That’s All Folks

Seeing all the democrats assembled en masse for the joint assembly was truly a frightening sight to behold. The Republicans really don’t have anything to compare to that cast of remarkably abrasive cartoon characters. Sure, we have the Turtle McConnell representing the old guard, and we have MTG and Boebert to counter the “squad,” but yikes, Schumer, Pelosi, Maxine, Bernie, Liz Warren, Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Al Green are largely antiquities and the new guard features Hakeem “dead-eyes” Jeffries, AOC, Tlaib, Omar, Pressley, Feng-Feng Swalwell, Wasserman-Schultz, Crockett and Adam Schiff. Wow, you can’t make this stuff up. Talk about Looney Tunes. 

State Of The Union

What a disgusting display by the democrats. They find themselves on the wrong side of every issue, yet they double down and try to appeal to their tiny core constituents of left-wing progressive ideologues. Not a good look. Republicans have had their PR disasters as well… recall the “you lie” episode….and have done their share of stone-faced sitting on their hands during opposition addresses to Congress, but this was beyond the pale. The juvenile signs, the little round placards displaying FALSE, were just misplaced political theater. Sure, they didn’t choose to shout it out at a silent moment like Wilson did, instead opting for a continuous, disrespectful, distracting cacophony—same thing for children. And nobody is proposing cuts to that sacred progressive bloated cow Medicaid, just eliminating waste and abuse…..and won’t that provide more money for services for those who genuinely need it?  The “pushing granny over the cliff” narrative is just insulting the intelligence of voters. Like granny, it’s old and tired—time to retire. And Al Green’s cane-shaking diatribe was ridiculous and inappropriate, giving Mike Johnson the perfect opportunity to look composed and mature. Thank you very much, Al.  You should take your medication. Now I understand that the left is sticking with the narrative that Elon is an unelected threat to government programs, which are in place to waste trillions of taxpayer funds on DEI initiatives in Mozambique or some other third-world backwater that mercifully has never heard of RuPaul, but not even to applaud the heart-wrenching stories of the kid with brain cancer, or the families of slain police officers, or families of children murdered by immigrant gang members, or the family of the firefighter struck down by an assassins bullet meant for Trump….that is a disconnect with the emotions of the American public. And that makes you not just partisan but a bunch of mean-spirited, unpleasant people totally out of touch, not just with mainstream Americans, but with the rest of the human race. And while these touching stories unfolded, there you were: Pelosi sucking on her dentures, Bernie Sanders glowering, and AOC choosing not to attend, instead “live tweeting” her reactions…..like anyone outside of your yuppie gentrified enclave cares what you think, especially after you proved yourself a vacuous insubstantial empty pantsuit unable to answer softball questions with any gravitas in your recent NPR interview with the perennially liberal Steve Inskeep.  How embarrassing. Face it, Trump is on a roll, his policies are popular with the American electorate, and you cretins are on the wrong side of public opinion, no matter how you spin it. Your party is in desperate need of a makeover; your tactics are old and tired and appeal to an increasingly uncouth, vulgar, misaligned radical wing of your base where compromise is never an option, even on policies that are not only popular but represent American values. Eliminating waste fraud and abuse of taxpayer money, eliminating men from competing in women’s sports, seeking peace in Ukraine and the Middle East, enforcing our borders, and protecting American interests here and abroad are not Republican values or Trump policies; they are common sense American values. And the sooner the democrats realize that America First is not just a campaign slogan but should be a thought foremost in the minds of all elected officials, the sooner they can resume their place in working with republicans to make America great again and restore the public’s faith in Congress. And that’s not a bad thing. 

The WSJ Wavers

The WSJ is becoming alarmingly critical of all things Trump. Noonan, whose rants suggest she’s in the never-Trump camp, offered a perfect example in her weekend editorial. All these old dinosaurs seem to long for the status quo of years gone by, seemingly placid, only because we weren’t aware of what went on behind the curtain. In the digital age of instant reporting and transparency, by we are free to armchair quarterback every move, second-guessing motives behind every quip….and granted, Trump supplies those in abundance, every program cut and every appointee. He is moving with lightning speed because he knows the Democrats will delay, destroy, and obfuscate in an attempt to stall the momentum to reach the midterms, where they hope to win back Congress and turn Trump into a lame duck. The pessimist in me suspects that they would be willing to tank the economy to destroy Trump's chances of retaining a majority in the midterms. The left criticizes Trump’s cabinet picks when they say “nothing is off the table” in negotiations, when in fact, that has been the Democrat mantra for decades, with a more sinister playbook one that never considers the effect on the American people. 

