Miscellaneous news items that don't warrant their own thread

[UNI88]

A lie called climate change is your opinion.

Climate change is certainly real. of that there is zero doubt. The debate is over how to address it and respond to it, not whether it is happening or not.

I agree but I think BDK would argue that climate change is cyclical and not impacted by humankind.

[Caribbean Hen]

In a response filed Friday, Hastings wrote that Nathan Wade has taken trips to San Francisco and Napa Valley, Florida, Belize, Panama and Australia and has taken Caribbean cruises since filing for divorce and that Willis "was an intended travel partner for at least some of these trips as indicated by flights he purchased for her to accompany him."

[SeattleGriz]

A lie called climate change is your opinion.

Climate change is certainly real. of that there is zero doubt. The debate is over how to address it and respond to it, not whether it is happening or not.

Holy shit.

You have no proof climate change is beyond doubt.

Why are all the models and subsequent predictions shit? You propose a theory, run a real life example through the theory and see if your outputs/predictions are correct. They are not. Not even close.

[UNI88]

Greg Gutfeld Says Slur Word Is ‘Now Acceptable’ After Ex-GOP Rep Uses It On Air

Former GOP congressman Lee Zeldin on Wednesday used “retarded” on Fox News to describe Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) ideas and was reassured by host Greg Gutfeld that it was “OK.”

“You can say that now, it’s OK,” Gutfeld said as he mugged for the camera on his political satire show. “It’s now acceptable. I met with the associations and they said yes.”

Just to be clear, it’s not OK. The word has been thrown around as a general insult while mocking those with intellectual disabilities. “The term ... is increasingly considered offensive,” Merriam-Webster notes.

[BDKJMU]

Greg Gutfeld Says Slur Word Is ‘Now Acceptable’ After Ex-GOP Rep Uses It On Air

Former GOP congressman Lee Zeldin on Wednesday used “retarded” on Fox News to describe Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) ideas and was reassured by host Greg Gutfeld that it was “OK.”

“You can say that now, it’s OK,” Gutfeld said as he mugged for the camera on his political satire show. “It’s now acceptable. I met with the associations and they said yes.”

Just to be clear, it’s not OK. The word has been thrown around as a general insult while mocking those with intellectual disabilities. “The term ... is increasingly considered offensive,” Merriam-Webster notes.

Slow news day?

[BDKJMU]

Toyota Chairman: EVs Will Cap At 30% Of Market, 'Engines Will Surely Remain'

With a billion people in the world living without electricity, limiting their choices and ability to travel by making expensive cars isn’t the answer, the grandson of the company’s founder said during a business event this month, according to remarks published on the company’s media platform Tuesday. “Customers — not regulations or politics — should make that decision,” he said.

No matter how much progress BEVs [Battery Electric Vehicles] make, I think they will still only have a 30 % market share . Then, the remaining 70 % will be HEVs , FCEVs , and hydrogen engines. And I think engine cars will definitely remain.

I think this is something that customers and the market will decide, not regulatory values or political power. [Bolding and underlining theirs.

That's why Toyota Motor Corporation, which is competing all over the world, has a full lineup of multi-pathway products.

https://toyotatimes.jp/toyota_news/1055 ... chorTitles
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2024/01/23 ... e-n2169128

[BDKJMU]

What a joke. Guy intentionally releases the tax returns of the POTUS over 1k other Americans and gets a 5 year slap on the wrist. Should have gotten life.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/ex-irs-co ... 024-01-29/

[UNI88]

What a joke. Guy intentionally releases the tax returns of the POTUS over 1k other Americans and gets a 5 year slap on the wrist. Should have gotten life.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/ex-irs-co ... 024-01-29/

Individual who released tax returns should get life in prison but individuals who stormed our Capitol and tried to prevent the Constitutional transfer of power are hostages?

[BDKJMU]

What a joke. Guy intentionally releases the tax returns of the POTUS over 1k other Americans and gets a 5 year slap on the wrist. Should have gotten life.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/ex-irs-co ... 024-01-29/

Individual who released tax returns should get life in prison but individuals who stormed our Capitol and tried to prevent the Constitutional transfer of power are hostages?

