This Is Too Funny: Satanists Put Up Plaque in MN Capitol Thanking Gov. Walz For Supporting Them

This Is Too Funny: Satanists Put Up Plaque in MN Capitol Thanking Gov. Walz For Supporting Them 1

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Two things up front: nobody is responsible for who supports them. Good people can have bad people support them for any number of reasons. Second: this is NOT A JOKE. It is both real and was intended seriously, although I admit the wording was probably tongue-in-cheek on the part of the Satanists. 

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You may recall last year’s controversy when the Minnesota Satanists put up a holiday display in the Minnesota Capitol because the state is required to be religiously neutral.

Them’s the rules, and you have to abide by the rules. And, to be clear, those rules are good and necessary, as any Catholic who remembers why “priest holes” once existed in England should know. 

 

Naturally, Governor Tim Walz, whose policies I genuinely believe are sometimes Satanic, had to approve all the religious displays in the Capitol, and he did so. Again, this was his responsibility, so as much as I dislike him I agree with my friend Harry Niska who appeared in the news story above that we just have to live with things like this in America. 

The Satanists, though, were grateful to Walz, and I suspect that any group so in love with demonic things like killing babies, chopping children’s genitals off, and indoctrinating kids into alphabet ideology would be for a lot of Walz’s policies. 

So they sought to get approval for a plaque to be displayed (temporarily) at the Capitol thanking him. As far as I know, THAT was not something Walz’s administration was required to allow. If he were there would be such plaques thanking government officials (or denouncing them) everywhere in the Capitol building. 

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Personally I LOVE the plaque, because for the first time the Satanists and I have found common ground. 

This Is Too Funny: Satanists Put Up Plaque in MN Capitol Thanking Gov. Walz For Supporting Them 2You HAVE to love that.

The plaque identifies the constituent group: Democratic Satanists. 

It also identifies why Walz is the bomb: helping spread “Satanism in the State Capitol Building.”

And finally it identifies Walz’s final reward: Satan has reserved a special place in Hell for Tim Walz.”

Short, straight to the point, and wholly accurate. Would that everything said and done at the Capitol met those requirements. 

Posted in Republican News

Trump Gives Public Schools 10-Days to Certify They Have Done Away with DEI

Trump Gives Public Schools 10-Days to Certify They Have Done Away with DEI 3

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Trump Gives Public Schools 10-Days to Certify They Have Done Away with DEI 4

The shrinking Department of Education just issues a notice to state leaders across the country reminding them that public schools are dependent on federal funds and those funds are dependent on compliance with civil rights law, specifically the elimination of DEI programs.

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As a condition for receiving federal money, the Trump administration is ordering K-12 schools to certify that they are following federal civil rights laws and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion practices…

“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. He said many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

The notice states the administration’s objections to DEI.

In Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (“SFFA v. Harvard”), 600 U.S. 181 (2023), the Supreme Court held that the race-based affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were illegal because they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (for state schools like North Carolina), as well as Title VI (for state and private schools that receive federal funding like Harvard). The Court explained that the Equal Protection Clause “represent[s] a foundational principle—the absolute equality of all citizens of the United States politically and civilly before their own laws.” Id. at 201 (internal quotation marks omitted). It “‘forbids discrimination by the General Government, or by the States, against any citizen because of his race.’” Id. at 205 (alterations omitted; quoting Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 499 (1954)). Put simply, the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI prohibit race-based action, with only the narrowest of exceptions…

Given the text of Title VI and the assurances you have already given, any violation of Title VI—including the use of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (“DEI”) programs to advantage one’s race over another—is impermissible. The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law.

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If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because the Trump administration issued a very similar letter back in February.

The response to that earlier letter was a mixed bag. There were reports that some states were scrambling to eliminate mentions of DEI while others were flatly refusing to comply. Now it appears the Trump Education Department has decided to give this a second try. States have 10 days to certify compliance, which means those that refuse could see some major funding cuts.

The memo included a certification letter that state and local school officials must sign and return to the department within 10 days, even as the administration has struggled to define which programs would violate its interpretation of civil rights laws…

Programs aimed at recognizing historical events and contributions and promoting awareness would not violate the law “so long as they do not engage in racial exclusion or discrimination,” the department wrote.

“However, schools must consider whether any school programming discourages members of all races from attending, either by excluding or discouraging students of a particular race or races, or by creating hostile environments based on race for students who do participate,” the Education Department said.

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Federal money is only a fraction of the total money spent on schools but it still amounts to billions of dollars per year for some states. Cutting those funds would result in severe problems and the need for layoffs or closing schools. 

Back in February, some states might have concluded Trump would never do anything even if they refused to comply. But after the cuts at Columbia and other universities, they may see it differently. In short, the states have a lot of reasons to comply with this rather than attempt to resist it.

Posted in Republican News

Geez, Man. Even Tech Blogs Are Lying Because They Are Too Political

Geez, Man. Even Tech Blogs Are Lying Because They Are Too Political 5

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Geez, Man. Even Tech Blogs Are Lying Because They Are Too Political 6

You would think that geeks would spend their time and effort on geeking out. 

But when it comes to Trump Derangement Syndrome, even the geeks get distracted by their need to virtue signal, get political, and spin things. 

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I used to read a lot of tech blogs, but over the past few years I have cut more and more of them out of my regular reading rotation. The first reason was that I would go to read up on the latest neat stuff and suddenly be treated to glowing reviews of sex toys and masturbation aids, and I was afraid that soon enough, I would be given top 10 lists of tentacle porn videos. 

