Game of Boners: Over 1 Million Sign Petition Asking HBO to Remake Final Season So That It "Makes Sense"
And Also: Open Thread
—Ace of Spades
Sometimes brevity isn't the soul of wit.
Sometimes brevity is just being lazy and slapdash.
As of Saturday evening, 1.02 million people had signed a Change.org petition saying the hit HBO series "deserves a final season that makes sense."Dylan D., who started the petition to HBO, criticized series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, accusing them of being "woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on."
Apparently more signatures could be coming too, after Dylan posted an urgent plea saying: "Let's get to 1,500,000!"
I mentioned before that I don't have a problem with most of the actual story beats (except for what people are calling "Deus Ex Arya") except for the fact that they were very, very rushed, to the point where they just had no real impact because they were clearly writers' contrivances for the sake of being done with the series and not character evolutions that felt organic and earned.
If you're going to turn a character who has been a Big Damn Hero for seven years into a straight-up homicidal maniac villain, you need to show that descent into madness over the course of an entire season. Not three minutes here and there over the course of two episodes.
I don't hate that plotline on the merits; a lot of people have long suspected that was where the show was heading.
People suspected it because they know that George R.R. Martin says that he doesn't like conventional hero vs. villain stories. He prefers conflicts between people who are partly hero, partly villain. Or between heroes who just have a disagreement.
But is that what the producers of the show actually gave us? No. They did not give us a conflict between two admirable people who each had some flaws. Instead, they turned one of the two into Westerosi Hitler, and I guess want to defend this choice on grounds that it's "realistic."
But it's not. People don't turn into Hitler overnight.
A "realistic" ending would have involved two people, each with incompatible goals -- one to claim a birthright and establish a better world, one who just wants his own land to be free from rule by foreign despot -- but both essentially good. Just unable to compromise.
Turning one of the two into Dragon Fuhrer goes against whatever "gritty, realistic" point George R.R. Martin thinks he was making. It's just a final conflict between Good and Evil, just with the "evil" side being represented by someone who just executed the world's fastest personality change.
Damn, I've seen pro wrestlers foreshadow their impending heel-turn longer than these jokers did in this supposedly "prestige," "realistic" drama.
Nerdrotic, I think, mentioned that Dany had gone from hero to villain faster than Annikin Skywalker. "I will save people from everything, including death" to "brb, out murderin' all the younglings" in about 40 minutes.
Call her Daennykin.
Also: Jon Snow got jealous of Bran Stark getting all the attention for not doing anything at all and decided he would do even more nothing at all.
I mean, except for wearing the Sad and Confused Jon Stark face. Also known more simply as "the Jon Stark Face."
So you're the Prince Who Was Promised?
Promised what? A wedgie?
The Onion comes in for some snark.
'Game Of Thrones' Showrunners Disappointed With How Quality Of Fans Has Dropped Off Over Past Couple SeasonsLOS ANGELES-- Saying their once-beloved viewers have lost much of their luster in recent years, Game Of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff acknowledged Friday they have been frustrated with the way fans of the HBO series have declined in quality over the past few seasons.
...
"Nothing [the fans] do makes any sense anymore, and it just seems like they want the show to be over with as quickly as possible. It's pretty sad, to be honest."
Well, having split the fan base with a divisive and poorly thought out epic, what Benioff and Weiss need now is a property with a fully united fan base which won't give them any grief for screwing up a different once-beloved intellectual property.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss moving to 'Star Wars': In an announcement that hopes to bring together fans of the biggest fantasy series of all time with the biggest sci-fi franchise, the showrunners for "Game of Thrones" will transition to a galaxy far, far away once Disney gets back to releasing new "Star Wars" movies. Assuming the world doesn’t end before the first arrives in 2022, Benioff and Weiss have shown gifts for compression and spectacle in adapting George R.R. Martin’s sprawling novels, but the past few seasons have revealed some big holes in their storytelling game. Maybe there’s a "Star Wars" book someone can write first?
I've got a baaad feeling about this...
and/or:
Here we go again!
What did you guys think? Like the show's producers, I'm just glad it's over so I can move on to more interesting material.
Oh, btw: We Are Real News, Mr. President.
Chris Cillizza gets paid more than pretty much everyone else in the US journalism industry to do this https://t.co/9ZSWeo2aGn
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 14, 2019
#CNNPride
David Frenchie says, give me some of that sweet action:
SPOILER ALERT: David French liked that a council of Elites selected a limp-dicked intellectual to rule the world.
— “Sharp-elbowed” Kira Argounova (@Kira_Media) May 20, 2019
It’s his ultimate fantasy. #GoT https://t.co/mvlcr9dunK
David Frenchie really relates to the floppy weiners.
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Gowdy: FBI Probably Has Exculpatory Evidence About Trump-Russia Collusion, But Didn't Reveal It To the FISA Court When Seeking Warrants
—Ace of Spades
Potentially a "game-changer," he says.
"If the bureau's going to send in an informant in, the informant's going to be wired, and if the bureau is monitoring telephone calls, there's going to be a transcript of that," Gowdy told host Maria Bartiromo.Gowdy continued:
[T]here is some information in these transcripts that has the potential to be a game-changer if it's ever made public.
Gowdy, who served on the House Intelligence Committee, said he and Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe have seen the potentially exculpatory documents. He said he hopes the public will one day get to review it."If you have exculpatory information and you don't share it with the court, that ain't good. I've seen it, Johnny [Ratcliffe] has seen it. I'd love for your viewers to see it," he said.
Straight-shooters. Nonpartisan. Best and brightest.
Update: This thread presents persuasive evidence that Mueller's team -- the team that doesn't leak, supposedly -- leaked highly derogatory information about Trump to the NYT and thereby gifted the Times with a Pulitzer.
Alexandria Donkey-Chompers "Comic Book" Slapped With a Cease-and-Desist Letter by DC Comics, Citing Trademark Infringement
—Ace of Spades
I think this was just a variant cover for the stupid comic book we've already heard about.
So here was one cover:
DC COMICS ISSUES CEASE AND DESIST LETTER TO #AOC WONDER WOMAN LIKE COMIC BOOK. https://t.co/ExTKHhtuU5 pic.twitter.com/3SQ3nWRUQY
— David Cooley (@david_cooley) May 20, 2019
Okay, that is obviously patterned after Wonder Woman, but they could probably get away with it under the parody exception.
But this is not really parody. This is just infringement:
DC Sends Cease And Desist Demand Over Wonder Woman AOC Cover https://t.co/nwXcr0jUKK pic.twitter.com/dMOFtYk0qE
— 𝑅𝒾𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝒫𝒶𝒸𝒽𝓉𝑒𝓇 (@rpachter) May 17, 2019
The publisher issued a cease-and-desist to a small comics company barring it from selling covers of the freshman Democrat in attire resembling that of Wonder Woman, according to comics sites.Devil's Due Comics is running a comic about AOC called "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force: New Party Who Dis?"
Apparently there were only 250 copies of this variant printed.
This is not a popular comic book. But they're playing to a devoted group of fanatics.
Meanwhile, the few copies that made it to the stands before the cease-and-desist are selling for $300 a pop on auction sites.
Can you feel the socialism?!
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Why Are the Leftwing Media's "Fact-Checkers" Giving Stacy Abrams a Complete Free Pass on Her False, Conspiratorial, and Dangerous Claim That She's the Actual Winner of the Georgia Senatorial Election?
—Ace of Spades
Why, there are certain well-known Social Media Monopolists who routinely ban people from public speech, and certain banks that strip people of their checking accounts, for the sin of spreading false, conspiratorial, and harmful-to-the-very-pillars-of-our-precious democracy claims.
At least -- social media monopolies and banks do that when the propagators of so-called false news are on the right.
And CNN's dedicated Deplatforming Squad of Oliver Darcy, Brian Stelter, and BuzzFeed Andrew are there presenting the case to Social Media Monopolists to ban such people, and running negative stories about those monopolists until they comply with CNN's will and ban market competitors from the market square.
So why the silence now?
Oh right, because she's a leftwing Democrat who is being pushed as a vice presidential prospect.
So -- no rules.
There's no such thing as a lie in the leftwing media's eyes, if that lie advances the leftist agenda.
This absurd declaration is predicated on a cascading series of misleading statements Abrams is making about voter disenfranchisement. A May 15 New York Times op-ed by Abrams, headlined, "We Cannot Resign Ourselves to Dismay and Disenfranchisement,” details more of these disputable and tendentious claims.
