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A shocking revelation

Posted on February 12, 2023February 12, 2023 by Mike

Although the part I find most shocking might not be the one that comes immediately to mind.

In appearances on two Sunday talk shows, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) said that China sending a high-altitude spy balloon across the continental United States “was an act of espionage in plain sight” and revealed that the balloon had a greater capability than satellites to gather and collect imagery, and left open the possibility that these signals and images were still transmitted to Beijing even though US intelligence officials claim that they “mitigated” the damage.

On “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo,” McCaul said:

“These spy balloons have great capability to gather and collect intelligence, I would argue moreso than even satellites in the sense that they’re flying at, say, 40 to 60 thousand feet above the earth. The imagery that they can capture and other intelligence data that I can’t be specific about can be captured and then transmitted back to the mothership in Beijing.

“This was an act of espionage in plain sight, plain view of the American people.”

So far, so “well, DUH.”

McCaul’s first statement in the interview was that one of his priorities as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is to stop the export of American technology to China “that then goes into their most advanced weapons systems” (such as stealth technology, which CFIUS allowed to be sold to a company majority-owned by the Chinese government). Brennan asked if it made McCaul uncomfortable as a conservative “to have government try to control private business investment. How do you do that?” In his answer, we learn exactly why he’s comfortable doing that, and what a massive national security issue it is (emphasis mine):

Well, we have what’s called an entities list. The Department of Commerce had jurisdiction over the office within their — the Department of Defense has one.

We need to harmonize those, make it more security-focused. You know, capital flows is one issue, but technology exports into China that they use to turn — that maybe eventually turn against us, we have to stop doing that.

And I think we can do it by sectors. They do it by companies now. Obviously, they identified the six. I think, shockingly, when the balloon was recovered, it had American-made component parts in there with English on that. It was made — you know, parts made in America that were put on a spy balloon from China. I don’t think the American people accept that.

Bold in the original, not mine. And that’s where the part I found shocking comes in: “American-made component parts”? Really? Man, I had no idea we still made anything at all in this country anymore.

1

The Great Debunkening

Posted on February 11, 2023February 11, 2023 by Mike

Looks like the science is finally settled.

I’m pro-science. That’s why I’m anti-mask

The landmark Cochrane study shows that the mask skeptics were right

I believe in the scientific method: make an observation. Ask a question. Form a hypothesis. Test the hypothesis. Listen to the answer. Insisting on the answer before pursuing this methodological approach is not science, it is propaganda.

And “masks work” was never more than propaganda — rooted in mechanical plausibility, not actual science — furthered by public health officials, left-leaning government leaders, the press and the party faithful starting in 2020 and continuing to the present day.

The left is holding fast to the idea that masks do work, despite all the evidence to the contrary. In fact, as of February 6, mask mandates have been reinstated at four elementary schools in Marin County, California.

Will there be redemption for those who had the audacity to challenge authoritarian public health bureaucrats? No, it seems. Will there be a change in policy now that the science is clear? Again, no, it seems.

Will there be a doubling down, with the self-proclaimed pro-“science” crowd continuing to insist masking works despite the scientific evidence showing us that they don’t? Yes. It appears so.

What seems clear is that the enthusiastic, religious devotion to the dogma — “masks work” — signified adherence to a set of beliefs: I mask therefore I am good. I mask my children therefore I am loyal to the Democratic Party and public health diktats. I mask therefore I care. I am a loyal follower of “the Science.” My faith is unwavering.

Those who claim to be on the side of “the Science” will continue to push unscientific policies in order to prove that they were right all along. This is the sunk cost fallacy writ large. Don’t admit mistakes. Ignore the actual science in favor of “the Science.” And continue to punish those who challenge. As well as those most vulnerable who simply aren’t in a position to challenge at all.

“Science” has apparently been rebranded by the left. It is now a slogan — a tagline — shouted at heretics to signify one’s moral superiority and loyalty to the party. What we have now is “science” that ignores the scientific method, which means “the science” is a cult. And a dangerous one at that.

Yes, it most certainly is. That is neither coincidence nor happenstance.

The larger issue here is that Leftists, having by now promoted their misbegotten ideology on up to de facto religious-cult status, while also being constitutionally incapable of leaving anything under the sun imaginable alone and untampered with, must therefore pretzel actual science into “The Science” in order to bring it into compliance with their contradictory catechism.

