Tag Archives: American Greatness

Understanding The Value Of Tariffs

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There are a number of economists complaining that the Trump administration’s tariffs are a tax on Americans. That may be partially true, but it is totally ignoring the bigger picture. We wouldn’t need tariffs if we actually had a level playing field, but no administration has been willing to attempt to level that playing field up until now.

On Saturday, American Greatness reported:

If one were to honestly accept the Free Traders’ logic that a company passing off its costs of compliance with a federal statute and/or regulation on to consumers constitutes a “tax,” one would then be required to declare almost every governmental decision touching upon the health, safety, and welfare of the nation a tax as well. So, too, corporations and companies are not required to pass on the costs of the tariffs to anyone. It is a choice they make based upon market conditions.

Yet, consider the inanity of arguing that statutes opposing child labor laws are a tax because they will raise the cost of labor that the mining company then must pass on to consumers. (I am, admittedly, not a libertarian.)

One may also ponder the fact that nations with high tariffs on American goods and services do not make similar protestations that tariffs are a tax on their consumers. Why? Because these nations’ industries and sectors employ workers and produce goods and services that constitute a net benefit to their citizens’ standard of living—a standard of living these governments are determined to preserve, if for no other reason than their own political self-preservation.

This has not been the case here at home prior to the election of President Trump. Understanding there is a free trade tax on Americans, President Trump has refused to perpetuate the post-World War II economic policy that enabled our war-ravaged former allies and enemies to rebuild their nascent industrial bases courtesy of high tariffs against imported US goods, with the corresponding result that they had lower entry barriers for them to access the American market.

While this policy accomplished its goal long ago, the unfortunate and entirely predictable result was that the nations that benefited from high tariffs on US goods—as well as those US corporate interests that also benefited from them—would never seek to see them repealed, allowing free and fair competition with and in the American market.

The article notes that U.S. Steel is coming back to America because of the tariffs. That is a good thing.

About Term Limits

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On the surface, term limits seems like a good idea to break up the bureaucracy the inhabits the Washington swamp. However, when you look more closely at term limits, they are not really a viable solution.

On Wednesday, American Greatness posted an article about term limits.

The article reports:

Attempts to restructure government at the federal level are mostly on the Democrat agenda. Pack the US Supreme Court. Elect presidents via popular vote. Turn Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, into states with two senators each. Implement national mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, legalize ballot harvesting, lower the voting age to 16, let felons vote, let noncitizens vote. And, of course, end the Senate filibuster. If they could, Democrats would do all of this.

Meanwhile, however, there is a growing bipartisan movement to implement term limits for members of the House and Senate. A bill has been introduced in the 119th Congress, and President Trump has supported term limits consistently since he first ran for president in 2016. But federal term limits would do more harm than good. Explaining why offers insights into how an entrenched bureaucracy gains power in democracies, and California is a prime example.

Term limits came to California back in 1990 via a ballot initiative, because it was the only way the state’s Republicans, still relatively influential, could get rid of Willie Brown. For decades, Assembly Speaker Brown controlled everything that happened in the state legislature. If Brown didn’t support your bill, your bill was dead. As a 25-year veteran member of the Assembly, Brown virtually ruled Sacramento by 1990. Every piece of legislation required his imprimatur. And every aspiring Democrat, including Brown’s protégé Kamala Harris, went through Brown on their way to prominence in state politics.

The consequences have been enormous. Brown may not have been a Republican favorite, but he got things done. By virtue of his many years in the Capitol, Brown knew how every lever of power worked, and he knew every bureaucrat, every union official, and every lobbyist. He was a perennial player; he knew the game backwards and forwards, and when something had to happen in California, Brown was there to make it happen. Say what you will about his politics or his party; back then, California had a government that worked.

The article concludes:

Imagine what Washington, DC, already gripped by a deep-state bureaucracy, would be like if elected politicians were termed out of office right about the point where they’d acquired enough experience to navigate this swamp. Whatever oversight is still possible, whatever reforms and restructurings that might be in the interests of the American people would no longer have advocates who had mastered the details and could exercise long-term leadership. Of course, many members of Congress become swamp rats, entrenched, bought, manipulated, and indifferent to their constituents. But our obligation as citizens is to expose them and ensure that they lose the next election. If they’re such a problem, we must find a candidate to oppose them who can earn a majority of the votes in their district. That’s how you term-limit a bad politician. You beat them in an election.

When you eliminate the bad politicians, you also eliminate the good ones. You turn the machinery of government over to people who have spent decades learning how to control elected politicians, many of whom come into Congress without any previous experience in government. It is easy to disparage all politicians and, therefore, wish to control them by sticking a revolving door into the system and pushing everyone in and out after 12 years. But be careful what you wish for.

If you term limit the elected officials and leave the bureaucrats, you will have a swamp run by bureaucrats. The real solution is for more Americans to get involved in primary elections and give us better candidates to vote for.

This Really Should Not Surprise Anyone

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On Monday, American Greatness posted an article about the impact of the Big Beautiful Bill on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The article reports:

Enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has declined significantly since new federal work requirements took effect in mid-2025, with millions fewer Americans receiving benefits, according to newly reported federal data.

The number of people enrolled in SNAP has fallen by roughly 3.5 million since July 2025, dropping from an average of 42.1 million participants in the prior fiscal year to about 38.5 million as of January 2026, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The decline follows the implementation of expanded eligibility rules included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law by Donald Trump on July 4, 2025. The legislation broadened existing work requirements for able-bodied adults, mandating that individuals between the ages of 18 and 64 without young dependents participate in at least 80 hours per month of work, volunteering, or government-run programs.

Previously, the requirements applied to a narrower age group and included different criteria for dependents, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP. Officials told The Wall Street Journal that the recent changes represent the most sweeping adjustments to the program in decades.

There is no reason that healthy Americans should be able to sit at home while the rest of us work to supply them with groceries. We need to help those who need help, but we don’t need to enable those who don’t want to work.

The article concludes:

Several states, including Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee, have reported double-digit percentage declines. In response, some state officials have begun efforts to connect affected residents with employment and volunteer opportunities to help them meet the new requirements.

Arizona has seen the steepest drop, with participation falling by more than half. According to state data, more than 424,000 fewer residents are receiving benefits, including approximately 181,000 children. State officials attributed much of the decline to the rapid implementation of the new federal rules.

