to fulfill its dual mandate goals of stable prices in line with the 2% long-run target for inflation as well as promoting maximum employment.
Trump has sensed the dissatisfaction and the complaint that he's too focused on foreign policy. He's now on tour pushing his Make America Affordable Again agenda.
President Trump began his affordability tour in northeastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday, telling supporters he's focused on one thing -- driving prices down nationwide. Steering clear of insider chatter about political fallout or what the pundits say Republicans "should" be worried about, Trump framed the stop as the opening salvo of a national push to restore economic sanity.
"I have no higher priority than making America affordable again," he told supporters, hammering Democrats for driving prices higher and insisting his policies are already reversing the trend. "They caused the high prices, and we're bringing them down. It's a simple message."
...
On energy, Trump pointed to what he called "the greatest amount of drilling" and fuel production the country has seen in years -- a supply boost he credits for driving oil prices down. "When energy comes down, your other prices come down," he said, arguing that lower fuel and shipping costs ripple across grocery aisles, construction, and manufacturing.
Trump also previewed what he cast as immediate relief coming on January 1, when key provisions from his Big Beautiful Bill take effect. "We're putting thousands of dollars in the pockets of hard-working Pennsylvanians," he said. "No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors."
He blasted the "four years of disaster" under the Biden administration, reminding the crowd that inflation hit 9.1% on Biden's watch and insisting that Democrats have no credibility lecturing anyone about affordability. "When Biden and congressional Democrats had power, they blew up our economy, sent prices soaring," he said. "Now they want to take us right back to Bidenomics."
He also got the UK to drop artificial drug price controls, which will allow him in turn to reduce tariffs on imported British drugs, thus reducing some drug prices in America.
Under the terms of the deal, the U.K. will relax its artificial drug price controls, and in return the U.S. will refrain from imposing tariffs on British medicines, pharmaceutical ingredients and medical devices. That constitutes a win/win for both nations.
For decades, America has led the world in drug innovation, accounting for approximately two-thirds of all new medicines introduced to the world annually. That's the direct result of our greater emphasis on free markets and protection of intellectual property (IP) -- patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets -- compared to the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, over time that has cultivated a "free rider" problem vis-a-vis the rest of the world.
...
Simply put, for too long Americans have disproportionately subsidized the world's drug innovation pipeline.
The rule is that the public forms its final opinions about the economy six months before an election. Trump doesn't have much time to change the public's mind about the economy in time for November 2026.
This story has been brewing for a while. It's a glacially slow news day, so I'll post it.
Tehran may be forced to evacuate due to a severe water crisis, with experts warning that all taps in the city could soon run dry.
Officials say that the Iranian capital is facing a Day Zero moment in the near future -- when all water supplies run out.
I like that, So Dramatic.
Iran has faced severe drought for six years, with Tehran's rainfall in the first two months of the current water year, which begins on 1 October, at near zero, leaving reservoir supplies at dangerously low levels.
Officials in Tehran have undertaken a number of measures, including reducing water pressure, discussing rationing and imposing cuts. They have also suggested more radical solutions, such as evacuation or moving the capital if rain does not return.
"We are talking about a few days or even weeks of water left for Tehran," Kaveh Madani, director of the UN's University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, told Canada's CBC broadcaster.
"Day Zero, as we call it in the water sector, is near. It's a day that the taps would run dry."
In early November, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian warned: "If it doesn't rain in Tehran by late November, we'll have to ration water. And if it still doesn't rain, we'll have to evacuate Tehran."
Typically, rain should start falling in Iran in autumn, following Iran's hot summer. But the September to November period just gone is the driest the country has seen in half a century, the National Weather Forecasting Centre has reported. Rainfall has been 89 per cent below the long-term average.
God is sitting back, filing His nails.
Mr Pezeshkian described the situation as "extremely critical", citing reports that Tehran's dam reservoirs have fallen to their lowest level in 60 years, some as low as 10 per cent of capacity. Officials say that in the east of Tehran, the Latyan Dam -- one of five key reservoirs -- is only about 9 per cent full. The Karaj dam, which supplies a quarter of Tehran's drinking water, is 8 per cent full.
This is interesting -- Tehran's reservoirs are apparently administered by LA Mayor Karen Bass. Who knew.
I've heard about a lot of Impending Disasters and most of them didn't pan out. So I'm not anticipating an abandonment of the capital.
Jewish Space Weather Control Lasers
Making the deserts bloom and making blooms into deserts for 60 years.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson used Tuesday's Trump v. Slaughter arguments to float a genuinely stunning view of executive power -- one where the president of the United States couldn't fire the very people serving inside his own government. The case itself centers on whether President Trump had the authority to remove former FTC commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a long-standing restriction on presidential oversight of so-called independent agencies.
Jackson argued that scientists, economists, doctors, and other agency "experts" should be insulated from presidential authority entirely, claiming that allowing a president to fire them is "not in the best interest" of Americans.
