President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian Chief of Government Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty on September 7, 1977. This agreement relinquishes American control over the canal by the year 2000 and guarantees its neutrality. On May 4, 1904, Panama granted the United States the right to build and operate the canal and control the five miles of land on either side of the water passage in exchange for annual payments. For the history of the Panama Canal, visit the Library of Congress American Memory section.

Appendix B: Texts of the Panama Canal Treaties with United States Senate Modifications -- Panama

Javier Milei has shown what can be done. He's turned a deficit into a surplus for the first time in more than 100 years in their country, and in such a short time in office.

It may take a little longer for us, but how do you do it? With commitment, will and afuera! //

Musk cited remarks from Ronald Reagan from 1975, before he was president. But it's all kinds of sense when it comes to tax policy as he explains that even then the government was taking about half of what Americans earn. Reagan spoke out against taxes on businesses that the left pushes but then end up landing on the people. //

"We oughta have tax reform, and we oughta start by making it so simple you don't have to hire a lawyer to figure out how much you owe every year," Reagan said.

"We live in the only country in the world where it takes more brains to figure out your income tax than it does to earn the income," he quipped.

"There's very little that government can do as efficiently and economically that people can't do themselves. And If government would shut the doors and sneak away for three weeks, we'd never miss 'em." //

How much of a tangle is everything in? The Office of Management and Budget can't even tell you how many "boards, commissions, agencies, bureaus, and departments there are in the federal government."

We've been talking about this for almost 50 years. We're at a point where the words are more true than ever and where we now have a golden opportunity.

You finally have Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy with the force and the will. Now, they need to harness that same common sense and make it happen, despite the people who will try to stand in their way.

Shorter Scaramucci: That's a nice life you've built there. It'd be a real shame if something were to happen to it.

Look, I don't know exactly what the motivation behind the above excerpt was. Perhaps Scaramucci is genuinely concerned for Musk's safety and success, though I tend to doubt it. Either way, so much that is wrong with Washington is revealed in what is said. An American citizen should not have to fear the "enemies" he's making by demanding the government function with some level of sanity and efficiency. Yet, that's exactly the situation Musk (and others) find themselves in by daring to push back on the status quo.

That people in the government can "hurt you," as Scaramucci says, for crossing them is exactly why Washington must be reformed. Dismiss attempts to do so as "Potomac fever," but things will certainly never change if no attempt is made to change them. Americans are dealing with a corrupt, deeply entrenched behemoth, and it's not going to give up power quietly. That's why Musk should not "lay off the gas on politics." If anything, it's time to go even harder.

Hammer, meet nail. For Democrats to now fear-monger about "unelected" people running the government is to ignore that's precisely what has happened throughout President Joe Biden's term. //

How does that compare to Musk making a post online? It doesn't. What he did was public and out in the open. People were able to decide whether to agree with him or not, and in the end, it was elected officials who chose to come up with another deal. That's democracy in action. What's not democracy in action is a bunch of nameless figures running the government behind the scenes while lying to everyone about the president's senility. //

Hang on just a second because, as Jennings will go on to note, that's a serious allegation. Did Musk oppose the 1,500-page CR because it didn't "directly benefit" him? That should be pretty easy to figure out. What is in the 105-page CR that passed that wasn't in the original deal? If Roginsky can't define that, then her claim is baseless.

I'll go ahead and spoil it for you. She didn't provide any evidence for her allegation. //

anon-eoij
2 hours ago edited
George Soros
Alex Soros
Bill Gates
Michael Bloomberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Jeff Bezos
….

Shall we go on about “rich folks influencing politics”?

The missing Congresswoman in question is Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), who represents Texas' 12th Congressional District, which includes the Fort Worth area west of Dallas in Tarrant County. Granger's last known vote in the House appears to be in July when she voted "no" on HR8998, a bill that would reduce the salary of Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticides Program Ya-Wei (Jake) Lee to $1. Since then, she has no recorded votes. //

Fl family
@family_fl73222
·
Follow
Kay Granger has not been working for the past year why has she not been replaced?
2:22 PM · Dec 20, 2024. //

The newspaper discovered that Rep. Granger was now the resident of a local memory care and assisted living home and had been for some time after she was found confused and wandering around her neighborhood. Assistant Executive Director for the memory care/assisted living home, Taylor Manzeil, confirmed that Granger was a resident, saying, "This is her home."

Bo French is the Tarrant County Republican Chairman. He stated the obvious about this crucial time for Republicans in Congress, who need every vote.//

Granger's constituents are also concerned about Granger's absence in Washington. But the biggest question is, why has this situation gone on as long as it has, with no one appearing to notice or even care?

