Open Thread

Now that the whole football thing is over with, we can fully concentrate on the sport that matters: Hockey!

We here in Vegas fell in love with our Golden Knights during the inaugural season 7 years ago and the love affair has just grown since then. Going from Misfits to Champions in 6 years just cemented it. I had never watched more than a couple minutes of hockey in my life until that first season…but as the Knights started to shock the world by winning and getting into playoff contention, I started to watch. It took a little while to grasp the rules and tactics of the game but I’m pretty well grounded now…periodically shouting at the TV “shoot, dammit, there’s a lane open” and “for crying out loud, don’t turn it over at the blue line” and other such hocky-fan things. It is the last, remaining un-woke sport, anyways. And I like the element of luck in it. In all major sports the worst can beat the best but in hockey just a little more so…because you’re trying to get a little black thing to go into a net off ice. The skills are there, the shot is there and its perfect…but it hits a post or goes just slightly wide. You never know how a game can go…how at times you’ll go 40 minutes of play without anyone scoring, and then in five minutes 4 goals are scored collectively. So, hoping my Knights repeat! To make up for the national humiliation of the Chiefs repeating.

Everyone in Pudding Brain’s world is out there asserting that Biden is vigorous and sharp as a tack…while he’s got no official actions scheduled for the next three days. You know: the middle of the work week. That presser he gave was a catastrophe…and his Super Bowl rant about potato chips didn’t help. Everyone knows: he’s senile. He’s probably lucid no more than a few hours a day and can’t possibly map out a strategy. We’re now governed by a collection of West Wing staffers and Jill who try to work the Joe Oracle to get a decision…its why everything is a mess right now. The only way out, now, is a Trump vote in November.

And that is why with very few exceptions I’m getting harsh with Never Trump. To be fair, I know a few who have consistently opposed Trump on policy grounds since 2015. That’s fine. I disagree but if someone is giving me an honest opinion based on facts and their interpretation of same, I can’t really complain. But the broad mass of Never Trump are just mind-numbed Orange Man Bad cretins. There is no moral or intellectual world where Biden is better than Trump. Getting Biden out is crucial to the basic safety of the United States. And these Never Trump guys are on and on about how they have to keep Biden in because Trump is worse. That isn’t just dishonest, it is stupid. It isn’t about Trump. It is not even about Republican or Democrat – it is about getting a clearly, mentally incompetent man out of office. Even Kamala would be better in that at least she’s not senile (other than that: disaster). Right now, if the 3 am call comes, we have no idea who will make the actual decision…and we might get no decision (which is vastly worse than even a bad decision) because nobody wants to take responsibility for it. Biden must go.

The Senate GOP is backing the Ukraine aid bill (naturally) but Senator Vance (R-OH) found within the text a requirement that the money remain available for Ukraine until September, 2025. Meaning that if Trump wins and carries out his pledge to end US support for the Ukraine war, he can be impeached. Rely on it, the Ruling Class knows it is at least even money that Trump wins in November and they’re trying to hamstring him in advance. The border bill was like that, too; all sorts of provisions which would de-facto tie Trump’s hands on border security.

Of course, poison pill or no, I think Trump should go for it. It is unlikely that there are 67 Senate votes to remove Trump. Just let impeachment after impeachment fail, if that is what it takes. Trump’s main task, if he wins, is to clear out the bureaucracy, anyways – that is where the danger really lies to himself and to any future GOP President. We now know that various officials of the Executive branch were not only refusing direct, legal Presidential orders, they were actively breaking the law to take down Trump. Massive housecleaning is necessary. An end to Civil Service protections, at least in all senior Executive Branch positions. Executive Branch people have no power – the President is the only person vested by the Constitution with Executive power. Anyone who exercises Executive power does so at the discretion of the President and simply cannot, except in cases of obviously illegal orders, refuse a Presidential order.

