Sorting Through The Lies

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about some of the current lies being told about the ‘Bid Beautiful Bill.’ The bill is not perfect, but considering the parameters the Republicans had to work with, it is generally a good bill.

The article reports:

Democrats opposing the bill have asserted that it benefits the rich, but they have done so by fudging the numbers, largely relying on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis to fuel their criticisms. But as Breitbart News reported, the CBO — created to act as a nonpartisan advisory body — has its performance as well as personnel’s political history bringing that into question:

But the CBO’s extensive history of overestimating benefits for Americans from public health care, underestimating costs of Democrat policies on taxpayers, and stacking the deck against Republican policies reveals a deeply partisan agency influencing lawmakers in order to further left-wing causes.

In addition to its history of unreliable projections propping up Democrats, according to FEC records, of the nearly $17,000 donated to candidates and committees from CBO employees since 1986, only $250 went to Republican candidates — a single donation to George W. Bush in 2000.

In some ways, Democrats are essentially equivocating taking away tax-funded benefits for illegal immigrants as taking benefits away from the poor. But that in itself is completely disingenuous.

The Ways and Means Committee is correcting the record, warning the American people not to fall for the same lies the Democrat touted to discredit the 2017 Trump tax cut’s benefits for the working class. All in all, the GOP says the numbers are clear, showing that the measure benefits working class Americans.

A fact sheet presented by the Ways and Means Committee shows that not only does the measure halt a $1,700 tax increase, but it provides an additional $1,300 in tax cuts for families of four taking in less than $100,000.

American can have either an economic safety net or open borders. We cannot do both.

The article concludes:

“The facts speak for themselves,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) said in a statement. “After passage of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, we saw a booming economy that raised wages by nearly five percent, with those in the bottom 10 percent seeing 50 percent more wage growth than those in the top ten percent.”

“The top one percent of earners paid more in taxes after its passage. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill builds on that success and delivers even greater tax relief, higher wages, and better economic growth – all of which will primarily benefit working families as will President Trump’s priorities of no tax on tips, overtime, and auto loan interest plus tax relief for seniors,” he said, adding, “The legislation doubles down on pro-growth, pro-family policies that directly benefit low- and middle-income families.”

Ultimately, he said the bill is a “win” for the working class.

Those of us in the working class appreciate the bill.

The Lawfare Continues

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about President Trump’s calling up the National Guard to help keep the peace in Los Angeles.

The article reports:

A lower court judge’s order instructing President Donald Trump to return control of 4,000 California National Guard troops he had federalized to Gov. Gavin Newsom was temporarily blocked late Thursday in the federal appeals court.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision does not mean the court will ultimately agree with Trump, but Reuters reports it does leave command of the Guard with the president for now.

CNBC notes U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer had ruled Trump’s action was “illegal,” but stayed his order from taking effect until 3 p.m. ET on Friday to allow the Trump administration to appeal.

The article concludes:

The White House had called Breyer’s original order “unprecedented” and said it “puts our brave federal officials in danger.”

“The district court has no authority to usurp the President’s authority as Commander in Chief,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.

“The President exercised his lawful authority to mobilize the National Guard to protect federal buildings and personnel in Gavin Newsom’s lawless Los Angeles. The Trump Administration will immediately appeal this abuse of power and looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”

What might be the motive of anyone to allow a city to burn?

You might consider the definition of a color revolution:

A color revolution, often referred to as a colored revolution, is a series of non-violent protests and demonstrations that often lead to regime change in a country. These revolutions are characterized by the adoption of specific colors as symbols of the movement, and they have been observed in various countries, particularly in post-Soviet states. 

The American CIA has, unfortunately, used the technique of a color revolution overseas many times. Generally speaking, the people they have put in power have not turned out to be successful in any positive way.

They Didn’t Do Their Job; Their Mandate Will Not Be Renewed

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, was established by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426. Their mission was to confirm Hezbollah demilitarization, support Lebanese army operations against insurgents and weapon smuggling, and confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, in order to ensure that the government of Lebanon would restore its effective authority in the area. Obviously, the demilitarization of Lebanon never happened. UNIFIL was an expert at ignoring Hezbollah hiding rocket launchers in houses and firing rockets at Israel.

On Sunday, Breitbart reported:

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will leave southern Lebanon later this year after the United States votes against renewing its mandate in an upcoming United Nations Security Council vote.

The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday:

The United States and Israel agreed that  United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) must cease its operations in southern Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post confirmed Sunday, following reports.

The American administration has decided not to renew UNIFIL’s mandate, and Israel reportedly “did not try to convince them otherwise.”

The vote on the mandate in the United Nations Security Council is expected to occur within a few months.

UNIFIL, which has operated in the area for nearly half a century, was notorious for ignoring willful violations of ceasefires with Israel by Hezbollah terrorists, who turned southern Lebanon into a launchpad for attacks.

During the recent war between Israel and Lebanon, Israel published evidence that Hezbollah operated near UNIFIL posts, knowing that Israel would be condemned if it fired back and caused damage to UN facilities.Given the proximity and brazenness with which Hezbollah operated near UNIFIL posts, it was impossible to believe that the United Nations forces did not know about, and tacitly agree to, Hezbollah’s activities there.

It has been obvious for years that the United Nations is not a friend of Israel. One of the major voting blocs in the United Nations is the The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Wikipedia (a source I don’t generally recommend) describes this organization as an intergovernmental organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states, primarily Muslim-majority countries. It aims to represent the collective voice of the Muslim world and safeguard the interests of Muslims while promoting international peace and harmony.

