Texas MoMe 2021:
10/22/2021-10/23/2021
Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had
June 21, 2021
Daily Tech News 21 June 2021
—Pixy Misa
Top Story
You won't believe what kids are into these days.
The reception of “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train” seems to suggest that anime is finally poised to make its leap from the shadows of subculture into the mainstream. https://t.co/cg5YQnPtNa
This being The New Yorker, they do their best to blame anime on Donald Trump.
Anime of the day is Akanesasu Shoujo from 2018, a.k.a The Girl in Twilight which is news to me, in which five girls from the high school radio club save the universe using only discarded communications equipment and fish sausages.
No, really.
Also, don't put chikuwas in your air fryer. Reine from Hololive tried it live on stream and posted the results. The term carbonised comes to mind.
Maybe. The Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX is a 32" 4K 144Hz monitor with G-Sync, 10 bit DCI-P3 color, HDR10, and an eye-searing maximum brightness of 1400 nits.
Price is a wallet-searing $3000.
Which is a lot for a 4K screen; you can get a decent IPS screen for $250. Or for $4000 you can upgrade to 8K. But a single 8K screen requires all the outputs of a high-end graphics card working together, and a low-end... Wait. This one does 144Hz and has 90% DCI-P3 coverage.
2014 UN271 is an Oort Cloud object that is currently approaching perihelion. It's closest approach will be around 11 AU - about a billion miles from the Sun - but its orbit takes it out as far as 60,000 AU - almost a light year.
It's not small either; observations indicate it's around 100 miles in diameter.
Julia for scientific computing - it's the new Fortran, only even faster and much easier to use.
Anime Catshark Girl Music Video of the Day
Gura from Hololive has good taste in anime. She sang Tsumugi's shark song from Amaama to Inazuma live on stream. A fan reanimated the entire scene to her song, with other Hololive characters dropped into the remaining roles.
Gamers Nexus Cheap Video Card Review of the Day
Steve's back again, this time with Intel's DG1 video card, which you can't buy and couldn't use even if you could. It's an OEM product with very restrictive hardware and firmware requirements.
Also, it's slower than AMD's integrated graphics, and suffers badly from inconsistent performance.
Disclaimer: I mean, so do I, but I'm taking medication and it's getting better.
“We all crowded in to their little table and one guy [who was waiting] started flipping out, yelling that it was supposed to be his. It was a little cramped and the tables around us were staring, but you have to do what you have to do and we were hungry.” Mitch Modell
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“We saved the city of St. Louis the expense of pursuing this nonsense, and then we’ll move forward,” McCloskey told Newsmax, adding that the charges were lowered to “a new crime which basically said I purposely placed other people in the apprehension of imminent physical harm.” Mark McCloskey
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Quote III
“When will PPB recognize this overwhelming desire for change and align their values with the people of Portland? I remain deeply concerned these RRT resignations are yet another example of a rogue paramilitary organization that is unaccountable to the elected officials and residents of Portland.”Portland, OR Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty
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Quote IV
“They’re bending and massaging the ordinance to fit the crime. This is a blatant attempt to silence me.” Michael Wasserman
HOW COULD THEY? Fury as dog meat festival gets underway in China with 5,000 to be butchered and eaten over 10 days
A DOG meat festival is underway in China, with 5,000 dogs to be butchered and eaten over 10 days.
Despite outcries over animal cruelty and health risks attached to the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, its claimed the pooches were still being transported to the city in preparation for slaughter.
In a move that can only be described as the pinnacle of embracing snowflake culture, the CBC has said this week it is going to close comments on all of its news links and video posts to Facebook pages to protect the mental health of its journalists.
Journalists - who used to be rugged and used to deal with varying opinions as part of the job description - are "fragile" and "in need of attention", like many other Canadians post-pandemic, the CBC wrote last week. Increasingly, they are facing "vitriol and harassment" for doing their jobs, the report notes.
"For journalists, platforms like Twitter can be a great way to find sources and promote their work, but also a cesspool of hatred. Increasingly, reporters are also physically attacked," Andre Picard told CBC.
Evanston commemorated the abolition of slavery with a parade and community celebration on Juneteenth — June 19, the day on which the abolition of slavery is annually celebrated — complete with art, music, and food at a local park.
There will also be a Gay Pride parade next Saturday, June 26.
The city, however, has canceled its July 4th live celebration over COVID-19, and has not indicated that it will hold similar festivities to honor America's birthday.
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Paul Joseph Watson and the usual NSFW-Language warning.
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I guess they forgot that these photos go into their permanent record. Genius Award Winners.
The Bellaire and Bridgeport Police departments teamed up to execute a search warrant in Bellaire on Monday night as part of a drug investigation that Bridgeport police have been working on.
Three people were arrested at a home in the 4200 block of Trumbull Street – 28-year-old Matthew Hartung, 26-year-old Janae Snyder, and 31-year-old Marc McPherson.
Feds accused of seizing $85 million from safe deposit boxes without 'any legal basis'
Class-action suit claims FBI exceeded its search warrant and is forcing renters of boxes to prove their innocence.
Hundreds of people storing valuables in safe deposit boxes in Los Angeles may never see their cash, precious metals and heirlooms again, unless a federal judge intervenes in the next week.
Several are suing the government for seizing the contents of about 800 boxes as part of a March raid of the storage provider, U.S. Private Vaults (USPV), which was indicted for conspiracy to sell drugs and launder money.
A Florida man faces felony charges for the supposed crime of purposefully performing a burnout on a taxpayer-funded gay pride street mural in Delray Beach last Monday.
While reportedly participating in a birthday rally for former President Donald Trump, Florida resident Alexander Jerich, 20, drove his pickup truck over the mural and then performed a burnout.
A burnout is a maneuver in which a driver keeps their car stationary but spins the wheels, causing their vehicle’s tires to produce smoke from the friction of the rubber spinning on pavement.
In this case, Jerich’s burnout also created a black streak that marred the mural.
The evidence against Jerich includes both the video above and eyewitness reports.
“According to the arrest report, a witness told police that particular intersection happened to be along the parade route for Trump supporters. The witness said he was two cars in front of the suspect when he heard another man yell something like, ‘Adam, tear up that gay intersection,'” local station WTVX reported.
“The witness described the driver of the Chevy pickup truck as a man in his twenties with blonde shoulder-length hair with curls. The witness said the truck had a blue Trump flag on the tailgate.”
Using the video footage above, authorities were able to trace Jerich by his license plate number, after which they reportedly spoke with him and he then voluntarily turned himself in.
But local left-wing activists were not satisfied. They began demanding that local Republicans apologize for Jerich’s actions.
The ruthless war between the world’s leading video-on-demand companies reached a climax when the Amazon acquired the legendary Hollywood studio MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) in a deal worth US$8.45 billion.
The sale of MGM on May 26 followed more than six months of negotiations. The American studio known for its roaring lion had been weakened by major financial difficulties before the pandemic. The prolonged closure of movie theatres was the final nail in its coffin.
Although the MGM studio had a low market value (estimated at only US$5.5 billion a few months ago), several giants of the digital industry, including Apple, were interested in buying it. But it was Amazon that won the bid and made history by becoming the first player in the video streaming industry to acquire a major Hollywood studio.
In 2017, we first wrote about the Chinese startup Unitree Robotics, which had the goal of “making legged robots as popular and affordable as smartphones and drones.” Relative to the cost of other quadrupedal robots (like Boston Dynamics’ $74,000 Spot), Unitree’s quadrupeds are very affordable, with their A1 costing under $10,000 when it became available in 2020. This hasn’t quite reached the point of consumer electronics that Unitree is aiming for, but they’ve just gotten a lot closer: now available is the Unitree Go1, a totally decent looking small size quadruped that can be yours for an astonishingly low $2700.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After nearly two decades of hardcore drug addiction — after overdoses and rehabs and relapses, homelessness and dead friends and ruined lives — Gerod Buckhalter had one choice left, and he knew it.
He could go on the same way and die young in someone’s home or a parking lot, another casualty in a drug epidemic that has claimed nearly 850,000 people like him.
Or he could let a surgeon cut two nickel-size holes in his skull and plunge metal-tipped electrodes into his brain
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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Fathers.
Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire, AceCorp, LLC and about 6 different species of fish.
Howdy, Y'all! How's things? Welcome to the Sunday Gun Thread. Whether you're a grizzled Gun Thread veteran or a gun-curious lurking newcomer, a bigly hearty welcome to all of you! I'm glad you have decided to visit our little online Happy Place where we talk guns 'n shooting on Sunday evenings. So sit back, relax and pop open a Prune Fizz while we discuss our fav-O-rite hobby.
Not much going on this week. Rain cancelled farm plans for last weekend, and I really need to get back down there soon to cut the grass. Again. We have had several inches of rain here recently, which is only going to encourage the grass and vegetation to grow. I have to admit that high summer isn't exactly my favorite time to be down there given the list of chores I seem to always have, which interrupt the serious work of organic tree farming.
Finally, Happy Father's Day to all you dad's out there. It's not too late to take your kids shooting! With that, let's get to the gun stuff below, shall we?
Gun Thread Pop Quiz!
Q: So what do you need besides a gun to go shooting?
A: Ammo!
Q: What has your 'ol pal Weasel been suggesting you buy for nearly three years?
A: Ammo!
Q: What has been in rilly, rilly short supply for the last year and a half?
A: Ammo!
Beginning to see a pattern? Is a theme beginning to emerge? Hello?
Good news! I am cautiously optimistic we're seeing an improvement in the ammunition supply situation. This isn't the result of any super scientific study, but rather simply my anecdotal observations of the resurgence of email offers I receive from retailers. I am not only seeing offers for in-stock items, but the price seems to be coming down as well. My baseline has always been 115gr 9mm ball ammunition at $200 per 1,000 rounds. I shoot lots of other calibers, but this seems to be about average when times are normal. We're still hell and gone from 'normal' whatever that is anymore, but I am seeing good availability down from about $1 per round at the height of the insanity, to between .60 and .70 cents, or $600 - $700 per 1,000 rounds for good quality ammunition. That is still 3 or more times average, but it seems to be headed in the right direction.
So what do you do? I suppose the answer continues to depend on how well stocked you are, and for the sake of argument, let's say you're either very low, or worse completely out of ammunition. In that case, I would begin to make opportunistic purchases and establish a reserve. I would not try and cure the situation all at at once by making a massive purchase, and I would also not wait in an attempt to perfectly bottom-tick the prices. Rather, set a numeric goal; 500 rounds, 1,000 rounds or whatever, and begin making purchases and establishing a reserve over time. If you're buying online, make these incremental purchases in a quantity where shipping doesn't offset all your savings. Believe it or not, free shipping offers do still exist at places like Ammoman for orders as low as $99 which isn't very hard to do. Now is the time to do this. I can virtually guarantee you there will be another crisis, and it might come sooner rather than later. We are absolutely not out of the woods, but we are seeing a little glimmer of sunshine for the time being. Please take advantage of it while it lasts.
So what the heck has been going on, anyway? Why did the supply dry up? Is it the danged gummint? Are the manufacturers in cahoots to drive up prices? Simultaneous global warming and cooling? Magnetic pole reversal? Aliens?
I happen to think this is another periodic scare arising from current events and exacerbated by the resulting flood of new gun owners in the last 18 months. Shortages have happened before, and with as little impetus as simple anti-2nd Amendment rhetoric from lawmakers. However, when people start seeing riots and their city streets on fire, they tend to become concerned and start thinking about protecting themselves, their families, and their shit. Which brings us to today.
So while the ammunition situation appears to be improving, it's just a matter of time before the cycle repeats. What do you all think? Agree or disagree? Are things getting better based on your observations?
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First up, our pal Neon Madman has done some load testing in .30-06 and shares his progress.
I got out to the range this week with my .30-06 High Wall, to shoot a few more rounds thru it. I had previously roughly sighted it in with some 165 grain commercial rounds. This time I took a mix of 165 and 150 grain reloads, nothing special, just some textbook loads with H4350. The gun has had less than 50 rounds thru it, and 20 of them are in this target. I was shooting "front bag only" at 100 yards, actually not even a bag but a wood block with some carpet on it, with a scope at 10X. I do need to re-sight it using a real front and rear bag, because the front bag only method is not as stable as it should be. Right now, I'm just trying to get a feel for how it is going to shoot.
Actually, I think that it is going to shoot quite well. The 150 grain loads grouped pretty well, considering that they weren't anything special and I wasn't as rock solid as I could be. The next time around, I'm going to fine tune the scope on some more of the 150 loads and then start looking at tuning the ammo. I think that I'm going to like this gun, and better not take it canoeing with me this summer.
I don't know about the rest of you, but it looks like the 150gr load is promising! Nicely done, Neon Madman!
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Next up we have a nice write-up on the PA-63 from our pal A.H. Lloyd
The other day I came across a really strange pistol. It appeared to be a copy of the Walther PP made by FN in Belgium. However, upon close examination it is actually a copy of FEG's copy of the Walther PP, known as a PA-63.
The PA-63 was one of several pistols based on the Walther PP, which was something of a sensation in central Europe. Originally chambered in.32 ACP (aka 7.65mm Browning), it set the standard for police firearms all over the Continent and was the inspiration of the USSR's Makarov pistol, which saw local variants made in Czechoslovakia (CZ-50/70), Poland (Radom P-64), and our Hungarian variant. Of note is that only the CZ-50 and PA-63 had versions chambered in calibers besides 9mm Makarov.
Here's a photo of actual Walther PP (top) with the FEG below. Overall, very much alike, but the FEG's lines are just slightly off. The biggest clue, however, is that it has an aluminum frame. There's no question that this is a Hungarian design.
So why did FN copy it? Well, the answer is: they didn't, but someone wanted to make you think they did. Note the overall quality of the engraving, which includes the FN logo. This isn't a hack job, it is quality, professional work - the kind you would expect of FEG. But they made some mistakes. The left slide inscription should read: "Fabrique National D'Armes deGuerre Herstal Belgique." The bold parts were left out.
Could it have been a joint venture between FEG and FN like the one between Manurhin and Walther? No. The PA-63 was entering production just as the Berlin Wall was going up. To even suggest the Communist-controlled FEG would enter into a partnership with one of NATO's main weapon suppliers less than seven years after the Hungarian uprising is completely absurd. Moreover, FN had its own John Browning-designed pocket pistol (the Model 1910) which resumed production in 1955.
Clearly it's a fake. The question is who it was trying to fool. Western intelligence would pick up on its origin pretty quickly, but maybe Hungarian rebels could be gulled into thinking the guys carrying it were NATO-backed. That at least would explain why it was in a police inventory. Because that's how it was sold into the US, being part of a shipment of police turn-ins from Eastern Europe. The dealer who sold this one said that there were five of these available so he bought them all and kept one for himself because it was so interesting.
As to performance, the PA-63 is more comfortable to hold than an actual Walther PP, but not quite as comfortable to shoot, due to the lighter frame. Still range performance was comparable, and with the PA-63 costing much less than a Walther, advantage: FEG.
If you would like to own a regular PA-63, they are plentiful and relatively cheap, being chambered in both 9mm Makarov and 7.65mm Browning (aka .32 ACP). They are simple to use, easy to take apart and clean, compact and with that aluminum frame could make a legit carry gun if one was so inclined. As for the fakes, maybe more information will come out as other people dig into their mysterious origin.
Very interesting! Thank you for the lesson A.H. Lloyd!
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Our pal ERF posted a comment on last weekends gun thread, which is worth repeating.
My dad was an NRA Safety Instructor and he shot competition in the late 60's and early 70's. He used to tell me that if you want to cure flinching while shooting, you needed to learn how to shoot a flintlock. Even if you slow pull the trigger and don't know exactly when it will fire, you still have the time for the hammer to hit, the sparks to fly, the pan to flash, and the slight delay for when it burns through the touch hole. There is plenty of time to get off of a bullseye at 100 yards. When I upgraded to inline with deer hunting, the difference in time was one of the first things I noticed.
