DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

We have seen the future, and it sucks.

Archive for the 'Your tax dollars at work – and play.' Category

Exposing Corruption at FBI: Whistleblowers Share Their Stories

12th April 2024

Read it.

Garret O’Boyle and Stephen Friend dedicated years of their lives to serving their country in the FBI. But when they began to question some of the decisions being made within the bureau, they were suspended.

After joining the FBI, O’Boyle says he “immediately saw that other agents [and] supervisors didn’t have a solid grasp of people’s civil rights.”

“Having sworn that oath to the Constitution multiple times—twice in the Army, once as a police officer, once as an FBI agent,” O’Boyle said, “it actually meant something to me—which, I think, it doesn’t to many, maybe even to most at this point. It’s just a job.”

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Exposing Corruption at FBI: Whistleblowers Share Their Stories

Denver Set to Defund Police, Firefighters to Pay for Illegal Aliens

11th April 2024

The Foundry.

The Democrat-run city of Denver plans to defund its Police Department to pay for illegal immigrants.

Colorado’s capital, commonly referred to as a “sanctuary city,” announced Wednesday that it will spend $89.9 million on services for incoming illegal migrants, pulling some funding from roughly $45 million in public programs and services. The Denver Police Department will be hit with a reduction of $8.4 million— about 1.9% of its total operating budget, the city confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Denver Set to Defund Police, Firefighters to Pay for Illegal Aliens

N.C. Case May Reshape Election Officials’ Privileges

11th April 2024

Read it.

North Carolina’s highest court could determine whether election officials retain special legal privileges that allow them to defame individual voters and set a precedent for how voter fraud claims are pursued.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on N.C. Case May Reshape Election Officials’ Privileges

“We’re Going To Lose A Major War”: US Navy Deletes Photo Of Ship Commander Shooting Rifle With Backwards Scope

11th April 2024

Read it

Cmdr. Cameron Yaste, the Commanding Officer of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), was recently photographed shooting a 5.56×45mm M4 carbine with the optics installed backward.

The now-deleted image and press release on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website featured Yaste shooting the M4 with the Trijicon VCOG scope installed backward while pointed at a giant target balloon.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on “We’re Going To Lose A Major War”: US Navy Deletes Photo Of Ship Commander Shooting Rifle With Backwards Scope

Plagiarism Scandal Hits The Fed

10th April 2024

Read it.

This time, journalists Chris Rufo and the Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak found that Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook appears to have plagiarized her academic work in violation of her former university’s policy.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Plagiarism Scandal Hits The Fed

U.S. Funneled Nearly $1 Million to Hamas-Linked Charity That Hosted Terror Leader’s Son, Report Says

10th April 2024

Washington Free Beacon.

USAID gave more than $900,000 in taxpayer funds to the Bayader Association for Environment and Development, a humanitarian group based in the Gaza Strip that is said to be “in close cooperation with [the] Hamas regime,” according to a report by the Middle East Forum’s Focus on Western Islamism project. The United States awarded the most recent grant on Oct. 1, six days before Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel.

“Bayader is listed in federal spending data as a sub-grantee for USAID, with the government monies first routed through a sponsoring U.S. nonprofit, which are ostensibly required to vet their sub-grantees,” according to the report. In February 2023, Bayader reportedly organized an event in the Gaza Strip that included “senior Hamas officials,” such as Abdul Salam Haniyeh, the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on U.S. Funneled Nearly $1 Million to Hamas-Linked Charity That Hosted Terror Leader’s Son, Report Says

‘The Constitution Is Clear’: AGs Sue Biden Administration Over New Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

10th April 2024

Read it.

Seven Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Joe Biden’s administration over a new student loan forgiveness plan rolled out this week.

Biden announced Monday that he was rolling out the plan, which would cancel a minimum of $5,000 for over 10 million Americans with student loans, despite the Supreme Court striking down Biden’s previous initiative in June 2023. Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey of Missouri filed a lawsuit alongside Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma, arguing that the president’s plan was unconstitutional and “illegal.”

The debt isn’t ‘cancelled’, it’s merely assumed by the government and paid by the taxpayers.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on ‘The Constitution Is Clear’: AGs Sue Biden Administration Over New Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

NYC Taxpayers Pay for Celebrity Lawyer To Defend Mayor in Sexual Assault Suit

10th April 2024

Read it.

