‘Is there anything Gavin hasn’t destroyed?’ California 911 system upgrade reportedly a ‘disaster’

 BizPac Review   

"And while Newsom and others play the blame game over who is responsible for the disastrous rollout, California is “stuck with a 1970s-era emergency call system that is falling apart.'”

"California’s emergency telephone service has become another victim of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s dismal leadership.

"After seven years and nearly $500 million spent, California’s 911 emergency system overhaul is a failure, as Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, reported.

"'During his first year in office, the governor confidently projected that he would replace the state’s emergency call system within three years, a goal that officials previously estimated would cost $132 million. But nearly seven years later, the state has spent more than $450 million on a regionalized ‘Next Generation’ digital system that suffered such appalling failures and disruptions during its initial rollout that the Newsom administration scrapped it entirely,” Rufo noted in a City-Journal report." . . .

“Could you imagine making the scariest phone call of your life and thinking no one is coming?” a whistleblower said, according to the report.

"'After a series of warnings and delays, in November 2025, the Newsom administration officially terminated the regional approach. In a postmortem report, Cal OES indicated that the regional rollout overwhelmed dispatch centers and was ultimately too fragile and risky to work,” the report continued." . . . More...

"The left wing agenda would have been fodder for Don Rickles"

. . . "Quite simply, if you are living off the largesse of others, you should not get to tell them what to do. Or to label them greedy bigots if they question how their money is being used." . . .

AfterMath - Home

‘Clowns to the Left of me…!’ - American Thinker

"Far left ideology is rooted in emotionally based sanctimonious self righteousness, evolved to counteract feelings of victimization, insecurity, marginalization.  Its activism is based in vengeance against elements of the existing social structure that trigger its feelings of subjugation.  The dominant role of emotion in its genesis and in its reflexive reactions to perceived injustices precludes any possible awareness of its own illogic or hypocrisy."

Top DNC donor occupation for 2025 was 'unemployed'? - Eric Utter   "An analysis of the most recent federal election filing found that the top “occupation” of donors to the Democratic National Committee was “not employed.”

"The unemployed donated more than $12 million to the DNC in 2025.

"Other top DNC donating occupations included “retired,” “attorney,” “physician,” and “professor,” none of which are surprising.

But how in hell are those without gainful employment donating so much cash to the DNC? 

"It’s almost as if those receiving any of the vast panoply of government handouts to the indigent feel obligated to aid, abet, and vote for Democrats." . . .

Is the American public getting wise to Democrat lies? - Andrea Widburg

. . . "The problem for Democrats is that, if you peruse all the other posts at The Other 98%, you realize that the writer is a voice in the wilderness. The rest of the site is entirely given over to the same theories the shooter voiced in his manifesto: That Trump is Hitler, a racist, a despoiler of women and children, a sadist, a tyrant, etc. Even the writer of the above post, after calling for sanity, went back to the same tropes at the end.

"The left is so mired in this alternative reality that it cannot get out of it. Some have an inkling of the problem, but they’re stuck in quicksand—they know they’re sinking, but they can’t get out.

"Perhaps, though, because the crazy is too obvious, Americans are waking up from their decades in the leftist loony bin and returning to a normal, fact-based view of the world around them." . . .More...

Johnny Carson Warned Us About Jimmy Kimmel

"Where would we be without Jimmy Kimmel?  We’d never know when the walls are closing in, our democracy was hanging by a thread or an East Wing renovation threatened world peace. Thankfully, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is there when we need it most. Or, so Kimmel thinks."

Jimmy Kimmel is on TV to hate President Trump: Bill O'Reilly | Katie Pavlich

Comments from readers at the above link: "Bill is 100% right. Not one word he said was even a millimeter off the bullseye. It is a shame we can't go back to a time where almost everyone in the USA had common sense instead of almost no body. I wish we could get along a little better. Each party gets a chance sooner or later to try to make America better. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't but this hate stuff as gone way too far and Jimmy Kimmel is not a comedian anymore and should be removed. As for Disney I am done with them. They don't have the values they had when I was growing up watching their cartoons and stuff."

