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If you've looked into booking flights the past few months, you've probably experienced some serious sticker shock. As a travel junkie, I peruse plane tickets regularly for fun, and I've seen some absolutely nutso prices, especially during peak summer dates. You can always expect to pay more during popular travel times, but it's not usually this bad. According to CNBC, bonkers prices are not just a figment of our imagination. Plane ticket prices have risen 25% in the past year, far outpacing the rising inflation we're feeling elsewhere. Part of the reason is fuel costs are up—by a whopping 150%. Another reason is that airlines are trying to recover some of their losses that occurred during the pandemic. Finally, people are desperate to travel, so demand is high and people are apparently willing to shell out gobs of dough to get out of Dodge. However, just because ticket prices have climbed doesn't mean there aren't deals to be had. You just have to know where, when and how to find them.Finding deals does take a little work. To really get the best prices, you have to be willing to play around with your travel variables (dates/times/airlines/airports/destinations), so it's not like there's some magical, one-size-fits-all money-saving solution. But these guidelines and tips will help give you a place to start to save money on airfare, even when prices go up. 1. When you travel matters far more than when you book your plane tickets.People often ask, "When's the best time to buy plane tickets?" I've heard everything from certain days of the week to certain time frames before your planned departure being the best time to buy. There is a general guideline for when to book that's frequently shared by travel experts:Domestic flights: 1 to 3 months in advanceInternational flights: 2 to 8 months in advanceHowever, plane ticket prices change constantly, every airline prices their flights differently and the volatility of fuel prices makes a lot of this unpredictable.What matters more than when you book is when you actually travel. Demand is fairly predictable and peak times will almost always be more expensive. Summer, three-day weekends, the spring break period (mid-March through mid-April), Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks are bound to set you back unless you are really flexible in the dates you can travel.(One caveat on holidays: Because Thanksgiving is a solely American holiday and most people spend it with their families here, it can be a great time to travel internationally, as demand to leave the country is low that week.)Off-peak is where it's at. Not everyone can swing it with work and school schedules, but if you can, late September through October, late January through early March, and most of May tend to be the cheapest times to fly.2. Check airfares frequently, as prices change constantly—and sometimes drastically.Airfares are always changing. In fact, prices can change several times a day. One reason I like to peruse plane tickets frequently, even if I'm not actively making travel plans, is so that I can actually recognize when a ticket is a good deal.Google Flights is your best friend for this. If you have someplace you think you might want to go someday, start doing some daily or weekly searches on the Google Flights calendar (which I'll explain below). If you have a specific destination and dates already locked down, the same rule stands. Check frequently so that 1) You know the range of prices and 2) Can tell when a good price comes along.3. Get to know Google Flights and its various filters.Google Flights is easily the most versatile and user-friendly flight search tool, and the great news is, it's free! The only real bummer is there's no app, so you have to work from a browser. That's a small price to pay for being able to search almost every airline at once and see entire months' calendars of the lowest-priced tickets, though.Google Flights shows you the same prices you'll see on the airlines' websites, and it can be much easier to use than any individual airline website. (I don't know why so many airline website fare calendars are so cumbersome to navigate, but they are.) You can use Google Flights to find the best price, then go to the airline website to find that flight to book. (Thrifty Traveler has a nice, detailed tutorial for utilizing the various Google Flights filters.)5. But don't book a flight until you check Southwest Airlines first.Southwest Airlines is not in Google Flights, so you have to search its website separately. A bit of a pain, but worth it. Southwest is frequently (though not always) cheaper than other airlines—and it lets you check two bags per person for free. Often that checked bag fee savings alone is worth booking on Southwest. Some of its planes don't have the bells and whistles of other airlines—the last two Southwest flights I took didn't even have electrical outlets to plug in my phone or computer—but I've always found the crew to be friendly and service to be quite good. (One note: You don't get to choose your seat ahead of time on Southwest, so if you're traveling with a group and want to sit together it can get dicey. Checking in right at the 24-hour mark puts you closer to the front of the queue to board, but there's still no guarantee to get the seat you want. For some, that's a dealbreaker, but for others, it's worth the savings.) 6. Search for one-way tickets in addition to round-trip fares.This piece of advice may come as a surprise, as many of us were taught that booking one-way tickets was way more expensive than booking round-trip. That's no longer the case. I always search for both round-trip and one-way tickets, and I frequently find two one-ways—often on two different airlines—to be cheaper than a round-trip ticket. Who knew?7. Watch out for hidden fees and exclusions on discount carriers.That Frontier or Spirit or Allegiant Airlines flight might look dirt cheap, but when you find out it doesn't even include a carry-on bag in that price, you may find that it's not worth it. Southwest is unique in that it is a lower-cost airline that doesn't charge extra fees and actually includes more free baggage than most standard airlines. Most discount airlines tack on fees for everything from bags to snacks, so it's good to know what's included and what's not in your airfare. Discount carriers will get you where you're going, but if you want to take anything with you, you might end up actually paying more in the end.8. Search alternative airports near your departure and destination locations.If you're flying to or from a large city, there are usually multiple airports you can choose from. And if you're flying to or from a small town, there are often airports within an hour's drive that may (or may not) be significantly cheaper to fly in and out of. You may be surprised by how much you can save using alternative airports that you didn't even know existed, so do a quick Google Maps search for airports nearby and search those in Google Flights as well. (Depending on