They do not promote international peace and harmony–their goal is to institute worldwide Sharia Law. They would like to destroy Israel along the way. That is one of many reasons that UNIFIL was not inclined to fulfill its stated mission.

If You Provide Uplifting Entertainment, They Will Come

On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the Kennedy Center in Washington.

The Kennedy Center has recently been moving toward more family-friendly entertainment.

The article reports:

The Kennedy Center began the month of June by debuting the Angel Studios hit film “The King of Kings,” an animated movie that goes through the life of Jesus. It comes after a week’s worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights ahead of the World Pride festival in Washington, D.C. were canceled

The Center held two showings of the film on June 1 as part of its effort to revamp its family-focused programming to include more faith-based content. Both shows were a “huge success” and the event’s prayer wall was “completely full,” a spokesperson for The Kennedy Center told Breitbart News.

“Both shows completely SOLD OUT, proving what Kennedy Center President Ambassador Richard Grenell has been saying all along — the American people want to see more family-friendly programming,” the spokesperson said. 

The article concludes:

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump pledged to reform The Kennedy Center, and he ultimately replaced its board and appointed himself chairman. He also asked Special Envoy Grenell to serve as the Center’s president.

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump posted to Truth Social in February. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”

We need a cultural revival in America. It’s time we stopped feeding people junk and started feeding them entertainment that will encourage, enlighten, and provide a positive outlook on life. Politics flows from the culture, so a positive cultural change would go a long way toward healing the problems and divides in our country.

Unfortunately, Congressmen Don’t Face Consequences For Lying

On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) comments about President Donald Trump’s economy and the Republicans’ proposed changes to Medicaid and Obamacare spending. Unfortunately, those comments were not based on facts.

The article reports:

Speaking on the Mornings with Zerlina radio show last Thursday, Jeffries repeated the already-debunked lie that “about 13.7 million people will be flown off their health care” due to the reconciliation bill the House passed last month, which is now under the consideration of the Senate. 

…Jeffries went on to allege that “people are going to die” if the budget passes the Senate. As if that wasn’t enough for these extremists.”

Despite his outlandish claims about the bill — which found $880 billion in savings by making various changes and cuts to Medicaid — the New York Times had already admitted that the 13.7 million figure was exaggerated by millions. 

The outlet reported on May 13 that the “real number” of Americans set to lose their health insurance under the new proposed budget “is about 8.6 million,” though dozens of left-wing lawmakers — including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) — have all repeated the falsehood. 

Why are they losing their health insurance–because they were not entitled to it in the first place!

The article notes:

Proposed changes to the taxpayer-funded healthcare system include increased checks to verify eligibility for Medicaid, as the program suffers from massive waste, fraud, and abuse. 

According to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), over 1.4 million illegal aliens are on Medicaid. 

A recent study found that Medicaid doled out $1.1 trillion in improper payments over the last decade, Breitbart News reported.

Jeffries continued, “Of course, costs haven’t gone down. They’re going up. Inflation is on the way up, stock market is collapsing. They’re crashing the economy in real time, driving us toward a recession. Interest rates remain stubbornly high. They haven’t.”

Those claims are easily debunked by recent numbers from multiple outlets, including a Breitbart News report revealing that core inflation has fallen to the lowest rate in four years. 

According to USA Today, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that inflation eased to a 4-year low in April as Trump’s tariffs took effect. 

Axios reported on May 15 that “hard data” suggests the fears of tariff-driven inflation and recession from the Democrats “may be overblown.”

As Yahoo Finance reported on May 13, the price of eggs “tanked” by 12.7 percent on a monthly basis in April — its largest month-over-month drop since March 1984.

If your news source is reporting the scare tactics used by the Democrat party as fact, you need to find a new news source!

This Isn’t Going To Help Me Sleep At Night

On Monday, Breitbart reported that Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make three nuclear weapons. I think we are rapidly reaching the time when the negotiations need to stop and action needs to be taken. There are many Muslims who believe that they can hasten the return of their Messianic figure, the Mahdi, by creating chaos. You really do not what someone who is thinking in those terms to have a nuclear weapon.

The article reports:

A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) whose contents were revealed by multiple international media outlets this weekend expressed “serious concern” with the rapid rate of Iran’s uranium enrichment, which it reportedly claimed was enough to make one nuclear bomb a month in the past three months.

I suspect that part of the reason behind the rapid rate of uranium enrichment in Iran is the election of President Trump. The Iranians knew that as long as President Biden was in office, there were not going to be any serious restrictions on their nuclear program and that America would not support Israel in ending that program with a physical or cyber attack. President Trump does not think the way the Biden administration thought.

The article concludes:

Iranian officials dismissed reports of the IAEA’s disappointment with the country, insisting it would under no circumstances abandon enrichment. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei insisted that the IAEA report was “politically motivated” and dismissed all data on Iran’s enrichment as fabricated by Israel.

“He also noted that any nuclear agreement must include the continuation of Iran’s uranium enrichment activities and an end to cruel sanctions against the nation,” the Iranian state outlet PressTV said, paraphrasing Baghaei.

The head of Iran’s nuclear energy agency, Mohammad Eslami, similarly proclaimed on Sunday that Iran would never stop its illicit enrichment, despite legitimate concerns that it has no reason to be enriching the material at such a high level if it is seeking only to develop a nuclear energy program.

