Congratulations on surviving the first 1/6th of 2024! The Big Guy is exactly who we knew he was all along, Houston police screw up, some big crime stories, Wayne LaPierre is found guilty, and the world’s saddest Oompa Loompa. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
“Remember when Joe Biden told the American people that his son didn’t make money in China?” asked Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) in a video posted to X. ““Well, not only did he lie about his son Hunter making money in China, but it also turns out that $40,000 in laundered China money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check.”
Today, a U.S. District Court issued its final judgment in Texas v. Garland, which was a challenge to the U.S. House’s proxy voting rule under the Quorum Clause of the Constitution. In its final judgment, the Court concluded that U.S. House members must be physically present for their vote to comply with the Constitution’s Quorum Clause. Attorneys from the Texas Public Policy Foundation argued the merits at trial in January of this year.
The lawsuit was originally filed with the State of Texas in response to Congress’ unlawful passage of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill in December 2022. The U.S. Constitution requires a quorum, or a majority, of House members to be physically present for the U.S. House of Representatives to conduct business. As less than half of the members were present when the legislation was passed, with the rest voting by proxy, this legislation never should have passed, and the president should not have signed it.
“This meticulous, 120-page opinion was written after a full trial on the merits,” said TPPF senior attorney Matt Miller. “The Court correctly concluded that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 violated the Quorum Clause of the U.S. Constitution because a majority of House members was not physically present when the $1.7 trillion spending bill was passed. Proxy voting is unconstitutional.”
This basically says that every bit of that $1.7 trillion spending was unconstitutional, along with any laws, etc. passed in that omnibus. Just how do you back out all that money that’s been spent, assuming this is upheld?
Mitch McConnell announced on Wednesday that he will step down as the Senate Republican leader in November, ending his tenure as the longest-serving Senate leader in history.
“This will be my last term as Republican Leader of the Senate,” the 82-year-old veteran of the chamber said to his colleagues on the Senate floor. “I’m not going anywhere… It’s time for the next generation of leadership.”
He’ll leave the senate when his term ends in 2027. You can condemn him as the ultimate swamp creature, or praise him for his effectiveness at things like getting Trump’s Supreme Court picks confirmed. It’s two sides of the same coin. I’m not sure he was as effective as Trent Lott or Howard Baker.
Houston Police Department Chief Troy Finner called it a “dark day” at a press conference for the Houston Police Department, announcing that 4,107 adult sexual assault cases were wrongly closed without investigation.
A case management code “suspended for lack of personnel” was used, which led to closing the cases without actually investigating them.
Finner said he was first made aware the code even existed in 2021 and instructed HPD’s special victims division to stop using the code; however, he found out on February 7, 2024 that it continued. HPD first began using the code in 2016.
He said he immediately ordered a review of all cases suspended using this code dating back to 2016, which will take at least 30 days to complete. While the number of cases they have today is 4,017, he says it is “fluid and subject to change.”
2016 just happens to be the year that Art Acevedo was named HPD police chief…
60 Minutes goes to Sweden to make a heart warming special about diversity, but see a different situation, then this happens. pic.twitter.com/oUd2ZuJ0RV
— Dane (@UltraDane) February 24, 2024
(Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
After a volunteer chaplain of the Austin Fire Department (AFD) was fired for posting on his personal blog that men and women are biologically different and should not compete against each other in sports, a lawsuit was filed in an effort to protect his rights to free speech and religious freedom.
The Alliance Defending Freedom said in a press release that it filed a motion Tuesday on behalf of Dr. Andrew Fox, who served in a voluntary capacity as chaplain for AFD before he was dismissed in 2021.
Unlike APD, AFD public and union leadership has been infected by social justice. Dr. Fox appears to have a very strong case on viewpoint discrimination grounds.
A prominent Austin businessman and founder of Continental Automotive Group, or CAG, was arrested Thursday on charges of Felony Arson and a State Jail Felony offense of Burglary.
Dorsey Bryan Hardeman, 75, is accused of starting a fire at a downtown Austin building on Sunday, according to an arrest affidavit.
According to Travis County court records, Trey Collins with the Minton, Bassett, Flores & Carsey firm has been retained as the attorney representing Hardeman. Sam Bassett told KXAN the office has just begun its work and “it is premature to comment. However, we will provide Mr. Hardeman an appropriate and vigorous defense.”
The affidavit said the Austin Fire Department responded to a building fire at the former Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop on 400 Nueces St. on Feb. 25.
