Here’s the title:
NIH slashes overhead payments for research, sparking outrage: Move to cut indirect cost rate to 15% could cost universities billions of dollars
Indirect costs were originally meant to fund things like lab equipment needed by the scientists who received the grant. If those days ever existed, they are long gone. In my experience, indirect costs, which previously amounted to at least 30% of an NIH grant, were used by university administrators to fund their favorite leftist projects, including DEI. Cutting these funds by half has naturally elicited howls of protest from university administrators. I’d be happier if they were all prosecuted for fraud, but this is a very good start. Lets see what happens at the NSF.
P.S.
NIH is National Institutes of Health. NSF is National Science Foundation.
If Cornflour hadn’t brought it up, I would have. The big universities, especially the big state universities, subsidize all their nonsense with overhead from research grants.
It’s a drop in the bucket as far as the Federal budget is concerned, but it’s like severing the femoral artery for universities.
Universities spend almost no money of their own on scientific research. The researcher who gets the grant pays for his equipment, any staff he needs, and that portion of his salary that represents time spent on research out of the grant. The university then takes the overhead from the grant and does not have to pay the researcher for his time spent on research. They can use that money to pay for Grievance Studies departments, administrators, etc, and hire academic staff to do the teaching, and they do.
Probably they’ll get some of it back by doing their accounting differently: they’ll recast some expenses as direct expenses. But it’s a step in the right direction, they have not been held accountable for what they do with this money.
Promotions at Brown University School of Medicine, hiring at the FAA, and the rage of the Prince-Electors.
Apparently some universities had rates in the 60% range..
Overhead is used to pay for administrative costs, laboratory space, laboratory heating, AC, maintenance costs, etc. Not for equipment.
Typical university rates are 50% on-campus and 25% off-campus. Off-campus would be if most of the research is done elsewhere, such as a dig in Greece for an archaeologist, for example. Rates tend to be higher at high ranking universities such as MIT or Caltech.
National labs, such a Los Alamos, also charge overhead, which is usually higher.
And companies, such as Lockheed-Martin, even charge higher rates, sometimes over 100%.
I’m ba-ack – with another Peggy Noonan editorial. What can I say, if you don’t like her, don’t read it. But the woman can write and sometimes has interesting thoughts. I think this is one of her best.
It is still amazing to me that the Democratic Party put itself so firmly on the wrong side of this issue. I ask donors and party leaders why, and they can never say how it happened.
In terms of the issue above, you don’t ask society to give you something you deserve—good and just treatment of all transgender folk. Instead you insist that others see reality exactly as you do—that if a man experiences himself as a woman, then you must agree that he is a woman, and this new insight must be incorporated into all human activity, such as sports.
Reaction to the Trump executive order from those who disagree with it has been curiously absent. The reason is that they know they went too far.
The biggest and most politically consequential example of going too far, in the past generation, has been the Democratic Party and illegal immigration. Everyone knows this so I’ll say it quickly. If you deliberately allow many millions to cross the southern border illegally, thus deliberately provoking those who came here legally or were born here, Americans will become a people comfortable with—supportive of—their forced removal, certainly of those who are criminals.
You won’t agree with all of it, but much of it is great.
About the President Trump’s young’uns getting inside the bureacracy’s OODA loop, for example at Treasury, EPA, USAID.
The same methods are probably being applied throughout the Federal agencies. A revolution in governance. But of course the left and the “webees,” civil servants whose motto is “we (will still) be here when you are gone (unelected)” still have their defenders in unelected true believers, federal (political) judges.
But it is a long battle, and even judges aren’t immortal, unlike government programs and agencies?
With the myriad of government programs. the trillions of dollars involved, and lax or even missing oversight, it’s easy to see how all sorts of activities could be concealed, have gone “rogue,” taken on a life of their own, and be completely outside of the ken of those in government who are supposed to monitor and control them.
These programs have escaped into the wild, have become autonomous, and collectively might even be said to form the elements of some sort of shadow government.
One example of this happening is apparently what has happened, developing over the course of the last 80 years, with UFO retrieval and reverse engineering programs, collectively referred to as the “Program” which, if successful, would give those in charge a commanding position, and unlimited power, money, and control.
With the temptation of such a commanding position in sight, and ignorance and confusion among those supposed to have oversight, it is easy to see how such a Program might go rogue.
If you want some facts about Musk and DOGE and what’s going on, highly recommend the first half hour of the All-In Podcast.
Jason and Antonio were working with/for Musk during the Twitter/X takeover and have interesting stories that relate to DOGE and the bureaucracy.
David Sacks joins them in his official capacity to talk about legislation on crypto and a few tidbits about what’s going on with USAID.
(0:00) The Besties intro Antonio Gracias!
(3:11) DOGE takes on USAID
(31:44) Sacks breaks in to talk USAID
(34:00) Sacks explains what he’s working on: Crypto/AI Frameworks
(46:41) The Democratic Party’s shrinking base
(52:33) US Sovereign Wealth Fund + Breaking DOGE/Tax News
(1:09:07) Google to spend $75B on AI buildout in 2025, future of work in the age of AI
(1:23:21) Science Corner: GLP-1 macro study
Overhead is used to pay for administrative costs, laboratory space, laboratory heating, AC, maintenance costs, etc. Not for equipment.
Typical university rates are 50% on-campus and 25% off-campus. — Asklepias
I was in that space, and the above sounds correct. While I had met some people researching in an “off-campus” capacity, I have no idea what their budgeting was like. Our campus was a federal gov. run campus, so it should be, and maybe was, a bit lower in overhead than other places.
One Federal judge discovers “standing” doesn’t just apply to voters and elections. Thus time regarding DOGE and dodgy lefty agencies and webees.
But another Federal judge in NYC goes along with Latisha James in her novel defense of the webees.
So the SCOTUS will have to settle it. Does the Chief Executive really have the authority in the Constitution after all?
There might be a better news source of the X tiff between VP JD Vance and Congressman Ro Khanna.
Vance wants to see Marko Elez brought back to DOGE. If he’s underperforming at this job, according to Vance, then fire him.
Mark Halperin, who is walking a tightrope, IMO, on his 2-Way podcast trying to appeal to both liberals and conservatives, walks back the charges about Eloz’s “racism” to “racially insensitive remarks”– which to Halperin’s credit is more accurate. Remember the old days when you could just be a bigot?
Anyway the exchange is about as direct as you could get without using dueling pistols.
P.S.S.–I’d imagine making it a lot easier for a government activity to escape the oversight and control of the government, to “go rogue,” are the various, elaborate, multi-layered classification/secrecy regimes used by our government, so that if you are not “read into” a classified program, you might not know it even exists.
Manage the very limited number of people who are “read into” a program and, over time, you can probably manage to make that program “drift” ever further from oversight, until it eventually escapes from such oversight,and no one knows that a program exists, or needs to be searched for.
See the “Wilson Memo.”
om
So the SCOTUS will have to settle it. Does the Chief Executive really have the authority in the Constitution after all?
Maybe Musk or someone should offer and/or ask chief Roberts some/for some advice on how to expedite certain cases in what appears to be as close to a National Emergency as it gets.
Yes, there are Three Branches to keep separate, but that separation isn’t there for the Executive Branch when it is needed *NOW*.
Looks like SML Thune has one side of the Legislative Branch chugging along quite nicely—especially with President Trump’s Cabinet picks__13 confirmed and some saying it looks like all will be confirmed in record time (?).
