Right Wing Granny

News behind the news. This picture is me (white spot) standing on the bridge connecting European and North American tectonic plates. It is located in the Reykjanes area of Iceland. By-the-way, this is a color picture.

Right Wing Granny

Forgetting The Lessons Of Recent History

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about an idea put forth by Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). Senator Murphy wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 over twelve years. Artificially raising the minimum wage is not a new idea–it has been tried multiple times and failed each time.

The article quotes the Competitive Enterprise Institute website:

Last week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced the Senate version of the Living Wage for All Act, which raises the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $25 per hour — a 245 percent increase — over 12 years. It begins by increasing the minimum wage 66 percent to $12 an hour and then establishes separate schedules for large and smaller employers, with the former being required to raise hourly pay to $25 in only 5 years.

The article also quotes The Washington Post:

Who’s “we”? Businesses have to cover the cost of higher wages somehow — hiking prices, shrinking hours, laying off workers or hiring fewer are all on the table. A higher minimum wage also increases the incentive for automation.

Some states already know the effects of raising the minimum wage beyond what the market can bear. California set a $20 wage for fast-food employees in 2024. That eliminated 18,000 jobs within a year, according to an analysis in the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The article quotes a UC Santa Cruz paper:

On Wednesday, University of California – Santa Cruz released a real world appraisal of how the $20 mandate has affected owners and employees of fast food franchises. Stephen Owen, an economics lecturer, and a team of undergraduate helpers visited and studied more than 100 outlets in Santa Cruz and the Central Valley and came away with data that seem to validate industry predictions of the effects…

“Employees have been impacted with fewer job opportunities, reduced employee hours, elimination of overtime, and new eligibility challenges for healthcare and other benefits. Automation, such as order kiosks, mobile apps, Artificial Intelligence drive-through ordering systems, as well as other innovative assembly technologies, are being tested and implemented with the goal to reduce labor requirements.”

When wages are artificially increased, prices go up, and inflation increases. Senator Murphy needs to study economics!

Quietly Leaving New York City As The Socialist Take Over

On Tuesday, The Dallas Express posted an article about the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE).

The article reports:

The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) began production, quoting, and trading operations on Monday, kicking off a phased rollout as a new national securities exchange based in Dallas.

The launch marks a significant milestone for the Dallas-headquartered startup, which aims to challenge the longstanding dominance of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. TXSE started with limited test symbols for approved members, with broader symbol availability planned throughout July.

The exchange will operate under the market center identifier “F.”

Trading hours include a pre-market session from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., regular market hours from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and a post-market session from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

TXSE officials described the start of trading as a key step in proving the exchange’s viability. “With the start of full production trading, any last notions that TXSE is theoretical are instantly swept away,” a TXSE official stated.

Let’s look at some of the possible reasons that the Texas Stock Exchange might be opening. The Texas Constitution and Texas statutes prohibit levying a state personal income tax. Texas does not have a traditional corporate income tax–it imposes a franchise tax on businesses. That franchise tax rate is generally 1 percent for most businesses. The general corporate tax rate in New York City is 8.85 percent. Corporations with gross receipts over $1 million are subject to the General Corporation Tax.

The article concludes:

Gabriela von zur Muehlen, senior vice president and chief policy officer at the Texas Association of Business, added, “A homegrown national exchange means more jobs, more investment, and more growth opportunities for businesses and communities across the Lone Star State.”

The launch follows extensive preparation, including federal approvals and industry testing. TXSE is entirely electronic but headquartered in Dallas. Corporate listings are anticipated later in 2026.

Market participants were advised to complete connectivity and testing ahead of the launch. Additional rollout details are available on the TXSE website.

The development aligns with Dallas’ continued growth as a financial center, attracting major institutions and elevating the region’s profile in national markets.

Businesses are in business to make money. They will gravitate to places where it is the least expensive to do business.

The Extra Cost Of Illegal Immigration

On Sunday (updated Monday), Just the News posted an article about a paper written by the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas about the impact of illegal immigration on employment and housing costs.

The article reports:

A new Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas working paper estimates the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration boosted employment while causing 30% of home price increases and 20% of rent increases.

The paper combined immigration court records with government administrative data to create the first ever calculation of how a wave of 7 million illegal immigrants from 2021 through 2024 affected local labor and housing markets.

“From early 2021 to early 2024, the U.S. experienced an unprecedented boom in unauthorized immigration, followed by a rapid slowdown beginning in mid-2024. We provide the first systematic empirical assessment of the labor- and housing-market effects of this episode,” the working paper said.

“The total weighted-mean increases in house prices and rents over this period were 22.4% and 22.6%, respectively. Putting these together, for the average MSA, UIWF can explain approximately 30% of the total increase in house prices and 20% of the total increase in rents,” it added.

You can read the full paper here. 

Their conclusions make sense–it’s an illustration of the law of supply and demand. As more people come into the country, the demand for housing increases faster than the supply, and the cost of housing increases.

