Massive, systematic, brazen fraud

City Journal: "Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud - California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud, according to officials and experts."

This story is B A N A N A S:

Total budgeted Medi-Cal spending—which includes federal, state, and local contributions—has more than doubled on the governor’s watch, rising from $93.5 billion the year before he took office to $196.7 billion in the current annual budget. During the same period, California’s resident population declined by 0.2 percent.

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The state lost $32.6 billion dollars of taxpayer money to fraudulent applications,” he said. “In California, at one point, you had more people applying for unemployment insurance benefits than you had people over the age of 18.”

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Talcove estimates that the Medicaid fraud rate in California is 20 percent, which he calls a “very conservative” figure. Federal officials, however, believe that the current Medi-Cal fraud rate is even higher—and, given the state’s oversight failures and massive Medi-Cal expansion under Newsom, they are almost certainly right. Multiple high-ranking sources at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is currently probing fraud in California, told City Journal on the condition of anonymity that their initial estimate for Medi-Cal’s fraud rate since 2019 is 25 percent.

That state needs a thousand Nick Shirleys.

Thank heaven

Fox News: "Artemis II launches astronauts around the moon in first deep space mission since Apollo."

I'm on record being nervous about this launch, so I'm glad it went off without a hitch.

The theater kids again

Really good article from the Federalist: "The Latest ‘No Kings’ Protest Is The Sound Of A Tired Old Thing Trying To Not Die."

The American political left as a cultural formation, and the Democratic Party as an institution, have sunk into a style of oppositionalism that contains no opposition. They speak in a vernacular of protest because they speak in a vernacular of protest, out of habit and as a cultural identity, but they have no idea what they’re protesting. They’re very angry about the, you know, stuff. Something something Trump something something. 

At three o’clock, the nurse brings pudding. Comfortable and wealthy people, many decades into their experience of affluence and safety, are putting their bodies on the line to oppose fascism for a couple hours before the driver takes them back to their mansions.

This was a theme picked up by Sasha Stone: while the citizens of Iran and Venezuela are trying to throw off actual dictatorships, Grandma is cosplaying as a freedom fighter against a fascist regime.

Imagine being in Iran, knowing how many brave citizens attempted to protest their government, only to be mowed down just for standing there, seeing all of these idiots in America marching in their No Kings parade. It would be like someone dying of hunger watching the line form at the Golden Coral all-you-can-eat buffet.

There was a video of a mother-daughter pair at a "No Kings" protest and they were asked by a local news reporter about their protest.  It was unintentionally hilarious because it was instantly clear that even they didn't know why they were protesting.  It was all self-esteem boosterism about protesting.

Mental illness in Canada

 

These are the new rules you advanced

Ace: "FBI Director Kash Patel Eyes Releasing the Eric Swallwell Fang-Fang Documents."

Is this a vindictive move to derail the Fartman's campaign for California governor?  Probably!  But the Russiagate Hoax and the Epstein file release put "getting to the truth!" ahead of grand jury secrecy and the cautious pursuit of justice.

Does Swalwell even live in California?  Hey, just asking questions here!

He dropped out of UNLV

The Corner: "Jimmy Kimmel’s Unearned Snobbery." - "I don’t have anything to add to their defense of plumbers, but let me just pile on with one further thought: Who is Jimmy Kimmel to be any sort of intellectual snob?" 

A child shall lead them

I wasn't going to write about the group therapy session called "No Kings" today but this excerpt from a Western Massachusetts protest was too good not to share:

Amherst local Amy Steinhauser, 74, was perplexed by the lack of college students, even though Amherst College was a stone’s throw from the common. Like other grandparents who spoke to The Republican, she said part of the reason she showed up was to lead by example.

At least one demonstrator in Amherst harbored doubts about the protests turning the ship around, as Trump was booted from the White House in 2020, only to reclaim the presidency in 2024.

“I’m wondering if this is gonna do anything,” said Jorah Byl-Evora, 14.

Jorah is the wisest person among the geriatric AWFLs. 

Extra - This guy gets it: "Essentially, the participants in No Kings tire themselves out making signs and standing by roadways to honks from passersby, then pat themselves on the back and think they’ve fought fascism." 

She must have attended the learing center. pic.twitter.com/9H1PMlTPPb

— Paratrooper Brady (@paratroopbrady) March 29, 2026

I *love* the Critical Drinker!

Hollywood in Toto: "Why Vince Vaughn’s Late-Night Critique Is a Game Changer." 

"And yet it moves"

I feel like Galileo in the debate over whether millionaires and billionaires are moving out of Massachusetts.  The early answer based on 2023 data is "yes" - to the tune of $4.2 billion in taxable income - and more recent data will show an acceleration, which is what triggered this Boston Globe article.

Nevertheless, Boston Globe letter writers are going to stick to two themes: it's not really happening and, if it is, we don't need those rich jerks.