After seeing 5 think pieces on “teledildonics,” I gave up. It was too gross, and now even The Wirecutter is featuring reviews of these fine instruments of pleasure. Imagine the reviewers. 

Make it stop, please. 

But I still get tempted by stories about actual geeky things, so I stupidly followed a link to a story on just how desperate the situation was on the Boeing Starliner was on its trip to the ISS. Perfect fodder for my curiosity. 

There are, indeed, many fascinating details about the trip, but the author couldn’t stop there. He just HAD to call Trump a liar, misrepresent what the astronauts said, and get his digs in at Republicans because…well, just because. 

A story that should have been an expose of the Starliner, a human interest story about astronauts nearly killed by their spacecraft, and insights into what being stranded in space was like instead just had to include unnecessary and largely dishonest swipes at Trump because the author has monomania. 

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Damn. Can I not read about space without TDS showing up?

On Monday, for the first time since they returned to Earth on a Crew Dragon vehicle two weeks ago, Wilmore and Williams participated in a news conference at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Afterward, they spent hours conducting short, 10-minute interviews with reporters from around the world, describing their mission. I spoke with both of them.

Many of the questions concerned the politically messy end of the mission, in which the Trump White House claimed it had rescued the astronauts after they were stranded by the Biden administration. This was not true, but it is also not a question that active astronauts are going to answer. They have too much respect for the agency and the White House that appoints its leadership. They are trained not to speak out of school. As Wilmore said repeatedly on Monday, “I can’t speak to any of that. Nor would I.”

It was true, though. We know that. 

Biden left the astronauts up in space to prevent the image of Elon Musk rescuing them from being seen before the 2024 elections. This isn’t in dispute any longer, but that hurts the Narrative™. 

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As proof that he is right, the author, Eric Berger, points to an earlier article he wrote about the astronauts NOT being stranded in space. And it, too, shades the truth for political reasons. 

For those of us who have closely followed the story of Wilmore and Williams over the last nine months—and Ars Technica has had its share of exclusive stories about this long and strange saga—the final weeks before the landing have seen it take a disturbing turn.

In February, President Trump and the chief executive of SpaceX, Elon Musk, began to say that the two astronauts were “stranded” in space because the Biden administration did not want to bring them home. “They got left in space,” Trump said.

“They were left up there for political reasons,” Musk concluded.

Just what those political reasons were was never specified. But the basic message was clear: Biden, bad; Trump, good.

The reality is that NASA set a plan for the return of Wilmore and Williams last August. The spacecraft that brought them back to Earth on Tuesday safely docked to the space station in September. They could have come home at any time since. NASA—not the Biden administration, which all of my reporting indicates was not involved in any decision-making—decided the best and safest option was to keep Wilmore and Williams in orbit until early this year. Musk knew this plan. He had to sign off on it. Senior NASA officials earlier this month confirmed, publicly and on the record, that the decision was made by the space agency in the best interests of the International Space Station Program. Not for political reasons.

And still, the lies came.

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Hmm. What would you call that quote from the article? Hmmm. Let me think. 

A lie. A bald-face lie. Don’t trust me. Trust the astronauts that Berger claimed never spoke to the issue. Again:

Eric Berger may come up with some complicated bull excrement to claim that his version of the story is right and everybody else, including the very people involved, are all lying, but Occam’s Razor says that he is a lying dog-faced pony soldier who just hates Donald Trump. 

In Berger’s words, that’s why we can’t have nice things. 

Suni and Butch have gushed over Trump and Musk, but Berger would have you know that all their positive comments are not real, and that Trump is an Orange meanie who is ruining the world, and Elon–the man who got them down when Boeing could not–is South African Hitler. 

To be clear, I don’t care what Berger’s politics are. He can spend all his time raging about Donald Trump for all I care, and if he wants to write for The Nation I wish him well. 

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But I went to Ars Technica to read about Boeing’s failures, the near-death experience faced by our astronauts, and instead got a rant filled with lies and half-truths because Berger can’t think straight in a world where Joe Biden can’t be a sharp-as-a-tack president. 

I long for the days when my big frustration was the sex toy reviews. 

Posted in Republican News

Cory Booker Beclowned Himself, And Frank Luntz Loved It

Cory Booker Beclowned Himself, And Frank Luntz Loved It 7

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Cory Booker Beclowned Himself, And Frank Luntz Loved It 8

Duane wrote about Corey Booker’s marathon filibuster of no particular thing yesterday, and he had a blast doing it. 

Actually, you shouldn’t call his speechifying a “marathon” because even not-so-great marathoners generally finish in under 8 hours, and Booker spent three times as long on the Senate floor talking and talking and TALKING. 

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The spectacle was so riveting that it was carried live on cable…admittedly, it was CSPAN, which always carries House and Senate floor sessions…but at least it went out to a bunch of homes in America. Reruns of Norman Lear’s long-forgotten 1970s sitcom “McGurk: A Dog’s Life” might have gotten better ratings, but I am reliably informed that some poor schmuck had to watch the whole thing to harvest clips for X and various news stations. 

Frank Luntz, at least, was totally impressed and apparently found some “ordinary voters” who were as well. He believes that Cory Booker may have made more history than becoming a footnote for setting a record for the ongestf time spent without urinating. 