“No one can claim Iran has no right to enrichment, because this matter falls within its own specific frameworks and requirements,” Eslami reportedly stated, arguing that calling for Iran to stop enrichment weapons-grade uranium was akin to banning the country from building power plants.

Iran does not need nuclear power. They have enough oil to power their country for centuries. When dealing with Iran, we need to consider the practice of taqiyya, which is generally described as lying for the sake of Islam. It’s hard to negotiate with people who do not feel obligated to tell you the truth.

The Trump Presidency And Your Wallet

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the impact of the Trump economy on personal income.

The article reports:

Americans’ personal income in the first four months of 2025 is “almost triple the expectations,” making for a “great” start of the year, CNBC’s Rick Santelli exclaimed on the air, urging viewers to “give credit” to the Trump administration.

The longtime CNBC editor revealed the “powerful” numbers on Friday morning, sharing that personal income increased 0.8 percent in April. 

“This is a great four-month start to any year,” he said.

“When you look at income, for the first four months of the year, they’re powerful numbers — up 0.6 in January, up 0.7 in February, up 0.5 last month, up 0.8 this month. This is a great four-month start to any year.”

Santelli also lauded the fact that 0.8 percent is the “strongest” income month-over-month jump since May 2021, when it was 1.9 percent.

He went on to lament how the Trump administration is “criticized for just about anything under the sun,” despite the president’s “transparency” and positive accomplishments.

The article concludes:

“This administration is criticized for just about anything under the sun. I’ve never ever in my lifetime had glimpses into the politics of an administration in the form of transparency like this one. Why don’t we… give credit where credit is due?”

Part of the reason for the increase in consumer spending power is the lowering of the rate of inflation.

On Friday, The Daily Caller reported:

President Donald Trump achieved an economic victory after a prominent inflation reading dropped to its lowest reading in four years.

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, one of The Federal Reserve’s primary inflation measurement models, showed a decrease in inflation in April 2025 to a level not seen since March 2021, according to a Commerce Department report.

The index, which measures goods and services spending, showed an increase of $47.8 billion, or 0.2%, with major gains in housing and health care the report stated.

In April, the PCE and Core PCE, which measures without noting volatile food and energy prices, both rose by only 0.1% from the previous month, according to the report. The consumer price index also indicated a drop in inflation to a four-year low as well, with a seasonal adjusted 0.2% in April, as reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation earlier this month.

This is the economic relief Americans needed. If Congress would just pass the spending cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Americans would enjoy more financial freedom.

I Don’t Think This Is What The Founding Fathers Had In Mind

On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about how some of the White House staff under President Biden viewed their jobs.

The article reports:

A former aide to President Joe Biden said White House staff felt justified doing “undemocratic things” in order to stop the “existential threat” that was Donald Trump.

Axios reporter Alex Thompson revealed on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream that White House insiders revealed to him they often viewed themselves as the decision makers in the Biden administration and were shielded from the president’s oversight.

“If you believe — and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe — that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy, you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things,” Thompson said.

Another aide also reportedly told Thompson that former President Biden “just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years.”

“He’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while,” Thompson said the aide told him. “His aides could pick up the slack.”

“When you’re voting for president, you’re voting for the aides around him,” the aide said.

No, actually you are voting for the president and his policies. So who is the threat to our democracy (actually we are a republic)?

It is concerning to me that a group of unelected people who are supposed to be aiding the President in his job would take it upon themselves to take over the job of President.

I think it’s time for our schools to start teaching the U.S. Constitution.

The Predictions Were Wrong Again

The doom and gloom crowd is just not happy with the Trump economy. It isn’t really the Trump economy yet–he has only been in office four months, but he has definitely made some moves that have impacted the economy.

On Friday, Breitbart reported:

The economy keeps failing to live up to claims by critics of the Trump administration that the economy is teetering on a recession.

Sales of new single-family homes surged in April, with the pace of sales rising to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 743,000 units, the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Friday. That’s a 10.9 percent increase from March and 3.3 percent above the level from a year earlier, though both comparisons fall within margins of error that leave statistical significance uncertain.

The South and Midwest regions led the gains, with sales up 11.7 percent and 35.5 percent, respectively, from March. The Northeast, by contrast, saw a sharp 14.8 percent monthly decline in sales.

The April numbers mark the fastest sales pace since early 2023 and suggest some resilience in the new home market, even as mortgage rates remain elevated and affordability continues to be a headwind.

We are getting to the end of the baby boomer retirement years. The youngest baby boomer is now about 61 years old. How much of the increased new home sales in the South and the Midwest is the result of the boomers retiring and moving to places where the weather is better and the cost of living lower?

The article concludes:

The data show continued strength in mid-range price tiers, with homes priced between $300,000 and $499,999 accounting for just over half of April’s sales. Homes under $300,000 made up only about 15 percent of the market.

Upward Revisions and Regional Divergence

With this release, the Census Bureau revised seasonally adjusted figures going back to January 2020, a move that slightly adjusted trends in past months. Regionally, the year-over-year picture remains mixed: the Midwest and South posted modest gains from April 2024, while the Northeast and West saw declines.

The new home market continues to reflect a bifurcated economy, with demand supported by new household formation and limited resale inventory, but constrained by affordability challenges and financing costs.

As energy costs come down, and people have a bit of wiggle room in their budgets, I suspect we will see the housing market do very well in the areas of the country with a reasonable cost of living.

