Retirement Day Cafe
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Stapeley Hill in Shropshire, England
Sarah/Larkspurr44
Why is the new guy so standoffish?
I've linked this dog before, but I think this is a new clip: Spinning, that's a good trick!
A sea otter production of Twin Peaks. Who killed Laura Otter?
Few people realize this, but Iceland has a lot of ice.
A big hippo wallow.
Baby teaches a dog.
Psychologists spend all day thinking up weird ish like this.
John Candy and Kevin Klein in parody of The Hustler from the 80s. The clip replaces the music used originally with copyright free music so that the video doesn't get deleted, but if you ignore that, it's pretty funny. (It's not from SCTV -- it's from this forgotten Lorne Michaels primetime show. Bonus: I just found this clip which I remember from ages ago.)
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The Week in Woke
—Disinformation Expert Ace
The fascist state of Vermont banned a small Christian school from all sport and academic competitions because they forfeited games against schools featuring male cheaters on their "female" teams. But they're now faced to pay a half million in damages (which seems... inadequate).
Vermont pays $566K in damages, legal fees to Christian school it banned from all sports competitions for years A settlement agreement following mediation was finalized Tuesday after the school was barred from athletics and academic competitions for two yearsFIRST ON FOX: State education agencies in Vermont have paid over $566,000 in damages and legal fees to a Christian school that was banned from all sports and academic competitions for two years after its girls' basketball team refused to compete against a trans athlete in 2023.
A settlement agreement following mediation was finalized on Tuesday that awarded the plaintiffs, including the Mid Vermont Christian School and its law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the $566,000.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Vermont Principals' Association and the Vermont State Board of Education for a response.
The settlement comes after a years-long saga in which all the school's sports teams, and even its academic teams, like spelling bee and mathletes, had to travel out of state to compete against other schools.The conflict dates back to an afternoon early in the 2023 school year at Mid Vermont Christian, when the school decided to forfeit a girls' basketball postseason game against a team with a trans athlete.
Their Christian faith was more important to them than a game. But it was still a hard call, and it brought some tears.
"We were all in agreement that the right decision was to not compromise our beliefs and to withdraw, but the conversation with the players was the hardest," Mid Vermont Christian girls' basketball coach Chris Goodwin told Fox News Digital.
"Because you play a 20-game season, and you put in the work and the expectation is that you enter the postseason tournament with a shot to see how you're going to do and to see how far you can get. So there were some teary eyes, and some sad faces, but in the end, they all really did understand that it was the right thing to do."
placeholderBut it was about to get much harder for not just the team, but for the entire school of about 111 students.
Within days of the forfeit, they learned the consequences escalated far beyond a single game. The Vermont Principals' Association banned the school, not just from basketball, but from all athletics and a range of academic competitions.
"Almost immediately... they came out very strongly," Goodwin said. "We were going to be banned from all athletic competition in the state... and then on top of that... science fairs and spelling bees."
What followed was not a single lost season, but years of dislocation. The school was forced to arrange competitions with schools out of state just to make sure their extracurricular programs could continue.
Instead of short bus rides to nearby schools, teams traveled hours across state lines. Familiar rivalries disappeared. Home gyms sat quieter.
"The travel is probably triple," Goodwin said. "You're getting back at 10 o'clock at night... kids trying to do homework. I don't want to say there's a nightmare, but it was difficult."
...
ADF Senior Counsel Dave Cortman told Fox News Digital that he was shocked at how firmly the education authorities in Vermont wouldn't back down from their sweeping sanction on the small Christian school.
"It's been surprising how much the state has dug in their heels," he said. "The arguments they've made... even saying your beliefs are wrong...
"Their message was, 'in order for you to follow your religious beliefs, boys are boys, girls are girls, that would actually violate their nondiscrimination policies.' So the irony of it was, they were discriminating against religious schools."
In Formerly First World (FFW) country Australia, women are being forced to sign pledges that they will not object to playing a team packed with five (5!) male cheaters, will not protest being forced to play against male cheaters -- not even silent protests, like taking a knee -- and will not forfeit games to avoid being injured by the five male cheaters.
By the way, the "Flying Bats," packed with not one, not two, but five male cheaters, were the undefeated champions (17-0) of the Premier League. Gee I wonder how they managed that.
Sydney's Flying Bats sparked debate after an unbeaten title run, as new league rules now require teams to play them, with penalties for refusing fixtures.Women's football in Sydney is facing a heated debate.
The focus is on Flying Bats FC, a club that won the 2024 season unbeaten and has since become the center of controversy.
The team, which included five transgender players, won the title without a single loss. They scored 65 goals and conceded only four.
According to reports, they recorded six clean-sheet wins, including two in the semifinals on the way to the final.
A clean-sheet win is a win where you do not give up any goals to the opponent. Boy this team must really practice hard!!!
Women are being forced to sign this pledge as a condition for playing in the league at all.
Note that there is an intersex league that permits men and women to play together, but the male cheaters refuse to play in that league. They want to beat up women because they're envious that the women are women and they are not.
Those last two stories via aPauling News.
Thomas Jipping and Hans von Spakovsky revisit the "swinging dicks" decision from the Ninth Circuit.
We usually give just one judge our "Dishonorable Judicial Conduct Award" but the opinion recently issued by two judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Clinton appointees M. Margaret McKeown and Ronald M. Gould, was so outrageous -- and so outside the law -- that we felt compelled to give them both our April award.Olympus Spa v. Armstrong began as a lawsuit by the owners of two Korean spas that limited entry only to "[b]iological women." They refused entry to a man claiming to be a woman who had not had surgery to change his intact male genitals, and he filed a complaint with the Washington Human Rights Commission (WHRC).
...
Lee, who replaced the notorious liberal icon Stephen Reinhardt, provided important context for this case. Korean spas, he explained, are "steeped in centuries-old tradition" and focus on "rejuvenating the body and mind through treatments" that "require their patrons to be fully naked."