This kind of thing began even before the campaign had ended. As if to inoculate herself, Abrams accused her opponent, Brian Kemp, of fostering an"“atmosphere of fear" during a debate two weeks before Election Day. Georgia voters, she proclaimed, "have been purged, they have been suppressed, they have been scared."With all the attention Abrams is getting as a rising Democratic Party star and a rumored contender for the party’s 2020 vice presidential slot, one would think that her eyebrow-raising claims about the Georgia election would be getting more scrutiny. Specifically, there is a special kind of journalist that exists solely to verify the factual statements made by politicians.
Incredibly, however, not a single major media fact checker has taken Abrams to task for asserting that she "won" the election, a claim that rests on various empirical assumptions. PolitiFact hasn’t done it. FactCheck.org hasn't done it. Snopes? Nope. The paper of record hasn’t gone on record here. Somewhat to its credit, the Washington Post did fact-check some tangentially related falsehoods about voter suppression in Georgia when Hillary Clinton tried to claim she lost 2016 for unfair reasons. But Abrams herself has never been questioned.
Let’s start with her most basic declaration. She did, in fact, lose the election by 50,000 votes. Although that's a close margin in an election where millions of votes were cast, it’s not close enough to seriously dispute who the victor was. So the first response would be that Abrams' claim that she "won" the election is rhetorical.
Mark Hemingway proceeds to note the various "fact-checks" routinely performed on Republicans, especially Trump, when the fact-checkers resort to a pseud-autistic sort of hyperliteralism to spot lies that no one else can see.
And yet on this huge one -- "I won" -- the media just can't be bothered to say anything at all.
Australia Parliamentary Elections: Liberal/National Coalition (The Conservative-Leaning Parties) Score Surprise "Miracle" Win Over Leftwing Labour/Green Coalitions, Despite Polls Predicting a Big Victory
—Ace of Spades
Oh, right: because the classes with control over the means of communication demonize conservative-leaning people, making them systematically withhold their true voting intentions from pollsters.
Carry on.
The latest results showed that the Conservative Coalition has won 74 seats while labour secured 66. A party needs 76 seats for a simple majority in the 151-member House of Representatives. It was not clear if 51-year-old Morrison will require the support of independent MPs to govern....
A Nine-Galaxy poll released shortly before the voting stations closed in the east of the country showed a victory for the Labor party and Liberal Party-led coalition losing its bid for a third three-year term.The poll showed the Labor winning as many as 82 seats, beating the ruling Coalition.
I couldn't find the pre-election polling averages for Australia -- strange how errors are so quickly buried -- but I did find one single polling company showing a very slight generic ballot advantage for Labour, 51.5% to 48.5%, when all other parties were excluded from the choice.
Biden, supposedly, has an 11 point advantage over Trump, 53-42.
But conservatives aren't demonized as much in Australia; CNBC asked one poll analyst about the surprise win for the conservatives, and she said that there was no pronounced "Shy Tory" effect in Australia as there was in the Brexit vote and the Trump vote. She blamed the failure of the polls to predict the winner on "systematic" errors, other than people feeling pressured to conform to the liberal line.
Who knows, maybe some of that 11 point lead is phantasmal.
John Sexton of Hot Air sees some possible points of comparison to the 2020 US election:
In essence, the left-leaning party was running on the Green New Deal and Morrison won by pointing out that could damage the economy. It remains to be seen whether those results are transferrable to the United States, but you do have some of the same elements in play. First, almost the entire field of Democrats has endorsed the Green New Deal. Second, the creator of the Green New Deal, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, won't even try to explain how much it would cost or how we could pay for it. And third, the economy is doing very well right now. If that continues for another year, it shouldn’t be hard for Trump to make the pitch that it's not worth upsetting the apple cart by voting for someone like Bernie Sanders.
Leftists are taking the loss with their normal display of coolness, calmness, and class:
Cathy Wilcox, a newspaper cartoonist, tweeted: "It seems unfair that the morons outnumber the thinking people at election time." Broadcaster Meshel Laurie concluded that "Australians are dumb, mean-spirited, and greedy. Accept it." Some were ready to write off the whole country. Brigid Delaney, a columnist for the Guardian, wrote, "It's the country that's rotten." She reported from the Labor party's Election Night event. People there had to face "the fact that their vision for Australia’s future was not affirmed," she wrote. That "made them feel estranged and alienated from their own country."By contrast, Zareh Ghazarian, a political-science lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, was snobbishly restrained: "We have completely expected an opposite thing for two years," he told the Washington Post. "Voters rejected the big picture."
Sounds like the left's reaction in America to 2016.
Next up: DID AUSTRALIA COLLUDE WITH RUSSIANS?
India is also having an election. The Trumpish nationalist Modi is expected to handily win a second term.
Trumpish candidates are winning all over.
Justin Amash Joins with Rashid Tliab to Call for Impeachment, Leftist Rulership of America
—Ace of Spades
From PJMedia's Morning Briefing:
Here are my principal conclusions:
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 18, 2019
1. Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report.
2. President Trump has engaged in impeachable conduct.
3. Partisanship has eroded our system of checks and balances.
4. Few members of Congress have read the report.
Amash does not offer specifics. Barr's letter summarizing Mueller's conclusion was entirely accurate. Barr said the report concluded there was no collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the RUSSIANS. Barr said that Mueller did not make a decision about whether the president committed obstruction of justice. How is that misleading? Why would Barr lie about the report and then release it? None of these things makes sense. But you know what does make sense? That Amash wants to run for president as a libertarian.One more thing, J-Am, where are your libertarian principles regarding illegal surveillance on American citizens? On Illegal FISA warrants, national security letters, human intelligence assets being placed around a political campaign by the unelected political bureaucracy? The jack-booted fedgov strong-arming people to plead to process crimes? U cool with that bro, because TRUMP?
I'm absolutely amazed at the number of Libertarians siding with @justinamash for openly supporting the police state. Trump basically did the Presidential equivalent of saying "Am I being detained" and the civil libertarians are running to the defense of the state.
— Rob Eno (@Robeno) May 20, 2019
He's got new friends. They always get new friends, don't they?
.@justinamash come find me in 1628 Longworth. I’ve got an impeachment investigation resolution you’re going to want to cosponsor. https://t.co/KabQTDn1Zq
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) May 18, 2019
Suck on "this," Fake Libertarian liberal sell-out:
A Michigan state lawmaker on Monday announced he will mount a primary challenge to Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) after the congressman tweeted that he believed President Trump had committed impeachable offenses, according to the Detroit Free Press.
State Rep. Jim Lower (R) said he would challenge Amash in the Republican primary for his western Michigan seat rather than seek a third term in the state legislature.Lower said he had been planning to run before Amash's remarks but fast-tracked his announcement after the tweets this weekend despite originally planning to make it closer to July 4.
Princeton could use a man like Jim Lower.
Never trust anyone whose method of defining himself, and of showing off his virtue, is by negative comparison to you. That's what libertarians are, that's what the liberal NeverTrumpers are.
People often define themselves by that which they are not. But it's not good to make a political alliance with those who specifically signal that they are good and wise because they are not Deplorable You. Never trust them, never rely on them, because the very heart of their ego and self-regard is spurning you and despising you.
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The Morning Rant
—OregonMuse
"Progressives like to claim that the economic disparites between blacks and whites are due to white privilege. Ignoring the fact that Asian immigrants generally do quite well in this country, what can be done to lessen the disparity? Well, it's not like white privilege is any big secret. Anyone can reach out and take some. Here's how you do it: Go to school and study your ass off. Graduate from high school. Obey the law. Avoid recreational drugs and alcohol. Get a job. Consider no job, if it is honest work, to be beneath you. Work your ass off. Go to church. Avoid pre-marital sex and all-night partying. Do not have a child unless you're married and are able to support one. Live beneath your means. Save money for emergencies. Do not hang out with criminals, slackers, or losers. This is white privilege in a nutshell. And what's great about white privilege is, get this, you don't have to be white to get it. These rules will work for anyone, regardless of race or religion or country of origin. All you have to do is follow them and good things will come your way. Usually. The problem is that, due to the unevenness of life, the benefits of white privilege are not evenly distributed, so it's better if you live in a community where everyone practices these rules. In this way, you will maximize your chances of benefitting from white privilege. But you're not done yet. You also must teach these rules to your children, and teach them to teach the rules to their own children. Because the benefits of white privilege accrue like compound interest over generations. And it only takes one generation, maybe two, to break this golden chain and then you're back to square one, back to the misery, starvation, ignorance, and squalor that have been endemic to human societies since time immemorial. White privilege is the only path that has ever lead to prosperity for the many, rather than just for the few. So what this world needs is not less white privilege, but more."
