David Friedberg: California’s Voting System Looks Fraudulent, But It’s Working Exactly as Designed @friedberg believes California’s extremely loose election laws enable “appointments” not free elections. Why? The voting data in LA makes no statistical sense. “ Pratt's post-election mail-in ballots declined by 1/3. So statistically, the population of people that send in their ballots late reduced for Pratt by 1/3, increased for Nithya Raman by 80%, and Karen Bass 10% less, if you just look at the mail-in ballots before and after election day as a comparison. I don't know if there's a sociopolitical way that you can assess those statistics and assume that these are individuals casting their individual vote for who they think should be Mayor of LA. Basically, the concentration of incremental votes that Nithya Raman got came around the Skid Row area in Los Angeles. But when you look at the basic statistics of what happened in person, mail-in before, mail-in after Election Day, it becomes a real statistical quagmire on how did this sort of a sociopolitical shift happen in such a way that it did? Now, there was a report published, and they highlighted the 2018 California midterm elections and the challenges that they saw arise in that midterm election because of some of the legislative changes that were made. First, California Assembly Bill 1921 legalized the practice of unlimited ballot harvesting in the state. What that means is that any individual in the state of California has the right to go and collect ballots from any other individuals, regardless of relationship, fill them out, and send them in. California, two years later, 18 months later, also passed a law that made it permanent that every person registered in the state of California would get a ballot, so tens of millions of ballots then get mailed out. Then there was another series of laws that were passed that said anyone can register to vote. You don't need to prove your citizenship. You can use a gym membership card as an example. So anyone can register to vote. There is no proof of ID when you get a ballot. There is no demonstration that the person who fills out the ballot has anything to do with the individual who's supposed to be voting that ballot, and it is legal for an individual to go out and collect hundreds or thousands of ballots, ship them in, and they will all qualify in these kind of mail-in ballot voting processes. So there's nothing illegal or fraudulent going on. In fact, the system is operating exactly as intended. It has been set up and structured in a way that with the right construct, you can get an individual appointed, not elected, but appointed to a particular role in government under a, quote, ‘free election’ in California.”

This week the most advanced AI model on the planet got switched off by a foreign government. British researchers were studying it. British companies were testing it. British hospitals were piloting it. Not any more. This isn't an AI story. It's the story of every industry we used to lead. Britain has some of the best AI talent in the world. DeepMind was built here. Our AI Safety Institute writes the rules other countries follow. We have the researchers, the universities, the standards. What we don't have is the power stations to run the data centres, the planning system to build them, or the industrial base to make the chips. So the work happens here and the value lands somewhere else. We invent. Others build. Others decide. Then we read about it on Saturday morning. Same story as the kit our soldiers don't have. Same story as the factories we used to. I spent nine months in government making this argument inside the room. I'll make it louder from outside.

Getting the FIFA World Cup started off right with the Beckhams! 🇺🇸 @RCamposDuffy @victoriabeckham

On the day America celebrated the IPO of its biggest space company, Britain found out its government is banning underfloor heating. The decline of our country is not inevitable, it is the choice of the rotten political class.

JUST IN: SpaceX is now worth more than Canada

NEWS Venezuela is now able to restructure its debt as bondholders see its government is more stable since communist Maduro had been ousted. Venezuela has been in default since 2017. The Venezuelan government just announced that it intends to begin restructuring its long-defaulted sovereign debt and the debt of state oil company PDVSA. Analysts estimate Venezuela’s external obligations exceed $150 billion, making it one of the largest sovereign debt workouts ever attempted. Bondholders are already jockeying for position. Oil exports and oil diplomacy are accelerating. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez recently completed visits to India and Türkiye, seeking new trade, energy, and investment partnerships. India has become one of Venezuela’s largest crude buyers as countries look for alternatives amid Middle East tensions

"You talk about war with Russia all the time. Only war! You want to drag Germany into it," AfD leader Weidel attacks Merz in the Bundestag. "You're sending billion after billion to Ukraine, thereby financing the continuation of a war that should have been ended long ago. You still haven't demanded an accounting from Kyiv regarding the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Instead, you're deliberately seeking confrontation with Russia, a nuclear power, to distract attention from your own failures. You talk about war, you talk about nothing but war, you talk about war, and you want to support this war by dragging Germany into it. Meanwhile, peace is precisely what this continent needs, and Ukraine too. Let's finally talk about peace, not war. And the truth is that Ukraine should never become a member of the European Union or NATO. Period."