Her exchange with U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer made her philosophy unmistakable. Jackson questioned why these agencies answer to the president at all, saying she didn't understand why they aren't effectively controlled by Congress instead. "Congress established them and can eliminate them," she said -- a remarkable suggestion that the legislative branch, not the president, should control vast stretches of the executive branch.
She then laid out the scenario she fears: a president firing "all the scientists, and the doctors, and the economists, and the PhDs" and replacing them with loyalists. In her view, that hypothetical alone justifies limiting a president's removal power across agencies that shape everything from transportation regulation to monetary policy.
Sauer pushed back, arguing that her position flips the Constitution on its head. Allowing unelected boards to operate beyond presidential control, he warned, "subjugates" the separation of powers. The president isn't a spectator -- he's the elected official charged with running the executive branch, not rubber-stamping decisions made by bureaucrats no voter ever chose.
I called this from before the election. The Democrats and media (but I repeat myself) began a propaganda campaign to convince the country that while the GOP won all three official branches of government, there was a Secret Fourth Branch of Government -- the permanent left-wing bureaucracy -- which Akshually had the power to overrule the other three branches of government and run the country.
Needing some power center in government, they're willing an independent, permanent, unelected, unaccountable fourth branch of government into existence.
We heard the same thing under George W. Bush. Locked out of the government, the communist Democrat Party and the media (but I repeat myself again) insisted that it was unfair of Bush to fire Clinton's US Attorneys because those Attorneys had a constitutional duty to check Bush's power. They also insisted the DOJ should be "independent" of the actual President and his appointed-and-confirmed AG.
It's always the same playbook. As soon as Democrats get a political rebuke, they assert that the unelected, nigh-unfirable federal bureaucracy is the Real Legitimate Government of the country.
There is no "fourth branch of government," as Gorsuch instructed Ketanji D-EI.
SCOTUS: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson told the Court that presidents should not be able to fire the PhDs & experts who run the government. She even argued presidents should avoid control over transportation & the economy.
Ketanji lost it today during oral arguments and went on a “No Kings” style rant about President Trump wanting to rule like a monarch, and how we should instead have many issues handled by “the experts and PhDs” like Dr. Fauci, Dr. “Rachel” Levine, and the gay bondage AIDS dude. pic.twitter.com/Z8qFZgZzsR
🚨GORSUCH: "Maybe it’s a recognition that Humphrey's Executor was poorly reasoned and that there is no such thing in our constitutional order as a 4th branch of government..." pic.twitter.com/t2nfuMCESO
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman reversed his earlier decision to keep the transcripts sealed, citing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was enacted last month, creating a narrow exception to rules that normally keep grand jury proceedings confidential, The Associated Press reported. The law requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Berman previously cautioned that the roughly 70 pages of grand jury materials slated for release are hardly revelatory.
The law requires that the Justice Department release Epstein-related records to the public by Dec. 19.
Based on the lack of earth-shattering disclosures so far, I think we're going to continue to not see earth-shattering disclosures. We will see the names of people we already knew were connected to Epstein, like Bill and Hillary Clinton and Clinton Energy Secretary and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, and it will be good to have that official confirmation, but I do not expect we'll get confirmation of QAnon/Pizzagate/Tucker Carlson claims of an Israel-CIA pedophile blackmail operation.
Maybe we will. We'll see.
But a heuristic I apply without even thinking about it is noting the general "shape" of a theory that turns out to be true. The "shape" of a true story features drip-by-drip disclosures that, while maybe not proving the theory, nevertheless build confidence in the theory until, at some point, the theory is proven.
Look at the theories that covid was man-made and specifically leaked from the Wuhan Covid Lab. (Giveaway right there, huh?) Every few weeks we got another bit of information that tended to suggest -- and sometimes strongly suggest -- that covid was man-made in the Wuhan lab. And that Anthony Fauci knew it, and bribed scientists to lie about it.
The theory did not sit for years and years with no confirmatory information being discovered.
In the case of a theory that does sit for years without actual evidence emerging to support it: I begin doubting that theory.
As Fermi said about aliens: If they exist, well, where are they?
And if this theory has actual evidence supporting it: Well, where is it?
They say an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence but.... come on, when people are digging for the evidence and not finding it, yeah, it is at least evidence that that evidence doesn't exist.
If you set out to prove dodos actually survived and spend years looking for dodos but can't find any, it does suggest that yeah, dodos probably did go extinct.
If there continues to be no evidence of the Strong Form of the Epstein theory, the claims that the CIA and a foreign state, sometimes unnamed but always believed to be Israel, engaged in a huge blackmail operation against the political leadership of the United States, at some point, we have to accept that this theory, while plausible and even attractive, just isn't true.
But that won't be admitted. We'll have Chromatic Aberrations all over again.
Well, they're hiding the documents that prove that, that information never came out during the grand jury investigation because Israel and the CIA warned the prosecutor not to "go there," etc.