It appears that this is just another example of those in Washington on both sides of the aisle hanging onto power until they are literally incapable of doing so. It is exactly the kind of thing that the American people clearly said in November they are tired of.

Earlier on Friday afternoon, the House passed the third version (AKA Plan C) of a continuing resolution (CR) crafted by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, in an effort to avoid a partial government shutdown before many in Washington head home for winter recess. As RedState's Susie Moore wrote:

The House has now passed the "Plan C" CR, with a total vote of 366 to 34, with one voting "present." The 34 nay votes were Republicans. All Democrats voted in favor of it, save for the one who voted "present."

...The measure will now move onto the Senate, where, given the latest developments, it appears it will likely pass. //

Senators began voting on the stopgap government spending bill just before 12:30 a.m. EST. It will need 60 ayes to pass.

Now, the Senate has spoken:

The Senate has voted 85 to 11 to pass the stopgap spending bill approved in the House earlier today and keep the government open.

Here's some of what is (and isn't) in the bill:

The final bill did not include anything related to the debt limit, though House Republicans agreed to increase the borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $2.5 trillion in net cuts to mandatory spending. That would take place during next year’s budget reconciliation process. //

Senate Press Gallery @SenatePress
·
As promised here is the breakdown -

Senators voting against - Bruan, Crapo, Hawley, Johnson, Kennedy, Lee, Paul, Risch, Romney, Sanders, and Schmitt

Senators Manchin, Rubio, Schiff and Vance did not vote.
Senate Press Gallery
@SenatePress
By a vote of 85-11 the #Senate passed H.R. 10545 (The Continuing Resolution )

Breakdown to come

This was the last vote of the 118th Congress.
12:02 AM · Dec 21, 2024

Elon Musk @elonmusk
·
Only the AfD can save Germany
Naomi Seibt @SeibtNaomi
🚨🇩🇪CHANCELLOR FRONTRUNNER SLAMS MUSK & MILEI❗️

The presumptive next chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is horrified by the idea that Germany should follow Elon Musk’s and Javier Milei’s example.

He staunchly rejects a pro-freedom approach and refuses any discussion with the AfD.
Embedded video
12:03 AM · Dec 20, 2024. //

TGDavis
40 minutes ago
Being for a secure border, sound money, and the preservation of Western civilization, does not make you a right winger, it makes you normal.

Vivek Ramaswamy @VivekGRamaswamy
·
Shorter = better. This bill is only 116 pages, instead of 1,500+ pages. Took a LOT less time to read. Glad to see the following garbage from yesterday’s bill removed in the current version:

• Congressional pay raise/health benefits
• 17 miscellaneous commerce bills
• Random new… Show more

Elon Musk @elonmusk
Yesterday’s bill vs today’s bill 😂
4:52 PM · Dec 19, 2024

The Biden Admin paid Reuters over $300 million in government contracts. 11 different Biden government agencies targeted Elon's businesses. All 11 agencies paid millions to Reuters. Reuters then won the Pulitzer Prize for "their work on Elon Musk and misconduct at his businesses" pic.twitter.com/3IGGtuHv7L

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 17, 2024. //

To be clear, this is the weaponizations that Democrats said Trump would bring about if he were elected. The Biden Administration has made little to no effort to hide its willingness to attack people who disagree with the left's agenda, whether they be parents pushing back against CRT or the transgender agenda or January 6 protesters.

But here we see the government actually paying corporate media millions of dollars to attack its enemies as well. This isn't just ideological alignment resulting in friendly reporting. This is a President paying a media company that touts to be an unbiased source of news to go after one of his political enemies. This discovery is going to be another nail in the coffin for the already dying reputation of the corporate media.

Reuters should have no right to call itself a news outlet, but a propaganda wing of the Democrat Party. //

I have a feeling that in a matter of weeks, we'll start uncovering some shocking truths about how far the corruption went under the Biden Admin, and that more than just Reuters benefited from a fascist government willing to pay them to damage their political opponents. //

