When President Trump first started ranting, really out of nowhere, about the so-called “Epstein files” being “made up” by his Democrat predecessors, as well as former F.B.I. Director James Comey, it was bizarre and suspiciously defensive. It’s now a lot less weird and a lot less suspicious.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday on a “leather-bound book” containing, among other things, a doodle of a naked woman’s body framing an odd “typewritten” note, both supposedly penned by Trump and addressed to convicted child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. The Journal called the letter and illustration “bawdy” and described the signature as “a squiggly ‘Donald’ below [the drawing’s] waist, mimicking pubic hair.” //
Trump told the Journal that the note, included in a book allegedly compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday, was fraudulent. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.” //
We also know that this all sounds almost exactly like another story involving the F.B.I. and a newly discovered document that was damaging to Trump: the case of Paul Manafort and the “black ledger.” //
The two events are almost comically identical. An office space in Ukraine was pillaged by political activists, but what luck! A little paper book was eventually recovered — oh, my! Inside is damaging information associated with Trump! In 2025, as Trump set about quickly restructuring the executive branch of the federal government and attempting to hold corrupt Democrats accountable, well, I’ll be — a leather-bound book that makes him look like the dear friend of a notorious pedophile. //
And subsequent reporting by the Times acknowledged that the ledger may very well have been fraudulent, noting in 2022 that there was “the view within the Ukrainian government that a Trump presidency would be potentially ruinous, and the admission that the ledger had not been fully authenticated and did not prove actual payments made to Manafort.”
I think I understand what Trump was saying about the Epstein files being “made up” now.
On a chilly October evening in 1958, a group of MIT students shuffled onto the Harvard Bridge, which separates the university town of Cambridge from Boston proper. The shortest among them lay down on the sidewalk at the bridge's start, his friends marked his length, he got up, moved forward, and repeated the process.
The man in question was Oliver Smoot, then a freshman at the institution who was pledging to join the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. As part of his initiation, he was tasked with measuring the Harvard Bridge using his own height. The resulting unit, the "smoot," remains visible on the bridge today, with its markings repainted annually.
Local police even use these markings to pinpoint locations of traffic incidents. Google Earth also includes it as a unit, measuring five feet seven inches (170.18 cm) - you can find it as the last item under "Settings," then "Distance units."
Smoot went on to a career in standards and policy within the technology sector. After holding various roles, he served as chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 2001 to 2002 and later as president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) from 2003 to 2005.
It’s been 293 days since appellate judges heard arguments in President Donald Trump’s appeal of a $454 million fraud ruling in a civil case brought by state Attorney General Tish James.
The average time for an appellate decision from such a point is 30 days.
Signed decisions can take longer, but almost never this long. //
Any judge on the panel can delay the release of a decision without having to give a reason. //
Court observers suspect that Presiding Justice Dianne Renwick — appointed by Gov. Hochul and a political ally — may be sitting on the decision.
Why?
Keeping the judgment on hold gives Hochul leverage over Trump on matters from federal aid to congestion-pricing to wind farms.
“Pure extortion,” as one attorney familiar with the case has remarked.
What infuriates me most about this crisis is how it will devastate the very people Democrats claimed to help. Rural states and communities will see the highest rates of coverage disruption, with larger percentages of residents losing marketplace coverage and becoming uninsured. Nearly 5 million midlife adults will face higher premiums, with middle-income enrollees seeing average annual increases of more than $4,000.
Look at the real families behind these statistics: a middle-class family of four in Charlotte, North Carolina, could see their annual marketplace premium costs increase by nearly $9,500. A 60-year-old couple making $85,000 per year would see their annual premium costs jump by $15,400, from about $6,900 to about $22,300. //
This is governance by crisis, the oldest trick in the Democratic playbook. Create unsustainable programs, get people dependent on them, then blame Republicans when fiscal reality intervenes. It's political malpractice disguised as compassion. //
This crisis was entirely avoidable. If Democrats had respected constitutional limits and allowed free markets to develop affordable healthcare solutions, we wouldn't face this cliff. Instead, they chose to expand federal power, create massive dependencies, and leave Republicans to clean up the wreckage.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that 5.7 million people could lose coverage when reality breaks through Democratic fiscal fantasies. That human cost lies squarely with those who created an unsustainable system and called it reform. //
The question isn't whether Congressional Republicans will fund this broken system indefinitely. The question is whether Democrats will finally accept responsibility for the chaos they've created and work toward sustainable, constitutional solutions that serve American families without bankrupting the federal government. //
charlie
2 hours ago
We can thank John Roberts for changing his mind on the (un)constitionality of Obamacare and John McCain for being, well, John McCain. //
Jprs
3 hours ago
“The question is whether Democrats will finally accept responsibility for the chaos they've created and work toward sustainable, constitutional solutions that serve American families without bankrupting the federal government.”
