Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life!
Friday, December 31, 2021
Florida surgeon general says Biden admin is 'actively preventing' distribution of monoclonal antibody treatment amid Omicron surge - TheBlaze
Shut it down!-----Criminals have stolen nearly $100 billion in Covid relief funds: Secret Service
"Criminals have stolen close to $100 billion in pandemic relief funds, the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday.
The stolen funds were diverted by fraudsters from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and a another program.
Recovered funds include more than $400 million from PayPal and Green Dot Corporation.
Horowitz: Letter to FAA warns that federal law prohibits commercial pilots from flying after taking experimental shots - TheBlaze
What Do We Do with the FBI Now? - American Thinker
- Hillary Clinton investigation-in-name-only,
- the Crossfire Hurricane hoax,
- the targeting of Americans as domestic terrorists, and
- playing three blind mice with the Biden graft machine,
There are only two options: rehabilitate the FBI, or eliminate it...Read all, it matters!!!
Kamala Harris' 'Biggest Failure'? Where to Begin?
The public isn’t being fooled by all the blather coming from Harris and President Joe Biden.
In less than one year, the president and Harris have taken the economic and border successes of the Trump administration and turned them in the opposite direction. The two appear weak and indecisive.
The Shady Side of Student Loan Forgiveness
As the collective student loan debt in the U.S. surpasses $1.7 trillion, President Joe Biden’s administration is gearing up to provide over $11.5 billion in student loan relief for nearly 600,000 borrowers. In addition to the fiscal nightmare this will pass onto taxpayers, it has also created a predatory market that thrives on selling student data and information.
Student loan debt has been accumulating at an alarming rate, increasing by more than 100 percent in the last decade alone. Perhaps more alarming is that of the 43.2 million student borrowers in debt within the United States, each owes an average of $39,351. Currently, there are some student loan forgiveness programs through the federal government for specific circumstances, such as for public employees or doctors who work in rural areas. But one loan forgiveness program in particular is becoming increasingly problematic: Borrower to Defense Repayment (BDR).
BDR loan forgiveness operates on the basis that a college defrauded a student by failing them on the educational services provided. While there are surely legitimate claims through BDR, there are also alarming loopholes within the rules that allow for massive amounts of student debt to be unjustifiably forgiven at the taxpayers’ expense. As noted in a study from the University of Chicago, student debt forgiveness favors the top 20 percent of earners, meaning it is more of an expensive bailout for educated and generally well-off individuals at the expense of all taxpayers, many of whom did not even go to college.
Interestingly, those who rack up large amounts of student debt typically come from more affluent families and run up their tab by attending out-of-state private schools, while those from lower-income backgrounds are more likely to make cost-saving decisions and reduce the amount of debt they take on. If the loopholes within BDR loan forgiveness persist, then taxpayers could be on the hook to pay for the billions of dollars worth of loans forgiven.
What’s perhaps even more alarming is just how these BDR claims are coming to fruition. Recently, a handful of companies have popped up with information or offers to assist those looking for help with the loan forgiveness process. Although these services seem well-intentioned, their goals are actually quite nefarious. They specifically market to students to collect their data to sell to trial attorneys as leads for potential lawsuit claims, all unbeknownst to the student. As one might suspect, this has turned many trial attorneys’ dreams into reality, as more frivolous class action lawsuits are being filed against colleges thanks to these predatory recruiting ads. This is effectively opening up every private educational institution to massive claims or losses.
While calls for student loan forgiveness continue, it is important to look at what is specifically driving this debt to skyrocket. One key factor driving student loan debt is federally-backed student loans. Research shows that for every dollar of federal aid, institutional grant aid is reduced by $0.83, meaning the intended reduction of costs from federal aid is offset significantly by reductions in institutional aid and leads to students increasing their loan amount since they are not actually benefiting from more affordable tuition. In addition to federally-backed student loans, overly bloated administrative costs are also driving up tuition prices. Administrative costs cover non-instructional staff who are not directly contributing to educating students within the classroom.
Although administrative staff is shown to have very little impact on graduation rates, administrative costs managed to increase by 61.2 percent from 1993 to 2007. Today, the cost of tuition is up 361 percent since 1963 (inflation-adjusted), and the average student attending a 4 year-public college will need $26,615 for the academic year when factoring in the price of tuition, room and board, books, and other necessities.
