FOR CRYING OUT LOUD: DOGE Makes Another Bombshell Discovery.
Notice that one of these loans was to someone 115 years old. And that’s impossible: Democrats have told us so.
March 10, 2025
READER FAVORITE: The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool That Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About. #CommissionEarned
THE NEW SPACE RACE: U.S. military spaceplane completes 7th mission, including advanced orbital maneuvers.
Designated Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7), the autonomous spacecraft launched on December 28, 2023, marking several firsts for the program – including its first flight aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket and operations in a highly elliptical Earth orbit (HEO).
“Mission 7 broke new ground by showcasing the X-37B’s ability to flexibly accomplish its test and experimentation objectives across orbital regimes,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in a statement following the landing.
The Space Force considers the mission particularly significant for its demonstration of aerobraking maneuvers — a technique that uses atmospheric drag during multiple orbital passes to change the spacecraft’s trajectory while conserving fuel. This capability provides tactical advantages that align with the Space Force’s growing focus on space domain awareness and orbital agility.
The aerobraking capability essentially gives the X-37B a stealth mode for orbital changes without visible propulsion signatures that might be detected by adversaries.
China has one, too: China’s mysterious Shenlong space plane.
MAKE AMERICA SANE AGAIN: USDA Cancels Grant to Study ‘Trans Men’s’ Menstrual Cycles.
YEAH, BUT WHAT DOES HE CARE: California chancellor resisting Trump executive order wastes taxpayers’ money: Administrators now have a choice. They can ignore federal law and drag their institutions into turmoil—or they can cut their losses, end discriminatory policies, and serve students fairly. I predict they will choose . . . . poorly.
RESISTANCE? IGNORANCE? PERHAPS WE SHOULD EMBRACE THE POWER OF “AND.” Apparently Letitia James did not get the memo (or likely ignored it). So I get this job ad in my mailbox…
Special Counsel for Executive Division: Focus is Advancing LGBTQIA Rights
“The Special Counsel will collaborate with teams across OAG to analyze federal policy and lead responses to federal actions that threaten LGBTQIA people and communities; combat discrimination against LGBTQIA New Yorkers in education, healthcare, public accommodations, housing, employment, and other contexts using federal, state, and local laws; enhance relationships with organizations serving LGBTQIA communities; and engage in and supervise affirmative and defensive litigation in federal and state courts.”
All I can say is I’m rooting for Pam Bondi.
FLORIDA, MAN:
Revenge is a dish best served cold. For years, academics and reporters have portrayed Florida as a state plunging rushing toward illiteracy and bankruptcy. It was just ranked as the number one state for education and the economy. https://t.co/EzIHMhJZiT…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 9, 2025
The No. 1 spot went to Utah, which ranked high on nearly all facets — crime, economy, education, infrastructure — but lagged in terms of its natural environment.
New Hampshire took the No. 2 spot, and Nebraska came in at No. 3 overall.
However, Florida still managed to worm its way into the top bracket, placing No. 9. According to the study, the Sunshine State ranked highest among all 50 states for higher education and the economy.
I’m not at all sure how USN&WR determines its final scores, however. Washington state ranked just above Florida at #8 despite being worse in all four metrics — three of them, significantly worse.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems Are Hoping to F-Bomb Their Way Into America’s Hearts. “To the surprise of no one, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas shows up in this story. She is rapidly establishing herself as the Queen of the Democratic toilet. If the Dems ever do eventually come up with any coherent plans for emerging from the political exile that they are in at the moment, there’s a good chance that Crockett’s perpetually open foul mouth will interfere with them. I’ve got a feeling about this one.”
STANDING UP AGAINST RACISM AND BIGOTRY: Attorney General Bondi Threatens ABA If It Does Not Eliminate DEI Law School Accreditation Standard.
PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING: What Went Wrong at Saudi Arabia’s Futuristic Metropolis in the Desert.
It was supposed to be a launch party for the new Saudi Arabia.
Will Smith, Tom Brady and other celebrities gathered on a sandy island in the Red Sea packed with luxury hotels. Superyachts floated nearby while Alicia Keys played for business executives who had flown in from London and New York. Spotlights blared into the night sky.
The October event was the lavish opening of the first part of Neom, a planned metropolis defined by cutting-edge technology and psychedelic architecture, a cornerstone of the country’s plan to pivot its economy away from oil.
The truth for the project was less glamorous.
The relatively simple, low-rise development, known as Sindalah, was over three years late and on track to cost nearly $4 billion, three times its initial budget. Hotels were unfinished, high winds disrupted ferries and golf, and much of the site was still under construction.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Neom’s mastermind, was a surprise no-show. Neom board documents say the party cost at least $45 million. Many Neom staff viewed his absence as a sign of disapproval.
Weeks later, Neom’s boss of six years, a former crown prince favorite, left the project and a new crew of executives was installed to turn Neom around.
After spending more than $50 billion, the crown prince’s sci-fi-inspired dreams — an arid-mountain ski resort, a floating business district, and the Line, the 106-mile-long pair of Empire State Building-height skyscrapers that is Neom’s centerpiece — have collided with reality.
