Daily Tech News 24 November 2024

Top Story

• Elon Musk is directing harassment towards individual federal workers. (The Verge)
  
  Is he indeed, O Verge?
  
  The example cited - the only example cited - is of Musk suggesting that Director of Climate Diversification at the International Development Finance Corporation was a "fake job".
  
  Now, "climate diversification" in this sense means recommending alternative crops to grow to make the food supply more robust against short and long term changes in weather.
  
  Which is a task that could easily by filled by a fairly small book.
  
  And in this case, it involves making those recommendations to other countries.
  
  So, never mind "individual workers".
  
  USAID, its 10,000 employees, and its $50 billion budget: Afuera!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (285) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Open Thread

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:40 PM | Comments (586) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Night Movie Thread [moviegique]: Potpourri

The Los Angeles-Israeli Film Festive kind of snuck up on us this year, and it doesn't look like The Boy and I will be able to catch any of them, but we still managed to see a half-dozen good-to-great films this fortnight-and-a-half.

Let's get started.

Heretic

It's ridiculously hard to find a picture from this movie that isn't completely murky.

In what some (not me) are calling the best horror movie of the year, Hugh Grant plays a maniac atheist who lures a couple of young LDS missionaries into his house to test their faith. Top notch acting with Grant avoiding his famous and easily-impersonated acting twitches and stammers, and the two girls (Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East) giving surprisingly nuanced performances.

The major surprise of this film is how it avoids many of the expected tropes. The two girls are presented in veritably clichéd ways at first, but as the movie goes on, we're surprised by how they respond to the various challenges they face. Hugh Grant gives a lecture on how Christianity mirrors dozens of faiths in the past—there's a theme here of imitation which touches both metaphysical and literal aspects of the story—and his big reveal is that it's all just a control mechanism.

But he's a literal maniac, a cruel monster beyond even what we see right away, and at no point is he admirable. He's basically the stereotypical Internet atheist, only more energetic.

There's a reference here to something called "The Great Prayer Experiment" which purportedly showed that prayer didn't work. I found that fascinating since as I was growing up, I remember reading studies that shower prayer did work. Looking it up it seems like the current "science" is that prayer actually makes things worse. Heh.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:31 PM | Comments (173) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - November 23, 2024 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it landed on a theme of making music for this week. Apparently the Wheel is interested in hearing about the musical talents of the Horde. This is NOT a music thread. Repeat. This is NOT a music thread where we debate the voice of Geddy Lee, the wardrobe of Elton John, or the drums of John Bonham. There is a place elsewhere for that.

This is a thread about music made BY THE HORDE. What do you play? What did you play as a child? Can you play multiple instruments? Do you still play? If not, do you wish you could rekindle the magic? Did you grow up hating piano lessons but now glad you can punch out chopsticks on the piano in your living room? Do you play an unusual instrument? Is there an instrument you would love to learn to play? Are you wise in the ways of the French horn? Someone here has to know how to play the accordion, right?

Did you parents encourage you to practice as a child but cringe when you played drums in the living room?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (171) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, November 23

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

* * *

Posted by: K.T. at 03:29 PM | Comments (71) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Nov. 23

Happy Thanksgiving Prep Week! Above and below, gorgeous fall colors from Hrothgar.

Here in the South-Central San Joaquin Valley, we were supposed to catch part of the "Atmospheric River" that produced flooding in the Bay Area, but we only got a few sprinkles. Our power went out for a little while yesterday, though.

How is the weather treating your yard and garden?

Posted by: K.T. at 01:30 PM | Comments (53) | Trackbacks (Suck)

O Canada, O Montreal

Thanksgiving is earlier in Canada than in the USA,
and is more popular in Vancouver than in Montreal

If you are thinking about visiting Canada, you might want to skip Montreal right now and go to Vancouver instead.

h/t to San Franpsycho for this piece from the Montreal Gazette:

Three people were arrested after pro-Palestinian, anti-NATO protesters smashed windows, clashed with police officers, and set vehicles ablaze on Friday evening.

The protest coincided with the arrival of approximately 300 delegates from NATO member states and partner countries attending a high-level summit, running from Nov. 22 to 25 in Montreal, focused on Ukraine, climate change, and the alliance’s future. The protest also came as the second day of the wave of student-wide pro-Palestinian protests across Montreal.

There are a lot of disturbing photos and details at the link.

Posted by: K.T. at 11:07 AM | Comments (220) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Classical Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

Good morning Morons. Hasn't November been a wonderful month?!?!

Before we get going. Just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Arroyo Sacco)

1. This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate away.
2. Be nice, be kind. And for Heaven's sake, no jumping on the furniture.
3. Running with sharp objects can be harmful and/or fatal. Yes, we will laugh.
4. Have a great weekend.
5. Happy Thanksgiving this upcoming Thursday.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:14 AM | Comments (431) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 23 November 2024

Top Story

• Elon Musk's new ideas for improving government efficiency are not in fact new. (The Verge)
  
  Do tell, O Verge.