As they say about capital C capital T Conspiracy Theories -- the unfalsifiable kind, the nigh-religious dogma kind -- lack of evidence of a Conspiracy Theory is just further proof of the how deep the Conspiracy goes.
I was completely willing to speculate about such a multinational conspiracy theory. I didn't dismiss it out of hand.
But at some point: We either need evidence for it or the people pushing it need to admit they don't care about evidence of the lack of evidence, and that in their minds, it's not a Conspiracy Theory. It's a Conspiracy Fact, period, and no contrary evidence can change that.
But like I said: We'll see. It could turn out that the transcripts do point to a much bigger operation going on on Pedo Island, beyond a pedophile making his young girls available to his politically-connected, financially-connected pals.
Update: It just occurred to me that people think about a foreign blackmail operation because they don't know how Epstein made his money or why he was so determined to cultivate pedo-friendships with people like Bill Clinton or Larry Summers.
Well, I just remembered, we know that every Congressman winds up a millionaire in five years from stock trading. Hillary Clinton made a fortune in cattle futures in the 90s, which she always lied about, claiming she made the picks herself just by reading the Wall Street Journal.
So: We know that the politically connected are routinely given non-public insider-trading information by industry insiders.
Couldn't Epstein's operation just be based on simple greed? He cultivated pedo pals who had access to insider information, which he then used for his own profit, while rewarding them with access to underage girls.
I'm not saying that's what was going on. I'm just offering that as a counter-explanation to the major foreign/domestic intelligence community blackmail theory.
In Astounding Coincidence the "Experts" Cannot Explain, US Oil Production Hits Record Highs as Gasoline Prices, Inexpicably, Fall to Lowest Levels Since the Chinese Engineered Bioweapon
Natural gas production also hit record highs in August before slipping a bit.
NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - U.S. oil production rose to a record high in September, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Friday showed, despite oversupply worries.
Oil production in the U.S. has continued to hit record highs this year despite a weak price environment, further weighing on global prices. Benchmark Brent crude was trading just below $64 on Friday, about 14% below the same time last year.
U.S. crude oil output rose 44,000 barrels per day during the month to a record 13.84 million bpd, according to EIA data.
In 2025, that all changed.
Oil output in New Mexico, the second-largest oil-producing state, hit a record 2.351 million bpd, while output from the federal offshore gulf region rose to 1.983 million bpd in September, the highest since February 2020.
Unaccountably, and probably due to Something The Democrats Did, gas prices are falling across the nation.
This week, there was a minor traffic accident in San Francisco. Two cars bumped into each other at low speed, and a third stopped for the accident and further blocked traffic. A mere nothing. This happens all the time, and we all know what happens next: the drivers exchange insurance information (and if they're thinking, they move their cars out of traffic first) and leave. Maybe they call the cops and file a report. But not this time.
This time, the three cars just sat there, deadlocked. Nobody moved, nobody talked, nobody took any action. This is because there was nobody to take action. No humans were involved. All three cars were autonomous vehicles operated by Waymo. Following the minor crash, none of them could figure out how to proceed and so just sat there, patiently waiting. They're good at that. Machines are very patient.
Eventually, someone (presumably from the company) came down and got things cleared up, but it exposed an obvious gap in how driverless cars handle fairly routine problems. In this case, the cars (or a car - the company's statement is unclear) got snarled up in a dead-end street and had a collision while one or more of them was trying to do a multi-point turn to get out of it. Per the company:
In a statement, Waymo officials said that while making a multi-point turn on a dead-end street, two Waymos made "minor contact at low speed."
"We are looking into this further, and when we encounter situations like this, we are able to learn from them and make improvements," a Waymo representative said.
Low points for clarity, but there we have it. A very simple problem left the machinery unable to respond effectively, so they just stopped. And blocked traffic.
A third Waymo, traveling downhill, is unable to get through.
Then a man comes out of his garage, dubbing the white cars stuck in the middle of the street as a "Waymo standoff."
"I'm just trying to get out of here," the man said ...
Yes, it's kinda funny. But it's also a great example of just how far all of this stuff has to go. Both vehicles were driverless and operated by the same company. This should be a "best-case scenario" for a collision. It's akin to you and your wife driving home and hitting each other in the driveway. Everybody knows everybody and can just move on. It's perhaps the simplest possible scenario - if humans are involved. Humans can come up with solutions like, "move the cars."
Machines can't. They need to be programmed to make decisions. This was clearly a decision-making condition that hadn't been adequately predicted or handled. There were several weird variables here. Both cars were driverless. There was a dead-end street. At least one of the cars was doing a complex maneuver. There was cross-traffic. Tricky indeed, unless you're a person. If you're a person, you can cut through it and go with, "there's only minor damage. Give me your info and let's move on with our lives." To a person, one minor wreck is much like another. Machines, not so much.
It's amazing that this stuff works at all, but incidents like this show just how complex the real world is, and how hard it is to deal with when you have to program ersatz intelligence into a machine with no real knowledge of the world. These are really hard problems to solve, and sometimes tiny little unpredictable problems expose that.
