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Seventeen political Obama appointments across eight different agencies converted to career positions without receiving the required Office of Personnel Management (OPM) approval.

After President Obama leaves the White House on Jan. 20, 2017, over 4,000 of his political appointees also vacate their government offices as well. Federal employees prepare for new administrations by converting some of the outgoing White House’s political appointees to permanent career civil servants.

According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had the most unapproved political to career conversions with six, followed by Health and Human Services (HHS) with three, and the Department of Energy (DOE) with two.

All of these agencies made seven of these conversions in 2010, when OPM’s previous approval policy was first established, and made two conversions in 2015 (through October 1).

As Jerry Pournelle is fond of saying, the purpose of government is to hire and pay government workers.

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So much for scientific ‘consensus’. (I must admit to having been a Saturated Fat Denier.)

Everything bad is good for you.

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Anybody who traumatizes Cher can’t be all bad.

(What’s Cher doing at a ‘World Youth Summit’? I know millennials are ignorant but surely they realize that she’s old enough to be one of their grandmothers.)

Read it. And watch the video.

Obviously the old playbook of the totalitarian party isn’t as effective as it used to be.

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Highlights
• First use of representative sample to measure non-citizen voting in USA.
• Some non-citizens cast votes in U.S. elections despite legal bans.
• Non-citizens favor Democratic candidates over Republican candidates.
• Non-citizen voting likely changed 2008 outcomes including Electoral College votes and the composition of Congress.
• Voter photo-identification rules have limited effect on non-citizen participation.

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“I have my home up for sale now because I live alone in a huge home on 23 acres. It’s just an absolutely gorgeous place,” Broaddrick says.

“I’ve loved it all these years but I just don’t feel safe anymore.”

Broaddrick says she will be building a home on her son’s property.
She adds she will fear for her life even more if Hillary Clinton becomes president.

“Especially if she does become president, I’ll fear even more the retribution I might suffer,” Broaddrick said.

She has been vocal during the presidential campaign and has been speaking out about the role Hillary played in silencing her.

Mollie Hemmingway digs the dirt.

One of the interesting things about the public relations blitz to make Sandra Fluke a household name in order to advance a key Democratic campaign theme was how everyone complying with the public relations blitz pretended it was organic. Very few journalists admitted they were running a story pre-packaged by the country’s most Democrat-aligned public relations firm, the firm that was also behind Planned Parenthood’s wildly successful destruction campaign against the Komen Foundation (as described here). Instead, they all pretended that a fresh-faced little law student just happened to find herself in the middle of a media maelstrom. The media’s talking points matched those of the Obama administration-staffed public relations firm down from start to finish.

An innocent, random young woman was victimized by mean old Republican men. Sound familiar? It should.

Female chess players from around world outraged after being told to wear hijabs at tournament in Tehran

18 ISIS leaders recently killed ahead of expected Mosul operation, US military says

Iraqi grandmother ‘decapitated Isis fighters and cooked their heads’ to avenge her family’s death

Italian Region Passes ‘Anti-Mosque Laws’ To Stop Constructions

ISIS Has A New Coloring Book For Kids, Featuring A Suicide Vest And AK-47

Pair spotted taking bag holding pressure cooker in NYC now believed to be in Middle East. Oh, ya think?

Islamic State loses control of last oil wells in Iraq: oil ministry

FBI Director Warns Of A ‘Terrorist Diaspora’ That Will Soon Hit The US

Five ISIS Operatives Across Three Countries Busted In Euro Terror Cell

Switzerland moves towards nationwide burqa ban as draft law approved in parliament

Mosque Bombed In Germany, Police ‘Assume A Xenophobic Motive’

Saudi Arabian women file petition with over 14,500 signatures to end male guardianship

ISIS ‘dead set’ on using chemical weapons, US military official says

170 refugees who drowned off Egypt coast ‘do not deserve sympathy’, Egyptian MP says