They’d adamantly deny there’s any religious-cult aspect to their beliefs, natch, particularly as it applies to the Church of the Eternal Climate Change (formerly Global Warming, formerly Global Cooling, formerly The Weather)™ denomination. But the truth couldn’t be more obvious to any reasonable, thoughtful person.

Which is not to suggest that science and religion are incompatible, mind. It’s just that they’re two very different things, that’s all—distinct modes of thought whose focus is on two separate realms, which we might think of as the practical and the ethereal. Religion is definitionally a matter of faith, and matters of faith are NOT amenable to empirical proof. That built-in contradiction in terms is just another of the myriad reasons why, intellectually speaking, shitlibs can’t help but trip over their own dicks fifty times before lunch every day.

Intellectually speaking.

The aforementioned Cochrane study is here, and says this:

One of the largest and most comprehensive studies on the effectiveness of masks found they do almost nothing to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses.

The study reviewed 78 randomized control trials—experiments that have long been considered “the gold standard” for medicine—which assessed the effectiveness of face masks against flu, COVID-19, and similar illnesses. It found that wearing masks “probably makes little or no difference” for the general public, no matter what kind of mask is used. Even N95 masks, considered the most effective at filtering airborne particles, showed no clear benefit for health care workers.

The study was published on January 30 by the Cochrane Library, a world-renowned medical database that is famous for its high-quality evidence reviews. It comes as a battering ram to the recommendations of the U.S. public health establishment, which urged children as young as two to wear masks throughout the pandemic.

“This amounts to the scientific nail in the coffin for mask mandates,” said Kristen Walsh, a clinical professor of pediatrics in Morristown, New Jersey. “I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that some schools are still actively forcing children to wear masks, much less children who need to see faces to learn.”

You shouldn’t try; it makes sense only when you recognize that the Scamdemic entire wasn’t really about health or safety, but about the twin pillars of authoritarian tyranny: power and control.

(Via Ed)

4

Free speech: dead as the dodo

Posted on February 11, 2023 by Mike

The incomparable John Hayward’s latest.

A generation after the supposed triumph of classical liberalism at the “end of history,” free speech exists nowhere on Earth as a matter of principle. Every single tech mogul’s commitment to free speech evaporates when powerful authoritarians demand censorship.

Authoritarian foreign regimes know they only need to threaten blockage of Western social media services to make their management comply with censorship demands. Some push back harder than others, but in the end, they all cave. They can’t afford to lose access to growing markets.

Tech moguls rationalize to themselves that they can still do some good in oppressive countries by complying with some censorship demands – it’s better than being silenced completely. Any way you rationalize it, it’s a power calculation that limits the speech of the powerless.

Domestically, we’ve seen government officials using economic leverage and ideological affinity to limit speech in collusion with their Little Partners in the private sector. The ruling left-wing Party has operatives in tech companies that did much of the dirty work.

The power calculations have shifted a little lately, especially after Musk bought Twitter, but they’re still power calculations, not adamant defenses of free speech as a matter of principle. The variables changed, but the equations remain.

A troubling percentage of the free world’s population evidently believes censorship IS free speech – as though speech were a limited resource that must be allocated by the State with an eye toward “justice” and “equity.” Only by silencing some can others be truly free to speak.

“Hate speech is not free speech!” is a pure power calculation: those with power will decide what constitutes “hate speech.” They invariably rule that disagreement with their ideology and political demands is “hateful” and must be silenced.

How utterly convenient for them.

In America That Was, the very place where such forgetfulness was never supposed to happen, we somehow lost sight of the fact that “offensive” speech is the very embodiment of free speech—that once we’ve allowed TPTB to stifle speech they deem “offensive,” the hourglass has been turned over, the countdown to the inevitable loss of yet another Constitutionally-enumerated right has begun. Thus:

Speech is vital to political organization – in the Internet era, they are nearly synonymous. Twitter mobs have a direct pipeline to real political power via lazy, biased legacy media – provided they agree with the ruling Party. That pipeline is tightly shut against dissidents.

“Disinformation” is also a crude political calculation, not a high-minded and principled commitment to protect the population against fraud. We see examples every single day of disinformation that is tolerated, and boosted, when it comes from members of the ruling Party.

As with hate speech, the powerful decide what constitutes actionable “disinformation,” and they cannot resist the temptation of heavily tilting those scales against dissenters and speakers of forbidden truth. Party apparatchiks are never banned or reprimanded for disinformation.

