Chained Gang

Diversity has its limits:

Civics Crash

Most Americans can't pass their own country's citizenship test:

The U.S. citizenship test comprises 100 questions, ranging from “What is the supreme law of the land?” to “Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?” Immigrants applying for citizenship must correctly answer six out of ten randomly selected questions, a pass rate of 60 percent. Yet, surveys repeatedly show that native-born Americans perform worse than foreign-born residents seeking citizenship through naturalization. The 2018 survey conducted by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation revealed just how pervasive the problem is. Over half of the respondents couldn’t identify the three branches of government, and 37 percent didn’t know the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Among younger generations, the situation is even more dire. High school students, who should be learning the basics of American history and civics, are failing at staggering rates. According to The Daily Signal, the majority of high schoolers couldn’t identify what the Constitution does, the reasons behind the Revolutionary War, or the functions of government institutions. If these trends persist, future generations may lack the knowledge necessary to engage meaningfully in the democratic process.

We already seem to be headed in that direction...

Brain Trusters

The media suddenly discover Biden's decline:

GARRETT: One of the things we also do in the year-end correspondent's roundtable is dig into what was undercovered or what was under-reported. Jan? CRAWFORD: Under-covered and under-reported. That would be Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline that became undeniable in the televised debate. GARRETT: At the presidential debate with Donald Trump. CRAWFORD: Unquestioned, and you know, it's starting to emerge now that his advisors kind of managed his limitations, it's been reported in The Wall Street Journal, for four years, and yet he insisted that he could still run for president. We should have much more forcibly questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats. It could have changed the scope of the entire election. Yet, still, incredibly, we read in the Washington Post that his advisors that he regrets that he dropped out of the race. You know, that he thinks he could have beaten Trump, and I think that is either delusional or they're gaslighting everyone.

He had help from the media...

Court Run

Anti-Trump prosecutors are on the run:

Some attorneys involved in Trump cases have consulted various law firms, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and senior officials, and even retained lawyers anticipating defending themselves in court when Trump takes office. “Some department lawyers on the fence about leaving have sought counsel from Attorney General Merrick Garland and other senior officials, who have encouraged them to stay on for continuity of government and for their expertise, people familiar with the discussions said,” the Journal reported. Others, including those working closely with Special Counsel Jack Smith, are reportedly busy applying for new jobs, anticipating that the incoming president will immediately fire them. Trump had promised to fire Smith within seconds after taking office. “Law firms say they have seen an unprecedented flood of résumés from department lawyers looking for the exits,” the Journal reported. “Additionally, several prominent white-collar lawyers across Washington have fielded calls in recent weeks from government officials, including investigators from Smith’s office, who are concerned they could be targeted by the incoming Trump administration,” CNN reported.

Now it's their turn...

Right World

It's a conservative world after all:

In Europe and America, the pandemic interrupted the movement opposing the left. It was short-circuited as fear (much of it unfounded, as it turned out) was used to maintain control and squelch the nascent populist movements. Economic shutdowns, forced school closures, and mandates for vaccines that didn't prevent disease, which resulted in tens of thousands of workers losing their jobs for refusing the jab, put a cork in the bottle, at least for a while. The scales have now fallen from the people's eyes, and the left is being soundly thrashed at the polls across the industrialized world.

Across Europe, where economic growth has largely stalled, conservatives and populist right-wing parties are making unprecedented gains. Three-quarters of governments in the European Union are either led by a right-of-center party or are ruled by a coalition that includes at least one. The shift is set to continue. Canada appears poised to kick out a deeply unpopular progressive prime minister and Germany is expected to dump its center-left government. Polls show the top two parties in Germany represent the center-right and the far-right. Part of the shift is the normal pendulum of politics swinging back and forth between established parties on the left and right. The difference this time is a strong strain of populism and a growing rejection of traditional parties.

The left-wing governments, which have largely ruled for 50 years, sought to implement their social agendas at the expense of ordinary people's sensitivities and livelihoods. They tried to use economic policies to effect massive social changes regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion in their societies. They sought revolution instead of evolution. And they're finding out that the masses of ordinary people who work, pay, live, and die in their countries never wanted a revolution. They're discovering that changing societies to reflect their own image of "justice" needs a consensus. And the left has lost that consensus.

The world is shifting on its political axis...

Hollywood Red

Hollywood's conservatives come out of the closet:

In the past, the conservative voices in Hollywood had to rely on underground networks to find solidarity. One such organization, Friends of Abe, was founded by actor Gary Sinise as a support group for politically conservative members of the film industry. The group reportedly had more than 1,800 members, but many kept their membership secret, afraid that their careers might be jeopardized if their political views were made public. In the traditionally liberal world of Hollywood, speaking out as a conservative was often seen as a career killer. Fox News Digital notes that Trump “managed to earn the support of many high-profile figures – entertainers, athletes, podcasters and executives – who openly aligned themselves with the Make America Great Again message this year and challenged the seemingly insurmountable blue wave of stars who remain Trump cynics.” .... While it’s unclear whether this growing wave of support for Trump is a fleeting trend or the start of a broader shift in Hollywood’s political landscape, it’s undeniable that more celebrities are willing to risk their careers and public image to support a conservative agenda. Whether this marks the beginning of a red wave in Hollywood remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the entertainment industry’s traditional left-wing dominance may be starting to crack.

The red revolt begins here...

Taxi Tonnage

Robot taxis don't like fa people, or something: https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1872748035664691219?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1872748035664691219%7Ctwgr%5E0c3dccb7524522ce6911907a7ad0466b7711dd0f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwokespy.com%2Frobot-taxis-hate-fat-people-and-want-them-dead-apparently%2F

Castle Law

Don't evict the squatters:

After months of legal disputes, including Johnson filing for bankruptcy to delay eviction proceedings, Hale eventually secured a court judgment affirming her ownership of the property. However, she had not yet obtained a signed writ of possession, a legal requirement to enforce eviction in Georgia. Believing the property to be vacated, Hale returned to clean and prepare it for her own use. Johnson, however, allegedly broke back into the home, escalating tensions. When a confrontation ensued, Clayton County police officers and sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene on Livingston Drive on December 9. During the incident, Hale reportedly told Johnson to leave and allegedly threatened to retrieve a firearm. Body camera footage captured a deputy advising Hale to consider the alleged squatter’s perspective, saying, “Everybody isn’t as fortunate as you to have a bed. All the little things, a bed in their house, food in the kitchen.”

In upside down land, squatters evict you...

Blue Denial

The Democrats are out of touch:

When asked to associate the Democratic Party with an animal, one participant compared it to an ostrich, saying, “They’ve got their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they’re failing.” Another likened the party to a koala, critiquing Democrats as “complacent and lazy about getting policy wins that we really need.” Another participant was more direct, stating, “Democrats are not a friend of the working class anymore.”

They haven't been for a long time...

Last Regrets

Biden says he could have won:

The president recently told people that he still believes he could have beaten Trump in the November election, despite his rough debate performance in June and his low approval numbers that forced him to leave the race, according to the Washington Post, citing people familiar with the conversations. Following the June 27 debate, more and more Democrats began to call for him to drop out every day, so another person could run in his place. The president also saw much of his funding dry up last summer as donors began to doubt his chances of beating Trump.

Now his legacy is blowing in the wind...