  Though DOGE isn't a real department - and may in fact just be President-elect Donald Trump's way of placating Musk by giving him the appearance of a real job - it represents a long-running right-wing attempt to gut the civil service, a plan the incoming administration fully supports.

  So it only appears to be a real job, but the administration fully supports it?

  In any case, Musk and Ramaswamy have proposed cutting "thousands" of federal regulations and determining the "minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions."

  Awesome.

  This time around, it's not clear whether the courts would stop Trump, who, in his first term, nominated more judges to the federal judiciary than any of his predecessors and will inherit an extremely friendly Supreme Court. And as Musk and Ramaswamy noted in their explanation of how DOGE will function, the incoming Trump administration has something new at its disposal: the recent Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the landmark case that overturned Chevron deference.

  Better and better!

  The goal is mass deregulation - a weakening of checks and balances and a major cut to basic government services, all in the name of concentrating power among a small group of plutocrats.

  As opposed to the way things are now, where government regulations are the primary tool for concentrating power among a small group of plutocrats?
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (248) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The ONTs Of Others

Greetings Horde! Tonight we have a special medal for whoever posts 3st!

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (372) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Police Cat Cafe

Holy Island, Northumberland
by Jim Scott

I must eat your head now.

The kitten chose violence.

It's a group watch.

Youth vs. wisdom. TBH, I think youth is winning here.

Cats are chaos agents and that's just the way it is.

Proving that you can look cool on a Vespa.

Dogs at the swimming hole.

Sleeping off a hangover.

Don't let this fool you, winter is awful.

Seriously, do not believe winter's lies. It's nothing like that. It's a frigid shitshow.

After a dog was lost for three years, his owner gets a tip out of the blue that his beloved mutt might have been found living on the street as a stray.

ICYMI: The jelly budgie strikes again.

Sleepy tiger cub.

Older brother dog looks out for younger brother dog.

Wait, today is Friday? Even better!

Scrubbing the turtle, if you mark my meaning.

Big elephant shares with little elephant (though I think a little more generosity wouldn't go missing).

Manatee hugs her calf.

Baby cows running around like puppies.

Posted by: Ace at 07:22 PM | Comments (375) | Trackbacks (Suck)

It's a Clown World After All

The Bulwark continues farming their hysterical, paranoid readers for trauma-clicks:

You can read excerpts from this hysteria-farming at Hot Air. The writer spins out fantastical scenarios about Trump ignoring the Constitution's prohibition on being elected to more than two terms, including the Reich-Wing Supreme Court just saying, God-Emperor Trump can do whatever he wants.

This is desperation. They are preying on their fearful, mentally-ill readership's hysterias to keep the clicks coming and keep Pierre Omidyar funding them.

Bill Kristol, JV Last, Tim Miller and the gang of cowardly, moneygrubbing psychopaths have nothing left to sell their hard-left donors but fear porn and assassination prep.

MSNBC is sad that Laken Riley's killer was convicted.

Thanks to Deb Heine of American Greatness.

Excerpts from this Sympathy for the Devil article from Hot Air:

What a ghastly thing to publish.

What completely unnecessary and callous words to scribble.

With what feels like a cavalier bone thrown to Laken's devasted family only in the very last paragraph. Such soulless good sports they are.

...The judge also hit Ibarra with consecutive sentences instead of concurrent sentences. A concurrent sentence is much better for a defendant. It means he serves all his sentences at the same time. Three concurrent 20-year sentences mean a defendant serves 20 years. Three consecutive 20-year sentences equals 60 years behind bars. Under Georgia law, concurrent sentences are the default, but the judge here felt concurrent sentences -- for life sentences, no less -- weren't sufficient punishment. This provides the best glimpse into the judge's opinion of this defendant.

Sometimes defense counsel just gets handed a truly awful, unwinnable case. The defense's choice of a bench trial not only saved the state the resources of a wasted jury trial; it also likely avoided unnecessarily prolonging this traumatic experience for the victim's family.

Re: the terrible rumor that Trump was looking at Deep State operator Mike Rogers for head of the FBI:

@JackPosobiec

BREAKING: Andrew McCabe went on CNN last night and endorsed Mike Rogers for FBI Director

Tells you everything you need to know

DC_Draino
@DC_Draino 3

Goes without saying - Mike Rogers cannot be FBI Director
Otherwise nothing will have changed

Gunther Eagleman
@GuntherEagleman

Mike Rogers has been on Fox and Friends this morning pushing his name out there for FBI Director.
Get loud, #KashOnly

Dan Scavino Jr.
@DanScavino

Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI. It's not happening -- In his own words, "I have never even given it a thought." Not happening.

Donald Trump Jr. @DonaldJTrumpJr 1h
Winning

via andycanuck.

Remember the spree stabbing in NYC on Monday? Well there was another one on Wednesday.