World history changed yesterday, perhaps around 3 a.m. when some insomniac tried to anesthetize himself by watching Booker blather. Booker, unlike his colleagues, DID SOMETHING, unlike his colleagues–and Democrats want something done to stop Trump. 

What exactly Booker did that every other Democrat isn’t doing is not quite clear. Every single one of them is screaming like their hair is on fire about Trump and Elon Musk–to the point that they are egging on violent protesters to burn up Teslas and attack older women who are doing nothing more than driving to the grocery store in the “wrong” car. 

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But Booker did it LONGER! And as we all know, more is better, even if the more is a big bottle of dirty fry oil that sat too long in the fryer, accumulating all sorts of nasties. 

A new meme has taken off in Republican circles, and I think it is apt. Activist Democrats are theater kids who never quite grew up. They see life as a performance, so nothing warms the cockles of their heart quite like soliloquies and interpretive dances. Seriously, Democrats do interpretive dances to make political points all the time. 

Given this love of performance without consequences, it is quite possible that Booker could rise to the top of the pile in the United States Senate. Perhaps his colleagues and ordinary Democrats prefer the facial expressions and gestures that Booker makes to those of Senator Chuck Schumer. 

Honestly, so do I. Schumer is a terrible actor, while Cory “Spartacus” Booker is actually very good at creating an image of himself as being a President-in-Waiting. He had people convinced that he was something of a superhero saving people, catapulting himself into the Senate with stories of bravery that turned out to be something not quite as impressive as portrayed. 

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Think of him as the Steven Seagal of action heroes. Third tier, but the Democrats are so starved for talent that they think Pete Buttigieg is the paragon of intellect and Tim Walz is about as masculine as they can muster. 

I think back to 2019, when all the best commentators thought Kamala Harris was the apex predator of the Democrat presidential field, or 2015, when Donald Trump was a joke candidate in their eyes. 

It’s not impossible that Cory Booker could one day be president. Anything is possible. 

But if so, the die was not cast on April Fool’s Day in 2025.

Posted in Republican News

Female Fencer Refuses to Compete Against Trans Opponent, Gets Ejected

Female Fencer Refuses to Compete Against Trans Opponent, Gets Ejected 9

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Female Fencer Refuses to Compete Against Trans Opponent, Gets Ejected 10

This happened last weekend at the University of Maryland. A female fencer named Stephanie Turner chose not to compete against a trans woman named Redmond Sullivan at an event called the Cherry Blossom Open. As the match began, Turner took a knee and removed her mask. For this she was given a “black card” and ejected from the competition. Here’s the video.

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In an interview with the Daily Wire, Turner described what was said in that moment.

“Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing,” Turner recalled. “So when I took the knee, I looked at the ref and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual.’”

“Redmond didn’t hear me, and he comes up to me, and he thinks that I may be hurt, or he doesn’t understand what’s happening. He asks, ‘Are you okay?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you,’” she continued.

“Redmond says to me, ‘Well you know, there is a member on the board of directors here who supports me, and there is a policy that acknowledges me as a woman, so I am allowed to fence, and you will get black-carded,’ and I said, ‘I know.’”

Tennis star Martina Navratilova has been an outspoken defender of women’s sports and lashed out at governing body which allowed this to happen. “How dare you throw women under the gender bulls**t bus!!!” she wrote.

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JK Rowling also weighed in.

Schools that were involved in this competition should think about whether it’s worth it.

Incredibly, USA Fencing claimed that the treatment of Stephanie Turner was because she had violated rules which, I kid you not, were there to ensure fair competition.

“In the case of Stephanie Turner, her disqualification was not related to any personal statement but was merely the direct result of her decision to decline to fence an eligible opponent, which the FIE rules clearly prohibit,” the spokesperson said.

“According to the FIE (International Fencing Federation) Technical Rules, specifically Article t.113, a fencer is not permitted to refuse to fence another properly entered fencer for any reason. Under these rules, such a refusal results in disqualification and the corresponding sanctions. This policy exists to maintain fair competition standards and preserve the sport’s integrity.”

Ensuring fair competition is a good goal. Maybe they should focus on that a bit more. USA Fencing did acknowledge that things are changing but for now it sounds like they are sticking with this dumb policy.

“We understand that the conversation on equity and inclusion pertaining to transgender participation in sport is evolving. USA Fencing will always err on the side of inclusion, and we’re committed to amending the policy as more relevant evidence-based research emerges, or as policy changes take effect in the wider Olympic & Paralympic movement.”

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Finally, it seems the experience of being expected to compete against males has changed Stephanie Turner. She is a longtime Democrat, but no longer. She now identifies as a conservative Republican.

“I voted red down the ticket this year,” Turner said. “It was like waking up to the lies of the mainstream media… Just to watch so many of my friends have this glassy-eyed look while just defending this policy because their brains can not manage the possibility that their party or their position has been wrong on this, and perhaps this isn’t a civil rights movement, and they have been misled.”

Democrats are going to keep losing voters over this until they follow Gavin Newsom’s lead and admit this is unfair.

Posted in Republican News

BREAKING NEWS: Elon Musk Is Doing Exactly What He Said He Would And We Are SHOCKED!

BREAKING NEWS: Elon Musk Is Doing Exactly What He Said He Would And We Are SHOCKED! 11

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BREAKING NEWS: Elon Musk Is Doing Exactly What He Said He Would And We Are SHOCKED! 12

Did you hear? A temporary government employee whose legally limited term of employment is 130 days is going to leave government employment after 140 days?!

