WINNING! – Page 32

Is it plagiarism if I steal from myself?

Posted on March 14, 2023March 14, 2023 by Mike

Maybe “Joe Biden” would be the one to ask about that; he is, after all, an expert in the field, a past-master of the craft.

Anyways, yesterday’s Eyrie post, in addition to bringing about a most gratifying e-mail exchange with GoV’s Baron Bodissey, also featured a classic video by 70s prog-rock mainstays, Yes.

One of my best friends in my misspent youth as a long-haired, gaudy-polyester-shirt clad (BEWARE: mystery click, not for the weak of stomach or faint of heart), Whalebones-platform-heel shod ne’er do well teen circa 75-76 was a YUUUGE Yes fan. We whiled away many an hour ensconced in his bedroom at his folks’ place endlessly spinning The Yes Album, Fragile, Tales From Topgraphic Oceans, and of course Yessongs on his top ‘o the line Technics turntable, blasting ’em loud and proud through an audiophile-level Marantz system.

It was great fun, although he never did convert me to being as big a Genesis fan as he was. Nor King Crimson neither; as a dyed in the wool hard rocker myself, that stuff was just way too flaccid and lame for my sharper-edged, rowdier taste.

But I did dig Yes, and through the years I’ve remained quite fond of ‘em, for whatever reason. Go figger, eh?

Like ‘em though I did, and do, somehow the backstory of “Yours Is No Disgrace” as an antiwar but pro-soldier anthem had gotten by me completely, until I stumbled across this at-length explainer on YewToob yesterday. In my own defense, Yes’s lyrics were always obscure to the point of being completely opaque, even after multitudinous listenings. As a teen I had long since stopped even trying to make sense of them, but here we have it in their own words.

Yessongs depicts a Yes concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London during the band’s Close to the Edge Tour on 15 December 1972. “Close to the Edge” and “Würm” are the same performances as heard on the Yessongs album.

“Yours is no Disgrace” is the opening track from the band’s 3rd studio album titled “The Yes Album” recorded at Advision Studios, London with audio engineer Eddy Offord as their co-producer in autumn months of 1970 & released Feb 19, 1971. It was the band’s first album to feature guitarist Steve Howe, who replaced Peter Banks in 1970, as well as their last to feature keyboardist Tony Kaye until 1983’s 90125. The album was the first by the band not to feature any cover versions of songs & was a critical success and a major commercial breakthrough for Yes, who had been at risk of being dropped by Atlantic due to the commercial failures of their first two albums.

“Yours Is No Disgrace” originated from some lyrics written by Anderson with his friend David Foster. This was combined with other short segments of music written by the band in rehearsals. Howe worked out the opening guitar riff on his own while the rest of the band took a day’s holiday. The backing track was recorded by the group in sections, then edited together to make up the final piece.

According to Edward Macan, “Yours Is No Disgrace” “is generally recognized as Yes’ first antiwar song.” Anderson has stated that the theme of the song was recognition that the kids fighting the (Vietnam) war had no choice but to fight and that the war wasn’t their fault.

Governments fight wars, not men and women – therefore yours is no disgrace. The message is that war has no winners & no real meaning – as Jon Anderson has explained, the young people going off to fight the war had no say in the matter, and the war itself was certainly not their fault.

“Death defying, mutilated armies scatter the earth, Crawling out of dirty holes, their morals, their morals disappear” – killing is brutal & cruel, but the disgrace falls not on the soldiers, but on those who orchestrated the war.”

The lyric in this song, “Caesar’s Palace, morning glory, silly human race,” helps explain the story behind it. Caesar’s Palace is a casino in Las Vegas, and an interesting reference for a British band to make. Anderson: “Well, I’d just been to Vegas and it was amazing how crazy the place was and how silly we are. Silly human race. It was something to do with how crazy we can be as a human race to be out there flittering money around and gambling, trying to earn that big payout, when actually that’s not what life is truly about. Our life is truly about finding our divine connection with God, if you like. You know, that’s why we live.

“And whenever I sing that song, it always comes back to me that I’m singing about that kind of Caesar’s Palace, morning glory, sweet human race – it’s on a sailing ship to nowhere, planet earth. The planet earth is not going anywhere. It’s going around the sun, of course, but we’re on this sailing ship to nowhere, leaving anyplace. It’s like Earth Mother. So don’t worry about stuff, it’s not our fault if things go wrong.”

The entire band is credited with writing this song. Steve Howe has said that his guitar part is one of his favorite contributions to Yes. With modern equipment, they were able to do overdubs, which was new to Howe. “It was a ‘studioized’ solo because it was made up in different sections,” he said. “I became three guitarists.”

I’d say he did at that, yeah. What really struck me about this particular video is the playful rockabilly jam at the beginning, showcasing Howe’s easygoing facility for a style I would’ve assumed he barely even knew existed at all until I saw this. As you can see, Chris Squire and Rick Wakeman jump right in with Howe joyously and entirely competently—a real musical revelation that’s as unexpected (to me, at least) as it is delightful.

Funny, innit, that I had to wait all these years for Jon Anderson to finally make sense of those damned lyrics for me. Now do “Roundabout,” willya Jon?

Everything old is new again Part the Eighty-Nine Hundred Thousandth

Posted on March 11, 2023March 11, 2023 by Mike

One for BPs drummer, my cousin Mark.

Sales of vinyl albums overtake CDs for the first time since the late ’80s
Streaming still accounts for 84% of music revenue, but vinyl is having a moment.

Sales of vinyl records have been on the rise for years, but according to the RIAA’s 2022 year-end revenue report for the music industry (PDF), record sales hit a new high last year. For the first time since 1987, unit sales of vinyl albums outpaced those of CDs, vindicating all the people who have spent decades of their lives talking about how vinyl “just sounds better.”

