Government & Politics

• Just 6% of federal workers show up in person: It’s hard to believe, but only 6% of our nation’s taxpayer-funding federal workforce are full-time in-person workers. Which is to say that nearly two years after Joe Biden declared the COVID pandemic “over,” the overwhelming majority of federal workers are still refusing to show up to work in one of the countless federal office buildings we’re paying for. Compare that to the pre-pandemic numbers, where only 3% of federal employees worked from home each day. Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst has had about enough of this. “The nation’s capital is a ghost town, with government buildings averaging an occupancy rate of 12%,” Ernst wrote in a scathing report. “If federal employees can’t be found at their desks, exactly where are they?” Elon Musk, who co-leads the Department of Government Efficiency, also took notice. “If you exclude security guards and maintenance personnel,” he posted, “the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%!” These are your tax dollars at, er, work.

• Capitol Hill potty protest: Fifteen “transgender” activists were arrested by Capitol Police on Thursday for illegally protesting in a women’s bathroom in the Capitol Building. They were protesting Speaker Mike Johnson’s ban on males accessing women’s restrooms in the Capitol. They held up a sign that read, “Flush Bathroom Bigotry,” and chanted, “Speaker Johnson! Nancy Mace! Our bodies are no debate!” and “Democrats, grow a spine! Trans rights are on the line.” Republican Representative Nancy Mace first raised the issue following the election of Tim McBride, who claims to be a woman named Sarah, to the House in November. He’s the first “transgender” identifying person elected to Congress. “Protecting women and girls isn’t bigotry,” Mace argued. “It’s common sense. I will stand in the brink to protect women’s rights from the far left radicals trying to erase us.”

• Shouting match erupts as lawmakers grill acting Secret Service director (Washington Post)

• Senate GOP sees Hegseth nomination as likely doomed (The Hill)

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy meet with Republicans to talk spending cuts (NBC News)

• Trump picks former congressman Billy Long as IRS commissioner (Reuters)

• House rejects Democrat efforts to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report (Associated Press)

Rule of Law

• Penny faces lawsuit as jury deliberates: It’s not bad enough that Daniel Penny is on trial for doing the right thing by protecting New York City subway riders from a raving homeless man, Jordan Neely, who died following Penny’s efforts to subdue him. Additionally, he faces a civil lawsuit from Neely’s father. Even though a verdict has yet to be rendered as the jury is in the midst of deliberations, Neely’s father can’t seem to wait and is seeking his pound of flesh. He filed his lawsuit against Penny, seeking damages that exceed “the jurisdictional limits” of lower courts. Penny’s lawyer responded, stating, “The timing is unfortunate as Danny is awaiting a verdict from the jury where the potential consequences are far greater than any civil suit could threaten. We will not be distracted by this attempt to attack Danny while he is under such tremendous stress.”

Free Speech

• Meta expands its “first strike” policy: Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Tech company Meta has announced that it will expand its “first strike” policy across all its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. The policy, which was first introduced in August on Facebook, is supposedly designed to provide recourse for users who’ve been hit with a strike against their content. Meta advertises that “first-time violators can avoid a strike by completing a training course to understand their infraction.” What exactly this training course entails is not clear, but it reeks of socialist reeducation camps. Meta apparently seeks to “correct” wrong-think as the company also notes that “severe violations, such as those involving sexual exploitation, high-risk drug sales, or glorification of dangerous entities” will still be excluded from the platform. In other words, criminal activity will not be permitted. What is clear is that Meta still refuses to embrace free speech, Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to Mar-a-Lago notwithstanding.

Economy

• Payrolls increased 227,000 in November, more than expected; unemployment rate at 4.2% (CNBC)

• CA minimum wage destroys jobs: California continues to lead the way for the other 49 states, demonstrating once again how not to do things. Only recently, they finished counting the votes from last month’s election, and now we’re learning that the “Golden” State’s fast-food industry has lost more than 6,000 jobs since the one-party state passed a $20-per-hour minimum wage bill for most fast-food restaurants. As National Review reports: “U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that between September 2023, when California governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1228, and June 2024, Golden State fast food employment dropped from 570,909 jobs to 564,743. That’s a loss of 6,166 jobs, or 1.1 percent, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Employment Policies Institute.” For comparison, California added some 17,528 jobs during those same 10 months in 2022 and 2023. On the bright side, the state’s voters last month rejected a proposal that would’ve raised the state’s minimum wage from $16 to $18 across the board — the first time Californians have ever voted down such a bump.

• Leading bastion of DEI drops DEI statement: Don’t look now, but DEI has become toxic. Just like critical race theory and countless other leftist ideas that emerged from the academy before it, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has so fallen out of favor with everyday Americans that even its most ardent purveyors are washing their hands of it. Take the University of Michigan, for example, which yesterday announced via its Public Affairs office that it will “no longer solicit diversity statements as part of faculty hiring, promotion and tenure.” As the editors of National Review write, “Universities have been among the most vocal proponents of the divisive DEI ideology, evident in their passionate defenses of racially discriminatory admissions policies and expansive offices filled with bureaucrats who conduct ‘sensitivity trainings.’” Perhaps the U of M has seen the writing on the wall with this incoming presidential administration, which has vowed to dismantle the DEI apparatus that pervades many of our institutions, both public and private.

• Anesthesia limits dropped: Who says those big insurance providers aren’t responsive to their customers? Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, which announced early last month that it would begin denying claims for certain anesthesia services if they went longer than expected, has had a change of heart. As The Washington Post reports, the company was apparently misquoted. “The change was set to apply to members in Connecticut, New York and Missouri. A spokesperson for the company said in a statement that Anthem had decided not to proceed with the change following what the company claimed was ‘widespread misinformation.’” Said a company spokesperson: “To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services. The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines.” Coming on the heels of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the better translation might be this: Nothing to see here. Move along.

National Security

• Pentagon warns of running out of missiles: Should the U.S. find itself in a shooting war with China, the Pentagon warned on Thursday that our current supply of missiles and other weapons would only last a “matter of days.” To make matters more concerning, the American defense industry currently lacks the industrial capacity to produce the weapons needed for war. According to John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, “Our defense industrial base lacks the capacity to deter and win a fight with the PRC.” The ranking Democrat on the committee, Raja Krishnamoorthi, added, “History tells us we need a healthy defense industrial base now to deter aggression and make sure the world’s dictators think again before dragging the U.S. and the world into yet another disastrous conflict.” Likewise, American Enterprise Institute defense analyst William Greenwalt warned, “We have now reached an inflection point, as our industrial deterrence is no longer credible.” He noted that the U.S.‘s technological advantage has eroded, urging, “It is now time to act and take measures to improve the defense industrial base and build a new arsenal of democracy.”

Misc.

• Gasoline laced with lead direct cause of millions of mental illness diagnoses: Study (Washington Examiner)

• Gen Z using credit cards more than Millennials did at the same age (Washington Times)

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