WHOEVER HIRED THIS GUY SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED, TOO:

Betraying your country should result in a lot more than 6.5 years. The even bigger question is what this says about the CIA’s vetting of analysts that this guy had access to those plans in the first place. https://t.co/5VuFvb6Hqc

— AG (@AGHamilton29) January 17, 2025

LEFT TURNS FEDS INTO NEW SPOILS SYSTEM: Progressives promised a non-partisan, Merit-based federal career civil service will deliver public services in a vastly more efficient and professional manner than the hated Spoils System being replaced.

Well, here we are 142 years later and what do we have? A government workforce that functions on pretty much exactly the same basic premise as the old Spoils System. Check out how it happened in my latest PJ Media column.

RED VS. BLUE GOVERNANCE: A Tale of Two State Insurance Markets: Florida fixed its market with reforms. California didn’t. See the results.

The 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act enshrines state regulatory authority over insurance. This system has worked relatively well over 80 years. But some states have done a better job of managing their markets than others. California and Florida provide an illustrative contrast.

Democratic insurance commissioners in the Golden State have for years suppressed rates. Until recently, California was the only state that prohibited carriers from using catastrophe models to project disaster risk and pricing reinsurance costs into their premiums.

Wildfires—exacerbated by the state’s poor land mismanagement—have swelled insurer claims and liabilities. Insurers are paying out $1.09 in expenses and claims for every $1 they collect in premiums. They’ve curbed their exposure in part by dropping policy holders in high-risk areas and leaving the market.

The liabilities of the state’s insurer of last resort, FAIR, have exploded to $458 billion from $153 billion in 2020, with $5.9 billion in exposure in the Pacific Palisades. Yet Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara rejected FAIR’s proposed rate increases while requiring it to cover homes worth up to $3 million.

FAIR President Victoria Roach told the state Assembly last year that the insurer in 2021 requested a 48.8% rate increase—less than the 70% it needed—but was approved for 15.7%. FAIR is under-capitalized and had only $700 million in cash on hand as of last year to pay claims.

To prevent more insurers from leaving the state, Mr. Lara last month finally let carriers price in their reinsurance costs and use catastrophe models. But he also capped the reinsurance costs that carriers can pass along. Rates are set to rise 20% to 40% this year, though this still may not be enough to cover insurer liabilities.

Unable to raise rates, many insurers have increased deductibles and capped maximum payments. That means insurers might not cover all of the fire damage, and some homeowners will face hefty rebuilding costs. Lucky for them the Federal Emergency Management Agency covers losses if homeowners are “under-insured.”

This means taxpayers in Houston and Little Rock may pay for rebuilding multi-million-dollar homes in California. If FAIR becomes insolvent, all insurers in California—meaning their customers—are on the hook for its claims. Homeowners could see rates rise by thousands of dollars a year.

Typical.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Earthwise SN74016 40-Volt Cordless Electric Snow Shovel. #CommissionEarned

HE BRINGS HOPE IN SO MANY WAYS: Trump brings hope for shoring up the steel industry.

THIS IS THE WAY:

Marco Rubio destroys Kristen Walker in his defense of mass deportations. Absolutely brilliant answer.

Seriously this is how absolutely every single Republican must talk about deportations because this is the truth and this is where we are as a country because of the last four… pic.twitter.com/oyDK8MHJdl

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) January 17, 2025

TURNS OUT, MILTON FRIEDMAN WAS RUNNING THE SHOW:

🚨🇦🇷 ARGENTINA HITS RECORD TRADE SURPLUS IN MILEI’S FIRST YEAR

Under Milei’s leadership, Argentina turned a $7.94B trade deficit in 2023 into a record-smashing $18-19B surplus in 2024, surpassing the previous high of $16.89B in 2009.

His push to boost energy exports from the… pic.twitter.com/wmU8QXtUoE

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) January 17, 2025

The thing is, all that regulatory/tax/interest group superstructure isn’t really there to make the country stronger, better, safer, or richer. It’s mostly just there to bleed off revenue and influence for the parasite class.

LEFTISTS RUIN EVERYTHING. THAT’S NOT AN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE, THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT:

Wonderful clarity from Royal Bank of Canada describing the absurdity and nihilism of Britain's policies of deliberately destroying the North Sea oil and gas economy. Why are we doing this to ourselves? https://t.co/EoKtF48pa7 pic.twitter.com/XQHZKAwOEr

— Fred de Fossard (@defossardf) January 17, 2025

PROBABLY TOO SUSPICIOUS. BUT I HOPE SECURITY IS EXTRA TIGHT.

Exactly what I was thinking. What do they know that we don't?

— Starr (@starrpainter) January 17, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.

FRED HOYLE SMILES: What if life on Venus is just life from Earth?

IS THAT GOOD OR BAD? Dietary Supplement Shown to Reduce Aggression by Up to 28%.

LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE:

When you think about it, it’s nice to live in a system where the commander of the armed forces declares that the founding legal charter is permanently amended and we all just laugh at him and nothing happens.

— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 17, 2025

ABOLISH THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, A PARTISAN SLOUGH:

Sounds like the DC judges held quite the banger in court today–partisan hacks until the very end.

Per Politico:

Tanya Chutkan before sentencing a J6er to 10 days in prison on misdemeanor: “I only wish the rest of the country could see some of the things I see. This may be,…

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) January 17, 2025

HAHA:

*RECORD SCRATCH*

"Yup, that's my wife ratioing the president of the United States. You're probably wondering how I ended up here, well…" https://t.co/9S9UUt70O5

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) January 17, 2025

HEH:

Gen Z Upset About TikTok Ban For 4.3 Seconds, Which Is The Maximum Amount Of Time They Can Focus On Something Thanks To TikTok https://t.co/FbU9QeHluM pic.twitter.com/fuRF1Axc6P

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 17, 2025

ENVIRONMENTALISTS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING: “In 2023, global temperatures spiked unexpectedly, partly due to the 2020 regulation cutting sulfur emissions from international shipping, which reduced cloud cover and increased solar heat absorption.”

CHANGE: End the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

If you want to defund them, cutting off federal funding isn’t enough. You need to stop state-run affiliate stations from buying NPR and PBS programming.

SAVE TIME DOING LAUNDRY: True Classic 6 Pack, Men’s Short Sleeve Crew Neck T-Shirt. #CommissionEarned

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Should Trump Bail Out the Fire Caltastrophe?

PROGRESS: Fresh Heavy Duty Truck Safety Tech Emerges at CES 2025.

WELL, GOOD: U.K. announces new inquiries into decade-old cases of child sexual grooming after pressure sparked by Elon Musk tweet. “Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced Thursday that there would be a number of new central government-backed local inquiries into years-old allegations of child grooming gangs, weeks after Elon Musk accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failings in relation to the handling of the crimes in a series of tweets. The crimes took place a decade ago when Starmer was the country’s top prosecutor.”

Still, it feels a bit like the fox investigating who raided the henhouse.

CHANGE: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Announces JD Vance’s Senate Replacement.

CHANGE: ATF Reverses ‘Zero Tolerance’ Enforcement Policy That Shut Down Hundreds of FFLs Nationwide.

That’s nice. Now shut down the ATF.

AUSTRALIA: Transgender Pedophile Given Lenient Sentence For Sexually Abusing His 5-Year-Old Daughter After Court Considers “Transphobia” In Sentence.