Hint: they won’t. They will point to rising healthcare cost and say it was because of the BBB that was just passed. And the dishonest media will repeat this ad nauseam and many Americans will believe it. //
Obnoxious and entitled federal bureaucrats’ attempts to resist reform are making it hard to say good things about public service. //
Well, having been a political reporter in D.C. for 26 years, the fact there are extraordinary federal workers is unsurprising to me. I personally know good, talented people in the trenches. What is likely surprising to Lewis’ affluent center-left readers is that the bad federal workers are so, so much worse than unmotivated nine-to-fivers. //
So I would encourage you to read Who Is Government? and do it with an open mind. Let’s build a “culture of recognition” that rewards good federal employees, and better educates the public on the good things our federal agencies are doing for us. I would just humbly suggest that a culture of recognition is worthless without also building a strong culture of accountability. Based on the petulant reaction and baseless legal resistance to an elected president’s fairly modest attempts at reforming and downsizing an unelected bureaucracy, we have a long way to go before we get bureaucracy that puts the citizens’ needs before its own.
Indeed, the sin of Adam is a “felix culpa” (a “happy fault”) because, through it, God — in His benevolent care for us — caused an even greater good to come from it: the incarnation, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, His resurrection, our salvation, and the redemption of the world.
Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga writes in his felix culpa theodicy, “Perhaps God sees that the best worlds he can actualize are ones that include the unthinkably great good of divine incarnation and atonement. Suppose he therefore actualizes a … world that includes incarnation and atonement, and in which human beings fall into sin, evil and consequent suffering.”
In his encyclical Salvifici Doloris, Pope John Paul II reflected upon the possibility of redemptive suffering. That is, the possibility that God can — and does — redeem our suffering for good. “One can say that with the Passion of Christ all human suffering has found itself in a new situation,” he writes. “In the Cross of Christ not only is the Redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed.”
In other words, through Christ — and because of Christ’s sacrifice — our very suffering can also be redeemed and provided with new purpose and meaning. Moreland and Craig make a similar point, writing, “the chief purpose of life is not happiness, but the knowledge of God.”
“Many evils occur in life that may be utterly pointless with respect to the goal of producing human happiness,” they observe, “but they may not be pointless with respect to producing a deeper knowledge of God.”
A Christian response to the problem of evil acknowledges it is possible that God permits evil and suffering because He can bring about a greater good from it. //
Only Christianity addresses the problem of evil with an entirely unique answer among the world’s religions: God Himself — in the person of Christ — came to suffer with us, for us, and because of us.
Reflecting upon this fact, Christian philosopher Marilyn Adams writes, “[God] is not content to be immutable and impassible, to watch his writhing creation with the eye of cool reason. He unites himself to a human consciousness and takes the suffering to himself.” Only in Christianity does God enter His creation, live among His creatures, and ultimately bleed and die on behalf of and at the hands of His creation. Because He loves His creation. Because He loves us.
That, indeed, is a God we can trust in.
Gabbard followed up her initial thread with the announcement that her office was turning over all of the documents to the Department of Justice for a criminal referral. //
The issue I am raising is not a partisan issue. It is one that concerns every American. The information we are releasing today clearly shows there was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government. Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the President from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people. Their egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic. No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. The American people’s faith and trust in our democratic republic and therefore the future of our nation depends on it. As such, I am providing all documents to the Department of Justice to deliver the accountability that President Trump, his family, and the American people deserve.
Regulations are always fully thought through and serve a clear purpose—thus always achieving their goals, right? Recently, I’ve started to question some of them and invite everyone to second-guess with me.
In Europe, many airports have strict curfews for noise abatement purposes. We can all agree on how important a good night’s sleep is. But is it always sensible to comply with a restriction if the outcome doesn’t actually uphold its intended purpose? If that sounds puzzling, the real-world example I’m about to share might strike you as equally amusing and frustrating. //
However, the point of this article isn’t to speculate on what-ifs. The pilots of NH203 and the tower controller played the cards they were dealt. And it all culminated at 04:59:42—just 18 seconds before the earliest allowed landing time—when the radio transmitted: “ALLNIPPON 203, GO AROUND”
A go-around call requires immediate compliance—no discussion, no delay. It’s part of our safety culture and rigorous training. Once stabilized, we can begin to ask “why.” Moments later, the tower controller explained: the aircraft had arrived too early. And this is why I’m writing this.
Have We Lost Sight of the Original Goal?
Somewhere along the line, we’ve lost the plot. Pilots, passengers, airlines—and the environment—were penalized for being early. //
The direct consequences?
- An additional 16 minutes of flight time
- Additional high-workload scenarios for the crew after nearly 14 hours of overnight flying
- A stressful experience for passengers, many of whom may never have experienced a go-around
Environmentally, an extra 1,900 kg of fuel burned, additional uncalled for CO₂ emitted, and perhaps the loudest possible noise event as the aircraft roared over Frankfurt and its surroundings—including, no doubt, a wake-up call—before the official opening hour.
All of this—done in the name of avoiding noise pollution.
I have to ask again, what was achieved here?
Two added critical phases of flight.