Although vinyl unit sales only surpassed CDs last year, revenue from vinyl records has been higher than revenue from CDs for a while now. In 2022, the RIAA says that vinyl albums earned $1.2 billion, compared to $483 million for CDs. The growth in vinyl was more than enough to offset a drop in CD revenue, helping overall physical media revenue climb 4 percent over 2021 (which was already way up over 2020).

Streaming services still account for the vast majority of all music revenue in the US—84 percent, up from 83 percent in 2021. The RIAA says there was an average of 92 million streaming music subscriptions active in 2022, which, together with digital radio and ad-supported sites like YouTube, generated $13.3 billion. The growth of streaming services and physical media comes at the expense of paid digital downloads, which accounted for a mere 3 percent of all music revenue in 2022.

There have always been people who have asserted that music played on vinyl sounds better than digital music, but that probably doesn’t explain vinyl’s increasing popularity this long after the advent of CDs, MP3s, and streaming music. A vinyl album is large enough to double as an art piece, and there’s something appealing about the tactility of physical objects in an age where media is increasingly ephemeral.

I do have to admit, CDs DID kinda render album-cover art—which, during the rock era many audiophiles and record geeks truly did consider it to be such, and a lot of it was at that, or had artistic ambitions anyway, with both bands and designers crafting it with that precise intention in mind—pretty much immaterial, since you’d need a magnifying glass to be able to see it well enough to really appreciate it.

Oh, and the reason I mentioned Mark above is that he has a vinyl collection that one has to see to believe—boxes and boxes of records, in 45 and 33 both, all neatly tucked away in plastic sleeves to keep the dust and moisture out. All arranged in alphabetical order, no less. There are some real gems in those boxes too—limited editions, vintage rarities, colored vinyl, the whole kit and kaboodle. It’s any record geek’s wet dream.

Every city, town, village, or burg we’d hit for a show, time allowing, off Mark would jet to the local used-record emporium, returning to the hotel with multiple whacking-great shopping-bags fairly brimming over with deluxe finds. Same-same when we were off—because hey, that’s what Saturday afternoons are FOR, capisce?

Over time, he’d come to learn what was really worth purchasing and what wasn’t, winding up as a bona fide expert when it came to sniffing out 24k LP gold—however obscure, wherever it might be lurking. God only knows what the whole collection might be worth by now, but it would have to tot up to some serious money. So yeah, this one’s for him.

(Via Ed)

It was ALL a damnable lie

Posted on March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 by Mike

Yet another one, like FauxVid, that some of us have known all along was precisely that, and nothing more.

Secret Surveillance Video Dismantles January 6 Narrative
Clips aired during Tucker Carlson’s show on Monday night demonstrate how the January 6 select committee doctored surveillance video.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired the first set of previously-unseen surveillance video captured by Capitol police security cameras on January 6, 2021 that undermines several aspects of the reigning narrative about what happened that day.

Only “several”? I strongly suggest you take another look, Jules; it undermines the entire fucking thing, actually. Over, under, sideways, and down. Stem to stern, end to end, top to bottom, start to finish. No more, no less.

Capitol Police turned over to the FBI roughly 14,000 hours of video covering the hours of noon and 8:00 p.m. on January 6 but the full 24-hour reel has been in the hands of House Democrats for two years—reportedly the footage that Carlson’s team was authorized to view.

Carlson exposed falsehoods that bolster key animating aspects of January 6 including the movements of Jacob Chansley; the activity of still-uncharged agitator Ray Epps; the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick; alleged “reconnaissance tours” conducted by House Republicans the day before; the “escape” of Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.); and the overall deceptiveness of the January 6 Select Committee. “Taken as a whole, the video record does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection,” Carlson explained. “In fact, it demolishes that claim. And that’s exactly why the Democratic Party and its allies in the media prevented you from seeing it.”

Don’t you dare miss a single word of this one, people. Anyone who does so will be derelict in his duty as a citizen, and will thereby forfeit all right to think of himself as either “informed” or “concerned,” that’s the long and the short of it.

I won’t say it’s shocking, because it isn’t, not by a long yard. What it is, is further confirmation—as if any were needed—that the so-called “American” federal government is now openly at war with not just its own people, but with every last principle this nation was originally founded upon. That really is all there is to it, no two ways about it.

Tucker Carlson—who some on Our Side contend is variously A) a phony; B) Controlled Opposition; C) even a witting sock-puppet being used by The Enemy for steam-valve purposes, which I think is just ridiculous—has done enough in his dogged pursuit of the truth here as to have earned a Medal of Honor for meritorious, above-and-beyond-the-call service to his country. Endless kudos to him for his determination and derring-do.

I know, I know, the Medal is a servicemember-only decoration, almost always awarded posthumously (actually, that isn’t so, I only just found out). But still.

Likewise for the esteemed and estimable Julie Kelly for her tireless work on this gargantuan, monstrous case. She’s stayed on J6 like the most stubborn bulldog, and the rabbit has now been well and truly caught. Bravo, woman. You and Tucker are both admirable examples of what real, true journalism is supposed to be all about, but almost never is nowadays.

Emetic update! As Ace notes, the US has used the military to overthrow foreign governments more than once for far, far less egregious offenses against their own subjects than what it has done, and continues to do, to the J6 “insurrectionists.” So vile, so indecent, so morally abhorrent has the Amerika v2.0 regime become it could literally induce projectile vomiting in any true patriot.

Show me something update! My GOD, the balls on these faux-obstreperous pusbuckets.

GOP Rep. Ralph Norman on Jan. 6 Fedsurrection: ‘Why Is Ray Epps Not Behind Bars?’

