Entertainment

Back At It Open Thread

Mark Noonan24 Comments

Well, wonderful time at Lake Tahoe. Totally exhausted and we had the fun of the last 100 miles home the AC in the car conked out. Still makes cold air but the fan system simply isn’t blowing it into the cab in sufficient force to counteract Southern Nevada sunshine! So, with more than 93,000 miles on the car, we’re already looking for a replacement as at that mileage cars always start to nickel and dime you to death (this is probably just a busted fan or, perhaps, some break in the venting…but I suspect the fan as I could still feel cold air right at the vent openings). Its been a good car but it is time for it to go to that great garage in the sky (ie, the high miles used car lot where some poor sap will pay three times what its worth on a 19% APR loan…on the plus side, the actual maintenance was done on the regular so it probably has 25,000 miles left on it).

Gabbard has referred the Trump case to the DoJ. About time! Everyone involved from start to finish was breaking a whole raft of federal laws day in and day out. There are a host of very serious federal laws regarding the improper use of intel and law enforcement powers. And every person involved is guilty of the conspiracy – even if, in theory, they didn’t know exactly what was happening. And for those thinking the statute of limitations applies because it started in 2015…bad news! These people kept on breaking the law right through the 2024 election. That is, the law breaking kept on going…so, if you entered into the conspiracy in 2015 and bailed out of it in 2018, you’re still on the hook.

It is hard to decide if this or Biden’s dementia is the biggest political scandal in history. Not just American history: world history. That officials sworn to uphold the laws failed to do so – and, indeed, deliberately broke those laws – isn’t unprecedented, but the staggering scale of it here is hard to imagine. And it cuts right through just about every institution…even MSMers could be caught in this net. Not because they wrote it up, but because they actively cooperated in advancing the scam. It is one thing to say “I’m just a reporting saying what I’ve been told”…it is quite another to rigidly adhere to what were clearly talking points all through the matter. Remember, they all refused to cover the Hunter laptop story…not one of them broke ranks and pointed out the obvious: it is real, it is Hunter’s and it details quite a large number of felony actions. There are coincidences, but none quite like that – and if we can prove they were part of the conspiracy (which doesn’t require forensic proof – that is, to charge someone with conspiracy we don’t need to prove they took orders), then they’re going down as well. And it was all of a piece – the same people and institutions which created and pushed Trump-Russia created and pushed the myth of Biden cognitive ability as well as Hunter’s innocence.

We’ll see how it goes. But this tells why Trump wants us off Epstein and the Democrats want to talk about nothing else. We all know what a complete slime ball Epstein was and that very large number of well-connected people were deep in with him…but the bottom line is that the man is dead and the more crucial law enforcement issue isn’t to go after those who covered for Epstein but to go after those who tried to carry out a coup against the elected President. Democrats would love to talk Epstein for a year – after all, Biden’s people had four years to destroy evidence in that case. And even if it singed some Democrats, that’s worth the price if it bogs down Trump. My view: I don’t think Trump has let Epstein go so much as back-burnered it. At all events, if we take down the people who tried to destroy Trump, we’re probably going after most of the same people who protected Epstein.

Democrats are saying Colbert was fired from his TV gig for political reasons – as someone pointed out on X, the truth of the matter is that Colbert was kept on the air for political reasons. His ratings were horrible from start to finish. He was just considered a useful took in the DNC propaganda machine…his usefulness is now at an end.

You can – in theory – be liberal and be funny as well as insightful (stop laughing! It is possible!). A liberal host could make a success out of a late night or other TV gig. But it must be entertaining. I’ve watched a few episodes of Guttfeld’s show on Fox – sure, he and the guests lean Right (or at least Libertarian) but the most important thing is that they are funny and have something interesting to say. Endlessly repeating variations of Orange Man Bad is, at the end, just boring. It might make Liberal trained seals happy but nobody else. Joe Biden was a gold mine for the host of any humor-centered late night show…they left him untouched. Meanwhile, Trump is actually a funny guy – and the key to getting a hit on him is to first laugh with him…then you can tweak. Heck, the guys at Babylon Bee do it all the time. Trump also rolls with a joke – liberals never do. At least, not in some decades. One thing for certain, if Biden had been mentally competent those four years he would have been furious at the slightest fun being poked at him – so, too, was Obama (he actually took people aside and scolded them for being other than laudatory in all respects about him). This is why anyone with an actual sense of humor these past ten years has gravitated to the Right…first off, we laugh. Secondly, we can take a joke – in fact, we tend to laugh harder at jokes at our expense. We know we’re the Stupid Party! There’s a goldmine just in the Senate GOP for laughs (one recent joke: Senator Graham had to call his doctor after we bombed Iran because his erection lasted more than 4 hours). Democrats just can’t get this – and their attempts at being funny just fall flat.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

The Democrats – still in the Senate majority – have been holding Orange Man Bad hearings to finish off their term. Yesterday, the Orange Man was Bad because of this illegal immigrant he’d like to deport – Foday Turay – who is a prosecutor.