Higher operating cost.
And the very thing the regulation was supposed to prevent: excessive noise.
WallTime is a NTP synchronized studio clock and notification system that works with your standard computer monitor or television. The clock is kept always in sync using Network Time Protocol (NTP). It can take the place of stand alone clock systems, notification systems, on-air lights and more.
Complete system ready to connect to your monitor. No PC is required.
$450
Includes WallTime device, power supply, HDMI cable and velcro for attaching to monitor.
Sometimes you only want to modify files containing specific content. Combine find, grep, and sed:
# Only replace in files that contain the old text
find . -name "*.yaml" -type f -exec grep -l "oldValue" {} \; | xargs sed -i 's/oldValue/newValue/g'
awk is used to filter and manipulate output from other programs and functions. awk works on programs that contain rules comprised of patterns and actions. The action awk takes is executed on the text that matches the pattern. Patterns are enclosed in curly braces ({}). Together, a pattern and an action form a rule. The entire awk program is enclosed in single quotes (').
The sed command is a bit like chess: it takes an hour to learn the basics and a lifetime to master them (or, at least a lot of practice). We'll show you a selection of opening gambits in each of the main categories of sed functionality.
sed is a stream editor that works on piped input or files of text. It doesn't have an interactive text editor interface, however. Rather, you provide instructions for it to follow as it works through the text. This all works in Bash and other command-line shells.
THE BOURNE IDENTITY
by
Tony Gilroy
Based on the novel
by
ROBERT LUDLUM
Paris Draft
9/20/00dnGrep allows you to search across files with easy-to-read results. Search through text files, Word and Excel documents, PDFs, and archives using text, regular expression, XPath, and phonetic queries. dnGrep includes search-and-replace, whole-file preview, right-click search in File Explorer, and much more.
RTDs, utilized for their high accuracy and stability, are inherently more sensitive to vibration than thermocouples—especially traditional wire-wound designs.
California's high-speed rail project officially began in 2008, although it was initiated on paper earlier. The whole system was initially planned to comprise 776 miles, with a completion date set for 2020. To date, none of the proposed rail network is operational. By way of comparison, the Transcontinental Railroad is 1,911 miles long, cutting through the Rockies and Sierra Nevada, and it was completed in 2,314 days, despite the Civil War and Indian raids. An [Irish track-laying crew laid 10 miles, 1,320 feet of track on a single day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracklaying_race_of_1869#Ten_Miles_of_Track,_Laid_in_One_Day:~:text=new%2520record%2520with-,10%25C2%25A0miles,-1%252C320%25C2%25A0feet%2520(16.496), while California has managed to lay 1,600 feet in nine years. //
The ballyhooed three-hour trip from LA to San Francisco only works if there are no stops. Once you add stops, the time starts to increase. There is no universe in which this rail line would not require large-scale government subsidies because the daily passenger demand just isn't there. At best, this is a sinecure for politically connected construction and consulting firms. At worst, it is outright theft. If California's voters are willing to foot the bill, they should be allowed to do so. The rest of us should be allowed to opt out, and thanks to Secretary Duffy, we have.
Fox News reported Wednesday that the Trump administration found every step of the streamlining and reorganization process to be difficult. Even something as simple as getting a list of the people who actually worked for the State Department turned out to require major effort. “It took us three months,” recounted one Trump State Department official, “to get a list of the people that actually work in the building.”
That’s your taxpayer dollars at work. “They couldn't tell you how many people worked here. It’s sort of scary as a taxpayer and as a public servant to think that we don’t even know how many employees we have. This is a national security agency, you know. Who are these people?” Yeah, good point. Not only were unknown amounts of money being wasted, but the State Department could have been the place of employ of any number of people whose loyalties lay elsewhere, or who were even at place in Foggy Bottom in order to gather information for hostile entities.
Inconceivable? If only it were.
Bureaucracy: The Real Engine Behind This Train
This isn’t just about a failed transit system. It’s about the broader addiction to government grandeur, the idea that massive spending equals progress, even when the results amount to a pile of gravel and invoices.
California’s rail saga should be taught in every high school civics class as a master class in government arrogance. The state formed committees to oversee subcommittees that evaluated contracts for lines that didn’t exist. Meanwhile, the actual train remains stuck in concept art and artist renderings. It’s easier to draw the train than to build it. //
The Private Sector Could've Built the Rails and Painted the Train Twice
Imagine if a private consortium had been handed $11 billion and told to build a rail line from L.A. to San Francisco. Given the right contractor, it would have been completed by now, including terminals, security, solar roofing, and possibly even a profit margin, potentially while under budget.
“For decades, Israel has been observing activities inside Iran,” said Dr Efrat Sopher, an Iranian-Israeli analyst who chairs the Ezri Centre for Iran and Gulf States Research at the University of Haifa UK.
“Mossad has played a pivotal role in the success in thwarting the Iranian threat, where its successful operations vis-à-vis Iran and its proxies will be chronicled in the history books.”