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Messages - DougMacG

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51
@jk_rowling, Twitter, X
You’ve asked me several questions on this thread and accused me of avoiding answering, so here goes.

I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others.

I don’t believe a woman is more or less of a woman for having sex with men, women, both or not wanting sex at all. I don’t think a woman is more or less of a woman for having a buzz cut and liking suits and ties, or wearing stilettos and mini dresses, for being black, white or brown, for being six feet tall or a little person, for being kind or cruel, angry or sad, loud or retiring. She isn't more of a woman for featuring in Playboy or being a surrendered wife, nor less of a woman for designing space rockets or taking up boxing. What makes her a woman is the fact of being born in a body that, assuming nothing has gone wrong in her physical development (which, as stated above, still doesn't stop her being a woman), is geared towards producing eggs as opposed to sperm, towards bearing as opposed to begetting children, and irrespective of whether she's done either of those things, or ever wants to.

Womanhood isn't a mystical state of being, nor is it measured by how well one apes sex stereotypes. We are not the creatures either porn or the Bible tell you we are. Femaleness is not, as trans woman Andrea Chu Long wrote, ‘an open mouth, an expectant asshole, blank, blank eyes,’ nor are we God’s afterthought, sprung from Adam’s rib.

Women are provably subject to certain experiences because of our female bodies, including different forms of oppression, depending on the cultures in which we live. When trans activists say 'I thought you didn't want to be defined by your biology,' it’s a feeble and transparent attempt at linguistic sleight of hand. Women don't want to be limited, exploited, punished, or subject to other unjust treatment because of their biology, but our being female is indeed defined by our biology. It's one material fact about us, like having freckles or disliking beetroot, neither of which are representative of our entire beings, either. Women have billions of different personalities and life stories, which have nothing to do with our bodies, although we are likely to have had experiences men don't and can't, because we belong to our sex class.

Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren't born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people.

I am strongly against women's and girls' rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men's desire for validation.

I sincerely hope that answers your questions. You may still disagree, but as I hope this shows, I’m more than happy to have this debate

52
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/03/29/joe-bidens-america-wealthiest-1-set-record-44-trillion-total-net-worth/

Data from Federal Reserve, just documenting what I posted in other rants.

Real wages down for workers.  Wealth up for the wealthy.  Imagine if these results were from Republican policies.

Projection.  They say these results will happen under R policies.  And it's exactly ass-backwards.

53
Science, Culture, & Humanities / Re: My favorite electric guitarist
« on: April 05, 2024, 08:18:18 AM »
that never got much fanfare:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Buchanan

sad ending to apparently tortured musician but he leaves us with his creations

Thanks guys for the music referrals.

Ok, the guy can play:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMcjPZgK9GM

54
Politics & Religion / Re: Political Economics
« on: April 05, 2024, 08:02:17 AM »
"For Trump to deport large numbers of hard-working illegals (mostly Latinos) whom Biden has ill granted working papers is going to be a very explosive political fight."


  - Right, by design.  Their intent is to make their policies irreversible, opposite of governing by 'we the people' with checks and balances.  Obamacare, Social security, Medicare all woven into the fabric, like the National Health Service in Britain, not things the next Congress or Parliament can repeal.

These 5 year budgets, 10 year budgets, mandates that take effect in 2030, regulations that kick in after their term, it's all anti-democratic.

Laws passed by the 118th Congress should not be binding on the 119th Congress. 

Same goes for debt.  Borrow all you plan to pay back before your term ends.  What gives you the power to put $36T debt and $2T/yr. interest on the next generation?

Government can only get bigger and bigger and bigger until everyone is riding and no one is pulling the wagon.

To the topic at hand, Trump needs to be creative.  To those who produce and other than breaking our laws to come in, abide by our laws and invest in our country, maybe he can be the most generous president in history with citizenship.  And for those who came for the free ride and or to wreak havoc, out they go on their asses, free ride home.

Simple test, in the time you've been here, did you (your family) pay in more than you took from us?

We always say THIS is the biggest election ever.  But if we can't figure it out this time, when will we?  And what will the country and the world look like when that happens?

55
Politics & Religion / Re: Political Economics
« on: April 05, 2024, 07:41:14 AM »
Seems the job growth has been smoke and mirrors.

More real world measures show that as interest rates have gone up, credit card debt has gone up, 3rd quarter in a row over a trillion and still going up.  As credit card interest rates hit 29.99% (30%!) no one would choose more debt unless they were intending to default.
https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/credit-card-debt-statistics/

Bankruptcies up double digits under Joe as well.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-bankruptcies-surged-18-2023-seen-rising-again-2024-report-2024-01-03/

Yet the rich are getting richer.  Imagine this scenario happening under Trump or Republicans and hearing the MSM, MSNBC uproar!

The jobs reports CORRECTIONS don't get the same big headlines as the initial story.  And the corrections are ALL DOWNWARD.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/initial-us-employment-reports-overstated-jobs

56
Politics & Religion / Re: Energy Politics & Science
« on: April 05, 2024, 07:23:02 AM »
I had the same question while posting that.