Because big-talking Vichy GOPe frauds like you refuse to PUT him there, that’s why. Do something other than run your fat yap about it or just shut the fuck up already, whydon’tcha. Miss Lindsay Graham, Mitch The Bitch, Paul Ryan, Jim Jordan, all the rest—a great many of us are sick unto death of the braggadocious, talk-a-great-fight routine, and have no desire whatsoever to hear any more of that twipe.

Hold me back, hold me back or I’ll kick his fookin’ ass!!

Yeah, right. Put up or shut up, fuckface.

Uplifting update! Trump weighs in, and It. Is. Good.

Trump Demands January 6th Prisoners Let Go, House Select Committee Prosecuted After Tucker Carlson Releases Bombshell Videos

Trump called the dramatic new evidence one of the ‘biggest scoops’ in American journalism.

“The New Surveillance Footage of the January 6th Events sheds an entirely different light on what actually happened,” he wrote on his Truth Social media platform. “LET THEM GO FREE, NOW!”

“A whole new, and completely opposite, picture has now been indelibly painted,” he contends. “The Unselect Committee LIED, and should be prosecuted for their actions.”

In another posting on Truth Social, the former President reiterated his call for those charged for their relatively mundane actions that day to be released.

“Let the January 6 prisoners go,” he wrote in an all-caps screed. “They were convicted, or are awaiting trial, based on a giant lie, a radical left con job.

Indubitably so, Mr President.

Here’s an idea: in light of the truth finally getting out despite the dead-level-best efforts of the D卐M☭CRATs to keep it swept safely and securely under the rug, howzabout sane people all immediately just stop referring to the events of J6 as a “riot,” an “insurrection,” “violent,” and/or “destructive.” I suggest that instead, we describe all further insistence on that kind of hysterical, dishonest hype as “baseless” and “unfounded,” there being absolutely “no evidence” that they were any such thing. Y’know, take a page from their own “baseless election theft accusations” playbook, as it were.

THAT oughta tach up all the right people well past the pulse-pounding, vessel-popping redline, no?

Hell, I can even see newsrooms across the country go totally chaotic in the wake of this, as thousands of “journalists” lapse into shrieking paroxysms of grief and rage at seeing their own tactic used against them—flopping about on the floor like landed fish en masse, gnashing their teeth to the gumline, tearing their hair out in great hanks, ripping each other to bloody meat-gobbets with their bare hands in an ungovernable frenzy.

Try as I might, I’m just not seeing any downside here.

It is to laugh…and laugh, and laugh, and laugh

Posted on March 5, 2023March 5, 2023 by Mike

Uganda’s president ain’t have any, thenksveddymuch.

Ugandan President Has Hilarious Response to LGBTQ Activists’ Request

In a recently posted Twitter clip of what appears to be a press conference, a woman asks, “The gay community in Uganda is requesting to have a meeting with you, would you give them an ear—“ The Ugandan president interrupts to ask, “What?” The woman switches her word, using the accurate “homosexual” instead of “gay.” Through most of its existence as a word, “gay” had nothing to do with homosexuality and is used by leftists as a positive term meant to mask the real perversion of homosexuality.

”The homosexuals in Uganda, they are requesting to have an audience with you—“ the woman then pauses because Museveni bursts out laughing. As the room joins in, even the woman starts to giggle, as if she somehow realizes for a moment too how preposterous LGBTQ ideology is. She then tries to stammer out her question as the clip ends with the president still laughing. If only other leaders around the world laughed off the truly ridiculous LGBTQ propaganda circulating! Maybe there would be fewer people claiming the pronouns “they/them,” taking kids to drag shows, putting up men in dresses as the faces of “Women’s Month,” or identifying as “cake gender.”

In a more serious vein, the Christian Ugandan president has made it clear that he sees homosexuality and LGBTQ perversions as wrong. Homosexuality can be legally punished in Uganda, and its parliament is reportedly investigating homosexuality in schools (if only the American government would conduct such an investigation). Museveni reportedly said last month that his country will not be legitimizing homosexuality and that Western nations need to stop trying to force LGBTQ ideology on Uganda.

Uganda is a majority Christian nation trying to adhere to Christian principles while under pressure from woke imperialist powers attempting to force leftist agendas on African countries regardless of what the Africans themselves want. Lawmakers in the Ugandan parliament are attempting to revive a bill against homosexuality, which India Today describes in leftist hysteria as “anti-LGBTQ.” Uganda also suffers from radical Muslim terrorism, as the Islamic State and other radicals target Uganda for violence and jihad.

With such serious threats to deal with, it’s no wonder Museveni laughed at the idea of wasting time playing political games with LGBTQ activists.

So, that whole “gay marriage” thing is pretty much a non-starter then, I’m guessing.

“A woman is not a suit you put on”

Posted on March 5, 2023March 5, 2023 by Mike

You never go Full Woke Retard. Which is exactly what Hershey’s just did.

#TransWomenAreConMen goes viral after Hershey allows a man to take the place of a woman

Last Wednesday marked day one of Women’s History Month, an annual occasion described by the official website as a “national celebration” to commend the value and contributions of the female sex upon society. In the movement’s own words:

Since 1995, presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as ‘Women’s History Month.’ These proclamations celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields.

\Well, welcome to a modern and Orwellian America, where a jabbering Supreme Court justice infamously couldn’t define “woman” and intact males eclipse and dominate real women in every sector, every day: competitive sports, beauty pageants, magazine covers, advertising campaigns, government posts, etc. You name it, and men in drag are there, overshadowing their female counterparts by leaps and bounds. Didn’t you ever hear that joke about when Glamour magazine bequeathed former Olympian Bruce Jenner with a “Woman of the Year” award? It went a little something like this: “Just to prove men are better at everything, it took a man to win a women’s achievement award.”