The Crazy Years:
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The Morning Report - 5/20/19
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. Start of a new week and the big stories include the ratcheting up of tension in the Gulf with Iran, which we will get to in a moment and the political scene at home where bust-out Trump-hater Justin Amash has decided to join with the Dems, led by and cheered on by fellow "Palestinian" Rancida Tliban, to call for the President's impeachment based on the Mueller slander. Meh, what more is there that I can say about this fraud? Despite a fairly consistent record in Congress voting the right way, from the get-go he has been one of the most rabid anti-Trumpers from our alleged side of the aisle. And it's flat-out insane considering that Trump has been one of, if not the most consistent pro-American, pro-Constitutional conservative Presidents of the past 100 years. When you consider all the others of his ilk in Congress or in the "Conservative Inc. Media and Steamship Company" I still cannot wrap my head around why. Is it a class thing or were they never really what they claimed they were in the first place or a combination of both? Frankly, I don't give a flying fuck how he votes or has voted in Congress. This action is beyond the pale. He's got to go. But what the hell do I know; "severely conservative" Mittelschmerz Romney has called this man's words "courageous." Ah, I just love the taste of bile in the morning...
Continuing on in this vein, Trey Gowdy was on with Money Honey Bartiromo talking about potential explosive revelations relating to the set-up of George Papadopoulos, Margot Cleveland (who has done yeoman's work on this) at The Federalist gives us the rundown on AG Barr's investigations into the real crimes, and Victor Davis Hanson on rats Brennan, Clapper and Comey pointing fingers at each other.
At the Border, not only is it a crisis but by all indications it's an absolute disaster with wave after wave of migrant invaders attempting to jump the borders. Even Obama's ex-DHS chief Jeb Johnson calls it as it is, which flies in the face of Nancy Palsi and Cuck Schemer's propaganda to the contrary - which they are now walking back. Several links discussing Trump's new immigration plan (generally positive reviews) and finally one of Nancy's spark-of-humanity boys gets released by a sanctuary state after being convicted of raping a dog to death. Yes, let's make them all citizens so they can enrich the tapestry of the American culture.
Looking at the Democrat Scandal Sheet, like father like son as Hunter Biden always seems to skate, Mark Levin rips into the shambling, traitorous carcass of Dianne Feinswine, and Daniel Greenfield shines a harsh light on Cory Booker's goniffing that he thinks will torpedo his already moribund presidential aspirations. Lastly, Rabbi Dov Fischer on the deepening Democrat Joo-hate debasement.
Civil War 2.0: Hack writer and noted meesekeit Fran Leibowitz wishes assassination on Trump a la Jamal Khashoggi, and how corporate America is legitimizing and egging-on - or milk-shaking-on - violence against conservatives worldwide.
Politic: Commie fuck-face and Mayor of one of the worst Democrat shit-holes in the nation, Pete Buttplug, is calling for the removal of Thomas Jefferson's name from anywhere and everywhere. How convenient; Jefferson was a key author of our Constitution. Meanwhile, imbecile-in-arms Chiquita Khruschev is spouting the same shop-worn drivel that's as old and tired as Sloppy Daniels piss-flaps, circling back to Joey Bidet, good Roger Simon calls out his projection and a look at how the Dems are supposedly gunning for him, Bernie Sanders is out and proud of his attempt to sabotage our foreign policy during the Reagan years, Eric Swallowswell's personal finances are a microcosm of what his party does to America's, Jello-Brain would order no detentions of illegals if she, G-d forbid, were prexy and a real shrink shrinks Trump's head.
First Amendment and Fake News Fakery: Al Jazeera suspends two "journalists" for their insane Holocaust denial, Facebook does nothing about a bust-out Florida ISIS supporter yet doubles down on muzzling a Trump advisory board member for her pro-life position, 8 GOP House frauds support the horrific Democrat Equality (unnatural) Act, and Buzzfeed rips teen Trump supporter while praising child drag queen. EMP the server farms, scatter the pixels, salt the ground where it stood.
Abortion: Dems will ram down even more heinous, sick infanticide if they win in 2020, the Maoists want any remaining pro-life Dems purged, MLK's niece Alveda King defends new bills as civil rights for the unborn and yes, all these new laws are in reaction to Leftist infanticide. And as I said last week, they are totally justified and politically powerful if only our politicians get behind them.
Foreign Desk: President and C-in-C Trump threatened "the official end of Iran" if they start a war, the Dem-Media Complex spins PDT as a war monger even as he talks of talking peace, the aforementioned is really all about the globalists desperately trying to salvage the nuke deal sellout, no casualties reported as rockets hit near the Green Zone in Baghdad, thunder down under as conservatives win the Aussie elections in a "shock" to the media and pundits much like 2016, analysis of the election vis a vis what it could mean here for Trump and the Dems, an idea about Russky hands off Venezuela if we do the same in Ukraine, Trump's renewed Palestinian-Israeli peace effort (a complete waste of time, Jared), German Bundestag condemns the BDS movement, and Roger Kimball steps back for a high level view of the global situation and where we're heading.
DEE-Fense: Teh Ted right to be shouting "danger, Will Robinson."
Domestic Scene: Conservative group will fight the next wave of smears against judicial nominees, Chicago swimming in red sea of red ink, and another look at San Francisco's slow death.
The Economy: Three good pieces on the China trade standoff including Huawei founder remonstrating the rightful attacks on his company, how Trump is doing the right thing and why Joe Bidet is totally clueless about the threat from that country.
Crime & Punishment: On death penalty drugs and Kamala-Toe being soft on hardened killers.
Healthcare: NY Medical Society surprisingly rejects assisted suicide.
Education: Two essays on the destructive nature of the College Board "adversity" score bullshit and learning about cotton is now racist.
Hither and Yon: SNL is nothing if not no longer relevant, funny or totally predictable, Howard Stern thinks Hillary had a shot at winning if she didn't refuse to be a contestant on Lesbian Dial-a-Date, Christian Toto on Netflix butchering of the Laugh-In legacy, and 75 years after the July plot to assassinate Hitler (the literal one), the remains of the conspirators are being given decent burials.
Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.
NOTE: The opinions expressed in some links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.
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CONGRESSIONAL COUP, SPYGATE, DEEP STATE, THE MUELLER DECEPTION
- Gowdy Talks About Papadopoulos Transcripts That Could Change the Game For Russia Probe
- Cleveland: What We Know So Far About the Justice Department's Spygate Scandal Investigations
- Trump Goes on the Attack After Republican Justin Amash Says He Engaged In "Impeachable Conduct"
- Rancida Tliban Invites GOP Trump-Hater Amash to Join Her Impeachment Resolution
- V.D. Hanson: He Did It, Not Me!
BORDER WALL, MIGRANT INVASION, AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY
- Illegal Alien Convicted of Raping Dog to Death Released by Sanctuary State
- Former Obama DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson: "200,000 People in 2 Months on Our Southern Border Is a Crisis"
- The Kushner Immigration Plan Is a Good One... But It's Still a Distraction
- Trump's Plan To Reform Legal Immigration Is Long Overdue
- In FY 2019, CBP Surpassed Total Southern Border Apprehensions of Every Fiscal Year Since 2009
DEMOCRAT-LEFTIST SCANDALS, CRIMES, CHUTZ-POCRISY, MESHUGAS
- Billion Dollar China Deals, Cocaine Pipes, Joe Bidet's Son Hunter Always Has This Way of Skating
- Levin: "What in the Hell" is Dianne Feinstein "Doing Talking on an I-Phone" to the Iranian Foreign Minister?
