Posts Tagged ‘Louisiana’

Trump Rescinds Offshore Drilling Ban, Pulls Out Of Paris Accords

Tuesday, January 21st, 2025

There’s such a tidal wave of winning spewing down the pipe now that Donald Trump’s rightful place in the White House has been restored that it’s hard to pick one thing to write about that everyone else hasn’t already talked about, but let’s cover Trump lifting the offshore oil and gas ban Biden put in place just before he left office, as well as withdrawing from the never-ratified Paris Accords as part of a much more energy-friendly approach.

“Declaring a National Energy Emergency”

Purpose: “The integrity and expansion of our Nation’s energy infrastructure — from coast to coast — is an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States’ national and economic security. It is imperative that the Federal government puts the physical and economic wellbeing of the American people first.”

Summary:

  • Directs agency heads to explore and enact any existing executive authority that will enable them “to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including, but not limited to, on Federal lands.”
  • Tasks the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head to approve emergency waivers for the 365-day sale of gasoline anywhere its supply is currently limited.
  • Expedites the permitting, construction, and completion of energy infrastructure projects, such as the Keystone XL pipeline, that have received previous approval.
  • Restricts the application of the Endangered Species Act in areas deemed to be unnecessarily burdening energy-related projects.
  • Creates an Endangered Species Act Committee tasked with reviewing designations under the law.
  • “Unleashing American Energy”

    Purpose: “It is thus in the national interest to unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources. This will restore American prosperity — including for those men and women who have been forgotten by our economy in recent years. It will also rebuild our Nation’s economic and military security, which will deliver peace through strength.”

    Summary:

  • Details the official American energy policy, which includes energy exploration on federal lands and waters; ramping up production of rare-earth minerals; grounding all related regulations in law; nixing the electric vehicle mandate and bans on certain kinds of consumer goods; and ensuring adequate public comment periods on energy-related regulations.
  • Withdraws the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords and eliminates the Green New Deal; terminates the American Climate Corps and the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases; and rescinds a multitude of President Biden’s climate-related executive orders, including the drilling ban on federal lands and waters and the application of regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act.
  • Prioritizes permitting for liquefied natural gas exporting projects, such as on the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana.
  • Requires agency heads to remove regulatory barriers to the mining of mineral resources across the country.
  • “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements”

    Purpose: “It is the policy of my Administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy. These agreements must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States.”

    Summary:

  • The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. will immediately notify the international organization that it will withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
  • Any financial grants given to the U.N. in conjunction with the Paris Agreement will be ceased.
  • Reports on the withdrawal and all the actions thereto shall be compiled to provide updates.
  • Any future agreements related to energy shall “prioritize economic efficiency, the promotion of American prosperity, consumer choice, and fiscal restraint in all foreign engagements that concern energy policy.”
  • “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects”

    Purpose: “This withdrawal temporarily prevents consideration of any area in the OCS for any new or renewed wind energy leasing for the purposes of generation of electricity or any other such use derived from the use of wind. This withdrawal does not apply to leasing related to any other purposes such as, but not limited to, oil, gas, minerals, and environmental conservation.”

    Summary:

  • Approval of new leases for offshore wind power operations will be halted — similar to Biden’s directive on offshore oil drilling — and the current practices will be reviewed.
  • Agencies will assess the “environmental impact and cost … of defunct and idle windmills.”
  • Existing leases are not affected.
  • Trump is doing his level best to hit the ground running and clean up four years of Biden’s war on American consumer and energy producers via executive fiat in the name of pie-in-the-sky environmentalism in a single week.

    This is how you carry out campaign promises.

    Godspeed, Mr. President.

    New Orleans Tries To Game Gun Free Zone Law By Declaring Police Station A School

    Wednesday, July 10th, 2024

    You’ve got to hand one thing to the gun-grabbers: Their shameless, brazen tactics to disarm law-abiding American citizens know no bounds. There’s no strategy so dirty, underhanded or silly that they won’t try it. Today’s case in point: To disarm people visiting the French Quarter, they just declared that a police station is actually a vocational school.

    After New Orleans city officials were unsuccessful in their attempts to get state lawmakers to designate vast swathes of their city’s popular tourist area as a gun-free zone before Louisiana’s new permitless carry law went live July 4, they came up with their own solution, which is probably unconstitutional, definitely whacky and certain to be contested in court.

    The New Orleans Police Department has designated their Eighth District police station – which is located in the middle of the French Quarter – as a vocational technical school. In other words, they turned a working police station into a vo-tech. Now, everything within a 1,000-foot radius of the “school” is a gun-free zone, including more than five blocks of Bourbon Street, an international tourist destination.

    It is a felony in Louisiana to violate a gun-free zone, which is punishable by up to five years in a state prison at hard labor.

    Who will actually attend classes at the new “school” is not known. New Orleans Police recruits are trained at the police academy, which is located at a different facility. However, city and police officials now claim some of the recruits may take at least one class in a small room at the new “vo-tech.” There are no classes planned for civilian students.

    Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill balked at the city’s move, warning officials they could face civil rights lawsuits because of their “made-up designation.”