Although we don't all have a flintlock to use as a training tool, this is really a very good suggestion! Thanks ERF!
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Speaking of training tools, and despite the ammo situation improving, there is always a place in your training for a laser based system. I don't have any particular experience with the Strikeman system, but a lot of people seem to like it. Better still, it's $10 off thru June 30th with the promo code 10OFFSTRIKEMANJUNE
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Last week I featured a YouTube video made by a young woman who is doing a really good job with her channel on firearm instruction, concealed carry and personal safety. It's called "She Equips Herself" which seemed popular here, so here is another one!
You clowns behave yourselves. I invited her to stop by and say hello.
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Next up, our pal fungus boy sends the following instructional video on opening a safe.
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Ax Weasel
This week we have an Op/Ed and question from our pal Super Lurker, who isn't just axing Weasel, he's axing all of you for your opinion on the upcoming NRA board elections.
"Who among the current board candidates do you believe should be elected, or should not be elected, and why"
In my opinion, Wayne LaPierre and his cronies have turned the organization into their personal piggy bank, have seriously mismanaged things, and need to go. The only way to make that happen, short of prison sentences, is to replace Wayne's board members with independent members who will clean house. The problem I have is, with one exception, I don't know the candidates, and don't know who will start to fix things, and who will continue with business as usual. I'd like to hear suggestions from other AOS-GT readers on that topic.
I've been an NRA member for almost 40 years and I'm old enough to remember the battle for control in the late '70's. In my opinion, the present situation is much more serious. I believe that Wayne and Co. don't realize the existential threat to the Association and are only concerned with keeping themselves out of jail. If they aren't ousted the NRA will cease to exist. The NRA isn't the only game in town and I don't believe it's been as effective as it could be on the legal front, but they do a lot as far as training and organizing competitions, over and above lobbying.
I have to admit my personal opinion of the NRA isn't the greatest anymore. Although I think their competitive shooting division does a good job, I have never been a fan of Wayne LaPierre. I don't know him, but he seems to exist in a constant cloud of controversy which is a problem. A little of that is to be expected in any large organization, but when it becomes too much it becomes a distraction and makes a leader ineffective. I think LaPierre is considerably past that point now, and on the basis of that point alone, I agree it's time for a change.
I do know a couple of other NRA board members who are good guys, die-hard shooters and unquestioned 2nd Amendment advocates. I have done quite a bit of shooting with the two, and consider them friends. Since I do not know their opinion of LaPierre I am going to refrain from mentioning their names here. I'm not certain if a complete house cleaning is in order, or rather just an overthrow of the LaPierre regime whatever that entails. However, if making a substantive change means throwing all of the babies out with the bath water, so be it.
What do you all think?
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ATTENTION NoVaMoMe 2021!!
The social and cultural event of the season, NoVaMoMe 2021 is on the calendar! That's right, you people have a chance to meet many of your online pals on Saturday, July 24th beginning at 1pm until dark, or such time as it gets busted up by the cops. We have an exciting new location in the Northern Virginia area which we think will be more better than before and allow extended time for visiting. Admission is $25 which includes food and soft drinks, with a cash bar. This year all of the food is prepared from the greatest non-fiction literary work in modern history, The Deplorable Gourmet. Want to find out if your recipe made the cut? Want to be one of the cool kids? Just send an email to novamome at protonmail dot cee oh emm, pass the rigorous screening process to obtain registration details, then sign up to attend! Easy-Peasy!
It promises to be a great day, including our customary raffle of AoSHQ themed gift baskets. That's right! Each of the AoSHQ weekend threads has a specially themed gift basket chock full 'o theme related gifts!
Registration closes at midnight, July 10, 2021
Win a Dream Date with Weasel!
This year, a separate raffle for the Gun Thread gift basket will be held. This fabulous prize includes an entire day of shooting and personalized one-on-one handgun & rifle coaching and instruction at Weasel Acres on a mutually agreeable date with yours truly. The lucky winner will be able to not only bring and shoot their own weapons, but also try out a variety of WeaselWeapons using WeaselAmmo! The winner will take home 150 rounds of quality 9mm ammo to practice what they have learnt, a signed photo of WeaselDog and Fun Size Joe, and a complimentary video of the WeaselAcres experience, as parting gifts.
We will end the day with dinner at a good Mexican place in nearby Appomattox. Pretty much a dream date with Weasel! The winner will be responsible for their travel to and from Central Virginia, hence the separate drawing.
Don't be a pathetic girly-man loser, register today!
This week's Maibag entry comes to us courtest of Sharon(willow's apprentice).
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Please note the new and improved protonmail account gunthread at protonmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. Future expansion plans are in the works for the site Weasel Gun Thread. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome!
That's it for this week - have you been to the range?
Hands are a cook's best tool, and there simply aren't enough tools in the world to replace every process required by most cooks. Sometimes you'll just have to touch the food!
And that's okay with me. I enjoy using my hands for cooking...I think that's one reason why baking bread is fun, and why I don't have one of those newfangled bread machines.
It's not just bread that requires all of your fingers and toes. Spatchcocking a chicken or trimming a steak or slicing vegetables or hundreds of other simple actions in the kitchen are quicker when we use our hands. Sure, I can pull out the food processor and slice that tomato, but why?
And using one's hands provides lots of useful information about the state of the food. When I salt a strip steak, I pick it up and sprinkle the salt from a foot or so above while holding it in the other hand. I can feel whether the steak needs to be trimmed of that sometimes thick tendon on the outer edge. Or when I slice a tomato and it feels like a baseball under the knife, it's going into a sauce rather on the plate with some mozzarella, basil and a drizzle of olive oil.
But the best is baking. There is nothing quite like handling dough and feeling it slowly change as one kneads it, waiting for the right texture and stretch for the perfect pizza or a fantastic sourdough boule.
And...it's fun. I may be 29, but I still get a kick out of the simple pleasures!
We can't push politics out of food and cooking. That ship has sailed. But we can push back in the best way possible; using the power of the market to send a message, when the bully pulpits have long been monopolized by the lunatic left...the pinch-faced scolds who would rather destroy than build, and ruin rather than enjoy.
So when you are wandering through the butcher shop or supermarket and you see those packages of ersatz meat that the neo-Luddites want us to eat instead of the glorious flesh of the animals that God put on this earth for our use; let your kids use one or two as kickballs or hockey pucks mention to the manager that you have no interest in it, and wouldn't it be better placed in the vegetable aisle.
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I had this sauce recently and enjoyed it enough to buy several bottles as little gifts for the brats. But when they saw the brand they said something like, "Wow, you are such a loser. Everyone knows about this stuff!"
I have been Hot-Sauce Shamed!
In my defense, this stuff was a SoCal sauce, and I lived in Northern California. But it's good stuff...hot but in control, and with a very nice complex flavor.
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There is a lot of meat on a deer that is just okay, so recipes like this allow hunters to use the entire animal, and I am all for that! My best chili was made from the last bits of venison from the last deer I ever shot...too many years ago. But it was great!
A good potato bun (commercial of course) is pretty close to the Platonic Ideal when it comes to hot dog buns for classic American hot dogs. But what about the bigger and thicker sausages that are just as good, but don't fit in those little buns? Enter King Arthur Flour's recipe for a "Chicago Red Hot" bun.
It was pretty easy except for the last forming of the dough. But they got better as I figured it out, so the next batch -- and there will be another! -- will be easier.
The texture was just right for the more substantial bratwursts and weisswursts that we had to accompany the classic...an American beef frank with skin, so everyone in the neighborhood can hear the snap!
From a lurker and regular contributor of yummy food photos...this is his first harvest, and he tells me that they were quite delicious!
Whipped cream never hurts though...
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This looks like it has definite possibilities! Muscovado sugar sounds like brown sugar to these non-Brit ears, and the measurements are metric, and that's sort of soccerish, but still, meringue on top of a brownie can't be a bad thing.
Tender Broccoli Rabe that isn't bitter, beef short ribs that have meat on them (not the stupid little sliver of bone they sneak into the packages), Snap Peas (apparently they are no longer grown in quantity), spare bottles of Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year Old Bourbon, an herb garden that actually produces herbs, well-marbled NY strip steaks and elk backstrap to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.
And don't think that you are off the hook with maple syrup and French Toast: I'm watching you...all of you! And I am watching you perverts who shake Manhattans and keeping a list for the Burning Times.
First-World Problems...Lockness Monster And Customer Service Edition
—CBD
I am reasonably mechanically inclined, but I have no idea what the hell happened to this lock. I even had visions of repairing it, until I saw the number of pins and tiny springs strewn over the floor.
On the other hand, the Baldwin company was very helpful, and promptly sent me a replacement lock; except it was the wrong one. And while that was partially my fault for not explaining exactly what kind of lock it was (two-sided deadbolt), the customer service agent immediately told me that she would send out the re-keyed lock the next day, so I assumed (wow...I should know better by now) that she knew which one it was.
And of course the parts arrived at 6:01pm, just after their offices closed for the day. To be fair, it could have worked had there been less damage to the external locking mechanism, but the little tab that connects it to the deadbolt had sheared, so I needed both, or a locksmith. And as you know, I am a cheap bastard, so no locksmith for me thank you very much!
But the next morning I called them up, and they were efficient and apologetic (not necessary at all) and sent me the correct lockset, and even tossed in early delivery, which was much appreciated.
Installation was not obvious, and the amount of tightening of the screws holding the two locks together is definitely not intuitive. My first instinct was to tighten them a lot. But that introduced far too much friction in the system and it didn't function. Great! How about a simple torque value so it isn't a guess?
I am sure I could have called Baldwin and they would have told me exactly how to install the locks, but damn it! I'll do this myself.
I was pleased with their customer service...not everything works perfectly, and they were more than willing to make it right, and didn't even ask for the return of the first lock. They were also very pleasant, which makes everything very nice. The first agent even pretended to laugh at one of my jokes, which I think is wonderful training on Baldwin's part.
Anyway...what positive experiences have you had with companies that obviously want to do the right thing for their customers? We all have stories of the opposite, but let us set those aside and talk about the good ones.
[Well, unless you have a great "lousy customer service" experience]
Most of us remember the fall of the Soviet Union, which was predicted by exactly nobody in our intelligence institutions, many of whom were predicting exactly the opposite. Of course the conditions for its fall were created by a B list actor, an electrician in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, and a Polish priest in Rome. They were helped by a few basic laws of economics and human nature, and the hubris of the vast Soviet bureaucracy, led by the Politburo and the Central Committee.
And to the East was a large and even more backwards country that instituted many of the same draconian economic and social strictures on its people. They had their own trouble with immutable laws of economics and the desire of many people to be free -- The Tiananmen Square Massacre was the culmination of months of protests, driven by students but seemingly embraced by many others. But the neo-Mandarins had been looking both east and west, and had begun a program of economic liberalization that they hoped would placate the people and improve the dim prospects of a communist economy. So they put down the revolt with tanks while continuing to loosen their hold on the economy.
Fast forward 30 years and they had created a huge economic engine driven by easy credit and the insatiable desire of the Western world for China's inexpensive (and cheap) consumer goods. How? By seeing the flaws of a pure socialist command economy and loosening the restrictions on private enterprise.
And it worked. But how to keep control of a populace that has a taste of relative prosperity and can see what freedom looks like just a few miles off China's coasts? Were they unwittingly prepping the battlespace for another protest like 1989's? One led not from the universities but from the highest ranks of the communist party and the army?
They can see the problems, the deep-seated, long-standing problems in China, caused by the system of totalitarian dictatorship, which they have. They understand those problems better than the people in the outside world do.
They can see better than most people can see, that this regime is outwardly strong, but inwardly weak. And that it’s in a state of political decay. And that their best hope for preserving their own wealth and power, as well as the best hope for China, is to lead a coup d’etat to remove Xi Jinping and to launch China into a democratic transition.
Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?
But it is not to be. The rulers of China have embraced several things that will effectively minimize the possibility of any coup attempt, no matter its origins, from being successful.
First and most powerful is Western internet technology that gives them access, and the ability to observe, every form of communication. The police State is alive and well and living in every Chinese smart phone and every computer.
Garside addresses the issue, and his response is a forlorn hope that someday...
We have to find a way of breaking through the extremely efficient system of censorship. Because I believe that when the Chinese people know the truth, they will be outraged to learn the lies they have been fed, generation after generation and the tragedies which have been covered up generation after generation.
That is a noble thought, but the Chinese surveillance state is comprehensive. The gift of Western technology destroyed the advantage that any nascent rebels and revolutionaries might have. Now the Police State can be proactive rather than reactive, so scenes like Tank Man in Tiananmen Squire will no longer be possible.
Second is the example of the Soviet Union. They have a playbook for how to fail, and they have read it, and are acting accordingly. They loosened economic controls to unleash the pent-up desire for a better life, and while they re-tighten those controls now and again, it is a powerful tool to shift the gaze of the Chinese people from Western wealth to Chinese growth and future wealth.
And the third is traditional Chinese nationalism. They may dislike their rulers in Peking, but those rulers are demonizing the West and making them the new enemies of the Chinese people.
We all want to believe that in the natural state of humanity is the desire to to be free, to manage our affairs without interference. And in many people that is the case, but not in all, or in nearly the numbers required to combat China's comprehensive internal security and its demonstrated comfort with ruthless crackdowns on any who seem to be pushing back against its power.
Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules). Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes 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 I would definitely wear to a Andy Warhol's barbecue. And the boots. Yeah, I'd wear those, too.
Of the 6 million volumes that make up the University of Washington Libraries collection, approximately 1.6 million are housed in Suzzallo/Allen Library. Along with the Main Collection, Suzzallo/Allen Library also has a Children's Literature, Government Publications, Natural Sciences, and Periodicals collections. The Special Collections contains a Rare Book Collection with books printed before 1801. The Microforms/Newspapers collection is the largest collection of microform materials in any Association of Researches Library. Suzzallo Library also houses the main technical services units of the UW Libraries, including the Monographic Services Division and the Serials Services Division.
Too Bad The Cause He Was Fighting For Was A Lost One
Here's a guy I wish more students would learn about in school: Always with Honor: The Memoirs of General Wrangel is the historical account written by General Pyotr Wrangel, who was was pretty much the last guy to take a stand against Lenin and his bloodthirsty gang of Bolshevik thugs after they seized power in 1917.
As World War I drags on, political turmoil slowly paralyzes the Empire. The Czar abdicates. His replacements are ineffectual and incompetent. Violence sweeps the country. One by one, institutions collapse under the weight of chaos and terror. The Bolsheviks, a small group of communist radicals initially supported by German intelligence, launch a revolution that sends the country into a tailspin. The nation is plunged into a terrible civil war which by its end will leave over 10 million Russians dead, with millions more scattered across the globe.
Leading the anti-communist "White" forces against the new "Red" army to the end was Pyotr Wrangel. Wrangel, a career cavalry officer who fought with distinction in the Russo-Japanese War and World War i, found himself at the center of various intrigues in the early stages of the Russian Revolution. After narrowly escaping death at the hands of a Bolshevik execution squad, Wrangel joined the Volunteer Army of General Denikin. Although Wrangel accomplished the impossible repeatedly, leading his tiny cavalry force to victory over communist units many times its size, he was unable to persuade Denikin to abandon an ill-planned assault on Moscow. After that offensive failed, the Volunteer Army collapsed.
But not all at once. Wranger managed to reorganize his forces and succeeded in retaking Crimea and the surrounding area from the Reds. There, he and his remaining men staged a heroic defense while attempting to obtain international support. But it was to no avail. Russia was abandoned by its former allies and Wrangel's position became untenable. He personally directed the evacuation of his Army and thousands of civilian refugees. He escaped to Yugoslavia with his family and eventually settled in Belgium, where he died in 1928.
