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Thanks Larry. Plus, there will be great TV leading up to the rallies as they drag protestors off the campuses.
" I could be wrong, but I think >
He's off today to be at Barron's Graduation " .. !!
Half day at court for The Donald???
I can't bear to read the news just yet.
Morning, Larry.
#2 ~ *Live* ~ President Donald J. Trump, 45th President >
of the United States of America,
will deliver remarks at a Rally in Freeland, Michigan on
Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. ET.
Watch LIVE on RSBN starting at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET.
https://www.rsbnetwork.com/video/live-president-trump-holds-a-rally-in-freeland-michigan-5-1-24/
*Live* ~ President Donald J. Trump will travel to Waukesha,
Wisconsin, on May 1st to contrast the peace, prosperity,
and security of his first term with Joe Biden’s failed presidency.
Watch LIVE on RSBN on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, starting at 1:00 p.m. ET. President Trump will give remarks at 3 p.m. ET.
https://www.rsbnetwork.com/video/live-president-trump-gives-remarks-in-waukesha-wisconsin-5-1-24/
Sure looks like the whole docs case was a set up. Why am I not at all surprised?
New Bombshell Evidence Emerges: Was Trump Set Up in Classified Docs Saga?
MATT MARGOLIS | 9:11 AM ON APRIL 28, 2024
Court Filing
This week in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed a trove of new documents that Jack Smith fought to keep hidden. And you'll soon find out why. Among the documents unsealed were extensive exhibits, motions, and other filings shedding light on the intricate web of communication between the Biden White House and the National Archives and Records Administration in the lead-up to Trump's indictment.
Investigative journalist Julie Kelly found something interesting in the documents that could change everything. The first things is testimony from an FBI agent who testified that the General Services Administration (GSA) had been in possession of Trump's boxes in Virginia before ordering Trump's team to come get them.
May Day ! ! ! Put those terrorist supporters in the hoosegow.
Wonder if they'll be released as quickly as the illegal alien scum that has taken over NYC.
Thanks for the heads up. Good Morning, Bull.
I'll check the news later. I don't have the stomach for it now.
Looks like the NYPD is finally going to crack down at Columbia. It's about time!
Besides the loved pets, I've had to put down a cow that got paralyzed giving birth and a calf that was born so deformed that the mother walked away. It is not an easy thing. Since moving here 24 years ago, I've buried 5 cats and had one disappear, probably by eagle. The Brittany spaniel at our last house was one of the tougher ones.
Have to admit, I'm an emotional wussy boy when we lose a pet, but you still have to do what needs to be done.
Down to just one cat now, Bubba. He's young and will be around for a good while.
Thankfully there are people like you and me that can pull the plug on our pets when they are in the sad situation of "end of life". As hard as it is for us, it's very selfish to just keep them going when their time as our family member is over.
We have 13 small wooden urns on our bookshelves to keep our past friends with us. We also have 7 more still with us that we do not look forward to having to say goodbuy to!
On too many occasions, I've had to end animals' suffering. It is always very difficult and sad. Still, there are times you have to man up.
This part reminded me of Joe's dangerous dog....
This is so on the money:
Kristi Noem v. Joe Biden in the indecency sweepstakes
By Mike McDaniel
Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) are up arms about a brief passage in South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s new book. Said passage relates the long ago, sad tale of putting down a dog whose behavior proved inappropriate and dangerous to farm life. For those with even a pasing connection to farm or ranch life, it’s an unremarkable story.
Farming and ranching are businesses. For families it’s often their sole source of income. While farmers and ranchers love and care for their animals, they can’t afford to romanticize them. A dog that attacks other animals, to say nothing of people, is dangerous to the bottom line, and having to put down animals for all manner of reasons is an integral, and surely sad, part of farm and ranch life.
But Noem is horrible! She’s indecent!
When D/s/cs so indignantly attack Republicans and Normal Americans, I tend to suspect they just might be attacking them for less than honest, transparent reasons. Such attacks also tend to be revealing of their political fears, in this case, Gov. Noem might present an appealing, effective choice for a Trump running mate.
Speaking on indecency, we must remember Joe Biden’s promises to restore normalcy and decency to the White House and America. The invaluable Miranda Devine, writing at The New York Post, reminds us of just how decent Biden is not:
Joe Biden is not “decent.” He made that clear a few minutes before [Colin] Jost took the stage when he gave a graceless, inappropriate stump speech in which he lied about Trump and then laughably urged the assembled media to fight “disinformation.” [skip]
Biden rolled out his favorite lies about Trump, like: “He said he wants to be a dictator on Day One.”
False. When asked if he would be a “dictator” in office, Trump joked, “No, other than Day One.”
Biden said Trump “promised a bloodbath when he loses again. We have to take this seriously.”
False: Trump said there would be an economic bloodbath if he were to lose the election.
Biden then called on the journalists in the room to report “truth over lies. … In an age of disinformation, credible information people can trust is more important than ever.”
Honestly, there’s nothing decent about a president who lies and gaslights the American people day after day.
This would be the same Joe Biden who said “ We [D/s/cs] choose truth over facts!” That’s perhaps the perfect example of a gaffe: a politician accidentally saying what they truly believe.
Devine provides other examples of Biden’s indecency:
*Helping your family sell out the country to shady foreigners for tens of millions of dollars — and then pretending you know nothing about it.
*Inviting millions of illegal migrants into the country — and then lying that the border is secure.
*Sniffing and fondling children and women every chance you get.
*Refusing to acknowledge your out-of-wedlock grandchild until forced to issue a statement as part of a child support settlement Hunter Biden struck with the mother, and then failing to include the little girl in the annual family Christmas stocking lineup at the White House.
*Refusing to provide Secret Service protection to Bobby Kennedy Jr., despite threats against him and the history of assassination in his family.
*Continually looking at your watch in boredom as the bodies of the 13 heroes are repatriated to Dover Air Force Base, and then infuriating the families by making it about yourself and the fantasy that your son died in combat, too.
*Allowing your dogs to attack Secret Service agents.
By all means, take the link and read the rest. I would add perhaps the most obvious indecency: conspiring with federal, state and local prosecutors to imprison and bankrupt the Republican nominee for President, to deny Americans their electoral choice. The list, to be sure, is virtually endless.
One need not delve deeply into history to understand Joe Biden has always been a mean, angry liar. He aligned himself with many of the Senate’s D/s/c racists—the Democrat Party has always been the party of racism--and in 1977 said integration policies would cause his children to “grow up in a racial jungle.” His failed attempt to exclude Clarence Thomas from the Supreme Court needs little reiteration. Biden is also a plagiarist, lifting portions of a speech from British politician Neal Kinnock, ending his 1988 presidential bid.
Where political indecency is concerned, America might be best served by trusting the honesty and farming sensibilities of Kristi Noem over Joe Biden’s political record of indecency and lies.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/kristi_noem_v_joe_biden_in_the_indecency_sweepstakes.html
Illegals fly free--and secretly
By Mike McDaniel
By the time Joe Biden’s term ends, if it ends, no less than 10 million illegal aliens, many of them criminals and the insane, hundreds of thousands of terrorists and spies, even members of China’s military, will be within America’s borders. Terrorist attacks on a previously unimaginable scale are a certainty, so likely even our feckless FBI director is warning of them, surely to cover his bureaucratic posterior. Should Biden steal a second term, America will no longer resemble America. But voting with one’s feet is far from the only way illegals breach our borders with the help of Biden’s Handlers:
In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the feds have admitted that in 2023 alone they secretly flew 320,000 illegal aliens into the United States. [skip]
Included in details of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit first reported by Todd Bensman, the Center for Immigration Studies found Biden's CBP approved the latest secretive flights that transported hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from foreign countries into at least 43 different American airports from January through December 2023.
