An Obamacare Relic That Needs to Go
Posted By: 4250Luis, 2/4/2026 6:24:38 AM
The prevailing wisdom in Washington is that Republicans are all bark and no bite when it comes to channeling their disdain of Obamacare into action. The truth is, the GOP actually has a pretty good story to tell. It’s not often that you hear Republicans discuss what they’ve done to prevent some of Obamacare’s most harmful provisions from coming to life, but GOP lawmakers have quietly chipped away at the law for years. During President Trump’s first term, Republicans eliminated Obamacare’s individual mandate, repealed its “Cadillac tax,” terminated the law’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and axed its medical device tax.
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4250Luis"
An Obamacare Relic That Needs to Go
4 replies
The prevailing wisdom in Washington is that Republicans are all bark and no bite when it comes to channeling their disdain of Obamacare into action. The truth is, the GOP actually has a pretty good story to tell.
It’s not often that you hear Republicans discuss what they’ve done to prevent some of Obamacare’s most harmful provisions from coming to life, but GOP lawmakers have quietly chipped away at the law for years. During President Trump’s first term, Republicans eliminated Obamacare’s individual mandate, repealed its “Cadillac tax,” terminated the law’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and axed its medical device tax.
Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC’s “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been reported missing, and law enforcement described the scene they encountered at her Arizona home as “very concerning.”
Homicide detectives were sent in, which is not standard practice in a missing person case, and Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said that the house is a crime scene. There were volunteers, search-and-rescue teams, dogs, Border Patrol agents, and helicopters deployed in the search on Sunday. They have now been sent home to rest.
“We will call them in again if we need them, but right now we don’t see this as a search mission, but a crime scene,” Nanos said.
It is a grim indictment of European timidity that only the slaughter of thousands of innocent protesters on the streets of Iran finally forced the European Union to act. For decades, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been the backbone of repression at home and terror abroad. Its crimes were never hidden. They were merely ignored. Now, quite belatedly, Brussels has moved and only one shameful outlier remains, the United Kingdom Britain’s refusal to fast-track proscribing the IRGC rests on a feeble and frankly ludicrous argument, that one cannot designate an “organ of a state” as a terrorist organisation.
California: A lost cause?
11 replies
The recent announcement that California led the nation in losing domestic migrants may seem like another nail in the Golden State’s coffin.
It’s just another piece of bad news for a state that, despite having the most billionaires in the world, suffers the nation’s highest poverty rate, per recent Census data.
The state’s young people are faring poorly: Among teenagers, the unemployment rate tops 21%, just short of twice the national average.
And for those under 30, California’s jobless rate exceeds that of every other state except for Mississippi.
So, is the onetime capital of the future finished? If it stays on the current path, with ever-expanding government,
SpaceX has successfully cut off the Russian military from having “unauthorized” access to the Starlink satellite systems that had been used to attack Ukraine, Elon Musk said Sunday.
Musk, the SpaceX CEO, said Russia’s drone network had now lost access to the company’s satellites after Ukrainian officials informed him of Russia’s illegal use of the Starlink system last week,
“Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” the tech billionaire wrote on X.
Unlike alliances that fluctuate with electoral cycles, the U.S.-UAE partnership has proven durable because it is grounded in shared strategic instincts: opposition to political Islam, preference for state stability over chaos, and a pragmatic understanding of power. From counterterrorism cooperation to energy security and regional normalization, Abu Dhabi has repeatedly aligned with U.S. objectives when it mattered.
Under U.S. President Donald Trump, the UAE played a central role in the Abraham Accords — one of the most consequential diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East in generations. The Accords succeeded because they were deal-oriented, interest-based, and insulated from ideological illusion.
The state of California is losing yet another tech company to Florida.
In a dramatic sign of the rising allure of low-tax, pro-business states, quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum Inc. announced it is relocating its corporate headquarters and key R & D operations from Palo Alto to Boca Raton, Florida. The move, confirmed in a statement from the company, marks a stinging blow to Silicon Valley, in what many see as a broader trend of tech companies leaving high-cost Cali for more business-friendly regions.
