Tag Archives: President Trump

When The Objections Illustrate The Problem

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If your news sources are limited to the mainstream media, you might think that now is not a good time to visit Yosemite National Park–you might not be able to get into the restroom! Obviously that is ridiculous, but not to everyone.

On February 23rd, Townhall reported the following:

There’s something about being exposed that causes stupidity; a kneejerk reaction to push back against reality, no matter how obvious. As DOGE and President Donald Trump work to expose and fight government waste, fraud and abuse (how sad is it that they have to FIGHT Democrats to end those things?), more ways in which the federal government has been doing those things is coming to light.

…One of the dumbest and most hilarious cases of this very phenomenon was on display in a story in the Washington Post this week. It opens with this paragraph, “At California’s Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration fired the only locksmith on staff on Friday. He was the sole employee with the keys and the institutional knowledge needed to rescue visitors from locked restrooms.”

I have questions.

Why is there a locksmith on staff, as a locksmith, when you could just contract with one when needed? How often in your life have you said, “Damnit, why isn’t there a locksmith on staff?!” At the most, I’d say one time. But the odds are heavily in favor of never.

Next, why is this guy the only person with keys? Is that the source of his job security? “Fire me and you’ll never get into any building or room again, because I will destroy every key!” Doubtful, as other locksmiths exist, not to mention the fact that changing a lock isn’t all that hard.

The article concludes:

I promise you there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of examples of other things too stupid to believe that our government pays for because no one is accountable for wasting money or cares. 

This is the system Democrats and Republicans created over the years, but only Democrats defend now. They wouldn’t run their family’s finances this way, and if they ran a company’s books the way they allow government to function they’d all be in jail. 

Remember that the next time you have an argument with one of your liberal friends about how “evil” Trump and Elon Musk are. Of course, there’s a better than average chance you’d be having that argument through a bathroom door with your friend “trapped” inside as they await the locksmith’s arrival, which makes the whole conversation pretty easy to avoid.

I am totally convinced that Yosemite National Park could put a locksmith on speed dial to avoid any problems firing the current one might cause.

View From the Lair

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Remember the Elephant

The symbol of the Republican Party is an elephant, representing dignity and strength. It didn’t start that way; cartoonist Thomas Nast portrayed Republicans as such in a number of different settings, some not so kindly. Elephants are also noted for their excellent memory. I don’t think that that particular elephantine talent always translates to the Republican Party. It should. It better.

Now that the Trump-Musk BullDOGEr has crushed and chewed its’ way into the Deep State Swamp the rats are scrambling. Leftist’s wails and screams and gnashing of teeth are music to my ears. They are attempting to fight back, of course. This time President Trump and Elon Musk are far better prepared not just to do battle but to eviscerate their opposition. Good for them.

There is a new book out, you might have seen it advertised – I’m reading it now and comparing it to the revelations being exposed by The BullDOGEr.

“The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal that is Manipulating The Federal Government” was published and released before the BullDOGEr got started but it reveals the tentacles and kudzu like morass of NGO’s, government agencies and dark money from the likes of George Soros. Possible also from Satan, though it’s hard to tell the difference.

“Woketopus” is one of, if not THE, most researched and footnoted books I’ve ever read. It follows the money trail from and through the government to all of the myriad Marxist agencies infecting our government.

Trump and Musk are making fabulous – and frightening – progress in slashing both the size of government and fraud, waste and abuse. We can hope that their efforts will be long lasting.

Yet I fear that Republicans (not to mention the general public) will not long enough remember what has been done to our Republic that they are having to undo. Marxists are nothing if not tenacious. They play the long (and dirty) game. They are not like a simple weed that can be plucked from the lawn or garden and discarded forever.

No, they are more like kudzu or Poison Ivy, that even after being cut, sprayed and pulled, the tiniest remnant will return to infest the lawn and garden, stealing the strength and sapping the energy of the honest bureaucrat (yes, an oxymoron. Though a few might exist. Like unicorns.) who is actually trying to spend our hard-earned tax dollars wisely and efficiently. (You have no idea how hard that concept is for me to grasp. Or type.)

We MUST remember. We MUST insist on transparency. We MUST refuse to sit back and expect this lesson to be learned. Because the Donkey party is stubborn. They are obnoxious. And they will fight back. They must be treated like General Sherman treated Georgia. On second thought – compared to what the Marxists deserve, Sherman was too kind.

ciao

The Snark

It Pays To Check The Facts Before You Lecture

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On Saturday, Townhall posted an article that essentially fact-checked a recent statement by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Rachel Maddow was criticizing President Donald Trump for giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The only problem with the criticism was that the contract was not awarded under President Trump, but under President Biden.

The article reports:

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has once again found herself in hot water after making false claims about President Donald Trump giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The liberal pundit, known for her questionable takes and liberal meltdowns, fabricated this narrative despite no evidence to back up the allegation. This latest misstep only adds to the growing list of inaccuracies from Maddow and other left-wing media figures attempting to distort the truth to discredit Trump and Musk.

…Although Maddow accused Musk of “self-dealing” regarding the multi-million dollar armored Tesla deal, she neglected to mention that the procurement list was revised under Biden on December 13, 2024— several weeks before Trump took office. The State Department stated that the Biden administration had requested it to explore options for adding armor to off-the-shelf electric vehicles, and the project was still in its initial phases.

Anyone who still watches the mainstream media and believes what it says is not only uninformed–they are misinformed.

Reversing A Bad Decision

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There are still a lot of questions about the Covid-19 vaccine. There are questions about its effectiveness and its risks. It was rushed through as an emergency measure with the claim that we had no effective cure for Covid. It seems that there may have been a cure that was squelched. I am not a doctor, so I can’t say for sure, but many reputable doctors have claimed that ivermectin cures Covid. The restrictions that were put on the unvaccinated were unfair. The masks were ineffective, and according to one pulmonary specialist I have talked to, interfered with basic immune function and led to a spike in pneumonia cases. So the bottom line is that we have more questions than answers. That is what makes President Trump’s Executive Order on funding schools with vaccine mandates a reasonable action.