That's 320,000 in 2023 alone to which they’ll admit. The flights, carrying numbers unknown, continue. The information was obtained only by way of FOIA because these flights, usually in unmarked aircraft, are kept strictly secret and land only at night. The Administration does this through an app that allows illegals to apply for those flights. Unvetted, they are flown directly into America at no cost, bypassing public scrutiny and cameras depicting them freely crossing our “secure” and “closed” borders. Americans forced to evacuate hostile nations due to the foreign policy idiocy of the Biden Administration have to cough up airfare in advance, when the State Department can be roused to arrange a flight or two. Illegals, once here, are routinely flown and bussed across the country to destinations of their choice, also at taxpayer expense. Americans are not impressed:
Rasmussen, whose polls slightly overweight Democrats, asked, “It was recently reported that the Biden administration had a program of international flights that last year transported more than 300,000 illegal immigrants to U.S. airports. Do you approve or disapprove of this program?” Some 25% approved, 60% disapproved.
Overall, voters also panned Biden’s border policies. Asked to rate his handling of the crisis, 28% said good to excellent and 70% said fair too poor, with 53% declaring it “poor.”
Even 39% of Democrats are opposed. What that says about the 61% that aren’t is as despicable as it is unsurprising, unsurprising because they see illegals as future—as soon as the 2024 election—Democrat voters. But wouldn’t that be illegal? Only citizens can legally vote. Right. Only living people are supposed to be able to vote too. The old Chicago exhortation—“vote early; vote often”—applies. And by some unfathomable coincidence, the dead virtually always vote Democrat. It must be something about the afterlife.
Biden’s Handlers have already rigged the Census to count not just citizens, but illegals, increasing Democrat House seats increasingly depleted by the millions of Americans fleeing blue states.
So low have American’s expectations of government and our essential institutions become, we tend to view such things not with revolutionary outrage, but resignation. Each new illegal, unconstitutional, immoral usurpation is greeted with gallic shrugs and disgusted groans. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris blatantly lie, calling the border “secure” and “closed,” but because Americans aren’t yet ready to take up arms, they groan and suppress their anger, understanding our President and Vice President cannot be trusted.
Nor can the Senate. When DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, another serial border liar, was impeached, the Democrat-ruled Senate refused to do its constitutional duty to try him, and simply dismissed the articles of impeachment. It has been more than 150 years since a cabinet secretary was impeached, so it’s not as though it’s a common, political ploy.
What’s next? Giving illegals free room and board, cell phones, work permits, displacing veterans and the needy, taking over school facilities and lying about all of that? Oh. Right. The Administration is already doing that too.
It’s a truism to say America is a nation of immigrants, but never before have we imported them unvetted, by air, with taxpayer dollars from the brokest nation in history. Never before have we not expected them to pay their own way and to assimilate.
When that bill comes due, who will be left to pay it and what with?
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/illegals_fly_free_and_secretly.html
How popular is the AR-15?
By Mike McDaniel
On April 13, American Thinker posted Should I Buy An AR-15? That article generated 99 comments, and suggested there are some 30 million ARs in private hands in America. I also suggested one of the best reasons to buy an AR-15 is the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration (MMPA) doesn’t want you to have one, that and you’re a free American and want one. It seems tens of millions of Americans agree:
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) recently released a “Firearm Production in the United States and the Firearm Import and Export Data” report which indicates that 28,144,000 modern sporting rifles (MSRs) have been put into circulation since 1990. MSR production increased 32 percent from 2020 to 2021 alone.
“Modern sporting rifle” has become the standard term for the AR-15 and its several variants, though it arguably encompasses such arms as the Ruger Mini-14, even semiautomatic AK-47/74 variants. “AR,” by the way, is not an acronym for Assault Rifle, nor for “Assault Weapon,” a designation that does not exist in firearm nomenclature, but is an invention of the anti-liberty/gun Left designed to scare the uninformed into thinking semiautomatic AR-15s are machineguns. The AR-15 platform was invented by Eugene Stoner, who then worked for Armalite, thus “AR,” Armalite Rifle. Stoner invented the AR-10 first, chambered in .308/7.62 NATO, but scaled it down to the AR-15 in .223/5.56 NATO for the Air Force, the first military branch to adopt it, with its iconic triangular handguard, in M-16 form.
AR-10s are still available in .308, and that platform, and the AR-15 are also available in a variety of other calibers by switching the upper receiver and magazine. As long as other cartridges will fit an AR-10/15 magazine/magazine well, they’ll work with the appropriate upper receiver. This too contributes to the popularity of the AR platform.
In 2021, according to the findings, more than half of the 21,037,810 total firearms made available for the U.S. market were either pistols or revolvers. In all, 12,799,067 were handguns, 4,832,198 were rifles and 3,406,545 were shotguns. The figure includes firearms domestically produced plus those imported (minus exported firearms).
Americans have always liked and purchased guns, but when liberty is more obviously, even blatantly, threatened they’ve responded by buying the means to deter and resist tyranny. By December 2023, Americans, judging by federal firearm checks, had purchased more than a million guns per month for 53 consecutive months. Make that 57 months by the end of April, 2024. How many more? The December, 2023 number was 1.7+ million. With each firearm check, more than one gun may be purchased, which means the ultimate number, using that metric, is always larger than the number of individual checks. The American firearm industry, despite the worst efforts of leftists, continues to fill the arsenal of Democracy:
Total domestic firearm production reported in 2021 was 12,521,614—an increase of 28.6 percent over 2020 reported figures.
Because guns, well maintained, are nearly eternal, it’s difficult to estimate ultimate numbers, but this is a reasonable attempt:
In all, NSSF estimated the total number of firearms in civilian possession from 1990 to 2021 is 473.2 million.
Again, that’s only from 1990 to 2021, and why the Japanese, during WWII, believed invasion of America was impossible. They’d be facing a gun behind every blade of grass. Domestic tyrants share that Japanese perspective, which is why they’re so desperate to ban and seize AR-15s and every other effective firearm.
Ammunition sales are equally high. Even in 2020, sales increased by 139% and contemporary sales are as robust.
These statistics are surely horrifying for those that want to establish “our democracy,” an eternal tyranny of the majority. For Normal Americans, people who want only to be left alone to live under the Constitution—our representative republic—and the rule of law, they’re heartening indeed.
Our military is currently trying to replace the AR platform for general issue, but that effort may or may not be going well. In the meantime, no rifle so represents American liberty and American’s determination to retain it as that little black rifle.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/how_popular_is_the_ar_15.html
Strategy? Why cheat, like last time!
Space laser transmission strikes Earth from 140 million miles away: NASA
By Ben Cost Published April 29, 2024, 11:11 a.m. ET
(Pictures at the link.)
This redefined a long-distance call.
Earth just received a laser transmission from a world- (and perhaps universe) record-breaking 140 million miles away — which could have major implications for the future of space travel.
However, this correspondence wasn’t extraterrestrial in origin: It was actually sent by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which is currently located approximately 1.5 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
“This represents a significant milestone for the project by showing how optical communications can interface with a spacecraft’s radio frequency comms system,” Meera Srinivasan, the project’s operations lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement.
This major breakthrough was achieved by using a Psyche feature called Deep Space Optical Communications, or DSOC, one of the droid’s several task per Space.com. Its main directive is exploring 16 Psyche, the $100,000 quadrillion asteroid from which it takes its name.
NASA wanted to show the potential for laser communications to be conducted across interstellar distances, allowing for high bandwidth and a much speedier connection — from 10 to 100 times faster than what’s available today — between humans and the probes they send into space.
This achievement was particularly significant as, along with sending the laser message a record-breaking distance, NASA also managed to transmit actual data gathered from the spacecraft.
“We downlinked about 10 minutes of duplicated spacecraft data,” explained Srinivasan. “Until then, we’d been sending test and diagnostic data in our downlinks from Psyche.”
To wit, in November of last year, Psyche sent back to Earth from 10 million miles away, but it was pre-loaded test data and not any “real” info.
This marked the culmination of a series of messages sent by the probe since it launched on October 13th atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket.
During a prior dry run in December, Psyche beamed data back from 19 million miles away, sending it at the system’s maximum rate of 267 megabits per second.
This correspondence — which included footage of an orange tabby cat named Taters — took around just over a minute and a half to reach earth, which is comparable to broadband internet speeds.
By contrast, this latest DSOC transmission was only 25 megabits. This was due to the fact that Psyche was seven times further away, reducing the speed at which it could send and receive messages.