The “end of history” was actually the triumph of authoritarianism, not classical liberalism – political scientists and commentators were just too giddy over the fall of the Soviet Union to see it. Individual rights, beginning with free speech, have steadily eroded since then.

It’s Doc Zero; reading it all isn’t mandatory, but you’re going to want to nonetheless.

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Moar police stories

Posted on February 11, 2023February 11, 2023 by Mike

From today’s Quora Digest email.

As a police officer, have you ever responded to a call and once you got there said to yourself, “Nope, not worth it” and just left?

Once. I pulled up behind a car stopped on the shoulder of the interstate. 5 Hispanic gang banger types standing around it. I ask if they need help. They spoke very little English but they spoke Spanish among themselves. I noticed they kept encircling me. I would step out of their circle and they would encircle me again. Then a guy in the back seat hiding under a blanket appears. Hackles on my neck are standing straight up by now. So…I get back to my squad car and drive away. I don’t know how it would have turned out had I stayed but I am pretty sure I would not be here to write this answer.

Edited to add the following. In rural areas there is no backup. I was the only squad car within 50 miles. Secondly while I thought these guys were acting weird they were not actually doing anything illegal, they were simply stopped along side the interstate and standing beside their car.

I’ve known enough LEOs over the years, and heard enough similar stories from them, to know that the refinement of exactly that sort of sixth-sense intuition can be the difference between life and death, quite literally.

Update! Another one, same source.

What’s something a police officer knows that would scare normal people?

Seeing how quickly and unexpectedly you can die.

Man went to McDonald’s — which was a treat — for his family’s dinner, and on the way back, was broad-sided in the driver’s door. He’s dead in the driver’s seat and his family’s dinner is all over the front of the car. When he didn’t come back, his 10-year-old son went looking for him on his bicycle and came up on the accident scene. The child climbed into the wrecked car and was hugging his dead father. We weren’t going to stop him, and the fire department stayed longer than they normally would have in case there was any unexpected fire.

Another officer took the child home in his police car and informed the wife of what had happened. Prime example of one of those evenings when a cop skips dinner because he has no appetite.

The driver that hit him was a teenager who had just stolen a tank of gas from the local AM/PM Mini Market, and was being chased by the idiot store manager in his own car. We arrested them both, though that did not make the outcome any better.

The only decent thing that came out of it is that the owner of a local McDonald’s franchise read about it, came in the station and we helped him arrange to pay for an elaborate funeral. The owner insisted we not talk about it publicly; he didn’t want his kind act to look like a PR move. That is class.

Indeed it is.

How quickly and unexpectedly any one of us can die is something I unfortunately know all too much about, from my own personal experience losing my late and much-mourned wife. I’ve had occasion to sit down and try to comfort other folks who have had the same bitter, painful experience of losing a loved one unexpectedly and much too soon, particularly my life-long friend Rick, whose 21 year old son died in a car wreck about five years ago.

What I straightaway said to Rick is the same thing I’ve told others: don’t waste a moment of your time trying to make sense of it, casting about for some explanation you’re never going to find. There IS no sense in it; how the hell does a 21 year old’s death make any kind of sense, to his hearbroken father and mother? It’s just something you see on the local evening news shows and automatically think of as one of those things that happens to someone else.

Until suddenly, one day, it isn’t.

Behind the badge

Posted on February 10, 2023February 10, 2023 by Mike

Two from my latest daily Quora email.

As a cop, have you ever pulled over someone who was actually rushing someone in labor to the hospital? What did you do?

Yes. I lit up a couple for doing 95 in a 60. At 2:30 in the morning. They wouldn’t stop. I hit the siren. I hit the howler. I called for backup. I had no idea of the vehicle’s situation. Finally, after 3 miles, they stopped. The driver instantly hopped out of his vehicle and came running back to me. I immediately reversed to gain distance. He screamed that his wife was in extreme labor. And please…please help.

I ran to their vehicle. She was…a mess. I pulled her into the back seat. Short story… her baby delivered into my hands. She was a mess. I was a mess. The baby (a girl) was a mess. Fortunately, a female Deputy responded, and “took charge.”

I’m glad all survived. I truly am. But I hope I never experience that again…

Heh. I imagine so, yeah. This next one is even better.

