MSN: Trump administration estimates Iran war cost at over $11 billion in six days, source says.
AP/Reuters: Pentagon says first week of Iran war cost the US $11.3 billion.
As a rule of thumb, when I hear the government (fed, state, local) giving us a cost estimate; I immediately double the amount. A bit later I triple it.
"PRINT THAT FIAT!"
"Don't forget the usury!"
Population: > 44,000
Number of children per family: 8-17
99% on public assistance
Vehicles on the streets mostly newer.
Nice work if you can get it.
Find out HERE.
Once there, navigate on the right, select your State or City and find out what that money would do for YOU.
A federal agency this spring will convene government officials, forensics experts, academics, industry representatives, law enforcement and standards organizations for what it describes as “an open and candid discussion” about “the path forward to realize meaningful cannabis breathalyzer technology and implementation.”The two-day event, hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is scheduled to be held in Boulder, Colorado, on April 16 and 17.[.]Unlike with alcohol, there’s currently no widely accepted field test to determine whether someone is under the influence of marijuana.In 2023, a federally funded report by researchers at NIST and the University of Colorado Boulder concluded that evidence does “not support the idea that detecting THC in breath as a single measurement could reliably indicate recent cannabis use.”“A lot more research is needed to show that a cannabis breathalyzer can produce useful results,” Kavita Jeerage, a NIST materials research engineer and co-author of the report, said at the time. “A breathalyzer test can have a huge impact on a person’s life, so people should have confidence that the results are accurate.”More recently, a U.S. Department of Justice researcher cast doubt on whether a person’s THC levels are even a reliable indicator of impairment.States may need to “get away from that idea,” Frances Scott, a physical scientist at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences under DOJ, said on a podcast early last year.Scott questioned the efficacy of setting “per se” THC limits for driving that some states have enacted, making it so a person can be charged with driving while impaired based on the concentration of cannabis components in their system. Ultimately, there may not be a way to assess impairment from THC like we do for alcohol, she said.One complication is that “if you have chronic users versus infrequent users, they have very different concentrations correlated to different effects,” Scott said. “So the same effect level, if you will, will be correlated with a very different concentration of THC in the blood of a chronic user versus an infrequent user.”That issue was also examined in a federally funded study last year that identified two different methods of more accurately testing for recent THC use that accounts for the fact that metabolites of the cannabinoid can stay present in a person’s system for weeks or months after consumption.
[.]
“The consensus is that there is no linear relationship of blood THC to driving,” [a study preprint posted on The Lancet by an eight-author team representing Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Health Canada and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia identified and assessed a dozen peer-reviewed studies concluded]. “This is surprising given that blood THC is used to detect cannabis-impaired driving.”
Most states where cannabis is legal measure THC intoxication by whether or not someone’s blood THC levels are below a certain cutoff. The study’s findings suggest that relying on blood levels alone may not accurately reflect whether someone’s driving is impaired.
“Of the 12 papers included in the present review,” authors wrote, “ten found no correlation between blood THC and any measure of driving, including [standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP)], speed, car following, reaction time, or overall driving performance.
[.]
Evan [sic] as far back as 2015, a U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concluded that it’s “difficult to establish a relationship between a person’s THC blood or plasma concentration and performance impairing effects,” adding that “it is inadvisable to try and predict effects based on blood THC concentrations alone.”
In a separate report last year, NHTSA said there’s “relatively little research” backing the idea that THC concentration in the blood can be used to determine impairment, again calling into question laws in several states that set “per se” limits for cannabinoid metabolites.
Breitbart: Exclusive — Mitch McConnell Blocked from Moving Media Cartel Bill JCPA via Hotline.
Make SURE to read the story comments.
Mitch McWorthless is the guy the Never-Trumpers and the New-Never-Trumpers-Who-Used-To-Support-Trump wanted. Your wish was granted.
FOX News (Archived): McConnell makes grim prediction about Republicans in Senate races, references 'candidate quality'.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, thinks that Republicans have a lukewarm chance of flipping the Senate in November, citing "candidate quality" as a factor.
The senator made the honest prediction at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday afternoon.