New York City Hall on Monday indicated it will use taxpayers’ money to pay for a celebrity lawyer to defend New York City mayor Eric Adams against a lawsuit containing allegations of sexual assault dating back to 1993.

Attorney Alex Spiro will serve as co-counsel for Adams, according to a court notice filed on Monday by the New York City Law Department. Spiro is a prominent lawyer who has represented high-profile figures, including Elon Musk, Jay-Z, and Alec Baldwin.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on NYC Taxpayers Pay for Celebrity Lawyer To Defend Mayor in Sexual Assault Suit

FBI Whistleblowers Say the Bureau ‘Needs to Be Abolished’

10th April 2024

Read it.

Two FBI agents who had their security clearances suspended after speaking to Congress about how law enforcement went after pro-lifers and concerned parents, now warn that the FBI has adopted a “Marxist culture” and called for its abolition.

“The type of recruiting events they have—they have adopted this Marxist culture to permanently change our institutions like the FBI,” Garret O’Boyle, an FBI agent whom House Republicans hailed as a whistleblower, said Tuesday at an Oversight Project event at The Heritage Foundation. “Remember, the FBI are the people with the guns and badges who will come after you.”

O’Boyle was referring to the FBI’s decision to publicly champion identity politics celebrations such as Arab American Heritage Month and to use race as a factor in hiring.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on FBI Whistleblowers Say the Bureau ‘Needs to Be Abolished’

Biggest Corporate Welfare Scam of All Time

9th April 2024

Real Clear Politics.

President Joe Biden keeps lecturing corporate America to “pay your fair share” of taxes. It turns out he’s right that some companies really are getting away scot-free from paying taxes.

But it isn’t Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley or the Wall Street financial company “fat cats” or big banks or Walmart. They pay billions in taxes.

The culprits here are the very companies that Biden is in bed with: green energy firms.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Biggest Corporate Welfare Scam of All Time

Navy Cancels Ship Briefings After Damning Internal Report

7th April 2024

Politico.

As the Navy’s largest U.S. trade show gets underway on Monday, officers in charge of the service’s marquee shipbuilding programs won’t offer the usual briefings with reporters and analysts about them.

That break from the tradition of sharing program updates at the Navy’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition comes just days after the Navy announced that four of its most critical shipbuilding programs are years behind schedule.

The Navy’s top admiral and civilian secretary have still not responded to questions about a damning Navy report released Tuesday outlining the sweeping failure of the Navy and its industrial partners to make expected progress on two submarine programs, an aircraft carrier and a new class of frigates.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Navy Cancels Ship Briefings After Damning Internal Report

How a 100-Year-Old Law Changed American Immigration Policy Until This Day

7th April 2024

Read it.

n May 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed legislation, known as the Johnson-Reed Act, that severely restricted the number of immigrants by putting quotas on their country of origin, and completely excluded immigrants from Asia.

Among other things, the act brought to an end a historic migration of Jews to the United States, and set in place restrictions that would keep Jewish refugees out when the Nazis rose to power a decade later.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on How a 100-Year-Old Law Changed American Immigration Policy Until This Day

It Wasn’t Just Birx

7th April 2024

Power Line.

It Wasn’t Fauci: How the Deep State Really Played Trump, the documentary Scott recently posted, outs Deborah Birx as the villain in the Covid drama. The case is strong, but there’s a back story people should know.

In 1985, Birx began her career with the Department of Defense as a “military trained clinician in immunology, focusing on HIV/AIDS vaccine research.” That was the project of Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose bio showed no advanced degrees in biochemistry or molecular biology. In 1984, Fauci became head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the federal agency responsible for development of vaccines. Nobel laureate Kary Mullis, inventor of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), went on record that Fauci “doesn’t understand electron microscopy and he doesn’t understand medicine. He should not be in a position like he’s in.” But he was, controlling public health policy and spending on medical research, a huge concentration of power.

Fauci contended that AIDS was caused by HIV, a claim disputed by Mullis, Peter Duesberg, Charles A. Thomas, and other leading medical scientists in “The Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS Hypothesis.” See Duesberg’s Inventing the AIDS Virus, a virtual post-grad course in virology plus an exposure of Fauci.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on It Wasn’t Just Birx

“West Point Mafia” Has “Systematically Destroyed The Nation’s Maritime Strength”

6th April 2024

Read it.