    “I’m working hard to help keep New Orleans safe, but the City cannot avoid state law by unilaterally designating police stations ‘vo-tech locations.’ You cannot just ‘designate’ yourself a vo-tech school. Among other implications, if it was one (it’s not) the police department would be under the jurisdiction of a board of supervisors for higher education, and it would be subject to other oversight requirements. I have no specific plans yet, but would caution the NOPD that it will likely be subject to civil rights lawsuits under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act if it arrests people pursuant to its made-up designation, which is clearly not legal or effective. I certainly hope the NOPD isn’t violating people’s rights by making up their own rules, which is why the Department is under a federal consent decree,” Murrill said in a statement posted on social media.

    “Schools have classrooms, not booking rooms,” Murrill said in another post.

    Snip.

    Dan Zelenka is an attorney, a board member of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and president of the Louisiana Shooting Association, a nonprofit founded in 1966 with thousands of members, which is affiliated with the Civilian Marksmanship Program and the National Rifle Association.

    “The Louisiana Shooting Association of course opposes this redesignation, and the reason is that it’s not a school. You can’t wave a magic wand and create a school just because you teach a class there,” Zelenka told the Second Amendment Foundation Monday.

    Louisiana state law is very specific, Zelenka said, regarding what constitutes a vo-tech which, as the Attorney General pointed out in her statement, are subject to the supervision of a board of supervisors for higher education.

    “They’re claiming their new school is an adjunct of their police academy, but their police academy is not supervised or managed by this board of supervisors, so they can’t be a vo-tech,” Zelenka said.

    City officials, he said, have already changed their gun-free zone maps to include the 1,000-foot circle around the Eighth District station.

    “Personally, I think our laws are clear,” Zelenka said. “A police station is not a school.”

    New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell essentially slapped a Burger King crown on her head and demanded that people bow to her because she’s the Queen of Romania. A police station is not a vocational school, no matter how loudly the Democrats running New Orleans proclaim it nor how many signs they put up to that effect.

    But this is part and parcel of the Democratic Party’s insistence that they can ignore both law and reality at will if it furthers their political goals. A man wearing a dress magically becomes a woman simply by declaring it so, a widespread spree of looting and arson becomes “a mostly peaceful,” and state and federal statues can be mixed willy-nilly to charge and convict political enemies.

    Fortunately for law-abiding gun owners visiting New Orleans, the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General are all Republicans, and Republicans run both houses of the legislature. The chances they let these blatantly unlawful shenanigans stand is very slim indeed.

    Perhaps the legislature should respond by simply scrapping ineffective, counterproductive “gun free zones” entirely.

    Democratic Voting Rights Act Lawsuit Could Mean Less Democratic Seats

    Thursday, May 16th, 2024

    In a classic case of unintended consequences, Democrats suing over a perceived Voting Rights Act violation could result is less Democrats in office.

    A voting rights lawsuit that could cost Texas Democrats seats across all levels of government received a hearing Tuesday by the full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, known as the most conservative federal appellate court in the country.

    The Galveston County redistricting case is challenging how the appellate court has previously interpreted the Voting Rights Act, which was passed to protect individual minority groups but has been “twisted” for political advantage.

    At issue is whether Section 2 of the law requires the county to create a majority-minority district by grouping a “coalition” of black and Hispanic voters.

    Neither blacks nor Hispanics are a large enough group in Galveston County to create a majority district.

    The county contends that the Voting Rights Act does not protect coalition districts—which represent political, not racial, alliances—nor does it guarantee that Democrats will be elected.

    Courts in other federal circuits do not allow aggregating distinct minority groups to force what are almost always Democrat districts.

    “The Voting Rights Act was meant to right wrongs. It wasn’t meant to subsidize political parties with legislative seats. That’s what this case is about—the real meaning of the Voting Rights Act, or, how it has been twisted by coalition districts,” said J. Christian Adams, President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, representing Galveston County in the case.

    A win by Galveston County would be a blow to Texas Democrats.

    The case began in 2021 when Galveston County’s Republican-majority commissioners court, headed by County Judge Mark Henry, drew new boundaries for the county’s four commissioner districts following the decennial census.

    The plan eliminated the lone Democrat commissioner’s majority-minority precinct, a coalition district of blacks and Hispanics. The commissioner is black and has served on the court since 1999.

    Three sets of plaintiffs then sued the county: a group of current and former Democrat officeholders (the Petteway plaintiffs), local chapters of the NAACP and LULAC, and the U.S. Department of Justice. The three federal lawsuits were consolidated into Petteway v. Galveston County.

    Following a two-week trial last August, a federal judge in Galveston ruled in favor of the plaintiffs’ claim of vote dilution in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision was based on a nearly 40-year-old Fifth Circuit precedent supporting coalition claims.

    Galveston County appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

    After hearing arguments in November, a panel of three appellate judges said that the circuit court’s past decisions supporting coalition claims “are wrong as a matter of law” and “should be overturned.” Only a ruling by the full Fifth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court can overturn the precedent.

    In December, another three-judge panel granted the county’s request to use the new boundaries in the 2024 election. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision.

    During Tuesday’s en banc hearing, all Fifth Circuit judges heard arguments from attorneys representing Galveston County and the three plaintiffs.

    Attorney Joe Nixon with the Public Interest Legal Foundation argued on behalf of Galveston County.