On Friday, The Daily Signal reported:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday cutting off federal funding to schools that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine, fulfilling a promise he made repeatedly on the campaign trail.

“OK, that solves that problem,” said Trump after he signed the order in the Oval Office.

The order prohibits “federal funds from being used to support” any educational institution “that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs.”

In many places, the vaccine was reserved for the elderly and those who had some sort of medical condition. School-age students generally were able to survive Covid, develop natural immunity, and go on with their lives.

The article concludes:

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has emerged as one of the Senate’s most passionate supporters of Trump’s and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, told The Daily Signal that he wholeheartedly supported the move to grant parents more control over their children’s health care.

“Mandating the COVID injections for anyone, much less children, was an outrage and violated the principle of informed consent,” said Johnson. “Ending what never should have happened is obviously welcome.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who in 2021 voted to block then-President Joe Biden’s attempts to mandate vaccines for millions of workers, likewise praised the move.

“I fully agree with President Trump’s decision to stop federal funds from going to schools that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Lummis in a statement given to The Daily Signal. 

“This type of unscientific overreach is a blatant violation of Americans’ personal freedoms and has no place in schools supported by the American taxpayer,” she said.

Because the government was able to send the American people into a panic, many of our Constitutional freedoms were ignored. We cannot let that happen again.

Pay Attention To Who Is Screaming The Loudest

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President Trump and Elon Musk have certainly shaken things up in Washington. You would think everyone would get on board with cleaning up fraud and waste in the government and cutting spending. It kind of makes you wonder why anyone would oppose those things. Well, we are starting to find out why.

On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about one group who is opposed to all of the sunlight currently shining on government expenses. I know that this is an incredible coincidence, but one of the groups opposed to looking into and cutting the spending has received a lot of money from the government agency doing the spending.

The article reports:

It might be easier to keep a list of who in the Establishment DOESN’T get USAID funding than those who do. 

As everybody in the Elite screams from the top of their lungs about the injustice of it all, it turns out that cuts to USAID are so offensive to them because USAID is nothing but a piggy bank for every damn one of them. 

The article includes the following:

That might explain the following:

The article notes:
Senator Kennedy, who can always be counted on for interesting comments, is quoted on X:
The article concludes:

I want to see where every dollar goes. Every self-righteous organization, by complaining, is outing itself as yet another grifter that subsists off the hard work of the people they are working to suppress.

This is a war between the Establishment and the people. Nothing less.

Stay tuned and get out the popcorn!

View From the Lair

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Where does the Rabbit Hole Lead?

We’ve all seen – some have marveled joyously, others sobbed bitter tears (but not enough yet) while watching DOGE do their thing.  President Trump is rolling through the swamp like a bulldozer, spreading fear and panic among the leftist bureaucrats and congress critters alike.  News agencies have been revealed to have been supported by tax dollars through subscriptions. These aren’t simple magazine subscriptions – site access running as much as $20K per month. PER SUBSCRIPTION! Not that such largess would lead to any bias towards the woke flunky who approved of such graft.

We’re discovering that USAID spent billions – yes BILLIONS on woke Marxist causes around the world.  Some of my Facebook “friends” (yes, I do occasionally go there) are bemoaning the loss of money for all of the food and sustenance support that USAID delivers. Like support for terrorists. It’s understandable that the leftists would want the graft to continue, after all that is their whole justification for advancing their socialist agenda. Let Uncle Sugar pay for his own destruction.

But is that the only reason that congress critters and NGO’s are upset? Yes, loss of influence is important. But what if there is more?  Maybe much more? The leftists in congress are proud of the $200 billion in aid that they have sent to Volodymyr Zalenskyy for his futile war against Russia. Never mind that it could have -and should have- been ended three years ago. But Zelenskyy claims that Ukraine only received $100 Billion. So what happened to the other half of the grift? Did resident Brandon collect his 10%?  Or …maybe more?  Where did the money go?  Did Zelenskyy and his pals spirit it off to a bank in the Caymans?  Or Switzerland? Did some of it find its way back to the pockets of some well-placed government benefactors?

DOGE is finding that there were NO restraints on whomever was doling out big bucks. It didn’t matter if the recipients were terrorists, whether they had a SS number, or if they were in the country legally or not. Just pay ’em.

Resident Brandon made sure to pardon almost everyone he (or someone) could think of that might have committed an indiscretion. Except himself. But what about possible crimes committed since then? Fair game. Did Fauci benefit more than he revealed? For that matter, what has he even revealed? Did any of the money that was sent to Wuhan come sneaking back to its benefactor? Were all of the royalties he received (and what was it he did to earn them?) Was all of the taxable income reported? And paid?

How many are really upset because their gravy train has been derailed? Mayor Pete to the rescue! Finding out how much money was spent -and subverted – is extremely important. But once the funds are accounted for (as much as it can be done) then it’s time to follow that money. Both to find out who was responsible for spending it and to find out to really received it.

Ciao,

The Snark

The Trump Effect Overseas

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On Tuesday, MSN reported that Marc Fogel, an American teacher, held prisoner in Russia for three years has been released and is returning to America.

The article reports:

The Trump administration secured the release of Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained for more than three years in Russia, in an “exchange,” the White House announced Tuesday.

The deal to release Fogel, who was designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department, was negotiated by President Donald Trump, Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, “and the President’s advisers,” according to a statement from national security adviser Mike Waltz.

The statement did not provide any details about the “exchange,” other than to say it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.” The National Security Council declined to offer further details.

