Archive for the 'Your tax dollars at work – and play.' Category
3rd November 2022
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The National Education Association was caught spending 9% of its budget on member assistance and 50% on various political programs. Teachers’ unions have become enormously powerful by turning their membership and their resources into assets for the Democrats.
Democrats have generously returned the favor by negotiating favorable contracts and allowing teachers’ unions to dismantle the educational system, including shutting down schools for an extended period during the pandemic, eliminating standards in favor of promotion and turning a blind eye to sex abuse. While the shutdown of schools traumatized a generation, leading to increased suicide rates, loss of learning skills, social decline and even higher crime rates, school sex abuse is an ongoing crisis that targets a narrower population of abused students.
That doesn’t mean that the damage is any less.
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2nd November 2022
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2nd November 2022
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Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., is calling on the Small Business Administration to explain why it forgave $67 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates—loans that these abortion clinics should never have gotten in the first place.
In a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal, Tenney and her Republican colleagues told Inspector General Hannibal “Mike” Ware that the Small Business Administration “decided to forgive” 38 Paycheck Protection Program loans given “in violation of the guidelines set by Congress” to Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Those loans totaled at about $67 million, the letter said.
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1st November 2022
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30th October 2022
Illegal immigration set records this year, but Democrats kept border funding flat (Fox)
With a possible surge of Haitian migrants ahead, the Biden admin is weighing holding them in a third country or Guantanamo (NBC) This appears to be the Deep State playbook: (1) Stick our nose into the business of some foreign country; (2) Act totally surprised when it goes badly wrong; (3) Open the borders to the hordes who immediately head for the U.S. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Biden Claims There Are ’54 States’ In Latest Gaffe Well, in addition to the normal fifty, he’s got Confusion, Denial, Dementia, and Corruption.
Russia’s Lavrov Needles Biden Over Cuban Missile Crisis and Ukraine
Fentanyl Strikes the West Coast, Killing Thousands
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30th October 2022
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A politicized Department of Justice is hunting down enemies of the state in the form of pro-life activists, parents concerned about the sexualization of their children at public schools, and supporters of his presidential opponent. All are now labeled “domestic terrorists.”
The government is colluding with big tech to silence views contrary to the official government positions; preventing them from being voiced on social media platforms. Dissent from “accepted” positions on public health, transgender issues, vote fraud, and the mental acuity of the President are censored by social media with the collusion of the government. Gun control is a priority of this government as is increased taxation.
Yet all is not lost. The censors are being challenged in the courts, with people fired or canceled for unpopular views being restored to their jobs. Yesterday, Elon Musk took over Twitter, firing its chief censor. He is opening the platform to all opinions. Most importantly, a week from this upcoming Tuesday, voters get their opportunity to weigh in. They can replace their elected representatives, sending the ones favoring silencing political opponents with ones favoring free debate of the issues.
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29th October 2022
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29th October 2022
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27th October 2022
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While the pandemic is over, the privilege of the political pajama class isn’t.
“Get a government job!” — John Derbyshire
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26th October 2022
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26th October 2022
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“Get a government job!” — John Derbyshire
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26th October 2022
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With the Navy’s eyes set on achieving a goal well above Congress’ mandated 355 manned warships, the American shipbuilding industry has a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the industry’s current state doesn’t offer much hope for meeting those goals, let alone sustaining a modestly larger fleet.
In a 2021 report on U.S. defense supply chains, The Heritage Foundation’s Maiya Clark explained what is called a “Fragility and Criticality” assessment. That’s a tool used by the Department of Defense to identify and mitigate weaknesses in the defense industrial base.
Fragility can be understood as how likely disruption is to a certain “product or service,” while criticality indicates how difficult it would be to replace the item.
Applying that tool to U.S. Navy shipbuilding reveals that America is a far cry from its former status as a major shipbuilder.
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25th October 2022
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The Justice Department’s effort to win the witnesses’ cooperation shows how the investigation stemming from the classified materials found at Mar-a-Lago is entering a new phase.
Yes, the ‘suborning witnesses’ phase of the witch-hunt.