Working To Bring Down The Cost Of Energy For Americans

On Sunday, The Independent Journal Review (IJR) posted an article about the changes the Trump administration is making to the offshore wind projects started by President Biden.

The article reports:

The Trump administration’s systematic dismantling of Joe Biden’s offshore wind dreams continued on Monday.

The Department of Interior (DOI) announced an agreement with Duke Energy in which the company agrees to cancel its plans for a huge wind project offshore North Carolina — adjacent to the Carolina Long Bay area — in exchange for a payment of $129 million.

Despite claims from critics that the payment amounts to the administration bribing Duke to cancel its project, the truth is that the funds represent a partial reimbursement of the company’s lease costs consistent with federal statutes and regulations. The good news for North Carolina is the way Duke plans to reinvest the funds.

“This settlement allows Duke Energy to refocus $129 million in ways that directly benefit our customers and communities in the Carolinas,” said Kodwo Ghartey-Tagoe, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Duke Energy Carolinas. “Under the agreement, Duke Energy will reinvest nearly $129 million in additional generating capacity, which may include advancing new nuclear and natural gas generation, and grid enhancements to strengthen reliability, support continued growth in the Carolinas and keep costs as low as possible.”

So, rather than saddling ratepayers with higher bills which invariably result from subsidy deals between state governments and offshore wind farms, Duke plans to target its funds to new, 24/7 baseload capacity. Those hardest hit will be the craven public officials who had hoped to signal their green virtues related to the wind fiasco.

The article notes:

The settlement with Duke Energy is the latest in a series of similar deals between the Interior Department and offshore developers. Since early 2026, the DOI has executed multiple similar deals to unwind early-stage offshore wind leases, redirecting capital toward reliable energy sources as part of the Energy Dominance agenda. These deals provide partial reimbursements for lease payments while encouraging companies to invest in natural gas, nuclear, oil, LNG, or geothermal projects.

Green energy has never been about the environment. In 2010 I posted an article about the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) running out of money after the Democrats in Congress could not pass their cap and trade legislation. A number of high-profile Democrats were the ones who lost money when the CCX folded.

Fixing A Mistake

I am not a soccer fan, but I have watched some of the World Cup and marveled at the athletic ability of the players. Soccer seems to have the attention of the world, and it has been fun to watch the European fans and their adventures in America.

On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about the reversal of a red flag card that was given to a member of the United States soccer team.

The article reports:

In a shocking reversal with mammoth implications for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s (USMNT) chances of advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2026 World Cup, FIFA has rescinded the red card given this week to star U.S. striker Folarin Balogun, making him eligible to play against Monday night in the U.S. men’s Round of 16 game against Belgium.

Balogun, who plays his club ball for Arsenal in the English Premier League, scored the game-winning goal for the USMNT against Bosnia and Herzegovina, but was shown a red card later in the match on a highly controversial play in which he inadvertently stepped on the ankle of a Bosnia and Herzegovina player.

The referee, Brazilian Rafael Claus, conducted a VAR review of the play, which did not even draw a yellow card during live action. While the announcers debated whether the play was even serious enough to review at all, Claus emerged from the VAR viewing area after a lengthy review and shocked the thousands in attendance and better than 30 million watching from home, by showing Balogun a straight red card.

Under FIFA rules, a player shown a red card is not only disqualified from the remainder of the current match but is also ineligible for the next game.

The article includes a video of the play involved. It appears to be simply a collision between two intense players trying to get the ball. Balogun is an important player for the United States team, and I am glad that the officials reviewed the film and changed their minds.

How A Rent Freeze Impacts The Availability Of Apartments

On Sunday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about the impact the decision of the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) in New York City to set the annual rent adjustment for rent-stabilized apartments at 0% for both one-year and two-year lease renewals commencing October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027.

The article reports:

Six of the nine board members were appointed by Mamdani before the vote. Owner representative Christina Smyth resigned hours before the final vote, calling the process predetermined. The lone dissent came from Arpit Gupta, a holdover appointee from former Mayor Eric Adams.

So what will be the impact?

The article explains:

A rent freeze does not simply cap future increases. It widens the gap between what a rent-stabilized unit can legally charge and what it could command on the open market.

As that gap grows, a landlord’s financial incentive shifts away from continuing to rent the unit and toward selling it to an owner-occupant, converting it to a condominium, combining units, or leaving it vacant rather than re-renting it at below-market rates. Each of these outcomes effectively removes the apartment from the rental market, even though the building itself remains.

A tenant paying far below market rent has little financial incentive to leave, so a unit can stop circulating in the rental market while remaining continuously occupied. This “lock-in” effect is among the most consistently documented findings in rent control research.