Blogging In The Years: 1978

Free lunches aren't free:

Desperate Measures

Never underestimate the loony left:

Leftists have floated this insurrection business before, and gotten nowhere. As Matt pointed out, Trump hasn’t been convicted of leading or supporting an insurrection. In fact, he hasn’t even been charged with doing so, and the Democrats certainly would have done so if they had thought they could get away with it. Many people don’t believe that what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 was an insurrection at all. Thus if Trump were really barred from taking office on those grounds, it would be a case of leftists going way out on a limb on the basis of a tangle of unsupported and highly partisan assertions. Would they dare to do that? Sure. After all, where would any possible pushback come from? The military, the Justice Department and the intelligence community have all been thoroughly corrupted and politicized. The establishment media would go into overdrive to hail the ringleaders of this scheme as heroes who saved democracy from the evil fascist. Could it happen? Sure. Is it likely? Absolutely not. It is heartening that America doesn’t appear so far gone that the left thinks it could get away with pulling off such a caper. Nevertheless, it would be wise to be wary, and watch events closely leading up to Jan. 20.

They'll try anything...

Game Over

No more for him:

Carlsen, the current World No. 1, removed himself from the tournament in New York on Friday after he received a $200 fine and warning from FIDE because of a dress code violation. The five-time world champion was told that he would not be able to continue on until he changed out of his jeans, a change the defiant Carlsen was not willing to make. "FIDE regulations for the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, including the dress code, are designed to ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants," the organization said in a statement on Friday. "Today, Mr. Magnus Carlsen breached the dress code by wearing jeans, which are explicitly prohibited under long-standing regulations for this event. The Chief Arbiter informed Mr. Carlsen of the breach, issued a $200 fine, and requested that he change his attire. Unfortunately, Mr. Carlsen declined, and as a result, he was not paired for round nine. This decision was made impartially and applies equally to all players." Carlsen would’ve been able to accept a forfeiture for the round and continue on in the tournament on Saturday, but he told Take Take Take in an interview after the incident that he was not interested in continuing on. "Honestly, I’m too old at this point to care too much. If this is what they want to do – I guess it goes both ways, right? Nobody wants to back down, and this is where we are. It’s fine by me. I’ll probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer than here."

For want of a pair of slacks...

Study Time

The University of Iowa cuts back:

"Under the proposed plan, the college would close the departments of American Studies and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, as well as the current majors in American Studies and in Social Justice, which have fewer than 60 students combined, and create a new major in Social and Cultural Analysis," the University of Iowa announced in a press release on Dec. 17. The decision comes after Iowa's state Board of regents approved 10 recommendations to scale back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the Hawkeye State. "We are excited to reposition these programs for the future," dean of the University of Iowa's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), Sara Sanders, said. "The creation of a School of Social and Cultural Analysis would allow us to build on our considerable legacy in areas that are essential to our mission, while creating more sustainable structures and room for innovative new curricula." "Right now, these programs are administered by multiple department chairs and multiple directors," CLAS associate dean for the arts and humanities, Roland Racevskis, said. "Under this proposed plan, the school would have a single leadership team dedicated to overseeing the operations of the programs."

The fewer, the better...

Blue Abandon

More Democrats are qutting their brand:

Among the lawmakers and voters who have increasingly rejected the Democratic Party, the common thread has been the fact that the party has become unrecognizable. There is no greater evidence of this shift than the overwhelming loss Democrats endured on November 5, especially among constituents and voting demographics that have reliably voted blue for decades. Whether Democrats decide to correct course for the sake of political viability is yet to be seen.

A sinking ship usually doesn't...

Homeless Nation

There's at least one thing that Biden created more of:

Homelessness soared to the highest level on record this year, driven by forces that included a surge in migrants seeking asylum, a national housing crisis and the end of pandemic-era measures to protect the needy, the federal government reported on Friday. The number of people experiencing homelessness topped 770,000, an increase of more than 18 percent over last year and the largest annual increase since the count began in 2007. Nearly every category of unhoused people grew, with the rise especially steep among children and people in families. The report, released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, showed that homelessness had risen by a third in the past two years, after years of only modest fluctuations. The agency blamed factors such as “our worsening national affordable-housing crisis,” inflation and the end of certain aid programs from the pandemic. But federal officials on a call with reporters placed special emphasis on the rise in asylum-seeking migrants who overwhelmed the shelter systems where much of the increase occurred.

Another Democratic success story...

Real Science

Science down under:

No Canada

On second thought:

Space Patrol

There's a lot of wasted space in Washington:

Green Pay

New York turns to green extortion:

AP reports a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change has been set up to benefit from the payments. Lawmakers approved the bill earlier this year to force big oil and gas companies to contribute to the cost of repairs after extreme weather events critics attribute directly to fossil fuel companies and their wares. “The Climate Change Superfund Act is now law, and New York has fired a shot that will be heard round the world: the companies most responsible for the climate crisis will be held accountable,” said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat who sponsored the bill.

They have to get grift from somewhere...

No Politics, Please

No more for them:

The urge to take a step back from the news is shared by people in both parties. Democrats are slightly more likely than Republicans to say they feel the need to limit their media consumption on government and politics (72% vs 59%). Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to feel the need to avoid news about climate change (48% vs 37%). People are not eager for politics to mix with their entertainment or commerce experiences. Forty-three percent of adults approve of small businesses speaking out on political issues and 20% disapprove. But, only a quarter approve of celebrities, professional athletes, or large companies speaking out while 4 in 10 disapprove. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to approve of celebrities, professional athletes, and large companies speaking out about politics. Small businesses speaking out on political issues is viewed similarly by Democrats and Republicans.

People still don't care what they have to say...

Red Winners

Red states do better:

According to the BLS’ nonfarm payrolls, seasonally adjusted between February 2020 and November 2024, nine of ten states leading in job creation were mostly Red. Most importantly, the top five states were Republican trifecta, which voted for Trump and had GOP’s control of the House of Representatives and the Senate at the time the data was compiled. Additionally, the only Blue state, which also appeared at the bottom of the top ten list, at position nine, was Nevada, a lean Democratic state. Colorado, a Democrat trifecta at the time, appeared at position eleven. Only three Democrat-run states debuted on the list of the top 20 performers. Two were Democrat trifectas at that time (Colorado and Delaware), while one was a lean Democrat (Nevada), which also appeared the highest on the list at position nine. Unsurprisingly, Blue states, mostly with Democrat trifectas, dominated the list of poor performers on job creation. In contrast, Idaho, Utah, and Florida, all Republican trifectas, dominated the top three positions on job creation. Most of these states take pride in lower taxes and fewer regulations in opening and maintaining businesses.

Better red than broke...

Big Censor Bust

Censors are out of a job:

"The Global Engagement Center will terminate by operation of law [by the end of the day] on December 23, 2024," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement. "The Department of State has consulted with Congress regarding next steps." Lawmakers had originally included funding for the GEC in its continuing resolution (CR), or bill to fund the government beyond a Friday deadline. But conservatives balked at that iteration of the funding bill, and it was rewritten without money for the GEC and other funding riders. The agency had a budget of around $61 million and 120 people on staff.

Not anymore, they don't...

The Crazy Age

It's now official:

The historic data from a 2020 Pew American Trends Panel study asked respondents whether a doctor or healthcare provider had ever told them that they have a mental health condition. Results show that white liberal women aged 18-29 were the most likely to have been diagnosed with a mental health condition with 56.3% of respondents answering ‘yes’ in response to the question. This dropped to 27.3% when 18-29-year-old conservative women were questioned. Trends show a decrease among all political affiliations in older age groups, with the exception being white moderate women aged 30-49 (32.8%) compared to the 18-29-year-olds of the same political viewpoint (28.4%). White conservatives over 65 were around ten percentage points lower than their liberal counterparts, with only 4.5% of conservative men aged 65 and over answering ‘yes’.

The older you are, the saner you are...

Stash Report

It's still an unsolved mystery:

"I don't think that we are ever going to hear anything about the cocaine ever again, unfortunately," Robert McDonald, a former supervisory Secret Service agent who worked in the presidential protection division, told the Times. "It's a sad state of affairs that the Secret Service chose to close the investigation as quickly as it did, and it's a sad state of affairs that the administration did nothing to assist the investigation." On July 2, 2023, cocaine was found in a working area of the White House's West Wing. It was near an entrance commonly used to give tours and where visitors are instructed to place their phones and other belongings. The location also is near a basement entrance, one floor below the Oval Office and just steps from the Situation Room.