They also expose just how far away we are from the dream of autonomous vehicles. We're a long way off from "feel free to take a nap in the back seat while the car takes you home."
I hope team Trump will not try to seek redress in the courts, considering the judiciary is so utterly corrupt and stacked against him as well as the Constitution as founded. No, this quote-unquote "law" is a shot across the bow of the rule of a just and stable law as intended by the founders and demands only one response. A show of force that Prtizker, Johnson et al cannot resist. Along with the wielding of executive authority via the purse-strings to force them to cease and desist.
Pritzker’s signing of the bill comes after Illinois lawmakers passed the bill during the government shutdown, according to the New York Times. Under the bill, places like hospitals and daycare centers are restricted from sharing certain information with ICE agents.
While the legislation has been praised by Democrat lawmakers in the state, Republicans in the state, such as Illinois state Sen. John Curran (R), have taken “issue with the law’s ban on civil immigration enforcement at state courthouses or within 1,000 feet of those courthouses,” according to the outlet.
“We’re pushing this more and more, with these prohibitions, into uncontrolled settings,” Curran said. “And with uncontrolled settings, there are heightened risks.”
During a press conference on Tuesday for the signing of the bill, Pritzker claimed that “the Chicago region has been subjected to a relentless campaign of cruelty and intimidation and abuse at the hands of ICE” under the Trump administration.
Well the fat sleazy bastard needs to be ejected and imprisoned. But he is correct when he declared “the Chicago region has been subjected to a relentless campaign of cruelty and intimidation and abuse..."
Chicago could lose federal funding after a 26-year-old woman was set on fire on the city’s train system in what the Trump administration described as a “preventable attack.”
Federal Transit Administration Administrator Marc Molinaro sent letters on Monday to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Democrat Governor JB Pritzker, directing them to immediately enhance safety on public transportation. Molinaro said that officials had failed to take the necessary steps to keep the public safe.
It's a waste of time, energy and paper, gentlemen. Just cut off the funds until they cry uncle. Seriously, Jonson and Pritzker should be sharing a cell in a federal lockup for criminal malfeasance, endangering the public welfare and the fomenting of insurrection in openly calling for law enforcement to be resisted and issuing edicts to interfere with the lawful enforcement of our federal laws.
The modern expression of what psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff calls “toxic empathy,” is found in political terms, in order to express policy positions and actions that are suicidal in their effect. For example, “toxic empathy” includes protests and interference against officers tracking down criminal illegal aliens, and fabrications of charges and distortions of the law by the Dems, including military brass, attacking Trump and Hegseth. In other words, a partisan political weapon––one as narcissistic as virtue-signaling. . . This fantasy pretends that war can be something other than what Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defined it: “War means fighting, and fighting means killing.” And what Abraham Lincoln called the “terrible arithmetic.”
The other reason to attack Hegseth at least in my view is that his is seen as a future MAGA leader who, in my estimation if he continues to burnish his credentials might have a real shot in the near-ish term for a Veep slot and then potentially a real shot to be POTUS and then continue the path charted by President Trump and please God whoever his successors may be, Vance, Huckabee Sanders, as both CBD and I would like to see as we have mused on recent podcasts, though YMMV or whomever. This of course notwithstanding the usual Democrat/Leftist criminality and election meshugas as well as the alarming trend towards socialism of the younger generations.
And speaking of podcasts, a new episode should be posting sometime around midday today so be on the lookout for that in the sidebar and the outlets listed below.
We'll just have to wait and see, as President Trump might say. Much rides on an improving economy that will be a crucial boost for the upcoming midterms and then two years from now to cap off the second half of Trump 2.0
Have a good day.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
How the Hegseth smear exposes a civilization that cries for killers and handcuffs its defenders. Tears for Injun Joe
Victor Davis Hanson: It is hard now even for Democrats to defend illegal immigration, given that the Biden junta allowed in more than 10 million entrants. Among them were an estimated 500,000 criminals. No one believes that was wise or should ever be repeated. Citizens are fed up with Dem-invited migrants that have disdain for US law and culture
Ricardo Antonio Roman-Flores and Emilio Roman-Flores, both American citizens, were arrested in Absecon, New Jersey, after the pair allegedly threatened to kill McLaughlin and said they would “shoot ICE on sight” in social media posts. New Jersey Twin Brothers Charged with Threatening to Kill DHS Spokeswoman
While the legislation has been praised by Democrat lawmakers in the state, Republicans in the state, such as Illinois state Sen. John Curran (R), have taken “issue with the law’s ban on civil immigration enforcement at state courthouses or within 1,000 feet of those courthouses,” according to the outlet. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker Signs Bill Preventing ICE from Arresting Illegal Aliens near Courthouses (How is this legal? It isn't. Trump should immediately station ICE agents at every Illinois courthouse - jjs
Zohran Mamdani’s pledge to end homeless-encampment sweeps may thrill the activist Left, but it flouts New Yorkers’ preferences and threatens a showdown with President Trump. Tent City, Here We Come
“To introduce permanent renting is to take away political freedom. . . We can never be free from necessity when our place in the world is insecure.” A Nation of Subscribers