Despite the comparatively syrupy speed, this nonetheless eclipsed the project’s goal of “proving at least 1 Mbps was possible at that distance,” per the release.
This watershed moment provides a taste of how spacecraft “could use optical communications in support of humanity’s next giant leap: sending humans to Mars,” NASA wrote.
Psyche is slated to fly by the Red Planet by 2026, whereupon it will fly toward its main destination, 16 Psyche, which it should reach by 2029.
Like the early pioneers’ search for the Northwest Passage, it will aim to map out this final frontier El Dorado, which contains enough precious metals to crash the gold market.
https://nypost.com/2024/04/29/lifestyle/space-laser-transmission-strikes-earth-from-140-million-miles-away-nasa/
CNN: Most Voters Say ‘No Chance’ They’ll Support Biden
Is this the most underreported story in politics?
By James Freeman April 29, 2024 4:20 pm ET
Large media organizations have been telling Americans for nearly a decade about “Never Trump” voters, and surely there are a lot of them. But perhaps such voters are not quite as numerous as the “Never Biden” folks, who have received comparatively little attention.
Perhaps this is starting to change. “Among all voters, Biden remains at a bit of a disadvantage relative to Trump in terms of the share of voters who have ruled out voting for him: 52% say there’s no chance they would support him, while 47% say there’s no chance they would back Trump,” Jennifer Agiesta reports for CNN.
To this point, standard courtesy among establishment media is to acknowledge Mr. Biden’s unacceptability to a broad swath of voters only in the context of a story that also notes Mr. Trump’s unpopularity and concludes that voters are just unhappy with their options. And certainly they are. But Mr. Trump is frequently permitted to appear in stories entirely devoted to his shortcomings.
Regardless of the quality of coverage, it is the accuracy of polling that is probably top of mind at the White House. If the CNN results are accurate, how can Democrats craft a strategy for winning an election in which most voters have ruled out the idea of voting for Mr. Biden?...
The rest is here:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cnn-most-voters-say-no-chance-theyll-support-biden-21b8a3a9?mod=hp_opin_pos_4#cxrecs_s
Kunstler:
CLUSTERFUCK NATION – BLOGApril 29, 2024
Pep Talk on a Dark Day
“We live in an age of full spectrum deception.” — Edward Dowd
You realize, don’t you, that what’s going on in our country is the collapse not just of an empire, or an economy, but a comprehensive paradigm of human progress. The hallmark of post-war life in Western Civ was supposed to be a return to sanity after the mid-twentieth century fugue of mass psychotic violence. The wish for just and rational order was not entirely pretense. But that was then. Now that we are going medieval on ourselves, the not-so-ironic result will be our literally going medieval, sinking back into a pre-modern existence of darkness, superstition, and penury, grubbing for a mere subsistence in the shadow of scuffling hobgoblins, our achievements lost and forgotten.
What’s most appalling is that our governing apparatus is visibly willing that to happen. When Barack Obama warned America to not underestimate Joe Biden’s ability to fuck things up, was that some kind of joke? After all, it was Mr. Obama and his fellow blobsters — the cabal of Intel spooks, covert Marxist bureaucrats, lawfare ninjas, globalist megalomaniacs, post-liberal think tankers, weapons grifters, degenerate billionaires, and assorted mentally-ill camp followers — who inflicted Joe Biden on the body politic. And then ran him on the country like some demon algorithm designed to wreck the USA as fast as possible.
The source of anguish in all that is the struggle to understand why they would want that to happen. What debauched sense of history would drive anyone to such lunatic desperation? It’s a cliché now to say that the Democratic Party has turned its traditional moral scaffold upside down and inside out. It acts against the kitchen table interests of the working and middle classes. It’s against civil liberties. It demands mental obedience to patently insane policy. It’s avid for war, no matter how cruelly pointless. It’s deliberately stirring up racial hatred. It despises personal privacy. It feeds a rogue bureaucracy that has become a veritable Moloch, an all-devouring malevolent deity. And now, rather suddenly, it aligns itself with a faction that seeks to exterminate the Jews.
And how did the opposition to that epic divergence into bad faith turn so flabby? How did the Republican Party roll over and wheeze so feebly while the FBI ran amok swatting grandmothers in dawn raids, and the US attorney general made justice a whore, and a Republican Congress allowed the Frankenstein agency of Homeland Security to flood the country with its enemies and give them gobs of operational cash? If Mr. Trump was unappetizing to them as a leader, why were they unable to produce an alternative figure of standing and stature at least equally resolute? They look like traitors and cowards.
For the moment, the country lies mired, inert, and demoralized in the face of those terrible mysteries. But events are still tending and the hidden hand of emergence still operates backstage, preparing surprises for us. You are necessarily aware that the center did not hold. It’s even hard to locate where the center used to be with the action so heavy on the far-out margins. You’re watching drag queens importune young children to shove all the Jews into the sea. And the kids are sitting next to their mommies. What happened to the mommies’ brains that permits them to think this spectacle is okay? How will the mommies ever get their minds right?
In some quarters, a great rage is building. Not a few resent the overthrow of common sense, common law, and common decency. You better believe they will be aiming to do something about it. They will stand up for their dignity, their culture, their history. Virtue isn’t dead; it’s just broke down on a lonely highway waiting to hitch a ride back to where the lights are still on. Don’t forget that this really is the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Meanwhile, prepare for action. It’s obvious that the enemies of the people don’t intend to rest. They are going to try to play out this string to the last move because otherwise a lot of them will be going to jail, or might even hang for their wickedness. Once they turned criminal, there was no turning back. They have dishonored themselves and they’re trying to dishonor their country.
It’s true nonetheless that we’re moving into a new disposition of the human project. It’s going to be smaller and leaner, and not nearly as complex as the tottering Rube Goldberg apparatus we’re currently trapped in. We don’t know yet what the shape and texture of that America is going to be. As the sage Yogi Berra observed, our whole future is ahead of us. If you’re not among the insane, have faith. We’ll get there and everything is going to be all right.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/pep-talk-on-a-dark-day/
To Avoid Falling, Biden To Traverse Lawn In Giant Hamster Ball
WASHINGTON, DC - In an ongoing effort to keep the President from running into stationary objects, Whitehouse staff placed Biden in a giant hamster ball this week for his own safety.
The President was seen traversing the lawn in the giant plastic ball, which observers say is an effective way to keep him from running into trees, hedges, and other dangerous object
"This is a great solution for when he needs to get from Point A to Point B without harming himself or others," Whitehouse staffer Mel Baker told the press. "We're thinking of making one for him to use on Airforce One and another one for the campaign trail too."
Staffers helped the President into the ball after a series of videos emerged of his most recent falls and stumbles. "It's safer this way…for all of us," one aid told reporters.
Sources close to Biden say the President was happy with the giant hamster ball and thought it resembled a big scoop of ice cream.
"Presidents throughout history have used similar devices for mobility," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the press. "Towards the end of his life, William Haward Taft was often placed in a giant dog stroller and wheeled through the halls of Congress. Totally factual."
As of publishing time, Secret Service agents were seen frantically searching for the President after Biden bounced down a set of stairs near the Oval Office.
https://babylonbee.com/news/to-avoid-falling-biden-to-traverse-lawn-in-giant-hamster-ball
Newsom Asks Public To Help Design New California Coin, Instantly Regrets It
When he’s not making ignorantly silly commercials about access to abortion in Alabama, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s favorite hobby is getting ratioed online. Seriously, I’m not sure there’s anyone less self-aware than Newsom, or anyone who’s more of a glutton for punishment.
So on Thursday Newsom was again roasted online when he announced that California is getting its own $1 coin to honor innovation in the state and asked the internet for submissions. He was already going to invite some choice responses from that simple invitation, then he made it worse by beginning his tweet with, “Calling all members of the Tortured Coin Designers Department,” a reference to Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Apparently, Newsom (or the intern who wrote the tweet) didn’t understand that the title is surmised to be a slam at Swift’s ex-boyfriend, British actor Joe Alwyn. Vogue reports that Alwyn “once stated in an interview that he had a texting group chat with fellow actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called the ‘Tortured Man Club,’ which many fans instantly drew parallels to with Swift’s album name.”
