Wait — I thought America's King had shut down all dissent.

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Self-awareness, thy name is not “elderly liberal puke”

Nor is it “arrogant, self-righteous tourist”.

(53-seconds in)

Bonus Pic from Lansing:

Three sales at prices that should satisfy those dweebs in Hartford pestering us to provide more low-income housing for the Little People

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After asking $4.395 million* (see correction, below), Daphne Lamsvelt-Pol (don’t blame her; she’s Dutch) has sold her own house at 10 Ben Court in Old Greenwich for $4,400,008. Nice street, great addition and renovation. Buyers came in from Midtown Manhattan (10017)

Over on the poor side of town, 647 Lake Avenue has sold for$ 4.450 million; asked $4.395. Armonk buyers (10504)

And in Havemeyer Park, 20 Old Wagon Road (Old Wagon is neither old nor a child’s toy; it is a road, however, so give the developer that), listed at $1,199,000, sold for $1,529,000. 1958 construction, 2-bedroom, 1 bath, 1,066 sq ft — unless the buyer is an Anglophilic history buff, we can expect this one to be dumpstered by the end of the week and replaced with something more appropriate to the new Havemeyer in the $3.5 - 4 million range.

*Correction: I just had a wooden shoe bounced off my head by Daphne, who informs me that I got the asking price wrong: it was $3.925 million, not $4.395. She adds, “12 percent above… I told my client, yes, myself, don’t ask for a 4… handle, let the market give it to you if it’s worth it. It’s the same strategy I always tell my cleints to use.”

Sheesh — she’s a regular Dutch uncle. Worse, she refuses to give me credit for teaching her how to stage a house; how does she think she got such a good price, her pricing “strategy”? Pshaw.

I had a number of challenging cases in my legal career; this one would have been my toughest.

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Only for very special people, Architectural Digest warns us

Whether you’re an experienced chef whipping up complex meals every evening or a takeout aficionado who sees the kitchen more as a gathering space, no home is complete without an oven. While the masses may head to the nearest home improvement store to pick out a model that simply gets the job done, a small percentage of the population steers away from the standard range in favor of something truly special. That level of luxury doesn’t come cheap, with the best stoves from top brands, like La Cornue, Bertazzoni, Viking, and Thermador, commanding prices as high as half a million dollars. The cost may be equal to the down payment on a mansion in Beverly Hills, but the well-heeled set believes it’s a necessary investment, not only for its innovative features and quality materials but also for a certain emotional attachment that can develop with owning such a lavish design.

A friend sent me this article because he noticed just such an oven in the listing photos for 214 Clapboard Ridge Road, new construction, and new on the market today at $55 million. How he identified it is between him and his banker, but we’re going to see it tomorrow — the oven, that is, not the house.

the little woman won’t feel so bad having to cook for the family on one of these after her servants and caterers are deported

You’d need a heart of stone not to laugh

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nothing to see here, move along, move along

Watch: The headquarters of Iran’s infamous Islamic propaganda channel—where global jihad, terror incitement, and deranged lies about the West and Israel are broadcast daily—was hit by an Israeli airstrike. Live. On. Air. The notorious anchor, known for spewing hatred against non-Muslims and women who defy Islamic modesty laws, was right in the middle of glorifying “martyrdom.” But the moment the building was struck? She ran for her life—because, of course, she’s not willing to become a martyr herself. That’s only for the brainwashed masses she poisons from the comfort of her studio. Preach death. Run when it comes. Let that sink in.

Quell surprise

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go dei and die

From Glenn Reynolds, InstaPundit:

HMM: Study: Lesbian, gay, bisexual medical students less likely to graduate. The story suggests discrimination as a cause, but I’d suspect it’s at least as likely that inferior students are admitted as part of DEI efforts, and then can’t cut it. Obviously we need to lower the standards until they can!

And it’s not just the rainbow brigade that’s failing. From May 23,2024’s Free Beacon::

'A Failed Medical School': How Racial Preferences, Supposedly Outlawed in California, Have Persisted at UCLA

Up to half of UCLA medical students now fail basic tests of medical competence. Whistleblowers say affirmative action, illegal in California since 1996, is to blame.

It’s a lengthy article, replete with charts and graphs and all that good stuff, but here are just four paragraphs that nicely sum up the situation:

…. One professor said that a student in the operating room could not identify a major artery when asked, then berated the professor for putting her on the spot. Another said that students at the end of their clinical rotations don't know basic lab tests and, in some cases, are unable to present patients.

"I don't know how some of these students are going to be junior doctors," the professor said. "Faculty are seeing a shocking decline in knowledge of medical students."

And for those who've seen the competency crisis up close, double standards in admissions are a big part of the problem. "All the normal criteria for getting into medical school only apply to people of certain races," an admissions officer said. "For other people, those criteria are completely disregarded."

"UCLA still produces some very good graduates," one professor said. "But a third to a half of the medical school is incredibly unqualified."

The remaining 0.03% went to the American Communist Party (yes, of course they're one and the same, but just for diversity's sake ...)

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"There's not a penny to be cut — the cupboard is bare". Here’s one tiny example out of tens of thousands of what’s going on every day across the country and the world

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Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said on Thursday that there was only $50 million in waste in total at USAID

Daily Wire

Three government contractors and a USAID official have pleaded guilty to a scheme involving paying bribes in order to steer more than half a billion dollars in foreign aid contracts, the Department of Justice said Friday.

