From my friends at Townhall:
Monthly Archives: June 2025
This Will Be An Interesting Debate
On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the debate that will happen in Congress at some point to decide whether any part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) savings should be returned to the taxpayer. I emphatically say, “YES!” The taxpayers were not responsible for the fraud and reckless spending–Congress was supposed to be exercising oversight. Let’s give taxpayers a portion of the savings and cut some Congressional perks to make up some of the difference.
The article reports:
Some House Republicans say they would rather use Department of Government Efficiency savings to pay off the national debt than to hand out the funds to taxpayers.
President Donald Trump floated giving $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpaying households in February, saying: “We’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens, and 20% down to pay back debt.”
Investment CEO James Fishback first proposed the idea of a one-time payment of $5,000 for eligible taxpayers. The checks were to be funded with 20% of the $2 trillion in federal budget cuts Elon Musk said could be achieved, meaning around $400 billion split between 79 million taxpaying households.
What about the other 60 percent?
The article continues:
Fishback “continue[s] to advise the effort from the outside and will fight to ensure that a chunk of identified savings are sent back to hard-working American,” he told The Daily Signal in an email.
But fiscal conservatives in the House of Representatives would rather see DOGE savings entirely go toward paying off the debt, some tell The Daily Signal.
The article concludes:
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also said paying off the debt is the highest priority.
“Let’s focus on tackling our $36 trillion debt, while also helping hardworking Americans prosper by making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and spending less of their tax dollars,” Lee told The Daily Signal.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, agreed that the “big beautiful bill” is the best way to deliver on promises to voters.
“DOGE savings coupled with tax cuts will ensure Iowans and Americans can keep more of their hard earned money in their pockets while also restoring fiscal sanity and addressing deficit spending,” Hinson told The Daily Signal.
Why should the taxpayers have to pay for the government’s corruption and inefficiency?
Negotiating With Evil
Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D
President Trump strongly believes in negotiating conflict rather than resorting to the use of force. This is commendable and something I support. His book, “The Art of the Deal” shows the importance of communication and compromise (mostly based on his experience in the business sector), and outlines strategies for successful negotiating to reach a “deal” acceptable to both parties. All, well and good, however, there are a few assumptions that must be met if a negotiated deal will work.
One assumption that must be met is that both parties are rational; by that I mean that they are able to weigh the facts and intelligently determine the likely outcome of an agreement. For instance, Joe Biden, in his apparent mental state while president, would have been incapable of judging and discerning the implications of options and assessing the likely short and long term impact. For example, when asked about the anticipated invasion of Ukraine by Russia his response was to just say “No”. He also implied that a minor invasion would be OK.
The second aspect has to do with both sides having similar moral beliefs and standards. Both China and Iran have agreed to prior negotiated settlements and both of them consistently violated the agreements. Obviously, they had no intention of complying and believed they could hide the truth of their treaty violations. President Reagan once used the expression “Trust but verify”. Fool me once, your fault; fool me twice, my fault. There is a lot of truth in most of the old sayings. Does anyone actually believe that Iran will comply with any agreement that will restrict them from acquiring a nuclear weapon? They have one of the largest supplies of petroleum in the world and want us to believe they are refining uranium so they can build nuclear electrical power plants? Similarly, China has been cheating and stealing our manufacturing secrets for years, as well as denying sending the chemicals to produce fentanyl to the Mexican cartels that have killed more Americans than all the wars in our history. Speaking about moral beliefs, President Trump has repeatedly made reference to the tragedy of human death and casualties in both the Ukraine/Russian and the Israel/Hamas wars. He genuinely cares about people and their suffering. You can see this in how he responds and contacts families of tragedies in this country. Putin could not care less about the number of Russian soldiers that are killed and injured. They are just pawns in a chess game to him; similarly, with the Islamist terrorists controlling Hamas. In fact, their religious beliefs view death in battle against Jews and other infidels as a good thing worthy of extra rewards in the afterlife. People with no moral compass and restraints are not likely to be deterred from using nuclear weapons regardless of the consequences. Assured mutual destruction only works as a deterrent when both sides prefer life over death and destruction.
What is especially troubling about negotiating with evil persons is the unpredictability of their response especially if a conflict begins. Does anyone believe that Hitler would not have used nuclear weapons? Anyone who is at the point of terminating their own life has little reason to show restraint. The evil in these persons will emerge. The escalation of the Ukraine/Russia war with the attacks inside Russia are particularly troubling since Putin’s reaction cannot be determined. President Trump is correct in his fear of an escalation to World War III. The power of one evil person to control the fate of the world is scary indeed. Let’s hope it is not too late for a negotiated settlement.
