Heh. Heh.

They Sucked. They Really Sucked.

The Chicago White Sox, which managed to lose 121 games this season.

They had a ways to go to dethrone the Cleveland Spiders as the worst team ever in baseball, but still, being the worst team since the turn of the 20th Century is an impressive feat of awfulness.

There's always next year.

Rasmussen Polling Lies for and Colludes With the COFF

One thing that seems to be more and more true about conservative organizations: They cannot be trusted to be anything but a tool of Felon^34.

This is the case with Rasmussen. They claim to be objective, but they are in the tank for Putin's Bestie.

H/T

In Your Guts, You Know He's Nuts

Or senile.

Trump: Oh, there's a fly. Oh, I wonder where the fly came from. See, two years ago, I wouldn't have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. We can’t take it any longer pic.twitter.com/ZiLoNJfuTQ

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2024

So, is he blaming a fly on migrants? Jews? Democrats?

Or has he just really lost cognitive control?

The HMFIC of the First Church of Child Molestation Has an Opinion About Morality

Pope Francis suggested Sunday that Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, saying its military domination has gone beyond the rules of war.

Francis was asked en route home from Belgium about Israel’s targeted killing of one of Hezbollah’s founding members, Hassan Nasrallah. Friday’s strike in Beirut targeted an area greater than a city block and reduced several residential buildings to rubble, and at least six other deaths have been confirmed.

Francis didn’t mention Israel by name and said he was speaking in general terms. But he said that “the defense must always be proportionate to the attack.”

Right, as if that's a philosophy that we have followed. Ever. A philosophy of warfighting, American style, is "anything worth killing is worth overkilling."

If an enemy hides military assets under/behind civilian infrastructure and people, well, that's just how the cookie crumbles. Hezbollah's HQ was a legitimate military target, as was their now-dead commander, and they hid the HQ under civilian apartment buildings. Israel is in a region of the world that operates under Hama Rules and, when an enemy's clear goal is genocide, the gloves come off.

Your Sunday Morning Prop Noise

A Curtiss Pusher:

Note how the controls work.

A Thought About the Aftermath of Hurricane Helene

President Biden isn't prioritizing Federal relief aid to those states where the governors have said nice things about him.

Unlike a certain fat old bastard during the first stages of the Covid pandemic, or during wildfires.

The Irrelevancy of the NYT

One man's opinion.

I pretty much agree with him.

They aren't the first paper whose rich-as-fuck ownership has different views from their readership and who have tried to push their opinions down everyone's throats. That has scuttled other papers, but the NYT has been subtler about it than, say, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, whose fuckery along those lines led to that paper's near-implosion and left Pittsburghas possibly the largest American city without a daily newspaper. (Pittsburgh has a population of about 300,000. Contrast that to New London County, CT, which has 30,000 fewer residents and at least two daily print newspapers.)

The Times keeps adding online games, so odds are that a fair number of their online subscribers are only there for them.

Anyhoo, I started on this a bit ago and I can't find where I found the link. Let me know and I'll add the credit

Caturday

Speck is on a mission: Operation Fill Mah Belly.

Does the FOFF Believe That He is Going to Lose?

Donald Trump is now hawking a new line of watches, some with an eye popping six-figure price tag – the latest example of the former president cashing in on his name like no presidential candidate ever has.

The GOP nominee announced his latest branded merchandise, Trump Watches, on social media Thursday – 40 days before the election and on a day when he did not appear on the campaign trail. He told his supporters the watches would make good Christmas gifts and then directed them to a link where they could be purchased.

The watches retail for $499 but one series – Tourbillon – is priced at $100,000. They come in three different colors and are limited in number to 147.

He's been selling NFTs, Bibles, sneakers, cryptocurrency, silver coins, picture books, pieces of his suits and other shit which I've forgotten about. He's been pushing one thing out after another, as though he knows that his time to cash in is limited. And now it's crappy Chinese watches.