The Golden State has a long history of positive innovation, but the only thing it’s innovating during Newsom’s tenure is new ways to waste every natural gift God can bestow upon a land and leave its citizens in poverty. Oh, and new methods by which the government can repress the civil rights of people.
And so many submissions centered on themes of homeless encampments, dumpster fires, and endless COVID masking rules.
This is weird, even for Gavin Newsom. In an apparent play on Taylor Swift’s new album title “Tortured Poets Department” he’s asking for suggestions for “Tortured Coin Designers Department” to design a $1 “Innovation Coin.” Is this a desperate move to reduce rhetoric $73 deficit?… https://t.co/sjYv98lhoT pic.twitter.com/vEBOolYLFw
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) April 25, 2024
— Lex Jurgen (@Lex_Jurgen) April 26, 2024
No, the government is not to be trusted
By Richard Berkowitz
No, if you're here from the government, you are not here to help me. Lamentably, you are not to be trusted. You can be terribly harmful and often are.
I listen to an untold number of videos relating to Congressional and Senate hearings, Investigations of witnesses, etc.
In each instance, and maybe more in the ones taking place in the Senate, I find them to be a lot of blowhard but overly courteous discussions where nothing truly is accomplished.
Sometimes, I am sure, legislation results from the information gleaned but it seems to me, that while the world is burning, they are more engaged in drinking water than hosing out fires.
Frankly, the British are, in my opinion, far more eloquent and humorous, though Sen. John Kennedy, from Louisiana, (who incidentally was educated at Oxford where British parliamentarians learn their skills) is a hoot. He is our equivalent of the great humorist from Oklahoma, Will Rogers.
The second thing I notice is when agency heads are called upon to tell why information requests are constantly ignored, withheld, or blacklined, the answer usually given is due to an ongoing investigation we cannot comment on. FBI Director Christopher Wray is particularly evasive in these ways.
The consequences are mostly dispiriting and continue to validate the comment 'you don't want to see how sausage and laws are made.'
The critical issue is how do we get trustworthy candidates for Congress; people who care deeply about the nation, who put the nation's interest first, and who are willing to take the slings and arrows public service subjects one to in today's highly politicized environment?
It takes a great deal of money to campaign and the last thing we need or want is to be governed by elite oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg, or Bill Gates or those who engage in public life for the purpose of self-enrichment, such as Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Bob Menendez, or, worse still, those who crave power to bring about our nation's transformation like Obama or those of their ilk.
Politics historically attracts some interesting and equally dangerous characters.
I have always believed anyone running for a significant political position should be given a Rorschach Test and/or undergo a mental evaluation that is publicly disclosed.
The public needs to be informed, particularly since we no longer can rely upon the mass media's objectivity.
As for limited terms, time and again I know how popular it is, but unless the bureaucracy can be fired or their own service limited, they present the highest of all risks.
Christopher Rufo's book: "America's Cultural Revolution," devotes a significant amount of discussion to how those who work in government, at all levels, " ... fortify power and privilege while waging grievous harm which eventually becomes the pretext for domination."
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Sen. Elizabeth "Pocahontas" Warren shoved down America's throat, expanded its demands and power far beyond the benign intent upon its claimed initial language. It went from a legislative squeak to an omnipotent roar,
And what of the IRS, the FBI, the Department of Education, etc? I could go on and on as every one of these benign well-intended agencies have morphed into abusive ones, which at times, have threatened our freedoms and even our Bill of Rights.
If you do not believe me, ask FISA judges how they were exploited by the FBI.
No, if you're here from the government, you are not here to help me. Lamentably, you are not to be trusted. You can be terribly harmful and often are.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/no_the_government_is_not_to_be_trusted.html
These turds truly are the standard of stupid farts!
Women Forced to Compete Against Men? Just Say No!
And the Pussy Hats remain silent!
By Brian C. Joondeph, M.D.
During the Reagan presidency years, one of first lady Nancy Reagan’s initiatives was the “Just Say No” approach to drug abuse.
Whether illicit drug use declined due to this slogan is controversial, but the premise is simple. When confronted by an unacceptable premise or option, saying 'no' is the simplest way to slap it down.
Drug use is still rampant and far worse than it was in the 1980s with drug overdose deaths now over 100,000 annually, according to the CDC. Obviously, too many Americans are saying 'yes' to drugs, rather than no.
Another social pathology, not much of an issue in the 1980s, is transgenderism. LGBTQIA2S+ and whatever additional letters are needed to make the letter salad current and incoherent, wasn’t a buzzword during Reagan’s years.
In the 1980s, no person of rational mind believed men could become pregnant or breastfeed, that men should use women’s bathrooms or locker rooms, or that men could fairly compete against women in sports. But here we are in 2024, when these concepts are in many quarters, as seemingly normal as sunrise and sunset.
This Overton Window shift began with a University of Pennsylvania swimmer named Will Thomas, an unremarkable member of the men’s swim team whose life and swimming career went on hiatus due to COVID. During his year off, Will became Lia, joining the Penn women’s swim team. While a mediocre men’s swimmer, Lea is anything but as a women’s swimmer. “UPenn trans swimmer, 22, sparks outrage by smashing women’s competition records after competing as a man for three seasons.”
Lia went from Will, a back-bencher, to Lia, an all-star, winning ivy league championships, setting ivy league records, and winning an NCAA swimming championship. How is that fair to the women Lia beat, women who have been training in their sports for years only to be denied championships or records by having to compete against a guy?
If playing on such an uneven playing field, why don’t these women athletes follow the lead of Nancy Reagan and “Just Say 'No'”? Particularly in situations where the biologic male has a clear advantage and likelihood of winning, the female athletes could simply refuse to compete.
Imagine a large swimming or track event where the trans-athlete is the only one on the starting blocks, the remaining female competitors standing behind the blocks and refusing to compete. The woke sportscasters will be tongue-tied in how to respond and narrate the event.
Perhaps a clever sports commentator will create a new meme, as when NASCAR fans were loudly chanting “F*** Joe Biden” which the quick thinking NBC sports reporter claimed was actually, “Let’s Go Brandon,” making the phrase an encapsulation of the Biden presidency.
A group of West Virginia middle school students just said 'no' to a biologic male attempting to compete against the girls in the shot put:
A West Virginia transgender athlete won her shot put competition in her first sporting event following an appeals court ruling that allowed her to participate - as other contestants refused to play against her.
Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, competed in the Harris County Middle School Track and Field Championship on Thursday, two days after a court ruled West Virginia’s transgender sports ban violates the teen's right under Title IX.
Pepper-Jackson took home first place in the shot put competition with her 32-foot effort, three feet further than second place, and she placed second in discus.
Despite being legally allowed to compete, some athletes protested Pepper-Jackson's participation by refusing to play against her.
Five girls from Lincoln Middle School stepped up to the circle for their turn, then refused to throw the ball.
One could argue that the transgender girl was only 13 years old, where gender differences are minimal or nonexistent. As an example, 5- and 7-year-old boys and girls compete together in soccer and T-ball as this is pre-puberty, before the effects of testosterone kick in.
Trans women's sports.
But that argument doesn’t hold. The Cleveland Clinic recognizes, “Boys begin puberty sometime between the ages of 9 and 14.” Meaning the 13-year-old shot putter is well into puberty.
Puberty is the issue here. The science, according to the International Olympic Committee is simple: “A number of scientific papers have recently shown people who have undergone male puberty retain significant advantages in power and strength even after taking medication to suppress their testosterone levels.”
Puberty is when boys differentiate from girls through muscle and bone mass, strength, and power. Once the athletic engine is built, adult testosterone levels matter little.
Even a 13-year-old is well on his way to building a male athletic engine, despite identifying as a girl.
If not, then why don’t men and women shot putters compete against each other in the Olympics?
Men start by putting a heavier shot, 16 pounds for men, 8.8 pounds for women, almost a two-fold difference. Even with that difference, men out-put the women.