...
McKeown and Gould, Lee wrote, are telling Olympus Spa that "women -- and girls as young as 13-years-old -- must be nude alongside patrons with exposed male genitalia as they receive treatment." Plus, the female employees will be forced to "provide full-body massages to naked pre-operative transgender women with intact male sexual organs."
The spa's owners explained that their "Christian belief in modesty between men and women" is a "central tenet" of their "traditional theologically conservative" beliefs. But as Lee says, their "pleas fell on deaf ears," and there was a complete lack of sympathy for "members of a racial minority group who want to share their cultural heritage and provide a safe space for women and girls."
...Shockingly, the full Ninth Circuit refused the spa owners' request to review this outrageous three-judge decision. In his dissent from that denial, Judge Lawrence VanDyke (a Trump appointee) used graphic language to describe this miscarriage of justice. This case, he wrote, is about male genitals, plain and simple, although Vandyke used a much more graphic term about "swinging d**ks."
...
VanDyke wrote that anyone disturbed by his choice of words should consider how much more distress Washington state and the Ninth Circuit are forcing upon women and girls in Korean spas. VanDyke added that while his "distressed colleagues appear to have the fastidious sensibilities of a Victorian nun," they have no such scruples "when it comes to the government trampling on religious liberties and exposing women and girls to male genitalia. That kind of selective outrage speaks for itself."
Is diversity the strength of the Canadian military? Turns out that a platoon containing 83% foreigners from Africa devolved into "interethnic infighting" with each other.
Juno News:
A confidential Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School report has revealed a complete breakdown in basic officer training following a surge in permanent resident enrolment.One French-language platoon, which had over 80 per cent non-citizens, was reportedly wracked by an inability to communicate fluently, a lack of respect towards female CAF members and infighting between Cameroonian and Cote d'Ivoire candidates.
The Quebec platoon saw fewer than one in two recruits graduate, while allegations of racial discrimination were made in multiple directions, from candidates against staff and between candidates of opposing ethnic blocs themselves. Additionally, command saw "challenges" in training permanent residents as they lacked "respect towards women" peers and superiors.
"For many candidates it is the first time they have lived with members of a different sex, and for some it is also the first time they have been expected to treat women as their peers," explained the confidential report.
"Platoons are also reporting inter-candidate cultural frustrations, with lack of respect towards women being the most common concern."
Theory: A country whose military is made up 80% of foreign invaders will not be a country in ten years' time.
Katie Daviscourt 📸
@KatieDaviscourtBreaking: The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against anti-ICE protesters, issuing another block against a judge's order prohibiting federal officers from deploying crowd control munitions on protesters at the Portland ICE facility.
The three-panel decision, issued by judges Kenneth Lee, Eric Tung, "and Ana de Alba (dissent), reads as follows:
"The First Amendment does not protect vandalism, criminal trespass, or obstruction of law enforcement. Such unlawful acts, however, have been commonplace around the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") building in Portland over the past year."
Numerous provocateurs--many wielding bats, shields, and strobe lights that disrupt vision--have hurled bricks, smashed security cameras, and blocked the driveway to prevent ICE cars from entering or exiting the building. In response, the government has used tear gas, pepper balls, and other non-lethal munitions to disperse the crowd."
"Five plaintiffs sued the government, alleging that they are peaceful protesters who have been injured as a result of the crowd-control tactics. But they do not contend that they are collateral casualties caught in the crossfire--they claim that the government specifically targeted them in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights."
"The plaintiffs have not shown that the agents had the subjective intent to retaliate or that the government has an unwritten policy targeting them. Much of the evidence shows the government trying to clear the entrance to the ICE facility in the face of unrest and an unruly crowd. And while some individual incidents might indicate an arguably disproportionate use of force, they alone do not amount to an unwritten policy of retaliation."
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Schmollwatch
—Disinformation Expert Ace
A Harvard-Harris poll finds the congressional race deadlocked at 50-50:
OSZ @OpenSourceZoneApr 28
2026 Congressional Generic Ballot Poll
🔴 Republicans: 50%
🔵 Democrats: 50%Harvard Harris | 4/23-26 | 2,745 RV
A Yale poll finds the Democrat Fascist Party leading by a mere 2%:
Eric Daugherty @EricLDaughApr 13
🚨 WOW! A new poll just found the 2026 Congressional ballot is a near TOSSUP, with Democrats only up 2 points, 46%-44% -- Yale
At this point in 2018, Democrats were up by +7 points or more
Republicans in Congress should pass the SAVE America Act and win the midterms 🇺🇸
The Democrat-aligned Morning Consult poll can only conjure a 3% lead:
Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 @PollTracker2024Morning Consult poll | 4/20-4/26 RV
(Tracking poll)
Generic congressional ballot 2026
🟦Democratic 45% (no change)
🟥Republican 42% (no change)
Trump's approval rating fell to its lowest point in Trump's second term -- 40.8% according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls -- but that Based Camp guy who looks like a leftist points out that that's actually a good favorability rating for a second-term president. Obama averaged 41% approval during his second term -- and the leftist media continued insisting he was very popular.
I also think that Trump has put a lot of big bets on the table and most of them are going to pay out. So I expect his rating to go higher.
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Hollywood: Shit or Garbage?
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Hungry, a movie about a killer... hippo. I don't know if this is meant to be a serious movie or a half-serious one. They are making references to Hungry Hungry Hippos.
Hell No, a horror movie in which characters make sensible, logical decisions.
The final Jackass movie. These guys are too old to be taking shots like this.
Spider-Noir with Nicholas Cage. A series on Amazon, from Sony Pictures TV. So it's not giving Disney or Marvel any money. And I do like Spider-Man, Nicholas Cage, and Noir.