The Brash Donald

He knows his way around a P&L and Balance Sheet and understands the challenges of meeting a payroll and. dealing with financial nuance; he has resolved employee issues and dealt with Unions firsthand. No shrinking violet, our Donald; he has made tactical concessions  when required, as he knows when he has the advantage and is skilled in their negotiation application—the demonstrated demeanor of an accomplished busiessman.  Most impressive, he has been a quick study on how to be the most effective politician of our era with a work ethic that puts the Energizer Bunny to shame. Let's hear it for our president, who is living up to his campaign promises. Long live The Donald!

I Must Vent

Please, this hostage exchange display by Hamas is apprehensible. These hostage escorts dressed up in their toy soldier suits they bought on Amazon, posing with their assault rifles while they push around emaciated Jewish captives and display coffins containing children before adoring crowds, turns my stomach. I am incensed! And here I am to believe the left is against displays of machismo, child abuse, and racism, yet here it is on full display…..and not a peep out of them.  Enough of this genocide propaganda; war is awful, a war they started, get the hostages home, then turn that Hamas-infested Gasa Strip into glass. And to drive the point home, assured by the most stringent of means, its residents in reoccupation to be Hamas-free. Hamas, the barbarians, are to be extinguished, never their antisemitic atrocities to be witnessed again.

So Infuriating

Medicaid expenditure increased 51% from 2019 to 2023 and is predicted to increase by the same amount over the next ten years. Really?  How is that sustainable? Republicans are proposing reinstating work requirements that were removed by the Obama Administration and propose eliminating the Biden Administration mandates that allowed illegal aliens to become eligible. Naturally, there isn’t a single Democrat supporting these measures in the House, just as there isn’t a single Democrat supporter for DOGE efforts to eliminate wasteful spending and fraud. And now we see the left howling that Musk is asking federal workers to tell us exactly what they have accomplished in five bullet points. This comes after new Trump appointees have toured government offices, finding scores of empty cubicles with no sign of having ever been inhabited. In what world do workers not answer to a higher authority and are not subjected to performance reviews?  It is apparent that the federal government is out of control, a safe space hiding deep-state leftists who obey no authority, peddle their leftist agendas without oversight, and believe that your hard-earned tax dollars are theirs to spend. Enough.

Wrath Of The Democrats

It is more than interesting to hear the Democrats railing against Trump appointing Elon Musk to a position to expose graft, corruption, and government waste of taxpayer dollars on the premise that he has no authority and is merely a government appointee. They’ve gone so far as to propose legislation that will prevent anyone other than a “civil servant” from having access to Treasury records. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, this would mean that the Treasury Secretary himself, a political appointee, would not have access to the records in a department he leads. Preposterous. And yet, in typically hypocritical fashion, the democrats are allowing rogue judges in blue states to issue orders that block the president and his appointee from implementing cost-cutting measures in response to the wasteful spending they’ve uncovered. But aren’t these judges also political appointees?  So, is this a case where our political appointees have more power than yours?  And why would the left be marching in lockstep to prevent the Trump administration from implementing measures to eliminate wasteful spending and dismantle the entrenched bureaucracies that have grown so powerful on taxpayer dollars?  Perhaps it’s because of their bureaucracies, waste, fraud, and corruption.  

Rooting Them Out

Trump revoking Biden’s security clearance is the absolute, Gotcha! And firing the pretentious left-leaning board of the Kennedy Center and making himself the chairman is yet another slap at the entrenched DC progressive cabal. But watching the liberal media’s heads explode is priceless…..not to mention the Democrat poster children for liberal hysteria coming unglued. As I said before, it’s almost as though Trump spent his four years out of the Oval Office studying, scrutinizing, and deconstructing how government works and where corruption and mismanagement have seeped in. He then meticulously devised a well-thought-out plan to fix it. Despite his disarming style and penchant for exhaustive, often repetitive verbiage, he’s a principled man of his word and light years smarter than the opposition thinks he is…..and that may be their undoing. 