I think this would be a great project for moron author Alec Lloyd, author of Long Live Death: The Keys to Victory in the Spanish Civil War to tackle, i.e. a history of the post-Revolution civil war in Russia, 1917-1920, focusing on the "Red vs. White" military operations - armies, equipment, foreign involvement, tactics, blunders, the whole nine yards. I don't know if such a book has ever been written, but if not, Mr. Lloyd is the author who was born to do it.
(Last week's 'who dis' was Matthew Mcconaughey who's looking the worse for wear.)
Moron Recommendations
Mrs. Muse got to talking with her doctor during an appointment a couple of months ago and the conversation turned to books. He recommended The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks document the strange fate of a poor southern black girl:
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions...Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death...And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits
From what Mrs. Muse tells me, there was something unusual about Ms. Lacks' cells so that they were able to keep growing and multiplying indefinitely, a feature that medical researchers used to their advantage -- but not to the Lacks family's.
Mrs. Muse started reading it and could scarecely put it down. It is a very well-told true story.
57 Recommended here a few months ago, I read Beartown by Fredrick Backman, the author of Ove. Beartown is a small town in Sweden located on a lake and surrounded by forest. Beartown, like many small towns, is slowly dying. Beartown is a hockey town. Hockey is what unites the town, and when its junior team wins the semi-final in the national playoff match, the town is more united than ever. However, an incident at the team's post-game party that night tears the town apart.
This is one of the best novels that I have read. Backman captures the essence of a small town and what it is like to live in one. In particular I liked when he gives the history of his characters and offers psychological insights into their actions.
Posted by: Zoltan at June 13, 2021 08:24 AM (kiyX4)
Great review by Zoltan of Beartown, not much I can add to it. Oh, other than to tell you that there are actually two Beartown novels by Backman. The 2nd one is called Us Against You and once again, the plot revolves around small-town hockey:
...Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don’t expect life to be easy or fair. No matter how difficult times get, they’ve always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. So it’s a cruel blow when they hear that Beartown ice hockey might soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in the neighboring town of Hed, take in that fact. As the tension mounts between the two adversaries, a newcomer arrives who gives Beartown hockey a surprising new coach and a chance at a comeback...But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the town’s enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.
Both of these novels carry the Amazon "Editors' Pick" label, and for $12.99, it's easy to see why.
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Lurker Liro100 e-mails his recommendation:
Unsettled, by Steve Koonin. Subtitle is What Climate Science tells us, what it doesn't, and why it matters. There is a good discussion of the book on the website wattsupwiththat.com
I've just started reading it but the lack of hysteria is refreshing and it upsets all the right people. Bjorn Lomborg wrote a favorable blurb for it.
When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that “the science is settled.” In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation... this book gives readers the tools to both understand the climate issue and be savvier consumers of science media in general. Koonin takes readers behind the headlines to the more nuanced science itself, showing us where it comes from and guiding us through the implications of the evidence. He dispels popular myths and unveils little-known truths: despite a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures actually decreased from 1940 to 1970. What’s more, the models we use to predict the future aren’t able to accurately describe the climate of the past, suggesting they are deeply flawed.
This is why it disturbs me when I hear that Bill Gates wants to dump tons of particles in the upper atmosphere to dim the sun to cool things down. I don't know if what he wants to do is possible, but the sheer hubris is staggering.
Dr. Koonin served as Undersecretary for Science in the US Department of Energy under President Obama from 2009 to 2011, where his portfolio included the climate research program and energy technology strategy.
Moron author Daniel Humphreys series featuring supernatural investigator Paxton Locke, which began with Fade has just been incremented by 1 with the release of the fourth installment, The Sacred Radiance:
Life is normal for Paxton Locke.
As normal as it can get as a government agent working against the supernatural, that is. But Paxton has a steady job, a house, a life in one place. A life that he’s sharing with Cassie. It’s stability he has never had, a life he could have only dreamed of while ghost hunting in his RV.
But there are still unanswered questions...and whispers of a wizard at work. Paxton and his team head to England to investigate...
Soon Paxton and his team realize ancient wizard Aleister Knight is gathering items for an insane, destructive ritual deeply tied into the history of England...and the only way to stop him is to descend into the bowels of his island fortress.
Daniel tells me:
It should blow away any members of the horde who liked the first three; I turned it up waaay past 11.
Even better, the follow-up should be out in a few months.
Five years after her parents were murdered by their foster child in Alabama, Rose Grissom got a mysterious package in the mail, seemingly from someone long dead. The contents of the package filled her with the suffocating fear that her parents' killer did not act alone, but was part of a boogeyman cult that had now turned its murderous gaze on her and her young family.
She was determined not to live in fear. And so she would go back down to the scene of the crime to solve the mystery of Rufus. He was supposed to be just a legend, a boogeyman tale, nothing more. But down in Crockett County, Alabama, in a swamp known as Hell's Back Forty, the blue-tail flies would tell a different story.
Available on Kindle for $3.00. There's also a paperback edition and an audiobook version is in the works.
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So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, insults, threats, ugly pants pics and moron library submissions may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.
What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.
These are the first modules that actually have a price - $400 for 32GB - and a shipping date - end of this month.
They're 4800MHz modules, and that price matches existing overclocked DDR4-4800 modules. (That listing is for 16GB; I couldn't find any 32GB kits.) It's about double the price of mainstream DDR4-3200 though.
Also, these modules have a 40 cycle latency which is definitely not fast. I'm not sure exactly how that relates to DDR4 latencies though.
Also also, if you follow that link, don't read the comments. WCCFTech is great for leaks and the very latest hardware news, but the comments are full of bored 14-year-olds.
Anime of the day is Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi from 2016, a.k.a Time Travel Girl: Mari, Waka, and the Eight Scientists, a.k.a Time Travel Girl, a.ka. MariWaka.
It's the story of a girl looking for her scientist father who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and of the history of scientific research into electricity and magnetism from William Gilbert in the 16th century through to Thomas Edison.
It's the first time I've seen a simple explanation of the Curie point of ferromagnetic materials - never mind in anime, in any medium - and also the first time I've seen characters of a story construct a stable time loop using nothing more than whipped cream, sponge cake, and a magnetised needle stuck through a cork.
Time travel aside, the historical and scientific elements of the story are accurate to the best of my knowledge. Not so sure about the cake parts, which get about as much screen time as the other elements.
There's also a scene where a defibrillator is used properly and under appropriate circumstances.
Their high end NAS offerings are very high end, with AMD Epyc server CPUs, up to 256GB of RAM, and 24 NVMe SSDs. That's enough I/O to flood even dual-port 100GbE. But dual-port 100GbE uses most of the bandwidth of a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, so right now it's the fastest practical server interface.
There are faster versions of Ethernet - 200 and 400 gigabit, with 800 gigabit announced but not shipping yet - but those are reserved to high end switches with six digit price tags. A 100GbE card can be found for a few hundred dollars.
The same North Korean hacking organisation - which would be under government control because internet access in North Korea is under government control - also hacked several other South Korean government agencies and senior officials.
If you join a WiFi hotspot with that SSID from an iPhone, your WiFi will stop working entirely. Turning your WiFi off and on again won't help, and nor will rebooting your device.
Only option is to go into Settings and reset all the network settings, and then have the fun of entering all your details again.
Don't bother with the article; it blames Windows 11 on Donald Trump.
Speaking of Windows 11, if you wanted to get the leaked preview it's being taken down. (TorrentFreak)
Unsurprising, and you probably didn't wat it anyway.
Microsoft has left reviews alone as long as they didn't link directly to download sites. In the US they wouldn't have a legal basis for a takedown anyway. Not that this tends to stop the DMCA notices.
Ryzen APU Review Video of the Day
Today it's the 5700G which also isn't out as a retail component but is available in prebuilt systems. This model has 8 cores and 8 graphics units, up from 6 cores and 7 graphics units on yesterday's 5600G.
It's not a lot faster for gaming than the 5600G - less than 10% on the integrated graphics - so you'd only want this if you want a high-end CPU and passable graphics.
I'd be interested in seeing it tested with faster RAM; you can get DDR4-4000 memory for not much more than standard DDR4-3200, and that should give quite a boost to integrated graphics.
Disclaimer: Break glass in case of stable time loop caused by broken glass.
I’ve done this before, but here is some more clever street art. I love that an anonymous artist puts his talent and creativity into a fleeting work of art, that for a just short while will provide smiles to those passing by.
Prior to the D-Day Invasion in 1944, the Allies sought to divert German troops from Normandy by leading them to think the invasion would happen elsewhere. One of the ruses was sending a double of British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery around the Mediterranean to talk up war plans in that theater.
After an outing and lunch, James had a short meeting directly with Montgomery to learn the tone and cadence of his voice. It was an easy conversation, and even James was struck by their resemblance. “All I had to do,” he later wrote, “was to broaden my moustache, slightly whiten my greying hair—and I was General Montgomery.”
After the war, Mr. James starred in a 1958 movie about his role of a lifetime – “I Was Monty’s Double.”
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REYNOLDS’ LAW & DEFERRED GRATIFICATION
Law Professor Glenn Reynolds (aka “Instapundit”) succinctly explained the futility of trying to give people a middle-class lifestyle if they are not required to earn it. The following is now known as “Reynolds’ Law.”
The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.
Mrs. Throckmorton and I occasionally reflect on our barely-scraping-by days, and the discipline it took back then so that we can now enjoy the fruits of middle-class life. However, it is sometimes still difficult to change our behaviors and start indulging in some gratifications which no longer stretch our budget. In my 20s, my nightly salad was iceberg lettuce, croutons, and cheap Italian dressing. It took many years before I felt affluent enough to add blue cheese to the nightly salad, and I just realized that to this day I’m still treating Butter Lettuce like a luxury item only to be enjoyed on rare and special occasions. On my next grocery run I’m getting some Butter Lettuce, by golly.
What about you? What are some items you kept denying yourself out of habitual discipline, long after you could actually afford to enjoy them?
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BUZZ PHRASE INSULTS FROM THE ‘70s
For some weird reason, sitcoms in the 1970s liked to create a buzz phrase insult, and one of the highlights of each episode was when the buzz phrase was said. “Sit on it” from Happy Days became a popular insult in my grade school circle of friends. And though we all loved Welcome Back Kotter, “Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose” never really gained traction with my friends.
So, if any of you go straight to the comments without reading tonight’s ONT content, you can Kiss My Grits.
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THE KABOOM KIDS NATIONAL ANTHEM?
For all you Kaboom Kids out there, here’s a love song for you.
“You’re Not The Best, But You’re The Best That I Can Do” by Charlie Robison
So sit down here beside me girl and I’ll tell you what we will do
We're gonna twist them lids and hope our kids look more like me than you
And when that bottle’s finally empty, we're gonna tumble across the floor
And I'm gonna pray my imagination is gonna pull me through once more
Hey ‘Ettes: What’s a similar song from a woman’s perspective?
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ART OF THE HORDE
As many of you have noticed, I very much appreciate art of the common man (and woman.) Moron reader “Reine” shared some of his artwork with me. He said that making these leaded glass panels is his retirement hobby. Now I need to read up on the difference between “stained glass” and “leaded glass.” Very impressive, Reine!
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DON’T EAT THE YELLOW SNOW CONES AT MINUTE MAID PARK
I was a big Major League Baseball fan for most of my life - until they started wearing BLM stuff on their uniforms and plastering BLM logos all over stadiums in 2020. My favorite sport accusing me and fellow fans of being racists, and advocating for violence against police, was a pretty big turn off for me. I haven’t tuned in since the first weekend of the 2020 season. MLB’s ongoing left-wing activism (pulling the All-Star game from the state of Georgia) makes me happy to stay away.
But even if I never watch another pitch or visit another ballpark, I’ll never forget this great moment:
A weird (and fun) little tradition is the annual tomato war between Coloradans and Texans. For some reason, Coloradans got a little weary about the flood of Texans coming to Colorado each summer to escape the Texas heat, as well as the flood of Texans hitting Colorado’s ski slopes each winter. Colorado likes the Texas money, of course, just not the Texas swagger. I think Coloradans are also jealous of how well Texans dress the part when skiing.
Of course, Colorado really should have been fighting the California invasion. Texans visit, spend money, and then leave. Californians visit, then don’t leave, and then inflict their cultural rot.
Anyhow, word is that the 2021 Colorado vs Texas tomato war will be held in September in Chaffee County, CO.
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CELEBRITY PRIVILEGE
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THROCKMORTON’S FIRST LAW OF LIVE MUSIC: IF THERE’S AN UPRIGHT BASS IN THE BAND, IT’S PROBABLY GOING TO BE GOOD
Let’s try one more time to do a love song tonight. This is a sweet, romantic waltz.
“Sweet Is The Melody” by Iris Dement
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Tonight’s overnight thread has been brought to you by Finnish Snipers
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Thanks again to the horde for letting me play host tonight. Please feel free to offer any helpful feedback, insults, or tips at buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com
Saturday Evening Movie Thread 06-19-2021 [TheJamesMadison]
—Open Blogger
Howard Hawks
Before I begin, a big thanks and shoutout to Mark Andrew Edwards who suggested Howard Hawks as my next cinematic excursion. This has been a fun one, and I wouldn't have considered it without Mark's prompting. Thank you!
In 1954, the French cinema magazine Cahiers du Cinema was in turmoil. The younger generation of film critics, led by Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, were rebelling against the stuffy, unimaginative, and immoral work of the contemporary French film industry. Popularizing the auteur theory with his article, "The Tradition of Quality", Truffaut and his fellow band of misfits looked beyond their borders for examples of contemporary film that they could admire, and they ended up focusing on Hollywood.
The most famous example was Hitchcock. Truffaut interviewed the British born director, writing a book about it, but other directors were highlighted as well. One of the most prominent of these others was Howard Hawks.
Most people seem to have little knowledge of Hawks, though he's directed several favorites. He made two of the most well-known and beloved screwball comedies, His Girl Friday and Bringing Up Baby. He directed two of the four movies that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together including the first where they met, To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep. He made a pair of John Wayne's best Westerns, Red River and Rio Bravo. He worked with Bogart, Bacall, Wayne, Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Danny Kaye, Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyk, John Barrymore, Joel McRea, Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, James Caan, Montgomery Clift, Ginger Rogers, Jane Russell, and Marilyn Monroe.
Who was this man who work with so many stars, made so many great movies, and seems to have been somewhat forgotten?
Men in Dangerous Professions and the Women Who Love Them
Hawks was the son of a wealthy paper manufacturer, won a national tennis championship at 18, earned a mechanical engineering degree from Cornell, and trained pilots during World War I in the Army. He never saw combat, but his experience of the physically demanding and dangerous life of a wartime pilot in wooden and cloth airplanes stuck with him for a long time. Moving back to California after the war, he finagled his way into the film industry until he started directing in 1926 with the now lost silent feature The Road to Glory (a title he used a decade later for a World War I movie that has nothing to do with his original work).
A contemporary of Hitchcock, I see them both as part of the second generation of filmmakers. The first were pioneers like DW Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, and Buster Keaton. Hawks came into a fully formed industry at the end of the silent period and was part of that generation that figured out how to make talkies. His first two talkies are lost, but his earliest existing talkie, the World War I pilot drama The Dawn Patrol (that was remade less than a decade later with Errol Flynn) is the rough form of the kind of movie he was going to make for the rest of his career.
Over the course of the 30s Hawks made several films in this mold, from the racing drama The Crowd Roars to the tale of tuna fishing off the coast of San Diego Tiger Shark to the massively underappreciated World War I drama Today We Live, and as he continued in this mold, his voice became clearer. In more and more films he shows men working in dangerous professions and the women who loved them.
