The Psyop Inside the Psyop

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I almost called this Teacup in A Tempest. Because the whole thing is being talked about upside down, sideways and tiltawhirl. And in the end it’s just what it always is, the same old games played in the same way.

In case you missed the tempest in the tiniest of teacups: This far-right influencer who liked to talk about how everyone else was controlled by Jewish money was named in a Justice Department indictment for taking millions of dollars to run a Russian influence operation on YouTube. And Everyone on the right with an audience is a Russian asset 2 months before an election, says the Biden DOJ. And Tim Pool: My statement regarding allegations and the DOJ Indictment. And Dear Vladimir.

There now? Up to date on this very serious, never to be recovered from ELECTION INTERFERENCE by Russia Russia Russia?

Cool. Now let’s talk like adults.

First of all whatever the f*ck this is it’s not in fact “election interference.” Oh, the Russians probably think it is, or social engineering or something. I’m not exonerating the Russians. But Putin is an old KGB horror playing old KGB games, and he doesn’t GET the US. He never did.

The whole purpose of this is apparently to “sow dissension.” Only if you believe it’s needed, it works, and it makes any sense, I have some swampland in Florida you’ll adore. We Americans dang well can sow their own dissension. As the periodic brouhahas and donnybrooks in the commentariat here prove, we are a fractious people, and can fight over the stupidest things.

I was irked, in the Tim Pool link above, by the usual idiots calling him a traitor and saying he’d be raped in prison. Not just because this is the left’s favorite fantasy (no, really) but because it’s so mind-bogglingly stupid.

I don’t care if the Justice Department did a big bad press release. NO CRIME WAS COMMITTED. NOT A SINGLE ONE.

Oh, mind you, the person handing out the cash on behalf of the alleged Russians MIGHT have been laundering money from other operations, in which case some money laundering laws might have been broken. That’s way above my pay grade.

What I will say though is that in the “pay bloggers to say bad things about Jews” or “pay bloggers to praise Putin” or “Pay bloggers to say my eyes are pretty” stakes, no crimes were committed.

If they were, most of the traditional media would be in jail.

None of this is election interference. Not even a little bit. None of it compares to the media’s operation to “fortify” the election in 2020; to various NGOs introducing non-existent voters in rolls; to the campaign by various state AGs to keep Trump off ballots; to the retired spooks lying about Hunter’s laptop; to the left convincing various social media platforms to deplatform those who disagree with them. THAT, any of those, are election interference.

Some vatnik paying a lot of money — no really, an amazing amount of money. How were these people not suspicious? — to vloggers to…. well, Tim Pool says to change nothing, but let’s say it was to praise Putin, give Trump the side-eye, and maybe, because it comes from Russia throw some hate at the Jews (Dudes! The left does it FOR FREE.) IS NOT ELECTION INTERFERENCE.

And if it were, it wouldn’t be actionable.

Look, other countries try to influence our politics all the time. China-linked ‘Spamouflage’ network mimics Americans online to sway US political debate. And All In Cognitive Warfare.

Why do they do this? Well, they’re too broke and unorganized to go against us in the field of battle. No, way more than we are. (I say, and I’m not joking, that WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones.) And messing around on the internet makes them feel they’re doing something, and it’s easy and relatively cheap. It also doesn’t have much effect, however bombastic announcements by our DOJ sure make them feel like it does.

HOWEVER FOREIGNERS MESSING AROUND TRYING TO INFLUENCE OUR OPINION IS NOT A CRIME. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s obviously not a crime IN THEIR COUNTRIES. And we can’t precisely go to their countries and drag them to our courts without going to war — real war — with the countries. Yes, I know that we charged some Russians with “election interference” about 2016. Yeah. We can indict a ham sandwich. Nothing changes. It’s still not a crime for them. And for us it’s at most annoying.

Oh, but surely, as those leftist vatniks slavering after how Tim Pool would be raped in prison know what they’re talking about, right? Isn’t it TREASON for American bloggers to take foreign money?

I’m sorry. I’m giggling so hard I had to take a break from typing.

TREASON TO WHAT? To their readers/listeners, maybe, but that’s not the kind of treason they put you in jail for. We don’t take a blogger oath. Heck, if we took a blogger oath to not write anything against American interests, the left blogsphere would shut down tight.

We are not government agents. I mean, maybe Russians think we are, and thought they were big-time entrapping people. It would fit with their misunderstandings of us. But our DOJ d*mn sure knows better. Even under Merrick.

So what was the big release about? Well, a) Kamala is in trouble in the polls and owned self pretty biggly with the Arlington cemetery thing. This will distract from that. b) Also the governor of NY has had Chinese agents in her inner circle, so it’s time to gin up some Russia! Russia! Russia! panic.

I mean, look, I’m not even saying the Russians were in cahoots with the Justice department. They don’t need to be. This stupid crap is what Russians do by default, and my guess is they’re about as hard to track as an elephant with muddy feet crossing a white tile floor.

There is no there, there. The DOJ release is just a way to say “Hey, look over there!” And “Evil right wing bloggers.”

In fact, Tim Pool was right. Whether he got paid or not, he was the victim (the other people are not on my radar/are obnoxious anyway.) Even if it was a self inflicted victimhood.

The only people hurt by this will be in order 1) the bloggers who took money and who — even if they didn’t change anything about their reporting — now will have to win back the trust of their listeners/readers. 2) right wing bloggers in general, if nothing else because for the next month we’re going to have to put up with a lot of stupid comments (my assistant will likely spam them) asking how much we were paid (my disclosure is below) and such. 3) in a minimal way all of the countercultural blogsphere, because this will make people suspicious of alternate media. This is very minimal, because as the laughing wolf link above points out, most of you know that most of us couldn’t stay bought if we tried, even if someone offered us money which they don’t. (Again, my statement on my undue influences will be at the end.)