    “There is nothing left for the court to decide,” Nixon told the judges. “You just need to look at Section 2. What words require coalition districts? There are none.”

    Conclusion: “If Galveston County prevails in its challenge to coalition districts, Democrats in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (states covered by the Fifth Circuit) stand to lose seats at the local, state, and congressional levels.”

    It takes a special kind of dumb to lose numerous seats across three states in a effort to save one commissioners court seat in Galveston County.

    The Voting Rights Act was a specific remedy at a specific point in time for a specific type of constitutional rights violation, namely that Democratic controlled states in the South were depriving black citizens of their constitutional rights to participate in elections. Over the years, Democrats have twisted it into a “No fair! Republicans are winning!” Get Out Of Competitive Elections Free card. Ironically, Republicans have used the precise terms of the Voting Rights Act to crowd blacks into a single district to help create more Republican seats.

    The situation for which the Voting Rights Act was passed no longer exists. Instead of race-aware solutions, constitutional rights should be guaranteed in color-blind way for a nation in which all men are created equal. Rather than continue to insist on racial election carve-outs, the Act itself should be retired.

    Texas Sues Biden Administration Over EV Trucking Mandates

    Wednesday, May 15th, 2024

    Another day, another Texas lawsuit against the Biden Administration over regulatory overreach.

    A coalition of Republican-led states is suing the Biden administration and the State of California in an attempt to prevent new electric vehicle mandates on truck owners and operators throughout the country from going into effect.

    Two legal challenges were filed over the new emissions rules, Nebraska Attorney General Hilgers said in a statement on May 13.

    They include a petition for review filed by a coalition of 24 states in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which challenges the Biden administration’s new regulation setting stronger greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles.

    Texas isn’t mentioned in the article, but it is in the filing:

    Under 42 U.S.C. § 7607(b)(1), Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 15, and D.C. Circuit Rule 15(a), the States of Nebraska, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming petition this Court for review of the final agency action taken by Respondents United States Environmental Protection Agency and Michael S. Regan, in his official capacity as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, titled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles—Phase 3,” published at 89 Fed. Reg. 29,440 (April 22, 2024). A copy of the agency action is attached to this petition.

    Petitioners will show that the final rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and otherwise is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law. Petitioners thus ask that this Court declare unlawful and vacate the agency’s final action.

    Back to the article:

    That petition lists the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its administrator Michael Regan as defendants.

    In the legal filing, plaintiffs argue the EPA’s rule imposing stringent tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles effectively forces manufacturers to produce more electric trucks and fewer internal combustion trucks.

    The EPA has said the new rules, which are set to take effect for model years 2027 through 2032, are needed to help combat climate change and will help avoid up to 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades.

    However, the infrastructure needed to support such vehicles is “virtually nonexistent” and they also have shorter ranges and require longer stops, according to Mr. Hilgers.

    The new regulation will also negatively impact the economy and put extra pressure on power grids, according to the lawsuit.

    A separate coalition of 17 states and the Nebraska Trucking Association also filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California seeking to block a package of regulations that they say are “targeting trucking fleet owners and operators.”

    That lawsuit lists the EPA and the California Air Resources Board as defendants.

    Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are challenging a string of California regulations called “Advanced Clean Fleets” which aims to “accelerate a large-scale reduction in tailpipe emissions focusing on zero-emissions medium- and heavy-duty vehicles,” according to the California Air Resources Boards’s (CARB) official website.

    The rules would ban big rigs and buses that run on diesel from being sold in California starting in 2036.

    Nebraska AG Mike Hilgers seems to be walking point on this one but, as usual, Texas is joining in another lawsuit against Biden Administration regulatory overreach.

    Better to get this law thrown out now than to wait until food become unaffordable because there aren’t enough reliable trucks to deliver it…

    Abbott Joins DeSantis In Defying Biden’s Title IX Redefinition

    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.

    LinkSwarm for October 20, 2023

    Friday, October 20th, 2023

    No job yet, but my dogs and I are all doing fine. Israel’s land incursion into Gaza is still pending, more Democratic Party graft, another House Speaker aspirant drops out, and media flame outs at Disney and Apple. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • “Tanks line up at Gaza border as ground invasion appears imminent.” I swear I’ve seen some variation of this headline every day this week, though.
  • “Israel Evacuates Northern City as Tensions Flare along Lebanon Border.” I keep checking Livemap, and I’m not seeing the sort of activity I would expect if Hezbollah were really getting ready to throw-down with the IDF, but I’m sure they want Israel to think they’re ready to act when the Gaza operation proper gets under way.
  • “U.S. Navy Destroyer Intercepts Missiles Launched from Yemen, ‘Potentially’ Targeting Israel, Pentagon Says.” I’ve got to wonder how much of Iran’s GDP is spent building crappy missiles to target Israel from its various client states.
  • “President Joe Biden received a $200,000 personal check from his brother shortly after James Biden received a “shady” loan in the same amount, House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) revealed Friday.” If it seems like there’s news of shady Biden influence peddling every week, it’s only because there is…
  • Speaking of shady Democrat financial shenanigans, alleged multi-billion dollar crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly gave $1 million in stolen customer money to Beto O’Rourke.