O'Reilly had his moments as well: "Anybody remember when Bill demonized an abortion doctor for so long and so fiercely that a crazy guy killed the doctor? I do."

Johnny Carson Warned Us About Jimmy Kimmel   

"'Tonight Show' legend shared secret to his apolitical succes[s] decades ago"

. . . "Carson’s successor, Jay Leno, kept that bipartisan, upbeat spirit alive. Now, it’s a relic of the past trashed by the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Kimmel and the soon-to-be-unemployed Stephen Colbert.

"Wallace pressed Carson on that decision, and the talker had a ready, emphatic answer. It’s not my job, he insisted." . . .

. . . "“Tell me the last time a Jack Benny, a Red Skelton or any comedian used his show to do serious issues. That’s not what I’m there for. Can’t they see that?” Carson asked at the time. “Just because you have a ‘Tonight Show’ you must deal in serious issues. That’s a danger. It’s a real danger. Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import, and you know, strangely enough, you can use that show as a forum. You could sway people, and I don’t think you should as an entertainer.”

"Why, you might repeatedly cry on the air and treat your showcase like a one-sided political screed." . . . President Reagan was also hated by Hollywood, yet Johnny Carson loved showing him this way:

"Johnny Carson was undoubtedly the very best late night variety show ever, but since he retired in May of 1992 with two of the funniest people Robin Williams & Bette Midler on the very last show or in other words the farewell show, things were never the same again in late night TV show beside Jay Leno & Letterman which they were O.K & a lot of fun to watch them too. But Carson surely was something else, he was the best of the best in late night show. there will never be another Johnny Carson ever again. RIP Johnny. You are missed very much so."

Johnny As Ronald Reagan in Classic “Who’s on First” Spoof | Carson Tonight Show

Horrible final hours of a city destroyed by a volcano

Lost in Time

Pompeii: The Last Morning | A Day in the Life of a Doomed City

Fading Lore  "On August 24, 79 AD, the people of Pompeii woke up to what seemed like an ordinary Tuesday morning. By sunset, their city would be buried under volcanic ash. This is the story of that last morning.

"Follow a single day in ancient Pompeii: the bakers lighting their ovens before dawn, children playing in the streets, merchants opening their shops, families gathering for meals. Experience the normalcy bias that kept most residents from fleeing, the warning signs that went unheeded, and the final hours of one of history's most perfectly preserved cities.

Based on archaeological evidence, historical accounts from Pliny the Younger, and decades of excavation findings, this reconstruction shows what daily life actually looked like in a Roman city and what it means that we can still walk those same streets today.

Wonderful storytelling. Put Pompeii on your bucket list. It's an incredible experience down to the burned rock smell which still wells up in the breeze. Go off season. I lagged behind my tour group and found myself alone near an intersection with just the wind. It's the closest to time travel I can imagine. It was like they were all at the arena and I was awaiting their return. The only disagreement I have, ( and this was after an enlightening discussion with my guide), is that most survived. Most did (eventually) leave the city but the final surge reached from Mycenium to Stabaei. He said the general consensus from the archeologists is thousands, with nowhere to go, in pitch darkness made there way south towards the river and Stabaei moving no faster than a slow walk. They believe the final surge overtook them and thousands died, buried by subsequent ash fall. The say that today during construction or road widening miles from Pompeii, remains are found routinely. Their guess, 80 to 90% perished and only a few thousand; those who left immediately, made it beyond that final surge.

The Babylon Bee's Official Recap Of All 11 World Wars

Babylon Bee

"Millions of people have only just learned from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar that there have actually been 11 World Wars, not just two. Sadly, most Americans do not even know the most basic facts about these critical historical events.

"To close this knowledge gap, The Babylon Bee has put together the following official recap of all 11 World Wars:

---

1. WW1 (10,000 B.C.): Dispute between Ooga and Booga over who got the best part of the woolly mammoth. Resulted in 2 deaths.

2. WW2 (2,700 B.C.): Tribal conflict over who got to name the cool new structure in Egypt. Ultimately won by Bob Pyramid.

3. WW3: Fought at Helm's Deep between Saruman's forces and the Rohirrim. Famously, King Théoden joined Aragorn in one last charge, just as Erkenbrand and Gandalf arrived with reinforcements, securing the victory.

4. WW4 (1200 B.C.): Nations descended into war over whether to stay in the Bronze Age or advance to the Iron Age. Iron advocates ultimately won out due to women telling their soldier husbands that it was "more sparkly."

5. WW5 (Time unknown): Also known as the Infinity War, this conflict erupted when Thanos attempted to bring balance to the universe through aggressive population management. Opposition forces responded with time travel and a lot of standing around portals.

6. WW6 (1400 A.D.): The Hat Height Conflict, in which nobles escalated tensions by wearing increasingly taller hats to assert dominance. After hundreds of thousands of casualties, Pope Boniface emerged victorious.

7. WW7 (1950 A.D.): Commonly known as The Butter Battle, this conflict saw a bitter feud between rival clans, the Yooks and Zooks, escalate into an increasingly devastating arms race. Ended in a fragile truce secured only by the doctrine of "Mutually Assured Destruction."

8. WW8 (1985 A.D.): A decades-long conflict between Autobots and Decepticons for control of Earth and/or interesting rocks. Casualties included several major cities and at least one live-action plotline.

9. WW9 (1990 A.D.): Sometimes referred to as The Secret of the Ooze, this was fought between a small band of mutated turtles and the Foot Clan, ultimately ending in victory for the turtles when the Foot Clan's leader fell into the sea.

10. WW10 (2011 A.D.): Colloquially known as The Storage Wars, dozens of parties began fighting over the contents of storage lockers in California, setting off a deadly multi-year conflict.

11. WW11 (2020 A.D.): A worldwide struggle fought primarily over toilet paper supply. Millions left dead and worldwide productivity decimated.

---

"Hopefully, this will help fill in the gaps your lousy history education may have left. After all, not everyone was so lucky to have learned World History at the "Quality Learing Center."

THE GREATEST THREAT IS THE SOLUTION

  Ann Coulter   

". . . the best we can do is lock up criminals, not allow other countries’ criminals to immigrate here, and ask Democrats to drop the Tourette’s syndrome whenever they talk about Trump.

"The main question I have about Donald Trump’s latest attempted assassin, Cole Tomas Allen — a teacher, naturally — is: I wonder if he was a fair grader to Trump supporters?

"One question I don’t have is whether some new security protocol could stop random nuts from doing insane things in a country of 340 million people.

"Every journalist who was at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner seems to be writing pieces saying, first, that they were at the dinner; second, they really, really were at the dinner — that was them sitting next to the energy secretary! — and third, that they noticed the lax security at the time.

"Do NOT blame Democrats and the media for activating unstable personalities with their nonstop hysterical denunciations of President Trump, provably a member of the Waffen SS! To mention just a few of the lovely sobriquets they’ve given the president:

— fascist (former Vice President Kamala Harris, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Reps. Jamie Raskin, Ayanna Pressley and Ed Markey, Trump’s first White House chief of staff John Kelly, Trump’s first Joint Chiefs chairman, Mark Milley — “fascist to the core” — MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, NPR, etc.);

—Nazi (Hillary Clinton, former President Joe Biden, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Tim Walz, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian, etc.);

— racist (Biden, Harris, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Jerry Nadler, Ilhan Omar, Jasmine Crockett, Yvette Clarke, Frederica Wilson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Don Lemon, Rachel Maddow — “openly racist president” — The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, The New York Times’ David Leonhardt; The New Yorker’s John Cassidy, CNN, MSNBC, The Guardian, etc.).