In fact, as far as I can tell, other than a handy distraction, what the DOJ is hoping to accomplish by this is to discredit anyone on the right who has an audience.

I have only one more thing to say, before my statement on who has paid me with what on this blog: DEAR LORD BLOGGERS TAKEN IN BY THIS (and for various reasons I think there’s layers and layers well below Tim Pool) DIDN’T YOU GET THE SLIGHTEST BIT SUSPICIOUS?

There is no money on the right. Or rather, there is, but it’s nickle and dime money, the thing my fundraisers rely on. I and others run the cringe fundraisers, because there are no big one-shot donors on the right. We can’t just put at the bottom “Paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation” or whatever. The millionaires, by and large, are lefties, because it’s a positional good. They are lefties the same way former plutocrats built libraries or in Europe churches. IF YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT BLOGSPHERE AND SOMEONE GIVES YOU BIG HEAP MONEY be scared. Or as my grandma would say “when the handout is too big, the beggar should be wary.” BE WARY. Yeah, the money might be sweet, but be aware what you’re selling is your appearance of integrity and independence. And you’re hurting the causes you purport to support.

As for me? Well, I do get offers in email about every other week. Mostly, I’ll admit, Chinese, though there have been a few Russian-sounding ones. I spam them. Because, listen guys, I’m mildly on the spectrum and extremely paranoid. I sort of assume they’re all either phishing or the call of Cthulhu.

NOW AS PROMISED MY STATEMENT ON WHO PAYS FOR THIS BLOG: You do. All of you who decide to. (Not that you have to, and I don’t want any of you to hurt yourselves.) Most of it is nickle and dime stuff, and the ones who aren’t are still not telling me what to write.

HOWEVER I do admit I’m kept in coffee by a shadowy coffee company that claims extraterrestrial influence. I gladly publish their propaganda pieces, and have done the occasional review, even. To be fair, they keep me awake to type these blogs, so I figure they deserve it.

178 thoughts on “The Psyop Inside the Psyop”

  1. Just because, apparently Vlad has said he prefers Harris. That joker.

    Also, it’s encouraging to see non-conservative types on X defending Pool and others, rightly pointing out they had no idea who was funding the media organization that hired them. Also pointing out that maybe they should have been a touch cautious, but still.

    And a fair amount of also pointing out how much more overt efforts China and Iran put out. I mean, granting Tim Walz permission to enter China 29 times ?

    Liked by 2 people

      1. As I put it to one of the “conservative” Twitterati:

        Question: after seeing the DOJ handling of the Whitmer fednapping, Mar-A-Lago, and several other cases involving conservatives, why would you take a single thing they allege at face value?

        Liked by 2 people

          1. Why is the CDC dabbling in crime in the first place? You don’t go to the police when you have cancer, why should doctors be mucking about with law enforcement?

            But of course, they’re ‘Experts!!’ which means they know everything there is to know about everything.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. “People are injured and killed by guns. Injured people need medical help. Therefore, shootings are a medical issue.”

              Aside from the let’s yearning to establish a David Weber-type Bureau of Mental Hygiene to “help,” us.

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            2. The CDC is a political organization. It has little of anything to do with actual medicine or healthcare. How they lied their asses off about Covid studies should be enough to convince even a lefty the CDC can’t be trusted.

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              1. The CDC wants to disarm all American citizens, leaving them defenseless. That should tell you everything right there about how “beneficial” they are.

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                1. That’s not just the CDC, practically the whole government is on board. Along with their sycophants in the news media. They’re throwing a big hairy fit right now because J.D. Vance says classroom security would be more effective than gun control. Doesn’t matter that he happens to be right, he’s saying Wrong Things! BADTHINK!!

                  Teachers in Utah have been allowed to carry guns for about 15 years now. Guess where there haven’t been any school shootings?

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        3. If I was on a jury, and an FBI agent testified under oath that the sun rises in the East, I’d be out at dawn with a compass before I’d believe the testimony.

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    2. Actually under “Russian/China/Iran Interference funding” I thought “you mean: CBS, MSNBC, ABC, CNN, etc? are all being funded by Russia, etc., AND the Democratic party? Or are they admitting that the democRATS are being funded by Russia, etc.” Oops, I meant “AND”.

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      1. ABC= Always Been Communist.
        CBS= Communist Broadcast Service.
        CNN=Communist News Network.
        NBC= Nothing But Communists.
        Damn them all to hell, I’ll let God sort them out, otherwise I’ll be in hell as well.

        Liked by 1 person

  2. American’s start in a state of conflict with each other, like a big old clan. Leave us alone and we’ll fight with each other. An outsider poking their nose into the fights? Katie can’t bar the door fast enough to keep the Rocks on foreheads from happening.

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    1. As a Charlie Daniels Band song goes:
      “We might have done a little bit of fightin’ ‘mongst ourselves
      But you outside people best leave us alone”

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    2. 100%

      The sibling wading in to deck the bully buddies picking on siblings response to their “You do it!” with “Yes. They are MY siblings. I’m allowed. You are not!”

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        1. Younger brother marching over from middle school to beat up older HS sister’s bully. No, I don’t know of anyone who might have done that. Honest. Grin. Guy isn’t as big as his even younger brother became (who, younger enough, that all the older siblings were well out of HS by the time he hit HS).