"I think there's probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate," the minority leader anticipated. "Senate races are just different, they're statewide. Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome."
"Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate. Either our side up slightly or their side up slightly," McConnell explained.
"Candidate quality"? Mitch just wants more UniParty members with a flaccid "R" behind their name. It doesn't have to be this way, but Mitch wants RINOs. Political Longevity before Country. Got it, Mitch...a looooooooooong time ago.
Give a Silver Platter to Republicans and they always find a way to f#ck it up. Every Single Time.
HEY! Mitch! LOOK! LOOK OVER HERE: AP (Yahoo Archived): Pro-Trump wins in blue states threaten GOP hopes in November.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Republicans have found success in Democratic strongholds like Maryland and Massachusetts when they have fielded moderate candidates who could appeal to voters in both parties. With Democrats facing headwinds this year, Republicans had hoped that strategy could pay off yet again.
But Republican voters have nominated loyalists of former President Donald Trump in several Democratic states, including Maryland and Connecticut, making the GOP’s odds of winning those general election races even longer. Massachusetts will face its own test next month as GOP voters decide between a Trump-backed conservative and a more moderate Republican for the party's gubernatorial nominee.
A "moderate Republican" is Democrat Lite...or, a RINO. Mitch doesn't want Republicans who are endorsed by Trump.
Mitch is happy throwing in the towel months before the election. He doesn't care.
Twitchy: Dems propose raising taxes and spending a day before the country is officially in a recession.
The GDP numbers are due Thursday, and they’re going to show the U.S. economy contracting over two consecutive quarters … in other words, a recession. Don’t worry, though: Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have reached a deal on something called … get this … the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
We must be honest about the economic reality America now faces. That's why I'm proud to support the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which will address record inflation by paying down our national debt, and by lowering energy & healthcare costs. MORE: https://t.co/oPZF1gilEh
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) July 27, 2022
Lol imagine calling for new taxes the day before we find out we're officially in a recession.
Insane. https://t.co/FFvvY7jKBQ
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) July 27, 2022
Amazing that Dems are proposing raising taxes and spending (what else?) a couple of days before we're likely to hear that we're in a recession. https://t.co/V0ccNFgbuz
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) July 27, 2022
These are all long-time Dem agenda items that have absolutely nothing to do with inflation. And throwing another $369B into the economy will not only undercut reliable energy production it's basically asking for more trouble.
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) July 27, 2022
Only Democrats would, as inflation hits 40-year-highs, propose a massive tax increase on businesses (that will proceed to raise their prices) so they can fund $800 billion of new spending on green energy grift and call it the "Inflation Reduction Act."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 27, 2022
This will drive USA towards being Venezuela or Sri Lanka by the end of Bidens term….
— BarbReilly (@BarbReilly7) July 27, 2022
Yep, in typical, unexpected treasonous Democrat Manchin bowed to his Master, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schebrew.
Anyone expecting a different outcome was either not paying attention or blinded by their unrepentant adoration of...ugh...The Amish.
Synopsis of SB3313.A Senate bill in Illinois would ban the use or sale of gas-powered leaf blowers in the state.
SB3313 filed last week by Senator Laura Fine (D) of the 9th Senate District amends the Environmental Protection Act. It states that "a person may not operate or sell at retail a gas-powered leaf blower in the State. Provides that a person who violates the amendatory Act's provisions shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $500."
The bill lists environmental and noise pollution as the reasons for the ban.
[.]
These emissions, the bill states, are a contributing factor to smog formation and acid rain.
[.]
In addition, it states that leaf blowers send dust and other small particles like metals, allergens, and animal feces into the air for considerable distances.
Trump will seek to make a 21 percent cut in foreign aid in the proposal, which seeks $44.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year compared with $55.7 billion enacted in the fiscal year 2020, an administration official said.21%. It's a good start. I can't wait to hear the excuses from the DEMS telling us why this is such a bad idea.
Aid to Ukraine would remain at its 2020 levels under the new proposal, the official said.
It may be one of the few taxes in which New York state’s bite doesn’t rank among the nation’s highest.