The girl from Happy Birthday 2 Me in an amnesia/hallucination movie. Her husband keeps telling her everything is okay. Or should I say "her husband" because come on, we've seen this kind of thing before.
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Quick Hits
—Disinformation Expert Ace
The DOJ says it will enforce the Supreme Court's ruling against racist gerrymanders- - which means they'll sue the states to comply.
Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt asked the Justice Department earlier Thursday to enforce the Supreme Court ruling nationwide, noting it had the power to do so."Senator -- we are ON IT!" Dhillon replied on X. "The [Justice Department] under [Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche] continues to prioritize equal protection of the laws for ALL Americans, be it in employment, housing, education -- and voting."
This may make it easier for weak-sister red states like Indiana to redistrict. Indiana's currently resisting doing so, but if the DOJ says it has to....
Surprise! Biden's IRS sued conservative-leaning churches for bringing up political topics during sermons, but let all of their liberal black pastors preach the Democrat Gospel as much as they liked.
A new report released Thursday by the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias reveals what investigators describe as a "stark contrast" and a systemic double standard in how the Biden Internal Revenue Service policed American churches."The Biden IRS ... [opened] multiple investigations into Christian churches focused on the content of their sermons. The IRS asked these churches for detailed information about their operations, not just about the alleged violations," the task force wrote.
"But during the same time, when other houses of worship gave sermons that reflected different scriptural interpretations on culture war issues, or prayed for Democrat candidates, the Biden IRS appeared to take no action," the group added.
The task force, which was established by President Donald Trump in an executive order last year, reviewed internal administration discussions, case files and prosecutorial decisions from the Biden administration across 17 federal agencies.
Beyond the IRS's apparent targeting of conservative Christian churches, the task force concluded that the Biden administration's prosecution strategy, internal policies and practices demonstrated an overall anti-Christian bias that permeated throughout the federal government during that period.
...
The task force determined that the Biden administration used the Johnson Amendment -- a 1954 provision added to the tax code which prohibits 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates -- to probe churches that hold traditional Christian teachings, arguing those positions amounted to political support for Republican candidates.
Though the amendment, in theory, limits what pastors whose churches have 501(c)3 nonprofit status can say in evaluating candidates running for political office, it has only been "sporadically enforced," according to the Justice Department.
For example, under the Obama administration, when 30 pastors instructed their congregations in 2008 on how to vote according to their interpretation of scripture, the IRS appears to have only opened an investigation into one pastor. Even then, the IRS dropped the investigation and took no enforcement action.
But, the Biden administration was different. The Justice Department task force documented several investigations opened by the administration into Christian churches for possible violations of the Johnson Amendment.
Pressure grows to prosecute Fauci now that his co-conspirator in the Wuhan Cover-Up has been charged.
The indictment of Dr. Anthony Fauci's former adviser David Morens Tuesday revived calls for the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci himself for allegedly lying to Congress about funding risky research in China before the COVID-19 pandemic.Just two weeks remain before the five-year legal deadline on May 11 to indict Fauci for denying under oath that he funded "gain of function" experiments that modified bat coronaviruses in the same city where the pandemic started.
Morens, 78, was charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations and two counts of concealment, removal, or mutilation of records relating to the origins of COVID-19. He faces up to 51 years in prison.
Critics say Fauci, 85, bears the most responsibility and that he should be hauled into court.
Trump told The Post in a phone interview on March 31 that he intended to "look into" Fauci's status and Republicans say they believe acting attorney general Todd Blanche, who is seeking the role permanently, might be willing to test Trump's assertion that former President Joe Biden's preemptive autopen pardons, including for Fauci, are invalid.
"99% of this country has no idea who Morens is," said Oversight Project President Mike Howell.
"It's Fauci that they will blame for one of the worst government catastrophes in history in America. And so the test is Fauci. The Morens indictment is great, and we applaud it. But there are a lot of people out there that want to see Fauci held to account for the damage he wrought."
Howell, whose group sent the Justice Department a draft indictment for Morens last year, believes the adviser's actions were closely linked to his boss.
"[Fauci] lied about one of the most damaging events in American history routinely and was behind a massive coverup of the key factors," Howell said.
...
"On Anthony Fauci's case, we think lying to Congress is one felony," Paul said in an interview on Tuesday.
"We also think that destroying federal records and advising others to destroy federal records is also a felony. So I think there's opportunity there... There was a vast both organized and unorganized conspiracy to cover up the fact that the US government was funding the research that led to the pandemic."
Trump said in December that Biden was so mentally diminished that he was either unable to authorize autopen pardons or that his staff did so without his knowledge -- setting the stage for potential legal test-cases. Biden claimed to the New York Times last year that he was aware of them.
To determine the validity of those pardons, "you would have to indict somebody who's been pardoned. And I think it's worth a challenge," Paul said.
...
Paul said it's also possible that Fauci committed crimes after Biden's pardon and that "it might involve the question of conspiracy charges."
The Supreme Court is deciding a very difficult question: is the temporary protective status granted Haitians actually temporary or is it actually, secretly permanent? Is it all just a con on the rubes so they'll be tricked into accepting mass permanent immigration by fiat?
The high court held oral arguments on Wednesday in a pair of consolidated cases known as Mullin v. Doe and Trump v. Miot, which center around Trump's revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for approximately 6,000 Syrian and 350,000 Haitian nationals, respectively. Both groups of migrants are currently living in America under the TPS program, which may be used by the executive branch to offer temporary residency to foreign nationals from countries experiencing natural disasters, violent conflicts, and other "extraordinary and temporary conditions."The Trump administration's efforts to end TPS for the aforementioned groups were halted by lower courts. This was done despite SCOTUS previously pausing similar injunctions in a separate TPS case involving Venezuelan nationals.