16-Year-Old Girl Sets Herself On Fire To Prevent ISIS Rape

Two women detained on suspicion of planning terror attack in France

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau resurfaces in new video after being ‘fatally wounded’

Yvette Cooper calls on Jeremy Corbyn to take action after she is threatened with beheading

Jordanian writer accused of sharing cartoon that offended Muslims shot dead

France to relocate refugees and migrants ‘within weeks’ in bid to close Calais Jungle camp

Muslim woman leaves job after being told to shake hands with male colleagues

Man who murdered Glasgow shopkeeper for ‘disrespecting Islam’ calls for beheadings in prison YouTube video

Muslim woman attacked and bitten in Vienna ‘for wearing hijab’

Ahmad Khan Rahami: Blood-soaked journal shows New York bombing suspect was inspired by Isis

Teenage Christian boy arrested for sharing ‘blasphemous’ Facebook post in Pakistan

Muslim boat captain accused of murdering six Christian refugees by throwing them overboard

The Case for Isolating Pakistan

Swiss Court Orders Muslim Students To Shake Hands With Women Or Pay $5000

Hungarian PM Wants To ‘Round Up’ All Migrants And Put Them On An Island

Pentagon: ISIS Tried To Gas US Troops In Iraq

20 Islamic Militants Drop Guns And Surrender, Weakening Radical Grip On The Philippines

If You’re a Copt, Mocking ISIS is the Same as Mocking Islam

Syrian refugee ‘threw three children out of first-floor window because his wife wanted more freedom’ in Germany

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Great book? There’s a game for that.

Remember that Tom Clancy’s novel Red Storm Rising was taken from the Harpoon game.

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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Jihad attacks using cars and trucks are becoming more and more common in Europe. We’ve seen them in the past in France, Britain, Germany, Austria, and probably other countries I’m not remembering. The most notorious such incident so far was the massacre in Nice back in July, which killed more than eighty people.

The latest instance of vehicular jihad occurred in Vienna yesterday. The amazing thing about it is that no one was actually hurt.

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Environmentalists always guffaw if you suggest they want us all to go back to living in caves, but the consequent logic of their practical positions certainly points that way.

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In a statement, Infiniti said the 2.0-liter, four-cylinder power plant “promises to be one of the most advanced internal-combustion engines ever created.”

The VC stands for variable compression, and it means that the new motor can modulate its compression ratio to optimize its performance. According to Infiniti, it combines the torque of a diesel motor with a high-performance gas engine — minus the emissions problems that small-displacement diesels confront.

The VC-Turbo is to engines what a continuously variable transmission is to shifting gears: It can locate the ideal compression ratio for a given driving condition. Infiniti has been working on the technology for 20 years and thinks it will enable the automaker to offer better performance with a four-cylinder motor, replacing six-cylinder power plants.

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In the latest bombshell from Congress’ probe into what’s looking more and more like an FBI whitewash (or coverup) of criminal behavior by the Democratic nominee and her aides, the Denver-based tech who destroyed subpoenaed emails from Clinton’s server allegedly lied to FBI agents after he got an immunity deal.

That’s normally a felony. As a federal prosecutor, Comey tossed Martha Stewart in jail for it and helped convict Scooter Libby for it as well. Yet the key Clinton witness still maintained his protection from criminal prosecution.

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In the next few years, self-driving cars, health-care robots, machine learning, and other technology will complement many workers in the office. Counting both humans and machines, the world’s labor force will be able to do more work than ever before. But this abundance of workers—both those made of cells and those made of bits—could create a glut of labor. The machines may render many humans as redundant as so many vintage washing machines.

Once again, what once seems like abundance will instead be over-supply: The machines may invent their makers out of work.

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By all means watch the video.

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A new synthetic material called hyperelastic bone, or HB, could be “the next breakthrough” in reconstructive surgery, new research shows. The HB can be implanted under the skin as a scaffold for new bone to grow on, or used to replace lost bone matter altogether. Though it hasn’t been tested in humans yet, early experiments on animals appear to have been successful, with “quite astounding” results, according to the researchers.

