But the most ridiculous thing she says there is that Democrats "do not, in fact, use [the filibuster] when we need it." She then goes on to say, "It's only used to block Dem policies. Never to block harmful GOP ones." Not only is that not true, it's the complete opposite of the truth. In fact, Democrats, during the first Trump administration, pioneered the extensive use of the filibuster as a legislative tool, using it 327 times in one year alone to halt Republican policies. Does that sound like Democrats "never" use the filibuster "to block harmful GOP ones?" //
Kyrsten Sinema
@kyrstensinema
·
Follow
Literally zero Senate Democrats support the filibuster.
38 voted to filibuster the continuing resolution yesterday.
8 who previously voted to eliminate the filibuster (1/19/22) did not filibuster.
1 who previously campaigned against the filibuster did not filibuster.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
Still no.
In fact, the same Dems who argue to keep the filibuster “for when we need it” do not, in fact, use it when we need it.
It’s only used to block Dem policies. Never to block harmful GOP ones.
Could have proved us wrong. Instead they proved the point.
12:50 PM · Mar 15, 2025 //
What Sinema is pointing out is what should have been obvious from the beginning of this entire discussion. Democrats have no boundaries. They do not actually believe anything they say at any given moment. Everything they do is in pursuit of raw power. The ends always justify the means. Sinema stood up to that notion, and Democrats took her out. Now, those same Democrats get to roll around in the disgusting sludge of their own hypocrisy as they cling to the filibuster as a tool against Donald Trump.
With a penetrating gaze reaching deep inside his own soul, Hill touches a universal nerve of all humanity: a desperate need for God. //
When Dorothea von Ertmann, a friend and student of Beethoven’s, lost her only young child, Beethoven learned of her inconsolable grief. Instead of offering words of consolation, he sat at the piano and played for her, improvising for an hour before he squeezed her hand and left. It was Beethoven’s highest offering: using his greatest gift to express ideas and emotions of comfort and solace.
Dr. Jason Hill performs a similar service for readers in his moving new book, Letters To God From A Former Atheist. Hill, a philosophy professor at DePaul University, reasoned that if he were to find his way back to God, it also would come through his most developed faculty and his greatest gift, that of writing.
Hill shares this powerful journey of faith through his real-life story written as invocations to God: an autobiography told through the fearless and humble language of unfiltered and impassioned prayers.
“I seek to find You in these letters,” he prays.
These consecrated letters are filled with pathos, intimacy, joy, and a depth that is difficult to attain through other literary forms, helping to account for their unparalleled sublimity. //
Dorothea von Ertmann later recalled that Beethoven’s impromptu recital “said everything to me” and “finally gave me consolation.” I am confident this book will give similar consolation to its readers as only unvarnished prayer can.
Hill prayed to become the person he most wanted to be with a heart for humanity and a hunger for God’s presence in life’s every aspect. To his delight, he was not disappointed, and neither will the reader be.
A key aide to former President Joe Biden may have exceeded their authority by liberally using an autopen to sign official documents, according to two former White House sources, as President Trump’s aides set up “far more restrictive” rules governing the use of the mechanical device.
A document obtained by The Post outlines the narrow set of circumstances in which Trump’s signature can be affixed to documents, following controversy this week kicked off by a Heritage Foundation analysis of Biden signatures on various records, including last-minute pardons. //
One Biden White House source told The Post they suspect that a key aide to the then-president may have made unilateral determinations on what to auto-sign. The Post is not publishing that staffer’s name due to the lack of concrete evidence and refutations by other colleagues.
The Biden aide, who did not respond to requests for comment, would frequently make mention of what “the boss” wanted, the source said, but compatriots would have “no idea” if it was true because the internal culture was to not ask questions. //
The autopen, housed in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House, hasn’t been used only for weighty documents — such as pardons issued to former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Dr. Anthony Fauci in the closing days of Biden’s term.
In fact, the pen has been used by White House staff to ink everything from kitchen utensils to sports memorabilia. //
An internal memo drafted Thursday by Trump staff secretary William Scharf, who for the past two months has publicly described and presented documents to Trump for his signature in the Oval Office, lays out the restrictive current use of the autopen.
“We have gone significantly further than [the] need for express approval, both in this Administration and in the First Trump Administration,” Scharf wrote.
