Category: Gummint

Africa Wins Again

Subsidies, Taxes and Theft

Here’s a totally unexpected development [sic]:

Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago that is supposed to open this year is reportedly costing Chicago taxpayers more and more money.

There have been surging public infrastructure costs for the project the former president said would be a “gift” to the city.

However, taxpayers are stuck with the bill and no government agency can provide an accounting of the total public cost, despite months of queries and FOIA requests.

Obama vowed in the beginning to privately fund the project via donations to his foundation, Fox News reported on Saturday.

But building the infrastructure to get the project up and running is publicly financed and cannot move forward without those funds.

And:

Tax filings showed the Obama Foundation had only deposited $1 million into its $470 million reserve fund.

Chicago authorities have “failed to produce a reconciled total showing how much city taxpayers have committed or how current spending compares to the roughly $175 million discussed when the project was approved.”

So where has all the money gone?  Silly rabbits, it’s  Africa  Chicago:

“Illinois Democrats are leaving taxpayers high and dry and putting them on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars to support the ugliest building in Chicago. Illinois’ culture of corruption is humming along with pay-to-play deals to their allies and friends while lying to Illinois voters.”

Hey, those taxpayers voted for him in their millions and now they’re getting their reward, good and hard.

Cornerstone, Dislodged

Eco-Crap, Eco-Warriors, Gummint

Back in April last year, I noted that Lee Zeldin was taking aim at this piece of Obama-grade bullshit:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said that the agency will review the agency’s endangerment finding — the “holy grail of the climate change religion” that has created over a trillion dollars in regulatory impact. The finding stated that greenhouse gas emissions are an alleged threat to public health and welfare.

“Review”, was it?  Well now, lookee here:

President Trump is set to repeal an Obama-era climate finding that was the basis for federal greenhouse-gas regulation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Repealing the finding, which was a scientific determination that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, would remove the legal basis for greenhouse gas regulation, Reuters reported.

The repeal is expected to be published later this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the repeal would be “the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.”

With the repeal, regulatory requirements to measure, report, certify, and comply with federal GHG emission standards for cars would be removed, administration officials told the Journal. However, the repeal would not apply to stationary sources such as power plants.

Time to get one of these precious things, methinks.

Transplant

Immigration, Taxes and Theft

I see that billionaire asshole Mark Zuckerberg is looking at property in Florida:

Mark Zuckerberg may soon be adding Miami to his ever-growing list of luxury addresses. According to people familiar with his plans, the Meta founder and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are exploring a home on Indian Creek Island—an ultra-exclusive, heavily guarded neighborhood often called “Billionaire Bunker”.

On the bright side, he’s not looking at Texas;  he might have fit in quite well in Austin, although he might not be liberal enough for those assholes.

Chalk up one more score to the other liberal assholes in California, who are looking to tax billionaires into the poorhouse or something #WhoCares.  According to the above article:

Chamath Palihapitiya [who he?] wrote on X: “With Zuck’s move to Florida, California’s total taxable wealth from billionaires has plummeted to well under $1T from over $2T just a few weeks ago.”

Yeah, it’s all fun and games to spout Commie propaganda and fund Commie organizations who in turn fund Commie activists in Minneapolis — until they turn on you… right, Zuck?

A pox on all their houses, including the ones in Florida.

Firing The Deadwood

Bureaucracy

This isn’t about campfires, oh no.  This is so much more satisfying than a roaring fire on a cold winter’s night:

Approximately 50,000 federal workers in “policy-influencing” positions will lose specific protections against firings and become more at-will employees in the next month, per a new Trump administration rule announced Thursday.

The new rule, published by the Office of Personnel Management, will move senior career civil servants in “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating” positions into the Schedule Policy/Career category, formerly known as Schedule F.

Going forward, federal workers in those roles will lose their ability to appeal firings, suspensions or disciplinary action to an independent board.

Administration officials can dismiss those employees if they engage in “misconduct, poor performance or obstruct the democratic process by intentionally subverting Presidential directives.”

I think I speak for all my Readers when I say that while 50,000 is a nice round number, I’m thinking that 200,000 is a much nicer, rounder number.  But I’m open to other, more ambitious suggestions.

Of course, the response has been predictable:

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union representing non-postal federal workers, said in a statement that the rule would “chill protected speech” and “weaken enforceable protections against retaliation.”

“This rule is a direct assault on a professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service and the government services the American people rely on every day,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said.

Two issues jump off the page.

Firstly, let’s just suggest that right off the bat, the very idea of a government-employee union is an abomination.  It’s time the AFGE was abolished.

Secondly, if the current crop of bureaucrats had actually behaved like a “professional, nonpartisan, merit-based civil service” over the past, oh, eighty years then this action wouldn’t have been necessary.  But they haven’t, so here we are.

The bitter joke is that the civil service has always been the structure whereby Democrat policy has been implemented regardless of which party is in the White House.  This new Executive Order from DJT is simply rectifying that attitude, and it’s about damn time, too.

Grinding Slowly

Government Thugs, Law and Order

As much as I feel like saying, “What took you so long?”, I must confess to some considerable satisfaction at this development:

FBI Director Kash Patel has purged his department of agents linked to the Biden administration’s efforts to jail the Democrat former president’s electoral foe, Donald Trump.

Patel forced out field office leaders and other senior agents connected to the two criminal investigations of Trump, including the special agent in charge in Atlanta, the acting assistant director in charge of the New York field office, and the former special agent in charge in New Orleans who had recently moved on to another job, MS Now reported and two senior administration officials confirmed to Breitbart News.

As many as six agents in Miami were forced out over their connection to the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago, conducted by over 30 agents accompanied by CNN cameras.

And I don’t want to hear wailing from the Usual Suspects about “Oh noes, you’re politicizing the DOJ to go after political opponents”, because you assholes fucking started it and turned it into an art form.

As a form of legalized spite (the CNN cameras), it’s hard to top this one — not to mention that their overt goal was not only to humiliate the ex-President (rummaging in the First Lady’s lingerie drawers?) but to prevent him from running for office again.

More like this, Kash.  Lots, lots more.