Now, Hershey is going balls (literally) to the wall, and in honor of female fortitude, the company has decided to highlight a man who goes by the name Fae Johnstone. See the clip below:

.@Hersheys is putting the face of a trans-“woman” on chocolate bar wrappers with “HerShe” highlighted in honor of international women’s day.
Hershey’s is erasing women. pic.twitter.com/JzRkAtwTdO

— Leftism (@LeftismForU)

March 1, 2023

Do be sure to watch the vid; somehow, it manages to be pathetic, appalling, and funny as hell all at the same time. But wait, it gets even better still.

Now, the erasure of women and our uniqueness isn’t funny, but in a hilarious turn of events, an anti-woke company known as Jeremy’s Razors branched out into…Jeremy’s Chocolates. (You’re going to enjoy this.)

And trust me, you surely will at that.

Heh. Jeremy’s Chocolates is an offshoot of founder Jeremy Boreing’s Jeremy’s Razors, which came into being thusly:

HARRY’S AND THE DAILY WIRE HAD A DEAL.

They paid us. We advertised their razors.

But after we said that boys are boys and girls are girls, they publicly condemned our views as “inexcusable” and dropped their ads because of what they called “values misalignment.”

You’re damn right our values are misaligned. We value truth and the right to speak it.

We embrace masculinity and the courage to uphold it. And since no other razors out there did… we built our own.

Every dollar you spend here is one less dollar in the pockets of woke razor CEOs who profit from putting you down.

They make money by making you feel bad. Jeremy gets rich by making you look great. And by creating alternatives in the market that actually give you a choice. So you don’t have to cut away your values, every time you shave your face.

We can’t build this parallel economy overnight – it’s going to take time.

But with your commitment it will happen. And razors, are just the start.

Well said, sir. From Jeremy’s I Hate Hershey’s webpage:

Some chocolate companies don’t even know what a woman is. But we do.
Indulge in the chocolate binary. One with nuts, one without. You know which is which.

Indeed I do. In fact, contra the ever-heightening pile of “transwomen are REAL women” horseshit, we all do.

More fun quips ‘n quotes from Boreing.

It is nearly a year after Harry’s removed its ads, The Daily Wire has initiated its new razors alongside a humorous four-minute outstanding web ad which is the talk of the internet nowadays.

The ad starts with “god-king” Boreing setting fire to rubber to work in an electric-blue McLaren. After virtually jogging over an employee in the parking lot, he exits the car and asks, “Do you recall when there were only two genders, and only one and a half of them had to trim their mustaches?”

And that is only the warm-up.

He whips out the flame thrower and further adds, “If you have had enough of the woke bullshit,” and you are tired of paying groups like Gillette and Harry’s to hate you, then get my new razor instead.

Along with flame throwers, the ad also features sexy women, hot cars, a shirtless, carved Adonis, and that is the most homoerotic time you will ever get from a Jeremy’s Razors commercial and over-caffeinated Dennis Miller as it defines Jeremy as the razor of choice for men, firefighters, cowboys, and ‘those gentlemen who shot Osama bin Laden.’ The ad is marked as funny. However, it is not all over-the-top humor.

He whips out the flame thrower and further adds, “If you have had enough of the woke bullshit,” and you are tired of paying groups like Gillette and Harry’s to hate you, then get my new razor instead.

Along with flame throwers, the ad also features sexy women, hot cars, a shirtless, carved Adonis, and that is the most homoerotic time you will ever get from a Jeremy’s Razors commercial and over-caffeinated Dennis Miller as it defines Jeremy as the razor of choice for men, firefighters, cowboys, and ‘those gentlemen who shot Osama bin Laden.’ The ad is marked as funny. However, it is not all over-the-top humor.

“Our country is in distress,” Boreing instructs as the commercial draws to a climax. “Conservatives are being abolished by the media, Hollywood, universities, and now, Harry’s Razors. Resist lending your money to woke companies who do not believe you deserve their product. Offer it to me instead,” he concludes as a huge flag emblazoned with his picture, and the phrase “Shut Up and Shave” unfurls from the roof.

The commercial is entertaining, and the product illustration comprises “the best shave kit ever built and its preferred pronouns are Buy Now.”

Any red-blooded Real American Normal has just gotta love it…and I assuredly do. As Tennessee Ernie Ford used to say, in those old TV ads for Martha White flour: “Goodness gracious, it’s pea-pickin’ good!”

Can’t get enough of that Cocaine Bear stuff!

Posted on March 4, 2023March 4, 2023 by Mike

It’s highly addictive.

Sequel ‘Rehab Bear’ Green-Lit By Producers
LOS ANGELES, CA — Due to the overwhelming popularity of the film Cocaine Bear, movie studio executives and producers announced they have already green-lighted a sequel — an emotional, psychological film reportedly titled Rehab Bear.

“We thought it would be really great to see where the bear goes from here,” said producer Curt Schampers. “We’ve seen him in the throes of cocaine addiction, raging at the world. What happens when he is forced into rehab and discovers that his true enemy…is the bear within?”

The studio has reached out to Martin Scorsese to direct the project, described as part One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, part Taxi Driver, part Tommy Boy. The story reportedly features the formerly cocaine-addled grizzly bear being checked into a rehab facility by his loved ones to deal with his inner demons. “It’s much more of a low-key, psychological drama than the first film,” Schampers continued. “This is about the bear really digging down deep into his soul, finding the true source of his drug addiction, and also mauling and killing dozens and dozens of other people at the rehab facility.”

Producers were expected to use a mixture of live bears and CGI bears, despite the rumored interest of renowned actor Daniel Day-Lewis in playing the role of the bear.