“Our practice around autopen usage is far more restrictive than most previous administrations. We do not use the autopen for documents that exercise the powers of the Presidency. So, for example, we do not use the autopen for executive orders, presidential memoranda, decision memoranda, nominations, appointment orders or commissions, or bills to be signed,” he wrote. //
Chelan Jim
5 hours ago
The Biden administration combined two movies "Dave" where a lookalike takes over for a president on life support and "Weekend at Bernie's" where the deceased was carried around to give the appearance he was still around.
In either case, if this is ever proven, this would be very much worse than the fabricated charges against the J6'ers.
mopani Chelan Jim
13 minutes ago
Throw in "Waking Ned Devine" for the hat trick.
Keyways, Inc. buys - sells - repairs - trades DEC and DEC-compatible parts.
WE HAVE OVER 75,000 MODULES AND OTHER PARTS IN STOCK.
We now have 30,000 sq. ft. facilities to better serve our customers.
An open source, self-hosted implementation of the Tailscale control server.
What is Tailscale
Tailscale is a modern VPN built on top of Wireguard. It works like an overlay network between the computers of your networks - using NAT traversal.
Everything in Tailscale is Open Source, except the GUI clients for proprietary OS (Windows and macOS/iOS), and the control server.
The control server works as an exchange point of Wireguard public keys for the nodes in the Tailscale network. It assigns the IP addresses of the clients, creates the boundaries between each user, enables sharing machines between users, and exposes the advertised routes of your nodes.
A Tailscale network (tailnet) is private network which Tailscale assigns to a user in terms of private users or an organisation.
Design goal
Headscale aims to implement a self-hosted, open source alternative to the Tailscale control server. Headscale's goal is to provide self-hosters and hobbyists with an open-source server they can use for their projects and labs. It implements a narrow scope, a single Tailscale network (tailnet), suitable for a personal use, or a small open-source organisation.
On its face, the administration's application for a partial stay simply asks the Supreme Court to narrow the scope of the injunctions as to birthright citizenship (rather than decide the merits of the argument at this juncture). But the application also seeks to strike at the heart of an even larger issue — the explosion of universal injunctions being issued in recent years.
The rationale is spelled out succinctly in the application's next-to-last paragraph:
There are “more than 1,000 active and senior district court judges, sitting across 94 judicial districts.” DHS, 140 S. Ct. at 600-601 (Gorsuch, J., concurring). Years of experience have shown that the Executive Branch cannot properly perform its functions if any judge anywhere can enjoin every presidential action everywhere. The sooner universal injunctions are “eliminated root and branch,” “the better.” Arizona, 40 F.4th at 398 (Sutton, C.J., concurring)
If nothing else, the Trump administration is prompting a thorough examination of the separation of powers and the scope of executive authority.
Climate change alarmist Michael Mann's ill-conceived lawsuit against the online critics continued to go pear-shaped Wednesday as a federal judge sanctioned Mann and his legal counsel for acting in "bad faith." That, of course, could easily describe Mann's entire career as a climate grifter. "Here, the Court finds, by clear and convincing evidence," wrote DC Superior Court Judge Alfred Irving, Jr., (George W. Bush appointee), "That Dr. Mann, through [his lawyers] Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Williams, acted in bad faith when they presented erroneous evidence and made false representations to the jury and the Court regarding damages stemming from loss of grant funding."
The saga began in 2012 when Mann, bruised from the email leak that seemed to indicate his famous "hockey stick" graph was a deliberate fraud (remember "hide the decline?"), decided to go after a handful of particularly vocal critics who dubbed him the "Jerry Sandusky of climate change," a hat tip to Penn State's legendary football coach. They were the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a CEI blogger Rand Simberg, National Review, and NR contributor Mark Steyn. //
The fact that the jury awarded him only $2 in actual damages and $1,001,000 in punitive damages (send a message!) supports this interpretation — The defense won on merits, and Mann won on the framing and the politics.
There was celebration on the left: Michael Mann climate scientist wins defamation case: NPR.
But it didn't last long. Last Tuesday, the trial judge, citing the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, reduced the punitive damages against Steyn to $5,000. But the hammer really fell Wednesday when the judge found that Mann and his attorney had lied about Mann's financial losses to inflate the jury verdict. //
Now Mann and his lawyer will be sanctioned.
I'd like to say that Mann lost this trial, but I'm not sure that's the case. He'll find deep-pocketed friends to pay off the money he lost. He's still employed at Penn State. Simberg and Steyn lost 13 years of their lives and have been largely sidelined from climate change debates. I have no knowledge of their finances, but I'm willing to bet they suffered a lot more than Mann. And Mann's suit has served the purpose for which it was intended. I didn't write about half of the very witty things I wanted to write about Mann because I don't have the time or money to fight off even a bullsh** lawsuit by someone with Mann's backing and resources. I'm sure others have made the same calculation.
