Month: July 2024

News Roundup

Bad News

And speaking of dildos:

From the Woke News Desk:


...I know, I know:  these roundups are meant to be bad news.  And:


...and if ever there was a company that shouldn’t have done this nonsense at all...


...thus alienating all three of their hardcore LGBTOSTFU fans.

And in Global Cooling Climate Warming Change© News:


...just another moment of idiocy among thousands of hours of the same.


...hammering the point home, so to speak.

In The Great Cultural Assimilation Project© News:


...questions?  Yes, you in the back?  Ummm yes I think that being tossed out of helicopters at 500 feet above shark-infested waters may also be somewhat offensive to them.


...see above (and below).


...keyword:  Massachusetts.

And in parallel news:


...sorry, Ramiro:  finding Jesus and being regretful may help you later, just not with the Texas justice system right now.  Adios, asshole.

Still on crime matters:


...wait, what was the middle bit, again?

In Election News:


...well okay, except:


...not that they would ever be bothered by any inconvenient laws, or anything.  Still, let me be out there first:  Biden Didn’t Kill Himself.

In Miscellaneous News:


...no link because mass vomiting.

And now, some truly
(featuring EXTRA Kardashian!)
        …ummm no.  

...if it hasn’t by now, Toots, it ain’t gonna.

And in Celebrity Gossip:


...and, according to her one-time boyfriend, sexually insatiable as well:

Who knew that about Winona Ryder?

And that’s all the news fit to complain about.

Intriguing, But Probably Not

Marxists

Here’s one explanation as to why the Socialists allowed President Braindead onto the debating stage last week:

It was the debate heard around the world, and it changed the U.S. presidential election overnight. While former President Donald Trump was already looking good in the polls, it was still a tight race, but then frail Joe Biden appeared on the CNN stage in Atlanta Thursday night and proved he is simply not up to the job of commander-in-chief.

But was his disastrous performance an accident? Or were devious insiders setting up the octogenarian to fail so they could replace him with someone a little sharper—say, perhaps California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer? 

Nah.

Now, if Biden were to be found dangling on a rope in the Oval Office in a “suicide” scenario — now that is more like the Socialists we all know and love.

…but that’s just replacement theory.  It’s not like FJB somehow got hold of Jeffrey Epstein’s client list, or anything.

And anyway, if the Democrats’ best replacement hopes are the respective Gauleiters of Michigan and Kalifornia, they may as well stick with Biden.

The REAL Big Loser?

Government Thugs, Legal Stuff

Last week the Supreme Court dealt what seems to be a massive blow to the bureaucracy of the modern Administrative State — wherein an agency can become a de facto mini-state by creating and interpreting its own regulations, and then enforcing them without much in the way of legal oversight and defense.

The beacon in this ruling is SEC v. Jarkesy, which noted “…the Securities Exchange Commission’s power to serve as enforcer, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner in administrative proceedings for violating the securities laws. The Court found that the defendants are entitled to a jury trial before an Article III judge.”

Needless to say, the gun guys — especially these folks, from whom I excerpted and modified the previous paragraph — who have long suffered such iniquity at the hands of the loathsome Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) agency, are all over this.

However, lost in all this excitement is the agency which I think has the most to lose from Jarkesy  (and the earlier Loper Bright v. Raimondo decision).

I refer here to the still-more loathsome Internal Revenue Service (IRS), who have always been able to bludgeon taxpayers in this manner.  They have their own regulations, their own courts and, lest we forget, a veritable army of well-armed minions who are only too willing to enforce their agency’s regulatory diktat.  I remember seeing on TV an excellent summary of the power of the IRS when a judge said, “So basically, in order to win your case against this man, all the IRS has to do is prove that they followed their own internal procedures properly?”  to which the IRS lawyer said, “Yes, your Honor.”