Ozymandias, call your office.
The accounting gimmickry was knee-deep, too:
Bids on early work from contractors ran high. One way executives hid rising costs was to beef up profit assumptions, according to the internal audit and some of the former employees.
The crown prince encouraged Neom to use a commonly used investment metric known as the internal rate of return, essentially the percentage of an investment that comes back in annual profit. If a hotel costs $1 million to build, and is worth $1.1 million a year later, it would have an IRR of 10%.
At Trojena, the planned ski resort, a fall 2023 review found that costs had surged by over $10 billion, according to an internal presentation reviewed by the Journal. That caused the IRR to fall to 7%, below the project’s target of around 9%.
To cover the gap, estimates for the rate at an “inventive glamping” site were readjusted to $704 a night, up from $216, according to the presentation. A “boutique hiking hotel” room was pegged at $1,866 a night, up from $489. The changes helped to push the IRR up to 9.3%.
The audit said Antoni Vives, who oversaw the broad vision at Neom and then ran Sindalah, justified rising costs with higher assumptions on revenue, rather than reassessing them as too expensive. He told colleagues and McKinsey consultants in an email before a key meeting that “we must not proactively mention cost at all.”
Dissent was also quashed. A Sindalah project manager was “removed after they challenged cost estimates,” the internal audit report found.
An attorney for Vives said that work at Neom “was done with total honesty and with the ambition that the project demands, in addition to absolute loyalty to the leadership of the country.”
“Absolute loyalty” to multibillion-dollar boondoggles that nobody but the well-connected ever asked for gets you… well, something like Neom or four years of the Biden administration.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Sheldon Whitehouse’s Votes Funneled Millions Into NGO That Pays His Wife.
SEEMS LIKELY: Elon Musk Hit the Mother Lode of the Deep State. Now He Believes He’s an Assassination Target.
UPDATE:
INCITEMENT: Democrats are distributing bumper stickers calling for the assassination of Elon Musk. The left is resorting to political violence because voters are rejecting them at the ballot box.
h/t @kylenabecker pic.twitter.com/V1OrhjPwUC
— @amuse (@amuse) March 10, 2025
PRETTY MUCH THE STORY OF THE LAST CENTURY: Europe: Always Wrong, Never In Doubt.
LEFTIES, SHEESH: Protesters Go After JD Vance’s Toddler.
SHE SEEMS UNEDUCATED:
You said, "The loss of funding for special education programs for kids like mine will be absolutely catastrophic."
The bill to abolish the Department of Education moves special needs programs to the Department of Health and Human Services. https://t.co/6RrlJBD61D pic.twitter.com/m05pphQybq
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 9, 2025
LIGHTNING DEAL: Professional Compound Microscopes for Adults, Kids 8-12 & Students. #CommissionEarned
I used to be on the other side, you know, helping to craft the State of the Union from the Democratic side of President Clinton. And we knew when we were going to make the Republicans, you know, clap with us and they would. And I just think the idea of the Democrats thinking they could sit there through this and not not kind of be part of the process.
And people not showing up at all. Look, Trump is a duly elected president in a, you know, in a joint session speech. Everybody should be there.
Everybody should be polite. They’ll get their opportunities to, you know, do their thing. And look, you know, it’s a reality that the person giving the speech has a double barreled shotgun and the person giving the response has a pop gun.
And but Trump, that was probably his best, you know, I think his best speech ever, really. And I think the emotional power of the examples and the stories that he told. And I’m looking at some of the poll numbers, you know, coming back on it was was very strong.
And the Democrats look silly and Democratic numbers are really tanking. They are at the lowest point that I have ever seen the Democratic Party since maybe, you know, the days that it lost 49 states.
When Democrats can’t even stand and applaud for the cancer kid getting a virtual Make-a-Wish moment on live TV, there’s something much deeper wrong with that party’s elected officials than just bad policy — but, God knows, there’s plenty of bad policy.
KEVIN DOWNEY JR: ‘Literally Hitler’ Is Smoking the Dems, but They Still Go Full Speed Ahead Into Clown World. “It occurred to me as I was laughing at the Democrats’ recent a**-goblinry that they continue to move forward with their original plan, despite getting spanked on Election Day, when Trump cudgeled Kamala into hamburger.”
ON SUNDAY I RUN A PROMO POST FOR (MOSTLY) INDIE AUTHORS WHO AREN’T AFRAID TO ASSOCIATE WITH MY BLOG: Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
There’s also a fun vignette challenge.
FOR THE TIMES, THEY ARE ACHANGING: Preserving the Wrong Things.
IT’S ALWAYS MORE COMPLICATED THAN THEY TOLD YOU: The Other Alamo.
YEAH. BUT HE STILL THINKS SOCIALISM IS SO GOOD WE SHOULD EAT IT WITH A SPOON: Bill Maher Rips the Woke Left and Democrats Over Land Acknowledgements and More.