So this happened in Montana. I’m on my way to go to my interview this morning when I get pulled over by a police officer.

I am native American and my friend that was with me is black. Just saying.

Both brake lights decided to go out this time.

As he walked to the car and I was pulling out my stuff, he quickly said,

“Don’t worry about pulling anything out. I just want you to know that your brake lights are out.”

So I’m immediately upset because I just got them replaced like last month.

So I explained to him how Firestone wants to charge me $600 just to run a test on the wiring of the car.

He looked at me like 😨 and told me to pop the trunk.

He checked the lights in the trunk and tapped them, but they didn’t come on.

So he told me to pop the hood to check the relay box then asked me to get out to check the other one.

Then worked on the wiring under the dash.

He could’ve easily given me a ticket, but Officer Jenkins stepped out of the officer role, and into the mechanic role, and human role to make sure I was straight.

By the way, HE FIXED THEM. Not everyone is racist or a bad cop.

There’s a pic included with the post, to wit:

RighteousCop

It may not be the way the smart money bets these days, but even so, they’re not ALL bad. Difficult as it can be sometimes to remember that, it’s probably better if we all try to, for everyone involved.

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Eyrie news

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Mike

My Friday Substack post is now up, a further look into the Seymour Hersh Nord Stream allegations: Putting a little more meat on dem bones.

Improper terminology

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Mike

Words mean things.

‘Lia’ Thomas Exposed His Junk to Female Teammates

Will “Lia” Thomas made headlines during the 2021-2022 academic year for crushing his competition in NCAA women’s swimming, sparking widespread outrage. After years of being a mediocre swimmer on the men’s team, Thomas woke up one morning and identified as transgender, transitioned, joined the women’s team, and started breaking records against his female teammates and tournament competitors. Since robbing real women of opportunities wasn’t enough for him, he also disrespected his teammates by exposing his male genitalia to them in the locker room.

Ahh, then he hasn’t really “transitioned” at all, now has he? As long as the ol’ courting tackle remains intact and in place, Mr Thomas is in reality a transvestite—a dude in a dress who’s either delusional or just on the make, in a field where he demonstrably couldn’t hack it any other way. And why not? The guy went from zero to hero, from chump to champion, by means of nothing more strenuous, painful, or life-altering than a change of swimwear. Nice work if you can get it, I’d say.

And now, Riley Gaines, a former teammate of Thomas, is calling for changes to be made by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

“We were not forewarned beforehand that we would be sharing a locker room with Lia. We did not give our consent, they did not ask for our consent, but in that locker room, we turned around and there’s a 6’4″ biological man dropping his pants and watching us undress, and we were exposed to male genitalia,” Gaines said.

Which exhibitionism is the whole point, an essential part of the kink for sickos like Thomas.

Give Bruce Jenner credit for one thing, at least: he won all his medals, championships, and awards as a man, before he ever decided to don the Dress Of Shame.

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Just around the bend

Posted on February 9, 2023February 9, 2023 by Mike

TL sees trouble up the road.

At the end of almost every empire has been the corruption of the system that brought it to power and fueled the great successes it had while strong, culturally homogenous and patriotic. Typically, this death-era is marked by having corrupt and/or insane rulers in place, debts and financial obligations far exceeding national production, spiritual crises, infiltration and rising external powers to challenge them.

Right now, I’m going about my daily business with this feeling in my gut like I had just before the 2008 banking crisis. There were a lot of signs that things weren’t right. People were getting loans that should never have been made by institutions that seemed to be operating outside the boundaries of logic and common sense, but it all just kept rolling along until that one day in September 2008. While a lot had been going on behind the scenes and reports were all warning us of a big problem, September was the line, at least to me, that crossed into insanity. Until then, I thought that with all of the focus on the markets, that sanity would ultimately prevail. It didn’t and it may not now, either.

We’re headed down a dangerous, stupid road and it’s intentional. The communists like Barack Obama, George Soros and globalists like Klaus Schwab want to see the end of the United States. They see their utopia on the horizon, which, keep in mind, is funded, fueled and provided by slaves unable to raise a resistance to any level of debasement and humiliation the elite might impose. America and its freedom, its armed population and independent thinkers are the enemy to those who simply want eternal compliance.