Maybe he figures that it'll be harder to sell shit from Sing Sing. Being on office wouldn't slow him down, not since his lackys on the Supreme Court declared that almost everything he did there would be an official act.

His merch, though, functions as sort of a reverse IQ test: Anyone who buys that crap is showing a serious lack thereof.

ETA: Jimmy Kimmel called him "Rolex Luthor". Heh.

Because It's Friday

Double-heading on the Essex Valley RR:

Gundecking: Newport News Shipbuilding Goes Full Boeing

Shipuilder Newport News Shipbuilding, Va., informed the Department of Justice of faulty welds that may have been made intentionally on non-critical components on in-service Navy submarines and aircraft carriers, USNI News has learned.

[Huntington Ingalls Industries] reported to the Navy that welds on new construction and in-service submarines and Ford-class aircraft carriers were made not following welding procedure, according to a Tuesday memo from Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Nickolas Guertin to Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti.

The managers involved in this probably figured that they'd not get caught or that, since they supposedly were "non-critical", that nobody would either notice or care.

But they're wrong. If they want to produce shit and get paid for it, Russian shipyards are probably hiring.

Did Vladdie Just Realize That He Has a Potemkin Army?

In a strong, new warning to the West, Putin said Wednesday that any nation’s conventional attack on Russia that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country.

The threat, outlined in a revision of Moscow’s nuclear doctrine, was clearly aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

That's what they say, but I see something else. I think that the TOFF's boss may have finally realized that his much-vaunted military has been hollowed out by many decades of corruption and stagnant leadership. Even their self-proclaimed deterrents may not work. Russia has never adapted to more modern ways of fighting and that is why the Ukrainians, who did adapt, stopped Putin's three-day campaign to conquer Ukraine and have continued to do so. The only way the Russians have been able to make any progress is by their ancient tactic of throwing soldiers into do-or-die assaults. It may be leading to high levels of casualties unseen since the Korean war.

It is a hollow threat. The Russians have to know that a nuclear attack on a NATO nation would be answered in kind in very short order.

And then it would be game over for us all in a matter of hours. Even the über-rich wouldn't have time to flee to their bunkers. The aftermath would make Fallout look like a garden party.

Covid Tests

Four more free ones for American households.

Digging These Down, Here

The Donald Goes All Space Laser

With just weeks to go until the 2024 U.S. presidential election, former President Donald Trump baselessly claimed during a Sept. 25 speech in North Carolina that Venezuelan migrant gang members in Aurora, Colorado, possessed "massive machine gun-type equipment," adding that the weaponry goes "beyond even military scope." He also said, "And they're taking over apartment buildings. They're taking over real estate."

As of this writing, we uncovered no evidence to support the idea of Venezuelan migrants in Aurora bearing "massive machine gun-type equipment" or anything regarding weaponry "beyond even military scope."

By email, Sydney Edwards, a spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department, said of the claims of migrants supposedly possessing "massive" weaponry and taking over apartment buildings: "We do not have any reports or information that relate to the claims you mention."

I don't know what weaponry, would be "beyond military scope", unless he think they've got land-based versions of MTG's Jewish space lasers.

But what is consistent is that the TOFF has been engaging in racist and hateful demonization of immigrants since the first day of his first presidential campaign. He is a bigot, he always has been.

This Could Get Interesting; NYC Corruption Ed.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a grand jury on federal criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the matter, an extraordinary culmination to weeks of searches, subpoenas and resignations of top officials that have thrust the city’s government into crisis.

The indictment detailing the charges against Adams, a Democrat, was expected to be unsealed Thursday, according to the people, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

And:

The head of New York City’s public schools system, David Banks, said Tuesday that he will step down at the end of the calendar year, becoming the latest high-ranking departure from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration amid escalating federal criminal investigations.

The decision comes weeks after federal agents seized Banks’ phones, as well as devices belonging to the city’s police commissioner, two deputy mayors and a top Adams adviser. The police commissioner, Edward Caban, resigned earlier this month.