Canadian Leftist groups in cooperation with the Canadian government cooked up a story about how Catholic Church schools in Canada had mass graves for Native children murdered by Catholic Church schools. It was quite a big issue in Canada and they even got the Pope to issue an apology about it. Trouble is, there were and are no mass graves. Of course there weren’t: hey, the Church has a lot of faults but they don’t mass murder people. It was just a ridiculous accusation…but the Ruling Class ran with it because it was an attack on the Church and they’ll always go for that. It has all been exposed as a hoax but that doesn’t matter: to the Leftist, to original, flaming headline is always the dogma. “Hands up, don’t shoot”, “was just buying skittles” and “I can’t breath” are obligatory beliefs even though there isn’t the least bit of truth to them. So, too, with the “Church mass graves” story – the Left still asserts it is true, and so very often these days Leftist terrorists are burning down Catholic churches. Naturally, the police don’t get them: they’re busy looking for people who are misgendering.

So a perhaps-trans shooter with “free Palestine” on Xir gun tried to do a mass shooting, fortunately stopped. But you’ll be pleased to know the shooter is an illegal immigrant in country for 19 years and voted in the 2020 election.

Volkswagon has their Super Bowl ad and it was pretty good…left out something, though.

43 thoughts on “Open Thread

  1. Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 13, 2024 / 12:15 pm

    Leave it to the Babylon Bee to put the term “Christian Nationalist” in perspective.

    • You’re a Christian: The biggest red flag of all.
    • You have voted in an election: You think you’re supposed to have a say in who leads the country, you maniac?
    • You’re married: To a person of the OPPOSITE sex, so there’s no telling what horrible things you might do.
    • You are currently in possession of an American flag: Only a truly hateful person displays such frightening imagery.
    • You agree with the idea of building a society on principles like “do not steal,” “do not lie,” and “do not murder”: Haven’t you ever heard of the separation of CHURCH and STATE?
    • You let someone wearing a MAGA hat walk by without punching them in the face: Disturbing evidence that you agree with Nazis.
    • You pay for merchandise at Target instead of just running out the door: It’s probably because you think you’re better than everyone else. A classic symptom of Christian Nationalism.
    • You won’t let your 3rd-grader join the After School Satan Club: Refusing to let your child hang out with the Prince of Darkness is a clear sign you’re a bigot.
    • You face Mar A Lago five times per day and pray to Donald Trump: All Christian Nationalists do this.
    • You own a Bible: Even more dangerously, it’s a King James Version.
    • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 13, 2024 / 6:27 pm

      I do have to disagree with the Bee on its last characteristic. Catholics do not use the King James version, and we all know that “Catholic” is just another word for “subversive”. Well, trad-cath anyway. But even the more Progressive Marxist Catholics need to be kept under close surveillance, because beliefs

      And they left out “thinking this is a pretty great country”.

      • Mark Noonan's avatar Mark Noonan February 13, 2024 / 9:05 pm

        LOL – yep.

        But today I find myself more furious with the Senate GOP…not only betraying us, but arrogantly saying that we’re too stupid to know what is good for us.

        But that has likely been the underlying attitude for decades now…why they routinely betray us.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 14, 2024 / 10:25 am

        When someone I really respect, like Senator John Kennedy, does something that seems totally out of character I always wonder why. I have enough faith in him to think there might be a good reason, and I would like to know what it is.

  2. Cluster's avatar Cluster February 14, 2024 / 9:00 am

    We’re now governed by a collection of West Wing staffers and Jill who try to work the Joe Oracle to get a decision

    I don’t think anyone in the West Wing does any governing. IMO, America is governed by the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon, DHS, and the IRS. People in the West Wing are figure heads, well except for Trump, who didn’t follow orders which is why he was impeached twice and illegally removed from office. If we don’t end this dynamic in 2028, the “fundamental transformation” Obama spoke of, will be completed.