Breitbart Observation

This morning, Slater on Breitbart was still marveling at the amount of taxpayer money that vanishes into thin air. Today, he was railing about an $8 million study on menthol cigarettes and lesbians. Really? You wonder why DC is the most expensive zip code in the country, he lamented.  It’s because they’re all grifters. He lumped academia into the same category. Why is a college education, four years to attain a worthless degree, so expensive in this country?  Because universities are essentially taxpayer-funded. We supply government-backed student loans….government backed because no bank in the world would bankroll $250K for a four-year degree in gender studies……and then we subsidize these useless research studies with exorbitant grant rewards. The university skims its take-off the top. You really think a study on menthol cigarettes and lesbians will cost $8 million?  Of course not. The lion’s share of that is going to the university and professor salaries, who spend it as they see fit. The whole system is a scam. Let’s hope Elon ends the taxpayer-funded gravy train and makes education affordable again.

Wait For It

I just read Noonan’s Sunday WSJ editorial. An old dinosaur stuck in the past. I love her talking about “stability,” “moderation,” and “adherence to form” in days of old. And look where that got us, Peggy, a big bloated federal government and insurmountable debt. She headlines with “Collapse of the Old Order” like that’s a bad thing. She seems to long for the days of appearance of order when behind the scenes government was achieving critical mass……at our expense. Best we not know what’s actually going on and put up a stodgy facade? And with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page leaning decidedly anti-Trump these days, isn’t it ironic that on the facing page to Noonan’s diatribe, we find an opinion piece critical of Trump’s tariff threats against Mexico and Canada entitled  “The dumbest trade war in history.” And here we are two days later, having seen both countries fold under the pressure and acquiesce to Trump’s demands for border security. So, is it dumb or tactically brilliant?  Sure, the dust hasn’t settled, but the old order got us into this mess; let’s see what this decidedly different type of tactician can do for us.

Can You Believe This

This morning, Mike Slater on Breitbart defended Elon Musk and DOGE for suggesting that we trim 80% of the federal workforce and reduce government waste. Naturally, the status quo supporters objected vehemently and tended to be former government employees. But in addition to grants supporting such important research as shrimp running on treadmills…really, that’s a thing….DOGE has uncovered non-government NGOs that receive money from the federal government but are not actually the government,  despite doing the bidding of a particular administration. As an example, Slater offered the Lutheran Family Services, an NGO that, despite their innocuous name, re-settles immigrants in the US. An immigrant runs it from Sri Lanka, a former Big Mike Obama and John Kerry staff member. As CEO, she receives a salary of seven hundred thousand dollars annually.  Why is this an essential service paid for with tax dollars?  Possibly for the same reason, we send $50 million to supply condoms to Gaza. Or funding USAID with $72 billion that “assists (foreign) countries whose residents are recovering from disaster or trying to escape poverty” when here at home, we seemed unable or unwilling to provide aid to the citizens of East Palestine and North Carolina. We are only two weeks into the Trump Administration, and DOGE has already uncovered massive government funding for projects and causes that fail to benefit Americans. Yet, the left continues to rail against Trump's policies and Musk’s audit of government spending. Why would anyone object to eliminating the wasteful expenditure of tax dollars? And why is Elon doing the job of Congress? Shouldn’t they control the purse strings? But the resistance continues unabated, which leads us back to the question as to why. Has the money seeped so deeply into the layers of bureaucracy that turning off the spigot will send the whole network crashing down, or is the government so thoroughly corrupt that it fears what else will be uncovered?