The individual tried to subvert an election by intentionally, illegally, releasing the tax return of the sitting POTUS. Sounds like seditious conspiracy..

Also the individual violated the privacy of more than 1,000 Americans by intentially amd illegally releasing their tax returns..

[UNI88]

Individual who released tax returns should get life in prison but individuals who stormed our Capitol and tried to prevent the Constitutional transfer of power are hostages?

The individual tried to subvert an election by intentionally, illegally, releasing the tax return of the sitting POTUS. Sounds like seditious conspiracy..

Also the individual violated the privacy of more than 1,000 Americans by intentially amd illegally releasing their tax returns..

The individual absolutely violated the privacy of Americans and should be sentenced accordingly.

The argument that the individual tried to subvert an election is much more tenuous than the argument that the January 6 traitors did. It's a little more valid than an argument that trump tried to subvert an election by ignoring precedent and refusing to voluntarily release his returns.

[BDKJMU]

The individual tried to subvert an election by intentionally, illegally, releasing the tax return of the sitting POTUS. Sounds like seditious conspiracy..

Also the individual violated the privacy of more than 1,000 Americans by intentially amd illegally releasing their tax returns..

The individual absolutely violated the privacy of Americans and should be sentenced accordingly.

The argument that the individual tried to subvert an election is much more tenuous than the argument that the January 6 traitors did. It's a little more valid than an argument that trump tried to subvert an election by ignoring precedent and refusing to voluntarily release his returns.

The judge even criticized him being one charged witj ome count despite intentionally illegally releasing the returns of Trump and 1k+ (or thousands) of American’s returns.

Reyes was also critical of the Justice Department’s decision to only bring one count against Littlejohn.
“The fact that he did what he did and he’s facing one felony count, I have no words for,” the judge said.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/01/29 ... e-n2169381

[UNI88]

The individual absolutely violated the privacy of Americans and should be sentenced accordingly.

The argument that the individual tried to subvert an election is much more tenuous than the argument that the January 6 traitors did. It's a little more valid than an argument that trump tried to subvert an election by ignoring precedent and refusing to voluntarily release his returns.

The judge even criticized him being one charged witj ome count despite intentionally illegally releasing the returns of Trump and 1k+ (or thousands) of American’s returns.

Reyes was also critical of the Justice Department’s decision to only bring one count against Littlejohn.
“The fact that he did what he did and he’s facing one felony count, I have no words for,” the judge said.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/01/29 ... e-n2169381

The judge is right, he should have been charged with more than one count.

I don't know what appropriate sentencing might be but it's laughable that someone would argue he deserves life in prison while supporting the argument that the January 6 traitors are hostages. They earned longer sentences than Littlejohn.

[UNI88]

$500 million Harvard megadonor halts donations, says elite schools produce ‘whiny snowflakes’

He's not wrong and they've been doing it for a long time. Examples:
- donald trump
- ron deconkis
- elise stefanik
- josh hawley
- ted cruz
- jd vance
- blake masters

[Skjellyfetti]

A Pennsylvania man has been arrested after allegedly killing his own father, before displaying his decapitated head in a gruesome YouTube video while spouting right-wing conspiracy theories.

Justin Mohn, 32, is accused of killing his father Michael Mohn, Capt. Pete Feeney of the Middletown Township Police Dept. told NBC News.

Justin Mohn was taken into custody on suspicion of first degree murder, abuse of a corpse and possessing an instrument of crime with intent, according to a court docket released early Wednesday. He was arraigned at 4 a.m. and denied bail, Feeney said.

In the YouTube video, Mohn is seen wearing gloves holding his father's head in a plastic bag. Later the head can be seen in a cooking pot.

Mohn says his father was a federal employee for 20 years and refers to him as a traitor, calling for the death of all federal officials, attacking President Joe Biden's administration, the Black Lives Matter movement, the LGBTQ community and Antifa activists. YouTube removed the video, which is more than 14 minutes long, hours after it was posted.