- Greenfield: How Cory Booker's $5 Million Grifting Ended His Presidential Bid 6 Years Ago
OFFICIALLY-SANCTIONED DEMOCRAT PARTY ANTI-SEMITISM
- Rabbi Fischer: The Calming Feeling as Jew-Hate Now Takes Deeper Root in the Democrat Party
CIVILWAR 2.0
- Hardcore Lefty Fran Leibowitz Jokes Trump Should Be Killed by the Saudis Like Jamal Khashoggi
- Today a Milkshake, Tomorrow A Brick: Corporate-Backed Political Violence Is Here
POLITICS
- Commie Scumbag Pete Buttplug Wants Thomas Jefferson's Name Stripped Off Buildings, Honors
- The "Deplorables" Have Not Gone Away
- Chiquita Khruschev Laments "GOP's Attempts to Turn the United States Into a Far-Right Christian Theocracy"
- Democrats: America's Original Hate Group
- Good Roger Simon: Joe Bidet Was Projecting When He Called Trump "Divider-in-Chief"
- Why the Left Will Never Stop Gunning for Joe Bidet
- Sandersnista: "I Did My Best" to Stop US Foreign Policy in the 1980s
- Eric Swallowswell Is a Financial Mess
- Jello-Brain Gillibrand: "I Wouldn't Use the Detention System at All"
- Donald Trump - A Triumphant President: A Psychoanalyst's Observations and Opinions
FIRST AMENDMENT, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, BIG TECH BROTHER
- Al Jazeera Suspends 2 Journalists Over Holocaust Report
- Facebook Doubles Down on Blocking Trump Advisory Board Member Over Pro-Life Post
- Muslim-American Facebook Manager is Islamic State Fan
- The Media at Their Lowest
- The GOP's New Gang of Eight Joins Dems to Pass "Hateful" Equality Act
- Buzzfeed Bashes 14-Yr-Old Trump Fan, Celebrates Kids in Drag
ABORTION
- 2020 Democrats Are Releasing Sweeping Plans To Expand Abortion
- Progressives Want Democrat Party To Purge Remaining Pro-Lifers
- A Reasonable Definition of "Pro-Choice"
- Too Many Pro-Choice Talking Points Border On Propaganda
- Abortion Meets Newton's Laws of Motion
- Alveda King: New Abortion Laws Are "Not to Punish Women, but to Give the Baby Civil Rights"
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL
- Trump Throws Down: "If Iran Wants To Fight, That Will Be the Official End of Iran"
- Showdown in the Arabian Gulf
- Panic Over War With Iran Is An Info Operation to Preserve the Iran Deal
- As Critics Accuse Administration of Hyping Iran Threat, Trump Talks About Talks
- US Military: No Casualties in Explosion Near Embassy in Iraq
- Australia: Conservatives Score Surprise Upset Victory as Voters Reject Leftist Labor Climate Change and Income Inequality Agenda
- Immigration Curbs Key to Conservative Victory in Australia and a Lesson for Trump
- What the Dems Can Learn From Down Under
- Trading Ukraine for Venezuela Would Be a Good Deal
- Trump Admin Kicks Off Plan to Foster Israeli-Palestinian Peace (total waste of time and effort - jjs)
- German Parliament Condemns Israel Boycott Movement as Anti-Semitic, Compares to Nazi Boycott of Jews
- Kimball: Notes on the Great Realignment
DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
- Ted Cruz Is Right About Space Piracy
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE BUREAUCRACY, WASTE, FRAUD, CORRUPTION
- New Advocacy Group Will "Punch Back" To Protect Trump's Judicial Nominees
- Despite Increased Tax Revenue, New Chicago Mayor Faces $740 Million Budget Shortfall
- San Francisco's Quality-of-Life Toll
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
- Huawei Will Not Bow to US Pressure, Sez Founder
- Trump's Strategy in the China Trade War
- The China Problem... Or Is It the Joe Bidet Problem?
CRIME & PUNISHMENT (NON-DOSTOYEVSKY)
- A Common-Sense Ruling on Death Penalty Drugs
- Kamala-Toe Harris, Soft on AK-47 Cop Killer
HEALTHCARE
- NY Medical Society Rejects Assisted Suicide
EDUCATION, INDOCTRINATION
- The College Board: Dumbing Down America
- Adversity Scores and the Persistence of Racial Preferences
- Surprise! Learning About Cotton in School Is Racist Now
CULTURE WARS, HITHER & YON
- SNL's Leslie Jones: Alabama Abortion Bill Is a "War on Women," Beginning of the "Handmaid's Tale"
- Burying Hitler's Heroic Opponents 75 Years Late
- Why Howard Stern Thinks Hillary Clinton's Refusal To Sit For An Interview With Him Cost Her Big
- Toto: How Netflix Hijacked that Laugh-In Legacy
Sunday Overnight Open Thread (5/19/19)
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
Quote I
“Whenever I think about this and what he really deserves, I think, ‘We should turn him over to the Saudis, you know, his buddies. The same Saudis who got rid of that reporter, you know. Maybe they can do the same for him.’” Fran Liebowitz
Quote II
“Over time, you develop and evolve on the things you choose to honor … Jefferson is more problematic,”“There's a lot, of course, to admire in his thinking and his philosophy, but then again if you plunge into his writings, especially the notes on the state of Virginia, you know that he knew slavery was wrong. We are all morally conflicted human beings.” Mayor Pete Buttigieg
Quote III
“We don’t want anything to do with Merkel and Macron, who have destroyed this European Union. We want to save Europe from the bureaucrats, the bankers and the financiers that have ruined it all these years,”Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini
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Game of Thrones Finale Thread
—Ace of Spades
You may bitch and/or moan.
Or talk about something else entirely.
Gun Thread: Some Assembly Required [Weasel]
—Open Blogger
Gun Thread Pop Quiz: Identify this gun!
From a very young age I was fascinated by taking things apart to see how they worked. The only problem being that I wasn't particularly good at putting things back together again. I vividly recall the sheer delight my father expressed when he came home from work one day to discover his little scamp of a son had taken apart a rather expensive clock. What a precocious and inquisitive rascal I was!
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Food Thread: Don't Put Inane Things In Good Food
—CBD
The label says:
UTILIZING NANOTECHNOLOGYNow, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't pick up the bottle and read what it may have explained about this miracle of modern technology, but the last time I checked, nanograms were a measure of weight which has nothing to do with nanotechnology other than the prefix. Although I did look at their website and I am now dumber for the experience.
10,000,000 NANOGRAMS CBD
I guess some people need to feel good about their diets and want to infuse everything they eat with some virtue-signalling message that "YES, I am a higher-order human who cares about important things like drinking water with 0.01 grams of CBD/liter." Yeah...math...some of us can do it!
But I much prefer my food and drink to be simpler...to satisfy the requirement of being...oh...I don't know...good to eat and drink!
So pour me three fingers of a good scotch (just a splash of water unless it's something really good), and please don't overcook my steak, but I do want some char (I like eating free radicals!), so pay attention!
What? Vegetables? Sure! Take a peak below the fold.
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Is "Rub And A Tug" Back On The Table In South Florida?
What A Surprise: The Cops Bungled The Kraft Sting...
—CBD
The more laws we have, the more power government has. That is axiomatic for people with functioning brains, and here is a fine example of the problems unbridled government power can cause. Whether you think prostitution is victimless crime, the overreach by law enforcement in this case is obscene.
'Bungled from the beginning': How Robert Kraft's sex sting was marred by cops' missteps
Officials said their efforts were aimed in part at targeting suspected human trafficking at the massage parlors. They pointed to state health department inspections suggesting that sex workers from Asia were living at the businesses.I love how the case went from uncovering a vast network of human traffickers -- modern day slavers -- to a hugely expensive and failed sting to rout out hand-jobs!“Obviously our concern in this investigation centers around … the possibility of victims of human trafficking, the appearance of that,” Jupiter Police Chief Daniel Kerr said in February, adding that customers enable such illicit businesses to “flourish.”
State Attorney Dave Aronberg called human trafficking “evil in our midst,” adding that there is “the cold reality that many prostitutes in cases like this are themselves victims, often lured into this country with promises of a better life.”
But Aronberg’s office walked back the claims, telling Kraft’s judge that there was no evidence of human trafficking. It was just misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution charges for the men, and felony charges of making money from prostitution for the women.
Officials have said they hoped the sex workers would cooperate with investigators so they could bring more serious charges. That didn’t happen.
And gee...maybe these women didn't feel like cooperating because they sort of liked being in the United States instead of some third-world shithole.
And it sounds like somebody lied to the judge to get the warrant, because they admitted that there is no evidence of human trafficking!
The really sad part of this sordid mess is that without Kraft's involvement, which meant an unlimited defense fund, the cops would probably have gotten away with their lies and baldfaced unconstitutional behavior. If it takes a billionaire to get justice in America, something is broken.
Shale Oil: Perpetual Priapism Or A Flash In The Pan?
—CBD
I won't bore you with a discussion of the good things about shale oil production, other than to point out the magnificent case of schadenfreude most of us have watching the world oil markets being turned on their heads, the United States of America becoming the number one oil producer, and the economic dislocation of lower oil prices falling disproportionately on countries that deserve it (Russia, Venezuela, etc.). But the critics need to be noticed, not for any particular insight or wisdom in their analysis, but rather for their conspicuous lack of historical perspective and a startling lack of economic knowledge.
Is the Shale Revolution Here to Stay?