Stanford economist Rebecca Diamond, with Tim McQuade and Franklin Qian, studied San Francisco’s 1994 rent control expansion using a natural experiment involving near-identical buildings split by a construction-date cutoff. They found that landlords reduced the rental housing supply by 15%, chiefly by selling units to owner-occupants and redeveloping buildings. The same study found that rent control increased renters’ likelihood of staying at the same address by nearly 20%, reduced citywide renter mobility by 20%, and drove a 5.1% citywide rent increase as the lost supply pushed up market rents. A companion paper found the supply reduction was greater among corporate landlords, which have greater access to capital and can more easily exit the rental market.

The free market is always the best way to provide any product to consumers. Landlords do not own buildings just to own buildings–their aim is to make a profit. When the free market determines the cost of something, eventually the cost settles to a point where both the consumer and the seller are rewarded.

I Thought Planned Parenthood Was Defunded

On Thursday, The Daily Wire posted an article about a provision in the Big Beautiful Bill that many Americans were unaware of.

The article reports:

Last summer, Congress included a one-year “defund” provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law blocked Medicaid payments to certain abortion organizations for “the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment” of the law, July 4, 2025. Simply put,  Planned Parenthood and similar organizations were cut off from federal Medicaid reimbursement for one year. That year is coming to an end.

Some Republican lawmakers apparently think this is a difficult political question. It is not.

The whispered argument in Washington, D.C., is familiar: It is the summer of an election year. Do we really want ads saying, “Congressman X defunded Planned Parenthood”? Won’t Democrats accuse Republicans of taking away women’s health care? Won’t Planned Parenthood spend millions telling voters Republicans are extremists?

Of course they will. That is the point. The attack ads are coming either way.

Why were we funding Planned Parenthood to begin with? Might it have something to do with the donations their Political Action Committees make to Congressional candidates?

The article concludes:

For pro-life voters, defunding Planned Parenthood is not the ceiling. It is the floor. It is the least a Republican Congress can do. Many of these voters have accepted that change is hard and comes slowly. They have accepted imperfect bills, narrow margins, Senate rules, court fights, and half measures dressed up as strategy. But asking them to accept nearly a billion taxpayer dollars flowing back to the abortion industry, after Republicans had already stopped it for a year, is a different thing.

Republicans should not fund their opposition.

The ads are coming. The accusations are coming. The headlines are coming. Let’s at least reap the reward while bearing the cost.

Defund Planned Parenthood and defend that defunding without flinching. Better to be attacked for taking the hill than mocked by your own voters for abandoning it.

It’s time Republicans started acting like Republicans.

This Is How The Story Always Goes

On Friday, Zero Hedge posted an article about a recent statement by Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA).

The article reports:

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) – fresh off endorsing California’s November ballot measure to seize 5% of billionaire wealth – published a Substack essay Wednesday titled, no really, “Why I Support a Billionaire Wealth Tax.”

He makes it roughly a dozen paragraphs before explaining that it isn’t one.

“The tax should not stop at billionaires, it must reach centimillionaires,” Khanna writes, before spelling out exactly what that means: every fortune of $50 million and up, hit with a 2% federal levy on wealth above that line – every year, forever, on top of everything else you already pay. The vehicle is Elizabeth Warren’s Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, which Khanna notes he has cosponsored every single year it’s been introduced.

And before anyone reaches for the estate planner: Khanna wants the levy to pierce irrevocable trusts, with the tax billed to the grantor who set them up – because parking a fortune in a trust, in his telling, shouldn’t take it off the government’s books.

Former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky summed up the reveal in eight words: “Just like that, no longer a billionaires tax.”

The article provides some insight into the recent history of wealth taxes:

The measure headed to California voters in November is a one-time 5% tax on the state’s roughly 250 billionaires. Newsom, opposing it, countered on June 26 with a national “billionaires’ tax” – which, in its original form, applied to anyone worth $100 million or more, language that was quietly scrubbed after multiple outlets quoted it as we reported. Six days later, Khanna planted the flag at $50 million.

None of this is exactly new, of course. The Warren bill has carried the $50 million line since she rolled it out in 2019, and Biden’s 2022 “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” kicked in at $100 million households. The branding always says billionaire, but the fine print ios a slippery slope.

Then there’s inflation… The bill’s $50 million threshold is a flat statutory number that hasn’t moved since 2019 – meaning inflation has already quietly cut the real threshold by more than a fifth. The creep shows up in the sponsors’ own math: when the bill debuted, backers said it touched the top 0.05% of American households; the 2026 reintroduction, per the same Saez-Zucman analysis the sponsors tout, now reaches 260,000 households – the top 0.15%. Same words, triple the coverage, five years. Asset inflation does the broadening automatically. Congress just has to sit still.

When the Income Tax began in 1913, it was only supposed to apply to the top 1 or 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans. We see how that worked out.

Where Some Of Our Tax Money Has Gone

On Saturday, Townhall posted an article about a recent federal court case in Central Islip, New York.

The article reports:

Two people were indicted earlier this week in federal court in Central Islip on charges of committing healthcare fraud and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. 