Captain John Konrad, CEO of gCaptain, a website specializing in tracking the shipping industry, blames the “West Point Mafia” and decades of land wars in the Middle East for a hollowed-out US Navy that was entirely “unprepared” for the salvage operation of the collapsed 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland.

Konrad explained, “Truth is bridges are an Army Corps of Engineers responsibility but they are so unprepared they gave the job to Navy Salvage to lead. Navy salvage is so broken they had to outsource it to the US subsidiary/partner of a European firm which is chartering equipment from private companies at great expense.”

“And it’s the Army’s own fault. The West Point Mafia has systematically destroyed our nation’s maritime strength,” he said, adding that China would’ve had the Baltimore shipping channel “fully cleared in weeks,” not months (read more about the reopening timeline here).

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on “West Point Mafia” Has “Systematically Destroyed The Nation’s Maritime Strength”

SEC Forced To Halt Climate Reporting Mandate For Businesses

6th April 2024

Read it.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) paused the implementation of its climate disclosure requirements for companies as legal challenges against the rules are pending in a circuit court.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on SEC Forced To Halt Climate Reporting Mandate For Businesses

Uber versus Übermensch

6th April 2024

Power Line.

I want to strike a Nietzschean note in this comment on the rideshare ordinance enacted by the City of Minneapolis this past month. Under the ordinance, Uber and Lyft would be required to pay drivers a minimum rate of $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute to ensure that they earn the equivalent of local minimum wage of $15.57 per hour — effective May 1. The city council overrode the mayor’s veto to enact the ordinance.

Uber and Lyft would be required to comply with the ordinance, that is, if they are still around on May 1, but they will both be out of Minneapolis by then. Indeed, Uber will depart the entire Twin Cities metropolitan area.

Raise the minimum wage = destroy jobs. You’d think they would learn.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Uber versus Übermensch

Biden’s Plan sto Save the ‘Deep State’

6th April 2024

The Spectator.

The Biden administration is bracing for a second Trump term by rolling out a rule that would complicate Donald Trump’s pledge to fire tens of thousands of federal workers if he wins in November. The new rule is also a huge gift to the public-sector unions that Joe Biden needs firmly in his corner.

The latest edict, issued by the US Office of Personnel Management, is an almost direct response to Trump’s stated plans to purge the bureaucracy. That’s not how the OPM is framing it, of course; instead, OPM deputy director Rob Shriver said it “is about making sure the American public can continue to count on federal workers to apply their skills and expertise in carrying out their jobs, no matter their personal political beliefs.”

Those political beliefs caused never-ending ire in the Trump years, of course. One political appointee in the Trump administration relayed a story to The Spectator about how when his boss, a cabinet secretary, needed to have his color printer ink restored during the Covid-19 pandemic, he was stymied by career employees, who told him that the office needed to be vacated for ten days before they felt safe showing up to work. Despite several stages of escalation, the most they were willing to do was turn on a different printer on another level in the building. “There’s a career mindset that they were here before you and will outlast you,” he said.

Public employees are a huge component of the Democrat ‘base’.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Biden’s Plan sto Save the ‘Deep State’

“Oh Man, This Is Huge”: Video Revealed by Jan. 6 Defendant Raises Questions About Undercover Agents

5th April 2024

Read it.

Recently released Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Police security video shows a suspected FBI special agent clapping and cheering as crowds surged up steps to the Columbus Doors and another meeting with an FBI tactical team just before it entered the Capitol after the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt.

The videos were first identified by defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, in court filings in his own Jan. 6 criminal case. Exhibits Mr. Pope originally filed under seal have become public since the release of thousands of hours of Jan. 6 security video by the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on “Oh Man, This Is Huge”: Video Revealed by Jan. 6 Defendant Raises Questions About Undercover Agents

Afghanistan Evacuation Plans Were Drawn Up on the Fly as Chaos Consumed Kabul, New Testimony Reveals

4th April 2024

Read it.

U.S. State Department officials dispatched at the eleventh hour to assist in the Afghanistan evacuation updated tactics in real time as chaotic conditions on the ground rendered any prior planning meaningless, according to new testimony released Thursday.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Afghanistan Evacuation Plans Were Drawn Up on the Fly as Chaos Consumed Kabul, New Testimony Reveals

Biden Awards Low-Income Areas $20B for Clean Energy

4th April 2024

Read it.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator (EPA) Michael Regan Thursday announced eight organizations that will oversee the spending of $20 billion in grants to fund tens of thousands of clean energy and transportation projects in disadvantaged communities across the United States.