“The expanded work requirements were primarily responsible for the drop,” Brett Bezio, a spokesman for Arizona’s Department of Economic Security, told The Wall Street Journal.

This is the way you lower federal spending.

Making Our Roads Safer

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On Friday, American Greatness posted an article about Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL’s) being issued to people who are here illegally or who do not speak English well enough to read road signs or follow verbal directions.

The article reports:

Over $73 million in federal highway funds are being withheld from New York state after an audit found more than half the state’s commercial drivers licenses (CDL) were issued to foreigners illegally.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced yesterday that the state failed to revoke “illegally issued nondomiciled commercial learner’s permits and commercial driver’s licenses.”

According to a December press release from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) nationwide audit of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) uncovered a shocking 53 percent failure rate in the records sampled, indicating serious problems in New York’s CDL program.

Among the failures documented were New York DMV systems defaulting to issuing eight-year licenses to foreign drivers for non-REAL ID licenses, regardless of when their legal status expired, and the state issuing commercial licenses to foreign drivers without providing any evidence that it had verified their current lawful presence in the United States.

Just the News reports that Derek Barrs, administrator of the motor carrier administration, stated, “FMCSA’s mission is safety. That means ensuring that every commercial driver on the road is properly vetted and qualified. New York’s continued refusal to fix these failures undermines that mission, and we will not allow federal dollars to support a system that falls short of the law.”

The article concludes:

Just the News reports that with the forfeiture of nearly $74 million in funding, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is losing 4 percent of its National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Program Block Grant Funds.

Duffy, in a post on X, posed the question of whether pulling federal funding from non-compliant states worked before responding, “Just ask Gavin Newsom,” referring to how California revoked more than 17,000 licenses issued to undocumented people after the DOT pulled over $160 million in federal funding from the state.

We don’t need people who cannot read road signs driving multi-ton trucks.

A Status Report From A Reliable Source

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On Friday, Fred Fleitz posted an article at American Greatness about the current status of the war in Iran.

The article reports:

For weeks, the mainstream media has churned out negative stories claiming the U.S. has lost its war with Iran, with oil prices spiking, the Strait of Hormuz in turmoil, and America stumbling into another Middle East quagmire. The usual chorus of cable news talking heads and late-night hosts claimed Iran’s radical Islamist regime was intact, that President Trump’s war strategy was reckless, and the whole effort was backfiring.

Wrong. President Trump is winning—and winning decisively. The latest and most effective weapon in his arsenal is the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and the Strait of Hormuz.

Just days after U.S. Central Command enforced the blockade, the results are unmistakable. Naval traffic in and out of Iranian ports has been halted. U.S. forces have turned back merchant vessels attempting to run the blockade. Iran, which had been raking in billions from oil exports even during earlier fighting, is now bleeding an estimated $435 million a day. With roughly 90 percent of its economy dependent on sea trade, the regime’s already crippled economy is being strangled.

I would also note that as I am writing this on Friday afternoon, the price of crude oil has dropped from 91.17 this morning to 83.58. I expect to see more price drops in the near future.

The article concludes:

The media elite will keep trying to move the goalposts. They will complain about oil prices, ignore the blockade’s success, and warn of escalation. But the American people can see the difference between media spin and strategic reality. Trump inherited a policy of appeasement by previous U.S. presidents who allowed Iran to enrich uranium and support its terrorist proxies. He replaced it with an America First strategy of strength, clarity, and leverage.

I agree with President Trump that an end to the war is in sight. The blockade is putting unprecedented pressure on the Iranian regime and China, the top buyer of Iranian oil. Iranian officials are seeking more peace talks. At the same time, Secretary of Defense Hegseth made clear in a press conference on Thursday that the U.S. is “locked and loaded” to resume combat operations against Iran, including its power and energy infrastructure, if Iran refuses to agree to a permanent cease-fire.

Contrary to the dire predictions from the mainstream media, President Trump has demonstrated that America can defend its interests and those of its allies without endless wars.

That is what an America First win looks like. The media just refuses to admit it.

Stay tuned.

Things That Work

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On Saturday, American Greatness posted an article about what has happened in Argentina since Javier Milei took office.

The article reports:

We were promised an absolute bloodbath.

During the 2023 election in Argentina, politicians, academics, journalists, and commentators lined up to denounce populist candidate Javier Milei and his plans for “shock therapy,” symbolized by the chainsaw he had taken to brandishing ominously on the campaign trail while shouting, “¡Viva la libertad, carajo!” (“Long live liberty, damn it!”)

Just days before Argentina went to the polls, more than a hundred economists, including superstar Thomas Piketty, published an open letter. They said a win for Milei would “inflict further devastation and social chaos” on a country that was already devastated and in chaos. His plans for dollarization and severe cuts to public spending would “increase already high levels of poverty and inequality and could result in significantly increased social tensions and conflict.”

The article reports what has actually happened:

More than two years after Milei became president, we now have a pretty clear idea of who was right and who was wrong.

This week, in response to new figures from Argentina’s statistics agency, The Washington Post declared, in an op-ed, “Free market Argentina proves capitalism is the answer to poverty.”

The new figures show Milei has reduced the country’s poverty rate from 53 percent to 28 percent—a massive reduction.

By drastically cutting state subsidies and laying off 60,000 public-sector workers, Argentina achieved its first-ever fiscal surplus in 123 years. Inflation collapsed from an insane 200 percent to 33 percent. Growth is at 4.4 percent and predicted to outpace the average rate in Latin America over the next two years.

There remain significant challenges, of course. A poverty rate of 28 percent and inflation at 33 percent are still bad and too high; they’ll need to be brought further under control. Milei also faces a “battle” over unemployment. With his cuts to public-sector jobs, the unemployment rate now sits at 7.5 percent. The Post is confident, though, that “market forces” and an “expanding private sector” will soak up the laid-off workers. Massive deregulation—Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation Federico Sturzenegger has cut more than 14,000 regulations so far—“will stoke private investment and growth.”

The Washington Post is right: “It is rare that we get to witness such a radical experiment in real time.” Milei has provided inspiration to insurgent right-wing parties across the Western world, including Reform and Restore in the U.K., both of which are looking to make serious cuts to government spending and also to break the overweening power of civil servants and bureaucrats. The enormously bloated public sector will be a major barrier to implementing a genuine right-wing agenda in the U.K.

