HERE IN KNOXVILLE WE HAVE TEN INCHES OF SNOW AND IT’S SUPPOSED TO HIT MINUS TWO BY TOMORROW MORNING:
10 days apart. pic.twitter.com/mcootxCqe1
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 14, 2024
UPDATE: Oops, just rechecked the weather app and now it’s showing -4. Brr. Let’s see if TVA gives us rolling blackouts again.
SOMETIME IN THE NEXT 15 YEARS (REPEAT AS NEEDED): We’ve been ‘close’ to achieving fusion power for 50 years. When will it actually happen?
THE GLOBAL BABY BUST: Family Sizes to Dramatically Decline in The Near Future, Scientists Predict.
LARRY NIVEN, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Ultra-Large Structure Discovered in Distant Space Defies Our Current Understanding of the Universe. “The Big Ring on the Sky is 9.2 billion light-years from Earth.”
Okay, a bit large for Niven, but that’s what the illustration made me think of. Anyway, I’m not saying it’s aliens but, well, you know.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Bombshell J6 Footage Exposes Nancy Pelosi’s Security Guard’s Lies.
LIKE MOST HR TYPE PROGRAMS, A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY, BUT MAKE-WORK FOR DRONES AND BUREAUCRATS: Most workplace wellness programs don’t boost well-being.
PAULA BOLYARD: Why DeSantis and Haley Need to Stay in the Race.
HUNTER BIDEN, HOUSE GOP NEAR DEAL: A deal on when the President’s son will show up for a closed-door deposition, that is.
AUSTIN COMPETENCY LIMITS:
Shot: Biden White House pledges data, transparency, respect for free press.
President Joe Biden’s press secretary held her first news conference on Wednesday, seven hours after Biden’s inauguration, vowing to bring truth and transparency back to government.
Jen Psaki, who served as the chief spokeswoman at the State Department under former President Barack Obama, told reporters she had a “deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy.”
Marking a contrast to former President Donald Trump and his top aides’ treatment of what they called “the fake news media,” Psaki pledged professional, civil exchange.
“There will be moments when we disagree, and there will certainly be days where we disagree for extensive parts of the briefing even, perhaps,” she said. “But we have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people.”
Biden plans to “bring transparency and truth back to the government to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear,” she said.
—Reuters, January 20th, 2021.
Chaser: Under the Radar — Lloyd Austin’s Secret Ambulance Request Revealed in 911 Call.
The aide to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who made a 911 call to request an ambulance for the top official early this month requested that the dispatchers work to be “subtle” when they arrived at his residence, according to an audio recording of the Jan. 1 911 call exclusively obtained by The Daily Beast.
“Can I ask—can the ambulance not show up with lights and sirens? Uhm, we’re trying to remain a little subtle,” the aide said, according to the recording, which The Daily Beast obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in the state of Virginia.
The dispatcher responded that the ambulance could do that, noting that “usually when they turn into a residential neighborhood, they’ll turn them off.” She added that the ambulance is required by law to run the sirens and lights on main streets, such as Georgetown Pike and Leesburg Pike.
The audio of the call, which has not previously been reported, reveals new details about the Secretary of Defense’s emergency, and suggests that the effort to keep his ailment secret was well-known among his close aides.
—The Daily Beast, today.
Hangover: Biden wants his team to look competent. His Defense secretary made it look chaotic.
The Defense secretary blindsided his boss, an error that’s serious in almost any organization, civilian or military.
Worse, especially in an election year, he played right into a favorite anti-Biden narrative of Republicans: their charge that the president is weak and ineffective.
Voters often say that when they consider candidates for president, they want a strong leader. Polls have found that former President Trump, the likely Republican nominee, outscores Biden on that measure in most Americans’ eyes, fairly or not.
Austin inadvertently strengthened the GOP’s argument. Biden’s critics wasted no time using the club he handed them.
“It raises questions about Joe Biden’s competence, or that he’s really in charge at the White House,” said Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, referring to Austin’s AWOL episode. “If this administration would conceal a mere elective minor surgery for a Cabinet secretary, what might they be concealing about Joe Biden’s health?”
That attack was off-target; there’s no evidence that anyone other than Austin concealed his surgery. But the fact that Austin concealed his hospitalizations from the White House was bad enough.
—Doyle McManus, the L.A. Times, yesterday.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Tips for Buying A Used Rifle.
MONITOR YOUR HEALTH: ECG Portable Heart Rate Monitor – Capture Heart ECG Metrics. #CommissionEarned
21ST CENTURY UPDATES: A single dose of urea-powered nanorobots reduces bladder tumors by 90% in mouse study.
BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Asa Hutchinson Calls It Quits. “Politico‘s Natalie Allison spent a few days with him, and the former Arkansas governor comes across as less of a principled idealist who wants to help his country than a man addicted to campaigning for office, in desperate need of an intervention by friends…These guys desperately want to believe that they are serious presidential candidates with a real shot at winning the nomination. The rest of us are not obligated to play along with these delusions, and it’s not mean to point out that they’re polling at 1 percent or less.”
JEFFREY CARTER: A Different Framing of Trump Supporters: Independent Contractors.
Haley speaks to the Establishment. I met her at a fundraising party for Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo. It’s clear she put the groundwork in to try and curry support for her run. It was transparent at the party. She came, gave a well-rehearsed stump speech, and then left. There was no mingling.
But, while she hits some points well, like abortion, she is tone-deaf on others. Kind of like the Republican Establishment.
Trump connects with regular people. No one understands why. The Democrats that write for Bari Weiss’s Free Press don’t get it either. What they don’t get is that Trump is the Republican version of Obama. Obama was a terrible president, but he could talk to “the people”. Obama’s instincts and policies were anti-capitalistic and anti-American. Obama believes America has many many fatal flaws that can only be overcome through strong centralized government solutions, or socialism.
Obama and his cadre are weak on crime, and strong on division by race. It was Obama by his behind-the-scenes defense of Claudine Gay at Harvard who made it drag out so long. Penny Pritzker is a long-time Obama acolyte.
MSNBC and other mainstream outlets preach division and only see things through the lens of race or religion. Trump doesn’t. Neither did Reagan and the Republican Establishment hated Reagan.
Trump sees the best in America. “Make America Great Again” resonates. He relates to what the college-educated press calls “blue-collar workers”. However, those blue-collar workers aren’t what they used to be. Many of them own their businesses. They are self-directed and self-employed. They should be referred to as “independent contractors”.
Since he was in commercial real estate, Trump has worked extensively with these kinds of people. They are smart, though most didn’t go to college. Their unions have abandoned them.
Interesting.
DON’T LET THIS BE THE FISH THAT GOT AWAY: A little fish at the Supreme Court could take a big bite out of regulatory power. “The 1984 decision in the case known colloquially as Chevron states that when laws aren’t crystal clear federal agencies should be allowed to fill in the details.”
Between Chevron and Wickard v. Filburn, Washington’s power is essentially limited to Washington’s discretion about using it — something in very short supply.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Terrified Texans Open Fire On Strange White Stuff Falling From Sky.
DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Biden Angry With Republicans Trying To Stop Kids Seeing Gay Porn.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: If Trump Doesn’t Pick Vivek for PressSec Then He’s Dead to Me.
READER FAVORITE: Thermajohn Long Johns Thermal Underwear for Men Fleece Lined. #CommissionEarned
EH, I SURVIVED THE TUNNELS IN CHUCK E. CHEESE: What if every germ hit you at the exact same time? An immunologist explains.
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