DICTATORSHIPS HATE AN ARMED CITIZENRY: Cuba – Where the Populace is Disarmed and the Revolución Still Lives On.
Archive for 2025
February 28, 2025
TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Critics Suspect a Softball Ethics Verdict Is Coming on Hunter Biden’s Law License.
COLORADO NEEDS TO GO RED: Anti-Gun Lawmakers Pile On Colorado Gun Owners.
THE NEW SPACE RACE:
🚨SPACE BREAKTHROUGH: SPACEX LAUNCHES FIRST ASTEROID MINING MISSION
A SpaceX rocket has launched Odin, a spacecraft built by startup AstroForge, on a mission to study asteroid 2022 OB5, which is 1 million miles from Earth.
The asteroid is believed to contain platinum and other… https://t.co/Ee8QJa4p0V pic.twitter.com/btIijZOMza
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 28, 2025
Developing… slowly… but developing.
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [NOT VIP]: He Made Himself a Freelance ICE Agent. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week we have a not-so-gentle reminder that you never go Full Miami Blues, how not to get revenge on your ex, and the New Hampshire Woman you don’t want to go grocery shopping with.”
THE USUAL ASTRONOMY AND SPACE, BUT FROM LEBANON [VIP]: Sky Candy From Lebanon.
Lebanon, Tennessee, I haven’t gone to the Middle East. I’m at Confinment VI, where Our Esteemed Proprietor is Guest of Honor.
READER FAVORITE: 1,500 Sq.Ft Energy Star Dehumidifier. #CommissionEarned
TATER TAUNTED: Brian Stelter Breaks Twitter/X in Massive Self-Awareness Fail After DOJ Epstein Files Announcement.
On Thursday, the first phase of the DOJ’s Epstein files release took place, with heavily redacted documents first being given in binders to a select group of conservative influencers at the White House before being posted online several hours later.
As we reported, a press release from the DOJ that also came later in the day acknowledged that much of the information they released was “previously leaked but never released in a formal capacity by the U.S. Government.”
They also alleged there was some pre-Kash Patel FBI interference ahead of Phase One, with Attorney General Pam Bondi learning of “thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein that were not previously disclosed” and ordering the FBI to have them to her by 8 a.m. Eastern Time Friday.
While the release was, to put it mildly, underwhelming, watching the mainstream media outlets who either looked the other way for years or felt snubbed by the Trump White House try to dunk on the Trump administration and conservative influencers in the aftermath gave the words “self-awareness fail” a whole new meaning.
At the top of the bunch was CNN media hall monitor Brian Stelter, who proclaimed on the Twitter/X machine that years of “conspiracy theories” pushed by “irresponsible” conservatives about an alleged government cover-up related to the Epstein files had begun to “unravel” after what happened Thursday:
Overall, I would describe the reaction that Stelter received on Twitter was “fiery, but mostly peaceful,” to coin a phrase.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Six weeks, three moon landers: The era of private space exploration is here.
BYRON YORK: IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn leaked Trump’s tax returns, but we’re now learning how much damage he really did.
For much of President Donald Trump‘s first term in office, the coalition of Democrats, activists, and media figures known collectively as the Resistance believed that obtaining Trump’s tax returns would be the key to bringing down the president. Finally, on Sept. 27, 2020, at the height of Trump’s reelection campaign, the New York Times reported that it had “obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office.” The paper published several long articles based on the information.
Voila! The Holy Grail of the Resistance! The problem was the stories came and went and did not become the huge, earthshaking scandal the anti-Trumpers had hoped. The long-awaited bombshells weren’t really bombshells, and the political world moved on.
The New York Times did not reveal, of course, how it had obtained the information. That did not happen until Sept. 29, 2023, when the Justice Department charged a man named Charles Edward Littlejohn with unauthorized disclosure of tax returns. Littlejohn was not an employee of the IRS. He worked for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which worked under contract for the IRS.
* * * * * * * *
Like so many Resistance talking heads in Washington and elsewhere, Littlejohn believed that Trump posed a danger to democracy, and that meeting that danger justified breaking the law. And now, with Trump again in the White House, the question is, is there another Charles Littlejohn out there somewhere in the deep recesses of the federal bureaucracy?
Only one?
WAIT, SO CLIMATE CHANGE ISN’T JUST ABOUT MY SUV? Scientists match Earth’s ice age cycles with orbital shifts.
KINDA?
I watched the world go absolutely insane over Covid and a junkie career criminal in Minneapolis. I lived it. I watched everyone lose their minds.
So when normies try to tell me “things are just so crazy” under Trump, I kinda want to just slap them.
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) February 28, 2025
We have at least four years of “Everything is the worst thing ever” from the Left. But it’s gotten easier and easier to tune out.
THE RATIONAL BASIS TEST IS AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL KLUDGE. So argues Clark Neily for Cato, and the argument is not crazy at all. In fact, I am a little embarrassed it hadn’t occurred to me before.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: The Moon’s next robotic visitor is lining up for landing this weekend.
NATURE IS HEALING, GERMANY IS REVERTING TO FORM: Elections Over, German Government Launches National Snitch Line.
Excuse me – I should change that in the interest of being precise. Thanks to my naturally cynical nature regarding authoritarian European governments marching towards outright fascism, I only interpret it to be a ‘snitch’ line.
The Stas…there I go again. Dammit – it’s early.