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23rd October 2022
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22nd October 2022
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21st October 2022
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20th October 2022
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19th October 2022
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19th October 2022
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Hillary Clinton’s 1996 groomer handbook It Takes a Village made the case that parents can’t do it alone; you need an active and involved community to raise your children for with you. “We all depend on other adults whom we know—from teachers to doctors to neighbors to pastors—and on those whom we may not—from police to firefighters to employers to media producers [!] to political leaders—to help us inform, support, or protect our children.”
Increasingly, however, the only danger the Village wants to protect your own kids from is YOU.
America’s Favorite Supervillain, Governor Gavin Newsom, just legalized child kidnapping in California.
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18th October 2022
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17th October 2022
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17th October 2022
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This week a lawsuit against the CDC has given us access to some of the V-safe data. This is the smartphone app created by the CDC that lets you register for the vaccine and report side effects and other health information. As with any user-reported data, it should be taken with a grain of salt, but there are people who argue that reporting systems like this and VAERS undercount adverse events because most people don’t bother reporting. Either way, this is data that the CDC has been sitting on and only released due to a recent court order.
The data provided is from 10.1 million users and the headline number is 7.7% of those required medical attention after vaccination. It is such an absurdly high number that if I was working at the CDC, I would insist it was incorrect and there must be something wrong with the software. It will be very interesting moving forward to know how many employees were privy to this information or if there was any internal debate about releasing or debunking it. Data like this would create a liability nightmare, that is if liability existed for such a thing.
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17th October 2022
ZMan reads the tea leaves.
Is the Biden administration planning to use tactical nuclear weapons against the Russians in defense of Ukraine? It should be unthinkable but we live in an age in which the most offensive and absurd is celebrated, so we can no longer assume anything, no matter how monstrous, is beyond the pale. The bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines was an outlandish act of provocation, so we cannot assume there is anyone in the admiration on the side of restraint.
The first clue that the Biden people are talking about the use of nuclear weapons is their endless talking about the use of nuclear weapons. For months they have been talking about it, in the context of the Russians threatening to use nukes. The trouble is, the Russians have never threatened to use nuclear weapons. Western media keeps making this claim, but an examination of the record shows that Russian officials have repeatedly said the exact opposite.
It is a well known aspect of regime psychology to project what they are doing or plotting onto some enemy of the regime. In 2016 we got the Russian collusion hoax in which Trump was accused of plotting with foreigners to rig the election. What we eventually learned is that it was the regime that was working with foreign intelligence services to not only rig the election but undermine the Trump administration. The opposite rule is an iron law of understanding regime behavior.
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17th October 2022
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Periodically the problem becomes an issue for Congress and a “reform law” is passed that does not work. Despite that every few years there is a major effort, often involving more than one service, to deal with the problem themselves. None ever succeed. For example, in 2017 the U.S. Air Force joined the Navy by continuing to extend temporary exceptions to the traditional (since 1947) “up or out” policy prevalent throughout the American military. What up or out meant was that if you were not promoted within a certain number of years (of your last promotion), you had to leave. That meant capable, often very capable personnel, especially NCOs and mid-rank officers, with jobs that had little opportunity for promotion were often forced to leave because of this rule. The air force, like the other services, are slowly modifying the “up or out” rule so that it at least becomes tolerable and not counterproductive.
Whenever there were major reductions in military personnel (after World War II, Korea and Vietnam) it was common for a lot of very competent NCOs and officers to be “up or outed so, since the last major round of downsizing in the 1990s, all the services sought more ways to avoid losing skilled personnel who being lost for no other reason than that there were no opportunities for promotion in their military occupation specialties (MOS). After 2001 the navy and air force were hardest hit and both services have implemented temporary adjustments to “up or out” rules to keep people they could not afford to lose and could not easily replace by retraining veteran personnel in other fields or obtaining new recruits with the needed skills and experience.
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16th October 2022
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15th October 2022
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15th October 2022
The Other McCain is not impressed.
This week marked the beginning of the end of “The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, more commonly known as the January 6th Committee.”