"And so on.

"Just tighten up security around the man they describe as a mortal threat to humanity. Noticeably, none of the proposed security measures would have stopped Allen.

"Atlantic writer Shane Harris wrote that over “the many years I have been a guest” — the rest of the piece is just filler — “I can’t recall anyone giving my invitation more than a passing glance.” Similarly, the BBC’s Gary O’Donoghue complained that, “the man on the door outside only took a cursory look at my ticket from what must have been six feet away.”

"A closer examination of the tickets might have kept out striving, second-rate journalists hoping to sneak into the posh event, but wouldn’t have stopped Allen, who was staying at the hotel." . . .More...

Reparations aren’t about justice. They’re an act of revenge

 Douglas Murray  

The people who push for reparations in America today claim to be doing so in the name of racial harmony. In fact, it’s hard to imagine anything more likely to put a bomb under race relations in this country. It has become just another tool of vengeance in the fevered anti-Western, anti-American spirit of our age. 

"Ten years ago, the idea of “reparations” sat on the political fringes in America. The question of whether or not compensation should once have been paid to former slaves had died out.  Not least because by the start of the 21st century, no one in America had actually suffered from slavery. The country was a century and a half away from the bloody civil war it had fought over the issue.

"But there’s a tendency in our own age which does not allow wounds to mend or heal. Indeed, there is a movement that locates long-healed wounds in order to rip them open again. And then complain about the hurt caused to themselves.

''In 2014, the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an essay in The Atlantic making “The Case for Reparations.” In recent times, few articles have had more impact. The issue of reparations began to be picked up by the radical left and then made its way to the political center. By the time of the Democratic primaries in 2020 all of the party’s candidates were willing to talk about the issue. Some, including Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, expressed support for some form of reparations. Such candidates pointed to the disparity between average household wealth in white families and black families in America.

"Once the Democrats were in power, one of the first things they did in Congress was apply pressure on President Biden to set up a commission to study reparations for black Americans both for slavery and for “systemic racism” — a guilty verdict that was already in." . . .

Others also see this as a route to justice. In 2020, San Francisco passed the CAREN Act, which made it a hate crime to make a “racially motivated” 911 call against a black person “without reasonable suspicion of a crime.” The name comes from the derogatory term “Karen,” which in recent years has come to mean a white woman with entitled energy. The act makes it a potential crime to call the cops on a person who is black and makes white people doing so have to wonder whether it will be they who the police take in for questioning. It is also noteworthy, in passing, that in the current era, racial slurs are actually cool and can be written into law so long as the people they demean are white women." 

 As in the "I got that white girl", said by a man who should have been locked up but was repeatedly set free.

Toddler-Like Law Students Should Leave America for a Real Education

 Teresa R. Manning › American Greatness 

"Worse, law students are supposed to be preparing for the legal profession and the justice system, where words, debate, and argument should replace physical threats, intimidation, and incivility. Yet law students increasingly reject discourse in favor of shout downs." 

"Last week, UCLA law students shouted profanities, held signs with graphic obscenities, and booed a Department of Homeland Security attorney invited to campus to speak by the law school’s Federalist Society chapter. Video shows a crowded hallway where students scream at the lawyer when he arrives and then continue howling and jeering in the lecture room, which has perhaps 50 students, plus a few older attendees as well as security guards in back. Students also hold up vulgar signs—“F–k You Loser” “How’s Trump’s C–k Taste?”—and make vulgar gestures while grinning and giggling. They slouch, put their feet on desks, stand up and sit down repeatedly, and let their phones ring to disrupt the presentation. The older audience members look annoyed and exasperated.

"What a zoo.

"This circus atmosphere sadly confirms the anti-intellectual wasteland that much of American higher education has become, with law schools no exception. Many seem more fit for spoiled toddlers than serious students.