Shocking, I know. Somebody in the government is going to obey the law, which explains why the news media is printing screaming headlines that Elon Musk is leaving government employment. 

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Donald Trump and Elon Musk loudly proclaimed when Elon Musk was hired that he would be in his position for 130 days. Given how things work in recent years, it is shocking that somebody in the government is obeying the law. That almost never happened under Obama and Joe Biden. 

Yesterday, X was filled with celebration that Elon Musk had been pressured out of the government by all the attacks on Tesla. It was all started by a POLITICO “scoop” that the Trump administration had had enough. Trump liked him, but his cabinet did not. 

SCOOP:  Pres Trump has told his inner circle & members of his Cabinet that 

@elonmusk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role 

➡️Trump remains pleased w/ Musk & DOGE, but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role.

➡️Musk’s looming exit comes as some Trump administration insiders & many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability & view the billionaire as a political liability, a dynamic that was thrown into stark relief Tuesday when a conservative judge Musk vocally supported lost his bid for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat by 10 points.

OF NOTE:  Senior administration official said Musk is likely to retain an informal role as an adviser & continue to be an occasional face around the White House grounds. Another cautioned that anyone who thinks Musk is going to disappear entirely from Trump’s orbit is “fooling themselves.”

BUT BUT BUT… The news represents a shift in the Trump-Musk relationship from a month ago, when White House officials &allies were predicting Musk was “here to stay” and that Trump would find a way to blow past the 130-day time limit.

ON TIMING:  POTUS has indicated that the transition is likely to correspond to the end of Musk’s time as a “special government employee,” a special status that temporarily exempts him from some ethics and conflict-of-interest rules. That 130-day period is expected to expire in late May or early June.

WHY NOW? Musk’s defenders believe that the time is right for a transition, given their view that there’s only so much more he can cut from government agencies without shaving too close to the bone. 

But many others say, he’s an unpredictable, unmanageable force who has had issues communicating his plans with Cabinet secretaries and through the White House chain of command led by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, frequently sending them into a frenzy with unexpected and off-message comments on X, his social-media platform — including sharing unvetted and uncoordinated plans to gut federal agencies.

I’LL BE REFLOWING THE STORY WITH MORE DEETS SOON… 

https://politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/02/trump-musk-leaving-political-liability-00265784

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Every single of word of that “scoop” was a total invention. It was a Narrative™, and everybody in the media picked it up, amplified it, and created a story that was essentially a hoax as invented as the “fine people” hoax. 

POLITICO didn’t make a mistake. The invented–or rather spread an invented hoax for somebody who cooked it up–because the left needs to create the sense that their coordinated opposition is working. Trump is losing momentum, his cabinet is revolting, and Musk has become a liability. It is part of their plan to cripple Trump by crippling Musk. 

Notice all the details, the innuendo, the “inside scoop?” Invented. It may be true that some of Trump’s cabinet don’t like Musk–they don’t talk to me, so who knows?–but it is clearly false that Trump wants Elon to go–not just because he says that he loves Elon, but because Trump loves hanging out with Elon and shows it by…hanging out with Elon and his son, who seems to have the run of the White House and is often by Trump’s side as if he is a favorite uncle. 

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The Pravda Media has been working assiduously to demonize Elon Musk, drive a wedge between Trump and Elon (“President Musk,” anyone?), and a pre-planned stepping back required by the law is their opportunity to add fuel to the fire they are trying to start. 

Remember: these are the people who told you that videos of Biden being dazed and confused were “cheap fakes.” They are liars. 

Lying liars lie liberally. 

Posted in Republican News

Climate Cult Singing ‘Rocky Mountain High Yi Yi’ LAGNIAPPE

Climate Cult Singing 'Rocky Mountain High Yi Yi' LAGNIAPPE 13

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Two days before New Year’s, I told you all about how Southern California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), encompassing Los Angeles and parts of surrounding counties, had decided to approve the accelerated adoption of a rule to ban natural gas boilers in new construction from 2026 forward. Existing facilities would have until 2033 to switch over to electric.

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Going forward from next year, everything would be electric in a state that can’t keep the lights on as it is, and it’s hella expensive for the privilege as it is.

California is being driven off an energy cliff in fits and spurts by its slavish devotion to chasing out the climate change demons in a frantic effort to restore balance, enacting draconian measure after measure to the untameable forces of nature, regardless of the impact on the human inhabitants of the state.

All in the name of the Climate Cult and the Settled Science™ of Global Warming/Climate Change aka Weather.

So serious and so entrenched are Green activists in the state government and so focused on the fervid foaming from Climate Experts™ (Who’ve now specialized in Henny Penny scenarios for so long that they’ve become institutions in their own right), that they’ve condemned…okay, committed California to banning all natural gas heaters, furnaces, etc, by 2030.

Oh, yay – first in the nation!

But who are the Experts™ who drive this ruinous insanity? Just how altruistic are their motives?

…Who is “they” besides California Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature imposing these policies on you?

California is set to become the first state to ban natural gas heaters, water heaters, and furnaces by 2030, a policy of the California Air Resources Board, entirely made up of appointees by the governor, I reported in 2023 in The Tangled Government Web Behind the Push to Ban Gas Stoves, where we link Harvard Health Publishing, the Rocky Mountain Institute,  MDPI International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine. NIH is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world. The WHO is named in the studies, as are many Chinese studies.