I'm no great shakes as a legalwatcher. Having said that, my impression of the Feds, especially the Southern District of NY, is that they don't go after politicians for piddly-ass shit. When they do, they have the receipts.

The indictment might be an interesting read for the legal reporters.

Post-Holing These Down, Here

So, fuck you, Sean O'Brien.

Probably Time for American Civilians to Bug Out of Lebanon

The U.S. is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, would not say how many more forces would be deployed or what they would be tasked to do.
...
The State Department is warning Americans to leave Lebanon as the risk of a regional war increases.

“Due to the unpredictable nature of ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and recent explosions throughout Lebanon, including Beirut, the U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the State Department cautioned Saturday.

Ryder would not say if the additional forces might support the evacuation of American citizens if needed.

I hope they are drafting contingency plans to evacuate people, because doing it on the fly is a heavy lift.

Of Course the COFF is Lying About Crime

You'd think that a guy convicted of 34 felonies might know something about crime, but you'd be wrong.

Violent crime in the U.S. dropped in 2023, according to FBI statistics that show a continued trend downward after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike.

Overall violent crime declined an estimated 3% in 2023 from the year before, according to the FBI report Monday. Murders and non-negligent manslaughter dropped nearly 12%.

Violent crime has become a focal point in the 2024 presidential race, with former President Donald Trump recently claiming that crime is “through the roof” under President Joe Biden’s administration. Even with the 2020 pandemic surge, violent crime is down dramatically from the 1990s.

Keep in mind that he lies about everything and anything (except his desire to bang his daughter). Crime is no exception.

Goofing These Down, Here

A Sign That a Ship is Sinking

The rats are leaving.

Several top staffers in North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign for governor have quit their posts, marking more fallout from a CNN report outlining evidence that he made disturbing posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago.

The campaign said in a news release Sunday that senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski III, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, the campaign’s finance director and a deputy campaign manager “have stepped down from their roles with the campaign.”

Robinson's campaign is a walking corpse. Even an old convict is keeping his distance.

And the Grift Goes on..... And the Grift Goes On.

Donald Trump has launched a range of $100 commemorative coins, which join Trump sneakers, Trump Bibles, Trump playing cards, Trump NFTs and strips of the suit he wore when he was booked in Georgia last year, in his hunt for campaign cash.

The latest addition to the Trump entrepreneurial universe – one that four bankruptcies and a recent financial fraud conviction only begin to attest to – display a profile of the former president’s face and an image of the White House with the words “In God we Trust”.

The “1oz .999% silver medallions” will be available on Wednesday. Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday that the coins were “the ONLY OFFICIAL coin designed by me – and proudly minted here in the USA”.

The description of the coin was also reported on Fox Business, so what Felon^34 is selling to the rubes is a coin that is less than 1% silver. But even if they were pure (.999 pure, not .999%), they'd be worth about $33. So he's really grifting the Trumpanzees with this coin.

Well, if you're stupid enough to buy one, have fun giving your money to a self-claimed billionaire.

More Scams by Criminal Shitbirds

Some assholes are using Google Earth Street View to try to extort money from people.

We got one of them today. They do try to scare people.

Get the word out.

I Take This as a Threat

Trump: If I don’t win this election.. the Jewish people would have a lot to do with that if that happens pic.twitter.com/N9skHU0hnu

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 20, 2024

I'll do my part to ensure he gets sent into exile at Mar-a-Lago. Where he goes after then, whether to a state prison, a federal one, or exile overseas, is a lagniappe, as far as I'm concerned.

• Exile to Mar-a-Lago--Dayenu.
• Serving time in a New York prison--Dayenu.
• Serving time in a Georgia prison--Dayenu.
• Serving time in a Federal prison--Dayenu.
• Exile to Russia--Dayenu.

But it is a threat, it's a coded threat, it's stochastic terrorism, and as to anyone who is thinking of acting on it, fuck around and find out. Prison cells will be standing by to receive your asses for 240 months to life.