"Unfortunately, the temper tantrum shout down seems almost a new normal in much of American legal education: In 2022, law students at Yale blew horns, stomped their feet, and shouted obscenities at Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Kristen Waggoner and Yale law professor Kate Stith, who was trying to moderate the event—which was on free speech, no less—and who told the students to “grow up.” Then again, in 2023, Judge Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit tried to speak at Stanford Law School but was similarly heckled by angry students—who called him a racist, of course—and was then even scolded by a school administrator who not only did not bring order but said she was uncomfortable with the judge’s presence, not with the presence of angry, frothing students. Similar law school incidents have occurred at Cornell, Georgetown, the City University of New York, and the University of California Hastings.

"When will Congress and state legislatures stop funding these insane asylums masquerading as places of learning?" . . .   More...

Teresa R. Manning is Policy Director at the National Association of Scholars, President of the Virginia Association of Scholars, and a former law professor at Virginia’s Scalia Law School, George Mason University. 

Can Harvard Be Reformed? › Daniel Oliver   

"Harvard’s gatekeepers tout resumes but hide convictions, revealing an elite more committed to ideological conformity than to intellectual honesty." 

. . . "J. B. Pritzker (the brother of a Board of Overseers member) called Trump a “wannabe dictator.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., described the Trump administration as a “totalitarian regime.” He also called legislation tied to Trump a “moral abomination.” Former President Joe Biden said, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Liz Cheney, former congresswoman from Wyoming, said, “There has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.” Senator Bernie Sanders, Socialist, Vt., called Trump “the most dangerous president in modern American history.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Trump “a domestic enemy of the Constitution.” And of course, there are more.

"​"Can America survive if prominent politicians keep spreading that sort of hate throughout the land?" . . .

Daniel Oliver (H ’61–64) is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of the Education and Research Institute and a Director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in Pasadena, Calif. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Reagan, he was Executive Editor and subsequently Chairman of the Board of William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review.

Douglas Murray: Why the Shooter’s Manifesto Sounds Familiar. Plus. . .

"Dartmouth College president Sian Beilock is not afraid to say why she believes American universities have lost the public’s trust. (Caleb Kenna/The New York Times/Redux)

"Better late than never, the toniest institutions in higher education are coming around to the realization that “echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship,” as a Yale University report put it earlier this month. Today, we have two looks at the Ivies’ about-face." . . .

'White supremacy' was a leftist scam

 'White supremacy' was a leftist scam   "When facts are stranger than fiction, pundits will say, “You can’t make this stuff up.” But actually, you can make this stuff up — that turns out to be the Left’s modus operandi." . . .

Lucianne.com News Forum

Blind spot: Media amplified white supremacy narrative as SPLC funded Charlottesville organizer   . . . "For decades, the SPLC has positioned itself as the nation’s preeminent watchdog, which maintains a controversial "Hate Map" that has increasingly labeled benign conservative organizations and religious groups as hate groups. 

"The DOJ alleges the SPLC utilized a network of shell companies – with names like "Center Investigative Agency" and "Fox Photography" – to disguise payments to individuals associated with those groups. 

"While the SPLC claims these were legitimate payments for undercover informants to monitor threats, the FBI and DOJ allege the funds were used to ensure that "hate" remained visible enough to justify the SPLC’s mission and purpose.  

"The group's recent financial success can likely be attributed to the claims of escalating white supremacy it had proffered." . . .

Will The Real Hate Group Please Stand Up – Issues & Insights   “'The scurrilous left-wing group had to pay for racism to meet demand,” Dan McLaughlin, National Review"

A Book that Gets Race Relations Right - Jeffrey Folks 

. . ."What is being taught in our schools is dishonesty toward our own past, and the repercussions are great.  When Europeans came to Africa, they did not do so with the intention of enslaving or repressing the native population.  Native blacks interacted with white settlers in the way that all human beings interact: by trading, learning, engaging in work, and appreciating another’s culture.  It is the humanity of our past — and the goodness — that today’s educators refuse to acknowledge."