A 55-year-old tourist was attacked with a knife while walking on the sidewalk in a swanky neighborhood in New York City on Wednesday, police said.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed to Fox News Digital that the stabbing in broad daylight occurred at approximately 10:23 a.m. in a neighborhood on the Upper West Side.

Police said that the 55-year-old's left ear and left cheek were slashed during the seemingly random attack. The victim was transported to a local hospital following the stabbing.

The suspect fled following the attack, authorities said. Surveillance footage, obtained by Fox News Digital, showed the suspect running from the scene. He was spotted with a knife.

The NYPD are continuing to investigate the incident.

The stabbing comes just two days after a knife-wielding man was charged with killing three people on Monday.

Police arrested 51-year-old Ramon Rivera, a career criminal, earlier this week after he allegedly went on an unprovoked stabbing spree across Manhattan.

Meanwhile, the disgusting, corrupt Soros DA Alvin Bragg continues persecuting Trump and Daniel "The White Man" Penny.

Posted by: Ace at 06:14 PM | Comments (331) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Just The News: The Capitol Hill Cop Who Murdered Ashley Babbit Had Long Disciplinary Record Including Reports of Mishandling Firearms

What a hero.

Can we vote him a Congressional Medal of Honor, to be presented by Lindsey Graham, who demanded the Capitol Police begin indiscriminately murdering citizens?

Cop who fatally shot J6 protestor has lengthy disciplinary record that includes gun incidents

The issues in officer Michael Byrd's background included a failed shotgun qualification test, a failed FBI background check, a suspension for a lost weapon and referral to prosecutors for firing his gun at a stolen car.

By John Solomon and Steven Richards

The Capitol Police officer who fatally shot Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riots and then was promoted has a lengthy internal affairs and disciplinary record that includes firearm-related incidents, a sweeping congressional investigation has found.

The issues in Captain Michael Byrd's background included a failed shotgun qualification test, a failed FBI background check for a weapon's purchase, a 33-day suspension for a lost weapon and referral to Maryland state prosecutors for firing his gun at a stolen car fleeing his neighborhood, according to congressional and police documents obtained by Just the News.

...

The incidents described in Loudermilk's letter are corroborated by congressional records and police reports that date as early as 2004 including:

A 2004 incident where Byrd, who was off duty, fired his weapon at a stolen vehicle as it was fleeing his residential neighborhood;

A 2015 "conduct unbecoming an officer" complaint filed by a fellow officer after Byrd, again off duty, confronted him while the officer was working at a high school football game in an incident with racial overtones;

A 33-day suspension in 2019 after Byrd left his service weapon unattended in a public Capitol Hill bathroom;

A failure to pass a routine background check shortly after Jan. 6 when attempting to purchase a shotgun for home protection, after the USCP worked to provide Byrd a department-issued shotgun instead, he failed the training; and

Three further referrals to the Capitol Police Office of Professional Responsibility for which records are reportedly missing.

Mark Schamel, the lawyer representing Byrd, did not respond several requests for comment. The U.S. Capitol Police also did not return several inquiries from Just the News.

"I showed utmost courage"

In his only interview to date, Byrd told NBC News' Lester Holt about his experience on Jan. 6 and defended the decisions that he made that day, including to use his firearm against Ashli Babbitt, a pro-Trump protestor who had entered the Capitol.

"I believe I showed utmost courage on January 6, and it's time for me to do that now," Byrd said when he was asked why he decided to come forward publicly.

...

By 2023, Byrd was promoted to the rank of captain by Capitol Police leadership.

Loudermilk is specifically concerned about Byrd's promotion because of his lengthy disciplinary history, which includes at least two firearm incidents and one confrontation with another officer while off duty.

Oh boy, we sure don't want Trump filling the government with "loyalists." No one in the government is a "loyalist" to their fellow leftwing Deep State Regime operatives right now.

In more Deep State news: Wray and Mayorkas decided they didn't feel like showing up for a congressional Homeland Security hearing so they just blew it off.

There is a prison cell missing two hoodlums.

Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI director Christopher Wray did not show up for a Senate Homeland Security hearing on Thursday as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to relieve both of them of their duties.

The break with precedent sparked outrage from committee chairman Senator Gary Peters (D., Mich.) and other lawmakers.

"In a shocking departure from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's longstanding tradition of transparency and oversight of the threats facing our nation, for the first time in 15 years, the Homeland Security Secretary and FBI Director have refused to appear before the Committee," Peters said.

"Their choice to not provide public testimony about their departments' efforts to address wide-ranging national security threats robs the American people of critical information and the opportunity for public accountability of what the federal government is doing to keep Americans safe," he added.

When reached for comment, the FBI and DHS both told National Review the committee lawmakers would be better off meeting in a classified setting to discuss the threats to American national security.

"We remain committed to sharing information about the continuously evolving threat environment facing our nation and the extraordinary work the men and women of the FBI are doing," the FBI said in a statement.

...

"DHS and the FBI already have shared with the Committee and other Committees, and with the American public, extensive unclassified information about the current threat environment," the spokesperson added.