The sanctions for lying will be mildly embarrassing to Mann, but what survives are the two judgments for defamation he won, which will serve as a precedent in the future.
The Government of Liberia has officially launched the new Visa on Arrival (visaonarrival.lis.gov.lr) and Re-entry Permit (reentryvisa.lis.gov.lr) Issuing System in collaboration with the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) and the project contractor - consortium CETIS, one of the Europe’s leading companies in security printing and identity management, and ZIP SOLUTIONS, on 11 March 2025. Following the successful launch of the modern digitalized Work Permit Issuing System in 2022, this new system marks another significant step forward in Liberia’s efforts to modernize and digitalize public administration. This new system is designed to simplify the process for foreigners entering Liberia and enhance the effectiveness of border controls at Monrovia-Roberts International Airport - whether as tourists, business visitors, or investors. These initiatives are expected to result in increased tourism and business travel, which are crucial to the country’s economic growth.
I'm not one to use the term "Constitutional crisis" loosely, but if this ruling stands, I think we are at that point. Alsup's decision means federal agencies cannot legally respond to a White House directive to reduce their headcount. It also changes the legal status of probationary and term appointments to tenure rather than how they have been traditionally viewed. IANAL, but I think the ability of the American Federation of Government Employees to intervene on behalf of employees who are not represented by a bargaining unit in an employment matter is highly suspect.
When I wore Uncle Sam's colors back in the closing years of the Cold War, we took a lot of pride in being STRAC - "Strategic, Tough, Ready Around the Clock." Not only physical fitness but appearance factored into that; we took pride in looking sharp, in looking soldierly. We eschewed standard-issue boots for Corcoran jump boots that took a better shine. We pressed our uniforms, we blocked our caps, and we shined our brass; we were honed like razors, and we took great pride in it.
In recent years, some of the military people we've seen in airports and so on have not only looked non-STRAC, but some of them looked a little saggy around the midsection. But there's a new boss at the Pentagon, and he looks to be bringing STRAC back.
This strain may have emerged from gain-of-function research conducted at two specific facilities: the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, Georgia, and the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. //
smalltownoklahoman. | March 11, 2025 at 12:42 pm
Why is it being done at all? Who thinks it’s a good idea to take a known virus and amp it up into something that can kill millions? Just to satisfy some scientists curiosity? H1N1 in the late 70’s was a GOF research project that “oops!” just happened to escape. It’s clear that humans just aren’t responsible enough to continue to play these games and any countries that allow it need to be punished severely, including our own. Would Covid exist if we weren’t funding the research and teaching Chinese scientists how to conduct it? //
GWB in reply to Sanddog. | March 11, 2025 at 1:47 pm
Primarily the research exists (ostensibly) for two reasons:
First is to then play around and see how things work. This is research for knowledge’s sake.
Second is the idea that you can then make vaccines and treatments for these things (especially novel ones, yay!) and be better prepared when something appears out of the wild. (Or when something shows up from an enemy’s bioweapons lab.)
I get the first one. And if people could be trusted to be really safe and have only the best motives and all that, it might be supportable for those who place Reason high on a pedestal.
The second one does make sense. Sorta. The problem there is that how do you distinguish between someone making a weapon and someone actually building defenses against a weapon? By what they tell you? Simply by who they work for? Yeah, pull the other one.
Sanddog in reply to GWB. | March 12, 2025 at 12:30 am
There isn’t a single vaccine or treatment that has come out of these experiments. //
TRUMP: I blame the Democrats, and Chuck Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I'm concerned. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian.
(Reporters erupt). //
houdini1984
8 hours ago
"Palestinian" is just another way to say antisemite. Schumer is a Palestinian.
When you come to the U.S. as a visitor -- which is what a visa is, which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitor's visa -- you are here as a VISITOR. We can deny you that visa. If you tell us when you apply, "Hi, I'm trying to get into the United States on a student visa - 'I am a big supporter of Hamas,' a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages - if you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this, and you tell us when you apply for your visa, "And by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, antisemitic activities, I intend to shut down your university.
If you told us these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa. I hope we would.
And if you actually end up doing that, once you're in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it. And if you have a green card--not citizenship--as a result of that visa, while you're here and those activities? We're gonna kick you out. It's as simple as that. This is not about free speech. This is about people who don't have any right to be in the United States.