At publishing time, creators of the film were already brainstorming potential future installments of the franchise, including Relapse Bear, Cocaine Bear Hits Rock Bottom, and the natural conclusion of the series — Cocaine Bear Runs for Congress.

Damn, looks like I may have to break my decades-long, indifference-induced streak of not bothering about going to the movies with all this edifying fare in the cinematic pipeline. Don’t laugh too hard, though; Hollywood being Hollywood—entirely bereft of new ideas and creative spark, struggling to put asses in theater seats, desperate to keep the money machine whirring merrily along—you know damned well they’ll do it.

Dr (The) Science gets told

Posted on March 4, 2023March 4, 2023 by Mike

GOD, how I love this.

I met this fun lady at CPAC today. Her name is Melissa Rein Lively. Tonight she met Fauci in Washington DC and took this incredible picture with him.

Everyone is jealous that they didn’t get to do it! 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/1Hf0LxDwpY

— Ada Lluch 🇪🇸 (@ada_lluch)

March 4, 2023

More at GP.

Last night Arizona activist Melissa Lively and filmmaker Eric Strause were dining in Washington DC when Dr. Tony Fauci entered the restaurant with two bodyguards. It is not clear at this point if these were government-funded bodyguards but they reportedly did have badges.

Melissa posed for a photo with Dr. Fauci and gave him some much-needed feedback. She flipped him the bird.

On Saturday The Gateway Pundit contacted Eric and Melissa. Eric told us they were at the restaurant when Dr. Fauci walked in. No doubt, Fauci was expecting a standing ovation, instead he received the much-deserved feedback. According to Eric, Fauci’s bodyguards told him this was not the place for showing their objection to Fauci’s policies. Eric told the bodyguard, “I was not able to attend my father’s funeral because of this man!” Eric told security, “My father could not take Ivermectin because of this guy!”

Three years after the start of the pandemic we now see that the COVID-19 virus was made in a Wuhan lab funded by Dr. Fauci. Then he bribed scientists to not rat him out.

Today we also understand that Fauci’s policies ruined the economy, ruined business owners, ruined child development, destroyed our personal liberties, and ruined millions of lives.

It’s about time Fauci got a little feedback.

To say the absolute least, yeah; if you ask me, it’s about time the poisonous little homunculus got a damned sight more than just a little momentary discomfort in a public place. He of right ought to be looking at a long stretch in Marion or Joliet, and in a better, more just world he would be. Personally, I prefer he be either drawn and quartered or hung by the neck until dead, dead, DEAD for his heinous crimes. But what the hell, noncorporeal humiliation isn’t a bad first step down the winding, interminable road to justice—particularly since it’s all we’re ever going to get from TPTB, and we all know it is.

Until such time, at any rate, as We The People take matters into our own hands and begin dealing out some true justice at long, long last, not just to Fraudci but to all of his fellow Deep State malefactors as well. Meanwhile, the Hawaiian Good Luck Sign is just going to have to suffice.

Sundry gleanings

Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 by Mike

More fun schtuff from the Quora Digest email list. Item One:

Why do most mechanics drive junk cars?

I’m 73 and I’ve driven close to 750,000 miles by now. I’ve yet to spend a 1,000 bucks to buy a car. I’ve only had a half dozen, no one else has ever worked on them, and they don’t stay stock for more than a few days. Not only are old cars cheap and easy to fix, if you spend a little cash and a little more time on performance, they can be a lot of fun and still be very cheap to drive. If they look like crap they don’t get stolen and they don’t get tickets.

The fastest I took my 62 VW bus was 115mph on a windy road on a windy day. One day on a twisty little mountain road as I came down into the hairpin, he left me half a lane and a clean shoulder and I passed a 911 Porche. We both had Porche engines, but he had a six and I had a four so he took me back on the first straightaway. Cruising speed was 80 and I lived in it for three years traveling around.

With tall tires to get the gear ratio up and a well tuned 1600, my ’61 Karman Ghia got 40mpg at 90mph. With lower tires I could race the Alphas, Lotuses, and Porches at the slolom track. My total investment in the Ghia was about $3,000. Why in the world would I want a new car.

Why indeed. Of course, not all of us are mechanics; maybe they ought to work on that, eh? So to speak. Item Two:

Swatara Samaritan

“A Swatara police officer was called to the Capital Diner this morning. An elderly man couldn’t pay for his breakfast; he tried but his card was declined. He panicked and actually called the police on himself because he didn’t know what to do. The restaurant gave him his space to figure it out and that was the best solution he could come up with. Officer Anthony Glass went to the counter, pulled out his credit card, and paid for the man’s breakfast. The man asked for his phone number so he could pay him back but the officer kindly declined. This young man deserves to be recognized.”

There was no headline with that one, so I made up my own. Item Three is a long ‘un, but the payoff is well worth the wade.

What has your child’s school done that got you so mad, you went in and read the riot act to the teacher or principal?

I was the student, but the story is so epic it has to be shared.

It was 1979, and I was in 4th grade. In the American South, land of “guns and religion”.

A little background…I learned to read at a very early age, and read basically anything I could get my hands on. I didn’t watch TV or go outside and play, I read. All the time. And way beyond my “grade level”. By the time of this story, I had read the Bible cover to cover, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, all kinds of “adult” stuff that, according to my teachers, I had no chance of comprehending.

The year before this incident, I had gotten in trouble at school because I was reading “All The President’s Men” (for those who don’t know, this book was THE definitive Watergate scandal tale; the authors were the Washington Post reporters who basically took down Nixon).

My teacher at the time refused to believe I could read and understand this book. She tried to quiz me as to who was what, and I knew all the characters. She was confused as to who had what job, and insisted that there was no Attorney General named Elliot Richardson, and said NO ONE refused Nixon’s order to fire the Watergate special prosecutor.