The democratically elected German government is, in fact, launching a two-pronged effort – either online or by phone – to afford their citizens avenues for ‘advice’ on how to deal with conspiracy freaks. Those in their personal lives or even ones of accidental acquaintance who speak such strange and terrifying sentiments not approved by polite society that a good German might be…alarmed by the utterances. Or upsetting emails.
And not know where to turn for advice on how to respond, if they even should.
Don’t worry, I’m sure this will end better than the first two times it was tried – and unlike in 1933 and 1950, I’m sure the greatcoats will only be available in pleather.
Related: Meanwhile, over in Airstrip One: British PM Is Wrong, There Is No Free Speech In The UK.
SAVAGE:
J.K. Rowling is hilarious 😆 pic.twitter.com/W1upynmrg2
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) February 28, 2025
Rowling spends her FU money wisely.
TO BE FAIR, SHE’S AN IDIOT:
Government employee compares replying to an email to “what I imagine living in North Korea to be like” pic.twitter.com/XDbDw9YJe1
— Ana Mostarac (@anammostarac) February 27, 2025
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA ACCEPTS RAZZIES FOR MEGALOPOLIS:
The vast majority of celebrities and filmmakers ignore the Razzies, while few interviewers have the nerve – and understandably so – to ask celebrities about their “wins.”
However, Francis Ford Coppola, who earned “Worst Director” for his critically panned Megalopolis, issued a scathing retort on social media today.
“I am thrilled to accept the Razzie award in so many important categories for Megalopolis, and for the distinctive honor of being nominated as the worst director, worst screenplay, and worst picture,” he wrote in part, “at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary moviemaking!”
“In this wreck of a world today, where ART is given scores as if it were professional wrestling, I chose to NOT follow the gutless rules laid down by an industry so terrified of risk that despite the enormous pool of young talent at its disposal, may not create pictures that will be relevant and alive 50 years from now,” Coppola concluded.
Flashback to October: Megalopolis: Making Sense of Francis Ford Coppola’s Fever Dreams.
As I wrote at the time, after taking one for the team, and seeing Coppola’s new movie in an otherwise empty theater, shorter version: I can’t say it’s a good film, but I’m glad the Maestro, now 85, is still making movies, and movies that are about ideas, rather than sequels, spaceships and superheroes.
But unlike films that bombed or were torched by critics during their initial debut such as Citizen Kane, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner, I don’t think there’s going to be a critical re-assessment from critics that there’s a masterpiece hidden inside what sadly could be Coppola’s last movie.
SHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP: What Is Friday’s ‘Economic Blackout’ and What’s the Best Way to Miss It?
MY “SHOCKED FACE” IS GETTING A WORKOUT: BBC review finds ‘serious flaws’ over Gaza documentary:
“The BBC has apologised and admitted “serious flaws” in the making of a documentary about children’s lives in Gaza. The documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, was pulled from iPlayer last week after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.”
Journalists and make-believe journalists — especially in the documentary/investigative space — need to learn to vet their sources first. And editors need to hold the creators’ feet to the fire on this. Clearly not a happening thing for the BBC.
NEWSPAPER THAT SOUGHT TO RECAST AMERICA’S FOUNDING FROM 1776 To 1619 SUDDENLY WORRIED ABOUT “LANGUAGE POLICE:”
The tweet goes to a story headlined: The MAGA War on Speech.
In 1791, the nation’s founders ratified the First Amendment to the Constitution. It would come to offer protections in the new nation essentially never seen before: the right to ask things of and to criticize the government; to express opinions, popular or not; to assemble peacefully; to practice diverse religious beliefs; and to have a free press that publishes information without fear of censorship or retribution.
“New nation?” The New York Times assured me in 2020 that it was actually founded in 1619, so it would have been almost 175 years old by 1791.
This constitutional provision reflects the framers’ intent to establish a society where individuals have the ability to voice their views and participate actively in shaping the nation’s governance while holding their leaders accountable. Together, these five guaranteed liberties continue today to make the people of the United States the freest in the world.
Sounds good! So why the Times’ deep love of the Soviet Union in the first half of the 20th century? Any plans to return Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer?
President Trump and many of his supporters — from tech leaders like Elon Musk to populist politicians like Vice President JD Vance — have spent the past several years portraying themselves as free-speech crusaders. Capitalizing on the censorial strains of the left, they regularly lecture about the necessity of letting people say whatever they want, even if it’s hateful, asinine or corrosive.
Tell me more about “the censorial strains of the left,” including the Times’ role in 2020, please.
Over the past month Mr. Trump and his allies have embarked on an expansive crackdown on free expression and disfavored speakers that should be decried not just as hypocritical but also as un-American and unconstitutional.
In the distorted view of the Trump administration, protecting free speech requires controlling free speech — banning words, phrases and ideas that challenge or complicate a government-favored speech. Officials in Washington have spent the past month stripping federal websites of any hint of undesirable words and thoughts, disciplining news organizations that refuse to parrot the president’s language, and threatening to punish those who have voiced criticism of investigations and prosecutions.
Banning words, phrases, and ideas, that sounds bad. Good thing the left would never do such a thing!
● NYT columnist Farhad Manjoo calls for the abolition of gendered language.
● Professor of ‘art crime’ instructs protesters on better way to topple statues that offend them.
● NYT’s Nikole Hannah-Jones Endorses Riots And Toppling Statues As A Product Of The 1619 Project.
The reckoning for the Jacobin left’s attempt at making 2020 Year Zero was long overdue, and their freakout will be fascinating to watch. This headline will also drive them absolutely bonkers: Trump To Make English The Nation’s Official Language.
UPDATE: VDH asks: Who caused the counter-revolution?