Saad Aziz, 52, of New York, and Zabed Chowdhury, aka “Jared,” 49, of Lake Ronkonkoma, New York, were charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay healthcare kickbacks, paying health care kickbacks, and money laundering conspiracy.  

The defendants allegedly offered and paid healthcare kickbacks and submitted fraudulent claims to Medicaid for ambulette services to medical appointments that were not performed, or the costs were artificially inflated.  

The defendants were previously charged by complaint and will be arraigned at a later date.

The article notes:

The defendants also systematically inflated their Medicaid reimbursements.  Although numerous addiction treatment centers on Long Island were available to beneficiaries, the defendants directed beneficiaries to request transportation to addiction treatment centers in New York City and to provide false pickup or drop-off addresses so they could bill Medicaid for longer, more expensive trips.  Through this scheme, the defendants submitted more than $18 million in claims for rides exceeding 75 miles and, overall, fraudulently billed Medicaid more than $35 million.

…If convicted of the charges, the defendants each face up to 20 years in prison, and restitution and forfeiture of at least $35 million, including several real properties and 15 bank accounts.

The article concludes:

The government’s case is being handled by the Criminal Section of the Office’s Long Island Division.  Assistant United States Attorney Adam R. Toporovsky is in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Janelle Robinson.  Assistant United States Attorney Madeline O’Connor of the Office’s Asset Forfeiture Section is handling forfeiture matters.

On April 7, 2026, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division). The Fraud Division is focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people.

How much taxpayer money could be saved by better oversight of benefit spending?

Freddie Goes To The White House

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the posts of the Europeans visiting America for the World Cup Soccer matches. Their impressions of America and their comments about what they saw on the news about America vs. what America actually is like were very interesting. One of the people who posted his journey on X was a German named Freddie. Unfortunately, Freddie de-activated his X account. He posted at Instagram to explain why:

“Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know why I deactivated my account,” he wrote. “1. This was the plan all along even before we started the World Cup trip. 2. Too many people seem to have a problem with us having a genuinely good time here in the country, and this is ruining the fun a bit for us because we really just wanted to document our road-trip and never expected that people would have a problem with it.”

But the story has a happy ending!

On Thursday, Townhall reported:

Even though Leftist trolls forced Freddy, the German World Cup tourist, to delete his X account, our favorite football fan is still enjoying his time in America. This is a great way to show him the best of America, despite the social media trouble.

Special Presidential Envoy Nick Adams shared the news and a statement on X.

Here’s what the statement says:

I arranged a visit to the White House for Freddy, the viral FIFA World Cup tourist from Germany, to cap off what has been an epic FIFA World Cup visit to the United States.

Despite the hateful and angry radical Left’s vicious attempts to doxx Freddy, launch personal attacks, and intimidate him into submission, ultimately forcing him to delete his social media accounts to protect his peace and safety, the West Wing visit will still take place.

Freddy’s only ‘crime’ was loving America and documenting his travels in a completely non-partisan way. This is what they do. They try to scare and silence anyone who doesn’t conform.

As the Special Presidential Envoy for Tourism, I am proud that Freddy enjoyed his trip here. I refused to let the radical Left turn something positive for our country into another victory for their politics of hate.

In the true spirit of 250, I lifted Freddy up and made sure their mob tactics would not win. The visit will go ahead as planned.

America remains open for business and open to visitors who simply want to experience the greatest country on Earth. We will never let the mob dictate who gets to enjoy it.

This is the spirit of America!

Rules For Radicals

Saul Alinsky wrote RULES FOR RADICALS in 1971. It serves as a guide book for community organizers and people organizing protests. The book is generally associated with left-wing political activity. Two of the rules for radicals are”

  • “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
  • “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”

It is remotely possible that some on the political right have decided to follow some of the suggestions in the book.

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported:

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) shared that he would reintroduce former Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) “exact bill” that would not only eliminate birthright citizenship for the children of illegal migrants, but also clarify who can receive birthright citizenship.

In a post on X, Moreno responded to another post from Fox News’s Bill Melugin, who shared that in 1993, Reid had introduced the Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993. Moreno stated that they would “see how today’s DC Democrats will vote when offered the ideas of the Democrat party that used to love” the U.S.

“I will reintroduce this exact bill when I return to DC,” Moreno said. “Let’s see how today’s DC Democrats will vote when offered the ideas of the Democrat party that used to love this country and the American people!”

It’s interesting that the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in 1993 and Bill Clinton was President. According to Congress.gov, on 08/16/1993, the bill was referred to Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs. It died in committee. I wonder why the bill did not pass.

It will be interesting to see how the Democrats in the current Congress react to the re-introduction of this bill.

Your Gas Stove May Be Safe (But Not Totally In New York State)

On Wednesday, Yahoo News reported:

(The Center Square) — New York could be moving ahead with a first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings after a federal appeals court rejected a challenge from industry groups.

