Category: Knowledge

“Iranian Propaganda vs. U.S. Talking Points: How We Determined the Real Damage to U.S. Military Bases”

Scoop, ... 15 comments.

The New York Times did a brilliant job on this research. The Iranians have claimed that they severely damaged many U.S. bases in this war, and our guys have claimed that Iran’s claims were exaggerations and propaganda.

One of the questions I have asked since the beginning of the war is how we can possibly believe either side in this conflict, given that Donald Trump’s lying is only topped by Iranian state media.

I was wrong. Trump still holds the Pinocchio Cup, despite having been awarded the the FIFA Honesty Prize. It turns out that the Iranian claims were 100% accurate. Satellite imagery shows 18 sites in seven countries were hit, and the damage was exactly as claimed by Iran.

American air defense systems in place at their bases across the Gulf had around a 90 percent interception rate, ideally. But even at 90 percent, this still leaves 10 percent of Iranian drones and missiles that can get through the air defense shield.

The DOJ comes up with their most foolish phony prosecution yet.

Scoop, ... 52 comments.

They indicted James Comey for posting a picture of some sea shells arranged to form the numbers 8647. That’s not from The Onion. It really happened.

There’s no point to expect these people to understand logical thought, but for the record:

1. Jack Posobiec once posted an 8646 meme in Twitter. No indictment. Gee, I wonder why.

2. Under no possible definition of “86” could it be interpreted as a threat. In restaurant parlance, it means “we’re out of, so remove from menu ….” (“Waiters, 86 the asparagus”). In bar lingo, it means “cut off service.” (“86 the guy in stool three. He’s had enough already.”)

3. When out of office, Donald Trump has posted REAL violent images of then-President Joe Biden.

4. On Amazon, Jeff Bezos sells a monumental amount of 8646 and 8647 merchandise, but I don’t believe I have seen him in handcuffs yet.

Any sane judge will dismiss this instantly, and there’s pretty much no doubt that this will eventually get Todd Blanche disbarred. In a perfectly just world, it would also result in criminal charges against him or a massive lawsuit, but we do not live in a perfectly just world. The concept of prosecutorial immunity is almost impossible to overcome. It is difficult to prove that a prosecutor acted with malice and outside his authority. It is a weakness of our legal system that corrupt prosecutors almost never pay for malicious actions, and when they do pay, the punishment is light.

That was true even in the most blatant case I can recall, the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse team case, a man who withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, and brought a rape case against at least one kid he knew to be innocent from irrefutable evidence. He got off easy. He was found in criminal contempt of court, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, and spent one day in jail. He was disbarred, as Blanche should be, but his other punishments were basically a slap on the wrist for actions that could have sent an innocent kid to jail for life.

Any case against Blanche will hinge on whether he truly believes that 8647 is a crime. There will be an argument that he does not, unless he also attempts to indict high profile people who posted 8646. For one example, influential conservative commentator Jack Posobiec tweeted “8646” in January of 2022. If Blanche brings an indictment against Posobiec, then he’ll be able to argue that he genuinely believed 8646 and 8647 to be a crime, and therefore did not deliberately bring a false indictment. (This case would not hinge on whether 8647 is really a crime, but on whether Blanche honestly believed it to be, and therefore brought an honest indictment.)

HINT: They are not crimes, and in my opinion, Blanche is smart enough to know that.

10 Of The Strangest Things Tourists Have Been Advised When Visiting America

Scoop, ... 32 comments.

I don’t think some of these things are strange at all. A few are good advice.

The Austrians in particular are pretty casual about non-sexual, incidental nudity, and I had to give my Austrian visitors some of the same tips that this link considers strange. I learned this after I had visitors from Austria who changed into their bathing suits in a public park in Texas. They did not try to go swimming naked, nor did they walk around naked, they simply took off all their clothing and put on their bathing suits in full public view. This was meaningless to them, but rather more meaningful to the nearby Texans.

There are nude beaches along the Danube. I never considered that a big deal when I lived in Vienna, and got used to seeing the naked bodies from the road, but I never got used to seeing the naked bodies ON the road. The bathers would wear their street clothing for the drive to and from the beach, park on the streets, take off their clothes while next to their cars, then lock all their clothing and valuables in their autos. This meant they were naked on the side of the street, then naked on the walk to and from the car. I always found it weird to see naked people just wandering on public streets.

And they have no prohibition against taking a pee against a tree in a wooded, public area.

Everything I described is reasonable in any sensible world, which shows you why those “strange” warnings are necessary when Austrians (and others) expect the USA to be part of the common-sense universe.

National gas price comparison

Scoop, ... 34 comments.

Toward the end of February, the nation’s average gas price per gallon was lower than the comparable period in any of the past three years. In just a short time, it went crazy, and is now higher than the past three years and running close to a dollar more than last year.

In March, the benchmark on West Texas Intermediate went from $67.05 to $99.53, an increase of almost 50% in one month.

Gee, something must have happened. I wonder what.

Bill Maher had a good line line on this topic. He said, “Nobody can afford gas. Gas prices are so high that Tiger Woods had to crash his bicycle.”

Ex Porn-Superstar Asia Carrera Passes The Bar Exam!

Scoop, ... 1 comment.

