Common Sense Would Have Prevented This Tragedy

On Wednesday, The New York Post posted an article about some of the policies that have resulted in the severity of the California fires. Frankly, I don’t know how they will rebuild from this. The losses are staggering. Many of the homes destroyed were multi-million-dollar homes. In California a one bedroom home can cost over $600,000, so the losses in every area affected are going to be monumental. However, there are common-sense precautions that could have been put in place that might not have prevented the fires, but would have made them less severe.

The article reports:

President-elect Trump, during his first administration, put Gov. Gavin Newsom on notice for his handling of repeated wildfires in the state, years ahead of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires currently raging.

“The Governor of California, @GavinNewsom, has done a terrible job of forest management. I told him from the first day we met that he must ‘clean’ his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers,” the former and upcoming president posted to X in 2019.

“Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more. Get your act together Governor. You don’t see close to the level of burn in other states,” the thread continued.

President Trump also stated:

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,”Trump posted to Truth Social on Wednesday. /pal

“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

This is not playing politics–this is telling the truth. If the Governor had taken the proper action, the disaster could have been prevented.

All Americans will wind up paying for the neglect of California’s forests and California’s misplaced priorities regarding its water systems. That is the result of irresponsible leadership in the State of California.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Has Resigned

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he is resigning. He plans to remain as a caretaker Prime Minister until the Liberal Party selects its new leader.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Trudeau said that if he is “having to fight internal battles,” he would not be the “best option” for the upcoming Canadian election, where Conservatives and their leader Pierre Poilievre are currently favored to win.

Trudeau said he has asked Canadian Governor General Mary Simon to “prorogue” Parliament until March 24. Prorogation means terminating the current session and effectively suspending Parliament until the designated date. Unlike dissolution of Parliament, when the prorogation period ends, the same representatives will reconvene for a new session.

“Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau has been leader of the Liberal Party since 2013 and became prime minister in 2015. He been under growing pressure to resign after a string of Liberal election defeats, party scandals, and plummeting approval ratings.

The article concludes:

Trudeau’s administration thus became the second Western government to collapse as a result of Trump’s election, the first being the leftist “Traffic Light Coalition” government in Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said within hours of the U.S. election results that Trump’s return was a factor in splintering Germany’s ruling coalition.

President Trump hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and he is making a difference!

Does He Even Believe This?

On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about Senator Schumer’s explanation of the reason for the defeat of so many Democrats in November’s election.

The article reports:

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that voters “didn’t realize how much” the Democratic Party had done for them over the last four years heading into November’s elections, claiming it played a key role in his party’s demise.

President-elect Donald Trump scored a historic win for Republicans in November, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote, while Vice President Kamala Harris failed to even match the numbers President Joe Biden had received in 2020. On “Meet the Press,” NBC host Kristen Welker questioned Schumer about his thoughts on the “root cause” of the Democrats’ loss, noting that Democratic strategist James Carville had blamed the state of the economy under the Biden-Harris administration.

“I told my caucus and I’ll say it here, too. We should regard this election, certainly it was a loss, but it’s also a challenge, and we did some things right against very severe headwinds. We kept four of those seven contested Democratic seats, but we did some things wrong and we have to look in the mirror and see what we did wrong,” Schumer said.

“Then there’s some things we didn’t do that we should have done. One of the things we have to do is we must focus on the working families of America,” Schumer added. “We believe in them and we passed all kinds of legislation that helped them with the infrastructure bill which made our economy stronger and employed lots of people.”

Meanwhile, back in reality, on December 22, 2024, The Center Square reported:

President Joe Biden is only a few weeks away from the end of his time in office, and one key part of his legacy is undeniable: inflation.

Biden has battled inflation from the start, but critics say he helped fuel it with trillions of dollars in deficit spending during his four years in office. Federal debt spending is offset in part by printing money, which increases inflation.

Biden has boasted bringing inflation rates down from about 9% earlier in his term to roughly 2.5% currently.

While the rate of inflation has slowed, that doesn’t mean prices have decreased. In fact, they continue rising, albeit slower than earlier in his term.

The federal government released a a key inflation marker Friday, its Personal Consumption Expenditure index, which rose 2.4% last month, a bit less than expected.

Overall, though, prices have risen more than 20% since Biden took office.

It really is the economy, stupid.

View From The Lair

Revenge of the Narcissists

PLEASE! Stop asking “How much damage can Resident Brandon do before 1:00pm on 20 January, 2025?” It isn’t a rhetorical question any longer. They are taking it as a challenge. I’m not using “they” as a “they/them” pronoun choice preferred by a gender confused person who can’t distinguish whether they are singular or plural (actually, anyone who uses a plural pronoun as a descriptor is likely schizophrenic; using such a pronoun is a scream for help). Rather I use it in the classical sense – it’s not Joe Biden alone who is making these decisions.  And it’s not just that he has a staff to assist him.  He isn’t cognitively aware enough to  be the originator of these plots.

Joe Biden was recognized as a moron 40 years ago and he certainly hasn’t become any more astute in the interim.

Anyone who thinks that they are “The One” who can become the leader of the free world; who thinks that they are entitled to sit in the Oval Office has to be a narcissist. That’s not an insult, it’s just an acknowledgment of someone’s self appreciation. All presidents are narcissists; some exhibit the condition more than others.