Arguing on behalf of the Trump administration, U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer contended that a provision within the Immigration and Nationality Act that governs TPS prohibits any form of judicial review "of any determination by the [DHS] secretary with respect to the designation or termination or extension of a designation of a foreign state for Temporary Protected Status."
"That provision means what it says ... [and] bars judicial review of both the secretary's ultimate decision whether to designate, extend, or terminate, and of each antecedent step along the way to that determination," said Sauer, who added that "even if [challengers'] claims are not barred [by judicial review], they are meritless."
The solicitor general's biggest pushback came from the court's more outspoken Democrat appointees.
Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson kicked off the inquisition by pressing Sauer on what, if any, executive actions regarding TPS are reviewable by federal courts. The Biden appointee's back-and-forth with the solicitor general ultimately prompted Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor to join the fray and pile on with questions about the scope of judicial review as it relates to the TPS program.
Sotomayor's refusal to allow Sauer to respond one of her queries on the issue prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to interject and permit Sauer to answer. It was sometime after this exchange in which Sotomayor and Jackson referenced President Trump's past "sh-thole countries" remarks to push the narrative that, as the former put it, "a discriminatory purpose may have played a part" in the administration's decision to end TPS for the various groups in question.
...
...
The conservative justices' more pressing concerns, however, seemingly came during their questioning of the attorneys representing the respondents, Ahilan Arulanantham (Syrian case) and Geoffrey Pipoly (Haitian case).
Both lawyers argued that the legal provisions governing TPS do not bar courts from reviewing an administration's actions on the program and that the government is required to undertake certain steps (ex. consultation and assessment of a country's conditions) before implementing such policies. They further claimed that the Trump administration did not adhere to this purported process, with Pipoly separately arguing that the president's decision to end TPS for Haitians was racially motivated.
Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApesLos Angeles Controller Kenneth Mejia says they've found fraud and abuse
- A single homeless service provider gave fake documents and invoices, stealing $23 million for taxpayers
- Another nonprofit named the Skid Row Housing Trust that managed 29 buildings was letting the properties rot. This ended up costing the city of Los Angeles $30-$40 million dollars in repairs
He says the have a batch of 800 more cases and they're "going to be expensive"
The fraud and money laundering is insane
Did the SPLC stage a hate crime in Wisconsin?
The circumstantial evidence is suggestive. Two groups, Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers, protested "Blessings of Liberty," aka drag queen story hours. The SPLC rushed to smear them, adding them to its "hate map."
And then, suddenly, out of the blue -- almost as if they are Rent-A-Racists paid to do so -- "neo Nazis" started showing up at Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers events to discredit them.
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DOJ Releases Video of the Democrats' Latest Programmed-to-Kill Assasssin
—Disinformation Expert Ace
And they had to release this because the left is pushing conspiracy theories that their new hero did not shoot a cop. They're claiming another cop shot him, in a friendly fire situation.
PJ Media, via Instapundit:
The friendly fire theory just got buried -- on video.For days, questions swirled about whether a Secret Service agent wounded at the White House Correspondents' Dinner had actually been hit by fellow agents in the chaos. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro put that narrative to rest Thursday night.
AdvertisementPirro released new, high-quality security video from the Washington Hilton Hotel showing 31-year-old Cole Allen charging through a Secret Service checkpoint during the April 25 dinner, where President Trump was scheduled to speak. The footage, she noted, had already been submitted to U.S. District Court.
"Today, we are releasing video already provided to U.S. District Court showing Cole Allen shoot a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate the President at the White House Correspondents' Dinner," Pirro said in her X post. "There is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire."
Any argument they can make to get their new hero off.
Jake Tapper sure is a bear about debunking WITHOUT EVIDENCE conspiracy theories -- except when they come from his Democrat Assassin Audience.
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Old Spin: Democrats Aren't Socialists
Newer Spin: Democrats Are Socialists But They're Not Communists
Reality: Democrats Are Organizing May Day General Strikes With Communist Groups
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Next spin: Okay we're communists, but we're not Stalinists.
And then after that: Okay we're Stalinists, but you deserve it, stupid. How clear did we have to make it that we intend to enslave and murder you?
Up to 600 communist groups and other radical organizations linked to the Democratic Party are mobilizing all over the United States to demonstrate for May Day, Fox News Digital is reporting.An investigation by the outlet has identified a sprawling network with "a combined annual revenue of about $2 billion organizing some 3,000 protests and events" pushing what the outlet describes as an "anti-American agenda."
The protestors are urging Americans to skip work, school, and shopping.
"May Day" has its origins in workers demonstrations in the 19th Century. Initially called International Workers Day in 1890, the event called for worldwide demonstrations in the memory of workers killed in an 1886 protest in Chicago.
According to Fox Digital:
At the center of the May Day mobilization, which has expanded from earlier indications, is a network of communist, socialist, Marxist, and other far-left organizations, led by chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America and a network of groups -- including the People's Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition and Code Pink -- funded by an American-born tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, based in Shanghai, promoting the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party....
Unlike in decades past, the Democratic Party is increasingly associating itself with radical elements organizing through Indivisible, MoveOn.org, the American Federation of Teachers, and 13 state and local chapters of the Democratic National Committee as well as the California Democratic Party, Fox reported.
...
One Democrat said the Democratic Party involvement in May Day with the radical groups comes at their own peril.
"The increasing willingness of mainstream Democrats to align with extremist socialist groups is a major factor in why the Democratic Party is losing the center more and more, and why so many lifelong Democrats find themselves feeling politically homeless," Democratic strategist Melissa DeRosa told Fox News Digital.
Trump's Push for Election Integrity Uncovers 34,000 Dead Voters on North Carolina's Rolls
—Disinformation Expert Ace
I'd like to know how often the dead have cast votes in North Carolina.
Note these states continually refuse to take the most basic steps to clean their voter rolls -- until forced by lawsuit or federal action.