With the price of a college education being so expensive, it is understandable how collective student loan debt within the United States got to the amount it is at today. However, there are better solutions to address this debt than pushing the financial burden into taxpayers through loan forgiveness schemes. Instead, policymakers should address the rapidly rising costs of attending college and close the glaring loopholes within Borrower to Defense Repayment. Not only would this save billions of dollars and actually make college more affordable, but it would also minimize the opportunity for predatory companies to take advantage of vulnerable students by invading their privacy and selling their information to tort lawyers.
Here's What's Happening to Millions in Taxpayer-Funded Border Wall Materials
That pile of rusting panels could build 100 miles of wall...Read all.
Some men just want to watch the world burn | Intellectual Takeout
"...We seem to have forgotten that the West’s system of government and general political outlook has traditionally been rooted in the idea that all men commit both good and evil, and that some evil cannot be remedied by any means other than force.
Minnesota school district approves extra pay for non-white teachers - TheBlaze
The joke's on us!-----Fauci’s Wife Heads Department of Bioethics at NIH
- Dr. Doom's colossal conflict of interest.Thu Dec 30, 2021
History for December 31
- 1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.
- 1775 - The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.
- 1857 - Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.
- 1891 - New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.
- 1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time.
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Mark Levin: Jan 6 Committee's 'evidence' of Trump's 'criminal conduct' ends up proving just the opposite - TheBlaze
Study Raises Questions About “Long Covid”
"...The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on November 8. surveyed nearly 27,000 adults (mean age; 49 years and 4 months) and
- asked who (self-described) had COVID-19 and who was suffering from persistent ailments, such as fatigue, breathlessness, and impaired attention.
...The researchers write, “self-reported COVID-19 infection was associated with most persistent physical symptoms, whereas laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection was associated only with anosmia [loss of sense of smell].
FBI, informants drove plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer, charges should be dropped, defendants say - mlive.com
People do not feel safe anymore: Lee Zeldin
Was This the Moment People Lost Trust in the Medical Establishment?
"As the Biden administration continues to fumble its response to the latest wave of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, threats of additional restrictions are looming.
- Last night, President Joe Biden told reporters he would implement a vaccine requirement for domestic flights if his medical team recommended it. Earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci did just that.
Not to mention the hypocritical behavior of Democrat leaders locking down their constituents while enjoying their own freedom...Read all!
MSNBC producer raises eyebrows by referring to 'China's alleged human rights abuses' - TheBlaze
California’s Great Climate Fail
"President Biden has made California his green-energy model, so it’s noteworthy that a new study shows that the Golden State is failing to meet its greenhouse-gas emissions goals in part because of its climate obsession.
...Last year Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered that
- sales of new gas-powered cars be banned by 2035.
- Then during the summer, CARB upped the ante by proposing to require all new light-duty cars sold in the state by 2025 be electric, and that
- refineries be shut down by 2035, which would effectively ban gas-powered cars.
Angst filled liberal refuses to look in mirror-----Here is what confuses me about San Francisco.
We have a $13B budget.
And we have 8,000 people sleeping in the rain this week.
Can someone please explain this to me?
What do progressives stand for, exactly?
I thought it was about making things more fair.
About standing up for the little guy.
About human rights, equality (equity?), compassion.
San Francisco (to me) looks like the least compassionate city on the planet.
The slums of Mumbai look cleaner than the streets of downtown SF...Must read all. This moronic mindset is what is killing every lib-controlled city/state.
Cancel Culture and the Golden Age of Musical Theater | Intellectual Takeout
With cancel culture shredding our culture, that expression might take on a whole new meaning. Sing some of the songs from this tale of U.S. sailors fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, and you might find your reputation hanging from the nearest oak tree.
Let’s start with the score’s most egregious offense in today’s politically poisoned climate: its treatment of women. Back in 1949, when the musical first appeared, euphemisms for women like “dolls,” “dames,” and “broads” were as common as saddle shoes and bouffant hairdos. Oscar Hammerstein, lyricist for South Pacific, opens the song “Honey Bun” with these words:
My doll is as dainty as a sparrow,
Her figure is something to applaud,
Where she’s narrow, she’s narrow as an arrow,
And she’s broad where a broad should be broad.