From the links below:
"Natural gas can be burned to produce electricity in a traditional combustion turbine (CT) power plant or a more modern and efficient combined cycle (CC) power plant.

A combined cycle power plant is a modern electrical generating plant that captures the energy from burning natural gas in two ways.

First - the gas turbine burns fuel and generates electricity:
The gas turbine compresses air and mixes it with fuel.
The mixture is ignited, creating an explosion that propels the very hot gas through the turbine.
The hot gas spins the gas turbine blades which rotates the turbine shaft.
The fast-spinning turbine shaft drives a generator that converts the spinning energy into electricity.
Second - the steam turbine utilizes the waste heat from the gas turbine exhaust that would otherwise escape through the exhaust stack to create additional electricity:
A heat exchanger captures exhaust heat from the gas turbine and boils water to create steam.
The steam spins the steam turbine blades which rotates the turbine shaft.
The steam turbine shaft drives a generator that delivers additional electricity.
This is the most efficient type of fossil fuel power plant. By combining these two systems, the overall net efficiency of the combustion process can be increased by 50 - 60 percent. Thus, from an overall efficiency of about 35% in a single cycle system one can achieve to an overall efficiency of 50-60% in a combined cycle system.

Either a single shart or multiple shaft configuration can be used for the combined cycle plant. In a single shaft system, the gas and steam turbines turn a common shaft with a single generator. This is the most efficient configuration. However, in larger plants it is more economical to have multiple gas turbines and a single steam turbine.

For large-scale power generation, a typical gas/steam turbine set would be a 270 MW gas turbine coupled to a 130 MW steam turbine giving a total of 400 MW. A typical power plant might consist of between 1 and 6 such sets. GE currently manufactures the largest gas turbine available at just over 500 MW."

https://www.ourworldofenergy.com/vignettes.php?type=electrical-power-generation&id=15

https://www.ourworldofenergy.com/vignettes.php?type=electrical-power-generation&id=9

57
Politics & Religion / Destroying the Myth of cheap wind and solar
« on: April 04, 2024, 03:26:18 PM »
https://www.americanexperiment.org/how-to-destroy-the-myth-of-cheap-wind-and-solar/

https://www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-03-at-5.39.26-PM.png

[LCOE Levelized Cost of Energy is a measure that includes some costs and omits others in order to show a desired, misleading result.]

LCOE estimates can make wind and solar look cheap, so long as you ignore most of the costs of integrating them on to the grid and backing them up.

Comparing LCOEs makes sense when examining reliable, dispatchable power plants because these power plants can be turned on or off to meet electricity demand. It makes very little sense when you start including intermittent and weather-based energy sources that don’t provide the same value as thermal generators.

The intermittency of wind and solar imposes unique expenses on the electric grid that require an evaluation of the entire electric system in order to derive meaningful cost estimates from these generators. This is difficult to do, which is why most people don’t do it.

Our modeling attempts to provide this apples-to-apples comparison of running a reliable grid with dispatchable energy sources like coal, natural gas, and nuclear versus that of intermittent facilities like wind and solar. In every case, the answer is clear: wind and solar are by far the most expensive.

58
Politics & Religion / Re: The Folly of the LNG “Pause”
« on: April 04, 2024, 02:00:26 PM »
"A Biden policy that doesn’t survive scrutiny on any level."

  - That line could apply to SO MANY Biden policies, maybe all of them:
 The Afghan Withdrawal.  Billions to Iran. The Southern border.  The crazy spending.  The inflation.  Israel policy.  The war on energy.  The EV mandate push.  Killing the pipeline.  Nuclear closures.  Shipbuilding delays.  No restrictions abortions.  Letting criminals run free.  Buttigieg in charge of the bridge?  Kamala in charge of the border?  Trans men and boys competing with women and girls.  And yes, the LNG export ban.  It's all nuts.  And they want us to find common ground?


"Incredible Dumbness"?  My eyes read it, incredible dumbass.

Democrats rejected Sanders and Warren in 2020 for being too extreme to get elected.  Only Joe the moderate could beat Trump.  Voters were sold one thing and got something different.  And now they revolt - I hope.

59
Quoting and repeating for emphasis:

"The totalitarian implications are frightening."

(US Central Bank Digital Currency)

60
Politics & Religion / Re: US Desperately Needs Fiscal Guardrails
« on: April 04, 2024, 01:41:28 PM »
Don't we already have catastrophe?  What would a guardrail look like?  Slow the rate of spending increases?

Updates from usdebtclock.org today:

Deficit actual, current, 1.944 trillion

Revenues: 4.712 Trillion

We are spending 41.2% more than we take in.

Do people believe we are even borrowing all that?  Who is lending it?

61
Looks like they stand to lose quite a bit of advantage with their current policies.

62
Politics & Religion / 2024 Polls
« on: April 04, 2024, 01:28:28 PM »
Polls are wrong before they start.  "If the election were held today..."  Well it isn't.

