A Little Bit of Everything
From the NDAA to Claudine Gay
Greetings, Screamers! It’s been a rough Thursday, with the House formally going through the motions of rubber-stamping the freedom-killing National Defense Authorization Act. (The Senate did the same yesterday.) This year’s monstrosity “temporarily” continues authorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Let’s see how CNN describes this controversy:
In a move that sparked anger from some lawmakers, the bill will also include a short-term extension of a controversial law that permits warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals. Supporters argue it is a critical tool for safeguarding national security, but it has come under criticism from some lawmakers over alleged misuse.
The law, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, enables the US government to obtain intelligence by collecting communications records of foreign persons based overseas who are using US-based communications services.
The searches are governed by a set of internal rules and procedures designed to protect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties, but critics say that loopholes allow the FBI to search the data it collects for Americans’ information – as opposed to from foreign adversaries – without proper justification.
No mention if the critics are factually correct and the FBI uses this tool to spy on Americans, it’s just a little tidbit mentioned in passing. If only there was some sort of group of people who could work together to determine the truth of the matter! They could be based on Cable, and provide News like a regular Network!
Yeah! Like those guys! We could get a whole team of ‘em! That sure would be nice!
(I’ll take this time to once again point out the FBI used this database against Floyd protestors, meaning FBI malfeasance isn’t strictly a bipartisan thing.)
Another disappointing (well, it’s all disappointing) aspect of this year’s NDAA is yet more money being shoveled to Ukraine. This passage from Reuters provides an unintentional glimpse of just how unpopular such spending is these days:
The bill extends one measure to help Ukraine, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, through the end of 2026, authorizing $300 million for the program in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2024, and the next one.
And the next one? What exactly does that mean? The $300 million covers through the end of 2025? Of course not — see how awkwardly they need to write to “tell the truth” while twisting it to the maximum extent possible? Why not just report what’s in the actual bill?
The GOP has been talking a big game about pulling support from Ukraine, but their actions reveal their true intentions — milking the conflict for all it’s worth. (The same goes for the domestic spying, I suppose.)
I, for one, am just SHOCKED that the Washington Generals managed to lose once again! Even camera-loving freedom cosplayer Ted Cruz voted for this junk! (House vote results here.)
Move the capitol to Fargo.
And here’s an unexpected little nugget — while I was searching through the text of the NDAA, I came across this section involving munitions replacement:
While discussing shipping weapons to Ukraine, I don’t ever once recall them taking a vote to extend that to Taiwan and Israel. But I guess democracy means striking X and replacing it with X, Y, and Z.
I could keep on screaming about this for days, but I’ll leave that for the comments section. There’s lots of stupid stuff to get to today.
We’ll start with Harvard president Claudine Gay, who was prominently featured in this hard-to-believe video of academics who are suddenly very very concerned about context when it comes to words and violence. (They are joined by Cori Bush!)
A closer look at Gay’s work revealed she plagiarized parts of her THESIS — but her troubles got worse when four other instances of plagiarism were discovered as well.
The college states that it knew about the plagiarism but stands behind her anyway.
This really goes to show you……..just how racist Americans are?
(I guess we’re supposed to forget University of Pennsylvania president Elizabeth Magill was forced to resign? Must have been the white privilege.)
The entire video is like taking a microvacation to Wonderland, but the end where she says that we can’t have academic freedom when people are worried about what they can and can’t say is the chef’s kiss on this piece.
The fact that they’re trying to make this about race makes me think these people know the DEI industry can’t hold up to any kind of scrutiny, and the entire industry is due for a massive collapse….
In related news:
Speaking of publicly funded racists, Boston mayor Michelle Wu finds herself in hot water after one of her staffers accidentally sent this invitation to “the wrong people”:
The DailyMail notes:
DosSantos followed up the email 15 minutes later apologizing for the invite, clarifying that it was only meant for the city's six councilors of color. The seven white council members were not welcome.
'I wanted to apologize for my previous email regarding a Holiday Party for tomorrow,' DosSantos, a black woman, wrote. 'I did send that to everyone by accident, and I apologize if my email may have offended or came across as so. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.'
Uh….there’s no CONFUSION at all…..the mayor’s office is segregating people by race while championing “diversity” — as if all you need is a token member from a group and you capture the rest of it by default.
Speaking of which, why are there no redheads in congress? An estimated 2-6% of Americans are redheads! We should have roughly 10 members of congress! Are we victims of systemic racism? This Pew research DOESN’T EVEN MENTION US! We’re the silenced minority of America AND NOBODY EVEN CARES! (To be fair, I’m going on memory — there might be redheads in congress. I’m not looking through all their pictures.)
Of course, I’ve never thought that way because the idea that a politician represents me just because he has hair that looks like mine is literally insane.
Oh, speaking of things that are literally insane, Hunter Biden went to DC to not answer a congressional subpoena for closed-door testimony:
This led to one of the most bizarre legal theories I’ve seen yet:
Hunter Biden is here! That totally counts!
I guess next time I get a ticket I’ll just hang out in the parking lot for a few minutes before I go home. 🙄
This is getting long so I’ll wrap it up with a video of Vivek Ramaswamy being asked about January 6th before the reporter realizes she can’t allow Vivek Ramaswamy to talk about January 6th:
The truth is dangerous because somebody who is going to prison retweeted what you said! ARE YOU SCARED FOR DEMOCRACY!?!?!?
Well, yes, but not for the reasons that CNN thinks I should be.
*vague gesturing at the rest of the article*
To finish out today’s article with a bit of good news, Bonnie has been using the doggie door to come inside at night to play with G. (With semi-hilarious results the other night when she came in before Protective Dog went to bed!) In the middle of the night I woke up to both of them snoozing away on my bed…..
I’m glad “it’s the little things” in life, because the big things are maddening.
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Awesome! The cnn audience clapping for Ramaswamy is delicious!
Uniparty once again in play re: National Defense Authorization Act. I'm sure all involved have legitimate reasons for sucking yet more dollars into yet more things most of the populace (sans coastal libs) don't want or support. Most definitely including no more of our tax dollars, to Ukraine, or Israel for that matter.
Haaavad's prez...Corrie Bush, and it appeared Tlaib was also there, to support yet another shill for the left. They have to protect and preserve. But, it's seeping out into the ecosphere just how corrupt Havaaad and the other universities/colleges have become. Hannah-Jones and Phillips (recently slapped, yet again by Vivek) as just more shill's. Almost getting laughable at this point except....there are still the wide-eyed, brainwashed out there.
Hunter - another stupid person. Not dumb, just stupid. Will he or his dad ever see a prison cell? Likely not. But...every little thing that can be forced out about Joey and his family, the more the somnolent left (and some to the right actually) are realizing the charade, and beginning to want to look further behind the curtain.
Just too much to comment on...