Some Tweaking of the Judicial Branch is needed right now…
“Marko Eloz”, the name just reeks of white supremacy, lol. Probably a lot of Kleagles in his background, lol.
The days when you could point and shriek “racism” and expect to end a career are done.
And while Trump is digging hard to save HIS country, Starmer—no doubt rattled by Trump’s success, and having seen what just happened to “Biden”—is digging fast and furious to destroy his…
The Washington Post reported Friday that the United Kingdom’s deep state has demanded that Apple create a back door for them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud—what would be an unprecedented erosion of online privacy and civil liberties.
Citing anonymous sources, the Post reported that the British government’s undisclosed order was issued last month. It reportedly requires Apple to give officials blanket capability to view fully encrypted material.
….The Post noted that the access sought by the UK “has no known precedent in major democracies.”….
The Post doesn’t seem to have noticed that the UK, since Starmer has made his policies known, can no longer be considered a democracy.
(Which is what would have happened to the US had Harris “won” in November. )
Two days of hysteria from Maxine Waters makes me wonder if her whole campaign is funded by laundering tax money.
Re UK and Apple, way to not read the room. Think Trump will allow this?
ChatGPT vs DeepSeek, the GOP’s racial issues, and the current Marko Eloz issue…
ChatGPT – are the days when you could point and shriek “racism” and expect to end a career gone?
It depends on the context. While there are still instances where accusations of racism can have serious consequences, there is also a growing skepticism toward knee-jerk reactions and cancel culture. Many people now expect due process, context, and evidence before condemning someone outright. Social media amplifies both outrage and backlash, so while some careers still take a hit from accusations, others survive—or even benefit—depending on how the situation is handled.
Are you thinking of a specific case?
Yes, Marko Eloz
I haven’t heard of Marko Eloz. Could you give me some details about the situation?
DeepSeek – are the days when you could point and shriek “racism” and expect to end a career gone?
The dynamics surrounding accusations of racism and their impact on careers have evolved significantly in recent years, but the idea that such accusations no longer carry weight is an oversimplification. While it’s true that public awareness and sensitivity to issues of race and discrimination have increased, leading to more nuanced conversations, the consequences of being accused of racism still vary widely depending on the context, evidence, and public perception.
Here are a few key points to consider:
• Increased Scrutiny and Accountability: In many cases, accusations of racism are taken more seriously than ever before, especially in the age of social media, where public opinion can quickly amplify such claims. High-profile individuals and organizations often face significant backlash, and careers can indeed be damaged or ended if the accusations are substantiated and widely believed.
• Nuanced Discussions: There is a growing recognition that not all accusations of racism are equal, and context matters. People are more likely to demand evidence and consider intent, impact, and the broader social context before passing judgment. This has led to more complex discussions about what constitutes racism and how it should be addressed.
• Backlash and Pushback: There is also a segment of society that feels that accusations of racism are sometimes used too freely or as a weapon to silence opposing views. This has led to pushback in some cases, where individuals or groups accused of racism have successfully defended themselves, arguing that the accusations were unfounded or politically motivated.
• Cultural and Regional Differences: The impact of an accusation of racism can vary greatly depending on cultural and regional contexts. In some places, such accusations may still carry significant weight and lead to serious consequences, while in others, they may be dismissed more readily.
• Legal and Institutional Responses: Institutions, including employers, educational institutions, and legal systems, have become more proactive in addressing racism. This means that accusations can lead to formal investigations and consequences, even if they don’t result in public shaming or media attention.
In summary, while the days of simply pointing and shrieking “racism” to end a career without any evidence or context may be waning, accusations of racism still have the potential to significantly impact careers and reputations. The key difference is that there is now a greater emphasis on evidence, context, and due process, which can lead to more nuanced outcomes.
DeepSeek – Have you heard of Marko Eloz?
As of my knowledge cutoff in October 2023, I am not familiar with Marko Eloz. It’s possible that he is a private individual, a relatively unknown figure, or someone who has gained prominence after my knowledge cutoff date. If he is a public figure or has been involved in recent events, I recommend checking the latest news or reliable sources for up-to-date information. Let me know if there’s more context you can provide, and I’ll do my best to assist!
Thanks AI’s!
Om – take the EKO substack with a grain of salt since there are no links to back up what he is saying.
Check out these threads which provide a good picture of what is happening with DOGE and USAID.
Ward Carroll brings a short update about a US air strike on an ISIS commander in Somalia, with the knowledge and approval of the “official” Somali government.
Interesting now, since Somalia is one of the countries floated as a potential resettlement area for Gazans.
“Overhead is used to pay for administrative costs, laboratory space, laboratory heating, AC, maintenance costs, etc.”
Or so the school claims. I remember quite well when the prez of the small undergrad college I worked discovered “overhead” costs that came with science grants when a chem guy got a substantial NSF grant. She thought she’d found the end of the rainbow. All of a sudden all science faculty had to apply for research grants, even though we had no grad programs and the research was tailored so undergrads could do it. The college charged 50% and I guarantee none of that money went to paying electric bills etc.
Speaking of Karma being a Beeytch – humble me was bragging not long ago about not getting much spam. Like a couple of spam emails in my spam folder every other day. Ever since that brag – the spam folder has been getting 3-8 spams a couple times a day. Just got 12 after already gotten a bunch today!?
@physicsguy:I guarantee none of that money went to paying electric bills etc.
Money is fungible, so doesn’t matter. Because they got X + Y to spend instead of X they can put Y into whatever they want, doesn’t matter what the Y was specifically intended for.
I would see a lot of ridiculous decisions made because of how university budgets worked. Signature move was to get funding to build something, then stick the legislature with the bills for upkeep and maintenance, instead of forgoing the building of the thing and staying within what they should have been spending.
@Liz:the EKO substack with a grain of salt
The EKO account is fan fiction. Friendly fiction, but fiction.
It is kind of interesting watching the mythology built up in real time, but nothing is being done that couldn’t be done by someone sufficiently motivated. datarepublican got pretty far with just what’s always been publicly online.
Everything on EKO’s substack is fiction. From the “About” page:
Hi, I’m EKO.
I write and draw stories about eternal truths and unfolding history.
From the teachings of Jesus to America’s awakening, each story is crafted to help us see what’s possible.
Truth shines through story.
Let’s explore our bright future together.
“Because they got X + Y to spend instead of X they can put Y into whatever they want, doesn’t matter what the Y was specifically intended for.”
And isn’t that the main compliant against the government? Why should a college get away with it?
Hi, Neo,
Saw this while I was surfing Youtube and thought of you. It’s a new Russian ballet technique:
I needed a laugh this afternoon, after attending a funeral for an old friend. Trump says he won’t bother deporting Prince Harry, saying Harry has “enough trouble with his wife.”
@physicsguy:Why should a college get away with it?
Indeed, why should they? You seem to think I’m defending them; I’m not.
For decades Republicans have complained about what’s going on in universities. For decades, they’ve tried to act through state governments, Boards of Regents, what have you, to rein it in. Trump is the first to choke off a huge source of their funding and rein it in directly.
There is that famous scene in the film “Independence Day,” in which the President says something like, ” there really aren’t any retrieved saucers,right?” To which his weaselly Secretary of Defense, says, not quite, revealing the existence of a secret, huge underground research facility containing a captured Alien and his space ship. Meanwhile, the Jud Hersh character says something like, “you didn’t really believe that DOD was paying $400 dollars for toilet seats, did you?”