Republicans missed the so-called red-wave in 2022 and had underperformance in lots of other elections.  That said, it's hard not to comment on the state of the race.  These polls represent what is possible, not a forecast of what will happen next fall.

1. The Hill switched it's column from 'most likely senate seats to flip' most likely to flip other than Joe Manchin's seat is West Virginia which is already flipped in terms of inevitable math.  Even if Joe was staying and he's not.  The next 5 are also Republicans taking Dem seats, the first 3 likely, the next are possible but not likely.  A 4 seat swing, 49R-51D to 53R-47D is nation changing.  No wonder Democrats want Sonia Sotomayor out now.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4564443-senate-rankings-seats-flip/

2. WSJ poll released yesterday(?) has Trump leading in nearly every swing state, except Pennsylvania and a tie in Wisconsin, which he doesn't need if he wins the others.
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_Swing_States_Partial_March_2024.pdf

3. RCP polling averages tabulated comes to an electoral lead for Trump of 293-245.
https://www.realclearpolling.com/maps/president/2024/no-toss-up/electoral-college

4. Rasmussen has a very positive release today, Trump up by 6,7, 8 depending on the '3rd party' inclusions.
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/biden_administration/election_2024_trump_8_over_biden_third_party_candidates_have_little_impact

5. Polling internals are killing Joe and the Democrats.  28 point swing on independents since 2020. Winning with Hispanics.  Nearly even with blacks and young voters.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/04/nolte-donald-trump-holds-eight-point-lead-joe-biden/

6. Here's one more, a real world result:  mayor race in Wassau Wisconsin, 9 point swing since 2020.  Holy cow.

7.  The 'no labels' group was supposed to put forward a candidate to compete with Trump for the no-far-Left vote.  Looks like they won't: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4575052-no-labels-party-passes-2024-election-candidate/

8. Oops, here come the polls swinging the other way:
https://thehill.com/elections/4575110-biden-up-pennsylvania-survey/

Warning.  The election is not being held today. Democrats have WAY more money in every race and lots of other things can change, like Republicans shooting themselves, Democrat ballot box stuffing and media and social media creating havoc.  If you want to win you have to work for it and earn it.

63
Gas prices up 45% under Biden.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/04/nationwide-gas-prices-top-3-50-spiking-more-than-45-under-joe-biden/

No they won't be refilling the strategic political oil reserve.  They would deplete it further if they could. 

Regarding the purpose it is intended for, they don't care.

They complain of private corporations having short term outlooks but that's exactly how they operate.

Recall they depleted and didn't replenish the strategic supply of N95 masks in the last crisis before covid. They don't care.

Never let a crisis go to waste, one of them accidentally said aloud.

64
Politics & Religion / 2024, Biden Announcement parody
« on: April 03, 2024, 08:15:41 AM »

65
https://nypost.com/2024/04/03/us-news/seattle-public-schools-shuts-down-gifted-and-talented-program/

Too many whites and 'Asian Americans'?

'Gifted' children have 'special needs' too.  They will be bored in regular classes.

But it doesn't actually cost more to educate them.

66
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/retirement-savings-how-much-americans-need-1-46-million/

Kitchen table issues.

If your savings is up 53% under Biden, you broke even.

67
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-this-doctor-walked-out-of-a-meeting-with-president-biden/vi-BB1kYAZg?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=cf3acf355b52426c8d124da9356a57aa&ei=17

I watched this the other night and was AMAZED
that media liar Collins did not ask the simple question to the Palestinian (doctor!)
why not demand Hamas to stop using their people as shields and surrender immediately so the blood shed can stop.

Funny how they let these Jew haters solely blame Israel when it is they who started this and pledge to the death to kill Jews.

I watched the Twin Cities Leftists gather for a "Free Palestine" rally Saturday.  Also watched a couple of my Jewish tennis buddies drift away from Biden and the Democrats on this. They never seemed to notice that (non Jewish) conservatives from flyover country have cared more about the survival of Israel more than their own party for decades now.

They also never seemed to notice the similarities between the persecution of conservatives and the revival of antisemitism on campuses and elsewhere.

It's not like me to remain silent but they need to discover on their own, soon, that with the primaries over, only one man, the mean tweet guy, has any possibility to at least slow the continued march to far Leftism in the country and the world.

A throwaway vote for 'no labels' makes sense only if you are fully unaware of the stakes we face.

Meanwhile Communist China feeds the chaos in America through tiktok, while TikTok is banned in Communist China.

68
Politics & Religion / Housing, Mortgage unaffordable
« on: April 03, 2024, 06:47:10 AM »
If not mentioned in the article, housing insurance also going crazy. Property taxes up 10 fold since I've been here.

Just like the war on poverty, everything the government has tried to make more "affordable" has instead made it more subsidized, making it less affordable for everyone not getting it paid for by the government, cf. college costs, health care, and of course housing.