Congress has now adjourned until after the election, which Democrats will lose, and so, while we might see some further theatrics during the lame-duck sessions before the 118th Congress convenes in January, this was their big finale: “Let’s subpoena Trump!”
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14th October 2022
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14th October 2022
Where does the Constitution authorize the Federal government to spend money on Education? On Welfare? On Health Care? On Pensions? Don’t sweat the arrival of socialism: It’s already here.
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13th October 2022
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For all the talk of the world being on the verge of nuclear war courtesy of the dementia patient in the White House, a real life financial nuke just went off at 8:30am when the BLS reported a shocking CPI print so unexpectedly hot (a 2.9-sigma upside surprise to consensus), that even the bears were shocked. The result was… well, an absolute disaster doesn’t even begin to cut it.
I guess Janet Yellen was wrong; the economy is not in good shape at all.
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13th October 2022
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My favorite part of this story is how the French company hired to help build California’s High-Speed Choo-Choo ultimately quit in frustration. Essentially, they said, “California, your government is too corrupt and dysfunctional, so we’re going to work with an African country instead.”
The even better part; the African high-speed train was completed in 2018. California’s project might get done near the end of this century, if it gets done at all.
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13th October 2022
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It appears US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has some very concerning short-term memory problems, just like her boss.
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13th October 2022
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The richest counties in America are the ones that surround Washington, D.C. The high-income people who live in those suburbs are mostly lobbyists, lawyers, consultants, and others who profit from trillions in government spending. But an investigation by the Wall Street Journal suggests that plenty of high-level bureaucrats are also profiting improperly from their government jobs.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
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12th October 2022
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12th October 2022
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The next time a hurricane develops it should be named Kamala, in honor of our vice president. Why Kamala, you ask? Because, like a hurricane, Kamala Harris is sometimes difficult to track, her direction is often unpredictable and the damage she causes can be substantial.
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11th October 2022
Heather Mac Donald points out that the Biden move won’t actually let anybody out of prison.
Even though federal marijuana possession convictions are a proxy for serious dealing, there is at present no one even serving time in federal prison for marijuana possession. In 2017, only 92 people were sentenced on federal marijuana possession charges, out of nearly 20,000 drug convictions, reports the New York Times. The Biden marijuana initiative is intended to remind the Democratic base that the party remains committed to the systemic racism narrative, recent gestures about “refunding the police” notwithstanding.
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10th October 2022
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— The IRS has stockpiled 4,500 guns and 5 million rounds of ammunition in recent years, including 621 shotguns, 539 long-barrel rifles, and 15 submachine guns. If true, an explanation is needed so that conspiracy theories don’t multiply.
— The Veterans Administration purchased 11 million rounds of ammunition (equivalent to 2,800 rounds for each of its officers), along with camouflage uniforms, riot helmets and shields, specialized image enhancement devices, and tactical lighting. That’s ironic since many veterans used weapons to defend the nation. Are they now seen as potential enemies of the government many of them fought for?
— The Department of Health and Human Services acquired 4 million rounds of ammunition, in addition to 1,300 guns, including five submachine guns and 189 automatic firearms for its Office of Inspector General.
— According to an in-depth Rutherford Institute report on “The Militarization of the U.S. Executive Agencies,” the Social Security Administration secured 800,000 rounds of ammunition for its special agents, as well as armor and guns. Seniors beware!
— The Environmental Protection Agency owns 600 guns. And the Smithsonian Institution now employs 620-armed “special agents.” You’d better not get near those dinosaurs, or litter the highway, or else.
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10th October 2022
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9th October 2022
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9th October 2022
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The Minnesota State College and University System (“MnSCU”) includes 37 colleges and universities around the state, and trains a large majority of Minnesota’s law enforcement officers. Only you can’t call them “law enforcement” anymore.
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7th October 2022
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The Washington Post is out this afternoon with news that “federal agents” have sufficient evidence to charge Hunter Biden with “tax crimes” and making false statements related to a gun purchase.