Or a grave. Dayenu.

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A B-57:

Clearly, This Guy Has Some Serious Problems

Republican North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson's alleged past adult website scandal has escalated with a new accusation that Robinson praised Nazi leader Adolf Hilter's manifesto Mein Kampf.
...
In addition to a multitude of posts reported on by CNN, which included Robinson allegedly calling himself a "Black Nazi," defending slavery, repeating homophobic slurs and fondly recalling "peeping" on women, The Washington Post reported on Friday that "minisoldr" also expressed an affinity for Nazi literature.

"Mein Kampf is a good read," the Nude Africa user reportedly wrote in a thread on book recommendations. "It's very informative and not at all what I thought it would be. It's a real eye opener."

All of the Robinson-linked posts were mysteriously deleted from the Nude Africa website within 24 hours of the CNN report being published, according to Politico.

He's a self-professed peeping tom, a guy who likes tranny porn, a Black guy who wants to see slavery brought back, who wants to join the KKK, who describes himself as a "Black Nazi" and his opinions on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mirror those of the John Birch Society and J.Edgar Hoover, which is described here. He's looney enough that, if he were to be sent to prison, he'd try to join the Aryan Brotherhood.

There weren't too many Black people in Germany in the 1930s, but if there were, is there a shred of doubt that the Nazis would have sent them to the concentration camps right along with the Jews? How messed up in the brain does one have to be to identify with the very same people who would kill him without a single qualm?

Caturday

Gracie, about 25 years ago.

The Past is So Over; Aviation Ed.

Life as a flight engineer on the Concorde. Even if we see SSTs again, we won't see flight engineers. They were the last of the non-stick-monkey jobs on the flight deck to go away.

Because It's Friday

Somewhere in Europe...

Flossing These Down, Here

Random Thoughts

Two kinds of people worked for the COFF during his term. There were those that thought that he was nuts or a moron or a traitor and quit with their good names in tatters, and those that didn't and ended up with felony indictments.

He's a modern Medusa: Everyone he touches turns into shit.
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The Veep debate is so meaningless that they might as well air it on QVC.
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What the hell is wrong with people these days?

A man used construction equipment to drop a heavy boom lift onto a sculpture that has stood for 25 years outside St. Louis’ Cathedral Basilica, badly damaging it, police said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Angel of Harmony, which stood 14 feet (4.3 meters) tall and depicts a Black angel protecting three children of various races, could be saved. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that part of one of the children was broken off and the angel’s wings appeared to be damaged.

The motive for Tuesday night’s vandalism was unknown, said police, who arrested a 35-year-old suspect.

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In Texas, this clown would have been shot on sight:

A man accused of stalking and harassing UConn basketball star Paige Bueckers said on social media that he intended to marry her and had an engagement ring and lingerie in his possession when he was arrested near a Connecticut airport, according to police reports.

At least he didn't try to shoot someone in order to impress her.
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At a luncheon a few days ago, another diner was discussing the security upgrades to school classroom doors. When I was a kid, they didn't even lock. The only threats were fires, tornadoes and Russian ICBMs. What a country we've become that we now have to have security doors in schools.

Just Fucking Brilliant

Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded near simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least nine people – including an 8-year-old girl -- and wounding several thousand, officials said. They blamed Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated, remote attack.

Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. The mysterious incident came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.

The pagers that exploded had been newly acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members to stop using cell phones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand the group had not used before.

That's the sort of spy/sabotage operation of spy thrillers. The Iranian ambassador in lebanon had a Hezbollah exploding pager, which tells something about how tight the Iranians and Hezbollah are. It's going to be fun when Hezbollah hands out new pagers and tries to convince everyone that the new ones are safe.

The Lebanese are squawking about this being a violation of their sovereignity. Seems to me that if your country has a militant group that is run by a foreign power partially occupying your territory, you don't have much ground to complain about sovereignity.

Gasping These Down, Here

JD Vance must have the world's longest dick,

because he keeps stepping on it.