So, you can't buy housing because of the high cost and you can't sell housing you don't want because of the punitive tax on inflation. Exact opposite of what economists call a free market. Other than that it's all going swimmingly.

https://confoundedinterest.net/2024/04/03/bidenomics-is-on-the-highway-to-hell-for-housing-affordability-mortgage-demand-applications-down-13-from-last-year-while-home-prices-are-up-39-2-under-biden-and-powell/

69
Valuation of the business is the worst crime imaginable, brought to you by the people who think donors buying Hunter painting for millions is fine.

https://babylonbee.com/news/4d-chess-trump-makes-mar-a-lago-worth-500-million-by-hanging-up-3-hunter-biden-paintings

70
This is a VERY, VERY, VERY important point.  Thanks BBG for bringing it forward.

Cato gets it but do the people?  Oh look!  A shiny object, a digital dollar!  I can't even tell you or know all the reasons not to do this, but don't do this!!

For one thing, introducing the 'digital dollar' will be the beginning of the certainty of losing the physical dollar.  As bad as the US$ has been, losing 97 cents of every dollar since the forming of the Federal Reserve, you (we) don't want to lose what's left of it.    We don't want EVERY transaction monitored or dollar to exist online only, even more cancellable by political powers than it is now.

Does anybody remember the old saying, innocent until proven guilty?  The IRS works backwards on that.  Every transaction is a taxable gain unless and until you prove it isn't.  If you sell a used car, or couch, is it taxable gain?  There is a 99.999% chance you didn't sell it for more than you paid for it, but to the digital currency trackers, you took in money.  It's all taxable until you prove it isn't.

Combine the fact of cancelling Russian assets during the current war with the FBI tracking parents who speak out at school board meetings, people who spoke up against 'vaccine' mandates and shutdowns, the FBI tracking people who bought a book called the Bible, etc. Our President saying half the country is the threat we face and having the power to cancel your assets is a bad combination, understatement alert.  They can cancel your 'tweet'; they can cancel your video; they can cancel your social media account, they did it to a President of the United States; they can remotely shutoff your car; they can cancel your dollars.

Stop this before it gets started!!  Or you won't ever stop it.

"people were thrilled when Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed is “nowhere near recommending or adopting” a CBDC.   (Central Bank Digital Currency)

Translated that means yes, we are moving forward as fast as we can.  Beware!!

It wasn't clear to me from the article which side Tom Emmer (R-MN) and his bill are on.  Emmer is one of the good guys, but he is one seat away from losing his majority in the House, while Democrats already control the Senate, the White House and the FED.

"https://decrypt.co/121941/emmer-fed-central-bank-digital-currency-surveillance-state/

71
Politics & Religion / Re: 'The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now'
« on: April 02, 2024, 08:29:50 AM »
Let's see, we have a right of privacy, sort of, and we have a right to bear arms, sort of, but we don't have a right of privacy as it relates to our exercise of the (first or) second amendment.

Informing the government of all the privately owned guns would defeat the purpose of having those guns in the event they are needed to stand up against a rogue, tyrannical government.

Or does someone think the government won't get your "health" records if they want them?  And whose idea was it to merge government and healthcare?

The second amendment wasn't about hunters' rights.

[Same might apply to the right or privacy relating to bitcoin purchases (or gold).  The right to wealth.  The purchase of bitcoin is not a taxable event.  The sale of it is.  Why do you have to disclose your purchases? They don't have a constitutional right to tax wealth, why do they have the right to track it. Doesn't a right of privacy apply up to the point where it becomes any of their business?]


73
Politics & Religion / Re: Mike Gallagher
« on: April 01, 2024, 05:35:06 AM »
quits Congress with 8 months to go in his 2 yr tenure

as Greg Kelly points out over and over 200,000 people in his district voted for him

also it is now too late for a special election to get a replacement.

take likely cush job with self described socialist who voted for Hillary Clinton at Palantir whose stock tripled in past few months. (Alex Karp)

sounds like a sell out to me.

sounds like smart move by a Dem who bought him off.........

if Dems can pick off one more then we have no power

no Congress no Senate no White House till (praying for ) January next yr.

I have numerous names I can think of for Mike Gallagher... and I will not post them needlessly.

There is something fishy about this whole story. Gallagher is a regular guest on Hugh Hewitt, who I like. Gallagher is a military veteran, foreign policy expert, hawk, good guy, represents Green Bay I think, conservative Wisconsin district.  Then one day he was suddenly on the 'wrong side' of impeaching Mayorkis.  He explained it pretty well in the WSJ.  Impeaching cabinet officials instead of winning elections will most certainly come back to bite Republicans.  Now suddenly he needs to spend more time with family and can't wait til the end of the term. Something  went wrong.

74
Politics & Religion / Re: CA
« on: March 31, 2024, 08:03:16 AM »
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1773738867126161838

The wildest conspiracy ideas don't look so crazy anymore.

All those cameras and witnesses and no one knows who burned 1600 buildings in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2000. We don't know who burned the police precinct headquarters down. We don't know who burned the U. S. Post Office. But we have a list of every parent in the country who went to a school board meeting to speak out against sexualizing second grade children.

