https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkZ5l5gXAAEC2Q-?format=jpg&name=large
I think this makes the point very well. Kudos to the Trump and Musk show.
Category: Current Events
Tom’s World – 22FEB2025 – DOGE, Blessed Be Their Name
I think it amusing/horrifying that the DIMs have finally identified their base principle, their hill to die on that MUST NOT be breached. DOGE has revealed the nature of that principle. And it is not DIE, open borders, green energy, climate change, transgender, etc., etc.
The hill that that they have chosen as the location for their apoplectic battle is the continuation of graft and corruption on the $trillion dollar scale.
Example from yesterdays news- Though it’s difficult, I’ll try not to get too pejorative here but that FAT ***** Black Georgia “woman”,Stacey Abrams, was in the news. DOGE (blessed be their name) uncovered that a PAC formed by Stacey a couple of months ago for environmental justice received a $2 billion (read $2 thousand million) grant from the nightmare Biden admin.
Understand that this PAC was 2 months old and had no employees and had a capitalization of $100 before the grant. Also understand that the grant had no conditions, no oversite, no monitoring, no auditing.
That precisely is the base principle of what the Dims have become and will “die” to protect.
How Miserable They’ll Be
How much damage can Donald Trump do to the Left in four years’ time? Well, a normal Republican president spends his four years basically trying to hold his own against the Deep State while all the Democrat cabinet officers take a four-year hiatus working in well-funded NGOs and cushy media jobs. And when the Democrats get back into the White House, they’ve had four years to map out the next wave of progressive boondoggles.
But Donald Trump is not your father’s Republican. He’s taking a wrecking ball to the US federal budget and firing everyone in sight. And as for those well-funded NGOs, well he’s defunding them. USAID was the first place Elon Musk went with DOGE. All those government funded think tanks and color revolution incubators are going to dry up without the millions and billions of dollars of federal slush money to fund their depravity. And even a bunch of left-wing “media” sites are going to be feeling the pinch without federal dollars.
And this time around even the mainstream media is hurting badly. CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and many others are laying off journalists and reporters by the hundred. There probably won’t be any spots opening up for unemployed CIA, FBI, NSA and other directors on their staffs and even less place for all the generals and colonels about to find themselves pounding the pavement.
And the same goes for lobbying jobs for defense contractors, banks, green energy scammers and pharma companies. The SEC and the FDA are going to crack down on the shenanigans, the green energy gravy train will be shut down and the DOD is going to be cancelling multi-billion-dollar weapons system contracts instead of starting new ones.
Put all that together and it spells disaster for the Left’s recession-proof game plan. In fact, it also spells disaster for Washington DC in general. Guess what happens to the national capitol if hundreds of thousands of jobs are cut and a trillion dollars is pulled out of the budget?
RECESSION!
Now, what would that look like? It would mean the laid-off bureaucrats would disperse across the country like cockroaches looking for jobs they were qualified for. But that’s the problem. They’re really not qualified for anything useful. They’re federal bureaucrats. They have no skills and they’re used to being unaccountable to management. No one would or could hire them. Their resumes are radioactive and they have the mark of Cain on their foreheads. Chances are they’ll end up in fast food or prostitution.
At the same time a reduction in the number of workers in DC will take its toll on the local businesses that support them; restaurants, clothes stores and gay bathhouses. Just as the rest of the country will be benefiting from an economic upturn, the Greater Washington area will be plunged into economic stagnation. Property values will plummet and crime will spiral out of control. Knowing President Trump’s penchant for quick decisive action, I predict he will move his team to a new capitol at Mar-a-Lago and let the old capitol sink back into the swamp where it came from.
But seriously, we’re about to get a four-year vacation from IRS audits, antifa and BLM rioting, foreign wars, LGBTQ innovations (pronouns, rainbow paraphernalia, etc.), mask-wearing bureaucrats and runaway energy prices. Four years of peace and quiet without the Left stirring up trouble will be like heaven itself. Sure, I’m exaggerating how perfect the relief will be but still it’s going to be plenty good. And one of the best things about it will be how miserable they’ll be.
How can you beat that?