Where Does Fault Lie

I grow weary of the Democrats spinning Trump’s remarks about the DC aviation disaster being a direct result of DEI policies put in place by the Obama Administration and then reinstated in the Biden years. As usual, they have resorted to claims of racism, leading the public to believe that Trump is criticizing the ethnicity of the air traffic controllers on duty that evening……even going so far as to post a photo showing a clearly caucasian controller at the console. Even former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Trump's remarks “despicable.” And yet we recall Mayor Pete’s most notable achievements when on the job as being late to the East Palestine railway disaster, having his bike shuttled to a speaking engagement via SUV so he could ride the last block to the event and appear carbon-friendly, and taking extended paternity leave after adopting a child with his partner. Such a commendable resume by another Biden Administration box checker. No wonder he is defending DEI policies; he’s the poster child for appearance over merit. Misdirection from the left…..as usual. But the facts remain that the tower presiding over the busiest runway in America was understaffed by 30 percent, and the understaffing is likely a result of DEI policies to put minority, disabled, and impaired individuals in positions for which they are unqualified. They have been unable to meet their quotas. We know this because the Biden Administration set the policy in no uncertain terms. They told us so. Further, a class action lawsuit is still working its way through the courts where 1000…..that’s correct, one THOUSAND, applicants with exemplary scores on the FAA entrance exam, including some who achieved perfect scores, were denied positions because they were white. So, if the democrats are looking for examples of racism in clear violation of the Constitution, it is right under their noses, written in their policies. He may be blunt, but Trump is defining the most transparent Administration in recent memory, and once again, speaking on the issues, he got it right. 

RFK Disappoints

I was pulling for RFK to succeed in his confirmation hearing, if not just to shake things up in the swamp, but he certainly didn’t do himself any favors in that exchange with Liz Warren. I’m no fan of hers, but as the WSJ opined in yesterday’s editorial, his refusing to recuse himself from pursuing any litigation against the pharmaceutical industry while simultaneously running the Department of Health and Human Services is indeed a disqualifier.  We have enough government officials on the other side of the aisle enriching themselves with insider information. We can’t allow that sort of nonsense in our camp, and to do so would be hypocrisy…..and hypocrisy is the exclusive purview of the left. Disappointing that in this line of questioning , RFK came across as yet another swarmy attorney. That we don’t need.

The Duping Of The U.S

It goes against common sense that all these public school districts in sanctuary cities are vowing to protect their illegal immigrant students from immigration enforcement. According to the Education Department, you know the Federal Bureaucracy that keeps producing lower test scores and poorer outcomes for our public school students, every child “regardless of immigration status” is “entitled to an education.”  Entitled. You mean the children who are draining funds and resources from educating our citizen students, bogging down classrooms with language barriers, adding English as a second language to the curriculum, and, as has become fashionable as of late, feeding them breakfast and lunch at taxpayer expense. Most likely, they are the children of immigrants who don’t own property in the school district and are not paying school taxes. I don’t recall anyone asking me how my school taxes….the largest line item in my property tax bill…..are spent. And I don’t even have any school-age children because this level of global socialism isn’t what I had in mind. 

It seems like the American taxpayer, according to Democrat policy, is nothing more than the world’s cash cow. Domestically, we are expected to fund the importation, education, care, and feeding of unskilled immigrants, pay for the healthcare and living expenses of our own poor, and on the international stage, send exorbitant checks to countries that hate us, and we continue to shell out cash to disproportionately fund corrupt world organizations like the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and NATO. And, lest we forget we pay the salaries of perhaps society's most unproductive members: government workers and suspect career politicians. 

Columbia Denmark Rebuke

Columbia has to recognize that they’re a third-world nation and better find a way to capitulate to Trump’s agenda. The same goes for the Danish official who told Trump to F--k off. Denmark, with a population of just under six million, is known for its grit in resisting Russian incursions, but the Danes are long past their Viking heritage having any impact on the world stage. Face it: the US drives the world economy, and it’s refreshing to have a businessman president who recognizes that fact and is willing to deploy it as leverage.

Follywood

The Golden Globe awards are so patently ridiculous. California is burning and yet the Hollywood bunch so self- absorbed that they continue to reward themselves lavishly with gift bags worth tens of thousands of dollars and lgold trophies. The film with the most nominations, for comedy or musical, Emilia Pérez, is about the leader of a Mexican drug cartel who enlists the help of an attorney to fake his own death and transition into a woman. And it’s a musical.  Come again? Remember the good old days when adultery was risqué, then they moved on to homosexuality, and now transgender themes are in vogue.  Makes you wonder what’s next. Talk about out of touch. 