Being a narcissist isn’t the problem. It’s the behavior that results that is the problem. Many people point to the staff of the White House, or to Dr. Jill Biden or members of the previous Obozo Administration as the likely source of the damaging decisions being inflicted upon our fair country.  All are likely candidates.  Whether they are working in organized concert or passing around ideas that turn into deliberate disasters, that might never be revealed.  What is certain is that FJB personally isn’t capable of coming up with these ideas.  He’s barely able to regurgitate them from a teleprompter.

My money is on Resident Obozo.  Anyone who writes (or takes the credit for writing) two autobiographies (three if you want to count BOTH volumes of the latest one) before they turn 65 exhibits a pretty strong appreciation of self.  Remember when he announced that “We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For”?  Or that his appearance on the presidential stage would start the healing of the earth? Yeah, pretty self aware.

So now, at the end of the third Obozo term, the chief narcissist is striking back. This is not to ignore the fact that Resident Brandon is himself quite an example of self love, it’s just that he can barely distinguish between his wife and an ice cream cone. Always an admitted Marxist, Obozo is getting in his last swipes at our republic.  Like all Marxists, destruction is the tool of choice. He is at last revealing the “Transformation” that he promised during his first presidential campaign.  The question is whether we can make it until 20 January.

ciao,

The Snark

Bad News For America’s South

On January 6th, MSN reported that Advent International, a global private equity firm, has reached a deal to acquire Sauer Brands Inc., the company that makes Duke’s mayonnaise. Duke’s is the premiere brand in the American south. I am not a mayonnaise lover, but Duke’s has a really good flavor and is the only mayonnaise I am willing to buy.

The article reports:

Sauer Brands, whose iconic products include Duke’s Mayo, Mateo’s Gourmet Salsa and Kernel Season’s, has become a formidable player in the condiments and seasonings market. Among these, Duke’s Mayo stands out as a key brand with a legacy dating back to 1917. Boston-based Advent said Duke’s is the fastest-growing large-scale player in the mayonnaise category.

I can guarantee that if they touch the recipe, their sales will tank.

About That Peaceful Transition Of Power Thing

Is the peaceful transition of power supposed to include doing everything you can to make things more difficult for the next President? Asking for a friend.

On Monday, Breitbart reported the following:

The Biden administration released 11 Yemeni terrorists, who were captured after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, from Guantanamo Bay.

While the men had been “approved for transfer by national security officials” more than two years ago, they were approved to be transferred to Oman on Monday, according to NPR News.

Oman reportedly “agreed to help resettle them and provide security monitoring” for the 11 prisoners, who are described as being “former al-Qaeda members,” according to records from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The outlet noted that the transfers of the prisoners were “originally scheduled to happen in October 2023,” but were paused “due to concerns” regarding the “instability in the Middle East” in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

That the plan was resurrected during President Biden’s final two weeks in office signals a last-ditch effort by his administration to shrink Guantanamo’s prisoner population and get closer to his goal of trying to close the facility. In recent weeks, the U.S. has transferred four other Guantanamo inmates — a Kenyan, a Tunisian and two Malaysians — and is preparing for the transfer of at least one more, an Iraqi.

This is not smart. In 2015 I noted that about 30 percent of the prisoners released have gone back to terrorism (article here). At a time of heightened terrorism alerts in America and around the world, why would you free terrorists. It should be noted that there are no “former al-Qaeda members.” When dealing with ‘former al-Qaeda members,’ Americans (and others) need to keep in mind that in the Islamic faith there is a principle called “taqiyya,” generally described as lying for the sake of Islam.

The decision to release terrorists is a decision that will come back to bite us. Even if the terrorists we are releasing are older now, they will still be involved in planning terrorist attacks in the future. This was not a wise move.

Drones and Artificial Intelligence: Part I 

Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.

Advancing technology is the essence of modern civilization. The rate of technological change is becoming downright mind boggling. Since changing technology is neither inherently good or bad, the question becomes how effective will mankind be, in using these rapid technological changes in a manner that benefits the human race. Looking back in history is not reassuring, especially how new technologies have permitted mankind to dramatically increase the lethality of war.

One of the major changes impacting the military is the development and use of drones (i.e. unmanned vehicles).  When most people think of drones, they imagine small, battery powered flying devices used for recreational or aerial photography. The war between Ukraine and Russia has shown that drones have become major components of war. It is estimated that over a million drones have been used thus far in that war. The United States military has been exploring the use of drones, and in fact deployed them in Afghanistan and possibly other areas such as Iraq. Most other countries are now producing and equipping their military with drones.

The variety of military drones is amazing and getting more sophisticated by the day. Here are just a couple of examples. One of the simplest is the RQ-11 Raven:  Size 3 ft. by 5 ft.  Hand launched.  Speed: 18 mph.  Endurance:  90 minutes.  Cost: $250,000.  Purpose:  Used for close-up reconnaissance and observation of enemy positions and troop placements.   A medium size drone example is the Boeing RO-21 Blackjack.  Size: 8 ft. by 16 ft. Ground launched. Speed: 100 mph.  Endurance: 24 hrs.  Cost:  $ 14 million. Used for longer range and higher elevation surveillance. The third example is the MO Reaper:  Size: 36 ft. by 65 ft. Land or aircraft carrier launched. Speed:  400 mph. Range: 1200 miles. Cost:  $28 million.  Essentially replaces manned air craft. Notice the cost of these drones. Not cheap.