Not to mention buying thousands of votes for Democrats with taxpayer money.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Biden Awards Low-Income Areas $20B for Clean Energy

MTA Demands NYC Marathon Pay $750K in Bridge Tolls

4th April 2024

Read it.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is waging war against New York City Marathon organizers.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on MTA Demands NYC Marathon Pay $750K in Bridge Tolls

Seattle Public Schools Shuts Down Gifted and Talented Program for Being Oversaturated With White And Asian Students

4th April 2024

New York Post.

Seattle Public Schools is dismantling its gifted and talented program, which administrators argued was oversaturated with white and Asian students, in favor of a more “inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive” program.

The district began phasing out its Highly Capable Cohort schools and classrooms for advanced students in the 2021-22 school year due to racial inequities, the school district notes.

The program will completely cease to exist by the 2027-28 school year, with a new enrichment-for-all model available in every school by the 2024-25 school year.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Seattle Public Schools Shuts Down Gifted and Talented Program for Being Oversaturated With White And Asian Students

The Great Escape From Government Schools

4th April 2024

Read it.

After enduring bullshit school shutdowns during the COVID pandemic, many students concluded that school itself must be bullshit and have skipped attending classes. Government bureaucrats are panicking since subsidies are tied to the number of students’ butts in chairs each day. Duke University Professor Katie Rosanbalm lamented that, thanks to the pandemic, “Our relationship with school became optional.”

School absences have “exploded” almost everywhere, according to a New York Times report last week. Chronic absenteeism has almost doubled amongst public school students, rising from 15% pre-pandemic to 26% currently. Compulsory attendance laws are getting trampled far and wide.

The New York Times suggested that “something fundamental has shifted in American childhood and the culture of school, in ways that may be long lasting.” Connecticut Education Commissioner Charlene M. Russell-Tucker commented, “There is a sense of: ‘If I don’t show up, would people even miss the fact that I’m not there?’” The arbitrary, counterproductive school shutdowns destroyed the trust that many families had in the government education system.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on The Great Escape From Government Schools

Navy Reveals Major Shipbuilding Delays As Global War Risk Elevated

4th April 2024

Read it.

The US Navy released a rare assessment of its “shipbuilding challenges,” indicating that the first Columbia-class submarine, classified as the future cornerstone of America’s strategic deterrence, is facing delays, as are other next-generation vessels.

“The purpose of the review is to provide an assessment of national and local causes of shipbuilding challenges, as well as recommend actions for achieving a healthier US shipbuilding industrial base that provides combat capabilities that our warfighters need, on a schedule that is relevant,” the document states, as quoted by Breaking Defense.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Navy Reveals Major Shipbuilding Delays As Global War Risk Elevated

Iowa Repeals Gender Parity Rule for Governing Bodies

3rd April 2024

Read it.

An explicit requirement that Iowa’s state, county, and local decision-making bodies be balanced by gender was repealed Wednesday, a move that Gov. Kim Reynolds said was common sense but one that critics decried.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Iowa Repeals Gender Parity Rule for Governing Bodies

Jacky Rosen Wants to Block Lobbyists From Working in Congress. She Has a Penchant for Hiring Them.

3rd April 2024

Read it.

Senator Jacky Rosen says she wants to stop congressional staffers from becoming lobbyists, and vice versa. But her office is teeming with former lobbyists, and many of her former staffers have gone on to become lobbyists.

As part of her “efforts to clean up Washington,” the Nevada Democrat in March signed on to the Close the Revolving Door Act, which would ban former members of Congress from lobbying and boost restrictions on congressional staffers from becoming lobbyists and vice versa. Rosen says the bill would “reduce the influence of powerful special interests and their lobbyists in Congress by increasing transparency and accountability.”

But Rosen has helped keep the revolving door spinning since taking office in 2015. Rosen has hired several former lobbyists to serve as senior policy advisers since taking office in 2015, and she’s seen other staffers leave to start lucrative careers as lobbyists. Rosen has also accepted over $720,000 in campaign contributions from registered lobbyists, including nearly $35,000 from former lawmakers who became lobbyists upon leaving office.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Jacky Rosen Wants to Block Lobbyists From Working in Congress. She Has a Penchant for Hiring Them.

Automobile ‘Bidenvilles’ Are the New Shantytowns Amid US Housing Affordability Crisis

3rd April 2024

Read it.