A fake airline heiress has landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after allegedly scamming multiple banks out of nearly $30 million by falsely posing as a family member of a multibillion-dollar aerospace empire. (Idea: shmear myself in rancid goulash wearing a swastika armband and traipse into JPM Chase as J.J. SOROS, talking like Zsa Zsa Gabor... Vinning my dahlink? - jjs) Fake aerospace empire heiress, 74, lands on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for defrauding millions from banks
Like the other thirty-odd copycat climate lawsuits filed by states and localities from Honolulu to my hometown of Charleston, Boulder’s suit weaponizes tort law to try to transform state courts into vehicles for deploying sweeping climate mandates. If Boulder gets its way, the casualties won’t be confined to the energy companies it endeavors to bankrupt; American consumers and the U.S. economy writ large will be caught in the crossfire. SCOTUS Can Stop Blue Cities From Forcing Energy Diktats On The Rest Of The Country
Fansly, described as a subscription-based platform where creators share exclusive content with fans, is a competitor to OnlyFans and allows creators to post content that is described as being “from mild to spicy.” The 24-hour video, uploaded on Friday to Twitch by internet personality Paymoney Wubby, was labeled “24 HOUR TAG PRESENTED BY Fansly,” showing four men playing a tag-style game while participating in game show activities, eating segments and other small tasks. California High School Hosted Adult Livestream With Drag Queens, Foot-Licking And A Mock Crucifixion
“A new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California finds that both the governor, a likely presidential candidate, and the heavily Democrat Legislature surged to majority support in the final months of this year,” reports the far-left Politico. “The approval jump comes after Newsom and fellow Democrats championed a gerrymandered new House map explicitly to counter Trump in next year’s midterm elections.” Gerrymander Scheme Boosts Gavin Newsom’s Favorability Rating in California
But what makes this resurfaced exchange even funnier is the timing. Months after recording that conversation, Gavin Newsom’s own “manhood” became a punchline following a widely circulated clip from the New York Times DealBook Summit. He is sitting awkwardly on stage, legs crossed in an odd, testicle-crushing pose. And then you have Tim Walz crying to the media about how Donald Trump called him “retarded.” This Viral Clip of Walz and Newsom Talking About 'Masculinity' is Comedy Gold
Crockett’s announcement came just hours after former Democratic Texas Rep. Colin Allred suspended his campaign to unseat Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn on Monday, saying he wanted to avoid a divisive primary that could weaken the eventual Democrat nominee. (RELATED: Failed Democrat Candidate Calls It Quits Hours Before Jasmine Crockett Makes Senate Announcement) Jasmine Crock(O'sh)ett’s Vain Senate Run Already Tearing Democrats Apart
But the Democrat’s victory wasn’t much of a nail-biter. Higgins had led Gonzalez 36% to 19% during the first round of voting amid a crowded field in November, and was the favorite to win this time. Still, her triumph in a city with a considerable Cuban population — a group that’s often swung right in the past — will be perceived as another ding in the GOP’s armor going into the 2026 midterms. Far left-wing reptilian-Muslim Zohran Mamdani’s ascension to New York City’s mayorship has also been perceived as a voter answer to Trump, as has a Tennessee US congressional special election that went Republican by far closer margins than had been expected. Democrat wins Miami mayoral race for first time in nearly 30 years, marking major GOP loss
I think it’s an important time to hold an election,” Trump said. “They’re using war not to hold an election, but, I would think the Ukrainian people would–should have that choice.” “And maybe Zelensky would win. I don’t know who would win, but they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” he added. Trump Believes ‘It’s Time’ for Ukraine to Hold Presidential Election
There are ways to box in China. The question is whether the United States will actually do it. (should've nuked them back in '51 when we had the chance - jjs) What Do We Do About China?
What are the ethical concerns behind autonomous systems making their own decisions to take human life? Conversely, what are the benefits of being able to send unmanned systems into warzones in order to save the lives of American troops? Hegseth: AI Autonomous Warfighting Systems Are The Future, And They’ll Be Made In America (Meh, this too will ultimately be ooutsourced to the Chi-Coms like every other damned thing - jjs)
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
On Friday, Trump directed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Jim O’Neill to conduct a review of vaccine schedules of peer nations like Japan and Denmark, which have fewer childhood vaccines on their schedules than the United States. If other developed countries’ childhood vaccine schedules are found to be superior, Kennedy and O’Neil are directed to align the United States’ schedule with them. Exclusive–Dr. Oz: ‘We’re Going to Kick the Tires’ on Childhood Vaccine Schedule
Even more important, the study doesn’t assume the future missions will be unmanned, as all previous NASA reports have done. In fact, it does the opposite, proposing multiple 30-day manned missions, as shown in the graphic. One set of three missions would go to three different locations, while another set of three missions would focus on one place in particular. Academia makes its first comprehensive attempt to plan science missions to Mars using Starship
In the hunt for other elements, the team used the Resolve instrument aboard XRISM to look at the remnant twice in December 2023. The researchers were able to pick out the signatures for chlorine and potassium, determining that the remnant contains ratios much higher than expected. Resolve also detected a possible indication of phosphorous, which was previously discovered in Cas A by infrared missions. New data detects potassium and chlorine in Cassiopeia supernova remnant
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
Men are being emasculated by attention-seeking women bragging to their friends about going to see Christmas lights with a dude whose name they will not remember come next summer. Young men must stay frosty and avoid 'cuffing season'
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.