where you're going, some smaller airports in large metro areas might actually get you closer to where you need to be on your vacation anyway. I know this can be the case in Southern California, at the very least.)9. The more flexible you can be with travel dates and times, the better. This is probably the biggest key factor in saving money on flights. I mentioned the off-peak times savings earlier, but even changing travel plans by just a day can save you a ton. People often don't realize how much prices can vary for the same route within the same week or month. For instance, looking right now at Seattle to Chicago one-way tickets, prices in November range from $70 to $249. You can see it in the Google Flights screenshot above as well. Even just a one-day difference can mean paying double the price, so the more flexible your dates, the better your chances of snagging a reasonably priced ticket.10. Learn about the credit card/airline/hotel points and miles travel game.Most of this airfare savings advice is applicable to the short term, but by far the best way to save on plane tickets is to basically get them for free. That's a long game. Sometimes called "travel hacking," the points/miles game is a fairly complicated but incredibly valuable hobby to take up if you want to save loads of money on travel. I started playing the game far later than I should have and wish someone had impressed upon me how mind-blowing the savings were going to be when you know what you're doing. If you use a credit card that gives you points for cash back or to use for other things, you will get much more out of it if you learn how to maximize those points to make travel much, much more affordable. (I promise I'm not selling anything here. It's genuinely something I recommend to everyone, simply because it's amazing what people can do when they learn how the points/miles game works. You can learn more about it here.) Even when plane ticket prices skyrocket, there are always some deals to be had with a little creativity and flexibility. Hopefully, these tips can help you save on airfare as you make travel plans during this weird, wonky, unpredictable time. This article originally appeared two years ago.

Everyone knows that '90s movies just hit different. From sports movies to rom-coms to even horror, there was an undeniable innocence, without being overly simplistic or juvenile. They didn’t have nearly the amount of money going into production as they do today, but somehow managed to transport us to magical places. Movies of the '90s are so iconic that there have been several attempts to reboot beloved titles. Which, let’s face it, tends to be a fool's errand at a cash grab. These movies are so timeless that simply viewing the original is more than fine. Not sure which movie to start with? You’re in luck—a Reddit user by the name of YouBrokeMyTV asked ’90s kids to share movies that took them “back to a better time,” and because the internet can be a wonderful place, tons of people responded with some beloved classics.These answers certainly don’t make a definitive list (there are just so, so many gems) but they're a fun glimpse into what made '90s cinema so special. A nostalgic romp through memory lane, if you will.Enjoy these 14 titles that just might leave you jonesing for a rewatch: 1. "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"via GIPHYA perfect example of how '90s movies were silly, but smart at the same time. And oh so wholesome.2. "The Sandlot"via GIPHY It taught us nothing about baseball, but everything about friendship, rooting for the underdog and (most important) how to make s’mores. 3. "Drop Dead Fred"via GIPHYCritics might have run this cult classic through the mud during its inception, but audiences fell in love with the bizarre charm of this story about a mischievous little girl and her anarchist imaginary friend. So take that, snotfaces!4. "The Goonies"via GIPHYEveryone just wanted to set off an epic quest with their friends for pirate treasure after seeing this movie.5. Tim Burton's "Batman"via GIPHY Before the superhero genre was the behemoth it is today, a quirky director and the dude who was best known for playing the creepy demon in "Beetlejuice" breathed new life into comic-book movies. Marvel might be the leader on creating stories with adult themes that are digestible for kids nowadays, but this DC film was the first of its kind. Plus, that soundtrack … forget about it. 6. "Hook"via GIPHYPretty much any '90s film starring Robin Williams was an absolute gem, but this one in particular is timeless. His gift of balancing childlike humor with emotional gravitas lent itself so well to playing the now grown and cynical Peter Pan, who must learn to reclaim his joy (relatable, millennials?). It was a bang-a-rang-er, no question.7. "Space Jam"via GIPHYIt had Looney Tunes, it had aliens and it had Michael Jordan. That’s a winning combination. 8. "Matilda"via GIPHYI don’t think I’m out of line when I say that this movie helped a lot of kids make their way through difficult childhoods. 9. "The Parent Trap"via GIPHYEven '90s reboots were awesome. And how fun it is to see that Lisa Ann Walker—the actress who played Chessy the housekeeper—is not only yet again gracing the screens in NBC’s “Abbott Elementary,” but is also being revered as a style icon on TikTok for her ultra casual looks in the film. We all knew she was onto something with long button downs and shorts.10. "The Land Before Time"via GIPHYNo cartoon, not even “The Lion King,” was a better depiction of childhood grief. And yet, despite encapsulating tragedy, director Don Bluth still left viewers hopeful. The subsequent 14 (yes 14) sequels definitely pale in comparison to the original, but "The Land Before Time" continues to stand the test of time nonetheless.11. "Richie Rich"via GIPHYThe scene where they play tag on four-wheelers is simply iconic. 12. "Dunston Checks In"via GIPHYMan, the '90s were the golden age of animal-centered films. And not just monkeys either—we got sports playing golden retrievers and not one, but two movies starring talking pigs. What a time to be alive. These films were made before CGI had reached the levels it’s at today, and the authentic interactions between humans and creatures reached right through the screen. 13. "George of the Jungle"Have I seen this movie at least 20 times? Probably. It doesn’t get any better than this in terms of silly action films with bird puppets. It’s crazy to think that this role would eventually lead Brendan Fraser to "The Mummy" franchise, turning him into a household name. Though his career has had some tragic ups and downs, we are all grateful for the glorious comeback he’s been having.14. Anything involving Mary-Kate and Ashley OlsenWhether vacationing in London, Paris or Rome, whether playing magical witches or making a huge billboard so their father could find love … Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen offered zany, whimsical entertainment while wearing fun outfits. Sometimes, that’s all you need.This article originally appeared two years ago.

