Caturday

Sunbeam and a catnip pillow.

Because It's Friday

Cass Scenic RR:

The Musk Principle

It is this:

One idiot can ruin everything.

The article about that gets overly repetitive about how Musk has wrecked Twitter in less than two years and it's downright preachy in spots, but it doesn't change the truth of the principle. You should click on the link in the quote, but this is the gist of it:

One idiot can ruin everything. It doesn't matter how many billions of dollars your company is worth. Doesn't matter how many customers you have, or how many years you've been in business, or whether your product is a machine that turns dog poop into gold bars or a single injection that cures cancer. As a business, you are always just One Idiot Away from making a decision that will turn the whole company to rubble. One idiot in any significant position of power can take everything you've built and break it; an idiot who is surrounded by other idiots could very nearly kill God.

I have seen this play out in companies that were large enough to be on the Fortune list of top companies to medium-sized companies to long-established family retail businesses.

One idiot can ruin everything.

And it pays out, as well, for political parties and even nations.

One idiot can ruin everything.

Ooking These Down, Here

Donnie's Dementia is Getting Worse

Former President Trump suggested during an interview with television psychologist “Dr. Phil” McGraw that he would win California if Jesus Christ was the one counting ballots.
...
“If Jesus Christ came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, OK?” the former president added later. “In other words, if we had an honest vote counter, a really honest vote counter — I do great with Hispanics, great, I mean at a level no Republican has ever done. But if we had an honest vote counter, I would win California.”

Seemingly surprised, McGraw asked, “You think so?”

DonOLD is getting worse as the weeks pass. Joe Biden got 11,109,764 votes in California in 2020. The FOFF got 6,005,961. He didn't win California then and he's not going to this time around.

He is really losing his shit, bless his corrupt and blasted heart.

Trump Defiles Veterans, Again

Two members of Donald Trump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president participated in a wreath-laying ceremony, NPR has learned.

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.

The TOFF's duty lying motherfucker denied that anything happened, but let's face facts, every word spoken on the record by a Trump campaign offical can be fairly taken as a lie.

This is all very much in line with Felon^34's long-held antipathy towards those who serve our country and especially those who die or are wounded in combat: Forbidding his children from serving, mocking wounded veterans, calling the dead "suckers and losers", comparing the Medal of Honor to the Medal of Freedom and so on and so forth.

The only reason that Cade Bone Spurs would visit a veterans cemetery is because he is trying to poromote himself. He cares for nobody other than himself. And that has been established beyond question.

On This Day in the Past-- Bigotry and Hope

First, two stories of hatred and bigotry:

Emmitt Till was murdered on August 28, 1955. He was abducted and lynched while visiting family in Mississippi because a white woman lied about Till crossing a Jim Crow line about decorum toward white women. His murder, the decision of his mother to hold an open-casket funeral so the world could see how brutally he was killed, and the printing of photos of his corpse in Jet magazine and The Chicago Defender is credited with sparking the modern civil rights movement.

Three young brothers, Ricky, Robert and Randy Ray were hemophiliacs. They all developed AIDS from blood transfusions. Much hatred and bigotry followed, they were kicked out of school in Arcadia, Florida and their medical records were made public. The local school board offered to set up a separate classroom building for them. The family refused and sued and won. In response, on this day in 1987, some asshole or assholes torched the family home, forcing them to move.

And one of hipe:

Eight years after Emmitt Till was lynched, the March on Freedom took place in Washington, D.C. The March helped push JFK towards pushing civil rights legislation. Much has been written about the March and, at this point, it should be general knowledge.

Baby Bobby Gets Weirder

His independent White House campaign has fizzled, but the flow of bizarre stories of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s unorthodox handling of the carcasses of wild mammals has experienced no similar suspension.

An environmental group is calling for a federal investigation into the former presidential candidate for an episode in which he allegedly severed the head of a washed-up whale with a chainsaw – and drove home with it strapped to his car’s roof.