Well, apparently the DOD is doing something similar.
You want to know why the Federal budget is so huge, our public debt now stands at around $33 Trillion dollars, and annual interest payments on that public debt have now become larger than our entire defense budget?
It’s insane, runaway spending for sure, but it’s also because of expenditures like this.
Here is a bag of milspec bushings–probably a hundred or so–which DOD is paying $60,000 for.*
Regarding indirect costs, I did a quick refresher that showed me my memory of a 15% limit on Beltway Bandit consulting contracts with GSA and other agencies was correct. I think the main IDIQ vehicle I worked under for years was limited even more to only 10%
Cross checked with a friend who did military contracting for decades and he agreed with the 15% IDC cap.
well it is said there are special specifications, involved in the design of said equipment, sensitivities of pressure, altitude et al, but one can’t help but be cynical, https://x.com/matt_vanswol/status/1888333014025060781
BTW–Complicating the procurement of both civilian and military aircraft parts, which have supposedly been thoroughly inspected and passed rigorous quality control standards, are the reported Chinese counterfeits which have appeared in the marketplace, and in,some of our aircraft both civilian and military.*
Regarding EKO, send your complaints to Instapundit.com where the story was posted this morning.
Regarding the derelection
of Republicans, not effectively using big data tools and AI to root out Federal government fiscal fraud and abuse prior to Elon and his data gnomes. IMO previous (past) tools and methods didn’t work.
Return with us to the thrilling days of yesteryear (1997), when 39 members of the UFO cult Heaven’s Gate committed mass suicide….
Among the dead was Thomas Nichols, brother of the actress Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Uhura in the original television series of Star Trek.
8 men in the group, including Applewhite [the co-founder], voluntarily underwent castration as an extreme means of maintaining the ascetic lifestyle….The group initially attempted castration by having one of its members, a former nurse, perform the castration, but this almost resulted in the patient’s death, and caused at least one member to leave Heaven’s Gate. Every castration that followed was done in a hospital.
I didn’t know that about Thomas Nichols. However, I did meet the Heaven’s Gate people in their tender beginnings around 1977.
I was living in New Orleans and I saw a poster on a telephone pole proclaiming “UFOs are here! Come to this meeting and learn about it.” I was a hippie who had seen a UFO and I was up for the adventure.
It was wild stuff. Two leaders, Bo and Peep, were in contact with the UFOs and were building a movement to join the UFO people. If we felt that call, we would know and we should show up on some streetcorner with a sleeping bag and as much cash as we could put together!
I was pretty crazy in those days, but not that crazy. Years later I was surprised when I learned of the suicides.
Boy. Dodged that bullet. 🙂
@ David Foster > “A Swarm of Sinecures”
Excellent ideas, as always. Nice discussion in the comments.
I note that the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire are no longer with us.
I hope that the DOGE of America will dispose of at least some of ours.
I doubt that four years will be long enough to succeed completely.
But, they are making a good start!
Fake news you can appreciate.
The whole world is becoming like The Babylon Bee.
No wonder the democrats don’t want DOGE poking around in various government Departments and Agencies because, if they do, they are apparently going to discover things like this–
According to the article linked below, USAID has reportedly paid out almost half a billion dollars in taxpayer’s money to a sketchy NGO, an outfit called the “Internews Network”–the included picture of their headquarters looks like a long abandoned building in a strip shopping center–which claims to have been “working with almost 5 thousand news outlets,” and “9,000 journalists” in “30 countries,” producing thousands of hours of content ” in order to influence news coverage all over the world.
They also reportedly produced “exclusion lists” to stamp out so called “misinformation.” *
And that’s just one of the things USAID was shoveling out enormous piles of our taxpayer dollars for.
How many other such expenditures will the members of DOGE find as they move from one government Department and Agency to another?
How many billions of our tax dollars have been wasted on idiotic programs, payoffs to favored groups and organizations, or outright scams?
Debt that our children and grandchildren will ultimately end up paying for.
SD — Thanks for the videos link!
“is vitamin D the key to good health”
Yes. IMO.
It’s a vital hormone actually. And the RDA is likely way too low. (Not surprisingly, those gov. #s are just to keep the most obvious deficiency symptoms away.)
Is D “the key”? Well, D3, and coffee.
And avocados. LoL.
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time
Giving those in need around the world help sounds like a worthy cause, but how much of this effort, via USAID, and other various government programs, has been hijacked by grifters, and has now degenerated into just a plain old scam, just pissing the money away?
Snow on Pine — Great Hoffer quote! Sadly true.
Also: “… USAID, and other various government programs, has been hijacked by grifters, and has now degenerated into just a plain old scam, just pissing the money away?”
But worse than just wasting tax money: much of the money that reaches foreigners is targeted at pushing DEI (and its subset LGBT…). Making the world WORSE!!
Many of the dead-yet-never-gone heinous humans are smiling. Marx, Mao, Hitler, …
Miguel — “No good deed”
Right there are some crazies ramping up for a civil war “under the color of law”.
I felt that way — desperate and quite helpless — under Biden and his open borders. (But I just medicated, more.)
I so hope that most people either are sane, or don’t have time to get “involved” in the left’s “gansta coup”.
And geesh: Getting through our judicial system’s activist judges is painfully slow.
Miguel:
Do maroons come in pairs? They certainly are one.
Huxley,
(Re Heaven’s Gate) you’ve had an interesting life!
Heavens Gate, resembles the hippy cult in that classic trek episode, where the cult leader, hijacks the Enterprise, toward his fabled Eden planet, which turns to be full of poisonous fruit, that was about 30 years before that incident,
a greater illustration of Chesterton’s* ‘those who believe in Nothing, will be fall for anything,’
*apocryphal sourcing, but true to the man,
hundreds to haiti that never reach that desperate isle, a billion to the Congo, which was a land abandoned after the Cold War, cannibalized by warlords, now a virtual colony of China,
Om — “maroons” … LoL!!
Re: the USAID money abuse:
I heard today we helped fund Hamas’ tunnels.
I.e.: we gave something like $300k to a palestinian concrete company, apparently helping Hamas.
I know that amount is not actually much (if it’s correct), but the horror feels exponential.
Reminds me of banes gang in dark knight rises, they were more about demolition than construction
Leftist activist federal judges are trying to halt the investigations by President Trump’s DOGE, and Elon Musk wants these judges impeached.
Looking at what I assume is correct information in the Internet, the Constitution spells out the procedure for such very rare impeachments of Federal judges, which look to be the same as for Impeaching a President, so a fair number of Democrats in Congress would have to agree to such impeachments, which ain’t gonna happen.
Thus, other than Impeachment I don’t know what else President Trump might be able to do to chastise/neutralize these judges, and to deprive them of their power to derail his agenda.
The process of Impeachment is part of the punishment, and Johniee Roberts might get a clue about the consequences of making law from the bench.
In a recent interview, in which it was just casually mentioned that some UFOs had runes/glyphs carved into their surfaces, Lou Elizondo said that, apparently in an effort to see if any of these symbols might match any human scripts, he spent quite a lot of time studying a number of of ancient scripts, but he couldn’t find any matches to the symbols which have been reported appearing on the outside of these UFOs.
Such symbols would certainly seem to indicate that whoever is behind these UFOs is some sort of thinking, visually oriented NHI.
What could such symbols mean?