Why is that?
The North Carolina State Board of Elections identified approximately 34,000 dead people on the state's voter rolls following a comprehensive data comparison with a federal database.Earlier this month, the NCSBE submitted over 7.3 million voter records to the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database as part of an initiative to strengthen the accuracy and integrity of the state's voter registration list. The NCSBE clarified that the identification of deceased individuals on the state's voter rolls does not necessarily indicate illegal votes were cast.
"While we expected to find some cases, this is higher than we anticipated," Sam Hayes, the executive director of the State Board of Elections, said in a press release.
The discovery came amid the agency's ongoing effort to verify the citizenship status of voters, which the NCSBE voted along party lines earlier this month to do after facing lawsuits from the Trump administration for allegedly failing to maintain an accurate voter list.The NCSBE said it will work with county boards of elections to remove the names from the voter rolls.
Federal law requires states to remove from their voter rolls people who are ineligible for reasons such as being deceased and North Carolina already has a process of biennial list maintenance to remove ineligible voters from its roles, according to Dr. Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, who indicated that the state removed 500,000 ineligible voters through this program in 2025.
However, as Jackson points out for deceased voters, it can take eight to 10 years for their names to be removed.
Government working at typical levels of government efficiency.
...The Trump administration has also launched a nationwide push to obtain full statewide voter-registration lists and list-maintenance records, suing those states failing to comply. The Justice Department has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia to try to force the release of the data, according to the Associated Press.
President Donald Trump standing in the Oval Office at the White HouseThe Republican National Committee's official election integrity account on X said that the findings in North Carolina "is EXACTLY" why the Trump administration is forcing states to clean up their voter rolls.
"Turns out checking state voter rolls against federal records actually helps keep them more accurate. Who knew?" quipped Frank LaRose, Ohio secretary of state and candidate for Ohio auditor of state.
I can't help noticing that the thing the media assures me can never happen -- at least when a Democrat wins -- seems to be deliberately engineered to happen.
Hello! Happy Friday!
THE MORNING RANT: Delta Airlines Is Backpedaling from Obedience to the Climate Religion’s Commandments
—Buck Throckmorton
The good news is that Delta Airlines is acknowledging that its previous green energy and net-zero goals cannot be achieved by the deadlines it had committed to.
The bad news is that Delta Airlines is still playing footsie at all with the green energy hustlers, rather than stating the simple truth that the “net zero” objectives cannot be met and will not be met. Most importantly, it’s frustrating that airline executives do not have the backbone to defend their businesses and assertively reject the premise that an airline should aspire to be carbon-free. Airlines fly on petroleum-based jet fuel. There is no shame in that.
But in Delta’s defense, executives at United and American are even bigger cowards, letting Delta take the first public steps toward backing away from the major airlines’ unattainable climate pledges.
“Delta Air Lines Waters Down Net-Zero Target to an ‘Aspiration’” [Bloomberg – 4/14/2026]
Delta Air Lines Inc. quietly scrubbed a pair of key environmental targets from its sustainability web page late last week. The Atlanta-based carrier deleted its pledge to use sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for 10% of its jet fuel by 2030. It also rephrased its quest to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 as an “aspiration,” rather than a “goal.”
Delta had promised to be using 10% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2030. SAF is made from used cooking oil and other non-petroleum sources. Delta’s SAF use has maxed out at 0.5%, or just 1/20th of what it had promised. There just aren’t enough “sustainable” sources of raw materials to make the SAF. Maybe people need to start eating more french fries and chicken fried steaks.
A Delta spokesman is quoted as saying ”While we have successfully increased use of SAF every year, we recognize that the technology has not advanced as rapidly as the industry requires.” In other words, promises were made based on technology that did not even exist at the time. The clean energy pledges were made with the hope that technologies would “advance rapidly.”
The airlines might as well have been making promises based on energy produced by perpetual motion machines. It would be no less speculative. It is a tremendous disgrace to corporate respectability that executives of publicly-traded companies – people making tens of millions of dollars per year – are making childish promises that they cannot fulfill. And I’m not sure which is worse, the public dishonesty of those executives who know they’re lying about their goals, or the maleducated executives who believe the green energy hype. Perhaps their egos allow them to believe that if they command it, it will happen.
The goal of being “net zero” in 24 years is just as dishonestly ludicrous. Changing this from a “goal” to an “aspiration” is just another weaselly way of stating that pledges are being made that won’t ever be fulfilled, but the executives aren’t honest enough to admit it.
It’s way past time for corporations to stop serving as mouthpieces for the left’s political agenda. Until then, corporations in service to the left don’t deserve our principled defense when the communist snakes those corporations have been coddling choose to bite them.
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Mid-Morning Art Thread
—CBD
Liberty Leading the Puppies
After Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix
I will leave the cultural impact of AI for another discussion, but the first attempt to create a "Dogs On Velvet" image was met with resistance from Grok, because the depictions of violence in Delacroix's famous painting were apparently off limits to AI's gentle sensibilities. I had to move to ChatGPT for this version.
Which, I have to admit, isn't bad!
The Morning Report — 5/ 1/26
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. Mayday Mayday Mayday!!! Yay, it's May. Before diving into the current events, I want to take a moment to reflect and remember the more than 100 million lives snuffed out by Communism and all its manifestations in barely a century. And considering that this malignancy still controls quite a few nations on this planet, the number of victims will continue to grow though mercifully at a much slower rate. This is due in large part to the leadership, bravery and moral rectitude of Ronald Reagan and Pope John-Paul II, both of whom politically and spiritually defied the odds and a corrupt culture that despised them for defying them and wanting to change the global order and put civilization back on track and in so doing liberated millions from the evil Soviet bloc by bringing it crashing down. Both survived assassination attempts for their troubles. The world changed for the better because of them and here we are nearly 50 years later, not necessarily out of the woods as is evidenced by retrograde forces determined to drag America and what remains of western civilization back to the dark ages, to a collectivist/technocratic tyrannical hell-on-earth, in alliance with global Islam, but at least we are in a much better position to if not prevent then at least forestall that fate.