We now know what works–let’s put it to work in America.

What Is The Plan?

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On Friday, Fred Fleitz posted an article at American Greatness about President Trump’s goals in the Iran war.

The article includes Fred Fleitz’s background in national security:

Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, a CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member. He is the vice chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security. He is the author of “North Korea, Nuclear Brinkmanship, and the Oval Office,” to be released by Texas A&M Press on April 7, 2026.

The article reports:

Somehow, I received an invitation to the White House to watch President Trump’s prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday evening, where he laid out his endgame strategy for the Iran War. In addition to observing the strong camaraderie between Trump’s cabinet members, I saw the president in great form, confidently articulating the war’s goals and achievements and how he is keeping his promise to the American people to end this conflict in a few weeks so it does not become a quagmire or an endless war.

The president spoke about the overwhelming strength of the American military and how the war is a decisive and historic U.S. victory. Just one month after launching Operation Epic Fury, Trump explained how the U.S. and Israel shattered Iran’s nuclear weapons program, crippled its war machine, and stripped the mullahs of their ability to bully the Middle East and the world.

President Trump spoke about how Operation Epic Fury devastated Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, ballistic missile programs, air defenses, navy, and command structure. Key nuclear facilities have been reduced to rubble. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ terror networks and proxy armies have been decimated. So has Iran’s ability to project power across the Middle East or threaten our allies with drones and missiles.

The article concludes:

Most importantly, President Trump stressed that the short-term economic costs of Operation Epic Fury are worth it because dealing with the global threat from Iran’s Islamist terrorist regime is an investment for our children’s and grandchildren’s future. So instead of kicking the Iran problem down the road to the next president, Trump is dealing with it now.

That’s the kind of decisive leadership America voted for.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article.

The Long Road To War

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On March 10th, Victor David Hanson posted an article at American Greatness detailing how we got involved in a war with Iran.

The article reports:

Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic.

All that said, was it really ever all that formidable?

The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval that routinely hung homosexuals, adulterers, and almost anyone who questioned the authority of the ayatollahs. In other words, these were gruesome people, but they didn’t necessarily have a competent military.

The theocracy’s only constant with the prior monarchical Iran was that it inherited near limitless oil and natural gas reserves, sophisticated arms, and the Shah’s modernized cities. It controlled the key strategic chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz and enjoyed a geostrategically critical location between Asia and the Middle East. It fueled Iran’s historical chauvinism and pique that the millennia-long historical preeminence of Middle Eastern Persia was not fully appreciated by its Arab neighbors. So there were lots of natural advantages—and all for the most part squandered.

The article concludes with what the author suspects is the strategy of the people who currently control Iran:

The remnants of the theocracy intend to ride out the bombings and, at some point in extremis, expect an armistice from “negotiations.” Their ultimate strategy is to wait out the tenures of both Trump and Netanyahu and hope for another sympathetic president like Obama, or a non compos mentis Biden, or someone ideologically akin to Mamdani or AOC.

When Trump and Netanyahu are out of office, they dream of using their oil to rearm and resume their role as Chinese and Russian proxies, eventually getting the bomb, and the second time around, perhaps using it.

Theocratic Iran, in its fantasies, still believes that if it ever destroyed Israel with a bomb or two, the world, especially given the recrudescence of Western antisemitism, would be appalled—for a day or two.

Then it would resume business with it. And with a dozen or so deterrent nuclear-tipped missiles, the Iranian ritual boilerplate of crazed pronouncements would follow of supposedly welcoming a nuclear pathway to an eternal virginal Paradise.

And thus, we would go full circle back again to a “crazy” Iran, its murderous clients, and its unhinged—but effective—threats.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. The war started 47 years ago. We need to finish it.

Taking The Common Sense Approach–Not The Political One

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Senator John Fetterman has done it again! He has been the voice of reason in the Democrat party. If someone had told me that would happen when he was elected, I would have thought they were nuts! I am amazed at his common sense and at his courage to stand up to his party.

On Monday, American Greatness reported:

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has broken ranks with Democratic leadership and has come out in favor of requiring photo ID for voting in elections across the nation.

Fetterman appeared on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures” yesterday and told host Maria Bartiromo that voter ID wasn’t an “unreasonable” requirement, saying, “It’s not a radical idea for regular Americans to show your ID to vote.”

Fetterman pointed to states like Wisconsin that have similar protections requiring proof of citizenship for federal voter registration and photo ID at the polls.

He noted that 60% of voters in Wisconsin support such safeguards, despite having elected liberal justice Susan Crawford in 2025 to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

House Republicans plan to vote this week on the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act with national polls showing 83% of Americans support the measure, including 71% of Democrats.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries continued to decry the SAVE America Act as “voter suppression” and accused President Trump and GOP leadership of trying to steal the upcoming midterm elections by nationalizing them.

Our Founding Fathers understood the depravity of man–that’s why there are checks and balances within our government. However, I don’t think they believed that we would reach a point where a political party would cheat to win an election and voter id would be necessary.

Why Would A Political Party Fight Election Integrity?

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The Democrats are getting ready to shut down the government again in about two weeks. At first it was because of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) funding, but now it is because of the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act enforces the law that limits voting in federal elections to citizens. That should be a no-brainer, but to the Democrats that eliminates a lot of their voting base. In case you haven’t noticed, because Americans are leaving the Democrat party because it has gone too far left, the Democrats need new voters. That is the reason they are fighting so hard to keep illegal aliens here. They need voter fraud and illegal aliens to keep winning. Keep an eye on Fulton County for more information on voter fraud. Also, if they can shut down the government, they may be able to slow down the positive momentum of the Trump administration.

On Tuesday, American Greatness posted an article about the coming government shutdown.

The article reports:

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is warning that a bipartisan appropriations package will be “dead on arrival” in the Senate, if it contains the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.

Schumer announced yesterday that he’s willing to risk another government shutdown in order to block GOP attempts to add voter ID and citizenship eligibility requirements to the funding bill.

According to Schumer, “The SAVE Act would impose Jim Crow style restrictions on voting. It will be dead on arrival in the Senate.”