          Other news. BIL still needs prayers. He had surgery on his knee, again (3rd just this year. 1. Feb to replace broken pieces from original knee replacement. 2. Apr when everything went south first time, infection found. 3. Last night). Removed ALL foreign pieces, soft tissue (hopefully all the infection), added temporary spacer (which he’ll have a year or two, depending). Restart IV antibiotics. Depending, at least another 3 days in the hospital before going home(?). He’s been coherent, since Tuesday, but got put on suicide watch, again, Thursday night. “Doesn’t want to live like this anymore”. Well duh. He wants it fixed, the pain to stop, and to be able to move. Really, really, despise CYA protocols. SIL is extremely frustrated because she has been advocating for something to get done, again, because what was being done was not working, even before BIL deteriorated as far as he has. Again, protocols. Now it is wait and see. Have not heard from SIL since she called and said doctor called and he survived surgery, and surgery was as complicated as expected, but went very well.

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          1. Thoughts and prayers, pain is a hard thing to adjust too and live with. Four back surgeries and an addiction to pain pills later. I won’t take opiates anymore, not ever. Good Luck.

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            1. Just talked to SIL. BIL, with brace on his leg (SOP with knee surgery, she said) has already been up (also SOP these days) with a walker. Eaten, way more this morning and afternoon than he has been able to eat over days, let alone this time frame. Staff is already talking about moving him out of the hospital (they said facility, she said “No. He’s coming home.” They said fine, we’ll prep for that.) Medical will be ordering a hospital bed and sending home a specific type of walker (they have one, but his hands can’t handle the breaks on it). Already better news all around. Still he has a lot more to recover from than just removal of the infection in his knee.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Unofficial, but we suspect a small addiction to opiates might have been part of the problem once he was in the hospital. He’s been prescribed them for ongoing pain maintenance (before the knee problems) that he’d take 1 / day. But never more than that for decades. Which built up tolerance so the increase dosage for the latest problems eventually wasn’t touching the pain, and couldn’t. Then he went through some withdrawal symptoms while in the hospital before the surgery. Wasn’t helping his mental attitude adding to the confusion and incoherence. We’ll see longer term.

                Thank you everyone for all the prayers and thoughts. I think they help.

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                1. He did both knees just fine. It was fixing the left replaced knee because one of the steel rods cracked when things went bad. They don’t know why the infection settled in this time. Didn’t do anything different.

                  What did happen that when part of the wound wasn’t healing correctly, she didn’t go beyond bullying him into calling the doctor. She should of made the appointment and hauled his ass in (in her defense, I am married to his younger brother, hauling his ass in wouldn’t have been easy). OTOH it wasn’t healing correctly when the staples were taken out, and they did ask then, but didn’t push it (next time, they’ll push it). Another lesson. While she was screaming that “protocol” wasn’t working, both in person and written, she should have bypassed them, and dragged his ass directly to ER (see my prior note on dragging the brothers asses where they don’t think is needed). It was the ER medical personnel going “his knee is infected!” (With her going “no shit”.) that got things rolling, finally.

                  When you start the process you’ll learn that if there is any, and I mean any, open wound before going into surgery that the surgery will be called off. Then for months afterwards must take antibiotics before seeing a dentist. It is that much of a risk. Also true for hip or any replacement. Hubby has had each hip done.

                  I hear you. My follow up with my knee from twisting it 6 weeks ago now is Monday. If (small chance) there is any recommendation of surgery my gut response is “um, no?” Yea …

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          2. Tell him to hang in there; it will get better if they do it right. Incurable terminal cancer? OK, I’d understand “Just let it be over” in that case; my FIL went through that. Anyway, all my best to all of you.

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            1. Thank you. Appreciate the thoughts.

              Goal is to get him through this now. Then make sure everyone in the system learns that “stay with the program” (protocol) “is not always the correct path!” They should have gone in at least by late July. SIL has been screaming “It Is Not Working!” since that long. Doctors, both bone and infectious diseases saw him the prior Tuesday, 3 days before, before all this went horribly south Friday.

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    5. Said the Dragon drinking Tea. LoL To honestly answer your question, No, we’re all Bozo’s on this bus and the driver is drunk and about to fall asleep at the wheel.

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  4. And an indictment is just an accusation. An accusation that a judge feels is strong enough to move towards a court case, at some point in the future, but not necessarily today. Or tomorrow. Or any time in the next dozen years as everyone involved, save the government, is slowly bankrupted by the process.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. As was famously said by Solomon Wachtler, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, district attorneys can get grand juries to “indict a ham sandwich”.

      An indictment is a legal filing with an “okeydokey” stamp from a grand jury. Think about this one: two Rooskie dudes are charged with “money laundering“ i.e. moving money from illegal sources into the legal economy, presumably here illegal due to the Russia sanctions, and FARA violations, the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) being that one-sided law which legally only applies to other than Democrats who fail to register as foreign agents who are doing things on behalf of foreign people.

      Vice President Joe Biden twisting the arms of the Ukrainians on behalf of Russian front company Burisma, which totally coincidentally was paying Hunter at the time? Hunter doing things for foreign people with ex-VP Joe coincidentally on the speaker phone? Yeah, not covered, see the “only other than Democrats” exception above.

      Are these two Rooskie dudes guilty? Don’t know, and won’t know until an actual trial and verdict. What they are is indicted. Maybe this Rooskie money came from one of the carve-outs in the sanctions, like the still-approved natgas sales to Europe. To my non-lawyer reading that could be money that is not sanctioned.

      Did the bloggers do anything illegal? Not per the indictment, and if they could have indicted the ham sandwich bloggers Garland darned well would have done so, for the optics of that presser at minimum, even if they had to bury that part when it fell apart later. It is telling they did not do so.

      Were the bloggers stupid? Maybe. They certainly should have been transparent to their readers, as a courtesy. So they were discourteous to their readers, which is currently not a chargeable Federal offense.