Most of the drones used in the Ukraine/Russia war have been relatively small drones used in support of local ground forces. With appropriate explosives they can attack and destroy not only infantry positions but artillery placements and even armored tanks. This undoubtedly has saved many human casualties. One aspect of drone attacks is that they are effective against parked aircraft and even naval ships; especially if they are deployed in swarms which overwhelm defenses. There is also the disparagement in the cost. The smaller drones that the Houti rebels have launched against our naval ships require expensive defensive missiles to shoot them down.   Drones that cost, say $25,000, require Patriot system missiles to shoot them down which cost well over $1 million each to produce.

Most of the early drones were radio signal controlled. However, the development of artificial intelligence is allowing the control of the drone far beyond most radio control systems. How much independence AI systems have when controlling and directing the drone attack remains to be discovered. Admittedly, the military use of drones is in its beginning stage.   Have we reached the point where robots flying robotic vehicles are fighting our wars? If so, who will actually be in control? Also, there was a time in the Cold War where only super rich countries could afford the expense of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Will the spread of inexpensive drones expand the threat of war by other countries? Will there come a time when countries will no longer need highly trained pilots? Just reflect on what China has been doing buying up extensive farmland around our military bases. How about attacks on our power grid?

The challenge of drones from a security perspective must be taken seriously.

Rats Deserting A Sinking Ship

On Sunday, Red State posted an article about the resignation of Jay Bratt, a 30-plus-year veteran of the Department of Justice.

The article reports:

The Department of Justice official who pushed for the armed raid on Mar-a-Lago, which ended up with documents that were available for the asking and a chance to riffle through Melania’s underwear drawer, has retired. Jay Bratt, a 30-plus-year veteran of the Department of Justice, has tendered his resignation, saying staying on “wasn’t worth it.” 

…According to the report, Bratt, a senior executive service member, expected to be fired by incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi, and he would face a long-running and expensive “wrongful dismissal” lawsuit to be allowed to retire a la Andrew McCabe.

According to books and reporting on the issue, the FBI did not want to conduct a SWAT-style raid with shoot-to-kill orders on Mar-a-Lago, but Bratt insisted; see The Battle Over Raiding Mar-a-Lago: Some FBI Officials Were Concerned About the DOJ’s Ultimate Goal.

The article notes:

Bratt was also credibly accused of pressuring the attorney of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago valet into getting his client to testify against Trump in exchange for a federal judgeship.

In addition, Stanley Woodward, a lawyer representing Walt Nauta, a co-defendant in your classified documents case against President Trump, accused you of improperly pressuring him by implying that the Biden Administration would look more favorably on Mr. Woodward’s candidacy for a judgeship if his client cooperated with the Office of the Special Counsel.10 According to Mr. Woodward, you advised him that you “wouldn’t want [him] to do anything to mess that up,” in reference to Mr. Woodward’s judgeship application, and your desire to turn his client into a government cooperator.

The article concludes:

Somehow, we’re all supposed to be concerned about the mass exodus of “seasoned government lawyers and FBI agents” who engaged in lawfare against President Trump and members of his 2017-2021 team. They could have learned a valuable life lesson by watching the HBO series “The Wire” before engaging in political warfare against the once and future president.

The people who conducted the illegal lawfare against President Trump and many other Republicans assumed that they would be in power indefinitely and would never be held accountable for their actions. I suspect that assumption is about to be proven false. I hope so.

Another Regulation That Did Not Involve A Vote By Congress

On Sunday, The Epoch Times reported that the Social Security Agency will begin to raise the age at which people can collect their full amount of Social Security. I would like to point out that Congress was never asked to vote on this and thus has never gone on the record for its vote.

The article reports:

The retirement age for many Americans to qualify for Social Security payments will increase by two months, effective Jan 2.

The change does not apply to individuals born between 1943 and 1954, for whom the full retirement age was set at 66 by the Social Security Administration (SSA). For those born after 1954, the age for retirement then increases in two-month increments for each birth year thereafter. 
The gradual increase in the full retirement age is part of a long-term plan implemented by the SSA to cut costs due to financial challenges that emerged partially due to increasing life expectancies, according to information on the administration’s website.
Meanwhile, President Biden recently signed into law the Social Security Fairness Act, which will shorten the time it takes for the Social Security Fund (a questionable concept at best) will go bankrupt. It seems that by the time the generation born in the 1970’s gets to retirement age, retirement age will be somewhere around 85.

A View From The Lair

Lucky This Time

There is a similarity between the two disasters that no one I’ve seen has picked up on. Both vehicles were electric. The Tesla Cybertruck was likely chosen as a social comment about both Musk and Trump. Pretty obvious. What isn’t as obvious is that the Tesla vehicle is constructed MUCH stronger than the terrorist expected. While the contents of the truck blew up, it didn’t result in the typical electric vehicle fire.
The New Orleans truck was a Ford, loaded with incendiaries with a remote detonator. Fortunately the NO cops , while too slow to stop him from running over 15 people, were quick enough to unlife him before he had a chance to detonate the contents.

Electric vehicles use lithium batteries. A LOT of them. Lithium is very light but also very volatile. The battery packs used for vehicles have other materials as well. Cobalt and graphite are just two of them. An electric vehicle fire is incredibly intense and toxic. Water makes the fire worse. The special materials required to fight a lithium fire CO2 foams, insulating smothering blankets, truck loads of sand make the process very difficult, time consuming and expensive.

