When I first heard that Donald Trump was talking about reacquiring the Panama Canal, I thought, "He's just trolling the world." Now that I realize he isn't, I thought I'd better bone up on the subject. //

Now, I was completely oblivious to that fact and learned that CK Hutchinson, a company moored up pretty tightly to the CCP, runs two port facilities located at each end of the canal. In 1997, they initiated a deal with the Panamanian government (two years before the US fully handed over the canal) to manage them.

Apparently, they have no plans to go anywhere. And this is a problem because Beijing is not our friend. //

Now, you have to remember that China always has a plan, and they don't do anything without forethought. And as they have become increasingly belligerent over the past 20 years at least, one has to assume that putting down roots in Panama, a global choke point, serves a purpose for Beijing. I doubt that purpose has any sort of goodwill for us. //

What I do know is that if China shut down the canal to us, we'd be going to war unless the plan is to shut down the canal once they actually invade Taiwan. I doubt they'd ever do it beforehand. That would sort of be like expecting Egypt to sit on its hands if the Sudanese ever dammed up the Nile. //

the Chinese are in the canal zone in an official capacity; they're there for a reason, and they have become increasingly belligerent on the world front over the years, so it's safe to assume that reason doesn't bode well for us as the largest user of the canal. I believe Donald Trump recognizes this. I don't think he's trolling. I think he is forewarning.

And I think he should.

This is what folks coming together in a time of need and when first responder resources are stretched thin looks like. If all these fires were intentionally started and if this guy was indeed the person (or one of the people) responsible for them, then these residents have saved the day - and their city. At the very least, if the description of what went down before they nabbed him is correct, they saved their neighborhood

Well done, Woodland Hills, well done.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky – Northern Division blocked President Joe Biden’s Title IX rewrite, known as the Final Rule. The ruling applies nationwide.

“Because the Final Rule and its corresponding regulations exceed the Department’s authority under Title IX, violate the Constitution, and are the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action, the plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment will be granted and the Department’s motion for summary judgment will be denied,” wrote the Court. //

The Final Rule had gender identity, sexual orientation, and sex characteristics.

The Department refused to provide a narrow definition of “sex” “to avoid overbroad application of a prohibition on discrimination based on sex stereotypes.” //

The Court stressed that Title IX’s phrase “on the basis of sex” means exactly what it says when Title IX became law: Sex is female or male. Title IX protects human beings born female. Basic biology! //

The Department of Education also threatened to punish those who refuse to use a person’s preferred name or pronouns.

Well, the Court ruled that violated the First Amendment //

The Final Rule violated the Constitution’s Spending Clause since it threatened to withhold funds from schools that did not abide by the rewrite.

Legislation must satisfy a four-prong test to limit federal funds.

The Court found the Final Rule did not satisfy the fourth prong: “the conditions must not induce unconstitutional action.”. //

Bruce Hayden | January 9, 2025 at 3:34 pm
I find interesting the use of vacatur, which, by necessity, is nationwide. If a regulation violates the APA, and is thus void, it makes no sense for it to be void in just the ED of KY. Void is void, and that is what the APA calls for.

This is in contrast to nationwide injunctions issued by a single district court. How does a single district court, in a single district in a single state have the power to issue a nationwide injunction? It doesn’t typically have jurisdiction over most of the parties involved. The use of nationwide injunctions had grown enormously over the last decade or two, and became increasingly controversial by its overreach, esp in suits pushed by the left. Vacatur of regulations subject to the APA is more defensive in nature, merely preventing the government from imposing non-compliant regulations.

On the first day of the new year, HackerDude released WinterBreak, a Kindle jailbreak that will work on any model of Kindle released since 2013’s Paperwhite 2 and with any current firmware (via Notebookcheck). There are other jailbreaks available, but they only work with older firmware. This is the first jailbreak that will work with the latest generation of Kindles.

After all, all devices have their dangers. The discovery of speech introduced communication – and lies.