      Is indicting two Rooskie dudes for spending money they got from Russia around the sanctions really a big deal? Nope. But the lectionary is so close, and they are seeing the polls, so they are getting desperate.

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        2. Much like the ever expanding definition of interstate commerce, they are using the expanded Mussolini definition of “influence” where doing anything is inevitably influencing the government: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

          And interestingly, the “influencers” the Kremlin influence ops were funding were apparently encouraging Trump supporters to not vote at all.

          Besides, per this story, Vlad wants QueMala! to joyously win joyously in November.

          https://news.sky.com/story/vladimir-putin-says-he-wants-infectious-kamala-harris-to-win-us-election-over-donald-trump-13209969

          Liked by 1 person

          1. But- but- but- Vlad is clearly lying! He wants Trump to win! He wants the Trump economic sanctions back, the tough attitude that dissuaded him from attacking Ukraine until Trump was safely out of office, all of it! Or else, he’s confused and just secretly wants Trump to win.

            Liked by 2 people

            1. If there’s one thing the lefties like, it’s knowing that subtle secret knowledge only they are smart enough to suss out, in spite of any obvious plain truth starring them in the face.

              Liked by 1 person

              2. Gnostic all the way down.

                C. S. Lewis’ comments on how many people yearn to be part of a secret society with hidden knowledge remains relevant. (Which is why he sometimes framed Christians as being members of a resistance movement behind enemy lines).

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              1. It is of note that the main “one clever trick” the Ukrainians report as pivotal to successfully blowing through the Formerly Red Army lines and advancing as far as they have into Kursk Oblast is that, unlike prior to their “Spring offensive” down south, they didn’t tell the Americans what they were going to do.

                In the course of this it was revealed that, back before that Spring offensive, the Foggy Bottom Boys had told the Russians what the Ukrainians were going to do, and where.

                As a confidence building measure. To avoid “escalation”. Or just to be traitorous unreliable bastard “allies”. Take your pick.

                The best thing any enemy could do for any future American war effort and insure their defeat would be to nuke DC.

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                1. Hm, how about:

                  The best thing any enemy could do for any future American war effort and insure that enemy’s defeat would be to nuke DC.

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                  1. Could we be slightly more directed with our weaponry please? White House , Naval observatory, and Congress (when in session). Lots of cool stuff in the assorted Smithsonians that would end up vaporized with even Mk3 weapons like those used in WWII let alone modern strategic weapons(300Kt to 1 MT depending on whose you use). Using Nukemap (In Minecraft) and selecting Davy Crockett at default dial a yield of 20 T (https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?t=0d6b8736e012ca92e1370e9a8aa3355f) gets some satisfying results. Was thinking of FBI Headquarters but that is snuggled right up against the Museum of Natural History so no can do. In any case the W54 warheads that were on the Davy Crocket, SADM and AIM-4 Falcon were pulled in the mid 70’s .Some were reworked into 600T Walleye tv guided bombs but those were gone as of the early 80’s.

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                2. You sure it wasn’t the United Nations or Europe?
                  Because the UN has a long record of keeping wars going by preventing one side or the other from winning by leaking plans. Europe is well, Europe and I wouldn’t trust them in a trench. The soldiers you could trust, Euro command, no f’ing way.

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            4. It appears Vlad has a sense of humor from time to time. I mean I can picture him laughing behind his hand as he told the press, It is more Rocket Racoon or Monty Python than Russian Oligarch

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            1. Ever since they started getting oil money I would look for Kremlin funding flowing to anyone that they thought could increase internal friction.

              The US built an amazingly capable money-flow monitoring system to track down the various chunks of AQ and then Daesh.

              Hey, Feds reading along here: Why don’t you point that capability at all of the Russian money flows and see what you see?

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    3. Usually.

      But sometimes – as happened with the defendants indicted by the Russia Collusion investigation group – the defenders are so eager for their trial to start that you start to wonder…

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    4. An Indictment is the result of a Prosecutors’ action, not a judges’.

      It is usually the result of a Grand Jury, which is instructed to determine whether a crime was likely committed, and by whom, on whatever evidence the Prosecutor chooses to present.

      The subject of the Grand Jury does not get to have an attorney with them, and usually can not present evidence of their own. This is why the Prosecutor can get an indictment against a ham sandwich.

      As stated, even with an indictment, the Prosecutor still decides if, whether, and when to like it with a court, and seek an arrest warrant.

      John in Indy

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      1. Having sat on a grand jury for a year, and a couple hundred cases, the grand jury typically ONLY hears the prosecution, they never get presented any defense. Occasionally, the prosecutor will bring in a witness to bolster their case. The grand jury is instructed on what laws were broken, what the defendant supposedly did to break those laws, and in those cases where intent is required, whether there was sufficient evidence to believe there was intent. The grand jury then votes on whether they think there is sufficient evidence to say, yes, we think a crime may have been committed, and to send it to trial.

        IIRC, the prosecution can take that indictment back to the defendant and use it to coerce them into accepting a plea deal. (Which IMHO is a travesty of justice.) If they say no, then it goes to court.

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        1. Good summary, but their zeal to get an indictment can bite them on the butt. I spent 18 months on a Federal Grand Jury, and for one of the two main presentations the US Attorney in charge was gung-ho to indict a company for “front-end loading” (getting more of the contracted payment early in the process than the Feds thought appropriate). I can’t give specifics, but it involved building a Federal office building in an area on the water which had been in a develop-demolish-redevelop cycle for over 200 years, and no one had any idea what the conditions below ground were, where the building’s foundations had to go. The engineer in charge of the initial work put in invoices for more than allowed for that part of the job. With the expectation of a juicy fine the Feds got him to testify in exchange for immunity; when he stated that he was the only one who had anything to do with the “violation”, and that he did it on his own hook to protect the company from potential unknown major problems in the excavation phase the look on the US Attorney’s face was…memorable. I asked him, “Ummm, excuse me, but doesn’t that shoot down the whole thing?” His “Yes’ was a bit strained. 🤣

          Sometimes the Good Guys win…

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    5. An Indictment is the result of a Prosecutors’ action, not a judges’.