And they don’t care if it bankrupts you or causes you undue hardship. They don’t care if your public transit system is a hellhole on rails, when they take away your gas-powered car. They don’t care if you have to walk 5 miles to work. They don’t care. Just remember that they don’t care about you. They only care about their autocratic rules – and power.

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Well, huh. Looking back at that list of names with what we know now, it kind of looks like a rogues’ gallery of malevolent intent, doesn’t it? 

I mean, Harvard. The WHO, the Chinese, and the always benevolent NIH – haven’t they been covering themselves in unbiased, trustworthy glory lately?

Another of the co-conspirators named who has contributed to the declining standard of living in CA and came close to impacting all of us is the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).

You might well remember them for their sensational claim that ‘peer-reviewed research’ proved gas stoves were a major source of indoor air pollution and endangered children primarily by causing asthma through those pollutants. The RMI stove bombshell exploded and caused secondary explosions that damn near cost every American access to their precious gas range, as the Biden administration moved like quick little bunnies to ban them.

Biden’s Consumer Safety Product Commissioner, Richard Trumka, called them a ‘hidden hazard.’ And you know what the government does with ‘hazards,’ especially when they’re predisposed to disposing of them to begin with.

…During an interview with Bloomberg on January 9, 2023, Trumka stated that CPSC was considering banning gas stoves due to health hazards. He asserted that gas stoves are “a hidden hazard . . . Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

All this springing from RMI’s report of ‘peer-reviewed reports, ‘ which turned out to have been based on some pretty shoddy methodology.Climate Cult Singing 'Rocky Mountain High Yi Yi' LAGNIAPPE 14

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Like measurements taken in a kitchen walled off and sealed in plastic like a cooking cocoon.

SCIENCE™

Jeez. Nothing suspicious or below decks about these guys.

These are the sorts of ‘think tank’ and advocate grifters who have been feeding at the government trough and advancing an agenda not based on science but on #feelz and manipulation, the fallacious results of which have been allowed to dictate and destroy many facets of the formerly comfortable standard of living Americans enjoyed and had every right to expect.

I want you to know all about every last one of these cancerous leeches.

Not a minute too soon, the gravy train to these adversarial establishments is being cut off. It is a glorious thing to see, particularly in light of the intentional duplicity they’ve employed to twist and force our lives into their malicious, dogmatic molds.

Such has now happened to the Rocky Mountain Institute. In a one-two blow yesterday, our new Secretary of Energy canceled grants.

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There is a reckoning at last afoot.

The Department of Energy canceled two climate grants the Biden administration awarded to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a left-wing climate think tank that has pushed for heavy restrictions on gas stoves and that has collaborated with the Chinese government.

The first grant was worth about $5.3 million and designed to fund the Rocky Mountain Institute’s pilot project retrofitting a 120-unit building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with green energy technology. Then-energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said in March 2022 the grant funding proved the Biden administration was “in an all-out sprint to beat the climate crisis” while Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.) said it would help protect the country “from upheaval caused by the global fossil fuel market.”

The second was a $1.5 million grant to fund research into the viability of electric vehicle carshare programs. The research, according to the Department of Energy, would assess business models in the United States for resilience and “equity.”

Between the RMI being a Chinese-linked operative and a Davos tool, every last federal dollar needs to be stripped. Let the WEF and Bloomberg pay their freight.

…And the Free Beacon reported that the Rocky Mountain Institute boasts a number of ties to the Chinese government. The group’s only office outside the United States is located in Beijing. It is also a member of the China Clean Transportation Partnership—a Chinese nonprofit whose founding members include China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Transport—and its board member Wei Ding previously served as chairman of the China International Capital Corporation, a partially state-owned investment bank.

…Michael Lucci, the founder and CEO of the group State Armor, added that the Chinese Communist Party “is committed to infiltrating all aspects of American life from U.S. critical infrastructure to our universities, and think tanks.” He said that state and local governments must now work to block China from having leverage over American companies, organizations, and institutions.

The Rocky Mountain Institute, meanwhile, has received millions of dollars from prominent left-wing nonprofits including the Energy Foundation, Sequoia Climate Fund, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, the Climateworks Foundation, the Climate Imperative Foundation, the Windward Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, according to tax filings reviewed by the Free Beacon.

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None of this climate grifting Science™ is random, or a mistake, or coincidence, or, in most instances, remotely honest.Climate Cult Singing 'Rocky Mountain High Yi Yi' LAGNIAPPE 15

It’s all one-hand-washes-the-other grifting, from the government on down.

Or…it was ’til the purse snapped shut.

Let it keep on snappin’.

LAGNIAPPE: This is too delicious not to share.

Posted in Republican News

Are Trump’s Tariffs a Good Idea or Not?

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Are Trump's Tariffs a Good Idea or Not? 17

I. DON’T. KNOW. 

Normally, when I don’t know about something, I try not to start a post about the subject. None of us knows everything about everything, and there is a reason why God invented the division of labor. Let people who know about how to do things do them. 

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But in this case, the REASONS why I don’t know whether Trump’s tariffs will help or hurt America are important, and I hope I can help clarify at least some of the reasons why people are lining up on different sides of the issue. 

ARE TARIFFS GENERALLY GOOD ECONOMIC POLICY?