Extra - Wall Street Journal: "The High-Tax Wealth Flight Continues - IRS data show that taxpayers keep fleeing rapacious states even after the pandemic."

While out-migration declined from pandemic levels for most states, not so in Massachusetts. Taxpayers making more than $200,000 accounted for 70% of the state’s net outflows, roughly double the share in 2019. This is notable since progressives claim Massachusetts shows that raising taxes doesn’t drive away top earners.

Come back and be patriotic!

Schumer gets nothing for this chaos

Hot Air: "Dems Throw In Towel on Schumer Shutdown II: TSA Boogaloo"

Democrats didn't stop immigration enforcement. They didn't defund ICE or the Border Patrol. They didn't get any new concession on immigration-enforcement practices. All Schumer got from his latest shutdown was weeks of snarled travel for millions of Americans and an opportunity for ICE agents to engage in a public-relations lovefest in airports with voters who would otherwise have had little or no contact with the agency. 

Why cave now? Trump took their last bit of leverage off the table. Schumer wanted to create chaos in airports to keep pressure on Trump and the GOP to get his radical "reform" agenda adopted. At one point, Schumer and the White House appeared to have a deal on some concessions, but then Senate Democrats decided to walk away and demand their entire wish list. Trump then ordered new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA agents out of other funds and order them back on the job, leaving Democrats with nothing at all to show for their weeks of disruption of Homeland Security in the middle of a war.

The only thing they got from this deal was that ICE and CBP - which are already lavishly funded from the One Big Beautiful Bill - are going to get their funding through budget reconciliation which only requires a majority vote in the Senate, meaning Republicans can control the funding.

This bratty temper tantrum was just another appeal to the infantile Left.

Same vibe as California's high speed rail

Twitchy: "Two Years After Its Collapse, Let’s Check in on the Rebuilding Effort of the Key Bridge."

Voice vote then skedaddle

NY Post: "Senate approves deal to end DHS shutdown without Democratic immigration demands"

Senators approved a compromise measure early Friday to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security through the end of September, taking a major step toward ending the 42-day partial shutdown that has seen hundreds of airport security workers quit after missing paychecks and snarled travel nationwide.

The agreement, passed by voice vote before senators departed Washington for a two-week recess for Easter and Passover, will be considered by the House later Friday morning.

Nothing motivates these clown like threatening their beloved recesses. 

Has she considered using the race card?

Oh, it's a'comin'.  Hot Air: "Florida Democrat Could Be Expelled from Congress." 

Kimmel is an asshole

Powerline: "Time to get the hook"

It will be a happy day when the last of the left-wing late-night “comedians” is finally off the air. The latest outrage comes from Jimmy Kimmel, who might have been funny once in his life, but if so, I missed it.

I can't believe that ABC/Disney extended Kimmel's by a (token) one year after his Charlie Kirk comment.  IF anything, they've freed him up to say even more outrageous things, daring ABC to fire him.  Then, if that does happen, he can spend the rest of his days as a First Amendment martyr.

Trump has utterly broken this man-child and his schtick is a stone-cold bore.

Extra - Speaking of insufferable celebrities, here's Sasha Stone on Bruce Springsteen and his new band: "So here comes No Kings, complete with aging billionaire boomer Bruce, irritating aristocrat Jane Fonda, and screeching socialist Bernie Sanders to remind everyone just how crazy and how unbearable all of them still are and how they see themselves as morally superior."

People like Springsteen and DeNiro and Fonda and Kimmel can't sit down and discuss their thoughts with anybody slightly adversarial...so they don't.  

More - Legal Insurrection: "Actor Vince Vaughn Slams Groupthink of Late Night TV: ‘They All Became the Same Show’ - “It stopped being funny and it started feeling like I was f—— in a class I didn’t want to take.”

Because of course

Fox News: "Loyola student newspaper apologizes for calling suspected murderer of Sheridan Gorman an illegal immigrant." 

Also huge if true

And I also doubt it will work.  Gateway Pundit: "BREAKING: Senate Leader John Thune Floats RECONCILIATION Plan to RAM Through SAVE America Act — Only Needs 50 Votes + VP JD Vance to BYPASS Democrat Filibuster." 

I believe reconciliation can only be used for budgetary purposes so I don't see how voter ID can pass under this structure.

Huge if true

But probably not true.  Red State: "Breaking: Trump Says Iran Has Agreed to Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons Fantasy."

Why would we believe anything the Iranians have to say, given their history?  How can whoever is "authority" now even make that promise, given the chaos over there?

Just a flat-out lie

I started reading this Hot Air article about a viral video of an American woman and her young daughter being detained by evil ICE agents and knew it was going to conclude with a statement by Homeland Security explaining everything alleged was false.

A Laken Riley situation in Chicago

Ace: "The Party of Illegal Alien Gangsters and Third World Pirates Claims Another Innocent Life."

As the post notes, Illinois governor J.D. Pritzker had time to travel up to Minnesota but can't be bothered to say a single word about somebody killed in his backyard.