"I felt particularly proud to play on that record." The post Max Weinberg’s favourite Bruce Springsteen song first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal last Wednesday to outline what they styled “The DOGE Plan to Reform Government.” DOGE is, of course, an acronym for the prospective Department of Government Efficiency whose mission will be to reduce the size of the administrative state and strip its unelected bureaucrats of the enormous power they unlawfully wield over the American people. Musk and Ramaswamy explain that President-elect Trump has asked them to take on this task and why: “The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long.” Ronald Reagan famously phrased it, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Those politicians have not merely abetted the metastasis of the bureaucratic cancer that afflicts Washington. Congress increasingly passes legislation that unconstitutionally cedes its lawmaking power to the apparatchiks. This is most often done by Democrats when they want to surreptitiously expand federal power. The usual method is for legislators to include a vaguely defined requirement in a new statute and instruct the bureaucrats to fill in the details “at the discretion of the Secretary.” This process is how the notorious contraception mandate ended up in Obamacare and was weaponized to persecute the Little Sisters of the Poor. It was likewise used to enable the worst excesses of the Environmental Protection Agency. Fortunately, the Democrats will be unable to pass any new boondoggles until 2027 at the earliest and President Trump will own the veto pen until January of 2029. This will give Musk and Ramaswamy ample time to launch their DOGE plan and monitor its execution, which they will do without pay as outside volunteers. And, as they put it in the Journal, “Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.” One way they plan to achieve that goal involves working closely with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on regulatory rescissions, which will in turn permit them to implement personnel reductions throughout the government: A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy. DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions. The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified: Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited. Inevitably, the contemplated cuts are already being portrayed in the corporate media as “brutal,” but Musk and Ramaswamy take a more businesslike view: “If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.” And they are indeed staying home. As Marc Fisher recently reported in the Washington Post, “Only 6 percent of federal workers are working full-time in their offices; 30 percent are fully remote.” Musk and Ramaswamy anticipate an executive order from President Trump requiring most federal employees to physically report to work five days a week. They believe this alone would result in a “wave of voluntary terminations.” Most critics of the DOGE plan denounce the anticipated personnel reductions and ignore how Musk and Ramaswamy anticipate arriving at the point where such cuts will be possible. Indeed, few of their critics appear to have read their Wall Street Journal manifesto. The Hill quotes University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley, who sniffs: “If what they’re saying is agencies can now adopt different regulations without going through the administrative process, because they think they’ve got some clincher of a legal argument, I think they’re going to find out very quickly that the courts are not likely to be sympathetic.” This was said in response to what they wrote concerning DOGE and the Supreme Court: In West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), the justices held that agencies can’t impose regulations dealing with major economic or policy questions unless Congress specifically authorizes them to do so. In Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), the court overturned the Chevron doctrine and held that federal courts should no longer defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of the law or their own rulemaking authority. Together, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law. How DOGE Sees the Bureaucracy Musk and Ramaswamy believe that many of the 441 federal agencies that make up the administrative state have promulgated rules that won’t survive legal scrutiny: “DOGE will work with legal experts embedded in government agencies, aided by advanced technology, to apply these [SCOTUS] rulings to federal regulations enacted by such agencies.” This will yield a long list of illegitimate regulations, and how much they cost, which will go to President Trump. “When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach.” Musk and Ramaswamy are aware that they will meet enormous resistance. “We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington.” They nonetheless believe they can cut federal overspending by “taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress,” and expect to finish the project by July 4, 2026. (READ MORE: Desperate Democrats Learned Nothing Last Week) The big question is, of course, the following: Can DOGE succeed where the Grace Commission and numerous other reform initiatives failed? Neither Elon Musk nor Vivek Ramaswamy are ordinary men. They are smarter and more creative than the denizens of the deep state. Moreover, they will be working with a bold president who doesn’t mind breaking things. Nevertheless, as Ronald Reagan famously phrased it, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” (READ MORE from David Catron: We Need National Election Reform … Now!) The post Can Musk Dismantle the Deep State? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