    On Monday, former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh testified that FTX had used stolen customer money from Alameda Research to make political donations, even after learning it owed $13 billion to customers. In short, Sam Bankman-Fried was using customer funds to make political donations to Democrats, according to Singh’s testimony.

    One of those Democrats was failed Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, who in November of last year reported returning a $1 million donation from SBF just four days before the November election because he was ‘uncomfortable receiving such a large, unsolicited donation.’

    In truth, the adderall-addicted SBF (or one of his employees) fat-fingered what was supposed to be a $100,000 donation, and instead ended up being $1 million.

    In January, the Washington Free Beacon reported that O’Rourke kept the $100,000.

    Of course he did.

  • Jim Jordan failed to secure the speaker’s chair and was dropped as nominee. Who’s next? No idea.
  • “Congress Raises Alarms About $27 Billion Green Energy ‘Slush Fund.'”

    House lawmakers are warning that the Biden administration’s $27 billion green energy “slush fund” at the Environmental Protection Agency could be used to finance Democratic political allies and Chinese solar companies, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

    The EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will be responsible for distributing $27 billion to nonprofit groups and the green energy technology sector by next September.

    Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said the short deadline for doling out the money will make it difficult for the agency to conduct proper vetting of grantees. They also noted that some EPA officials previously worked for nonprofit groups that stand to benefit from the funding and questioned how the EPA will prevent money from going to Chinese companies that dominate the solar industry.

    “Hardworking Americans are facing record high energy costs as a result of the administration’s massive tax-and-spend agenda, which has driven inflation across the board,” House Energy and Commerce Committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.) told the Free Beacon. “Energy and Commerce Republicans won’t stand by and let President Biden use this $27 billion slush fund to line the pocket of his political friends or use it on technology that is produced in China.”

    The only questions is which parts of the federal government aren’t being used as a slush fund for Democratic Party cronies. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • The mother of Soros-backed Orleans Parish DA Jason Williams was carjacked.
  • FDA has finished it’s study on the Flu Manchu vaccine and myocarditis…but it won’t let anyone look at it. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • Thanks to Biden’s superior diplomacy, the State Department has issued another travel advisory, this time for THE WORLD.

    Unfortunately, I can’t stop visiting the world, since it’s where I keep all my stuff…

  • Texas teacher Nicholas Bueno of O’Donnell ISD sentenced to 20 Years for sexually grooming female 14-year-old student.
  • “State Audit Finds Harris County Violated Texas Election Law in 2022. In a preliminary report, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office found that Harris County did not provide statutorily mandated supplies of ballot paper.”
  • Southern Poverty Law Center is “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Leonard Cure.” Cure was pulled over by a cop for driving 100 MPH, failed to comply, and was shot only after two different taser jolts failed to stop him and he started choking the police officer while yelling ‘Yeah, Bitch!” Leonard Cure was a classic case of “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” and richly deserved his dirt-napping.
  • Ad agency behind Bud Light tranny pander lays off 20 employees.
  • A whistleblower says that TxDOT is still pushing DEI on employees, despite laws prohibiting it.
  • Another week, another bank run in China.
  • A look at China’s weird shamate subculture. It’s cool and cringe at the same time…
  • “Project Veritas Sues To Get Copyrights On James O’Keefe’s Books.” The people what’s left of that zombie org should never work for any organization anywhere ever again.
  • The Marvels looks like it’s going to be another disaster for Disney.
  • Apple TV has problems with The Problem and cancels John Stewart’s interview show. “When Stewart broke the news to the staff, he informed them that potential show topics discussing China, artificial intelligence, and the 2024 presidential campaign were points of contention for the Apple executives.”

  • Are cheap Chinese knockoff tool batteries just as good as Milwaukee-brand batteries? Not so much.
  • A walk across Tokyo at night. You would not believe how many shrines exist inside tiny alleys…
  • I saw Peter Gabriel perform in Austin on Wednesday, on pricey tickets bought well before my most recent job ended. This is pretty close to the end of his tour, but he’ll be in Houston Saturday.
  • “Hamas Disappointed Liberals Don’t Believe They Massacred Jews After They Went To All The Trouble To Livestream It.”
  • “4D Chess: Biden Offers The Palestinians $100 Million In Exchange For None Of The Hostages.”
  • “Those terrorists may want to die, but they apparently don’t want to die badly enough to come to Texas.”
  • It’s surprisingly dusty for October.

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • Below is the tip jar, if you’re so inclined. Thanks to everyone who donated to the Non-Homeless Blogger Fund. I’m bad at thanking people individually the way I should, but let me know if you want public recognition in this space or not.





    Republicans Flip Louisiana Governor’s Mansion

    Monday, October 16th, 2023

    This is a somewhat unexpected story, only because I was unaware that Louisiana had a governor’s race this year. Also, who has a gubernatorial election in October? Not only is the answer “Louisiana,” but it’s not even one of their weird Napoleonic Code holdovers, it’s something they went to in 1977.

    Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry just won Louisiana’s gubernatorial election, picking up a majority in their jungle primary, hence the October victory.

    On Saturday, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry cruised to victory and became the state’s first Republican governor in eight years.