In the cases of Iran and Hamas, the negotiations should not be allowed to become a delaying strategy that allows either one to achieve their goals. Israel is prepared to destroy the uranium enriching facilities in Iran and that may be, the sooner the better. The complete elimination of Hamas is the only rational alternative, and the hostages should no longer be used as a shield.
Negotiations with evil, must be backed up by the will and ability to enforce any agreement; otherwise, the agreement is useless. We cannot allow the strong desire for a deal to blind us to the reality that deals with evil never work. No deal can be better than a bad deal.
Eighty-one Years Ago Today
June 4th, 1944, was the date of the allied forces’ invasion of France. That daring invasion was seen as the only way to stop the advance of the Third Reich. It was an amazing gamble that resulted in a victory that came with a very heavy price tag. Approximately 2,501 American soldiers were killed, with total U.S. casualties (including wounded and missing) estimated at around 10,000. The overall Allied deaths on that day were about 4,414.
One story readers may not be aware of relating to D-Day is the relationship between Snoopy and D-Day. Charles M. Schultz was drafted during World War II. He trained with one of the units that eventually stormed the beaches of Normandy. Because of an illness in his family, he was sent home before he completed his training, and when he returned, trained with a different unit. The first unit he trained with had heavy casualties when the hit the beach at Normandy. That is the reason Peanuts salutes D-Day every year.
Here is one of the Peanuts cartoons posted on D-Day:
In 2019, The Washington Post reported:
He also went to Normandy, France, in a national call for remembrance and unity. And there, he became part of D-Day’s pop-culture legacy, one that has shaped Americans’ understanding of the invasion, and indeed, World War II, for decades.
…On June 6, 1993, Schulz drew a comic strip that had little visual relationship to anything that had previously appeared in “Peanuts.” In three grim panels, the cartoonist depicted the eerie silence at the outset of the D-Day invasion. One panel looked atop the beachhead at the Nazi bunkers, where hidden soldiers were ready to fire down on the Allied troops below. The next panel surveyed a Higgins boat carrying a crew of faceless soldiers to a murky landing site. And the final panel revealed Snoopy dressed as a G.I. crawling up onto the beach at low tide. The lone words on the page read: “June 6, 1944, To Remember.”
…In the following years, Schulz’s tributes became more formalized, simply showing Snoopy wading ashore at the rugged beach over the invocation “To Remember.” Despite the simplicity, it was a meaningful statement to some readers. Robert A. Nottke, a World War II veteran, wrote to the Chicago Tribune to complain that he could not find a single reference to D-Day on June 6, 1996, “with one exception.” It was “Snoopy, our beloved beagle, bravely dog-paddling toward Normandy Beach.” Nottke, and undoubtedly other readers, “felt affronted by [the] oversight.” For those who had served and their loved ones, who felt like the sacrifices of that day and month had been forgotten over time, Schulz’s strip was salve on the wound.
We Really Haven’t Perfected Green Energy
On Wednesday, The Associated Press reported the following:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The crew of a cargo ship carrying 3,000 vehicles to Mexico, including 800 electric vehicles, abandoned ship after they could not control a fire aboard the vessel in waters off Alaska’s Aleutian island chain.
A large plume of smoke was initially seen at the ship’s stern coming from the deck loaded with electric vehicles Tuesday, according to U.S. Coast Guard photos and a Wednesday statement from the ship’s management company, London-based Zodiac Maritime.
There were no reported injuries among the 22 crew members of the Morning Midas.
Crew members abandoned ship, were evacuated onto a lifeboat and rescued by the crew of a nearby merchant vessel called the Cosco Hellas in the North Pacific, roughly 300 miles (490 kilometers) southwest of Adak Island. Adak is about 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) west of Anchorage, the state’s largest city.
The ship has been left to burn as putting out a fire in an electric car is not an easy task. How much environmental damage will the ship do when it eventually sinks? How much environmental damage was done in the manufacturing of those electric cars? What is the comparison between the amount of carbon footprint in the manufacture of an electric car versus a car with a gasoline or diesel engine?
The article concludes:
The 600-foot (183-meter) Morning Midas, a car and truck carrier, was built in 2006 and sails under a Liberian flag.
The cars left Yantai, China, on May 26, according to the industry site marinetraffic.com. They were being shipped to Lazaro Cardenas, a major Pacific port in Mexico.
Earlier this month, a Dutch safety board called for improving emergency response on North Sea shipping routes after a deadly 2023 fire on a freighter that was carrying 3,000 automobiles, including nearly 500 electric vehicles, from Germany to Singapore.
That fire killed one person, injured others and burned out of control for a week, and the ship was eventually towed to a port in the northern Netherlands for salvage.