All other things being equal–not that they ever are–tariffs are terrible economic policy. In principle, putting tariffs on foreign goods throws sand into the gears of any economy because more trade is better than less, and all tariffs do ECONOMICALLY is add to the price of goods. Either consumers wind up buying less of what they want–a loss for them–or pay more for the same goods–a loss for them. 

Imposing tariffs can make others retaliate–in fact, Trump says that he is retaliating for tariffs imposed on the US in many cases–which creates a “beggar thy neighbor” tit-for-tat that hurts everybody. More and more friction is introduced into the economy of the world, trade slows, and everybody gets poorer. 

In principle, everybody plays by the same rules, imposing the lowest tax and trade barriers possible and maximizing trade (which, after all, is people exchanging goods that each other value more than the money they have in their pockets) makes everybody richer. You have wheat that I want; I have money you want. We exchange and are both better off. 

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So, no, tariffs in purely economic terms are a bad idea. It amounts to everybody increasing prices on everybody else. Investment goes down and costs for everybody go up. 

ARE TARIFFS EVER A GOOD IDEA?

Absolutely. There may be some reasons why you may want less trade in some set of goods, or to subsidize domestic industry despite the economic costs of doing so. While industrial policies are generally a terrible idea for many reasons–government picking winners and losers is a recipe for corruption and self-dealing, harming consumers to favor friends or contributors, or channeling investments or research into suboptimal channels, there are times when the cost is worth it. 

Maintaining a defense industrial base, for instance, is important. Ensuring that you don’t become reliant on adversaries, such as our reliance on China for some defense products, pharmaceuticals, or other vital goods. Security is another good we purchase with our money, and higher prices due to tariffs (the same applies to embargoes, which hurt domestic producers) may be a price we have to pay for increased security. 

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ARE THERE OTHER NON-DEFENSE REASONS FOR TARIFFS?

Obviously so. Other countries may pursue industrial policies, picking winners and losers in their own economies for various reasons, and tariffs are a way they can do so–harming American companies and consumers. Subsidies in those countries may be aimed at undercutting American producers in the longer term, so that a foreign country can corner a market. Economists will often tell you that zero tariffs on incoming products are optimal, and in a sense, they are right, but in the real world, countries do see each other as competitors and may see harming America or American companies as in their long-term interests. 

America imposing tariffs is a way to fight back, and temporary or strategic tariffs may produce better long-term economic results even at a short-term cost. 

SO WHY ARE BOTH DEMOCRATS AND MANY REPUBLICANS UPSET AT TRUMP’S TARIFFS AND ECONOMISTS APOPLECTIC?

That’s easy. If you look at just the economics and economic efficiency, the best tariff regime is nobody having tariffs at all. Free trade is the most efficient way to ensure that places with comparative advantages wind up producing the most goods at the lowest prices in their areas of specialty. 

Comparative advantage is a simple concept. One place or group of people may have a special advantage in producing some good or service compared to another. Cities spring up around transportation hubs, manufacturing where labor or inputs are cheaper for some reason, or skills may be especially dense in some areas like Silicon Valley, or resources easy to get near a mine. 

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A simple example to make the point: the Great Plains are filled with farms because the soil is fertile, so you grow wheat, corn and soybeans there and not in the desert. Chicago is located where it is due to easy transportation, as is Minneapolis, which grew because of access to grain, mills, lumber, etc. These places exist where they are and have economies that focus on certain things because they have a comparative advantage over other places. 

Did you know that both Andersen and Marvin Windows are located in Minnesota? I bet you didn’t, and that happened because of easy access to lumber. Chances are good that if you have higher-end windows, you have a tie to Minnesota. 

All this is a result of comparative advantage. And comparative advantages can provide additional momentum to keep an industry where it started, even if the original advantage fades for some reason. 

ARE TRUMP’S TARIFFS A GOOD IDEA?

As I said at the beginning, I have no idea because Trump’s rhetoric and his tendency to use hyperbole often make it difficult to know what his strategy is. Does he just love tariffs as a good in themselves? Is his goal autarky, which means complete self-sufficiency? If he does, the inevitable result is that we will pay more for the same goods, get lower quality goods in some cases, or consume less than we otherwise would. 

Employment would indeed go up in industries that “benefit” from the tariffs, but the overall efficiency of the economy will go down. Labor will be misallocated, as will investments. It would be like trying to farm on marginal land. The farmer would get a “higher yield” than he otherwise would, but the cost per bushel will increase because the ratio of inputs to outputs will also increase. You get less per acre and input. 

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It would have been better to buy better land or let a different farmer do the planting elsewhere. Worse, the money invested in trying to eke out a bit more grain on marginal land would have been better invested elsewhere. 

However, I suspect that Trump’s strategy with tariffs is to use them as a combination of a negotiating tactic and a rebalancing of the American economy with an eye to better and more efficient longer-term outcomes. 

Many countries impose far higher tariffs than even Trump is proposing on American goods to subsidize local industries, harming everybody in the process. Remember, economically, all tariffs are bad for everybody concerned, American companies are hurt by tariffs hitting them, and consumers in those countries are harmed by higher prices for both locally produced and imported goods. 

Countries are falling all over themselves to renegotiate tariffs with the US because we are the largest and wealthiest economy in the world. America is their largest market, and getting shut out would be a disaster for them. If Trump is using tariffs as a negotiating tool it is working well. Investments are pouring into America as producers can’t afford to be shut out of the American market, and countries that want their local manufacturers to survive will make accommodations in order to maintain access to our market. 