The critics’ argument is threefold. First, they claim that the shale boom depended on huge amounts of debt that was doled out without serious consideration for whether shale producers would be able to pay it back. Second, critics are worried that there’s less shale oil available than originally believed, reflected in shale wells’ depletion rates. Third, they see limited room for growth in the profitability of shale production as shale’s break-even price has stagnated. Combine these factors, the critics say, and you get an industry that will not endure. This Deep Dive will take a closer look at these criticisms and explore whether, in fact, U.S. shale really is an economically sustainable industry.The first argument is idiotic. Why do the debts of an industry have any bearing on the future viability of that industry. If my shale oil company borrowed money to run the business or grow it or whatever, and it failed, the underlying business is still there, to be liquidated by creditors, presumably by being sold to the next guy who thinks that shale oil is viable. That's sort of how free markets work. There is no guarantee of success, which is why that original money was lent in exchange for interest or a share of the company or both. We need to look no further than the example of the airline industry to refute this ridiculous premise.
The second argument is similarly nonsensical. "Peak Oil" has been refuted so often and for so many years that it has become a punch line.
The third argument is simply odd. A stagnating break-even price for shale oil is a snapshot in time, nothing more. It is not immutable, and judging by the improvements in technology in other parts of the oil industry, one can assume future improvements in shale oil extraction technology. But even if the stagnation were permanent, the well-head price using existing technology has had tremendous effects on oil markets, so there is no reason to assume that growth in profitability is necessary for the continued success of the industry.
Read the article, it is worthwhile and evenhanded. And there is plenty of information that supports an optimistic view of shale oil as an ongoing industry.
Sunday Morning Book Thread 05-19-2019
—OregonMuse
Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, papists, rapists, papist rapists, crétins sans pantalon, hornswogglers, Methodists and everybody who's holding your beer. Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, writing, and publishing by escaped oafs who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which look like something you'd have to wear if you were invited to RuPaul's family reunion.
Pic Note
Zhongshuge Bookstore in Chongqing city has an interior that’s the stuff of fantasy tales. Designed by architecture firm X+Living, the location—dubbed one of the most beautiful bookstores in China—is a mirrored maze that might make any visitor feel humbled by a world of stories spanning cultures and eras.
More amazing photos at the link. And of course, click on the photo for the larger version.
(h/t Hank Curmudgeon)
R.I.P. Herman Wouk
I didn't know he was still alive:
NEW YORK (AP) — Herman Wouk, the versatile, Pulitzer Prize winning author of such million-selling novels as “The Caine Mutiny” and “The Winds of War” whose steady Jewish faith inspired his stories of religious values and secular success, died on Friday at 103.
Wouk was just 10 days shy of his 104th birthday and was working on a book until the end, said his literary agent Amy Rennert.
Rennert said Wouk died in his sleep at his home in Palm Springs, California, where he settled after spending many years in Washington, D.C.
Fun fact: Wouk co-wrote a musical with Jimmy Buffett. It's mentioned in the obit at the link.
It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®
ALCOHERENCE is exceptional clarity or eloquence fueled by booze.
The deliberate use of bad or crude language purely for emphasis is called CACEMPHATON.
So, in other words: alcoherence + cacemphaton = AoSHQ.
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Saturday Overnight Open Thread (5/18/19)
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
A man was telling his buddy : "You won't believe what happened last night."
My daughter walked into the living room and said : Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, forget my college tuition loan, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out the window, take my TV and my laptop.
Please take any of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then sell my car, take my house key away, and throw me out.
Then disown me and never talk to me again. And don't forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to any charity you choose."
"Holy Smokes," replied the friend, " - she actually said that?"
"Well, she didn't put it quite like that. She actually said :
"Dad, meet my new boyfriend, Mohammed. We're going to work together on Elizabeth Warren’s Presidential Campaign." H/T “Blake - used vacation salesman.”
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Saturday Evening Movie Thread 05-18-2019 [Hosted By: TheJamesMadison]
—OregonMuse
Pacing
Here's a concept in storytelling that is super important to some people, but not to me. And because it's not that important to me, I kind of don't get it.
Well, I get what it is and have a rough idea of how to measure it, but I don't get why it's important. It's really a taste thing, but when people throw it up in a critique ("The movie was poorly paced" or "inconsistently paced"), they seem to include it as some sort of objective measure of quality. And I'd disagree vehemently. Its existence is objective, but its importance is (almost) purely subjective.
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Saturday Afternoon Chess Thread 05-18-2019
—OregonMuse
1961 U.S. Women's Champion Lisa Lane
As always, the chess/dress pr0n thread is an open thread, so there is no such thing as an off-topic comment.
And TheJamesMadison's movie thread will be up later this evening.
Easier Problem - White To Play (980)
Goal: White can force a mate in 3
Hint: eliminate the back-rank defender - at the appropriate time.
5rk1/1ppq4/n2p3p/p2Pp1bB/2P4N/P1N2RPb/1PQ5/6K1 w - - 0 1
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Ace of Spades Pet Thread
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
Good afternoon Morons and Lurkers and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Loosen up that pinch collar, sit, stay and be good. Let's enjoy the world of pets and animals.
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Saturday Gardening Thread, May 18 [KT]
—Open Blogger
Admirale's mate sent in the gorgeous photo of a tulip above from Andover, Massachusetts. Love it.
Memorial Day is coming up, but we are still having some weather in parts of the country. Thinking about a trip? Also today, a butterfly migration besides monarchs and lots of photos from The Horde.
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Old trains and more old trains? [KT]
—Open Blogger
This has been a big month for train news so far.
California's High-speed Rail
You may recall that Gavin Newsom killed Jerry Brown's dream for high-speed rail from Los Angeles (much less San Diego) to San Francisco earlier this year. But the truncated train line from Bakersfield to Merced was still supposed to showcase the energy efficiency of the New California. Still wasn't easy. On May 1, the San Francisco Chronicle informed us that California's high-speed rail might start with old-school diesel trains.
The cost of getting high-speed trains up and running in the Central Valley is expected to jump $1.8 billion, California rail officials said Wednesday, but they have a plan to weather that increase -- and it may include starting service with slower diesel trains.A new report by the California High-Speed Rail Authority details how the state will build and pay for high-speed service between Bakersfield and Merced, now estimated to cost $20.4 billion. It's the rail authority's first plan for moving forward with the controversial train project since Gov. Gavin Newsom called for focusing the effort on a 165-mile Central Valley stretch.
Then on May 10, the LA Times ran a piece suggesting that this high-speed rail project and the feds were no longer on speaking terms.
Don't know why the feds wouldn't want to pay for the glorious plans described above.
Then, from a couple of days ago, Trump pulled a billion dollars in federal funding. Trump stated that he could have gotten the project done if he had been involved in the planning.
Sad. But, WINNING. As Stephen Green noted. Maybe it's back to updating the Amtrak route. That would be pretty hard on Jerry Brown.
For the technically-minded, here's a video noting some of the practical limits on the speed of trains, and asking what happened to hover trains?
The Transcontinental Railroad
Or as Barak Obama called it, the intercontinental railroad:
Back on May 9, David Foster wrote about the transcontinental railroad:
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the US Transcontinental Railroad... surely one of the most important 'infrastructure' projects of all time. Railway Age reprints the contemporary coverage from their predecessor publication, Railway Times.Union Pacific has completed the restoration of their 'Big Boy' steam locomotive, #4014, and will be running it, together with Living Legend #844, from Ogden, Utah to Cheyenne, Wyoming, as part of the transcontinental commemoration.
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EMT 5/18/19
—krakatoa
If you are reading this then I have gone back to sleep.
If you aren't reading this, I never woke up.
Snowflake Pro-Choice Protester Rips Sign Out of Pro-Life Protester's Hands, And Then Is Shocked to be Arrested
—Ace of Spades
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Former Sparkly Vampire Robert Pattinson Claimed to be the New Batman
—Ace of Spades
Well, I guess he's worked with bats before.
He's very slight, though. He does not look like any kind of brawler.
Kind of hard to see him as Batman.
#BATMAN pic.twitter.com/6ZjX4wJ27c
— ComicArtistPro Secrets (@EthanVanSciver) May 17, 2019
Oh wait, now I see it.
But then, people objected to Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck being cast as Batman, and they turned out okay. And people objected to Daniel Craig as James Bond, and he was the best Bond in decades.
The new movie is supposed to feature a much younger Batman -- but they're going to run into problems in any team-up movie, when Batman shows up suddenly 20 years younger.
But then, Warner Bros. can probably afford to wait a decade for another Justice League movie.