    “Today’s election says that our state is united,” Landry said in his victory speech. “It’s a wake-up call and it’s a message that everyone should hear loud and clear, that we the people in this state are going to expect more out of our government from here on out.”

    According to The Daily Wire, Landry beat out his next closest challenger, Democrat Shawn Wilson, by 51.6% to 25.9% in Lousiana’s all-party primary election.

    Louisiana has a “jungle primary” system, meaning that the expected runoff was averted because Landry garnered more than 50% of the vote in the 16-candidate field, including Republicans, Democrats, and independents. It’s the first time that’s happened since the 2007 and 2011 elections, with former Republican Governor Bobby Jindal winning both contests handily.

    In May, Trump endorsed Landry, saying, “I am endorsing your Attorney General Jeff Landry for Governor. He has been a fantastic Attorney General. He wants to stop crime. He loves the people of Louisiana just like I do.”

    He succeeds term-limited Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards.

    His election gives Republicans a “trifecta” control of the Louisiana House, Senate and Governor’s mansion. Louisiana hasn’t voted for a Democrat for President since Bill Clinton in 1996.

    Republicans have another chance to pick up a Governor’s mansion in Kentucky, where Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron is running against Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear, who only managed to edge previous Republican incumbent Matt Bevin by .4% in 2019.

    Huge Brawl At Social Justice Warrior Middle School

    Monday, March 13th, 2023

    I was involved in the occasional fight in middle and high school, but it never involved more than one other person. When a fight broke out, a circle would gather to watch it, but it never occurred any of us to wade in and join the melee. Widespread brawls with multiple combatants just never happened.

    Well, that was then, and this was now. Every year, people post videos of large brawls to social media, and not all of them of them happen at Waffle House. On March 8, a huge brawl broke out at EBR Readiness Alternative School in Baton Rouge, which happens to be a middle school.

    How huge? 200 people (including parents) were involved, and multiple cars of policemen had to break up the fight:

    I can honestly say that I never considered “brawling with police” to be a viable life strategy in middle school. (Or any time.)

    I know very little about “Alternative” schools in Louisiana, but this one appears to be majority black.

    Oh, they also practice “Social Emotional Learning.”

    Remember, “Social Emotional Learning” is a codephrase for “Critical Race Theory.”

    Yet more evidence that “social justice” (no matter the disguise) destroys the bonds that hold society together rather than strengthening them.

    Biden Administration Blocking Flu Manchu Monoclonal Antibody Supplies To Red States?

    Thursday, September 16th, 2021

    So it appears:

    The Biden administration is imposing new limits on states’ ability to access to Covid-19 antibody treatments amid rising demand from GOP governors who have relied on the drug as a primary weapon against the virus.

    Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week.

    The approach is likely to cut into shipments to GOP-led states in the Southeast that have made the pricey antibody drug a central part of their pandemic strategy, while simultaneously spurning mask mandates and other restrictions. That threatens to heighten tensions between the Biden administration and governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who have emerged as vocal opponents of the federal Covid-19 response.

    “How dare they pay for treatments that work while ignoring the one true path of vaccine righteousness?”

    Which states are the feds rationing?

    Demand from a handful of southern states has exploded since then, state and federal officials said, raising concerns they were consuming a disproportionate amount of the national supply. Seven states — Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama — accounted for 70 percent of all orders in early September.

    Huh, I wonder what those states might all have in common? Maybe…Republican governors? Well, we can’t have those upstarts showing up vaccine-pushing blue states, can we?

    “President Joe Biden has sharply criticized DeSantis and others for resisting efforts to encourage mask wearing and ramp up vaccinations, vowing in a speech last week that if ‘governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way.'”

    Evidently this is code for “Stop fighting the holy narrative or I’ll make sure your citizens die!”

    Monoclonal antibodies were one of the treatments Joe Rogan used to shake off Mao Tze Lung in three days.

    Rationing is a piss-poor way of managing finite resources rather than letting the private sector solve the problem.

    All this is a good reason not to put the federal government in charge of key medical treatment supplies…

    (Hat tip: Borepatch.)

    LinkSwarm for August 7, 2021

    Friday, August 6th, 2021

    Greetings, and welcome to another Friday LinkSwarm! Biden not just dropping, but deflating and throwing away the ball on border security, Andrew Cuomo finally behaves badly enough for the MSM to notice, and some tidbits about hacking attacks.

  • Biden’s proposed budget wants to cutting funding for border security…by 96%:

    His administration has presented Congress with a Department of Homeland Security budget proposal that calls for slashing spending on what it calls “Border Security Assets and Infrastructure” by 96%.

    In fiscal year 2021, Congress approved $1,513,000,000 in funding for border security assets and infrastructure. Biden is now asking that Congress approve just $54,315,000 for fiscal year 2022. That is a reduction of $1,458,685,000—or 96.4%.

    What exactly is Biden cutting?

    Biden’s DHS has presented Congress with a 562-page “overview” of its fiscal year 2022 budget proposal for Customs and Border Protection. The explanation for its “Border Security Assets and Infrastructure” plan is presented on pages 326 through 350 of this document.

    The presentation divides “Border Security Assets and Infrastructure” into six categories: Integrated Fixed Towers; Remote Video Surveillance Systems; Mobile Video Surveillance System; MVSS-M2S2 Modular Mobile Surveillance System; Border Security Assets and Infrastructure End Items; and Border Wall System Program.