There are a few things to parse in that assertion, so let me start with "Men". This is always about multiple men. He showed the comradery of a grown men, finding the time to bond deeply with each other. These were great friends, and what bonded them was their professions. Whether it was racing, tuna fishing, piloting aircraft, or cattle driving, these men had a common bond that tied them together intimately. This is wonderfully demonstrated in The Dawn Patrol when the British pilots shoot down a German flyer only to immediately start drinking with him once they take him back to their headquarters. They may fly under different flags, but out of their aircraft, they're all just men one more mission away from certain death. That commonality between men is important to almost all of Hawks' work. The only thing that could come between men in this sort of situation is a woman.
The Hawksian woman is a strong, independent woman who can keep up with the men in terms of wit and intelligence. They are distinctly feminine, and they all have a thing for men who do dangerous things. Jean Arthur in Only Angels Have Wings struggles with herself because she doesn't know if she can love Cary Grant when every time he goes up in a plane in the little Central American port city of Barranca, but she ultimately decides that his danger can be hers as well. In Ceiling Zero June Travis is a pilot learning the trade and comes between James Cagney and Craig Reynolds, happy to share the danger in the skies with the men. There are a lot of love triangles in Hawks' films.
Classical Visuals
Hawks was never a conscious visual stylist, choosing to work with standard tools to never draw attention to himself. He appropriately used wide shots, medium shots, and closeups, often only using closeups for the most emotionally thrilling moments (as one should). There's a great moment early in Red River with the only concentrated use of closeups on the ranch hands as the group, led by John Wayne, begin the cattle drive northwards to Missouri. We get a quick succession of closeup of the hands' faces as they yell the herd forward.
His visual stylings are most interesting in Come and Get It, though. There's an interesting back story where Hawks was adapting a novel by Edna Ferber, but Samuel Goldwyn, the producer, was expecting a much more faithful adaptation of the book than what Hawks ended up delivering. When Goldwyn found out, about three-quarters of the way through production, he fired Hawks and replaced him with William Wyler to finish the picture, ending up giving the pair co-directing credits though they were never on set at the same time. It gets really easy to see where Hawks stopped working and where Wyler started because they naturally frame shots very differently.
Hawks' frame was largely functional. There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. He set up his characters in frame, and he let the actors improvise their way to a scene (one of the main reasons the production got off track from the novel). Wyler, by comparison, had a much more exacting eye, using three dimensions and spacing within a frame to imply power relationships, for instance. They're not showy, but once you realize what he's doing, it's impossible not to see it in every film he made like The Big Country and The Little Foxes.
I think this is one reason why the film geek community tends to skip over Hawks. It's not that they don't like him, but that they just don't think about him. Visually Hawks was functional rather than showy, so there seems less to pay attention to from a cinematic point of view. I don't agree. His work is more classical and actually subtle, even more effective than showy forms in certain cases. His Girl Friday is largely built on long takes as Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell spit fire back and forth, never cutting away, but always with rapid fire wit that makes the experience fly by. That's a conscious stylistic choice, allowing the visual space to focus on a pair of actors playing off of each other rather than cutting back and forth.
Repetition
Hawks worked through the height of the studio system where individual players and technical staff were all on contract with individual studios, but Hawks was never really a studio player. He definitely had contracts, most notably with Warner Brothers early in his career. He butted heads constantly with studio executives, and Warner ended up loaning him out to other studios like Columbia (for Scarface) for the bulk of his contract.
What does this mean? I think it essentially puts him in a similar space as Orson Welles. Chafing under the constrictions of a system designed to move people like widgets, Hawks needed to have more independence. He needed to tell the stories he wanted to tell, not the stories that others told him to tell. This is, I think, one of the big reasons there's such uniformity to his work thematically. He repeated himself a lot in terms of plotting and characters, but it was always in search of new ways to say things about what he cared about.
That repetition ends up feeling like different drafts. Only Angels Have Wings is effectively the same movie as Ceiling Zero, not in some opaque similar plot sort of way, but in terms of it having the exact same beats, similar characters, and similar points. This was never really a problem in my eyes because, often, the later versions were actually better than the earlier ones (Angels is great while Ceiling is pretty good, for instance). He started outright remaking earlier movies with A Song is Born, though, a contracted picture that he had no desire to make which was based on the same Billy Wilder story as his earlier and much more successful Ball of Fire.
It became a bit of a joke towards the end of his career, though. After a wildly successful 40s, and a very strong 50s, Hawks began to get old. After the failure of Land of the Pharaohs, he came back with one of his best films, Rio Bravo, a character based Western about John Wayne guarding a jail for two hours. He used the same basic approach for his next film, the African adventure story of trappers, also starring John Wayne, Hatari!. Red Line 7000 feels like it's supposed to be the same thing for the racing world, but it takes on far too many characters for its running time leading me to think that it got cut down from a much healthier length for the story.
The critical and commercial failure of Red Line 7000, though, seems to have had a very negative effect on Hawks. His final two films after that, El Dorado and Rio Lobo are both, after a certain point, outright remakes of Rio Bravo, his last huge success. Both films very much have their merits, but there's no denying that Leigh Brackett, the co-writer on both and the writer of the earlier Rio Bravo, rankled at having Hawks insist on simply repeating the ending situation and resolution of the earlier film, especially on Rio Lobo. I think Hawks had grown old and was just going back to the familiar.
Now, that's not to say that Rio Lobo is a kind of Buddy, Buddy disaster of a final film. I see it more along the lines of Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot. Not his best work, but very much of his body of work with many of the charms that made his earlier great films great, just not quite at that level.
Retrospect
Howard Hawks had one of the great runs in film. From 1938 to 1948 he made Bringing Up Baby, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, Sergeant York, Ball of Fire, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, and Red River. (Air Force is also in there, but it's almost purely a piece of wartime propaganda and doesn't work nearly as well as everything else he made around that time.)
This is the kind of output that any director should be absolutely jealous of. These are classics that have stood the test of time, often representing some of the best examples of genres that Hawks had, quite simply, never worked in before. The Big Sleep is one of the best film noirs, and Hawks had never made a noir before. He also never made another noir afterwards. That was it. He made one noir, one of the best of the genre, and he moved on to make one of the best Westerns of the genre (Red River), another genre he had never worked in before, consciously aping John Ford's style to great effect and providing a canvas for John Wayne to prove himself as an actual acting talent. As John Ford said of John Wayne's performance after seeing Red River for the first time, "I never knew the big son of a bitch could act." I can think of no greater compliment to both Wayne and Hawks than that. Never mind that Hawks never won a competitive Oscar (being awarded an honorary one in 1974), this quote I would choose, if I were Hawks, as one of the finest and most important things said about the body of work.
Only Angels Have Wings (Rating 4/4) Full Review "Wonderfully acted, especially from Grant, Barthelmess, and Mitchell, Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings is a great little picture about daring men and how they treat with death on a daily basis." [Library]
His Girl Friday (Rating 4/4) Full Review "On the surface, it's a fast, entertaining bit of newspaper business, but just underneath it's more savage. That, I think, is what really helps this version rise to greatness." [Personal Collection]
Sergeant York (Rating 3.5/4) Full Review "Hawks was a well-practiced directorial hand by 1941, and he brings a quiet professionalism to every aspect of the production." [Library]
Ball of Fire (Rating 3/4) Full Review "It's easy and nice, helped wonderfully by the chemistry between the two leads and the crisp direction from Hawks. I can see why it was such a crowd pleaser in its day." [HBO Max]
Air Force (Rating 2.5/4) Full Review "It's an unfortunate ending to what had been a pretty solid film." [Library]
The Big Sleep (Rating 4/4) Full Review "This is really just primo entertainment from a group of extremely talented people. This is kind of an idealized example of film noir, anchored by a wonderful performance from Bogart and confidently and deftly directly by Hawks." [Library]
Red River (Rating 4/4) Full Review "This adaptation of Borden Chase's serialized novel The Chisholm Trail feels like Howard Hawks really reaching to make something bigger and newer for himself, and he succeeds wildly." [Personal Collection]
Contact
Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.
Follow me on Twitter.
I've also archived all the old posts here, by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ.
Hey kids, sorry to step on Sefton's thread a bit early, but I'm going to be leaving around 5:45 EDST for a few hours, so I won't be around to post the problem solutions until way later. Like perhaps as late as 9PM EDST. So I wanted to watch the thread for a bit before I took off.
TheJamesMadison should be along later with the movie thread. As always, the chess/dress pr0n thread is an open thread, so there is no such thing as an off-topic comment.
Beginner Problem - White To Play (1371)
Goal: White can force mate in 3 moves
Hint: There's only one way to bring the knight into play
r3k2r/p1Q2pbp/bpn1p1p1/3p2N1/4n3/2P3P1/PPKB3q/R2B4 w kq - 0 1
Goal: Black can force mate in 5 moves
Hint: A timely queen sac keeps the ball rolling
r6r/ppp2kp1/1b6/8/3np3/PPP2qN1/5P1P/R1NQ1RK1 b - - 0 1
Advanced Problem - White To Play (1369)
Find the mating lines.
r2r2k1/1p1n2pp/p2N1p1P/3P4/1P2P3/P2q1P1B/1B5P/2b2R1K w - - 0 1
Dress Pr0n For the 'Ettes:
As I start a chapter on mid-#19thc evening dress, I get to marvel as ever at the ingenuity that existed. Transitions were important and this dress moves seamlessly from day to night with the trick of detachable sleeves, early #1850s@metmuseum#fashionhistorypic.twitter.com/SHy1QfwF1g
This week's #FridayFrills is this delightful pink 1830s british gown. When I think of this time, I think of horrible hairstyles and big sleeves and this dress does not disappoint. The sleeves here are more disc shaped, but I wonder if they would be more spherical #FashionHistorypic.twitter.com/guPVaHsFAT
Greetings From The Romanian Police -- You're Under Arrest!
___________
Problem solutions will be posted as an update later on.
___________
Note: that cryptic line of letters and numbers you see underneath each board diagram is a representation of the position in what is known as "Forsyth-Edwards Notation", or F.E.N. It's actually readable by humans. Most computer applications nowadays can read FEN, so those of you who may want to study the position, you can copy the line of FEN and paste into your chess app and it should automatically recreate the position on its display board. Or, Windows users can just "triple click" on it and the entire line will be highlighted so you can copy and paste it into your chess app.
___________
So that about wraps it up for this week. Chess thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to my yahoo address: OregonMuse little-a-in-a-circle yahoo dott com.
Sefton's Now and Again Hobby, Modeling, Arts & Crafts and General Bodging Post
—J.J. Sefton
Hey kids. Hope everyone's having a great weekend so far. Mis Hum's Pet Thread is taking the week off so it's time once again to escape the insanity of the world and head for the basement, attic, garage, spare room or wherever to have some fun and be a bit creative.
Before diving in please remember to play it safe. When working with power tools or using any kind of toxic materials, always exercise caution, common sense, and wear appropriate eye, ear and lung protection.
On a personal note, I am in need of someone who has miniature machining skills. If you're interested in a challenge, e-mail me at admin "at" cutjibnewsletter "dot" com and I'll give you the details.
First up, whether you're into the whole cosplay thing or just sculpting for the hell of it, this gentlemen is a master with one of the oldest craft materials out there; good old papier mache. I know I said we're escaping the madness and he is making a plague mask, but he has a lot of cool projects on his channel and I think his process can be adapted to all sorts of other projects besides masks.
Next, British artist Selwyn Leamy has a brief but really informative video on how to do a cubist portrait in the style of Pablo Picasso. I paint strictly representational pictures, but I have tried cubism and it's not as easy as it looks. Definitely worth a look if you want to give it a go.
This guy scratchbuilds and kitbashes all kinds of sci-fi and fantasy action figures. Lots of great building, detailing and painting techniques in this two-episode droid build.
Ever wanted to make your own puppet head? This is part one in a series with all the tips, tricks and techniques. Check out his channel for all the other episodes as well as interviews with some well-known puppeteers.
Dave Meek is one of the more well-known model railroaders out there and he is building an On30 pike based not on a prototype but rather on the railroad rides found at places like Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. Like the aforementioned, his style is truly a unique caricature of real life, but his techniques for scartchbuilding structures and scenery are first rate and applicable to fine scale project. Here, he shows you how he shapes and colors foam rock work to imitate the desert southwest. Lots of great ideas on his channel so be sure and check it out.
Time for some furniture restoration porn from England. Raphael (don't know his last name) restores a really nice mid-century modern dresser/sideboard, while the production value of his video is really slick.
I'm sure you RC model airplane folks know all about the guys from Flite Test. They are doing some crazy things, as well as pioneers in making what can be an insanely expensive hobby into something that is very accessible even for those on a budget with aircraft made primarily out of foam core board. Here, they set up a duel between a giant P-51 Mustang and Messerschmitt 262.
These two furniture makers from Russia make some incredible pieces, including this stunning chair. They are definitely masters of bent lamination construction.
Finally, if you always wanted to know how a dystopian world like that of Blade Runner was created and filmed, then this video is a treatise on how to do it. Lots of great tips for sci-fi and miniature modelers as well.
Saturday Gardening and Puttering Thread, Farewell to Spring
—K.T.
Farewell to Spring from 40 miles north
Happy Saturday! It was 109 degrees here yesterday, with the same forecast for today (better than the earlier forecast of 112 to 117). There are fires in the West. Spring seems to be over around here. And Summer Solstice is tomorrow, on Father's Day this year. Here's a little History of Father's Day from the Old Farmers Almanac. Fathers Day has not been around as long as Mother's Day.
How is the last day of spring treating you and your garden?
The photo above, from 40 miles north, is a repeat. But I love those flowers, which are native north of us. There are 71 species of Clarkia native to California. Many of the others are also delightful. And there are fancy hybrids of Farewell to Spring (AKA Godetia) as well.
We have a special offer to start out summer, from Motionview:
I wanted to make this special offer to the AoSHQ Garden Gnomes before opening it up to the general public.
We've had some discussion of exotic multiplier onions being grown by members of The Horde in the desert. There is also a Northern version, the Potato Onion.
The origin of shallots and potato onions is uncertain. The earliest clear records of their use come from 12th century France (Fritsch 2003).
Potato onions were once a popular crop in North America, but fell out of favor in the early twentieth century, along with many other staples of the home garden. One possible reason for this is the additional labor involved in harvesting potato onions. Because they grow in a nest that must be divided, they are not as suitable for mechanical harvest as individual standard onions. The storage of bulbs for propagation can also be expensive on a large scale.
Potato onions are grown as a home or small farm product in Europe, North America, and parts of Russia and central Asia. They are grown commercially in Brazil and India (Fritsch 2003). They were grown in Finland commonly until the middle of the twentieth century and 22 varieties have been identified there (Heinonen 2014). Potato onions were reportedly once grown from seed in Russia, which may account for the rich diversity in Northern Europe, where seed production is rare (Leino 2014).
Good information for preppers and those interested in a permanent crop at the link above.
I really believe there is a bright future for Potato Onions after a century of neglect. But this bright future depends upon acceptance by a wider audience. This audience is not interested in Potato Onions that are "thumb size" as one seed catalog describes them. That audience wants onions that are at least three times their "thumb size." That audience will also be interested in more than just the yellow ones that are currently available. They might like to try the red and white ones mentioned in those old gardening books.
If you were observant, you caught my sentence where I mentioned the white Potato Onions I am multiplying out. Well, let me introduce my next section by telling you I also have developed a red one. Yes, if you were observant, you will note that I currently have all three of the colors mentioned in the old gardening books, and they are no longer extinct, because I have resurrected them. I am working on red, yellow and white Potato Onions that are at least three times larger than any currently offered.
I also believe the future of Potato Onions lies in the hands of home gardeners who are willing to do a little breeding work themselves. In the process they will be able to clean up the viruses and increase the size and assortment of colors of the bulbs.
Update
Some sources say that Potato Onions are the same as Egyptian Walking Onions, but apparently this is not the case.
