WINNING!

Late show hosts, then and now

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Lakeside Joe runs down the differences.

If you watch re-runs of Johnny Carson, one thing will stand out the most, and it’s that Carson had the unique ability to deliver jokes in a casual, midwestern-everyman tone; like chatting with the audience over a drink. He made it feel effortless and inclusive, as if he was one of them poking fun at the day’s absurdities (kind of like we do with snark on social media – everyone’s fair game) He recovered from weak jokes by leaning into them self-deprecatingly, which often got bigger laughs.

When Carson did his final show, one in five Americans were watching. Colbert’s final audience was a minor fraction of that. The numbers tell the whole story of what late night became:

Then: When Johnny Carson signed off in 1992, it’s been estimated that 55 million Americans watched – out of about 250 million. More than one in five.

Now: Stephen Colbert’s final Late Show drew 6.7 million – out of roughly 342 million. Under 2%.

The shift: same chair, a far bigger country, a fraction of the audience.

The reason: Carson made the whole country laugh; Colbert made half the country the butt of his ‘jokes’. Late night didn’t die of natural causes. It chose a side, aimed nine of every ten jokes at that side’s enemies, and then acted shocked when half the country stopped watching. Carson understood he was a guest in everyone’s living room. His successors decided the living room needed a lecture. Carson hosted an entire country. Colbert played ‘host’ to a minority who’s clubhouse was closed to anyone with half a brain.

That’s about the size of it, yeah. If the smarmy gasbag Colbert was even half as smart as he seems to think he is, you’d think he woulda realized that alienating half your audience from your very first night might not be such a hot idea. Which, hate to have to hip all you shitlib Supergenii!™ and all, actually has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with whether or not Trump can “take a joke,” by the by.

Twee, overentitled brats, meet the word consequences

Posted on May 24, 2026May 24, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Yet another of those occasions when, after the initial flush of hearty approbation, one can only shake one’s head ruefuly and softly mutter, “What the hell took ya so long, anyhow?“

Remember back in March when Marxist influencer Hasan Piker, members of Code Pink, and other commies went to Cuba to essentially back up the regime, denounce Donald Trump and the United States, and make a mockery of the lives of the Cuban people? Well, it looks like they Trump administration isn’t letting that go lightly.

Fox New Digital is reporting that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued administrative subpoenas to Piker and Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Code Pink. According to Fox, it’s “part of a wider investigation into whether U.S. organizations and leaders violated U.S. laws and sanctions in supporting Cuba’s communist regime.”

If you’ll recall, Piker and Benjamin were some of the faces of the group “Nuestra América Convoy,” mostly communist sympathizers who traveled to Cuba from multiple countries. They claimed they were there to bring humanitarian aid and investigate how U.S. sanctions and blockades were impacting the people of the country, but they spent their time cozying up with the Cuban regime and left the island nation shouting the regime’s propagandic talking points.

While in Cuba, the group also stayed in a five-star hotel with power and held a concert (spoiler alert: it wasn’t acoustic) while much of the country suffered a blackout. They wined and dined at the hotel, while many people in the country dig through garbage to find food. They also took vehicle tours through the streets of Havana, as if they were on some sort of poverty porn safari tour and left claiming the people were out in the streets, having a good time.

Anyway, these subpoenas are called “Requests for Information,” and they seek to find out more about the financial, logistical, and communications information involved in planning the trip to determine if they violated any of the many U.S. sanctions on Cuba, including potentially unlicensed travel-related transactions, financing, logistics, delivery of goods, or contacts with sanctioned Cuban entities/government personnel.

Fox reported earlier on Saturday that the Justice and Treasury Departments are “investigating U.S. nonprofits and activist groups for allegedly coordinating lobbying, messaging, fundraising, delegations, and political organizing efforts with Cuban government officials as part of a possible foreign influence campaign operating inside the United States.”

According to Fox, 145 U.S. organizations that report around $1 billion in combined revenue “are mobilizing in support of the Cuban government and the Communist Party of Cuba.

Meh, it’ll do for starters, I suppose. But really, the heck with all that Subpoenas-But-Not-QUITE-Subpoenas ducking and diving, shucking and jiving, &c; instead, lock the rotten, traitorous bastards up and throw away the stinking key—at least until we can get the 20-trapdoors-no-waiting factory-style-execution gallows assembled; the stairs to the main platform built and bolted to the side; and the nooses all properly knotted.

In fact, we probably oughta consider having somebody with a HUUUGE assembly line like, say, Ford or GM, start cranking said mass-hanging platforms out and getting them distributed to every urban zone, college town, and other shitlib enclaves in the nation most ricky-tick, so’s we can beat the rush and not fall behind.