The ruling issued Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit rejected a lawsuit by natural gas industry groups challenging a provision of New York’s All-Electric Buildings Act, which would ban gas hookups in new buildings under seven stories, among other restrictions.

A coalition of construction and trade groups sued to block the 2023 law, saying it conflicts with federal law under the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act and would drive up costs for businesses and energy consumers.

But the appeals court upheld lower court rulings that had determined federal law “does not preempt ” the state’s regulations on natural gas hook ups, and on Tuesday dismissed the industry lawsuit.

It’s gets interesting when the Federal Government steps in.

On Thursday, Legal Insurrection reported:

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced his department wants to eliminate the stupid appliance mandates.

“U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced the Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to permanently end home appliance and equipment mandates that raise costs and disrupt consumer choice,” according to a press release. “The proposal will update the Department’s Process Rule used to establish energy conservation standards for household appliances and equipment, including air conditioning units, gas stoves, washing and drying machines, water heaters, refrigerators, and other products Americans rely on every day.”

FOX News was the first to report the move.

“In America, you should be able to choose a dryer that dries clothes on the first try rather than one that takes multiple cycles—unfortunately, past administrations thought otherwise,” Secretary Wright said. “For too long, the American people paid the price for mandates that restricted consumer choice and drove up costs. President Trump promised to end this nonsense and that is exactly what we are doing.”

I am so tired of low-pressure shower heads. I take longer to do the dishes, even rinsing them, due to my new kitchen faucet. Don’t even get me started on toilets, especially when you’re sick.

So while New York State is limiting gas stoves, the U.S. Secretary of Energy is working toward appliance freedom for Americans. And we wonder why people are leaving New York! I would love to go back to having a dishwasher that finishes in an hour.

Cruising Along

The Trump economy is cruising along. According to an article posted at Just the News on Thursday,  the unemployment rate for June was 4.2%, and the economy added 57K jobs. The workforce participation rate dropped slightly from 6.18 to 6.15 percent.

The article reports:

Economists predicted the June unemployment rate would be 4.3% and that the economy would add 115K jobs, according to CNBC.

So we are slightly better on unemployment, but we need to add more jobs. I suspect that if crude oil prices remain at $70 per barrel or lower and inflation decreases (which it will as oil prices fall), we will see more jobs created and less unemployment. Right now the situation is very fluid, and I think a lot of employers are simply waiting for things to settle out.

 

 

I Don’t Think I Would Go Swimming With This Guy

On Monday, Science Alert posted an article about some recent calculations as to the size of the Megalodon shark. I don’t think it would have been a good idea to go swimming with this guy!

The article reports:

In 1978, a wonder emerged from the crumbling earth of the Gram Clay Pits in Denmark.

Paleontologists were stunned when they unearthed about 20 vertebrae from a single megalodon, including one that, at 23 centimeters (9 inches) across, was larger than any megalodon vertebra ever found, before or since.

That vertebra became the foundation for maximum size estimates of the giant shark (Otodus megalodon), suggesting a huge monster that terrorized Neogene seas.

Then, disaster struck.

In 1989, while being moved from one storage facility to another, the specimen was severely damaged and was thought lost.

It turned up again after vertebrate paleontologist and curator Bent Erik Kramer Lindow of the Natural History Museum of Denmark noticed a box of jumbled remnants and realized that he was looking at some of the missing fossils.

The article notes:

Although it lived for only around 20 million years, from around 23 million to around 3.6 million years ago, megalodon is one of the most beloved predators of the ancient world.

Part of the reason for that is its estimated size – up to 24.3 meters (80 feet), about two standard city buses.

But figuring out what megalodon looked like and how big it was is a game of educated guesses.

Because sharks have cartilaginous skeletons, they don’t leave many fossils behind; for megalodon, all that remains are mostly teeth, with occasional vertebrae, made of dense, calcified cartilage that can withstand fossilization.

Scientists can look at partial megalodon spinal columns – the most complete to date contained 141 vertebrae – and compare them with those of modern sharks to gauge how large the ancient predator may have been.

The article concludes:

This discovery offers insight into how these giant predators lived – especially at their most intimidating sizes, suggesting that the biggest megalodons may even have hunted large sharks.

Megalodon has long departed from our oceans and left many mysteries in its wake. But the answers to some of those mysteries may be awaiting discovery right under our noses.

“Museum collections are mightily important for science, and many of my past discoveries are based on museum specimens that were collected many years ago,” Shimada told ScienceAlert.

“So, I am quite certain that there are many other historically known and unknown specimens still waiting for scientists to discover something new and exciting.”

The research has been published in Palaeontologia Electronica.

Wow. I can’t even imagine a shark this size.

When The Sentence Doesn’t Fit The Crime

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the sentencing of Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, who at the time of his crime worked as a professor at Moorpark College in California.