    In the past two fiscal years—as reported in Biden’s proposal—the Border Wall System Program has been the most significant of these. “This investment,” it says, “includes real estate and environmental planning, land acquisition, wall system design, construction, and construction and oversight of a physical barrier system.”

    In fiscal year 2020, it received $1,375,000,000. In fiscal year 2021, it received the same amount.

    Now, if Biden gets his way, the federal government will not spend one penny in fiscal year 2022 on planning or constructing a “physical barrier system” at the border.

    Obviously, Democrats want a massive influx of illegal aliens so they can amnesty them and have them vote for Democrats. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • Indeed, the Biden Administration has stopped apprehending illegal aliens at the border.

    As illegal aliens are still being allowed to cross Texas’ open border, U.S. Border Patrol has reportedly reassigned all hands from “apprehending” to “processing.” A former federal agent says these massive waves of illegal aliens are one of the “biggest sources” of rising cases of the Chinese coronavirus and advises Texans to contact all their state officials to stop illegal crossings at the border.

    Victor Avila, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, has previously told Texas Scorecard that federal and state officials aren’t making serious efforts to stop illegal aliens from crossing the border. He said the number of illegal border crossings has recently skyrocketed.

    On Tuesday, Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith (R) told Texas Scorecard that U.S. Border Patrol informed him they had been given new orders. “They’ve all been reassigned to processing,” Smith said. “None of them are actually going to be enforcing the border.” Avila commented, “That is what I’m hearing exactly.”

    Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe described processing as “paperwork, documentation, etc.”

    “We’re in a bad spot now,” Smith said. “Texas is on its own.”

  • Speaking of border security: “Texas landowner fears for kids’ safety amid worsening border crisis, says they can’t play outside anymore.”
  • “More Illegal Immigrants, Border Agents Testing Positive for COVID-19.” The way Democrats love expanding governemnt in the name of fighting Flu Manchu, you wonder if this is a bug or a feature… (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Speaking of fearing for your safety from illegal aliens: “ICE Confirms Suspect in Slaying of MyPillow Employee is Illegal Immigrant…Last week, 55-year-old America Mafalda Thayer was brutally beheaded in Shakopee, Minnesota.”
  • “House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans released their report on COVID-19’s origins, pointing to evidence of a lab leak, genetic modification, and a cover-up, making the case the virus accidentally emerged from the Wuhan lab in August or September 2019.” Or pretty much what every conservative blogger has been saying for almost a year and a half…
  • “‘For $1/Day’… Double-Blind Ivermectin Study Reveals COVID Patients Recover More Quickly, Are Less Infectious.”
    

  • This week’s Democratic political scandal de jour is an official state probe of New York Governor Andrew “Granny Killer” Cuomo committed multiple instances of sexual harassment. “These interviews and pieces of evidence revealed a deeply disturbing yet clear picture: Gov. Cuomo sexually harassed current and former state employees in violation of federal and state laws,” said State Attorney General Letitia James. It would be ironic if it was this rather than killing some 15,000 elderly New Yorkers by putting Flu Manchu cases in nursing homes that brought Cuomo down.
  • Speaking of which, the New York Times has a recap of the Cuomo’s disasterous Mao Tze Lung policy:

    Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, once widely celebrated for leading New York out of the coronavirus pandemic’s darkest days, is now embroiled in crisis over how many of the state’s nursing home residents died because of the virus and an apparent effort to hide the true toll.

    Beginning last spring, Mr. Cuomo was criticized over a state requirement that forced nursing homes to take back residents who had been hospitalized with Covid-19 once they recovered. Critics said the policy had increased the number of virus-related deaths among nursing home residents.

    At the time, Mr. Cuomo and his aides dismissed the outcry as politically motivated, and in July, the State Health Department released a report that found the policy was not responsible for an increase. The report did, however, raise questions in some quarters about how the state was reporting deaths.

    In January, New York’s attorney general said the administration had undercounted nursing home deaths by several thousand. Mr. Cuomo later acknowledged as much, blaming the lower figure on fears that the Trump administration would use the data as a political weapon.

    “Don’t you see? We had to lie to you, because Orange Man Bad!”

    The suggestion that the actual death count had been covered up intensified criticism of Mr. Cuomo, including from his allies in state government. The scandal deepened after reports that the governor’s aides had altered the July report to hide the true figure.

    In April, The New York Times reported that Mr. Cuomo’s aides had gone to far greater lengths than previously known to obscure the death toll, repeatedly overruling state health officials over a span of at least five months.

  • New York State Senate minority leader Rob Ortt wonders why Cuomo is still governor:

    First, there was the nursing-home scandal, in which Governor Cuomo deliberately undercounted the number of seniors who died due to his directive placing COVID-positive residents back into understaffed, underequipped nursing homes — and then misled New Yorkers and federal officials about it. Estimates suggest that as many as 15,000 New York seniors due to his actions. Worse yet, while covering up these deaths, he took a cool $5.1 million to write a book touting his COVID leadership and then allegedly used state staff and resources to produce this propaganda piece. One needn’t be a skeptic to link the timing of the deal to the cover-up of the scandal.