Did the two drivers choose electric vehicles for the greater fire and devastation potential? Or because they are more environmentally friendly? I can’t imagine any other reason for driving an electric truck from Houston to New Orleans except to be horribly more dangerous. That part of Bourbon street is crowded and both sides have old two-and three-story buildings on both sides. Set off the incendiaries AND light off the truck and a major conflagration could result. A major portion of the French Quarter could have been incinerated. Do you think that this will be only time that an electric vehicle will be the explosive delivery vehicle of choice? I don’t. Think about using one to ignite several rows of cars in an underground garage. Severely limited access, multiple cars full of gasoline worse yet other electric vehicles and you have a disaster not unlike what happened on 9/11.

Resident Brandon has invited the barbarians into our home.

The war that was declared against us in the 7th century is now here. Thank God that DJT will be our next president. Hopefully he will be in time.

Ciao,

The Snark

Making Life Harder For Those On Fixed Incomes

On Sunday, The New York Post posted an article about a recent regulation put in place by the Biden administration. First of all, why are we being governed by regulations instead of laws passed by Congress? It is time to go back to the government envisioned by our Founding Fathers. I want every regulation voted on by Congress and their votes made public.

The article reports:

A Biden administration ban on certain natural gas water heaters as part of the lame duck president’s climate agenda could send prices soaring for the elderly and the poor.

Under the policy, new non-condensing, natural gas-fired water heaters will be prohibited for sale starting in 2029 due to concerns about carbon-dioxide emissions. The policy comes during President Biden’s twilight days in the White House and was quietly announced without a press release.

If the policy takes effect, as it is slated to on March 11, a little less than 40% of the tankless water heaters currently on the market would be banned, according to an estimate from the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. 

First of all, carbon-dioxide emissions have been proven to be beneficial to the planet–not detrimental. Farmers blow carbon-dioxide into their greenhouse to help the plants grow. Would they be doing that if it were killing their plants?

The article notes:

Customers will be pushed towards buying models that are more expensive or lean on non-instantaneous storage tank water heaters, which are generally cheaper but tend to be less efficient than the ones that are facing a ban, per the report. 

For example, a Rinnai America tankless non-condensing natural gas water heater goes for roughly $1,000 at Home Depot, while a comparable condensing tank goes for about $1,800.

Tankless technology is frequently used in smaller apartments or housing spaces, which means that a lot of lower-income and elderly people tend to use those types of water heaters.

“Forcing low-income and senior customers to pay far more upfront is particularly concerning. DOE’s decision to go ahead with a flawed final rule is deeply disappointing,” Matthew Agen, the American Gas Association’s chief counsel for energy, told the outlet.

By the Department of Energy’s estimate, the costs saved over the long run by the new rules will be about $112 over a roughly 20-year stretch, Agen emphasized.

This regulation needs to be struck down as soon as possible.

The Difference Between Leftists And Liberals

On September 12, 2017, Dennis Prager wrote a column explaining the difference between Leftists and Liberals. Although the column is no longer accessible on line, here are my thoughts on the subject.

It is an interesting and revealing column. Prager, you remember, is the California conservative (there actually are conservatives in the People’s Republic of Kommiefornia once you leave the big cities) who was castigated for an unbelievably heinous act, one that threatened to disrupt both the state and the society sufficiently to cleave the coastal section along the San Andreas fault and heave it into the Pacific (which resulted in conservatives everywhere grabbing bowls of popcorn and beverages in anticipation.) That inconceivable dastardly act was to conduct a symphony orchestra – The Los Angeles Philharmonic – in the WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL! OH, the humanity! As if someone’s political philosophy would cause miscarriages and disruption by waving a small stick in front of a few musicians.

Thus is the mental and emotional frailty of leftist coasters. I must confess that I too conflated the acts of the Leftists with those of liberals. I have long been aware of the difference between classical liberals and the more modern variety, but relegated the difference to the evolution (mutation?) of liberals. It does, however, make more sense to regard the difference as a deliberate confiscation of the concept of “liberalism” by anarchists/communists who will appropriate any vehicle to further the destruction of the USA and any other developed society. By using emotional issues – usually fabricated – associating with other anti-societal groups and utilizing the Alinksy/Goebbels methods of propaganda, many liberals have become “useful idiots” for the Leftists.

Certainly, there are former liberals who actively support the Leftists and believe that they are still holding on to their liberal philosophies. They have also been subverted, as is the intent of the Leftists. Some will deny their positions by claiming that some of the Leftists’ activities have gone “too far.” Or perhaps support the violent actions, but would never think of participating in such themselves. Just like “moderate” Muslims who will donate to their mosque that funds terrorists, but would never strap on a bomb vest themselves. The critical issue is that they never bothered to learn actual history. Too much history is “learned” from inaccurate sources. Even history texts used by both grade and college teachers are frequently twisted to support a political viewpoint.
Trump was condemned for daring to state that there were “good people” on both sides at Charlottesville. The fact that among the original marchers were members of a group that simply wanted to protest the destruction of the statue AND NOTHING ELSE, and that there were some peaceful marchers being lead and deceived by AntiFa in order to violently attack the other side was both ignored and denied. Again, Alinksy/Goebbels tactics, both by the AntiFa and their apologists in the media.