NBC News has contacted Google, the parent company of YouTube, for comment.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pa ... rcna136509

[SeattleGriz]

$500 million Harvard megadonor halts donations, says elite schools produce ‘whiny snowflakes’

He's not wrong and they've been doing it for a long time.
Example:
- StUni

FYP

[UNI88]

$500 million Harvard megadonor halts donations, says elite schools produce ‘whiny snowflakes’

He's not wrong and they've been doing it for a long time.
Example:
- StUni

FYP

Thanks for pointing out the University of Northern Iowa is an elite school on par with Harvard, Yale, Penn, Stanford, etc.

[kalm]

FYP

Thanks for pointing out the University of Northern Iowa is an elite school on par with Harvard, Yale, Penn, Stanford, etc.

It’s the Harvard of the Cedar River Valley.

[houndawg]

Greg Gutfeld Says Slur Word Is ‘Now Acceptable’ After Ex-GOP Rep Uses It On Air

Former GOP congressman Lee Zeldin on Wednesday used “retarded” on Fox News to describe Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) ideas and was reassured by host Greg Gutfeld that it was “OK.”

“You can say that now, it’s OK,” Gutfeld said as he mugged for the camera on his political satire show. “It’s now acceptable. I met with the associations and they said yes.”

Just to be clear, it’s not OK. The word has been thrown around as a general insult while mocking those with intellectual disabilities. “The term ... is increasingly considered offensive,” Merriam-Webster notes.

I can't wait to see what soundtrack the commercial matches up with the film of trump doing his 'tard impression at the disabled reporter - the donk political ads on trump will be comedy gold this year

[GannonFan]

Here's one that transcends both parties and is just government sucking. At the end of the Trump administration, in one of the omnibus spending bills Congress included language to change the FAFSA system and how it calculates (the FAFSA is the Federal Student Loan program for college - Pell grants also come out of this). The US Dept of Education has been working on this new form for about 3 years now and this is the first year that the revised edition is being used. Typically, the FAFSA form is available starting October 1st. That way, when colleges start giving out their first batch of admission offers in late November and early December, what soon follows is the financial aid package from the school for the student. Even if you don't qualify for a Pell grant or other direct federal student aid, the FAFSA is normally how colleges figure out what financial packages to offer to other students (so grants, loans, etc).

Government being government, this year the FAFSA wasn't available until January 1st (so 3 months initial delay). The rollout wasn't smooth so most people didn't even start looking at this until mid to late January. Dept of Ed said schools would start getting data from the FAFSA by the end of January, but just now said it's likely not to start going out to colleges until March. That means that a good majority of students won't see a final tuition/financial aid package until possibly April. And of course decision day for deciding which school to go to is normally no later than May 1. And on top of that there are changes to the calculations - previous versions gave a break to parents with more than one kid in college, new version does away with that. Apparently farm owners are especially screwed as the total value of the farm operations are included in the calculations so, it's either sell the farm and use the money for college or get no money. And in even further irony, the main target for the benefits of this change, kids who qualify for Pell grants, could be the most hurt as now they'll have no idea if they can even afford college until well late into the process and may just decide to skip college and go get a job.

Way to go government, I guess even though they've completely screwed the pooch with this debacle, at least we weren't wasting time during this and got other things fixed and working. I hear the border is going really well now.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/12280825 ... 20college.

[UNI88]

Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Slams Taylor Swift ‘Idolatry’ Because ‘If You Look It Up in the Bible, It’s a Sin!’

They are totally over the top worshiping this woman. Have you seen any of the pictures of her in concert? I wouldn’t go myself. I don’t do that kind of thing anymore. But I think what they call it is, they’re elevating her to an idol.

Idolatry. This is a little bit of what idolatry, I think, looks like. And you’re not supposed to do that. In fact, if you look it up in the Bible, it’s a sin! So, I don’t like that. And I’m also over this new boyfriend.

Oh the irony of a MAGAt yahoo complaining about idolatry.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SeattleGriz]

In other news, Blue Eye Samurai was pretty fun to watch if you like animated shows (Netflix). Half Japanese, half American girl who's simply pissed she's a halfbreed. On a mission to kill the four American men that were in Japan and could be her father.

Episode 6 was fantastic.

This was how they started out the episode when she finally met up with one of her possible fathers.