Trump may also want to shift some of the tax burden from income taxes to what amounts to a consumption tax through the back door. Income taxes discourage work and investment–the more you make, the larger the percentage of your income you give up in a progressive tax system. Almost any economist will tell you that consumption taxes are more economically efficient in the long run than income taxes–they encourage rather than discourage work, encourage investment, and can be structured so that the increased tax burden (as a percentage of income) can be handled through more equitable tax policies that provide a rebate for lower-income people. 

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If you look at tariffs in isolation, they are horrible, but no policy is done in isolation. If the idea is to shift some of the tax burden to consumption through tariffs while lowering income taxes, that could be very smart indeed if done right. Tariffs are much more popular than a national sales tax because they seem to be a tax on foreigners, even though consumers are the people paying in reality. 

As you can see, I could go on and on and never come to a reliable conclusion about whether Trump is brilliant or a fool pursuing this policy. That’s because I am not clear on what the actual policy is. What is he trying to accomplish?

He is surrounded by brilliant economic minds, which gives me some comfort. But as with all things Trump, there both more and less going on than what Trump says. 

Posted in Republican News

The NGO Complex Is Irredeemably Corrupt

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The NGO Complex Is Irredeemably Corrupt 19

My wife works for the Minnesota State Legislature, so she sees the steady stream of nonprofit CEOs and lobbyists bringing in their shiny literature, PowerPoints, and clients to lobby legislators to dump tons on taxpayer money into their coffers. 

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If you bought the lies they were selling, you would think that every third child would starve to death without the government pouring every possible dime legislators could scrape up their way. 

Imagine those commercials with Sarah McLachlan music playing, with children and puppies, and the nonprofit execs pleading for just one more dollar to save one more life. 

It is all BS. 

I don’t mean that the problems aren’t real, although by now you should know that the way the problems are described has little relationship to reality, but there are abused and neglected children, women who need help to recover from abuse, and other crises, and people in need of help. 

It’s just that most of these nonprofits aren’t so much helping people as farming them for money. Many of the nonprofits distributing food give it away to anybody who shows up, so in many places; people show up in nice, shiny cars on their way to Pilates to get some free food. I know a family that makes six figures that has their daughter on welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing, and getting other services because she is “neurodivergent.” 

A recent hearing at the Minnesota State Legislature provides a good example of what happens when an organization that started with good intentions gets big and can hide behind its “intentions,” which seem impeccable. 

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Second Harvest Heartland exists to feed the hungry. They get donations of food and distribute it those in need, which seems like an organization we can all get behind, right?

Right?

Except for the fact that Second Harvest is also an organization where Democrat politicians dump their aides to cash in, as so many NGOs really turn out to be. 

Allison O’Toole, CEO of Second Harvest Heartland, earned $721,000 in total compensation in 2022—even as the nonprofit has lobbied for taxpayer funding and warned of rising hunger across Minnesota, where 26% of households with children are food insecure, according to its own research.

Now, as O’Toole steps down after six years at the helm, lawmakers are raising questions.

Concerns first raised during legislative hearing

Rep. Pam Altendorf, R-Red Wing, told Alpha News that O’Toole’s salary issue first surfaced during a recent “food day” at the Capitol, when food shelf representatives, including O’Toole, testified before the House Children and Families Committee.

“Rep. Bjorn Olson pulled the 990 [tax form] and shared Allison O’Toole’s salary with our committee members right before she testified,” Altendorf said. “That’s when the questions started.”

Rep. Marion Rarick, R-Maple Lake, later raised the issue during a March 17 House committee hearing where a DFL lawmaker questioned why a GOP bill was reducing funding for Second Harvest Heartland in a proposed agriculture budget.

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Second Harvest Heartland gets most of its resources from private companies–to the tune of a quarter billion dollars worth. Their sourcing isn’t from can collections at churches or donations from individuals–it is mostly big corporations donating surpluses for a tax write-off. it’s big business–and what could be better than diverting food from waste into the mouths of people who need it? The idea is a good one. 

But while it may be a “nonprofit,” it sure is profitable for the people who run it, and the people who run it are exactly who you would think they are. It’s not Mother Teresa living among the poor washing their feet. It is high-powered politicos raking in nearly a million dollars a year. 

Rep. Marion Rarick, a long-time Republican legislator, wants to cut state funding to the organization to the howls of rage of her opponents. She is taking food out of the mouths of babes! 

“They do have a $260 million, that’s their gross revenue,” she said during the hearing. “What’s even more interesting, I think, is that their CEO, their top person, makes $721,000. Yeah, $721,000 is the top person … and they have 10 people that make more than the governor, which is more than $150,000. So that’s well over $2.6 million in their highest-paid people.”

Basically, the State of Minnesota was paying the salaries of the top brass at Second Harvest Heartland and paying them quite well. 

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So who is Allison O’Toole, you might wonder? Perhaps she took a huge salary cut in order to get that measly $721,000 salary? Perhaps she ran General Mills and is just trying to pay her mortgage and give back to the community.

Nope. She worked for Amy Klobuchar as Senior Director of State Affairs and then for the state itself on its implementation of Obamacare, which didn’t go swimmingly, let us say. 

Let’s just say she didn’t work her way up the food shelf ladder to get where she is. She got there by being connected. Apparently the Democrats like her, and why not? It turns out that, among other things, Second Harvest Heartland likes to play in politics, too. 