The accident increased the focus on safety issues on the open sea and on containers that fall off the massive freighters, which have increased in size dramatically in recent decades. More than 80% of international trade by volume now arrives by sea, and the largest container vessels are longer than three football fields.
Who Gets To Wear A Mask?
On Thursday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the recent practice by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) agents of wearing masks. The are not protecting themselves from Covid–they are protecting themselves from doxing.
The article reports:
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and other Democratic figures are calling for the exposure of ICE agents, demanding that their masks be removed so they can be identified. Members of ICE wear masks because they are facing death threats against them and their families. Democrats are putting their lives at risk over this.
Of course, Democrats have never called for members of Antifa or the anti-Israel campus radicals to be unmasked. Curious, isn’t it?
From The Daily Wire:
Jeffries seemed unconcerned with the real reason that ICE agents had opted to cover their faces, and instead claimed that their efforts to enforce federal immigration law were “engaged in … aggressive overreach” and suggested the masks were simply an effort to avoid being held accountable for that.
“Every single ICE agent who’s engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that,” Jeffries said. “This is America. This is not the Soviet Union. We’re not behind the Iron Curtain. This is not the 1930s. And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, will, of course, be identified.”
The Democrats in Congress are siding with violent protestors who broke the law and desiring to put the the people who are asked to enforce the law in danger. How does that make any sense?
When did the Democrat party become a party that advocates lawlessness?
Free Speech Does Not Exist In Britain
On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent court case in Britain.
The article reports:
It’s a verdict that would make the Ayatollah smile. Today, in nominally liberal Britain, a man has been found guilty of a crime after he dared to burn a Koran in public. Hamit Coskun, a Turkish-born asylum seeker, has been convicted of a ‘religiously aggravated public-order offence’ over his – quite literally – incendiary protest outside of the Turkish consulate in London in February, against what he sees as the Islamist turn of Erdogan’s Turkey. If nothing else, Coskun’s stunt has exposed the Islamist-apologist turn of our own United Kingdom.
On paper, Coskun has been convicted of ‘disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress’, motivated by ‘hostility towards members of a religious group, namely followers of Islam’, contrary to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Public Order Act 1986. But we all know what that word salad really means in practice, regardless of the judge’s many assurances to the contrary. Coskun has been convicted, and fined £240, for blasphemy. All by a supposedly secular court.
The article also mentions that Hamit Coskun was attacked by two people during his protest–one of whom attacked him with a knife. The article notes, “Remarkably, this is used as proof of his guilt.”
The question that comes to my mind is, “What would have been the penalty for burning a Bible?” Also, how does the logic in this conviction compare to the women who was arrested for silently praying outside an abortion clinic?
It is telling that the most popular boys’ names in the UK for 2023 were Muhammad, Noah, and Oliver. Muhammad has recently overtaken Noah as the top choice for baby boys in England and Wales. England is losing its place as a stronghold of western civilization.
If You Provide Uplifting Entertainment, They Will Come
On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the Kennedy Center in Washington.
The Kennedy Center has recently been moving toward more family-friendly entertainment.
The article reports:
The Kennedy Center began the month of June by debuting the Angel Studios hit film “The King of Kings,” an animated movie that goes through the life of Jesus. It comes after a week’s worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights ahead of the World Pride festival in Washington, D.C. were canceled.
The Center held two showings of the film on June 1 as part of its effort to revamp its family-focused programming to include more faith-based content. Both shows were a “huge success” and the event’s prayer wall was “completely full,” a spokesperson for The Kennedy Center told Breitbart News.
“Both shows completely SOLD OUT, proving what Kennedy Center President Ambassador Richard Grenell has been saying all along — the American people want to see more family-friendly programming,” the spokesperson said.
The article concludes:
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump pledged to reform The Kennedy Center, and he ultimately replaced its board and appointed himself chairman. He also asked Special Envoy Grenell to serve as the Center’s president.
“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump posted to Truth Social in February. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”
We need a cultural revival in America. It’s time we stopped feeding people junk and started feeding them entertainment that will encourage, enlighten, and provide a positive outlook on life. Politics flows from the culture, so a positive cultural change would go a long way toward healing the problems and divides in our country.
When Common Sense Takes Over
Despite Democrat efforts to make it so, the military is not the place for social experiments. It is a place for men and women to learn discipline and the skills necessary to make them effective warriors for America. President Trump has ended most of the social experiments that have been happening in our military in recent years, and we are seeing some of the results of that change.
On Wednesday, Just the News reported:
The U.S. Army hit its recruiting goal four months early, reaching the 61,000 target before the Sept. 30 deadline.
The Army’s goal this year is more than 10% higher than the 55,000 recruitment target for the prior fiscal year, the military branch said in its announcement Tuesday.