It’s Only A Problem When President Trump Does It!

On Saturday, Breitbart posted an article about the airplane Qatar is giving to America to replace Air Force One. It seems that this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision by Qatar.

The article reports:

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) pointed out that talks regarding Qatar giving the United States a plane to temporarily replace Air Force One began under the Biden administration.

In an interview on CNN, Mullin pointed out that the U.S. needed a temporary replacement for Air Force One since President Donald Trump was “flying around on a 40-year-old plane.”

“Here’s what’s interesting to me, what the media isn’t telling you — what no one’s talking to you about, is the same 747 has been in negotiations for a year,” Mullin said. “The Biden administration is the one that started these conversations. It didn’t start underneath the Trump administration. Why? Because we need a back-up for Air Force One.”

“The President of the United States is flying around on a 40-year-old plane, and there is no back-up for it,” Mullin continued. “The back-up we had, the air frame started having structural issues. No one’s discussing that part.”

The article concludes:

Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s Media Attaché to the U.S., previously described reports that Qatar was gifting a plane to the U.S. during Trump’s visit to Qatar as “inaccurate” and said the “possible transfer” of a plane to the U.S. was “under consideration.”

“Reports that a jet is being gifted by Qatar to the United States government during the upcoming visit of President Trump are inaccurate,” Al-Ansari said in a statement. “The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made.”

As usual, the political left is creating much ado about nothing.

I Love The Welcome Saudi Arabia Gave To President Trump

On Tuesday, Red State reported the following:

President Donald Trump rolled out his favorite songs, “Y.M.C.A.” and “God Bless the USA,” during his speech in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, and those in attendance loved it.

On Tuesday, Trump attended the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh and spoke to a room full of Saudi business investors with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, in attendance. President Trump spoke about America’s plans for success under his administration and his vision for a peaceful and prosperous Middle East.

Trump opened his speech with Lee Greenwood’s famous patriotic song playing. As the entire song played, the president stood on the stage before he took to the podium.

And as the final line in the song, “God Bless the USA” played, those in attendance went crazy.

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy said the audience, made up of prominent businessmen from Saudi Arabia and the U.S., “didn’t take their seats” during the entire song.

After his speech, the president was joined on stage by the Saudi Crown Prince as the Village People’s 1978 hit “Y.M.C.A.” played in the background. Those in the room gave the president a standing ovation.

There is a lot going on here. The Saudis were ostracized during the Biden administration. The Biden administration simply could not overlook the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a prominent dissident and critic of the Saudi government. He is also alleged to have had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that during the Arab Spring was planning to bring down the House of Saud and takeover Saudi Arabia. The plan was to turn the countries in the Middle East that were ruled by dictators into countries run by the Muslim Brotherhood. For a short time, they were successful in Egypt. Considering the relationship between the Biden administration and the Obama administration (which supported the Arab Spring), the Biden administration’s attitude toward the Saudis was not surprising.

During President Trump’s visit, the Saudis also set up a mobile McDonald’s at a press center for covering the event in Riyadh, an apparent nod to the president’s love of the burger restaurant. (article posted at Breitbart)

What we saw in Saudi Arabia was the equivalent of the ostracized middle school student being asked to sit at the ‘cool’ kids’ table at lunch.

A Short Note On The Kentucky Derby

On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about this year’s Kentucky Derby. The article noted that all of the horses in the Derby were descendants of Secretariat.

The article reports:

Every horse that ran the 151st Kentucky Derby on Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky, is reportedly descended from one American champion.

Pedigrees apparently show those horses are descended from Secretariat, the horse that in 1973 ran the fastest mile-and-a-quarter in the derby’s history, the Louisville Courier Journal reported Saturday.

Looking back six generations of most horses will reportedly show they are descended from a champion such as Secretariat or Northern Dancer, the outlet said.

According to derby contending trainer Whit Beckman, “It’s one of those stats. It’s bound to happen at some point with how much he shows up in every single pedigree. It’s really cool. Very cool.”

Secretariat was a thoroughbred racehorse that became the first in 25 years to win the Triple Crown in 1973, per History.com. According to the site:

In 1974, Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was the only non-human included among ESPN’s 50 greatest athletes of the century and he became the first thoroughbred to be honored with his own U.S. Postal stamp. Outside the paddock at Belmont Park now stands a statue of Secretariat with both his front feet in the air.

An article in HorseyHooves in June 2023 listed a number of interesting facts about Secretariat.

This is the fact that I thought was the most interesting:

Not only was Secretariat was known for being kind-hearted, but he also had a big heart in the literal sense.

After Secretariat was euthanized on October 4, 1989, at the age of 19, veterinarian Thomas Swerczek performed a necropsy. Swerczek discovered that Secretariat’s heart weighed between 21-22 pounds, two and a half times bigger than an average horse heart.

“We just stood there in stunned silence. We couldn’t believe it. The heart was perfect. There were no problems with it. It was just this huge engine,” said Dr. Swerczek.

That might have had something to do with his incredible performance on the racetrack.

This Is Wonderful News

On Sunday, Breitbart reported:

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced the closure of the agency’s last remaining beagle experiment lab over the weekend after former NIH physician Dr. Anthony Fauci’s horrific beagle-testing scandal was exposed.

“It’s very easy, for instance, to cure Alzheimer’s in mice. But those things don’t translate to humans,” Bhattacharya told Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy on Sunday:

…“So we put forward a policy to replace animals in research with technological advances, AI and other tools, that actually translate better to human health.”