The Leftists deliberately try to conflate conservatives with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK. Granted the neo-Nazis contributed to this themselves. They were too stupid to realize that Nazis were National Socialists. They are also ignorant of history, not knowing that Lincoln was a Republican, that the first black members of congress were Republican, and that all of the relevant civil rights legislation had greater Republican support than Democrat. It’s that “failure to learn from history” gotcha. Apparently, the Leftists are using the liberal’s lack of historical knowledge to purport an association of conservatives with the KKK. As someone who grew up in the South during the 1950’s and ’60’s, I saw for myself the Democrat Party’s reliance on the KKK to subdue both black and Republican efforts to wrest political control from the Donkey Party.

Don’t believe it? Read this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898. This is far from an isolated event.

And apparently a “white supremacist” is to them, anyone who thinks “equality for all people” means what it says. And certainly white lives (especially white male lives) don’t matter.

The intentions of the Leftists are as simple as they are clear: divide society through demagoguery, destroy as much as possible, and enjoy the carnage.

Liberals should be educated.

Leftists should be annihilated.

ciao,

the Snark

Here’s A Medal For Attempting To Destroy America

On Saturday, The New York Post posted an article about President Biden’s list of people he will be presenting with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The article reports:

President Biden will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, billionaire Democratic megadonor George Soros and several others at a White House ceremony on Saturday. 

The White House said Clinton, Soros and the 17 other recipients of the prestigious award are “individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.” 

“President Biden believes great leaders keep the faith, give everyone a fair shot, and put decency above all else,” the White House said in a statement. “These nineteen Americans are great leaders who have made America a better place. They are great leaders because they are good people who have made extraordinary contributions to their country and the world.” 

The article includes the entire list. There are actually some people on the list who have made a positive contribution to America, but I am not sure I would use the term decency in my description of either Hillary Clinton or George Soros.

The President (or whoever is currently running the country) gets to choose the recipients of the award, but I think the current choices have greatly reduced the prestige of the award.

Rules For Thee But Not For Me

The people who are in a panic about climate change often encourage us to use public transportation, live in smaller houses, buy more efficient cars, travel less, etc. They are seriously concerned about our carbon footprint. Yet, somehow, they seem to be much less concerned about their own carbon footprint.

On Saturday, The Washington Examiner reported:

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) has spent around $415,000 on private jet flights since 2021.

The money was doled out by her campaign committee, with the most spent in 2022 during her reelection campaign against former Rep. Lee Zeldin.

A pilot experienced in private aviation told the New York Post that Hochul’s use of a private jet is “very wasteful.”

“It’s very wasteful, especially for an elected official,” he said. “There is no reason why any elected official in New York should be taking a private jet. Nearly everywhere in New York or upstate has a [commercial] airport that will take you anywhere in the country.”

Private jets are known to be especially wasteful, considering the small amount of passengers they carry. A 2021 report from the European Federation for Transport and Environment found that private jets are five to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights and 50 times more polluting than trains.

Hochul utilized two private-airline companies, Zephyr Jets and Apollo Jets, and spent no less than $5,000 on each flight while her most expensive journey was $38,594.00.

I have less patience with a politician using campaign money for private jets than I do with someone who is financially successful using one. At least a business person flying a private jet has earned the money for the trip. Hochul was using campaign funds that could have easily been more efficiently spent.

The article concludes:

Hochul is facing immense internal pressure from New York Democrats who want to oust her for the 2026 gubernatorial race. She faced previous criticism for down-ballot House losses in 2022 but recovered some ground during the 2024 elections, winning several seats back.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is one of her main detractors. He has his eyes on the governor’s office in just a few short years.

“When it comes to combating climate change, the governor is conspicuously failing to practice what she preaches. New Yorkers viscerally resent hypocrisy, and the governor’s hypocrisy here is as staggering as her carbon footprint,” Torres told the New York Post.

Kathy Hochul is simply one more example of a politician who refuses to practice what she preaches.

The Difference Between The Two Parties

The Republicans have taken control of the Senate. They have announced some of their plans. Generally speaking, their goal is to govern America in a way consistent with the Constitution and in a way that works for most Americans. The Democrats should be very grateful for that.

On January 3rd, Townhall reported:

The 119th Congress has just begun, and Republicans have a new leader in the Senate with Sen. John Thune (R-SD). As Thune has been saying ever since he was selected as majority leader in November, he plans to protect the filibuster, the very institution Senate Democrats fought so ferociously to destroy when they were in the majority. They would have ramped up those efforts even further, had they kept control of the chamber. For Friday’s speech, Thune plans to again reference his commitment to the filibuster. 

…Under Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Democrats tried multiple times to nuke the filibuster, including when it comes to attempts to pass legislation that would lead to a federal takeover of our election laws and attempts to pass legislation that would expand Roe v. Wade by allowing for abortion up until birth without legal limit in all 50 states. Such efforts failed, though, thanks to Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Both ultimately left the Democratic Party and became Independents, and neither ran for reelection in 2024. 

…Leading up to the 2024 election, far-left groups made it clear that they prioritized nuking the filibuster and packing the U.S. Supreme Court. In the final weeks of the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris expressed her support for such a plan in order to make it easier for legislation to do with her her pet issue of abortion to get passed. Sen. Bob Casey Jr (D-PA) and Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), who was running against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate race, expressed the same views. Harris, Casey, and Allred all ended up losing their races. 

Oddly enough, now that they are no longer in control of the Senate, the Democrats are less interested in getting rid of the filibuster. Wow! How things change.

This Is Happening In America

On Thursday, Breitbart posted an article about what some American children are being taught in Texas.