So, it seems, they will drive us to war with Russia through the destruction of Ukraine and should the United States put up a reasonable defense, China will likely take that opportunity to engage and conquer Taiwan, ending our supply chain of advanced chipsets that will disable almost the whole fleet of American vehicles, both government and private, cars, trucks and semis along with, not surprising at this point, a great deal of our military equipment.

We have a lot of problems in this country, most of them created by the unwillingness of our politicians and government to recognize and respect individual rights, choosing the elevation of one part of society while denigrating and violating the rights of the other part. In this lack of cohesion and promotion of division, the cultural homogeneity needed to rise as one nation, with one goal, i.e., to defeat the external enemy, is no longer possible due to internal enemies. A good portion of the population openly seeks its destruction while several million illegals don’t care one bit about the survival of the United States of America.

The old USA is already gone; it no longer exists, hasn’t for a good while now. And I can’t say I care one bit about the survival of Amerika v2.0 my own self, honestly.

2

Criminal career ends early

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Mike

Our Righteous Shooting of the day—in Denver, of all places.

12-year-old car theft suspect fatally shot after shootout with owner in Denver

A 12-year-old car theft suspect died of a gunshot wound after being confronted by the car’s owner, according to the Denver Police Department.

Denver’s Office of the Medical Examiner reported Tuesday that Elias Armstrong, 12, died of a gunshot wound Sunday.

Police received a report of an auto theft in the 8300 block of E. Northfield Boulevard, according to police.

The car’s owner tracked the vehicle using an app and found it stopped in the area of West 12th Avenue and North Decatur Street.

“When the vehicle’s owner approached the car, he was involved in an exchange of gunfire with occupant(s) in the stolen vehicle,” according to investigators. “A juvenile male then drove the stolen vehicle to the 2900 block of W. 10th Ave. where he was found by officers to be suffering from a gunshot wound.”

Here’s the truly remarkable part of it:

The car’s owner gave a statement to investigators. He has not been arrested and no charges have been filed, according to police.

He couldn’t possibly be a white guy, judging from that last sentence, no way. Expect rioting to follow anyhow, because Reasons. Arthur chimes in thusly:

I am surprised a news outlet in 2023 would publish a photo of a little black criminal, that is one reason I archived the page.

I remember getting into some shenanigans as a 12 year old, especially since we were just starting to notice girls, but I don’t recall any shoot-outs with adults. That is probably because I never stole any cars, not at 12 nor later in life.

Me neither, buddy. Me neither.

3

Nailed it in one

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Mike

One paragraph, that is. But it’s a doozy.

The illegitimate Federal government that is waging a full spectrum soft war on We the People from the foreign nation of Washington, D.C. has a senile diaper shitting ice cream eating pedo criminal puppet installed as POTUS, a low IQ hooker as his VP, a middling lawyer that is subverting what is left of the law of the land as Attorney General, a warmongering fool as Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, and so on and so forth. Basically, the Intelligence Industrial Complex that is an asset of the One World Government has staffed the American “government” with compromised villains, half-wits and cretins. This charivari of Dr. Strangelovian State clowns actually believe that a nuclear war is somehow winnable, more at that PSYOP-WW3 could be the perfect pivot from PSYOP-19 and the “pandemic” given that the country is insolvent, the global financial system is doomed, the debt supercycle is kaput, the mass bioterror slow kill depopulation is accelerating, and Western nations are collapsing in realtime. All by design. And with each passing day the various narratives are being exposed as lies such that a coverup of epic proportions is needed by the very technocrats vying to take over a world that they are actively destroying.

Yep, nailed it. Here I’ve spent the last twenty-some-odd years blogging, and then this guy comes along and says it all.

(Via WRSA)

1

It’s settled

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Mike

The Science™ has spoken.

Fauci: now he tells us

Fauci lied, and now he is admitting it. In writing. In a peer-reviewed journal.

To be clear, Fauci is not claiming that the vaccines were utterly worthless. He still maintains that in certain specific cases–atypical, but the ones that generally kill you–the vaccines serve as a sort of pre-treatment. Not a great one, but a somewhat effective one. But he flat out admits that the claims about the vaccine possibly preventing infection and transmission are simply bogus and always were.

No, I am not exaggerating. He even admits that flu vaccines would never meet the standard to pass muster for use if they were for any other virus. Fascinating. And hardly how they are advertised.

Ace follows up.