Potato Onion is simply the common name for one type of multiplier onion. Another type of multiplier onion is the shallot. Potato Onions and shallots both multiply by root division and are classified as Allium Cepa Aggregatum. Egyptian Walking onions, (sometimes called tree onions), are also sometimes defined as multiplier onions, but are classified as Allium Cepa Proliferum. The walking type onions also multiply by root division, but differ from the Aggregatum group by forming bulbils instead of true flowers and seeds.
Potato onions and shallots will apparently cross-breed if they flower at the same time. And Potato onions may also cross-breed with regular onions.
Does anybody grow these? The author of this booklet (in progress) recommends allowing these onions to flower in the event of a flower stalk appearing, and planting the seeds, to eventually obtain better and larger onions. He has done a lot of experimentation, with a lot of variable results in various growing conditions with various strains of onions. He continues to have fun with these plants. Might work for those Arizona onions, too. Who knows?
Reminder that the Old Farmers Almanac Best Days Timetable might get you going during the summer, and that their Planting Calendar could come in handy for fall crops. Add your zip code.
Nostalgic Comments from Last Week
If you didn't check the comments on Sunday, you missed one from President Select Decaf, in reference to an earlier comment by PaleRider. This is a nostalgic weekend for many, and I thought these fit in well:
I've been pecking away at trying to restore long neglected flower beds because the tulips were awesome with spring rain we had and quite a few hollyhocks volunteered as well. If I were smart rather than sentimental I'd till up the whole mess, cover with layers of black plastic for a couple of years to kill the grass and than start over with about 1/3 of the size. But they were mom's flower beds so sentiment wins out for now.
PaleRider is simply Irredeemable
As my mother's health was declining she would bring me plants from her garden to plant in mine. I realize that I now have most of her garden in mine which was her intention all along, that her garden survives even after she can no longer look after it.
President Select Decaf
There's something nice about seeing plants from relatives in your garden. And passing along starts of indoor plants to those you love can also be rewarding. Good candidates are Christmas or Easter Cacti and Hoya.
Do you have a plant that was passed along from a family member?
Grandma's Iris at Brother's House
Trees
Having trouble identifying this.
Atlantic White Cedar vs Eastern Red Cedar... or Northern White Cedar?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Dr. Varno
P.S. I'm in N.Georgia if that's any help.
Well, Horde?
These spring bloomers are easier to identify. From the Cousin Connection, a last glimpse of a lilac from earlier this spring. Plus, a magnolia - blooms destroyed by wind the following night. This tree was planted in honor of the loss of the first dog she and her husband cared for.
Let's go to Florida
KT,
Here are some more pics of Sarracenia's, Drosera's and Drosera flowers, as well as 1 pic of a Rose Pogonia Orchid that showed up as a hitchhiker in my Bog along with several other hitchhiking terrestrial Orchid species I have found. Hope you like them. Tony Litwin
Sarracenia x 'Bugbat'
Sarracenia x 'Scarlet Belle'
Drosera filiformis x Tracyii 'Full of Love Bugs'
See the bugs?
Drosera burmanni flower
Drosera capensis flower
Drosera binata
Rose pogonia orchid flower
Flowers from The Horde
Hi, I saw some beautiful pictures of peonies a week or so ago and thought I would send in these.
I brought them in and put on my dresser for them to get a little sun. I have never seen a peony open up and become the white one on the right. It's my screen saver.
Thank you for the great gardening advice, pictures and commentary.
Sidney
The colors remind me of the Farewell to Spring at the top of the post. But they are bigger, of course.
If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden
at that g mail dot com place
Include the nic by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ,
unless you want to remain a lurker.
Actually, Happy Father's Day to all you men who play fatherly roles in the lives of children and younger adults. Even the difficult ones. Even if those roles are indirect.
Fatherliness can be a challenge today
I think that Powerline's Ammo Grrrll is pretty much on target here with her advice about RAISING KIDS AND CHICKENS. It starts out with some observations that mostly could have fit in the Gardening Thread, which you should maybe read. Heh. But then she gets into Thread before the Gardening Thread territory:
Grandma's chickens roamed freely throughout the yard pecking at everything, squawking and complaining incessantly, like members of The Squad, only smarter and less arrogant. They never really seemed very happy with their lives, in the coop or out.
But Grandma had a twin sister and HER chickens were Extremely Free Range. Auntie Iva's chickens were allowed IN THE HOUSE. They had to be shooed off the dining room table before we could eat. No wonder I have such a tremendous immune system!
So why, over the last 15 months and counting, has it been considered good for chickens to roam about, but to have children locked in their homes while teachers get paid for failing to teach, instead of the popular current practice of teaching to fail? Thank God the Teachers' Union is in charge. If students had school choice, how in the world would the black kids learn that they are too oppressed to take the "racist" ACT or even too stupid to locate a place to get an I.D. to vote? How would white kids grasp that they are singularly privileged and evil and responsible for slavery, including the 9 million slaves still in Africa today?
Did you ever notice that in ANY discussion of mothers, but particularly SINGLE mothers, you always hear two words, almost as a mantra: STRONG, INDEPENDENT women? So, "strength" and "independence" are prized qualities in women according to The People Who Decide Such Things. When was the last time you saw in print the phrase, "strong, independent men"? (I'll wait...) MEN are never described positively as "strong", which is seen as a threat, not an asset. And "independence" in men is not prized at all in Femi-Ninny World, lest the men grow a spine and disagree with the women who love bossing us around.
Yeah, I'm tired of that. "Strength" - of character, of adherence to values, of an ability to get through tough times, even just regular muscular, jar-opening strength - is equally good in both men and women. Many people HAVE had "strong, independent" mothers, especially if their husbands died or left them. God bless them all. But so have many of us had strong fathers, which was a blessing as well. And I have known several MEN who did all the hard work of raising children after the birthing persons, who all just happened to be women - what are the chances? -- decided they couldn't be bothered any more. (By the way, if a woman pretending to be a man can still technically be called a "birthing person," what do you call a man pretending to be a woman? An "impregnating person"? Rachel? Anybody?) Insanity!
There are several penetrating observations where these came from. And an appreciation. Lovely.
Larry Elder frequently speaks about the importance of fathers, particularly in the "Black Community". It's one thing to grow up with a single mom. It's another to grow up with a single mom in a neighborhood in which there are almost no involved fathers. And now, where BLM advocates for "mothers and parents", totally skipping over fathers as if they don't really matter.
More involved than you might expect. Some turbulence is revealed. His own father had a very rough childhood without a mother OR father after age 13 (but in a time when society still believed in fathers).
George Washington
George Washington, the Father of our Country, had no biological children, but was still a fatherly figure to many. He lost his own father when he was 11. So, how did he learn to be a man? Partly by reading, I think. The following rules were written by men, for men.
George Washington wrote out a copy of the 110 Rules of Civility in his school book when he was about 14-years old.
Vote for your favorite or comment on which Rule you think is still relevant today.
These maxims originated in the late sixteenth century in France and were popularly circulated during Washington's time. This exercise, now regarded as a formative influence in the development of his character, included guidelines for behavior in pleasant company, appropriate actions in formal situations, and general courtesies.
Something to think about today, perhaps. What would be today's equivalent set of Rules for Civility, and how would various adolescent boys respond to them over time?
The oldest thing that has survived completely unchanged is the Management Console which appeared in Windows 2000, but there are elements from Windows 95 / NT 4 that are the same except for a quick coat of paint.
On the other hand, MacOS has UI features that have stubbornly remained intact since 1984 when there was only one model and it had a 9" monochrome screen.
Anime of the day is My Hero Academia from 2016 (and continuing to air right now, currently half way through season 5). It's the story of Izuku Midoriya, a boy born without superpowers in a world where 80% of the population has a superpower of some description.
It's a Shounen Jump property and does hit all the tropes, but it's also a superhero story that understands the reason for superhero stories, something that the American comic industry has almost entirely forgotten.
It's worth checking out if you liked comics before they turned into first self-referential crap, then grimdark crap, then woke crap.
Except for the first half of season two. Wait, there is no first half of season two. It starts with, what, episode 13? Even the characters in the second half of season two think the first half was garbage. I have a screenshot of that but this margin is too small to contain it.
They point out that most of the cost difference between US and overseas production is due to subsidies provided by other countries, and not direct costs.
This is in addition to the recent $52 billion incentive program. As I said before, while the plan isn't ideal, of all the things the Senate has done recently this is one of the least idiotic.
The article notes that South Korea's government is pushing a $450 billion plan to support its own chip industry - which accounts for 15% of the country's exports.
It's DDR4-3600 with decent timings - CL18 - but the modules only go up to 16GB.
It's also not particularly cheap, even allowing for the price increases on RAM from the lows last year. It would be more cost effective to buy brand-name RAM with the same specs, and a sheet of printable stickers, and a printer, and stick your favourite anime characters on the heatsink yourself.
The parts are roughly the same price, so it's a level playing field. Only problem is that the AMD chip beats Intel on every benchmark, by between 20 and 45%. AMD also has a much cheaper 28 core model with less cache that would likely still beat the Intel part.
The leaked data included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, and hashed passwords, but not - it is important to note - your mother-in-law's maiden name.
This is a good indication that those networks are secure. If Russia could hack them they'd have no interest in banning them.
The company that is now behind Opera has engaged in some remarkably scummy practices - like offering high-interest loans in impoverished regions of Africa - so I still wouldn't trust them, but I haven't heard of any out-of-the-ordinary security issues.
Russia insisted in 2019 that VPNs provide access to the government to allow the automated blocking of websites. Kaspersky complied. Everyone else told the Russians to pound sand.
The previously banned ProtonVPN and ProtonMail. I don't know that much about ProtonVPN, but ProtonMail has a solid track record.
DDR5 is likely to launch at around 4800MHz and go up to 8400MHz. You can get DDR4 RAM at speeds over 4800MHz right now, but that's a big overclock and what you actually get depends on your CPU and motherboard and, in a large part, your luck.
What the study does show is that there is no significant variation in ageing in healthy individuals within any particular primate species, once other variables are controlled. Increases in human life expectancy are due to drastically reduced early death rates and to better overall health, and not to reduced aging rates.
Which doesn't imply that we can't change ageing rates. It just means that we don't have a convenient natural model. There's no rare tribe of monkeys that lives for 300 years.
But we - meaning not the idiots who write for The Guardian - knew that already.
A good friend will help you move, but a true friend will help you move a body. Across state lines.
Desktop APU Review Video of the Day
Steve reviews the Ryzen 5600G, which isn't available as a retail part for another few weeks but has been shipping in pre-built systems for a couple of months.
And finds it... Pretty good actually.
If you want to play lighter games like Minecraft, Fortnite, or Rocket League, it consistently gets 100 fps or better at 1080p on medium settings. That's better in many cases than an Intel CPU with a low-end card like the Nvidia 1030, and much better than an Intel CPU running with its own integrated graphics.
Intel's mainstream laptop Xe graphics are quite good, but the parts shipping for high-end laptops (six and eight cores) and for desktops have one third or even one quarter the graphics hardware, and kind of suck.
Purely as a CPU, the 5600G falls in between two other 6 core AMD processors, the older 3600X and the current 5600X. That means it pretty good. If you get it now because you can't find a graphics card at a sane price, you can play Minecraft for a few months and then add a video card once prices return to Earth, and not really regret your choice.
It will be interesting to see what happens once AMD has both DDR5 and their new die-stacked caches available. We already know they're capable of producing high-end integrated graphics, because that's what's in the current and previous generations of Xbox and PlayStation. They've been limited by memory bandwidth on PCs, but with this combination of technologies that will soon change.
Disclaimer: I'm Pomu. You're Pomu. We're all Pomu here.
Man, I'm tired. I've been working all day moving stuff from the old RV to the new one, with a time out to install the correct ignition switch in my mower. It started right up! Then ran for 30 seconds and died. It started right up again! Then ran for 30 seconds and died. It did this about 4 times, and now it won't start again. I'm about ready to throw the damn thing in the lake. I wonder what would happen if I blew off the ONT?
On this day 17 years ago, The Globo Gym Purple Cobras blew a four-man advantage against Average Joe’s Gym in the American Dodgeball Association of America Tournament. I tell you, I have been to the Great Wall of China. I have seen the Pyramids of Egypt. I've even witnessed a grown man satisfy a camel. But never in all my years as a sport fan have I witnessed something as improbable, as impossible, as that final match.
Tonight's ONT brought to you by fathers. Sunday is your day dads, remember how important you are, and how blessed you are to be a dad.
*whispers* complimenting people on their weight loss is inherently fatphobic. There is no way to do it that doesn't imply that their body was less worthy when it was bigger/softer. Find something else to compliment.
Your weakness is my strength. As always, I will take her whining and use it to make GAINZZZ:
I'm still on my semi-fast. I'm coming up on the four week mark. I've continued to lose, albeit slowly, lately.
One big advantage to ketosis is the crazy levels of energy you have. Glucose -- energy derived from carbohydrate -- just doesn't give you a lot of energy. Maybe after you've had a lot of sugar, but then only for an hour. Then your body pumps out insulin and to clear the excess glucose out of your blood, either to your muscles, if you're exercising, or your fat cells, if you're not.
But ketones liberated from fat-burning really amp you up as far as bodily energy. And they're not kept in a tight range, as glucose is. So once you're burning fat, you can feel pretty hyper.
Five years ago I didn't have energy and also couldn't concentrate on reading so I made an appointment with a psychiatrist for the first time, and got him to prescribe adderall for me. I mean, I didn't lie about my symptoms. They were real. I did, maybe, say some things to convince him I had some kind of adult-onset ADD. Which doesn't exist. But I mean-- I really did have a focus problem. Just probably not the kind of attention deficit disorder that ADD is prescribed for. Like a Google-and-Twitter caused attention deficit disorder.
I bring that up to establish that I know what adderall feels like, and I can attest, ketones in the bloodstream feel just like adderall. I'm getting a lot of chore-stuff done just because I'm always looking to do something. And it's free. And non-addictive.
I'm told by people that ketosis really gives people a lot more mental focus. But I've unfortunately not experienced that effect. I don't lose focus, but I don't gain any, either.
I'm past the "feeling hyper" phase, but I have a lot of energy. I'm always up and down and doing chores.
Can the keto people back me up on the bodily energy claim? And does anyone actually feel better mental focus?
Last week a commenter mentioned he was having trouble getting his daily fat on his keto diet. The keto diet is supposed to be 75%-85% calories from fat, which is actually pretty hard to manage.
I mentioned to him something I'd long seen recommended but only this year became a fan of -- keto "fat bombs."
They're good because most people do not eat enough fat on the keto diet. And most people do want to snack sometimes. And most people miss sweet things and deserts. The keto bomb checks all three boxes.
Keto bombs aren't something anyone should eat unless they're on a low carb diet. If you're low carb, you'll burn the fat for energy. If you're still eating carbs, the body will burn the glucose from the carbs preferentially, and just send the fat your consume to fat cells.
But if you're low carb, they won't add weight. Unless you eat them in great excess, which you probably won't, because fat is naturally satiating.
I have no READING GAINZZZ, alas.
So what about you guys? Tell me about your GAINZZZ, cuz!
And also, what BOOKZZZ you're reading, and what PROJECTZZZ you're starting.
Quick Hits: Our Rights Don't Derive From the Government, We Yield Them to the Government Edition
—Ace
Joe Biden: You heard me say this before, again and again. I'm going to keep saying it. What's that idea. We don’t derive our rights from the government. We possess them because we’re born. Period. And we yield them to a government."
Fauci held a secret meeting to "discuss the origins of covid," which he intended to keep secret forever. The existence of this meeting was only disclosed due to a FOIA demand.
Writes Allison Young:
As a reporter who has spent a decade revealing hundreds of serious safety breaches at U.S. biological research labs, it has always seemed obvious to investigate whether the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a major coronavirus research center, possibly played a role given that the initial outbreak happened in the same city.