Give ’em hell, Hegs!

Posted on May 23, 2026May 23, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Having had to wait so very damned long for it only makes it all the sweeter.

Pete Hegseth tears into DEI, ‘woke military’ in fiery West Point graduation speech
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth tore into leaders who’ve tried to turn the military into “woke Princeton” and stained the American spirit, ripping DEI in a fiery speech to graduating cadets at West Point Saturday.

With President Trump considering renewing strikes against Iran, Hegseth directed his toughest talk toward military leaders who backed diversity programs he said were sapping the Armed Forces of its strength.

Opening his remarks on a rainy day at the storied military academy overlooking the Hudson River, the secretary slammed the woke agenda.

“We saw woke and weak leaders trying to make West Point look like woke Princeton, which happens to be my long lost and lost alma mater,” he said.

“They tried to introduce diversity and inclusion studies. They hire professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls, but no more.”

Hegseth, who was admitted to the military academy but picked the Ivy League school where he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps instead, said prior leaders “embraced the DEI craze” and endangered soldiers.

“Let me be perfectly clear, you are not an ‘army of one’, and you are certainly not an army of woke. You are an American army, an army of warriors,” he said.

Speaking at an institution that trained both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, Hegseth also took a shot at woke efforts to scrub military bases and monuments of confederates generals who led the rebellion against the Union.

“You’ve seen standards lowered, you’ve seen an obsession with race and gender, you’ve seen the watering down of discipline, codes weakened, and traditions tossed aside in the name of political correctness,” he fumed.

Then he railed against “statues taken down, paintings placed in the basement. I’m here to tell you the slow slide here at West Point, and across the United States Army, is over,” Hegseth promised.

He spoke of the phrase “our diversity is our strength,” which the secretary called “the single dumbest phrase in military history.”

Oh HELL yeah! The bitter, anguished shitlib tears pouring forth because of Secretary Hegseth’s straightforward, common-sensical speech will taste like the most heavenly ambrosia to every Real American.

A little history

Posted on May 23, 2026May 23, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

Our good friend KT (of AoSHQ Pet Thread fame, among other notable things) has posted a truly awesome article memorializing the incomparable John Adams and the Marquis de Lafayette, which includes among other less well-known factoids this ratcheer:

John Quincy Adams our 6th President once kept a live alligator in the White House bathtub, a wild gift from the Marquis de Lafayette himself.

White House staff had to check the tub every time before the president bathed. pic.twitter.com/NfRrpjmpR5

— HeritageBulwark (@hbulwark1)

May 19, 2026

Wow. Truly, there were giants among us mere mortals back then. GREAT work, KT!

Update! Upon further reflection, no way can I leave out the info provided about Lafayette in T’s piece.

Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, was one of the wealthiest men in France (which is to say in the world), when, inspired by the words of the American Declaration of Independence, he left the comfort and security of his home, traveled to America, and offered his service to the cause of American liberty. At age 19, he was commissioned major general, to this day the youngest person ever to hold that rank in the American army.

Lafayette soon became one of General Washington’s most trusted and capable generals. Having been orphaned at a young age, Lafayette greatly admired Washington, who became a father figure for him. And likewise, Lafayette became like a foster son to Washington, who had no biological children of his own.

To the end of his long and celebrated life, Lafayette remained devoted to his adopted county. He named his only son George Washington, and he named a daughter Virginia.

Having returned to France after the war ended, Lafayette become a key player in the cause of French liberty, and he remains a revered hero in that country as well. He was the principal author of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, modeling it on the American Declaration of Independence.

Lafayette was 67 years old when, in 1824, President James Monroe and Congress invited him to come to the United States in honor of the nation’s 50th birthday. After Washington’s death in 1799, he had given up his dream of someday returning to Virginia and living near Mount Vernon, but Lafayette was delighted at the invitation and welcomed the opportunity to return to the country he had helped.

At age 76, Lafayette died at his home in Paris. At his request, his son George Washington Lafayette sprinkled the soil from Bunker Hill over his father’s coffin as it was lowered into the ground. An American flag has flown continually over the grave ever since.

When word of Lafayette’s death reached America there was an outpouring of grief that equaled that when Washington died. Flags were lowered to half mast, John Quincy Adams delivered a eulogy in a joint session of Congress attended by the president, the cabinet, the Supreme Court justices, and the American diplomatic corps. Twenty-four-gun salutes were fired by every American naval ship and at every American military post, followed by a single cannon shot every half-hour afterwards until sunset. For six months American officers wore black armbands, and American citizens wore mourning dress for thirty days.