In an extraordinary move, Witkoff personally went to Russia to bring back Fogel, the statement indicated. There has been no known high-level US travel to Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

The article concludes:

Fogel’s family said Tuesday they “are beyond grateful, relieved, and overwhelmed that after more than three years of detention” he is coming home.

“Thanks to the unwavering leadership of President Trump, Marc will soon be back on American soil, free where he belongs,” Jane, Ethan and Sam Fogel said in a statement.

“This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal,” the family said. “For the first time in years, our family can look forward to the future with hope.”

America’s position on the world stage has obviously changed.

Taking Economic Action Against Iran

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On Friday, The Jewish News Syndicate reported that the Trump administration has put sanctions on Iran’s oil shipments. The money from Iranian oil has been used to fund terrorism around the world. Iranian oil paid for the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The article reports:

The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Thursday on an oil smuggling network generating hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran.

Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff used front companies to ship oil and used the revenue to fund terrorist groups, including Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, according to the department.

“The Iranian regime remains focused on leveraging its oil revenues to fund the development of its nuclear program, to produce its deadly ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles and to support its regional terrorist proxy groups,” stated Scott Bessent, the U.S. treasury secretary. “The United States is committed to aggressively targeting any attempt by Iran to secure funding for these malign activities.”

Thursday’s action is the first round of new sanctions on the Islamic Republic since U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday re-imposing a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran.

The sanctions target part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and shell companies that help Iran smuggle oil and ultimately sell it to China.

When President Trump left office in 2020, Iran was collapsing financial because of the sanctions the Trump administration had put in place during President Trump’s first term. Unfortunately, one of the first things President Biden did was remove those sanctions. We may have missed a golden opportunity for regime change in Iran. Hopefully, the new sanctions will have the same impact the old sanctions had.

Why Greenland?

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.   

President Trump has started his second term off with a flourish not seen by any other president in my lifetime. Only a true businessman could take over and rapidly make all the changes he has initiated. While most of his actions were anticipated based on election speeches, his comments about Greenland were quite surprising. It does show how wide ranging his thoughts are and his concern to do everything in his power to ensure the security of our nation. Let’s take a look at what is at stake with Greenland; it may surprise you.

Seemingly out of touch with reality, the European discoverers named an ice-covered island Greenland.  Actually, when discovered in 985 AD by Erik the Red, the climate in the northern hemisphere was in the midst of a warming period. Consequently, it is certainly probable that the vegetation in southern Greenland at that time was sufficient to warrant that label. Recent glacier melting has exposed numerous tree trunks and other evidence of vegetation that have not been able to grow there in hundreds of years. Recent ice melting bodes well for a future of a more livable climate.

Since Greenland is a part of North America and is in a very strategic location from a U.S. security perspective, efforts have been made to secure access for the U.S. military.  In 1951, at the beginning of the Cold War with Russia, then President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland from Denmark for $100 million dollars in gold.  Denmark declined but Truman was able to work out an arrangement where the U.S. could install and operate military bases.  As a result, Thule Air Base, still operational by the way, was built and has served as a vital defense base against Russian aggression.  In fact, in 2019, President Trump offered to buy Greenland from Denmark, but the offer was not accepted.  Greenland is a semi- sovereign country that is closely aligned with Denmark.  In 2009, Denmark altered its agreement with the residents of Greenland; allowing them to terminate their dependence on Denmark by passing a referendum to that effect.  A recent poll showed that a majority of Greenland’s citizens would welcome closer ties to the United States.

There are several issues that make Greenland important to the U.S.  First of all, 40% of Greenland is above the Arctic Circle, giving it a critical location for defenses against Russia and China.  The Thule Air Base is 695 miles above the Arctic Circle and 947 miles from the North Pole.  Second, it is the largest island in the world; and at 836,000 sq. miles, it is far larger than Alaska, which is 663,000 sq. miles.  It contains enormous natural resources such as lithium, uranium, coal, oil, and natural gas.  China and Russia would love to get control over these resources, which would greatly shift the balance of power into the hands of communist oligarchs.  China’s moves around the world to control natural resources, called the Belt and Road Initiative, must be taken seriously.  The melting of the ice around the Arctic is making shipping much more feasible and allowing access to previously difficult areas.  Russia currently has a large fleet of diesel- and nuclear-powered ice breakers that can crush ice up to 14 ft. thick.  Our most powerful ice breaker, the U.S. Healy, can only manage ice 4 ft. thick.

Recently, the government of Denmark admitted that it is incapable of defending Greenland.  It is past time for us to take this threat seriously.  At least President Trump is concerned and likely to take needed action.  Look at all the money the Biden administration has spent on the USAID (aide to foreign countries) for such nonsense as transgender surgeries, DEI, providing condoms to Hamas, etc.  Thankfully, we finally have an adult in charge, so there is hope for the future.

The Art Of The Deal In The Presidency

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On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about a recent development concerning the Panama Canal. The government of Panama has already agreed not to extend its Belt and Road agreement with China and may possibly end it early. But there’s more!

The article reports:

The Department of State announced on Wednesday that United States government vessels would be allow to travel through the Panama Canal without facing “charge fees.”

In a post on X, the Department of State highlighted how, since U.S. government ships would no longer face fees, this would save the U.S. “millions of dollars a year.”

“U.S. government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the U.S. government millions of dollars a year,” the Department of State wrote.

The announcement from the Department of State comes as President Donald Trump has remained adamant about the U.S. retaking control of the Panama Canal. In December, Trump threatened to retake the Panama Canal, and has accused Panama of ripping off the U.S. and charging U.S. ships “exorbitant” transit fees.

Trump has also accused Panama of allowing China to have control over the Panama Canal.

Giving away the Panama Canal was a mistake made by a weak President with bad advisors. This compromise may be the solution to the Chinese encroachment on the canal.