Yet for more than a year, those who publicly raised such questions were too often deemed a crackpot conspiracy theorist or a simpleton who just didn’t understand science.
It has only been in recent weeks that a growing list of high-profile scientists, intelligence officials and politicians -- including President Joe Biden -- have publicly acknowledged the plausibility of a lab accident and pushed for rigorous investigation.
Perhaps that’s because the early concerns among key scientists -- like the conference call on Feb. 1, 2020 -- were kept private until now. That call likely would have remained secret if not for documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The meeting did not result in Fauci saying "It came from Wuhan, but we have to cover it up."
But Fauci and the rest of the scientists involved did keep it secret because they were pushing the Narrative -- the Lie -- that there was nothing whatsoever to discuss. The science was settled.
You can't call people Racist Conspiracy Theorists for discussing the lab leak hypothesis if you're forced to admit the head of the NIAID and top virologists are also discussing it.
She wants to spend $10 million of public money -- which she'll get not from Chicagoans, but from the rest of the nation -- to extend black lives.
"At almost every single point in our city's history, racism has taken a devastating toll on the health and well-being of our residents of color – especially those who are Black," Lightfoot said in a statement. "Without formally acknowledging this detrimental impact, we will never be able to move forward as a city and fully provide our communities with the resources they need to live happy and healthy lives."
You know what might extend black lives? Stopping crime. There's a mass shooting in Chicago -- of blacks, and by blacks -- every weekend.
All those young lives ended so quickly brings down the black life expectancy rate you pretend you're concerned with.
You're not, of course. You're just a demagogue giving the masses an enemy to hate so they don't look at your record.
But combating "Domestic Violent Extremism" is Biden's top priority, you know.
For some definitions of "Domestic Violent Extremists." Antifa and BLM will be allowed to maintain control of the cities.
Stone-Manning was caught participating in a plot to "spike" spruce trees in Idaho. She gave testimony at the trial of one of her fellow eco-terrorists and was granted immunity.
Spiking trees is a favorite tactic of radical eco-terrorists and has been known to severely injure several loggers who had the misfortune of cutting into a tree that had been spiked.
Biden's proposed head of the BLM would be responsible for administering federal lands. Its purpose is "to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations." Stone-Manning apparently doesn't believe that we need trees for anything except homes for squirrels.
BREAKING: Actress uses sex appeal to become a millionaire and now wants to close that opportunity to the next generation so she can feel like a moral crusader. https://t.co/j0IfzNWCed
Take it back – The Rise of Neofederalism (Part 1) [Dave in Fla]
—Open Blogger
You say you want a revolution
-- The Beatles
To my knowledge, the United States is unique in that each state operates almost as its own country. The federal model establishes a number of roles filled by the federal government, but outside of those roles all other responsibilities of governance are left to the states. Of course, we have seen the erosion of this model over the last decades, but in principle it is still unique. Every other country in the world operates using a national model, where policy implementations and police enforcement tend to be dictated from the top. It is fair to say that individual states have more autonomy for establishing laws and conditions than any peer state or province in other countries. This was particularly shown during the COVID plandemic, where the responses were wildly different between different states, resulting in significant differences in economic outcomes.
Leveraging the power of states to chart their own course is a tactic that the left has used for half a century to push their agenda. Now that they have succeeded in taking the reins of the federal behemoth, they are focusing on using the administrative state to impose their will on the rest of the country. A country that does not want their vision of America, as I discussed in my post on demographics.
But their shift toward a federal focus leaves an opportunity, a place where they have now abandoned the field. They only have so many troops for this fight, and they can’t fight on every front. Individual states are where the opportunities for victory lie, ironically due to the success of leftist initiatives in the past. Let’s take a look at some examples that show how state initiatives ended up driving national policy.
In 1975 the Clean Air Act established a national standard for the levels of emissions that are permissible for automobiles. However, when the Act was established, an exemption was issued for California. The EPA legally must issue this exemption to the state for them to establish rules that are stricter than the rest of the country. The current exemption was issued in 2013.
The reason that California was granted this exemption is that they got to the issue first. They had already put emission laws into effect prior to 1975, therefor to keep from overruling the existing state laws, the exemption clause was added to the Act. The practical result of this exemption is that California dictates to the rest of the country what kinds of automobiles they can drive. The automakers aren’t going to bother building two types of cars for sale in the United States, so cars that are able to meet the more stringent California requirements are what are sold to everyone. This exemption to the Clean Air Act has become the only operable feature of the Act itself, and California has threatened to sue if the exemption is ever rescinded. This example shows that a single state does have the power to regulate itself, even if it imposes a burden on businesses that operate nationwide. The courts don’t care about inconvenience to businesses.
Marijuana Laws
In the last few years there has been a rush to legalize the use of recreational marijuana. First was the push for medical marijuana, but that soon morphed into open marijuana use within many states. These laws are in direct conflict with federal law, where marijuana use is still a crime.
The basis for this disconnect is two memos issued by the Obama Administration’s DOJ. These memos outline conditions where the DOJ would look the other way and not prosecute federal laws, if states passed laws in compliance. What is interesting is that these memos are specific for marijuana, yet Oregon just passed its new law that legalizes all drugs, going far beyond the context of the DOJ memos.
The practical effect of the situation is that state laws have usurped federal law, in the case of Oregon without any underlying precedent. While none of this has been tested in court, there is nothing that stops the DOJ from rescinding those memos and prosecuting recreational drug users for federal crimes. However, if they did the likelihood is that the state laws would be ruled as taking precedence.
There are many other examples where state laws have driven national policy. The Right to Repair law in Massachusetts forced automobile makers to enter into an MOU in 2014 to guarantee access to car telemetry by 3rd party repair shops. The automakers did this rather than fight another 49 lawsuits.
Neofederalist Strategy
So how do we use these precedents to push our agenda, rolling back the leftist cancer that is destroying our country? First, keep in mind my first two essays. Our political philosophy represents a majority position in the country as a whole, and in the majority of states. Also voting laws are being strengthened to allow our votes to count. I have read your comments, and I can’t argue with you. The 2020 election and many others in the past make us question whether voting matters. But for the survival of our philosophy and ideals, it must be made to matter. In the end, our victory depends on the voters in places like Pennsylvania forcing their political will to be acknowledged. It means putting the right people into the legislature, getting a governor that respects the will of the electorate, and removing judges who won’t uphold the law. And while fixing states like Pennsylvania is crucial, using the political power that we already have in states like Florida and Texas is the lynchpin for taking our country back.
The examples above show the strategy that allows states to establish their own laws to govern on a range of fiscal and social issues. If a state can establish laws before any law is set by Congress, then they have a dominant position to demand that their law not be affected by federal legislation. Even if the legislation does exist, if the law or administrative rule is not identified as an enumerated power within the Constitution, the state law has a very good chance of prevailing in the courts. The winning strategy is to use our demographic advantage in the Red states to establish laws enshrining our principles and demonstrate the success of our model of governance.
Ace talks often about a National Divorce. We wonder what that would look like. I contend that it is major states like Texas and Florida enacting laws and policies that act as a magnet. Other states will follow suit. Liberals that don’t like the conditions will leave for states that better suit their tastes, while those with conservative leanings migrate to the Red states. By taking control of the educational process, within a generation the leftist cancer will be rolled back in these states, and their economic success will ensure they continue to dominate the national discourse. Eventually, they also retake Congress from the Uniparty by controlling the majority of legislative districts and states.
Since this post is reaching movie review length, I’m going to provide numerous examples of how this strategy is already playing out throughout the country in Part 2. Stay tuned!
The courts have allowed this never-ending harassment -- this targeting of a Christian for his religious beliefs -- to go on and on and on and on, and now the court says that Phillips must bake a "gender transition cake," even though, of course, that's not a type of existing cake.
You wouldn't make that cake for anyone, because that's a type of cake that just doesn't exist-- until it was invented by a vindictive, axe-grinding harasser who is determined to force a Christian to contradict his beliefs.
When Phillips was first sued by a gay couple, this vexatious transsexual extremist offered to take the place of the gay couple in carrying on the suit if they chose to bow out.
Phillips has been fighting these serial harassments from the Colorado Commission on civil rights, and this serial harasser since 2012.
Almost ten years. Almost ten years.
And still it continues.
And the transgender extremist, who admits he doesn't really want cakes but to change Phillips' mind through the power of never-ending, expensive lawsuits, threatened to immediately refile another lawsuit if this one is dismissed.
Phillips told Fox News that he was told "it was two colors, a color scheme, a combination, designed to celebrate a gender transition."
The customer, Autumn Scardina, an attorney, requested the cake in 2017 in honor of [HIS] gender transition. [NOTE: HIS GENDER REMAINS THE SAME AS IT WAS.]
"We told the customer, this caller, that this cake was a cake we couldn't create because of the message, the caller turned around and sued us," Phillips told Fox News. "This customer came to us intentionally to get us to create a cake or deny creating a cake that went against our religious beliefs."
He added: "This customer had been tracking our case for multiple years. This case was just a request to get us to fall into a trap."
Phillips told Fox News that in November 2020, he had a conversation with Scardina, who said "if the case were rejected or dismissed, that they would be back the next day to request another cake order and then sue me and charge me again."
First the transsexual, anti-Christian bigot asked over the phone to bake a cake that was pink inside, with blue frosting on the outside.
Phillips agreed to do so.
But that wasn't what this transexual harasser wanted. He didn't want the cake. He wanted Phillips to be forced to submit.
So then the transsexual harasser told him: The cake is for the purpose of celebrating my transgender expression.
Phillips was willing to bake this person a cake when it did not carry a political message that went against his religious teachings.
But getting him to endorse a political message against his religious teachings was the whole point -- so this transsexual had to tell him, oh, by the way, this cake has a message that offends your God.
Phillips then refused to bake the cake, bigot.
And then the vicious anti-Christian Satanist sued.
In court, Scardina explained how at one point, while his discrimination claim was being processed by the state, he called the Christian cakeshop to request a custom cake that featured Satan smoking a joint, to test the store's repeated claims he would be treated just as anyone else.
"They indicated that I was welcome back in their shop and entitled to the same treatment as every other customer that telephones or comes through its doors," Scardina said. "I had filed the charge, I think, sometime in July. It's now sometime in late fall. Nothing had been done as far as I was aware, and once again here they are saying 'Sure, she's [sic] welcome back, and come on in, and we'll treat you just like everybody else.'"
Scardina continued.
I found it sort of offensive and wanted to see if that’s true too. So I called and spoke with who I believed to be Mr. Phillips. He answered the phone this time. I think I indicated -- I asked: 'Do you serve religious cakes?' Because I noted in his several examples, they had nothing regarding religious cakes. Mr. Phillips indicated that he did. I asked him, 'Well, could you prepare a religious cake for me that had' -- I think a picture of Satan smoking a joint is the religious cake I asked for.
Pursuant to his religious faith, Phillips also refuses to bake cakes in celebration of Halloween.
Note the borderline mental retardation on display here: "Autumn" Scardina wants to prove that Phillips does not treat this bullying transsexual freak "just like anyone else."
He could prove this by ordering a normal cake -- just like everyone else.
Instead, he orders Satan cakes, which no one else orders (and note Phillips even refuses to provide Halloween cakes to anyone, likely due to the pagan/Satanic overtones), and then says, "He won't bake me a Satan cake, he's treating me differently!"
Um, who is he providing Satan cakes to?
And he was willing to provide you a custom cake -- until you taunted him that you were forcing him to endorse transgenderism.
His counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom issued this statement:
"Jack Phillips serves all people but shouldn’t be forced to create custom cakes with messages that violate his conscience. In this case, an activist attorney demanded Jack create custom cakes in order to 'test' Jack and 'correct the errors' of his thinking, and the activist even threatened to sue Jack again if the case is dismissed for any reason. Radical activists and government officials are targeting artists like Jack because they won’t promote messages on marriage and sexuality that violate their core convictions. This case and others--including the case of floral artist Barronelle Stutzman, whose petition is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court--represents a disturbing trend: the weaponization of our justice system to ruin those with whom the activists disagree. The harassment of people like Jack and Barronelle has been occurring for nearly a decade and must stop. We will appeal this decision and continue to defend the freedom of all Americans to peacefully live and work according to their deeply held beliefs without fear of punishment."
Yeah, you have the right to refuse to endorse a message that goes against your values -- if you're willing to fight in court for ten years, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for lawyers, routinely closing your business to appear in court, and losing 40% of your business (as Phillips said he did).
Meanwhile, Google's, FaceBook's, and Twitter's right to refuse to carry messages they don't agree with is absolute, and they can get cases against them dismissed by filing a single motion, either a dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted (that is, you have no right to what you're asking for), or simply citing the much-abused section 230.
The Tech Monopolies are out of court in about an hour. The file one piece of paper, the suits are dismissed.
On the other hand, a normal American attempting to exercise his rights is harassed by the state and state-empowered mental cases for ten years at the cost of most of his money.
If someone is to be entirely free to refuse to carry a hateful message with very little cost and very little court time, and someone else is forced to spend a decade of expensive litigation trying to vindicate his rights-- shouldn't it be the gigantic leviathan tech monopolies who have the burden of having to defend expensive lawsuits for decades, and the small business owner who gets to just file a single motion and get the lawsuit dismissed?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if ordinary citizens had a s.230 immunity -- requiring only a filing of a motion to execute -- to end these persecutions?
And if ordinary citizens do not have this potent level of immunity to coerced speech-- then the mega-monopolies shouldn't have it either, right?
But NeverTrump and Conservative, Inc. don't think so.
They think that only the largest monopolies in global history should have such a powerful level of autonomy and freedom from coercion, and ordinary citizens should be endlessly harassed by government commissions and lawfare vigilantes.
Then again, they're all taking money from the Tech Monopolies. Aren't they?
Right-wing disinformation in the guise of satire courtesy of The Babylon Bee
The Permanent "State of Emergency" In Blue States & Who Is Really "A Threat To Democracy"
—Buck Throckmorton
Amidst the blizzard of headlines reading "Republicans imperil American democracy" or something to that effect, the mainstream media and their "conservative" NeverTrump allies are strangely silent on blue state governors acquiring state-of-emergency powers during Covid, then choosing to never relinquish those powers.
The articles linked below are all current, from within the past few days. Isn't it peculiar that as these left-wing governors finally bow to pressure, science, and reality, and start to ease some Covid restrictions, they also determine that they must continue to retain their dictatorial emergency powers. As California Governor Gavin Newsom explained, it's "in case things go south."
In response to this dangerous power grab by Democrat governors, the media cheers, of course. NeverTrump, if forced to discuss the blue state tyrants and take a break from condemning deplorables, will simply change the subject. If you ask the Dispatch/Bulwark/National Review guys what they think about Newsom's power grab, they're more likely to start flirting with each other on Twitter about their favorite hot dog toppings than to condemn a Democrat governor for his illegal appropriation of power.
However, the media and its Conservative, Inc. allies are quite aware of a persistent threat to democracy. It's you. YOU are a threat to democracy, unless you start thinking properly and voting correctly.
Good grief. Her daddy was once Vice-President, and therefore as an American political princess she was somehow entitled to a seat in Congress, but that was still not enough for her. All of the Washington swamp now agrees that denying Liz Cheney a leadership position in Congress means our democracy is in peril. But Mario Cuomo asserting the power to deny each and every New Yorker their freedom, whenever Mario chooses to do so, for whatever reason? That’s no big deal.
Aside from the blue state governors who have permanently taken on dictatorial powers, here are some other things that strike me as a much bigger threat to our system of government than Princess Liz being denied a leadership title:
The President's role currently being administered by unknown, unelected handlers because Joe Biden does not have the faculties to care for himself, much less the country.
Courts having the authority to create any law, or throw out any law, simply on a partisan whim.
Monopoly tech utilities taking it upon themselves to deny Americans their Bill of Rights protections.