He's going from sex symbol to bat symbol. Sources tell Variety that Robert Pattinson is in negotiations to play "The Batman" in Matt Reeves’ forthcoming superhero film, which hits theaters June 25, 2021.While sources say it's not yet a done deal, Pattinson is the top choice and it's expected to close shortly. Warner Bros. had no comment.
Deadline says that the "not yet a done deal" factor is due to Warner Bros. simultaneously talking with Nicholas Hoult, currently in the Tolkein movie, probably beast known for his role as Hank McCoy in the forgettable X-Men movies. (See what I did there? What a card I am!)
We'll keep you posted as this unfolds, but several sources said that right now, the bat suit isn’t filled yet and that they like both guys, with Pattinson holding the edge. Both are Brit born, replacing the Wales-born Christian Bale, in the last freestanding film trilogy.
Update: bonhomme posts a more recent picture of Pattinson. He's not in Batman shape and doesn't have Batman's bulk but you can imagine he'd be in good form given six months and a million dollar penalty clause animating him to get to the gym.
Plus, you know. Chemical aids. I don't believe these actors bulk up just on weightlifting, chicken, and broccoli. I think most of them also have the help of the finest steroids.
Senior FBI Officials Worried That Comey's "Briefing" About Blackmail Material Just Might Seem Like Comey Was Himself Blackmailing Trump, Just as Former FBI Capo J. Edgar Hoover Did to Presidents
—Ace of Spades
James Comey, onetime communist, knows how to use kompromat.
Senior FBI officials were concerned then director James Comey would appear to be blackmailing then President-elect Trump -- using tactics notoriously associated with J.Edgar Hoover -- when he attended a fateful Jan. 6, 2017, meeting at which he informed the real estate magnate about allegations he had consorted with prostitutes in Moscow, according to Jim Baker, the bureau’s chief counsel at the time.
"We were quite worried about the Hoover analogies, and we were determined not to have such a disaster happen on our watch," said Jim Baker, then the FBI's top lawyer in an interview with the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery. But he and Comey determined the bureau had an obligation to tell Trump of the uncorroborated allegations because "the press has it; it's about to come out. You should be alerted to that fact."
Baker strongly urged Comey not to go through with his plans to reassure Trump by telling him he was not under investigation by the FBI. "I didn't think it was accurate to say that he wasn't under investigation," said Baker.
So Comey's plan was just to lie to his boss and the chief Executive Officer of the country?
And by the way: the story was not about to come out. As Comey himself admitted, the media was not reporting on the story because they lacked a "news hook."
It was Comey's briefing that, oh my gosh golly!, provided that news hook.
Anyone who is not a fucking idiot now understands the purpose of the "briefing" was not to brief Trump about what the media was soon to report, but to provide a "news hook" pretext so that the media could report it.
And this mirthless narcissistic neo-Puritan remains outraged that he was fired.
Hey, he just lied to, and set up, the president. How dare the president fire him over that! James Comey was just doing what Archangel Michael told him to do over Twitter!
Trump Puts Another Conservative Judge on the Leftist Ninth Circuit; May Flip the "Ninth Circus" to Republican by 2020
—Ace of Spades
Hawaiian judges hardest hit.
Via Instapundit, another judge appointed.
President Trump has been remaking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, shifting further and further to the right. On Wednesday he got another victory with the confirmation of Kenneth Lee in a 52-45 vote. And Democrats are really miffed about this one....
Lee who had a unanimously "well qualified” rating from the American Bar Association, is Trump’s 40th circuit judge to be confirmed, even though Democrats were hoping to block his nomination.
Democrats tried to "blue slip" the judge. That is a tradition increasingly ignored -- it permits the Senator of a judge's home state to exercise a one-woman veto over a nominee by refusing to return a "blue slip" regarding his nomination. Kamala "Stoney" Harris tried that, as did the decrepit Dianne Feinstein, and Lindsey Graham just said "Nah brah" and voted him out of committee anyway.
Also via Instapundit, Deb Heine writes that Trump could flip this circuit.
9th Circuit:
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
—Start of Trump’s term: 19D 6R
—Next Week: 16D 11R
—Soon: 16D 13R
—By 2020: Probably flipped R https://t.co/qQVUskh7kX
But muh judges.
Salon Begs For Someone to Buy It for $5 Million; Threatens That It Will Liquidate if No Anti-White Knight Can Be Found
—Ace of Spades
They might have found a buyer, though.
Salon Media Group, a one-time digital darling, has fallen on hard times. It lost its CEO of the past three years last week and appears to be on the brink of a deal to sell itself for a fire sale price of $5 million.
This amount wouldn't even have to be paid up-front -- supposedly $500,000 has already been paid, with another $550,000 due at closing, with the balance to be paid over two years.
Even with those favorable terms, Salon issued a dire warning in the filing: "There can be no guarantee that the asset sale will be completed and, if not completed, we may have to file for bankruptcy and liquidation."
Also: they're in trouble with the SEC.
The SEC is also threatening to delist the penny stock for failure to file financial disclosure documents for more than a year. The company said it expected to be in compliance with SEC filing rules by June 7, but acknowledged that was way past the 15-day deadline the SEC had imposed.
Woke-Broke. The iron law of media and business. Even thought Salon was designed to appeal to the niche #Woke market, it's always been on the edge of bankruptcy, kept going only by "investments" by left wingers which were actually just donations.
Peacock of CNN, Jim Acosta, Spreads Misquote on Twitter, Then, When It Is Proven Conclusively That He Is Spreading Fake News, Doubles Down on the Lie
—Ace of Spades
When will Twitter suspend Jim Acosta for deliberately spreading fake news?
Oh, that's right. The Credentialed Media can lie as much as they like. They define reality.
Trump in Rose Garden speech paints asylum seekers with broad brush accusing them of misleading immigration authorities at border: “These are frivolous claims.”
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 16, 2019
But what Trump actually said is that frivolous claims clog up the system and prevent the meritorious claims from being processed.
CNN's @Acosta is a liar.
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 16, 2019
Trump said: "Unfortunately legitimate asylum seekers are being displaced by those lodging frivolous claims. These are frivolous claims to gain admission into our country. Asylum abuse also strains our public school systems, hospitals, local shelters..." https://t.co/gZ0y6AhfwC
You know there's video proving you're lying, right?
— Official Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 16, 2019
Trump: "Our nation has a proud history of affording protection to those fleeing government persecutions. Unfortunately, legitimate asylum seekers are being displaced by those lodging frivolous claims….My plan expedites relief" pic.twitter.com/Gvz93vZBh3
Instead of admitting he got it wrong (or deliberately lied), Acosta chooses to argue that he is right... in spirit!
Trump has repeatedly questioned the motives of asylum seekers at the border. Last month he described their claims as a “scam” and a “hoax.” https://t.co/6jxzfcdZ3a
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 16, 2019
Trump said some of those claims are hoaxes.
And he's right. If you consider eighty percent to suffice to be called "some."
80 percent of asylum cases at southwest border are not legitimate https://t.co/7jnjU3ald6
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 16, 2019
Garbage. Absolute garbage. He should be mass-reported to Twitter, just to force Twitter into the position of having to admit that reporters can do anything on Twitter, including spreading complete fictions and unhinged conspiracy theories.
Christian Student Forced to Recite Islamic Conversion Vow As Some Kind of Conversion Role-Play Appeals Case to Supreme Court
—Ace of Spades
But this is cool.
During the 2014-2015 school year, a Christian teenage girl was forced to recite the Islamic conversion creed -- the Shahada -- in writing for her 11th-grade class. She was also taught that "Most Muslims' faith is stronger than the average Christian." The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) sued the school responsible, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled with the school. TMLC appealed to the Supreme Court, filing a Writ of Certiorari on Monday."Under the guise of teaching history or social studies, public schools across America are promoting the religion of Islam in ways that would never be tolerated for Christianity or any other religion," TMLC President and Chief Counsel Richard Thompson said in a statement. "I'm not aware of any school which has forced a Muslim student to write the Lord's Prayer or John 3:16: 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'"
"Many public schools have become a hotbed of Islamic propaganda," Thompson argued. "Teaching Islam in schools has gone far beyond a basic history lesson. Prompted by zealous Islamic activism and emboldened by confusing court decisions, schools are now bending over backwards to promote Islam while at the same time denigrate Christianity.""We are asking the Supreme Court to provide the necessary legal guidance to resolve the insidious discrimination against Christians in our public schools," he concluded.