Cruel and Unusual Punishment
This was a brutal week. Traveling, problems at work, family health issues, snow and ice removal and on and on and on. So of course, the week ends with my yearly trip to the tax accountant. But honestly it was kind of soothing. I’ve got a few business-related problems that have been gnawing at my mind for the last few months but I let it fester because I knew I could talk about them when I had my tax appointment. But in the last few weeks I’ve been getting some warning e-mails from the state so I was planning to do some research before the appointment to have all my ducks in a row. But all this jazz that’s gone on in the last week harpooned my good intentions and so I showed up at this meeting annoyed and worried. And my accountant, as all good accountants should, explained in a few short words what I had to do and told me to stop worrying about it and just put it to bed in February and I would never have to think about this situation for the rest of eternity. After that he told me that the reason I hadn’t gotten a document from one of the brokerage houses I have an account with is because they have until the 15th of February to mail it out and if I had waited another week to do my taxes, I’d have the form in hand. So, problems solved, headache soothed and fears dispelled. So, until next week there’s nothing but smooth sailing. Well, there are a few inches of snow predicted for tonight but that’s just so I don’t get bored.
And today, the Senate finally voted in Kash Patel as the next Director of the FBI. I’ve been waiting impatiently for this one for weeks. Only the loopy women Republican senators from Maine and Alaska voted against him. Even crooked old McConnell voted for Patel. Mitch announced he’s not running for reelection next year and probably wants to stay on Trump’s good side so he isn’t prosecuted for corruption. I think FBI Director is the last of the really important appointments left. At this point, Trump has his people in place to start getting things done.
The first clip I saw on Patel’s approval on YouTube was from MSNBC and so the tenor of the report was that Kash Patel would lead to the downfall of the United States because he was the actual devil. They had all these Democrat senators railing against Patel because he would subvert the mission of the FBI by weaponizing it against Donald Trump’s enemies. It was hilarious. The sheer scope of the projection they were transferring from Biden’s FBI to Patel was staggering. They swore up and down that Patel had a hit list of about sixty FBI agents that he would punish for their work against Trump. I don’t know if it was true but it made my mouth water just thinking of it! If only a quarter of what they say Patel has in mind comes true it would be a reason to celebrate.
I’m well aware that the US Constitution has an explicit statement prohibiting “cruel and unusual” punishment. But both words in this description are somewhat vague. I think all of Trump’s tormentors should lose all of their civil service benefits including pensions and be forced to work as janitorial cleaning staff at Trump properties at minimum wage for the rest of their lives or until Donald Trump thinks they’ve suffered enough. Only in that way can they truly learn the humility that comes with being a civil servant. Oh, and they should be forced to listen to an audio loop of Trump’s most memorable rally speeches during their hours of work. That should do it.
This Might Work
Congratulations to Kash Patel on his approval as FBI Director. The following is my recommendation for a training video for managers looking for best practices in how to re-orient and select from existing personnel in the Federal Bureau of Investigation going forward. It’s a master class in my opinion.
How Else Should DOGE Change America?
Up till now my thoughts on DOGE combing through the federal budget involved how much money could be stripped from the budget deficit. But something else occurs to me. In addition to the wasteful spending on hare-brained research projects and woke propaganda we will also learn which companies have benefitted most from government contracts (both defense and non-defense). And this list may explain the agendas some of these companies follow. For instance, how much money does Google get from the federal government. Does this money represent a significant part of Google’s revenues? Does it have any effect on the agenda that Google pursues? Also, if that agenda is biased against conservative individuals and corporations can the Trump administration dissuade Google from this agenda by threatening their government contracts?
Here I’m using Google as an example. For instance, defense contractors like Raytheon, Boeing, etc. depend for a very large chunk of their income on defense contracts. They are beholden to the DoD for their very existence. Forcing them to drop practices and attitudes that clash with the directives of the Trump administration is assured to work. Using this kind of approach, it seems that great inroads can be made in the private sector. Law suits, audits of corporate documents and whistle-blower activity could go a long way in de-woke-ifying much of the corporations that do significant business with the federal government.
Next up would be lawsuits against banks that “de-bank” conservative businesses and individuals. De-banking has been the subject of frequent stories about individuals and companies that don’t toe the line on woke practices. A good example is the free-speech social platform Gab that has been forced to go to incredible lengths to work around the de-banking and other financial boycotting that woke corporations have instituted against it. It seems that a Trump administration Justice Department should already be investigating any and all complaints from conservatives and their companies both as individual crimes and as part of a RICO conspiracy. In fact, I’ll go further. Even though we’re only one month into the Trump administration, I’m already disappointed that investigations haven’t already been announced into these practices.
And if DOGE really wants something interesting to investigate let them set some of their AI geniuses loose on Google’s AI and find out why it always creates images of the Founding Fathers or Vikings or any other exclusively northern European individuals as if they were indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa. I’m sure people with the correct computer savvy would very quickly locate the smoking gun of anti-white discrimination in these Google products. And then Google would be forced to explain how this little pet project doesn’t violate the ban on DEI in federal contracts to Donald Trump personally or risk losing the enormous contracts they currently have with Washington.