Allowing ballot box stuffing while eliminating any controls to ensure the integrity of our elections.
US intelligence agencies involving themselves in trying to influence US elections.
American politicians and major corporations being openly contemptuous of the United States, while being obedient servants of the tyranny that is our greatest political and economic competitor.
Teaching our children that they should hate this country, and also hate their fellow Americans based on skin color.
Paying US citizens not to work while opening the border for cheap, illegal foreign labor to replace them.
The good news is that I don't have to live under Newsom, Walz, Cuomo, Whitmer, or any of the other power-hungry governors that are sadistically inflicting punishment on their subjects. The bad news is that not all of the refugees flocking to Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and other free states understand that they voted in those power-hungry governors that took away their freedoms.
Californians, New Yorkers, and other blue state voters soiled their nests by electing tyrants. Unless they vote for freedom in the states they are fleeing to, they should stay behind and either enjoy the mess they voted for, or fix it.
Out here in free states, we have governors that have surrendered their own emergency powers and suspended all remaining local emergency orders within their states. What do our media betters call governors who terminate emergency powers? Why of course, they are "a threat to democracy." We're living in Orwellian times, but it's real simple, wherever elected officials retain emergency powers in perpetuity, you are never really free.
There's a reason for Rogan's anger: CNN is doing what the media often does, which is attempting to get their social media monopolist friends to ban their competition.
CNN's ratings are cratering, and Stelter was complaining that some mere YouTubers get better ratings than CNN.
In the latest episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," the podcaster trashed Stelter for having complained about YouTube personalities like him getting more viewers than CNN "as if it was some horrible thing."
"They were describing it as if they're entitled to viewers," Rogan, 53, noted of a panel discussion on Stelter's "Reliable Sources" in January.
"This is because the market has spoken and your show's f--ing terrible," the UFC commentator said, not holding back any punches.
"Brian Stelter's show keeps slipping and slipping and slipping in the ratings," said Rogan, whose show has had hundreds of millions of views on YouTube and regularly leads the podcast charts.
That's not just a mere complaint. That is laying the groundwork for the next organized, coordinated legacy media attack on alternative media.
Rogan understands Tater's agenda: He wants to provoke another "Adpocalypse," panicking corporations away from daring to advertise on alternative media.
The media has been losing ad revenue to alternative media and periodically runs scare stories about alternative media to get advertisers to abandon them and spend money on dying outlets like CNN, and to get the tech monopolies to hamstring alternative media with bannings and more censorship.
They've been running the same script for six years. Remember when the Wall Street Journal ran a hit piece against the world's biggest YouTuber PewDiePie? That was animated by the fact that the legacy media is bleeding ad revenue.
Since then, the legacy media has run fear-mongering hitpieces against podcasts -- why, they're unregulated! Why, podcasters can say just anything without layers of corporate control censoring them!
They even ran panic porn about the growing dangers of unmoderated chat software like Clubhouse!
We can't allow anyone to say just anything, without a state-connected corporate censorship structure "moderating" them!
Anything that threatens to drain further viewers and further ad dollars away from them, they start ginning up a case for deplatforming, forced censorship, and embargo by advertisers.
They aim to make any media model that differs from their own illegal.
Here's how the script always goes:
1. A pro-censorship, pro-deplatforming outlet, often CNN, begins laying the predicate that "something is wrong here."
2. CNN begins writing stories about the "dangers" of permitting their competition to just... speak as they like.
3. Fake internet "researchers" begin making charts, with almost no methodology behind them, except the desire to link A to Z, that purport to show that Tim Pool is "connected" to Richard Spencer, and that the Fandom Menace -- a group of people who, get this, think Disney Star Wars is trash -- is "linked" to White Supremacy.
The conclusion of these "studies" will be that if people listen to Joe Rogan, we'll have more January 6 Four Hour Insurrections, and since that was the most tragic event in all of human history, we must do everything to stop it.
4. More respectable outlets than CNN begin writing about these "studies." Liberals know nothing about science so they don't question the methodology of building these lunatic "this connects to this, and this links to that" Conspiracy Charts.
Liberals take any chart they don't understand to be an example of "The Science."
5. Now CNN assigns its Chief Deplatforming Officer Oliver Darcy to begin writing stories pressuring corporations to stop running advertising on the channel, pressuring their tech monopolist partners to limit and censor the channel, and asking hyperpartisan, pro-censorship Democrats if it's time to pass laws outlawing these channels.
6. The tech monopolies, now feeling pressure from corporations and threats of interference from state actors, do what they probably wanted to do anyway, and begin banning/limiting the channels the leftwing doesn't like.
And step 7:
7. Despite the fact that threats from the state contributed to the censorship by alleged "private corporations," NeverTrump and Conservative, Inc. say that the sovereignty of the tech monopolies must never be challenged and we must respect their completely-voluntary choice to censor alternative media. Which just happens to be a competitor of NeverTrump and Conservative, Inc. media as well.
In other words, they benefit personally, politically, and pecuniarily from these censorship campaigns just as the leftwing does, and support these censorship drives for the same craven, mercenary, disgusting reasons.
Remember, we have to "protect the public" from "disinformation," and force them to watch "real news."
"Real news," like CNN.
CNN, which suggested that the Indonesian airline was destroyed by a black hole.
Real news like that.
Tater has reason to push this agenda. I mean, apart from Jeff Zucker ordering him to.
He needs the competition to be outlawed more than almost anyone.
Few cable hosts have suffered more from President Donald Trump leaving office than MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace.
According to analytics provided by Nielsen Media Research, Wallace's 4 p.m. show Deadline: White House has seen a nearly 80 percent drop in viewership since January 2021 in the critical 25-54 demographic. At the end of May, just 147,000 non-geriatrics above the age of 25 tuned into her two-hour MSNBC program per day.
Although Wallace has worked hard to channel her previous experience as a White House press secretary into her role as an unofficial spokesperson for the Democratic Party, the results have been abysmal with a Democrat in the White House. Her total viewership in the month of May is less than half of her total viewership in January.
Pirates and Princesses, a Disney insider-gossip channel, says (and I believe this is an unconfirmed rumor) that Nickelodeon's viewership has dropped from 1.3 million average viewers per week in 2017 to 372,000 today. That's about a drop of seventy two percent.
Wow, if that's true, they're almost doing as poorly as Niccole Wallace!
By the way, Pirates and Princesses also reports that the box office failure of the woke In the Heights has Disney worried about its woke, race-swapped Little Mermaid live-action remake. And which also has songs written by the fading Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote In the Heights.
And what is the dying media doing to reverse their decline, besides attempting to force viewers to watch them by outlawing their competition?
Why, by running hard-hitting investigative pieces that demonstrate their importance.
Like this likely Pulitzer short-lister, from MSNBC:
— People Whining About Tucker Online (@FriendsOfTucker) June 18, 2021
By the way: FaceBook, of course, coordinated with a government official, Anthony Fauci, to cover up his likely role in the pandemic and censor anyone pointing it out.
As Viva Frei and Robert Barnes point out: That makes FaceBook effectively a state actor here, and yes, the First Amendment does bar state actors from limiting free speech.
The finding of this government-funded state actor? False!!!
And then FaceBook censored anyone contradicting the claims of this state actor.
Harmeet K. Dhillon is currently representing a man who was censored from FaceBook -- after FaceBook entered into a "partnership" with a Democrat official representing the state of California to reduce "disinformation."
Again, this is FaceBook acting as the enforcement arm of state censors. You're not a "private actor" when you "partner" up with the state.
But NeverTrump and the Conservative, Inc. media -- all taking money from AEI, the Chamber of Commerce, Google, and FaceBook -- will pretend they don't know about this and continue bleating "Muh Private Corporations (who just happen to also be Muh Private Donors)."
Rumor: China's Chief of Counter-Espionage Has Defected to the West Per Rumor, He's the One Who Alerted the West to China's Culpability in Releasing the Chinese Virus
—Ace
This is just the unreliable doxxing site The Daily Beast, but it's interesting.
I don't want to link this nasty site. I'll just quote the best parts.
Chinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter are abuzz this week with rumors that a vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang.
Dong Jingwei supposedly gave the U.S. information about the Wuhan Institute of Virology that changed the stance of the Biden Administration concerning the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dong is, or was, a longtime official in China's Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.
A person believed to be among the highest-ranking defectors ever to the United States from the People's Republic of China has been working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for months, sources inside the intelligence community have told RedState on condition of anonymity. The defector has direct knowledge of special weapons programs in China, including bioweapons programs, those sources say.
The information provided to RedState corroborates and clarifies Thursday evening’s reporting by journalist Adam Housley.
Obviously, this would be the same person Daily Beast is naming.
Adam Housley also reported on this, which I wondered about: Isn't China frantically trying to create the elusive "missing link" in the supposed natural evolution of the virus? So that they can fraudulently claim that they didn't create the pandemic?
"Back-dating" the virus through genetic forgery?
That's exactly what they're doing, says Housley, based, I think, on claims about this defector's reports.
Adam Housley
@adamhousley
Jun 4
Also...US intelligence believes China is trying to produce variants that suggest it came from bats to cover up that it originally came from a lab. The belief is still that it escaped accidentally, but was allowed to spread.
Adam Housley
@adamhousley
Again...what I reported tonight. US intelligence has a Chinese defector with Wuhan info. AND China is trying to produce variants that suggest it came from bats to cover up that coronavirus originally came from a lab
Almost as if they're saying: Do not press us on the Bat Virus we infected the world with.
The Chinese military sent 28 aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday, making it the largest show of force by the communist nation to date. The air mission included several high-grade military aircraft, including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers.
According to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, the latest Chinese incursion included the deployment of 14 J-16 and six J-11 fighters, H-6 bombers, anti-submarine, electronic warfare and early warning aircraft. As noted by Reuters, H-6 bombers are capable of carrying and firing nuclear weapons.
In response, Taiwan deployed its own air patrol forces, while also activating its anti-aircraft missile system to "pursue surveillance" of the situation. The Chinese government has yet to issue a statement on the matter.
Oh, I think the invasion of Taiwanese airspace is their statement.
In response, the G-7 -- not Biden, the collective with no individual responsibility -- issued a strongly worded and vague statement.
"We reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions and undermine regional stability and the international rules-based order and express serious concerns about reports of militarisation, coercion, and intimidation in the region."
Well that ought to do it then.
Fortunately for us, in this moment of crisis we have strong, cool "Pushup Challenge"/"Grandpa Diddlefingers" Biden to protect us.
Remember, if China takes all of Taiwan -- hold 10% for "The Big Guy."
Here's one of the differences between left and right: Left-wing politicians get threatening e-mails from right-wing randos but conservatives get threatening texts from REPORTERS. Rep. Matt Gaetz explains how it works:
“[T]ime and time again, what a reporter will do is contact someone that maybe I’ve had a relationship with, maybe I haven’t had any relationship with, maybe I’ve only been in the same room with one time,” Gaetz told the John Solomon Reports podcast. “But they’ll say to a person, ‘You know, look, we are going to write your name into a story that will have sex trafficking and Matt Gaetz in the headline, unless you provide us some bad information, some embarrassing conduct about Gaetz. And if you do that, well then your name will be protected, your reputation will be protected.'”
The MSM have been trying to find a crime to pin on Gaetz for some time now, but haven't succeeded. But they're not giving up. The quoted article discussed the efforts of a particularly loathsome reporter from Mother Jones Magazine, which basically amounted to extortion:
One stunning example is that of Mother Jones reporter Matthew Phelan...who contacted a young woman from Gaetz’s district, who after their conversation sent Phelan an email reiterating how she had “never been harassed by Matt Gaetz… Any interaction with him or his office has always been respectful and kind. You stated someone told you I received some kind of death threat and that’s just a false accusation.”...He snapped back: “To be frank, I don’t want to tip my hand too much here, but I think you’re going to want to revise this response, or maybe just spend some time jogging your memory a little bit more. But, there’s time to get that in order. I look forward to circling back with you closer to publication time.”
I've heard of reporters doing questionable things to get stories, but this is slimy beyond belief. They've gone beyond shading the truth, or misquoting, or leaving out things that should be included, and now they're just making stuff up out of thin air.
If I were the woman Phelan was trying to bully, I would seriously be getting legal advice about suing him for these threats. Surely there must be some legal recourse. I mean, this is basically extortion, right?
Extortion is a criminal offense that occurs when a person unlawfully obtains money, property, or services from another person or entity by means of particular types of threats. It is not all threats-for example, threatening to file suit unless someone pays you money owed is not extortion. Usually, it is threat of violence or reporting a matter to a public agency or the media that can create allegations of extortion.
So why would Phelan's attempts to coerce false testimony not be actionable? And what does the magazine he writes for thinks of this?
Mother Jones’ Editor Tommy Craggs confirmed he had rebuked Phelan over the unethical behavior: “Matthew and I have spoken about the email you’re alluding to, and I’ve urged him to use more discretion. He said he would do so.”
Oh, they "rebuked" him. Why didn't they immediately fire his ass? What media outlet would want such sleazy, unethical scum like Phelan on their payroll?
Of course, if he got fired from Mother Jones, Phelan would undoubtedly have a bright future at CNN:
O'Keefe has since been booted off Twitter, so I can only guess what story he's linking to here, but based on the date, I think it's this one. No mention of Gaetz, though.
2021: Is There A Conspiracy Theory That Isn't Going To Be Proven True??
Things I Wish I'd Said:
They Just Won't Give Up Pushing This Crap:
Here's Another Business What Wants To Lose Money Fast:
Is This Their First Ad?
"But It's Different When I'm the One Getting Attacked."
Juneteenth In Its Correct Context:
Nerds-Only Wi-Fi:
I'm not sure, but I think this is the password (swipe your mouse below):
-->3141592653<--
Thread Winner From Monday:
355 My favorite liberal/conservative conversation came shortly after we moved, so lots of new people. I was with a group of women I had walked dogs with, skied with, and one I had never met. She said, "I assume we all have the same politics." One of my dog-walking friends said, "No, Wenda's a conservative, but not a dumb one." The woman I didn't know said, "Well, if you're not dumb, why are you conservative?" I'm not quite sure why my reply popped into my head but it did. I said, "Liberals usually share Rosseau's view of man. I'm more in favor of Blake's. Silence. We continued to walk dogs together and ski together, but politics has never come up again.
Posted by: Wenda at June 14, 2021 11:25 AM (1bBG3)
Monday Who Dis: Jennifer Lopez is perhaps best known for Gigli, reputedly one of the worst movies ever made. But she soon recovered from that monumental stinker and went on to better things, for example, the marginally better 2015 thriller The Boy Next Door with model turned actor Ryan Guzman.
Today's Edition Of The Morning Rant Is Brought To You By Fully Loaded Ice Cream Cones:
Good morning kids. Friday and the weekend is here. There are a number of stories breaking including two huge rulings from SCOTUS that underscore that corrupted institution's schizophrenia. On the one hand, they delivered a 9-0 annihilation against Big Homo forcing Philly's Catholic Social Services to countenance homosexual marriage. That is a huge and important victory for religious freedom, especially given today's insane political and cultural environment. Yet, at the same time, the court handed down a 2-7 loss that seemingly leaves us with Obamacare forever. Feh. Well, after all, it is a tax/penalty/tax/penalty or whatever the penumbric emanation of the goat entrails told Cheap Justice Julia Roberts to call it.
A good friend of mine is a lapsed Catholic and atheist who has always blamed the Church and all religious dogma for his as well as the world's ills. G-d bless him, when I pointed out that its not the Church nor religion that's the problem; it's the failing of people who ignore religious doctrines of ethics and morality that's the problem. I think a lightbulb went off with him and considering he's a testa dura Pugliese, I consider that a small victory. But Psaki-psircling back to SCOTUS, we have their abject failure in the wake of at the very least a completely compromised 2020 election to do their duty in hearing the cases that was the absolute bitter end for me and confirmed for me that besides being irreconcilably divided, America's house was rotten from the inside out.