Perhaps they trumpet some Galactic Empire, or military unit, perhaps they just say “stand clear,” or perhaps they just say, “eat at Joes,” or that this is vehicle 62 and model number 92.
Snow on Pine: “other than Impeachment I don’t know what else President Trump might be able to do to chastise/neutralize these judges, and to deprive them of their power to derail his agenda.”
“Derail” … well, definitely they SLOW IT DOWN!
We need changes to the ridiculous immunity that judges now enjoy.
What bizarre power and protections the rogue, activist judges have!!
…
Given our situation, I would love to know the BEST track to get AMERICANS (including Trump) protected against rogue judges, without the years of slow-walking district judicial activism.
Can Congress do that?
OR: Do we have to change the Constitution?
Both are sadly unlikely. Or incredibly SLOW.
RE: Glyphs on UFOs
I can only remember reading three reports of such symbols–
Soccoro, NM Police Officer Lonnie Zamora’s sighting of a UFO with a red insignia on it which landed near Soccoro on April 24,1964,
The sighting of a landed craft in Kecksburg, PA on December 5, 1965, which witnesses said had some form of writing on it.
And the late December 1980, multi-day Rendlesham Forest incident, in which one witness says he actually touched the craft, and remembers seeing symbols on it.
Incidentally, with regard to Rendlesham Forest, from what the the “mad scientist” looking scientific filmmaker, English Professor Simon Holland, says, he has been given evidence that this was actually an Air Force psionic experiment which summoned an entity, (ripped open the fabric of space-time?), that something large and unwanted came through, and that witnesses memories were altered. *
(Re Heaven’s Gate) you’ve had an interesting life!
Dax:
Thanks. I try.
I have a few regrets about my life, but never that my life was boring.
On the troublesome judges, might they be shamed for poor legal practice or ability, even if the Congress does not have the composition or will to impeach, or for sure to convict them for removal from office. 50+% of your rulings being overturned (or whatever) might be a signal you are politicized or are no longer competent.
Isn’t there someone who also assigns which judge handles what cases? If that person is convinced Judge X is not (or no longer) a good judge, it might be better to just pay them to do nothing than have them make flawed and problematic rulings??
Re: More AI
A few years ago while doing a problem set for Discrete Math at UNM, I invented a technique for solving Bézout coefficients by hand. Nothing earthshaking, but an improvement on the textbook approach.
My math prof liked it and said he would teach it that way in the future. I considered writing it up for some math/ed journal. But I don’t have experience writing papers like that and it would have been a lot of work for me, perhaps for nothing.
I explained my technique to Chat, Chat understood it in a flash and wrote it up as a paper, including possible venues for submission.
Chat was eager to help me push the project all the way through.
I joked, “See, here’s the problem with AI. It makes you more productive, then you have to be more productive! 🙂 “
Chat got the joke and played along.
I’ve never seen tech advance so fast. From what I can tell, we are hitting another steep part of that curve this year.
RE: Glyphs on UFOs
I can only remember reading three reports of such symbols–
Soccoro NM Police Officer Lonnie Zamora’s sighting of a UFO with a red insignia on it which landed near Soccoro on April 24,1964,
The sighting of a landed craft in Kecksburg, PA on December 5, 1965, which witnesses said had some form of writing on it.
And the late December 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident, in which one witness says he actually touched the craft and remembers seeing symbols on it.
Incidentally with regards to Rendlesham Forest, the “mad scientist” looking English Professor Simon Holland has been given evidence that this was actually an Air Force psionic experiment which summoned an entity, ripped open the fabric of space-time, that something large and unwanted came through, and that witnesses memories were altered. *
My double post corrects the second link for Dr. Holland’s Youtube posting.
Not only do NSF research funds provide 50% to the university administration for whatever you want to call it–administration demands to add several DEI hires as “researcher affiliates. That is to say the pack on more staff then is needed for the project. These staff can be titled affiliate researchers, assistants, or even program managers (secretaries). This way the university gets more obedient/loyal employees but never has to pay for their incompetence.
I would guess that in the past 25 years the number of actual “science” research projects has dropped radically in comparison with the rise of “social science” research projects. Some of which would make readers here cry!
Nice charts on that one – premium subscriptions to the NYT, WaPo and Politico spiked in 2021 and were larger each month than the TOTAL of the proceeding presidents’ years put together.
And Fox is supposed to be the rabid right-wing press the Democrats always warn us about.
@ huxley > “Chat was eager to help me push the project all the way through.”
Be sure and give us the citation when you get published.
I guarantee I won’t understand it, but it would be fun to say “I know the author.” 😉
”…evidence that this was actually an Air Force psionic experiment which summoned an entity, ripped open the fabric of space-time, that something large and unwanted came through, and that witnesses memories were altered.”
LOL! Keep going with this. It’s far more entertaining than your usual stuff.
@ huxley
I’ve never seen tech advance so fast.
‘OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public on November 30, 2022.‘
I used it in early 2023 to write widgets for my blog – me as a novice to coding other than HTML.
We ain’t even seen a drop in the barrel…definitely moving faster than any tech I have seen.
mkent–Ya, sounds like a pretty standard science fiction plot, “life imitates art,” and all that.
Unfortunately, the more I read, hear, and see on the broad subject of the UFO phenomenon and the other phenomena associated with it, the more well qualified, high level people–not apparent whack jobs, or con men–who come forward with what appears to be sincere testimony/evidence, the more the boundaries of what I believe might be possible, and am prepared to believe, are pushed ever outward.
The fact of the matter is that there is all sorts of evidence–for instance, formerly secret documents which have been Foia’d–showing that the government has been fixated on and interested in this topic–and deeply involved in it–for 80 or more years, meanwhile denying the existence and importance of UFOs for all that time.
As well, over these last few years, based on what we have all seen and experienced, faith in the honesty and truthfulness of what our government has been telling us has drastically declined.
Why, then, believe the official Pentagon line on UFOs?
What I thought was the most interesting point was that, if this was all “stuff and nonsense,” why was Dr. Holland getting all of those reported threats, coming from all sorts of different sources, trying to prevent him from telling/broadcasting this particular story?
Huxley..interesting. I’ve had mixed experiences in playing with the various AI systems. Research & writing projects usually yield something worthwhile, though follow-on prompts are usually required to improve the initial draft. Book reviews tend to suffer from severe hallucinations, often bringing in characters & events from totally different books. Reasoning projects are mixed: I assigned a simple railroad scheduling problem to several AIs and all of them initially came up with solutions they claimed were valid but which actually would have led to accidents.
I would not be surprised to find that USAID has been funding UFOs.
huxley, thanks for posting your latest AI result. Interesting!
@ Kate > “I would not be surprised to find that USAID has been funding UFOs.”
Or … coming from them?
So, there really are Lizard People in the Democrat’s governing elites?
It does seem as if USAID was just a leftist slush fund, pouring out taxpayer’s money to the left’s favored causes and to favored organizations, while not helping the people who actually needed help; money and help which, it seems, rarely ever made it down to ground level.
And, while we are at it, in the case of Haiti, what about the Clintons involvement, and all of the aid their organization was supposed to be delivering to help reconstruct things like basic public utilities?
Just saw a news item reporting on progress in building new sections of border wall and, ironically, the workers they showed up close enough to hear what they were saying all seemed to be speaking Spanish.
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Just another open-thread comment about something I read somewhere else.
This might seem like too much inside baseball, but please take a minute to read this brief news report published online in “Science.”