    And that’s just one of the many fires engulfing the Cuomo administration. At this point, it’s hard to keep up with the litany of abuses perpetrated by Governor Cuomo and his staff. Despite anointing himself as a champion of women, Cuomo has been hit with more than ten accusations of sexual harassment since December. First, he said he’d investigate these allegations himself. When public pressure forced him to establish independent investigations of the charges, he stalled for time and declined to comment while the investigations played out. Now, with a Democratic state attorney general investigating the claims, the governor and his top aides have stonewalled, threatened, and gaslit witnesses and state officials, accusing them of playing political games.

    There have also been reports that Cuomo’s friends, family, and donors received preferential access to COVID-19 tests and health information. There’s the matter of a $62 million COVID-related state contract being given to a medical network that donated $230,000 to the Cuomo campaign. There’s the claim by gaming interests that the governor’s team threatened them until they coughed up campaign money. And another investigation is centered around allegations that a top Cuomo aide linked vaccine access to political support of the governor.

    In an attempt to silence these stories, the governor has responded with brute force. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is on the record as saying Governor Cuomo hurls invective at officials and the media to make them feel “belittled.” Democratic assemblyman Ron Kim — who lost a close family member to COVID in a New York nursing home — called for Cuomo to provide answers about the nursing-home tragedy. Cuomo personally phoned Kim and threatened to “destroy” him, before holding a press conference in which Kim was referred to as a “habitual liar.” Democratic state senator Alessandra Biaggi has released text messages showing threats she’s received from the Cuomo administration.

    The behavior displayed by Governor Cuomo is appalling, but it’s nothing new. This is who he is, and who he has always been.

    More ethical lapses snipped.

    The obvious lies, the ham-fisted cover-ups, the corruption — we’ve seen it all time and time again from this governor. When there’s even a hint of an investigation into wrongdoing that implicates him or his cabal, Cuomo cuts his losses and scorches the earth. This is who he is: a mean-spirited bully with a flagrant disregard for the rule of law, ruthless in defense of his own venal interests and public image.

    The Cuomo administration has run the gamut of travesties and tragedies. Personal viciousness is the governor’s calling card, and criminal behavior his M.O. Even as they’re barraged with one scandal and outrageous revelation after another, he and his inner circle continue to operate as though it’s all business as usual. So why is Cuomo still the governor of New York? Democratic lawmakers — the very same ones who called on him to resign when the sexual-harassment claims first emerged — continue to stand with him and normalize his behavior more than seven months later, partially out of fear and partially out of a complete lack of interest in governing.

  • Even Biden has called on Cuomo to resign. For all the good that will do.
  • Meanwhile, Cuomo seems locked into the Ralph Northam strategy: Assume that the (D) after his name absolves him of all sins against Social Justice and just wait out the storm confident no one will dare hold him accountable for his actions. And don’t forget the media’s nonstop fluffing of Cuomo back in 2020:

    The Rolling Stone cover; Politico declaring him a “social media superstar”; Harry Enten of CNN declaring that, “The rise of Cuomo shows that times of tragedy can make very unlikely political heroes”; Carl Bernstein declaring that, “[It’s] real leadership of the kind the president of the United States should have provided to the American people throughout this crisis, but hasn’t”; Jesse McKinley and Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times declaring that, “Cuomo’s handling of the crisis has fostered a nationwide following; Mr. Biden called Mr. Cuomo’s briefings a ‘lesson in leadership,’ and others have described them as communal therapy sessions”; Ben Smith of the New York Times declaring that, “Cuomo has emerged as the executive best suited for the coronavirus crisis”; the New York Post (!) declaring that New York women were developing crushes on him; and Jen Rubin gushing: “Watching Andrew Cuomo is inspiring, uplifting, fascinating. He weaves details and humor and math and common sense all together. He is magnificent.” Even the Columbia Journalism Review started to worry that the adoring tone of the coverage was overlooking real problems with Cuomo’s decision-making.

    And this is all separate from his appearances on his brother’s CNN program. I suspect you remember or can find examples I didn’t list above. Oh, another classic example, from Rebecca Fishbein of Jezebel: “I swooned when he told a reporter he had his own workout routine. I have watched a clip of him and brother Chris Cuomo bickering about their mother at least 20 times. I think I have a crush?”

  • Don Surber says that Cuomo’s real sin is being an outsider:

    Democrats in Washington want Andrew Cuomo to resign to allow the Democrat lieutenant governor to run New York state. If a Republican were next in line for the job, Democrats would be falling on grenades for Cuomo. That is, after all, what happened in Virginia when Governor Black Face unleashed his oppo research on the Democrats in the line of succession.

    There are no criminal charges against Cuomo.

    Cuomo’s problem is not sexual harassment. His problem is Democrats see him as a threat if he chooses to run for president.

    Democrats in Washington want no part of playing second fiddle to an outsider. They had their fill of outsiders as presidents with Bill Clinton. Democrat senators want the White House all to themselves. In the 6 presidential elections since Clinton, Democrats have nominated a senator or former senator for president and vice president each time.

    Governors need not apply.

