Posts Tagged ‘education’
Friday, May 17th, 2024
More Biden corruption unearthed, the Biden Recession has canaries dying left and right, yet another Katy ISD teacher involved in child sex crimes, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge is being given another tomb raider to destroy. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
Missouri AG Accuses Biden DOJ Of Coordinating With Trump Prosecutors.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Thursday as part of a probe into whether the Biden DOJ coordinated with Trump prosecutors.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Thursday as part of a probe into whether the Biden DOJ coordinated with Trump prosecutors.
More shady Biden accounts discovered.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer dropped a bombshell on Thursday, revealing that his panel had unearthed new financial accounts tied to the Biden family investigation. Adding to the drama, Comer announced a fresh subpoena aimed at an undisclosed bank, ramping up the pressure in this ongoing probe.
“This morning, I issued a subpoena for targeted financial information from a certain financial institution related to Jim Biden, Sarah Biden and Hunter Biden. This is a result of many of the documents that Devon Archer turned over,” Comer told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business.
The Oversight Committee began investigating the Biden family’s alleged shady business dealings over two years ago. In March, they called for Biden to testify before Congress, stating that “the committee has accounted for over $24 million that has flowed from foreign sources to you, your family, and their business associates.”
“It is unbelievable,” Comer continued. “I don’t think you would find very many people that have a billion-dollar net worth that have as many different bank accounts as this Biden family had. Many of these were shell companies.”
Those were “companies [whose] sole purpose was to launder the money that the Bidens were receiving from China, from Romania, from Russia,” Comer added. “And never one time through the course of this entire investigation, even during the depositions with Hunter Biden and the transcribed interview with Jim Biden, were they able to answer exactly what the family did to receive this money.”
(Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Don’t look now, but silver just broke the $30 mark for the first time in forever. A whole lot of investors think inflation is baked into the cake now.
IKEA says that the current economy is the worst they’ve ever seen. There are lots of other canaries keeling over as well…
“Hunter Biden Loses Bid To Halt Tax Evasion Court Proceedings As 9th Circuit Dismisses Appeal.” Will a member of the Biden crime family actually serve time for their misdeeds?
“Nearly Half of All Masters Degrees Aren’t Worth Getting. According to new research, 23 percent of bachelor’s degree programs and 43 percent of master’s degree programs have a negative ROI.” (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
If your farm is in the state of California, State Farm no longer wants your business.
Meanwhile, the government of San Francisco is buying booze for homeless people.
“Daniel Perry Pardoned by Gov. Abbott Following Parole Board Recommendation.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has pardoned U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry following a recommendation of pardon and restoration of his firearm rights by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
The board voted unanimously on the recommendation.
Shortly after the recommendation was made, Abbott officially pardoned Perry.
“The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles conducted an exhaustive review of U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry’s personal history and the facts surrounding the July 2020 incident and recommended a Full Pardon and Restoration of Full Civil Rights of Citizenship,” Abbott wrote in a press release.
“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony provided at trial. Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws on self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney. I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”
Perry was convicted of murdering Air Force veteran and Black Lives Matter protester Garrett Foster in 2023. A Travis County jury deliberated for 17 hours before finding Perry guilty of murder but not aggravated assault of Foster at the intersection of 4th Street and Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, as well as threatening a crowd with his car during the 2020 protest.
Perry, who was working as an Uber driver, shot and killed Foster with a .357 Magnum revolver after Foster approached the driver door of his Hyundai Ioniq.
This dispassionate description hides the fact that Perry’s car was surrounded by a crowd of rioters, including the one who aimed a gun at Perry. This was a clear case of self defense that never would have gone to trial if Travis County’s far left Soros backed DA Jose Garza weren’t so in favor of radical left wing rioters and hostile the right of self defense.
Is the DOJ trying to protect Pfizer from a whistleblower lawsuit?
The Department of Justice recently argued that a whistleblower lawsuit against Pfizer, filed by Brook Jackson, should be dismissed.
Jackson, a 20-year veteran in clinical trial administration employed by a third-party vendor (Ventavia Research Group), worked on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine trials in 2020. Alarmed by what she witnessed, Jackson raised concerns to her superiors, Pfizer, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2020.
She claimed the trial was being run, documented, and reported in a manner that violated Federal law and was potentially dangerous.
Hours after contacting the FDA on September 25, 2020, Jackson was fired. Her sealed whistleblower complaint seemed to stall, with the FDA not investigating her claims. Faced with inaction, Jackson filed a lawsuit.
As the case progressed towards discovery, the DOJ intervened, asking the judge to dismiss the case. Jackson argues that the government failed to articulate a legitimate reason for dismissal and did not demonstrate why the burdens of continued litigation outweigh its benefits.
Disturbingly, a former FDA lawyer who worked at the agency when Jackson’s complaint was filed has moved to the DOJ and is now representing the government in its attempt to shut down the suit, raising concerns about regulatory capture and the use of government to shield companies from accountability.
In 2021, the British Medical Journal published an article investigating Jackson’s claims and found them credible. The journal’s investigation concluded that Jackson’s account was supported by documentation and raised serious questions about the integrity of Pfizer’s vaccine trials and the FDA’s oversight.
Other former Ventavia employees vouched for Jackson’s complaint, describing a “helter-skelter” work environment and lack of oversight.