Selective surveillance.

Criminal laws literally incentivize gangs to use juveniles to commit their worst crimes.

What could go wrong.

76
Exactly right.  We are managing our economy and currency horribly, and the rest of the nations are doing worse.

77
India-US relationship had a bad week. My comments in green.

"US-India partnership had a bad week. Kejriwal row (corrupt politician, possible CIA). CAA controversy (US comment on India offering citizenship to minorities in muslim countries). Biden letter to Pakistan (Biden congratulating pak PM). US embassy invites Kashmiris to Iftar party (Basically inviting anti-India elements). Jaishankar (India's Foreign Minister) says India and Russia take good care of each other."

Current US President can't figure out who are friends should be.   Hopefully PM Modi knows we have a new President coming soon.

79
Politics & Religion / Re: RFK Jr.
« on: March 29, 2024, 05:31:52 PM »
A wife, 4 children, and a book full of cheating. Binders of women, and not Romney style.  Why is this not the least bit surprising.  Why do people like that even want to go into public life - even though his life is already public.

Democrats are about to go ruthless on one of their own.

Maybe little bobby will retaliate by bringing back Tara Reade stories and more where that came from.

Maybe Trump is the cleanest one running.

I wanted to add to the RFKjr saga, the man won't be welcome on NBC because of his election denying past.

Unless of course they have two standards for good and bad election denying.

81
The wealthiest one percent in President Joe Biden’s America set a record with a net worth of $44 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, U.S. Federal Reserve data revealed.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/03/29/joe-bidens-america-wealthiest-1-set-record-44-trillion-total-net-worth/

Meanwhile, A majority of voters are “worse off financially” under Biden, up 25 points since he assumed office in 2021, a Fox News poll found Wednesday.
----------------------

A friend was trying to make the point Jay Powell at the Fed is doing an amazing job.
 A short time ago we seemed headed into a recession and he seems to have navigated our way around that.

Doctored data tells us the jobs market is fine.  We know the rich are getting richer and targeting them doesn't stop that. 

We also see declining real wages and skyrocketing credit card debt, interest costs and bankruptcies.

Now imagine reversing the parties that are in and out of power with these data.  What would the 'mainstream' take on this be?

82
Politics & Religion / Re: Stacked in More Ways than One
« on: March 29, 2024, 12:42:07 PM »
In a shocking development, an amateur Aussie “women’s’ soccer team with five transgender player sweeps a tournament:

https://nypost.com/2024/03/27/us-news/outrage-after-flying-bats-soccer-team-goes-undefeated-with-5-transgender-players/

When do the lesbians (and other women) make their split with the Dems and the trans?  Are they proud enough of their women-hood enough to define it?  To protect it?  It's not just women's sports that are being destroyed.

83
Politics & Religion / Political Economics, Rigged Labor Market Data
« on: March 29, 2024, 12:38:28 PM »
Shocking.  They otherwise seem so honest.

The jobs market is much worse than Biden and his mouthpieces claim.
----------------
In February 2024, the US had 132.9 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Which is great… until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 921K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.941 million).

All the new jobs in the past year have been part-time jobs!

Not only has all job creation in the past 6 years – since May 2018 – has been exclusively for foreign-born workers, but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since June 2018!

https://confoundedinterest.net/2024/03/29/the-cold-reality-of-bidenomics-and-the-jobs-market-philadelphia-fed-admits-us-payrolls-overstated-by-at-least-800000-all-new-jobs-over-past-year-were-part-time-jobs/

https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/surveys-and-data/benchmark-revisions/2023/early-benchmark-2023-q3-report.pdf?la=en&hash=47BC6E4331A5DDB9953B8E912C8B9B8E
-----------------
Data analysis of the “more comprehensive, accurate job estimates released by the BLS as part of its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program“, the Philadelphia Fed found that the BLS had overstated jobs to the tune of 1.1 million!

In the aggregate, 10,500 net new jobs were added during the period rather than the 1,121,500 jobs estimated by the sum of the states; the U.S. CES estimated net growth of 1,047,000 jobs for the period.
-----------------
For 2023 Q3, payroll jobs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia rose 0.5 percent, after adjusting for QCEW data.

Based on both the prebenchmark CES sum of states and the U.S. CES, payroll jobs grew 1.7 percent.
The revised CES sum-of-states growth rate is 0.5 percent
----------------
a little over a year after we, or rather the Philly Fed, found that the BLS had overstated payrolls in 2022 by 1.1 million, here we go again, only this time the BLS had overstated payrolls by 800,000 through Dec 2023 (and more if one were to extend the data series into 2024). It’s truly statistically remarkable how every time the data error is in favor of a stronger, if fake, economy.

Which is also why nobody in the mainstream media – which is now nothing more than the PR smokescreen for the Biden puppetmasters, the government and the deep state – will ever mention this report.

Anthony B. Sanders is Distinguished Professor of Real Estate Finance in the School of Business at George Mason University. He has previously taught at University of Chicago (Graduate School of Business), University of Texas at Austin (McCombs School of Business) and The Ohio State University (Fisher College of Business).