Roderick Watson, a USAID contracting officer, admitted to steering money to multiple companies in exchange for more than $1 million in bribes.

“Watson exploited his position at USAID to line his pockets with bribes in exchange for more than $550 million in contracts,” Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation said in a statement. “While he helped three company owners and presidents bypass the fair bidding process, he was showered with cash and lavish gifts.”

The scheme was possible because of the federal government’s racial “set-aside” laws known as 8(a) contracting, which allow contracting officers to give contracts to companies owned by minorities, women, or veterans without the usual competitive process.

Walter Barnes III, the founder of a Baltimore-area company predicated on taking advantage of those laws, admitted to paying bribes, including a country-club wedding, cash, and a trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

Barnes’s company is called Vistant, previously known as PM Consulting Group. It was awarded contracts on the pretense that it was “disadvantaged” because Barnes is black, even as it took in tens of millions of dollars. Barnes used a public defender in his court case, drawing a rebuke from the judge that he presumably had ample resources to pay for his own lawyer.

Also pleading guilty was Darryl Britt, the founder of 8(a) contracting firm Apprio Inc., which is received $271 million in federal contracts since 2004. Both companies also admitted criminal liability.

Beginning in 2013, Britt — a member of Carnegie Mellon University’s Business Board of Advisers — bribed Watson to award contracts to Apprio. When an 8(a) firm becomes too large, it “graduates” from its “disadvantaged” status. But minority contracting laws are notoriously exploited, with minority-owned firms existing simply to win contracts, then subcontracting out the work to other firms. That is often done openly, and above board, with “joint ventures.”

That’s what happened in this case once Apprio could no longer receive contracts without competition. Beginning in 2018, it enlisted Barnes to have sole-source contracts be awarded to his company, Vistant, which would then subcontract to Apprio.

To obscure the money trail, bribes would often be passed through Paul Anthony Young, a friend of Barnes’ in Maryland who was president of another subcontractor, and who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.

Between 2013 and 2023, Britt, Barnes, and Young “bribed [Watson], a public official, repeatedly—in fact, through hundreds of monthly payments and other things of value, including laptops, cellular phones, jobs for relatives, and other gifts and favors” in exchange for “USAID contracts valued at hundreds of millions of dollars,” a statement of facts accompanying Britt’s plea deal said.

That included a $25.5 million contract for “professional management” awarded in late 2018 to Vistant, which was subcontracted out to the other companies. Initially, Britt said to give “only cash to you know who,” but eventually, Young put the USAID contracting officer on the payroll of a company.

On March 28, 2018, Watson put in paperwork for a “sole source, noncompetitive contract” to Vistant. The next day, Young spent $3,000 renting a suite for Watson to watch the Washington Wizards play basketball, according to court filings.

Minority-owned “disadvantaged” businesses typically can only get contracts under $4 million without competition, but in June 2018, Watson sought an exception from the Small Business Administration to award a contract north of $20 million.

In August, Watson grumbled that he could make much more money as an 8(a) contractor than he could as a government employee. Young encouraged him to start a firm, but Watson said he wanted to wait until he was more “thoroughly entrenched with [US]AID and now the State Department” so he could use his connections to get contracts.

The contracts totaled $544 million between 2013 and 2022, according to Barnes’ plea agreement. They began with a $4.8 million “staffing contract” in 2013 and a $37 million “institutional support” contract in 2014 and escalated to a $95 million contract for “technical support” in 2022. The awarded contracts amounted to $257 million, plus there were three potential contracts totaling $287 million near the end of the scheme that were not ultimately awarded.

Two USAID contracts awarded to Apprio, for $4.4 million and $1.8 million, are listed in spending records as for “education/training-lectures.” A $30 million USAID contract to Vistant is listed as “for the innovation design and advisory services team to obtain access to specialized buy-in support to a variety of technical design firms through the management of a PMO.” A $25 million contract is listed as simply “to obtain professional management services from an 8(a) small business contractor.”

A mark of how minority set-aside contractors routinely game the system is how small companies receive contracts for widely divergent fields of work — a sign that they are simply having others do it or hiring staff afterwards with little knowledge of the subject area. Apprio’s contracts with government agencies range from developing websites to medical care to human resources to “ebola efforts.”

Other USAID contracts to Vistant include a $15 million contract “to help protect cyberspace and communications network domains to block the spread of insecure information.” A $28 million USAID contract was for “lab institutional contractor – mega bridge contract,” and a $40 million contract was for “creation of the PDEX award.” A $204,000 contract was for a “senior advisor to the Belarus country director.”

The Trump administration shuttered USAID following concerns that much of its foreign aid was wasted or diverted to politically connected Americans. That contention was met by outrage on the part of Democrat lawmakers, who stormed its office and called it a conspiracy theory. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said on Thursday that there was only $50 million in waste in total at USAID

The Department of Justice said that Apprio should have to pay a $52 million penalty and Vistant should have to pay $86 million, but that the companies did not have the funds to pay. It agreed to accept $500,000 from Apprio and $100,000 from Vistant, and to defer criminal prosecution of both companies. USAID official Watson faces up to 15 years in prison, while the company owners face up to five years in prison.