“This achievement represents a significant turning point for the Army and indicates a renewed sense of patriotism and purpose among America’s youth,” according to the Army.
Daily average contracts have exceeded “last year’s levels by as much as 56% during the same period,” the military branch said.
“I’m incredibly proud of our U.S. Army recruiters and drill sergeants,” Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll said in a statement on Tuesday. “Their colossal efforts and dedication to duty helped the U.S. Army accomplish our FY25 annual recruiting goal a full four months ahead of schedule.”
The article concludes:
In 2022 and 2023, the Army failed to meet its recruiting goals, ABC News reported. The last time the Army met its annual recruiting goal this early was June 2014.
Thank you to those young men and women who have stepped forward to serve their country.
Prescription Prices Are A Problem For All Americans
On Monday, The Daily Wire posted an article about President Trump’s plan to lower prescription drug prices.
The article reports:
Americans have waited long enough, and now real relief from sky-high prescription drug prices is finally here. Recently, President Donald J. Trump signed a landmark Executive Order to end the decades-long injustice that has forced American families — especially Hispanic households — to pay more for lifesaving medications than almost anyone else in the world.
Hispanics, who are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured compared to other groups, are disproportionately burdened by high out-of-pocket prescription costs. In fact, according to the CDC, nearly one in four Hispanic adults report not taking prescribed medications due to cost, compared to just 13% of non-Hispanic White adults. This Executive Order directly addresses that disparity by demanding lower drug prices and making medications more affordable and accessible for millions of working families across the country.
The article notes:
For many Americans across the U.S., especially those economically impacted by high healthcare costs, this Executive Order is a game changer. Families working long hours, often balancing multiple jobs, should not have to choose between buying insulin for their children or groceries for the week. President Trump’s directive ensures that low-income patients, seniors, and working-class Americans will now have direct access to the same steep discounts that pharmaceutical companies give to patients overseas through government-negotiated prices.
That means bypassing the costly middlemen and securing medicines at “most-favored-nation” prices that reflect the best deal given to any other country in the world. If drug manufacturers refuse, the Order empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to act decisively: impose these pricing standards through regulation and take additional aggressive steps to drive costs down. This is what America First leadership looks like.
The article concludes:
In an era where politicians too often offer empty promises and soaring rhetoric, President Trump delivers. His commitment to reforming healthcare pricing is not just about economics—it’s about justice. And make no mistake: justice is exactly what millions of Americans, especially those in underserved communities, have been demanding for years.
President Trump said it best: “Our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory.” That ends now.
This is more than an Executive Order. It’s a promise fulfilled, a burden lifted, and another bold move in President Trump’s mission to restore prosperity, fairness, and dignity to the American people.
Even with medical insurance and medicare supplement policies, some commonly prescribed drugs are very expensive.
Unfortunately, Congressmen Don’t Face Consequences For Lying
On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) comments about President Donald Trump’s economy and the Republicans’ proposed changes to Medicaid and Obamacare spending. Unfortunately, those comments were not based on facts.
The article reports:
Speaking on the Mornings with Zerlina radio show last Thursday, Jeffries repeated the already-debunked lie that “about 13.7 million people will be flown off their health care” due to the reconciliation bill the House passed last month, which is now under the consideration of the Senate.
…Jeffries went on to allege that “people are going to die” if the budget passes the Senate. As if that wasn’t enough for these extremists.”
Despite his outlandish claims about the bill — which found $880 billion in savings by making various changes and cuts to Medicaid — the New York Times had already admitted that the 13.7 million figure was exaggerated by millions.
The outlet reported on May 13 that the “real number” of Americans set to lose their health insurance under the new proposed budget “is about 8.6 million,” though dozens of left-wing lawmakers — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) — have all repeated the falsehood.
Why are they losing their health insurance–because they were not entitled to it in the first place!
The article notes:
Proposed changes to the taxpayer-funded healthcare system include increased checks to verify eligibility for Medicaid, as the program suffers from massive waste, fraud, and abuse.
According to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), over 1.4 million illegal aliens are on Medicaid.
A recent study found that Medicaid doled out $1.1 trillion in improper payments over the last decade, Breitbart News reported.
Jeffries continued, “Of course, costs haven’t gone down. They’re going up. Inflation is on the way up, stock market is collapsing. They’re crashing the economy in real time, driving us toward a recession. Interest rates remain stubbornly high. They haven’t.”
Those claims are easily debunked by recent numbers from multiple outlets, including a Breitbart News report revealing that core inflation has fallen to the lowest rate in four years.
According to USA Today, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that inflation eased to a 4-year low in April as Trump’s tariffs took effect.
Axios reported on May 15 that “hard data” suggests the fears of tariff-driven inflation and recession from the Democrats “may be overblown.”