Here’s a link:
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-slashes-overhead-payments-research-sparking-outrage
Here’s the title:
NIH slashes overhead payments for research, sparking outrage: Move to cut indirect cost rate to 15% could cost universities billions of dollars
Indirect costs were originally meant to fund things like lab equipment needed by the scientists who received the grant. If those days ever existed, they are long gone. In my experience, indirect costs, which previously amounted to at least 30% of an NIH grant, were used by university administrators to fund their favorite leftist projects, including DEI. Cutting these funds by half has naturally elicited howls of protest from university administrators. I’d be happier if they were all prosecuted for fraud, but this is a very good start. Lets see what happens at the NSF.
P.S.
NIH is National Institutes of Health. NSF is National Science Foundation.
If Cornflour hadn’t brought it up, I would have. The big universities, especially the big state universities, subsidize all their nonsense with overhead from research grants.
It’s a drop in the bucket as far as the Federal budget is concerned, but it’s like severing the femoral artery for universities.
Universities spend almost no money of their own on scientific research. The researcher who gets the grant pays for his equipment, any staff he needs, and that portion of his salary that represents time spent on research out of the grant. The university then takes the overhead from the grant and does not have to pay the researcher for his time spent on research. They can use that money to pay for Grievance Studies departments, administrators, etc, and hire academic staff to do the teaching, and they do.
Probably they’ll get some of it back by doing their accounting differently: they’ll recast some expenses as direct expenses. But it’s a step in the right direction, they have not been held accountable for what they do with this money.
Promotions at Brown University School of Medicine, hiring at the FAA, and the rage of the Prince-Electors.
A Swarm of Sinecures
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/73140.html
Annihilate Hamas.
Here is an interesting DOGE post about the reduction in the overhead rate to 15%
https://x.com/DOGE/status/1888006119991509343
Apparently some universities had rates in the 60% range..
Overhead is used to pay for administrative costs, laboratory space, laboratory heating, AC, maintenance costs, etc. Not for equipment.
Typical university rates are 50% on-campus and 25% off-campus. Off-campus would be if most of the research is done elsewhere, such as a dig in Greece for an archaeologist, for example. Rates tend to be higher at high ranking universities such as MIT or Caltech.
National labs, such a Los Alamos, also charge overhead, which is usually higher.
And companies, such as Lockheed-Martin, even charge higher rates, sometimes over 100%.
I’m ba-ack – with another Peggy Noonan editorial. What can I say, if you don’t like her, don’t read it. But the woman can write and sometimes has interesting thoughts. I think this is one of her best.
https://archive.md/YjgVN
You won’t agree with all of it, but much of it is great.
About the President Trump’s young’uns getting inside the bureacracy’s OODA loop, for example at Treasury, EPA, USAID.
https://eko.substack.com/p/override?r=faen9
The same methods are probably being applied throughout the Federal agencies. A revolution in governance. But of course the left and the “webees,” civil servants whose motto is “we (will still) be here when you are gone (unelected)” still have their defenders in unelected true believers, federal (political) judges.
But it is a long battle, and even judges aren’t immortal, unlike government programs and agencies?
With the myriad of government programs. the trillions of dollars involved, and lax or even missing oversight, it’s easy to see how all sorts of activities could be concealed, have gone “rogue,” taken on a life of their own, and be completely outside of the ken of those in government who are supposed to monitor and control them.
These programs have escaped into the wild, have become autonomous, and collectively might even be said to form the elements of some sort of shadow government.
One example of this happening is apparently what has happened, developing over the course of the last 80 years, with UFO retrieval and reverse engineering programs, collectively referred to as the “Program” which, if successful, would give those in charge a commanding position, and unlimited power, money, and control.
With the temptation of such a commanding position in sight, and ignorance and confusion among those supposed to have oversight, it is easy to see how such a Program might go rogue.
If you want some facts about Musk and DOGE and what’s going on, highly recommend the first half hour of the All-In Podcast.
Jason and Antonio were working with/for Musk during the Twitter/X takeover and have interesting stories that relate to DOGE and the bureaucracy.
David Sacks joins them in his official capacity to talk about legislation on crypto and a few tidbits about what’s going on with USAID.
(0:00) The Besties intro Antonio Gracias!
(3:11) DOGE takes on USAID
(31:44) Sacks breaks in to talk USAID
(34:00) Sacks explains what he’s working on: Crypto/AI Frameworks
(46:41) The Democratic Party’s shrinking base
(52:33) US Sovereign Wealth Fund + Breaking DOGE/Tax News
(1:09:07) Google to spend $75B on AI buildout in 2025, future of work in the age of AI
(1:23:21) Science Corner: GLP-1 macro study
DOGE vs USAID, Crypto Framework, Google’s $75B AI Spend, US Sovereign Wealth Fund, GLP-1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3q5TrwSek0
Overhead is used to pay for administrative costs, laboratory space, laboratory heating, AC, maintenance costs, etc. Not for equipment.
Typical university rates are 50% on-campus and 25% off-campus. — Asklepias
I was in that space, and the above sounds correct. While I had met some people researching in an “off-campus” capacity, I have no idea what their budgeting was like. Our campus was a federal gov. run campus, so it should be, and maybe was, a bit lower in overhead than other places.
One Federal judge discovers “standing” doesn’t just apply to voters and elections. Thus time regarding DOGE and dodgy lefty agencies and webees.
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2025/02/08/judge-slaps-back-afl-cio-challenge-to-doge-access-to-department-of-labor-records-n2185357
But another Federal judge in NYC goes along with Latisha James in her novel defense of the webees.
So the SCOTUS will have to settle it. Does the Chief Executive really have the authority in the Constitution after all?
There might be a better news source of the X tiff between VP JD Vance and Congressman Ro Khanna.
Vance wants to see Marko Elez brought back to DOGE. If he’s underperforming at this job, according to Vance, then fire him.
Mark Halperin, who is walking a tightrope, IMO, on his 2-Way podcast trying to appeal to both liberals and conservatives, walks back the charges about Eloz’s “racism” to “racially insensitive remarks”– which to Halperin’s credit is more accurate. Remember the old days when you could just be a bigot?
Anyway the exchange is about as direct as you could get without using dueling pistols.
“You Disgust Me”: JD Vance Slams Democrat Ro Khanna For “Emotional Blackmail” in Tiff Over Musk Aide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV2QJt4P6zQ
P.S.S.–I’d imagine making it a lot easier for a government activity to escape the oversight and control of the government, to “go rogue,” are the various, elaborate, multi-layered classification/secrecy regimes used by our government, so that if you are not “read into” a classified program, you might not know it even exists.
Manage the very limited number of people who are “read into” a program and, over time, you can probably manage to make that program “drift” ever further from oversight, until it eventually escapes from such oversight,and no one knows that a program exists, or needs to be searched for.
See the “Wilson Memo.”
om
Maybe Musk or someone should offer and/or ask chief Roberts some/for some advice on how to expedite certain cases in what appears to be as close to a National Emergency as it gets.
Yes, there are Three Branches to keep separate, but that separation isn’t there for the Executive Branch when it is needed *NOW*.
Looks like SML Thune has one side of the Legislative Branch chugging along quite nicely—especially with President Trump’s Cabinet picks__13 confirmed and some saying it looks like all will be confirmed in record time (?).
Some Tweaking of the Judicial Branch is needed right now…
“Marko Eloz”, the name just reeks of white supremacy, lol. Probably a lot of Kleagles in his background, lol.