Hegseth Interrogation

Hegseth is off to the hill today. Once again, the obstructionist democrats are voting en Bloc, and we have in support the usual suspects, those two RINO jackasses Collins and Murkowski, potentially blowing the whole thing up. And all this because Pete, in his macho soldiering days, chased women and drank in excess. Heavens. We would have to fire virtually all our special forces by those standards. The two loudest accusers are an ex-wife and her sister, who happens to be the ex-wife of Pete’s brother. Gee, I wonder if these bitter divorcees have an axe to grind. But break out the smudged oversized eyeglasses because here we go again.

Democrat Projection

We have pointed out on numerous occasions the adage that if you want to know what subterfuge the Democrats are up to, you simply have to take note of the accusations that they are hurling at Republicans. The shrinks like to call this projection. Yet on his way out the door, the cynical, bitter, vindictive, and patently corrupt Joe Biden issued this statement, perhaps his most preposterous example of hypocrisy:  “I believe in the rule of law,” said the man who graduated at the very the bottom of his law school class, “But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families,” even when they “have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated.”  Good riddance, Joe. 

Let The Games Begin

The leftist media, mainly the second-tier birdcage liners, was in full-throated glee this morning, fact-checking and criticizing everything Trump signed, said, and what the family members wore. Only the fashion-dull Jill Biden received praise for her attire as well as Usha Vance, who frankly could have worn a burlap sack as the media sees her, despite being bright and accomplished, as merely an opportunity as a person of color who may not be fully onboard with MAGA policy. The fashion-forward and perpetually elegant Melania and Ivanka were savaged for their fashion choices, as expected. The one factual description was for the appropriately attired Kamala Harris in a black ensemble zip-up, too casual and forgettable for the occasion, a lot like her campaign. Thankfully, Big Mike Obama failed to make an appearance, sparing us from lavish praise for her questionable fashion choices. And then there was Trump himself, in stark contrast to his predecessor, fielding mostly hostile questions while simultaneously signing executive orders in the Oval Office, parrying, sparring, and toying with the media. 78 years young at 10 PM after a long inauguration day and still sharp, quick on his feet, launching into the job and taking more questions in his first hours in office than Biden did in four years. An impressive display.

Justice Unserved

So Biden, on his way out the door, issued pardons for Milley, Fauci, Liz Cheney, and scores of Jan6 investigators…..all partisan traitors who flaunted our laws to gain power over the opposition. If they are all innocent, why are pardons necessary? And why shouldn’t they be persecuted and subjected to hearings by the opposition just as Trump was? Shouldn’t the public know Fauci’s role in the COVID pandemic?  And shouldn’t history's most “transparent administration” be willing to give us that information? Remind me, who said, “Elections have consequences?”

On The Fashion Side

Wow. AOL/Huffington Post ran an article entitled “The 29 Best Inauguration Outfits of All Time” by Joel Calfee of Bazaar Magazine.  Another partisan with questionable judgement to add to the list of miscreants. His best-dressed list included the usual suspects, such as Jackie Kennedy, and a host of celebrities, such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce. It stooped so low as to include Hillary Clinton (twice) and Big “Mike” Obama (twice as well). Recall her hideous yellow sparkly train wreck she threw together in 2009, long before she apparently hired a stylist as part of the largest First Lady staff ever. Yuck. Republican bones were thrown to Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan, but the list, also including Eleanor Roosevelt, was a bit of a stretch. The glaring omission?  Melania Trump of course, who was simply at another level for her blue ensemble in 2016. They even included Doug Emhoff’s “model” daughter as well as Jill Biden. But to leave out the stunningly attired and poised Melania Trump is just another example of the leftist media being petty, tone-deaf, and having questionable fashion sense. Not nice. Pantsuit anyone?