This could’ve been a grim Thanksgiving. Spent lamenting the further, faster decline of a glorious nation under re-empowered bad leadership. To the bluster of friends, relatives, and media types cheering her downfall. Many of them hostile to American traditions, beginning with the feast day they’re supposedly celebrating. But conservatives know there’s a God. And He just saved America from great darkness. Thanksgiving history is tragedy to the Left. A group of white Christian zealots seeking religious expansion befriended some naïve Indians, who gave them enough food to survive a brutal winter, thus enabling their own racial colonization. How much better for them to have remained blissfully ignorant of corruptive modern advancements — like the wheel. (READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: The Night That Wrecked Hollywoke) At least Leftists have made symbolic reparations for their Euro ancestors’ sin. These include idiotic land acknowledgments, removing the Indian beauty from Land O’Lakes butter product, and renaming the Washington Redskins the Washington Commanders. Yet the ungrateful savages rejected Democratic virtue signalling on Election Day. Exit polls showed 65 percent of Native Americans voted for the White Supremacist Trump and regressives who still want to sing Hail to the Redskins. Which will make this Thanksgiving Day all the pleasanter. Our liberal intimates — whom we know would be gloating obnoxiously had the electoral outcome been different — will be glummer and quieter. Unlike them, we can be gallant and refrain from outright mockery, while enjoying their pain on the inside. That is if they show up at all, after being advised against it by their luminaries. Like Yale University child psychiatry fellow Doctor Amanda Calhoun. “If you are going through a situation where you have family members or you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you, that are against your livelihood, then it’s completely fine to not be around those people, and to tell them why,” Dr. Calhoun told MSNBC’s Joy Reid. “To say, ‘I have a problem with the way that you voted because it went against my very livelihood, and I’m not going to be around you this holiday, I need to take some space for me.’” So much of what is wrong with liberalism oozes from Calhoun’s screed, starting with the excess words. A normal person without a doctorate from Yale would just say, “If your friends or family voted for Trump, and against your values, you can avoid them and tell them why.” And no conservative would view a contrary vote as a personal attack to say, “You voted against me, and against my livelihood,” — whatever the hell that means. Or conclude with the cliché whimper, “I’m not going to be around you this holiday, I need to take some space for me.’” Because for the likes of Calhoun, Joy Reid, and everyone on MSNBC, progressivism is a religion, and Donald Trump the anti-Christ who threatens their cult. Since they disbelieve in the true Christ, Thanksgiving has no meaning or value, other than as an archaic ritualistic gathering increasingly outside their comfort level, or “space.” Where the friends and family members that voted differently from them betrayed them. But conservatives know there’s a God. And He just saved America from great darkness. While infanticide continues apace, although now absent Constitutional sanction, perversion and delusion are in retreat. And this Thanksgiving, we have many blessings to be thankful for, apart from the silence of the lefties. Most, of course, revolve around the man whose historic victory against insurmountable obstacles brought us here — Donald J. Trump. Below, in chronological order, are some that merit my gratitude. The first may seem counterintuitive but to appropriately cite the Bible (Isaiah 55: 8-9), the Lord works in mysterious ways. This Thanksgiving’s Good Fortune Trump’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden. As disastrous as this was, people needed to experience the contrast between a visionary if boorish pro-American President backstabbed by his key personnel and a hapless, inept leftist fool with total media cover. They got an early glimpse with the catastrophic Afghan withdrawal then a final one with the two men’s one debate. Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Even while Trump was still President, all social media platforms engaged in leftwing censorship, banning illiberal claimants including the New York Post on the factual Hunter laptop story, Trump himself, and anti-COVID-mandate medical professionals. Musk broke the conspiracy by buying Twitter and restoring free speech. Not coincidentally, to leftist screaming, he then joined forces with Trump. The failed assassination of Trump. Trump literally dodged a bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania last summer by turning his head at just the right instant. Anyone but a radical leftist might consider this a miracle, and believe God had a greater plan for Trump and America. On November 5th, it began to unveil. The Kamala Harris candidacy. All the Left’s horses and all the Left’s women couldn’t make a viable, credible candidate out of cackling, blathering Kamala. But, boy, did they try, even lauding her ridiculous spasmic running mate as a male role model and fabricating joy. With Twitter now X, and rightwing media ascendant, the American people saw through the illusion and voted for Trump. (READ MORE: Trump Victory Is the American Counter-Reformation) The election of Donald Trump. Now, Trump is back. And for the first time since the election of Ronald Reagan, I feel America can be great again. And it will be a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Good thing Uncle John won’t be there — I mean too bad. __________ Exchange between the two PI heroes of my new political thriller, The Washington Trail: A Slade and Cork Mystery:    “You destroyed a three-thousand-dollar television set tackling the guy,” Cork said. “It was showing The View,” said Slade. This Christmas, treat yourself and your friends to a capital detective story, The Washington Trail. Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and wherever fun mysteries are sold.    The post A Happier Thanksgiving appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