CEO Dr. Alan Baratz made no secret of the strategy: Florida’s rapidly growing tech ecosystem, expanding talent pool,
I'm Just two years ago, Mary Barra, chief executive of General Motors, declared: “We believe in an all-electric future.” She went on to claim that the challenges her company was facing in the EV market were merely temporary bumps on the road to net zero. But as Bob Dylan famously observed, things have changed. On Jan. 8, GM announced it would take a $7.1 billion hit in charges against its earnings, of which $6 billion is due to Barra’s failed EV strategy. In a filing with the SEC, the company also warned that it would take more write-downs this year as part of a “strategic realignment of EV capacity.”
Conservatism’s Case for Cheerful Realism
2 replies
have been thinking a lot about narrative formation, about how the taken-for-granted atmosphere of opinion forms and diffuses such that tout le monde internalizes its gospel. One credible—or at least listened to—pundit or politician opines in a way that the media approves, and presto, a new bit of conventional “wisdom” is born or at least reinforced. A mere opinion, often ill-informed and frequently at wide variance with the truth, is repeated ad nauseam. Suddenly, it acquires the carapace of general currency that, at a distance, can easily be mistaken for fact.
Some years ago, I started a folder marked “Conservative Gloominess.”
Arash’s mother never got the chance to serve the sunny-side-up eggs she made for her son before the knock on the door came. It was April 27, 2012. Three plainclothes officers of the Iranian security forces pushed their way in after producing a warrant. The men searched the house for two hours, confiscating laptops and phones. Arash’s pregnant wife returned from her morning shift at school to find her husband in custody. “Don’t worry,” the agents assured her in soft tones, “this will all be cleared up in a few hours after Arash comes down to the station for questioning.”
President Trump: ‘Scammer’ Ilhan Omar
Should Be Jailed over Minnesota’s Billions
in Fraud 10 replies
Should Be Jailed over Minnesota’s Billions
in Fraud 10 replies
President Donald Trump had a fiery message for Minnesota’s Democrat leaders on Saturday, saying the fraud in Minnesota is bigger than initially projected.
The president zeroed in on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) when he wrote in a Truth Social post, “The Theft and Fraud in Minnesota is far greater than the 19 Billion Dollars originally projected. The Biden Administration knew this FRAUD was happening, and did absolutely nothing about it.”
“‘Scammer’ Illhan Omar and her absolutely terrible friends from Somalia should all be in jail right now or, far worse, send them back to Somalia,” he continued. ”
Vladimir Putin violates Trump’s temporary
winter truce, killing 5 Ukrainians in
overnight airstrikes 6 replies
winter truce, killing 5 Ukrainians in
overnight airstrikes 6 replies
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin reneged on his deal with President Trump to briefly pause the war in Ukraine, killing at least five and injuring more than a dozen in strikes across the battered country overnight into Saturday.
Moscow continued its relentless assault on Ukraine — despite a personal plea from Trump to suspend fighting for one week — while the war-torn country and its decimated energy infrastructure go through a deadly cold snap that’s left millions vulnerable to power outages.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
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Washington — Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed to testify in the House Oversight Committee's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, ahead of expected votes in the House later this week on holding the pair in contempt of Congress.
In an email to the committee on Monday, the Clintons' legal team said the former president and former secretary of state "accept the terms of your letter and will appear for depositions on mutually agreeable dates." [snip] Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the oversight panel, said[snip]"The Clintons' counsel has said they agree to terms, but those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions.
Democrat Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY) on Tuesday said Americans would be justified in shooting masked ICE agents.
“What is really the major problem in this country today is the fascism in our streets,” Nadler said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.
“The attacks on American citizens by masked hoodlums. If you were attacked by a masked person, you might think you were being kidnapped,” Nadler said.
“You’d be justified in shooting the person to protect yourself,” Nadler added.
An unsettling scene unfolded on Minneapolis streets over the weekend as anti-ICE activists turned public roadways into impromptu checkpoints and blockades -- while Minneapolis police at one point looked on and walked away. Social media videos show agitators blocking streets with furniture and stopping cars in Minneapolis -- even apparently cross-referencing plates against a database of ICE vehicles before letting drivers through. (snip) When Minneapolis police officers approached and urged [a] group to move [an] obstruction "for fire trucks and ambulances," the protesters didn't budge (snip) and officers eventually left (snip.)
Jim Crow is back, you guys! Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer invoked Jim Crow regarding the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. Schumer whined:I have said it before and I’ll say it again, the SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow-type laws to the entire country and is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Schumer said in a statement on Monday. “If House Republicans add the SAVE Act to the bipartisan appropriations package it will lead to another prolonged Trump government shutdown.