Well, maybe that last is too ambitious. But you get the idea. I’m convinced the federal government has been picking winners and losers by the selection of contractors and this selection is tied to the “politics” of these contracting companies. Eliminating the biases by forcing changes on these companies, or better, by selecting alternative companies that do not have a leftist bias, could enormously shift the current leftist bias in corporate America.
And finally, the black hole of leftist bias, the dreaded “terms of service.” Companies tack a wall of text to their service agreement that provides them with literally an infinite number of objections to anything you could possibly do as a sentient being in the Milky Way galaxy, but then refuse to tell you exactly which of the myriads of conditions, they claim you have violated. What is needed is a federal law that states that if a company claims you are in violation of their terms of service, then they have to provide a detailed explanation of this violation. And if a US citizen wants to dispute this claim there will be a federal arbiter to hear the dispute gratis.
Well, that’s enough of that. Me daydreaming about Trump and Musk punishing woke companies is fun but farfetched. But investigating the relationships between the federal government (and Congress) and the contractors that get government contracts will be an even bigger story of bias, waste, graft and corruption than the NGOs that have been such an interesting grab bag to fish around in.
That Would Be Great
In the Hollywood film, “The Bad and the Beautiful” there is a discussion between an actor named Gaucho and a bit-part actress on the make named Lila. Gaucho tells her that his producer friend Jonathan (Kirk Douglas’s character) is a great man. But world-weary Lila laughs and replies “There are no great men, buster, there’s only men.”
So, are there any great men? Were there ever any? Is a Caesar or a Napoleon great? Or were they just great generals. Was Einstein great or was he merely a genius? Was Socrates a great man or merely annoying? How about St Paul?
It seems to me that the definition of a great man is one who is both intelligent and moral. So, it’s not enough to be brilliant if the use of your intelligence is to do evil. And it’s not enough to be a saint if you cannot somehow use this moral sense to benefit humanity as a whole or at least a significant chunk of it.
Framed the way I have here it’s not that easy to pick out these exceptional beings. I guess religious leaders like Jesus, Buddha, Moses stand out. They’ve had an outsized impact on the world. They understood the problem of living in the world of men. It’s so very hard to know what is the right thing to do in the multitude of decisions we make as we negotiate the confusing and frightening human world. How often we choose the easier thing instead of the “right” choice. We compromise our morals and standards to avoid pain or discomfort or even embarrassment. How much more will a leader compromise because the stakes are just so incredibly high.
I guess the only leader that comes to mind is Marcus Aurelius; the philosopher king. Not that he was perfect or that none of his philosophy was misguided. But without a doubt he was intelligent and he used his powerful office to provide the best government he could to the millions who lived within the Roman empire in the second century AD. Maybe this is an example of a great man.
So which Americans were great? Washington, Jefferson? Maybe. In the last one hundred and fifty years I don’t think there’s been much greatness. FDR had a large impact on the country but I don’t think he was wise. And so many of our recent presidents are neither moral nor wise. Some were truly awful, like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and especially Joe Biden.
So where does that leave Donald Trump? Well, morality is not his forte. His private life is a mess. You need look no further than the “Stormy Daniels” episode to see that he does not restrain his baser nature at all. Then again do any of the wealthy ever do better? As for intelligence, he’s not a stupid man. He is an ambitious businessman who knows how to market himself. Is he wise? Well, he’s no philosopher king. But I think he does feel affection for his countrymen. I think he does want to make America a better place and make life better for Americans.
So, let’s just say that if he succeeds, Donald Trump will perform a truly great service for the United States of America. He will save it from the forces that are currently destroying it. He can vanquish the managerial bureaucracy that rules over us and is leeching away our strength and vitality. He will succeed where a century of American presidents has failed to save their country. That would be great.
Little Marco Grew Up
In the above linked video CBS journalist Margaret Brennan confronts Secretary of State Marco Rubio about JD Vance’s statement that Europe has a problem with free speech. She condemns Vance for defending free speech in Germany where she declares free speech was responsible for the Nazi genocide against the Jews.
I found this video interesting because I wouldn’t have guessed that Rubio would be as agile as he showed himself to be. He fired back that he disagreed with her premise and forcefully stated that there was no free speech in Nazi Germany but there was a totalitarian state there. And it blamed part of its population for economic and social problems and had no moral qualms with murdering these innocent men, women and children on an industrial scale.
I’ve never held the opinion that Marco Rubio was all that sharp. But he did a very competent job making Brennan seem ridiculous. Maybe he’s wised up over the years, maybe he’s more confident nowadays to speak sensibly out in the open because Trump has his back or maybe Brennan is just such a lightweight and her logic was so ridiculous that any half intelligent person can make her look like an idiot.