When people couldn’t afford housing during the Great Depression, they built shantytowns from scrap construction supplies and named them “Hoovervilles,” after President Herbert Hoover. Today, Americans increasingly live out of their cars because they can’t afford housing. If history is any guide, will parking lots full of Americans soon be known as “Bidenvilles”?

The problem has gotten so bad that Sedona, Arizona, recently set aside a parking lot exclusively for these homeless workers. The city is even installing toilets and showers for the new occupants.

Apparently, the City Council thought installing temporary utilities was cheaper than solving the area’s cost-of-living crisis.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Automobile ‘Bidenvilles’ Are the New Shantytowns Amid US Housing Affordability Crisis

Looks Like Payback: DHS Targets Texas, Florida With Secret Migrant Flights

3rd April 2024

Read it.

The Biden administration is secretly using migrant flights to dump illegal aliens into the United States. It turns out that most of them are being flown into Florida and Texas.

Hmm. Is it a coincidence that two red states that are being vigilant in securing their borders are receiving 90% of the migrant flights? I don’t think so.

The Center for Immigration Studies analyzed available public information on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) website. It’s difficult to know the full picture since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refuses to publicly identify the dozens of international airports it has approved for direct flights from abroad for some inadmissible aliens.

My, what a surprise.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Looks Like Payback: DHS Targets Texas, Florida With Secret Migrant Flights

The Mystery of Your “Fair Share”

2nd April 2024

Power Line.

What is your fair share? They never do tell us.

Why so shy? We we can never quit worrying about their coming back for more. There is a reason they never tell us what our “fair share” is.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on The Mystery of Your “Fair Share”

M-16 Era Ends: Army’s 101st Airborne Division Receives Next-Gen Assault Rifles

2nd April 2024

Read it.

Army Futures Command announced last week that troops from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, have received the Army’s next-generation rifles and light machine guns chambered in a new 6.8mm round. These new weapons are replacing the decades-old M-4 and M-16 battle rifle platforms.

Military Times reports soldiers from 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell were handed XM7 Next Generation Rifle and XM250 Next Generation Automatic Rifle ahead of training in April.

Produced by firearm maker Sig Sauer, the XM7 is a 6.8×51mm gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle that replaces the M-4 carbine for close combat fighting. The XM250 is a 6.8×51mm gas-operated, belt-fed light machine gun that replaces the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW. Both rifles are chambered in 6.8×51mm, a new round for the Army that will increase range and improve lethality against the most advanced body armor used on the modern battlefield.

Anyone with a brain knew that the M16 sucked; the existence of a built-in forward assist is testimony to that. The fact that it has taken this long to replace it doesn’t give one much confidence in the competence of our government.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on M-16 Era Ends: Army’s 101st Airborne Division Receives Next-Gen Assault Rifles

Judge Orders Trump to Stop Exposing His Daughter’s Dem Fundraising

2nd April 2024

Read it.

Donald Trump must stop verbal attacks on family members of a New York judge and others in his upcoming trial on business transactions, the court ruled Monday, after the former president called out the judge’s daughter for being a Democrat fundraiser.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Judge Orders Trump to Stop Exposing His Daughter’s Dem Fundraising

The Biden White House’s Beltway Elitism Shows on Easter

2nd April 2024

The Spectator.

Among the many political advantages of the presidency, surely one is the ability to extend warm wishes to Christians, Jews and Muslims on their holidays. It’s a golden opportunity to invite a few for pictures at the White House and explain how much the holiday has always meant to you. Easy-peasy. For a Catholic president such as Joe Biden, expressing solidarity with co-religionists on Easter ought to be a well-practiced routine.

It took genuine incompetence and obtuseness for the Biden White House to muck up the chance to reach out to fellow Christians on the holiest day of their calendar. But that’s exactly what the White House did on Sunday — Easter Day — by stressing its strong backing for Transgender Day of Visibility. All they had say was, “We love trans people and we will celebrate Visibility Day on Monday this year.” But noooooooo. It’s hard to think of a more obvious train wreck a-comin’. But this White House ignored the flashing red lights, drove right onto the tracks and parked.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on The Biden White House’s Beltway Elitism Shows on Easter

California’s $20 Minimum Wage Law Takes Effect, Causing Confusion, Layoffs, and Price Hikes

2nd April 2024

Washington Free Beacon.