Despite evidence and corroboration, the FDA did not inspect Ventavia after Jackson’s complaint, and Pfizer did not mention any problems at Ventavia in its FDA submission for emergency use authorization.
BMJ’s findings lend significant credibility to Jackson’s claims and raise serious questions about the integrity of Pfizer’s vaccine trial data, the adequacy of regulatory oversight, and, ultimately, the approved emergency use authorization.
Follow the money…
Court throws DEI amendment to NY constitution, off November’s ballot. “The NY State Supreme Court (trial court) in Livingston County (near Rochester), granted summary judgment throwing the ERA off the November ballot, on the ground that the proponents of the legislation did not follow the constitutionally required procedure for advancing a ballot initiative for a constitutional amendment.”
“Katy ISD Teacher Arrested on 9 Counts of Possession of Child Pornography.”
A Tompkins High School teacher has been arrested on nine counts of possession of child pornography.
James Paul Stone was booked into the Fort Bend County Jail Monday.
According to the Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable’s office, thousands of images of child pornography were recovered from Stone’s residence, including several images that Stone admitted to producing himself.
Ah, not this crap again. “Venezuela Moves ‘Substantial Quantities’ Of Troops To Guyana Border.”
China’s latest car has every bit of the outstanding quality we’ve come to expect of products from China.
“Army of Leftist wackos storm Tesla factory like Orcs attacking Helm’s Deep.” This was in Germany.
Princeton pro-Hamas hunger strike collapses after nine days.
New York City raised the minimum wage to $16 an hour, and now restaurants are using Zoom hostesses from the Philippines.
“Nobody fucks with my snowy, psychotic hat.”
Google AI can’t understand or answer any questions about the Holocaust, but sure loves to spit some Hamas talking points.
Which is a bit worrying, given how hard Google is pushing AI:
(Hat tip: Not the Bee.)
Comcast, Netflix and Apple+ are going Voltron to defeat Disney.
Spider-Man, Spider-Man/A Nick Cage Noir Spider-Man/Anime? No my friend/It will be live action/Whoa, Nick Cage Noir Spider-Man.
As a reward for destroying Indiana Jones, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is going to be given another tomb raiding franchise to destroy.
If you have mounds of money lying around, you can own Elvis Presley’s very first record.
Robert “Bob” Reale, of Reale’s Italian Cafe, RIP. It’s our favorite Austin Italian restaurant, and would come around and check on you while you were there.
“Latest Polls Show Biden Will Need Twice As Many Fake Ballots To Win Election This Year.”
Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, AI, Andrew Bailey, Austin, Biden Recession, Brook Jackson, California, China, Comcast, Crime, Daniel Perry, Department of Justice, Disney, Donald Trump, Economics, education, Google, Greg Abbott, Guyana, Hollywood, IKEA, James Biden, James Comer, James Paul Stone, Joe Biden, Katy ISD, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, minimum wage, Netflix, New York City, Nicholas Cage, pedophilia, Pfizer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, restaurants, Sarah Biden, silver, Social Justice Warriors, Spider-Man, State Farm, Tesla Motors, Texas, Travis County, Venezuela
Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, April 30th, 2024
Forcing transexism down America’s throat seems to have become a top Democratic Party priority. But now Texas has joined Florida in rejecting the Biden Administration’s unilateral rewrite of Title IX by executive fiat.
The Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) issued a new Title IX rule that includes changes to how federal civil rights law protects “discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”
A key provision in the rule change now “Recognizes that preventing a person from participating in a recipient’s education program or activity consistent with their gender identity subjects that person to more than de minimis harm.”
The Human Rights Campaign said the new rule will “protect LGBTQ+ students” in addition to reversing “Trump-era changes to Title IX that limited federal funded educational institutions’ obligation to address sexual harassment and assault and clarifies protections for pregnant and parenting students.”
“For more than 50 years, Title IX has promised an equal opportunity to learn and thrive in our nation’s schools free from sex discrimination,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights.”
Title IX is a federal program that instructs educational institutions that receive federal funds from the DOE to carry out their educational programs “in a nondiscriminatory manner free of discrimination based on sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity.” Included in the issue areas of Title IX are athletics, financial assistance programs, admissions, recruitment, and sex-based harassment investigations.
The actual text of Title IX as passed in 1972 said nothing about “sexual orientation or gender identity,” rather stating “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Not “orientation,” not “gender identity,” sex. As in the biological kind, where those with XX chromosomes are female and those with XY chromosomes are male.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a letter Monday to President Biden, saying, “Texas will not adhere to the new rules.”
“I am instructing the Texas Education Agency to ignore your illegal dictate.”
Following the Title IX rule changes, Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park) penned a letter to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath.
“As Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, I am calling on you to promptly direct all superintendents in Texas to ignore the proposed changes to Title IX,” wrote Cain.
“Additionally, I am calling on all Texas superintendents to publicly commit to disregarding this directive from the Biden Administration.”
The Texas Freedom Caucus followed with its own letter to Morath expressing similar concerns, stating they “urge” him to “instruct all Texas superintendents to disregard these proposed alterations.”
Other state governors and education chiefs in Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina have issued similar disregard directives.
Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has been particularly vocal in his opposition.