When he made the announcement that “We got rid of all of the beagle experiments on NIH campus,” Campus-Duffy said, “Amen.”

NIH confirmed the move on social media, saying it has enacted an “initiative to expand innovative, human-based science while reducing animal use in research, including getting rid of all the beagle experiments on the NIH campus.”

A years-long investigation by medical watchdog group White Coat Waste revealed that the NIH killed over 2,100 beagles in “brutal septic shock experiments” since 1986.

The article concludes:

The Trump administration has been stepping away from animal testing within other agencies as well, with animal rights group PETA praising the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for “helping spare tens of thousands of animals each year.”

There are better ways of gathering information than torturing animals. The experiments carried out on beagles during the time Dr. Fauci was in charge were horrific. I am truly glad to see experiments on animals end. Scientists need to find better ways to collect the information they need.

The Numbers Tell The Story

A few days ago, the mainstream media was melting down because the GDP for the first quarter of 2025 had dropped .3%. In decimal, that’s .003. That’s hardly a significant number. Meanwhile, some of the other first-quarter statistics are coming in, and they tell a rather different story.

On May 2, Breitbart reported:

Employers in the United States added 177,000 workers to their payrolls in April, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, defying predictions of labor market sluggishness following President Trump’s announcement of tariffs.

Economists had been expecting 130,000 jobs and an unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2 percent. The prior month’s jobs figure was revised down to 185,000 from 228,000

The strength in hiring came from the private sector, which added 167,000 jobs. Economists had expected private employers to add just 125,000 workers. This was nearly unchanged from the downwardly revised 170,000 jobs added in March.

The labor market drew in more workers, growing the supply of labor in April. The participation rate rose to 62.6 percent from 62.5 in the previous month. The number of people employed in the month rose by 436,000 to 163,944,000.

The average workweek expanded to 34.3 hours from 34.2 hours, a sign that employer demand for labor grew in the month. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 percent. Compared with a year ago, average earnings are up 3.8 percent, significantly higher than the 2.4 percent gain in the consumer price index through March.

The rising wages combined with the falling inflation rate are good news for Americans. Most of us are seeing very nice changes at the gas pump. The job growth is in the private sector. Since President Trump took office, federal payrolls have contracted by 26,000. When the private sector grows, the economy grows.

According to the Government Executive Website:

President Biden has overseen a nearly 6% growth of the full-time, non-seasonal federal workforce during his four years in office, including a jump at nearly every major agency.

Most American consumers are very happy with the changes President Trump has made during his first 110 days.

Actions Have Consequences

The idea of renewable energy sounds wonderful–sunlight should be endless, and wind should be endless. Unfortunately, the sun does not shine all of the time, and the wind does not blow all of the time. That could (and did) create a problem.

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported the following:

Spain’s power network has remained silent on the actual cause of Europe’s worst power blackout in a generation, but has acknowledged that it is “very possible” that a problem with solar power systems may have contributed to the failure.

A freak weather incident was blamed on Monday for a massive power cut that affected the entire Iberian Peninsula, depriving Spain and Portugal of electricity. However, this narrative was quickly questioned by energy industry insiders, and Spain’s national energy company now acknowledges that renewable power failure may have been a contributing factor.

Red Eléctrica (RE), the national energy grid firm, has stated that it has ruled out a cyberattack and insists, “We were able to conclude that there was indeed no intrusion into Red Eléctrica’s control system,” despite the national counter-terrorism prosecutor ordering an inquiry. Judge José Luis Calama has given RE and the national cyber-security centre ten days to compile initial reports into the sabotage hypothesis, reports El País.

While the Spanish media is today full of the effects of yesterday’s total blackout, with 150,000 having to be rescued from underground trains trapped in tunnels and whole areas, including hospitals, left without water as the electric-powered pumps fell silent, the public unable to buy food and drink unless they had ready cash to hand, and telephone and internet networks being rendered non-functional, less is being said about how the crisis began.

The article notes:

A report on the importance of inertia in a functioning power grid cited by Porter in turn quoted the United Kingdom’s National Grid Electricity System Operator, who explained in 2022: “Operating the system with low inertia will continue to represent a key operational challenge into the future and we will need to ensure we improve our understanding of the challenges this will bring”.

That report, published by a supplier of clutches for power stations, noted: “Renewable generation is increasingly displacing conventional generation in the generation mix, reducing the amount of heavy, rotating turbines on the grid and therefore the amount of inertia they provide.”

These fragilities are not unknown to the electricity industry, and much has been written on the challenges of transition to renewable power. Yet Bloomberg’s Blas wrote just last week that it has only been comparatively recently that the green energy lobby has even acknowledged such problems, having taken the position in the past that any criticism of green energy systems was motivated by cynicism and ideological opposition, rather than what he called “electricity realism” and real concern about grid resilience.

…Naturally, political attention throughout Europe has turned to the Iberian blackout, particularly as left-leaning governments strive to catch up with Spain in what they call decarbonising their own energy grids. In the United Kingdom, where the government says it wants to reach “Net Zero carbon emissions” by 2050 and wants to achieve this without importing slave-labour-linked solar panels from China, Green Great Reset sceptics have spoken out on the need for a pause and rethink in the light of this week’s events.

Brexit’s Nigel Farage, who is already styling himself as a Prime Minister in waiting and who is cruising towards what pollsters say may be a convincing election victory in nationwide local government contests this week, said on Tuesday morning that “the power outage in Spain is a warning”. The United Kingdom is dangerously reliant on foreign energy imports, he said, stating: “This net zero madness must end”.