Islam is now the default state religion of America. Quite against the Constitution and all American history and tradition, but don't worry -- Your elites are elitin'.
AG Barr: "If we're worried about foreign influence, for the very same reason shouldn't we be worried about whether government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale?"
—Ace of Spades
Attorney General William Barr said in an interview that aired Friday that he is investigating what role the Steele dossier played in the Russia probe, and that the salacious document had "a number of clear mistakes.""It's a very unusual situation to have opposition research like that, especially one that on its face had a number of clear mistakes and a somewhat jejune analysis," Barr told Fox News' Bill Hemmer.
"And to use that to conduct counterintelligence against an American political campaign is a strange -- would be strange development."
BARR: "If we're worried about foreign influence, for the very same reason shouldn’t we be worried about whether government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale?”
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 17, 2019
Attorney General William Barr said his review of the origins of the Russia investigation is focused on U.S. intelligence gathering before the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened its formal inquiry in July 2016 and could lead to rule changes for counterintelligence investigations of political campaigns.
"Government power was used to spy on American citizens," Mr. Barr told The Wall Street Journal, in his first interview since taking office in February. "I can't imagine any world where we wouldn't [investigate that]."
The Morning Rant
—OregonMuse
"Stuff like this always cracks me up: Alabama passed an anti-abortion law and international airhead actress/model Emily Ratajkowski responded by posting nude pics of herself on Instagram. Ha ha ha. So after blathering on about 'patriarchy' and 'the prison industrial complex', her message boiled down to 'Abortion is great, and hey, look at my breasts'. I'm glad she's selflessly doing this for a cause and not just using this as an opportunity for some cheap, tawdry self-promotion. No, I'm not going to link to her pics, you pervs. You know, I didn't realize there was anyone who could make Alyssa Milano look smart, but it turns out I was wrong. And speaking of brainless bimbos, Milano is, get this, on a 'sex strike' because of the anti-abortion law in Georgia. Actually, that's not a bad idea. I mean, think of it: if all progressives made sacrificial vows of celibacy to Moloch, or Dagon, or whomever, that they're going to refrain from sex until these laws are rescinded, then we should see a dramatic drop in the national STD rates. Also, children would be safe, particularly in Hollywood and other blue cities where raping children is approved of and encouraged. Teenaged girls would no longer have to fear being around Joe Biden. Bill Clinton would have to put his pants back on. And that guy who used to be mayor of San Diego, what's his name, 'Filthy' Filner, he also wouldn't be pawing any female who came within arm's length of his groping, pawing hands. Hollywood celebrities would no longer need to ignore or defend a whole host of predators and perverts since they wouldn't be doing anything they that had to be ignored or defended. The ficus plant in Harvey Weinstein's office would have some time to dry out a bit. And lastly, without progressive sex, they'll be fewer of their spawn to befoul the next generation. So I see nothing but positive benefits coming from Alyssa Milano keeping her legs crossed."
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Mid-Morning Open Thread
—CBD
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Inspiration Of Saint Matthew
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
And I have no idea why this work reminded me of this!
The Morning Report - 5/17/19
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. The weekend is here and for the first time in a long time there are no real developments in the Mueller Deception and Coup. So the big story is the President unveiling an immigration policy centering around the ending, or at least severe curtailing, of chain migration and switching over to one based on merit. Aside from the knee-jerk reaction to anything Trump, this switch in theory would put a crimp in the importation of automatic Democrat voters and sucklers of the Welfare State teat, and as such it must be attacked. Most ridiculous and frankly repugnant line comes from the equally detestable Nancy Palsi Pelosi who said that the word "merit" is "condescending." Does this shambling bag of botulinum, halitosis and graft not realize that by saying that, she just implied that everyone south of the border has none? In any case we have several analyses of the nuts and bolts (no, not in Nancy's neck) of the deal including one that is not so sanguine insofar as it doesn't do enough to address the problem. For me, we really need to cut off the illegals, here and on the way, from Uncle Sugar completely, ramp up swift and speedy deportations, and severely punish with fines and imprisonment any business that knowingly employs illegal aliens. But hey, what the hell do I know, right?
Sticking to this subject and underscoring the need to seal that damn border, DHS is releasing thousands of illegals into the country every month, over a thousand a day which begs the question "why?!" This last item is the killer-diller - literally. An illegal alien serial killer has been arrested and charged in killing 12 elderly women. Speaking of "condescending," I eagerly await the day when "con" Pelosi is "descending" to the Infernal Reaches for her just reward.
Abortion is next, specifically the reaction from all quarters to Alabama's new bill that virtually bans the practice in the state. "Cookie" Milano is demonstrating the Left's renown for tolerance and acceptance by calling for the harassment of Governor Kay Ivey while Jello-Brain Gillibrand is threatening retribution on Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch should this lead to their voting to strike down Roe v Wade. Aside from these two tits inspiring the next James Hodgkinson (oh yes indeed they damn well are), there is also the political side to this. Joel Pollak over at Breitbart, a man that I greatly admire, thinks this law is a "strategic mistake" insofar as perhaps rallying a disunited and disgruntled base around a key issue. This to me is a righteous and justified reaction at the Democrats' gleefully passing laws allowing for the killing of a baby born alive and viable after a failed abortion attempt or indeed merely at the whim of an erstwhile mother at the moment her water breaks. Sorry, Joel. You forget that that barbaric, G-dless bestiality enraged our base in the first place. Governor Ivey's signing that bill, and now another one being enacted in Missouri is not mere politics; it is a line in the sand that states we have had enough of this. My own personal views on abortion aside, it goes to the heart of the value of a single human life. Obviously, as has been demonstrated for well over a hundred years, to the Left it's very little. The fact they pimp collective rights over individual rights is a tell. While I would draw the line at a heartbeat or ability to feel pain and definitely by 20 weeks, I favor this bill because we can no longer cede any more ground. To hell with that' it's high time that we took ground back by pushing hard and pushing relentlessly. The so-called "culture war" is crucial to a healthy and free society. They are on the losing side of this and they know it, regardless of how they want to spin it. War.
Moving on to the international scene where the ramping up of rhetoric and tensions with Iran takes center stage. To quote the Farsis, they have vowed to "Defeat the American-Zionist Front." Sounds like the Democrat Party's slogan, nein? Several links about the situation below. As I said, Iran must be liberated. The question is how is it to be done remains ever-cromulent. If, please G-d, the mullahs fall and some sort of minimally functioning non-terrorist state is the result, it would seriously suck much of the oxygen out of global Islamic terrorism and put a lot of bad actors on notice or in a box. Hello North Korea and Venezuela, which would see the remnants of the Maduro cancer beat a hasty retreat to Cuba. It would also cause Obama's jug-eared head to explode as he and his cronies are still doing all they can behind the scenes and illegally I might add to somehow resurrect that horrible nuke deal. Stay tuned...
Jumping back to the Dem Scandal Sheet and Joo-Hatred Departments, investigative journalist Peter Schweizer is calling for Hunter Biden to be subpoenaed before the Senate to testify about his collusion-for-profit with China and Ukraine. Unfortunately, Richard Burr is unavailable owing to his being rogered by Mark Warner in the cloakroom. And everyone's favorite (Klaus) Barbie doll Rancida Tliban was rewarded for her spewing of Auschwitz jokes by being given the gavel to the House. If you are a Jew - hell, a feeling thinking human being - and you vote for the Democrat Party, gey henge-dich mit a tsuker shtrickel, un hob'n a ziessen toydt.
On to politics where the big joke of the day was Warren Wilhelm Klink, aka Bill De Bolshevik announcing his candidacy for the Democrat 2020 nomination... which was greeted by massive boos, catcalls and chants of "can't run the city, can't run the country" on national television. As a link alludes to, I will say that unless you are a raging Maoist, De Bolshevik truly has united the Left and Right in NYC under one common thing... absolute hatred for him, his corruption, and the degradation of the quality of life (such as it was) in this town.
First Amendment and Fake News Fakery: Jm J Acosta as is his wont totally distorts the President's words on asylum seekers, Ben Shapiro inserts foot in mouth (shocking) and what will Big Brother Tech do to silence anti-Semitism on line?
Guns: Trump kills that UN gun "treaty" dead.
International Desk: US will not return that seized NorK ship, USAF has some cool new toys, the racism kerfuffle and smearing of a Trump State Department appointee, and do we really need NATO anymore?
Domestic News: Susan Collins is a bust-out fraud, chill out about Kavanaugh and the Apple decision, Trump is on the way to flipping the 9th Circuit conservative, San Francisco homeless now boat people, and how ending judicial precedent also makes America great again.