I'll go out on a limb and state that both Reagan and John Paul II paved the way for the ascendancy of Donald Trump. No wonder he too has dodged and in one instance taken a would-be assassin's bullet. As much of the world has either retreated or conspired with both the Chi-Coms and Islam, President Trump has taken on both much to the contempt and bitter hatred of their allies and defenders, especially here at home.
The Red Chinese may yet suffer the same fate as their progenitors in the former Soviet Union. As for Islam, the prospects of it either reforming itself from within or somehow burning itself out considering the oceans of blood it has spilled for over 1500 years in its overt goal of global conquest are dim to say the least. While no one can predict the future, for sure Donald Trump may very well be one of the most positively transformational figures in American if not world history. Of course this presupposes a permanent shift back to a pro-American and western political/cultural society once his tenure ends.
Have a great weekend!
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
- “It must be made absolutely clear,” she said. “Under no circumstances will we permit the intrusion or interference of a foreign government in decisions that pertain exclusively to the people of Mexico.”
Mexican President Doubles Down on Protecting Cartel-Connected Ruling Party
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Daily Tech News 1 May 2026
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- CPanel, a web hosting software suite used by 70 million sites worldwide, had a security hole big enough to drive a Kenworth through without needing to check for clearance. (Bleeping Computer)
And people were reportedly trying to exploit it in February. And succeeding in March.
It was patched last night.
Lots of sysadmins having a bad day right now.
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Thursday Overnight Open Thread - April 30, 2026 [Doof]
—Open Blogger
From Earth pictures
Welcome to the Thursday ONT for this week. Closing out April. One third of the year is over. Does that mean anything? Probably not. Anyway - open thread, as always. What's on YOUR mind tonight?
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Herdsday Cafe
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Mark Farina @djmarkfarina1h
A group of Tibetan herders play a game of billiards as a flock of goats and horses graze on the pasture above them near Xiangpi mountain, China, 1999. Photo by Natalie Behring.
Taking the pet tortoise for a walk in the city.
I'm crushing your head... now I'm moving your vehicles...
She needs a little Me Time.
Why you should have a pet owl. Owl romance.
Pandas, the ninjas of the natural world.
Now lizards are out of control.
Poor alpaca is naked without his coat.
Never stop herding. Never. Stop. Herding. Must. Herd. Cat. Herd everything!
A couple of slapdicks try to figure out a logic puzzle. It's in Chinese but you can follow exactly what they're saying.
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Louisiana Suspends House Primary Campaign Schedule Until They've Had a Chance to Redraw Congressional Maps
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Louisiana is, I've heard, good for at least one and possibly two Republican pick-ups with craftily drawn maps.
It's necessary to suspend the primaries if you're redrawing the maps because... well, people don't even know what districts will exist to run in.
Louisiana governor suspends House primaries until July after Supreme Court redistricting rulingLandry said the rescheduling will only impact the House races in the state and subsequent runoff elections, meaning the Senate and state Supreme Court races will go as planned on May 16.
..."The best way to end race-based discrimination is to stop making decisions based on race," Landry said in a statement. "Here in Louisiana, we're proud to lead the nation on this charge. Allowing elections to proceed under an unconstitutional map would undermine the integrity of our system and violate the rights of our voters. This executive order ensures we uphold the rule of law while giving the Legislature the time it needs to pass a fair and lawful congressional map."
The House races will now be suspended until July 15 or "until such time as determined" by the Louisiana state Legislature. It was not immediately clear when the runoffs from the primary would take place.
Will other GOP governors take the same initiative?
In some political quick hits:
The House passed a measure to fund most of DHS. This represents a bit of a tactical defeat, as the House demanded full funding for all of DHS, but CPB and ICE are already funded through the Big Beautiful Bill, and it's Democrat Assassination Season again so we really need a fully functioning DHS.
Congress on Thursday passed legislation to fund Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies that don't deal with immigration, ending a 76-day shutdown....
The bill did not include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the Border Patrol. Republicans are planning a reconciliation package to separately approve funding for those agencies for the rest of Trump's term.
Using reconciliation would allow the Senate to bypass its 60-vote filibuster threshold and pass the funding without Democratic support.
The One Big, Beautiful Bill included funding for ICE and CBP, meaning the shutdown generally did not affect those agencies. Democrats had sought to extract policy concessions from the administration, but ultimately did not secure their demands.
Asked if she thinks America will elect a gay president, Alexandria Donkey-Chompers says America's already had one.
And of course we all thought: Gay Barack Obama.
TMZ DC is making waves on Capitol Hill ... after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told one of our producers it's entirely possible America's already had a gay president, Republicans seem to be offering up their best guess ... Barack Obama!!!The Republican National Committee's official X account just reposted our clip with AOC and added a photo of Obama on top ... seemingly suggesting the GOP believes Obama was our first gay Prez.
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Hapless Woke Karen Drops Out of Maine Senate Race, Clearing Field for National Socialist (and Avowed Communist) Graham "Totenkopf" Platner
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Janet Mills is the currently serving governor of Maine.
The ugly broke-down swamphag has been fighting to keep six foot boys beating the shit out of five-two girls in high school and college sports.
Below, she appeared at the Farmington Moose Lottery -- no, unfortunately, they were not giving mooses free cars or even potluck prizes, but just giving humans licenses to hunt mooses.
She was heckled. I hear a lot of "moooo" heckles, which I think might come from the mooses present at the event. I think some mooses were present because if they get a moose hunting license, it's a license to kill your moosewife's lover, isn't it?
