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
·
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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.

“There have been no squirrel to human rabies transmission ever documented in this country,” said Rensimer, a Texas infectious disease specialist who has been studying rabies for decades.

“I can’t imagine, frankly, what their thinking was, if they knew anything about this area,” he added.

The social-media famous pet squirrel and Fred — a young raccoon kit being nursed back to strength — were euthanized by the Department of Environmental Conservation in October just hours after they were seized from the upstate home of caretaker Mark Longo, who runs an animal sanctuary on his property. //

“Some animals almost never get rabies,” the New York Department of Health states on its rabies fact sheet — specifically naming “small rodents such as squirrels” as only ever catching it under “rare circumstances.”

And while raccoons are generally agreed to be more prevalent carriers, the actual number of confirmed cases appears to be extremely low, according to data collected by New York state. There were just 35 lab-confirmed cases of rabies in raccoons in the 17 years since records were first kept in 2007, the data show. //

While the exact timeline for rabies infections in raccoons and squirrels is not entirely known, Rensimer said similarly sized animals like cats, dogs, and ferrets will almost always show symptoms within 10 days.

As Fred had been in Longo’s care for well more than 10 days, and P’Nut had been living with him for seven years — facts readily available due to Longo’s widely viewed social media — there was ample evidence to suggest the animals were rabies-free. //

And even if the DEC agent was especially worried about rabies — which is typically fatal in humans once it reaches the brain — Rensimer said a bite to the hand from an infected animal would take about 45 days or longer to transmit to the brain. //

Test results later showed that neither P’Nut nor Fred had rabies.

The DEC did not respond to request for comment on the agency’s employee immunization practices, and have still not provided any documentation that P’Nut bit anyone during the raid.

But all of the DEC’s explanations about squirrel bites and rabies fears were cast into doubt after The Post reported officials were plotting to euthanize P’Nut and Fred at least seven days before the supposed bite — and P’Nut’s caretaker has now filed claim to sue the state to find some answers.

No one on the left liked the idea of Javier Milei winning in Argentina, especially The Economist.

The publication has changed its tune since Milei, who has been president for a year, has elevated Argentina with his libertarian ways.

Gee, maybe, just maybe, people should listen to us libertarians. //

Yes. Milei is a true libertarian who has embraced small government, free markets, and Austrian economics. That is why Milei is the only politician I genuinely adore and support. I cannot believe I am agreeing with The Economist:

The left detests him and the Trumpian right embraces him, but he truly belongs to neither group. He has shown that the continual expansion of the state is not inevitable. And he is a principled rebuke to opportunistic populism, of the sort practised by Donald Trump. Mr Milei believes in free trade and free markets, not protectionism; fiscal discipline, not reckless borrowing; and, instead of spinning popular fantasies, brutal public truth-telling.

—

What is fascinating is the philosophy behind the figures. Mr Milei is often wrongly lumped in with populist leaders such as Mr Trump, the hard right in France and Germany or Viktor Orban in Hungary. In fact he comes from a different tradition. A true believer in open markets and individual liberty, he has a quasi-religious zeal for economic freedom, a hatred of socialism and, as he told us in an interview this week, “infinite” contempt for the state. Instead of industrial policy and tariffs, he promotes trade with private firms that do not interfere in Argentina’s domestic affairs, including Chinese ones. He is a small-state Republican who admires Margaret Thatcher—a messianic example of an endangered species. His poll ratings are rising and, at this point in his term, he is more popular in Argentina than his recent predecessors were.

Milei practices what he preaches. //

Tiki | November 30, 2024 at 6:48 pm
Funny how the economist doesn’t mention how Kirchnerism (crony socialism) ruined Argentina.

There’s gonna be a major US-Argentine trade pact. Musk will be siting his southern hemisphere IT hub there. Watch to see who gets picked to be ambassador.

The Europeans/Internationalists want to lock us out of Brazil and SA, but Milei/Musk will to lock them out of SA tech.

Milei is powering an industrial renaissance via a deregulated oil industry.

Milei didn’t fall into the IMF trap.

Bernie Sanders
@SenSanders
·
Follow
Elon Musk is right.

The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions.

Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud.

That must change.
12:07 PM · Dec 1, 2024. //

Elon Musk

@elonmusk
·
Follow
Gonna happen 😂
ALEX

@ajtourville
The IRS getting audited by the @DOGE
Embedded video
10:51 AM · Nov 27, 2024

Listen, I think you should have the Biden administration look at itself. What is the qualification of Tony Blinken to become secretary of state? Well, he organized 51 so-called intelligence experts to put together a fake letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. That must have qualified him to be secretary of state. President Trump is entitled to name his appointees. That is exactly what he's doing, and I'm going to support this appointment. Kash has worked at national security. He's worked at the Department of Justice, and he's somebody that has been willing to uncover the wrongs at the FBI. He's the one that uncovered for the American public what happened with Russia-gate. He's the one that can see through the fix here. //

Chelan Jim Random US Citizen
5 hours ago
I think the Republicans have always been acutely aware of the leftist bias of the media but they did not feel they dare tackle it if they wanted to avoid crossfire and stay in office. Now that a majority of the population recognize this bias exist, the politicians are more immune to the the influence media has.