I knew this was false, so the next day I brought in the book and showed her the appropriate sections regarding the “Saturday Night Massacre”. She started yelling at me about how I was just a smart-ass and trying to make her look bad. I replied, in the way only an elementary school kid can, and said, “You already look bad…maybe if you read more and ate less, you’d look better”.

So I’m already on the school admin radar as a “trouble kid”. This time the book was the novel version of the movie “Kramer Vs Kramer”. There were several minister’s kids in my class, and one of them saw the word “f**k” in my book. He promptly ran to the teacher to tattle that I was reading a “dirty” book. Teacher comes storming down the aisle and snatches the book from me, telling me she is going to call my mom and I am in deep trouble. So now my book is gone (and I hadn’t finished it yet… waah), and I’m in trouble for reading a book…again.

Get home, and yes, the teacher called and told my mom I had PORNOGRAPHY in her classroom. Mom is all ready to give me the “birds and bees” talk, and asked what kind of magazine it was…“Was it a Playboy or Penthouse? One of those? I understand you’re curious about females, but…”

I interrupted her to tell her, no it wasn’t a girlie mag, it was a book…Kramer Vs Kramer. And it had a dirty word in it. That was it. I wasn’t looking at Playboy centerfolds, I was reading a book based on an Academy Award winning movie.

So Mom is supposed to go to the school the next day and meet with them about “my behavior”. Problem is, she’s a single mother who works 2 jobs and can’t just take off every time someone gets a hair up their tight little sphincters. A little while later she’s talking to my grandfather, her father, and telling him about this. She calls me to the phone and hands it to me. He asked me what happened, and I told him my version. He says not to worry, I am NOT in trouble, and he will pick me up in the morning and take me to school and meet with them.

Whereupon Gramps showed the slackass, ign’ernt fucks what trouble REALLY was, which leads to this most gratifying denouement:

Interestingly enough, I never got in trouble again for reading. God I miss him!!

As well you might, young feller. As well you might.

FAFO, epitomized

Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 by Mike

Ordinarily I’d have knocked off posting for the night around two-three posts ago, but I’m enjoying playing with MarsEdit too much to stop myself now.

Divemedic posts the feel-good video of the year 2016, after a long and arduous search for it.

Is it EVER a good idea to try robbing a gun store, ferchrissakes? And yet somehow, these idjits just keep right on doing it anyway.

Correction

Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 by Mike

Via Joe Hoft and Wes Renegade.

This is not America vs America. This is America’s enemies + the woke regime vs America https://t.co/hfoccnGt5g

— General Spalding (@robert_spalding)

February 20, 2023

Hoft provides some of the backstory.

Michele Tafoya is recognized by individuals who used to watch the NFL on Sundays. Her website says:

Michele Tafoya is a former American sportscaster. From 2011 to 2022, she was a reporter for NBC Sports, primarily as a sideline reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football. Today, she hosts the Sideline Sanity Podcast and makes television appearances on talk shows discussing the state of American politics and culture.

Tafoya is not afraid to take on topics of the day.

According to American Military News:

(retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert) Spalding has been retired from the Air Force since at least 2019 after serving for more than 25 years, according to biographical details on his book’s Amazon page. During that time, he earned seven medals and awards and became a leading expert on China, according to his Air Force biography.

He was a distinguished graduate of Mandarin Chinese language training, and later served as chief China strategist for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Following that, he was assigned as the Defense Department’s representative at the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

He has written two books on China: “War Without Rules: China’s Playbook for Global Dominion” and “Stealth War: How China Took Over While America’s Elite Slept.”

Good on the both of ‘em for giving us the straight dope like they did, no chaser needed nor desired.

Testing, testing 1, 2, 3

Posted on March 1, 2023March 1, 2023 by Mike

First post after finally getting around to purchasing a license for the completely wonderful MarsEdit (what can I say, I’ve been a terrible procrastinator my whole damned life, so much so I even got called down for it in a note to my parents from my 1st-grade teacher, bless her heart), which I can’t possibly say enough good things about. Got used to limping along with that irksome WP posting interface for a goodish while there, but now I’m back, baby! Now if I can just remember all my custom macros and shortcuts…

Sincerest and most humble thanks to Barry for the boost. Yippeeeeee!!!

The antidote

Posted on March 1, 2023March 1, 2023 by Mike

For that last post of mine, more or less.

Whitlock: My letter to ‘Breaking Bad’ star Bryan Cranston
Dear Bryan Cranston:

My childhood was great. We lived in the ghetto. Hope and joy filled the tiny apartment I shared with my brother and mother after my parents divorced.

High school was even better. I captained a nationally ranked, undefeated football team. My senior year, I shared a one-bedroom, 400-square-foot apartment with my dad.

I earned a football scholarship to Ball State University. The five years spent on campus comprise many of my fondest memories. I would do those five years over and over again until eternity.

The two decades I spent as a newspaper journalist in Bloomington, Indiana; Rock Hill, South Carolina; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Kansas City, Missouri, were tremendous. I started at the bottom, working part-time for $5 an hour, and became one of the most successful sports writers of my era.

America was great for me from 1967 until about 2012.

I’m 55 years old. When I hear former President Donald Trump and his supporters say “make America great again,” I don’t interpret that nostalgia as subtle or overt racism. I hear it as a call for a return to sanity, a return to a time when America at least pretended to judge man by the content of his character.

Bryan, I saw some of your interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, the exchange where you claimed the slogan “Make America Great Again” is some sort of bigoted dog whistle.

You said, “When I see ‘Make America Great Again,’ my comment is, ‘Do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?’”

Chris Wallace should have stopped you right there. Only someone on a 24/7/365 hunt for racism would hear that slogan and think it’s racist in nature. Bill Clinton said the exact same thing in 1991 when he launched his bid to win the White House. Clinton is fondly referred to as the “first black president.”