But, with revelations that confirm the obvious premeditated fraud as well as outright larceny on election night in Georgia, Arizona and now in Pennsylvania, the Court may once again be the focus of attention.
The Supreme Court avoided involvement in the election because they wanted to stay out of the controversy -- they didn't want to be bullied by the Democrats or the media. There are other possible motives, but they're even more disturbing. Cowing to bullies will not avoid conflict. Bullies prey on weakness. One has to either stand up to them eventually or accept servitude. Every kid on the playground has learned that lesson by the 8th grade. Apparently, John Roberts hasn't. Each time Chief Justice Roberts has acceded to the bullies, he's made the court's future challenge greater.
An April poll by Rasmussen Reports found that 51% of the population believes that fraud affected the election outcome. Does Roberts grasp the significance of that number? It's the percentage of the population who believe the Supreme Court was derelict in defending the Constitution. If John Roberts wanted to defend the court, perhaps he should have considered pursuit of the truth rather than avoidance of controversy.
A recent Ipsos poll found that 63% of the public thinks it's time to impose term limits on Supreme Court Justices. The public isn't stupid. It recognizes that the Supreme Court needs to be taken to the woodshed. The next few months will say a lot about the Supreme Court. Will it correct course, or will it embrace servitude to the mob?
Paraphrasing Mark Levin, every June, the entire nation bites its nails in anticipation of be-all-end-all rulings from 9 very flawed human beings that will affect the lives of 320 million of us forever, with no recourse. The court was never meant to have this kind of power but then again, the Federal government was never supposed to be an ever more powerful and invasive Leviathan of unelected bureaucrats issuing edicts that carry with them the force of law. And yet, here we are, with every institution that is supposed to safeguard our G-d-given inalienable rights as well as ensure our physical safety totally corrupted beyond all recognition and anathema to the very reasons the nation was founded in the first place nearly 245 years ago.
Levin himself proposed term limits for all justices up to and including SCOTUS in his Liberty Amendments from a few years ago. Ironically, with Ruth Bader-Meinhoff's departure for the Choir Invisible and the installation of alleged originalist Amy Coney Barrett right before the election, the Left were not only hell bent on packing the court but failing that, they glommed onto Levin's term limits brainwave. Seems appealing insofar as getting rid of the hacks-in-black but the cold reality is, as someone much wiser than I once postulated, "any organization not explicitly conservative will turn liberal over time." In any case, our nation from top to bottom and inside-out has been so thoroughly corrupted that it's pissing in the wind trying to fix it piecemeal, even something as important as SCOTUS. For argument's sake, let's say the audits actually confirm what we already know, that select cities across 6 states essentially rigged and stole their 2020 elections. First, there's the gauntlet of not only the media/Democrat propaganda shit-storm claiming the audits are frauds but now we have this tinpot Torquemada in Merrick Garland threatening the auditors.
But even if the audits successfully run that gauntlet, what is the end-game? Surely, there's no way in hell that we'll get a do-over, let alone see Trump re-installed back into 1600! But it is crucially important that the audits go forward and the truth put out there. The nation as we knew it, or at least as we had perceived it to be up until about 2009 and for sure on January 6th, 2021 is gone. We are in uncharted and very dangerous territory. Trying to deal with things and anticipate outcomes based on institutions like elections and run of the mill party politics is a complete waste of time. Even worse is institutions that are supposed to be independent of political considerations, especially business, have now for the most part also been subsumed by the Leviathan.
As more and more people are waking up to the nightmare of a dementia patient being used as someone's puppet (and it looks like the way is being made for Biden's exit), the abject evil that is Crackpot Disg-Race Theory, the fraud of Anthony Fausti and the 18-month imprisonment over Wu-Flu and the acknowledgment that Red China caused it and is out to conquer the world, those who have inflicted these evils on us are quadrupling down on the censorship and persecution.
Something's building out there, and it's big.
See you tomorrow for the hobby thread and have a great weekend.
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
"In a May letter, the IRS argued that Christians Engaged was not eligible for 501(c)(3) status because '[B]ible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates.'" (not surprising, thoroughly disgusting and enraging - jjs) Pennies & Persecution: IRS Denies Religious Group Tax Exempt Status
"Under the guise of fighting 'domestic terrorism,' the [so-called quote-unquote "president"] is shrinking your rights." Biden's Creeping Police State
Angelo Codevilla: "What might happen if Republican senators were serious about confronting the Biden [junta's] political weaponization of the intelligence community?" Fighting the Extremism Fight
"The McCloskey's, both of whom are lawyers, were captured on video in June of 2020 brandishing weapons on their St. Louis property as a large group of protesters marched past their home. Mark was seen armed with a rifle while Patricia held a handgun." McCloskey's Agree To Forfeit Guns, Plead Guilty To Misdemeanors
"When every kid is taught that whites are evil people, unfairly hoarding power and wealth, you can expect more anti-white mass shooters." The Inevitable Fruits of Critical Race Theory
CHINESE CORONAVIRUS FICTIONS, FACTS AND AMERICA IMPRISONED
"RedState's sources confirmed that the defector is, in fact, Dong [Jingwei], that he was in charge of counterintelligence efforts in China, and that he flew to the United States in mid-February, allegedly to visit his daughter at a university in California. When Dong landed in California he contacted DIA officials and told them about his plans to defect and the information he'd brought with him. Dong then 'hid in plain sight' for about two weeks before disappearing into DIA custody." Defector Claiming Chinese Military Responsible for Chinese COVID-19 Identified as Top Counterintelligence Official
Ted Noel, MD: "Fauci's unelected, unchecked power flows from the code of the Fourth Branch of Government: 'The Bureaucrat is the smartest person in the room.'" Anthony Fausti: Guilty Bureaucrat Extraordinaire
"With respect to the origin of the [Chinese] coronavirus, here's what I heard [so-called quote-unquote "president"] Biden do today. I heard him politely ask the World Health Organization and China to get to the bottom of it, pretty please with sugar on top, and that's the typical Washington way - keep trying what doesn't work and when it doesn't work again, do it some more." Sen. John Kennedy: "If You Turn the Other Cheek to President Xi, He'll Just Stab You in the Neck"
OFFICIAL DEMOCRAT PARTY/LEFTIST-ENDORSED ANTI-SEMITISM, ANTI-CHRISTIANITY
BIDEN CRIME FAMILY REVELATIONS, AND OTHER CORRUPTION
"...Hunter's new venture has sparked growing concerns about the potential for pay-for-play corruption in light of the fact that the buyers will remain anonymous, and the shadowy nature of the art world is a notorious avenue for money laundering." (shocked, SHOCKED! - jjs) Hunter's Dip into the Art World Connected to "Weed Slut" Lingerie Entrepreneur Zoe Kestan
"Thousands of ballots are potentially impacted by these irregularities, suggesting they could be results-changing, as Joe Biden's state-certified victory in the state was by fewer than 12,000 votes." (by 10PM, Trump was running away with it, but by the next morning, after the water main break, Biden somehow captured the lead, held on by a red pubic hair and "won." - jjs) HUGE: Significant Election Irregularities Exposed in Fulton County, Georgia
McYertle: "I would make this observation about the revised version. It still turns the federal election commission from a judge into a prosecutor... and, in what is an extraordinarily dubious constitutionality, would remove redistricting from state legislatures and hand it over to computers. Equally unacceptable. Totally inappropriate." McConnell Says No Republicans Will Support Manchin's Possible Version of Voting Rights Bill
"Of all the lies the Democrats tell black folks, the myth of impending reparations is the meanest. H.R. 40, the 'reparations' bill, has been bouncing around Congress almost as long as Pelosi, and yet it never gets any traction. I'm not saying the government won't some day follow through on this ridiculous plan but to do so at this point would mean the death of the Democrat Party and the Dems know it. White, Asian, and Hispanic voters (not the libs, of course) would flip. Then again, if the Dems can keep cheating in elections, they won't need real votes." "I'll Have Those [You-Know-Whats] Voting Democrat For 200 Years"
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
"'This [CRT] issue is like something that was created out of thin air by a couple of producers at right-wing media outlets and all of a sudden, now school boards all across the country are dealing with something they did not know was an issue,' NBC News' Chuck Todd falsely claimed Tuesday." Panicked Media Escalates Disinformation War Against Crackpot Disg-Race Theory Opponents
"For decades, a corporatist GOP blithely toed a libertarian line on antitrust. But antitrust is not necessarily best conceived as nefarious economic 'regulation' -- it is targeted law enforcement." (meh, they own the government; anything the GOP does will be essentially toothless - jjs) Big Tech Only Has Itself to Blame for Republican Rethinking of Antitrust
"Why should they bother with any of these categories any longer, if they include everyone and everyone can apply? The only reason I can fathom is to categorize the applicants by race, and then toss out the white applicants during the approval process... Welcome to the new leftist Utopia, where bigotry is endorsed and encouraged, as long as that discrimination is designed to specifically benefit the approved minorities. All else need not apply." Today's Blacklisted American: NY Accounting Program for High School Students Bans Whites
"...And what the U.S. should do about it." (elect America firsters, outlaw Democrats and Globalists, and liberate the damned world once and for all - jjs) The Emerging Sino-Russian Bloc
"Northern California cities are mandating dramatic water cutbacks, which is the result of the state's refusal to prepare following the last drought." Doddering Drought Response
"Eighty-two percent of manufacturing companies in the Philly Fed's survey reported paying higher prices for the inputs of their products, while just one percent said costs of input had fallen. As a result, the diffusion index moved up four points to 80.7, the highest reading since June 1979." Inflation Hits Highest Level Since 1979 in Philly Fed Survey
"The findings reveal that government lockdown orders devastated workers at the bottom of the financial food chain but left the upper-tier actually better off... They offer yet another reminder that government lockdowns hurt most those who could least afford it." New Report Shows How Lockdowns Destroyed the Middle Class
"The wealthy have been fleeing the city all pandemic long, to lower-tax, lower-cost-of-living and lower-crime alternatives. That means big trouble ahead for those left behind, as the top 2 percent of earners supply 51 percent of New York's income-tax take." (but will they still vote for that which caused them to flee? - jjs) "Exodus of the Rich" Threatens Disaster for NYC
HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
"The states wanted the courts to overturn Obamacare, arguing that since the 'individual mandate' penalty for not buying health insurance -- which the Court, controversially, redefined as a "tax" in 2012 -- had been set to zero by President Donald Trump's tax reforms, the entire law was unconstitutional. Moreover, since the "individual mandate" was integral to the functioning of Obamacare, it could not be severed from the law, and therefore the whole law had to be discarded." (no way out now short of a legislative repeal, which ain't happening unless we run everything after '24 - jjs) Supreme Court Rejects Obamacare Challenge over Standing Issues, 7-2
"'Educating for American Democracy' is the return of Common Core under a new label, this time applied to history and civics. America can only restore its civics education by rejecting EAD." Counterfeit Civics
A weekend twofer from our intrepid science reporter. First, "...think the real race will be between the government programs in China, Russia, AND the U.S. and the efforts by private commercial companies aiming to make profits in space. And if you ask me to bet on who will get more accomplished faster for less money, I will hands down put my money on those private companies. The more profit they make, the faster they will push to move forward, and will quickly leave these sedate government programs in the dust." China and Russia Outline Longterm Plans for Building Joint Lunar Base
Next up, and speaking of private companies, "The U.S. now leads China 27 to 17 in the national rankings. Note: The average number of American launches per year during the 21st century (from 2000 to 2020) was 22. The U.S. has now topped that average by five launches, and the year is not even half over." SpaceX Successfully Launches GPS Satellite for US Space Force
FEMINAZISM, TRANSGENDER PSYCHOSIS, HOMOSEXUALIZATION, WAR ON MASCULINITY/NORMALCY
"As the press conference was starting, 'Ronaldo, an advocate of a healthy diet, moved the glass bottles out of the camera frame and instead held up a bottle of water and said in Portuguese: 'Water!' ESPN reported. 'Coca-Cola saw its share price drop by 1.6% to $55.22 soon after Ronaldo's actions. The market value went from $242bn to $238bn -- a $4bn drop.'" (Nelson Muntz laugh! - jjs) Coca-Cola Lost Billions After Being Snubbed By International Soccer Star Cristiano Ronaldo
"It isn't just late-night comics who are pushing back. It's also local politicians and ordinary people. After a year of bullying, they've had enough... Fight the power. It's easier than you think." The Tide is Turning Agains the Woke, Liberal Blob That Misrules Us
"The family unit -- father included -- is the basic building block of society. It's also the long-term solution to preventing crime far more effectively than BLM's plan to abolish the police." For Less Policing, Black Communities Need More Married Fathers
Larry Elder: "The film, with no narrator, just lets the men talk. None blames 'systemic racism.' All concede they made bad choices, but choices nonetheless. All talked about the pain they felt growing up without a father figure to instruct, scold, guide, motivate and instill confidence and direction. I highly recommend it." Father's Day: Fatherlessness is America's Top Domestic Problem
"A new biography of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. reminds us of a bygone model of the public servant." American Cincinnatus
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.
ALSO: The Morning Report is cross-posted at CutJibNewsletter.com if you want to continue the conversation all day.
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Jordan Peterson: "On the one hand you have the corporate media, on the other hand you have these leftwing progressives. You can't really put them in the same camp very easily."
Michael Malice: "Hopefully we will be putting them in the same camp."
-- From this interview Oh no he said a naughty thing, where is the Corporate Board of Governance to take away his right to speak? WHY IS JORDAN PETERSON ALLOWED TO JUST TALK TO WHOEVER HE WANTS? CHILDREN WILL LISTEN TO THIS AND START FEEDING BATH SALTS TO THE HOMELESS!!! BRIAN STELTER, PLEASE PROTECT ME WITH YOUR BIG STRONG FLOPPY BINGO-WING ARMS!!!
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click The British new wave/pub rock band whose greatest hits album everyone owned enters the 80s with a video filled with forced perspective illusions The guitarist and singer said that the band never got big -- they were semi-big but never *really* big -- because of their... sense of humor. That hits me as being right. Their humor was cute but dorky. Not really two attributes you associate with huge rock acts, which usually push either the "sexy" or "serious" image. I think if they dropped the humor and dressed like Duran Duran they would have been one of the biggest bands of the 80s. As it was, they were just there, briefly, then they broke up. BTW, this band already did have albums "in the 80s" -- the early 80s, which were still kind of the late 70s -- but this album came in the real 80s period.
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click Darryl Hall's last, desperate attempt to free himself from the weight of a 170 pound Boat Anchor named John Oates Just kidding, Oates is cool.
Ugly Twitter addict and huge See You Next Tuesday Chrissy Tiegen pretends to apologize for her decade-long campaign of abuse, bullying, and trying to cancel people so hard they kill themselves Tired: Being jazzed to see celebrities on Twitter so you can feel like you're one of the Cool Kids
Wired: Being jazzed to see celebrities on Twitter so you can feel superior because you're not the one spending 18 hours a day tweeting bullshit with nobodies I do get a thrill out of seeing "celebrities" on Twitter. I get to realize, oh, despite the money and fame, their lives are black pits of despair and scrabbling insecurity and substance-assisted rage. Good. As Chrissy Tiegen has expressly told people she wants to #Cancel them so hard they take their own lives: Let me invite Chrissy Tiegen to join the Coward's Way Out Club. The only thing keeping you from joining is your own gutlessness, Chrissy!
Paul Krugman's 10-Year History of Being Wrong About Bitcoin "Reason" is mostly a bunch of stoners who like calling themselves libertarians because maybe they won't have to buy weed from that mean guy on the corner if it gets legalized. But they are taking shots at (Enron Advisor) Paul Krugman, and that's always fun! [CBD]
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