  3. Cluster's avatar Cluster February 14, 2024 / 10:07 am

    Why should Republicans “reach across the aisle” when that piece of shit party spied on, and impeached my President twice??? They can all go fuck themselves and I pray they all burn in hell. Never compromise with them. Destroy them instead.

  4. Amazona's avatar Amazona February 14, 2024 / 11:04 am

    According to a May report by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), reaching the goal of net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 would consume more than 250,000 square miles, or 160 million acres, of land.

    “With current siting practices, an area the size of Texas is required to accommodate the wind and solar infrastructure we need to reach nationwide net-zero emissions by 2050,” stated Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at TNC, a renewable energy advocate.

    Many energy experts and environmentalists are coming to the conclusion that nuclear energy is the best choice to generate reliable, affordable energy, while cutting CO2 emissions. Despite headline nuclear catastrophes at plants in Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima, many countries are building new plants or delaying closures of existing nuclear plants, considering it the cleanest and least environmentally harmful source of electricity.

    According to a report by the Nuclear Energy Institute, wind farms require up to 360 times as much land area to produce the same amount of electricity as a nuclear energy facility, and solar facilities require up to 75 times the land area. Compared to coal and natural gas plants, wind and solar consume at least 10 times as much land, according to the left-leaning Brookings Institution.

    In addition to a smaller footprint, nuclear power stations also typically do not require the construction of thousands of miles of new transmission lines to reach remote locations, where wind and solar facilities are typically built.

    With nuclear, Mr. Bryce said, “we don’t need to expand the grid; we can use the grid we have.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/date-disaster-net-zero-pulling-plug-americas-electrical-life-support-system-new-documentary?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2268

    • Cluster's avatar Cluster February 14, 2024 / 11:37 am

      “Net zero” is the most absurd and destructive concept man has ever created since war. Net zero is the same as trans … a completely manufactured evil concept. Without carbon, life doesn’t exist … but maybe that’s the goal of the elites.

      • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 14, 2024 / 11:44 am

        but maybe that’s the goal of the elites.

        It is – no question about it. Many, if not most of the leading globalist/enviro-Marxists have come right out and said it publicly. We should believe them.

    • Jeremiah's avatar Jeremiah February 15, 2024 / 1:48 am

      “This is how everyone should react to Democrats”

      I understand your frustration and everything, and yes you can get up and walk away, but the problem is, is they are still after you’ve got up and turned back on them, they’re still there, and they’re still causing problems.

      When you can lay them down in a line box then they are no longer a problem, because they don’t have the ability to cause problems for anyone.

      Then you can breathe and rest your mind. The only thing is there’s so many of them.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster February 15, 2024 / 9:49 am

        It’s not a frustration, it’s a guttural hatred. They are the minority and they are only “still there” because we allow it

      • Jeremiah's avatar Jeremiah February 15, 2024 / 11:44 am

        That’s right.

  5. Amazona's avatar Amazona February 14, 2024 / 4:17 pm
  6. Amazona's avatar Amazona February 15, 2024 / 9:38 am

    A few days ago one of our resident trolls had a hissy/pissy fit over my comment on counting illegals in the census. It wasn’t worth getting into, other than pointing out that the issue has been repeatedly challenged and adjudicated in different courts.

    Here is a great explanation of why it is so important to NOT count illegals in our census:

    Overall, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, there are an estimated 16.8 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. as of June 2023. Therefore, because every House seat represents 761,168 residents on average, the total number of illegal immigrants account for roughly 22 seats in the House.

    …………………………………….

    In addition, electoral votes for presidential elections are distributed to states based on how many representatives in Congress they have. Therefore, a state with a larger number of House seats has greater influence during presidential elections every four years. […]

    The article goes on to point out:

    “Barring the Census from including noncitizens in apportionment is critical in making sure that American citizens — the only population who can and should vote in U.S. elections — are picking America’s leaders,”

    Fortunately, this is being addressed, or at least some Republicans are trying to address it. Watch the hysteria from the Left at efforts to keep control of our government in the hands of citizens, not illegally imported vote generators.