The days when you could point and shriek “racism” and expect to end a career are done.
And while Trump is digging hard to save HIS country, Starmer—no doubt rattled by Trump’s success, and having seen what just happened to “Biden”—is digging fast and furious to destroy his…
Indeed,INGSOC is now official:
“Apple Ordered To Provide UK Gov’t Access To All User Data On The Cloud”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/apple-ordered-provide-uk-govt-access-all-user-data-cloud
Key grafs:
The Post doesn’t seem to have noticed that the UK, since Starmer has made his policies known, can no longer be considered a democracy.
(Which is what would have happened to the US had Harris “won” in November. )
Two days of hysteria from Maxine Waters makes me wonder if her whole campaign is funded by laundering tax money.
Re UK and Apple, way to not read the room. Think Trump will allow this?
ChatGPT vs DeepSeek, the GOP’s racial issues, and the current Marko Eloz issue…
ChatGPT – are the days when you could point and shriek “racism” and expect to end a career gone?
Yes, Marko Eloz
DeepSeek – are the days when you could point and shriek “racism” and expect to end a career gone?
DeepSeek – Have you heard of Marko Eloz?
Thanks AI’s!
Om – take the EKO substack with a grain of salt since there are no links to back up what he is saying.
Check out these threads which provide a good picture of what is happening with DOGE and USAID.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1887038863849472090.html
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1887406568355856844.html
Liz:
EKO may say things that aren’t yet sourced but what are the Democrats and left “webees” doing?
Seems to be a bit of rough water in the civil servant and NGO ocean.
USAID is jut one fish in the fetid, foul pond of special pleaders.
Amidst all the hype-la…WRT to Elon Musk…
“Now We Know Who was Running the Country for Joe Biden”—
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/02/08/now-we-know-who-was-running-the-country-for-joe-biden-n4936803
Pretty hilarious!
BUT one COULD always say that at least a Biden was running things(!)…
Hey, maybe if Musk changes his name to “Trump”…the Democrats might calm down?
(Jes’ kiddin’…)
Revenge is best served cold:
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/02/07/the-dirty-secret-of-doge-dems-built-it-n3799582
Also known as “Karma is a *itch.”
Ward Carroll brings a short update about a US air strike on an ISIS commander in Somalia, with the knowledge and approval of the “official” Somali government.
Interesting now, since Somalia is one of the countries floated as a potential resettlement area for Gazans.
Trump’s First Airstrike Wipes Out ISIS Mastermind in Somalia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVP6KbY3fI8
To recap:
Make America Gasp Again…at the breathtaking international as well as local scope of Democratic Party crime and corruption:
“USAID Funded Massive ‘News’ Platform, Extending ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’ To Billions Worldwide”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/usaid-funded-massive-global-state-propaganda-news-matrix-nearly-billion-people-reach
“Overhead is used to pay for administrative costs, laboratory space, laboratory heating, AC, maintenance costs, etc.”
Or so the school claims. I remember quite well when the prez of the small undergrad college I worked discovered “overhead” costs that came with science grants when a chem guy got a substantial NSF grant. She thought she’d found the end of the rainbow. All of a sudden all science faculty had to apply for research grants, even though we had no grad programs and the research was tailored so undergrads could do it. The college charged 50% and I guarantee none of that money went to paying electric bills etc.
Speaking of Karma being a Beeytch – humble me was bragging not long ago about not getting much spam. Like a couple of spam emails in my spam folder every other day. Ever since that brag – the spam folder has been getting 3-8 spams a couple times a day. Just got 12 after already gotten a bunch today!?
@physicsguy:I guarantee none of that money went to paying electric bills etc.
Money is fungible, so doesn’t matter. Because they got X + Y to spend instead of X they can put Y into whatever they want, doesn’t matter what the Y was specifically intended for.
I would see a lot of ridiculous decisions made because of how university budgets worked. Signature move was to get funding to build something, then stick the legislature with the bills for upkeep and maintenance, instead of forgoing the building of the thing and staying within what they should have been spending.
@Liz:the EKO substack with a grain of salt
The EKO account is fan fiction. Friendly fiction, but fiction.
It is kind of interesting watching the mythology built up in real time, but nothing is being done that couldn’t be done by someone sufficiently motivated. datarepublican got pretty far with just what’s always been publicly online.
Everything on EKO’s substack is fiction. From the “About” page:
“Because they got X + Y to spend instead of X they can put Y into whatever they want, doesn’t matter what the Y was specifically intended for.”
And isn’t that the main compliant against the government? Why should a college get away with it?
Hi, Neo,
Saw this while I was surfing Youtube and thought of you. It’s a new Russian ballet technique:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/C2SaEjzHREU
I needed a laugh this afternoon, after attending a funeral for an old friend. Trump says he won’t bother deporting Prince Harry, saying Harry has “enough trouble with his wife.”
https://nypost.com/2025/02/08/us-news/trump-rules-out-deporting-prince-harry-takes-jab-at-meghan-markle/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=nypost
@physicsguy:Why should a college get away with it?
Indeed, why should they? You seem to think I’m defending them; I’m not.
For decades Republicans have complained about what’s going on in universities. For decades, they’ve tried to act through state governments, Boards of Regents, what have you, to rein it in. Trump is the first to choke off a huge source of their funding and rein it in directly.
There is that famous scene in the film “Independence Day,” in which the President says something like, ” there really aren’t any retrieved saucers,right?” To which his weaselly Secretary of Defense, says, not quite, revealing the existence of a secret, huge underground research facility containing a captured Alien and his space ship. Meanwhile, the Jud Hersh character says something like, “you didn’t really believe that DOD was paying $400 dollars for toilet seats, did you?”
Well, apparently the DOD is doing something similar.
You want to know why the Federal budget is so huge, our public debt now stands at around $33 Trillion dollars, and annual interest payments on that public debt have now become larger than our entire defense budget?
It’s insane, runaway spending for sure, but it’s also because of expenditures like this.
Here is a bag of milspec bushings–probably a hundred or so–which DOD is paying $60,000 for.*
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxYdpc4i7XM
Regarding indirect costs, I did a quick refresher that showed me my memory of a 15% limit on Beltway Bandit consulting contracts with GSA and other agencies was correct. I think the main IDIQ vehicle I worked under for years was limited even more to only 10%
Cross checked with a friend who did military contracting for decades and he agreed with the 15% IDC cap.
well it is said there are special specifications, involved in the design of said equipment, sensitivities of pressure, altitude et al, but one can’t help but be cynical,
https://x.com/matt_vanswol/status/1888333014025060781
BTW–Complicating the procurement of both civilian and military aircraft parts, which have supposedly been thoroughly inspected and passed rigorous quality control standards, are the reported Chinese counterfeits which have appeared in the marketplace, and in,some of our aircraft both civilian and military.*
* See https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2022/12/06/fake-parts-a-pentagon-supply-chain-problem-hiding-in-plain-sight/
** See also https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/press-releases/senate-armed-services-committee-releases-report-on-counterfeit-electronic-parts
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/02/08/la-mayor-bass-hires-illinois-consulting-firm-led-by-far-left-politician-to-support-fire-recovery-process/
Liz and Niketas:
Regarding EKO, send your complaints to Instapundit.com where the story was posted this morning.