In the 2020 Olympics, the gold medal put distance was 23.3 meters for the man and 20.6 meters for the woman, despite the huge difference in shot weight.
Title IX is also an empty argument. The title states:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
What is sex? The simple way of determining sex is to pull down your pants and look in a mirror. For almost every human, it’s a binary choice -- boy/girl, guy/gal, man/woman.
Or ask Yale University School of Medicine, “The term sex should be used as a classification, generally as male or female, according to the reproductive organs and functions that derive from the chromosomal complement (generally XX for female and XY for male).”
Title IX is about biology, not identification, preferences, or what the school counselor suggests. Transgender athletes, specifically biologic men competing against biologic women, violates Title IX by discriminating on the basis of sex.
Perhaps the DOJ, when not prosecuting Donald Trump and his supporters, should take a look at this. Fat chance of that.
In the meantime, female athletes should “just say no” and refuse to compete on an uneven playing field. Congratulation to 5 West Virginia middle school girls for putting their foot (and shot) down. Perhaps high school, college, and professional women could do the same and start putting an end to this new “war on women”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/04/women_forced_to_compete_against_men_just_say_no.html
Will Celebrity Endorsements Impact the 2024 Election?
Hollywood elites might not be the kingmakers they think they are.
by Kelli Ballard | Apr 29, 2024
During the contentious election of 2016, a swath of Hollywood elites announced that if Trump won, they would be hightailing it from the USA and seeking to make their lives in more progressive climes. The La La Land exodus failed to materialize, and life continued much as before – albeit with somewhat more online TDS on display.
Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, has decided to take it on the road for the first time – and the media is all abuzz. The big deal isn’t that the comedian will be leaving the comforts of his studio; it’s that he’ll be performing live in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention this August. He won’t be doing the same for the Republican National Convention, of course. Celebrity endorsements are nothing new, and since Hollywood traditionally leans to the left, it’s not surprising Colbert and others are stepping up to promote President Joe Biden. But will it make a difference come November?
The Power of Celebrity Endorsements
CBS announced that Colbert will broadcast his show from the Auditorium Theatre from August 19 to 22, and some conservative media outlets are crying foul. But will he – or any other celebrity, for that matter – sway the election with his endorsement? When Taylor Swift performed at the Super Bowl, there was a lot of talk about how she would influence the election, especially if she endorsed Biden. Monmouth University released a survey in February that found that 18% of Americans “think that a covert government effort for Taylor Swift to help Joe Biden win the presidential election actually exists.” Former President Donald Trump even got into the discussion, urging the celebrity not to endorse the incumbent, saying, “Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will.”
But just how much sway do celebrity endorsements have? Some experts suggest Hollywood has very little influence and that voters will make up their own minds without heeding the advice of the stars. Daron Shaw, a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas, conducted research on the topic. “These endorsements haven’t made a ton of difference, certainly not in partisan contests between Republicans and Democrats,” he observed. Shaw suggested that being supported by certain entertainment figures could even be a detriment. “There is a little bit of tango between controversial figures and the campaign, which is not just the vote that you’re interested in when it comes to a presidential campaign. You’re interested in driving media, in driving volunteers, and you’re interested in driving contributions.”
Still, political figures court support from celebrities, and not just because they have deep pockets. Swift, for example, endorsed Biden for 2020, which, according to Vote.org, brought in more than 35,000 voter registrations. Biden likely hopes to benefit from her popularity and influence again as the 2024 election approaches.
How have celebrity endorsements helped in presidential elections in the past? In 2008, there was “The Oprah Factor,” which some claim was a deciding element in electing former President Barack Obama. Oprah Winfrey had a lot of fans and received nearly ten million viewers a day for her talk show, not to mention subscribers to her magazine, O. A September 2008 Pew survey found that 60% of respondents believed Oprah’s endorsement would help Obama’s campaign.
Throughout history, celebrity endorsements have seemed to have an impact on presidential elections. In 1920, singer Al Jolson threw his support behind Republican candidate Warren G. Harding with a song titled “Hardy, You’re the Man for Us.” Some of the lyrics included, “It’s Harding, lead the GOP, Harding, onto victory.” Since Calvin Coolidge was Harding’s running mate, the song also included him with lyrics such as, “We know we’ll always find you with Coolidge right behind you, and Coolidge never fails, you must agree.” Harding won the presidency with almost 75% of the Electoral College and nearly 65% of the popular vote.
So which Hollywood elites are supporting Biden and Trump? Here’s a brief breakdown:
Celebrity Supporters Abound
Batting for the incumbent president is Jeffrey Katzenberg, former chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. He is also the national co-chair for Biden’s 2024 campaign. There’s also Lady Gaga, who endorsed Biden in 2020 and even performed at his inauguration. She hasn’t confirmed who she’ll vote for this election, but in April 2023, she was appointed co-chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts, effectively making her an adviser to the president. Other notables include Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, Tom Hanks, Eva Longoria, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Ellen DeGeneres, LeBron James, and Meryl Streep.
Giving their support to the former president are singer Kid Rock, Frasier star Kelsey Grammar, actors Jon Voight, Roseanne Barr, Dennis Quaid, James Wood, Kevin Sorbo, and football star Brett Favre.
The Cost of Doing Business
As each side continues to rack up celebrity endorsements, the stars also have to take into consideration their personal capital. During the contentious election of 2016, a swath of Hollywood elites announced that if Trump won, they would be hightailing it from the USA and seeking to make their lives in more progressive climes. The La La Land exodus failed to materialize, and life continued much as before – albeit with somewhat more online TDS on display.
Celebrities hitching their wagons to politicians can come with great cost to credibility, and after the last few years of political vitriol, one wonders just how much of their hard-earned reputations these stars are willing to either commit or squander.
https://www.libertynation.com/will-celebrity-endorsements-impact-the-2024-election/
Regime Media Is No Myth When Government Pays the Salaries
The real disinformation is any big-box media claim to objectivity.
by Joe Schaeffer | Apr 29, 2024
It’s difficult to dismiss the term “state-affiliated media” as a smear when journalists are being paid directly by the government. The ongoing evolution of credentialed news outlets into quasi-official agencies of the progressive ruling establishment has grown so bold that lines of professional ethics aren’t just blurred; they’re being obliterated.
“New York state is poised to hand out millions in taxpayer dollars to local media outlets to help pay for journalists’ salaries,” The Daily Caller reported on April 23. “The state will dole out $30 million over a three-year period to local media outlets in the form of tax credits, giving publishers the ability to offset up to 50% of the first $50,000 in journalists’ salaries, according to a release issued [April 22] by New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. Heastie emphasized that the funds will go toward protecting local news outlets for ‘many years to come.’”
The conflict of interest here is so glaring that one shouldn’t have to point it out. Local “news” reporters who claim impartiality will become dependent on government funding as they inform the general public about the policies of that same government.
Here’s one example of how that could work in real-time. Reporters will be covering candidates for office who may support or oppose increases in, or cuts to, government spending – an issue that will directly impact their financial standing. It is no coincidence that Heastie mentioned electoral coverage first in his defense of the new policy. “Local journalism plays an essential role in our communities,” Heastie asserted. “Not only does it provide critical coverage of local elections, but it also joins communities together through a shared knowledge of high school sports teams, new businesses coming to the area and issues impacting readers’ everyday lives.”
‘Government’s Role in Policing Lies’
Alas, this is not the only current move by progressives to control information in a manner fundamentally antithetical to traditional American norms. Joe Biden’s Disinformation Czar of 2022 is back, and the lead sentence of The New York Times’ account of Nina Jankowicz’s return speaks volumes about big-brand media desires to restrict Americans’ access to information.
“Two years ago, Nina Jankowicz briefly led an agency at the Department of Homeland Security created to fight disinformation – the establishment of which provoked a political and legal battle over the government’s role in policing lies and other harmful content online that continues to reverberate,” the paper wrote.
How’s that for loaded phrasing? The judgment on the content has already been made by your credentialed overseers. You don’t get to decide for yourself what constitutes “lies” or “harmful content.” They make that ruling. This appears to be the default mindset in prominent media circles today.