Things that work in theory don’t always work in practice.

One Financial Impact Of Illegal Immigration

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the medical cost of illegal immigration in Texas.

The article reports:

Texas taxpayers paid nearly $122 million to provide Healthcare to illegal migrants in November alone, says the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

The Texas HSHC is reporting that the costs to the state for health care for illegal migrants has topped $121.8 million in unpaid care in just the month of November alone. And that estimate is probably low.

In its report, the HHSC reported that non-citizens utilized hospitals in the Lone Star State more than 31,000 time during November of last year.

The data was taken from the state’s new reporting requirements mandated by an executive order that went into effect last August.

“The executive order directs Texas hospitals to provide HHSC quarterly reports on patients who are not lawfully present in the U.S.,” the report noted, “including the number of inpatient discharges, emergency department visits, and the cost of care provided to these patients.”

However, the estimate of expenses is probably low because the data is predicated on the number of patients who answer questions about their immigration status on hospital intake forms and some migrants won’t answer the questions.

The article notes”

Still, this is the first report of its kind in Texas and if every month is similar going forward, the yearly total would approach $1.46 billion per year.

American (or Texas) taxpayers simply cannot afford that.

I am not opposed to people receiving medical care when they need it, but we all know that when something is free, it tends to be overused or abused. I wonder how much of the care received should have been in a hospital or could have been taken care of in a much less expensive setting. That being said, people who are here illegally need to be sent back to where they came from to receive medical care. Or, the countries they came from need to pay the bill.

What Do You Want Your Children Reading?

What do you want your children reading, and should you have a say in the books introduced in their classrooms?

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported:

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments Tuesday over the religious rights of parents in Maryland to remove their children from elementary school classes using storybooks with LGBTQ characters.

The case is the latest dispute involving religion to come before the conservative-led court. The justices have repeatedly endorsed claims of religious discrimination in recent years.

The Montgomery County public schools, in suburban Washington, D.C., introduced the storybooks as part of an effort to better reflect the district’s diverse population.

Parents sued after the school system stopped allowing them to pull their kids from lessons that included the books. The parents argue that public schools cannot force kids to participate in instruction that violates their faith, and they pointed to the opt-out provisions in sex education classes.

The schools said allowing children to opt out of the lessons had become disruptive. Lower courts backed the schools, prompting the parents’ appeal to the Supreme Court.

Five books are at issue in the high court case, touching on the same themes found in classic stories that include Snow White, Cinderella and Peter Pan, the school system’s lawyers wrote.

In “Prince and Knight,” two men fall in love after they rescue the kingdom, and each other. In “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” a niece worries that her uncle will not have as much time for her after he gets married. His partner is a man.

“Love, Violet” deals with a girl’s anxiety about giving a valentine to another girl. “Born Ready” is the story of a transgender boy’s decision to share his gender identity with his family and the world. “Intersection Allies” describes nine characters of varying backgrounds, including one who is gender-fluid.

I might be a whole lot more sympathetic to the school’s case if I thought they were actually teaching the children things like arithmetic and classical literature instead of this garbage. In elementary school there are much better things for children to read.

This case is part of the ongoing battle over whether parents or the state are in charge of children. The case is also one of many reasons attendance in public schools in declining in favor of homeschooling and private schools. If schools do not want to lose the majority of their students, they will stop this nonsense.

The First 100 Days

On Monday, Breitbart posted an interview of Hugh Hewitt on the subject of President Trump’s first 100 days. Hugh Hewitt is a Salem Radio Network host. He is also a lawyer a former official in the Reagan administration, the former president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, a law professor at Chapman University School of Law, a former columnist for The Washington Post, and a regular political commentator on Fox News.

The article reports:

As April 30 approaches — the date that marks President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office — establishment media conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt sat down with PragerU CEO Marissa Streit to examine the start of the president’s second term, noting that he is “amused by the people who say [Trump] is reckless,” given that in reality, the president is “determined” to reestablish basic concepts of the U.S. Constitution that have been “abandoned” by the left.

“I am amused by the people who say he’s reckless,” Hewitt said told Streit, adding, “He is determined to force through the courts challenges to the basic structure of the constitution that were abandoned in the progressive era and then left far behind during the New Deal.”

“The three great expansions of the government occurs with Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and LBJ,” Hewitt explained. “That’s 100 years of growth, and 100 years of abusing the original design of the constitution, which is small, limited, enumerated powers.”

“To get that back, [President Trump]’s launched a thousand ships,” he added. “Even if ten of them make it to the other side, we’ll be in a much better position.”

“Right now, we’re in the trifecta: a Republican president who’s aligned with the House and the Senate,” Hewitt noted. “And when you’re in the trifecta, you can get two — and some people argue, three — reconciliations through.”

Hewitt elaborated:

The first reconciliation, which is moving its way through, is the extension of the Trump tax cuts, and their refinement: no tax on tips and a couple other things. Energy production relief, defense buildup of $150 billion, and the fourth part is the border wall — border security. That, we’ll eventually get through.

Then there will be more opportunities. If they are smart, they will focus on empowering the executive to take control of the executive branch, meaning that independent agencies are no longer “independent.” They can move fast, they can break things, they can change regulations.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. Hugh Hewitt’s assessment of the current situation and the things to come is very insightful.