Hundreds of places in America, including at least 36 cities and towns, are named in honor of Lafayette.

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, the “Hero of Two Worlds,” died on May 20, 1834, one hundred ninety-two years ago today.

Like I said: GIANTS. What a marvelous, inspiring story.

AT LAST, some good news!

Posted on May 22, 2026May 22, 2026 by Mike Leave a comment

The Hut is back, baybeee.

Pizza Hut brings back its old-school restaurant features as nostalgic customers rejoice: ‘So excited’
Back to the good old days.

2026 has proven to be the year of nostalgia. Youngsters are resorting to old-school tech like vintage flip phones and iPods. Others are returning to analog hobbies and activities.

Even beloved restaurant chain Pizza Hut is going back in time, reverting to its retro glory — red checkered tablecloths and all.

Tim Sparks, president of Daland Corporation, a Kansas-based company that operates almost 100 Pizza Hut locations across the country, is helping keep Pizza Hut alive by rewinding the clock and redecorating over 80 annoyingly modern, stark-looking locations to make them look like they did decades ago.

Red roof? Check

Red-checkered tablecloths, vinyl booths and Tiffany-style lamps? Check, check and check.

The beloved salad bar and red plastic cups will be back.

Even the old-school Pac-Man machines will return.

Unsurprisingly, customers are losing their minds over this massive change.

As well they might—although, as a few others in the NYP article point out, what WON’T be coming back is the original recipe for the various pizzas and such-like. FederalGovCo banned all the ingredients decades ago, see. For our own good, of course and as always.

Why, whatever would we do without them? Surely there must be some way we could try just to find out, isn’t there?

Suicidal empathy

Posted on May 21, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Yes, it’s a thing, and it’s hilarious.

There it is. There is your Suicidal Empathy. https://t.co/pUVeQyeogT

— Gad Saad (@GadSaad)

May 21, 2026

See what I mean? It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at a case of Just Deserts so apt, served up so piping hot and fresh, as this sub-genius twat willfully put herself on the receiving end of. This is PRECISELY what some of us mean when we say that stupidity should be actually, literally painful. Sayonara, sucker.

(Via Ed)

Typical

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

Good riddance to bad, bad rubbish.

In the last weeks of his doomed campaign, Tom Massie made explicit what he had previously been coy about: He was a full-blown Nazi.

He invited open Hitler fans and Holocaust deniers on to the campaign trail with him, and into his home…

He also pulled off the mask and revealed he was a man of the left all along. Dana Loesch tried to book him on the show. His press fag said “No,” flatly, with no explanation.

But he did make time to appear as a guest on the podcast of Noted Conservative Pundits Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian.

When he spoke to his Nazi supporters after his loss, he made his antisemitism clearer still, stating that he would have come out sooner, but it took time to locate his opponent “in Tel Aviv.”

He then debuted his upcoming podcast by accusing the Jews of having “bought” his seat out from under him.

Note that Massie spent just as much money as his opponent, and that most of Massie’s money came from out of state donors or out of country donors. Many of his donors were leftwingers in California, and many of them are pro-Hamas Muslims.

But but but Muh AIPAC. America First or whatever.

He also claimed he had conducted himself “with honor” and had not thrown a “single foul ball,” which… doesn’t make sense. You can throw a strike and you can throw a ball but you can’t throw a foul ball. You hit a foul ball.

So he’s a Gay Nerd Who Doesn’t Watch Baseball, too.

So in other words, what you’re saying is that the pus-nutted filthbag is a pluperfect ProPol, then.

Don’t start none

Posted on May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 by Mike

Won’t BE none. Schlichter reminds ‘em:

Guess your bitch asses should not have started a fight. https://t.co/4ltEGFSkuo

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter)

May 3, 2026

Cry me a fucking river, tough guy. I repeat: if Israel really wanted to genocide your worthless proto-Neanderthal asses, every last one of you would’ve been wiped out long ago.

Telling it like it is

Posted on May 6, 2026 by Mike

Of all people, Big John “Lumpy” Fetterman, and my cap is duly and humbly doffed to him for his honesty, forthrightness, and stark bravery.

Fetterman calls NYC protesters ‘pro-Hezbollah/Hamas,’ puts own Democratic Party on blast
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., described protesters who demonstrated in New York City on Tuesday as “Pro-Hezbollah / Hamas s[—]heads,” and indicated that the Democratic Party should speak out against them.

“Mob of Pro-Hezbollah / Hamas s[—]heads raging against law enforcement and terrorizing the NYC Jewish community near a synagogue and day care,” Fetterman wrote in a Wednesday post on X.

