Leftists love nothing more than to mock the residents of "fly over country" and the people that most bear the brunt of this are rural white Southerners. One of the most pernicious Leftist lies is that such folk are inbred. However, as reported in "About 'Cousin Marriage" by John Ringo, DNA studies "shows no higher rate of actual incest in traditional Appalachian culture than in the general background of the US." The birth defects that gave rise to the myth was actually the result of malnutrition.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
DNA Testing Disproves Leftist Conspiracy Theory
Update on Light Bio Bioluminescent Plants--Greatly Reduced Shipping Costs
I had posted on February 2, 2024, about a company called Light Bio selling petunias genetically engineered to be bioluminescent. The plants were $29, but the shipping at the time more than $60. However, they have made changes to the shipping which has drastically reduced the costs. So now their basic shipping is listed as $24 when ordering a single plant and appears to only go up by a few dollars for additional plants. And if you order 10 plants, the shipping is free.
I don't have anything to do with the Company--they aren't sponsoring or compensating me in anyway. I just think this is something that would be really fun to have. Given that the savings on shipping was about the same as a plant, I went ahead and added an additional plant to my order.
What NASA Would Do If Asteroid Were About To Hit The Earth
The article is from the Daily Mail and entitled, "I head up NASA's asteroid warning division. This is how we'd alert the public if the world was about to end." Lindley Johnson, lead program executive for NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, lays out the steps that NASA would take if it learned about a large celestial object that posed a risk of crashing into the Earth:
- If astronomers spot a dangerous near-Earth object (NEO), the would share the information with the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN). If NASA confirmed the NEO was a danger, it would then issue a warning.
- If the impact threatened the United States, NASA would contact the White House that would then determine how (and I have to wonder, if) to alert the public.
- If the impact threatened other countries, the IAWN would reach out to the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs to send the word to other countries.
- Depending on the time available to NASA, it has various plans. For instance, if NASA has more than 5 years, according to the article, it would launch a mission to crash a probe into the object and divert it from striking the Earth. If there was less time, then it would likely require NASA (or the military) to use a missile to either destroy the object or divert its course.
World's Largest Snake Discovered In Amazon
Story from the Daily Mail. Per the article, a Northern Green Anaconda was found by TV wildlife presenter, Professor Freek Vonk, which is 26 feet long and weighs 440 lbs, with a head as large as a humans. The article has some photographs of the snake. I would note that the photographs of the actual snake all appear to have been taken underwater. The captions to some of the photographs showing Vonk and an associate holding an anaconda are quite definitely not the snake in question.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
"Forget Russian Nukes In Space, The Real Threat Is In Washington"
John Daniel Davidson, writing at The Federalist, argues that "Our Most Serious National Security Threat Isn’t Russian Nukes In Space, It’s Intelligence Agencies In Washington." From the lede:
It was a busy day in Washington on Wednesday as the intelligence bureaucracy tried to foment a national security panic over Russian nukes in space in hopes of ramming through the Ukraine aid package and killing reforms designed to curb its power to spy on Americans.
Davidson explains:
Here’s what happened. On Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner issued a cryptic warning about a “national security threat” related to a “destabilizing foreign military capability” so grave that President Biden should declassify all information about it immediately. Soon thereafter, anonymous sources leaked to the press that the threat was about Russia wanting to put nuclear weapons in space.
This prompted a flood of statements from Republicans and Democrats that the threat was very serious — but not to worry, they have the situation under control. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters he had already scheduled a briefing with congressional leaders on the matter before Turner made his statement, and don’t worry, President Biden “is going to ensure the security of the American people.”
Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a helpful statement clarifying what all this was really about: “The most urgent national security threat facing the American people right now is the possibility that Congress abandons Ukraine and allows Vladimir Putin’s Russia to win.”
Meanwhile, Congress was set to take up proposed reforms to Section 702 of FISA that would put an end to warrantless spying on Americans. The intelligence agencies and the White House have been very clear about their opposition to those reforms and that they would very much like to keep spying on Americans without having to obtain a warrant. They’ve been using the press to pressure Congress to scrap the reforms. On Tuesday, the FBI shared newly declassified information with Politico revealing it used Section 702 to foil a terrorist plot on U.S. soil last year — a none-too-subtle suggestion that if they had to bother with getting a warrant, they wouldn’t be able to stop these kind of terrorist plots.