Things Are Changing Very Quickly

On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about one of the changes the Trump administration has made regarding the Panama Canal.

The article reports:

… Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had one mission on his trip to Panama — to secure a deal to get “first and free” passage for U.S. ships in the Panama Canal, a critical waterway for the United States’ economy and military that was at risk of falling under China’s control.

As the secretary and his team flew the down from Washington on Monday evening to meet with Panama’s leaders, such a deal with Panama was far from certain.

While the U.S. had built the canal in the early 1900s and maintained it for decades before handing it over to Panama, China had in recent years poured money into projects and infrastructure attached to it. As a passageway between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans that handles more than 40 percent of U.S. maritime trade, if China were able to close the canal, it would be a catastrophe for the U.S.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mission was a success:

On Wednesday, Hegseth delivered opening remarks at the conference, which was co-hosted by the U.S. and Panama.

It was there that Hegseth announced that the U.S. and Panama would sign a declaration providing a framework for U.S. warships and auxiliary ships to travel “first and free” through the canal, in a huge win for the U.S.

Hegseth and Abrego also agreed to an expanded partnership to secure the canal and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperative security activities between the U.S. and Panamanian militaries, which will see the increase of U.S. troops in Panama.

Asked by Breitbart News if he had accomplished everything he wanted to on the trip, a triumphant Hegseth responded, “This trip not only met but exceeded our expectations. A warm welcome from Panama. Great partnership. Spent a lot of time with their troops. I want to thank Panama for what they’ve done in the Darien Gap as well.”

This is a much needed move by the Trump administration.

The Numbers Keep Growing

On Saturday, Breitbart posted the latest numbers from the Department of Government Efficiency Audit (DOGE) of our federal government. It is very obvious that any oversight on government spending that was supposed to come from Congress or from various inspectors general has not happened.

The article reports:

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has saved U.S. taxpayers roughly $150 billion, according to the latest update.

DOGE updated its website again this week with the latest figures on massive savings for the American people. According to this update, U.S. taxpayer savings now reach $150 billion — up from $140 billion in the last update. That results in a savings of $931.68 per taxpayer.

…The latest wall of receipts displays 7,279 contract terminations totaling $25 billion in savings. For example, it shows a Department of the Interior contract listing Family Endeavors, Inc as the vendor. The description reads:

Office of Refugee Resettlement Influx Care Facility. Influx Care Facility (ICF) for up to 3,000 unaccompanied alien children (UAC). The contract provided facilities and full wraparound child care and case management services.

The cancellation of that contract resulted in $2,902,177,562 in savings, according to DOGE.

DOGE also showcases 9,283 grant terminations totaling $33 billion in savings, as well as 676 lease terminations totaling $400 million in savings.

At the time of this writing, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stood as the federal agency generating the most savings, followed by the Department of Education and General Services Administration. Those generating the least savings include the Department of Commerce, Department of Justice, and Department of Veterans Affairs.

How has this waste and fraud continued for so many years without someone becoming aware of it and doing something about it?

One Problem With America’s Financial Situation

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about some of the abuses in Medicaid, food stamps and income tax returns.

The article reports:

A bombshell report from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed that migrants on the federal government’s “Terrorist Watch List” were able to secure Medicaid after being released into the United States by former President Joe Biden’s administration.

According to DOGE officials, about 6,300 of Biden’s migrants — paroled into the U.S. interior with no immigration status — were either on the Terrorist Watch List or had criminal records and yet were still rewarded work permits and Social Security numbers.

The DOGE report found that 905 of the migrants, including four on the Terrorist Watch List, had been collecting Medicaid benefits totaling $276,000 in American taxpayer dollars. Another 41 were collecting unemployment benefits totaling $42,000.

Similarly, 22 of the migrants received tax refunds in 2024 totaling $751,000 and several more received food stamp benefits.

That’s more than a million dollars that taxpayers should not have had to spend. Americans cannot afford to continue giving money to people who are not American citizens.

As Milton Friedman once stated (article here):

A decade ago, Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman admonished the Wall Street Journal for its idée fixe on open-border immigration policy. “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state,” he warned. This remark adds insight to the current debate over immigration in the U.S. Senate.

The article concludes:

This week, DOGE official Antonio Gracias said not only were Biden’s parole migrants taking taxpayer-funded benefits like Medicaid, but thousands were found on a handful of states’ voter rolls.

“We looked at voter rolls and we found that thousands are registered to vote in friendly states. And we looked even further in those friendly states and found that many of those people had actually voted,” Gracias said. “It was shocking to us. If I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it … it is shockingly bad.”

The people who voted illegally need to be deported. They have broken the law in coming here illegally, and they have broken the law by voting.

Didn’t These People See Jurassic Park?

On Wednesday, Breitbart reported that a group of scientists in Texas had successfully genetically engineered three dire wolf cubs. This is a breed of wolf that went extinct 10,000 years ago. The wolf breed is distantly related to the grey wolf, but considerably larger.

The article reports:

Podcast king Joe Rogan was blown away by the comeback of the dire wolf as he spoke to Ben Lamm, the co-founder of a company that has used genetic sequencing to give birth to three wolves with genetic relations to an animal that hasn’t been seen for 10,000 years.

The company Colossal Biosciences has wowed the world after using science to recreate the DNA of the dire wolf before bringing the legendary creature back to life in three animals named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi.