Mongoose
3 hours ago
I'd be careful about this story. There may be less here than the headline implies. It looks like most if not all of the contracts went to Thomson Reuters Special Services LLC. They're huge, providing lots of legal, tax, and accounting support services around the world. They do WestLaw and other legal research tools, among other things. I know the DOJ pays a massive amount for access to WestLaw - it's on every Assistant US Attorney's computer. They do anti-money laundering software for business and government, that stuff is probably in every bank in the world and the Treasury Department contracts for it. DOD spends a ton for the various Thomson Reuters services and IRS spends a bunch for their tax and accounting services. CBP uses Thomson Reuters trade and import/export stuff - and pays for it.
The Reuters news wire service - Reuters Agency - is a relatively small part of Thomson Reuters and I'm not sure that the connection between the parent company and any Reuters Agency "targeting" exists. It's certainly not clear in this report.
The Biden Admin paid Reuters over $300 million in government contracts. 11 different Biden government agencies targeted Elon's businesses. All 11 agencies paid millions to Reuters. Reuters then won the Pulitzer Prize for "their work on Elon Musk and misconduct at his businesses."
Yes, the government paid (Thomson) Reuters over $300 million in government contracts. And perhaps eleven different agencies did "target" Musk's businesses. I'm not seeing the connection, however. Just because the Justice Department spent $60 million with Thomson Reuters for WestLaw etc., doesn't mean the government was paying Reuters to target Musk.
Caution is warranted.

Bruce427
5 hours ago edited
** Jess Davis: "When I hear people talking about expanding school vouchers, my mind immediately goes to how hard it is for families in some parts of Tennessee [because of poor bridges] even to get their children to school safely.”

OK, let's just cut to the chase: The real (and Primary) reason Progressives viscerally despise School Choice is, it substantially takes the minds of our youngsters out of the reach of Leftist Progressive Ideology.

A close secondary reason is, it takes millions in Funding out of the hands of Teacher's Unions who then funnel it back to the Democrat Party.

Everything else is just noise. //

EDMUND
4 hours ago
It's real easy....school money should follow the student, not the system... //

Indylawyer
7 hours ago
Its an especially strange argument because school choice should bring an enormous cost savings. That $7,000 voucher is probably less than half of what they are spending for those kids to attend public schools - and it's still providing $140,000 for a classroom of 20 kids. //

sb2
7 hours ago
I hear some of these arguments against big government relinquishing control and I'm left thinking that it isn't that they really think these things. They just try to find arguments they hope enough people will buy into. There is only one reason to be against school choice - and that's if you want to indoctrinate instead of teach.

OrneryCoot
3 hours ago
If Patel and Trump bring all of this information to light, I believe that the public will respond in kind; trusting the public with such information will bring about trust BY the people for this administration, which will bode well for midterms and 2028. It will by no means be the most important thing, but it will carry significance for many. That alone is a reason to declassify and release material like that described above. //

Chelan Jim
2 hours ago
And why was the balloon, the size of a school bus, allowed to float across the continent taking pictures/images without interception. Are we that confident that no military, commercial or strategic utility targets need not worry of such an invasion of our airspace?

U.S. citizens would be arrested for flying a drone near many of the areas this balloon got near enough to take hi-res video and pictures. //

charlie
2 hours ago
Releasing all of the info may help further harm the reputations of the agencies involved - making it easier for Elon/Vivek and President Trump to clean house

The federal government shouldn’t be involved, directly or indirectly, in the fact-checking industry. Nor should it engage in efforts designed to limit the speech of citizens, particularly when taxpayers are the ones footing the bill.

But the cost and creation of these misinformation programs is just the tip of the iceberg. Open the Books conducted a detailed review of many of the programs, contracts and grants as part of its report, and I subsequently verified and expanded upon some of their findings.

What we found is clear evidence that the Biden-Harris White House used funds to support or develop Orwellian surveillance and propaganda strategies, create methods and tools to restrict speech online, and even to finance highly politicized reports critical of Trump.

This is the point where I usually suggest that if the above story were flipped; if the first Trump administration had spent more than a quarter billion dollars trying to restrict speech on the left and to finance highly politicized critical of, say, Kamala Harris, the histrionics on the left would have set off alarms on seismic detectors across America. //

Random US Citizen
41 minutes ago
Everything those who are no longer our countrymen do boils down to one of two things: a power grab or money laundering. Those hundreds of millions of dollars Obama gave out in green energy “loans” that were never repaid? Money that was laundered through those companies, a high percentage of which ended up back in the coffers of the DNC as corporate or personal donations. Most of the billion dollars Harris spent on “consultants” is a similar thing, and this “disinformation” spending is just another scheme to get money from the public purse into the pockets of people who really aren’t Americans in any meaningful sense.

There’s an important update on the lawsuit that Missouri and Louisiana filed back in May against members of the Biden Administration, including Joe Biden, to expose the collusion between them and social media companies to censor speech on a variety of subjects–including things like the Hunter Biden laptop and COVID.