Florida rejects Joe Biden’s attempts to rewrite Title IX. We will not comply. And we will fight back. We are not going to let Joe Biden try to inject men into women’s activities. We are not going to let Joe Biden undermine the rights of parents. And we are not going to let Joe Biden abuse his constitutional authority to try to impose these policies on us here in Florida…
We will not comply.
Back to Texas:
Attorney General Ken Paxton has also sued the Biden administration and the DOE over the Title IX rule change.
“Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” wrote Paxton in a press release.
“This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden’s extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk.”
The complaint argues the DOE “has attempted to effect radical social change in our Nation’s schools” and that the new Title IX rule “walks back many of the constitutional safeguards issued by the Trump Administration to ensure that students accused of harassment have access to a fair hearing.”
Snip.
“This rule violates existing federal law, ignores the Constitution, and denies women the protections that Title IX was intended to afford them,” AFL stated in a press release. “The Biden Administration has exceeded its authority and radically distorted the meaning intended by Congress when the law was made.
The radical transexism the Biden Administration is trying to shove down America’s throats may be popular with the hard left social justice warriors who now man the levers of the Democratic Party’s political machinery, but it’s deeply unpopular with ordinary Americans of both sexes and all races, creeds, and colors. It’s an alien, anti-reality ideology being imposed from without with no basis in any law passed by congress, and resistance to its irrational dictates is both widely popular and a constitutional necessity.
Tags:Briscoe Cain, Democrats, Department of Education, education, Florida, gay, Greg Abbott, Ken Paxton, Louisiana, Montana, Regulation, Republicans, Ron DeSantis, sex, Social Justice Warriors, South Carolina, Texas, Texas Freedom Caucus, Title IX, transexual
Posted in Democrats, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 3 Comments »
Friday, April 19th, 2024
Israel’s Iran strike is shrouded in mystery, California is shockingly “permissive” on sex trafficking children, Warhammer goes woke, and a new Doom speed-running record. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
Early reports said that Israel struck at Iranian nuclear facilities at Isfahan, but current reports say that’s not the case.
Senior US military sources:The target of the Israeli strike was an Iranian military base in Isfahan near Natanz, not the nuclear facilities themselves. “The Israelis hit what they intended to strike,” The targets within this strike included Iranian air defense systems at the air base including those used to protect their nearby nuclear facilities. It was a message to the Iranians, “We can reach out and touch you.” The Russian made air defense systems were shown to be ineffective. There was one target but multiple strikes within that target. The Israelis used missiles and unmanned aircraft – in other words no manned aircraft (F35’s or others) were used as part of this strike
Both Israeli and Iranian sources are being cagey about what actually was hit. Right now it’s looking like it was a very limited strike, almost just a “See? We can hit them if we want to” strike to satisfy the Biden Administration’s endless calls for “restraint” while they continue to pound Hamas into a fine red paste. But it does offer a certain amount of support for the Kayfabe theory of Middle East politics…
Speaking of Gaza, that plan to send U.S. servicemen there to build a pier was an asinine one, but it was great to demonstrate just how badly screwed up naval logistics is for sudden overseas deployments. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Powerline has a pretty staggering chart on Biden inflation:
“Traffick a kid in California, spend the weekend in jail; try it in Florida and they execute you.”
The penalty for the equivalent of child trafficking in “progressive,” “forward-thinking,” “compassionate” California is a maximum penalty of a year in jail, and a minimum of two days in jail, plus a $10,000 fine which may or may not be paid depending on sentencing details.
Plenty has been said in recent years about soft-on-crime policies in states led by Democrats, and with good reason. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that political movements that believe the execution of preborn children is morally and legally permissible would also enforce such loose penalties for child endangerment and exploitation. But this seems, even for liberals, unconscionable.
Thankfully, it’s not that way everywhere. Other states with right-leaning leadership handle child predation, shall we say, “differently.”
But California especially loves setting sex offenders free if they’re illegal aliens.
Speaking of idiot laws in California, their new “mansion” tax means that no one can afford to build apartment complexes any more.
“Landmark NHS England Report: Science Doesn’t Support Gender-Affirming Medicine.” Wait, you mean mutilating children to demonstrate your trendy wokeness is a bad idea? Who knew?
Despite that, the Biden Administration is going to shove transexualism down the throats of colleges by fiat by rewriting Title IX rules without congressional approval.
Uri Berliner exposes the radical wokeness at NPR and is fired by new ultra-woke Alpha Karen NPR head Katherine Maher.
It turns out that Katherine Maher is no ordinary ascendant progressive media executive. No, this woman’s social-media history reveals her to be the Kwisatz Haderach of white wokeness, presumably bred through generations of careful genetic selection to be the supernaturally perfect embodiment of Affluent White Female Liberalism. (As many have noted, she not only acts but looks like Titania McGrath.) It’s vaguely unreal: If there was a trendy progressive take floating around on Twitter and popular within media circles, then you can reliably bet she was there to voice it in the most preeningly insulting way possible.
(Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit, who also offers lots of choice Chris Rufo commentary on tweets from Maher.)
“Texas Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne (R-TX-24) has taken out a full-page advertisement in the New York Post in an effort to recruit law enforcement from New York City, encouraging them to ‘escape New York and move to Texas. Sadly, the corrupt and crumbling Empire State is so purposefully anti-law and order, that you should no longer put your careers and lives in the hands of politicians who couldn’t care less about you or your families,’ the advertisement states.”