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Five years ago, during the first rush of the “Arab Spring”, the vast bulk of the migrants who attempted the sea crossing to Lampedusa came from Tunisia and Libya. Later, after the United States fomented the civil war in Syria, Syrian and Iraqi “refugees” became more numerous. When the Aegean became the preferred route, and especially after German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited all the Syrians to come, every Middle Eastern Muslim who wanted to come to Europe transformed himself into a “Syrian”.

Until recently, Egyptians were not prominent among the migrants. All that seems to be changing — a traffickers’ boat from Egypt recently capsized in the Mediterranean, and 162 people drowned. As always, this sort of story tugs the heartstrings of Westerners, and now the attention of the Gutmenschen is focused on Egypt.

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Texas Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson recently accused her Republican colleagues of “acting as an opposition research arm” for Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign.

Read it.

And by all means watch the video.

It’s a short one.

Wherever I go around this country, there’s a question that everybody asks: Why should I vote for you rather than Hillary Clinton?

Well, I can give you one reason. Over the last thirty years I’ve built a lot of businesses and grown a lot of businesses, and had thousands of people working for me. Not one of those people has ever died because of something I did. Hillary Clinton can’t say that. Not one of those people has ever had his dead naked body paraded around the back alleys of a Third World shithole while the enemies of America celebrated.

Hillary Clinton can’t say that.

Hey, I’ll give you another reason. Over the last thirty years I’ve built a lot of businesses and grown a lot of businesses and created thousands of jobs. Hillary Clinton can’t say that. Since she graduated from Yale Law School, Hillary Clinton has never created one job. Not one.

Oh, she’s spent a lot of money — taxpayer money, your money — she’s great a spending other people’s money. But not creating jobs. Not one.

She’s great at making money for herself and her family and friends. She’s great at making twenty million dollars in two years giving speeches to Wall Street fat cats — you know, the guys she’s always complaining about, the guys she claims aren’t paying enough taxes; and yet they’ve given her twenty million dollars in the last two years for speeches. Maybe they know something you don’t.

But how good is she at making money for you? Are you any better off for having Hillary Clinton in politics for the last thirty years? Beating down bimbo eruptions in the White House? Talking a good fight in the Senate? Selling access to foreigners as Secretary of State? Taking government paychecks — BIG government paychecks — for … what? For what?

Think about what sort of President you want — one who creates jobs, or one who destroys them? One who stands behind his people, or one who doesn’t? One who wants you to make money, or one who wants to make money for herself?

Then vote. I’ll be happy to live with your choice.

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I still don’t know for sure whether, as police say, Keith Lamont Scott was brandishing a weapon when he was shot or, as his wife says, he was unarmed. But the more we learn about Mr. Scott, the more clear it becomes that this was a violent and dangerous man. And as we learn about his wife, we realize that she was one of his victims.

…

Just last year, Scott’s wife filed another domestic violence protective order against him. She said he hit their 8-year-old child three times with his fists and kicked her, according to court records. She also said he threatened to kill them with a gun (not a book), while claiming that he’s a “killer” and that they should know that.

This is the man his wife described after his death as a likable guy and a family man. I don’t blame the wife for speaking well of her husband after his demise, but it does put her credibility regarding the facts of the shooting in doubt.

Read it.

WINSLOW — A life-size bronze tribute statue to the late singer-songwriter Glenn Frey of the Eagles has been installed in the Standin’ on the Corner Park.

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Sometimes the old ways are best.

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Doubt that insurance covers roller coaster rides, though.

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Physicists reported this week the discovery of a jewel-like geometric object that dramatically simplifies calculations of particle interactions and challenges the notion that space and time are fundamental components of reality.

Well, that’s all right, then.

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The four copper coins were retrieved from soil beneath Katsuren Castle on Okinawa Island, and were originally thought to be a hoax before their true provenance was revealed.