That might explain some of the decisions made during Biden's presidency...

One More Try

A pair of lefty lawyers claim they have a way to keep Trump out of office:

Lawmakers have grounds to dispute the vote if electors were “not lawfully certified” or if the vote was “not regularly given,” they claim. “A vote for a candidate disqualified by the Constitution is plainly in accordance with the normal use of words ‘not regularly given,'” the attorneys argued, writing that disqualification for insurrection is “no different from disqualification based on other constitutional requirements such as age, citizenship from birth and 14 years’ residency in the United States.” (RELATED: ‘Christmas Came Early’: Attorney Behind Fani Willis Disqualification Expects Trump DOJ To Launch Investigation) “To make an objection under the Count Act requires a petition signed by 20 percent of the members of each House,” they continued. “If the objection is sustained by majority vote in each house, the vote is not counted and the number of votes required to be elected is reduced by the number of disqualified votes. If all votes for Trump were not counted, Kamala Harris would be elected president.”

There's just one problem:

Several top Democrats told Politico on Thursday that they do not intend to object to Trump’s win. “I think you’re going to have a pretty sort of normal transfer, and I think we will respect the wishes of the American people … in contrast to what happened January 6, 2021,” Democratic New York Rep. Joe Morelle told Politico.

The process goes on...

Blogging In The Years: 1977

Merry Christmas from Bing And Bowie:

Casa Collapse

The joys of Communism:

The lack of investment in repairing or constructing new buildings or homes has left a growing number of buildings either collapsing or threatening to, leaving their inhabitants in a constant state of fear. While some of the collapses have left no dead or injured, many such incidents have claimed the lives of some of inhabitants or passersby. One of the most notable recent incidents took place in 2022 after a gas explosion in Havana’s Hotel Saratoga killed 45 Cuban citizens. The explosion caused severe damages to not just the hotel, but also to surrounding residential buildings. According to statements issued last week by Delilah Díaz Fernández, the communist regime’s Director General of Housing, 65 percent of Cuba’s 4.07 million homes are deemed to be in “good technical condition.” The Castro regime official also admitted that out of Cuba’s 168 municipalities, 59 have not completed basic housing units, with ten of the municipalities located in Havana. Experts expressed extreme doubt about the statistical data provided by Díaz Fernández, warning on the Miami-based outlet Martí Noticias last week that, in reality, the situation is much worse. “On the issue of housing our studies say that around 30-percent is in good condition, everything else needs to be repaired or is in danger of collapse,” explained Yaxis Cires, advisor to the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH), a non-government organization.

At least everyone is equally homeless...

Bad Carols

Come all ye censored:

The outlet said "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" has been targeted for depicting other faiths as being "outside of God’s grace" — and the hymn's "captive Israel" reference also rubs church higher-ups the wrong way. The Daily Mail also said "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending" — a favorite of Queen Victoria — has been called out as well, with clergy receiving a link to research noting that the second verse contains "problematic words" that state Jesus is the "true Messiah." What does the Church of England have to say? The Church of England on Monday told Blaze News that the Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt. Rev Dr. Michael Volland, issued the following Sunday statement in regard to the Daily Mail's report: No one has been asked to change words in carols or liturgies. Members of our team working closely with diverse communities in Birmingham invited churches to think about providing some context for people new to church who might be unsure why "Israel" is being discussed and whether this has any relation to the current conflict. The lyrics in some of our hymns, even those that have been sung for many years, are not always understood as having their roots in the Bible rather than current situations. The email from our team was an encouragement to help churches think about how they can tell the Christmas story authentically, without confusion, and in a way that makes all visitors feel welcome. Canon Chris Sugden — a former member of the General Synod and executive secretary of the Anglican Mainstream group — told the Daily Mail that hymns shouldn't be altered just because the Church of England "conforms to every progressive cause."

Joy to the cause, or something...

Last Ride

California is getting desperate:

The letter, signed by Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and Reps. Pete Aguilar, Zoe Lofgren, and Jim Costa, requests an additional $536 million to join $134 million in state funds to complete a 30%, or preliminary, design of one tunnel in Southern California and one tunnel in Northern California. The letter also recounted the federal government’s existing $6.8 billion in support for the project, and $22 billion from California for the project thus far. “By preparing for future final design and construction of complex tunnels in this corridor, the Project will advance both state and federal goals to improve safety, expand economic strength and global competitiveness, address equity issues, and implement sustainability practices to confront climate change,” wrote the federal legislators. “These investments will continue to support living wage jobs, provide small business opportunities, and equitably enhance the mobility of communities in need – including disadvantaged agricultural communities – all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” In 2012, the state legislative analyst’s office found the bullet train would increase overall greenhouse gas emissions for the first 30 years of its operation, putting the project’s emissions impact — and state funding based on emissions reductions — into question.

This train isn't bound for glory...

Pension Punishment

No pensions for them:

The White House announced on Dec. 24 that Biden had signed S. 932, known as the No Congressionally Obligated Recurring Revenue Used As Pensions To Incarcerated Officials Now (No CORRUPTION) Act. Supporters say the bill closes a loophole in federal pension laws that allowed lawmakers convicted of certain crimes to continue collecting pensions while appealing their convictions. The bill amends the law so that former members of Congress lose their pensions immediately after being convicted of certain felonies related to their official duties, regardless of how long their appeals process takes. If a conviction is later overturned, affected individuals will be entitled to retroactive pension payments for the period during which their pensions were withheld. Previously, federal law forced convicted members to give up their pensions only after exhausting all their appeals.

They're getting lumps of coal this year...

Bury Christmas

Saint Nick's tomb may have been found:

According to Turkiye Today, work at the St. Nicholas Church in Demre, Antalya, has been ongoing since 1989 in the area where the discovery was made. The apparent grave of Saint Nicholas himself was only recently found, and as of Dec. 6, work was still underway to fully uncover it. Earlier this month, only the lid had been fully unearthed. The excavation is led by Hatay Mustafa Kemal University associate professor Ebru Fatma Findik and backed by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The sarcophagus itself is made of local limestone quarried from somewhere in the surrounding area. Buried nearly two meters under the surface, a primary problem faced by archaeologists is how to fully uncover the grave while preserving any information carved into the surface.

No word on whether he had his reindeer with him...

Green Storm

Going green isn't easy:

In an effort to make the “woke” town completely self-sufficient, Transgrid even tried to shut down and decommission the town’s two emergency diesel generators. Advocates of the plan argue that Broken Hill will serve as a blueprint the the rest of the world to comply with the “Net Zero” goals of the World Economic Forum (WEF). However, the experiment lasted just two weeks. According to Australia’s ABC, a windstorm brought down seven supporting transmission towers. Although Broken Hill had held on to its backup generators, one was being serviced. The other generator failed under the sudden demand. “There was only one generator that was put under extreme amount of load,” Mayor Tom Kennedy said in a statement. “Once that was put under load, that also tripped out and we were in a situation where some people in town were without power for 48 hours, others just over 24 hours. “It was really lack of maintenance on generators that are worth probably $50 million each.”

And a lack of common sense...

Mars Patrol

Enter the Martians:

The CIA document describes a subject using “astral projection” to mentally travel to Mars. Guided by geographic coordinates and cues provided in a sealed envelope, the subject described seeing a barren Martian landscape marked by obelisks, pyramids, and remnants of an ancient civilization. The subject recounted encountering “tall, thin” beings clad in lightweight, form-fitting garments. These individuals were described as a dying population, grappling with the destruction of their environment. The subject claimed the Martians were seeking refuge, using their pyramid-like structures as shelters during violent storms. “They’re very philosophic about it,” the subject reported. “They’re looking for a way to survive, and they just can’t.” Mars – Surface of the red planet. Picture of Mars the red planet. The vision included a narrative of migration, with the subject describing how some Martians left their planet aboard large, boat-like structures in search of a new home. The environment they reached was depicted as volatile, filled with volcanoes and strange vegetation. The alleged Martian diaspora has drawn comparisons to Earth’s ancient myths of advanced civilizations and unexplained monuments.