• Isaac Asimov

WinterBreak is a jailbreak which was released on New Year’s Day 2025 by HackerDude

It is based on Mesquito

The USS Thresher (SSN-593), which sank 60 years ago this April, was the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine to be lost at sea. Amid the public shock over the tragedy, the U.S. Navy grappled for an answer as to what went wrong. Even today, rival theories seek to explain the mystery.

“No, because you’re not black, Hispanic or a woman and we’ll see you in about 7 years.”

Joe Biden's attempt to mainstream transgenderism in education by claiming that "gender identity" was the same as sex was effectively killed by a federal judge. Judge Danny C. Reeves (G. W. Bush appointee) ruled the Department of Education's gambit was unconstitutional, arbitrary and capricious, exceeded the agency's authority, and was an “attempt to bypass the legislative process and completely transform Title IX.”

The Biden administration issued the new interpretation of Title IX in April, removing the clear and easy-to-follow interpretation put in place by the Trump administration; //

Even though the new interpretation did not specifically address the issue of men claiming to be women so they could play women's sports, it implies that any educational institution doing so will face a federal investigation. //

The mission for Trump's Secretary of Education, before he locks the doors and turns out the lights at that department, is to eradicate all traces of this nonsense and fire everyone who worked on this travesty.

Kellie Meyer
@KellieMeyerNews
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Our @JoeKhalilTV was able to catch up with @JohnFetterman after @NewsNation confirmed he is going to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Trump.

Fetterman joked he wants to be appointed the “Pope of Greenland”. //

But Fetterman might have one problem with being Pope to Greenland. It's really cold there and I think he would have to wear long pants. So he might not get the appointment.

This calculator determines the absolute pressure at the pump impeller. NPSHA must exceed the NPSHR (net positive suction head requirement specified by the pump manufacturer or caviation and/or loss of prime will occur.

This is because Newsom forgot — or likely never understood — what he is. He saw himself, not a servant of the people, but a king with the abiltiy to rule over the people as he pleases. You saw this from him quite a bit during the pandemic when he had rules for thee, but not for he. While you were locked down, he was having dinner at fancy restaurants.

I think it's funny that Newsom prioritized "Trump-proofing" his state enough to ignore the clear danger of out-of-control wildfires, because it's Trump that's actually demonstrating servitude.

Trump's goals are to reduce government waste, make it cheaper to operate, reduce the tax burden on the people, reduce their problems, and fix their economy. The man didn't have to do this. He was wealthy, well-loved, and didn't need the headache, but decided to take on the burden of fixing problems people like Newsom made because he is, at heart, a servant of the people. He doesn't look or sound like one, but he is. //

piscorman
4 hours ago
Another teachable moment may follow. These homes belonged to wealthy taxpayers who carry most of the burdens of Newscum's government. If they decide to leave rather than rebuild, California won't be able to pay its bills. It can't now but this compounds the problems.

piscorman 2020vision
3 hours ago
As you know, many didn't have insurance because Gov Hairdo's restrictions on rate increases caused State Farm to pull out of the state. Those who didn't have insurance likely owned the home outright, and will bear the full cost of the rebuild. My hunch is they will just leave rather than deal with California's dysfunctional government.

“The abnormally high fuel loads from two wet years are very likely playing an important role here,” Park Williams, bioclimatologist and professor at UCLA, told The Post Thursday.

“Then there’s the fact that the rainy season hasn’t yet begun, now 2-3 months late in arriving, and then the exceptional Santa Ana winds this week. Flip one of those 3 switches off and you don’t get the extraordinary fire activity this week,” he said.

Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist, called the phenomenon “hydroclimate whiplash” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

The governor, along with LA Mayor Karen Bass, have been accused of mismanagement over the horrific fires, which are continuing to burn largely unchecked across nearly 30,000 acres of the city.