The article describes the wolves:

“They have this super thick fur, their tail is a little longer, they are taller. They’re 80 pounds right now, and a typical wolf is somewhere between 75 and 100 pounds, for a male, and that’s kind of on the high side. These will probably be 140 pounds, which is what we think. They are also significantly more muscular,” he said.

“Obviously, they’re Arctic white as well,” Lamm added. “You’ll see one of the things that we didn’t know is that we found in the genome that they are white. We did a lot of computational analysis and had a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 73,000-year-old skull. So, we had about 50,000 years of genetic divergence, so you could find things like coat colors and differences in their coat, which we engineered in. We didn’t know what those differences were going to look like, but when you see them, they almost have this mane to them.”

Colossal Biosciences insists that they next want to begin work on reviving long-lost species including the woolly mammoth, the dodo, and the Tasmanian tiger.

I am not totally comfortable with this idea. I remember the ‘don’t mess with mother nature’ commercials!

This Is Necessary, But It Shouldn’t Be

In North Carolina, we still don’t have the results from the state’s Supreme Court election in 2024. At issue are 60,000 ballots that were not properly or completely filled out. I don’t like the idea of disenfranchising people, but ballots should be properly filled out in order to be counted.

On Friday, Breitbart reported:

A North Carolina appeals court has ruled that more than 60,000 voters who voted in the state’s Supreme Court election in November 2024 must verify that they are eligible to vote.

The ruling from the appeals court ordering “more than 65,000 voters” to prove their eligibility comes after Judge Jefferson Griffin, who ran against North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs in November, challenged the results of the election, according to NBC News.

Per the outlet, voters “now have 15 business days to provide state elections officials with the necessary proof of identity that would verify their votes,” and voters who do not respond “will not have their votes counted in the race.”

“The inclusion of even one unlawful ballot in a vote total dilutes the lawful votes and ‘effectively disenfranchises’ lawful voters,” the panel of three judges wrote. “Post-election protests protect against this risk of vote dilution by enabling candidates and voters to rigorously investigate the election process, identify and challenges unlawful ballots, and ensure those ballots are not counted.”

Including an unlawful ballot is just as bad as not including a valid ballot. We need to get our elections squared away.

The article notes:

Griffin’s “legal argument centers on a claim” thousands of people who voted in the election “were ineligible to vote, mostly because they did not provide proof of identity,” through either a Social Security number or a driver’s license, according to the New York Times.

North Carolina has voter ID laws. Those laws need to be followed.

More Good News From Argentina

Argentina is a beautiful example of what happens when a freedom loving President is elected and allowed to do what he promised to do.

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported:

Argentina’s poverty rate dropped from 52.9 percent to 38.1 percent during the second half of 2024, according to new data by the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC).

Local outlets reported that INDEC, a decentralized entity within the Argentine Economic Ministry, observed a nationwide decrease in poverty and indigence (extreme poverty) rates during the last six months of 2024. During that time period, poverty fell 14.8 percentage points and 8.2 percent of the population was documented living below the extreme poverty line.

Argentina’s Radio Mitre stated that the government of President Javier Milei managed to improve the country’s situation in comparison to 2023, the last year of the disastrous socialist administration of former president and suspected domestic abuser Alberto Fernández. According to INDEC’s report, there are roughly 18 million Argentines living in conditions of poverty.

The article concludes:

Upon taking office in December 2023 as Argentina’s first libertarian President, Milei began implementing a series of “shock therapy” economic measures to help avert a collapse of the nation’s economy after the administration of Alberto Fernández pushed Argentina to the brink of complete economic ruin.

Milei’s policies successfully lowered Argentina’s runaway inflation. In January, Argentina logged its lowest inflation rates in five years, going from 25.5 percent at the start of Milei’s administration to 2.2 percent that month. In February, the inflation rate in Argentina was measured at 2.4 percent. INDEC is expected to release March’s inflation rate report in mid-April.

America could be enjoying the same financial blessings if the courts would get out of the way.

Good Economic News

On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article reporting some economic news that looks good for the direction of the American economy.

The article reports:

Orders for durable goods rose far above expectations in February, climbing 0.9 percent to $289.3 billion, according to the Commerce Department’s report released Wednesday.

Economists had forecast a 1.0 percent decline, but instead, businesses continued to invest heavily in big-ticket items, particularly automobiles, computers, and machinery.

Even excluding transportation, which can be volatile due to large aircraft orders, new orders increased by 0.7 percent, exceeding the forecast of a 0.3 percent gain. The strength of the overall durable goods orders report is further demonstrated by robust gains in key categories.

Auto orders were notably strong, with orders for motor vehicles and parts rising 4.0 percent. Shipments of motor vehicles and parts also surged by 3.9 percent, indicating strong demand from consumers and businesses alike.

The decline of 0.3 percent in core capital goods orders—non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft—appears to be a pullback following the strong 0.9 percent gain in January. This decline also undermines claims that businesses are rushing to buy equipment ahead of potential tariffs. Even with February’s decline, core capital goods orders are still up by 7.3 percent year-to-date, indicating that business investment remains robust.

The article concludes:

The durable goods report is the latest piece of so-called “hard data” that indicate actual economic activity continues to expand despite “soft data”—such as consumer and business surveys—indicating anxiety over policy uncertainty and tariffs. Earlier this week, the Commerce Department reported new home sales rose solidly and inventories of new houses for sale increased. Last week, the Federal Reserve said industrial output climbed 0.7 percent in February, including a 0.9 percent rise in manufacturing output.

We have a businessman in the White House–not a professional politician. It makes a difference.