COLDEST TURKEY: Are you better off giving up all your bad habits at once?
Archive for 2016
May 17, 2016
REPORT: TESLA USED ILLEGAL FOREIGN LABOR TO EXPAND SILICON VALLEY PLANT:
In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy in loaned Tesla Motors $465 million to open a plant for its all-electric Model S vehicle. Despite the $1 billion traditional automakers were paying to build and equip new auto plants, Tesla acquired the bankrupt General Motors “New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.” plant in Fremont California for $42 million.
In 2010, the company received another $20 million worth of saleable California corporate income tax credits to acquire the plant’s factory presses and other machinery for $17 million, and buy other equipment at a “fraction” of the original cost.
Although Tesla Motors has been unprofitable since opening the Fremont plant, it has collected $517 million selling government-mandated environmental credits to competing automakers and others. The cash has been used to fund operating losses, build out sales distribution, and add to the manufacturing facility.
Many Californians are shocked to learn that Tesla has been able to accomplish all of this this without being forced to sign contracts with the United Auto Workers’ Union.
But a lawsuit from an injured construction worker on the Fremont plant has exposed Tesla as hiring a foreign contractor in 2015 to ship 140 workers from impoverished Croatia and Slovenia to build a new paint shop at Tesla’s Fremont plant.
The Bay Area News Group, after dozens of employee interviews and extensive review of the contractor’s payroll, visa and court documents, concluded that the Eastern European contract employees “work long hours for low wages, in apparent violation of immigration and labor laws.”
Related: The San Jose Mercury on the “The Hidden Workforce Expanding Tesla’s Factory:” Here’s a sample: “Gregor Lesnik, an electrician from Slovenia, was among scores of Eastern European workers who worked on a multimillion dollar expansion of Tesla’s Fremont factory in 2015. At the plant, Lesnik lifted heavy pipes, and installed them into the ceiling and through the roof of the paint shop. A typical workday was 10 hours at least six days a week. On May 16, 2015, he climbed atop the paint shop roof and onto an unsecured tile, then fell nearly three stories to the factory floor. He broke both legs, some ribs, tore ligaments in his knee and sustained a concussion. Lesnik filed a lawsuit saying workers were paid as little as $5 an hour.”
Flashback: The Giant Papier-Mâché Puppet of Death Versus Tesla, my Insta-post last August on UAW protesting the Tesla dealership at tony Santana Row in San Jose.
STAYING POWER: Russians building army base at Syria’s Palmyra site.
FEAR OF COMMITMENT: Newly Developed Tattoo Ink Is Designed To Disappear After A Year.
PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Think Tank Seeks Damages Over ‘Unlawful’ Climate Subpoena.
SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOHN: Did John Kerry Just Exploit Memorial Day To Back Out of France’s Anti-Israel Peace Conference?
James Taylor will be travelling that Monday from his concert at the Peoria Civic Center to his next gig at Mankato, Minnesota, so perhaps he couldn’t jet out to Paris on such short notice.
DENIAL AIN’T JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT: “Hillary’s unlikely ally: The media.”
Actual headline at “The Hill,” appropriately enough.
Related: Bob Woodward envisions ‘Bill, Hillary, Chelsea’ on Mount Rushmore.
Flashback to 2006: Bill Clinton Expects That “Establishment Old Media Organizations Are De Facto Allies.”
KATHY SHAIDLE: You Don’t Have to Be Crazy to Be Scott Adams, But It Helps.
Make sure the Pointy-Haired Boss doesn’t see you reading it in your cubicle.
In other news from the Cartoon Kingdom, “As for the ructions in the Republican Party, Steyn found any story involving secret meetings with Mitt Romney hard to stay awake through. But on balance he decided it was Captain America: Civil War for the Beltway crowd:”
Captain America (Donald Trump) has gone to Avengers Headquarters in Washington for a showdown with Ryan-Man (Paul Ryan) over his plan to make America great again. Meanwhile, Rino-Man (Mitt Romney) and SuperPac-Man (Mike Murphy), who has the amazing superpower of being able to take $100 million and shrink it to a buck seventy-nine – now that their protégé Low-Energy-Man (Jeb Bush) is no more – are urging the Mighty Sasse (Ben Sasse) and the world’s oldest boy-sidekick Buckeye (John Kasich), whose superpowers don’t work beyond the state border, to jump into the fight against Captain America.
Captain America has the support of Newt-Man (Newt Gingrich) and the Incredible Bulk (Chris Christie) and the reformed evildoer Low-Key (Ben Carson), but which way will the Black Widow (Carly Fiorina) – she mates, she kills… which way will the Black Widow jump? Tomorrow night, Captain America has a romantic evening planned with the Scarlet Witch (Megyn Kelly)…
But remember, the man who poses in front of styrofoam comics and books interviews with a woman who bathes in a bathtub full of cereal has sternly warned that the presidency and the race to capture it aren’t reality TV shows.
THE OMERTA OLYMPICS, as refereed by Mickey Kaus: “Even apolitical owners of big, mainstream media outlets typically don’t like to bring up the immigration debate. At the very least it’s ‘divisive.’ More important, reporting on, say, support for a border wall could alienate new, growing blocs of ethnic consumers that businesses (especially newspapers) want to reach. But it’s not easy to write long, important thumbsuckers about Trump’s primary victory without even mentioning the issue that both launched his campaign into prominence and fueled its continued rise. Luckily, America’s premier journalists are up to the job. Let’s pause to honor three of them:”
Read the whole thing.
NOT SURPRISING, COMING FROM A GUY WHO JUST DISCOVERED THAT THE PC POLICE PLAYS FOR KEEPS: Curt Schilling Writes Detailed Blog Post Endorsing Trump.