The Economy: Huawei gets blacklisted here (good), Boeing attempts to relaunch the 737-MAX, and more California communism.
Crime & Punishment: Firefighter dies responding to a shooting and Trump pardons Pat Nolan.
Healthcare: More freedom for cancer treatment choices, please.
Education: U-Wisconsin Milwaukee student wants to gas Jooz, attempt to screw with the SATs with social justice credit bullshit, and Michigan anti-Christian curriculum infecting the schools.
Red Greens: New York's AG attempting to cover up on the coordinated lawfare against oil companies by abusing whistleblower laws, and Daniel Greenfield with an alarming story of kids being used to propagandize their parents about "climate change."
Feminazism and Tranny Psychosis: Not a joke - tranny gets tilapia vagina (Arthur Treacher's Mish and Chips), and this Equality Act is a dangerous disaster.
Hither and Yon: Gene Simmons big KISS to America (with tongue), Victor Davis Hanson on the American Satyricon, following on to Daniel Greenfield, why the Left uses children as shields and swords, restoration of faith, and this New Jim Crow myth is a myth.
Finally, documentaries on my must-see list include a new one cutting together unseen and unused segments of William Wyler's 8th Air Force footage (Memphis Belle) with the aircrews who flew over Germany as well as two about heroes we could really use today more than ever.
Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.
NOTE: The opinions expressed in some links may or may not reflect my own. I include them because of their relevance to the discussion of a particular issue.
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BORDER WALL, MIGRANT INVASION, AMNESTY, IMMIGRATION, BORDER SECURITY
- Trump Announces "Build America Visa" In Sweeping New Immigration Plan
- Why Trump's New Immigration Plan Won't Be Enough
- Nancy Palsi: "'Merit' Is Really a Condescending Word"
- DHS Releases 9,000 Illegal Aliens into US in 8 Days; 1,100 Released Every Day
- Suspected Illegal Alien Serial Killer Charged In Killings of 12 Elderly Women, Report Says
DEMOCRAT-LEFTIST SCANDALS, CRIMES, CHUTZ-POCRISY, MESHUGAS
- Peter Schweizer: Senate Should Call Hunter Biden to Testify on China and Ukraine Deal
OFFICIALLY-SANCTIONED DEMOCRAT PARTY ANTI-SEMITISM
- Rancida Tliban Reaps the Rewards of Anti-Semitism (she wielded the gavel in the House of Representatives on Wednesday)
- Democrats Rally Round Their Anti-Semites
CIVILWAR 2.0
- "Cookie" Milano Calls for Online Harassment of Alabama Senator Over Abortion Law
- College Student Shocked to be Arrested for Stealing Pro-Life Sign
POLITICS
- "Can't Run the City! Can't Run the Country!": Protesters Chant at Bill de Bolshevik During Presidential Launch
- Trump Unloads On De Bolshevik: "NYC Hates Him!"
- Bill de Bolshevik's Brand New Bag
- De Bolshevik Unites America... Against His Presidential Bid
- DCCC Chair to Headline Fundraiser for Pro-Life Dem Whom Progressives Want to Unseat
- Jello-Brain Gillibrand Urges "Action" Against Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh If They Don't Uphold Roe v. Wade (you mean like with a James Hodgkinson? - jjs)
- Progressives Eating Their Own
- Booker's Deputy Campaign Manager Donates Money to Gillibrand's Campaign
- Styrene Steyer to Dems: See, I Told You Not to Wait on Mueller to Impeach Trump
FIRST AMENDMENT, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, BIG TECH BROTHER
- CNN's Jm J Acosta Misrepresents Trump Speech on Asylum Seekers
- Facebook Blocks Trump Board Member for Pro-Life Post Contrasting Trans and Pro-Choice Arguments
- Ben Shapiro Destroys Ben Shapiro
- Conservative Leaders Call for Social Media Giants to Clarify Hate Speech Rules on Anti-Semitism
SECOND AMENDMENT
- Trump Drives a Stake Through UN Gun Control Treaty
ABORTION
- What You Need to Know About Alabama's New Abortion Ban
- Mayor Buttplug: America Is Not Free Without Right to Abortion
- Forget Alabama: These Abortion Cases Are In Front of the Supreme Court Right Now
- Missouri Senate Passes Pro-Life Reforms
- Democrats Upped the Abortion Ante When They Defended Murdering a Baby Born Alive
- Harsanyi: Abortion Advocates Are Losing; Don't Give Them a Lifeline (against the politics of the Alabama law - jjs)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, INTERNATIONAL
- After Attacks On Assyrians, Northern Iraq's Christian Minority Recommits to a Homeland
- Terrorist Iranian Regime Saber-Rattles, Vows To "Defeat the American-Zionist Front" (wait, that's the Democrat Party slogan - jjs)
- Is Iran Hysteria the New Russia Hysteria?
- Peace Fever: Iran Echo Chamber Tries to Save Obama Nuke Sellout
- Time for Iran to Face a Reckoning
- US Ignores North Korea's Demand for Seized Ship's Return
- Is Our China Policy Racist? Trump State Official Rattles the Establishment
- This is Truly a Trade War
DEFENSE, MILITARY, SECURITY AFFAIRS
- Do We Need NATO?
- Air Force Deploys New Weapon To Deal With Iran, North Korea
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, THE BUREAUCRACY, WASTE, FRAUD, CORRUPTION
- Susan Collins Sides with Planned Parenthood, Casts Lone GOP Vote Against Pro-Life Trump Judicial Nominee
- San Francisco's Homeless Are Running Out Of Room, So They're Moving On To Makeshift Boats
- Trump Gets Another Judge on the Ninth Circuit Over Democrat Objections
- Quit Whining About Kavanaugh's Anti-Trust Opinion
- Taming the Bench: MAGA Means Ending Judicial Precedent
THE ECONOMY, STUPID
- US Blacklists China's Huawei
- California's New Prohibitionists
- Boeing Takes Big Step to Get 737 MAX Aircraft Back in the Air
CRIME & PUNISHMENT (NON-DOSTOYEVSKY)
- "My Kids All Ducked Down": Firefighter Dies Responding To Shooting In Wisconsin
- President Trump's Pardon of Pat Nolan - A Great Moment for Criminal Justice Reform
HEALTHCARE
- Let Patients Decide Where to Receive Cancer Treatment
EDUCATION, INDOCTRINATION
- Outrage After U. Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Calls to "Gas" Campus Jews
- Killing Education: SATs to Add "Adversity Score" to Address "Wealth Disparity" in Results
- Related: Grievance Proxies
- Left-Leaning Anti-Christian Social Studies Curriculum Guidelines Proposed in Michigan
RED-GREENS, CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX, LYSENKOISM
- NY AG's Office Hiding Climate Activist's Emails Behind Whistleblower Defense
- Greenfield: Government Experiment Brainwashes Children to Manipulate Conservative Parents
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
- Trans Woman Gets a Tilapia Vagina (Arthur Treacher's Mish and Chips?! - jjs)
- "Lifelong Democrat and Proud Feminist" Joins Conservatives to Oppose House Dems' Transgender Bill
- Equality Act: Will GOP Follow Corporate Woke-ness, or Trump?
CULTURE WARS, HITHER & YON
- Gene Simmons of KISS Gives Emotional Tribute to America During Pentagon Visit
- Rocketman Makes History As "First Major Studio Film To Depict Gay Male Sex"
- V.D. Hanson: Our Modern "Satyricon"
- Restoring Faith - One Person at a Time
- And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
- The New Jim Crow? Not Even Close
FINALLY...
- Documentary The Cold Blue Is a Profound and Painstaking Recreation of Life In the Air During WWII
- We Do Need Another Hero (two new ones, with the second especially moving vis a vis our comments yesterday - jjs)
What Can I Say? It's An ONT
—WeirdDave
Been a tough week at the Weiddave household, but time marches relentlessly onward, and the ONT is a cruel mistress who will not wait.
Continue reading
Open Thread You Goofs
—Ace of Spades
Tomorrow is Friday, bitchez.
I'm heading into day nine of this fast. Just got a huge craving. Hadn't really been hungry all day but now I can only think of steak slathered in steak sauce.
That might be because I just saw sugar-free steak sauce on Amazon.
Question: I don't have steak sauce on steak because I know you're supposed to just enjoy the steak. And I do. But truth be told -- I really like steak sauce, especially now that I can't stop thinking about it.
Is there a lesser cut of beef that's semi-steak-like that I can cook at home and slather with steak sauce without breaking the Steak Code?
A cheaper cut, of course.
