Althouse: Sunset

February 11, 2025

Sunset — 4:28.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments.

49 comments:

BUMBLE BEE said...: Crazy textures there. Wow.; 2/11/25, 6:24 PM
rehajm said...: If you’re trying to defend the corruption you’re going to Hell…; 2/11/25, 7:12 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Rumor has it that Tay-Tay has dumped Travis.; 2/11/25, 7:30 PM
Iman said...: The rot runs deep in these progressives. They manifest suicidal impulses in nearly every action they take. They’d better wake the fuck up. People won’t accept the bullshit they’ve been screaming/peddling.; 2/11/25, 7:34 PM
Lucien said...: Regarding insubordinate FEMA employees sending funds to New York for unauthorized payments to illegals, who was/were the actual payee(s) in the transactions? If a government entity, then won’t it return funds shown to be sent by a rogue employee? If NGOs or individuals, can’t the feds claw back the payments? (If there’s a list of individuals receiving payments, isn’t that also a list of people to be deported?); 2/11/25, 8:04 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Headline: "Trump's New FEMA Has Handled 80 Percent of Cases in Western NC in Just 5 Days - Biden Had 116 Days"; 2/11/25, 8:13 PM
James K said...: Lucien, my understanding is that it the payees were hotels. Not clear the government can claw that back.; 2/11/25, 8:14 PM
Rocco said...: NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
“Rumor has it that Tay-Tay has dumped Travis.”

When’s the song coming out?; 2/11/25, 8:17 PM
Dixcus said...: "Reply formatting" - where the reply to a comment appears directly under the previous comment and frequently results in a conversation between commenters ... makes it very obvious when some comments are being deleted - aka censored.

Which explains a lot.; 2/11/25, 8:30 PM
Old and slow said...: It's not censorship Dixcuss, you just aren't wanted here. It is editorial judgement.; 2/11/25, 9:03 PM
Jaq said...: OK, I have been watching too much YouTube, I admit, but it seems like what is going on among men right now is very reminiscent of what went on with women in the '70s. A good, old fashioned consciousness raising. It's like the battle of the sexes is becoming the war of the sexes. It's sad to me because things were so much different, and I feel like my advice is useless to young people, but I wish young men weren't so black-pilled.; 2/11/25, 9:10 PM
Big Mike said...: Over on the Joe Rogan thread I accidentally got a double comment. And I cannot see a trash can icon in Firefox, MS Edge, or on my iPhone with Safari. Anybody know what gives?; 2/11/25, 9:19 PM
Peachy said...: Big Mike - no trash icon for me, either.; 2/11/25, 9:22 PM
Peachy said...: Newsweek is lying about Biden's so-called deportation numbers.
https://www.ice.gov/spotlight/statistics; 2/11/25, 9:24 PM
Peachy said...: X:
"NY AG Letitia James' annual salary of $103,375,
she somehow has a net worth of $15 MILLION DOLLARS!

But Letitia wants you to believe President Trump is the corrupt one..."; 2/11/25, 9:25 PM
James K said...: Senior government employees (and elected officials) should have to fill out an annual financial and income statement, under oath, that documents where their assets and income come from. Is that too much to ask? No. It shouldn't be that hard, unless they are trying to cover something up.; 2/11/25, 9:29 PM
Peachy said...: After Years Of Crying About Alleged Foreign Election Interference, Dems Are Begging A Court To Let Noncitizens Vote; 2/11/25, 9:29 PM
Peachy said...: "Under Biden, FEMA betrayed the American people by diverting funds meant for natural disasters to pay for luxury hotels for illegal migrants"
Bolz; 2/11/25, 9:36 PM
gadfly said...: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) only runs a program to house migrants that is funded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), contrary to posts online saying that FEMA disaster relief funds were diverted by the Biden Administration to house migrants in the U.S. illegally.

FEMA and its Disaster Relief Fund have been targets of disinformation in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of the U.S. Southeast in late September.; 2/11/25, 10:36 PM
Mason G said...: This might be interesting...

🚨 #BREAKING: Elon Musk just announced in the Oval Office DOGE is investigating federal employees with high net worth despite low pay

https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1889420707597070374; 2/11/25, 10:36 PM
Aggie said...: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) only runs a program to house migrants that is funded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)" ... at twice the normal rate, Cookie - at twice the normal rate.; 2/11/25, 10:41 PM
gadfly said...: The Federlist is twisting information about a current court case wherein a 2022 law could potentially permit 800K immigrants to vote in NYC local elections.; 2/11/25, 10:47 PM
gadfly said...: Aggie, I quoted the news, but you make stuff up. The bills were approved and paid by CBP at rates acceptable to Customs.; 2/11/25, 10:55 PM
Eva Marie said...: @Big Mike
This works for me. (iPhone, Safari browser)
When I click on comments, no trash can. But if I click on the title of the post, I get just that post + comments. And, as if by magic, the trashcan appears.; 2/11/25, 11:31 PM
effinayright said...: Who can forget Taylor Swift's seminal album, "Sloppy Seconds", or the later "Roundheels" masterwork?; 2/11/25, 11:58 PM
gadfly said...: Class action suits will increase yet again and U/C payments are headed through the roof across the nation.