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US to Deploy Brand New Hypersonic Missile, The "Dark Eagle," to Iran
—Disinformation Expert Ace
The bad news: each of these missiles costs $15 million. And there are currently only eight of them.
The good news: They have a range of 1,725 miles and travel at Mach 5 (at their fastest). They can maneuver in flight and dodge attempts to intercept them. I don't really think Iran is very advanced as far as missile interceptions, but I guess they could try.
Their targets will be the remaining missile launchers Iran uses to terrorize its neighbors, hit US bases, and throttle shipping through the Strait of America. These missile launchers hide in fortified bunkers all day-- and then come out for just an hour to set up and launch a missile, and then hide again. These hypersonic missiles will be used as a very rapid response when a missile launcher is spotted by satellites or spyplanes.
It would take "minutes" for the Dark Eagle to reach its target, minimizing the chances that the launcher will duck back inside its bunker before being hit.
If they can take out eight of Iran's few remaining missile launchers, that will be $120 million well spent. (Though note the program's R&D cost $2.7 billion, but that's mostly sunk cost at this point.)
US Central Command has asked to send the Army's long-delayed Dark Eagle hypersonic missile to the Middle East for possible use against Iran, seeking a longer-range system to hit ballistic-missile launchers deep inside the country.If approved, it would mark the first time the US will have deployed its hypersonic missile, which is running far behind schedule and hasn't been declared fully operational even as Russia and China have deployed their own versions.
The Request for Forces submission justifies the move by saying Iran has moved its launchers out of range of the Precision Strike Missile, a weapon that can hit targets at more than 300 miles, a person with direct knowledge of the request said.
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Dark Eagle, also known as the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW, has a reported range of more than 1,725 miles, although its exact capabilities are secret. It is designed to glide to its target at more than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver to avoid interception.
...
The US already transferred most of its supplies of the stealthy JASSM-ER cruise missile, also designed for a fight with a near-peer adversary, to the Iran fight. About 1,100 of the missiles have been fired so far in the conflict.
Trump has rejected Iran's laughable "proposal" for the US to end the blockade while Iran continues its nuclear program. He will keep the blockade in place until Iran agrees to give up its nuke program and nuke materials, and is preparing for "short but powerful" strikes against the regime.
President Trump told Axios he's going to keep Iran under a naval blockade until the regime agrees to a deal that addresses U.S. concerns about its nuclear program.Why it matters: Trump is rejecting an Iranian proposal to first open the Strait of Hormuz and lift the blockade, while postponing nuclear talks to a later stage.
Behind the scenes: U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has prepared a plan for a "short and powerful" wave of strikes on Iran in hopes of breaking the negotiating deadlock, three sources with knowledge said.
After the strikes, which would likely include infrastructure targets, the U.S. would press the regime to come back to the negotiating table and show more flexibility.
Trump told Axios he saw the blockade as "somewhat more effective than the bombing," and the sources said he had yet to order any kinetic action as of Tuesday night. He did post an AI-generated meme of himself holding a gun with a warning to Iran and the tagline, "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY."
For now, Trump sees continuing the blockade as his primary source of leverage, but he would consider military action if it Iran still won't cave, according to the sources. He declined to discuss any military plans in Wednesday's phone interview, which lasted around 15 minutes.
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Judicial Watch Lawsuit Compels Oregon, Against Its Will, to Remove 800,000 Ineligible Voters from Its Voter Rolls -- Nearly One Quarter of All Eligible Voters In the State
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Don't look now, but that thing that never happens is happening again.
Paul Sperry @paulsperry_BREAKING: Settlement of a Judicial Watch lawsuit has forced the review and removal of some 800,000 ineligible voters from Oregon voter rolls
Judicial Watch is deservedly crowing:
Judicial Watch announced a settlement in its federal lawsuit against Oregon election officials, which confirms 800,000 ineligible voter names are slated for review and removal from voter registration lists. The settlement requires state officials to produce detailed data and enforce federal voter roll clean-up procedures under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
I should say that of the 800,000 ineligible names, only 160,000 are being scrubbed now; the other 640,000 will be reviewed and scrubbed from the lists later.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in October 2024, alleging Oregon failed to remove ineligible voters and seeking to enforce Section 8 of the NVRA after identifying widespread voter roll maintenance failures across dozens of counties (Judicial Watch, et al. v. The State of Oregon et al. (No. 6:24-cv-01783)).In its complaint, Judicial Watch argued that Oregon's voter rolls contain large numbers of old, inactive registrations; and that 29 of Oregon's 36 counties removed few or no registrations as required by federal election law. Judicial Watch asserted that Oregon and 35 of its counties had overall registration rates exceeding 100%; and that Oregon had the highest known inactive registration rate of any state in the nation. In combination, all of these facts showed that Oregon was failing to remove inactive registrations as required by federal law.
In August 2025, a federal court in Oregon denied a motion to dismiss by Oregon and ruled the lawsuit could proceed.
In response to the lawsuit, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read announced earlier this year that Oregon has about 800,000 inactive registrations, which are kept separately from the active voter rolls and do not receive ballots. Of those, roughly 160,000 already meet federal and state criteria for removal--having received confirmation notices, failed to respond, and not voted in two federal elections--and are slated for cancellation. The remaining approximately 640,000 inactive records do not yet qualify for removal and will be processed through future list maintenance efforts.
In its press release, Oregon acknowledged that routine removal of outdated records effectively stalled in 2017, leaving a large pool of long-dormant registrations on the rolls without being fully processed for removal. The scale of the backlog underscores a gap in routine list maintenance that is only now being addressed. "These directives are about cleaning up old data that's no longer in use so Oregonians can be confident that our voter records are up to date," said Read.
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The settlement with Oregon remains in effect for more than five years, with a federal court retaining jurisdiction to enforce its terms. While the settlement resolves the litigation, it explicitly allows future legal action if Oregon fails to comply with voter list clean-up requirements going forward.