The reluctance of Democrats to limit voting in federal elections to U.S. citizens alone, raises deeper questions about why millions of illegal aliens were allowed to flood into the U.S. under the Biden administration.

The article concludes with a very interesting possible solution:

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) explained to reporters yesterday that standing filibuster may be the best pathway forward to allow a way to break the stalemate and to maneuver around senators who are seeking to block voter ID and citizenship requirements.

Some of our Senators are so old they probably couldn’t stand up long enough to filibuster! Stay tuned.

Shutdown Blackmail

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The Democrats right now are a minority in Congress, but you wouldn’t know that by their actions. They have decided to use a strategy of creating chaos and fiscal blackmail to try to derail the Trump agenda (and work against policies that they have supported in the past).

On Monday, American Greatness reported:

Another government shutdown looks increasingly likely by the end of the week. Democrats are demanding that major changes to Department of Homeland Security enforcement policy be written directly into the budget agreement. Those changes would largely shut down President Trump’s deportation efforts.

Trump has already made some changes. For example, DHS removed Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino – who had become a political lightning rod – from his assignment in Minneapolis. Democrats, however, are pressing for far more sweeping changes. They want to require judicial warrants for immigration arrests, force ICE agents to be easily identifiable, and grant states the authority to conduct their own investigations of federal ICE agents. Democrats have also demanded body cameras for ICE agents, even though the current budget proposal already funds them.

After the unprecedented percentage increase in violent crime during the Biden administration, Democrats may be pushing to halt deportations to prevent Republicans from getting credit for the sharp drop in violent crime that appears to have started last year. New evidence shows that illegal aliens commit crimes at rates at least 3.4 times higher than their share of the population. At the same time, about 47% of ICE detainees have criminal charges or convictions in the United States, and it is possible that an additional 23% have criminal records in their home countries. Removing hundreds of thousands of offenders through immigration enforcement could therefore have a meaningful impact on crime in the United States and help explain the huge drop in crime last year. Strong enforcement could also deter future crimes by signaling that arrest for criminal activity is likely to result in deportation, not release back into the community.

The article concludes:

Democrats are using the threat of yet another government shutdown to force sweeping policy changes that would sharply curtail federal immigration enforcement. Some of their demands even contradict long-standing Democratic positions on federal supremacy in immigration. But Democrats have one goal in mind: Stop Trump from deporting illegal aliens.

Voting for a Democrat in the midterms is voting for less safe neighborhoods.

Encouraging Lawlessness

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Many of the people currently in office from one particular political party seem to be encouraging lawlessness. Recent statements by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes are disturbing.

On Friday, American Greatness reported:

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) spurred outrage this week after suggesting during an interview that residents may use lethal force against masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents using the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law.

Arizona’s largest police organization blasted her comments on Friday, calling them “reckless, irresponsible and dangerous to the safety of all law enforcement professionals in this state.”

During an interview with 12 News anchor Brahm Resnik earlier this week, Mayes stated that the law allows individuals to defend themselves with lethal force if they reasonably believe their life is in danger, particularly when facing unidentifiable individuals in plain clothes wearing masks.

“It’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks and we have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force,” she said.

How are these statements in keeping with her oath as an elected official to uphold the law?

The article concludes:

The Arizona Police Association (APA) issued a statement Friday calling Mayes’ comments regarding ICE operations and Arizona’s Stand Your Ground Laws “deeply troubling and dangerous.”

The APA represents over 12,000 law enforcement professionals across the state.

“Law enforcement officers at every level, including state, local, and federal agencies, do not always wear traditional uniforms,” explained APA Executive Director Joe Clure. “Officers across Arizona, including the attorney general’s own investigative teams, routinely operate in plain clothes, or wear protective face coverings when circumstances require it. This does not diminish their legal authority or status as law enforcement.”

Words from elected officials matter. It takes only one individual to interpret such commentary as permission or encouragement to use deadly force against police officers.

As Arizona’s chief law enforcement officer, the Attorney General has a responsibility to de-escalate, not inflame. We find these comments reckless, irresponsible and dangerous to the safety of all law enforcement professionals in this state.

The APA urged all elected officials in Arizona to stop politicizing law enforcement and immigration enforcement and instead work toward finding lawful solutions to areas of disagreement.

Removing people from the country who have no legal right to be here should not be a political issue. Where was the outcry when these people were illegally entering the country?

Disappointed Doesn’t Cover It

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When President Trump picked Mike Pence as his Vice-President during his first term, I thought it was a good choice. I heard through the grapevine that I was wrong–something about teachers in Indiana, but I really didn’t understand what the issue was. I still don’t, but the former Vice-President’s behavior since President Trump’s loss in 2020 has been appalling to me.

On December 29, American Greatness posted an article about Vice-President Pence and some of his recent activities. The facts given have only reinforced my negative opinion of the man.

The article reports:

To listen to the chatter of the Important People, you would think that a “decent and elevated conservatism”™ was about to return, has returned, or is just about to triumph in the person of—cue the drum roll—Mike Pence, former vice president and perpetual Mr. Goody Two-Shoes.  

Yes, that’s right, because a baker’s dozen of less-than-fully gruntled employees of the Heritage Foundation decamped to Pence’s “Advancing American Freedom” sandbox, we are supposed to believe—at least, we are supposed to say—that a “Reorganization of the Conservative Movement” is underway.  

What do you think? Does the mutiny at the Heritage Foundation signal a “significant shift within the American right?” Or is it just the familiar anti-Trump palaver we’ve been used to since the media’s “loud and troublesome insects of the hour” began each day by announcing (praying?) that “the walls are closing in” on Donald Trump? 

In my opinion, decent and elevated conservatives don’t stab each other in the back.

The article notes:

I hate to crash that party, but it is worth noting that Donald Trump has yet to pass the one-year mark of his current four-year term. In that brief time, he has sealed the southern border, overseen the deportation (self- and assisted-) of more than two million illegal immigrants, and dismantled the insidious racist institution of DEI. He is in the process of destroying the archipelago headquarters of the Teachers Union, also known as the Department of Education, and those bits of the EPA that are concerned more with virtue signaling than with maintaining clean air and water. He has also begun the long process of defunding the international empire of Democrat satellites, the myriad of so-called “Non-Governmental Organizations,” which turn out on closer inspection to be semi-camouflaged proxies for the progressive agenda. Then there are little things like brokering peace in the Middle East, destroying ISIS, and stanching the flow of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into the U.S.  