Clinton was not and is not black. He’s a stereotypical politician, a man unafraid to distort reality for his own benefit. To you, once Trump adopted the slogan, MAGA became a Confederacy code word.

I still have trouble figuring out just what it is about the idea expressed by “Make America Great Again” that shitlibs find so very offensive.

Nah, just kiddin’. It’s all too obvious. Read the rest of it, folks, it’s damned good stuff for sure.

Oscar SWEEP coming?

Posted on February 28, 2023February 28, 2023 by Mike

Analysis: TRUE AS ALL HELL.

In A Just World, ‘Cocaine Bear’ Would Sweep The Oscars

Regrettably—tragically, even—this is NOT that world.

In 1985, in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, a bear came upon a trove of cocaine which had been dumped from a plane by trafficker Andrew Thornton. The bear then consumed either some or all of the drug and overdosed, depending on which version of the story you prefer. In 2023, in the newly released movie “Cocaine Bear,” written by Jimmy Warden and directed by Elizabeth Banks, the story takes a decidedly different turn, one in which the bear develops a strong affinity for the drug and goes on a murderous rampage.

The result is a shining example of the type of content Hollywood should be producing.

It’s a gory, rollicking romp through several stories which become intertwined thanks to the cocaine bear. There’s Daveed, played by Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr., who’s been charged by kingpin Syd, portrayed by Ray Liotta in one of his final roles, with recovering the drug scattered across the forest in duffle bags. Accompanying Daveed is Eddie, played by Alden Ehrenreich, who is trying to leave the family business and is wrecked with grief over his wife losing her battle with cancer. Along the way, they pick up a hoodlum. Their story is a blood-soaked buddy comedy.

All of those people get killed, though the cocaine bear doesn’t directly kill and dismember all of them, just most of them. Most of the principal characters survive, but not before they come together to learn lessons about parenting, friendship, teamwork, and fighting a cocaine-addled bear.

Heads are removed. Limbs torn off. Blood splashing hither and thither. Body parts bouncing hither and thither. There are jokes, such as when the hooligan teaches Eddie how he can better talk to his own son. There are tender moments, also exemplified by the hooligan teaching Eddie how to better communicate with his son.

What there aren’t are any lectures. There are no teachable moments, unless you count the one that comes at the beginning of the film and is credited to Wikipedia, that in a normal encounter with a black bear, the smart play is to fight back. It’s 95 minutes of insanity that serves no purpose other than to entertain.

In a just world, those 95 minutes of blood-soaked carnage would be guaranteed to earn multiple Oscars, from best screenplay to best director to best film. Alas, the lack of teachable moments probably means that won’t happen, but it matters not. For what matters is that in 2023, we have a movie that hearkens back to earlier times, back when Hollywood sought not to make us better people, but to distract us for a while, to invite us to imagine possibilities like “what if a bear got hooked on cocaine?”

One of the truly burning questions of our era, for sure. But seriously, now: movies as entertainment, not holier-than-thou finger-wagging? How very quaint.

Trump the Comforter

Posted on February 22, 2023February 22, 2023 by Mike

A stark contrast with the Biden Affliction.

BREAKING: Donald Trump greeted by crowds of supporters in East Palestine, slams Biden for prioritizing Ukraine over America
“If you were in office right now, what would you have done to help the people of East Palestine?” Hernandez asked, to which Trump said, “FEMA would have been here a long time ago.”

Donald Trump landed in East Palestine, Ohio on Wednesday, where he met with local officials and citizens of the small town still trying to bounce back from the ecological disaster caused by a train derailment and subsequent controlled burn.

The Biden regime recently denied FEMA aid to East Palestine, saying that it did not meet the criteria. “What East Palestine needs is much more expansive than what FEMA can provide,” the official continued. “FEMA is on the frontlines when there is a hurricane or tornado. This situation is different.”

Which you would know HOW, exactly? Certainly not firsthand.

Trump would go on to deliver some remarks thanking police, firefighters, and first responders while assuring that those who have been impacted would not be left behind. “It’s an honor to be here. It’s an incredible place,” Trump said, “we’re here today in East Palestine to show our love and support for our fellow Americans in this hour of need…They’ve done some incredible work in a short period of time.”

“To the people of East Palestine and nearby communities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, we have told you loud and clear, ‘you are not forgotten.’ We stand with you, pray for you, and we will stand with you in your fight to help answer and the accountability you deserve… will all be out there, very clearly,” said Trump.

Trump said that the community needs “answers and results,” and that Norfolk Southern needs to “fulfill its obligations.”

“The people of East Palestine are going to be taken care of… When your representatives and all of your politicians get here, including Biden, get back from touring Ukraine, that he’s got some money left over as we’re now at $117 billion, and as you probably know, Europe when you add it all up has added $10 billion. That’s a big difference… They’re at it again, they’re very good negotiators those people in Europe. When you add it all up, it’s about the same size as the United States’ [contributions] the economy of the different European countries, and they’re at a very small number compared to us… That’s a massive difference, it’s a very small fraction of what we’ve put up and it affects them more than us. They have to do what they have to do.”

Trump would then go to a nearby McDonald’s restaurant, where he would continue to answer questions.

Mo’ bettah Trump:

Trump Overrules Pete Buttigieg, Delivers Truckloads of Water to East Palestine, Ohio
President Donald Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio where he delivered truckloads of bottled water following a toxic train derailment earlier this month.

The disaster has left the small town reeling, with Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration showing little interest in the crisis.

Government officials at both the state and federal levels have not risen up to the challenge, leaving the people of East Palestine furious.

After being snubbed by the Biden admin, Trump scheduled a visit to the town to show them support.