Retired porn star Asia Carrera just passed the bar exam in Texas, and is one step closer to officially being a lawyer!

Asia recently announced on Facebook, that she passed the bar after taking the highly demanding test back in February. She took the bar for the second time in Waco, TX along with nearly 1,000 other would-be lawyers taking the exam. She said she was more than ready this time after missing by just two points on her prior attempt.

She also said that she doesn’t even want to be a lawyer, she just wanted to prove she could pass the bar. Sounds insane to me, but its pretty well known that Asia Carrera is highly intelligent.

Congrats to Asia, and here is a documentary showing us how smart she is while teaching a class at the Whoriental Sex Academy!

The Secretary of Labor has resigned

Scoop, ... 44 comments.

Lori Chavez-DeRemer is now romping playfully in a farm upstate with my favorite Game of Thrones characters, Kristi Dogslayer and Pammi Burnbook, as Trump continues to replace all women and minorities. (Actually, the new nominees for Attorney General and Secretary of Labor have not been announced. The nominees could include somebody other than an obnoxious, white, Christian male, but I wouldn’t bet on it.)

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Now that she is gone, it opens up a whole new opportunity to be the most incompetent and/or corrupt person in the Trump administration. There’s tough competition for that slot.

If wagering on the next to get the axe, I wouldn’t bet on Hegseth or Bobby, since they are white Christian males.

Here are the Kalshi odds on who in the cabinet will be the next to leave

Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence: 36%
Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce 22%

Here are the Polymarket odds for who will leave the administration before 2027:

Kash Patel 87%
Kristi Noem (from her new job) 56%
Tulsi Gabbard 51%
Howard Lutnick 50%
Lee Zeldin 43%
Pete Hegseth 43%
Karoline Leavitt 39%
Tom Homan 39%
David Sacks 37%
Susie Wiles 32%
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 30%

I had to look up David Sacks. Even after finding out who he is, I still don’t know why he is on the list, because he left his position on March 26th.

Per CNBC that day: “Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks said his role as a special government employee has ended.” He is still on the President’s Council of Advisers on Science & Technology. I suppose that’s the position we’re betting on. That seems too obscure to be on the board. (???)

50 Great Celebrity Mugshots

Scoop, ... no comments.

You may have seen most of them all before, but this is an excellent collection of them in one place, with good details about the circumstances.

Cue up “The Way We Were” for this story:

Frank Sinatra was initially arrested for “seduction,” which in the 1930s meant convincing a single woman of good reputation to have sex under a false promise of marriage. (Apparently there was no crime if the single woman had a bad reputation. Contrary to what your racist uncles tell you at Thanksgiving, there were no “good old days.”)

The charge was later changed to “adultery,” when it was revealed that the woman was already married. Both charges were dismissed: the former charge was invalidated when it was discovered that the woman was married; the latter was resolved after he paid a $500 “bond,” which is the New Jersey word for “bribe.”

Sinatra spent the night in jail. His mugshot and fingerprints were taken the following day. The fingerprint record lists birth date and age (22), weight (125lb), height (5-8), hair color (black), eye color (blue), and occupation (singer).

By the way, adultery was a crime in New York State until last year!

“Trump Created Fake Job to Keep ICE Barbie Out of the Senate”

Scoop, ... 12 comments.

According to reports from The Daily Beast in April 2026, Donald Trump privately intended to “put Noem out to the glue factory” — meaning removing the puppy-slaughtering cosplayer from power — by creating a fake, nominal job for her after firing her as Secretary of Homeland Security. This move aimed to sideline her while keeping her on the payroll to prevent her from getting enough signatures for a Senate primary challenge, which had to be submitted by March 31.

Well, a tip of the hat to Trump if he decided to use the metaphor “send her to the glue factory.” I only wanted to “let her romp playfully in a farm upstate.” If I had been in Trump’s shoes, instead of creating a fake agency, I would have made her a special Ambassador to the UK, Pacific Division, with instructions to open a new satellite embassy in Adamstown, on Pitcairn’s Island, which is the only remaining British territory in the Pacific. I’d even let Lewandowski go along as her chief of staff.

Harvard’s grade inflation experiment

Scoop, ... 18 comments.

85% of all grades awarded at Harvard are either A or A-. 67% are A.

In the Harvard class of 2025, 21% of the graduates finished with a perfect 4.0!! That’s more than 300 students.

(SIDEBAR: I wondered how they select a valedictorian when there is a 300-way tie for first? It turns out that they don’t. The concept of “valedictorian” no longer exists.)

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What does that mean in reality?

Imagine a class of 100 students. The best student in the class gets the same grade as the 67th best. One can essentially graduate cum laude at the bottom of the class.

B is the new F.

Many educators feel, probably correctly, that this has two important negative effects on society:

1. Employers and grad schools who want the very best students have no idea who they are. They have to resort to logic like “This guy got a B in one of his classes. He’s probably cognitively impaired.” (This was especially true when the use of standardized tests was declining, although I have read that elite universities are going back to the standardized tests after a brief experiment with abandonment.)

2. The students are not encouraged to really master the subject matter when 67th best produces the same results, leading to an overall decline in competence in all fields.

Do the brilliant educators at America’s most elite university have a solution?

Well, maybe.

But it ain’t gonna to be a popular one.