Once the fire was contained, fire investigators determined the incident to be incendiary and found metal shavings on the ground below the door suggesting the door lock had been drilled out, records state.
The affidavit states fire investigators watched video surveillance from the building, which showed an older man entering the building with a red container consistent with a plastic gas tank.
Multiple cameras inside the building show a man pouring liquid from the red container and dropping multiple matches on the ground, the affidavit said.
Records show the man arrived at the location in a white 4-door Mercedez SUV.
Investigators interviewed the owner of Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop who told AFD Hardeman was the owner of the property next door and had previously asked about purchasing the property at 400 Nueces St.
This is not what people refer to as “the perfect crime.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
The dog played dead and saved the girl!
This is why dogs are our best friends!
Hero Dog! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/T6j0IYwJ8N— Figen (@TheFigen_) February 27, 2024
Hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
Tags: 60 Minutes, AI, Alliance Defending Freedom, Andrew Fox, Argentina, Art Acevedo, Austin, Austin Fire Department, Border Controls, Budget, comedy, corruption, Crime, Critical Drinker, cryptocurrency, Democrats, dogs, Dorsey Bryan Hardeman, Eagle Pass, Florida, fraud, Google, Houston Police Department, Hunter Biden, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, James Biden, James Comer, Japan, Javier Milei, Jeffrey Epstein, Jerry Seinfeld, Jihad, Joe Biden, LinkSwarm, Matt Miller, Media Watch, Mellow Johnny's, meth, mine-clearing, mines, Mitch McConnell, Morgan Spurlock, NRA, rape, Republicans, Ron DeSantis, Russo-Ukrainian War, Social Justice Warriors, Sweden, technology, Texas, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Troy Finner, UK, Ukraine, Wayne LaPierre
I am no fan of either Putin or Zelenskyy, and I neither know nor care who started this or that or who did what to whom, going back at least a decade if not centuries. But I’ve been reading and hearing, here and everywhere else I poke my nose in, for two years now about all the “unsustainable losses” Ukraine is inflicting on the Russians, and yet, the Russians keep coming and the Ukes keep fighting and expending the billions in aid and materiel we and other anti-Russian countries keep pouring into this conflict, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of men both sides have lost, and nothing much changes. So I can’t help wondering, when are these “unsustainable losses” actually going to force the Russians to back down? I’m beginning to suspect that the answer is “never.” Just saying.
An interview with the meth lab Oompa-Loompa.
“Mitch McConnell Announces He Will Step Down as Senate Republican Leader in November.”
Mitch just has to make certain Trump doesn’t get elected and then his life’s work will be done.
The Russians just announced that they lit up a second M1 Abrams with a new type of FPV drone called the Ghoul (Упырь). Of particular interest, it is equipped with thermal vision. Something we haven’t seen before in 3 kg payload class drones.
This M1, which was struck west of Avdiivka, fared better than the previous Russian kill. It appears that at least the Ukrainian driver managed to escape with his life.
A Russian after action report on the first M1 kill near Berdychi, from their ordnance intelligence people, says the tank was delivered to the Ukrainians without any of the usual high tech equipment, even thermal imaging.
“If Trump and the Republicans manage to control both houses of congress next year, there’s no reason they can’t balance the budget’
The way to balance the budget is simple. 1) Enforce antitrust law against health care providers. (Against all sorts of other economic sectors also for that matter, but health care is the one that’s relevant to the budget.) 2) Require all health care providers to post prices publicly prior to service being rendered, and charge the same price to everybody regardless of insurance status or payment method. 3) Prosecute everybody who’s been violating this and put them in prison.
This would cause a vast proportion of current health care employees to suddenly lose their jobs – people who are not the doctors or nurses actually doing the work. It would also dramatically reduce Medicare/Medicaid expenses, which is where the real hole in the budget is coming from.
It also is politically impossible, because all politicians, most particularly including the Republicans in Congress and Trump himself, are beholden to the money that the health care cartels have been funnelling to them. In 2016 Trump HAD a section on his campaign website discussing and advocating exactly those points, and it was something he talked about repeatedly on the campaign trail. The night of the election that text disappeared, and he never mentioned it again.
You don’t need single-party control of government. You need the people in control of government to be terrified enough to do what is necessary in spite of the fact that they’ve been paid a lot of money to not do so. They’re not there yet, and if I had to bet, I’d say they won’t get there until after it’s too late.
Get yourself into a condition where you don’t need anything from the health care system. The time is coming when it won’t be there.