They came, they saw, they built...

Trump World

It's trump's hemisphere, you're just living in it:

Trump went on to explain that the Panama Canal “was given to Panama and to the people of Panama,” “but it has provisions, you gotta treat us fairly and they haven’t treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly, and without question.” Trump wasn’t being funny about Greenland, either. “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World,” he wrote Sunday, “the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” This got the same reception that it got during Trump’s first term. Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede said haughtily on Monday that "Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland. We are not for sale and we will not be for sale." He doesn’t seem to have mentioned that Greenland is not an independent state but is Danish territory. Even in floating the idea, however, along with his statements about the Panama Canal, Trump has become the most forthrightly expansionist president since William McKinley. Is this all about personal vainglory, as the left contends, or is there more substance to it? The answer is clear: Trump is once again being true to his America-First convictions. His question to Trudeau was pointed, and remains unanswered: “So your country can't survive unless it's ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?” Trump asked Trudeau this question when the Canadian prime minister complained that the tariff Trump threatened to levy if Canada continued to do nothing to control its long border with the U.S. would destroy Canada. That’s where the Canada-as-the-51st-state gibe originated; it’s really all about Trump protecting American interests.

Put the best before the rest...

Blogging In The Years: 1975

Former Governor Reagan talks to Johnny:

The Nonsense Party

Democrats make no sense:

Spending Sprees

Rand Paul has greviences:

Crime Stoppers

Crime is hard:

Wilderness Revival

Democrats get lost in the woods:

To recover meaningfulness, the party must go through the five stages of grief, a mandatory process to regain sanity and focus on the future. It is doubly important for many in the party because the secular world is all they have, and to have lost the election to (in their view) evil, uneducated morons has caused profound bleakness and despair. At this grief stage, Democrats are blaming everyone but themselves. While blame for this loss must include their fellow travelers on the left who hijacked the party and are the major cause of this complete collapse due to radical policies that normal Americans found distasteful (e.g., DEI, identity politics, boys in girls’ sports, etc.), they must stop blaming normal Americans if they are to accept the true reasons they lost. Democrats require a cathartic moment that will also see many of their movement leaders forced out of influence and power and a new generation taking the reins, much as the Trump revolution did to the Republican Party.

Out with the old...

Squat Rats

Don't evict the squatters:

The Georgia Squatter Reform Act has apparently not been enforced in Hale’s case, as she has been in a legal battle since August, when the squatter first showed up in her home. Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Latrevia Lates-Johnson, per Channel 2, issued the insane ruling that “Sakemeyia Johnson is not a squatter” because she is — wait for it — a relative of the partner of a previously evicted tenant. If someone wrote a fiction story this wild, he would be laughed at. So on December 9, Johnson brazenly told officers that she was not a squatter because a judge had ruled in her favor. Hale challenged, “How can she not be squatting when I’ve never had any type of contract relationship with this person?” How indeed? [There’s been] a multi-month court battle with multiple filings, hearings and appeals. Johnson even filed for bankruptcy, listing Hale as her only creditor. But on Nov. 18, a magistrate judge issued a final judgment in Hale’s favor. Hale said she thought Johnson had moved out of the home and came over the weekend to start cleaning up the home. Hale explained, “I returned on Monday to start painting and she had broken the locks at my property.” Johnson had the chutzpah to lock Hale out and act as if her rights and safety were being violated because Hale broke into … her own home. “She just caught up out of nowhere. She had this guy with [her], and I locked the door. I locked the screen door, and he forced himself in telling us to get out,” Johnson whined to the police.

Oh, the horror of not being the actual homeowner...

Climate Corrections

the climate doomsayers are wrong, again:

Climate alarmists have not been right a single time in a major prediction for well over half a century, yet politicians continue to wreak havoc on energy, the economy, education, and other sectors of society and government based on claims of a climate apocalypse that is not coming. Two studies this year provide evidence once again that the Earth is not about to turn into a burning ball of fire and that even if it were, the much-touted and much-funded “net zero” solutions would have little to no effect. And that does not even address the active harms of cutting carbon, the building block of life, and wasting taxpayer money on programs that poison the environment and undermine the economy. One study, published in October in Scientific Research Publishing, contains the following: Data from ground measurements indicate that the downward (backward) radiation of the atmosphere shows indeed full saturation of the IR CO2 bands and does not support noticeable additional Thermal Forcing (TF) by increasing CO2 in the lower atmosphere… we can expect full saturation already at current concentrations. Another table in the study provides data illustrating that doubling CO2 from its pre-industrial levels actually increases the global mean infrared absorption. If, like me, you prefer the answer in less scientific terms, Climate Change Dispatch explains that the higher the concentration of CO2, the less effective it is as an agent of warming! And “thus it can lead to just 0.5°C warming at most.” Add to that the fact that it is virtually impossible to come up with a meaningful average global temperature, and you will see that as usual climate doom prophets have been gaslighting us. Or, since they hate gas, electriclighting us.

It's always about the data...

Railroad Job

California Democrats beg for one last ride:

Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff joined Reps. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino; Jim Costa, D-Fresno; and Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, on Friday in calling for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve $536 million for the project. In a letter addressed to Buttigieg, they called the project “essential.” The money would fund design work on the first two segments of the project from Bakersfield to Palmdale (Los Angeles County) and from Gilroy to a junction point in the Central Valley south of Chowchilla (Madera County). Specifically, the money would fund the designing of tunnels through the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California and through the Pacheco Pass in Northern California. … California voters initially approved $10 billion in bond funding for the project in 2008. At the time, it was projected to cost $33 billion and be completed by 2020. Sixteen years later, the project has blown past both of those estimates. Its projected costs have soared to between $89 billion and $128 billion. Even under the rosiest projections, no segments will be completed and ready for riders until 2030 at the earliest.

Come what may, the train scam goes on...

Extreme Blues

Why he's no longer part of their team:

Cash Cows

They literally made out like bandits:

David Walker, a former comptroller general of the United States, told Business Insider he could not conclusively say if the expenses were fraudulent, leaving that decision to the courts. However, with the pandemic long gone, it is unlikely that the grants will audited. Besides artists, fraudsters, politicians, and their spouses, including Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, also allegedly benefitted from the COVID-19 grants. About $400 billion of taxpayers’ money was lost, including over $200 billion paid for fraudulent claims, while $123 billion was either lost or misappropriated, making the relief program one of the biggest scams in American history.

It was a good one while they had it...

Ethics Examination

Democratic politicians suddenly care about ethics:

The Supreme Court last year passed a long-awaited code of ethics that is directed specifically at the nine justices, though it has faced criticism from defenders of the court who say they have always followed lower court ethics guidance, to Democrats who say there needs to be an enforcement mechanism such as an outside panel of judges to recommend disciplinary actions for alleged ethical violations. “Chief Justice Roberts’s continued unwillingness to implement the only viable solution to the Court’s ethical crisis—an enforceable code of conduct—requires Congress to act to restore the public’s confidence in the highest court in the land,” reads the report. The report says that passing the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, which passed out of the committee in September 2023, is a “necessary step.” But the overarching debate surrounding the passage of an ethical code through congressional legislation is the constitutional issue of whether Congress can regulate the conduct of a co-equal branch of government. Alito has been highly vocal that Congress cannot enact this type of oversight on the courts, and some Republicans who have sided with his viewpoint also worry about the separation of powers.

Ethics for thee, not for me...