I’ll take “Headlines You Don’t Want To Read At Breakfast” for $400: “New York Suffers Record Rise in Potentially Deadly Disease Caused by Rat Urine. New York City has seen a record jump in the number of human leptospirosis, a disease caused by rat urine that can cause kidney damage, liver failure, and even death.”
The University of Texas at Dallas closes its DEI office and eliminates 20 jobs. Progress!
“A far-left extremist that firebombed a pro-life office in Wisconsin in 2022 has been sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison, along with three years of supervised release and a $32,000 fine.”
The return of the Turtle Tank.
A mass cancellation attack is trying to get Reporting from Ukraine’s YouTube channel deleted.
Republicans aim to use ballot initiatives to overturn unpopular Democratic Party policies. “Republicans in Washington are moving to get three major ballot initiatives passed. These measures will repeal Democrat-passed policies that are becoming unpopular among locals. The three changes would repeal the state’s sanctuary status for illegal immigrants, end an attempt to ban natural gas, and a change to the laws to strip squatters of their rights.”
You’ll need to click Show More for this one:
Venezuelan illegal alien attempts to rob a bank using a translator app.
Fleshlight + AI = Brave new frontiers of sad perversion.
Has Warhammer gone woke? “I can’t help thinking that you finally started to bow to pressure from ‘Modern Audiences,’ and you were almost certainly encouraged to do this by a sudden infusion of investment money from BlackRock.”
The moment you make any concession, no matter how tiny, you’ve already given the game away. You’ve made it known that you’re prepared to bow down to their demands if they put enough pressure on you. And so, inevitably, their demands are never going to end. They’ll literally never be happy because there’s always going to be some other thing, some other piece of problematic lore, some other rule or exclusionary detail that has to be altered to comply with their constantly evolving demands, and all in the name of inclusion and diversity.
Because these people don’t care about your hobby, they don’t care about integrating into a community of like-minded individuals. All they care about is that the community bends and reshapes itself to suit them, until eventually they bend it so much that it breaks. People like that are complete and utter poison for any hobby, any fandom, any franchise. All they ever manage to do is stir up conflict, resentment and division, driving people away and turning fans against the very company that tries to pander to them, because their very reason for existing is to undermine and destroy the thing they claim that they’re trying to save.
And if you’ve got any common sense whatsoever or any love for the fandom that you’re so passionate about, you’ll think very carefully before bending the knee to them.
Madam Web finally crawls just past the $100 million mark before going to streaming to die.
And by the way, Disney still isn’t in the black on it’s purchase of Star Wars and Lucasfilms.
My review of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
After 6 months and 100,000 attempts, Doom speedrunner beats 26 year old record…by one second.
“White House Calls In Elmo To Help Explain Latest Global Conflict To President.”
“Biden Unveils Official Campaign Slogan ‘Death To America.'”
Tags:2024 Presidential Race, army, Beth Van Duyne, BlackRock, Border Controls, California, Christopher Rufo, Crime, Critical Drinker, Dinsey, Doom, education, Florida, Gaza, Hamas, Hollywood, housing, Iran, Isfahan, Israel, Israel-Hamas War, Joe Biden, Katherine Maher, Kayfabe, Kwisatz Haderach, leptospirosis, LinkSwarm, Media Watch, Military, Navy, New York City, NHS, NPR, pedophilia, rats, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, sex offender, sexual slavery, Social Justice Warriors, Star Wars, tanks, Texas, transexual, Ukraine, University of Texas at Dallas, Uri Berliner, Warhammer 40K
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 5th, 2024
Hope you’ve got your taxes done. I’m still working on mine.
“Summers: Inflation Reached 18% In 2022 Using The Government’s Previous Formula.”
Numerous commentators—especially those defending President Biden’s economic record—have puzzled over why Americans are sour about the state of the U.S. economy. Unemployment rates have returned to pre-pandemic lows, commentators correctly point out, and the official rate of inflation is declining. So why are Americans ignoring the view of many experts that the economy is doing well?
According to a striking new paper by a group of economists from Harvard and the International Monetary Fund, headlined by former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, the answer is that Americans have figured out something that the experts have ignored: that rising interest rates are as much a part of inflation as the rising price of ordinary goods. “Concerns over borrowing costs, which have historically tracked the cost of money, are at their highest levels” since the early 1980s, they write. “Alternative measures of inflation that include borrowing costs” account for most of the gap between the experts’ rosy pictures and Americans’ skeptical assessment.
“Backlash Is Real‘: DEI Exodus Gains Steam Across Corporate America.”
The unraveling of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives was seen on the state level, as Red states rushed to ban DEI programs in 2023. Google, Facebook, and other tech companies slashed DEI staff by late last year. Early this year, universities began rolling back diversity programs, while Harvard President Claudine Gay was demoted.
DEI was doomed to fail, and corporations have been quickly scrambling to abandon mindless and profitless diversity programs with Marxist roots. The latest earnings call data shows that “DEI” mentions have collapsed from their peak in 2021, according to Axios, citing data from AlphaSense.
In January, Johnny Taylor, president of the Society for Human Resource Management, told Axios that corporate executives are fed up with DEI.
“The backlash is real. And I mean, in ways that I’ve actually never seen it before,” Taylor said, adding, “CEOs are literally putting the brakes on this DE&I work that was running strong” since George Floyd’s murder in early 2020.