Jankowicz’s new organization is called The American Sunlight Project. But don’t expect any of those beams to shine upon her. ASP is refusing to publicly reveal its donors.
Democrat Message to Media Chums
The annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was held on April 27. The event has long served as an insufferable stroke of DC reporter egos. In recent years, it has transformed into something no less unbecoming but at least more honest: a Democrat lovefest.
All pretense of objectivity has been so discarded that the party openly considers it to be just another Donald Trump-bashing affair.
“We hope everyone has a good time this weekend, because if Donald Trump wins in November, this Saturday could also be known as the last White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd declared in a message to his media friends. “Fun and jokes aside this weekend, Saturday is also a reminder of what’s at stake with an angry, vengeful Trump on the ballot. He may be a punchline, but he is also a sad, vindictive wannabe authoritarian who shows no respect for the First Amendment – or the Fourth Estate,” Floyd continued.
Why wouldn’t Democrats feel perfectly at ease addressing the media this way? As Liberty Nation noted last year, the big-box reporters who supposedly provide tough coverage of administration officials spent the run-up to the 2023 Correspondents’ Dinner furiously clamoring to be seated with or alongside Biden bigwigs.
“Landing a table at the front of the room – near where President Joe Biden, [White House Correspondents’ Association President Tamara] Keith and other WHCA board members will sit – has become a symbol of importance among the DC media world,” Politico reported at the time. “Many people are going to be sitting at tables that they don’t think correctly acknowledge their importance and stature,” Keith added, “and that’s really tough.”
This is the state of brand media in Washington, DC, today: teenagers jockeying for position at the high school dance. Given such an abject lack of concern for professionalism, is it any wonder the ruling progressive apparatus is ready to take the next step and put them on the government payroll?
https://www.libertynation.com/regime-media-is-no-myth-when-government-pays-the-salaries/
No .. This is not from Babylon Bee:
Monday's Energy Absurdity: Cornell Launches 'Respiration Chamber' to Measure Cow Burps and Farts
University officials assure us it is the 'gold standard' of fart chambers
David Blackmon
Apr 29, 2024
Like manna from heaven, today’s Energy Absurdity dropped right into my lap this morning as I conducted my early morning news gathering. Life is just like that sometimes if you follow the rules.
New York local TV station WBNG Channel 12 News reports that researchers at Cornell University have built the nation’s first and only “animal respiration stall,” an enclosed housing for cows that will enable them to accurately measure the exact amount of methane they belch and fart into the environment. In other words, they have built a hermitically sealed fart chamber.
Naturally, the researchers assure us that it is a world class fart chamber, or as they describe it, the “gold standard” of fart chambers.
“The respiration chambers are considered to be the gold standard to monitor methane emissions from cows,” said Associate Professor of Dairy Cattle Biology Joseph McFadden. “There are a lot of untested methane mitigation and monitoring technologies out there. But the only way you can provide absolute quantification of gas emissions is by using a respiration chamber system.”
You all know what’s coming next, don’t you? Within a few years, either in a Biden second term or the first term of some other Democrat president, the EPA will issue regulations requiring farmers to measure emissions from their cattle herds and force them to use “gold standard” respiration chambers like this one as “the best available technology” to accomplish the task.
Many of you are no doubt scoffing at that as just a “conspiracy theory,” the kind of which I have posed and been proven 100% right about many times over the last 20 years or so. For all of you, I urge you to bookmark this piece and refer back to it when, in just a few years, the EPA publishes this exact regulation in the Federal Register.
Because that is what is coming. Remember: A conspiracy is not a ‘theory’ when it is standing in front of you slapping your stupid face.
That is all.
https://blackmon.substack.com/p/mondays-energy-absurdity-cornell?publication_id=712558&post_id=144123536&isFreemail=false&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
The D.C. Court’s fiendish plan if the Supremes overrule J6ers’ 1512(c)(2) convictions
By Andrea Widburg
The Supreme Court is deciding Fischer v. United States, a case challenging how the DOJ and the D.C. court have been using 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) against January 6 defendants. Because it’s obvious that they’ve violated the most basic precepts of statutory interpretation, it’s likely that the Supreme Court will reverse the conviction. However, the D.C. court just issued an order establishing that defendants other than Joseph Fischer who use the decision to appeal their convictions will suffer an even worse fate. This is a reminder that the “law” in Democrat enclaves is unconcerned with justice. Instead, it exists to further the Democrat party’s power.
Section 1512(c)(2) contains a seemingly magical phrase that the DOJ and D.C. court have used to send hundreds of law-abiding citizens to jail or otherwise destroy their lives: “Whoever corruptly...obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding...shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.” According to the DOJ and the D.C. court, when Americans showed up to protest what they believed was an improper election certification based upon a corrupt election, they were obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding.
However, if one examines the statute, it’s obvious, from the title on down (“Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant”), that § 1512 addresses the crime of destroying or corrupting evidence in a criminal proceeding or investigation. It has nothing to do with exercising free speech in the legislative context. Taking language out of its statutory context to achieve an end the legislature never intended is a big judicial no-no. (See here for a somewhat more in-depth analysis.)
The DOJ and D.C. court know that their interpretation of § 1512(c)(2) is likely to be reversed. Even the most ideologically corrupt Supreme Court justice will have a very difficult time pretending that the statute can be extended beyond its manifest purpose of protecting evidence.
Any reversal will apply only to Joseph Fischer, the J6 defendant whose case is before the Supreme Court. However, once the Court overturns his conviction, the way is clear for every other J6 defendant convicted using § 1512(c)(2) to challenge the conviction. This has the DOJ and the D.C. court in a panic, but they’ve come up with a plan.
For those few J6 defendants convicted only under § 1512(c)(2), there’s nothing the DOJ and D.C. court can do to stop them from tasting freedom and having their records wiped clean. However, most of the J6 defendants were charged and convicted on myriad grounds. (One of the things prosecutors do is stack as many charges as possible in an indictment. This gives them huge leverage in negotiating plea bargains and means a probable win on something—anything—if the matter goes to trial.)
With an eye to the charge stacking common in criminal prosecutions, the D.C. court has just issued an order in the case of Larry Brock telling him that, if he dares challenge his § 1512(c)(2) conviction, the court has something much worse in store for him: It will change its initial order so that the various penalties originally imposed upon him will no longer be served concurrently but, instead, will be served consecutively.
Here's what that means. Under the “concurrent” standard, if a defendant was sentenced to two years for Crime A and two years for Crime B, both those sentences will be fulfilled by the same two years in prison. After two years, he’s a free man. However, if they’re switched to a “consecutive” system, the defendant will serve two years for Crime A. Once those two years are completed, the term for Crime B immediately begins. Thus, it will take four years for the prisoner to be freed:
I really hope SCOTUS is paying attention to how DC judges are scheming to keep J6ers in prison on 1512c2 convictions if SCOTUS reverses that charge in J6 cases.
This order is not just a warning to the defendant involved—Larry Brock, a decorated military veteran with no criminal… pic.twitter.com/f9CncQUz8W
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) April 26, 2024
You may have noticed that what you’re seeing is an order, meaning it comes from the judges. However, the D.C. judges haven’t impressed anyone as a particularly intelligent bunch. They are ideologues. That’s all. That’s why I keep throwing in the DOJ when I discuss this issue. I’d bet good money that the bright minds in the Democrat party, both in the DOJ and among the Democrat cadre of lawyers who lurk behind the scene, are the ones who came up with this idea.
I practiced law in the San Francisco Bay Area. What became obvious very early was that Democrat party judges held themselves to a very special standard. They saw themselves as above the justice-based principles of due process, the facts of the case, and the applicable law.
Instead, almost all of them believed that their black robes put them in direct contact with the higher power of social justice, allowing them to determine entirely upon ideological rather than constitutional and legal grounds. The only surprise for me now is that Democrat judges have become so open in their corruption and so blatantly partisan in their desired outcomes. This is evil and will stop only if they are held to account for their criminal trespasses. It’s to be hoped that when Trump returns to the White House, reforming our broken judicial system is one of his first acts.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/the_d_c_court_s_fiendish_plan_if_the_supremes_overrule_j6ers_1512_c_2_convictions.html
Who runs the American agitprop machine?