Some Of These Court Cases Are Going To Be Fun

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The Democrats seem to have decided that the only way to stop President Trump from actually doing what he was elected to do is through the courts. Unfortunately, they seem to be unaware (or assume the public is unaware) of the precedents for what President Trump is doing.

I found this amazing letter at The American Presidency Project:

April 04, 1995

More than 2 years ago, I promised to fix the Federal Government. I was firmly convinced that we could do more with less, that we could create a Government that was leaner but not meaner, and that we could make Government our partner rather than a problem.

I established the National Performance Review and put Vice President Gore in charge. He and his team have helped to transform Government, to cut bureaucracy and redtape, and to find ways to give the American people the service they deserve. At the same time, my economic plan is bringing down the deficit by more than $600 billion, and we are proposing another $81 billion in deficit reduction in the budget I recently sent to Congress.

A major element of my strategy was my commitment to streamline and cut the Federal work force. For too long in Washington, we have had too many layers of bureaucracy, too many workers whose main job was to check on the work of other workers rather than to perform useful work themselves. As the National Performance Review noted, we had good people trapped in bad systems. I promised to cut the work force, and that’s what I’m doing. Through our efforts, we have already cut the work force by 102,000 positions and we are on track to cut it by a total of 272,900 positions, bringing it to its smallest size since John Kennedy was President.

While committed to cutting the work force, we want to do it in a humane way. We faced the same dilemma that confronted many private companies; they needed to downsize but wanted to avoid firing large numbers of loyal employees. Many of them have given people an incentive to leave by offering “buyouts.” We wanted to do the same.

Early last year, Congress approved my request to allow non-Defense agencies to offer buyouts of up to $25,000 a person. The Defense Department and a few other agencies already could offer buyouts under existing law. Because normal attrition will help us downsize in the future, we offered buyouts only until March 31, 1995, which was last Friday.

Looking back, I can safely say that our buyout program has been a huge success. It achieved what we had hoped: to help us cut the work force in a fiscally responsible and humane way.

To reduce the work force by 102,000 positions by the end of fiscal 1994, we offered about 70,000 buyouts. Several non-DOD agencies have offered deferred buyouts that will take place between now and March 1997. Defense will be using buyouts as it continues to downsize through 1999. Counting those, we expect to buy out another 84,000 workers through 1997 as we reduce the work force by a total of 272,900 positions.

The buyouts were not offered in a random fashion, however. We targeted them to reduce the layers of bureaucracy and micro-management that were tying Government in knots. We made sure that departments and agencies tied their buyout strategies to their overall plans to streamline their bureaucracies. As a result, almost 70 percent of our buyouts in the non-Defense agencies have gone to people at higher grade levels, such as managers.

I’m proud that our buyout program was so successful. It shows that we can, in fact, create a Government that works better and costs less.

William J. Clinton, Statement on the Buyout Program for Federal Employees Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/221790

President Trump is obviously much more generous than President Clinton was, although I suppose the value of $25,000 was significantly more than it is today.

When Your Past Actions Come Back To Haunt You

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We all remember when in 2022 fifty illegal immigrants showed up on Martha’s Vineyard and were escorted off of the island in record time. The residents of the island claimed that it was a ‘humanitarian crisis’ that they were there.I guess being a sanctuary island only works when no one can get to you easily. Well, the actions of the residents of the island need to be remembered in light of recent events.

On Tuesday, Red State posted an article explaining that the residents of the Island are now planning to resist President Trump’s efforts to send illegal aliens home.

The article quotes Breitbart:

Residents of the wealthy, liberal enclave … defended illegal aliens as the Trump administration has ramped up deportations.

Several older residents of Martha’s Vineyard reportedly attended a rally, with some people holding signs that read, “I pledge to resist,” and “Protect people, resist hate,” according to the MV Times. 

[…]

One rallygoer, Marina Kaufman told the outlet that they “have to protect” illegal aliens, citing how “they are part of the workforce of the Vineyard.”

“We have to protect these people because they are part of the workforce of the Vineyard,” Kaufman said. “And they’re human beings. They have children in schools, they’re scared. And it breaks my heart, it really does.”

They are resisting what they actually did a few years ago! They only want to protect illegal aliens when they are not on their island!

The article notes:

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last Tuesday that all illegal aliens are criminals because they illegally entered the United States after a reporter asked, “How many have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally?”

Leavitt responded:

All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws, and therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes. I know the last administration didn’t see it that way, so it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal, but that’s exactly what they are.

We seem to have forgotten that breaking the law should involve penalties. Otherwise, what incentive is there to follow the law?

A Mystery That Remains Unsolved

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It is interesting to see what files the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is refusing to turn over to the Trump administration.You would think that now that President Trump is head of the Executive Branch of our government, everything would be handed over. Well, it’s not working that way.

On Wednesday, The American Thinker reported:

Seth Rich was a DNC operative. He was “mysteriously murdered in the summer of 2016” just “weeks before” Wikileaks released the results of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. The matter of who leaked Clinton’s emails to Wikileaks directly pertains to the Russian Collusion Hoax that was perpetrated against President Trump. The murder is still unsolved. And the FBI still refuses to turn over records pertaining to the case to attorney Ty Clevenger, despite a federal judge ruling that the agency must do so way back in November of 2023. Even earlier, in September of that year, a judge demanded that the FBI and DOJ provide everything they had regarding Seth Rich to Clevenger.

The FBI responded by requesting another 66 years before they’d be required to release the information.

66 years?! “If we put our best people on it, and maybe work a little overtime, I think we should be able to get our notes and emails together for you in, say, 66 yeas.”

What the hell?! How can they get away with this preposterous intransigence? 66 years is essentially the span of time from the invention of the automobile until we landed on the friggin’ moon! They should be able to get any and all materials relevant to this investigation together in 66 hours! 66 days, tops.