[BDKJMU]

Fully electric cars are not there yet, technology-wise and by all the support systems (i.e. charging stations, electrical power grid, range, weather reliability, raw materials, etc) to be fully adopted over gas powered cars. No wishful thinking or "moon-shot" political gimmick will make it so. People are working on it, it's just a really big thing to get done on the scale we're talking about doing it. Landing on the moon was basically getting 3 guys there (well, 2 on the moon itself), a handful of times. Getting 350 million Americans to be able to swap gas powered cars for electric vehicles is a bigger challenge. It'll happen, just not by 2030.

In the meantime, hybrids are good options.

Sure hybrid. But there was never much natural demand for EVs. Instead it was a product being forced upon the consumer, subsidized with taxpayer money, all to combat a lie called "climate change".

[BDKJMU]

“The Secret Is Out” Wall Street Journal Breaks Massive Government EV Cheating Scandal

In the wake of the infamous 2015 Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal, which cost the German automaker a staggering $33 billion in fines and settlements, the automotive industry has faced increasing scrutiny over environmental compliance. However, a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Buschbacher, who is a partner at the law firm Boyden Gray PLLC, sheds light on a new scandal, one that involves electric vehicles and the questionable practices of government regulators. Here’s the full story.

The Hidden Scandal
The scandal, hidden away in the Federal Register, challenges the integrity of the government’s approach to enforcing fuel-efficiency rules for electric cars. Unlike the high-profile cases involving diesel emissions cheating, this scandal surrounding electric cars has garnered considerably less attention.

At the heart of the issue is a little-known rule buried on page 36,987 of volume 65 in the Federal Register.

The Values to Be Used
Automakers must use actual values measured in a lab environment when testing gasoline-powered vehicles for compliance with the Transportation Department’s fuel-efficiency regulations.

However, the Energy Department has a different set of rules for electric cars. According to this rule, carmakers are allowed to multiply the efficiency of electric cars by a factor of 6.67 arbitrarily. This means that a 2022 Tesla Model Y, for example, which tests at the equivalent of about 65 miles per gallon in a laboratory, is counted as having a compliance value of a staggering 430 mpg.

Lacks Any Basis
This inflated compliance value, as the opinion piece points out, lacks any basis in reality or law. The consequences of such exaggeration are not trivial.

Car manufacturers receive compliance credits as a reward for overstating electric-car efficiency. These credits can be traded for cash, and economists estimate their value could reach into the billions. Essentially, it becomes a cross-subsidy invented by bureaucrats, ultimately paid for by every individual purchasing a new gasoline-powered car.

A Well-Kept Secret
For years, this subsidy remained a well-kept secret in Washington. Both carmakers and regulators seemed content with this arrangement.

Regulators could set seemingly stringent targets, and carmakers could comply by producing electric cars with artificially inflated compliance values. Meanwhile, consumers remained unaware of the financial implications of this hidden subsidy.

The Expose
However, the secret is now out, thanks to environmental groups who exposed the illegality of this practice. The Energy Department has responded by proposing the elimination of the 6.67 multiplier for electric cars, accepting that the number has “no basis” and “lacks legal support.”

Carmakers have voiced their concerns and asked the Biden administration to postpone any return to engineering or legal realities in response to the proposed modifications.

The removal of the multiplier puts the Transportation Department’s proposed rules, which were likely crafted with the multiplier in mind, in a difficult position. Car manufacturers argue that the rules, without the multiplier, become unattainable.

Government-Created Cheat Codes
This revelation poses broader questions about the ethics of government-created cheat codes in regulatory frameworks. While carmakers may resist the removal of the multiplier due to the challenges it presents, the fundamental issue is the reliance on artificially inflated compliance values…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... r-BB1h1H58

[Caribbean Hen]

You can bet your last dollar all seventy of these scoundrels were Democrats

That’s what happens when you have too much government but hey, Nyc is a corrupt big blue machine

https://nypost.com/2024/02/06/metro/her ... -of-shame/


“In total, 70 current and former employees of the nation’s biggest public housing authority were charged Tuesday in a “classic pay-for-play” corruption scheme, which saw superintendents and administrators pocketing a collective $2 million in bribes over 10 years to secure work contracts at their properties.”

[SeattleGriz]

Huh. FBI ordered to hand over Seth Rich laptop so they keep making up new excuses as to why they can't.