Women Win

Womens' sports survives:

The decision to withdraw this rulemaking was submitted to the Federal Register on the same day the Biden administration also withdrew efforts targeting student loan forgiveness. The decision halts a rule introduced in April 2023 that invited public comment on how Title IX—the landmark federal law banning sex discrimination in education—should address issues of gender identity in sports. According to the administration, the proposed rule generated over 150,000 public comments, ranging from outright opposition to suggestions for modifications. Additionally, ongoing lawsuits challenging the interpretation of Title IX in cases involving gender identity and sports influenced the decision to step back. The administration noted in its filing that it chose “not to regulate on this issue at this time,” citing the complexity of the comments and the unresolved legal battles. While the rule was designed to provide flexibility for schools to limit transgender athletes’ participation in cases of “fairness in competition” or injury risk, critics argued it didn’t go far enough to protect women’s sports. Others said it was an important step for the inclusion of people who identify as transgender.

No more strong men here...

No Class

The doctor is not in:

Georgetown announced in the summer of 2023 that Dr. Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would be serving as "a Distinguished University Professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases," as well as an appointment at the university's McCourt School of Public Policy. Georgetown calls the role bestowed on Fauci its "most significant professional honor" that is reserved for faculty members "whose extraordinary accomplishments in scholarship, teaching and service have earned them significant recognition in the Academy." However, as the College Fix reported on Friday, Fauci appears to have not taught any courses at the school since his appointment.

He does his lecturing off campus...

No Boys Allowed

Girls' sports survives:

President Joe Biden's Department of Education has given up on a proposed rule change that would have punished schools for preventing trans athletes from competing in women's sports. The Department of Education released a docket on Friday announcing its withdrawal of the proposition. The Biden administration had proposed the rule change in April 2023. The proposition was titled "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male and Female Athletic Teams" The rule would have officially outlawed individual states from banning participation in single-sex sports by gender identity rather than just sex. There are 23 states in the U.S. that have legislation in place to restrict trans athletes from competing as females in public school sports.

The transgender agenda stops here...

Rotten Foundation

DEI did well under Biden:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the federal government established in 1950. Its original mission was to promote the advancement of science and engineering through funding and support for research and education. Nowhere in that mission statement do the words diversity, equity, or inclusion (DEI) appear. The NSF was intended to promote and support ground-breaking research and development that would help this nation (and perhaps all mankind as well). It was not intended to be a social welfare agency. But in the Biden Administration’s push to foist DEI on this nation, a staggering amount of money has gone to promote this racialist travesty. The pace of funding distribution has increased exponentially: In 2021, only 0.29% of NSF grants funded DEI projects; by 2024, this increased to 27% of grants. In its first week, the Biden-Harris administration mandated that all taxpayer-funded scientific research and development (R&D) must incorporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) values. Sen. Cruz’s investigation found that in response to this directive, NSF allocated over $2.05 billion to thousands of research projects that promoted neo-Marxist perspectives or DEI tenets.

Never mind the actual science...

Wind Warrior

Trump may finally kill Big Wind:

Invigorated by president-elect Donald Trump’s election, opponents of offshore wind power hope for the new administration to sweep President Biden’s renewable energy plans aside. “If Biden can cancel XL pipeline’s border crossing permit over climate concerns, why can't @realDonaldTrump yank offshore wind permits over BOEM's disregard of evidence showing harm to marine life?” wrote activist Lisa Linowes of the Save Right Whales Coalition on social media site X Dec. 9. At a May campaign rally on a New Jersey beach, Trump famously promised to end wind projects “on day one” if he returns to the White House. In the final weeks of the campaign Trump amped up his rhetoric, repeating offshore wind critics’ accusations of projects threatening marine life. “It drives the whales freaking crazy...and the environmentalists, they don't talk about it,” Trump said on podcaster Joe Rogans’s Oct. 26 show.

Save the whales, let wind fail...

Blogging In The Years: 1978

You're paying for their debt:

Party Pooper

Another leftist admits:

Old And Busted

What's wrong with these Communist kids today:

Castro – who in reality continues to be the true dictator of Cuba since 2016 following the death of his brother, murderous dictator Fidel Castro – “retired” from politics in 2021, installing Miguel Díaz-Canel as the figurehead “president” of Cuba. The “retired” nonagenarian dictator was then “elected” to occupy a seat in the National Assembly in the regime’s sham March 2023 election. Videos circulating on social media show Castro, 93, participating alongside other lawmakers in a new legislative session of the communist parliament centered around finding “solutions” to the problems caused by more than six decades of disastrous communist policies, which have pushed Cuba to the brink of complete ruin. In the videos, the visibly upset dictator slammed a table that was in front of him as he ordered his regime underlings, with “hand high and standing, and fists clenched, to face the problems with depth.”

They're just doing what they were taught...

Jobs Report

The jobs that weren't The Biden administration reported a 1.8% national increase in employment, while the national survey showed a 1.1% increase, both of which the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia believes are wrong. The Reserve Bank believes that the figures were off by 1.2 to 1.9 percentage points, overestimating the number of jobs by over 3 million across all 50 states. In Contrast, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s data for the second quarter of 2023 differed from the national statistics by just 0.1%, demonstrating the Philly Feds’ high accuracy in estimating employment statistics. Additionally, employment statistics did not significantly deviate in all quarters of 2023 and 2024. The only other time the Biden administration’s employment statistics deviated so significantly was during the midterm elections in 2022.Funny how that works out...

Size Matters

They had to trim the fat:

The reduction in size underscores the failure of Johnson’s original plan: passing a massive spending bill with Democrat support that few read before members were asked to vote on it. The miscalculation might be the final nail in Johnson’s speakership. The original bill, proposed Wednesday, was 1,547 pages long. Friday’s bill was condensed into 118 pages and excluded the extreme amount of pork Johnson allowed in the original. The bill would fund the government until March 14 and include disaster relief and farm aid. The bill does not include an extension of the debt limit, which President-elect Donald Trump demanded, placing Johnson’s reelection on January 3 for Speaker in a precarious position.

At least now they can say they were able to read it...

Hornet's Nest

Good news, everyone:

“So-called murder hornets have been eradicated from the United States, officials announced Wednesday, five years after the invasive species was first identified in Washington state,” NBC reported on Wednesday. “We’re pleased to announce the eradication of the northern giant hornet in Washington state,” Derek Sandison, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), said in a press release. “I’m incredibly proud of our team, which has dedicated years of hard work to safeguarding our state and the nation from this invasive threat to our native pollinators and agriculture. I’d also like to acknowledge the federal, state, and local support that made this feat possible. This success is the result of our combined efforts.” “Without the public’s support for this effort, it is unlikely we would be announcing the eradication of northern giant hornet today,” Sven Spichiger, WSDA pest program manager, said. “All of our nest detections resulted directly or indirectly from public reports. And half of our confirmed detections came from the public. The people of Washington can be proud that we did this by working together.”

Now we can get back to worrying about other nonexistent existential threats...

Cash Flows

They all got paid:

The musicians are accused of filing for and misusing Shuttered Venue Operations Grant money, which was supposed to help arts groups weather the COVID shutdowns during the pandemic and was meant to be used for operating expenses and employee salaries. The SVO grant was signed into law by Donald Trump in 2020 and offered up to $10 million for arts organizations, studios, theaters and similar outlets to spend on “ordinary and necessary” expenses to remain viable during the shutdowns. To be eligible, filers had to show that the pandemic cost them at least 25 percent of revenue over previous quarters. Other artists who filed for the funding includes Alice In Chains, Shinedown, Rae Sremmerd, and Steve Aoki, acording to Business Insider. Business Insider, though, notes that many entertainers did not spend the money as directed. Rapper Lil Wayne reportedly received $8.9 million, but spent the relief funds on personal expenses including $1.3 million on private jets, over $460,000 on clothing, and $2.14 million to pay off a debt to his former manager Cortez Bryant.