Kevin Clayton, senior vice president and head of social impact and equity for the Cleveland Cavaliers, said the chief diversity officer role was all the rage across corporate America after Floyd’s murder. He said companies filled these positions “out of gilt,” and hiring wasn’t the best.
Axios noted, “Some businesses are cutting back funding, trimming DEI staff — and even considering pulling back on things like employee resource groups comprised of workers of various races, ethnicities or interests.”
The pushback on DEI is finding momentum across corporations and universities. Subha Barry, former head of diversity at Merrill Lynch, told Bloomberg last month: “We’re past the peak.”
Let’s hope so.
No one at the wheel: “Biden Reportedly Has No Idea He Issued ‘Trans Day Of Visibility’ Proclamation.”
Gen Z hates the lousy Biden economy and favors Trump over Biden. Though a word to those Gen Z sorts who complain about a 9-5 schedule being “unnatural”: A “natural” schedule is performing backbreaking hunter/gatherer or subsistence agriculture work from dawn to dusk 6-7 days a week and dropping dead before you turn 40…
Virginia’s Republican governor Glenn Youngkin vetoes dozens of gun control bills.
Boston takes over Soldiers Home to house illegal aliens.
Ukrainian drones hit a Russia drone production facility at Yelabuga, Tatarstan, which is almost 1,000 miles inside Russia, using a drone that looks a whole lot like a light aircraft.
Ukraine hits another Russian airbase with over 40 drones, and presumably took out even more Su-34s.
Whoops, make that three Russian airbases hit. including reports of three Tupolev Tu-95 “Bear” bombers damaged. (Yes, Russia still has a propeller-driven bomber in service. It can carry nuclear weapons and launch cruise missiles.)
Watch President of Guyana Mohamed Irfaan Ali absolutely dismantle a BBC reporter over his attempt to guilt him over global warming. It’s good to see that there’s at least one world leader who hasn’t drunk the green Kool-Aid…
Gun crimes evidently mean being released without bail if the perp is an illegal alien.
“Cost estimates more than double to replace failing Austin arts center building.” Note the “Extended community engagement: $1 million” which is code for “Payoffs to leftwing activists.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
“UT Austin Closes DEI-Focused Division of Campus and Community Engagement, ‘Redistributes’ Programs.” Let’s hope the “redistribution” doesn’t just end up infecting other department.
“Paxton Seeks to Investigate Boeing Parts Supplier, DEI Initiatives. Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to investigate Spirit AeroSystsems after public outrage involving Boeing’s aircraft manufacturing issues.”
Boeing stated in 2022 that “for the first time in our company’s history, we tied incentive compensation to inclusion.”
Boeing’s 2023 Global Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion report explains that “diversity must be at the table for every important decision our company makes – every challenge we face, every innovation we design. Equity, diversity and inclusion are core values because they make Boeing — and each of us individually — better.”
According to the report, racial and ethnic minorities now hold 41.4 percent of jobs in the U.S. Boeing Commercial Airplanes Unit, and 28.3 percent in the U.S. Boeing Defense, Space, and Security. In 2022, U.S. racial and ethnic minorities made up 47.5 percent of new hires at Boeing.
You know what I want at the table for every important Boeing decision? Planes not falling out of the sky.
Harvard: Segregation now, segregation forever!
“Trans woman [that is to say, a man] pleads guilty after threatening to kill, rape school children in Illinois.” According to the virtue signaling sign people, love is love even when it’s murderous hate…
Intel lost $7 billion last year. Intel has a technology roadmap to get its process tech back on track, but failure to execute on previous nodes is what got them into this mess.
“Sir Maejor Page accused of creating bogus BLM charity to swipe nearly $500K to buy lavish home, guns facing fraud trial.” #BlackLivesMatter was (and is) a scam all the way down. (Hat tip: Dwight.) (Previously.)
In addition to having fingers in the pie in Syria and Yemen in addition to their proxy war with Israel, Iran also has to deal with Sunni Baluch separatist organization Jaish al-Adl (“Army of Justice”) on their own territory, where they killed at least 11 Iranian security force members.
“Journalists with the Austin American-Statesman are on strike once again.” Time to break this out again:
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Steve Wozniak sues YouTube over fake crypto endorsement videos.
City says mobile car wash isn’t.
Yes, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny lost a ton of money.
“Belew, Vai, Levin and Carey Play 80’s King Crimson.” Sign me up. Edited to Add: Crap, tickets went on sale for the Austin show in September TODAY. I was just barely able to snag two tickets in nosebleed…
The Lock-Picking Lawyer wants you to see how his Big Dick performs.
If it weren’t bad enough that illegal aliens were taking all the lawn maintenance jobs…(language warning)
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, aircraft, Austin, Austin American Statesman, Boeing, Border Controls, Boston, Crime, DEI, dogs, drones, education, fraud, Glenn Youngkin, Global Warming, gun control, Guns, Guyana, Harvard, Illegal Aliens, Illinois, inflation, Intel, Iran, Jaish al-Adl, Jihad, Ken Paxton, King Crimson, Larry Summers, LinkSwarm, Lock-Picking Lawyer, Massachusetts, Media Watch, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, New York City, Regulation, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, segregation, Semiconductors, Sir Maejor Page, Social Justice Warriors, Spirit AeroSystsems, Steve Wozniak, Su-34, Tatarstan, Texas, transexual, Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" bomber, University of Texas, Yelabuga, YouTube
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Budget, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, ObamaCare, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, video, Waste and Fraud | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, December 19th, 2023
Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw sometimes strikes me as a bit squishy, but his bill to ban requiring DEI statements at American universities is a step in the right direction.