The biggest problem with President Trump’s first term was that he didn’t know who belonged to the uni-party or the deep state. I think he has some of that under control now. Please follow the link to read the entire article.

Beware The Pseudo-Recession

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On Thursday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at American Greatness about the danger of a coming ‘pseudo-recession.’

The article notes:

As the 1992 campaign approached, incumbent president George H.W. Bush was seen as a shoo-in for reelection.

The First Gulf War ended in 1991 with a spectacular U.S. victory at the head of a coalition that had expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait with few losses.

For much of 1991, Bush’s approval ratings hovered between 90 and 70 percent.

By February 1992, an obscure Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, emerged as the favorite Democratic nominee. But he was written off as having little chance to knock off the popular Republican incumbent president with far more foreign affairs experience.

Bush, however, had just lost his brilliant 1988 campaign manager, Lee Atwater, to cancer. And third-party prairie-fire candidate Ross Perot had entered the race, drawing off conservative Bush support.

Most importantly, in 1990, the U.S. economy had experienced a mild recession that had bottomed out in early 1991.

By the 1992 election, the U.S. was headed to full recovery.

The article notes that the economy was rapidly improving, but the Clinton campaign ignored that and used the slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid!” The Bush campaign dropped the ball with their response. Americans believed what Clinton and the media told them, Ross Perot entered the race, and Clinton won.

The article concludes:

The pseudo-recession of 1992 should remind the Trump people not to repeat the same mistake in the 2026 midterms.

Trump’s first ten months of foreign policy achievements are almost as impressive as Bush’s entire four years.

He neutered the feared Iranian nuclear bomb project. He ensured Israel could devastate the terrorist cabals of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, as well as their sponsor, theocratic Iran.

Instead of a trade war, increased tariff revenue and fair trade agreements were signed.

The border was closed shut.

Military recruitment rebounded to near record levels.

NATO was strengthened, and the intractable Ukraine war may end in a ceasefire.

Compared to the prior moribund Biden economy, Trump’s has set new precedents: record energy production and falling gas prices; inflation now below the three percent he inherited; and third-quarter GDP growth at a remarkable 4.3%.

…Yet, the left, like the Clinton campaign of old, is talking nonstop bout “affordability”—both ignoring the Democrats’ own dismal 2021-2025 economic record and claiming Trump, like Bush, cares more about those overseas than at home.

Whether the pseudo-recession of 2025-2026 works as well as the fake 1992 recession now hinges on whether the Trump campaign learns from the past and from now on fixates on the economy.

This has been a remarkable year.

Choosing To Preserve Your Culture

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In its early days, America was truly a melting pot. People came here from many places, built lives and careers, and enriched the country with their various cultures. How many ethnic restaurants does your community have? A melting pot works very well when people assimilate but retain the individual cultural foods and other things that they remember from their previous country. It doesn’t work well when people do not respect the culture of their new country and refuse to assimilate.

On Saturday, Fred Fleitz posted an article at America Greatness about the challenges facing Europe because of unlimited immigration by people who do not share their culture.

The article reports:

Not surprisingly, a controversial prediction in the new Trump administration’s National Security Strategy that Europe is facing “civilization erasure” because of out-of-control mass migration infuriated European elites. The Economist attacked this reference as “shocking.”  The Independent, a UK newspaper, referred to it as a “sinister conspiracy theory.”

I want to set this aside for a moment and talk about European Christmas markets, especially in Hungary.

These markets are an old tradition where people gather to shop and socialize in the four weeks of Advent before Christmas at outdoor stalls, often in city squares, to purchase handmade goods, eat sweet treats and sausages, and drink mulled wine, a spiced wine cocktail served hot. The markets usually include Nativity scenes.  Some have small performances and people singing Christmas carols.

Unfortunately, this year, Christmas markets have been canceled in many European cities or are being held under intense police security. The reason is that in recent years, Islamist migrants, almost all of them military-age men, have tried to disrupt and ruin these celebrations, sometimes with terrorism. This included a deadly attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, last year, when an Islamist immigrant ran down revelers with his car, killing five and injuring over 200.

…There has been a flood of vandalism at European Christmas markets in recent years, including the theft of Nativity scene figures and the beheading of baby Jesus figures. This is on top of years of other Islamist violence in Europe against Christians, including church burnings and the 2016 murder by two Muslim immigrants of 84-year-old French priest Father Jacques Hamel in his church while he was conducting morning mass.

None of these disruptions is happening in Hungary. Hungarian Christmas markets, which feature traditional Hungarian food, handmade goods, and concerts, have not been cancelled, nor are they being held under high security. There have been no attacks on these celebrations by Islamist immigrants. Hungarians have not been run down at Christmas markets by Islamists.

The reason is clear. Unlike most other European countries, Hungary has refused to permit mass migration and will not admit unvetted migrants. Hungary defends its borders against illegal migrants and has conducted mass deportations and expulsions of foreigners who entered the country illegally or were staying there without permission.

Please follow the link to read the rest of the story. Hungary has been under intense pressure to allow the same mass migration that has created problems in the rest of Europe. Hungary has stood strong. That is the reason Hungary can still enjoy Christmas markets.

Wasn’t Anyone Paying Attention?

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On Friday, American Greatness posted an article related to the Somali fraud in Minnesota.

The article reports:

A TSA whistleblower has come forward to say she routinely witnessed Somalian immigrants flying out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport carrying suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars of cash and fake passports.

“It seemed so lackadaisical that these people could get through the airport with all that cash,” the former TSA agent told Alpha News reporter Liz Collin, this week. “Time after time after time. It wasn’t a one time thing.”

She said “it was frustrating to see it when I was a TSA agent and it’s certainly frustrating now watching this state’s administration.”

During a press conference in St. Paul, Friday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) attempted to downplay the massive amount of fraud that has been perpetrated by his state’s Somali community.

…She (the whistleblower) added that it “really blew her mind” because they were always able to get through the checkpoints.

“Typically, what would happen is a law enforcement officer would come, check their credentials,” she told Collin, adding that it wouldn’t be too difficult to identify them now because there is a paper trail of their travels, as well as surveillance video.

“Their I.D.s were always documented and probably their plane tickets as well,” she explained. “So there is a trail of that out there.”