As Yahoo Finance reported on May 13, the price of eggs “tanked” by 12.7 percent on a monthly basis in April — its largest month-over-month drop since March 1984.
If your news source is reporting the scare tactics used by the Democrat party as fact, you need to find a new news source!
You Don’t Have To Be Alive To Get Student Aid!
According to the way the government is currently being run, you don’t have to be alive to get student aid!
On Monday, Newsweek reported the following:
The U.S. Department of Education revealed that over $30 million in federal student aid had been distributed to thousands of deceased individuals during the past three years.
The disclosure followed an internal cross-check of student aid records against federal grant logs and the Social Security Death Index.
How uncomplicated was that, and why hasn’t it been done before?
The article notes:
The discovery of erroneous payments totaling over $30 million to deceased individuals raises significant concerns about the integrity of federal financial aid programs, which are funded by U.S. taxpayers.
President Donald Trump‘s administration has been emphasizing the amount of money the government is wasting and has been trying to eliminate unnecessary expenses.
I realize that in terms of the national debt, $30 million is a drop in the bucket, but how many $30 million drops in the bucket are there?
The article reports that the Department of Education is “working toward a solution:”
The Department of Education has committed to further technological upgrades and ongoing collaboration with the SSA to prevent improper payments to deceased or otherwise ineligible individuals. Updates to oversight and data-sharing mechanisms are expected to be implemented over the next fiscal year.
Because the Trump administration has prioritized cutting out waste and fraud, there will likely be increased focus on this type of federal government mismanagement of funds moving forward, Thompson said.
“This will have very little impact on the Education Department, as the error rate was relatively insignificant,” Thompson said. “In the long run, however, this will likely be politicized as an example of fraud and waste in the system, rather than recognized as a success due to the high approval and completion rates.”
This should have been done a long time ago! Waste and fraud in any amount in NOT acceptable!
Fake News Has Consequences
On Sunday, Red State posted an article about the terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday. The article noted that the attack took place hours after CNN, the Associated Press, Fox News, and other news outlets reported a fake story about Israeli soldiers massacring Gazans at an aid distribution center. The story simply was not true. I doubt that story alone was enough to inspire a terrorist who probably already had planned his attack, but how many future terrorists will it inspire before it is totally renounced as ‘fake news?’
The article reports:
Israel supporters marching at a memorial walk for the hostages still being held by Hamas were attacked with Molotov cocktails on Sunday, according to multiple reports. Videos of the aftermath are already circulating, and an alleged assailant is in custody.
…While officials from Boulder, a notoriously left-wing city, urged people not to jump to conclusions, there is no doubt what the motive was. The attacker can be seen saying, “This will end when Palestine is free,” in this video.
The terrorist has missed the point–Palestine (which has never actually been a country) needs to be free of Hamas. Since that is not possible, the people of the Gaza Strip need to be relocated to a place where they can live in peace. If you look at a map of the Middle East, you realize that the Arab countries have a lot of land and that Israel has a very small amount of land. Logically, if you want a country of Palestine, it could easily be given a small piece of Arab land to live happily every after. The reason that has never happened is that as long as there is no official Palestinian state and the ‘refugees’ have no home, the Arabs can use that as an issue in their fight to eliminate Israel.
The article concludes:
This is what happens when national and international press outlets run with an obviously fake blood libel fed to them by Hamas. Just like the two murdered Israeli embassy workers in mid-May, there are consequences to riling up deranged lunatics who want a “global intifada.”
The View From The Lair
Be Prepared
I suspect that more than a few people – especially those who identify as men – are familiar with that admonition. I raise the question – ARE YOU PREPARED?
And no, I don’t mean do you have a bunker filled with supplies waiting for the coming apocalypse. Because the apocalypse is already here.
If you hadn’t paid any attention to the latest tragedy from Boulder, CO then go look it up. The thumbnail version is that an illegal alien from Egypt attacked a pro-Isarel group with Molotov cocktails. A particularly heinous method of killing people. Note – All that it took was a few (14) containers of a flammable substance -charcoal lighter works great – and a few matches or lighters and VIOLA! People burned beyond recognition. No guns required.
On one of the videos the viewer is caught saying “I wish I had my gun…” So…why didn’t she have her gun? Colorado is no longer an “Old west” state. It’s blue (at least the metropolitan areas) (somehow, I have a problem relating Colorado with metropolitan – but they have them there) and gun ownership is not supported by the Marxists there.
Last weekend I volunteered at the Military Appreciation Day festival in Morehead City, NC. It is a tribute to say “A Simple Thanks” to those who have served or are serving in our military. Free fishing, food, and fellowship for a day. (There will be another on September 13th in Southport, NC.) While there I spoke to another volunteer who works as a civilian contractor at Cherry Point MCAS. He remarked that the police department had dropped off some new high tech anti-auto intrusion barricades and remarked “Why would they be concerned about security here?”