By James Lewis
“First, conquer the organs of propaganda,” wrote Karl Marx, who was a genius mob agitator and nothing else. Mob agitators were already a kind of specialty in Prussia, Poland, Russia, and Eastern Europe, but Marx wrote the instruction manual, just as Saul Alinsky did in his Rules for Radicals, which became Barack Obama’s manual for political agitators.
Fast-forward half a century, and the U.S. media, which used to have a sane liberal and a sane conservative wing, collapsed into a Uniparty propaganda machine, just like Pravda (Truth) and Izvestiya (News) in Moscow, of which the Russians used to joke, “There is no truth in Pravda and there is no news in Izvestiya,” because they both came from the Kremlin.
Today we wonder why Hamas child-killers always sound far from sanity, and why the North Koreans seem to live in an even more different universe. The answer is simple: if you enforce total uniformity on any group, it turns into a cult. They listen to only one voice. That’s how you make mob cults, exactly how the Columbia faculty created a new Hitlerjugend screaming slogans with no consequences, because all the authorities have surrendered.
Make everybody march to the beat of the same drum, and you’ve got a mass cult. That's why they all yell the same words from the same book at the same mass demonstrations in the same locations. Normal people don't march in lockstep, but today's hateful mobs do, because they have one group mind. You don’t need A.I. to turn people into robots.
Those kids at Columbia have been cultified using Soros millions, and they honestly can’t figure out why anybody could disagree with their internalized lies.
This happens over and over again in history, and it’s how you change normal teenagers into mobsters.
How did the American media, which used to be run by normal people, turn into a Stalinist machine? Forty years after the Soviet Union collapsed?
It’s not as if anybody in 1989 was rationally convinced that race or sex Marxism was the wave of the future. Talk to Poles or even Russians today, and you don’t find many Hamas fans. They’ve been there and done that, and they don’t even like George Soros.
So what happened?
Some good historian (if there are any left) has to look into this twist of history. When Nazi Germany fell after WWII, the world did not decide to follow the Hitler model.
And yet, two generations after the Cold War, a new racist, genderist, and sex-obsessed faith has spread through the West, with women acting oppressed, gays and lesbians also becoming victims, and even children, the most vulnerable among us, getting recruited into the new faith of sexualized victimhoood for all, no matter how young or clueless.
About ten years ago, Tucker Carlson helped to expose a radical propaganda internet list called JournoList, a secret Google group of media influencers who made up the headlines for the next day’s news, in places like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the U.K. Guardian.
Wikipedia tells us,
JournoList (sometimes referred to as the J-List) was a private Google Groups forum for discussing politics and the news media with 400 left-leaning journalists, academics and others. Ezra Klein created the online forum in February 2007 while blogging at The American Prospect and shut it down on June 25, 2010 amid wider public exposure. Journalists later pointed out various off-color statements made by members of the list denigrating conservatives.
That was an actual conspiracy to centralize the U.S. media. Chances are that it is still living in some secret Google group today, because the “mainstream” media are still singing from the same hymnal.
But how does the Biden Gang control the propaganda gang?
Our friends at The Conservative Treehouse propose an answer. TCT reports that Biden has a small cult called “the beach group” running lawfare campaigns around the country to undermine everything Americans believe in. Maybe ordinary Americans can pull a little lawfare on these thugs?
If Trump wins, I want him to start revengefare — the opposite of lawfare, and well deserved.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/who_runs_the_american_agitprop_machine.html
Was it all that Baby Proofing?
By Clarice Feldman
Helicopter parents who shield kids from the consequences of their actions have raised a generation of reckless, entitled, ill-educated brats.
Watching the idiocy on college campuses this week and seeing all the explanations for protests in favor of murderous Hamas, two tweets seem particularly on point. There’s the great David Burge (Iowahawk), who calls these outbursts “Hamas slumber parties,” and says, “This is like staging a pro-Nazi lunch counter sit-in and getting mad that people won’t treat you like you’re a modern-day Rosa Parks.” He attributes protests for the Intifada and slogans reading “from the River to the Sea” by numbskulls who have admittedly no idea what they are protesting as the result of baby-proofing houses. “There is,” he says, “no better educational experience for a child than finding out what happens when you stick a butter knife into an electrical outlet.”
I think he’s right. Helicopter parents who shield kids from the consequences of their actions have raised a generation of reckless, entitled, ill-educated brats. (I’d add to his admonition the habit of so many parents to spend evenings “helping” their kids with their homework. My view is they either do it or don’t and, if they don’t, they can learn the consequences.)
Elon Musk, another of those whose sage observations I endorse, says:
“The axiomatic error undermining much of Western Civilization is “weak makes right”. If someone accepts, explicitly or implicitly, that the oppressed are always the good guys, then the natural conclusion is that the strong are the bad guys.”
So Hamas engaged in the most brutal attack on a much stronger neighbor, and even before Israel's perfectly predictable response in defense of its own people, Hamas became worthy of sympathy and protection. The Israeli counterattack is falsely described as “genocide,” self-rule in Gaza is misnamed “occupation;” indigenous Jews are labeled “colonialists” and “occupiers,” while Arabs are mischaracterized as native to Gaza.
Add to the mix of explanations for what otherwise is inexplicable immoral conduct the mind-boggling ignorance of the protestors. Everywhere we see signs that "Gazan liberation is queer liberation." It’s a topsy-turvy world on American campuses. Homosexuality is illegal in Syria, Egypt, Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Kuwait, and the West Bank. It’s not illegal in Israel, and homosexual Gazans have sought and received refuge there.
@hahussain
‘Queer are shamed and thrown out of the majority of Palestinian families. In a Palestinian state, they’d likely be thrown from the top of buildings. Even the most Westernized of Arab countries, Lebanon, saw its majority bash 10 lawmakers for presenting a legislation decriminalizing homosexuality (only decriminalizing, not even giving them any rights). U.S. college students have no idea what they’re talking about.”
Just as absurd are the feminists and transgenders for Hamas.
The protests and encampments have spread to a number of colleges, but the worst is Columbia University, and a close examination shows that it is a result of a horrible choice of president and a history of ignoring Jew hatred, of which the latest demonstration is a perfectly predictable outcome.
There’s no reason except the anti-merit DEI impetus for Nemat Shafik to have been named president of Columbia: Shafik “only has 1 well-cited publication in her life, in Oxford Econ Papers 1994. This paper is lifted almost entirely from a 1992 report coauthored with a consultant not credited in the publication. This is wholesale intellectual theft, not subtle plagiarism.”
Khymani Jones, one leader of the Columbia encampment who was extensively quoted as saying, “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and talked about killing Jews, was finally banned from campus, although it remains unclear whether he was expelled or suspended. But in a disciplinary hearing in January, the university was aware of these statements and did not act. Before he was shown the door, Ilhan Omar went to the Columbia campus and shook hands with him; her daughter hugged him. The only reason he was finally kicked out was because his threats became more widely publicized. When he was finally at least suspended, he claimed it was because he is black and queer.
Don’t blame the police -- Columbia has prevented them from removing the encampment. The NYPD Chief of Patrol responded:
The pure hate, antisemitism, and overall vile language I have witnessed recently is simply disgusting. I could not begin to even know how this makes a person feel, a family or a friend. Hate has no place in our society from anyone! It should be condemned by all immediately. The NYPD is committed to protecting everyone from hate, especially our Jewish brothers and sisters. Trust me, if we could throw handcuffs on anyone who peddled in this -- we would do this all day every day. End of story! We understand the frustration, we stand with you and the NYPD is always ready. We demonstrated this last week when our Mayor and PC ordered swift action for the removal of school protesters. Unfortunately there are certain things we can’t control, thus it’s incumbent for the effected institutions to take a stand and enforce their rules! Actions have consequences! No more suspensions let’s try expulsion of these entitled hateful students. Pack your belongings and get out! Let’s remove faculty and staff who have replaced their educational licenses for a license of hate -- Your fired! Your frustration and despair should not be directed toward the City of New York. We did not shut down your identification and deny your entry. We don’t govern private property nor school rules while being bound by free speech. The Mayor, Police Commissioner and the NYPD will never relent in the pursuit of public safety and, here and now, protecting our Jewish community….