The whistleblower estimated that in the five years she was a TSA agent at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at least “a billion dollars went through the airport.”

The former agent said in one instance, a Somali man has a carry on bag “filled with brand new passports,” lamenting that “he was allowed to go through the checkpoint.”

We are less than a year into the Trump administration and this corruption is now coming to light. Where was the Biden administration during their four years in office? How did they miss this (or did they)?

The Trump Economy

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Periodically, I watch television news shows with economic ‘experts’ that have Trump Derangement Syndrome. I watched one on Saturday. They were complaining about inflation and affordability under the Trump administration. Really? A dozen basic Grade A large eggs at Harris Teeter is $2.59. The average retail price of a dozen eggs in the U.S. was $4.953 in January 2025. Inflation? In January 2025, the average price for a gallon of milk was approximately $4.87. The current price at Harris Teeter is $2.49 a gallon. In January 2025, the average price for regular gasoline was $3.08 per gallon. In eastern North Carolina, the current price is $2.59. If that is inflation, can we please have more of it!

On Monday, Victor David Hanson posted an article at American Greatness about the impact of the Trump economy. He noted that President Trump is not getting credit for the improvement in the economy that his policies have created.

The article notes:

The current economic indicators, at least those attributable to the 10-month Trump administration, are strong.

Fourth-quarter GDP is estimated to grow between 2.7 and 4 percent, the robust latter figure according to the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank.

Inflation from June to August ranged from 2.7 to 2.9 percent, significantly lower than the 5 percent annual average during Biden’s 2021-2025 term.

Gas prices now average $2.98 per gallon, compared to $3.46, the average cost during Biden’s four years.

In less than a year, Trump has increased oil production by one million barrels per day.

Unemployment in the second quarter of 2025 stayed steady at 4.2 percent, roughly the same as the 4.1 percent during the final month of Biden’s tenure.

The stock market has reached an all-time high. Foreign investment is pegged at record levels. Tariff revenue could reach $400 billion by the end of the year—vastly outpacing the $77 billion in all of last year, 2024.

In other words, the economy is rolling along.

To the extent the Trump administration has a problem with the economy, however, it is threefold.

One is public perceptions.

…Second, the administration and Republicans have rarely compared their own economic record with that of Biden’s dismal four years to explain how there is improvement in almost every area.

…Third, most of Trump’s key economic initiatives are long-term and will not be fully realized by the end of 2025 or in early to mid-2026.

The article concludes:

If the shutdown were quickly ended and the Fed steadily lowered interest rates by at least 2 percent, and if the media would just report the news rather than seek to create realities by falsification, then a strong, and soon to be even more robust, economy would likely determine the 2026 midterms, and with it the Trump presidency.

So the current Trump economy is in a race of sorts. The challenge is not nature, not war, not the unpredictable, and certainly not wrong economic policies and agendas.

The rub is a failure to highlight the radical improvement from the Biden years in just a few months, to explain that novel policies are already in motion that may revolutionize the American economy within a year, and to recognize the destructive efforts of partisan shutdowns, partisan high interest rates, and partisan hysterical doom and gloom fake news.

If Trump meets these challenges, voters could see the economy take off as never before in 2026—just in time for the midterms.

I think that is what the Democrats are trying to avoid!

There Are Some Serious Fraud Problems In Medicaid

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On October 17th, American Greatness posted an article about Medicaid fraud in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The article reports:

The FBI on Thursday raided the home of Cedric Dean, a notorious community activist in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Federal investigators accuse Dean of exploiting homeless people to defraud Medicaid out of millions of dollars. According to federal court documents, Dean used the money to buy homes, cars and more to fund his exorbitant lifestyle. The Feds said they were moving to seize those assets.

According to the civil forfeiture complaint filed by the FBI, Dean allegedly obtained Medicaid information from vulnerable people at homeless shelters, encampments, and halfway houses in North Carolina, in exchange for food or temporary shelter.

Dean then allegedly billed Medicaid for mental health services that were never provided, sometimes using fake diagnoses. He allegedly paid his staff through services like CashApp.

Authorities said his company, Cedric Dean Holdings (CDH), billed Medicaid approximately $14.5 million between September 2024 and June 2025, with nearly $9 million reimbursed, while not operating with enough staff to adequately provide services.

The Feds have seized his bank accounts, vehicles, including two RVs and luxury SUVs, and multiple properties in Charlotte and Shelby, that were allegedly purchased with fraud earnings.

Neighbors who live near one of Dean’s properties in Charlotte, told the media they were concerned about the suspicious nonstop activity at the address.

So he applied for $14.5 million and actually received $9 million. Based on the article, it is amazing it has taken so long to catch up with this person.

The article notes:

Dean has a criminal record dates back to the 1980s, including charges of assault, armed robbery, and kidnapping, according to police.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the mid 1990s on federal drug charges.

While in prison, he started an anti-violence foundation, SAVE (Safeguard Atone Validate Educate), to steer children away from gangs. In November 2017, he was released from prison after serving nearly 24 years behind bars.

Dean is also the founder and CEO of the HELP (Heal, Empower, Love, Protect), a substance abuse program that houses people at a north Charlotte hotel.

The article concludes:

The Department of Justice announced in June that its “National Health Care Fraud Takedown” had resulted in 324 defendants charged in connection with over $14.6 billion in alleged fraud.

The Capital Research Center (CRC), a conservative watchdog based in Washington D.C., recently released a report exposing how left-wing organizations have hijacked the homelessness policy space to advance their radical ideologies. CTC’s 113-page research dossier landed on President Trump’s desk last week during the White House’s Antifa roundtable.

When the government is involved in a program, fraud will often follow.

Ending Partisan Partnerships

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On Monday, American Greatness reported that FBI Director Kash Patel has ended the partnership between the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This is good news. The ADL is not a neutral player.

The article reports:

FBI Director Kash Patel has formally cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that were enacted under former director James Comey, saying, “The FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”

Patel accused Comey of writing “love letters” to the ADL and of embedding FBI agents within the group that has recently been under fire from Republican lawmakers for listing Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organization as an extremist group.

The ADL had described TPUSA as being tied to, “a range of right-wing extremists and has generated support from anti-Muslim bigots, alt-lite activists and some corners of the white supremacist alt-right.”