This is just another example of a massive DNC-weaponized agency protecting itself…and the Democrat party…from a catastrophic public relations disaster and any subsequent accountability or penalties.

The quickest way to start a conspiracy theory is to withhold information on an event. Unfortunately, we are running out of conspiracy theories because too many of them are turning out to be true! It is time to tell the truth.

Stopping The Flow Of Money To A Tyrannical Government

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On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about a decision made by President Trump about American dollars flowing to South Africa.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he is suspending all U.S. aid to South Africa after the latter passed a law on land expropriation, which many fear could lead to Zimbabwe-style seizures of land owned by white citizens.

The president made the surprise announcement on Truth Social, his own social media platform, on Sunday evening:

There have been reports of white South African farmers being murdered for their land with no consequences for the murderers. America cannot support this.

The article notes:

The issue of expropriation has been simmering for decades in South Africa, given the unequal distribution of land, most of which is owned by the white minority as a result of colonialism and apartheid. But until now, South Africa has been reluctant to follow the example of Zimbabwe, which seized land from white farmers in 2000 and plunged the country into starvation, as few black farmers were successful and many farms were stolen by the ruling party.
South Africa, like the United States, already allows the government to seize land under an authority similar to eminent domain, though the preference is for a “willing buyer, willing seller” transaction at fair market prices.

However, radical black nationalist and communist politicians continue to demand that the government seize the property of white farmers. Though few black South Africans want to farm, the issue remains an emotive one.

The article concludes:

Many white South Africans also believe that the high level of rural crime, including the murders of white farmers, is politically motivated. Trump spoke out against the phenomenon in 2018, and highlighted the expropriation issue.

In addition, South Africa also acts contrary to U.S. interests and alliances on the world stage, notably by cozying up to rival powers such as China and Russia, and also by backing Palestinian terror against Israel in international forums.

We need to end a lot of foreign aid–people can hate us for free!

Something To Consider

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On February 3rd, The Federalist posted the following headline:

If Presidents Can’t Control Executive Agencies, Elections Are Fake

That seems to be where we were until 2024. We had the situation described by Carroll Quigley in 1966:

“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.”
― Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time

That seems to have abruptly changed in the past two weeks.

The Federalist reports:

Amid the hundreds of substantive executive actions President Donald Trump has taken in his first two weeks back in the White House, perhaps none matter more than his efforts at bureaucracy-busting. That notably includes what Julie Kelly calls a “Friday night massacre” days ago of the Department of Justice’s January 6 prosecutorial staff, which erased 30-40 temporary positions Biden’s DOJ had attempted to make permanent.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, “arguably, he has done more in two weeks than Trump’s entire Department of Justice did during his first term,” Kelly said in a Saturday video. So has acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, both while the Senate confirmation of U.S. attorney general nominee Pam Bondi remains pending.

The article concludes

If the executive cannot control his own personnel, agencies, and funding lawfully given to him by a duly elected Congress, elections mean nothing. If the executive is not actually an executor, then the entire bureaucracy is an autocratic, self-licking ice cream cone. It runs the country, not any elected official. And Congress is complicit, because it allows the distribution of opium funds to Afghanistan and queer “safe spaces” in Kenya without ever having to take a public vote on any of this garbage, so long as these taxpayer-provided slush funds slather their retirements and relatives with “nonprofit” and “contractor” lard.

Whatever you want to call unelected bureaucrats and “nonprofit” grifters distributing funds obtained from American citizens against our consent as expressed in elections and line-item votes, it is not a republic, nor a democracy. If Trump can’t fire his own employees and redistribute public funds the executive branch has been given by law, he’s not really the president, and elections are fake.

All this means Trump isn’t “weaponizing” or “politicizing” these agencies. He’s fighting their inherent weaponization. Firing and investigating people who abuse public power, and ending the theft of American labor to fund evil international patronage schemes — that isn’t retribution, it’s justice.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. We live in amazing times. The voters may actually be getting their country back.

This Was Definitely Part Of The Problem

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We have had two serious plane crashes in the past several days. In recent years, we have seen very few plane crashes. What changed?

On Friday, PJ Media posted an article that cites something that might be part of the problem.

The article reports:

On Thursday, while addressing Thursday’s plane crash near Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump blasted both the Obama and Biden administrations for prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation.

“I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room.

Democrats and the mainstream media were outraged.

“It’s one thing for internet pundits to spew up conspiracy theories,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “It’s another for the president of the United States of America to throw out idle speculation even as victims are still being recovered and families are still being notified. It turns your stomach.”

But Trump was not wrong.

…Last year, 11 Republican attorneys general voiced their concerns in a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker, questioning the agency’s commitment to safety in light of its emphasis on diversity over expertise. They expressed disappointment that the FAA appeared to prioritize “virtue-signaling” over securing the nation’s airways.

The article includes a quote from an editorial that appeared in The Washington Times on February 1, 2024:

There hasn’t been a fatal airline crash in the United States since 2009, but it’s only a matter of time before the streak ends. The FAA recorded two serious, near-miss runway incursions at Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington International last year [2023].

Vigilance is waning because the nation’s air traffic control towers are woefully understaffed. The people responsible for keeping planes from smashing into one another are tired after working long, mandatory overtime shifts to make up for the lack of controllers.

Contributing to the shortage, the FAA temporarily put the brakes on hiring in 2012 so it could replace race-blind hiring rules with a “Biographical Assessment” stratagem designed to hire more minorities.

This quiz served as further screening of applicants who had already graduated from a 200-hour training program and achieved high scores on AT-SAT, a grueling, eight-hour cognitive test that measures each of the specific skills needed to do the job properly.

[…]

More than 3,000 top-performing, motivated applicants lost out because they weren’t members of this ethnic club. After Congress forced the FAA to drop the quiz in 2018, many former applicants reapplied and have since become controllers. Their careers were set back several years for no good reason.