The article reports:

A California college professor who admitted to killing an elderly demonstrator with a megaphone will spend about a year in county jail, far less than the prison term prosecutors sought.

A judge sentenced Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, 53, to one year in Ventura County Jail plus two years of felony probation, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office (VCDAO) announced June 30. He had pleaded guilty in May to felony involuntary manslaughter as well as felony battery causing serious bodily injury in the 2023 death of 69-year-old Paul Kessler. Alnaji further admitted that he personally caused great bodily harm and confessed to the two aggravating factors of his use of a weapon and the vulnerability of his victim, according to the DA’s office. Alnaji worked as a professor at Moorpark College at the time of the incident, KTLA5 reported.

The killing traces back to November 2023, when rival protesters gathered around a month after the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, the outlet reported. Kessler stood with the pro-Israel group while Alnaji was with the pro-Palestinian protesters. Prosecutors said a verbal dispute between Alnaji and Kessler turned physical and Alnaji brought the megaphone down on Kessler’s head. The 69-year-old dropped to the pavement and struck his head, and Alnaji did not flee, according to the DA’s office. He dialed 911 and talked to investigators. Kessler died from his injuries, and deputies arrested Alnaji days afterward, according to the VCDAO.

I suppose it is nice that Alnaji did not flee the scene; however, he hit a man over the head and the man died as a result of that blow. I don’t think a one-year sentence is appropriate. I wonder if the sentence would have been different if he had accidentally killed the man under other circumstances. I can’t help but believe that there is some serious politics involved in this sentence.

The article concludes:

District Attorney Erik Nasarenko responded to the sentence. “Mr. Kessler lost his life in a violent attack that took him from his family and his wife of 43 years,” he said. “Given the circumstances of this case and the death that resulted, we believe a state prison commitment was the appropriate and just sentence.”

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Derek Malan handed Alnaji the deal, The Forward reported. A trial had loomed just days away, with Alnaji facing up to four years behind bars. His lawyer, Ron Bamieh, told the Ventura County Star that Malan saw the case as “two old guys had a dispute and an accident happened.”

Jewish advocacy groups took aim at the sentencing. “It exposes major flaws in the criminal justice system that need to be addressed,” Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told the Jewish News Syndicate, saying prosecutors did not pursue a hate crime charge.

The outlet identified Kessler as Jewish. Moorpark College placed Alnaji on administrative leave after officials took him into custody and he subsequently bailed himself out, according to the Forward.

Virginia Voters Are Paying A Price For Their Votes

When Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger ran for Governor, she ran as a moderate. She has not governed as a moderate, and Virginia voters who supported her are being hit in the pocketbook.

On Tuesday, The Daily Signal reported:

As July begins, Virginians brace for higher gas taxes, hoping that the $68 price of a barrel of crude oil will start to bring the price at the pump back down. However, they will very soon be hit with a 7% increase in their electric bills.

Iran? No. Trump tariffs? No.

This is because, as Gov. Abigail Spanberger promised the lords of the Green Energy Cabal, Virginia has reentered the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. This is the classic cap-and-trade scheme with a cool new, hip name.

Not a week passed after she announced the reentry into the initiative before Dominion filed with the State Corporation Commission for rate increases to cover the fees they will have to pay to the overseeing body for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

You have to pay for credits if you use more than your allotment of carbon credits to generate your electricity. You buy them from members who don’t, and if there aren’t any to buy, the money just goes into the initiative’s bank account for when someone does have credits to sell.

Under the heading of “win-win” for Spanberger, she can blame all that electric use on data centers, not former Gov. Ralph Northam’s economic suicide pact with California called “Green Virginia 2030,” which already had Dominion take two power plants offline and turn Virginia into the largest importer of electricity in the USA. (Thus, that controversial “Valley Link” power line project.)

The article notes:

However, there is a commonwealth not far away that—to the surprise of many—pulled itself out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. That commonwealth is Pennsylvania. Similarities?

Sure, they have a Democrat governor; they even have a Democrat governor who fancies himself a contender for the presidential nomination in 2028. That’s where the similarities start to fade.

The article notes:

For good measure, Spanberger signed a law this year making it illegal to do what Youngkin did when he pulled out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Now there has to be legislation passed and signed by the governor to rescue us.

Elections have consequences.

Border Patrol Is Doing Its Job Well

On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about the success of the Border Patrol in keeping dangerous drugs off our streets.

The article reports:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at ports of entry in Texas have seized more than 9,000 pounds of methamphetamine with a street value of more than $80 million in just four incidents during the month of June. The thwarted cartel smuggling attempts occurred in Laredo, El Paso, and Pharr, Texas.

In two interdictions on the Juneteenth holiday, officers seized more than $72.3 million in methamphetamine as smugglers attempted to push through two south Texas ports of entry. The larger of the two seizures occurred on June 19 at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, when a CBP officer referred a 2011 Dodge Ram stake-bed truck purportedly hauling a shipment manifested as “polypropylene” for secondary inspection.