The article reports:

After a New Orleans terrorist attack by an ISIS supporter from Houston, Texas, and amid intensifying warnings of Islamic terrorist threats within the U.S., a resurfaced clip showing hundreds of American children in Houston wearing traditional Islamic dress, chanting references to Iran’s supreme leader, pledging allegiance to him, and praising martyrdom has reignited concerns over growing homegrown Islamic extremism.

The chilling video, aired by Iranian state media in 2022, raises concerns about the spread of various forms of Islamic extremism within the U.S., highlighting ideological influences that extend beyond specific groups like ISIS or Iran’s regime.

…According to the center’s flier promoting the event for “boys and girls ages 4-14,” the song is described as “an expression of one’s love for the Imam of our age.”

Lyrics of the chant, titled “Salam Farmandeh” or “Salutations, commander,” include expressions of desires to become child soldiers for Khamenei as well as the taking of an oath to become a martyr.

The article concludes:

The matter comes after more than a dozen were killed and dozens more wounded in a terror attack in the early hours of New Year’s Day in New Orleans, in which Texas-native terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a truck with an ISIS flag into a crowd of revelers.

The incident has sparked renewed concerns over the rise of homegrown Islamic extremism within the U.S.

Notably, the Houston-area mosque reportedly attended by Jabbar urged members to refer inquiries from the FBI to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of Greater Houston.

Please remember that CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Trial. If you are not familiar with the Holy Land Foundation Trial and the government exhibits showing the Muslim plan to convert America to a Sharia State, I suggest you start your research here.

I am not opposed to legal immigration, but at some point we need to say ‘no’ to people who do not want to assimilate into American culture. Britain has now introduced Sharia courts. There are Sharia courts in America, but I do not believe their decisions have the weight of actual American law. We need to wake up to the threat that is growing in our own country.

Gradually Changing The Population Of America

On January 3rd, The Federalist posted an article about the number of anchor babies born in America in 2024.

The article reports:

A report by an immigration-centric think tank reveals that nearly 400,000 illegal births of so-called “anchor babies” occurred in the United States in the year 2024.

As reported by Breitbart, the data from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the total includes 300,000 anchor babies born to illegal aliens, while another 72,000 were born to foreigners in the country as tourists, on worker visas, or on student visas.

The report highlights the ongoing threat of demographic displacement due to the practice of birthright citizenship, a misinterpretation of the Constitution which says that anyone simply born on American soil is to automatically be considered an American citizen. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end the practice in his upcoming second term.

…The debate over birthright citizenship comes down to the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which has never been properly argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. The practice of automatic birthright citizenship is only used in a handful of nations, including the U.S. and Canada, whereas most European countries have laws prohibiting such a practice.

Polls have found that either a majority or a plurality of Americans agree with President-elect Trump’s proposal to end birthright citizenship. President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance are to be sworn into office on January 20th.

Part of the problem with this number is the fact that the U.S. birthrate has been declining for several years and now is at 1.6 births per woman for year 2022, which is considerably below replacement levels. The birthrate in 1960 was 3.5. Americans are not having enough children to continue to grow the country. The solution to this is not to import people who may or may not assimilate, but to make it more economically friendly to have children. The current economic and inflation situation make having children a real economic challenge. The lack of children also has a lot to do with the idea that having things is more important than having children. Children are an expensive 18+ year commitment, and in a rather self-centered, ‘microwave’ society, that is not always an attractive idea.

Why Some Awards Mean Nothing

The New York Times and The Washington Post won Pulitzer Prizes for their great reporting of RussiaGate. When the story was proved to be false, they got to keep their awards. I wonder if after Liz Cheney is tried for destroying evidence and other crimes committed during her time on the January 6th Committee if she will get to keep her award.

On Thursday, The Epoch Times reported:

President Joe Biden has awarded 20 individuals the Presidential Citizens Medal, including two leaders of the disbanded Jan. 6 congressional panel—former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)—for “exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

The Presidential Citizens Medal, created by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is the country’s second-highest civilian honor after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is awarded to those who “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

“President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House wrote in a statement. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Considering the current mental state of President Biden, I wonder who actually made this decision. It certainly does nothing to further the idea of a rule of law that applies equally to everyone, and thus will further divide the country. That may actually be the goal.

For all of President Biden’s claims that he is engaging in a peaceful transition of power, his actions tell a very different story. When I examine the President’s actions since the November election, I see a man doing everything he can to put roadblocks in front of the incoming administration. The pettiness of this man and the people behind him never ceases to amaze me.

What Was In The Truck?

On January 1st, a Tesla Cybertruck caught fire and exploded in front of Trump Tower in Las Vegas. Las Vegas police investigated and discovered that the fire and the explosion were not accidental.

On Wednesday, The Daily Wire reported:

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) said during a press conference on Wednesday night that the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas earlier in the day was carrying a variety of explosive materials.

Police said that the vehicle pulled up in front of the hotel moments before it detonated, killing the driver, who police are not identifying until they are 100% certain of their identity.

Investigators found that “the truck’s bed contained gasoline tanks, camping fuel, and large firework mortars” when the vehicle exploded.

Police said that the truck was rented in Colorado through Turo and that Tesla was able to trace the route it took through its charging stations.

“No suspect information will be released until confirmed,” police said. “This is a joint investigation with federal, state, and local authorities.”

Investigators were working to determine if the intentional detonation was “an act of terrorism,” but they believed that it was an isolated incident and not part of a larger plan.