Altendorf also pointed to what she sees as a deeper issue. She says the nonprofit hired a “voter engagement coordinator” in 2024 to conduct get-out-the-vote efforts—something she calls “a huge conflict of interest” for an organization receiving taxpayer dollars.

“The public is waking up to the money funneling system happening within the Minnesota state government,” Altendorf said. “And I’m hearing loud and clear—taxpayers have had enough.”

O’Toole, who previously led MNsure during its rollout and served as state director for U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, was hired by Second Harvest in 2019, according to reports.

The organization’s Chief Operating Officer, Sarah Moberg, will serve as the interim CEO while a national search is conducted for O’Toole’s replacement. Records show Moberg’s annual salary is listed as roughly $370,000.

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I’m sure that Amy Klobuchar’s former Senior State Director had no partisan intentions when hiring a get out the vote coordinator for the 2024 elections. None at all. 

Food “security” is a great business to be in. The largest single COVID-era scam was also right here in Minnesota–the Feeding Our Future scandal in which another Democrat-connected nonprofit leader organized a quarter-billion scheme to steal $250 million from COVID relief funds. She recruited people from the Somali community to create fake restaurants and feeding centers and put in for reimbursements for meals never served. 

She did it right under the noses of Tim Walz’s state government, which was writing the checks and had multiple warnings that it was all a fraud. It wasn’t until the US Attorney stepped in that prosecutions started happening. 

NGOs don’t exist to do the things they advertise, although they often do some of the work they say as a cover for their real purpose. That purpose is to skim off the top and employ politically connected people. 

Hide behind a good cause, and you can do whatever you want. Look at Gavin Newsom’s 10-year plan to eradicate homelessness, almost 2 decades in and billions have been spent, thousands employed, and the homeless problem is greater because that is how you keep the money flowing. 

Tim Walz himself has used “food insecurity” as a political tool. He is quite proud of his bill to feed every child in Minnesota lunch, expanding the program from needy kids to everyone. Taxpayers are now subsidizing the lunches of kids with parents making six figures so he could get a nice photo of him getting hugged by kids. He sells the program as if he invented the school lunch program for needy children, but needy children have been getting free school lunches for decades. 

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It was all for show. But it works. Put “food” and “kids” in the same sentence, and everybody melts. 

Posted in Republican News

Tesla Vandals Keep Getting Caught, Democrats Keep Staying Silent

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There are two stories here. Once is the ongoing wave of vandalism and domestic terrorism by left-wing nutjobs and the other is the silence of Democrats. Neither of these stories is really breaking news at this point, but I haven’t stopped caring and I don’t think our readers have either. 

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So on that note, let’s just go over a few acts of vandalism and the people who’ve been either identified as suspects or already arrested. Apparently these people don’t understand that Tesla’s have lots of cameras.

In Boston, a woman was captured on video throwing a brick through the window of a Tesla.

This happened on Sunday. Boston PD is now looking for the suspect. Something tells me she won’t be too hard to identify.

This one happened in Dallas where a guy keyed a Tesla at an airport parking lot. He has now been arrested and is being sued by the owner in a civil case. Here’s a local news story on the lawsuit:

And this guy from West Fargo, North Dakota is now facing a felony charge.

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He apparently confessed when questioned by police. Not much doubt about the politics that motivated him.

In Gilbert, Arizona a man named David Moller was arrested for keying a Cybertruck.

And in Kentwood, Michigan, police released a photo of two suspects they believe spray painted five Tesla Cybertrucks in a mall parking lot.

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Again, the politics motivating this are pretty clear.

In the small city of Town and Country, Missouri a man named Matthew Reynolds has been arrested for keying a woman’s Model 3 in a parking lot.

Reynolds is also facing a felony charge. Here’s his mugshot.

In Aventura, Florida just north of Miami, a woman was arrested after spreading chewing gum on the door handle of a Tesla parked in a mall parking lot. Her name is Yamaris Marrero.

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In Brookhaven, Mississippi a Cuban migrant named Osvaldo Torres-Rodriguez is still wanted for (allegedly) vandalizing a Tesla with a pair of pliers or wire-cutters.

Here’s one from Columbus, Ohio. Don’t know if this person has been caught yet.

Unfortunately, I could go on. There are many more examples of people who haven’t been arrested yet but who probably will be soon. You can see a bunch of them on this X account.

Meanwhile, the Democrats who have inspired all of this have said almost nothing about it. AOC has been asked about it twice and has replied that Republicans say all sorts of things about her. But of course she has called out others for “stochastic terrorism” in the past.

Questioned by Fox News Digital, “Squad” member and leading Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York refused to answer whether she believes Democrats’ inflammatory rhetoric against Elon Musk has any connection to the violent attacks and vandalism against Tesla owners and dealers across the country…

Though she would not comment on the acts of terror against Tesla owners and workers, Ocasio-Cortez, considered  one of the country’s leading Democratic voices, has previously accused her Republican opponents of engaging in “stochastic terrorism,” using inflammatory language to incite violent action, by criticizing her, which she said prompted her to hire security.

Speaking on CNN in 2023, she said, “It’s uncomfortable serving with people who engage in what many experts deem stochastic terrorism, which is the incitement of violence using digital means and large platforms so that individuals themselves may not be the one that’s wielding a weapon.

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Few national Democrats have criticized the wave of arson and vandalism. It’s almost as if they know the vandals are on their side.

Posted in Republican News