For all the melodies you have in you
Speldosa is the result of a unique collaboration between Klevgrand and the Swedish artist Wintergatan/Martin Molin. Wintergatan has primarily worked in the physical world (the Marble Machine is probably the most astonishing example), while Klevgrand has performed its craft within the digital sphere. When these two worlds now meet, it results in a product that both visually and audibly inspires the creation of music that you didn’t know you had in you.
Speldosa (Swedish for "Music Box") is the essence of the shared beliefs of Klevgrand and Wintergatan, and their fascination with minimalism. A simple melody played on a music box can contain an equal amount of emotional power as any symphonic work. There is something about the music box sound that never ceases to fascinate.
The instrument itself has been meticulously recorded by Wintergatan and transformed into a playable digital instrument plugin. It features four different models (Modern, Vintage, Antique, and Eternal = Reversed), two different Room models, and an algorithmic reverb.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you might recognize these sheets—they were previously under the Royal Velvet and JCP brand names, but they’re just as fabulous as ever! Made from 100% cotton sateen with a 400-thread count, these sheets are so soft and smooth, they’ll have you looking forward to bedtime every night. I’ve tested them myself, and the softness is unmatched—perfect for anyone who loves that silky-smooth feel.
The price of electricity in German soared from 17 cents per kilowatt hour in April 2020 to $4.69 in August 2022. It is now $1.40—or 8 times what Germans once paid. //
Germany's electricity prices have experienced an increase in the latter half of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, reaching an average of 140.42 euros per megawatt-hour in February 2025. This marks a notable decrease from the record high of over 469 euros per megawatt-hour in August 2022, yet remains above pre-pandemic levels. The ongoing volatility in energy prices continues to impact German households and businesses, reflecting broader trends across Europe's energy landscape.
Israel’s battle for survival is not just its own—it is a fight for democracy, freedom, and the right to live without fear of annihilation. History has shown us that when the world stays silent in the face of rising antisemitism, devastation follows. We cannot let history repeat itself. Now is the time to stand unequivocally with Israel, to reject the dangerous double standards imposed upon it, and to ensure that those who seek its destruction—whether through terrorism, economic isolation, or ideological warfare—do not succeed. The fight against antisemitism is the fight for civilization itself, and we all have a duty to engage in it. //
RedRaider85
6 hours ago
My boss was a Jewish carpenter. I stand with Israel! //
anon-bzzx
3 hours ago
I stand with Israel. They have contributed much to society that goes unnoticed. The anti-semitism on campus in my view are not protests but pro-terrorism. It will continue to spread not only against Jews but also against Christians if not stopped now. //
Musicman
2 hours ago
Blame the British for this mess. They kept their promise to the Arabs East of Egypt for helping them defeat the Ottomans: they gave them self ruling countries everywhere except in the Holy Lands. They promised the Jews of the world who helped them win that War a homeland, and Christians that they would never again let the Holy Lands be ruled by Muslims. As soon as they got the Mandate for Palestine they spent the next 25 years keeping Jews from moving there, even after the rise of Hitler, and even the Arabs sided with the Nazis. Had they allowed the Jews to move there, today there would two or three or even four times as many Jews there, all of Palestine would be a Jewish State, and the Arabs minority living there would be richer with more freedom than any other Arabs.
Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47
·
.@POTUS: "We want to bring the schools back to the states because we have the worst education department and education in the world... we're ranked at the bottom of the list, and yet we're number one when it comes to cost per pupil."
11:21 AM · Mar 9, 2025
18.8K
Hank Reardon
3 hours ago
At LEAST four wins here . . .
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American parents love it. Replacing big government leftist indoctrination with . . . locally accountable education. Imagine that!
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Weingarten hates it. Her reign of indoctrination and $500k/yr salary are threatened.
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Carter’s legacy. Going the way of Carter. R.I.P., sir.
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Real estate prices in northern Virginia. Taking another step downward as more big government blue voters prepare to leave town. And (let’s hope) GOP voters fill the void, turning another state solidly red.
From time to time, security issues are found within software. The FreeBSD package management system relies upon pkg-audit and the Vulnerability database to alert system administrators that attention is required.
A friend introduced me to monitor lights earlier this year. I thought about getting one, but didn’t. I added it to my wish-list and I recently received one.
I really like it.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This is what I bought: OOWOLF Monitor Light Bar with Remote Screen Light Bar (Amazon link).
I took these photos one evening in my office.