Here’s one quote from the paper:

As of 2022, after more than 60 years of experience with influenza vaccines, very little improvement in vaccine prevention of infection has been noted. As pointed out decades ago, and still true today, the rates of effectiveness of our best approved influenza vaccines would be inadequate for licensure for most other vaccine-preventable diseases. Even decades-long efforts to develop better, so-called “universal” influenza vaccines–vaccines that would create more broadly protective immunity, preferably lasting over longer time periods–have not yet resulted in next-generation, broadly protective vaccines, although a large number of experimental vaccines are in preclinical or early clinical development.

He writes that the successful true vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella gave rise to hope that similar vaccines could be developed for respiratory viruses.

But he then points out that “Science,” represented in his physical body, has long known that respiratory viruses work differently and could never be truly vaccinated against.

But he then points out that “Science,” represented in his physical body, has long known that respiratory viruses work differently and could never be truly vaccinated against.

In stark contrast, the non-systemic respiratory viruses such as influenza viruses, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV tend to have significantly shorter incubation periods (Table 1) and rapid courses of viral replication. They replicate predominantly in local mucosal tissue, without causing viremia, and do not significantly encounter the systemic immune system or the full force of adaptive immune responses, which take at least 5–7 days to mature, usually well after the peak of viral replication and onward transmission to others.

In other words: Because these viruses incubate in the mucosal tissues (nose, lung tissues) and not the bloodstream or the body as a whole, they do not encounter the body’s immuno defense system until after they’ve already begun sporing off out of the mucosal tissues to infect other people.

So: No vaccine injected into the body will ever be of much use in keeping mucosal viruses from spreading person-to-person.

And he always knew this, he says now.

Just another thing he lied and lied and lied about, in his role as Science Personified, to achieve the political objective of Making People Do What a Power-Mad Bureaucrat wants them to do.

Yep, that’s just about the size of it. The Scamdemic was a political maneuver, a bare-nake power grab, right from the very beginning. The only real surprise here, for those of us who realized that sorry fact early on, is that Fauci is actually ‘fessing up now.

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1

One contest in which everybody comes out a winner

Posted on February 9, 2023February 9, 2023 by Mike

Minnesota strikes again with the snow-plow-naming hilarity.

The votes are in! 🎉 More than 64,000 people voted and we’re excited to welcome eight new snowplow names to our fleet (including an homage to someone who just won Record of the Year *ahem* hi @lizzo!)

Meet the Class of 2023 Snowplows and learn more: https://t.co/vCCLVYw2s3 pic.twitter.com/2aXZCsBFIp

— Minnesota Department of Transportation (@MnDOT)

February 8, 2023

Lots more good stuff here.

2

1

Limousine liberal gets kicked to the curb

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Not a fan, never have been, ain’t never gonna be.

Bruce Springsteen’s ticket prices are so high that his fan site ‘Backstreets’ is shutting down after 43 years

A magazine and website that has served Bruce Springsteen’s fans for 43 years is shutting down, with its publisher writing that he’s been disillusioned by the debate over ticket prices for their hero’s current tour.

Backstreets had been an unusually robust publication that imposed journalistic rigor on its writing and photography, while leaving no doubt of its fan worship.

But the complaints about high ticket prices left people there “dispirited, downhearted and yes, disillusioned,” publisher Christopher Phillips wrote late last week in a post announcing the shutdown.

“Disappointment is a common feeling among hardcore fans in the Backstreets community,” he wrote. Phillips did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, said that “we are very sorry to hear the news of Backstreets closing and want to thank Chris Phillips for his 30 years of dedication on behalf of Springsteen fans everywhere. “

There was an uproar among some Springsteen fans when tickets first went on sale last summer, particularly over Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model, which sent tickets soaring to $5,000 or more when there was high demand. At a congressional hearing last month following the fiasco over Ticketmaster’s handling of Taylor Swift tour tickets, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana suggested major artists like Springsteen and Swift should demand fee caps.

Springsteen’s team has defended the prices as being in line with what is charged today by many of his peers. Like many artists, he says he’s annoyed when unscrupulous ticket brokers — not the musicians — benefit from high markups.

Admittedly, Springsteen has a great band behind him. At the end of the day, though, even the legendary E Street Band is not enough to offset Bruce’s powerful asshole proclivities. Honestly, I always felt kinda sorry for Clarence Clemmons, Miami Steve Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, and the rest for having to put up with their insufferable, pretentious “Boss,” and couldn’t see how they managed to do it for all those years.