      It is usually the result of a Grand Jury, which is instructed to determine whether a crime was likely committed, and by whom, on whatever evidence the Prosecutor chooses to present.

      The subject of the Grand Jury does not get to have an attorney with them, and usually can not present evidence of their own. This is why the Prosecutor can get an indictment against a ham sandwich.

      As stated, even with an indictment, the Prosecutor still decides if, whether, and when to like it with a court, and seek an arrest warrant.

      John in Indy

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  6. I think the person most upset by this is one of the biggest trolls who has always hated on boomers conservative (cucks is the blanket term her uses) jews (not Zionists….jews) and recently piled on the whole Winston Churchill caused WWI and WWII bandwagon.

    He either was never offered a cent and/or the DOJ is ignoring him.

    Poor guy sitting in his Swiss Castle

    Liked by 1 person

  7. “…be raped in prison.”
    Definitely the Left’s favorite fantasy. That’s why they back, hell, mandate, everything LGBTQ+, especially S&M bondage encounters. Just more of the Cult of Death. I did mention the other day, that their mandating nudity would be a bad thing, didn’t I?

    Nobody offers me money to say anything, or not say anything. (I have had the threat of indictment to try to force me to shut up. You can see how well that worked.) Of course, I don’t have a blog site either. I did get offered $150 bucks to go stand outside the polls with one guy’s sign during the NH primary, but I’m not that thrilled with him being on our Executive Council. (Previous offer by another guy for $100 to do the same thing – maybe I should have taken both of them up on it, and tacked their signs onto the same pole.) Mind you, these are GOP members running for office in a primary. The problem is, even the $250 for the day isn’t worth the possible damage I think they could cause me, not just the state, if they were in those positions. I may be able to be bought, but not with that kind of piddling money. I’d like to say it was due to my integrity, but It may just be I have too much pride to prostitute myself that way, unlike Ms. Harris.

    And just way does Vlad prefer Harris? Have they ever had a private meeting? /smirk

    Paul, we’re still here. Of course, there’s intelligent life on this planet. Invent a decently inexpensive FTL drive, and that’s likely to change.

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    1. Nah, there’s also stubborn intelligent life on this planet that will cantankerously go “I’m not the one misbehaving, make the other guy leave.”

      As well as the ones going ‘ooo where do I sign up?”

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    1. I welcome our new caffeine overlords!

      Actually, I avoid the stuff, but others are more than welcome to partake, as I’ve seen y’all when you haven’t had your fix yet.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Get your fix for free. I need to drink what I have before ordering any more, myself. Don’t drink it often. My deal is liquid crack . . errr Monster for my stimulus fix

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    3. It is obvious to the Reader that if aliens wanted to take over this planet (doubtful premise but still) they would start by taking control of the world’s caffeine supply. The Reader is suspicious, especially given the out of this world quality of their coffee.

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      1. Manipulate our caffeine?

        The various members of the armed forces would render such caffine-tampering hostiles -extinct-. Pronto.

        The horror….

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        2. The various noncom and chief’s mess reactions to a caffeine embargo would be terrifying to behold just by themselves.

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  9. It’s like 2016 and 2020 all over again.

    But with so much more stupid involved…

    Especially since Harris couldn’t pick her own nose, let alone win an honest election. And if she won, it would be a fourth Obama term (i.e. just another stage puppet for the people behind the curtain).

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  10. I’ve always said I can NOT be bought! However, my rental rates are reasonable – would you like a rate card?

    Kidding aside, I think it is just another symptom of how crazy the “left” is with how they lost the ability to control information, news, and general talk. I figure they are thinking since the internet can’t really be ‘shut down’ we need to disparage anything and everything that isn’t in agreement with the narrative.

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  11. I’ve lost my sense of humor about this foolishness, mostly because of the people who pretend to believe it, or are so apathetic they’ve checked out.

    The only thing missing from this stupid story is the Russians–no way they had any influence on this. This is pure DOJ/communist.

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  12. I probably should be a little ashamed to admit this, but any time over the last eight years that Russia/Trump accusations have been aired, I’ve tuned out. Either I was too busy plaguing both their houses, or knew that learning the details would not alter my voting behavior. Also, it might be that my baloney detector couldn’t have been going off louder if I’d taken it to the local deli.

    Indeed, until a week or two ago, I hadn’t even heard the full details of what the alleged “urine tape” was supposed to be. Not quite as horrifying as I had been assuming — or perhaps there are several versions of the story circulating, and I heard but one of them.

    How much of American political culture will we have burn to the ground to make a reasonable fresh start? My over/under is hovering a little over 98%.

    Republica restituendae, et, Hamas delenda est.

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    1. ^THIS. If MSM starts shrieking about some conservative or other being a Russian asset, I pretty much instantly roll my eyes and assume they are lying, or twisting the facts into such a pretzel as to make it a lie. (Of course, that’s how I generally treat mainstream media: if they are talking, they are lying.)

      Liked by 1 person

      1. If a lefty news anchor’s lips are moving he is lying, going to lie, waiting for which lie he should tell. My they live in a hell of their own making.

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  13. I can, in all honesty, say that my support has been bought in EVERY election. I think that this is something common to EVERYONE.