You can’t solve a problem if you are unwilling to identify it. Hopefully, the Trump administration can restaff our control towers quickly and make the skies safe again.

The Times They Are A’Changing

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On Friday, The Epoch Times reported that Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy will be removing the unreasonable fossil fuel emissions standards put in place by the Biden administration.

The article reports:

In December 2023, the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration finalized a rule establishing a method to measure and report transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.

The rule required state-level agencies to establish targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles traveling on national highways. These emission targets were intended to become more stringent over time, and agencies were required to report on their progress in meeting them. The rule did not specify how low the targets should be but allowed agencies the discretion to set goals appropriate for their communities.

The rule was set up to “confront the increasingly urgent climate crisis,” according to the executive summary, and was expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. This was part of a plan to reach “net-zero emissions by no later than 2050,” according to a 2021 White House fact sheet.

On Jan. 29, Duffy approved a proposal to rescind the rule.

The article concludes:

The action is in line with several executive orders recently issued by President Donald Trump, including the “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions” and “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” the department stated.

All DOT offices are required to identify and report, within 10 days, programs and policy statements that are subject to Trump’s relevant executive orders, according to the memo, and revoke nonconforming rules.

Duffy also signed an order to lower costs “through smarter policies, not political ideologies.” Under the order, it must be ensured that all DOT loans and grants are based on “sound economic principles, positive cost-benefit analyses, and pro-economic growth priorities.”

Duffy said these actions are a step toward restoring commonsense governance and merit-based policies at the Transportation Department.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are focused on eliminating excessive regulations that have hindered economic growth, increased costs for American families, and prioritized far-left agendas over practical solutions,” he said.“The American people deserve an efficient, safe, and pro-growth transportation system based on sound decision-making, not political ideologies. These actions will help us deliver on that promise.”

This is definitely a step in the right direction.

Running The Government Like A Business

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President Trump has been a successful businessman for years. There have been a few hiccups along the way, but overall, he has done very well. He has the mindset of a businessman–keep costs down, eliminate waste, and make a profit. The federal government is not necessarily supposed to make a profit, but keeping costs down and eliminating waste is a pretty good idea. That’s what the Washington establishment fears.

On January 30th, The Daily Signal posted an article about the firing of the 17 inspectors general. The article points out some of the reasons they were fired.

The article reports:

There is a very strong argument to be made that those inspectors general failed to do their jobs during the past four years. Their failures provide Trump with all of the “due cause” he needs.

Just two examples suffice: their failure to investigate the misbehavior of their departments in attempting to interfere in the 2022 and 2024 federal elections and in using government resources to violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens and censor their opinions and social media accounts.

…In 2021, Joe Biden issued an executive order directing all federal agencies–including every one of the agencies whose inspectors general were fired–to get involved in state election administration. The agencies had to implement “strategic” plans to use agency personnel and resources to persuade and “assist” members of the public who interacted with those agencies to register and vote in federal elections. That included providing access to “vote-by-mail ballot applications,” identification documents, and multilingual voting materials.

…Think about that for a moment. What possible business is it of the Energy or Commerce or Transportation Departments to play a role–any role–in our elections? Zero. Zip. Zilch.  

…Congress never appropriated any funding for any federal agency in the executive branch to engage in voter registration and ballot activities, with only one exception: the Federal Voting Assistance Program office at the Pentagon that helps overseas military personnel and their families.

Yet not a single inspector general investigated any of these illegal activities and illegal spending of taxpayer funds at any of their agencies. Why not? 

The article also cites other examples where the government violated the civil rights of its citizens and the inspectors general sat on their hands. Please follow the link above for further details.

Standing Up For America

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about the recent dust-up with Columbia about the return of Colombian citizens who were here illegally. After the planes carrying the illegals were in the air, the Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he would not let the planes land in Columbia. That really was not a very smart move.

The article notes:

As Ed wrote, it took 37 minutes for Columbia’s President Gustavo Petro to reverse himself on accepting Colombian deportees AND to offer his presidential plane to carry out the deportations. 

37 minutes, or three holes of golf for the president. Between the end of his third hole, when President Trump tweeted out his threats to President Petro and the sixth hole, the diplomatic dispute was resolved in our favor.

…The Pravda media and many in the transnational elite were horrified by what happened.

Donald Trump is so mean.

He bullied the poor, poor president of Columbia. Yankee imperialism in its worst form! Trump is a big mean bully who doesn’t respect our neighbors like Petro.

So let’s look at some of Petro’s history. The article notes:

At age 17, while studying economics at Externado University of Colombia in Bogotá, Petro was recruited by the 19th of April Movement (M-19), a Marxist guerrilla group that took its name from the date on which the group argued that the 1970 Colombian presidential election had been “stolen.” The group often resorted to audacious militant actions, including the kidnapping and murder of a labour leader in 1976, a raid on a Bogotá arsenal in 1979, and the kidnapping of cocktail-party guests at the Bogotá embassy of the Dominican Republic in 1980. …In October 1985, while disguised as a woman, Petro was arrested and incarcerated after he was found to be in possession of firearms, homemade explosives, and propaganda. Some three weeks later, while Petro was still behind bars, the M-19 undertook its most notorious operation: an invasion of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, where it took scores of hostages. In the subsequent military assault on the building, some 100 people were killed, including half of Colombia’s Supreme Court judges. In March 1987 Petro was released from confinement, and he helped promote peace talks between the M-19 and the Colombian government. In 1990 he demobilized along with the rest of the M-19 after negotiations with Colombian Pres. Virgilio Barco led to amnesty for members of the group, which then transformed into a legitimate political party, Alianza Democrática M-19.

If the people sent here from Columbia illegally were so bad that Colombian President Gustavo Petro didn’t want them in his country, we certainly don’t want them in our country.