Apparently thats rather illegal, but like his Orange Master, Wormy Bobby doesn't believe the law is something that applies to him.

Derelicting These Down, Here

And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Pizzamandias, Franchiser of Franchisees;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Compare and contrast to any of the TOFF's adult kids,

who have never done anything to help anyone, other than themselves.

War

War is always going to be with us, because some asshole will always have enough greed or butthurt to want to fight over something stupid.

Exhibit 1: Russia and Putin.

The only two ways to avoid war are to either be so poor and so weak that nobody wants to conquer your country, or be strong enough by yourself or with allies that nobody wants to take the risk.

Anybody who thinks that a war will be quick and over soon has mush for brains.

Exhibit 2: The leaders of European powers in August of 1914.

Exhibit 3: George W. Bush, 2003.

Exhibit 4: Vladimir Putin.

Human civilization would be a wonderful idea. Instead, we are little more than primates who fling more and more lethal kinds of shit at each other.

If there is a galactic civilization, they probably marked space within a light-year of Sol as being off limits because the third planet is inhabited by rabid animals.

Basics 101, Political Ed.

If you are going to run with some (to your mind) spiffy slogan, first secure the fucking URL for it. Otherwise, this happens and you look like a pack of fools.

Thou Shalt Get Sidetracked by Bullshit, Every Goddamned Time; Mideast Ed.

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Sunday launched their heaviest exchange of fire after months of strikes and counterstrikes that have raised fears of an all-out war.

By mid-morning, the exchange of fire had ended, with both sides saying they had only aimed at military targets. The Israeli strikes killed three militants in Lebanon, and Israel’s military said a soldier was killed by either an interceptor of incoming fire or shrapnel from one. But the situation remained tense.

No matter what the chance is for any tenuous peace, some aggrieved asshole will try to sidetrack, if not derail, the chances of stopping the shooting.

The Lying Sofaphile

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance says Donald Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk.

The TOFF lies and so does the Couching Hillbilly. Demented Donnie has been bleating for years that he is oh, so proud of appointing the Christian Nationist justices who struck down reproductive freedom. He has proposed a national abortion ban before. The only reason he is backing away from that is because only his American Taliban supporters want one.

You could lay a good bet that if he got in and a MAGA congress sent him such a bill, he would sign it in a New York second. I doubt that you'd get odd, though.

The Man Who Murdered Boeing

Stonecipher and financial vultures like him, especially Jack Welch, have destroyed some of this country's finest technology companies. May their memories be as curses.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

The Lawn Dart:

An Eight Day Trip to the ISS Turned Into an Eight-Month Trip, Thanks to Boeing

NASA decided Saturday it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.

I can't imagine how much this has upended their lives. Besides that, it also screws over the two astronauts who were going to ride that Dragon capsule to the ISS.

You can bet the farm that Boeing lobbied hard for NASA to fly the two astronauts back on the Starliner. Oh, they may claim they didn't and that they're good with NASA's decision, but the real world knows that's just bullshit and spin.

Boeing may fly again, but it'd be better with some crash-test dummies for the next flight.

Caturday

Where there is a sunbeam, there is a cat.

Political TV Ratings

Since it's common knowledge that Dolt-45, being a TV showman, cares about such things:

According to Fox Sports’s president of Insights and Analytics, Vice President Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech drew 22% more viewers than former President Donald Trump’s speech.

That has to just chap his ample ass.

Crime and Lunacy

First, crime:

A Florida sheriff’s deputy was charged with manslaughter with a firearm, launching a rarely seen criminal case against a Florida law officer, after a Black U.S. Air Force senior airman was killed after answering his apartment door while holding a gun pointed toward the ground.

Former Okaloosa County deputy Eddie Duran was charged in the May 3 shooting death of 23-year-old Roger Fortson, Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille said. The charge is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

It's about fucking time this happened. But we'll see if the state lays down on the job so the cop gets off, sort of like what allegedly happened after Philando Castile was murdered.