One of the predominant complaints has been about fire hydrants running out of water as firefighters tried to douse the blazes — a problem Newsom passed off on “local folks” during a CNN interview Wednesday night.

“Look, the local folks are trying to figure that out,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, claiming the hydrants weren’t designed to handle mass fires.

“I mean those hydrants are typical for two or three fires — maybe one fire and you have something of this scale, but again that’s gonna be determined by the local,” he said.

Earlier in the day the president-elect accused Newsom of blocking a law he passed during his first term that diverted water runoff from northern California — with Trump saying Newsom was more focused on saving “worthless fish” than helping his people.

“Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this.”

The story of the Hebrew Bible is, at least in some part, the story of God punishing the wicked.

Welcome to wildfire-beset Los Angeles, or as The Post so poetically put it, HELL.A.

I don’t mean to suggest that Angelenos somehow deserve the catastrophe that has befallen them; to do so would be not only misguided but unforgivably cruel.

But as we’re reeling from one of the greatest disasters ever to befall an American city, we must be brutally honest, especially if we want to prevent this kind of calamity from happening again.

And a brutally honest assessment points to one inconvenient truth: The devastation of Los Angeles occurred largely as a result of people in power adhering blindly and madly to a very bad religion.

It was the woke religion, which judges people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character, that propelled Karen Bass to the highest office in town.

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In January 2023, Pelosi unloaded more than $1.5 million worth of stock in Google’s holding company, Alphabet, just one month before the Justice Department announced an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant. Just a coincidence? Sure, let's call it that. //

Speaking of members of Congress, Pelosi is far from the Lone Ranger with respect to her stellar 2024 portfolio performance. In fact, her results were surpassed by multiple other lawmakers. (Pelosi came in ninth.) As Unusual Whales noted earlier in January, U.S. politicians have outperformed the mark every year since 2020. //

Rufus McGee
5 hours ago
Buying call options is arguably the least consistently successful trading strategy for any long-term portfolio, akin to trying to get rich playing the lottery. No way it's legit.

California is the most centrally controlled and planned state in the union. No one can do anything there without the Democrats at the state level giving their blessing. For Newsom to deflect to local officials when pressed on what is a devastating infrastructure failure, when he controls the infrastructure, is his entire political career in a nutshell.

Don't get me wrong, the local officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, are also deeply responsible for the lack of preparedness and response to these fires. Newsom is not a bystander, though. The state that he has led for eight years (and was lieutenant governor of the eight years prior) has failed to build a new reservoir since 1979 despite multiple ballot propositions passed to fund those projects.

During Donald Trump's first term, he sued the federal government to stop water diversions that would have lessened the dry conditions that led to wildfires. Newsom has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars over the years on boondoggles like "high-speed rail" while bending the knee to environmentalists that have put California in grave danger.

In March 2023, Carlson aired never-before-seen surveillance footage from inside the Capitol during a weeknight segment. The footage, obtained after then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-A.CA) granted him access to security tapes, painted a different picture of the events than the narrative portrayed to the American public.

Carlson declared on his program:

“‘Deadly insurrection.’ Everything about that phrase is a lie. Very little about Jan. 6 was organized or violent. Surveillance video from inside the Capitol shows mostly peaceful chaos.”

Carlson aired previously unreleased footage of one of January 6's most recognizable defendants, Jacob Chansley, also known as the "QAnon Shaman." The segment showed footage of Chansley being escorted through the Capitol by police officers, walking calmly through hallways, and appearing to interact peacefully.

All of Manley’s 70 plus firearms were unerringly compliant with federal law and the strict firearms laws of Maryland.

When all was said and done, no arrests were made and no firearms or ammunition were seized. The only item taken was Manley’s cell phone.

The family’s home, however, was left in a shambles: front and rear doors shattered, windows broken, floors ruined from flashbang grenades, and dog excrement the family was left to clean up themselves.

Manley told Williams they had only lived in the house for three months when the raid occurred.