You could say they nailed it. (And also sanded it, painted it, and rebuilt it.) @NatlParkService staff from across the country are working hard to make DC safe and beautiful, installing and repairing more than 1,000 benches this year. Their work may happen behind the scenes, but the results are on display every day in the shared spaces that help to tell our nation’s story. 🇺🇸

Article 61 of the Magna Carta gives people the power to legally overthrow a tyrannical government. Remember that.

On Iran, TRUMP tells @ABC: “Somebody's going to have to build all that infrastructure, new bridges, new this, new that, new power plants… they're talking about a trillion dollars, probably more… that's why we'll probably get involved in rebuilding.” “But, we’ll get half their oil.”

BREAKING: 🇺🇸 USAID Inspector General finds 101 additional UNRWA school teachers, principals & staffers are Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 terror attacks. U.S. may soon designate UNRWA as a foreign terrorist organization. freebeacon.com/trump-adminis… @AidOversight

NOVEMBER 30, 2010: Four weeks after losing the election as AG of CA, Kamala Harris wins due to mail-in surge from LA Harris won by less than 1%

This is the wildest World Cup story yet. If someone in Toronto sells a ticket above face value they get fined $25,000 yet the city of Toronto bought 3,500 World Cup tickets early and then sold them to taxpayers at a markup as a “revenue generation strategy.” What the hell man.

This morning at the World War II Memorial, we pause to honor the courage and sacrifice of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy 82 years ago today. 🇺🇸 Photo by Chris Johnson

6. Don’t think congress is stupid about this, they know exactly what is going on. They understand just how dangerous this is. That is why in the last FISA-702 reauthorization, congress literally wrote into the renewal that federal representatives cannot be subject to the FISA-702 rules. All members of congress must be notified in advance, if their private metadata is going to be reviewed by the FBI, DOJ or any entity with access to the NSA full spectrum database library. Congress exempted themselves and secured their 4th amendment protections exclusively for themselves. That’s the previous “change” in the law they all agreed to during the debate of the renewal. However, We The People were not granted this same notification or protection from weaponized access. If FISA-702 did not exist, the quasi-constitutional justification for the wholesale collection of U.S. citizen metadata no longer exists.  It really is that simple. There is ZERO justification for the capture of U.S. citizen data by the government. The capture itself violates the Fourth Amendment.    The only way the government can justify the capture of U.S. Citizen data is if there is some quasi-constitutional or national security reason for it. Take away “702”, and the data collection collapses; ANY “incidental” search of the database then loses any plausible legal justification.  702 is the camel’s nose under the surveillance state tent, and it has nothing to do with "Foreign Nationals." /END

The Reflecting Pool is now reflecting again.

SECRETARY RUBIO: "One of the things you'll find pretty consistently in every totalitarian system is that they want to control the ability of their citizens to communicate with one another."

Czytam sobie o sikhach i ich, wprowadzonym w 1699r, religijnym obowiązku noszenia kirpanów (ceremonialnych mieczy), który to religijny obowiązek jest szanowany/uznawany na całym Zachodzie, w tym w Polsce. Uważam, że katolicy powinni mieć religijny obowiązek noszenia dwuręcznych mieczy, na podstawie wezwania papieża Urbana II na soborze w Clermont w 1095.

🇷🇺🇰🇵 North Korean labor migrants arrive in Moscow — all in formal suits, moving in lockstep to work Once on site, they'll change into construction gear Locals who've crossed paths with them praise their discipline, work ethic, and quiet composure

Like honestly "it's going to take us several weeks to tell you who won the election" is failed state shit and should be much more stigmatized.