84
Science, Culture, & Humanities / Re: Nuclear Power
« on: March 29, 2024, 11:24:52 AM »
Strange that it's year four and we still haven't needed a thread for things the Biden administration has gotten right.

But give credit where due:

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4560203-biden-administration-announces-1-5-billion-loan-for-first-reopening-of-a-shuttered-nuclear-plant/

“Nuclear power is our single largest source of carbon free electricity, directly supporting 100,000 jobs across the country and hundreds of thousands more indirectly,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, in a statement.

  - [Doug]  Where the hell have you been?  It's year four.  You should be finishing this project, not starting it.

85
https://amgreatness.com/2024/03/28/obama-fears-trump-win-in-2024-making-frequent-calls-to-bidens-chief-of-staff/


Umm, isn't it Obama's staff anyway, wasn't he calling the shots, that is until Joe refused to step down late last year.

Name three things Clinton, Obama and Biden have in common.

Lost the House, lost the Senate, lost the race for the successor.

One more thing, they could lie to your face without hesitation.  I didn't have sexual relations with that woman Monica Lewinski.  You can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. I had nothing to do with my son's business dealings.

How would these advice sessions from Obama to Joe go?

  'Uh Joe, uh, tell 'em your gonna tax the rich.'  'Barack, I already did.'  'Uh Joe, leave the border open'.  'Barack, it's open.'  ' Uh Joe, tell 'em your gonna transform America.'  'Into what?'

Nothing funny here, point is Clinton and Obama got by on personal political skills, not by having magical ideas or governing well.

Clinton was saved by Newt Gingrich.  He was on a one term path before Republicans took Congress.

Obama was saved by Mitt Romney and Candy Crowley.  If Mitt had done his homework and stood up to Candy with facts, Barack was also headed to the ash heap of one term Presidents history - and there would be no Trump.

86
https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/baltimore-bridge-sc-ports-charleston-scdot/article_50948158-ec46-11ee-a06c-e7f7c61b6020.html

If you're making 6 digit salaries in port safety, all these ideas coming out in hindsight would have been good ideas in foresight as well.

But 3 years focus on mid gender bathrooms can be all consuming.

87
Science, Culture, & Humanities / Re: Invisibility Shield?
« on: March 28, 2024, 07:00:30 PM »
Ok this is really cool.

88
Politics & Religion / Re: California Judge Disbars Trump Lawyer
« on: March 28, 2024, 12:31:59 PM »
Outrageous.  Chapman was Dean of the Chapman University Law School.

Zacarias Moussaoui has a right to have legal counsel advocate on his behalf.  Donald Trump doesn't.

Of course they are trying to scare all good lawyers from ever assisting Trump.

I think it's called, operation backfire.

89
Politics & Religion / Re: Meghan Kelly on drudgereport
« on: March 28, 2024, 12:03:55 PM »
Maybe so but I think something else happened.  It was speculated that it was sold. Drudge must have had a non-disclosure because he wouldn't speak about the change.

It used to be one of the top sites on the internet. He broke the story of Monica Lewinsky. I think Breitbart worked for him.

Then one day you and I noticed there were nothing but left-wing stories there.

Now it seems that Drudge isn't one of the top 1000 websites in the world.
https://ahrefs.com/top

90
Politics & Religion / Re: Bridges and Infrastructure
« on: March 28, 2024, 10:28:56 AM »
let me get this straight

of 4 listed missing in the bridge collapse

one from Mexico
one from Guatemala
one from El Salvador
one from Honduras

you know what I am wondering.

I think they were in a work truck on the bridge.  Yes they might be ... the word we're not supposed to use.

91
Politics & Religion / RFK Jr. is not a libertarian or a conservative
« on: March 28, 2024, 10:26:56 AM »
This point is already moot but let's bury it forever. This guy is a radical left winger and I hope he takes away all the radical left wing votes he can get. He is a name caller and a hater with vitriol way preceding what they think is offensive from DJT.

I tried to find uotes and links from someone else's compilation. (Older source links disappearing)

https://www.independentsentinel.com/rfk-endorses-aocs-green-new-deal-calls-for-climate-taxation/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/23/robert-kennedy-jr-we-need-laws-punish-global-warmi/

Hog farmers(?) a bigger threat than Osama bin Laden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWQ8KHj8Az4

https://www.climatedepot.com/2014/09/21/robert-f-kennedy-jr-wants-to-jail-his-political-opponents-accuses-koch-brothers-of-treason-they-ought-to-be-serving-time-for-it/

6/24/2007 on "Hardball", blamed the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center on President Reagan’s rollback of CAFE standards in 1986.
-----
Many of the problems of today, Kennedy traced back to actions taken by Reagan. Kennedy believes the American people are fed a media diet of right-wing propaganda, and it "all started in 1988 when Ronald Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine said that the airwaves belong to the public. They were public-trust assets, like air and water, and broadcasters could be licensed to use them" but they must use them in the public interest and to advance democracy.