The designs on the coins are difficult to decifer as they have been eroded over time, but x-ray analysis revealed several of the relics bore the image of Emperor Constantine I.

Time to call the Doctor.

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Half of a herd of cows ate themselves to death after escaping from their pen in Western France.

Not quite sure how a cow eats itself to death.

However, the food they ate was a type of high energy supplement which can be harmful if consumed in large quantities, and the cows proceeded to eat their way through an entire winter’s worth of the food in one sitting.

Ah, that explains it.

Mr Vaillant then had to helplessly watch as his herd began to die, despite enlisting help from a vet. In total, 22 cows died from over-eating. The remaining 24 animals can no longer produce milk.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

Annabel Scott wants you to give it your best shot.

In an effort to rescue the classics from “dustbins of discarded volumes,” the National Association of Scholars is calling on all book lovers with a sense of humor to help rebrand the classics in ways that SJWs can understand.

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All in one spot for convenient reference.

Gavin McInnes pulls the curtain back on the BLM riots.

Smashing windows and running through the streets lighting fires is “the unbeatable high,” as Jello Biafra put it in the Dead Kennedys’ classic “Riot.” You can see that in their faces. They’re laughing, mugging for the camera, and jumping up and down like kids in the mosh pit. They’re not revolutionaries. They’re spoiled brats. This is laser tag to them.

The people we see trashing Charlotte are mostly black, predominantly young, and without a doubt wildly disproportionately the children of single mothers. Like all American cities on the verge of collapse, it is a Dem-run catastrophe that provides pregnant teenagers with a financial incentive to tell they baby daddy to peace out. The result is not a generation of black-power intellectuals who pore over history and plan their next strategic attack. It’s a demographic that puts partying and self-indulgence over everything.

Joe Bob Briggs does the debate.

Post-bout analysis was all over the lot, with Hillary loyalists claiming utter and complete demolishment of their opponent because she was “more prepared.”

I’ve got news for these Rhodes Scholars. People don’t care about who’s prepared. They care about who’s lying and, in this case, who’s lying more than the other liar. Everything else is just code words. Trump probably can’t lower taxes from 35 to 15 percent. Hillary can’t achieve her goals by taxing only the rich. Neither of them said anything particularly brilliant about police shootings. The jousting on free trade agreements and NATO was all familiar stuff that gets bandied about every day—nobody knows which course produces more prosperity.

As Scott Adams has been pointing out since the election was a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s hand.

But since this was the first and only time Trump has ever been involved in a one-on-one debate, much less a one-on-one debate that goes on for more than 90 minutes, and since he was competing against a veteran fighter who has done it 40 times, I think Trump has to be given the victory according to the Rocky principle: Sylvester Stallone didn’t win the fight, but he was still on his feet at the final bell.

And that’s all he needed to do.

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I think this is a parody but it’s impossible to be sure.

(Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees, you know.)

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I am not making this up.

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Everything bad is good for you.

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As the distance between the present moment and Election Day 2016 shrinks, and as key polls tighten, it’s becoming clear that the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency has liberals and progressives in a panic. But if the Democrats lose their minds, it will only level the playing field; Republicans lost theirs months ago. The first signs of Democratic dementia are evident in the recent outrage at Matt Lauer and Jimmy Fallon for failing to treat Trump as one would treat a radioactive isotope.

Yeah, it’s going to get entertaining.

In one way, it’s not surprising that Democrats are beside themselves at the possibility of a Trump presidency. They’ve spent the last 100 years expanding the scope of executive authority, granting the federal administrative agencies the power of judge, jury, and executioner over their ever-widening dominion. If liberals and progressives didn’t want that awesome, intrusive power to fall into the wrong hands, perhaps they should have heeded the warnings of small-government conservatives, who railed for a century against the bloat, rot, and corruption they saw metastasizing within the District of Columbia. Perhaps they shouldn’t have declared the U.S. Constitution—with its bill of rights and enumerated powers—to be an antiquated relic.