After a series of “Twitter Files” detailed Twitter’s extensive collusion with the FBI and federal agencies to control public discourse before Elon Musk took over the tech giant, the FBI on Wednesday tried to salvage its reputation by spinning the revelations as normal procedure.

Twitter head Elon Musk had some more to say on Tuesday about the reach to which the censorship by the government went.

We saw with the release of the last Twitter files the pressure that the Biden administration was putting on Twitter to de-platform people over things like COVID. https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/12/26/the-one-weve-been-waiting-for-twitter-files-on-covid-19-drops-n679095. //

Elon Musk

@elonmusk
·
Follow
Replying to @ggreenwald and @mtaibbi
Most people don’t appreciate the significance of the point Matt was making:

Every social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government.

Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.
9:19 AM · Dec 27, 2022 //

Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
·
Dec 27, 2022
·
Replying to @elonmusk and @mtaibbi
When Dems controlled both houses of Congress and the WH (and Exec Branch), they repeatedly summoned Big Tech CEOs and openly and explicitly threatened them: if you don't censor more, you will be punished. And DHS/FBI/CIA applied immense pressure:
greenwald.substack.com
Congress Escalates Pressure on Tech Giants to Censor More, Threatening the First Amendment

Elon Musk @elonmusk
·
Exactly!
9:33 AM · Dec 27, 2022

In the fading hours of arguably the worst administration since Herbert Hoover, Joe Biden's Social Security Commissioner, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed a five-year contract with the American Federation of Government Employees guaranteeing continued work-from-home, or telework, for up to four days per week for the agency's workers. //

This points to two major problems in the federal workforce. First, the idea that a union should represent federal employees is ridiculous. The whole thing is a gift. That's a subject for a different day. The second problem is that telework and its abuse are the norm, and there is no doubt it cheats taxpayers out of money and services. //

While the reporter for GovExec claims SSA has a "1.3%" telework rate, in terms of numbers, that would mean only 780 people of SSA's 60,000 employees work from home. If that was the case, then it hardly seems like something that AFGE would make a big deal about. The truth is probably much worse. Ernst's investigation found a space utilization rate of just 7% at the SSA headquarters campus; see page 3. The union claimed that work-from-home was all that was holding back a cascade of resignations and retirements. //

There are several areas of waste, fraud, and abuse at work here. The one most overlooked is the cost of leasing and operating massive buildings that only have, on average, a 12% utilization rate. And then there is the flagrant abuse of a privilege.

There is an objective approach that DOGE could apply that would substantially reduce the footprint of the federal government called CPI-X: A Novel Method to Decrease Spending and the National Debt.

In short, CPI-X (CPI minus X) would tether federal spending to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), using the CPI as a baseline, and accomplishing actual spending cuts via the “X” in the equation. The X-factors in CPI-X are derived from benchmarking the spending of the U.S. federal government, states, and other countries along 10 basic policy areas, such as defense, health, education, etc.

CPI-X was originally developed in the early 1980s and used to reduce spending under UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s privatization plan. In the 1990s, it was also utilized in Australia to regulate the pricing of public utilities. In both instances, CPI-X was successful.

Revolutionary reform concerning how the U.S. government functions and spends taxpayer dollars is long overdue. //

For instance, did you know the federal government does not even know precisely how many agencies and departments currently exist? According to the National Archives, the number stands at 435, whereas the Office of Personnel Management lists 646. //

C-K
3 hours ago edited
I was in the Federal government or a contractor for 23 of my 40 working years. The biggest problem I saw was an agency has to spend all the money it was allocated in a fiscal year otherwise their budget would be cut by the amount of underspend the next year. When large pieces of capitol equipment needs replacing or facilities need to be built or renovated, a separate appropriation over and above the annual operating budget must be approved.

Why not change the laws to allow agencies to “bank” underspend for X number of years in interest bearing instruments? This accumulated underspend plus interest could then be used to help offset future capitol expenditures.

Agencies having to spend all their allocated funds in one fiscal year is insane and leads to wasteful spending. //

Vahn Geo
3 hours ago
This is a smoke and mirrors plan. And its bullshit. A chainsaw and an axe are what is required. Period. //

S'Naut Right
3 hours ago
Formulaic paths to cuts are rife with opportunities for finagling. I dont like this idea, at all. Just straight with the broad axe, please. //

anon-umsv
4 hours ago
This is just another over-thought proposal of incrementalism along the same vein as the ridiculous Penny Plan. Slowly attempt to starve the swamp over 20 years to bring the budget down to $6 TRILLION, while the country is suffering from government bloat. No, Trump only has four years. He needs to ruthlessly attack the beast. Fight! Fight! Fight! //

surfcat50
4 hours ago
This would be a great idea IN ADDITION TO using the chainsaw during Trump’s term. ///

Also switch from baseline budgeting to zero based budgeting. Don't start with last year's budget, start from zero and justify each line item.