It was a good con while they had it...

Blue Dissent

James Carville is on the offensive again:

The Bad Book

No testements here:

HB 900, the READER Act (Restricting Explicit and Adult Designated Educational Resources), was passed by the 88th Texas Legislature, signed into law by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, and implemented on September 1, 2023. It states, “a library material vendor must perform a contextual analysis of the material to determine whether the material describes, depicts, or portrays sexual conduct in a way that is patently offensive.” Canyon Independent School District Superintendent Darryl Flusche wrote an email to parents earlier this week in which he stated: House Bill 900, which passed during the last legislative session, establishes library standards that restrict content in school libraries. … This standard for library content prohibits books that have one instance of sexual content as described above. Therefore, HB900 doesn’t allow numerous books, including the full text of the Bible, to be available in the school library. “There are 30 titles available in the Canyon Junior High library that are Bible stories or portions of the Bible,” he pointed out. “Additionally, if any student would like to have a Bible, we have strong connections with local churches that are happy to donate a Bible upon request. We are more than willing to assist a student who would like access to a Bible by arranging this from one of our partnering churches.”

Maybe they could just skip the bad parts...

The Dominators

Conservatives rule the media, or something:

Fani Flagged

Fani Willis is off the case:

The court did not toss Trump's indictment entirely, but Willis and the assistant DAs working in her office now have "no authority to proceed." "After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office," the filing states. "The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring." The court said while it recognizes that "an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings." "Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s denial of the appellants’ motion to disqualify DA Willis and her office," the filing states. "As we conclude that the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case, ‘the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed,'" the filing states.

Another lawfare battle lost by the Left...

Off The Rails

The train to nowhere may be on its last run:

Any spending cuts proposed by DOGE would need congressional approval to be implemented, but there seems to be support in both chambers for ending federal funding for California high-speed rail. In November, Sen. Joni Ernst (R–Iowa) sent a letter to Musk and Ramaswamy recommending that DOGE target several public transit systems in California, including high-speed rail. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R–Calif.) has called the project one of the most wasteful in U.S. history. Even with congressional support, DOGE will face an uphill battle to pull back grant money that has already been awarded, says Marc Scribner, senior transportation policy analyst at Reason Foundation (the nonprofit that publishes this magazine). While the Rail Authority has still not finalized a $3 billion federal grant awarded to them in 2023, the Biden administration will likely push to get this funding out the door before Donald Trump's inauguration. If this happens, the Trump administration's best play would be to simply not fund the project in the future, according to Scribner.

The line ends here...

College Dropouts

Now that they've lost, Democrats want to get rid of the Electoral College:

The bill, introduced just over a month after Donald Trump won the presidential election, was proposed by three progressive Senators, namely Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Peter Welch of Vermont. The trio said removing the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote would “restore democracy,” with Sen. Schatz claiming the current system is “outdated and undemocratic.” Durbin, meanwhile, said the bill echoed a pre-2000 to abolish the Electoral College, adding that it was “time to retire this 18th century invention.” The United States was also an “18th century invention,” mind you. Sen. Welch also waded in. He said: “Our democracy is at its strongest when everyone’s voice is heard – and right now our elections aren’t as representative as they should be because of the outdated and flawed Electoral College.” The popular vote has largely favored Democrats in recent years. Prior to Trump’s victory in November, George W. Bush was the only Republican in the 21st century to win the popular vote (in 2004).

Democracy has already won...

Gallows Poles

More bad news for the Capitol police:

According to the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight report, “[The] United States Capitol Police guidelines prohibit the construction of temporary structures on Capitol grounds.” The report continues, “Despite this, USCP made no effort to prevent the construction of the gallows, and the USCP CCTV footage confirms the gallows remained on Capitol grounds for a full twenty-six hours with no effort to have them removed.” Additionally, several officers were in the vicinity during its construction but did not approach the scene. “Multiple USCP cameras face the location of the gallows on the west side of the Capitol, and several USCP officers were within the vicinity of the gallows, yet no officers ever approached the constructors during the fifty-five minutes spent building the gallows on Capitol property.” Similarly, no radio calls were made about the construction of the gallows, and no officers responded to its existence after construction. “.. no radio calls or notifications were distributed to officers about the presence of an illegal structure on Capitol grounds, and no officers responded to the structure at any time.”

No time for the gallows...

Gas Pilot

California gets the go-ahead:

The EPA approved California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule on Wednesday, which bans new gas vehicle sales after 2035. Under the 1970 Clean Air Act, the state must seek a waiver from the EPA to set stricter auto pollution standards. “California has long-standing authority to request waivers from EPA to protect its residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.” Over a dozen states follow California’s auto emission standards. But the rule is at risk of being reversed by President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to undo many of the Biden administration’s climate policies. “California has imposed the most ridiculous car regulations anywhere in the world, with mandates to move to all electric cars,” Trump has said. “I will terminate that.” However, the state will likely challenge any rule reversal by the incoming administration, setting up a fight in court with it. “Clean cars are here to stay. The Biden-Harris Administration reaffirmed what we’ve known for decades — California can rise to the challenge of protecting our people by cleaning our air and cutting pollution,” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said in a statement on Wednesday. “Naysayers like President-elect Trump would prefer to side with the oil industry over consumers and American automakers, but California will continue fostering new innovations in the market,” Newsom added.

Whether people want them or not...

Culture Crash

Democrats have lost the culture wars:

Rob Flaherty explained to the outlet that after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and it became clear Harris would be the party’s nominee, the campaign looked to book the vice president on sports podcasts and shows. It was a move aimed at reaching people not “obsessed with politics” but many of the personalities and shows turned the campaign down, Flaherty told Semafor. The deputy campaign manager said that Harris’ struggle to break into the sports’ world reflects a bigger trend among the Democratic party. (RELATED: Sex Talk Podcast Host Calls Out Kamala’s Campaign For Spending $100,000 To Redo Interview Studio) “When it’s not cool to talk about politics, you’re kind of afraid of the audience,” Flaherty told Semafor. “Campaigns, in many ways, are last-mile marketers that exist on terrain that is set by culture, and the institutions by which Democrats have historically had the ability to influence culture are losing relevance,” he continued. “You don’t get a national eight-point shift to the right without losing hold of culture.”

The left-of-center did not hold...

Rat Stock

Biden wants a ban:

“Nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while they’re in the Congress,” Biden said. The interview was conducted by Faiz Shakir, a political adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders, and published by A More Perfect Union, a pro-labor advocacy and journalism organization. The Associated Press reviewed a video of the interview before its release. It’s unclear what impact Biden’s statement could have, coming only a month before his term ends. The Democratic president spoke to Shakir about his economic legacy, which includes supporting unions, investing in clean energy projects and signing infrastructure. But Shakir also asked about congressional stock trading, which has been a catalyst for populist anger at Washington. For example, when the coronavirus pandemic was approaching, some lawmakers bought and sold millions of dollars worth of stock after being briefed on the virus. A bipartisan proposal to ban trading by members of Congress and their families has dozens of sponsors, but it has not received a vote. Although lawmakers are required to disclose stock transactions exceeding $1,000, they’re routinely late in filing notices and sometimes don’t file them at all.

They need more than just bribes to make a living...

Trump World

It's his world now:

The politicians, bureaucrats and elite academics are horrified. They should be. The anger at the political class is boiling over with scalding resentment against government incompetence, fiscal mismanagement and statist directives that snatch away basic freedoms. They have commanded us that you can't have a gas stove or a gas car or a lawnmower or an air conditioner. Parents can't send their kids to good schools. My, how the tables have turned. The politicians who profess to care so much about the working classes are now despised by the voters. The masses around the world are seeing the bounce in America's step in the wake of the Trump election. The Trumpian message of prosperity, efficiency, fairness, home rule and love of country. It's a virtual certainty that voters everywhere are going to demand common-sense Trumpian policies in their own towns and countries. As Trump has said, every leader should put their own country first. Global government is dead for now. It's a grassroots power-to-the-people movement -- something the Left once believed in.