What happened next is telling. Even though the House Republicans who were pushing for the FISA reforms appeared to be winning the debate, in the aftermath of the hysteria over Russia nukes in space, Speaker Johnson pulled the bill and canceled Congress for the rest of the week.
It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to figure out what happened here. Our intelligence agencies don’t want lawmakers getting in the way of their plans. They don’t want any interruption in the flow of U.S. tax dollars to Ukraine, and they don’t want any curbs on their ability to spy on Americans.
The irony here is that the U.S. intelligence community itself has become a far greater threat to our republic than Russia or any other country. ...
NY To Migrants: "Free Stuff!"
In an article entitled "Inside Mayor Adams' migrant debit card boondoggle — no-bid bank gets $50 million, border crossers up to $10,000 each," the New York Post reports on Mayor Eric Adam's administration giving away pre-paid cash cards to illegal aliens. As the article relates:
Unusually for the mayor, Adams didn’t publicize this story himself, and his administration for nearly a month has failed to correct several public misperceptions about it.
One misperception is that the program allows the city to give out just $50 million to migrants.
No wonder the mayor has been reticent.
This debit card program — if you read the actual contract — has the potential to become an open-ended, multibillion-dollar Bermuda Triangle of disappearing, untraceable cash, used for any purpose.
It will give migrants up to $10,000 each in taxpayer money with no ID check, no restrictions and no fraud control.
The program, the article continues, was originally sold as a way to save money ("save" in the government sense of "save" and not in the sense any normal person uses the term). That is, since the illegals were too good for the free food that the city was providing and most of the food was going to waste, the city could save money by giving them money to buy their own food. Except that there are no restrictions on how the money on the cards is spent--they can even be used at ATMs.
Rather than bid the contract, however, the city’s Housing Preservation & Development department (HPD) only considered one business per the order of Mayor Adams: Newark-based Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi), an inexperienced company whose appears to have been picked because of its minority ownership. But it is a good gig for MoCaFi because, under the contract with the city, MoCaFi will be paid $53 million in order to manage a pilot program distributing $1,000 per month (although up to $10,000 can be loaded onto each card) to 500 families in the Roosevelt Hotel. That is only $6 million.
And, according to the article, that $53 million is just MoCaFi's fees--it doesn't include the $6 million to the illegals which still has to come from the city.
In other words: For a maximum of $53 million, MoCaFi issues blank Mastercards, in bulk.
That’s it.
And for the “service” provided, MoCaFi not only makes money from each card distributed, but gets a 3% fee on the first $50 million the city puts on the cards — that is, $1.5 million. That fee drops, but only slightly, after that first $50 million.
It’s easy to work out how MoCaFi would get a $50 million or so fee, the maximum allowed under the contract. After stripping out various fees the company gets for printing up the blank cards and such, the city has purposely given itself the flexibility to disburse at least $2.5 billion on these pre-paid debit cards over a year.
* * *
So, to sum up so far, the Adams administration, with no oversight, no consultation with the city council, and no public discussion, has given itself the flexibility to launch a massive parallel benefits program, alongside — not replacing — traditional welfare cash assistance and (for New Yorkers legally in the country long-term) federal food stamp benefits.
And from where is Adams going to get the money to pay for these programs? For one, it appears that New York City is raising property taxes. And, for another, Adams is planning on cutting the NYPD by 6,000 officers, making cuts to education as well as other cuts to city services to help pay for the illegals.
But, to paraphrase Dr. Suisse, that is not all ... no, that is not all. Breitbart reports that the State of New York has changed its welfare rules to allow illegals to receive cash payments. From that article:
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) modified its Safety Net Assistance (SNA) program’s parameters in 2023, making migrants who have filled out asylum application forms eligible to receive even more taxpayer dollars.
A memo quietly sent out to New York welfare office workers from the Hochul administration on May 12, 2023, carefully revised the standards needed to qualify for SNA, expanding them to include “non-citizens who are considered permanently residing under color of law (PRUCOL).”
“PRUCOL is not an immigration status, but a public benefit category used by OTDA for the purposes of Safety Net Assistance (SNA) eligibility,” the memo reads, before listing the several different kinds of immigration documentation SNA providers should accept from migrants.
SNA is a program that provides cash assistance to eligible needy individuals and families who do not typically qualify for other forms of welfare, including single adults, childless couples, children who do not live with adult relatives, and families of drug or alcohol abusers.
