Author Archive: Stephen Green

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

Previously: “Congress is now less a place to commit serious acts of lawmaking and more of a perch for launching lucrative social media side gigs and sweetheart stock trades.”

PERSPECTIVE:

And DataRepublican from the replies: “Also, the last-minute surge was real. We have the power to make 3 of 3 happen next time.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Val Kilmer: RIP

I HAD THOUGHT MAYBE THIS WAS AN APRIL FOOL’S PRANK, BUT NO: New San Francisco program backed by Newsom will issue speeding tickets based on income. “Violations for speeding range from $50 to $500, but individuals with a household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level are eligible for a 50% discount, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Indigent persons, or individuals who are homeless, are eligible for an 80% discount on the speeding ticket.”

BLUE CITY BLUES: Seattle mayor reveals $47 MILLION payroll tax deficit as companies flee the Emerald City.

Last week, the mayor of Seattle announced that the Emerald City collected $47 million less in payroll taxes last year as large companies continue to flee the liberal oasis. According to the Seattle Times, the mayor and Seattle City Council expected the tax to haul in over $400 million in revenue from the tax, but instead, the city brought in only $360 million in 2024.

The $47 million payroll tax deficit adds to a $260 million budget deficit Seattle was already facing from out-of-control spending.

On Tuesday, Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a joint statement with Councilmember Dan Strauss, “Today’s announcement that [payroll expense tax] revenues collected in 2024 were $47 million lower than projected requires action to ensure our budget remains balanced.”

Harrell’s statement went on to blame… Trump.

“EVIL PEOPLE”: Organized ‘Bankrupt Tesla’ Group Tied To Formerly USAID-Funded Disinfo Queen. “On Tuesday morning, former Biden administration ‘disinformation czar’ Nina Jankowicz repeatedly refused to disclose who’s funding her new gig – the ‘American Sunlight Project’ – which cropped up after a stint at the USAID-funded UK-based Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) – for which she registered as a foreign agent while serving as their Vice President.”

The American Sunlight Project has secret funding because of course it does.

THIS:

Congresscritters need to stop showboating and get to work. But as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, Congress is now less a place to commit serious acts of lawmaking and more of a perch for launching lucrative social media side gigs and sweetheart stock trades.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE WAS LAST SEEN GLAMPING ON THE MEXICAN RIVIERA: Zuckerberg’s Right-Wing Metamorphosis Still Has A Long Way To Go.

As for censorship related to public health, a spokesperson for Meta told the Daily Caller that the company fully abandoned its previous policies around Covid-19 misinformation in response to 2022 guidance from its Oversight Board.

That guidance read, in part, “Given Meta’s insistence that it takes a single, global approach to COVID-19 misinformation, the Board concludes that, as long as the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to declare COVID-19 an international public health emergency, Meta should maintain its current policy.”

Despite Zuckerberg’s confession about truthful speech being banned under that policy, Meta’s community guidelines still contain a section on “harmful health misinformation” that covers non-Covid-related public health issues. The policy reads, “We consult with leading health organizations to identify health misinformation likely to directly contribute to imminent harm to public health and safety.”

Meta did not address a Daily Caller question about whether or not they are still working in conjunction with the same public health agencies they did during the Covid-19 pandemic or whether they’ve consulted more stakeholders.

Also still on the no-no list: questioning “election and census integrity.”

CORN, POPPED: Elon Musk reveals DOGE’s new target — members of Congress who got ‘strangely wealthy.’

One attendee at the town hall had asked Musk if DOGE had uncovered evidence of funds wired from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

“They’ll [the government] send the money overseas to one NGO [non-governmental organization], then they’ll go through a bunch of them, and then I’m highly confident that a bunch of that money then comes back to the United States and lands in the pockets of the people you just mentioned,” Musk replied.

“But it is a circuitous route. It doesn’t go directly, but let’s just say that there’s a lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress where I’m trying to connect the dots of, ‘How do they become rich?’”

Look into their stock market picks while you’re at it.

2028 PREVIEW:

To be fair, dead people are a rock-solid Democrat constituency — and Booker is looking forward.

Between eight years of Obama’s ME! ME! ME! administration and the Biden cabal poisoning everything it touched, the field is wide open for 2028.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Now We Know — Flailing IS the Dems’ Strategy. “Booker wasn’t filibustering any proposed legislation, he was having a very expensive, taxpayer-funded public airing of his daddy issues. Once again, the American public had to foot the bill for a mentally unstable Democrat to be able to get his attention whore fix.”

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: New Colorado bill would penalize ‘misgendering’ in public places, use it as justification to take your kids away.

Here’s what’s at stake if this bill, called the Kelly Loving Act, becomes law:

  • “Deadnaming and Misgendering” as a discriminatory act
    Using people’s biologically correct given names or accidentally using the wrong pronoun could now legally brand you a bigot: “Sections 8 and 9 define deadnaming and misgendering as discriminatory acts in the ‘Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act,’ and prohibit these discriminatory acts in places of public accommodation.”

  • Weaponizing custody battles
  • Parents who refuse to affirm gender confusion could see their rights stripped away in court: “When making child custody decisions and determining the best interests of a child for purposes of parenting time, a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control.”

  • Gender ideology forced into ALL schools
  • Public, private, and charter schools would have no choice but to comply with laws regarding “chosen names” and would be penalized for “deadnaming” or “misgendering” students.

    Much more at the link and, I’m sure, much more to come from my Democrat-dominated state assembly.

    NIFTY: Ford carrier group equipped with new anti-drone weapons for possible Mideast deployment.

    The strike group’s Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyers will deploy with the Coyote and Roadrunner systems, two interceptor-style drone systems that the Navy has spent the past year developing for ship-based launches, two service officials said. The Coyote and Roadrunner systems, which were modified from existing land-based technologies, are specialized drones designed to stop other drones before they reach their intended targets. The new weapons are intended to counter Houthi drones for a fraction of the price of a standard missile typically used by the Navy.

    “Those two systems are part of that attempt to get after the cost curve, give our commanding officers more options to engage the threat and ultimately be more effective in defending a high-value unit,” Capt. Mark Lawrence, commander of Destroyer Squadron 2, said aboard the Ford as the aircraft carrier trained some 100 miles off the East Coast.

    Six destroyers will support the Ford during its deployment, strike group leaders said. It is unclear how many of the destroyers will be Coyote and Roadrunner capable.

    Maybe the real news here is that the Navy was able to take a land system and get it ship-ready and deployed in a year.

    BUT IT’S FINE TO SHUN THEM: Apparently It’s Illegal to Tase Journalists Who Write Tell-All Books About Biden’s Dementia. “It’s very telling that these books are hitting the virtual and physical shelves so quickly. One might think that these intrepid journos would need some time to process what certainly must have been the shock of the century to them. Gosh, it’s almost as if they’d gotten started on them a long time ago.”

    Previously: Stop the Presses: Joe Biden Had ‘Frailties’ Even BEFORE That Debate!