    Last month, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced the Equal Representation Act to ensure “only legal citizens are factored into the count for Congressional districts and the Electoral College map that determines presidential elections.” 

  7. Cluster's avatar Cluster February 15, 2024 / 9:51 am

    So according to the Pentagon this morning, Ukraine is wiping out the Russian army and navy and just needs more assistance. But also according to the Pentagon, if Russia gets past Ukraine,Poland and Germany would be no match.

    And if you believe this, call me, I have some excellent real estate opportunities.

    • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 15, 2024 / 10:51 am

      And if you believe this, call me, I have some excellent real estate opportunities.

      Is there a bridge on any of the properties?

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster February 15, 2024 / 11:13 am

        Yes, but no rainbow bridges lol

  8. Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 15, 2024 / 11:22 am

    Speaking of inky government secrets and murky non-declassification, independent reporters and former democrats Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi earned the respect of the American people by famously working with Elon Musk to break the so-called “Twitter files” story, which exposed government manipulation of social media companies to censor Americans and achieve dubious political goals, and which has fueled the generation-defining Missouri v. Biden First Amendment case. This week, Shellenberger claimed to have broken another government-corruption story — a much bigger story — in a series of remarkable Twitter posts.

    Useless corporate media is completely silent, which tells us a lot.

    Shellenberger’s story involves that binder I reported on two months ago on December 18th, when CNN had just run a bizarre, hastily-written, long-form story about a missing top-secret intelligence binder — missing for almost three years! —  blaming it all on Trump. The binder held a classified report about Crossfire Hurricane — the Russian Collusion hoax leading to Trump’s first impeachment — and according to CNN, to “election interference in 2016.” Whatever’s in it, it is a report that the deep state is desperate to bury in the Oceanic Trench as deeply and as soon as it possibly can.

    image 8.png

    Back in December, I suggested the surprise SWAT raid on Mar-a-Lago by a swarm of federal agents wasn’t actually about trying to find some vague nuclear-secrets records that Trump hadn’t returned to NARA after being asked nicely.

    I suggested the raid was instead intended for one reason only: to find that binder. The NARA business was just a carefully staged predicate.

    Two days ago, Jesse Waters covered Shellenger’s developing story on Fox:

    image 5.png

    CLIP: Jesse Watters interview with Michael Shellenberger over Crossfire Hurricane scandal (4:21).

    Multiple credible sources say that in the run-up to the 2016 election, the CIA asked foreign intelligence agencies — specifically the “Five-Eyes” group of nations — to spy on a list of 26 Trump campaign members. It was a setup, so that the CIA could cleverly evade U.S. laws against domestic spying. Specifically, the CIA asked the other governments’ spooks to try to develop relationships and interactions — called “bumping them” in the spook business — with each of the 26 Trump officials. That gave the FBI a legal predicate to “monitor” the 26 Trump campaign members, since they were interacting with covert foreign intelligence agents, which brought the Trump team within FISA and allowed Obama’s DOJ to wiretap and spy on them.

    In the clip, Shellenberger also confirmed he now believes what I speculated about two months ago, which is that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago to find the missing Crossfire Hurricane Binder, not because the binder implicates President Trump in any crime, but because it implicates U.S. intelligence agencies and agents in crimes. What kinds of crimes? Fantastically awful crimes. The worst imaginable political crimes. Crimes that, if proved, would make Benedict Arnold look like a patriotic, flag-waving nationalist.   

    I kind of like the way Lara Logan put it. She said it would “dwarf Watergate and every other scandal — combined”:

    image 6.png

    If anything, that understates the case. Then yesterday, more information emerged. Fox’s Jesse Watters followed up with another segment, this time interviewing Matt Taibbi, which was twice as long as the first one.

    image 7.png

    CLIP: Jesse Watters Valentine’s Day update (8:24).