Every Small Business Admin employee on probation was sent a notice that they have been fired. Then they they received as oops! notice that the earlier notice was in error. But today they were fired again. Perhaps someone in DOGE should be sent a definition of what individual actions should have been followed to determine if the conditions of probation had or had not been met.

Bye-bye to SBA loans - just another program not defined among Trump campaign redactions.; 2/12/25, 12:02 AM
Eva Marie said...: This is an amazing story:
https://www.mediaite.com/trump/the-limestone-mine-that-elon-musk-said-manually-processes-federal-retirement-paperwork-is-actually-real/; 2/12/25, 12:16 AM
wildswan said...: gadfly said...
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) only runs a program to house migrants that is funded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), contrary to posts online saying that FEMA disaster relief funds were diverted by the Biden Administration to house migrants in the U.S. illegally."

Were FEMA funds used to asylum seekers up in luxury hotels while Americans who lost their homes in Helene were sleeping in tents? Yes, because there is a section of FEMA called "Shelter and Services" which is designated solely for non-citizens.
"SSP [Sheltering and Services Program] provides financial support to non-federal entities to provide sheltering and related activities
to noncitizen migrants
following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The intent is to support CBP in the safe, orderly, and humane release of noncitizen migrants from short-term holding facilities."
In Fiscal Year 2023 the SSP budget was $363 million; in Fiscal Year 2024 its budget was $650 million. In Fiscal Year 2025 its requested budget is $3 billion, three times as much as Fiscal Year 2024. (FY 2024 ended September 2024.)
quote from:
https://www.fema.gov/grants/shelter-services-program

But is this Sheltering and Services program which is solely for noncitizens legal? FEMA says SSP is legal because SSP aligns with the following objectives which Congress voted to support.
FEMA Objectives:
"SSP (Sheltering and Services Program) supports the FY 2020–2024 DHS Strategic Plan, Goal 5: Strengthen Preparedness and Resilience, Objective 5.1: Build a National Culture of Preparedness, and the 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan Goal 3: Promote and Sustain a Ready FEMA and Prepared Nation. "
https://www.fema.gov/grants/shelter-services-program/ssp-a/fy-24-nofo#b

But does FEMA's interpretation of what Congress voted for align with what Congress actually intended?
Although all Shelter and Services funds are presently designated solely for migrants released by the Custom and Border Patrol, I do not think that any Congress intended to vote for such a plan, not even the Dem Congress of the Biden years. I believe that this way of apportioning FEMA funds is a sort of regulation made after Congress voted funds for vague FEMA objectives. But in any case, either Congress or FEMA could designate the California and Helene victims as (internal) migrants who are eligible for the program. I believe such a designation would be in line with FEMA objectives as stated above. And I believe that if FY 2025 funding has passed already under a Continuing Resolution, that this change should be made because there will be many fewer external refugees (illegal aliens crossing the border) in 2025 than were expected when Fiscal Year 2024 ended on September 30th, 2024.
In short, I think American citizens suffering from a disaster should be eligible for the same level of sheltering and services as non-citizens. I'm certain that Congress never ever intended that destitute Californians and North Carolinians should receive less from FEMA than noncitizens. Yet this is what FEMA is doing. So, I'd like to hear any Congressman say that favoring noncitizens over citizens was what the Congressman understood FEMA to be doing and wanted FEMA to be doing.
Besides that, it isn't legal for FEMA to give money except to a disaster and, to my understanding, the Biden administration never claimed that the border was a disaster. They claimed that everything was fine there. Why then $3 billion in disaster relief funds?; 2/12/25, 12:23 AM
Eva Marie said...: @Big Mike: This works for me (iPhone, Safari browser) when I hit the sign in with Google button - whether or not I want to comment, that’s also when I see the trash can.; 2/12/25, 12:54 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: How far gone are the democrats from their oath (that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same) they confuse a government audit with a coup. It beyond remarkable.; 2/12/25, 1:29 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: To see the trash can I have to hit the “Sign in with Google” button AND refresh the page.; 2/12/25, 2:07 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: That’s how it works for me using the iPhone 👆🏽; 2/12/25, 2:09 AM
Eva Marie said...: @Lem: yes, that’s it; 2/12/25, 2:26 AM
wendybar said...: Western Lensman
@WesternLensman
·
Follow
🚨SEN KENNEDY: “It strikes me as breathtakingly ironic that that the people who are screaming so loudly about President Trump's decision to audit federal spending—

— are the very same people who wanted to hire 80,000 new IRS agents with guns to audit the American people."