Please follow the link to the article for further details.

Stopping Green Energy 

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.  

The re-election of Donald Trump provides an opportunity to correct the devastating agenda of the green new deal extremists.  Inexpensive and ample supplies of energy are essential to the progress of our economy.  Solar and wind will never produce sufficient reliable energy to fuel a modern society.  Impossible, as the Europeans have found out.

It is very discouraging to realize that many of our elected Republicans believe the man-made climate change hoax and are therefore willing to support things like carbon neutrality.  There is no reliable scientific evidence that man’s consumption of fossil fuels has altered the environment!  The environmental extremists base their scare tactics about manmade global warming on computer models generated by their fellow believers.  The truth is that the earth’s temperature has varied substantially long before there were enough human beings to impact the CO2 levels.  There have been at least eight ice age/warming periods over the earth’s history going back several million years.  We are now in a global warming cycle from the last ice age that occurred over 10,000 years ago.  So the first thing we need to do is to ensure that our lawmakers are not taken in by the climate change extremists.  We also need to stop indoctrinating our children with the man-made climate hoax.

As President Trump has advocated, we need to “drill baby drill” for oil and natural gas, both of which we are fortunate to have an abundant supply.  We also need to return to coal burning plants since we have the technology to ensure that coal is burned efficiently and cleanly;  instead of shipping our coal to China, which is greatly expanding their coal fired plants and doing so with little concern for the environment.  President Trump’s recent announcement of our withdrawal from the globalist so-called Paris Accords which are detrimental to America is a step in the right direction.  Remember, that cheap and abundant energy will enhance our ability to compete with other countries in manufacturing.

All government subsidies and tax incentives for solar, wind and electrical vehicles need to be stopped immediately.  Wind farms off our coast are an environmental hazard that only enriches China.  A recent study conducted by the conservative John Locke Foundation estimates that continued movement towards wind and solar will produce an enormous increase in energy prices in our country.  Not only are wind and solar expensive and produce unreliable energy, but due to their intermittent energy production, extensive battery storage capacity (or more likely backup fossil fuel plants) will still be needed.  Experts have recently predicted that a full implementation of Artificial Intelligence will require a threefold electrical capacity increase nationwide.

The final solution to energy production is nuclear power.  Due to the environmental extremists scare tactics and excessive regulation, there has not been a nuclear power plant built in North Carolina since the Shearon Harris plant near Raleigh was completed in 1987.  This despite the improved safety and ability to produce nuclear power plants of smaller size, which could be located closer to customer demand.  The European Union is planning on increasing their nuclear plants due in large measure to the ineffectiveness of wind and solar.  Currently, France generates over 70% of their electricity from nuclear reactors.

The bottom line is that we need to do away with the move towards wind and solar and go back to the common sense approach of relying on fossil fuels and nuclear power.  If we do not, we will be unable to maintain our economy and grow for the future.  Our conservative lawmakers need to make this happen.

Gaslighting At Its Best

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President Biden’s pardons caused a bit of controversy. The concept of preemptive pardons is rather unique. However, the Democrats’ and the media’s response to the preemptive pardons is interesting.

On Wednesday, PJ Media posted an article about Senator Warren’s explanation of why President Biden had to issue the preemptive pardons.

The article reports:

..But at some point, Anderson Cooper asked her about the familial pardons Joe Biden issued about 15 minutes before leaving the White House and heading off to Shady Pines or wherever they sent him. 

“The last-minute pardons by then President Biden to his family members, you know there were pardons earlier this morning which were reported on, but these last-minute pardons, he chose to, I mean, make it last minute when there wouldn’t be as much attention, obviously, and they wouldn’t kind of overshadow the ride to the capitol — was that a mistake?” Cooper asked. 

Initially, Warren replied with a simple statement: “The president — President Biden — should answer for himself.”  

Fair enough. But she couldn’t leave it at that. Not only did she not leave it for Biden to “answer for himself,” but she also went on to blame someone else for these sneaky, last-minute pardons: Donald Trump. 

Warren explained that poor Biden is just a kind-hearted old family man who had no choice but to make these pardons out of fear that Trump might try to use his sweet little family against him just because Trump doesn’t like him. 

The media and the political left seem to forget that President Trump has been in office before. During his time in office, he did not use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies–that is something President Biden did.

There is, however, a new twist in the story. President Biden did not pardon himself, and there are reports of a $240,000 bank deposit going directly to him with no explanation. This could get interesting.

Another Day, Another Lawsuit

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On Tuesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about a lawsuit filed by the National Treasury Employees Union filed to prevent President Trump from being able to fire federal employees.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump’s order removing job protections from federal officials violates federal law, according to a Jan. 20 lawsuit.

Trump’s order, signed earlier on Monday, reclassifies certain employees into the same category as political appointees, thereby removing some job protections.

“The President’s Executive Order is unlawful and ultra vires because it exceeds statutory authority and is contrary to congressional intent,” the lawsuit, filed by the National Treasury Employees Union in federal court in Washington, states.

There is no way that government waste can be cut without having the right to fire people!

The article notes:

“The President’s Executive Order is unlawful and ultra vires because it exceeds statutory authority and is contrary to congressional intent,” the lawsuit, filed by the National Treasury Employees Union in federal court in Washington, states.

In the order, Trump said that “accountability is sorely lacking today” because removing federal employees has been too difficult. He said it is important to ensure that officials in “policy-influencing positions” are accountable to the president.

He noted that in recent years, there have been some federal officials who have resisted executive leadership.

The order states in part: “Employees in or applicants for Schedule Policy/Career positions are not required to personally or politically support the current President or the policies of the current administration. They are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the President. Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.”

If you work in a private company and are working against the agenda of management, you will be fired. There is no reason the government should have a different standard of behavior.