There are a lot of ways the government can overreach, but I've always considered its ability to worm its fingers into controlling how parents raise their children to be the most despotic of all, and it's still an issue that's happening today.

I think many people pardon this intrusion because it's based on care for the children, which you'll find this is an excuse used by a lot of authoritarians to pass off their control-focused legislation with.

But the brutal truth is that this kind of "care" isn't care at all. It rips apart families on the basis that the government can do a better job parenting your children than you can. It's a signal to Americans that the government has more authority over your child than you do, and that it will wield that authority if you give them any flimsy excuse.

I can't help but wonder how many parents keep their children locked up in America and under constant supervision, not because they're terrified they might come to harm or be kidnapped, but because the state will come down on them after one phone call from a nosy Karen. I have a very strong feeling that America isn't a country of helicopter parents, it's just filled with parents unwilling to risk being taken from their kids.

What kind of free country are we living in, if that's our mentality?

And what does this do to our children? Nothing good. //

Not that there hasn't been state-level pushback. To be fair, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Colorado, and others have been passing laws over the past five years that protect parents who let their kids roam.

My advice? Familiarize yourself with your state's laws, and if they're too tight, make it clear they need to be loosened. Make it a big deal. Get your friends and family involved. Get your neighbors to raise a stink about it.

First, one (mis)attributed to Solzhenitsyn:

They are lying. We know they are lying. They know we know they are lying. Yet, they are still lying.

Next, one (correctly) attributed to Theodore Dalrymple (Anthony Daniels):

When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control.

Zman makes the interesting and controversial point that endemic lying is an inevitable feature of democracy:

In a world where the standard is public opinion, winning public opinion is what matters most. In fact, it must count for more than the truth, as the public often accepts as true things that turn out to be false. If the goal is to win the crowd, then playing to their deeply held misconceptions is just as good, if not better, than disabusing them of those misconceptions.
…
Like the Athenians, we have embraced the democratic spirit to the point where factual reality is just one tool in the toolkit of persuasion that may or may not be used by the successful. The modern sophist is untethered from the truth, both spiritually and emotionally, because the only thing that matters is tricking some portion of the public.

Whether or not his thesis is correct, the trajectory is accurately delineated and the West appears to have arrived at the endpoint he describes.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released its final report Monday, making numerous findings that would have gotten people deplatformed four - or even three - short years ago, and some of the points upon which there was bipartisan consensus will rock the minds of the Covidian cult.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), a physician, chaired the committee.

Entitled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward," the report begins with Wenstrup outlining those points of bipartisan consensus:

1. The possibility that the COVID-19 virus emerged because of a laboratory or research related accident is not a conspiracy theory.
2. EcoHealth Alliance, Inc., and Dr. Peter Daszak should never again receive U.S. taxpayer dollars.
3. Scientific messaging must be clear and concise, backed by evidentiary support, and come from trusted messengers, such as front-line doctors treating patients.
4. Public health officials must work to regain Americans' trust; Americans want to be educated, not indoctrinated.
5. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo engaged in medical malpractice and publicly covered up the total number of nursing home fatalities in New York.

According to Wenstrup, the committee also made numerous findings, including (but not limited to):

1. The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
2. The Chinese government, agencies within the U.S. Government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover-up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.
3. Operation Warp Speed was a tremendous success and a model to build upon in the future. The vaccines, which are now probably better characterized as therapeutics, undoubtedly saved millions of lives by diminishing likelihood of severe disease and death. //

Contrary to what was promised, the COVID-19 vaccine did not stop the spread or transmission of the virus.

Vaccine mandates trampled individual freedoms and harmed military readiness.

And, most importantly, the committee found that "a lab-related incident involving dangerous gain-of-function research in China is the most likely origin of the COVID-19 pandemic." //

TXavatar
11 hours ago edited
I work in clinical drug trials and the key words missing from the discussion is "informed consent" which is the moral and legal bedrock of all medical treatments. With such a limited time to test, the drugs were not vaccines but rather experimental treatments and given liability exemption as a result. That could have been acceptable if presented as such to the concerned populace. However, when they were falsely promoted as vaccines and the population was coerced/mandated in to receiving them, "informed" and "consent" was thrown out the window.