“Where’s my party’s condemnation?”

Where indeed, John. Free advice: don’t be holding your breath waiting on it.

(Via Ace)

Truer words were never etc

Posted on April 30, 2026 by Mike

God DAMN but I love this guy.

🔥 Pete Hegseth is ON FIRE today

“The mantra you would hear dripping from the lips of generals, with a serious look on their face was, 'our diversity is our strength.’

Which is the SINGLE DUMBEST phrase in military HISTORY.

Of course, our diversity is NOT our strength. Our… pic.twitter.com/e4sejAPPgh

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 30, 2026

“On fire”? I should say so, yeah. PREACH it to ’em, Pete!

(Via Ed Driscoll)

En garde!

Posted on April 29, 2026 by Mike

Take that, punk-ass beeyotch.

And here I thought it was because you had lost your mind. Like half the electorate. Unable to accept the results of an election. And in your case, turned your back on everything you ever believed in. https://t.co/0MOV0mStax

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) April 29, 2026

Truth hurts, don’t it Bill?

“I was just foolin’ about” “I wasn’t…”

Posted on April 29, 2026April 29, 2026 by Mike

Ace asks: Do you want to take this kinetic? Because this is how you take this kinetic. Let me make this perfectly clear: YES. Yes, as a matter of fact I DO want to take this kinetic. As seriously awful as that prospect is, the scenario in which we just continue to sit supinely back and permit the Goosesteppin’ Left to destroy what little is left of America That Was is much, much worse.

Which means that all of the following people I sincerely wish to see shot in the face, guillotined, drawn and quartered, keelhauled, set upon by a pack of rabid hyenas, and hanged by the neck until they are dead, dead, DEAD. Before very much more time has elapsed, we have gone full-on Commie, and it’s too fucking late to put a stop to this arrant nonsense.

Any/all member(s) of the Arkansas political family whose surname is Clinton
Amerika v2.0’s first gay president, Bathhouse Barry Obuttbang and his horrid “wife,” Big Mike
Jimmy Kimmel
Archetypical limousine-liberal Broooooce Springstein
Sundry jihadist pusbags
Gov Abigail Spannberger *spit*
That purple-haired, hundred and fifty-eight year old Yankee freak Congresscritter
Rep. Dan Goldman (CommieMoron-N.Y.)
Many, many others

I mean it: kill them. Kill them all. No, I am not in any way kidding about this. They are oxygen thieves who are unfit to draw breath; merely by their unwanted presence in it do they befoul our God-graced nation. They should be removed, by any and all means necessary. Period fucking DOT.

Play for blood, remember shitlibs?

The plane that WOULD NOT DIE

Posted on April 20, 2026April 20, 2026 by Mike

Bravo, cheers, and a hearty “Right on!” to the most effective, best-designed, and toughest Close Air Support and/or tankbuster platform ever made: the incredible, indestructible A-10 Thunderbolt II, a/k/a the Warthog.

In consultation with @SecWar, we will EXTEND the A-10 “Warthog” platform to 2030. This preserves combat power as the Defense Industrial Base works to increase combat aircraft production.

Thank you to @POTUS for your unwavering support of our warfighters and quick, decisive… pic.twitter.com/zn1l3OshdY

— Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (@SecAFOfficial)

April 20, 2026

I don’t care what anybody says, I think the A10 is fucking beautiful. Ask any ground-pounding dogface who was ever stuck under an artillery barrage and heard the characteristic vengeful scream of a Warthog arriving on-scene to blast those enemy cannon-cocker sumbitches into dog food about it, and every last one of them will tell you the same; the men (and women) who fly her likewise. The aircraft is just so got-damn good, so reliable and capable and plain ole tough that, although the sub-genii of Higher-Higher™ have been trying to get rid of her for years and swap her out for something WAY more expensive, glamorous, and less useful, the A10 just keeps on choogling regardless.

You go, ol’ girl, and fuck the naysayers with a rusty railroad spike; some of us out here still love ya. Oh yeah, there’s also this wonderful pic I copped from tonight’s Eyrie post:

Heh. TELL it, Batman.

BRRRT update! Sounds like …VICTORY.

I’ve seen and heard that exact same scene passing thru Indiantown Gap on the way to NYC so many times I just can’t even. That was always the most exciting part of the whole drive, for me anyway.

He shoots, he scores!

Posted on April 18, 2026 by Mike

Big points for RFKJ.