I have always said, the reason Republicans lose races are often because they are honest. The left has always been dishonest and the media gives them cover. So I don't fault the Republicans that know they could have been ruined by the media if the media decides they are a target.

Some may say the Republicans are cowards. Well, I live in a state that we can't seem to elect a Republican to save our soul in a statewide election. I almost wish a few of them would just not be so obvious about all of their views until they get elected. It is all in the perspectives you have. //

anon-skk0
4 hours ago
Biden appointed his team to play defense. Trumps picks are going to play offense. //

Largo Patriot
4 hours ago
One of the criticisms of Patel is he is not an FBI agent who came up through the ranks, but neither did James Comey and Christopher Wray. The problem with the FBI is an internal one, which is why an outsider is needed to clean it up. The FBI Director's first duty is to the American people, not his fellow FBI agents, and the "we investigated ourselves and determined we did nothing wrong" is not working for the American people, especially those who find themselves staring down the barrel of a gun pointed at them by FBI swat team members in the middle of the night.

Not even trying
Here in the UK HMRC will spend that on creating a 4 page document outlining its strategy to publish a statement of intent showing a roadmap to publish detailed steps in formulating a high level view of the processes involved in changing the shade of green on the logo and its environmental, cultural and social impact. These Indians aren't even trying to waste money.

A scathing new report claims that the Biden administration's Department of Education's (ED) enforcement actions were focused at least 70 percent on Christian and career-based schools, even though they represent less than 10 percent of the students in the nation. This uncovers an unseen campaign that persisted over the administration's term and can hardly be seen as impartial.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-report-shows-70-biden-administrations-education-enforcement-targeted-christian-colleges

The Supreme Court, which dealt a major blow to the power of federal agencies in June, agreed on Friday to consider another: whether Congress violates the Constitution by delegating broad discretion to them.

The so-called nondelegation doctrine has been largely dormant since 1935, when the Supreme Court struck down New Deal laws for granting too much leeway to agencies with insufficient guidance. //

Judge Andrew S. Oldham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote in the majority ruling that deemed the program unconstitutional:

“The universal service contribution mechanism’s double-layered delegation is incompatible with our constitutional structure.”

The Liberty ship Robert E. Peary was built in four days, 15 hours, and 29 minutes — entire ship built in under a week. If government wanted to get things "done" in North Carolina, things would get done. Government in western North Carolina isn’t solving problems; it is doing what it does best: It’s putting up roadblocks. Literal roadblocks. //

Ryan - Wake up America
@RyanLayne17
·
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We had the same game going on 321 in East TN (Poga and Elk Mills area) with TDOT and the Tennessee Highway Patrol putting up barricades then gates then concrete blocks to try to stop us from accessing our own road 4 weeks after storm. The game went on for 2 weeks of them putting… Show more
Embedded video
Embedded video
10:55 PM · Nov 19, 2024 //

Is government helping to house people who lost everything?

While federal employees are mostly working from home, people in western North Carolina don’t have homes. FEMA people are cutting videos and claiming they are doing their best. Are they? //

Matt Van Swol
@matt_vanswol
·
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🚨#BREAKING: Officials at FEMA have just posted a new video touring brand housing units they say are available to #WNC.

What they fail to mention in the video is that in the 2 months since in the hurricane... only FOUR UNITS have been delivered.

You read that right.

Four. Show more

5:40 PM · Nov 20, 2024 //

Random US Citizen
7 minutes ago
Every tiny slice of power you give to the federal government is an opportunity for them to abuse it. Which is why the Founders attempted to restrain it. It’s human nature to reward friends and punish opponents, and that’s exactly what FEMA is doing.

Emergency relief is not among the federal governments enumerated powers.

To paraphrase some guy: if ye love convenience better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the federal hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Stewart's comment about "institutional thinking" is spot-on. Hicks is looking at the audit as an annoyance that she can ignore. In reality, failing multiple audits in a row should mean that dozens of careers come to an abrupt halt.

This video should put Pete Hegseth on notice that when he is confirmed, he will lead a morally broken Department of Defense that believes it is allowed to play by its own rules. He needs to take office in a way that makes Genghis Khan look like the Tooth Fairy. He needs to use the results of the last two audits to remove or reassign senior bureaucrats who can't be bothered to care what happens to the national wealth with which they are entrusted. //

Dan Hodges
2 hours ago
In order to solve a problem you first have to admit there is a problem. If you don't admit there is a problem than there is not a problem. This is how the brain of a bureaucrat works. Remember Catch-22. //

flyovercountry
2 hours ago
I would say the four star idiot, currently SECDEF, who left over a billion dollars of US military hardware in Afghanistan to the Taliban, is guilty of FWA.

FortCourage flyovercountry
2 hours ago
It was $80 BILLION left behind in Afghanistan……