California’s Climate Overreach

  American Greatness  California is strangling its own energy base—then blaming oil companies for the predictable fallout of shortages, wildfires, and policies built on ideology instead of economics.

"Even if the most dire climate scenarios are accurate, and humanity must transition away from fossil fuel, it can’t happen overnight. The rational approach is to first develop alternative sources of energy without precipitously destroying the industries that reliably produce oil and natural gas. Once alternatives are available at a competitive price and in sufficient quantities, demand naturally migrates to the alternatives. Meanwhile, the oil and gas industry, recognizing that their core business is to provide energy, actually stays healthy by also investing in the transition.':None of that is happening in California. The approach the state’s politicians have chosen is irrational and predatory. For more than twenty years, they have legislated and litigated the state’s oil and gas companies down to a fraction of their former size, making up most of the resulting energy shortage not with alternative energy, but with imports.

"A recent and particularly brazen case of this ongoing harassment comes in the form of Senate Bill 982, something that only last week came perilously close to moving to a floor vote. Under the moral masquerade of requiring restitution for allegedly causing climate change, which in turn allegedly caused wildfires, what this bill really amounted to was a state-sponsored shakedown. SB 982 is a vivid example of how California’s legislature is determined to cannibalize and ultimately destroy entire industries in order to pay for disasters of their own making.

"SB 982 would impose liability on fossil fuel companies for “climate-attributable damages,” expected to be assessed in billions of dollars. It would empower California’s attorney general to sue the state’s oil companies without even needing to prove fault, negligence, or specific causation by an individual company.

"This bill is not only legalized extortion, but also a total disregard for economic reality. Combustible fuels remain the primary engine of civilization, and they’re not going anywhere for at least the next several decades. Despite this unavoidable fact, California’s in-state oil industry is already on the verge of implosion. The results are easily quantifiable." . . .More...

Savannah Guthrie sobs 'I'm so sorry Mommy' over fears her fame triggered Nancy's kidnap and says speculation about family involvement 'piles pain upon pain' |

 Daily Mail Online   

Savannah Guthrie sobs 'I'm so sorry Mommy' over fears her fame triggered Nancy's kidnap and says speculation about family involvement 'piles pain upon pain'

"Savannah Guthrie burst into tears as she apologized to her mother Nancy amid fears that her fame and fortune may have triggered the abduction.

"Speaking on NBC's Today – the show she usually anchors –  on Thursday Savannah said her brother Camron was the first person to realize that 84-year-old Nancy's February 1 abduction may have been linked to the TV star's fame and wealth.

"Savannah said: 'My brother, he was in the military, he saw right away what this was. He said: "I think she's been kidnapped for ransom."

"'I said "Do you think, because of me?"

"'He said "Sorry sweetie, yeah, maybe." But I knew that.' 

"Savannah said that she, Camron and their sister Annie still do not know for sure what triggered Nancy's February 1 abduction from her $1.4million home in Tucson, Arizona – before breaking down at the thought that her fame may have encouraged the abductor to strike. 

"'I don't know that it's because she's my mom and somebody thought , "Oh that girl, that lady has money, we could make a quick buck".' 

"'Too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it's because of me. I just have to say, "I'm so sorry, Mommy. I'm so sorry",' Savannah told Hoda Kotb on NBC Today on Thursday

"'I'm sorry to my sister and my brother and my kids and my nephew and Tommy and my brother-in-law, just, like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.'" . . . More...

Amazing…

Triad Conservative

This is the most detailed MRI scan of an unborn baby.
At just 20 weeks, she is moving, turning her head, kicking—even standing. Her beating heart is also visible.
Human life is a miracle. pic.twitter.com/ATpxOBCz4V

— Matt Smethurst (@MattSmethurst) April 29, 2026