The article concludes:

The suit is one of several launched within hours of Trump taking office.

Multiple suits targeted the Department of Government Efficiency, which is tasked with examining ways to make the government more efficient. Another lawsuit challenged Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship for some future babies born on U.S. soil.

We May Have To Review The Chain Of Command

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President Trump has been elected as President. He is the head of the Executive Branch of government. That position has authority over the Justice Department and the Departments in the Justice Department.

On January 22, Red State reported:

A day after President Trump issued pardons or sentence commutations for all January 6 defendants (Promise Kept: With the Stroke of a Pen, President Trump Issues Mass Pardons for J6 Defendants – RedState), a large number of them remained confined in the DC jail.

…The authority to hold these prisoners expired at midnight on Monday. The Fourteenth Amendment clearly states that the government can’t “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Instead, they were subject to unlawful detention that is nearly indistinguishable from kidnapping or abduction.

This is from RedState columnist and former contributor Bill Shipley, who represented several dozen January 6 defendants and who is not given to hyperbole:

I’m just now getting up to speed on the problems at DOC in the District. 

This is UNBELIEVABLE. 

These defendants now have a civil rights suit against DC.   

The pardon’s were dated yesterday – 1/20.  Any lawful authority to keep a defendant in custody ended at 11:59 pm. 

Beyond that it was an “unlawful seizure” in violation of the 4th Amendment.   

Defendants are housed at DOC under a contract with the U.S. Marshal’s Service because there is not U.S. Govt holding facility in DC.   

The U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia is a Presidential Appointee, and the USMS is part of the Justice Department.  So, what is apparently happening now is the Trump DOJ has directed the USMS to go into the DOC and physically remove those J6 defendants still being held. 

If I was giving the instructions, I would have DOC officials removed in handcuffs and taken across the river to EDVA to be held pending a investigation into Sec. 242 violations. 

As Sen. Lee posted yesterday — maybe it is time for Congress to revisit “Home Rule” in DC.

People in our government are not laws unto themselves–they are subject to the laws of the land and the chain of command.

Who Is Pulling The Strings?

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On January 21st, PJ Media reported the following:

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was to commute the sentences of or pardon nearly every single Jan. 6 prisoner, setting them all free. But multiple prisons and halfway houses have resisted complying, with the D.C. gulag holding multiple prisoners hostage and refusing to release them.

Trump’s historic order commuted the sentences of about a dozen individuals and pardoned “all individuals convicted of offenses related to event that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” It ordered that those “currently held in prison are released immediately.” But the thugs who have so abused and trampled the rights of the J6ers under the Biden-Harris administration for four years are defying the law one last time. J6ers and friends reported prisons and halfway houses across America slow-rolling prisoners’ releases, and the infamous Washington, D.C., jail nicknamed the Gulag flat out refused to release multiple J6 hostages.

Even Elon Musk responded to families’ pleas, resharing a message urging them to bring Trump‘s pardon with them to the prison and requesting to be notified if they continued to encounter resistance in the release of their loved ones.

One prisoner reported on the events:

Early Tuesday morning, Lang (Jake Lang) posted an update: “Hey @elonmusk they are STILL HOLDING me & 20 other J6 Political Prisoners hostage inside the Washington DC Jail Gulag & WONT LET US LEAVE!!!” He reiterated the accusation of assault. “I was swarmed & assaulted by prison officials including Lt. Allen & his Emergency Response Team (ERT) Thugs last night while sitting all packed up to leave!!!! Our were families are standing outside in below freezing 10° weather until 1am when they released 2 hostages, there are still 20 of us in here!!! [sic]”

The article concludes:

This is completely unacceptable and illegal. Prison authorities are openly defying presidential pardons and orders. This is one more disgusting and shameful illustration of how abusive, dishonest, biased, and vindictive our prison system is in America now. Biden pardoned or commuted the sentences of literal murderers, Chinese spies, and pedophiles, but when Trump pardons innocent patriots, the jails hold them hostage.

All those involved in preventing the release need to be charged with a crime and arrested.

The Price Of Ignoring The Law

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We have watched in recent years as criminals who committed serious crimes were released from jail without bail. We have seen the constitutional rights of the January 6th defendants ignored. We have seen justice administered unevenly for a number of years now, so it should be no surprise that on his way out the door, President Biden thumbed his nose at our justice system.

On January 20th, CBN News reported the following:

During his final hours in office, and with President-elect Donald Trump set to be inaugurated as his successor today, President Biden has issued preemptive pardons for some controversial figures who have dominated headlines in recent years.

Though none of them have been convicted of crimes, Biden announced he’s pardoning Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and everyone involved in the January 6 congressional investigation, which would include outspoken Trump critics like ousted Rep. Liz Cheney.

Biden says he took the extraordinary step to prevent the Trump administration from prosecuting those people because he’s concerned they’ll be targeted with “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”

To refresh your memory, the people involved in the January 6 congressional investigation destroyed evidence and withheld evidence from their fellow Congressmen and from the American public. There is nothing unjustified or politically motivated in prosecuting them for their crimes.

General Milley has gone on the record as having called a secret meeting at the Pentagon during which he instructed senior military officials not to take orders from their Trump unless he (Milley) approved them. He also reportedly reassured the Chinese that he would tip off Beijing in case of an impending attack by President Trump (article here). Under normal circumstances, that behavior would result in a court martial at least. There would be nothing unjustified or politically motivated in prosecuting the general for those actions.

The preemptive pardons may not stand up to court challenges. Whether they stand up or not, they provide a preview of the talking points of the political left. Any action against the crimes of people who were allies of President Biden during his administration will be characterized as political. Any actual crimes will be ignored and not mentioned.  It is up to Americans whether or not they want to see the laws of America and the Constitution upheld. All of us need to make noise when those laws are ignored.