    Now, like all the people here, that support isn’t purely purchased with money (although being faced with ruinous taxation is a consideration). I look at the intangibles, and the longer term than just the next year or two, or four, or six.

    All too often (think 2008 and 2012) it comes down to which criminal organization is likely to demand less of a vig in money, freedom, truly essential security than the other – but I’m still taking the course that is best for me.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m easy to buy; simply repeal every gun control law in existence, starting with the NFA and GCA68, since they’re all obvious violations of the 2nd Amendment regardless of various Supreme Courts (although the current one has done a bit in the right direction).

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  14. I think it is particularly rich of them to pull the “Oooh, look how anti-Semitic this “far right influencer” when the left are the ones who have been doing everything but full SS cosplay since last October. (I have no idea who this influencer is–and if he had been ranting about Jooooos I likely would have promptly ignored him as a crackpot)

    When I saw a headline earlier today about how the DoJ shut down a bunch of ips that were “really” Russian fronts I was automatically suspicious. Why, pray tell me, is this suddenly happening in…::checks calendar:: September, and just before a debate that Que Mala is trying vary hard to either change the rules (which they previously agreed to) or to wriggle out of, because even she knows she’s going to get slaughtered.

    WHY do people on our side of things keep falling for this nonsense? Even if the man WAS being paid by Russians…so? I don’t do what someone tells me just because they are an “influencer” and I rather think more of us than not on the right feel that way. And yet, as you say, there’s people running around with their heads on fire about it.

    And if they stopped, took a breath, and applied a bit of water to that fire and THOUGHT about it…why the HELL would Russia want Trump in office??? Note that they didn’t invade the Ukraine 2016-2020, but Biden had barely been in office a few months when they rolled right in–because they knew that the veggie wouldn’t say boo about it. Or do anything. Whereas I think, given the story about Trump showing a terror group’s bigwig that he had a photo of the guy’s HOUSE…yeah. Russia doesn’t want someone willing to kick them in the teeth (or, more importantly, the bank accounts) back in office. Russia doesn’t want Trump in office. China CERTAINLY doesn’t. Iran most definitely does not. Israel would probably be thrilled (though at this point, I think they should just flip the rest of the world the middle finger and glass Hamas entirely, pearl-clutching from the UN be damned.)

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    2. Antisemitism. Okay, now do campus “protesters” who don’t attend said universities and get paid to protest. Whose money is funding them?

      Liked by 1 person

        1. Now wouldn’t that be funny: US “aid” to Gaza funneled tortuously back here to fund US campus protesters.

          Your Tax Dollars At Work indeed.

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      2. It also never ceases to amaze/appall me that violent “protestors” who commit property damage and assault are somehow totally fine–just exercising their free speech, don’cha know, while a conservative leaning online “influencer” sneezes wrong and OMG THEY’RE A TRAITOR.

        If it weren’t for double standards…

        Liked by 1 person

    3. Too close. The resultant fallout and EMP from Nuking Ham-ass would wreck Israel. Likewise Shizz-bolus.

      But the weirdbeards that control Iran are far enough away that the immediate unpleasantness of opening some “canned sunshine” is someone else’s problem.

      At some point, dropping a blue and white inert practice bomb in the middle of a Tehran intersection near a prominent landmark at oh-dark-thirty -might- help deter further ass-hattery.

      Although they might better drop such things on sleeping Hamazi bigshots hiding out in “neutral” countries.

      And isn’t -that- an interesting “stealth” capability?

      David took out Goliath with the first of his chosen “five smooth stones”.

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      1. I believe we still have B-1s and B-52s certified for maximum external payload gravity bomb loadouts, so arclight style kinetic applications of Mk 83s and Mk 84s across the still-contested sections of Gaza down near the Egyptian border without very many strays should be feasible.

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        1. Speaking of Arc Light, I’ve wondered why Israel didn’t buy a dozen or so old B-52s before we chopped them up to appease the Russkis. Since nearly everyone – especially the ‘Right Thinking” people – so passionately hate Israel it wouldn’t seem they have much to lose, at least not on the public opinion front, so putting them in service wouldn’t be a big deal. And, MK82s are fairly cheap as ordnance goes, and IIRC a 52 can carry something like 84 of them; once Gaza got “rubbelized,” bulldoze the pieces into the Med to build a reef for fish and construct a world class beach resort community as an economic center for the region.

          Then again, whomever in Gaza survived the Arc Lighting, and all those in the region who lived outside Gaza and Israel, would insist on suicide-bombing the tourists bringing money into the region “because prosperity is a sin against….something or other” so never mind.

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          1. It would be to avenge the Israeli “genocide of the Palestinian people!”

            We have too many people mindlessly shouting, “genocide,” who don’t know the meaning of the word.

            The bitter irony is some of the Israelis targeted on Oct 7 were lefties/pacifists trying to help out their Palestinian neighbors.

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                1. And wouldn’t a picture of that cause cranial explosions among today’s leftists… Let’s desseminate it as widely as possible. :twisted:

                  Liked by 1 person

                  2. The Bf 109s they had were actually Czech Avia S-199s…Czech-built variants based on the Bf 109G, except instead of Daimler-Benz engines they had lower-power Jumo 211s with bigger props. The planes handled terribly, were difficult to take off and land, and in general didn’t do well. Any success they had against Egyptian Spitfires was due to superior Israeli pilot training. (Jews flying variants of the Bf 109G against Arabs flying Spitfire Mk Vs, IXs, and later Mk 22s. It happened.)

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            2. Well half the width in some spots (fully loaded it needs 8000 ft, so slightly less than 4 miles). Might still have some old RATO/JATO units like they used to use with the B47’s.