Bicycle mob attack driver after collision,
fracture his ribs and back, and destroy
his car 18 replies
fracture his ribs and back, and destroy
his car 18 replies
The Bay Area is experiencing mobs of bicycle riders stopping to attack and seriously injure drivers who provoke their wrath, while riding around in large groups that the cyclists call “ride outs.” ABC7News (KGO Television) reports:
A Santa Clara driver suffered fractures to his ribs and back after a mob of bicyclists brutally assaulted him following an accident involving one of them.
This is the latest in a string of violent incidents involving large groups of bicyclists, popularly known as “ride outs”, a rapidly growing trend where large, often informal groups of cyclists -- from dozens to thousands -- gather to ride through city streets.
A Minnesota Democratic Party official is urging people on social media to "act neutral" to get seated on a jury and vote to acquit a woman accused of biting off a federal agent's finger tip. Nick Kruse is former vice president of the Minnesota Young DFL and current at-large director of Stonewall DFL. In a Jan. 26 post on X, Kruse wrote that "no one should be going to prison for defending our city against ICE," and encouraged followers to spread information about "jury nullification."
‘Defensive player of the year: ICE.’
Billboard sparks outrage in S.F. ahead
of Super Bowl 15 replies
Billboard sparks outrage in S.F. ahead
of Super Bowl 15 replies
A pro-ICE billboard appeared in a heavily trafficked part of San Francisco this week ahead of the Super Bowl, prompting an outcry from immigrant rights advocates in the city.
The digital billboard, at Mason and Jefferson streets near Fisherman’s Wharf, displayed images of what appeared to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and messages that say “Cheering because the home team finally started investing in defense,” “Defensive player of the year: ICE,” and “They can’t win without defense. Neither can America.” American Sovereignty, a conservative group, said that it had placed the sign.
Drastic cuts forced on the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) by President Donald Trump withdrawing U.S. taxpayer dollars from the globalist behemoth are hitting hard, the organization’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lamented.
Ghebreyesus told the agency’s annual executive board meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, that 2025 was “undeniably one of the most difficult years in our organisation’s history”, with many donors tightening their belts, AFP reports.
[snip]
Trump confirmed the U.S. was exiting the agency on the first day of his return to office in January, 2025, having criticised the organisation for being too “China-centric” during the coronavirus pandemic.
New countryside management plans are moving to make England’s most famed and picturesque rural areas more diverse lest they become “irrelevant” to the rapidly emerging new Britain, a report states.
National Landscapes, a group of government-designated areas of outstanding natural beauty are being targeted with diversity plans because they are perceived as being a “white environment”. According to a report by The Daily Telegraph, a proposal for diversification in one of these Landscapes, the Malvern Hills — the beauty of which is well known to have inspired the great compose Sir Edward Elgar — bluntly states that the area has to change because it suits white people who value
It's the same dark money with new signs. Anti-ICE protests in Minnesota may appear to be "grassroots" efforts organized by concerned citizens, but they're really funded with megadonor money -- some coming from China. (snip) "My team's best judgment is that it's the Neville Singham network that is most active in Minnesota, partly because that's the most crazy network. But they aren't alone," Scott Walter, president of Capital Research and an expert on dark money outfits, told the Post. Walter was referring to the People's Forum and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, both funded by China-based former software exec Roy Singham. (snip)
China-Linked Groups Join Push to Defund ICE
12 replies
Organizations including the Chinese-American Planning Council and the Chinese Progressive Association — both of which have ties to the Chinese Communist Party’s overseas influence network — are among the signatories urging Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol.
Those groups joined more than 1,000 organizations in a coordinated letter demanding that lawmakers halt all funding for federal immigration enforcement agencies, a move that would effectively eliminate interior enforcement and deportation operations nationwide. The letter, organized by Amnesty International USA, does not call for reforms or oversight but for the removal of enforcement capacity itself.
Jill Biden's ex-husband has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his current wife.
Linda Stevenson, 64, was found dead in late December. Her husband, William Stevenson, 77, was arrested Tuesday, Fox 29 reported. He failed to post $500,000 bail and remains in custody.
Biden and Stevenson divorced in 1975, after five years of marriage. Biden married Stevenson when she was 18.