To date, the ATF has not issued an explanation for why the raid was conducted, much less publicly apologized for terrorizing the family. Mrs. Manley said the search warrant indicated her husband was a felon in possession of firearms. Manley, however, said he does not have a felony record, he does not sell guns, he does not have any machine guns, and he is still in the dark as to why he was targeted. “To this day we just don’t know,” he told Williams.

If, however, the government truly believed Manley was a felon (hardly a difficult matter for a federal law enforcement agency to investigate and substantiate), he presumably would have been arrested the moment he disclosed his possession of firearms to the agents. That obviously did not happen.

Did the government conduct its due diligence before conducting the raid? What evidence supposedly substantiated the sworn application for the raid? So far, ATF officials have had nothing to say on their own behalf.

The ATF’s actions extracted a heavy toll on the Manley family, who have been left with home repairs, legal bills, and the cost of therapy for their traumatized kids.

The human toll, which will continue to grow in the days and weeks, is heartbreaking. The property loss and personal effects consumed in the fires are just the beginning for a new batch of Angelino refugees. In the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, there will be ongoing concerns about shelter, and whether they can and will try to rebuild their lives in what once was among the most premium places to live in the world. //

The incompetence of Democratic leadership, from the very top at the national level with Joe Biden's addled administration, down to L.A. County and city governance, has failed Angelinos, and the cost of that failure won't be fully realized for a long time to come. //

In 2014, Californians passed a bond measure to finally do something about capturing rain and snowpack run-off before it blends into the Pacific Ocean, becoming useless as both drinking water and fire defense. Proposition 1 passed overwhelmingly, and voters paid $7.5 billion dollars, at least theoretically, to make it happen. Gavin Newsom has been the governor of California for the past six of those 10 years. Would you like to take a stab at how many of these new reservoir or water capture systems have been completed? You're absolutely right. Zero. Quadrillions of gallons of fresh water has been lost, or worse, intentionally pumped to the ocean.

Remember that California just turned in a performance that took 39 days in order to count ballots in the November election. It should be no surprise that the same level of competence didn't exactly get itself ready for fire season.

If there is one thing Newsom is competent at, it's playing the blame game. There's truly no one finer. It's always someone else's fault, or it's climate change's fault - any number of outlets for passing the buck when disaster strikes. When Donald Trump, who has been remarkably consistent on California's need to get their act together and finally get serious about their water issue, which is eminently solvable, and fire prevention programs such as brush abatement near dwellings and housing tracts, reminded people Wednesday of how poorly performing California's leadership has been, Gavin was beside himself. //

If anything good can come out of this man-made catastrophe, it would be that L.A. County would recognize the failure of their Democratic leaders and change course. Neither party can win a state race without the majority vote of L.A. County, so maybe this systemic failure could be the tipping point in future elections.

Fires happen here. It's one of California's unofficial seasons, alon with floods, earthquakes, and riots. and always will be so. But the destruction caused by wildfires doesn't have to be this bad. It didn't have to be as bad this time. It's incompetence and mismanagement that is as predictable as it is tragic. On behalf of the rest of us in the Golden State, Angelinos, please learn the lesson this week is trying to teach before Democrats finish killing us all. //

Elegy
2 hours ago edited
"We have no idea who started all these fires, but social media is full of timelines of people who when the winds began to blow, spotted homeless people starting fires. If you hear no reportage in the next few weeks about what or who started the fires, trust me. It was sparked by the homeless, and that fact will be deep-sixed by a regime media committed to the leftist narrative that would be forever destroyed if that detail leaked out. "

I'm certain this is an accurate assessment. However, there are valid reasons to wonder if there's more to it.

Thousands of illegal aliens from state sponsored terrorist nations have entered the US during Biden's presidency.

We have no way of knowing who they are, where they are, or why they're here.

Are we certain this wasn't originated, as in the setting of the first fires, by state sponsored terrorists perhaps working in the guise of homeless people?