Now, to the lunacy:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday he’s suspending his independent presidential bid and will seek to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states because he believes his presence in the race would help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

It's personal with him. He's an unhinged lunatic who had part of his brain eaten by a worm and the FOFF is willing to indulge Babbling Bobby in his lunacy, whereas, VP Harris is not. He said that his supporting DonOld is hard for his wife and kids. Maybe he'll either have to sleep on his couch (assuming JD doesn't fight him for it) or maybe he can retreat to the beroom he suppsedly rents in Katonah, NY.

Because It's Friday

Essex Valley RR

3025 is a Chinese-made locomotive, made in the late 1980s and sold new to another tourist railroad.

Radiating These Down, Here

The Biggest Whopper Told By the TOFF

"I try and be nice to people, you know."

Of the tens of thousands of lies that he's told in the last nine years, that has to be one of the biggest lies of all.

And it is one that doesn't require expounding upon.

The Wheels Grind On

An attorney who represented the far-right Oath Keepers pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including members of the extremist group.

Kellye SoRelle, who was general counsel for the antigovernment group and a close associate of its founder, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 17 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C.

SoRelle, 45, of Granbury, Texas, answered routine questions by the judge as she pleaded guilty to two charges: a felony count of obstructing justice and a misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. The felony carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, but her estimated sentencing guidelines recommend a maximum of 16 months behind bars.

The various armed clowns who have wet dreams of tearing shit down need to keep this in mind: When the dust settles, those who enforce the law will come for you.

Plus: Trump's greatest accomplishment.

Old Attention Whore Keeps on Whoring

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak Friday “about the present historical moment and his path forward,” his campaign announced Wednesday, fueling growing speculation that Kennedy could drop out and support Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Whatever disjointed bullshit of a rationale Baby Bobby will spew from his blowhole is tempered by the fact that he's been peddling his ass to both campaigns and only the COFF took the bait.

MAGA, Your New Home Awaits

Russia has declared itself a “safe haven” to any “foreigners” who want to “escape” their “neoliberal” home countries.
...
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week which would allow foreign nationals into the country “outside the quota approved by the Russian government and without providing documents confirming their knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and basic laws”.

Applicants may apply via a simplified, expedited system and can request residency if they reject their home countries’ “destructive neoliberal ideals”.

Alex Jones is thinking of going there, leaving one question: Does he need any help packing up his shit?

Go ahead, MAGA. Take your Orange God's Master up on his offer. Go. Join this pedophile. Don't let the screen door hit you on your way out. The rest of us can set up a foundation to help pay your reasonable moving expenses.

And who knows, maybe you won't get drafted into the Red Russian army.

A Modest Proposal

It is this: Gather all the tech guys, crypto tycoons and venture capitalists in one spot on a remote deserted luxury island, ply them with liquor and cocaine, and then:

Why?

They want to "gamify" grocery shopping, with "dynamic pricing" that could change in milliseconds and even change depending on the shopper. They'd know who you are and figure that you could pay $40 for a large pack of toilet paper and the person behind you might pay $30.

None of this is good for consumers. It's all about making the population into digital serfs and permitting the corporate overlords to scrape every last sou out of our pockets.

While it may be hard to persuade people to go along with detonating some nukes to take care of these assholes, let's get a law passed that it shall be perfectly legal to sack and burn any store that employs these technologies.

I wrote this over a dozen years ago. I stand behind every word.

"I'm a Trump, We Don't Really Do 'True'."

Heh.

Bad News for Chicken and Fish

Eating more than 4oz a day increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 15% or more.

It doesn't mean that you're going to get diabetes, of course. But if you're at risk already, why stack on the odds?

More Batshittery From Felon^34

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday falsely depicted Vice President Kamala Harris’s path to the Democratic nomination as violent and distorted her record on crime, even as he defended his supporters who attacked police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump, whose lies about theft of the 2020 election inspired his supporters to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, falsely accused Harris of orchestrating a “vicious, violent overthrow” by replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. Biden withdrew last month and endorsed Harris. While the process was unusual, it was legal and did not involve violence.