https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1889439852950692062; 2/12/25, 2:49 AM
Lucien said...: James K: If the payees are hotels, they should be asked to return the funds, and. Named and Shamed if they refuse. Many of them may be owned by $billion corporations who would not like to hear President Trump reading out their names in a press conference. (If I had a business that received millions in unauthorized funds from the feds I would damn sure expect them to want it back.); 2/12/25, 4:44 AM
Old and slow said...: @wildswan Thanks very much for that explanation of the funding and rationale for FEMA housing immigrants. I found it to be the best information have yet seen.; 2/12/25, 4:58 AM
Leland said...: Only thing I would emphasize over what wildswan stated was the decisions made by FEMA were under a previous Administration. If the current Administration tells them to stop, they need to stop.
I'll also note that Mayorkas was the DHS secretary that told NC that there were no more disaster relief funds for them: https://www.carolinajournal.com/myorkas-fema-is-out-of-money-for-rest-of-hurricane-season/
Funny that in the same fiscal year, Mayorkas FEMA and CBP had money for illegal immigrants.; 2/12/25, 5:06 AM
Leland said...: Another interesting thing is no judge put a TRO in place to keep FEMA from spending money on illegal immigrants when the former Administration claimed they had no money for North Carolina. That seems like inappropriate discretionary spending that harmed citizens. Maybe it is because when Mayorkas decided to cut spending for North Carolina, he didn’t say that. Instead, he lied to the American people.; 2/12/25, 5:30 AM
Breezy said...: Why are there illegal immigrants still living in that hotel, or any hotel, anyway? They should be on their way back to wherever they came from.; 2/12/25, 5:46 AM
john mosby said...: I've been a Congressional appropriations committee staffer - just for a year, but I went through a whole budget cycle. There are a couple of levels of Congressional will expressed.

The appropriations bill itself, once signed by the POTUS, is a law. It can often get quite granular, e.g.: "$3M for the Senator Leghorn Memorial Recycling Center in Springfield." Such earmarks are distributed according to how much juice that Member has, and any gaps between the plain language of the statute and what happens on the ground will be filled in by the Member's staff working with the people doing the project. The amounts of money are sorted out by horsetrading among the Members, usually via their staffs. So pretty small-r republican: you voted for your Member, and they brag about these earmarks in their campaign.

Other items for the agencies are much broader: "$1B for salaries for the US Agency Bureau." There will be understandings between the agency's liaison people and the Congressional staffs regarding more or less what they're spending it on, but the agency has a lot of leeway.

Now the Bill comes with a Committee Report. This is not law - it's kind of like dictum over in the judicial branch. It lays out even more specific allocations for the monies in the Bill, but the agencies have more wiggle room, especially if, as often, one project costs more than Congress thought and the money has to come from another one. Members are mortally insulted if something they wanted in the Bill is only in the Report; staff members who were angling for something on their own are highly peeved. But even the Report cannot be fully granular on everything. So it is small-r republican in the sense that it's kind of a ground floor for bargaining between two coequal elected branches.

And of course the permanent bureaucracy can jump into any slight gap in the language of either the Bill or Report to push their priorities. Sometimes it's for good - the Army might squeeze out more money for live-fire training or body armor. Sometimes it's for DEI or overseas ratfucking. At least half the time, it's with a wink and nod from the majority party. And often from the minority party, who may think they'll placate their opponents with small victories.

So "Congress voted for this money to be spent this way!!!!" is an oversimplification, probably intended to deceive.

JSM; 2/12/25, 5:50 AM
Dave Begley said...: Yesterday, Cass County rejected a 265 MW industrial solar farm. I’d been working on it for over 3 years. I contacted all the local news media and not a single report on it. It would have been the largest in Nebraska.; 2/12/25, 6:04 AM
Breezy said...: Reminder, it is not a budget if there’s no limit to the amount that can be spent or allocated.; 2/12/25, 7:12 AM
gilbar said...: congrats Dave Begley!; 2/12/25, 7:15 AM
Iman said...: Coming to America - The next chant from the Progressive Clownshow:

”WE DON’T NEED TO KNOW! WE DON’T NEED TO KNOW!”…; 2/12/25, 7:22 AM
Big Mike said...: @Eva Marie, @Lem, that worked. Thx; 2/12/25, 7:40 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Inflation Picks Up Speed, Rising to 3% in January ~ WSJ

The Trump effect setting in. I dread the February print with his stable genius policies fully reflected.

Lots of irony so far. Trouble is MAGA Trump doesn't do irony!; 2/12/25, 7:57 AM
Kakistocracy said...: "The data comes a week after the US central bank defied calls from President Donald Trump to make steep cuts to borrowing costs and instead held its main rate" ~ WSJ; 2/12/25, 8:13 AM
Enigma said...: @Kakistocracy: You are lame. Try harder troll. Trump was inaugurated on Jan 20, so 2/3rds of that inflation results from Biden's running-out-the-door spending at minimum.; 2/12/25, 8:13 AM
Kakistocracy said...: So... egg prices and inflation are up not down -- and he hasn't even put his full tariff program on yet! 🤣; 2/12/25, 8:18 AM