    In yesterday’s clip, Watters reported that Taibbi and Shellenberger claim to have evidence that Joe Biden has been coordinating all the Trump criminal cases as part of the Crossfire Hurricane coverup. I don’t need to tell you how that could affect the Trump prosecutions.

    This is all still developing and fascinating and incomprehensible and the implications are staggering if not completely mind-boggling.

    I’ll say this about the timing. It does not look accidental. As far as I can tell, as a close media observer, CNN got wind that the story was going to break and tried to get ahead of it in December. Then, as the 2024 election season got underway, the story began breaking, and now in early February, it is breaking into the open.

    Remember, the binder went missing when Trump left office. It’s possible it just took this long to percolate into the public domain, but I doubt it.

    It looks to me like we are watching a long-planned release. A release of evidence of crimes that will make all previous political offenses look like peccadillos. What appears to be rising to the surface of DC’s septic tank is a crime so big that, if not definitively addressed somehow, will shatter the Republic.

    I think things are about to get much more interesting, which is saying a lot, since we’re talking about 2024.

    If this is Trump’s plan to deep-six the Deep State, he’d better hustle.

    • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 15, 2024 / 11:27 am

      Sorry, I should have done an attribution prior to the block quote from Coffee & Covid. This new format wouldn’t let me add it after the fact. I hope they have to add a new wing to the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas for all the people who should be issued orange jumpsuits for the crimes that were committed by the Obama cartel.

    • Cluster's avatar Cluster February 15, 2024 / 11:51 am

      This is treason and we have all known it for quite some time now. If America is too survive, this all needs to come out and to never be repeated again. It’s completely unAmerican

      • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 15, 2024 / 12:08 pm

        There ought to be some extra special type of punishment when those are tasked with upholding the law violate it in such an egregious manner.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 15, 2024 / 8:40 pm

        Well, that was satisfying in a rather bloodthirsty way. But the real Reacher didn’t usually use guns. The TV show is OK, but this Reacher is not the loner we have come to expect. This one has a group he works with, and a girlfriend, and shoots people.

        (I tried watching American Assassin, but bailed when I saw that Irene Kennedy is now a 40-ish black woman. Irene Kennedy worked undercover all over Eastern Europe for years, blending in with Eastern European populations back to the 60s. But Netflix needed a WOC so they just changed the whole plot line.)

      • Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 15, 2024 / 8:56 pm

        Is this more your style?

        Actually both season 1 and season 2 followed the respective books pretty closely. Season 2, which was based on the book Bad Luck and Trouble, was one of the few, maybe the only one that occurred after Reacher left the army, that included his former army team. Unlike the movies, they at least didn’t pick a midget to play Reacher.

  9. Cluster's avatar Cluster February 15, 2024 / 6:51 pm

    Fani Willis is not doing herself any favors. I think that entire case implodes

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 15, 2024 / 8:32 pm

      I see she is trying that “you just don’t understand how black folks think” scam. We knew they would be trying to make this about race, but this is ridiculous.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster February 16, 2024 / 9:08 am

        Her sense of entitlement is off the charts. “I’m not on trial here” as she sits in the witness stand lol YCMTSU. In light of this, I think we can also question the commitment to America all of those Trump defendants have, who took a plea deal. A little bit of authoritarian pressure and they folded like lawn chairs. They should have known better. We need stronger people in the GOP …

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 16, 2024 / 10:06 am

        Clearly you have never been in the position of having the authority of the United States government threatening you with retaliation so massive it would literally destroy the remainder of your life, as well as every single asset you have managed to accumulate for your family, knowing that you can either roll the dice and lose everything, including your freedom for the rest of your life, or you can accept a lesser penalty.

        “A little bit of authoritarian pressure”???? So now the threat of life in prison is just “a little bit of pressure? “They should have known better” Should have known WHAT, exactly? They knew what they needed to know, which was that in that point in time they had exactly no options but two—-a meaningless sacrifice of the rest of their lives coupled with financial devastation for their families, or an agreement to give the State a symbolic victory and retaining the possibility of eventual freedom.