It’s hard to believe, but Joe Biden is still president of the United States. It’s a long fifty-six days until Donald Trump becomes president again and Biden is taking steps almost every day to Trump-proof the country and the world. The only thing he can count on is Democrats and the media doing their best to stop him. As I wrote two weeks ago, Biden is doing everything he can to protect the Swamp. He’s trying to move all of his (and Obama’s) political appointees into regular civil service jobs so they can’t be fired. There are ways around this — reductions in force, for example — but they involve a lot of delay and litigation. The changes Biden — really the people making decisions for old, demented, Joe — go beyond our borders. They affect our allies and enemies. Some can be dismantled easily by Trump when he gets into office, some will be hard, and some will be impossible to reverse. On the easy to dismantle side are the sanctions Biden placed last week on Israeli civilians and business entities in the West Bank. The added sanctions are just one more Biden shot at the Israelis. He’s been their worst ally since Obama. Trump can, and will, reverse that decision. Not so easy to reverse are Biden’s actions on Ukraine. Ever since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Biden’s people — Secretary of State Tony Blinkey (our worst secretary of state by far) and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan (and whoever else is making Biden’s decisions) — have taken a stand-offish, passive aggressive role. Now, they seem to want a war with Russia. Biden’s people began by authorizing the use of the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to attack targets inside Russia. They, and the UK-supplied “Storm Shadow” missiles, were used last week to hit Russian assets inside Russia proper. The Russians replied by launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile, carrying multiple independently-targeted reentry vehicles (MIRVs) into Ukraine. Putin has been threatening to attack any country that supplied weapons used to attack Russia. Putin has also revised Russian nuclear doctrine to support use of nuclear weapons in response to such attacks. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Hegseth and Ratcliffe Face Big Challenges) Biden has also authorized Ukraine to use anti-personnel mines which had been banned by Obama for “humanitarian” reasons. Why did Blinken and Sullivan authorize the ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes now? Why the use of anti-personnel mines? Because they want to tie Trump’s hands in a bigger war. The UK is preparing for an attack on it or its foreign assets. I’m betting that we’re as prepared for a Russian strike as we were for the 2012 attack on our Benghazi embassy. Which is to say that we will be totally unprepared if Russia attacks any American asset anywhere. Biden is also forgiving $4.7 billion in loans to Ukraine and pushing more billions in aid to Ukraine before Trump is inaugurated again. Trump won’t be able to re-impose the terms of those loans and cancel the billions in other aid. Biden is also pushing to give another $61 billion to Ukraine. Trump’s ability to end that plan is hampered, as I’ve written, by his unwisely making the Republican’s House majority smaller by appointing House Republicans to his new administration. Before all of this, Biden and Co. always shied away, fearing most any escalation of any war. This fear of escalation, and the appeasement that goes with it, has been Biden’s only strategy. This goes back to the beginning of the war in 2022 when Biden denied the Polish government permission to supply about two dozen MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, which Ukrainian pilots had been flying for decades. The MiGs could have made an enormous difference in the early days of the war. Instead, Ukraine has had to wait until this summer for U.S.-made F-16s, some of which are now flying with Ukrainian pilots. Too little, too late. Biden has — until now — been satisfied with that war’s stalemate. The fear of escalation has been a major fear of the Biden crew in the war Hamas started with Israel on October 7, 2023. Blinken and Sullivan have made Biden enamored of cease-fire deals in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Fortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has ignored them. Netanyahu has nearly — and systematically — destroyed Hamas and is now doing the same for Hizballah in Lebanon. Biden continues, even in his debilitated state, to meet with foreign leaders and appease them. In his recent meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, Xi said America dare not cross four red lines, which is said were: Taiwan, the issue of “human rights,” the Chinese communist system, and China’s “development rights,” which can only mean China’s ambitions in the South China Sea. Not a peep of objection did Biden make to Xi’s “red lines.” Biden, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s help, is trying to confirm as many federal judges as he can before January 20. No matter how incompetent or radical — or both — Chuckie will confirm Biden’s nominees. Tying Trump’s Hands According to a Washington Times report, Biden’s crew is also pushing out billions of dollars to tie Trump’s hands on health and climate issues. According to that report, Biden’s crew is also pushing out more economy-strangling regulations before they are booted out the door. Again, according to the Times, “Congress approved four major bills under Mr. Biden’s watch that created roughly $4.8 trillion in new spending. The laws include the $1.9 trillion stimulus package; a $1.2 trillion infrastructure law to improve the nation’s roads and bridges; a $1.2 trillion health, climate, and tax law; and a $52 billion bill to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.” (READ MORE: Undoing Biden: Trump’s First-Month Agenda) The Times reports that, while the Biden regime has already dispensed about 98 percent of that money, Biden’s crew is rushing to dispense the remaining $46 billion that is available in fiscal 2025. Just more good money going after bad. Trump will try to cancel Biden’s actions, seeking to recoup some of that money but it will be very hard to do. The House Republicans, with such a tiny majority, will be their fractious selves, limiting what they can do. And that’s only half of it. Biden has reportedly removed more barriers — if that is even possible — to illegal immigration. That’s a direct challenge to Trump’s ability to deport the illegals which he has promised to do. Biden’s enormous spending has already caused the inflation that Americans suffer every day. Continuing this spending will create barriers to Trump’s ability to reduce inflation. Biden & Co. know that. Even after January 20, Schumer will delay confirmation of Trump’s cabinet and sub-cabinet members as much as he can. There’s a lot to be said in favor of what Trump wants to do. The only thing he can count on is Democrats and the media doing their best to stop him. Trump 2.0 will have no “honeymoon” with any of them. The post Biden Is Trump-Proofing the World appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Setting: A tuxedo-clad Donald Trump cradles a calico cat while sitting behind an oak desk in a replica Oval Office in Mar-a-Lago. Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski stand before him. Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., flank the room’s doorframe. Joe: I believe in MSNBC. MSNBC has made my fortune. And Mika and I were raised in an MSNBC fashion. Mika: They let us spew preposterous nonsense. Joe: MSNBC gave us freedom, and we were taught never to dishonor MSNBC. Mika: MSNBC handles that by itself. Trump: Why did you go to MSNBC? Why didn’t you come to me first? Joe (tearing up): I did! I wanted to be your vice president in 2016, but I was passed over. What do you ask of me? Tell me anything, but do what I beg you to do. Some day, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. Trump: And what is that? Joe: To not line us up against a wall and kill us by machine-gun fire. Mika: It would ruin my fur coat. (Musk and Kennedy glance at each other and chuckle.) Trump (perplexed): What makes you think I would do that? Joe: That’s what we said you wanted to do to Liz Cheney, even though we understood you in context and wanted to stoke fear among the populace. Now we’re worried you might actually do it. Mika: Kim Jong-Un did that to his uncle. Trump: We’ve known each other for many years, but this is the first time in seven years you have come to me for counsel, for help. I can’t remember the last time you invited me to your penthouse for coffee. But let’s be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. You feared to be in my debt. Joe: We didn’t want our ratings to tank. Mika: That’s happening now. Trump: I understand you found utopia at MSNBC and make a good living. MSNBC protected you. And you didn’t need my friendship. Now you come to me and say, “Donald, don’t execute us,” but you don’t say it with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think of calling me “Mr. President.” Instead, you come into my house on the day when I near 77 million popular votes and ask me to forget your insults. You say I would murder my enemies. You call me a threat to democracy. You compare me to Hitler, knowing my son-in-law is Jewish, as are some of my grandchildren. Tell me, if you truly believe me to be a genocidal maniac bent on eradicating entire races, why would you seek a meeting with me? Joe (sobbing uncontrollably): Those insults boost our ratings. The more ridiculous we make you sound, the more people watch. MSNBC doesn’t care if we say you’ll cancel future elections, murder every House member and Senator, and wear a white military uniform with dozens of bizarre medals on your chest. We don’t believe what we tell our audience — we tell them what they want to hear. Mika: We play them for fools and wouldn’t be caught dead with those losers. (Trump places the cat on the ground, stands, and turns his back on Joe and Mika.) Trump: Joe… Joe… What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? Joe: You insulted my wife’s physical appearance. Mika: I’ve had many facelifts. My face never bled from one of them. Trump (shrugging): You should always take me seriously, never literally. Now your ratings are in ruin. Had you initially sought my friendship, you would never have insulted me. MSNBC would be a powerhouse of intellectualism instead of a hellscape of idiocy. And should an honest newsman like yourself make enemies at other networks, they would become my enemies. And they would fear you. Joe (wiping away tears): Everyone points at us and laughs, even our housekeeper. Mika: Please don’t deport Yolanda. (Trump turns to Joe and Mika and extends his right hand. Joe embraces it and kneels.) Joe: Please don’t murder us, Mr. President. (Joe kisses an emerald ring on Trump’s hand.) Trump: Good. Mika: You can kill (MSNBC personality) Willie Geist if you’re desperate. He’s always late bringing me my morning scone. Trump: Some day, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. Perhaps I’ll ask you to slobber over me during an interview as Stephanie Ruhle did to Kamala Harris. But until that day, accept this promise that I won’t murder you or anyone as a gift on the day when I near 77 million popular votes. (Joe and Mika repeatedly bow to Trump while backing out of the room. Musk slams the door in their faces.) Trump (to Kennedy): Do you think Greg Gutfeld would make a good Secretary of the Navy? _______________ READ MORE from Matt Manochio: Kamala’s Loss Leaves Obama Seething Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes Interview, for Real The post Joe and Mika Reconcile With the Don appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