The settlement requires Oregon to open its voter roll maintenance processes to unprecedented scrutiny. ...
...Colorado recently removed 372,000 ineligible voter names thanks to a Judicial Watch lawsuit and settlement addressing the state's compliance with federal voter list maintenance requirements.
In Kentucky, state election board officials reported that "roughly 735,000 ineligible voter registrations" have been removed from voter rolls, as part of a 2018 consent decree settling a Judicial Watch lawsuit.
As part of its 2022 settlement, New York City alone has removed 918,139 ineligible names from its rolls: data show 477,056 removals between March 2023 and February 2025, which is in addition to the 441,083 previously reported removals.
In Los Angeles, county officials confirmed the removal of more than 1.2 million names from voter rolls as part of a settlement. Judicial Watch legal pressure also resulted in election roll clean-ups in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Ohio.
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Covert Socialist Kathy Hochul to Overt Socialist Zohran Mamdani: You Don't Have a Tax Revenue Problem, You Have a Spending Problem.
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Hochul to NYC: Drop Dead, says Hadrian.
I wonder if this makes the Democrat Governess Hochul a racisty racist who hates children and The Science (TM) because she's racist. I figure... no, she isn't a racisty racist. Democrats are allowed to object to back-breaking spending. Only Republicans are racist for doing so, because they Hate the Blacks.
Zohran Mamdani is executing his big new socialist plan.
Have you heard this one before? His plan is to spend other people's money until he runs out of other people's money, and then to start spending other other people's money. It's gotta work this time, right? The law of averages says it must.
So he's run out of money, just three months into his term of four years, and is demanding that Governess Granny Hochul rewrite the law to impose new taxes on his citizen-slaves.
And she actually told him to stop spending money he doesn't have and otherwise get bent.
NYC Mayor Mamdani's latest pitch to tax the rich "not happening," Gov. Kathy Hochul says
The budget battle between New York City and New York state lawmakers is intensifying.New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin are calling for a new way to tax the rich. They want the state to reduce something called the Pass-Through Equity Tax credit, aka PTET.
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Menin joined the mayor in calling for the new revenue stream, which could mean another $1 billion to help close the city's budget gap.
Gov. Kathy Hochul slammed the door on their proposal.
"That's not happening," Hochul said. "We are not changing PTET."
Hochul said she has already found over $4 billion in state aid for the city, and that Mamdani and Menin have a spending problem.
"And we've encouraged the speaker and the mayor to do what every other city has to do, [which] is look at your expenses. What is growing exponentially? They have programs that are growing not 4% a year, but 4% [in] months. And so they have to do whatever the other city is doing," Hochul said.
Budget watchdogs agree with Hochul, saying that instead of trying to tax their way out of the budget problems, they should stop spending so much.
"Right-size spending. Stop spending on programs that don't help New Yorkers. We've increased spending $16 billion more than inflation over the last 10 years," said Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission.
And Mamdani's proposed budget will increase NYC's budget by fourteen billion dollars over just two years.
The pro-terrorist socialist theater kid who never held a real job admits that even if he gets this tax increase, he's going to demand New York state send more of its taxpayers' money to NYC so he can waste it.
Despite Hochul's reluctance, Mamdani still wants more state aid, even if were to actually get this new tax.
"We cannot proceed with balancing that budget without the additional revenue and cost shifts from Albany," Mamdani said.
The Covert Socialist will also meet with billionaire Ken Griffin about his complaints about the new pied-a-terre tax, designed to punish rich people for daring to own second homes in NYC.
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Hochul had another surprise for Mamdani. She has agreed to meet this week with billionaire Ken Griffin. Mamdani has made Griffin the poster boy for why he wants a pied-a-terre tax on people who own multimillion dollar second homes in New York City.
Griffin was so upset with Mamdani's attacks his hedge fund company threatened to pull out of a $6 billion NYC development project.
The PTET is a shelter provided by high-tax leftwing states to allow their richest taxpayers to shelter some of their money so that they don't have to pay the full state taxes. And they're not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts -- they know their rich, highly-mobile taxpayers will flee to states with lower (or no) income taxes if they don't give them a break on taxes.
Mamdani is demanding that the break be reduced from a 100% credit on state taxes to 75%. Thereby reducing the incentive to rich people to stay in the high-tax state, thereby increasing the number of rich people who will flee.
And of course, this is why high-tax states like California are pushing for "exit taxes" -- money they steal from you when you move out of their states. They want to keep you prisoner. If you stay you have to pay their high tax rates, but if you try to leave, they'll shellac you with a huge "exit tax" on your wealth.
I think this will all work out beautifully for the socialists, as it always has and always will.
Actual Justice Warrior seems to understand the PTET tax shelter, which I currently don't.
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Economy Grows By Decent 2% Annualized Rate Despite Fuel Price Inflation; New Jobless Claims Fall to Near Record Lows
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Via Ed Morrissey. It's a decent growth figure, rebounding from the weak 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.0 percent in the first quarter of 2026 (January, February, and March), according to the advance estimate released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2025, real GDP increased 0.5 percent.The contributors to the increase in real GDP in the first quarter were investment, exports, consumer spending, and government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, also increased. ...
Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, increased 2.5 percent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter.
The nominal rate of growth -- unadjusted for inflation -- came in a huge 5.6%. That's a good sign, because the current inflation is temporary due to Iran throttling the Strait of America.
Danny Dayan @DannyDayan5The economy is simply on fire.
-Claims lowest of cycle, 2nd lowest since 1969.
-ECI shows wages accelerating.
-Core PCE deflator (pre war) hottest since 2023.
-Nominal GDP very strongIf anyone you follow is still talking rate cuts, fire them.
By "claims," he means "new jobless filings," which came in at 189,000, the lowest since... 1969.
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