He went on to defend the Jan. 6 rioters by falsely claiming “nobody was killed,” as he compared that day to the protests that erupted after the police killing of George Floyd. Four people died in the mob on Jan. 6, three from medical problems and one shot by a police officer. One officer who fought the mob died of a stroke the next day, and four more officers died by suicide in the days and months that followed.

Crime has been decreasing for years, but that didn't stop Demented Donnie from uttering bullshit that one can't buy a loaf of bread without getting shot.

Bless his heart.

Rotating These Down, Here

Click on the photo to read the list.

Guess It Wasn't a Witch-Hunt, After All

George Santos, who spun lies about his life into an 11-month stint in Congress, pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a case that led to his expulsion from office and the admission that he’d allowed ambition to cloud his judgment.

The former representative, 36, is likely to spend at least six years in prison and owes more than $370,000 in restitution. His guilty plea in federal court on Long Island came weeks before the case was to go to trial. He is to remain free on bond until he is sentenced on Feb. 7.

My gut feeling is that he's going to skip the country, now that he may have somewhere to go.

Didn't You Always Suspect That Carl Icahn Is a Criminal?

Well, he is, sort of.

Carl Icahn, the billionaire investment tycoon, and his firm Icahn Enterprises LP (IEP) have been charged by US regulators with failing to disclose billions of dollars worth of personal loans.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said IEP and Icahn, who serves as chairman, agreed to pay $1.5m and $500,000 in civil penalties, respectively, to settle the charges.

Since 31 December 2018, Icahn used securities of IEP – pledging approximately 51% to 82% of IEP’s outstanding securities – as collateral to secure personal margin loans worth billions of dollars under agreements with various lenders, the SEC said.

IEP did not disclose Icahn’s pledges of IEP securities in its annual report until February 2022, according to the agency, and Icahn failed to file required amendments to filings until July 2023.

Those clowns always play fast and loose with their companies, treating them like their personal piggybanks.

The COFF is small-time in comparison.

You Know, Don't You, That He's Going to Claim That the Jews Made Him Do It.

A District of Columbia councilmember known for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories accepted over $150,000 in bribes in exchange for pressuring D.C. employees to extend city contracts for violence intervention services, authorities alleged in court records unsealed Monday.

Trayon White Sr., a Democrat who ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign in 2022, was arrested Sunday on a federal bribery charge and ordered released from custody after a brief court appearance Monday.
...
In March 2018, White posted a video on his Facebook page claiming that an unexpected snowfall was because of “the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters.” The Rothschilds, a Jewish family that was prominent in the banking industry, are a frequent subject of conspiracy theories.

At the time, White said he was unaware that the weather-related conspiracy theory is antisemitic. A video later surfaced of White pushing a similar conspiracy theory during a meeting of top city officials. He posed a question based on the stereotypical premise that the Rothschilds controlled the World Bank and the federal government.

He probably believed in MTG's space laser crackpottery, too.

Don't these idiots know how to take campaign contributions or set up a SuperPAC?

The TOFF Weirdly Veers into Utter Delusion

“I am much better looking than her,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. “I’m a better-looking person than Kamala.”

He's fucking nuts, people. He's old, he's ugly, he talks funny and, more and more, he's delusional.

He's just weird as all getout.

Fuck Mother Russia and All Who Support Her

Infidel 753 is reporting that the Russians allegedly took down the Fair and UNbalanced blog, and suggests that Putin's cyberpoodles are targeting bloggers that oppose his war of aggression and/or oppose the Asset's campaign.

If you're a liberal blogger, he recommends making yor password harder, turning on two-factor authentification and watch out for phishing attempts.

The American Sturmabteilung

Pro Publica has a lengthy article up about the American Brown Shirts known as the American Patriots Three Percent.