The Way RFK Jr. Turned the Tables on This Democrat Was Amazing
Democrats thought they had Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. right where they wanted him. On Friday, Kennedy was on Capitol Hill so that Democrats could grandstand on the HHS budget, the 25th Amendment, and whatever else they needed clips of to include in their fundraising pitches. They thought they could abuse Kennedy and he’d just take it.

They were wrong. Very, very wrong.

During the hearing, Democrats came loaded with their usual talking points about proposed Medicaid changes harming the poor and the sick. What they didn’t anticipate was Kennedy coming armed with numbers that reframed the entire argument. Instead of playing defense, he walked into that hearing room and went on offense.

Kennedy’s central point was straightforward: the administration isn’t cutting Medicaid. It’s cleaning it up.

Then came my favorite moment of the exchange. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) decided to challenge Kennedy with what he clearly thought was a devastating question. “Have you met with any of the 1.4 million people who have lost their health insurance just this last year from dropping off of Obamacare?” Casar asked. “Have you sat down and talked to those folks about the fact they won’t have their health insurance again?”

The question was stupid, but the implication was obvious. According to Cesar, Kennedy was supposedly indifferent to real Americans losing coverage.

They were wrong. Very, very wrong.

During the hearing, Democrats came loaded with their usual talking points about proposed Medicaid changes harming the poor and the sick. What they didn’t anticipate was Kennedy coming armed with numbers that reframed the entire argument. Instead of playing defense, he walked into that hearing room and went on offense.

Kennedy’s central point was straightforward: the administration isn’t cutting Medicaid. It’s cleaning it up.

Then came my favorite moment of the exchange. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) decided to challenge Kennedy with what he clearly thought was a devastating question. “Have you met with any of the 1.4 million people who have lost their health insurance just this last year from dropping off of Obamacare?” Casar asked. “Have you sat down and talked to those folks about the fact they won’t have their health insurance again?”

The question was stupid, but the implication was obvious. According to Cesar, Kennedy was supposedly indifferent to real Americans losing coverage.

Kennedy’s response was about as devastating as it gets. “They’re almost all illegal immigrants,” he told him.

There was a brief pause before Cesar stuttered his way through a response and then proceeded to talk over Kennedy as he attempted to make a critical point.

“We found 1.5 million illegal immigrants illegally collecting Medicaid,” Kennedy said.

Heh. Go get the goddamned idiots, Sec Kennedy, sir.

Words of wisdom

Posted on April 16, 2026April 16, 2026 by Mike

America’s GoAT USSC Justice (and it ain’t even close), the incomparable Clarence Thomas, says it loud and clear.

Clarence Thomas SLAMS progressivism as threat to Americans’ natural rights
Progressivism “requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights.”

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke at the University of Texas in Austin on Wednesday night and he lashed out at the horrible political philosophy of progressivism, saying that it’s anathema to the Declaration of Independence and the goals set forth in that document. He praised the ethos of the Founding Fathers and urged Americans to not be “passive spectators” in American liberty, but to uphold the Declaration of Independence.

He spoke about his career, realizing early on in Washington, DC, that he had to define his principles and their worth. “What are your principles worth to you?” He said he asked himself.

“My answer then was the same I would give today: they are worth life itself. What are those principles? They are the same principles in the Declaration. They were bequeathed to me by my grandparents and reinforced by my nuns and my faith.

“In God’s eyes, we are equal. We are all equally created in the image and likeness of God. We are all endowed with the natural rights to life, liberty and happiness. Our rights and our dignity are inherent. They do not come from others, and they do not come from the government. And our government derives its legitimacy and its authority from our consent. We do not derive our rights from our government.

“The primacy of our rights in relation to our government is crucial in reconciling the mortal words of the Declaration with our Constitution and our history. None of our rights come from the government.

“All of the government’s authority comes from our consent, and the structure and limited role of government is to assure that it does not exceed the authority to which we have consented or intrude on our natural rights. The Constitution is the means of government. It is the Declaration that announces the ends of government.

“The Constitution achieves this purpose by protecting our natural rights and our liberties from concentrated power and excessive democracy. Our Constitution creates a separation of powers and Federalism, truly for the first time in modern history, to prevent the government from becoming so strong that it threatens our natural rights.”

Preach it, sir. Gonna be a dark day indeed when Justice Thomas steps down and retires, not only for liberty-oriented Americans but for liberty its own self. Wise, steadfast, and clear-eyed; learned, eloquent, level-headed, and unflappable; steeped in the history, lore, and principles of our nation’s Founding; the man truly gets it, in a way that no other Justice ever quite has. Mere words can’t express how very fortunate Real Americans are to have him, particularly in these most parlous of times.

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