IN THE MAIL: From David B. Coe, Shadow’s Blade (Case Files of Justis Fearsson).
Plus, today only at Amazon: 50% Off Lucky Brand Jeans.
And, also today only: Up to 40% off select TP-LINK networking products.
Plus: Hoover WindTunnel T-Series Rewind Plus Bagless Upright Vacuum $64.95 (50% off).
And: Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade 10 Lb., $15.95 (25% off).
TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1104.
YOU’LL HAVE TO ELECT HIM TO FIND OUT JUST HOW LOVELY: Pelosi: Trump Was ‘a Gentleman and Lovely’ When They First Met.
Related: How Donald Trump turned the tables on The New York Times — from those crazy vast right conspiracy types Dylan Byers and Brian Stelter at CNN.
MICHAEL LEDEEN: Chamberlain, Washington-Style.
Flashback: Neville Again: Obama Promises ‘Peace in Our Time’ in his second inaugural address.
WHY ARE DEMOCRATS SO VIOLENT? From Bernie Sanders Supporters, Death Threats Over Delegates. And what is it about Bernie’s candidacy that incites such behavior?
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THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Yukking It Up with the Obama Kiddie Korps. As Michael Walsh writes, DC is being run by small children — who are also generating most of the fawning news of their escapades.
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FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED, EU EDITION: Kids Will ‘Torture and Kill for ISIS,’ German Intel Chief Warns.
“When you know how ISIS treats children … then you have to assume that you are dealing with people who are willing to unconditionally torture and kill for ISIS,” said Maassen, who is in charge of Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
In February, a 15-year-old Muslim girl was arrested for attacking a German police officer with a knife at Hanover train station. She had been indoctrinated by ISIS’ online propaganda.
However, security officials in Germany are limited in their actions against minors. The legal system prohibits surveillance of people aged under 16 and children are held “non-accountable” until the age of 14.
In Angela Merkel’s Germany, the Children of the Corn are real.
OBAMA DOESN’T THINK RAPISTS, ARMED ROBBERS, DRUG DEALERS ARE CRIMINALS, Kyle Smith writes at the New York Post:
It’s only May, but I think I’ve found the euphemism of the year: According to Team Obama, criminals should now be declared “justice-involved individuals.”
The neo-Orwellianism comes to us from the bizarre flurry of last-minute diktats, regulations and bone-chilling threats collectively known to fanboys as Obama’s Gorgeous Goodbye.
* * * * * * *
Obama is fighting the war for criminals to get closer to you on several fronts. Last month, through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, he went after landlords, threatening them with penalties if they barred criminals from living in their buildings.
In November, Obama unilaterally ordered federal agencies to strike the box asking applicants whether they had committed crimes and referred to criminals as “folks.” This would be the same president who on Oct. 25, 2010, referred to Republicans as “enemies” and suggested voters should “punish” them. Convicted rapists? They’re just “folks.”
Related: California ballot measure blamed for shoplifting jump, AP reports:
Perry Lutz says his struggle to survive as a small businessman became a lot harder after California voters reduced theft penalties 1½ years ago.
About a half-dozen times this year, shoplifters have stolen expensive drones or another of the remote-controlled toys he sells in HobbyTown USA, a small shop in Rocklin, northeast of Sacramento. “It’s just pretty much open season,” Lutz said. “They’ll pick the $800 unit and just grab it and run out the door.”
Anything below $950 keeps the crime a misdemeanor — and likely means the thieves face no pursuit and no punishment, say retailers and law enforcement officials. Large retailers including Safeway, Target, Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies say shoplifting increased at least 15 percent, and in some cases, doubled since voters approved Proposition 47 and ended the possibility of charging shoplifting as a felony with the potential for a prison sentence.
Shoplifting reports to the Los Angeles Police Department jumped by a quarter in the first year, according to statistics the department compiled for The Associated Press. The ballot measure also lowered penalties for forgery, fraud, petty theft and drug possession.
And it isn’t just shoplifting that’s on the rise: “‘We have a problem.’ Homicides are up again this year in more than two dozen major U.S. cities,” the Washington Post adds.
Unexpectedly.
As Kyle Smith writes in his article on “justice-involved individuals,” the Obama administration’s invention of this phrase “is just a step in a long-term strategy pursued by progressives, who love criminals the way little girls love Disney princesses. The goal is to sneak criminals into your apartment building or workplace or campus.” Responding to the same Orwellian euphemism, Rod Dreher warns, “Get used to it. We’re probably going to have four more years of federal rule by liberal government-involved individuals.”
This is end game of a philosophy that was first articulated in 1968, an era when there really was a relatively benign liberal dominant culture, and a far left counterculture working to undermine it. Back then, one of its most visible spokesmen famously sang, “just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints, as heads is tails…”, well, you know how the song ends, and who it’s dedicated to.
RACISM: As a Black Woman, I Think ‘White Male’ Bashing is Dangerous. “Nowadays, we see countless examples of white folks (mostly male) being degraded on television and in commercials, or being told to ‘shut up’ in online conversations simply because they’re white. The Daily Show host Trevor Noah has made it its credo: take a social issue, throw in a couple of knowing jabs at racial clichés, finish on a joke about white people. The whole thing often comes across as deliberate race-baiting.”
Well, that’s because it is. Remember, the left isn’t against racism. Racism is one of its core principles.
FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: The Most Under-Represented Groups In Law Teaching Are Whites, Christians, Republicans, Males.
Related: PJTV alumna Alexis Garcia on The Hidden World of Campus Conservatives.