On December 10th, most major social media platforms will boot children in the country under 16 from their services. Under the law, social platforms will also need to implement a "reasonable" age verification method there - while critics argue kids will get around it anyway.
The critics are, of course, correct. The age restrictions are about as robust as The Verge's paywall.
Useful tidbit: SK Hynix - one of the big three memory makers - is investing $500 billion dollars in new factories, with the first set to go into operation in 2027.
Half a trillion dollars. That's a lot of money. Whether it will be enough is an open question, but I'm not sure we can criticise them for not expanding faster.
Which is good, because The Verge is squarely on the side of disinformation. They only get through two paragraphs here before they start actively lying.
In rural North Dakota, where neighbors are more like family, an incredible act of kindness unfolded after a beloved farmer’s sudden passing. Near the small town of Antler, dozens of farmers came together to make sure their friend’s final harvest was completed.
Randy Fyllesvold, a well-known farmer in the area, tragically lost his life in a crash near Maxbass back in September. Wanting to ease the burden on his family, friends and neighbors quickly stepped in. Led by Wyatt Thompson and Andy Gates, the group organized a large-scale harvest to gather Randy’s remaining crops — including soybeans, canola, and more than 1,000 acres of corn.
Earlier this month, roughly 75 volunteers, 12 combines, and help from more than 10 communities worked together to harvest about 1,400 acres of corn in just a matter of days. The effort required careful coordination and teamwork, including working with local grain elevators to handle the massive amount of crops coming in all at once. It was truly a “divide and conquer” operation — and it worked beautifully.
Randy’s widow, Kharra Fyllesvold, shared a deeply emotional message thanking everyone who showed up. She described the scene as “nothing short of breathtaking,” saying the sight of so many people harvesting her husband’s final crop was both heartbreaking and beautiful. Through their grief, she and her two sons felt overwhelmingly blessed by the love and support surrounding them.
"Thank you to each and every person that had a part of today. Special thanks to Andy Gates, Kevin Tyler, and Wyatt Thompson for organizing something I will never forget," she shared on Facebook.
Lotsa good folks in the upper midwest, don't ya know! Video clip at the link.
You sit on the floor for movie night, and just when you think your role is done, your toddler shuffles over and cuddles up next to you… so wholesome 🥹 pic.twitter.com/FolLesQ3UA
A Florida man faces multiple charges after he told police he had a “dirty bomb” in his truck following a crash, according to a news release.
***
According to the release, officers made contact with the driver, identified as 43-year-old Benjamin Donald Johnson, who refused multiple commands to exit the vehicle. Officers physically removed Johnson from the truck, where multiple firearms were seen in plain view.
***
“Through investigation with the assistance of representatives from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, ATF, and an FBI bomb technician, it was advised that the device inside of the yellow container was a Moisture Density Gauge, which is commonly used for soil testing and contained less radioactivity than a medical x-ray,” the release said in part.
***
In addition, a search of Johnson’s truck a led to police finding a “multitude of firearms and ammunition,” firearm magazine speed loaders, thermal scopes, knives, a battering ram, night-vision goggles, cannabis, and gummies that tested positive for THC.
Go big or go home, right?
***
Ripped From The Headlines
The algorithm keeps giving me this stuff, so I have to share it with you!
Everybody farts, and we are okay with that, even when they smell a little off.
But a 1998 study concluded that, on average, women’s gas smelt worse than men's for a pretty simple reason.
Dr Michael Levit, a gastroenterologist, conducted the study way back then and managed to get a reputation as the ‘king of farts’ for his work.
So how did the study work?
Well, the doctor recruited 16 healthy adults with no history of gastrointestinal issues and had each of them strap on a ‘flatus collection system’, which is basically a rectal tube connected to a bag.
While it is estimated that people fart up to 23 times a day, the doctor didn’t fancy waiting around for those moments.
Instead, participants chowed down on pinto beans and took a laxative, with researchers collecting their farts.
These farts were then analyzed as researchers ran a gas chromatographic–mass spectroscopic test to figure out what was essentially inside those bags.
"Flatus collection system"?? A vanvera?!? After pinto beans and a laxative?? How much would you have to be paid to be a sniffer / judge in this experiment?
-----
OK - one more related item, then hopefully I won't have any more of this type of content. At least for this year.