    (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

  • “Experts Warn Of New ‘Cuomo’ Variant That Is Dangerous To Young Women, Fatal To Elderly.”
  • Israel hits Lebanon with artillery and air strikes after rockets were fired from there.
  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott is calling a second special section starting August 7, the first one having accomplished Jack and Squat.
  • “Georgia Democrats Say ‘We’re F***ed’ With Voter ID Required, a ‘Turnout Catastrophe.'” Seems they can’t win if we don’t let them cheat…
  • National Review wants you to know that Huey Long was a bad role model. Or you could just, you know, watch All the King’s Men, which remains a timeless classic. It won the Oscar in back-to-back years with All About Eve, another timeless classic, both of which showed you what the old studio system could achieve when they were working at the top of their game.
  • Inside the fight against a ransomware attack against the Texas town of Borger (which is way the hell up north of Amarillo):

    In Borger, a city of fewer than 13,000, early indications were worrisome as the city raced to shut down its computers.

    Gibberish ransom demands spat out of printers and displayed on some computer screens. Government files were encrypted, with titles like “Budget Document” replaced by nonsensical combinations of letters and symbols, said current city manager Garrett Spradling.

    Vital records, like birth and death certificates, were offline. Payments couldn’t be processed, checks couldn’t be issued — though, blessedly for Borger, it was an off-week for payroll. Signs posted on a drive-up window outside City Hall told residents the city couldn’t process water bill payments but cutoffs would be delayed.

    One update shared with city officials soon after the attack described how every server was infected, as were about 60% of the 85 computers inspected by that point. A city government email told council members that agendas for a meeting would be in paper format, “since your tablets won’t be able to connect.” An official told a judge it was unclear if computer systems would be operational in time for trials two days away.

    Because the city had paid for offsite remote backup, Borger had the capability to reformat servers, reinstall the operating system and bring data back over. A newly purchased server that had yet to be installed came in handy. The police department, however, retained its data locally and the attack hampered officers’ access to previous incident reports, Spradling said.

    Rolling offsite backups are a Good Thing.

  • “Biden Admin Blames China for Microsoft Email Hack.”

    This is my shocked face.

    “The administration has so far declined to impose sanctions on China over the hack.”

    It being the summer rerun season, let me display that exact same shocked face all over again…

  • Ransomware gangs that disappear may just be changing names.
  • Top 30 security exploits. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
  • APD officer Lewis “Andy” Traylor dead after a collision with an 18-wheeler.
  • Seventeen suspects arrested in Polk County, Florida child sex predator sting…including several Disney employees.
  • CNN goes an entire week without hitting 1 million viewers. CNN was already losing $10 million a year back in 2019, even with trump boosting their ratings. How much does it cost to run a network with an audience of less than 1 million mostly elderly viewers?
  • Speaking of CNN:

  • Expensive Ivy League college film degrees are a scam. “Recent graduates from the Columbia University film program have an average loan debt of six figures against a low-to-mid five-figure income. And given that the master’s program takes four years, Columbia alumni enter the competitive field at around age 30, a detrimentally late start. Graduates soon face the shocking realization that they not only crippled their future but also wasted their money and youth.”
  • Are electric vehicles more expensive to maintain than those with internal combustion engines?

    Automotive News published a report on Thursday of this week noting that EVs were 2.3 times more expensive to service than ICE vehicles after three months of ownership. Analytics firm We Predict compiled the data by looking at roughly 19 million vehicles between the 2016 and 2021 model years.

    That figure drops to just 1.6 times more expensive after one year, the report noted, as a result of a 77% drop in maintenance costs and a decline in repair costs. The data showed that service techs spend about twice as much time diagnosing problems with EVs as they do with regular gas vehicles. They spend about 1.5 times longer fixing them and the labor rate for repairs was about 1.3 times higher.

    Presumably some of this gap will drop as technicians become more familiar with them.

  • Classical music’s suicide pact:

    Classical music is under racial attack. Orchestras and opera companies are said to discriminate against black musicians and composers. The canonical repertoire—the product of a centuries-long tradition of musical expression—is allegedly a function of white supremacy.

    Not one leader in the field has defended Western art music against these charges. Their silence is emblematic. Other supposed guardians of Western civilization, whether museum directors, humanities professors, or scientists, have gone AWOL in the face of similar claims, lest they themselves be denounced as racist.

    Also this: “Orchestras should hire diversity consultants to develop ‘extra-musical evaluation’ criteria for orchestral positions, such as serving as an institutional spokesman.” Diversity consultants always demand hiring more diversity consultants. What are the odds?

  • The Offspring fire longtime drummer Pete Parada for refusing to get a Flu Manchu vaccine. “Given my personal medical history and the side-effect profile of these jabs, my doctor has advised me not to get a shot at this time.” If the other members are vaccinated, why the hell should they care? Stupider still: Parada already caught the virus last year, so he probably has more immunity than the vaccine provides…
  • Col. Dave Severance, who helped take Iwo Jima (and commanded the second flag-raising on Mt. Suribachi, the one in the famous photograph), dead at 102.
  • Where does this rank among disturbing YouTube videos? I give it a three.
  • “To Defeat Delta Variant, Experts Recommend Doing All The Things That Didn’t Work The First Time.”
  • Biden Quits Presidency To Focus On Mental Health.”
  • Game!