A prosecutor. Prosecuting American citizens. Democrats thought it would be a good idea to highlight that they gave a job in law enforcement to an illegal immigrant.

This is a strong indicator that our Democrats haven’t learned a darned thing. Trump ran an 18 month campaign with one of his major issues – front and center all the time – being that he was doing to deport the illegals. After hearing this argument – and the Democrat counter-argument, forcefully stated with a billion dollars of campaign funds and overwhelming MSM support for the Dem position – the American people elected Trump. That’s it. We’re done here. There might be some room for compromise here and there (we’re not rat bastards with no feelings, after all) but the basic thrust is going to be deportations and border security. That is what the American people want. It is what they will get.

Democrats are saying how mean it will be if illegals lose their jobs.

I don’t know what to say about such people – that is, people who can’t absorb simple facts like, say, a lost election. There’s no mind for me to reach. If after 11/5 you’re shouting BLM slogans, condemning Israel and rising in defense of illegal immigration you’re not just wrong, you’re an idiot. These ideas were rejected by the electorate…the only path forward for those who back such views is to rethink them, make adjustments and try different tactics. Democrats are acting like 11/5 didn’t happen.

Maybe its because after their news outfits finished up lying to them on 11/5, our Democrats continue to trust them? This would make them even stupider…but one of the excuses the MSM/Dems are making is that Trump didn’t win a landslide. To be sure, it wasn’t a 1980 result, but it was a close as we’re going to get any time soon. Let’s look at it:

In 2016, Trump received 62,984,828 votes. In 2024, 77,237,942. Little bit of math – even a Liberal could do this – and we see that over an 8 year period while under constant attack and lawfare, Trump increased his vote total by 14,253,114. That’s a 22.6% increase over his 2016 vote. That’s a pretty popular guy. And we must always keep in mind that in all three elections, Democrats stuffed ballot boxes. It is what they do – they insert as many fake ballots into the system as they can…this is especially prevalent in the Blue States where Democrats have consistently removed any vote security systems. My guess is that in any given national election, Democrat vote totals are probably 10% fake though it would take a very thorough investigation to get to an exact figure – it might be more (don’t get me wrong, even without fake votes, we were losing CA and NY…but we’d lose them by smaller margins in an honest system and we wouldn’t have the sheer magic of every late-decided House race in CA falling to the Dems weeks after the election).

And in this election, Trump’s coattails were sufficient to secure a Congressional majority. The Supreme Court is majority in favor of law. The Administrative State (Deep State) is going to be brought under control. We won, Democrats. You lost. You have no real power to alter the course for the next two years. Prepare for the mid-terms: they are traditionally favorable to the Party which lost the previous election. But, my goodness, you’re going to get wiped in 2026 if over the next two years you just keep going Resist drivel. There’s nothing to resist. The people have chosen. You have been rejected. The chances that in two years the people will be going, “wow, sorry I voted Trump: what I want is a return to the border invasion and more medical mutilation of kids!” is nil. If you want to win in 2026 and thus gain some actual leverage, you’re going to have to come up with something different.

Or don’t. I don’t care. The stupider you are, the better for us.

It looks increasingly like Hegseth and the rest of Trump’s picks will sail through. Joni Ernst was leading a charge against Hegseth – in cooperation with the MSM/DNC who worked up a series of increasingly stupid lies about Hegseth – but she’s cooling her jets now…there have been rumors of a primary challenge. There still might be one: her choice to make an issue out of Hegseth angered a lot of people (me, inlcuded). There was just no sense in it. Even if you dislike Trump, the place to fight him is not in cabinet picks…by and large, the American people accept that a President should get the cabinet of the President’s choice. To expend political capital fighting the guy chosen to clean up an obviously dysfunctional military was just stupid…and to lend credence to the Democrats’ serial slanders of the man was disgusting.