“Generally, you can receive cash SNA for a maximum of two years in a lifetime,” OTDA said. “After that, if you are eligible for SNA, it is provided in non-cash form, such as a payment made directly to your landlord or voucher sent directly to your utility company.”
It is believed that about ten percent of New York’s migrants will receive (or are already receiving) the additional cash benefits from SNA; however, the OTDA did not release actual numbers of migrants affected by the rule change, the New York Post reported.
Over 173,000 migrants have poured into New York City alone since the spring of 2022, so it is possible that more than 17,000 could be receiving SNA benefits just in the city.
Sounds like NYC and the State of New York have not yet learned their lesson. Time to send more illegals from Red states to NYC.
Army Misuses Its Funds, Threatens U.S. And Allies If It Doesn't Get More
From the Daily Mail: "US Army says it will RUN OUT of money to protect Europe and Africa by May if Ukraine aid isn't approved: Congress facing growing pressure to send more money to keep basic operations going."
"But Docent," you ask, "why would lack of funding for Ukraine mean that the Army will run out of money to protect Europe and Africa?" Good question. And the answer, according to the article, is that the Army took the funds it was given to protect Europe and Africa and used them for Ukraine, assuming that Congress would allocate funds for Ukraine and they could cover over the misuse of the funds. Or, as the article explains:
The U.S. is currently siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars to support Ukraine amid an impasse in Congress.
Since the start of this fiscal year, October 2023, the Army has spent over $430 million on Ukraine-related operations, including training Ukrainian troops, transporting weapons and deploying U.S. troops to Europe.
The Army's Europe and Africa Command has about $3 billion left to cover its operating costs that are expected to amount to $5 billion in 2024, one senior Army official told CNN - and could run out of money by May.
'If we don't get a base budget, if we don't get Ukraine supplemental [funding package], if the government shuts down, if we get nothing else and nothing changes from today…we will run out of [operations and maintenance] funding in May,' the official told the publication.
For months lawmakers have looked for a way to pass a supplemental funding package to get money to Ukraine, but appetite for funding its war against Russia has waned on Capitol Hill.
Soon the Army will have to arbitrage funding, with Army Secretary Christine Wormuth telling CNN she expects they will have to 'rob Peter to pay Paul.'
Well, Christine, the Army is in this position because it was already "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
'Every incremental dollar I have, it's very important where I put that dollar. And I'm constantly choosing between, do we put it on barracks? Do I put it on enlistment incentives? Do I put it on exercises? Do I put it on modernization? I don't have spare cash to be just sort of donating some of that,' Wormuth, the service's civilian leader tasked with budgeting, told CNN.
I'm pretty sure that the Army has to submit a budget to Congress that lays out how much goes to specific projects and expenses. That is, the Army isn't just given big wad of money that they can spend anyway they want, but that the budget submitted to and approved by Congress tells them what types of things they can spend it on and how much. But the Army appears to be admitting that it treats its budget like one big piggy-bank.
'This was money that we anticipated to be replenished, obviously, by the supplemental,' she added, reiterating the need for congressional action.
So the Army just assumed that Congress would cough up more money. Well, you know the old saying about the word "assume"--it just makes an ass out of you and me.
This is often how embezzlers start out: taking money from one account to cover a loss in another account, and it just keeps going on and on until it finally can't be covered up anymore. So who is the idiot that started this? We don't have to guess:
While US funding for Ukraine has run dry, training for Ukrainian troops has continued because it's been deemed mission critical by the president.
There is another old saying--one popular with President Truman--"the buck stops here". Probably one that Biden needs to learn.
I'm sorry that the Army is going to run out of money to protect the borders of other countries, and the people that misused the funds allocated for those purposes should be jailed or, at the minimum, drummed out of the service with dishonorable discharges. Biden should be impeached. But Congress should not give in to the Army's blackmail.
VIDEO: Twelve Lies The Police Love To Use
As you may or may not know, police can and will lie to suspects during a stop or investigation. This video, from a lawyer in the Dallas, Texas, area, focuses on twelve common lies with a particular emphasis on drunk driving and drug related arrests. It is, nevertheless, instructive for the person that might use self-defense. In relation to his comments about breathalyzer tests, I would note that other states may have different laws as to whether you are required to submit to a breathalyzer test and you probably should research what is the law in your jurisdiction.
Hampton Law (8 min.)
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