        Sneering at people who have had to face decisions like this seems not just heartless but delusional.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster February 16, 2024 / 10:36 am

        SHE HAS NO CASE. They did nothing wrong. Democrats are doing to them what Putin did to Navalny. The difference is Navalny stood his ground. Now, if Willis is found to be corrupt which is likely, they should appeal to have their plea deals wiped out. And your assertion of what would happen to them is absurd. They would not have been financially devastated and they wouldn’t have been in prison for long.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 16, 2024 / 2:28 pm

        Ever had to pay a phalanx of attorneys to defend you? Try it, talk to Paul Manafort et al about it, and get back to us.

      • Cluster's avatar Cluster February 16, 2024 / 3:14 pm

        Well I believe many of them are attorneys. They could represent themselves. And again, they did nothing wrong. They shouldn’t have admitted that they did.

      • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 16, 2024 / 4:40 pm

        What were the judicial districts in which they were charged?

        The smartest of us choose which hills to die on. The rest fight foolish unwinnable battles.

  10. Cluster's avatar Cluster February 16, 2024 / 8:51 am

    Here’s what white liberal teachers are doing to kids in Seattle

    The worksheet labels “objectivity,” “individualism,” and “perfectionism” as white supremacy. If students deny their own racism — or that any of the nine characteristics are legitimately racist — is also white supremacy. Denialism or being overly defensive is a racist example of an “entitlement to name what is an [sic] isn’t racism and that those with power have a right to be shielded from the stresses of antiracist work.”

    By exploiting black families for political gain through continuous social experimentations, Democrats have destroyed black people giving them a false sense of entitlement with zero accountability. It’s the “bigotry of low expectations” on steroids. And much like everything on the Democrat agenda, this too is unsustainable.

    https://mynorthwest.com/3950467/jason-rantz-seattle-english-high-school-students-white-supremacy-reading-writing/

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 16, 2024 / 10:27 am

      Given the death spiral of CNN viewership, I’d say that more and more people ARE seeing this. That’s why the two most strident voices in the shrinking world of television propaganda are getting more and more outrageous and shrill, as they desperately try to get attention and maybe win back some of those who got fed up with their radicalism and activism. CNN and MSNBC are facing constantly diminishing audiences.

  11. Amazona's avatar Amazona February 16, 2024 / 9:51 am
  12. Retired Spook's avatar Retired Spook February 16, 2024 / 1:02 pm

    Glenn Beck was playing clips from Fani Willis’ testimony this morning. If I understood her correctly, when asked about using cash extensively in her financial dealings, she said at one time she kept a large amount of cash in her house. When asked how she accumulated that cash she said she would keep the change every time she bought groceries. That works if you use a debit card, but not if you pay cash for everything. Calling her a moron is a gross insult to morons worldwide.

    • Amazona's avatar Amazona February 16, 2024 / 2:34 pm

      That woman sure bought a lot of food! If you pay cash, you might get change back up to about $20.00 if that, unless you pay with a $100 bill for ten dollars worth of something. But where did that $100 come from? She acts as if money just appeared in her wallet, she spent some and tucked the change into a secret hidey-hole somewhere.

      I sometimes carry cash, but it comes from my bank account, and there is a record of its transfer to me. If I were to have thousands of dollars of untraceable, unaccountable, cash lying around I think that would raise a lot of questions.

      And didn’t her boy toy testify she paid him in cash to avoid a paper trail? Sounds like Fani might have a lot more to answer for than she expected when she came up with this story. The money just appeared in her possession and then she gave it to Wade, where it just disappeared.

  13. Amazona's avatar Amazona February 16, 2024 / 6:33 pm

    “Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.” ~~ Laurence J. Peter, The Peter Principle.

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