Now, some New York City lawmakers want to more than double the state’s beer excise tax to provide more money for the State University of New York system.
The excise tax, paid by beer distributors, is currently 14 cents per gallon. Bills introduced ahead of the upcoming State Legislature session would raise that to 30 cents per gallon (that matches the state’s current excise tax on wine).
[.]
The Assembly sponsor of the bill, Brooklyn Democrat Harvey Epstein, estimates the increased beer tax would boost the state’s revenues from about $45 million to $96 million per year.
[.]
[Said Paul Leone, executive director of the New York State Brewers Association], “It doesn’t make sense to increase the tax on a successful industry that is still growing to support another." [...] “This tax on business will absolutely cost jobs and slow the industry,” he said.
Is there any private industry that this rapidly aging, anti-Charity, rape-porn fantasy writing Communist doesn't think the government should own, run and operate?We've long noted how community broadband networks are often an organic response to the expensive, slow, or just-plain unavailable service that's the direct product of a broken telecom market and regulatory capture. While you'll occasionally see some deployment duds if the business models aren't well crafted, studies have shown such local networks (there are 750 and counting now in the States) offer cheaper, faster service than many incumbents. Chattanooga's EPB, for example, was rated the best ISP in America last year by Consumer Reports.
[.]
Enter Bernie Sanders, whose new broadband plan was released last week and appears to have been cobbled together from the collected nightmares of AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast executives. The plan would not only restore the FCC's net neutrality authority and the agency's authority over ISPs in general, but it would restore the FCC's broadband privacy rules scuttled in 2017 by telecom lobbyists. It would also ban arbitrary and unnecessary broadband usage caps and overage fees, and ban the sneaky fees ISPs use to covertly jack up the advertised price post sale.
But the plan takes some extra time to highlight how a Sanders administration would embrace community broadband, including the elimination of protectionist state laws, and the doling out of $150 billion to be used largely toward building alternatives to the private sector telecom status quo:
"Municipalities across the country running their own internet services have proved they can deliver high-quality service at a fraction of the price of established monopolies. Cities can run their own networks just like a water or electric utility or build out an open access network to allow multiple providers to compete on price and service, rather than one or two conglomerates gouging customers and setting their own prices. Bernie believes it’s time to stop relying on profit-focused corporations to get to universal broadband. Bernie will provide the necessary funding for states, cities, and co-ops to build out their own broadband networks, and ensure all households are connected by the end of his first term."
Needless to say, the telecom sector isn't going to much like any of this.
[.]
The proposal isn't without its problems. Several economists versed in telecom and media tell me that the proposals to retroactively break up giants like Comcast NBC Universal and AT&T Time Warner are little more than pipe dreams that would be logistical nightmares in actual practice. And the Sanders camp also oddly opposes so-called "one touch make ready" rules (which allow any qualified third party to move pole equipment instead of just incumbent ISPs) despite widespread support of such proposals (unions tell me "one touch" poses a safety and security risk, but those claims are hotly contested).
Yeah, it's not a a spending problem. It's a lack of revenue.SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ) at MSNBC's Democratic presidential primary debate: Well, first of all, I think we all agree that we need to bring in a lot more revenue in this country. We actually have a real problem with the tax rates, tax loopholes, tax cheats. And I don't agree with the wealth tax, the way that Elizabeth Warren puts it, but I agree that we need to raise the estate tax. We need to tax capital gains as ordinary income. Real strategies will increase revenue.
But here's the challenge. We as Democrats need to fight for a just taxation system. But as I travel around the country, we Democrats also have to talk about how to grow wealth, as well.
Some possible changes could be coming to an age-old part of Uptown Minneapolis. Plans from the Park Board could potentially reduce the amount of parking on part of the plaza.
[.]
For more than a century, the Uptown Mall has been a shady oasis in one of the most densely-populated neighborhoods in the city.
Some neighbors worry possible changes to the park could cause it to lose its character.
“This is like going to St. Anthony Main and ripping up all the bricks,” said Uptown resident Steven Taylor. “Uptown doesn’t want that.”