California’s $20 minimum wage for fast food workers became law Monday and quickly caused chaos, with pizza chains preparing to cut hundreds of employees, ice cream and pretzel shop franchisees struggling to learn if the law applies to them, and industry leaders eyeing price hikes in the state.

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) last week signed more carve-outs for the law, which already exempted bakeries and chains inside grocery stores, adding increased confusion over which franchisees must comply with the mandate.

The chaos over the law could deal a political blow to Newsom, who became the face of negotiating the $20 fast food wage as a “compromise” between unions and business interests. Newsom, whose approval ratings have tumbled in recent months, signed the legislation last September after a rushed and secretive process, but critics say the fallout is only beginning.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on California’s $20 Minimum Wage Law Takes Effect, Causing Confusion, Layoffs, and Price Hikes

Montanans Against Irresponsible Density

1st April 2024

The Antiplanner.

In what could be considered an April Fool’s joke, the Montana state legislature passed several laws mandating densification of cities. Apparently, the legislature believed the nation’s fourth-largest state, with the third-lowest population density, was running out of land and could only accommodate growth by building high-density apartment buildings in all major cities.

These laws were passed in response to a “housing crisis” that resulted when Bozeman (Gallatin County), Kalispell (Flathead County), and Missoula (Missoula County) passed the functional equivalent of urban-growth boundaries, making housing in those counties unaffordable (value-to-income ratios greater than 5 in 2022). Billings (Yellowstone County), Great Falls (Cascade County), and Helena (Lewis & Clark County) have not, and housing in those counties remains affordable (value-to-income ratios below 5 and mostly below 4).

In response to the “crisis” of unaffordable housing in three out of 56 counties, the legislature passed several laws requiring cities in the state, unaffordable or not, to allow accessory dwelling units in single-family zones, high-density housing projects, and other imagined remedies. This led to the formation of Montanans Against Irresponsible Densification, which filed a lawsuit to overturn those laws.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Montanans Against Irresponsible Density

In Easter Ruling, Judge Orders Release of ‘Border Riot’ Migrants Who Overwhelmed National Guard

1st April 2024

Read it.

A group of migrants involved in a riot at the southern US border have been ordered to be released by an El Paso magistrate judge.

The swarm of migrants overwhelmed Texas National Guard soldiers who were trying to organize them into groups to be taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At one point, a migrant attempted to grab a soldier’s firearm, one National Guard source told the NY Post.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on In Easter Ruling, Judge Orders Release of ‘Border Riot’ Migrants Who Overwhelmed National Guard

Watch: Denver Official Caught on Tape Begging Illegals to Leave the City

1st April 2024

Read it.

A top Denver official was caught on tape in a local migrant shelter begging illegals to go to other cities, as Denver – a so-called ‘sanctuary city,’ can’t support them.

“The opportunities are over,” said Mayor Mike Johnson’s political director Andres Carrera, who also serves as the city’s Newcomer Communications Liaison, in an exchange with newly arrived migrants.

“New York gives you more. Chicago gives you more. So I suggest you go there where there is longer-term shelter. There are also more job opportunities there,” Carrera continues in the video obtained by 9News.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Watch: Denver Official Caught on Tape Begging Illegals to Leave the City

Navy Makes Shocking Aircraft Carrier Decision While China Threat Rises

1st April 2024

Read it.

But the facts are even worse. Delaying aircraft carriers courts disaster at a time when their deterrence value is higher than ever. The Navy has a budget plan for new aircraft carriers that can launch drones, carry lasers and face down China, but President Joe Biden’s budget took out so much money that the whole aircraft carrier plan may fall apart.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Navy Makes Shocking Aircraft Carrier Decision While China Threat Rises

Biden’s Gaza Pier Plan Puts U.S. Troops in ‘Harm’s Way’

31st March 2024

Read it.

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union vow to build a humanitarian pier for Gaza had good intentions perhaps, but it effectively makes American troops targets for terrorist attacks in the unstable region, experts continue to warn.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Biden’s Gaza Pier Plan Puts U.S. Troops in ‘Harm’s Way’

Freeloading Illegal Alien TikToker Who Urged Followers to Invade US Homes, Waved Cash Arrested by ICE

31st March 2024

Read it.

Leonel Moreno, the illegal alien known as the “migrant influencer,” who amassed a half million followers on TikTok, was finally arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday in Gahanna, Ohio, according to Epoch Times.