The article notes:

The FBI also announced that it is cutting its ties with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) over the organization’s history of labeling conservative groups and individuals as extremists.

America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit law firm, has documented the close coordination between the SPLC and the former Biden Justice Department, including training and data access.

Both the ADL and SPLC are accused of flagging political targets for the Biden DOJ  and contributing to the weaponization of government against parents who spoke out against school boards or activists who peacefully protested near abortion clinics.

The FBI has been arresting criminals (as they are supposed to do) since President Trump took office. As of March, the FBI had arrested three people on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. During 2024, the Biden administration arrested none of the Ten Most Wanted. Obviously, the focus of the FBI needed to change, and it has.

When The Issue Isn’t The Issue

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The Congressional hearings with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., turned into a circus. Because he is cleaning house at the Center for Disease Control and calling out the Senators that receive serious money from the pharmaceutical industry, the hearing was very dicey.

On September 7th, American Greatness posted an article about the hearing.

Here are a few of the highlights:

One by one, the senators, mostly Democrats but also a few Republicans, screamed and gesticulated at Kennedy, accused him of being a “charlatan” and worse, and demanded that he resign or be fired.

One friendly questioner asked whether Kennedy thought that the response to COVID had been “politicized.” Indeed, it had, Kennedy said. Moreover, the government and the media lied to the public about many aspects of the disease, beginning with its origin. (No bats were involved in this entertainment.)

The public was also aggressively lied to about the danger of the virus—overwhelmingly, the only vulnerable parts of the population were the elderly, the obese, and the diabetic. We were lied to about the efficacy of “social distancing”—it was a made-up nostrum—and cloth masks. They are worse than useless. I still see damaged souls driving around in cars or walking outside by themselves wearing a mask. You might as well, as some wag proposed, wear a seat belt while walking around as a sort of safety blanket.

The real issue behind the circus:

But the thing to appreciate about the melodrama is that it had very little to do with COVID or the CDC or even U.S. health policy writ large. The real protagonist was someone who wasn’t even present, viz. Donald Trump. The fire was directed at Kennedy, but the ultimate target was Trump. The strategy is to discredit and then destroy Kennedy, a potent outgrowth of the Trump administration. If the Dems can destroy Kennedy, he would represent the outer skin of the onion. They would then proceed against other Trump lieutenants.

Robert Kennedy wants to find out why Americans are fatter, sicker, and more plagued by chronic disease now than ever before. He wants to know why cases of autism have skyrocketed and why 8 out of 10 young adults are not fit enough to join the military. Is it because of what they eat, the medicines they are forced to take, or something else? The Democrats want to play what Bill Clinton (and later Hillary) called “the politics of personal destruction.”

The issue is never the issue, but determined truth-tellers like Robert Kennedy and his boss in the White House are a demonstration that “the issue” can be made to succumb to the awful clarity of common sense, bolstered by that other real issue, the executive power of the presidency.

The uni-party in Congress only wants the President to have executive powers when he is a Democrat or doesn’t plan on using them.

Insanity In Our Schools

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On Tuesday, American Greatness posted an article about a form young girls in the Temecula Valley Unified School District TVUSD have to fill out if they are uncomfortable with sharing bathroom spaces with biological males.

The article reports:

The Temecula Valley Unified School District TVUSD has reportedly enacted a rule that tells female students who feel uncomfortable sharing  bathroom space with biological males must file a mental health accommodation request under federal law if they want privacy.

The move has prompted outrage from parents and others who say that the rule treats those girls who object to sharing private space with biological males as the problem and treating their request for privacy as a type of disability.

The form, required by the school district, falls under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and California Education Code § 56000.

That law is intended to accommodate children with authentic disabilities, including epilepsy, severe anxiety disorders and diabetes.

The policy is raising concerns among parents who say that school officials or special interest groups pushing gender ideology should not be allowed to redefine basic rights, such as privacy, as “accommodations.”

This is the form:

It is no wonder that homeschooling becomes more popular every year.

What Exactly Are You For?

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On Wednesday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about the loss of Democrat party supporters and members.

The article reports:

…The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher did a deep dive into the trends of partisan affiliation, partnering with data firm L2 to determine those ebbs and flows. (Full disclosure: L2 partnered with me on my book Going Red gratis and allowed me to use their powerful database.) If Goldmacher’s data is accurate, the census may be the least of Democrat worries.

They are in the middle of a bleed-out that may have no end in sight. They are losing ground in literally every corner of the country:

…In fact, for the first time since 2018, more new voters nationwide chose to be Republicans than Democrats last year.

All told, Democrats lost about 2.1 million registered voters between the 2020 and 2024 elections in the 30 states, along with Washington, D.C., that allow people to register with a political party. (In the remaining 20 states, voters do not register with a political party.) Republicans gained 2.4 million.

On Thursday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at American Greatness that might partially explain what is happening to the Democrats.

The article at American Greatness notes:

The Pavlovian Left goes berserk at the mere prospect of each new Trump initiative.

Its escalating reactive venom and hysteria are calibrated to the success of Trump’s latest policy.

Yet the new hard-left Democratic Party offers no counter-agenda to explain its furor.

Still less do Democrats attempt bipartisan efforts to craft shared legislation.

Take foreign policy.

Democrat senators trashed the recent Trump-Putin Alaskan summit as a failure. Then they became depressed when, just days later, an entourage of European leaders and President Zelensky of Ukraine suddenly flew to the White House.

The Euros praised Trump for offering some sort of negotiated pathway to peace after over three years of war and some 1.5 million dead, wounded, missing, and captured on both sides—on Europe’s doorstep.

So why did Democrats object to such negotiations by Trump?

Was the reason that no such thing occurred during the Biden administration, when Putin invaded Ukraine, after his earlier invasions during the Obama era?

What is the left’s alternate plan? The old Biden idea of supplying Ukraine with enough money and arms to keep fighting and dying, but with no path to either victory or a negotiated peace?

Would they prefer a fourth, fifth, or sixth year of war, or an additional one million casualties?

That is just one of many examples listed in the article. We know what the Democrats are against (anything President Trump is for), but what are their policies? Until Americans see solutions rather than griping from the Democrats, they will continue to lose support. We need action, not complaining.