Officers deployed a canine team and used non-intrusive inspection technology to search the vehicle’s interior. The enhanced inspection and search of the stake-bed truck uncovered more than 7,000 pounds of methamphetamines valued at more than $63 million hidden within the commodity being brought into the country.

The second seizure occurred on the same day at Pharr International Bridge. In that incident, officers searched a tractor-trailer attempting to enter the United States from Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Officers referred the vehicle to a secondary inspection area where nonintrusive inspection equipment detected anomalies within the trailer.

The article concludes:

CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations Ray Provencio commented on the arrest and seizure of the narcotics, saying, “CBP officers use their experience and advanced technology to stay one step ahead of smugglers. Their dedication and vigilance play a critical role in protecting our communities from the dangers of illicit drugs.”

As exclusively reported by Breitbart Texas, nationwide narcotics seizures have increased in recent months as illegal alien apprehensions continue to remain below 10,000 per month along the southwest border. The reduction in illegal border crossings has allowed CBP officers and the U.S. Border Patrol to focus on enhanced counter-drug strategies.

Imagine how many lives could have been saved if this policy had been carried out consistently in recent years.

Let The Consequences Begin

The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision was awful. They interpreted a law to mean something it was never intended to mean and laid the foundation for bad things to happen to this country in the future. The birthright tourism from China will continue, and in less than a generation, America will suffer the consequences. However, on Tuesday The Conservative Treehouse posted an article with a few suggestions as to how to deal with the ruling.

The article suggests:

As a pragmatic and patriotic American I respectfully suggest and recommend the U.S. State Department immediately institute the “Roberts Requirement” following similar visa entry protocols previously used for COVID-19 tests prior to U.S. admittance.

The Roberts Requirement: Each female visa applicant must present a valid negative pregnancy test taken no longer than 10 days prior to travel to the United States.

The certified document, negative pregnancy test, together with all related visa approvals must be presented to Customs and Border Patrol at each port of entry. Failure disqualifies the traveler.

This is the same protocol as COVID-19, only using pregnancy status as the disqualifying health issue. It is a lawful regulation, born from a new standard established by the Supreme Court, that does not need congressional approval.

The article notes:

Start thinking like a person who realizes the goal is to create severe antagonism through regulation.  That antagonism can then be directed.

Aim isolation, ridicule and marginalization at those who created the problem.  This can be done without visible vitriol.

The objective is not just making sure pregnant women do not get visas; that is one small element. The bigger objective is to make it extremely difficult to come to the USA and THEN pin that global compliance requirement on Chief Justice John Roberts, making him live every day with the consequences of his blinded American stupidity; facing him, belittling him, ridiculing him, sitting on the front pages of his peers and global friends.

Chief Justice John Roberts created this mess, now put it on his doorstep every day.

But people will lie – doesn’t matter.

But people will create fake documents – doesn’t matter.

But people will still overstay their visas – doesn’t matter.

You are putting the emphasis on the wrong aspect.

The most important idea in the article:

Make every regulation specifically cited to the Supreme Court decision and make it exceptionally burdensome.

Make SCOTUS own the outcome.

I think the author has a great idea!

Actions Have Consequences

Prior to October 7, 2023, many Palestinians crossed into Israel to work. Jobs in Gaza were scarce and often depended on who you knew or who you gave money to, and work in Israel was available and paid well. Unfortunately, many of the people who worked alongside the Israelis before October 7th were the same people who attacked them on October 7th. Now the people in Gaza are complaining because Israel will no longer allow them to cross into Israel and work there.

On Tuesday, Hot Air reported:

From what little contact I have had with Palestinians in the United States, they can be entrepreneurial, hard-working, and decent enough people to be around.

Of course, these are generally Palestinians with the wit to leave the hellholes that the Palestinian leadership has created, and are also in jobs where a middle- to upper-middle-class guy like me is likely to meet them. So they are probably not representative.

But still, I can think of no inherent reason why, other than culture, that Palestinians in the Middle East are such a poisonously dangerous population, but there is not one Arab country that wants anything to do with them, and for good reasons. They destroy every place where they congregate.

Ask the Jordanians. The Lebanese. The Egyptians. The Palestinian “refugees” from the war have all wound up in European countries too stupid to defend themselves against any threat. They are stupid enough to take in Syrians, Pakistanis, and Afghans as well, and have lived to regret it.

Since the West Bank and Gaza are terrible places to do any business, largely because the “governing” bodies are horrifically corrupt and only interested in graft and jihad, Palestinians get work in Israel. Or did, until October 7th, when many of the people welcomed into Israel to work turned out to have been spies who helped develop the intelligence necessary to commit the atrocities of that day.

…Israel has always had this problem. On the one hand, they want the Palestinians in the formerly occupied territories to become more prosperous and less inclined to genocidal fantasies, and on the other hand, Palestinians as a group want to have their cake and eat it too.