In a series of short videos on TikTok, Moreno bragged about receiving ‘stacks of cash’ from American taxpayers and urged other illegal aliens to take advantage of all the free money progressives were handing out. He has thanked “Papa Biden” for the free cash.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Freeloading Illegal Alien TikToker Who Urged Followers to Invade US Homes, Waved Cash Arrested by ICE

Kamala Harris and the Art of Failing Up

31st March 2024

Washington Free Beacon.

Reading an account of Kamala Harris’s political career is like examining the stalled career of a can’t-miss baseball prospect struggling to hit major league pitching. In Charlie Spiering’s new biography of the vice president, Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House, the book portrays Harris as a hyped candidate who consistently makes egregious missteps to the point that being a heartbeat away from the presidency is giving Democratic operatives heartburn.

There are two things clear about Harris after reading Spiering’s account: She’s a cautious politician who reflects conventional progressive thinking. She’s also shown consistently poor judgment about the direction of American politics, particularly in her role as a national figure, tacking far to the left as a senator and during her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign and later, serving as an emissary to the left in the White House, even when her political fortunes demanded a broader appeal.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Kamala Harris and the Art of Failing Up

Impeachable Offenses

31st March 2024

Power Line.

For some months now, Chairman James Comer and his House Oversight and Accountability Committee have patiently been assembling evidence of Joe Biden’s corruption. This has been done largely out of public view, not because the proceedings have been in any way secret but because the Democratic Party press has, for the most part, acknowledged the investigation only in order to jeer at it.

In fact, though, the evidence of Biden’s guilt is clear. The committee has traced $24 million in payments by foreign entities into Biden family bank accounts. No discernible services–legal services, that is–were provided in exchange for those payments, and some of the money went to individuals who could not plausibly have provided such valuable services, like Hallie Biden.

The press has often mischaracterized the issue as whether Joe Biden was involved in his son Hunter’s businesses. To which the logical question is, what businesses are those? Hunter has not run any business that manufactures products or provides services–other than Joe’s, of course. The only business Hunter and James Biden engaged in was influence peddling. And in all likelihood the $24 million we know about is only a portion of the Biden family’s ill-gotten gains.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Impeachable Offenses

Joe Biden Faces ‘Clear’ Evidence He Lied in Impeachment Probe—Attorney

31st March 2024

Newsweek.

According to legal analyst and attorney Jonathan Turley, President Joe Biden faces “clear” evidence he lied amid his impeachment inquiry.

In December, the House of Representatives voted to launch an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden in a 221-212 vote, with members voting along party lines. Republicans allege that while serving as vice president under President Barack Obama, Biden used his influence to improperly support the business activities of his son, from which they suggest he gained financially. The president has said he had no involvement with Hunter’s business dealings

Republican Rep. James Comer proposed in a letter Thursday that Biden appear on April 16 to testify before the committee. Comer cited testimony at last week’s public hearing from former business associates of Hunter Biden — Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis — in which Comer said their testimony contradicted statements the president has made about his involvement in his son’s business dealings.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Joe Biden Faces ‘Clear’ Evidence He Lied in Impeachment Probe—Attorney

Why the Department of Justice Wants to Take Down Apple

30th March 2024

Read it.

On the face of it, the antitrust action against Apple is about their secure communications network. The Justice Department wants the company to share their services with other networks. As with so many other antitrust actions in history, this is really about the government’s taking sides in competitive disputes between companies, in this case Samsung and other smartphone providers. They resent the way Apple products all work together. They want that changed.

The very notion that the government is trying to protect consumers in this case is preposterous. Apple is a success not because they are exploitative but because they make products that users like, and they like them so much that they buy ever more. It’s not uncommon that a person gets an iPhone and then a Macbook, an iPad, and then AirPods. All play well together.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Why the Department of Justice Wants to Take Down Apple

Heart-Scarring Detected Over 1 Year After COVID-19 Vaccination: Studies

29th March 2024

Read it.

Heart scarring was detected more than one year after COVID-19 vaccination in some people who suffered myocarditis following receipt of a shot, researchers reported in new studies.

A third of 60 patients with follow-up cardiac imaging done more than 12 months after their myocarditis diagnosis had persistent late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), which is, in the majority of cases, reflective of heart scarring, Australian researchers reported in a preprint of a new study, published on March 22.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Heart-Scarring Detected Over 1 Year After COVID-19 Vaccination: Studies

How the Federal Reserve Created an American Caste System

28th March 2024

The Foundry.