Massive rafts of tax law have given birth to an entire world of tax lawyers and -accountants (both in private practice and in the IRS itself), which is in itself excessive and burdensome.  (I am reminded of the way colonial Hong Kong collected income tax:  once a year the taxpayer took to the tax office his employer’s statement of his gross salary paid, and he would write out a cheque for 5% of that total to the government.  That’s it.  Imagine the impact of that scenario in the United States today.)

Anyway, I’m not only not a lawyer, but I also don’t play one on TV and I sure as hell don’t play one on this blog.  But I am generally cognizant of the bigger picture, and I’m just wondering if the greatest losers of the Lopez Bright  and Jarkesy  decisions will not be the horrible SEC, EPA and ATF, but the fouler-still IRS.

I am sure that the Powdered Wigs among my Readership will be only too pleased to set me straight.

Round One To The Good Guys

Elections, Mocking Furriners

When Charles De Gaulle stated that it was impossible to govern a country which produced 246 types of cheese, he was really talking about politics.  So in a country where there are at a rough guess about five political parties per voter, national elections are two-rounders:  the first round eliminates most of the outliers, and the thing gets serious in the second round.

Even so, I was surprised at the first round results:  National Rally garnered a full third of the votes cast, with FrogPres “Granny-Shagger” Macron’s “globalist” party a distant third (after the Socialists).

Marine Le Pen‘s far-right* National Rally party led France’s snap parliamentary elections on Sunday with 33% of the vote, according to the interior ministry, with the leftist alliance New Popular Front following in second place at almost 28%. President Macron’s ruling coalition trailed in third place with 20%.

Of course, the Left accepted the election results stoically… nah, just kidding, they went all hair on fire and screaming riots, as is their wont when the people don’t vote the way they want them to.

The French people may have spoken at the ballot box, but the result clearly left some feeling very upset. Protests erupted in several French cities overnight, most particularly in Paris, where thousands gathered. The New Popular Front, which represents a spectrum of left wing parties from the pro-European Union centrists to full-blooded communists has earlier threatened they would “resist” the result if the RN won, and the protests may be the firs throes of that, although given there is a week to run until the second round of the election actually allocates the majority of the seats and decides whether Le Pen’s RN can command a majority in the house or not, perhaps expect more violence next week.

Comment of the week:  “Every dead cop means one less vote for Le Pen”, thus combining support for lawlessness with political terrorism in one pithy sentence.

On a parallel note:  the Greens got no votes at all (being part of the 3.1% “Other”, which encompasses over a dozen parties.

Roll on, Sunday.

*they aren’t, except by the standards of the Howling Left.

Just Like Guns, Eh Bill?

Technology

From Cloud-Cuckoo Land, where unicorns are a common sight:

Speaking in London this week, Bill Gates called AI a ‘wonderful’ technology that can save humans from climate change and disease.

But he warned that it needs to be used ‘by people with good intent’, as it could be used by criminals ‘engaged in cyber attacks or political interference’.

Yeah, for “A.I.” read guns — well, except that he’s a well-known gun control advocate (except when it comes to his security detail, probably).  And the parallel doesn’t end there:

Gates, one of the 10 richest humans in the world, said: ‘The defence has to be smarter than the offence.’

He may be one of the richest, but he sure as hell isn’t one of the smartest.  (Hell, he buys into the “climate change” bullshit — an infallible indicator of dumbassery right there.)

Stick to Windows, Bill.  Gawd knows it needs help.

As for defense:

Oh How Charming

Architecture, Disaster, Two-Minute Hate

From Dubai-on-Thames:

The tallest skyscraper in London that will rival the Shard is set to begin construction next week. 

Planning for 1 Undershaft began eight years ago but today City Corporation planning officers have finally recommended it for approval ahead of a committee meeting next Tuesday.

Towering at 74 floors, the architectural masterpiece would be built between other east London landmarks, the Cheesegrater and the Gherkin.

Apparently it’s not quite a done deal:

It will still need final sign off from Mayor Sadiq Khan and the next Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary.

“Levelling Up”?  What kind of fucking title is that?

Never a radical Muslim asshole with a stolen airliner when you actually need one, is there?