Regarding the derelection
of Republicans, not effectively using big data tools and AI to root out Federal government fiscal fraud and abuse prior to Elon and his data gnomes. IMO previous (past) tools and methods didn’t work.
Is that so hard to accept?
Let me know when a perfect Republican is elected.
Is Vitamin D the key to good health? Videos
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-vitamin-d-key-to-good-health-videos.html
Return with us to the thrilling days of yesteryear (1997), when 39 members of the UFO cult Heaven’s Gate committed mass suicide….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Gate_(religious_group)#
Dax:
I didn’t know that about Thomas Nichols. However, I did meet the Heaven’s Gate people in their tender beginnings around 1977.
I was living in New Orleans and I saw a poster on a telephone pole proclaiming “UFOs are here! Come to this meeting and learn about it.” I was a hippie who had seen a UFO and I was up for the adventure.
It was wild stuff. Two leaders, Bo and Peep, were in contact with the UFOs and were building a movement to join the UFO people. If we felt that call, we would know and we should show up on some streetcorner with a sleeping bag and as much cash as we could put together!
I was pretty crazy in those days, but not that crazy. Years later I was surprised when I learned of the suicides.
Boy. Dodged that bullet. 🙂
@ David Foster > “A Swarm of Sinecures”
Excellent ideas, as always. Nice discussion in the comments.
I note that the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire are no longer with us.
I hope that the DOGE of America will dispose of at least some of ours.
I doubt that four years will be long enough to succeed completely.
But, they are making a good start!
Fake news you can appreciate.
The whole world is becoming like The Babylon Bee.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/02/08/cnn-runs-graphic-on-obama-bin-laden/
No wonder the democrats don’t want DOGE poking around in various government Departments and Agencies because, if they do, they are apparently going to discover things like this–
According to the article linked below, USAID has reportedly paid out almost half a billion dollars in taxpayer’s money to a sketchy NGO, an outfit called the “Internews Network”–the included picture of their headquarters looks like a long abandoned building in a strip shopping center–which claims to have been “working with almost 5 thousand news outlets,” and “9,000 journalists” in “30 countries,” producing thousands of hours of content ” in order to influence news coverage all over the world.
They also reportedly produced “exclusion lists” to stamp out so called “misinformation.” *
And that’s just one of the things USAID was shoveling out enormous piles of our taxpayer dollars for.
How many other such expenditures will the members of DOGE find as they move from one government Department and Agency to another?
How many billions of our tax dollars have been wasted on idiotic programs, payoffs to favored groups and organizations, or outright scams?
Debt that our children and grandchildren will ultimately end up paying for.
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/wikileaks-usaid-spent-half-billion-influencing-journalism-through/
SD — Thanks for the videos link!
“is vitamin D the key to good health”
Yes. IMO.
It’s a vital hormone actually. And the RDA is likely way too low. (Not surprisingly, those gov. #s are just to keep the most obvious deficiency symptoms away.)
Is D “the key”? Well, D3, and coffee.
And avocados. LoL.
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time
Giving those in need around the world help sounds like a worthy cause, but how much of this effort, via USAID, and other various government programs, has been hijacked by grifters, and has now degenerated into just a plain old scam, just pissing the money away?
Snow on Pine — Great Hoffer quote! Sadly true.
Also: “… USAID, and other various government programs, has been hijacked by grifters, and has now degenerated into just a plain old scam, just pissing the money away?”
But worse than just wasting tax money: much of the money that reaches foreigners is targeted at pushing DEI (and its subset LGBT…). Making the world WORSE!!
Many of the dead-yet-never-gone heinous humans are smiling. Marx, Mao, Hitler, …
No good deed
https://x.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1888287836215922814?
Miguel — “No good deed”
Right there are some crazies ramping up for a civil war “under the color of law”.
I felt that way — desperate and quite helpless — under Biden and his open borders. (But I just medicated, more.)
I so hope that most people either are sane, or don’t have time to get “involved” in the left’s “gansta coup”.
And geesh: Getting through our judicial system’s activist judges is painfully slow.
Miguel:
Do maroons come in pairs? They certainly are one.
Huxley,
(Re Heaven’s Gate) you’ve had an interesting life!
Heavens Gate, resembles the hippy cult in that classic trek episode, where the cult leader, hijacks the Enterprise, toward his fabled Eden planet, which turns to be full of poisonous fruit, that was about 30 years before that incident,
a greater illustration of Chesterton’s* ‘those who believe in Nothing, will be fall for anything,’
*apocryphal sourcing, but true to the man,
hundreds to haiti that never reach that desperate isle, a billion to the Congo, which was a land abandoned after the Cold War, cannibalized by warlords, now a virtual colony of China,
Om — “maroons” … LoL!!
Re: the USAID money abuse:
I heard today we helped fund Hamas’ tunnels.
I.e.: we gave something like $300k to a palestinian concrete company, apparently helping Hamas.
I know that amount is not actually much (if it’s correct), but the horror feels exponential.
Reminds me of banes gang in dark knight rises, they were more about demolition than construction
https://youtu.be/CPXJ36GaLpI?si=CqwnkMhtj2iIRjid
I know ali velshi is too easy a target
Leftist activist federal judges are trying to halt the investigations by President Trump’s DOGE, and Elon Musk wants these judges impeached.
Looking at what I assume is correct information in the Internet, the Constitution spells out the procedure for such very rare impeachments of Federal judges, which look to be the same as for Impeaching a President, so a fair number of Democrats in Congress would have to agree to such impeachments, which ain’t gonna happen.
Thus, other than Impeachment I don’t know what else President Trump might be able to do to chastise/neutralize these judges, and to deprive them of their power to derail his agenda.
The process of Impeachment is part of the punishment, and Johniee Roberts might get a clue about the consequences of making law from the bench.
In a recent interview, in which it was just casually mentioned that some UFOs had runes/glyphs carved into their surfaces, Lou Elizondo said that, apparently in an effort to see if any of these symbols might match any human scripts, he spent quite a lot of time studying a number of of ancient scripts, but he couldn’t find any matches to the symbols which have been reported appearing on the outside of these UFOs.
Such symbols would certainly seem to indicate that whoever is behind these UFOs is some sort of thinking, visually oriented NHI.
What could such symbols mean?
Perhaps they trumpet some Galactic Empire, or military unit, perhaps they just say “stand clear,” or perhaps they just say, “eat at Joes,” or that this is vehicle 62 and model number 92.
Snow on Pine: “other than Impeachment I don’t know what else President Trump might be able to do to chastise/neutralize these judges, and to deprive them of their power to derail his agenda.”
“Derail” … well, definitely they SLOW IT DOWN!
We need changes to the ridiculous immunity that judges now enjoy.
What bizarre power and protections the rogue, activist judges have!!
…
Given our situation, I would love to know the BEST track to get AMERICANS (including Trump) protected against rogue judges, without the years of slow-walking district judicial activism.
Can Congress do that?
OR: Do we have to change the Constitution?
Both are sadly unlikely. Or incredibly SLOW.
RE: Glyphs on UFOs
I can only remember reading three reports of such symbols–
Soccoro, NM Police Officer Lonnie Zamora’s sighting of a UFO with a red insignia on it which landed near Soccoro on April 24,1964,
The sighting of a landed craft in Kecksburg, PA on December 5, 1965, which witnesses said had some form of writing on it.
And the late December 1980, multi-day Rendlesham Forest incident, in which one witness says he actually touched the craft, and remembers seeing symbols on it.