A Texas congressman has introduced legislation to quell diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements at American universities by prohibiting “ideological oaths and similar statements” on college campuses.
The bill from Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX-2) would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 by adding that a university cannot require an employee to “endorse an ideology that promotes the differential treatment of an individual or group of individuals based on race, color, or ethnicity[.]”
The legislation would also prohibit universities from compelling employees to provide DEI statements.
Crenshaw told National Review that “we can see the utter moral bankruptcy in higher education with the spread of antisemitism on college campuses.”
“Make no mistake: The DEI bureaucracy is directly responsible for a toxic campus culture that separates everyone into oppressor versus oppressed.”
“That’s why I am dropping legislation to protect free thought and prevent federal funding for universities that force students to write diversity, equity, and inclusion statements.”
During its 88th regular session, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 17 banning DEI offices at public institutions of higher education. Included in SB 17 are limitations placed on admissions, scholarships, and grants programs.
This June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action admission policies, an opinion based on the legal challenges raised against admission policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that were accused of disadvantaging Asian applicants.
Although legal challenges to such ideas appear to be winning, the radicalization of students and young people remains an issue to be confronted.
This is a start, but falls far short of the sort of hard reboot our social justice-infected universities really need. And it’s deeply unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled senate…
Tags:Dan Crenshaw, education, Social Justice Warriors
Posted in Supreme Court | 6 Comments »
Thursday, December 14th, 2023
It seems like Austin is becoming something of a center for anti-woke universities. First the University of Austin anounced it was starting a campus here, and now Elon Musk has filed paperwork to start a new university.
Billionaire Elon Musk is likely to start a university in Austin that will begin with a primary and secondary school centered on science, technology, engineering, and math, according to a report by Bloomberg, which reviewed financial statements of Musk’s charitable foundation.
The outlet reported that the new organization filed documents with the Internal Revenue Service seeking tax exempt status. Musk’s university will seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Bloomberg added that Musk transferred $2.2 billion to his charitable foundation in 2022. Some years ago, Musk also started a school for his own children and the children of other employees of SpaceX.
Musk moved to Texas in 2020 and has since purchased X, formerly known as Twitter. He also announced in the fall of 2021 that he would move Tesla’s headquarters to Austin.
In one way, Austin is a weird choice for the Anti-Woke University Capital of the US, since it’s a blue dot in a red oasis. In another way in makes a lot of sense, as Austin has been tagged the “cool” place to live for quite a while, and has attracted anti-woke refugees like Musk and Joe Rogan.
Also, if Musk’s university is going to focus on STEM, “Silicon Hills” has one of the biggest concentrations of tech companies outside Silicon Valley. That’s a good pool to draw expertise from, and a place for students to find jobs.
If Musk can found a university that actually teaches useful information, without being infected with social justice, and can avoid inflicting postcolonial studies and Queer Theory on students, more power to him.
Tags:Austin, education, Elon Musk, Social Justice Warriors, Texas
Posted in Austin, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 21 Comments »
Saturday, November 18th, 2023
If you were wondering if the left-leaning cabal behind Dade Phelan would ever let any form of school choice pass the Texas house, now you know.
Following a year of anticipation and four special sessions, the hopes of school choice being passed on the floor of the Texas House have been dashed after an amendment stripped education savings accounts (ESAs) from this special session’s education omnibus bill.
The amendment offered by Rep. John Raney (R-College Station) was initially signed by 16 other members before being passed by a vote of 84 to 63.
Members then voted to lock that change in and prevent the removal from being reconsidered at a later time, a motion which passed by the same margin as Raney’s amendment.
Of the 85 Republicans in the House, those voting in favor of the ESA removal amendment included:
Rep. Steve Allison (R-San Antonio)
Rep. Ernest Bailes (R-Shepherd)
Rep. Keith Bell (R-Forney)
Rep. DeWayne Burns (R-Cleburne)
Rep. Travis Clardy (R-Nacogdoches)
Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo)
Rep. Jay Dean (R-Longview)
Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth)
Rep. Justin Holland (R-Rockwall)
Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-College Station)
Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian)
Rep. John Kuempel (R-Seguin)
Rep. Stan Lambert (R-Abilene)
Rep. Andrew Murr (R-Junction)
Rep. Four Price (R-Amarillo)
Rep. John Raney (R-College Station)
Rep. Glenn Rogers (R-Graford)
Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple)
Rep. Reggie Smith (R-Sherman)
Rep. Ed Thompson (R-Pearland)
Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston)
The ESA removal amendment was supported by all 64 House Democrats.
The names of some of those Republicans voting against school choice should be familiar, as they’ve thwarted Republican priorities in the past:
Allison, Kacel, King, Kuempel, Lambert, Price and Raney all voted to create a “Office of Health Equity Policy” in the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Allison, Bailes, Clardy, Kacel, King, Lambert, Raney and VanDeaver all voted against banning taxpayer-funded lobbying.