Stacking The Deck Through Redistricting

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On Wednesday, American Greatness posted an article about the gerrymandering of Congressional districts. Redistricting has been used by both parties for a very long time. At one point our Massachusetts congressional district was in the shape of a sea horse in order to dilute one Republican area.

The article reports:

Few events in politics are more consequential while being less understood than redistricting. The consequences are obvious. If your party controls a state legislature, then once every ten years, when it comes time to redraw district boundaries for state legislative seats and seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, you can redraw them to your advantage.

The methods are less obvious, but intuitive enough. Create geographical boundaries that concentrate registered members of the opposition party into a single district, thereby shifting the majority in your favor in surrounding districts. Or, equally effective, disburse registered members of the opposition party into carefully apportioned districts where they will not have a majority anywhere, completely nullifying their voting power.

The intelligibility of the process ends there. How redistricting commissions parse voter geolocations—deemed favorable or unfavorable based on precinct-level registration—is a complex science. And since the people drawing these new boundaries are almost invariably partisan hardliners, a lot of time and money is invested in calculating maps that precisely optimize the ruling party’s prospects of preserving and enhancing their advantages in the next election.

The article includes a map of the Congressional Districts of Los Angeles, California:

The logic in drawing the above districts is less than obvious.

The article notes:

In reviewing this map, it doesn’t take a cartographer to quickly recognize how the boundaries are twisted in ways that bear no resemblance to city limits or natural geographic features. These boundaries are contorted to the point of absurdity for one reason: to ensure California Democrats control 83 percent of the state’s congressional delegation, to ensure that California’s Republicans are denied 13 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives that they might otherwise have earned based on voter behavior in California’s statewide elections.

The article suggests a solution:

There are solutions to the practice of partisan redistricting that plagues every state, California most of all. It is to rely on algorithms that can assign district boundaries without taking into account voter demographics or party affiliation. It would automatically generate district borders, sorting at the precinct level, according to the following conditions:

(1) Maintain equal populations;

(2) select for district centers based on areas with the highest population density;

(3) solve for convex edges; and

(4) minimize the cumulative length of the polygons formed by the districts.

It would be naive to believe that this would totally solve the problem, but it might make Congress more representative of the people they are supposed to serve.

Who Wins As The War In Ukraine Continues>

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On Monday, American Greatness posted an article about the continuing war in Ukraine. Despite major diplomatic efforts, President Trump has not been able to get both sides of that war to agree on a truce. So who is benefitting from this extended war?

The article reports:

The beneficiaries of this conflict extend beyond the front lines—the theater of war. America’s largest defense contractors—Lockheed Martin (where my father worked as an engineer for many years), Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman—have experienced unprecedented financial gains since the war’s onset. In the fiscal year 2023 alone, Lockheed Martin secured a staggering $70.8 billion in contracts from the Pentagon², and collectively, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman received $92 billion, bringing the total for these top five defense firms to over $162 billion in a single year².

These companies redistributed approximately $57 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks since 2022³.

The surge in defense spending has not only bolstered these firms’ financial fortunes but also driven up the costs of weaponry under the pretext of wartime urgency. For instance, the price of a Stinger missile has skyrocketed from $25,000 to $400,000 each⁴. Similarly, the cost of a Javelin missile, jointly produced by Lockheed and Raytheon, surged by nearly 33% between 2021 and 2024⁴.

Beyond arms sales, political influence and lobbying have surged. Since 2022, the top five defense contractors have collectively spent $251 million on lobbying efforts⁵, with over $37 million directed towards federal campaigns, particularly those of defense committee members⁵.

The article notes:

The military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about in 1961 has since evolved into a transnational network of private contractors, arms dealers, and lobbyists who thrive in times of conflict.

Even some of the humanitarian aid is not closely watched:

And while humanitarian aid remains crucial, reports from the European Court of Auditors in 2024 highlighted concerns regarding the allocation of over €1.2 billion in aid without competitive bidding¹¹. Similarly, USAID awarded contracts totaling over $300 million to firms such as Chemonics, DAI Global, and AECOM under opaque circumstances that ranged from civil society enhancement to logistical support¹². These projects faced allegations of cost inflation, nepotism, and non-competitive extensions.

It is long past time to end this war. It is unfortunate that so many dishonest people seem to be profiting from continuing it. Please follow the link above to the article for further details.

Why They Got It Wrong

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On Friday, Fred Fleitz posted an article at American Greatness about the intelligence failures regarding the Iranian nuclear program.

The article includes a brief biography of Fred Fleitz:

Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member. He was a member of the CIA Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center and served as a U.S. delegate to the IAEA Board of Governors.

Obviously he knows what he is talking about.

The article reports:

The recent Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment claiming that the U.S. bombing of Iran set the country’s nuclear weapons program back only a few months was irresponsible and probably intended to undermine President Trump’s foreign policy. This assessment was written to be leaked to the press and reflected a long pattern of politicized intelligence analysis to undermine Republican presidents.

The DIA assessment was not credible because a battle damage assessment of the bombing of Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites will be complicated and probably take weeks or months of intelligence collection and analysis by dozens of experts and other intelligence agencies. A low-confidence assessment, like the DIA analysis issued 24 hours after the bombings, was a fraud and an abuse of intelligence to produce a high-profile assessment that deliberately misrepresented the outcome of the U.S. attack and helped the president’s political adversaries use the bombings to hurt him politically. Not surprisingly, this assessment was quickly leaked to the press.

The DIA assessment followed similar efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies and the left to deny that Iran had a nuclear weapons program.

The article notes one of the reasons for previous misreporting:

Prior to 2007, the U.S. Intelligence Community had assessed that Iran had a nuclear weapons program. But in November 2007, fearing that President Bush might order an attack on Iran’s nuclear program, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was published by the National Intelligence Council that found Iran’s nuclear program was halted in 2003 and Iranian leaders had not made a decision to resume weaponization efforts and construct a nuclear weapon.

Our government agencies need to remember that the President is an elected official and that they are not!

The article concludes:

The DIA assessment is a wake-up call about the serious problem of politicized U.S. intelligence analysis. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has begun to address this problem by reassigning National Intelligence Council senior analysts for politicizing national intelligence estimates. Much more must be done to depoliticize American intelligence analysis and win back the confidence of President Trump.

Let’s go back to where patriotism was more important than political parties.