What's the common thread / common meaning / common leitmotif?
***
Tonight's ONT brought to you by another gift idea
***
Tonight's ONT was produced by a recently acquired subsidiary of Doof Enterprises, LLC. The acquisition was not a hostile takeover. It was more like an international soccer "friendly".
Your feedback may or may not be very important to Doof Enterprises. Follow Mr. Doof on X @doof2112 or do the email thing – doof2112 at proton dot me. All I want for Christmas are some Rush deep cuts!
Andrew Stiles has expert reaction to Newsom's "Crotch Clutch" manner of sitting.
Newsom baffled experts who assessed that his posture appeared to defy the conventional scientific understanding of the human form. Gender scholars were just as perplexed. Several noted that Newsom, despite being born a male, was exhibiting a form of self-compressed emasculation or "crotch clench," while conveying an unmistakably female-coded body language. Political historians argued that Newsom's unusual posture was characteristic of failed candidates and sniveling cowards. It was, these experts contended, the seated equivalent of former President Obama's obsequious bow.
That is why American voters could never trust Newsom to stand up to "wide-stance" authoritarian rivals such as Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping.
He is certainly no match for Donald Trump, and no amount of snarky tweets is going to change that.
Did you hear the news? Super-masculine and Fiercely Heterosexual lisping theater kid Cory Booker got "married" to a "woman" he just happened to meet and fall madly, heterosexually in love with a couple of weeks after he decided to run for president again.
Must just be Fiercely Heterosexual Cupid timing things perfectly!
Cory Booker Obtains Female Wife in Boost to 2028 White House Bid
Notorious bachelor ties the knot in 'private' ceremony shared exclusively with the New York Times
Cory Booker married a female woman over the weekend, closing the book on idle speculation about a man often described as "the Leonardo DiCaprio of American politics." The Democratic senator from New Jersey wed his recently acquired fiancée, Alexis Lewis, at an intimate ceremony in Washington, D.C., over the weekend. The move satisfies a major public relations need for Booker and arrives with exquisite timing as he prepares to launch his 2028 presidential campaign.
The happy couple shared exclusive details about their relationship and "private" wedding ceremony with the New York Times. Booker, 56, and Lewis, 38, reportedly met in May 2024, several weeks after the senator pre-launched his White House bid with a record-breaking (and utterly pointless) filibuster that went viral on Bluesky. Most Democrats celebrated Booker's stunt even though they denounced the filibuster as a "Jim Crow relic" that should be abolished.
Booker, who has described himself as "Spartacus," met his future bride through a "mutual friend known for matchmaking." Knowledgeable sources tell the Washington Free Beacon that the mutual friend is Anna Wintour, the fashion maven and Democratic megadonor who orchestrated the brief "romance" between Bradley Cooper, the Hollywood beefcake, and Huma Abedin, the longtime personal servant of Hillary Clinton. Wintour also hosted an engagement party for Abedin and Democratic billionaire Alex Soros in 2024.
After their first meeting, the couple enjoyed a second date that Booker, a normal adult male, described as "magical."
Read the whole thing. Stiles is obviously impressed by the sheer force of Cory Booker's fiercely heterosexual desire for this rando woman supplied to him by a gay icon.
First-year U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona is facing intensified scrutiny after leaked text messages showed the Democrat deriding the appearance of women and men in his own party. The comments mirror far-right rhetoric about gender and deepen concerns about his recent repositioning on LGBTQ+ issues.
In the messages, first circulated by a conservative outlet and reported by People last week Gallego, who started his first term in the U.S. Senate in January after previously serving in the House, complained that Democrats are "not allowing men to be men" or "women to be hot," and wrote, "Dem women look like Dem men and Dem men look like women." He also lamented that Democrats had become "the not fun party" and no longer embodied "sex, drugs, and rock and roll."
No lies detected.
Below, two Men's Men talk about manly things like fixin' trucks and coachin' football and, of course, what men always talk about -- our gender identities.
Tim Walz: "I think I scare them a little bit [on masculinity]... My identity is not hunting, my identity is not football coaching, my identity is not a beard and a truck."pic.twitter.com/EmquLbhHQ1
Trump Chief of Staff Suzie Wiles Promises That Trump Will Campaign In 2026 Like It's His Name on the Ballot
—Ace
Which it effectively is. Trump's impeachment begins one minute after a new Democrat House is installed.
President Trump is gearing up to storm the 2026 midterm map, with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles saying Monday that the president is preparing to hit the trail with the same force and stamina he brought to his 2024 comeback run. Appearing on "The Mom View," a YouTube show from Moms for America, Wiles said Trump is already laying the groundwork to help Republicans hold the House and expand their Senate edge -- and that he plans to do it the only way he knows how: by showing up everywhere.
"I haven't quite broken it to him yet, but he's going to campaign like it's 2024 again," Wiles said with a laugh, describing a president who remains the GOP's most powerful turnout magnet. "All these people that he helps -- he doesn't help everybody -- but for those he does, he's a difference maker, and he's certainly a turnout machine."