I pointed out that this was a celebration of thanks and acknowledgement for the US military and that there were a lot of people who did not appreciate our military as much as we did. He thought for a moment and agreed that perhaps there were some people who might want to disrupt our celebration.
The whole time I had my hand on my concealed 9mm pistol. I generally prefer something of a larger caliber, but my 9 is easier to conceal. For those who are aware, this was not a parade, there was no fee to participate, it was an open event. All legal.
The Intifada is here. The terrorist in Boulder was here on an expired visa allowed by resident Brandon. But how many trained, Muslim terrorists came across the border with explicit ideas or instructions to do us harm? They want to harm Jews. But they want to harm those who support Jews. Especially Christians. They want to harm US! The Intifada, or war with those who support Israel, is here.
If you aren’t prepared then you might be one of the casualties. Preparing for the apocalypse doesn’t help if some jerk takes you out at Wal-Mart.
In North Carolina, getting a concealed carry permit is pretty simple. And if you carry without one, it is a misdemeanor (if you haven’t committed a felony. If you have, then don’t.) Yes, Sherriff Hughes does a great job, but his deputies can’t be everywhere. 911 response is 15-30 minutes. My 9mm response time is 1100 feet per second.
Be prepared.
Bubbles Up
The Snark
This Isn’t Going To Help Me Sleep At Night
On Monday, Breitbart reported that Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make three nuclear weapons. I think we are rapidly reaching the time when the negotiations need to stop and action needs to be taken. There are many Muslims who believe that they can hasten the return of their Messianic figure, the Mahdi, by creating chaos. You really do not what someone who is thinking in those terms to have a nuclear weapon.
The article reports:
A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) whose contents were revealed by multiple international media outlets this weekend expressed “serious concern” with the rapid rate of Iran’s uranium enrichment, which it reportedly claimed was enough to make one nuclear bomb a month in the past three months.
I suspect that part of the reason behind the rapid rate of uranium enrichment in Iran is the election of President Trump. The Iranians knew that as long as President Biden was in office, there were not going to be any serious restrictions on their nuclear program and that America would not support Israel in ending that program with a physical or cyber attack. President Trump does not think the way the Biden administration thought.
The article concludes:
Iranian officials dismissed reports of the IAEA’s disappointment with the country, insisting it would under no circumstances abandon enrichment. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei insisted that the IAEA report was “politically motivated” and dismissed all data on Iran’s enrichment as fabricated by Israel.
“He also noted that any nuclear agreement must include the continuation of Iran’s uranium enrichment activities and an end to cruel sanctions against the nation,” the Iranian state outlet PressTV said, paraphrasing Baghaei.
The head of Iran’s nuclear energy agency, Mohammad Eslami, similarly proclaimed on Sunday that Iran would never stop its illicit enrichment, despite legitimate concerns that it has no reason to be enriching the material at such a high level if it is seeking only to develop a nuclear energy program.
“No one can claim Iran has no right to enrichment, because this matter falls within its own specific frameworks and requirements,” Eslami reportedly stated, arguing that calling for Iran to stop enrichment weapons-grade uranium was akin to banning the country from building power plants.
Iran does not need nuclear power. They have enough oil to power their country for centuries. When dealing with Iran, we need to consider the practice of taqiyya, which is generally described as lying for the sake of Islam. It’s hard to negotiate with people who do not feel obligated to tell you the truth.
Income From Tariffs
On Friday, Zero Hedge posted an article about some of the impact of President Trump’s tariffs.
The article reports:
U.S. tariff revenues reached an all-time high in May as President Donald Trump’s trade policies started to fill government coffers.
According to the May 28 Daily Treasury Statement, revenues from “customs and certain excise taxes” climbed to a record high of $23.28 billion this month, up from $17.431 billion in April.
May was the first full month that Trump’s levies took effect. Most of the tax collections occurred on May 22, exceeding $16 billion.
Shortly after his April 2 “Liberation Day” announcement, the administration imposed 10 percent tariffs on nearly every country in the world.
Fiscal year-to-date—the federal government’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30—tariff revenues total $93.85 billion.
Almost half of that revenue has been collected in April and May of this year.
The article concludes:
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testifies before the Senate Finance Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington on April 8, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
“All these things are on the table,” Greer said. “The reality is, we have this enormous trade deficit. It got worse over the Biden years, and if we don’t fix the global trading system, it’s just going to get even worse going forward. We have to fix it.”
According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. goods trade deficit narrowed sharply in April, declining to $87.6 billion. This is down 46 percent from the record high of $162.3 billion registered in March.