Public Servants

Alas, remember the days when a government job was low paying but with the promise of early retirement and good benefits?  Now they have it all. It has been shown that employment in the private sector no longer pays as much as the equivalent job in the public sector. And as we have witnessed, there appears to be no accountability in those government jobs. Do the incompetent ever get fired for poor performance?  Never. Not to detract from the tragedy of the disastrous California wildfires, but it was disclosed that the LA firefighter’s average salary is $200K with an additional $90K in benefits, retiring at 55 years of age with 90% of their final salaries. They are no longer considered conscientious public servants but highly paid public employees exorbitantly and unconditionally rewarded by us, the private sector taxpayers, via quasi-philanthropic politicians to garner approval and votes.

Lost My Cool

Recently, I had the displeasure of attending a conference as an observer that turned into a Trump-bashing session. The conference was primarily attended by retired State and Federal employees. In closing the session, the moderator announced that he hoped there weren’t any “Trumpers” in the room, but if there is one, stand up and be counted! I usually fly under the radar on these occasions, but I had enough and said, “Right here, there is at least one.” All the usual nonsensical Democrat arguments had preceded: he’s a jackass, he’s a convicted felon, he’s a rapist, he’s anti-gay, he’s anti-abortion, he wants to drill everywhere, he’s going to destroy the environment, he’s going to start a war, he wants to invade Greenland, he’s going to pardon all the January sixers, yadayadayada. How can anyone in their right mind support him? They were rabid. So, in other words, they don’t like him personally, I ger that, but the fictional embellisment? So in rebuttal I offered ,so many words: It is the economy, people! Some of us in the private sector and owners of small businesses are getting taxed out of existence and facing unsustainable regulations, and we don’t have the benefit of state and federal pensions with built-in cost of living increases. Do you want to know where my retirement subsidy comes from? You’are looking at him. The expression on their faces told me I was persons non grata. Oh, well, I gave it a shot.

Give Me A Break

Press conferences featuring the Mayor and the Fire Chief of Los Angeles praised the department for DEI initiatives and for expanding the number of LGBTQ+  and female recruits into their ranks. They also praised themselves for making the LA fire department an “example to the world” for their commitment to DEI and fighting climate change. Nowhere was their ability to fight fires or to prevent them mentioned. The level of political absurdity in California is mind-boggling. 

Carbon Neutral Hypocrisy

The Democrats running California are being exposed for the fools they are. Billions of dollars were proposed to convert the port of Los Angeles to carbon neutrality when they simultaneously cut the firefighting budget and failed once again to conserve rainwater, build more reservoirs, and manage their forests,  resulting in forest fires spewing millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. All in the subterfuge of saving, endangered species. How are those crispy critters doing now? Such hypocrisy. This conflagration isn’t because of climate change; this disaster is because of stupidity. 

A Party Of Masochist

I agree that in the initial reconciliation package of pork that the Democrats tried to ram through at the close of the last session, Johnson was far too conciliatory, which irked the party's ultra-conservative wing. Face it: any Democrat legislation that passes will result in increased spending, mostly spending that will expand government. If we want to affect change and support the Trump agenda, we must adopt a harder stance and demonstrate consistency in our policies. But why can’t the Republicans ever do what the Democrats have turned into an art form? They meet behind closed doors where they hash it out, do their arm-twisting, and emerge as a unified front without airing all their dirty laundry in public. The Republicans insist on bickering in broad daylight, a habit that makes us look divided and weak, giving the mainstream media more fodder to feed their partisan attacks. And to hold out and potentially allow the minority to install their candidate as speaker, in this case, the reprehensible dead-eyed Hakeem Jeffries, is an act bordering on treason. How is it that the state of New York continues to produce such blatantly partisan, self-serving, and sometimes just morally corrupt, power-hungry hacks as Schumer, Spitzer, Cuomo, Nadler, AOC, Hochul, Alvin Bragg, Leticia James, Sheldon Silver, Eric Schneiderman and now Jeffries, who apparently is unaware of the concept of audio recordings where he can be heard vacillating in his policies and criticisms to suit the most recent polling data. Maybe Bobby Kennedy can get to the bottom of it. Be it vaccines, microplastics, pollution, or nutrition, there’s something wrong with the health of New Yorkers, the candidates, and the citizenry who continues to vote them into office.