Wiles, who managed Trump's victorious 2024 bid, said the White House is deliberately rejecting the old playbook that urged presidents to stay out of midterms and let local candidates dominate the spotlight. Instead, she said, Trump will insert himself directly into the fight -- a sharp pivot meant to energize the voters who showed up for him last November.
"Typically in the midterms, it's not about who's sitting at the White House. You localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it," she said. "We're actually going to turn that on its head, and put him on the ballot, because so many of those low-propensity voters are Trump voters."
She pointed to recent Democrat wins -- capped by the shock election of socialist Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor -- as a warning of what happens when Trump isn't out front driving Republican enthusiasm. "We saw what happens when he's not on the ballot and not active," she said.
The national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline slipped below the $3 mark this week, continuing a months-long trend that's easing pressure on drivers heading into the Christmas season. New data from GasBuddy shows the average price falling to just under $3, fueled by what analysts describe as broad declines across most regions of the country. The update notes the national average is down 17.6 cents from a month ago and 7.3 cents from this time last year, based on more than 12 million price reports pulled from over 150,000 stations nationwide. Diesel prices also dipped, dropping another 5.1 cents to $3.671.
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, said Monday that the country is "now at multi-year lows heading into Christmas" and predicted prices will hold steady through the early weeks of the new year. AAA's latest survey reached the same conclusion, pegging the national average at roughly $2.952 on Monday -- down from $3.001 a week ago and $3.073 a month ago.
Drivers across the South and Midwest are seeing some of the steepest savings. Oklahoma's statewide average sits around $2.36, Texas is hovering near $2.50, and Missouri is clocking in at roughly $2.61. Florida, Alabama, both Carolinas, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, and Montana have all fallen below the $3 line as well. But coastal blue states continue to stand out on the other end of the spectrum. California's statewide average remains an eye-popping $4.46 -- about $1.57 higher than the national price -- with New York, Washington, Hawaii, and Nevada all posting averages above $3.
🚨NEW: Susie Wiles says Trump will "CAMPAIGN LIKE IT'S 2024 AGAIN" for Midterms🚨
"He'll work very hard to keep the majority ... Nobody can outwork him. So there's every reason to be confident — but we have to actually get it done."@DailyCallerpic.twitter.com/C4GevJYCxH
Podcast: Pete Hegseth is everything the left hates...and we love! Illinois is the next flashpoint for federal supremacy with regard to our borders, Trump's communication leaves something to be desired, and more!
I have happily forgotten what Milo Yiannopoulos sounds like, but I still enjoyed this impression from from Ami Kozak.
Well, bamboo is actually a type of grass, and underground, it's all connected in a sprawling network, just like the parts of this story I never wanted to tell. I wish I hadn't been put in this position, that I didn't have to write about any of this, that I didn't have to subject myself or my loved ones to embarrassment and further loss of privacy.
We're back to the fucking bamboo. Guys, I don't think I can pay for bamboo ruminations.
I think he added that because he was embarrassed about all the bamboo imagery from Part 1. He's justifying his twin obsessions: His ex, and bamboo. Which is not a tree but a kind of grass, he'll have you know.
On Tuesday, the book arrived in stores. At lunchtime, in the Midtown Manhattan nexus of media and publishing, interest in Nuzzi's story seemed more muted. The Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue had seven copies tucked into a "New & Notable" rack next to the escalator, below Malala Yousafzai's "Finding My Way." Not many had sold so far, a store employee said.
A few blocks uptown, at a branch of the local independent chain McNally Jackson Books, a few volumes lay on a table of new and noteworthy nonfiction near the front of the store. No one was lining up to get them, or even browsing. Bookseller Alex Howe told CNN around 3 p.m. that though the store had procured "several dozen" copies, not a single one had yet sold -- a figure he said was surprising, considering how many people in media and publishing work in the area.
"We ordered a lot and so far, people have not been beating down the door," Howe said. "I'm not sure where we're gonna put them because right now, supply is outpacing demand." (A manager at McNally Jackson noted that Howe was speaking only in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the store.)
She trashes Ryan Lizza for his "Revenge Porn" here. Emily Jashinsky says that when the Bulwark's gay grifter Tim Miller asked why she didn't report on the (alleged) use of ketamine by RFKJr., she broke down in tears and asked to end the interview.
Podcast: Sefton is back with CBD to discuss killing narco-terrorists (we are both for it!), the TN special election, Trump's communication skills, and more!
Incumbent Senator John Cornyn (RINO - TX) betrayed his party and his country by voting in favor Biden's Afghan resettlement bill in 2021. Cornyn voted to bring in the Afghan who shot two National Guard soldiers on US soil. A vote for Cornyn is an endorsement of importing unvetted, radicalized murderers. [Buck]
Podcast: Jim Lakely of Heartland Institute joins CBD for a discussion of their recent polling that shows a majority of 18-39s want socialism, the Epstein files, what will Mamdani do, and more!
