vxbush 4/10/2025 5:32:16 AM

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vxbush 4/10/2025 5:40:22 AM

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vxbush 4/10/2025 5:41:20 AM

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Feds Wasting Billions of Tax Dollars on Opulent Office Furnishings, OpenTheBooks CEO Testifies

I saw this a few days ago. Who decided to spend millions on office furnishings during COVID? 

vxbush 4/10/2025 5:45:08 AM

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Disturbing New Details Emerge About the Second Plot to Assassinate Trump

He was trying to get an RPG or missile so he could attack Trump while in Air Force One. 

vxbush 4/10/2025 5:48:34 AM

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Bill Gates Lobbying White House to Reverse USAID Cuts: Report

Bill doesn't want to use his own money to run his foundation's projects, but note this story shared at the end of the article: 

As I reported on several years ago, it came to light well into the first Trump administration that Gates had gone to Trump back in December 2016, when he was president-elect, to pressure him not to look into vaccine safety, which the president was reportedly considering doing at the time at the behest of now-HHS Secretary RFK Jr.

According to Gates’ account of the encounter: “In both of those two meetings, [Trump] asked me if vaccines weren’t a bad thing, because he was considering a commission to look into ill effects of vaccines. And I said, ‘No, that’s a dead end. That would be a bad thing, don’t do that.’”

vxbush 4/10/2025 5:51:16 AM

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Chris Matthews demonstrates a clear lack of understanding about where wood comes from.

vxbush 4/10/2025 5:58:30 AM

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Feds Investigating Los Angeles Homeless Industrial Complex Spending - Here's How We Got Here

The usual markers of potential fraud are present: 

In 2020, during the COVID lockdowns, the LA Alliance for Human Rights sued both the City and County of Los Angeles in federal court, alleging that the city's homeless conditions violated of state and federal law and asking that the defendants be ordered to provide shelters and "wraparound services" for the homeless. Both the city and county entered settlement agreements with LA Alliance for the city to provide 20,000 beds and remove approximately 10,000 tents and vehicles from the streets by July 2027, and for the county to add 3,000 mental health beds and contribute funding to the beds the city agreed to provide. A federal monitor was appointed to assist Judge Carter in overseeing compliance.

Unsurprisingly, despite the massive influx of funding, the city isn't holding up its end of the bargain, and in late 2024 LA Alliance asked Judge Carter to slap the city with a $6.4 million fine. Instead, Judge Carter asked the city to pay for an independent audit of the last four years of its homelessness spending, and it reluctantly agreed.

The entire audit can be read here, but the thumbnail is that basic financial accountability and compliance procedures were completely absent, conflict-of-interest policies were totally ignored, and because of siloing there was duplication of spending and effort.

JCM 4/10/2025 6:47:36 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 3:

I had a CEO who was considering buying up a struggling company. He went to the company he found the C-suite was luxurious. He was pissed. No wonder they were struggling and is this how you spend investors money? He made them sell off that stuff before the purchase.

JCM 4/10/2025 6:49:59 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 5:

Gates is a legend in his own mind.

And has become dangerous.

JCM 4/10/2025 6:51:40 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 7:

The Homeless Industrial Complex is THE text book implementation of The Cloward-Piven Strategy.

JCM 4/10/2025 6:53:17 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 6:

I wonder if Matthews has ever left the confines of the beltway?

vxbush 4/10/2025 7:49:27 AM

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In #8 JCM said: I had a CEO who was considering buying up a struggling company. He went to the company he found the C-suite was luxurious. He was pissed. No wonder they were struggling and is this how you spend investors money? He made them sell off that stuff before the purchase.

C-suite love is pretty obvious, most of the time, but I would guess there are some C suites where the perks aren't as obvious but cost just as much. I'm thinking of all of those federal credit cards that were always paid and never tracked or even stopped until DOGE made a list. 

vxbush 4/10/2025 7:51:09 AM

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In #9 JCM said: Gates is a legend in his own mind. And has become dangerous.

Gates has been dangerous for many years. If I had to guess, it's part of the reason he stepped down from Microsoft. 

vxbush 4/10/2025 7:51:46 AM

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In #11 JCM said: I wonder if Matthews has ever left the confines of the beltway?

Heh. I rather think not. The beltway seems incredibly insular. Perhaps our own OR can speak on this? 

JCM 4/10/2025 7:59:53 AM

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Reply to JCM in 9:

On my commute your mention of Gates and a WA news item made a dime drop in my head.

1. The is a massive property tax increase in WA legislature that has a majority of hard core leftists. This increase will force many homeowners out.

2. Blackrock an Vanguard are buying up large numbers of homes.

3. Gates has significant ties to both companies.

4. Gates has significant influence in Olympia.

Placing my tinfoil hat firmly in place. None of this is a coincidence. 

JCM 4/10/2025 8:24:42 AM

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Reply to JCM in 15: sorry on my phone so formatting is messed up 

"You'll own nothing and you'll be happy" (alternatively "You'll own nothing and be happy") is a phrase from 2016 predictions for 2030 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF),

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27ll_own_nothing_and_be_happy

Gates is big on the WEF make that data point 5

Occasional Reader 4/10/2025 10:26:04 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 14:

So in general, affluent “ inside the beltway “people tend to be well traveled, but it’s a certain kind of travel.

Occasional Reader 4/10/2025 10:28:34 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 6:

i’m reminded of Obama once making a passing reference to “ steel mines“, if memory serves.

JCM 4/10/2025 10:39:35 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 17:

I tend to think of “ inside the beltway” as a mind set. Which fits with a certain type of travel.

buzzsawmonkey 4/10/2025 10:46:29 AM

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In #16 JCM said: "You'll own nothing and be happy") is a phrase from 2016 predictions for 2030 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF)

Wasn't "Own Nothing---Be Happy" Bobby Ferrin's big hit?

Occasional Reader 4/10/2025 10:50:25 AM

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Reply to JCM in 19:

and I can’t deny that my own travel kind of fits that same pattern. But at least I do know where wood comes from!

vxbush 4/10/2025 12:26:16 PM

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In #19 JCM said: I tend to think of “ inside the beltway” as a mind set. Which fits with a certain type of travel.

As I am most definitely not in the beltway, can you explain what you mean further? I see the types of proclamations people like Matthews make, and I'm rather shocked at what seems to be this huge disconnect between the brain and the mouth. 

Occasional Reader 4/10/2025 12:41:00 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 22:

 I mean, it’s travel involved in going to things like European capitals, nothing that would put them in touch with questions like “where does wood come from“.

Occasional Reader 4/10/2025 12:42:53 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 20:

Heh.

(It’s McFerrin, if memory serves.)

JCM 4/10/2025 12:43:14 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 22:

The Capital Beltway, I-495, the Interstate loop around DC. A geological demarcation of insular thinking of the professional political class, politicians, media, lobbyists and bureaucrats.

vxbush 4/10/2025 1:02:45 PM

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In #25 JCM said: The Capital Beltway, I-495, the Interstate loop around DC. A geological demarcation of insular thinking of the professional political class, politicians, media, lobbyists and bureaucrats.

From the outside of all of this, it seems like there is a lot of similar thinking going on in New York City and the Beltway area. I haven't been to NYC in decades, so I can't say whether the two areas are similar in their thinking or not. (I'm thinking of the classic New Yorker cover that covers NYC is great detail and leaves the rest of the country as wide open spaces of pretty much nothingness.)

JCM 4/10/2025 1:19:33 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 26:

Around here it is the I-5 corridor Everett to Olympia the has beltway thinking with just over half the state’s population. Enough to make WA blue.