Unsatisfied with that explanation, Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) a member of the committee, is calling for Mayorkas and Wray to face subpoenas to testify.

"This is Mayorkas & Wray giving the middle finger to the American people. They are REQUIRED BY LAW to testify. And now they're saying it's good enough to post something on a website? Both are unfit for office. The Senate should subpoena them immediately and hold them in contempt," Hawley said on X.

Muh Normzzz.

Posted by: Ace at 05:10 PM | Comments (244) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Musk, Vivek Lay Out Their Plans to Make America Solvent Again

The New York Times ran another hair-on-fire article last week warning of the dangers of Elon Musk's cost-cutting.

See, this Lunatic has a crazy way of cutting costs: He just cuts what he thinks can be cut, then sees if he's cut too much and makes adjustments later.

Or, if he hasn't cut enough, he cuts some more.

It's insane! No company could possibly survive such a regime of cost-cutting!

Except for the several billion dollar companies Musk created, which are flourishing.

Slash First, Fix Later: How Elon Musk Cuts Costs

Mr. Musk dug into his companies' budgets, preferring to cut too much rather than too little and to deal with the fallout later. Under Donald Trump, he is set to apply those tactics to the U.S. government.

On a Saturday morning in December 2022, Elon Musk summoned finance executives at Twitter, which he had bought six weeks earlier, to a conference call. Then he drilled into a spreadsheet that contained the social media company's expenditures.

Mr. Musk was angry, three people who were on the call said. Even though Twitter had just shed more than three-quarters of its employees -- leaving it with just over 1,500 workers, down from nearly 8,000 -- the company's spending still appeared to be out of control, the billionaire told attendees.

Over the next six hours, Mr. Musk read out the spreadsheet line by line and asked workers to account for each item. He ordered some items -- such as car services for executives -- to be cut completely. At one point, he confronted an employee who was responsible for a multimillion-dollar contract related to website security and said his electric vehicle company, Tesla, spent far less on the same task. After the employee pushed back, Mr. Musk said she was no longer with Twitter.

The meeting was characteristic of the approach that Mr. Musk has taken to cutting costs. Frugal to a fault, the 53-year-old has been intimately involved in hacking down budgets at his companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, which he renamed X. Over nearly three decades as a tech entrepreneur, he has honed his penny-pinching by digging into minutiae and cutting as deeply as possible -- often preferring to cut too much rather than too little, according to 17 current and former employees and others with knowledge of Mr. Musk's strategies.

Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Musk has been brutally unsentimental about the cuts, paying little regard to norms and conventions. The tech mogul has been unabashed about slashing costs to the point that corporate processes -- and sometimes even product safety -- break down, philosophizing that he can just fix things later, the people said. And he has been unafraid to offend, stiffing vendors to negotiate better prices and sidestepping traditional suppliers to manufacture cheaper parts from scratch.

"He used to be a deity," said Jim Cantrell, SpaceX's first vice president of business development. "But you know he's just a business guy. And he wants to cut everything to the bone."

."

Oh no! He might bring that wealth-generating, growth-spurring frugality to the US government!

They say that they can cut $2 billion from the government's discretionary budget.

It's not nothing.

They say they'll be relying heavily on the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning so-called "Chevron deference" -- the idea that courts must defer to unelected bureaucrats' "rule"-making, treating these non-laws as if they're Congress-passed laws -- to overturn regulations and permit Trump to cancel, or "reciss," spending.

Reciss. You know what that sounds like.

Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government. That isn't how America functions today. Most legal edicts aren't laws enacted by Congress but "rules and regulations" promulgated by unelected bureaucrats--tens of thousands of them each year. Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren't made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.

This is antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders' vision. It imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers. Thankfully, we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem. On Nov. 5, voters decisively elected Donald Trump with a mandate for sweeping change, and they deserve to get it.

President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size. The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That's why we're doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won't just write reports or cut ribbons. We'll cut costs.

We are assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire a lean team of small-government crusaders, including some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America. This team will work in the new administration closely with the White House Office of Management and Budget. The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws. Our North Star for reform will be the U.S. Constitution, with a focus on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden's tenure.

...

DOGE will work with legal experts embedded in government agencies, aided by advanced technology, to apply these rulings to federal regulations enacted by such agencies. DOGE will present this list of regulations to President Trump, who can, by executive action, immediately pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission. This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy.

When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorized by Congress. The president owes lawmaking deference to Congress, not to bureaucrats deep within federal agencies. The use of executive orders to substitute for lawmaking by adding burdensome new rules is a constitutional affront, but the use of executive orders to roll back regulations that wrongly bypassed Congress is legitimate and necessary to comply with the Supreme Court's recent mandates. And after those regulations are fully rescinded, a future president couldn't simply flip the switch and revive them but would instead have to ask Congress to do so.

A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy. DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions. The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified: Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited.

....