I’ve lived in about a dozen houses in different cities. I’ve met people from dozens of different countries, guys who eat bugs, people who don’t have cell phones, singles addicted to Tinder, and beautiful large families with houses full of kids sorted by height and hair color. I have come to the conclusion that the overstuffed chair is the true cultural nexus of the West, what binds nations together, what makes all men equal. I’ve traveled to the ends of the earth and back. I’ve imbibed millions of books soaring through centuries and cultures. And I can assure you that there is no better kept secret, no greater taboo, and no more universal mystery: why the hell does everyone always have a chair full of clothes in the corner of the bedroom? And why do we hide it from others? Are we ashamed of it? In those chats with friends, blessed with wine, the darkest secrets always come to light. You hear about infidelities, corruption, political conspiracies, and the like. But you’ve never heard anyone confess that they have a damn chair with a huge mountain of clothes next to the bed, and that it’s not a work of contemporary art. I’ve been reorganizing my house this week. You know, I moved furniture, beds, sofas, rearranged all the closets, and reorganized my bookcase. When I was finished, the house was spotless, it looked brand new, I was tempted to take pictures of it and upload it to Instagram as if I was the reincarnation of Marie Kondo. But after barely five minutes had passed, I whizzed into my gleaming room, turned my head, and there it was! The chair with a three foot pile of tangled clothes was there. It was there in the past. There is a booby trap at the entrance to my room that is only activated by the pressure of a female heel, and which emits an immediate question: “Why do you have all those clothes there? Fed up with the question, as a sociologist I have found it necessary to conduct a study. Although the origin of the chair is uncertain, most people claim that it grows vertically for three reasons: “I’ll wear it tomorrow”, “it’s not clean but it’s not dirty either”, “it’s not my size anymore, but maybe I’ll lose weight”. The chair represents a limbo in our hygiene habits. It is temporary but eternal. We are not able to do away with it, nor do we understand why it reproduces itself as soon as we leave the house. Personally, at this point in my research, I’m inclined to believe the chair goes into Toy Story mode whenever we’re not looking at it. For this reason I have installed a 24/7 recording webcam focusing on the chair (I will continue to report). If you have a pile of clothes on a chair (you do) and you want to get rid of them I have some bad news: it’s impossible. You can’t leave those clothes in the closet because you and I both know they’re not entirely clean, and clothes that aren’t entirely clean can contain killer, contagious microorganisms that could make all the clean clothes in the closet become nearly-clean, and then you’d have a chair of nearly-clean clothes and a closet of nearly-clean clothes, and every morning when you got dressed you’d be itching all over. Hanging them on the coat rack is not an option. There are coats on the rack. Nearly-clean clothes entering the territory of the coat rack would be something like a Hamas terrorist, armed to the teeth, walking around Jerusalem. The coats are on the coat rack and not in a closet because they are neither clean nor dirty, they just are. But the clothes on the chair are not like that, sometimes they are clean, just not today. The ultimate solution is to throw everything on the chair into a “in-between clothes” hamper, but: what kind of undiagnosed psychopath has an “in-between clothes hamper”? I have recently started therapy for mutual acquaintance between me and the chair. I hug the chair in the morning, affectionately tap the pile of clothes as I walk by, and even make promises I won’t keep: “I’ll soon buy you a table to keep you company!” We all know that, if I buy her a table, in addition to the chair with a pile of clothes, I will have a table with a pile of clothes. The True Meaning of the Chair Using elaborate techniques of sociological analysis, I have come to the conclusion that the overstuffed chair is the true cultural nexus of the West, what binds nations together, what makes all men equal, and in short, a source of pride like the national anthem, the army and our flag. Believe me. The chair full of clothes is not a failure. It is a declaration, a declaration on a par with the Independence of 1776, a definitive declaration, “I have more important things to do.” READ MORE from Itxu Diaz: Escaping Politics to the Serene Countryside … It’s Too Cold Make Government Small Again The post Why We All Have a Chair Full of Clothes appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

Rent-seeking describes profit-seeking through the manipulation of the regulatory or legal apparatus rather than by  competing with others in the marketplace. Cronyism is a common form of rent-seeking, as demonstrated by the Solyndra fiasco. And if Americans could expend all their own health care dollars, rent-seeking would simply stop. When the California-based green energy start-up company Solyndra sought investors in the free market, every venture capital group refused. Solyndra leveraged its connections with the Obama administration to secure a taxpayer-funded loan of $535 million. The company went bankrupt and never paid back the loan. Rent-seeking has several adverse effects on society. It reduces dollar efficiency, meaning dollars are expended without producing value for consumers. It reduces the creation of true wealth and increases income inequality. Rent-seeking encourages cronyism and corruption and tends to reduce public trust in governmental institutions. U.S. healthcare is replete with rent-seeking examples and the adverse effects of this behavior. The recent COVID scam was used to justify several