The article includes the following video:

https://x.com/kaaaassuu/status/1874506594425381133?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1874506594425381133%7Ctwgr%5E6af26de1b89cd9c6559d1486f09c0370fbb5036e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Flas-vegas-police-reveal-what-cybertruck-was-carrying-when-it-exploded

You can hear the explosions as the explosive material inside the Tesla catches fire, but because of the strength of the side panels in the Tesla, the explosion is directed upward and the doors on the hotel are not impacted despite the closeness of the vehicle. I personally think the cybertrucks are ugly, but there is something to be said for driving around with that kind of safety protection on the sides of your vehicle. It is interesting that the suspected person who blew up the cybertruck is an explosives expert. Obviously, he was not familiar with the structure of the cybertruck (assuming he wanted to do maximum damage to the area around it).

The Iron Law Of Bureaucracy

Author: The Snark

The late, VERY great Jerry Pounelle deduced the Iron Law of Bureaucracy. It is proposed thusly:

Every organization, upon reaching a significant size will be comprised of two groups. The first group will concentrate on achieving the goals the organization was chartered or organized to perform. The second group will concentrate on increasing the size, scope, and power of the organization itself. The second group will always dominate the organization.

This is not limited to government bureaucracies; any organization will succumb to this eventuality. Trade unions and labor unions are especially affected, indeed, that is the reason for most (if not all of them) anyway. Even the NRA is an example. Power corrupts. You know the rest of that.

In the executive branch there are regulatory agencies – the EPA, the FDA – and advisory agencies – the CDC, the NIH. President Trump signed an executive order in his first week of office requiring that any new regulations had to be accompanied by the removal of two prior regulations. This was a major blow to the typical DC swamp condition. It indicated that he was actually SERIOUS about draining the swamp.

This wasn’t a shot across the bow, this was a direct hit on the wheelhouse! The Deep State, already operating within the politically weaponized FBI, DOJ, CIA, NSA and IRS, fell in regiment with the intelligence and enforcement agencies. The war began in earnest.

Conservatives can be differentiated from liberals in one basic comparison: Conservatives typically support smaller governments and personal responsibility. Liberals prefer large governments and social responsibility. (The conservative view tends to blur once elected to DC, however.) The liberal wants to blame society or somebody – anybody – for their condition, then use the government to extract their desired result from someone else. Conservatives usually just want to be left alone. Liberals love power (granted, so do some conservatives) and will use any method to attain it. Remember the corollary.

Now apply these two attributes to the Iron Law of Bureaucracy. Obviously the first group will tend to be conservative – do the work, get it done, go home. The second group will tend to be liberal – why waste this opportunity (or crisis) without growing the scope of the organization?

Advisory agencies can’t use regulation to grow, they must use an opportunity to be noticed and become more valuable to the chief executive. Covid provided an excellent opportunity to leverage an advisory agency to one of dominance and power.
And here’s where the Iron Law comes into play. All the agencies have become dominated by liberals. It’s like gravity but in reverse. Conservatives slowly sink into the unnoticed echelons because they aren’t fighting for a power position. Liberals rise to the top, grasping for ever more power.

Thus, President Trump unwittingly played right into the hands of not just the DC swamp, but also the Chinese Communists’ surrogate World Health Organization. He had to use the resources available to him, but they were all enemies. Not to do so would open him to even more screaming about not using “expert” advice. That advice changed direction by 180 degrees several times, but never mind. it was the President’s fault.

That is the advantage of the communist government: no pesky elections to worry about, no nosy opposition party or news media to get in the way. Like the dhimmicrats, communists consider lying, stealing and murder just another business policy.

China successfully developed a virus that could be used as weapon. It was deadly to the elderly, but the Chinese could care less. It was debilitating to those over juvenile age, exactly the age soldiers are. The very young were spared. Perhaps this was just an accident, perhaps deliberate–like a feature rather than a bug. Either way the dhimmicrats used the opportunity to continue their assault on the President. They have missed no opportunity to bludgeon President Trump, especially when creating controversy out of whole cloth. The question now is whether he can get the evidence of the treasonous activity released before it is hidden by another corrupt, rotten administration.

The vote count continues.

ciao,

The Snark

2024 Statistics

On Thursday, Prophecy Watch posted a list of 44 statistics from 2024.

Here is the list:

#1 Over 155 million votes were cast in the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump’s win in that election capped what many consider to be the greatest political comeback in U.S. history.

#2 Nearly 11 billion dollars was spent during the 2024 election cycle. That is the most money ever spent on an election by a very wide margin.

#3 1.2 billion dollars was spent on political ads in the state of Pennsylvania alone.

#4 Prior to the election, one survey found that 79 percent of Americans believed that the nation was on the wrong track.

#5 The U.S. government is currently $36,144,183,375,647.43 in debt.

#6 If our politicians keep spending money at the current rate, the U.S. government will be 51 trillion dollars in debt four years from now.

#7 Total U.S. household debt is nearing 18 trillion dollars.

#8 The number of shoplifting incidents per year in the United States is up 93 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels

#9 On a single day in December, Joe Biden announced that he was commuting the prison sentences of nearly 1,500 criminals and he issued full pardons to 39 others.

#10 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 37 percent of Americans are having trouble even paying their most basic bills.

#11 According to Bank of America, almost a third of all households “spend more than 95% of their disposable income on necessities such as housing costs, groceries and utility bills”.

