OPEN THREAD: You oughta know how all the pros play the game.
Archive for 2024
December 9, 2024
REPORT: FBI Director Christopher Wray preparing to resign.
Mr. Wray is calling it quits because he doesn’t want to get fired by President-elect Donald Trump, according to sources inside the bureau who are familiar with the director’s thinking.
“He’s going to be gone at the inauguration. On or before the inauguration,” a source said.
Wray very wisely wants to be nowhere near the blast radius: Donald Trump Is About to Go Nuclear on the FBI.
REGIME CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN:
WATCH: Following Kamala Harris’ loss, Biden Climate Czar John Podesta apologizes to the "climate regime" for the "disappointment that the United States has at times caused." pic.twitter.com/VbC2rALOCe
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 10, 2024
ANNETTE BENING SAYS THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD ABOUT HAVING A “TRANS CHILD:”
Let’s look at that confession from Annette again:
“To have a transgender child has made ME so much more interesting”
Being gay or lesbian is just so passe. Too mainstream, too middlebrow. No one applies the stunning and brave label to the gay kid in Drama Class or the gay high school boy who announces he’s going into Fashion Design.
And for “celebrities” whose whole existence revolves around how much they appear in media, the new TrophyTransChild means being celebrated as a stunning, brave and affirming parent.
Last count there are at least 17 celebrities who are out there with TrophyTrans kids. Consider that actual transsexuals, as of 2014, made up about .53% of the population. Gender dysphoria in children was even rarer.
Gender dysphoria—formerly known as “gender identity disorder”—is characterized by a severe and persistent discomfort in one’s biological sex.8 It typically begins in early childhood—ages two to four—though it may grow more severe in adolescence. But in most cases—nearly 70 percent—childhood gender dysphoria resolves.9 Historically, it afflicted tiny sliver of the population (roughly .01 percent) and almost exclusively boys. Before 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on girls ages eleven to twenty-one ever having developed gender dysphoria at all. In the last decade that has changed, and dramatically. The Western world has seen a sudden surge of adolescents claiming to have gender dysphoria and self-identifying as “transgender.” For the first time in medical history, natal girls are not only present among those so identify — they constitute the majority
So the spectacle of multiple celebs with trans kids should raise a heck of a lot of eyebrows. And when there is even one gal, Heather Dubrow, with four kids, three of whom identify as “LGBTQ+” … ??!!??
Yeah, sure.
This isn’t just Munchausen-by-proxy, this is children realizing the only way to stand out from their fame-seeking parents and to get their love and approval is to be the NewThing that brings attention.
One of the recurring leitmotifs of Tom Wolfe’s epochal “The ‘Me’ Decade and the Third Great Awakening” 1976 long-form article from (a long-gone version of) New York magazine was “Let’s talk about Me!”
By the early 1970s so many of the Me movements had reached this Gnostic religious stage, they now amounted to a new religious wave. Synanon, Arica, and the Scientology movement had become religions. The much-publicized psychedelic or hipple communes of the 1960s, although no longer big items in the press, were spreading widely and becoming more and more frankly religious.
Along with radical environmentalism, and the mask obsessions, riots, looting and statue topplings of 2020, we’ll look back at parents trans-ing their kids as this decade’s equivalent of the religious fervor that drove the left in the 1970s.
JOHN KASS: To Move Forward, Democrats Must Oust Obama.
Obama honors himself at every opportunity. But he is America’s one-eyed jack. And we’ve seen the other side of his face.
But who would lead the attack against Obama and risk the enmity of the well-heeled Democrat interest groups? Most importantly, who in the Democrat Party can play the iconoclast and take on the party’s neo-Marxist creed of racial and other grievances?
Obama pretends to rise above grievance, but he’s reliant upon it like an addict, like the “Revs” Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, though far silkier and smoother. Remember just weeks ago when Obama was lecturing young black men who weren’t enthralled with the presidential candidacy of Kamala Harris. Bitter and angry, he harangued them on what he could only understand as the sexism of the great unwashed. It was a rap he had used before. And it had treated him so well in the past. It reverberated in the halls of his many mansions. Perhaps even in that mansion on liberal Martha’s Vineyard, the vacation paradise for the immensely wealthy that was off limits to impoverished illegal migrants who’d crossed the border on Democrat invitation.