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                1. Sorry doing it in my head and dropped a decimal. 5200 ft/mile not 520 some odd feet per mile. So maybe an 1/8th (I think there are som spots less than 10 mi across by official boundaries)?

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                2. I think Pease tradeport (previously Pease AFB) has a 12000′ runway. B52’s flew out of there in the bad old days of Chrome Dome I think. Likely in case someone had to turn around with nearly full tanks.

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                  1. 11,322 ft. Add in some of the lighter paving past the overruns and you’d get close to 12,000. It’s one of six runways that were designated as space shuttle abort landing sites because they had long enough runways to ‘safely’ land. (Man, this is really hard to type with a kitten sitting on my shoulder.)

                    Liked by 2 people

                    2. She’s a 4 mo. old rescue from Lockhart, Texas. Weird coat, half subdued tortoise shell, half grey tabby stripped. Very affectionate. Loves to play, being petted and having head and chin rubs. Purrs like a well-tuned engine. And gets into everything. Well, she IS a cat after all.

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                    3. Clearly Mr Houst you are so good at typing that the Handicapper General (D.M. Glompers) felt you needed a cat to slow you down to average typing speed. Our Hostess is so good she gets 3 cats as handicap. I think could also handle fully loaded C5’s. It’s a monster saw it back when I went to an airshow at Pease when I was in college.

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                    4. I was stationed at Travis AFB as my first permanent assignment back in the late 70s, and then again in the early 90s. It was the main west coast C141 and C5 base. We also had a detachment of P-3s the Navy kept on the other side of the runway. You watch a C5 and it looks like it’s just floating along in the air when it’s really buzzing along at 400 mph. It’s just so big that it takes a while to get through any point in the air.

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            3. Ben Gurion has 13,327 feet, IIRC, but “loaded” is deceptive; fully loaded BUFFs need lotsa pavement, but BG is a short hop from the southern tip of Gaza – 60 miles – so fuel load could be minimal. Fuel capacity on a 52 is 321,000 lbs, take that down to 30-40,000 and it makes a big difference in how much runway one would need, even with a full bomb load.

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        2. The Reader believes we need to do the first Arc Light strike on the Houthis. And maybe the second. At that point Egypt would be grateful enough for the restoration of their Suez Canal revenue (which appears to be down by about half) that they would actually cooperate with us and the Israelis on Gaza.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. Concur.

            The Israelis have Gaza in hand, though I would wish the baseline U.S. strategic aim would be to make bad guys afraid of offending rather than contemptuous, and as such would be contributing things like heavy bomber raids to make the point about holding U.S. hostages.

            But yes, the Houthis appear to be sorely in need of some rubble-bounce diplomacy.

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            1. Having the issue proposed and seconded I call for discussion. Seeing no discussion I move the issue to a vote. Those in favor raise a hand or say Aye. Those opposed say Nay. Seeing no opposition the motion passes.

              I love the smell of Robert’s Rules of Order in the morning…

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            3. American Democrats are not feared or respected anywhere around the world. They are prey animals, and every predator out there grins when they are in ‘power’.

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  15. Oh gee, another attempt to make right wing bloggers shut up? Must be Thursday.

    The US-DOJ is attacking free speech you say? Must be… Thursday.

    Government says “Look, shiny thing!!!” Must be… day ending in “y”.

    You wanna see some election interference?

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/09/05/margin-of-fraud-154/

    “This operation works under AVR, or automatic voter registration, and is being used to register migrants. They will not vote, but their names have been entered into the Voter Registration database when they apply for a driver’s license and their vote will be voted for them. I imagine that this is repeating something everyone knows, but the borders are open for precisely this reason, so the Democrat/RINO machine can steal their votes. By the way, the process for advancing permanent residency has been cut from 11 months to two.

    In 2020, twenty states used operation AVR. Of those, Trump lost 18.”

    Liked by 1 person

  16. It’s a pretext to justify spying on domestic political opponents, the way they did to Trump and his campaign people. like Carter Page, in the runup to the 2016 election. Meanwhile, the CCP keeps adding more and more swamp creatures, both in DC and in their remote dens in state capitols, to their payroll; that is, those who aren’t already fully on board with the CCP because they share its ideology and goals.

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    1. Of course it is. Hint, from certain things with my internet access and phone, they’re ALREADY doing it. I wish them joy of it. Mostly they’re going to get a lot of the novel ending.

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      1. The real ending, the “NYC Publisher” ending, the “sleepless with a case of the cats” ending, or the “used dice to plot climax and wrap-up” ending? ;)

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          1. Maybe those particular Feds are just really eager fans.

            After all, NSA types have been caught directing the full resources of the entire IC at potential, current, and former dating companions.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. The penalty for which should include flogging and a ban on ever having any connection whatsoever to government anywhere.

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  17. Well, if they’re willing to pay me to say the same things I’m already saying, WHERE’S MY CASH? I’m strapped right now, as are quite a few people. We could all use a little extra.

    If this was “election interference” then what about the people getting government funding, or advocating for that “guaranteed basic income” schtick? How is that not election interference as well? That’s just the politics of extending the gravy train, isn’t it?

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  18. So, the serious point is that treason has some very specific criteria. Article 3, section 3, quoting some website: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

    The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

    Bob again: This isn’t strictly limited to physical acts, but information transfer related crimes would need to pass some tests, and most especially having opinions should be fairly protected by the first amendment.

    Some of the other criteria is that we might need a formal declaration of war, or at least some sort of on the record statement by the department of state, to fairly warn everyone that stricter rules apply for statemetns or communications, etc.

    If you are in certain industries, you should already know about the official lists of parties that you should not be doing business with. In general, if you are not in certain industries, and you are not a dumbass, you probably should not be accidentally doing risky things.

