Point:
Counterpoint:
Finally, to paraphrase some Big Guy in Government: hammers and sickles aren’t much use against F-16s.
Tag: Evil Bastards
Rat, Smelling Of A
Why is Nikki Haley still running, despite thumping defeats?
I smell skulduggery. Run with me on this one.
What if the Socialists find some way to “legally” exclude Trump from running — say, with the collusion of the Supreme Court, even?
Would DeSantis have time to get his campaign up and running again? And if not, would Haley end up being the default Republican choice as the only “officially declared” candidate?
And if we go Full Tinfoil Hat (as Kevin Downey has done at PJM): is the fix already in, and she knows it?
Ten years ago, I would have laughed myself off the stage for even thinking this nonsense. But after seeing “80 Million Votes” Biden’s little game in 2020, I’m not ruling anything out anymore.
USSC: Stop Doing That – Texas: Bite Me
Nothing like a little Fort Sumter-style action to brighten my day:
The Texas National Guard continued to install razor wire along the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration could cut through or remove the razor wire.
“The Texas Military Department continues to hold the line in Shelby Park to deter and prevent unlawful entry into the State of Texas,” Texas said in a statement. “We remain resolute in our actions to secure our border, preserve the rule of law, and protect the sovereignty of our State.”
To make it quite clear:
“The State of Texas, under Gov. @GregAbbott_TX ’s Operation Lone Star, will maintain its current posture in deterring illegal border crossings by utilizing effective border security measures – reinforced concertina wire & anti-climb barriers along the Rio Grande. The logical concern should be why the Federal Government continues to hinder Texas’ ability to protect its border, all while allowing for the exploitation, dangerous, & inhumane methods of permitting illegal immigrants, including children, to illegally cross a dangerous river where many have lost their lives. Texas is the only state using every strategy & resource to protect its sovereignty, combat criminal activity, & discourage illegal immigration. #Texas will continue to hold the line.”
Works for me. I think “Fuck you, feds” is in our state constitution somewhere. If it isn’t, it could well be there after the next election.
Jokes aside, the interesting part of all this is a Constitutional one.
One of the primary functions of the federal government is to secure and maintain the nation’s borders against incursions from foreign nationals (hence the existence of a federal defense force and an immigration department). If the federal government is failing in that duty, is it not the duty of the border states to fulfill that function?
Asking for a friend (in this case, TXGov Abbott).
And lastly, to the Supreme Court:
Fuck you, too.
(signed: the State of Texas)
Privacy? What’s That?
Very few things get under my skin as much as bullshit like this:
A recent study from Consumer Reports engaged 709 volunteers who provided archives of their Facebook user data. Astonishingly, Consumer Reports discovered that 186,892 different companies transmitted data about these users to Facebook. On average, data from each participant was shared by 2,230 companies, with some users’ data being shared by over 7,000 companies.
Think you’re outside this little net? Think again, Winston Smith:
This examination highlighted a lesser-known form of tracking known as server-to-server tracking, where personal data is transferred directly from a company’s servers to Meta’s servers, alongside the more visible method involving Meta tracking pixels on company websites.
A surprising finding was the pervasive presence of LiveRamp, a data broker, appearing in the data of 96 percent of study participants. The list of companies sharing data with Facebook extends beyond obscure data brokers to include well-known retailers like Home Depot, Macy’s, Walmart, and others, such as Experian and TransUnion’s Neustar, Amazon, Etsy, and PayPal. Notably, LiveRamp did not respond to a request for comment on this matter.
The study’s data came from two main collection types: “events” and “custom audiences.” The latter involves advertisers uploading customer lists to Meta, including email addresses and mobile advertising IDs, to target ads on Meta’s platforms. ‘Events’ describe real-world interactions, like website visits or store purchases, facilitated by Meta’s software in apps, tracking pixels on websites, and server-to-server tracking.
I’ll sum up all this in a simple sentence: if you’ve bought anything online in the past three years, your personal data is everywhere.
Of course, there are the weasels:
Emil Vazquez, a spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, defended the company’s data practices, stating: “We offer a number of transparency tools to help people understand the information that businesses choose to share with us, and manage how it’s used.”
Oh sure. Forgive me for being skeptical about the motives of said weasels, and the companies they work for:
However, Consumer Reports identified issues with these tools, including unclear data provider identities and companies that service advertisers often disregarding user opt-out requests.
I don’t even know what to do about all this — nothing can be done, seems to me.
But the best part of all this — and the reason for my hopelessness — is that of you think that Government isn’t getting their snouts into this data trough, I have a fucking bridge to sell you.
Corporations, no matter how big, always fall straight to their knees every time some government department demands a blowjob. And this circumstance is no different.
Violent Reaction
Sure, it’s okay if they do it:
Left-wing protesters in Germany called for supporters of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to be killed during a rally against political extremism.
Amid nationwide protests over the weekend, in which organisers claimed over a million people rallied against the right-wing AfD party, it was ironically the left which seemingly exposed itself as harbouring extremists.
A report from the left-liberal Aachener Zeitung newspaper on Sunday hailed the local demonstration in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Aachen against the AfD, which it claimed saw around 10,000 people attend.
The celebratory article, headlined: “Aachen mobilises against right-wing hate” featured a lead image of the report showed protesters holding a banner reading “Afdler Toten”, which has been translated to “Kill AfD supporters”. The image also showed masked protesters dressed in the familiar black bloc uniform waving the flag of the radical leftist Antifa group.
The article was quietly amended, however, after observers noted the potentially criminal calls to violence by the left-wing protesters, with the image being changed to a less extreme picture, which also did not feature any Antifa-style radicals.
Yeah, you bastards.
Where have we heard that kind of rhetoric before? Oh yeah, I remember: it was a popular slogan among Hitler’s Brownshirts back in the 1930s — albeit aimed at Communists, the current Left’s ideological forebears.
Also used by Lenin, against people (kulaks, nobles etc.) who were resistant to Communist Party policy in Soviet Russia. And also by Lefty heartthrob Che Guevara: “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.”
My, how that Great Circle Of Life does go round and round.
The great irony of all this, of course, is that while conservatives (like me) would like to see a Glorious Day when Leftist filth are led to the walls and execution pits not to mention the Hanging Tree, the plain fact is that it will never happen (unless I become World Emperor, that is).
More’s the pity.
Snake In The Astroturf
Here’s a face not known by my Murkin Readers, but probably familiar to those in Britishland: ITV’s weather reporter on Good Morning Britain, the elfin Laura Tobin.
“Okay Kim,” y’all might say. “That’s a right purdy lil’ thang, thanks for the pics.”
Unfortunately, this totty is one of those rabid climate change advocates/alarmists, whose slanted opinions on the topic, and frequent injections of said propaganda into her weather reports has even some Brits perturbed.
Just so you know.