After Trump’s Wednesday visits, Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg scheduled a trip to see the disaster firsthand, almost three weeks after the train derailed on February 4.

This is vintage Trump at his very best, making a unique contribution which in the long view will amount to much more than he’ll ever be able to accomplish anywhere else. I do wish he’d focus his considerable attention more on things like this, along with mass rallies and speeches to inspire and reinforce Real Americans in their long fight against The Enemy, rather than vainly chasing after an office he’ll never be allowed to accede to anyway.

He was already re-elected once, and when the “election”-fraud dust settled what we wound up with instead was a senescent, corrupt kiddie-diddler so old and feeble he can’t even walk up a flight of stairs without busting his damned-fool ass right out in front of God and everybody roosting in the Oval Office as pRetend “pResident.” So how’s all that working out for ya’s, anyway? There’s a lesson in there somewheres, and one would think Trump of all people might have learned it by now.

Bits ‘n’ pieces o’ this ‘n’ that

Posted on February 19, 2023February 19, 2023 by Mike

More tidbits from another email newsletter I’m really, really glad I signed up for, the Quora Daily Digest. From the News You Can Use department, Practical Realities division.

As a police officer, if the person receiving the ticket is crying a lot, does it make you more likely to give the ticket to them or less likely?

Absolutely not. You know what does sway me? When I walk up and I get something along the lines of, “Sorry officer, I didn’t even realize I was speeding until I saw your lights, my mistake.” Honesty and attitude is key. If it’s nothing major, and the person owns up to it and talks to me in a respectful manner, I’m much more likely to just give out a warning and wish them a nice day. Dont try to lie your way out of it, don’t think crying will work, and above all, don’t keep the officer on the side of the road longer just so you can argue with them. It won’t work.

Next item comes to us from the Nice-Guy Celebrities local office.

Have you ever met a celebrity and found they were much kinder or ruder than you expected?

Back in 2003, Alice Cooper was playing a shown near Jim Thorpe, PA. It was sold out but I decided to try to find a ticket that day.

While walking by the only hotel in the downtown area, Alice’s tour bus pulled into the parking lot. The band and then Alice himself got off and were just milling about chatting.

I stood at the edge of the lot debating about asking for an autograph. As I started to approach, Alice looked over, said hello and held out his hand. Nervously, I shook it while trying not to sputter like an idiot.

Alice was amazing. We started talking and he was asking me questions about the area, if I golfed (he’s a huge golfer), how far I drove to be there. We started walking towards the hotel but he never broke the conversation. Even when Eric Singer (his drummer at the time) came up to tell Alice something, he motioned for me to hold on, answered Eric’s question, then continued the conversation.

When we reached the hotel front, I asked for a picture (taken with a 35mm film camera.) He obliged, we shook hands, and he went into the hotel.

Later that night, I bought a ticket from someone in line who had a no show in their group.

Being as it was general admission, I made my way to right in front of the stage. I’d like to think he noticed me there and gave me a wink at one point, but who knows.

Alice Cooper, the person, is much different that Alice Cooper you see on stage.

That’s always been the rule and not the exception for me with the many celebs I’ve serendipitously rubbed shoulders with over the years, yeah, from Johnny Cash to Daryl Hannah. I’ve heard that same thing said about the esteemed Mr Furnier lots of times, although I never did get to meet the man myself. Hell, even Janeane Garofalo—who’s kinda well-known for being not very friendly or nice usually—was absolutely great to me when she attended a show we did out in LA. Although it must also be noted that she was stinking, pie-eyed blotto when I sat and talked with her for a while after the show was over.

So, y’know, there’s that.

Waylon Jennings, Carl Perkins, Marisa Tomei, CJ Chenier, John Stamos, Brian Setzer, Mike Ness, though? All just great folks, super-nice and perfectly willing, even eager, to spend some of their valuable time chatting with a relative nobody like moi. The lone exception was actor George Kennedy, whom I had the sad misfortune of serving back when I was bartending at the CLT airport. He was a complete prick, start to finish, and I was mighty glad to see the back of him when his flight was finally called. That was an hour that went on for an eternity, seemed like; I thought it would never end, but thankfully it did.

Today’s final missive is courtesy of the Don’t Be A Dick sub-branch.

Police showed up to my neighbors house this morning and my neighbor told me they were looking for me (they said my full name) but then left promptly. But there is no search warrant for me online, how do I find out why the police were looking for me?

My wife called me at work saying the Sheriff was at the house with an arrest warrant for me for writing bad checks. I told her that I would handle it when I got home. When I got home I called the Sheriff’s office and said I would like to arrange a surrender. I explained that wealthy people do it all the time. Basically, you want me in custody, I would like this incarceration to have a minimal impact on my life. I ask to be allowed to eat dinner at home and shower at home and notify my boss of the situation before I willingly present myself to you for incarceration. This surprised the Sheriff, who had never been in this situation. He started asking questions and it was discovered that the person who the warrant was actually intended for, their S.S.# was 1 digit different from mine. Our names were identical, our age was identical, our wives’ names were one letter off from being identical and their S.S.#s were only 2 digits off. They lived roughly 50 miles from were I had lived for 8 years.

The Sheriff was curious and basically did a 10 minute investigation and dismissed the warrant due to incorrect information.

Obviously this is not standard behavior, I have been arrested due to a warrant, at my job, as I was working. I say all this to say that police are people first and many go into that profession to make the world a better place. It is unwise to assume that everyone in a group think alike in every instance.

Sometimes a little cooperation and how you present yourself can influence the outcome considerably.

WOW. That’s one hell of a story for sure. But…only “sometimes”? I’d say it’s the way to go pretty much every time myself, if only for purposes of self-preservation and nothing else. But then again, maybe that’s just me, and I could be all wet about it.

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