There are some telltale oddities to the story. It describes the source or sources as “people familiar with the situation.” People? What kind of people? The story does not specify whether these “familiar people” are with the FBI, IRS, ATF, or other federal agency. It merely says “investigators with multiple agencies. . . who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.” Looks as though the Post reporters don’t want to risk a specific agency source becoming the target of a leak investigation. Or that the leaking source demanded this vague identification.
Given the practice of the Justice Department never to bring charges on politically sensitive cases within 90 days of an election so as to avoid allegations of partisanship, it is doubtful we will see any official announcement as a result of this story. So why did someone want to leak this out now? Perhaps someone in the FBI or Justice Department is concerned with the plummeting public respect for these agencies, and thinks it would be useful to show that they aren’t partisan. Or it is also possible that someone in the FBI or Justice doesn’t want the Hunter Biden investigation swept under the rug, even though the investigation is being supervised (supposedly) by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, who is a holdover Trump appointee.
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5th October 2022
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says state’s migrant crisis needs ‘federal solution’ Oh, like maybe a wall at the southern border?
Biden, Harris say ‘extremist Republicans’ and the Supreme Court are creating a ‘health care crisis’
Arrested looters in Lee County were in US illegally, says sheriff: ‘Not tolerating it’
Biden administration wants federal government to be diversity, equity model for the nation
DHS IG report outlines how Border Patrol facilities in Del Rio Sector were overwhelmed by migrant surge
Border officials count 599,000 ‘gotaway’ migrants in Fiscal Year 2022: source
Harris, on Asia trip, promotes a political priority — women’s rights (Washington Post)
FBI undercounts number of times armed citizens have thwarted active shooting incidents: report
US Army Recruitment Falters – Misses Goal By 25% As Woke Ideology Takes Over
OMG—TV Art Has Imitated Life
GOP seizes on Biden gaffes to attack competence (The Hill) Duh. What are they supposed to do?
Mark Houck Attorney: Garland Must Explain to Family Why Their Father Was Arrested by Men With Guns
Parks and Devastation
Biden Calls Dave Ramsey’s Radio Show For Advice On Paying Off $31 Trillion (Babylon Bee)
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4th October 2022
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3rd October 2022
Native American tribes dependent on fossil fuel resources rip Biden admin for double standard (Fox)
VP Kamala Harris dodges question asking about dispersing Hurricane Ian relief based on ‘equity’
Biden continues to compare student loan handout to PPP, slams Republicans as hypocrites
Biden thanks Coast Guard rescuer for hurricane heroics days before firing over vaccine policy
Kamala Harris Remains True to Doctrine of Unequal Treatment
Biden to Announce $60 Million in Hurricane Aid for Puerto Rico Buying votes with YOUR money.
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3rd October 2022
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A recent staff presentation to the Washington Metro board’s finance committee revealed that the agency is expecting to run out of federal COVID relief funds in 2024 and anticipates a $187.5 million shortfall in funding that year. From then on, it anticipates funding shortfalls of more than $500 million a year, rising to more than $700 million by 2030.
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3rd October 2022
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How many more times must we endure these spiteful outbursts from a president who promised to unite the country?
How much longer must we cringe as he reads “end of quote, repeat the line” off the teleprompter?
How many times must we wince as he ad-libs recklessly in a speech about international tinderboxes, like Russia, Ukraine, the Nord Stream pipeline, or Taiwan?
How much longer must we watch him wandering around lost on stage after giving a speech, appearing to shake imaginary hands or gesture to invisible staff?
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2nd October 2022
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1st October 2022
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1st October 2022
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California apparently didn’t get the Biden Administration memo about the good news of falling gasoline prices. Here’s the price chart for my local gas station on Monday:
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1st October 2022
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The Federal Trade Commission has sued the retail giant, seeking civil penalties in what Walmart is calling “an egregious instance of agency overreach” undertaken in spite of a “lack of constitutional or statutory authority.”
The FTC alleges that Walmart did not do enough to protect its customers from scams run by money-transfer services offered inside the company’s stores.
Walmart has responded to the FTC’s lawsuit by challenging the agency’s very constitutionality, and its argument could affect the legal status not only of the FTC, but of other agencies across the administrative state.
This could be huge.
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