90 Miles From Tyranny

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Set Me Down A Simple Solution...

California’s Highest-Paid Govt Employee Worked for Org Tied to Chinese Espionage

Taxpayers paid $1.7 million to ex-pension fund manager Meng

California taxpayers shelled out more than $1 million to a man linked to a Chinese espionage program, making him the state government’s highest-paid worker.

Meng Yu, former chief investment officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), received more than $1.7 million in total pay and benefits in 2019, according to the latest financial disclosures obtained by Transparent California, a taxpayer watchdog group. Under Meng's leadership the pension fund, which covers two million members in the retirement system and 1.5 million members under its health program, has been subject to federal inquiries into its investments in Chinese government entities.

Meng took the lead at the pension fund after China's Thousand Talents Program recruited him to serve as the deputy CIO of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), a state-controlled entity. The FBI considers the Thousand Talents Program an example of "China's non-traditional espionage against the United States" that seeks to recruit people to transfer U.S. trade secrets and taxpayer-funded research into the hands of the Chinese government. Meng told the propaganda outlet People's Daily that he worked for SAFE out of patriotic commitment to "the motherland."

Neither CalPERS nor Governor Gavin Newsom's (D.) office responded to requests for comment.

Robert Fellner, the executive director of Transparent California, blasted CalPERS for failing to conduct appropriate oversight for such a high-profile position, pointing to Meng's August resignation.

"One would think that the state’s highest-paid employee earned his position after rigorous scrutiny revealed him to be the best candidate for the job," Fellner said. "If such recklessness is prevalent in a decision of this size and magnitude, how can Californians have any faith that their tax dollars are being spent responsibly in...

United States: Immigrant women have higher incomes than white men

Statistics recently released by the US Department of Labor undermine claims by leftists that minority groups are disadvantaged.

WASHINGTON. Unwittingly, the US executive has probably smashed two notions most cherished by the “victimized” left: the “patriarchal society” and “white privilege”. According to figures from the US Department of Labor for the third quarter of 2020, several categories of the population of the United States earn more money each week than white men, reported the Canadian online magazine Quillette.

This is the case for Asian women, who earned $1 224 on average weekly in the third quarter of 2020, compared to $1 122 for white men.

At the same time, official data also showed that the median full-time annual earnings of female American workers of Palestinian, Iranian and Turkish descent are higher than those of white American women. The same figures showed that American workers of Turkish and Iranian descent had higher incomes than white men.

Unlike many European countries, the United States allows racial or ethnic categories in the census questionnaire submitted every ten years to the population of the country. The last census dates from 2020.

NJ Governor Phil Murphy has been legally served by the people:

The "H" In Democrat Stands For....

New York Gym Owner Gets Huge Court Win Over Cuomo’s COVID-19 Restrictions

Western New York gym owner Robbie Dinero won a court victory over the state of New York that will allow him to open his gym at full capacity. State Supreme Court Judge Paul B. Wojtaszek allowed the gym to open at full capacity. The judge said there was a “right to normalcy” and he threw out the state’s 25% capacity limit. Owner Robbie Dinero was naturally thrilled with the outcome,

“This is a huge win. The fact that the precedent has been set that we can open at full capacity, so long as we abide by the safety guidelines and protocols that do work, that’s a huge win.”

You may remember Dinero ripping up his $15,000 fine for keeping his gym open live on TV last month.

Of course, Dinero is 100% right about this and the government is 100% wrong. At this point, there is very little evidence that lockdowns work. New York, which was the hub of the coronavirus in America right off the bat, has been shut down practically since the beginning of the pandemic and how has that worked out? Well yesterday, they were third in the nation in new cases. #1 was California, which shut things down even earlier than New York. In other words, these lockdowns do a great job of arbitrarily punishing small business owners, but the worst job imaginable of stopping coronavirus.

The whole idea that government officials that are still getting paid, that pay no price for being wrong, can force law-abiding, legal businesses to shut down with no compensation is monstrous. It never should have been allowed to...

Report: Police Have Person or Persons of Interest Connected to Nashville Christmas Day Explosion

Authorities have a person or persons of interest in connection to the Christmas Day explosion that rocked the city, CBS News reported on Saturday.

“CBS News has learned that police have a person of interest or persons of interest in connection with the explosion that rocked Nashville on Christmas Day, @jeffpeguescbs reports,” the outlet reported in a Saturday afternoon update, with CBS’s Jeff Pegues reporting Nashville area resident Anthony Quinn Warner, who reportedly “had a similar make and model RV,” as the person of interest:

Six officers have been recognized by the Metro Police after swiftly evacuating residents prior to an RV exploding on an empty street in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning. According to Nashville Police Chief John Drake, police were originally responding to a call of shots fired in the area before hearing a warning from a loudspeaker, urging people to evacuate the area because of a potential bomb.

“This morning, around 5:30 a.m., officers responded to a call for shots fired in the downtown area, specifically 2nd and near Commerce. As officers responded, they encountered an RV that had a recording saying that a potential bomb would detonate within 15 minutes,” Drake said in a Friday update, noting that officers knocked on doors, made announcements, and evacuated nearby buildings.

“Shortly after that, the RV exploded,” he said. “We had one...