I’m sitting here getting ready to release Book IX of the Mirrors series (Home World) and I’m about 65% done with Book X (this will wrap up the series with possible different story lines available for later works – but I want to start working on my post-apocalyptic series Of the 15 as well as a sort of Hallmark movie story about a sailor and a princess) and here comes Hollywood with….Meet the Parents 4. Look, I get it: Meet the Parents was hilarious. The second installment was a credible sequel. The third installment dragged out a premise which was exhausted. What they heck are they going to do in a fourth movie? And, hey, its not just me putting out stuff that is new entertainment content…there are a host of indy writers out there, including some on the Left, who are putting out new stuff which has different takes on things. But our Entertainment Industry is a sick joke…just recycling the same old stuff over and over again. The reason? They figure an established franchise is at least sold money-maker…but they aren’t solid money-makers. Disney has just about killed the Star Wars franchise. The Narnia franchise is about to be destroyed in a woke version. The Tolkien universe is almost completely destroyed (this destruction starting, actually, with the total ruination of Faramir’s character in the third movie). Its not just that they are out of ideas: they are destroying what was once good ideas.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan51 Comments

Democrats have a Feinstien problem. No, its not her lifetime of corruption or that she employed a Chinese spy for years. For the Democrats, none of that is a problem! Their problem is that she’s 900 years old and is ill – can’t get to the Senate to vote the way she’s told and its holding up Biden’s horrific judicial nominees. Naturally, they want the GOP to get them out of this jam by voting to suspend the rules and allow some other Democrat to temporarily fill her seat. McConnell has come through for us on this and not allowed it – as they can’t get unanimous consent, they’ll need a floor vote and that takes 60 votes to happen. Can they get GOP votes for it? Perhaps some, but I suspect not enough. This does provide some real leverage for the Senate GOP…but one thing McConnell has never liked is using leverage against Democrats. Naked exercises of power are ok with him, but making them pay a price for something never enters into his head. OTOH, McConnell is clearly not in the best of health, himself, and as GOPers start jockeying for position, maybe they can force Mitch’s hand here? With the debt ceiling looming, this is the perfect time to take a pound of Democrat flesh.

There’s several videos of a completely looted Chicago Wal Mart. This isn’t just some high value items – the store is pretty much cleared out. The most heart wrenching was put out by a Chicago mother who was simply shopping for food for the kids and there was none left. And she does blame her fellow black people for it – pointing out that she is not a thief, but now because of them she can’t get what she needs. The bad news: it just gets worse from here. Chicago’s new Mayor is a full-blown Leninist who figures that looting is just “loot the looters”. But you can’t sustain this: businesses can’t remain in business if at any moment their whole stock of goods is to be stolen. And think about it: a whole Wal Mart was cleaned out. Even the neighborhood Wal Mart stores are pretty darn big. Think how long it would take even for a sizeable mob to clean it out…which means the police weren’t even called on a “why bother?” attitude or they didn’t come after being called (and why should they? If they did and tried to make arrests, they’d just be setting themselves up for accusations of racist brutality with the mayor siding with the looters). In a short while, the only retail outlets in Blue cities will be fortresses with only limited goods and high prices to pay the costs of security. And without any easy targets to loot, it isn’t like the mobs will then settle down and get a job…they’ll just start moving out into the rich, white suburbs with their BLM flags (that last bit will be a little funny, tho…)

China appears to be opening police stations in the USA in order to monitor and harass Chinese dissidents residing here. The two cops here were arrested but I have my doubts will really put a stop to this: the PRC has so entirely penetrated the American establishment that this might merely have been the signal for them to keep it more low key.

The latest comic book turned movie has become another in a long string of flops. Get woke, go broke as they say. But really its more “go boring, go broke”. Fun movies are supposed to be fun. Perhaps a bit ridiculous and heavy on special effects and explosions, but that is all part of the fun. But they become a drag if you have to bootstrap social commentary into them. I’m no genius author but I always consider the story before anything else. A character first introduced in Kings and Queen is gay, though not obviously so. If you’re paying close attention, you’ll notice it. But that fact also plays no role in the story. My characters have always appeared to me full grown as soon as I need them: there is character development as time goes on, but the gender, looks and basic motives of them are all there, whammo, as soon as I need them. This character, who shows up in a battle scene, showed up gay. In The Crimson Blade (Book VIII which will be released after Empress) this character becomes a secondary character in the overall story and so I tell more of his backstory – with him remaining gay, but that fact remaining utterly uninteresting in his role. Because something like that is primarily uninteresting. Its like hair color: something that just is. It is what your characters do in the story which makes or breaks them, and decides if the story is interesting. As it turns out, I liked this character so much that in Book IX (Home World), he becomes a main character.

What I’m saying here is that you can have in your stories non-traditional character roles. In fact, having a few odd balls in there is kinda fun. Anyone who reads my stories knows I favor strong female characters – I’ve never liked shrinking violets and I didn’t marry one. Mousy women have always irritated me. The girls I’ve got are gutsy broads who aren’t afraid of anything…but I’m also not going to please modern absurdity by having one of them take down a 250 pound warrior in hand to hand combat (Rossalyn slicing the unwary up with a sword is another matter entirely, of course). You can have just about anything you want in your story – but its got to be fun, not be boring because you had to shoehorn in the latest social mores as decreed by the ultra-woke. The sooner the movie makers figure this out the sooner they’ll get back to making money.