The article does mention that as companies move their manufacturing to America, the tariff income will decrease. However, as that happens, employment in America will increase, individual and corporate tax revenue will increase, and the expense of unemployment will decrease.
The tariffs are a part of the economy moving in the right direction.
The Supreme Court Gets It Right
The role the courts have assumed in our government is not in line with what the Founding Fathers envisioned. We were supposed to be governed by elected officials that we could hold accountable in elections–not by courts and unelected bureaucrats.
On Sunday, Watts Up With That posted an article about a recent 8-0 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The article reports:
In a rare but resounding act of judicial sanity, the Supreme Court of the United States has delivered an 8-0 ruling that reins in one of the most abused weapons in the bureaucratic arsenal: environmental obstructionism. The case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, stemmed from a challenge to a planned railway in Utah, a project that environmentalists attempted to kneecap through endless litigation under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). In a time when green tape has been weaponized to stall or cancel everything from pipelines to housing, this decision marks a turning point—and it’s worth celebrating.
Let’s start with the heart of the ruling. Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized that,
“NEPA does not allow courts, ‘under the guise of judicial review’ of agency compliance with NEPA, to delay or block agency projects based on the environmental effects of other projects separate from the project at hand”.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-975_m648.pdf
Translation: judges can’t play fortune teller and block infrastructure because of speculative “ripple effects” on theoretical future projects. In other words, environmental lawfare just hit a serious snag.
This case was triggered by the Surface Transportation Board’s approval of an 88-mile railway to carry crude oil from Utah’s Uinta Basin to the national rail network. Eagle County, Colorado, and its usual cast of green litigators tried to stop the project, arguing that the environmental review should have considered other hypothetical projects or downstream effects that may—or may not—result from this railway’s existence.
But the Court decisively said no. Agencies aren’t expected to possess clairvoyant powers. As Kavanaugh clarified,
“The fact that the project might foreseeably lead to the construction or increased use of a separate project does not mean the agency must consider that separate project’s environmental effects”.
The article concludes:
For too long, infrastructure has been hostage to hypotheticals, paralyzed by process. This ruling loosens those chains. And that’s a victory not just for Utah’s railway, but for every American who still believes in building things.
Here’s to the rare sound of a gavel striking in favor of progress.
Here’s to getting back to legislation passed by Congress and not regulations passed by bureaucrats.
The Covid Relief Debacle
On Saturday, The Epoch Times posted an article about a case of fraud involving the Covid-19 relief funds.
The article reports:
Fourteen people were arrested on May 28 for their alleged involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain over $25 million in COVID-19 relief funds and federally guaranteed small business loans, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The individuals are among the 18 people charged in connection with the case. Four who have not yet been arrested are currently believed to be in Armenia, the DOJ said in a statement.
All of them are facing charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, false claims, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions involving property derived from specified unlawful activity, and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.
Law enforcement officers seized about $20,000 in cash, two money-counting machines, paper cash bands, cellphones, laptops, two loaded semi-automatic handguns, and boxes of ammunition during the arrests.
Tyler Hatcher, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation agency, said the defendants were accused of fraudulently obtaining funds through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and other federal funding programs.
The article concludes:
“This transnational criminal network sought to defraud the government of millions of dollars and almost succeeded,” John Pasciucco, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, said.
It remains unclear whether the defendants have been assigned legal representation as of publication.
Was anyone in government paying attention to where taxpayer money was going?
The Trump Presidency And Your Wallet
On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the impact of the Trump economy on personal income.
The article reports:
Americans’ personal income in the first four months of 2025 is “almost triple the expectations,” making for a “great” start of the year, CNBC’s Rick Santelli exclaimed on the air, urging viewers to “give credit” to the Trump administration.
The longtime CNBC editor revealed the “powerful” numbers on Friday morning, sharing that personal income increased 0.8 percent in April.
“This is a great four-month start to any year,” he said.
“When you look at income, for the first four months of the year, they’re powerful numbers — up 0.6 in January, up 0.7 in February, up 0.5 last month, up 0.8 this month. This is a great four-month start to any year.”
Santelli also lauded the fact that 0.8 percent is the “strongest” income month-over-month jump since May 2021, when it was 1.9 percent.
He went on to lament how the Trump administration is “criticized for just about anything under the sun,” despite the president’s “transparency” and positive accomplishments.
The article concludes:
“This administration is criticized for just about anything under the sun. I’ve never ever in my lifetime had glimpses into the politics of an administration in the form of transparency like this one. Why don’t we… give credit where credit is due?”
Part of the reason for the increase in consumer spending power is the lowering of the rate of inflation.
On Friday, The Daily Caller reported:
President Donald Trump achieved an economic victory after a prominent inflation reading dropped to its lowest reading in four years.