Yet those young men who he tried to shame didn’t live among the elites of Martha’s Vineyard or the Gold Coast of Chicago. And they weren’t insulated from the poor economy and pressure from the illegals. Instead, Obama was revealed by his own mouth to be be a complete and utter phony. You could almost hear regular people, those who had been Democrats, shouting “F You Barack” from every corner in every swing state.
Perhaps Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro could take on Obama. Maybe Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would do it, or even that supremely, obviously ambitious Californian with the greasy hair, Gov. Gavin Newsom. But do any of them really want to challenge? Not just Obama but his acolytes, his proselytizers, his disciples, his praetorians.
Obama’s third term was brutal for America — but given what we’re seeing at the moment from today’s left, who are busy attacking Israel and egging on assassins of CEOs, would an updated version of 1968’s “Clean for Gene” or the Democratic Leadership Council that championed a centrist-appearing Bill Clinton in 1992 even succeed among Democrats? (Trump’s she’s “for they/them, President Trump is for you” commercial was made all the more devastating with the footage of Kamala personally championing sex changes for prisoners and illegal immigrants, because she thought that’s what it took pander to the Democratic Party base in 2020.)
WITH HARMEET DHILLON, TRUMP ADDS ANOTHER STELLAR PICK TO HIS ADMINISTRATION: “On Monday evening, Trump announced another stellar pick in attorney Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty and managing partner of the Dhillon Law Group, who he’s tapped to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.”
HOW SUSPECTED CEO SHOOTER LUIGI MANGIONE WAS CAUGHT AT ALTOONA MCDONALD’S.
The man detained by police in Pennsylvania in connection with the shock slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been identified as Luigi Mangione.
Mangione, 26, is an ‘anti-capitalist’ Ivy League graduate*. He was taken into custody after a McDonald’s employee in Altoona, around 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, believed they recognized him as the gunman.
He reportedly had a 3D-printed ghost gun similar to the one used in the Wednesday morning murder, along with a gun silencer, a manifesto, and four fake IDs when he was arrested by cops.
A manifesto, huh? Jon Gabriel and John Podhoretz have thoughts:
Meanwhile, what hath AI wrought?
* Valedictorian, to boot: Person of Interest in UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Killing Identified as Prep School Valedictorian.
Finally, just wanted to get out ahead of the story and say that Luigi Mangione did not commit suicide:
THEY DIDN’T START “FACT-CHECKING” UNTIL THE FACTS STARTED TO GET OUT: Is It Any Wonder That No Sane Person Takes Fact Checks Seriously?
And then they started lying.
IF THEY’RE SMART, THE CITY WILL SETTLE BIG AND QUICKLY: Prosecuting Daniel Penny Was An Irreparable Miscarriage Of Justice. New York Owes Him A Massive Payout. “New York owes Penny big time. A lawyer needs to sue the city on his behalf pro bono. And if there is justice left in America, the incoming Trump Administration will immediately investigate and ideally bring charges against the prosecutors who did this to the white knight Daniel Penny.”
CORN, POPPED:
Did a ny city official just admit they neglected their responsibility to neely and the public, and that Penny only had to deal with neely and suffer through a sham prosecution due to a failure of the city?
That might end up in the lawsuit…
👀
— Dave (@DaveCrocket0) December 9, 2024
More:
This blatant racial discrimination is precisely why the Trump 47 Justice Department must open a federal probe on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, lead prosecutor Dafna Yoran, and their office.
Conspiracy against rights (18 U.S.C. § 241) is a very serious federal civil-rights felony. https://t.co/kgKVia3JGd
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) December 9, 2024
You can read Jumaane Williams’ full statement here but this bit stands out from the rest of the nonsense and deflection:
We don’t know everything that passengers saw or felt on that train car, and can’t dismiss any real or realized fears. We do know that neither Blackness nor poverty nor nuisance constitute an imminent threat. Yet this verdict tells people that the system is okay with violence against marginalized people.
But marginalized, mentally ill people that the city has left to wander the streets untreated should be free to commit violence at will.
Got it.
WELL:
🚨BREAKING: Senator Joni Ernst announces her SUPPORT For Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.
Ernst says she believes Pete Hegseth and not “anonymous sources”
WE WON: pic.twitter.com/j73zDDkdtV
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 9, 2024
I think we can chalk this up to the power of X. In the 2016 media environment, it probably wouldn’t have happened.