Geren was Joe Straus’ righthand man for years, and once had an aide file a false child protective services act against his primary opponent, and was one of the main instigators of the vendetta against Ken Paxton.
All of them except Clardy, Price and Thompson voted in favor of the Paxton impeachment.
Primarying everyone on that list (and, of course, Phelan) would be a good start.
Following the vote, Governor Greg Abbot declared that “the small minority of pro-union Republicans in the Texas House who voted with the Democrats will not derail the outcome that their voters demand,” but it remains unclear how he can move his school choice agenda after this gutting.
Abbott has said he’ll veto and education bills without ESAs. He’s also threatened to keep holding special sessions until school choice passes. We’ll see if he follows through.
Tags:2024 Election, Andrew Murr, Charlie Geren, Dade Phelan, DeWayne Burns, Drew Darby, Ed Thompson, education, Ernest Bailes, Four Price, Gary VanDeaver, Glenn Rogers, Greg Abbott, Hugh Shine, Jay Dean, John Kuempel, John Raney, Justin Holland, Keith Bell, Ken King, Ken Paxton, Kyle Kacal, Reggie Smith, Republicans, school choice, Stan Lambert, Steve Allison, Texas, Travis Clardy
Posted in Republicans, Texas, unions | 12 Comments »
Wednesday, November 8th, 2023
Passing school choice was Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s top priority when he declared a third special session. Dade Phalen, and the left-leaning cabal backing him, had other priorities, namely taking long weekends instead of getting legislative work done. This is despite the Senate passing school choice legislation early in the special session.
Now Abbott has responded to Phelan’s sloth and antipathy to school choice with another special session.
Almost as soon as the third special session of 2023 ended, the fourth one began as Gov. Greg Abbott issued his proclamation setting the start for the next special session for 5 p.m. Tuesday — the same day the previous one came to a close.
The fourth special session is an attempt to pull items across the finish line that stalled out during the October special, including an education savings account program, the creation of a penalty for illegal entry into the state from a foreign nation, border barrier funding, and a medley of school funding measures.
The proclamation includes:
Creating an education savings account program
Providing a pay raise to teachers and other school employees
Increasing school funding through the basic student allotment
Additional school safety and security measures
Establishing a state penalty for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation, with removal language for state law enforcement
Appropriating more funding for the construction of border barriers
Allotting more state dollars to fund overtime expenses associated with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s operations in Colony Ridge,/li>
Abbott said, “The Texas Legislature made progress over the past month protecting Texans from forced COVID-19 vaccinations and increasing penalties for human smuggling.”
“However, there is more work to be done. I am immediately calling lawmakers back for Special Session #4 to complete their critical work to empower Texas parents to choose the best education pathway for their child while providing billions more in funding for Texas public schools and continuing to boost safety measures in schools.”
He continued, “We must pass laws that will enhance the safety of all Texans by increasing funding for strategic border barriers and mirroring the federal immigration laws President Joe Biden refuses to enforce. Texas will also arrest people for illegal entry into our state from a foreign nation, and authorize the removal of anyone who illegally enters our state, with penalties up to 20 years in prison for refusing to comply with removal. To crack down on repeated attempts to enter Texas illegally, illegal re-entry will be penalized with up to 20 years in prison. I look forward to working with members of the Texas Legislature to better secure Texas and pass school choice for all Texas families.”
The school choice issue never really got off the ground in the House during the third special. The Senate passed its plan, but the House never held a hearing on its proposal.
In the final days, Abbott announced that there was a deal struck, but subsequent statements by Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick indicated there wasn’t — at least not one that could be sped through the process in time before the 30-day clock ran out.
Also:
The other items that also stalled out in the Legislature during the third special session include a $1.5 billion appropriation for border barrier construction, the Senate’s version of which encompassed $40 million for state law enforcement overtime aimed at Colony Ridge, and the creation of a state offense for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation.
Now it remains to be seen if Phelan is willing to get his ass in gear, or if the cabal backing him is going to go all out to prevent school choice from being passed in Texas.
Stay tuned…
Tags:88th Texas Legislative Session, Colony Ridge, Dade Phelan, Dan Patrick, education, Greg Abbott, Republicans, school choice, Special Session
Posted in Regulation, Republicans, Texas | 7 Comments »
Thursday, September 21st, 2023
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Woke black Social Justice Warrior activist turns out to use organization to scam white liberals out of money. It happened with #BlackLivesMatter head Patrisse Khan-Cullors and her house-buying spree, and now it’s “anti-racist” Ibram X. Kendi, whose Boston University Center for Antiracist Research just had a massive layoff.
Boston University hired Ibram X. Kendi to lead its new Center for Antiracist Research in 2020, a year marked by a global pandemic and nationwide racial tension.
For “nationwide racial tension,” read “#BlackLivesMatter/Antifa rioting.”
Three years later, after at least $43 million in grants and gifts and what sources say has been an underwhelming output of research, the Center for Antiracist Research laid off almost all of its staff last week.
Multiple former staff members allege that a mismanagement of funds, high turnover rate and general disorganization have plagued the Center since its inception.
[Insert shocked face here.]
The $43 million, according to 2021 budget records obtained by The Daily Free Press, includes general support, such as the $10 million from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, as well as donations for specific projects.