If the Fairness Doctrine was still in place, "You could not have a Fox News," he said, nor a Rush Limbaugh, for that matter. But the doctrine is gone and Fox and Limbaugh are here. Quoting Pew Research, Kennedy said, 30 percent of Americans now get their news from talk radio, which is 90 percent dominated by the right. Another large number of Americans say their primary news source is Fox News, which Kennedy clearly believed would be better named Faux News.
-----
2/8/2014, On Friday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell gave left-wing environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a platform to denounce the Keystone Pipeline. Kennedy ranted: "The people who are promoting this are the Koch brothers, who spent $2 million trying to hurt him [Obama], the Tea Party people in Congress, and the Republicans who have been trying to block every part of his agenda.
------
3/7/2012  “Speaking of prostitutes, big oil’s top call girl Sen Inhofe wants to kill fuel economy backed by automakers, small biz, enviros, & consumers,” the New York-based environmentalist wrote Tuesday on Twitter.
------
11/16/2011  President John F. Kennedy’s nephew, Robert Kennedy, Jr., netted a $1.4 billion bailout for his company, BrightSource, through a loan guarantee issued by a former employee-turned Department of Energy official.  It’s just one more in a string of eye-opening revelations by investigative journalist and Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer in his explosive new book, Throw Them All Out.
-----
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Endorses Charlie Crist, Attacks Tea Party
10/13/10  Kennedy is asked about the tea party and why he is demonizing them, he responds by calling them 'crackpots'.
-----
RFK, Jr. 15 months ago: Global warming means no snow or cold in DC
Washington Examiner ^ | February 7, 2010 | David Freddoso

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who flies around on private planes so as to tell larger numbers of people how they must live their lives in order to save the planet, wrote a column last year on the lack of winter weather in Washington, D.C.

"In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today's anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don't own a sled. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers.
"In those days, I recall my uncle, President Kennedy, standing erect as he rode a toboggan in his top coat, never faltering until he slid into the boxwood at the bottom of the hill. Once, my father, Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, brought a delegation of visiting Eskimos home from the Justice Department for lunch at our house. They spent the afternoon building a great igloo in the deep snow in our backyard. My brothers and sisters played in the structure for several weeks before it began to melt. On weekend afternoons, we commonly joined hundreds of Georgetown residents for ice skating on Washington's C&O Canal, which these days rarely freezes enough to safely skate.

"Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil and its carbon cronies continue to pour money into think tanks whose purpose is to deceive the American public into believing that global warming is a fantasy."
-----
6/13/2009, Boston Herald
JACKSON, Miss. - Robert Kennedy Jr. says that some right-wing broadcast hosts are feeding the sort of hatred behind this year.
-----
2008: "The stuff that ACORN was involved in really was people who were working for ACORN defrauding ACORN."
https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2008-10-17/segment/01
-----
7/11/2007  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined Neal Cavuto to discuss his hateful remarks at last weekend’s ‘Live Earth’ concert. Kennedy. Jr. called Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity, among others, flat-earthers and traitors for being skeptical of global warming.

The other person he included in his tirade was ABC host John Stossel. Stossel joined the show after a commercial break to go head-to-head with Kennedy Jr. All Kennedy could seem to do is say there is a consensus that there is global warming and call Mr. Stossel a liar, a typical liberal tactic.
-----
The Incredible Shrinking Credibility of RFK, Jr.
RealClearPolitics ^ | June 7, 2006 | Tom Bevan
Posted on 6/7/2006, 12:01:47 AM by RWR8189

If the current trend continues, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is going to end up being involved in the journalistic equivalent of the Bay of Pigs. His article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Republicans stole the 2004 election in Ohio is coming under a massive assault - and from the unlikeliest of places. Monday in Salon, Farhad Manjoo reduced RFK, Jr.'s seemingly authoritative argument to rubble. Democratic pollster Mark Blumenthal followed suit later the same day by taking down Kennedy's claim that exit polling is an "exact science" and highlighting how he either misinterpreted or willfully distorted numerous aspects of exit poll analysis contained in the Edison-Mitofsky report.

Last Friday RFK, Jr. asserted on CNN, "There's no legitimate dispute that there was a massive, concerted, deliberate effort by high level-Republican Party officials to fix the election in Ohio. And the press has not covered this issue."
-----
Aug. 30, 2005 | NewsMax.com
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is blaming Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, along with President Bush, for causing Hurricane Katrina.

"As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2," Kennedy blogged Tuesday on HuffingtonPost.com.

The influential Democrat's enviro-conspiracy theory had the sinister Gov. Barbour engineering Bush's energy policy on behalf of "the president’s major donors from the fossil fuel industry." Kennedy charges that in March 2001, the former Republican National Committee chairman issued "an urgent memo to the White House" on CO2 emissions.

With that, the president dropped his pro-environment campaign promise like a hot potato.

Because of Bush and Barbour's CO2 folly, said Kennedy: "Now we are all learning what it’s like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged."