Only when they were the ones rebelling...

Department Of Miseducation

Dollars for DEI:

According to DOGE, the education department spent nearly half a billion ($489,883,797) on “race-based hiring,” $343,337,286 on “DEI programming,” and another $169,301,221 on “DEI mental health initiatives.” DOGE obtained the figures from Parents Defending Education, a non-profit organization claiming to work to “reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas.” The organization found that the Department of Education received 229 grants amounting to $1,002,522,304.81 between 2021 and 2024. The DEI programs funded affected 6,766,158 K-12 grade students in 296 school districts. Parents Defending Education says the data was compiled from various available sources and thus, the scope of the programs and the final amount might be significantly higher than reported. Nonetheless, it highlights the blatant waste of taxpayers’ money to indoctrinate the youth while American schools grapple with cash shortages to fund academically significant programs. Notably, approximately $4 million of the grant money was used to organize a “3-week residential ‘culturally responsive’ computer science summer camp for 600 11th and 12th graders.” Other notable DEI expenditures include the University of Iowa spending $1,261,718 of the grant money to train 40 elementary teachers to “enact equity-centered education” in partner K-12 districts. The University of Missouri – St. Louis also spent $306,209 of the grant money to train school counselors in Trauma-Informed, Antiracist Social-Emotional Learning (TIAR-SEL). Similarly, the School District of Philadelphia received $3,973,175 of the grant money to fund its “restorative justice” program, which mirrors California’s Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) and Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) programs. It also lists Fania Davis, a social justice activist and Civil Rights trial attorney. Her sister Angela, who she helped free for alleged conspiracy, murder, and kidnapping, was a long-time Communist Party USA (CPUSA) member and was a keynote speaker in an anti-police event and praised Fidel Castro. Fania also helped co-author the OUSD restorative justice program guide, which includes topics such as “Exploring White Privilege.”

Indoctination takes money...

Climate Changers

Why the doomsday crowd failed:

If the climate doomers had been right, there would be no more snow, no more arctic ice, polar bears would all be drowned, and the Midwest would have become a desert already. CBS still trots out Paul Ehrlich to warn about resources running out, mass starvation, and to reiterate predictions that have failed so often that he should be a joke, not a respected professor. Legions of climate scientists are worrying that the flood of money that has floated them in academic yachts will dry out, and that of course has always been the point. They sell fear, and fear pays well. The intellectual version of fentanyl has been a good earner, both for climate "scientists" and the climate scammers who suck up subsidies, the NGOs that promote the scam, and especially for the phony companies and transnational giants who sell the next "solution" to climate change. .... Climate scammers are scared and girding their loins for battle. They have fewer tools to fight back than they would like, but I suspect that lawfare and environmental regulations will be where they put the most effort. Their strategy has been based on fearmongering, and none of Trump's voters are remotely scared, and many non-Trump voters are only vaguely concerned. Costs matter more to them, at least. Research on climate should, of course, continue. But it must return to being science, not politics. And the current crop of scaremongers should be shown the door.

Doomsday didn't sell, and it shows...

Rizz Razz

No bad words allowed:

The list of "Banned Words" in the teacher's classroom spanned more than a dozen individual words such as "Ohio," which can mean "weird," "cringe" or "dumb," among Generation Alpha circles; "rizz," which is short for "charisma"; and "skibidi," which refers to a series of videos featuring animated talking heads that emerge from toilets. "Diddy party," "baby oil," "brain rot" and "rage quitting" also made the viral list. The poster further includes a blanket ban on meowing, barking, curse words, racist comments, LGBTQ+ and fat jokes, and references to drugs, Nazis or the Holocaust. School administrators told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon that students helped craft the list "as an important lesson of civic responsibility … promoting empathy and awareness of how language affects others." They added that the "chart has not been displayed since the first quarter." "Our goal is not to censor or stifle student speech, but to guide students toward language that fosters a positive and inclusive learning environment," officials from the rural district located in southwestern Iowa added.

Except for the naughty words...

Gassing Out

Biden's gas ban won't work:

Demand for electric cars has collapsed. Even with federal and some state incentives, electric cars are sitting on dealer lots for months on end. Many are advertised with $15-20,000 discounts. $70-100k sticker price EV's are being leased out for a few hundred dollars a month. The market is speaking, telling manufacturers and politicians that it doesn't want EVs in 2024-2025, and potentially ever. So what is Biden and a collection of incompetent states doing? Supporting new rules to force people into a mode of transportation that they don't want. All because of their short-sighted, misguided, inaccurate view of emissions and "climate change." Idiotic doesn't begin to cover it.

But it is typical...

Multiverse Of Messiness

Welcome to the multiverse:

Calling Willow’s performance ‘astonishing,’ the leader and founder of Google Quantum AI team, physicist Hartmut Neven, said its high-speed result ‘lends credence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes.’ Neven credited Oxford University physicist David Deutsch for proposing the theory that the successful development of quantum computing would, in effect, affirm the ‘many worlds interpretation’ of quantum mechanics and the existence of a multiverse. Starting in the 1970s, Deutsch, in fact, had walked backward into becoming a pioneer in the field of quantum computing, less out of interest in the technology itself than his desire to test the multiverse theory. Astrophysicist turned science writer Ethan Siegel blasted Google over the claim, accusing them of ‘conflating unrelated concepts, which Neven also ought to know.’ ‘Neven has conflated the notion of a quantum mechanical Hilbert space, which is an infinite-dimensional mathematical space where quantum mechanical wavefunctions “live,” with the notion of parallel universes and a multiverse,’ Siegel argued Friday.

So that explains where all those other versions of me came from...

California Gas

One more ban literally for the road:

One-quarter of vehicles bought in California are electric, the highest in any state, yet still far behind the aimed-for 100% in a decade. Trump has vowed to terminate the mandate to fully transition to electric cars. “California has imposed the most ridiculous car regulations anywhere in the world, with mandates to move to all-electric cars,” Trump said. “I will terminate that.” The New York Times reported that Trump is expected to revoke Biden’s permission on the first days of his presidency. The matter will likely then go to the courts. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has been trying to move forward with the ban for the last four years. He signed an executive order in 2020 and the California Air Resources Board voted on the regulation two years later. Initially, the rules were set to let California start phasing out gasoline-powered cars beginning as early as 2026, when the state could require 35% of new cars sold be zero-emission vehicles. The percentage required would ramp up to 68% in 2030 before completely phasing them out by 2035. “It’s ambitious, it’s innovative, it’s the action we must take if we’re serious about leaving this planet better off for future generations,” Newsom said in 2022. “California will continue to lead the revolution towards our zero-emission transportation future.”

The revolution will not be fueled...

Pay Up

Fake news has to pay:

The settlement was publicly filed on Saturday, revealing that the two parties have come to an agreement and avoided a costly trial. According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution to a "Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past." Additionally, the network will pay $1 million in Trump's attorney fees. Stephanopoulos and ABC News also had to issue statements of "regret" as an editor's note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article, about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file the defamation lawsuit. The note reads, "ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024."

Lawsuits mean always having to say you're sorry...

Obama Fall

The magic is gone:

Obama emerged from his comfortable retirement to hit the 2024 campaign trail, schooling the country that President-emeritus Trump was a dictator, a fascist, a tyrant, and, of course, a “racist.” The more Trump polled even with, or ahead of, Harris, the more an exasperated and ignored Obama talked down to supposedly low-information voters. But by the time Harris lost the election, voters had tuned out a nagging and patronizing Obama—and his stale, now-dated “hope-and-changey” boilerplate speeches.