But whatever the cause it was stunning to see just how stupid her case sounded. But Brennan can’t take all the blame. After all free speech is not the law of the land in Germany, England or France. In fact, in Germany there are laws that ban the distribution of materials from groups like the Nazis or other “unconstitutional organizations.” These laws are being used to try to suppress the AFD (Alternative for Germany) party because they want to restrict immigration. So, JD Vance advocating for free speech is actually radicalism in a place like Germany. But Margaret Brennan managed to make it sound completely ridiculous by trying to blame the Holocaust on free speech.
What you see here is the difference between the American conception on free speech and the European fear of speaking uncomfortable truths. To them some things are too dangerous to say or even think. And that is the viewpoint that the Democrats tried hard during the Biden administration to import. That is the reason for the emphasis on misinformation. Apparently, people can’t be trusted to make up their minds about what is true and what isn’t. We are too stupid to figure out what’s true so the government and the media have to tell us.
And that is why organizations like CBS fought like hell to make sure Donald Trump didn’t become president. Because if he did people would be allowed to say what they really thought about things like transgender identity or how bad crime is and whether millions of illegal aliens were a good thing or not.
So here was CBS trying to condemn JD Vance for outraging Europeans with the opinion that denying their people free speech would come back to bite them. And it was a useful demonstration of where main stream media’s true beliefs sit. They are solidly behind the globalist position that regular people should just shut up and take at face value whatever the “experts” in the government (except Trump) or the media or the NGOs tell them. And if you voice a dissenting opinion then your guilty of spreading disinformation and in a perfect world you’d be silenced and sent to the reeducation camp. Very interesting indeed.
Kudos to JD Vance and (surprisingly) Marco Rubio. I guess Little Marco grew up.
That Should Be the Plan
Donald Trump’s All Star Barnstorming Travelling Medicine Show is approaching its one-month milestone. And I think it’s fair to say its hallmark is that he keeps the hand grenades flying and that keeps his opponents off balance. And kudos to him and his all stars for all their good work. Bravo.
What that made me think of was how for the last fifty years our leaders have been keeping us off balance with one crisis after another. There’s always another war or a banking crisis or stagflation, or COVID or Climate Change or civil rights or women’s rights or gay rights or you name it. For all of my adult life we have had to forget about normalcy and prosperity and instead we had to give up our rights or our way of life or mortgage our future or our children’s future or lately our grandchildren’s future to save the world or destroy our enemies or cure some “original sin.” It occurs to me that this is not an accident. This is the means of controlling us and keeping us from prospering.
If Donald Trump and his successors want to save this country their assignment should be to restore this country to normalcy. They need to allow us to get our feet back underneath us again and get back a sense of balance. End all of the emergencies. Give us some peace and quiet and allow us to live like Americans again instead of like serfs.
Fans of the “Lord of the Rings” know that the Shire is the most boring place imaginable. All of the adventure and excitement happens in places like Rohan and Gondor that are full of battles against the agent of evil; orcs, trolls, evil men and the like. But it’s also true that the greatest sense of loss for the hobbits is when they return home to the Shire only to find that these enemies have spoiled the boring peace and quiet of the Shire and replaced it with fear and danger. Because what you discover is that safe, boring, prosperous, well-ordered communities are the only place where healthy people can exist. Because they’re the only place where you can raise a family and earn a living and leave something behind for next generation.
And the only way to make that happen is to end the chaos. End the protests and the grievances. End the rancor. People in the 1960s were always making fun of the 1950s. They said it was boring and repressed compared to the sexual revolution and the revolution in the streets that came a decade after. They mocked the bland image of Dwight Eisenhower as the father of the country overseeing a boring but prosperous nation chasing after and realizing the American Dream.
Well, that sounds just about like heaven to me right now. Donald Trump and anyone who wants to follow him should be selling us on the idea that Washington should be moving heaven and earth to stop the chaos and give Americans a chance to be boring and happy. They should arrange for the people in this country to have a generation when the priority is to earn a living, raise a family and maybe watch a baseball game on a Saturday afternoon without thinking about war, crime, or civil unrest. The pursuit of happiness.
That should be the plan.
16FEB2025 – OCF Update – Nuts and Bolts
This is an explanation for the “Test” post today. I’ve been struggling to eliminate delays in posts showing up on the front page of the site. There’s a thing called caching that cuts down on the site server’s work and therefore makes the site quicker. But if it delays updating the site then folks don’t see the new content quickly. I’m fighting a war to get the cache purge to happen every fifteen minutes. I may have succeeded but only time will tell.
And now I return you to your regularly scheduled test pattern.