Last spring, the Park Board released a new design to update the median between Hennepin Avenue and East lake of the Isles Parkway that would include a new plaza and play area by the Walker Library, a connection to the Midtown Greenway and community and rain gardens.
Park Board officials say a Community Advisory Committee is also considering getting rid of the streets in the two blocks closest to Lake of the Isles and turning them into green space for multi-use fields and a sand volleyball court.
“It was quite shocking for the community to hear about,” said East Isles Residents Assocation Ellen Van Iwaarden. (GASP! The Progs were shocked! Triggered! They didn't see it coming. - DD)
The East Isles Residents Association says neighbors are split on the possible plans for the park.
“There are some people who are absolutely for it, who think we shouldn’t be designing our parks around cars,” Van Iwaarden said. “But there are many who live in the apartments and park there.”
Nobody wants to tarnish one of the city’s hidden gems.
“I’m not opposed to getting rid of parking for the right reasons,” Taylor said. “I don’t think volleyball courts is the right reasons [sic].”
Of course he didn't explain or provide details on his plan. He's nothing more than a walking, talking glob of platitudes - the same as every other DEM.Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke on Monday proposed taxing affluent American families who do not have members in the U.S. military as a way to fund healthcare for veterans.
The former congressman from Texas unveiled a plan for military veterans that includes a “war tax,” in which taxpayers who earn over $200,000 a year would pay $1,000 in a new tax for each war embarked on by the United States.
O’Rourke, who did not serve in the military but sat on the House of Representatives Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs committees, said the tax would be levied on households without current members of the U.S. military or military veterans. He did not specify what types of war, or the scale and origins of the wars, on which the tax would be levied.
Connecticut State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest (D-13th) is pushing a 50 percent tax on ammunition purchases in her state.Gilchrest's Tweet:
Gilchrest is willing to exempt police and military personnel from the impost, but homeowners worried about defending their lives and those of their families get no such break.
In fact, Gilchrest questions how much ammunition a homeowner needs to carry out a viable defense. She tweeted: “I’m hearing push back about the need to protect one’s home… but how much ammunition does someone really need to do that?”
I’ve introduced HB 5700, a 50% tax increase on ammunition. It doesn’t apply to military or law enforcement. I’m hearing push back about the need to protect one's home… but how much ammunition does someone really need to do that? #gunsense #enough pic.twitter.com/NZjkWBrpjC
— Jillian Gilchrest (@Jilchrest) February 4, 2019
Good for him!
Tourists allegedly continue to leave their fecal remnants near popular tourist sites up north, according to the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality.Dear Saipan, you are Saipan. Have you ever heard of these things?
[.]
...one of the reasons that tourists continue to defecate up north is because of the lack of comfort rooms in the area.
"Kim Jong-un said that we will believe in the positive way of thinking of President Trump, wait with patience and in good faith and, together with the U.S., advance step by step toward the goal to be reached by the two countries of the DPRK and the U.S.[.]"- - -
Police on the British island of Guernsey resumed the search on Wednesday for a missing plane carrying Premier League player Emiliano Sala, who is presumed dead after debris was found in the water.Argentina News Net: Sala: "Dad, "I'm so scared."
"I'm on a plane that looks like it's going to fall apart, and I'm leaving for Cardiff," Sala said in a WhatsApp audio message carried by Argentine media.- - -
"If in an hour and a half you have no news from me, I don't know if they will send people to look for me, because they will not find me, you know. Dad, I'm so scared," [said Emiliano].
The protest follows new regulations for online ride-hailing services adopted by the Catalan government on Friday.- - -
Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the fee on single-use cups, which will take effect January 2020. [Patrons of restaurants and coffee shops in Berkeley, California, who don't bring a reusable cup for their beverage will have to pay a 25-cent fee for a disposable cup].
Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha, sponsor of the bill (LB50), said the measure is needed not only to establish more tax fairness, but also to replenish a state revenue stream that is needed to fund essential state programs and services.You already know his party affiliation, but if you need to see it...
[.]
The bill would adversely impact small businesses, LIBA President Coby Mach said, warning that people have "a broad choice as to where to live and work" and suggesting that higher taxes might prompt higher-income Nebraskans to move out of the state.