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, one of The Federal Reserve’s primary inflation measurement models, showed a decrease in inflation in April 2025 to a level not seen since March 2021, according to a Commerce Department report.
The index, which measures goods and services spending, showed an increase of $47.8 billion, or 0.2%, with major gains in housing and health care the report stated.
In April, the PCE and Core PCE, which measures without noting volatile food and energy prices, both rose by only 0.1% from the previous month, according to the report. The consumer price index also indicated a drop in inflation to a four-year low as well, with a seasonal adjusted 0.2% in April, as reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation earlier this month.
This is the economic relief Americans needed. If Congress would just pass the spending cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Americans would enjoy more financial freedom.
A Very Perverted View Of Justice
On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the murder of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, in Washington on May 21. Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Illinois man, is the alleged murderer.
The article reports:
A segment of the Democratic Socialists of America has thrown its weight behind an open letter declaring that Elias Rodriguez, the alleged murderer of two Israeli embassy staff, was “fully justified” in killing the couple because he intended to prevent “genocide.”
The Palestinian activist group Tariq El-Tahrir released the letter Monday. The Democratic Socialists of America Liberation Caucus signed it, while other parts of the DSA condemned Rodriguez. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for New York City mayor, condemned the letter and urged his opponents in the primary to do likewise.
“Elias Rodriguez’s targeted attack on two israeli diplomatic staff on May 21, 2025 was a legitimate act of resistance against the zionist state and its genocidal campaign in Gaza,” the letter states (the author appears to have intentionally lowercased both “Israeli” and “Zionist”). Rodriguez reportedly shouted, “Free Palestine,” and confessed to killing Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
The letter frames the shooting as a “fully justified” response to “twenty months of non-stop apocalyptic violence wrought by the zionist movement.” It accuses Israel of advancing a “supremacist world view” and “cementing the festering settler colony they have, temporarily, established on Palestinian land.” It claims international law sanctions violent attempts to prevent a “genocide.”
It is amazing to me that the people who are accusing Israel of genocide seem to overlook the events of October 7, 2023.
The article notes:
The Democratic Socialists of America did not support the letter, but one of the party’s caucuses, the Liberation Caucus, did.
“Excellent statement that we are proud to add our name to,” the DSA Liberation Caucus posted on X. “Free Elias Rodriguez and all political prisoners.”
Elias Rodriquez is not a political prisoner–he murdered two people in cold blood.
The article also reports:
The Democratic Socialists of America claims to have more than 92,000 members, following the presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The party endorsed many Democrat politicians, helping to secure victories for Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., among others. Notably, the party withdrew its support for Ocasio-Cortez last year, citing her vote for a resolution affirming Israel’s “right to exist.”
The New York City DSA chapter condemned the violence of Rodriguez’s actions, but many DSA members condemned this denunciation of violence, The Free Press reported.
Political parties that justify murdering innocent people should not exist in America.
The Problem With People Who Refuse To Leave The Stage
On Friday, former President Biden gave a speech in Delaware to celebrate Memorial Day. That’s very appropriate–former Presidents are often asked to speak at various celebrations around the country. The speech was typical of his speeches–more about himself than anything else.
Friday night, The Daily Caller posted an article about President Biden and his various speeches since leaving office. The article was less than kind.
The article reports:
Former Democrat strategist Dan Turrentine said Friday on “The Ingraham Angle” that it appears no one in his party will tell former President Joe Biden to stop publicly speaking about the 2024 election, adding that the former president is holding the party back.
After delivering a Memorial Day event speech in Delaware, Biden said he was “very proud” of his “record” prior to dropping out of the race, appearing to suggest President Donald Trump had been “last” in favorability. While discussing Biden’s comments, Fox News host Laura Ingraham told Turrentine that the former president had been “pushed out” of the 2024 race.
“One of the ironies is that as Donald Trump’s poll numbers went down earlier this year, our poll numbers didn’t go up,” Turrentine said. “One of the reasons that they didn’t go up is that we are struggling to move forward, and Biden keeps pulling us backwards.”
Just for the record, President Trump’s approval record has not dropped below 44 percent since he took office. He began his term at about 50 percent. Considering the press coverage he gets, anything above 40 percent is amazing. When he left office, former President Biden’s approval rating was about 40 percent, amazing when you consider the press coverage he got. The current Democrat party rating is at about 35 percent favorable. That might have something to do with their stand on many issues that Americans oppose–open borders, medicaid for people who are here illegally, transgender surgery for minors without parents’ knowledge or permission, and shrinking the government bureaucracy, etc.
Currently the most popular people in the Democrat party are Pete Buttigieg. Right now, that is the future of the Democrat party.