I guess they never thought that Satan would be in charge.

Democracy, it is often acknowledged, produces the occasional bad outcome. In the American system, much depends on the losers validating the transfer of power through gracious concession. If November’s loser won’t concede, well, we’ll have ourselves a situation, won’t we?

Yup, we sure will. Pass the popcorn.

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There has been an increase in gun crime in Sweden over the past decade mostly attributed to feuds between rival gangs.

Meanwhile fears of a terror attack in the city were raised after an explosion was heard in the suburb of Helenehold only hours after the attack.

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On Saturday night there was a major explosion in downtown Budapest that was originally reported in the media as a likely gas leak. However, by Sunday morning it became clear that the blast was caused by a bomb, and that police officers were deliberately targeted. Two officers were seriously wounded, and one (the female officer) is in critical condition.

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In his new history of food, acclaimed historian Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes, both culinary and cultural, from raw materials to market and captures their reflections in today’s food trends. Tying the ingredients of our diet evolution to the growth of human civilization, he immerses readers in the passionate debates and bold inventions that transformed food from a simple staple to a potent factor in health and a symbol of social and ideological standing.

Read it.

I’d like to think myself into Tony Stark, but that’s probably not in the cards.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb turns over a rock.

T he best example I know that gives insights into the functioning of a complex system is with the following situation. It suffices for an intransigent minority –a certain type of intransigent minorities –to reach a minutely small level, say three or four percent of the total population, for the entire population to have to submit to their preferences. Further, an optical illusion comes with the dominance of the minority: a naive observer would be under the impression that the choices and preferences are those of the majority. If it seems absurd, it is because our scientific intuitions aren’t calibrated for that (fughedabout scientific and academic intuitions and snap judgments; they don’t work and your standard intellectualization fails with complex systems, though not your grandmothers’ wisdom).

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From the moment the EmailGate scandal went public more than a year ago, it was obvious that the Federal Bureau of Investigation never had much enthusiasm for prosecuting Hillary Clinton or her friends. Under President Obama, the FBI grew so politicized that it became impossible for the Bureau to do its job – at least where high-ranking Democrats are concerned.

But you knew that.

“No wonder they couldn’t prosecute a case,” Rep. Chaffetz observed of Comey’s Bureau: “They were handing out immunity deals like candy.”

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

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Perhaps the language has finally died out.

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Apparently Ahnold holds the record, which doesn’t surprise.

Thanks to Debby Witt, who is a kindred spirit.

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Pass the popcorn.

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The best test of any institution, large or small, is to ask whether we could get along perfectly well without it. In the case of the United Nations, the question arises not in some immediate practical sense – for all its well-advertised flaws it is here to stay – but because it is about to choose a new leader, who at least in theory could make the 71-year-old organisation rather more useful than it has been. Is it capable of reform or should we, ideally, start again?

Since it doesn’t do anything except waste our money, I would say Yes.

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Like everything touched by the Clintons, the FBI has now been compromised and slimed. We saw it in FBI Director James Comey’s absurd statement announcing Hillary Clinton’s get-out-of-jail-free pass. We saw it in the FBI’s holiday weekend document dump of 302 interviews in the case. We saw it again again late yesterday afternoon with more of the same.

These Friday afternoon document dumps come straight from the scandal management playbook perfected under the (Bill) Clinton administration. They remind us, in case any reminder was necessary, of how much we have to look forward to in the event the Clintons return to the White House. I nevertheless find it shocking that the FBI itself has now adopted the routine, acting as a party with much to be ashamed of.

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Gotta love Australians.

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The tonsils are a pair of glands found at the back of the throat designed to prevent illness by trapping viruses and bacteria. The ridges and craters in these glands therefore become filmed with debris – including food, mucus, and cells – that groups together to form white-ish, calcified blobs called tonsilloliths or tonsil stones.