CHANGE: Is DEI doomed? “A second Trump administration is likely to be more motivated, better equipped and more focused on dismantling DEI initiatives on college campuses.”
SHE SHOULD BE:
She’s terrified. https://t.co/LtK8RJXl7Y
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) December 9, 2024
NOBODY LIKES A LOSER:
Jill and Joe Biden are refusing to even look at Kamala Harris tonight 😬 pic.twitter.com/qL6jftoLsu
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 9, 2024
As far as I can tell, both Bidens avoided looking at Harris and Emhoff even when they turned in their direction.
Besides, Jill only has eyes for Donald.
Jill Biden looking at Trump the way Margaret Trudeau looked at Fidel Castro. She’s smitten pic.twitter.com/0P0n0Poz9W
— Ida Tavakoli (@IdaTavakoli) December 8, 2024
CHRIS QUEEN: A Totally Not Unbiased Look at Saturday’s Football Fairytale. “Nothing is a given in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).”
READER FAVORITE: HENCKELS Premium Quality 15-Piece Knife Set. #CommissionEarned
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Ohio bill would require high-demand liquor bottles to be opened when sold.
A bill introduced at the Ohio Statehouse would require high-demand liquor bottles to be opened and resealed at the time they are sold, in an attempt to combat an illegal secondary market.
Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus) is a fan of bourbon and seeks out rare bottles. The state liquor agency sends out a notice when a limited supply of these highly sought-after bourbons, whiskies and other spirits such as tequila are made available for purchase at certain stores. DeMora and others wait in line for the chance to get a bottle.
“I’m just trying to look out for all the regular bourbon-lovers like myself,” DeMora said. “When I get notices of the bourbon I want, I stand in line. I’ve been successful twice. I’ve been unsuccessful a dozen times.”
The problem, DeMora said, is that people who he refers to as “flippers” quickly buy up the allocated bourbons and illegally resell them on a secondary market for significantly more than what they paid.
Here’s the real culprit, way down in the eighth graf: “In Ohio, liquor prices are fixed.”
#JOURNALISM:
Rolling Stone describes Jordan Neely as a “Michael Jackson impersonator”
He had 42 prior arrests including for assault, and was a violent drug addict who threatened people on the subway.
The media is evil pic.twitter.com/TlLQXEOqGi
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 9, 2024
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Biosecurity Hazard: Hundreds of Vials Containing Deadly Viruses Are Missing.
REPAIR DRY HANDS: Kiehl’s Ultimate Strength Hand Salve, Deeply Hydrating Hand Lotion. #CommissionEarned
THE CLOCK HAS STRUCK THIRTEEN TIMES. And now we’re seeing a preference cascade, as nobody wants to put up with the leftist bullying that’s obviously crazy.
NY Times readers are generally self hating masochists who lack the capacity for basic reality testing.
But even they think it’s ridiculous Penny was prosecuted and thought he should have gotten off.
Impossible to overstate the unpopularity of lib criminal justice derangements. pic.twitter.com/JGlAq3oNwN
— Coddled affluent professional (@feelsdesperate) December 9, 2024
Related:
Sorry, but it ain’t the summer of 2020 anymore. America went into a brief period of psychosis — COVID-19 lockdowns, George Floyd & BLM riots, Defund the Police bullshit — but it seems that moment has passed. Let the righteous Not Guilty verdict for Daniel Penny be its tombstone. https://t.co/95fiNaOHYE
— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) December 9, 2024
Hey remember that time when a bunch of parents got put on an FBI terror watch list for yelling at school board meetings about teachers showing their kids gay p0rn? https://t.co/y9s3D8rbmG
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) December 9, 2024
JONATHAN TURLEY: Jake Tapper and CNN Lose Major Motions in Defamation Case by Navy Veteran.
We previously discussed the defamation lawsuit brought by Navy veteran Zachary Young against CNN and anchor Jake Tapper. Young has been doing well in court and last week he won on additional major issues against CNN. In a pair of orders, the jury will be allowed to award punitive damages and his experts would be allowed to be heard by the jury on the damages in the case. It also found that the Navy veteran was not a public figure and thus is not subject to the higher standard of proof associated with that status.
The punitive damages decision is particularly interesting legally. It could prove financially onerous for the struggling network, which has plunging ratings and has reduced staff.
The court found that CNN’s “retraction” was insufficient to remove punitive damages from the table.
Developing…