#12 The price of orange juice is up 327 percent over the last 3 years.

#13 The average household in Miami spends 327 dollars during a single trip to the grocery store.

#14 It now takes more than $100,000 a year for a typical U.S. household to live “the American Dream” in all 50 states, and in 29 U.S. states it takes more than $150,000 a year.

#15 For the average person, it now costs 4.4 million dollars to live “the American Dream” over the course of a lifetime.

#16 Thanks to rampant inflation, the average American now believes that it takes an income of $270,000 a year in order to be “financially successful”.

#17 Overall, U.S. home prices are up more than 1,000 percent since 1974.

#18 Only 10 percent of Americans believe that becoming a homeowner is “easy or somewhat easy”.

#19 37 percent of U.S. cardholders have already maxed out at least one credit card.

#20 The amount of money that Americans owe on their credit cards is twice as large as the GDP of the 100 poorest nations on the entire planet combined.

#21 30 percent of all student loan borrowers have “gone without food or medicine due to their monthly bills”.

#22 At one food bank in New Jersey, demand has actually quadrupled since the peak of the pandemic.

#23 An all-time record high 770,000 people are homeless in the United States, and that number grew by 18 percent in just one year which is also an all-time record high.

#24 We are being told that more than 3 million Americans are now living in their vehicles.

#25 The number of job openings in the United States has fallen by about 4 million since 2021.

#26 U.S. retailers have announced 7,100 store closures in 2024.

#27 For the 12 months ending June 30th, the number of business bankruptcy filings was up more than 40 percent compared to the previous 12 months.

#28 An office building in Manhattan that sold for $332 million dollars in 2006 sold for just $8.5 million dollars in 2024.

#29 Half of all workers in the U.S. make less than $43,222.81 a year.

#30 According to Bank of America, from 2019 to 2024 there was a 10 percent jump in those that are living paycheck to paycheck.

#31 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 29 percent of all U.S. households were one person households in 2024.

#32 40 percent of Americans report feeling lonely at least some of the time.

#33 30 percent of Americans have been clinically diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives.

#34 The market capitalization of Fartcoin is currently 973 million dollars. Meanwhile, the market capitalization of Office Depot is just 680 million dollars.

#35 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 46.2 million people that were not born in the United States are now living here.

#36 The federal government has admitted that there are approximately “425,000 convicted criminals living in the U.S. illegally”.

#37 According to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, the total damage caused by Hurricane Helene in his state exceeds 50 billion dollars.

#38 According to the official website of the GAO, Congress had appropriated a total of 174 billion dollars for the war in Ukraine as of April.

#39 According to the Institute for Economics & Peace, there are 56 active military conflicts raging around the world right now. That is the highest number that we have seen since World War II.

#40 According to the United Nations, there are over 2 billion people that eat insects as part of their normal diets right now.

#41 It is being projected that the market for insect protein in the United States will be valued at 274 billion dollars in 2031.

#42 Sperm counts have fallen by more than 50 percent since 1973. If this trend continues, soon we will not be able to produce enough viable offspring and the human population of this planet will plummet dramatically.

#43 Our brains are slowly but surely filling up with plastic. One team of scientists discovered that human brain samples from 2024 had concentrations of microplastics that were 50 percent higher than human brain samples from 2016.

#44 If the amount of plastic in our brains continues to rise at a rate of 50 percent every 8 years, 28 percent of our brains will be plastic 80 years from now and everyone will be dead.

Welcome to 2025.

The Biggest Lie Of 2024

On December 31st, Legal Insurrection posted an article about what they considered the biggest lie of 2024.

The article reported:

All politicians lie from time to time, but the Democrats have elevated it to an art form. They understand that if a lie is repeated often enough, it gains traction, and most people will eventually believe it. They’ve also learned that the most effective lies are the ones that are the most difficult to disprove, such as their insistence in 2016 that President-elect Donald Trump was an agent of Russia.

The Russian collusion narrative was a stunning success for the Democrats, creating endless challenges for candidate and eventually President Trump. Buoyed by its effectiveness, party operatives felt emboldened, pushing them to concoct even bigger and bolder lies.

When former Vice President Joe Biden entered the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, the party quickly rallied behind him, convinced he was their best chance to defeat Trump. It was evident, however, that Biden had changed during his time out of the spotlight. He had slowed down, struggled to speak without a teleprompter, slurred his words, and frequently lost his train of thought. While Republicans and foreigners recognized the early signs of cognitive decline, Biden’s handlers worked tirelessly to cover it up.

Unfortunately, Americans are the ones paying the price for that lie. The staff surrounding President Biden included a number of people who were in the Obama administration. I don’t think that is a coincidence. The last four years were President Obama’s third term. We got to see the soul of the Obama Democrat Party–bad economic policy, bad foreign policy, bad energy policy, and suffering everyday Americans. In 2024, the American voters decided that they were done with bad polices and changed course.

The article concludes:

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) sums up the Democrats’ hypocrisy perfectly in the tweet below:

They blamed it on a “Stutter.”
They blamed it on “Russian Disinfo.”
They blamed it on “Cheap-Fakes.”
They hid him at every opportunity.
They scripted every public event.
They denied the Hur Report findings.
They sent him on vacation for 570 days.
They brazenly lied to you FOR… pic.twitter.com/ovnQtFsX8t

— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) December 30, 2024

I am looking forward to a great 2025.