Conventional wisdom holds that statutory civil-service protections stop the president or even his political appointees from firing federal workers. The purpose of these protections is to protect employees from political retaliation. But the statute allows for "reductions in force" that don't target specific employees. The statute further empowers the president to "prescribe rules governing the competitive service." That power is broad.

...

With this authority,>b? Mr. Trump can implement any number of "rules governing the competitive service" that would curtail administrative overgrowth, from large-scale firings to relocation of federal agencies out of the Washington area. Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.

Finally, we are focused on delivering cost savings for taxpayers. Skeptics question how much federal spending DOGE can tame through executive action alone. They point to the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which stops the president from ceasing expenditures authorized by Congress. Mr. Trump has previously suggested this statute is unconstitutional, and we believe the current Supreme Court would likely side with him on this question. But even without relying on that view, DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood

...

With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government. We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail. Now is the moment for decisive action. Our top goal for DOGE is to eliminate the need for its existence by July 4, 2026--the expiration date we have set for our project. There is no better birthday gift to our nation on its 250th anniversary than to deliver a federal government that would make our Founders proud.

6-3? I hope you're not counting on ACB or John Roberts.

But if the Court does back them up, we might actually see government spending costs cut for the first time in recent history.

The "Biden" Administration sees the threat of racist recissions to the massive piles of newly-printed Fake Dollars Biden spammed out, largely through the Inflation Creation Act.

Worried that Musk and Vivek might cancel some of the tens of billions of unspent inflationary fake dollars, the Regime has ordered all of its corrupt functionaries to start shoveling it into any stray Democrat's pockets.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is on an urgent mission: get as much high-tech spending out the door before Donald Trump takes office.

The Biden administration is aiming to commit nearly every unspent dollar in its $50 billion microchip-subsidy program before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January, an effort that would effectively cement a massive industrial legacy before the GOP can reverse course.

"I'd like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave," Raimondo said in an interview with POLITICO. "That's the goal, and I certainly want to have all the major announcements done as it relates to the big, leading-edge companies."

The effort to spend her department's full CHIPS Act budget would put a capstone on a signature Biden economic policy.

It also speaks to the urgency facing a host of Biden's historic raft of spending programs, many of which could be vulnerable to a Republican White House and Congress eager to pare back the most ambitious Democratic spending packages.

...

Raimondo said she recently directed staff to work through the weekend -- and even made personal calls to tech CEOs -- to speed the talks along.

Wow, government bureaucrats working through the weekend. It must really be the highest of high priority missions to piss away taxpayer dollars and aggravate inflation further.

The forthcoming change in administration is "a clear deadline" that "focuses the mind," Raimondo said, but added she's not overly concerned about budget-conscious Republicans clawing back money from the program next year, despite their threats to do so.

Posted by: Ace at 04:10 PM | Comments (308) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Shocker: After Briefly Tamping Down on Illegal Alien Migration Just Before the Election, Biden Re-Opens The Spigots As He Exits the Stage

Remember when Biden and then Kamala ran on the claim that the Biden-Harris Administration really took illegal immigration seriously and was fighting to tamp down on it?

Well, that was a political strategy called "Lying."

I'm sure the leftwing media will be calling them out on this deception and flip-flop.

The Biden administration is quietly rushing to implement new policies that will loosen restrictions on migrants who entered the US illegally -- a parting attempt to thwart President-elect Donald Trump's immigration crackdowns and mass deportations, sources tell The Post.

And the Big Apple will be ground zero for these changes.

The outgoing administration intends to launch an ICE Portal app starting in early December in New York City that will allow migrants to bypass in-person check-ins to their local ICE office.

Homeland Security sources tell The Post the app will make it easier for migrants to flee authorities in part because the software has proven to be glitchy and unreliable.

Even when it's working correctly, the new app doesn't check for past arrests or outstanding warrants -- something the current system tied to in-person appointments does, sources said.

Up to 100,000 migrants will be enrolled in the first wave of the program, sources said.

That's just one of a handful of initiatives being pushed through before inauguration day -- including allowing migrants to contest government orders to undergo electronic tracking while they await their immigration appointments.

And experts said rolling back the policies might not be as simple as Trump waving his pen, because changes could be subject to both procedural hurdles and legal challenges.

"A lot of lawsuits get filed, maybe frivolously, but it just kind of stalls what the administration wants to do," one DHS source said.

Former acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan slammed the Biden administration's last-minute moves as "the opposite of a peaceful transition of power."

"This is an obstructionist transition," said Morgan.

"What they're trying to do in the last final day, they're going to try to put up as many roadblocks and obstacles and throw as many grenades as they can on their way out."

The illegals know this, and they've got one (?) more massive caravan coming to to America before Biden officially leaves office.