In 1913, Woodrow Wilson and his progressives promised that the Federal Reserve would avert both depressions and inflation, while preventing the wealthy from controlling America’s financial markets at the expense of the poor.

More than a century later, it’s clear that was all a lie, and the Fed has helped create a permanent American underclass.

The Fed was designed to transfer wealth from the American people to the government, mostly through the hidden tax of inflation. But this process has prevented countless American families from being able to save and get ahead, because their savings are constantly losing value.

The purchasing power of the U.S. dollar is just about 10% of what it was when I got my first job out of college in 1978.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on How the Federal Reserve Created an American Caste System

Virginia Governor Vetos 30 Gun Bills That Would ‘Punish’ Law-Abiding Citizens

28th March 2024

Read it.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) took action on 67 bills on Tuesday, including vetoing 30 that he said would “punish” law-abiding citizens and impinge on their 2nd Amendment rights.

“I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of Virginia, and that absolutely includes protecting the right of law-abiding Virginians to keep and bear arms,” Mr. Youngkin said in a statement.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Virginia Governor Vetos 30 Gun Bills That Would ‘Punish’ Law-Abiding Citizens

Blue State Blues: Ritzy DC Neighborhood Sees Yet More Crime

28th March 2024

Read it.

A studio apartment at the upscale Illume apartments in DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood currently rents for $1,747 a month. The complex boasts rooftop pools, “luxe quartz countertops with modern tile backsplashes” and the chance to “pamper your pup at Luna’s pet spa.” Not mentioned on its sleekly designed website: “escaping gunmen running through the courtyard.”

“We have been informed by the police that there is an armed suspect in the area,” the building emailed residents Tuesday afternoon. “We strongly advise all residents to stay inside their home with the door locked until further notice.”

A statement from the Capitol Police said, “Our patrol officers spotted a vehicle that was connected to a previous shooting that occurred in MPD’s 2nd District. The people, who were near the car, ran into an apartment complex.”

A SWAT team arrived on the scene. Footage from residents shows a young African-American man in a light-colored hoodie running through the courtyard after passing through a fob-accessed door.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Blue State Blues: Ritzy DC Neighborhood Sees Yet More Crime

Afghan Generals: Biden Decision to Cancel Trump Troop Order Doomed Afghanistan

27th March 2024

Read it.

President Joe Biden’s decision to undo Donald Trump’s order to leave 2,500 U.S. special operations troops, CIA officers, and contractors in Afghanistan sealed the country’s fate and its collapse in August 2021, Afghanistan’s exiled top generals told Newsmax.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Afghan Generals: Biden Decision to Cancel Trump Troop Order Doomed Afghanistan

US Intel Agency Wants to Ban Terms ‘Radical Islamists’ and ‘Jihadist’ Because They’re Hurtful to Muslim Americans

27th March 2024

Read it.

The United States’ top intelligence agency wants to ban its spies from using “biased language,” including the terms “radical Islamists” and “jihadist,” saying these words “are hurtful to Muslim-Americans and detrimentally impact our efforts as they bolster extremist rhetoric,” according to a language guide published internally.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which is responsible for handling the country’s spy apparatus, seeks to ban a range of common terms because it says they offend Muslims and foment racism against employees. In addition to terms describing Islamic terrorists, ODNI instructs employees to avoid phrases such as “blacklisted,” “cakewalk,” “brown bag,” “grandfathered,” and “sanity check.”

“Blacklisted,” for instance, “implies black is bad and white is good,” while “cakewalk” is said to refer “to a dance performed by slaves for slave owners on plantation grounds.” “Brown bag,” a term most often used to describe a paper bag that holds one’s lunch, actually “refers to the ‘brown bag’ test practices in the 20th century within the African American community,” according to ODNI, which outlined these terms in an internal magazine produced by the agency’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on US Intel Agency Wants to Ban Terms ‘Radical Islamists’ and ‘Jihadist’ Because They’re Hurtful to Muslim Americans

Mexican President Says the ‘Flow of Migrants Will Continue’ Unless the U.S. Meets His Demands

27th March 2024

Read it.

So we are effecctively at war with Mexico. Except that only one side is fighting.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Mexican President Says the ‘Flow of Migrants Will Continue’ Unless the U.S. Meets His Demands