RFK, Jr. even suggested that Katrina's last minute detour through Mississippi was a bit of Divine payback, declaring:

"Perhaps it was Barbour’s memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast."
-----
RFK Jr: You know, my uncle was also shot amid a climate of right-wing hate
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/12/rfk-jr-you-know-my-uncle-was-also-shot-amid-a-climate-of-right-wing-hate/ ^
No mention Oswald was a communist.
-----
End of snow forever in DC
RFK jr.com ^ | September 24, 2008

92
Politics & Religion / Re: The Cognitive Dissonance of the left
« on: March 28, 2024, 09:34:44 AM »
Thanks ccp.  (I didn't know that.)

Biden has some health concerns as well.
https://www.moodyneuro.org/joe-biden-is-a-survivor/

It would be nice if the person pushing Sotomayor out for health reasons was - her, and not political hacks.  Former Justice Breyer looks like the character from Monte Python, look I'm still alive...

Who will they pick for the Female Hispanic Identity Seat?  Maybe someone just finishing liberal law school to get the maximum number of years out of her. Needless to say, white, conservative, constitutionalist males need not apply.

93
Politics & Religion / Re: Bridges and Infrastructure
« on: March 28, 2024, 09:23:04 AM »
"The bridge was built in 1977, during a time when ship sizes and tonnages were half or less on average than they are now. The bridge pylons and protective dolphins were likely not designed to withstand the transference of kinetic energy that it received from the fully loaded container ship striking it at 8.5mph., particularly a fully loaded ship the size of the Dali."


  - As this point, obviously not.  I always hate to comment early on disasters when we know so little.  But I do know the priority of concrete that could have reinforced this was more directed to building wind turbines than hypothetical bridge issues.

Remember Condaleeza Rice after 9/11 said no one could have imagined this.  Anyone who has driven a large boat through a small channel at low speeds could have imagined this.  A stalled boat has no steering and no brakes, and then momentum, current and wind take over.  You don't jump in and catch a 1000' ship.

They mention "single screw" a lot in the analyses.  https://www.seattleyachts.com/news/single-versus-twin-screw-propulsion

I don't know anything about 9000 container commercial ships but with large pleasure crafts, the single screw has no control in the tight channels compared to the dual.

Meanwhile, the highly paid people in Washington who might have foreseen this were in pronoun sensitivity training.

94
Politics & Religion / Re: Hunter fux a Ho
« on: March 28, 2024, 08:58:50 AM »
https://nypost.com/2024/03/03/opinion/hunter-bidens-chinese-legal-client-threatens-to-sue-unless-first-son-pays-back-1-million/


"...because he claims Hunter did no legal work for him."


If everyone foreign entity who gave Hunter a million dollars and got not work in return for it sued him, he wouldn't be a very rich man...

If he refunds the income, does he get a rebate on the taxes he paid - oh wait - he didn't pay taxes.  Some kind of little known first family (Dem) exemption IIRC.

95
Any irony here?  The people promoting Biden at 82 are afraid that Sonia Sotomayor is too old at 69.

https://headlineusa.com/panicked-dems-want-sotomayor-69-to-retire-before-trump-77-wins-presidency/

Besides losing the presidency as the polls stand today, Democrats see that they may never control the Senate again.

As they radicalize the polarization, half the country is extreme maga, whatever that is, Red States may not elect democratic senators anymore. Cf West Virginia, Montana, Ohio.

96
Politics & Religion / Re: Gov. Ron DeSantis
« on: March 28, 2024, 08:43:12 AM »
DeSantis is rather awesome IMHO.

Note how frequently he promptly responds to problems with solutions!

Yes.  Also having a legislature that is so on-the-ball - didn't happen by accident.

Florida was a swing state when RD was elected.  We remember Bush Gore 2000.  Obama won Florida twice.  Suddenly this is a state that has its act together like no other.

Florida has 3rd largest population, a LOT of major cities, and barely over 50% white non-Hispanic population, and a lot of those are east coast liberal northerners.  Now it is Republican.
https://www.florida-demographics.com/cities_by_population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Florida

One of my proudest moments was beating their top 55 and over doubles team at Nationals.  )

We weren't wrong to hope what was happening in Florida could happen for all of America.

98
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/opinions/gaza-israel-resigning-state-department-sheline/index.html

Here is the depth of one of those government workers making way more than productive sector workers.

What was she paid to do, make sure Hamas has everything they need?

99
Science, Culture, & Humanities / Rest in Peace RIP Joe Lieberman
« on: March 27, 2024, 08:32:08 PM »
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/joe-lieberman-former-connecticut-senator-2000-vice-presidential-nominee-dead-82.amp

The 2000 vp debate was the last (or only?) gentlemanly debate we've had in this country.

Biden Palin, Biden Ryan, Biden Trump, these were all horrible.  Joe was a gentleman, got along with both sides. Always tried to be reasonable, and that's pretty good in politics.

He has my respect. Rest in peace Joe.

To everyone else, these falls as we age, it's a thing. Let's take some precautions.

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