By contrast, in Washington D.C., George Washington University asked the local police to remove the protestors. They were prepared to do so, but Mayor Muriel Bowser, a huge fan of BLM and believer in the George Floyd fable, ordered the force to stand down.
Are these protests organic and spontaneous? Of course not -- they are being funded by George Soros and a variety of foundations and various NGOs which in a lawful world would have long ago lost their tax breaks. The occupation of college campuses across the U.S. is a well-organized and funded operation led by Soros-backed groups, including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). The Soros-backed NGOs pay outside agitators $7800 and campus activists $3600 each, according to a report. Half of the violent protestors who have been arrested nationally are not students but NGO-affiliated agitators. Hamas is an internationally recognized terror group, and with the help of these NGOs, it is recruiting and radicalizing thousands of students across the country.
The current students -- drawn from organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Within Our Lifetime (WOL), and others -- have been filmed calling for not only the killing of Israelis and Jews but also the dissolution of the US government and acts of terror on American soil.
These organizations have maintained both influential and radical friends, NGO Monitor explained in its new report released on Thursday, noting that JVP -- a fringe anti-Israel group that has often joined forces to coordinate events with SJP -- has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Other donors to JVP include the Open Society Policy Center and the Kaphan Foundation, among others.
As for SJP, one of its founders, Hatem Bazian, is also a co-founder of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), an advocacy group that, according to a landmark report last year by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), “retains ties to terrorist groups operating in the Palestinian Territories.” AMP is a growing power player in the US Democratic Party and has led several legislative initiatives aimed at eroding Democratic support for Israel.
NGO Monitor also named in its report Within Our Lifetime, a New York City-based group headed by a former City University of New York (CUNY) student who once threatened to set a Jewish student’s Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sweater on fire while he wore it. Since Oct. 7, WOL has openly cheered Hamas’ atrocities as the “right to resist zionist [sic] settle violence” and “Resistance in all its forms. By any means necessary” — an apparent endorsement of Hamas’ abductions and sexual violence against Israeli women…
Another group named in the new report, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), supports a network of allied groups, including AMP, JVP, and WESPAC. USCPR has received immense financial support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which has awarded it at least $355,000 since 2018…
According to NAS’s findings, JVP as of last year had received $480,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund… and the Tides Research Fund, a sponsor of Black Lives Matter, has given the group at least $75,000 since 2019... Additionally, Palestine Legal, a lawfare group founded in 2012 to support campus BDS groups like SJP, is the beneficiary of generous funding from Tides Foundation…
There’s anecdotal evidence that, aside from the reputational costs to institutions that have abetted or tolerated this behavior, they are losing donors and applicants. (Not only are applications for new students down, but Brandeis and Yeshiva University have extended the deadline for transfer applications for students who wish to leave these cesspools.) Hedge Fund CEO Bill Ackman predicts substantial litigation and financial loss for schools that indulge in this behavior by faculties and students:
Recent events at @Harvard, @MIT, @Columbia et al couldn’t provide more prima facie supporting evidence for the various Title VI and class action lawsuits against the universities. The complaints just need to be updated to include the new facts. The plaintiffs are going to have a field day in court. The universities’ unwillingness to follow their own stated rules has emboldened the protesters to amplify their anti-Israel, antisemitic, and anti-American messaging and actions. It’s remarkable that even the likely severe economic costs of the litigation doesn’t motivate the administrations and governing boards to address the situation. That’s likely because there are no shareholders and it is therefore other people’s money. Yet another failure of the non-profit model. I am surprised the state attorneys general have not gotten involved as they are supposed to be important ‘regulators’ of non-profits. While it doesn’t happen often, board members of nonprofits can be held personally liable for their failures as fiduciaries. I would not be surprised to see that happen here.
In a better world, the White House, Department of Justice, and FBI wouldn’t leave it to private litigants to redress actions targeting students and faculties for their religious beliefs and endorsing anti-American mayhem. In the interim, we can ridicule the hypocrisy of institutions that just recently punished students for misgendering others or for wearing sombreros to Halloween parties.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/04/was_it_all_that_baby_proofing.html
Thanks for sharing this Larry.
Did you see all that white privilege!?
Thanks Larry, awesome photos.
Funny, I didn't see even one fat person.
The EV ‘Bloodbath’ Arrives Early
EVs are becoming the red shirts of the automotive world
David Blackmon
Apr 27, 2024
Ever since March 16, when US presidential candidate Donald Trump created a controversy by predicting Joe Biden’s efforts to force Americans to convert their lives to electric vehicle (EV) lifestyles would end in a “bloodbath” for the US auto industry, the industry’s own disastrous results have consistently proven him accurate.
The latest example came this week when Ford Motor Company reported that it had somehow managed to lose $132,000 per unit sold during Q1 2024 in its Model e EV division. The disastrous first quarter results follow the equally disastrous results for 2023, when the company said it lost $4.7 billion in Model e for the full 12-month period.
While the company has remained profitable overall thanks to strong demand for its legacy internal combustion SUV, pickup, and heavy vehicle models, the string of major losses in its EV line led the company to announce a shift in strategic vision in early April. Ford CEO Jim Farley said then that the company would delay the introduction of additional planned all-electric models and scale back production of current models like the F-150 Lightning pickup while refocusing efforts on introducing new hybrid models across its business line.
GM reported it had good overall Q1 results, but they were based on strong sales of its gas-powered SUV and truck models, not its EVs. GM is so gun-shy about reporting EV-specific results that it doesn’t break them out in its quarterly reports, so there is no way of knowing what the real bottom line amounts to from that part of the business. This is possibly a practice Ford should consider adopting.
After reporting its own disappointing Q1 results in which adjusted earnings collapsed by 48% and deliveries dropped by 20% from the previous quarter, Tesla announced it is laying off 10 percent of its global workforce, including 2,700 employees at its Austin plant, where its vaunted Cybertruck is manufactured. Since its introduction in November, the Cybertruck has been beset by buyer complaints ranging from breakdowns within minutes after taking delivery, to its $3,000 camping tent feature failing to deploy, to an incident in which one buyer complained his vehicle shut down for 5 hours after he failed to put the truck in “carwash mode” before running it through a local car wash.
Meanwhile, international auto rental company Hertz is now fire selling its own fleet of Teslas and other EV models in its efforts to salvage a little final value from what is turning out to be a disastrous EV gamble. In a giant fit of green virtue-signaling, the company invested whole hog into the Biden subsidy program in 2021 with a mass purchase of as many as 100,000 Teslas and 50,000 Polestar models, only to find that customer demand for renting electric cars was as tepid as demand to buy them outright. For its troubles, Hertz reported it had lost $392 million during Q1, attributing $195 million of the loss to its EV struggles. Hertz’s share price plummeted by about 20% on April 25, and was down by 55% for the year.
If all this financial carnage does not yet constitute a “bloodbath” for the US EV sector, it is difficult to imagine what would. But wait: It really isn’t all that hard to imagine at all, is it? When he used that term back in March, Mr. Trump was referring not just to the ruinous Biden subsidy program, but also to plans by China to establish an EV-manufacturing beachhead in Mexico, from which it would be able to flood the US market with its cheap but high-quality electric models. That would definitely cause an already disastrous domestic EV market to get even worse, wouldn’t it?
The bottom line here is that it is becoming obvious even to ardent EV fans that US consumer demand for EVs has reached a peak long before the industry and government expected it would. It’s a bit of a perfect storm, one that rent-seeking company executives and obliging policymakers brought upon themselves. Given that this outcome was highly predictable, with so many warning it was in fact inevitable, a reckoning from investors and corporate boards and voters will soon come due. It could become a bloodbath of its own, and perhaps it should.
https://blackmon.substack.com/p/the-ev-bloodbath-arrives-early?publication_id=712558&post_id=144077332&isFreemail=false&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
And nothing will happen as is most often the case when the perp is aligned with liberal narrative.
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