When sung, those “broads” come as “baaaa-rod. Sing it that way today, and the misandrists will be after you with stilettos—and I don’t mean high heels.
“There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame” contains lines like these...
- The critical theorists who dominate so many of the humanities departments in our universities are behind the cancel culture movement, teaching students a new Trinity:
- recognition of oppression,
- protest against that oppression, and
- liberation.
Which means wiping out our past.
This erasure of culture is not unique to the United States. It has already occurred in Communist China and in other Communist states and is well underway in Western Europe. Customs, traditions, the arts, history itself: all are under steady assault. As in those places, radicals and their weak-kneed accomplices are putting the butcher’s blade to our American culture and history.
What will be the outcome if we allow this butchery?
In “The crusade to erase history,” columnist Christine Flowers cites this passage from George Orwell’s 1984:
Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.
Flowers then writes, “I will not say the appropriate things. I will not apologize for a guilt I do not bear. I will not engage in pithy, socially woke slogans. I will not grovel, bend the knee or worry that my words might get me ostracized, unemployed or even killed.”
Her words should serve as banners and bugles to the rest of us.
As for me at this moment, it’s time to clean the house and listen to South Pacific.
Full blast."...Read all!!
Homeless Man Attacks People with Homemade Flamethrower - Louder With Crowder
A really neat story and link to a bunch of other cool info!-----Don Surber: Highlights of the News
ITEM 1: Hey, remember when Maggie Haberman of NYT heard the band play Edelweiss at Trump's White House and freaked out thinking it was a Nazi song? It was written by two Jewish men a dozen years after the war and for their antiwar, anti-Nazi musical The Sound of Music.
And now for the rest of the story.In the movie version of the musical, Julie Andrews portrayed Maria Von Trapp, who became the matriarch of a family of singers.
Life News reported, "The von Trapps were new to America when Maria was pregnant with her son, Johannes, the youngest of their 10 children. The family also was struggling financially because they recently had lost their fortune in a bank crash in Europe, according to the report.
"Then, more bad news came. When Maria visited a doctor complaining of severe back pains, he told her that she needed to abort her baby."
They were Catholic.
The story said, "However, the von Trapps refused to consider aborting their unborn son. Instead, they began to pray, asking God to heal both Maria and Johannes. When Maria went into labor, the family gathered together to pray the rosary and sing hymns together, she wrote in her book."
Lord willing and the creek don't rise, he will celebrate his 83rd birthday next month...Much more here, read all!
History for December 30
- 1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
- 1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.
- 1924 - Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.
- 1953 - The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.
- 1978 - Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
New poll finds four Democrat politicians with very low approval ratings, but one Republican with the worst - TheBlaze
They've allowed the unions to destroy the entire system!-----Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs law allowing any district employee with a high school diploma or GED to substitute teach
What the hell is going on???-----House of Representatives Votes to Eradicate Blasphemy Against Islam - American Thinker
"The House of Representatives has passed a bill that seeks to eradicate blasphemy against Islam.
Horowitz: A private business can discriminate based on a vaccine? Tell that to Christian photographers - TheBlaze
the exact moment my trust in our public heath experts began to erode...
"AT THE APEX OF THE PIVOT:
As Greenwald writes in his follow-up tweet, “That episode single-handedly destroyed trust in public health officials, proving they’d politicize their expertise when convenient.
Corporate media celebrated a douchebag-lawyer shaming families at deserted beaches, then — overnight! — cheered densely packed street protests.”
Flashbacks:
Report: More than 150 people in one Texas county have been killed by suspects released on bond - TheBlaze
American voice!-----Man who told Biden ‘let’s go Brandon’ makes no apologies, corrects the record where he stands on Trump
"The Oregon man who made headlines for saying “Let’s go Brandon” while on a live call with President Joe Biden defended himself in a new interview and asserted that former President Donald Trump should “still be the president right now.”
Former police officer Jared Schmeck told Steve Bannon on his “War Room” podcast that he had made the comment on the Christmas Eve call with the president and first lady Jill Biden “in a joking manner.”