Posted by: Ace at 03:10 PM | Comments (293) | Trackbacks (Suck)

California Defaults on Federal Covid Loan to Pay for Illegals;
State Shellacks Business Owners With 50% Increase in Payroll Taxes (for Years and Years) To Pay the Loan Back
Plus: The Rise of the ASE (Anti-Search Engine)

Unrelated: The sentencing hearing in the Alvin Bragg persecution has been cancelled, and the judge has given leave for Trump to file a motion to dismiss charges. They can't jail a man that the public has chosen to be their president -- it's a rule.

I don't know if dismissing charges is the right move. If they're dismissed with prejudice, that means they're dismissed forever. If they're dismissed without prejudice, that allows Bragg to re-file, that means Bragg (if he doesn't get booted out of office) can re-file them when Trump is out of office.

Obviously the corrupt regime operative Merchan will attempt to dismiss without prejudice.

I want them to appeal and have the court obliterate the charges. Maybe Trump can still do that if the charges are dismissed with leave to re-file.

I dunno -- lawyers, once a verdict is reached, if the charges are dismissed without prejudice, can you still appeal the charges? Or will an appeals court say the appeal is moot?

Or does double jeopardy attach after any dismissal? I'm out of my depth!

Back to the actual headline story:

Kicking out the illegals will destroy our economy.

Who will pick our crops?

Now they're jacking up payroll taxes on businesses by 50%, next year it will be 100%, the year after that, 150%. And on and on, until the loan is repaid.

Chef Andrew Gruel
@ChefGruel

We just ran payroll. The payroll taxes were 2K higher than calculated. We called the payroll company. They explained (in summary) that California has a budget shortfall, and the federal government wants money back that it lent California for UI that it "lost." They are making up for it by having business owners pay it. Keep in mind that it was around 10% of our total payroll. When people say, "Why isn't California business-friendly?" remember this.

Everything for illegal aliens, nothing for citizens except burdens and victimization.

The Hoover Institute wrote about this last year -- but it's only this year that business owners are getting hit with the shock of tens of thousands of additional taxes owed.

Little did California businesses know that they were cosigners on the state's nearly $20 billion loan from the federal government that was used to cover California's unemployment fund shortfall during the COVID pandemic. This ugly truth became apparent when the state recently decided to stop making payments on this loan. When a state defaults on its federal unemployment insurance loan, federal law requires that the state's businesses repay the loan.

What makes this default even more egregious is that the stone-age-era IT system of the state's Employment and Development Department (EDD) opened the floodgates to bad actors, permitting more than $30 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic. Those receiving fraudulent payments include incarcerated felons, a person impersonating a one-year-old, and a person impersonating Senator Dianne Feinstein. A single residential address received checks for around 60 separate individuals filing from that address.

This could have been avoided with a competent EDD. But this department's performance has been deficient for decades, and California businesses, many of which are struggling, are left paying for blatant and costly mistakes that should and could have been solved years ago.

With an unpaid federal unemployment insurance loan, the federal government raises the unemployment insurance tax immediately by 0.3 percent on each business within the state, and an additional 0.3 percent each year after that until the loan is fully repaid. The normal federal unemployment insurance tax rate is 0.6 percent per year, which means that California businesses will be paying several multiples of the normal federal tax rate before the loan is retired.

The state's Legislative Analyst Office predicts that repaying the loan through higher taxes on businesses is not expected until 2029 or 2030 and note that retiring the debt could take longer, depending on the state's economic performance. A recession would almost certainly delay repayment, and the odds of a recession in the next seven years are significant.

The state's decision to default is inexcusable. California recorded a nearly $100 billion state budget surplus last year, thanks to the state's top earners, that could have been used to repay the debt. The state received $27 billion in federal COVID aid it could have used to repay the debt. The state's record $300 billion--plus 2022--23 budget could have retired the debt. Even after defaulting, the state could have resumed its payments this year and offset the tax burden on businesses, as it planned to do in its 2023--24 budget. But as the state's finances continue to decline, the state has walked back making payments or offsetting higher business federal unemployment insurance taxes.

Twenty-two states received federal unemployment loans during the pandemic, and California is just one of four states that have not yet repaid the debt. As of the end of last year, California owed nearly two-thirds of the outstanding $27.5 billion federal unemployment insurance debt among these four states. The other states with remaining unpaid debt are New York, Illinois, and Connecticut, all of which are high-tax and high-spending states that are all losing population to other states. I will let you draw your own inferences about why people are leaving California and these other three states and moving to states with lower taxes, fewer regulations, more economic freedom, and lower living costs.

...

How did state government respond to this fiasco? In July 2020, Governor Newsom appointed a "strike force" to evaluate the EDD. By September 2020, Beverly Hills police arrested individuals who were buying expensive clothing, jewelry, and cars using EDD debit cards, which electronically provide unemployment benefits. Those arrested showed the police how easy it was to obtain these cards. Rapper Nuke Bizzle penned a song about the ease of committing EDD fraud that goes like this: "I done got rich off EDD. . . . I just might swipe me a lump sum. I'm in Dior havin' money fun. . . . Ten cards, I'm swiping 10K a day. Counting up bills like a CPA."

...

Even after all this, the EDD can't identify all the fraud that occurred. The EDD estimated about $20 billion in fraud, but Lexis-Nexis, an independent data and analytics firm, reports the fraud is approximately $32.6 billion.

In addition to just giving away billions in fraudulent payments -- which California doesn't seem to mind, because the state is pro-criminal -- they also spent huge sums on paying for free health care for illegal aliens.

For some definitions of "free." Business owners do not consider this "free."

More than 700,000 immigrants living illegally in California will gain access to free health care starting Monday under one of the state's most ambitious coverage expansions in a decade.

It's an effort that will eventually cost the state about $3.1 billion per year and inches California closer to Democrats' goal of providing universal health care to its roughly 39 million residents.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers agreed in 2022 to provide health care access to all low-income adults regardless of their immigration status through the state's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal.

California is the most populous state to guarantee such coverage, though Oregon began doing so in July.

Newsom looked at the huge federal loan intended to help citizens of California stay alive while in forced unemployment due to state-mandated lockdowns, and said, say, I'll just embezzle this money for my illegal alien voter friends!

Gov. Gavin Newsom said today the state is partnering with philanthropic groups to provide disaster relief to undocumented immigrants affected by the coronavirus who have been left out of other pandemic assistance programs.

Ten percent of California's workforce is undocumented, Newsom said, and they are not eligible for unemployment insurance or aid through the federal stimulus package. The new $125 million Disaster Relief Fund will include $75 million in taxpayer funds and $50 million in philanthropic contributions to help undocumented workers affected by coronavirus secure a one-time payment of up to $500 per person or $1,000 per household.

"We feel a deep sense of gratitude for people who are in fear of deportation but are still addressing the essential needs of tens of millions of Californians," Newsom said, pointing out that many work in essential sectors like health care, agriculture, food, manufacturing and construction.

...

The state also recently allowed for "presumptive eligibility" in its Medi-Cal program, allowing anyone who is uninsured, including undocumented people, to be tested and treated for COVID-19. The eligibility also means they can be treated in a health center or community clinic instead of a hospital emergency room, Newsom said.

A friend summarizes:

Instead of using the Fed loan for what it was for (unemployment benefits during COVID), Newsom instead misappropriated it to cover fully cover illegal immigrant health care. And now that they have to pay it back, California is bilking business owners with massive increases in payroll taxes

BTW, it's hard to google this connection, because the Google algorithm hides every article talking about the expenses caused by illegal immigration, and instead spams dozens of propaganda articles posted by the state of California telling you how much money illegal aliens pay in taxes. Try it yourself. Google has decided you're not allowed to know about the costs of illegal immigration, only the sweet, sweet benefits. We're all living on easy street now, cuz!

I had to ask my friend to check his X account to find this article, because Google is now an Anti-Search Engine. It blocks you from seeing the articles you want, and instead pushes articles Google demands you accept as "truth."

Posted by: Ace at 02:10 PM | Comments (354) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Joe and Mika's Ratings Continue Collapsing Since They "Slithered on Their Bellies to Lick Trump's Boots"

That quote is from Megyn Kelly.

Remember, the Adulterous Pair had already lost half of their audience. Then, they announced they went to the Wolf's Lair, I mean Mar-a-Lago, to meet with Literal Hitler, I mean Trump.

And their audience dropped by another 15% overall, but far worse, the ratings in the demo most sought by advertisers dropped 41%.

Ratings continue to sunset at MSNBC's "Morning Joe" after the hosts surprised audiences earlier this week by announcing they had gone to visit Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago following years of feuding with him.

On Wednesday, MSNBC's morning mainstay lured an average of 647,000 viewers overall, and just 51,000 viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers in news programming. On Monday, the four-hour program reached 770,000 overall and 86,000 viewers in the demo, meaning Wednesday's overall audience fell by 15% and its viewership among people between 25 and 54 tumbled nearly 41%.

The figures mark the second consecutive decline in viewership since co-anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski told viewers Monday that they had gone to visit the former and soon-to-be next U.S. President at his home in Florida in a bid to reach a sort of detente after years of criticizing him on the program. On Tuesday, the four-hour broadcast of the show captured 680,000 total viewers, and 86,000 viewers among adults between 25 and 54, both representing a decline of 12% from Monday's program.

Breitbart reporter John Carney says he has sources at Comcast who tell him they considered the possibility of attempting to reform the gonzo propaganda and defamation channel, but realized that leftwing activists inside the operation would attack the executives for even trying. (As leftwing activists did at CNN when Chris Licht attempted some minor shifts to bring CNN slightly closer to the center. They ultimately succeeded in pressuring Warner Discovery to fire Licht rather than face a general revolt by their leftwing staffers.)

Posted by: Ace at 01:09 PM | Comments (435) | Trackbacks (Suck)

After Staging an Insurrection for a Week and Attempting to Steal an Election By Counting Invalid Votes, Bob Casey Finally Concedes the Race for PA Senate to the Winner Dave McCormick

All it took was the PA Supreme Court telling him to knock it off or face the law.