Andrew Harris, a football player at Montana, was found dead in his home Tuesday. He was 22.- - -
His death was being investigated as a suicide, Sgt. Travis Welch of the Missoula Police confirmed to the Montana Standard.
For the third year running, Switzerland has come out top in the annual Best Countries rankings which looks at people's perceptions of 80 countries around the world.It's time the other 79 countries stop trying. Give up. Clearly, none of us will beat Switzerland.
 | |||
| "No more Tim-mahs?" |
Headline: Fearless girl, 15, stuns world leaders...("Stuns world leaders"? Really? No hyperbole here...they aren't "leaders").
Climate activist Greta Thunberg, from Sweden, had the opportunity to address a global climate change conference this week, where she didn’t mince her words.
She told diplomats and ministers assembled at the COP24 climate talks in Katowice, Poland: ‘You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.’I wonder how she traveled from Sweden to Poland? On foot?
Part of the solution is to electrify transportation, a technology which is fully available today. Electric drives and fuel cell engines, powered by renewable energy sources, can meet society’s need for mobility and gradually make fossil fuels obsolete.
... if there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone else in the world it is the Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mörner, formerly chairman of the INQUA International Commission on Sea Level Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner, who for 35 years has been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the globe, is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story.
2016: Al Gore's Global Warming Racket - IBD:Senator Albert Gore Jr., Democrat of Tennessee, said he would introduce legislation to expand and focus scientific efforts on this greenhouse effect.
[.]
Mr. Gore said his bill would call for ''an international year of scientific study of the greenhouse effect and would request that the President take steps to begin this worldwide cooperative investigation.''
Not one of [Gore's] dire predictions he and the rest of the alarmist community made has come to pass. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that they have been running a racket.Let's revisit the 1970 Earth Day predictions - BarbWire:
Yeaaahhhh...that ice age of 2000? We all remember that. I have trouble, though, remembering if it was before or after the end of civilization. Anyone?
- End of civilization in 15-30 years
- 100-200 million deaths to starvation yearly for 10 years
- A new ice age by 2000
El Niño is not caused by climate change[.]Well, how about tha...oops, hold on. We have a contrary view: El Niños to strengthen because of global warming, will cause 'more extreme weather'. USA MacPaper:
El Niños will be stronger and more frequent in the decades ahead because of global warming, causing “more extreme events” in the United States and around the world, a news study says.Both are true, for no other reason than both fit the
...some green groups and certain countries expressed frustration that more ambitious climate goals were not achieved during intense negotiations that ran into the weekend.Oh...the hoor-rah.
One major sticking point was how to create a functioning market in carbon credits. Economists believe that an international trading system could be an effective way to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and raise large amounts of money for measures to curb global warming.Whoa...did they just say
China, the Paris Protocol’s champion and the world’s most notorious polluter, produced the largest increase of carbon in the atmosphere in 2017. Coupled with India, China’s carbon contributions accounted for nearly half of the total surge in 2017 global carbon emissions.
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| Image: Keysigns |
...texting may soon come with an extra fee on their mobile phone bills. State regulators are weighing a tax on text messaging to help fund a program that makes phone service available to low-income residents.Yes, PLEASE GOD YES, PASS THIS TEXT TAX. I'm all for it. It has my FULL SUPPORT.
[.]
A texting surcharge could help sustain the Public Purpose Program budget, which has risen to $998 million in 2017 from $670 million in 2011, according to a report from the California Public Utilities Commission. Revenue from the telecom industry that funds the program has declined to $11.3 billion last year from $16.5 billion in 2011, the CPUC report stated.
[.]
The California Chamber of Commerce and other trade organizations estimate the proposed fee could cost wireless customers $44.5 million a year, according to the Mercury News in San Jose, Calif.
People need to realize that the proposed California texting tax could go back and tax you on text messages sent the past 5 years.May I suggest it go back TEN YEARS and whatever the amount being considered for the tax - PLEASE TRIPLE IT !
Imagine getting a tax bill for all text messages you've sent since 2013.
— 🇺🇸🍻 Mark 🍻🇺🇸 (@BartenderMB) December 12, 2018