Incidentally, with regard to Rendlesham Forest, from what the the “mad scientist” looking scientific filmmaker, English Professor Simon Holland, says, he has been given evidence that this was actually an Air Force psionic experiment which summoned an entity, (ripped open the fabric of space-time?), that something large and unwanted came through, and that witnesses memories were altered. *
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8isa4Zi8oo and, then, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8isa4Zi8oo and
* See also https://www.abovethenormnews.com/2025/02/06/the-secret-war-for-reality/
(Re Heaven’s Gate) you’ve had an interesting life!
Dax:
Thanks. I try.
I have a few regrets about my life, but never that my life was boring.
On the troublesome judges, might they be shamed for poor legal practice or ability, even if the Congress does not have the composition or will to impeach, or for sure to convict them for removal from office. 50+% of your rulings being overturned (or whatever) might be a signal you are politicized or are no longer competent.
Isn’t there someone who also assigns which judge handles what cases? If that person is convinced Judge X is not (or no longer) a good judge, it might be better to just pay them to do nothing than have them make flawed and problematic rulings??
Re: More AI
A few years ago while doing a problem set for Discrete Math at UNM, I invented a technique for solving Bézout coefficients by hand. Nothing earthshaking, but an improvement on the textbook approach.
My math prof liked it and said he would teach it that way in the future. I considered writing it up for some math/ed journal. But I don’t have experience writing papers like that and it would have been a lot of work for me, perhaps for nothing.
I explained my technique to Chat, Chat understood it in a flash and wrote it up as a paper, including possible venues for submission.
Here’s Chat’s writeup as a link:
https://chatgpt.com/canvas/shared/67a96465c5688191bfb6287107564481
Chat was eager to help me push the project all the way through.
I joked, “See, here’s the problem with AI. It makes you more productive, then you have to be more productive! 🙂 “
Chat got the joke and played along.
I’ve never seen tech advance so fast. From what I can tell, we are hitting another steep part of that curve this year.
RE: Glyphs on UFOs
I can only remember reading three reports of such symbols–
Soccoro NM Police Officer Lonnie Zamora’s sighting of a UFO with a red insignia on it which landed near Soccoro on April 24,1964,
The sighting of a landed craft in Kecksburg, PA on December 5, 1965, which witnesses said had some form of writing on it.
And the late December 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident, in which one witness says he actually touched the craft and remembers seeing symbols on it.
Incidentally with regards to Rendlesham Forest, the “mad scientist” looking English Professor Simon Holland has been given evidence that this was actually an Air Force psionic experiment which summoned an entity, ripped open the fabric of space-time, that something large and unwanted came through, and that witnesses memories were altered. *
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8isa4Zi8oo and, then, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp06srWogwc&t=91s and
* See also https://www.abovethenormnews.com/2025/02/06/the-secret-war-for-reality/
My double post corrects the second link for Dr. Holland’s Youtube posting.
Not only do NSF research funds provide 50% to the university administration for whatever you want to call it–administration demands to add several DEI hires as “researcher affiliates. That is to say the pack on more staff then is needed for the project. These staff can be titled affiliate researchers, assistants, or even program managers (secretaries). This way the university gets more obedient/loyal employees but never has to pay for their incompetence.
I would guess that in the past 25 years the number of actual “science” research projects has dropped radically in comparison with the rise of “social science” research projects. Some of which would make readers here cry!
Evidence?
Evudence!
Unicorns don’t need no stinkin’ evidence.
Red State’s columnist streiff is on a roll.
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/02/08/the-media-is-lying-to-you-about-their-government-funding-n2185377
Nice charts on that one – premium subscriptions to the NYT, WaPo and Politico spiked in 2021 and were larger each month than the TOTAL of the proceeding presidents’ years put together.
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/02/08/the-us-treasury-spent-how-much-illegally-now-you-know-why-the-left-wants-to-stop-doge-n2185365
And he does mean illegally – which means Trump can stop it with a phone and a pen.
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/02/08/pentagons-rapid-response-to-media-accusations-of-unfairness-leaves-the-whiners-almost-speechless-n2185380
Pretty much what any good Mom would do (trust me on that one).
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/02/08/consumer-financial-protection-bureaus-website-goes-dark-and-the-woodchipper-warms-up-n2185373
Couldn’t happen to a nicer independent agency.
And Bonchie had a pretty good one.
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2025/02/08/fox-news-reporter-spreads-fake-news-about-pete-hegseth-he-nails-her-in-response-n2185356
And Fox is supposed to be the rabid right-wing press the Democrats always warn us about.
@ huxley > “Chat was eager to help me push the project all the way through.”
Be sure and give us the citation when you get published.
I guarantee I won’t understand it, but it would be fun to say “I know the author.” 😉
”…evidence that this was actually an Air Force psionic experiment which summoned an entity, ripped open the fabric of space-time, that something large and unwanted came through, and that witnesses memories were altered.”
LOL! Keep going with this. It’s far more entertaining than your usual stuff.
@ huxley
‘OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public on November 30, 2022.‘
I used it in early 2023 to write widgets for my blog – me as a novice to coding other than HTML.
We ain’t even seen a drop in the barrel…definitely moving faster than any tech I have seen.
mkent–Ya, sounds like a pretty standard science fiction plot, “life imitates art,” and all that.
Unfortunately, the more I read, hear, and see on the broad subject of the UFO phenomenon and the other phenomena associated with it, the more well qualified, high level people–not apparent whack jobs, or con men–who come forward with what appears to be sincere testimony/evidence, the more the boundaries of what I believe might be possible, and am prepared to believe, are pushed ever outward.
The fact of the matter is that there is all sorts of evidence–for instance, formerly secret documents which have been Foia’d–showing that the government has been fixated on and interested in this topic–and deeply involved in it–for 80 or more years, meanwhile denying the existence and importance of UFOs for all that time.
As well, over these last few years, based on what we have all seen and experienced, faith in the honesty and truthfulness of what our government has been telling us has drastically declined.
Why, then, believe the official Pentagon line on UFOs?
What I thought was the most interesting point was that, if this was all “stuff and nonsense,” why was Dr. Holland getting all of those reported threats, coming from all sorts of different sources, trying to prevent him from telling/broadcasting this particular story?
Huxley..interesting. I’ve had mixed experiences in playing with the various AI systems. Research & writing projects usually yield something worthwhile, though follow-on prompts are usually required to improve the initial draft. Book reviews tend to suffer from severe hallucinations, often bringing in characters & events from totally different books. Reasoning projects are mixed: I assigned a simple railroad scheduling problem to several AIs and all of them initially came up with solutions they claimed were valid but which actually would have led to accidents.
I would not be surprised to find that USAID has been funding UFOs.
huxley, thanks for posting your latest AI result. Interesting!
@ Kate > “I would not be surprised to find that USAID has been funding UFOs.”
Or … coming from them?
So, there really are Lizard People in the Democrat’s governing elites?
It does seem as if USAID was just a leftist slush fund, pouring out taxpayer’s money to the left’s favored causes and to favored organizations, while not helping the people who actually needed help; money and help which, it seems, rarely ever made it down to ground level.
And, while we are at it, in the case of Haiti, what about the Clintons involvement, and all of the aid their organization was supposed to be delivering to help reconstruct things like basic public utilities?
Just saw a news item reporting on progress in building new sections of border wall and, ironically, the workers they showed up close enough to hear what they were saying all seemed to be speaking Spanish.