They want to live well, and thus need to work outside the crapholes created by their leaders, but on the other hand, they are bloodthirsty and want to kill Jews.

After October 7th, Israel cut off access to the country for Palestinians, and now we are supposed to cry for the Palestinians who lost their jobs and blame Israel for not being interested in seeing its citizens raped, murdered, or blown up.

The article concludes:

When The New Yorker leads with a phrase like “justified in the name of security,” they are trying to say that the real cause is racism or prejudice, as if the fear of Palestinian terror is irrational.

That is absurd, of course. As many people have noted, proportionally the October 7th massacre was far more deadly than 9/11, so of course it has scarred the Israeli psyche. And, unlike the United States, Israel has lived with Palestinian terror for its entire existence as a country. To this day, its citizens contend with rocket attacks essentially daily.

The transnational elite-types are indifferent to that, of course. As we have seen over the past year or two, even New Yorkers have embraced Islamists in the name of “diversity,” and elected as Mayor a man who campaigned with an unindicted co-conspirator with the World Trade Center bombers, and speaks at mosques where they pray for “Death to America.”

Gad Saad calls the impulse to defend people who declare themselves enemies of our civilization “suicidal empathy,” and surely there is much truth in that diagnosis. But I think that only captures one variable; many supporters of Palestinians quite consciously want our civilization to fall. They approve of the violence as it is a necessary component to their larger agenda.

The AWFLs (affluent, white, female, liberal) may be besotted with “empathy,” but the Bolsheviks just want to destroy what they hate.

Actions have consequences.

The Supreme Court Made A Mistake

On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship. The Court declared birthright citizenship legal. That is not a good thing. It seriously weakens America’s sovereignty in the long run.

The article reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 on Tuesday to reject President Donald Trump’s reform of the nation’s birthright citizenship policy, which now grants the huge prize of citizenship to nearly all infants born in the United States, even if the parents are illegal migrants or temporary visitors.

…The decision forces Trump and pro-American politicians to step up border controls to exclude more migrants seeking to snatch citizenship slices from Americans. Democrats and business groups, however, will resist such controls because they favor migration.Alternatively, pro-American politicians and voters can try the near-impossible task of amending the Constitution via votes in a two-thirds majority of state legislatures.

The article concludes:

Millions of infants with no parental connection to the United States have gained citizenship via this route, much to the advantage of the Democratic Party, various business interests, as well as foreign governments, such as those of China and India.

Each such arrival has taken political power and civic clout from ordinary Americans, especially from Americans living in coastal cities or along the Texas border. Those births have helped shift political and cultural power leftward, often toward a direct rejection of Americans’ free-speaking, independent culture.

For example, Zohran Mamdani’s election victory in migrant-crowded New York is difficult to imagine without the loose policy of birthright citizenship.

According to AI, only 37 percent of New York City’s population is American-born. What is happening in New York City is a result of immigration policies that do not consider the welfare of American citizens.

ObamaCare Enrollment Drops

On June 29th, I posted an article about the amount of fraud in ObamaCare. It seems that there were more than a million people enrolled in Obamacare without Social Security numbers on file. That might be an indication of a fraud problem.

On Tuesday, The Epoch Times reported:

Obamacare enrollment declined by nearly 3 million in 2026, sparking renewed debate about the affordability of healthcare in America.

National politicians and policy experts disagreed on the reasons for the dip in enrollment, with some saying that it was driven by rising premiums. 

Others said the decline was evidence that program integrity measures taken by the Trump administration were successful in rooting out fraud and waste. 

The program grew significantly during the declared National Health Emergency from 2021 through 2024, when eligibility verification requirements were relaxed and participants were automatically reenrolled.

Enrollment peaked at 22.1 million last year and dropped to 19.2 million as of February, according to federal data released June 26.

Though that’s still higher than in any year except 2025, some analysts interpreted the decline as a massive loss of coverage resulting from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

…Others including Brian Blase, president of Paragon Health Institute, say that the changes mostly reverted to pre-pandemic coverage and policy rules, which had been an incentive for fraud. 

“Excessive subsidies and zero-premium plans created unusually strong incentives for improper enrollment, while weak verification systems, permissive enrollment pathways, and insufficient oversight allowed those incentives to be exploited at scale,” Blase wrote in a June analysis.

The Trump Administration has focused on program integrity, preventing about 2.9 million enrollees from receiving Obamacare subsidies that they didn’t qualify for, according to a statement from the assistant secretary for Health and Human Services.

The government estimates that 2.6 million fraudulent enrollments remain in the program, down from an estimated high of 5.6 million last year.

I have no problem helping people afford health insurance. However, we have seen in the past that anything the government touches loses money, It’s time to get the government out of medicine and let the free market in. The free market would open competition between health insurance providers and health providers. We need competition in both areas. It could be done in a way that would insure that Americans get the healthcare they need regardless of their financial situation.