AP3, although they'd deny it, is pretty much a neo-Nazi group that desires to be an instrument for the far Right to trash American democracy and install a fascist government.

These assholes are serious and they are out LARPing with live ammunition. They are infiltrating police forces. Their only weakness seems to be that, other than playing in the woods with real guns, they couldn't organize a successful three-car parade.

But they are serious and they bear watching, closely.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Two Luftwaffe Tornados:

Dear Online Marketing and Promotional Companies: Go Suck Off a Cape Buffalo

If you click on a link for a newsletter or information, that stuff starts appearing in your inbox in nanoseconds. But if you ask them to delete your email, they say that can take up to ten business days.

Why? Does somebody have to write the email addresses on clay tablets, bake them in a kiln, and then transport them by donkey cart to the office that does the actual task?

{grumble}

Where's my frigging coffee?

Caturday

"Gitcher ass in gear and feeed meeeee!"

Back in the Day, This Would Have Been Handled By a Rain of Molotov Cocktails

For the past few weeks, Randol White has been dealing with a persistent and annoying problem right outside his San Francisco condo.

"I was like, where is that coming from? And I looked down, and I was like, I think it's coming from the Waymo cars," White said.

A parking lot just outside his condo full of driverless Waymo cars has had multiple incidents where suddenly the vehicles seemingly become confused and start honking all at each other.

White says he heard it the first time about two weeks ago -- he was woken up around 4 a.m.

And the general reaction to torching a bunch of robot-cars would have been "well, whaddya'd expect would happen?" But now, people'll sic lawyers on them.

Based on how stupid these robots are, SkyNet is a long ways off.

Because It's Friday

Steam switcher action at Steamtown:

Trump Just Shat on the Medal of Honor

Speaking at a pro-Israel event Thursday, Donald Trump said the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor. The former is the highest honor given to civilians in the United States, awarded to those who have made contributions to the United States’ security or national interests, world peace or culture. The Medal of Honor, often referred to as the “Congressional Medal of Honor,” is awarded exclusively to members of the military for acts of valor beyond the call of duty.

Trump said that the Presidential Medal of Freedom is “much better” because “everyone who gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers, they’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

The PMoF is sometimes a political gift to toadies, as it was when Dolt-45 gave it to Gym Jordan and Devin Nunes. That cannot be said of the MoH, which is awarded to heroes, the men of whom Cadet Bone Spurs is not worthy of buffing their shoes. The sort of heroes he just denigrated.

If JD Vance had a shred of personal integrity left, he would get off his couch and go punch out the running lights of his running mate.

As to anyone who possesses a DD214 and who still supports that Senile Fat Old Draft-Dodger, I respectfully suggest that you look at his character and ask yourself why you still support that venal ancient coward.

Hey, JD, Let Me Couch This in Terms You'll Understand: Look At Who Your Running-Mate Is, Bud.

So the Faux Hillbilly is going around, slamming Gov. Watz for "stolen valor". When he's not doing that, he's complaining about Democrats engaging in name-calling.

Jeebus on a Bus, has he taken a look at the nasty old fat fuck he's running with? You know, the guy whose father allegedly paid a podiatrist to write a letter to Donnie's draft board about Donnie's alleged bone spurs so he could stay out of the Army during the Vietnam War? The guy who insults everyone and anyone who has ever opposed anything that he wants to do, beginning with Low Energy Jeb and claiming that Ben Carson was a child molester in 2016? The guy who says that he is entitled to make personal attacks?

That guy?

Something about motes and logs in people's eyes comes to mind.

A Professional Military

When the Russians aren't engaging in terrorism by targeting children's hospitals, they're shooting up their own military columns.

it's a pretty slick, move to kill your own troops and then post it on social media, as if it is something to be proud of. when that video spreads throughout Russia, as it most certainly will, it will, no doubt, be of comfort to the family who have lost their men in Putin's war of aggression.

Corpse-Powdering These Down, Here