Tag: Good News

Worthwhile Largesse

Good News, Subsidies

When I think of how much of our taxpayer money has been frittered away on useless crap like eco-lunacy, supporting Commie insurrections and delivering government benefits to illegal immigrants [156 more examples omitted for reasons of space], here at least is one I can get behind (via Reader John C., thankee):

The Department of War has given $10 million to TV host Mike Rowe’s Foundation that encourages Americans to enter the skilled trade industry.
The former “Dirty Jobs” star started the program that aims to offer Americans careers in the skilled trades like plumbing, electrical, and other hands-on work that won’t be made obsolete by artificial intelligence.

Wow… government money being spent on a civilian program that actually helps citizens and provides strategic benefit to the nation.

Here’s the enormity of the thing:

The foundation has helped over 2,600 people so far train as welders, HVAC technicians, pipefitters, and diesel mechanics who command a six-figure salary without requiring a four-year degree and massive amounts of student loan debt.

However:

The foundation says that America will need 320,000 welders, 250,000 shipbuilders, and 81,000 electricians over the next decade.

I bet the Lefties are totally pissed off about this — ironic, really, considering that they’ve always proclaimed themselves as the “Workers’ Party”, but really aren’t.  Then again, they are the “Party Of Lies”, and always have been.

Congrats to the Pentagon, and of course likewise to Mike Rowe (a true patriot if ever there was one).  If I have a single quibble, it’s that they should have given more than ten million dollars to this most worthy cause.

Finally, Part 2

Eco-Crap, Good News

I said this a couple weeks ago:

Start your engines, rev them loudly and turn your A/C down to 65, because the foolishness is ending:

The reelection of President Donald Trump came with an overall shift in the political landscape regarding climate and energy issues. Since then, major media outlets shut down their climate desks, corporations are easing back on emission-reduction targets, and polls consistently show the public rates climate change low on their list of priorities.

Can we also repeal all those stupid CAFE standards and regulations on auto companies and the cars they sell?

And now this is coming down the turnpike:

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced the Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to permanently end home appliance and equipment mandates that raise costs and disrupt consumer choice.  The proposal will update the Department’s Process Rule used to establish energy conservation standards for household appliances and equipment, including air conditioning units, gas stoves, washing and drying machines, water heaters, refrigerators, and other products Americans rely on every day.  In America, you should be able to choose a dryer that dries clothes on the first try rather than one that takes multiple cycles — unfortunately, past administrations thought otherwise,” Secretary Wright said. “For too long, the American people paid the price for mandates that restricted consumer choice and drove up costs.  President Trump promised to end this nonsense and that is exactly what we are doing.”

One more time:

Excellent — Or Funny?

Budgets, Politics, Trumpism

I see that the U.S. is finally going to get serious about our energy infrastructure:

One announcement Trump is set to make is the allocation of $425 million in Defense Production Act (DPA) funds to aid 13 coal plants in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, per the official. Funding will also support coal mines in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The official noted that funding will enable coal plants to extend their operational life through investment in upgrades, strengthen grid reliability, and prevent electricity prices from surging with demand.

So because it’s being funded by the DPA (as it should be), there’s no haggling with Congress required.  But the very next little addendum is what got me giggling:

The president is also expected to tell reporters that $75 million in DPA funding will help construct a coal-export terminal in Oakland, California, the official said.

One wonders what the Watermelons in California will think of their beloved Golden Shower State becoming a conduit for the EEEEVIL COLE to be sent out to pollute other nations’ air.  Maybe their feelings will be assuaged by this:

The West Gateway project is anticipated to create 1,400 on-site jobs and support thousands more in the western states.

…not that California ever cared about those icky blue-collar jobs, though.

There’s a lot more good news, but read the rest of the thing to get it all.

I personally think that the coal-mining industry would be far better served by the elimination of most if not all of the tiresome Obama/Biden-era EPA restrictions, but that would involve Congress and we all know what horrors, foot-dragging and tantrums that would cause.

Waking Up To Reality

Good News

Finally, someone has seen the light:

Bolt CEO fires his entire HR team because they “created problems that didn’t exist”, and “those problems disappeared when I let them go”.

Welcome to the party, pal.

Ryan Breslow, the co-founder and chief executive of US fintech firm Bolt, said the department was scrapped as part of sweeping layoffs aimed at returning the struggling business to “start-up mode”.

The 32-year-old added that HR professionals were more suited to “peacetime” conditions at larger companies rather than a start-up environment focused on rapid growth and efficiency.

In his seminal work, Up The Organization, the late Robert Townsend had a small chapter as part of his plan to make companies more successful:  “Fire the entire HR department.”  (I should point out that his incendiary book — which was and still is one of the best management books ever written — was published back in 1971.  One can only wonder what he’d think of today’s HR.)  Also, for those who don’t remember, Townsend was responsible for taking #2 car rental firm Avis to #1, so he knew what he was talking about.

I used to publish this little comment as a joke, except that it isn’t, really:

What I like is that the BOLT CEO has replaced HR with a small team tasked with “training and employee support” — i.e. the original function of the “Personnel Department” before they adopted the soulless “Human Resources” nomenclature.

Incidentally, Townsend sneered at HR being part of the hiring process, saying that this function should be left to the department managers, who should have a better idea than some third party of the kind of person they’d need.

I bet that Breslow would agree with that, now.

More Gubernatorial Ass-Kicking

Legal Stuff, Resistance, Rights

I really like this trend (if it is indeed a trend):

The Kansas State Legislature overrode Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill named in honor of assassinated political commentator Charlie Kirk that strengthens free speech protections on college campuses.

House Bill 2333 received two-thirds support in both chambers this month, overruling the governor’s objection. 

Part of the bill, known as the Kansas Intellectual Rights and Knowledge Act or KIRK Act, protects “expressive activities.” It deems outdoor areas “public forums for the campus community.”

“Any individual who wishes to engage in non-commercial expressive activity on campus shall be permitted to do so freely, so long as the individual’s conduct is lawful and does not materially and substantially disrupt the functioning of the postsecondary educational institution,” the act states. 

Here’s the reason for the veto:

Gov. Kelly argued the bill was unnecessary as free speech is already protected.

Yeah, just like the right to own guns is “already” protected by the Second Amendment — except where it isn’t, in states like California, New York, Illinois and other Blue shitholes.

I hate the fact that we need additional laws to underline the freedoms already supposedly guaranteed by the Constitution (like this KIRK law and the USSC’s Gruen decision);  but these are the times we live in, sadly.

And it’s safe to say that it should be so unlikely that the KIRK law should be necessary on, of all places, college campuses — except that it’s in these very institutions where free speech is most threatened, whether at the hands of radical Left students’ “counter-protests” or at the hands of radical Left college administrations.

Let’s have more KIRK laws, then, and more veto overrides of this nature.