He literally ran out of change...

Origin Story

Don't mention the origin, they said:

Sky Spies

They know nothing:

Political Agency

Geraldo admits:

Homed Out

No more home rule:

Congress can exercise authority over D.C. local affairs, according to the District Clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17), and reviews all D.C. legislation before it can become law. Congress can change or even overturn D.C. legislation and also impose new laws on the district. This is something Clyde and other Republicans have been passionate about. He and Republican Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty introduced a joint resolution of disapproval in 2023 to block the Washington, D.C., Council’s Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022, which would lower penalties for a number of violent criminal offenses, citing home rule.

Make Congress actually do its job...

Cash Commute

One man's crook is another's commuted:

In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, former Judge Michael Conahan shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and shared $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Another judge, Mark Ciavarella, was also involved in the illicit scheme, the effects of which are still felt today among victims and families. The scandal is considered Pennsylvania’s largest-ever judicial corruption scheme with the state's supreme court throwing out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 kids after the scheme was uncovered.

Must have been a campaign donor...

Word Games

More words for the win:

A spokesperson for the competition told the outlet that the words on the approved list come from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. The spokesperson said: All of the words used in the Scripps National Spelling Bee program are pulled from our official dictionary, Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary. During competition, our policy is to accept any correct spelling listed in our official dictionary that isn’t marked archaic or obsolete. The alternate spelling “womyn” is therefore included on our study list because it is listed as an alternate spelling for ‘women’ in Merriam-Webster. In building our study lists, we aim to include alternate spellings for any words that have them listed in Merriam-Webster. The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary is the final authority and sole source for the spelling of all words offered in competition. The X account LibsofTikTok shared an image of the study list featuring the word “womyn.” The list marked the word “women” with two asterisks noting that is the preferred spelling.

But not the approved one...

Green Cops

Biden's EPA goes for the green:

According to court documents, Hart and his accomplices imported banned hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and sold them online for profit. “Once the orders were placed, Hart purchased the refrigerants in Mexico with the help of his conspirators and illegally imported them into the United States concealed in his vehicle,” the DOJ said in a press release. “Thereafter, Hart illegally sold the refrigerants to others in the United States, profiting from the black market for such refrigerants in the United States.” Smuggling banned gases into the United States attracts a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Meanwhile, the EPA attributed the arrest, prosecution, and conviction to “revitalized enforcement and compliance efforts,” which it fears might lose momentum when Trump takes office on January 21st. However, Trump has not indicated that he will open the floodgates of illegal environmental substances into the country. Similarly, while Biden’s EPA celebrates stopping the flow of banned greenhouse gases into the country, the case is similar to others involving smuggling illegal and harmful products. However, such convictions rarely make grand political statements that Biden’s EPA can take credit for to advance the administration’s political climate agenda.

Don't take credit where credit isn't due. Meanwhile:

Government office buildings have an occupancy rate of only 12%, yet the government spends $16 billion a year to operate them. Even the head of the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, works from home in Missouri. “You may be more likely to see a ghost than a bureaucrat haunting the halls of some government buildings in Washington, D.C. these days,” Ernst continued. Office buildings are so empty that the water supply at the office of the Environmental Protection Agency — which is tasked with ensuring clean drinking water — was left stagnant for so long that it developed dangerous bacteria, according to the audit. But unions have demanded that full individual workstations for each employee be maintained for the rare occasions they are used, in addition to demanding that members be allowed to work from home.

Where the government well runs deep...

EV Rules

How the government tried to force EVs on those who didn't want them:

Federal regulators and multinational corporations have attempted to push EVs on the American public in recent years, with the Biden-Harris administration introducing strict tailpipe emissions standards, and major automakers implementing lofty electric production targets. However, widespread EV adoption may not be as feasible as lawmakers and auto executives once claimed, with a new meta-analysis from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) noting EVs can have a variety of drawbacks for consumers when compared to their gas-powered counterparts, including elevated upfront costs, lower resale values, limited driving range and a lack of charging infrastructure. “We argue the EV transition is going to take a lot of government coercion to make happen,” Kenny Stein, vice president of policy at IER and the study’s lead author, told the DCNF. “It is a very difficult process, and it is not a very desirable process to force.”

But they tried it anyway...

Brain Speech

Free speech is literally in our heads:

A classic test of autistic cognition is the pencil-in-the-sweet-tube test. The child is shown a tube of sweets and asked what he (and it is more likely to be a he by at least four to one) thinks is inside. He’s disappointed to discover that rather than the sweets he expected, the tube contains pencils. But now he is asked what another child who had not been shown the contents would think and typically replies, “Pencils!” Normal children can pass this test from about age four and realise that another child would think as they did that the tube contained sweets. One of my own sons, aged about three, had been cautioned by me not to tell his mother that he had bought her a present the day before her birthday. But the moment he heard her coming into the house, he rushed up to her and exclaimed, “Mummy, I mustn’t tell you that I have bought you a present!” Typically for his age and for autistics much older, he had failed what is known as a test of false belief: the ability to realise that others may not know what you know — or in this case, need to be kept in ignorance of it. If you think about it, thought-policing — and indeed all dogmatic intolerance of differing points of view — amounts to an autistic-like denial of what the agent regards as others’ false beliefs. Indeed, leading authorities on Asperger’s syndrome comment that some high-functioning autistics go into so-called “God mode” and become “an omnipotent person who never makes a mistake, cannot be wrong and whose intelligence must be worshipped” (see T. Attwood, The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome). Clearly though, this cuts both ways, and people who routinely are in ‘God mode’ where others’ speech and beliefs are concerned could be seen as acting like autistics, with thought-policing as an institutionalised deficit in appreciation of false belief.

Censorship is literally a mental condition...

Word Wars

No bad words allowed:

The list of "Banned Words" in the teacher's classroom spanned more than a dozen individual words such as "Ohio," which can mean "weird," "cringe" or "dumb," among Generation Alpha circles; "rizz," which is short for "charisma"; and "skibidi," which refers to a series of videos featuring animated talking heads that emerge from toilets. "Diddy party," "baby oil," "brain rot" and "rage quitting" also made the viral list. The poster further includes a blanket ban on meowing, barking, curse words, racist comments, LGBTQ+ and fat jokes, and references to drugs, Nazis or the Holocaust. School administrators told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon that students helped craft the list "as an important lesson of civic responsibility … promoting empathy and awareness of how language affects others." They added that the "chart has not been displayed since the first quarter." "Our goal is not to censor or stifle student speech, but to guide students toward language that fosters a positive and inclusive learning environment," officials from the rural district located in southwestern Iowa added. Saying "any of these words listed" was punishable by a 30-minute detention, according to a note at the bottom of the poster. A parent told FIRE that at least 10 students have been disciplined, but school administrators said "consequences are not based solely upon using particular words, unless they are considered vulgar, lewd, threatening, a substantial disruption of the school environment, or bullying toward another student."

Keep ypur animal noises to yourself...

Unsettling Accounts

Welcome to Canada:

On November 20, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario ruled that the township of Emo and its mayor, Harold McQuaker, 77, had discriminated against an LGBTQ group, under the Ontario Human Rights Code, by denying its request to proclaim June as Pride Month. Borderland Pride had requested Emo make the Pride Month declaration and requested the township fly a "LGBTQ2" flag, despite Emo not having an official flag pole. McQuaker was further found to have violated the human rights code by making a "discriminatory remark" during the town's council meeting about the flag request, saying that there was no flag for the "other side of the coin… for straight people." Tribunal vice-chair Karen Dawson ordered the township to pay a fine of $10,000, while McQuaker was ordered to take a "Human Rights 101" course and pay a $5,000 fine to Borderland Pride. However, McQuaker publicly said that he wouldn't pay the fine, calling it "extortion."

Because it is...