(Via Ed)

4

Cheap shot

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Trump steals a page from Florida D卐M☭CRATs to take another wild, pointless, ill-advised swing at Ron DeSantis.

Watch: DeSantis Responds Directly to Trump Sharing Photo Accusing Florida Governor of Being a ‘Groomer’

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis likely is aware of the notable quote by Mark Twain: “Never wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get dirty, and the pig likes it.” Though Trump has already started the mud-slinging, DeSantis has chosen to stay above the fray.

Previously, DeSantis referred to Trump’s attacks as “noise in the background.” Trump’s most recent attacks, which included unsubstantiated claims that DeSantis was guilty of grooming underage females with alcohol, did not seem to rattle the governor.

On Wednesday, DeSantis said: “I face defamatory stuff every single day I’ve been governor, that’s just the nature of it. I’d also just say this. I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden.”

The governor, inferring there is a better way for Trump to spend his time, added: “That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.” The audience erupted in cheers.

As well they should have.

This week, Trump posted a low-resolution photo of a man he alleged was DeSantis, standing next to several young women at a party. Trump captioned the photo:

“Here is Ron DeSanctimonious grooming high school girls with alcohol as a teacher.”

Trump added provocatively: “That’s not Ron, is it? He would never do such a thing!”

The New York Times reported the photo was originally part of an attack ad published by a Democrat super PAC. The article noted the two females were former students who attended a party where DeSantis happened to be, and that the party “took place after” they had graduated.

Bold mine. With this apparently compulsive harrassment of DeSantis, Trump is allowing his ego and natural combativeness to walk him right into a trap set for him by D卐M☭CRATs, whether he sees it or not. Stooping to recycling old D卐M☭CRAT smear campaigns against somebody who of right ought to be an ally? Puh-leeze.

Love him or hate him, Gov DeSantis is not by any rational calculation the main enemy here; the D卐M☭CRATs are. Trump of all people ought to know that at least as well as anybody by now. It’s a damnable shame, and I for one really wish he’d just knock it the fuck off already with this self-defeating crap and move the fuck on. This sort of blue-on-blue flailing about does nobody any good, up to and including Trump himself.

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Vintage iron

Posted on February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Mike

Good ol’ American ingenuity, creativity, and know-how.

Arizona Mechanic Builds Own Fleet of Dwarf Cars Out of Old Fridges, Junkyard Scraps—Opens Own Museum

Master tinkerer Ernie Adams had always wanted a race car. But who has money for a race car?

Moreover, living in a little trailer park in Harvard, Nebraska, at the time he had no room to park one.

So, Adams, who has worked in a garage since age 16, satisfied his longing by building his very own antique dwarf car.

Over the years, his hobby would snowball massively. Now 82 and retired, Adams has an entire fleet comprised of some 15 antique dwarf cars—including several race cars—all made by his hand.

No stranger to tinkering in the shop, growing up, Adams lived just a quarter mile from the city dump, which fed his hobby. “That city dump was like a free department store for me,” he told The Epoch Times.

“At that time, they were taking gas washing machine motors off and putting electric on, and they’d throw the old motors in the dump.”

There were old bicycle and wagon parts, too, and he started deconstructing and reconstructing them and then selling his fully-functioning contraptions.

“I didn’t realize I was learning my trade back then,” he said, adding that his learning to build his own vehicles in those days came easy, because “time meant nothing, and there was no money involved.”

Lots of great pictures of this true American artist’s amazing work at the link, including this one.

DwarfRod

You do NOT want to miss any of this one, folks, trust me on that. The interior pic of the 49 Merc—which features an old-school shrunken head dangling from the mirror stanchion, and a CD player in the dash—is worth the click all by itself. And then there’s this:

The mechanic’s dwarf cars can easily handle the highway, zooming at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, while traveling as far as 200 or 300 miles on a tank of gas. They run on Honda motors installed by Adams.

Sure, it’s cozy but not uncomfortable, as Adams drops the floors down low to provide legroom aplenty.

Plus, they’re street legal; Adams, now living in Maricopa, contacted Arizona authorities and had them registered as “homemade” vehicles—as one would register a homemade trailer.

Having participated in dozens upon dozens of antique car competitions across the state and beyond, Adams boasts a wall full of trophies.

What an incredible, all-American story. I hope Adams gets rich as Croesus off of this hobby of his, I really do.

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