    IE, if you are talking about how much you think Rings of Power sucks, you probably do not need to be appending a bunch of boiler plate about it not being medical advice, legal advice, or financial advice, and that you are not a CPA, an MBA, or a dog.

    Joking, “No, that is real wrong doing, because to be American is to be eternally at war with everyone else.” There’s totally this real body of scholarship, that is completely credible, and plausibly authoritative, called critical xeno theory. It says that the foreign devils are eternally and forever foreign devils because of some word magic conspiracy seventy six thousand years ago. So we should shoot everyone who ever proposed peace or international law.

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  19. The funny part? The whole “Churchill was a bad guy” thing originated on the Left. They’ve hated him for a long time, despite the fact that he helped defeat their secular Satan substitute.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. “what was the big release about?”

    ………………..

    Does it matter? Already being laughed at. Should have heard Gutfield’s (very good, FWIW) rant on the Five on Fox today. “Miss information? About what? Hunter’s Laptop? Truth. Inflation? Truth. Lack of Borders? Truth. Alien crime on US citizens (deaths/rapes, etc.)? Truth. Anything that doesn’t support the Biden/Harris/Walz narative? Truth.” (Paraphrased and shortened, but gist is there.)

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    1. Crying “Russia” becomes the new crying wolf.

      Which at one level is a shame as the Kremlin is being actively spy-ish these days, as well as actively running influence ops, but they poisoned that well and now they get to drink from it.

      Liked by 1 person

  22. I’m seeing word that the most recent shooter used she/her pronouns. Morbidly curious if this is true. We’ll know if the news dries up.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. This plot thickens. It looks as though the shooter was a trans extremist. A 14 year old trans extremist. Tar and feathers then heads on spikes.

        News blackout begins in 5 4 3 2 and cut.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. “News blackout begins in 5 4 3 2 and cut.”

          …………

          “News blackout begins in 5 … and cut.”

          FIFY

          Except for the court proceedings, already news blackout, as much as the usual suspects can manage.

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    2. Sure. Take confused, unsocial, insecure, angry kids and tell them ‘trans’ is the answer to all their problems. Then, when pretending to be what they’re not just compounds more problems on top of the ones they’ve already got? Oh, well, you just need to be more serious about it!

      After all, those ‘Experts!!’ couldn’t possibly be wrong!

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      1. Indeed the body dysmorphia tends to be comorbid with a WHOLE bunch of issues. Promising someone that is emotionally unstable that they can have something (being physically of the opposite sex) that can only be done at the crudest of approximations now , and where the full change is likely to be beyond our abilities for a LONG while (I judge that an Alcubierre warp drive is more likely to be done successfully than a fully functional sex swap) will not end well. These folks tend to have nearly nonexistant impulse control and no actual grip on reality (come on they think they’re a woman in a mans body, its equivalent to thinking your Napolean Bonaparte). Their reaction is violent and dangerous. And in this case they had been watching the dude for a while. Yet another known wolf. Although the ease of committing folks pre ’80s was a bit to easy to abuse what we have now is probably the root of 95% of these kinds of shootings.

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        1. Wait, are you trying to tell me I am actually not Napoleon Bonaparte?

          But I identify as Napoleon Bonaparte! That is all that matters!!

          Oh, wait, now I identify as a main battle tank.

          Nope, back to Boney now.

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      1. Sarah, this is a prime example of the Mencken quote someone put up about bad laws being used against people no one likes.

        I guarantee that no parents (where identifiable) of Chicago gangbangers will be charged this way.

        Liked by 1 person

  23. The correct response, as it was in 2017, to “Russia!Russia!Russia!” is to quote Obama:

    The 80s called. They want their foreign policy back.

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  24. OT, but is the moon full?

    My beloved swerved to avoid going off the road/an oncoming truck. We’re fine, the truck’s fine, the RV is almost all fine.

    But we lost a jar of marmalade. Which fell into the partially-opened kitchen tool drawer and broke. Canned goods went across the RV. Worse, the microwave turntable sailed out of the microwave and broke into a bunch of pieces. Much broken glass, both the jar and the turntable. A fair number of freshly dented cans. But, in one of those, “Quit griping, at least you got this!” things, my large ceramic mixing bowl left its place in the overhead cupboard, sailed across the RV, over the central island, the rest of the interior, and landed in my fiber basket.

    Just to top it off, this is our last night on the road for a bit. Someone has a taste for practical jokes.

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    2. Lesson: Secure the load so it cannot shift.

      The damage to various is annoying. The sudden shift of center-of-gravity is often fatal.

      Secure the load in your vehicle.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. They did. Unfortunately sometimes the latches don’t hold. Sounds like refrigerator damage limited to inside refrigerator. But those cabinet and microwave RV doors when dogged down properly latched RV’ers expect to hold. Obviously extreme maneuvers caused some to fail.

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    3. Ouch. Glad you are both okay.

      Going off the road is not a good thing. We’ve seen the results. Even if everything stays upright, never good. Big fear of ours when we were RV towing was exactly what you experienced. Can’t hit, can’t be hit, can’t go off the road, can’t stop. Eek!

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      1. It happened very quickly and we didn’t think a lot of it. It was when we opened up and found the mess we realized it had been sharper than we thought.

        We’ve been very fortunate on the road.

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        1. Same. We hauled for 30 years. Granted we took off a few years between 2003 and 2008 (first because hubby was living in the trailer, then we sold, and didn’t buy another until 2008. So 25 years net. Last 10 years we avoided more than a few problems because we were both essentially “driving”. Because it takes one to drive and one to pay extra attention looking for the idiots. More than once our vigilance, and anti sway bars, saved the rig, and us.

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