The document, which is not an all-inclusive list of donors, also lists TJ Maxx’s foundation, Stop & Shop and Peloton as donating over a million dollars.
Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and a history professor at BU, founded the Center three years after he founded the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University.
Kendi talked to BU Today when BU’s Center first launched in 2020.
“My hope is that it becomes a premier research center for researchers and for practitioners to really solve these intractable racial problems of our time,” Kendi said to BU Today. “Not only will the center seek to make that level of impact, but also work to transform how racial research is done.”
Social Justice and Critical Race Theory aren’t designed to solve racial problems, they’re designed to make them worse, profit off white guilt, and produce the occasional riot sprees necessary to keep black Americans pulling the (D) lever.
A week after the layoffs, BU announced Wednesday that they received complaints “focused on the center’s culture and its grant management practices.”
“We are expanding our inquiry to include the Center’s management culture and the faculty and staff’s experience with it,” BU spokesperson Colin Riley said. “Boston University and Dr. Kendi believe strongly in the Center’s mission, and … he takes strong exception to the allegations made in recent complaints and media reports.”
The Compliance Services Office received an anonymous complaint in 2021 about the Center from Saida Grundy, an associate professor of sociology at BU and former CAR employee.
The complaint detailed multiple high-level employees leaving suddenly and allegations of a workplace culture that included fear of retaliation and discrimination.
After submitting the complaint, Grundy then personally went to then-Provost Jean Morrison in 2021 to discuss the alleged toxic work culture and grant mismanagement, among other significant concerns. Grundy said she sent a follow-up email after the meeting, and Morrison did not reply.
Discrimination, toxic work culture: Why, it’s as if social justice makes all the problems it claims to solve worse.
As Provost, Morrison was instrumental in Kendi’s hiring, according to Grundy and BU Today.
“The pattern of amassing grants without any commitment to producing the research obligated to them continues to be standard operating procedure at CAR,” Grundy wrote to Morrison. “This is not a matter of slow launch. To the best of my knowledge, there is no good faith commitment to fulfilling funded research projects at CAR.”
I’m sure there’s a good faith commitment to cashing the checks.
Grundy said the Center ceased communication when her year-long contract came to an end in June 2021, which she said was retaliation for speaking up about the Center’s underwhelming work and impact on campus.
BU notes an 8% increase in Black enrollment over the past five years as of 2020-2021. The Boston Globe reported in 2021 that out of BU’s 3,030 faculty members, there were 71 Black female instructors, including seven tenured instructors in 2019.
The University reported the Black undergraduate student population as about 4.8% in the 2021-2022 academic year. Kendi’s hiring and the founding of the Center were BU’s way to address their “race problem,” Grundy said.
“They don’t want to address Black enrollment because they don’t want to be seen as a school that’s getting Blacker, because they want to raise their prestige,” Grundy said. “That’s the real racism.”
There’s probably some truth in that. I bet BU is far more interested in giving the appearance of doing something about America’s education system failing black students that actually doing the hard work of doing something about it.
In a way, diverting money from rich white liberal pockets to the bank accounts of race hustling poverty pimps while producing little-to-no “research” is the ideal outcome for the rest of America, as the money probably does far less harm that way…
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, Boston University, Center for Antiracist Research, Colin Riley, Democrats, education, Ibram X. Kendi, Jack Dorsey, Jean Morrison, Saida Grundy, Social Justice Warriors
Posted in Democrats, Social Justice Warriors | 3 Comments »
Saturday, July 1st, 2023
In all the other Supreme Court news dropping, I didn’t have time to include the fact that the Supremes struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness executive order.
The Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Biden’s student-loan-forgiveness program, finding that the statute the administration relied on in issuing the executive order does not give the secretary of education sweeping authority to forgive billions in student loans for tens of millions of Americans.
In the first of two cases the Court ruled unanimously that the individual plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue because they failed to establish harm. But in the second case, the Court ruled 6-3 that the state of Missouri had standing to sue and convincingly argued that President Biden lacked the authority to forgive student loans for entire categories of borrowers under the HEROES Act.
The Court’s precedent “requires that Congress speak clearly before a department secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
“The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not,” Roberts goes on to write. “We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”
Roberts went on to cite a statement made by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who in 2021 insisted that President Biden could not exercise executive authority in the name of “debt forgiveness,” to bolster the majority opinion.
“People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress,” the California Democrat said during a press conference in July 2021.
Snip.
In August of last year, the Biden administration announced an executive order that would cancel up to $20,000 in federal student-loan debt for those making less than $125,000 in income per year. The administration invoked the HEROES Act to justify the plan. It was the same statute that was invoked by former president Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsey DeVos, to pause student-loan payments as well as the accrual of interest early in the pandemic.
Notice: Pause. Not forgive. There’s a vast difference.
It was always a crazy idea that the President of the United States could unilaterally forgive someone’s debt. This goes against the entirety of the English/American legal tradition, where debts are considered enforceable unless discharged by an action of the courts (such as in bankruptcy).
Joe Biden is not a king, nor does the cabal backing and ruling through him have the power to unilaterally forgive debts. We should all be glad the Supreme Court squashed this insane idea.
Tags:debt, Democrats, Department of Education, education, Joe Biden, Regulation, Supreme Court
Posted in Democrats, Supreme Court | 6 Comments »