successful rent-seeking schemes. “Big Pharma” as Rent-Seeker The official narrative decreed that COVID-19 was an existential threat to our country. Americans needed a counter-agent, treatment, or preventative immediately. Big Pharma responded by releasing an mRNA genetic injection, assuring the public it was “safe, effective, and doctor-approved.” Their “vaccine” was never used before, incompletely tested, ineffective, and medically dangerous. Drug manufacturers convinced the Biden-Harris administration to require all Americans to accept no-charge mRNA injections, or else. Of course, the no-charge-to-consumer mandate meant the government had to purchase billions of doses for a fixed, no-compete price. There is no consumer choice, no competition that drives down prices, no free market forces. The federal government gave Big Pharma more than $25 billion in rent-seeking payments. Hospitals & Professional Organizations Too Bribery is a common method for individuals to entice government officials to give them preferential treatment, i.e., to rent-seek. During COVID, the reverse occurred. The government bribed private entities such as hospitals and professional organizations with rent-seeking profits to promote their false public health crisis narrative. Federal officials needed evidence of the alleged danger to defend the official story of the imminent viral threat. Washington paid hospitals and clinics a bonus for reporting every positive test for the COVID antigen as a “case,” even if the person was not ill. Deaths with a positive antigen positive test were listed as “COVID deaths” without autopsy evidence and despite the presence of end-stage heart or kidney failure. Even a motorcycle accident victim was listed as a COVID fatality because his blood tested positive for the antigen. Insurance Rent-Seeking The insurance industry has been successfully rent-seeking for decades because they have a captive audience of consumers called the American public. Nearly half of the U.S. population, 155.8 million in 2023, is insured by the federal government directly or by subcontract: Medicaid/CHIP (79.6 million), Medicare (66.7 million), and Tricare (9.5 million). One-hundred and sixty five million Americans have employer-sponsored health insurance. In all cases, the premiums people pay are negotiated between insurers and the government, state and federal, and not by consumers spending their money in a free marketplace. For the nearly 80 million enrolled in no-charge Medicaid, the people who pay are not these individuals but taxpayers as a whole. The number of enrollees, the revenue that insurers receive from rent-seeking, and the cost to all taxpayers are likely to grow considerably since states like California and Oregon have made illegal immigrants eligible for Medicaid, which should be limited to American citizens. Federal Agencies Rent-Seek By far, the greatest rent-seekers are federal agencies that regulate healthcare. This refers not merely to well-known entities such as CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), NIH (National Institutes of Health), and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) but to dozens of others not well known but well-staffed and very costly bureaucracies. The rent-seeking behaviors of federal BARRCOME — bureaucracy, administration, rules, regulations, compliance, oversight, mandates, and enforcement — are the primary reason for dollar inefficiency in healthcare. Dollar efficiency refers to the amount expended on producing value for consumers. For healthcare, the “value” produced is (or should be) medical care. Dollars not devoted to patient care are inefficiently spent. BARRCOME spending comes first and can be taken from patient care allocations. To pay for Affordable Care Act infrastructure, President Obama took $716 billion from the Medicare Trust Fund, taking dollars from senior care to fund BARRCOME. Estimates of the cost of BARRCOME range from 31 percent to more than 50 percent. Since the U.S. expended $4.8 trillion on its healthcare system in 2023, $1.5 trillion to $$2.4 trillion was diverted from patient care to pay Washington’s rent-seeking. Solution to Rent-Seeking Solving the problem of rent-seeking cannot be done piecemeal, one at a time. It can only be fixed by addressing the system and dissolving the root cause. Rent-seeking can only exist when a third party makes payments rather than when consumers spend their own money. If consumers had the choice to buy (or not) COVID shots, Big Pharma could not make a fixed price, special deal with the government. If Americans could decide where to spend employer-sponsored insurance monies, there would be no rent-seeking by Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare. And if Americans could expend all their own health care dollars, rent-seeking would simply stop. Two trillion “healthcare” dollars could then be used efficiently — on care and/or reducing the tax burden or the national debt. The cure for rent-seeking in healthcare is called “Empower Patients,” where Americans, not third parties, control their health (medical) care spending. READ MORE from Waldman and Ginn: Harris’ Healthcare Destroys Health CARE Wait Times for Medical Care Matter –– Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Pathology, and Decision Science; former Director of Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; former Director of New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange; and author of 12 books, including multi-award winning, Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine.  Follow him on X.com @DrDeaneWor contact viawww.deanewaldman.com.   Vance Ginn, Ph.D., is president of Ginn Economic Consulting, host of the Let People Prosper Show, and previously chief economist of the Trump White House’s Office of Management and Budget. Follow him on X.com at @VanceGinn. The post Federal Bureaucracy Is Biggest Healthcare Rent-Seeker appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.