He's claiming he wasn't grubbily attempting to steal a seat he lost, but instead just make sure all the people's votes were counted. Including all the dead people, fake people, and illegal alien people.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) has conceded the race to Republican Dave McCormick after two weeks of contesting the election results.

Casey announced his concession in a video released to social media on Thursday.

"I just called Dave McCormick to congratulate him on his election to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate," he said. "As the first count of ballots is completed, Pennsylvanians can move forward with the knowledge that their voices were heard, whether their vote was the first to be counted or the last."

"This race was one of the closest in our commonwealth's history, decided by less than a quarter of a point. I'm grateful to the thousands of people who worked to make every eligible vote cast could be counted. Including election officials in all 67 counties," he added.

ThePersistence
@ScottPresler

It was an honor helping to defeat you & elect future Senator Dave McCormick.

Your election denialism did serious damage to democrats in Bucks County, as well as Shapiro's image.

We won't forget that you tried to steal the election.

Congratulations, President Trump.

Posted by: Ace at 12:00 PM | Comments (399) | Trackbacks (Suck)

THE MORNING RANT: WSJ Advocates for Airline Consolidation into an Even Tighter Oligopoly…to Enhance Competition

Spirit Airlines is in the news as its massive debt burden can no longer be serviced, especially with its pricing model and cost structure, forcing it to declare bankruptcy. The discount airline is not going out of business, or at least not for now, but is reorganizing through bankruptcy court. Its stockholders have had their investments wiped out, and the bondholders are getting a haircut - they too may lose everything. If the reorganization doesn’t work out, Spirit may eventually shut down.

This is all part of the cycle of failed startups, successful corporations, wealth creation, creative destruction, etc. that we who champion capitalism understand and expect.

But the “pro-business” editors at the Wall Street Journal are appalled that the government has not come to Spirit’s rescue by consenting to a competition-suppressing merger with JetBlue Airlines. That merger would have reduced the number of major airlines to just five, who combined would have 78% control of the market. In an editorial earlier this week, the WSJ Editorial Board opined that not allowing the airlines to coalesce into an even tighter oligopoly is “anti-business” and would result in “less competition.”

For the record, I am assertively pro-free market and pro-capitalism, but I am distressed how the term “pro-business” is now becoming a synonym for the embrace of anti-competitive corporatism.

The WSJ editorial makes the case that “the Justice Department cut off a lifeline by blocking its merger with JetBlue Airways.” No, bankruptcy court still remained as a lifeline, and the court has now been engaged.

This line was particularly funny, coming from the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page:

Too bad the government won’t compensate the workers, flyers and creditors harmed by its blunder.

This is the same editorial page that spent decades championing the destruction of American manufacturing while celebrating the economic displacement of those whose jobs were offshored. We now know of at least one occasion when the Wall Street Journal does not rejoice at working class Americans losing their jobs.

[Justice Department] antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter never lets economic reality interfere with his anti-business crusades. DOJ challenged the merger as anti-competitive.

The Justice Department hailed the [JetBlue - Spirit] deal’s termination as “a victory for U.S. travelers who deserve lower prices and better choices.” Now passengers can look forward to fewer choices and higher prices as a result of Spirit’s bankruptcy.

More competitors is “anti-competitive.” More airlines to choose from is “fewer choices.” Advocating for more businesses in a market is “anti-business.” War is peace. Freedom is slavery.

Don’t forget, Spirit will continue to fly post-bankruptcy filing, and it will be competing with Jet Blue rather than being a part of JetBlue.

The Wall Street Journal might consider me “anti-business” since I want businesses to face competition - and possibly fail - rather than consolidate into a too-big-to-fail cartel that allocates customers, rather than competing for them. And maybe Spirit will still not survive at all, despite its visit to the bankruptcy court. Fine. Let another challenger rise in it place.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (254) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

The Parting Cheer
Henry Nelson O'Neil

From The National Maritime Museum:

This large-scale painting, both ambitious and complex in conception, is the key mid-19th century image addressing emigration. Rich in interpretative material, it focuses on the reactions of those left behind on shore. The scene is set along the Thames although the artist has deliberately denied a precise geographical location. Groups of figures, in a mix of gender and social class, are shown on the quayside as an emigrant ship departs on the far right. Red and blue shirted sailors are shown cheering from the deck of the ship and from the sides of the rigging. They wave hats and arms or stretch out to maintain the links with shore for as long as possible. Partly in shadow, a group of emigrants look out from the deck below. They are subdued in contrast to the scene around them. Some wave handkerchiefs towards the people on the quay, but are otherwise passive participants of the scene on the shore. A steam-tug guides the emigrant ship away from land; its red funnel spewing out the dark smoke, which spreads over the scene. The increasing expanse of water on the right places a physical separation between the ship and the quay.

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (293) | Trackbacks (Suck)