But, Schmeck added, he felt it was also his chance to “voice my disapproval of this man and his administration.”
The 35-year-old father of four sent the left into a collective meltdown when he not only uttered the phrase which has become an understated way of saying “F— Joe Biden,” but that the president repeated it without seeming to understand its meaning...Click to see fabulous video!
Hypocritical scum!-----Stop insulting us with phony social distancing theatre! - American Thinker
But when they thought the cameras were turned off, they hugged:
Minneapolis Target Holds Semi-Annual 'Everything Is Free' Sale | The Babylon Bee
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—We at The Babylon Bee try to keep you posted on the latest deals, sales, and offers from your favorite stores.
Today, we've got a great deal alert for you: all the Targets in the greater Minneapolis area are planning a big "everything is free" sale in celebration of the end of the Derek Chauvin trial.
Preservationists reveal contents of 1887 time capsule crews found hidden inside base of Robert E. Lee statue - TheBlaze
Flashback: Remember when Rachel Maddow said 'the virus does not infect' vaccinated people? - TheBlaze
One reason so many Americans have been cautious about the jabs lately is that the new shots don't follow the traditional understanding of how vaccines work: by keeping you from getting whatever bug you've been inoculated against.
You know — the normal understanding of "vaccine."
But what "vaccine" means has been tweaked over the last several months.
VIDEO: Jussie Smollett and The Hate Hoax Pandemic
- Jussie Smollett has become the poster child for hate hoaxes, but Jussie is just the latest in a long line of hate fakery.
History for December 29
- 1170 - St. Thomas Becket, the 40th archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II's orders.
- 1812 - The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.
- 1813 - The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
- 1911 - Sun Yat-sen became the first president of a republican China.
- 1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.
- 1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation.
- 1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of 'bird flu.'
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
CDC shortens isolation and quarantine time recommendations - TheBlaze
Commies demolish and disappear Tiananmen Square statue in attempt to erase history - TheBlaze
As TheBlaze noted back in October, the regime's latest attempt to erase history — and slap around Hong Kong just to show the city who's boss — was the planned removal of the Pillar of Shame from the campus of the University of Hong Kong.
School cans singing of ‘Jingle Bells’ due to ‘potential to be controversial or offensive’
And that’s all Tappon (below, left) had to offer.
Health expert says COVID cases should no longer be 'major metric' of pandemic, urges shift to hospitalizations, deaths - TheBlaze
Victor Davis Hanson: This is what the media is
"For the last time this year, I’m asking..." NOT The BEE!
In just a moment, I am going to ask you to make a $7 donation to the DNC ahead of Friday’s end-of-year fundraising deadline. But before I do, I hope you’ll give me a moment to explain why chipping in is so important to Joe and Kamala’s mission -- and why I’ve never been more committed to our shared fight for progress. With 2022 days away, I can’t help but think back on all that we’ve accomplished this past year -- and just how many firsts we saw. In January, my wife Kamala became the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be sworn in as Vice President. Then, with the help of our Democratic Senate, we confirmed the most diverse Cabinet in history -- a Cabinet that looks like America. And earlier this month, I celebrated Hanukkah in the People’s House as the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president. These firsts should be celebrated -- but they also serve as reminders of how much work we have ahead. It’s our responsibility to make sure our efforts don’t end here, which is why I’m reaching out to you today...don't read on. |
Lunch video-----The woman who tamed lightning | Hertha Marks Ayrton | BBC Ideas
Census: 1% of California's Population Moved Out of the State in 2021
California lost one percent of its population over the last year as residents fled for other states, the United States Census Bureau revealed this week.
While California’s population stands at more than 39.5 million, a record high, the state lost more than 367,000 residents over the last year. The state’s population decline is among the largest in the nation.
Imagine if this was President Trump!-----Here’s President Joe Biden’s plan to get the coronavirus under control in four photos
"As Twitchy reported earlier, President Joe Biden held a conference call with governors Monday morning to tell them there is “no federal solution” to shutting down the coronavirus before hopping on Marine One and flying to his beach house in Delaware:
Biden campaigned on having a plan to shut down the virus, and according to this screenshot from his campaign website, it was a seven-point plan: